Cedron
Made from cedron seed — the South American fever-berry of the old anti-malarial trade, and the classical remedy of the clockwork periodicity.
The whole picture, in one breath
Think of a fever that keeps perfect time: attacks that arrive with the punctuality of a clock — every day at the same hour, every other day, every week — with chills, heat and sweat each on schedule; and neuralgias that do the same, returning at the same hour each day. The clockwork periodicity: that is Cedron.
The substance, in plain words
Cedron — the seed of a South American Simaba — was exported to Europe in the fever era as a genuine anti-periodic, trading in the same century as Peruvian bark. Its fever-breaking reputation was real enough for the pharmacopoeia's notice; the proving gave the remedy its celebrated clockwork portrait.
The traditional picture Classical sources
The inner state
- Anxiety before the attack. The dread of the hour's approach — the books paint the clock-watching sufferer.
- Irritability. Cross during the intervals, worse as the hour nears.
- Despondency. Gloom at the unbroken regularity of the returning paroxysms.
The body
- Clockwork periodicity. The keynote: fevers and neuralgias that return at exactly the same hour — daily, alternate days, weekly — with uncanny punctuality.
- Chill, heat, sweat on schedule. The classic three-stage paroxysm, each stage on time — the books' anti-periodic portrait.
- Neuralgias by the clock. Pains that keep their own timetable — the same hour daily, the books' celebrated observation.
- Worse at the paroxysm's hour. Nothing prevents the return; the sufferer waits for it.
- Chilliness between attacks. Cold hands and feet in the intervals.
- Better for warmth Warmth and rest between the hours ease the intervals.
Modalities (worse and better factors)
| Worse from ⬇ | Better from ⬇ |
|---|---|
| the paroxysm's fixed hour; cold damp; night. | warmth; rest; between the attacks. |
Where it acts (organ affinities)
Fever mechanism and periodicity, nerves (timed neuralgias), general vitality.
Where the classical picture comes from
The fever-berry of the anti-periodic trade gave the proving its frame; Cedron became the classical remedy of the clockwork paroxysm — the anti-malarial era's portrait of the fever that keeps perfect time, traded beside the bark that conquered it.
The substance in real medicine Pharmacology
What this section is: the pharmacology and toxicology of the source substance. It is not clinical evidence that a homeopathic preparation of it treats any condition. What controlled trials do and do not show is set out on the Evidence page.
Cedron's real career was the anti-periodic trade of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries — a genuine competitor of Peruvian bark in the fever markets, since retired. The periodic fevers it portrayed were malaria, and the bark it traded beside gave medicine quinine — the first specific drug; the clockwork fevers are now diagnosed by smear and cured by modern antimalarials.
Look-alikes (how the classical authors told it apart)
| Remedy | Looks similar because… | Tells it apart because… |
|---|---|---|
| China officinalis | Periodicity, debility | China is the debility and bloating after the fevers; Cedron the clockwork hour itself. |
| Eupatorium perfoliatum | Bone-breaking fevers | Eupatorium breaks the bones before it sweats; Cedron keeps the time. |
| Arsenicum album | Midnight anxiety, periodicity | Arsenicum is the anxious midnight remedy; Cedron the punctual paroxysm. |
| Chininum arsenicosum | Anti-periodics | Chinin-ars served the same periodic fevers with the bark's chemistry directly. |