Electricitas
Made from electricity — sugar of milk saturated with the current; the classical portrait of the storm-sensitive and the electrified.
The whole picture, in one breath
Think of a nervous system with the current switched on: the tremors, the sudden anxiety, the dread of an approaching thunderstorm, the violent headache and the pounding heart — and, in the severest cases, the parts left heavy, stiff or paralysed. Electricity's effect on the living body: that is Electricitas.
The substance, in plain words
Electricitas is prepared from sugar of milk saturated with a static or atmospheric electric charge and then potentised. The symptoms come chiefly from Caspari, from the effects of electrification and of thunderstorms, and from the casualties of the electric baths and shocks of the nineteenth century.
The traditional picture Classical sources
The inner state
- Anxiety and fear. Restlessness, internal anguish and agitation; a dread of the approach of a storm.
- Timidity and tears. Sighs and weeping; in severe cases loss of consciousness and foolish, haggard behaviour.
- Storms and the mind. Uneasiness and anguish that rise as a thunderstorm gathers and settle when it breaks.
The body
- Head. Violent headaches, with a crushing pressure in the forehead as from a stone, and dartings as from pins; giddiness on stooping.
- Heart. Palpitation, a quick strong pulse, and a sense of the blood being over-heated.
- Tremors. Shaking of the whole body beginning in the jaw; tingling and burning in the parts electrified; trembling of the limbs.
- Heaviness and paralysis. Parts that feel like marble or lead; the chest and arms stiff and paralysed; St Vitus's dance and cramps.
- Skin. Burns, wheals and eruptions where the sparks touched.
Modalities (worse and better factors)
| Worse from ⬇ | Better from ⬇ |
|---|---|
| the approach of a thunderstorm; the part that was electrified; motion; night. | open air and quiet; the paralysis that followed electric treatment was relieved by morphia. |
Where it acts (organ affinities)
The nervous system, the heart and circulation, and the parts through which the current passed.
Where the classical picture comes from
Clarke's chapter gathers the nineteenth-century experience of electricity: the tremors, anxiety and headaches of electrification, the phthisis and paralysis that followed the injudicious use of electric baths, and the storm-sensitivity that every practitioner knew. The same record underlies the modern understanding of lightning injury and electric shock.
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.
Electricity is now a mainstay of medicine — defibrillation and cardiac pacing, nerve and muscle stimulation, TENS for pain, and electroconvulsive therapy for severe depression. The nervous system itself runs on electrical signals. Lightning strike and electric shock are the crude 'provings': they cause burns and cardiac arrest, and a striking neuropsychiatric aftermath of memory loss, tremors and mood change that mirrors the classical picture.
Look-alikes (how the classical authors told it apart)
| Remedy | Looks similar because… | Tells it apart because… |
|---|---|---|
| Phosphorus | Clarke's own antidote to the effects of storms | Phosphorus is the bleeding, oversensitive, sympathetic type; Electricitas leads with the storm-dread and the electric shock itself. |
| Aconitum napellus | Fear and agitation after a shock | Aconite follows a sudden fright or cold wind; Electricitas follows the electric current or the gathering storm. |
| Glonoinum | Stormy, surging head | Glonoinum is a vascular storm with a bounding pulse; Electricitas is a nervous storm with tremor and dread. |
| Gelsemium | Trembling and paralysis | Gelsemium is heavy, drooping and anticipatory; Electricitas is excited and storm-sensitive, with burning in the parts. |