Petroleum
Made from rock oil — the crude oil of the nineteenth century, ancestor of Vaseline, and the classical remedy of winter-cracked skin.
The whole picture, in one breath
Think of skin that shatters in winter: deep bleeding cracks in the fingers, heels and behind the ears, rough leathery eczema that returns every cold season, raw surfaces that burn and smart, in a thin, irritable, diarrhoea-prone person. Winter cracks, worse cold, rough leathery skin: that is Petroleum.
The substance, in plain words
Petroleum is crude oil — the hydrocarbon brew from which the industrial age was built, and from which Vaseline was distilled in 1870. That same petroleum jelly became, and remains, dermatology's standard occlusive protectant: the crude source of the remedy is a real, everyday medicine.
The traditional picture Classical sources
The inner state
- Irritability and quarrelsomeness. Cross, disputes, sensitive to noise and smells; the books pair the skin picture with a raw temper.
- Anxiety at night. Fear of robbers, of disease, of being alone in the dark hours.
- Aversion to company. Wants solitude with the complaints; averse to company and consolation
The body
- Winter aggravation. The keynote: every skin complaint returns and worsens in cold weather, especially winter.
- Deep bleeding cracks. Fissures of fingertips, palms, heels, nipples and behind the ears that bleed and smart.
- Rough leathery eczema. Thickened, hardened, cracked surfaces, worse cold, better warm applications.
- Moist eczema behind ears. Raw weeping surfaces at the ears and hair margin, often with scurf.
- Digestive looseness. Diarrhoea from cabbage and fatty food, sour stomach, nausea at smell of food.
- Worse from cold air, damp and winter. Cold air and damp provoke the skin; warm oiling relieves.
Modalities (worse and better factors)
| Worse from ⬇ | Better from ⬇ |
|---|---|
| winter and cold wind; damp; getting chilled; touch of clothes. | warm applications; oiling the skin; dry mild weather. |
Where it acts (organ affinities)
Skin (cracked, leathery, winter eczema), ears, digestion, mucous membranes.
Where the classical picture comes from
Petroleum's distillation products — burning paraffin, kerosene — were new industrial poisons when the proving was done; the skin cracked and the temper frayed. Clinically the remedy attached to the winter eczemas and chapped hands of cold-climate working lives.
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.
Petroleum jelly (Vaseline) is genuinely one of dermatology's most-used protectants — occlusive, inert, healing cracked skin exactly as the remedy's portrait describes. Coal-tar and petroleum-derivative preparations remain real treatments for psoriasis and eczema. The remedy's source chemistry never left the skin clinic.
Look-alikes (how the classical authors told it apart)
| Remedy | Looks similar because… | Tells it apart because… |
|---|---|---|
| Graphites | Cracked oozing skin | Graphites oozes sticky honey fluid and cannot decide; Petroleum cracks bleed in winter and quarrels. |
| Psorinum | Offensive winter skin | Psorinum is filthy-smelling and despairing; Petroleum is irritable and winter-cracked. |
| Dulcamara | Skin eruptions from cold damp | Dulcamara's eruptions come on after getting wet in damp weather; Petroleum's come with winter cold and dryness. |
| Sulphur | Eczema, itching | Sulphur is hot, burning and bath-hating; Petroleum is cold-cracked and oil-loving. |