Psorinum
The classical nosode prepared from scabies-infested skin — a remedy born of the most common skin disease of the old world, now curable by modern medicine.
The whole picture, in one breath
Think of the filthiest-feeling patient in the library: skin eruptions that look dirty and smell offensive, a body that is always freezing and can never get warm, despair of ever recovering, and every complaint worse in winter. Offensive eruptions, freezing chilliness, despair, winter-worse: that is Psorinum.
The substance, in plain words
Psorinum is a nosode — prepared from the scabies-infected skin material of the pre-antibiotic era, when the scabies mite ruled tenements and barracks. Its source is not a plant or mineral but the disease itself, captured as a remedy by Hahnemann's followers.
The traditional picture Classical sources
The inner state
- Despair of recovery. The keynote: hopeless about ever being well, especially in chronic skin disease; gives up on life.
- Anxious foreboding. Feels calamity approaching, worse in the dark and when alone.
- Irritability in illness. Cross, wants to be left alone, yet fears solitude.
The body
- Offensive everything. Eruptions and discharges carry a dirty, offensive quality — the books' 'filthy skin' remedy.
- Freezing chilliness. Intensely cold, worse in winter, wants to be wrapped even in summer; the chill outlasts every remedy.
- Winter aggravation. The whole constitution worsens as the cold season comes on; spring brings partial relief.
- Itching, scabby eruptions. Dry, scabby, offensive eruptions that itch unbearably and ooze when scratched.
- Debility after eruptions. Great weakness, hunger without appetite, nausea in the morning.
- Worse from suppression. The books use it when skin disease has been driven in by ointments — the old 'suppressed psora' doctrine.
Modalities (worse and better factors)
| Worse from ⬇ | Better from ⬇ |
|---|---|
| winter and cold; suppressed skin eruptions; washing; the dark. | warmth and heavy wrapping; summer weather. |
Where it acts (organ affinities)
Skin (offensive, scabby), general vitality, nutrition, chronic disease disposition.
Where the classical picture comes from
Psorinum was born of Hahnemann's 'psora' doctrine — the theory that scabies and suppressed skin disease underlay chronic illness. Whatever the theory's fate, the remedy's portrait came from the clinics: the freezing, filthy, despairing chronic skin patient of the industrial cities.
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.
The scabies mite behind Psorinum is today beaten by real medicine: permethrin and ivermectin cure scabies reliably — one of dermatology's genuine public-health victories. The despairing chronic states Psorinum portrayed are now handled with diagnosis, topical steroids and proper chronic-disease care.
Look-alikes (how the classical authors told it apart)
| Remedy | Looks similar because… | Tells it apart because… |
|---|---|---|
| Sulphur | Itchy burning skin, heat | Sulphur is hot, red and bath-hating; Psorinum is freezing, filthy and winter-worse. |
| Graphites | Oozing skin, chilliness | Graphites oozes honey and hesitates; Psorinum is offensive and despairing. |
| Petroleum | Winter skin | Petroleum cracks and smarts; Psorinum stinks and despairs. |
| Medorrhinum | Nosodes, chronic disposition | Medorrhinum is the gonorrhoeal nosode of hot, hurried constitutions; Psorinum the freezing scabies nosode. |