Lyssinum is the nosode of reflex dread—a human picture magnetised around water and air. At its core stands a medullary syndrome: throat spasm on any attempt to swallow liquids, while solids go better; the very sight or sound of running water—even the idea of it—shoots a shiver down the spine, arrests inspiration, and fires a barking cough. Around this core circles a psyche of suspicion and rage: the subject is overstrung, jealous, mortally offended at trifles, and liable to bite (speech or act). After the explosion comes a fall into gloom and self-reproach, then again the string is tightened; it is a syphilitic tempo of destruction-then-remorse [Hering], [Kent], [Clarke]. Sensory gates are unguarded: light glitters, sounds snap, odours sting, a draught on throat is a blow—so the remedy demands quiet and darkness, heat to the neck, slow movements, gentle voices. The family likeness shows in subsidiary spheres: the larynx barks at air, the bladder squirms and dribbles to the sound of pouring, the genitals flame into sexual excitability, and old bite scars wake to itch or burn—a top to toe reflex overdrive [Allen], [Boericke], [Boger].

The modalities knit the whole: worse from water (sight, sound, touch), draughts, bright/shining objects, sudden noise, emotional heat, coition, and night; better in quiet darkness, dry warm air with throat protected, gentle pressure (sometimes), warm sips and slow measured movements. This pattern separates Lyss. from sister nightshades: Stramonium is volcanic but can drink; Hyoscyamus jests obscenely without hydrophobic reflex; Belladonna throbs hot but is not ruled by water. From the urinary group, Cantharis burns outwardly, while Lyss. burns inwardly as a shock-reflex that water triggers. Direction of cure is highly readable: the imagination of water ceases to hurt; the sight becomes indifferent; the sound of pouring no longer forces the bladder or throat; the bark is gone; the patient sips warm fluid without fear; night dreams of dogs and drowning dissolve; the scar is quiet. In chronic states following bites, fright, or violent contradictions, Lyss. often breaks the neuro-reflex loop if prescribed on this triad: (1) liquids impossible vs solids, (2) over-reactive senses to water/light/air, (3) biting cruelty ↔ remorse with sexual irritability—and on the modal frame of worse stimuli, better quiet darkness and warmth to throat [Hering], [Clarke], [Kent], [Boericke].