Graphites

Graphites is a naturally occurring mineral form of carbon (chemical formula: C), historically referred to as “plumbago.” It is a soft, black, lustrous substance, used industrially in pencils, lubricants, and electroplating.

First proved by Samuel Hahnemann and published in Materia Medica Pura. Expanded through extensive clinical use by Hering, Clarke, and Kent.

Graphites is the archetypal sluggish, chilly, overweight individual—prone to stagnation on every level, be it skin, digestion, mind, or hormones. Its hallmark is incompleteness: incomplete stool, delayed menses, incomplete suppression, or mental clarity that feels fogged. It suits those with slow metabolism, suppressed discharges, and a tendency to chronicity—especially where skin eruptions and glandular swellings dominate the picture.

• Skin – eczematous eruptions, cracked skin, oozing discharges
• Glands – induration, swelling, especially cervical and inguinal
• Female genitalia – delayed menses, leucorrhoea, cysts
• Digestive system – constipation with fissures and mucous discharges
• Ears and eyelids – crusting, discharges, eruptions
• Nervous system – depression, sluggishness, confusion
• Nails and hair – thickening, brittleness, falling

Graphites displays a picture of mental dullness, indecision, and despondency. The patient is often forgetful, absent-minded, and easily confused. Slowness of comprehension is prominent, especially in the morning or during menses. There is a sense of heaviness and depression, often with lack of confidence or timidity in social situations. Anxiety may be present, particularly about health and future, yet the patient is indecisive about action. [Kent] observed that this mental state often follows long-standing suppression, whether of skin eruptions or emotions. The mind is also sensitive to music, which can provoke tears. There is a restless anxiety, worse in the evening, sometimes driving the patient from place to place. In children, there may be excessive shyness, reluctance to speak, and fear of strangers.

Drowsy during day, sleepless at night. Frequent waking with rush of thoughts or heat. Children may moan or cry in sleep. Dreaming of death, misfortune, or quarrels. Restless leg syndrome-like complaints may disturb sleep.

Disturbing, anxious dreams. Falling, pursuit, or death. Themes often repeat, causing apprehension at bedtime. Dreams may be predictive or sorrowful.

Chilly, overweight, sluggish, and hypersensitive to cold damp weather. Great tendency to develop skin affections, glandular swellings, and metabolic sluggishness. Worse from mental strain, morning, and during menstruation. Better from warmth, covering, and discharges restoring.

Chilliness predominates. Easily chilled by draughts, yet craves warm coverings. Fever with dryness of skin and little thirst. Sweat offensive and oily, especially on head and face. Low-grade, lingering fevers.

Chill begins in extremities. Internal chill with external coldness. Heat in flushes, especially during menses. Sweat offensive, oily, or sticky. Sweating does not relieve symptoms.

Headaches in Graphites are often dull, heavy, and pressing, with a sensation as if a band were tightened around the forehead. Vertigo is common, particularly on rising or looking up, and may be accompanied by nausea. Scalp is dry, scaly, and itchy, with eruptions that ooze a sticky, honey-like fluid. Hair may fall out in patches, especially after suppressed skin complaints or during hormonal shifts. [Hering] notes soreness of the scalp on touch, and eruptions behind the ears or on the occiput. Head symptoms are often worse from cold air, before menses, and from washing.

Eyes feel dry, irritated, and weak, with occasional burning and watering. Lids are swollen, red, and often glued shut in the morning. There may be eczema of the lids, with cracking and crusting, especially at the outer canthi. Vision becomes blurred on reading or during headaches. Photophobia is mild but present in inflamed states. [Boericke] mentions lachrymation and marginal blepharitis with thick crusts and excoriation. Style formation is frequent, especially after suppressed discharge or cold.

One of the keynotes of Graphites: moist eruptions behind the ears, with fissures and a sticky exudation that hardens into crusts. The ears may be sore, cracked, and offensive-smelling, especially in children. There may be diminished hearing, tinnitus (ringing or buzzing), and sensation of fullness or blockage. [Clarke] emphasises this as a guiding symptom, especially in chronic otorrhoea. The external auditory canal may also be involved with eczematous patches and scaliness.

Dryness, crusting, and occasional ulceration of nasal mucosa. Nasal discharge may be thick, yellow, and sticky, occasionally offensive. There is often scabbing inside the nostrils, with soreness and pain on touch. Loss of smell may follow chronic catarrh. Sneezing is rare, but if present, worse in morning. Epistaxis may occur in young girls at puberty.

The face is pale, puffy, and may have a shiny, oily appearance. Skin is prone to cracking, particularly at the corners of the mouth and nose. Eczema or acne is frequent, especially in the chin and nasolabial region. In some, there is swelling or induration of the submaxillary glands. Wrinkled forehead and expression of sadness may be seen. [Kent] remarks on a dark or dirty hue to the skin despite good hygiene.

Lips are dry, cracked, especially in the centre of the lower lip. Taste may be metallic or sour. Tongue is often coated, sometimes cracked, or swollen with imprints of the teeth. Gums bleed easily. Mouth feels dry on waking, with increased salivation during the day. Aphthous ulcers may occur in chronic cases.

Toothache worse at night and from cold drinks. Teeth may feel loose or painful when biting. Decay may begin at the roots. Gums are spongy and bleed easily. Cracks at the corners of the mouth may extend into the mucosa, causing pain while chewing or speaking.

Dryness, roughness, and occasional stitching pains. There may be a sensation of a lump or foreign body in the throat, particularly during menses. Swelling of cervical glands is frequent. Chronic hoarseness or loss of voice may follow suppression of eruptions or cold exposure.

Constriction of chest with stitching pains on deep inspiration. Chronic dry cough with hoarseness and mucus in the morning. Eczema of the nipples or intertrigo under the breasts. Cracked skin and burning between the breasts in overweight women. Palpitations worse from excitement or before menses.

Palpitation on ascending or during emotional stress. Pulse may be irregular. Pressure in the region of the heart without marked pathology. Faintness in the morning or while fasting.

Shortness of breath on slight exertion. Tendency to sigh. Voice hoarse, especially in morning. Asthmatic breathing after exposure to cold or suppression of eruptions.

Tendency to gastric sluggishness, bloating, and eructations with sour or tasteless wind. Appetite is variable—often ravenous at night, but poor in the morning. Averse to meats, warm food, and sweets. Nausea may occur on waking or after eating fatty foods. Graphites suits patients who eat little but gain weight. Heartburn and sour regurgitation are common. [Boericke] notes a heavy, sinking sensation in the stomach after meals.

Distended and tender, with flatulence that does not relieve. Frequent colicky pains, especially before stool. A feeling of a hard lump in the lower abdomen or groin. Liver may be sluggish and enlarged. Constipation with colic is common, particularly in sedentary individuals.

Constipation is a hallmark—stools are large, knotty, and covered with mucus. They pass with great effort, often leaving a feeling of incomplete evacuation. Fissures and itching of the anus, with pain during and after stool. Haemorrhoids that bleed easily, worse on sitting. [Hering] records this as a defining feature, especially when coupled with skin eruptions.

Scanty, dark, and offensive urine. May pass involuntarily at night or during cough. Sediment may be thick and brownish. Involuntary urination in elderly or children with eczema is a guiding indication.

Desire for sweets, pastries, and warm drinks. Aversion to meat, fish, and salt. Milk disagrees. Ravenous hunger at night. Eating often worsens stomach symptoms.

Erections are weak or absent. Desire is diminished. Itching and eruptions on scrotum or between thighs. Testicular pain may occur from suppressed discharges. Graphites is used for hydrocele or chronic swelling of testes.

Menstrual function is slow, delayed, or entirely suppressed. Menses are scanty, pale, and too late, often with violent abdominal cramps. Leucorrhoea is profuse, thick, white or yellow, and sticky, worse before and after menses. The labia may be swollen, with itching or soreness. Nipples are cracked and bleeding during lactation. [Clarke] observes sterility in fleshy women with delayed menses and skin eruptions. Induration of ovaries and breast cysts also fall under Graphites.

Stiffness and soreness in cervical and lumbar regions. A dull ache between scapulae. Cracks in the skin over the sacrum. Coccygeal pain while sitting long. Offensive perspiration of back and axillae.

Cracks in finger tips, deformed nails, and painful hangnails are classical symptoms. Nails are thick, brittle, and distorted. Eczema on hands, behind knees, or between toes. Coldness of extremities even in a warm room. Numbness, tingling, or crawling sensations. Rheumatic pain worse at rest and in cold damp weather.

One of the great skin remedies of the materia medica. Dry, rough, hard skin that cracks and oozes a thick, honey-like, sticky discharge. Eczema, intertrigo, and psoriasis are frequently treated with Graphites, especially in obese, chilly individuals. Old scars become painful. Tendency to keloids and thickened skin. Itching worse from warmth and at night. [Kent] saw this as the remedy for chronic, suppressed skin conditions. Crusty eruptions on scalp, eyelids, behind ears, and genitals.

• Sulphur – Also covers skin and chronic psora; more heat and intellectual intensity
• Petroleum – Cracks and eruptions, worse in winter; more offensive discharge
• Lycopodium – Digestive and skin issues; more focused on right-sided complaints and anticipation
• Sepia – Hormonal disturbances, but more indifference and prolapse
• Calcarea carb. – Obesity, sluggishness, but more sweat and bone issues

• Complementary: Lycopodium, Argentum nitricum, Nux vomica
• Antidotes: Aconite, Nux vomica
• Follows well: Sulphur, Calcarea
• Precedes well: Natrum mur., Sepia

• One of the top remedies for eczema with cracks and honey-like oozing
• Useful in constipation with mucous stools and anal fissures
• Indicated in women with delayed menses, obesity, and thick leucorrhoea
• Great for cracked nipples, deformed nails, and post-scarring complaints
• Follow with caution after Sulphur or Calcarea

Mind

• Indecision
• Timidity, bashful
• Weeping from music

Head

• Eruptions, oozing honey-like fluid
• Hair, falling out

Ears

• Moist eruption behind ears
• Otorrhoea, offensive

Skin

• Cracks, dry, fissured
• Eczema, crusty, sticky
• Ulcers, old, indolent

Digestive

• Constipation, large, knotty stools
• Mucus-covered stools
• Fissures of anus

Female

• Menses, delayed
• Leucorrhoea, thick, white, sticky
• Nipples, cracked, bleeding

Samuel Hahnemann – Materia Medica Pura: Original proving and foundational skin/glandular symptoms

James Tyler Kent – Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica: Mental, female, and constitutional themes

John Henry Clarke – Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica: Expanded skin, ear, and rectal pathology

William Boericke – Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica: Gastrointestinal and practical notes

C. Hering – Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica: Rich detail on ears, skin, and emotional modalities