Ranunculus sceleratus

A marsh-dwelling buttercup of the Ranunculaceae with thin, hollow, acrid stems and bright yellow flowers. Like other Ranunculus species it abounds in ranunculin, which enzymatically yields the blistering lactone protoanemonin when the plant is crushed; this explains its vesicating, excoriating, and ulcerating effects on skin and mucosae and the intense burning–stinging pains so often recorded [Hughes], [Clarke]. The mother tincture is prepared from the fresh flowering plant, gathered before the acridity is lost on drying; local application of the juice is historically known to raise blisters, and internal overdosing has produced gastro-enteric irritation with salivation and diarrhoea [Hughes], [Allen]. [Toxicology]

Symptoms come from Hahnemann’s provings and toxicologic observations augmented by Hering and Allen; clinical confirmations emphasise acrid, watery vesicles and excoriations, eczema behind ears and about mouth, paronychia/ulcerating warts at fingertips, raw burning in mouth–throat–larynx with hoarseness, and diarrhoea/tenesmus from intestinal irritation [Hahnemann], [Hering], [Allen], [Clarke]. [Proving] [Clinical] [Toxicology]

Ranunculus sceleratus is the marsh buttercup made clinical: a remedy for those who live in dampness—river workers, laundresses, anglers, children with sweaty heads—and whose skin responds with small, watery blisters that burn after scratching and quickly excoriate. Its chemistry (protoanemonin) maps straight to the bedside: crush the plant and you get vesication; let the eruption be rubbed or poulticed and you get ulceration [Hughes], [Clarke]. The distribution tells the tale—behind ears, about lips and chin (with saliva that excoriates), fingertips and nail-folds (wet work → paronychia), and along elastic/friction lines. The modalities are cardinal: worse damp cold, fog, wet clothes, washing/soaking, friction, and scratching; better brief cooling and then keeping absolutely dry, with loose, non-woollen coverings. In the upper air passages the same edge appears: raw, burning fauces and larynx, hoarseness in fog, cough on speaking; a few cool sips soothe, but dry rooms ultimately cure. Compared to its cousin Ranunculus bulbosus, which gives deep intercostal neuralgia and shingles-like pains, Ran-scel. dwells at the surface, the mucosa–skin margin, with acrid moisture and rapid excoriation. Set it against Rhus-t. (itchy vesicles > hot water), Graphites (thick, honey crusts rather than watery blisters), Croton tiglium (profuse streaming along hair), and Cantharis (blister + urinary tenesmus). Once you hear “it weeps water that burns,” “damp makes it worse,” “washing and wet hands bring it on,” and observe that cooling gives a minute’s ease but dryness heals, you have Ranunculus sceleratus in your grasp. [Hering], [Clarke], [Farrington], [Boericke], [Allen]

• Skin / integument: Chief sphere—watery vesicles, papulo-vesicular eczema with acrid serum that excoriates; rapid ulceration if scratched or poulticed. Classic seats: behind ears, about lips and chin, fingertips. See Skin, Face, Extremities. [Hering], [Clarke]
• Mouth / lips / oral mucosa: Burning aphthous spots, salivation, fissuring at angles; vesicles that burst and smart. See Mouth, Face. [Hahnemann], [Allen]
• Throat / larynx: Raw, burning fauces; hoarseness and tickle from laryngeal excoriation; cough follows talking or cold damp air. See Throat, Respiration. [Clarke], [Boericke]
• Gastro-intestinal mucosa: Gastric burning, nausea, and acrid diarrhoea with tenesmus in toxicology; stools excoriate. See Stomach, Rectum. [Hughes], [Allen]
• Peri-ungual tissues / nails: Paronychia, painful ulcerating hang-nails, and soft, flat warts around nails; touch intolerable. See Extremities, Skin. [Hering], [Clarke]
• Eyes / lids: Excoriating lachrymation; lids raw at margins when face eruption is active. See Eyes. [Allen], [Clarke]
• Respiratory wall / chest edges: Stitching, costal pains and pleurodynia appear in the Ranunculus group; with Ran-scel. they accompany superficial vesication rather than deep intercostal neuralgia (Ran-b.). See Chest, Back. [Farrington], [Boger]
• Weather / environment reactivity: Marked aggravation from damp cold, marshy air, and wetting, with soreness and blistering from friction. See Generalities, Skin. [Clarke], [Boericke]

Acrid surface pain makes the patient irritable, fretful, and impatient of touch, especially when vesicles are fresh and oozing [Hering]. Children become peevish at bedtime and constantly rub ears or lips; the scolding increases itching, and the eruption burns more after a few scratches—exactly echoing the scratching → burning aggravation already noted [Clarke]. In adults engaged in wet work the temper dulls into a dissatisfied gloom that lifts on going to a dry, airy room, which mirrors the general better dry air modality [Clarke]. Anxiety is superficial and local—about the raw places cracking or becoming “poisoned”—rather than the constitutional fear seen in Arsenicum; unlike Rhus-t., there is no relief from hot bathing, which rather intensifies smarting in Ran-scel. cases [Boericke], [Farrington]. Concentration is hindered by incessant prickle; the mind clears when the skin is cooled, the discharge shielded, and clothing loosened. [Clinical]

Sleep is broken by burning and smarting of the weeping places; children wake to rub ears or lips and cry until a cool cloth is applied; they sleep again when the part is dried and shielded [Clarke]. Adults disturbed after evening damp exposure; dreams trivial, centred on fret about sores; morning is better if the night has been kept dry and the room aired. Sleep illustrates and confirms the thermal/environmental polarities already documented. [Clinical]

Of being in wet fields or losing shoes in mud; of scolding and rubbing sore places; they wake to scratch and must cool the skin—symbolic, as often in cutaneous remedies. [Clinical]

Ranunculus sceleratus is a surface acridity remedy: watery blisters, acrid oozing, quick excoriation and ulceration, with burning after scratching, all worse from damp cold, fog, wetting, and friction, and better from brief cooling and then keeping dry. It occupies the skin–mucosa edge (mouth, lips, behind ears, nail-folds, laryngeal inlet) and shows a family likeness to Ranunculus pains at the chest wall, though less deep than Ran-b. Its chemistry (protoanemonin) gives a neat rationale for the vesicating, acrid picture [Hughes], [Clarke]. Differentiate it from Rhus-t. by thermal polarity (Rhus loves hot bathing), from Graph. by the watery (not honey) ooze and rapid ulceration, from Croton-t. by smaller vesicles and less profuse streaming, and from Canth. by the absence of central urinary tenesmus. [Farrington], [Boericke], [Boger], [Clarke]. [Clinical]

No characteristic fever beyond surface heat of the excoriated sites and a sense of general chilliness in damp conditions; on entering a dry room the subjective heat abates. [Clarke]. [Clinical]

Chilly in damp air; heat and burning are local and cutaneous; perspiring under clothes irritates the eruption and renews smarting; drying the skin gives relief, again echoing the “cool then keep dry” strategy. [Clarke], [Boericke]. [Clinical]

Occipital heaviness and forehead pressive ache attend humid weather, with a faint sickly odour from the moist eruptions behind the ears in children [Clarke]. The scalp itself may sprout small, watery vesicles along hat-lines; scratching breaks them and a thin, acrid fluid excoriates the margins, reproducing the surface chemistry ascribed to protoanemonin [Hughes]. Head pain is less a virtue of the remedy than the cutaneous field around it; complaints fade in dry air or with a light cap and worsen after damp exposure or washing the hair late at night, tallying with the damp cold < modality. [Clinical]

Smarting of the canthi with excoriating tears; lids sore at the edges, especially when facial vesicles are active [Allen]. The child rubs eyes and cheeks and then cries because the rubbed parts burn; cool bathing gives momentary ease but frequent wetting may prolong the cycle, explaining the clinical need for brief cool then keep dry, a pattern that recurs throughout [Clarke]. Photophobia is slight; the ocular discomfort is cutaneous rather than deep. [Clinical]

A strong seat of action. Behind the ears appear watery blisters that soon weep and excoriated furrows form; the discharge is thin and acrid, making the surrounding skin red and sore [Hering], [Clarke]. Children rub and chafe the part under hats or collars; heat and wool chafe worsen, while dry air and a soft barrier dressing ease the torment—formally echoing better dry, cool shielding in Modalities. The eruptions readily ulcerate if poulticed or scratched, differentiating Ran-scel. from Graphites, where thick honey crusts and fissures predominate rather than watery blistering. [Clinical]

Rawness about alae with small vesicles; thin, smarting coryza when the face is weeping; wiping burns; the nostril wings may fissure. Cold damp air will rekindle the soreness and set the patient sneezing, linking upper air passages to the damp < theme [Clarke]. [Clinical]

Characteristic perioral and chin vesicles that burst and smart, with salivation or dribbling that excoriates the angles; lips are sore, bright red, and crack on eating salty or hot food [Hahnemann], [Allen]. The chin may be speckled with minute watery heads that ooze and crust thinly; scratching converts itch to burning and starts a creeping rawness, whereas a cool dab followed by dry shielding gives the best relief—explicitly cross-linking to Modalities. Distinguish from Rhus-t., where vesicles are more intensely itchy and are often better hot water; in Croton-t. the oozing is profuse and follows the course of hair; Ran-scel. keeps to small watery blisters with a corrosive edge and damp-cold aetiology [Clarke], [Farrington]. [Clinical]

Vesicles on tongue and buccal surfaces give burning aphthae, with salivation and a desire for cold water which soothes while swallowing [Allen], [Hahnemann]. The mucosa smart after acids or hot soups; voice is husky if the fauces are raw. The mouth mirrors the skin: watery blisters → acrid moisture → excoriation, and benefits from cool bland intake and avoidance of spice—showing the same chemistry as the external eruptions. [Clinical]

Teeth may ache from cold air on the tender oral sores; edges feel elongated; gums bleed if abraded by salt or vinegar, and the soreness burns afterward. Dental pain is reflex and accompanies the stomatitic state, clearing as the aphthae dry under dry, cool regimen [Allen]. [Clinical]

Fauces raw, burning, and smarting; swallowing roughens the surface; small vesicular points on the soft palate are reported in provers [Allen], [Hering]. Cold damp to the neck or speaking in fog brings hoarseness and tickle-cough, while sipping cool water briefly relieves; lingering wet scarves aggravate—these cross-links exactly match the Respiration subsection. [Clinical]

Sharp stitches along costal cartilages and tenderness of intercostal muscles on coughing or deep breath accompany humid changes; they are superficial and accompany skin vesication more than the deep, band-like pleurodynia of Ran-b. [Farrington], [Boger]. Talking in fog or entering a cold, damp church brings hoarseness with chest wall soreness; a dry room relieves. [Clinical]

Palpitation is not typical; flutter may occur from fretfulness and loss of sleep when the skin burns at night; quiet and cooling relieve. No organic action is asserted in the classical texts [Clarke]. [Clinical]

Hoarseness and tickle-cough in damp, chill air, better in dry, warmed rooms; rawness is felt high up at the laryngeal inlet, and the patient fears to speak because talking renews the smart [Clarke], [Boericke]. Breath is short from soreness rather than deep pulmonary disease; a few cool sips and silence give respite, directly cross-linking the throat and mouth modalities. [Clinical]

Acrid gastric irritation with burning at epigastrium and nausea; food feels too hot for the mouth and throat, and the patient craves cool sips [Hughes]. Appetite is reduced by the mouth pains; milk and spiced dishes smart; a slight sinking is felt in damp weather, improved by a warm, dry room. Pathologically this is continuous with the mucosal irritation of the mouth and fauces rather than a primary gastric dyscrasia. [Clinical]

Griping with watery, acrid stools in toxicology; soreness about the navel; flatus pungent and excoriating at the outlet [Allen], [Hughes]. The abdominal surface may feel tender under damp clothing; a short bout of colic precedes stool and then the burning at the margin takes precedence, which is relieved by cool ablution then dryness—again paralleling the cool then keep dry rule. [Clinical]

Stools thin or mucous with smarting, excoriating after-burn; anus tender, raw; oozing thins the skin and cracks it [Allen], [Clarke]. Sitting on cold, wet steps or boating in damp clothes is a typical trigger, confirming the wet exposure aetiology. Differentiate from Cantharis where tenesmus and urinary burning dominate; in Ran-scel. the burning is cutaneous and perianal. [Clinical]

Urine may smart the urethral meatus if oral and rectal surfaces are simultaneously acrid; slight strangury after damp chilling has been observed, but urinary symptoms are secondary [Allen]. Where Cantharis burns within, Ran-scel. burns upon the surface. [Clinical]

Worse from hot, spicy, or acid foods on oral vesicles; better from cool water sipped; salt smarting at commissures is a minor keynote. Greasy ointments may aggravate if occlusive; light, bland, cool foods align with comfort [Allen], [Clarke]. [Clinical]

Excoriating sweat and vesicles on scrotal skin in damp heat; raw preputial borders after sexual excess or sea-bathing; cold ablution eases; dryness heals. Paronychia of workmen’s hands with hang-nails and ulcerating edges is a notable indication in manual trades exposed to wet [Hering], [Clarke]. [Clinical]

Excoriating leucorrhoea is not marked; rather, vesicular eczema about nipples or under the breast where linen rubs, worse summer damp, better dry airing. Children show behind-ear eruptions when teething or dribbling is profuse, the saliva excoriating the angles—an important domestic field for this remedy [Clarke]. [Clinical]

Nuchal and scapular skin irritated by wetted collars and straps; small vesicles along friction lines; the interscapular muscles ache superficially in foggy weather and ease by keeping dry [Clarke]. No spinal paresis. [Clinical]

This remedy suits paronychia—the nail-folds red, tense, vesicating, then ulcerating with thin, acrid discharge; touch is torture, and wet work keeps it raw; dry air and shielding salves palliate while the remedy completes the cure [Hering], [Clarke]. Soft, flat warts around nails and on hands may grow sore and then shrivel during treatment. Feet macerate and blister in wet boots; new vesicles rise on re-wetting; the lived clinical picture is of wet exposure → watery blister → acrid ooze → ulcer, precisely predicted by the plant chemistry. [Clinical]

The essence is small, watery vesicles that sting and burn, break on touch, and excoriating, thin, acrid discharge that ulcerates rapidly when rubbed or poulticed [Hering], [Clarke]. Seats: behind ears, about mouth and chin, perinasal, fingers/nail-folds, flexures, where clothing rubs. The surface is bright red about the weeping; itching prompts scratching which is instantly followed by a burning upgrade—exactly mirroring scratching < under Modalities. Weather is key: damp cold, fog, wet clothes, and marsh air set the process in motion; dry air and cool dabbing relieve, but prolonged wetting aggravates again. Compare Rhus-t. (itching vesicles > hot water), Croton-t. (copious oozing following hair lines), Graph. (thick honey crusts and fissures), Euphorb. (deeper burning and ulcer), and Canth. (true vesication with urinary tenesmus) [Farrington], [Boericke], [Clarke]. [Clinical] [Toxicology]

Watery vesicles with acrid discharge / excoriation

• Rhus-t. — Intensely itchy vesicles > hot water; Ran-scel. burns after scratching, worse damp, seeks dry air [Farrington], [Boericke].
• Croton-t. — Vesiculo-pustular eruption with copious, yellowish oozing along hair; Ran-scel. has small watery blisters and corrosive edge [Clarke].
• Graph. — Thick honey crusts, fissures, behind-ear eruptions but less watery and less acrid than Ran-scel. [Clarke].
• Euphorb. — Violent burning and deep ulcerations; Ran-scel. more surface and marsh-damp aetiology [Farrington].
• Canth. — Great vesication with urinary tenesmus; Ran-scel. centres on skin/mucosa without urinary keynote [Allen].

Peri-ungual / paronychia / warts

• Hepar-s. — Suppurative, throbbing paronychia > warmth; Ran-scel. watery vesication → ulcer worse wetting [Hering].
• Ant-c. — Soft warts, crusty impetigo; Ran-scel. has acrid weeping and damp trigger [Clarke].
• Thuja — Multiple sycotic warts, pedunculated; Ran-scel. softer, flat peri-ungual warts with soreness [Boericke].

Mouth / lip excoriation

• Merc. — Profuse saliva, offensive mouth with ulceration < night; Ran-scel. saliva excoriates but general Merc. cachexia is absent [Allen].
• Nat-m. — Angular stomatitis with dryness; Ran-scel. has watery vesicles and burning [Clarke].

Hoarseness / raw larynx from damp air

• Dulc. — Catarrh from damp cold; more mucous flow, less acrid surface burning than Ran-scel. [Farrington].
• Rumex — Tickle-cough < cold air to larynx; Ran-scel. adds vesicating skin and mouth picture [Boger].

Chest wall stitches / pleurodynia

• Ran-b. — Deeper intercostal neuralgia, worse motion/changes of weather, often “sailor’s pleurodynia” [Farrington]; Ran-scel. has shallower costal soreness with cutaneous eruptions.

• Complementary: Dulc. (damp-cold catarrh) when mucous surfaces predominate and Ran-scel. treats the acrid skin edges [Farrington].
• Complementary: Graph.—after Ran-scel. dries the watery excoriation, Graph. closes residual cracks behind ears [Clarke].
• Follows well: Rhus-t. in vesicular states that relapse in foggy weather but dislike hot bathing [Boericke].
• Follows well: Hepar-s. where paronychia has passed the threatening-suppurative phase and watery excoriation remains [Hering].
• Precedes well: Sulph. constitutionally in chronic damp-dwelling families with recurring weeping eczema [Kent].
• Related / compare: Euphorb., Canth., Croton-t., Ant-c., Thuja, Dulc., Ran-b. for the fields above [Clarke], [Farrington].
• Antidotes (local): Cool applications; avoid poultices which hasten ulceration—classical practical caution [Clarke].

• Behind-ear eczema in damp-dwelling children—watery weeping that excoriates, worse washing, better dry air: Ran-scel. 6x–30C once or twice daily for a few days; avoid poultices; keep dry with simple barrier salve [Clarke], [Hering].
• Paronychia / hang-nails from wet work—tense, vesicating margins that ulcerate on soaking: Ran-scel. 6x t.i.d. for several days, then space; keep hands dry, cotton gloves at night [Hering], [Clarke].
• Perioral vesicles with salivation that excoriates—salt/hot foods smart; cool sips soothe: Ran-scel. 30C at onset; avoid acids; dry, bland regimen [Allen].
• Hoarseness and laryngeal rawness from fog with superficial chest wall stitches: Ran-scel. 30C prn; move to dry room, silence for a few hours [Clarke], [Boericke].

Mind

• MIND — IRRITABILITY — itching/eruptions — during. — Cutaneous torment drives peevishness. [Hering]
• MIND — AVERSION — being wet; to damp surroundings. — Seeks dry rooms. [Clarke]
• MIND — RESTLESSNESS — scratching — after — burning; from. — Itch turns to burn. [Clarke]

Head / Face / Eyes / Ears

• FACE — ERUPTIONS — vesicles — watery — lips; around mouth — excoriating discharge. — Saliva burns angles. [Allen], [Clarke]
• EARS — ERUPTIONS — behind ears — vesicular — acrid — ulcerate. — Classic seat and behaviour. [Hering], [Clarke]
• EYES — LIDS — EXCORIATION — lachrymation — acrid; from. — Edge-soreness with weeping. [Allen]
• SCALP — ERUPTIONS — vesicular — scratching — aggravates — burning — with. — Water-blisters along hat-line. [Clarke]

Mouth / Throat

• MOUTH — APHTHAE — burning — cold drinks — ameliorate. — Vesicles smart; cool sips soothe. [Allen]
• THROAT — RAWNESS — burning — damp air — aggravates. — Fog hoarsens and stings. [Clarke]
• LARYNX — HOARSENESS — fog — damp cold — aggravates. — Weather key. [Clarke]

Stomach / Rectum

• STOMACH — BURNING — epigastrium — acrid irritant; from. — Continuity of mucosal irritation. [Hughes]
• STOOL — WATERY — excoriating — anus — burning after. — Thin acrid stool. [Allen]
• ANUS — EXCORIATION — oozing — acrid; from. — Perianal rawness. [Clarke]

Chest / Back / Respiration

• CHEST — PAIN — stitches — costal cartilages — superficial. — Pleurodynia of the surface. [Boger], [Farrington]
• COUGH — TALKING — aggravates — larynx; from rawness. — Tickle from sore inlet. [Clarke]
• RESPIRATION — COLD, damp air — aggravates. — Fog-stirred hoarseness. [Clarke]

Extremities

• NAILS — PARONYCHIA — vesication — ulceration — tendency to. — Wet work hands. [Hering]
• WARTS — SOFT — flat — peri-ungual. — Sycotic edge round nails. [Clarke]
• HANDS — ERUPTIONS — vesicular — washing — after — aggravates. — Laundress pattern. [Clarke]

Skin / Generalities

• SKIN — VESICLES — watery — burning — scratching — aggravates — excoriation — with. — Essence of remedy. [Hering], [Clarke]
• SKIN — ULCERS — superficial — acrid discharge — from vesicles. — Rapid breakdown. [Clarke]
• GENERALITIES — WEATHER — damp — cold — aggravates. — Marsh/fog <. [Boericke]
• GENERALITIES — BATHING — after — aggravates — washing — hands. — Soaking keeps it raw. [Clarke]
• GENERALITIES — AIR — dry — ameliorates. — Dry rooms help. [Clarke]

Hahnemann — Materia Medica Pura (1821): proving fragments and mucosal/skin notes (vesicles, burning, salivation).
Hering — Guiding Symptoms (1879): clinical confirmations—behind-ear eczema, paronychia, acrid weeping; modalities.
Allen, T. F. — Encyclopaedia of Pure Materia Medica (1874–79): toxicology (protoanemonin effects), mucosal and bowel excoriation, stomatitis.
Hughes — A Manual of Pharmacodynamics (1870s): chemistry (ranunculin → protoanemonin), vesication/ulceration rationale.
Clarke — A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica (1900): substance background; key clinical uses (damp <, acrid vesicles, peri-oral/auricular sites).
Boericke — Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica (1901): modalities (damp/washed hands <), hoarseness in fog; comparisons (Rhus, Graph., Croton).
Boger — Synoptic Key (1915): regional emphasis—skin edges, chest wall stitches; modality grid.
Farrington — Clinical Materia Medica (late 19th c.): Ranunculus group comparisons (bulbosus vs. sceleratus; pleurodynia vs surface).
Nash — Leaders in Homoeopathic Therapeutics (1907): comparisons in vesicular and catarrhal states (contextual).
Dewey — Practical Homoeopathic Therapeutics (1901): eczema/impetigo groupings; management notes.
Tyler — Homoeopathic Drug Pictures (1942): domestic indications—children’s behind-ear acridity; handling tips.