Verbascum thapsus

Prepared from the fresh flowering plant of Verbascum thapsus by tincturing and potentising. Traditional herbal use as a demulcent for coughs and mullein oil for earache hints at the remedy’s neural–mucosal sphere. The homœopathic picture centres on trigeminal (facial) neuralgia with pressing, crushing pains “as by a vise or tongs,” exquisitely aggravated by the least motion of the jaws (talking, chewing, biting teeth together) and by draughts or any change of temperature, yet relieved by firm, steady pressure and warmth. A second axis is laryngeal: deep, hollow, bass-toned cough—strikingly during sleep—with hoarseness or aphonia by day and dryness of the larynx [Hering], [Allen], [Clarke], [Boericke], [Boger].

Early provings collated by Allen/Hering; broad [Clinical] confirmations in: prosopalgia with vise/tongs pressure, periodicity (same hour), jaw-motion aggravation, temperature-change/draught aggravation; and in the deep, bass cough—often during sleep—plus hoarseness → aphonia and Eustachian/ear involvement [Allen], [Hering], [Clarke], [Boericke], [Boger].

Verbascum = mechanical, vise-like trigeminal neuralgia + temperature-reactive laryngeal catarrh. The face pain is crushing/pressing “as by a vise/tongs,” kindled by the least motion of the jaws, touch/light jar, or a breath of draught, yet quelled by firm, steady pressure and warmth. The larynx gives a deep, hollow, bass cough that often erupts during sleep without waking the patient, leaving hoarseness or loss of voice by day. Stitch in the pattern at the same hour and the choice is plain. Management ethos: even warmth, no draughts, no jaw motion, firm compression—then the vise loosens and the trumpet-cough abates.

• Trigeminal nerve (V2/V3) – infra-orbital / maxillary. Vise-like pressing pains with darting shocks; worse jaw motion (talk/chew/yawn/biting), worse touch/light jar, worse draughts/temperature change; better firm pressure (hand/band) and warmth; periodic bouts [Hering], [Clarke], [Boericke].
• Larynx / voice / bronchi. Hoarseness → aphonia, dry scraping larynx; deep, hollow, bass-toned paroxysmal cough—cough during sleep (patient may not wake); worse speaking/reading, laughing, entering cold air, any thermal swing; better steady warm air and warm drinks [Clarke], [Boger].
• Ear / Eustachian tube. Otalgia, fullness/blocked sensation, catarrhal deafness tendency; pains radiate from face to ear; cough or jaw movement shoots to ear (auriculo-trigeminal link) [Clarke], [Hughes].
• Mucous membranes. Dryness ↔ ropy mucus, temperature-reactive catarrh; sneezing or a draught often lights up the face pain [Boger], [Clarke].
• Cranio-facial periosteum. Malar/maxillary bones sore to touch, better firm steady pressure—a “mechanical” feel to pain [Hering], [Clarke].
• Sleep–respiratory axis (children & adults). Booming cough in sleep—household hears it; sleeper remains oblivious; hoarse or aphonic on waking [Clarke], [Boericke].

Anxious and pain-avoidant: fears speaking or chewing lest the pain “catch.” Startles at draughts or sudden room changes. Irritable, taciturn in attacks; calms under uninterrupted warmth and firm support. Anticipatory dread at the daily hour. Children become uncharacteristically quiet before the night paroxysm [Clarke], [Hering].

Two patterns: (1) Sleep broken by the neuralgic hour; (2) Sleeps through a booming bass cough—household wakes, sleeper doesn’t. Wakes hoarse/aphonic. Children often cough in first sleep [Clarke], [Hering].

Dreams of speaking/performing—wake voiceless; dreams of cold wind on face precede pain (symbolic of modality). Children dream uneasily before the night cough [Clinical].

A neuralgic–laryngeal–catarrhal remedy with temperature reactivity and jaw-motion sensitivity. Hallmarks: vise/tongs-like trigeminal pain better firm pressure & warmth, worse the least jaw motion, touch/jar, and any thermal swing; plus deep, bass cough during sleep with hoarseness/aphonia by day; periodicity clinches the choice [Hering], [Clarke], [Boericke], [Boger].

Little true fever; rather vasomotor chill → heat at onset of paroxysm, then sweat beads on malars/upper lip [Boger], [Clarke].

• Chill: From slightest draught or temperature swing; shudder that triggers pain/cough.
• Heat: Seeks even, enclosed warmth; hates moving air, even if warm.
• Sweat: Moist face/hands during pain; cool sweat after nocturnal cough; not especially relieving [Clarke], [Boericke].

Prosopalgia: pressing, clamping, crushing—“as by a vise or tongs”; radiates malar ↔ temple ↔ teeth ↔ ear. Periodicity (same hour). Worse jaw motion, touch/jar, temperature change, sneezing; better firm pressure, steady warmth. “Mechanical” feeling—bones sore beneath pain. Frontal weight accompanies attacks; scalp chill-sensitive [Hering], [Boericke], [Clarke].

Lachrymation with paroxysm; inner canthus sore. Photophobia in cold air; lids twitch with shocks. Infra-orbital ring tender to light touch yet comforted by hard pressure [Hering], [Clarke].

Otalgia/fullness; hearing dulled when catarrhal; pain shoots with jaw movement or cough. External mullein oil (non-homœopathic) historically soothes while the remedy meets the neural link [Clarke], [Hughes].

Tip cold; sneezing re-ignites facial pain. Dryness alternates thick, tenacious mucus; coryza from a mere draught. Air feels too cold/too dry through nares; patient shields face [Boger], [Clarke].

Pale then flushes during pain; malar bones sore. Light touch/air hurts; steady hand-pressure helps. Biting teeth together aggravates; percussion over teeth jars face [Hering], [Clarke].

Teeth sensitive to cold air; toothache couples the neuralgia. Tongue may feel thick from guarding; prefers soft warm food to avoid mastication [Clarke].

Odontalgia with neuralgic vice-pain; occlusion (biting) aggravates; tapping tooth triggers facial track—reflects conduction sensitivity [Hering].

Hoarseness to aphonia; larynx dry, scraped, as if a dry tube. Talking/reading provokes a deep, bass cough. Warm sips ease; cool air re-irritates [Boericke], [Clarke].

After bass cough: soreness beneath sternum; chest wall tender to jar. Reading aloud fatigues and restarts paroxysms. Breathings prefer even warm air [Clarke], [Boger].

Palpitations in pain waves; pulse quick with draught exposure; quiets with warmth and immobility. No structural lesion keynote [Boericke].

Cough: deep, hollow, bass-toned, sometimes barking/trumpet-like; paroxysmal; notable during sleep—may not wake the patient. Worse entering cold air, passing from warm to cold (or reverse), speaking/reading/laughing; better steady warmth, warm drinks, draught-proof room [Clarke], [Boericke], [Boger]. Dyspnœa minor—more reflex from cough pain.

Cold drinks may precipitate cough or tooth-face pain via thermal reflex; warm drinks comfort. Appetite reduced during severe facial bouts; nausea rare, more from pain stress [Clarke].

Sensitive to cold draughts across belly; chill here often ushers a cough which re-lights jaw pain (reflex chain). Flatulence unremarkable [Boger].

Constipation from avoiding movement/talking; effort (strain/sneeze) may spark the face pain [Clinical]. Piles not characteristic.

No keynote pathology; patients delay micturition at night to avoid temperature shift and cough-trigger [Clinical].

Warm liquids and soft warm foods; cold drinks/ice may precipitate cough/face pain by thermal shock. Avoids crusty chewy foods while symptomatic [Clarke].

Neuralgic drawing to testicle with face pain rarely noted (cross-ref trigeminal–genital reflexes); not a guide on its own [Allen].

Attacks may cluster around menses (vascular reactivity). Aphonia after social talking; cough in sleep in mother & infant; nursing mothers hoarse on waking [Clarke], [Boericke].

Upper dorsal ache after paroxysms; chills up spine from doorway draughts herald laryngeal/facial events [Boger].

Avoids footfall jar; moves cautiously, hand pressed to cheek. Fingers warm the face; prefers stillness of the whole body during neuralgic hour [Hering].

Air-sensitive: tiny draughts felt like cold ribbons across cheek → pain. Face sweats under hand pressure during bout; cool clammy finish after cough [Clarke].

Trigeminal neuralgia – mechanical/vise pressure, jaw-motion & temperature-triggered

• Spigelia — Left-sided, stabbing/knife-like around eye, worse slightest touch and movement; less pressure-relieved. Verb. is crushing/vise, pressure-better, jaw-motion & draught critical.
• Mag-phos. — Neuralgia better heat & pressure (shared), but pains are crampy, shooting, less jaw-motion-specific, less hourly periodicity than Verb.
• Colocynthis — Violent facial pains better hard pressure/bending; often after anger; jaw motion less central; thermal draught triggers less marked than Verb.
• Belladonna — Throbbing, congestive, hot red face; pain < jar; heat >; lacks vise/tongs and pressure-amelioration signature.
• Mezereum — Supra-orbital/zygomatic tearing worse cold air, root-tooth sensitivity; Verb. adds jaw-motion & bass-cough axis.
• Aranea diad. — Periodic neuralgia with weather/barometric sensitivity; jaw-motion modality not defining as in Verb.
• China — Neuralgia after fluid loss; touch-sensitive, better hard pressure; lacks jaw-motion and sleep-cough hallmark.

Hoarseness / aphonia with deep/bass cough (often during sleep)

• Spongia — Dry, sawing/croupy “saw-through-board” voice/cough; less bass and not typically during sleep obliviously.
• Drosera — Whoop-like, choking paroxysms after midnight; racking spasms; Verb. cough is bass, often in sleep without waking.
• Rumex — Tickle at supra-sternal fossa; covers mouth in cold air; voice less bass; thermal swing important but jaw link absent.
• Hepar-s. — Harsh, sensitive larynx, cold air aggravates, soon a suppurative tendency; Verb. is drier, bass-pitched, and linked to face pain.
• Phosphorus — Laryngeal rawness with thirst for cold, aphonia, haemorrhagic tendency; cough timbre different; no pressure-better face pain.

Earache / Eustachian catarrh

• Pulsatilla — Thick bland catarrh, weepy, better open air; Verb. wants even, enclosed warmth and shows trigeminal vice-pain.
• Ferr-phos. — Early otitis (bright flush, soft pulse); lacks jaw-motion neuralgia; cough not bass/sleep-linked.
• Capsicum — Burning, bursting otalgia, chilly; more mastoid fullness; cough differs.

“Cough during sleep” hallmark (child or adult)

• Verbascum is classic (bass/trumpet quality, oblivious sleeper).
• Ignatia may cough in sleep from nervous shocks but voice/catarrh profile differs; Verb. adds aphonia by day and temperature-swing triggers.

• Complementary: Mag-phos. (neuralgia needing warmth/pressure); Rumex/Spongia to bracket laryngeal phases; Hepar-s. if process turns suppurative [Boericke], [Boger].
• Follows well: Aconite (neuralgia from chill/draught) when the acute vascular fear settles into vise-pain; Belladonna when throbbing/cherry-red congestion subsides to pressing pains [Clarke].
• Precedes well: Kali-bi. if thick, stringy laryngeal mucus becomes dominant; Puls. if catarrh turns bland and open-air-better.
• Compare: Spig., Mag-phos., Coloc., Bell., Mez., Aranea, China, Rumex, Spong., Drosera, Hepar-s., Phos., Puls. as above.
• Topical adjunct (non-homœopathic): Mullein oil to auricle/external canal for soothing otalgia while systemic picture is treated.

• Indications:
  • Prosopalgia with vise/tongs pressure, worse jaw motion, touch/jar, temperature change, better firm pressure & warmth.
  • Hoarseness → aphonia in teachers/speakers; deep, bass, paroxysmal cough—often in sleep—triggered by thermal swings.
  • Earache with facial neuralgia linkage; Eustachian fullness; cough or chewing shoots to ear.
  • Children who cough loudly in first sleep yet keep sleeping; wake hoarse.
• Potency & repetition (classic usage):
  • Acute neuralgia or laryngeal colds: 6C–30C every 30–120 min, then space.
  • Strong periodic prosopalgia and clear keynote: 30C–200C at or before the expected hour; repeat cautiously per reaction.
  • Reduce frequency as jaw motion becomes tolerable and thermal reactivity falls.
• Adjuncts: Firm hand or elastic band over cheek; dry heat pack; draught-proof room (curtains, no fans); soft warm diet, minimal speech; warm sips for larynx. Traditional mullein oil can be used externally for otalgia (not a homœopathic dose).
• Pearls:
  • Patient instinctively presses the cheek hard or straps it—instant comfort = Verbascum.
  • Doorway draught → sneeze → face pain or sleep-cough—modal chain is signature.
  • Cough in sleep that doesn’t wake the patient (child or adult), bass-toned, with daytime aphonia: few remedies point as cleanly.

Mind

• Anxiety of recurrence; avoids speaking/chewing; dreads draughts. — Pain-avoidant behaviour [Clarke], [Hering].

Head / Face / Nerves

• Neuralgia, trigeminal (V2/V3); pains pressing/crushing “as by a vise/tongs”. — Keynote [Hering], [Clarke].
• Worse jaw motion (talking, chewing, yawning), worse touch/light jar. — Modal cluster [Hering].
• Worse change of temperature; worse draughts. — Thermal trigger [Boger].
• Better firm, steady pressure; better warmth. — Relief axis [Boericke].
• Periodicity—same hour daily. — Time signature [Clarke].

Ear

• Otalgia with facial neuralgia; pains shoot with cough or jaw motion; fullness, catarrhal deafness tendency. — Aural link [Clarke], [Hughes].

Larynx / Voice

• Hoarseness to aphonia; larynx dry, scraped; reading/talking aggravates. — Laryngeal keynotes [Clarke], [Boericke].

Cough / Chest

• Cough during sleep; patient may not wake; deep, hollow, bass; worse entering cold air or temperature change; better steady warmth and warm drinks. — Signature rubric set [Clarke], [Boger], [Boericke].

Generalities

Change of temperature/draughts aggravate; touch/light jar aggravate; firm pressure and warmth ameliorate. — Global modality [Boger], [Hering], [Boericke].

Hering — The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica (1879–91): vise/tongs facial pains; jaw-motion & temperature aggravations; cough during sleep.
Allen, T. F. — Encyclopaedia of Pure Materia Medica (1874–79): proving fragments—prosopalgia periodicity; laryngeal/cough features.
Clarke, J. H. — A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica (1900): bass cough, aphonia, trigeminal keynotes, modalities, hour-periodicity.
Boericke, W. — Pocket Manual of Homœopathic Materia Medica (1901): concise keynotes—face neuralgia “as by tongs,” warmth/pressure better, cough in sleep.
Boger, C. M. — Synoptic Key of the Materia Medica (1915): temperature/draught modalities; pressure-amelioration; laryngeal pointers.
Hughes, R. — A Manual of Pharmacodynamics (1875): herbal background—mullein demulcent/ear oil echo the remedy spheres.
Farrington, E. A. — Clinical Materia Medica (1887): facial neuralgia & laryngeal comparisons (Spig., Mag-phos., Coloc., Spong., Rumex., Drosera).
Kent, J. T. — Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica (1905) & Repertory: constitutional/miasmatic framing; neuralgic differentials.
Tyler, M. L. — Homœopathic Drug Pictures (1942): practical picture of Verbascum in trigeminal neuralgia and bass cough.
Phatak, S. R. — Materia Medica of Homoeopathic Medicines (1977): succinct rubrics—pressure-better prosopalgia; cough during sleep.