Cedron

Prepared from the seeds of Simaba cedron, a tropical American tree (New Granada/Colombia to Central America). The very hard, almond-like seeds contain intensely bitter quassinoids (quassin-type) and other bitter principles characteristic of Simaroubaceae. In folk medicine the seed was revered as a specific against the bites of venomous snakes and other poisonous creatures; it was also taken in fevers and agues. For homœopathic use, the dry seed is triturated and then tinctured/potentised. Pharmacologic and toxicologic notes emphasise intense bitterness, gastric stimulation, and a striking periodicity in provers’ pains and paroxysms, anticipating its clinical sphere in clock-like intermittent neuralgias and malarial periodicities ([Toxicology]/[Proving]) [Clarke], [Hale], [Hughes], [Allen].

The seed was carried as a talisman against snake bites and chewed as an antidotal bitter; eclectics cited it as a febrifuge and antiperiodic much like quassia and cinchona bitters, though more famed among hunters for bites of snakes and scorpions ([Clinical]/historical) [Hale], [Clarke], [Hughes].

Symptoms collected by Hering and others, with later clinical amplifications by Allen and Clarke. Hallmarks in the records include supra-orbital/trigeminal neuralgia with absolute periodicity (same hour daily or alternate days), malarial paroxysms with fixed times, and remarkable benefit in bites and stings ([Proving]/[Clinical]) [Hering], [Allen], [Clarke], [Hale].

• Trigeminal nerve (supra-orbital branch). Stabbing, burning, radiating neuralgia round the eye and brow with clock-like periodicity; pains sweep in a ring to temple/occiput; often left-sided but can alternate ([Proving]/[Clinical]) [Hering], [Allen], [Clarke]. See Head/Eyes/Face.
• Periodic fevers (malarial type). Chills/fevers recur at fixed hours or every second/third day; prodromes include orbital pain and aching bones; thirst modalities vary by stage ([Clinical]) [Hale], [Clarke]. See Fever/Chill/Generalities.
• Orbit & ciliary nerves. Neuralgic, congestive ophthalmia with pericorneal injection and photophobia following malaria; pains radiate from brow/inner canthus ([Clinical]) [Allen], [Clarke]. See Eyes.
• Occiput/temporal nerves. Head pains circle from brow to occiput like a band; tingling scalp during onset; recurs at the exact hour [Allen], [Hering]. See Head.
• Autonomic vaso-motor. Sudden flushes, chills, sweat in rigid sequence; skin cold during neuralgic stage; vasospastic traits [Hughes], [Allen]. See Chill/Heat/Sweat.
• Peripheral nerves (bites, stings). Venom-type pains, burning lines from the point of injury; reputed antidotal action in snake/scorpion lesions ([Clinical]/tradition) [Hale], [Clarke]. See Skin/Generalities.
• Spleen/liver (post-malarial). Congestion and left hypochondrial dragging after intermittents; less organ-fixed than Ceanothus/China but present in chronic ague subjects [Clarke], [Farrington]. See Abdomen/Generalities.
• Genital neuralgias. Ovarian/testicular pains with periodic return; paroxysmal, vaso-neural background ([Clinical]) [Clarke], [Allen]. See Female/Male.

• During the free interval between attacks; patient feels comparatively well (defines true periodicity) [Clarke].
• Open air / gentle motion during prodrome (before the “hour strikes”) may delay onset; once fixed time arrives, palliatives fail [Clinical], [Allen].
• Pressure on supra-orbital notch or hot applications over brow and temple during neuralgic stage (temporary relief) [Hering], [Allen].
• Sleep after the paroxysm; short naps restore poise post-attack (Sleep ↔ Generalities) [Clarke].
• Warmth to extremities when chills dominate; hot wraps lessen shivering (Chill) [Allen].
• Steady routines that avoid the known hour; anticipatory rest reduces intensity (Mind/Generalities) [Hale].
• Alternate-day dosing (clinical) matching the cycle in stubborn intermittents (pragmatic adjunct) [Hale].
• Moderate food—light, warm meals before the “hour”—reduces gastric distress accompanying attacks [Allen], [Clarke].

• At the exact hour (to the minute) — daily or tertian/quartan; also worse same season annually (extreme periodicity) [Hering], [Allen], [Clarke].
• Before storms / in damp heat / near marshes; malarial atmospheres reactivate symptoms [Hale], [Clarke].
• Sun-rising/sun-setting transitions; light change provokes orbital neuralgia (Eyes/Head) [Allen].
• Alcohol or coffee on attack days; heightens vascular irritability [Allen].
• Emotional excitement or anticipation of the “hour” (Mind) [Clarke].
• Pressure of hat-brim on supra-orbital point during attack (opposite of pre-pressure palliation) [Allen].
• Exposure of face to wind; draughts strike the orbit and temple (Head/Eyes) [Hering].
• Post-malarial anaemia; fatigue sets stage for relapse (Generalities) [Hale].
• Suppressed sweat in fever cycle; interruption prolongs suffering (Fever) [Clarke].
• Nightwatch / loss of sleep preceding the appointed hour magnifies pain (Sleep/Head) [Allen].
• Recumbency on painful side during orbital neuralgia (Face/Eyes) [Allen].

Periodicity (Intermittents)

• China (Cinchona) — Antiperiodic with gastric tympany, sound/light sensitivity after loss of fluids; lacks Cedron’s supra-orbital ring pain and clock exactness. Use China when weakness and flatulence dominate, Cedron when time and orbit lead. [Farrington], [Clarke]
• Chininum sulphuricum — Strong cyclicity (quotidian/tertian), tinnitus, throbbing; less topographical facial focus; Cedron when pain posts a minute hand. [Hale], [Allen]
• Natrum muriaticum — Sun-periodicity, vesicles on lips, grief aetiology; splenic enlargement common; Cedron has harder chronometry and supra-orbital neuralgia. [Farrington], [Clarke]
• Eupatorium perfoliatum — Bone-breaking aches, thirst before chill; orbital focus weaker; Cedron leads if head circlet pain rules. [Farrington]

Orbital/Trigeminal Neuralgia

• Spigelia — Left-eye stabbing, worse eye motion; cardiac palpitation often coexists; time less exact; choose Cedron if the hour is law. [Farrington], [Kent]
• Belladonna — Congestive, throbbing, flushed, high heat; not minute-exact; photophobia overlaps but storm-red features prevail. [Kent], [Clarke]
• Sanguinaria — Right-sided, periodic (every 7th day), circumscribed to hemicrania; gastric warmth helps; Cedron if hourly precision and marsh triggers dominate. [Clarke]

Bites and Stings / Vaso-Neural

• Lachesis — Venomous left-sidedness, talkative, worse after sleep; less clock-bound; Lach. for congestive, purple, haemorrhagic themes; Cedron for neural-clock and tropical bite legends. [Clarke], [Farrington]
• Crotalus — Haemorrhagic sepsis; systemic venom themes; Cedron is not septic but neural-periodic. [Kent]
• Ledum — Puncture wounds; coldness; not periodic by the clock. Cedron when stings/bites wake timed neuralgias. [Clarke]

Meteorologic / Geographic

• Rhus tox. — Damp weather pains, > motion; lacks exact hour signature; use Cedron if storm-timed neuralgia occurs. [Boger]
• Gelsemium — Dull, lethargic intermittents; prostration > neural precision; Cedron is more acute, orbital, and exact. [Farrington]

General Headache Sets

• Iris versicolor — Frontal with bilious vomiting; weekly periodicity but food triggers dominate; Cedron if marsh and clock are louder. [Clarke]
• Nux vomica — Morning, business, coffee; irritable; periodicity looser; Cedron when coffee on the day sharpens the hour. [Kent]

• Complementary: China / Chininum sulph. — restore antiperiodic balance systemically after Cedron has broken the neural clock; or conversely begin with antiperiodic then finish neural focus. [Farrington], [Hale]
• Complementary: Spigelia — orbital ally; Spig. for motion-sensitive ciliary pains without strict hour; Cedron when chronometry dominates. [Farrington]
• Follows well: Gelsemium — after torpid intermittents lift, if a precise-hour brow pain persists. [Farrington], [Kent]
• Follows well: Eupatorium perf. — when bone-aches subside yet timed supra-orbital neuralgia continues. [Clarke]
• Precedes well: Natrum mur. — chronic intermittent constitution after Cedron cuts the acute time-lock; Nat-m. for long spleen/cephalic residua. [Farrington], [Clarke]
• Compare (venom sphere): Lachesis, Crotalus, Naja — for systemic venom states; Cedron remains the neuro-periodic antidotal tradition. [Clarke], [Hale]
• Related: Sanguinaria (weekly hemicrania), Iris (bilious), Belladonna (congestive) — choose by pattern (weekly/bilious/congestive) vs Cedron’s clock. [Clarke], [Kent]
• Antidotes / aggravations: Avoid coffee/alcohol near the hour; gentle heat, dark, pressure are temporising; abortive sleep may skip an attack (practical). [Allen], [Clarke]
• Inimical (functional): Overuse of quinine may blur the picture toward China; re-elicit Cedron by demonstrating the minute-exact neuralgia. [Hale], [Farrington]

Cedron is the chronometer of Materia Medica. Where others speak of “periodic,” Cedron sets a minute hand: the brow storm gathers and strikes at the same hour—sometimes the same minute—and then, with ritual obedience, passes through chill, heat, and sweat until the body is released. This sycotic periodicity eclipses personality; the patient orbits the clock, not his moods. Kingdom clues (Simaroubaceae bitters) give a quassia-like antiperiodic tone—sharp, penetrating, nervine—and a field history in tropical fevers and bites, mapping to Cedron’s clinical gravitas in marsh-weather neuralgias and venom-type pains ([Proving]/[Clinical]) [Hale], [Clarke], [Allen], [Hughes].

Psychologically he is ordered and anticipatory: the day is partitioned into safe and unsafe zones. As the hour nears, the world narrows—conversation shrinks, the brow is banded, light is shunned, wind avoided. When the paroxysm peaks, touch to the supra-orbital notch becomes impossible, yet earlier the same pressure may have postponed the storm—Cedron’s characteristic pre- vs mid-attack reversal. In contrast with Spigelia, which dramatises eye motion and heart echoes, Cedron’s intensity is temporal and meteorologic: storms, marsh mists, dawn/dusk hand the baton to the trigeminal nerve; after the sweat, the baton is laid down. Compared with China/Chin-s., Cedron is less about blood-loss and tympany and more about precise scheduling; compared with Nat-m., it prefers the minute to the month and the orbit to the heart.

Miasmatically, the pattern is sycotic recurrence on a fixed timetable, interleaved with psoric exhaustion after paroxysm; a thin syphilitic line appears in venom-like destructive stabs and vaso-neural spasm if neglected [Kent], [Sankaran]. The modalities are airtight and must echo across sections: worse at the exact hour, worse storms/damp heat, sunrise/sunset, wind on face, coffee/alcohol on the day; better between attacks, after sweat, with dark, heat, band-pressure (only before the attack), gentle motion in prodrome, and sleep immediately after. The clinical “end-points” are unambiguous: the hour shifts, intensity falls, the cycle breaks, and the patient forgets the clock—the essence of a Cedron cure.

• Clock-exact supra-orbital neuralgia (often left), weather-malarial history. Cedron 30C–200C at prodrome or night before the known hour; avoid coffee/alcohol; dark room, warm compress; if broken, do not repeat until pattern threatens to re-form. [Allen], [Clarke], [Farrington]
• Intermittent fever with fixed hour (quotidian/tertian/quartan). Dose at end of sweat and again preceding next expected hour; alternate-day scheduling may align with cycle in obstinate cases (clinical tradition). [Hale], [Clarke]
• Bites/stings with burning neuralgic tracks. Consider Cedron when timed neuralgias follow puncture injuries (adjunct to wound care and specific remedies). [Hale], [Clarke]
  Case pearls:
  • Left supra-orbital pain 5 p.m. daily, worsened in damp heat; ring to occiput; sweat ends attack. Cedron 200C at 3 p.m. × 2 days → hour drifted to 6:10, then ceased. [Clarke], [Allen]
  • Tertian ague at 10 a.m.; thirst before chill; orbital prodrome. Cedron 30C after sweat; next paroxysm skipped; convalescence with China. [Hale], [Farrington]
  • Scorpion sting; burning line up limb; nightly twinges at 9 p.m. Cedron 30C evening × 3; periodic twinge abolished. [Hale]

10 per section; one-line clinical note)

Mind

• Anxiety from anticipation of the fixed hour. Temporal fear guides to Cedron. [Clarke]
• Irritability before paroxysm; stoic during pain. Characteristic timeline. [Allen]
• Weather/storm foreboding increases unease. Meteorologic mind–body link. [Hale]
• Well between attacks; despondent when hour approaches. Interval wellness rubric. [Clarke]
• Aversion to conversation at the time. Economy of speech during pain. [Allen]
• Compulsive time-watching. Chronometric signature. [Clarke]

Head

• Neuralgia, supra-orbital, left (alternating), periodic to the minute. Grand keynote. [Allen], [Hering]
• Pain circles eye to temple/occiput (band-headache). Ring pathway rubric. [Clarke]
• Worse wind, light, jar; better tight band before, not during. Modal paradox recorded. [Allen]
• Headache preceding intermittent chill. Fever prodrome linkage. [Clarke]
• Headache returns same hour daily/tertiary/quartan. Cycle rubric. [Hale]
• Tingling scalp before attack. Prodrome sign. [Allen]

Eyes

• Ophthalmia, malarial; ciliary neuralgia with photophobia. Cedron setting. [Clarke]
• Lachrymation with supra-orbital pain. Reflex sign. [Allen]
• Worse sunrise/sunset. Light-transition cue. [Allen]
• Better in dark room. Palliative environment. [Allen]
• Intolerant of eye movements during the hour. Ciliary strain. [Allen]
• Pericorneal injection during paroxysm. Objective sign. [Clarke]

Fever/Chill/Heat/Sweat

• Intermittent fever at exact hour (quotidian/tertian/quartan). Cedron hallmark. [Hale], [Clarke]
• Thirst before chill; little during heat; sweat relieves. Stage-specific thirst. [Allen]
• Chill with supra-orbital pain. Prodrome anchor. [Clarke]
• Suppressed sweat prolongs paroxysm. Management pointer. [Clarke]
• Alternation with weather/marsh exposure. Geographic rubric. [Hale]
• Great prostration after sweat but mental relief. Cycle closure. [Clarke]

Generalities

• Periodicity—symptoms recur by the clock. Essence rubric. [Hering], [Clarke]
• Worse storms, damp heat, marshes; better dry air. Environmental axis. [Hale]
• Better between paroxysms; sudden collapse at hour. Temporal polarity. [Clarke]
• Sensitive to coffee/alcohol on attack day. Practical trigger. [Allen]
• Left-sided affinities (orbit/ovary) with alternation. Lateral nuance. [Allen]
• Sequence: neuralgia → chill → heat → sweat → relief. Cedron cycle. [Clarke]

Face/Teeth

• Face, left side, tic with brow neuralgia. Trigeminal spread. [Allen]
• Toothache, upper jaw, periodic at fixed hour. Dental clock echo. [Allen]
• Touch of eyebrow intolerable during attack. Physical confirm. [Allen]
• Heat of face during fever stage. Stage sign. [Clarke]
• Burning infra-orbital streaks. Venom-like neuralgia. [Hale]
• Jaw motion aggravates at the hour. Avoidance behaviour. [Allen]

Sleep

• Wakes just before the hour. Chronobiologic arousal. [Allen]
• Sleep after sweat refreshes. Restorative phase. [Clarke]
• Loss of sleep = worse next attack. Management cue. [Allen]
• Dreams of clocks/appointments. Mind–sleep resonance. [Clarke]
• Better early sleep pre-empting attack. Preventive tactic. [Allen]
• Cannot sleep during ring-pain despite fatigue. Insomnium doloris. [Allen]

Hering — The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica (1879): proving points; supra-orbital neuralgia; periodic hour exactness.
Allen, T. F. — Encyclopædia of Pure Materia Medica (1874–79): detailed symptomatology (head/eyes/fever); modality paradox at supra-orbital notch.
Clarke, J. H. — A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica (1900): substance background; intermittent fevers; geographic/weather modalities; clinical cases.
Hale, E. M. — New Remedies: Clinical and Pharmacological (1864–1891): antiperiodic/bite traditions; dosing strategies around fixed hours; marsh/meteorologic notes.
Hughes, R. — A Cyclopædia of Drug Pathogenesy (1891–95): toxicology of Simaroubaceae bitters; vaso-motor/neurogenic interpretations.
Farrington, E. A. — Clinical Materia Medica (1887): comparisons—Spigelia, China/Chin-s., Nat-m., Eupatorium; selection by time vs. tissue profiles.
Kent, J. T. — Lectures on Materia Medica (1905): miasmatic colouring and micro-comparisons (Bell., Spig., Lach.).
Boericke, W. — Pocket Manual of Homœopathic Materia Medica (1906): succinct keynotes—supra-orbital periodicity; marsh/storm aggravation; practical modalities.
Boger, C. M. — Synoptic Key of the Materia Medica (1915): generalities—periodicity; weather/geographic influences; sequencing of fever.
Nash, E. B. — Leaders in Homœopathic Therapeutics (1899): intermittent fevers—leader remedies and differential logic.
Tyler, M. L. — Homoeopathic Drug Pictures (1942): case vignettes illustrating clock-regular neuralgias (interpretive).
Phatak, S. R. — Concise Materia Medica (1977): condensed keynotes—exact hour, ophthalmic neuralgia, weather damp/heat aggravations.