Cornus circinata

A North American dogwood of the Cornaceae, rich in bitter principles and tannins; the fresh bark (young branches/inner bark) yields a tincture. Empirical and eclectic use linked the plant with intermittent/“malarial” fevers, bilious states, and splenic–hepatic congestion; provings/clinical use in homœopathy reproduce periodic paroxysms, frontal headaches, bone-aching soreness, gastro-intestinal catarrh with watery yellow stools, and a sallow, debilitated habit ([Proving]/[Clinical]). The picture stands midway between China and Eupatorium perfoliatum, with stronger portal features (spleen/liver). [Hale], [Allen], [Clarke], [Boericke], [Hughes]

Nineteenth-century eclectic physicians used dogwoods as “anti-periodics” and astringent bitters in ague, remittent fevers, debility, and diarrhœa; Cornus circ. took preference where splenic swelling and bilious vomiting predominated. These traditions accord with the homœopathic sphere. [Hughes], [Clarke], [Hale]

Knowledge stems from Hale’s New-Remedy provings/clinical notes and collations by T. F. Allen, Hering, Clarke: intermittent and remittent fever with daily paroxysm (often late morning), frontal headache, bone and flesh soreness, giddiness, gastric irritability with bilious vomiting, watery yellow undigested stool, splenic enlargement, sallow skin, great languor, and neuralgia of periodic type, often after loss of sleep. [Hale], [Allen], [Hering], [Clarke], [Boericke]

• Spleen (left hypochondrium). Fullness, tenderness, and enlargement with ague-like periodicity; aching worse motion, better rest; sallow skin and drowsy prostration accompany. See Abdomen/Fever/Generalities. [Clarke], [Hale], [Boericke]
• Liver & Portal System. Bilious vomiting, yellow tongue, bitter taste, right hypochondrial drag; watery yellow stools with prostration—a bilious remittent picture. See Stomach/Abdomen/Rectum. [Hale], [Allen], [Clarke]
• Blood/Haematosis. Sallow, malarioid anaemia with weakness out of proportion to objective fever; sweat without relief. See Generalities/Fever. [Clarke], [Boericke]
• Bones & Periosteum / Muscles. Aching in bones and soreness of flesh as in Eupatorium, during paroxysms or after loss of sleep. See Back/Extremities. [Hale], [Farrington], [Allen]
• Stomach & Duodenum. Nausea, sinking at epigastrium, bilious vomiting; after fruit diarrhœa; worse after meals. See Stomach/Rectum. [Allen], [Clarke]
• Nervous system (periodic neuralgia). Frontal/supra-orbital or malarial neuralgia, 10–11 A.M. tendency, worse motion, better rest/darkness. See Head/Eyes. [Clarke], [Hale]
• Intestinal mucosa. Watery undigested stool, copious, with exhaustion; gurgling and flatulence. See Rectum/Abdomen. [Allen], [Boericke]
• Heart–Chest (secondary). Palpitations and oppression during hot stage and on ascending; from anæmia and debility. See Chest/Respiration. [Clarke]
• Sleep–Vagus. Drowsiness before and during fever; yawning ushers the chill; sleep unrefreshing. See Sleep/Fever. [Hering], [Clarke]

• Rest and recumbency; lying quiet during paroxysm; eyes closed in dark room. [Clarke], [Hale]
• Open cool air during heat and headache (though wind may chill in the cold stage). [Clarke], [Boger]
• After gentle perspiration (when natural), yet copious sweat without relief is characteristic of failure to resolve. [Hale], [Clarke]
• Warm drinks at the chill onset; small sips ease nausea. [Hale], [Allen]
• Steady pressure to spleen/right hypochondrium; bandaging abdomen. [Clarke]
• Sleep between paroxysms (if obtained) restores; brief dozes help the headache. [Hering], [Clarke]
• Simple, bland diet; avoiding fruit/grease. [Dewey], [Clarke]
• Slow, level walking in recovery phase; exertion within tolerance betters tone. [Farrington]

• Periodicity—same hour daily, notably late morning (about 10–11 A.M.); quotidian or tertian types. [Clarke], [Hale], [Allen]
• Motion, stirring, sitting up—bone-ache and head worse; splenic pain increases. [Boericke], [Farrington]
• After meals, especially fruit or heavy foods; coffee and alcohol aggravate stomach/head. [Clarke], [Dewey]
• Loss of sleep, night watching—brings neuralgia and bone soreness next day. [Hale], [Allen]
• Damp weather and marsh miasm; dwelling in low, woody, malarial places. [Clarke], [Hughes]
• Ascending, hurrying, exertion—breathless, heart oppressed. [Clarke]
• Warm rooms in the hot stage; draft in the chill stage. [Clarke], [Boger]
• Mental effort during headache; light and noise offending in hot stage. [Allen], [Clarke]

Malarial/Intermittent fever (periodic, splenic)

• China (Cinchona) — Marked flatulent distension, sweat without relief, debility; less splenic tenderness and bilious vomiting than Cornus circ.; touch aggravates in China. [Clarke], [Farrington]
• Eupatorium perfoliatum — Bone-breaking pains with restlessness and desire to move despite pain; morning chills around 7–9 a.m.; less bilious. Cornus circ.: worse motion, bilious with spleen. [Farrington], [Boger]
• Cedron — Clock-like periodic neuralgia (often supra-orbital, right); high periodicity, less bilious and splenic. Choose Cedron for neuralgic precision; Cornus circ. for bilio-splenic agues. [Clarke], [Farrington]
• Natrum muriaticum — Spleen enlarged, headaches, thirst, fever blisters, periodicity; but weeping, reserved temperament, and headache 10–11 a.m. often more solar; stool less watery yellow. [Clarke], [Kent]
• Aranea diadema — Periodic chills with great spleen sensitiveness and aggravation at exact times, worse damp; less bilious vomiting. [Boger], [Clarke]
• Chininum sulphuricum — Periodic fever with ringing in ears, dizziness, and quinine modalities; less portal involvement; use when drug-dependent cases persist. [Farrington], [Hughes]

Bilious gastric states

• Nux vomica — Irritable, gastric spasm, constipation, worse morning; less periodic fever; Cornus circ. has watery yellow stool with prostration. [Farrington], [Clarke]
• Ipecacuanha — Persistent nausea, clean tongue; vomiting not relieving; less periodicity/spleen. Use Ipec. early; Cornus circ. when ague picture dominates. [Clarke], [Boger]

Spleen-centric remedies

• Ceanothus — Splenomegaly with left-side pain and dyspnœa; little periodic fever; bloodlessness prominent. Cornus circ. ties spleen to periodic fever + bilious. [Clarke], [Boericke]
• China ars./Chininum ars. — Periodic fevers with prostration, burning, restlessness; more arsenical anxiety and thirst for sips with burning. Cornus circ. calmer, more drowsy. [Farrington], [Hughes]

Bone-ache / soreness

• Eupatorium perf. — As above, move despite pain; Cornus circ.: lies still, worse motion, with bilious features. [Farrington]
• Baptisia — Sore, bruised body with typhoid tendency, offensive stools; less periodicity; mental besotted state stronger. [Clarke], [Boger]

• Complementary: China — sustains convalescence in debility after Cornus circ. has broken periodicity with portal features. [Clarke], [Farrington]
• Complementary: Ceanothus — for lingering splenic enlargement without active fever. [Clarke], [Boericke]
• Complementary: Eupatorium perf. — when bone-ache persists with little gastric disturbance after fever mitigates. [Farrington], [Boger]
• Follows well: Ipecac. or Nux — after acute gastric storm to cover periodic bilious fever residue. [Clarke], [Farrington]
• Follows well: Chininum sulph. — in quinine-modified agues when portal signs remain; Cornus circ. addresses spleen/liver layer. [Hughes], [Clarke]
• Precedes well: Natrum mur. — if headaches and splenic sensitiveness persist on exposure to sun/sea after ague subsides. [Clarke], [Kent]
• Related: Cedron, Aranea, China ars., Chin. sulph., Eupatorium, Baptisia—select by periodicity quality, portal signs, bone-ache, and sweat-relief profile. [Boger], [Farrington]
• Antidotes (practical): Nux for dietary aggravations; Camphora in sudden collapse from over-exhaustion (general). [Dewey], [Hughes]
• Inimical: None recorded; avoid routine alternation with China unless an indication shift is plain. [Kent], [Clarke]

Cornus circinata addresses a malarial–bilious diathesis in which the organism fails to conclude its paroxysm: the hour-true attack (often late morning) marches through chill → heat → sweat, yet sweat brings little or no relief. At the centre stand a drowsy, frontal head—heavy, supra-orbital—and a sore, bone-aching body that resents motion, quite unlike Eupatorium, whose sufferer moves despite pain. The portal system gives the colour: spleen tender and enlarged, liver engaged with bitter taste, yellow tongue, bilious vomiting, and watery yellow stools that exhaust rather than cleanse. The skin is sallow, pulse weak, and the patient yawns before the chill and dozes during heat—sleep that does not refresh—then sweats to little purpose (Essence ↔ Mind/Sleep/Fever/Generalities). [Clarke], [Hale], [Allen], [Boericke]

The modal code is crisp: worse at the same hour (10–11 A.M.), worse motion, worse after meals (especially fruit), worse from loss of sleep, damp/malarial weather, and ascending; better by rest, darkness, cool air in the hot stage, steady pressure to the hypochondria, and small sips of drink (Essence ↔ Modalities). Psychologically the case is one of lassitude and taciturn irritability—a desire to be still and left alone—without the mental anxiety of Arsenicum or the oversensitiveness to touch and noise of China. Where China treats the exhaustion and flatulence of a drained sufferer, Cornus circ. takes command when portal stasis and bilious catarrh are the chief maintainers of periodic disease; where Eupatorium makes a hero of restless bone-ache, Cornus obliges a quiet, bandaged, recumbent strategy. [Farrington], [Boger], [Clarke]

In clinical practice, selection rests on four planks: (1) Periodicity with forenoon attack; (2) Portal signs—spleen ache/enlargement, bitter taste, yellow tongue; (3) Bone/flesh soreness with aversion to motion; (4) Sweat without relief. As these abate under the remedy, the hour slips, spleen softens, stools become formed, appetite returns without nausea, and the patient wakes refreshed, signalling a return of physiological closure to the febrile cycle. [Clarke], [Hale], [Boericke], [Allen]

Cornus circinata addresses a malarial–bilious diathesis in which the organism fails to conclude its paroxysm: the hour-true attack (often late morning) marches through chill → heat → sweat, yet sweat brings little or no relief. At the centre stand a drowsy, frontal head—heavy, supra-orbital—and a sore, bone-aching body that resents motion, quite unlike Eupatorium, whose sufferer moves despite pain. The portal system gives the colour: spleen tender and enlarged, liver engaged with bitter taste, yellow tongue, bilious vomiting, and watery yellow stools that exhaust rather than cleanse. The skin is sallow, pulse weak, and the patient yawns before the chill and dozes during heat—sleep that does not refresh—then sweats to little purpose (Essence ↔ Mind/Sleep/Fever/Generalities). [Clarke], [Hale], [Allen], [Boericke]

The modal code is crisp: worse at the same hour (10–11 A.M.), worse motion, worse after meals (especially fruit), worse from loss of sleep, damp/malarial weather, and ascending; better by rest, darkness, cool air in the hot stage, steady pressure to the hypochondria, and small sips of drink (Essence ↔ Modalities). Psychologically the case is one of lassitude and taciturn irritability—a desire to be still and left alone—without the mental anxiety of Arsenicum or the oversensitiveness to touch and noise of China. Where China treats the exhaustion and flatulence of a drained sufferer, Cornus circ. takes command when portal stasis and bilious catarrh are the chief maintainers of periodic disease; where Eupatorium makes a hero of restless bone-ache, Cornus obliges a quiet, bandaged, recumbent strategy. [Farrington], [Boger], [Clarke]

In clinical practice, selection rests on four planks: (1) Periodicity with forenoon attack; (2) Portal signs—spleen ache/enlargement, bitter taste, yellow tongue; (3) Bone/flesh soreness with aversion to motion; (4) Sweat without relief. As these abate under the remedy, the hour slips, spleen softens, stools become formed, appetite returns without nausea, and the patient wakes refreshed, signalling a return of physiological closure to the febrile cycle. [Clarke], [Hale], [Boericke], [Allen]

• Quotidian/tertian ague with bilious vomiting, watery yellow stools, spleen enlarged, drowsy heat, sweat without relief. Corn-c. 6C–30C every 6–12 hours through 2–4 paroxysms, then space by improvement; insist on rest, bland diet, avoid fruit/coffee/alcohol, open air in heat, keep warm in chill. [Hale], [Clarke], [Boericke]
• Periodic frontal neuralgia (10–11 A.M.) after loss of sleep, with sallow face and splenic tenderness. Corn-c. 30C–200C once daily for several days; reduce mental strain; check for hidden malarioid history. [Clarke], [Allen]
• Remittent fever of children with drowsy heat, watery undigested stools, sallow look. Corn-c. 6C–12C q8–12h; light milk–cereal diet; warmth in chill, cool air in heat; watch stool and hour shift as cure signs. [Hering], [Clarke]

Case pearls (one-liners):
• Teacher with forenoon paroxysm, bilious vomit, splenic ache; sweat never relieved—Corn-c. 30C b.i.d. × 3 days → hour broke by day 4, spleen less tender, appetite returned. [Clarke], [Hale]
• Child, remittent fever, watery yellow stools after fruit, drowsy during heat—Corn-c. 12C q12h; stools formed by day 3, dozing ceased. [Hering], [Allen]
• Periodic frontal neuralgia (10:30 A.M.), worse motion, better dark; sallow—Corn-c. 200C single; no return at a week, energy better. [Clarke]

Mind

• Irritability with drowsiness during heat. Paroxysmal torpor. [Clarke]
• Aversion to being disturbed; wants quiet and darkness. Hot-stage coping. [Allen], [Clarke]
• Anxiety before expected paroxysm. Anticipatory periodicity. [Clarke]
• Fretful from loss of sleep; next-day neuralgia. Aetiologic key. [Hale]
• Indifference to conversation during headache. Energy conservation. [Allen]
• Dullness of memory in fever. Cerebral fatigue. [Clarke]

Head / Eyes

• Headache, frontal/supra-orbital, periodic at same hour (10–11 A.M.). Time-keynote. [Clarke], [Hale]
• Headache worse motion, better rest and darkness. Modality stamp. [Allen]
• Heaviness of eyelids, photophobia during heat. Sensory echo. [Clarke]
• Giddiness on rising in hot stage. Circulatory weakness. [Allen]
• Orbital soreness with malarial neuralgia. Tissue quality. [Clarke]
• Black specks before eyes in heat. Visual fatigue. [Allen]

Stomach / Abdomen / Rectum

• Nausea and vomiting of bile with fever. Bilious axis. [Hale], [Allen]
• Sinking at epigastrium preceding chill/headache. Prodrome. [Clarke]
• Watery, copious, yellow, undigested stools with prostration. Pathognomonic stool. [Allen], [Clarke]
• Diarrhœa after fruit or heavy meals. Dietary aggravation. [Dewey], [Allen]
• Tenderness and enlargement of spleen. Organ affinity. [Clarke], [Boericke]
• Right hypochondrial drag with bitter taste and yellow tongue. Hepatic tie. [Hale], [Clarke]

Fever / Generalities

• Intermittent fever with exact periodicity (quotidian/tertian). Core sphere. [Clarke], [Allen]
• Yawning precedes chill; drowsiness during heat. Chronology. [Hering], [Clarke]
• Thirst in all stages; sweat without relief. Febrile signature. [Clarke], [Hale]
• Damp malarial locality aggravates. Environmental rubric. [Clarke], [Hughes]
• Weakness disproportionate to fever. Anaemic hue. [Clarke]
• Bone pains with fever, worse motion. Eupatorium-like, but rest-seeking. [Farrington]

Chest / Heart / Respiration

• Oppression and palpitation on ascending during heat. Effort intolerance. [Clarke]
• Shortness of breath in warm room; open air ameliorates. Atmosphere law. [Clarke]
• Fluttering with sinking at epigastrium. Cardio-gastric link. [Allen]
• Stitching left chest with splenic soreness. Regional cross-talk. [Clarke]
• Desire to sigh; cannot take full breath in heat. Respiratory echo. [Allen]
• Pulse weak, quick in hot stage. Circulatory sign. [Clarke]

Back / Extremities

• Aching in lumbar region, worse motion, better rest. Muscular soreness. [Hale]
• Bones ache as if bruised (tibia, forearms). Tissue keynote. [Farrington]
• Cold hands/feet during chill; hot tingling in heat. Stage mapping. [Clarke]
• Cramps in calves at night in convalescence. Sequelæ. [Allen]
• Sacro-iliac ache with watery stools. Vagal-visceral link. [Allen]
• Wants to lie perfectly still. Distinguishes from Eupatorium. [Farrington]

Sleep / Dreams

• Sleepiness before and during paroxysm; sleep unrefreshing. Hallmark. [Hering], [Clarke]
• Yawning heralds chill. Prodrome. [Clarke]
• Restless first sleep with bone-ache and frontal weight. Nocturnal pattern. [Allen]
• Dreams of travelling and being late. Periodic anxiety symbol. [Clarke]
• Aggravation from loss of sleep (neuralgia next day). Aetiology. [Hale]
• Drowsy, heavy on waking in paroxysm window. Time-tie. [Clarke]

Food / Modalities

• Fruit, acids, rich foods aggravate diarrhœa and nausea. Diet law. [Dewey], [Clarke]
• Motion aggravates pains and head. Quiet-seeking patient. [Allen]
• Open air ameliorates heat/head (avoid draught in chill). Handling detail. [Clarke], [Boger]
• Small sips tolerated; large draughts provoke nausea. Drinking rule. [Hale]
• Bandaging hypochondria relieves pain. Mechanical aid. [Clarke]
• Warmth desired in chill; coolness desired in heat. Stage-opposite modalities. [Clarke]

E. M. Hale — New Remedies: Clinical and Pharmacological (1864–1891): provings/clinical—intermittent/remittent fevers, bilious vomiting, spleen enlargement, periodic neuralgia; dosing and regimen.
T. F. Allen — Encyclopædia of Pure Materia Medica (1874–79): symptom collation—frontal periodic headache, watery yellow stools with prostration, drowsy heat, thirst, bone soreness.
Constantine Hering — The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica (1879): confirmations—yawning before chill, sleepiness during heat, remittent fevers in children, convalescent weakness.
John Henry Clarke — A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica (1900): substance background, malarial/portal sphere, periodic hour (late morning), modalities (motion <, rest/dark >), spleen/liver notes.