Sphingurus Martini — Homeopathic Remedy Profile

Sphingurus martini, the tree porcupine of the New World, is a small, thinly proved remedy whose clinical use rests on one 3x trituration of the animal's prickles by Mure and a compact entry in Clarke. Its keynote is falling hair, especially of the whiskers. Alongside this the record carries pain in the right zygoma and jaw-joint, embarrassed speech, and nausea at the sight of food. The picture is narrow, and prescribing on it means prescribing on the visible signs, not on a temperament reconstructed from four lines.

At a Glance

Source and Preparation

The source is the prickle of Sphingurus martini (also written Spiggurus martini, and formerly Hystrix prehensis), the American porcupine, whose family Mure separated from the Old World Hystricinae under the name Sphingurinae. The preparation is a trituration of prickles taken from one of the animal's sides. Mure proved the 3x trituration. Clarke records trituration and all potencies as the historical dose. Under the older planetary rubric the remedy is placed with the Moon.

The prescribing register matters. Since Mure's proving stood at 3x and Clarke names trituration through all potencies, this is a dynamic preparation throughout. What acts is the potentized prickle, prescribed on the totality of the case.

The Essence of Sphingurus

Sphingurus is a remedy of thinning at the surface. Hair falls, and the whisker line is where it shows first. Speech is embarrassed. Words hesitate, catch, will not come out cleanly. The right side of the face carries a pain of its own, at the zygomatic arch and the jaw-joint, together or separately. Food repels at sight, before it reaches the mouth. Tea disagrees. The picture, as far as the source will speak, is one of quiet surface disturbances gathered around the head, jaw, and mouth.

Clarke's entry is short. Where Sphingurus is chosen, the choice rests on matching visible symptoms; the materia medica does not support drawing a personality from them.

Clinical Portrait

Hair

Falling hair is the leading indication and the reason the remedy has survived in the small-remedy repertoire. Clarke names the whiskers particularly. The beard thins and drops before the scalp does, or alongside it. This is where Sphingurus stands with the small remedies of hair loss, and where an alopecia areata differential first sends the prescriber to it.

Face and Jaw

Pain in the jaw-joint. Pain in the right zygoma. Both come from Clarke without further elaboration. A case that presents jaw-joint and right zygomatic pain alongside hair falling from the whiskers is the case the source describes.

Speech

Embarrassed speech. Mure's provers reported that words did not come out cleanly, and Clarke enters the symptom simply as stammering. It sits with the jaw pains rather than apart from them; the region of the mouth is disturbed as a whole.

Digestion

Nausea at the sight of food. The aversion is visual and anticipatory, arriving before eating begins. Clarke also records itching of the pubes after taking tea. The case is worse after tea and better after dinner, one of the few instances in the materia medica where dinner itself relieves.

Modalities

Worse:

• Lying down
• After tea

Better:

• Walking in the open air
• After dinner

Relationships

Clarke draws no comparisons in his entry, and none should be invented. Prescribers who reach Sphingurus usually come to it from a differential for hair falling from the whiskers, a narrow gate, and confirm the remedy on the jaw pain, the speech, or the aversion to the sight of food. Beyond the alopecia areata context, the remedy has no established affinities in the record used here.

Clinical Uses

Hair Loss, Whiskers Especially

The one indication for which Sphingurus is remembered. When the beard thins in patches, when whisker fall precedes or dominates scalp fall, and when the jaw-joint or right zygoma also complains, the remedy is on the differential.

Jaw and Zygomatic Pain

Pain at the jaw-joint and the right zygoma, accompanying hair loss or embarrassed speech, is the second use Clarke records.

Stammering with Facial Symptoms

Embarrassed speech, taken together with the jaw and hair signs, is the third. Sphingurus is a small remedy for stammering, not a general one; the speech symptom belongs to this cluster.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Sphingurus martini? A homeopathic preparation made by trituration of the prickles of the American porcupine, Sphingurus martini. Mure proved the 3x trituration. Clarke records it in the materia medica with a short entry drawn from that proving.

What is Sphingurus used for? The recorded clinical indications are hair loss (especially of the whiskers), pain in the jaw-joint and right zygoma, embarrassed speech, and nausea at the sight of food. These are the symptoms Clarke lists, and the remedy is prescribed when they appear together.

What potency is used? Clarke gives trituration and all potencies. Mure's proving was of the 3x trituration. Selection follows the case in the usual way.

Which modalities help confirm the remedy? The case is worse lying down and after tea, better walking in the open air and after dinner. Where these agree with the hair, jaw or speech picture, they help confirm Sphingurus over another remedy on the differential.

References

• Clarke, J. H. A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica.
• Murphy, R. Nature's Materia Medica, entry for Sphingurus martini.