Comparison of Lycopodium, Silica

and Phosphorus
M. G. B L A C K I E , ~.D., F.F.ItOM.

These three drugs are a good comparison. They have symptoms which ar(;
similar, though in other respects they are poles apart.
Now, to start off with Lycopodium--giving the mentals first. They are ahvays
spare, sallow, wrinkled people, from the time they are small babies. A
Lycopodium baby who is very ill has nothing but lines on his face, a frown on
its forehead, a very poor colour and probably some abdominal pains at some
time of the day. That is the typical Lycopodium baby who does extremely
well on it. Then as they get older, you will find them growing above average
height and nearly always with a slight tendency to stoop--a long narro~
patient who stands up and then looks as though he has gone in the middle,
with that kind of stoop. They always have this worried expression, and are
very difficult to get symptoms out of, simply because they are a bit nervous
of their interview and they do not want to give anything away. Lycopodiurn
never wants to give away anything, not even to his very best friend. They
will only give half their confidence, but always keep something up their sleeve.
The result is that they are called haughty and stand-offish but actually both
these expressions hide the fact that the Lycopodium patient is very distrustful,
insecure and uncertain of himself. I do not think you will ever find a true
Lycopodium patient who is very expansive. I mean, you can drag symptoms
out of them and you find that they are great sweet lovers and will eat all
the sweets in the house if they are left with them, and there are various other
things about them, but they are not very expansive. They also seem to be
unfriendly. More than once I have heard a mother say, "You know, she never
asks for anything, she never wants to have a party, or go out or play games.
She likes to come in and read a book." When the mother protests the child
says, "I see them at school all day", and she does not want to see them again!
Then there is the small b o y - - a n d this is a very typical Lycopodium symptom---
who dreads going to school, who cannot eat his breakfast and who gets to the
school gates clinging to the hand of his mother and then is persuaded. However,
they are rather reasonable children, they listen to your persuasion that it
is really going to be all right and that they are going to enjoy it, then they
finally go in and in five minutes have forgotten that they ever minded going
to school. That is the type of child.
They nearly all have digestive difficulties. Dr. Borland used to call them
lean and livery patients and it is a good name for them as they all have digestive
symptoms. Lycopodium can get indigestion if kept waiting for tea. I have two
men in my practice at the moment, both business men, both have four othel

From a lecturo given at Th~ ir London Hom(eopathic Hospital on 6 Novomber 1973

506 I~HE BRITISH HOM(EOPAT]IIC JOURNAL

directors to their business, but they always see that they have their lunch at
the proper time. I f the meeting would suit the others at 12, the meeting for
them is at 11.30 so that they can have their lunch at 1, otherwise they feel
faintish and have to sit down, and that is humiliating. They cannot stand
waiting for their hinch. They have a good deal of irritability, especially
if they are not well. They are awfully nice people, but if they are not well,
they are peevish, fretful, irritable and want to sit about and do nothing and
not be disturbed or interrupted. The only thing is, if you leave them in the
house alone for a time, you will find them wandering around wondering when
they can get in touch with someone, because they cannot bear being left alone
in the house. I had a small boy in m y outpatients whose mother brought
him up because he was such a trial. He first of all went to bed and recited
all the poetry he had learned at school and all the kings, dates and other things
he would think of in a loud voice, but he would never even go to bed unless
his sister of fifteen would go to bed at the same time. Not that he wanted
to speak to her, but he liked to know there was somebody on the same landing.
[ gave him Lycopodium and it fitted him very well. He was a lean boy, thin
and very stooping. About three years later this boy came into outpatients
again, and I said to him, " H a v e n ' t I seen you before?" He said, "Yes, you
have seen me once before." And I said, "Yes, and I remember what I gave
you, too." And he said, "My mother says will you please give me exactly the
same medicine as you gave me last time." Which I did. I saw no reason to
change. He was in for higher exams and here he was shouting the dates all
over the house. I t did him a world of good. I ' v e so often found that and of
course they are very apprehensive if they have got anything particular to do.
The LycoTodium patient has not got great stamina. They get tired easily;
they come home from school absolutely whacked at 4 o'clock. The business
man comes home from work absolutely whacked and then it is that they want
to sit down and not be disturbed and not have anyone talk to them or interrupt
them. They just want to be left alone. They get easily tired , both mentally
and physically. I t is one of the greatest mental fatigue remedies. One of the
greatest sleepless remedies is .Lycopodium.
I have a p a t i e n t - - I have known him since he was ten, but he is about
thirty-five now--who came to see me saying, "You must help me. I go to
the country at weekends and my brother who rides horses and has a very
active country life, wants me to play squash with him. I have always hated
games, but I felt it would be good for me, so I go out and play squash. I feel
[ want to die after it. I feel so awful. I do not think I can do it." He was an
exact and perfect appearance of Lycopodium, looking worried, very tall,
gone in the middle, indigestion, peevish at times; all the other things you would
expect and he said he was much better after his evening meal. I t was between
5 p.m. and 7 p.m. that he felt so ghastly if he was made to play. He was better
for his evening meal and said to me, " I feel ravenous for m y evening meal,
but I only take a smM1 meal, if I take more I get indigestion and find myself
pushing m y plate away in the middle of a big meal." The 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
aggravation is constant, it is a very useful point. Occasionally, remember,
you get a 4-8 aggravation in the morning, which also is a useful point and
comes into your Lycopodium. They feel very slow off the mark in the morning
and depressed, as if the day's work will be far, far too much for them, especially
business men. After breakfast things are not so bad, though as I have said
before, they go out and come in dead tired again.
 C O M P A R I S O I ~ OF L Y C O P O D I U I ~ I ~ S I L I C A A ~ D PHOSPHORUS 207

l had a very interesting m a n once who came into a bed in hospital having
been transferred from Leeds, where he had had an accident, broken his nose
and insisted on coming to the Homceopathie Hospital. H e did perfectly well;
and one d a y he said to me, "You know, I have got lots of s y m p t o m s I have
not told you." I said, "You had better tell me them." So we got down to an
endless list of s y m p t o m s and I wrote him up for 10M Lycopodium. When
[ n e x t went round the ward he said, "Do you know, I never thought I would
be a Lycopodium." He had borrowed a book and read it up, that all Lycopodium
patients are inclined to be close. "So", he said, " I think perhaps I a m a miser
because in a drawer in m y desk I always keep two or three bars of chocolate
and when they are getting low I make sure before I have finished the last
that I have four or five put in their place!" They are generally careful with
money. They think they are not going to be able to carry on, or t h a t it is
not worth while to carry on. They think they cannot go on with the frightful
effort any longer. I could give you half a dozen illustrations of that. Some of
them give up their jobs. Others, with the help of Lycopodium, manage to pull
themselves together and keep it on, and they feel differently about it, and
it is most useful for that. And then they begin to save. They cut down expenses
in the house. They begin to save hard, and their wives grumble because it
would not have been necessary if t h e y had kept on their proper job. One of
m y greatest Lycopodium cases, who is now twenty-seven or twenty-eight and
[ have known him since he was five years old, was typical. His mother said
to him, "Ian, what do you want to save money for? W h y c a n ' t you spend
it like Val does?" And he said, " J u s t suppose if anything happened to Daddy
and we did not have anything to live on." He has never been anything but
Lycoloodium all his life. Once a year Lycopodium put him on his feet, whatever
was wrong. He has been enormously helped by it.
Now Silica is quite different. No drug looks exactly as it is written up in
the books, there is no doubt about that. You have to recognize the symptoms
and t r y and see the whole picture. Silica is much more typically undersized,
and they have very small hands and feet. As a rule they have a clean skin
and quite a good eolour, or their faces can be dead white and they can have
sore patches around their eyes or somewhere in t h a t region. Or again they
have very cracked corners to the mouth, which will quickly give you Silica;
one of those things you notice before the patient has started to speak. Sometimes
there is a crack in the nose and they have a lot of nasal catarrh. T h e y have
small bones and very fine hair, but they never give the haughty Lyco1~odium
impression. They are not like that. I n fact they are pleasant, yielding, gentle
people on the whole. They give the impression t h a t t h e y would give up easily,
but it is an entirely false impression. As you know, in the textbooks it gives
the impression that Silica patients have no guts. I t just is not true. Dr. Borland,
Dr. Wheeler and Dr. J o h n H e n r y Clark say t h a t t h e y are people with enormous
courage and an enormous capacity for work, but with a weakness in their
physique t h a t makes t h e m a t times seem to give up a thing. T h e y are gentle
and polite, as a r u l e - - u p to a point---but push t h e m beyond t h a t point and
t h e y are obstinate, peevish and irritable and just as difficult as t h e y can
possibly be. They can become most persistent. I f they think a thing strongly,
then it is very difficult to get it out of their heads. I t is sometimes difficult
to see why it arose t h a t Silica are weaklings, would give up any job and have
no stamina. The reason is, if they are offered a job, they really do get in a
panic. They do not know if they will be able to do it. They are terrified of
208 THE BRITISH HOI~I(EOPATHIC JOUR~'AL

trying and failing. As a matter of fact, if they can be persuaded to take it oil
they do it extraordinarily well, and put everything they know into it. I have
seen this so m a n y times that I count it as one of the Silica symptoms. They
would rather that someone else did the job and think that someone else could
do it better. I t takes some persuading that there is nobody else who could
do it so well. So in the end they take on the job and they do it extremely well.
But then they do it so well that they tire themselves out. But that is a different
matter.
Now, the Silica child is one of the most amusing children you can have if
you treat them properly. They are absolutely sweet, gay, lively and friendly.
But let them be mismanaged and they are quite frightful. You would not
believe that such a nice child could be so frightful if mismanaged. I always
remember a sweet little girl. She played with the children next door, and
one of the children had thrown a brick at her and cut her across the forehead.
So she was brought down to see me, and was in a furious temper about all
this. She was dragged with loud shrieks into m y consulting room. I had known
her for about two years. I said to the mother, "Would you like to wait in the
waiting room+..... Oh, yes", she said. I f children like this are being troublesome,
I see them alone. I t was a frightfully good plan. I n five ndnutes she was quite
all right, telling me all about the brick that had hit her on the head, and about
the boys and girl next door who were horrible when they played that sort ot
game. I gave her some Silica, and she was quite all right. On the other hand,
they can be the most miserable of children, delicate, cold, miserable little
children. Their feet are always cold, they cannot get warm. They cannot.
get to sleep and they sweat profusely around the head. Their pillows are soaking
and their feet too, usually with a very offensive sweat. As you know, a dose
of Silica pulls them up as quickly as anything you could possibly want. This
sweating is characteristic. Two years ago, in one week, I had two very interesting
Silica cases. The first was a girl working in an exceedingly good job in an office
as a secretary and she sweated so profusely that it went through the blotting
paper. She had to wear a mackintosh apron, otherwise it went through the
back of her skirt. She put up a hand and the drops dripped off the end of it.
I tried her with three remedies based on her family history. These did her
no good. I gave her Thuja, because of her tendency to sweat on uncovered
parts, which did her no good. Then I gave her some Silica and in one week it
had all dried up. I heard from her last week. She now lives in Hong Kong and
is married. She wrote to say, " I have never had any return of the trouble, not
even in this climate."
Then I had a boy at one of the public schools, in his last year. He had the
most frightful ache, but he also had, and this was his main complaint, the
most terrible sweating feet. His schoolfellows would not go near him after
a certain hour in the day. He changed his socks twice, but even that was not
enough. He was one of the older boys of the school and felt this very much.
I gave him Silica. Not only did it cure his sweating very, very quickly, but
it also cured his ache. Silica is not a remedy I would use for ache as such, but
he fitted into it. He was skinny; he had cracks and lots of Silica symptoms+
I gave him Silica 10M and he was quite all right.
Now there are two ~lefinite types of Phosphorus. One is darkhaired, the
other is fairhaired with a glint in the hair. Darkhaired ones also sometimes
have a glint. They are usually well proportioned and their skin is always
fine, but it varies in colour very quickly. The Phosphorus patient coming in
 COMPARISOlq OF L Y O O P O D I U ~ I ~ SILICA -~D PI-IOSPItOI~S 2~

looks quite flushed, a little nervous, then in a few minutes that is gone. The
Phosphorus patient never perspires except for a reason. In other words, if
they have taken violent exercise or have walked very fast, then they perspire.
But otherwise t h e y do not perspire. I f they do, you can see it, as it is on the
top lip and just a little on the forehead. The other thing t h a t makes them
perspire is mental exertion or nervousness. T h a t is why a Phosphorus patient
first coming to a doctor shows you where their perspiration is, but they certainly
do not have d a m p skin. They are intelligent, bright, cheerful, and as a rule,
very nice people.
Phosphorus patients have a lot of mentals. They have all kinds of dreads
which I shall go into in a moment. First, they do have a tendency to fly into
a passion. I t does not last. I t is over in a minute or two and they are quite
ashamed at having had it. They are never, never left with the resentment
you get in Silica sometimes, or in ~Vatrum tour., and their resentment is very
quickly over. I t is an awfully useful hint. Sometimes the patient has told
you of these passions, and you think it is Natrum tour. But Natrum tour.
would be resenting it, thinking what had started it up, and all the rest of it,
for hours after. Phosphorus patients are very sensitive to all external
impressions. They are better for sleep, like Sepia. I t is the Phosptwrus patient
who can sit down in an armchair and sleep and after ten minutes wake absolutely
refreshed; a great boon. They are better for rubbing. Sometimes when they
are not well, they can never "collect themselves together" when in bed. This
s y m p t o m is usually Baptisia, but Phosphorus has it too, and it will stop it,
at once if you give them a dose of Phosphorus. I t is a most unpleasant feeling.
Then they cannot bear the dark. T h e y have a real fear of the dark, of being
alone, of thunder and of dying. T h e y fear that something awful is going to
happen and they are very sensitive to any kind of atmosphere. They are also
a bit afraid in twilight. The other thing about t h e m is that normally they
are such nice people, but when they are ill, they are sometimes entirely indifferent
to their family. I had a patient in the ward here for a mastectomy. She had a
very nice husband and two daughters to whom she was devoted. I had known
them for some time. They came to visit her and she said, "Oh, no, I don't
want to see them at all. You must get me out of seeing them." So I went out
and suggested t h a t she would be better without any visitors for the next
few days and could they come, say, the day after tomorrow, as she wanted
to be quiet. The family left and I gave her Phosphorus. I n two days she was
quite alright. I t pulled her up enormously. After. an operation which is a bit
of a shock they get this sudden feeling of indifference. These are the differences
between Phosphorus and Silica.
I f they are very overtired and have been working awfully hard, Phosphorus
patients sometimes get a different set of mental symptoms: a state of mental
apprehension. They get very worried about what kind of illness they could
possibly have. They feel awful and get into a state about family, business and
all kinds of things, quite unneccessarily. I remember one boy imagined he
had left a gas tap on somewhere, or a ventilator open. I rang up to enquire
for him. He did extremely well on some Phosphorus.
The other thing I must tell you about Silica is t h a t if they are under mental
strain and physical exertion, they become quite sleepless; they go to bed and
fall into a t e m p o r a r y sleep for two hours. They then go over all the things they
have got to do and t r y and work it all out. Finally, just towards morning,
they fall asleep for one hour. After this they get up feeling absolutely fine.
210 THE BRITISH HOM(EOPATHIC JOURzNAL

That is not at all uncommon to find in a Silica. Now further about Silica--
they weep fairly easily if they are very run down but they are never any better
for it. I f anything they are rather worse for it. Whereas Lycopodium, if they
are depressed, are better for s y m p a t h y which bucks them up no end. They
are both sensitive to cold. Lycopodium can have air hunger in a stuffy room,
and occasionally a Lycopodium develops a very bad right-sided headache.
In Silica you get a recurring stress headache starting in the back of the head.
The Silica headache is one of the migraine headaches that we do most good
for. I t is always a recurring headache, nearly always with sickness. I t starts
at the back of the neck, can go down the spine but usually comes up over
the head to the right temple. I t then settles over the right eye with persistent
pain on the outer side of the eye and is much better for warmth. A Silica
patient you will sometimes find sitting with their head in a fender, if people
have coal fires still, or applying hot bottles to the back of the neck. They
cannot bear a cold draught. They do not want to move and they are worse
for pressure even from a tight hat. Nearly always this headache goes on to
vomiting and nearly always arises from prolonged mental effort, and not
just sudden overwork. They are also much worse for exertion, like shopping.
I had a series of men in m y outpatients at one time who had Silica headaches.
Two were schoolmasters and one a clergyman with frightfully bad headaches.
One of them, a schoolmaster, dreaded his headache coming on the day before
the end of term. He had to interview all the masters and find out if they had
any complaints and to find out the marks of the boys. Would he be all right
for this? I gave him Silica and never heard a word from him for eighteen
months. When he came again he asked for more powders as he had not had
a headache since. That is the sort of satisfactory thing homceopaths get.
There is another kind of Silica headache from definite mental concentration,
a frontal headache. I t has the same modalities as the others, i.e. it is better
for warmth and worse for cold, worse for exertion and pressure and sometimes
is brought on by exposure to cold. I t is not as a rule more one side than the
other. But it m a y go from one side to the other. I always remember going
to m y house and finding Dr. Banks doing something with a hat. I couldn't
think what she was doing and she said, " I am just sewing a lining into my
hat, I cannot bear the cold out of doors." She wore that hat all the winter
without headaches. Sometimes travelling over the wheels of a train, with
your seat over the wheel causing jarring, can give you a Silica headache.
Another important symptom with Silica is that the ends of their fingers a r e
apt to get sore cracks round the nails. They are quite unpleasant to touch,
both from their point of view and yours. They go quite septic and become
especially bad if they are working in water, with fissures in the thumb. They
have rather small hands with these cracks everywhere. That is the Silica
appearance.
Now Silica and Phosphorus both have a tendency for their fingers to become
cold and dead. I f it is Phosphorus and they put their hands in water, within
a few minutes they will feel sick, whereas if Silica comes in and puts hands
in hot water, they are warm in a minute and quite comfortable. That is the
p e a t difference between them and a very useful point, because it is something
that the patient volunteers.
Now, the Phosphorus patient, as you know, is thirsty for cold drinks and
loves ice-cream. On the whole they rather dislike sweets, but they like salt
very much and Phosphorus is one of the thirstiest of drugs. They drink more
 ( ' , O M F A I C I S O N OF L Y C O I ' O D I U M , SILICA AND P]:IOSI'HORUS ~ 11

than average and sometimes when they are ill take long draughts of very cold
water. Then when it is warm in the stomach they bring it up. I t is a common
symptom. Another thing about Phosphorus--and this is particularly found
in a Phosphorus child is that they do not take their eyes off you. I always
remember a girl of about seventeen with very bad pneumonia in a bed in
King Edward Ward. I was going round with Dr. Borland and she was thrilled
that she was going to be seen and reassured and was not going to die. Perhaps
the doctor would tell her that she was not going to die. This was one of the
chief reasons for being pleased, and all the way round the ward, she never
took her eyes off us. I was very interested and when I got near, m y hand
was taken surreptitiously, just for extra reassurance. She was scared stiff.
She got quite well. A wonderful help giving her Phosphorus.
Silica rather dislikes hot food. This is a useful tip sometimes. Equally
Lycopodium dislikes cold food and says that Sunday night supper is enough
to Mll anyone.
Phosphorus is one of the great pneumonia remedies. The patient does not
wish to lie on the affected side but prefers the position of sitting up against
the pillows with the head a little back. That is how this girl was sitting with
a jug of water beside her. They tend to get a severe pneumonia with tight
chest and are very much worse if the ward gets chilled or the windows are
opened.
Silica on the other hand gets a rattly chest. There is no doubt about it.
After much experience I would say that Silica is one of the best remedies
there is for an unresolved pneumonia or for a chest that does not clear up.
There is prolonged coughing and catarrh. I remember a new house physician
coming here and after she had been round the wards she said to me, "Well,
there are six old men in this ward who are going to die very shortly!" I then
went to see these six old men. I gave four of them a good 10M of Silica,
repeated. I n a month they all walked out. I reminded her of this at a later
date and she told me she finds it now the most wonderful remedy for a chest
that does not clear up. I have used it m a n y times for that condition.
Silica is worse in cold thundery weather, but otherwise not much affected
by weather. Now both Phosphorus and Silica have one queer symptom in
common. They dislike talking to people. I do not mean that Phosphorus is
not very chatty and friendly, and they like to talk to people, but if you say
to them, "Now go and talk to that group," this terrifies the Phosphorus patient.
The Silica patient just does not do it. The Phosphorus patient, on his side,
is terrified if the room is crowded, as they cannot think of anything to talk
about. The Silica patient does not want to stand with a lot of people and
has not the slightest desire to talk to them. Phosphorus m a y want to do it, but
cannot. Silica does not intend to do it. That is the difference between them.
They are exhausted and generally it is because they dislike people rather than
disliking talking. I would not have said that Silica was a frightfully friendly
remedy; unless you give them Silica, then they can become the most friendly
patient. But they usually rather avoid talking to you. I have lots of Silica
friends.
Lycopodium can never stand tight clothing. You will find that Lycopodium
have the belt loosened around them. They do not like tepid or cold food, but
prefer really hot food. They also prefer hot drinks to cold on the whole. They
are very sensitive to noise and smells, and have dry, hot hands and dry, hot
soles of their feet. A Lycopodium, in m y experience, never says thank you.
212 THE BRITISH IfoM(EOPATHIC JOURNAL

I do not particularly want them to: but they never do[ But when they walk to
the door, their thanks is all in their handshake: Your hand is gripped and
shaken with all their force. I have two Lycopodium men, and I take them half
way to the front door, then hand them on to someone else to be shown out!
But remember the Lycopodium is a very faithful patient. They remember
if you did them good in childhood or a long time ago, and back they come

Homoeopathic practice in a
south coast town
MARIANNE HARLING, B.M., B.CH., M.F.HOM.

Eighteen years ago, as soon as I became a Member of the Faculty of

Homceopathy, I put a brass plate on m y gate and waited for the patients to
come.
The first was a retired Indian Army colonel. He had had a gastrojejunostomy
many years previously, had chronic indigestion, and was exceedingly punctual.
After Lycopodium he reported that his indigestion was no better, but that
he could now drink gin without ill-effect.
My second patient was a healthy-looking spinster whose only complaint
was a fungus infection of the finger-nails which she had had for 18 years.
I told her that it might take 18 months to cure, and during that time we went
into every possible and impossible detail of her life. One day, just as she was
going out of the door she told me that her father had been a patient of Sir
Johil Weir's. "He treated him for syphilis, you know." (I would never have
known. She was a most respectable lady, with false teeth.) So I gave her
Lueticum 30 with no result. When the 18 months were up I suggested we should
call it a day, but she begged me to continue treatment, and I gave her Fluoric
acid 6. Three months later she came back with a perfect set of nails.
I have not seen many patients who admitted to a history of syphilis in
themselves or their families, but I have found Lueticum to be a very useful
remedy in dry, thin, gnarled and undernourished old people. One elderly man
of blameless reputation had had an operation for carcinoma of the colon
some years previously, and was losing weight gradually without any other
symptoms, tie gained a stone after Lueticum 30, and lived altogether 23 years
from the date of his operation. When he died, aged 86. it was from cancer of
the jaw, at the place where his pipe-stem rested.

A lecture given at the Royal London Homceopathic Hospital in October 1977