A Burn Remedy: Spanish Fly (Cantharis)

Cantharis is the first homeopathic remedy mentioned in the Castlewood Trilogy. In Love on the Vine, Lord Featherstone says to Fiona Fairmmont, the woman everyone thinks he should marry, "I burned myself rather badly during my travels. A scalding cup of chocolate found its way into my lap whilst I was in Leipzig. Several of Hahnemann's students happened to be in the same café, and one of them gave me potentized Spanish fly—Cantharis. The hideous pain diminished miraculously. I couldn't believe it at first, thought it was mere coincidence. But then the pain returned after a few hours, and I took a second dose the student had left with me. Well, the pain disappeared in the same way and this time stayed away. I haven't questioned homeopathy's validity since. I stayed on in Leipzig to learn as much as I could about it and met Hahnemann himself. A fascinating man. A genius, really."

[Samuel Hahnemann was a physician in his day but stopped practicing when he felt he was hurting people more than helping them with the blood-lettings, the blistering poultices, and the large doses of poisonous substances. He is the father of homeopathy.]

Constantine Hering, a renowned 19th century homeopath (and also a physician), is famous for saying that all skeptics of homeopathy should burn their fingers and then immerse them in a solutions of Cantharides. He felt certain that their skepticism would be cured along with their burns. He was a skeptic himself until he got a dissecting wound that was cured by homeopathic arsenic.

Lord Featherstone teaches Fiona much more about homeopathy, but does he ever marry her? Read Love on the Vine to find out....

I hope you have no need for burn remedies, but it's good to have Cantharis in your First Aid kit, just in case. For milder burns, Urtica urens, made from nettles, is also curative.