Author: Urenus

General Action.
Monkshood; Aconite; Wolfsbane. Grows in damp pastures and waste places of mountainous districts in Central and Southern Europe, Russia, Scandinavia and Central Asia. Ranunculaceae. Tincture of the entire plant with root when it begins to flower.

Clinical.
Abortion; amaurosis; tonsillitis; apoplexy; affections of the joints; asthma; yawning; bronchitis; hip-joint affections; flushes of face; catalepsy; catheter fever; headache; sudden blindness; cystitis; cholera; infantile cholera; consumption; convulsions; heart, affections of; croup; dengue fever; dentition; diarrhoea; dysentery; dysmenorrhoea; oedema; pregnancy; chilling; enteritis; numbness; erythema nodosum; chill; scarlatina; excitement; oesophagus, inflammation of; yellow fever; puerperal fever; remittent fever; traumatic fever; phlegmasia alba dolens; glands, swollen; throat, affections of; glossitis; gonorrhoea; haemorrhages; haemorrhoids, strangulated; liver, inflammation of; hyperpyrexia; Hodgkin, disease; jaundice; influenza; insomnia; anger; lactation; laryngitis; tongue, affections of; lumbago; mania; meningitis; menstruation, disorders of; myalgia; myelitis; miliaria; nephritis; pneumonia; neuralgia; odontalgia; ears, affections of; eyes, affections of; smell, disorders of; urine, suppression of; paralysis; parotitis; labour; chest, affections of; peritonitis; pleurisy; pleurodynia; lungs, affections of; purpura; cold; roseola; measles; thirst; effects of fright; testicles, affections of; tetanus; tetany; torticollis; cough; whooping-cough; urethra, spasmodic stricture; urethral fever; uterus, prolapse of; vaccination, effects of; varicella; vertigo.

Characteristics.
Aconite grows in moist, shaded parts in almost all mountainous countries of Northern and Middle Europe, especially the Jura, Switzerland, Sweden and Germany. Teste mentions its reputation of being more poisonous to carnivorous than to herbivorous animals. This is partly supported and was apparently lately confirmed by an ineffectual attempt to poison an elephant with aconitine in this country. A carrot was scraped and enough aconitine to poison two thousand men was put upon it. The elephant ate it and nothing happened, and three hours later a large dose of prussic acid was administered, which proved quickly fatal.
Before Hahnemann, Aconite had a reputation as a diaphoretic in cases of rheumatism, sciatica and tumours, but not until Hahnemann proved it were its properties rightly understood. Aconitum is more closely associated with the rise and progress of homoeopathy than any other member of the Materia Medica. If Cinchona was the Newton’s apple in the discovery of homoeopathy, Aconitum was the medicine by which Hahnemann was able to find the conditions that in his day were treated by blood-letting. Aconite more than any other remedy prepared the way for the disappearance of blood-letting from general medical practice. One of the most deadly poisons and of the most rapid action became, through Hahnemann’s discovery, the best friend of medical care.
Aconitum in potency above the third is a medicine of perfect safety for any age. Sensitive patients sometimes complain of its depressing action when repeated, and cases are known in which the characteristic prostration of mind and body has occurred after giving Aconitum in potencies. But these cases are exceptional, and unattended by danger when they occur. The great majority of patients to whom Aconitum in potencies has been given experience nothing of this kind.
The rapidity of Aconite’s action determines its applicability to states in which symptoms appear with great intensity, as in Asiatic cholera, certain fevers and acute inflammations. To this list may be added attacks of sudden blindness. But let it not be supposed that Aconite’s sphere is limited to acute cases. When symptoms correspond it will cure conditions of great chronicity, for example, cases of indurated glands.
Dr Hughes has strongly insisted that the states to which Aconite is homoeopathic are those of tension; and this word gives the best idea of Aconite’s sphere of action. There is mental and emotional tension, as shown in fright or fear and its consequences, anxiety and fear of death; tension in the systemic vessels, as in the effect of chill, Asiatic cholera and haemorrhages; muscular tension as in tetanus; tension of involuntary muscles as in spasm of the heart and tension of the semi-involuntary muscles of the respiratory apparatus as in asthma; and finally tension of the special senses, sensations very intense and an exalted sensibility to pain; a sense of numbness of parts as if tightly bandaged, and also a sensation as if tightly bandaged in the extremities and elsewhere.
Therefore Aconite in its therapeutic actions corresponds to the effects of a number of states which excite a condition of tension. Plethora may be classed under this head. Plethoric persons of animated character, bilious and nervous constitutions, with brown or jet-black hair, are especially adapted to Aconite. Active congestions of all kinds, especially those followed by chill. Guernsey puts it in another way: the pure and complete development of the blood-globule in the most perfect type, when it becomes diseased, has great affinity for Aconite. When the blood-globules are disorganised it is rarely indicated. We think of Aconite in sudden inflammations, especially caused by cold, dry air, suppressed exhalations of the body.
Teste relates a remarkable case of an Englishman obliged to make long sledge journeys in mid-winter in Northern Russia, who afterwards for two years suffered violent paroxysms of palpitation and sharp pains in the region of the heart with threat of cerebral apoplexy. Important physicians in England and on the Continent diagnosed aneurism. Teste localised the affection to a neurosis or spasm of the pectoralis major, and proved his diagnosis by rapid cure with Aconite. The cutting, penetrating winds of the mountains where the plant flowers give indication of the action of this remedy. Few medicines have cause so intensely marked among their characteristics. Cold, fright, trauma or surgical operations are the causes found in the great majority of Aconite cases; timely administration will protect from serious results.
The reaction of primary chill affords another characteristic of Aconite: fever. With the Aconite fever there are restlessness and constant movement, and the state of tension is evident in the accompanying anxiety, sometimes with fear of death. The mental exaltation sometimes goes so far that he predicts the day and hour of his death. Clairvoyance. Extreme sensibility to light and sounds and to all sensations, including pain. When disease begins calmly and patiently Aconite will not be needed. It was the febrile restlessness of the provers of Aconite that led Hahnemann to infer its homoeopathicity to many states of fever; and it is the presence of this restlessness, anxiety, fear and exalted sensibility that are the chief indications in conditions of many kinds.
Some characteristics are these. Active haemorrhage in plethoric, full-bodied persons. They pass almost pure blood at stool. In haemoptysis the blood appears with great facility on coughing, bright red in large quantities, from chill, dry winds, with great fear, anxiety and palpitation. Each inspiration increases the cough. Titillation in the chest after coughing. Unquenchable thirst: everything tastes bitter except water. In croup children grasp the throat with each paroxysm of cough. Coldness, numbness and tingling characterise the paralysis and neuroses of Aconite. Facial paralysis from exposure to cold, dry winds. The fear and apprehension of Aconite is shown in fear of crossing streets. There is intolerance of music. Curious symptoms are these: imagines some part of the body deformed; imagines he makes all his thoughts from the stomach; predicts the hour of his death. Aconite is one of the great remedies for pain, rivaling Chamomilla and Coffea in the intensity of the pains it causes. Pains are intolerable and drive to despair. The pains are tearing, cutting; attended with restlessness; with numbness, tingling or formication. Aconite cannot bear pain, cannot bear to be touched, cannot bear to be covered. Toothache is one-sided, with redness of the cheek of the same side.
Guernsey gives these indications: if a child is suffering from watery diarrhoea, crying and complaining much, biting his wrists and sleepless, Aconite will usually quiet the trouble in short time. The state of mental disturbance will cease and quiet sleep follow. The mother will insist: Doctor, he is well, except his bowels are as bad as ever. Now do not give another medicine, but wait and see if Aconite will complete the cure by itself. Another case: hot, red, scanty urine, caused by chill, especially in children. The child screams and seems in great pain because he cannot pass water. Aconite will cease the pain, quiet the child, and the urine will flow a little later. In adults, incontinence of urine is sometimes benefited by Aconite.
Aconite has a wide sphere in affections of the eyes. Inflammations of many kinds from cold, blows, dust, surgical operations, scrofulous inflammation with enlarged glands, all are within its reach. Notable cases of sudden blindness have been cured by it. Hirsch of Prague records two cases, one of a man, aged thirty, who went to bed well, had walked home in stormy, bad weather after having been in a hot room; Aconite 3 was given; the next night he perspired profusely, and in the morning his sight was restored. Hirsch himself lost his sight suddenly while bathing in hot water. He took Aconite 3 in water as he gave to his patient. In two hours he began to sweat, and after six hours’ sleep awoke well. Lippe records the case of a lady who was seized with great malaise, anxiety and paralysing fear. In her usual health she had taken a full meal, and reading afterwards the letters danced before her eyes and the impression became blurred; face and nose became numb; pulse small, 120 per minute. A dose of Aconite c.m. (Finke) was given. The numbness disappeared in half an hour; pulse 72; vision was perfect when one eye was closed, but everything seemed indistinct when both were kept open. This symptom disappeared the next morning; a swimming in the head remained that day.
The time of aggravation is chiefly night and midnight. Heat as well as cold is injurious to the Aconite patient; sunstroke is an indication, and Aconite will cure many headaches from exposure to the sun, and also solar erythema. Headache is generally better in the open air, worse in a hot room; toothache and cough worse in the open air. Better by uncovering. A hot room aggravates chill; in fever the bed is intolerable; he wants to be uncovered. Perspiration on parts affected or covered. There is aggravation from wines or stimulants; worse from drinking any kind of fluids. Rest relieves symptoms in general, but during the night the pains are intolerable, the limbs feel tired and the chill is worse. Lying down relieves headache and vertigo and aggravates other complaints. Lying on the back relieves cough and stitches in the chest; lying on the side increases stitches and cough; the cheek on which he lies sweats. Rising from a seat causes vertigo. Vertigo, pallor, fainting when sitting up in bed. Bending double relieves colic and dysmenorrhoea. Motion aggravates pains in muscles, joints and stiffness.

Relations.
Aconitum napellus is related in its actions to other aconites and to aconitine, and also to the Ranunculaceae, Actaea rac., Actaea spic., Paeon., Podoph., Ranunculus, Staph. Teste places with Aconite the following: Coccul., Cham., Dulc., Cannab. i., Con.; but admits the relations are not intimate and that Aconite is really without analogues. Antidoted by Acet. ac., Alcohol, Paris. Antidotal to Bell., Cham., Coff., Nux v., Pet., Sep., Spo., Sul. Frequently indicated after Arn., Coff., Sul., Verat. Complementary to Coff. (in fever, insomnia, intolerance of pain), Arn. (contusions, injuries of the eye), Sul. Ameliorates disorders from Act. rac., Cham., Coff., Nux v., Pet., Sul. Sulphur is indicated in abuses of Aconite. Compare Stram. and Op. in effects of fright; and Sul. in most of its symptoms. Sul. is the chronic of Acon.; it frequently completes an action begun by Aconite, and will cure cases in which Aconite, though apparently indicated, fails. Compare also Puls., Lyc. and Camph. (better by uncovering); Hep. and Coff. (intolerance of pains); Chi. (white stools); Gels. (effects of bad news, fright, anger); Nux and Bry. (diarrhoea of cholera); Bry. (effects of cold and dry winds).

Causation.
Fright; fear; chill; cold, dry winds; heat, especially of the sun; traumatism; surgical operations; shock.

Mind.
Great agitation and bodily restlessness with anguish; inconsolable irritability; screams, weeps, laments and reproaches; irritable sensitiveness; fearful anticipation that death is approaching; predicts the day he will die; sadness; presentiments as of a state of clairvoyance; anthropophobia and misanthropy; has no affection for anyone; malicious; intense disposition to be angry, to be frightened and to quarrel; the least noise, even music, is unbearable; changing humour, now sad, depressed, irritable and despairing, then gay, excited, hopeful and disposed to sing and dance; humbled by trifles; takes jokes amiss; dislikes to speak; answers laconically; alternating paroxysms of laughter and tears; great inconsolable anxiety; anxious about his illness and despairs of recovery; fear of spectres; fear of the dark; disposition to run out of bed; mind as if paralysed, with incapacity for reflection, and a sensation as if all intellectual functions were performed in the region of the stomach; paroxysms of mania; inconstancy of ideas; in delirium unhappy, worried, despairing, with expression of fear in the countenance, but rarely unconscious; delirium chiefly at night, with ecstasy; weakness of memory; disorders from fright, terror, vexation.

Head.
Head affected as if the brain were nailed, chiefly in the heat of a room; vertigo, particularly on rising from bed, or also on rising from a seat, on standing, on moving or shaking the head, with loss of consciousness, dim vision, nausea and weakness at the pit of the stomach; vertigo with tendency to fall to the right; vision vanishes; epistaxis; sensation as if the brain were loose in the skull, increased by the least movement, even by speaking or drinking; headache with inclination to vomit, also with actual vomiting; head as if bruised, with sore feeling in the limbs; stupefying headache with sensation of compression and drawing together as by a cramp, chiefly in forehead and root of nose; weight and fullness in forehead and temples with expansive pressure as if everything would come out through them, especially on stooping forward; sensation as if a board were before the forehead; sudden blows and throbbings in head; tearing headache, sometimes semilateral; sensation as if a ball lay on the head, and a coldness spread over it; congestion of blood to head with heat and redness of face, or with sensation of heat in the brain, sweat on the skin with shuddering, and pallor of face; sensation of heat in head that sweats with pale face; inflammation of the brain; sensation of fullness and heaviness in forehead with feeling as if the whole brain would come out of the eyes, with nausea and giddiness, worse from talking and from movement; heat and ebullition in head as if boiling water were in the brain; roarings and noises in head; sensation at vertex as if pulled by the hair; sensation as if the hair stood on end; headache from cold or suppression of perspiration with buzzing in ears, coldness of head and colic; aggravation of head pains from movement, talking, rising from recumbency and from drinking; amelioration in the open air.

Eyes.
Eyes red and inflamed, with deep injection of vessels and intolerable pains; profuse lachrymation; heat and burning in eyes with pressure and sudden pains, especially on moving eyes; swelling of eyes; dilated pupils; eyelids feel dry, hard, heavy; sensitive to air; hard, red swelling of eyelids; eyes sparkling, convulsive and prominent; fixed look; cannot bear the reflection of light on snow, it causes sparks, specks and scintillations dancing before the eyes; excessive photophobia or an intense desire for light; black spots and mist before vision; dazzled by flickerings; fear that he may be touched by others in passing; sight as if through a veil; difficulty in distinguishing faces, with anxiety and vertigo; sudden attacks of blindness; drawing in eyelids with drowsiness; ophthalmia very painful, with weeping eyes, or from foreign bodies in eyes, dust, sparks; after operations.

Ears.
Tinkling and buzzing in ears; tickling and sharp pains; sensation as if something were placed before the ears; excessive sensitiveness of hearing, all noises are intolerable; music goes through the limbs and makes him sad; tearing in left ear; roarings in ears.

Nose.
Crushing pressure or cramp at root of nose; epistaxis, especially in plethoric persons; excessive sensitiveness of smell, especially to unpleasant odours; violent sneezing with pain in abdomen and in left side; coryza with catarrh, headache, buzzing in ears and colic; coryza caused by chill, cold winds; suppressed coryza with headache; better in the open air, worse by speaking; fluent coryza with frequent sneezing; clear, hot watery discharge; fluent in the morning.

Face.
Anxious, frightened expression; face bloated, hot and red, or bluish, or alternating red and pale, or yellow; on rising, the previously red face assumes a deadly pallor, afterwards it becomes red again; red and pale alternately; red of one cheek with pallor of the other, or red patches on both cheeks; sweat on forehead, upper lip and on the cheek pressed against the pillow; distortion of features; tingling pain and sensation of swelling in cheeks; tension and drawing along trigeminal nerve, then sudden shifting intermittent pains, then constant pain, sometimes pressing; pain as of ulceration in malar bones; semilateral prosopalgia with swelling of lower jaw; lips black and dry, peeling; tingling in cheeks; sudden burning pains with tingling, with successive twitchings in the jaws; falling of the jaw; trismus.

Teeth.
Throbbing or stabbing lancinations in teeth, often with congestion of blood through the head and heat of face; toothache from chill, with throbbing in one side of face, intense redness of cheek and great restlessness; grinding of teeth.

Mouth.
Sensation of dryness, or actual dryness of mouth and tongue; tongue white; saburral, or thick yellow-white coating; burning, itching or pricking in tongue, with accumulation of saliva; paralysis of tongue; numbness of tongue, also of lips; trembling speech and stammering; pain as of excoriation at the orifices of the salivary ducts as if ulcerated; trismus with salivation; uvula feels enlarged and touches the tongue.

Throat.
Sore throat with intense redness of the parts affected and difficult deglutition; tickling in the oesophagus; sensation of tickling, rawness, burning and stitches in the throat, chiefly on swallowing; acute inflammations of the throat, palate, tonsils and fauces, with high fever, dark redness of parts, burning and stitches in the fauces; burning and numbness in throat; throat almost insensible; stitches in throat and along the Eustachian tubes that impel to swallow; sensation of contraction in throat as if caused by acrid substances; stitches in throat on swallowing and on coughing; almost entirely unable to swallow, with hoarseness.

Appetite.
Bitter taste in mouth, or putrid; all kinds of food and drink, except water, taste bitter; unquenchable burning thirst, sometimes with desire for beer; excessive hunger and thirst, but eats slowly; generally worse from drinking; gastric catarrh from drinking iced water when heated; generally better from cold drinks, especially the anxiety; loss of appetite and disgust for food; beer lies heavy on the stomach; desires wine, brandy, beer, bitter drinks; wine generally better.

Stomach.
Waterbrash like heartburn, with nausea; inclination to vomit as after having eaten something sweet or fatty; bilious, greenish or mucous vomit, and of blood; vomiting of pure blood; vomiting of mucus with blood, or of what has been taken, followed by thirst; nausea and retching; vomiting of worms; vomiting with nausea and thirst, heat, profuse sweating and increased micturition; pains in stomach after eating or drinking; sensation of distension, tension and pressure like a weight in the praecordial region and in the stomach, sometimes with difficult breathing; pressure in stomach and pit as from a hard stone; pit of stomach sore to touch and meteorism; sensation of contraction in stomach as from an acrid substance.

Abdomen.
Constriction, tension and pressure in the hypochondria, sometimes with fullness and sense of weight; burning, sudden, stabbing pains and pressure in hepatic region with difficult breathing; painful sensitiveness to touch in region of liver; inflammation and sore feeling in liver; pressure in liver with difficulty of breathing; jaundice, of the new-born, from fright, from chill; dragging pains in abdomen in stooping position, as when at stool; constriction, pricks and burning in umbilical region, sometimes with retraction of navel; intolerable cutting pains in abdomen, chiefly in epigastrium; swelling of abdomen as in ascites; painful sensitiveness of abdomen to touch and the least movement; flatulent colic, especially at night, with pressure, tension and borborygmi, with rumbling in abdomen.

Stool and Anus.
Suppression of stool; stools small, frequent, soft with tenesmus; loose watery stools; stools like chopped spinach; white stools with dark red urine; choleriform discharges with collapse, mortal anxiety and restlessness; involuntary stools from paralysis of anus; constipation, stools clay-coloured; nausea and sweat before and after watery stools; pains in rectum; violent pain in rectum with chill and fever, inflammation, tenesmus, bloody discharge, dysentery; pressure and stitches in anus; haemorrhoids bleeding, with heat and sharp stitches, bright blood; diarrhoea with flow of urine and colic; sensation as of hot liquid escaping from the anus.

Urinary Organs.
Suppression of urine with pressure in bladder and lumbar pains; frequent desire to pass water accompanied by anxiety and pain; flow of urine with sweat, diarrhoea and colic; involuntary emissions of urine from relaxation of the neck of the bladder; enuresis with thirst; urine scanty, burning, deep red with brick-dust sediment, caused by chill, especially in children; suppression from chill; sanguinolent sediment in urine; urine hot, red, scanty without sediment; heat and tenesmus at the neck of the bladder.

Male Sexual Organs.
Venereal inclination alternately increased and diminished; amorous paroxysms; stitches in the parts; bruised pains in the testicles; testicles feel swollen, hard, as if overcharged with semen; orchitis; gonorrhoea, first stage; pruritus of prepuce; sudden pains and pricks in the glans when urinating.

Female Sexual Organs.
Menses very profuse and prolonged; menstruation suppressed by fright, by getting the feet cold; after-pains very painful and very prolonged; milk-fever with delirium; puerperal peritonitis; maniacal fury at the appearance of the menses; stabbing pains move from the right side of the uterine fundus; sudden sharp pains, abdomen excessively sensitive; ovaritis from sudden suppression of the menstrual flow; pressive labour-like pains in the uterus, dysmenorrhoea; uterine haemorrhage, active, very excitable, giddy, cannot sit, fear of death; vagina dry, hot, sensitive; leucorrhoea copious, tenacious, yellow; increases milk in breasts.

Respiratory Organs.
Sensation of numbness in trachea; attacks of paralysis in epiglottis with tendency to choke; pain in larynx; larynx sensitive to touch and to inspired air, as if denuded; laryngeal trouble after straining the voice; hoarse voice; constant desire to cough, produced by irritation or tickling in the larynx; inflammation of larynx and bronchi; cough from having drunk or smoked; short, dry cough, chiefly at night; a convulsive, hoarse or noisy cough, sometimes with danger of suffocation and constriction of larynx; membranous angina with dry cough and rapid respiration; croup; expectoration of thick whitish matter, or of blood-streaked mucus, or he spits blood while coughing; sudden painful stitches in chest on coughing; cough with stitches in chest or in lumbar region; cough worse after eating or drinking; when lying; at dusk; at night, worse after midnight; during sleep; from smoking tobacco; from vexation, especially fright; when heated; from dry cold winds; from walking in the open air; on assuming the erect posture; from deep inspiration; from talking.

Chest.
Short breathing, chiefly during sleep and on rising; painful, anxious respiration with groaning, rapid and superficial, or full, noisy and with open mouth; slow breathing during sleep; breath hot; fetid breath; constriction and anxious oppression of chest with difficult breathing; Millar’s asthma; attacks of suffocation with anxiety; sensation of heaviness and compression in chest; painful stitches in chest, chiefly on breathing, coughing and moving, even the arms; stitches through the chest and sides, especially on breathing and coughing; stitches in sides with tearful, complaining humour, somewhat relieved when lying on the back; pleurisy and pneumonia, especially with great heat, much thirst, dry cough and great nervous excitability, somewhat relieved lying on the back; pruritus of chest; bruised pains in the sternum and sides; sense of anguish in chest interrupting respiration.

Heart.
Palpitations with great anxiety, heat of body chiefly in face and great weariness in the limbs; sudden pains in region of heart when moving or going upstairs; sensation of compression and beating in region of heart; inflammation of heart; chronic heart disease with continuous pressure in left side of chest, oppression of breathing on quick movement and ascending stairs, stitches in region of heart, congestion to head; fainting fits with tingling in fingers; fainting with tingling; pulse full, strong, hard; slow, weak; thread-like with anxiety; rapid, hard, small.

Neck and Back.
Weakness and pain as if bruised in nape; pain as if bruised in back and loins; painful stiffness in nape, loins and hip-joint; boring pain in back and loins, tingling and stitches in back.

Upper Extremities.
Pain as from a blow, and weakness in arms, chiefly in shoulders, with swelling; heaviness of arms with numbness of fingers; numbness of left arm, can scarcely move the hand; paralytic weakness of arm and hand, especially when writing; drawing in arms; hands dead; swelling of hands; heat of hands with coldness of feet; cold sweat on palms; icy coldness of hands; tingling in fingers, particularly when writing; inflammatory swelling of elbow with numbness and a paralytic state of the fingers.

Lower Extremities.
Pain as from a blow in hip-joints, especially after sleep, when leaning or resting for some time; drawing with paralytic weakness in legs; sudden pain in hip-joint extending even to knee, pain forcing a cry at each step; want of strength and of steadiness in hip and knee-joints; tearing, drawing pains in knee; inflammatory swelling of knee with bright redness, sudden pains, stiffness and great sensitiveness to touch; sensation of stiffness in legs on moving them; pain in instep with despair and fear of death; numbness in legs; heaviness of foot; coldness of foot, chiefly of toes, and sweat on sole; tingling beginning in foot and extending upward.

Generalities.
Sudden or rheumatic pains produced by wine or other stimulants; sufferings which particularly at night seem intolerable and generally disappear when sitting; attacks of pain with thirst and redness of cheeks; troublesome sensitiveness of the body and especially of the parts affected at every movement and on the slightest touch; bruised pain and sense of weight in all the limbs; drawing with paralytic weakness in arms and legs; want of strength and steadiness, pains and noises in the joints, chiefly of the legs; rapid and general decay of strength; fainting, especially on rising, with pallor of cheeks which become red on lying down; fainting fits chiefly on rising from a recumbent posture, sometimes with congestion of blood to head, buzzing in ears, deathly paleness of face and trembling; congestions to head, chest, heart; restlessness as from suppression of perspiration, or in consequence of a chill, with headache, buzzing in ears, colic and coldness of head; sensation of cold and of stagnation of blood in all the vessels; jerks in the limbs; cataleptic attack with screams, grinding of teeth and hiccough; chill of body and loud lamentations; tetanus; swelling of the whole body, which assumes a blackish colour.

Skin.
Sensation as if something were crawling in the skin with pruritus and desquamation, chiefly in the parts affected; skin dry and burning; swelling and burning heat of injured parts; yellow face; yellowish colour of skin; skin shining, red, hot, swollen with violent pain; sudden eruptions with excoriated feeling here and there; spots like mosquito-bites on hands, on body, etc.; small, broad red pimples accompanied by itching; measles; rash of children; miliary purpura.

Sleep.
Great desire to sleep even when walking and chiefly after meals; drowsy with anxious thoughts and rapid breathing; confused reveries with the eyes closed without sleep; insomnia from anxiety with constant tossing and restlessness; insomnia with restlessness, eyes closed, and constant uneasiness; starts in sleep; anxious dreams with nightmares; anxious dreams, he talks and moves in sleep; dreams with a sort of clairvoyance; light sleep; impossibility of lying on one side; during sleep lies on his back with the hand under the head, or in a sitting posture with the head bent forward.

Fever.
Burning dry heat with extreme thirst, sometimes, especially at the commencement of the illness, preceded by chill with shivering; heat chiefly in head and face with redness of cheeks, shuddering through the whole body, oppressive headache, lachrymose temper, disposition to complain and to contradict; or a sensation of heat over the whole body with redness of cheeks, headache on moving the eyes and lightness of mind; chill on the least uncovering while heat exists; coldness over the whole body with internal heat, cold forehead and hot tips of ears, or with redness of cheeks and pains in the limbs, or with stiffness of the whole body, heat and redness of one cheek and coldness and paleness of the other; eyes open and fixed, pupils contracted, and dilate with difficulty; sensation of coldness in the blood-vessels; cold and shivering in the fingers followed by cramps in the calves and soles; heat of face with despairing and dejected thoughts and inclination to vomit preceded by coldness and shivering in feet and hands; shuddering runs upwards from feet to chest; frequent shudderings with burning heat and dryness of skin; inflammatory fever and inflammations with great heat, dry burning skin, violent thirst, red face or alternation of red and pale face, nervous excitability, moaning and agonising restlessness, short breathing and congestion to head; continuous perspiration, especially on the parts that are covered; sour sweat; pulse hard, frequent and accelerated, full, sometimes intermittent, almost imperceptible like a thread.ACONITUM NAPELLUS.

General Action.
Monkshood; Aconite; Wolfsbane. Grows in damp pastures and waste places of mountainous districts in Central and Southern Europe, Russia, Scandinavia and Central Asia. Ranunculaceae. Tincture of the entire plant with root when it begins to flower.

Clinical.
Abortion; amaurosis; tonsillitis; apoplexy; affections of the joints; asthma; yawning; bronchitis; hip-joint affections; flushes of face; catalepsy; catheter fever; headache; sudden blindness; cystitis; cholera; infantile cholera; consumption; convulsions; heart, affections of; croup; dengue fever; dentition; diarrhoea; dysentery; dysmenorrhoea; oedema; pregnancy; chilling; enteritis; numbness; erythema nodosum; chill; scarlatina; excitement; oesophagus, inflammation of; yellow fever; puerperal fever; remittent fever; traumatic fever; phlegmasia alba dolens; glands, swollen; throat, affections of; glossitis; gonorrhoea; haemorrhages; haemorrhoids, strangulated; liver, inflammation of; hyperpyrexia; Hodgkin, disease; jaundice; influenza; insomnia; anger; lactation; laryngitis; tongue, affections of; lumbago; mania; meningitis; menstruation, disorders of; myalgia; myelitis; miliaria; nephritis; pneumonia; neuralgia; odontalgia; ears, affections of; eyes, affections of; smell, disorders of; urine, suppression of; paralysis; parotitis; labour; chest, affections of; peritonitis; pleurisy; pleurodynia; lungs, affections of; purpura; cold; roseola; measles; thirst; effects of fright; testicles, affections of; tetanus; tetany; torticollis; cough; whooping-cough; urethra, spasmodic stricture; urethral fever; uterus, prolapse of; vaccination, effects of; varicella; vertigo.

Characteristics.
Aconite grows in moist, shaded parts in almost all mountainous countries of Northern and Middle Europe, especially the Jura, Switzerland, Sweden and Germany. Teste mentions its reputation of being more poisonous to carnivorous than to herbivorous animals. This is partly supported and was apparently lately confirmed by an ineffectual attempt to poison an elephant with aconitine in this country. A carrot was scraped and enough aconitine to poison two thousand men was put upon it. The elephant ate it and nothing happened, and three hours later a large dose of prussic acid was administered, which proved quickly fatal.
Before Hahnemann, Aconite had a reputation as a diaphoretic in cases of rheumatism, sciatica and tumours, but not until Hahnemann proved it were its properties rightly understood. Aconitum is more closely associated with the rise and progress of homoeopathy than any other member of the Materia Medica. If Cinchona was the Newton’s apple in the discovery of homoeopathy, Aconitum was the medicine by which Hahnemann was able to find the conditions that in his day were treated by blood-letting. Aconite more than any other remedy prepared the way for the disappearance of blood-letting from general medical practice. One of the most deadly poisons and of the most rapid action became, through Hahnemann’s discovery, the best friend of medical care.
Aconitum in potency above the third is a medicine of perfect safety for any age. Sensitive patients sometimes complain of its depressing action when repeated, and cases are known in which the characteristic prostration of mind and body has occurred after giving Aconitum in potencies. But these cases are exceptional, and unattended by danger when they occur. The great majority of patients to whom Aconitum in potencies has been given experience nothing of this kind.
The rapidity of Aconite’s action determines its applicability to states in which symptoms appear with great intensity, as in Asiatic cholera, certain fevers and acute inflammations. To this list may be added attacks of sudden blindness. But let it not be supposed that Aconite’s sphere is limited to acute cases. When symptoms correspond it will cure conditions of great chronicity, for example, cases of indurated glands.
Dr Hughes has strongly insisted that the states to which Aconite is homoeopathic are those of tension; and this word gives the best idea of Aconite’s sphere of action. There is mental and emotional tension, as shown in fright or fear and its consequences, anxiety and fear of death; tension in the systemic vessels, as in the effect of chill, Asiatic cholera and haemorrhages; muscular tension as in tetanus; tension of involuntary muscles as in spasm of the heart and tension of the semi-involuntary muscles of the respiratory apparatus as in asthma; and finally tension of the special senses, sensations very intense and an exalted sensibility to pain; a sense of numbness of parts as if tightly bandaged, and also a sensation as if tightly bandaged in the extremities and elsewhere.
Therefore Aconite in its therapeutic actions corresponds to the effects of a number of states which excite a condition of tension. Plethora may be classed under this head. Plethoric persons of animated character, bilious and nervous constitutions, with brown or jet-black hair, are especially adapted to Aconite. Active congestions of all kinds, especially those followed by chill. Guernsey puts it in another way: the pure and complete development of the blood-globule in the most perfect type, when it becomes diseased, has great affinity for Aconite. When the blood-globules are disorganised it is rarely indicated. We think of Aconite in sudden inflammations, especially caused by cold, dry air, suppressed exhalations of the body.
Teste relates a remarkable case of an Englishman obliged to make long sledge journeys in mid-winter in Northern Russia, who afterwards for two years suffered violent paroxysms of palpitation and sharp pains in the region of the heart with threat of cerebral apoplexy. Important physicians in England and on the Continent diagnosed aneurism. Teste localised the affection to a neurosis or spasm of the pectoralis major, and proved his diagnosis by rapid cure with Aconite. The cutting, penetrating winds of the mountains where the plant flowers give indication of the action of this remedy. Few medicines have cause so intensely marked among their characteristics. Cold, fright, trauma or surgical operations are the causes found in the great majority of Aconite cases; timely administration will protect from serious results.
The reaction of primary chill affords another characteristic of Aconite: fever. With the Aconite fever there are restlessness and constant movement, and the state of tension is evident in the accompanying anxiety, sometimes with fear of death. The mental exaltation sometimes goes so far that he predicts the day and hour of his death. Clairvoyance. Extreme sensibility to light and sounds and to all sensations, including pain. When disease begins calmly and patiently Aconite will not be needed. It was the febrile restlessness of the provers of Aconite that led Hahnemann to infer its homoeopathicity to many states of fever; and it is the presence of this restlessness, anxiety, fear and exalted sensibility that are the chief indications in conditions of many kinds.
Some characteristics are these. Active haemorrhage in plethoric, full-bodied persons. They pass almost pure blood at stool. In haemoptysis the blood appears with great facility on coughing, bright red in large quantities, from chill, dry winds, with great fear, anxiety and palpitation. Each inspiration increases the cough. Titillation in the chest after coughing. Unquenchable thirst: everything tastes bitter except water. In croup children grasp the throat with each paroxysm of cough. Coldness, numbness and tingling characterise the paralysis and neuroses of Aconite. Facial paralysis from exposure to cold, dry winds. The fear and apprehension of Aconite is shown in fear of crossing streets. There is intolerance of music. Curious symptoms are these: imagines some part of the body deformed; imagines he makes all his thoughts from the stomach; predicts the hour of his death. Aconite is one of the great remedies for pain, rivaling Chamomilla and Coffea in the intensity of the pains it causes. Pains are intolerable and drive to despair. The pains are tearing, cutting; attended with restlessness; with numbness, tingling or formication. Aconite cannot bear pain, cannot bear to be touched, cannot bear to be covered. Toothache is one-sided, with redness of the cheek of the same side.
Guernsey gives these indications: if a child is suffering from watery diarrhoea, crying and complaining much, biting his wrists and sleepless, Aconite will usually quiet the trouble in short time. The state of mental disturbance will cease and quiet sleep follow. The mother will insist: Doctor, he is well, except his bowels are as bad as ever. Now do not give another medicine, but wait and see if Aconite will complete the cure by itself. Another case: hot, red, scanty urine, caused by chill, especially in children. The child screams and seems in great pain because he cannot pass water. Aconite will cease the pain, quiet the child, and the urine will flow a little later. In adults, incontinence of urine is sometimes benefited by Aconite.
Aconite has a wide sphere in affections of the eyes. Inflammations of many kinds from cold, blows, dust, surgical operations, scrofulous inflammation with enlarged glands, all are within its reach. Notable cases of sudden blindness have been cured by it. Hirsch of Prague records two cases, one of a man, aged thirty, who went to bed well, had walked home in stormy, bad weather after having been in a hot room; Aconite 3 was given; the next night he perspired profusely, and in the morning his sight was restored. Hirsch himself lost his sight suddenly while bathing in hot water. He took Aconite 3 in water as he gave to his patient. In two hours he began to sweat, and after six hours’ sleep awoke well. Lippe records the case of a lady who was seized with great malaise, anxiety and paralysing fear. In her usual health she had taken a full meal, and reading afterwards the letters danced before her eyes and the impression became blurred; face and nose became numb; pulse small, 120 per minute. A dose of Aconite c.m. (Finke) was given. The numbness disappeared in half an hour; pulse 72; vision was perfect when one eye was closed, but everything seemed indistinct when both were kept open. This symptom disappeared the next morning; a swimming in the head remained that day.
The time of aggravation is chiefly night and midnight. Heat as well as cold is injurious to the Aconite patient; sunstroke is an indication, and Aconite will cure many headaches from exposure to the sun, and also solar erythema. Headache is generally better in the open air, worse in a hot room; toothache and cough worse in the open air. Better by uncovering. A hot room aggravates chill; in fever the bed is intolerable; he wants to be uncovered. Perspiration on parts affected or covered. There is aggravation from wines or stimulants; worse from drinking any kind of fluids. Rest relieves symptoms in general, but during the night the pains are intolerable, the limbs feel tired and the chill is worse. Lying down relieves headache and vertigo and aggravates other complaints. Lying on the back relieves cough and stitches in the chest; lying on the side increases stitches and cough; the cheek on which he lies sweats. Rising from a seat causes vertigo. Vertigo, pallor, fainting when sitting up in bed. Bending double relieves colic and dysmenorrhoea. Motion aggravates pains in muscles, joints and stiffness.

Relations.
Aconitum napellus is related in its actions to other aconites and to aconitine, and also to the Ranunculaceae, Actaea rac., Actaea spic., Paeon., Podoph., Ranunculus, Staph. Teste places with Aconite the following: Coccul., Cham., Dulc., Cannab. i., Con.; but admits the relations are not intimate and that Aconite is really without analogues. Antidoted by Acet. ac., Alcohol, Paris. Antidotal to Bell., Cham., Coff., Nux v., Pet., Sep., Spo., Sul. Frequently indicated after Arn., Coff., Sul., Verat. Complementary to Coff. (in fever, insomnia, intolerance of pain), Arn. (contusions, injuries of the eye), Sul. Ameliorates disorders from Act. rac., Cham., Coff., Nux v., Pet., Sul. Sulphur is indicated in abuses of Aconite. Compare Stram. and Op. in effects of fright; and Sul. in most of its symptoms. Sul. is the chronic of Acon.; it frequently completes an action begun by Aconite, and will cure cases in which Aconite, though apparently indicated, fails. Compare also Puls., Lyc. and Camph. (better by uncovering); Hep. and Coff. (intolerance of pains); Chi. (white stools); Gels. (effects of bad news, fright, anger); Nux and Bry. (diarrhoea of cholera); Bry. (effects of cold and dry winds).

Causation.
Fright; fear; chill; cold, dry winds; heat, especially of the sun; traumatism; surgical operations; shock.

Mind.
Great agitation and bodily restlessness with anguish; inconsolable irritability; screams, weeps, laments and reproaches; irritable sensitiveness; fearful anticipation that death is approaching; predicts the day he will die; sadness; presentiments as of a state of clairvoyance; anthropophobia and misanthropy; has no affection for anyone; malicious; intense disposition to be angry, to be frightened and to quarrel; the least noise, even music, is unbearable; changing humour, now sad, depressed, irritable and despairing, then gay, excited, hopeful and disposed to sing and dance; humbled by trifles; takes jokes amiss; dislikes to speak; answers laconically; alternating paroxysms of laughter and tears; great inconsolable anxiety; anxious about his illness and despairs of recovery; fear of spectres; fear of the dark; disposition to run out of bed; mind as if paralysed, with incapacity for reflection, and a sensation as if all intellectual functions were performed in the region of the stomach; paroxysms of mania; inconstancy of ideas; in delirium unhappy, worried, despairing, with expression of fear in the countenance, but rarely unconscious; delirium chiefly at night, with ecstasy; weakness of memory; disorders from fright, terror, vexation.

Head.
Head affected as if the brain were nailed, chiefly in the heat of a room; vertigo, particularly on rising from bed, or also on rising from a seat, on standing, on moving or shaking the head, with loss of consciousness, dim vision, nausea and weakness at the pit of the stomach; vertigo with tendency to fall to the right; vision vanishes; epistaxis; sensation as if the brain were loose in the skull, increased by the least movement, even by speaking or drinking; headache with inclination to vomit, also with actual vomiting; head as if bruised, with sore feeling in the limbs; stupefying headache with sensation of compression and drawing together as by a cramp, chiefly in forehead and root of nose; weight and fullness in forehead and temples with expansive pressure as if everything would come out through them, especially on stooping forward; sensation as if a board were before the forehead; sudden blows and throbbings in head; tearing headache, sometimes semilateral; sensation as if a ball lay on the head, and a coldness spread over it; congestion of blood to head with heat and redness of face, or with sensation of heat in the brain, sweat on the skin with shuddering, and pallor of face; sensation of heat in head that sweats with pale face; inflammation of the brain; sensation of fullness and heaviness in forehead with feeling as if the whole brain would come out of the eyes, with nausea and giddiness, worse from talking and from movement; heat and ebullition in head as if boiling water were in the brain; roarings and noises in head; sensation at vertex as if pulled by the hair; sensation as if the hair stood on end; headache from cold or suppression of perspiration with buzzing in ears, coldness of head and colic; aggravation of head pains from movement, talking, rising from recumbency and from drinking; amelioration in the open air.

Eyes.
Eyes red and inflamed, with deep injection of vessels and intolerable pains; profuse lachrymation; heat and burning in eyes with pressure and sudden pains, especially on moving eyes; swelling of eyes; dilated pupils; eyelids feel dry, hard, heavy; sensitive to air; hard, red swelling of eyelids; eyes sparkling, convulsive and prominent; fixed look; cannot bear the reflection of light on snow, it causes sparks, specks and scintillations dancing before the eyes; excessive photophobia or an intense desire for light; black spots and mist before vision; dazzled by flickerings; fear that he may be touched by others in passing; sight as if through a veil; difficulty in distinguishing faces, with anxiety and vertigo; sudden attacks of blindness; drawing in eyelids with drowsiness; ophthalmia very painful, with weeping eyes, or from foreign bodies in eyes, dust, sparks; after operations.

Ears.
Tinkling and buzzing in ears; tickling and sharp pains; sensation as if something were placed before the ears; excessive sensitiveness of hearing, all noises are intolerable; music goes through the limbs and makes him sad; tearing in left ear; roarings in ears.

Nose.
Crushing pressure or cramp at root of nose; epistaxis, especially in plethoric persons; excessive sensitiveness of smell, especially to unpleasant odours; violent sneezing with pain in abdomen and in left side; coryza with catarrh, headache, buzzing in ears and colic; coryza caused by chill, cold winds; suppressed coryza with headache; better in the open air, worse by speaking; fluent coryza with frequent sneezing; clear, hot watery discharge; fluent in the morning.

Face.
Anxious, frightened expression; face bloated, hot and red, or bluish, or alternating red and pale, or yellow; on rising, the previously red face assumes a deadly pallor, afterwards it becomes red again; red and pale alternately; red of one cheek with pallor of the other, or red patches on both cheeks; sweat on forehead, upper lip and on the cheek pressed against the pillow; distortion of features; tingling pain and sensation of swelling in cheeks; tension and drawing along trigeminal nerve, then sudden shifting intermittent pains, then constant pain, sometimes pressing; pain as of ulceration in malar bones; semilateral prosopalgia with swelling of lower jaw; lips black and dry, peeling; tingling in cheeks; sudden burning pains with tingling, with successive twitchings in the jaws; falling of the jaw; trismus.

Teeth.
Throbbing or stabbing lancinations in teeth, often with congestion of blood through the head and heat of face; toothache from chill, with throbbing in one side of face, intense redness of cheek and great restlessness; grinding of teeth.

Mouth.
Sensation of dryness, or actual dryness of mouth and tongue; tongue white; saburral, or thick yellow-white coating; burning, itching or pricking in tongue, with accumulation of saliva; paralysis of tongue; numbness of tongue, also of lips; trembling speech and stammering; pain as of excoriation at the orifices of the salivary ducts as if ulcerated; trismus with salivation; uvula feels enlarged and touches the tongue.

Throat.
Sore throat with intense redness of the parts affected and difficult deglutition; tickling in the oesophagus; sensation of tickling, rawness, burning and stitches in the throat, chiefly on swallowing; acute inflammations of the throat, palate, tonsils and fauces, with high fever, dark redness of parts, burning and stitches in the fauces; burning and numbness in throat; throat almost insensible; stitches in throat and along the Eustachian tubes that impel to swallow; sensation of contraction in throat as if caused by acrid substances; stitches in throat on swallowing and on coughing; almost entirely unable to swallow, with hoarseness.

Appetite.
Bitter taste in mouth, or putrid; all kinds of food and drink, except water, taste bitter; unquenchable burning thirst, sometimes with desire for beer; excessive hunger and thirst, but eats slowly; generally worse from drinking; gastric catarrh from drinking iced water when heated; generally better from cold drinks, especially the anxiety; loss of appetite and disgust for food; beer lies heavy on the stomach; desires wine, brandy, beer, bitter drinks; wine generally better.

Stomach.
Waterbrash like heartburn, with nausea; inclination to vomit as after having eaten something sweet or fatty; bilious, greenish or mucous vomit, and of blood; vomiting of pure blood; vomiting of mucus with blood, or of what has been taken, followed by thirst; nausea and retching; vomiting of worms; vomiting with nausea and thirst, heat, profuse sweating and increased micturition; pains in stomach after eating or drinking; sensation of distension, tension and pressure like a weight in the praecordial region and in the stomach, sometimes with difficult breathing; pressure in stomach and pit as from a hard stone; pit of stomach sore to touch and meteorism; sensation of contraction in stomach as from an acrid substance.

Abdomen.
Constriction, tension and pressure in the hypochondria, sometimes with fullness and sense of weight; burning, sudden, stabbing pains and pressure in hepatic region with difficult breathing; painful sensitiveness to touch in region of liver; inflammation and sore feeling in liver; pressure in liver with difficulty of breathing; jaundice, of the new-born, from fright, from chill; dragging pains in abdomen in stooping position, as when at stool; constriction, pricks and burning in umbilical region, sometimes with retraction of navel; intolerable cutting pains in abdomen, chiefly in epigastrium; swelling of abdomen as in ascites; painful sensitiveness of abdomen to touch and the least movement; flatulent colic, especially at night, with pressure, tension and borborygmi, with rumbling in abdomen.

Stool and Anus.
Suppression of stool; stools small, frequent, soft with tenesmus; loose watery stools; stools like chopped spinach; white stools with dark red urine; choleriform discharges with collapse, mortal anxiety and restlessness; involuntary stools from paralysis of anus; constipation, stools clay-coloured; nausea and sweat before and after watery stools; pains in rectum; violent pain in rectum with chill and fever, inflammation, tenesmus, bloody discharge, dysentery; pressure and stitches in anus; haemorrhoids bleeding, with heat and sharp stitches, bright blood; diarrhoea with flow of urine and colic; sensation as of hot liquid escaping from the anus.

Urinary Organs.
Suppression of urine with pressure in bladder and lumbar pains; frequent desire to pass water accompanied by anxiety and pain; flow of urine with sweat, diarrhoea and colic; involuntary emissions of urine from relaxation of the neck of the bladder; enuresis with thirst; urine scanty, burning, deep red with brick-dust sediment, caused by chill, especially in children; suppression from chill; sanguinolent sediment in urine; urine hot, red, scanty without sediment; heat and tenesmus at the neck of the bladder.

Male Sexual Organs.
Venereal inclination alternately increased and diminished; amorous paroxysms; stitches in the parts; bruised pains in the testicles; testicles feel swollen, hard, as if overcharged with semen; orchitis; gonorrhoea, first stage; pruritus of prepuce; sudden pains and pricks in the glans when urinating.

Female Sexual Organs.
Menses very profuse and prolonged; menstruation suppressed by fright, by getting the feet cold; after-pains very painful and very prolonged; milk-fever with delirium; puerperal peritonitis; maniacal fury at the appearance of the menses; stabbing pains move from the right side of the uterine fundus; sudden sharp pains, abdomen excessively sensitive; ovaritis from sudden suppression of the menstrual flow; pressive labour-like pains in the uterus, dysmenorrhoea; uterine haemorrhage, active, very excitable, giddy, cannot sit, fear of death; vagina dry, hot, sensitive; leucorrhoea copious, tenacious, yellow; increases milk in breasts.

Respiratory Organs.
Sensation of numbness in trachea; attacks of paralysis in epiglottis with tendency to choke; pain in larynx; larynx sensitive to touch and to inspired air, as if denuded; laryngeal trouble after straining the voice; hoarse voice; constant desire to cough, produced by irritation or tickling in the larynx; inflammation of larynx and bronchi; cough from having drunk or smoked; short, dry cough, chiefly at night; a convulsive, hoarse or noisy cough, sometimes with danger of suffocation and constriction of larynx; membranous angina with dry cough and rapid respiration; croup; expectoration of thick whitish matter, or of blood-streaked mucus, or he spits blood while coughing; sudden painful stitches in chest on coughing; cough with stitches in chest or in lumbar region; cough worse after eating or drinking; when lying; at dusk; at night, worse after midnight; during sleep; from smoking tobacco; from vexation, especially fright; when heated; from dry cold winds; from walking in the open air; on assuming the erect posture; from deep inspiration; from talking.

Chest.
Short breathing, chiefly during sleep and on rising; painful, anxious respiration with groaning, rapid and superficial, or full, noisy and with open mouth; slow breathing during sleep; breath hot; fetid breath; constriction and anxious oppression of chest with difficult breathing; Millar’s asthma; attacks of suffocation with anxiety; sensation of heaviness and compression in chest; painful stitches in chest, chiefly on breathing, coughing and moving, even the arms; stitches through the chest and sides, especially on breathing and coughing; stitches in sides with tearful, complaining humour, somewhat relieved when lying on the back; pleurisy and pneumonia, especially with great heat, much thirst, dry cough and great nervous excitability, somewhat relieved lying on the back; pruritus of chest; bruised pains in the sternum and sides; sense of anguish in chest interrupting respiration.

Heart.
Palpitations with great anxiety, heat of body chiefly in face and great weariness in the limbs; sudden pains in region of heart when moving or going upstairs; sensation of compression and beating in region of heart; inflammation of heart; chronic heart disease with continuous pressure in left side of chest, oppression of breathing on quick movement and ascending stairs, stitches in region of heart, congestion to head; fainting fits with tingling in fingers; fainting with tingling; pulse full, strong, hard; slow, weak; thread-like with anxiety; rapid, hard, small.

Neck and Back.
Weakness and pain as if bruised in nape; pain as if bruised in back and loins; painful stiffness in nape, loins and hip-joint; boring pain in back and loins, tingling and stitches in back.

Upper Extremities.
Pain as from a blow, and weakness in arms, chiefly in shoulders, with swelling; heaviness of arms with numbness of fingers; numbness of left arm, can scarcely move the hand; paralytic weakness of arm and hand, especially when writing; drawing in arms; hands dead; swelling of hands; heat of hands with coldness of feet; cold sweat on palms; icy coldness of hands; tingling in fingers, particularly when writing; inflammatory swelling of elbow with numbness and a paralytic state of the fingers.

Lower Extremities.
Pain as from a blow in hip-joints, especially after sleep, when leaning or resting for some time; drawing with paralytic weakness in legs; sudden pain in hip-joint extending even to knee, pain forcing a cry at each step; want of strength and of steadiness in hip and knee-joints; tearing, drawing pains in knee; inflammatory swelling of knee with bright redness, sudden pains, stiffness and great sensitiveness to touch; sensation of stiffness in legs on moving them; pain in instep with despair and fear of death; numbness in legs; heaviness of foot; coldness of foot, chiefly of toes, and sweat on sole; tingling beginning in foot and extending upward.

Generalities.
Sudden or rheumatic pains produced by wine or other stimulants; sufferings which particularly at night seem intolerable and generally disappear when sitting; attacks of pain with thirst and redness of cheeks; troublesome sensitiveness of the body and especially of the parts affected at every movement and on the slightest touch; bruised pain and sense of weight in all the limbs; drawing with paralytic weakness in arms and legs; want of strength and steadiness, pains and noises in the joints, chiefly of the legs; rapid and general decay of strength; fainting, especially on rising, with pallor of cheeks which become red on lying down; fainting fits chiefly on rising from a recumbent posture, sometimes with congestion of blood to head, buzzing in ears, deathly paleness of face and trembling; congestions to head, chest, heart; restlessness as from suppression of perspiration, or in consequence of a chill, with headache, buzzing in ears, colic and coldness of head; sensation of cold and of stagnation of blood in all the vessels; jerks in the limbs; cataleptic attack with screams, grinding of teeth and hiccough; chill of body and loud lamentations; tetanus; swelling of the whole body, which assumes a blackish colour.

Skin.
Sensation as if something were crawling in the skin with pruritus and desquamation, chiefly in the parts affected; skin dry and burning; swelling and burning heat of injured parts; yellow face; yellowish colour of skin; skin shining, red, hot, swollen with violent pain; sudden eruptions with excoriated feeling here and there; spots like mosquito-bites on hands, on body, etc.; small, broad red pimples accompanied by itching; measles; rash of children; miliary purpura.

Sleep.
Great desire to sleep even when walking and chiefly after meals; drowsy with anxious thoughts and rapid breathing; confused reveries with the eyes closed without sleep; insomnia from anxiety with constant tossing and restlessness; insomnia with restlessness, eyes closed, and constant uneasiness; starts in sleep; anxious dreams with nightmares; anxious dreams, he talks and moves in sleep; dreams with a sort of clairvoyance; light sleep; impossibility of lying on one side; during sleep lies on his back with the hand under the head, or in a sitting posture with the head bent forward.

Fever.
Burning dry heat with extreme thirst, sometimes, especially at the commencement of the illness, preceded by chill with shivering; heat chiefly in head and face with redness of cheeks, shuddering through the whole body, oppressive headache, lachrymose temper, disposition to complain and to contradict; or a sensation of heat over the whole body with redness of cheeks, headache on moving the eyes and lightness of mind; chill on the least uncovering while heat exists; coldness over the whole body with internal heat, cold forehead and hot tips of ears, or with redness of cheeks and pains in the limbs, or with stiffness of the whole body, heat and redness of one cheek and coldness and paleness of the other; eyes open and fixed, pupils contracted, and dilate with difficulty; sensation of coldness in the blood-vessels; cold and shivering in the fingers followed by cramps in the calves and soles; heat of face with despairing and dejected thoughts and inclination to vomit preceded by coldness and shivering in feet and hands; shuddering runs upwards from feet to chest; frequent shudderings with burning heat and dryness of skin; inflammatory fever and inflammations with great heat, dry burning skin, violent thirst, red face or alternation of red and pale face, nervous excitability, moaning and agonising restlessness, short breathing and congestion to head; continuous perspiration, especially on the parts that are covered; sour sweat; pulse hard, frequent and accelerated, full, sometimes intermittent, almost imperceptible like a thread.

General Action.
Tincture of the fresh flowering plant. Unlike other aconites contains no aconitine. Symptoms resemble other aconites but lack prominent cutaneous nervous affections. Marked swelling of breasts and cervical and axillary glands; pruritus of eyes, nose, anus and vulva; fissured nasal skin; cough leaving taste of blood; diarrhoea after pork; glandular growths, especially scrofulous and Hodgkin types; < in afternoon, on mental exertion and during digestion, notably after pork, onions and wine; > by eructations and vomiting.

Mind.
Mania with ferocity; laughing; distraction; ideas unstable; fear of work; memory weak.

Head.
Vertigo with nausea; lancinating head pains extending to eyes; sensation as if nail driven into head on movement; hammering in temples; rheumatic scalp pain < by touch.

Eyes.
Lancinative pains from outer to inner canthus; painful, itchy eyelids; pressure on lids with difficulty opening; stinging at canthi; dryness of inner canthus.

Ears.
Purulent discharge; redness behind ears.

Nose.
Itching and lancinating pain; pressure at nasal root; fissured skin; muco-purulent discharge.

Face.
Pale, shining; excoriative pain around mouth; pain in facial bones; tension of facial muscles; hard tubercles on face and lips; face becomes light brown; numbness of jaw resembling incipient paralysis > by compression and wine.

Teeth.
Burning pain in upper teeth; pressure sensation; tearing pain in lower teeth on opening; bluish, ulcerated gums.

Mouth.
Clay-like astringent taste.

Appetite.
Intense craving for sweets, fruits and cabbage; increased tobacco desire; aversion to food, especially fats and milk causing discomfort; hungry quickly satisfied; constant burning thirst, nocturnal thirst.

Stomach.
Heartburn with rancid or rotten-egg taste; acidity with stomach heaviness; painful eructations; hiccup; inclination to vomit after eating with chill and vertigo; vomiting of mucus on rising; yellow after drinking; with copious urine.

Abdomen.
Right hypochondrial aching and tearing pains; on respiration both hypochondria painful; diaphragmatic compression sensation; abdominal palpitations; lancinating pains after milk.

Stool and Anus.
Constipation with anus feeling tightly contracted; diarrhoea with cutting pains after pork; whitish stools; post-defecatory anal pain as from fissures with chill; anal cramps; nocturnal tenesmus; pruritus.

Urinary Organs.
Desire to urinate with copious emission; urgent ineffectual efforts; urine hot, turbid with white sediment.

Female Sexual Organs.
Vulvar pruritus; fetid menstruation; popliteal excoriation post-menses; viscous leucorrhoea.

Respiratory Organs.
Dyspnoea; slight cough with watery expectoration; cough after slight chill leaving taste of blood.

Breast.
Swelling of mammary glands.

Neck and Back.
Swollen cervical glands; apparent neck enlargement, unilateral; pressing pain at nape; back chill; kidney-region jerks.

Upper Limbs.
Swollen axillary glands; pressure and lancinating shoulder-joint pains; tearing in elbow; stiffness of elbows and wrists; fullness and sweating of hands.

Lower Limbs.
On stretching legs gluteal muscles felt shortened; leg jerks; nocturnal ankle pruritus; lancinating dorsum pedis pain on standing; hot red slightly painful macular eruption on legs and toes.

Sleep.
Somnolence with abundant sleep; auditory hallucinations; numbness of pressure-points during sleep.

Fever.
Shivering; unilateral chill if uncovered; morning external cold with internal warmth; alternating chills and heat with sweat; during heat pale face, strong appetite, thirst, intestinal pain, restlessness; sweat persists post-fever.

Aconitum ferox, Wall.; A. virosum, Don.; Bisch or Bikh (Ativisha). Ranunculaceae. Tincture of the root.

General Action.
Species most poisonous known, containing large proportions of aconitine; produces intense burning pains and mental overactivity followed by great depression; anxiety and fear of suffocation from paralysis of respiratory muscles, compelling semi-sitting posture with head supported on hands; cold drinks and sitting ameliorate; hot food aggravates; coffee ameliorates; respiration of Cheyne-Stokes type; dyspnoea; gastralgia; chilliness; numbness; violent eructations; generalised tingling, < by temperature change or movement; symptoms worst between 7 and 7.30 p.m.; vomiting > all symptoms.

Mind.
Great mental activity with rapid succession of ideas; incessant speech; acute memory for detailed past experiences and comparisons (6 hrs); during symptom-free intervals laughs and jokes on his comic state, but on return of dyspnoea and anxiety insults aconite and toxicology (4–6 hrs); next day, unable to perform even simple mental work, confused understanding (2nd day).

Mouth.
Tongue almost insensible, felt as a piece of leather on raw flesh (6 hrs); coated with yellowish-white saburra; violent burning in mouth within two minutes, renewed by eating (2nd day); ameliorated by cold water.

Throat.
Violent burning in pharynx.

Stomach.
Pressure with pain and heat in stomach; violent drawing pain in stomach and sacral region extending to entire abdomen; < by pressure in epigastrium; on pressure, dull internal pressing pain.

Abdomen.
Borborygmi five minutes after dose; constant rumbling for four hours.

Stool.
Two medium, semi-aqueous, dark evacuations on second day.

Urinary Organs.
Frequent, copious micturition.

Respiratory Organs.
Dyspnoea increased to extent that patient obliged to breathe semi-sitting with head in hands; constant fear of suffocation from respiratory paralysis; Cheyne-Stokes breathing.

Heart.

Extremities.
Staggering gait; marked weakness of lower limbs, especially right.

Generalities.
Tingling extending over whole body, less in cooled areas; < by temperature change or movement; greatest severity 7–7.30 p.m.; painful restlessness preventing lying still; on rising symptoms return which were relieved by lying; numbness as if wearing gloves; no pain on pinching cheeks; sensation of walking on cotton (2nd–4th day).

Sleep.
Insomnia; on waking, violent burning in mouth and throat, heat in stomach, stupefaction of head.

Fever.
Ice-cold surface objectively and subjectively for four hours; no amount of coverings or external heat ameliorates; patient compelled to sit by stove to warm himself, but vertigo, tremor, oppression and nausea persist; repeated experience; intense heat in forehead, cheeks and hands as from innumerable glowing wires; ameliorated by sweating (4–6 hrs).

Relations.
Compare Curare and Phosphorus for respiratory paralysis and Cheyne-Stokes breathing.

General Action.
Symptoms analogous to aconitine with onset of tingling and pricking in tongue and lips ascending to face and whole body; facial distortion with dry skin; violent eructations and gastric spasms; spasm of esophagus; photophobia; cataleptic and convulsive phenomena; < by exertion; > by vomiting; erections and pollutions without voluptuous dreams.

Mind.
Irritability with anger and fear; apathy and indifference; altered thought and concentration; weakened memory; extreme restlessness as if tickling impels constant motion; symptoms ameliorated by uniform warmth and alternately by entry into warm or cold air.

Head.
Headache < on bending forward; vertigo with tinnitus; fullness of head with marked pain in face accompanied by ear ringing.

Face.
Bluish-black discoloration; swollen blue lips; marked sensation of facial contraction and distortion.

Mouth.
Paralysis of tongue; increased salivation; tingling sensation replaced by furry numbness; diminished taste and oral sensation.

Abdomen.
Burning sensation with feeling of ants crawling around abdomen; violent eructations; inclination to vomit without actual vomiting; spasmodic contractions of stomach and abdominal muscles.

Skin.
On lower limbs, small serous vesicles and papules, very painful; skin dry.

Respiratory Organs.
Hoarse, rough voice; slow, difficult respiration with constrictive sensation in chest and throat.

Heart.
Pulse initially frequent then depressed, slow, irregular and intermittent.

Generalities.
Tendon jerks; muscular contractions; catalepsy; weakness and debility on exertion.

General Action.
Alkaloid obtained from the roots and stems of Aconitum napellus, presenting rapid and intense symptoms chiefly characterised by constrictive burning sensations ascending from the extremities; initial local application produces heat followed by burning pains, acute pricking and pruritus, ending in numbness and anaesthesia; frequently symptoms develop from below upwards; all symptoms > by vomiting; useful in hydrophobia of convulsive or paralytic type; recovery, if it occurs, is rapid and complete; < by mental exertion, agitation, touch; nausea produced by upright posture.(M)

Mind.
Anxiety with fear of death; intellect clear though ideas flow slowly, attention impaired; sensation as if dreaming or stupefied; forgetfulness with tremulous extremities.

Head.
Vertigo with confusion and roaring in ears, leading to almost instant collapse; fullness of head with inability to support it; headache with stabbing pains in face and head, sometimes accompanied by vomiting (hemicrania cured).

Eyes.
Tired sensation; pupils dilated, insensible to light; complete blindness with dilated pupils, vision returning as they contract; blurred vision with vertigo and muscular weakness.(M)

Ears.
Pressure and roaring noises; complete deafness.

Face.
Fullness of cheeks and temples changing to painful tension, tingling and pricking; tense, swollen appearance; peculiar drawing, stretching and pressure along trigeminal distribution, alternating with occipital stabbing, progressing to sustained severe neuralgic pain; trigeminal neuralgia with supraorbital shooting pains causing vomiting; subsequent tonic facial contractions, trismus, then clonic convulsions; hypocratic facies.

Mouth.
Burning of lips and tongue tip; dry, acrid, constrictive sensation in mouth and fauces; rigid tongue; foul, bitter taste or complete loss of taste; increased tooth sensitivity; salivation.

Throat.
Burning constriction extending from mouth to stomach; each swallow followed by hydrophobic-like spasm not renewed by sight of water; difficulty swallowing with pain in neck and parotid region, requiring manual support (M); burning in fauces as if a hot coal present (M).

Stomach.
Immediate eructations; severe vomiting every two to three minutes initiated by sudden abdominal muscle contraction accompanied by loud cries; vomiting ameliorates all symptoms; marked heat in stomach region; nausea induced by erect posture (M).

Abdomen.
Intestinal rumbling occurring immediately in some or two hours after dose in others; sudden diaphragmatic contraction; post-mortem: enlarged dark liver and spleen.

Urinary Organs.
Copious diuresis; difficulty and pain in micturition, occasional retention with hypogastric distress (M).

Male Sexual Organs.
Unusual nocturnal emissions in experimental subjects.

Respiratory Organs.
Oppressive dyspnoea; precordial constrictive anguish; sighing respiration.

Heart.
On entering warmth pulse at first rapid then small, weak, intermittent; heart sounds audible only at apex.

Extremities.
Weakness, trembling, burning, tingling, pricking and numbness; subsequent relaxation following convulsive exertion.

Skin.
General tingling.

Sleep.
Somnolence with uneasy, tossing sleep.

Fever.
Surface cold, moist and very pale; intense chill followed by sudden heat of head and face extending over body, most marked in stomach region, accompanied by sweat.

General Action.
Acts primarily as a depressant, producing excessive exhaustion and weakness; anaemia with waxy pallor of the face; intense thirst; burning in the throat; nausea; retching; burning, ulcerative pains in the stomach, as in cancer and debility; profuse exhausting diarrhoea; venous congestion with varicosities and oedema; tendency to hæmorrhages and putrid-typhoid fevers with night sweats; antidotal to narcotics and anaesthetics; local antidote to poisoning by sauces and insect stings .

Mind.
Very stupefied and depressed; irritable; alternates between stupor and delirium; confusion of ideas; frequent sighing; attacks of terrible anxiety with breathing difficulty; vertigo with weakness and fainting.

Head.
Heaviness and dull, bruised pains in forehead and vertex; vertigo on lying down; headaches from tobacco, opium, coffee or alcohol excess.

Eyes.
Black floaters before the vision; burning and smarting as if from smoke.

Ears.
Roaring, ringing and singing noises in the ears.

Nose.
Frequent catarrhal attacks; epistaxis, especially after falls or blows; itching in the nares; discharge thick, pus-like, streaked with blood, with foul odour.

Face.
Wild expression; dilated pupils; pale, waxy, emaciated countenance; cheeks intensely red during fever; localised sweating on the forehead.

Mouth.
Tongue pale and flaccid; white film on buccal mucosa; rotten taste; fetid breath; scorbutic ulcers and odontalgia.

Throat.
Burning in throat; false white membrane in diphtheria; intense thirst in children, who swallow with difficulty even teaspoonfuls of water.

Stomach.
Insatiable burning thirst, screaming for water at night; loathing of salt and cold food; cold drinks lie heavy; bread and butter refused, potatoes excepted; violent burning, ulcerative pain in stomach and chest, followed by cold skin and cold sweat on forehead; sense of pyloric induration and stricture.

Abdomen.
Flatulent distension; colicky pains; ascites; sensation of sinking in supine position.

Stool and Anus.
Profuse diarrhoea with intense thirst; exhausting colic; haemorrhage from intestines; chronic constipation with great thirst and copious pale urine; ascarides; tensive haemorrhoids; painful burning at stool.

Urinary Organs.
Polyuria of pale, phosphate-laden urine; burning along urethra; diabetes with unquenchable thirst and great weakness.

Male Sexual Organs.
Weak emissions; seminal loss on coition; painful, fissured, non-retractile prepuce with intolerable pruritus.

Female Sexual Organs.
Metrorrhagia; post-partum thirst and exhaustion.

Respiratory Organs.
Hoarseness with laryngeal irritation; croup-like barking cough with membranous exudate; hollow inspiration; whistling and rattling in trachea; haemoptysis.

Back.
Myelitis with polyuria; back pain relieved only by lying on abdomen.

Extremities.
Oedematous swelling of feet and legs; bruised, sore sensation.

Generalities.
Convulsions with wild agitation; great emaciation; waxy, anæmic skin; universal anasarca; burning internally and externally.

Skin.
Ecchymoses; urticarial eruptions; nevi, warts and callosities.

Sleep.
Insomnia; restless night with screaming.

Fever.
Cold skin; insidious hectic fever with profuse night sweats; putrid and typhoid types.

Relations.
Compare Apis, Ars (although Acetic acid exhibits more prominent gastric symptoms); Carbol ac., Lac defl., Lact ac., Uran nit. Large overdoses antidoted by Magnesia or Calcarea; for depression and agonising sensation, Tabac., Acon.; for febrile, gastric or pulmonary symptoms, Nat mur., then Sep. Antidotal to anaesthetics, Acon., Asar., Coffea, Euphorb., Ignat., Opium, Plumb (colic), Sep., Stram., Tabac. Counteracts poisoning by sauces. Aggravates following Bell., Merc., Arn., Lach.; incompatible after Borax, Caust., Nux v., Ran b.; Scilla and Colchicum more effective when prepared with acetic acid than with alcohol.

General Action.
Acts chiefly on the respiratory and alimentary tracts of adults and children. The principal sphere of action is in the mucous membranes of the bronchi, producing a violent dry cough followed by haemorrhagic expectoration; and upon the digestive canal, causing burning, weight at the stomach, profuse flatus, and explosive diarrhoea.

Mind.
Patient is markedly weak and restless; disinclined to move or exert oneself; emotional state low, with tearfulness and melancholy accompanying the physical exhaustion.

Head.
Slight headache, with giddiness and nausea accompanying the pulmonary haemorrhage.

Eyes.
Vision may become blurred during paroxysms of cough and haemoptysis.

Ears, Nose, Throat.
Epistaxis may occur in conjunction with pulmonary bleeding; throat and larynx feel raw, with an urgent inclination to cough.

Stomach.
Burning in the stomach; sense of weight; eructations with acidity; nausea, especially when coughing or with haemorrhagic vomiting.

Abdomen.
Marked flatulence with audible borborygmi; colic-like pains preceding stools; diarrhoea of thin, watery stools, often sudden in onset. Progressive emaciation ensues.

Stool and Anus.
Sudden, explosive diarrhoea; stools watery or semi-fluid; sometimes streaked with blood.

Respiratory Organs.
Severe, dry, convulsive cough, most violent at night; initial paroxysm unproductive, then followed by expectoration of bright red blood in the morning and dark blood with clots in the evening. Chest dull on percussion, with constant severe chest pain.

Generalities.
Profound weakness and progressive emaciation; patient often prefers to lie still. Symptoms < at night and during paroxysms of cough; > by spitting blood.

Relations.
Compare: other Euphorbiaceae (e.g., Mercurialis annua, Manihot); in pulmonary haemorrhage: Hamamelis, Ipecacuanha, Millefolium, Phosphorus, Aconitum.

General Action.
Acts chiefly on the cerebro-spinal axis and muscular system; produces congestive headache and spinal cord erythema; relieves or provokes epileptiform convulsions; allays or excites restlessness and insomnia; promotes otorrhoea; useful in chlorosis, dyspepsia and typhoid conditions.

Mind.
Great anxiety and moroseness; forgetfulness for recent events; brutal insensibility during convulsions; alternation of stupor with dangerous violence; visions of terror and fearful hallucinations; delirium with loss of consciousness preceded by tremors; excitable and irritable, refuses all companionship.

Head.
Vertigo on rising, with tendency to fall backwards; confusion of the brain; bruised sensation in occiput and vertex; severe congestive headache compelling the patient to lie with head low; aching pressure in head and spinal cord congestion.

Eyes.
Conjunctiva intensely injected; smarting and burning as if from smoke; heaviness of lids.

Ears.
Purulent discharge, especially after hemicrania; pulsations and ringing during convulsions.

Nose.
Epistaxis with relief of headache; ozzæna with scabs and fissures; constant purulent secretion.

Face.
Flushed or pale; transient flushes in epileptics; distorted features during attacks; frothing with blood-tinged saliva at convulsion’s end.

Mouth.
Maxillary joints firmly clenched; tongue protuded, tremulous and paralysed; bites tongue during convulsions; scanty speech.

Throat.
Scalding sensation in œsophagus; rawness and burning on swallowing.

Stomach.
Anorexia with repugnance to food; food feels heavy and cold; eructations and nausea, especially from gall-region; vomiting of sour or bilious matter.

Abdomen.
Sensation of hepatic and splenic swelling; colic from excessive flatulence; distension around waist as after malaria.

Stool.
Alternating constipation and atonic diarrhoea; haemorrhoidal protrusion with burning and aching in sacral region, > by pressure.

Urinary Organs.
Constant urging to micturate; dark orange urine of strong odour as of horse’s urine.

Sexual Organs.
In females: uterine pains with stabbing in right ovary; promotes menses. In males: none characteristic.

Respiratory Organs.
Dry cough with hepatic discomfort; oppression of chest during convulsions.

Back.
Aching in sacrum and sacro-iliac joints; spinal congestion and bruised soreness.

Extremities.
Marked trembling of limbs and tongue before convulsions; cold feet; general debility.

Skin.
Cold, clammy perspiration; pitting œdema in typhoid states; no primary eruptions.

Sleep.
Sleeplessness with tossing and restlessness; vivid terrifying dreams; inability to remain in bed.

Fever.
Typhoid-type fever with cerebral and medullary congestion; alternate heat and cold; chills rushing up spinal column.

Modalities.
All symptoms < on rising; < in evening and at night; < exposure to cold; > by pressure on haemorrhoids; convulsions preceded by tremor.

Relations.
Compare: Artemisia vulgaris, Abrotanum, Cicuta, Hyoscyamus, Belladonna, Stramonium. Orina odour: Benzoic acid, Nitric acid. Use as intercurrent in minor epilepsy where consciousness is partly preserved.

General Action.
Acts chiefly to produce emaciation and “consumption,” especially of the lower extremities; marked gastrointestinal irritation with intense hunger and inability to assimilate food; rheumatic metastasis from joints to heart and spine; sudden sore pains in back relieved by motion; skin lax and prone to boils; exudation of blood and moisture from the umbilicus of the newborn.

Mind.
Great anxiety and depression; irritability, moroseness; violent fits of anger in children; impulses to cruelty; difficulty of thought; sensation of softening in the brain; occasionally secondary loquacity and exhilaration after cessation of the remedy.

Head.
Cannot hold the head up; left cerebral hemisphere easily fatigued by mental exertion; chills along cerebral convolutions with shooting pains; scalp sore, especially on the left, with itching.

Eyes.
Dark circles under eyes; vision dulled; spots before the eyes.

Ears.
(No prominent clinical symptoms recorded.)

Nose.
Dryness; epistaxis in boys.

Face.
Wrinkled, pale, aged appearance; comedones with emaciation; hollow cheeks.

Mouth.
Viscid, acid taste.

Throat.
(No distinct symptoms beyond those of the mouth.)

Appetite.
Intense gnawing hunger; craving for boiled bread in milk; voracious appetite despite marked emaciation; loss of appetite with gastralgia.

Stomach.
Sensation as if the stomach were hanging or swimming in water, with coldness; burning, gnawing, constrictive pains in the stomach, worse at night.

Abdomen.
Marked distension; weak, sinking sensation in the intestines; hard nodules movable beneath the abdominal walls.

Stool and Anus.
Food passes undigested; alternation of diarrhoea and constipation; rheumatism after suppressed diarrhoea; protruding, burning haemorrhoids tender to touch or pressure, appearing or aggravating as rheumatic pains lessen, with frequent ineffectual desire and only bloody discharge; expulsive of roundworms, especially Ascarides.

Urinary Organs.
(No prominent clinical symptoms recorded.)

Male Sexual Organs.
Hydrocele in children.

Female Sexual Organs.
Stitching ovarian pains, chiefly left; twisting pains in both ovarian regions, extending to the back; blood and moisture exuding from the newborn’s umbilicus.

Respiratory Organs.
Raw, sore sensation of the respiratory tract in cold air; in pleurisy with residual pressure on one side, impeding free respiration (after Acon. and Bry.).

Chest.
(No additional symptoms beyond those under respiratory organs.)

Heart and Pulse.
Sharp, severe chest pain in heart region from rheumatism; rheumatic metastasis to the heart; weak, small pulse.

Back.
Sudden, sore pain in the sacrum, better for motion.

Extremities.
Lower limbs emaciated (marasmus) and weak; inability to move them; bruised soreness and weakness worse in the morning; chilblains, itching, frost-bite of fingers and toes; gouty pains of wrists and ankles; early inflammatory rheumatism before oedema.

Generals.
Debility and aching all over; inability to move; trembling on slightest exertion; prostration after influenza; numbness of parts; tendency to boils following Hepar sulph.; profound emaciation.

Skin.
Flaccid; hangs loosely; boils; impaired healing; chilblains; superficial ulcers after suppressed eruptions.

Sleep.
Restless; frightful dreams.

Fever.
High fever in rheumatism; hectic fever with chill, profound weakness (marasmus).

Modalities.
Worse at night; worse in cold air; better for motion.

Relations.
Compare : Artemisia absinthium, Chamomilla, Cina, Gnaphalium and other Compositae; Nux vomica, Agaricus; Bryonia and Barosma for chilblains.
Follows well : Aconitum and Bryonia in pleurisy; Hepar sulphur in chilblains.

General Action.
Acts principally on the upper digestive tract and the respiratory mucosa. Characteristic is a hard, indigestible sensation lodged at the cardia or lower œsophagus, as of a boiled egg; relieves dyspepsia due to tea or tobacco; eases cough with or without haemoptysis when this sensation as if a hard substance must be expectorated is present.

Mind.
Melancholic, depressed; easily nervous and unable to concentrate or think clearly when the gastric symptoms predominate.

Head.
Vertigo; sensation of malaise or heaviness in the head with flushed, hot cheeks; headache aggravated after eating and accompanied by epigastric distress.

Eyes.
Vision sometimes disturbed by black specks; burning smart in eyes as from smoke; conjunctiva may be mildly injected.

Ears.
Dull aching pain in the left external meatus; hearing easily fatigued when digestive disorder is marked.

Nose.
Frequent coryza with crusting; nasal mucosa dry or alternately congested and runny; nostrils cracked.

Face.
Cheeks flushed or red with concurrent dyspeptic head-symptoms; complexion may appear sallow when chronic.

Mouth.
Tongue coated; eructations of sour or bitter fluid; frequent belching relieves pressure pain.

Throat.
Sensation of choking or constriction low in the throat; as though something is sticking in the lower œsophagus at swallowing.

Appetite.
Great hunger at night with inability to sleep; complete loss of appetite on rising, with ravenous hunger at midday and in the evening; craving for cold drinks.

Stomach.
Pain always appearing after eating; sensation of a hard lump or “egg” in the epigastrium which must be “coughed up” though nothing is expelled; frequent eructations; constant gnawing sense of discomfort, worse when weak.

Abdomen.
Distension and fullness of epigastrium; sensation as if food remains undigested at cardia; flatulence and griping when debilitated.

Stool.
Constipation with atonic rectum; may alternate with occasional semi-fluid evacuation.

Urinary Organs.
No prominent urinary symptoms unless secondary to general weakness; urine normal or slightly scanty.

Female Sexual Organs.
Menstruation delayed by several months; uterine hypochondriasis with dyspeptic headache and epigastric distress.

Respiratory Organs.
Shortness of breath on slightest exertion; cough dry or loose when the “hard body” sensation descends into chest, with or without haemoptysis.

Cardiac.
Pulse slow and heavy; heart-beats laborious, with occasional sharp, cutting pains.

Back.
Tensive or bruised pain in the lumbar region; occasional sensation of coldness across sacrum.

Extremities.
Rheumatic, aching pains in bones and muscles; alternation of heat and chilling in limbs; general weakness.

Generalities.
Marked prostration; tendency to chill around the stomach region even when body otherwise feels cold.

Sleep.
Daytime somnolence yet restless, wakeful night; vivid, unpleasant dreams.

Fever.
Chilliness after meals or when epigastric sensation is severe; overall chill greatly relieved by ingestion of food.

Modalities.
Worse after eating; worse on lying down; ameliorated by external warmth around the stomach.

Relations.
Compare: Abies canadensis, Cupressus species, Thuja, Sabina (all with painful dyspepsia); Nux vomica, Bryonia, Pulsatilla, Kali carbonicum, Natrum muriaticum (for tea and tobacco effects).

Causation.
Symptoms often follow excessive tea or tobacco; aggravated by eating.