Category: Materia Medica

PREFACE NINTH EDITION

In preparing the ninth edition of this work, I have followed the lines laid out for all the previous editions, namely, to present in a condensed form the homśopathic Materia Medica for practical use.

The book contains the well known verified characteristic symptoms of all our medicines besides other less important symptoms aiding the selection of the curative remedy, All the new medicines and essentials of the published clinical experience of the school have been added. In its present compact form it contains the maximum number of reliable Materia Medica facts in the minimum space.

I have tried to give a succinct resume of the symptomatology of every medicine used in Homśopathy, including also clinical suggestions of many drugs so far not yet based on provings, thus offering the opportunity to experiment with these and by future provings discover their distinctive use and so enlarging our armamentarium.

I am aware that there is a difference of opinion about the advisability of further introduction of remedies, especially of such as seem obsolete or to some minds illusory. But it is not for the compiler to leave out information about any substance that has received the clinical endorsement from a reliable source.

Our Materia Medica must include all substances which have been proved and which have been used with apparent efficacy. It rests with the individual student to judge for himself the accuracy and, reliability of such observation. In this connection, I cannot forego to avail myself of the high authority of that master of Homśopathy, Dr. Constantine Hering, favoring the introduction of all remedies capable of producing reactions in the body that may guide to their medicinal employment. “Homśopathy is essentially not only many-sided but all-sided. She investigates the action of all substances, whether articles of diet, beverages, condiments, drugs or poisons. She investigates their action on the healthy, the sick, animals and plants. She gives; a new interpretation to that ancient, oft quoted saying of Paul, Prove all things–a new meaning, a new application that acts universally. Elimination of the useless may gradually take place with the growth of accurate physiological and pathological knowledge.”

Again, imperfectly proved remedies necessitate the use of names of diseases at times instead of the component symptoms that alone are the legitimate guide to the choice of the curative remedy. Here, too, I have Hering as pioneer guide for the ligitimacy of this method, which he also followed in his great work, the Guiding Symptoms. He said that he used the disease designations not for the purpose of recommending the particular remedy for that disease, but to show the great variety of remedies that may be used for any form of disease when otherwise indicated. For the same reason I have included nosological terms in the symptomatology and Therapeutic Index, as this is a practical handbook for every-day service, and any aid for finding the curative remedy ought to be utilized. As Dr. J. Compton Burnett expresses it:

“The fact is we need any and every way of finding the right remedy; the simple simile, the simple symptomatic similimum and the farthest reach of all-the pathologic similimum, and I maintain that we are still well within the line- of Homśopathy that is expansive, progressive, science fostered and science fostering.”

The dosage needs some apology. It is, of course, suggestive only; more often to be wholly disregarded. I have followed the lines of the earlier Homśopathists in this regard, and given what was then considered the usual range of potency, to which I have added my own experience and that of many observing practitioners. Every teacher of Materia Medica is constantly importuned by students to suggest the potency–something to start with at least.

The book is in no sense a treatise, and must not be considered or judged as such. It is as accurate and reliable a compilation and the fullest collection of verified Materia Medica facts and clinical suggestions as it is possible to obtain within the compass of the volume. It supplements every other work on Materia Medica, and if used as a ready reminder of the essential facts of our vast symptomatology and as an introduction to the larger books of reference and record of provings, it will fulfill its purpose and prove a useful aid to the student and general practitioner. As such it is again offered with much appreciation of past endorsement to his professional brethren.

I have been aided in seeing this edition through the press by the efficient help of Mr. F. O. Ernesty, who has lightened the labor of making the manuscript more acceptable to the printers, and I desire to express my hearty appreciation of this kind and helpful service.

BOERICK MD

  • BROMIUM

    Bromine
    (BROMUM)

    Most marked effects are seen in the respiratory symptoms, especially in larynx and trachea. It seems to affect especially scrofulous children with enlarged glands. Blond type. Enlarged parotid and goitre. Tendency to spasmodic attacks. Left-sided mumps. Sense of suffocation; excoriating discharges, profuse sweats and great weakness. Complaints from being over-heated. Tendency to infiltrate glands, become hard, but seldom suppurate.

    Mind.–Delusion that strange persons are looking over patient’s shoulder and that she would see some one on turning. Quarrelsome.

    Head.–Megrim of left side; worse stooping, especially after drinking milk. Headache; worse heat of sun and by rapid motion. Sharp pain through eyes. Dizzy when crossing stream of water.

    Nose.–Coryza, with corrosive soreness of nose. Stoppage of right nostril. Pressure at root of nose. Tickling, smarting, as from cobwebs. Fan-like motion of alæ (Lyc). Bleeding from nose relieving the chest.

    Throat.–Throat feels raw, evening, with hoarseness. Tonsils pain on swallowing, deep red, with network of dilated blood vessels. Tickling in trachea during inspiration. Hoarseness coming on from being overheated.

    Stomach and Abdomen.–Sharp burning from tongue to stomach. Pressure as of stone. Gastralgia; better eating. Tympanitic distention of abdomen. Painful hæmorrhoids, with black stool.

    Respiratory.–Whooping cough (Use persistently for about ten days). Dry cough, with hoarseness and burning pain behind sternum. Spasmodic cough, with rattling of mucus in the larynx; suffocative. Hoarseness. Croup after febrile symptoms have subsided. Difficult and painful breathing. Violent cramping of chest. Chest pains run upward. Cold sensation when inspiring. Every inspiration provokes cough. Laryngeal diphtheria, membrane begins in larynx and spreads upward. Spasmodic constriction. Asthma; difficulty in getting air into lung (Chlorum, in expelling). Better at sea, of seafaring men when they come on land. Hypertrophy of heart from gymnastics (Rhus). Fibrinous bronchitis, great dyspnœa. Bronchial tubes feel filled with smoke.

    Male.–Swelling of testicles. Indurated, with pains worse slight jar.

    Female.–Swelling of ovaries. Menses too early; too profuse, with membranous shreds. Low spirited before menses. Tumor in breasts, with stitching pains; worse left. Stitch pains from breast to axillæ. Sharp shooting pain in left breast, worse, pressure.

    Sleep.–Full of dreams and anguish; jerking and starting during sleep, full of fantasy and illusions; difficult to go to sleep at night, cannot sleep enough in morning; trembling and weak on awaking.

    Skin.–Acne, pimples and pustules. Boils on arms and face. Glands stony, hard, especially on lower jaw and throat. Hard goitre (Spong). Gangrene.

    Modalities.–Worse, from evening, until midnight, and when sitting in warm room; warm damp weather when at rest and lying left side. Better, from any motion; exercise, at sea.

    Relationship.–Antidotes: Ammon carb; Camph. Salt inhibits the action of Brom.

    Compare: Conium; Spongia; Iod; Aster; Arg nit. Avoid milk when taking Brom. Hydrobromic acid (Throat dry and puckering; constriction in pharynx and chest; waves of heat over face and neck; pulsating tinnitus with great nervous irritability (Houghton); vertigo, palpitation; arms heavy; seemed as if parts did not belong to him. Seems to have a specific effect on the inferior cervical ganglion, increasing the tonic action of the sympathetic, thus promoting vaso-constriction. Relieves headache, tinnitus and vertigo, especially in vaso-motor stomach disturbance. Dose, 20 minims).

    Dose.–First to third attenuation. Must be prepared fresh, as it is liable to rapid deterioration.

  • BRACHYGLOTTIS REPENS

    Puka-Puka
    (BRACHYGLOTTIS)

    Fluttering sensation (Caladium). Kidney and bladder symptoms predominate. Produces symptoms of albuminuria. Itching in ears and nostrils. Bright’s disease. Oppression of chest. Writer’s cramp.

    Abdomen.–Feeling as if something rolling about. Fluttering in region of ovary.

    Urinary.–Pressure in neck of bladder; urging to urinate. Sense of swashing in bladder. Soreness in urethra; feeling as if urine could not be retained. Urine contains mucous corpuscles and epithelium, albumen and casts.

    Extremities.–Cramp in fingers, thumb, and wrist when writing-soreness extending along flexor carpi ulnaris.

    Relationship.–Compare: Apis; Helonias; Merc cor; Plumbum.

    Dose.–Third potency.

  • BOVISTA LYCOPERDON

    Puff-Ball
    (BOVISTA)

    Has a marked effect on the skin, producing eruption like eczema, also upon the circulation, predisposing to hæmorrhages; marked languor and lassitude. Adapted to stammering children, old maids with palpitation; and “tettery” patients. Stage of numbness and tingling in multiple neuritis. Asphyxia due to charcoal fumes.

    Mind.–Enlarged sensation (Arg n). Awkward; everything falls from hands. Sensitive.

    Head.–Sensation as if head were enlarging, especially of occiput. Distensive headache; worse early morning, open air, lying. Discharge from nose stringy, tough. Dull, bruised pain in brain. Stammering (Stram; Merc). Scalp itches; worse, warmth; sensitive; must scratch until sore.

    Face.–Scurf and crusts about nostrils and corners of mouth. Lips chapped. Bleeding of nose and gums. Cheeks and lips feel swollen. Acne worse in summer; due to use of cosmetics.

    Stomach.–Sensation as of a lump of ice. Intolerant of tight clothing around waist.

    Female.–Diarrhœa before and during menses. Menses too early and profuse; worse at night. Voluptuous sensation. Leucorrhœa acrid, thick, tough, greenish, follows menses. Cannot bear tight clothing around waist (Lach). Traces of menses between menstruation. Soreness of pubes during menses. Metrorrhagia; Parovarian cysts.

    Abdomen.–Colic, with red urine; relieved by eating. Must bend double. Pain around umbilicus. Stitches through perineum towards rectum and genitals.

    Chronic diarrhœa of old people; worse at night and early morning.

    Extremities.–Great weakness of all joints; clumsiness with her hands, drops things from hands. Weariness of hands and feet. Sweat in axillæ; onion smell. Tip of coccyx itches intolerably. Moist eczema on back of hand. Itching of feet and legs. Œdema in joints after fracture.

    Skin.–Blunt instrument leave deep impression on the skin. Urticaria on excitement, with rheumatic lameness, palpitation and diarrhœa (Dulc). Itching on getting warm. Eczema, moist; formation of thick crusts. Pimples cover the entire body; scurvy; herpetic eruptions. Pruritus ani. Urticaria on waking in the morning, worse from bathing. Pellagra.

    Relationship.–Bovista antidotes tar applications. Suffocation from gas. After Rhus in chronic urticaria.

    Compare: Calc; Rhus; Sepia; Cicuta.

    Dose.–Third to sixth potency.

  • BOTULINUM

    Toxin of Bacillus Botulinum

    Food poisoning from canned spinach produced a clinical picture suggested in a bulbar paresis.

    Eye symptoms, ptosis, double vision, blurred vision.

    Difficulty in swallowing and breathing, choking sensation; weakness and uncertainty in walking, “blind staggers”, dizziness, thickening of speech. Cramping pain in stomach.

    Mask-like expression of face, due to weakness of facial muscles. Severe constipation.

    Dose.–Higher potencies.

  • BOTHROPS LANCEOLATUS

    Yellow Viper
    (BOTHROPS LANCIOLATUS – LACHESIS LANCIOLATUS)

    Its venom is most coagulating, (also Lachesis). We should expect to find under these remedies the symptomatology of thrombosis, also thrombotic phenomena, as hemiplegia, aphasia, inability to articulate (Linn J. Boyd).

    Broken-down, hæmorrhagic constitutions; septic states. Great lassitude and sluggishness; hæmorrhages from every orifice of the body; black spots. Hemiplegia with aphasia. Inability to articulate, without any affection of the tongue. Nervous trembling. Pain in right big toe. Diagonal course of symptoms. Pulmonary congestion.

    Eyes.–Amaurosis; blindness from hæmorrhage into retina. Hemoralopia, day blindness, can hardly see her way after sunrise; conjunctivial hæmorrhage.

    Face.–Swollen and puffy. Besotted expression.

    Throat.–Red, dry, constricted; swallowing difficult, cannot pass liquids.

    Stomach.–Epigastric distress. Black vomiting. Intense hæmatemesis. Tympanitis and bloody stools.

    Skin.–Swollen, livid, cold with hæmorrhagic infiltration. Gangrene. Lymphatics swollen. Anthrax. Malignant erysipelas.

    Modalities.–Worse, right side.

    Relationship.–Compare: Toxicophis.–Moccasin Snake (pain and fever recur annually, after bite from this snake, and sometimes change location with disappearance of first symptoms. An unusual dryness of skin follows the bite. Œdematous swellings and periodical neuralgia. Pain travels from one part to another). Other snake poisons, notably Lachesis.

    Trachinus,-Stingfish (intolerable pains, swelling, acute blood, poisoning, gangrene).

    Dose.–Sixth to thirtieth potency.

  • BORAX VENETA

    Borate of Sodium
    (BORAX)

    Gastro-intestinal irritation. Salivation, nausea, vomiting, colic, diarrhœa, collapse, albuminuria, casts and vesical spasm. Delirium, visual changes, hæmaturia, and skin eruptions have all been observed from over-dosing.

    Dread of downward motion in nearly all complaints. For homeopathic purposes, the peculiar nervous symptoms are very characteristic, and have frequently been verified, especially in the therapeutics of children. Of much value in epilepsy. Aphthous ulceration of mucous membranes.

    Mind.–Extreme anxiety, especially from motions which have a downward direction, rocking, being carried downstairs, laid down. Anxious expression of face during the downward motions, starts and throws up hands on laying patient down, as if afraid of falling. Excessively nervous; easily frightened. Sensitive to sudden noises. Violent fright from report of a gun, even at a distance. Fear of thunder.

    Head.–Aches, with nausea and trembling of whole body. Hair tangled at tips, cannot be separated, as in Plica Polonica (Vinca min).

    Eyes.–Lashes turn inward. Visions of bright waves. Eyelids inflamed, lids cut against eyeball. Entropium.

    Ears.–Very sensitive to slightest noise; not so much disturbed by louder ones.

    Nose.–Red nose, of young women (Nat carb). Red and shining swelling, with throbbing and tensive sensation. Tip swollen and ulcerated. Dry crusts.

    Face.–Pale, earthy, with suffering expression. Swollen, with pimples on nose and lips. Feeling of cobwebs.

    Mouth.–Aphthæ. White fungous like growth. Mouth hot and tender; ulcers bleed on touch and eating. Painful gumboil. Crying when nursing. Taste bitter (Bry; Puls; Cup). Taste of “cellar mould”.

    Stomach and Abdomen.–Distention after eating; vomiting. Gastralgia, depending upon uterine disturbance. Pain as if diarrhœa would result.

    Stool.–Loose, pappy, offensive stools in children. Diarrhœa, offensive, preceded by colic; stools mucous, with aphthous sore mouth.

    Urine.–Hot, smarting pain in orifice. Pungent smell. Child afraid to urinate, screams before urinating (Sarsap). Small red particles on diaper.

    Female.–Labor pains with frequent eructations. Galactorrhœa (Cal; Con; Bell). In nursing, pain in opposite breast. Leucorrhœa like white of eggs, with sensation as if warm water was flowing. Menses too soon, profuse, with griping, nausea and pain in stomach extending into small of back. Membranous dysmenorrhœa. Sterility. Favors easy conception. Sensation of distention in clitoris with sticking. Pruritus of vulva and eczema.

    Respiratory.–Hacking and violent cough; expectoration, moldy taste and smell. Stitches in chest, with inspiration and cough. Cough with moldy taste-breath smells moldy. Pleurodynia; worse upper part of right chest. Arrest of breathing when lying; is obliged to jump and catch breath, which causes pain in right side. Out of breath on going up stairs.

    Extremities.–Feeling as of cobwebs on hands. Itching on back of finger-joints and hands. Throbbing pain in tip of thumb. Stitches in sole. Pain in heel. Burning pain in great toe; inflammation of balls of toes. Eczema of toes and fingers with loss of nails.

    Skin.–Psoriasis. Erysipelas in face. Itching on back of finger-joints. Unhealthy skin; slight injuries suppurate. Herpes (Rhus). Erysipelatous inflammation with swelling and tension. Chilblains relieved in open air. Trade eruptions on fingers and hands, itching and stinging. Ends of hair become tangled.

    Sleep.–Voluptuous dreams. Cannot sleep on account of heat, especially in head. Cries out of sleep as if frightened (Bell).

    Modalities.–Worse, downward motion, noise, smoking, warm weather, after menses. Better, pressure, evening, cold weather.

    Relationship.–Acetic acid, vinegar, and wine are incompatible.

    Antidote: Cham; Coffea.

    Compare: Calc; Bryon; Sanicula; Sulph ac.

    Dose.–First to third trituration. In skin diseases continue its use for several weeks. Locally, in pruritus pudendi. A piece of borax, the size of a pea, dissolved in the mouth, acts magically in restoring the voice, in cases of sudden hoarseness brought on by cold, and frequently for an hour or so, it renders the voice silvery and clear.

  • BORICUM ACIDUM

    Boracic Acid

    Used as an antiseptic disinfectant, since it arrests fermentation and putrefaction.

    Pain in region of ureters, with frequent urging to urinate. Coldness (Heloderm). Diabetes, tongue dry, red, and cracked. Cold saliva.

    Skin.–Multiform erythema of trunk and upper extremities. Œdema around eyes. Exfoliating dermatitis. Œdema of tissues around eyes.

    Female.–Climacteric flushings (Lach; Amyl nit). Vagina cold, as if packed with ice. Frequent urination with burning and tenesmus.

    Dose.–Third trituration.

    Non-homeopathic Uses.–When the diplococcus of Weichselbaum is present in the sputum of pharyngitis or bronchitis, pneumonia with tenacious sputum, hacking cough and pain, five-grain doses six times daily. A solution of Boracic Acid, as an injection, in chronic, cystitis, or, a teaspoonful to a glass of hot milk, taken internally. Boro-Glyceride in solution (1:40) is a powerful antiseptic. Styes, 15 gr to 1 oz water externally. As a dusting powder on ulcerated surfaces. In cystitis as an irrigating fluid.

  • BOLETUS LARICIS

    White Agaric
    (POLYPORUS OFFICINALE)

    Quotidian intermittent fever. Sweat is light, and without relief. Night-sweat in phthisis.

    Head.–Feels light and hollow with deep frontal headache. Thick, yellow coating of tongue; teeth indented. Constant nausea.

    Fever.–Chilliness along spine, with frequent, hot flashes. Yawns and stretches when chilly. Severe aching in shoulders and joints and small of back. Profuse perspiration at night, with hectic chills and fever.

    Skin.–Hot and dry, especially in palms. Itching more between scapulæ and on forearms.

    Relationship.–Compare: Agaricin, active constituent of Polyporus officinale (phthisical and other enervating nightsweats 1-4 to 1-2 gr doses; also in chorea, in dilatation of heart with pulmonary Emphysema, fatty degeneration, profuse perspiration and erythema). Boletus luridus (Violent pain in epigastrium, urticaria tuberosa). Boletus satanus (dysentery, vomiting, great debility, cold extremities, spasm of extremities and face).

    Dose.–First attenuation.

  • BLATTA ORIENTALIS

    Indian Cockroach

    A remedy for asthma. Especially when associated with bronchitis. Indicated after arsenic when this is insufficient.

    Cough with dyspnœa in bronchitis and phthisis. Acts best in stout and corpulent patients. Much pus-like mucus.

    Dose.–Lowest potencies during an attack. After the spasm, for the remaining cough, use the higher. Stop with improvement to prevent return of aggravation.

  • BLATTA AMERICANA

    Cockroach

    Ascites. Various forms of dropsy. Yellow complexion. Extreme weariness. Pain in urethra on urinating. Weariness on going upstairs.

    Dose.–Sixth potency.