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

  • Helleborus Niger

    Christmas Rose. (Ranunculaceae.)

    Weakly, delicate,, psoric children; prone to brain troubles (Bell., Cal., Tub.); with serous effusion. Melancholy: woeful; despairing; silent; with anguish; after typhoid; in girls at puberty, or when menses fail to return after appearing. Irritable, easily angered; consolation < (Ign., Nat., Sep., Sil.); does not want to be disturbed (Gels., Nat.); Unconscious; stupid; answers slowly when questioned; a picture of acute idiocy (of chronic, Bar. c.). Brain symptoms during dentition (Bell., Pod.); threatening effusion (Apis., Tub.). Meningitis: acute, cerebro-spinal, tubercular, with exudation; paralysis more or less complete; with the cri encephalique. Vacant, thoughtless staring; eyes wide open; insensible to light; pupils dilated, or alternately contracted and dilated. Soporous sleep, with screams, shrieks, starts. Hydrocephalus, post-scarlatinal or tubercular which develops rapidly (Apis, Sulph., Tub.); automatic motion of one arm and leg. Convulsions with extreme coldness of body, except head or occiput, which may be hot (Arn.). Greedily swallows cold water; bites spoon, but remains unconscious. Chewing motion of the mouth; corners of mouth sore, cracked; nostrils dirty and sooty, dry. Constantly picking his lips, clothes, or boring into his nose with the finger (while perfectly conscious, Arum.). Boring head into pillow: rolling from side to side; beating head with hands. Diarrhoea: during acute hydrocephalus, dentition, pregnancy; watery; clear, tenacious, colorless, mucus; white, jelly-like mucus; like frog spawn; involuntary. Urine: red, black, scanty, coffee-ground sediment; suppressed in brain troubles and dropsy; albuminous. Dropsy: of brain, chest, abdomen; after scarlatina, intermittents; with fever, debility, suppressed urine; from suppressed exanthemata (Apis, Zinc.).

    Relations. – Compare: Apis, Apos., Ars., Bell., Bry., Dig., Lach., Sulph., Tab., Zinc. in brain or meningeal affections.

  • Hamamelis Virginica

    Witch Hazel. (Hamamclaceae.)

    This shrub flowers from September to November, when the leaves are falling. The seeds mature the following summer. It is adapted to venous haemorrhage from every orifice of the body; nose, lungs, bowels, uterus, bladder. Venous congestion; passive, of skin and mucous membranes; phlebitis, varicose veins; ulcers, varicose, with stinging, pricking pain; haemorrhoids. Patients, subject to varicose veins, take cold easily from every exposure, especially in warm, moist air. “Is the Aconite of the venous capillary system.”. Bruised soreness of affected parts (Arn.); rheumatism, articular and muscular. Wounds: incised, lacerated, contused; injuries from falls; checks haemorrhage, removes pain and soreness (Arn.). Chronic effects of mechanical injuries (Con.). Traumatic conjunctivitis; sugillations, or extravasations into chambers of eye; from severe coughing; intense soreness (Arn., Calen., Led.). Nosebleed: flow passive, long-lasting, blood non-coagulable (Crot.); profuse > headache (Mel.); idiopathic, traumatic, vicarious, of childhood. Haemorrhage: profuse, dark, grumous, from ulceration of bowels (Crot.); uterine, active or passive; after a fall or rough riding; vicarious menstruation; no mental anxiety. Haemoptysis: tickling cough, with taste of blood or sulphur; venous, without effort or coughing; sometimes monthly, for years. Profuse discharges, which simulate a haemorrhage, and form a drain upon system as severe as loss of blood. Haemorrhoids: bleeding profusely; with burning, soreness, fullness, heaviness; as if back would break; urging to stool; bluish color; anus feels sore and raw. Menses: flow, dark and profuse; with soreness in abdomen; after a blow on ovary, or a fall; all suffering < at menstrual period (Act., Puls.). Uterine haemorrhage active or passive; from jolting while riding over rough roads; bearing down pain in back. After haemorrhage from piles, prostration out of all proportion to amount of blood lost (Hydr.). Bad effects from loss of blood (Cinch.).

    Relations. – Complementary: Ferrum, in haemorrhages and the haemorrhagic diathesis. Compare: Arn., Calen., for traumatic, and to hasten absorption of introcular haemorrhage.

  • Graphites

    Black Lead. (Amorphous Carbon.)

    Suited to women, inclined to obesity, who suffer from habitual constipation; with a history of delayed menstruation. “What Pulsatilla is at puberty, Graphites is at the climacteric.”. Excessive cautiousness; timid; hesitates; unable to decide about anything (Puls.). Fidgety while sitting at work (Zinc.). Sad, despondent; music makes her weep; thinks of nothing but death (music is intolerable, Nat. c., Sab.). Eczema of lids; eruption moist and fissured; lids red and margins covered with scales or crusts. Sexual debility from sexual abuse. Menses: too scanty, pale, late with violent colic; irregular; delayed from getting feet wet (Puls.). Morning sickness during menstruation; very weak and prostrated (Alum., Carbo an., Coc.). Leucorrhoea: acrid, excoriating; occurs in gushes day and night; before and after menses (before Sep., after, Kreos.). Hard cicatrices remaining after mammary abscess, retarding the flow of milk; cancer of breast, from old scars and repeated abscesses. Unhealthy skin; every injury suppurates (Hep.); old cicatrices break open again; eruptions upon the ears, between fingers and toes and on various parts of body, from which oozes a watery, transparent sticky fluid. The nails brittle, crumbling, deformed (Ant. c.); painful, sore, as if ulcerated; thick and crippled. Cracks or fissures in ends of fingers, nipples, labial comminssures; of anus; between the toes. Burning round spot on vertex (Cal., Sulph. – cold spot, Sep., Ver.). Cataleptic condition; conscious, but without power to move or speak. Takes cold easily, sensitive to draught of air (Bor., Cal., Hep., Nux). Suffering parts emaciate. Hears better when in a noise; when riding in a carriage or car, when there is a rumbling sound (Nit. ac.). Diarrhoea: stools brown, fluid, mixed with undigested substances, and of an intolerable odor; often caused by suppressed eruptions (Psor.). Chronic constipation; stool difficult, large, hard, knotty, with lumps united by mucous threads; too large (Sulph.); smarting sore pain in anus after stool. Children: impudent, teasing, laugh at reprimands. Sensation of cobwebs on forehead, tries hard to brush it off (Bar., Bor., Brom., Ran. s.). Phlegmonus erysipelas: of face, with burning, stinging pain; commencing on right side, going to left; after application of iodine. Decided aversion to coition (both sexes).

    Relations. – Complementary: Caust., Hep., Lyc. Graphites follows well: after Lyc., Puls., after Cal. in obesity of young women with large amount of unhealthy adipose tissue; follows Sulph. well in skin affections; after Sepia in gushing leucorrhoea. Similar: to, Lyc., Puls. in menstrual troubles.

    Aggravation. – At night, during and after menstruation.

  • Glonoine

    Nitro-glycerine. (C3H4(NO2)O3)

    Nervous temperament; plethoric, florid, sensitive women; persons readily affected. Bad effects of mental excitement, fright, fear, mechanical injuries and their later consequences; from having the hair cut. (Acon., Bell.). Head troubles: from working under gas-light, when heat falls on head; cannot bear heat about the head, heat of stove or walking in the sun (Lach., Nat. c.). Cerebral congestion, or alternate congestion of the head and heart. Head: feels enormously large; as if skull were too small for brain; sunstroke and sun headache; increases and decreases every day with the sun (Kal., Nat. c.). Terrific shock in the head, synchronous with the pulse. Throbbing, pulsating headache; holds head with both hands; could not lie down, “the pillow would beat.”. Brain feels too large, full, bursting; blood seems to be pumped upwards; throbs at every jar, step, pulse. Intense congestion of brain from delayed or suppressed menses; headache in place of menses. Headache: occurring after profuse uterine haemorrhage; rush of blood to head, in pregnant women. Violent palpitation, with throbbing in carotids; heart’s action labored, oppressed; blood seems to rush to heart, and rapidly to head. Convulsions of children from cerebral congestion; meningitis, during dentition, cases that seem to call for Belladonna. Children get sick in the evening when sitting before and open coal fire, or falling asleep there. Flushes of heat; at the climacteric (Amyl., Bell., Lach.); with the catmenia (Fer., Sang.).

    Relations. – Compare: Amyl., Bell., Ferr., Gels., Melil., Stram.

    Aggravation. – In the sun, exposure to sun’s rays; gas- light; overheating; jar; stooping; ascending; touch of hat; having the hair cut.

  • Gelsemium

    Yellow Jasmine. (Loganiaceae)

    For children, young people, especially women of a nervous, hysterical temperament (Croc., Ign.). Complete relaxation and prostration of whole muscular system with entire motor paralysis. Excitable, irritable, sensitive; for the nervous affections of onanists of both sexes (Kali p.). Bad effects from fright, fear, exciting news and sudden motions (Ign. – from pleasant surprise, Coff.). Fear of death (Ars.); utter lack of courage. The anticipation of any unusual ordeal, preparing for church, theatre, or to meet an engagement, brings on diarrhoea; stage fright, nervous dread of appearing in public (Arg. n.). General depression from heat of sun or summer. Weakness and trembling; of tongue, hands, legs; of the entire body. Desire to be quiet, to be let alone; does not wish to speak or have any one near her, even if the person be silent (Ign.). Vertigo, spreading from the occiput (Sil.); with diplopia, dim vision, loss of sight; seems intoxicated when trying to move. Children; fear of falling, grasp the crib or seize the nurse (Bor., Sanic.). Headache; preceded by blindness (Kali bi.), > by profuse urination. Lack of muscular co-ordination; confused; muscles refuse to obey the will. Headache: beginning in the cervical spine; pains extend over head, causing bursting sensation in forehead and eyeballs (Sang., Sil., begins in the same way, but semi-lateral); < by mental exertion; from smoking; heat of sun; lying with head low. Sensation of band around the head above eyes (Carb. ac., Sulph.); scalp sore to touch. Fears that unless on the move heart will cease beating (fears it would cease beating if she moved, Dig.). Slow pulse of old age. Great heaviness of the eyelids; cannot keep them open (Caust., Graph., Sep.). Chill without thirst, especially along spine, running up and down the back in rapid, wave-like succession from sacrum to occiput.

    Relations. – Compare: Bap. in threatening typhoid fever; Ipecac. in dumb ague, after suppression by quinine.

    Aggravation. – Damp weather; before a thunderstorm; mental emotion or excitement; bad news; tobacco smoking; when thinking of his ailments; when spoken to of his loss.

  • Fluoric acid

    Hydrofluoric Acid. (HF.)

    Complaints of old age, or of premature old age; in syphilitic mercurial dyscrasia; young people look old. Increased ability to exercise without danger (Coca.); is less affected by excessive heat of summer or cold of winter. Old cicatrices become red around edges, and threaten to become open ulcers (Caust., Graph.). Varicose veins and ulcers, obstinate, long standing cases, in women who have borne many children. Caries and necrosis, especially of long bones, psoric or syphilitic, abuse of mercury or silica (Angus.). Naenuv, flat, of children (r. temple); capillary aneurism (compare, Cal. fl., Tub.). Ulcers: red edges and vesicles; decubitus; copious discharge; < from warmth, > from cold; violent pains, like streaks of lightning, confined to a small spot. Rapid caries of teeth; fistula dentalis or lachrymalis; exostosis of bone so face (Hekla).

    Relations. – Complementary: Coca, Sil. Follows well: after, Ars. in ascites of drunkards; after, Kali c. in hip disease; after, Coff., Staph. in sensitive teeth; after, Phos. ac. in diabetes; after Sil., Symph. in bone diseases; after, Spong. in goitre.

  • Ferrum Metallicum

    Iron. (The Element.)

    Persons of sanguine temperament;; pettish, quarrelsome, disputative, easily excited, least contradiction angers (Anac., Coc., Ign.); > mental exertion. Irritability: slight noises like crackling of paper drive him to despair (Asar., Tar.). Women who are weak, delicate, chlorotic, yet have a fiery red face. Extreme paleness of the face, lips and mucous membranes which becomes red and flushed on the least pain, emotion or exertion. Blushing (Amyl., Coca.). Erethitic chlorosis, worse in winter. Red parts become white; face, lips, tongue and mucous membrane of mouth. Vertigo: with balancing sensation,, as if on water; on seeing flowing water; when walking over water, as when crossing a bridge (Lys.); on descending (Bor., Sanic.). Headache: hammering, beating, pulsating pains, must lie down; with aversion to eating or drinking. For two, three or four days every two or three weeks. Menses: too early, too profuse, too long lasting, with fiery red face; ringing in the ears; intermit two or three days and then return; flow pale, watery, debilitating. Haemorrhagic diathesis; blood bright red, coagulates easily (Fer. p., Ipec., Phos.). Regurgitation and eructation of food in mouthfuls (Alum.). without nausea. Canine hunger, or loss of appetite, with extreme dislike for all food. Vomiting: immediately after midnight; of ingesta, as soon as food is eaten; leaves table suddenly and with one effort vomits everything eaten, can sit down and eat again; sour, acid (Lyc., Sul. ac.). Diarrhoea: undigested stools at night, or while eating or drinking (Crot. t.); painless with a good appetite; of consumptives [Compare Kent’s Lectures]. Constipation: from intestinal atony; ineffectual urging; stools hard, difficult, followed by backache or cramping pain in rectum; prolapsus recti of children; itching on anus at night. Always feels better by walking slowly about, although weakness obliges the patient to lie down. Cough only in the day time (Euphr.); relieved by lying down; > by eating (Spong.). Dropsy; after loss of vital fluids; abuse of quinine; suppressed intermittent (Carbo v., Cinch.).

    Relations. – Complementary: to, Alum., Cinch. Cinch.: the vegetable analogue follows well in nearly all diseases, acute or chronic. Should never be given in syphilis; always aggravates the condition.

    Aggravation. – At night; at rest, especially while sitting still.

    Amelioration. – Walking slowly about; in summer.

  • Euphrasia

    Eyebright. (Scrophularaceae.)

    Bad effects from falls, contusions or mechanical injuries of external parts (Arn.). Catarrhal affections of mucous membranes, especially of the eyes and nose. Profuse acrid lachrymation, with profuse, bland coryza (reverse of All. c.). The eyes water all the time and are agglutinated in the morning; margins of lids red, swollen, burning. Profuse fluent coryza in morning with violent cough and abundant expectoration, < from exposure to warm south wind. When attempting to clear the throat of an offensive mucus in the morning, gagging until he vomits the breakfast just eaten (Bry.). Profuse expectoration of mucus by voluntary hawking, < on rising in morning. Amenorrhoea, with catarrhal symptoms of eyes and nose; profuse acrid lachrymation. Menses: painful, regular, now lasting only one hour; or late, scanty, short, lasting only one day (Bar.). Pertussis: excessive lachrymation during cough; cough only in day time (Fer., Nat. m.).

    Relations. – Similar: to, Puls. in affections of the eyes; reverse of All. c. in lachrymation and coryza.

    Aggravation. – In the evening, in bed, indoors, warmth, moisture; after exposure to south wind; when touched (Hep.).

  • Eupatorium Perfoliatum

    Boneset. (Compositae.)

    Adapted to diseases of old people; worn-out constitutions, especially from inebriety; cachexia, from prolonged or frequent attacks of bilious or intermittent fevers. Bruised feeling, as if broken, all over the body (Arn., Bellis, Pyr.). Bone pains affecting back, head, chest, limbs, especially the wrists, as if dislocated. The more general and severe, the better adapted (compare, Bry., Mer.). Painful soreness of eyeballs; coryza, aching in every bone; great prostration in epidemic influenza (Lac. c.). Pains come quickly and go quickly and go away quickly (Bell., Mag. p., Eup. pur.). Vertigo; sensation as if falling to the left (cannot turn the head to the left for fear of alling, Col.). Cough: chronic; loose with hectic; chest sore, must support it with hands (Bry., Nat. c.); < at night; following measles or suppressed intermittents. Fever: chill to 9 a. m. one day, at noon the next day; bitter vomiting at close of chill; drinking hastens chill and causes vomiting; bone pains, before and during chill. Insatiable thirst before and during chill and fever; knows chill is coming because he cannot drink enough.

    Relations. – Is followed well: by, Nat. m. and Sep. Compare: Chel., Pod., Lyc., in jaundiced conditions. Bryonia is the nearest analogue, having free sweat, but pains keep patient quiet; while Eup. has scanty sweat and pains make patient restless.

  • Equisetum Hyemale

    Scouring Rush. (Equisetaceae.)

    Sever dull pain in the bladder, as from distension, not > after urinating. Frequent and intolerable urging to urinate, with severe pain at close of urination (Berb., Sars., Thuja). Constant desire to urinate; large quantity of clear, watery urine, without > (scanty, a few drops, Apis, Canth.). Sharp, burning, cutting pain in urethra while urinating. Paralysis of bladder in old women. Enuresis diurna et nocturna: profuse watery urine, where habit is the only ascertainable cause.

    Relations. – Compare: Apis, Canth., Fer. p., Puls., Squilla.