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

  • TROMBIDIUM MUSCAE DOMESTICAE

    Red acarus of the fly
    (TROMBIDIUM)

    Has a specific place in the treatment of dysentery. Symptoms are worse by food and drink.

    Abdomen.–Much pain before and after stool; stool only after eating. Griping in hypochondrium in morning. Congestion of the liver, with urgent, loose, stools on rising. Brown, thin, bloody stools, with tenesmus. During stool, sharp pain in left side, shooting downward. Burning in anus.

    Dose.–Sixth to thirtieth potency.

  • TRITICUM REPENS-AGROPYRON REPENS

    Couch-Grass
    (TRITICUM)

    An excellent remedy in excessive irritability of the bladder, dysuria, cystitis, gonorrhœa.

    Nose.–Always blowing nose.

    Urinary.–Frequent, difficult, and painful urination (Pop). Gravelly deposits. Catarrhal and purulent discharges (Pareira). Strangury, pyelitis; enlarged prostate. Chronic cystic irritability. Incontinence; constant desire. Urine is dense and causes irritation of the mucous surfaces.

    Relationship.–Compare: Tradescantia; (Hæmorrhage from ear and upper air passages; painful urination, urethral discharge; scrotum inflamed). Chimaph; Senecio; Populus trem; Buchu; Uva.

    Polytrichum Juniperinum-Ground Moss–(Painful urination of old people; dropsy, urinary obstruction and suppression).

    Dose.–Tincture or infusion by boiling two ounces in a quart of water until it is reduced to a pint. To be taken in four doses in 24 hours.

  • TRIOSTEUM PERFOLIATUM

    Fever-root

    Triosteum is a very valuable remedy in diarrhśa attended with colicky pains and nausea, numbness of lower limbs after stool, and increased flow of urine; also in influenza. Quiets nervous symptoms (Coffea, Hyos). Biliousness. Bilious colic.

    Head.–Occipital pain, with nausea on rising, followed by vomiting. Influenza, with aching pains all over, and heat in the limbs. Ozćna; frontal pain.

    Stomach.–Loathing of food; nausea on rising, followed by vomiting and cramps. Stools watery, frothy.

    Extremities.–Stiffness of all joints; calves numb; aching in bones. Rheumatic pain in back. Pains in limbs.

    Skin.–Itching welts. Urticaria from gastric derangement.

    Dose.–Sixth potency.

  • TRINITROTOLUENUM

    T. N. T.
    (TRINITROTOLUENE)

    Symptoms found in munition workers handling T. N. T who inhale and ingest it and also absorb some through the skin. They were compiled by Dr. Conrad Wesselhoeft and published in the December, 1926 number of the Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy.

    The destructive action of T. N. T on the red blood corpuscles is responsible for the anæmia and the jaundice with their secondary symptoms. The hemoglobin is changed so it cannot act satisfactorily as an oxygen carrier and as a result we have breathlessness, dizziness, headache, faintness, palpitation, undue fatigue, muscle cramps and cyanosis; also drowsiness, depression and insomnia. Later stages of the poisoning produce toxic jaundice and aplastic anæmia. The jaundice is the result of cellular destruction in contrast to obstructive jaundice.

    Head.–Depression and headache (frontal). Aversion to company, apathetic and weeps easily. Faintness, dizziness, mental sluggishness; delirium, convulsions, coma. Face very dark.

    Respiratory.–Nose dry with stuffed sensation. Sneezing, coryza, burning of trachea, choking weight on chest; dry, convulsive cough, raising mucous plugs.

    Gastro-Intestinal.–Bitter taste, much thirst, sour regurgitation; dull burning behind the ensiform; nausea, vomiting, constipation followed by diarrhœa with cramps.

    Cardio-Vascular.–Palpitation, tachycardia, bradycardia, intermittent pulse.

    Urinary.–High colored urine, burning on urination, sudden desire, incontinence and retention.

    Skin.–Hands stained yellow. Dermatitis, nodular erythema, vesicles, itching and burning; puffiness. Tendency to hæmorrhage under the skin and from the nose. Tired pain in back of knees.

    Modalities.–Worse, alcohol (falls after one or two drinks of whisky). Tea (marked aversion).

    Relationship.–Compare: Zinc; Phosph; Cina; Ars; Plumbum.

    Dose.–Thirtieth potency has been used with success.

  • TRILLIUM PENDULUM

    White Beth-root

    A general hæmorrhagic medicine, with great faintness and dizziness. Chronic diarrhœa of bloody mucus. Uterine hæmorrhage. Threatened abortion. Relaxation of pelvic region. Cramp-like pains. Phthisis with purulent and copious expectoration and spitting of blood.

    Head.–Pain in forehead; worse, noise. Confused; eyeballs feel too large. Vision blurred; everything looks bluish. Nose-bleed (Millef; Melilot).

    Mouth.–Hæmorrhage from gums. Bleeding after tooth extraction.

    Stomach.–Heat and burning stomach rising up in œsophagus. Hæmatemesis.

    Rectum.–Chronic diarrhœa; discharge bloody. Dysentery,; passage almost pure blood.

    Female.–Uterine hæmorrhages, with sensation as though hips and back were falling to pieces; better tight bandages. Gushing of bright blood on least movement. Hæmorrhage from fibroids (Calc; Nitr ac; Phos; Sulph ac). Prolapse, with great bearing-down. Leucorrhœa copious, yellow, stringy (Hydras; Kali b; Sabin). Metrorrhagia at climacteric. Lochia suddenly becomes sanguinous. Dribbling of urine after labor.

    Respiratory.–Cough, with spitting of blood. Copious, purulent expectoration. Hæmoptysis. Aching at end of sternum. Suffocative attack of irregular breathing with sneezing. Shooting pains through chest.

    Relationship.–Compare: Trillium cernum (eye symptoms; everything looks bluish; greasy feeling in mouth); Ficus (hæmorrhages; menorrhagia, hæmaturia, epistaxis, Hæmatemesis, bleeding piles); Sanguisuga-Leech–(hæmorrhages; bleeding from anus). Ipec; Sab; Lach; Hamam.

    Dose.–Tincture and lower potencies.

  • TRIFOLIUM PRATENSE

    Red Clover

    Produces most marked ptyalism. Feeling of fullness with congestion of salivary glands, followed by increased copious flow of saliva. Feeling as if mumps were coming on. Crusta lactea; dry, scaly crusts. Stiff neck. Cancerous diathesis.

    Head.–Confusion and headache on awaking. Dullness in anterior brain. Mental failure, loss of memory.

    Mouth.–Increased flow of saliva (Merc; Syphil). Sore throat, with hoarseness.

    Respiratory.–Coryza like that which precedes hay-fever; thin mucus, with much irritation. Hoarse and choking; chills with cough at night. Cough on coming into the open air. Hay-fever. Spasmodic cough; whooping cough, paroxysms; worse at night.

    Back.–Neck stiff; cramp in sterno-cleido muscles; relieved by heat and irritation.

    Extremities.–Tingling in palms. Hands and feet cold. Tibial ulcers.

    Relationship.–Compare: Trifolium repens.–White clover- (Prophylactic against mumps, feeling of congestion in salivary glands, pain and hardening, especially submaxillary; worse, lying down. Mouth filled with watery saliva, worse lying down. Taste of blood in mouth and throat. Sensation as if heart would stop, with great fear, better sitting up or moving about; worse, when alone, with cold sweat on face).

    Dose.–Tincture

  • TRIBULUS TERRESTRIS

    Ikshugandha

    An East Indian drug useful in urinary affections, especially dysuria, and in debilitated states of the sexual organs, as expressed in seminal weakness, ready emissions and impoverished semen. Prostatitis, calculous affections and sexual neurasthenia. It meets the auto-traumatism of masturbation correcting the emissions and spermatorrhœa. Partial impotence caused by overindulgence of advancing age, or when accompanied by urinary symptoms, incontinence, painful micturition, etc.

    Dose.–Ten to twenty drops of the tincture three times daily.

  • TORULA CEREVISIAE

    Saccharomyces – Yeast Plant

    Introduced by Drs. Lehman and Yingling. Not proved, hence clinical symptoms only but many have been verified. Sycotic remedy Anaphylactic states produced by proteins and enzymes (Yingling).

    Head.–Aching back of head and neck. Headache and sharp pains all over. Worse from constipation. Sneezing and wheezing. Catarrhal discharge from posterior nares. Irritable and nervous.

    Stomach.–Bad taste. Nausea. Poor digestion. Belching of gas in stomach and abdomen. Soreness all over abdomen. Sense of fullness. Rumbling, pains shift, flatulence. Constipation. Sour, yeasty, moldy odor from discharges.

    Extremities.–Backache, tired and weak from elbows and knees down. Hands cold like ice and go to sleep easily.

    Sleep.–Disturbed with much restlessness.

    Skin.–Boils, recurrent. Itching eczema around ankles. Tinea versicolor.

    Dose.–Pure yeast cake or potencies from 3rd to high. Yeast poultices are much used in skin diseases, boils and swelling.

  • TONGO-DIPTERIX ODORATA

    Seeds of Coumarouna-a tree in Guiana
    (TONGO – DIPTRIX ODORATA)

    Useful in neuralgia; pertussis.

    Head.–Tearing pain in supra-orbital nerve, with heat and throbbing pain in head and epiphora. Confused, especially the occiput, with somnolence and a sort of intoxication. Trembling in right upper lid. Coryza; nose stopped, must breathe through mouth.

    Extremities.–Tearing pains in hip-joints, femur, and knee, especially left side.

    Relationship.–Melilotus. Anthoxanthum, Asperula, and Tonga contain Coumarin, the active principle. Compare them in hay-fever; also, Trifol; Napth; Sabad.

    Dose.–Tincture and lower potencies.

  • TITANIUM METALLICUM

    The Metal
    (TITANIUM)

    Is found in the bones and muscles. Has been used in lupus and tuberculosis processes externally, also in skin disease, nasal catarrh, etc. Apples contain 0. 11 per cent of Titan. Imperfect vision, the peculiarity being that half an object only could be seen at once. Giddiness with vertical hemiopia. Also, sexual weakness, with too early ejaculation of semen in coitus. Bright’s disease. Eczema, lupus, rhinitis.

    Dose.–Lower and middle potencies.