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

  • GERANIUM MACULATUM

    Crane’s-bill

    Habitual sick headaches. Profuse, hæmorrhages, pulmonary and from different organs. Vomiting of blood. Ulceration of stomach. Atonic and foul ulcers. Summer complaint.

    Head.–Giddiness, with diplopia; better, closing eyes. Ptosis and dilated pupils. Sick headache.

    Mouth.–Dry; tip of tongue burning. Pharyngitis.

    Stomach.–Catarrhal gastritis with profuse secretion, tendency to ulceration and passive hæmorrhage. Lessens the vomiting in gastric ulcer.

    Stool.–Constant desire to go to stool, with inability to pass anything for some time. Chronic diarrhœa, with offensive mucus. Constipation.

    Female.–Menses too profuse. Post-partum hæmorrhage. Sore nipples (Eup arom).

    Relationship.–Compare: Geranin 1x. Constant hawking and spitting in elderly people. Erodium-Hemlock-Stork’s bill–(a popular hæmostatic in Russia, and especially used for metrorrhagia and menorrhagia); Hydrastinin; Cinch; Sabin.

    Dose.–Tincture, half-dram doses in gastric ulcer. Tincture, to third attenuation, as a general rule. Locally, in ulcers, it will destroy the pyogenic membrane.

  • GENTIANA LUTEA

    Yellow Gentian

    Stomach symptoms marked. Acts as a tonic, increasing appetite.

    Head.–Vertigo, worse, rising or motion; better open air. Frontal headache, better eating and open air. Brain feels loose, head tender. Aching in eyes.

    Throat.–Dry. Thick saliva.

    Stomach.–Acid risings, ravenous hunger, nausea, weight and aching in stomach. Inflation and tension of stomach and abdomen (Pothos). Colic, umbilical region sensitive to touch. Flatulence.

    Relationship.–Compare: Gentiana quinque flora (intermittent fever; dyspepsia, cholera infantum, weakness); Gentiana cruciata (throat symptoms in addition to similar stomach symptoms; dysphagia; vertigo with headache; pressing inward sensation in eyes; constricted throat and head and abdomen. Distention, fullness and tightness in abdomen. Creeping over body as from fleas). Hydrast; Nux.

    Dose.–First to third attenuation.

  • GELSEMIUM SEMPERVIRENS

    Yellow Jasmine
    (GELSEMIUM)

    Centers its action upon the nervous system, causing various degrees of motor paralysis. General prostration. Dizziness, drowsiness, dullness, and trembling. Slow pulse, tired feeling, mental apathy. Paralysis of various groups of muscles about the eyes, throat, chest, larynx, sphincter, extremities, etc. Post-diphtheritic paralysis. Muscular weakness. Complete relaxation and prostration. Lack of muscular co-ordination. General depression from heat of sun. Sensitive to a falling barometer; cold and dampness brings on many complaints. Children fear falling, grab nurse or crib. Sluggish circulation. Nervous affections of cigarmakers. Influenza. Measles. Pellagra.

    Mind.–Desire to be quiet, to be left alone. Dullness, languor, listless. “Discernings are lethargied. ” Apathy regarding his illness. Absolute lack of fear. Delirious on falling to sleep. Emotional excitement, fear, etc, lead to bodily ailments. Bad effects from fright, fear, exciting news. Stage fright. Child starts and grasps the nurse, and screams as if afraid of falling (Bor).

    Head.–Vertigo, spreading from occiput. Heaviness of head; band-feeling around and occipital headache. Dull, heavy ache, with heaviness of eyelids; bruised sensation; better, compression and lying with head high. Pain in temple, extending into ear and wing of nose, chin. Headache, with muscular soreness of neck and shoulders. Headache preceded by blindness; better, profuse urination. Scalp sore to touch. Delirious on falling asleep. Wants to have head raised on pillow.

    Eyes.–Ptosis; eyelids heavy; patient can hardly open them. Double vision. Disturbed muscular apparatus. Corrects blurring and discomfort in eyes even after accurately adjusted glasses. Vision blurred, smoky (Cycl; Phos). Dim-sighted; pupils dilated and insensible to light. Orbital neuralgia, with contraction and twitching of muscles. Bruised pain back of the orbits. One pupil dilated, the other contracted. Deep inflammations, with haziness of vitreous. Serous inflammations. Albuminuric retinitis. Detached retina, glaucoma and descemetitis. Hysterical amblyopia.

    Nose.–Sneezing; fullness at root of nose. Dryness of nasal fossæ. Swelling of turbinates. Watery, excoriating discharge. Acute coryza, with dull headache and fever.

    Face.–Hot heavy, flushed, besotted-looking (Bapt; Op). Neuralgia of face. Dusky hue of face, with vertigo and dim vision. Facial muscles contracted, especially around the mouth. Chin quivers. Lower jaw dropped.

    Mouth.–Putrid taste and breath. Tongue numb, thick, coated, yellowish, tremble, paralyzed.

    Throat.–Difficult swallowing, especially of warm food. Itching and tickling in soft palate and naso-pharynx. Pain in sterno-cleido-mastoid, back of parotid. Tonsils swollen. Throat feels rough, burning. Post-diphtheritic paralysis. Tonsillitis; shooting pain into ear. Feeling of a lump in throat that cannot be swallowed. Aphonia. Swallowing causes pain in ear (Hep; Nux). Difficult swallowing. Pain from throat to ear.

    Stomach.–As a rule, the Gelsemium patient has no thirst. Hiccough; worse in the evening. Sensation of emptiness and weakness at the pit of the stomach, or of an oppression, like a heavy load.

    Stool.–Diarrhœa from emotional excitement, fright, bad news (Phos ac). Stool painless or involuntary. Cream-colored (Calc), tea-green. Partial paralysis of rectum and sphincter.

    Urine.–Profuse, clear, watery, with chilliness and tremulousness. Dysuria. Partial paralysis of bladder; flow intermittent (Clematis). Retention.

    Female.–Rigid os (Bell). Vaginismus. False labor-pains; pains pass up back. Dysmenorrhœa, with scanty flow; menses retarded. Pain extends to back and hips. Aphonia and sore throat during menses. Sensation as if uterus were squeezed (Cham; Nux v; Ustilago).

    Male.–Spermatorrhœa, without erections. Genitals cold and relaxed (Phos ac). Scrotum continually sweating. Gonorrhœa, first stage; discharge scanty; tendency to corrode; little pain, but much heat; smarting at meatus.

    Respiratory.–Slowness of breathing, with great prostration. Oppression about chest. Dry cough, with sore chest and fluent coryza. Spasm of the glottis. Aphonia; acute bronchitis, respiration quickened, spasmodic affections of lungs and diaphragm.

    Heart.–A feeling as if it were necessary to keep in motion, or else heart’s action would cease. Slow pulse (Dig; Kalm; Apoc; Can). Palpitation; pulse soft, weak, full and flowing. Pulse slow when quiet, but greatly accelerated on motion. Weak, slow pulse of old age.

    Back.–Dull, heavy pain. Complete relaxation of the whole muscular system. Languor; muscles feel bruised. Every little exertion causes fatigue. Pain in neck, especially upper sterno-cleido muscles. Dull aching in lumbar and sacral region, passing upward. Pain in muscles of back, hips, and lower extremities, mostly deep-seated.

    Extremities.–Loss of power of muscular control. Cramp in muscles of forearm. Professional neuroses. Writer’s cramp. Excessive trembling and weakness of all limbs. Hysteric convulsions. Fatigue after slight exercise.

    Sleep.–Cannot get fully to sleep. Delirious on falling asleep. Insomnia from exhaustion; from uncontrollable thinking; tobacco. Yawning. Sleepless from nervous irritation (Coffea).

    Fever.–Wants to be held, because he shakes so. Pulse slow, full, soft, compressible. Chilliness up and down back. Heat and sweat stages, long and exhausting. Dumb-ague, with much muscular soreness, great prostration, and violent headache. Nervous chills. Bilious remittent fever, with stupor, dizziness, faintness; thirstless, prostrated. Chill, without thirst, along spine; wave-like, extending upward from sacrum to occiput.

    Skin.–Hot, dry, itching, measle-like eruption. Erysipelas. Measles, catarrhal symptoms; aids in bringing out eruption. Retrocedent, with livid spots. Scarlet fever with stupor and flushed face.

    Modalities.–Worse, damp weather, fog, before a thunderstorm, emotion, or excitement, bad news, tobacco-smoking, when thinking of his ailments; at 10 am. Better, bending forward, by profuse urination, open air, continued motion, stimulants.

    Relationship.–Compare: Ignatia (gastric affections of cigarmakers); Baptisa; Ipecac; Acon; Bell; Cimicif; Magnes phos (Gelsem contains some Magnes phos). Culex–(vertigo on blowing the nose with fullness of the ears).

    Antidotes: China; Coffea; Dig. Alcoholic stimulants relieve all complaints where Gelsem is useful.

    Dose.–Tincture, to thirtieth attenuation; first to third most often used.

  • GAULTHERIA PROCUMBENS

    Wintergreen
    (GAULTHERIA)

    Inflammatory rheumatism, pleurodynia, sciatica, and other neuralgias, come within, the sphere of this remedy. Cystic and prostatic irritation, undue sexual excitement, and renal inflammation.

    Head.–Neuralgia of head and face.

    Stomach.–Acute gastritis, severe pain in epigastrium; prolonged vomiting. Uncontrollable appetite, notwithstanding irritable stomach. Gastralgia from nervous depression (Give five drops of 1x of Oil).

    Skin.–Smarting and burning. Intense erythema, worse, cold bathing; better, olive oil and cool air blowing on part.

    Relationship.–Compare: Spirćea. Gaultheria contains Arbutin. Salycyl acid. Methylium salicylicum (an artificial Gaultheria oil for rheumatism, especially when the salicylates cannot be used. Pruritus and epididymitis, locally). After Cantharis in burns.

    Dose.–Tincture and lower potencies.

  • GAMBOGIA

    Gummi Gutti
    (GAMBOGIA – GARCINIA MORELLA)

    The use of this drug in Homeopathy has been confined to its action on the alimentary tract. It produces a diarrhœa very similar to Croton. >From its pathogenesis, it is very evident that it has very intense and definite action especially on the gastro-enteric tract.

    Head.–Heavy, with inertia, and drowsiness. Itching and burning in eyes; lids stick together, with sneezing.

    Gastro-enteric Symptoms.–Feeling of coldness at edge of teeth. Great irritability of the stomach; burning, smarting, and dryness of the tongue and throat. Pain in the stomach after food. Tenderness in epigastrium. Pain and distention of abdomen from flatulence, after stool. Rumbling and rolling. Dysentery, with retained scybala, with pain in sacral region. Diarrhœa, with sudden and forcible ejection of bilious stools. Tenesmus after, with burning at anus. Ileo-cæcal region sensitive to pressure. Profuse, watery diarrhœa in hot weather, particularly old people. Pain in coccyx.

    Modalities.–Worse, towards evening and at night.

    Relationship.–Compare: Croton; Aloes; Pod.

    Dose.–Third to thirtieth potency. Gamboge painted on the chest in lung tuberculosis is considered by Abrams specific and incipient cases are symptomatically cured in several weeks.

  • GALIUM APARINE

    Goose-Grass

    Galium acts on the urinary organs, is a diuretic and of use in dropsies, gravel and calculi. Dysuria and cystitis. Has power of suspending or modifying cancerous action. Has clinical confirmation of its use in cancerous ulcers and nodulated tumors of the tongue. Inveterate skin affections and scurvy. Favors healthy granulations on ulcerated surfaces.

    Dose.–Fluid extract; half-dram doses, in cup of water or milk, three times a day.

  • GALLICUM ACIDUM

    Gallic Acid

    Should be remembered as a remedy in phthisis. It checks the morbid secretions, gives tone to the stomach, and increases the appetite. Passive hæmorrhages when pulse is feeble and capillaries relaxed, cold skin. Hæmaturia. Hæmophilia. Itching of skin. Pyrosis.

    Mind.–Wild delirium at night; very restless, jumps out of bed; sweats; is afraid to be alone; is rude and abuses every one.

    Head.–Pain in back of head and neck. Thick, stringy discharge from nose; photophobia with burning of lids.

    Respiratory.–Pain in lungs; pulmonary hæmorrhage; excessive expectoration. Much mucus in throat in the morning. Dry at night.

    Urinary.–Kidneys painful, distress along ureters into bladder. Dull heavy pain in bladder, directly over pubis. Urine loaded with thick, cream-colored mucus.

    Rectum.–Copious stool; anus feels constricted. Faint feeling after stool. Chronic mucous discharges.

    Relationship.–Compare: Ars; Iod; Phos.

    Dose.–First trituration and pure acid 2 to 5 grain doses.

  • GALANTHUS NIVALIS

    Snow-drop

    Proving by Dr. A. Whiting Vancouver.

    Faintness, sinking sensations. Sore dry throat with dull headache. Half conscious and worried feeling during sleep. Heart weak with sensation of collapse as if she must fall. Pulse very irregular, rapid and uneven, violent palpitation. Systolic murmur at apex. Therapeutically-decided benefit in cases of Mitral Regurgitation with broken down compensation. Myocarditis with some degree of mitral insufficiency.

    Dose.–First potency to fifth.

  • FULIGO LIGNI

    Soot

    Acts on glandular system, mucous membranes and obstinate ulcers, epidermis, tetters, eczema. Chronic irritations of mucous membranes of mouth; pruritus-vulvæ; uterine hæmorrhage; cancer, especially of scrotum-chimney sweeper’s cancer; epithelial cancers; cancer of womb with metrorrhagia; sadness, thoughts of suicide.

    Relationship.–Compare: Kreosot.

    Dose.–Sixth trituration.

  • FUCHSINUM

    A Coloring Substance Used in Adulteration of Wine
    (FUCHSINA – MAGENTA)

    Produces redness of ears, deep red discoloration of mouth swollen gums, with burning and tendency to salivation; deep red urine, albuminous, and light red, profuse diarrhœa, with abdominal pains. Cortical substance of kidneys degenerated. Useful in cortical nephritis with albuminuria.

    Dose.–6x to 30th potency.