Category: Kent Materia Medica

Plumbum Metallicum
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 145 of 180
Source pages 2596–2610 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

This drug illustrates a doctrine of Hahnemann: the doctrine of attenuation.

Generalities: When you think of the insolubility of lead, and then think of it as spread on the wall of a room, and then remember how many become sick from sleeping in a newly painted room, you will then wonder how much lead it took to make them sick.

Many patients cannot sleep in a newly painted room – they come down with lead colic or the acute affections of lead. Many people are sensitive to lead. This sensitivity is more marked than is observed in painters, who may use it for years with impunity, but all at once become susceptible to it.

You wonder how much he gets, given off in the air. It is too attenuated to be examined by the microscope and yet enough to make him sick.

We have no measure by which to find out how much he gets. We make use of such susceptibility, the lead palsy of lead workers, the lead colic in painters – these things add to the proper proving and give a well-rounded image of Plumbum.

General paralytic state: If we study the whole symptomatology of Plumbum, we will be struck with the general paralytic state in this remedy.

The activities of the body, the functions of the organs, are slowed down in pace. The nerves do not convey their messages with the usual activity. The muscles are slow in action, sluggish. There is first paresis and finally paralysis, of parts first and finally of the whole.

The mind is impaired, slow. Perception is slow. He memorizes with difficulty. Comprehension is difficult. He cannot recall words to express himself. The operations of the mind are slow. When in conversation with such a patient you will wonder what he is thinking about while making up his mind to answer.

There is sluggishness also in the skin. You may prick him and a second later he says, “Oh”, showing the slowness in feeling. You would expect him to feel the prick instantly. When you begin to conclude that he does not feel at all, his limb will jerk.

Anesthesia of the skin. There is a state of hyperesthesia in the acute affections, but the chronic affections are characterized by loss of sensation. Numbness of fingers and toes, soles, and palms, and this extends to the skin, towards the spine.

The trophic functions are slow in that they do not keep up with the waste, and so we see emaciation until the patient becomes almost a skeleton. The skin is wrinkled, puckered, shriveled, and drawn over the bones. The emaciation is sometimes local.

When local it is generally associated with a painful part; the painful part withers. Pains down the sciatic nerve; burning, shooting; as if the bone were being pulled out of place; as if being scraped and the limb emaciates. Pain down the arm, in the shoulder; violent pains in the brachial plexus and the arm withers.

Neuralgia of one side of the face and that side withers. Paralysis of single muscles and these muscles wither. There is, paralysis of both extensors and flexors, but especially extensors. The paralysis begins in the extensors, so that we have wrist drop. He cannot raise or lift anything with the hand. Extension is difficult. This occurs in piano players; they cannot lift their fingers sufficiently rapid to keep up the pace, while flexion is all right. Curare is another remedy which corresponds to this state in piano players; a paralysis from overexertion of the extensor muscles.

When the muscles become fatigued from playing fixed exercises, scales, etc., for hours at a time, when the player has to do the same thing over and over again, Rhus comes in, but it is an acute remedy and only holds for a short time.

It is especially a Rhus condition when certain muscles become overused and the patient takes cold and a weakness sets in; after a cold bath or plunge the muscles take on paresis; getting wet when tired brings on the Rhus state.

For the chronic state which follows, Plumbum and sometimes Curare will be indicated.

Paresis of the intestines; constipation; cannot strain at stool. The patient can use the abdominal muscles, but the rectum is in a state of paresis and he cannot expel the faeces.

The bladder is also paretic; cannot expel the urine, the muscles do not cooperate to void the urine and there is retention. Plumbum has both retention and suppression of urine.

The paralyses are found in the chronic state. In the acute we have the fever, the colic, the sudden constipation; tearing pains in the intestines; indigestion with vomiting. Everything eaten turns sour.

Violent vomiting of everything eaten. Chronic gastric catarrh with vomiting of albuminous mucus and sweetish substance. Vomiting of stercoraceous matter, blackish blood and green fluid. Sour eructations.

The remedy is slow and insidious; it works continuously; it does not leave the economy but holds on and establishes a miasm of its own. It, therefore, suits slow and insidious chronic cases, with no tendency to recovery. Progressive muscular atrophy; progressive paralysis. Chronic constipation; chronic retention of urine; chronic giving way of the mind.

Aside from the slowness of the mind, which is a general, the remedy is full of melancholia, sadness, feeling as if something terrible would happen; that she has sinned away the day of grace; that she has committed the unpardonable sin. The body and mind are weak.

“Deep melancholy with timidity and restlessness,”

In the mental state, while he is slow to think, yet in this slow thinking he does a great amount of thinking; he makes an effort to think. His thoughts trouble him all night and prevent sleep. Insomnia; sleepless from the continual effort to think.

The mind will not operate, yet the patient is full of imaginations and emotions. Inability to comprehend and to remember. Now, this progresses from periods of insomnia to periods of coma and this coma is associated with suppression of urine.

Uraemic coma. Uremia. Perhaps it will fix it in your mind if I tell you something clinical about it. Some years ago a physician came to me in regard to his wife. She had been unconscious for two days and had passed no urine for days and the catheter showed there was none in the bladder. She had quite an array of symptoms but they were common symptoms.

She had had the slowness for days before, and complained of a sensation of a continual pulling at the navel, as if a string were drawing it back to the spinal column, and then the coma came on. In the middle of the night this doctor came to me in great distress. He said she was pale as death and breathing slow. A single powder of Plumbum high was given, and she passed urine in a few hours, roused up and never had such an attack again.

Violent spasmodic palpitation of the heart, worse lying on the left side, with marked anxiety in the cardiac region. Hypertrophy and dilatation of the heart. Stitching pain in the heart.

Hysterical diathesis hysterical contractures; cramping of the fingers; hysterical motions convulsions of parts, hands, feet, whole body; an apparent delirium; cardiac pains; numbness in parts – all hysterical phenomena.

Plumbum produces an inclination to deceive, to cheat. The Acetate of lead produced in a woman, who took a little of it for suicide, a confirmed hysterical state. She would be in a hysterical condition for hours when any one was looking at her. When she thought no one was near she would get up, walk about, look in the glass to see how handsome she was, but when she heard a foot on the steps she would, he on the bed and appear to he unconscious.

She would bear much pricking and you could scarcely tell she was breathing. Plumbum establishes a hysterical state in the economy; an inclination to deceive, to feign sickness; to exaggerate one’s ills; and it goes to the root of the evil providing the symptoms agree.

Changeable; continually changing from one thing to another, from one group of imaginations to another, from one group of emotions to another. The whole remedy is intensely emotional. While the intellect is slowed down, yet most of the symptoms are emotional.

Plumbum cures kidney affections with albumen and sugar in the urine. The urine is dark, scanty, and of high specific gravity. Retention of urine from lack of sensation that the bladder is full.

Apoplexy. Stupor, when Opium is sufficiently similar to remove the cerebral congestion which always surrounds the apoplectic clot, Plumbum may follow. Plumbum, Phosphorus and Alumina are three sheet anchors.

They conform to the symptoms often when the first state as been like Opium. The paralysis of muscles, the paralytic weakness of one side of the body, or single parts of the body, show its relation to such cases.

There is another feature of the upper part of the body, of the head and mind, which is not clear in the books and which is worthy of your attention. The mental symptoms, the emotional symptoms, and the head symptoms are greatly exaggerated by any exertion, especially exertion in the open air.

While walking in the open air the patient becomes hot in the head, pale in the face, and cold in the extremities, hands and feet cold as ice, as if dead; and if he continues the exertion the face becomes fairly cadaveric. Persons cannot exercise and continue it without cold extremities.

An irritable brain; pain in the base of the brain, back of the neck, in the nerve centers. Cold extremities from exertion; yet can do considerable mental exertion without becoming cold. It is from physical exertion like walking in the open air. Paroxysmal pain in the limbs, evening and night; better by pressure and worse from motion. Lightning-like pains. Jerking and trembling of all the limbs.

The Plumbum patient is cold and emaciated, needs much clothing even in warm weather, not about the head, but over the body. Extremities cold, blue, numb and emaciated. Sweat on the extremities, and on the feet it is stinking. Feet and toes withered like a washerwoman’s hands. Toes blistered; blisters between the toes, smarting. Ulcerations. Molecular death and even gangrene of the skin of the fingers and toes. Calluses about the feet, corns and bunions.

With the chronic affection of the head there is contraction of the muscles of the back and neck; drawing and twitching indicating meningeal troubles; spasmodic jerking.

“Swelling of the submaxillary and sublingual glands.”

Convulsions often like tetanus, with lockjaw.

“Distinct blue line along the margins of the gums.”

“Gums pale, swollen, show a lead-colored line; blue, purple, or brown; painful with hard tubercles.”

“Tongue dry, brown, cracked; coated yellow or green; dry, red, glazed in chronic gastritis.”

Breath foetid, dryness of mouth, ulceration, aphthae.

“Sensation of a plug in the throat; globus hystericus.”

“Paralysis of throat and inability to swallow,” a paralysis of the oesophagus.

The stomach has no ability to digest food. Assimilation is also destroyed. Pains in the abdomen, tearing, like colic, doubling the patient up. Constant sensation of pulling at the navel as by a string; as if the abdomen were drawn in. At times the abdomen does become concave, as if the abdomen and back were too close together.

Constipation is a common and well known feature. The constipation, colic, and abdominal symptoms are commonly associated.

“Constipated stools, hard, lumpy like sheep’s dung; with urging and terrible pain from constriction or spasms of anus; knotty faeces in form of balls.”

No matter how much straining he cannot expel the stool.

“Constriction of intestines; navel and anus violently retracted.”

“Excessive pain in abdomen radiating from thence to all parts of the body.”

“Severe colic; contracted abdomen; bends backward, motor nerves most affected.”

Rumbling and flatulence. Impaction of faeces. Vaginismus in keeping with the spasmodic action.

“Inclination to take strange attitudes and positions in bed.”

“Anemia, chlorosis, emaciation, muscular atrophy, wandering pains, dropsical swellings, yellow skin, jaundice.”

Burning in ulcers is in keeping with the remedy everywhere.

Podophyllum
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 146 of 180
Source pages 2611–2622 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

This remedy is seldom used except in acute affections, but it is a long acting and deep acting drug; it produces a powerful impression on the economy; it relates to the deep-seated miasms.

Abdomen: It affects profoundly the abdominal viscera. It shows its symptoms largely on the abdominal organs, the pelvic organs, and the liver. The abdomen seems to be the earliest seat of attack. It produces such an impression upon the stomach and intestinal canal that the healthy action is impaired, digestion and assimilation cease.

Everything taken into the stomach becomes sour. The glands of the stomach are as if paralyzed; there is no digestion; this goes on until we have vomiting and diarrhea. During this there is a wonderful disturbance in the abdomen; rumbling; gurgling as if animals were floundering about; clinically, as if fish were turning and tossing in a pond, as we have seen them before a storm.

Rumbling and rolling. This is attended with severes cramping pains doubling her up. Abdomen is sensitive; so sore she cannot endure pressure. The soreness extends to the stomach, intestines and finally to the liver. The whole abdominal viscera are sore, sensitive to pressure. After this comes a gurgling, watery stool, pouring out of the anus.

A tremendous outpouring so that the patient wonders where all the fluid comes from, and soon it comes on again. Copious, enormous, and very frequent. This soreness, cramping, and rumbling precedes the stool, but sometimes it continues during the stool. Commonly the patient is relieved by the stool. There is much flatus and spluttering, but not so marked as in Aloe.

The colic often comes and goes without stool. Painless stools, in which compare China which has stool coming on at night and after eating. Putrid or not, and of inky color. Podophyllum is rarely indicated when the discharge is not offensive. After a while the abdomen again becomes tumultuous, and this is again relieved by a stool.

This process is repeated over and over. It seems as if the blood vessels would empty themselves into the! abdominal cavity, and then into the outer world. Not unlike cholera and cholera morbus, and these two are the common manifestations of disease for which this remedy is used in routine practice. The cholera morbus coming on in the latter part of the night, especially about 3, 4, or 5 o’clock, resembles Podophyllum. Tumultuous action of the bowels with rumbling, pain, and soreness, and the prostration is so marked that if not relieved in a day or two, it seems he must die. Rice-water stools, jelly-like on standing.

Women: With this tumultuous action, she has an indescribable sensation; an all-gone feeling, a deathly sick feeling, described by some as an emptiness, as if fasting, yet averse to food. An awful, hungry, empty weakness, as if the whole intestines would drop out.

No wonder they think so, because this remedy produces an astonishing amount of relaxation. Described by some as a sensation of dragging down. The uterine ligaments become relaxed and there is prolapsus. The rectum protrudes for inches. The sensation of dragging down as if all the parts would be pushed out into the world is a common feature. It seems to begin with the liver, as if all the parts were let down. Weakness attended with soreness.

Dragging down in the region of the ovary and the ovary is congested. The uterus is extremely sore and is enlarged; sore to touch so that light clothing aggravates. Sensitiveness of the abdomen in diarrhea and vomiting; in cholera morbus; in women when menstruating. Indicated if there is a copious diarrhea during the menstrual period, and great soreness in the uterus. Much pain in the ovaries, in one or both, extending down the crural region, down the front of the thigh.

Pain in the ovaries, especially the right; pain in the ovaries during the menstrual period, gripping pain in the bowels during the menstrual period. Great soreness of the abdomen before and during the menstrual period. (Apis, Cimicifuga, Vespa, Lachesis, but these are not so likely to have diarrhea and, if so, it is not as copious.)

Diarrhea: Alternating conditions is a feature of this remedy. If a Podophyllum patient takes cold, has any mental excitement, overexerts himself, eats boiled food, cabbage, fruits, and overloads his stomach with rich food he has a diarrhea, and following this a constipation lasting for weeks, no stool except in lumps; difficult, scanty stool and as soon as lie disorders Ids stomach again comes a diarrhea. This alternating diarrhea and constipation is a Podophyllum state rather than a chronic diarrhea, which is a continued state found in many remedies. The diarrhea is periodic, alternating with constipation.

Headache: Another alternating feature is the headache.

Chronic headache, periodic headache, sick headache, congestive in character, as if all the blood were in the head, as if the head would burst, and the pains most violent in the back of the head, bursting, and then on comes a diarrhea which relieves the head.

Sometimes when the diarrhea slacks up too suddenly, a headache is the result. It is a common feature after giving a high potency of Podophyllum in a diarrhea, that a headache comes, on after the diarrhea is stopped. It means that the medicine has acted suddenly and the headache will pass away soon.

Headache alternating with liver disturbances. The patient lies on the side or abdomen. Rending pains towards the duodenum. You will wonder if it is not gall stone colic. Periodic, violent headaches; alternating diarrhea and constipation; he strokes the region of the liver from behind forward and in this way gets relief, yet the liver is so sore that he can hardly bear the pressure.

Liver sensitive to touch.

Soreness about the liver; pain through to the back; dull aching pain, finally jaundice; becomes extremely yellow. Uneasiness and distress about two or three hours after eating, with jaundice; horrible nausea; aversion to food; empty all-gone feeling in the bowels.

Vomiting, greenish, profuse, watery, vomits everything; vomiting of milk (Calc., Aeth. – the latter sometimes retains water); hunger after vomiting; deathly, overpowering nausea and prostration. Prolapse of rectum and anus during vomiting. (Mur. ac.). A condition commonly called duodenal catarrh; a chronic state; rouses into a Podophyllum diarrhea every once in a while.

Mental symptoms troublesome.

A torpid liver is often associated with a torpid fluctuating state of the mind; also a slow, sluggish pulse; palpitation. Great depression of spirits, melancholia, sadness, dejection everything goes wrong; the clouds are very dark; there is no light; thinks he may die or that he is going to become ill; that his disease will become chronic; that he has organic disease of the heart and liver; that he has sinned away his day of grace, and other such delusions. Mind easily fatigued; fidgety and restless; cannot sit still, whole body fidgety.

In this mental state with jaundice, all-gone sensation, aversion to food, even the thought or smell of food; stuffed feeling and distension in the region of the liver. The tongue is covered with thick slime; pasty, yellow coating as if mustard were spread upon it; imprint of the teeth upon the tongue; breath foul. For such a condition the ancients gave Calomel.

Gallstone colic; enlargement of the liver; gastric weakness; unable to digest; duodenal catarrh; catarrh of intestines with copious diarrhea. If you notice the Podophyllum discharge in the commode, you will see a great amount of water, on the bottom a sediment like cornmeal gruel; as if cornmeal had been stirred in. If you see it early it is yellow, muddy, or yellow-green, profuse, offensive, cadaverous; the odor penetrates the whole house; stool gushes away like water from a bung-hole; gurgling and much flatus.

With the stool there is very commonly a prolapse of the rectum; a gush of watery stool and a prolapse of the rectum; a soft stool with great straining and a prolapse of the rectum.

Prolapsus of the uterus; prominent are Murex, Sepia, Natrum mur. Sepia is better sitting or lying; worse walking. Aversion to coition; hot flushes; constipation with sense of lump in the rectum, or better by stool. Murex has the following. The only relief is to press on the vulva; not better lying down; she then has pains in the back and hips compelling her to walk, yet his aggravates. Strong sexual desire. Pain in right ovary, which crosses entire body to left breast. Pain shooting up in the uterus.

The word bile is a striking feature in Podophyllum, You must connect the vomiting and the stool with this color. The patient declares he is “bilious;” his liver is out of order;” bitter taste in the mouth; spitting up bile and the color is yellow; in diarrhea it is a green substance.

In children subject to copious diarrhea, with prolapsus of the anus no other symptom, Podophyllum often cures.

A feature of infancy is the following: child may not have diarrhea, may even be constipated, but it lies in bed and rolls the head in sleep. Bell. and Apis roll head.

Apis lies on back with the head on its side, Chewing motion of the jaws; sometimes a sucking; a grinding of the teeth in those who are old and have teeth; rolling the head from side to side; if you lift the eyelids you will find a strabisms.

Provers felt as if the eyes were drawn inward. It has cured such a strabismus in congestion of the brain following a suddenly suppressed diarrhea.

A child who should have a colored stool has instead a white one like chalk (Calc. c.). in adults, a bileless, white stool.

The body is offensive; offensive sweat; compare Sepia, Merc., Aloe, Sulph., Murex, Nux.

Editorial notes

• “bung-bole” corrected to “bung-hole” (transcription error in the digital source text).

Psorinum
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 147 of 180
Source pages 2623–2641 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

Psorinum is closed allied to Sulphur.

Skin: The patient dreads to be washed. The skin over the body, especially of the face, looks filthy, though it has been well washed. A dingy, dirty, foul look, as if covered with dirt.

Skin rough and uneven, cracks easily, bleeding fissures; it becomes rough and scaly. He cannot wash it clean. The skin of the hands is rough, chaps easily, becomes thick and scaly, easily cracks; breaks out in little scaly, eruptions; looks unwashed; he always appears to have dirty hands.

Many of the complaints of the skin are worse from bathing and from the warmth of the bed. The skin itches when warm; itches when wearing woolens. Itching when warm in bed; he scratches until the part becomes raw, and then it becomes scabby. When healing takes place there is itching and then it becomes scabby. When healing takes place there is itching and then he has to scratch. Legs and arms raw and scabby from scratching. Violent itching from the warmth of the bed, even, without any eruption.

The skin is unhealthy, looks dirty, dingy, studded with capillary blood vessels and enlarged veins. This is the state before the eruption appears. Scabs form from scratching and then comes the eruption.

Papules, pimples, crusts, boils, vesicles, and eruptions ooze a watery moisture. When the eruption has gone on for some time the crusty formation and vesicles mingle; the skin becomes thickened and indurated, and new crops come out under the old crusts; rawness, itching, tingling, crawling, bleeding eczema of the scalp and face; the crusts cover the scalp; the hair falls out; the oozing lifts up the crusts and exposes new vesicles; it looks like raw beef, and it tingles so that the child cannot keep its fingers off it; worse at night, worse from the warmth of the bed, worse from warm applications, anything that would keep the air away from it; ameliorated by cool air and worse from covering. This is the opposite of the general Psorinum state, which is aggravated from the open air. He has an aversion to open air.

The eruption goes on, spreads, and the true skin becomes elevated, thickened, indurated, with an increased vascularity and redness. The oozing is offensive like carrion or decomposed meat; nauseating odor from the oozing fluid.

Offensiveness runs through Psorinum in such a characteristic way that is worth while mentioning it here; foetid odors, foetid breath discharges and oozing from the skin smelling like carrion; stool so offensive that the odor permeates the whole house, in diarrhea, summer complaint, cholera infantum; perspiration foetid; leucorrhoea abominably offensive; eructations taste as if be had eaten bard boiled eggs and they had spoiled, and they smell so to others; stool flatus, and eructations smell like spoiled eggs; offensive to sight and smell is the subject who needs this medicine.

The skin grows increasingly thick and bleeds, and the eruption spreads to other parts. Eruptions on the lips, on the genitals; very offensive; soreness and rawness about the anus; the vulva ulcerates and is very offensive; ulcers on the legs; on the tibia; on the backs of the hands; on the dorsum of the foot; behind the ears and upon the ears; over the scalp; over the cheek bones; on the wings of the nose and on the nose and eyelids.

Greasy skin. The eruption is accompanied by redness of the mucous membranes of the nose, mouth, lips and eyes. Eyelids thickened and turned out, like ectropion; granulation and induration of mucous membranes, so that they become like gristle; redness and ulceration. Ulceration of the cornea; lachrymation; turning out of the lids with loss of the eyelashes.

Eyes and nose: He looks frightful with his red eyes, eruption on the face, red skin oozing a thick yellow discharge. In the early stages the oozing is a whitish thin or whitish thick moisture. In old eruptions ulceration takes place beneath the crusts and there is a thick, yellow, purulent discharge. Yellow green discharge from the eyes and nose. Horribly offensive discharge from the nose; gluey discharge from the nose; offensive like Merc., Sil., Calc. p., Hep.

Accumulation of foetid pus in the eyes. Coryza with thick, yellow discharge. Always taking cold. In the coryza, the nose dries up part of the time and runs part of the time; he must use the handkerchief continually; must blow the nose all the time.

In the early stages of the coryza he blows it all the time, but there is no discharge or relief. This state is so marked that some think of it as a continuous hay fever, which runs all the year and ripens up in the Fall.

It is closely related to hay fever; stuffing up of the nose in the Fall; catarrhal state of the eyes and nose. Hay fever is one of the most difficult conditions to fit a remedy to. It belongs to a low constitution which must be built up before the hay fever will cease.

It is an expression of psora which comes once a year, and the psoric miasm must be changed. In a few years most subjects can be changed, but not in one season, so do not be disappointed. In catarrhal states, hay fever often dates back to low fever improperly treated.

The Psorinum patient himself is one of debility. He wants to go home after a short walk. He is worse in the open air. He cannot breathe in the open air; cannot breathe while he is standing up; wants to go home and lie down so that he can breathe.

Asthma: or cardiac dyspnoea, when the patient wants to go home and lie down so that he can breathe. Usually this condition is relieved by sitting up and from the open air. Not so with Psorinum, he wants a warm place and to he down and to be let alone.

Psorinum is slowed down in all of its functions; a state of paretic weakness. He does not rally after a fever; his digestion is slow; the stool is normal, yet it requires a great effort to expel it; the bladder is full of urine, yet it passes slowly and he feels that some remains; he can never finish stool or urination; he has to go back several times. Although the stool is soft and perfectly normal it cannot be expelled at one sitting.

A psoric patient comes down with typhoid; the typhoid has been arrested or has run its course and it is time for convalescence. The fever has subsided, but the patient has no appetite; he does not convalesce; he wants to lie down and does no desire to, be moved; he is worse when sitting up, lies upon his back; he has troublesome breathing and lies with his arms abducted from his side, thrown across the bed; this relieves his breathing and allows the chest to operate properly; so tired and so weak; one dose of Psorinum will cause a reaction, stop his sweat, increase his appetite, cause better breathing.

The Psorinum complex of symptoms is one in which remedies cause improvement but a short time and then the symptoms change and another remedy must be selected. It is a state of feeble reaction.

Mind: The mental symptoms present some strong features. Sadness, hopeless; he sees no light breaking through the clouds above his head; all is dark about him.

He thinks his business is going to be a failure; that he is going to the poor house; that he has sinned away his day of grace. It is a fixed idea during the day and he dreams about it at night. Overwhelming sadness; dejection; he takes no joy in his family; feels that these things are hot for him.

His business is prosperous, yet he feels as if he were going to the poor house. No joy or realization of benefit . Extremely irritable, wants to be alone. Does not want to be washed.

Full of anxiety, even of suicide. Despair of recovery his sick. Though there is no eruption at night he is driven to despair by the continual itching. If he throws the covers off then he becomes chilly; if he covers up, then there is itching.

Sensitive to cold yet the skin is worse from heat. Tingling, itching, formication, crawling like ants running over the surface, as of insects in the skin.

Especially suited to broken down individuals, who have vertigo as soon as they go into the open air; become dizzy and want to go home. and lie down; afraid they will lose their breath.

Head: Old chronic periodical headaches with hunger, and often the hunger lasts during the whole headache; must get up at night for have something to eat.

The headache is sometimes improve by eating. If he goes without a meal he has a headache.

Violent rush of blood to the head, hot face, hair wet with the perspiration, hunger. Every one, two, or three weeks a recurrent headache. Every time the air blows on his head it slacks up the catarrh and a headache comes on.

Either coryza or headache from catching cold. Headache is violent, throbbing, pecking as of little hammer, red face, hot head-congestive at times sweat. Hungry headache in such as have a dry cough in winter. Dry, teasing, racking cough with no expectoration. If the cough ceases he has a periodic headache. So complaints alternate. Head ache goes and cough appears or eruption in winter alternating with headache.

Scalp cold; wears fur cap in summer; worse uncovering the head (Sil.), worse front getting the hair cut (Bell., Glon., Sep.). Hepar is also worse from cold.

Salt rheum, psoriasis in winter. Dry, cold weather, cold wet weather; washing in cold water; dish washing, aggravate the salt rheum.

“Hair dry, lusterless, tangles easily, glues together; must comb it continually.”

Ears: Chronic offensive otorrheoa; thick, purulent, offensive, yellow discharge from the ears; smells like stinking meat; continuous discharge; eruptions about and behind ears. Discharge resulting from scarlet fever; abscess in middle ear; otitis media; rupture of drum; prolonged discharge from such all abscess; foetid discharge.

“Otorrheoa with headache; thin, ichorous and horribly offensive like spoiled meat; very offensive, purulent; brown, offensive from left ear, for almost four year.”

Otorrheoa associated with watery, offensive diarrhea. Scurfs in ears, and humid scurfs behind cars.

Teeth and mouth: Rigg’s disease; the teeth become loose; the gums settle away, spongy, bleed easily, humid, blue, the teeth fall out.

Ulcers about the tongue and mouth; ulcers as found in infancy; aphthae, thrush; ulcerated sore mouth, sore throat, chronic ulcers of throat. Chronic thickening and elongation of the uvula.

Enlargement of tonsils, parotids and submaxillary glands; they become hard and tender to touch; swelling from taking cold. Glands of the neck sore.

Abdomen: Chronic abdominal affections with disturbances of stool.

He will strain to pass a soft stool (Nux moschata., Alumina).

Chronic diarrhea; horribly offensive; frequent stool day and night (unlike Sulphur, the remedy it most resembles). He must go several times to pass a normal stool.

Chronic vomiting; ulcer of the stomach, distension of stomach are commonly associated. Always sour belching, sour stomach. Vomiting of blood and bloody stools. This is not strange, because Psorinum has a tendency to hemorrhages, especially from the uterus.

Women: All sorts of menstrual disorders, especially a prolonged menstruation. When a woman has passed through an abortion and the placenta has come away, but every few days a little gush of fresh, bright red blood and clots, or going days and weeks with a little oozing of bright red blood; every time she gets on her feet there is a new start of the flow; no tendency to permanent recovery.

Two remedies that fit this state are Sulphur and Psorinum. A marked state of relaxation, sub-involution. The uterus does not go back to its normal size and there is this tendency to bleed; a state of inertia.

Soft stool, passed with difficult do not forget this. Obstinate constipation. Haemorrhage from the rectum.

Cholera infantum; often in the early days the stool is horribly offensive, slimy, undigested; there is vomiting and prolonged weakness and the whole child has an offensive odor; child dirty; nose sunken in (Ant. t.), sunken, countenance. Psorinum causes reaction and cures, or brings the child into such a condition that a simple remedy completes the cure.

It is not the sourness of Hepar; in spite of washing, the child smells so sour; like sour milk; the diaper, urine, and faeces and perspiration are sour. This is a strong general feature of Hepar. The stool smells like spoiled eggs, so also the eructations and flatus. The offensiveness of the stool is horrible, but not so permeating as Bapt., which is thick and clay-like, while the Psorinum stool is watery, brown, gushing and may be bloody.

Chronic diarrhea, early morning, urgent. Hot flatus, burning the anus; smells of spoiled eggs, Arn. and Staph. Involuntary stool at night (China has a black, profuse, watery stool at night and after meals.)

In Psorinum, we find the haste of sulphur, the flatulence of Olean. and Aloe, and difficulty of expelling a soft stool like Alumina, China and Nux mosch.

Men: There is prostration in some Psorinum cases; prostration of the genitals.

It is not such an unusual thing in the female to have aversion to sexual intercourse, but man is not often subject to the complaints that cause aversion to coition. Yet we have in man as well as in the woman actual aversion or a state of no enjoyment. He can perform the act and he has no difficulty in obtaining an erection, so it is not impotence, but there is no enjoyment. Impotence comes later.

“Absence of erections; parts flabby, torpid.”

“Aversion to coition; impotence; want of emission during coitus.”

“Prostatic fluid discharged before urinating.”

Old gleet, painless discharge; the “last drop;” relaxed and cold genitals; a drop of white or yellow pus after a well selected remedy. (Sepia, Sulphur, Alumina, Psorinum.) Psorinum is indicated above all others if there is an unusually offensive state of the genitals, Thuya, if the odor is of a nauseating, sweet character; warts exposed by rolling back the foreskin; sweet odor in spite of washing.

Heart: Psorinum cures many heart complaints.

Palpitation from the least exertion, better lying. Stitching pain better lying. Cardiac murmurs of either side. Mitral regurgitant murmur. Pericarditis of rheumatic origin. Heart symptoms with general weakness, dusky face, dazed look.

Weak, irregular and rapid pulse. But mark the modalities. Aggravation in the open air, aggravation when sitting up, aggravation when sitting at the writing table; wants to rest the chest and breathing apparatus by lying down. Asthmatic dyspnoea ameliorated by lying down, and worse the nearer the arms are brought to the body. Such symptoms are found in very few remedies and in none so marked as in Psorinum.

Febrile state. Intermittent, bilious fever, fever from a cold. The patient is so hot that the hand under the covers feels as though in a steam bath and the sensation of heat causes one to draw it back.

It is not the dry heat of Belladonna, yet it is as intense. It is a steam. He is covered with a boiling sweat in fevers. Head and body hot and hot air or steam beneath the covers. (Opium has this, but it is in a violent congestion to the head, an apoplectic condition.) In intermit tents he is taken on the street with difficult breathing. He wants to go home; he is weak and exhausted, crawls up stairs on the hands and knees.

The chill is not marked, but the heat is intense and the sweat copious. He is almost in a stupor, befogged, bewildered, cannot answer questions; face red, puffed, mottled.

“Sweat profuse, cold, clammy from least exertion.”

This is another form which comes on in the weak, broken down state. After typhoids, he sweats if he turns in bed, after the least exertion, and the sweat is cold. Profuse night sweats. Night sweats of phthisis; when there is that tremendous heat under the covers, a copious hot sweat; mental state as if dazed.

Marasmus; shriveling of the skin; dirty skin; cannot wash it clean. Offensive discharge from the bowels; great emaciation; increased growth of hair on the face; a fuzz (Nat-mur., Psor., Sulph Calc.); horribly offensive in spite of washing; ravenous appetite yet grows thin. Foetid odors would lead one to think of Psorinum.

Editorial notes

• “rippens up” corrected to “ripens up” (transcription error in the digital source text).
• “Nux moshata” corrected to “Nux moschata” (transcription error in the digital source text).

Natrum Phosphoricum
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 132 of 180
Source pages 2384–2405 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

We are not dependent upon Schüessler alone for indications for this remedy, as we have many pathogenetic symptoms.

Schuessler’s indications were good and mostly confirmed by clinical observations. The author has given this remedy for twenty years to many patients whose nerves were in a fret from mental exertion and sexual excesses and vices.

Modalities: The symptoms are worse in the morning, EVENING, and night, and after midnight. There is marked anemia and aversion to the open air.

He is aggravated from a draft, from open cold, from becoming cold and after becoming cold, and there is a tendency to frequent taking cold.

He is worse from changes weather. Chlorosis. Aversion to bathing. Many symptoms after coition. He may be a sexual debauche.

Many symptoms come on from fasting, and he is generally ameliorated after eating aggravated from any physical exertion. His muscles are flabby, he is losing flesh.

He is disturbed by butter, cold drinks, fats, fruit, MILK, sour things and vinegar.

Formication externally and internally. There is great physical irritability, and later a marked lack of reaction. Many symptoms are aggravated from a jar, or stepping. There is marked lassitude in the morning in hot weather. desire to lie down.

Prolonged weakness from loss of fluids. Lying on left side aggravates many symptoms. Worse before and after menses. During menses the symptoms are aggravated afternoon and evening. Numbness in single parts. Orgasm of blood. Stitching, tearing pains aggravated during a thunderstorm.

Pulsation all over the body. Sensation as though a shot was forced through the arteries is a verified symptom. Oversensitive in general, and to pain. Shocks through the body, in night while awake.

Sitting aggravates. General aggravation during a thunderstorm. Tension in muscles and tendons. Trembling in thunderstorm. Twitching of muscles. Nervous and paralytic weakness aggravated in morning, and after exertion. The body smells sour (like Hepar, Sulph., Lyc.).

Mind: Anger over trifles, and complaints from vexation.

Anxiety and night; in bed; before midnight; after eating; with fear fever; about the future; about his health; on waking.

Complaints from bad news. Aversion to company. Concentration difficult. Confusion of mind in the morning; in the evening; after eating; from mental exertion; on waking.

Delusions, frightful; thinks he sees dead people; imagines; thinks he is going to have typhoid fever; hears footsteps in the next room.

Discontented, discouraged and easily distracted. Dullness of mind while reading. Mental exertion brings on many complaints.

He is very excitable. Fear at night; of impending disease; that something will happen; of misfortune; on waking.

Fears bad news. Forgetful. Easily frightened, and heedless. She is hysterical, and in a hurry. No one works fast enough suit him. Sometimes his ideas are abundant, and again deficient and his mind grows sluggish.

Impatience. He is indifferent to every thing, even to his family. A gradually increasing indolence; a mental and physical work. Irritability; in the morning menses; about trifles. Memory weak.

Times of mirthfulness. GREAT PROSTRATION OF MIND. Restless and anxious, evening and night. Sadness in evening, after emission, during fever, and from music.

He is extremely sensitive to music and noise and to his surroundings. He grows serious and silent, and sits by himself quite still for a long time. He is easily startled, from fright, from noise, on falling asleep, and during sleep.

Spells of stupefaction creep over him. His friends call him suspicious. Indisposed to talk. His thoughts wander. He is growing timid and bashful. Weeps easily. Mental work becomes impossible and he seems to be approaching imbecility.

Vertigo and head: Vertigo in the morning; aggravated from mental exertion while sitting and walking. Tendency to fall.

Congestion in the evening. Heat in head in evening, in forehead and vertex. Flushes of heat after sweat. Tension in the scalp.

Eruptions on the head of golden yellow scabs; eczema on the forehead. Fullness in forehead; over the eyes; in the morning; aggravated by, mental exertion. Heaviness of the head, and the hair falls out.

Pain in the head, morning, afternoon, evening and night, aggravated binding up the hair; after eating; must lie down; aggravated from light; lying; before, during and after menses; MENTAL EXERTION; after sour milk; motion; motion of head; noise; rising from lying; in a room, sexual excesses, after sleep; after stooping; straining eyes; during a thunderstorm; while walking; warm room; ameliorated in open air; by pressure.

The headaches are periodical, pulsating. Pain in forehead aggravated from MENTAL EXERTION; from motion; over eyes; in occiput; sides of head; temples; in vertex on waking in morning; in vertex and forehead.

The pains are bursting, cutting in temples and sides of head; drawing in head and occiput; pressing with sour slimy vomiting; pressing in forehead, outward, over eyes; pressing in occiput, and sides of occiput; pressing in temples; pressing in vertex as if it would open.

Stitching in head, in forehead, in sides of head, in temples. Stunning in head and forehead. Tearing in head. Perspiration of forehead. Pulsating in head, forehead, temples and vertex. Shocks in the head. Twitching. Uncovering the head brings on the symptoms.

Eyes: Dryness of the eyes.

Creamy yellow discharges. Heaviness of the lids. Inflammation of the eyes. Scrofulous ophthalmia, and granular lids. Itching and burning of the lids and margin of the lids.

Burning lachrymation, must rub the eyes.

Pain in the eyes, when reading. Burning and cutting. Pressing during menses. Pain as though sand in eyes. Sore, bruised feeling when reading. Stitching pain in eyes.

Paralysis of the optic nerve. Photophobia. Pupils dilated. One pupil dilated. Quivering of right eyelid while reading. Staring. Strabismus. Swollen lids. Yellow sclerotics.

Colors before the eyes, dark. Halo around the light. Dim vision for distant objects. Foggy vision; blindness.

Exertion of vision aggravates many symptoms. Flickering before the eyes morning on rising, at 5 P.M. Mist before the eyes aggravated in gaslight at 8 P.M. Myopia. Sparks before the eyes.

Ears: Eruption on the ears.

Creamy yellow crusts on the ears. Fullness in ears. Heat and redness of one ear. Itching in the ears. Lobe of right ear burning and itching, must scratch it until it bleeds. Noises in ears, with vertigo, humming, ringing, roaring, rushing, singing, whizzing.

Pain in ear. Aching in right meatus. Burning. Stitching in and behind ear. Tearing. Pulsation. Stopped sensation. The hearing is acute, acute for voices; impaired, lost.

Nose: The patient is subject to fluent coryza, and catarrh of the nose with thick yellow-purulent discharge.

Epistaxis on blowing the nose. Fullness at the root of the nose. The nose is obstructed with mucus and crusts, but the discharge is generally scanty.

Offensive odors in the nose in the morning. Ozoena. Pricking in the left nostril brings tears to the eyes.

Smell is acute. Soreness in the left nostril. He picks the nose constantly and scales form. Frequent sneezing. Tension over the root of the nose.

Face: Discoloration of the face, bluish circles around the eyes; earthy, PALE; red blotches but not feverish red alternating with paleness; yellow, liver spots, white about nose and mouth. Eruptions on the face, on the chin, forehead, lips, about the mouth, ON THE NOSE. Pimples on the forehead. Pustules on the face. Heat in the evening during chill. The face burns. Itching of the face and nose.

Pain in the face, burning, neuralgic. Shooting in the right cheek. Soreness in the right lower jaw at angle, darting through it. Stitching. Swelling of the glands of the lower jaw. Swelling of the sub-maxillary gland.

Mouth: Bleeding gums.

The tongue is coated yellow. Yellow at the base, or dirty white. Roof of mouth coated golden yellow or creamy. Dryness of mouth and tongue.

Salivation. Sensation of a hair on the tongue, followed by prickly numbness of whole mouth.

Speech difficult. Stinging on the tongue. Taste bad on waking, bitter, metallic, saltish, sour. Vesicles in mouth and on tongue.

Caries of the teeth. Grinding the teeth during sleep in children. Looseness of the teeth. Pain in the teeth, at night, ameliorated by pressure and external warmth. Burning, pressing and pulsating.

Throat and tonsils: coated yellow.

Dryness of the throat. Mucus forms in throat. Tough clear white mucus in posterior nares. Thick yellow mucus drops from posterior nares, aggravated at night, must sit up to clear the throat. Sensation of a lump in throat. Much hawking.

Inflammation of throat. Pain in throat on swallowing. Sore throat on right edge, aggravated swallowing. Burning, pricking, stitching. Pulsation in left tonsil. Scraping mucus from posterior nares. Swallows liquids better than solids in sore throat.

Stomach: The appetite is increased, ravenous or wanting.

Aversion to food, to meat, to milk, to bread and butter. Desires alcoholic drinks, beer, pungent food, eggs, fried fish, cold drinks. The stomach is disordered by fat and milk. Emptiness, aggravated after eating. Eructation after eating, empty, SOUR; waterbrash.

Fullness after eating. Heartburn, heaviness and pressure. Heat in the stomach. Nausea in the morning, evening, during cough, and during headache.

Pain in the stomach; after eating; two hours after eating; cramping; gastralgia, several attacks every day with vomiting sour fluids; over-secretion of lactic acid. Gnawing in the stomach. Pressing after eating. Soreness and stitching. Retching. Extreme thirst.

Ulceration of the stomach. Sour vomiting. Creamy coating on the tongue. Sour odor of the body. Vomiting on coughing, with headache, of bile, bitter, frothy with headache, OF MUCUS, SOUR in infants fed on milk, sour cheesy masses in intermittent fever; in pregnancy; vomiting yellow, green.

Abdomen: Distension of the abdomen after eating.

Sensation of emptiness, after stool. Flatulence, obstinate, after eating. Fullness gurgling and hardness. Pain afternoon and night, after eating, paroxysmal, before stool. Pain in hypochondria. Burning in abdomen. Cramping before stool, causing urging to stool, while walking. Cutting in abdomen. Pressing in the hypogastrium. Soreness in the whole abdomen.

Stitching in the abdomen and in liver. Torpid liver. Rumbling. Tension.

Constipation with difficult hard stool. Inactivity of the rectum; one day constipated, next day diarrhoea.

Diarrhoea morning, night, with colic, after eating, in summer, with flatus.

Anus: The anus is excoriated; much flatus; involuntary stools, involuntary when passing flatus.

Sore, itching anus, aggravated in the warmth of the bed. Pain in the rectum after stool. Burning during and after stool. Painful contraction of anus. Cutting during stool. Stitching on walking. Tenesmus. Urging to stool after coition, in a man.

Urging ineffectual, unsatisfactory. Weak feeling in the rectum before stool. The stool is bloody, cheesy, crumbling; light colored, bileless stool; green; jelly-like masses; pasty; sour-smelling.

Stools; thin yellowish brown stool; watery; yellowish green; yellowish brown. Worms with the stool.

Bladder: Paralysis of the bladder.

Pressing pain in the bladder before urination. Urging to urinate at night, after coition (man); after eating; constant; frequent. Dysuria. Urination frequent, at night, during perspiration, involuntary, night, during sleep.

Must wait for urine to start. Must press a long time before urine starts. Unsatisfactory urination. Stitching pain in the kidneys. Emission of prostatic fluid during stool. Enlarged prostate. Burning in the urethra during the flow of urine.

After stool burning and itching of the meatus. The urine is albuminous, burning, cloudy, dark, pale; copious; night and morning, offensive, scanty, with mucous sediment.

Men: Erections are troublesome morning and night, continued, frequent, incomplete, painful, without desire, violent, wanting.

Vesicles upon the genitalia. Itching of the scrotum, prepuce and anus. Pain in the spermatic cords and testes. Drawing in spermatic cords. Pressing in testes.

Seminal emission after coition, without dreams, without erections, frequent, unconscious. Sexual passion diminished, or increased, without erection, vomiting. Swelling of penis and testes.

Female: Desire increased in the female.

Leucorrhoea after menses, acrid, copious, creamy, honey colored, sour smelling, yellow and watery.

Menses absent, copious, too frequent, late, pale, painful, protracted. Prolapsus of the uterus with a weak sinking feeling after stool. Sterility.

Respiration: Soreness in trachea.

Hoarseness and loss of voice. Respiration is asthmatic, difficult, short and sighing.

Cough afternoon, evening in bed, night, during chill, constant, with coryza, after drinking. Dry evening cough with expectoration in the morning. Hacking, hallow, short, racking cough, with irritation in chest or larynx.

Loose morning cough. Tickling in larynx and chest, Violent cough. Cough aggravated while sitting. Expectoration in the morning bloody, greenish, mucous, offensive, purulent, thick, viscid, yellow; tasting flat, putrid, salty.

Anxiety in the chest; a bubble starts from the heart and passes through the arteries. Constriction of the chest. Empty sensation in the chest after eating. Pimples on the chest. Sudden feeling of fullness in the upper part of the chest. Oppression of the chest. Pain in the chest after dinner, from deep breathing, during cough.

Pain in the heart. Aching, pressing in the chest. Burning deep in the chest, aggravated on the right side, evening in bed. Cutting, pressing. Rawness in chest on coughing. Soreness in chest. Stitching in the chest, sides of chest aggravated in left side.

PALPITATION, anxious, after, eating; aggravated from noise, lying on the left side, during a thunderstorm. Phthisis florida in young people. Trembling of heart, after menses, on ascending stairs.

Back: Heavy dragging in the back. Itching of the skin of the back.

Pain in the back at night, during menses, on motion, from sexual excesses, while sitting. Pain in the dorsal region; left scapula, between scapulae. Pain in lumbar region, during menses. Pain in sacrum, during menses.

Aching in back during menses in lumbar region. Sore bruised back and spine. Spinal irritation.

Burning in lumbar region and in the spine. Drawing in the back. Sharp pain in right sacro-iliac junction. Stitching in lumbar region.

Perspiration of the back. Stiffness both sides of neck. Swelling of the glands of the neck. Weakness of the back toward evening, in the lumbar region, after emissions.

Limbs: COLD HANDS, legs and feet.

Feet icy cold during menses, in daytime, burn at night in bed. Contraction of extensors in forearm while writing. Sore stinging corns. Cramp in calves and feet. Cramp in hands, while writing. Cracking in joints. Eruption on limbs, vesicles; pimples and vesicles on lower limbs; pimples on nates, eczema of ankles. Formication of upper limbs and of feet.

Heat of hands and feet Heaviness of limbs, of lower limbs, legs and feet. Itching of limbs, upper limbs, lower limbs, ankles. Numbness of limbs, upper limbs, right hand and arm, of fingers, right fingers, of feet. Pain in the limbs. Gouty, rheumatic joints, wrist. Rheumatic pain in shoulder (right). Pain in leg, calf, ankle, ball of foot, first toe. Bruised pain in limbs, lower limbs, knee, leg. Burning hands and soles.

Crampy pain in left hand and index finger. Drawing in forearm, wrist during menses, hand, joints, left shoulder, hip and knee. Pressure in shoulder. Stitching in shoulder and fingers, in hip, thigh, knee, soles, heel. Tearing in limbs, joints, upper limbs, shoulder, upper arm, elbow, fingers; lower limbs, hip, knee, leg, foot, toes.

Perspiration of hands and feet. Restless legs. Shortening of tendons in hollow of knee, also, after menses. Stiffness of joints. Swelling of fingers; of lower limbs, of feet. Tension in hamstrings and calf Trembling in hands, in knees after emissions.

Twitching of muscles. Weakness of upper limbs, of hands, of right wrist and left ankle after menses; of lower limbs, thighs, ANKLES. Weakness of ankles in children (Nat. c.). Sudden giving way of legs while walking.

Sleep: Very deep sleep.

The patient is a great dreamer. Dreams anxious, amorous, of dead people, distressing, of previous events, of fire, frightful, nightmare, pleasant, vexatious and vivid.

Falling asleep in the chair. The sleep is restless. Sleepiness all day and after dinner, most in forenoon. Sleepless before midnight, after midnight, from crowding of thoughts. Sleepiness, yet cannot sleep. Unrefreshing sleep.

Wakeful from 12 to 3 A.M. Waking early, 5 A.M., unrested. Waking late.

Coldness in evening in bed, in cold air. Chilliness in evening, during menses, after eating. Shaking chill. One-sided coldness. Internal chill. Fever, flushes of heat and headache every afternoon. Cannot get to sleep, feels so hot. Fever with sweat during sleep. Intermittent fever with vomiting of sour masses.

Skin: Perspiration in the daytime, morning, afternoon, during the night.

Anxious sweat. Cold sweat. Perspiration on coughing, on slight exertion. Profuse sweat in the morning and during the night with great nervous weakness. Sour smelling sweat. The infant smells sour.

Biting, burning, or coldness of the skin. Liver spots red spots, yellow spots and jaundiced skin. Dry skin. Dry, burning eruptions; blisters, boils, burning, desquamating, moist, dry, herpetic, painful, phagedenic, pimples, golden yellow scales; suppurating, urticaria, vesicular. Eczema with honey colored discharge. Erysipelas. Excoriation. Formication. Freckles.

Gnawing pain in skin. Inactivity of the skin. Itching, biting, burning, crawling, creeping, stinging, ameliorated by scratching, aggravated by warmth of bed. Sensitive skin. Sore feeling in the skin. Sticking in skin. Swelling of skin, of affected parts.

Dropsical skin. Ulcerative pain. Ulcers; biting, burning, crawling, deep; discharge offensive and yellow; fistulous, inflamed, red areola, sensitive, stinging, suppurating, swollen, unhealthy. Unhealthy skin. Warts.

Natrum sulfuricum
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 133 of 180
Source pages 2406–2424 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

This is one of our most frequently indicated constitutional remedies. The symptoms appear in the morning, evening and during the night, especially before midnight.

Some symptoms are better after breakfast, during the daytime and after midnight, except the sweat. It is a very useful remedy for complaints following neglected gonorrhea. The symptoms and the constitutional state of the patient are worse in wet weather.

It is useful in patients who live near waterways and have suffered long from malarial influences. It is useful as an antidote to the abuse of quinine. It especially belongs to patients of the naturopathic and bilious constitution.

He is extremely sensitive to the night air. He suffers from universal catarrh and the discharges are generally greenish. It cures dropsically conditions. Sensitive to touch and pressure; oversensitive mentally and physically. Very sensitive to pain.

The pains are very numerous; dull pains, sharp pains, all better from motion. Bruised feeling:all over. Strong desire for open air and better while walking in the open air. Sensitive to a warm room, though he is sometimes sensitive to cold and must have warm loathing. The feeling of fullness or distension is found in many places; in the head, in the ear, in the abdomen, in the veins generally.

Complaints all worse in the spring and in warm weather. General, physical restlessness and anxiety. Marked weakness and trembling with internal pulsations and rapid heart. Twitching of muscles. Complaints from injuries of head and spine. The symptoms all worse during rest. Rheumatic complaints all over the body.

He is compelled to lie on the back. Convulsions from injuries of the head. Sycotic conditions with a history of warts and condylomata. Anxiety in the morning which passes off after breakfast; in the evening in bed; at night before midnight; during fever; about the future; anxiety and loathing of life with suicidal impulse, must use all self-control to prevent taking his life, A woman during gestation attempted several times to hang herself, after this remedy she was cheerful and there was no return of the suicidal disposition. Cheerful after stool. Music makes her sad. Sadness in the morning, which passes off after breakfast.

Mind: Extremely irritable in the morning.

Violent anger which is followed by jaundice. Aversion to company. Dislikes to speak or to be spoken to. Dullness of mind and excitability. Mental exertion brings on mental symptoms. Mental troubles come, on from injuries of the head.

A young man became very sad and subject to attacks of vertigo, and neglected his business after being hit on the side of the head by a base ball. He was entirely free from all symptoms after taking this remedy.

Fear of a crowd; of evil; of people. Forgetful, easily frightened, hysterical; indifferent; indolent; insanity. She is oversensitive and suspicious. Starting from fright or noise and in sleep.

Head: Subject to vertigo, congestive headaches with fullness and heat.

Pressing outward in the head with pulsation. Periodical headaches with vomiting bile. The pains are worse when thinking of them and better by pressure, in the open air and when lying. Pulsation in the temples when walking. Splitting pain in the vertex. Heat of the vertex.

Headache in the morning on waking. Mental exertion brings on headaches. Sensation as of brain falling to side lain on. Headache with intermittent fever. Violent occipital headache with pain in the nape of the neck. Headache from injuries of the head. Itching of the scalp. Formication. Eczema of the scalp with much moisture.

Eyes: Photophobia and head complaints from looking, into the light.

Lachrymation and dim vision, jaundiced eyes; inflamed eyes with many blisters. Burning in the eyes morning and evening. Greenish discharge from the eyes. Lids stuck together in the morning.

Granular lids. Scrofulous inflammation of the conjunctiva. Redness, swelling and burning of the margins of the lids. Heaviness of lids. Pressing in eyes when using eyes. Itching of the eyes in the morning.

Ears: Chirping in the ears in the evening; during chill and fever.

Flapping sensation in the ears. Ringing in the ears. Pressing out feeling in the ears. Earache as if something was forcing its way out. Stitching pains in ears, worse entering warm room from cold air; in damp weather.

Earache. Complaint worse on right side. Heat in right ear in evening. Catarrh of right ear. Stopped sensation in right ear. Purulent discharge from the ears.

Nose: catarrhal discharge from nose, yellowish green.

Epistaxis before and during menses; in afternoon and evening. Dryness and burning in the nose. Obstructed with mucus in the night. Mucus drawn from posterior nares tasting salty. Sneezing with fluent coryza and influenza. Epidemic influenza. Chunks of dried mucus blow. from high up in nose.

Face and mouth: Itching of the face with eczema.

Sickly expression and jaundiced skin. Vesicles and pimples on the face. Vesicles on the lower lip and around the mouth. Pimples on the chin burning on touch.

The teeth become loose and fall out in sycotic constitution. The gums separate from the teeth, Pain in the teeth worse from warm things, better from cold drinks and the cold air.

Gums red, ulcerate and burn. Blisters on the gums. The mouth is always slimy. Much mucus forms in the mouth and throat. Taste is better and tongue is heavily coated a dirty greenish brown.

Blisters on the tongue and roof of the mouth. Burning in the roof of the mouth during menses. Numbness in the mouth. Salivation.

Throat and stomach: Chronic inflammation of the throat with copious viscid white MUCUS.

Dry sensation in throat. Pain in throat on swallowing food. Choking feeling in the throat when walking. It is often needed in goitre.

Great thirst in the evening; for very cold drinks; during chill and fever.

Aversion to bread and meat. Qualmishness after farinaceous foods; hiccough after bread in evening. Eructations of sour water of bitter fluid.

Nausea before breakfast. Constant nausea. Vomiting of sour or bitter fluid. Vomiting of green bile with colic. The stomach feels distended and heavy. Pulsation in the stomach after breakfast. Extreme cases of gastric weakness with acidity.

Can digest only the simple foods. Digestion very slow. This remedy has cured many complaints of the liver; congested, enlarged, sore liver.

Liver: Pain in the liver from lying on the right side.

Dragging in the right hypochondrium when lying on the left. side (Mag. m., Card. m., Ptel.), soreness and itching in the liver when walking.

Sharp pains in the liver on deep inspiration. The liver is disturbed by mental exertion and anger. The liver seems to manufacture an excess of bile. Perverted viscid bile that readily forms gall stones. It causes the liver to make healthy bile which is the natural solvent of gall stones, when given in homoeopathic doses at long intervals. It has cured many cases of gall stone colic. It has removed gall stones in many cases. Sensitive to clothing over the hypochondria. The following three cases will testify:

Case I.

Woman, married, grown children. Aged 37. Headache followed by vomiting of bile for several years. Face purple. Heat ameliorates the pain.

Pain begins in right eye, spreads over the forehead with a dragging feeling in back of head. Pain in sacrum extends to thighs, aggravated on right side. Nervous, easily startled, apprehensive. Intensely fastidious. Had gall stone colic three months ago. Cold feet. Headache at menstrual period for sixteen years. Menstrual flow thick, clotted, dark, lasts one day, Stool, light color when sick, darker when in better health. Must restrain herself or she will commit suicide. Slow pulse at times. Tired, all the time. Condemned to an operation by the surgeon for gall stone. Fissured tongue. Natrum sulphuricum cured the gall stones disappeared.

Case 2.

Man actively engaged in business, weight 180 pounds. Age 40.

Pain in region of gall bladder. Gall stone colic. Came on after indigestion. Dull aching in that region. Must walk about the room, not ameliorated in any position. Only once has stool become light colored. Pain in region of kidneys, also through pelvic region and legs with a cloudy condition of the urine; dribbling of few drops of urine after urination.

Dull heavy pain in right side behind the lower ribs, continuous pain; pain extends up right side as far as nipple; stabbing pains in breast. Pain in duodenum aggravated after eating. Natrum sulph. cured. The patient is in perfect health.

Case 3.

Woman. Age 64. Diarrhea; stool watery, sometimes chalky; enlarged liver; clawing feeling in gall bladder; gall stone colic.

Had been condemned by a surgeon to the operating table. Sinking spells after stool; cold spells; vertigo, stooping, lying or walking; spells of rapid beating of heart; mental depression; thirstless; temperature sub-normal; sensitive to jarring abdomen; flatulence and rumbling in abdomen; cold legs to knees; cold hands much belching, aggravated after meals; sensitive to weather changes nervous and sleepless before a storm; sore dragging feeling in the liver; bowels sluggish; slow digestion; heaviness of arms and legs; chilliness down the back; unable to he on right side with comfort; urine copious; strong; late going to sleep.

Natrum sulph. made a radical change in her condition and there are no more signs of gall stones.

Abdomen: Distress in the abdomen relieved by displacing flatus.

Emptiness relieved by passing flatus and by eructations. Cramps and many pains from obstructed flatus. Pain and distension in the ascending colon from flatus.

Pain in the region of the caecum. It has cured many cases resembling the first stage of appendicitis. Pain and tenderness in the whole abdomen. Dull heavy pain from abdomen to back. Burning in the abdomen. Feeling in the abdomen as it a diarrhea would come on, ameliorated by eructations and passing flatus.

Distress in the abdomen that hurries him to stool but only flatus passes. Pain in the abdomen during menses. Cramp in morning before breakfast. Pain in abdomen, 4 to 8 P.M., and in evening. Constant distress in bowels and urging to stool.

Fullness, rumbling, motions, gurgling with or without diarrhea. Pain in right ascending colon when lying on the. right side. Bilious colic with vomiting of bile. It has cured many cases of syphilis. It has cured enlarged abdominal glands. Morning diarrhea with copious flatus soon after rising or soon after standing on the feet. Diarrhea in wet weather.

Stools gushing; copious; greenish; thin; very offensive; slimy, bloody; cramps in the abdomen before stool. Smarting in the anus during stool. Sometimes cheerful after stool. Often the diarrhea is painless.

Diarrhea after farinaceous food; from vegetables; fruit; pastry; cold drinks; ice cream. Diarrhea alternating with constipation. Diarrhea with stools at any hour of the day or night, but especially morning and evening.

It has cured many cases of chronic diarrhea with stool involuntary and lienteric.

Itching and crawling in the anus. Condylomata at the anus. It cured an ulceration in the rectum with copious bleeding in a lawyer who had long struggled with suicidal impulses. It has often cured bleeding piles.

Kidneys and urines: It has cured parenchymatic inflammation of the kidneys following scarlet fever and from malarial influences.

It has cured sugar in the urine and polyuria. It has cured brick dust sediment many times also where copious white sandy sediment was present. It has cured copious deposits of phosphates with copious jelly-like mucous sediment. Must rise often in the night to urinate. Burning during and after urination. Urine loaded with bile. Where these symptoms appear after neglected gonorrhea.

Male: In the male strong sexual desire and troublesome erections.

Gonorrhea when the discharge has a greenish yellow color and there is burning during and after urination. It has cured enlarged prostate many times. Condylomata, soft fleshy with greenish discharge.

Oedema of the scrotum and prepuce. Itching of the penis and scrotum with burning after scratching.

Female: The menstrual flow is copious, acrid and clotted.

Leucorrhoea acrid greenish, purulent, excoriating the parts. It has cured milk leg.

Larynx, trachea and chest: Much thick, viscid white mucus forms in the larynx and trachea.

Dyspnoea on exertion and while walking; with sharp pain in left chest. Stitching on deep breathing. Dyspnoea in damp weather. It is a most useful remedy in humid asthma in children of sycotic parents. Humid asthma with copious viscid mucus in every spell of hot weather. Chronic catarrh of the bronchial tubes.

Frequent attacks of paroxysmal cough from irritation in larynx ending in copious white, viscid expectorations.

Expectoration bloody; greenish yellow; purulent; white; viscid. Oppression of the chest from damp evening air and in the morning on waking.

Emptiness in the chest on inspiration. Soreness in the chest on coughing, better by holding the chest with the bands.

Bronchitis and pneumonia are sometimes hard to cure in sycotic patients until they have received this remedy. Muco-purulent expectoration in old people. Eruptions on the chest every spring in sycotic patients. Swelling and suppuration in the axillary glands.

It has been the epidemic remedy in this country in cerebro-spinal meningitis, where the pain in the back of the head and neck was marked, “as the gnawing of a dog” and the head was drawn backward.

Back and limbs: Piercing pain between the scapulae in the evening while sitting.

Tenderness of the spine. Sore pain in the small of the back and sacrum. Pain in the small of the back during the night compelling her to lie on the right side; it passes away in the morning after rising. Pain in the small of the back from retaining the urine. Itching of the back when undressing. Pain in the sacrum, cannot lie on either side.

Trembling, twitching and weakness in the limbs, twitching in hands and feet during sleep. Pains in the limbs during rest. Rheumatic pains in the limbs in wet weather. Cracking in the joint. Warts on the arms and hands. Pains in the limbs during chill and fever, better by motion and walking. Worse in the lower than in the upper limbs.

Weakness in the hands; flexors pain on grasping anything. Trembling in the hands in the morning on waking and when writing. The tendency to suppuration around the nails is a marked symptom in this remedy. Palms raw and sore and exude a watery fluid. It has cured bad cases of psoriasis of the palms. Fingers swollen and stiff.

Panaritium, pain more bearable in the open air. Ulceration, pain under the nail and in the tips of the fingers.

Pain in the right hip joint on motion. Stitching in the left hip. Pain in the hip extending to the knee. Swelling in the left leg.

Sciatica better in motion. Dull, aching in the lower limbs during chill and fever, better when walking. Restlessness of the limbs at night in bed. Ulcers on outer side of thighs. Stiffness of knees. Weakness in lower limbs. Burning of feet and legs to the knees. Dry heat in feet at night. Oedema of the feet. Sharp pain in soles and heels.

Drowsiness in the forenoon when reading. Frightful dreams. Chill from 6 to 9 P.M., with fever, than dry heat until 1 A.M., sweat absent.

Chill with icy coldness and gooseflesh from 4 to 8 P.M. during menses. Shaking chills. Chilliness with fever in the evening from night air. Perspiration after midnight or toward morning. Fevers with vomiting bile. Remittent and intermittent fevers. It is a much neglected remedy in chronic intermittent fever.

Eczema with watery oozing. Water blisters. Yellow scales after breaking the vesicles. Jaundice. Intertrigo. Wart-like, red excrescences all over the body.

Red, knotty eruptions on head above the ears; on the forehead and left side of nape of neck; in the middle of chest. Itching when undressing.

Editorial notes

• “evening apd during” corrected to “evening and during” (transcription error in the digital source text).
• “from Iying on” corrected to “from lying on” (transcription error in the digital source text).

Mercurius
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 118 of 180
Source pages 2244–2281 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

General features: The pathogenesis of Mercury is found in the provings of Merc. viv. and Merc. sol., two slightly different preparations, but not different enough to make any distinction in practice.

Mercury is used in testing the temperature, and a Merc. constitution is just as changeable and sensitive to heat and cold. The patient is worse from the extremes of temperature, worse from both heat and cold. Both the symptoms and the patient are worse in a warm atmosphere, worse in the open air, and worse in the cold.

The complaints of Mercury when sufficiently acute to send him to bed are worse from the warmth of the bed, so that he is forced to uncover; but after he uncovers and cools off he gets worse again, so that he has difficulty in keeping comfortable. This applies to the pains, the fever, ulcers and eruptions and the patient himself.

He is an offensive patient. We speak of mercurial odors. The breath especially is very foetid, and it can be detected on entering the room; it permeates the whole room. The perspiration is offensive; it has a strong, sweetish, penetrating odor. Offensiveness runs all through; offensive urine, stool and sweat; the odors from the nose and mouth are offensive. When Merc. is used in large doses and the patient is salivated he gives off these odors.

One who has once smelt a salivated patient will remember the mercurial odor. I remember when I was a student, almost every room had the mercurial odor. Mercury was given till the gums were touched and salivation was produced. That odor is often an index to the use of Merc.

He is worse at night. The bone pains, joint affections and inflammatory conditions are all worse at night and somewhat relieved during the day. Bone pains are universal, but especially where the flesh is thin over the bones. Periosteal pains, boring pains, worse at night and from warmth of the bed.

The glands are inflamed, and swollen; the parotids, sub-linguals, lymphatic glands of the neck, groin and axilla are all affected; the mammae swell and there is inflammation and swelling of the liver. It is pre-eminently a glandular remedy. Induration is also a general; inflamed parts indurate. If the skin is inflamed it is hard. Inflamed glands are hard.

There is induration with ulceration. A tendency to ulcerate runs through the remedy. Ulcers are found everywhere, in the throat, nose, mouth, and on the lower limbs. Ulcers sting and burn and have a lardaceous base, an ashy-white appearance looking as if spread over with a coating of lard. It looks like a diphtheritic exudate, and Merc. has diphtheritic exudations on inflamed surfaces.

Ulcers in the throat have this appearance. The mucous membrane sometimes inflames without ulceration, but with exudation, and hence it is useful in diphtheria. It has the same condition in ulcers; when the system is run down they exude a grey lardy or ashy deposit. Chancres take on that form, a whitish cheesy deposit on the base. When you realize that the complaints of Merc. are worse at night, and think of the bone pains, periosteal inflammations, etc., it is not surprising that Merc. sometimes cures syphilis. It is wonderful that the allopath hit upon it for this disease, and he cures or suppresses enough cases by similarity to justify its continued use. When given suitably it cures.

Another marked feature is the tendency to the formation of pus. With inflammation there is burning and stinging and the rapid formation of pus and the part is aggravated by both warmth and cold. Abscesses burn and sting; inflammation of joints is attended with pus formation; in inflammation of the pleura the cavity fills up with pus. The discharges of pus are yellow-green. The Merc. gonorrheal discharge is thick greenish-yellow, with stinging and burning in the urethra.

Rheumatic inflammation of joints and catarrhal inflammation of mucous membrane are features running through the remedy, and these are attended with sweat, and an astonishing feature is that the sweat does not relieve, and there is even an aggravation while sweating.

Rheumatism in old syphilitic, gonorrhoeal and gouty patients. It is similar enough to relate to some cases of psora, syphilis and sycosis. It partakes of the nature of all three miasms.

After a prover has taken Merc. a long time he emaciates. This is seen in old mercury takers and in syphilitics who have been mercurialized. It is a great remedy in this condition-steady emaciation with trembling, worse at night and from the warmth of the bed, great restlessness, can’t find peace in any position. These miserable wretches, who are breaking down, are great sufferers, whether psoric, syphilitic or sycotic.

A strange feature is repeated swelling and abscess formation without any heat. An abscess or swelling in a joint forms, and he sweats from head to foot, is worse at night, loses flesh, trembles and is weak, but there is no heat while the abscess goes on. Abscesses form when the life force is so low that there is no tendency to repair; a slow and prolonged pus formation, no irritability in the abscess, no tendency to granulate, it opens and keeps on discharging and seems dead. Merc. will warm it up, stop the sweat and favor granulation.

The superficial ulceration is inclined to spread and become phagedenic; it is not deep but grows larger. These open ulcers are especially seen in old syphilitics; lardaceous base; not much irritability, they are even numb, and if pus is discharged it is greenish-yellow; false granulations appear. Merc. cor. is a greater remedy for the superficial, eating, phagedenic ulcer.

At times Merc. takes on a gangrenous condition. This may be seen anywhere, but especially on the lips, cheeks and gums. Cancrum oris. Gangrenous chancre, foetid and black; a sphacelus forms in the chancre and the part sloughs off. All these conditions are aggravated by beat.

A patient with a typical Merc. abscess rebels at times against the poultice, for it makes the trouble worse.

Trembling runs through the remedy, quivering all over. It has been used with benefit in paralysis agitans. Tremor of the hands so that he cannot lift anything or eat or write. Merc. is a great remedy in children with epileptiform fits, twitching and disorderly motions. It will help children to grow out of these in coordinate angular movements of the hands and feet.

Jerking, twitching and trembling. The motions of the tongue are disorderly and the child cannot talk. Convulsions. Involuntary motions which can be momentarily controlled by volition. The restlessness is extreme.

The trembling, weakness, sweat, foetor, suppuration and ulceration, the aggravation at night and from heat and cold, give the earlier impressions of the remedy.

Mind: The mental symptoms, which still more deeply show the nature of the medicine, are rich.

A marked feature running all through is hastiness; a hurried, restless, anxious, impulsive disposition. Coming in spells, in cold cloudy weather, or damp weather, the mind will not work, it is slow and sluggish and he is forgetful. This is noticed in persons who are tending toward imbecility. He cannot answer questions right off, looks and thinks, and finally grasps it. Imbecility and softening of the brain are strong features.

He becomes foolish. Delirium in acute complaints. From his feelings he thinks he must be losing his reason. Desire to kill persons contradicting her. Impulse to kill or commit suicide; sudden anger with impulse to do violence. She has the impulse to commit suicide or violent things, and she is fearful that she will lose her reason and carry the impulses out. Impulsive insanity, then, is a feature, but imbecility is more common than insanity.

These impulses are leading features. The patient will not tell you about his impulses, but they relate to deep evils of the will, they fairly drive him to do something. Given a Merc. patient, and he has impulses that he tries to control, no matter what, Merc. will do something for him. During menses, great anxiety, great sadness. Anxious and restless as if some evil impended, worse at night, with sweat.

Al these symptoms are common in old syphilitics, broken down after mercurial treatment and sulphur baths, at the springs, with their bone pains, glandular troubles, sweating, catarrhs and ulcerations everywhere.

Head: Merc. is suitable to rheumatic troubles of the scalp, and neuralgias and brain trouble when there are burning, stinging pains and pains affected by the weather, and when there are head troubles that have come on from suppressed discharges, such as suppressed otorrhoea after scarlet fever, or when there are head troubles in scarlet fever.

Think of Merc. if you are called to a child with sweating of the head, dilated pupils, rolling of the head, and aggravation at night, who has had scarlet fever or a suppressed ear discharge. Merc. cures lingering febrile conditions analogous to the typhoid state, but caused by suppressed ear discharge. I have cured cases that were due to packing the ear with borax, iodoform, etc., the patient having first a remittent and later a continued fever.

This would go on for five or six weeks and be relieved only when the discharge returned after a dose of Merc. I remember a case of this type. It was called cerebro-spinal meningitis; the head was drawn back and twisted and held to one side.

It began as an otitis media with discharge which was suppressed. Two or three doctors were called and could do nothing. In the night I went to the bedside and got the history and symptoms of Merc. Merc. re-established the discharge in twenty-four hours, the torticolis passed away, the fever subsided and the child made an excellent recovery. I can recall many such cases.

There is a tension about the scalp as if it were bandaged. Nervous girls have headache over the nose and around the eyes as if tied with a tape, or as if a tight hat were pressing on the head. Pressing, tearing pain in the eyes. Burning pains in the temples ameliorated by sitting up and moving about, worse at night.

Periosteal pains worse in cold, damp weather, in rheumatic and gouty constitutions, with sensitiveness in the eyes and ears, sore throat and glandular swellings. Headaches in old mercurialized syphilitics; they become barometers; sensitive to the weather. The catarrhal headaches are very troublesome; headache in those suffering from chronic catarrh with thick discharge.

The thick discharge becomes watery and the pain in the forehead, face and ears very distressing. These headaches are violent. Chronic rheumatic headache from the suppression of a discharge from any part, or from foot sweat suppressed; alternation of foot sweat and headache. When the foot sweat is gone he has pain and stiffness in the joints.

Silicea has that also. Sil. and Merc. do not follow each other well, when well selected; but if crude Mercury has been taken for a long time, Silica, like Nitric acid, is a good remedy to eliminate it when the symptoms agree.

With all headaches there is much heat in the head. Bursting headaches, fullness of the brain, and. constriction like a band. Vise-like pressure. He is sensitive to the air when he has headache. This is true of Merc. all through. He is relieved in the room, but worse in a warm or cold room, and violently worse from a draught. He wants to be covered but is worse from heat. The hoop-like sensation is worse at night.

Merc. is a wonderful remedy to ward off acute hydrocephalus after measles and scarlatina; the child rolls the head and moans, and the head sweats. It is closely related to Apis, which is also a great remedy after scarlet fever to ward off or cure hydrocephalus. Exostoses in old syphilitics.

Lacerating, tearing pains in the pericranium.

The whole external head is painful to touch. The scalp is tense and sore. Foetid, oily sweat on the head. Children have moist eczema, an excoriating, offensive eruption.

Eyes: Merc. is a wonderful eye remedy, especially for “colds.”

Every cold settles in the eye in gouty and rheumatic patients. Catarrh of the eyes worse from looking into the fire or rather from sitting close to the fire; the radiated heat causes smarting. Eyelids forcibly drawn together as if long deprived of sleep. Fog or mist before the eye. Merc. cures iritis in syphilitics.

The rule now-a-days is to use a mydriatic in iritis to prevent adhesions. I have treated many cases and I have no desire to dilate the pupil. I believe it is unnecessary. The homoeopathic remedy will stop the iritis speedily so that no adhesions will form, and if they have begun the remedy will remove them. Pains tearing and burning around the eyes, in temples, etc. Tension of the scalp as if it were a tight fitting cap, or tension as from a tape.

Ulceration and inflammation of the cornea. Vascular appearance of the cornea; inflammation, especially confined to the cornea, sometimes pustular, sometimes diffused. There is copious lachrymation with all eye symptoms, and the tears excoriate, causing a red line down the cheeks. Greenish yellow, or a green discharge. Lids spasmodically closed. Great photophobia. In inflammatory conditions of all the tissues of the eye lids, conjunctiva and deeper structures. Colds settle in the eye like Dulc.

Sometimes you will see a little fine growth on the iris, growing across the pupil and attached by a pedicle. It is really a syphilitic condylomata. Merc. cures it in a few days. Inflammation of the retina and choroid and of the optic nerve. All sorts of disturbed vision. It is useful in purulent ophthalmia, with swollen lids. Two kinds of constitution need it, the syphilitic and the rheumatic or gouty. He can not open the eyes; they are spasmodically closed, and there is great tumefaction.

Ears: Ear troubles. Horribly stinking greenish discharge. Green, thick, acrid pus from the ears like the discharge from the nose and other parts. Stinking otorrhoea. In otitis media with ruptured drum, Merc. is a frequently required remedy. In Spring after a long, cold Winter, the cold, damp weather causes many cases of otorrhoea; it is almost endemic in large cities. The ear drum heals like any other place if the patient is put in good condition by the remedy. It not well treated a hole will be left. Ears inflamed, with cramp-like pains.

Merc has stinging pain like Apis. All routinists will give Apis for stinging pains, and yet it often is Merc. that the patient needs. Purulent, offensive otorrhoea. Enlargement of the parotids and cervical glands with all inflammations of the ears. Parotids sore and enlarged, neck stiff, and head sometimes drawn back., Furuncles in external canal. Fungous excrescences and polypi.

The nose troubles would take a long time to describe.

Old syphilitics, with nasal bones affected, thick, greenish, yellow, acrid, stinking discharge. Nosebleed and bloody discharge from the nose. Coryza acrid, watery, with pressure through the bones of the face, worse from heat or cold, worse at night; sensitive to every draught; must get up and walk the floor. It has coryza with much sneezing with an opposite state, ameliorated lying, not at all during the night while lying in bed, only in the daytime while up and about.

The inhalation of hot air feels good to the nose, but the heat aggravates the body. Incessant sneezing. Bleeding, scurfy, red nostrils. Old catarrhal smell in the nose. Rawness, burning and swelling. Inside of the nostrils smarting and burning. Aching, tearing and pressure in the bones. Bones of the face painful, feel as if pressed outward, and be wants to press, but it is painful.

Merc. is not deep enough to cure the whole constitution in psoric cases that are constantly taking cold. It cures the cold at once, but implants its own nature and the patient catches cold oftener. It should not be given often, not oftener than twice in a winter. Kali iod, is better for the same burning in the face, running coryza, and aggravation from heat and warmth of the bed, and it will cure the coryza in a night when apparently Merc. is indicated. it is also an antidote to Merc. Don’t give many doses of Merc. in psoric cases; look for a deeper medicine.

Face: It has syphilitic eruptions and neuralgias of the face with or without catarrh. It is a great medicine for mumps; it is a routine remedy for this condition, which shows that it must be frequently indicated. It cures where the symptoms agree.

Scorbutic gums in those who have been salivated. Rigg’s disease; purulent discharge from around the teeth. Toothache; every tooth aches, especially in old gouty and mercurialized patients. Looseness of the teeth. Red, soft gums. Teeth black and dirty. Black teeth and early decay of the teeth in syphilitic children, like Staph. Copious salivation.

Gums painful to touch. Pulsation in the gums and roots. Gums have a blue red margin, or purple color, and are spongy and, bleed easily. Gums settle away, and the teeth feel long, and are elongated. Teeth sore and painful so that he cannot masticate. Abscesses of the gums and roots of the teeth.

The taste, tongue and mouth furnish important and distinctive symptoms. As the tongue is projected it is seen to be flabby, has a mealy surface, and is often pale. The imprint of the teeth is observed all round the edge of the tongue. The tongue is swollen as if spongy, and presses in around the teeth and thus gets the imprint of the teeth. Inflammation, ulceration and swelling of the tongue are strong features.

Old gouty constitutions have swollen tongue; the tongue will swell in the night and he will waken up with a mouthful. The taste is perverted, nothing tastes right. The tongue is coated yellow or white as chalk in a layer. Offensive mouth; putrid odors from the mouth especially the mercurial odor of the salivated patient. The tongue becomes clumsy; difficulty in talking; his speech is hardly intelligible. Awkwardness of the tongue as in persons intoxicated. Ulcers flat; eating ulcers; holes are eaten through the cheek. Eating away of the soft palate and the bone of the bard palate is often eaten away.

Purulent formation in the antrum of Highmore and fistulae from the mouth to the antrum. Fluoric acid and Silicea are more frequently indicated in these fistulae, especially if the bone is involved. Copious flow of foetid saliva. Sore mouth of children and nursing mothers; little aphthous patches with the mercurial odor and flabby, spongy appearance of the mucous membrane and tongue. General diffused inflammation of the mouth. The whole mucous membrane is sensitive and painful, burning, stinging and smarting; dryness with or without aphthous patches. Thrush of children. Scorbutic gums.

Throat: Sore throat. It is a remedy for inflammation of the throat, with spongy appearance, general diffused tumefaction swelling of the parotids, fullness and stiffness of the neck. Lardaceous base in ulcers; flat ulcers, spreading ulcers. Great dryness in the throat. The swelling impairs the motion of all the ‘ muscles that take part in swallowing.

Swallowing is attended with difficulty, pain and paralytic weakness, and the effort to swallow forces the bolus up into the nose, and liquids come out through the nostrils. The mercurial odor is a strong feature, but Merc. often cures when that odor is not perceptible; it has such an affinity for the throat. it has chronic throat troubles and syphilitic ulcers and patches.

The inflammation extends upwards and downwards, red and pale patches, the red looking as if they would suppurate or ulcerate. The red spots become quite purple, but the more purple they are the more they are like Lach. Tonsils dark red with stinging pains. Quinsy, after pus has formed. It is useful in diphtheria, and most cases are diffused, extensive patches or patches here and there, with spongy appearance, but no ulceration. Tumefaction; and the exudations are upon a tumefied base. Stiff neck. Erysipelatous inflammation of the throat. Dark, sloughing, eating, corroding ulcers in the throat.

Stomach: He has aversion to meat, wine, brandy, coffee, greasy food, butter.

Milk disagrees, and comes up sour. Sweets disagree. He is turned against his beer. The stomach is chronically disordered; eructations, regurgitations, heartburn, etc. Sour stomach; it is foul. He has nausea with vomiting and regurgitation of food. In such a stomach food is like a load. Bad taste; bitter mouth; be tastes the food; it comes up sour.

With all this the saliva constantly runs from the mouth. It does not improve as digestion goes on. The half-digested substances are vomited. It is like the state in persons who have destroyed their stomach from crossing liquors, beer, wine and whisky.

Liver: The liver furnishes much trouble.

Our forefathers for years took blue mass every Spring to regulate the liver. They physicked themselves with it and tapped their liver every Spring with it, and as a result they had worse livers than they would have had if the doctors had stayed at home. Constipation, bilious habits and disordered stomach.

The fullness in the region of the stomach, coming in spells, worse in cold, damp weather and warm, damp weather, worse in the Spring, jaundiced condition, disordered stomach, the aggravation at night and from the warmth of the bed, nightly feverishness and foul mouth, will give you the Merc. state.

Stitches in the liver. Liver symptoms worse lying on the right side. Many complaints of Merc. are aggravated by lying on the right side. The lung symptoms and cough, liver, stomach and bowel symptoms are all worse while lying on the right side.

Abdomen: In the abdomen we find colic, rumbling, distension, aches and pains, stinging and burning.

It has a great variety of stools, of diarrhoea and constipation. It has a well-defined dysenteric condition. Slimy, bloody stools with much straining, he feels as if he could never finish, even when no more is passing, a “never-get-done” feeling.

This is the very opposite of Nux and Rhus in dysentery. These are relieved if a little stool is passed, but Merc. and Sulph. will sit and strain, and all the salts of Merc. have the same state. Merc. cor. has a more violent attack, with violent urging to stool and to urinate, and intense suffering, with burning in the parts and the passage of pure blood.

Merc., Ipec. and Acon. are frequently indicated in epidemic dysentery that comes in hot weather, and Ipec., Dulc. and Merc. are frequently indicated in the dysentery of cold weather.

You should go to the bedside of a case of dysentery with the repertory or go home and send medicine. Your first prescription should cure in epidemic dysentery, and if you work cautiously you will cure every case. It is a very simple condition to cure, but a very bad thing to get mixed up. Do not give Arsenic just because it conforms to the dysenteric condition, for if it does not cure it will mix up the case. Hesitate about giving Ars. in dysentery until you are perfectly sure it is indicated.

A few days ago I saw a patient who could not lie down because, of pain in both hypochondria; he had incessant vomiting, inflammatory rheumatism of the ankles, hands, arms and shoulders, he had purpuric spots on the arms and legs, he had inflammation of the stomach, and was a perfect museum of diseases. He had had Phos. and Ars. and many remedies very high, all supposed to be well selected but Cadmium sulph. put him to sleep in fifteen minutes.

The point was that he wanted to keep perfectly still, and hence it was unlike Ars., although all the other symptoms were like Ars.

That is a strong feature of Cadmium sulph; he wants to keep as still as Colch. and Bry. For many years I have used it for such cases. I saw another case of cancer with coffee-ground vomit, and Cadmium sulph. stopped her vomiting, and she ate quite well until she died six weeks later. The doctor in charge had given her Ars. and Phos. and Morphine till she could take no more.

Urines: The urine burns and smarts.

Frequent urging to urinate, dribbling a little; bloody urine, great burning. Haemorrhage from the urethra. Itching worse from the presence of urine. Gonorrhoea which has existed for some time; discharge thick, greenish-yellow, and offensive. Smarting and burning in the urethra when urinating. Loss of sexual power.

Genitals: Lascivious excitement with painful erections.

Ulcers on the prepuce and glans, making it suitable in chancre and chancroid. Flat ulcers; ulcers with lardaceous base. Inflammation of the inner surface of the prepuce. Balanitis, offensive pus. In chronic balanitis when pus forms behind the glans and under the foreskin, gonorrheal or psoric, consult jacaranda caroba.

The woman has much tribulation. Burning, stinging in ovaries. Screaming from pain. Stinging, tearing, cutting pains in the ovaries, patient covered with sweat. Copious, excoriating leucorrhoea, parts raw, sore, inflamed and itching.

Stinging, itching and boring pains in the uterus. Pains in the uterus and ovaries at the menstrual period. Milk in the breast of the non-pregnant woman at the menstrual period. Milk in the breasts instead of the menstrual flow. I once had a freak in a sixteen-year-old boy, who had milk in his breasts. I cured him with Merc.

Menstrual flow light red, pale, acrid, clotted, and profuse or scanty. The menses are sometimes suppressed. Women who have been in the habit of taking mercury for biliousness remain sterile. (Coffee drinkers often remain sterile also and you must stop their coffee.)

Amenorrhoea with ebullitions. Chancres on the female genitals. Aged women have denuded genitals, rawness, soreness and false granulations, which are always bleeding. Burning, throbbing and itching in the vagina. Itching of the genitals from the contact of the urine; it must be washed off.

In children, boys or girls, the urine burns after urinating and they are always carrying the hands to the genitals. Little girls have acrid leucorrhoea causing burning and itching and much trouble. Phlegmonous inflammation of the genitals. Boils and abscesses at the menstrual period; little elongated abscesses along the margin of the mucous membrane and skin, painful, aggravated by walking, forming during the flow and breaking after the period. This with itching, causes great suffering.

Morning sickness. A woman, while pregnant, has oedematous swelling of the genitals. Diffused inflammation, soreness and fullness of the genitals and pelvis, causing difficulty in walking, and she must take to bed.

In pelvic cellulitis in the early months of pregnancy Merc. is an important remedy. Repeated miscarriages from sheer weakness Merc. is a wonderful strengthener when properly used. Prolonged lochia. Milk scanty and spoiled.

Merc. is one of the best palliatives in cancer of the uterus and mammae. It will restrain and sometimes cure epithelioma. I knew one case cured by the Proto-iodide, an ulcerated, indurated lump in the breast, as large as a goose egg with knots in the axilla, blueness of the part, and no hope.

The stooth [sic] attenuation, given as often as the pains were very severe, took it away and she remained well. The effect observed on the nose is not all of the Merc. coryza.

Respiratory: Most Merc cases begin in the nose and travel down the throat, creating rawness and scraping of the larynx, and rawness and soreness in the chest; laryngitis, tracheitis and bronchitis. Loss of voice, complete aphonia. The course of the Merc. cold is downwards, even going on to pneumonia, with sweat, restlessness and aggravation from the warmth of the bed. Of course many of the colds remain in the nose.

There are various conditions in the chest. Coughs; colds that remain in the chest, lack of reaction and tardy recovery. The colds finally settle in the bronchial tubes; the chest feels as if it would burst and the cough is worse lying on the right side. I look back over many cases of patients who took cold from exposure and now look sickly and sallow, with a dreadful cough and rattling on the chest; every change of the weather gives them a new cold, and they cannot lie on the right side; their tendency is to go into mucous phthisis or quick consumption.

The cough is worse in the night air. There are many pains in the chest. He has a rheumatic constitution, is always sweating, worse while sweating and from the extremes of heat and cold. Stitching stabbing, rheumatic pains in the chest with night sweats. Bloody, thick green expectoration. Suppuration of the lung, great quantities of pus form.

Tremendous orgasms, bubbling and flushes of heat in the chest. With many complaints there is sore throat and rheumatism and stiffness of the neck; stiff neck with swollen glands and goitre. Stiff neck with every cold; stiffness of the side and back of the neck. Induration and soreness of the cervical glands along with other complaints.

Limbs: Merc. especially affects the joints; inflammatory rheumatism with much swelling, aggravated from the heat of the bed and from uncovering.

It is difficult to get just the right weight of clothing. Rheumatic affection with sweat, aggravation at night, from the warmth of the bed and while sweating, with sickly countenance. It especially attacks the upper limbs, but is also found in the lower.

Tremulous condition of the extremities, like paralysis agitans. Trembling of the hands with great weakness. Paralysis of the lower limbs, and twitching, jerking and quivering of the paralyzed parts. Arg. n., Phos., Stram., Secale and Merc. have twitching of the muscles of the paralyzed limb.

Soreness between the thighs and genitals. Ulcers on the legs; abscesses. Oedematous swelling of the feet. Cold perspiration. Copious sweat during sleep. Pain and sweat come on when comfortable in bed; bone pains. He covers up because he feels cold, but when he becomes warm the pains are aggravated.

Fever: Merc. is full of fever. Very seldom, however, has it a true, idiopathic, continued fever. It stands very low for continued fever alone, but it is especially indicated in surgical fevers, at first remittent, but later continued, such as come on from the suppression of discharges.

The Merc. patient about to go into a chill is chilly even when the chill has not yet come on; sensitive to the moving air in a warm room; violently sensitive to a draught. Cold hands and feet. The sweat is profuse and offensive.

The complaints in general are worse while he sweats, and the more he sweats the worse he is. He sweats copiously and his greatest sufferings are in the sweat. Merc. does not have a clear intermittent.

Between the paroxysms be has liver disturbances, diarrhoea, fever. In surgical fevers, bilious fevers, worm fever in children, and remittent fevers there is much aching in the bones, great sensitiveness to the air, aggravation at night in bed when the fever runs highest, mercurial breath and sallow skin. The fever does not go so high. and the skin is not so hot as in Bell. The loaded tongue and the bilious fevers fade out after Merc.

It is useful in hectic fever in the last stages of consumption, and in exhausting diseases with hectics, and in cancer when there is the aching, foul sweat, etc. It acts wonderfully in catarrhal fever, grippe, etc., and when colds extend to the chest and there are the copious discharges everywhere. It is suitable in quasi-typhoids that have come out of remittents, symptomatic typhoids, when the patient is icteric, low, prostrated, tremulous, with quivering muscles, great exhaustion and continued fever.

Skin: There are many skin symptoms; scurfy eruptions, vesicular eruptions, eruptions discharging pus.

Vesicles burn and smart, with excoriating discharges, especially on the head. Much itching of the skin, violent, in all parts of the body, as from fleas, especially when warm in bed at night. Copper-colored eruptions as. in syphilis, and mucous patches. The scurfy eruptions are especially marked.

Ulcers on parts where the skin and flesh are thin over the bones. Offensive forms of eczema. Most eruptions are moist with copious oozing. It cures shingles.

The skin is sallow. Excoriating wherever two parts come together. Rawness between the thighs and between the scrotum and thighs. Eruptions in such places. it has fissures at commissures, at the corners of the mouth and eyes; rawness and bleeding of the perineum rendering walking difficult.

This furnishes a basis for the Salts of Mercury.

The salts of mercury: After studying Merc., corrosive mercury, the proto-iodide and the bin-iodide, we may from some specific symptoms in the case say that we prefer one of the salts of Mercury.

When we go to rheumatic and gouty cases with the aggravation from sweat, aggravation from the warmth of the bed, the mercurial odor, etc., we can commonly say that one of the Mercurius will cure this case.

Editorial notes

• “along tho margin” corrected to “along the margin” (transcription error in the digital source text).
• “The stooth attenuation” is unclear in the source text and is reproduced as printed, marked [sic].

Nitricum Acidum
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 134 of 180
Source pages 2425–2444 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

Generalities: Great general weakness; feeble reaction; extreme sensitivity, and nervous trembling, are marked features in this remedy.

Patients greatly broken by long suffering, pain and sickness, physical more than mental suffering, finally anemia and emaciation are marked.

Sensitive to cold; always chilly. Symptoms are aggravated from becoming cold, and in cold air. Always taking cold.

The walls of blood vessels are relaxed and bleed easily; profuse dark blood. Pains as if flesh were torn from the bones and a sensation as though a splinter felt in inflamed parts, in ulcers and in nerves. Inflammation of the periosteum, in bone, and in the nerves. Syphilitic bone pains. Caries of bone, and exostoses.

The margins of orifices bleed and grow warts. Old scars become painful in cold weather and when weather changes to cold; pains like splinters. Inflammation of glands after the abuse of mercury in syphilitic subjects. Prolonged suppuration in glands, with no tendency to repair, when there are sticking pains.

The discharges are thin, bloody, offensive and excoriating; sometimes a dirty yellowish green. Suppuration where there is no tendency to repair. This is often the case when the patient is syphilitic and has been surcharged with mercury. For suppuration and ulceration in cancerous affections with bloody, watery, offensive discharges and sticking pains. It has often been observed that the patient requiring Nitric acid is more subject to diarrhea than constipation.

It has cured many complaints in patients who are never so comfortable as when riding in a carriage. Twitching of muscles in all parts of the body. Many complaints are aggravated from a jar, and from noise. Even his pains are aggravated from noise.

Nitric acid patients are often extremely sensitive to medicines, especially high potencies indeed, they prove every remedy given too high. Fissures form in many places; canthi, corners of the mouth, above the anus; the skin cracks – and all these have the splinter sensation.

He finally becomes dropsical, especially in the extremities. Offensiveness is a marked condition of this patient, often putrid odors. The urine smells like that of a horse. Offensive leucorrhoea, offensive catarrh, and breath; foetid foot sweat. Strong odors from the body. Too much weight must not be given to the dark, swarthy complexion so often mentioned as the one most likely to need this remedy. Nitric acid will cure blondes as often as brunettes, if the symptoms agree.

Mind: Prostration of mind.

Any effort to reflect on certain things causes the thoughts to vanish. A general indifference to all matters; tired of life; has no enjoyment in anything; aggravated before menses.

Mental depression in the evening. Anxiety about his failing health, with fear of death. Anxiety after loss of sleep; vexation and sorrow. He is angered over his own mistakes. Anger with trembling. Obstinate and refuses to be comforted about his misfortune. He is weary of life but fears death.

Excitable and weeps. Despair of recovery. Hopelessness. Easily startled, frightened. Starts from fright on falling asleep. Cannot comprehend what is said to him. The whole mental state is better when riding in a carriage.

Head: Suffers much from vertigo in the morning; must lie down.

His headaches are violent, aggravated from noise of wagons on the paved streets, but often ameliorated from riding in a carriage on a smooth, country road.

The noise and jarring increase the pain, Pain as if in a vise from car to car. The biparietal syphilitic pain is often cured by this remedy. Pain as though the head were bound up. Painful drawing in head extending to eyes, with nausea. Stitching pains in the head. Hammering pain in the head. Pain in morning on waking, ameliorated after rising, aggravated by a jar, motion and noise, ameliorated riding in a carriage. Heat often ameliorates the head pains and cold aggravates.

Wrapping up ameliorates. Pain as if constricted by a tape. Extreme sensitivity of the scalp and skull to combing the hair, and to the hat. The hair falls out in profusion, as in syphilis. Eruption on the scalp with sharp sticking pains as from splinters; moist, itching, offensive eruptions. Caries of bones of skull. Exostoses.

Eyes: The eyes have lost their lustre, the pupils are dilated, and there is diplopia.

There is inflammation of the conjunctiva with acrid tears. Ulceration of the cornea with pricking pain. Iritis with stinging, stitching pain, aggravated at night and changing from warm to cold room or in cold air. Spots on the cornea. Intense photophobia, burning, pressure and sensation as though sand in the eyes.

Ptosis. Swollen lids, which are hard and burn. Small warts on upper lids. Warts that bleed easily, with sensation of sticks.

Ears and nose: Deafness, ameliorated when riding in a carriage or train.

Catarrh of the Eustachian tubes. Pulsating in cars. Discharge from ear, foetid, brown, ichorous, purulent-since scarlet fever. The auditory canal nearly closed. Swelling of glands about the ear. Caries of the mastoid.

Subject to coryza every winter; no sooner does be get over one cold than he has another. The nose is obstructed in the night during sleep. Sneezing in cold air, from every draft, must keep the room very warm. Bad smells in the nose, and the catarrh is offensive to others.

Nosebleed mornings and nights. Nasal catarrh, acrid, watery at night, yellow, offensive, excoriating, bloody, brownish, thin – since scarlet fever or in mercurio-syphilitic patients. The nose feels as if there were splinters in it. Large crusts from high up in nose. Green crusts blown out every morning. Ulceration high up in nose. Warts form in and about the nostrils. Red, scurfy tip of nose. Crusts form on the wings of the nose. Cracked nose.

Face: Deep lines of suffering characterize the Nitric acid face.

The face is pale, yellow, sallow and sunken. The eyes are sunken. Dark rings about the eyes, mouth and nose. The face is bloated. The lids are tumid in the morning. There are brown spots. Pigmented warty’ spots on the forehead. The right parotid is large. The skin feels drawn over the face. Crusts and pustules form on the face, Cracking in-jaw when chewing.

Corners of the mouth cracked, ulcerated and scabby. The lips raw and bleeding. Painful swelling of the sub maxillary gland. The expression is anxious, haggard, sickly.

Teeth and mouth: Pain in the teeth, tearing, aggravated from cold or warm things.

Pulsating evening and night, after mercury. Caries of teeth. Teeth become yellow. Gums bleed easily, scorbutic, swollen.

The tongue is excoriated, sore, red, yellow, white and dry, fissured, with sore spots. Ulceration of tongue with viscid mucus in mouth. Inflammation of the tongue.

Ulcers in mouth, on tongue or in throat, white, or dark and dirty, putrid, phagedenic, syphilitic, with sticking pains as from splinters. Sore mouth with stinging, burning pain. Excoriated, red, swollen membrane. Foul cadaveric odor from the mouth. Saliva flows from the mouth so acrid that it excoriates the lips.

Throat: Confusion of the muscular action in throat causes food to stop in throat and choking.

Difficult swallowing. Violent pain in throat, extending to ear on swallowing. Sticking in throat like a splinter (Hepar, Nat. mur. Alum., Arg. n.) on swallowing.

Viscid mucus in throat. Mucus drawn from posterior nares. Inflammation of throat, tonsils, uvula and soft palate. Uvula and tonsils oedematous (Apis, Rhus t.).

Great swelling of the throat and tonsils. Ulceration of tonsils, uvula and soft palate. Inflammation of the oesophagus.

Stomach and liver: Longing for fats, pungent things, herring, chalk, lime, earth; and aversion to bread and meat.

Generally thirstless.

The stomach is disordered by milk. Food sours, and causes sour eructations and vomiting. Fats disagree. Nausea after eating, ameliorated by moving about or riding in a carriage. Vomiting bitter and sour, contents of stomach. Ulceration of stomach.

Pain in cardiac, opening of stomach on swallowing. Sticking pain in stomach. Catarrh of stomach. Weight after eating. Sensation of rawness in stomach after eating.

Chronic inflammation of liver.

Clay-colored stools. Enormously enlarged liver. Pain in region of liver with jaundice. Stitching pain in liver. Enlarged spleen.

Abdomen: Cramping pain in abdomen.

Violent pain in ilio-coecal region, sore and tender, aggravated from motion. Awakened at midnight with a crampy pain in abdomen; chilly; pain aggravated from motion.

Rumbling in abdomen. Abdomen distended and tender. Great soreness in abdomen. Inflammation and suppuration of inguinal glands.

The relaxed condition in weakly infant boys. that so much disposes to inguinal hernia, is often overcome by Nitric acid and the hernia cured (Lyc., Nux v.).

Broken down subjects who are disposed to suffer from frequent attacks of diarrhea, or from constipation alternating with diarrhea, often need this remedy when the urine smells strong like that of a horse, and he is pale and sickly, losing flesh and strength, subject to excoriation of orifices and excoriating catarrhs and ulcers.

The stool is bloody, putrid, undigested, green, slimy, excoriating, sour, curdled if milk is used as a diet, black putrid blood. In dysentery. Cold changes of the weather bring on diarrhea.

Anus excoriated, burning, fissured, covered with warts. Membrane comes with the stool. Much pure blood with the stool not even clotted, very offensive.

Ineffectual urging to stool. Sensation as if rectum were filled and he cannot expel it. Constipation, painful hard difficult stool. Drawing, cutting and pressing before stool; constant fruitless urging (Nux v.).

During stool there is colic, tenesmus, spasmodic contraction of anus, unsatisfactory straining. Splinters in rectum.

After stool there is still urging (Merc.), exhaustion; soreness of anus; cutting pain; burning and shooting in rectum; constriction of anus; great nervous excitement; palpitation.

The pain keeps her in bed for hours after every stool. Itching and burning in anus. Constant acrid moisture about the anus. Periodical bleeding of rectum and pain in sacrum. Fissures of anus. Painful prolapsus of rectum. This has been a most useful remedy in fistula. fissures, condylomata, polypi, caruncles, cancer of the rectum and hemorrhoids, when the symptoms agree. It has cured caruncles so sensitive that the patient would cry out when they were touched.

Hemorrhoids that are exquisitely painful to touch and at stool; that bleed, external or internal, with burning and sticking during stool. Piles that ulcerate and discharge copiously of blood and pus.

When piles are so painful that she breaks out in sweat, becomes anxious, and pulsates all over, on the slightest touch or at stool, this remedy has been useful (compare Paonia and Staph.). Foetid moisture at the anus.

Men: The male sexual organs are in a constant state of irritability.

Sexual desire is increased and erections troublesome at night. Painful spasmodic erections at night; stitching pain in the urethra and chordee. It has been a useful remedy in gonorrhea when the discharge is thin and bloody, later when it is greenish or yellow; burning and sticking on urination, and the urethra is swollen and very sore.

It has cured condylomata which have the “splinter” sensation, and bleed easily, and extremely sensitive to touch. Condylomata on genitals and around the anus.

Inflammation of the prostate gland with gonorrhea, especially when the discharge becomes scanty from taking cold or from strong injections. It cures old cases of gleet when the urethra has pain in it like a splinter on touch or when urinating.

Prolonged inflammation of the urethra with infiltration, making the urethra feel hard and nodular like a whip-cord (Arg. n.). Sore spots in the urethra, ulcers, with bloody pus, and the sensation of splinters. Itching in the urethra after gonorrhea (Petr.).

Pimples, vesicles, herpes and crusts on the prepuce. Small ulcers on the glans or prepuce. Spreading ulcers.

The ulcers discharge a brown, bloody water, offensive. Phagedenic ulcers (Ars., Aur. m. n., Caust., Merc. c.). Inflammation of the prepuce.

Ulcers that destroy the froenum. Inflamed and ulcerated parts have the splinter sensation and flow a bloody water. Paraphimosis and phimosis and great swelling. The hair falls off from the pubes.

Women: The female is greatly troubled by the constant itching and burning and sexual desire.

Excoriation of the parts from leucorrhoea and menstrual discharges. Every exertion brings on uterine hemorrhage (Calc.). The menstrual flow is dark and thick. Menses too soon and profuse, like bloody, water.

Uterine prolapsus. Many and extreme nervous sufferings come during the menstrual period; flatulence, bruised pain in limbs, pain down thighs, “splinter” under the finger and toe nails, palpitation, anxiety, trembling, neuralgic pains in any part.

After the menses there comes a muddy, watery flow, lasting many days, and extreme excoriation of the parts. Thin, bloody, excoriating leucorrhoea at all times or at any time.

The vagina is excoriated and condylomata grow upon the genitalia. Erectile tumors. Caruncles at the orifice of urethra, exquisitely sensitive to touch. The itching is aggravated by cold. The parts are fissured and bleed easily.

Many troubles culminate during menses and lactation. Lumps in the mammae. The nipples are fissured and tender, are excoriated and have “splinters.”

Tendency to abortion from general weakness and the ease with which a uterine hemorrhage may set in.

Larynx: Hoarseness, and ulceration of the larynx.

Voice lost. Laryngitis in old syphilitic subjects. Oppression of the chest, ameliorated by expectoration. Shortness of breath. Intermittent breathing.

The cough is aggravated in winter, yet aggravated in a warm room and from becoming warm. The cough is dry, barking, aggravated during the night, aggravated lying, aggravated before midnight; comes on during sleep. Cough with hectic fever and night sweats.

Paroxysmal cough with retching, like whooping cough, violent, racking cough. Hard, prolonged coughing spells with difficult expectoration. The irritation to cough is like a tickling in the larynx.

The expectoration is greenish, viscid or thin, dirty, watery, bloody mucus, or dark clotted blood. Loose cough in daytime, dry at night. Rattling in daytime, but no expectoration. Cough in broken-down constitutions, from liver and lung affections, in tubercular subjects.

The sputum tastes bitter, sour or salty. It is offensive, even putrid. He is covered with sweat during efforts to expectorate. Stitching in the chest. In typhoid pneumonia, with rattling in the chest, inability to expectorate, or when he can expectorate the sputum is brown and bloody, and the urine smells like that of a horse. In tuberculosis with night sweats and haemoptysis. Palpitation from excitement, on ascending stairs. The pulse is rapid, irregular, and every fourth beat is missed.

Swelling of glands of neck and axilla. Stiff neck. Stitching pains in back and chest. Burning spots in spine. Pain in back, nights, compelling him to lie on the abdomen. Sharp pains in back and limb in tabes dorsalis. Sharp pains in back on coughing.

Rheumatic pains in limbs. Emaciation of upper arms, and thighs. Weakness of limbs. Dropsy of limbs. Crippled nails. Rheumatic pains in upper limbs. Stitching. Sticking pains in limbs in cold weather. Numbness of arms and hands. Copper colored spots on arms. Chilblains on hands and fingers. Cold, sweaty hands. Numerous large warts on back of bands. Herpes between the fingers. Vesicles on the tip of the thumb that open into ulcers, felons, distorted and discolored nails.

Yellow curved nails, splintered sensation under nails. It is useful in wounds that inflame and have the “splinter” sensation. Tearing in the long bones of the lower limbs at night. The legs are weary and bruised. Pain in hip as if sprained. Sticking pains along the nerves as from splinters. Syphilitic nodes on the tibia with nightly pains. Chilblains on the feet and toes. Phagedenic blisters on the toes (Graph.). Extreme soreness of the tibia. Profuse, offensive sweat of feet.

Shocks on going to sleep (Agar., Arg. n., Ars., Nat. m.). The pain comes during sleep. Starting in sleep. Anxious, unrefreshing sleep, with frightful dreams.

Nitric acid is a very useful remedy in fevers. The thirstlessness during all stages has often called attention to it. Cold hands and feet. Chronic intermittent in cachectic constitutions, copious night sweats. extreme weakness, with the characteristic odor of the urine, and bleeding from some part a dark blood, this remedy will act well.

Editorial notes

• “mercurio-sypbilitic” corrected to “mercurio-syphilitic” (transcription error in the digital source text).

Mercurius Corrosivus
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 119 of 180
Source pages 2282–2284 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

Merc. cor. has more excoriation and burning, more activity and excitement.

Merc. is slower and more sluggish. Merc. cor. is violent and active in its movements, it takes hold and runs its course with greater activity. So with a mercury base we have often to prefer this salt.

In the eye symptoms there is more excoriation. The pains, burning, smarting, etc., in the eruptions and ulcers are more violent. In Merc. we have slow spreading ulcers, but in Merc. cor. there is great eating; it will spread over an area as large as your hand in a night. He has the mercurial odor and sweat, and he is sallow; he needs mercury, but a more active preparation than Merc. viv.

Merc. cor. has decided symptoms of its own, but they are limited. You cannot tell the ptyalism, or the lardaceous ulcers apart.

In sore throat, if it is a Merc. case, the ulcers are spreading rapidly and burning and smarting like coals of fire, you would say that Merc. is not so intense as this. You need Merc. cor. for the violence, the intense burning, and the rapid spread. The throat is enormously swollen, the glands are swollen, and the thirst is insatiable.

In dysentery there is more violence; copious bleeding; great anxiety, can scarcely leave the stool a second, great tenesmus of rectum and bladder; urging to urination and stool is constant; great burning in the rectum. It is a violent case of dysentery. I would prefer Merc. in ordinary Merc. cases, but if this patient is not relieved he will not live, and Merc. cor. is needed here.

In the urinary organs the symptoms are violent. Albuminuria is more marked in Merc. cor. than in Merc. It is one of the most frequently indicated remedies in the albuminuria of pregnancy and a very useful remedy when gout is present.

From slight irritation of the foreskin of the male organ, the mucous membrane and skin contract and phimosis takes place.

Merc. cor. relieves the itching and burning, and causes the purse-string to let up. It is seldom indicated in gonorrhoea, but is called for when there is greenish yellow or bloody watery discharge, with violent burning and urging to urination and to stool, and violent painful erections. Chancres spread with great rapidity.

Stitching, rending, tearing pains, here and there, especially in the chest.

Nux Moschata
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 135 of 180
Source pages 2445–2451 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

This is not a very great remedy; it has not a very wide range of usefulness, but it is often overlooked when needed.

We get into the habit of relying entirely on the polychrests.

The old women used to give nutmeg to hysterics, and wonderful to tell its provings justify its use. It must have had some palliative relation to the hysteria. The root is much stronger than the nut, in the same proportions, and contains the real medicinal qualities.

The patient appears to be dazed; there is a complete loss of memory; she is automatic in her actions. This is a wonderful state of the mind. She goes about the house performing her duties, but if interrupted, forgets what she has been doing, forgets that she was all day in conversation with her son; she has no recollection of past events.

Mind: This is a singular state of the mind sometimes found in hysterical women.

Sometimes it is impossible to find out what state of the mind is present she is so forgetful. She lies with the eyes closed and yet knows everything that is going on, but remembers nothing. She speaks with intelligence about the things of the moment, but knows nothing of the past. She prophesies, predicts with a sort of clairvoyance.

The mental state is the keynote. Sometimes she is < in the morning, sometimes in the evening, or on waking. She performs all her duties and yet seems to be in a dream, she seems not to know her friends.

Sleep: The Nux mos. patient is always ready to go to sleep; it is with great difficulty that she can keep awake. She falls asleep on all occasions, in season and out of season. The eyes look heavy; she cannot keep awake; falls into a profound slumber, sometimes into coma.

Useful in the coma of typhoid and intermittent fever. When aroused she remembers nothing; looks dazed; looks about and wants to know who the people are around and what they are doing. It is a state in which patients answer questions slowly after a long interval, and then look confused again.

They give an answer that has no relation to the question asked, or, answer correctly. We find such a state in typhoid, in hysteria, after shock, after fear, blighted affections, or the loss of a friend. It is more suitable after shock ending in this kind of trouble than in typhoid.

It is also useful in typhoid, but where there is great weakness, sliding down in bed, and nervous trembling, Phos. ac. is a better remedy. Nux mos. does not relate so completely to the general image of a typhoid as does Phos. ac.

The sleepiness and the dazed state are two things combined, and when combined are difficult to cover by a remedy. This state is somewhat like Opium.

Faintness and even fainting when standing long, such as occurs in a nervous woman standing to have a dress fitted.

There is a dry mouth, the tongue cleaves to the roof of the mouth in all complaints. There is great sleepiness and automatic conduct, especially in nervous women. It has cured petit mal.

The hemorrhages stand out in bold relief; hemorrhages from the nose, uterus and bowels. There is vomiting of blood.

The patient is sensitive to wind, to a draft, to damp air. She has a headache < walking against the wind; hoarseness from walking against the wind; she is so sensitive to cold weather that she comes home dazed and sleepy from walking against the wind; her mouth is dry but there is no thirst, she doesn’t desire water (sometimes thirst is present).

The patient may hold water in the mouth without desire to swallow it. Nux mos. holds ice water and succulent fruits in the mouth to relieve the sensation of dryness. Often there is a sensation of dryness when the mouth is moist.

In the extremities there is numbness, tingling, prickling, paralytic weakness; there is threatened paralysis; momentary hysterical paralysis; coming for a short time and then going away.

Aphonia with a dry mouth, in hysterical patients; when walking out of doors. This aphonia passes away on going into the house.

The whole back is sensitive to pressure, the vertebrae are sensitive.

This remedy has prolonged and inveterate constipation; prolonged urging to stool followed by a soft stool. (Alum., Psor., China.) The stool is difficult but soft. He wonders why he has to urge for a soft stool.

Women: In woman there are many troubles; menorrhagia lasting ten or fifteen days; the blood is clotted; the menses are too often, last too long, are irregular. The abdomen is full of colic; cramping pains extending to be broad ligaments and down the limbs; most distressing dysmenorrhoea from exposure to cold, riding in the wind or living in damp houses.

With this there is a dry mouth and thirstlessness; she wakes at night with a dry mouth; it seems as if the tongue cleaved to the roof of the mouth.

This remedy is especially suitable for lean women, those who have lost flesh. The breasts are flat. I remember a case of a woman thirty five years old whose breasts which were once well rounded became perfectly flat. Nux mos. restored the breasts.

This is a little remedy, but when wanted nothing will take its place.

Mercurius Cyanatus
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 120 of 180
Source pages 2285–2285 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

Given a Merc. base and diphtheria, when the membrane is greenish and inclined to spread through the nose and involve a large surface, the Cyanide of Mercury is needed.

It has exudation more marked than any other form of Mercury.

Malignant forms of diphtheria, rapidly forming, and with phagedenic ulceration.