Category: Materia Medica

PREFACE NINTH EDITION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BOERICK MD

  • ABIES NIGRA

    Black Spruce

    A powerful and long-acting remedy, in various forms of disease, whenever the characteristic stomach symptoms are present. Most of the symptoms are associated with the gastric disturbances. In dyspeptic troubles of the aged, with functional heart symptoms; also after tea or tobacco. Constipation. Pain in external meatus.

    Head.–Hot, with flushed cheeks. Low-spirited. Dull during the day, wakeful at night. Unable to think.

    Stomach.–Pain in stomach always comes on after eating. Sensation of a lump that hurts, as if a hard-boiled egg had lodged in cardiac end of stomach; continual distressing constriction just above the pit of the stomach, as if everything were knotted up. Total loss of appetite in morning, but great craving for food at noon and night. Offensive breath. Eructations.

    Chest.–Painful sensation, as if something were lodged in the chest and had to be coughed up; lungs feel compressed. Cannot be fully expanded. Worse coughing; waterbrash succeeds cough. Choking sensation in throat. Dyspnœa; worse lying down; sharp, cutting pain in heart; heart’s action heavy and slow; tachycardia, bradycardia.

    Back.–Pain in small of back. Rheumatic pains and aching in bones.

    Sleep.–Wakeful and restless at night, with hunger. Bad dreams.

    Fever.–Alternate heat and cold; chronic intermittent fever, with pain in stomach.

    Modalities.–Worse after eating.

    Relationship.–Compare: (Lump in stomach–China, Bryon, Pulsat); also other Conifers–Thuja, Sabina, Cupressus (painful indigestion) also Nux vom, Kali carb.

    Dose.–First to thirtieth potency.

  • ABROTANUM

    Southernwood

    A very useful remedy in marasmus, especially of lower extremities only, yet with good appetite. Metastasis. Rheumatism following checked diarrhœa. Ill effects of suppressed conditions especially in gouty subjects. Tuberculous peritonitis. Exudative pleurisy and other exudative processes. After operation upon the chest for hydrothorax or empyæmia, a pressing sensation remains. Aggravation of hæmorrhoids when rheumatism improves. Nosebleed and hydrocele in boys.

    Great weakness after influenza (Kali phos).

    Mind.–Cross, irritable, anxious, depressed.

    Face.–Wrinkled, cold, dry, pale. Blue rings around dull-looking eyes. Comedones, with emaciation. Nosebleed. Angioma of the face.

    Stomach.–Slimy taste. Appetite good, but emaciation progresses. Food passes undigested. Pain in stomach; worse at night; cutting, gnawing pain. Stomach feels as if swimming in water; feels cold. Gnawing hunger and whining. Indigestion, with vomiting of large quantities of offensive fluid.

    Abdomen.–Hard lumps in abdomen. Distended. Alternate diarrhœa and constipation. Hæmorrhoids; frequent urging; bloody stools; worse as rheumatic pains abate. Ascarides. Oozing from umbilicus. Sensation as if bowels were sinking down.

    Respiratory.–Raw feeling. Impeded respiration. Dry cough following diarrhœa. Pain across chest; severe in region of heart.

    Back.–Neck so weak cannot hold head up. Back lame, weak, and painful. Pain in lumbar region extending along spermatic cord. Pain in sacrum, with hæmorrhoids.

    Extremities.–Pain in shoulders, arms, wrists, and ankles. Pricking and coldness in fingers and feet. Legs greatly emaciated. Joints stiff and lame. Painful contraction of limbs (Amm mur).

    Skin.–Eruptions come out on face; are suppressed, and the skin becomes purplish. Skin flabby and loose. Furuncles. Falling out of hair. Itching chilblains.

    Modalities.–Worse, cold air, checked secretions. Better, motion.

    Relationship.–Compare: Scrophularia; Bryonia; Stellaria; Benzoic acid, in gout. Iodine, Natr mur in marasmus.

    Dose.–Third to thirtieth potency.

  • ABRUS PRECATORIUS — JEQUIRITY

    Crab’s Eye Vine
    (JEQUIRITY – ARBRUS PRECATORIUS    )

    Epithelioma, lupus, ulcers, granular lids.

    Eyes.–Purulent conjunctivitis; inflammation spreads to face and neck. Granular ophthalmia. Keratitis.

    Relationship.–Compare: Jequiritol (in cases of trachoma and pannus to engraft a new purulent inflammation. The proteid poisons contained in Jequirity seeds are almost identical in their physiological and toxic properties with the similar principles found in snake venom).

    Dose.–Mother tincture diluted locally and 3x internally.

  • ABIES CANADENSIS-PINUS CANADENSIS

    Hemlock Spruce

    Mucous membranes are affected by Abies can and gastric symptoms are most marked, and a catarrhal condition of the stomach is produced. There are peculiar cravings and chilly sensations that are very characteristic, especially for women with uterine displacement, probably due to defective nutrition with debility. Respiration and heart action labored. Wants to lie down all the time; skin cold and clammy, hands cold; very faint. Right lung and liver feel small and hard. Gleet.

    Head.–Feels light-headed, tipsy. Irritable.

    Stomach.–Canine hunger with torpid liver. Gnawing, hungry, faint feeling at the epigastrium. Great appetite, craving for meat, pickles, radishes, turnips, artichokes, coarse food. Tendency to eat far beyond capacity for digestion. Burning and distention of stomach and abdomen with palpitation. Flatulence disturbs the heart’s action. Pain in right shoulder-blade, and constipation, with burning in rectum.

    Female.—Uterine displacements. Sore feeling at fundus of uterus, relieved by pressure. Prostration; wants to lie down all the time. Thinks womb is soft and feeble.

    Fever.—Cold shivering, as if blood were ice-water (Acon). Chills run down back. Cold water feeling between shoulders (Ammon mur). Skin clammy and sticky. Night-sweat (China).

    Dose.—First to third potency.