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
Goose-Grass
Galium acts on the urinary organs, is a diuretic and of use in dropsies, gravel and calculi. Dysuria and cystitis. Has power of suspending or modifying cancerous action. Has clinical confirmation of its use in cancerous ulcers and nodulated tumors of the tongue. Inveterate skin affections and scurvy. Favors healthy granulations on ulcerated surfaces.
Dose.–Fluid extract; half-dram doses, in cup of water or milk, three times a day.
Gallic Acid
Should be remembered as a remedy in phthisis. It checks the morbid secretions, gives tone to the stomach, and increases the appetite. Passive hæmorrhages when pulse is feeble and capillaries relaxed, cold skin. Hæmaturia. Hæmophilia. Itching of skin. Pyrosis.
Mind.–Wild delirium at night; very restless, jumps out of bed; sweats; is afraid to be alone; is rude and abuses every one.
Head.–Pain in back of head and neck. Thick, stringy discharge from nose; photophobia with burning of lids.
Respiratory.–Pain in lungs; pulmonary hæmorrhage; excessive expectoration. Much mucus in throat in the morning. Dry at night.
Urinary.–Kidneys painful, distress along ureters into bladder. Dull heavy pain in bladder, directly over pubis. Urine loaded with thick, cream-colored mucus.
Rectum.–Copious stool; anus feels constricted. Faint feeling after stool. Chronic mucous discharges.
Relationship.–Compare: Ars; Iod; Phos.
Dose.–First trituration and pure acid 2 to 5 grain doses.
Snow-drop
Proving by Dr. A. Whiting Vancouver.
Faintness, sinking sensations. Sore dry throat with dull headache. Half conscious and worried feeling during sleep. Heart weak with sensation of collapse as if she must fall. Pulse very irregular, rapid and uneven, violent palpitation. Systolic murmur at apex. Therapeutically-decided benefit in cases of Mitral Regurgitation with broken down compensation. Myocarditis with some degree of mitral insufficiency.
Dose.–First potency to fifth.
Soot
Acts on glandular system, mucous membranes and obstinate ulcers, epidermis, tetters, eczema. Chronic irritations of mucous membranes of mouth; pruritus-vulvæ; uterine hæmorrhage; cancer, especially of scrotum-chimney sweeper’s cancer; epithelial cancers; cancer of womb with metrorrhagia; sadness, thoughts of suicide.
Relationship.–Compare: Kreosot.
Dose.–Sixth trituration.
A Coloring Substance Used in Adulteration of Wine
(FUCHSINA – MAGENTA)
Produces redness of ears, deep red discoloration of mouth swollen gums, with burning and tendency to salivation; deep red urine, albuminous, and light red, profuse diarrhœa, with abdominal pains. Cortical substance of kidneys degenerated. Useful in cortical nephritis with albuminuria.
Dose.–6x to 30th potency.
Sea Kelp
A remedy for obesity and non-toxic goitre; also exophthalmic. Digestion is furthered and flatulence diminished. Obstinate constipation; forehead feels as if compressed by an iron ring. Thyroid enlargement in obese subjects.
Relationship.–Compare: Phytol; Thyroidine; Badiaga; Iodum.
Dose.–Tincture, five to sixty drops three times a day before meals.
White Ash
Enlargement of the uterus. Fibrous growths, subinvolution, and prolapse. Uterine tumors, with bearing-down sensations. Fever sores on lips. Cramps in feet. Cold creeping and hot flashes. Infantile eczema.
Head.–Throbbing pain in back of head. Depression, with nervous restlessness, anxiety. Hot spot on top of head.
Female.–Uterus enlarged, and patulous. Watery, unirritating leucorrhœa. Fibroids with bearing-down sensation, cramping in feet, worse in afternoon and night. Dysmenorrhœa.
Abdomen.–Tenderness in left inguinal region; bearing-down pain, extending down thigh.
Relationship.–Compare: Fraxinus excelsior-European Ash –(Gout; rheumatism. Infusion of ash-leaves. Rademacher). Galega–(Goat’s Rue-Backache; debility; anæmia and impaired nutrition. Increases the quantity and quality of the milk in nursing women, also the appetite). Epiphegus; Sepia; Lilium.
Dose.–Ten to fifteen drops of tincture, three times a day.
Manaca
(FRACISCEA)
Chronic stiffness of the muscles. Gonorrhœal rheumatism. Syphilis and rheumatism, great heat over body, much aching, better sweat. Pain in back of head and spine; band-like feeling around head. Pericarditis with rheumatism. Rheumatic pains in feet and lower part of legs. Urine contains uric acid.
Dose.–Tincture of Fluid Extract 10 to 60 minims.
Wood-strawberry
(FRAGARIA)
Acts on digestion and mesenteric glands. Prevents formation of calculi, removes tartar from teeth and prevents attacks of gout. The fruit has refrigerant properties. Strawberries produce symptoms of poisoning in certain susceptible individuals, such as urticarial rashes (strawberry anaphylaxis). Here give Fragaria high potency.
Chilblains; worse during hot weather. Lack of mammary secretion. Psilosis (Spruce).
Mouth.–Tongue swollen; strawberry tongue.
Skin.–Urticaria; petechial and erysipelatous eruptions. Swelling of whole body.
Relationship.–Compare: Apis. Calcarea.
Aqueous Solution (35 per cent) of Formaldehyde Gas
(FORMALIN)
Is a powerful disinfectant and deodorant; a potent poison. Prevents growth and kills almost any pathogenic micro-organism. It seems to have the peculiar property of eating into malignant tumors, leaving the surrounding healthy tissue uncharred and unchanged. A plug of cotton wool soaked in a 20 per cent solution of Formaldehyde, and applied for a few hours, will produce a necrotic slough, which must be scraped away before the next application, otherwise it hardens.
Formalin in hot water as vapor most valuable therapeutic agent in pertussis, phthisis, in catarrhal affections of upper air-passages.
Mind.–Forgetfulness. Anxiety. Unconscious.
Head.–Coryza; eyes water; vertigo.
Mouth.–Ptyalism, thick saliva; loss of taste.
Stomach.–Food feels as if it were a ball in stomach. Burning in mouth and stomach.
Abdomen.–Intense urging to stool, watery stools.
Urinary.–Anuria; albuminous urine.
Respiratory.–Dyspnœa. Laryngismus stridulus. Whooping-cough.
Fever.–Chills in forenoon, followed by long fever. Bones ache during whole paroxysm. During fever forgets where he was.
Skin.–Puckers skin like leather; wrinkles; scales off. Eczema in neighborhood of wound. Damp sweat most marked on right upper extremity.
Relationship.–Antidote: Ammonia water. Compare: Ammonium formaldehyde, known commercially as Cystogen (Dose, five to seven grains two to four times daily, dissolved in hot water, after meals. Prevents the decomposition of urine in the bladder, kidneys, and ureters. Turbid urine rendered clear and non-irritating; phosphatic deposits dissolved, and growth of pyogenic bacteria arrested). Also, Urotropin (A diuretic and solvent of uric acid concretions; relieves cystitis associated with putrefaction. Three to five grains well diluted. When administered invariably appears in the cerebro-spinal fluid and therefore advised in threatened meningeal infection).
Dose.–As vapor in hot water in respiratory affections; 1 per cent spray, otherwise 3x potency.
