Category: Materia Medica

Kalium Phosphoricum
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 102 of 180
Source pages 1946–1974 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

Generals: The symptoms of this remedy are worse morning, evening and during the night.

The over-sensitive, nervous, delicate person, worn out from long suffering, much sorrow and vexation, and prolonged mental work; also such as are broken down from sexual excesses and vices.

It is a long-acting antipsoric. Anemic and chlorotic patients, Most complaints are worse during rest, and ameliorated by gentle motion and slowly walking about. The patient in general, and his pains, are aggravated in cold air, from becoming cold, after becoming cold, from entering a cold place, and in cold, wet weather. He takes cold easily. Aversion to the open air. Draft of air aggravates, and open air aggravates. Numbness in the extremities. Great lassitude. Aggravated by ascending stairs, and by physical exertion. Glands dwindle. Choreic movements.

Complaints are worse after coition. The weakness, emaciation, and anaemia and tubercular tendency are strong features of this wonderful antipsoric remedy. Oedema of the limbs and dropsy of serous sacs. Complaints aggravated after eating. Emaciation, wasting diseases with putrid discharges and putrid stools.

Fainting spells. Fasting ameliorates, Fatty tendency of muscles and organs. Aggravated alter cold drinks, milk. This remedy has been used in gangrenous condition. Parts become black. Septic, putrid hemorrhages, and great prostration. All forms of nervous weakness. Hypochondriasis and hysteria. Inflammation of glands.

Complaints from loss of fluids. Orgasm of blood. The pains are aching, pressing, stitching, tearing, tearing downwards, paralyzing. Chronic neuralgia, ameliorated by gentle motion, aggravated from cold. One sided paralysis from a gradually increasing weakness. Paroxysms of pain followed by exhaustion. Pulsation felt all over the body and in the limbs.

Symptoms are often one-sided. Many symptoms come during and after sleep. Twitching of muscles, and jerking of limbs. Ulcers with putrid discharges. Offensive catarrhal discharges. Walking fast aggravates; walking in open air aggravates. Warmth of bed ameliorates. Complaints worse in winter. Too many cures have been made by the followers of Schüessler to permit this remedy to remain unexplained. Good provings are found in our literature. The high and highest potencies have served the best, and it should be used in the single dose.

Mind: Flies into a passion and can hardly articulate.

Aversion to answering questions. Apprehensive anxiety, in the evening in bed, and during the night; anxiety after eating, about the future, about his health, about his salvation.

Whenever he wakens it oppresses him, and he becomes hypochondriacal. She takes an antipathy to her husband. She is cruel to her baby and husband. Perverted affections. Broods over his condition. Aversion to company. Complaints come on from bad news.

Confusion of mind morning and evening. Contrary humor. Low form of delirium in typhoid and septic fevers. Delirium tremens. Imaginations. Sees dead people. Sees figures, frightful images. Discontented and sad. Dullness of mind in the morning. Discouraged. He refuses to eat, He is very excitable and greatly wrought up from bad news; then follows palpitation and many nervous symptoms.

Exhaustion after exertion of mind. He dwells much in fancy. Fear in the evening. Fear of a crowd, of death, of disease, of evil, of people, of solitude. He is easily frightened, which increases his many nervous and mental symptoms. Weak memory. Forgetful.

Cannot recall words. Homesickness. Effects of grief and prolonged sorrow. A nervous hurry is noticed in action and speech. Nervous excitement has increased until hysterical conduct is present. It is a great remedy for imbecility. She is impatient and impetuous.

Indifference to surroundings, to joy and to her family. Indifference to his business matters, and then comes indolence and lassitude. Insanity; melancholia; thinks she has sinned away her day of grace and refuses to eat. She does not recognize her surroundings. Shrieks and acts like one insane. Quarrels with her family.

The irritability is very marked, in morning on waking, in the evening, after coition, during headache, during menses, when spoken to, on waking at any time, after becoming exhausted from a diarrhoea, There is laughing and crying, lamenting and wringing the hands. There is loathing of life; moaning during sleep.

Dullness of the senses. Weakness of memory for words, and great prostration of mind. Sadness in morning on waking, in the evening, and also day and night. Obstinate; morose; mood changeable. Mistaken in speaking and writing. In many cases cured a mild mental state was noticed.

Over-sensitive in general, and especially to noise. Restlessness during menses. The numerous cases of nervous prostration from mental work, prolonged anxiety, much sorrow, and sexual excesses and vice are likely to require this remedy. Incoherent speech. Starting; easily startled from fright, during sleep, from touch and from noise. Stupefaction and suspicious.

He is indisposed to talk, or to be talked to. Talking in sleep. Vanishing of thought. Becomes timid and bashful. Vexation brings on many complaints. Weeping and weary of life.

Vertigo: afternoon and evening, ameliorated in open air, aggravated after eating, with a tendency to fall forward; aggravated on looking upwards, compelling him to lie down; with nausea and with headache; objects turn in a circle on rising up, when standing, when stooping, on turning the head, when walking in open air.

The head: is cold, and sensitive to cold air. Congestion; fullness of the head felt on coughing. Heat in head evening, flushes of heat in the forehead. The head inclines to fall forward.

Tension of scalp. Heaviness of the head, morning on rising, in forehead and occiput. This has been a useful remedy in hydrocephalus and many brain affections, when associated with putrid diarrhoea. Itching of the scalp morning on waking, in the night in bed, aggravated 3 to 5 A.M.

Movements felt in the head. It has much pain in the head. Pain morning in bed, on rising, on waking, and passes off on moving about. Pain afternoon, evening and night. Worse in very cold air, but ameliorated in open fresh air. She must let the hair hang down. The headache comes with coryza, comes from taking cold.

The pain is worse on coughing, and ameliorated by eating; aggravated from becoming overheated, from disordering the stomach, from excitement, and from physical exertion. Weight in occiput with exhaustion. Must lie down and shun the light, lying on back ameliorates; aggravated from jarring and stepping, aggravated before and during menses.

The headaches from mental work, in students, brain-fag from overwork are cured by this remedy when the symptoms agree. Nervous headache during menses. Paroxysmal headaches. The pains in head are ameliorated by gentle motion; aggravated from noise, riding in a carriage, after sleep, sneezing, stepping, stooping, touch, pressure, walking and writing. Headache comes from eye-strain, and is ameliorated by wrapping up the head. Violent pulsating pains. Pain in forehead before menses, above the eyes extending to occiput; across forehead into both temples.

Pain in occiput lasting all night; frequent waking, with pain on rising; wakens with pain in occiput and loins ameliorated lying on back, passes off after rising. Pain in occiput as if hair were pulled; must let hair hang down. Violent headache in sides of head.

Neuralgia of left mastoid process, aggravated by motion and in open air. Pain in temples. The pains are aching, boring, burning. Burning in forehead during stool. Bursting in forehead. Drawing in forehead, sides of head and vertex. Jerking pain, pressing pain. Forehead as though bored, ameliorated by eating.

Pressing outward in forehead, over eyes as if brain would expand. Pressing in occiput, ameliorated by eating. Pressing in temples and vertex. Soreness in occiput. Stitching in the head, forehead, over eyes, in occiput sides of head, right frontal eminence and in temples. Stunning pains.

Tearing pains in the head, in forehead before menses, ameliorated lying and on appearance of the flow. Tearing in occiput, sides of head, temples, and vertex. Perspiration on mental exertion, of the forehead; cold sweat. Pulsation, forehead and temples. The brain is very sensitive to jar, and to sounds. Shocks felt in the head. Softening of the brain. Complaints come on from uncovering the head.

Eyes: Anemia of the optic nerve. Lids agglutinated in the morning and a discharge of mucus, aggravated in the evening.

Dryness and dullness of the eyes. Falling of the lids. Inflammation of the conjunctiva, injected blood-vessels and lachrymation. Paralysis of the optic nerve. Photophobia. Redness of the eyes. Staring, restless, excited look. Strabismus following brain diseases.

Sunken eyes. Swollen oedematous lids. Twitching of eyes and lids. Weak eyes. Pain in eyes on motion of eyes, on reading, on waking; aggravated in sunlight. Aching. Smarting of eyes and margins of lids. Drawing, pressing. The balls are sore to touch. Sharp pains from eyes to temples in the morning. Stitching. Sticks. Sensation of sand. Tearing pains. Blurred vision. Colors before the eyes, floating black spots, dark colors; halo around the light. Dim vision after coition. Vision is foggy. Exertion of vision brings on eye troubles and headaches. Vision weak.

Ear: Discharge from the ear, bloody, offensive, putrid, purulent.

Eruptions on the ears. Pimples in the canal. Fullness in ears. The ears are hot. Itching in the ears, aggravated lying. Noises from nervous exhaustion and cerebral anaemia, with vertigo. Buzzing, fluttering, humming, ringing, roaring, rushing, singing, whizzing.

Pain deep in ear. Cramping, drawing, pressing. Stitching in left ear down to cheek, and behind the ear. Stinging in ear, aggravated lying. Tearing in ear. Pulsation in ear. Stopped sensation. Singing in ear. Ears swollen. Twitching. Hearing acute to noises and voices, but impaired as to the articulation of the human voice. Deafness.

Coryza: fluent or dry, with cough, with headache.

Hay-fever with great nervous weakness. Obstinate catarrh. Discharge bloody, excoriating, greenish offensive, purulent, stringy, thick, watery, white, yellow, worse in the morning. Yellow crusts, worse in right nostril.

He suffers much from dryness in the nose. Epistaxis in the morning, on blowing the nose, in low fevers. The nose is obstructed. Itching, and burning in the nose. Pressing pain at the root of the nose. Much soreness inside of the nose, with yellow crusts and dark blood. Smell at first acute, later wanting. Sneezing frequent; violent at 2 A.M., from slight exposure. Ulceration in the nose. The nose is swollen.

Face: Brown patch from the edge of the brows to the eyebrows, three inches wide, lasting three months.

Chlorotic face. Dark circles under eyes. Cracked lips. Face pale, sickly and dirty.

Circumscribed red checks. jaundiced face. Herpes on the lips. Sore crusts on lips. Vesicles on lips. The expression is haggard, sickly and suffering. Flushes of heat in face. Inflammation and swelling of the parotid glands. Itching of the face, in the whiskers, on right cheek, on temples. There are drawing, stitching, tearing pains in the face, aggravated in cold air.

Cold applications ameliorate pain in right side of face from a hollow tooth. Pain in jaw bones, ameliorated after eating and speaking, waking and touch. Neuralgia of face followed by great weakness.

Neuralgic stitch riding in cold air, ameliorated by heat of hand. Paralysis of one side of face (Caust.). The face perspires. Swollen lips, parotid and submaxillary glands. Tension of the face. Ulceration of lips.

Mouth: The tongue is dark coated and bleeding.

The gums bleed, and are covered with sores. The typhoid mouth, tongue and teeth in septic fevers when there are putrid odors. Redness of gums and edges of the tongue. The tongue is white, slimy, greenish yellow. Dry mouth and tongue in the morning. Inflamed mouth and gums.

Offensive odor, putrid morning, like spoiled cheese. Sore burning mouth and tongue. Receding gums. Thick salty saliva. Scorbutic, spongy gums. The roof of the mouth swollen in ridges, feels as if lined with grease.

Taste bad, bitter, insipid, putrid, sour; bitter in the morning. Grinding teeth in sleep. Nervous chattering of teeth. Pain in teeth from taking cold, aggravated by cold things, aggravated masticating, aggravated after sleep. Pulsating, aching, jerking, pressing, sore, stitching, tearing.

Throat: This remedy has been used with some success in diphtheria with putrid odor.

Dryness in throat in evening. Fullness and constriction of the throat. Inclination to clear the throat by hawking. Mucus in the throat in the morning, sometimes tasting salty. Lump in throat. Pain in throat on swallowing. Pain in right tonsil. Burning, rawness, soreness. Stitching on swallowing. Stitching pain from left tonsil to ear, while driving in forenoon. Inflammation and swelling of throat and tonsils, with white deposits like membrane.

Stomach: The appetite is increased and sometimes ravenous, but goes on the sight of food.

Hunger soon after eating, from nervous weakness. Hunger during menses. Aversion to food, to bread, to meat. Sensation of coldness in the stomach. Desires cold drinks, sour things, sweets. The stomach is commonly disordered. Fullness and distension. Emptiness with nausea, during menses, after eating. Eructations, after eating, ineffectual, of bile, bitter, empty, of food, sour; waterbrash. Heartburn. Weight in stomach after eating.

Loathing of food. Nausea on coughing, after eating, during headache, during menses, during pregnancy; ameliorated by eructations. Retching. Pain in stomach after eating and during menses. Burning, cramping, cutting, soreness. Stitching. Gnawing pain at 5 A.M. on waking. Pressing after eating. Sensation of a stone in the stomach. Extreme thirst for cold water. Thirst during heat. Thirstlessness sometimes. Vomiting in the morning, on coughing, after eating, during headaches, during menses, during pregnancy. Vomiting bile, blood, food, mucus, sour.

Abdomen: The abdomen feels cold, and is sensitive to uncovering.

Distension after eating, during menses. Tympanitic with great pain, in typhoid fever. Distended with dropsy. Sensation of emptiness. Fermentation with distress in heart. Flatulence, obstructed, noisy. Sensation of fullness after eating. Heat in abdomen and heaviness. Inflammation of intestines, peritoneum, and liver. Pain in abdomen aggravated at night; across the abdomen left to right; bending double ameliorates; during cough, during diarrhoea, after eating, before and during menses; paroxysmal; before stool.

Pain in region of liver. Bearing down, ameliorated sitting, aggravated lying on left side, aggravated after drinking. Seems as though sides of abdomen would burst when sneezing. Burning. Cramping after eating. Cutting. Griping in hypogastrium with ineffectual urging to stool. Soreness in abdomen and liver. Stitching in abdomen and liver. Stitching, catching in spleen, aggravated from motion. Rumbling and tension.

Anus: Constipation with very difficult stool; hard, large, knotty.

Diarrhoea, morning, 6 A.M., evening, night, during or after eating; colliquative; from fright or excitement, during menses, painless, with vomit ing and cramps, with great exhaustion, in typhoid. Dysentery. Offensive flatus which ameliorates the symptoms. Formication of the anus. Haemorrhage from intestines in typhoid.

Haemorrhoids, external and internal, itching, painful with burning and swelling. Inflamed piles with offensive moisture. Inactivity of the rectum. Involuntary stools. Pain in rectum during and after stool. Burning during and after stool. Soreness and pressing pains. Stitching pain. Tenesmus after stool. Paralysis of the rectum. Relaxed anus. Ineffectual urging to stool. The stool is excoriating; bloody mucus or pure blood, brown, clay colored, watery stool; putrid flatus followed by tenesmus after breakfast. Stool copious, dark, frequent; large, light colored. Lienteric stools. Stools offensive, putrid, purulent, watery, like rice water, yellow or yellowish green mucus.

Bladder: Chronic catarrh of the bladder in old people and nervous wrecks.

Pressing and stitching in the bladder. The urging to urinate is frequent, or ineffectual, and worse at night. The urine dribbles. Dribbling after urination; feeble stream, frequent, copious at night, Stream stops and starts. Involuntary at night, in old people, in typhoid, in nervous prostration.

In obstinate cases of enuresis, in excitable, sensitive children. Unsatisfactory urination. Inflammation and stitching in the kidneys. Burning in the urethra during and after urination. Stitching in the urethra. The urine is albuminous, burning, cloudy, copious, offensive, scanty, watery, yellow like saffron. Sediment is flocculent, mucous, red and sandy. Specific gravity increased. Sugar in the urine.

Genitals: Erections very troublesome in the morning and during the night without sexual desire; violent in the morning. Impotency. Frequent seminal emissions with erections. Inflammation of glans penis. Sexual passion obliterated.

In tired out nervous women who are subject to abortion. Aversion to coition. Desire increased, intense for four or five days after menses. Inflammation of uterus. Itching from leucorrhoea. It cured a chronic abscess discharging periodically through the vagina and rectum a copious orange-colored fluid. Leucorrhoea acrid, burning, copious, greenish, yellow, offensive, putrid; after menses; in young girl.

Menses absent, black, copious, dark, delayed, frequent, irregular, late, offensive, painful, pale, protracted, scanty, short, suppressed, thick. Uterine haemorrhage. Pain in ovaries, in left, ameliorated lying on the back and bending double, during menses. Pain in ovaries on going to sleep. Stitching pain in ovaries. Pain in uterus and ovaries at night during pregnancy. Labor-like pains. Prolapsus of uterus.

Respiration: Irritation of the larynx and trachea in cold air.

Catarrh of the air passages, with thick, yellowish white mucus. Soreness and scraping in the larynx. Tickling in larynx and trachea. Voice hoarse, lost from paralysis of the vocal cords; hoarse from over-exertion of vocal cords.

Respiration difficult at night; rattling, short; difficult on going up stairs. Nervous asthma, aggravated after eating.

Cough in daytime, morning, evening in bed and during the night. Dry cough at night during fever. Hacking cough. Cough from, irritation in larynx and trachea. Loose cough. Paroxysmal cough. Racking cough. Rattling cough. Short, spasmodic. Cough in cold air, from deep breathing, during chill and fever, after eating; aggravated lying. Asthmatic cough. Cough from tickling in larynx and trachea. Whistling cough. Whooping-cough with great nervous exhaustion.

Expectoration in morning, bloody, frothy, greenish, mucous, offensive, purulent, putrid, salty, thick sweetish, viscid, yellowish white.

This remedy has been favorably mentioned in angina pectoris. Anxiety in the chest in the morning. Catarrh of the chest. Spasmodic constriction. Constriction of the heart. Fatty degeneration of the heart. Haemorrhage from the lungs. Hepatization of the lungs. Inflammation of the bronchial tubes. lungs, pleura. Oppression of the chest. Itching of the skin. Pain in chest during cough, on inspiration, on motion, on breathing.

Pain in lower part of chest on coughing, inside of chest, in heart. Aching in left side of chest through to scapula. Burning in chest. Cutting under right breast. Soreness in chest. Stitching in chest on coughing, during respiration, in mammae, sides of chest, in heart. Tearing pains in chest.

Heart: Palpitation, anxious, ascending steps, aggravated by motion. Violent.

Perspiration like onions in axilla. It is a very useful remedy in catarrhal phthisis. Suffocation of lungs. Swelling in axilla; abscess. Weakness of chest. Weak heart. Pulse intermittent and irregular; feeble circulation.

Back: The back feels cold.

Eruptions on the back, pimples. Weight in lumbar region. The nape and back lame. Itching. Pain in the back during rest, ameliorated by motion, respiration aggravates, during menses. Pains in occiput and loins morning on waking, ameliorated lying on back, passing off after rising. Pain in back of neck. Pain in dorsal region. Pain in scapulae morning on waking, had to sit up to turn over. Pain first in right, then left scapula. Pain between scapulae.

Pain in lumbar region during menses, while sitting, ameliorated by motion. Pain in sacrum during menses. Intense pain along spine. Pain in coccyx. Aching between scapula. Sore, bruised spine. Burning in back, in lumbar region. Drawing in back, lumbar region. Lameness and stiffness of whole back, ameliorated by gentle motion. Stitching pains in the back, in dorsal and lumbar regions,

Stitching toward front of chest with dyspnoea, ameliorated leaning back against chair, aggravated lying on the back, sitting or walking. Tearing pains in the back, in lumbar region. Softening of the spinal cord. Weakness with stumbling when walking. Swollen glands of neck. Weak back. Cannot sit erect without a chair back to lean against.

This remedy cures many nondescript spinal affections.

Limbs: Cold hands and feet.

Feet cold and damp. Cramps in thighs, calves and soles. Eruptions on limbs, pimples. The hands are hot. Heaviness of limbs, of lower limbs and feet. It has been of great service in hip joint disease. itching of the limbs, of palms and soles, Numbness of the limbs, upper and lower; hands and finger tips, feet and legs.

Rheumatic and gouty pains in limbs and joints, ameliorated by motion and warmth. Pain in back and limbs, ameliorated by motion. Pain in shoulders and arms, in arms when raising them. Sciatica, ameliorated by gentle motion. Pain in hip and knee. Pain in legs at 5 A.M., on waking, ameliorated by gentle motion. Bruised knees and legs. Burning feet, soles and toes. Paralytic drawing in limbs, ameliorated by warmth and gentle motion. Drawing in upper limbs, in the thighs, knees and legs. Drawing laming pain in soles, Pressing pain in shoulder and thighs.

Stinging in soles. Stitching in joints, shoulders and knees. Tearing in the limbs; shoulders, upper arm, elbow, forearm, hand, fingers. Tearing in lower limbs; hip, knee, legs, feet. Paralytic tearing in limbs, ameliorated by motion. Paralysis of limbs. Hemiplegia.

The feet perspire. The lower limbs and feet are restless. Rheumatic stiffness after resting. Oedema of hands and feet. The hands tremble. The limbs twitch. Weakness in all the limbs, especially the lower.

Sleep: Profound sleep.

Dreams anxious amorous, of falling, frightful, of being naked, nightmare, vivid; night terrors in children (Borax). Restless, nervous and hot in sleep. Sleeps on the back. Sleepiness early in evening, after eating. Sleepless after midnight, after mental exertion, after excitement, after vexation. Sleepless with sleepiness. Waking early, as from fright. Walking in sleep. Very troublesome yawning.

Chill, morning, forenoon, noon, afternoon, evening. Chilliness in the open air, in bed. Could scarcely get warm in bed. Chilliness ascending spine in evening. Cold all day. Chilliness after eating. External and internal chill. Nervous shivering and shuddering. Shaking chill. One-sided coldness.

Fever in afternoon and evening. Heat all night, with hunger. Fever alternating with chill. Fever at night in bed. Typhoid fever, low, putrid type. Dry heat. Flushes of heat. It has been a very useful remedy in hectic fevers when there is putrid sweat and putrid expectoration and great nervousness and excitement. Internal heat. Fever with no sweat. Scarlet fever, skin dusky and throat putrid and dark red. Sweat mornings and nights, when eating and drinking, and on slight exertion, during sleep offensive; profuse night sweats.

Dusky spots on calves. Burning after scratching. The skin is cold, jaundiced, dry. Eruption moist, and the moisture is bad smelling. Herpes. Eruptions, itching, pimples, psoriasis, scabby, urticaria; vesicles, bloody, ichorous. It has cured erysipelas that was almost gangrenous with putrid odor. Inactivity of the skin. Itching, crawling, stinging in the skin. Very sensitive skin. Sticking in skin. Ulcers, burning, offensive, even putrid, with yellow discharges.

Editorial notes

• “Hemisplegia” corrected to “Hemiplegia” (transcription error in the digital source text).

Medorrhinum
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 117 of 180
Source pages 2227–2243 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

Children: One of the many uses of this remedy is in the inherited complaints of children.

The physician of long and active experience meets many obstinate cases in children. The infant soon emaciates and becomes marasmic, or a child becomes asthmatic, or suffers with vicious catarrh of nose or eyelids, or has ringworm on the scalp or face, or is dwarfed; and after some waste of time it comes to mind that the father was treated for gonorrhea that was obstinate and perhaps had condylomata on the genitalia.

This remedy will cure, or begin the recovery. The woman married several years desires to become a mother. She was healthy when she married, but now she has ovarian pains, menstrual troubles, she has lost all sexual response, is growing pale and waxy, and becoming violently sensitive and nervous.

The husband’s history gives the cause, and this remedy will cure. The pale waxy young men, who crave stimulants and tobacco, who are sensitive to drafts, become stiff after exertion and walking, who perspire easily and are extremely sensitive to cold, who have never been well since having a gonorrhea cured by injections.

Rheumatic symptoms: in every part of the body. Some symptoms are worse in the daytime. The usual comparison with Syphilinum, which reads,

“Med. in daytime and Syph. at night,” does not hold good as a sweeping statement. It is true that many Syph. pains are worse nights.

It is true that some sycotic and Medorrhinum symptoms are worse daytimes. It is also true that many sycotic symptoms are violent day and night. It is also true that the mental symptoms of Med. are most violent at night. It will not do to be too sweeping with circumstances of this nosode.

The rheumatic inflammations are worse from motion, but where swelling is not present these patients act like Rhus patients; they are sensitive to cold, suffer from aching and torturesome pains, and find relief only in motion – like Rhus. Most sycotic patients suffer from cold, some are sensitive to heat.

Sore, bruised and lame, as if he had taken a deep cold and was coming down with a fever. The pains come on with a feeling of general tension. Obstinate cases of rheumatism. Losing flesh. Walks stooped, becoming clumsy. Stumbles. Looks as if he were going into quick consumption. Intense nervous sensibility, respecting touch of garment or a lock of hair by any one not en rapport.

Trembling and quivering; growing steadily weaker. Intense formication all over the body. Starts from the slightest noise. Feels faint and wants to be fanned, Wants open air. Cold and pulseless, with cold sweat.

Oedema of the limbs with great soreness and dropsy of serous sacs. Externally sensitive to cold damp weather. Subject to neuralgias. Stitching, tearing pains. The pains are ameliorated by heat. Drawing pains in back and limbs. The patient is extremely sensitive to pain. The remedy should never be used low.

Mind: Forgetful of facts, figures and names; of what he has read.

Makes mistakes in writing, of spelling, and words. Time move too slowly; everybody moves too slowly. He is in a constant hurry, in such a hurry that he gets out of breath. She is in such a hurry that she feels faint. Confusion of mind, dazed; fear of sensation; loses the idea when speaking. Great difficulty in stating her symptoms, loses herself and must be asked over again.

Thinks some one is behind her; hears whispering. Sees faces that peer at her from behind the furniture (Phos.). Everything seems unreal (Alum.).

Wild desperate feeling as if incipient insanity. Weeps when talking. Exhilaration in evening. Changeable state of mind; one moment sad, the next mirthful. Presentiment of death. Frightened sensation on waking as if something dreadful had happened. Fear of the dark. Anxiety about her salvation.

Vertigo when stooping; ameliorated lying; aggravated from motion. Fear of falling.

Head: Wandering neuralgia of head, worse in cold damp weather.

Sharp pains come and go suddenly. No part of head is free from pain. Pain aggravated from light, and on coughing. Burning pains deep in, as if in brain. Extreme tension of scalp. Band across forehead. Pain in occiput and nape, aggravated on motion. Intense itching of scalp. Herpetic eruptions on scalp; ringworm. Copious dandruff. Hair dry and crispy.

Eyes: Flickering before the eyes.

Blurred vision, and black or brown spots in the field of vision. Objects look double, or small. Sees imaginary objects. Eyes feel drawn. Tension in the muscles. Pain in eyes on turning them. Sensation of sand in eyes. Sensation of sticks. inflammation of conjunctiva with ulceration of the cornea. Blepharitis with much swelling. Lids stuck together in the morning. Margins red and excoriated. Ptosis. Smarting of lids. Eyelashes fall out. Swelling under eyes, as in Bright’s disease.

Ears: Impaired hearing and total deafness.

Imagines he hears voices or people in conversation, At first the hearing is very acute. Pain along Eustachian tubes into ears. Crawling in ears. Itching in ears. Stitching pains in ears.

Nose: This remedy cures obstinate nasal catarrh, also post nasal obstruction with loss of smell.

Mucus, white or yellow. A middle aged man was cured of an obstinate nasal discharge by Med. very high and a discharge from the urethra which had been suppressed many years before came back and acted like a chronic gleet, and finally subsided without other treatment.

Bleeding from the nose, and bloody nasal discharge. Nose sensitive to inhaled air. Itching and crawling in nose.

The greenish yellow, waxy, sickly face of the sycotic patient looks like that of the Arsenic patient, but strange to say, Arsenic does not otherwise correspond to the symptoms, but may be mistaken for it. The skin shines, and is often covered by blotches and there are fever blisters about the mouth. Herpes on the face.

Epithelioma of wing of nose, or on lip. Rheumatic pains and stiffness of face. Swelling of the submaxillary glands.

Mouth: The teeth are always sensitive when chewing.

The taste is perverted, and the tongue is foul and white at base. The mouth is full of canker sores. Ulcers in the mouth and on the tongue.

The breath is foul. Stringy mucus in mouth and throat. Mouth dry and feels burnt. Catarrh of throat, and thick white mucus is constantly drawn from posterior nares.

Stomach: Ravenous hunger, even after eating.

Unquenchable thirst. Craves stimulants, tobacco, sweets, green fruit, ice, sour things, oranges, ale, salt. Nausea after eating, and after drinking water. Vomiting of mucus and bile, Sour and bitter vomiting. Violent retching. Vomiting without nausea.

Gnawing in stomach, not relieved by eating or drinking. Trembling in stomach. Clawing in stomach, aggravated by drawing up the knees. Sinking in stomach. Agonizing pains in stomach.

Liver: Terrible pains in liver.

Grasping pains in liver and spleen. It has cured ascites. Pulsation felt in abdomen. Pain and swelling of the inguinal glands.

A young man who had been in good flesh and health took gonorrhoea. He was treated by injection. Soon he began to lose flesh. He suffered from pain in the groin, which compelled him to walk bent. He became pale and waxy; stiff and lame all over, and was very sensitive to cold.

Took cold frequently, which seemed never to get quite well. After Med. very high the discharge returned, and he seemed quite well. Pain in spermatic cords.

Infants: This remedy has cured many cases of marasmus in infants that had inherited sycosis from a parent.

Children of a sycotic father are especially subject to attacks of vomiting and diarrhoea, and emaciation. They resist well selected chronic remedies, or are only palliated by well selected remedies. After Med. high they thrive, and remedies act better.

Stools: Constipation.

Can pass stool only by leaning far back when straining at stool. Inactivity of the rectum. Round balls, and hard lumpy stool. Oozing of moisture at the anus, smelling like fishbrine.

Urines: Scanty, high-colored, strong-smelling urine in a patient suffering from rheumatic lameness and stiffness.

Sensitive to cold, with tenderness of the soles. In albuminous urine with hyaline casts when the patient is waxy and there is oedema of feet and ankles, and the soles so tender he can scarcely walk on them, the skin of soles is bluish and hot; also when the swollen legs are so sore he cannot have them touched, or endure the pressure to ascertain whether the swelling will or will not pit on pressure.

In the above conditions Med. will act promptly if there has been gonorrhoeal history. Inflammation of bladder, prostate gland or kidneys. Copious mucus in urine. Renal colic. Parenchymatic inflammation of the kidneys. Copious pale urine. Frequent urination at night. Loses urine in bed. Inactivity of the bladder and feeble stream of urine. It has cured many cases of polyuria.

Genitals: Nocturnal emissions and impotency in young men who have had gonorrhoea several times, especially if treated by injections.

Prolonged gleety discharge with rheumatic symptoms and declining health. For gonorrhoeal rheumatism it is a most important remedy. It controls the rheumatic symptoms and restores the discharge.

It has cured induration of testes, and pain in the spermatic cords. Pain in left spermatic cord, left sciatic nerve and lumbago from every exposure to a draft in one who suffered from gonorrhoea several years ago and was cured by Med. 10 M. at long intervals.

Chronic pain in ovarian region. Sterility. Painful menstruation. Obstinate leucorrhoea. Enlarged ovaries. Violent itching of vulva and vagina. Profuse menses. Drawing in sacrum as if menses would come on, Cutting like knives in whole pelvic region.

Burning in scrotum and hips during menses.

Respiration: is difficult.

Suffocation and short breath on slight exertion. Asthma in children of sycotic parents (Nat. s.). Spasms of the glottis with clucking in the larynx; air expelled with difficulty, but inhaled with ease. Several cases of asthma have been cured by this remedy. Dryness of the larynx causes spasms and cough on falling asleep.

Most obstinate catarrh of air passages with copious viscid expectoration has been cured by this remedy. Cannot cough deep enough to reach the phlegm (Caust.). The cough is ameliorated by lying on the abdomen, is aggravated at night. The expectoration. is yellow, white or green, viscid, difficult to raise. Cough worse in a warm room.

Many of the patients that need this remedy look sick, pale, and walk stooped as if about to go into phthisis. Dry cough, with rattling in chest. Great heat, even burning in chest. Many pains in chest. Rheumatic, sharp pains through chest on exposure to damp cold air.

When patients who have suffered from gonorrhoea seem to be taking on a phtisical complex of symptoms and the paucity of individualizing symptoms makes the remedy doubtful, this remedy will bring better reaction, and sometimes be the remedy for many months.

Intense pain in chest on coughing. Sensation of coldness in chest and mammae. Stitching pain in chest. The chest is sore to touch, and aggravated by the motion of breathing.

The heart manifests all the symptoms usual to rheumatic constitutions. Dyspnea; fluttering heart; palpitation. The pains are acute, cutting, stitching; aggravated by motion. Burning in heart, extending to left arm.

Back: “Lame back” is the common complaint of these patients.

It is generally a lumbago, or it is a lumbo-sacral pain, and often extends into the lower limbs. Crural or sciatic pains. Drawing in nape and back. Pain across the back, from left to right shoulders. Great heat in the upper part of spine. Stiffness in the back on rising, or beginning to move. Pains all aggravated in cold damp weather. Tender spine, Soreness in region of kidneys.

Limbs: Chronic rheumatic pains in limbs in cold damp weather.

The limbs are lame and stiff. Stitching pains all over the body, and in limbs. Sharp pains. The patient is extremely sensitive to pain, and feels pain as sharp and stitching. Some of the pains come on during motion, and some are better from continued motion. Cold extremities. Burning palms and soles, Trembling of the limbs. Rheumatic pains in shoulders aggravated from motion.

Numbness of arms and hands, worse left. Trembling hands and arms. Burning palms, wants them fanned. Right hand cold, then left. Cold hands. Heat and numbness of back of hands.

Trembling weakness and numbness of lower limbs. Awkwardness of legs, they do not go where they are willed to go. Numbness of thighs. Must stretch the lower limbs constantly. Drawing pains and tension in legs. Rheumatic pains. Stiffness and soreness in flesh and periosteum. Shooting up the legs during a thunderstorm.

Restlessness in legs, must move them constantly. Aching, drawing in legs and thighs, in sciatic and crural nerves, ameliorated by continued motion. Legs numb and heavy, like wood. Legs cold up to the knees.

Contraction of muscles of posterior part of thigh down to knee. Cramps in soles and calves. Weak ankles. Burning feet, wants them uncovered and fanned. Legs swollen to knees, and pit upon pressure. Sore bruised legs, ankles and soles. Soles sore and bruised, look blue. He cannot walk on the soles. Swelling and itching of the soles. It cures the tenderness in the soles so common in chronic gonorrhoeal rheumatism. Tenderness of soles so that be had to walk on his knees. Cold sweaty feet.

Sleep: Can sleep only on the back with bands over head.

Sleeps on her knees with face forced into the pillow. Terrible dreams of ghosts and dead people; she dreads the nights.

Sleepy but cannot sleep. Sleeplessness fore part of night. Copious night sweats.

Ignatia
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 96 of 180
Source pages 1975–1994 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

Ignatia is frequently required and is especially suited to sensitive, delicate women and children; to hysterical women. You will not cure the natural hysterics with Ignatia, but you will cure those gentle, sensitive, fine fibred, refined, highly educated, overwrought women in their nervous complaints with Ignatia when they take on complaints that are similar to such symptoms as come in hysteria.

Hysterical diathesis: The hysterical diathesis is one that is very singular and difficult to comprehend.

But a woman, when overwrought and overexcited and emotional, will do things that she herself cannot account for. She will do things as if she were crazy in her excitement. Will do things she regrets, while the hysteric is always glad of it. No matter how much foolishness there is in it she has only made an exhibition that she is proud of. But our efforts go out for those who imitate them unconsciously. Those who will to do well.

A woman has undergone a controversy at home. She has been disturbed, is excited, and goes into cramps, trembles and quivers. Goes to bed with a headache. Is sick. Ignatia will be her remedy. When she has great distress; unrequited affections. A sensitive, nervous young girl finds out that she has misplaced her affections; the young man has disappointed her; she has a weeping spell, headache, trembles, is nervous, sleepless; Ignatia will make her philosophical and sensible.

A woman loses her child, or her husband. A sensitive, delicate woman, and she suffers from this grief. She has headaches, trembles, is excited, weeps, is sleepless; unable to control herself. In spite of her best endeavors, her grief has simply torn her to pieces. She is unable to control her emotions and her excitement.

Ignatia will quiet her and tide her over the present moment. In all of these instances where all of these conditions brought on from such troubles keep coming back, where your patient dwells upon them, dwells upon the cause, and the state keeps recurring, Natrum mur. will finish up the case.

It will nerve her up and help her to bear her sufferings. Especially useful in constitutions that have been over wrought at school, in science, music, art. Of course, it is natural for very sensitive girls to go into the arts, such as music, painting, etc.

A daughter comes back from Paris after a number of years close application to her music. She is unable to do anything. She flies all to pieces. Every noise disturbs her. She cannot sleep nights. Excitable, sleepless, trembles, jerks, cramps in the muscles; weeps from excitement, and from every disturbing word. Ignatia will tone her up wonderfully.

Sometimes it will complete the whole case. But especially in these oversensitive girls is Natrum mur. very commonly the chronic. It is the natural chronic of Ignatia. When the troubles keep coming back, and Ignatia comes to a place when it will not hold any longer.

Another place where Ignatia and Natrum mur. run close together. A sensitive, overtired girl, after she has been working in music, and in art, and in school, and has tired herself out, is unable to control her affections. Her affections rest on some one whom she would despise. That may be a singular thing, one may not be able to understand it.

A sensitive girl, though she would not let anyone but her mother know of it, falls in love with a married man. She lies awake nights, sobs. She says, “Mother, why do I do that, I cannot keep that man out of my mind.”

At other times a man entirely out of her station, that she is too sensible to have anything to do with, she just thinks about him. Ignatia, if it is very recent, will balance up that girl’s, mind. If not, Natrum mur. comes in as a follower. We do not know half as much about the human mind as we think we do. We only know its manifestations.

These little things belong to this sphere of the action of this medicine. The one who knows the Materia Medica applies it in its breadth and its length, and sees in it that which is similar.

Ignatia has quivering in the limbs. Nervous, tremulous excitement.

“Weakness of the body coming on suddenly.

Hysterical debility and fainting fits.

Fainting in a crowd.”

It is especially useful in the tearful, nervous, sad, yielding, sensitive minds.

“Jerking and twitching.

Convulsive twitchings.”

Children are convulsed in sleep after punishment.

“Convulsions in children in the first period of dentition.

Spasms in children from fright.”

The child is cold and pale, and has a fixed staring look, like Cina.

“Convulsions with loss of consciousness.

Violent convulsions.

Tetanic convulsions.

Tetanus after fright.

Emotional chorea.

After fright, or grief.”

Choreic girls. Emotional epilepsy, or epileptiform manifestations. Paralytic weakness.

“Great mental emotion.”

Nursing; night watching. A loss of one arm with as perfect paralysis as if it had come from a cerebral haemorrhage. In a few hours this passes off, and the arm is as well as ever. That is a hysterical paralysis.

“Numbness of one or the other arm.

Tingling and prickling in the arm.”

Ignatia is full of surprises. If you are well acquainted with sickness, well acquainted with pathological conditions and that manifestations, you are then able to say whether you should or should not be surprised. You are then able to say what is natural, what is common to sickness. In Ignatia you find what is unnatural, and what is unexpected.

You see an inflamed joint, or an inflamed part where there is heat, redness, throbbing, and weakness; you will handle it with great care for fear it will be painful. Ordinarily you have a perfect right to expect it would be painful. But you find it is not painful, and sometimes ameliorated by hard pressure. Is not that a surprise?

You look into the throat. It is tumid, inflamed, red; the patient complains of a sore throat and pain. Naturally you will not touch it with your tongue depressor for fear it will hurt.

You have every reason to suppose that the swallowing of solids will be painful. But you ask the patient when the pain is present, and the patient will say:

“When I am not swallowing anything solid.”

The pain is ameliorated by swallowing anything solid, by the pressure. It pains all other times. Mentally, the patient does the most unaccountable and most unexpected things. Seems to have no rule to work by, no philosophy, no soundness of mind, and no judgment. The opposite of what would be expected, then, will be found.

The patient is better lying on the painful side. Instead of increasing the pain, it relieves the pain.

“Pain like a nail sticking into the side of the head.”

The only comfort that is felt is by lying upon it, or pressing upon it, and that makes it go away.

Stomach: The stomach is just as strange in its indigestion. Some day or other you will have a queer patient, vomiting everything taken into the stomach, and you will have her try gentle food, a little toast, and the simplest possible things, because she has been vomiting for days and people begin to worry about it for fear she will starve to death.

You try this, and you try that, and she can keep nothing down. Finally she says,

“It I could only have some cole slaw and some chopped onions, I think I could get along all right.”

It is a hysterical stomach, and the patient eats some raw cabbage and some chopped onions, and from that time on she is well.

Those strange things that are ordinarily hard to digest ameliorate the nausea rather than increase it. While milk and toast, and delicate things, and warm things, such as are usually taken, disturb the stomach and increase the nausea. Cold food is craved, and cold food will be digested when warm food will be disturbing and create indigestion.

Cough: The cough has similar features in it. An irritation will come in the throat, as a rule, that is why people cough.

People cough from smarting in the larynx and trachea, from irritation, from tickling, and from a sensation of fullness or a desire to expel something, and this is better by coughing.

But when the irritation in the larynx and trachea comes in the Ignatia patient you have the unexpected again; because the more she coughs the more the irritation to cough is observed, until the irritation is so great and the cough is so great that she goes into spasms. It has been known of an Ignatia patient, that the more she coughed the greater the irritation to cough, and she was drenched with sweat, sitting up in bed with her night-clothes drenched, gagging and coughing and retching, covered with sweat and exhausted.

When you are called to the bedside of such a patient, don’t wait. You cannot get her to stop coughing long enough to say anything to you about it, only you will see the cough has grown more violent; Ignatia stops it at once. Without any provocation whatever a spasmodic condition will come on in the larynx.

Any little disturbance, a mental disturbance, a fright, or distress, or a grievance, will bring a young, sensitive woman home and to her bed, and she will go on with a spasm of the larynx. It is a laryngismus stridulus that can be heard all over the house. Ignatia stops it at once (Gelsemium, Moschus).

Mind: Nervous affections and troubles of all sorts come on at the menstrual period. The mind is always in a hurry, in a state of excitement.

No one can do things rapidly enough. The memory is untrustworthy. The mind flies all to pieces. It is a sort of confusion. No longer able to classify the things that have been classically put into the mind. Cannot remember her music, and her rules, and her scholastic methods. They have all vanished, and she is in a state of confusion. She is a worn-out, nervous person.

Then come fancies, vivid fancies, that are like delirium. Without fever, without chill. just after excitement. She comes home from some great disturbance of her emotions, and goes into a state that, if looked upon, per se, would appear to be a delirium such as appears in a fever. But upon close examination it is not a delirium. It is a momentarily hysterical excitement of the mind, in which the balance is lost, and she talks about everything.

Sees every manner of thing; it is a hysterical insanity, because after she rests or the next morning it has vanished. But these spells come oftener and oftener after they have once begun, and she gives way to them easier and easier, and, if they are not remedied, she becomes a lunatic, a confirmed mental wreck, so that excitement, grief, insanity, all intermingle together as cause and effect. These come first at the menstrual period, and then they come at other times, until they come from every little disturbance. Whenever she is crossed or contradicted.

“She desires to be alone and to dwell on the inconsistencies that come into her life.

Sits and sobs.

At times she is taciturn; again, she prattles and is loquacious, and talks to herself.”

She comes into a state in a little while where she delights to bring on her fits and to make a scare. The natural hysteric is born with that, and Ignatia will do her no good. But when this is brought on from conditions described, Ignatia is of the greatest benefit. It runs closely along by the side of Hyoscyamus.

“A feeling of continuous fright, or apprehensiveness that something is going to happen.”

With all these mental states she has a feeling of emptiness in the stomach and abdomen. Emptiness and trembling.

“Melancholy after disappointed love, with spinal symptoms,” “Great grief after losing persons or objects very near.

Trembling of the hands disturbs her very much in writing.

Dread of every trifle.”

She goes into a state where she is utterly unable to undertake anything, even to write a letter to a friend.

The Ignatia patient is not one that has been a simpleton, or of a sluggish mind or idiotic, but one that has become tired, and brought into such a state from over-doing and from over-excitement. From going too much. If rather feeble in body, from too much social excitement. Our present social state is will calculated to develop a hysterical mind. The typical social mind is one that is always in a state of confusion. Asks questions, not waiting for the answer.

A good many remedies have this state; a lack of concentration of mind, that is what it is, but this is a peculiar kind of lack of concentration of mind. Dread, fear, anxiety, weeping, run through the remedy.

“Sensitive disposition; hyperacute.”

Overwrought intense. Ignatia has another thing:

“Thinks she has neglected some duty.”

That is very much like Puls., Hell. and Hyos., only Aurum believes that she has committed a great wrong.

“Thinks that she has neglected some duty.”

Dwells upon that much.

“Melancholy after great grief.”

It is full of headaches, and they are all congestive, pressing headaches, or tearing headaches, or headaches as if a nail were sticking into the side of the head or temple; ameliorated from lying upon it. The headaches are all ameliorated by heat. The patient generally is ameliorated by warmth and aggravated by cold. Wants cold things in the stomach, but warm things externally. Jerking headaches, throbbing headaches, congestive headaches.

Headaches in nervous and sensitive temperaments. Those whose nervous system has given way to anxiety, grief or mental work.

“Headaches from abuse of coffee, from smoking, from inhaling smoke, from tobacco or alcohol.”

Headache from close attention.

“Headache ameliorated, by warmth and rest; worse, from cold winds and turning the head suddenly; worse when pressing at stool, or from jar, from hurrying, from excitement.”

Looking up increases the pain; moving the eyes; worse from noise, from light.

“Pain in the occiput; worse from cold, better from external heat.

Headache better while eating, but soon after it is worse.”

“Disturbance of vision.

Zigzags.

Confusion of vision.”

Excessively nervous eyes.

“Acrid tears.

Weeping.”

Face: The face is distorted, convulsed, pale and sickly. Pains in the face.

“Violent rending, tearing pains in the face.”

Let me put it this way: Some of these overwrought girls that come back from Paris, that I described, overworked in their music, will have violent face-ache, pains in the face, or some other hysterical pains. Others will come back with violent headaches; others with the mental state and confusion; others with all the hysterical manifestations.

Prolonged excitement. Musical excesses. Yes, other girls come back fairly crippled with painful menstruation, ovarian pains, hysterical conditions, displacement; prolapsus of the vagina and of the rectum.

“Tearing, shooting pains upwards from the anus and vagina up into the body towards the umbilicus.”

Strange antipathies run through the remedy. It will be impossible for you to ever form any conclusion what one of these sensitive women will think of any proposition that is presented. You cannot depend upon her being reasonable or rational.

It is best to say as little as possible, about anything. Make no promises, listen, look wise, take up your traveling bag and go home after you have prescribed, because anything you say, will be distorted. There is not anything you can say that will please

Thirst when you would not expect it. Thirst during chill, but none during the fever, if she has a feverish state. It is suitable in intermittent fever. Excitable, nervous children and women with intermittent fever.

Glonoinum
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 87 of 180
Source pages 1673–1690 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

Head: The most common feature in this remedy is the surging of blood to the head and to the heart. A patient often describes the state as a feeling as if all the blood in the body must be rushing around the heart, with a sense of heat or a boiling sensation in the region of the heart, or in the left side of the chest.

Again he complains of a surging in the head, a warm glowing sensation in the head or a feeling of intense glowing from the stomach or from the chest up into the head, attended at times with loss of consciousness.

There are also wave-like sensations in the head, as if the skull were being lifted up and lowered, or as if it were being expanded and contracted. Along with this there is most intense pain, sometimes as if the head would burst, sometimes great soreness in the head, or a sense of soreness felt in the skull. Another accompaniment of the surging is great throbbing, synchronous with the heat of the heart, and when the skull has this soreness then the throbbing is like the beating of hammers, and every pulsation is painful, so that there are painful pulsations and sometimes painless pulsations.

The pulsations are tremendous and when they are greatest in the head they are felt also in the extremities. The fingers and toes pulsate, there is pulsation throughout the back, and it seems that the whole body throbs. If this continues a while the soreness in the skull is likely to come on and with it the painful throbbing, every throb is a pain. In this state, with every jar in stepping, and every motion, it seems as if the head would be crushed.

Throbbing: The throbbing becomes more painful from motion. The vomiting which attends this condition relieves. The head is relieved in the open air, it is worse in the warmth, and is often relieved from the application of cold. It is made worse by lying down, or lying, with the head low. In the extremities we have great coldness. The extremities cold, pale and perspiring, the head hot and the face flushed and purple or bright red. The pupils are dilated and the eyes red. Now, if this progresses only a little while, the tongue becomes dry, red and then brown. There is no great thirst, but the mouth is very dry. The eyelids become dry and stick to the eyeballs. At times the skin becomes dry and hot, and the face is red and glistens. All degrees of confusion of mind, even loss of consciousness, will be present.

Headaches: Have I not described to a great extent that which is seen in a typical sunstroke? It is noticeable also that Glonoine symptoms are worse in the heat of summer and relieved in winter. The dull headaches and the continuous headaches are aggravated from warm weather and ameliorated from cold.

They are worse in the sun and better in the shade. All sorts of contrivances will be resorted to by Glonoine patients to keep the sun’s beat from the head. When he has had these troubles for years, and it has become a chronic state, he will never go out in the warmth of the sun without an umbrella.

Glonoine corresponds to congestive states in the head that come on suddenly, especially from heat, but also from gaslight, or from any bright light.

The headaches that book-keepers are subject to, especially in those that have at their desk, or over the head, a hot gaslight. The bright light accompanied by the heat so close to the head will make this individual subject to headaches. These headaches are relieved by going into the cold air. The head aches all day when he is at his books, and when he goes home at night and lies down the headache comes on again, and he has to be bolstered up in bed.

He wants the head high, and cold applications to the head; the headache is relieved from a long sleep, not generally relieved from siesta. From lying down and taking a nap the headache is sometimes aggravated, but from a good long sleep, a night’s sleep, he is refreshed.

His feet and hands become warm, the feverish state, and the throbbing all over the body subsides and he wakes up in the morning comfortable; but if he goes out in the sun, or goes to the gaslight, he comes home with the headache again. Since electric lights have been brought into use there is not so much heat in the light, but gas throws out an immense amount of heat in its light,

The child comes down with cerebro-spinal meningitis, the neck is drawn back, the face is intensely hot, red and shiny, the eyes congested or glassy, the head and upper part of the body are very warm, the feet and hands and lower portions of the body and the extremities are cold and covered with cold sweat.

It is a most violent congestion to the brain and spinal cord. Convulsions come on, convulsions throughout all the limbs, the neck and whole body drawn back, opisthotonos. Cold feels good to the head; heat feels good to the extremities. The warm room increases the convulsions. When the lower limbs are covered with clothing in a cool room and the windows open the convulsions are relieved and the patient breaths more easily. With this head congestion there is difficulty in breathing and audible palpitation.

The head is made worse from shaking or jar, from stooping, from bending head backwards, after lying down, when ascending steps. It is aggravated in damp weather, and in the sun, while working under the gaslight, after overheating with copious sweat, and from the touch of the hat.

The weight of the hat is a very common aggravation in headaches in school children. The little ones work all day in a hot stuffy room and feel better in the open air, but the weight of the hat seems an encumberance as in Nitric acid and Calc. phos.

The Glonoine patient is also worse from wine and from stimulants, and from mental application. When the headache is on he cannot think, and he cannot write. An additional hindrance to writing is that he trembles so that he cannot write. Trembling and throbbing of the fingers so that he is unable to do his work or perform any delicate work with the fingers or hands.

We have puerperal convulsions with such an appearance as I have described. We may have the same violence in congestive chills, or in any type of congestion of the brain.

Brain: There is a milder form of trouble that calls for its use, a condition corresponding to the chronic types of disease. This milder form exists where the patient has simply what might be called a hyperemia of the brain, a rush of blood to the head when able to be about. It comes in spells, comes in moments when be least expects it; while walking on the street he feels a surging to the brain like a flush of heat and a flush on the face, his hands tremble, and the hands and feet become cold, he breaks out in a sweat; he looks around him and does not know which way to go home, he does not know where his dwelling is.

He looks in the faces of friends and they seem strange, he loses his way when be is near home. It is a confusion which soon passes away, and he feels better again. But these spells come closer together, and constitute the earlier stages of softening of the brain. This surging of blood to the brain is attended with dizziness; he rolls and staggers, and must take hold of things, and especially does he suffer in this way from a warm day, or from the heat and light of the sun.

In threatened apoplexy, and when apoplexy has taken place, if the violent pressure keeps on, think of this remedy. The clot may not be at first in the place to take life, it may be outside of the life line, but if the congestion continues that blood clot will increase.

Such medicines as Opium and Glonoine relieve the blood pressure when the symptoms agree. They equalize the circulation, and the patient may not die. A paralytic condition in one arm or leg may go on for a while, and at the end of many weeks or months the motion may be regained, and the patient recover; whereas if the suitable remedy had not been administered to reduce that blood pressure the continued congestion would certainly have ended in death in a few days.

The stertorous breathing, the coma, the history, and the general appearance of an apoplectic patient are found in this remedy, but the intense heat that comes on in many cases of apoplexy along with the shiny skin and coldness of the extremities are the guiding features.

Opium is the most frequently indicated medicine, but it must not be administered in large doses. The highest potencies are the best and one single dose is enough.

In a case noted it says, “frantic attempts to jump from the window.”

The headache was so intense that the patient became violent and attempted to jump from the window. You may rest assured that with his headache there was all this determination of blood to the head. It is enough to make one frantic to feel this continued hammering upon every fraction of the skull. He cannot lie down, and he cannot walk, because every step increases the jar, so you see why it is that the word “frantic” is wed there. The patient becomes frantic with the pain.

Another expression used is “disinclination to step around.”

The patient wants the room perfectly still. If sitting up in bed, you will often find a Glonoine patient with both hands pressing upon the head with all the power possible until the arms are perfectly exhausted. He wants the head pressed upon all sides. Wants it bandaged, or a tight cap fitted down upon it.

The headache is worse from bending backward and from stooping forward. There are times when the headache is so severe that lying back upon the pillow cannot be tolerated. There is a sense of great heaviness in the head. You will notice, in reading over these congestive headaches as reported, that each patient has a different way of describing his headache and yet all have the same story to tell, that of violent determination of blood to the head.

“Some months after being violently jarred by being thrown from a carriage, a sensitiveness of the upper part of the back and neck came on.”

There are two strong characteristics of Glonoine in that cure, viz:

“< from wine and the < from lying down.”

The other symptoms might have pointed to other remedies, but these two features are there. It is interesting when reading a case, if you have first a knowledge of the Materia Medica, to note what symptoms are verified when you do not know the Materia Medica then the case is confusing.

Now, as we glance over that description we see at once these two things verified and the rest is fairly consistent. Very commonly the pain begins in the occiput and goes to the forehead, but the whole head is in a state of throbbing.

But, we notice more particularly, the “aggravation from motion and the least noise.”

This patient will sit in perfect quietude and silence for hours. You will be astonished to, know how long a Glonoine patient can sit without moving a muscle, because motion is so painful.

Also “aggravation from lying with the head low and after sleeping.” it is important for you to know what that sleeping means. As I have said before, the patient very often is worse after a little sleep, but the common state is relief after a prolonged sleep. If he can sleep long enough it will subside, unless it be the congestive sleep, or coma, and then it is a different thing.

“Amelioration from cold and external pressure.”

“Vertex burning hot, likewise upper part of back.”

The whole crown of the head feels as if it were covered by a hot iron, as if an oven were close by. Hot, especially in the back of the neck and between the shoulders.

The burning heat seems to appear at the top of the head and extend down between the shoulders; a sensation of heat, as from a band.

“Face bluish, with a heavy, stupid expression.”

The face is bright red, but if the condition becomes severe the face assumes a dusky appearance, and the longer this state lasts the more dusky it becomes; that is true with apoplexy and also with sunstroke. When the sunstroke first comes on the face is bright red, intensely hot and shiny, but as the heat increases the face grows dusky, even to purple. In all of these cerebral congestions there is a stupid, heavy expression, even going on to coma.

“Frequent deep inspirations.”

With this congestion of the head there is commonly vomiting, palpitation of the heart, pain in the stomach, great difficulty in breathing and finally loss of consciousness. In another clinical case reported we read:

“Every pulsation is felt as if the head would burst.”

Now, suppose the head bones were already intensely sensitive and sore and the head filled as full as possible with blood, and then you commenced hammering upon the blood column you can understand that the pain would be most intense and would soon end in stupefaction.

“Sunken eyes, bluish pallor under the eyes.”

“Red eyes, with photophobia; optical illusions.

Black specks before the eyes; blindness.”

“Face pale, in spite of high fever.”

In all of these cerebral congestions of great violence the pulse fluctuates; it even becomes fine and wiry and hard; sometimes becomes irregular and also slow.

Another common accompaniment of these congestions is tumefaction about the neck. The neck feels full. The collar must be opened as it causes choking, as if he would suffocate. Even in the chronic state in the one who stands upon the street corner not knowing his way home because of the surging of blood in the head, that state is accompanied by choking and the collar causes uneasiness about the neck like Lach. He chokes and swells up under the ears. There is not only a sensation, but with the sensation there is actual swelling. Tumefaction about the neck and throat, under the chin, and the glands become swollen.

The next circumstance in the text that brings forth the general aspect of the remedy is in connection with the catamenia. The menstrual flow does not appear, it is delayed, with violent congestion to the head, violent headaches and these symptoms already described. These congestions may also come on during the menstrual period. Again, if a uterine hemorrhage stops suddenly, or a copious flow from any part stops suddenly, the patient comes down with great violence and the blood rushes to the head.

There are many conditions and complaints in life where we have surging of blood to the head, when this will be the remedy wanted. Persons who are subject to palpitation with dyspnea, upon any effort, he cannot go uphill, he cannot walk along the pavement without bringing on palpitation and dyspnea; any little exertion or excitement brings on the rush of blood to the heart and fainting spells; fainting, spells in women, who are not supposed to be subject to fainting. Great weakness, palpitation, trembling of the limbs, shaking of one or both hands as with palsy.

“Laborious action of the heart” is a strong feature of the remedy; pulsation all over.

Fluttering in the region of the heart. Pulse quick, irregular, slow or quick and wiry. There are some persons that are apparently plethoric; very much affected by the slightest exertion and who have pulsation all over; pulsation in a warm room. They are sometimes relieved by opening the window if it is cool, by fanning, by cold air, by cold applications to the head. In keeping with the remedy, this is clinical application of it:

“Children get sick in the night after sitting up at an open fire or falling asleep there.”

“Bad effects from having the hair cut.”

Bell. is generally thought of for taking cold in the head from having the hair cut.

“Bad effects from being exposed to the sun’s rays.”

“Bad effects from sunstroke.”

Editorial notes

• “and he bas” corrected to “and he has” (transcription error in the digital source text).

Graphites
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 88 of 180
Source pages 1691–1714 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

The complaints of Graphites are worse morning, evening and during the NIGHT, especially before midnight. It is useful in people who are morbidly fat, or have been fat and are now emaciating; with constipation more commonly than diarrhoea; in women in these conditions whose menstrual habit is pale, late, short and scanty; catarrhal discharges that are albuminous and viscid represent to the mind some peculiar general states of the sick man not explainable and not common to diseased conditions nor to many remedies; hence, strange, rare and peculiar. Raw surfaces upon the skin are generally marked by such viscid glutinous discharges.

It is a very deep acting remedy, like all carbons, and is accompanied with induration and burning in the base of the ulcers, inflamed tissues and old cicatrices; hence, its great usefulness in cancerous growths and ulceration.

Cancerous development in old cicatrices is a strong feature of this remedy. Contraction of tendons, especially behind the knee. It has hemorrhagic oozing of pale blood. In the higher sense the patient is anaemic and chlorotic. From eruptions, catarrhal discharges, menstrual flow, ulcers, breath and perspiration there is marked offensiveness (like Carbo v., Psorinum, Kali phos., Kali ars.).

When eruptions or discharges have disappeared suddenly from any cause and grave chronic phenomena have followed Graphites is one of the medicines to be studied. Scrofulous conditions and swelling of glands; recurrent herpes upon all parts of the body and especially about the anus and genitals; burning in many parts and especially in old cicatrices; general dropsical tendency; weakness in muscles and tendons after straining them by overlifting.

Modalities: The patient is very sensitive to cold and needs warm clothing; he is sensitive to the cold in winter and to the heat in summer; he is sensitive to a warm room and desires open air which is grateful. Worse in a warm bed; complaints come on from becoming cold or heated; the headaches are worse in a warm room and better in the open air. Graphites has cured deep seated spinal complaints, and in such cases the patient delights to lie heavily covered in a cold draft from an open window.

It is easy to see in this, the resemblance to Carbo veg., which often cures when the patient wants to be fanned. Craving for air is strong in the carbons, yet often easily chilled and just as easily overheated and complaints that come from overheating are related to the carbons. This one becomes ill from being overheated; exertion makes all symptoms worse.

Motion increases all symptoms except the numbness and general feeling of stagnation which come on during rest. Extreme weakness. Weakness and desire to lie down. Paralysis in any part but especially in the lower limbs; sensation of paralysis or stagnation creeps over the body and limbs.

He is made sick by bathing and is sensitive to cold, damp weather. What there is in the general life to cause eruptions to come out in the bends of the joints must be left for others to explain, but such is the case with this wonderful remedy.

Convulsions: The same may be said of rawness and excoriation in the same regions. Cataleptic conditions are very marked in which the patient is conscious but without power to move or speak; tremulous sensation throughout the body; sudden sinking of strength; sudden weakness. Constriction in many parts. It has cured many kinds of convulsions. It is not the remedy for the convulsion, but in chronic sickness where the convulsion is but one of many elements it is often suitable. It has cured epilepsy and hysterio-epilepsy and epileptiform spasms many times when the totality of symptoms furnished the basis for the prescription.

A careful comparison of the symptoms shows that this remedy acts predominantly on the left side of the body. The patient is oversensitive to pain and outer parts are very sensitive.

Pains: The pains are burning, drawing, pressing. Soreness. Stitching and tearing. Numbness is more characteristic than pain. The formation of fissures in all the commissures and in the anus with cracked and bleeding skin in many parts with much hardening; the tendency to grow wens on the scalp and elsewhere are features of this remedy not to be overlooked, and when coupled with the mental symptoms form such a strong and striking image of perverted vital action that the neophyte should not overlook Graphites.

It is as broad and deep as Sulphur, showing the great similarity to this great remedy in chronic cases.

Mind: The patient becomes very restless when attempting close mental work and there is a marked dread of mental work. The mental depression is extreme, and it is made worse by music; her sadness is so great that she thinks only of death and salvation. Grief and vexation cause of recurrence of all her distressing mental sufferings.

Her moods are constantly changing; while she may recall all the events of youth, recent events are forgotten; slow of thought and weakness of mind worse in the morning; often excited, hurried and exhilarated in the evening; extremely fretful and impatient; irritable about trifles and very critical. Irresolution is a marked symptom.

She cannot make, up her mind to do or not to do. Extreme activity of mind in the evening and first half of the night, which, prevents sleep until midnight; apprehensive and distressed in the. morning and excited. in the evening; extreme anxiety even to desperation.

Vertigo in the morning on waking; in the evening; on looking upwards; on rising from stooping; compelled to lie down; with inclination to fall forward.

When the above general symptoms strongly predominate in any given sickness the following particulars will be cured by this remedy.

Hyperaemia of the brain in the evening in a warm room; frequent moments of congestion to head and face with faint feelings; numbness felt in whole head; burning spot on the vertex; drawing, pressing and tearing in forehead over the eyes; stitching pains in the temples; pain from temples to side of face and to shoulders; one-sided headaches in the morning on waking; tearing in one side of head extending to teeth and side of neck; pressing pain on the vertex and occiput; compressing, constricting pain in occiput and back of neck; pain as though the head were numb; violent headaches during menses.

Head: The headaches are brought on from becoming cold and from looking into a bright light; are worse in a warm room, and better in the open air. There is marked soreness in the scalp; itching of the scalp with or without eruptions; eczema of the scalp oozing a glutinous fluid; eczema behind the cars; fissures that bleed behind the ears; scaly eruptions on scalp; falling out of the hair; bald, shiny patches on the scalp.

Eyes: Extreme photophobia in the sunlight with copious lachrymation. No remedy has photophobia more marked than Graphites. Pain in the eyes and over the eyes by looking long toward a sun lighted window; complaints from eyestrain.

Letters appear double when writing, letters run together when reading; flickerings and fiery zigs-zags just outside the field of vision in the evening; misty vision; vanishing of sight during menses.

Burning, pressing, stitching pains in the eyes. It has cured ulceration of the cornea. Recurrent pustular inflammation of the cornea. Keratitis pustulosa in children with fissures in the canthi, extreme photophobia and eczema on the face.

Marked congestion and injected veins of the conjunctiva. Chronic lachrymation in open air, tears acrid. The fissured canthi bleed easily and itch violently. Purulent discharges from the eyes; the lids are stuck together at night; the eyes feel hot; the lids are much swollen and the margins are red, raw and bleed easily-sometimes hard; ulcers on the; margins of lids; the lids are covered with crusts; eczema of the eyelids and about the eyes; dry mucus in the lashes, styes on the lids, with drawing pain, especially when they recur frequently. Cystic tumors on the lids.

Ears: Discharge from the ear of sticky, viscid pus; bloody, offensive.

Noises in ears; cracking; bumming; hissing; ringing; rushing, roaring; reverberations. Violent roarings at night and the ears feel stopped; thundering, rolling sounds in ears.

Deafness in various degrees and he hears better in a noise. He can hear better when riding on the cars, in the roaring of the train.

Deafness with eczematous eruptions on and behind the ears. Stitching pains in ears in cold air. Marked swelling of the ears.

Nose: Smell very acute; she cannot tolerate flowers; loss of smell with dryness in the nose; with coryza. Discharge from nose bloody mucus or pus, very offensive, viscid, thick, sometimes yellow.

It is a most useful remedy in chronic nasal catarrh. Very painful dryness in the nose. The bones and cartilages of the nose become very sore to touch. Sneezing and fluent coryza as marked as in Carbo veg.

Frequent attacks of coryza all winter, worse in cold air; the coryza extends to larynx, like Carbo veg; the excoriated, sore, cracked nostrils are plugged with scabs and hard mucus far up in the nose. Ulcers in the nose. Fissures in the nostrils that burn and indurate.

Face: The face is pale, waxy and sickly.

Eczema and herpes are found on the face with glutinous moisture. Itching with or without eruptions. A sensation as of a cobweb on the face. The commissures of mouth are fissured and the fissures ulcerate and the edges become bard and there is great burning in them. The skin chaps and cracks and often becomes excoriated and bleeds. Erysipelas of the face, spreading from right to left. The beard falls out.

Crusts form on the lips and the chin is covered with eczema. The submaxillary gland is swollen and indurated.

Mouth: The gums are settling away from the teeth; the teeth burn and sting; drawing pain in teeth in cold wind; tearing in teeth worse from warmth.

Taste in the mouth is bitter, salty, sour and like spoiled eggs; nauseating taste in the morning; sour taste after eating. The tongue is coated white; burning blisters on lower lip and on tip of tongue, painful ulcers on under surface of tongue, putrid odor from gums and mouth; breath smells like urine.

Dryness of the mouth in morning on waking; also in the night on waking; saliva flows from the mouth during the night.

Throat: Chronic sore throat with ulceration and swelling; swollen tonsils; nightly pain in throat; copious white, viscid mucus; a continuation of the nasal and post nasal catarrh.

Constant choked feeling or constriction in the throat that makes swallowing difficult. Constant spasms in the throat compelling swallowing.

Stomach and abdomen: Ravenous appetite.

Violent thirst in the morning with dry mouth and internal fever. Aversion to meat; to cooked food; to fish; to salt, to sweets. He is driven to eat to relieve a feeling of suffocation and burning gnawing in the stomach.

Pain in the stomach, relieved by eating. Eructations bitter; sour; putrid; tasting of food eaten; of greenish water. Rancid heartburn after eating; nausea much of the time during menses, with trembling; vomits all she eats; vomiting, purging and cold sweat.

The stomach feels constantly in a spoiled state or as from indigestion. Flatulence is as marked as in Carbo veg., and the relief from belching is just as great. Burning, constriction, pulsation and cramping are frequent symptoms. Fullness, distension, pressure are constant features of Graphites.

Retching on swallowing food (like Merc. c.). Gastric catarrh with internal heat drive him to eat and drink. Gastric pains worse from cold drinks and better by warm milk; periodical gastralgia with vomiting of food soon after eating. It is a wonderful remedy for old drunkards when the gastric symptoms agree (like Carbon bisulphide).

It is a most useful remedy in hard, swollen, sore liver with weight and distress in the liver; stitches in both hypochondria, burning in left hypochondrium when lying on it; sensitive to clothing in the liver region. Great suffering in the abdomen from flatulence; incarcerated flatus causes cramping pains, distension, and a continual source of distress.

Everything eaten seems to ferment and turn to gas; rumbling and movements felt in the abdomen; there is great burning and griping; cramping in the abdomen soon after eating; the clothing distresses the abdomen. The slightest indiscretion in eating causes increased flatus, rumbling and diarrhoea; the abdomen is distended with dropsy. Herpes zona oil the side of abdomen; herpes over lower abdomen and groin; hard swelling of inguinal glands; oedema of the abdominal walls.

Anus and stools: From the anus there is copious discharge of very offensive flatus day and night. While diarrhoea is not so common as constipation, yet it is a marked condition in some patients, The diarrhoea is painless with much flatus, with watery, brown, putrid, lienteric stools; excoriating stools, extreme soreness of the anus; fissures of the anus; great burning. Chronic diarrhoea; from the slightest indiscretion in eating on comes a renewed attack.

With the loose stools, and with the constipated stools copious white jelly-like mucus is often found. Discharge of mucus from anus and a constant moisture about the outside parts. Large hemorrhoids extremely sore with fissures.

Constipation with large, hard, knotty, difficult stools passed with extreme pain from soreness and fissures of the anus. Long narrow stools (like Phos.). Violent burning in the anus, prolapsus of the anus.

It has cured many cases of bleeding piles of long standing where there was extreme soreness and fissures and great burning. Violent pains during stool. No desire to go to stool for many days. It requires a long time with hard straining to pass the stool.

It often suits patients who have no stool except by injection or cathartic. Violent itching of the anus; eczema and herpes near the anus or involving the anus. It has cured the stomach and abdominal conditions that favor the tapeworm.

Genitals and urines: The urine flows in a feeble stream, becomes very putrid after standing and deposits much red or white sediment; after standing the urine is covered with an iridescent cuticle.

After urination there is some dribbling; burning in the urinary passages and neck of the bladder when not urinating; pain in the sacrum and coccyx when urinating.

Violent sexual excitement and nightly emissions; the excitement is so strong that ejaculation comes instantly after intromission. The opposite state is also found where there is aversion to coition and erections are wanting. It is a most useful remedy for impotency following secret vice and sexual excesses. Emissions with feeble erections.

Herpes on the prepuce; excoriated and fissured glans penis; dropsical swelling of the scrotum and penis, hydrocele in small boys and baby boys. Itching and moist eruptions on the scrotum. It has cured gleety, viscid discharge from the urethra. It has cured swollen testes.

In the female it causes aversion to coition; enlarged, hard ovaries great tenderness in uterus and ovaries. It has cured ovarian tumor. Pain in the uterus when reaching high with hands; bearing down in uterine region.

It cures cauliflower excrescence of the uterus; it has restrained the growth of cancer in the cervix uteri, when there was burning and putrid bloody discharge; in this it resembles Carbo an. Menses late, irregular, scanty, pale or mixed with scanty dark, small clots, short duration. Menses six or eight weeks apart.

Menses suppressed or very late in chlorotic girls. First menses delayed. Leucorrhoea instead of the menses (Cocculus). Oedema of the vulva. Leucorrhoea in gushes day and night. Dryness and heat in the vagina; coldness in the vagina.

Extreme lassitude during the menses. Many symptoms come during menses; dry cough, copious sweat; oedema of feet; hoarseness; coryza; headache; nausea; morning nausea. Violent itching of the vulva before menses; marked excoriation of the genitals and between the thighs during menses; excoriating leucorrhoea before menses.

Leucorrhea white; yellowish-white; thin; viscid; offensive. Sore, cracked nipples in nursing women. Cancer of the breast coming in the cicatrix of an old cancer.

Larynx and cough: sensitive to touch.

Hoarseness in the evening (like Carbo veg.). Dryness in the larynx in the night; copious glutinous mucus in the daytime.

He suffocates when falling asleep (like Lachesis) and often wakes up in the night gasping for breath; constriction of the chest.

Paroxysmal cough like whooping cough, cough is followed by expectoration of copious white viscid mucus; paroxysms come at any time It has cured whooping cough. Cough from tickling in the larynx or trachea; violent night cough; deep inspiration causes cough.

Rawness in the trachea; stitching pains in the chest.

Constriction of the heart; electric shocks in the heart; palpitation on motion or exertion with strong pulsation all over the body and in the extremities, pulse full and heard, slow during day but fast in the morning; fast pulse in evening after eating, with fever. Itching herpetic eruption on the chest; herpes zona on left side of chest with pain. It is a useful remedy to ward off phthisis.

Enlarged hard painful glands of neck. Painless swollen glands of neck. The spine is very sensitive to the jar of the bed; pain in lumbar region as if “spine were broken “; pain in sacrum with numbness down the limbs; pain in sacrum and coccyx while urinating; itching and moisture over the coccyx.

Drawing and tearing pains in limbs; weakness of all limbs; sensation of paralysis of limbs; herpes and eczema on the limbs; marked numbness of the upper limbs, during rest and when lain on; numbness and coldness of fingers and hands.

Skin: Rheumatic and tearing pains in shoulders, worse in left.

Herpes in axilla and bend of the elbow; horny callosities on the palms; skin of the hands hard, fissured, hot and bleeding. Psoriasis of the hands and fingers; raw, moist places between the fingers; the finger nails thick and brittle; the finger nails become black and fall off. Great heat of palms.

Smarting and sore between the nates; excoriation from walking. Many eruptions on the thigh, but especially herpes and eczema; eruptions that ooze a glutinous fluid. Numbness of lower limbs during rest; the legs are weak and heavy as if paralyzed; oedema of the legs and feet.

Herpes in the groin and hollow of the knee. Cold feet in evening in bed; copious, offensive sweat of the feet; ulcers on the feet and legs; tearing in thighs, legs, feet and toes; burning heat in soles and heels; gouty-tearing in the toes; spreading blisters on the toes that become ulcers; the toenails become black; thick; and crippled toenails the nails are painful; ingrowing toenails.

Dreams vivid; anxious, horrible, vexatious. Sleepless before midnight; sleepiness during the day. Nightly pains in sleep. Frequent waking. Unrefreshed in the morning.

Graphites should be used more frequently in chronic recurrent intermittent fever. Chill in the evening with tearing in the limbs chill intermingled with the fever; wants to be covered in all stages chill worse after eating, better after drinking and in open air. Nightly fevers with chilliness but no sweat; dry beat evening and night, especially before midnight; anxiety and restlessness during the fever, hands and soles very hot; even burning heat.

It has chill with fever followed by sweat; sweat from slight exertion; sweat on front of body; the sweat is offensive, cold and stains yellow; copious night sweats in weakness and during phthisis; entire inability to perspire, in many chronic complaints.

Itching of the skin all over the body, with or without eruptions itching worse at night in the warm bed; itching and burning with eruptions; the skin is very hot at night; excoriation of the skin in the bends of joints.

Every injury festers. Fissures on ends of fingers, on nipples, labial commissures at anus and vulva, between the toes. Itching blotches. Erysipelas beginning in face and spreading to other parts; erysipelas beginning in face and going from right to left.

Itching over varicose veins; itching piles. Herpes and eczema oozing a glutinous moisture. Crusty and scabby ulcers. Hard, painful cicatrices; old ulcers with proud flesh and burning, itching and stinging ulcers with indurated base and margins.

Gratiola
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 89 of 180
Source pages 1715–1720 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

It is a great remedy for nervous prostration; marked lassitude, with mental and bodily weakness. It is closely related to Coffea and Nux vomica and especially useful for the weakness of the will and neuralgic pains in coffee drinkers. In hypochondria and in the female it has melancholia and nymphomania. Convulsive conditions without loss of consciousness.

Complaints are better in the open air, but he is chilly in a warm room (like Pulsatilla); complaints predominate on the left side; constant vaporous exhalations from the body. Catarrhal conditions of the stomach and intestines with spasmodic ailments.

There is a lack of will power and aversion to work; mental depression and capriciousness; he is very irritable and hypochondriacal; fear of the future. Complaints from pride. Bad effects from coffee and alcohol; nervous complaints associated with stomach and bowel troubles.

Vertigo during and after eating; on closing the eyes; while reading; on rising from a seat; on motion; vertigo with cerebral hyperemia. Heat and fullness of the head; sensation as though the head grew smaller; pulsation in head; in temples; rush of blood to head, after rising from stooping.

The head symptoms are better in the open air and worse or come on in warm room. Pain in the occiput in the morning on waking, better rising or lying on the face. Sick headaches, nausea, vomiting or disgust for food, with vertigo, better in the open air.

Pain in occiput from sneezing. The head feels cold and is sensitive, to cold air. Cold sensation of vertex. Corrugated forehead during the headache. Itching of the scalp; itching of the eyes and ears. Mist before the eyes while reading and green objects appear white.

Pain in eyes as from sand; itching in the nose. There is a sensation of burning heat in the face, but it feels cold to the hand.

Swelling of the upper lip in the morning. There is a sensation of tension of the face and tingling and it feels swollen. The face is red; the teeth ache from cold things taken in the mouth. Grinding of teeth in brain affections.

Pain in the throat, compelling constant swallowing; much mucus in the throat, which he cannot eject. Violent thirst; emptiness in the stomach after eating; emptiness when he does not need or desire food. Craves nothing but bread.

Nausea better after eating and by eructations. Vomiting of bitter, sour water and mucus. A feeling of anxiety in the stomach. Cramping in the stomach after food and a heavy load that seems to go from side to side as he turns from side to side, with nausea and eructation. Distension after eating. Pressure in stomach, after eating. Marked coldness in stomach. Cramp and hard aching in stomach, pain grows rapidly worse and seems to extend to back and kidneys.

Cold feeling in abdomen. Cramping like colic with nausea. Rumbling in abdomen with distension in afternoon and evening. Swelling of mesenteric glands. Pinching in abdomen, better by passing flatus. Diarrhoea, with copious gushing, yellow or yellowish-green, frothy, watery stools; copious watery vomiting and purging, like. cholera morbus; copious green watery stools. The diarrhoea is brought on. from drinking large quantities of water, due to the violent thirst.

During the diarrhoea he is often sensitive to draft and open air which give him urging to stool. It has cured fully developed, rapid, Asiatic cholera. Green stools and green vomiting, unconscious stools.

Before stool, nausea; rumbling, cutting; tenesmus. During stool, nausea; burning in rectum straining. After stool, burning in rectum; tenesmus; pain in coccyx creeping chills; pain in abdomen.

Protrusion of stinging, burning hemorrhoids. Tearing and pricking in anus. Constriction in anus; itching anus. Ascarides. Burning in the urethra during and after urination; scanty urine becomes turbid on standing; unconscious discharge of urine. Stitching in left spermatic cord to abdomen and chest.

It is a most useful remedy in the female when there is marked irritability of the sexual organs, if the sexual desire is great excited; it is one of our best remedies for nymphomania. When the desire is so violent that it drives her to secret vice the remedies are Gelsemium, Gratiola, Origanum, Nux vomica, Phosphorus, Platina and Zincum.

The menses are too early and profuse; darting pain in right mamma when stooping and during menses worse on rising; leucorrhea with pains in sacrum.

Violent palpitation after stool (Conium) with oppression of chest heat in chest, head, hands, with red face.

Rheumatic pains in upper limbs; sore bruised pains in lower limbs, after walking, tearing in the tibia while sitting, better while walking.

Sleepiness after eating; deep sleep, Itching and burning of the skin, after scratching.

Guaiacum
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 90 of 180
Source pages 1721–1727 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

This is a very deep acting remedy, even deep enough to cure the symptoms of and turn into order a constitution that is rheumatic, gouty, and has inherited phthisis.

Rheumatism: These patients are subject to diarrhoea; the tendons are too short, or they have abscesses, catarrhal troubles, bronchitis. Drawing, tension and contractions of muscular fibre. Sore swollen joints.

The rheumatic joints are more painful from warmth (Lac c., Led., Puls) and more comfortable when cool. Gouty abscesses of joints. The bones become spongy, or suppurate. The leg and ankle bones are especially affected. Sensitive periosteum.

Stitching pains are characteristic, and burning is as marked as in Arsenicum. Limbs contracted and stiff. The excretions are all offensive. Drawing, tearing pains. His cold settles in the limbs, and the joints become sore and the muscles draw. His suffering is increased by the slightest motion or exertion.

Gradually increasing exhaustion. Progressive emaciation. In the first stage of phthisis it is a wonderful remedy, when the symptoms agree. The progressive character of the sickness, the weakness of mind and body, and such symptoms as belong to deep constitutional troubles. In psoric cases complicated with syphilis and mercury and other violent drugs we find use for this most neglected remedy. It is closely related to Causticum, Sulphur, and Tuberculinum.

Absent minded in the morning. Indolent, and low spirited. Obstinate; fretful, and forgetful.

Vertigo on rising.

Rheumatic pain in one side of the head, extending to the face. Gouty headaches. Sensation of looseness of the brain. Stitching in the head. Pain in forehead, occiput, and deep in the brain. Tearing pain in the head. Sensation as if blood vessels were distended. Neuralgia on left side of face and head.

Pulsating pain, ameliorated by pressure and walking; aggravated by sitting and standing. This is an exception to the general rule, as most symptoms are aggravated by motion. Perspiration on head and face, when walking in the open air.

Sensation of protrusion of the eyes. Swelling of the eyes. Dilated pupils.

Tearing in left ear. Paroxysmal pain in ear.

Pain in the bones of the nose. Nose swollen. Fluent coryza.

Pain in the bones of the face, nose and teeth. Face red and swollen, spotted. Heat in the face in the evening. Sharp pain in right malar bone. Paroxysmal pain in face, head and neck, every day at 6 P.M., lasting until 4 A. w. Dull ache in left side of jaw. Tearing, stitching in teeth. Pain in teeth when biting jaws together. Inflammation of the tonsils, worse from drinks, and there is much burning. Perverted taste. Tongue coated thick white, or brown.

Burning in throat. Tonsillitis; it prevents suppuration.

Aversion to food, to milk. Much thirst.

Vomits a mass of watery mucus, followed by exhaustion. Nausea from sensation of mucus in throat.

Burning in stomach and abdomen.

Constrictive sensation in stomach, with anguish and dyspnea.

Much flatulence in abdomen.

Morning diarrhoea (Sulph.). Stools watery. Constipation, with hard, crumbling, offensive stool.

Urging to urinate, even after micturition. The urine is profuse, and foetid. Cutting in urethra while urine flows.

Stitching in neck of bladder after ineffectual urging to urinate. Emissions without dreams. Discharge from urethra.

Chronic inflammation of ovaries. Menses absent. Membranous dysmenorrhoea. Shuddering in mammae, with gooseflesh.

Spasms of larynx. Difficult breathing. Palpitation.

Dry, hard cough with fever, finally relieved by expectoration. Copious, putrid expectoration, like pus. Expectoration of blood.

Rheumatism of the muscles of the chest, with great pain on motion. Stitching pains in chest from motion and breathing. Stitching pains seem to be in the pleura. Chronic bronchial catarrh with putrid expectoration, when rheumatism extends to chest. Phthisis pituitosa in rheumatic and gouty patients. Chest pains after riding in open air.

Palpitation of the heart. Rheumatism of the heart; frequent weak puke.

Rheumatic stiffness of back of neck and back. Stitching in neck and back. Drawing pains in back between scapulae. All pains aggravated from motion and ameliorated during rest; aggravated from heat.

Drawing, tearing, stitching pains in upper limbs. Rheumatic pains in upper arm and shoulder. Pains in finger joints, and then in whole band. Hot bands. Stitching in right thumb. Pains all aggravated from motion; aggravated from heat.

Shortening of the hamstrings. Pain in thighs extending to knees. Tearing, drawing pains in legs. Pains in the tibia. Gouty abscess of knee. Shooting pains in legs from feet to knees. Softening of tibia and ankle bones. The knee is flexed from the contraction of hamstrings. The right leg swollen and drawn close to the thigh. Pains in all the limbs, aggravated from motion and heat. Weakness of arms and legs. Numbness of lower limbs.

Stiffness of limbs. Weakness of limbs after exertion. Rheumatism of joints, aggravated from heat and motion. Pain in limbs after taking cold.

Restless sleep. Sleeplessness. Wakens from sleep as if falling. Nightmare while lying on the back. Unrefreshing sleep.

Chilliness followed by fever in the evening. Burning fever. Hot hands. Night sweats. Copious perspiration.

The provers that perspired had no urinary symptoms.

Helleborus Niger
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 91 of 180
Source pages 1728–1742 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

Brain and mind: in all the complaints of Helleborus stupefaction occurs in greater or less degree. Sometimes it is a complete stupor, sometimes a partial stupor, but it is always stupefaction and sluggishness.

Hellebore is useful in affections of the brain, spinal cord, the general nervous system and mind, but especially in acute inflammatory diseases of the brain and spinal cord and their membranes, and in troubles bordering on insanity. There is a peculiar kind of imbecility or stupefaction of the body and mind.

The extreme state is unconsciousness. Complete unconsciousness in connection with cerebral congestion, or inflammation which has gone on to hydrocephalus, cerebro-spinal meningitis, or inflammation of the brain, with stupefaction.

Even early in the disease Hellebore lacks the wildness and acute delirium found is Stramonium and Belladonna. It is passive. Again, it fits in after the wildness of the delirium has passed away and, the patient has settled down into a state of stupefaction. The patient lies upon the back, eyes partly open, rolling the head, mouth open, tongue dry, eyes lusterless, staring into space. Staring at the individual talking. Waiting a long time to answer, or not answering at all.

Violent attacks of brain trouble frequently come to a sudden end, but those that are more passive linger, and that is where Hellebore comes in. The Hellebore case will linger for weeks and sometimes months in this state of stupefaction, gradually emaciating.

He lies upon the back with the limbs drawn up; he looks pale and sickly. When questioned he answers slowly. The text says:

“Stupefaction bordering on insensibility.”

Another common expression is:

“Diminished power of the mind over the body.”

The muscles will not act; they will not obey the will. It is a sort of paralytic state, but “stupefaction” expresses it. Cannot project ideas; cannot rivet the attention, cannot concentrate the mind. The patient appears semi-idiotic.

Delirium is not common, and when present it is muttering. There is more stupefaction, more “do nothing,” more “say nothing,” than delirium.

Yet there is evidently confusion of mind; he cannot think. In many instances, very late in the disease, the patient can be roused up, and he will act as if he were attempting to think, as if he were attempting to answer, attempting to move. But he simply stares at the doctor with eyes partly open, with a dazed expression on his face, and picks his finger ends.

When questioned the Hellebore patient is not able to tell you what he has in mind, unless considerably aroused and agitated. But when so aroused he will talk about spirits, or say that he sees devils. He sees in his imagination those images that he has read about, or seen pictured, as the devil, with horns and a tail. A young person who has never heard of the devil, or of spirits, would not have that form of hallucination in his delirium. The hallucinations are shaped in accordance with what he has been taught to imagine.

Hellebore has a peculiar quasi-hysterical condition – a form of insanity. She imagines she has sinned away her day of grace. Like Aurum, she believes that she is doing wrong, that she is committing an unpardonable sin. That is as near as the remedy approaches to insanity,

“An old woman having been accused of theft by the women around took it so much to heart that she hanged herself. This suicide produced such an effect on the women of the village that one after another accused herself of having caused the death of the old woman.”

Child: The most striking type in Hellebore is the sick child. It comes in especially in children between two and ten years of age. The staring – lying on the back and staring with half-closed eyes, is typical of the remedy. Sometimes the lips move without any sound. The lips move as if the child wishes to say something, but on further questioning the words he wished to speak are lost, forgotten.

In hydrocephalus there is a sharp scream, the brain cry. The child will cry out in sleep. He will carry the hand to the head and shriek, like Apis. But the Apis hydrocephalus is far more active and acute.

The Apis patient kicks the covers off; this patient does not mind the covers, he does not mind anything. He is not easily disturbed. He lies upon his back with the limbs drawn up; often making automatic motions with the arms and legs. Sometimes one side is paralyzed, but the other keeps up automatic motions.

Hellebore is useful in the low form of disease known as “apathetic typhoid.” These same symptoms guide to the remedy. Indifferent to all external impressions.

Rarely much disturbed by being touched, or by being covered too warmly, or by not being covered at all.

He does not seem to be sensitive to heat, or cold, or pricking, or handling or pinching. Listlessness. What is called in the text “stubborn silence” is more an apathetic silence, an inability to speak. It appears as if he refused to answer, but he does not; he does not know how to answer; he cannot think.

Fixed ideas in persons who are said to be just a little “off their balance,” a little queer. And that fixed idea will stay; there is no use trying to argue him out of it. The woman gets a fixed idea that she is going to die on a certain day, and nothing can get it out of her head. This is not like Aconit, because there is no fear of death.

Aconite has fear of death and fixes the time of death. Fixed idea that she has committed some sin, which she will at times name and describe, or perhaps only mention vaguely – but it is very real to her,

Mind 2: When able to be about the patient appears to be sad, because she sits and says nothing, and seems to be in a woeful mood. But there is not that great lamentation, with walking the floor and wringing the hands that we find in Aurum.

It is an apathetic state; she appears sad and melancholy, whereas perhaps she does little thinking. Any attempt at consolation, so long as the patient is able to think, only aggravates the trouble. Like Natrum muriaticum, the complaints are aggravated by consolation, but the complaints of Natrum muriaticum are not at all like these.

If the Hellebore patient is able to meditate upon his symptoms, they seem to grow better.

Sometimes there are convulsive motions in this remedy, but they are more likely to be automatic. Motions that seem to have nothing to do with the will. He simply makes motions, like one moving in an absent-minded state.

The Helleborus patient is benumbed everywhere. The whole sensorium is in a benumbed state, a stupefaction, a blunting of general sensibility. The text says:

“Vision unimpaired.”

Nevertheless he sees imperfectly; he does not regard the object his gaze is fixed upon; that is, his range of vision appears to be correct, yet if questioned a little as to what be saw, he has no recollection of it; it has made no impression upon his memory or his mind.

Vertigo and head: Vertigo, with nausea and vomiting. Vertigo from stooping. With the general stupefaction the head rolls and tosses. The child lies upon the back and rolls the head from side to side. The eyes are partly open, and he keeps boring the back of the head into the pillow. This is partly unconscious and partly to relieve the drawing in the muscles of the back of the neck. These muscles keep shortening, as the disease progresses, just as they do in cerebro-spinal meningitis; until the head is drawn back as far as it can go.

There is burning heat in the head; shooting pains; pressive pains in the head from congestion. Violent occipital headache. Dull aching in the occiput; benumbed feeling in the occiput. A feeling like wood fullness, congestion and pressure.

The headaches, the motions of the head and the appearance of the face are those occurring in congestion of the brain. I have seen children, after passing through a moderately acute but rather passive first stage, lie in this stupid state, needing Hellebore for weeks before they received it.

When it was given repair set in; not instantly, but gradually. The remedy acts slowly in these slow, stubborn, stupid cases of brain and spinal trouble. Some. times there is no apparent change until the day after the remedy is administered or even the next night, when there comes a sweat, a diarrhea, or vomiting – a reaction.

They must not be interfered with no remedy must be given. They are signs of reaction. If the child has vitality enough to recover, he will now recover. If the vomiting is stopped by any remedy that will stop it, the Hellebore will be antidoted. Let the vomiting or the diarrhoea or the sweat alone, and it will pass away during the day.

The child will become warm, and in a few days will return to consciousness and then what will take place? just imagine these benumbed fingers and hands and limbs, this benumbed skin everywhere. What would be the most natural, thing to develop as evidence of the rousing up of this stupid child?, it is necessary for you to know this.

It is not really a part of the teaching of the homoeopathic Materia Medica, but you must know what to expect after giving this remedy.

Clinical observation: It is a clinical observation which you will – see if you see Hellebore cases, and Zincum cases.

Zincum is, if possible, even more profound in its dreadful state of stupefaction than Hellebore. Well, that child’s fingers will commence to tingle. As he comes back to his normal nervous condition, the fingers commence to tingle, the nose and ears tingle, and the child begins to scream and toss back and forth and roll about the bed. The neighbors will come in and say,

“I would send that doctor away unless he gives, something to help that child;” but just as sure as you do it you will have a dead baby in twenty-four hours. That child is getting well; let him alone. You will never be able to manage one of these cases if you do not take the father into a room by himself and tell him just how the case will proceed.

Do not take the mother; do not tell her a word about it, unless she is an unusually excellent mother, because that is her child, and she is sympathetic, and she will cry when she hears that child cry; she will lose her head and will insist upon the father turning you out of doors.

But you take the father aside beforehand and tell him what is going to happen; explain it to him so he will see it for himself; and tell him that if this is not permitted to go on, that if the remedy is interfered with, he will lose his child.

It is not so much the awful pains, but it is the itching, tingling and formication that cause the appearance of extreme agony. Sometimes in every part of the child’s body it is a week before all these symptoms go away of themselves but they will go away, if left alone.

All this will make you nervous. Do not stay and watch the case too long, because if you do you will change the remedy. I never heard of one solitary cure like, these in the hands of an Old School doctor,

The face has a very sickly appearance; sunken, gradually emaciating. It has a sooty appearance, just as if soot had settled in the nostrils and in the corners of the eyes. You will say that the patient is going to die. Quite likely without Hellebore. The remedy fits the kind of cases that the allopath knows nothing about and has no remedy for.

His prognosis is always unfavorable. The face, of course, expresses the mental symptoms. Wrinkled forehead, bathed in cold sweat. Paleness of the face and heat of the head. Twitching, of the muscles of the face.

We find that knitting of the brow and wrinkling of the forehead in just this kind of brain trouble. We find a similar kind of wrinkling in Lycopodium, but the trouble is in the lungs. In this remedy the nostrils are dilated and sooty. Nor much flapping, but extremely dilated. The eyeballs are glassy and the lids sticky.

There is violent thirst in these fevers, and unusual canine hunger. The nausea and vomiting are nondescript. In the early part of the proving there are diarrhoea and dysentery; with copious white gelatinous stool; stool consisting solely of pale tenacious mucus. And then comes paralytic constipation, and these prostrated, emaciated brain cases, such as described, will lie for days without stool, or any action of the bowels.

After a day or two they will not even respond to injections. Little, hard, dry stool. Again, when reaction comes, it very commonly comes with a diarrhea, or a sweat, or vomiting; perhaps with all three of these conditions.

The urine is retained or suppressed; sometimes it dribbles away passes unconsciously. Urine passed in a feeble stream; bloody urine.

The patient lies on the back, with his limbs drawn up; or slides down in bed. Great debility; great relaxation; the muscles refuse to act. Convulsions of sucklings. Epilepsy with consciousness. Traumatic tetanus. Constant somnambulism cannot be roused to full consciousness. Soporous sleep.

Editorial notes

• “partly open, arid” corrected to “partly open, and” (transcription error in the digital source text).

Hepar Sulphur
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 92 of 180
Source pages 1743–1769 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

Coldness: The Hepar patient is chilly. He is sensitive to the cold and wants an unusual amount of clothing when in cold air. He wants the sleeping room very warm and can endure much heat in the room, many degrees warmer than a healthy person ordinarily desires, He has no endurance in the cold and all his complaints are made worse in the cold. If he becomes cold in sleep his complaints come on or if he is out in the cold, dry wind, complaints come on; inflammatory and rheumatic complaints appear.

The exposure of hand or foot at night in bed brings on symptoms. He wants the covers drawn close about the neck when in bed. This patient is also oversensitive to impressions, to surroundings and to pain. What with an ordinary person would only be an ache or disagreeable sensation becomes with Hepar an intense suffering.

Pains: But the pains of Hepar may be very severe, very sharp. Inflamed spots, eruptions, boils or suppurations are full of sharp pains. This is so intense that it is described at times, as a sticking and jagging like sharp sticks.

The pains in ulcers are often felt like sticks; intense and sharp as if sticks were jagging the ulcer. This sensation is often expressed by the patient suffering from sore throat. Lip feels as if he had swallowed a fish bone, or stick. This is in keeping with the general character, because it is present everywhere, in inflammations, ulcers, pustules, boils and eruptions; all seem to have sticks in them or some thing jagging.

Eruptions are sensitive, to touch. This accords with the oversensitiveness of the nerves found everywhere. The Hepar patient faints with pain, even from slight pain.

Mind: This remedy belongs to patients that are called delicate, that are oversensitive to impressions. The mind takes part in this oversensitiveness and manifests itself by a state of extreme irritability.

Every little thing that disturbs the patient makes him intensely angry, abusive and impulsive. The impulses will overwhelm him and make him wish to kill his best friend in an instant. Impulses also that are without cause sometimes crop out in Hepar.

A man may have a sudden impulse to stab his friend. A barber has an impulse to cut the throat of his patron while in the chair. Mothers may have an impulse to throw the child into the fire or an impulse to set herself on fire; an impulse to do violence and to destroy. These symptoms increase to insanity and then the impulses are often carried out. It becomes a mania to set fire to things.

The patient is quarrelsome, hard to get along with; nothing pleases; everybody disturbs oversensitiveness to persons, to people and to places.

He desires a constant change of persons and things and surroundings and each new surrounding or person or thing again displeases and makes him irritated. With this irritability of temper and physical irritability there is a tendency to suppuration in parts. Localized inflammations incline to suppurate, especially in glands and cellular tissue do we have suppuration and ulcers.

The glands of the neck, axilla and groin and the mammary glands swell, become hard and suppurate. First the hard swellings with the feeling as if they had sticks jagging in them, then it becomes highly inflamed and red over the part and ultimately it suppurates, discharges and heals slowly.

The bone even suppurates and takes on necrosis and caries. Felons around the root of the nail and ends of the fingers. The nail suppurates and loosens and comes off. Sensation of splinters under the nails, even when they do not suppurate.

The nails become hard and brittle. Warts crack open and bleed, sting and burn and suppurate. Hepar is especially useful in felons in such a constitution as described, but sometimes you will have nothing more than the fact that the patient is a scrawny, chilly patient, who is always taking cold and subject to felons. I have often had to give Hepar on no better information and have known it to stop the tendency to felons. It also competes with Silica.

The patient is often scrawny, and has a tendency to enlargement of glands. The lymphatic glands are generally hard and enlarged, They are chronically enlarged without suppuration, and at any cold that comes on some particular gland may suppurate.

The catarrhal state: is general.

There is no mucous membrane exempt, but especially do we have catarrh of the nose, ears, throat, larynx and chest. The Hepar patient is subject to coryza. In some instances the colds settle in the nose and then there will be much discharge, with sneezing every, time he goes into a cold wind.

The cold winds bring on sneezing and running from the nose, first of a watery character and finally ending in a thick, yellow, offensive discharge.

Discharges: These offensive discharges smell like decomposed cheese, and this characteristic runs through the remedy.

The discharges from all parts of the body smell like old cheese. The discharges from ulcers are offensive, and have a decomposed, cheesy smell. It has discharges running through it also that smell sour, and this is also a general because it modifies all things that can be sour.

The babies are always sour in spite of much washing. Or it may be noticed by the members of the family that one of the family always smells sour, has a sour perspiration. The discharges from ulcers are sour, and also discharges from, mucous membranes. The discharge from the nose becomes copious, and causes ulceration in patches.

Throat and cough: The throat has a catarrhal condition; the whole pharynx is in a catarrhal state with copious discharge. Throat extremely sensitive to touch; pain as if full of splinters; pain on swallowing. The larynx also is painful on talking; painful as a bolus of food goes down behind the larynx, and painful to touch with the hand.

There is a loss of voice, and a dry, hoarse bark in adults, especially in the mornings and evenings. Every time he goes out in the dry, cold wind, he becomes hoarse, loses the voice and coughs. It is a dry, hoarse, barking cough. Inspiring cold air will increase the cough and putting the hand out of bed will increase the pain in the larynx or cough.

Putting the hand or foot out of bed brings a general aggravation of all the complaints of Hepar. Putting the hand out of bed accidentally when sleeping will bring on cough, and cause sneezing. The larynx has its catarrhal state, and in oversensitive children this catarrhal state becomes a croup.

Sensitive children that are exposed during the day in a cold, dry wind, or cold air, come down next morning with a violent attack of croup. The Hepar croup is worse in the morning and in the evening; evening until midnight. Sometimes cases that at first call for Aconite run into Hepar.

The Acon. croup comes on with great violence, worse in the evening before midnight. The child wakes up from its first sleep with a hoarse, barking croup. A dose of Aconit may prove entirely sufficient; or it may be only a palliative.

The child goes to sleep and along towards morning, or at least sometime after midnight, there is another attack, which shows that Acon. was not sufficient. Such a case will be controlled by Hepar.

When the croup comes on after midnight and the child wakes up frightened, suffocating, rouses up in bed with a dry, hoarse and ringing cough, which rings like a dry whoop, then Spongia will nearly always be the remedy, and again if Spongia palliates it and it is not sufficiently deep and there is a morning aggravation which shows that the trouble is returning Hepar follows. Acon., Hepar and Spongia are closely related to each other and they are truly great croup remedies.

Dry, paroxysmal cough from evening until midnight and sometimes lasting all night, with choking, gagging and crouping; some loose coughing in the daytime; rawness and scraping the larynx; worse in cold air or uncovering hand or foot in bed.

The catarrhal state is sometimes lower down in the trachea, and the trachea becomes extremely sore from much coughing. The patient has been coughing days and weeks and has the morning and evening aggravations; a rattling, barking cough with great soreness of the chest in an oversensitive and chilly patient.

The cough is attended with choking and gagging, even to vomiting; it is worse in the cold air, and from putting the band out of bed. He coughs and sweats. There is much sweating the whole night, without relief. Sweating all night without relief belongs to a great many complaints of Hepar. He sweats easily, so that with the cough and on the slightest exertion he is fairly drenched with perspiration.

Ears: It has catarrhal affections of the ear.

A sudden inflammation comes on in the middle ear, an abscess forms, the drum of the car ruptures and there is a bloody discharge and sticking, tearing pains in the inflamed ear. There is first a sensation of stopping up of the ear, then, bursting and pressure in the ear, and then perforation of the drum.

There is also an inflammatory condition causing a discharge that is foetid, or a bloody yellow, purulent discharge, thick, with cheesy particles and smelling like old cheese.

Eyes: Hepar sometimes is bad on the oculist.

When it is indicated, it cures eyes very quickly, so that the oculist does not have a very long case and it does away with the necessity for washes in the hands of the specialist. From the eyes we have the same offensive thick, purulent discharge. Inflammation of the eyes attended with, little ulcers.

Ulcers of the cornea, granulations, bloody, offensive discharge from the eyes. The eyes look red, the lids are inflamed, the edges are turned out and the margin of the lids become ulcerated. In all sorts of so called scrofulous affections, the eye conditions may be covered by Hepar when the constitutional state is present.

The constitutional state of the patient is the only guide to the remedy. Many times the eye symptoms are nondescript. You have only an inflamed eye with catarrhal discharge, and for this you could give a large number of the anti-psorics; but when you go into the state of the patient and find these general symptoms, then this remedy will cure.

The general symptoms will guide to the remedy that will cure the eyes. You will see that the specialist for the eyes is often limited unless he knows how to secure all the symptoms of the patient and selects the remedy upon the totality of the symptoms.

Bladder: There are other catarrhal, conditions. Catarrh of the bladder, with purulent discharges in the urine and copious muco-purulent deposits. Ulcers of the bladder. The walls of the bladder become hardened, so that it has almost no power to expel its contents, and the urine passes in a slow stream or in drops, or in the male the stream falls down perpendicularly. No ability to expel the urine with force. It is a paresis. There is burning in the bladder and frequent, almost constant, urging to urinate. It has also a catarrhal state of the urethra that resembles gonorrhoea, and it has been a very useful remedy in chilly patients with gleety discharge of long standing. Thick discharge of a white, cheesy character. Ulcers and little inflammatory spots along the urethra.

There is a sticking sensation here and there along the urethra and when passing urine a sensation of a splinter in the urethra. Copious leucorrhoea with the same offensive, cheesy smell.

Leucorrhea: The leucorrhea is so copious that she is compelled to wear a napkin, and the napkins, I have been told by women who have been cured by Hepar, are so offensive that they must be taken away and washed at once because the odor permeates the rooms.

This horribly offensive odor that is so permeating is often cured by Kali phos. It has really one of the most penetrating of odors, so much so that when a woman suffers from this leucorrhoea the odor can be detected when she enters the room.

A very important sphere for Hepar is after mercurialisation. Many old people are walking the street at the present day who have been the victims of Calomel, who have been salivated, who have taken blue pill for recurrent bilious spells, to “tap the liver,” until finally they get into a state of chilliness felt, as it were, in the bone.

They sweat much about the head, they ache in the bones, and every change of weather to cold, and every cold, damp spell affects them. They, are like barometers. Hepar is the remedy for that state.

They go into diseases of the bone easily and are always shivering. While they have periods of aggravation from warmth, as a general rule they are chilly subjects, and feel the cold easily. In the more acute affections of Mercury there is an aggravation from the warmth of the bed, but the old subjects who have been years ago poisoned with it get almost bloodless, and they become chilly; they cannot get- clothing enough ib keep them warm.

They become withered and shriveled, and have rheumatic affections about the joints. Then it is that the symptoms of Hepar agree and it becomes a valuable antidote to that state of mercurialisation.

Hepar is also a complement and antidote to potentized Mercury. When Merc. has been administered and has done all it can do as a curative remedy, or when it has acted improperly and has some, what mixed up the case and it is necessary to follow it with the natural complement or antidote and prepare for another series, Hepar is to be thought of as one of the natural followers of Merc. it is well known that Merc. is not followed well by Silica. Sil. does not do useful work when Merc. is still acting or has been acting.

This is the time that Hepar becomes an intercurrent remedy. Sil. follows well after Hepar, and Hepar follows well after Merc., and thus becomes an intercurrent in that series.

In old syphilitic cases when the symptoms agree Hepar is a very full and complete remedy. It corresponds to the majority of symptoms of syphilis, and it only needs to correspond to the symptoms of the individual patient when he is syphilitic to be indicated. Thus in old cases who have been mercurialized, who have had the symptoms suppressed so that the disease is latent and ready to crop out at any time, Hepar will come in and have a decided effect upon the syphilis and upon the mercury.

It will straighten matters out and cause a development that will lead to clear prescribing. In this relationship to syphilis and mercury Hepar is closely allied to Staph., Asa f., Nit. acid, Sil., etc.

Especially Hepar the remedy in those cases of syphilis where great quantities of mercury have been taken, until it is no longer able to suppress the symptoms of the disease; in old cases when the syphilitic miasm attacks the bones of the nose and they sink in, or a great ulceration takes place; those cases you sometimes see walking around the street, with a big patch over the nose or over the opening that leads down into the nasal cavity.

Nose: When there is severe pain in the region of the nasal bones, the bridge of the nose is so sensitive that it cannot be touched and in the root of the nose there is a sensation as if a splinter were sticking in. For offensive discharge from the nose, foetid oezena in an old case, which has been mercurialized, who is chilly in his very bones, think of Hepar. It has cured many such cases; it has healed up the ulcers; it has cured the catarrhal state, and it has hastened the healing up of the portions of diseased bone, by hastening the suppuration and has returned the patient to an orderly state.

Throat: As we go into the syphilitic affections that lead into the throat, we find ulcers of the soft palate which eat away the uvula, small ulcers which finally unite and destroy the soft palate and then commence to work upon the osseous portion of the roof of the mouth.

The odor that comes from that mouth when it is opened to show the throat is extremely offensive; very often like spoiled cheese. The medicines that are especially related, or especially useful in this form of ulceration in old syphilitics, will be Kali bi., Lach., Merc. cor., Merc. and Hepar, but in those syphilitic cases that have been mercurialized Hepar and Nitric acid should be thought of.

Nitric acid is very closely related to Hepar; it is just as chilly; it has the sensation of sticks in the throat and in inflamed parts. It has fine ulcers in the throat, upon the tonsils and in the larynx. Nitric acid competes with Hepar.

You think of the two together. Both have sensation of a fish bone or stick in the throat.

The cartilages of the larynx become attacked in syphilitic affections and old mercurial affections. When the case is not of syphilitic origin but is of sycotic origin, small or large white gelatinous polypi form in the larynx and they are sore, causing loss of voice, or cracked voice; when they cause choking or uneasiness, Hepar is one of the remedies. Hepar, Calc., Arg. nit and Nit. ac. and sometimes Thuja are the remedies related to such conditions.

Genitals: Again, in the earlier syphilitic manifestations, the chancre has the feeling of a stick in it; then comes the formation of a bubo that may be either non-suppurative or a suppurating gland, associated with a chancre or a harmless ulcer upon the penis. These conditions are often indications for Hepar, when the constitutional state is present.

Hepar has also sycotic warts. It is useful in old cases of gleet; also when there is a sensation of a splinter in the urethra. In strictures and constrictions of inflammatory character during the inflammation there is a tendency to ulcerate, and with this the sensation of a stick is felt.

Arg. nit., Nit. ac. and Hepar run close together for this kind of inflammation, and will cure the inflammatory stricture before it becomes a complete and permanent fibrinous stricture.

It is only very rarely that you will be able with your medicines to cure a stricture after it has taken on permanency, after it is many years old, but as long as the inflammation keeps up there is hope.

I remember one very old one that was cured by Sepia. I did not know at first of its presence, but prescribed Sepia on the symptoms of the case, and the patient came back with great suffering in the urethra, and then confessed to me that he had had gonorrhoea and had been troubled for years with a stricture. That inflammation was aroused anew and after it ran its course it really left the passage clear and there was never any more trouble with the stricture.

That was a very unusual result. I have many times prescribed for patients with the utmost endeavors to do the same thing, and have cured the patient in other respects, but the stricture would remain. Remember then that Hepar has fig warts, chronic sycotic discharges, or chronic gonorrhoea, offensive, cheesy discharges, the sensation of sticks in the urethra, inflammatory stricture, which will be associated with difficulty in passing urine, to the extent that there is a weakness of the bladder and the urine falls perpendicularly.

Suppuration: Hepar has served a valuable purpose in its ability to establish suppuration around foreign bodies. For instance, a foreign body is under the skin or is somewhere unknown. Perhaps it is the tip end of a projectile after the projectile itself has been taken away, or under the nail a splinter is forming a suppuration. It is so small that it is hardly observed and it is supposed often that the splinter has been entirely removed, but an inflammatory condition starts up.

Hepar if indicated by the general symptoms of the patient hastens the suppuration and heals up the finger, for it has all such things. Silica is another remedy capable of establishing inflammation and suppuration and removes little foreign bodies that cannot be located.

Of course it is understood that if the physician knows the location of a splinter, he will take such steps as are necessary to remove it, and not wait for the action of a remedy. But at times a needle point breaks off against the bone of the finger of a seamstress, or small portions of the needle may exist where they cannot be found without an immense amount of slashing which the patient refuses. Hepar or Silica will remove it. A little abscess will form and the little mite will be discharged.

Knowing that these two remedies have this tendency to establish a suppuration wherever there are foreign bodies, it is well to be reminded that if a bullet were encysted in the lungs it would be well, if the symptoms called for Hepar or Silica, to consider whether it might not be injurious to give a remedy that would establish a suppuration. It might be that the bullet is resting in a vital place, in a net-work of arteries, and it would be well not to establish suppuration in this vital region.

Deposits, of a tubercular character are often located in a place that they can easily be suppurated out, and the action of the remedy on them would be the same as a foreign body. Hence it is that Hepar, after its administration, will very often abolish a crop of boils all over the economy because in the skin there are small accumulations of sebaceous matter and these will be suppurated out.

Sulphur also does this, so that it may be well to be careful and not give Silica or Sulphur, or Hepar too often, or too high, in patients that have encysted tubercle in the lungs. Rokitansky in his numerous post-mortems found a large number of encysted caseous deposits in the lungs, in cases that had lived and outgrown these trouble; they had become encysted and therefore perfectly safe and the patient had died of something else.

It might be dangerous to administer these medicines that have a tendency to cause suppuration in such, and you should at least proceed cautiously in using them. After you have seen a great many cases you will find that you have killed some of them. If our medicines were not powerful enough to kill folks, they would not be powerful enough to cure sick folks. It is well for you to realize that you are dealing with razors when dealing with high potencies.

I would rather be in a room with a dozen negroes slashing with razors than in the hands of ail ignorant prescriber of high potencies. They are means of tremendous harm, as well as of tremendous good.

In contrast with Hepar (although Hepar is a form of Calcarea), Calc. carb. has no such tearing down nature in it. It does not establish inflammation around foreign bodies and tend to suppurate them but causes a fibrous deposit around bullets and other foreign, substances in the flesh. It causes tubercular deposits to harden and contract and become encysted.

Many excellent homoeopathic physicians have said to me,

“I do not agree with you as to the danger of Sulphur in phthisical cases. I have cured cases of phthisis with Sulphur.”

So have I many of them. But I did not refer to curable cases, but to those cases which are well developed and have gave symptoms. It is well to know all the elements in the case; then if you have administered a remedy and killed your patient, you know at least what you have done.

It is better to know what you have done if you have killed your patient, than to be ignorant of it and go on and kill some more in the same way.

Hydrastis Canadensis
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 93 of 180
Source pages 1770–1777 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

Hydrastis is a slow, deep acting remedy, required in many trophic disturbances. where there is emaciation, catarrhal conditions and ulceration, even malignant ulceration. Defective assimilation.

When it is noticed that the stomach is the center of most of the symptom complex. The desires and aversions often give the key to a very complex totality of symptoms. In this remedy the sinking empty hunger with loathing of food is striking, strange, rare, and therefore Peculiar. It is characteristic because it is a general of the remedy, and is predicated of the patient. Great weakness prevails at all times.

Catarrhal symptoms with thick, viscid, ropy, yellow mucus, sometimes white, from any mucous membrane, with or without ulceration. Deep eating spreading ulcers upon the skin or mucous membrane, with thick, viscid, yellow pus. Induration in glands, in base of ulcers. False granulations that bleed much and easily, on the slightest touch.

This remedy has been very useful in the treatment of malignant ulcers. In such ulcers it is often a great comfort to the patient, even when it does not cure, as it removes the offensiveness, modifies the pain and restrains the destructiveness.

The burning so commonly found in such ulcers is a strong symptom of Hydrastis. When the weakness and emaciation have progressed together for months and years in chronic stomach disease, fainting comes on, and this is also found in Hydrastis. In chronic cases, when the tissues have suffered and not the mind.

The astonishing absence of mental symptoms except the general discouragement incidental to long suffering and weakness is striking. If it were carefully proved, most likely the mental loves and hates would come out. The symptoms are better during rest. Small wounds bleed and suppurate.

The headaches are only such as generally belong to stomach disorders, and prolonged nasal catarrh. They are not distinctive. It has cured eczema with thick crusts.

The eyes and face jaundiced. Ulceration of the cornea. Thick, yellow, viscid, mucous discharge. Chronic inflammation of lids. Inflammation, thickening, redness of margins of lids.

Otorrhoea with thick, viscid, purulent discharge. Copious mucous discharge. Catarrh of the Eustachian tubes with many noises in ears. Ears red, swollen, covered with scales; fissured behind where connected with head.

The nose is obstructed with stringy, yellow or white mucus. The air feels cold in the nose, and the membrane is raw and ulcerated. Ropy mucus is drawn from posterior nares into the throat. Rawness in both nares with constant urging to blow the nose. Coryza with discharge, scanty in room and profuse in open air. Bloody, purulent discharge from nose. Thick, white, or yellow mucous discharge. Large crusts constantly form in the nose.

The face is sickly, shrunken, pale, waxy, cachectic, jaundiced. It is of great service in epithelioma of face, nose or lip.

The tongue is yellow, large, flabby and spongy. Feels as if burnt. Ulceration of mouth, gums, tongue; spreading and burning. Aphthae in children and nursing mothers. Excessive secretions of ropy mucus; golden yellow. Excoriation of mouth. In old mercurial cases.

Catarrhal sore throat of long standing, granulated and ulcerated excoriated and burning. Thick, viscid, yellow mucus that can be drawn out in ropes.

No appetite; no thirst; loathing of food. Nearly all foods disorder the stomach. Spitting up the food by the mouthful (like Phos. and Ferr.). Vomits all food. Retains only water and milk. Eructations, sour, putrid, of food eaten.

Empty, faint feeling in stomach with loathing of food and obstinate constipation with no desire for stool, is a combination that must generally have Hydrastis. Pulsation in the stomach. Ulceration of the stomach with burning. For suspicious lump in region of pylorus. Weight in stomach after eating. The stomach seems to be only an ordinary sack; digestion is slow, and tedious. Fullness after eating, lasting a long time. The empty, sinking feeling is not ameliorated after eating. Sour vomiting. Chronic gastric catarrh. Slow digestion.

This must be a useful liver remedy, for the following reasons: The skin is jaundiced; the stool is light, even white, showing the absence of bile, and there is distress in the region of the liver. In chronic derangement of the liver. Liver enlarged, hard and nodular.

Cramping pains. Colic, Flatulence and distended abdomen. It has cured many of the usual conditions that generally attend bad digestion and torpid liver. Intestinal catarrh and ulceration. Sharp pain in region of spleen.

It has cured obstinate piles, ulceration and fissures of anus. Relaxation and prolapsus of anus. Chronic diarrhoea with yellow, thin faeces, even watery. Inflammation of anus. Stools, bileless, white, soft, acrid, greenish, much viscid mucus. Hard, nodular stools. Most obstinate constipation; no desire for stool for days.

Paresis of the rectum. It cures constipation, when the stomach symptoms agree. In old cases when enemas no longer act, when the faeces remain high up, or do not come down into rectum to excite desire, this remedy has been of great service. In constipation or diarrhoea with “goneness” in stomach, trembling in the abdomen and palpitation.

Urine scanty or suppressed. Chronic catarrh of bladder with much viscid mucus in urine, causing difficulty in flow of urine.

Catarrh of the urethra. Chronic gonorrhoea when the discharge remains yellow in spite of time. Copious, painless discharge. Relaxed scrotum and testes. Offensive sweat of genitals.

Thick, yellow, viscid leucorrhoea, sometimes white, sometimes offensive. Excoriation of vagina. Soreness in vagina during coition. Bleeding after coition. Uterine haemorrhage. Menses copious. Relaxed, dragging feeling in pelvis. Intense itching of vulva. Epithelioma of mamma.

Most obstinate catarrh of larynx, trachea and bronchial tubes, with copious, thick, ropy mucus and ulceration. Rawness in air passages. Catarrh of chest in old people.

The cough, is dry, hard; from tickling in larynx. Rawness in chest. Rattling cough. Thick, yellow, viscid, sometimes white, expectoration in old people, or when very chronic.

Palpitation from slowly progressing weakness. Weakness and stiffness in back in lumbar region, must walk about before he can straighten up the back. Must use the arms to rise from a seat.

Rheumatic pains in upper limbs. Weakness and rheumatic pains in lower limbs. Ulcers on legs and about ankles, with stinging, burning pains; high, hard edges; painful at night in warm bed; sensitive to touch. Oedema of feet.

Warmth and washing aggravate ulcers and eruptions. The skin, excoriates easily. Urticaria over body, aggravated at night. Fissures about mouth and anus.

Ulceration. Bed sores. Lupus exedens.

Editorial notes

• “Lupus evedens” corrected to “Lupus exedens” (transcription error in the digital source text).