Ammonium Causticum am-caust.

Hydrate of Ammonia-Ammonia Water

This is a powerful cardiac stimulant. As such in syncope, thrombosis, hæmorrhage, snake-bites, chloroform narcosis, may be given by inhalation.

The œdema and ulceration of mucous membranes produced by this powerful drug have been utilized as guiding symptoms for its use; hence in membranous croup with burning in œsophagus. Aphonia. See Causticum.

Difficult respiration. Accumulation of mucus with incessant coughing. Loss of voice. Burning rawness in throat. Spasm of the glottis with suffocation; patient gasps for breath. Pain in œsophagus on breathing deeply. Scraping and burning in throat and œsophagus. Uvula covered with white mucus. Nasal diphtheria, with burning excoriating discharge.

Excessive exhaustion and muscular debility. Rheumatism of shoulders. Skin hot and dry.

First to third potency; also five to ten minims, well diluted with water.

Ammonia. Spirits of Hartshorn. NH 4 OH. Solution in water.

Aphonia. Nephritis. Œsophagitis. Rheumatism. Sloughing. Thirst. Timidity. Ulcerations. Vomiting.

The symptoms of caustic ammonia closely resemble those of the carbonate. The caustic nature of the drug is exemplified in the burning sensations experienced, especially in throat, gullet, and rectum. White patches on tongue and inner side of cheeks. There is intense thirst, and excessively violent ejection of stomach contents. Voice low, weak. Speech broken. Aphonia, with debility; or with burning rawness in throat. (A good all-round remedy in aphonia.) Great oppression of breathing; the patient gasps for breath. As with the carbonate there is timidity — great tendency to take fright. Shiverings. In a case of poisoning in a man who took a mouthful of a strong solution of "household ammonia" by mistake there was great swelling of mucous membrane of mouth and throat, stertorous breathing, voice muffled and husky; later, cough with blood-stained expectoration. One night there was headache and delirium, and at the same time the urine contained albumen and hyaline casts. It has been used in muscular rheumatism of the shoulders and thighs. Hæmorrhages occur from mucous surfaces. Great excitement in evening. — < After eating or drinking.

Compare the Ammonias, especially Amm. carb. Antidoted by: Vinegar and vegetable acids.

Timidity.

Sensation as if brain protruded at centre, forward, and on both sides, and the skull was quartered, but without pain and without confusion of the head.

Peculiar redness of skin over nose and frontal sinuses. — Nose stopped. — Watery coryza.

Extremely pale face, expressive of the greatest suffering. — Lower lip swollen three times its size; black coating in centre. — Mucous membrane of lips and nose destroyed. — Glands under angle of jaw, each side, swollen.

Profuse bloody salivation. — Burning and scraping at root of tongue and back of gullet. — Lips, gums, and tongue swollen.

Burning and dryness of œsophagus; great difficulty in swallowing. — Uvula retracted, covered with white membrane. — Tonsils swallowing. — Uvula elongated and swollen.

Intense thirst. — Vomiting of mucus and blood and great tenderness over epigastric region. — Violent ejection of stomach contents by nose, and mouth. — Burning in track of œsophagus, none in stomach.

Pains, tenderness, distension. — Borborygmi.

Copious bloody stools. — Tenesmus.

Urine red, alkaline. — Albuminuria, hyaline casts.

Menses fifteen days too early and very profuse.

Bronchitis, with profuse expectoration; blood-stained. — Voice deep, weak, or absent. — Great difficulty in breathing. — Gasping for breath.

Convulsive twitches of r. arm. — Muscular rheumatism of shoulders.

Bleedings from all orifices, which cause faintness. — Affection of the mucous membranes and organs of the chest; contraction of the flexor muscles; contraction of the œsophagus and of the colon. — Great exhaustion and muscular weakness; weakness which hardly admits of an upright posture; great trembling on making the slightest exertion. — Skin hot and dry, afterwards moist, perspiration supervening. — Disturbed sleep. — Shiverings; fever towards evening; pulse, at first feeble and rather accelerated, afterwards quicker from hour to hour. — Great tendency to take fright.

Hydrate of Ammonium, Aqua ammonia, a transparent colorless liquid, holding in solution ten per cent of Ammonia gas, specific grav. 0.959, may be taken as the first decimal dilution.

A powerful cardiac stimulant; it lowers blood pressure. ▶ Applied to mucous membranes, inhaled or swallowed it is an irritant and causes œdema and ulceration. ▶ The symptoms here given are from cases of poisoning.

Alcohol, Kali caust.

Beating the bed-clothes. ▶ Trembling; at least effort, with inability to stand on getting out of bed. ▶ Cramps. ▶ Bleeding from mouth, nose, eyes and ears, causing faintness. ▶ Emaciation with constant vomiting, weak, frequent pulse, hectic flush on cheeks, eyes sunken, tongue foul, headache constipation and weakness.

Semi-conscious, pupils dilated, breathing noisy and hurried; pulse rapid, sweat, pain in abdomen, vomiting of blood, mucus and shreds of mucous membrane, afterwards hoarseness, heavy, drowsy condition, face dusky, skin, dry, heat, later lips swollen, tongue dry, mucous membrane of mouth eroded, mucous membrane of fauces looking œdematous, softened and inflamed, pain and tenderness of abdomen on touch, tympanitis, burning pain in throat and pit of stomach, coma and incessant retching.

Face pale, anxious and covered with clammy sweat, extremities cold, pulse rapid, and feeble, mouth and throat red and inflamed, burning pain in throat, difficult swallowing, feeling of impending suffocation, voice reduced to a whisper, breathing noisy, frequent and laborious, vomiting of mucus tinged with blood, tenacious mucus in throat inducing fits of cough and sickness.

White patches on tongue and inner side of cheeks, congestion of mucous membrane of tonsils and pharynx, swallowing difficult, frequent vomiting, respiration rapid and shallow, with râles, cyanosis, afterwards unconscious with half-open eyes, pupils moderately contracted, convulsions.

Muscular pains, especially in thighs. ▶ Weakness. ▶ Amelioration from drinking vinegar and water.

Anguish; with suffocation and constriction of throat. ▶ Anxiety. ▶ Despondency. ▶ Despair. ▶ Excitement in evening, with small, quick pulse and increased oppression. ▶ Timidity. ▶ Feel back, in sensible, as if choked. ▶ Coma.

Confusion, with pressure in temple; confusion, with rumbling in abdomen. ▶ Sensation in brain as if pressed asunder in the middle, towards the front and to both sides. ▶ Pressure in frontal region, with feeling as if the head would split. ▶ Forehead, where the vessels are full of blood, hot to touch. ▶ Pressure in occiput.

Red and shining. ▶ Spasmodically turned upward and lids closed. ▶ Haggard, injected, and lids swollen. ▶ Sunken and pupil dilated. ▶ Lachrymation. ▶ Pupils contracted; dilated and eyes inverted. ▶ Yellowish chemosis. ▶ Conjunctiva yellow.

Deafness.

Coryza. ▶ Watery fluid running from, and air is completely excluded. ▶ Much serous liquid. ▶ Flow of bloody fluid, and from mouth.

▶ Pale; with suffering expression. ▶ Red; during exacerbations of fever; upper part violet red, lower part blanched. ▶ Distorted, with red spots. ▶ Expression of anxiety; of anguish. ▶ Lips swollen; lower swollen; cyanotic; livid; black coating on middle of lower; lips and tongue red and denuded; mucous membrane of lips and nose destroyed; inside of upper lip, tongue, roof of mouth and fauces white and other parts excoriated.

Tongue white; and palate and œsophagus as far as visible, with blisters; tongue coated white, painful and tender, with patches of its membrane pulled off. ▶ Black coat at tip. ▶ Tongue, mouth and fauces red and raw, and when asked where the pain was he pointed to ponum adami, under left ear. ▶ Curled pieces of white skin detached from tongue and throat, and those parts are red. ▶ Dry tongue. ▶ Burning and scraping at root of tongue and at posterior wall of fauces. ▶ Teeth clenched. ▶ Mouth and throat dark red, swollen, tender, with epithelium detached in places. ▶ Burning, and in œsophagus and stomach. ▶ Burning pain from mouth to stomach. ▶ Foaming. ▶ Salivation; bloody. ▶ Much mucus; much limpid mucus from salivary glands and mucous membrane of pharynx. ▶ Albuminous, viscid, bloody secretion pouring from mouth and nares.

Redness externally and swelling of soft parts; deep redness of velum, its pillars, tonsils and posterior wall of pharynx; deep redness of posterior wall of pharynx, of epiglottis and mouth, with pain in throat. ▶ Uvula contracted and covered with white mucus. ▶ Pain, and especially in epigastric region. ▶ Heat. ▶ Burning pain; with feeling of suffocation; burning pain down throat and in epigastrium and left hypochondrium, with tenderness to pressure on these parts. ▶ Scraping; and lancination. ▶ Hawking of frothy mucus; constant hawking, causing pain, with expectoration. ▶ Swallowing difficult; painful; impossible. ▶ Dryness of œsophagus. ▶ Burning pain in œsophagus, with tenderness of stomach on pressure.

Thirst; with difficulty in swallowing; with inability to swallow. ▶ Eructations. ▶ Ineffectual retching. ▶ Vomiting; blood; matter like soap-suds; mucus, constantly; stringy mucus, light, then dark; throws up by mouth and nostrils a burning whitish fluid, smelling like sal volatile liniment. ▶ Pain; from a hearty meal; in epigastric region, also agg. pressure; pain in epigastrium and left hypochondrium, with tenderness. ▶ Epigastrium tender and swollen; epigastric region sensitive at 4 P.M., with small pulse and shivering. ▶ Heartburn. ▶ Heat, and in chest; feeling as if on fire stomach to mouth. ▶ Burning pain, and in throat.

Rumbling; with confusion of head. ▶ Soft. ▶ Pain; in lower A. and in back and sacral region; inexpressible, in upper part of intestinal tube.

Spasmodic contraction of rectum, an injection spouted forcibly from it as soon as thrown up. ▶ Much blood from anus; with tenesmus. ▶ Stools frequent, bloody. ▶ Profuse, liquid, fetid, of much disorganized blood. ▶ Solid, with cessation of confusion of head. ▶ Involuntary. ▶ Several, after vomiting, causing burning at anus. ▶ None.

Incontinence of. ▶ Suppressed. ▶ Scanty, red. ▶ Alkaline and dark. ▶ High-colored, thick, with abundant heavy lateritious elimination. ▶ Smelling of ammonia. ▶ Albuminuria. ▶ Much sediment, consisting of urates.

Too early and profuse.

Voice lost; weak and indistinct; hoarse; hoarse and weak; deep and weak; speech fatiguing, interrupted, also with low weak voice. ▶ Glottis; œdema; spasm, with asphyxia. ▶ Tickling in larynx, with pain in epigastrium coarse mucous râles in larynx and trachea. ▶ Trachea spasmodically rising and falling. ▶ Bronchitis, with profuse expectoration. ▶ Cough and much expectoration, agg. after drinking; with much mucous expectoration; when he tries to drink with expectoration, also with mucous expectoration; obstinate; sonorous, moist, like suffocative catarrh, with tracheal râles; spasmodic, with expectoration of much membrane. ▶ Bloody expectoration. ▶ Profuse mucous expectoration.

Suffocation; rousing from sleep. ▶ Choking sensation on swallowing. ▶ Respiration difficult; and stertorous, quick; stridulous; hoarse, croaking; heavy and rattling; rapid. ▶ Inclination to draw a long breath, with is prevented by pain in back of chest, in œsophageal region. ▶ Gasping for breath.

Loss of voice, with great debility or with burning rawness in throat. ▶ Spasm of the glottis (or paralysis), with suffocation, the patient gasps for breath.

Muscular rheumatism of the shoulders.

Mucous rattling. ▶ Cutting opposite fifth and sixth cervical vertebræ, at bottom of pharynx. ▶ Pain, with suffocative anguish; pain on speaking. ▶ Oppression; with increased rattling and threatened suffocation. ▶ Catarrh of lungs. ▶ Heat, and in stomach.

Anguish in præcordia, with oppression of chest. ▶ Præcordial region distended and painful. ▶ Tumultuous action. ▶ Carotids beat violently. ▶ Pulse rapid; rapid and hard; rapid small and weak; slow and irregular; pulse and heart's action slow and intermittent; pulse small; small and hard; small, depressed; weak; weak and irregular.

Nails violet. ▶ Twitches of right arm.

Pale, cold and inelastic. ▶ Dry. ▶ Redness over nose and frontal sinuses. ▶ Rosaceous spots on inner and anterior surface of forearms, then on whole inner surface of arm, generally following the lymphatics. ▶ Red erythematous spots with yellow borders, especially along lymphatics. ▶ Erysipelas. ▶ Skin is taken off by a blister plaster, but no serum is secreted.

Restless night. ▶ Sleeplessness.

Coldness; of limbs; of skin; of skin, especially of limbs. ▶ Hot skin; hot, dry skin. ▶ Sweat; cold.