Colchicum Autumnale colch.

Boger's Synoptic Key — Materia Medica

C. M. Boger · Boger's Synoptic Key — Materia Medica · A Synoptic Key of the Materia Medica, 1915 — the Materia Medica half

Region

DIGESTIVE TRACT. HEART; pericardium. Circulation. Kidneys. Tissues: MUSCLES. Ligaments. Fibrous. Serous. JOINTS; small.

Worse

MOTION. Touch. Night. Stubbing toes. Vibration. WEATHER: Cold; damp; rooms. Changing. Autumn. Slight exertion. Checked sweat. Stretching. Sundown to sunrise.

Better

Warmth. Rest. Doubling up. Sitting.

General

COLD AND WEAK, BUT SENSITIVE AND RESTLESS. Irritable and sensitive to impressions, strong odors, etc. Tearing, digging, drawing pains. Many joints are attacked. Rapid sinking. Moist collapse. Creepings. Small, rapidly shifting areas of severe pain, but little swelling. Subacute states, that finally attack the heart. Cardio-arthritic affections. Dropsy.

Particulars

Depressed. Irritable and sensitive; every little hurt pains terribly. Sensitive to odors and impressions. Unequal pupils. Acrid tears. Dark nostrils. ACUTE SMELL; odors nauseate, even to fainting, etc. Pinched, sunken face. Mouth hangs open. Flow of saliva, with a sense of dryness. Glossitis. Thirsty, but LOATHES THE SMELL, or sight of food; > lying quietly. NAUSEA. Retching. Burning or icy coldness in stomach. Meteorism. Diarrhœa, then gouty effects. Choleraic or shreddy, gelatinous, mucus stools, then tenesmus or spasm of anus. Mucous colitis; after dysentery. Tenesmus. Urine sedimentitious; black. Nephritis. Chest seems squeezed by a band. Cutting or stinging at heart. Weak heart. Cold limbs. Heat on rump. Sweat, cold on face; sour at night.

Related

Complementary: Ars. Spi.

Related: Ars. Carb-v. Ver-a.

Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons of some of the Leading Remedies of the Materia Medica

H. C. Allen · Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons of some of the Leading Remedies of the Materia Medica · homeoint.org / Medi-T HTML text; edition not stated by the mirror (first edition 1898, Allen d. 1909)

Keynote

Adapted to the rheumatic, gouty diathesis; persons of robust vigorous constitution; diseases of old people. External impressions, light, noise, strong odors, contact, bad manners, make him almost beside himself (Nux); his sufferings seem intolerable. Ailments: from grief or misdeeds of others (Staph.). Pains are drawing, tearing, pressing; light or superficial during warm weather; affect the bones and deeper tissues, when air is cold; pains go from left to right (Lach.). Smell painfully acute; nausea and faintness from the odor of cooking food, especially fish, eggs or fat meat (Ars., Sep.); bad effects from night watching (Coc.). Aversion to food; loathing even the sight of still more the smell of it. The abdomen is immensely distended with gas, feeling as if it would burst. Burning, or icy coldness in stomach and abdomen. Autumnal dysentery, discharges from bowels contain white shreddy particles in large quantities; white mucus; "scrapings of intestines" (Canth., Carb. ac.). Urine: dark, scanty or suppressed; in drops, with white sediment; bloody, brown, black, inky; contains clots of putrid decomposed blood, albumin, sugar. Affected parts very sensitive to contact and motion. Arthiritic pains in joints; patient scremas with pain on touching a joint or stubbing a toe.

Relations

Compare: Bry. in rheumatic gout with serous effusions; in rheumatism in warm weather. Often cures in dropsy after Apis and Ars. fail.

Aggravation

Mental emotion or exhaustion; effects of hard study; odor of cooking food. Motion: if the patient lies perfectly still, the disposition to vomit is less urgent. Every motion renew it (Bry.).

Key-Notes to the Materia Medica

Henry N. Guernsey · Key-Notes to the Materia Medica · homeoint.org / Médi-T HTML text (Guernsey d. 1885; public domain)

General

This remedy is to be thought of when we see a patient suffering from the effects of night watching; from the effects of hard study.

Rheumatism; chronic rheumatism; rheumatic gout; dysentery occurring in the fall of the year. Arthritic pains in the joints, especially when knocking the joints, makes the patient scream with pain, or when stubbing the toes hurts exceedingly. Affects largely the periosteum and synovial membranes of joints; small joints. Redness, heat, and swelling of parts affected. Tearing pains worse in the evening and at night.

Urine

Urine dark, scanty.

Generalities

Dropsy of outer parts. Tingling in outer and inner parts. Dryness of the skin, particularly when accompanied by dark and scanty urine. Tingling itching. Want of perspiration.

Worse

In the evening; in the night; while drawing breath; during expiration; on moving; from touching the parts; during walking.

Better

After evacuation, as in dysentery, there is generally relief (but in typhus fever, e.g., sometimes a terrific spasmodic pain of the sphincter ani comes on after stool. This may occur in common diarrhœa.); while taking an inspiration; while reposing; when sitting; stooping.

Remedies following

Nux vom., Mercur., Pulsat., Rhus tox., Sepia.

Antidotes

Nux vom., Pulsat.

Seven Hundred Red Line Symptoms from Materia Medica

J. W. Hutchison · Seven Hundred Red Line Symptoms from Materia Medica · rewritten from Hering's and other materia medicas

Red line symptom

Articular rheumatism; shifting from one point to another; great sensitiveness to touch; worse from motion; teasing pains, always worse at night. Metastasis of gout or rheumatism to internal organs, especially the heart, with severe cardiac pains; weaker heart action; thread-like. scarcely perceptible pulse; great oppression and dyspnoea. Dysentery, especially in gouty or rheumatic subjects, with stools of gelatinous or membranous mucus, or containing white, shreddy particles. Gastric disturbances, especially gastralgia, associated with gout or rheumatism or following suppressed gout, always nausea with disgust for food, the smell of food being especially repugnant. External impressions, such as bright light, strong colours, contact, misdeeds of others make him quite beside himself.

Homœopathic Materia Medica

William Boericke · Homœopathic Materia Medica · 9th edition

Common name

Meadow Saffron (COLCHICUM)

General

Affects markedly the muscular tissues, periosteum, and synovial membranes of joints. Has specific power of relieving the gouty paroxysms. It seems to be more beneficial in chronic affections of these parts. The parts are red, hot, swollen. Tearing pains; worse, in the evening and at night and from touch; stubbing the toes hurts exceedingly. There is always great prostration, internal coldness, and tendency to collapse. Effects of night watching and hard study. Shocks as from electricity through one half of body. Bad effects from suppressed sweat. Dreams of mice.

Head

Headache chiefly frontal and temporal, but also occipital and in nape of neck, worse afternoon and evening.

Eyes

Pupils unequal; left pupil contracted. Variations in visual acuity. Lachrymation worse in open air; violent tearing pain in eyes. Dim vision after reading. Spots before eyes.

Ears

Itching in ears; sharp, shooting pains below right tragus.

Face

Pain in facial muscles, moving about. Tingling and œdematous swelling; cheeks red, hot, sweaty. Very irritable with the pains (Cham). Pain behind angle of right lower jaw.

Stomach

Dry mouth, tongue burns, gums and teeth pain. Thirst; pain in stomach and flatulence. The smell of food causes nausea even to fainting, especially fish. Profuse salivary secretion. Vomiting of mucus, bile and food; worse, any motion; great coldness in stomach. Craving for various things, but is averse to then when smelling them, seized them with nausea. Gouty gastralgia. Burning or icy coldness in stomach and abdomen. Thirst for effervescent, alcoholic beverages. Pain in transverse colon.

Abdomen

Distention of abdomen, with gas, inability to stretch out legs. Borborygmi. Pain over liver. Cæcum and ascending colon much distended. Fullness and continuous rumbling. Ascites.

Stool

Painful, scanty, transparent, jelly-like mucus; pain, as if anus were torn open, with prolapse. Autumnal dysentery; stools contain while shreddy particles in large quantities. Ineffectual pressing; feels feces in rectum, but cannot expel them.

Female

Pruritus of genitals. Cold feeling in thigh after period. Sensation of swelling in vulva and clitoris.

Urine

Dark, scanty or suppressed; bloody, brown, black, inky; contains clots of putrid decomposed blood, albumin, sugar.

Heart

Anxiety in region of heart. Impulse not felt. Pericarditis, with severe pain, oppression and dyspnœa, pulse threadlike. Sound of heart become weaker, pulse of low tension.

Extremities

Sharp pain down left arm. Tearing in limbs during warm weather, stinging during cold. Pins and needles in hands and wrists, fingertips numb. Pain in front of thigh. Right plantar reflex abolished. Limbs, lame, weak, tingling. Pain worse in evening and warm weather. Joints stiff and feverish; shifting rheumatism; pains worse at night. Inflammation of great toe, gout in heel, cannot bear to have it touched or moved. Tingling in the finger nails. Knees strike together, can hardly walk. Œdematous swelling and coldness of legs and feet.

Back

Aching in lumbar and lumbo-sacral region. Dull pain across loins. Backache, better, rest and pressure.

Skin

Blotchy papular rash on face. Pink spots on back, chest and abdomen. Urticaria.

Modalities

Worse, sundown to sunrise; motion, loss of sleep, smell of food in evening, mental exertion. Better, stooping.

Relationship

Antidotes: Thuja; Camph; Coccul; Nux; Puls.

Compare: Colchicine (intestinal catarrh with shreddy membranes; convulsive jerkings of right hand; rheumatic fever, gout, endo and pericarditis, pleurisy, arthritis, deformans in early stages; intense pain of rheumatism 3x trit). Also, Carbo; Arnica; Lilium; Arsen; Verat.

Dose

Third to thirtieth attenuation.

Leaders in Homoeopathic Therapeutics

E. B. Nash · Leaders in Homoeopathic Therapeutics · homeoint.org / Médi-T HTML text (Nash d. 1917; public domain)

Leaders

The smell of food cooking nauseates to faintness.

Fall dysenteries when the days are warm and nights cold; stools shreddy and bloody, like scrapings.

Swelling of joints moving from one place to another; they are often dropsical and pit on pressure; < in extremes of wet and cold, or warm and dry (Kent).

This remedy has one of the most positive and reliable characteristic symptoms in the whole Materia Medica, and one which cannot be accounted for from any pathological standpoint that I know of. I mention this here because there is a seeming desire on the part of some to base all their prescriptions on pathological indications. I have no objections to their doing so if they can and succeed in curing their patients. But I claim full recognition for the value of those subjective, sensational symptoms and the modalities which cannot be accounted for. Indeed, I feel quite sure that the well-verified subjective symptoms are oftener to be relied upon in curing our patients than all the pathological conditions we know. Now for the symptom. "The smell of food cooking nauseates to faintness." To illustrate the value of this symptom I will give a case of my own practice; it was also my first experience with a potency as high as the 200th. Patient was a lady, seventy-five years of age, who was suddenly seized with sickness at the stomach and vomiting of blood in large quantities; then bloody stools followed, which were at first profuse, then became small and of bloody mucus. There was great tenesmus and pain in the bowels. Aconite, Mercurius, Nux vomica, Ipecacuanha, Hamamelis and Sulphur, all tried as well as I knew how to select them at that time, but no relief came, and at the end of twelve days my patient was rapidly going down and it looked to me as though she must die. She had become so weak that she could not lift her head from the pillow. By actual count the number of stools passed on cloths in the bed was sixty-five, in twenty-four hours, the pains, number of passages and an symptoms were aggravated from; sundown to sunrise (this is another characteristic of Colchicum).

Now during ad this sickness this patient had been so nauseated and faint at the smell of cooking food that they had been obliged to keep the doors closed between her bedroom and the kitchen, which was two large rooms away. I was not so well acquainted with Materia Medica then as now, and while I did not overlook the symptom did not know of any remedy that had it. But I had my Lippe text-book of Materia Medica in my carriage and I went out and got it and sat down by the bedside; determined to find that peculiar and persistent symptom and "fight it out on that line if it tom all summer" I began at Aconite and looked at the stomach symptoms of every remedy, until, the first time I remembered ever having noticed it there it stood in plain English under Colchicum. Then I looked in my medicine case for the remedy. None there, and I was four miles from home. I had a box of Dunham's 200ths under my carriage seat that had been there for over a year, but which I had never used for want of confidence in high potencies. It was the best I could do for the present, so I dissolved a few pellets in a half-glass of cold water, and directed to give one teaspoonful after every passage of the bowels. On my way home I stopped my horse two or three times to turn around and go back and give that poor suffering woman some medicine. I felt guilty, but I said to myself this is Lippe's Materia Medica, and these are Carroll Dunham's potencies, and here is a clean cut indication for its administration, and the other symptoms do not counter-indicate. Well, I got home. But I started early the next morning to try and make amends for my rashness (if the patient was not dead) of yesterday. Imagine my surprise as I stepped into the sick-room when my patient slowly turned her head upon the pillow and said, with a smile, "Good morning, Doctor." I had been met with a groan several past mornings. I felt faint myself then. I dropped into a chair by the bedside and remarked, "You are feeling better." "Oh, yes Doctor." "How much of that last medicine did you take?" "Two doses." "What!" "Two doses; I only had two more stools after you left." "Don't you have any more pain?" "Pain stopped like that" (putting her hands together) "and I feel well except weakness." She took no more medicine, quickly recovered, and was perfectly well for five years after, and finally died at eighty years of age. I never got over that surprise. Convinced against my will, but not of the same opinion still.

Now I fell to experimenting with the 200th in down-right earnest. I have cured many cases since of autumnal dysentery with this remedy on the same indication, and with the same potency. I have also cured a very severe case of typhlitis (now called appendicitis, for which they so often operate with more deaths than were ever known before the operation became popular) on the same symptom, which was markedly present in the case. Bright's disease, a bad case, was also cured by it. Rheumatism, gout and dropsies have been cured, this symptom being present, and so I have been at length in giving my experience with this remedy in order to prove three things:

1st. That we should not be influenced by prejudice.

2d. That subjective symptoms are most valuable.

3d. That the 200ths do act and cure.

Of course, there are other valuable symptoms besides the one upon which we have laid such particular stress. For instance, Colchicum has two symptoms that are opposite one to the other, viz.: Violent burning and icy coldness in the stomach. These opposites are often found in the abdomen. Again, it is sometimes indicated in autumnal dysentery, the white or bloody mucous discharges having a shreddy appearance, looking as if the mucous membrane had been scraped off the intestines, with great tenesmus. Cantharis has these stools, looking like scrapings, as prominently as Colchicum, but with Cantharis the pain and tenesmus implicate the urinary organs at the same time. Colocynth also has such stools, but the doubling-up, colicky pains distinguish it from both the others. Colchicum has great meteoritic distention of the abdomen. It is in the 200th potency a good remedy for the bloating of cows that have eaten too much green clover. In dyspepsia, when there is complaint of burning or sensation of coldness in the stomach, and much gas in stomach or abdomen, or both, Colchicum is excellent, taking sometimes preference over Carbo vegetabilis, China or Lycopodium.

Colchicum is always set down in the text-books for rheumatism, articular, migrating and gouty, and I have often tried it, but never with anything like the success of our other rheumatic remedies. I have been greatly disappointed in it here. Perhaps I did not use it low enough. It is also said to be a good remedy for weakness or sudden prostration, but here I have no personal experience with it. However, if in any of these troubles, or others, I should find its prime characteristic present I should certainly give it and confidently expect good results.

Text Book of Materia Medica

Adolph Lippe · Text Book of Materia Medica · homeoint.org / Médi-T HTML text (Lippe d. 1888; public domain)

Mind and Disposition

Peevish ; dissatisfied with every thing. His sufferings seem intolerable to him. Slight causes, external impressions (bright light, strong smells, contact, bad manners) disturb his temper at once. Great desire for rest and disinclination to every mental exertion ; forgetfulness ; absence of mind.

Head

Giddiness when sitting down after walking. Sensation of constriction over the eyes. Pulsations in the head. Pressing pain in the occiput, from mental exertion. The headache is relieved, after supper, from warmth and lying quiet in bed.

Eyes

Watering of the eyes in the open air. Ulceration of the meibomian glands (left lower lid), with swelling of the eyelids. Burning and redness of the edges of the eyelids.

Ears

Discharge from the ears, with tearing in the ears (after measles). Stitches in the ears (evening). Dryness of the ears.

Nose

Fluent coryza, with thin, tenacious discharge from the nose. Tingling in the nose. The sense of smell is painfully acute. Bleeding of the nose in the evenings.

Face

Piteous, sad features, as if he were ill. Very great paleness of the face. Cheeks red and hot (afternoon). Œdematous swelling of the face.

Mouth and Throat

Increased secretions of saliva ; profuse ptyalism, with dryness of the throat. Sensation of warmth and dryness in the mouth. Lips chapped. The tongue is heavy, stiff, and insensible. Tongue coated white. Smarting and sensation of dryness of the tongue and throat. Biting-tingling in the throat and fauces. Frequent hawking of (greenish) mucus. Inflammation and redness of the palate, of the fauces.

Appetite and Taste

Aversion to food, and loathing when merely looking at it, and still more when smelling it ; the smell of broth nauseates, and that of fish, eggs, or fat meat almost makes him faint. Taste bitter ; violent thirst.

Stomach and Abdomen

Constant singultus. Nausea, in an erect position, when moving, at table, with inclination to vomit, with constant flow of saliva. Vomiting of bile or mucus, of the ingesta, with trembling violent gagging, colic, succeeded by bitterness in the mouth and throat. Every motion excites or renews the vomiting. Sensitiveness of the region of the stomach ; it does not bear contact. The stomach feels icy cold. Burning in the stomach, with heavy pain. Sensation of gnawing hunger in the stomach. Abdominal dropsy, with a fold over the pubic region. Stitches in the pit of the stomach. Pulsation in the abdomen.

Stool and Anus

Stool scanty, discharged only by hard straining even of the soft stool, with pain in the small of the back. Extremely painful stools. Watery discharges, going off without sensation. Ineffectual pressing to stool ; he feels the fæces in the rectum, but cannot expel them. Frequent evacuations of transparent, jelly-like mucus, relieving the colic. Fall dysentery, with discharges of white mucus and violent tenesmus ; bloody stools, mingled with a slimy substance. During stool sensation as if the sphincter ani were torn to pieces ; burning at the anus. Prolapsus ani ; spasms in the sphincter ani.

Urinary Organs

Frequent micturition. Whitish sediment in the urine. Burning in the urinary organs, with diminished secretion. Brown, black urine.

Sexual Organs

Men. Itching at the prepuce and orifice of the urethra. Tearing in the glands and left spermatic cord. Women. Catamenia too early.

Respiratory Organs

Hoarseness in the morning, with roughness of the throat. Nightly cough, with involuntary discharge of urine. Oppression of the chest, with anxiety ; relieved by bending forward. Frequent pressure in small spots in the chest. Pressure and oppression in the region of the heart, as if an attack of apoplexy threatened ; relieved by walking. Lancinating pain or cutting, as with a knife, in the right side of the chest. Hydrothorax.

Back and Neck

Tearing and lancinations in the back. Soreness in the small of the back when touching it. Drawing in the small of the back ; worse during motion.

Extremities

Upper. Stitches in the right shoulder. Painful lameness in the arms, which makes it impossible to hold the lightest thing. Trembling of the right hand, preventing writing. Bubbling sensation in the left upper arm. Rheumatic pain in the arms, extending into the fingers, especially the joints of the fingers. Heat of the palms of the hands. Fingers cold ; tingling in the tips of the fingers. Lower. Rheumatic pains in the legs, extending to the toes. Œdematous swelling of the legs and feet. The feet feel heavy. Tingling in the tips of the toes.

Generalities

Great weakness, with sensation of lameness through all the limbs. Tearing twitches, like electric shocks, through one side of the body, with sensation of lameness. Frequent starting. Tingling in many parts of the body, as if frost-bitten, when the weather changes.

Sleep

Irresistible sleepiness, drowsiness. Sleeplessness, without entire consciousness. Sleeplessness because he cannot lie on the left side, which he is accustomed to go to sleep.

Fever

Pulse hard, full, and accelerated. Coldness and chilliness, running through all the limbs. Frequent shiverings down the back. External dry heat of the skin. At night dry, external heat, with excessive thirst. Perspiration wanting or suppressed.

Skin

Œdematous swelling and anasarca. Suppressed perspiration.

Conditions

Rheumatic pains in the limbs during warm weather ; at in the limbs during cold weather. The pains increase towards evenings, and do not diminish before daybreak. Sensitiveness of the body, especially of the affected to motion and contact. Aggravation while walking. Amelioration while reposing, sitting (when stooping).

A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica

John Henry Clarke · A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica · 1st edition (1900-02, three volumes); homeoint.org / Médi-T HTML digitization

General

Colchicum autumnale. Meadow Saffron. N. O. Melanthaceæ of the Liliaceæ. Tincture of the bulb dug in spring.

Clinical

Appendicitis. Asthma. Cataract . Cholera. Colic. Cough. Cramp . Debility. Diabetes. Diarrhœa . Dropsy. Dysentery. Eye, affections of. Feels, painful. Gout . Heart affections of. Ileus. Intermittent fever. Intestinal catarrh. Lumbago. Myalgia . Nephritis (rheumatic and gouty). Pericarditis. Proctalgia. Prostatitis . Rectum, prolapse of. Rheumatism. Stiff-neck . Tongue, sensibility lost. Typhlitis. Typhoid fever.

Characteristics

Colchicum is best known as a remedy in gout and rheumatism, and the provings show its specific relation thereto. It acts on muscles, bones, and joints. It causes extreme relaxation of the muscular system ─ the head falls forward on the chest; or falls back when the patient is raised from the pillow; arms fall helpless by the side. Stitching, jerking, drawing pains in muscles; periosteum, and joints. Extreme disinclination to move; < from motion. Mind befogged; but answers correctly. Absence of apprehension, no fear of death. Results of getting wet and Letting chilled; changes to damp weather; autumn dysentery, spring rheumatism. (The flowers of the plant appear in autumn; the leaves not till the following spring.) It corresponds to the gouty constitution; leuco-phlegmatic and melancholic temperament; venous constitutions; uric acid diathesis, the sediment being pale yellow and rather like fine flour than sand. Also, urine black as ink; urine loaded with albumen and casts. There is the irritability and aversion to touch so common in gout; pain in small joints, and especially the great toes. The stomach is acutely disordered, nausea and vomiting. "Nausea at thought, sight, or smell of food, especially of cooking," is a characteristic symptom. (Nash records a striking cure by Colch . 200, to which he was led by this symptom. The patient was an old lady who was vomiting blood, and passing as many as sixteen bloody stools in the day. The doors of the room had to be most carefully kept closed to prevent any smell of cooking reaching her as that immediately provoked nausea.) Sensation of icy coldness in stomach; or burning. Coldness is a common symptom: abdomen; stomach; extremities. Profuse cold sweat; marked chills with or without periodicity. Burning also is not uncommon: in cavities, especially abdomen. The characteristic stool of Colchicum is jelly-like mucus; membranous shreds being also marked; violent tenesmus accompanies. Protrusion of rectum. "After evacuation, as in dysentery, there is generally relief (but in typhus fever, e.g ., sometimes a terrific spasmodic pain of the sphincter ani comes on after stool. This may occur in common diarrhœa)" (Guernsey). The rice-water stool, hippocratic face, coldness, cramps, prostration, led Salzer to find in it the specific for certain epidemics of Asiatic cholera. All functions, mental and bodily, are slow; nutrition and digestion are at a stand, and yet the patient does not emaciate rapidly. There is great prostration; debility from loss of sleep; the prostration of typhoid fever and typhoid states. On the other hand there are convulsions, cramps, and sometimes restlessness. The pains of Colchicum are very acute and unendurable. The Colch . dysentery and rheumatism are exceedingly painful. Very sensitive and irritable. Cannot endure strong smells. Gouty diabetes, the uric acid reappearing as the sugar disappears. The heart is affected as other muscles. Oppression and anxiety > by walking. Heart-beating. Stitches about heart and loss of consciousness. Heart affected (pericarditis) on disappearance of symptoms from extremities; rheumatism appears on disappearance of uric acid from urine. Colch . will reverse this. J. R. Simson, of Tonawanda, N. Y., cured a very bad rase of typhoid presenting among other symptoms, this: "his left pupil was contracted so as to be almost imperceptible, while the right was dilated to the full extent." This is peculiar to Colch ., and no remedy relieved the patient till he received this. B. Simmons calls attention ( H. P ., August, 1889) to the powerlessness of the affected parts which accompanies many Colchicum affections, especially when occurring in leuco-phlegmatic subjects and when there is œdematous swelling of the parts. He cured a woman, 36, mother of two children, of leuco-phlegmatic temperament, who complained of rheumatism of the hands, which were swollen; joints stiff and powerless, pain as if bruised; the arms being affected but in less degree. "She was unable to brush her own hair, not so much from the pain as from the extreme weakness and powerlessness of the parts affected." T. F. Allen gives "Tingling in finger-nails" as characteristic of Colch .; no other remedy has it. As usual with allopathic specifics, Colchicum has been terribly abused. Here is an instance. I was called suddenly to see an old gentleman of 72, whom I found in a state of collapse, pallid, surface was cold and clammy, almost pulseless. He had been taken suddenly ill when in the water-closet, vomiting "black bile," and had fallen on the floor when trying to walk along the passage. The history of the attack was this: He had formerly been "a martyr to gout." Four years previously he began to take, on lay recommendation, a powder which analysis showed to be composed of equal parts of Colchicum and Jesuit's bark. He kept this up for six months and had no more gout. But at the end of the six months he had the first attack of this kind. It came quite suddenly and was, as far as I could learn, identical with the one in which I saw him. In addition to the symptoms named there was looseness of the bowels, the stool being black like the vomit. He was compelled to lie absolutely still, the least attempt to raise the head exciting nausea. Recovery took place in a few days. This is not exactly a case of what our friends would call " médecine substitutive ," but I am inclined to name it " maladie substitutive ," the substituted malady, Colchicism , being considerably worse than the gout it replaced. These attacks had recurred every few months, although the powders were discontinued. The < from motion is as marked as that of Bry . The patient must rest and lie down. Cannot lie on left side. < From any exertion mental or bodily. Bending forward > oppression and colic. Symptoms are < night and evening. Warmth > generally; but warm food < toothache; and damp, warm weather = profuse watery stools; warm stove or warm room = chilliness. Symptoms generally are < from cold or damp; from getting wet; from bathing, living in damp dwellings; change to damp weather; from change of weather; also complaints from getting overheated. Pains in gout go from left to right; headaches right to left. Complaints of old people; asthmatic people.

Relations

Antidoted by: Bell., Camph., Coccul., Nux v., Puls., Spigel., honey and sugar. In poisoning give Ammon. caust. in sugar water. Follows well: Lyc. Followed well by: Carb. v. (ascites). Compare: Aco., Arn., Ars. (Colch. has the prostration of Ars., but without its restlessness); Cact. and Abrot. (metastasis to heart); Bry. (gout, rheumatism, serous effusions, < by movement); Chi., Coccul., Merc., Nat. m., Nux, Op., Pod. (painless cholerine); Puls. (derangement of stomach by eggs; gout; nausea at smell or thought of food, especially if rich or fat); Sep., Calc., Ars., and Ambra. (icy coldness in stomach); Lach. (black urine; < smell of food; cholera); Ver. (cholera, cold sweat on forehead); Bar. c. (paralysis of tongue; cold, loss of sensibility); Nux (debility from loss of sleep; irritability, all external impressions annoy; the debility of Colch. is more profound and there is dislike of all food, and nausea from smells). Colch. is botanically allied to the Veratrums, the Alliums, and Iris. Teste includes it in his Zincum group. It antidotes: Thuja.

Causation

Grief. Misbehaviour of others. Wetting. Checked perspiration.

Mind

Great dejection. ─ Ill-humour. ─ Peevish; dissatisfied with everything. ─ The sufferings appear insupportable. ─ The least external impression (bright light, strong smells, bad manners) drives him to distraction. ─ Weakness of memory. ─ Great desire for rest and disinclination to every mental exertion; absence of mind. ─ Forgetfulness and distraction.

Head

Giddiness when sitting down after walking. ─ Pulsations in the head. ─ The headache is relieved, after supper, from warmth and lying quiet in bed. ─ Pressure on the occiput, during intellectual exertion. ─ Cramp-like pains in the head, esp. above the eyes. ─ Semilateral tearing in the head. ─ Tingling in the forehead and upon the head.

Eyes

Pupils much dilated, only slightly sensitive to light, or immovable or slightly dilated. ─ L. pupil contracted, while r. is dilated (typhoid). ─ Pains in the eyes, like a digging pulling, deep in the eyeball. ─ Swelling of the lower lids. ─ Watering of the eyes in the open air. ─ (lritis; keratitis; maculæ). ─ Suppuration of the Meibomian glands (ulceration, left lower lid); burning and redness of the edges of the eyelids. ─ Visible traction in the lower lids.

Ears

Otalgia, with tearing shootings (after measles). ─ Tingling in the ears, as if they had been frozen. ─ Sensation of obstruction in the ears. ─ Purulent discharge from the ears, with drawing pains. ─ Dryness of the ears.

Nose

Aching pain in the bones of the nose. ─ Tingling in the nose. ─ Pains as from excoriation in the septum narium, aggravated by touch. ─ Bleeding of the nose in the evenings. ─ Excessive sensibility of smell. ─ Obstinate coryza, with snuffling of a great quantity of viscid mucus, proceeding from the nose.

Face

Features disfigured. ─ Aspect sickly, sad, suffering. ─ Face spotted with yellow. ─ Very great paleness of the face. ─ Cheeks red and hot (afternoon). ─ Œdematous swelling of the face. ─ Sensation of separation in the bones of the face. ─ Sensation in the masseters, as if they were distended, with difficulty in opening the mouth. ─ Drawings and successive pullings in the muscles and bones of the face. ─ Semi-lateral tearing in the face, extending to the ear and the head. ─ Tingling in the skin of the face, as if it had been frozen. ─ Lips cracked. ─ Tearing in the lower lip. ─ Cramp-like pain in the maxillary joint.

Teeth

Odontalgia, with tearing pains. ─ Sensibility of the teeth, when they touch on closing the jaws. ─ Acute pains in the gums.

Mouth

Heat in the mouth. ─ Tearing in the palate. ─ Abundant, serous salivation, with dryness of the throat. ─ Heaviness, stiffness, and insensibility of the tongue. ─ Tongue coated white. ─ Smarting and sensation of dryness of the tongue and throat.

Throat

Sore-throat, as if from swelling of the orifice of the œsophagus. ─ Tingling in the palate. ─ Constriction of the gullet. ─ Inflammation and redness of the palate, of the fauces. ─ Inflammations, tearings and shootings in the palate, and in the throat. ─ Accumulation of greenish mucus in the throat, and in the mouth.

Appetite

Appetite suddenly ceasing, merely from the sight or smell of food, with loathing, when merely looking at it, and still more from smelling it; the smell of broth nauseates, and that of fish, eggs, or fat meat almost makes him faint. ─ Insipidity of food. ─ Great thirst, esp. for coffee. ─ Taste bitter; violent thirst.

Stomach

Frequent eructations. ─ Constant hiccough. ─ Nausea, increased, so as to occasion loss of consciousness, by the smell of fresh eggs, or fat meat. ─ Nausea, during a meal. ─ Nausea, after swallowing the saliva. ─ Nausea, in an erect position, when moving at table, with inclination to vomit, with constant flow of saliva. ─ Vomiting of food, or of bile, or mucus, of the ingesta, with trembling, violent gagging, colic, succeeded by bitterness in the mouth and throat; every motion excites or renews the vomiting. ─ Stomach very sensitive to the touch. ─ Sensation of excoriation, and tingling in the stomach. ─ Sensation of cold, or of burning in the stomach, with heavy pain. ─ Shooting in the pit of the stomach. ─ Sensation of gnawing hunger in the stomach.

Abdomen

Inflation and fulness of the abdomen. ─ Pressure towards the outside in the upper part of the abdomen. ─ Colic, with tearing pains. ─ Pain, as of excoriation, in l. side of abdomen, on its being touched. ─ Dropsical swelling of the abdomen, with a fold over the pubic region. ─ Pain, as of burning and pressure in the abdomen, in the region of the bladder, and in the internal genital parts. ─ Pulsation in the abdomen.

Stool and Anus

Constipation. ─ Evacuations slow, difficult, scanty, with urging, even of the soft stool, with pain in the small of the back. ─ Involuntary evacuation of fæces. ─ Watery discharges, going off without sensation. ─ Diarrhœa, consisting of mucus like rice-water. ─ Dysenteric diarrhœa, of white, transparent, gelatinous mucus. ─ Ineffectual pressing to stool; he feels the fæces in the rectum, but cannot expel them. ─ Discharge of much mucus from the rectum. ─ Extremely painful stools. ─ Sanguineous evacuations, mixed, as it were, with false membranes. ─ Prolapsus recti. ─ Tingling itching, burning, and tearing in the anus. ─ During stool sensation as if the sphincter ani were torn to pieces. ─ Cramps in the sphincter ani.

Urinary Organs

Urgent want to make water, with increased discharge of clear urine. ─ Scanty discharge of urine of a deep colour, with tenesmus, and a burning sensation. ─ Painful and scanty emission of urine of a bright red colour. ─ Brownish or blackish urine. ─ Whitish deposit in the urine. ─ Burning sensation and pressure in the urinary organs, and the bladder, with diminished secretion. ─ Pullings, tearings, and incisive pains in the urethra. ─ Frequent micturition.

Respiratory Organs

Tingling in the trachea. ─ Tickling in the pharynx, which excites a small dry cough. ─ Frequent short and dry cough. ─ Nocturnal cough, with involuntary emission of urine. ─ Hoarseness in the morning with roughness of the throat.

Chest

Difficulty of respiration, and oppression at the chest, with anxiety; relieved by bending forward. ─ Tensive, pressive, and periodical oppression of the chest; frequent pressure in small spots in the chest. ─ Shootings in the chest, sometimes on breathing. ─ Tearings in the chest, with obtuse lancinations. ─ Pain, as of excoriation in the chest, on being touched and during movement. ─ Tingling in the chest.

Heart

Violent palpitation of the heart. ─ Pressure and oppression in the region of the heart, as if an attack of apoplexy threatened; > by walking. ─ Hydrothorax.

Neck and Back

Shooting tension between the shoulder-blades. ─ Tearings in the back. ─ Pain, as from excoriation in the loins, during movement. ─ Drawing in the small of the back; worse during motion. ─ Soreness in the small of the back when touching it.

Upper Limbs

Stitches in the r. shoulder. ─ Painful lameness in the arms, which makes it impossible to hold the lightest thing. ─ Trembling of the r. hand preventing writing. ─ Tearings in the arms, the hands, and the fingers. ─ Paralytic pain in the arms. ─ Trembling of the hands. ─ Heat of the palms of the hands. ─ Cramp-like contraction of the fingers. ─ Tingling in the fingers, as if they had been frozen. ─ Tingling in the finger-nails. ─ Torpor in the extremity of the fingers.

Lower Limbs

Tearings in the legs, the feet, and the toes. ─ Paralytic pullings in the thighs. ─ Hot (œdematous) swelling of the legs, with acute pains during movement. ─ Tingling of the toes, as if they had been frozen.

Generalities

Rheumatic and arthritic tearing in the limbs, and other parts of the body, esp. in warm weather. ─ Tingling in many parts of the body, as if frost-bitten, when the weather changes. ─ Tearing twitches, like electric shocks, through one side of the body, with sensation of lameness. ─ Starting, shootings in the muscles, and in the periosteum of the limbs, esp. in cold weather. ─ Frequent starting of the body. ─ Shooting in the joints. ─ Paralytic weakness, of the muscles. ─ Pains accompanied by paralytic weakness, and real paralysis. ─ Great weakness, with sensation of lameness through all the limbs. ─ Dropsical swellings. ─ The sufferings are singularly aggravated by intellectual fatigue, by touch, by too brilliant a light, and by the smell of pork. ─ Aggravation of the symptoms from the commencement of the night till morning. ─ General sinking, and consequent painful sensibility of the whole body, so that the patient cannot move without groaning. ─ Nervous fatigue and weakness from nocturnal labour.

Skin

Itching, as from nettles. ─ Tingling in different parts, as after being frozen. ─ Œdematous swelling and anasarca. ─ Suppressed perspiration.

Sleep

Drowsiness in the day, with unfitness for exertion. ─ Irresistible sleepiness, drowsiness. ─ Sleeplessness from nervous excitability. ─ Sleeplessness, without entire unconsciousness. ─ Sleeplessness, because he cannot lie on the l. side, on which he is accustomed to sleep. ─ Frequent waking with fright. ─ Nocturnal heat, with violent thirst.

The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica

Constantine Hering · The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica · 1879–91

Mind

Perception entirely lost ; unconscious. θ Typhus. θ Myelitis
acuta.
Memory weakened, ideas not so clear as usual ; forgetfulness ; absence of mind.
Disorders in comprehension and association of ideas ; he lacks words to express his ideas ; when writing, he forgets syllables and entire words ; he confounds objects.
Confusion of head ; intellect clouded, though he answers correctly.
Says nothing unless questioned, his condition does not seem to him dangerous. θ Typhus.
Can read, but cannot understand even a short sentence ; cannot understand the words ; vision is heightened, but intellectual faculties dulled.
Delirium with headache.
Great desire for rest, and disinclination to mental exertion, or exertion of any kind.
Mind depressed. θ Dropsy. θ Gout.
Surly, ill-humored, not satisfied with anything.
His sufferings seem intolerable to him ; external impressions, light, noise, strong smells, contact, etc., disturb his temper.
Pains so excessive they almost drive one mad, in the evening.
Aggravation very often, after mental exertion.
Pains < by mental exertion or by motion.
Ailments from grief or misbehavior of others.

Sensorium

Confusion and drowsiness of the head.
Vertigo : while sitting, after walking ; on rising.
Delirium, with headache.
Coma, or unconsciousness.

Inner head

Pressive heaviness deep in cerebellum, especially on moving or stooping.
Pressing pain above, in small spots, or very severely in substance of cerebellum, and occurring on the slightest intellectual exertion.
Pressure in head ; especially in occiput, also deep in cerebellum, excited by mental exertion, or night watching.
Boring, pressing headache, brought on by mental labor, and by entering room from open air.
Sensation of constriction in ciliary region, with great desire for rest, and disinclination to mental exertion. θ Iritis.
Spasmodic pains in head, especially over eyes.
Boring headache, especially over eyes, extending into dorsum of nose.
Headache over left eye, < in open air.
Painful rending, tearing, drawing pains in left side of head, from eyeball to occiput.
Very painful drawing-tearing in half of head, beginning at ball of eye, extending to occiput.
Hemicrania, either of right or left side, changing about.
Pressing pain in right and afterwards in left frontal region.
Tearing, wandering pains, in one half of head, in occiput, in temples, or pericranium.
Creeping sensation in forehead.
Pressing-tearing in occiput.
Oppressive weight in occiput, during movement and when bending the body backward.
Pressing headache. θ Dropsy.
Pulsations in head.
Very violent headache, coming in evening, and lasting until morning.
Headache > after supper, from warmth and lying quiet in bed.

Outer head

Heaviness of head.
Head bent forward upon breast, arms hang listless.
When raised the head falls back, mouth wide open.
Extreme weakness, cannot move her head from pillow without help. θ Hemorrhage from bowels.
Difficulty in moving head.
Hot forehead. θ Dropsy.
Forehead covered with cold sweat. θ Typhus.
Tearing in scalp, on small spots, particularly on occiput.
Lacerating pain in scalp.
Great falling off of the hair.
Porrigo favosa, oozing acrid ichor.

Sight and eyes

Eyes half open ; sunken, staring ; hollow, congested, protruding.
Loss of sight for a minute or two on getting out of bed.
Drawing, digging pain, deep in orbit, like in sclerotitis.
Drawing tension deep in eye.
A slight nebulous dimness appears in posterior chamber, probably proceeding from vitreous body.
Soft cataract, glaucoma.
Complete capsulo-lenticular cataract, with increased size of lens.
Lens pressed forward against iris, then closing up pupil.
Iris first of a beautiful brown color, afterwards dim and as if blotted out.
Iritis, rheumatic cases, with great soreness of eyeballs.
Pupils much dilated, only slightly sensitive to light, or immovable and slightly dilated ; left pupil contracted, while right is dilated. θ Typhoid.
Pupil naturally large, is excessively sensitive to light, contracting not much but very rapidly.
Deposit of a purulent fluid in lower part of anterior chamber.
Dimness, opacity of cornea ; maculæ.
Inflammation of eyes, dim-sightedness, watering of eyes, white spot on cornea.
Soreness and pressive pain in eyes.
Violent, short, sharp, tearing pain, in and around eyeball.
Ulceration of meibomian glands of left lower lid, which is much swollen, with great nervousness.
Burning and redness of edges of lids.
Smarting in the eye, especially in outer canthus, with lachrymation ; feeling as if canthus was glued up.
Pressure and biting in canthi, with moderate lachrymation.
Stye on left lower lid, near inner canthus.
Excoriating lachrymation, < in open air. θ Iritis.
Worse when looking upward.
Around the edge of the pupil, from behind the iris, a yellowish flocculent membrane appears in the pupil, and protrudes into the anterior chamber.

Hearing and ears

Hearing generally acute.
Arthritic vertigo of auditory nerve.
Roaring in ears ; they feel stopped up.
Tingling of ears, as after being frosted.
Earache, with stitches in ears.
Dryness of ears.
Discharge from ears, with tearing pain. θ Otorrhœa after measles.

Smell and nose

Smell morbidly acute ; the odor of meat broth causes nausea, and that of fresh eggs nearly fainting ; excessive sensitiveness of smell to cooking.
Strong odors make him quiet beside himself.
Tingling and itching in nose. θ Coryza.
Sneezing, with crawling sensation in nose.
Nostrils dry and black.
Sore pain in septum.
Nosebleed, particularly in evening.
Long-lasting coryza ; discharge thin, tenacious, never watery.

Upper face

Extreme anxiety of countenance. θ Pericarditis.
Anxious countenance ; sharp features ; cheeks, lips and eyelids purple.
Face : doleful, sad expression ; suffering, like that of a chronic patient ; hippocratic, sunken, cadaverous look ; risus sardonicus ; pale ; pale and blue ; yellow spotted ; cheeks red and hot, covered with sweat ; cachectic (dysentery).
For three or four hours each day circumscribed redness of cheeks, with marked paleness about nose and mouth.
Face, and especially nose, color of bleached coal ashes. θ Chronic asthma.
Tingling in skin of face as after being frosted.
Tearing and tensive pains in facial muscles, moving from one location to another.
Drawing in bones of face or nose ; sensation as if they were being rent asunder.
Œdematous swelling of face.
Œdema of lids and face ; great sensitiveness to contact, motion, and changes to damp weather ; gouty diathesis. θ Iritis.
Pain and swelling from a decayed tooth ; tongue furred.

Lower face

Lips chapped, livid, or blue.
Thick, brownish coating on lips, teeth and tongue.
A paralytic sensation, a cramplike pain in maxillary joint. θ Arthritic toothache.

Teeth and gums

Grinding of teeth ; teeth feel too long.
Teeth very sensitive when pressed together, as in biting.
Toothache, < from cold and immediately after warm things.
Arthritic toothache, < at night.
Tearing in jaws and gums.

Taste, speech, tongue

Flat, bitterish taste, or tastelessness of food. θ Dysentery.
Inability to talk, or talks with effort. θ Cholera. θ Typhus.
Loss of sensibility in tongue.
Tearing, burning and sticking in tongue.
Tongue : bright red ; heavy, stiff and numb ; cold ; moved and projected with difficulty.
Tongue coated : with whitish fur ; with a thick yellow fur ; with brown slime. θ Intestinal disturbances. θ Pericarditis.
θ Dysentery.

Inner mouth

Mouth open to the widest extent. θ Typhus.
Sensation of warmth and dryness in mouth.
Heat in mouth, with thirst.
Inflammation of mucous membrane of mouth and throat.
Salivation. θ Cholera sporadica.
Profuse flow of saliva, with dryness of throat.
Affection of salivary glands. θ Bright's disease.
The saliva causes nausea and inclination to vomit when swallowing it.

Palate and throat

Tickling in throat, as if coryza was setting in, inducing cough and clearing throat.
Smarting and sensation of dryness of tongue and throat.
Biting-tingling in throat and fauces.
The throat is dry, and yet there is a flow of watery saliva, accompanied by nausea and discomfort in abdomen.
Inflammation and redness of palate and fauces.
Tonsils inflamed and swollen ; here and there spots covered with pus, swallowing difficult.
Heat in pharynx and whole length of œsophagus.
Itching in pharynx.
Constriction of œsophagus.
Accumulation of mucus in throat.
Much greenish, thin mucus in throat, sometimes comes involuntarily into mouth, or is hawked up.

Appetite, thirst. desires, aversions

Enormous appetite.
He has appetite for different things, but as soon as he sees them, or still more smells them, he shudders from nausea, and is unable to eat anything.
Appetite entirely gone. θ Dysentery.
No appetite, but intense thirst. θ Pericarditis. θ Rheumatism. θ Dropsy.
Aversion to food ; loathing the sight, and still more the smell of it. θ Ileus. θ Hemorrhage
from bowels.
The smell of fish, eggs, fat meats or both, causes nausea even unto faintness. θ Dysentery.
Great thirst. θ Hemorrhage from bowels. θ Dysentery. θ Cholera
sporadica.
No thirst.

Hiccough, belching, nausea and vomiting

Frequent, copious eructations of tasteless gas.
Eructations, with burning in stomach.
Gulping up of water, followed by nausea. θ Dropsy.
Nausea and inclination to vomit, caused by swallowing saliva.
Deathly nausea and prostration. θ Acute diarrhœa.
Nausea, with great restlessness ; on assuming upright posture, a qualmishness in stomach and inclination to vomit.
Smell of cooking nauseates to faintness ; often from merely looking at food. θ Dropsy. θ Hemorrhage
from bowels. θ Typhlitis. θ Intermittent fever.
Nausea, eructations and copious vomiting of mucus and bile.
Disposition to vomit, > by lying perfectly still ; renewed, however, by every motion.
Violent and excessive retching without vomiting.
Violent retching, followed by copious and forcible vomiting of food and then of bile.
Vomiting first food, then fluid, finally considerable quantities of stercoraceous matter. θ Ileus.
Vomiting : of food ; of bilious, glairy matter, of greenish mucus ; the water he drank ; of acrid, sour slime ; of rice water ; of fluid like coffee-grounds ; renewed after every motion ; occurring with great ease.
Vomiting followed by weakness and sometimes ravenous hunger. θ Dropsy.
He was obliged to bend himself up and lie quite still the whole day, without the slightest movement, else he was seized with the most violent vomiting.
Ravenous hunger and weakness after vomiting. θ Dropsy.
Vomiting, with watery diarrhœa.
Vomiting and purging of rice-water stools, with thirst.

Scrobiculum and stomach

Uneasiness at epigastrium ; extremely sensitive to touch or pressure. θ Dysentery.
Violent burning in epigastrium.
Pain in epigastrium as if pierced with a knife.
Stomach deranged after eating too many eggs.
The stomach seems constantly icy cold.
Pressure in stomach.
Burning in stomach, or icy coldness, with great pain and debility.
Burning in pit of stomach. θ Dropsy.
Burning in pit of stomach, followed by nausea and finally vomiting, with subsequent weakness, and sometimes ravenous hunger.
Severe pain and tenderness over region of stomach, at times extending over bowels.
Fulness of stomach ; swelling as if he had eaten too much, even when he had taken nothing, < after eating even light food.
Sensation of gnawing hunger in stomach.
Stitches in pit of stomach.
Violent burning pain in stomach.
Cramps in stomach.
Colic : aggravated by eating ; after flatulent food ; with great distension of belly ; better when bending double.
Gastric affections, with a coated tongue, clammy taste, anorexia, pressure in stomach, empty eructation.
Gastric affections before and during an attack of rheumatism.

Hypochondria

Anxious feeling in precordia.
Distension of a gas under short ribs, as after eating too much.
Pain in right hypochondrium, like from incarcerated flatus.

Abdomen and loins

Tympanitis. θ Colic. θ Dysentery.
Tympanitis with pain in back. θ Typhoid.
Great distension of abdomen with gas, as if he had eaten too much.
Flatulent distension of abdomen, with less frequent and less copious stools.
Belching and great meteoristic distension of stomach and upper abdomen. θ Ileus.
Great swelling of lower part of abdomen.
Abdomen much swollen, with a fold or crease below umbilicus, extending across. θ Ascites.
Distended abdomen, contracts spasmodically when touched.
No bellyache, but rumbling noise and sensation as if diarrhœa would begin every moment. θ Dysentery.
Surface of abdomen hotter than rest of body and extremely sensitive to touch.
Intense intermitting pain in upper portion of small intestines, with constipation, fever, thirst and yellow tongue.
Pain extends from stomach over abdomen, followed by large watery evacuations ; each discharge with severe griping pain.
Burning, or icy coldness in stomach and abdomen. θ Colic. θ Cholera sporadica.
Pulsation in abdomen.
Pressing, tearing, cutting or stitching pains in abdomen.
Spasmodic pains in lower abdomen, loss of appetite and general lassitude. θ Dysentery.
Great pain, tenderness and swelling in right ileo-cecal and ileo-inguinal regions. θ Ileus.
Tearing pain in belly, especially about sigmoid flexure of colon, < from pressure, and at night. θ Rheumatic diarrhœa.
Griping in abdomen and colicky pains. θ Dysentery.
Colic : < by eating ; after flatulent food ; until diarrhœa sets in ; > from bending double.
Painless cholera morbus, with much weakness and prostration.
In inflammatory irritation of abdominal viscera, by metastasis from gout.
Pain in bowels increases, towards evening, and continues until daybreak. θ Hemorrhage from bowels.
Pain in belly, < on pressure and at night. θ Rheumatic diarrhœa.

Stools and rectum

Very offensive flatus in evening.
Urging to stool : unsatisfactory ; > by frequent passages of flatus.
Ineffectual pressing to stool, feels feces in rectum but cannot expel them.
Very painful urging to stool ; at first only a little feces passed, afterwards followed transparent, gelatinous and very membranous mucus, with some relief of pain in abdomen.
Stools scanty, discharged only by hard straining, even if soft, with pain in small of back.
Extremely painful stools.
Stools : changeable ; mucous, jelly-like ; greenish ; reddish ; yellowish ; light yellow ; orange yellow ; slimy ; fecal ; excoriating ; slightly sour smelling ; white, shreddy particles ; with borborygmus ;
frequent, abundant, watery, with flocculi ; like rice water ; yellowish and bloody ; scanty, with tenesmus, salivation, and copious secretion of urine ; copious, frequent, watery, or bilious, often without pain, sometimes with cutting colic ; watery, with bright
yellow flakes ; scanty, difficult, of bloody mucus and shreds, with pain in anus, and violent tenesmus ; green, watery, very offensive mucus ; pass insensibly ; involuntarily ; only mucous discharges, and during night.
Very offensive evacuations. θ Dysentery. θ Dropsy.
Feces mixed with small, white membranes, or light bluish matter. θ Dysentery.
Discharge from bowels like gelatin. θ Dysentery.
Evacuated mere mucus without blood, with a good deal of tenesmus. θ Dysentery.
Watery jelly-like mucus passes from anus, with violent spasm in sphincter. θ Dysentery. θ Cholera
sporadica.
Bilious diarrhœa, stools afterwards mixed with white membranous pieces.
Constant vomiting and passages of green matter, with cutting pains about umbilicus, each successive stool growing more watery. θ Asiatic cholera.
Profuse, watery stools, in hot, damp weather, or in Autumn. θ Diarrhœa.
Obstinate, acute diarrhœa, with deathly nausea and prostration.
Diarrhœa, with violent colicky pains.
After a few discharges from bowels of a slimy, watery substance, without relief, obstinate constipation. θ Ileus.
Stools slimy, streaked with blood, and lumpy, attended with tenesmus and nocturnal fever. θ Rheumatism.
Bloody stools, with scrapings from intestines and protrusion of anus. θ Dysentery.
Fall dysentery, with discharges of white mucus and violent tenesmus ; bloody stools, mingled with a slimy substance.
Bloody discharge from bowels with deathly nausea from smelling cooking.
Putrid, dark colored blood and mucus pass from bowels.
Pain about sigmoid flexure of colon. θ Rheumatic diarrhœa.
Tenesmus in rectum.
Long-lasting, agonizing pain in rectum and anus, after stool, causing screams and crying.
Forcing, pressing pains in rectum, with frequent scanty discharge. θ Dysentery.
Tingling, itching, burning and tearing in anus.
Protrusion of rectum. θ Dysentery.
Hemorrhage from bowels in autumnal, cold, damp weather.
Oozing of copious mucus from anus.
Spasm of sphincter during or independent of discharge, with a shuddering over back.
Child falls asleep on vessel as soon as tenesmus ceases. θ Dysentery.
Before stool : flatulency ; pinching in abdomen.
During stool : stinking flatus ; rending pain in anus, backache ; vomiting, vertigo, faintness, cardial stitches.
After stool : remission of intestinal pains and of sensorial complaints ; increase of pelvic pains ; stinking flatus, feeling of diarrhœa in rectum, and sore biting in anus ; renewed desire to go to stool ; exhaustion.

Urinary organs

Constant burning in urinary organs, with diminished secretion.
Pain in region of kidneys.
Hyperemia of kidneys ; urine contains albumen.
Nephritis ; bloody, ink-like, albuminous urine. θ Dropsy after scarlatina.
Strangury with hemorrhage from bladder.
Bladder contracted and empty.
Vesical irritability and tenesmus, depending upon gouty diathesis.
Evacuations of urine attended and followed by tenesmus of bladder and a burning pain in urethra, as if urine was very warm.
Before urination ; burning in urinary passages.
During urination : burning in urethra ; constriction in neck of bladder.
After urination : tickling in fossa navicularis ; tickling burning in urethra and discharge of a few drops.
Constant urging, scanty urine, painful discharge from spasm in neck of bladder. θ Hydrothorax.
Urging to urinate, and discharge of hot, highly-colored urine ; burning and tenesmus. θ Dysentery.
Copious, involuntary urination, or suppression of urine. θ Typhus.
Profuse secretion of urine.
Frequent micturition with diminished discharge.
Urine : copious, watery and frequent ; dark and turbid, with tenesmus of bladder and burning in urethra ; of sour smell and acid reaction ; dark, scanty, discharged in drops, whitish sediment ; pale yellow ; clear ; reddish ; bloody ;
brown ; albuminous ; suppressed ; greenish ; black ; inky ; contains clots of putrid, decomposed blood contains phosphates and some sugar.
Scanty urine. θ Hydrothorax.
Urethra hurts while urine passes, as if raw.
Urine turbid, leaves an orange-colored ring in vessel. θ Nephritis. θ Gout.
Nephritis and dropsy after scarlatina.
Urine like ink. θ Dropsy after scarlet fever.

Male sexual organs

Tearing in glans and left spermatic cord.
Itching at prepuce and orifice of urethra.
Œdema of scrotum. θ Dropsy.
Chordee after gonorrhœa.

Female sexual organs

Hemorrhage of uterus.
Menses too early and scanty.
Sudden suppression of menses, followed by dropsy of uterus.
Tiredness and heaviness of feet.
Lancinating tearing, deep in right breast, through to back.

Pregnancy. parturition. lactation

Faint aching about navel as if she must eat, but with loathing and disgust at thought, sight or smell of food ; all attempts to eat cause violent nausea and vomiting ; smell of meat and eggs especially repugnant. θ Nausea
of pregnancy.
Feverish restlessness in last months of pregnancy.
Nipples dark, brownish-red, protruding ; unbearable pain on slightest touch by child ; breasts full, skin hot, pulse strong (lying-in, fourth day).
Puerperal fever.

Voice and larynx. trachea and bronchia

Voice hoarse, or deeper than usual.
Hoarseness in morning, with roughness of throat.
Itching in larynx and trachea.
Tickling in trachea with coryza and a little cough.
Trachea inflamed at its bifurcation.
Catarrh of air passages.

Respiration

Cold breath.
Respiration : difficult ; rapid and short ; quick, and heart's impulse strong ; accelerated and audible ; slow ; irregular, or intermittent ; asthmatic ; with moist sound ; hurried, with groans. θ Pericarditis.
Breathing so oppressed she could hardly lie down, > on bending forward. θ Ascites.
Racking pain during respiration and oppression of chest.
Lies in bed gasping for breath. θ Pericarditis.
Great dyspnœa. θ Gastro-pleurodynia.
Dyspnœa at night. θ Dropsy.
Dyspnœa with palpitation of heart from 11 to 3 A. M.
Asthma : depending upon hydrothorax or hydro-pericardium ; with dropsy of lower extremities, extending to knees.

Cough

Slight cough, with coryza.
Frequent, short, dry cough, from tickling in larynx.
Short, dry cough, with great exhaustion. θ Dysentery.
Night cough, with involuntary spurting out of urine.
Troublesome night cough, compelling him to sit up, excited by scraping in chest, with much expectoration.

Inner chest and lungs

Violent cutting pain in chest, interrupting breathing.
Lancinating pain, as with a knife, in right side of chest.
Dull stitches in posterior part of thorax, during expiration. θ Hydrothorax.
Stinging in region of heart, with oppression.
Severe pain at left side, below region of heart, shooting from behind forward ; < on breathing, with rapid, sharp, irregular pulse, and great dyspnœa. θ Gout pleurodynia.
Spasms of chest.
Oppression of chest, dyspnœa, a tensive feeling in chest, sometimes high and sometimes low down. θ Asthma.
Oppression of chest, with anxiety, > by bending forward.
Oppression of chest and violent palpitation. θ Myelitis.
Frequent pressure in small spots in chest.
Indescribable dulness and gnawing in sternum, about midway and deep in, slightly > from constantly pressing and rubbing sternum with hand ; cannot keep still, constantly tossing from side to side. θ Nausea
of pregnancy.
Spitting blood, after injuries ; hemorrhage of lungs.
Hydrothorax, with œdema of hands and feet.
Serous effusion in chest, with rheumatic and gouty persons. θ Arthritic pleurisy.

Heart, pulse and circulation

Quick stitches in pericardial region.
Pressure and oppression in region of heart, as if an attack of apoplexy threatened ; > by walking.
Pressure and anxiety in precordial region ; fulness and oppression as from stagnation of blood in heart, at night while lying on left side, is obliged to turn to the right side ; dull, irregular, seemingly suppressed beats of heart, with a peculiar sensation in chest, pulse
small, slow and weak.
Heart's impulse strong.
Violent palpitation with anxiety. θ Dropsy. θ Hydro-pericardium.
Palpitation of heart and dyspnœa from 11 to 3 A. M.
On assuming upright posture, vertigo, palpitation, stitches about heart and loss of consciousness.
Heart's action muffled, indistinct, very weak. θ Pericarditis.
Heart sound murmuring, weak, indistinct, whistling. θ Pericarditis.
Effusion into the pericardium after inflammatory affection of heart.
Effusion into pericardium, with sympathetic irritation of endocardium. θ Pericarditis.
Heart disease, following gout or acute rheumatism.
Pulse : accelerated and hard, or full and slow ; slow and feeble ; quick and thready ; pulseless ; 170, full bounding, incompressible ; rapid, sharp, irregular (gouty pleurodynia) ; large, full and hard ; more full and frequent
(nephritis) ; small, weak, somewhat frequent (dysentery) ; rapid, weak and fluttering (pericarditis) ; trembling ; very small, contracted, almost imperceptible ; 90, soft and weak (acute rheumatism) ; slow, small and thready ; low, 45 and very full ;
scarcely perceptible, occasionally intermitting (dysentery) ; changeable in frequency, often irregular ; threadlike , imperceptible.

Outer chest

Supra-mammary region dull on percussion up to about lower edge of third costal cartilage ; sharp rending pains along sternum and into left shoulder. θ Pericarditis.
Darting pains through right side. θ Nephritis.
Stinging and tearing in muscles of chest.
Pleurodynia from catching cold or from living in damp dwellings.
Rheumatism of pectoral muscles.

Neck and back

A pressing pain or tension in cervical muscles, felt even when swallowing.
Torticollis.
Rheumatic pains in neck and back.
Pains in shoulder and hip joints.
Stitching and tension between scapulæ.
Drawing, tension and stitches occurring in back, much < on motion.
Soreness in small of back when touched.
Frequent shudderings down the back. θ Dysentery.
Tension and pain in region of kidneys. θ Nephritis.
Violent pain in region of right kidney, could only lie on his back, < from pressure and motion. θ Nephritis.
Pain in loins like toothache, with a feeling of weight when she stands, which makes her feel sick and good for nothing.
Pain in loins as if all power was going, and the back was turning to pulp.
Rheumatic pains in loins and hips, extending to left shoulder and chest ; pains most severe from 4 P. M. until 6, and lasting until 8 or 9, in evening, or returning at 1 in morning. θ Rheumatism.
Sudden tearing and shooting in loins. θ Myelitis acuta.
Violent writhing in region of loins and urinary passages.
Spot on sacrum feels sore, as if ulcerated ; very sensitive to touch.

Upper limbs

Rheumatic pains : in clavicle, shoulders, arms, back and neck, preventing moving head ; in elbow joint, forearm, wrist, and ligaments of finger joints.
Stitches in right shoulder.
Painful swelling, and sensitiveness to pressure of humero-cubital articulation, with burning.
Lacerating in elbows, in direction of upper arm.
Tearing in arms, hands and fingers.
Paralytic pain in arms, so violent that he cannot hold the slightest thing firmly.
Bubbling sensation in left upper arm.
Heat of palms of hands.
Trembling of right hand, preventing writing.
Tearing in back of right hand.
Œdematous swelling of hands.
Cannot hold anything with hand. θ Rheumatism.
Cramps in fingers. θ Cholera.
Laceration of finger joints.
Enlarged and distorted finger joints. θ Gout.
Fingers spasmodically flexed but in constant motion.
Fingers cold ; tingling in tips.
Lividity of nails.

Lower limbs

Rheumatic pains in loins and legs, extending to toes.
Flying pains in hips.
Tearing : in thighs ; knee joints, with swelling ; in patella ; in tibiæ, calves, ankles, toes, tendo-achillis.
A feeling of muscular weakness, or paralytic feeling, which interferes with locomotion ; on attempting to walk thinks he shall lose the use of his limbs.
With pains, weariness, heaviness, and inability to move. θ Rheumatism.
Lower limbs œdematous and cold. θ Dysentery. θ Dropsy.
Constant pain in right thigh, which has become much emaciated.
Œdematous swelling of lower limbs with asthma. θ Hydrothorax.
Cramps in calves. θ Dysentery. θ Cholera.
Knees strike together, can hardly walk.
Lameness after suddenly checked sweat, particularly on feet, by getting wet all over.
It is difficult to lift feet or go up-stairs ; stumbles over threshold ; uncertain walk. θ Rheumatism.
Feet feel heavy.
Very painful cramps in both feet, particularly in soles.
Heels contracted, so that he fears never to be able to walk. θ Chronic rheumatism.
Tearing pains in feet, particularly in heel, left tarsus, dorsa of feet, and left sole.
Tingling in right big toe, as if it would go to sleep.
Pain in left big toe, as if nail would grow into flesh.
Drawing with pressure in toes.
Tingling in toes, like after being frosted.
Pain in ball of left big toe as if inflamed. θ Chronic rheumatism.
Burning itching over nail of right big toe.

Limbs in general

All muscles of voluntary motion, especially those of arms and legs, paralyzed.
Sensation of lameness through limbs, with great weakness.
Neuralgic pains in extremities and other parts.
Violent pains in arms and legs, cannot use limbs.
Drawing, tearing pains in limbs, changing place.
Stiffness in joints, and swelling of hands and feet. θ Gout.
Shooting, tearing pains in suffering parts, increasing with fever.
Rheumatic tearing pains in limbs during warm weather ; stitches during cold.
Attacks of rheumatism breaking forth suddenly and disappearing suddenly ; pains shifting ; acute attacks merging into chronic form, or during chronic form acute attacks set in.
Arthritic pains in limbs, with stiffness in joints and swelling of hands and feet. θ Gout.
Arthritic pains in joints, especially when knocking the joints ; makes patient scream with pain, or when stubbing toes hurt exceedingly.
Articular rheumatism, particularly in young persons, when first attack makes its appearance.
At beginning of acute rheumatism, before fully developed.
Pains in shoulder and hip joints ; and in all bones, with difficulty of moving head and tongue.
Joints most affected, without swelling or redness.
Now the one then the other joint affected, sore to touch and swollen, without redness. θ Rheumatism.
Painful flexure of joints.
Tearing and stitching pains in muscles and joints.
Muscular rheumatism with sensation of lameness and real paralysis of muscles.
Disease of periosteum, with rending, tearing pain.
Numbness of hands and feet, with prickling as if asleep.
Œdematous swelling of hands and feet.
Bloating of hands and feet. θ Dysentery.
Limbs cold ; hands and feet cold.

Rest. position. motion

Rest : great desire for.
Lying perfectly still : > headache ; > disposition to vomit.
While sitting : after walking, vertigo.
While lying on left side : fulness and oppression as from stagnation of blood in heart at night, must turn to right side.
Sleepless because he cannot lie on left side, on which he is accustomed to go to sleep.
Violent pain in region of kidney, can only lie on back.
Lies prostrate on back.
Was obliged to bend himself up and lie quite still the whole day, without slightest movement, else he was seized with most violent vomiting.
Head bent forward upon breast, arms hang listless.
Troublesome night cough compelling him to sit up.
Standing : feeling of weight in loins which makes her feel sick and good for nothing.
Motion : pains < by ; pressive heaviness deep in cerebellum on ; oppressive weight in occiput during ; œdematous lids and face very sensitive to ; disposition to vomit ; vomiting renewed after every ; drawing tension and stitches in back < ; pain
in region of kidney <.
On looking upward : eyes <.
On assuming upright posture : qualmishness in stomach and inclination to vomit ; vertigo, palpitation, stitches about heart and loss of consciousness.
On rising : vertigo.
Difficulty to rise after sitting. θ Rheumatism.
Cannot rise from bed in morning but with difficulty.
Bending forward : > oppression of breath ; > oppression of chest.
On stooping : pressive heaviness deep in cerebellum.
Bending double : > colic.
On bending body backward : oppressive weight in occiput.
On attempting to walk : sensation as if he would lose use of limbs.
Walking : > pressure and oppression in region of heart, as if an attack of apoplexy threatened ; a feeling of muscular weakness or paralytic feeling interferes with ; knees strike together.
Difficult to lift feet or go up-stairs ; stumbles over threshold ; uncertain walk.
Writing : trembling of hand prevents.
Inability to move.

Nerves

Great irritability with the pains ; very sensitive to slightest touch ; the least vibration renders the pain unbearable.
Distressing restlessness and sleeplessness. θ Pericarditis.
Great weakness and exhaustion, as after exertion ; cannot move head from pillow without help. θ Dysentery.
Sudden sinking or strength ; prostration with restlessness ; deep fainting.
Lassitude, nausea and great prostration, with anxious expression of face. θ Acute rheumatism. θ Cholera.
Paralytic feeling with the pains.
Frequent starting and trembling are felt through the body.
Tingling in many parts of body as if frost-bitten, when the weather changes.
Sudden loss of all power. θ Cholera.
Tearing twitches, like electric shocks, through one side of body, with sensation of lameness.
Paralysis after sudden suppression of sweat, particularly foot sweat, by getting wet.
Loss of muscular power ; all muscles of voluntary motion, especially those of arms and legs, are paralyzed.
Convulsions, cramps, neuralgia, paralytic conditions, and debility, in persons of gouty constitution.
Carpologia ; subsultus tendinum. θ Typhoid.

Sleep

Great sleepiness during day ; falls asleep while reading.
Irresistible sleepiness, drowsiness, when not in too much pain ; pains < towards evening, and do not diminish before daybreak. θ Hemorrhage from bowels.
Comatose state.
Lying on the back.
Starting and jerking in sleep.
Sleep disturbed or driven away by pains, or restlessness of limbs. θ Rheumatism.
Sleepless because he cannot lie on left side, on which he is accustomed to go to sleep.
Sleep disturbed at night by dyspnœa, from 11 to 3 o'clock. θ Dropsy.
Sleep disturbed by frightful dreams. θ Dysentery.
Cannot rise in the morning from bed but with difficulty. θ Rheumatism.

Time

In morning : hoarseness, with roughness of throat ; cannot rise from bed but with difficulty.
In afternoon : exacerbation of fever.
Rheumatic pains in loins and hips, extending to left shoulder and chest, most severe from 4 P. M. until 6, and lasting until 8 or 9 in the evening, or returning at 1 in morning.
During day : great sleepiness, falls asleep while reading.
In evening : pains so excessive they almost drive one mad ; very offensive flatus ; very violent headache, lasting until morning ; nosebleed ; pain in bowels ; < exacerbation of fever and of pain.
At night : arthritic toothache < ; pain in abdomen, especially about sigmoid flexure of colon < ; mucous stools ; dyspnœa ; palpitation ; cough with spirting out of urine ; fulness and oppression as from stagnation of blood in heart, while lying on left
side, must turn to right side ; sleep disturbed by dyspnœa ; exacerbation of pain and fever with copious sweating.

Temperature and weather

Warmth : headache >.
Warm weather : rheumatic tearing in limbs during.
In warm weather rheumatic pains are felt principally at surface of body, as the air grows cooler they seem to penetrate the deeper tissues and the bones.
In hot, damp weather : profuse watery stools.
Warm food : toothache < immediately after.
Warm stove : constant chilly feeling even when sitting near.
Warm room : chill and shivering.
On entering room from the open air : boring, pressing headache.
In open air : headache over left eye < ; excoriating lachrymation <.
Cold : toothache < from.
Cold weather : stitches in limbs during.
Rheumatic pains excited or < by damp or cold weather.
From catching cold : pleurodynia.
After getting cold by lying down on ice when overheated ; ileus.
After heating body in dancing : acute rheumatism.
From getting wet all over, or after suddenly checked sweat : lameness ; paralysis.
After being drenched when sweating.
Complaints from cold bathing.
From living in damp dwelling : pleurodynia.
Changes to damp weather : œdematous lids and face very sensitive.
On change of weather : tingling in many parts of body as if frost-bitten.
In Autumn : diarrhœa.
In autumnal, cold, damp weather : hemorrhage from bowels.
Fall dysentery.
In Spring : rheumatism.

Fever

Chill and shivering : running through all the limbs ; even in warm room ; frequent shiverings, running down back ; general coldness.
Frequent chilliness. θ Acute rheumatism.
Cold sensation of head and limbs. θ Acute rheumatism.
Body hot and limbs cold. θ Typhus.
Constant chilly feeling, even when sitting near the stove ; with flushes of heat.
Constantly increasing dry heat of whole body, with palpitation and thirst.
Hands and feet cold ; trunk hot and extremities cold ; skin dry ; sweating ; suppressed sweat ; forehead covered with cold sweat. θ Typhoid.
External, dry heat the whole night, with violent, unquenchable thirst.
Exacerbation of the fever in the afternoon.
Almost constant shivering, skin dry, not any thirst, urine clear and reddish. θ Rheumatism.
Sweat wanting, intermittent. θ Nephritis. θ Bright's disease.
After sudden suppression of general perspiration, or of sweat of feet by getting wet. θ Dysentery.
Copious sour sweat, without relief. θ Gout. θ Rheumatism.
Clammy sweat on whole surface, with low temperature of skin. θ Acute rheumatism.
Acid reaction of sweat and urine.
Intermittent fever with sensitiveness to odor of food.

Attacks, periodicity

Frequent : eructations ; stools ; scanty discharge from rectum ; micturition with diminished discharge ; short, dry cough ; pressure in small spots in chest ; shudderings down back ; darting and trembling through body ; shiverings
down back ; chilliness.
Sudden : loss of all power.
Break forth suddenly and disappear suddenly : attacks of rheumatism.
Spasmodic : pains in head, especially over eyes, extending into dorsum of nose.
For a minute or two : loss of sight on getting out of bed.
Intermitting : intense pains in upper portion of small intestines.
Constant : vomiting and passages of green matter ; burning in urinary organs ; urging to urinate ; motion of fingers ; chilly feeling ; increasing dry heat of body, with palpitation and thirst ; shivering.
Long-lasting : coryza ; agonizing pain in rectum and anus after stool.
For three or four hours each dayà: circumscribed redness of cheeks, with paleness about nose and mouth.
From 11 to 3 in the night : dyspnœa with palpitation of heart.
For a whole day : was obliged to bend himself up and lie quite still, else he was seized with violent vomiting.
From evening until morning : very violent headache ; pain in bowels.
Whole night : external dry heat, with violent, unquenchable thirst.
Chronic : asthma.

Locality and direction

Right : pupil dilated ; pain in hypochondriac region, like from incarcerated flatus ; great pain, tenderness and swelling in ileo-cecal and ileo-inguinal regions ; lancinating-tearing deep in breast through to back ; lancinating pain, as with a knife
in side of chest ; at side, below region of heart, severe pain, shooting from behind forward ; darting pains through side ; stitches in shoulder ; trembling of hand, preventing writing ; tearing in back of hand ; constant pain in thigh which has become much
emaciated ; tingling in big toe, as if it would go to sleep ; burning-itching over nail of big toe.
Left : headache over eye ; rending, tearing, drawing pains in side of head, from eyeball to occiput ; pupil contracted ; ulceration of meibomian glands of lower lid, which is much swollen ; stye on lower lid near inner canthus ; tearing in spermatic
cord ; sharp rending pains along sternum and into shoulder ; rheumatic pains in loins and hips extending to shoulders and back ; bubbling sensation in upper arm ; tearing in tarsus, in sole ; pain in big toe, as if nail would grow into flesh ; pain in ball of
big toe as if inflamed.
From right to left : pressing pain in frontal region.
Pain going from left to right, in gout.
Hemicrania, either of right or left side, changing about.
From behind forward : severe pain at right side, below region of heart, shooting.
From above downward : frequent shiverings running down back.
Pains often change their location.

Sensations

As if canthus was glued up ; as if ears were stopped up ; as if bones of face or nose were being rent asunder ; as if teeth were too long ; as if epigastrium was pierced by a knife ; as if stomach was constantly icy cold ; as if he had eaten too
much ; as of gnawing hunger, in stomach ; as if diarrhœa would begin every moment ; as if abdomen was icy cold ; as if urine was very warm ; as if urethra was raw ; as if all power was going from loins, and back was turning to pulp ; as if a spot on sacrum
was ulcerated ; as of bubbling in left upper arm ; as of muscular weakness, or paralytic feeling interfering with locomotion ; as if he would lose use of limbs, on attempting to walk ; as if right big toe would go to sleep ; as if nail on left big toe would grow into
flesh ; as if ball of left big toe was inflamed ; as if muscles were paralyzed ; as if parts were frost-bitten.
Pain : over region of stomach ; in right hypochondriac region, like from incarcerated flatus ; in back ; below region of heart ; in upper portion of small intestines ; in small of back with stool ; during stools ; in region of kidneys ; in
shoulder and hip joints ; in loins ; in right thigh ; in left big toe ; in arms and legs ; in all bones.
Long-lasting agonizing pain in rectum and anus after stool, causing screams and crying.
Cutting : in abdomen ; about umbilicus ; in chest.
Lancinating pain, as with a knife ; in right side of chest.
Lancinating-tearing : deep in right breast, through to back.
Lacerating : on scalp ; in elbows, in direction of upper arm ; in finger joints.
Darting pains : through right side ; through body.
Boring : headache, especially over eyes.
Stitches : in ears ; in pit of stomach ; in posterior part of thorax ; in pericardial region ; in back ; in right shoulder ; in skin.
Stitching : in abdomen ; between scapulæ ; in limbs during cold weather ; in muscles and joints.
Sticking : in tongue.
Distressing pains in sticking shocks or jerks, felt deep in soft parts, and, as it were, upon the periosteum.
Stinging : in region of heart ; in muscles of chest.
Sudden shooting : in loins.
Flying pains : in hips.
Tearing : in scalp, on small spots, particularly on occiput ; short, sharp, in and around eyeball ; in ears ; in facial muscles, moving from one location to another ; in jaws and gums ; in tongue ; in abdomen ; about sigmoid flexure of colon ;
in anus ; in glans and left spermatic cord ; in muscles of chest ; in loins (sudden) ; in arms, hands and fingers ; in back of right hand ; in thighs, knee joints, patellæ, tibiæ, calves, ankles, toes, tendo-achillis ; in feet, particularly in heel, left
tarsus, dorsa of feet and left sole ; in muscles and joints.
Tearing, tensive pains : over small parts, at a time ; quickly changing location.
Shooting-tearing : in suffering parts, increasing with the fever.
Rending-tearing : in left side of head from eyeball to occiput ; in periosteum.
Drawing-tearing : in limbs, changing place ; in half of head.
Tearing, wandering pains : in one-half of head, in occiput, in temples, in pericranium.
Rheumatic and arthritic tearing : in extremities and other parts of body, especially when weather is hot.
Shooting-darting pains : in muscles, especially in cold weather.
Tearing twitches : through one side of body, like electric shocks, with sensation of lameness.
Rheumatic tearing : in limbs during warm weather.
Rending pain : in anus ; along sternum and into left shoulder.
Drawing : in left side of head, from eyeball to occiput ; in bones of face and nose ; in back ; in toes.
Drawing digging : deep in orbit, like in sclerotitis.
Racking pain : during respiration.
Forcing pains : in rectum.
Burning : of edges of eyelids ; in tongue ; in stomach ; in epigastrium ; in pit of stomach ; in stomach ; in abdomen ; in anus ; in urinary organs ; in urethra ; in swelling of humero-cubital articulation.
Tickling burning : in urethra.
Burning itching : over nail of right big toe.
Smarting : in eye, especially in outer canthus ; of tongue and throat.
Soreness : of eyeballs ; in eyes ; of septum of nose ; in small of back ; of spot on sacrum ; and sensitiveness of whole body.
Sore biting : in anus.
Biting : in canthi.
Pressing pain : in right afterwards in left frontal region ; in occiput ; in eyes ; in abdomen ; in rectum ; in cervical muscles.
Pinching : in abdomen.
Gnawing : in sternum.
Violent writhing : in region of loins and urinary passages.
Cramps : in stomach ; in fingers ; in calves ; in both feet, particularly in soles.
Cramplike pain : in maxillary joint.
Constriction : in ciliary region ; of œsophagus ; in neck of bladder.
Scraping : in chest.
Griping : in abdomen.
Colicky pains : in abdomen.
Arthritic pains : in limbs ; in joints.
Rheumatic pains : in neck and back ; in loins and hips, extending to right shoulder and chest ; in clavicle, shoulders, arms, elbow joint, forearm, wrist and ligaments of finger joints ; in loins and legs, extending to toes ; of pectoral muscles.
Paralytic pain : in arms, so violent that he cannot hold lightest string firmly.
Neuralgic pains : in extremities and other parts.
Drawing tension : deep in eye.
Tensive pains : in facial muscles, moving from one location to another.
Tension : in chest ; in cervical muscles ; between scapulæ ; in back ; in region of kidneys.
Faint aching : about navel, as if she must eat.
Like toothache : pains in loins.
Fulness : of stomach.
Pressure : in head ; in occiput, also deep in cerebellum, excited by mental exertion or night watching ; in canthi ; in stomach ; in small spots in chest ; in region of heart ; in precordial region ; in toes.
Weight : oppression in occiput during movement ; in loins while standing, makes her feel sick and good for nothing.
Pressive heaviness : deep in cerebellum.
Heaviness : of head ; of feet ; with the pains.
Oppression : of chest ; in region of heart.
Anxiety : in precordia.
Confusion : of head.
Dulness : in sternum.
Pulsations : in head ; in abdomen.
Creeping : in forehead.
Shuddering and creeping, in isolated parts, such as are felt on getting cold from change of weather.
Crawling : in nose.
Prickling : in hands and feet, as if asleep.
Biting tingling : in throat and fauces.
Tingling : in ears, as after being frosted ; in nose ; in face ; in anus ; in tips of fingers ; in right big toe ; in toes as after being frosted ; in many parts of body ; here and there in skin, as after being frosted.
Tickling : in throat ; in fossa navicularis ; in trachea.
Weakness : with the pains.
Tiredness : of feet.
Frequent trembling : through body.
Uneasiness : at epigastrium.
Paralytic sensation : in maxillary joint ; with the pains.
Numbness : of tongue ; of hands and feet ; in small joints which are swollen and stiff.
Stiffness : in joints.
Lameness : through limbs, with great weakness.
Dryness : of ears ; in mouth ; of throat ; of tongue.
Heat : in mouth ; in pharynx and whole length of œsophagus ; of palms.
Warm sensation : in mouth.
Cold sensation : of head and limbs.
Itching : in nose ; in pharynx ; in anus ; at prepuce and orifice of urethra ; in larynx and trachea ; of skin, as in nettlerash.

Tissues

Metastasis to internal organs.
Dropsy of cavities and internal organs, especially hydro-pericardium ; hydrothorax ; ascites ; hydrometra.
It affects the urinary and digestive tracts, and to some extent the respiratory organs.
Useful in hemorrhages from lungs, stomach and uterus.
Muscular rheumatism and loss of muscular power.
Stands in close relation to fibrous tissues ; redness, swelling, heat, etc., not tending to suppuration ; easily and quickly changing location.
Gout attacking many joints ; muscular pains like torticollis ; lumbago ; tearing pains in joints ; pains in all bones.
Acts markedly on periosteum ; synovial membranes of joints, especially small joints ; that part of the nervous system which presides over the function of voluntary motion.
General inflammation of joints, with excessive hyperesthesia, slightest concussion of air, floor, or bed, renders pains unbearable ; exacerbation of fever and of pain in evening, and at night with copious sweating ; secretion of urine diminished, but urine highly
saturated ; excessive thirst, quickened respiration, and increased strong beating of heart ; large joints intensely red and hot ; smaller ones swollen and stiff, with sensation of numbness.
Acts more on small joints than on large.
When during chronic form of gout acute paroxysms set in, also in metastasis to heart.
Rheumatism : articular, acute or chronic ; with or without fever ; after getting thoroughly wet ; complicated with gastric affections ; occurring immediately after moist weather ; in later stages.
It hastens relapses of gout it abused.
Secretions of all mucous surfaces altered and increased.
Gastric rheumatic genus epidemicus.
Diphtheritis of mucous membranes and submucous cellular tissue.
Emaciation, œdema, anasarca, complicated with rheumatism.
Acute dropsy, with renal affections.
Dropsy after scarlatina.

Touch. passive motion. injuries

Touch : lips and face œdematous with great sensitiveness ; epigastrium sensitive ; distended abdomen contracts spasmodically ; surface of abdomen extremely sensitive ; unbearable pain in nipples from slightest ; soreness in small of back ;
sore spot on sacrum very sensitive ; affected joints sore.
Pressure : epigastrium extremely sensitive ; tearing pain in abdomen, especially about sigmoid flexure of colon < ; dulness and gnawing in sternum > from constant ; pain in region of kidney < ; painful swelling of humero-cubital articulation with sensitiveness.
Teeth very sensitive when pressed together.
Rubbing : dulness and gnawing in sternum > from constant.
When raised : head falls back, mouth wide open.
Slightest concussion of air, floor, or bed renders the pains unbearable.
Knocking joints : arthritic pains < by, making patient scream.
Stubbing toes hurts exceedingly.

Skin

Delicate skin.
Skin dry and pale ; swollen ; parts cold and glistening. θ Dropsy.
Dryness of skin, particularly when accompanied by dark, scanty urine. θ Dysentery.
Hot, dry skin. θ Pericarditis.
Skin dry, sweat suppressed, or profuse sweating.
Stitches in skin.
Tingling here and there, like after being frosted.
Itching : as in nettlerash ; unchanged by scratching ; with pinkish redness around joints.
Erysipelas, smooth.
Purple efflorescence on face, neck, and upper anterior part of thorax, inside of thighs, scrotum and groins in patches.
Œdematous swelling and anasarca.

Stage of life, constitution

Venous constitutions.
Melancholic temperament.
Cachectic appearance. θ Dysentery. θ Gout.
Uric acid diathesis.
Emaciated, sensitive individuals, disposed to rheumatism and catarrh.
Gout in persons of vigorous constitution.
Often indicated with old people.
Vesical irritability depending upon gouty diathesis.
Asthmatic people.
Those suffering from effects of night watching, and from hard study.
Boy, æt. 10, subject to frequent attacks of rheumatism, has for last fourteen days been suffering rheumatic fever ; pericarditis.
Woman, æt. 22, of dissipated habits, and mother of three illegitimate children ; gout.
Mr. S., caught cold by lying on ice after violent exercise while skating.
Scrofulous young man, æt. 27 ; dropsy.
M., æt. 30, male ; rheumatism.
Mrs. N., æt. 43, renal derangement ; relieved.
Woman, æt. 43, ceased menstruating half a year ago ; pleurisy.
Male, æt. 46 ; acute articular rheumatism.
Woman, æt. 55 ; rheumatism.
Male, æt. 56, of athletic build ; inflammation of kidney.
M., æt. 65, coachman ; rheumatism.
Mrs. M., æt. 74 ; hemorrhage from bowels.
Lady, æt. 85 ; ascites.
An old lady, to all appearances in good health, lying in bed, free from any inflammatory symptoms ; prostration with an anxious expression.

Relations

Antidoted by Bellad., Camphor, Coccul., Nux vom., Pulsat ., honey and vinegar. Spigel ., when in heart affections patient feels as if dying. Copious draughts of ice water prevent its action on the bowels. In
poisoning give Amm. caust . in sugar water.
Compatible : useful in dropsy after failure of Apis and Arsen. Carb. veg . followed well in ascites. After Lycop .
Compare : Acon., Arnic . (typhus), Arsen., Bellad., Bryon ., (gout, effusions albuminous or serous, hence, while symptoms express less energy than Bryon ., they are more
serious) ; Cinchon., Coccul., Mercur., Natr. mur., Nux. vom., Opium, Podoph . (painless cholera morbus) ; Pulsat . (derangement of stomach from eggs) ; Sepia .

Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica

James Tyler Kent · Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica · homeoint.org / Séror HTML text (Kent d. 1916; public domain)

Lecture

It is rather singular that traditional medicine used Colchicum so much for gout. In all the old books it was recommended for this malady. The provings corroborate the fact that Colchicum fits into many conditions of gout.

Rheumatism

Acute rheumatism and uric acid diathesis; rheumatic complaints in general, with swelling and without swelling. But traditional medicine does not tell us what kind of gout to give it in or what kind of rheumatism.

It was really the medicine of experience. "if it is gout, try Colchicum."

The question of what was to be done with the patient when the remedy failed never came up.

It was

"Give the prescription and keep at it," and drugs were administered until the patient, steadily growing worse, passed from one doctor's hands, to another's. It is true that Colchicum fits into the gouty state. Spells of cold, wet weather will slack up the flow of urine, make it scanty, or decrease the quantity of solids in the urine.

This takes place in the provings of Colchicum and has been verified many times. It is well known that such a condition will bring about or intensify the gouty state. If the solids in the twine are deficient, if they are not carried off in the urine, something must happen, and the gouty state comes on.

Colchicum is aggravated by cold, damp weather; by the cold rains in the Fall. It is aggravated by anything that will debilitate. It is aggravated in the extreme heat of summer; it has a summer rheumatism; the heat will slack up the flow of urine or the quantity of solids in the urine.

A striking feature running through the remedy is its tendency to move from one joint to another, from one side to another, from below upwards, or from above downwards. Rheumatic conditions with swelling, or without swelling; first here, next there, changing about from place to place.

Dropsical condition

Another striking feature is the general dropsical condition. When the hands and feet swell, and there is pitting on pressure. Dropsy of the abdominal cavity, of the pericardium; of the pleura and dropsy of serous sacs. Swellings that are inflammatory and rheumatic; swellings that are dropsical, with pale urine. Whether copious or scanty, still it is pale.

Muscular rheumatism and rheumatism of the white fibrous tissues of the joints. Rheumatic troubles that have been going on for some time, will end in cardiac troubles. When cardiac troubles with valvular defects are present, almost the first thing the busy doctor thinks of is a history of rheumatism.

Let me say that a part of the study of Materia Medica consists in the observation of sick people. A busy physician learns without books, though of course he should familiarize himself with the literature, so that from reading, as well as observation, he may acquire a knowledge of the general nature of sickness.

When he listens to the patient's story or makes a physical examination, he knows how such cases usually conduct themselves. He knows what to expect. He knows the natural trend of sickness and instantly recognizes what is strange and unusual. He will not recognize what is strange and unusual unless he knows what is natural.

So your books on symptomatology and pathology, diagnosis, etc., will tell you much of this, but as you gain experience in homeopathic practice you will get a much finer idea of this because your Materia Medica teaches you to observe more closely.

The Materia Medica man learns to single out and trace every little thing in order to individualize. So it may be said that years of observation in studying disease, studying the sick man along with the Materia Medica, will open to the mind a much grander knowledge of the sicknesses of humanity than can be had by practicing traditional medicine. Traditional medicine benumbs the ability to observe.

Motion <

All the complaints of this remedy are aggravated from motion. The painful complaints, the head complaints, the bowel complaints. the liver complaints, the stomach complaints, are all worse from motion. Such an aggravation from motion that he dreads to move. About as marked as we find in Bryonia.

Aversion to motion, and aggravation from motion. Aggravation from becoming cold and in cold, damp weather. He is a chilly patient, sensitive to cold. Most rheumatic patients are sensitive to cold, but there are a few exceptions. There is no greater rheumatic patient than the Ledum patient. He presents, both sides. Though he is cold, his pains are ameliorated by cold. In Colchicum the pains are ameliorated by heat, by wrapping up, by being warm.

If he moves, any suffering that he may have will be intensified. Great prostration accompanies the complaints of this remedy. Weakness of the limbs, great exhaustion, nervous exhaustion of a typhoid character. He gradually grows weaker like one going into Bright's disease. He has grown weak for some time, and he is pallid and waxy.

His hands and feet pit upon pressure. Examine the urine and you will find albumen in it. The urine becomes black like ink with albumen. There is an unusual degree of irritability of the tissues, soreness, sensitiveness to touch, sensitiveness to motion; bruised feeling of the joints and of the whole body.

Touch and motion bring on a painful sensation in the body as of. electric vibrations. Great weakness and exhaustion. He cannot exert himself in the least without causing dyspnea, Must lie down; does not want to move; sinking of strength; seems as if his life will flow out of him from motion and from exertion; so tired and exhausted.

This naturally occurs when going towards Bright's disease, when going towards a continued fever. Kidney affections and liver affections. Lassitude, prostration, anxiety. The muscles twitch and electric shocks pass through the body. A paralytic weakness was observed in the poisonous effects and too prolonged provings. The jaw hangs down, the muscles are flabby, relaxed. He lies on the back as if sinking; slides down in bed like one in typhoid, in low forms of rheumatic and in continued fevers, so great is the exhaustion. Paralysis of the limbs or of one limb, or of any part.

The Colchicum patient is almost constantly sweating, even with fever, and sometimes the sweat is cold. A draft blows upon him, suppresses that sweat and the paralytic condition of the limbs comes on; suppression of urine and retention of urine. This describes the profound character and type of sickness. Low forms of sickness; prostrating sickness; sickness with nervous trembling; with great exhaustion. After acute disease has passed away, great weakness and dropsy follows. Dropsy after scarlet fever.

With all these troubles, the stomach and the bowel symptoms are very decided. This is like Cocculus. Absolutely unable to touch food. Nausea, gagging, retching at the bare mention of food in his presence. The thought and smell of food bring on nausea and vomiting. With all these low forms of disease, these states described, we can see that this kind of weakness is little different from the Cocculus weakness.

Colchicum has delirium, prostration, depression of mind, great sensitiveness to pain, which he seems to feel in his mind, and it brings out mental symptoms. Very sensitive to pain; confusion of the mind; disorders of comprehension. Cannot understand what he reads. The headaches are all of a rheumatic character. Very often the whole skull, the pericranium, is sore as if bruised. The scalp is sensitive. Pressure in the head-constriction; pressing, bursting headaches. Heat in the head. Tearing in the scalp. Headaches are all aggravated by motion.

Eyes

The eye symptoms are of a rheumatic character, are connected with rheumatism, rheumatic fever. It is not very uncommon to have iritis in connection with rheumatic fever and it is a strong feature of Colchicum. Ulcers of the lids, styes, much lachrymation in the open air. The tears excoriate and cause redness of the lids.

He takes cold easily. Sneezing, stuffing up of the nostrils. Nosebleed in rheumatic and gouty constitutions. But there is one feature that is more marked in Colchicum than all others. He is so sensitive to odors that he smells things which others do not smell. He smells odors from which he is nauseated.

"Strong odors make him quite beside himself."

You say "soup" or "broth," or something to eat, and he gets sick.

Nose

He can smell the things in the kitchen, in spite of much precaution, and this runs through the remedy. In typhoid fever, prostrated beyond the usual and typhoid is always prostrated enough, he is unusually prostrated. He cannot take milk, cannot take raw eggs, cannot take soup, because he gags at the mere thought of them.

He has gone on for days, and his family are afraid that he is going to starve to death. That aggravation from odors is so strong with him that it seems to take possession of him. It involves his appetite, his weakness, his stomach.

So it does seem that it is a strong feature. Notice that this is one of his loves; it is a perverted love, and the loves are general whether they are manifested through the eyes, nose or touch. It enters into his very life because it involves hatred to odor, and when it stands out in low forms of disease like the continued fevers, the exhaustive fevers and rheumatic complaints it becomes a general. It would be a particular if it were something that applied to the things alone, but you see it enters into the very innermost.

Involves a hatred, becomes mental, becomes a part of the man. He himself may be said to hate odors, hate the smell of food and the thought of it. Do not say "food" in the presence of a Colchicum patient, but give him Colchicum first, and pretty soon he will want something to eat. It removes that hatred for food. What a vital thing it must be when a man hates that which will keep him alive.

Teeth

The teeth are very sensitive.

"Rheumatic teeth."

The gums settle away; after a while the teeth become loose. Pain in the teeth; rheumatic condition of the jaws and the teeth.

"Grinding of the teeth, teeth sensitive when pressed together."

"Aversion to food; loathing the sight and smell," more the smell of it.

"The smell of fish, eggs, fat meats or broths causes nausea even unto faintness."

The Colchicum patient may have much thirst or no thirst, or these may alternate. Nausea and vomiting are very strong features,

"Nausea and inclination to vomit, caused by swallowing saliva,

Nausea, eructations and copious, vomiting of mucus and bile.

Violent retching followed by copious and forcible vomiting of food, and then of bile."

In the stomach there is sometimes coldness and sometimes burning. Now it may be that the Colchicum patient has both coldness and burning. They are both recorded in the Repertory and in the provings, but it is sometimes difficult to tell which is which, more difficult than you will imagine unless you try a piece of ice somewhere and something very hot.

"Burning 'in the pit of the stomach."

Coldness in the stomach. Now the abdomen furnishes us still more to observe. The abdomen is distended with flatus, tympanitic.

Great soreness in the whole abdomen just such a tympanitic condition as we have in typhoid.

If you ever happen to be in the country practicing, medicine, and the farmer's cows get into a fresh clover patch and eat themselves full and become distended so that you are afraid they are going to explode offer your services and give each one of those cows a few pellets of Colchicum.

It will be but a few minutes before the wind will get out of there to your surprise and the farmer's, too; and you may convert him to Homoeopathy. Farmers have been known to put a butcher knife into the pouch of the cow between the last short ribs to let the wind out.

The cow will get well, but Colchicum is better than the butcher's knife. The same is true of the horse; in fact, of man or beast, When the abdomen is violently distended and tympanitic, Colchicum is often a suitable remedy.

Diarrhea

Spasmodic pains, colic, tearing pains, burning, griping pains, forcing the patient to bend double. Aggravated from motion. Great tenderness and soreness with the colic. Aggravated from eating; ameliorated from bending double. And then comes the diarrhoea. It has just such a diarrhea as is found in low forms of fever. Dysenteric or diarrheic stools that are jelly like.

They form in the pan a solid mass of jelly like, coagulated mucus. Very painful, extremely painful is the Colchicum stool. Great soreness in the abdomen. Great relaxation of the parts. Protrusion of the rectum. Putrid, dark, bloody mucus.

"Bloody discharges from the bowels, with deathly nausea."

Fall dysentery, with discharges. of white mucus and violent tenesmus. Putrid, dark, clotted blood and mucus pass from the bowels. Diarrhoea with violent, colicky pains. Bloody stools with scrapings from the intestines and, protrusion of anus.

Profuse, watery stools in hot, damp weather or in the Autumn. Watery, jellylike mucus passes from anus with violent spasm in sphincter. It passes as a thin, watery flow; but as. soon as it cools, it forms a jelly.

Urines

The urine burns when it passes. It is attended with much pain. Inflammation of the kidneys, inflammation of the bladder; tenesmus; retention of urine.

The kidneys manufacture no urine; scanty urine with dropsy. The urine is inky, that is, very dark brown and sometimes almost black, loaded with albumen. This remedy conforms principally to the acute form of Bright's disease.

Heart and chest

Great dyspnoea, rapid, short breathing; the heart's impulse strong. Respiration accelerated.

The heart's impulse can be heard all over the room. Palpitation; oppression of the chest. Feels as if he had a great weight on the chest; cannot breathe. Hydrothorax; the pleural cavities distended with serum, causing the dyspnea.

"Heart's action muffled, indistinct, very weak."

Stinging, tearing pains in the muscles of the chest.

Limbs

Paralytic pains in the arms; enlarged finger joints. This also tells what a low form of sickness, what a feeble circulation this medicine brings about.

"Weakness so that he strikes the knees together while walking; pain all over as if bruised.

Swelling of the joints."

The joints are most affected.

Muscular rhumatism.

Numbness, oedema, swelling of the limbs.

The Therapeutics of Fevers

H. C. Allen · The Therapeutics of Fevers · 1902 Library of Congress printing (Allen d. 1909; public domain)

Characteristic

Adapted to the rheumatic, gouty diathesis; persons of a robust vigorous constitution. Old people's diseases.

External impressions, such as bright light, strong odors, contact, grief, misdeeds of others, make him quite beside himself (Nux, Staph.).

Pains are drawing, tearing, pressing; superficial during warm weather; affect the bones and deeper tissues when air is cold. From left to right.

Smell very acute; the odor of cooking food causes nausea (Ars., Sep.).

Aversion to food; loathing even the sight or still more the smell of it.

The abdomen is immensely distended with gas, feeling as if it would burst.

Burning or icy coldness in stomach and abdomen.

Autumnal dysentery, discharges from bowels contain white shreddy particles in large quantities. "Scrapings of intestines" (Canth., Carb. ac.).

Affected parts very sensitive to motion and contact.

Aggravation

At night; mental emotion or exertion.

Motion: if the patient lie perfectly still the disposition to vomit is less urgent. Every motion renews it (Bry.).

Type

Not marked. Epidemic or autumnal fevers, intermittent and remittent.

Low fevers following epidemic dysentery.

Time

Hour not marked.

Prodrome

Thirst for cold water; drinking is followed by coldness in stomach and beginning of chill.

Chill

And shivering, running down the back, through the limbs; even in a warm room. Nose, cheeks and extremities cold. Chilly shivering in stomach and abdomen. Coldness in evening > by warm covering, but returning on going to bed as a chilliness, with chattering of the teeth, disappearing after a short time while lying still; it threatened to return on motion.

Heat

External dry heat the whole night, with violent, unquenchable thirst. Internal with attacks of flushes of heat, or short flushes of heat intermingled with chilliness, even near the warm stove. Great heat of the face, of the hands and feet.

Sweat

Wanting or suppressed; or profuse, easily produced; sour-smelling sweat.

Tongue

Heavy, stiff, insensible; bright red; covered with a downy white fur (milky white coating, Ant. c.). Desire for, or aversion to food, with loathing when merely looking at it, and still more when smelling it; the smell of broth nauseates, and that of fish, eggs, or fat meat, almost makes him faint.

Nausea with great restlessness; on assuming the upright position, great inclination to vomit.

Apyrexia

Never clear. The gastric symptoms which come to the surface during this stage are usually characteristic.

Analysis

In Colchicum we frequently find the genus epidemicus for the intermittents so often met with late in autumn, when epidemic dysentery prevails. The gastric and abdominal symptoms are guiding; especially sensitive to odor of food.

A CASE.—In the autumn of 1866, L. C., æt. 30, was attacked with ague of the quotidian type. The case lasted some eighteen days, a chill every day, and every day alike. It began at 10 A. M. with violent thirst, intense headache, greatly aggravated by the slightest motion, so that the patient lay on his right side with his head almost down to his knees, and moved only when the distress was so intense he could not avoid it. Wanted to be covered, but no relief from the covering. Chill lasted about an hour, and was followed by intense heat lasting about two hours, with continuance of thirst and headache, when the sweat began, with immediate relief of all the symptoms. He received a single dose of Bryonia 200 The next day the chill returned and I got this additional symptom: he could not bear the sight or smell of food. This suggested Colchicum, but, careful not to spoil the case by too hasty prescriptions, I gave Sac. lac. I took time to study Colchicum. My attention being given almost wholly to the fever symptoms, I concluded

Colchicum did not cover the case, and gave Nat. 200, one dose. The chill returned the next day; but Hering says Natrum is a slow acting remedy, and I thought we must give it time. I waited four days with just the same chill every day. Soon it appeared that every day the chill began with a desire for cold water, immediately after swallowing which he begins to be cold in the stomach, the coldness at once becoming general. It is not nec- essary for me to mention the various remedies he received, as I floundered day after day trying to cure intermittent fever, with that symptom of the appetite prominent before me all the time. At length a friend called, and I asked him to go with me to see the case. He did so, and, making his ex- amination, took copious notes of the symptoms, till he struck that symptom of the appetite, when he whispered to me "Colchicum." "Yes," I said, "but that is the only symptom of it in the case." He finished his examina- tion, and we gave Sac. lac. The next morning my friend called at my office and said: "That is Colchicum or Cocculus; I am not sure which."

"Well," I said, "if you say Colchicum, here goes;" and putting a vial of

Fincke's 21 m. in my pocket, I went at once to see my patient. I found him in a chill, as usual. I gave him Sac. lac. in solution, once in two hours, and left a powder of Colchicum 21 m. to be taken as soon as the paroxysm was over. He never had another chill. Moral: Treat the patient, not the disease.—WM. A. HAWLEY, M. D.