Kali Bromatum kali-br.

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

MIND. NERVES: Brain. Spine. Genitals. Larynx. Skin.

Worse

Mental exertion. Emotions. Periodically: Night. Summer. New moon. Sexual excesses. Puberty.

Better

When busy.

General

Slow onset. No pain. General numbness; < occiput.

Particulars

Depressive delusions. Nervous. Suspicion; fears people, yet can't be alone, in the dark, etc.; looks on all sides; fidgety, busy hands, fumbles. Moves arms about wildly. Mania. Night terrors. Melancholy; remorse, wrings hands, bursts into tears, etc. Slow hesitates; omits or mixes up words. Indifference. Hebetude. Poor memory. Brain-fag. Vertigo, as if ground gave way. Catarrh descends to larynx (Am-bro.). Cutting colic. Green, watery stool; with rapid collapse. Cholera infantum. Depressed sexual power. Flooding of young women. Croupy cough. Cool skin. Acne. Sleepy.

Related

Antidote: Zin-pho. Related: Calc-c. Con. Op. Stram.

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 large persons inclined to obesity; acts better in children than in adults. Loss of sensibility, fauces, larynx, urethra, entire body; staggering, uncertain gait; feels as if legs were all over sidewalk. Nervous, restless; cannot sit still, must move about or keep occupied; hands and fingers in constant motion; fidgety hands (fidgety feet, Zinc.); twitching of fingers. Fits of uncontrollable weeping and profound melancholic delusions. Loss of memory; forgets how to talk; absent-minded; has to be told the word before he could speak it (Anac.). Depressed, low-spirited, anxious, "feel as if they would lose their minds." Inco-ordination of muscles (Gels.); nervous weakness or paralysis of motion and numbness. Restlessness and sleeplessness due to worry and grief, loss of property or reputation, from business embarassements (Hyos.). Night terrors of children (Kali p.); grinding teeth in sleep, screams, moans, cries; horrible dreams, cannot be comforted by friends. Somnambulism (Sil.). Spasms: from fright, anger or emotional causes in nervous plethoric persons; during parturition, teething, whooping-cough, Bright's disease. Epilepsy: congenital, syphilitic, tubercular; usually a day or two before menses; at new moon; headache follows attack. Cholera infantum, with reflex irritation of brain, before effusion; first stage of hydrocephaloid. Daily colic in infants about 5 a. m. (at 4 p. m. Col., Lyc.). Nervous cough during pregnancy; dry, hard, almost incessant, threatening abortion (Con.). Stammering; slow, difficult speech (Bov., Stram.). Acne: simplex, indurata, rosacea; bluish-red, pustular, on face, chest, shoulders; leaves unsightly scars (Carbo an.); in young fleshy persons of gross habits.

Relations

One of the antidotes for lead poisoning. Often curative after Eugenia jambos in acne.

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

Sleeplessness, especially in anaemic patients, or nervous persons who are exhausted but irritable.

Homœopathic Materia Medica

William Boericke · Homœopathic Materia Medica · 9th edition

Common name

Bromide of Potash (KALI BROMATUM)

General

Like all Potash Salts, this weakens the heart and lowers temperature. Brominism is caused by it. General failure of mental power, loss of memory, melancholia, anæsthesia of the mucous membranes, especially of eyes, throat, and skin; acne; loss of sexual desire, paralysis. Leading remedy in psoriasis. Nodular form of chronic gout. Symptoms of apoplectic attacks, uræmic or otherwise; somnolence and stertor, convulsions, aphasia, albuminuria. Epilepsy (with salt-free diet).

Mind

Profound, melancholic delusion; feeling of moral deficiency; religious depression; delusions of conspiracies against him. Imagines he is singled out as an object of divine wrath. Loss of memory. Must do something-move about; gets fidgety (Tarant). Fear of being poisoned (Hyos). Amnesic aphasia; can pronounce any word told, but cannot speak otherwise. Night terrors. Horrid illusions. Active delirium.

Head

Suicidal mania with tremulousness. Face flushed. Numb feeling in head. Brain-fag. Coryza with tendency to extension into throat.

Throat

Congestion of uvula and fauces. Anæsthesia of fauces, pharynx, and larynx. Dysphagia, especially of liquids (Hyos).

Stomach

Vomiting, with intense thirst, after each meal. Persistent hiccough (Sulph ac).

Abdomen

Sensation as if bowels were falling out. Cholera infantum, with reflex cerebral irritation, jerking and twitching of muscles. Green, watery stools with intense thirst, vomiting, eyes sunken. Prostration. Internal coldness of abdomen. Diarrhœa, with much blood. Green, watery stools. Retraction of abdomen.

Urinary

Sensibility of urethra diminished. Urine profuse, with thirst. Diabetes (Phos ac).

Male

Debility and impotence. Effects of sexual excesses, especially loss of memory, impaired co-ordination, numbness and tingling in limbs. Sexual excitement during partial slumber.

Female

Pruritus. Ovarian neuralgia with great nervous uneasiness. Exaggerated sexual desire. Cystic tumors of ovaries.

Respiratory

Spasmodic croup. Reflex cough during pregnancy. Dry, fatiguing, hacking cough at night.

Extremities

Fidgety hands; busy twitching of fingers. Jerking and twitching of muscles.

Skin

Acne of face, pustules. Itching; worse on chest, shoulders, and face. Anæsthesia of skin. Psoriasis.

Sleep

Restless sleep. Extreme drowsiness. Sleeplessness due to worry and grief and sexual excess. Night terrors. Grinding teeth in sleep. Horrible dreams. Somnambulism.

Modalities

Better, when occupied mentally or physically.

Dose

A few grains of the crude salt to the third trituration. Remember the unstable character of this salt. Said to be much more active if salt is eliminated from the diet.

Leaders in Homoeopathic Therapeutics

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

Leaders

I do not know much about this remedy from a homœopathic standpoint. It first gained a reputation with the old school profession for its sleep-producing qualities and its power over epileptic seizures. As usual, it was pushed for these things until they found it was a dangerous remedy in the large doses which they had to use to produce the desired effect.

They discovered that it produced sleep, not by increasing the blood in the brain to stupefaction, like Opium, but, by decreasing the amount of blood, thus resembling more nearly natural sleep. Then they exclaimed, Eureka! But, alas! too great and long-continued anæmia resulted in lack of nutriment to the brain tissue, and as a consequence there developed depression, melancholia, insanity and signs of brain softening until Hammond, its chief advocate, admitted that it put more patients into the insane asylum than any other remedy.

Well, for what can we safely use the remedy? For the symptoms arising from cases simulating the effects of Kali bromatum, just as we do any other homœopathic remedy. I do not understand the remedy well enough to give characteristic indications for its homœopathic uses. There is one symptom which I think is valuable as a "guiding symptom," viz.: "fidgety hands." The patient must be working or playing with them continually; even the sleeplessness is somewhat relieved by moving the fingers over the bed clothes; or he plays with his watch chain or the head of his cane, anything to work off this excess of nervousness. Zincum has "fidgety feet," and Phosphorus a general fidgetiness of uneasiness; can't sit still, but changes position continually; not like Rhus toxicodendron, because he is relieved of pain by moving, but because he is simply nervous. The homœopathic uses of Kali bromatum ought to be better understood.

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

Bromide of Potassium. Potassic Bromide. K. Br. Solution. Trituration.

Clinical

Acne. Aphasia . Apoplexy. Asthma. Cholera infantum. Chordee . Colic. Diabetes. Emissions . Epilepsy. Erythema nodosum. General paralysis of insane. Hæmorrhoids. Impotence . Laryngeal crises. Laryngismus. Locomotor ataxy. Nightmare. Nose, eruption on. Ovaries, affections of . Paralysis. Paralysis agitans. Polypus (rectal). Psoriasis. Screaming . Sebaceous cysts. Seborrhœa. Self-abuse . Sensibility, loss of. Sleeplessness. Somnambulism. Speech, affections of . Syphilis. Tetanus. Urine, incontinence of .

Characteristics

Kali bro . has been proved, but the greater part of the pathogenesis is made up of symptoms observed in allopathic overdosings, to which are added symptoms cured in the practice of homœopaths. In old-school practice K. bro . has been given in epileptic and other convulsive affections rather with the idea of overwhelming disease than of curing it. The effect has been in numberless cases to reduce or prevent the recurrence of tits at the expense of keeping the patient constantly under the influence of the drug and producing a state of mental hebetude or actual imbecility, "decreasing the excitability and power of the motor cells of the brain" (Alberton). Along with this it has produced a great variety of skin eruptions. At the same time, K. bro . has a decidedly specific relation to epilepsy and the epileptic state, and in its own cases will cure in the attenuations. K. bro . has a very profound action on the generative organs and the mental side of the generative sphere: sensual, lascivious fancies; satyriasis and nymphomania and finally impotence and wasting of the sexual organs. The cases of epilepsy in which it is curative are chiefly those associated with sexual excess or abuse in men; and those in which the fits occur during or near the menstrual period in women. The power of K. bro . over the sexual sphere is very great. In my allopathic days I have often known a few grains of the salt given at bedtime permanently relieve youths who were troubled with erections and sexual excitement on going to bed. It might have acted as well in the attenuations, but it could not have done better. It is indicated also in cases of epilepsy occurring at the new moon; and when headache follows the fit. In spasms from fright, anger, or emotional disturbances in nervous, plethoric persons; during parturition, dentition, whooping-cough, in Bright's disease. One of the most troublesome "accidents" of the allopathic use of K. bro . is the production of eruptions of many kinds, but most notably acne. Acne has a very definite relation to the sexual organs, being especially noticeable at puberty and, in women at the menstrual period. I know of no remedy of such universal usefulness in cases of simple acne as K. bro . 30. It has produced moist eruptions and pityriasis of the scalp. The sebaceous follicles are particularly affected, which should give it a place in seborrhœa. Erythema nodosum was observed in some patients under its influence. The moral and intellectual faculties are greatly disordered. The memory is lost: forgets how to talk; aphasic, has to be told the word before he can speak it. Depressed, melancholic; uncontrollable weeping. "Feel as if they would lose their minds." Restlessness and sleeplessness from worry. Staggering gait; ataxia; numbness and tingling in legs and spine, with increase in sexual appetite. "Fidgety hands"; fingers must be playing with something; twitching of fingers; cannot sit still. Night terrors in children from over excitability of brain; from worry; during dentition. Cholera infantum with hydrocephalic symptoms. Drowsiness is one of the notes of the drug: "Drops asleep in his chair, and if aroused falls asleep again immediately." The deep sleep may be broken by a start, though waking is very difficult. Confused dreams. Benumbed sensation of brain. Reflexes are diminished, and there is general loss of general sensibility, and also of certain parts, particularly fauces, larynx, and urethra. This depressed state has another side to it in the curious restlessness and fidgetiness. In the lungs pulmonary œdema or suffocative bronchitis may develop; the patient may become cachectic and the condition resemble typhoid fever (Amory Hare). Wenzel Heyberger has recorded ( H. R ., ii. 215) a case of diabetes in a lady, 68, cured with K. bro . The patient had been ill five months and was reduced to a skeleton. She first noticed a remarkably good appetite but after meals had heartburn and eructations. Then there was polyuria and frequent disturbances at night to pass water. Weak in the head, confused, memory impaired. Vision almost gone. Rushing and roaring in ears. Tormenting thirst. Stools difficult and delayed. Powders medicated with K. bro . 2 were given, one every six hours. The first night the patient slept without disturbance and the quantity of urine and proportion of sugar diminished. After about six-weeks the improvement seemed to stop and K. bro . was given in allopathic doses, but this aggravated the condition. K. bro . 2 was resumed, and the case went on to a cure. Hale cured with K. bro . many cases of cholera infantum, and one case of "violent periodic umbilical colic, leaving tenderness on pressure." The characteristic hour of recurrence is 5 p.m. Another feature of the K. bro . action is in relation to new growths. A number of cases of ovarian cyst have disappeared under its action, also fibroids and fatty tumours. The acne-producing property of the drug shows its relation to sebaceous secretions, and it has removed sebaceous cysts and wens. In connection with ovarian tumours or other affections, or independently, there may be uterine hæmorrhage ─ metrorrhagia or menorrhagia. It may arise from reflected irritation and may be accompanied with sexual excitement. But that is not necessarily the case. "Flooding, especially in young women," is Hering's indication. Burford has used it extensively in such cases and generally in attenuations approaching the crude. K. bro . is more particularly adapted to persons inclined to obesity; to children; to nervous women. More symptoms have been noted on the right side than on the left. Among the remarkable sensations are: "Parts feel as if growing large." "Paroxysms of numbness; feels as if needles were pricking him." Trembling sensation. A marked periodicity appears in the symptoms (which itself relates the drug to epilepsy); symptoms recur paroxysmally. Every 2, 3, or 24 hours. Twice a week; fortnightly; at new moon. Urticaria in winter. Most symptoms are < at night. < 2 a.m. regularly. There is chilliness in a hot room; and itching during high temperature. < In hot weather; < in summer. Skin > in cold weather. Vertigo is < by stooping. Cough < lying down. The old-school contra-indications for the Bromides are: General asthenia and feebleness of the nervous system; post-typhoidal and post-puerperal insanity; senile softening of the brain; and when the gastro-intestinal mucous membrane is irritated (Hare). These are keynotes for K. bro . in high attenuations.

Relations

K. bro. is antidoted by: Vegetable acids, oils, Camph., Nux v., Zinc. It antidotes: Lead-poisoning. It follows well: Aco. and Spong. in croup; Eug. jambos in acne. Compare: Bro., Camph. bro., Amm. bro., Aur. bro. (night-terrors), K. carb. (persons inclined to obesity; also Am. c., Calc. c., Graph.), K. iod. (acne, syphilis), K. phos. and Calc. c. (night-terrors). Hyo. (mania; excited sensorium without inflammation of brain; fears being poisoned; sees ghosts; sexual excitement); Plat. (sees ghosts, demons, &c.); Arg. n. (fearful apprehensive mood; imagines cannot pass a certain point). Glo. (fears being poisoned; also Rhus t.); Staph. (mental depression, weakness of legs from masturbation); Gels. (in inco-ordination of muscles); Con. (nervous cough during pregnancy). Bov., Stram. (slow, difficult speech; stammering); Ip. (cholera infantum); Zinc. (fidgety restlessness; Zinc. of feet, K. bro. of hands); Tarent. (reflex symptoms; any little irritation such as dentition or indigestion may = convulsions. Fidgety hands).

Causation

Anger. Fright. Emotional disturbance. Worry. Business losses and embarrassments. Sexual excess. Sexual abuse.

Mind

Unconscious of what is occurring around them; cannot recognise, nor be comforted by, their friends. ─ Memory absolutely destroyed; anæmia; emaciation. ─ Loss of memory; had to be told the word before he could speak it (amnesic aphasia). ─ Inability to express oneself. ─ Writing almost unintelligible from omission of words or parts of words; words repeated or misplaced. ─ Mentally dull, torpid; perception slow, answers slowly. ─ Benumbed sensation of brain. ─ Fearful, apprehensive mood; imagines he cannot pass a certain point. ─ Drowsiness. ─ Fears to be alone. ─ Frightful imaginings at night (in pregnant women during later months), they are under impression that they have committed, or are about to commit, some great crime and cruelty, such as murdering their children or husbands. ─ Hallucinations of sight and sound, with or without mania, precede brain and paralytic symptoms. ─ Delirium, with delusions; thinks he is pursued; will be poisoned; is selected for Divine vengeance; that her child is dead, &c. ─ Delirium tremens, in first or irritative stage; face flushed; eyes red; delirium active; horrid illusions; hard, quick pulse. ─ Puerperal mania, with fulness of blood-vessels of brain. ─ Hands constantly busy; all sorts of fearful delusions; walks the room groaning, bemoaning his fate; full of fear; unsteady. ─ Fits of uncontrollable weeping and profound melancholic delusions. ─ Feeling of lightness and exhilaration in place of heaviness and depression. ─ Depressed; low-spirited; has nervous anxiety. ─ Profound melancholic depression, with religious delusions and feeling of moral deficiency; frequent shedding of tears, low-spirited and childish, giving way to her feelings; profound indifference and almost disgust for life (melancholia). ─ Profound melancholy from anæmia. ─ Night terrors of children (not from indigestion), with screaming in sleep, trembling, unconsciousness of what is around them; cannot recognise, nor be comforted by, their friends; sometimes followed by squinting.

Head

Heaviness, confusion; slow speech; staggers as if drunk. ─ Dizziness, noises in ear; nervous excitement; sleepless. ─ Vertigo: palpitation, nausea, even unconsciousness; memory growing weak; as if ground gave way; staggering gait; confusion and heat of head, drowsiness, stupor; fainting and nausea followed by sound sleep. ─ Constrictive sensation in brain as if too tight, with a feeling of anæsthesia of brain. ─ Headache in r. frontal protuberance; sleepy. ─ Severe, throbbing aching pains in occipital region, extending down as far as dorsal region cannot sit up or walk, or shake head without feeling < ; great weakness and depression of mind. ─ Violent headache, particularly in occiput. ─ Flushed face, throbbing of carotids and temporals, suffusion of eyes; feeling of fulness of head. ─ Brain irritated. ─ Anæmia of brain from loss of fluids; constant drowsiness; coma; pupils dilated, eyes sunken, eyeballs moving in every direction without taking any notice; feet and hands blue and cold; pulse imperceptible. (Hydrocephalus.). ─ Bad results from overtaxing brain; esp. with grief or anxiety; nervousness. ─ Violent headache from concussion of brain. ─ Mercurial headache. ─ Drooping of head; cannot hold it erect. ─ Scalp feels tight, brain numb, confused. ─ Seborrhœa. ─ Pityriasis.

Eyes

Vision dim, pupils dilated; with heavy lids and invincible drowsiness. ─ Eyes sunken, lustreless; gaze fixed. ─ Eyeballs moving in every direction. ─ Pupils dilated, contract sluggishly, vertigo and confusion of head; pupils contracted. ─ Vessels of fundus enlarged; conjunctivæ congested. ─ Eyes suffused. ─ Squinting; after night terrors of children.

Ears

Ringing in ears. ─ Roaring in ears at night synchronous with pulse. ─ Sounds echo in ears; headache. ─ Hardness of hearing.

Nose

Smell impaired. ─ Thick mucus and yellow scabs in nostrils. ─ Erythematous swelling of nose.

Face

Expression: pale, but otherwise appeared as one drunk, with hallucination, &c.; wearied, anxious; dull, stupefied; imbecile. ─ Expressionless face: incipient softening of brain. ─ Complexion yellow, cachectic. ─ Face flushed. ─ Acne; on face in young fleshy people of gross habit. ─ Papular rash.

Teeth

Odontitis of children. ─ Difficult dentition of children. ─ Vomiting and diarrhœa of teething children.

Mouth

Difficult speech action of tongue disordered slow and difficult after waking; stammering. ─ Tongue: red, dry, enlarged red, later dry and brown; white, involving edges as well as dorsum, with languor and sleepiness; pale and cold. ─ Fetid breath; a peculiar sickening odour; tongue white. ─ Saliva profuse, with fetid breath. ─ Suppressed salivation in teething children.

Throat

Anæsthesia of mouth, throat, and pharynx; (chronic alcoholism). ─ Dysphagia of liquids (in infants); can swallow only solids. ─ Uvula and fauces congested, then œdematous. ─ Dryness of throat. ─ Diphtheritis with quick pulse; fever; dry tongue; offensive breath; highly injected and dusky red fauces; patches of wash-leather exudation on tonsils or pharynx.

Appetite

Taste: foul; salty; lost. ─ Anorexia, foul breath, white tongue, involving edges as well as dorsum, and not necessarily furred; great languor; violent headache; loathing vomiturition or vomiting of mucus; saltish taste in mouth. ─ Thirst intense with dry mouth. ─ (Children who from time of birth can swallow solids with ease, yet choke every time they try to drink). ─ Troublesome pressure at stomach after dinner; lassitude.

Stomach

Repeated retching and emesis; sick and giddy. ─ Hysterical women who vomit their food after each meal, esp. if subjected to exciting emotions. ─ Vomiting: with intense thirst; of drunkards after a debauch; in whooping-cough; of meconium. ─ Weakness of stomach; dyspepsia. ─ Troublesome pressure at stomach after dinner.

Abdomen

Enlargement of liver and spleen. ─ Small tumour in region of spleen. ─ Sensation as if bowels were falling out. ─ Internal coldness of abdomen. ─ Abdomen sunken, almost stuck to vertebral column (cholera infantum). ─ Colic in young children; walls of belly are retracted and hard, while intestines can be seen at one spot contracted into a hard lump, of size of a small orange, travelling from one part of intestines to another; attacks frequent and excruciating, unconnected with diarrhœa or constipation, but often associated with an aphthous condition of mouth. ─ Periodic colic in infants, occurring about 5 p.m. ─ Flatulent colic in children and hysterical women. ─ Ascites of hepatic or splenic origin.

Stool

Painless diarrhœa, with great chilliness, even in a hot room. Stools: watery (like rice-water); painless. ─ Frequent, green, watery discharges, with violent abdominal spasms, during which abdomen gets hard; thrush in mouth; convulsive motions of eyes and limbs. ─ Bloody muco-purulent diarrhœa, with intense thirst, vomiting, eyes sunken, pupils dilated, skin corrugated and spotted blue, body cold, tongue red and dry, pulse imperceptible, urine suppressed. ─ Cerebral irritation during cholera infantum. Asiatic cholera, first stage, vomiting, cramps, rice-water discharges restores secretion of urine. ─ Constipation; stools very dry, hard and infrequent. ─ Retention of meconium, with vomiting of all food and obstinate constipation. ─ During stool: sensation as if bowels were falling out; dribbling of urine. ─ Spasmodic stricture of sphincter ani. ─ Constant diarrhœa and more or less tenesmus, and passage of much blood; on making efforts to expel, protrusion of several elongated bodies resembling earthworms; with this expulsion there was always a yellow, very fetid discharge; fæces flattened; flatulent distension of bowels; patient pale and sickly-looking (polypus of rectum). ─ Blind, intensely painful varices with black stools. ─ Pain in hæmorrhoids, fissure of rectum and painful growths.

Urinary Organs

Pain in region of kidneys extending in direction of ascending colon; afterwards copious urine. ─ Neuralgia of neck of bladder. ─ Diminution of sensibility of urethra. ─ Urine: profuse with thirst; with abundance of phosphates; copious, pale; scanty, even suppressed in collapse; scanty, dribbling a few drops at beginning of every stool. ─ Incontinence of urine. ─ Thin, yellowish urine. ─ Nocturnal involuntary emissions of urine. ─ Emaciation; paleness; skin cold and dry pulse rapid and feeble; tongue red and tender; gums spongy and bleeding thirst excessive; appetite voracious; bowels constipated; urine pale, frequent, large quantity, of high density, and loaded with sugar; liver tumid and tender (diabetes mellitus).

Male Sexual Organs

Sensual and lascivious fancies and dreams. ─ Excessive sexual desires, with constant erections at night. ─ Satyriasis. ─ Diminution of sexual desire; lessened even to impotence. ─ Erections at night; backache uncontrollable fidgetiness. ─ Impotence with melancholy, loss of memory nervous prostration; epilepsy. ─ Effects of sexual excesses, such as impotency, paralysis and spasms from exhaustion of spinal cord. ─ Seminal emissions, with depressed spirits, dull thought, backache, staggering gait and great weakness. ─ Spermatorrhœa, before paralytic symptoms have set in; erections normal but teasing and persistent, with nocturnal emissions and nervous disturbances growing out of unsatisfied sexual desire. ─ Chordee during gonorrhœa.

Female Sexual Organs

Nymphomania. ─ Sterility from excessive sexual indulgence. ─ Abolition of all sexual feeling during coition. ─ Aversion to coition; menses scanty. ─ Induration of uterus; enlargement of uterus (after parturition), with abnormal discharges. ─ Uterine fibroids. ─ Ovarian neuralgia from ungratified sexual desire; nervous unrest. ─ Neuralgia of ovaries; pain, swelling, tenderness of l. ovary, diminution of sexual desire. ─ Epilepsy from ovarian irritation. ─ Large tumour, smooth and tense, in hypogastric and r. iliac region; tumour slightly tender when pressed, and there is distinct fluctuation; measurement of abdomen taken in a line with crests of ilium shows an increase of size of ten inches; urine scanty and frequent calls to pass it (ovarian cystic tumour). ─ Abdomen large but not tense; on palpation, well defined, elastic tumour, yielding indistinct fluctuation, in l. iliac region, here also movements are felt as in quickening (ovarian enlargement). ─ Metrorrhagia from reflex irritation, or of nervous origin. ─ Menorrhagia, metrorrhagia, nymphomania, and menstrual epilepsy; nervous symptoms led to its use. ─ Menorrhagia from ovarian irritation caused by strong sexual desire. ─ Flooding, esp. in young women. ─ Erotomania, a few days after menses. ─ Before menses: headache. ─ During menses: epileptic spasms, nymphomania, itching, burning, and excitement in vulva, pudenda, and clitoris. ─ After menses: headache, insomnia, and heat in genitals. ─ Epileptic attacks at or near menstrual periods. ─ Scanty menstruation in fleshy women. ─ Change of life: restless, must be on the move; sleepless; trembling; flushings of face and much congestion of blood to head; palpitation of heart; menorrhagia. ─ Vaginismus. ─ Pruritus of external genitals; arising from irritation of uterus, or ovaries, or any hyperæsthesia of veins of that location; sexual excitement intense, often actual nymphomania. ─ Nymphomania during puerperal state. ─ Frightful imaginings at night, that she has committed some great crime as the murder of her children or husband (during pregnancy). ─ Morning sickness and vomiting during pregnancy. ─ Nervous cough during pregnancy, threatening abortion; the cough dry, hard, and almost incessant. ─ Convulsions during labour. ─ Enlarged uterus.

Respiratory Organs

After parturition voice changed, whispering. ─ Hyperæsthesia of laryngeal nerves. ─ Loss of sensibility. ─ Chronic catarrh with purulent slate-coloured sputa. ─ Follicular and catarrhal laryngitis. ─ Laryngismus stridulus, uncomplicated, from neurosis or reflex irritation. ─ Laryngeal crises of locomotor ataxy. ─ Spasmodic, dry croup, occurring suddenly from reflex irritation, teething, worms, not catarrhal. ─ Membranous croup, with whitish exudation. ─ Breath hot and hurried. ─ Breathlessness, nervous headache, and want of sleep. ─ Spasmodic asthma; with dry, nervous, spasmodic cough, great tightness of breathing. ─ Paroxysmal, dry cough. ─ Dry, fatiguing cough at intervals of two or three hours, with difficult respiration, followed by vomiting of mucus and food, < at night and when lying down; tightness of chest when breathing. ─ Weak, nervous children, arouse with a dry, spasmodic cough, which greatly frightens them, causing them to cry out in terror. ─ Nervous, dry, hysterical cough of women, esp. if pregnant. ─ Whooping-cough, with spasmodic, dry cough; spasm of glottis; with convulsions.

Chest

Burning in chest. ─ Pneumonia in drunkards.

Heart and Pulse

Feeble intermitting action; so nervous she must be busy and walk; slow and small pulse; heart's beat wanting in energy, and its sounds distant and feeble; action of heart slow and fluttering. ─ Pulse, accelerated, later becomes slower. ─ (Cardiac neuroses from spinal or uterine irritation.)

Back

Tabes dorsalis from sexual excesses. ─ Backache; tired lameness of legs (seminal emissions).

Upper Limbs

Trembling of hands during voluntary motion; or, as in delirium tremens. ─ Hands and fingers in constant action; busy twitching of fingers.

Lower Limbs

Cannot stand erect; legs weak. ─ Unsteady gait; frequently taken for a drunken man. ─ Loss of sensibility; pinching or burning causes no pain (locomotor ataxia).

Generalities

Nervous, busy, must occupy one's self; often in nervous women. ─ Inco-ordination of muscles; nervous weakness; even paralysis of motion and numbness. ─ Weakness of extensors of leers and feet. ─ Temperature lowered, with coldness of extremities; hands and wrists icy-cold and wet; cerebral irritation, in cholera infantum.

Skin

Skin cold, blue, spotted, corrugated (cholera infantum). ─ Moist eczema of legs with pityriasis of scalp. ─ Moist eruptions. ─ Slightly elevated, smooth, red patches, like urticaria, but with hardened bases, like erythema nodusum; itching at night in bed and in a high temperature; appear in winter. ─ Acne simplex and indurata; bluish red, pustular, < on face and chest; esp. in lymphatic constitutions. ─ Rose-coloured mammilated eruption on lower extremities; sometimes pustules in centre of patches that become umbilicated, exuding a creamy moisture and forming thick, yellow scabs. ─ Eruption of small boils in successive crops, mostly on face and trunk, with troublesome itching. ─ Large, indolent, painful pustules; boils. ─ Long-lasting scrofulous ulcerations. ─ Syphilitic psoriasis.

Sleep

Sleepiness; deep sleep, often broken by a start, though waking is very difficult; confused dreams. ─ Sleepy; drops asleep in his chair; if aroused falls right asleep again; during day. ─ Sleepless; restless; can only calm herself by incessant occupation. ─ Sleeplessness: in anæmic patients, or nervous persons who are exhausted but irritated; from over-fulness of cerebral blood-vessels; during convalescence from acute diseases; in case of mercurial poisoning; accompanying mental anxiety, hysteria, pregnancy, and general nervous irritability; from sexual excitement. ─ Deep, profound, and quiet slumber. ─ Profound and yet disturbed sleep, always awakens with a mental struggle, not knowing at first where he was or what had become of him. ─ Night terrors of children; grinding teeth in sleep, moans, cries; horrible dreams. ─ Somnambulism in children. ─ Waking with severe headache in a child.

Fever

Body cold; skin corrugated and mottled. ─ Shivering with cold and cold skin, although child was covered with mustard plasters. ─ Chilliness and general feeling of coldness, more pronounced about extremities (ague). ─ Heat, like cold stage, not very strongly marked. ─ Head hot, feels as if in a furnace, with coldness and chills. ─ Sweat abundant and viscid, all over body; unusually long lasting and exhausting (ague).

The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica

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

Mind

Unconscious of what is occurring around them ; cannot recognize, nor be comforted by their friends.
Loss of memory.
Memory absolutely destroyed ; anemia ; emaciation.
Loss of memory, despondency, inability to concentrate mind on any object ; constant worry, fears to see people or to be spoken to ; vertigo, with falling, < from stooping ; failure of mental and bodily strength ; pricking sensation all over body, palpitation ;
constantly busy, tying his shoes, fumbling in his pockets, picking threads, etc. θ Mental derangement.
Loss of memory, forgets how to talk, absentmindedness.
Loss of memory ; had to be told the word before he could speak it. θ Amnesic aphasia.
Single words forgotten ; syllables are dropped.
Inability to express oneself.
Mentally dull, torpid ; perception slow, answers slowly.
Imagines he is singled out as an object of divine wrath ; extreme drowsiness.
Imagines she is a devil ; cannot sleep ; fears to be alone.
Positive delusions of various kinds.
Delusions during and after delirium tremens.
In first stage with horrid illusions, flushed face, red eyes, and hard and quick pulse. θ Delirium tremens.
Frightful imaginings at night (in pregnant women during latter months), they are under impression that they have committed, or about to commit, some great crime and cruelty, such as murdering their children or husbands.
Hallucinations of sight and sound, with or without mania, precede brain and paralytic symptoms.
Delirium, with delusions ; thinks he is pursued ; will be poisoned ; is selected for divine vengeance ; that her child is dead, etc.
Delirium tremens, in first or irritative stage ; face flushed ; eyes red ; delirium active ; horrid illusions ; hard, quick pulse.
Puerperal mania.
Acute mania, with fulness of bloodvessels of brain.
Insanity ; manner excited, rambling.
Feels as if he would go out of his mind.
She is very fretful, crying at trifles, constantly brooding over loss of a daughter ; almost crazy ; from fretting, loss of rest and want of nourishment, is seized with nervous dysentery.
Hands constantly busy ; all sorts of fearful delusions ; walks the room groaning, bemoaning his fate ; full of fear ; unsteady.
Fits of uncontrollable weeping and profound melancholic delusions.
Feeling of lightness and exhilaration in place of heaviness and depression.
Depressed ; low-spirited ; has nervous anxiety.
Remarkably depressed, well marked amnesic aphasia.
Deep depression, with painful delusions, with persistent sleeplessness, and dread of impending destruction of all near to her.
Great despondency ; "feel as if they should go out of their minds".
Profound melancholic depression, with religious delusions and feeling of moral deficiency ; frequent shedding of tears, low-spirited and childish, giving way to her feelings ; profound indifference and almost disgust for life. θ Melancholia.
Profound melancholy, from anemia.
Great despondency, with insanity, a feeling of moral deficiency, or a religious delusion, from anemia.
Melancholy, with delusions ; often childish ; fits of uncontrollable weeping.
Night terrors of children (not from indigestion), with screaming, unconsciousness of what is occurring around them ; cannot recognize, nor be comforted by their friends ; sometimes followed by squinting.
Apathetic, indifferent.
Timid, suspicious, full of fear.
Much concerned about health ; complains without cause ; restless and trembling in evening ; low-spirited, with great and uncontrollable sensation of fear and anxiety ; thinks she is becoming deranged ; change of life.
So sensitive and irritable of mind she cannot give her music lessons ; very thought of piano breaks her down, makes her shake all over, and then cry with fear and apprehension that she is losing her mind ; cries easily ; so easily confused that she cannot say what she
wishes to ; least thing worries her ; makes her utterly miserable to be looked at or spoken to ; fears to see people ; always depressed and low-spirited ; memory weak and unreliable. θ Melancholia.
Overtaxed brain.

Sensorium

Congestive paralysis approaching apoplexy ; lay unconscious for twenty-four hours ; flushed face ; feeble pulse, contracted and non-reacting pupils ; followed by vertigo and mental weakness.
Heaviness, confusion ; slow speech, staggers a if drunk.
Dizziness, noises in ear ; nervous excitement ; sleepless.
Vertigo : palpitation, nausea, even unconsciousness ; memory growing weak ; as if ground gave away ; staggering gait ; confusion and heat of head, drowsiness, stupor ; fainting and nausea followed by sound sleep.
Confusion of head.

Inner head

Migraine, with flushed face, throbbing temples, injected conjunctiva, photophobia and much congestion of brain.
Constrictive sensation in brain as if too tight, with a feeling of anesthesia of brain.
Headache in right frontal protuberance ; sleepy.
Severe, throbbing aching pains in occipital region, extending down as far as dorsal region ; cannot sit up or walk or shake head without feeling < ; great weakness and depression of mind.
Violent headache, particularly in occiput.
Brain irritated, face flushed, pupils dilated, eyes sunken ; rolls head ; awakes now and then screaming ; extremities cold. θ Cholera infantum.
Reflex cerebral irritation, with active congestion in children during teething, cholera infantum, or scarlet fever ; first stage of hydrocephaloid from cholera infantum.
Flushed face, throbbing of carotids and temporals, suffusion of eyes ; feeling of fulness of head.
Headache, with dizziness ; staggering as if intoxicated, stupefaction ; sopor ; muscular weakness ; anesthesia of pharynx and velum palati and external skin ; sight weakened and hearing impaired ; gastralgia ; vomiting ; colic ;
constipation. θ Alcoholism.
Active congestion, or first stage of inflammation, before effusion has occurred.
Acute congestions or inflammatory diseases of brain.
Incipient basilar meningitis ; severe headache, nearly all the time ; < at night ; would play a few minutes, then lay head down on chair or other support and cry with headache ; weak, emaciated, dull, heavy eyed ; no appetite ; sleep disturbed by groans,
grinding of teeth, starting up frightened ; terrible headache ; tongue clean ; pulse 90 to 100, quick and wiry ; constipation ; scanty urine ; too much heat about head.
Anemia of brain from loss of fluids ; constant drowsiness ; coma ; pupils dilated, eyes sunken, eyeballs moving in every direction without taking any notice ; feet and hands blue and cold ; pulse imperceptible. θ Hydrocephalus.
Bad results from overtaxing brain ; especially with grief or anxiety ; nervousness.
Violent headache, from concussion of brain.
Mercurial headache.

Outer head

Drooping of head ; cannot hold it erect.
Scalp feels tight, brain numb, confused ; difficult walking.

Sight and eyes

Vision dim, pupils dilated ; with heavy lids and invincible drowsiness.
Eyes sunken, lustreless ; gaze fixed.
Eyeballs moving in every direction.
Dilated pupils and sunken eyes. θ Cholera infantum.
Pupils dilated, contract sluggishly, vertigo and confusion of head ; pupils contracted.
Vessels of fundus enlarged ; conjunctivæ congested.
Eyes suffused.
Squinting ; after night terrors of children.

Hearing and ears

Ringing in ears.
Roaring in ears at night synchronous with pulse.
Sounds echo in ears ; headache.
Hardness of hearing.

Smell and nose

Smell impaired.
Thick mucus and yellow scabs in nostrils.
Erythematous swelling of nose.

Upper face

Expression : pale, but otherwise appeared as one drunk, with hallucinations, etc. ; wearied, anxious ; dull, stupefied ; imbecile.
Expressionless face ; incipient softening of brain.
Complexion yellow, cachectic.
Face flushed.
Acne on face in young fleshy people of gross habits.
Papular rash.

Teeth and gums

Odontitis in children.
Difficult dentition of children.
Vomiting and diarrhœa of teething children.

Taste, speech, tongue

Taste : foul ; salty ; lost.
Difficult speech ; action of tongue ; disordered ; slow and difficult after waking ; stammering.
Tongue : red, dry, enlarged ; red, later dry and brown ; white, with languor and sleepiness ; pale and cold.
White tongue. θ Dyspepsia.
Tongue red and tender ; gums spongy. θ Diabetes.

Inner mouth

Fetid breath ; a peculiar sickening odor ; tongue white.
Saliva profuse, with fetid breath.
Suppressed salivation in teething children.

Palate and throat

Anesthesia of mouth, throat and pharynx ; chronic alcoholism.
Dysphagia of liquids (in infants) ; can swallow only solids.
Uvula and fauces congested, then œdematous.
Dryness of throat.
Face very red, throat swollen ; pulse 150 ; impossible to move head ; submaxillary glands swollen and painful, especially on right side ; tonsils swollen and purple ; very thick exudate, covering tonsils and uvula ; distinct, crooked line of demarcation
between healthy and affected part ; mouth dry, hot ; anxiety ; excitement alternating with comatose somnolence. θ Diphtheria.
Diphtheritis with quick pulse ; fever ; dry tongue ; offensive breath ; highly injected and dusky red fauces ; patches of wash leather exudation on tonsils or pharynx.

Appetite, thirst. desires, aversions

Loss of appetite ; tongue white ; languor.
Thirst intense with dry mouth.

Eating and drinking

Children, from time of birth, can swallow solids with ease, yet choke every time they try to drink.
Troublesome pressure at stomach after dinner ; lassitude.

Hiccough, belching, nausea and vomiting

Repeated retching and emesis ; sick and giddy.
Hysterical women who vomit their food after each meal, especially if subjected to exciting emotions.
Vomiting : with intense thirst ; when ganglionic system is affected ; of drunkards after a debauch ; in whooping cough ; of meconium.
Chronic morning vomiting of drunkards.

Scrobiculum and stomach

Weakness of stomach ; dyspepsia.
Anorexia, foul breath, white tongue, involving edges as well as dorsum, and not necessarily furred ; great languor ; violent headache ; loathing ; vomiturition or vomiting of mucus ; saltish taste in mouth ; vomiting of
drunkards after debauch ; troublesome pressure at stomach after dinner.

Hypochondria

Enlargement of liver and spleen.
Small tumor in region of spleen.

Abdomen and loins

Sensation as if bowels were falling out.
Internal coldness of abdomen.
Abdomen sunken, almost stuck to vertebral column. θ Cholera infantum.
Abdominal spasms, walls retracted, convulsive motions of eyes and limbs ; frequent, green, watery stools. θ Summer complaint.
Colic in young children ; walls of belly are retracted and hard, while intestines can be seen at one spot contracted into a hard lump, of size of a small orange, and contraction can be seen through abdominal wall to travel from one part of
intestines to another ; attacks frequent and excruciating, unconnected with diarrhœa or constipation, but often associated with an aphthous condition of mouth.
Periodic colic in infants, occurring about 5 P. M.
Flatulent colic in children and hysterical women.
Ascites of hepatic or splenic origin.

Stools and rectum

Painless diarrhœa, with great chilliness, even in a hot room ; fifteen or twenty passages in twenty-four hours ; burning in chest ; internal coldness of abdomen ; pulse frequent and weak ; urine scanty, dribbling of a few
drops in beginning ; at every stool, sensation as if bowels were falling out ; restless and shaky as if from palsy.
Stools : watery (like rice water) ; painless.
Frequent, green, watery discharges, with violent abdominal spasms, during which abdomen gets hard ; thrush in mouth ; convulsive motions of eyes and limbs.
Bloody muco-purulent diarrhœa, with intense thirst, vomiting, eyes sunken, pupils dilated, skin corrugated and spotted blue, body cold, tongue red and dry, pulse imperceptible, urine suppressed.
Cerebral irritation during cholera infantum ; pupils dilated, eyes sunken, eyeballs moving in every direction without taking any notice ; feet and hands blue and cold ; pulse imperceptible.
Cholera infantum, with reflex cerebral irritation of brain, before effusion.
Cholera infantum, sudden in onset, attended by great prostration, cold hands and feet, hot head, dilated pupils, rolling of eyes and head, starts, jactitation, spasms, watery, very offensive stools, vomiting of all drinks and intense thirst ; nervous and vascular excitement.
Great prostration, coldness of surface and symptoms of hydrocephaloid. θ Cholera infantum.
Asiatic cholera, first stage, vomiting, cramps, rice water discharges ; restores secretion of urine.
Constipation ; stools very dry, hard and infrequent.
Retention of meconium, with vomiting of all food and obstinate constipation.
During stool : sensation as if bowels were falling out ; dribbling of urine.
Spasmodic stricture of sphincter ani.
Constant diarrhœa and more or less tenesmus, and passage of much blood ; on making efforts to expel, protrusion of several elongated bodies, resembling earthworms in shape, but of much more brilliant red color ; they presented a soft, vascular, shreddy appearance, bearing some
resemblance to sarcomatous growths ; with this expulsion there was always a yellow, very fetid discharge ; feces flattened ; flatulent distension of bowels ; patient pale and sickly looking. θ Polypus
of rectum.
Blind, intensely painful varices with black stools.
Pain in hemorrhoids, fissure of rectum, and painful growths.

Urinary organs

Pain in region of kidneys extending in direction of ascending colon ; afterwards copious urine.
Spasmodic affection of neck of bladder.
Neuralgia of neck of bladder.
Abnormal irritability of urinary passages.
Diminution of sensibility of urethra.
Urine : profuse with thirst ; with abundance of phosphates ; copious, pale ; scanty, even suppressed in collapse ; scanty, dribbling a few drops at beginning of every stool.
Incontinence of urine.
Nocturnal involuntary emissions of urine.
Suppression of urine. θ Cholera infantum.
Emaciation ; paleness ; skin cold and dry ; pulse rapid and feeble ; tongue red and tender ; gums spongy and bleeding ; thirst excessive ; appetite voracius ; bowels constipated ; urine pale, frequent, large quantity, of high density, and
loaded with sugar ; liver tumid and tender. θ Diabetes mellitus.

Male sexual organs

Sensual and lascivious fancies and dreams.
Excessive sexual desire, with constant erections at night.
Satyriasis.
Diminution of sexual desire ; lessened even to impotence.
Erections at night ; backache ; uncontrollable fidgettiness.
Impotence with melancholy, loss of memory ; nervous prostration ; epilepsy.
Effects of sexual excesses, such as impotency, paralysis and spasms from exhaustion of spinal cord.
Frequent pollutions from ardent imagination.
Seminal emissions, with depressed spirits, dull thought, backache, staggering gait and great weakness.
Nocturnal emissions, with amorous dreams and erections.
Spermatorrhœa, before paralytic symptoms have set in ; erections normal but teasing and persistent, with nocturnal emissions and nervous disturbances growing out of unsatisfied sexual desire.
Chordee, during gonorrhœa.

Female sexual organs

Nymphomania.
Sterility from excessive sexual indulgence.
Abolition of all sexual feeling during coition.
Aversion to coition ; menses scanty.
Enlargement of uterus after parturition, with abnormal discharges.
Subinvolution of uterus.
Induration of uterus ; enlargement of uterus (after parturition), with abnormal discharges.
Uterine fibroids.
Ovarian neuralgia from ungratified sexual desire ; nervous unrest.
Neuralgia of ovaries ; pain, swelling, tenderness of left ovary ; diminution of sexual desire.
Epilepsy from ovarian irritation.
Large tumor, smooth and tense in hypogastric and right iliac region ; tumor slightly tender when pressed, and there is indistinct fluctuation ; measurement of abdomen taken in a line with crests of ilium shows an increase in size of ten inches ; urine scanty and frequent
calls to pass it. θ Ovarian cystic tumor.
Abdomen large but not tense ; on palpation, well defined, elastic tumor, yielding indistinct fluctuation, in left iliac region, here also movements are felt as in quickening. θ Ovarian
enlargement.
Ovarian cystic tumor, after tapping.
Metrorrhagia from reflex irritation, or of nervous origin.
Menorrhagia, metrorrhagia, nymphomania and menstrual epilepsy ; nervous symptoms led to its use.
Menorrhagia from ovarian irritation caused by strong sexual desire.
Flooding, especially in young women.
Erotomania, a few days after menses.
Before menses : headache.
During menses : epileptic spasms, nymphomania, itching burning and excitement in vulva, pudenda and clitoris, After menses : headache, insomnia and heat in genitals.
Epileptic attacks at or near menstrual periods.
Scanty menstruation, in fleshy women.
Change of life : restless, must be on the move ; sleepless ; trembling ; flushings of face and much congestion of blood to head ; palpitation of heart ; menorrhagia.
Vaginismus.
Voluptuous itching, tingling and irritation in external genital organs.
Pruritus of genitals, arising from irritation of uterus, or ovaries, or any hyperesthesia of veins of that location ; sexual excitement intense, often actual nymphomania.

Pregnancy. parturition. lactation

Nymphomania during puerperal state.
Puerperal mania, attended by ferocious or erotic delirium.
Frightful imaginings in pregnant women, usually caused by engorged condition of brain.
Frightful imaginings at night, labors under impression that she has committed, or is about to commit, some great crime or cruelty, as the murder of her children or husband. θ Pregnancy.
Morning sickness and vomiting during pregnancy.
Constant hacking cough during pregnancy ; irresistible desire to urinate, but no flow except with urging and difficulty.
Nervous cough during pregnancy, threatening abortion ; the cough dry, hard and almost incessant.
Convulsions during labor.
Enlarged uterus.

Voice and larynx. trachea and bronchia

After parturition voice changed, whispering.
Hoarseness, extremely painful and disagreeable.
Aphasia, from embolism of middle cerebral artery.
Hyperesthesia of laryngeal nerves.
Loss of sensibility.
Chronic catarrh with purulent slate colored sputa.
Follicular and catarrhal laryngitis.
Laryngismus stridulus, uncomplicated, from neurosis or reflex irritation.
Spasmodic, dry croup, occurring suddenly in night ; from reflex irritation, teething, worms, not catarrhal.
Spasmodic croup ; in earlier stages when child appears well in daytime ; at night is agitated, face flushed, suffused and bloodshot eyes ; after several hours he sleeps, breathing easily and naturally, but soon awakens in a paroxysm ; hyperesthesia of laryngeal
nerves followed at later stage by natural reaction ; loss of sensibility in larynx ; exudation of whitish, firm texture, affecting trachea and bronchi ; harsh, painful voice, with hoarseness ; hacking cough with dulness and confusion of head ; wakes suddenly from
sound sleep with sensation of suffocation, with peculiar ringing, dry, brassy cough and hurried breathing. θ Croup.
Membranous croup, with whitish exudation.
Torpid cases with copious purulent expectoration. θ Bronchitis.
Infantile capillary bronchitis with severe dyspnœa, throwing arms wildly about ; spasmodic action of muscles, opisthotonos.

Respiration

Breath hot and hurried.
Breathlessness, nervous headache and want of sleep.
Asthma of nervous origin.
Spasmodic asthma, with dry, nervous, spasmodic cough, great tightness of breathing.
Spasmodic asthma of children ; great dyspnœa, lividity of face ; no sleep, urine suppressed, general œdema.
Severe dyspnœa, tossing arms about wildly ; spasmodic action of muscles, throwing child into a state of opisthotonos. θ Capillary bronchitis.

Cough

Paroxysmal, dry cough.
Dry, fatiguing cough at intervals of two or three hours, with difficult respiration, followed by vomiting of mucus and food, < at night and when lying down ; tightness of chest when breathing.
Weak, nervous children, arouse with a dry, spasmodic cough, which greatly frightens them, causing them to cry out in terror.
Hacking cough with dulness and confusion of head.
Dry cough, due to reflex action from stomach, intestines, or uterus.
Nervous, dry, hysterical cough of women, especially if pregnant.
Whooping cough, with spasmodic, dry cough ; spasm of glottis ; with convulsions.

Inner chest and lungs

Burning in chest.
Pneumonia in drunkards.

Heart, pulse and circulation

Feeble, intermitting action of heart ; so nervous she must be busy and walk ; slow and small pulse ; heart's beats wanting in energy, and its sounds distant and feeble ; action of heart slow and fluttering.
Cardiac neuroses from spinal or uterine irritation.
Pulse : accelerated, later slower ; slow, small, weak ; rapid and weak ; 100, weak ; 50, small and feeble ; 40 skin cold, clammy ; imperceptible with coldness and collapse.
Vascular bruit de souffle.

Neck and back

Tabes dorsalis from sexual excesses.
Backache ; tired lameness of legs. θ Seminal emissions.

Upper limbs

Trembling of hands during voluntary motion ; or, as in delirium tremens.
Hands and fingers in constant action ; busy twitching of fingers.

Lower limbs

Cannot stand erect ; legs weak.
Unsteady gait ; frequently taken for a drunken man.
Gait staggering, uncertain ; looks to see if legs are really moving ; feels as if his legs were all over sidewalk. θ Locomotor ataxia.
Loss of sensibility ; pinching or burning causes no pain. θ Locomotor ataxia.
Legs and feet cold and blue ; on being touched leave white impress of fingers for more than twenty-five seconds. θ Cholera infantum.

Rest. position. motion

Difficulty of holding head erect.
Stooping : vertigo <.
Lying down : cough <.
Cannot sit, or walk, or shake head without feeling < of headache.
Cannot stand erect.
Straightening out in bed during spasm.
Restless, must be on the move.
Impossible to move head on account of swollen throat.
Difficult walking.

Nerves

The thought of something to be done makes her shake all over.
Nervous, restless ; cannot sit still, but must move about or otherwise occupy oneself ; often suits nervous women.
Restlessness, fitfullness of motion, with giddiness.
Almost constant twitching of fingers and a busy occupation of them in matters of no importance.
Nervous irritability caused by severe illness or death of some dear friend, or loss of property or reputation ; constant fretting ; will not eat, cannot sleep, is very irritable ; pulse quick, tongue coated ; fetid breath.
Restlessness and sleeplessness due to worry and grief.
Nervous excitement, irritation and congestion of cerebral meninges, with mania.
Hysterical spinal irritation.
Reflex excitability.
Languor, disinclined to talk, or use mind or work, indifferent, sleepy ; by strong effort of will can act as usual.
Trembling sensation through body.
Mercurial trembling.
Symptoms from affection of vasomotor nerves : occasional sudden paroxysmal feeling of numbness ; pins and needles ; deadness and weakness ; indescribable feeling of something wrong ; feeling of largeness, or as if limbs were swollen ; aching, uneasiness or
actual pain not very severe ; feeling of coldness, occasionally obvious fact of coldness ; sudden weakness ; paralyzed feeling ; unable to retain grasp of an object, hastily putting it down, or allowing it to fall ; muscles do not respond readily to will ;
co-ordination of movement defective ; writing or needlework have to be discontinued ; rubs the limbs by, as it would seem, an almost instinctive impulse ; sensations allied to cramp, or actual cramp, with varying amounts of pain.
General delirium, hallucination, fancies about being persecuted ; ataxia ; as in general paralysis.
Gait : unsteady, reeling, as if drunk ; staggering ; false steps frequent ; with rolling and staggering ; as one walks with locomotor ataxia ; looks too see if legs are really moving.
Weakness of extensors of legs and feet.
Weakness of muscles of arms.
Incoordination of muscles ; nervous weakness, even paralysis of motion and numbness.
Great difficulty in getting and keeping right word, although right idea is present to mind. θ Anemia of frontal lobe of brain.
Amnesic aphasia.
Anesthesia, particularly of gums, pharynx and genitalia.
Spasms : from fright, anger and other emotional causes, occurring in plethoric, nervous persons, or in women at time of menses ; during parturition ; from sexual excitement or excessive venery ; too great reflex excitability,
sleeplessness ; during teething, whooping cough, or laryngismus stridulus ; from Bright's disease.
Neuroses involving brain, accompanied by convulsions.
At intervals of seven, ten and fifteen days, is attacked, usually at 4 A. M., with spasms ; straightens out in bed and makes the noise peculiar to this disease ; face almost immediately becomes livid, and unless temples and face are rubbed during fit, dark purple spots remain
for two or three days ; livid ring about eyes ; after from one to three minutes, muscles relax and she goes into a comatose sleep, in which she remains several hours, feels languid on awaking ; head aches, and has a severe pain always at pit of stomach, and sometimes nausea,
eats nothing for twenty-four hours, and then feels nearly as well as usual. θ Epilepsy.
Mental hebetude, slowness of expression, failure of memory ; confusion and heat of head, great vertigo ; dull, stupefied expression ; languor in extremities, whole mind and body given up to lassitude. θ Epilepsy.
At each menstrual period one severe convulsion ; falling while at work ; stupid and prostrated remainder of day.
Attacks at new moon, regularly at 2 A. M. ; nausea, trembling in bowels ; eyes staring and wide open ; jerking of left foot and then of arms ; then deep sleep ; complete unconsciousness, but no foaming at mouth ; urine involuntary. θ Epilepsy.
No foaming at mouth ; headache after attacks ; menses deficient, with prolapsus uteri ; undoubted heredity. θ Epilepsy.
Fits as often as once a fortnight, and at times twice a week. θ Epilepsy.
Fit each month, usually a day or two before menses.
Frequent and violent convulsive seizures ; epileptiform attacks, dependent on presence of a tumor or other coarse organic lesion of brain, are usually suspended ; attacks especially occurring during daytime ; grand mal rather than petit mal.
Epilepsy when attacks are attended or caused by unmistakable congestion of brain ; epilepsy of recent character, and not dependent on constitutional causes ; congenital and syphilitic epilepsy greatly modified.
Epilepsy from cerebral congestion, with vascular fulness of retina.
Epilepsy from tuberculosis.
Acts like a crazy person ; enfeebling of mental power ; trembling of hands ; gait unsteady, irregular, staggering, as if drunk ; eruption on lower extremities, generally on calves of legs, spotted yellow, indurated base, thick, yellow scabs. θ Chorea.
Tongue protruded with a jerk ; muscles of face, right arm and legs in constant jactitation, quite violent. θ Chorea.
Unable to dress herself or work, could hardly speak ; face, arm and leg of right side affected. θ Chorea.
Very violent chorea from fright.
Tetanus.
Paralysis agitans.

Sleep

Sleepiness ; deep sleep, often broken by a start, though waking is very difficult ; confused dreams.
Sleepy ; drops asleep in his chair ; if aroused falls right asleep again ; during day.
Sleepless ; restless ; can only calm herself by incessant occupation.
Sleeplessness : especially in anemic patients, or nervous persons who are exhausted but irritated ; from overfulness of cerebral bloodvessels ; during convalescence from acute diseases ; in case of mercurial poisoning ; accompanying
mental anxiety, hysteria, pregnancy and general nervous irritability.
Deep, profound and quiet slumber.
Profound and yet disturbed sleep, always awakens with a mental struggle, not knowing at first where he was or what had become of him.
Grinding of teeth during sleep, with moans and cries.
Night terrors of children ; grinding teeth in sleep, moans, cries ; horrible dreams.
Somnambulism in children.
Awakes from a profound sleep, not knowing where he is.
Waking with severe headache in a child.

Time

During day : sleepy.
Evening : restless and trembling.
Night : frightful imaginings ; headache < ; roaring in ears ; involuntary emission of urine ; suddenly at night, spasmodic croup ; child with croup is agitated ; face flushed ; cough < ; itching.

Temperature and weather

Hot room : chilliness.
High temperature : itching.

Fever

Body cold ; skin corrugated and mottled.
Shivering with cold and cold skin, although child was covered with mustard plasters.
Chilliness and general feeling of coldness, more pronounced about extremities. θ Ague.
Heat, like cold stage, not very strongly marked.
Heat in face and fugitive flushings here and there.
Head hot, feels as if in a furnace, with coldness and chills.
Sweat abundant and viscid, all over body ; unusually long lasting and exhausting. θ Ague.
Quotidian ague.

Attacks, periodicity

Symptoms recur pronounced 5 P. M. ; periodic colic in infants.
At intervals of two or three hours : dry, fatiguing cough.
For several hours : comatose sleep.
At every stool : sensation as if bowels would fall out.
In 24 hours, fifteen or twenty passages.
At times : fits twice a week.
At intervals of seven, ten and fifteen days, is attacked, usually at 4 A. M., with spasms.
Every fortnight : fits.
Attacks at new moon : regularly at 2 A. M.
Before menses : headache.
During menses : epileptic spasms.
After menses : headache ; insomnia ; heat in genitals.
At each menstrual attack ; one severe convulsion.
In winter : slightly elevated, smooth, red patches like urticaria.

Locality and direction

Right : headache in frontal protuberance ; submaxillary glands swollen and painful ; large tumor in iliac region ; muscles of arm in constant jactitation ; chorea affecting arm and leg.
Left : tenderness of ovary ; jerking in foot.

Sensations

Paroxysms of numbness ; feels as if needles were pricking him.
Parts feel as if growing large, swollen.
Loss of sensibility ; body generally, also fauces, larynx, urethra, etc.
Feels as if he would go out of his mind ; staggers as if drunk ; as if ground gave way ; brain, as if too tight ; as if bowels were falling out ; restless and shaky as if from palsy ; feels as if legs were all over sidewalk, as if limbs were
swollen ; as if in a furnace.
Pain : in right frontal protuberance ; in hemorrhoids ; in region of kidneys, extending in direction of descending colon ; in left ovary.
Excruciating colic.
Violent pain : in head, particularly in occiput.
Terrible headache.
Intensely painful varices with black stools.
Neuralgia : of neck of bladder.
Severe, throbbing, aching pains ; in occipital region.
Throbbing : in temples ; in carotids and temporals.
Colic : in children.
Pricking sensation : all over body.
Hoarseness : extremely painful.
Tingling : in external genital organs.
Burning : in chest ; in vulva.
Heat : in genitals.
Confusion : of head.
Fulness : of head.
Pressure : at stomach.
Tight feeling : in scalp.
Tightness : of chest when breathing.
Constrictive sensation : in brain.
Sensation of suffocation.
Dryness : of throat.
Lameness : of legs.
Jerking : in left foot and then of arms.
Trembling sensation : through body ; in bowels.
Itching : in external genital organs.
Internal coldness : of abdomen.

Tissues

Diminishes reflex excitability of nervous centres ; the functions of organic life are not disturbed.
Great weakness of muscles.
Muscles irritated, rendered incoordinate and then paralyzed.
It is supposed to cause contraction of capillaries.
Sedative effect upon action of heart.
Septicemia, lethargy, brain and spinal symptoms ; multiple abscesses.
Swelling of lymphatic glands.
Sebaceous cysts.
Ascites.
Diseased organs are in hypertrophic condition.
(OBS :) It removes pathological deposits of fatty matter only, while the iodide removes normal adipose matter.
Emaciation ; decrease of temperature ; pallor.
Lowers temperature, with coldness of extremities, hands and wrists icy cold and wet, cerebral irritation, in cholera infantum.

Touch. passive motion. injuries

Touch : leaves white impress of fingers.
Pressure : tumor slightly tender.
Pinching : causes no pain.

Skin

Skin cold, blue, spotted, corrugated. θ Cholera infantum.
Moist eczema of legs with pityriasis of scalp.
Moist eruptions.
Slightly elevated, smooth, red patches, like urticaria, but with hardened bases, like erythema nodosum ; itching at night in bed and in a high temperature ; appear in winter.
Acne simplex and indurata ; bluish red, pustular, < on face and chest ; especially in lymphatic constitutions.
Acne on face and shoulders ; centre becomes depressed ; leave scars.
Rose colored mammilated eruption on lower extremities ; sometimes pustules in centre of patches that become umbilicated, exuding a creamy moisture and forming thick, yellow scabs.
Eruption of small boils in successive crops, mostly on face and trunk, with troublesome itching.
Large, indolent, painful pustules ; boils.
Long lasting scrofulous ulcerations.
Syphilitic psoriasis.

Stage of life, constitution

Acts more satisfactorily in children than in adults.
Especially adapted to large persons inclined to obesity.
Child, æt. 3 ; threatened inflammation of brain.
Girl, æt. 5, delicate, thin, complaining for several weeks ; incipient basilar meningitis.
Child, æt. 8, lymphatic temperament, disposed to frequent sore throats ; diphtheria.
Girl, æt. 16, menses appeared at 13 without any influence upon the disease, animal magnetism and electricity benefited for a short time ; epilepsy.
Young lady, of robust habit and sanguine temperament, usually modest and retiring ; nymphomania.
Young woman, single, seamstress ; epilepsy.
Woman, æt. 19, stout, healthy looking, began to menstruate at 14 years of age ; epilepsy.
Woman, æt. 20, dwarfish appearance, suffering eight years ; polypus of rectum.
Woman, æt. 25, single, teacher of music ; melancholia.
Woman, æt. 30 ; threatened inflammation of brain.
Lady, æt. 32, unmarried, dark hair, healthy appearance, subject to severe cutting pains in hypogastrium and headaches ; ovarian cyst.
Woman, æt. 38, married ; ovarian enlargement.
Woman, æt. 52, change of life ; affection of mind.
Man, æt. 65, weekly attacks for ten years ; epilepsy.

Relations

Antidoted by vegetable acids, oleaginous remedies, Camphora, Nux vom., Zincum . It antidotes lead poisoning.
Compatible : after Acon . and Spongia ; after Eugenia jambos in acne.
Compare : Ambra, Am. brom., Bellad . (but this drug is sthenic), Camphora (cholera collapse), Gelsem., Hyosc., Natr. mur . (mind), Stramon., Zincum .

The Therapeutics of Fevers

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

General

Adapted to large persons inclined to obesity; acts better in children than in adults.

Loss of sensibility, fauces, larynx, urethra, entire body; staggering, uncertain gait; feels as if legs were all over side walk.

Nervous, restless; cannot sit still, must move about or keep occupied; hands and fingers in constant motion; fidgety hands (fidgety feet, Zinc.); twitching of fingers.

Fits of uncontrollable weeping and profound melancholic delusions.

Loss of memory; forgets how to talk; absent-minded; had to be told the word before he could speak it (Anac.).

Depressed, low-spirited, anxious, "feel as if they would lose their minds."

Incoördination of muscles (Gels.); nervous weakness or paralysis of motion and numbness.

Restlessness and sleeplessness due to worry and grief, loss of property or reputation, from business embarrassments (Hyos.).

Night terrors of children (Kali p.); grinding teeth in sleep, screams, moans, cries; horrible dreams, cannot be comforted by friends. Somnambulism (Sil.).

Spasms: from fright, anger or emotional causes in nervous plethoric persons; during parturition, teething, whooping-cough, Bright's disease.

Epilepsy: congenital, syphilitic, tubercular; usually a day or two before menses; at new moon; headache follows attack.

Cholera infantum, with reflex irritation of brain, before effusion; first stage of hydrocephaloid.

Daily colic in infants about 5 A. M. (at 4 P. M., Col., Lyc.).

Nervous cough during pregnancy; dry, hard, almost incessant, threatening abortion (Con.).

Stammering; slow, difficult speech (Bov., Stram.).

Acne: simplex, indurata, rosacea; bluish-red, pustular, on face, chest, shoulders; leaves unsightly scars (Carbo an.); in young fleshy persons of gross habits.

Type

Intermittent; quotidian; continued; typhoid.

Chill

Body cold; skin corrugated and mottled. Chilliness and general coldness, < especially about extremities; shivering, with external coldness.

Heat

In face with fugitive flushes here and there.

Head hot, feels as. if in a furnace, with coldness and chills.

Sweat

Profuse and viscid, all over body; long-lasting and exhausting.