Salicylicum Acidum sal-ac.

Salicylic Acid

The symptoms point to its use in rheumatism, dyspepsia, and Meniere's disease. Prostration after influenza; also tinnitus aurium and deafness. Hæmaturia.

Vertigo; tendency to fall to left side. Headache; confusion in head on rising suddenly. Incipient coryza. Piercing pain in temples.

Retinal hæmorrhage. Retinitis after influenza, also albuminuric.

Roaring and ringing in ears. Deafness, with vertigo.

Sore, red and swollen. Pharyngitis; swallowing difficult.

Canker sores, with burning soreness and fetid breath. Flatulence; hot, sour belching. Putrid fermentation. Fermentative dyspepsia. Tongue purplish, leaden-colored; foul breath.

Putrid diarrhœa; gastro-intestinal derangements, especially in children; stools like green frog's spawn (Magn carb). Pruritus ani.

Knees swollen and painful. Acute articular rheumatism; worse, touch and motion, profuse sweat. Pain shifts. Sciatica, burning pain; worse at night. Copious foot-sweat and ill affects where suppressed.

Itching vesicles and pustules; better by scratching. Sweat without sleep. Urticaria. Hot and burning skin. Purpura. Herpes zoster. Necrosis and softening of bones.

Compare: Salol (rheumatic pain in joints, with soreness and stiffness, headache over eyes; urine violet-smelling); Colch; China; Lact ac. Spiræa and Gaultheria contain salicyl acid.

Third decimal trituration. In acute articular rheumatism, 5 grains every 3 hours (Old school dose).

Salicylic acid. C 6 H 4 (OH).CO.OH. Found in Spiræa blossoms, Gaultheria, &c. Artificially prepared from Phenol. Trituration.

Bone, caries of. Climacteric. Coryza. Diarrhœa. Diphtheria. Dyspepsia, flatulent. Flatulence. Flushes. Foot-sweat; suppression of. Gastritis. Intestines, ulceration of. Iritis. Necrosis. Pharyngitis, herpetic. Puerperal fever. Rheumatism. Rheumatoid arthritis. Scarlatina, anginosa. Sciatica. Stomatitis. Tapeworm. Throat, sore.

Salicylic acid is found in nature in the leaves and barks of Willows, in Oil of Wintergreen ( Gaultheria ), which is one of the chief sources of its supply, and is obtained synthetically from Carbolic acid . Like Carbol. ac . it has been largely used as a disinfectant, and as it is supposed to be non-poisonous it is used for mixing with and so preserving foods. MacLagan, of London, and Senator, of Berlin, introduced it into medicine as a remedy for rheumatism. Over-dosings led to the discovery of its power to set up the phenomena of Ménière's disease (auditory nerve vertigo), gastric disturbances and delirium, and these form the nucleus of the homœopathic Schema, which has been filled out by fragmentary provings and clinical use. Among the uses of Sal. ac . recommended in the general text-books are these: " Sal. ac . dissolved in Collodion flexile (gr. xxx to one drachm) is very useful for corns and warts; also to hasten the peeling of palms and soles after scarlet fever" (Brunton). "A mixture of 2 parts with 100 of tallow, applied directly to the feet, not to the stockings, has been found most useful in preventing sweating and soreness of the feet in soldiers after a long march" (Brunton). The property of preventing foot-sweat is by no means an unmixed boon, and serious illness has resulted from it. Consequently in homœopathic practice Sal. ac . has been found an excellent remedy for affections following suppression of foot-sweat. Sal. ac . has a specific relation to rheumatism, but the massive doses given in ordinary practice have been attended with so many unpleasant symptoms — vital depression, fainting, flatulent dyspepsia, delirium, &c. — that the ingenuity of chemists has been devoted for years past to finding a compound which shall be innocent as well as effective. Aspirin (Acetyl-salicylic acid), Salophen (Acetyl-para-amidophenol salicylate), and Salol (Phenol salicylate), are supposed to fulfil these conditions more or less completely. Salol has had an accidental proving which has led to some homœopathic uses. It is the "unpleasant symptoms" which so many practitioners wish to avoid, which are of especial value to homœopaths. Like Carbolic acid and other disinfectants, Sal. ac . produces fermentative dyspepsia, and diarrhœa with putrid-smelling stools, and it meets dynamically blood-poisoning conditions, such as puerperal fever and septicæmia. Hering says: "Pieces of spongy bone become soft as leather in a few days when placed in a 1/2 per cent. solution, while compact bone tissues are very slowly softened; enamel of teeth is very slightly affected by it, but the dentine, when it is exposed by caries, is rapidly destroyed. The increased amount of the salts of lime in the urine soon after Sal. ac . has been taken shows that the acid deprives living as well as dead bone of its lime salts." He adds that it causes necrosis, especially of the tibia. The symptoms are < by touch. < By motion. < At night. < By cold air or touch of anything cold. > By hot applications, especially by dry heat.

Compare: Salicin., Nat. sal., Salol. In rheumatism and subsequent weakness, Colch. Piercing in temples; throat; diarrhœa; ulcers; antiseptic properties, Kre. Antiseptic properties, dyspepsia, fever, urine, Carbol. ac. Tinnitus, Nat. sal., Chi., Chi. s., Carb. s. Bones, Pho., (and throat), Lact. ac. As if blood forced through contracted vessel, Coc. cact. Foot-sweat and suppressed foot-sweat, Sul., Sil. Loquacity, Lach.

Suppression (foot-sweat).

Anxiety; worrying, restless, yet mild. — Melancholic, wants to be quiet; feels faint. — Excited mood. — Delirium; stupid, can hardly collect his ideas, then laughed without cause, talked incessantly and disconnectedly, frequently looked about him with apparent hallucinations (lasted 24 h.; from 11 grains).

Dulness of head; stupefaction. — Vertigo; inclines to fall to l., surrounding objects seem to fall to r. — Ménière's disease. — Rush of blood to head. — Severe headache, piercing in both temples. — Headache commencing on top or back of head, running down sterno-mastoid (more r. side), which is tender to touch. — Buzzing sensation in interior of brain as if blood were forced violently through a contracted vessel.

Diminished acuteness of vision. — (Plastic iritis following acute rheumatism; pain temporarily > by hot applications.)

Hearing diminished. — Nervous deafness. — Deafness with noises (roaring) in ears. — Roaring in ears and difficult hearing; hears music; swarm of bees or buzzing of flies; rush of blood to head, excited mood. — Tinnitus dependent on hyperæmia. — Auditory nerve vertigo (Ménière's disease); a troublesome nausea accompanying the head symptoms.

Wants to sneeze. — Sneezing. — Incipient catarrh; patients, esp. children, sneeze all day.

Dull, heavy aspect; face flushes quickly on slight excitement.

Burning in mouth and epigastric region. — Burning and scraping in mouth and throat. — Redness of mouth and fauces. — Stomatitis, mouth hot and dry, tongue covered with burning vesicles. — Foul breath and offensive expectoration. — Mouth dotted with white patches, burning, scalded feeling; ulcers on tip of tongue. — Canker-sores with burning soreness and fetid breath. — Taste: extremely disgusting; as of something burnt; bitter; bitter bilious, that cannot be got rid of; food has no taste.

Burning in throat. — Scraping in throat causing cough. — Hæmorrhagic pharyngitis with difficulty of swallowing. — Tonsils red, swollen, studded white. — Violent efforts to swallow, with difficulty in swallowing, woke him from sleep; the pain and difficulty became confined to r. side with sticking along Eustachian tube into ear: swelling of r. tonsil, noticeable externally, with sensitiveness to touch and increased temperature in vicinity; mucous membrane of throat and posterior fauces red, swollen, with ulcers size of head of a pin, after a while a small lump of cheesy matter of strong odour was expectorated.

Nausea, gagging, waterbrash. — Frequent vomiting. — Ecchymoses. — Erosions and ulcers in stomach and bowels. — Burning in epigastric region. — Weak, nervous sensation in stomach. — Flatulent and fermentative dyspepsia; putrid belchings.

Abdominal distension. — Ulceration of bowels. — Violent, constant pressure in abdomen, with feeling of incarcerated flatus; associated with constipation.

Diarrhœa: stools green; flushes easily as in hectic; acid, sour, or putrid smelling. — Costive: stool dry, hard; then diarrhœa, watery, sour, yellow, with great weakness. — Cholera infantum with peculiarly putrid eructations. — Caused expulsion of tænia.

Diabetes mellitus. — Albuminuria, rheumatic diathesis. — Urine: scanty, clear, brown; three hours after passage has a green tinge, and a feathery deposit of crystal of Salicyluric acid ; if these are removed the urine at once becomes putrid; if left, urine remains fresh for a week.

Leuco-phlegmatic woman, frequent hot flushes, irritability, forgetfulness, dull, heavy pain in cerebellum. — Septic puerperal fever.

Respiration hurried, sometimes deepened, sometimes shallow or sighing and almost panting, as if laboured, but no complaint of difficulty of breathing. — Dry cough of a hard, racking, spasmodic character, < at night in old people.

Spasmodic, flatulent asthma; fetid bronchitis; gangrene of lungs. — Firmly seated pressure at side of sternum as large as the hand, with feeling as if the bone was sore.

Pulse small, rapid, weak.

Heat, redness, soreness, and swelling about joints; < in knees, with acute, piercing pains; < on motion; > from dry heat. — Soreness and pain in r. deltoid and r. gastrocnemius, changing next day to l. wrist and forearm; < touch and movement.

Rheumatic pain or rheumatoid arthritis, occurring in some women during climaxis; the pains disappeared, the engorgements of fingers subsided, and the hands could again be used.

After suppressed foot-sweat, rheumatic pains; < at night; after an hour's sleep forced to get up; pain in course of l. sciatic nerve, drawing burning; "as if foot were in an ant-hill"; as if it would like to perspire. — Necrosis of tibia. — Copious foul-smelling foot-sweats. — (Applied locally it brings away corns.)

Weakness, faintness. — Deprives bone of its lime salts.

Skin red, points like flea-bites. — Skin red and sensitive. — Urticaria.

Yawning. — Frequently waked from sleep thinking he heard music.

Slight chill, crawling in spine; yawning; chill in finger-tips. — Fever continuous, burning, then sweat with relief; fever again till exacerbation of symptoms. — Weak, faint after fever and sweat. — Flushes easily as in hectic. — Profuse sweat; as sweat increased strength declined.

Salicylic Acid. H 2 C 7 H 4 O 3 .
Found in nature in Spiræa blossoms, Wintergreen (Gaultheria), etc.
Fragmentary provings by Lewi, H. K., vol. 20, p. 106 ; Macfarlan (recorded in Thesis of G. W. Shaffer, March, 1877) common symptoms of 20 provings. See Allen's Encyclopædia, vol. 8, p. 473 .
CLINICAL AUTHORITIES.
- Menière's disease , McClatchey, Hom. Rev., vol. 21, p. 736 ; Hah. Mo., vol. 13, p. 57 ; Deafness , Claude, B. J. H., vol. 36, p. 356 ; Canker of mouth , Hoffman, M. I., vol. 5, p. 66 ; Use in diphtheria , Grosvenor, Mass. Trans., vol. 4, p. 659 ; Fontheim, A. H. O., vol. 13, p. 112 ; Indigestion , Goullon, A. H. Z., vol. 94, p. 86 ; Dyspepsia , Hale, N. A. J. H., vol. 25, p. 354 ; Flatulent dyspepsia , Hale, M. I., vol. 2, p. 326 ; Whitman, M. I., vol. 5, p. 229 ; Inflammation of stomach and bowels , Hoffman ; Flatulence , Hale, Am. Hom., vol. 1, p. 94 ; Diarrhœa , Œhme, N. E. M. G., vol. 12, p. 412 ; Cholera infantum , Hale, N. A. J. H., vol. 25, p. 354 ; Catarrh of bladder , Hale, M. I., vol. 4, p. 156 ; Septicæmia , Hale, N. A. J. H., vol. 25, p. 354 ; Septic fever (2 cases), Hale, M. I., vol. 5, p. 142 ; Sciatica , Goullon, Hah. Mo., vol. 12, p. 371 ; Foot sweats , Pagi, N. A. J. H., vol. 25, p. 404 ; Acute articular rheumatism , Goullon, Times Ret., 1877, p. 3 ; H. K., 1876, p. 69 ; A. H. Z., 1876, p. 76 ; Times Ret., 1876, p. 118 ; Acute rheumatism , Thompson, Hom. Times, vol. 4, p. 108 ; Rheumatism , Hale, N. A. J. H., vol. 25, p. 355 ; Griswold, Cal. Med. Times, vol. 1, p. 5 ; Koeck, N. A. J. H., vol. 26, p. 124 ; Arthritis , Molin, B. J. H., vol. 36, p. 356 ; Chronic caries , Hom. Rev., vol. 22, p. 415.

Anxiety ; worrying, restless, yet mild.
Melancholic ; wants to lie quiet ; feels faint.
Excited mood.
Delirium ; stupid, can hardly collect his ideas, then he laughed without cause, talked incessantly and disconnectedly, frequently looked about him with apparent hallucinations.

Stupefaction ; dulness of head.
Vertigo ; inclines to fall to left side, while surrounding objects seem falling to right.
Meniere's disease ; vertigo which comes and goes, often from no observable reason ; tendency to fall to affected side, while objects seem to fall away to opposite side ; headache frequent but not always present ; noises in ear ; defective or absent perosseous hearing ; absence of gastric symptoms, or so slight as not to account for the other symptoms ; indeterminate giddiness in horizontal position, but considerable when raising head or sitting up.

Rush of blood to head.
Severe headache ; piercing, in both temples.
Headache, commencing on top or in back of head, running down sterno-mastoid (more right side), which is tender to touch.

Diminished acuteness of vision.
(OBS :) Plastic iritis following inflammatory rheumatism, the pupil would contract notwithstanding the local use of a one per cent. solution of Atrop. sulph. ; the nightly pain was most agonizing, temporarily > by hot applications.

Deafness, with noises in ears.
Nervous deafness.
Diminished hearing.
Roaring in ears, with difficult hearing.
(In sick :) Disturbs hearing when given for rheumatism (large doses).
Tinnitus dependent upon hyperemia.
Auditory nerve vertigo ; a troublesome nausea accompanying head symptoms.
Roaring in ears and difficult hearing ; hears music ; rush of blood to head ; excited mood.
Purulent, fetid otorrhœa.

Continue in Hering 31 more passages →

Pure Salicylic acid is triturated for use.

Very few observations concerning this acid are recorded, nearly all experiments having been made with Sodium or Potassium salts. ▶ It acts, however, as an antipyretic, similarly to Quinine, reducing temperature and causing profuse perspiration. ▶ Like Quinine it causes headache, deafness and blindness; it also paralyzes the third nerve, more or less, causing ptosis and squint. ▶ It is eliminated by the kidneys and causes albuminuria.

Rheumatic pains, agg. walking out of doors. ▶ Discomfort, with disinclination for mental or physical exertion. ▶ Dullness on waking after a good night's rest, with nervousness, ringing in ears, agg. left, and fulness in head. ▶ Weakness; amel. open air. ▶ Nervous prostration after mental labor and nervous excitement. ▶ Feeling as if I had walked far; in evening. ▶ Symptoms return in evening.

Delirium; it was difficult for him to collect his ideas, then he laughed without cause, talked incessantly and disconnectedly, often looked about him. ▶ Excitement; after walking. ▶ Gloomy, don't know what to begin. ▶ Unconsciousness, with loud groans.

Aching; in morning, amel. during the day, agg. evening, amel. next morning; with dull, bruised feeling in right side of head; agonizing; threatening of nervous. ▶ Bruised feeling. ▶ Dullness; with general oppression. ▶ Buzzing sensation in interior of brain as if blood were forced through a contracted vessel. ▶ Rush of blood. ▶ Vertigo; and confusion, a sensation on rising suddenly after lying a long time, soon afterward he though he heard music, this often woke him, later sounds as of a swarm of bees or the buzzing of flies, with sweat. ▶ Pain above right eye; above left side of forehead, changing to left ear; in left side of head; in right side of head in afternoon; drawing, back of right temple; in a spot in vertex, as if struck by a hammer, in night. ▶ Itching, with feeling as if hair stood on end.

Vertigo, tendency to fall to left side, surrounding objects seem to fall to the right, headache.

Meniere's disease. ▶ Nasal catarrh, with persistent sneezing.

Flatulent dyspepsia, with hot, sour belching. ▶ Indigestion, with headache and putrid fermentation.

Dysentery, stools like green frogs' spawn. ▶ Putrid diarrhœa in children.

Sciatica, with burning pain, agg. night.

Burning and dryness. ▶ Itching of right upper lid; of canthi, with burning. ▶ Bruised pain in bones below left eye. ▶ Boring in left brow, with tenderness when pressed. ▶ Dim vision.

Stoppage of ears; agg. left ; in left after removal of wax, with pain; when walking, amel. drawing breath strongly through nostrils, but returning. ▶ Roaring in ears; with difficult hearing. ▶ Ringing in ears. ▶ Deafness. ▶ Dryness of nostrils, with itching. ▶ Sneezing.

Pain in left lower jaw, with pain in parotid on touch, affecting side of throat. ▶ Soreness at right corner of lips.

Mucous membrane white. ▶ Sore feeling on sides of jaw under tongue in evening. ▶ Burning, and in epigastric region; in M. and pharynx, with dryness; in M. and throat, with scraping; on tongue, with scratching. ▶ Taste disgusting; T. bitter, bilious; bitter, tenacious saliva hawked up with difficulty.

Hæmorrhagic pharyngitis, with difficulty in swallowing. ▶ Scraping in left side; S. causing cough. ▶ Pharynx dry. ▶ Burning; after a plain supper. ▶ Swallowing difficult; and violent effort to swallow waking him at night, afterwards the difficulty confined to right side of throat, with pain and with sticking along Eustachian tube to within ear, swelling of right tonsil, perceptible externally below angle of jaw, with sensitiveness to touch and heat in vicinity, mucous membrane of throat and posterior palate red and swollen, and small ulcers, later expectoration of a cheesy lump of strong odor, with bluish-red blood.

Vomiting. ▶ Erosions and ulcers, and in abdomen; (ulcers, with ecchymoses). ▶ Weight after salad. ▶ Burning in epigastric region.

Rumbling. ▶ Flatulence in evening; F., with inability to expel it. ▶ Bloated feeling towards noon. ▶ Pain in evening, agg. pressure, with discomfort; P. in groin when coughing; in hypogastrium and bladder without urging to urinate and only small discharge; at one time in hypochondrium, at another in hypogastrium, with feeling of incarcerated flatus, with constipation; strained, in right groin.

Constriction in anus after stool. ▶ Itching in anus and ineffectual attempt at stool, six hours later slimy, insufficient stool. ▶ Stool tedious and insufficient. ▶ Constipation.

Micturition difficult in morning on rising; D., slow and less in quantity. ▶ Urine red, with copious sediment.

Emission of semen (or prostatic fluid), somewhat bloody, a night, and on waking pain in genitals as if overstrained. ▶ Excitement; more physical than mental.

Cough returns every day from 3 till 5 P.M.; C. on lying down, as if mucus flowed from Eustachian tubes into throat, causing scratching; hacking, with scratching in throat and hawking up of small pieces of thick yellow phlegm, with occasional sneezing and discharge from nose. ▶ Dyspnœa, respiration very deep, so that the lower margin of the lungs moved 4 to 5 C. M., auxiliary muscles are set to work, expiration is more active, number of respirations unchanged or slightly increased, sometimes complaints of air-hunger, such D. may appear without preceding surring in ears, in some cases the D. disappears during the night and increases after every dose in the daytime, sometimes the symptom is noticed only on certain days.

Aching in left clavicle; at side of sternum, with feeling as if bone were sore. ▶ Oppression of chest. ▶ Palpitation; after moderate exercise, with intermittent pulse. ▶ Rapid pulse.

Stiffness at night on waking; S. in muscles of middle, with pain; in muscles along spine in afternoon when lying down, with aching.

▶ Rheumatic pains. ▶ Pain in fingers and little toes; drawing, in left calf, extending into thigh, then transferred to left arm. ▶ Soreness and pain in right deltoid and right gastrocnemius, changing next day to left wrist and forearm, with soreness to touch and soreness on moving limb, third day same pain on palmar surface of left index, when the pain appeared in one part it disappeared in the previous one. ▶ Strained pain in right shoulder in morning. ▶ Pain in knuckles of right hand; in sinews of left forearm, extending into third and little fingers, then tingling; burning, in inside of joint of right thumb; rheumatic, in lower limbs and feet at night, and burning in ball of great toe. ▶ Stinging in a right toe.

Swelling under skin of fingers, with burning itching on side of left hand. ▶ Itching pimples here and there, one on right cheek; red P. here and there, and small whitish ones, the latter in groups, itching and filled with water. ▶ Exanthema bullosum. ▶ Pustules on face and head; watery itching, between right fingers; itching, agg. left arm, skin becomes rough when scratched. ▶ Itching vesicles in a group on left little finger. ▶ Itching after undressing, amel. in bed; I. on back, below jaws and under chin; of right toes; agg. over breast and stomach; voluptuous, at night, amel. scratching, then a pimple, sometimes burning of skin after scratching.

Yawning in evening. ▶ Night restless, longing to sleep, but unable to do so. ▶ Amorous dream, with bloody emission, then erections in morning.

Heat of skin. ▶ Burning in ball of great toe. ▶ Sweat.