HOMŒOPATHIC MATERIA MEDICA
by
WILLIAM BOERICKE, M.D.

 

  
ARSENICUM ALBUM
Arsenious Acid-Arsenic Trioxide

A profoundly acting remedy on every organ and tissue. Its clear-cut characteristic symptoms and correspondence to many severe types of disease make its homeopathic employment constant and certain. Its general symptoms often alone lead to its successful application. Among these the all-prevailing debility, exhaustion, and restlessness, with nightly aggravation, are most important. Great exhaustion after the slightest exertion. This, with the peculiar irritability of fiber, gives the characteristic irritable weakness. Burning pains. Unquenchable thirst. Burning relieved by heat. Seaside complaints (Nat mur; Aqua Marina). Injurious effects of fruits, especially more watery ones. Gives quiet and ease to the last moments of life when given in high potency. Fear fright and worry. Green discharges. Infantile Kala-azar (Dr. Neatby).

Ars should be thought of in ailments from alcoholism, ptomaine poisoning, stings, dissecting wounds, chewing tobacco; ill effects from decayed food or animal matter; odor of discharges is putrid; in complaints that return annually. Anæmia and chlorosis. Degenerative changes. Gradual loss of weight from impaired nutrition. Reduces the refractive index of blood serum (also China and Ferr phos). Maintains the system under the stress of malignancy regardless of location. Malarial cachexia. Septic infections and low vitality.

Mind.--Great anguish and restlessness. Changes place continually. Fears, of death, of being left alone. Great fear, with cold sweat. Thinks it useless to take medicine. Suicidal. Hallucinations of smell and sight. Despair drives him from place to place. Miserly, malicious, selfish, lacks courage. General sensibility increased (Hep). Sensitive to disorder and confusion.

Head.--Headaches relieves by cold, other symptoms worse. Periodical burning pains, with restlessness; with cold skin. Hemicrania, with icy feeling of scalp and great weakness. Sensitive head in open air. Delirium tremens; cursing and raving; vicious. Head is in constant motion. Scalp itches intolerably; circular patches of bare spots; rough, dirty, sensitive, and covered with dry scales; nightly burning and itching; dandruff. Scalp very sensitive; cannot brush hair.

Eyes.--Burning in eyes, with acrid lachrymation. Lids red, ulcerated, scabby, scaly, granulated. Œdema around eyes. External inflammation, with extreme painfulness; burning, hot, and excoriating lachrymation. Corneal ulceration. Intense photophobia; better external warmth. Ciliary neuralgia, with fine burning pain.

Ears.--Skin within, raw and burning. Thin, excoriating, offensive otorrhœa. Roaring in ears, during a paroxysm of pain.

Nose.--Thin, watery, excoriating discharge. Nose feels stopped up. Sneezing without relief. Hay-fever and coryza; worse in open air; better indoors. Burning and bleeding. Acne of nose. Lupus.

Face.--Swollen, pale, yellow, cachectic, sunken, cold, and covered with sweat (Acetic acid). Expression of agony. Tearing needle-like pains; burning. Lips black, livid. Angry, circumscribed flush of cheeks.

Mouth.--Unhealthy, easily-bleeding gums. Ulceration of mouth with dryness and burning heat. Epithelioma of lips. Tongue dry, clean, and red; stitching and burning pain in tongue, ulcerated with blue color. Bloody saliva. Neuralgia of teeth; feel long and very sore; worse after midnight; better warmth. Metallic taste. Gulping up of burning water.

Throat.--Swollen, œdematous, constricted, burning, unable to swallow. Diphtheritic membrane, looks dry and wrinkled.

Stomach.--Cannot bear the sight or smell of food. Great thirst; drinks much, but little at a time. Nausea, retching, vomiting, after eating or drinking. Anxiety in pit of stomach. Burning pain. Craves acids and coffee. Heartburn; gulping up of acid and bitter substances which seem to excoriate the throat. Long-lasting eructations. Vomiting of blood, bile, green mucus, or brown-black mixed with blood. Stomach extremely irritable; seems raw, as if torn. Gastralgia from slightest food or drink. Dyspepsia from vinegar, acids, ice-cream, ice-water, tobacco. Terrible fear and dyspnœa, with gastralgia; also faintness, icy coldness, great exhaustion. Malignant symptoms. Everything swallowed seems to lodge in the œsophagus, which seems as if closed and nothing would pass. Ill effects of vegetable diet, melons, and watery fruits generally. Craves milk.

Abdomen.--Gnawing, burning pains like coals of fire; relieved by heat. Liver and spleen enlarged and painful. Ascites and anasarca. Abdomen swollen and painful. Pain as from a wound in abdomen on coughing.

Rectum.--Painful, spasmodic protrusion of rectum. Tenesmus. Burning pain and pressure in rectum and anus.

Stool.--Small, offensive, dark, with much prostration. Worse at night, and after eating and drinking; from chilling stomach, alcoholic abuse, spoiled meat. Dysentery dark, bloody, very offensive. Cholera, with intense agony, prostration, and burning thirst. Body cold as ice (Verat). Hæmorrhoids burn like fire; relieved by heat. Skin excoriated about anus.

Urine.--Scanty, burning, involuntary. Bladder as if paralyzed. Albuminous. Epithelial cells; cylindrical clots of fibrin and globules of pus and blood. After urinating, feeling of weakness in abdomen. Bright's disease. Diabetes.

Female.--Menses too profuse and too soon. Burning in ovarian region. Leucorrhœa, acrid, burning, offensive, thin. Pain as from red-hot wires; worse least exertion; causes great fatigue; better in warm room. Menorrhagia. Stitching pain in pelvis extending down the thigh.

Respiratory.--Unable to lie down; fears suffocation. Air-passages constricted. Asthma worse midnight. Burning in chest. Suffocative catarrh. Cough worse after midnight; worse lying on back. Expectoration scanty, frothy. Darting pain through upper third of right lung. Wheezing respiration. Hæmoptysis with pain between shoulders; burning heat all over. Cough dry, as from sulphur fumes; after drinking.

Heart.--Palpitation, pain, dyspnœa, faintness. Irritable heart in smokers and tobacco-chewers. Pulse more rapid in morning (Sulph). Dilatation. Cyanosis. Fatty degeneration. Angina pectoris, with pain in neck and occiput.

Back.--Weakness in small of back. Drawing in of shoulders. Pain and burning in back (Oxal ac).

Extremities.--Trembling, twitching, spasms, weakness, heaviness, uneasiness. Cramps in calves. Swelling of feet. Sciatica. Burning pains. Peripheral neuritis. Diabetic gangrene. Ulcers on heel (Cepa; Lamium). Paralysis of lower limbs with atrophy.

Skin.--Itching, burning, swellings; œdema, eruption, papular, dry, rough, scaly; worse cold and scratching. Malignant pustules. Ulcers with offensive discharge. Anthrax. Poisoned wounds. Urticaria, with burning and restlessness. Psoriasis. Scirrhus. Icy coldness of body. Epithelioma of the skin. Gangrenous inflammations.

Sleep.--Disturbed, anxious, restless. Must have head raised by pillows. Suffocative fits during sleep. Sleeps with hands over head. Dreams are full of care and fear. Drowsy, sleeping sickness.

Fever.--High temperature. Periodicity marked with adynamia. Septic fevers. Intermittent. Paroxysms incomplete, with marked exhaustion. Hay-fever. Cold sweats. Typhoid, not too early; often after Rhus. Complete exhaustion. Delirium; worse after midnight. Great restlessness. Great heat about 3 am.

Modalities.--Worse, wet weather, after midnight; from cold, cold drinks, or food. Seashore. Right side. Better from heat; from head elevated; warm drinks.

Complementary: Rhus; Carbo; Phos. Thuja; Secale. Antidotal to lead poison.

Antidotes: Opium; Carbo; China; Hepar; Nux. Chemical Antidotes: Charcoal; Hydrated Peroxide of Iron; Lime Water.

Compare: Arsenic stibatum 3x (Chest inflammations of children, restlessness with thirst and prostration, loose mucous cough, oppression, hurried respiration, crepitant rales). Cenchris contortrix; Iod; Phosph; China; Verat alb; Carbo; Kali phos. Epilobium (intractable diarrhœa of typhoid). Hoang Nan. Atoxyl. Sodium arseniate 3x, sleeping sickness; commencing optic atrophy. Levico Water--(containing Ars, Iron and Copper of South Tyrol). Chronic and dyscratic skin diseases, chorea minor and spasms in scrofulous and anæmic children. Favors assimilation and increases nutrition. Debility and skin diseases, especially after the use of higher potencies where progress seems suspended. Dose. Ten drops in wine glass of warm water 3 times a day after meals (Burnett). Sarcolatic acid (influenza with violent vomiting).

Dose.--Third to thirtieth potency. The very highest potencies often yield brilliant results.

Low attenuations in gastric, intestinal, and kidney diseases; higher in neuralgias, nervous diseases, and skin. But if only surface conditions call for it, give the lowest potencies, 2x to 3x trit. Repeated doses advisable.

  
ARSENICUM BROMATUM
Bromide of Arsenic

Has proven a great anti-psoric and anti-syphilitic remedy. Herpetic eruptions, syphilitic excrescences, glandular tumors and indurations, carcinoma, locomotor ataxia, and obstinate intermittents, and diabetes are all greatly influenced by this preparation.

Face.--Acne rosacea, with violet papules on nose; worse in the spring. Acne in young people.

Dose.--Tincture, two to four drops daily in water. In diabetes, three drops three times a day in a glass of water.

  
ARSENICUM HYDROGENISATUM
Arseniuretted Hydrogen

The general action of Arsenic more accentuated. Anæmia. Anxiety; despair. Hœmaturia, with general blood disorganization. Hæmorrhages from mucous membranes. Urine suppressed, followed by vomiting. Prepuce and glans covered with pustules and round superficial ulcers. Collapse. Coldness; prostration. Sudden weakness and nausea. Skin becomes dark brown.

Head.--Violent vertigo on going upstairs. Eyes sunken; broad, blue circles around. Violent sneezing. Nose cold. Must be wrapped up with warm cloths.

Mouth.--Tongue enlarged; deep, irregular ulcer; nodular swelling. Mouth hot and dry; little thirst.

Dose.--Third potency.

  
ARSENICUM IODATUM
Iodide of Arsenic

Is to be preferred for persistently irritating, corrosive discharges. The discharge irritates the membrane from which it flows and over which it flows. The discharge may be fetid, watery, and the mucous membrane is always red, angry, swollen; itches and burns. Influenza, hay-fever, old nasal catarrhs, and catarrh of middle ear. Swelling of tissues within the nose. Hypertrophied condition of eustachian tube and deafness. Senile heart, myocarditis and fatty degeneration. Pulse shotty. Chronic aortitis. Epithelioma of the lip. Cancer of breast after ulceration has set in.

It seems probable that in Arsenic iod, we have a remedy most closely allied to manifestations of tuberculosis. In the early stages of tuberculosis, even though there is an afternoon rise in temperature, Ars jod is very effective. It will be indicated by a profound prostration, rapid, irritable pulse, recurring fever and sweats, emaciation; tendency to diarrhœa. Chronic pneumonia, with abscess in lung. Hectic; debility; night sweats.

This remedy is also to be remembered in phthisis with hoarse, racking cough and profuse expectoration of a purulent nature, and attended with cardiac weakness, emaciation and general debility; in chronic, watery diarrhœa in phthisical subjects; in cases of emaciation with good appetite; in amenorrhœa, with anæmic palpitation and dyspnœa. In chronic pneumonia, when abscess is about to form. Great emaciation. Arteriosclerosis, myocardial degeneration and senile heart. Threatened pyæmia (Pyrog; Methyl blue).

Head.--Vertigo, with tremulous feeling, especially in aged.

Nose.--Thin, watery, irritating, excoriating discharge from anterior and posterior nares; sneezing. Hay-fever. Irritation and tingling of nose constant desire to sneeze (Pollanin). Chronic nasal catarrh; swollen nose; profuse, thick, yellow discharge; ulcers; membrane sore and excoriated. Aggravation by sneezing.

Throat.--Burning in pharynx. Tonsils swollen. Thick membrane from fauces to lips. Breath fetid, glandular involvement. Diphtheria. Chronic follicular pharyngitis.

Eyes and Ears.--Scrofulous ophthalmia. Otitis, with fetid, corrosive discharge. Thickening of tympanum. Burning, acrid coryza.

Stomach.--Pain and pyrosis. Vomiting an hour after food. Nausea distressing. Pain in epigastrium. Intense thirst; water is immediately ejected.

Respiratory.--Slight hacking cough, with dry and stopped-up nostrils. Pleuritis exudativa. Chronic bronchitis. Pulmonary tuberculosis. Pneumonia that fails to clear up. Broncho-pneumonia after grippe. Cough dry, with little difficult expectoration. Aphonia.

Fever.--Recurrent fever and sweats. Drenching night-sweats. Pulse rapid, feeble, weak, irregular. Chilly, cannot endure cold.

Skin.--Dry, scaly, itching. Marked exfoliation of skin in large scales, leaving a raw exuding surface beneath. Ichthyosis. Enlarged scrofulous glands. Venereal bubo. Debilitating night-sweats. Eczema of the beard; watery, oozing, itching; worse, washing. Emaciation. Psoriasis. Acne hard, shotty, indurated base with pustule at apex.

Relationship.--Compare: Tuberculinum; Antimon iod. In hay-fever, compare: Aralia; Naphthalin; Rosa; Sang nit.

Dose.--Second and third trituration. Ought to be prepared fresh and protected from light. Continued for some time. Clinically, it has been found advisable in tuberculosis to begin with about the 4x and gradually go lower to the second x trit, 5 grains 3 times a day.

  
ARSENICUM METALLICUM
Metallic Arsenic

Arouses latent syphilis. Periodicity very marked; symptoms recur every two and three weeks. Weakness. Swollen feeling of parts.

Head.--Low spirited, memory weak. Desire to be alone. Annoyed by visions, causing her to cry. Head feels too large. Left-sided headache up to eyes and into ears. Headache worse stooping and lying down. Œdematous swelling of forehead.

Face.--Red, itching, burning and bloated. Eyes swelled and watery, burn with coryza. Eyes weak, day and gas light unpleasant.

Mouth.--The tongue coated white, and shows imprint of the teeth. Mouth sore and ulcerated.

Abdomen.--Sore pain in liver goes through to shoulders and spine. Pain in spleen down to groin. Pain in breast extends to hip and spleen. Diarrhœa, burning watery stools with relief of pain.

Dose.--Sixth potency.

  
ARSENICUM SULPHURATUM FLAVUM
Yellow Sulphuret of Arsenic. Orpiment
(ARSENIC TRISULPH.)

Needle pricks from within outwards in chest; also on forehead, right side. Sticking behind ear. Difficult respiration. Skin chafed about genitals.

Leucoderma and squamous syphilides. Sciatica and pain around the knee.

Relationship.--Arsenic sulph rub (influenza with intense catarrhal symptoms, great prostration and high temperature, purulent discharges, psoriasis, acne, and sciatica. Chilly even before a fire. Itching in various parts. Pellagra).

Dose.--Third trituration.

  
ARTEMISIA VULGARIS
Mugwort

Has some reputation as a remedy for epileptic conditions, and convulsive diseases of childhood and girls at puberty. Locally and internally is injurious to eyes. Petit mal. Epilepsy without aura; after fright and other violent emotions and after masturbation. Several convulsions close together. Somnambulism. Gets up at night and works, remembers nothing in the morning (Kali phos).

Head.--Drawn back by spasmodic twitchings. Mouth drawn to left. Congestion of brain.

Eyes.--Colored light produces dizziness. Pain and blurring of vision; better; rubbing; worse, using eyes.

Female.--Profuse menses. Violent uterine contractions. Spasms during menses.

Fever.--Profuse sweat, smelling like garlic.

Relationship.--Compare: Absinth; Cina; Cicuta.

Dose.--First to third potency. Said to act better when given with wine.

  
ARUM DRACONTIUM
Green Dragon

A remedy for Pharyngitis with sore, raw and tender throat.

Head.--Heavy; shooting pain in ears, aching pain behind right ear.

Throat.--Dry, sore, worse swallowing. Raw and tender. Continued disposition to clear throat. Croupy, hoarse cough with sore throat.

Urinary.--Irresistible desire to pass urine, burns and smarts.

Respiratory.--Hoarseness; excess of mucus in larynx. Asthmatic at night. Expectoration thick, heavy.

Relationship.--Arum Italicum (Brain-fag, with headache in occipital region). Arum maculatum (inflammation and ulceration of mucous membranes. Nasal irritation with polypus).

Dose.--First potency.

  
ARUM TRIPHYLLUM
Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Arum maculatum, Italicum, Dracontium, have the same action as the Triphyllum. They all contain an irritant poison, causing inflammation of mucous surfaces and destruction of tissue. Acridity is the keynote of the kind of action characteristic of Arum.

Head.--Bores head in pillow. Headache from too warm clothing, from hot coffee.

Eyes.--Quivering of upper eyelids, especially left.

Nose.--Soreness of nostrils. Acrid, excoriating discharge, producing raw sores. Nose obstructed; must breathe through mouth. Boring in the nose. Coryza; discharge blood-streaked, watery. Nose completely stopped, with fluent, acrid discharge. Hay-fever, with pain over root of nose. Large scabs high up on right side of nose. Face feels chapped, as if from cold wind; feels hot. Constant picking at nose until it bleeds.

Mouth.--Raw feeling at roof and palate. Lips and soft palate sore and burning. Lips chapped and burning. Corners of mouth sore and cracked. Tongue red, sore; whole mouth raw. Picking lips until they bleed. Saliva profuse, acrid, corroding.

Throat.--Swelling of sub-maxillary glands. Constricted and swollen; burns; raw. Constant hawking. Hoarseness. Expectoration of much mucus. Lungs feel sore. Clergyman's sore throat. Voice uncertain, uncontrollable. Worse, talking, singing.

Skin.--Scarlet rash; raw, bloody surfaces anywhere. Impetigo contagiosa.

Modalities.--Worse, northwest wind; lying down.

Relationship.--Compare: Ammon carb; Ailanthus; Cepa.

Antidotes: Buttermilk; Acet ac; Puls.

Dose.--Third to thirtieth potency.

  
ARUNDO MAURITANICA
Reed
(ARUNDO)

A remedy for catarrhal states. Hay-fever.

Head.--Itching; falling off of hair; roots of hair painful. Pustules. Pain in occiput, extends to right ciliary region. Deep seated pain in sides of head.

Ears.--Burning and itching in auditory canals. Eczema behind ears.

Nose.--Hay-fever begins with burning and itching of palate and conjunctiva. Annoying itching in the nostrils and roof of the mouth (Wyethia). Coryza; loss of smell (Nat mur). Sneezing, itching of nostrils.

Mouth.--Burning and itching; bleeding of gums. Ulcers and exfoliations in the commissures. Fissures in tongue.

Stomach.--Coldness in stomach. Longing for acids.

Abdomen.--Movement as from something alive. Flatulence pain at pubic region.

Stool.--Greenish. Burning at anus. Diarrhœa of nursing children (Cham; Calc phos).

Urine.--Burning. Red sediment (Lyc).

Male.--Pain in spermatic cord after embrace.

Female.--Menses too early and profuse. Neuralgic pains from face to shoulders and pubis. Desire with vaginal pruritus.

Respiratory.--Dyspnœa; cough; bluish expectoration. Burning and pain in nipples.

Extremities.--Itching, burning; œdema of hands and feet. Burning and swelling of soles. Copious and offensive sweat of feet.

Skin.--Eczema; itching and crawling, especially of chest, upper extremities. Fissures in fingers and heels.

Relationship.--Compare: Anthoxantum-sweet vernal grass (a popular medicine for hay-fever and coryza). Lolium; Cepa; Sabad; Silica.

Dose.--Third to sixth potency.

 

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