Homeopathic Materia Medica

Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica, James Tyler Kent

Aconite is a short-acting remedy. Its symptoms do not last long. It is a violent poison in large doses, either destroying life or passing away in its effects quite soon, so that if the patient recovers, the recovery is not delayed. There are no chronic diseases following it.

Like a great storm, it comes and sweeps over and passes away. By a little meditation we will discover what kind of sickness all this is like, and what kind of a patient is most likely to have that short, sudden sickness.

If we think a moment from experience and homoeopathic observation, we will remember that vigorous, plethoric individuals, when they take cold, come down violently, whereas feeble people, sickly people, come down and recover slowly from acute diseases, and do not become so violently and so suddenly sick.

From this, and from examining the sudden effects of Aconite, it will be easy to see that persons who come down with Aconite sicknesses are plethoric individuals.

Strong, robust people, rugged children and infants become sick, not a very slight cold, or from slight exposure, but from more violent exposure. From being exposed with deficient clothing; from (sudden, violent changes; from prolonged exposure to the cold, north, dry wind.

A vigorous person caught out with thin clothing, or remaining out in the cold, dry air of mid-winter, with its sudden, violent changes, comes down even before night with violent symptoms. This is the class of patients, the plethoric and vigorous, who have a strong heart, active brain, vigorous circulation, and come down suddenly from violent exposure, that need Aconite.

Aconite has in its nature none of the results usually following inflammation. The storm is over so quickly that it seems mostly to conform to the earlier condition. In these vigorous patients sudden congestions are likely to be thrown off by good reaction.

The patient seems to be threatened with a sudden and violent death, but recovery is quick. So, as was observed by Dunham, it is a great storm and soon over. Dunham's discussion of this remedy in his Materia Medica is very poetical and well worth reading.

Generals: Attacks come on suddenly from exposure to a dry, cold wind. In plethoric children we have an illustration of that in, the sudden congestion of the brain with intense fever, or with convulsions.

We get illustrations of its suddenness and violence in any organ of the body, the brain, the lungs, the liver, the blood, the kidneys. It is suited to the complaints that come on suddenly from the very cold weather of winter, or from the intensely hot weather of summer.

It has the lung and brain complaints of winter, and the bowel inflammations and stomach disorders of summer. We know how these plethoric individuals become suddenly overheated and become violently sick.

Their sudden attacks are frightful to look upon. All these inflammatory conditions are attended with great excitement of the circulation, violent action of the heart, a tremendous turmoil of the brain, a violent shock. with intense fear.

Mind: The mind symptoms that are nearly always associated with Aconite conditions stand out in bold relief.

The patient feels the violence of his sickness, for he is under great nervous irritation and excitement.

Fear is depicted upon his countenance, and the heart's action is so overwhelming the first thing he thinks of is that he must die; this must mean death, which he fears. It stands out upon his countenance.

He says:

"Doctor, there is no use; I am going to die."

Many times he actually predicts the moment or the hour of his death. If a clock is in the room, he may say that when the hour hand reaches a certain point he will be a corpse.

When we see this intense fear, this awful. anxiety, great restlessness, the violence and the suddenness of these attacks, we have a case, perhaps, that is dying from the poison of Aconite, or one who needs Aconite.

One who has a sickness resembling the poison of Aconite needs the smallest possible dose of Aconite. It is a very short-acting medicine, and that must be remembered.

It hardly matters what part of the body we are considering we will find inflammatory conditions. But regardless of the region or the locality of the inflammation, that which I have described is the appearance of the patient. Such are the symptoms that will stand out, that you will observe first - the appearance of the face, the mind symptoms, the restlessness, the intensity.

Now, there are many little mental symptoms that are of much less importance than this fear, this anxiety, symptoms that will be masked by these marked symptoms that indicate the patient. He has lost all affection for his friends. He does not care what becomes of them, he has not the slightest interest in them. It sometimes may be a state of indifference.

What I have brought out will enable one to readily see that this picture does not belong to all the remedies in the Materia Medica. In fact, it belongs only to Aconite. No matter what remedy you compare this with, you would find it only under Aconite.

You will find some of the features in the text under other remedies, but those which I have mentioned collectively will be found only under Aconite.

Take the mental symptoms, intensity marks every one of them. If it is a delirium, it is an intense delirium, with excitement, with fear, with anxiety.

Patients in delirium, with excitement and fear, will weep, as in great torment.

Great excitement, fear, fear of death. You wonder what she is weeping about. There are all sorts of moods intermingled also with the fear of Aconite.

There is moaning and irritability, anger, throwing things away, all attended. with the violence and anxiety. These features that I described as uppermost are intermingled with all the other symptoms.

"Screams with pain."

The pains are like knives, they are stinging, cutting, stabbing. The intensity of the Aconite suffering is wonderful, so that if the nerves take on neuralgic pains the pains are intense. It is the feeling that some awful thing must be upon him or he could not have such dreadful suffering.

It says in the text, "predicts the day of his death."

This to a great extent is the result of the awfulness that seems to be overwhelming him. And this mental picture is always present, in pneumonia, in inflammatory conditions of any part of the body, in inflammation of the kidneys, of the liver, of the bowels, etc.

Vertigo: Dizziness prevails throughout all this symptom picture.

"Vertigo, turning and whirling."

A woman out shopping runs up suddenly against a dog and becomes violently dizzy, she cannot even get to her carriage.

"Vertigo that comes on from fear, from sudden fear, and the fear of the fright remains."

There is a remnant of that fear left, but it will lead you no more strongly towards Opium.

"Complaints from fear. Inflammation of the brain from fear, dizziness from fear."

Even congestion of parts as a result of fear. A turmoil in the whole sensorium. Things go round and round.

Head: The headaches can hardly be described, they come with such violence. Tearing burning in the brain, in the scalp, attended with fear, with fever, with anguish; headache from taking cold, from suppressing catarrh in the nose.

Catarrh stops suddenly in plethoric people, from exposure, from riding in the dry, cold wind such as we have in this northern climate in winter.

"Violent headache over the eyes.

Congestion of the brain, with congestive headache, with anxiety, with hot face."

Eyes: The symptoms that would lead you to give Aconite for affections of the eye are numerous.

Eyes take on sudden inflammation. Congestion of the eye. Blood red appearance of the eye.

Sudden inflammation of all the tissues; conjunctivitis, etc., from taking cold, from exposure to dry, cold winds.

There is a teaching that has long prevailed: give Aconite for the first stage of an inflammation. It is not good teaching, although it is recommended in all of our books. It does not say for what kind, of a constitution, or how it comes about.

Do not practice that way. Get all the elements for an Aconite case, if possible, or give a better remedy. Another practice has prevailed, viz., giving Aconite for fever. Aconite was the fever remedy of many of our early routinists, but it is a bad practice.

Aconite has an inflammation of the eyes that comes on so suddenly that one wonders how that inflammation came in so short a time.

The eyes take on great swelling without any discharge, or only very watery mucus. The sudden inflammations that come on with thick discharges would never be Aconite.

Fever and Chills: Aconite has no results of inflammation. Those conditions that are about to take on the results of inflammation will always indicate some other remedy. You are not to think of Aconite in fever unless the Aconite patient is present.

With the Aconite fever there will be sensitiveness to light.

"Great restlessness with fever."

Eyes staring, with pupils contracted, "violent aching and inflammation of the deep structures of the ball."

Give Aconite only when the symptoms agree. An inflammation that is about to run a prolonged course, to take on suppuration, or if it is mucous membrane to take on discharge of pus, will never show you the symptoms of Aconite.

Never give Aconite in blood poisoning, such as we find in scarlet fever, in typhoid fever, etc. We find nothing of the violent symptoms of Aconite in such conditions. The nervous irritation is never present, but the opposite, the stupor, the laziness, the purple skin - whereas Aconite is bright red.

Never give Aconite for any form of zymosis, for it has no zymotic history. There should be no thought of Aconite in the slow coming, continued fever. Aconite has no symptoms like the slow types of continued fevers.

The Aconite fever is generally one short, sharp attack of fever. It is in no way related to an intermittent fever, as it has no such symptoms.

You might find something that would deceive you in one attack of intermittent fever, but the very fact that there was a second one would shut out Aconite. Some remedies have periodically or waves, Aconite has no such a condition.

The most violent attack of fever will subside in a night if Aconite is the remedy. If it is not it is a pity that you made a mistake in giving it, for it will sometimes do mischief. All things that exist in a sickness must be taken into account, not only what the remedy does cover, but what it does not cover.

Aconite has inflammation of the eyes, with burning and sudden swelling; the lids swell so rapidly that they cannot be opened except with great difficulty, and when they are forced open by seizing the margins of the lids with a pair of forceps drops of hot water will fall out, but no pus.

This comes on rapidly from taking cold. Whenever there are inflammations of the mucous surfaces bloody water is apt to flow.

Suddenly the blood vessels become engorged and ooze, the blood vessels rupture and the capillaries ooze.

Ears: Inflammation of the ear comes on just as suddenly.

"Throbbing, intense, cutting pains in the ear."

The child comes home after being out in the cold north wind, and is not sufficiently clad, and now it screams and puts its hand to the ear. The attack comes on early in the evening, after being out in the daytime.

Fever and anxiety; child must be carried. The suffering is intense. Noise intolerable. Music goes through every limb, so intense is the sense of hearing.

Everywhere in the body will we find that same intense condition of the nerves. Wherever there are complaints they are intense, violent, and the patient is always in a state of anxiety and irritability.

"Stinging, burning, rending, tearing, cutting pains in the ear."

Coryza: Coryza if attended with violent headache, coming on in the night after exposure and taking cold during the day, suddenly, this short acting, very quick-acting remedy will be indicated.

The coryza that comes on from Carbo veg. comes on several days after the exposure. The coryza that comes on from Sulphur also develops several days after the exposure.

The Carbo veg. patient becomes overheated and takes cold by keeping on his overcoat when he comes into your office. In Aconite he goes out in cold air with his light clothing, and comes down, if he is a plethoric individual, before midnight.

But especially is it often indicated in the coryza of the rosy, chubby, plethoric baby. Not in the sickly or pale ones.

These sickly ones will come down later; their vital activities are so reduced that their complaints do not come on sometimes for two, or three days.

So that if you take a sickly one and a vigorous one in the same family and expose them both one will have croup tonight and need Aconite, and the other will have it the next morning and need Hepar.

Face: The symptoms likely to occur with coryza are nosebleed, headache, anxiety and fear. The anxious expression is one of the first things observed in the Aconite sufferer. The Aconite pneumonia will often show itself on the face.

Look at the face; there is great anxiety. It shows much of the proving of Aconite. You know there is much in the expression of the face that will enable one to read all that is going on in the body; it tells the story,

The pleasures and sadness, and the distress of the human family, much of which you can generalize, and see at a glance that some great thing has happened. You have only to guess once or twice before you hit it. Here you have the anxiety.

"One cheek red and the other pale" is in a good many remedies, but the anxious expression, and the fear, and the heat, and the restlessness, and the suddenness with which it comes on in a plethoric individual yesterday it was very dry and windy - and you will at once place this symptom with Aconite.

But it might be one of several other remedies, were other conditions present.

"Neuralgic pains in the face, like hot wires running along either side of the face."

The individual rides in the cold, raw wind, and his face was exposed to the cold wind. He becomes numb, then pain sets in, intense pain.

He cries out and shrieks with the knife-like cutting pains. Aconite will relieve.

"Crawling, creeping like ants"; Aconite has that sensation along the course of the nerves. It has a sensation like ice water poured along the course of the nerves.

Sciatica when the sensation is felt down the nerve like ice water.

"Creeping, tingling and crawling in the face, with or without pain."

There is intense heat intense fever in the face. The side of the face laid on will often break into a sweat, and if the patient turns over, that side will at once become dry, and the other side will at once break out in a sweat.

Mouth and teeth: Oh, what a comforting remedy it is for toothache.

It has been so useful in toothache that nearly every old lady nowadays knows enough to put a drop of Aconite on a bit of cotton and put it in the old hollow tooth. It will quite often palliate.

A dose of Aconite will act much better. But the violence of the toothache; again the same old story, from the dry, cold winds, plethoric individuals, with hollow teeth, pain intense, cutting, shooting pains in the teeth.

Sometimes these pains are in sound teeth and affect the whole row of teeth. Violent pains from exposure, such as riding in the wind. The pains are relieved and go away speedily after a dose of Aconite.

Disturbances of taste, disordered stomach. Everything tastes bitter, except water; and, oh, how the Aconite patient longs for water. It seems almost impossible for him to get water enough and it agrees well.

Burning is a symptom that runs all through the remedy, you will find it descriptive of all the pains. Burning in the head, burning along the course of nerves, burning in the spine, burning in fever, sometimes burning as if covered with pepper.

Throat, palate and tonsils: Aconite is a very useful medicine in inflammation of the throat, when there is burning, smarting, dryness, great redness of the tonsils, or the fauces, the whole throat.

Sometimes the soft palate is greatly swollen. A high grade of inflammation, acute inflammation of all that can be seen and called throat. But that alone would not indicate Aconite.

It cures that kind of case, it cures inflammation of the throat, but every homoeopathic physician knows that forty or fifty remedies could be selected just as well as Aconite from all that I have said.

I have only mentioned a nondescript case. No homoeopathic physician could prescribe upon that kind of evidence.

But you note the kind of throat - every physician must ask himself the question:

"What would make that kind of a throat an Aconite case?"

And then the question would come up, could he not prescribe for it as well if he had not seen, the throat?

The throat does not do much towards representing, to an intelligent physician, the patient.

If it was necessary to represent to the mind of the physician the inflamed part itself, how would he treat the liver?

He cannot see it. How would he prescribe for the stomach? He cannot see it. We are then compelled to fall back upon that which represents to the intelligent physician the very nature of the patient himself, and then at once we will see the reason for some of these things.

If you present and Aconite patient well before the mind you can prescribe. It would be well to see anything that is visible. If you could see, the liver, I would say look at it. If you could see the heart, I would say examine it.

What is it in this throat that really represents the patient?

Of course, any soreness of the throat makes it difficult swallow. I mean to infer that there is nothing in the soreness to represent to the physician the Aconite patient. If that individual were a plethoric individual, if he had been riding in a cold, raw wind a good part of the day, and he had wakened in the night with a violent burning, tearing sore throat, and he could not swallow, and the fever came on high, and he had thirst for cold water and he could not get enough of it, he was in an anxious, feverish state, you have then a patient to prescribe for.

Many times will patients become intelligent enough under your observation to write just what some member of the family acts like. You know just what the patient looks like.

The black man will sometimes give the best kind of a description, better than the Vassar girl, who writes us:

"Doctor, will you please send the medicine have looked into the throat and it is red."

Stomach: With the stomach symptoms what an anxious patient we have! The pains are dreadful.

Burning pains, tearing pains, with anxiety, with restlessness, with fever, coming on from taking cold - not from overeating, but from taking cold, which has settled in the stomach; from exposure to an ice bath, or in a very hot summer from intense heat, associated with an irritable brain in vigorous children.

Vomiting and retching, tearing, as it were, the very inside out by the awful retching. The vomiting of blood, bright red blood.

This is descriptive of the general stomach trouble. During this febrile state he craves bitter things, wine and beer, and brandy, but they will come up as soon as they reach the stomach.

He craves pungent things, nothing tastes bitter enough.

"If he could only get something bitter." And yet his food tastes bitter, everything he eats tastes bitter, everything except water.

The word in the text is a clinical word; it says "gastric catarrhs."

It is a very sharp, acute inflammation of the stomach. Retching, vomiting, of bile, vomiting of blood. Ineffectual urging to vomit, when there is nothing in the stomach.

With it there will be anxiety, restlessness, fear of death. The fear depicted upon the countenance makes an awful expression.

Aconite is a useful medicine in inflammation of the liver, when it comes suddenly. It is not very useful in repeated attacks, but in the first attack.

Liver: Violent inflammation of the liver, with violent tearing pains and much burning. Then comes the restlessness, the awful tortures of anxiety, moving constantly, fear of death, red face, glassy eyes, great thirst.

"Anxious restlessness" covers nearly all of these things.

Abdomen: In the abdomen there are shooting pains, burning, stinging pains, after exposure to cold, becoming chilled.

We will soon come to think that it does not make much difference where the disorder occurs, we must have the Aconite patient.

We also have inflammatory troubles of all the viscera of the abdomen. It may be a violent catarrhal inflammation. It may be a catarrhal condition of the lower portion of the colon, or a catarrhal condition of the rectum, when we will have a dysentery.

In dysentery, that which is found in the commode is almost pure blood, blood and a little slime. It seems impossible for him to leave the commode.

Vomiting a little blood and passing bloody mucus from the rectum. Always they will predict they will die tonight, or in a few hours. They look as if they realized the sensation of death.

The whole body is in a state of anguish, but the tenesmus and cramp, the urging to stool are simply terrible. It has a watery diarrhea, but that is not a very important symptom, although it is doubly marked in Hering.

But when pure blood is passed, and mucus, with tenesmus, or when a little green mucus is passed by infants with summer troubles, pure blood or grass-green discharges with fever coming on suddenly, in bright, rosy little ones, think of Aconite.

Most of the bowel troubles come on from intense heat, in the children. The infant takes on inflammation of the liver from the heat, and the stool becomes white like milk, of putty consistency. The child becomes yellow and screams with pain.

Urinary organs: It is useful in urinary troubles, bladder and kidney troubles. inflammatory conditions, and with bloody urine.

Scanty urine, suppressed urine, or retained urine. Retention from shock. This retention from shock makes it one of our best remedies for retention in the new-born.

The infant just born into the world has undergone a shock.

At your next visit the nurse says,

"The child has not passed urine."

The functions of that little one are not yet established, because of the great shock the little one has gone through.

Inflammation of the bladder, with cutting, tearing pains. Burning pains with burning urine. Urine is hot, dark, colored red; red and clear, or bloody.

Retention from cold, especially in children, with crying and restlessness. With inflammatory conditions of the bladder, either in adults or in infants, there will be all the mental states representing the Aconite patient.

Genital: Aconite cures most violent cases of orchitis, which come on suddenly.

Orchitis from cold, from being chilled, in plethoric men. But in the common orchitis from suppressed gonorrhoeal discharges Aconite is useless.

The woman is a natural Aconite patient, with her sympathetic natural sensitiveness. She usually takes on complaints from nervous shock, from fear, and she naturally takes on complaints from causes other than those from which men take on sickness.

It is very seldom that fear will give a man inflammation, but fear is a common cause of inflammation of the uterus, and of the ovaries, in plethoric, vigorous, excitable women.

Fear will often cause abortion, but when Aconite is given early enough it will check the abortion that comes from fear.

We will have the stitching, burning, tearing pains of Aconite sometimes following fear or sudden emotion.

Sometimes a pregnant woman will say,

"Doctor, there is no use your planning for my confinement.

I know I am going to die in that confinement."

If there is any one thing that is a really strong symptom to prescribe on it is that, A dose of Aconite, and then change the subject, she goes away, and in a few days you ask her about that fear and she says, "Oh, never mind that."

Many little things like that can be singled out. But that state of fear is a very peculiar thing, and really represents the whole nature and being of the woman.

She predicts the day of her death. The reason that Aconite is so often the infant's remedy is because the infant is so often made sick from fright.

"Inflammation of the genitals in plethoric women."

Aconite is more frequently indicated in women and children than in men. Sensitive, vigorous, excitable women.

It is indicated in men in inflammatory conditions from becoming chilled in dry, cold air, and it is wonderful how you can convince a patient who needs Aconite what wonderful things there are in Homoeopathy by showing him how rapidly, with Aconite, you can put him in a sweat and break up a sharp fever when that is a recent and single attack.

"After tedious and difficult parturition.

Violent after-pains.

Shooting, tearing after-pains, with febrile conditions."

Uterine haemorrhage with bright red blood and fear of death. It is wonderful what Aconite will do in some cases arising from taking cold in the puerperal state, but do not mix that up with puerperal fever.

The first is a simple form, non-septic; perhaps the breast is involved, with soreness in the breast, suppression of the milk and febrile conditions; but if there is suppression of the lochia do not give Aconite.

New-born children, with difficulty of breathing, after the use of forceps, or from a tedious labor; the child is breathless, there is difficulty with the heart, and in a few hours fever comes on. Aconite is a very simple remedy.

The retention of urine in the infant is so commonly an Aconite condition that you will hardly ever need to use any other medicine.

The little one cannot yet talk, it cannot manifest very much, and, to a certain extent, the practitioner is compelled to be somewhat routine in these affairs, and the routine practitioners have been more or less successful with Aconite for the retention of the urine. Again, it is true that in many cases, of retention of the urine in the mother, it will disappear after a dose of Causticum.

Throat: Aconite is a great routine croup remedy, one that is misused; but it is indicated in all those cases of croup which come on suddenly in plethoric children, from exposure to dry, cold wind, having been out in the cold wind with the mother during the day.

The child is put to bed and rouses up from the first sleep, perhaps at 9 or 10 or 11 o'clock, grasps the throat, coughs violently, a croupy, choking cough, with hoarse bark.

Hardly any other remedy can correspond to that rapidity of action, taking cold in the daytime and developing itself so suddenly.

Croup that comes on from exposure today, and does not develop until tomorrow morning or tomorrow evening, may correspond to quite a number of other remedies but especially Hepar, which is slower in its pace.

And it is more suitable in children somewhat run down and subject to frequent attacks of croup.

Spongia is also similar, but it lacks many of the elements more likely to occur in run-down children, those always taking cold.

It would be a difficult matter to distinguish between the appearance of the Aconite and the Spongia croup so far as the croup is concerned, because both have all the anxious appearance found in croup.

The Aconite croup is a violent croup, inflammation of the larynx, and, at the same time, spasms of the larynx, coming on with great rapidity.

The Spongia croup is less inflammatory, the inflammation grows with the spasms; but while Spongia may rouse up at 11 o'clock at night, suffocating and choking, it has not the intense febrile excitement that belongs to Aconite, nor the anguish, although it has all the dryness that is found in Aconite.

Aconite conditions are dry as a usual thing, or there is only a little watery discharge.

Spongia is entirely dry; if there is an inflamed mucous membrane, it is dry. We have in the croup symptoms in Aconite: Larynx sensitive to touch.

"Croup, waking in first sleep, after exposure to dry, cold winds."

Lungs and respiration: Aconite is full of disturbances of respiration, dyspnoea from contraction of the smaller bronchial tubes, which we find resembles asthma.

It is indicated in that dyspnoea that belongs to capillary bronchitis, in that dyspnoea that belongs to cardiac excitement in plethoric persons, from taking cold, becoming exposed or from shock.

Dyspnoea from fear, such as occurs in nervous women, excitable, easily affected, nervous, plethoric women. Breathing short, labored, anxious, quick,

It is an asthmatic dyspnoea and there is usually dryness of the mucous membranes of the small bronchial tubes.

"Sits up straight and can hardly breathe."

Aconite has such a sudden violent cardiac irritation, pulse fluttering, weak, full and bounding; sits up in bed, grasps the throat, wants everything thrown off; before midnight, a hot skin, great thirst, great fear-everything is associated together.

"Anguish with dyspnoea."

"Sudden attacks of pain in the heart, with dyspnoea." All go together.

"Great suffocation."

From this fear and from anxiety he breaks out in profuse sweat; he is drenched with sweat - and yet he is hot.

When this anxiety passes off he becomes hot. So there is heat and sweat with this awful anxiety. Pulse like a thread.

"Better during expiration."

The spasm of the larynx often comes on during inspiration.

"Worse during inspiration.

Constant short, dry cough.

Difficult breathing.

Breathes only with the diaphragm.

Chest troubles, such as pneumonia."

Aconite produces a very rapid inflammation of the viscera of the chest, of the pleura, of the lungs, of the mucous membrane lining the air passages. In pneumonia we have this dyspnoea, the suddenness with which it comes on. If it spreads rapidly it may go into pneumonia.

Inflammation runs so high that the mucous membrane oozes blood, cherry red, or the mucus that comes up is white and heavily streaked with bright red blood.

You go to the bedside of broncho-pneumonia and you will find in the pan mucus streaked with bright red blood. Now, take the violence with which that comes on, the restlessness and anxiety of the individual - he predicts the hour of his death - that would be the case with the Aconite patient.

In the case of pneumonia where the lung is involved, it is likely to be the upper half of the left lung when Aconite is indicated.

Sometimes the whole mucous membrane, the visible throat, the larynx, trachea, the bronchial tubes, will all ooze blood, sometimes a mouthful of blood, so violent is the inflammation.

In these chest troubles there is much pain. Shooting, burning, tearing pains, and the patient is compelled to lie in a somewhat elevated position, on the back.

Cannot lie upon either side, but upon the back. Lying on the side increases the pain. The dry cold winds. Sudden shocks, in persons of good, strong, vigorous circulation. The Haemoptysis that is spoken of is not such as occurs in phthisis, but is involuntary; the blood comes up with a slight cough.

Someone might be deceived to give it in such cases in broken down constitutions in sickly patients; but it is not to be administered in such cases, we have much better remedies.

The patient does not always become a pneumonia patient, but inflammation of the small air passages may be all that is present.

"Dry cough, vomiting and retching, intense fever, spitting of blood."

No expectoration except a little watery mucus and blood. It occurs a good deal in this way.

Dry cough, sensation of dryness of the whole chest, sensation of dryness in the larynx and throat. Pours down great quantities of cold water, and once in a while after a violent coughing spell he gets up a little blood. But the expectoration is generally mucus.

Pneumonia is generally attended with an expectoration looking like iron rust, as if iron rust had been mixed in with it. Such medicines as Bryonia and Rhus tox, and a few others have that expectoration as a common feature, as natural to the remedies themselves, but Aconite is the cherry - red, bright red expectoration. Its hemorrhages are bright red, and sometimes copious.

All these coughs in pneumonia, in croup, and chest troubles come on suddenly, and if he goes to sleep he will have spasm of the larynx, with dryness of the larynx. He goes to sleep and the larynx becomes dry and he wakes up and grasps his larynx; he thinks he is going to choke.

All these come on from cold winds. Vigorous persons get into a draft and get a chill that will bring on Aconite symptoms.

Aconite has in all inflamed parts a sensation as if hot steam were rushing into the parts, as if warm blood were rushing into the parts, or "flushes of heat in the parts." Along nerves, a sensation of heat, or sensation of cold.

The pulse in the highest form of the fever is full and bounding; strong, vigorous pulse. When the attack is first coming on and the awful anxiety and nerve tension are present the pulse is very small, but after the heart's action is well established, then the pulse becomes stronger.

"Tearing pains down the spine.

Painful, stiff neck.

Crawling in the spine like insects."

That is a peculiar feature, this crawling sensation; it comes from cold, from being suddenly chilled.

Extremities: "Trembling of the hands" associated with these sudden acute attacks.

"Creeping pains in the fingers" associated with these sudden acute inflammatory attacks.

"Cold as ice. Feet cold as ice.

Hot palms."

Hot hands and cold feet are sometimes present. Rheumatic conditions of the joints. Those that come on as a first attack. Not old rheumatic and gouty attacks, but those that come on as acute rheumatism, those that come on from sudden exposure to cold, from long rides in a dry, cold wind.

They also are attended with fever, with anxious restlessness, with a critical state of mind so often described.

"Trembling, tingling, convulsions of the muscles."

But the nerves are full of Aconite symptoms and Aconite sufferings. Aconite is a wonderful remedy for neuritis in plethoric persons.

Numbness along the course of the nerves, from cold, from exposure. Numbness and tingling, along the course of the nerves, especially those that run close to the surface.

"Inflammation of the nerve sheaths.

Nervous excitability.

Excessive restlessness."

Relations: Sulphur has a strong relation to Aconite. It has many Aconite symptoms. In many of the old chronic cases where Sulphur would be used in strong, vigorous constitutions Aconite will be suitable for a sudden attack, and Sulphur for the chronic.

In sudden attacks that Aconite conforms to, that is the whole attack, there may be left in that constitution a tendency to return of a similar attack.

Aconite has no power over that tendency, but Sulphur has. Of course, most of the symptoms must agree but it will seem to you frequently where Aconite has been suitable in the acute disease that Sulphur symptoms will follow, and many times a very violent attack leaves a weakness in the constitution which Aconite has no power to contend with. It has no power to keep off recurrent attacks. It does all that it is capable of doing, and that is the end of it. But it is not so with Sulphur.

After Aconite follow well Arnica and Belladonna. Sometimes it is true it will appear to you that Aconite is capable of coping with all there is in the disease.

But there seems to be a lingering something that holds on, and such medicines as Arn. and Bell., and Ip. and Bry., do have to come in to finish up the attack or sometimes Sulphur. Very commonly Silica. So we have to study the relations of medicines.

If you have administered Aconite in too many doses, or given it too strong, and your patient is slow in recovering from the attack, or your patient has taken Aconite himself unwisely, then Coffea or Nux will often put the patient into a better condition.

A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica, John Henry Clarke

Common Aconite. Monkshood. Wolfsbane. (Moist pastures and waste places in mountainous districts, Central and Southern Europe, Russia, Scandinavia, and Central Asia.) N. O. Ranunculaceae. Tincture of whole plant with root when beginning to flower.

Clinical.─Amaurosis. Anger. Apoplexy. Asthma. Blindness, sudden. Bronchitis. Catalepsy. Catheter fever. Chest, affections of. Chicken-pox. Cholera. Cholera infantum. Cold. Coldness. Consumption. Convulsions. Cough. Croup. Cystitis. Dengue fever. Dentition. Diarrhoea. Dropsy. Dysentery. Dysmenorrhoea. Ear, affections of. Enteritis. Erythema nodosum. Excitement. Eye, affections of. Face, flushing of. Fear, effects of. Fever. Fright, effects of. Glands swollen. Glossitis. Gonorrhoea. Haemorrhages. Haemorrhoids; strangulated. Headache. Heart, affections of. Hip-joint, diseased. Hodgkin's disease. Hyperpyrexia. Influenza. Jaundice. Joints, affections of. Labour. Lactation. Laryngitis. Liver, inflammation of. Lumbago. Lungs, affections of. Mania. Measles. Meningitis. Menstruation, disorders of. Miliaria. Miscarriage. Mumps. Myalgia. Myelitis. Nephritis. Neuralgia. Numbness. Oesophagus, inflammation of. Paralysis. Peritonitis. Phlegmasia alba dolens. Pleurisy. Pleurodynia, Pneumonia. Pregnancy. Puerperal fever. Purpura. Quinsy. Remittent fever. Roseola. Scarlatina. Shivering. Sleeplessness. Smell, disorders of. Stiff-neck. Testicles, affections of. Tetanus. Tetany. Thirst. Throat, affections of. Tongue, affections of. Toothache. Traumatic fever. Urethra, spasmodic stricture of. Urethral fever. Urine, suppression of. Uterus, prolapsus of. Vaccination, effects of. Vertigo. Whooping-cough. Yawning. Yellow fever.

Characteristics.─The Wolfsbane "grows in the damp and covered parts of almost every mountainous country in north or middle of Europe, especially in the Jura, Switzerland, Germany, and Sweden." Teste mentions that it has the reputation of being much more poisonous to carnivorous animals than to the herbivora. This he partly endorses, and it has recently been apparently confirmed by a vain attempt to poison an elephant with Aconitine in this country. A carrot was scraped out and enough Aconitine to poison 2,000 men was put in. The elephant ate it readily, but nothing at all happened, and three hours later a large dose of prussic-acid had to be administered, which proved fatal in a short time.

Before Hahnemann's time Aconite had a reputation as a sudorific, and in cases of rheumatism, sciatica, and tumours, but it was not till Hahnemann proved it that its properties were really, understood. Aconite is more closely associated with the rise and progress of homoeopathy than any other member of the materia medica. If Cinchona was the "Newton's apple" of the homoeopathic discovery, Aconite was the remedy by means of which Hahnemann was able to meet most of the conditions which in his day were treated by blood-letting. It was Aconite more than any other remedy which paved the way for the disappearance of blood-letting from general medical practice. One of the deadliest and most rapidly acting of poisons, through Hahnemann's discoveries has been turned into the best friend of the nursery. Aconite in potencies above the 3rd is a perfectly safe medicine for any age. Sensitive patients complain of its depressing action when repeated, and I have known instances in which the characteristic prostration of mind and body has occurred after Aconite had been given in the potencies. But such cases are exceptions, and are not attended with danger when they do occur. The great majority of patients to whom Aconite is given in the potencies experience nothing of the kind.

The rapidity of action of Aconite determines its appropriateness for conditions in which the symptoms set in with great intensity, such as Asiatic cholera, certain fevers, and acute inflammations. To this list may be added attacks of sudden blindness. But it must not be supposed that the sphere of Aconite is limited to acute cases. When the symptoms correspond it will cure cases of great chronicity─for example, cases of indurated glands.

Dr. Hughes has acutely remarked that the condition to which Aconite is homoeopathic is one of tension; and this word gives the best idea of the action and sphere of Aconite. There is emotional and mental tension, as shown in fright or fear and its consequences, anxiety, and fear of death; tension of the systemic vessels, as in the effects of a chill, Asiatic cholera, and haemorrhages; muscular tension, as in tetanus; tension of involuntary muscles, as in heart spasms, and tension of the semi-involuntary muscular apparatus of respiration, as in asthma; and finally tension of the special senses in heightened sensation and heightened sensitiveness to pain; in a feeling of numbness in parts, as if bound tightly, and also a sensation of being tightly bound in the limbs and in other parts. Hence it is that Aconite in its therapeutic action corresponds to the effects of a number of conditions which excite a state of tension. Plethora may be classed under this head. Plethoric persons of a lively character, bilious and nervous constitutions, high colour, brown or black hair, are specially suited to Acon. Active, sanguineous congestions of all kinds, especially those following chill. Guernsey puts it in another way: "The pure and fully developed blood globule, in its most perfect type, when diseased, has a great affinity for Acon. When the blood globules are disorganised it is seldom indicated. We think of Acon. in sudden inflammation, especially if caused by cold, dry air, suppressing exhalations of the body." Teste relates a remarkable case of an Englishman who had been obliged to take a long sleigh journey in North Russia in midwinter, who suffered thereafter for two years from violent paroxysms of palpitation and acute stitching pains in the heart region, threatening cerebral apoplexy. Aneurism had been diagnosed by leading physicians in England and on the Continent. Teste localised the affection to neurosis or spasm of the pectoralis major muscle, and proved his diagnosis by promptly curing it with Acon. The keen, cutting winds of the mountains amongst which the plant flourishes give the signature of this remedial action.

There are not many drugs which have causation so strongly marked among their characteristics. Chill, fright, injury, or surgical operation─the effects of these will be met in large majority of cases by Acon., the timely administration of which will ward off serious results.

The reaction from the primary effect of chill gives another characteristic of Acon.─that of fever. With the Acon. fever there are: Restlessness and tossing about, and the tension state is evidenced still in the anxiety with which it is accompanied, sometimes amounting to fear of death. The mental exaltation sometimes goes so far as to the predicting of the day and hour of death. Clairvoyance. Extreme sensitiveness to light and sound and all sensations including pain. When the sickness is borne with calmness and patience Acon. is not likely to be required. It was the feverish restlessness of the Acon. provings that led Hahnemann to infer its homoeopathicity to so many fever states; and it is the presence of this restlessness, anxiety, fear, and exalted sensibility which are its leading indications in cases of all kinds.

Some characteristics of Acon. are the following: Active haemorrhages in stout, plethoric people. Passes almost pure blood by stool. In haemoptysis the blood comes up with great ease by hemming and coughing, bright red in large quantities, from cold, dry winds, with great fear, anxiety, and palpitation. Every inspiration increases the cough. After the cough tingling sensation in chest. Unquenchable thirst: everything tastes bitter, except water (Chi. everything, including water). In croup the child grasps the throat with every coughing fit. Coldness, numbness, and tingling characterise the paralyses and neuroses of Acon. Facial paralysis from exposure to cold, dry winds. The fear and apprehension of Acon. is shown in dread of crossing streets. There is intolerance of music. Some curious symptoms are: Imagines some part of body is deformed. Imagine they do all their thinking from the stomach. Predicts the hour of death (clairvoyance).

Acon. is one of the great pain remedies, vying with Cham. and Coffea in the intensity of the pain it causes. Pains are intolerable, driving to desperation. The pains of Acon. are tearing, cutting; are attended with restlessness; accompanied by numbness, tingling, or formication. Acon. cannot bear the pain, cannot bear to be touched, cannot bear to be covered. The toothache of Acon. is one-sided, with red cheek on same side.

Guernsey gives the following excellent directions: "If a child is suffering from a watery diarrhoea, is crying and complaining very much, biting his fists and is sleepless, Acon. will usually settle this trouble in a short time. The disturbed condition of the mind will cease and quiet sleep will follow. The mother will now remark: "Doctor, he is all right, except his bowels, and they are as bad as ever." Now, do not give another remedy, but wait and see if Acon. will not complete the cure by itself." Again: Scanty, red, and hot urine, arising from taking cold, especially in children. The child screams and appears to be in great pain because it cannot urinate. Acon. will ease the pain, quiet the child, and the urine will flow some time after. In adults, incontinence of urine will sometimes be relieved by Acon.

There is a great and sudden sinking of strength; fainting on attempting to get up; with anxiety, restlessness, numbness, tingling, formication.

Acon. has a very wide sphere of usefulness in affections of the eye. Inflammation, of many kinds, from cold, injury, dust, surgical operations, scrofulous inflammation with enlarged glands, all come within its range. Some remarkable cases of sudden blindness have been cured by it. Hirsch of Prague records two such cases, one in a man of thirty, who went to bed well, having walked home in rough and stormy weather after spending the evening in a hot room. Acon. 3 was given, and the following night he perspired freely, and in the morning his sight was thoroughly restored. Hirsch himself suddenly lost his sight whilst bathing in hot weather. He took Acon. 3 in water as he had given it to his patient. In two hours he began to perspire, and after a six-hours' sleep awoke well. Lippe has recorded the case of a lady whom he found much distressed, anxious, fearing paralysis. In her usual, health she had taken a full dinner, and when reading afterwards, the letters danced before her eyes, and the print became blurred; then face and nose became numb; pulse small, 120 a minute. One dose Acon. c.m. (Fincke) was given. The numbness disappeared in half an hour; Pulse 72; the sight was perfect when she closed either eye, but everything looked indistinct when she kept both open. This symptom disappeared next morning; a slight lightness of the head remaining that day.

The time of the aggravation of Acon. symptoms is chiefly night and about midnight. Heat, as well as cold, is injurious to the Acon. patient; sunstroke is among the conditions which call for it; and Acon. will cure many headaches caused by exposure to the sun, and also sun-erythema. Headaches are generally > in open air, < in warm room; toothache and cough < in open air. > From uncovering. Warm room < chill; in fever, the bed is intolerable; he wants to uncover. Sweat on affected or covered parts. There is < from wine or stimulants; < from drinking (any kind of liquid). Rest > the symptoms generally, but during the night the pains are intolerable, limbs feel tired and rigors are worse. Lying relieves headache and vertigo, and aggravates other complaints. Lying on back > cough and stitches in chest; lying on side < stitches in chest and cough: the cheek lain on sweats. Rising from a seat = vertigo. Vertigo, pallor, faintness on sitting up in bed. Bending double > colic and dysmenorrhoea pain. Motion < pains in muscles, joints, and stiffness.

Relations.─Aconitum napellus is related in its action to the other Aconites and to Aconitinum, and also to the Ranunculaceae, Actaea rac., Actaea spic., Paeon., Podoph., Ranunculus, Staph. Teste places in the Aconite group: Coccul., Cham., Dulc., Cannab. i., Con. But he admits that the relationship is not close, and that Acon. is really without analogues. It is antidoted by: Acet. ac., Alcohol, Paris. It antidotes: Bell., Cham., Coff., Nux v., Pet., Sep., Spo., Sul. It is often indicated after: Arn., Coff., Sul., Verat. It is complementary to: Coff. (in fever, sleeplessness, intolerance of pain); Arn. (bruises, injury to eye); Sul. It relieves ailments from: Act. rac., Cham., Coff., Nux v., Pet., Sep., Sul. Abuse of Acon. calls for Sul. Acon. should be compared with Stram. and Op. in effects of fright; and with Sul. in most of its symptoms. Sul. is the chronic of Acon.; it will often complete an action that Acon. begins, and will cure cases in which Acon. is apparently indicated but fails to relieve. Compare also: Pul., Lyc., Sec., and Camph. (> from uncovering). Hep. and Coff. (intolerance of pain). Chi. (white stool). Gels. (effects of bad news, fright, anger). Nux and Bry. (diarrhoea from anger). Bry. (effects of cold, dry winds).

Causation.─Fear. Fright. Chill. Cold, dry winds. Heat; especially of sun. Injury. Surgical operation. Shock.

SYMPTOMS.

1. Mind.─Great agitation and tossing of the body with anguish, inconsolable irritability, cries, tears, groans, complaints, and reproaches.─Sensitive irritability.─Fearful anticipations of approaching death; predicts the day he is to die.─Sadness.─Presentiments, as if in a state of clairvoyance.─Anthropophobia and misanthropy; has no affection for anybody.─Maliciousness.─A strong disposition to be angry, to be frightened, and to quarrel.─The least noise, even music, appears insupportable.─Humour changeable; at one time sad, depressed, irritable, and despairing; at another time gay, excited, full of hope, and disposed to sing and dance.─Vexed at trifles; takes every joke in bad part.─Dislike to talk; answers laconically.─Alternate paroxysms of laughter and tears.─Great, inconsolable anxiety.─Anxiety respecting one's malady, and despair of a cure.─Fear of spectres.─Fear of the dark.─Disposition to run away from one's bed.─Mind, as it were, paralysed, with incapability of reflection, and a sensation as if all the intellectual functions were performed in the region of the stomach.─Paroxysms of folly and madness.─Unsteadiness of ideas.─In the delirium is unhappiness, worry, despair and raving, with expression of fear upon the countenance; but there is rarely unconsciousness.─Delirium, chiefly at night; with ecstasy.─Weakness of memory.─Ailments from fear, fright, vexation.

2. Head.─Head affected, as if the brain was nailed up, principally in the heat of a room.─Vertigo, particularly on rising from bed, or else on getting up from one's seat, on stooping, on moving or shaking the head, and often with a sensation of intoxication or dizziness in the head, loss of consciousness, dimness of the eyes; nausea, and sensation of weakness at the pit of the stomach.─Vertigo, with inclination to fall to r. side.─Vanishing of sight; bleeding of the nose.─Sensation, as though the brain were rolling loosely id the skull; increased by the least motion, and even by speaking and drinking.─Pain in the head, with inclination to vomit, also vomiting.─Head, as if bruised, with sensation of bruising in the limbs.─Stupefying pain in the head with sensation of compression and drawing together as from cramp, principally in the forehead and at root of the nose.─Weight and fulness in the forehead and in the temples, with expansive pressure, as if everything was going to issue forth through them, chiefly on stooping forward.─Feeling as of a board before forehead.─Shooting, blows and beatings in the head.─Drawing cephalalgia, sometimes semi-lateral.─Sensation as if a ball were mounting in the head, and spreading a coolness over it.─Congestion of blood in the head, with heat and redness of face, or with a sensation of heat in the brain, sweat on a shrivelled skin, and paleness in the face.─Sensation of heat in the head, which perspires, with pale face.─Inflammation of the brain.─Sensation of fulness and heaviness in the forehead, with the sensation as if the whole brain would start out of the eyes, with nausea and giddiness, aggravated by talking and from motion.─Heat and ebullition in the head, as if there were boiling water in the brain.─A roaring and cracking in the head.─Sensation in the vertex, as if dragged by the hair.─Sensation as if the hair were standing on end all over the head.─Pain in the head, as if in consequence of cold or suppressed perspiration, with a buzzing in the ears, cold in the head and colic.─Aggravation of the pains in the head by movement, by speaking, by rising from a recumbent position, and by drinking; relief experienced in the open air.

3. Eyes.─Eyes red and inflamed, with deep redness of the vessels, and intolerable pains.─Profuse lachrymation.─Heat and burning in the eyes, with pressive and shooting pains, esp. on moving the balls.─Swelling of the eyes.─Dilated pupils.─Lids feel dry, hard, heavy; sensitive to air.─Red, hard swelling of the lids.─Eyes sparkling, convulsed, and prominent.─Look fixed.─Cannot bear the reflection of the sun from the snow; it causes specks, sparks, and scintillations to dance before the eyes.─Excessive photophobia; or a strong desire for light.─Black spots and mist before the eyes.─Disturbed by flickering; fears he may touch others passing by.─Vision as if through a veil; difficult to distinguish faces; with anxiety and vertigo.─Sudden attacks of blindness.─A sensation of drawing in the eyelids with drowsiness.─Ophthalmia, very painful, with blear-eyedness, or from foreign bodies having come into the eyes (dust, sparks); from operations.

4. Ears.─Tingling and buzzing in the ears.─Tickling and sharp pain in the ears.─Sensation as if something was placed before the ears.─Excessive sensibility of hearing; all noise is intolerable.─Music goes through every limb; makes her sad.─Tearing (l. ear). Roaring in the ears.

5. Nose.─Stunning compression or cramp at the root of the nose.─Bleeding at the nose; bright red; esp. in plethoric persons.─Excessive sensibility of smelling, esp. for unpleasant odours.─Violent sneezing, with pain in the abdomen, and in the l. side.─Coryza, with catarrh, pain in the head, buzzing in the ears and colic.─Coryza caused by cold, dry winds.─Checked coryza with headache; > in open air, < from talking.─Fluent coryza, frequent sneezing; dripping of a clear, hot water; fluent mornings.

6. Face.─Anxious expression; frightened.─Face bloated, hot, and red, or bluish; or alternately red and pale; yellow.─On rising, the face, previously red, assumes a deadly paleness; afterwards becomes red.─Red and pale alternately.─Redness of one cheek, with paleness of the other, or red spots on both cheeks.─Sweat on the forehead, upper lip, and on the cheek which has pressed the pillow.─Distortion of features.─Crawling pain and sensation of swelling in the cheeks.─Tense drawing in trigeminus nerve, then shooting, wandering, intermittent, then constant pain, sometimes pressure.─Pain, as of ulceration, in the cheek-bones.─Semi-lateral prosopalgia, with swelling of the lower jaw.─Lips black and dry, peeling off.─Tingling in the cheeks.─Burning, tingling, and shooting pains, with successive drawing in the jaws.─Dropping of jaws.─Trismus.

7. Teeth.─Lancinating shocks or throbbing pains in the teeth, often with congestion of blood towards the head, and heat in the face.─Toothache from cold, with throbbing in one side of the face, intense redness of the cheek, and great restlessness.─Grinding teeth.

8. Mouth.─Sensation of dryness, or dryness in the mouth and on the tongue.─Tongue white.─Coated, or thick yellow-white.─Itching, prickings and burning sensation in the tongue; with accumulation of saliva in the mouth.─Paralysis of the tongue.─Numbness of tongue; also about lips.─Speech tremulous and stammering.─Pain, as of excoriation, in the orifices of the salivary ducts, as if they were ulcerated.─Trismus, with salivation.─Uvula feels elongated and coming in contact with tongue.

9. Throat.─Pain in the throat, with deep redness of the parts affected, and difficult deglutition.─Tingling in the oesophagus.─Scraping, tingling sensation of strangling, burning and pricking in the throat, chiefly in swallowing.─Acute inflammation of the throat (palate, tonsils and fauces) with high fever, dark redness of the parts, burning and stinging in the fauces.─Burning and numbness in throat; throat almost insensible.─Pricking, burning in throat and along Eustachian tubes, compelling swallowing.─Sensation of contraction in the throat, as if caused by acrid substances.─Stinging in the throat when swallowing and coughing.─Almost entire inability to swallow, with hoarseness.

10. Appetite.─Taste in the mouth bitter; or putrid.─All kinds of food and liquids, except water, tasting bitter.─Burning and unquenchable thirst; sometimes with a desire for beer. Excessive hunger and thirst, but eats slowly.─Generally < from drinking.─Gastric catarrh from drinking ice-water when over-heated.─Generally > from cold drink, esp. anxiety.─Loss of appetite and a distaste for food.─Beer lies heavy on the stomach.─Desires: wine; brandy; beer; bitter drinks.─Wine generally >.

11. Stomach.─Hiccough.─Eructations of wind, and abortive risings in the throat.─Flow of water from the stomach, as in water-brash, with nausea.─Inclination to vomit, as after having eaten something sweetish or fat.─Bilious vomitings, greenish, or mucous and bloody.─Vomiting of pure blood.─Vomiting of bloody mucus, or of what has been drunk, followed by thirst.─Gagging and retching.─Vomiting of lumbrices.─Vomiting, with nausea and thirst, heat, profuse perspiration and increased micturition.─Pains in the stomach after eating or drinking.─Sensation of swelling, tension, and pressure as of a weight in the precordial region and in the stomach, sometimes with difficult respiration.─Pressure in the stomach and pit of the stomach, as from a hard stone.─Pit of stomach sore to touch and meteorismic.─Sensation of contraction in stomach, as is from acrid substances.

12. Abdomen.─Constriction, tension and pressure in the hypochondriac region, sometimes with fulness and a sensation of weight.─Burning pain, shootings, stinging and pressure in the hepatic region, with difficult respiration.─Painful sensibility to touch in the region of the liver.─Inflammation and sensation of soreness in the liver.─Pressure in the region of the liver, with obstruction of breathing.─Jaundice: of newborn; from fright; from chill.─Drawing pains in the abdomen while in a crouching posture (as when at stool).─Constriction, pinchings and burning in the umbilical region, sometimes with retraction of the navel.─Unbearable cutting pains in the morning while in bed.─Tension and painful throbbing in the abdomen, principally in the epigastrium.─Swelling of the abdomen as in ascites.─Painful sensibility of the abdomen to the touch, and to the least movement.─Flatulent colic, chiefly at night, and pressure, tension, and borborygmus, with rumbling in the abdomen.

13. Stool and Anus.─Suppression of stools.─Frequent, soft, small stools, with tenesmus.─Loose, watery stools.─Stools like chopped spinach.─White stools, with dark red urine.─Choleraic discharges with collapse, deathly anxiety, and restlessness.─Involuntary stools, from paralysis of the anus.─Constipation; clay-coloured stools.─Nausea and sweating before and after loose stools.─Pains in the rectum.─Violent pain in rectum, with chill and fever, inflammation, tenesmus, bloody discharges (dysentery).─Pressure and pricking in the anus.─Bleeding piles, with heat and sharp stitches; blood bright.─Diarrhoea, with flux of urine and colic.─Sensation as of a warm fluid escaping from anus.

14. Urinary Organs.─Suppression of urine, with pressure in the bladder and pains in the loins.─A frequent desire to discharge urine, accompanied by anxiety and pain.─Flow of urine, with sweat, diarrhoea, and colic.─Involuntary emission of urine, from relaxation of the neck of the bladder.─Enuresis, with thirst.─Urine scanty, burning, deep red, and with a sediment of a brick colour (arising from taking cold, esp. in children); suppression of, from cold.─Bloody sediment in the urine.─Scanty, red, hot urine, without sediment.─Heat and tenesmus in the neck of the bladder.

15. Male Sexual Organs.─Venereal inclination alternately increased and diminished.─Amorous paroxysms.─Smarting in the parts.─Contusion like pains in the testicles.─Testicles feel swollen, hard, as if surcharged with semen.─Orchitis.─Gonorrhoea, first stage.─Itching in the prepuce.─Shootings and pinchings in the glans when making water.

16. Female Sexual Organs.─Menses too abundant and too protracted.─Suppressed menstruation from fright; from cold feet.─After-pains too painful and too protracted.─Milk fever (with delirium).─Puerperal peritonitis.─Maniacal fury on the appearance of the menses.─Stitching pains move to r. of fundus uteri; sharp shooting pains, abdomen exceedingly sensitive.─Ovaritis from suddenly checked menstrual flow.─Labour-like pressing in womb (dysmenorrhoea).─Uterine haemorrhage; active, much excitability; giddy, cannot sit up; fear of death.─Vagina dry, hot, sensitive.─Leucorrhoea, copious, tenacious, yellow.─Increase of milk in breasts.

17. Respiratory Organs.─Sensation of numbness in the trachea.─Attacks of paralysis in the epiglottis, with a tendency to choking.─Pain in the larynx.─Larynx sensitive to touch and to the inspired air, as if denuded.─Laryngeal complaints after straining the voice.─A croaking voice.─A constant desire to cough, produced by an irritation or a tickling in the larynx.─Inflammation of larynx and bronchia.─Cough from having drunk or smoked.─Short and dry cough, principally at night.─A convulsive cough, hoarse or croaking, sometimes with danger of suffocation, and constriction of the larynx.─Angina membranacea, with dry cough and quick breathing.─Croup.─Expectoration of thick and whitish matter, or of bloody mucus, or spitting of blood while coughing.─Shootings and pains in the chest on coughing.─Cough, with stitches in the chest or small of the back.─Cough: < after eating or drinking; when lying; evening; night, more after 12; during sleep; from tobacco smoke; from vexation, esp., fright; when over-heated; from dry, cold winds; from walking in open air; assuming upright position; from deep inspiration; from speaking.

18. Chest.─Short breathing, chiefly during sleep, and on getting up.─Breathing painful, anxious, and attended with groans, rapid and superficial, or full, noisy, and with the mouth open.─Breathing slow during sleep.─Breath hot.─Breath fetid.─Constriction and anxious oppression of the chest, with difficulty of breathing.─Asthma of Millar.─Attack of suffocation, with anxiety.─Sensation of heaviness and of compression at the chest.─Painful pricking in the chest, chiefly when breathing, coughing, and moving (even the arms).─Stitches through the chest and side, esp. when breathing and coughing.─Prickings in the side, with a lachrymose and plaintive humour, soothed, in some degree, by lying on the back. Pleurisy and pneumonia, esp. with great heat, much thirst, dry cough and great nervous excitability, only somewhat relieved when lying on the back.─Itching in the chest.─Pains as of a bruise in the sternum and in the sides.─Sensation of anguish in the chest, which interrupts respiration.

19. Heart.─Palpitation of the heart, with great anxiety, heat of body, chiefly in the face, and great weariness in the limbs.─Shootings in the region of the heart when moving or going upstairs.─Sensation of compression and blows in the region of the heart.─Inflammation of the heart.─Chronic diseases of the heart, with continuous pressure in the l. side of the chest, oppressed breathing when moving fast and ascending steps, stitches in the region of the heart, congestions to the head; attacks of fainting and tingling in the fingers.─Fainting with tingling.─Pulse full, strong, hard; slow, feeble; threadlike with anxiety; quick, hard, small.

20. Neck and Back.─Weakness and pain, as from a bruise in the nape of the neck.─Pain, as if from a bruise, in the back and loins.─Painful stiffness in the nape of the neck, the loins, and the hip joints.─Pain, as of boring in the back and in the loins, tingling, and of pricking in the back.

22. Upper Limbs.─Pain, as from a bruise, and weakness in the arms, principally in the shoulders, with swelling.─Heaviness in the arms, with numbness in the fingers.─Numbness of the left arm; he can scarcely move the hand.─Paralytic weakness of the arm and hand, esp. in writing.─A sensation of drawing in the arms.─Hands dead.─Swelling of the hands.─Heat in the hands with cold in the feet.─Cool sweat on the palms of the hands.─Icy coldness of the hands.─Tingling in the fingers, particularly when writing.─Inflammatory swelling of the elbow, with numbness, and a paralytic state of the fingers.

23. Lower Limbs.─Pain, as from a bruise in the hip joints, esp. after having slept, or having lain down for some time.─A sensation of drawing with paralytic weakness in the legs.─Shooting pain in the hip joint, even to the knee; pain which forces a cry at every step.─Want of strength and of stability in the joints of the hip and of the knee.─Drawing, tearing pains in the knee-joint.─Inflammatory swelling of the knee, with shining redness, shooting pains, stiffness, and great sensibility to touch.─Sensation of stiffness in the legs on moving them.─Pain in the insteps, with despair and fear of death.─Numbness in the legs.─Heaviness of the feet.─Cold in the feet, chiefly in the toes, and sweat on the soles of the feet.─Tingling, commencing in feet and spreading upwards.

24. Generalities.─Shooting, or rheumatic pains, which are reproduced by wine or other stimulants.─Sufferings which, particularly at night, seem unbearable, and which generally disappear in a sitting posture.─Attacks of pain with thirst and redness of the cheeks.─Distressing sensibility of body, and esp. of the parts affected, on every movement, and on the slightest touch.─Pain as from a bruise, and sensation of heaviness in all the limbs.─A sensation of drawing with paralytic weakness in the arms and legs.─Failure of strength and stability, pains and cracking in the joints, principally of the legs.─Rapid and general decay of strength.─Fainting, esp. when rising, with paleness of the cheeks, which were red when lying.─Attacks of fainting, chiefly on rising from a recumbent posture, and sometimes with congestion of blood in the head, buzzing in the ears, deadly paleness of countenance, and shuddering.─Congestions (head, chest, heart).─Uneasiness, as if from suppressed perspiration, or in consequence of a chill, with pain in the head, buzzing in the ears, colic and cold in the head.─Sensation of cold and of stagnation of blood in all the vessels.─Shaking in the limbs.─Cataleptic attack, with cries, grinding of the teeth, and hiccough; rigor of the body and loud lamentations.─Tetanus.─Swelling of the whole body, which assumes a blackish colour.

25. Skin.─Crawling sensation in the skin, with itching and desquamation, principally in the parts affected.─Skin dry and burning.─Swelling and burning heat of wounded parts.─Yellow face.─Yellowish colour of the skin.─Red, hot, swollen and shining skin with violent pain.─Shootings, with a sensation of excoriation here and there.─Spots similar to flea-bites on the hands, on the body, etc.─Small pimples, red and broad, attended by itching.─Morbilli.─Rash of children.─Purpura miliaris.

26. Sleep.─Great desire to sleep, even while walking, and principally after dinner.─Drowsiness, with anxious thoughts and rapid respiration.─Confused reveries, in which the eyes are closed, without sleeping.─Sleeplessness from anxiety, with constant agitation and tossing.─Sleeplessness, with restlessness (eyes closed) and constant tossing about.─Startings in sleep.─Anxious dreams, with nightmare.─Anxious dreams, with much talking and moving while sleeping.─Dreams with a sort of clairvoyance.─Light sleep.─Impossibility of lying on the side.─During sleep, lying on the back, with the hand under the head; or in a sitting posture, with the head inclined forward.

27. Fever.─Dry, burning heat, with extreme thirst, sometimes (esp. at the beginning of the disease), preceded by shiverings, with trembling.─Heat, chiefly in the head and face, with redness of the cheeks, shuddering over the entire body, oppressive headache, temper lachrymose, disposed to complaining and to contradiction; or, a sensation of heat in the whole body, with redness of the cheeks, pain in the head on turning the eyes, and levity of mind.─Shivering, if uncovered in the least while the heat exists.─Cold over the whole body with internal heat, forehead cold, and tips of the ears hot; or with redness of cheeks and pains in the limbs; or with stiffness of the whole body, heat and redness of one cheek, and coldness and paleness of the other; eyes open and fixed, pupils contracted, and dilating with difficulty.─Sensation of coldness in the blood vessels.─Cold and shivering in the fingers, followed by cramps in the calves of the legs and in the soles of the feet.─Heat of face, with mournful and despairing thoughts, and an inclination to vomit, preceded by cold and shiverings in the feet and hands.─Shuddering runs up from the feet to the chest.─Frequent shudderings, with burning heat and dryness of the skin.─Inflammatory fevers and inflammations, with much heat, dry, burning skin, violent thirst, red face, or alternate red and pale face, nervous excitability, groaning and agonised tossing about, shortness of breath, and congestion to the head.─Continual sweat, esp. on parts that are covered.─Sour sweat.─Pulse hard, frequent, and accelerated; full, sometimes intermitting; when slow, almost imperceptible (threadlike).

Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons of Some of the Leading Remedies of the Materia Medica (Allen's Keynotes), Henry Clay Allen

Monkshood (Ranunculacea)

It is generally indicated in acute or recent cases occurring in young persons, especially girls, of a full, plethoric habit who lead a sedentary life; persons easily affected by atmospheric changes; dark hair and eyes, rigid muscular fibre. Complaints caused by exposure to dry cold air, dry north or west winds, or exposure to draughts of cold air while in a perspiration; bad effects of checked perspiration. Great fear and anxiety of mind, with great nervous excitability; afraid to go out, to go into a crowd where there is any excitement or many people; to cross the street. The countenance is expressive of fear; the life is rendered miserable by fear; is sure his disease will prove fatal; predicts the day he will die; fear of death during pregnancy. Restless, anxious, does everything in great haste; must change position often; everything startles him. Pains; are intolerable, they drive him crazy; he becomes very restless; at night. Hahnemann says: "Whenever Aconite is chosen homeopathically, you must, above all, observe the moral symptoms, and be careful that it closely resembles them; the anguish of mind and body; the restlessness; the disquiet not to be allayed.". This mental anxiety, worry, fear accompanies the most trivial ailment. Music is unbearable, makes her sad (Sab., during menses, Nat. c.). On rising from a recumbent position the red face becomes deathly pale, or he becomes faint or giddy and falls, and fears to rise again; often accompanied by vanishing of sight and unconsciousness. Amenorrhoea in plethoric young girls; after fright, to prevent suppression of menses. For the congestive stage of inflammation before localization takes place. Fever; skin dry and hot; face red, or pale and red alternately; burning thirst for large quantities of cold water; intense nervous restlessness, tossing about in agony; becomes intolerable towards evening and on going to sleep. Convulsions; of teething children; heat, jerks and twitches of single muscles; child gnaws its fist, frets and screams; skink hot and dry; high fever. Cough, croup; dry, hoarse, suffocating, loud, rough, croaking; hard, ringing, whistling; on expiration (Caust. - on inhalation, Spong.); from dry, cold winds or drafts of air. Aconite should never be given simply to control the fever, never alternated with other drugs for that purpose. If it be a case requiring Aconite no other drug is needed; Aconite will cure the case. Unless indicated by the exciting cause, is nearly always injurious in first stages of typhoid fever.

Aggravation. Evening and night, pains are insupportable; in a warm room; when rising from bed; lying on affected side (Hep., Nux m.).

Amelioration. In the open air (Alum., Mag. c., Puls., Sab.).

Relationship. Complementary: to Coffea in fever, sleeplessness, intolerance of pain; to Arnica in traumatism; to Sulphur in all cases. Rarely indicated in fevers which bring out eruptions. Aconite is the acute of Sulphur, and both precedes and follows it in acute inflammatory conditions.

Leaders In Homoeopathic Therapeutics, Eugene Beauharnais Nash

Fear: of death; of crowds; of going out. Anything, always fearful.

Complaints from exposure to cold, dry cold.

Congestions and inflammations, acute, first stage with great anxiety, heat and restlessness; tosses about in agony; throws off covering. Inflammatory fever.

Pains insuppressable < at night, especially in the evening; neuralgic.

Face very red and flushed, but turns pale on rising up.

Favorite points of attack: Larynx (crop), bronchi (bronchitis), lungs and pleura (pneumonia and pleurisy), joints (rheumatism), heart and circulation (erethism).

Modalities: < in the evening (chest symptoms and pains); lying on left side; in warm room or warm covering.

> uncovering; kicks the clothes off.

* * * * *

We will now take up what I call the trio of restless remedies; viz: Aconite, Arsenicum and Rhus toxicodendron.

All are equally restless, yet all are so very different that there is no difficulty in choosing between them. The Aconite restlessness is oftenest found in a high grade of synochal or inflammatory fevers. There is no better picture in a few words of the Aconite fever than is given by Hering – "Heat, with thirst; hard, full and frequent pulse, anxious impatience, inappeasable, beside himself, tossing about with agony."

The custom of alternating Aconite and Belladonna in inflammatory affections, which so widely prevails is a senseless one. Both remedies cannot be indicated at a time, and if a good effect follows their administration you may be sure that the indicated one cured in spite of the action of the other, which only hindered; or that the patient recovered without help from either. There are many cases of this kind where the doctor is congratulating himself on a cure which was only a recovery, for which he deserves no credit at all. Let us look for a moment at some of the diagnostic differences of these two remedies.

Both have great heat of the skin, but Aconite has characteristically dry, hot skin and no sweat; Belladonna has even greater surface heat, but sweats on covered parts.

Aconite tosses about in agony with great fear of death; Belladonna often has semi-stupor and jerks and twitches in sleep. Aconite has great distress in heart and chest; Belladonna everything seems to centre in the head. Aconite fears death without much delirium; Belladonna fears imaginary things, with delirium. Thus we might continue to give points of difference. No man who understands the homoeopathic art of healing will ever alternate these two remedies.

Aconite is also a great pain remedy. If we were to name the three leading remedies in this respect it would be Aconite, Chamomilla and Coffea. The Aconite pains are always attended by the extreme restlessness, anxiety and fearfulness of this remedy. The patient tosses about in agony, "cannot bear the pain, nor bear to be touched, nor to be uncovered." Well, you say, all remedies have pain. Not all, and not many so intense pain. Opium and Stramonium have painlessness oftener than pain. The Aconite pains are intolerable and generally worse in the evening or at night. Then we have often alternating with or sometimes even in conjunction with the pains numbness, tingling, or formication.

In this it resembles Rhus tox., but with Aconite the pains predominate, while with Rhus tox. the numbness, with dull aching and soreness, leads. The pains of Aconite are tearing, cutting pains, which drive the patient to desperation. Right here we may as well speak of the leading characteristic of this remedy, for it is almost always present when Aconite is clearly indicated. Just one word expressed it: Fear -fear of death especially, but fear to cross the street, fear to go into society, fear something is going to happen, ever present, undefinable, unreasonable fear. No remedy has it in such a degree as this one. It is the fear as much as the pain that makes the patient so full of that agonized restlessness. The Arsenic restlessness goes with extreme prostration and reduced vitality. Rhus tox., on account of the aching pains, which make him want to move for the temporary relief he gets from the movement. Arsenic wants to move from place to place, but is not relieved. Neither Aconite nor Arsenic get such relief from movement, nor does Arsenic fear like Aconite, or at least in any such degree. Aconite, as a fever remedy, has been greatly abused. Even the old school, astonished at the results of homoeopathic treatment, so superior to their so-called anti-phlogistic treatment, and finding Aconite so highly recommended and frequently used in inflammatory affections, concluded in accordance with their usual way of reasoning that Aconite could be squeezed into their pathological livery and made to do service in all kinds of fever simply because it was fever. But they soon found that however useful it might be in some cases of inflammatory fever, it was of no use in typhoids. Thus was generalization from a pathological standpoint again doomed to disappointment, as it always must be. Now many so-called homoeopaths have fallen into similar error by concluding that because Aconite did quickly cure in some cases having a high grade of fever, that therefore it was always the remedy with which to treat cases having high fever. They even fell into the routine habit of prescribing this remedy for the first stage of all inflammatory affections, and follow it with other remedies more appropriate to the whole case further on. If Aconite were the only remedy having inflammatory fever, perhaps we could do no better than to zig-zag the case to a cure this way. Dunham writes: "Aconite is never to be given first to subdue the fever and then some other remedy 'to meet the case,' never to be alternated with other drugs for the purpose, as is often alleged, of 'controlling the fever.' If the fever be such as to require Aconite, no other drug is needed. If other drugs seem indicated one should be sought which meets the fever as well, for many drugs besides Aconite produce fever, each after its kind."

True words, and as one reads them who has proved their truthfulness and remembers they great author, he feels like exclaiming, "Being dead, yet speaketh." Aconite has two very important modalities, viz., fright and dry cold air. We have already noticed the value of the fear of Aconite as a symptom, connected with acute inflammatory ailments. It is no less a remedy for ailments brought on by fright, either immediate or remote. The patient has received a fright in the dark and is always afraid in the dark afterwards. From fright vertigo comes on, or fainting; trembling; threatened abortion, or suppressed menstruation, Jaundice may be induced by it, and become chronic. There are other remedies for fright, prominent among which are Opium, Ignatia, Veratrum album, etc. Now in regard to the dry cold air. No remedy has more prominently acute inflammations arising from dry, cold air. Nineteen out of twenty cases of croup arising from exposure to dry, cold air will be cured by Aconite. I live in a locality where croup abounds and have had abundant opportunity to verify this. Pleurisy, pneumonia and rheumatism also come under this head, and they are, as would be expected, almost invariably accompanied by the high fever, anguish, restlessness and fear so characteristic of this remedy. Any local congestion or inflammation coming from such exposure also comes under the same rule, always providing the other symptoms corresponds The other leading dry air remedies are Bryonia, Causticum, Hepar sulph., and Nux vomica. Here are some wet weather remedies: Dulcamara, Nux moschata, Natrum sulphuricum and Rhus toxicodendron. Such things are well to remember, for one positive indication is worth two or three vague ones.