Homeopathic Materia Medica

Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica, James Tyler Kent

Generalities: If we were practicing in the old-fashioned way and considered the wonderfully volatile nature of Ammonium carb. in some of its forms we would only look upon it as an agent to relieve fainting and simple affections and use it in the form of hartshorn to comfort old maids and some other women.

But Ammonium carb. is a deep-acting, constitutional medicine, an anti-psoric. It effects rapid blood changes, it disturbs the whole economy and it establishes a scorbutic constitution. Its fluids are all acrid.

The saliva becomes acrid and excoriates the lips, so that they crack in the corners and middle, and become raw and dry and scabby.

The eye-lids fester and become dry and cracked from the excoriating fluids from the eye.

The stool is acrid and excoriates.

The genitals of the female become raw and sore from the acrid menstrual discharge and leucorrhoea, and wherever there is an ulcer upon the skin the fluids that ooze from it excoriate the parts round about, this excoriating character belonging to all of the exuding fluids and discharges.

This remedy has bleeding of black blood, often fluid blood, that will not coagulate, flowing from the nose, the uterus, the bladder and bowels.

The blood is dark, showing that a great disturbance is taking place in the circulation.

The skin has a mottled appearance intermingled with great pallor.

It produces a violent action upon the heart, in which there is audible palpitation, and every motion aggravates the pulsation. With this is associated great prostration.

It is rather a strange coincidence that the ancients know that Amm. carb. would overcome difficult breathing from cardiac attacks and that aqua ammonia or hartshorn is used today to a certain extent in indications similar to those mentioned.

They use it as a stimulant, but when indicated the single dose very high is enough.

The ancients knew enough, also, to use hartshorn in the low forms of pneumonia, at the turning point in the advanced stage; that is an old allopathic practice, but it had a homoeopathic relation to some of the cases.

Once in a while they would cure a patient in the awful stage of prostration with heart failure at the end of pneumonia, and because they relieved such a one it was then established as a remedy for all future use.

Ammonium carb. has a state analogous to blood poisoning, such as we find in erysipelas and in the most malignant forms of scarlet fever, with prostration, great dyspnoea, so that it seems as if the heart were giving out.

With this there is an unusual patchy condition of the surface, due to the paralytic condition of the blood vessels, enlargement of the glands, duskiness and puffiness of the face.

Amm. carb. has been used allopathically in just such a state for centuries and it has demonstrated its homeopathic relations by its efficacy.

Heart: It belongs to the simple enfeeblement, weak heart, emaciation. There is quite an absence of symptoms and a lack of response to remedies.

The patient must lie in bed because of the palpitation and difficult breathing on motion. It is a matter of mere weakness. Such a case furnished me much amusement for a year and a half.

There was a woman in this city who answered just such a description; her state was one of peculiar cardiac weakness with dyspnoea and palpitation on motion; I had been treating the case, but had not fully studied it, and as she did not progress under my management she was taken out of my hands and taken to one of our most able neurologists, who put her upon the "rest cure" and promised that in six weeks she would be perfectly well.

But at the end of six weeks she was worse than ever and a cardiac specialist was then brought to examine her.

He said it was true the heart was not vigorous, but there was no organic affection and consequently the case did not belong to his branch.

Then a lung specialist was brought in, and later she was examined by all kinds of specialists. All of her organs were fully investigated, and it was announced that nothing was the matter with them; but the poor woman could not walk because of her sufferings and palpitating heart.

She had a little dry, backing cough that did not amount to anything, but her chest was examined and there was nothing wrong with it.

But after she bad been in this continual fire for about three months, and was steadily failing, the side of the family that were my adherents prevailed against the others and I went to see her again.

I continued to study the case, which was extremely vague, having nothing but those few symptoms, and finally I settled upon Ammonium carb., and she has been on this remedy for eighteen months.

She now climbs mountains, she does everything she wants to do and is about ready to go to housekeeping.

She has grown from a case of nervous prostration, brain fag and any other diagnosis that might have been heaped upon her to a well woman, and under that one remedy.

This shows you how deeply this remedy acts. One dose generally acts upon her for from six weeks to two months, steadily improving her each time.

Exhaustion coming at every menstrual period. An attack of cholera, or what one might mistake for cholera, coming the first day of the menses; a copious diarrhea.

Sometimes it is an exhaustion with vomiting, exhaustion as in Veratrum, with coldness, blueness, sinking, dyspnoea.

Asthma: The kind of dyspnoea that I have been speaking of up to this time is not an asthmatic dyspnoea; it is a cardiac dyspnoea due to a weak heart; but this remedy has also asthma, and in the asthma there is this peculiarity: if the room is warm the dyspnoea increases until suffocation seems imminent; as if he would die for want of breath.

He is compelled to go out into the cold air for relief. While the warm room increases the dyspnoea in asthmatic complaints the bodily state of the patient is worse from cold.

The complaints of the body and the headaches are worse from cold.

Bones: A common thing running through this remedy is aching in the bones. The bones ache as if they would break. The teeth ache violently from every change of weather or from change of the temperature in the mouth. The jaws ache or the roots of the teeth ache.

A prominent feature is falling out of the hair, the finger nails become yellowish, the gums settle away from the teeth and bleed, the teeth become loose, all in keeping with the scorbutic constitution.

Hysteria: This remedy has hysteria, and it is not surprising that nervous women carry a bottle of ammonia hanging to their chain.

Many women do this because as soon as they go into a close place they faint and must use their hartshorn.

This condition in the woman, if in a mild degree, is not hysterical; it belongs to the sensitive nature of women; but if carried to a more marked state. It is hysterical.

The hysterical fainting will be averted by the use of the hartshorn. Amm. carb. will stimulate the action of the heart and relieve.

Depression: The remedy is full of depression of spirits. She weeps much, has fainting fits, anxiety, uneasiness and exhaustion from motion. Over sensitive about what she hears other people saying.

Complaints from listening to others talking. Complaints, both mental and physical, are worse in the wet weather, and she is sensitive to cold, raw, wet weather.

The gouty complaints. nervous complaints, prostration, cardiac complaints, dyspnoea, headaches, etc., come on in raw weather.

Headache: A congestive headache comes on in wet weather and from weather changes. Sensation as if the brain would ooze out through the forehead and eyes.

"Pulsating, beating in the forehead as if it would burst."

The headache is worse from stepping, especially the head aches that come at the menstrual period.

Headache worse in the morning. This medicine. in such headaches, with the symptoms I have described, shows its antidotal relation to Lachesis, because Lachesis produces all this state of prostration.

In the old text-books you will notice this expression, "Inimical to Lachesis."

This means when Lachesis has been given in high potency and has acted curatively, Ammonium carb. is not likely to act curatively after it, and is, some times capable of disturbing the case, confusing it and mixing up the symptoms.

But when Lach. has been given in too low potency, and the patient has been poisoned with the crude Medicine, this remedy then becomes an antidote, used in a high potency, because of the similarity in its action.

It will, overcome many of the poisonous symp toms of the case. If you will examine the appearance of people who have been bitten by snakes and then examine the pathogenesis of this remedy you will see a great similarity between them.

It is well known that this remedy has had repeated use in snake bites. Evidently it did not save all of them, but it must have done something, for these cases or it would not have established so great a reputation for itself.

Give it not as an antidote per se, but when indicated in blood-poisoning and animal bites with zymosis, with a tendency to black liquid bleeding, as in Elaps.

Running through the snake poisons there is a tendency to bleeding of black blood that will not coagulate.

Eyes: It has many eye symptoms.

Sparks before the eyes in connection with headaches; double vision; aversion to light.

"Large black spot floats before the eyes after sewing."

When these symptoms have been present in such a constitutional state as I have, described the remedy has cured cataract; it has, cured the patient and finally the crystalline lens has cleared up.

Burning of the eyes, smarting eyes blood-shot eyes.

It disturbs the hearing, causing hardness of hearing and discharge of acrid fluid from the ears.

Nose: We have had scorbutic, catarrhal condition of the nose, such as described.

Discharge from the nose acrid.

"Severe pain as if the brain were forcing itself out just above nose."

"Nose-bleed when washing face or hands in morning."

It has many complaints from bathing, and a prominent feature is that the skin is covered with red, mottled spots after bathing.

Bathing produces surging all over, here and there, as well as nose-bleed. Palpitation is worse from bathing.

In the throat we have an appearance like malignant scarlet fever, diphtheria and other zymotic state; purple, swollen, ulcerated and bleeding, and gangrenous, accompanied by great exhaustion, with enlarged tonsils and glands.

The glands outside of the throat and neck are enlarged and felt as lumps. In diphtheria, when the nose is stopped, the child starts from sleep gasping for breath. Here again we observe its relation to Lachesis and the ophidia, for soon after the patient drops to sleep he wakes up suffocating, in diphtheria, in chest troubles with great prostration, the patient is worse after sleep.

Menses: Menses too soon.

"The menstrual blood is blackish, often in clots."

The leucorrhoea is acrid,

"Violent tearing in abdomen and vagina."

"Irritation of clitoris."

Swelling of the genitals. Now, let me tell you something not mentioned here, but important, and that is a sensation of soreness in the whole pelvic viscera; at times it seems as if all her inner parts were raw.

It is a sensation of soreness; not always sore to touch. This sensation of deep-seated soreness is especially felt during menstruation.

All through the menstrual period soreness and rawness.

"Menses premature, abundant, blackish, often in clots, preceded by griping and colic."

Chest: The remedy is full of catarrhal symptoms and cough, with much rattling of mucus in the chest and air passages.

Oppression of breathing, a catarrhal dyspnoea. Especially is this a remedy, when the symptoms agree, in hypostatic congestion of the lungs, a filling up of the chest with mucus which it is difficult to expel; great rattling in the chest and great weakness.

It is a good palliative in the last stages of consumption. A dose of Ammonium carb. when there is great coldness, prostration and weakness in the chest.

It is not unlike that sensation of weakness in the chest which is like Stannum. He can hardly cough out loud and because of the weakness he cannot expel the mucus, like Ant. tart., Short asthmatic cough.

The complaints of this remedy come on especially at three o'clock in the morning. The cough comes on at that time. Old people who suffer from catarrh of the chest have an aggravation at three o'clock in the morning with the palpitation and prostration, waking up at that hour with cold sweat and dyspnoea.

Almost pulseless; weakness of the heart. Face pale and cold.

"Great lassitude." Defective reaction with, or at the close of severe zymotic troubles, typhoid, diphtheria, scarlet fever, erysipelas, etc.

In those complaints that should come to a crisis, if the patient goes into a state of great exhaustion under remedies fairly well selected, you have an instance where this medicine competes with Arsenicum for the nervous prostration.

You see "heart failure" spoken of in old school literature. They say the patient got along very nicely, but finally died of heart failure.

In a great many instances if Ammonium carb. were given in time it would save life.

"Averse to walking in open air."

"Children dislike washing."

The warmth of the bed relieves the rheumatic pains, relieves the chill.

"In a warm room the headache is better."

"From washing reappearance of the symptoms; nose-bleed; blue hands; swollen veins."

"Worse in cold air."

Skin: We come now to the appearance of the skin:

"Body red as if covered with scarlatina."

"Putrid flat ulcers with a pungent sensation."

"Malignant scarlatina with somnolence, starting from sleep."

"Erysipelas of old people when cerebral symptoms are developed."

Whenever treating a severe form of disease and an eruption comes to the surface, like a carbuncle or erysipelas, and does not give relief to the patient then there is danger.

A remedy must be found soon. When a patient is coming down with severe internal troubles it is not a very uncommon thing for unhealthy looking boils to come out, or carbuncles or erysipelas blotches.

It is always serious when these are not immediately followed by relief to the patient.

It shows a pernicious state that has been pent up and cannot be held any longer and this violence is going to destroy.

This is one of the remedies that you may look for to check the progress of such states.

Any remedy, of course, which corresponds to the totality of the symptoms is the remedy to administer.

A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica, John Henry Clarke

Sal volatile. Sesqui carbonate of Ammonia. 2[(NH4)2 C03 CO2. Solution in distilled water.

Clinical.─Asthma Bronchitis. Cough. Dislocations, pains from. Emphysema. Enuresis. Erysipelas. Gums, sensitive. Haemorrhoids. Hysteria. Lungs, oedema of. Measles. Miliary eruptions. Nose affections. Parotitis. Rickets. Scarlatina. Spotted fever. Sprains. Sternum, pain on. Toothache. Uraemia. Whitlow.

Characteristics.─Ammon. carb. is a right-side medicine and a venous medicine. A condition of under-oxygenation underlies a large proportion of symptoms. Consequently it is a chilly medicine with great sensitiveness to cold open air, < in wet, stormy weather; from washing; from wet poultice; > by warmth. It is suited to stout women who readily take cold in winter. < At night: 3 a.m. It is also haemorrhagic. There is the scorbutic condition of bleeding gums. Bleeding from the nose, especially in the morning on washing; after a meal. Bleeding piles; at every menstrual period bleeding from rectum. The menses are premature and copious, the blood being dark (colic and pains in loins, or toothache accompanying). Somnolence accompanies many conditions. Bloody expectoration accompanying the cough. Tickling cough. Asthma. Cough from 2 to 5 a.m. Anguish at heart: palpitation and faintness. Pain as from fatigue (hip-joint; legs, thighs). Pains as from dislocation or sprain (wrist, great toe). Pain as of contraction of tendons. Numbness and stiffness of arms and hands. The pains are ulcerative; shooting, digging. Miliary eruption. Swelling of glands. Headache < in morning; with nausea. Hammering, pressing, bursting; as if contents would start through forehead. Feeling of looseness of brain─as if it fell from side to side, whichever way the head was moved. Burning in eyes; dryness; black spots; sparks; myopia; cataract; catarrh. Muscular asthenopia from prolonged use of the eyes, with appearance of yellow spots on looking at white objects. Pterygium, A curious symptom is: Inability to blow the nose, in children. Dry, stuffed coryza, < at night, breathes with mouth open. Boil on the tip of the nose. Skin of face tight, as if swollen. Foul breath. Toothache, pulling or starting (during catamenia). Sore throat, as of something sticking in it; scraping; spasm; difficult swallowing. Nausea, vomiting, fulness, water-brash, < after eating. Flatulence. Slow, hard evacuations in small pieces. Piles during menstrual period. Miliary eruptions. Dry tetters; excoriations; ulcerations, phagedenic. Restlessness; paralytic weakness. Great prostration, with falling temperature. Gout in great toe. Heel painful on standing. The venous under-oxygenated condition of the medicine again appears in the excessive sleepiness produced in the daytime. In the night there are dreams of spectres of death and attacks of anguish. The mental faculties are slow; weak memory; heedlessness, absence of mind. Sadness, disposition to weep. Timidity. Apprehensive. Ill-humour. Desperate and unruly. Dr. Gallavardin has cured uncleanness in bodily habits with Ammon. carb. The remedy is suited to scrofulous children, stout and sedentary women (most of the carbonates are suited to states of corpulency), women who are always having recourse to the swelling-bottle. Among the ameliorations there are > lying on stomach (Nit. ac.). > Lying on right side; on painful side. > From external pressure; in warm room; in dry air. There is < on bending down. Nose-bleed comes on when washing the face.

Relations.─Compare the Ammonias, Ant. t., Ars.; Aur. (crushing weight on sternum, but Aur. has less somnolence and less venous congestion) Lach. (to which Am. c. is inimical); Phos., Pul., Sul. It antidotes Rhus and stings of insects, poisoning from charcoal fumes. Is antidoted by: Arn., Camph., Hep., Vegetable acids, Fixed oils.

SYMPTOMS.

1. Mind.─Sadness, with disposition to weep, apprehensions and anguish, which often disappear towards the evening.─Fretting in the evening.─Anxiety with weakness and nightmare.─Timidity of character.─Disgust with life.─Ill-humour in the morning, and when it is bad weather.─Morose and passionate humour.─Character disobedient and unruly.─Excessive gaiety.─Heedlessness.─Great absence of mind and weakness of memory.─Tendency to make mistakes in speaking, in writing, or in calculating.─Impairment of the intellectual faculties.

2. Head.─Vertigo, on reading in a sitting posture, in the morning or in the evening; sometimes with nausea.─Obstinate headache.─Headache with nausea.─The headache often appears in the evening, after walking in the open air, or in the morning, or after a meal.─Pain, as of ulceration in the head, chiefly on moving the head, or on pressing it.─Hammering, pressure, and beatings in the head, with sensation as if its contents were going to start through the forehead, or the head were on the point of bursting; < after eating and while walking in the open air; > from external pressure and in the warm room; heaviness and beating in the forehead after dinner.─Shootings at the base of the brain.─Headache, as if from carbonic acid gas.─Sensation as if the brain moved loosely in the skull.─Soreness of the scalp and of the hair.─Itching in the head.─Falling off of the hair.

3. Eyes.─Burning in the eyes, principally in the evening, or in the morning, with photophobia.─Sensation of cold in the eyes.─Hordeolum.─Nocturnal agglutination of the eyelids.─Dry excretion in the eyelids.─Affections from over-straining the eyes.─Muscae volitantes.─Eyes weak and watery after reading or using them at fine work.─Yellow spots before the eyes on looking at white objects.─Inability to move the eyes.─Confused sight, with sparks before the eyes.─Double vision.─Myopia.─Cataract.─Black spots and bright bands before the eyes.─Weeping.

4. Ears.─Buzzing in the ears, particularly at night.─Roaring and tingling in the ears.─Hardness of hearing, with suppuration and itching of the ears.─Hard swelling of the glands of the neck, and of the parotid glands.

5. Nose.─Heaviness in the extremity of the nose on stooping, as if from congestion of blood.─Itching and purulent pimples in the nose.─Furunculus at the extremity of the nose.─Swelling, sensation of excoriation and painful sensibility of the nostrils.─Discharge of sharp, burning water from the nose.─Discharge of pus from the nose.─Excretion of sanguineous mucus.─Bleeding of the nose, particularly in the morning on washing, or after a meal.─Obstinate dryness of the nose.─Obstinate coryza.─Dry coryza and stoppage of the nose, chiefly at night, with danger of suffocation.─With long-continued coryza, he can only breathe through the mouth.

6. Face.─Face pale and bloated, with nausea and fatigue of body and mind.─Sickly complexion.─Heat in the face during intellectual labour.─Tension and acute dragging pains, with shootings in the right side of the face.─Tightness in the skin of the face, as if the face were swollen.─Hard swelling of the (r.) parotid gland.─Distortion of the features.─Eruptions on the face, with itching.─Furunculi on the cheeks.─Ephelides.─Tetter-like eruptions, with desquamation of the skin, on the cheeks, round the mouth, and on the chin.─Lips dry, cracked, burning, and bleeding.─The corners of the mouth and lips are sore, cracked, and burn.─Painful swelling of the sub-maxillary glands.─Itching eruptions, with soreness of the sub-maxillary glands.

7. Teeth.─Toothache on compressing the teeth, or after lying down in the evening, or when the air has penetrated to them, or during catamenia; the pains are, for the most part, drawing or starting, or shooting, or like those of ulceration, and they frequently extend into the cheeks and ears.─Aggravation from warm fluids, during the menses.─Pricking pain, esp. in the molar teeth; worse when masticating or touching the decayed tooth with the tongue.─Obstinate shooting pain in the teeth.─Caries, elongation, and chronic looseness of the teeth; rapid decay of the teeth.─The edges of the teeth feel dull.─Inflammatory swelling, suppuration, and easy bleeding of the gums.

8. Mouth.─Redness, inflammation, pain as from excoriation, and sensation of swelling in the interior of the mouth; esp. the inside of the cheeks.─Eruption of vesicles in the mouth and on the tongue.─Vesicles on the tongue, at the tip, on the borders, burning, hindering eating and speaking.─Difficulty of speech, as if from weakness of the organs.─Great dryness of the mouth and throat, chiefly at night.─Accumulation of saliva in the mouth, and constant spitting.─Offensive smell from the mouth, perceptible to the patient.

9. Throat.─When swallowing, sensation as of a foreign body in the throat.─Sore throat, as if something were sticking in it, principally in the morning and evening.─Pain, as from excoriation and scraping in the throat.─Swelling of the tonsils, with difficulty in swallowing (tonsils bluish, much offensive mucus there).─Spasmodic contraction of the anterior muscles of the neck after drinking.─Putrid sore throat.

10. Appetite.─Taste of blood in the mouth.─Bitter taste, chiefly after eating, or after waking in the morning.─Acid taste of food and after having taken milk.─Metallic taste of food.─Much thirst.─Constant thirst.─Inability to eat without drinking.─Great craving and appetite.─Want of appetite in the morning.─When eating, one is soon satiated.─Repugnance to milk.─Excessive desire for sugar.─Dizzy vertigo, and heat in the face when eating.─After a meal, pyrosis, with scraping in the throat, and drowsiness.

11. Stomach.─Sour, or empty, or abortive risings.─Risings, with taste of food taken.─Pyrosis.─Risings, and vomiting.─Pain as from constriction in the stomach, with nausea, water-brash and chilliness > by pressure and by lying down).─Nausea and vomiting after eating, with pressure in the pit of the stomach.─Sensitive painfulness of the stomach, even to the clothing.─Violent sanguineous vomiting.─Fulness in the stomach, chiefly after a meal, with nausea, and great tenderness at the pit of the stomach.─Gastralgia.─Contractive pain in the pit of the stomach, when stretching.─Heat and sensation of burning in the stomach.─Heartburn after eating.

12. Abdomen.─Pressure, pain as from excoriation and burning in the hepatic region.─Piercing shootings in the liver, when seated in the evening.─Pain in the abdomen, with diarrhoea.─Contractive spasmodic colics, with nausea, and accumulation of water in the mouth.─Pain, as from commotion in the abdomen, when walking.─Noise in the abdomen.─Elastic swelling in the groin, like flatulent hernia.─Flatulent, painful colic.

13. Stool and Anus.─Constipation.─Difficult evacuations.─Slow, hard evacuations, in small pieces.─Stool difficult, hard, knotty.─Soft or loose slimy evacuations, followed or preceded by cutting pains.─After and during an evacuation, discharge of blood from the anus. Haemorrhoids in the anus, sometimes bleeding, with smarting pains.─Protrusion of haemorrhoids from the rectum during the evacuation, with much pain afterwards.─Haemorrhoidal tumours protruding before, during, and after stool.─Nocturnal burning and itching in the anus.─Excoriation between the legs and at the anus.

14. Urinary Organs.─Constant inclination to make water, even at night, with scanty emission.─Frequent desire to urinate, with continued pressure on the bladder.─Frequent and copious micturition, esp. in the evening.─Passing water at night, during sleep (morning).─Wetting the bed.─White, sandy urine.─Reddish urine, like water mixed with blood.─Emission of blood from the urethra.

15. Male Sexual Organs.─Excessive sexual desire, without lascivious ideas or erections; or want of sexual desire and repugnance to the other sex.─Frequent pollutions, and a sense of contracting, dragging, and heaviness in the testes.─Discharge of prostatic fluid, after a difficult evacuation.

16. Female Sexual Organs.─Swelling, itching, and burning in the (external) genital parts of the female.─Excoriation of the skin in the parts, and in the anus.─Premature and too copious menses, with emission of black and acrid blood.─Before and during the catamenia, colic and pains in the loins.─During the catamenia, toothache, pressure on the matrix, cuttings, acute drawings in the back and in the genital parts, desire to lie down, paleness of the face, shivering, coryza, and sadness.─Discharge of serum from the matrix.─Great weakness during the menstrual flow; haemorrhoids < during.─Acrid, corrosive, or burning leucorrhoea, or watery.

17. Respiratory Organs.─Roughness and hoarseness, with difficulty of speech.─Inability to speak a loud word.─Catarrh, with hardness of hearing, and burning in the stomach.─Cough, with hoarseness.─Dry cough, as if from a feather in the throat.─Cough, with asthmatic oppression, particularly when in bed in the evening.─Tickling cough, with expectoration.─Cough only at night, or only by day, or in the evening, before going to sleep, or in the morning towards three or four o'clock; dry from tickling in the throat, as of dust.─Cough, with spitting of blood, with previous sweet taste and with great dyspnoea.─Cough, with stitches in the small of the back.─When coughing, shootings in the loins, in the sternum, or in the pit of the stomach.─Cough, with mucous and sanguineous expectoration, shortness of breath, and sensation of a weight in the chest.─Expectoration of pure blood, produced by coughing.

18. Chest.─Short breath, with choking, principally on going upstairs.─Asthmatic respiration, and dyspnoea, chiefly in the heat of a room, as well as after any exertion, sometimes with palpitation of the heart.─Nocturnal dyspnoea.─Painful sensation of spasmodic asthma, with short and dull cough.─Shootings in the chest and in the sides, particularly when breathing, singing, stooping, walking, or at night, with inability to lie for any time on the side affected.─Feeling of fatigue in the chest.─Congestion towards the chest.─Heaviness in the chest, as from congestion of blood to the chest.─Burning in the chest.─Stitch in the heart, frequently.─Palpitation of the heart, chiefly after exertion, and sometimes with retraction of the epigastrium, and weakness in the pit of the stomach.─Shootings in the integuments of the chest.─Purple miliary eruptions and furunculi on the chest.

20. Neck and Back.─Pains in the lumbar region, and pains in the nape of the neck, mostly of a dragging nature.─Acute draggings from the side to the scapulary joint.─Painful swelling of the glands of the neck and of the axillary glands.─Goitre.─Drawing tension in the back and in the loins.

22. Upper Limbs.─Arms and fingers dead and stiff at night, as well as in the morning, and when grasping anything.─Heaviness and paralytic weakness of the arms.─Acute pulling in the joints of the arms, of the hands, and of the fingers, > by the heat of the bed.─Pain, as from a sprain in the wrist.─Attack of trembling in the hands.─Swollen veins and bluish colour of the hands, after having washed them in cold water.─Exfoliation of the skin of the hands.─The skin of the hands becomes hard and cracked.─Cramps in the fingers.─Numbness of the fingers.─Swelling of the hands when the arms are suffered to fall down.─Swelling of the joints of the fingers.

23. Lower Limbs.─Tightness in the legs, as if the tendons were too short.─Jerking and contracting of the legs.─Great fatigue in the legs.─Pain, as from fatigue, in the coxo-femoral joint, and the thighs, particularly in bed in the morning; > by walking.─Pain, as if bruised in the thighs.─Cramps in the feet, in the calves of the legs, and in the tibiae.─Jerking of the knees and legs.─Drawing pain in the legs, when seated.─Acute dragging in the joints of the feet, > by the heat of the bed.─Pain, as of ulceration, and shootings in the heels.─Sensation of burning in the feet.─Swelling of the feet.─Sweating of the feet.─Cold and shivering in the feet, chiefly on going to bed in the evening.─Pain (as from dislocation) in the great toe, principally in bed at night, on moving it.─Redness, heat, and swelling of the great toe, in the evening, as if from chilblains.

24. Generalities.─Pain, as from subcutaneous ulceration.─Pains, as of ulceration in different parts, or shootings and acute dragging, mitigated by the heat of the bed.─Pains, as of dislocation, drawing and tension of the joints, as if from contraction of the tendons.─The right side of the body appears to be more affected than the left side.─The pains for the most part appear either in the evening or at night, or in the morning.─General restlessness in the body in the evening.─Inclination to stretch out the arms and the legs.─Great fatigue felt from speaking much and from listening to another.─Weariness, bruise-like pain and great weakness in the limbs, chiefly when walking in the open air, or in the evening, sometimes with an inclination to lie down.─Repugnance to exercise.─Convulsions.─Local inflammations.─Tetanus.─Scorbutic dyscrasia.─Tendency of the blood to decomposition.─Emaciation.─Great sensibility to cold.

25. Skin.─Violent itching here and there, with burning vesicles and pimples after scratching.─Miliary, chronic eruptions.─Redness like scarlatina on all the upper part of the body.─Scarlatina (malignant), dark red, sore throat, parotids and cervical glands much swollen, stertorous breathing, involuntary stools, vomiting.─Freckles.─Burning, acute shootings and drawings in the corns.─Excoriation of the skin (between the legs, and in the anus, and in the genital parts).─Desquamation of the skin (palms of the hands).─(Ganglia.).─Swelling of the glands.─Rachitis.

26. Sleep.─Sleepiness in the daytime.─Sleeplessness, and sleep delayed, esp. after going late to bed.─Sleeplessness till 4 a.m., and when falling asleep, perspiration.─Nightmare when falling asleep.─Frequent waking, with fright (great fear afterwards), and difficulty in going to sleep again.─Sleep full of dreams, both anxious and romantic, historical and lascivious.─Dreams of spectres, of death, of vermin, and of quarrels.─Disturbed and unrefreshing sleep.─At night, attacks of anguish, vertigo, congestion of blood in the head, cephalalgia, toothache, nausea, gastralgia, colic, inclination to make water, spitting of slimy matter, pains in the great toes and in the ganglia, shocks in the body, pains in the limbs, itching and pricking in the skin, restlessness, ebullition of the blood, dry heat, sweat, esp. in the legs, shivering and cold.

27. Fever.─Pulse hard, tense, and frequent.─Attacks of shivering in the evening.─Violent shivering with trembling, before going to sleep.─Feverish heat in the head, with cold in the feet.─Sweats, every night and towards the morning.─Perspiration in the morning and during the day, mostly on the joints.

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

Smelling Salts ((NH4O)2CO)

Haemorrhagic diathesis, fluid blood and degeneration of red blood corpuscles; ulcerations tend to gangrene. Stout, fleshy women with various troubles in consequence of leading a sedentary life; delicate women who must have the "smelling-bottle" continually at hand; readily catch cold in the winter. Children dislike washing (Ant. c., Sulph.). Loses breath when falling asleep, must awaken to get breath (Grind., Lach.). Ill-humor during wet, stormy weather. Headache; sensation of fullness, as if forehead would burst (Bell., Glon.). Nosebleed: when washing the face (Arn., Mag. c.) and hands in the morning, from left nostril; after eating. Ozaena, blowing bloody mucus from the nose frequently; blood rushes to tip of nose, when stooping. Stoppage of nose, mostly at night; must breathe through the mouth, a keynote even in diphtheria; long lasting coryza; "snuffles" of infants (Hep., Nux, Samb., Sticta). Putrid sore throat; tendency to gangrenous ulceration of tonsils; glands engorged. In diphtheria or scarlatina when the nose is stopped up; child cannot sleep because it cannot get its breath. Cholera-like symptoms at the commencement of menstruation (Bov., Ver.). Menses: too early, profuse, preceded by griping colic; acrid, makes the thighs sore; copious at night and when sitting (Zinc.); with toothache, colic, sadness; fatigue, especially of thighs; yawning and chilliness; Leucorrhoea: watery burning from the uterus; acrid, profuse from the vagina; excoriation of vulva. Dyspnoea with palpitation, worse by exertion or on ascending even a few steps; worse in a warm room. One of the best remedies in emphysema. Cough: dry, from tickling in throat as from dust, every morning from 3 to 4 a. m. (Kali c.). Panaritium: deep seated periosteal pain (Dios., Sil.). Body red, as if from scarlatina (compare, Ailan.). Malignant scarlatina with deep sleep; stetorous breathing. Miliary rash or faintly developed eruption from defective vitality; threatened paralysis of brain (Tub., Zinc.).

Relationship. - It antidotes, poisoning with Rhus and sting of insects. Affects the right side most. Inimical to Lachesis.

Aggravation. - Cold, wet weather; wet poultices; from washing, during menses.

Amelioration. - Lying on abdomen (Acet. ac.); on painful side (Puls.); in dry weather.

Leaders In Homoeopathic Therapeutics, Eugene Beauharnais Nash

Nose-bleed when washing the face in the morning.

Weak, anaemic, flabby women. Weak, no reaction. Addicted to the smelling bottle.

Tendency to gangrenous degeneration of glands, as in scarlatina; the parotids.

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Guernsey says. This remedy seems particularly useful in constitutionally delicate women who faint easily and want some kind of smelling salts around them most of the time. They are weak, with deficient reaction and generally of the lymphatic temperament. Such patients want stimulants, especially such stimulants as act through the olfactory nerves, like spirits of Ammonia, Camphor, Musk, Alcohol, etc. In the first onset of such a suddenly prostrating disease as cerebro-spinal meningitis this has been found a good remedy to excite reaction and place the patient in a condition for the choice of the next remedy indicated by the now aroused vital force in conflict with the disease (so called). One thing Ammonium carb. is good for is dry or stuffed coryza, acute or chronic. The patient is worse at night, has to breathe with the mouth open. Sambucus, Lycopodium, Nux vomica, and Sticta pulmonaria may be compared with it.

Another frequently verified symptom of the nose is epistaxis while flashing the face. (Kali carbonicum). I don't know why it comes on then, but it does, and this remedy cures it. The only other affection in which I have found it very useful is scarlatina. The body is very red, almost bluish-red, and the throat seems to be the center where the force of the disease seems to be expended in malignant intensity. The eruption is faintly developed, or has seemed to disappear, from sheer inability from weakness of the patient's vitality to keep it on the surface (Zinc. has convulsions from the same cause). Erysipelas of old, debilitated persons comes under the same head. Cerebral symptoms, simulating a drunken stupor, are present in both cases. The whole system seems to be overpowered by the toxic effect of the disease poison. (See also Ailanthus). Ammonium carb. will sometimes help us out in such cases.