Homeopathic Materia Medica

Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica, James Tyler Kent

Head: The most common feature in this remedy is the surging of blood to the head and to the heart. A patient often describes the state as a feeling as if all the blood in the body must be rushing around the heart, with a sense of heat or a boiling sensation in the region of the heart, or in the left side of the chest.

Again he complains of a surging in the head, a warm glowing sensation in the head or a feeling of intense glowing from the stomach or from the chest up into the head, attended at times with loss of consciousness.

There are also wave-like sensations in the head, as if the skull were being lifted up and lowered, or as if it were being expanded and contracted. Along with this there is most intense pain, sometimes as if the head would burst, sometimes great soreness in the head, or a sense of soreness felt in the skull. Another accompaniment of the surging is great throbbing, synchronous with the heat of the heart, and when the skull has this soreness then the throbbing is like the beating of hammers, and every pulsation is painful, so that there are painful pulsations and sometimes painless pulsations.

The pulsations are tremendous and when they are greatest in the head they are felt also in the extremities. The fingers and toes pulsate, there is pulsation throughout the back, and it seems that the whole body throbs. If this continues a while the soreness in the skull is likely to come on and with it the painful throbbing, every throb is a pain. In this state, with every jar in stepping, and every motion, it seems as if the head would be crushed.

Throbbing: The throbbing becomes more painful from motion. The vomiting which attends this condition relieves. The head is relieved in the open air, it is worse in the warmth, and is often relieved from the application of cold. It is made worse by lying down, or lying, with the head low. In the extremities we have great coldness. The extremities cold, pale and perspiring, the head hot and the face flushed and purple or bright red. The pupils are dilated and the eyes red. Now, if this progresses only a little while, the tongue becomes dry, red and then brown. There is no great thirst, but the mouth is very dry. The eyelids become dry and stick to the eyeballs. At times the skin becomes dry and hot, and the face is red and glistens. All degrees of confusion of mind, even loss of consciousness, will be present.

Headaches: Have I not described to a great extent that which is seen in a typical sunstroke? It is noticeable also that Glonoine symptoms are worse in the heat of summer and relieved in winter. The dull headaches and the continuous headaches are aggravated from warm weather and ameliorated from cold.

They are worse in the sun and better in the shade. All sorts of contrivances will be resorted to by Glonoine patients to keep the sun's beat from the head. When he has had these troubles for years, and it has become a chronic state, he will never go out in the warmth of the sun without an umbrella.

Glonoine corresponds to congestive states in the head that come on suddenly, especially from heat, but also from gaslight, or from any bright light.

The headaches that book-keepers are subject to, especially in those that have at their desk, or over the head, a hot gaslight. The bright light accompanied by the heat so close to the head will make this individual subject to headaches. These headaches are relieved by going into the cold air. The head aches all day when he is at his books, and when he goes home at night and lies down the headache comes on again, and he bas to be bolstered up in bed.

He wants the head high, and cold applications to the head; the headache is relieved from a long sleep, not generally relieved from siesta. From lying down and taking a nap the headache is sometimes aggravated, but from a good long sleep, a night's sleep, he is refreshed.

His feet and hands become warm, the feverish state, and the throbbing all over the body subsides and he wakes up in the morning comfortable; but if he goes out in the sun, or goes to the gaslight, he comes home with the headache again. Since electric lights have been brought into use there is not so much heat in the light, but gas throws out an immense amount of heat in its light,

The child comes down with cerebro-spinal meningitis, the neck is drawn back, the face is intensely hot, red and shiny, the eyes congested or glassy, the head and upper part of the body are very warm, the feet and hands and lower portions of the body and the extremities are cold and covered with cold sweat.

It is a most violent congestion to the brain and spinal cord. Convulsions come on, convulsions throughout all the limbs, the neck and whole body drawn back, opisthotonos. Cold feels good to the head; heat feels good to the extremities. The warm room increases the convulsions. When the lower limbs are covered with clothing in a cool room and the windows open the convulsions are relieved and the patient breaths more easily. With this head congestion there is difficulty in breathing and audible palpitation.

The head is made worse from shaking or jar, from stooping, from bending head backwards, after lying down, when ascending steps. It is aggravated in damp weather, and in the sun, while working under the gaslight, after overheating with copious sweat, and from the touch of the hat.

The weight of the hat is a very common aggravation in headaches in school children. The little ones work all day in a hot stuffy room and feel better in the open air, but the weight of the hat seems an encumberance as in Nitric acid and Calc. phos.

The Glonoine patient is also worse from wine and from stimulants, and from mental application. When the headache is on he cannot think, and he cannot write. An additional hindrance to writing is that he trembles so that he cannot write. Trembling and throbbing of the fingers so that he is unable to do his work or perform any delicate work with the fingers or hands.

We have puerperal convulsions with such an appearance as I have described. We may have the same violence in congestive chills, or in any type of congestion of the brain.

Brain: There is a milder form of trouble that calls for its use, a condition corresponding to the chronic types of disease. This milder form exists where the patient has simply what might be called a hyperemia of the brain, a rush of blood to the head when able to be about. It comes in spells, comes in moments when be least expects it; while walking on the street he feels a surging to the brain like a flush of heat and a flush on the face, his hands tremble, and the hands and feet become cold, he breaks out in a sweat; he looks around him and does not know which way to go home, he does not know where his dwelling is.

He looks in the faces of friends and they seem strange, he loses his way when be is near home. It is a confusion which soon passes away, and he feels better again. But these spells come closer together, and constitute the earlier stages of softening of the brain. This surging of blood to the brain is attended with dizziness; he rolls and staggers, and must take hold of things, and especially does he suffer in this way from a warm day, or from the heat and light of the sun.

In threatened apoplexy, and when apoplexy has taken place, if the violent pressure keeps on, think of this remedy. The clot may not be at first in the place to take life, it may be outside of the life line, but if the congestion continues that blood clot will increase.

Such medicines as Opium and Glonoine relieve the blood pressure when the symptoms agree. They equalize the circulation, and the patient may not die. A paralytic condition in one arm or leg may go on for a while, and at the end of many weeks or months the motion may be regained, and the patient recover; whereas if the suitable remedy had not been administered to reduce that blood pressure the continued congestion would certainly have ended in death in a few days.

The stertorous breathing, the coma, the history, and the general appearance of an apoplectic patient are found in this remedy, but the intense heat that comes on in many cases of apoplexy along with the shiny skin and coldness of the extremities are the guiding features.

Opium is the most frequently indicated medicine, but it must not be administered in large doses. The highest potencies are the best and one single dose is enough.

In a case noted it says, "frantic attempts to jump from the window."

The headache was so intense that the patient became violent and attempted to jump from the window. You may rest assured that with his headache there was all this determination of blood to the head. It is enough to make one frantic to feel this continued hammering upon every fraction of the skull. He cannot lie down, and he cannot walk, because every step increases the jar, so you see why it is that the word "frantic" is wed there. The patient becomes frantic with the pain.

Another expression used is "disinclination to step around."

The patient wants the room perfectly still. If sitting up in bed, you will often find a Glonoine patient with both hands pressing upon the head with all the power possible until the arms are perfectly exhausted. He wants the head pressed upon all sides. Wants it bandaged, or a tight cap fitted down upon it.

The headache is worse from bending backward and from stooping forward. There are times when the headache is so severe that lying back upon the pillow cannot be tolerated. There is a sense of great heaviness in the head. You will notice, in reading over these congestive headaches as reported, that each patient has a different way of describing his headache and yet all have the same story to tell, that of violent determination of blood to the head.

"Some months after being violently jarred by being thrown from a carriage, a sensitiveness of the upper part of the back and neck came on."

There are two strong characteristics of Glonoine in that cure, viz:

"< from wine and the < from lying down."

The other symptoms might have pointed to other remedies, but these two features are there. It is interesting when reading a case, if you have first a knowledge of the Materia Medica, to note what symptoms are verified when you do not know the Materia Medica then the case is confusing.

Now, as we glance over that description we see at once these two things verified and the rest is fairly consistent. Very commonly the pain begins in the occiput and goes to the forehead, but the whole head is in a state of throbbing.

But, we notice more particularly, the "aggravation from motion and the least noise."

This patient will sit in perfect quietude and silence for hours. You will be astonished to, know how long a Glonoine patient can sit without moving a muscle, because motion is so painful.

Also "aggravation from lying with the head low and after sleeping." it is important for you to know what that sleeping means. As I have said before, the patient very often is worse after a little sleep, but the common state is relief after a prolonged sleep. If he can sleep long enough it will subside, unless it be the congestive sleep, or coma, and then it is a different thing.

"Amelioration from cold and external pressure."

"Vertex burning hot, likewise upper part of back."

The whole crown of the head feels as if it were covered by a hot iron, as if an oven were close by. Hot, especially in the back of the neck and between the shoulders.

The burning heat seems to appear at the top of the head and extend down between the shoulders; a sensation of heat, as from a band.

"Face bluish, with a heavy, stupid expression."

The face is bright red, but if the condition becomes severe the face assumes a dusky appearance, and the longer this state lasts the more dusky it becomes; that is true with apoplexy and also with sunstroke. When the sunstroke first comes on the face is bright red, intensely hot and shiny, but as the heat increases the face grows dusky, even to purple. In all of these cerebral congestions there is a stupid, heavy expression, even going on to coma.

"Frequent deep inspirations."

With this congestion of the head there is commonly vomiting, palpitation of the heart, pain in the stomach, great difficulty in breathing and finally loss of consciousness. In another clinical case reported we read:

"Every pulsation is felt as if the head would burst."

Now, suppose the head bones were already intensely sensitive and sore and the head filled as full as possible with blood, and then you commenced hammering upon the blood column you can understand that the pain would be most intense and would soon end in stupefaction.

"Sunken eyes, bluish pallor under the eyes."

"Red eyes, with photophobia; optical illusions.

Black specks before the eyes; blindness."

"Face pale, in spite of high fever."

In all of these cerebral congestions of great violence the pulse fluctuates; it even becomes fine and wiry and hard; sometimes becomes irregular and also slow.

Another common accompaniment of these congestions is tumefaction about the neck. The neck feels full. The collar must be opened as it causes choking, as if he would suffocate. Even in the chronic state in the one who stands upon the street corner not knowing his way home because of the surging of blood in the head, that state is accompanied by choking and the collar causes uneasiness about the neck like Lach. He chokes and swells up under the ears. There is not only a sensation, but with the sensation there is actual swelling. Tumefaction about the neck and throat, under the chin, and the glands become swollen.

The next circumstance in the text that brings forth the general aspect of the remedy is in connection with the catamenia. The menstrual flow does not appear, it is delayed, with violent congestion to the head, violent headaches and these symptoms already described. These congestions may also come on during the menstrual period. Again, if a uterine hemorrhage stops suddenly, or a copious flow from any part stops suddenly, the patient comes down with great violence and the blood rushes to the head.

There are many conditions and complaints in life where we have surging of blood to the head, when this will be the remedy wanted. Persons who are subject to palpitation with dyspnea, upon any effort, he cannot go uphill, he cannot walk along the pavement without bringing on palpitation and dyspnea; any little exertion or excitement brings on the rush of blood to the heart and fainting spells; fainting, spells in women, who are not supposed to be subject to fainting. Great weakness, palpitation, trembling of the limbs, shaking of one or both hands as with palsy.

"Laborious action of the heart" is a strong feature of the remedy; pulsation all over.

Fluttering in the region of the heart. Pulse quick, irregular, slow or quick and wiry. There are some persons that are apparently plethoric; very much affected by the slightest exertion and who have pulsation all over; pulsation in a warm room. They are sometimes relieved by opening the window if it is cool, by fanning, by cold air, by cold applications to the head. In keeping with the remedy, this is clinical application of it:

"Children get sick in the night after sitting up at an open fire or falling asleep there."

"Bad effects from having the hair cut."

Bell. is generally thought of for taking cold in the head from having the hair cut.

"Bad effects from being exposed to the sun's rays."

"Bad effects from sunstroke."

A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica, John Henry Clarke

Nitro-glycerine. C3 H5 (NO3) O3. Dilutions with alcohol.

Clinical.─Angina pectoris. Aphasia. Apoplexy. Brain, congestion of. Bright's disease. Convulsions. Epilepsy. Epistaxis. Fright, effects of. Goitre. Headache. Heart, affections of; palpitation of; jarring, effects of. Location, sense of, lost. Mania. Meningitis. Menses, suppression of. Neuralgia. Paralysis. Rheumatism. Sciatica. Sea-sickness. Snow-headache. Sun-headache. Sunstroke. Toothache. Trauma.

Characteristics.─"Nitro-glycerine was discovered by Sobrero in 1847, but none could be obtained for physiological experiment until Morris Davis, a Philadelphia chemist, in the same year, after long and laborious trials, under direction of Hering, succeeded in producing the substance in sufficient quantities for proving." I quote this from the Guiding Symptoms. Glon. is one of the many monuments of Hering's therapeutic genius. It is to him that we owe the introduction of this notable remedy into the materia medica, and into medicine. The note of the action of Glon. is a tendency to sudden and violent irregularities of the circulation. It acts very quickly and very violently. The "signature" of this potent explosive may be said to be "bursting" and "expansion." Bursting, throbbing headaches; sensations of expanding in the head and elsewhere. Throbbing of carotids; violent action of heart; rush of blood to head; flushes of heat rising from chest to head, then throbbing pain in head. The characteristic neuralgias of Glon. are accompanied with much throbbing, and are often < at night, preventing sleep. Supra-orbital neuralgia, pulsating; retinal congestion from exposure to strong light. Facial neuralgia, extending through head. Cardiac neuralgia (angina pectoris) with radiating pains.

Guernsey, with his usual graphic terseness, says that Glon. is suited to "Troubles of the head in type-setters, and in men who work under a gas-light steadily, so that the heat falls on the head; bad results from sunstroke; can't bear any heat about the head; can't walk in the sun, must walk in the shade or carry an umbrella; can't bear heat from a stove; great vertigo on assuming an upright posture, from rising up in bed, rising from a seat, etc. Heat in the head; throbbing headache." The great sensitiveness to the least jar, which is a very marked feature of the Glon. headache, causes the patient to carry his head very carefully in order to avoid the chance of it. The headache is in the whole head and every part─forehead, vertex, occiput. Many pains appear in occiput and base of brain; gnawing in occiput; sore pain; pressure; severe pain in occiput, extending to eyes and temples; sensation as if something were moving in nerves from back of neck upward to head. The eyes may be fixed or protrude; aversion to bright light; black spots before sight. Face flushed or pale. Climacteric disturbances.

Fainting, sudden unconsciousness; convulsions, especially during labour. Nausea and vomiting of cerebral origin. Violent, stabbing, neuralgic pains, so violent as to make patient frantic, he wants to escape, to jump out of window. Bad effects of fear; horrible apprehension; fear of being poisoned. A characteristic mental condition is loss of sense of location: "well-known streets seem strange to him." Among the peculiar sensations are: Chin feels too long. Chest feels screwed together. Brain as if expanding; as if moving in waves; as if hanging with head downwards; as if something were pumped into vertex; as if everything were crowded out at forehead; as if warm water were running upwards from nape of neck; as if the neck were gripped by a hand; as if some one were pulling eyes from within outward. Noise in left ear as if it came from heart. Lower lip feels swollen. As if heart would rise to throat. Pains are: Bursting; throbbing; pulsative; tearing; piercing; stabbing; gnawing. Burning between shoulders. Sitting or lying still, or walking in cold air > headache. Bending forward; bending head backward, and almost every movement < headache. Rest < pain in knee. Excessive heat and cold = hyperaemia of brain. Heat generally <; cold applications and cool air >; but cold water applied to head < head symptoms, even = spasms. < Damp weather. Bad effects of having hair cut; of exposure to sun or fire heat. All summer, headache < every day with the sun. < From wine. Pains from within outward; from front to back. Bad effect of too much riding or driving; sea-sickness; < from jarring. Pressure > headache. Cannot bear weight of hair; clothing seems too tight. Suited to: Florid, plethoric, sensitive women; nervous, sanguine, readily affected persons. Old scars break out again.

Relations.─Antidoted by: Acon., Camph., Coff., Nux v. Compare: Amyl nit.; Act. r. (waving in brain); Petrol. and Crotal. h. (loss of location); Bell. (cephalic cry but not as marked in Bell.; also Bell. has > bending head back, and > covering head; Glon. > uncovered); Apis, Hyo. (fears being poisoned); Gels. (inclination to jump out of window); Stram. Sang. (headache with the sun; ear sensitive to jar); Nit. ac. and Bell. (sensitiveness to jar); Melilot. (headache with crimson face) Lyc. and Phos. (burning between shoulders); Dig. and Diosc. (headache extending into nose); Sec. (fingers spread apart).

Causation.─Sun. Bright snow. Fire-heat. Fear or fright. Jarring. Injuries.

SYMPTOMS.

1. Mind.─Falling down, with loss of consciousness and alternate palpitation of the heart, and congestion of the head.─Fear; throat feels swollen, chest as if screwed together; apprehensive of approaching death; fears she has been poisoned.─Fear, as if something unpleasant would happen to him.─Unusually bright and loquacious, with great flow of ideas.─Confusion of ideas; cannot tell where he is; well-known streets seem strange; way home too long; forgets on which side of the street he lives.─Great mental agitation (with headache); frantic, attempts to run away; to jump out of window.─Cephalic cry.─The chin feels too long.

2. Head.─Vertigo; < from stooping or moving head; in open air.─Giddiness when the head is moved.─Heaviness in the head, principally in forehead.─Dull headache with warm perspiration on forehead.─Headache with accelerated pulse, red face, perspiration on the face; he becomes unconscious.─Headache < from the heat of the sun; > in the open air and from pressure.─Headache, throbbing, etc., during or in place of menses.─Fulness in the head, as if the brain was expanding itself, were moving in waves.─Fulness in the head; distinct feeling of the pulse in the head; throbbing without pain.─Sensation as if the blood were mounting to the head.─Congestion of blood to the head (apoplexy).─Pulsation in the forehead, in the temples, on the vertex; when walking every step is felt in the neck, when moving the head.─Throbbing in the head; in forehead; in temples; in vertex; in occiput; < when moving; > when sitting still and lying and from pressure.─Throbbing in the temporal arteries, which were raised, and felt like cords.─Stitches in temples or r. side of forehead.─Sore and bruised feeling in the brain, worse when shaking the head.─Sensation of soreness through the whole head; is afraid to shake the head, as it seems that it would make the head drop to pieces.─The pain, heat, and fulness in the head ascend from the chest, neck, or back part of the head.─Severe pain in the occiput, extending to the eyes and temples.─Shaking < the headache, as well as stooping motion, ascending steps; external pressure >; walking in the open air, uncovering the head >.─Cracking sensation in the brain.─Skull seems too small, and as if the brain were attempting to burst the skull; violent action of the heart, and a distinct pulsation over the whole body.─Shocks in the brain synchronous with the pulse.─Undulating or wave-like motion in the brain.─Hemicrania; sees half light, half dark.─Gnawing in occiput.

3. Eyes.─Eyes dull, staring, sunken.─The white of the eye is red, the eyes protrude, look wild.─Eyes feel as if some one were pulling them from within outward.─Pressing, protruding pains in eyes.─In the eyeballs, stitches, twitchings, soreness, pressure.─Pupils dilated, eyes rolled upward.─Heat in the balls of the eyes, lids, and around the eyes.─Sparks, flashes before the eyes.─The letters appear smaller.─As if focus of r. eye were suddenly displaced; sees everything half light and half dark.─Black spots before, and obscuration of the eyes; with fainting.

4. Ears.─Sensation of fulness, in and around the ears.─Ears sensitive to jarring.─Deafness, ears feet as if stopped up.─Stitches in the ears, the ears feel as if closed.─Throbbing, piercing from within outward in r. ear.─Ringing, singing, or cracking in the ears.─Ringing in the ears, audible pulse.

5. Nose.─Pain at root of nose.─The headache extends into the nose.─Epistaxis on going out into the heat of the sun, face flushed, hot, red.

6. Face.─Paleness of the face with heat and congestion of blood to head and chest.─Pale during heat, sunstroke, congestions, etc.; flushed and hot with headache.─Heat in the face with pulsations in the head and palpitations of the heart.─Redness of the face, esp. upper part of it, with headache.─Redness of the face, which comes and goes.─Itching, esp. in the middle of the face.─Pain and stiffness of the articulation of the jaw.─Sensation as if the under lip were swollen.

7. Teeth.─Throbbing pain in all the teeth.─Pulsating toothache with headache.─Stabbing pains in gums r. side passing to l. without ceasing in r.; < from hot, > from cold applications.

8. Mouth.─Taste: bitter with nausea; aromatic; sweet; warm; leaves a fatty taste.─Tongue numb, as if burnt; prickling, stinging.─Tongue feels swelled and raw with spasmodic twitchings.─Tongue: milk-white without coating; coated heavily at back.─Difficulty in conversing from diminished power of tongue and confusion of ideas.─Tongue swollen with pricking in it, the tongue smarts.─Sensation of soreness and swelling on the roof of the mouth with pulsation.

9. Throat.─The soft palate feels contracted and dry.─Itching of the soft palate and throat.─In the throat tickling, heat, soreness.─Sensation as if the throat were swelling.

10. Appetite.─Appetite lost.─Wants cold water; also from dry parched feeling.─Increased desire to smoke.─Wine < all symptoms.

11. Stomach.─Nausea causing perspiration.─Nausea with and caused by the headache, with colic; congestion of blood to the head and chest, and pale face.─Nausea and vomiting in brain-congestions, or during sunstroke.─Faint feeling at pit of the stomach; also with throbbing.─Sensation of emptiness in the pit of the stomach.─Sensitiveness of the pit of the stomach, esp. on stooping.─Gnawing in the pit of the stomach.

12. Abdomen.─Colic, cutting pain principally below the navel, wakening one in the morning, before and after loose stools.─Gall-stone colic.─Rumbling in lower part of the abdomen, principally when lying on l. side.

13. Stool and Anus.─Diarrhoeic stools with rumbling and discharges of flatus, beginning in the morning and lasting all day.─Diarrhoea; copious, loose, blackish, lumpy stools.─Morning diarrhoea with sharp burning; with rumbling.─After eating peaches diarrhoea evening and night.─Constipation and haemorrhoids which itched and pained.─At an unaccustomed time, a hard and unusual stool; pinching in abdomen before and after it.─No stool.

14. Urinary Organs.─Increased secretion of pale (albuminous) urine; has to rise frequently during the night, and must pass large quantities of albuminous urine.─Tubal nephritis, with headache, brought on by walking in the sun; numbness in arms and hands alternating with intense tingling.

16. Female Sexual Organs.─Menstruation suppressed by Glon.─Instead of menses congestion to head; face pale; worse in warm room; fainting; throbbing.─During menstruation congestion of blood to head and chest; headache; fainting.─At climaxis, flushes of heat, pressure in head, nausea, loss of senses, vertigo, swelling of feet.─During pregnancy headache, congestions of blood to the head and chest.─Eclampsia; unconscious; face bright-red; puffed; pulse full, hard; urine copious and albuminous.

17. Respiratory Organs.─Inclination to deep respiration.─Desire to take a long, deep inspiration.─Sighing.

18. Chest.─Constriction of the chest.─Constriction and oppression of the chest.─Oppression of the chest alternating with headache.─Congestions to the chest.

19. Heart.─Palpitation of the heart with heat in the face, accelerated pulse and pulsation of the carotid arteries.─Violent action of the heart, distinct pulsation over the whole body.─Excessive perceptible palpitation of the heart.─In the heart sensation of fulness, heaviness, and heat, with laboured beating of the heart.─Pulse accelerated; rises and falls alternately; low and feeble in sunstroke.─Laborious action of the heart, oppression.─Sharp pains in heart.─Severe stitches from the heart, extending into the back.─Purring noise in region of heart when lying, pulse intermittent.

20. Neck and Back.─Tightness around the neck.─The neck feels weak and tired, cannot support the head.─Stiffness of the neck, clothing seems to be too tight.─On the neck sensation of fulness, tension, pulsation.─Burning heat between the shoulder-blades.─Hot sensations down back.─Pain in the whole spinal column, or heat and chilliness.

22. Upper Limbs.─In the arms restlessness, weakness, want of circulation.─Sensation of weakness and numbness in l. arm.─Feels the beating of all the pulses in the tips of the fingers, accompanied by trembling of the fingers.

23. Lower Limbs.─Weakness and numbness of l. thigh.─Weakness of the legs, the knees and ankles give way (during headache).─Limbs relaxed, motionless in sunstroke.─Acute pain in l. knee on moving, seems to be deep in joint without much heat or swelling; sudden twinges or pricks while at rest, is obliged to rise and straighten limb.─Jerking of limbs with loss of consciousness.─Restlessness in the limbs causes him to rise.─(Sciatica.).─Cold feet, with nausea, palpitation.

24. Generalities.─Fainting; with consciousness.─Great weakness and prostration.─Unconscious falling down.─Painless throbbing in the whole body.─Pulsations, tingling, thrills, and a peculiar sensation of warmth through the body, extending from above downward.─Convulsions (from congestions to the head); the fingers are spread apart and stretched out.─Seeming plethora, rapid deviations in distributions of blood.

26. Sleep.─Yawning with headache, congestion of blood to the head.─Sleepiness early in the evening.─He is difficult to waken.─Weakness as from loss of sleep.

27. Fever.─Pulse accelerated, irregular, intermitting, full and hard, small and rapid.─Chill: after getting heated; alternates with sweat; with vomiting; head as if screwed up; intermittent fever.─Heat, esp. in face, ascending from pit of stomach to head.─Warmth general; flushes of heat; waves of heat upward.─Perspiration principally in the face, after sleeping.─Perspiration on forehead.─Profuse sweat, mostly on face and chest.─Perspiration relieves the nausea.

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

Nitro-glycerine (C3H4(NO2)O3)

Nervous temperament; plethoric, florid, sensitive women; persons readily affected. Bad effects of mental excitement, fright, fear, mechanical injuries and their later consequences; from having the hair cut. (Acon., Bell.). Head troubles: from working under gas-light, when heat falls on head; cannot bear heat about the head, heat of stove or walking in the sun (Lach., Nat. c.). Cerebral congestion, or alternate congestion of the head and heart. Head: feels enormously large; as if skull were too small for brain; sunstroke and sun headache; increases and decreases every day with the sun (Kal., Nat. c.). Terrific shock in the head, synchronous with the pulse. Throbbing, pulsating headache; holds head with both hands; could not lie down, "the pillow would beat.". Brain feels too large, full, bursting; blood seems to be pumped upwards; throbs at every jar, step, pulse. Intense congestion of brain from delayed or suppressed menses; headache in place of menses. Headache: occurring after profuse uterine haemorrhage; rush of blood to head, in pregnant women. Violent palpitation, with throbbing in carotids; heart's action labored, oppressed; blood seems to rush to heart, and rapidly to head. Convulsions of children from cerebral congestion; meningitis, during dentition, cases that seem to call for Belladonna. Children get sick in the evening when sitting before and open coal fire, or falling asleep there. Flushes of heat; at the climacteric (Amyl., Bell., Lach.); with the catmenia (Fer., Sang.).

Relations. - Compare: Amyl., Bell., Ferr., Gels., Melil., Stram.

Aggravation. - In the sun, exposure to sun's rays; gas- light; overheating; jar; stooping; ascending; touch of hat; having the hair cut.

Leaders In Homoeopathic Therapeutics, Eugene Beauharnais Nash

Sudden local congestion, especially to head and chest; bursting headache rising up from neck, with great throbbing and sense of expansion as if to burst; cannot bear the least jar.

Can't bear anything on the head, especially hat; or pressure as of a hat.

Over-heating in the sun, or sunstroke.

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This is, in the first place, one of our great head remedies. It has intense pain in the head, with great throbbing and sensation of fullness and constriction of the vessels of the neck. There are so many symptoms attending this condition of congestion that it is not wise to try to give them all here. I used, in my early practice, to carry a small vial of the 1st dilution in my case on purpose for those who were inclined to sneer at the young doctor and his sweet medicine, and many a disbeliever have I convinced, in about five or ten minutes, that there might be power in small doses of sweet medicine, by dropping on the tongue a drop of this preparation, for it seldom failed to produce its characteristic throbbing headache within that time. One lady, not willing to acknowledge that it affected her, rose to leave the room, and fainted and would have fallen to the floor if I had not caught her. No one ever asked after that experiment for any more proof of the power of homoeopathic medicine. This throbbing headache, seeming to arise from the neck, is very characteristic, and the throbbing is not a mere sensation but is visible in the carotid arteries. The vessels are full to bursting, and if their walls were not healthy there is danger of apoplexy. No remedy equals this one for producing sudden and severe congestion of the head, and none can cure it quicker when indicated by the symptoms. The remedies that stand nearest Glonoine in their effect on the head I believe to be Belladonna and Melilotus. Belladonna and Glonoine both have the fullness, pain and throbbing, but that of Glonoine is more intense and sudden in its onset, and, on the other hand, subsides more rapidly when relieved. Again, Glonoine is better adapted to the first or congestive stage of inflammatory diseases of the brain, while Belladonna goes further and may still be the appropriate remedy after the inflammatory stage is fully initiated. Belladonna is better by bending the head backward; Glonoine worse. Belladonna is made worse by having the head uncovered, and suffers from having the hair cut; Glonoine must have the head uncovered, can't bear to wear his hat, or wants the hair cut. Belladonna is worse lying down, even if he keeps still; Glonoine, though sometimes worse after lying down, is also sometimes better when lying still. One symptom very characteristic of Glonoine is, that the patient carries the head very carefully, for the least jar or shaking of it greatly aggravates the pain. Another peculiar symptom is, it seems to the patient that there is not only throbbing, but there is an undulating sensation as if the brain were moving in waves synchronous with the pulse. There is more disturbance of the heart action with Glonoine than with Belladonna, though both have it strongly. Glonoine has a sensation of rush of blood to the heart or chest.

Melilotus also has great congestion to the head, with pain and sense of fullness. Not being so thoroughly proven as Belladonna and Glonoine, we cannot so clearly indicate the exact place for it, but there is one very prominent symptom which always makes one think of it, viz.: "Glowing redness of the face". No remedy that I know of has it more strongly. Glonoine and Belladonna may both have very red face; on the other hand, a pale face, with the other congestive symptoms, does not contraindicate them, but does Melilotus. Then, again, with Melilotus the head symptoms are often relieved by a profuse epistaxis, which is also another very prominent symptom of this remedy. I cured a very bad case of typhus cerebralis, and also a case of insanity of long standing, with this remedy, being guided to it by these symptoms.

"Loses his way in well-known streets" is a symptom of Glonoine that has several times been confirmed. The local congestions of Glonoine are often found in different diseases; for instance, climacteric flushings are often most felt in the head. Glonoine cures such cases. It is also useful in puerperal convulsions. And another symptom often present in these cases is, a sense as if the head were expanding from fullness. Now look out for convulsions and give Glonoine, especially if there be albumen in the urine. Congestion to the head from suppressed or retarded menses sometimes finds a remedy here; also, different pathological conditions of the heart, but the symptoms must be present.

For sunstroke it is probably oftener indicated than any other remedy; also for the after-sufferings therefrom. Not only from sunstroke, but from other bad effects of radiate heat; for instance, children get sick in the night after sitting too long or falling asleep before an open coal fire.

Then, again, warm room increases the headache and warm bed the faceache.

"Burning between the shoulders" is another symptom of this remedy, like Lycopodium and Phosphorus. Ammonium muriaticum and Lachnanthes have the opposite. While we are here now I will call attention to another remedy, which, for flushings and congestions to head and face, resembles Glonoine, that is, Amyl. nit.

MELILOTUS ALBA (Sweet Clover).

Here is a remedy of undoubted great value. The best rendering of it is given by Dr. H. C. Allen in the transactions of the I. H. A., page 104, year 1887, although a very fair one is found in the "Guiding Symptoms" (Hering). The provers all had fearful headaches and haemorrhages except myself (Bowen).

The congestion to the brain is equal to that of Belladonna and Glonoine, and the most characteristic symptom of such congestion is intense redness of the face, with throbbing carotids, which is often > by a profuse epistaxis. Several years ago I cured a very bad case of mania of the religious form with the 6th potency. This lady had had one similar attack a few years before, when, after she had been given up by two allopaths, who said she must go to the asylum, I relieved her with Stramonium. She was very loquacious at that time.

This time Stramonium failed, but no indication of the intensely red face I gave her Melilotus with a rapid and permanent cure. The first cause of these attacks was overheating in the sun.

One more case will illustrate the action of this truly great remedy.

During a run of typhoid fever in a young lady she had frequent attacks of profuse epistaxis. One attack followed another, sometimes twice or three times in twenty-four hours, until I became alarmed on account of the great loss of blood.

She had been subject to frequent attacks of nosebleed since childhood, from the time she was injured in the nasal passage by a button she pushed up the nose, and which a "regular" claimed, after much violence, to have pushed down her throat, but which in reality remained in her nose a long time – several months- when it was ejected in a fit of coughing and sneezing. Two years before I carried her through a very severe attack of diphtheria, which was also attended by severe nosebleed, occurring at night, the blood hanging in clots from the nose like icicles.

Mercurius sol. 30th then stopped it very nicely. Now the blood clotted some, but not so markedly. Mercurius did no good. Every attack has preceded by the most intense redness and flushing of the face and throbbing of the carotids I ever witnessed. The nosebleed would invariably follow within a few hours this apparent rush of blood to head and face. Belladonna did no good. Neither did Erigeron, which, in Hering, "has congestion of the head, red face, nosebleed and febrile action."

Melilotus 30th relieved promptly not only these attacks of congestion to head and nosebleed, but the whole case afterward progressed without an untoward symptom to perfect recovery.

F. A. Waddell, M. D., reports a case of pneumonic congestion, in which the characteristic red face and epistaxis were present, as cured with this remedy.

Dr. Bowen, to whom belongs the credit of first introducing this remedy to the profession, reports many cases of headaches, colic, cramps in the stomach and spasms relieved and cured by it. It seems to me that this remedy should be classed with Belladonna and Glonoine, and never forgotten in comparison with remedies having strong head symptoms.