Homeopathic Materia Medica

Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica, James Tyler Kent

Generals: It is one of the abused remedies.

It is used externally in rheumatism, bruises and all sorts of troubles, and the amelioration that comes is the result of establishing a disease on the surface, by counter-irritation, and not by homoeopathic action. Crude Petroleum is extensively used in the oil regions on both man and beast as a "cure all."

Mind: It is a counter-irritant and, on the skin, produces irritation, eruptions and disturbances, like Turpentine.

Among the early things that Petroleum does to a prover is that it puts him in a state of confusion of mind and dizziness; he is dazed so that he loses his way in the street. She has strange imaginations that there are people near her who are not present; that the atmosphere is full of strange forms; that her limbs are double; that another person is in the bed with her.

Such things are found in the fevers. A woman after childbirth imagines there is another child in bed with her, and she wonders how she will take care of the two. These ideas are found in many diseases, have been often verified. In typhoids and low forms of sickness; in diarrheas; when just awakening he is in confusion; in his dreams he had the idea of being two or more and the impression remains with him while he is in a semi-conscious state. He cannot reconcile the state, but when aroused to consciousness he is able to reason it away, and when semi-conscious again it returns. This annoys him day and night.

Skin symptoms. The surface symptoms are striking. The tendency is to throw out vesicles, herpetic vesicles which are isolated, and the tendency of the vesicles is to form thick yellow crusts, with considerable moisture. The vesicles break early.

At times the vesicles do not form crusts, but break early and ulcerate underneath, and this changes into a phagedenic ulcer; this condition occurs about the fingers, scrotum, face and scalp. There is a special tendency to produce vesicular eruptions about the back of the neck.

Papular, pustular, vesicular, dry, mealy eruptions, but most commonly moist; eruptions which extend deeply. It builds up eruptions on the site of old eruptions, with an increasing hardness in the base of the old eruption.

When the crust dries down it indurates, and this induration takes place at the margin and builds up little rings about the margin. The induration cracks, bleeds, looks purple. Apply this to salt rheum, and eruptions about the hands. It is suitable when there are cracks about the ends of the fingers and on the backs of the hands.

The skin is rough, ragged, exfoliates, cracks, bleeds; the tissues are hardened; this occurs sometimes about the palms of the hands and nails. This tissue ulcerates, and the ulcers eat and spread. All eruptions itch violently. He can not rest until he scratches the skin off, when the part becomes moist, bloody, raw and inflamed.

There is also itching with no visible eruption. He scratches the skin until moisture oozes forth, and keeps on scratching until the skin bleeds and the part becomes cold. (This word makes me remark here that coldness in spots is quite a feature of this remedy. Coldness in spots; coldness in the stomach, in the abdomen, in the uterus; coldness in a spot between the scapula; coldness in the heart - sensation as if the heart were cold.).

Various forms of eczema. Eczema of the scalp, especially of the occiput. Herpetic eruptions about the mouth (Nat. m.), about the genitals, lips, face, and the patches become crusty and ooze much.

The mucous membrane, or internal skin, has little patches of ulcers, with induration about the patch, and hence Petr. is useful in syphilitic ulcers. Ulcerous patches in the throat; aphthous patches in the mouth. There is inflammation of the mucous membranes everywhere, producing watery and finally thick yellow discharges.

The nose is filled by tumefaction of the Schneiderian membrane. Old catarrhal complaints of the nose, crusts, thick yellow discharge, foetid odor from the nose.

The nose, posterior nares and pharynx become thickened and there is an accumulation of thick mucus, especially in the morning.

The larynx is involved and there is loss of voice, and the trouble extends to the chest, causing a catarrhal condition with cough. He coughs especially at night, and there is emaciation of the body with pain and soreness of the chest. Dry, hacking cough, alternating with copious expectoration; emaciation about the chest. A striking feature of this drug is that the cough is worse at night, and the diarrhea is worse during the day.

Catarrh of the stomach and bowels. Catarrh of the rectum, much mucus with the stools. Diarrhœa during the day time, ameliorated at night, while the patient is quiet and at rest.

He cannot eat without pain, but he has a gnawing hunger which drives him to eat. (Lach., Graph.) There is an "all-gone.," hungry feeling after stool, which drives him to eat. With the diarrhea there is constant hunger, yet he cannot eat without pain; emaciation, skin eruptions, unhealthy ragged fingers which never look clean; he cannot wash them, as this causes them to chap.

Urinary and genitals: Catarrh of the bladder and urethra; chronic catarrhal discharge chronic gonorrhea. Itching is common to the internal skin, and a striking feature in gonorrhea is the itching in the posterior half of the urethra with the discharge. It almost drives him wild, keeps him awake at night. He rubs and manipulates the perineum to relieve this itching. The gonorrheal discharge is white or yellow. It is useful in that "last drop."

Also in the early stages of gonorrhea when the itching is troublesome.

Sore bruised feeling all over the body, especially in the joint Rheumatic pain in the joints on motion; sore to touch; sensation as if bruised. It is analogous to Arnica in relation to bruises.

Petroleum is suitable in old stubborn occipital headaches. Silicea is the routine remedy for offensive foot sweat and periodic occipital headaches. Petroleum has also offensive foot sweat; offensive sweats all over, and especially so in the axilla, where it is so pungent that it can be observed on the patient entering the room.

The pain often remains in the occiput, but when very severe it extends up over the top of the head to the eyes and forehead (Silicea has that condition). Petroleum is not so closely related to Silicea as it is to Graphites and Carbo veg., which are carbonaceous substances; and all carbonaceous products affect the back of the head.

"Pain from occiput over head to forehead and eyes, with transitory blindness; he gets stiff; loses consciousness."

"Circumscribed pain in the occiput, aggravated on shaking the head."

This remedy, unlike Carbo veg., has oversensitiveness of the senses, bearing, touch and smell.

Ears: The Petroleum constitution produces a peculiar vertigo which comes on under regular circumstances, when on ship-board, or riding in a carriage, or on the ears.

It suits occipital headache from riding on the ears, or from such motions, with nausea like seasickness. Seasickness is a trouble we cannot always meet, yet most people, when constitutionally treated, can be directed into a better state, so that they will not be troubled under ordinary conditions, such as riding on the cars or in a carriage.

To a great extent the above condition is due to a lack of accommodation, a visual trouble; coming on, for example, from focusing the eyes on the waves as they retreat from the rear end of the ship, or on passing objects, the patient being relieved while in a dark state-room. Occipital headache, with the vertigo above mentioned, and an all gone hungry feeling or pain in the stomach, driving him to eat, will be mitigated by Petroleum.

The most common form of seasickness I have found to be the following:

Awful deathly nausea pallor, cold body, profuse sweat and exhaustion, ameliorated by fanning, by the open air, by closing the eyes, by quiet and darkness, and aggravated by warmth. Tabacum is generally the remedy of such cases.

In Petroleum there is much disturbance of vision, but the catarrhal the eyes is striking. Vesicular formations, ulcerations, inflammation, redness and copious discharge; granular lids, thickening mucous membranes, cracks in the lids, fissures in the corners eyes with great itching.

This itching is present in all congestions of the mucous membrane. Eustachian tubes. The mucous membrane is thickened, and deafness results. It is a catarrhal state, attended by great itching in the tube, which be cannot reach method; itching deep in the ear. He rubs the ear and tries to it, but he cannot reach it. Itching in the pharynx; also in the I canal of the ear. Ear discharges.

Induration and inflammation of the glands of the body. In ear troubles, the parotids enlarge; in troubles about the jaw, the sub-maxillary and sub-lingual glands are involved; they become hard and tend to remain so.

Face pale or yellow; sickly.

"Nausea and qualmishness all day."

Stiffness in the back. Pain in the back on rising from a seat.

Heat and burning. Skin hot in places; with sensation of coldness. Burning and itching of palms and soles; face and scalp. The itching and burning often go together; parts that burn much. Feet burn and have a sensation as if frozen. Chilblains itch, burn and become purple. Parts frozen will, years after, itch, burn, sting and become red and hot. The patient can tell when it will thaw because of the itching in the chilblains.

Petroleum cures the itching and burning in frozen parts, but not as prominently as Agaricus leads all other remedies, especially when the condition affects parts where the tissues are thin over the bones, as over the back of the toes.

Paretic conditions, especially left-sided., Weakness of muscles, weakness of the lower extremities, especially left-sided.

The eruptions on the surface and the state of induration are like Graphites, but the oozing in Petroleum is thin and watery, and in Graphites it is gluey, honey like, sticky, viscid. You have indurations and cracks of the fingers, and rhagades in both remedies, but the horn-like warty growths, lifting up the quick of the nails, you will find only in Graphites.

It is of wonderful use and competes with Rhus in eczema of the genitals of either male or female. Eruption on the scrotum, penis, vulva.

Rhus produces violent inflammation of the skin of the genitals in male and female; erysipelatous inflammation; nodules vesicles and large blebs. Petroleum produces small vesicles which itch, sting and burn.

Herpetic eruptions which tend to become erysipelatous. Petroleum and Rhus are the most common remedies for eruptions on the scrotum and genitals.

"Herpetic itching, redness and moisture on scrotum; skin cracked, rough and bleeding; extending to perineum, and thighs."

"Obstinate dry eruptions on genitals and perineum."

"Sweat and moisture of external genitals of both sexes."

Scurfy nipples; white, bran-like scurf; itching; always peeling off. If the woman is in run-down health, then the nipples inflame and become oversensitive to the touch of clothing.

Very sensitive to change of weather, like Phos. and Rhod.; aggravated before a thunder storm. Often sensitive to air and cold. Lean, emaciated subjects; threatening consumption. Eruptions disappear of themselves or are suppressed. Hands and feet burn; wants the palms and soles out of bed.

Do not be too sure Sulphur because the soles burn, or too sure of Silicea because the feet sweat. Sweating of single parts. Eruptions in patches. Itching in patches. Coldness in parts. Complaints come in single parts.

The most striking offensiveness is about the feet and in the axillae. There are many strange sensations which are peculiar and striking. Study closely the skin symptoms and compare with Graphites and Sulphur.

A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica, John Henry Clarke

Oleum petrae. Rock-oil. Coal Oil. Trituration and tincture of the rectified oil. (Preparations of the non-rectified oil should also be made.)

Clinical.─Addison's disease. Albuminuria. Anaemia. Angina pectoris. Anus, fissure of. Bed-sores. Breath, offensive. Burns. Chilblains. Chlorosis. Constipation. Cracks in skin. Deafness. Diarrhoea. Dysmenia. Dyspepsia. Ear, affections of. Eczema. Face, rough. Facial paralysis. Feet, soles painful. Fester, tendency to. Fistulae. Frost-bite. Gastric ulcer. Gonorrhoea. Haemorrhoids. Hands, chapped. Headache; occipital. Herpes. Herpes preputialis. Irritation. Jaw, easily dislocated. Myopia. Nose, sore. Otorrhoea. Perspiration, offensive. Pregnancy, sickness of. Presbyopia. Prostatitis. Psoriasis. Rheumatism. Sea-sickness. Skin, affections of. Sprains. Syphilis. Tabes mesenterica. Toothache. Urethra, stricture of; chronic inflammation of. Varices. Vomiting. Warts.

Characteristics.─The Petrol. proved by Hahnemann is made by agitating the liquid commercial Petroleum with Sulphuric Acid and then rectifying the portion which this acid does not act upon. It is "a light oily fluid, colourless or of a pale straw colour, and strong characteristic naphthalic smell. Dropped on white paper it evaporates completely, leaving no greasy stain." Under PARAFFIN I have described the relation between Petrol., Naph., and Paraff. Commercial "Petroleum" and commercial "Paraffin oil" are one and the same. The Petrol. of homoeopathy is this substance purified and rectified. But in the pathogenesis are included effects observed on those engaged in petroleum works, and those who use "Paraffin oil" in various trades; it would therefore be well to have also a preparation of the crude, non-rectified liquid. Petrolatum (Vaseline) consists of hydrocarbons of the Paraffin series, obtained from residues after distillation of lighter oils from crude petroleum; or deposited from crude petroleum on standing. The affections met with in petroleum extractors and refiners are─(1) Diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue; depressed nutrition, anaemia, dyspepsia, nerve troubles, irritability, insomnia, respiratory affections. In addition to these is a species of intoxication. A man, a patient of mine who suffered from inveterate eczema, and who had formerly been employed in a factory where much petroleum was used, noticed that his eczema was much better whilst working with petroleum. He told me that the vapour had the singular effect of making some of the workmen insane, causing: Desire to kill; hallucinations, they will see things not actually visible; for instance, "they will see the rails in a station when a train is on them." Boys (who are much affected) will jump at a straight wall and try to scramble up it. A rickety boy, aet. 2 1/2, who had an unconquerable desire to drink anything liquid within his reach I took one day e good draught of paraffin oil. An Ipecacuanha emetic and a Castor Oil purge got rid of a good deal of it, and a month after he was brought to me with these symptoms: Appetite had. Pale, dark rings round eyes. Every now and then seems to collapse; goes into a corner and will not play; after tea quite bright. Cold sweat in bed; complains of burning heat; then goes cold and clammy. I prescribed Phos. 2. In three weeks he was brought back much better. He had lost the pallor and dark rings round the eyes, and had ceased to mope; but he had come out, all over small boils which discharged, the discharge having the odour of paraffin. There was A slight recurrence of the old symptoms a fortnight later, and after that I did not see the boy again till a year later, when he was brought to me for diphtheritic paralysis. Two years after this he was brought to me again. He was now well grown and had no sign of rickets, but some of the old symptoms came back: Languid; inclined to be quiet; averse to play. At times clammy all over body. This time Petrol. 30 soon put him right. In the case of a woman who drank paraffin oil when intoxicated, there was epigastric pain so severe that she thought she would go out of her mind, > lying with knees drawn up; tenderness of ileo-caecal region and of epigastrium; swollen feeling of abdomen, without actual swelling; blood and albumen in urine; pain in back and slight return of menses, which had ceased a week before. These cases show the profound action of Petrol. on the organism. It is one of Hahnemann's leading antipsorics, and is especially closely related to Graph. It is suited to long-lasting, deep-seated, wasting diseases; lingering gastric and intestinal troubles with or without ulceration. In my experience no remedy corresponds to more cases of chlorosis in young girls, with or without ulceration of the stomach. Petrol. (says Kent) corresponds to low conditions in which there is inability to throw out eruptions on the skin; or conditions in which an eruption has disappeared without improvement in health: to reflexions of disease on mucous membranes setting up catarrh. Ozaena; intestinal catarrh. Soreness and cracks about muco-cutaneous orifices. Irritability of skin and irritability of mind are both found in Petrol., as in many other remedies: Excitable; angry at trifles. Anxiety with fear. Mental weakness and forgetfulness are also very characteristic, and are generally met with in connection with deep-seated disease. An illusion that there is another person, or another baby in bed, is very characteristic of the remedy, and has led to cures with Petrol. of cases of typhoid and puerperal fever. "Falling out of the hair" is a characteristic symptom of Petrol., and accounts for the popularity of Petroleum hair-restorers. [Petrol. "probably acts on the sebaceous rather than the sudoriferous secretions of the skin, and its local action is on parts where the sebum is abundant."─R. T. C.]. The use of these hair-restorers has caused many violent headaches. So has the use of "Coal Oil" (a tablespoonful to a bucketful of water) by washerwomen to improve the colour of linen. M. T. Bleim (quoted H. W., xxvi. 318) thus describes the result in one case: Severe occipital headache, loss of strength, emaciation, diarrhoea, dyspepsia with fulness on eating very little; accumulation of gas; very severe attacks of suffocation, > by eructations of gas. The headaches of Petrol. may be in any part, but they are most marked in occiput. Heaviness like lead; pressure, sticking; pulsating; < on shaking head or any jar. Pain travels from occiput to eyes, and is associated with temporary loss of sight and fainting. The vertigo and heaviness of Petrol. are often associated with nausea and bilious vomiting. This (nausea with or without vomiting) is one of the grand characteristics of the remedy. It is < by motion in a carriage or on the sea; hence Petrol. is one of the first remedies in train-sickness or sea-sickness. The other side of this nausea is another grand characteristic: Awful ravenous hunger, the "sinking" of the chief antipsorics. It is particularly noticed immediately after a stool, in diarrhoea, nervous affections, spinal disease, etc. (Kent). In pulmonary affections Petrol. has gained much repute of late in the form of an emulsion. A leading indication for it is "Oppression of the chest; < in cold air." Petrol. has a peculiar cough, not infrequently met with in young girls and boys, coming from deep down in the chest, and frequently waking the patient up at night. A student who had a deep, hollow-sounding, hacking cough, excited by laughing, waking him up in the middle of the night, I cured with Petrol. 30 after Arg. n. and Arg. met. had failed to do anything. The cough had persisted some time and caused his family no little anxiety. The discharges of Petrol. are thick, purulent, and yellowish green. For the cracked nostrils accompanying and following cold in the head I find the application of vaseline more often useful than other forms of unguent. The localities of Petrol. are very like those of Graph.: Scalp, behind ears, scrotum, genitals. The modality "< in winter" has given Nash the key to several cases of eczema, chapped hands, chilblains, and one case of chronic diarrhoea, as soon as he discovered that the patient had eczema of the hands in winter. Petrol. 200 was given. The skin is extremely sensitive; all clothing is painful; slight injuries suppurate. Allen's Appendix quotes an important case reported by O. Lassar in Virchow's Archiv. A man used for four days extensive inunctions with Petrol. to relieve himself from scabies. A week later his feet began to swell, and the dropsy, increasing rapidly, spread over abdomen and thorax. In a fortnight it disappeared, but eight days later returned and persisted till death, four months after the inunction. The urine was highly albuminous, and contained hyaline and granular cylinders; but the necropsy revealed no lesion of any organ to account for the dropsy. The, body was extremely oedematous; there was oedema of the lungs and dropsy of the cavities, and whilst in hospital the wrist pulse was small, empty, and of low tension; the blood corpuscles were few, but their relative proportions were normal. Temperature normal, and the skin showed localised areas of inflammation. Along the veins and lymphatics a small-celled growth existed, and in all the layers of the cutis there was a widely distributed nuclear proliferation. Peculiar symptoms are: Brain as if wrapped in a fog. As if everything in head were alive. As if head made of wood, or as if bruised. As if a cold breeze were blowing on head. As if head would burst. Veil before eyes. Sand in eyes. As if skin over bridge of nose drawn stiff and tight. As if something were tearing off from pit of stomach. As if a cold stone at heart. Splinter in heel. Upper and lower limbs as if stiff without joints. Jaw as if distended. There is great weakness; fainting; tremor; twitching of limbs; catalepsy; tonic spasms; left-sided paralysis. The notes of the skin affections are: Itching; burning; rawness; bleeding. Burning sensations are very marked; and as Petrol. is accountable for so many burning accidents it is fitting that it should make a very good application for burns in the form of vaseline, cosmoline, or Petrol. mixed with equal parts of olive oil. Petrol. is suited to: Persons with light hair and skin. Especially for lean, slender persons. The symptoms are < by touch; by contact of clothing; by scratching; by riding in carriage or ship. Pinching the parts > haemorrhoids. < From mental exertion. Headache < on shaking head; > by epistaxis; < from light and noise. After stool: hunger immediately. Ravenous hunger; frequently awakened by it at night; easily satisfied, with aversion to meat, fats, cooked or hot food; desire only for dainties, which are eaten with avidity. Eating > gastralgia. Gastralgia comes on whenever the stomach is empty. Empty, weak sensation in stomach. < After eating or drinking. After eating: giddiness; heat in face; cutting in abdomen; eructations; drowsiness; uneasiness. Cabbages, saurkraut = diarrhoea. Colic > by bending double. Exertion, motion, riding, sitting <. Lying down < cough, and distension of abdomen. Vertigo when head lies low. < Cold air. < Winter. < Open air. < Before and during thunderstorm. < Bathing. > Warmth and warm air. < Warmth of bed (itching). Cough is < at night and 2, 4, and 6 a.m. Smoking befogs him; = cough. < After coitus (nervous irritability). Cough < by laughing (cured). < During day (diarrhoea and dysentery). Throat affections go right to left. Headache back to front.

Relations.─Antidoted by: Coccul., Nux, Phos. (in my case), Antidote to: Lead poisoning (one of the best remedies), Nit. ac. Complementary: Before Sep. Compatible: Bry., Calc., Lyc., Nit. ac., Nux, Puls., Sep., Sil., Sul. Compare: Graph., Naph., Paraf., Eupn., Kreas., and other Carbons. In sea-sickness, Arn., Coccul., Tab. Nausea of pregnancy, Coccul., Sep. Cracking of joints, Caust. Gastralgia > by eating, Chel., Anac., Graph., Lach. Imagines he has a limb double; illusions of shape, Bap., Stram. Epistaxis > headache (Borax <). Aversion to hot food, Pho. (opp. Lyc.). < From thunderstorms, Pho., Merc., Sil., Rho., Pso. Head as if made of wood; eruptions behind ears and on genitals, Graph. Cold feeling about heart, Nat. m. (< when exerting mind), K. chlo., Graph., K. nit., Ruta. Diarrhoea in early morning, Sul. (Petro. also during day). Loses his way in well-known streets, Glo. (from heat or sun). Moist eruptions about genitals, Thuj. Hot, burning eructations, K. ca., Sep. Faintness during or connected with evacuations, Crot. t., Dulc., Ox. ac., Sul. (these have it with scanty, stools; the rest with copious stools:) Apis, Nux m., Pul., Spi., Ver. Sinking immediately after meals, Ars., Cina, Lyc., Sil., Stp., Urt. ur., Calc., Iod. Brownish scattered spots on dark-haired people, Nit. ac. Loquacity, Lach. (Petrol. on one subject). Hunger after stool (Alo. during stool). Symptoms appear and disappear rapidly, Bell., Mag. p., Lyc.─opp. Plat., Stan. Imagines two babies in bed, Val. Vertigo on rising, Bry. Skin sensitive to clothing; every injury suppurates, Hep. Tender feet, which are bathed in foul-smelling sweat, Graph., Sanic., Sil. Heat and burning of soles and palms, Sang., Sul. Skin < in winter, > in summer, Alm.

Causation.─Vexation. Riding in carriage or ship. Nitric acid (deafness from). Cabbage. Suppressed eruptions. Sprains.

SYMPTOMS.

1. Mind.─Anxious and timorous disposition.─Sadness and mental dejection.─Great irresolution.─Uneasiness respecting the future.─Hypochondriacal humour.─Inclination to anger and to scold.─Violent, irascible, insolent temper.─Frequent tears; on slightest provocation.─Loss of memory.─Does not know where she is in the street.─Unfitness for reflection.─Weakness of Apprehension.─Delirium; thinks another person is lying with him in bed (or that he is double, or one limb is double); or always and continuously delirious talk of the same distressing subject.─Imagines he has a third leg which will not keep quiet.─Desire to kill.─Hallucinations of vision.

2. Head.─Head bewildered.─Feeling as if brain wrapped in fog.─Frequent vertigo, esp. on raising eyes.─Vertigo, like that produced by a swinging motion.─Vertigo on stooping, or on rising from bed, or from a seat.─Headache after a fit of anger, or when fasting in morning, as also after a walk in evening.─Attacks of semi-lateral headache, which compel patient to lie down.─Heaviness and fulness in head in morning, and when stooping.─Pressive or lancinating pressive pains in head, esp. in occiput.─Headache < by all kinds of intellectual labour, to the extent of complete stupefaction.─Tension in head, as if dura mater were tightened.─Cramp-like, drawing, pinching pains in head.─Neuralgic headache, beginning in occiput and extending forward.─Occipital headache, extending to vertex, with vertigo.─Occipital headache, with nausea, esp. in sea-sickness.─Pulsative headache, esp. in occiput (cerebellum).─Pressing stinging in the cerebellum.─Sensation as if all were alive in head.─Scalp painful to touch, as if bruised or ulcerated (followed by numbness and very sore on scratching, < in morning and on becoming heated).─Headache in forehead; every mental exertion causes him to become quite stupid.─Drawing pains in head, forehead, and temples, extending into teeth.─Seborrhoea of scalp.─Eruption on head and nape of neck.─Oedematous swelling and scabs on scalp.─Hair falls off.

3. Eyes.─Itching in eyes.─Itching of lids; obliged to rub them.─(Lids everted.).─Aching, smarting, shooting, and burning pain in eyes.─Conjunctivitis and blepharadenitis.─Inflammation of eyes (with itching and stitches in eyes).─Lachrymal fistula (with dryness of r. side of nose).─Lachrymation.─Jerking and quivering of eyes and lids.─Convulsion of eyes.─Myopia or presbyopia.─Diplopia.─Scintillation and appearance as of a veil before sight; or sparks and black spots.

4. Ears.─Inflammation and painful swelling of meatus auditorius.─Otalgia, with cramp-like and jerking pain.─Dryness, and distressing sensation of dryness, in interior of ear.─Discharge of blood and pus from ears.─Eruption of ears.─Redness, excoriation, and oozing behind ears.─Deafness.─Tinkling, rolling, roaring, ringing, rumbling, cracking, and buzzing in ears.─Excessive secretion of cerumen.

5. Nose.─Epistaxis.─Slight epistaxis > headache.─Purulent blisters on nose.─Ulcerated nostrils (and stopped catarrh).─Ozaena, scabs, purulent mucus, cracked nostrils.─Swelling of nose, with discharge of pus, and pair, above root of nose.─Stoppage of nose.─Dryness, and distressing sensation of dryness, in nose.─Much mucus in nose.─Itching on tip of nose.─Coryza with hoarseness.

6. Face.─Heat in face, sometimes after a meal, and with thirst.─Dryness and constriction of skin of face and eyelids as though covered with a thin layer of albumen; cheeks look glazed and contracted.─Pale, yellowish complexion.─Facial paralysis (from inflammatory products in Fallopian canal).─Eruption of pimples on face.─Scurfs around mouth.─Scabby pimples, with shooting pain on lips, and commissures.─Furuncles on lower lip.─Swelling of sub-maxillary glands.─Easy dislocation of maxillary joint in bed in morning with sharp pains.

7. Teeth.─Toothache from contact with open air, < at night, with swelling of cheek.─Numbness of teeth, with pain on clenching them.─Pustule above a hollow tooth like a fistula.─Fistulous vesicles in gums.─Swelling of gums, with shooting pain on being touched.

8. Mouth.─Fetid breath, sometimes like garlic.─Ulcers on inner surface of cheeks (painful when closing teeth).─Much mucus in mouth and throat.─Tongue coated white.─Painful soreness on chewing.─Great dryness of mouth (and throat in morning) with violent thirst (for beer).

9. Throat.─Sore throat, with shooting pain during deglutition.─Swelling and great dryness of throat.─Swelling of the submaxillary glands.─Rawness (stitching and burning) in pharynx, < on swallowing.─Tickling on swallowing, extending to ear.─Dryness and burning in pharynx.─When swallowing the aliment rises towards nasal fossae.─Hawking up of mucus in morning.

10. Appetite.─Putrid, mawkish, mucous, or else bitter or acid taste.─Excessive thirst for beer.─Bulimy.─Hunger with speedy satiety.─Voracity.─Daintiness.─Anorexia.─Repugnance to meat and fat, also to hot and cooked aliments; < by eating cabbage.─Uneasiness during digestion, after almost every kind of food, however little may have been eaten.─After a meal: obscuration and vertigo; nausea; heaviness and pressure at stomach; sleep; or colic, with eructations; or sour risings, congestion in head, cramp in chest, etc.

11. Stomach.─Noisy eructations.─Sour (or bitter eructations or) risings and regurgitations.─Pyrosis.─Frequent nausea, esp. in morning, often with accumulation of water in mouth, obstructed respiration, sour risings, tongue dry and white, stitches in hepatic region, heat in face, vertigo, etc.─After eating, vertigo and giddiness.─Nausea from motion of a carriage.─Nausea and vomiting of pregnant women.─Water-brash.─Heartburn toward evening.─Inclination to vomit.─Greenish, bitter vomiting.─Aching of stomach.─Cramps in stomach.─Pressure on the stomach; colic (at night).─Sensation of emptiness and weakness in stomach.─Weak digestion.─Diarrhoea from suppressed eruptions.─Pain in epigastrium, as if something were being torn away.─Swelling of epigastrium, with pain when touched.─Sensation of fulness in epigastrium.

12. Abdomen.─Pain (cutting) in abdomen, shortly after a meal.─Sensation of great emptiness in abdomen.─Distension and tension in abdomen, with cramp.─Pinchings and cuttings in abdomen, sometimes, with pressing want to evacuate.─Colic, with diarrhoea, at night, towards morning.─Colic > from bending double.─Borborygmi in abdomen, with sensation as if abdomen were entirely empty.─Inguinal hernia.─Fetid flatus.─Sensation of coldness in abdomen.

13. Stool and Anus.─Difficult, hard, knotty, and insufficient evacuations.─Frequent diurnal stools, sometimes with evacuation of serous, yellowish matter.─Diarrhoea, often preceded by cuttings (colic only during the day).─Mucous stools, often mixed with blood.─Burning pain in rectum after evacuation.─Itching tetters in perineum.─Diarrhoea < from riding in carriage.─In anus burning itching; pressure.─Weakness of rectum.─Piles with great itching, < at night from heat of bed; < from rubbing or scratching.─Fissure with great rawness.

14. Urinary Organs.─Constant dribbling of urine after micturition.─Discharge of mucus with the urine.─Frequent emission of urine, with scanty stream of a red or brown and fetid urine.─Urine bloody and turbid; it deposits a red, slimy sand, that adheres tightly to vessel; urine contains albumen, hyalin, and granulated casts; covered with a glistening film and with a red sediment.─Involuntary discharge of urine.─Emission of urine at night.─Wetting the bed.─Burning in urethra.─Stricture of urethra.─(Chronic urethritis.)

15. Male Sexual Organs.─Burning pain, itching, redness, excoriation, and oozing, or itching pimples and tetters, on scrotum and between scrotum and thigh.─Diminished sexual desire.─Frequent pollutions.─Discharge of prostatic fluid.─(Prostatitis.).─Weakness and nervous irritability after coition.─Reddish eruption on glans, with itching.

16. Female Sexual Organs.─Itching, soreness, and moisture on external parts.─Repugnance to coition.─Catamenia too early, with a menstrual flux which excites itching.─Leucorrhoea like white of egg.─Leucorrhoea with lascivious dreams.─During pregnancy diarrhoea and vomiting.─Itching and furfur on the mammae; the nipples itch, and have a mealy coating.

17. Respiratory Organs.─Hoarseness, with or without coryza.─Cough, with dryness in throat.─Vexatious cough that takes away the breath; cannot cough it out.─Suffocating cough at night.─Dry cough at night, or in evening, after lying down.─At night dry cough, coming deep from chest, caused by a scratching in throat.─Cough from low down in chest.─Hollow, hacking cough, coming on when laughing, waking him in middle of night (cured).─Dry cough, with shootings under sternum.

18. Chest.─Respiration obstructed in cold air.─Rattling and snoring in trachea.─Sensation of heaviness, anxiety, and uneasiness in chest.─Oppression of chest at night.─Shootings in sides of chest.─Herpes on chest.

19. Heart.─Palpitation of heart.─Feeling of coldness about heart; as if there was a cold stone in heart.─Fainting, with ebullitions, heat, pressing on heart, palpitation.

20. Neck and Back.─Herpes on nape of neck.─Heaviness and pain in nape of neck.─Painful drawing extending from nape to occiput.─Swelling of glands and eruption on nape of neck.─Sacral pains, which do not permit standing upright.─Coccyx painful on sitting.─Stiffness in coccyx.─Pain in back, which obstructs every movement.─Weakness and stiffness in back and loins.─Suppuration of the axillary glands.

21. Limbs.─Cracking of the joints.─Inflexibility of the joints.─Sprains; chronic sprains.

22. Upper Limbs.─Fetid sweat of axillae.─Drawing pains in arms and fingers.─Great weakness of arms.─Stiffness of arms and fingers.─Erysipelatous inflammation in arms.─Brown or yellow spots on arms.─Furunculi on forearm.─Tearings in hands.─Burning sensation in palms of hands.─Sweating of hands.─Pain in wrist-joint as if sprained.─Brown spots on wrist.─Bleeding fissures in hands and lingers, esp. in winter.─Salt-rheum, red, raw, burning; moist or covered with thick crusts.─Chilblains and warts on lingers.─Pricking and pain in waits on fingers, evening in bed.─Arthritic stiffness in joints of fingers.─Finger-nails painful when touched as if bruised.─Finger-tips rough, cracked, fissured, with sticking, cutting pain.

23. Lower Limbs.─Cracking in joints of legs.─Cramps in thighs, calves, and feet (all day; in soles at night).─Furunculi in thighs and calves.─Tension in the ham.─Lancinations in knee.─Weakness of knee.─Herpes on knee.─Tuberous, itching eruption on calves of legs.─Herpes on ankle bones.─Burning sensation in soles.─Profuse perspiration on feet.─Foetid perspiration of feet with tenderness.─Coldness of feet.─Swelling of feet.─Hot swelling of soles.─Swelling and redness of heel with burning pain and shootings, < by walking.─Heels blistered.─Sensation of splinter in heel.─Chilblains on toes, esp. when they itch and are moist; itch and burn; inflamed in cold weather.─Ulcers on the toes, originating in blisters on the toes.─Corns on feet.─Burning and stitching in corns.─Obstinate superficial ulcers on toes, with elevated margins and red bases, with oozings.─Eruption between toes.

24. Generalities.─Affections in general of any kind, appearing on the r. eye; internal or external occiput; behind ears; inner surface of thighs; ball or under part of toes; knee-joint.─Drawing pains in limbs.─Stiffness and tendency to numbness of limbs.─Cracking of joints, with arthritic rigidity and drawing, tearing pains.─Swelling and induration of glands, also after a contusion.─Jerking of limbs by day and during sleep.─Catalepsy; tonic spasms.─Epileptic fits.─Fainting fits, with ebullition of blood, heat, palpitation, and pressure at heart.─Great weakness after least exertion, sometimes with confused sight, trembling of body, buzzing in ears, and nausea.─Weakness, nausea, and other sufferings, from motion of a carriage.─Weakness in morning in bed.─Many of the symptoms appear, or are <, during stormy weather.─Transient heat, ebullition of blood, and perspiration after a walk, or after a fit of anger.─Emaciation; also in children.─Sensation of insupportable and general-uneasiness, with trembling and dejection.─Heaviness and lassitude in all limbs.─Great lassitude morning and evening.─Great tendency to take cold.─Repugnance to open air, with shivering when exposed to it.─Several symptoms manifest themselves in morning.

25. Skin.─Swelling and induration of the glands; also after contusions.─Great sensibility of the surface of skin.─Miliary urticaria.─Itching tetters.─Itching, excoriated, and running spots on skin.─Brown and yellow spots on skin.─Eruption of itching and burning pustules.─Pruritus of the aged.─Dreadful irritation all over body, very intense in vagina, anus and perineum, preventing sleep (cured─R. T. C.).─Papular eruptions, esp. on face and lips.─Skin sore, crawling sensations.─Rhagades.─The skin is hard to heal.─Skin unhealthy every injury tends to ulceration.─Furunculi.─Ulcers with shooting pains often deep ulcers, with raised edges.─Proud flesh in ulcers.─When a person complains of eruption or itching at night (affecting scrotum particularly), the eruption being either dry or moist.─Chilblains particularly where they itch a good deal and are moist.─Exanthema corroding and spreading; very difficult to heal.─Sensibility of the skin in general.─Sores produced by lying in bed.─Warts.─Corns on feet.─Chilblains, sometimes painful.

26. Sleep.─Disposition to sleep by day and in evening when sitting quietly (yawning).─Broken and agitated sleep at night, with many vivid, anxious, and frightful dreams (as if somebody were lying alongside of him in bed), frequent awakening with a start, and heat with anxiety.─Sensation in morning as of having slept too short a time.

27. Fever.─Shivering with headache, and coldness in hands and face.─Chilliness in open air.─Frequent shivering over whole body, and, on becoming warm, excessive itching of skin.─Shivering or coldness, generally in evening (with heat at the same time), and sometimes with blueness of nails.─Sweat immediately after shivering.─Intermittent fever: Violent chilliness and coldness of hands and face at 10 a.m.; half all hour later heat in the face, esp. in the eyes, with thirst.─Shaking fits, 7 p.m., followed by perspiration, first in face, later all over, except in legs, which are quite cold.─Fever in evening, with hot face and cold feet, after shivering.─Frequent flushes of heat.─Heat after midnight and in morning in bed.─Fever, with full pulse and burning sensation in skin.─Pulse accelerated from every exertion; as soon as reposing, pulse becomes again slow.─Nocturnal heat.─Nocturnal sweat.

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

Coal or Rock Oil (Anthracite)

Adapted to persons with light hair and skin; irritable, quarrelsome disposition (Nux); easily offended at trifles (Ign., Med.); vexed at everything. Ailments: from riding in a carriage, railroad car, or in a ship (Coc., Sanic.). Ailments which are worse before and during a thunderstorm (Nat. c., Phos., Psor.). Symptoms appear and disappear rapidly (Bell., Mag. p. - reverse of Plat., Stan.). During sleep or delirium: imagines that one leg is double; that another person lies alongside of him in same bed; that there are two babies in the bed (Val.). Vertigo on rising (Bry.); in occiput; as if intoxicated; like seasickness (Coc.). Headache: in occiput, which is as heavy as lead; pressing, pulsating pain; as if everything in the head were alive; numb, bruised, as if made of wood. Gastralgia: of pregnancy; with pressing, drawing pains; whenever stomach is empty; relieved by constant eating (Anac., Chel., Sep.). Diarrhoea: yellow, watery, gushing; after cabbage, sour krout; during pregnancy, stormy weather; always in the daytime. Painful sensitiveness of skin of whole body; all clothing is painful; slight injury suppurates (Hep.). Skin of hands rough, cracked, tips of fingers rough, cracked, fissured, every winter; tenderness of the feet, which are bathed in foul-smelling sweat (Graph., Sanic., Sil.). Herpes: of genital organs extending to perineum and thighs; itching, redness; skin cracked, rough, bleeding; dry or moist. Heat and burning of soles of feet and palms of hands (Sang., Sulph.). Sweat and moisture of external genitals, both sexes. Painful, itching chilblains and chapped hands < in cold weather; decubitus. Sensation of coldness about the heart (Carbo an., Kali m., Nat. m.).

Relations. - One of our best antidotes for lead poisoning. The skin symptoms are worse in winter, better in summer (Alum.); if suppressed, causes diarrhoea.

Aggravation. - Carriage riding (Coc., Sanic.); during a thunderstorm; in winter (Alum.).

Leaders In Homoeopathic Therapeutics, Eugene Beauharnais Nash

Eczemas, on scalp, behind ears, scrotum, anus, hands, feet, legs; hands chap and bleed; all < in winter; get better in summer.

Diarrhoea preceded by colic, only in the day-time.

Headache, or heaviness like lead in the occiput; sometimes with nausea on vomiting; < by motion, as in riding in boat or carriage.

* * * * *

One of our best anti-psoric remedies. The eruptions that it causes and cures are very similar in appearance to those of Graphites. They appear on different parts of the body, as scalp, behind ears, on scrotum, female genitals, hands, feet and legs, etc.

There is one very marked characteristic symptom that guides to this remedy out of a large list having similar eruptions, and that is that the eruption is worse during the winter season (Aloe, Alumina, Psorinum). There is no other remedy that has this so prominently. The hands chap, crack and bleed, and are all covered with eczema during the winter and get well in summer. I hake cured a case of eczema of the lower legs of twenty years' standing, always worse in winter, with one prescription of the 200th. I have cured chapped hands the same way. I once had a very obstinate case of chronic diarrhoea, but as soon as the fact that he had eczema of the hands in winter came to light I cured him quickly of the whole trouble with Petroleum 200th. Chilblains (Agaricus), which are moist, and itch and burn much in cold weather, are also cured by it. Petroleum; also has a symptom similar to Hepar sulphuris, viz., the slightest scratch of abrasion of the skin suppurates. You remember that Hepar sulphuris is also worse in cold weather or cold air. Petroleum has headache in the occiput, which is as heavy as lead, also vertigo in the occiput.

Again, Petroleum is one of our best remedies for seasickness. In this it resembles Cocculus. Another curious symptom is cracking of the joints. This is like Causticum. Both of these remedies are valuable in chronic rheumatism, especially where this symptom is present. Petroleum has, with Chelidonium and Anacardium, a symptom, pain in stomach, relieved by eating. Again it is valuable in diarrhoea and dysentery, which is worse during the day. Petroleum deserves to be classed with the leading anti-psorics, such as Sulphur, Graphites, Causticum and Lycopodium.