Homeopathic Materia Medica

Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica, James Tyler Kent

Psorinum is closed allied to Sulphur.

Skin: The patient dreads to be washed. The skin over the body, especially of the face, looks filthy, though it has been well washed. A dingy, dirty, foul look, as if covered with dirt.

Skin rough and uneven, cracks easily, bleeding fissures; it becomes rough and scaly. He cannot wash it clean. The skin of the hands is rough, chaps easily, becomes thick and scaly, easily cracks; breaks out in little scaly, eruptions; looks unwashed; he always appears to have dirty hands.

Many of the complaints of the skin are worse from bathing and from the warmth of the bed. The skin itches when warm; itches when wearing woolens. Itching when warm in bed; he scratches until the part becomes raw, and then it becomes scabby. When healing takes place there is itching and then it becomes scabby. When healing takes place there is itching and then he has to scratch. Legs and arms raw and scabby from scratching. Violent itching from the warmth of the bed, even, without any eruption.

The skin is unhealthy, looks dirty, dingy, studded with capillary blood vessels and enlarged veins. This is the state before the eruption appears. Scabs form from scratching and then comes the eruption.

Papules, pimples, crusts, boils, vesicles, and eruptions ooze a watery moisture. When the eruption has gone on for some time the crusty formation and vesicles mingle; the skin becomes thickened and indurated, and new crops come out under the old crusts; rawness, itching, tingling, crawling, bleeding eczema of the scalp and face; the crusts cover the scalp; the hair falls out; the oozing lifts up the crusts and exposes new vesicles; it looks like raw beef, and it tingles so that the child cannot keep its fingers off it; worse at night, worse from the warmth of the bed, worse from warm applications, anything that would keep the air away from it; ameliorated by cool air and worse from covering. This is the opposite of the general Psorinum state, which is aggravated from the open air. He has an aversion to open air.

The eruption goes on, spreads, and the true skin becomes elevated, thickened, indurated, with an increased vascularity and redness. The oozing is offensive like carrion or decomposed meat; nauseating odor from the oozing fluid.

Offensiveness runs through Psorinum in such a characteristic way that is worth while mentioning it here; foetid odors, foetid breath discharges and oozing from the skin smelling like carrion; stool so offensive that the odor permeates the whole house, in diarrhea, summer complaint, cholera infantum; perspiration foetid; leucorrhoea abominably offensive; eructations taste as if be had eaten bard boiled eggs and they had spoiled, and they smell so to others; stool flatus, and eructations smell like spoiled eggs; offensive to sight and smell is the subject who needs this medicine.

The skin grows increasingly thick and bleeds, and the eruption spreads to other parts. Eruptions on the lips, on the genitals; very offensive; soreness and rawness about the anus; the vulva ulcerates and is very offensive; ulcers on the legs; on the tibia; on the backs of the hands; on the dorsum of the foot; behind the ears and upon the ears; over the scalp; over the cheek bones; on the wings of the nose and on the nose and eyelids.

Greasy skin. The eruption is accompanied by redness of the mucous membranes of the nose, mouth, lips and eyes. Eyelids thickened and turned out, like ectropion; granulation and induration of mucous membranes, so that they become like gristle; redness and ulceration. Ulceration of the cornea; lachrymation; turning out of the lids with loss of the eyelashes.

Eyes and nose: He looks frightful with his red eyes, eruption on the face, red skin oozing a thick yellow discharge. In the early stages the oozing is a whitish thin or whitish thick moisture. In old eruptions ulceration takes place beneath the crusts and there is a thick, yellow, purulent discharge. Yellow green discharge from the eyes and nose. Horribly offensive discharge from the nose; gluey discharge from the nose; offensive like Merc., Sil., Calc. p., Hep.

Accumulation of foetid pus in the eyes. Coryza with thick, yellow discharge. Always taking cold. In the coryza, the nose dries up part of the time and runs part of the time; he must use the handkerchief continually; must blow the nose all the time.

In the early stages of the coryza he blows it all the time, but there is no discharge or relief. This state is so marked that some think of it as a continuous hay fever, which runs all the year and rippens up in the Fall.

It is closely related to hay fever; stuffing up of the nose in the Fall; catarrhal state of the eyes and nose. Hay fever is one of the most difficult conditions to fit a remedy to. It belongs to a low constitution which must be built up before the hay fever will cease.

It is an expression of psora which comes once a year, and the psoric miasm must be changed. In a few years most subjects can be changed, but not in one season, so do not be disappointed. In catarrhal states, hay fever often dates back to low fever improperly treated.

The Psorinum patient himself is one of debility. He wants to go home after a short walk. He is worse in the open air. He cannot breathe in the open air; cannot breathe while he is standing up; wants to go home and lie down so that he can breathe.

Asthma: or cardiac dyspnoea, when the patient wants to go home and lie down so that he can breathe. Usually this condition is relieved by sitting up and from the open air. Not so with Psorinum, he wants a warm place and to he down and to be let alone.

Psorinum is slowed down in all of its functions; a state of paretic weakness. He does not rally after a fever; his digestion is slow; the stool is normal, yet it requires a great effort to expel it; the bladder is full of urine, yet it passes slowly and he feels that some remains; he can never finish stool or urination; he has to go back several times. Although the stool is soft and perfectly normal it cannot be expelled at one sitting.

A psoric patient comes down with typhoid; the typhoid has been arrested or has run its course and it is time for convalescence. The fever has subsided, but the patient has no appetite; he does not convalesce; he wants to lie down and does no desire to, be moved; he is worse when sitting up, lies upon his back; he has troublesome breathing and lies with his arms abducted from his side, thrown across the bed; this relieves his breathing and allows the chest to operate properly; so tired and so weak; one dose of Psorinum will cause a reaction, stop his sweat, increase his appetite, cause better breathing.

The Psorinum complex of symptoms is one in which remedies cause improvement but a short time and then the symptoms change and another remedy must be selected. It is a state of feeble reaction.

Mind: The mental symptoms present some strong features. Sadness, hopeless; he sees no light breaking through the clouds above his head; all is dark about him.

He thinks his business is going to be a failure; that he is going to the poor house; that he has sinned away his day of grace. It is a fixed idea during the day and he dreams about it at night. Overwhelming sadness; dejection; he takes no joy in his family; feels that these things are hot for him.

His business is prosperous, yet he feels as if he were going to the poor house. No joy or realization of benefit . Extremely irritable, wants to be alone. Does not want to be washed.

Full of anxiety, even of suicide. Despair of recovery his sick. Though there is no eruption at night he is driven to despair by the continual itching. If he throws the covers off then he becomes chilly; if he covers up, then there is itching.

Sensitive to cold yet the skin is worse from heat. Tingling, itching, formication, crawling like ants running over the surface, as of insects in the skin.

Especially suited to broken down individuals, who have vertigo as soon as they go into the open air; become dizzy and want to go home. and lie down; afraid they will lose their breath.

Head: Old chronic periodical headaches with hunger, and often the hunger lasts during the whole headache; must get up at night for have something to eat.

The headache is sometimes improve by eating. If he goes without a meal he has a headache.

Violent rush of blood to the head, hot face, hair wet with the perspiration, hunger. Every one, two, or three weeks a recurrent headache. Every time the air blows on his head it slacks up the catarrh and a headache comes on.

Either coryza or headache from catching cold. Headache is violent, throbbing, pecking as of little hammer, red face, hot head-congestive at times sweat. Hungry headache in such as have a dry cough in winter. Dry, teasing, racking cough with no expectoration. If the cough ceases he has a periodic headache. So complaints alternate. Head ache goes and cough appears or eruption in winter alternating with headache.

Scalp cold; wears fur cap in summer; worse uncovering the head (Sil.), worse front getting the hair cut (Bell., Glon., Sep.). Hepar is also worse from cold.

Salt rheum, psoriasis in winter. Dry, cold weather, cold wet weather; washing in cold water; dish washing, aggravate the salt rheum.

"Hair dry, lusterless, tangles easily, glues together; must comb it continually."

Ears: Chronic offensive otorrheoa; thick, purulent, offensive, yellow discharge from the ears; smells like stinking meat; continuous discharge; eruptions about and behind ears. Discharge resulting from scarlet fever; abscess in middle ear; otitis media; rupture of drum; prolonged discharge from such all abscess; foetid discharge.

"Otorrheoa with headache; thin, ichorous and horribly offensive like spoiled meat; very offensive, purulent; brown, offensive from left ear, for almost four year."

Otorrheoa associated with watery, offensive diarrhea. Scurfs in ears, and humid scurfs behind cars.

Teeth and mouth: Rigg's disease; the teeth become loose; the gums settle away, spongy, bleed easily, humid, blue, the teeth fall out.

Ulcers about the tongue and mouth; ulcers as found in infancy; aphthae, thrush; ulcerated sore mouth, sore throat, chronic ulcers of throat. Chronic thickening and elongation of the uvula.

Enlargement of tonsils, parotids and submaxillary glands; they become hard and tender to touch; swelling from taking cold. Glands of the neck sore.

Abdomen: Chronic abdominal affections with disturbances of stool.

He will strain to pass a soft stool (Nux moshata., Alumina).

Chronic diarrhea; horribly offensive; frequent stool day and night (unlike Sulphur, the remedy it most resembles). He must go several times to pass a normal stool.

Chronic vomiting; ulcer of the stomach, distension of stomach are commonly associated. Always sour belching, sour stomach. Vomiting of blood and bloody stools. This is not strange, because Psorinum has a tendency to hemorrhages, especially from the uterus.

Women: All sorts of menstrual disorders, especially a prolonged menstruation. When a woman has passed through an abortion and the placenta has come away, but every few days a little gush of fresh, bright red blood and clots, or going days and weeks with a little oozing of bright red blood; every time she gets on her feet there is a new start of the flow; no tendency to permanent recovery.

Two remedies that fit this state are Sulphur and Psorinum. A marked state of relaxation, sub-involution. The uterus does not go back to its normal size and there is this tendency to bleed; a state of inertia.

Soft stool, passed with difficult do not forget this. Obstinate constipation. Haemorrhage from the rectum.

Cholera infantum; often in the early days the stool is horribly offensive, slimy, undigested; there is vomiting and prolonged weakness and the whole child has an offensive odor; child dirty; nose sunken in (Ant. t.), sunken, countenance. Psorinum causes reaction and cures, or brings the child into such a condition that a simple remedy completes the cure.

It is not the sourness of Hepar; in spite of washing, the child smells so sour; like sour milk; the diaper, urine, and faeces and perspiration are sour. This is a strong general feature of Hepar. The stool smells like spoiled eggs, so also the eructations and flatus. The offensiveness of the stool is horrible, but not so permeating as Bapt., which is thick and clay-like, while the Psorinum stool is watery, brown, gushing and may be bloody.

Chronic diarrhea, early morning, urgent. Hot flatus, burning the anus; smells of spoiled eggs, Arn. and Staph. Involuntary stool at night (China has a black, profuse, watery stool at night and after meals.)

In Psorinum, we find the haste of sulphur, the flatulence of Olean. and Aloe, and difficulty of expelling a soft stool like Alumina, China and Nux mosch.

Men: There is prostration in some Psorinum cases; prostration of the genitals.

It is not such an unusual thing in the female to have aversion to sexual intercourse, but man is not often subject to the complaints that cause aversion to coition. Yet we have in man as well as in the woman actual aversion or a state of no enjoyment. He can perform the act and he has no difficulty in obtaining an erection, so it is not impotence, but there is no enjoyment. Impotence comes later.

"Absence of erections; parts flabby, torpid."

"Aversion to coition; impotence; want of emission during coitus."

"Prostatic fluid discharged before urinating."

Old gleet, painless discharge; the "last drop;" relaxed and cold genitals; a drop of white or yellow pus after a well selected remedy. (Sepia, Sulphur, Alumina, Psorinum.) Psorinum is indicated above all others if there is an unusually offensive state of the genitals, Thuya, if the odor is of a nauseating, sweet character; warts exposed by rolling back the foreskin; sweet odor in spite of washing.

Heart: Psorinum cures many heart complaints.

Palpitation from the least exertion, better lying. Stitching pain better lying. Cardiac murmurs of either side. Mitral regurgitant murmur. Pericarditis of rheumatic origin. Heart symptoms with general weakness, dusky face, dazed look.

Weak, irregular and rapid pulse. But mark the modalities. Aggravation in the open air, aggravation when sitting up, aggravation when sitting at the writing table; wants to rest the chest and breathing apparatus by lying down. Asthmatic dyspnoea ameliorated by lying down, and worse the nearer the arms are brought to the body. Such symptoms are found in very few remedies and in none so marked as in Psorinum.

Febrile state. Intermittent, bilious fever, fever from a cold. The patient is so hot that the hand under the covers feels as though in a steam bath and the sensation of heat causes one to draw it back.

It is not the dry heat of Belladonna, yet it is as intense. It is a steam. He is covered with a boiling sweat in fevers. Head and body hot and hot air or steam beneath the covers. (Opium has this, but it is in a violent congestion to the head, an apoplectic condition.) In intermit tents he is taken on the street with difficult breathing. He wants to go home; he is weak and exhausted, crawls up stairs on the hands and knees.

The chill is not marked, but the heat is intense and the sweat copious. He is almost in a stupor, befogged, bewildered, cannot answer questions; face red, puffed, mottled.

"Sweat profuse, cold, clammy from least exertion."

This is another form which comes on in the weak, broken down state. After typhoids, he sweats if he turns in bed, after the least exertion, and the sweat is cold. Profuse night sweats. Night sweats of phthisis; when there is that tremendous heat under the covers, a copious hot sweat; mental state as if dazed.

Marasmus; shriveling of the skin; dirty skin; cannot wash it clean. Offensive discharge from the bowels; great emaciation; increased growth of hair on the face; a fuzz (Nat-mur., Psor., Sulph Calc.); horribly offensive in spite of washing; ravenous appetite yet grows thin. Foetid odors would lead one to think of Psorinum.

A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica, John Henry Clarke

Psoricum. The nosode of Psora. [The sero-purulent matter of a scabies vesicle was used by Hahnemann. The product of "Psora sicca" (epidermoid efflorescence of Pityriasis) by Gross. The salt from a product of Psora by Hering.] Triturations.

Clinical.─Acne. Adenoids. Anus, itching in. Asthma. Backache. Boils. Cancer. Cholera infantum. Cough. Constipation. Cornea, ulcers of. Crusta lactea. Crusta serpiginosa. Debility. Diarrhoea. Diphtheria, after-effects of. Dyspepsia. Eczema; rubrum. Enuresis. Eruptions; moist; itching. Gleet. Gonorrhoea. Gout. Haemorrhages. Haemorrhoids. Hair, dry; tangling. Hay fever. Headache. Head, congestion of. Hernia. Hydrocele. Impotence. Influenza. Injuries. Itch. Itching. Leucorrhoea. Lienteria. Liver, affections of; chronic inflammation of. Melancholia, religious. Nose, redness of. Odour of body, fetid. Ophthalmia, scrofulous. Otorrhoea; fetid. Ozaena. Pediculosis. Peritonitis, tubercular. Plica polonica. Polypus. Quinsy. Sciatica. Scurvy. Skin, affections of. Spina bifida. Spleen, affections of; induration of. Sprains. Syphilis. Throat, mucus in. Tinea capitis et faciei. Tonsils, concretions in. Ulcers.

Characteristics.─As Sulphur has been the chief remedial agent in both schools in the treatment of itch and itch-like eruptions, it is natural to find in the nosode of Psora, or constitutional itch, a close analogue of Sulph. Psorinum has been proved entirely in the potencies, and I know of no more trustworthy proving in the materia medica. I have frequently seen Pso. develop some of its own symptoms in patients whom it has benefited in other ways. A man who complained of "cloudiness of mind and difficult thinking," and who had among other symptoms, "Left foot colder than right," received Pso. 30. It removed these symptoms; but whilst under its influence these new symptoms appeared: Heavy headache across the eyebrows; greasiness of face and forehead. A woman to whom I gave Pso. 30 complained that after each dose she had a feeling "as if something in the head were being screwed up and drawn"; one of Hahnemann's symptoms is "Spasmodically contracting headache." A patient who took Pso. 500 complained that it had a "filthy taste." From Pso. 20m (F. C.) I have seen produced an eruption of boil-like indurations in both axillae, first (and worst) in left then in right. The general symptoms were very greatly relieved at the same time. One great mark of distinction between Sul. and Pso. is that the Pso. patient is exceedingly chilly, likes to have a fur cap on in summer; whilst the Sul. patient is predominatingly hot. H. C. Allen gives another: Pso. is indicated in chronic cases when well-selected remedies fail to relieve or to permanently improve (in acute diseases Sul.); also when Sul. seems indicated but fails to relieve. Pso. is specially suited to: (1) Scrofulous, nervous, restless persons who are easily startled. (2) Psoric constitutions; lack of reaction after severe diseases. (3) Complaints of psoric origin; patients emit a disagreeable odour. (4) Pale, sickly, delicate children. (5) Peevish, unhealthy-looking children, who have a disagreeable odour about them. (6) Dirty people in whom the body has a filthy smell which no amount of washing can remove. (7) Those subject to diseases of the glands and skin; and who have had eruptions suppressed. The chief of the keynotes of Pso. is: Lack of vital reaction; prostration after acute disease, depressed, hopeless, night-sweats. Hopelessness, despair of perfect recovery is part of the jack of reaction; emaciation and foul body odour may accompany it. "Foulness" may be considered the second keynote of Pso. Eruptions have offensive discharges; the otorrhoea, is horribly offensive. The diarrhoea (especially of cholera infantum) is profuse, watery, dark brown, and even black, and is putrid-smelling like carrion. The Med. Visitor (xi. 378) collected a number of cases illustrating the action of Pso. (I italicise some of the characteristics): (1) W. A. Hawley reports a case of cholera infantum which seemed to defy every remedy. Stools very thin and watery, dirty greenish, smelt like carrion. Child very fretful, had no sleep for two days and nights. Pso. 42m (Fincke), one dose in water. In two hours the child went to sleep; in four days it was well without repetition of the dose. (2) Another case of Hawley's: Miss N., 20, had an eruption in bends of elbows and knees, dry, scaly, with little pointed vesicles round the reddened edges; disappeared entirely in summer and reappeared when cold weather set in; violent itching, < by warmth of bed or by scratching. Pso. 42m, two doses at six weeks' interval, cured. No return the following winter. Pso. also cured─(3) Headache preceded by dimness of sight or spots before eyes (Haynel). (4) Headache and eruptions, < during changeable weather (W. P. Wesselhoeft). (5) Always very hungry during headaches (W. P. W). (6) Miss C., convalescing from typhoid fever, reported: l. Stationary, no appetite." Pso. 400 produced immediate change and ravenous appetite (J. B. Bell). (7) Mr. P., 50, complained of nothing but weakness; no appetite; least exertion puts him into a perspiration. Pso. 40 cured rapidly (J. B. Bell). Mr. X., 21, was obliged one day to run till nearly exhausted. Though strong and well before he now became weak, perspiring easily, severe pains right side, < by coughing, laughing, and motion. Pso. 40 cured rapidly (J. B. Bell). [I have frequently verified the action of Pso. in liver affections with pains as in the last case.] (8) Extreme dulness; fears inflammation of brain; > by nose-bleed. Headache following darkness before eyes. Black spots before eyes. Pso. cured (Haynel). (9) Horribly offensive, nearly painless, almost involuntary, dark and watery stool; only in night and most towards morning (H. N. Martin). (10) Mr. C., 43, spare, dark. Hypochondriacal. "Nervous" nine months. Had to give up business. Took much Quinine and other drugs. Complains of very disagreeable feeling about the head and manifests mental depression; thinks he will never recover; has lost all hope. Cannot apply his mind to business. Seems confused; cannot reckon. Numbness of legs and arms, < left side; < going to bed, formication and crawling with prickling and smarting on scalp, and same on extremities. Tongue coated white. After three months treatment was stationary. It was then ascertained that he sweated easily on least exertion, and somewhat at night, and had loss of memory. Pso. 400 soon caused improvement, and enabled the patient to return to business (J. B. Bell). G. A. Whippy (Am. Hom., xxiii. 391) cured the following case with Pso. 200, a dose every third night: Carpenter, 40, long-standing discharge of reddish cerumen from left ear, < at night. Sensation of valve opening and shutting in left ear, < afternoon. Buzzing in ear, which stopped suddenly and was followed by violent itching. Dull, heavy pain in base of brain in afternoon, with sensation as though skin of abdomen was greatly relaxed and drawn down. Face sallow and greasy; several pustules on chin and neck which itch intensely and bleed when scratched.─Other leading indications of Pso. are: Sick babies will not sleep day or night, but worry, fret, cry; or good and play all day, restless, troublesome, screaming all night. Weakness from loss of fluids; after acute disease; with or without organic lesion. Whole body painful, easily sprained and injured. Great sensitiveness to cold air, change, storms; to sun; restless for days before a thunderstorm. A symptom not seldom met with in practice and useful to remember is: "Feels unusually well day before attack." Headache > by eating; from suppressed menses; > by nose-bleed. Dry, lustreless hair; plica polonica. Acne < during menses; from fats, sugar, coffee, meat. Quinsy, throat burns, feels scalded, cutting, tearing, intense pain on swallowing, profuse, offensive saliva; tough mucus in throat; must hawk continually; tendency to quinsy. Profuse sweat after acute diseases, with > of all suffering. Skin has dirty look as if never washed. Pso. has cured more cases of hay fever in my practice than any other single remedy. Many cases have a psoric basis, and when the basic taint is corrected the irritating agents have no effect. Nasal polypus I have also cured with Pso. when the general symptoms indicate the remedy. Peculiar Sensations are: As if frightened. As if he would lose his senses. As if stupid in left half of head. As if brain had not room enough in forehead. Eyes as if pressed outward. As from heavy blow on forehead. As if brain would protrude. Back of head as if sprained. Right side of occiput as if dislocated. As if piece of wood lying across back of head. As if head separated from body. As if sand in eyes. As if he heard with ears not his own. Cheek-bones as if ulcerated. Condyle of jaw as if lame. Tongue as if burnt. Teeth as if glued together. Plug in throat. Throat as if narrowing. As if intestines hanging down. Everything in chest as if raw, scratched; torn loose. Arms as if paralysed. Hip-joint as if ulcerated. Joints as if encased in armour; as if would not hold together. Hands and feet as if broken. The pains of Pso. may be erratic and alternate (headache and toothache). The symptoms are < by touch; pressure (of truss); rubbing; scratching; riding; bandage; blow; fall. Slight emotions = severe ailments. (Pso. cannot bear to have the limbs touch each other at night; or weight of arms on chest.) > When eating; < immediately after (rush of blood to head). < After cold drinks (pain in chest). Drinking = cough. > Lying down (most ailments, especially of chest; but < cough, and = gurgling at heart). < Lying r. side (liver). < Riding in carriage or exercising in open air; (riding > short breath). > By rest and in room. Overlifting = thoughts to vanish. < Walking; moving. < Evening and before midnight night; morning on waking. Open air < (> taste; cough; itching) nose sensitive inhaling. < Before thunderstorm (restless for days before). Winter = cough. Summer = diarrhoea; itching eruptions. < During full moon (enuresis). < Periodically.

Relations.─Antidoted by: Coffee. Compatible: Carb. v., Chi., Sul. (if Sul. is indicated but fails to act give Pso.). Followed well by: Alm., Borax, Hep. Complementary: Sul., Bac. (Bac. is the acute of Pso.), after Lact. ac. (vomiting of pregnancy); after Arn. (blow on ovary); Sul. after Pso. in mammary cancer. Inimical: Lach. Compare: Sick babies fret day and night (Jalap); good all day, screams all night (Lyc. opp.). Effect of thunderstorm, Pho. Headache preceded by dim vision, Lac d., K. bi. Headache with hunger; > while eating, Anac., K. ph.; > nose-bleed, Melilot. Plica polonica, Lyc., Bar. c., Sars., Bac. Offensive, cheesy concretions from throat, K. mur. > By sweat, Calad., Nat. m. > Lying down and keeping arms stretched far apart (Ars. opp.). < Mornings on waking and evenings lying down, Pho., Bac. Eruptions easily suppurate, Hep. Drinking = cough (> Caust.). Drinking <, Dig. Teeth stick together (Tub. teeth feel jammed together). Pediculosis, Ped., Bac., Nat. m. Earthy, greasy face, Nat. m., Bry. Erratic pains; < from fats, < evening, Puls. Tongue as if burnt, Sang. As if parts separated, Ars. (body at waist), Bap. (limbs). Convalescence, profuse sweat, K. ca. (K. ca. has not the hopelessness of Pso.). Despair of recovery, Chi., Lauro. (chest), Caps., Op., Val., Amb. Lack of reaction, Op. (patient not sensitive), Lauro. (over-excitable and nervous), Carb. v. (emaciated, weak pulse; Pso. psoric diathesis). Hay fever, Gels. (morning sneezing), K. iod. Hunger at night, Chi. s., Pho., Sul., Ign., Lyc. Axillary affections, jug. c., jug. r., Elaps. Crusta lactea, Melitagrinum. Explosion in ear, Alo.

Causation.─Emotions. Over-lifting. Mental labour. Repelled eruptions. Stormy weather. Thunderstorm. Injuries. Blows. Sprains. Dislocations.

SYMPTOMS.

1. Mind.─Good-humour in morning; works with pleasure; enjoys everything.─Excitable before sleep.─Excitable, vexed with everything.─Fear.─Anxiety: when riding in a carriage; with trembling of hands and restlessness.─Melancholy: religious; she could commit suicide, then is full of phantasms, peevishness, and lachrymation; alternating suddenly with liveliness.─Despair: fear of failing in business; wishes to die in spite of the best hopes.─Driven to despair by excessive itching.─Ill-humour: in morning; and constant thoughts of dying; could weep about everything.─Quarrelsome.─Every moral emotion = trembling.─Disinclination to work; to ride in a carriage, then desire to ride all the time, even in bad weather.─Sentimental.─Inability to rid himself of ideas which first appeared to him in a dream.─Thinking that he understood what he had read he tried to explain it, and found that he did not understand it.─Memory lost; so that she does not recognise the room after looking out of the window.─Thoughts vanish after over-lifting.

2. Head.─Vertigo: mornings; everything turns around with him; with headache, confusion, roaring in ears.─Sticking in head, with weakness, had to lie down towards 7 p.m., and soon fell asleep, copious sweat at night, which >.─Thrusts in head.─Tearing in head (which he formerly had) this time with fever and general arthritic pains.─Headache: in evening; with eructations; with thirst, coldness, and dryness of mouth and lips; intermittent; spasmodically contracting; as if a hammer were beating in head, esp. unilateral (in a herpetic patient); as if everything would protrude through forehead towards evening.─Fulness during mental labour.─Congestion of brain, > nose-bleed.─Cloudy feeling in night on waking, as if he had been intoxicated in evening, with stupor and tumbling about.─Heaviness in morning.─Weakness of head.─Pulsation of blood during mental labour.─Sticking in l. side of forehead; in r. side extending into eye.─R. side of head and r. eye swollen and painful as if it would burst.─Drawing in forehead extending to nose.─Pinching in upper forehead beginning morning in bed, < morning and evening, with heaviness, sometimes whole sinciput aches and then temples feel pressed in, afterwards it alternates suddenly with pain in molars, < walking in fresh air.─Pain in centre of forehead; with weakness of it.─Pain in sinciput, < temples, < steady mental exertion, > motion, esp. in open air, < morning and evening, with heaviness in sinciput, often it suddenly passes off and attacks l. molars.─Pain as if brain had not space enough in morning on rising, > washing and breakfast; contracting pain.─Drawing in sinuses as in coryza.─Stupefied feeling in l. forehead in morning.─Shooting from l. temple into head.─Boring in l. temple.─Pain in temples: after mental exertion; hammering; crampy, in skin of r. at 7.30 p.m.─Fulness in vertex as if brain would burst, with formication in head followed by heavy sleep.─Intermittent pain in a spot in vertex.─Strained pain in r. side of occiput at noon.─Pain in occiput as if a piece of wood lay across from r. to l.─Feeling as of a cord around skin, < about occiput, which feels as if pressed outward.─Always hungry during headache.─Congestion of blood to head immediately after dinner.─Headache < by change of weather; if it changes in night the headache wakens him.─Hair: dry, lustreless; tangles easily; glues together.─Spot of white skin with white lock of hair becomes natural colour under Pso.─Sensation as if head separated from body.─Averse to having head uncovered; wears a fur cap in hot weather.─Viscid sweat about head.─Humid eruptions.─Tinea capitis et faciei.─Crusta serpiginosa.─Rawness and soreness behind ears.─Humid, scabby eruption, full of lice.

3. Eyes.─Eyes: gummy; surrounded by blue rings; glassy, with pain in them; agglutination in morning.─Swelling of lids and of face.─Inflammation of r. eye.─Pain in r. eye as if it would burst.─R. eye feels melting away.─Ophthalmia, with pain as from sand in eyes, and lachrymation at night.─Sticking: in l. eye; pain in r. eye, < touch.─Pain in eyes with burning, in evening when looking sharply it something, and by candle-light.─Pain as from sand, or foreign body (in r. evening when closed).─Biting in eyes.─Tired in evening as from much reading by candle-light.─Lachrymation: towards evening; on looking long at one object.─Pimples: like hordeola on upper lid; red, like fresh hordeola on margin of upper lids, and sensation as if something were moving before the eyes, as if one were playing with his fingers before them.─Itching: of r. lid; l. lower lid, from one side to other; of canthi; inner canthi, with heat.─Vision of sparks.─All objects in room appear to tremble.─Dazzling in evening when walking in street.─Vision blurred suddenly.

4. Ears.─Discharge of fetid pus (l.).─Otorrhoea, with headache.─Discharge of reddish cerumen from l. ear.─Sticking: towards noon; in l. lobe in evening; in l. after the buzzing; in meatus internus, transiently > boring in with finger, frequently returning, < evening during rest.─Intermittent tearing through external meatus, as from temporal muscle to styloid process.─Pain: in r. ear, in morning; ulcerative, in l., and at the same time on r. ear a pimple appearing like healthy skin, but split into four parts by a cross like a wart, in the centre a deep indentation.─L. concha inwardly inflamed, with suppurating pimples.─Sensation as if something burst suddenly when eating or swallowing saliva.─Sensation in l. ear as if breath came from it instead of from respiratory organs.─Feeling as if stuffed with cotton, forenoons.─Biting in l. ear.─Itching in r. ear.─Coldness in r. ear, then sticking.─Ringing: in l. ear, evening; in r. or l., with buzzing in head so that she hears hardly anything, and behind ears in region of sterno-cleido-mastoideus, a sore pain, sometimes heat extending to vertex, < towards, evening, when she feels as if pulled by the hair.─Roaring so that he feels stupefied.─Buzzing in ears.─Feeling in r. ear as if he heard with the ears of another person, evening.

5. Nose.─Inflammation of septum, with white pustules.─Sticking in l. nostril when boring in with finger.─Boring in r. nostril, then sneezing.─Drawing extending up to frontal sinuses, with pain in eyes as if coryza would set in, then discharge of fluid from nose.─Dry coryza; nostrils nearly dry, and sensitive when breathing through them.─Scratching crawling towards root of nose as if coryza would set in.─Stoppage of nose.─Sneezing; without coryza.─Coryza: with cough and expectoration of yellowish green mucus; dry; dry with obstruction of nose; fluent; fluent, from l. nostril.─Tough mucus, he can hardly do a minute without his handkerchief, without coryza, with feeling of a plug high up in nose, which nauseates him, > stooping.─Clear, watery fluid pours out, < l. nostril, < stooping.─Nose red.

6. Face.─Face pale; sickly looking; yellow.─Congestion to head, cheeks─and nose red and hot.─Pain in zygoma on touch as if bone were suppurating, in evening.─Sticking in lower jaw.─Pain as if lame in condyle of jaw.─Crusta lactea.─Coppery eruption on face.─Roughness of skin of face; eruption on forehead between eyes; offensive stools.─Swelling of upper lip.─Dryness of lips; and brown and black colour.─Burning of lips; painful and seem swollen.─Pimple on upper lip.─Vesicles around corner of mouth, and outwardly above them larger sore spots, exuding a fluid which seemed to originate from scratching the vesicles, and cause continual scratching.─Corners of mouth sore, often ulcerated; sycotic condylomata.─Yellow vesicles on red edge of lower lip sore on touch.─Clear vesicles on inner surface of lower lip.─Painful itching on r. half of upper lip as if swollen.

7. Teeth.─Looseness of teeth, < incisors, so that he fears they will fall out, the pain < by touch, > open air, with much mucus of an offensive odour in mouth.─Blood suddenly escapes from a hollow molar.─Sticking from one side to the other, extending to head, then burning pain in r. cheek, which is swollen.─Stitching in teeth on touching them in order to remove something lodged between them.─Sticking in a carious r. upper tooth as if it would be pulled, at dinner, then grumbling and hammering pain in all r. teeth, only in daytime, > fresh air.─Tearing; jerking in l. molars, sometimes only slight pain alternating with headache.─Teeth seem on edge in afternoon when smoking.

8. Mouth.─Ulceration of r. gum after toothache.─Inflammation of gum of a posterior r. hollow lower molar, vith swelling and crawling pain, < touch.─Tongue: coated; white; yellowish white.─Ulceration of tongue and gums, with sore throat.─Tongue: dry; at tip, as if burnt, painful; burnt feeling from tip to middle, so that he has hardly any taste.─Thick, tough mucus from choanae; of nauseous taste; teeth stick together.─Adhesion of tough mucus to posterior wall of soft palate, tasting like old cheese, coming from choanae.─Scratching in back part of mouth, and when leaning backward asthmatic feeling.─Swollen sensation in palate.─Dryness of mouth.─Taste: bitter mornings before eating, > eating; when not eating; > eating and drinking; bad, finally coppery; like cat's urine to bread and butter in morning; oily to the dinner; flat, insipid; foul, she drinks to get rid of it; filthy.─Increase of the nauseous taste after eating and smoking tobacco.─Sticky taste.

9. Throat.─Submaxillary glands swollen and painful to touch, also a painful pustule below l. lower jaw.─Angina, on r. side an ulcer, with sore pain deep in throat and burning in palate.─Painful pimple on fauces.─Stitches: in l. tonsil; in l. sinews on turning head.─Pain in l. tonsil, with swollen feeling.─Quinsy, intense pain to ears on swallowing, profuse, offensive saliva; tough mucus in throat, must hawk continually; tendency to quinsy.─Hawks up cheesy balls, size of pea, of disgusting taste and carrion-like odour.─Pain on swallowing saliva.─Intermittent pain and difficult swallowing.─Soreness with difficulty in swallowing; can take without difficulty only cold food.─Scraping in throat as if she would become hoarse (in a herpetic patient); with suffocation, causing dry cough.─Burning in throat; extending farther downward.─Dryness of throat: in morning, with scraping; of fauces, with moisture in mouth.─Swollen feeling in fauces.─Sensation of plug in throat, impeding hawking.─Tickling in throat: mornings; causing cough; then empty eructations.

10. Appetite.─Hunger great; in afternoon, with thirst for beer; in evening after a walk: in evening; for breakfast.─Hunger without appetite.─Appetite diminished.─Easily satiated though he has a good appetite.─Loss of appetite, but constant thirst.─Disgust for pork.─Desire to smoke in evening, but when not smoking the desire for it ceased.─Desire for acids.─Aversion to smoking after breakfast, but when he begins smoking is relished.─Thirst: during dinner; after the chill, then heat in mouth; with dryness and burning in mouth; for beer.─Eating (dinner) = congestion to head.─Drinking = cough.

11. Stomach.─Eructations: tasting like rotten eggs; sour; rancid in evening.─Pyrosis; after drinking water; when lying down, colic > eating.─Hiccough: after eating; when smoking a pipe after eating.─Waterbrash on lying down, > getting up.─Nausea: during the day, a kind of vomiting of sweet mucus every day at 10 a.m. and in evening; in morning; in pit of stomach in morning; after all food; after supper, > eating something roasted.─Vomiting: sour; of sour mucus, so that teeth are on edge, in morning before eating; of food, then of a sour, slimy fluid.─Bloating.─Sticking in pit of stomach.─Cramp in epigastric region; cutting.─Oppression.─Contracting pain in epigastric region.─Weakness and pressure.

12. Abdomen.─Deep-seated, stitching, pressing pains in region of liver, < external pressure and lying on r. side; pain hinders sneezing, laughing, yawning, coughing, deep inspiration and walking.─Sticking: in sides of abdomen; r. side; region of spleen; under last l. rib; in hepatic region; region of spleen, > standing still, renewed by walking, later felt even during rest.─Swollen sensation horizontally across below short ribs when sitting.─Abdomen bloated: after eating; after eating frozen things.─Constant feeling of emptiness and looseness of abdomen; sensation as if intestines were hanging down.─Rumbling in morning; gurgling and roaring.─Foul-smelling flatus.─Cutting in abdomen; in evening, > passage of offensive flatus; as from a purge.─Cramps in abdomen in morning in bed.─Griping: when driving; in women, < pubic region.─Pinching in abdomen in morning, so that he has to run for the closet, > stool.─Pain in abdomen towards evening, > eating; after eating, > emission of flatus, with nausea and in lumbar vertebrae, with flatulent troubles, pain in spermatic cords and testicles as if filled with blood, a soft, difficult stool.─Pain as from canine hunger, < epigastric region, an hour after supper, with accumulation of flatus.─Frequent sticking to l. of umbilicus during rest.─Cutting in umbilical region.─Gurgling in small intestines.─Twitching in r. groin after driving.─Sticking in inguinal glands.─Pain in r. inguinal ring.─Bearing down towards pubes, with tenesmus and painful burning micturition.

13. Stool and Anus.─Stool: fluid, dark brown, foul-smelling; thin, watery, dirty greenish, like carrion; horribly offensive, nearly painless, almost involuntary, dark and watery; only in night, < towards morning.─Diarrhoea preceded by colic; green, bilious, mixed with mucus; four times a day, without pain.─Involuntary stools during sleep.─Lienteria.─Soft, difficult stool; and copious.─Obstinate constipation, with severe pains.─Stools: either costive or mushy: of normal consistency, in small balls, almost involuntary, at night, with violent emission of flatus; two in forenoon; four or five a day, preceded by colic; sometimes shooting away as from a syringe, at another time it is mushy, sometimes of normal consistency.─Stool wanting.─Spasmodic pain in rectum.─Burning high up in rectum.─Sensitive haemorrhoidal pain in rectum.─Chafed sensation in rectum and anus during a drive.─Ineffectual urging.─Burning haemorrhoids in anus.─Itching in anus.

14. Urinary Organs.─Discharge of prostatic fluid before micturition.─Tenesmus urinae and discharge of a few drops when he thinks he has done.─Frequent micturition at night.─Sticking inwardly from orifice of urethra.─Burning during micturition with cutting.─Urine has a red sediment and a pellicle of fat.

15. Male Sexual Organs.─Relaxation of genitals; with indifference to sexual affairs.─Aversion to coitus.─Impotency.─No discharge of semen during coition.─Glans inflamed, with an ulcer on it, testes swollen and heavy.─Burning pain at tip of penis on beginning to urinate.─Chronic painless discharge from urethra, staining linen yellow.─Chronic gleet.─Frequent tightness of penis, with drawing.─Absence of erections; even with lascivious thoughts, afterwards morning erections and pollutions, with satyriasis.─Drawing in testicles, but more steady in small of back.─Painful suppurating vesicle on scrotum.─Hydrocele: from repeated inflammation caused by pressure of truss (Puls. cured the inflammation).

16. Female Sexual Organs.─Menses too late; and scanty.─Amenorrhoea; in psoric subjects; with phthisis.─Dysmenorrhoea; near climaxis.─Leucorrhoea; large lumps; unbearable in odour; violent pains in sacrum and r. loin; great debility.─Intolerable itching from anus to vagina, with knotty stools, < at night.─Ulcers on labia.─L. ovary indurated from a blow.─Sensitive knotty lump above r. groin.─Cutting in l. groin.─During pregnancy: congestion; foetus moves too violently; tympanites; nausea, vomiting; obstinate cases.─Breasts swollen; nipples red; burning and itching pimples about nipples.─Mammary cancer.

17. Respiratory Organs.─Hoarseness; when talking phlegm sticks in larynx.─Talking is very fatiguing.─Suffocating, crawling sensation in larynx, producing a paroxysmal, dry, hacking cough.─Tickling in trachea, with cough.─Inclination to cough, with sensation of coldness.─Cough in evening, > keeping quiet, with pain in chest and throat, talking = cough.─Cough with weakness of chest; so that he could not remain in bed at night, with weakness and vertigo.─Dry cough: all day, with nausea and retching and tickling in throat from tickling in trachea, as if narrowing; with soreness under sternum with heaviness on chest.─Cough, < morning on waking, and in evening on lying down, with expectoration of green mucus, nearly like matter, with nausea, chest is affected and expectoration is difficult; with copious expectoration; sometimes of mucus streaked with blood; with salivation and vomiting of acid mucus.─Suffocation in larynx when sitting bent backward, with crawling, causing paroxysmal, dry, hacking cough, and at same time contraction and heaviness in chest and pain in upper part of sternum.─Dyspnoea in evening.─Short breath; in fresh air, > riding and lying down.─Want of breath on walking in fresh air; < sitting, > lying, with pain in chest.─Whistling respiration on waking, with constriction, again in evening whistling in chest.─Breathes easily when doing some light work, as trimming trees.

18. Chest.─Twitching through l. chest, anterior side.─Sticking: in l. chest; l. mamma; under l. false ribs; in r. side on coughing or breathing; even when not breathing; in sternum on deep breathing, and on touch a pressing and bruised pain.─Feeling as if everything in it were torn when lifting.─Pain as if a lung had been torn loose and something were pressing it down.─Cutting as with knives; in evening, with burnt feeling in throat, eructations, then emission of flatus.─Boring in r. chest, with oppressed breathing.─Pain under sternum when coughing as if something would be torn away, extending to throat.─Pain on spots; ulcerative pain under sternum; pain as from a load, < bending head forward, with want of breath.─Oppression; pressure; contracted feeling in chest.─Dull feeling in chest, with pain in back.─When in bed has to remove the arms as far as possible from chest, otherwise they increase the pain.─Hot sensation in chest.─Suppuration of lungs.─Chronic blennorrhoea of lungs.─Hydrothorax.

19. Heart.─Stitches in cardiac region, low gurgling extending to heart, for a moment breathing is impossible.─Pain in heart > lying down; thinks the stitches will kill him if they continue.─Gurgling in heart region esp. noticeable when lying down.─Pericarditis.─Palpitation; with anxious oppression.─Pulse: weak; irritable, indicating a return of abscesses on neck.

20. Neck and Back.─Glands of neck swollen, and on touch bruised pain extending to head.─Sticking in neck, with pustules.─Herpetic eruption on side of neck extending from cheek.─Nape excoriated by discharge from eczema capitis.─Tearing in nape.─Boring in nape, with stiffness.─Pain in nape in afternoon, only in the house, when supporting head with hands it feels as if it had no body, as if he could pass through it with the hands.─Pain in muscles of r. neck, in their upper sinewy part, as from sudden tension, on turning head to r. backward or sideways, > pressure.─Tensive pain in nape after waking, as if he had lain in an uncomfortable position.─Drawing pain extending to shoulder, after waking.─Sticking in back; extending towards chest on coughing.─Boring in vertebrae in morning, with colic, as from rheumatism.─Aching in back; bruised feeling in evening, cannot straighten it.─Scapulae: sticking between in morning; tearing; rheumatic sticking tearing in and between, down sides.─Boring in dorsal vertebrae; pain between second and third in afternoon.─Sticking: in loins extending to knee in morning; in os pubis during bodily exertion.─Cutting in loins so that she could not walk alone.─Pain in loins; and itching; like molimina haemorrhoidalia, < motion, so that he could not walk straight comfortably; as if third vertebra from below were wanting or broken.─Drawing in loins, and sometimes in testicles.─Tightness in ischii when walking, extending to knees.─Weakness of loins.─Backache: with constipation; after suppressed eruption.─Spina bifida.

21. Limbs.─Trembling of hands and feet.─Stretching.─Tearing: in l. knee and shoulder; intermittent, in joints, in humerus, knee, and toes, > motion.─Wandering pains, < tibiae and soles, also in finger-joints, at times in r. patella, > motion.─Weakness of joints as if they would not hold together.

22. Upper Limbs.─Tearing in l. shoulder in afternoon and evening when resting.─Tearing in arm; intermittent sticking in l. arm.─Arm and shoulder swell up from an old eczema.─Patch on left wrist, and immediate relief follows dose of Pso. (R. T. C.).─Spasmodic pain in bones of l. arm in evening at rest.─Sensation in l. arm, in morning in bed, as if asleep with crawling in fingers; with numbness of three first fingers and half of hand.─Tearing in elbow; r. in evening.─Sticking in l. index.─Tetter on arm, with small, millet-like eruption, exuding a yellow fluid; itches intensely in heat.─Eruption in bends of elbows and around wrists.─Itch-like eruptions on wrists, with rheumatism in limbs.─Trembling of hands.─Swelling and tension of backs of hands and of fingers.─Pustules on hands, near finger-ends, suppurating.─Copper-coloured eruption or red blisters on backs of hands.─Itching between fingers; vesicles.─Herpes on palms.─Sweat on palms, esp. at night.─Warts, size of pin's head, on l. hand and fingers.─Nails brittle.

23. Lower Limbs.─Pain in hip-joints as if dislocated, < when walking, with weak arms.─Sciatica: tension down to knee while walking.─Paralysis of legs from suppression of eruption on arms.─Legs, < tibiae and soles, pain as from too much walking, mornings in bed, > rising, with restlessness of legs.─Leg on which he lies in bed too weak to endure the pressure of the other, he has to change his position continually.─Sensation in r. leg as if it would go to sleep.─Tibiae and soles feel bruised, as after a tiring walk, mornings in bed.─Sticking in r. ankle in morning on every step with strained sensation.─Feet, trembling; inclination to turn l. inward when walking, with sensation as if he really had turned it the wrong way.─Pain in feet < during rest, with itching.─Gouty pain in l. foot.─Cramp or spasm in toes, < l. great toe, when stretching them or taking off boots.

24. Generalities.─Looks pale, exhausted, thin, his clothing is too large for him.─Hot trembling over whole body in morning during rush of business.─R. side of body full of burning pains.─Soreness.─Gouty pains in l. toe, both knees, and back.─Stormy weather affects him, = restlessness in his blood a few days beforehand; makes him sick and = haemorrhoidal troubles.─Weakness: towards evening, > going to bed; after riding in a waggon; from a little labour.─Sensation when in the sun as if it pushed her down, she had to rest in the shade in order to walk on.─Heaviness of whole body as before intermittent fever.─> Morning; in fresh air; when lying.

25. Skin.─Rash: above l. brow and on l. cheek; red, on external throat, beginning with sticking.─Nodules on face, neck, and legs.─Pimples: on forehead; on neck and mammae; with black points in centre, painful when scratched; on external throat.─Burning like heat-rash below eyes; causing itching, smarting pain, burning after scratching, and feeling sore (in a herpetic patient); and ulcers, from which watery fluid oozed for hours after being opened, < hands, wrists, and palms.─It < herpes and causes smarting and itching.─A scab on nose which commonly fell off when coughing is now adherent and hard.─Pustules on nape, with sticking.─Boils on chest and loins; on buttocks, with burning itching, soon disappearing, leaving crusts.─Itch-like eruption on face, hand, back, and leg, and agglutination of eyes.─Vesicles: on face; quickly filling with yellow lymph, sore to touch on forehead, face, and behind r. ear; filled with lymph, painful to touch on various parts, some forming itching papules.─An old rhagade near r. styloid process suppurated, itched, and was surrounded by blisters filled with clear water, these soon changed to pustules, which healed under a crust.─Crawling on all limbs, with falling asleep of them.─Itching: on forehead; tip of nose; l. arm; biceps of l. arm; r. elbow; soles in evening after a glass of Muscat wine, with tickling and heat; of face, neck, and hands on touch; over whole body after rubbing papules and vesicles; between fingers, and vesicles filled with lymph; on r. carpus, with red spots; voluptuous, where a flea had bitten, with white, hard blisters on a red base.─< Of the itching, which he had had for years on knees, < l., and the herpetic eruption begins to become pustular.

26. Sleep.─Yawning: at noon; and shivering pale blue rings, with tearing and spasmodic pains in umbilical region in evening; in evening, with early sleepiness.─Sleepy all the time; in daytime; early.─Sleeps when she sits down.─Sleep unusually sound.─Cannot fall asleep in evening.─Cannot sleep on the habitual r. side, but sleeps on l.─Gnashing of teeth at night, so that he wakes.─Restless sleep; and unrefreshing.─Sleep restless but refreshing.─Restless sleep on account of disquiet dreams.─Dreams: anxious in morning, of robbers, travels, and dangers; uneasy, earnest; that he is on the closet, and thus nearly soils his bed of his business and of his plans.

27. Fever.─Coldness < evening, with hot flashes, debility, and sleepiness.─Coldness with heat, thirst, and sweat.─Internal coldness towards noon, with shivering and horripilation.─Creeping coldness in afternoon, with internal shivering.─Horripilations.─Feet cold all night.─Heat: in afternoon; in evening when riding in a carriage, with sweat; of whole body suddenly, at meals and in evening, with trickling sweat all over face, frequent thirst, dryness, and burning in mouth.─Heat in evening, as if she would lose her senses, at night delirium, thirst, and sweat, then she feels well.─Burning: in head; in forehead; in nose, transiently > by discharge of mucus.─Burning in nose, then fluent coryza.─Burning in face, then vesicles.─Burning in r. ear with itching.─Sweat: on waking; in morning when out of doors: with consequent debility, and taking cold easily; sweat on palms; on face; on palms at night; perinaeum on moving about.─Want of sweat, dry skin.

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

A Product of Psora (A Nosode)

Especially adapted to the psoric constitution. In chronic cases when well selected remedies fail to relieve or permanently improve (in acute diseases, Sulph.); when Sulphur seems indicated by fails to act. Lack of reaction after severe acute diseases. Appetite will not return. Children are pale, delicate, sickly. Sick babies will not sleep day or night, but worry, fret cry (Jalap.); child is good, plays all day; restless, troublesome, screaming all night (rev. of Lyc.). Great weakness and debility; from loss of animal fluids; remaining after acute diseases; independent of or without any organic lesion, or apparent cause. Body has a filthy smell, even after bathing. The whole body painful, easily sprained and injured. Great sensitiveness to cold air or change of weather; wears a fur cap, overcoat or shawl even in hottest summer weather. Stormy weather he feels acutely; feels restless for days before or during a thunderstorm (Phos.); dry scaly eruptions disappear in summer, return in winter. Ailments: from suppressed itch or other skin diseases, when Sulphur fails to relieve; sever, from even slight emotions. Feels unusually well day before attack. Extremely psoric patients; nervous, restless, easily startled. All excretions - diarrhoea, leucorrhoea, menses, perspiration - have a carrion-like odor. Anxious, full of fear; evil forebodings. Religious melancholy; very depressed, sad suicidal thoughts; despairs of salvation (Mel.), of recovery. Despondent: fears he will die; that he will fail in business; during climaxis; making his own life and that of those about him intolerable. Driven to despair with excessive itching. Headache: preceded, by flickering before eyes, by dimness of vision or blindness (Lac d., Kali bi.); by spots or rings. Headache: always hungry during; >while eating (Anac., Kali p.); from suppressed eruptions, or suppressed menses; > nosebleed (Mel.). Hair, dry, lustreless, tangles easily, glues together (Lyc.). Plica polonica (Bar., Sars., Tub.). Scalp: dry, scaly or moist, fetid, suppurating eruptions; oozing a sticky, offensive fluid (Graph., Mez.). Intense photophobia, with inflamed lids; cannot open the eyes; lies with face buried in pillow. Ears: humid scurfs and soreness on and behind ears; oozing and offensive viscid fluid (Graph.). Otorrhoea: thin, ichorous, horribly fetid discharge, like decayed meat; chronic, after measles or scarlatina. Acne: all forms, simplex, rosacea; < during menses, from coffee, fats, sugar, meat; when the best selected remedy fails or only palliates. Hungry in the middle of night; must have something to eat (Cina, Sulph.). Eructations tasting of rotten eggs (Arn., Ant. t., Graph.). Quinsy, tonsils greatly swollen; difficult, painful swallowing; burns, feels scalded; cutting, tearing, intense pain to ears on swallowing (painless, Bar. c.); profuse, offensive saliva; tough mucus in throat, must hawk continually. To not only > acute attack but eradicate the tendency. Hawks up cheesy balls, size of pea, of disgusting taste and carrion-like odor (Kali m.). Diarrhoea: sudden, imperative (Aloe, Sulph.); stool watery, dark brown, fetid; smells like carrion; involuntary, < at night from 1 to 4 a. m.; after severe acute diseases; teething; in children; when weather changes. Constipation: obstinate, with backache: from inactivity of rectum; when Sulphur fails to relieve. Enuresis: from vesical paresis; during full moon, obstinate cases, with a family history of eczema. Chronic gonorrhoea of year's duration that can neither be suppressed nor cured; the best selected remedy fails. Leucorrhoea: large, clotted lumps of an intolerable odor; violent pains in sacrum; debility; during climaxis. During pregnancy: most obstinate vomiting, foetus moves too violently; when the best selected remedy fails to relieve; to correct the psoric diathesis of the unborn. Profuse perspiration after acute diseases, with relief of all suffering (Calad., Nat. m.). Asthma, dyspnoea: < in open air, sitting up (Laur.); > lying down and keeping arms stretched far apart (rev. of Ars.); despondent, thinks he will die. Cough returns every winter. Hay fever: appearing regularly every year the same day of the month; with an asthmatic, psoric or eczematous history. Patient should be treated the previous winter to eradicate the diathesis and prevent summer attack. Cough: after suppressed itch, or eczema; chronic, of years' duration; < mornings on waking and evenings on lying down (Phos., Tub.); sputa green, yellow or salty mucus; pus-like; coughs a long time before expectorating. Skin: abnormal tendency to receive skin diseases (Sulph.); eruptions easily suppurate (Hep.); dry, inactive, rarely sweats; dirty look, as if never washed; coarse, greasy, as if bathed in oil; bad effects from suppression by sulphur and zinc ointments. Sleepless from intolerable itching, or frightful dreams of robbers, danger, etc (Nat. m.). Psorinum should not be given for psora or the psoric diathesis, but like every other remedy, upon a strict individualization - the totality of the symptoms - and then we realize its wonderful work.

Relations. - Sulphur and Tuberculinum. Is followed well: by, Alum., Bor., Hep., Sulph., Tub. After: Lactic ac., in vomiting of pregnancy. After: Arn in traumatic affections of ovaries. Sulphur follows Psorinum well in mammary cancer. Whether derived from purest gold or purest filth, our gratitude for its excellent service, forbids us to enquire or care. - J. B. Bell.

Leaders In Homoeopathic Therapeutics, Eugene Beauharnais Nash

Very sad, hopeless, despondent; "bluest of the blue."

Great debility; sweats on slightest movement; wants to give up and lie down.

Eruptions on the skin, dry, or moist; or skin scaly and dry as parchment; dirty, the great unwashed, unwashable.

Intense itching of skin < in warmth of bed.

Discharges and exhalations exceedingly offensive.

Very sensitive to cold air; wears a fur cap in summer.

Modalities: < in cold air, < in warmth of bed (itching); sitting up or motion; > bringing arms down close to the body, > lying down (even the dyspnoea); wrapping up warm; psoric manifestations.

Great weakness and debility; from loss of fluids; remaining after acute diseases; without any organic lesion or apparent cause.

Cough and dry, scaly eruptions return every winter.

Quinsy; to eradicate the tendency.

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The disease products are powerful remedies, and when used in the potentized form have made many wonderful cures. It is believed by some that in the potentized form they are so changed that they become homoeopathic to the disease which produced them, especially in any other person than the one in whom the original disease existed.

I have experimented more or less with these so-called nosodes, since they were so widely proclaimed by Dr. Swan. I never found them markedly efficacious in such cases, but I have seen remarkable results from them in cases resembling, for instance, gonorrhoeal, syphilitic or psoric troubles, without any history of pre-existing trouble of the kind. I have cured eruptions on the skin resembling itch with Psorinum, rheumatic troubles that were very obstinate under our usual remedies with Medorrhinum and a long-standing case of caries of the spine with Syphilinum, but in not one of these cases had the patient, that I could trace, itch, gonorrhoea or syphilis. The experience of many others seems to be different. I give only my own. The each nosode seems capable of producing the same or similar symptoms when given by mouth in proving as when inoculated the usual way seems well proved in the case of Psorinum. I do not see why the constitutional symptoms appearing after inoculations should nor be considered a proving as well as those following a bee sting, Cantharis blistering, or the local external poisoning of the varieties of Rhus. If Rhus, very high, will cure rhus poisoning, why should not Syphilinum, etc., cure syphilis? Who will answer?

All nosodes are as capable of curing as they are of poisoning. If not, why not? We must not let prejudice hinder honest investigation. As if in corroboration of the theory that the potentized disease product will cure the disease producing it, the provings of Psorinum indicate that the chief action and curative power of the poison is upon the skin. And is it not remarkable that Psorinum should so strongly resemble Sulphur, the old-time remedy for itch, and again that they follow or complement each other in curing skin troubles? Notice some of the leading skin symptoms.

"Itching when the body becomes warm."

"Itching, intolerable in warmth of bed." (Merc. sol.)

"Itching scratches until it bleeds."

"Itching between fingers and in bends of joints." (Sepia).

"Dry, scaly eruptions which disappear summers and return winters."

"Repeated outbreaks of eruptions."

"Skin has a dirty dingy look, as if the patient never washed, and the body has a filthy smell even after a bath." These and many other symptoms, too numerous to mention here, show what an invaluable remedy this should be in skin troubles, and abundant experience and observation corroborate the truth of our law of cure in the curative power of disease poisons, as it also does in vegetable, and mineral and insect or animal.

Psorinum is also found useful in the consequences of suppressed eruptions, and in such cases should never be forgotten when other anti-psoric fail. Dr. Wm. A. Hawley, of Syracuse, N. Y., once made a brilliant cure of a very bad case of dropsy in an old woman, being led to prescribe this remedy by the appearance of the skin. One dose of Fincke's 42m. potency, dry on the tongue, cured the whole case in a very short time. It was a case of long standing. Now, if we examine we will also find that this remedy resembles Graphites in many points. A close comparison will pay the earnest student of Materia Medica. Psorinum is very depressed in mind. "Greatest despondency, making his own life and that of those about him almost intolerable." This state of mind, following acute diseases, like typhus, is especially benefited by this remedy. When writing of Graphites we mentioned the resemblance of the two remedies in the "stools, dark-brown, watery, and of intolerably offensive odor". This is found in bad cases of cholera infantum or chronic diarrhoea. There is one valuable diagnostic difference between them, although the remedies are so much alike, and that is that the Graphites moisture from the eruption is glutinous or sticky and not markedly so with Psorinum.

Again, Psorinum is very useful for weakness or debility during convalescence from severe acute diseases. The patient sweats profusely when taking the least exercise. Notwithstanding, as a rule, the skin is generally dry, inactive, and rarely sweats. Here, again, as in the stool symptom, choice may have to be made between Psorinum and China. Loss of fluids, blood, suppuration, etc., would decide in favor of the latter and itching eruptions or tendency thereto, before or during the sickness, the former. One thing I forgot to mention in connection with the offensive stool. "All excretions, diarrhoea, leucorrhoea, menstrual flow and perspiration, have a carrion-like smell, even the body has a filthy smell, notwithstanding frequent bathing." The Psorinum subject is very sensitive to cold air, or change of weather (Hepar), wants to wear a fur cap, overcoat or shawl, even in the hottest weather.

Chronic complaints following or dating back for years to some imperfectly cured or suppressed acute disease. (Carbo veg.) I advise everyone to buy a copy of Allen's "key-notes", which has a very good rendering of the nosodes. So we see in Psorinum when proven a great remedy for very grave conditions. I have no doubt that all nosodes are equally valuable when as well understood.