Aconitum

One of the most marked symptoms of Actca rac. is found in the mental

sphere: a sense of gloom and dejection, as if there was a black pall over everything; showing the

appropriateness of the remedy in hysteria and hypochondriasis. There is also fear of death, as

with Acon. Incessant talking, changing from one subject to another, as in delirium tremens. I

have greatly relieved an inveterate case of epilepsy in which the aura was a "waving sensation in

the brain," which is a leading symptom of the remedy. Many symptoms appear in the head and

• ▸eyes.
• ▸Feeling as if going crazy with headache.
• ▸Headache reflected from pelvic organs.
• ▸The

headache is frontal, vertical, or occipital, and is accompanied by great pain in eyeballs >

pressure; < slightest motion. Peculiar sensations are: as of lifting up of skull; as if top of head

would fly off; as of a bolt through from base of skull to vertex. Inspired air seems to penetrate

skull and into brain, causing a cold sensation. Intense pain in and around eyes (lancinating), <

moving head or eyes. In cases of tinnitus aurium it has proved curative in old-school practice, in

15 to 30 drops of the tincture, whether due to direct or reflex irritation (L'Art Méd., July, 1898).

In the face there is malar neuralgia, ceasing at night. There are many symptoms of disordered

digestion, bad taste and breath and coated tongue; sticky saliva, viscid mucus in throat. Sinking

at epigastrium is very marked. The generative organs in the female are particularly affected by

• ▸Actca.
• ▸Uterine and ovarian pains are very marked.
• ▸Infra-mammary pains.
• ▸Tenderness of uterine

region. Pains fly across hypogastrium, extending from one side to the other. Painful and irregular

• ▸menstruation.
• ▸Leucorrhsa, with feeling of weight in uterus.
• ▸Labour-like pains.
• ▸Left ovarian pains.

Given before term it renders labours easier; cures sickness of pregnancy, and prevents after-pains

and over-sensitiveness. According to Lippe a characteristic indication is: "The recently delivered

uterus becomes actually jammed in the pelvis with great pain." Puerperal mania has been cured

by it. It has also ensured living births in women who have previously borne only dead children,

from no discoverable cause, given in daily doses of 1x for two months before term. In the

respiratory sphere a dry, teasing cough, < at night, and < on every attempt to speak, is the most

characteristic feature. The rheumatic action of the drug is shown in chest and heart pains and

pains in the joints and limbs. I have found a pain at the nape of the neck very characteristic.

Rheumatism affecting the vertebral joints and especially in the neck. Cerebro-spinal meningitis;

head and neck retracted. There are sharp pains in chest, especially in heart region and down left

• ▸arm, which is numb (Aco.
• ▸, Puls.
• ▸, Rhus) as if bound to the side.
• ▸Palpitation from least motion.

Heart ceases suddenly. A patient who was taking 6-drop doses of the R tincture complained of a

• ▸feeling "as if his heart had stopped.
• ▸" The pains of Acz.
• ▸r.
• ▸are like electric shocks here and there:

sharp, lancinating in various parts; chest and uterine pains shoot from side to side. There is a

general bruised feeling all over as if sore; < by touch. Rest >, motion < Cold air seems to

penetrate the system; is very sensitive to it. But headache is > in open air; < in warm room. The

symptoms are < at night (malar neuralgia > at night); in the morning. Pains in arms and tendo

• ▸Achillis, < as evening approaches.
• ▸< During the menses.
• ▸Eating >.
• ▸It is suited to the climacteric

period; to nervous persons; to children during dentition.

• ▸Anxiety.
• ▸Fright.
• ▸Disappointed love.
• ▸Business failure.
• ▸Over-exertion.
• ▸Child-bearing.

• ▸Great fear, anxiety, and worry accompany every ailment, however trivial.
• ▸Delirium is characterized by unhappiness worry, fear, raving, rarely unconsciousness.
• ▸Forebodings and fears. Fears death but believes that he will soon die; predicts the day.
• ▸Fears the future, a crowd, crossing the street.
• ▸Restlessness, tossing about.
• ▸Tendency to start.
• ▸Imagination acute, clairvoyance.
• ▸Pains are intolerable; they drive him crazy.
• ▸Music is unbearable; makes her sad (Ambra).
• ▸Thinks his thoughts come from the stomach--that parts of his body are abnormally thick.
• ▸Feels as if what had just been done was a dream.

In all mental symptoms there is a want of natural coherence.—Thinks she is going

crazy; with headache on vertex.—Miserable, dejected feeling —Gloom as if a black pall over

everything. —Feels grieved and troubled, with sighing —Mania following disappearance of

• ▸neuralgia.
• ▸—Puerperal mania.
• ▸—Suicidal.
• ▸—Incessant talking, changing from one subject to

• ▸another.
• ▸—Visions of rats, &c.
• ▸—Fear of death.
• ▸—Not disposed to fix the attention on

• ▸anything.
• ▸—Irritable.
• ▸—Indifferent, taciturn.
• ▸—Feels faint at epigastrium when meeting a

friend.—Effects of fright; disappointed love; business failures.

Shooting, or rheumatic pains, which are reproduced by wine or other

stimulants.—Sufferings which, particularly at night, seem unbearable, and which generally

disappear in a sitting posture —Attacks of pain with thirst and redness of the cheeks.—Distressing

sensibility of body, and esp. of the parts affected, on every movement, and on the slightest

touch.—Pain as from a bruise, and sensation of heaviness in all the limbs.—A sensation of

drawing with paralytic weakness in the arms and legs.—Failure of strength and stability, pains

and cracking in the joints, principally of the legs.—Rapid and general decay of

strength.—Fainting, esp. when rising, with paleness of the cheeks, which were red when

lying.—Attacks of fainting, chiefly on rising from a recumbent posture, and sometimes with

congestion of blood in the head, buzzing in the ears, deadly paleness of countenance, and

shuddering.—Congestions (head, chest, heart)—Uneasiness, as if from suppressed perspiration,

or in consequence of a chill, with pain in the head, buzzing in the ears, colic and cold in the

head.—Sensation of cold and of stagnation of blood in all the vessels.—Shaking in the

limbs.—Cataleptic attack, with cries, grinding of the teeth, and hiccough; rigor of the body and

loud lamentations.—Tetanus.—Swelling of the whole body, which assumes a blackish colour.

• ▸Fullness; heavy, pulsating, hot, bursting, burning undulating sensation.
• ▸Intercranial pressure (Hedera Helix).
• ▸Burning headache, as if brain were moved by boiling water (Indigo).
• ▸Vertigo; worse on rising (Nux. Opium) and shaking head.
• ▸Sensation on vertex as if hair were pulled or stood on end.
• ▸Nocturnal furious delirium.

Vertigo, fulness, and dull aching in vertex.—Waving sensation in brain.—When

sleeping head swims.—Rush of blood to the head; brain feels too large for the crantum.—Head

dull and heavy as after a debauch.—Dull aching, particularly in occiput, during afternoon and

evening; < indoors > in the open air.—Headache through the whole brain, with distinct sense of

soreness in occipital region.—Sensation of a bolt through from base of brain to vertex.—Constant

dull pain in occiput extending to vertex.—Severe pain in head and eyeballs increased on slightest

motion.—Excruciating pain in right side of head, back of orbit.—Top of head feels as if it would

fly off—Headache > in the open air.—Headache of students.—Sensation as if vertex opened and

let in cold air.

• ▸Red, inflamed.
• ▸Feel dry and hot, as if sand in them.
• ▸Lids swollen, hard and red.
• ▸Aversion to light.
• ▸Profuse watering after exposure to dry, cold winds, reflection from snow, after extraction of cinders and other foreign bodies.

Intense aching pains in the eyeballs; > by pressure, < by slightest motion.—Pain over

eyes, extending to occiput.—Ciliary neuralgia; acute pains in eyeballs or in temples, extending to

eyes, SO severe, esp. at night, it seemed as if patient would go crazy.—Dilated pupils, with dark

spots before the eyes.—Peculiar wild look out of eyes.

• ▸Very sensitive to noises; music is unbearable.
• ▸External ear hot, red, painful, swollen.
• ▸Earache (Cham).
• ▸Sensation as of drop of water in left ear.

Sensitive to least noise.—Singing in |., later in both ears —(Tinnitus from irritation of

auditory nerve, direct or reflex.)

Smell acutely sensitive. Pain at root of nose. Coryza much sneezing; throbbing in nostrils. Haemorrhage of bright red blood. Mucous membrane dry, nose stopped up; dry or with but scanty watery coryza.

Stunning compression or cramp at the root of the nose.—Bleeding at the nose; bright

• ▸red; esp.
• ▸in plethoric persons.
• ▸—Excessive sensibility of smelling, esp.
• ▸for unpleasant

• ▸odours.
• ▸—Violent sneezing, with pain in the abdomen, and in the |.
• ▸side.
• ▸—Coryza, with catarrh,

pain in the head, buzzing in the ears and colic.—Coryza caused by cold, dry winds.—Checked

coryza with headache; > in open air, < from talking.—Fluent coryza, frequent sneezing; dripping

of a clear, hot water; fluent mornings.

• ▸Red, hot, flushed, swollen.
• ▸One cheek red, the other pale (Cham, Ipec).
• ▸On rising the red face becomes deathly pale, or he becomes dizzy. Tingling in cheeks and numbness.
• ▸Neuralgia, especially of left side, with restlessness, tingling, and numbness.
• ▸Pain in jaws.

Pale, eyes large, sunken, surrounded by dark rings.—Forehead feels cold; deadly

pale —Neuralgia affecting malar bone; pain goes off at night and reappears next day.—Frequent

flushes of heat; wants to be in the open air.—Lips dry; lower lip cracked as if bitten.

• ▸Numb, dry, and tingling.
• ▸Tongue swollen; tip tingles.
• ▸Teeth sensitive to cold.
• ▸Constantly moves lower jaw as if chewing.
• ▸*Gums hot and inflamed. Tongue coated white (Antim crud).

Breath offensive —Mouth and tongue feel warm and dry.—Thick mucus on

teeth.—Spitting of thick, sticky saliva——Tongue swollen.

Lancinating shocks or throbbing pains in the teeth, often with congestion of blood

towards the head, and heat in the face ——Toothache from cold, with throbbing in one side of the

face, intense redness of the cheek, and great restlessness.—Grinding teeth.

Viscid mucus in throat; hawking.—Dry spot in throat, causing cough; dryness of

pharynx, with constant desire to swallow; fulness in pharynx: mouth and palate swollen; neck

stiff—Inflamed throat; pains wake him at night.

Red, dry, constricted, numb, prickling, burning, stinging. Tonsils swollen and dry.

• ▸Vomiting, with fear, heat, profuse sweat and increased urination.
• ▸Thirst for cold water.
• ▸Bitter taste of everything except water.
• ▸Intense thirst.
• ▸Drinks, vomits, and declares he will die.
• ▸Vomiting, bilious mucous and bloody, greenish.
• ▸Pressure in stomach with dyspnoea.
• ▸Haematemesis.
• ▸Burning from stomach to oesophagus.

Taste in the mouth bitter; or putrid —All kinds of food and liquids, except water,

tasting bitter —Burning and unquenchable thirst; sometimes with a desire for beer. Excessive

hunger and thirst, but eats slowly.—Generally < from drinking.—Gastric catarrh from drinking

• ▸ice-water when over-heated.
• ▸—Generally > from cold drink, esp.
• ▸anxiety.
• ▸—Loss of appetite and a

distaste for food.—Beer lies heavy on the stomach.—Desires: wine; brandy; beer; bitter

drinks.—Wine generally >.

Nausea, eructations, headache, and tremor (more in women).—Nausea with

uterine affections.—Sharp pains across the hypogastrium.—Sinking or goneness in the

epigastrium.

• ▸Hot, tense, tympanitic.
• ▸Sensitive to touch. Colic, no position relieves.
• ▸Abdominal symptoms better after warm soup.
• ▸Burning in umbilical region.

Periodical colicky pains, better bending double and after stool —Excruciating

pains in the bowels, small of back, and limbs.—Abdominal muscles sore.—Sharp pains across

hypogastrium.

• ▸Pain with nightly itching and stitching in anus.
• ▸Frequent, small stool with tenesmus; green, like chopped herbs.
• ▸White with red urine.
• ▸Choleraic discharge with collapse, anxiety, and restlessness.
• ▸Bleeding haemorrhoids (Hamam).
• ▸Watery diarrhoea in children.
• ▸They cry and complain much, are sleepless and restless.

Suppression of stools.—Frequent, soft, small stools, with

• ▸tenesmus.
• ▸—Loose, watery stools.
• ▸—Stools like chopped spinach.
• ▸—White stools, with dark red

urine.—Choleraic discharges with collapse, deathly anxiety, and restlessness.—Involuntary stools,

from paralysis of the anus.—Constipation; clay-coloured stools —Nausea and sweating before and

after loose stools.—Pains in the rectum.—Violent pain in rectum, with chill and fever,

inflammation, tenesmus, bloody discharges (dysentery).—Pressure and pricking in the

anus.—Bleeding piles, with heat and sharp stitches; blood bright.—Diarrhsa, with flux of urine

and colic.—Sensation as of a warm fluid escaping from anus.

Incessant flow of urine.—Urine frequent and quantity increased.—Pressing

in region of kidneys and small of back.

• ▸Scanty, red, hot, painful.
• ▸Tenesmus and burning at neck of bladder.
• ▸Burning in urethra.
• ▸Urine suppressed, bloody.
• ▸Anxiety always on beginning to urinate.
• ▸Retention, with screaming and restlessness, and handling of genitals.
• ▸Renal region sensitive.
• ▸Profuse urination, with profuse perspiration and diarrhoea.

• ▸Vagina dry, hot, sensitive.
• ▸Menses too profuse, with nosebleed, too protracted, late.
• ▸Frenzy on appearance of menses.
• ▸Suppressed from fright, cold, in plethoric subjects.
• ▸Ovaries congested and painful.
• ▸Sharp shooting pains in womb.
• ▸After-pains, with fear and restlessness.

Menses profuse, early; dark, coagulated; scanty, irregular, delayed,

or suppressed.—Hysterical or epileptical spasms at time of menses.—Feels strange, talks

incoherently, screams, tries to injure herself.—Pains in uterine region shoot from side to

side.—Pains in ovarian region shoot upward.—Bearing-down in uterine region and small of back;

limbs feel heavy, torpid.—Severe pain in lower part of abdomen.—Rheumatic

dysmenorrhsa.—LeucorrhSa, with sensation of weight in the uterus.—During pregnancy: nausea;

false labour-like pains; sharp pains across abdomen; sleeplessness.—During parturition "shivers,"

first stage; pains too strong; spasmodic cardiac neuralgia; lochia suppressed (by cold or

emotions); rigid os; Puerperal mania.—Tendency to abort at third month.—Infra-mammary pains,

worst on |. side.—Burning in the mamm¢.

• ▸Crawling and stinging in glans.
• ▸Bruised pain in testicles, swollen, hard.
• ▸Frequent erections and emissions.
• ▸Painful erections.

Venereal inclination alternately increased and diminished.—Amorous

paroxysms.—Smarting in the parts.—Contusion like pains in the testicles —Testicles feel swollen,

• ▸hard, as if surcharged with semen.
• ▸—Orchitis.
• ▸—Gonorrh§a, first stage.
• ▸—Itching in the

prepuce.—Shootings and pinchings in the glans when making water.

• ▸Constant pressure in left chest; oppressed breathing on least motion.
• ▸Hoarse, dry, croupy cough; loud, labored breathing.
• ▸Child grasps at throat every time he coughs.
• ▸Very sensitive to inspired air.
• ▸Shortness of breath.
• ▸Larynx sensitive.
• ▸Stitches through chest.
• ▸Cough, dry, short, hacking; worse at night and after midnight.
• ▸Hot feeling in lungs.
• ▸Blood comes up with hawking.
• ▸Tingling in chest after cough.

Night cough, dry, constant, short, < on every attempt to

• ▸speak.
• ▸—Tickling in throat, with violent cough.
• ▸—Pains in (r.
• ▸) side of chest, < from motion,

extorting cries (Rheumatism of diaphragm.—Pleurodynia.)

• ▸Tachycardia.
• ▸Affections of the heart with pain in left shoulder.
• ▸Stitching pain in chest.
• ▸Palpitation, with anxiety, fainting, and tingling in fingers.
• ▸Pulse full, hard; tense and bounding; sometimes intermits.
• ▸Temporal and carotid arteries felt when sitting.

Short breathing, chiefly during sleep, and on getting up.—Breathing painful, anxious,

and attended with groans, rapid and superficial, or full, noisy, and with the mouth

open.—Breathing slow during sleep.—Breath hot—Breath fetid—Constriction and anxious

oppression of the chest, with difficulty of breathing —Asthma of Millar.—Attack of suffocation,

with anxiety—Sensation of heaviness and of compression at the chest.—Painful pricking in the

chest, chiefly when breathing, coughing, and moving (even the arms).—Stitches through the chest

and side, esp. when breathing and coughing.—Prickings in the side, with a lachrymose and

plaintive humour, soothed, in some degree, by lying on the back. Pleurisy and pneumonia, esp.

with great heat, much thirst, dry cough and great nervous excitability, only somewhat relieved

when lying on the back.—Itching in the chest.—Pains as of a bruise in the sternum and in the

sides.—Sensation of anguish in the chest, which interrupts respiration.

Pain in region of heart, followed by palpitation; pains extend down |. arm, which is

numb as if bound to side.—Pulse weak and irregular; or quick and full —Palpitation from least

motion.

• ▸Numb, stiff, painful.
• ▸Crawling and tingling, as if bruised.
• ▸Stiffness in nape of neck.
• ▸Bruised pain between scapulae.

Severe pain in nape of neck (rheumatic fever; cerebro-spinal

meningitis)—Rheumatic pain in the muscles of the neck and back; a feeling of stiffness and

retraction.—Violent lightning-like pains in posterior spinal sclerosis.—Stiff-neck from cold air,

from moving even the hands.—Sensitiveness of the spine; esp. in the cervical and upper dorsal

regions.—Severe aching pain in the lumbar and sacral regions; down the thighs and through the

hips, with heavy pressing down.—Head and neck retracted (in spotted fever).

Pains down arms with numbness as if a nerve compressed.—L. arm feels as

• ▸if bound to side (chorea).
• ▸—Constant irregular motion of |.
• ▸arm; is useless (chorea).
• ▸—Cold sweat

on hands.—Trembling of fingers, esp. when writing.

Aching in sacrum, lumbar region, and down I. leg.—Pressure round hips with

pain in sacrum.—Towards evening soreness, aching, and stiffness in region of tendo

Achillis.—Dull, aching, burning in second joint of r. great toe, extending up the limb.

24. Generalities—Rheumatism.—Weakness, trembling, and spasmodic action of the

muscles.—Nervous shuddering; tremor all over the body.—Alternate tonic and clonic

spasms.—Epileptic and hysterical convulsions.—Sharp, lancinating pains in various parts,

associated with ovarian or uterine irritation.—Affects the 1. side most—Pains come on

• ▸suddenly.
• ▸—Pains like electric shocks here and there.
• ▸—Chorea.
• ▸—General bruised feeling of the

whole body, as if sore.

Numbness and tingling; shooting pains; icy coldness and insensibility of hands and feet. Arms feel lame, bruised, heavy, numb. Pain down left arm (Cact, Crotal, Kalmia, Tabac).

• ▸Hot hands and cold feet.
• ▸Rheumatic inflammation of joints; worse at night; red shining swelling, very sensitive.
• ▸Hip-joint and thigh feel lame, especially after lying down.
• ▸Knees unsteady; disposition of foot to turn (Aescul).
• ▸Weak and lax ligaments of all joints.
• ▸Painless cracking of all joints.
• ▸Bright red hypothenar eminences on both hands.
• ▸Sensation as if drops of water trickled down the thigh.

• ▸Red, hot, swollen, dry, burning.
• ▸Purpura miliaris.
• ▸Rash like measles.
• ▸Gooseflesh.
• ▸Formication and numbness.
• ▸Chilliness and formication down back.
• ▸Pruritus relieved by stimulants.

Crawling sensation in the skin, with itching and desquamation, principally in the parts

• ▸affected.
• ▸—Skin dry and burning.
• ▸—Swelling and burning heat of wounded parts.
• ▸—Yellow

face.—Y ellowish colour of the skin.—Red, hot, swollen and shining skin with violent

pain.—Shootings, with a sensation of excoriation here and there.—Spots similar to flea-bites on

the hands, on the body, &c.—Small pimples, red and broad, attended by itching —Morbillii—Rash

of children.—Purpura miliaris.

• ▸Nightmare.
• ▸Nightly ravings.
• ▸Anxious dreams.
• ▸Sleeplessness, with restless and tossing about (Use thirtieth potency).
• ▸Starts up in sleep.
• ▸Long dreams, with anxiety in chest.
• ▸Insomnia of the aged.

Obstinate insomnia.—Sleepless, cannot rest, must change position, jerking of

limbs.—Unpleasant dreams of being in trouble.—Restless sleep.

• ▸Cold stage most marked.
• ▸Cold sweat and icy coldness of face.
• ▸Coldness and heat alternate.
• ▸Evening chilliness soon after going to bed.
• ▸Cold waves pass through him. Thirst and restlessness always present.
• ▸Chilly if uncovered or touched.
• ▸Dry heat, red face.
• ▸Most valuable febrifuge with mental anguish, restlessness, etc.
• ▸Sweat drenching, on parts lain on; relieving all symptoms.

Dry, burning heat, with extreme thirst, sometimes (esp. at the beginning of the

disease), preceded by shiverings, with trembling.—Heat, chiefly in the head and face, with

redness of the cheeks, shuddering over the entire body, oppressive headache, temper lachrymose,

disposed to complaining and to contradiction; or, a sensation of heat in the whole body, with

redness of the cheeks, pain in the head on turning the eyes, and levity of mind.—Shivering, if

uncovered in the least while the heat exists.—Cold over the whole body with internal heat,

forehead cold, and tips of the ears hot; or with redness of cheeks and pains in the limbs; or with

stiffness of the whole body, heat and redness of one cheek, and coldness and paleness of the

other; eyes open and fixed, pupils contracted, and dilating with difficulty.—Sensation of coldness

in the blood vessels —Cold and shivering in the fingers, followed by cramps in the calves of the

legs and in the soles of the feet—Heat of face, with mournful and despairing thoughts, and an

inclination to vomit, preceded by cold and shiverings in the feet and hands.—Shuddering runs up

from the feet to the chest.—Frequent shudderings, with burning heat and dryness of the

skin.—Inflammatory fevers and inflammations, with much heat, dry, burning skin, violent thirst,

red face, or alternate red and pale face, nervous excitability, groaning and agonised tossing

about, shortness of breath, and congestion to the head.—Continual sweat, esp. on parts that are

covered.—Sour sweat.—Pulse hard, frequent, and accelerated; full, sometimes intermitting; when

slow, almost imperceptible (threadlike).

Actea Racemosa.

• ▸Cimicifuga racemosa.
• ▸Actéa monogynia.
• ▸C.
• ▸serpentaria.
• ▸Macrotys racemosa.
• ▸Botroflus

• ▸serpentaria.
• ▸Black snake root.
• ▸Black Cohosh.
• ▸(Canada, Georgia, Western States of

• ▸America.
• ▸) N.
• ▸O.
• ▸Ranunculaceé.
• ▸Tincture of the root.
• ▸Trituration of the resinoid, Macrotyn.

• ▸Abortion, tendency to.
• ▸Angina pectoris.
• ▸Appetite, disordered.
• ▸Back pains.
• ▸Breast,

• ▸affections of.
• ▸Cerebro-spinal meningitis.
• ▸Change of life.
• ▸Chest, pains in.
• ▸Chorea.
• ▸Delirium

• ▸Tremens.
• ▸Diaphragm, rheumatism of.
• ▸Dyspepsia.
• ▸Epilepsy.
• ▸Faintness.
• ▸Headache.
• ▸Heart,

• ▸affections of.
• ▸Hyperpyrexia.
• ▸Hypochondriasis.
• ▸Hysteria.
• ▸Lumbago.
• ▸Melancholia.
• ▸Meningitis.

• ▸Menstruation, disorders of.
• ▸Myalgia.
• ▸Neuralgia.
• ▸Ovaries, affections of.
• ▸Perichondritis.

• ▸Pleurodynia.
• ▸Pregnancy, disorders of.
• ▸Puerperal mania.
• ▸Rheumatic gout.
• ▸Rheumatism.
• ▸Sciatica.

• ▸Side, pain in.
• ▸Sinking sensation.
• ▸Sleeplessness.
• ▸Spinal irritation.
• ▸Stiff-neck.
• ▸Tinnitus aurium.

Tremors. Uterus, affections of. Vomiting of pregnancy.

• ▸It is allied to Act.
• ▸spi.
• ▸and the other Ranunculace¢.
• ▸Acon.
• ▸antidotes the

• ▸sleeplessness, and Bapt.
• ▸relieved the headache and nausea of the drug.
• ▸It is like Acon.
• ▸in fear of

• ▸death and restlessness; Bry.
• ▸and Puls.
• ▸in rheumatism; Cauloph.
• ▸in uterine affections, also Sep.
• ▸,

• ▸Nat.
• ▸m.
• ▸, Lil.
• ▸t.
• ▸, Ign.
• ▸, Gels.
• ▸(uterine headache); Lyc.
• ▸(pains go from side to side); Ars.
• ▸(fears to be

alone); Calc. (visions of rats and mice). In a case of Tansy Poisoning (taken by a pregnant

woman in fifth month to procure abortion), with high fever, rheumatic pains, bearing-down

• ▸sensation, and abdominal soreness, Act.
• ▸r.
• ▸promptly relieved after failure of Acon.
• ▸and Bry.

Pregnancy went to term.

• ▸The resinoid of Act.
• ▸r.
• ▸, Macrotyn.
• ▸, has been used in the lower triturations in preference to the

tincture, in cases of lumbago more especially.

Acids, wine and coffee, lemonade, and acid fruits modify its action.

Not indicated in malarial and low fevers or hectic and pyaemic conditions, and in inflammations when they localize themselves. Sulphur often follows it. Compare Cham and Coffea in intense pain and sleeplessness.

Agrostis acts like Acon in fever and inflammations, also Spiranthes.

Complementary: Coffea; Sulph. Sulphur may be considered a chronic Aconite. Often completes a cure begun with Aconite.

Compare; Bellad; Cham; Coffea; Ferr, phos.

Aconitine.--(Heavy feeling as of lead; pains in supraorbital nerve; ice-cold sensations creep up; hydrophobia symptoms. Tinnitus aurium 3x). Tingling sensation.

• ▸Aconitum Lycotonum. --Great yellow wolfsbane.
• ▸--(Swelling of glands; Hodgkin's disease.
• ▸Diarrhoea after eating pork.
• ▸Itching of nose, eyes, anus and vulva.
• ▸Skin of nose cracked; taste of blood).

Aconitum Cammarum.--(Headache with vertigo and tinnitus. Cataleptic symptoms. Formication of tongue, lips and face).

• ▸Aconitum ferox. --Indian Aconite.
• ▸--Rather more violent in its actions than A.
• ▸napellus.
• ▸It is more diuretic and less antipyretic.
• ▸It has proved valuable in cardiac dyspnoea, neuralgia, and acute gout.
• ▸Dyspnoea. Must sit up. Rapid respiration.
• ▸Anxiety, with suffocation from feeling of paralysis in respiratory muscles.
• ▸Cheynes-Stokes breathing.
• ▸Quebracho (cardiac dyspnoea) (Achyranthes.
• ▸--A Mexican drug--very similar to Aconite in fevers, but of larger range, being also adapted to typhoidal states and intermittents.
• ▸Muscular rheumatism.
• ▸A great diaphoretic.
• ▸Use 6x).
• ▸Eranthis hymnalis--(Winter Aconite--acts on solar plexus and works upwards causing dyspnoea.
• ▸Pain in occiput and neck).

• ▸Sixth potency for sensory affections; first to third for congestive conditions.
• ▸Must be repeated frequently in acute diseases.
• ▸Acon is a rapid worker.
• ▸In Neuralgias tincture of the root often preferable, one drop doses (poisonous), or again, the 30th according to susceptibility of patient.

ACONITUM NAPELLUd I3

the mental symptoms, intensity marks every one of them. If it is a

delirium, it is an intense delirium, with excitement, with fear, with

anxiety. Patients in delirium, with excitement and fear, will weep,

as in great torment. Great excitement, fear, fear of death. You

wonder what she is weeping about. There are all sorts of moods

intermingled also with the fear of Aconite. There is moaning and

irritability, anger, throwing things away, all attended with the violence

and anxiety. These features that I described as uppermost are intermingled with all the other symptoms.

^‘Screams with pain.^^ The pains are like knives, they are stinging,

cutting, stabbing. The intensity of the Aconite suffering is wonderful, so that if the nerves take on neuralgic pains the pains are intense.

It is the feeling that some awful thing must be upon him or he could

not have such dreadful suffering. It says in the text, ‘‘predicts the

day of his death.’' This to a great extent is the result of the awfulness that seems to be overwhelming him. And this mental picture is

always present, in pneumonia, in inflammatory conditions of any part

of the body, in inflammation of the kidneys, of the liver, of the

bowels, etc.

Dizziness prevails throughout all this symptom picture. “Vertigo,

turning and whirling.'' A woman out shopping runs up suddenly

against a dog and becomes violently dizzy, she cannot even get to her

carriage. “Vertigo that comes on from fear, from sudden fear, and

the fear of the fright remains/^ There is a remnant of that fear left,

but it will lead you no more strongly towards Opium. ^‘Complaints

from fear. Inflammation of the brain from fear, dizziness from fear.'*

Even congestion of parts as a result of fear. A turmoil in the whole

sensorium. Things go round and round.

The headaches can hardly be described, they come with such violence. Tearing burning in the brain, in the scalp, attended with fear,

with fever, with anguish; headache from taking cold, from suppressing catarrh in the nose. Catarrh stops suddenly in plethoric people,

from exposure, from riding in the dry, cold wind such as we have in

this northern climate in winter. “Violent headache over the eyes.

Congestion of the brain, with congestive headache, with anxiety, with

hot face.^^

The symptoms that would lead you to give Aconite for affections

• ▸of the eye are numerous.
• ▸Eyes take on sudden inflammation.
• ▸Congestion of the eye.
• ▸Blood red appearance of the eye.
• ▸Sudden inflammation of all the tissues ; conjunctivitis, etc.
• ▸, from taking cold, from

exposure to dry, cold winds.

There is a teaching that has long prevailed: give Aconite for the

first stage of an inflammation. It is not good teaching, although it is

recommended in all of our books. It does not say for what kind of a

>4

“Better during expiration." The spasm of the larynx often comes

on during inspiration. “Worse during inspiration. Constant short,

dry cough. Difficult breathing. Breathes only with the diaphragm.

Chest troubles, such as pneumonia." Aconite produces a very rapid

inflammation of the viscera of the chest, of the pleura, of the lungs,

of the mucous membrane lining the air passages. In pneumonia we

have this dyspnoea, the suddenness with which it comes on. If it

spreads rapidly it may go into pneumonia. Inflammation runs so high

that the mucous membrane oozes blood, cherry red, — or the mucus

that comes up is white and heavily streaked with bright red blood.

You go to the bedside of btpncho-pneumonia and you will find in the

pan mucus streaked with bright red blood. Now, take the violence

with which that comes on» the restlessness and anxiety of the individual — he predicts the hour of his death — that would be the case with

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

is indicated. Sometimes the whole mucous membrane, the visible

throat, the larynx, trachea, the bronchial tubes, will all ooze blood,

sometimes a mouthful of blood, so violent is the inflammation. In

these chest troubles there is much pain. Shooting, burning, tearing

pains, and the patient is compelled to lie in a somewhat elevated position, on the back. Cannot lie upon either side, but upon the back.

Lying on the side increases the pain. The dry cold winds. Sudden

shocks, in persons of good, strong, vigorous circulation. The haemoptysis that is spoken of is not such as occurs in phthisis, but is involuntary ; the blood comes up with a slight cough. Some one might be

deceived to give it in such cases in broken down constitutions in sickly

patients ; but it is not to be administered in such cases, we have much

better remedies. The patient does not always become a pneumonia

patient, but inflammation of the small air passages may be all that is

present.

aconttum napellus

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

No expectoration except a little watery mucus and blood. It occurs

a good deal in this way. Dry cough, sensation of dryness of the

whole chest, sensation of dryness in the laiynx and throat. Pours

down great quantities of cold water, and once in a while after a violent

coughing spell he gets up a little blood. Sut the expectoration is gen*

erally mucus.

Pneumonia is generally attended with an expectoration looking like

iron rust, as if iron rust had been mixed in with it. Such medicines

as Bryonia and Rhus tax, and a few others have that expectoration as

a common feature, as natural to the remedies themselves, but Aconite

is the cherry red, bright red expectoration. Its haemorrhages are bright

red, and sometimes copious.

All these coughs in peumonia, in croup, and chest troubles cpme on

suddenly, and if he goes to sleep he will have spasm of the larynx, with

dryness of the larynx. He goes to sleep and the larynx becomes dry.

and he wakes up and grasps his larynx ; he thinks he is going to choke.

All these come on from cold winds. Vigorous persons get into a draft

and get a chill that will bring on Aconite symptoms.

Aconite has in all inflamed parts a sensation as if hot steam were

rushing into the parts, as if warm blood were rushing into the parts,

or ‘‘flushes of heat in the parts,'' Along nerves, a sensation of heat,

or sensation of cold.

The pulse in the highest form of the fever is full and bounding ;

strong, vigorous pulse. When the attack is first coming on and the

awful anxiety and nerve tension are present the pulse is very small,

but after the heart's action is well established, then the pulse becomes

stronger.

“Tearing pains down the spine. Painful, stiff neck. Crawling in

the spine like insects.” That is a peculiar feature, this crawling sensation ; it comes from cold, from being suddenly chilled.

“Trembling of the hands” associated with these sudden acute attacks.

• ▸“Creeping pains in the fingers” associated with these sudden acute inflammatory attacks.
• ▸“Cold as ice.
• ▸Feet cold as ice.
• ▸Hot palms.
• ▸”

• ▸Hot hands and cold feet are sometimes present.
• ▸Rheumatic conditions of the joints.
• ▸Those that come on as a first attack.
• ▸Not old

rheumatic and gouty attacks, but those that come on as acute rheumatism, those that come on from sudden exposure to cold, from long

rides in a dry, cold wind. They also are attended with fever, with

anxious restlessness, with a critical state of mind so often described.

“Trembling, tingling, convulsions of the muscles.” But the nerves

are full of Aconite symptoms and Aconite sufferings. Aconite is a

wonderful remedy for neuritis in plethoric persons. Numbness along

the course of the nerves, from cold, from exposure. Numbness and

ACTiEA RACEM05A

tingling, along the course of the nerves, especially those that ruii close

• ▸to the surface.
• ▸“Inflammation of the nerve sheaths.
• ▸Nervous excitability.
• ▸Excessive restlessness.
• ▸”

Svlphur has a strong relation to Aconite. It has many Aconite

symptoms. In many of the old chronic cases where Sulphur would

be used in strong, vigorous constitutions Aconite will be suitable for

a sudden attack, and Sulphur for the chronic. In sudden attacks that

Aconite conforms to, that is the whole attack, there may be left in

that constitution a tendency to return of a similar attack. Aconite has

no power over that tendency, but Sulphur has. Of course, most of

the symptoms must agree, but it will seem to you frequently where

Aconite has been suitable in the acute disease that Sulphur symptoms

will follow, and many times a very violent attack leaves a weakness

in the constitution which Aconite has no power to contend with. It

has no power to keep off recurrent attacks. It does all that it is capable of doing, and that is the end of it. But it is not so with Sulphur.

After Aconite follow well Arnica and Belladonna. Sometimes it is

true it will appear to you that Aconite is capable of coping with all

there is in the disease. But there seems to he a lingering something

• ▸that holds on, and such medicines as Arn.
• ▸and Bell,, and Ip.
• ▸and Bry.
• ▸,

do have to come in to finish up the attack — or sometimes Sulphur.

Very commonly Silica. So we have to study the relations of medicines.

If you have administered Aconite in too many doses, or given it too

strong, and your patient is fibw in recovering from the attack, or your

patient has taken Aconite hitnself unwisely, then Coffea or Nux will

often put the patient into a better condition.

ACT^A RACEMOSA (BLACK COHOSH)

This remedy has been only mcagerly proved, yet there are a few

useful points in it. From its proving we can perceive that it is similar to diseased states in the human family, and especially in women,

namely, hysterical and rheumatic conditions. The patient is always

chilly, easily affected by cold, sensitive to cold and damp weather,

which rouses the rheumatic state and develops a state of rheumatism;

not only in the muscles and joints all over the body, but also along

the course of nerves. In the general nervous disturbance there is a

lack of will balance, or great disturbance in the voluntary system,

which is the underlying feature of hysteria, the symptoms are intermingled with rheumatism. With the pains we havq soreness all over

the body. Trembling, numbness, jerking of muscles. Inability to

exercise the will over the muscles of the body, turmoil in the voluntary

system, with stiffness.

ACTiEA RACEMOSA

Tendency to take cold and thereby she takes on sensitiveness in the

glands and larger organs, such as the liver and uterus. Conaplaints in

these organs come on from cold damp weather {Dulcamara) and from

being chilled. The patient is sensitive to cold in all parts except the

head, and is aggravated from becoming cold both in parts of the body

and in general. The headaches, however, are better in the open air

and from cold, which is an exception and a particular, for the general

feature is aggravation from cold.

There is a terrible mental state that alternates with physical states.

It is an overwhelming sadness or gloominess, she is bowed down with

sorrow. Sits and mopes in great sadness, like Psorinum and Pulsa-

Ulla. This may pass off instantly, or be brought on and aggravated

from motion, from fear, from excitement, from taking cold. Very

commonly there is muscular soreness, a bruised feeling all over, with!

drawing and jerking. This will let up very suddenly and leave a

nervous, hysterical girl in a state of sadness, and she will sit and say

nothing. When questioned perhaps she will break into tears or cx*

press in various ways the overwhelming sadness. With the headache

there is marked sadness. Changeable moods. The physical and the

mental are all the time changing. Other symptoms alternate and

change. The jerking has made physicians see the resemblance to

chorea in these hysteno-rheuniatic constitutions. The rheumatisms will

change in a day into chorea, and again the choreic movements will

keep on with the soreness throughout the muscles of the body. The

jerking and soreness and numbness often keep on together.

There are certain features about the chorea that should be noted.

Jerking of the muscles when in a state of emotion or from becoming

chilled. If any part of the body is pressed upon jerking of the muscles of that part will take place. One of these nervous, rheumatic,

hysterical subjects may not have choiea constantly, but as soon as she

retires at night the whole of the side lain on will commence to jerk

and prevent her from going to sleep. If she turns on the back the

muscles of the back and shoulders will jerk and prevent sleep. She

turns over on the other side, but after a little while the muscles pressed

on commence to jerk. All this time she has become so restless and

nervous that she is driven to distraction. The mind is full of all sorts

of imaginations, and the body is full of all sorts of uneasiness, because

she can find no place to rest upon. Sometimes the muscles are so

sore that they cannot be lain upon for any length of time ; sometimes

It 18 a numbness, sometimes a jerking. These things are queer, but

tliey belong to the patient, affecting not one part, but the whole

economy.

Full of fear, anguish and restlessness. Fear of death, excitement,

suspicious, Will not even take the medicine because there U some-

ACT^ RACEMOSA

as

thing wrong about it.’’ It has a mania such as occurs in nervous,

hysterical women, and it has cured puerperal mania. Puerperal mania

from taking cold during or soon after confinement. The remedy belongs especially to women, because its symptoms are so commonly

associated with the affections of women. Mental states following the

disappearance of rheumatism is a strong feature. The rheumatism

gets better, but the mental state becomes worse. Sometimes the rheumatism disappears in short order and the mind is not disturbed, but

then it is because a diarrhoea has come on, with great soreness and

aching in the bowels, or because a flow from the uterus has given

relief. There must be some relief or a disturbance will take place like

Abrotanum. Some flow must be established, and hence the menstrual

flow or diarrhoea gives relief ; otherwise the mind takes on trouble, the

patient becomes gloomy, or has a low form of mental excitement. One

of the symptoms is quite descriptive of this sadness I have referred

to : ‘^Sensation as if a black cloud had settled all over her,” while at

the same time it weighed like '‘lead upon the head.” This is entirely

figurative. It can all be expressed in the word “sadness”. We will

find “melancholy,” “gloominess,” “low spirited,” etc., running all

through out text, but the word “sadness” is just as broad as any of

them.

The headaches are rheumatic. “Sore, bruised feeling all over the

head. Bruised sensation in the occiput. Sore, bruised feeling in the

top of the head, as if the , top of the head would fly off.” “As if cold

air was blowing upon thO brain.’' Yet most of these headaches are

better by being in the cold air. “Headache brought on from catching

cold, from the weather changes, cold, damp weather.” There are

many headaches. Pressing headache. Many of the headaches are

intense, and described as if a bolt were extending down into the back

of the neck. Soreness in the back of the neck. Pain in the back of

the neck. Hysterical girls ; they have much pain in the back of the

neck. With the headache the eyeballs are very sore, “painful to turn

in any direction.” “Pain in the eyes, bruised pain in the head.”

“Soreness in the abdomen ; sore and bruised. Alternate diarrhcea

and constipation. Alternation of diarrhoea and physical complaints.”

We pass now to the female genitalia, which form a center for a

great deal of trouble in the remedy. A routine saying about Actaea

is that it makes confinement easy. That is not a legitimate saying

concerning any remedy, and such expressions encourage routine practice. It is true that when this remedy has been given to pregnant

women in accordance with its symptoms it has proved capable of making confinement easy. But the way it has been given has been the

(routine practice of giving it in the tincture or in the 2d or 3d, until the

patient was under its influence even when it was not indicated, as it

ACTi£A RACEMOSA

was not similar to the case. But the homoeopathic physician never

practices in this way. A remedy fits a general condition when the

symptoms of that general condition are found in the remedy. Remember that it doe.s so because all the symptoms agree.

“Pain in the uterine region, darting from side to side. Bearing down

and pressing out.” These bearing down sensations, taken with all the

other states that relate to the patient in general, show that it is a very

useful remedy in prolapsus of the uterus. It has the relaxation of the

parts. Do not suppose that our remedies are not sufficient to cure

these conditions, when the symptoms agree. It is true that remedies

will cure prolapsus when the symptoms agree, and at no other time.

If it fits the patient in general, these bearing down sensations will go*

away, the patient will be made comfortable, and an examination will

finally show that the parts are in normal condition. You cannot prescribe for the prolapsius ; you must prescribe for the woman. You

cannot prescribe for one symptom, because there are probably fifty

remedies that have that symptom.

• ▸Thcie .
• ▸ire menstrual disorders in these hysterical rheumatic constitutions.
• ▸IrreguLirity of the menstrual flow.
• ▸It may be copious, suppressed or scanty.
• ▸Severe pain all through the flow.
• ▸The more the

flow the greater the pain. That is very peculiar. Generally the flow

will relieve pain, but with this remedy the pain is during the flow.

Generally the most severe .and most painful attack is at the beginning

of the flow, and with some women again just alter the flow has ccaseil,

Each woman is a law unto herself. In this remedy the sufFerines are

during the menstrual flow as a rule. The most severe mental symptoms, the most severe rheumatic symptoms, the most extreme jerking

flot Tu?in! m sleeplessness are during the menstrual

flow. During menses, epileptic spasms. All sorts of sufferings in the

• ▸nerves.
• ▸Soreness along the course of the nerves, soreness in Ae muscles or joints during the flow.
• ▸Increase of mental symptoms.
• ▸Cold

and chilly, must be wrapped up. “Rheumatism. DysmenorrhL ”

Soreness m the uterus and ovarian region. Lame, bruiLd feeling all

over ; painful menstruation,” and some one has named that rh^matic

dysmenorrhoea, not a bad name. rncumatic

in cv""? pregnancy. It cures all sorts of conditions

m this kind of constitution, these nervous, rheumatic

with jerking in the muscles. So markedly do her trm ff ^

• ▸with .
• ▸ad, o,h.
• ▸, .
• ▸ha.
• ▸atemahon “taTh.

will commonly find that all the rest of her tm 1 1 u

• ▸and that now „a„«a ha, com.
• ▸on.
• ▸In all A.
• ▸y.
• ▸t, S'h Tn

• ▸sev.
• ▸have .
• ▸™p„,ad,y .
• ▸t;Tan“i

ACTiEA RACEMOSA

about like Pulsatilla, But the symptoms have to be taken collectively

to get at the image of the patient. A woman will come to you with

one group of symptoms today and may come back to you with an

entirely different group in a couple of weeks. These are very troublesome cases to prescribe for, and you have sometimes to take the symptoms a dozen times and put them all together as if she had felt them

all in one day, and so make your prescription. A hysterical patient

is difficult to manage because of this changing of symptoms, and also

because she has a tendency to deceive the doctor.

"'Shivering in the first stage of labor. Hysterical manifestations

through labor.’* Pains have all ceased or are irregular, so that they

do not good. No dilatation has taken place. But when the regular

pains come on we have some important symptoms. A pain comes on

and it seems to be about to finish satisfactorily ; it has been regular and

prolonged until about two-thirds through, and all at once she screams

out and grasps her hip— the pain has left the uterus and gone to the

hip, causing a cramp in the hip, and she has to be rubbed and turned

over. This medicine will regulate the pains, and when the next pain

comes it will hold on to the end. So impressionable is this woman

during confinement that if she is subjected to any emotion — such as

having an emotional story told in the room — or if anything excitable

occurs, the pain will stop. If she has passed through the labor and

the lochia has been established, from such a cause the lochia will stop,

as if she had taken cold, ; and she will have cramps and troublesome

after-pains, the milk will be suppressed, she will feel sore and bruised

all over, and have fever. This remedy should be compared with Caulophyllum, which has the following symptoms: Weakness in the reproductive system of the woman. From weakness she is sterile, or she

aborts in the early months of gestation. During parturition the contractions of the uterus are too feeble to expel the contents, and they are

only tormenting. Labor-like pains during menstruation with drawing

• ▸pains in the thighs and legs, and even the feet and toes.
• ▸Uterine haemorrhage from inertia of the uterus.
• ▸Relaxation of muscles and ligaments.
• ▸Heaviness, and even prolapsus.
• ▸Subinvolution.
• ▸Excoriating

leucorrhoea. Menses too soon or too late. She is sensitive to cold and

wants warm clothing — quite unlike Pulsatilla, She is hysterical, like

Ignatia, She is fretful and apprehensive. She is rheumatic, like

Actaea, only the small joints are most likely to be affected. Later

she suffers from after-pains, and they are felt in the inguinal region.

Rheumatic stiffness of the back and very sensitive spine. She is sleepless, restless and withal very excitable. This remedy has cured chorea

at puberty when menstruation was late.

You need not be surprised that such an emotional subject has a fluttering, quick pulse, and irregular action of the heart, but many of the

^SCULUS mPPOCASTANUM

most marked hysterical features are present without any disturbances

whatever in the action of the heart. “A feeling in the region of the

heart as if the heart were sore, and as if it were enlarged.”

"Back of head and neck sore.” The head is drawn back from contraction of the muscles at the nape. Violent aching down the back.

Rheumatism in the back. Impossible to lie upon the back because of

the contraction of the muscles of the back. Impossible to lie upon the

• ▸side of the body because of the contraction and jerking of the muscles.
• ▸“Numbness of the limbs.
• ▸Trembling.
• ▸Soreness.
• ▸”

The symptoms of the nerves are simply a reiteration of what I have

• ▸said.
• ▸“Hysterical spasms.
• ▸Convulsions.
• ▸Trembling of the legs ;

hardly able to walk.” The numbness is such as is associated with

paralysis. Paralytic weakness.

The best effects have resulted from the 30th, 200th, loooth and still

higher potencies, and from the use of medicine in single doses.

It is similar in some of its conditions to the Blue Cohosh. Compare

• ▸it with Puls.
• ▸, Sepia, Natr.
• ▸mur.
• ▸Lit.
• ▸t.
• ▸, Caulophyllum and fgn.

dESCULUS HIPPOCASTANUM

A peculiar kind of plethora is found running through this remedy,

a vascular fulness which affects the extremities and the whole body,

and there are symptoms showing that the brain is similarly affected.

The conditions of *^sculus are worse during sleep, hence symptoms

are observed on waking. He wakes up with confusion of mind, looks

all around the room in confusion, bewildered, does not know tlie

people, wonders where he is and what is the meaning of the things

he sees. It is especially useful in children that rouse up in sleep frightened and in confusion, like Lycopodium. The remedy produces great

sadness, irritability, loss of memory and aversion to work. There are

times when there is a sense of bodily congestion, fulness of the veins,

and then these symptoms are most marked. It is a general venous

stasis, and is sometimes worse in sleep, worse from lying, better from

Imdily exertion. The symptoms pass away after considerable exertion moving about, doing something, keeping busy relieves. You will

find it useful in persons who suffer from palpitation when the pulsation extends to the extremities and the throbbing of the heart in sleep

can be heard ; an audible palpitation.

Now, as the mental symptoms arc the most important in a proving, so

are the mental symptoms in sickness the most important. Hahnemann

directs us to pay most attention to the symptoms of the mind, because

the symptoms of the mind constitute the man himself. The highest

and innermost symptoms are the most important, and these are the

mind symptoms. iEsculus has not been brought out in the finest dciESCULUS HEPPOCASTANUM

tail, but we have the key to it. Extreme irritability is the very general state from which ramify a great many mental symptoms. Irritability and mental depression run through a great many remedies, and

form the centre around which revolve all the mental symptoms in some

cases. The reason that these are more interior than some other symptoms of the mind is that these relate to the affections themselves. The

mental symptoms can be classified in a remedy. The things that relate

to the memory are not so important as the things that relate to the

intelligence, and the things that relate to the intelligence are not so

important as the things that relate to the affections or desires and

aversions. We see in a state of irritability that the patient is not irritable while doing the things that he desires to do ; if he wants to be

talked to, for instance, you do not discover his irritability while talking to him. You never discover he is irritable if you do the things he

wants you to do. But just as soon as you do something he does not

want, this irritability or disturbance of the will is brought on, and this

is the very innermost of the man's state. That which he wishes belongs to that which he wills, and the tilings that relate to what he wills

are the most important things in every proving. You may say that an

individual is sad, but he is sad because he lacks something that he

wants ; he desires something which he has not and becomes sad for it ;

sadness may go on to such an extent that the mind is in confusion.

Confusion of mind and vertigo. Make this distinction, vertigo is not

a confusion of the intelligeiice. You have only to meditate upon it

a moment and you will see that it is not. Confusion of the mind is a

disturbance of the intellect, not a disturbance of the sensorium ; you

will make a distinction between staggering when walking and a period

of disturbance of the mind, with inability to think clearly. Vertigo

is a sensation of rolling, and belongs to the sensorium. A great mistake has been made in some of our repertories, in that confusions of

mind are placed with vertigo under sensorium. These things must be

thought out carefully, so that we are clear in our own minds as to*,

what symptoms mean when they are given to us by patients. A patient

may state that when walking in the street he is dizzy, or that it appears

as though everything interiorly were turning around, yet he may be

perfectly able to add up a column of figures ; his mind may be clear.

If we ourselves are perfectly clear as to the meaning of these expressions, we will commonly glean the meaning of the patient. It is important to record the language of the patient, yet often a patient will

say something which you can see he does not mean at all, and it then

becomes necessary to put in a parenthesis what he really means. For

instance, a patient says: 'T have such a pain in my chest,'^ with the

hand on the abdomen, or a woman when menstruating will say the

pain is in the stomach when you know it is in the uterus. Patients

iESCULUS HIPPOCASTANUM

must be questioned oftentimes as to their statements, or requested to

place the hand upon the painful part. In the same way, therefore,

patients talk about dizziness when they are not dizzy at all, but feel a

confusion of mind, or they speak of confusion of mind when they

mean that they stagger in the street

It is in the nature of this remedy to have flying pains all over the

body, like Pulsatilla and Kali carh.', flitting, sharp, shooting, tearing

pains, flying from one part to another ; they seem at times to be

scarcely more than skin deep. Sometimes they fly along the course

of the nerves.

This remedy is full of headache. It has also dull aching pain, when

it seems that the brain would he pressed out. But especially are these

pains felt in the back of the head, as if the head would be crushed;

hard aching pains, violent aching pains, fulness of the brain. “Dull

frontal headache, from right to left, with constrictive feeling of skin

of forehead.” Fulness of the head, with dull, heavy pains, aching in

the forehead ; pain over the right eye. “Neuralgic pains in the right

supraorbital region.” “Shooting in left parietal bone, later in right.”

Formication of the scalp. If you examine the skin you will find formication, tickling and shooting and itching all over the body, so what

there is in the scalp is only what belongs to the remedy in all parts.

constitution, or how it comes about. Do not practice that way. Get

all the elements for an Aconite case, if possible, or give a better remedy. ■ Another practice has prevailed, viz., giving Aconite for fever.

Aconite was the fever remedy of many of our early routinists, but it

is a bad practice.

Aconite has an inflammation of the eyes that comes on so suddenly

that one wonders how that inflammation came in so short a time.

The eyes take on great swelling without any discharge, or only very

watery mucus. The sudden inflammations that come on with thick

discharges would never be Aconite. Aconite has no results of inflammation. Those conditions that are about to take on the results of

inflammation will always indicate some other remedy. You are not

to think of Aconite in fever unless the Aconite patient is present.

With the Aconite fever there will be sensitiveness to light. “Great

restlessness with fever.” Eyes staring, with pupils contracted, “violent aching and inflammation of the deep structures of the ball.” Give

Aconite only when the symptoms agree. An inflammation that is

about to run a prolonged course, to take on suppuration, or if it is

mucous membrane to take on discharge of pus, will never show you

the symptoms of Aconite. Never give Aconite in blood poisoning,

• ▸such as we find in scarlet fever, in typhoid fever, etc.
• ▸We tmd nothing of the violent symptoms of Aconite in s^ach conditions.
• ▸The nervous irritation is never present, but the opposite, the stupor, the laziness, the purple skin— whereas Aconite is bright red.
• ▸Never give

Aconite for any form of zymosis, for it has no zymotic history. There

should be no thought of Aconite in the slow coming, continued fever.

Aconite has no syptoms like the slow types of continued fevers. I'he

Aconite fever is generally one short, sharp attack of fever. It is in

no way related to an intermittent fever, as it has no such symptoms.

You might find something that would deceive you in one attack of

intermittent fever, but the very fact that there was a second one would

shut out Aconite. Some remedies have periodically or waves. Aconite

has no such a condition. The most violent attack of fever will subside in a night if Aconite is the remedy. If it is not it is a pity that

you naade a mistake in giving it, for it will sometimes do rnkr hipf

All things that exist in a sickness must be taken into account, not only

what the remedy does cover, but what it does not cover.

Aconite has inflammation of the eyes, with burning and sudden

swelling ; the lids swell so rapidly that they cannot be opened except

with great difficulty, and when they are forced open by seizing the

margins of the lids with a pair of forceps drops of hot water will fall

out, but no pus. This comes on rapidly from taking cold. Whenever

there are inflammations of the mucous surfaces bloody water is apt to

*5

.<5isculus is a wonderful eye remedy, especially when the eyes have

“haemorrhoids.” Docs that convey any idea to you ? By that I mean

particularly enlarged blood vessels. Great redness of the eyes, with

lachrymation. burning eyeballs and vascular appearance. This increased determination of blood is more or less painful ; the eyeballs feel

sore and ache ; sharp, shooting pains in eyes. In almost every rubric

of .^sculus we shall find stitching and shooting : little twinges ; wandering pains with fulness ; almost every kind of disturbance will intensify

the fulness. Fulness of the hands and feet, not the fulness that pits

upon pressure, that we call oedema, hut a tenseness. Medicines having much trouble with the veins arc often disturbed by hot bathing,

weakness after a hot bath, weakness in warm weather, aversion to

heat and desire for cold. It is the state of Pulsatilla. The Pulsatilla

veins contract in cold weather, and the shrivelling up makes the

patient feel better, but the veins fill and become engorged in the warm

air and after a hot bath. A tepid bath sometimes makes a Pulsatilla

patient feel better, but a Turkish bath is generally distressing. Many

of the complaints of ACsculus are of this sort ; .^sculus often feels

better in cold air. The symptoms of .iEsculus are often brought out

by temperature, especially the little stinging pains. It is characteristic of these superficial pains that they are nearly always ameliorated

by heat, while the deeper affections are oftentimes ameliorated from

cold. Now, in Pulsatilla, the stinging pains of the scalp and those

uESCtXLUS HIPPOCASTANUM

3*

over the body, here and there, are often ameliorated by the local application of heat, while the patient himself wants to be in the cold ; in the

same way ^sculus stinging pains are better from heat, while the patient is often better from cold, although at times he is aggravated from

cold, damp weather in rheumatic and venous conditions. Again, in

Secale, we see that the little sharp pains that follow the course of the

nerves are better from heat, but the patient himself wants to be in the

cold air, or to be uncovered, except the spot of pain, which he wants

kept warm. We notice the same thing running through Camphor;

during the twinges of pain he wants the windows closed and wants hot

applications ; but as soon as the pain is over he wants the windows

up and desires to be uncovered so that he can breathe. These arc

general things, things that are to be observed in analyzing symptoms.

.^sculus then is a venous remedy, engorged and full, sometimes to

bursting. Now, there is another feature 1 want to bring out. You

will notice where congestion takes place that it is purple or blue in

color. This remedy produces inflammation of the throat, the characteristic being that it is very dark. It has the tendency to produce varicose veins and ulceration, and round about these we have marked

duskiness. Aisculus cures varicose leg ulcers with a purplish areola.

When we study the haemorrhoidal state we sec the tumor is purple,

looking almost as if it would slough. The remedy is not active in its

inflammatory state, it is sluggish and passive. Certain remedies produce a slight inflammation M^ith a high degree of redness, everything

is violent and rapid, but in this medicine things are slow ; the activities

are reduced, the heart is laboring and the veins arc congested.

“Eructations: sour, greasy, bitter.” “Desire to vomit.” "'Heartburn and gulping up of food after eating,'' It has a great disturbance

of digestion, and we can see by these symptoms that we must class it

with Phosphorus and Ferrum, As soon as the patient has swallowed

the food, or a little while after, it becomes sour and he eructates it,

until after a while he has emptied the stomach of its contents. Such

is the state of Phosphorus, Ferrum, Arsenicum, .^Esculus and a few

other medicines, .^sculus has also a state of congestion and ulceration of the stomach. “Constant distress and burning in the stomach,

inclination to vomit.” Such a state as this might be present in ulceration of the stomach.

The abdomen is full of trouble. If w'c read the symptoms of the

right hypochondriiim, of the abdomen and of the rectum, we shall see

from the study of these that there must be a marked portal stasis.

Digestion is slow, the bowels are constipated and there is protrusion

of the rectum when at stool. It has most troublesome hemorrhoids

• ▸with fullness of the right hypochondrium.
• ▸The liver is full of suffering.
• ▸After eating there is distress in the bowels and rectum.
• ▸Stick-

3 ^

^SCULUS HIPPOCASTANUM

ing, jagging, burning pains, as if the rectum were full of sticks. Great

sullering with blind haemorrhoids. The haemorrhoidal veins are all

distended and ulcerate. The stool becomes jammed into the rectum,

against these distended veins, and then ulceration takes place with

bleeding and great suflEcring. This remedy is often supposed to be

suitable to haemorrhoids that do not bleed, but it cures bleeding piles

also. We find in the text over two pages devoted to the symptoms of

the rectum. Great soreness ; much pain ; urging to stool ; dark stool

followed by white one, showing the liver engorgement. Chronic constipation.

The back is the scat of much trouble, especially low down in the

back, through the sacrum and hips ; although there is also aching all

along the back and pain in the back of the neck. It is a very common

thing for patients suffering from haemorrhoids to have pain in the

back of the neck and base of the brain, basilar headaches, and when

these haemorrhoidal patients undertake to walk tliey have pain and

aching across the sacrum into the hips. This pam through the sacrum

and into the hips^ W'hen walking, is a striking feature of ^Ssculus, so

striking that you may expect it to be present even when there are no

haemorrhoids.

Constant dull backache ; walking is almost impossible ; scarcely able

to rise or walk after sitting. You will see one suffering from the

^sculus backache, on attempting to rise from sitting, make many

painful efforts before be finally succeeds. This is found in Sulphur,

Petroleum and is also cured by Agaricus.

i^lsculus is indicated oftentimes in the troubles of women, with great

dragging pain in the pelvis. Many a time has .^sculus cured the

dragging-down pain of the pelvis with copious leucorrhoea and press^

ing pain in the hips when walking. The woman feels that the uterus

is engorged. She says that the lower part of the abdomen feels full,

both before and during menstruation. There is much suffering at this

time with pains in the hips. '‘Uterine soreness, with throbbing in the

hypogastrium.*' “Old cases of leucorrhoea, discharge of a dark yellow color, thick and sticky.” “Leucorrhoea, with lameness in the back

across sacroiliac articulations,^* During pregnancy there are many

complaints, with soreness and fulness and uneasy consciousness of the

uterus and pain across the back when walking.

-^sculus is full of gouty sufferings; gout in all the joints, gouty

rheumatic affections, neuralgic affections. Especially in this rheumatic

tendency found from the elbows to the hands, in the forearm and

hands. Rending, tearing pains, flying hither and thither without any

particular order, relieved by heat. Varicose veins of the thighs and

legs have been cured by ^Esculus {Fluoric acid). This vericose tendency in the body we have already seen is a striking feature of .^sculus.

^THUSA CYNAPIUM

After the sore throat has passed away, engorged veins are left, which

-/Esculus sometimes cures. After eye troubles have been cured, varicose veins remain in the eye. With rheumatic complaints there are

varicose veins. It is one of the most frequently indicated remedies

in the haemorrhoidal constitution, as it used to be called.

^THUSA CYNAPIUM

Before ALthusa was known a certain class of cases of cholera infantum, and vomiting and diarrhoea in children, all resulted fatally,

because there was no remedy that looked like such serious cases.

Death is stamped on the face from the beginning, and if there are any

remedies in the book that save life this is one of them. It applies to

the cases that come on very suddenly in hot weather in infancy, with

extreme prostration. The mother does not suspect the child is sick

until she takes it from the crib ; only a few hours before it was well ;

but when cholera infantum is prevalent in hot weather, this little one

fills its stomach with milk and almost before it has had time to coagulate or form into curds the milk comes up partly in curds and partly

liquid, and accompanying the vomiting there is a thin, yellow greenish, slimy stool. The child has the appearance as if it were dying,

pale hippocratic face, there is a whitish-blue pallor around the lips, the

eyes are sunken and there hi a sunken condition around the nose. The

mother is astonished and sinds for the doctor hurriedly. The child

sinks into an exhausted sleep. It wakes up and again fills the stomach

with milk which comes up again in a few minutes, partly in curd and

partly liquid, and again there is the awful exhaustion, deathly appearance and prolonged sleep. Without ^thusa, in two or three days the

undertaker gets that child. That is pretty nearly the whole story of

^thusa.

It has delirium, it has excitement, it has mental disturbances of various kinds, but they are acute and accompany the brain troubles. A

certain class of infants come down sick in the hot weather, in the hot

nights, and they get brain trouble, and from that time the stomach

quits business, the bowels become relaxed, and everything put into the

stomach either comes up or goes right through. This occurs especially

in those infants that have been fed as the ordinary everyday mother

feeds her baby, and how is that ? Every time it cries she puts it to the

breast or feeds it. Well, now ; let us think a bit. Every doctor ought

to think a little, once in a while. Now meditate a trifle as to whether

that is a wise or foolish thing to do. It takes about two hours or two

hours and a half for the ordinary baby’s stomach to transact good

wholesome business in digesting the milk taken, and it ought to have

^TIIUSA CYNAPIUM

a rest of half an hour or so, and when we get up to three hours and

the baby cries then it is probably hungry and will be glad to take some

more and digest it. Any shorter interval of feeding than that is bad

practice. It would be just the same thing if the child should take half

a teacupful of milk and let it partly digest, and in a little while take

a little more, and then laicr add a little more. It commences to spit

up its food and it is sour, and the very first spell of hot weather that

comes brings on head trouble. Only the toughest children will stand

this bad method. I have watched these children and seen them stand

it until the summer. The doctor must put his foot down, and put it

down violently, and make them see he means it. The old woman

comes in and says: “That doctor does not know anything’’ and the

baby must be fed. Now ASthusa suits improperly fed babies. It is

at the head of the list of medicines for that condition ; that is, when

digestion has absolutely ceased from brain trouble. So far as busy

doctors have discovered the call for this remedy, it has been mostly

among babies, but adults sometimes take on an .^5^thusa state, when

digestion has absolutely ceased from brain trouble and from excitement. It has cured dyspepsia from constant feeding, in those nibblers,

those hungry fellows who are always earing, always nibbling, always

taking crackers in their pockets until there comes a time w^hen the

stomach ceases to act. It also suits cases of indigestion from head

troubles, with hot head, vomiting, exhaustion, sweat and long sleep.

iEthusa has convulsions in children. Sometimes the brain trouble

docs not affect the stomach, but the child goes into convulsions, with

clammy hands, deathly countenance, and the sweat, exhaustion and

sleep. “Convulsions, great weakness and prostration, with sleepiness.

Dosing of the child after vomiting and after stool, with convulsions.”

In the .^Ilthusa patient there is much in the face and aspect to indicate a remedy ; so much can be seen and comes within the observation,

and so little questioning is necessary, that a sort of snap-shot prescribing can be done, but it is not to be recommended. A busy physician, one who really and truly studies his Materia Medica, and has

learned the principles, will in time do a great deal of what seems to

be snap-shot prescribing, but he really docs not do so, because he puts

together many things that outsiders would not think of. ./Ethusa then

shows itself upon the surface, whereas in many remedies there is nothing seen upon the surface, lx?cause they manifest themselves in inner

or deeper sensations. Let me lay a case before you to illustrate this.

For instance, take a robust looking fellow, who declares himself fairly

well, out to lunch with you. You have noticed for some time that his

nose is all the time peeling off ; at once there is a star. He never talks

about his health. Pretty soon, while lunching, the door slams and he

jumps. That is the second point. Then he tells you how much he

flow. Suddenly the blood vessels become engorged and ooze, the

blood vessels rupture and the capillaries ooze.

Inflammation of the ear comes on just as suddenly. 'Throbbing,

intense, cutting pains in the ear.'* The child comes home after being

out in the cold north wind, and is not sufficiently clad, and now it

screams and puts its hand to the car. The attack comes on early in

the evening, after being out in the daytime. Fever and anxiety ; child

• ▸must be carried.
• ▸The suffering is intense.
• ▸Noise intolerable.
• ▸Music

goes through every limb, so intense is the sense of hearing. Everywhere in the body will we find that same intense condition of the

nerves. Wherever there are complaints they are intense, violent, and

the patient is always in a state of anxiety and irritability. “Stinging,

burning, rending, tearing, cutting pains in the ear.’’

Coryza if attended with violent headache, coming on in the night

after exposure and taking cold during the day, suddenly, this shortacting, very quick-acting remedy will be indicated. The coryza that

comes on from Carlo veg. comes on several days after the exposure.

The coryza that comes on from Sulphur also develops several days

after the exposure. The Carlo veg. patient becomes overheated and

takes cold by keeping on his overcoat when he comes into your office.

In Aconite he goes out in cold air with his light clothing, and comes

down, if he is a plethoric individual, before midnight.

But especially is it often inefleated in the coryza of the rosy, chubby,

plethoric baby. Not in the sickly or pale ones. These sickly ones

will come down later; their vital activities are so reduced that their

complaints do not come on sometimes for two or three days. So that

if you take a sickly one and a vigorous one in the same family and

expose them both one will have croup tonight and need Aconite, and

the other will have it the next morning and need Hepar,

Tlie symptoms likely to occur with coryza are nosebleed, headache,

anxiety and fear. The anxious expression is one of the first things

observed in the Aconite sufferer. The Aconite pneumonia will often

show itself on the face. Look at the face ; there is great anxiety. It

shows much of the proving of Aconite. You know there is much in

the expression of the face that will enable one to read all that is going

on in the body ; it tells the story. The pleasures and sadness, and the

distress of the human family, much of which you can generalize, and

see at a glance that some great thing has happened. You have only

to guess once or twice before you hit it. Here you have the anxiety.

“One cheek red and the other pale” is in a good many remedies, but

the anxious expression, and the fear, and the heat, and the restlessness,

and the suddenness with which it comes on in a plethoric individual —

yesterday it was very dry and windy — and you will at once place this

one symptom with Aconite. But it might be one of several other

,5 aconitum napellus

remedies, were other conditions present. ‘^Neuralgic pains in the face,

like hot wires running along either side of the face/' The individual

rides in the cold, raw wind, and his face was exposed to the cold wind.

He becomes numb, then pain sets in, intense pain. He cries out and

shrieks with the knife-like cutting pains. Aconite will relieve.

^‘Crawling, creeping like ants"; Aconite has that sensation along the

course of the nerves. It has a sensation like ice water poured along

the course of the nerves. vSciatica when the sensation is felt down the

nerve like ice water. ‘^Creeping, tingling and crawling in the face,

with or without pain," There is intense heat, intense fever in the face.

The side of the face laid on will often break into a sweat, and if tht

patient turns over, that side will at once become dry, and the other

side will at once break out in a sweat.

Oh, what a comforting remedy it is for toothache. It has been so

useful in toothache that nearly every old lady nowadays knows enough

to put a drop of Aconite on a bit of cotton and put it in the old hollow

tooth. It will quite often palliate. A does of Aconite will act much

better. But the violence of the toothache ; again the same old story,

from the dry, cold winds, plethoric individuals, with hollow teeth, pain

intense, cutting, shooting pains in the teeth. Sometimes these pains

are in sound teeth and affect the whole row of teeth. Violent pains

from exposure, such as riding in the wind. The pains are relieved

and go away speedily after a dose of Aconite.

Disturbances of taste, disordered stomach. Everything tastes biticr,

except water ; and, oh, how the Aconite patient longs for water. It

seems almost impossible for him to get water enough and it agrees

%vell.

Burning is a symptom that runs all through the remedy, you will

find it descriptive of all the pains. Burning in the head, burning along

the course of nerves, burning in the spine, burning in fever, sometimes

burning as if covered with pepper.

Aconite is a very useful medicine in inflammation of the throat,

when there is burning, smarting, dryness, great redness of the tonsils,

or the fauces, the whole throat. Sometimes the soft palate is greatly

swollen. A high grade of inflammation, acute inflammation of all that

can be seen and called throat. But that alone would not indicate

Aconite. It cures that kind of case, it cures inflammation of the throat,

but every homoeopathic physician knows that forty or fifty remedies

could be selected just as well as Aconite from all that I have said. I have

only mentioned a nondescript case. No homoeopathic physician could

prescribe upon that kind of evidence. But you note the kind of throat —

every physician must ask himself the question: 'What would make

that kind of a throat an Aconite case?'' And then the question would

come up, coujd h^ not prescribe for it as wcU if be had not seen the

*7

throat? The throat does not do much towards representing, ta an

intelligent physician, the patient. If it was necessary to represent to

the mind of the physician the inflamed part itself, how would he treat

• ▸the liver?
• ▸He cannot see it.
• ▸How would he prescribe for the stomach ?
• ▸He cannot see it.
• ▸We are then compelled to fall back upon that

which represents to the intelligent physician the very nature of the

patient himself, and then at once we will see the reason for some of

these things. If you present and Aconite patient well before the mind

you can prescribe. It would be well to see anything that is visible.

If you could see the liver, I would say look at it. If you could sec the

heart, I would say examine it.

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

course, any soreness of the throat makes it difficult swallow. I mean

to infer that there is nothing in the soreness to represent to the physician. the Aconite patient. If that individual were a plethoric individual, if he had been riding in a cold, raw wind a good part of the day,

and he had wakened in the night with a violent burning, tearing sore

throat, and he could not swallow, and the fever came on high, and he

had thirst for cold water and he could not get enough of it, he was

in an anxious, feverish state, you have then a patient to prescribe for.

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

know just what the patient looks like. The black man will sometimes

give the best kind of a description, better than the Vassar girl, who

writes us : ‘‘Doctor, will y|)u please send the medicine ; I have looked

into the throat and it is rtd.''

With the stomach syrtiptoms M^hat an anxious patient we havel

The pains arc dreadful. Burning pains, tearing pains, with anxiety,

with restlessness, with fever, coming on from taking cold — not from

overeating, but from taking cold, which has settled in the stomach,

from exposure to an ice bath, or in a very hot summer from intense

heat, associated with an irritable brain in vigorous children. Vomiting

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

the general stomach trouble. During this febrile state he craves bitter

things, wine and beer, and brandy, but they will come up as soon as

• ▸they reach the stomach.
• ▸He craves pungent things, nothing tastes bitter enough.
• ▸‘Tf he could only get something bitter.
• ▸’’ And yet his

food tastes bitter, everything he eats tastes bitter, everything except

water.

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

It is a very sharp, acute inflammation of the stomach. Retching, vomiting, of bile, vomiting of blood. Ineffectual urging to vomit, when

there is nothing in the stomach^ With it there will be amiety, restr

l8

lessness, fear of death. The fear depicted upon the countenance makes

an awful expression.

Aconite is a useful medicine in inflammation of the liver, when it

comes suddenly. It is not very useful in repeated attacks, but in the

flrst attack. Violent inflammation of the liver, with violent tearing

pains and much burning. Then comes the restlessness, the awful

tortures of anxiety, moving constantly, fear of death, red face, glassy

eyes, great thirst. “Anxious restlessness” covers nearly all of these

things.

In the abdomen there are shooting pains, burning, stinging pains,

after exposure to cold, becoming chilled. We will soon come to think

that it does not make much difference where the disorder occurs, we

must have the Aconite patient. We also have inflammatory troubles

of all the viscera of the abdomen. It may be a violent catarrhal inflammation. It may be a catarrhal condition of the lower portion of

the colon, or a catarrhal condition of the rectum, when we will have

a dysentery. In dysentery, that which is found in the commode is

almost pure blood, blood and a little slime. It seems impossible for

him to leave the commode. Vomiting a little blood and passing bloody

mucus from the rectum. Always they will predict they will die tonight, or in a few hours. They look as if they realized the sensation

of death. The whole body is in a state of anguish, but the tenesmus

and cramp, the urging to stool are simply terrible. It has a watery

diarrhoea, but that is not a very important symptom, although it is

doubly marked in Hering. But when pure blood is passed, and mucus,

with tenesmus, or when a little green mucus is passed by infants with

summer troubles, pure blood or grass-green discharges with fever coming on suddenly, in bright, rosy little ones, think of Aconite. Most

of the bowel troubles come on from intense heat, in the children. The

infant takes on inflammation of the liver from the heat, and the stool

becomes white like milk, of putty consistency. The child becomes

yellow and screams with pain.

• ▸It is useful in urinary troubles, bladder and kidney troubles.
• ▸Inflammatory conditions, and with bloody urine.
• ▸Scanty urine, suppressed urine, or retained urine.
• ▸Retention from shock.
• ▸This retention

from shock makes it one of our best remedies for retention in the

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

At your next visit the nurse says, “The child has not passed urine.”

The functions of that little one are not yet established, because of the

^reat shock the little one has gone throughu

^ Inflammation of the bladder, with cutting, tearing pains. Burning'

pains with burning urine. Urine is hot, dark, colored red ; red and

Clear, or bloody. Retention from cold, especially in children, with

x^aig and fesUessness. With Inflammatory conditions of the blad*

ACONtniM MAPEULUS

»9

der, either in adults or in infants, there will be all the mental states

representing the Aconite patient.

Aconite cures most violent cases of orchitis, which come on suddenly. Orchitis from cold, from being chilled, in plethoric men. But

in the common orchitis from suppressed gonorrhoeal discharges Aconite

is useless.

The woman is a natural Aconite patient, with her sympathetic natural sensitiveness. She usually takes on complaints from nervous

shock, from fear, and she naturally takes on complaints from causes

other than those from which men take on sickness. It is very seldom

that fear will give a man inflammation, but fear is a common cause of

inflammation of the uterus, and of the ovaries, in plethoric, vigorous,

excitable women. Fear will often cause abortion, but when Aconite

is given early enough it will check the abortion that comes from fear.

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

woman will say, “Doctor, there is no use your planning for my confinement. I know I am going to die in that confinement.” If there is

any one thing that is a really strong symptom to prescribe on it is that,

A dose of Aconite, and then change the subject, she goes away, and in

a few days you ask her about that fear and she says, “Oh, never mind

that.” Many little things like that can be singled out.” But that state

of fear is a very peculiar thing, and really represents the whole nature

and being of the woman. 'She predicts the day of her death. The

reason that Aconite is so oftin the infant’s remedy is because the infant

is so often made sick front fright.

“Inflammation of the genitals in plethoric women.” Aconite is more

frequently indicated in women and children than in men. Sensitive,

vigorous, excitable women. It is indicated in men in inflammatory

conditions from becoming chilled in dry, cold air, and it is wonderful

how you can convince a patient who needs Aconite what wonderful

things there are in Homoeopathy by showing him how rapidly, with

Aconite, you can put him in a sweat and break up a sharp fever when

that is a recent and single attack.

• ▸“After tedious and difficult parturition.
• ▸Violent after-pains.
• ▸Shooting, tearing after-pains, with febrile conditions.
• ▸” Uterine haemorrhage

with bright red blood and fear of death. It is wonderful what Aconite

will do in some cases arising from taking cold in the puerperal state,

but do not mix that up with puerperal fever. The first is a simple

form, non-septic ; perhaps the breast is involved, with soreness in the

breast, suppression of the milk and febrile conditions ; but if there is

suppression of the lochia do not give Aconite.

New-born children, with difficulty of breathing, after the use of

forceps, or from a tedious labor; the child is breathless, there is tUfficuity with the heart, and in a few hours fever comes on. Aconite is

a very simple remedy. The retention of urine in the infant is so commonly an Aconite condition that you will hardly ever need to use any

other medicine. The little one cannot yet talk, it cannot manifest very

much, and, to a certain extent, the practitioner is compelled to be somewhat routine in these affairs, and the routine practitioners have been

more or less successful with Aconite for the retention of the urine.

Again, it is true that in many cases, of retention of the urine in the

mother, it will disappear after a dose of Causticum,

Aconite is a great routine croup remedy, one that is misused ; but

it is indicated in all those cases of croup which come on suddenly in

plethoric children, from exposure to dry, cold wind, having been out

in the cold wind with the mother during the day. The child is put to

bed and rouses up from the first sleep, perhaps at 9 or 10 or ii o’clock,

grasps the throat, coughs violently, a croupy, choking cough, with

hoarse bark. Hardly any other remedy can correspond to that rapidity

of action, taking cold in the daytime and developing itself so suddenly.

Croup that conies on from exposure today, and does not develop until

tomorrow morning or tomorrow evening, may correspond to quite a

number of other remedies, but especially IlcpaT^ which is slower in its

pace. And it is more suitable in children somewhat run down and

subject to frequent attacks of croup. Spongia is also similar, but it

lacks many of the elements more likely to occur in run-down children,

those always taking cold. It would be a difficult matter to distinguish

between the appearance of the Aconite and the Sppngia croup so far

as the croup is concerned, because both have all the anxious appearance found in croup. The Aconite croup is a violent croup, inflammation of the larynx, and, at the same time, spasms of the larynx, coming on with great rapidity. The Spongia croup is less inflammatory,

the inflammation grows with the spasms ; but while Spongia may rouse

up at II o’clock at night, suffocating and choking, it has not the intense

tebnlc excitement that belongs to Aconite, nor the anguish, although

It has all the dryness that is found in Aconite. Aconite conditions are

dry as a usual thing, or there is only a little watery discharge. Spongia

IS entirely dry; if there is an inflamed mucous membrane, it is dry

We have in the croup symptoms in Aconite: Larynx sensitive to

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

^ Aconite is full of disturbances of respiration, dyspnoea from contracnon of the smaller bronchial tubes, which we find resembles asthma.

It IS indicated in that dyspnoea that belongs to capillary bronchitis, in

that dyspnoea that belongs to cardiac excitement in plethoric persons,

from taking cold, becoming exposed or from shock. Dyspnoea from

fear, such as occurs in nervous women, excitable, easily affected

nervous, plethoric women. Breathing short, labored, anxious, quick!

It IS an asthmatic dyspnoea and there is usually dryness of the mucous

membranes of the small bronchial tubes.

“Sits up straight and can hardly breathe/' Aconite has such a sudden violent cardiac irritation, pulse fluttering, weak, full and bounding ;

sits up in bed, grasps the throat, w^ants everything thrown off ; before

midnight, a hot skin, gre<it thirst, great fear — everything is associated

together.

“Anguish with dyspnoea. Sudden attacks of pain in the heart, with

dyspnoea/' All go together* “Great suffocation." From this fear

and from anxiety he breaks out in profuse sweat ; he is drenched with

• ▸sweat — and yet his is hot.
• ▸When this anxiety passes off he becomes hot.
• ▸So there is heat and sweat with this awful anxiety.
• ▸Pulse

like a thread

Rheumatic pains in the joints, with heat and swelling. —Aching in the

limbs.—Excessive muscular soreness—Rheumatism affecting the bellies of the

muscles.—Trembling of the fingers when writing.—Trembling in the limbs, is scarcely able to

walk.—Uneasy feeling in limbs, causing restlessness.