Arsenicum Album

• ▸Arsenic is the horse's remedy; as Puls.
• ▸is the sheep's, and Antim.
• ▸crud.
• ▸the

pig's. The reprehensible fashion of "doctoring" horses with Arsenic is merely an abuse of a

therapeutic fact. The horse is an animal on whose power of endurance and "wind" enormous

demands are made, and Arsenic is the remedy for the effects of feats of prolonged endurance.

The Arsenic habit of the Styrian mountaineers has arisen from the discovery of its power of

strengthening the muscles both of the limbs and of the breathing apparatus. But in another way

the horse typifies the Arsenic temperament. The mental symptoms of my drug, when

pronounced, carry precedence of all others. The horse is an exceedingly nervous animal,

constantly moving about, restless to a degree, and very prone to take fright—quite a picture of the

Arsenic temperament. According to Teste Arsen. acts much more powerfully on vegetable-eating

animals than on carnivora (opp. Nux v.); and it is suited to the effect's of excess of vegetable diet,

melons, strawberries, and fruits in general, especially watery fruits.

The arsenic-eaters of the Tyrol can take as much as six grains of white arsenic, or the sulphide,

every two days. They maintain that it imparts a sense of invigoration and enables them to carry

enormous loads up perpendicular mountains. According to one account it is resorted to by

populations who live on vegetable food almost exclusively. "It strengthens the muscles," an old

indulger in the habit is reported to have said, "helps to digest our coarse bread and potatoes, and

allows us to breathe freely and easily. Meat-eaters have no need for such a thing, but with us it is

a necessity." It is difficult to say how far this is a directly "tonic," effect, and how far curative of

the dyscrasia generated by the conditions of life. The fine skin and glossy hair of the young

women among the arsenic-eating populations is remarkable, and is comparable to the fine coats

of arsenic-fed horses. On the other hand, "staring coat" in animals, and "dry, rough, scaly,

unhealthy-looking skin" in human beings are keynote indications for the remedy. In this

connection may be mentioned the effects on the crew of the ship Zion, which carried arsenic as a

portion of its cargo. This was exposed somewhat to the sun's rays, and the crew noticed a

peculiar smell. Soon they all began to notice themselves growing stout, and on reaching

Philadelphia from England they had all gained much, one to the extent of two stones in weight.

Restlessness is one of the grand characteristics of Arsenic. Even the stupor of Arsenic is

interrupted by fits of restlessness with anxious moaning. Patients are anxious, full of the fear of

death, restlessness compelling them to frequently change their position. Hence the applicability

of the drug in many nervous affections, notably chorea. Jerks and starts on falling asleep.

Irritability, desperately angry; almost furious. Despair, hopelessness, unutterable misery. The

irritability and sadness of malarial cachexias; of the cachexias of quinine, mercury, and syphilis.

Low types of disease; typhoid states. Inflammations of great intensity with tendency to

destruction of tissue. Burning, lancinating pains. Burning is another of the leading characteristics

of Arsenic. No other remedy has it in more pronounced degree. The peculiarity of the "burnings"

• ▸of Ars.
• ▸is that they are > by heat (herein comparing with Capsic.
• ▸).
• ▸The burning in the throat is >

by eating or drinking hot things. On the other hand cold food and cold drinks < stomach

irritations; hence Ars. is of signal use for effects of eating ices and drinking ice-water. Arsen.

affects the entire alimentary tract. The lips are so dry and parched and cracked that the patient

often licks them to moisten them. The mouth is aphthous, ulcerated, or gangrenous. The stomach

is So irritable that the least food or drink causes distress or vomiting, or stool or both together.

Abdominal pains are intense, causing the patient to turn and twist. H¢morrhoids are exceedingly

• ▸painful as if burning needles plunged in.
• ▸States of lowered vitality.
• ▸The Prostration of Arsen.
• ▸is

remarkable. With it there is the desire to move or be moved constantly. The patient is exhausted

from the slightest exertion. Exhaustion is not felt while lying still, but as soon as he moves he is

surprised to find himself so weak. The prostration seems out of proportion to the rest of his

• ▸illness.
• ▸Must lie down.
• ▸Exhaustion from hill-climbing, breathless, sleepless.
• ▸Thirst for little and

• ▸often (Ant.
• ▸t.
• ▸, Lyc.
• ▸), wants it very cold and immediately rejects it (Phos.
• ▸as soon as it becomes

• ▸warm).
• ▸Before and after the cough of Arsenic there is an attack of asthma (Phos.
• ▸) Arsen.
• ▸has a

great place in acute coryza and hay-fever. The fluent coryza is corrosive, reddening the upper lip,

and has more burning than either Merc. or Cepa. Also it is < out of doors, and > in warmth,

which distinguishes it from Cepa especially. Arsenic is predominantly right-sided. The

neuralgias affect the right side most; the right lung ("acute, sharp, fixed or darting pain in apex

and through upper third of right lung") is more affected than the left; also the right side of the

abdomen, hence typhlitis. Many dropsical conditions are controlled by Arsen. Especially has it

done brilliant work in cases of hydrothorax. It has been called the "liquid trochar," on account of

the expeditions way in which it will remove a watery effusion. The patient cannot lie down; must

sit up to breathe; anxious; restless; < about | a.m.

It is suited to the full plethoric habit. Puffiness in one of its characteristics; and from this to

• ▸dropsy.
• ▸All mucous membranes are irritated.
• ▸The skin is cold and clammy.
• ▸Scurfy eruptions.

Bran-coloured scales on head coming down to forehead. Arsenic has cured epithelioma of the

lips and closely corresponds to the cancerous diathesis. Many cures of cancer have been reported

under its use, both in the crude and in potencies. When the subjective symptoms of Arsen. are

present, it will cure in the potencies. When the homsopathicity is more crude the lower potencies

will be required: in this case the Arsen. appears to act directly on the cancerous tissue and

cancerous elements in the system.

Arsenic is a hémorrhagic: it acts on both blood and blood-vessels. Varices burn like fire. Anémia,

chlorosis, py¢mia all come within the scope of Arsenic, which corresponds also to states

resulting from losses of blood, as venesection, metrorrhagia, h¢moptysis.

The Conditions, especially of time and temperature, are all-important with Arsenic. Unless these

correspond in the patient, failure will be more frequent than success. Arsenic is one of the

greatest of periodics. I once treated some members of a family who all had attacks of fever of

short duration, recurring regularly every six weeks, from living in rooms papered with arsenical

papers. Its periods are: every day; every third or fourth day; every fortnight; every six weeks;

every year. There is pronounced night aggravation, the pains are unsupportable with restlessness.

• ▸< Midnight and after (Acon.
• ▸is rather before midnight); < 3 a.
• ▸m.
• ▸There is < from cold and damp;

• ▸> warmth.
• ▸Arsen.
• ▸loves warmth like Nux v.
• ▸, Psor.
• ▸, Hepar, Silic.
• ▸, Mag.
• ▸mur.
• ▸and other

• ▸hydrogenoids, and herein is differentiated from Su/.
• ▸, Ant.
• ▸crud.
• ▸, Iod.
• ▸, Apis, and Puls.
• ▸Arsen.
• ▸hugs

the fire and likes warm wraps. < Lying on affected side, or with head low. > Lying with head

high.

• ▸Chill in the water.
• ▸Eating ices.
• ▸Poor diet.
• ▸Fruits, ailments from.
• ▸Drunkenness.

Effects of tobacco; of quinine; of iodine. Sea-bathing and sea-travelling. Climbing mountains.

• ▸Strains.
• ▸Fit of passion.
• ▸Care.
• ▸Grief.
• ▸Fright.

• ▸Great anguish and restlessness. Changes place continually. Fears, of death, of being left alone.
• ▸Great fear, with cold sweat.
• ▸Thinks it useless to take medicine.
• ▸Suicidal.
• ▸Hallucinations of smell and sight.
• ▸Despair drives him from place to place.
• ▸Miserly, malicious, selfish, lacks courage.
• ▸General sensibility increased (Hep).
• ▸Sensitive to disorder and confusion.

Melancholy, sometimes of a religious character, sadness, care, chagrin, cries and

complaints.—Anguish, driving one out of bed at night, and from one place to another in the

daytime.—Restlessness.—Great fear of being left alone—Anger, with anxiety, restlessness and

sensation of coldness.—Anxiety, restlessness, and excessive anguish which allows no rest,

principally in the evening in bed, or in the morning on waking, and often with trembling, cold

sweat, oppression of the chest, difficulty of breathing, and fainting fits Anxiety of conscience,

as if a crime had been committed.—Inconsolable anguish, with complaints and

lamentation —Hypochondriacal humour, with restlessness and anxiety —Fear of solitude, of

spectres, and of robbers, with desire to hide oneself:—Indecision and changeable humour, which

demands this at one time, that at another, and rejects everything after having obtained

• ▸it.
• ▸—Despair; he finds no rest, esp.
• ▸at night, with anguish.
• ▸—Despondency, despair, weariness of

life, inclination to suicide, or excessive fear of death, which is sometimes believed to be very

near.—Too great sensibility and scrupulousness of conscience, with gloomy ideas, as if one had

offended all the world.—Ill-humour, impatience, vexation, inclination to be angry, repugnance to

conversation, inclination to criticise, and great susceptibility—Caustic and jesting

spirit.—Extreme sensibility of all the organs; all noise, conversation, and clear lights are

• ▸insupportable.
• ▸—Great apathy and indifference.
• ▸—Great weakness of memory.
• ▸—Stupidity and

• ▸dulness.
• ▸—Delirium.
• ▸—Delirium, with great flow of ideas.
• ▸—Loss of consciousness, and of

sensation; dotage; maniacal actions and frenzy.—Madness; loss of mind (from the abuse of

alcoholic drinks).

Paroxysms of suffering with anxiety, coldness, rapid failure of strength, and

wish to lie down.—Burning, chiefly in the interior of the parts affected, or sharp and drawing

pains.—Nocturnal pains, which are felt even during sleep, and which are so unbearable that they

excite despair and fury.—Aggravation of suffering by conversation, as well as after a meal, in the

morning on rising, in the evening in bed, on lying on the part affected, or during repose after

prolonged exercise; mitigated by external heat, as well as by assuming a standing posture, or by

walking, and movement of the body.—Return of sufferings periodically.—Sdematous swellings,

with burning pain in the parts affected——Excessive indolence, and dread of all exertion.—Want of

strength, excessive weakness, and complete asthenia, even to prostration, sometimes with

paralysis of the lower jaw, eyes dull and deep, and mouth open.—Rapid failure of strength, and

sensation of weakness as if from want of food—Inability to walk; the patient is obliged to remain

lying down.—When lying down, the patient feels stronger, but on rising, falls from

weakness.—Deficiency of blood; dropsy of outer and inner parts; inflammation of mucous

membranes; ulcers in the glands —Emaciation and atrophy of the whole body, with colliquative

sweats, great weakness, face earthy, and eyes sunken, with a dark ring surrounding

them.—Violent convulsive attacks, spasms and tetanus.—Epileptic fits, preceded by burning in

the stomach, pressure and heat in the back, extending to the nape of the neck, and to the brain,

with dizziness—Sdematous inflation and swelling of the whole body, chiefly of the head and

face, with enlargement of the abdomen, and engorgement of the glands.—Burning pains of inner

or exterior parts (glands).—Emaciation.—Trembling of the limbs, chiefly the arms and

legs —Trembling of the limbs (in drunkards).—Stiffness and fixedness of the limbs, sometimes

with sharp rheumatic pains.—Paralysis and contraction of the limbs.—Paralysis, especially of the

lower extremities.—Fainting fits, sometimes with dizziness and swelling of the face.—Fainting,

from weakness, with scarcely perceptible pulse.—Sensation of torpor in the limbs, as if they were

dead.

• ▸Headaches relieves by cold, other symptoms worse.
• ▸Periodical burning pains, with restlessness; with cold skin.
• ▸Hemicrania, with icy feeling of scalp and great weakness.
• ▸Sensitive head in open air.
• ▸Delirium tremens; cursing and raving; vicious.
• ▸Head is in constant motion.
• ▸Scalp itches intolerably; circular patches of bare spots; rough, dirty, sensitive, and covered with dry scales; nightly burning and itching; dandruff.
• ▸Scalp very sensitive; cannot brush hair.

Heaviness, sensation of weakness, and confusion in the head, chiefly in a room,

mitigated in the open air.—Stupor and confusion.—Vertigo, principally in the evening, on

shutting the eyes, on walking, or in the open air, and sometimes with tottering, with danger of

falling, intoxication, loss of sense, obscuration of the eyes, nausea, and headache.—Tearing in the

head, with vomiting, when raising up the head.—Pains, throbbing, oppressive, stunning, or

drawing, shooting and burning in the head, often on one side only, and chiefly above one eye, or

at the root of the nose, or in the occiput, and sometimes with inclination to vomit, and buzzing in

the ears.—Tension, tightness, and pain as of a bruise in the head.—Headache > by applying cold

water, or by walking in the open air.—Periodical headaches.—The pains in the head often occur

periodically, and esp. after each meal, in the morning, at night, and in the evening in bed; and

sometimes they are insupportable, and accompanied by tears and wailings, being mitigated for a

moment by cold water, but returning much more strongly afterwards.—Sensation, on moving the

head, as if the brain struck against the cranium.—Cracking or buzzing in the head.—Pain in the

scalp and in the integuments of the head, as if they were ulcerated or bruised, greatly increased

by the slightest touch Excessive swelling of the head and face —Erysipelatous burning,

swelling of the head (face and genitals) with great weakness and coldness; worse at

night —Gnawing or burning itching, scurfy eruptions, pustules, and corroding ulcers on the

scalp.—Eruptions, white, dry, like bran; burning, itching on the forepart of the head; when

scratching it burns and bleeds violently.—Burning, biting boils on the scalp, with sensitiveness to

touch and cold.

• ▸Burning in eyes, with acrid lachrymation.
• ▸Lids red, ulcerated, scabby, scaly, granulated.
• ▸OEdema around eyes.
• ▸External inflammation, with extreme painfulness; burning, hot, and excoriating lachrymation.
• ▸Corneal ulceration.
• ▸Intense photophobia; better external warmth.
• ▸Ciliary neuralgia, with fine burning pain.

Aching, burning, and shooting pains in the eyes, < by light, as also by the movement of

the eyes, accompanied sometimes with a necessity to lie down, or with anguish which does not

permit to rest in bed.—Eyes inflamed and red, with redness of the conjunctiva, or of the

sclerotica, and injection of the veins of the conjunctiva.—Swelling of the eyes.—Inflammatory or

Sdematous swelling of the eyelids.—Inflammation of the eyes and lids, with severe burning

pains.—Inflammation of the inner surface of the eyelids, preventing the opening of the

eye.—Great dryness of the eyelids, chiefly in the edges, and on reading by the light (of a

• ▸candle).
• ▸—Corrosive tears.
• ▸—Agglutination of the eyelids.
• ▸—Spasmodic closing of the eyelids,

sometimes from the effect of light Excessive photophobia.—Specks and ulcers on the

• ▸cornea.
• ▸—Eyes convulsed and prominent; look fixed and furious.
• ▸—Pupils contracted.
• ▸—Y ellowish

colour of the sclerotica.—Yellow colour, spots, or white points and sparks before the eyes.—Blue

colour around the eyes—Weakness, obscuration, and loss of sight.—Eyes dull and deep sunk.

Skin within, raw and burning. Thin, excoriating, offensive otorrhoea. Roaring in ears, during a paroxysm of pain.

Squeezing, sharp pains, shootings, voluptuous tickling and burning in the

ears.—Tinkling, roaring, buzzing and sound, as of bells, in the ears.—Sensation, as if the ears

were stopped, and hardness of hearing, esp. to the human voice.

• ▸Thin, watery, excoriating discharge.
• ▸Nose feels stopped up.
• ▸Sneezing without relief.
• ▸Hay-fever and coryza; worse in open air; better indoors.
• ▸Burning and bleeding.
• ▸Acne of nose.
• ▸Lupus.

Aching pains in the nose.—Swelling of the nose.—Swelling of and burning in the

• ▸nose.
• ▸—Violent bleeding of the nose.
• ▸—Desquamation of the skin of the nose, in furfurs.
• ▸—Knotty

tumours in the nostrils.—Ulceration at the top of the nostrils, with flow of ichor fetid, and of a

bitter taste—Smell of pitch or sulphur before the nose.—Violent sneezing.—Great dryness of the

nostrils.—Fluent coryza; with stopped nose, burning in the nostrils, and secretion of serous and

corrosive mucus.—Cancer of nose.

• ▸Swollen, pale, yellow, cachectic, sunken, cold, and covered with sweat (Acetic acid).
• ▸Expression of agony.
• ▸Tearing needle-like pains; burning.
• ▸Lips black, livid.
• ▸Angry, circumscribed flush of cheeks.

Face pale, hollow, and cadaverous.—Yellowish, bluish, or greenish colour of the

face.—Leaden and earth-coloured tint, with greenish and bluish spots and streaks—Face

discomposed, with distortion of features, or with eyes deep-sunk and having a dark circle around

them, and nose pointed.—Distorted features; death-like countenance.—Redness and bloated

appearance of the face —Hard and elastic swelling of the face, chiefly above the eyelids, and esp.

in the morning.—Swelling of the face, with fainting fits and vertigo.—Papul€¢, pimples, scurfy

• ▸ulcers.
• ▸—Rosacea and mealy tetters in the face.
• ▸—Blackish tint round the mouth.
• ▸—Lips bluish or

black, dry and chapped.—Brownish band in the red part of the lips.—Skin rough and tettery round

the mouth.—Eruption on the mouth and on the lips, near the red part—Cancer of the face and lips

with burning pain.—Hard knots and cancerous ulcers, having thick scurf with lard-like bottoms

on the lips.—Lips excoriated, with a sensation of tingling —Swelling and bleeding of the

lips.—Swelling of the submaxillary glands, with contusive pain, and soreness on being

touched.—Paralysis of the lower jaw.—Drawing stitches here and there in the face.

7. Teeth._Sharp aching pains, or successive pullings in the teeth and gums, chiefly at night,

extending sometimes to the cheek, to the ear, and to the temples; with swelling of the cheek and

insupportable pains, which impel to furious despair, or which are aggravated when one lies on

the diseased side, and mitigated by the heat of the fire —Convulsive grinding of the

teeth.—Sensation of elongation and painful loosening of the teeth, with swelling and bleeding of

the gums.—Pain in teeth > by hot applications.

• ▸Unhealthy, easily-bleeding gums.
• ▸Ulceration of mouth with dryness and burning heat.
• ▸Epithelioma of lips.
• ▸Tongue dry, clean, and red; stitching and burning pain in tongue, ulcerated with blue color.
• ▸Bloody saliva.
• ▸Neuralgia of teeth; feel long and very sore; worse after midnight; better warmth.
• ▸Metallic taste.
• ▸Gulping up of burning water.

Offensive smell from the mouth.—Secretion of abundant tough, fetid, bloody

saliva.—Great dryness of the mouth, or accumulation of saliva, sometimes bitter or bloody.—The

mouth is reddish-blue, inflamed, burning.—Tongue bluish or white.—Ulceration of the tongue,

with blue colour.—Torpor and insensibility of the tongue, as if it were burnt.—Tongue brownish

or blackish, dry, cracked, and trembling —Tongue a bright red—Tongue white as chalk, as if

painted white—Tongue red with a silvery white coat—Tongue stiff like a piece of

wood.—Ulceration of the tongue on the anterior edge.—Swelling, inflammation, or gangrene of

• ▸the tongue.
• ▸—Angina gangrenosa (with aphthc).
• ▸—Aphth¢ in the mouth.
• ▸—Speech rapid, precipitate.

Burning in the throat.—Scraping, sharp pain, with burning in the

throat —Inflammation and gangrene of the throat—Spasmodic constriction of the throat and of

the Ssophagus, with inability to swallow.—Deglutition painful and difficult, as if from paralysis

of the Ssophagus.—Sensation of great dryness in the throat and in the mouth, which induces

continual drinking.—Accumulation of greyish or greenish mucus of salt or bitter taste in the

throat.

Swollen, oedematous, constricted, burning, unable to swallow. Diphtheritic membrane, looks dry and wrinkled.

• ▸Cannot bear the sight or smell of food. Great thirst; drinks much, but little at a time.
• ▸Nausea, retching, vomiting, after eating or drinking.
• ▸Anxiety in pit of stomach.
• ▸Burning pain.
• ▸Craves acids and coffee.
• ▸Heartburn; gulping up of acid and bitter substances which seem to excoriate the throat.
• ▸Long-lasting eructations.
• ▸Vomiting of blood, bile, green mucus, or brown-black mixed with blood.
• ▸Stomach extremely irritable; seems raw, as if torn.
• ▸Gastralgia from slightest food or drink.
• ▸Dyspepsia from vinegar, acids, ice-cream, ice-water, tobacco.
• ▸Terrible fear and dyspnoea, with gastralgia; also faintness, icy coldness, great exhaustion.
• ▸Malignant symptoms.
• ▸Everything swallowed seems to lodge in the oesophagus, which seems as if closed and nothing would pass.
• ▸Ill effects of vegetable diet, melons, and watery fruits generally.
• ▸Craves milk.

Bitter taste in the mouth, chiefly after having drunk or eaten, also in the

morning.—Astringent, or putrid, or acid taste in the mouth.—Food appears acid, insipid, or too

• ▸salt.
• ▸—Insipidity of food.
• ▸—Bitter taste of food, particularly of bread and beer.
• ▸—Complete adypsia;

or violent burning, choking, and unquenchable thirst, making it necessary to drink constantly, but

little at a time.—Desire for cold water, for acids, for brandy, for coffee and milk—Want of

appetite and of hunger, frequently with burning thirst—Insurmountable dislike to all food,

chiefly meat and butter—Everything that is swallowed causes a pressure in the Ssophagus, as if it

had stopped there.—Continual craving, with want of appetite and prompt satiety.—After a meal,

nausea, vomiting, eructations, pains in the stomach, colic, and many other sufferings.—After

having drunk, shivering or shuddering, return of vomiting and diarrhSa, eructations and colic.

Frequent eructations, particularly after having drunk or eaten, mostly empty, acid,

or bitter—Regurgitation of acrid matter, or of bitter greenish mucus.—Frequent and convulsive

hiccoughs, principally in the night—Frequent and excessive nausea, sometimes rising even to the

throat, with inclination to vomit, necessity for lying down, sleep, swooning, trembling,

shuddering, or heat, pains in the feet, &c.—Flow of water from the stomach, like water-

brash.—Vomitings, sometimes very violent, and principally after having drunk or eaten, or at

night, towards the morning; vomiting of food and of drink, or of mucous, bilious, or serous

matter, of a yellowish, greenish, brownish, or blackish colour; vomiting of saguineous

matter.—While vomiting, violent pains in the stomach, sensation of excoriation in the abdomen,

cries, burning internal heat, diarrhsa, and fear of death.—Inflation and tension of the precordial

region and of the stomach.—Excessive pain in the epigastrium, and in the stomach, chiefly on

being touched.—Pressure in the stomach as from a stone, or as if the heart would burst, and

excessive anguish in the precordial region, with complaints and lamentations.—Sensation of

constriction, cramp-like pains, pulling, piercing, and gnawing in the stomach.—Burning in the pit

of the stomach and stomach.—Inflammation or induration of the stomach.—Cramp in the stomach

• ▸(2 a.
• ▸m.
• ▸).
• ▸—Cancer in the stomach.
• ▸—Sensation of cold, or insupportable heat and burning in the

precordial region, and in the stomach.—The pains in the stomach manifest themselves mostly

after a meal, or in the night—Tetters on the pit of the stomach.

• ▸Gnawing, burning pains like coals of fire; relieved by heat.
• ▸Liver and spleen enlarged and painful.
• ▸Ascites and anasarca.
• ▸Abdomen swollen and painful.
• ▸Pain as from a wound in abdomen on coughing.

Compression in the region of the liver.—Swelling of the spleen —Excessive

pains in the abdomen, principally on the left side, and often with great anguish in the

• ▸abdomen.
• ▸—Inflation of the abdomen.
• ▸—Ascites.
• ▸—Swelling of the abdomen as in ascites.
• ▸—Hard

bloated abdomen.—Violent cutting pains, cramp-like pains, digging, pulling, tearing, and

gnawing in the abdomen.—Attacks of colic occur chiefly after having drunk or eaten, or in the

night, and are often accompanied by vomiting or diarrhsa, with cold, internal heat, or cold

sweat.—Burning pains with anguish.—Sensation of cold, or insupportable burning in the

abdomen.—Pain, as from a wound in the abdomen, chiefly on coughing and laughing.—Swelling

and induration of the mesenteric glands.—Much flatulency, with rumbling in the

• ▸abdomen.
• ▸—Flatulency of a putrid smell.
• ▸—Painful swelling of the inguinal glands.
• ▸—Ulcer above

the navel.

Painful, spasmodic protrusion of rectum. Tenesmus. Burning pain and pressure in rectum and anus.

• ▸Small, offensive, dark, with much prostration. Worse at night, and after eating and drinking; from chilling stomach, alcoholic abuse, spoiled meat.
• ▸Dysentery dark, bloody, very offensive.
• ▸Cholera, with intense agony, prostration, and burning thirst.
• ▸Body cold as ice (Verat).
• ▸Haemorrhoids burn like fire; relieved by heat.
• ▸Skin excoriated about anus.

Constipation, with frequent, but ineffectual inclination to

evacuate.—Tenesmus, with burning in the anus.—Involuntary and unperceived

evacuations.—Violent diarrhsa, with frequent evacuations, nausea, vomiting, thirst, great

weakness, colic, and tenesmus.—Nocturnal diarrhsa, and renewal of the diarrhsa, after having

drunk or eaten.—Burning stools, with violent pains in the bowels, with tenesmus, thirst, worse

after eating.—Burning and corrosive evacuations; féces with mucus, or bilious, sanguineous,

serous, painless, involuntary, &c., of greenish, yellowish, whitish colour, or brownish and

blackish; fetid and putrid evacuations; evacuations of undigested substances.—Emission of

mucus by the anus, with tenesmus.—Prolapsus of the rectum: with much pain.—Itching, pain as

from excoriation, and burning in the rectum and in the anus, as well as in the hémorrhoidal

tumours, chiefly at night.—Shootings in the h¢morrhoidal tumours.

Retention of urine, as from paralysis of the bladder.—Frequent inclination

to make water, even at night, with abundant emission.—Incontinence of urine, which escapes

almost involuntarily, even at night, in bed.—Difficult and painful emission of urine.—Scanty

urine, of a deep yellow colour.—Urine aqueous, greenish, brownish, or turbid, with mucus-like

• ▸sediment.
• ▸—Sanguineous urine.
• ▸—Burning in the urethra on making water.
• ▸—Involuntary discharge

of burning urine.

• ▸Scanty, burning, involuntary.
• ▸Bladder as if paralyzed.
• ▸Albuminous.
• ▸Epithelial cells; cylindrical clots of fibrin and globules of pus and blood.
• ▸After urinating, feeling of weakness in abdomen.
• ▸Bright's disease.
• ▸Diabetes.

• ▸Menses too profuse and too soon.
• ▸Burning in ovarian region.
• ▸Leucorrhoea, acrid, burning, offensive, thin.
• ▸Pain as from red-hot wires; worse least exertion; causes great fatigue; better in warm room.
• ▸Menorrhagia.
• ▸Stitching pain in pelvis extending down the thigh.

Venereal desire in women.—Catamenia too early and too copious,

attended by much suffering —Catamenia suppressed, with pains in the sacrum and in the

shoulders.—Leucorrh§a acrid, corrosive, thick, and yellowish.—Scirrhus uteri.

Itching, shooting, and burning in the glans and in the

prepuce.—Inflammation, painful and gangrened swelling of the genital parts —Glans swollen,

cracked, and bluish —Swelling of the testes —Erysipelatous inflammation of the

scrotum.—Nocturnal pollutions.—Flowing of the prostatic fluid during loose stools.

• ▸Unable to lie down; fears suffocation.
• ▸Air-passages constricted.
• ▸Asthma worse midnight.
• ▸Burning in chest.
• ▸Suffocative catarrh.
• ▸Cough worse after midnight; worse lying on back.
• ▸Expectoration scanty, frothy. Darting pain through upper third of right lung.
• ▸Wheezing respiration.
• ▸Haemoptysis with pain between shoulders; burning heat all over.
• ▸Cough dry, as from sulphur fumes; after drinking.

Catarrh, with hoarseness, coryza, and sleeplessness.—Voice rough and

hoarse.—Voice trembling or unequal; at one time strong, at another weak.—Tenacious mucus in

the larynx and the chest.—Bronchitis, with difficult secretion of mucus.—Sensation of dryness

and burning in the larynx.—Spasmodic constriction of the larynx.—Dry cough, sometimes deep,

fatiguing, and shaking, principally in the evening after lying down, or at night, obliging the

patient to assume an erect posture; also after drinking; on being in the fresh and cool air, during

movement, or during expiration, and often with difficulty of respiration, suffocating, contractive

pain, or sensation as of excoriation in the pit of the stomach and the chest; pain, as from a bruise

in the abdomen, shootings in the hypochondria, in the epigastrium, and in the chest, &c.—Arrest

of breathing with cough.—Cough excited by a sensation of constriction and suffocation in the

larynx, as if by the vapour of sulphur.—Respiration oppressed, anxious, short.—Oppressed,

laboured breathing, esp. when ascending a height; in cold air; when turning in bed.—Periodical

attacks of cough.—Cough with expectoration of sanguineous mucus, sometimes with burning

heat over the whole body.—Difficult expectoration, or scanty and frothy.

• ▸Palpitation, pain, dyspnoea, faintness.
• ▸Irritable heart in smokers and tobacco-chewers.
• ▸Pulse more rapid in morning (Sulph).
• ▸Dilatation.
• ▸Cyanosis.
• ▸Fatty degeneration.
• ▸Angina pectoris, with pain in neck and occiput.

Shortness of breath, difficulty of respiration, choking, dyspnsa, and attack of

suffocation, sometimes with cold sweat, spasmodic constriction of the chest or of the larynx,

anguish, great weakness, body cold, pain in the pit of the stomach, and paroxysm of cough.—The

sufferings occur chiefly in the evening in bed, or at night, when lying down; also in windy

weather, in the fresh and cold air, or in the heat of a room, or when warmly clothed, on being

fatigued, on being angry, on walking, on moving, and even on laughing.—Respiration anxious,

stertorous, and wheezing.—Oppression of the chest on coughing, on walking, and on going

upstairs.—Constriction and compression of the chest, sometimes with great anxiety, inability to

speak, and fainting fits—Tension and pressure in the chest.—Stitches and pressing in the

sternum.—Shooting pains in the chest and in the sternum.—Chilliness or coldness in the

chest.—Shivering, or great heat and burning in the chest.—Heat, burning, itching in the

chest.—Yellowish spots on the chest.

Violent and insupportable throbbings of the heart, chiefly when lying on the back,

• ▸and esp.
• ▸at night.
• ▸—Irregular beatings of the heart, sometimes with anguish.
• ▸—Cramp in the

heart.—Heart-beats irritable-—Palpitation with anguish, cannot lie on back; < going

upstairs.—Palpitation and trembling weakness after stool; must lie down.—Palpitation after

• ▸suppressed herpes or foot-sweat.
• ▸—Angina pectoris.
• ▸—Hydropericardium.
• ▸—Fatty degeneration.

Weakness in small of back. Drawing in of shoulders. Pain and burning in back (Oxal ac).

Sdematous, painless swellings of the neck and of the lower jaw.—Tetters

between the shoulder-blades.—Violent and burning pain in the back, powerfully aggravated by

the touch.—Acute drawing pains in the back and between the shoulder-blades, which necessitate

lying down.

Acute drawing pains in the arms and in the hands.—Swelling of the arms,

with blackish pustules of a putrid smell.—Acute drawing pains in the night, beginning from the

elbow and extending to the armpits.—Acute pulling and shooting in the wrists——Cramps in the

fingers.—At night, sensation of fulness and swelling in the palms of the hands.—Excoriation

between the fingers —Hard swelling of the fingers, with pain in the finger-bones.—Ulcers at the

extremities of the fingers, with burning pain.—Discoloured nails.

Cramp in the legs.—Acute drawing pains in the hips, extending to the groins,

the thighs, and sometimes even to the anklebones, with uneasiness, which obliges one to move

the limb constantly.—Tearing and stinging in the hips, legs, and loins.—Tearing in the

tibia—Rheumatic pain in the legs, and esp. in the tibia—Paralytic weakness of the thigh —Pain,

as from a bruise in the joint of the knee.—Old ulcers on lower limbs, with burning and

• ▸lancinating pains.
• ▸—Contraction of the tendons of the ham.
• ▸—Tetters on the ham.
• ▸—Cramps in the

calves of the legs.—Affections of the shin-bones——Burning and shooting ulcers in the

• ▸leg.
• ▸—Itching herpes in the bends of the knee.
• ▸—Varices.
• ▸—Fatigue in the legs and in the

feet.—Swelling of the foot, burning, hard, and shining, with burning vesicles of a blue-blackish

colour on the instep.—Corrosive and ulcerous vesicles on the soles of the feet and on the

toes.—Pains in the fleshy part of the toes, as if they were galled by walking.

• ▸Trembling, twitching, spasms, weakness, heaviness, uneasiness.
• ▸Cramps in calves.
• ▸Swelling of feet.
• ▸Sciatica.
• ▸Burning pains.
• ▸Peripheral neuritis.
• ▸Diabetic gangrene.
• ▸Ulcers on heel (Cepa; Lamium).
• ▸Paralysis of lower limbs with atrophy.

• ▸Itching, burning, swellings; oedema, eruption, papular, dry, rough, scaly; worse cold and scratching.
• ▸Malignant pustules.
• ▸Ulcers with offensive discharge.
• ▸Anthrax.
• ▸Poisoned wounds.
• ▸Urticaria, with burning and restlessness.
• ▸Psoriasis.
• ▸Scirrhus.
• ▸Icy coldness of body.
• ▸Epithelioma of the skin.
• ▸Gangrenous inflammations.

Desquamation of the skin of the body.—Skin dry as parchment, cold and

bluish.—Yellowish colour of the skin ——Shootings, hot itching, and violent burning in the

• ▸skin.
• ▸—Reddish or bluish spots in the skin.
• ▸—Petechi¢.
• ▸—Inflamed spots, as from morbilli, chiefly in

the head, face, and neck.—Miliary eruptions, red and white.—Conical pimples, whitish or reddish,

• ▸with burning itching.
• ▸—Nettle-rash.
• ▸—Eruption of painful black pustules.
• ▸—Eruption of itchy

pimples, small and tickling —Eruption of small red pimples, which increase and change into

gnawing ulcers, covered with a scurf.—Vesicular eruptions.—Herpes, with vesicles, and violently

burning, esp. at night, or with coverings, like fish-scales.—Skin jaundiced; general anasarca;

black blisters.—Pustules filled with blood and pus.—Tettery spots, covered with phlyctené and

furfur, with burning nocturnal pains.—Ulcers with raised and hard edges, surrounded by a red

and shining crown; with the bottoms like lard, or of a blackish-blue colour, with burning pains or

shooting, principally when the parts affected become cold.—Ulcers, hard on the edges, stinging,

burning spongy; with proud flesh; turning black; flat; pus thin, ichorous (cancers).—Fetid smell,

ichorous suppuration, ready bleeding, putridity, and bluish or greenish colour of the ulcers.—Thin

crusts or proud flesh on the ulcers —Spacelus.—Want of secretion in the ulcers.—Carbuncles

• ▸(burning).
• ▸—Inflammatory tumours with burning pains.
• ▸—Warts.
• ▸—Ulcers inform of a

• ▸wart.
• ▸—Chilblains.
• ▸—Varices.
• ▸—Discoloured nails.

• ▸Disturbed, anxious, restless.
• ▸Must have head raised by pillows.
• ▸Suffocative fits during sleep.
• ▸Sleeps with hands over head.
• ▸Dreams are full of care and fear.
• ▸Drowsy, sleeping sickness.

Constant drowsiness, with strong and frequent yawnings.—Nocturnal sleeplessness,

with agitation and constant tossing.—Drowsiness in the evening.—Coma vigil, often interrupted

by groans and grinding of the teeth.—Unrefreshing sleep; in the morning it seems as if more

sleep were needed.—Starting of the limbs when on the point of falling asleep.—During sleep,

startings with fright, groans, talking, querulous exclamations, grinding of the teeth, convulsive

movements of the hands and fingers, sensation of general uneasiness, and tossing.—In sleep,

lying on the back, with the hand under the head.—Light sleep; the slightest noise is heard, though

the patient dreams continually.—Frequent dreams, full of cares, threats apprehensions, repentings

and inquietude; anxious, horrible, fantastic, lively and angry dreams; dreams of storms, of fire, of

black waters and darkness; dreams with meditation.—In the night, jerking of the limbs, heat and

agitation, burning under the skin, as if there were boiling water in the veins, or cold, with

inability to get warm, stifling sensation in the larynx, asthmatic attacks, great agitation, and

anguish at the heart.—Frequent waking during the night, with difficulty in sleeping

again.—Sleeplessness, from anguish and restlessness, with tossing about (after midnight).

• ▸High temperature.
• ▸Periodicity marked with adynamia.
• ▸Septic fevers.
• ▸Intermittent. Paroxysms incomplete, with marked exhaustion. Hay-fever.
• ▸Cold sweats.
• ▸Typhoid, not too early; often after Rhus.
• ▸Complete exhaustion.
• ▸Delirium; worse after midnight.
• ▸Great restlessness.
• ▸Great heat about 3 am.

Cold over the whole body, sometimes with cold and viscid sweat.—General coldness,

with parchment-like dryness of the skin, or with profuse, cold, clammy perspiration.—Chilliness

without thirst; worse after drinking; with stretching of the limbs and restlessness with external

heat at the same time; when walking in the open air.—Shiverings and shuddering, chiefly in the

evening in bed, or on walking in the open air, or after having drunk or eaten, and often with the

addition of other sufferings, such as sharp pains in the limbs, headache, oppression of the chest,

and difficulty of respiration, drawing in the limbs, anxiety and restlessness.—Universal heat,

principally at night, and often with anxiety, restlessness, delirium, heaviness and perplexity in

the head, dizziness, vertigo, oppression and pricking in the chest, redness of the skin,

&c.—Febrile attacks, mostly in the morning or evening, often with shivering and heat slightly

developed, burning thirst or perfect adypsia, quartan or tertian, or sometimes quotidian;

sufferings before the attack, and sweats after, on going to sleep; apyrexia (or shivering or heat),

with great weakness, dropsical affections, pains in the regions of the liver and of the spleen, dull

or shooting headache, sharp and drawing pains in the limbs, in the back and in the head,

pressure, fulness, tension, and burning in the stomach and in the epigastrium, prickings in the

chest and in the sides, difficulty of breathing, anxiety, face puffed, earthy, &c.—Pulse irregular,

or quick, weak, small, and frequent, or suppressed and trembling —Pulse frequent in the

morning, slower in the evening.—Frequent colliquative, or cold and viscid sweats; sweat at night,

or in the evening on going to sleep, or in the morning on waking; partial sweat, chiefly on the

face and legs.—Perspiration at the beginning of sleep, or all night; cold, clammy, smelling sour or

offensive.—During perspiration, unquenchable thirst; after the fever, attack of

headache.—Perspiration, which imparts a yellow colour to the linen and to the skin —During the

sweat, heaviness in the head, buzzing in the ears and trembling of the limbs.

• ▸Abscess.
• ▸Acne rosacea.
• ▸Alcoholism.
• ▸Amenorrhga.
• ▸Anémia.
• ▸Aphthc.
• ▸Asthma.
• ▸Atrophy.

• ▸Bronchitis.
• ▸Brown-ague.
• ▸Cécum, affections of.
• ▸Cancer.
• ▸Cancrum oris.
• ▸Carbuncle.
• ▸Cholera

• ▸Asiatica.
• ▸Cholera.
• ▸Cold.
• ▸Coldness.
• ▸Commissures, soreness of.
• ▸Cough.
• ▸Coxalgia.
• ▸Croup.

• ▸Dandriff.
• ▸Delirium tremens.
• ▸Depression of spirits.
• ▸Diarrhsa.
• ▸Diphtheria.
• ▸Dropsy.
• ▸Duodenum.

• ▸Dyspepsia.
• ▸Ears, affections of.
• ▸Eczema.
• ▸Endometritis.
• ▸Enteric fever.
• ▸Epithelioma.
• ▸Erysipelas.

• ▸Eye, affections of.
• ▸Face, eruption on.
• ▸Fainting.
• ▸Fever.
• ▸Gangrene.
• ▸Gastric ulcer.
• ▸Gastritis.

• ▸Gastrodynia.
• ▸Glandular swellings.
• ▸Gout.
• ▸Hay-asthma.
• ▸Headache.
• ▸Heart, affections of.
• ▸Hectic.

• ▸Herpes zoster.
• ▸Hodgkin's disease.
• ▸Hydro-thorax.
• ▸Hypochondriasis.
• ▸Ichthyosis.
• ▸Indigestion.

• ▸Intermittent fever.
• ▸Irritation.
• ▸Jaundice.
• ▸Kidney, diseases of.
• ▸Leucorrh§a.
• ▸Lichen.
• ▸Lips, eruption

• ▸round, epithelioma of.
• ▸Locomotor ataxy.
• ▸Lung affections.
• ▸Lupus.
• ▸Malignant pustule.
• ▸Measles.

• ▸Melancholia.
• ▸Menstruation, disorders of.
• ▸Miliary eruptions.
• ▸Morphsa.
• ▸Myelitis.
• ▸Nails, diseased.

• ▸Nettle-rash.
• ▸Neuralgia.
• ▸Neuritis.
• ▸Nonta pudendi.
• ▸Numbness.
• ▸Peritonitis.
• ▸Perityphlitis.
• ▸Pityriasis.

• ▸Plethora.
• ▸Pleurisy.
• ▸Pleurodynia.
• ▸Pneumonia.
• ▸Psoriasis.
• ▸Purpura.
• ▸Pysmia.
• ▸Pyelitis.
• ▸Remittent

• ▸fever.
• ▸Rheumatic gout.
• ▸Rheumatism.
• ▸Rickets.
• ▸Ringworm.
• ▸Scaldhead.
• ▸Scarlatina.
• ▸Sciatica.

• ▸Scrofulous affections.
• ▸Sea-bathing, effects of.
• ▸Sea-sickness.
• ▸Shiverings.
• ▸Stomach, affections of.

• ▸Strains.
• ▸Suppuration.
• ▸Thirst.
• ▸Throat, sore.
• ▸Tobacco-habit.
• ▸Tongue, affections of.
• ▸Trachea,

• ▸affections of.
• ▸Traumatic fever.
• ▸Typhus.
• ▸Ulcers.
• ▸Vomiting.
• ▸Whooping-cough.
• ▸Worms.
• ▸Wounds.

Yellow fever.

Antidotes: To poisonous doses-milk, albumen, demulcent drinks, followed by

emetics of mustard, Sulphate of Zinc or Sulphate of Copper (Tartar emetic is too irritating).

Castor oil is the best purgative. Chemical antidotes: Animal charcoal, Hydrated peroxide of iron,

Magnesia, Limewater. Dynamic antidote: Opium; it may be administered by clyster if not

retained on stomach. Brandy and stimulants if there is depression and collapse. If urine is

suppressed, Sweet spirits of nitre in large quantities of water.

• ▸Antidotes of potencies: Camph.
• ▸, Chi.
• ▸, Chin.
• ▸sul.
• ▸, Fer.
• ▸, Graph.
• ▸, Hep.
• ▸, Iod.
• ▸, Ipec.
• ▸, Nux v.
• ▸, Sambuc.
• ▸,

• ▸Tabac.
• ▸, Verat.
• ▸Arsen.
• ▸is antidote to: Carb.
• ▸v.
• ▸, Chi.
• ▸, Fer.
• ▸, Graph.
• ▸, Hep.
• ▸, Iod.
• ▸, Ipec.
• ▸, Lach.
• ▸, Merc.
• ▸,

• ▸Nux v.
• ▸, Phos.
• ▸, Sambuc.
• ▸, Strych.
• ▸, Tabac.
• ▸, Verat.
• ▸Follows well: Aco.
• ▸, Agar.
• ▸, Arn.
• ▸, Bell.
• ▸, Cham.
• ▸,

• ▸Chi.
• ▸, Ipec.
• ▸, Lach.
• ▸, Verat.
• ▸Followed well by: Aran.
• ▸d.
• ▸, Nux v.
• ▸, Iod.
• ▸, Sul.
• ▸Rhus follows well in skin

affections, especially in cases treated allopathically with large doses of arsenic. Complementary:

• ▸All.
• ▸sat.
• ▸, Carb.
• ▸v.
• ▸, Phos.
• ▸Similar to: Aco.
• ▸, Apoc.
• ▸, Arg.
• ▸n.
• ▸, Bell.
• ▸, Bism.
• ▸, Calc.
• ▸, Can.
• ▸ind.
• ▸, Carb.
• ▸v.
• ▸,

• ▸Chi.
• ▸, Ferr.
• ▸, Hyo.
• ▸, Ipec.
• ▸, Kreos.
• ▸Lach.
• ▸, Lyc.
• ▸, Nux v.
• ▸, Phos.
• ▸, Puls.
• ▸, Rhus t.
• ▸, Sil.
• ▸, Tab.
• ▸, Verat.
• ▸The

• ▸restlessness of Ars.
• ▸differs from that of Mag.
• ▸c.
• ▸; Ars.
• ▸goes from room to room, from bed to bed;

• ▸Mag.
• ▸c.
• ▸must get out of bed and walk the floor to relieve pain.
• ▸The fear of death is not that of

Acon., but is an anxiety and a feeling that it is useless to take medicine as they will surely die

• ▸(more like Agnus).
• ▸Bry.
• ▸drinks much and seldom: Ars.
• ▸little and often; Ars.
• ▸eats much at a time,

Bry. often and little.

Third to thirtieth potency. The very highest potencies often yield brilliant results.

Low attenuations in gastric, intestinal, and kidney diseases; higher in neuralgias, nervous diseases, and skin. But if only surface conditions call for it, give the lowest potencies, 2x to 3x trit. Repeated doses advisable.

From the time of Hahnemann to the present day Arsenicum has been

one of the most frequently indicated medicines, and one of the most

extensively used. In the Old School it is most extensively abused, in

the form of Fowler’s solution.

Arsenic affects every part of man : it seems to exaggerate or depress

almost all his faculties, to excite or disturb all his functions. When

all our medicines have been as well proved we will effect wonderful

cures. It is a substance easily proved because of its active nature, and

from its very abuse we have learned much of its general nature.

While Arsenic impresses the whole economy and disturbs all the functions and tissues of man, there are certain prevailing and striking

features in it. Anxiety, restlessness, prostration, burning and cadaveric odors are prominent characteristics. The surface of the body is

pale, cold, clammy, and sweating, and the aspect is cadaveric. In

chronic sickness with great debility, anaemia, from long exposure to

malarial influence, in the poorly fed and from syphilis this remedy is

of great service.

The anxiety that is found in Ars. is intermingled with fear, with

"I am better in the cold, 1 want to be in the cold.'' It is really only

the head, and you luive to single these out and study them by the parts

affected. When things are so striking you must examine into it to

see what it is that brings about modality. You will see a similar

state running through Phosphorus ; the complaints of the stomach and

head are better from cold, i, c,, he wants cold applications upon the

head with head sufferings, and wants cold things in the stomach with

stomach complaints, but in all the complaints of the body he is ameliorated from heat. If he steps out into the cool air, he will commence

to cough, if he have a chest trouble. So we see that the modalities

that belong to the part affected must always be taken into account

For instance you have a patient suffering from neuralgia or rheumatic

«ia these s^me pains extend to tho head, then he wants the

»37

head wrapped up because they are ameliorated from heat. But when

it comes to cases of congestive conditions of the head, he then is better with his head very cold. Now, as I have said, there is an alternation of these states in Arsenicum. I will illustrate by mentioning a

case. Once a patient had been dragging along with periodical sick

headaches. The sick headaches were better from cold water, cold applications to the head, could hardly get them cold enough, and the

colder the better. These headaches came every two weeks, and so long

as they were present he desired cold to the head. Then these periodical headaches would be better, for long periods ; but when they were

away he was suffering from rheumatism of the joints, which was also

periodical, and also more or less tenacious, and when this rheumatism

of the joints and extremities, with more or less swelling and oedema,

was present he could not get warm enough ; he was at the fire and

wrapped up ; he was relieved by heat, and wanted warm air and a

warm room. This would last for a period and then subside, and back

would come his sick headaches and last for a while. That is what I

meant by the alternation of states. Arsenicum cured that man, and he

never had any of them afterwards. The alternation of states sometimes means that there are two diseases in the body, and sometimes the

remedy covers the whole feature in alternation of states, I remember

another case, which will illustrate this peculiar nature of alternation

of complaints, which is shared by other remedies besides Arsenic. A

patient suffered from a pressure in the top of the head, such as I

recently described to you under Ahimen, She would suffer for weeks

from that pressure on the top of the head, and the only relief she

could get was from hard pressure ; she tired herself out with hard

pressure and would contrive all kinds of weights to put upon the head.

That would go away in the night and she would wake up the next

• ▸morning with constant urging to urinate.
• ▸The irritable bladder alternated with pain on top of the head.
• ▸Alumen cured.
• ▸In many of

these anti-psoric remedies we have an alternation of states. This illustrates the necessity for getting the symptoms of all the states that

present themselves for cure, otherwise you will many times prescribe

in a chronic case of psoric character and temporarily relieve it, when

back comes another aspect of it. You have only hastened the disease

a little faster than it would go if let alone. But that is not homoeopathic prescribing. Be sure, when a remedy presents one state, that

it is a clearly indicated in the other state, otherwise that remedy is not

the similimum. You must hunt until you find the remedy that has both

states, or you will be disappointed. We sometimes do not discover

this alternation of states until we have brought it back two or three

times by incorrect prescribing. Some people are so reticent and so

difficult to get symptoms frpin that wp do not always get these symp

i8

turns. But you examine your record and you find where you havC;

made a foolish prescription, that you drove a new condition away and

back came the first trouble, and you keept on with this see-saw business.

Now remember in doing this your patient is not improving, and that

you must re-study the whole case, taking the alternating states into

account. In Arsenic, the head symptoms alternate with physical symptoms. You will find running through certain remedies, as a part of

their nature, that mental symptoms alternate with physical symptoms ;

when the physical symptoms arc present, then mental symptoms are not

trates the necessity for getting the symptoms of all the states that

is determined it is a good point, but sometimes you do not find a

remedy, because many of our remedies are not well recorded : they

have not yet been observed in their alternations and marked as such.

We find in Podophyllum the peculiar feature that the headaches alternate with diarrhoea ; he is subject to sick headaches and to diarrhoea,

and one or other will be present. In Arnica the mental symptoms

alternate with uterine symptoms. The uterine symptoms, when observed, look like Arnica^ but these go away in the night and mental

symptoms come on, the mind being heavy, gloomy and cloudy. When

we have remedies that have these manifestations it requires a greater

depth of vision to sec the alternation of states, because these things

are not always brought out in the proving, for the reason that one

prover had one group of symptoms, and another, another. Yet a

remedy that is capable of bringing out the two groups of symptoms

is sufficient to cure this alternation of states.

The periodical headaches of Arsenic are found in all parts of the

head. They are the congestive headaches with throbbing and burning, with anxiety and restlessness : hoi head and relief from cold.

There arc headaches in the forehead, which are throbbing, worse fronii

light, intensified from motion, often attended wdth great restlessness^

forcing him to move, with great anxiety. Most of the headaches are

attended with nausea and vomiting. The sick headaches arc of the

worst sort, especially those that come every two weeks. In some of

these old, broken-down constitutions you will find he is cold, pallid,

sickly ; he is always chilly and freezing except when the headache is

on, and it is better from cold ; the face much wrinkled, great anxiety

and no desire for water. Remember that it was said in the acute state

of Arsenic there is thirst, thirst for little and often, dry mouth and

desire for water enough to moisten the lips, but in the chronic states

of Arsenic he is generally thirstless. There are headaches on one

side of the head involving the scalp, one-half of the head, worse from*

motion, better from cold washing, better from walking in the cold air,

though very often the jar or stepping starts up a feeling as of a wave

of pain, shakings vibration or looseness in the brain ; such are th^

^•39

sensations and these arc conditions ot pulsation. Then there are

dreadful occipital headaches, so severe that the patient feels stunned

or dazed. They come on after midnight, from excitement, Irom exertion ; they come on from becoming heated in walking, which produces determination of blood to the head. Nat, mur, is a medicine

analogous to this in its periodicity and in many of its complaints. It

has congestive headaches from walking and becoming heated ; especially from walking in the sun. The Arsenicum headaches are generally worse from liglit and noise, better from lying down in a dark

room, lying with the head on two pillows. Many of the headaches

commence in the afternoon from i to 3 o’clock, after the noon meal,

grow worse into the afternoon, lasting all night. They are often

attended with great pallor, nausea, prostration, deathly weakness.

The pain is paroxysmal ; violent head pain during the chill of an intermittent fever ; headache as if the skull would burst during an intermittent fever. Arsenicum has this head pain of a congestive character in intermittent fever, as if the head would burst. A peculiar feature of the thirst is that there is no thirst during the chill except for

hot drinks ; during the heat there is thirst little and often for water

enough to moisten the mouth, which is almost no thirst, and during

the sweat there is thirst for large drinks. Thirst begins with tha

beginning of the heat and increases as the dryness of the mouth increases ; he desires only to moisten the mouth until he breaks out in a

sweat, and then the thirst becomes a desire for large quantities very

often, and the more he sweats the more desire he has for water. The

headache is during the chill ; it increases, so that it becomes a congestive, throbbing headache during the chill and heat ; this grows better towards the end of the heat as the sweat breaks out, it is ameliorated by the sweat.

In chronic headaches, congestive headaches and malarial complaints,

a tendency to shrivel is observed upon the skin ; a prematurely old,

wrinkled appearance of the skin comes on. The mucous membrane

of the lips and mouth often shrivels and becomes wrinkled. This is

also found in the diphtheritic membrane of the throat as a peculiar

feature of Arsenic, and belongs, as far as I know, to no other remedy.

The exudation in the throat is leathery looking and shrivelled. A

shrivelled membrane is not a sure indication for Arsenic, but when

Arsenic is indicated you would be likely to find this kind of membrane ;

such cases as are very malignant in character, very offensive, putrid,

those with a gangrenous odor. ,

At times the head is in constant motion when there arc complaints

in the body, because parts of the body are too sore to be moved ; then

the motion of the head comes on because of restlessness and uneasiness,

and he keeps it in motion even though it docs not ameliorate. The

face and head are subject to oedema ; dropsy of the scalp and erysipelatous inflammation of the face and head. The scalp pits upon pressure and there is a little crepitation under it from pressure. The scalp

is subject to eruptions and is very sensitive. So sensitive is the scalp

that the hair cannot be combed ; it seems as if the touch of the comb

or brush when rubbing over the scalp went into the brain.

Sensitiveness is a feature of Arsenic ; sensitiveness to smell and

touch ; ovcrscnsiiiveness of all the senses. A peculiar feature that

perhaps I have not brought out is the oversensitiveness to the circumstances and surroundings of the room. The Arsenicum patient is an

extremely fastidious patient. Hering once described him as “the goldheaded cane patient.” If this is carried out in a woman who is sick in

bed she is in great distress if every picture on the wall does not hang

perfectly straight. Those who are sensitive to disorder and confusion

and the disturbed and made worse until everything is placed in order

have a morbid fastidiousness which has its simillimum in Arsenic.

The eye symptoms of this remedy are very prominent. In old cases

of suppressed malaria, in broken down constitutions, in pallid, sickly

people who are subject to general catarrhal conditions, and such catarrhal conditions as localize more especially in the nose and eyes, the

eye symptoms will be troublesome. There are discharges from the

eyes. It may be a conjunctivitis, in a general w^ay involving the lids

and the globe, going on sometimes to ulceration with thin, bloody discharge. increasing to thick, acrid discharge that excoriates the eye,

making the canthi red and causing granulation with burning. I'he

burning is better from washing in cool water and also better from dry

heat. Very often ulcers appear on the globe of the eye, often upon

the cornea. It has various kinds of hypertropjiy beginning in patches

that will form scars, and in old ulcerated patches little growth similar

to a pterygium growing towards the centre of the eye and threatening

blindness. The inflammations are sometimes attended with swelling,

burning and excoriating discharge ; this swelling is bag-like in character, and so we find ‘'baggy*' lids and little bags forming under the

eyes. The face is waxy and pale, presenting the appearance of a

broken down constitution or a dropsical condition.

The catarrhal state involves throat and nose, and it is sometimes

difficult to separate the nose symptoms from the throat symptoms.

The Arsenicum patient is always taking cold in the nose, always sneezing from every change in the weather. He is always chilly and suffers from drafts, and is worse in cold, damp weather; always freezing, chilled through. These pale, waxy, broken down constitutions

with catarrhal discharges from the nose on looking at a bright light

become blind. Sneezing and coryza with inflammatory conditions

through the whole nasal cavity, throat, larynx and chest. The cold

begins in the nose and gose down into the throat, very often causing

hoarseness with dry, tickling, hard, rasping cough. It is a difficult matter to find remedies for a coryza that begins in the nose and extends

into the chest with bronchial troubles ; very often you require a change

of remedy, as the chest symptoms often run to a different remedy. It

is difficult to find a remedy that covers the symptoms of both nose and

chest.

Arsenicum is the remedy for old, chronic catarrhal troubles of the

nose where the nose bleeds easily, and he is always sneezing and taking cold, always chilly and pallid, tired, restless, full of anxiety in the

night and has troublesome dreams. The mucous membrane is easily

inflammed, producing patches of red and ulcers that bleed easily. Great

crusts form in the back of the nose. There is a striking tendency to

ulcerate in Arsenicum, If it is a sore throat it ulcerates ; if colds

settle in the eyes, they may end in ulceration ; catarrhal troubles in the

nose end in ulceration ; and this ulceration tendency, no natter where

the troubles locates, is a very strong feature of Arsenicum. It is the

remedy for catarrhal complaints of the nose and other places in broken

down constitutions from syphilis or malaria, or a constitution that has

gone through blood poisoning of some kind, either poisoning from a

dissecting wound, or from erysipelas or typhoid fever or other zymotic states improperly treated, or poisoning with quinine and like

substances that break down the blood and establish a state of anaemia.

If an ulcer comes upon the leg, if a leucorrhoea comes on, if any discharge is established the patient is relieved thereby. Now let some

of these discharges slack up and you have a chronic state apparently

from retained secretions, but it is a form of blood poisoning. So it is

with suppressed ear discharges, suppressed throat discharges, suppressed leucorrhoea and ulcerations. Arsenicum is one of the medicines that will conform to the anaemic state that follows each suppression. At the present day it is fashionable to use the cautery, to make

local applications to stop leucorrhoea and other discharges and to heal

up ulcers. Now, when these external troubles go there is an anaemic

state established in the economy, the patient becomes waxy and pallid,

sickly looking, and these catarrhal discharges come on as a means of

relief because of the suppression of some other condition. For instance, since the suppression of a leucorrhoea the woman has had thick,

bloody or watery discharge from the nose. It is frequently suitable

to the constitution when an ulcer has been dried up by salves, or an

old car discharge has been stopped by the outward application of powders. The doctor thinks he has done a clever thing in stopping such

discharges, but he has only succeeded in damming up the secretions

which are really a relief to the patient. Such medicines as Sulphur,

Calcarea and Arsenicum are suitable for the catarrhal discharges that

I4dt

come from these suppressions, in broken down constitutions. Arsenic

is also like unto the condition that has been brought about froni the

absorption of animal poisons. It goes to the very root of the evil, as

it is similar to the symptoms brought on from a dissecting wound.

Arsenic and Lachesh arc medicines that will go to the cause at once

and antidote the poison, establishing harmony and turning things into

order.

The nose symptoms, then, of Arsenic arc very troublesome and furnish and extensive part of the symptom image of an Arsenicum patient.

They always take cold easily, are always sensitive to cold and the

catarrh is always roused up on the slightest provocation. When an

Arsenicum patient is at his best he has discharge more or less of a

thick character, but when he takes a little cold it becomes thin ; the

thick discharge that is necessary to his comfort slacks up, and then he

gets headache and on comes thirst, restlessness, anxiety and distress.

1 his goes on to a catarrhal fever of two or three days’ duration, and

then the thick discharge starts up again and he feels better ; all his

pains and aches disappear. It has been ol great service in epithelioma

of nose and lips.

Inflammation of the throat and tonsils with burning, increased by

cold and better by warm drinks. There is redness and a shrivelled

condition of the mucous membrane. When there is blood poisoning

going on, as in diphtheria, and exudate appears upon the mucous membrane and it becomes gray and shrivelled, ashy colored, and this sometimes covers the whole of the soft palate and the arches. It looks

withered. He is prostrated, anxious, sinking, weak, not a great deal

of fever, but much dryness of the mouth.

The catarrhal state goes down into the larynx with hoarseness, and

into the trachea with burning, worse from coughing, and then comes

constriction of the chest, asthmatic dyspnoea and dry, hacking cough

with no expectoration.. This testing cough is attended with anxiety,

prostration, restlessness, exhaustion and sweat, and the cough does

not seem to do any good. The cough is the early part of it and keeps

on as a dry, rasping, harsh cough for several days without doing any

good , and then asthmatic symptoms come on, when he expectorates

great quantities of thin, watery sputum. There is constriction about

the chest, a great sense of tightness and wheezing, and he feels he will

suffocate. Bloody mucus is expectorated at times, but the symptoms

are more generally of a catarrhal character. Symptoms of pneumonia

sometimes appear with the rusty expectoration. The expectoration is

excoriating. There is in the chest a sense of burnning, as if coals of

fire were in the chest, and it goes on to bleeding and liver-colored

expectoration.

Arsenicum is a bleeding medicine, one that predisposes to hsemorrhage, and bleeding takes place from all mocous membranes : commonly of bright red blood, but in this region the parts take on a gangrenous sute and the haemorrhages become black and there arc little

clots like portions of liver. The same are found in the vomited matter and in the stools. The expectoration is horribly offensive, so much

so that you soon get the idea that there is a state of gangrene. The

patient is at this time going into a state that perhaps cannot be any

better described than a gangrenous inflammation ; there will be signs

to indicate the inflammatory condition, and there will be the smell of

the expectoration which you will detect as soon as you open the door.

The expectoration is a thin, watery fluid intermingled with clots. In

the pan you will find this watery expectoration looking like prune

juice, and in the midst of it will be clots of blood ; the offensiveness

is horrible. He has gone through the period of restlessness and is now

prostrated, sinking, pallid, and likely enough covered with a cold sw'cat.

impulses, with suicidal inclinations, with sudden freaks and with mania.

It has delusions and various kinds of insanity ; in the more active form,

delirium and excitement. Sadness prevails to a great extreme. So

sad that he is weary of life ; he loathes life, and wants to die, and the

Arsenic patient does commit suicide. It is a remedy full of suicidal

tendmeies. The anxiety takes form also in the restlessness, in which

he constantly moves. If he is able to get up he goes from chair to

chair ; the child goes from nurse to mother, and from one person to

another. When in bed, unable to sit up, the patient tosses and turns

from side to side ; if he is able, he climbs out of bed and sits in the

chair, keeps moving from one place to another, and, when thoroughly

exhausted, he gets back into bed again. The restlessness seems to be

mostly in the mind ; it is an anxious restlessness, or an anguish, with

the idea that anguish is a deathly anxiety. That is an clfort to express it in the extreme. It seems that he cannot live, and it is not

pain that drives him to anguish, but it is an anxiety intermingled with

restlessness and sadness. This state prevails in all diseases intermingled with prostration. An uneasiness comes in the early stage of

disease, and lasts but until the prostration becomes marked. While

lying in bed, at first he moves his whole body, moves himself in bed

and out of bed ; but the prostration becomes so marked that he is able

to move only his limbs unt^l at last he becomes so weak that he is no

longer able to move and h4 lies in perfect quiet in extreme prostration.

It seems that prostration l|akes the place of anxiety and restlessness,

and he appears like a cadaiker. So remember that these states of anxiety and restlessness go towards the cadaveric aspect, tow’^ards death.

This is seen, for instance, in the typhoid, where Arsenicum is indicated. At first there is that anxious restlessness with fear, but the

increasing weakness tends towards prostration.

When we come to the stomach we find everything that may be called

a gastritis, vomiting of everything taken, even a teaspoonful of water,

extreme irritation of the stomach, great prostration, horrible anxiety ;

dry mouth ; a very little hot water will sometimes comfort him for a

minute, but soon it must come up ; cold fluids arc vomitted immediately..

The whole oesophagus is in a state of inflammation ; everything burns

that comes up or goes down. Vomiting of bile and blood. Extreme

sensitiveness of the stomach is present ; he does not want to be touched.

Heat applied externally relieves, and there is a temporary relief from

warm drinks; the heat is grateful. In the bowels we have much

trouble : this remedy has all the symptoms of peritonitis ; distension

of the abdomen, a tympanitic state ; cannot be handled or touched, yet

he will keep moving because he is so restless, he cannot keep still, but

finally he becomes so weak that exhaustion takes the place of restlessness. Dysentery is likely to come on, with involuntary passages of

urine and faeces, one or both, with haemorrhage from the bowels and

bloody urine. As the bowels move, wc get the cadaveric odor to the

stool, a smell like putrid flesh. The stool is bloody, watery, brown

Hke prune juice, or black and horribly offensive. Sometimes dysenteric in character with dreadful straining and burning of the auns ;

every stool burns as though there were coals of fire in the rectum;

burning in the bowels, burning all the way through. The pain in the

abdomen is better from the application of hot things. The tympanitic

condition is extreme. Sometimes tltcrc is a gastro-enteritis that takes

on a gangrenous character that in olden times used to be talked about

as gangrene of the bowel, a mortification that always ended in deaths

A thick, bloody discharge is passed witli a horrible odor, all substances

are vomited, the patient desires to be in a very warm room, wants to

be well covered, wants hot applications and warm drinks, looks cadaveric and smells cadaveric, with a dry, pungent odor that penetrates

everything, but if he wants the covers off, wants a cool room and windows open, wants to be sponged with cold water, and wants ice cold^

drinks then he must have Secale,

I want to warn you against the too promiscuous use of Arsenic in

the summer complaints of young babies, for dysentery and cholera

infantum. It has so many little symptoms that are so common to these

complaints that if you do not look out and are not warned you will be

likely to give your patient Arsenic, suppress some of the symptoms,

changing the aspect of the case so that you cannot find a remedy for

it and yet not cure the case with Arsenic. There is a strong tendency

to be routine and give Arsenic without a sufficient number of generals

being present ; i.e., if you give it on particulars and not on the generals of the case.

This medicine is full of diarrhoea and dysenteric symptoms ; in these

conditions there will be the pallor, the anxiety, the cadaveric aspect

and the cadaveric odors. In the dysentery there is most distressing

and frec|uent urging to stool, scanty, slimy, black, fluid, inky stools

with cadaveric smell, great prostration, restlessness and pallor. In

the bowel troubles, in low forms of disease, the stool becomes involuntary. This is a condition of the rectum, a relaxation of the rectum,

great prostration. Involuntary stool generally indicates either local or

general exhaustion, and in this remedy there is terrible exhaustion, so

that there is involuntary diarrhoea in typhoid and in low forms of

zymotic disease ; involuntary urine.

Purging is sometimes present in Arsenic, but generally he docs not

have much purging, such as we find in Podophyllum^ Phos, ac. Usually there will be little, frequent gushes, little spurts with flatus and

the great exhaustion that occurs in cholera, little spurts with mucus,

slimy, whitish stools. Arsenic is not so commonly indicated in cholera,

i, 6*., during the gushing period, but sometimes after the gushing is

over and the vomiting and purging have passed, leaving a state of

extreme exhaustion, we have a state that appears like coma, the patient

looks almost as if dead, except that he breathes. We find, then, that

Arsenicum will establissh reaction. Cholera infantum with great prostration, sinking and cadaveric appearance, great coldness, covered with

cold sweat, cold extremities, cold as death ; cadaveric, sickly, foul,

pungent, penetrating odor in the room from the faeces and urine and

even of what is vomited. The passages from the bowels are acrid,

excoriating, causing redness and burning. Very often the burning

extends into the bowels. The rectum and anus burn, smarting all

about the anus. It has tenesmus, painful, unbearable urging, great

distress in the lower bowel, in rectum and anus, terrible state of anxiety of the patient and the pain is so violent and the suffering so in*

H5

tense, the anguish so intense, that he can think of nothing but death ;

the fearfulness and frightful feelings are such as he has never experience in his life, and he feels confident these mean he is going to

die. This, like all other complaints, is attended with restlessness, and

when not at stool he is walking the lloor, going from bed to chair and

from chair to bed. He will get on the stool and then back to bed,

then he is hurried to stool again, sometimes he loses it. Sometimes

there is a chronic hamiorrhoidal state with burning, and the haemorrhoids protrude when at stool, he is much exhausted after getting

back into bed after a stool, with these protruding lumps which are like

grapes and feel like coals of fire. They are hot, dry and bleeding.

Fissures of the rectum that bleed at every stool, with burning Itching

and eczematous eruptions about the anus with burning.

This kind of pain may be felt anywhere in the body ; burning is

characteristic of Arsenic, stitching is characteristic of Arsenic. Now,

put these together and the patient often describes it as being stuck with

red hot needless all over him. This red hot sensation, which is a

common feature all over, is felt at the anus, and especially when there

are haemorrhoids, burning and sticking like hot needles in the haemorrhoids.

At times when a patient is coming down with the early stage of a

violent attack he will have all the rigor and chill that it is possible to

find in the Materia Medica and that can be found in disease. Rigors

and chills of violent character,- and at such times he describes a feeling as if the blood flowing through the vessels were ice water. He

feels a rushing through the body of ice cold waves. When the fever

comes on and he is intensely hot from head to foot, before the sweat

has appeared, he feels that boiling water is going through the blood

vessels. Then comes on the sweat and dyspnera and all complaints

in which he is prostrated and becomes cold. While the sweat sometimes relieves the fever and pains, yet it is prolonged and attended

with great exhaustion and does not relieve his exhaustion. Many of

his complaints are increased with the sweat ; for instance, thirst is

increased, the drinking is copious and does not relieve, it seems he

cannot get enough and patients will say: “I can drink the well dry,'’

or '‘Give me a bucket of water.” Such things are indicative of the

state of thirst. During the fever he wants little and often ; during the

chill he wants hot drinks.

Arsenicum is a very useful medicine in the eruptions of the genitals

with burning. In little ulcers that burn, even when they are syphilitic ;

herpetic vesicles that appear upon the foreskin and upon the labia ;

chancre or chancroid with burning, smarting and stinging, but especially in those that are weak, that offer no willingness to heal, but that

do the very opposite, that spread, those that we call phagedenic, those

ARSf^NlCUM

that eat from their outer margins, become larger and larger. Arsenic

and Merc corr. are the two principal medicines for spreading ulcerations such as cat in every direction, very offensive. Such ulcerations

as follow the opening of a bubo in the inguinal region where there is

no tendency to heal. A little, watery, offensive discharge keeps coming and extending, ulceration keeps spreading round about the opening, no tendency to heal. Or the patient has been in the hands of a

surgeon who has passed his knife down the threatening suppurating

bubo and it has been followed by red, angry, erysipelatous appearance

and shows no tendency to heal. The edges have been removed by

ulceration, and now the surface has cleared off, leaving a surface the

size of a dollar : sometimes becoming serpiginous. These ulcers are

sensitive to touch and burn like fire.

In the male and female sexual organs there are many symptoms of

importance. In the male organs a dropsical condition, dropsy of the

penis, oedematous appearence, so that the penis is enormously swollen

and looks like a water bag ; the scrotum, especially the skin of the

scrotum, greatly swollen and humid round about the parts. In the

female the labia are enormously swollen with burning, stinging pains,

hard and swollen. Erysipelatous inflammation of these organs, ulcerations of a syphilitic character ; these when such symptoms as burning,

smarting and stinging are present. In the female, violent, burning

pains in the genitals with or without swelling, burning that extends

up into the vagina, with great dryness and itching of the vagina. The

Icucorrhoeal discharge excoriates the parts, causing itching and burning with gi-eat suffering. Whitish, watery, thin discharges that excoriate : so copious sometimes that it will run down the thighs. The

Arsenicum menstrual flow is very often excoriating in character. Copious leiicorrhoeal flow intermixed with menstrual flow, very profuse

and very acrid. Suppressed menstruation going on for months ;

amenorrheea in prostrated, ncrvotis patients, wrinkled, careworn, haggard faces. Of course, Arsenic has a ’wonderful reputation in the old

school for anaemia, .and it is said to be as good as Ferrum for anaemia ;

Ferrum and Arsenic are the strong drugs for anaemia, so that it is

not to be wondered at that these pallid mortals find benefit from Arsenic. '"During menstruation, stitches in the rectum.*' Leucorrhoea

acrid, corroding, thick and yellow,’' etc. After parturition the woman

does not pass the urine ; no urine in the bladder ; suppression, or the

bladder is full and it does not pass. In connection with this subject

you will find Causticum the most frequently indicated remedy when you

go back, and the woman has not passed the urine and it is time that

she should ; you will frequently find it indicated when you have no

other symptoms to go on. Aconite will be more frequently indicated

than any other remedy if the infant has not passed the urine. This is

ke3mote practice and is to be condemned when there arc other symptoms to indicate a remedy. If there are no other symptoms study

Aconite and Causticum and see if there is any reason why they should

not be given. Another feature in connection with the woman, Arsenic

is a wonderful palliative in cancerous affections, such as occur in the

uterus and mammary glands. Burning, stinging pains have entirely

disappeared, in incurable cases, of course. It becomes one of the

palliatives.

Arsenic has loss of voice, laryngitis, with dry teasing cough ; a cough

that does not seem to do any good ; hacking constantly, dry, hacking

cough. Study its relation to asthma and difficult breathing, dyspnoea.

Arsenic has cured some long-standing cases of asthma of a nervous

character ; asthma tliar comes on after midnight, in patients who suffer

from the cold, those who arc very pallid, dry wheezing cough, must

sit up in bed and hold the chest, anxious restlessness with prostration.

The heart symptoms arc troublesome to manage when they get to

be like Arsenic ; the symptoms correspond to a state of great weakness,

great palpitation, palpitation from the least exertion or excitement,

great anxiety, anguish, weakness ; he cannot walk, he cannot go upstairs, he can hardly move without inti casing the palpitation ; every

excitement brings on palpitation. '‘Severe j^aroxysms of palpitation

or attacks of syncope during endocarditis.’' Arsenicum corresponds

to most serious complaints of the heart, corresponds to many of the

incurable complaints of the heart ; i. c\y when you see Arsenic corresponding in all of the symptoms with these marked cardiac affections,

dropsy of the pericardium, etc., you have a class of cases that are very

serious, “Angina pectoris,'’ etc. “Rheumatism affecting the heart."

etc. “Hydropericardium with great irritability," etc. “Pulse frequent,

• ▸small, trembling.
• ▸" “Pulsation through whole body," etc.
• ▸, etc.
• ▸Again

this goes on to another state when the heart becomes weak, pulse

thread-like, patient pale and cold, covered with sweat, pulse very feeble.

When this is not a state of the heart itself then Arsenic becomes a

wonderful remedy ; that is, it is capable of cure.

I want to say a few things concerning a few essentials, some few

things most general to the Arsenicum type of intermittent. You can

read the general state of intermittent fever and fevers generally and

apply what has been said. Arsenic has all the violence of the chill

that you can find in any remedy, with excitement, headache, prostration, dry mouth, desire for hot drinks and to be covered up warmly,

with all the anxious restlessness and prostration that you can find in

any medicine ; but the time of the Arsenic case is an important thing.

A striking feature of the Arsenic time of chill is its irregularity, coming not twice alike, coming at any time. It has afternoon chill and

after midnight chill, sometimes in the morning, sometimes at 3 or 4

ARSENICUM lODATUM

• ▸p.
• ▸M.
• ▸, sometimes at i p.
• ▸m.
• ▸It has a striking periodicity in its nature.

Hence it has an intermittent nature. It has a striking feature of thirst.

During the chill, while there is sometimes great thirst, he has aversion

to cold things, hence can take only hot drinks, hot teas, etc. During

the fever the thirst increases because he has dry mouth, and he drinks

little and often, just a teaspoonful to wet his dry mouth. Water does

hot quench his thirst, for he wants but a tablespoonful, little and often.

This runs on into the sweat with prostration, increased coldness, desire

for copious drinks, unquenchable thirst for cold drinks. The chill is

attended with great aching in the bones, likely to commence in the

extremities, and during the chill there is a great head congestion with

purple fingers and toes. Put these things together and the prostration

that occurs with the awful anxiety, and you can most always in a general way pick out the Arsenic case. But it has so many details in its

chill, fever and sweat that if you take the details of symptoms and

leave these general features out you will be likely to be able to cover

almost any case of chills, i.e., you may think you will, but unless some

of these general states are present that stamp it as Arsenic you will

fail. It is one thing to stamp the whole case as Arsenic and another

thing to say that these are Arsenicum symptoms. So it is with China

and Quinine ; they have numerous particular symptoms, and yet to

make the case a China or Quinine case the striking general features

must be present.

ARSENICUM lODATUM

From a study of the elements making up this agent, it may be known

that it is a deep-acting constitutional remedy. Its complaints come

on in the morning, afternoon, evening, night, after midnight. In

hectic conditions, with many abscesses. Extreme anaemia, such as

belongs to tuberculous subjects. The patient craves open air when

not too cold : wants the windows open, is sensitive to a close room.

Marked general physical anxiety. The hands and feet tingle as if

asleep and the limbs feel as if tied with a band. Complaints are worse

from bathing ; takes cold from bathing. It has been of the highest

use in cancerous affections and has cured lupus and epithelioma. Its

symptoms are often found in chlorotic girls ; it has cured choreic action

of muscles in girls. Some are very sensitive to cold, like Arsenicum,

and others to heat, like Iodine ; it is sensitive to both heat and cold ;

cold wind and cold w'et weathet make the patient worse and bring out

symptoms. Always taking cold, which brings on coryza and increases

his catarrhal troubles. Many constrictions, internal and external, and

• ▸constrictions of orifices are found in this remedy.
• ▸Convulsive movements of limbs.
• ▸Dropsy, external and internal, like Arsenicum.
• ▸He

ARdENICtJM JODATUM

<49

is worse when hungry and, like Iodine, better after eating. Increasing loss of flesh and weight in phthisical patients ; emaciation in children, extreme aggravation from slight physical exertion.

In women who are subject to faintness and fainting spells. Formication all over the body. Haemorrhage from any mucous membrane.

A sensation of being too warm, must have fresh air. Feeling of

heaviness of the whole body. Induration is a strong feature ; sometimes in glands, in ulcers, in skin affections. The glands arc swollen

and hard. Inflammation, external and internal, in many parts, glands,

bones and serous membranes. He has symptoms as though he had

lost fluid. Extreme lassitude ; lack of reaction, lying in bed and lying

on the painful side makes the symptoms worse. She is worse during

the menses ; worse from motion, but desire to move. Mucous secretions generally increased, copious, catarrhal discharges, thick, yellow,

or yellowish-green and honey-like. Numbness of the limbs and painful parts ; flushes of heat and surging of blood in the body ; pain in the

bones and glands. Bruised sensation in the body. Burning internally

and in outer parts ; paralyzing pains, pinching, pressing, stitching and

tearing pains. Predisposition to phthisis and complaints in the consumptive diathesis. There is much soreness, and pressure increases

his suffering. Pulsation, internal and external, like Iodine; the pulse

is frequent and small, full, hard, intermittent, irregular. Burning is

a strong feature, like Arsenicum, It has been very useful in all scorbutic conditions when the symptoms were similar. Very sensitive to

pain. The symptoms predominate on the right side ; he is sensitive to

the summer heat and the cold in winter. Dropsical and inflammatory

sw^elling ; swelling in affected parts and in glands. It has been curative in all stages and forms of syphilis. Trembling and twitching of

muscles, walking makes him worse, especially walking fast ; worse

from warmth, w^arm air, warm bed, warm room and warm wraps.

Weakness, like a vital prostration, in the morning, when ascending,

on exertion, during menses, and on walking ; worse in wet weather,

worse from the worm south wind.

Anger and irritability during all complaints ; aversion to answering

questions ; extreme anxiety, restlessness and fear ; worse in a warmbed ; confusion of mind morning and evening ; delirium during the

night ; illusions of fancy and delusions about dead people. Sadness,

even to despair ; discontentment, and he is often in a state of great

excitement ; mental exertion increases many of his symptoms ; there is

marked mental weakness ; fear of insanity, of misfortune, of people,

and he is generally timid. He is impatient and in a constant state of

hurry; he becomes indifferent to his friends, to happiness and to his

• ▸surroundings.
• ▸Aversion to work.
• ▸He seems to be going toward insanity.
• ▸He is unable to decide between two opinions.
• ▸He suffers

AK3ENlCt7M lODATUM

from a sudden impulse to kill somebody. Very talkative at times ;

mirthful ; changeable moods and alternating conditions of mind ; a degree of mental prostration prevails continuously. He is over-sensitive,

especially to noise. Inclination to sit ; averse to being spoken to and

he starts during sleep. Persistent tormenting thoughts ; wandering

• ▸thoughts ; stupefaction of mind.
• ▸In the woman there is much weeping.
• ▸Vertigo while walking.
• ▸It will cure the particulars given below

when the generals above mentioned strongly predominate.

Although there is hypenemia of the brain, the scalp feels cold.

Eruptions crusty, scurfy ; eczematous ; the hair falls out and the head

feels heavy ; itching of the scalp, with and without eruptions. Pain in

the morning and afteinoon ; better in open air ; worse in worm room ;

better after eating and worse when hungry ; worse from motion, noise,

walking ; pain in head from catarrh of nasal passages, with coryza ;

periodical headaches from malaria, with heart troubles and from syphilis ; pain in forehead in the evening ; above the eyes, over the root of

the nose ; pain in occiput, sides of head, temples and vertex ; j)rcssing

pain in forehead, with sleepiness ; pressing pain in occiput and temples ;

sore, bruised pain in the head ; stitching in head, in temples ; tearing

pain in head. The head pains arc stunning. Perspiration of the forehead ; pulsating in the head, forehead, temples.

Inllainmation of the conjunctiva, and of the iris ; chronic catarrhal

condition of the eyes in psoric and syphilitic subjects ; easy lachrymation, worse in cold air ; pain in eyes when reading ; soreness of the

eyeballs ; stitching pain in eyes : protrusion of the eyeballs ; pupils

• ▸dilated ; redness of eyes.
• ▸Starting look.
• ▸Sunken eyes.
• ▸The lids are

swollen and oedematous ; twitching of the lids. Wild look in the eyes ;

the eyes are jaundiced ; vision is dim, flickering, foggy and weak.

Sparks before the eyes.

The ears discharge an excoriating foetid pus ; buzzing, humming,

ringing and roaring in ears. Catarrh of Eustachian tubes and middle

ear ; the pain is aching, stitching and tearing. Stopped sensation in

ears ; hearing is impaired.

Most stubborn nasal catarrh with bloody, acrid, copious, excoriating,

greenish, purulent, thick, yellow or yellow-greenish discharge ; honeylike discharge ; coryza with watery discharge ; coryza in open air wi±

cough. It has been a most useful remedy in hay fever. Dryness in

nose and epistaxis. Obstruction of nose, pain in nose. Smell lost.

Much sneezing. Swelling inside of nose ; ulceration in nose.

The face becomes cold. Bluish lips and bluish circles about the eyes ;

brow.nish, earthy, or pale face ; again the face is red and there are circumscribed red cheeks ; the face is sallow and jaundiced ; yellow spots

on the face ; sickly look ; the face looks drawn and emaciated ; eruptions

on face and nose ; acne, eczema, pimples, pustules, expression sickly

ARSi^NlCt/M lODATOM

*51

and old ; pain in the face. Swelling of the glands of the lower jaw.

Swelling of the submaxillary glands. Twitching of the face.

In the mouth there are aphthae ; the gums bleed easily, and the

tongue is cracked. The tongue is coated brown or white; mouth and

tongue are dry at night and during sleep, the tongue feels enlarged, inflammation of the gums. Mucus in the mouth in the morning ; the

mouth is offensive, even putrid. Pain in the gums ; vsore, burning

tongue ; salivation ; scorbutic gums. Speech stammering. Swollen gums.

The taste is bad ; bitter, putrid, saltish, sour, sweetish ; teeth feel elongated ; pain in the teeth after eating ; tearing pain in the teeth.

Much choking in the throat ; dryness in the tliroat ; membranes

from in the throat ; burning in the throat ; constantly scraping the throat.

Swallowing difficult. Swollen throat ; ulceration of the throat from

syphilis.

The appetite is increased, even ravenous ; aversion to food; constriction of the stomach; the stomach is distended. He desires stimulants.

Sensation of emptiness ; eructations empty, sour ; waterbrash ; sensation of fullness in the stomach. Frequent attacks of heartburn : load

in the stomach after eating ; indigestion and much hiccough ; chronic

gastritis ; loathing of food ; nausea after eating. Pain after eating ;

burning, cramping, cutting, gnawing, pressing , and stitching pains in

• ▸the stomach ; pulsating, retching when coughing ; sensation of tightness in stomach ; thirst, evening, extreme ; thirst during ineal ; unquenchable thirst.
• ▸Trembling in the stomach.
• ▸Continuous vomiting.
• ▸;

vomiting with diarrhoea, after drinking, after eating, after milk, violent

vomiting ; vomiting of bile, blood, food ; v omiting yellow, watery substance.

The abdomen is distended with flatus ; the flatulency is obstructed

and there is much rumbling. Enlargement of liver, spleen, mesenteric

glands, glands of groin. Inflammation of the intestines, liver and

spleen. It has many complaints of the liver. Pain in abdomen after

eating ; during menses : during stool ; better by external warmth. Pain

in hypogastrium, hypochondria, groin, liver, spleen and umbilical region ; burning, cramping, drawing pain in abdomen ; cutting in abdomen during stool ; cutting pain in liver ; pressing pains and soreness in

liver. Stitching pains in hypochondria ; pulsating in abdomen : restless

feeling in abdomen : pain and soreness in spleen.

Very troublesome constipation ; diarrhoea alternating with constipation ; stool hard, knotty and light colored. The diarrhoea comes in the

morning and after eating ; in old people, excoriating stool. Dysentery

with bloody mucous stools and tenesmus ; diarrhoea with brown, copious, frequent, offensive, yellow or white watery stools ; ineffectual

urging to stool ; urging after stool ; offensive flatus. External piles.

Itching of anus. Burning in anus after stool

ARSEKibUM lObATUM

It acts deelpy upon the bladder and kidneys. It has been most useful in Addison’s disease. Retention of urine ; constant or frequent

uring to urinate ; worse during the night ; urination is dribbling and

involuntary, suppression of urine ; the urine is albuminous, cloudy,

dark, red, copious or scanty and offensive.

The genital organs present many symptoms and complaints. Erections, strong toward morning ; later incomplete and wanting. It cures

hydrocele and induration of the testes. Itching of the penis and

glans ; perspiration of the genitals ; seminal emissions ; swelling of

the testes ; ulcers on the penis ; chancres and chancroids with bubos.

It has been a great comfort to the women in many complaints. It

has restrained the progress of cancer of uterus in a notable manner ;

the burning and odor are removed and the ulceration is lessened. Life

has been prolonged to four years in several cases. Sexual desire is

increased. It has cured enlargement and induration of the ovaries ; it

has cured inflammation of the ovaries. Leucorrhcca, acrid, bloody,

burning, copious, after menses, thick or thin, yellow ; menses absent

or suppressed, copious, frequent, late, painful, short. Haemorrhage

from the uterus ; pain in ovaries, especially the right ; sore, bruised

genitals and ovaries. Prolapsus of the uterus ; swollen ovaries. It

has stopped the growth of ovarian tumors.

Croupous condition of the larynx. Dryness in the air passages. Inflammation of the larynx and trachea ; much mucus in the larynx and

trachea ; spasmodic conditions of the larynx like laryngismus ; burning

rawness and soreness in larynx and trachea ; phthisis of the larynx.

The voice is hoarse, rough and weak and finally lost ; respiration is

fast and asthmatic ; respiration is difficult at night, on ascending, on

exertion and motion, with palpitation ; respiration is irregular, rattling,

• ▸short, suffocative and wheezing.
• ▸Asthma from 1 1 p.
• ▸m.
• ▸until 3 a.
• ▸m.

The cough is in the morning, evening and after midnight ; the cough

is asthmatic, croupy, deep, dry, exhausting, during fever ; cough from

irritation and tickling in larynx and trachea ; the cough is loose, spasmodic, suffocative ; worse from motion and talking ; worse in a warm

room. It cures whooping cough. Expectoration most in the morning ;

is bloody, copious, greenish-yellow, difficult ; mucous and bloody ; mucus

offensive, purulent, tough, viscid, yellow, tasting putrid, saltish, sweetish.

Running all through the remedy there is the burning mentioned as

one of its most marked generals. There is burning in the brain, which

makes him want to wash his head in cold water. This sensation of

heat in the inner head with pulsation is ameliorated by the cold bathing,

but when there is a rheumatic state that affects the scalp and outward

nerves, and there is burning, the burning then is ameliorated by heat.

When the headache is of a congestive character, with the sensation of

heat and burning inside the head, and there is a feeling as if the head

would burst, and the face is flushed and hot, that headache is better

from cold applications and in the cool open air. So marked is this

that I have seen the patient sitting in the room with clothing piled on

to keep the body warm and with the window open to relieve the congestion of the head. Therefore, we say a striking feature belonging

to this medicine is relief of all the complaints of the body from wrapping up and from warmth in general, and relief, of the complaints of

the head by cold, except the external complaints of the head, which

arc better from heat and from wrapping up. The neuralgias of the

face and eyes, and above the eyes, are better from heat.

riic burning is felt in the stomach ; there is burning in the bladder,

in the vagina, in the lungs. It feels as if coals of fire were in the

lungs at times, when gangrenous inflammation is threatened, and in

certain stages of pneumonia. There is burning in the throat and burning in all the mucous membranes. The skin bums with itching, and

he scratches until the skin is raw, and then it burns, but the itching

ceases ; as soon as the smarting lets up a trifle the itching commences

again. All night the itching and burning alternate, burning for a

minute, when he scratches it until it is raw, but soon the itching begins

again and it seems that he has no rest.

The secretions and excretions of Arsenic are acrid; they excoriate

the parts, causing burning. The discharge from the nose and eyes

causes redness around the parts, and this is true of all the fluids from

the various orifices. In ulcers there is burning, and the thin, bloody

fluid discharged excoriates the parts round about. The odor of the

discharge is putrid. If you have ever discovered the odor of gangrene, of mortified flesh, you know the odor of the Arsenicum discharges. The stool is putrid, like decomposed flesh, putrid blood.

The discharges from the uterufi, the menstrual How, the leucorrhoea,

the hi'ces, the urine, the expectoration, all the discliarges are putrid.

The ulcer is so putrid that it smells like decomposing flesh.

There is marked anxiety in the region of the heart. Catarrh of the

broncial tubes ; constriction of the chest, of the heart ; fatty degeneration of the heart. Enlarged and painful mammae. Heat in the chest.

Inflammation of the bronchial tubes, endocardium, pericardium, lungs

and pleura ; murmurs of the heart ; stitching of the skin of chest ;

oppression of the chest and heart in a warm room ; pain in the side

of chest ; in the heart ; burning in the chest ; cutting pain in chest and

in the heart ; pressing pain in chest ; rawness in chest : stitching pain

ARSENICUM lODATUM

^53

in chest on coughing ; palpitation from excitement, from exertion ;

tumultuous palpitation. Paralysis of the heart, of the lungs. It is

a very useful remedy in ulcerative conditions during phthisis ; swollen

axillary glands ; tremulous heart ; tumor of the axilla. Great weakness of chest and heart.

Pain in the back during menses ; pain in the lumbar region during

menses ; pain in sacrum and coccyx.

Coldness of hands, legs and feet : cramps of upper limbs, lower limbs,

thighs, legs and feet ; scaly eruptions, eczema and vesicles ; heat of

hands ; heaviness of the limbs as though tired ; heaviness of the feet.

Hip joint disease. Itching of all the limbs ; numbness of all the limbs,

fingers, legs and feet ; pain in all the joints, gouty and rheumatic ; rheumatic pain in upper limbs ; pain in elbow forearm, hip, thigh, knee,

foot ; drawing in lower limbs, thighs, knees ; stitching pain in shoulders,

wrists and knees ; tearing in joints, elbows, fingers ; paralytic weakness

in upper limbs ; paralysis of lower limbs. Cold perspiration of hands

and feet. Stiffness of limbs, of fingers. Dropsical swelling of hands,

legs and feet ; trembling of hands and lower limbs ; twitching of upper

limbs and legs ; weakness of upper limbs and knees.

Dreams amorous ; anxious ; of dead people ; distressing; vivid; nightmare. Restless sleep ; sleepiness in the evening ; sleepless after midnight, waking too early.

Chill at night in bed ; chill external and internal, worse from motion.

Quartan, tertian shaking-chill ; periodicity marked ; warm room does

not ameliorate the chill. Fever afternoon and night ; fever alternates

with chill ; fever and chill intermingle ; dry, external heat : flushes of

heat ; chronic intermittent fever ; internal heat with external coldness ;

fever with no sweat, and desire to uncover. Hectic fever. Perspiration morning and night ; cold sweat ; exhausting sweat ; sweat on motion, or on slight exertion ; profuse night sweats.

Amesthesia of the skin ; burning skin ; the skin is jaundiced ; liver

spots and red spots. The skin is cold to touch ; dryness of the skin

with inability to perspire. Many eruptions on the skin : boils, pustules,

rash and scales ; moist eruptions, eczema, itching eruption ; herpes ;

• ▸psoriasis.
• ▸It has cured ichthyosis.
• ▸Dry, scaly, burning eruptions ; urtitaaria;.
• ▸It cures all syphilitic eruptions where the symptoms agree,

where eruptions have been suppressed by local treatment. Excoriation ; erysipelas ; formication, indurations : itching, burning an<^ stinging ; rough skin ; purpura haemorrhagica. Dropsical, spongy swelling

of skin ; ulcers with bleeding or bloody discharges, with corrosive

watery, yellow discharge. Cancerous ulceration. Indolent and indurated ulcers ; sensitive and suppurating ulcers ; ulcerative pain in

ulcers ; in old syphilitic ulcers,

I ''tfi

J54

ARUM,IWPWU.VM..

Arsenic produces a tendency to bleeding. The patient bleeds easily

and may bleed from any place. There is vomiting of blood ; bleeding

from the lungs and throat. Bloody discharge from the mucous membrane, at times, when inflammation is running high ; haemorrhage from

the bowels, kidneys, bladder and uterus ; anywhere that mucous membrane exists, there may be haemorrhage. Haemorrhage of black blood

and discharges that are offensive.

'Gangrene and sudden inflammatory conditions like gangrenous and

erysipelatous inflammations arc common in Arsenic. Parts suddenly

take on erysipelas, or parts that are injured suddenly take on gangrene.

Gangicne in internal organs, malignant inflammations, erysipelatous

inflammation. No matter how you look upon the condition, no matter

what it is called, if it is a sudden inflammation that tends to produce

malignancy in the part it belongs to Arsenicum. Inflammation will

go on in the bowels for a few days attended with a horribly offensive

discharge, vomiting of clots of blood, great burning in the bowels with

tympanitic condition. You may almost look upon this as a gangrenous

inflammation, so violent, sudden and malignant is it, and it has the

anxiety, prostration, fear of death, and chilliness, the patient wanting

to be covered warmly. When with this inflammation of the bowels

^33

the patient is relieved by heat, it means Arsenic. You should remember that Secale has a similar state ; it has all the tympanitic condition,

all the ulceration and prostration, all the offensive odor and expulsion

of offensive clots, and all the burning, but the Secale patient wants to

be uncovered, wants things cold, wants the windows open. The only

distinguishing feature between these two remedies in a case may be

that Secale wants cold and Arsenicum wants heat, but this is the way

we individualize in our homoeopathic prescribing. When there is gangrenous inflammation in the lungs, we find the patient has been taken

with a chili, there has been restlessness, prostration, anxiety and fear :

as we enter the room we detect a horrible odor, and on looking into

the pan we see the patient has been spitting up by the mouthful, black,

foul expectoration. Look and see if the patient wants to be covered

warmly ; if he is easily chilled, and heat feels good ; then it is a hard

thing to cover that case outside of Arsenicum. The prostration, the

vomiting, the anxiety, the restlessness, the cadaveric aspect arc present, and where will you find a remedy wdih that totality outside of

Arsenic ? I have many times gone a long distance to detect, from the

very aspect of things, these symptoms that could be gotten while walking from the door to the bedside. Every symptom is Arsenic ; he looks

like it, acts like it and smells like it. You may go to a patient with

high grade inflammation of the bladder, with frequent urging to urinate, straining to urinate, and there is bloody urine intermingled with

clots. It has been found ;by the attending physician when he introduces the catheter to draw oft the urine that clots dam up the catheter,

a little is drawn off and then it stops. We have a history of restlessness, anxiety, fear of death, amelioration from heat, great prostration.

You must give Arsenic, not because there is inflammation of the bladder, but because it is a rapidly progressing inflammation, and because

it is gangrenous in character. The whole bladder will be involved in

a short time, but Arsenic will stop that. So it is with all the internal

organs, the liver, lungs, etc.; any of them may take on violent and

rapid inflammation. We are not now speaking of the particulars, but

only illustrating the general state of Arsenic, in order to bring out

what runs through the whole nature of it. We shall find when we take

up the remedy and go through it in a more particular way thcvse features will stand out everywhere.

The mental symptoms show in the beginning anxious restlessness,

and from this a continuation towards delirium and even insanity with

all that it involves ; disturbance of the intellect and will. ‘Tie thinks

he must die,'' I went to the bedside of a typhoid patient once with

all the general aspect I have described ; he was able to talk, and he

looked up at me and said: “There is no use of your coming, I am

going to die ; you might as well go home ; my whole insides are mortii34

ARSENICUM A1J3UM

fying/' His friend was seated on one side of the bed, giving him a

few drops of water, and just about as often as he could get there with

it he wanted it again, lhat was all he wanted ; his mouth was black,

parched and dry. He got Arsenic. One of the characteristic features

of Arsenic is thirst jar small quantities often, just enough to wet thei

mouth. It is commonly used as a distinguishing feature between Bry-*

onia and Arsenic for the purpose of memorizing the Bryonia has

thirst for large quantities far apart, but Arsenicum little and often, or

violent unquenchable thirst.

‘‘Thoughts of death and of the incurability of his complaints.’'

“Thoughts crowd upon him ; he is too weak to keep them ofE or to

hold on to one idea.’’ That is, he lies in bed tormented day and night

by depressing ideas and distressing thoughts. This is one form of

his anxiety ; when tormented with thoughts, he is anxious. In the

• ▸delirium he sees all kinds of vermin on his bed.
• ▸“Picks the bedclothes.
• ▸” “Delirium during sleep, unconscious mania.
• ▸” Whimpering

• ▸and gnashing teeth.
• ▸” “l.
• ▸A)ud moaning, groaning and weeping.
• ▸” “Lamentations, despair of life.
• ▸” “Screaming with pains.
• ▸” “Fear drives

him out of bed, he hides in a closet.” These arc instances of insanity

that take on first a state of anxiety, restlessness, and fear. Religious

insanity, with the delusion that she has sinned away her day of grace,

the bibical promise of salvation do not apply to her, there is no hope

for her, she is doomed to punishment. She has been thinking on religious matters until she is insane. Finally she enters into a more complete insane state, a state of tranquility ; silent, and with aversion to

talk. So we see one stage enters into another ; we have to take the

whole case together ; wc have to note the course that the case has run

in order to sec it clearly and note that in one stage there were certain

symptoms and, in another stage, other symptoms. For instance, we

know that in the acute conditions of Arsenicum there is cither thirst

for ice cold water, and for only enough to moisten the mouth, or there

is thirst for water in large (quantities and yet it docs not quench tlie

thirst ; but this thirsty stage goes on to another in which there is aversion to water, and hence we see that in chronic diseases Arsenicum is

rhirstless. So it is in a case of mania ; in the chronic state he is tranquil, but in the earlier stages, in order to be an Arsenicum case, he

must have gone through the Arsenicum restlessness, anxiety and fear.

Fear is a strong element in the mental state, fear to be alone ; fears

something is going to injure him when he is alone ; full of horror ; he

dreads solitude and wants company, because in company he can talk

and put off the fear ; but as this insanity increases he fails to appreciate

company and the fear comes in spite of it. He has a violent increase

of his fear and horror in the dark and many complaints come on in

the evening as darkness is coming on. Many of the mental troubles,

as well as the physical troubles, come on and are increased at certain

• ▸times.
• ▸While some complaints, pains and aches are worse in the morning, most of the sufferings of Arsenicum arc worse from 1-2 p .
• ▸m .
• ▸and

from 1-2 A. M. After midnight, very soon after midnight sometimes,

his sufferings begin, and from 1-2 o’clock they are intensified. Extreme anxiety in the evening in bed.

*‘A verse to meeting acquaintances, because he imagines he has formerly offended them.” Great mental depression, great sadness, melancholy, despair, despair of recovery. He has dread of death when alone,

or on going to bed with anxiety and restlessness. He thinks he is

going to die and wants somebody with him. The attacks of anxiety

at night drive him out of bed. This is an anxiety that affects the

heart, and so the mental anxiety and cardiac anxiety almost seem to

coincide. A sudden anxious fear comes over him at night ; he jumps

out of bed with fear that he is going to die, or that he is going to suffocate. It is full of dyspnoea, cardiac dyspnoea, and varying forms

of asthma. The spells come on in the evening in bed or after midnight ; from 1-2 o’clock he is attacked with mental anxiety, dyspnoea,

fear of death, coldness, and is covered with cold sweat. '^Anxiety like

one w'ho has committed murder.” This is one form of his anxiety ;

he finally works up to the idea that the officers are coming after him,

and watches to see if they are coming in to arrest him. Some unusual evil is going to happen to him ; always looking for something

terrible to happen. ‘Irritable, discouraged, restless.” “Restlessness,

cannot rest anywhere.” a consequence of fright, inclination to

commit suicide.”

The Arsenicum patient with this mental state is ahvays freezing,

|iovers around the fire, cannot get clothing enough to keep warm, a

great sufferer from the cold. Chronic Arsenicum in\alids cannot get

warm ; they are always chilly, pale and waxy, and in such invalids,

after they have had several unusual weak spells, dropsical conditions

come on. Arsenicum is full of puffiness and dropsy ; oedematous condition of the extremities ; dropsy of the shut sacs or of the cavities :

swelling about the eyes ; swelling of the face, so that it pits upon

pressure. Arsenicum in these swellings is especially related to the

lower eyelid rather than the upper, while in Kali carb. the swelling is

more in the upper eyelid than the low^r, between the lid and the brow.

There are times when Kali carh, looks very similar to Arsenic, and

little features like that will be distinguishing points. If they run together in generals, then we must observe their particular peculiarities.

In the headaches we have a striking general feature of Arsenicum,

brought out in their periodicity. Running all through this remedy

there is periodicity, and for this reason it has been extensively useful

in malarial affections which haver as a chajacteristic •of their- nature#

periodicity. The periodical complaints of Arsenic come on every other

day, or every fourth day, or every seven days, or every two weeks.

The headaches come on these cycles, every other, or third, or fourth,

seventh or fourteenth day. The more chronic the complaint is, the

longer is its cycle, so that we will find the more acute and sharp troubles

in which Arsenic is suitable will have every other day aggravations

and every fourth day aggravations : but, as the trouble becomes chronic

and deep-seated, it takes on the seventh day aggravation, and in the

psoric manifestations of a long, lingering and deep-seated kind there

is a fourteenth day aggravation. This appearing in cycles is common

to a good many remedies, but is especially marked in China and Arsenic. These two remedies are similar to each other in many respects,

and they are quite similar in their general nature to the manifestations

that often occur in malaria. It is true, however, that Arsenic is more

frequently indicated than China, In every epidemic of malarial fever

that I have gone through I have found Arsenicum symptoms more

common than those of China,

These headaches bring out the interesting point that we mentioned

above. Arsenicum has in its nature an alternation of states^ and this

carries with it certain generals. Arsenicum in all of its bodily complaints is a cold remedy : the patient sits over the fire and shivers,

wants plenty of clothing, and wants to be in a warm room. So long

as the complaints arc in the body this is so ; but when the complaints

arc in the head, while he wants the body warm he wants the head

washed in cold water, or wants the cold air upon it. The complaints

of the head must conform to the generals that apply to the head, and

the complaints of the body must be associated with the generals that

apply to the body. It is a difficult thing to say which one of these two

circumstances is most general, and it is sometimes difficult to say which

one is the general of the patient himself, because he confuses you by

saying: am worse in the cold,’’ but when his headache is on he says: