Ignatia

In order to obtain a proper understanding of the power and place of /gnatia it

is necessary to get rid of two prevalent erroneous ideas. The first of these is that Jgn. is a remedy

for hysteria and nothing else; and the second is that it is the only remedy ever required in cases

of hysteria. One minor inconvenience attending these notions is, that patients have become very

shy of the drug, and resent having it prescribed for them, thinking that their doctor deems them

hysterical if he does prescribe it. The recent outbreak of plague in the East has recalled the fact

that /gn. has earned a reputation as curative even in that disease. Honigberger relates that it was a

common plan when plague was raging in Constantinople for people to wear a bean attached to a

string as a prophylactic; he administered "minute doses" of it to patients affected with plague

with the best success. Later on he himself caught the disease in India, and cured himself with the

• ▸same remedy (H.
• ▸W.
• ▸, xxxiii.
• ▸51).
• ▸In intermittent fever it is the only remedy that will cure certain

cases. In the early part of my homceopathic career I astonished myself once by curing rapidly

with /gn. (prescribed at first as an intercurrent remedy) a severe case of rheumatic fever, which

had been making no progress under Bryonia, &c. The mental symptoms called for /gn., and

along with these the inflammation of the joints, as well as the fever, disappeared under its action.

The seeds of /gn. contain a larger proportion of Strychnia than those of Nux vomica, and the

great differences in the characteristic features of the two medicines prove the wisdom of

considering medicines apart from their so-called "active" principles. There are many activities in

plants besides the alkaloids they may contain, and these are often the determining factors of the

drug's specific action. It is in the mental sphere that the majority of the keynote symptoms of Ign.

• ▸are developed.
• ▸"Although its positive effects," says Hahnemann (.
• ▸M.
• ▸P.
• ▸), "have a great

resemblance to those of Nux v. (which indeed might be inferred from the botanical relationship

of these two plants) yet there is a great difference in their therapeutic employment. The

emotional disposition of patients for whom /gn. is serviceable differs widely from that of those

• ▸for whom Nux v.
• ▸is of use.
• ▸/gn.
• ▸is not suitable for persons or patients in whom anger, eagerness,

or violence is predominant; but for those who are subject to rapid alternations of gaiety and

disposition to weep, or other characteristic emotional states, provided always that the other

corporeal morbid symptoms resemble those that this drug can produce." Guernsey thus depicts

the /gn. state of mind: "Any one suffering from suppressed or deep grief, with long-drawn sighs,

much sobbing, &c.; also much unhappiness, cannot sleep, entirely absorbed in grief; for recent

grief at the loss of a friend; affections of the mind in general, particularly if actuated by grief;

sadness; hopelessness; hysterical variableness; fantastic illusions." To this list fixed ideas may be

• ▸added, and desire to be alone.
• ▸/gn.
• ▸covers many of the effects of grief, especially if recent.
• ▸I once

gave instant relief with /gn. 30 in the case of a lady who had just heard of her brother's death (not

unexpected), and who complained of an intense pain in the head just over the root of the nose.

The consequences of worry, or a worrying state of mind, no less than grief, call for /gn.—an

introverted state of mind. The special indication of /gn. in cases of hysteria is the rapid

alternation of moods. Uncontrollable laughter alternating with outbursts of tears. Laughs when

she ought to be serious. Sensitive, impressionable. This condition with the characteristic globus

hystericus (a lump rises from the stomach into throat as if she would choke; she swallows it

down but it constantly returns; < by drinking water) unmistakably indicate Jgn. Nervous

twitchings and even convulsions also occur. Distortion of the facial muscles whenever the patient

attempts to speak. Pains rapidly alternate in character and are excessive. Exaggerated and

outlandish symptoms. Rapid alternation of effects is one of the leading features of the drug; also

paradoxicalness. /gn. has cured many cases of diphtheric and other sore throats, when the pain

has been > by swallowing. In the fever of /gn., the thirst occurs during the chill and in no other

stage. This is a very unlikely condition, and no other remedy has it. Empty retching is > by

• ▸eating.
• ▸Suddenness is another note of the /gn.
• ▸effects.
• ▸Sudden loss of function in any organ.

There are many bodily conditions not associated with mental disturbance that require /gn.; for it

must always be borne in mind that the absence of any particular characteristic of a drug is no

contraindication to its use provided other indications are sufficiently pronounced. Jgn. will cure

many painful conditions of the anus and rectum, including piles and prolapse when characterised

by "sharp stitching pain shooting up the rectum"; or "constricting pain at anus < after stool, >

whilst sitting." Pressure as of a sharp instrument from within outward is a characteristic.

"Headache as if a nail were driven out through the side of the head, > by lying on it." Pains 2

change their locality, come gradually and abate suddenly, or come and go suddenly. Headaches

terminate with a profuse flow of urine. In dentition it is frequently called for. It has cured

hydrocephalus from sudden metastasis from bowels to brain during dentition, with sudden pallor,

delirium, rolling of head, difficult swallowing; convulsive movements of eyes and lids. The eye

symptoms are also noteworthy. It has cured many cases of inflammatory affections, especially

with intense photophobia and nervous excitement; also asthenopia with spasms of lids and

• ▸neuralgic pains.
• ▸/gn.
• ▸is one of the remedies which have "goneness.
• ▸" or sinking at the stomach, in

a very pronounced degree. It often occurs in the night, keeping the patient awake. With this there

is a disposition to sigh. Sometimes a feeling as if the stomach were relaxed. There is

regurgitation of food. Hiccough < by eating, or smoking, or emotional disturbances (especially in

children); empty retching > by eating; vomiting at night of food taken in evening. Hysterical

vomiting. Sour saliva and sour taste in mouth. Toothache, < after a meal, not so bad whilst

eating—another paradoxical condition. The facial expression of /gn. is one of deadly pallor, or it

may be flushed at times. There are twitchings of individual muscles of eyelids or mouth, and

fluttering in chest, and in smaller muscles of body; heart flutters and rises in chest, causing

choking and oppression; it seems to rise and fall as she attempts to sleep. Convulsions, spasms

from fright. The child stiffens out and bends backward. Half-unconscious state, thumbs clenched,

• ▸face blue.
• ▸Cramps and spasms are prevalent as with Nux.
• ▸The dysmenorrheea in which J/gn.
• ▸is

indicated has labour-like bearing-down in hypogastrium, > by pressure; by lying down; by

change of position. The flow is black, putrid; if profuse, clotted. Spasms and convulsions, ending

in long-drawn sighs, are met by /gn. Nash relates a case of puerperal convulsions in which this

feature led to a cure. There are a number of characteristic respiratory symptoms: Hysterical

aphonia. Laryngismus stridulus; patient sits up in bed, hoarse, hacking cough. The characteristic

cough of /gn. is an irritable and irritating cough: the longer the cough lasts the more the irritation

to cough increases. Kent describes it as: "Hack, hack-ety-hack, ending in sobbing." Cough every

time he stands still during a walk. Hollow, spasmodic cough as from sulphur fumes. Cough as

from inspired feathery dust. Sensations of formication and numbness are very general. Pains are

apt to be in small circumscribed spots. The fever characters are: Thirst during cold spell only.

Red face during chill. Chill > by external heat (wraps, stove). External chilliness and internal

• ▸heat.
• ▸As soon as heat commences must be uncovered (opp.
• ▸Nux).
• ▸Sensation as if sweat would

break out but does not. Sweats: when eating; cold at times, generally warm; sometimes sour. /gn.

is one of the chilly medicines like Nux, Caps., Ars. Cold < and warmth > (except in the last stage

• ▸of fever).
• ▸Rest > the pains; and so does change of position.
• ▸Lying down >.
• ▸Lying on side <

headache; lying on painful side > headache. Sitting > anal and many other symptoms. < By

stooping, walking, standing. < From slight touch; > from hard pressure. Soft pressure >

headache. Slightest touch < stomach pains; cramps in uterus; tenderness of scalp and region of

pylorus. There is great aversion to tobacco, which < many symptoms. Aversion to warm food,

meat, alcohol. Desire for sour things; for bread, especially rye bread. < From emotion; from

sweets; coffee; strong smells; from ascarides; when yawning. > From changing position; while

eating; from eructation; when taking an inspiration; from swallowing. /gn. acts rapidly, and the

duration of its action, according to Hahnemann, is short. "It is best administered in the morning if

there is no hurry. When given shortly before bedtime it is apt to cause too much restlessness at

night." It is adapted to the sensitive, excitable, nervous temperament; women of a sensitive,

easily excited nature; dark hair and skin, but mild disposition; quick to perceive, rapid to execute.

• ▸Ign.
• ▸has been called the "feminine" of the "masculine" Nux.
• ▸B.
• ▸Simmons defines the place of /gn.

in sciatica thus: "Lancinating, cutting pains, beating, bursting pains, < in winter, > in summer,

chilliness with thirst, flushes of heat, chiefly face, without thirst." The limb is swollen and thigh

knotty, and she cannot get up or lie down without pain; generally left side.

• ▸Changeable mood; introspective; silently brooding.
• ▸Melancholic, sad, tearful.
• ▸Not communicative.
• ▸Sighing and sobbing.
• ▸After shocks, grief, disappointment.

Taciturn, with continuous sad thoughts; still, serious melancholy, with

moaning.—Sadness and concentrated sorrow, with sighing.—Irresolution; anxious to do now this,

• ▸now that.
• ▸—Impatience.
• ▸—Strong disposition to be frightened.
• ▸—Morose and discontented humour,

and involuntary reflections on painful and disagreeable things.—Intolerance of

• ▸noise.
• ▸—Effrontery.
• ▸—Tenderness of disposition and of conscience.
• ▸—Inconstancy.
• ▸—Alternation of

• ▸foolish gaiety and tearful sadness.
• ▸—Laconic speech.
• ▸—Great weakness of memory.
• ▸—Love of

solitude.—Anguish, esp. in the morning on waking, or at night, sometimes with palpitation of the

heart.—Lachrymose and apathetic humour, with dread of exertion.—Inclination to grief, without

saying anything about it.—Changeable disposition; jesting and laughing, changing to sadness,

with shedding of tears (hysteria).—Despair of being cured.—The least contradiction excites rage

and passion, with redness of face.—Fearfulness, timidity—Anger, followed by quiet grief and

sorrow.—Fear of robbers at night.—Cries, and complete discouragement, at the least provocation.

• ▸Feels hollow, heavy; worse, stooping.
• ▸Headache as if a nail were driven out through the side.
• ▸Cramp-like pain over root of nose.
• ▸Congestive headaches following anger or grief; worse, smoking or smelling tobacco, inclines head forward.

Vertigo; with sparks before the eyes.—Great heaviness of the head, as if it were full of

blood.—Pressive headache, esp. above the root of the nose, and often accompanied by inclination

to vomit, < or > by stooping.—Stinging pain, from within to without in the forehead —Cramp-like

pressure on the forehead and occiput, with obscuration of sight, redness of the face, and

weeping.—Painful sensation of expansion in the head, as if the cranium were going to burst, esp.

when conversing, reading, or listening to another.—Pain, as from a bruise in the head, esp. in the

morning, on waking.—The headaches are < by coffee, brandy, tobacco-smoke, noise, strong

smell, from reading and writing; from the sunlight; from moving the eyes; > when changing the

position and when lying on the painful side—Headaches with zigzags before the sight.—Skin

across forehead feels drawn, with a lost and drowsy feeling, and thousands of stars float before

sight.—Headache, as if a nail were driven into the brain; or out through the side of the head; >

when lying on painful side.—Pressive headache in the forehead and vertex.—Piercing and

shooting tearings, deep in the brain and forehead, > by lying down.—Pressive, pulsative

headache.—Trembling of the head.—Throwing of the head backwards (during spasms); > by

heat.—Falling off of the hair.

Asthenopia, with spasms of lids and neuralgic pain about eyes (Nat m). Flickering zigzags.

Pressure on the eyes, sometimes, as if sand had been introduced into

• ▸them.
• ▸—Inflammation of the eyes.
• ▸—Redness of the eyes.
• ▸—Acrid tears in the eyes during the day;

agglutination of the eyelids during the night——Lachrymation, esp. in the brightness of the

sun.—Swelling in the upper lid, with enlargement of the (bluish) veins; the eyelid is turned

upward.—Inflammation of the upper part of the eyeball as far as it is covered by the upper

lid —Convulsive movements of the eyes, and of the eyelids.—Fixed look, with dilated

pupils —Photophobia.—Sight confused, as if directed through a mist.—Flickering zigzags (and

stars) before the eyes.

Swelling of the parotids, with shooting pain.—Redness and burning heat in one of the

• ▸ears.
• ▸—Hardness of hearing; except for the human voice.
• ▸—Itching in the ears.
• ▸—Noise before the

ear, as from a strong wind.—Worry takes away hearing and intensifies the noises.

Itching in the nose.—Nostrils excoriated and ulcerated, with swelling of the

nose.—Epistaxis.—Stoppage of one nostril; dry coryza, with dull headache, and excessive nervous

excitement.—Dryness of the nose.

Twitching of muscles of face and lips. Changes color when at rest.

Face pale, red, or blue, or earth-coloured and wan.—Alternate redness and paleness of

the face.—Clay-coloured, sunken face, with blue margins around the eyes.—Perspiration on the

face alone.—Redness and burning heat in one of the cheeks (and in one ear).—Convulsive

startings and distortion of the muscles of the face.—Eruption on the face.—Lips dry, cracked, and

bleeding.—Pain, as of excoriation, in the internal surface of the upper lip.—Scabs on the

commissure of the lips, and on the lips.—Pains in the submaxillary glands.—Convulsive jerking

of the corners of the mouth.—Ulceration of one of the corners of the mouth.—Spasmodic

clenching of the jaws (lock-jaw).

• ▸Sour taste.
• ▸Easily bites inside of cheeks.
• ▸Constantly full of saliva.
• ▸Toothache; worse after drinking coffee and smoking.

Inflammation and redness of the mouth, and of the palate —Constant secretion of

mucus, or accumulation of acid saliva in the mouth.—Aptness to bite the tongue, on one side

posteriorly, when chewing or speaking.—Moist tongue, loaded with a white coating.—Stitches in

palate, extending to the ear—Foam at the mouth.—Voice weak and tremulous.

Odontalgia, as if the teeth (the molars) were broken.—Looseness of the

teeth —Toothache towards the end of a meal, < after its conclusion.—Difficult dentition, with

convulsions.

Sore throat, as if there were a plug in it, when not swallowing.—Palate red and

inflamed, with a sensation as if what is swallowed passed over a burning and excoriated

tumour.—Shootings in the throat, extending sometimes to the ear, chiefly when not

swallowing.—When swallowing sensation as if one swallowed over a lump, causing soreness and

a cracking noise.—Inflammation, swelling, and induration of the tonsils, with small

• ▸ulcers.
• ▸—Impeded deglutition (of drinks).
• ▸—Constriction of the gullet, with sobbing risings.
• ▸—Pain

in the submaxillary glands when moving the neck.

10. Appetite-—Repugnance to food and drink, esp. to milk, meat, cooked victuals, and tobacco-

• ▸smoke.
• ▸—Want of appetite, and speedy satiety.
• ▸—Insipid taste, like chalk, in the mouth.
• ▸——Weakness

and difficulty of digestion —Sour taste in the mouth.—Bitter and putrid taste of food, esp. of

• ▸beer.
• ▸—Repugnance to, or strong desire for, acid things.
• ▸—Dislike to wine and brandy.
• ▸—Painful

inflation of the abdomen after a meal.—Feeling of hunger in the evening, which prevents one

going to sleep.—Desire for different things, which are disregarded when obtained.—Food has no

taste.-—Milk taken in the morning leaves an after-taste for a long time.—After smoking, hiccough,

nausea, sweat, and colic.

• ▸Feeling of a lump in throat that cannot be swallowed.
• ▸Tendency to choke, globus hystericus.
• ▸Sore throat; stitches when not swallowing; better, eating something solid.
• ▸Stitches between acts of swallowing.
• ▸Stitches extend to ear (Hep).
• ▸Tonsils inflamed, swollen, with small ulcers.
• ▸Follicular tonsillitus.

• ▸Sour eructation.
• ▸All-gone feeling in stomach; much flatulence; hiccough.
• ▸Cramps in stomach; worse slightest contact.
• ▸Averse to ordinary diet; longs for great variety of indigestible articles.
• ▸Craving for acid things.
• ▸Sinking in stomach, relieved by taking a deep breath.

Regurgitation of food, or of bitter serous matter—Hiccough from

smoking.—Hiccough, always after eating or drinking —Acid risings.—Nausea, with agitation and

anguish.—Vomiting of food, even at night—Vomiting of bile and mucus.—Periodical attacks of

cramp in the stomach, which disturb sleep at night, and are < by pressure on the part

affected.—Dull aching or shootings in the epigastrium.—Coldness, or sensation of burning in the

stomach, esp. after taking brandy.—Sensation of emptiness, and of weakness, in the

epigastrium.—Sensation of weakness (sinking) in the pit of the stomach.—Heaviness and pressure

in the pit of the stomach.—Fulness and swelling in the epigastrium.—Painful sensitiveness of the

pit of the stomach to the touch.

• ▸Rumbling in bowels.
• ▸Weak feeling in upper abdomen.
• ▸Throbbing in abdomen (Aloe; Sang).
• ▸Colicky, griping pains in one or both sides of abdomen.

Sensation of fulness and inflation of the hypochondria, with difficulty of

• ▸respiration.
• ▸—Pain in the 1.
• ▸hypochondrium, < by pressure, and by walking.
• ▸—Shooting sensation

of burning and pressure, or swelling and hardness in the region of the spleen.—Expansive pain in

the abdomen, as if the intestines were going to burst.—Inflation of the abdomen.—The flatulence

presses on the bladder.—Cutting pains in the umbilical region.—Spasmodic pains, cutting,

stinging, like labour pains.—Violent aching in the abdomen.—Rolling sensation around the

navel.—Drawing and pinching in the region of the navel.—Sensation of protrusion in the

umbilical region.—The pains in the abdomen are < after taking coffee, brandy, or things

• ▸sweetened with sugar.
• ▸—Shootings and pinchings in the abdomen, esp.
• ▸in the sides.
• ▸—Periodical

cramp-like pains in the abdomen.—Cramp-like pressure in the inguinal region.—Beating in the

• ▸abdomen.
• ▸—Borborygmi in the intestines.
• ▸—Flatulent colic, esp.
• ▸at night—Sensation of weakness

and trembling in the abdomen, with sighing respiration.

• ▸Itching and stitching up the rectum.
• ▸Prolapse.
• ▸Stools pass with difficulty; painful constriction of anus after stool.
• ▸Stitches in haemorrhoids during cough.
• ▸Diarrhoea from fright.
• ▸Stitches from anus deep into rectum.
• ▸Haemorrhage and pain; worse when stool is loose.
• ▸Pressure as of a sharp instrument from within outward.

Constipation from taking cold; from riding in a carriage.—Hard

evacuations, with frequent ineffectual efforts Unsuccessful urging to stool, felt mostly in the

upper intestines.—Feeces yellow, whitish, of a very large size, soft but difficult to

eject —Diarrhcea of sanguineous mucus, with rumbling in the abdomen.—Slimy evacuations,

accompanied by colic.—Discharge of blood from the anus.—Prolapsus of the rectum while at

• ▸stool.
• ▸—Itching and tingling in the anus.
• ▸—Ascarides in the rectum.
• ▸—Contraction of the

anus.—Contractive pain, as of excoriation, in the anus, after evacuation.—Prolapsus ani, with

smarting pain, from slight pressure to stool—Shootings from the anus high up into the

rectum.—Smarting in the rectum during the loose evacuations.

Frequent and copious emission of watery urine.—Urine lemon

• ▸colour.
• ▸—Involuntary emission of urine.
• ▸—Urgent and irresistible want to make water.
• ▸—Continual

want to urinate after taking coffee Sensation of burning and smarting in the urethra during

micturition.—Itching in the fore part of the urethra—Urging to urinate with inability.

Profuse, watery (Phos ac).

• ▸Menses, black, too early, too profuse, or scanty.
• ▸During menses great languor, with spasmodic pains in stomach and abdomen.
• ▸Feminine sexual frigidity.
• ▸Suppression from grief.

Catamenia premature and violent, every ten or fifteen days—Blood

of the catamenia black, of putrid odour, mixed with clots.—Metrorrhagia.—During the catamenia,

heaviness, heat, and pain in the head, photophobia, colic, and contractive pains, anxiety,

palpitation of the heart, and great fatigue, even to fainting —Cramp-like and compressive pains in

the region of the uterus, with fits of suffocation; pressure, and lying on the back, mitigate the

pain.—Cramp in the uterus, during the catamenia.—Uterine spasms, with lancinations, or like

labour pains.—Corrosive and purulent leucorrhoea, preceded by contractive pressure in the uterus.

Much itching in the genital parts, and in the penis, in the evening

after lying down, removed by scratching.—Pain, as of excoriation and ulceration, on the margins

of the prepuce.—Strangling sensation, and aching in the testes, esp. in the evening, after lying

down.—Sweat on the scrotum.—Lasciviousness, with weakness of genital power (without

erections).—Contraction of the penis; it becomes quite small.—Absence of sexual

desire.—Erections, with painful uneasiness, and aching at the pubis —Erections during every

evacuation.

• ▸Dry, spasmodic cough in quick successive shocks.
• ▸Spasm of glottis (Calc).
• ▸Reflex coughs.
• ▸Coughing increases the desire to cough.
• ▸Much sighing.
• ▸Hollow spasmodic cough, worse in the evening, little expectoration, leaving pain in trachea.

Sensation of soreness in the larynx.—Constrictive sensation in the

trachea and larynx.—Voice feeble, inability to speak loud.—Catarrh, with coryza and

headache.—Cough, excited by a sensation of constriction at the fossa of the neck, as from the

vapour of sulphur.—Hollow spasmodic cough, caused in the evening from a sensation of vapour

or dust in the pit of the throat; in the morning, from a tickling above the pit of the stomach, with

expectoration in the evening difficult, tasting and smelling like old catarrh. (Whooping-

• ▸cough).
• ▸—Obstinate nocturnal cough.
• ▸—Dry cough, sometimes with fluent coryza.
• ▸—Cough,

continuing equally day and night.—The longer he coughs the more the irritation to cough

increases.—Dry, hoarse cough—Spasmodic shaking cough.—Short cough, as from a feather in the

throat, becoming stronger from repetition (the more he coughs, the more he wants to).—Hoarse

dry cough, excited by a tickling above the stomach.

Desire to draw a long breath—Slow breathing. —Difficulty of respiration, and

oppression of the chest, esp. at night (after midnight).—Oppressed breathing, alternating with

convulsions.—Difficult respiration, as if hindered by a weight upon the chest.—Shortness of

breath when walking, and cough as soon as one stands still—Sighing respiration.—Feeling of

• ▸suffocation on running.
• ▸—Aching of the chest.
• ▸—Constriction of the chest.
• ▸—Shootings in the chest

and in the sides, excited by flatulency (flatulent colic).

Palpitation of the heart at night, with shootings in the heart, or else in the morning

on waking, as well as when meditating, and during repose.—Throbbing in the chest.—Sticking in

precordial region on expiration.—Cardiac hyperesthesia.—Anxious feeling in precordia; sinking

sensation and emptiness at stomach; constriction, with anxiety and disposition to cry.

Stiffness of the nape of the neck.—Stitches in the small of the back; in the

nape of the neck.—Aching pain in the glands of the neck.—Enlarged glands (painless), like

nodosities, in the neck.—Pain in the os sacrum in the morning, when lying on the back.—Violent

sacral pains, like shootings or pullings, or like squeezing by a claw.—The back is bent

forward.—Convulsive bending backwards of the spine.—Lancinations as by knives, from the

loins to the thighs.—Weak back, with sciatica.

Lancinating, cutting pain in the shoulder-joint, when bending the arm

forward.—Insupportable pains in the bones and joints of the arms, as if the flesh were being

loosened, or with a paralytic sensation and pain of dislocation (on moving the arm).—Convulsive

startings in the arms (in the deltoid muscle) and in the fingers.—Tearing in the arms, excited by

• ▸cold air.
• ▸—Tension in the wrist.
• ▸—Hot sweat of the hands.
• ▸—Sensation of torpor and digging in the

arms, at night in bed (with the sensation as if something living were running in the arm).—Warm

perspiration in the palm of the hand and fingers.

Incisive, tearing pains in the posterior surface of the thighs, on fatiguing the

muscles.—Sciatica, with weakness of back and lower limbs.—Limbs swollen, thigh knotty,

cannot get up or lie down without pain (generally |.).—Heaviness of the legs and of the feet, with

tension in the legs, and calves of the legs, on walking.—Heat of the knee, with coldness and

itching of the nose.—Convulsive startings of the legs —Stiffness of the knees and of the

• ▸feet.
• ▸—When walking, the knees are involuntarily drawn up.
• ▸—Cracking in the knee.
• ▸—Painful

sensibility of the soles of the feet, when walking.—Shootings and pain, as from ulceration in the

soles of the feet—Sensation of burning in the heels at night, on placing them near one another;

when they come in contact they are cold to the touch—Coldness of the feet and legs, extending

above the knee.—Sensation of burning in corns.

24. Generalities—Simple and violent pain, in various parts, when they are touched.—Incisive or

acute, and sometimes hard pressive pain (as from a hard pointed body pressing from within to

without), in the limbs and other parts.—Trembling of the limbs.—Lancinations, as by

knives.—Sensation of pressing asunder, or constriction in the internal organs.—Arthritic tearing in

the limbs.—Pain, as of dislocation, or of a sprain in the joints —Heaviness, and crawling

numbness, in the limbs.—Convulsions alternating with oppressed breathing. —Attacks of cramps

and of convulsions, sometimes with anxiety, fits of suffocation, throwing back of the head,

bluish or red face, spasms in the throat, loss of consciousness, &c.—Epileptic convulsions, with

foam at the mouth, frequent yawning, convulsed eyes, retraction of the thumbs, face red, or

alternately pale and red, &c.—Convulsive twitchings, esp. after fright or grief—Involuntary

movements of the limbs, as in St. Vitus' dance.—A fter the convulsions, profound sighs, or

drowsy sleep.—Great sensitiveness to the open air.—Convulsions, with cries and

laughter—Tetanus.—Hysterical debility, and fainting-fits Hysterical spasms.—The symptoms

chiefly manifest themselves just after a meal, also in the evening, after lying down, or in the

morning, immediately after rising.—Coffee, tobacco, brandy, and noise aggravate the pains.—The

pains are removed either by lying on the back, or by lying on the part affected, or on the healthy

side, and always by change of position Nocturnal pains which disturb sleep.

Jerking of limbs. Pain in tendo-Achillis and calf. Ulcerative pain in soles.

Itching, nettle-rash. Very sensitive to draught of air. Excoriation, especially around vagina and mouth.

Itching (over the whole body), which is easily removed by

• ▸scratching.
• ▸—Chilblains.
• ▸—Excoriation of the skin; (esp.
• ▸round vagina and

• ▸mouth.
• ▸—Cooper).
• ▸—Itching on becoming warm in the open air.
• ▸—Great sensitiveness of the skin to

a draught of air—Nettle-rash over the whole body, with violent itching (during the fever).

• ▸Very light.
• ▸Jerking of limbs on going to sleep.
• ▸Insomnia from grief, cares, with itching of arms and violent yawning.
• ▸Dreams continuing a long time; troubling him.

Profound and comatose sleep, with stertorous respiration.—Violent spasmodic

yawnings (with pain in the lower jaw, as if dislocated, with running of the eyes), esp. in the

morning, or after a siesta.—Very light sleep; hears everything that happens around him.—Sleep,

disturbed by nightmare, or by starts and frequent dreams.—Starting of the limbs on going to

sleep.—Dreams, with reflection and reasoning, or with fixed ideas.—Dreams with fixed ideas,

continuing after waking.—Restless sleep, and great restlessness at night.—Starts with fright on

going to sleep.—Whimpering during sleep.

Chill, with thirst; not relieved by external heat. During fever, itching; nettle-rash all over body.

Pulse hard, full and frequent, or very variable.—Febrile shivering, esp. in the back

and arms, with thirst for cold water, and sometimes with nausea and vomiting.—Chill, frequently

only of the back part of the body.—Mitigation of the cold by external heat.—External heat with

internal coldness.—Universal heat, esp. in the head, with redness, principally (of one) of the

cheeks, and adipsia, sometimes with internal shuddering, coldness of the feet, shootings in the

limbs, and headache.—Chill and coldness, causing the pains to increase.—Sudden flushes of heat

over the whole body.—Troublesome sensation of heat, sometimes with sweat.—Absence of thirst

during the heat, and perspiration, or during the apyrexia—Only external heat, without thirst, with

aversion to external heat.—Fever, with headache, and pain in the pit of the stomach, great fatigue,

paleness of face, or paleness and redness alternately, lips dry and cracked, nettle-rash, tongue

white, profound sleep with snoring, &c.—Intermittent fever; chill with thirst, followed by heat

(without thirst), followed by chill with thirst, or afternoon fever; shiverings with colic (and

thirst), afterwards weakness and sleep, with burning heat of the body.—During the fever violent

itching; nettle-rash over the whole body.—Burning heat of the face, only on one side.—Very little

perspiration, or only in the face.—Sweat, with shootings and buzzing in the ears.—Sweat during a

meal.

• ▸Abdomen, distended.
• ▸Anger, effects of.
• ▸Anus, affections of.
• ▸Anxiety.
• ▸Appetite,

• ▸disordered.
• ▸Back, weakness of.
• ▸Catalepsy.
• ▸Change of Life.
• ▸Chorea.
• ▸Clavus.
• ▸Convulsions.
• ▸Croup.

• ▸Debility.
• ▸Dentition.
• ▸Depression of Spirits.
• ▸Diphtheria.
• ▸Dysmenorrheea.
• ▸Epilepsy.
• ▸Fainting.
• ▸Fear,

• ▸effects of.
• ▸Flatulence; obstructed.
• ▸Glands, enlargement of.
• ▸Haemorrhoids.
• ▸Headache.
• ▸Heart,

• ▸affections of.
• ▸Hiccough.
• ▸Hysteria.
• ▸Hysterical-joint.
• ▸Intermittent fever.
• ▸Locomotor ataxy.

• ▸Melancholia.
• ▸Numbness.
• ▸Esophagus.
• ▸Paralysis.
• ▸Phlyctenular ophthalmia.
• ▸Proctalgia.
• ▸Rectum,

• ▸prolapse of.
• ▸Rheumatic fever.
• ▸Sciatica.
• ▸Sensitiveness.
• ▸Sinking.
• ▸Sleep, disordered.
• ▸Spinal

• ▸irritation.
• ▸Tenesmus.
• ▸Throat, sore.
• ▸Toothache.
• ▸Tremors.
• ▸Urine, abnormal.
• ▸Vagina, spasm of.

Voice, lost. Yawning.

• ▸Antidoted by: Puls.
• ▸(chief antidote); Arn.
• ▸, Camph.
• ▸, Cham.
• ▸, Coccul.
• ▸, Coff.
• ▸Jt

• ▸antidotes: Brandy, coffee, chamomile tea, tobacco, Selen.
• ▸, Zinc.
• ▸Compatible: Ars.
• ▸, Bell.
• ▸, Calc.
• ▸,

• ▸Chi.
• ▸, Lyc.
• ▸, Nux, Puls.
• ▸, Rhus t.
• ▸, Sep.
• ▸, Sulph.
• ▸, Zinc.
• ▸Incompatible: Coffea, Tabac.
• ▸, Nux

(sometimes). Compare: Croc. (irresistible fits of laughter; rapidly alternating mental states); Lyc.

(sinking sensation at night, preventing sleep canine hunger at night; also Chi.); Sep. (sinking,

• ▸gone sensation with Ign.
• ▸it is attended with sighing); Phos.
• ▸ac.
• ▸, Gels.
• ▸, Coloc.
• ▸(grief Phos.
• ▸ac.
• ▸,

• ▸especially for chronic condition); Asaf.
• ▸, Asar.
• ▸(nervous persons); Ars.
• ▸, Nux (fevers; > from

• ▸external warmth).
• ▸In difficult swallowing of liquids, Bell.
• ▸, Caust.
• ▸, Cin.
• ▸, Hyo.
• ▸, Lach.
• ▸, Lyc.
• ▸, Pho.

• ▸Globus hystericus, Lach.
• ▸, Lyc.
• ▸, Plumb.
• ▸Piles (> sitting, Ign.
• ▸—< sitting, Lyc.
• ▸, Thuj.
• ▸, Phos.
• ▸ac.
• ▸).

• ▸Piles during menses, Lach.
• ▸, Collins.
• ▸, Puls.
• ▸, Sul.
• ▸Worry and its effects, Nux, Sul.
• ▸(Sul.
• ▸worried by

• ▸trifles).
• ▸Laughter when ought to be serious, Anac.
• ▸, Pho.
• ▸Sadness, Puls.
• ▸(Ign.
• ▸hides her grief, Puls.

• ▸shows it).
• ▸Prolapsus ani, Pod.
• ▸Jealousy, Apis, Hyo.
• ▸Disappointed love, Phos.
• ▸ac.
• ▸> From hard

pressure hollow cough as from sulphur fumes, Chi. Laryngismus, Gels. Headache ending in

• ▸copious flow of clear limpid urine, Gels.
• ▸, Aco.
• ▸, Sil.
• ▸, Ver.
• ▸Worms, Cin.
• ▸In functional paralysis

• ▸from fatigue, emotions, or worms, Stan.
• ▸, Coccul.
• ▸, Pho.
• ▸Hysteria, Cupr.
• ▸, Plat.
• ▸, Hyo.
• ▸, Asaf.
• ▸,

• ▸Mosch.
• ▸(faints easily), Valer.
• ▸, Nux mosch.
• ▸Spasms in delicate women, Bell.
• ▸(but Bell.
• ▸has bright

• ▸red face, shining eyes, hot head, fever: Ign.
• ▸has no fever with spasms), Hyo.
• ▸(Hyo.
• ▸has

• ▸unconsciousness, Ign.
• ▸not).
• ▸Sudden effects of emotions, Opium (very similar, but Op.
• ▸has dark

• ▸red, bloated face), Glon.
• ▸(in the convulsions of Glon.
• ▸the fingers spread out widely, also Secal.
• ▸),

• ▸Ver.
• ▸, Cupr.
• ▸, Cham.
• ▸In uterine spasms, Coccul.
• ▸, Cham.
• ▸, Mag.
• ▸mur.
• ▸, Act.
• ▸r.
• ▸Hiccough (Ign.
• ▸< by

• ▸eating, smoking, emotions), Hyo.
• ▸(after operations on abdomen), Stram.
• ▸and Ver.
• ▸(after hot

• ▸drinks), Ars.
• ▸and Puls.
• ▸(after cold drinks), Teucr.
• ▸(children, after nursing).
• ▸Nervous cough, the

more he coughs the more annoying the irritation, Apis. Sadness, indifference, profound

• ▸melancholy, Tarent.
• ▸(Ign.
• ▸introverted state of mind; Trnt.
• ▸cunning attempts to feign paroxysms

and wild dancing, no paroxysms if no observers). Chorea; eye symptoms, Agar. Extreme

• ▸sensitiveness to pain; flushing of one or other cheek, Cham.
• ▸Ear symptoms, Phos.
• ▸(Ign.
• ▸hard of

hearing except to human voice; Pho. exact opposite, over-sensitiveness to ordinary sounds, deaf

• ▸to voice).
• ▸Nervous women, Mg.
• ▸c.
• ▸, Mg.
• ▸m.
• ▸Tears, fevers, Nat.
• ▸m.
• ▸(Nat.
• ▸m.
• ▸is the chronic of Ign.
• ▸).

Teste places Ign. in his Ipec. group: Nausea and vomiting; reversed peristalsis; congestive

headaches and engorgements resulting from vomiting; tenesmus; intermittent fevers are the

leading characteristics of the group.

Compare: Zinc; Kali phos; Sep; Cimicif. Panacea arvensis--Poor man's Mercury--(Sensitiveness over gastric region with hunger but an aversion to food).

Complementary: Nat mur.

Incompatible: Coffea; Nux; Tabac.

Antidotes: Puls; Cham; Cocc.

Sixth, to 200th potency.

Ignatia is frequently required and is especially suited to sensitive,

delicate women and children ; to hysterical women. You will not

cure the natural hysterics with Ignatia. but you will cure those gentle,

sensitive, fine fibred, refined, highly educated, overwrought women

in their nervous complaints with Ignatia when they take on complaints

that are similar to such symptoms as come in hysteria. The hysterical

diathesis is one that is very singular and difficult to comprehend.

But a woman, when overwrought and overexcited and emotional,

will do things that she herself cannot account for. She will do

things as if she were crazy in her excitement. Will do things she

5*5

regrets, while the hysteric is always glad of it. No matter how raudi

foolishness there is in it she has only made an exhibition that she is

proud of. But our efforts go out for those who imitate them unconsciously. Those who will to do well.

A woman has undergone a controversy at home. She has been

disturbed, is excited, and goes into cramps, trembles and quivers.

Goes to bed with a headache. Is sick. Ignatia will be her remedy.

When she has great distress ; unrequited affections. A sensitive,

nervous young girl finds out that she has misplaced her affections ;

the young man has disappointed her ; she has a weeping spell, headache. trembles, is nervous, sleepless ; Ignatia will make her philosophical and sensible. A woman loses her child, or her husband.

A sensitive, delicate woman, and she suffers from this grief. She has

headaches, trembles, is excited, weeps, is sleepless ; unable to control

herself. In spite of her best endeavors, her grief has simply tom

her to pieces. She is unable to control her emotions and her excitement. Ignatia will quiet her and tide her over the present moment.

In all of these instances where all of these conditions brought on

from such troubles keep coming back, where your patient dwells

upon them, dwells upon the cause, and the state keeps recurring,

Natrum mur. will finish up the case. It will nerve her up and help

her to bear her sufferings. Especially useful in constitutions that

have been over wrought at schoeff, in science, music, art. Of course,

it is natural for very sensitive girfs to go into the arts, such as music,

painting, etc. A daughter comes, back from Paris after a number of

years close application to her music. She is unable to do anything.

She flies all to pieces. Every noise disturbs her. She cannot sleep

nights. Excitable, sleepless, trwnbles, jerks, cramps in the muscles ;

weeps from excitement, and from every disturbing word. Ignatia

will tone her up wonderfully. Sometimes it will complete the whole

case. But especially in these oversensitive girls is Natrum mur.

very commonly the chronic. It is the natural chronic of Ignatia.

When the troubles keep coming back, and Ignatia comes to a place

when it will not hold any longer.

before any organic changes have taken place, you may mistake Iodine

for Pulsatilla, But if you watch the patient you will observe the

tendency to emaciation and see that the two remedies soon part company. They are both hot, they are lx>th irritable, they are both full

of notions. The Pulsatilla patient is far more whimsical, more tearful, has greater sadness, and has constant loss of appetite, while the

Iodine subject wants to eat much. The Pulsatilla patient often increases in flesh, although growing increasingly nervous. The Iodine

patient becomes thin, has a ravenous hunger, cannot be satisfied,

suffers from his hunger ; he must eat every few hours and feels better

after eating ; he has also great thirst. If he goes long without eating,

no matter what the complaints arc, the suffering will increase. Any

of the complaints of Iodine will likely be increased by fasting.

Iodine has also an indigestion that comes from overeating. The

food sours, he is troubled with sour eructations, with much flatulence,

with belching, with undigested stools, with diarrhoea, watery, cheesy

stools, and he digests less and less. The digestion becomes more and

more feeble until he digests almost nothing of what he eats, and yet

the craving increases. He vomits and diarrhoea comes on and so he

increasingly emaciates ; because it is like burning the candle at both

ends. It is not surprising that he is extremely weak because he is

assimilating very little of what he takes. The articles of food act

as foreign substances to disorder his bowels and stomach. Now, with

this trouble going on, the liver and (spleen become hard and enlarged,

and the patient becomes jaundiced* The stool is hard, lumpy and

white, or colorless, or clay colored, sometimes soft and pappy ; there

seems to be little or no bile in it. This stage gradually increases until

hypertrophy of the liver comes on. Finally the abdomen sinks in

and reveals this enlargement of the liver and the enlarged lymphatic

glands. These are very knotty and as hard as in tabes mesenterica.

Iodine is indicated in the tubercular condition of the mesenteric glands

with diarrhoea, emaciation, great hunger, great thirst, withering of

the mammary glands, a dried bcef-Iikc or shrivelled appearance of

the skin and sallow complexion. If the remedy is given early enough,

before the structural changes have occurred, it will check the progress

of the disease and cure.

This is a very useful remedy in the chronic niorning diarrhoea of

emaciated, scrofulous children.

When the constitutional state is present it is primary to the varying

kinds of stools that it is possible for the patient to have. So if you

have a marked state of the constitution, a case in which there are a

great number of general symptoms for you to associate the remedy

with, the little symptoms of the diarrhoea cease to be important. The

constitutional state in that patient is that which is ‘'strange, rare and

K)DIN&

peculiar.” Almost any kind of diarrhoeic stool will be cured if the

constitutional state is. covered by the remedy. When it is an acute

diarrhoea and it occurs in a vigorous constitution, and there is nothing

but the diarrhoea, then it is necessary to know all the finer details, and

the characteristics of the diarrhoea become the rare, ‘^strange” and

“peculiar” features.

Incontinence of urine in old people. In the male with all these constitutional symptoms Iodine is especially suited when the testes have

dwindled, when there is impotency, when there is flowing of semen

with dreams, when there is loss of sexual instinct or power, or with

an irritated stale, an erethism of the sexual instinct ; also when the

testes are enlarged and hard, indurated and hypertrophied like the

other glands, or when there is an orchitis, an inflammation and enlargement of the testicles.

Swelling and induration of the uterus and ovaries. Iodine has

cured tumors of the ovaries in such a constitution as I have described.

It has cured the dwindling of the mammary glands and caused them

to grow plump with an increase of flesh upon dwindling patients.

Its nature to produce the catarrhal state is illustrated in the leticor^

rha*a that it produces. Uterine leucorrhoea with swelling and induration of the cervix. Uterus enlarged, tendency to menorrhagia.

Leucorrhoea rendering the thighs sore. The discharges of Iodine are

acrid. The discharges from the nose excoriate the lip, the discharges

from the eyes excoriate the cheek, the discharges from the vagina

excoriate the thighs. The leucorrhoea is thick and slimy and sometimes bloody ; “chronic leucorrhoea, most abundant at the time of the

menses, rendering the thighs sore and corroding the linen.”

This remedy has a cough that is violent ; it has grave and severe

difficulties of respiration, dyspnoea, with chest symptoms. Croupy,

suffocating cough in this delicate constitution. Again we say if you

do not hold in mind the constitutional state while reading these very

numerous respiratory symptoms, you will not be able to apply them

because they are extensive and include a great many so-called complaints and would give you difficulty in individualizing them.

Now, there is one more complaint that I wish to call your attention

to. In old gouty constitutions, with enlargement of the joints, the

history is that the patients were once in a good state of flesh, but they

have become lean, and although they are hungry, the food does not

seem to do them good. The joints arc enlarged and tender. Many

gouty constitutions want a warm room, but the Iodine patient wants

a cool room. His joints pain and are agggravated from the warmth

of bed. He cheers up in a cool place and likes to be in the open air.

He is growing increasingly we^ ; he is generally ameliorated on

moving about and eating, he has the anxiety of body and mind.

Another place where Ignatia and Natrum mur. run close together.

A sensitive, overtired girl, after she has been working in music, and

in !at, and in school, and has tired herself out, is unable to control

her affections. Her affections rest on some one whom she would

despise. That may be a singular thing, one may not be able to

understand it, A sensitive girl, though she would not let anyone but

her mother know of it, falls in love with a married man. She lies

awake nights, sobs. She says, "Mother, why do I do that, I cannot

ke^ that man out of my mind.” At other times a man entirely out

her statitm, that die is too sensible to have anything to do with.

5^8 IGNAHA

No one can do things rapidly enough. The memory is untrustworthy*

The mind flies all to pieces. It is a sort of confusion. No longer

able to classify the things that have been classically put into the

mind. Cannot remember her music, and her rules, and her scholastic

methods. They have all vanished, and she is in a state of confusion.

She is a worn-out, nervous person.

• ▸Then come fancies, vivid fancies, that arc like delirium.
• ▸Without fever, without chill.
• ▸Just after excitement.
• ▸She comes home

from some great disturbance of her emotions, and goes into a state

that, if looked upon, per se, would appear to be a delirium such as appears in a fever. But upon close examination it is not a delirium. It is

a momentarily hysterical excitement of the mind, in which the balance

is lost, and she talks about everything. Sees every manner of thing ;

it is a hysterical insanity, because after she rests or the next morning

it has vanished. But these spells come oftener and oftener after they

have once begun, and she gives way to them easier and easier, and,

if they arc not remedied, she becomes a lunatic, a confirmed mental

wreck, so that excitement, grief, insanity, all intermingle together

as cause and effect. These come first at the menstrual period, and

then they come at other times, until they come from every little

disturbance. Whenever she is crossed or contradicted. ‘'She desires

to be alone and to dwell on the inconsistencies that come into her

life. Sits and sobs. At times she is taciturn ; again, she prattles

and is loquacious, and talks to herself.*’ She comes into a state

in a little while where she delights to bring on her fits and to make

a scare. The natural hysteric is bom with that, and Ignatia will do

her no good. But when this is brought on from conditions described,

Ignatia is of the greatest benefit. It runs closely along by the side of

Hyoscyamus, “A feeling of continuous fright, or apprehensiveness

that something is going to happen.”

With all these mental states she has a feeling of emptiness in the

stomach and abdomen. Emptiness and trembling. “Melancholy after

disappointed love, with spinal symptoms.” “Great grief after losing

persons or objects very near. Trembling of the hands disturbs her

very much in writing. Dread of every trifle.” She goes into a state

where she is utterly unable to undertake anything, even to write a

letter to a friend.

The Ignatia patient is not one that has been a simpleton, or of

a sluggish mind or idiotic, but one that has become tired, and brought

into such a state from over-doing and from over-excitement. From

going too much. If rather feeble in body, from too much social

excitement. Our present social state is will calculated to develop

a hysterical mind. The typical social mind is one that is always in a

state of confusion. Asks questions, not waiting for the answer. A

P9

good many remedies have this state ; a lack of concentration of mind,

that is what it is, but this is a peculiar kind of lack of concentration

of mind. Dread, fear, anxiety, weeping, run through the remedy.

‘‘Sensitive disposition ; hyperacute.” Overwrought ; intense.

Ignatia has another thing : “Thinks she has neglected some duty.”

That is very much like Puls,^ Hell and Hyos,, only Aurum believes that she has committed a great wrong. “Thinks that she

has neglected some duty.” Dwells upon that much. “Melancholy

after great grief.”

It is full of headaches, and they are all congestive, pressing

headaches, or tearing headaches, or headaches as if a nail were

sticking into the side of the head or temple ; ameliorated from lying

upon it. The headaches are all ameliorated by heat. The patient

generally is ameliorated by warmth and aggravated by cold. Wants

cold things in the stomach, but warm things externally. Jerking

headaches, throbbing headaches, congestive headaches. Headaches in

nervous and sensitive temperaments. Those whose nervous system,'

has given way to anxiety, grief or mental work. “Headaches from

abuse of coffee, from smoking, from inhaling smoke, from tobacco

or alcohol.” Headache from close attention. “Headache ameliorated

by warmth and rest ; worse, from' cold winds and turning the head

suddenly ; worse when pressing at stool, or from jar, from hurrying,

from excitement.” Looking up increases the pain ; moving the eyes ;

worse from noise, from light. ‘Yain in the occiput ; worse from

cold, better from external heat. Headache better while eating, but

soon after it is worse.”

• ▸“Disturbance of vision.
• ▸Zigzags.
• ▸Confusion of vision.
• ▸” Excessively nervous eyes.
• ▸“Acrid tears.
• ▸Weeping.
• ▸”

The face is distorted, convulsed, pale and sickly. Pains in the

face. “Violent rending, tearing pains in the face.” Let me put it

this way: Some of these overwrought girls that come back from

Paris, that I described, overworked in their music, will have violent

face-ache, pains in the face, or some other hysterical pains. Others

will come back with violent headaches ; others with the mental state

• ▸and confusion ; others with all the hysterical manifestations.
• ▸Prolonged excitement.
• ▸Musical excesses.
• ▸Yes, other girls come back

fairly crippled with painful menstruation, overian pains, hysterical

conditions, displacement ; prolapsus of the vagina and of the rectum.

“Tearing, shooting pains upwards from the anus and vagina up intO'

the body towards the umbilicus.”

Strange antipathies run through the remedy. It will be impossible

for you to ever form any conclusion what one of these sensitive

women will think of any proposition that is presented. You cannot

depend upon her being reasonable or rational. It is best to say as

IODINE

Sio

little as possible about anything. Make no promises, listen, look wise,

take up your traveling bag and go home after you have prescribed,

because anything you say will be distorted. There is not anything

you can say that will please.

Thirst when you would not expect it. Thirst during chill, but

none during the fever, if she has a feverish state. It is suitable in

intermittent fever. Excitable, nervous children and women with

intermittent fever.

IODINE

This remedy, in all of its complaints whether acute or chronic, has

a peculiar kind of anxiety that is felt both in mind and body. It

seems also that this state of anxiety is attended with a thrill that goes

throughout his frame unless he removes it by motion or change of

position. The anxiety comes on when trying to keep still, and the

more he tries to keep still the more the anxious state increases. While

attempting to keep still, he is overw^helmed with impulses, impulses to

tear things, to kill himself, to commit murder, to do violence. Ho

cannot keep still and so he walks night and day. This remedy carries

the same feature with it into the Iodide of Potassium, so that it makes

the Iodide of Potassium patient walk. But there is this difference,

the Kali iod, patient can walk long distances without fatigue, and the

walking only seems to wear off his anxiety, whereas in Iodine there

is great exhaustion ; he becomes extremely exhausted from walking

and sweats copiously even from slight exertion. Iodine corresponds

to those cases in which it seems that there is some dreadful thing

coming on ; the mind threatens to give out. Insanity threatens, or

the graver forms of disease are threatening, such as are present in

the advanced stages of suppressed malaria, in old cases of chills, in

threatened phthisis, especially abdominal.

Hypertrophy runs through the remedy. There is enlargement of

the liver, spleen, ovaries, testes, lymphatic glands, cervical glands, of

all the glands except the mammary glands. The mammae dwindle

while all other glands become enlarged, nodular and hard. This

enlargement of the glands is especially observed among the lymphatic

glands of the abdomen, the mesenteric glands.

There is this peculiar circumstance also in Iodine, viz., that while

the body withers the glands enlarge. That is peculiar and will enable

you to think of Iodine, because the glands grow in proportion to the

dwindling of the body and the emaciation of the limbs. We find this

state in marasmus. There is withering throughout the body, the

muscles shrink, the skin wrinkles and the face of the child looks like

that of a little old person, but the glands under the arms, in the groin

IODINE

53 *

and in the belly are enlarged and hard. The mesenteric glands can

be felt as knots. We see the same tendency in old cases of malaria

coming from the allopaths in which Quinine and Arsenic have been

extensively used and the chills have kept on ; the face and the upper

part of the body are withered, the skin looks shrivelled and yellow ;

a diarrhoea has come on, the liver and spleen are enlarged and the

lymphatic glands of the belly can be felt. Even in the earlier stages,

when these states are only threatening, we may look forward and see

that the case is progressing toward an Iodine state.

Now take a patient that is suffering from intermittent fever brought

on from malaria, or damp cellars. The patient grows increasingly

hot ; it is not always a febrile heat, but a sensation of heat ; he wants

to be bathed in cold water, wants the face and body cooled by cold

sponging ; he suffocates and coughs in a warm room, dreads heat,

sweats easily and easily becomes exhausted. It is in this kind of a

constitution that acute complaints will come on, such as acute inflammatory conditions of the mucous membranes and gastritis, inflammation of the liver, inflammation of the spleen, diarrhoea, croup, inflammation of the throat. The throat even becomes covered with white

spots and is tumid and red, and this extends down into the larynx ;

it may even have a deposit upon it like diphtheria. Iodine has cured

diphtheria, when the exudation resembling the diphtheria exudations

was present in the stool. A constitution tending this way may bring

on croup with an exudate, and we; can see that it is going towards

Iodine. In every region of the body peculiar little things come out.

If we do not see to the full extent the constitution of the remedy, we

will not recognize the tendency of the patient when progressing unfavorably.

The mental state of this patient is that of excitement, anxiety, impulses, melancholy ; he wants to do something, wants to hurry ; he has

impulses to kill. In this it is very closely related to Arsenicum and

Hepar, The Arsenicum and Hepar patients also have impulses to

commit murder without being offended and without cause. The

sensitiveness to heat will at once decide, for while Iodine is warmblooded the Arsenicum and Hepar patients are always chilly. The

impulse to do violence is sudden. There are remedies that have peculiar impulses, impulses without any cause. These impulses are seen

in cases of impulsive insanity ; an insanity in which there is an impulse

to do violence and strange things, and when the patient is asked why

he does these things he says he does not know. The patient may not

be known to be insane in anything else ; he may be a good business

• ▸man.
• ▸Remedies also have this.
• ▸These things are forerunners.
• ▸It

is recorded under Hepar that a barber had an impulse to cut the throat

of his patron with the razor while shaving him. The Hux vomica

53 ^

IODINE

patient has an impulse to throw her child into the fire, or to kill her

husband whom she dearly loves. The thought comes into her mind

and increases until she becomes actually insane and beyond control

and the impulse is carried into action. A Natrum sutph. patient will

say, "‘Doctor, you do not know how I have to resist killing myself.

An impulse to do it comes into my mind.” Iodine has the impulse to

kill, not from anger, not from any sense of justice, but without any

cause. An overwhelming anger is often a cause for violence but the

impulses are not of that sort in Iodine. While reading or thinking

placidly at times a patient may have an impulse to do himself violence,

and this finally grows until the end is a form of impulsive insanity.

The Iodine patient becomes weak in mind as well as in body ; he

is forgetful, cannot remember the little things, they pass out of the

mind. He forgets what he was about to say or do ; goes off and

leaves packages he has purchased. The forgetfulness is extensive.

But with all these states, do not forget one thing, that the patient is

compelled to keep doing something in order to drive away his impulses and anxiety. The anxiety is wearing and distressing unless

he keeps bmsy. Though mentally prostrated, he is compelled to keep

busy and to continue the work, which increases the prostration of

mind. You tell a man who is threatened with softening of the brain,

from overwork, from anxiety and labor in literary work, “You must

stop working, you must rest.” “Why,” he will say, ‘If I do I would

die or go mad.” Such a state comes under Iodine and Arsenicum,

but there is one grand distinction by which the two remedies are seen

to part company at once. The Iodine patient is warm-blooded, wants

a cool place to move in, and to think in, and to work in, whereas the

Arsenicum patient wants heat, wants a warm room, wants to be

warmly clothed, and suffers from the cold. Iodine suffers from the

heat. So that while the restlessness and anxiety, which arc both of

body and mind in each remedy, loom up before the mind as one, if

the patient is a hot-blooded patient we would never think of Arsenu

cum; if a cold-blooded and shivering patient we would never think

of Iodine.

Among the generals we first mentioned was the tendency to enlarged

glands. Iodine has often cured a group of symptoms coming in the

constitution that I have named, viz. ; enlargement of the heart, enlargement of the thyroid and protruding eyeballs. Now, if you have

one of these patients (suppose it has been sent to you by somebody

who knows no better than to call it exophthalmic goitre), those things

that are so essential to the name of the disease, as they call it, would

not be an indication for the remedy, but the indications would be

found among those circumstances that I have given you that are outside of the projection of the eyes, the enlargement of the thyroid, the

IODINE

hypertrophy of the heart and the cardiac disturbances. If the patient

is emaciated, is sallow, suffers from heat, has enlarged glands, and

the other symptoms of this medicine, you may expect after its administration an ultimate cessation of the group of symptoms that are

selected to name the disease by.

Brain troubles, acute and chronic, sometimes call for Iodine. The

head throbs, the body throbs, there arc pulsations all over, and the

throbbing extends to the finger ends and the toes ; throbbing in the

pit of the stomach, heavy pulsations felt in the arms, pulsations in

the back, throbbing in the temporal bone. There are congestive headaches with violent pain. The head pains are aggravated from motion,

but the patient is relieved from motion. The patient moves because

his anxiety is relieved by motion, but every motion increases the head

pains and the pulsation. Such distinctions arc necessary. To distinguish between what is predicated of the patient and what is predicated of a part is an essential in the study of the Materia Medica.

Everything that is predicated of the patient is general, everything

that is predicated of a part is particular. The two may be opposite,

and hence the student of the Materia Medica will sometimes be

worried because he will find aggravation from motion and relief from

motion recorded under the same remedy. It is only from the sources

of the Materia Medica, L c., the provings, and from the administration of the remedy that we may observe what is true of a part and

what is true of the whole. We find at times a patient wants to be in

a hot room with the head out of the window^ for relief of the head.

In that case the head is relived fibm cold and the body is relieved

from heat. This is a typical symptom of Phosphorus, which has

relief from cold as to the head and stomach symptoms, but aggravation from cold as to its chest and body symptoms. Eo, if the Phosphorus patient has vomiting and head symptoms, he says: 'T want

to go out in the open air and I want to take cold things into my

stomach but if he has chest symptoms and pain in the extremities,

he says: “I want to go into the house and keep warm.” And just

as we see this in patients it is so in the study of a remedy ; we must

discriminate.

As you may except, all sorts of eye troubles are present in this

debilitated constitution. The so-called scrofulous affections of the

eyes, with ulceration of the cornea, catarrhal troubles, discharge from

the eyes, enlargement of the little glands of the lids, come along with

the emaciation and yellow countenance in the constitution described.

Optical illusions in bright colors. An oedematous state is in keeping

with Iodine. There is oedematous swelling of the lids and oedematous swelling of the face under the eyes. Iodine has also oedema of

the hands and feet, and carries this tendency with it into the Iodide

IODINE

of Potassium^ which has oedematous swellings like those we find in

kidney affections. It is capable of putting a stop to cases of Bright's

disease in the early stages.

Another grand feature that runs through the complaints of Iodine

is hunger. He is always hungry. The eating of the ordinary and

regular meals is not sufficient. He eats between meals and yet is

hungry. Moreover the complaints are better after eating. All the

fears, the anxiety and distress of Iodine increase when he is hungry.

There is pain in the stomach when the stomach is empty, and he is

driven to eat. While eating he forgets his complaints, because it is

like doing something, it is like moving, his mind is upon something

else. He is relieved while eating and he is relieved while in motion.

In spite of the hunger and much eating he still emaciates, “Living

well yet growing thin," was one of Hering’s key-notes of Iodine. As

in Natr. mur. and Abrotanum, he emaciates while he has at the same

time an enormous appetite. The nutrition is so disturbed that there

is no making of flesh, and hence the emaciation.

The catarrhal condition of the nose is worthy of notice. The Iodine

patient has loss of the sense of smell. The mucous membrane is

thickened ; he takes cold upon the slightest provocation ; is always

sneezing and has from the nose a copious watery discharge. Ulceration in the nose with bloody crusts ; he blows blood from the nose.

The nose is stuffed up so that he cannot breathe through it. This

increases every time he takes cold, and he is continually taking cold

hence he becomes a confirmed subject of catarrh. I have described

the general state. The patient is the first to be thought of. His

constitution is the first thing to know, i. e,, what is true of the patient

as a whole. After that we can find out what is true of each of his

parts. The mucous membrane of the nose is constantly in a state of

ulceration, or has a tendency to ulceration. Sometimes these little

ulcers are deep.

There are aphthous patches along the tongue and throughout the

mouth. The whole buccal cavity is studded with aphthous patches,

I have mentioned already the tendency to exudation ; white velvety,

or white-greyish or pale ash-colored exudations come upon the sore

throat, all over the raucous membrane of the nose and all over the

pharynx. The pharynx seems to be lined with the velvety, ashcolored appearances. With these throat symptoms and the tendency

to ulceration it has a wide range of usefulness in throat affections.

It is useful in enlargement of the tonsils when the tonsils are studded

with exudations and in the constitution described. Enlarged tonsils

in hungry, withered patients. We often see one who is subject to

quinsy progressing toward the Iodine state. He is always suffering

from the heat like a Pulsatilla patient ; at times in the earlier stages,

IODINE