Mephitis Putorius

Mephitis was proved by Hering in the 30th. Among the symptoms he

developed was "choking while eating or drinking," and "cough on reading aloud, while talking,

and after drinking; caused by choking." Lower ribs painful to touch or pressure, esp. < on

coughing or sneezing. Neidhard gave Meph. to "a young man afflicted with symptoms of

consumption," in whom it produced "a spasmodic cough with a crowing sound, lasting all night

and returning several times." This homceopathic aggravation suggested to Neidhard to use Meph.

in whooping-cough, and this is his conclusion, quoted by Hering: "If the facts collected since

1851, which are numerous, do not prove that Meth. will supersede all other remedies in

whooping-cough, it certainly may be considered a valuable specific. In order to ensure its full

success, it should be exhibited in the lower dilutions, from one to three, at least in severe cases."

Guernsey gives it as: "Whooping, or any other kind of cough which is very violent, coming on

spasmodically, and seeming as though each spell would terminate life." Farrington says the note

of Meph. is nervous exhaustion. In whooping-cough the catarrh is slight, whoop decided; < at

night and after lying down. Suffocative feeling; cannot exhale; vomits food sometimes hours

• ▸after eating.
• ▸Asthma of drunkards; of consumptives (after Dros.
• ▸).
• ▸T.
• ▸M.
• ▸Stewart reports (1.
• ▸R.
• ▸,

xvi. 71) the case of a man, 47, who had a constant hacking cough coming on during

conversation. For this the uvula was amputated. As soon as he recovered from the operation the

condition was this: "Coughs after reading aloud, or drinking any fluid; cough spasmodic, hollow,

• ▸hoarse, < at night and on lying down; loose in mornings.
• ▸" Amb.
• ▸, Cham.
• ▸, K.
• ▸bi.
• ▸, Rumex, Pho.
• ▸,

• ▸failed to relieve; Meph.
• ▸1m.
• ▸cured promptly.
• ▸—Another point about Meth.
• ▸is the rush of warmth it

causes to various parts. It enables patients to endure extreme cold; makes them less chilly in cold

• ▸weather.
• ▸Washing in ice-water is pleasant.
• ▸Awakens at night with congestion to legs.
• ▸Legs

• ▸uneasy as if they would become insensible.
• ▸Fidgety feet.
• ▸A short sleep seems to refresh.
• ▸A.
• ▸M.

• ▸Cushing calls attention to the possibilities of the remedy in weak sight (H.
• ▸R.
• ▸, iv.
• ▸237), and tells

of a friend of his who had a dose direct from the skunk injected into his eyes: "It was as though

fire had entered his eyes." For a time he was totally blind; but when his sight returned it was so

keen that he could count the panes in a window said to be two miles distant. In another case,

after getting the poison out of the eye, there was for weeks after a sensation on opening the lids

as of breaking glass. On Farrington's advice it was antidoted by Crotal. Rest and lying down <.

• ▸Sitting up and motion >.
• ▸< Night and daybreak.
• ▸Warm stove > colic from cold.
• ▸> Cold washing.

Ice-water < asthma. Touch <.

Excited, full of fancies. Can neither sleep nor work.

Ill-humour about trifles or imaginary troubles.—Unfitness for intellectual labour,

caused by too lively an imagination, excessive loquacity, as from drinking too

• ▸much.
• ▸—Excitement, with heat in head.
• ▸—Dejection, with painful muscles.
• ▸—Indolence, with desire

to stretch.

Vertigo on stooping suddenly, when seated, when moving the head, when turning in

bed, or in the evening.—Confused dulness in the head, as if it had grown larger, accompanied by

ill-humour and nausea.—Violent headache, with sensation of fulness, as if caused by a weight or

by pressure, esp. in the occiput.—Violent pain in head as if a fulness were pressing

upwards.—Sensation in (back of head) various parts, as if the finger were pressed into

them.—Pain above eyes.—Headache from motion of a carriage, or else in evening.

Pain from overexertion; blur; unable to distinguish letters; conjunctiva red; eyes hot and painful.

Lancination in eyes like the pricking of needles.—Pains in eyes on turning them (in

certain directions), as if some foreign body were in them, or as if they were much

• ▸fatigued.
• ▸—Heat, burning, and aching in eyes, esp.
• ▸morning and evening.
• ▸—As of fire thrown into

eye.—Sensation on opening the lids as of breaking glass.—Aching (pressing) of eyelids, and

burning on margins, as if a stye were forming.—Injection of veins in sclerotica.—Redness of

conjunctiva, as from ecchymosis.—Myopia.—Confusion of letters when reading (they become

blurred, he is unable to discern them, they run together).—Inability to read small

print.—Nocturnal blindness.—While the sight is weak there are generally pains in eyes or

head.—Eyes affected principally in evening.

Tearing in the ears, or in the jaw and teeth —Otalgia.—Itching heat, redness, blisters,

and erysipelas in the external part of the (r.) ear.

Dryness of the nose.—Epistaxis —Prolonged inclination to sneeze.—Fluent coryza, with

pain, as from excoriation in the chest.

Painful jerks in root of teeth. Bloated face. Coppery taste, as after eating onions.

Pains in teeth which are carious (molars), esp. in lower jaw.—Sudden shocks in roots

of teeth.—Drawing and tearing in teeth.

10, 11. Appetite and Stomach.—Nausea, with scraping in throat (emptiness in stomach), and

sensation as if the head were swollen, when fasting. —Sobbing eructations.—Risings, > by

discharge of flatus.—Tendency to choke, when drinking and speaking.—Troublesome and

ineffectual want to hawk.—Metallic (coppery) taste—Desire for salted food.—Hunger, alternating

with absence of appetite—Absence of appetite in morning, and also repugnance to tobacco-

smoke.—Painful weariness, and desire to sleep after a meal.

Pains in hypochondria.—Rheumatic pains in r. side (pressure), or pains as from

• ▸flatulency (in |.
• ▸side).
• ▸—Aching (in region of liver) in stomach, with colic.
• ▸—Sensation of

emptiness in stomach and nausea.—Colic, as from diarrhoea, but without evacuation.—Aching and

movements in abdomen, as if caused by a chill, with sensation of coldness, trembling, and want

to urinate, relieved when near fire—Pains in abdomen in evening.

Frequent want to make water, esp. at night, with emission of clear

urine.—The urine becomes turbid (in morning), and deposits a sediment, in evening, after an

attack of fever.

• ▸Sudden contraction of glottis, when drinking or talking.
• ▸Food goes down wrong way.
• ▸False croup; cannot exhale. Spasmodic and whooping-cough. Few paroxysms in day-time, but many at night; with vomiting after eating.
• ▸Asthma, as if inhaling sulphur; cough from talking; hollow, deep, with rawness, hoarseness, and pains through chest.
• ▸Violent spasmodic cough; worse at night.

Cough when reading aloud, when speaking, and after a fit of choking

whilst drinking (liability to have something get into larynx).—Cough in morning, with

expectoration proceeding from catarrh.—Mucus expelled by a fit of coughing every

• ▸morning.
• ▸—Catarrhal sufferings.
• ▸—Pains in (1.
• ▸) ribs, when touched, but esp.
• ▸when coughing and

sneezing.—Cough with fluent coryza and soreness in chest.—Pain, as from excoriation, in back

part of ribs, and in chest, when taking a deep inspiration, and when moving the back.—Rattling

cough every morning.—Whooping-cough, < at night and after lying down; with convulsions;

with complete suffocative feeling, he cannot exhale; vomiting of all food some hours after

eating, bloated face.—Pains in chest (on last 1. short rib) when touching and pressing on it; but

esp. when coughing and sneezing.—Asthma, as from inhaling vapour of sulphur; of drunkards;

during sleep.

• ▸Pains in (r.
• ▸) side of neck.
• ▸—Tension in muscles of nape.
• ▸—Pain, and a sort of

paralysis, in back and in all limbs.—Lancination in spine during motion.—Contusive pains in

loins in morning.

Rheumatic pains in arms, with paralytic drawings, > by

movement.—Uneasiness in (1.) arm, which is, as it were, insensible-—Trembling in arm on resting

upon it.—Jerking in hand.—Distressing sensation in first phalanx of finger, which renders it

needful to stretch and crack it.

Drawing and rheumatic pains in thighs, hip, and foot, but chiefly in

• ▸leg.
• ▸—Contusive pains in knee.
• ▸—Cramp-like and sudden pain in (1.
• ▸) foot, which causes patient to

• ▸hop.
• ▸—Uneasiness in legs, as if they were about to go to sleep.
• ▸—Lancinations in foot.
• ▸—Pain in

heel, resembling gout.—Pricking or sensation of pinching in great toe (as if it were being pinched

off).—Burning in little toe —Constant pains and burning in corns.

24. Generalities—Rheumatic pains.—Shifting pains, with want to urinate-—Occasionally a

• ▸sensation as if struck by electric sparks.
• ▸—Convulsions.
• ▸—Sensation of paralysis, esp.
• ▸during the

pains.—Great dejection and lassitude, during which the muscles are painful when touched or

exercised.—Indolence, with desire to stretch, and stretching.—Internal agitation of whole body,

with sensation of unspeakable uneasiness.—Slight quivering of the nerves, as far as interior of

bones, causing a good deal of anxiety—Many symptoms manifest themselves in morning.

Awakes at night with rush of blood to lower legs. Vivid dream of water, fire, etc.

Great inclination to sleep, so great that patient will fall asleep even when in

company.—Diurnal sleepiness, with sound sleep at night.—Frequent yawning, which causes tears

to flow.—Very vivid dreams, the recollection of which is retatned.—Dreams of fire, water,

distressing losses, of spitting of blood, &c.—Nightmare—Asthma during sleep.—Waking at night,

with rush of blood to, and heat in limbs (lower legs).—Somnolent heaviness in morning, with

burning in eyes and tearing in limbs; greatly > by a change of position.—Frequent and early

waking, often with a feeling of good health.

Coldness in evening, with want to make water, and colic, as if preceding

• ▸diarrhoea.
• ▸—Heat in head, in genital organs and in legs, at night.
• ▸—Increased heat, esp.
• ▸in morning,

with skin less sensitive to cold and cold water.—Washing with cold water is found very

agreeable.

• ▸Asthma.
• ▸Blindness.
• ▸Choking, easy.
• ▸Cold, sensitiveness to.
• ▸Eyes, affections of.

Laryngismus. Sight, weak. Whooping-cough.

• ▸According to Hering, Meph.
• ▸has a very short action.
• ▸Antidoted by: Camph.
• ▸, but only

• ▸temporarily.
• ▸Crotal.
• ▸relieved eye symptoms.
• ▸Follows well: Dros.
• ▸(in cough of consumptives).

Compare: Whooping-cough, Coral. (Coral has smothering before the cough and great exhaustion

• ▸after).
• ▸Dros.
• ▸(Dros.
• ▸has frequent spells of barking cough; < after twelve midnight; holds sides;

• ▸vomits if cannot raise sputa).
• ▸Cough < from reading or writing, Aur.
• ▸, Nux, Plat.
• ▸Cough in night,

• ▸Rumex (< 2 a.
• ▸m.
• ▸), Sticta (with splitting headache).
• ▸Awakes at night with congestion to legs, Aur.

• ▸Short sleep seems to refresh, Flu.
• ▸ac.
• ▸, Menth.
• ▸Night-blindness, Bell.
• ▸Aversion to tobacco-smoke,

• ▸Ign.
• ▸Easy choking, Lach.
• ▸Fidgety feet, Tarent.
• ▸, Meny.
• ▸, Zinc.
• ▸, Caust.
• ▸, Ars.
• ▸, Asaf.
• ▸, Asar.
• ▸, Act.
• ▸r.
• ▸,

• ▸Aur.
• ▸, Sticta.
• ▸Loquacity, Agar.
• ▸, Lach.
• ▸Nervous symptoms generally, Castor, Mosch.

Compare: Dros; Coral; Sticta.

First to third potency. Has a very short action.