Generalities other than those named. The silica patient is often very sensitive to the influence of alcohol, he has a tendency to local muscular weaknesses, with a feeling as if partly paralysed, general surface tenderness; soreness of the whole side lain upon; tendency to twitchings or even epileptiform spasms; general aggravation after waking in the morning and difficulty in getting warm even during exercise.
Head.-Headaches suggesting silica are mostly from the nape of the neck up on to vertex and extending forward to one eye-it is the modalities as much as the site however constitute the indications; they are: aggravation from mental effort, noise, movement, especially jarring (compare baryta carb., and berberis), light, stooping and cold air. Amelioration results from the opposite conditions, especially local and general warmth. The scalp is sore with these headaches, and giddiness with tendency to fall forwards may be present. Frontal pains may be renewed by sudden turning, stooping and talking, and may be relieved by binding up the head tightly. An itching rash-eczema or other is noticeable on the scalp, with itching and soreness after scratching.
Eyes.-There is a sensation of roughness as of sand in the eyes and sticking pains, causing lachrymation. Vision is (temporarily) interfered with-dimness of sight, black spots before the eyes (worse after headache), letters run together when reading. Ulceration of the cornea and opacities have been cured (? recent cases) by this drug, and also blepharitis.
Ears.-Swelling of the external ear, otorrhoea ((thin and offensive), otalgia, especially when swallowing, with itching in the meatus, hardness of hearing, especially the human voice, or general hypersensitiveness to sounds- any of these may be present in silica cases.
Nose.-Similar symptoms, mutatis mutandis, plus epistaxis, are found here.
Face.-The pale, anxious suffering expression has been mentioned. Soreness in the corners of the mouth (as found under graphites, lycopod, rhus and antimony ) may be noticed- as also pimples or blisters, with burning pain. The face is not fat (like calcarea cases), and the head is likely to be big. The mouth (inside) is liable to sores or gumboils, and the teeth are sensitive to cold water in the mouth. The sensation of having a hair on the front of the tongue (contrast nat. mur. and kali bich). should attract attention as an indication for silica (provided always that no hair be present!)
Digestive System.-Besides sore throat, as if raw, worse on the left side, with pain on swallowing, and tenderness to touch, the velum palati (soft palate) seems to be paralysed, and food returns through the nose. The drug thus may be thought of in post diphtherial paralysis, and ( with less prospect of benefit) in bulbar paralysis.
Ravenous hunger (see cina and ferrum), and excessive thirst; also bitter taste and acid risings and burning in the throat after eating, desires food to be cold; also nausea, these are silica indications, though not striking ones. Pain and weight in the epigastrium and hard distension of the abdomen may be found in some of the tuberculous conditions mentioned, or in functional dyspepsia; pain in the region of the liver and rumbling, with offensive flatus, may be found under silica. Reference to the constipation and diarrhoea of silica patients has already been made; they may suffer from piles cutting and stinging in rectum and with burning during stool. Fissures and excoriations around the anus may cause pain and oozing of moisture; silica will help even old cases (see graphites), acid nit, and aloes recent ones.
The urinary system supplies no indications of importance, but sometimes urging to micturate at night is present, and it has been used for nocturnal incontinence in children (rickets).
Sexual Organs.-Increased sex consciousness, increased desire and persistently recurring thought, are found under silica in both sexes. In men this irritation is associated with nocturnal emissions and loss of prostatic fluid during defecation. Sweat and itching of the scrotum are found.
In women, similarly, pruritus of vulva, acrid leucorrhoea, and bearing down in the vagina occur. Menstruation is not characteristic, but spells of icy coldness during the catamenia should bring silica to mind. The breasts may be hard, and the drug has proved of great value in chronic mastitis and in small innocent lacteal duct cysts. Soreness of nipple (especially the left), like other orificial soreness, may call for silica.
Respiratory and Circulatory Systems.-Mild irritation of the former tract is found, hoarseness, of chest, cough worse in the evening and when lying down at night, and after waking (lachesis), shortness of breath and pressive pain under the sternum and expectoration of thick, foetid, lumpy phlegm or tenacious offensive mucus. These symptoms have led to the use of silica in chronic bronchitis, asthma, bronchiectasis and fibroid phthisis, with favourable if not curative, results. Palpitation and quick pulse are common in these cases, and throbbing may be felt in the whole body.
Neck and Back.-In the neck, glandular enlargements after such illnesses as diphtheria, scarlet fever and measles, or due to tuberculosis are not uncommon. They may cause a feeling of stiffness, chokiness and heat of the head with aggravation in a warm room and from warm applications. This is a noteworthy exception to the usual amelioration from heat in silica, like other exceptions it “tests the rule,” but is not a contra indication against the remedy. The thickening of such glands may be materially reduced by it (compare sulphur).
From neck down to coccyx pains of various kinds, shooting burning, and bruised as from long lying on a part, are found under silica. They have a feature found more strongly in rhus cases, namely, stiffness and aggravation of pain on rising from a seat or getting up in the morning, with relief after moving about. Silica is more adapted for chronic cases where damp is not so prominent an indication as with rhus (cf. also rhodo. and ruta).
Skin.-The cutaneous affections in various parts have been sufficiently dwelt upon. The itching of silica cases is worse at night; skin lesions are sensitive to touch and to cold, and are comforted by warm applications.
Nails on fingers and toes are crippled and the hair falls out.
Sleepiness.-Great drowsiness in the day after eating is a silica symptom (resembling lycopodium) or drowsiness with yawning. The patient starts and talks in his sleep. He dreams of past events, of his youth of dead people or of corpses; or so sexual subjects.
Temperature.-Chilliness followed by heat may come on in the afternoon, with considerable rise of temperature, and as a part of mild chest or abdominal affections, rickety conditions, or with headaches, thirst at night, and flushes of heat in the face and head, may be features found in a patient requiring silica. Profuse perspirations at night, sometimes offensive, are notable, without accompanying fever. The head, feet and axillae are the most usual sites. The foot sweat is particularly offensive, and many ailments have been attributed to its suppression by local applications….. These are the striking features of a most valuable remedy unknown to orthodox medicine. A study of the Hahnemannian schema will suggest many uses for it.
LEADING INDICATIONS.
(1) Malnutrition, with features resembling rickets, tuberculosis or inherited syphilis.
(2) Perspirations of head, feet and axillae, all offensive especially that of the feet. Ailments from suppression of sweat; sweat on slight exertion.
(3) General and local sensitiveness to cold, especially damp cold, relieved by local and general warmth.
(4) Sensitiveness of general surface to touch; also of areas round ulcers, suppurations, &c.
(5) Despondency, tiredness of life, fearing unable to accomplish ordinary duties, exhaustion after carrying them out, neurasthenia.
(6) Chronic and slow inflammatory and suppurative lesions, ulcerations, &c, with hard edges, offensive discharges; fissures, fistulae.
(7) Glandular enlargements, abdomen, neck, &c.
(8) Constipation, hard, dry faeces, deficient expulsive power and recession of partly expelled stool (especially children).
(9) Hypersensitiveness of special senses-hearing, sight; easily startled, with excessive reactions.
(10) Mastitis and innocent cysts.
(11) It promotes the expulsion of foreign bodies from the tissues, such as needles, splinters of bone, &c.
AGGRAVATION:
From cold, especially damp cold-a general modality-including uncovering part, ex. gr., head; motion (especially jarring), lying on painful side, but weariness necessitates lying down, loss of body fluids (china):
AMELIORATION:
From general warmth, ex. gr., warm room; local warmth, applications to or wrapping up parts, ex. gr., head, suppuration developing in a painful area.
Edwin Awdas Neatby founded the Missionary School of Homeopathy and the London Homeopathic Hospital in 1903, and run by the British Homeopathic Association. He died in East Grinstead, Sussex, on the 1st December 1933. Edwin Awdas Neatby wrote The place of operation in the treatment of uterine fibroids, Modern developments in medicine, Pleural effusions in children, Manual of Homoeo Therapeutics,