General Action
It belongs to the catarrhal group affecting all mucous membranes. Its rheumatoid or neuralgic pains are noteworthy (compare its botanical relatives, Arnica and Gnaphalium). Its action on the emotional sphere is, however, most characteristic, and serves to indicate the remedy in a greater number of complaints than its general symptomatology might suggest.
Generalities
Sharp, mostly sticking pains which change from place to place when in the bones and muscles, but particularly in the joints; generally (>) motion. Tearing pains at night, with a feeling of numbness. Extreme sensibility to pain; seems as thought it could not be borne. Pains cause even despair. Over-sensibility of all the organs of special sense (such as follows drinking coffee or the use of palliative narcotics). The pains are most violent at night, and accompanied by heat and thirst. During the pain there is also weakness, even to sinking down. Uneasiness, anxiety, agonizing tossing about, with tearing in abdomen. Faintness and sickness, sinking about the heart, sudden paralyzed feeling in legs, pain in all the limbs as if beaten. Twitchings; threatening convulsions; one leg or the other is moved up and down; the child becomes stiff, bends backward, screams and throws everything off.
Mind
Whining restlessness; the child wants this and that, but when given it he will not have it or pushes it away; piteous moaning of a child because he cannot have what he wants; the child can only be quiet when carried on the arm; moans on account of trifling, even imaginary insults; moans with heat of face. Peevishness about everything, with dyspnoea; about pains; on appearance of menses, with obstinacy even to quarreling. Impatience; everything goes too slowly. Intolerance of being spoken to or interrupted, (<) after rising from sleep, with sluggish pupils. Anxiety; with ineffectual urging to urinate, without much urine in bladder; dissatisfaction with everything that she undertakes, irresolution, with flushes of heat in face and cool sweat in palms; with uneasiness. Excitement and confusion. Omission of words when writing or speaking. Unconsciousness in a child; frequent changes in face, distortion of eyes, contraction of facial muscles, rattling in chest, cough, yawning and stretching.
Clinical. The great indication for the use of chamomilla is to be found in the mental condition of the patient; children are extremely restless and impatient; they want to be petted constantly and carried about, and they cry piteously if they cannot have everything they want; older people are peevish and impatient, extremely sensitive to pain; even the slightest twinge is intolerable; they are always complaining. It is not infrequently indicated in people who have been in the habit of taking opium, bromide of potash, etc. These mental symptoms will call for the drug in a great variety of neuralgias, painful diseases, hysterical symptoms, etc., even if indications other than the preceding are wanting; it, at least, changes the aspect of the case and makes it more amenable to treatment.
Head
Inclination to bend backward. Pressure increasing and decreasing in half of forehead and in right temple, where there are stitches which sometimes extend to occiput like electric sparks. General confusion in the afternoon, with pressure on the eyes. Vertigo after eating; staggering in the morning on rising; in attacks, with tendency to faint. Drawing, tearing headache on one side, extending into the chest. Throbbing headaches in one-half of the brain. Rush of blood, with throbbing in the head. Headache follows suppressed perspiration. Pains in the head always worse when thinking of them.
Eyes
Burning heat in the eyes. Eyes inflamed. Margins of the lower lids inflamed and swollen. Distortion of the eyes; twitching of the lids. Spasmodic closure of the lids. Eyes are swollen and agglutinated in the morning. Photophobia.
Ears
Stitching, tearing pain, worse stooping, with ill humor about trifles. Hearing extremely sensitive.
Nose
Ulceration of the nostrils. Nose-bleed. Coryza, with loss of smell. Irritation to sneeze, with crawling, dry heat, stopped sensation, feeling as if coryza would appear; also with pressure in forehead. Sensitiveness to smell.
Face
One cheek red, the other pale. Face puffy and red. Heat of the face, with cold body. One-sided swelling of the cheeks. Twitching of the muscles of the face and lips. Hot, sticky sweat on forehead. Deep cracks in the lower lip.
Mouth
Toothache after warm drinks, after coffee, after eating and drinking, especially after warm food; pain drives one to distraction. Drawing toothache after eating and drinking, worse at night; teeth feel too long. Teeth sensitive to air, especially the hollow back teeth. The gums are swollen and burning hot with the toothache. (Very valuable for troubles of children when teething.) Tongue coated yellow; dirty white, with blisters on and beneath it, with stinging. Bitter taste. Salivation, of sweetish, metallic taste; taste like rancid fat. The whole mouth seems hot.
Throat
Inflammation of the soft palate and tonsils. Pain in the left side when swallowing. Constriction of pharynx, spasmodic; food remains sticking in the tip of the throat; impossible to swallow solid food when lying down.
Stomach
Thirst. Loss of appetite, even aversion to food. Sour eructations; of gas, like spoiled eggs. Nausea after drinking coffee in the morning, with attacks of suffocation. Sour vomiting. Pressure on the stomach after eating a little, as from a stone. Cramps in the stomach after being angry. A feeling of fulness, with anxiety.
Abdomen
Distention after eating. Collection of flatulence in the hypochondria. Cutting, burning and tearing pains in the upper part of the abdomen, with short breath. Cutting pains before menstruation, with darting pains in the thighs. Intermittent pains, with flatulence and stitches in the chest.
Rectum
Haemorrhoids, blind. Bleeding. Itching pain in the anus.
Stool
Diarrhoea; nightly, with colic so that she must bend double; hot, smelling like rotten eggs; green, watery, painless, consisting of feces and mucus; white, slimy, with colic.
Clinical. Diarrhoea; green, slimy mucus; chopped white and yellow mucus;often of a changeable color; often undigested; often like chopped eggs and spinach; nearly always of foul odor, especially in children during teething or after taking cold; associated with colic, often with soreness of the anus.
Urinary Organs
Anxious urging to urinate. Burning in the neck of the bladder when urinating. Frequent need to urinate; urine pale, copious.
Sexual Organs, Female
Drawing pains from the small of the back, griping and pinching in uterus, then discharge of large clots of blood. Dragging towards uterus like labor pains, with frequent urging to urinate. Profuse discharge of clotted blood, with labor-like pains in uterus and tearing in veins of legs. Acrid, watery discharge after dinner; yellow, biting leucorrhoea.
Clinical. A very valuable remedy for uterine haemorrhages; the flow is irregular, dark and clotted; sometimes there is constant oozing of dark, foul blood, with occasional bright gushes (Belladonna). Membranous dysmenorrhoea. Menstrual colic, especially the result of anger. Severe pains follow labor, especially if they extend down thighs, with nervous excitement. Threatening miscarriage from fits of anger. During labor the patient is intolerant of the pain, the os is rigid and the pains extend into the thighs. Puerperal convulsions after anger, one cheek hot, the other pale. Suppression of milk from anger. Inflamed breasts.
Respiratory Organs
Larynx raw, scraping. Hoarseness, caused by a collection of tough mucus in the larynx, which is only detached by violent hawking. Whistling, wheezing and rattling when breathing. Rawness in the upper part of the trachea; pressure and irritation to cough. Cough at night caused by irritation low in trachea; in a paroxysm at night, with which something seems to rise into the throat, as if she would suffocate. Dry cough in sleep at night. Dry, tickling cough, seeming to come from the pit of the throat. Constriction of the upper part of the chest; soreness on coughing. Suffocative tightness, constriction of larynx, in region of pit of throat, irritation to cough. Irritation beneath the upper part of sternum, with or without cough.
Extremities
Drawing, tearing pains, worse at night, sometimes (>) constant tossing about. Cracking of the joints, with bruised pain. Soreness of all the joints, as if bruised and tried. No power in hands and feet. The arms seem to fall asleep easily; seem stiff when grasping anything. Convulsions of the arms; thumb drawn into the hand. Cold sweat in the hollows of the hands. Cramps in the calves.
Skin
A red rash on the cheeks; tendency to ulceration, with burning, biting pain and crawling. Injuries suppurate easily. Itching at night with the eruption. The whole skin becomes yellow.
Born in 1837in Westminster, Vermont. . He was an orthodox doctor who converted to homeopathy
Dr. Allen compiled the Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica over the course of 10 years.
In 1881 Allen published A Critical Revision of the Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica.