KREOSOTUM
Menses too early, too long-lasting and copious. Before the flow begins, there is an acrid-smelling, bloody discharge which produces itching and burning of the parts passed over. The flow is usually dark, coagulated, acrid and offensive; flow intermittent, stops and starts again (Sulphur); always chilly; swelling, heat, and hardness of the labia with voluptuous itching deep in the vagina and external sexual organs. Indicated in old ladies, blond and delicate young girls who grow rapidly, and are very tall, and who have despondent and irritable disposition.
LAC CANINUM
Anti-sycotic. Menses too frequent, profuse, bright red; when put into water forms itself into long strings smells like ammonia; when it dries on the napkin it becomes a dark or olive green color; it washes out easily however. A flow of bright red blood relieves a severe pain in the right ovary (Lachesis, zinc.). Menstruation seems to relieve all her symptoms; she is very hysterical at other times. Bearing down or dragging sensation in abdomen with a sensation as if the contents of the pelvic would burst out above the pubes. She cannot bear any weight over the abdomen (Lac., Belladonna); she is extremely despondent and hopeless during the menses;l thinks she is incurable; has fearful dreams of dark water, dead people, snakes, as if surrounded by them, or as if they were running over her body. Abdomen swollen, hard, sensitive; breasts sore and sensitive, often with hard lumps in them; flow of milk from breasts during menses (Verbascum vir). Great heat in the ovarian region during the menses; < in the right ovary, extreme soreness and tenderness in the uterus during menses, pains as if knives or needles were darting upwards from the uterus; menses too soon, bright red, comes in gushes; of a sticky consistency; breasts enlarged and sensitive to touch. Indicated in tertiary Sycosis and in individuals of a highly sensitive organism who are extremely nervous. The pains are erratic and the symptoms have a great tendency to shift form one side of the body to the other. She is very forgetful and absent- minded; < from a jar or moving.
LOBELIA INFLATA
Anti-psoric. Menses too early and too profuse. It is sometimes indicated where the menses are suppressed in prolonged fevers like typhoid. During menstruation, severe pains in the sacrum with fever: great weight and heaviness in the genital organs; severe pains in the right side of the face and temples with retarded menses; in consumptive patients, with neuralgia of the face. Profuse saliva with pungent taste; dryness in the throat with frequent expectoration of frothy mucus. She gulps up a sour fluid from the stomach with incessant nausea; nausea with copious flow of water from the mouth. Hysterical asthma with a slight respiration or a desire to take a deep breath; great soreness, pain and tenderness in the sacrum, with weight and pressing toward the genitals; nausea with great weakness toward the pit of the stomach, a sensation as of a lump in the throat or pit of the stomach with nervous dyspnoea. All symptoms ((>)) in the evening. LACHESIS
Menses delayed, scanty, dark, even black, lumpy, acrid; pains and general complaints((>)) during the menses. Pains and all complaints)) during flow. The patient is apt to be suspicious and jealous. She thinks people are talking about her. The face is often flushed, hot or mottled, spotted, purplish and puffy looking or bloated; very sensitive to pressure over uterine region or over abdomen generally.
LYCOPODIUM
This is a powerful anti-sycotic, so deep in its action that it will, when indicated, cure in almost any miasmatic state of the system even to a mixed miasm or malignancy. Menses profuse, usually late and of long duration; the flow may appear a part of the time dark and clotted, and a part of the time bright red blood mixed with serum. Great sadness and melancholia often accompany the menstrual nisus. In Lycopodium there is always much distension of the abdomen, great flatulence and accumulation of gases; a true uric acid state of the system is presented in this remedy which usually has Sycosis as a miasmatic basis. Great fullness in abdomen from partaking of any food; much fermentation and rumbling in abdomen; < in the left side; frequent eructations with rumbling of gas in abdomen; there is a constant sense of satiety; the least quantity of food partaken causes an uneasiness, fullness, gas, rumbling, distension, and belching. The pains are generally due to gases and distension of the colon, although we have also pains in both ovaries. Before the menses appear, there is a bearing down pain as if they would appear; this same pain often comes on after the menses have ceased and the leucorrhoea makes its appearance. The flow as well as the leucorrhoea produces swelling, itching and burning of the pudenda. The flow is < in the afternoon after 4 p.m. Concomitants; great dryness of the vagina; frequent spells of shivering during the menses; escape of air from the vagina. The patient is low-spirited, sad, desires to be alone; she has great doubts about her salvation; has a sallow, earthy complexion, dark rings and circles around the eyes, frequent flushes of heat to the face; always hungry, but the least food produces discomfort in the stomach and intestines; red sand in urine; shortness of breath, and palpitation of the heart from the accumulation of gases in stomach and abdomen; desire for open air (Pulsatilla). Aggravation: 4 p.m., eating oysters, tight clothing, strong odors, cold food; ((>)) from warm food, drinks, walking, uncovering and loose garments.
LAC DEFLORATUM
Tubercular. Menses delayed, dark, scanty, or suppressed form putting hands in cold water; drinking a glass of milk has suppressed the flow until the next period. A drawing pain across the ovaries with a downward pressure in the uterus is said to be often present in the proving of this remedy; menses delayed with dragging weight in the ovarian region; great lassitude and even extreme prostration during the menses. Hemicrania every month during or after the menstrual period in pale, thin, anaemic, tubercular women, between the ages of 36 and 40. I have cured a number of such cases with this remedy. It has one of the most profound headaches in the materia medica, often lasting a week at a time. The headache begins in the forehead and extends to the occiput; the pain is a bursting or a hard ache, sometimes throbbing; begins early in the morning and is usually accompanied with nausea, blindness, sometimes vomiting, and is greatly aggravated by light, by sitting up and by movement; ((>)) from quiet, lying down in the dark, and fasting. The face becomes pale, the lips white, and the breathing is prolonged and slow. She has no desire to eat or drink or to be annoyed in any way. It is relieved by profuse urination, (Gels) and by quiet, rest, pressure or bandaging tightly, and sometimes by heat. This remedy is adapted to thin, tall, tubercular women who are very anaemic and highly sensitive and nervous.
LILIUM TIGRINUM
Anti-psoric and pseudo-psoric. Menses normal as to time; flow usually thick, dark, offensive, and < when the patient is moving about, ceases when she lies down (Kreosotum, Mag. carb.). During the menses great bearing down in the uterine region with a sensation when on the feet as though the whole pelvic contents would issue from the pelvis (similar to Murex, Bell, Sepia), relieved by pressure of the hand against the vulva or by sitting down; heaviness in the region of the heart, or as if the heart were squeezed in a vice; fluttering of the heart awakens her; severe palpitations when lying on the left side. During menses sensation of the pushing or bearing down of the uterus with a sharp pain in the left ovary extending down the anterior surface of the thigh. The bearing down in the uterus is often extended to the rectum and bladder (Nux vomica, Aloe., Sepia, Bovista). Mentally she has a wild crazy feeling on vertex (Actea rac.); weeps easily like Pulsatilla, is tired and fearful; again she is disposed to strike, or to curse, to do things in a hurried aimless manner; fears to be alone; fears that her disease is organic, and that it is incurable; she < is after eating, standing, lying on the left side; often the crazy feeling spoken of comes up from the back of the head and finally settles on the vertex. Like Pulsatilla she wants a cool room, and likes to walk in the open air; also aggravated by consolation (Igna., Nat. mur.), adapted to nervous, hysterical blondes who suffer from atony of the uterus, uterine displacements especially retroflection; heart troubles due to uterine displacements, or uterine irritation. Remedies to compare with Lilium are Sepia, Belladonna, Podophyllum Platina, Helonias, Murex, Nat. Phosphorus, Cactus and Actea.
MAGNESIA CARBONICA
Syco-psoric. Menses too late, thick and dark; flow < at night, or while walking or standing; again we have the flow scanty, even suppressed, flows more in the afternoon, menses retarded; flows in large clots. This is one of the few remedies with a flow that is < at night with absence of pain. In a typical Mag. carb. dysmenorrhoea the flow is dark, thick, acrid, often pitch-like, viscid, and is washed from the napkin with difficulty. There is a cutting pain in the uterine region or a colicky bearing-down pain with pressing towards the pelvis or a cutting in abdomen; menses often preceded by sore-throat (Lachesis, Belladonna); toothache during menses (Sepia); stool soft, like clay or putty, and crumbling. If diarrhoea accompanies the menses the stool is typically sycotic. Greenish, sour smelling, frothy, accompanied with a cutting colicky pain; great restlessness and weariness during the menses; she feels so tired (Calcarea carb., Kali carb.); many of her symptoms are relieved when the flow is established (Lach). Face pale, sickly; sensation of white of eggs on face, bitter, sour taste; thirst for acid drinks, such as lemonade. She is aggravated every three weeks, by rest, during menses, and by cold air.
J.H. Allen was a student of H.C. Allen. He was the president of the IHA in 1900. Dr. Allen taught at the Hering Medical College in Chicago. Dr. Allen died August 1, 1925
Books by John Henry Allen:
Diseases and Therapeutics of the Skin 1902
The Chronic Miasms: Psora and Pseudo Psora 1908
The Chronic Miasms: Sycosis 1908