Ammonium muriaticum


Dr. S.R. Phatak describes the clinically confirmed symptoms of the homeopathic remedy Ammonium Muriaticum in his Concise Materia Medica, published in 1977….


Generalities

      It affects MUCOUS MEMBRANES increasing the secretion and retaining them esp. in CHEST and gall ducts. It causes irregular circulation, blood seems to be in constant turmoil, causing ebullitions, burnings and localized throbbing. Many group of symptoms; are accompanied by cough or PROFUSE GLAIRY mucus discharges; with liver trouble. Tension and tightness, as if the muscles or tendons are too short; in groins, hamstrings, lumbar region etc. It causes ulceration and ulcerative or festering pain. Neuralgic pains in the stumps of amputated limbs. Haemorrhages. Boiling sensation. It is adapted to patients who are fat, puffy and sluggish, with thin limbs, who always feel tired and sore. Effects of grief.

Worse

      Morning_head and chest symptoms. Afternoon_abdominal symptoms; Evening_skin, fever and limb symptoms. Chronic sprains. Walking erect. Periodically. Night from 2 to 4 a.m.

Better

      Open air. Rapid motion; walking crooked.

Mind

      Desire to cry, but cannot. Involuntary aversion to certain persons. Melancholy and apprehensive; as from internal grief. Brain paralysis.

Head

      Heaviness in the forehead; pressive pain towards the root of the nose, with a sensation, as if brain were torn. Hair fall out, with itching and dandruff.

Eyes

      Mist before eyes in bright light. Flying spots, yellow spots, before the eyes. Incipient cataract, capsular cataract.

Nose

      Free acrid, hot watery coryza; closing one nostril. Loss of smell. Obstructed stuffy feeling; with a desire to blow it out. As of a rough body, obstructing upper nares. Nose sore to touch. Sneezing; aroused her from sleep; with shooting pain in the nape of the neck as far as the shoulders. Coryza in children, with bluish discharge.

Face

      Pale. Lips burning like fire. Lips dry, shrivelled cracked, must moisten them with tongue. Burning eruptions better cold application.

Mouth

      Slimy. Burning blisters on tip of tongue.

Throat

      Slimy. Throbbing in, and swelling of the tonsils. Internal and external swelling of the throat, with sticky mucus. Stricture of oesophagus.

Stomach

      Thirst for lemonade. Nausea, with bitter water-brash, worse eating, with shuddering. Gnawing burning, stitching in stomach, extending to right axilla and upper arm. Cancer of stomach. Empty sensation in, but no desire to eat anything. Diarrhoea and vomiting, during menses.

Abdomen

      Stitches in spleen, while eating, with difficult breathing. Cough with liver symptoms. Excessive fatty deposit around abdomen. Scanty hard, crumbling stools, changing colour and consistency. Blood from anus or diarrhoea during menses. Haemorrhoids, after suppressed leucorrhoea. Burning in the rectum, during and for hours, after stools. Tense sprained feeling in groins; must walk bent. Groins feel swollen and sore.

Urinary Organs

      Profuse and frequent urination. Urging yet a few drops pass, until next stool when it flows freely. Profuse ammoniacal smelling urine.

Females

      Menses too early, with pain in abdomen and small of the back; flow more at night. Prolapse of uterus. Leucorrhoea, like white of an egg, with pain about the navel worse after every urination.

Respiration

      Hoarseness and burning in larynx. Cough with profuse salivation or with liver symptoms. Cannot breathe from coughing. Noisy, rattling tenacious mucus in chest. Pulsation, burning spots in chest. Cough worse lying on back or right side.

Neck and Back

      Swelled cervical glands. Sore sprain or icy coldness between scapulae, not relieved by warmth. Lumbago. Bruised pain in coccyx when sitting. Fatty swelling on nape, extending from ear to ear.

Extremities

      Tense sprained feeling in the groins, must walk bent. Contraction of hamstring tendons. Sciatica (left) worse sitting, better lying. Ulcerative pain in fingertips. Pain in or ulcer on heel. Pain in feet during menses. Shooting pain in scapulae worse breathing. Buttocks large. Hamstrings as if too short, pain on walking.

Sleep

      Erotic dreams. Anxious fearful dreams. Starts out of sleep.

Fever

      Chilly as often as he wakes. Sense of heat; better open air, alternating with chill. Chilly in the evening after lying down. Profuse night sweat. Sweats by every motion.

Skin

      Bleeding eruptions. Peeling of skin between fingers, and wrists. Itching on various parts of the body esp. in the evening.

Related

      Calc; Caust; Seneg.

S.R. Phatak
A pioneer of Homoeopathy in Maharashtra, Dr Shankar Raghunath Phatak was born on 6th September, 1896. He did his MBBS from Grant Medical College, in 1924. Started his practice but somehow not satisfied with Allopathic Treatment.

He was convinced about Homoeopathy while going through Sir William Osler's writings on 'History of Medicine' so switched over to an entirely Homoeopathic Practice in 1932. He also started working on Homoeopathic literature along with his Practice.

He has contributed immensely to homoeopathic literature. He was an ardent follower of Dr Boger. His Repertory is based on Boger's ''A Synoptic key to Materia Medica'.