There is a great and sudden sinking of strength, fainting on attempting to get up, with anxiety, restlessness, numbness, tingling, formication.
*Aconite has a very wide sphere of usefulness in affections of the eye. Inflammations of many kinds, from cold, injury, dust, surgical operations, scrofulous inflammation with enlarged glands, all come within its range. Some remarkable cases of sudden blindness have been cured by it. Hirsch of Prague records two such cases, one in a man of thirty, who went to bed well, having walked home in rough and stormy weather after spending the evening in a hot room. *Aconite 3 was given, and the following night he perspired freely, and in the morning his sight was thoroughly restored. Hirsch himself suddenly lost his sight while bathing in hot weather. He took *Aconite 3 in water as he had given it to his patient. In two hours he began to perspire, and after a six-hours’ sleep awoke well. Lippe has recorded the case of a lady whom he found much distressed, anxious, fearing paralysis. In her usual health she had taken a full dinner, and when reading afterwards, the letters danced before her eyes, and the print became blurred, then face and nose became numb, pulse small, 120 a minute. One dose *Aconite c.m. (Finke) was given. The numbness disappeared in half an hour, pulse 72, the sight was perfect when she closed either eye, but everything looked indistinct when she kept both open. This symptom disappeared next morning, a slight lightness of the head remaining that day.
The time of the aggravation of *Aconite symptoms is chiefly night and about midnight. *Heat, as well as *cold, is injurious to the *Aconite patient, sunstroke is among the conditions which call for it, and *Aconite will cure many headaches caused by exposure to the sun, and also sun-erythema. Headaches are generally better in open air, worse in warm room, toothache and cough worse in open air. Better from uncovering. Warm room worse chill, in fever, the bed is intolerable, he wants to uncover. Sweat on affected or covered parts. There is worse from wine or stimulants, worse from drinking (any kind of liquid). *Rest better the symptoms generally, but during the night the pains are intolerable, limbs feel tired and rigors are worse. Lying relieves headache and vertigo, and aggravates other complaints. Lying on back better cough and stitches in chest, lying on side worse stitches in chest and cough: the cheek lain on sweats. Rising from a seat causes vertigo. Vertigo, pallor, faintness on sitting up in bed. Bending double better colic and dysmenorrhea pain. Motion worse pains in muscles, joints, and stiffness.
Relations.
Aconitum napellus is related in its action to the other Aconites and to Aconitinum, and also to the Ranunculaceae, Act-r., Act- sp., Paeon., Podophyllum, Ran-b., Staphysagria Teste places in the Aconite group: Cocc., Chamomilla, Dulcamara, Cann-i., Conium But he admits that the relationship is not close, and that Aconite is really without analogues. *It is antidoted by: Acet-ac., Alcohol, Paris. *It antidotes: Belladonna, Chamomilla, Coffea, Nux-v., Pet., Sepia, Spongia, Sulphur *It is often indicated after: Arnica, Coffea, Sulphur, Veratrum *It is complementary to: Coffea (in fever, sleeplessness, intolerance of pain), Arnica (bruises, injury to eye), Sulphur *It relieves ailments from: Act-r., Chamomilla, Coffea, Nux-v., Petroleum, Sepia, Sulphur Abuse of Aconite calls for Sulph. Aconite should be compared with Stramonium and Opium in effects of fright, and with Sulph. in most of its symptoms. Sulph. is the chronic of Aconite, it will often complete an action that Aconite begins, and will cure cases in which Aconite is apparently indicated but fails to relieve. *Compare also: Pulsatilla, Lycopodium, Secale, and Camph. ( better from uncovering); Hepar and Coffea (intolerance of pain); Chi. (white Stool and Anus.); Gelsemium (effects of bad news, fright, anger); Nux-v. and Bryonia (diarrhoea from anger); Bryonia (effects of cold, dry winds).
Causation
Fear. Fright. Chill. Cold, dry winds. Heat, especially of sun. Injury. Surgical operation. Shock.
Mind
Great agitation and tossing of the body with anguish, inconsolable irritability, cries, tears, groans, complaints, and reproaches. Sensitive irritability. Fearful anticipations of approaching death, predicts the day he is to die. Sadness. Presentiments, as if in a state of clairvoyance. Anthropophobia and misanthropy, has no affection for anybody. Maliciousness. A strong disposition to be angry, to be frightened, and to quarrel. The least noise, even music, appears insupportable. Humor changeable, at one time sad, depressed, irritable, and despairing, at another time gay, excited, full of hope and disposed to sing and dance. Vexed at trifles, takes every joke in bad part. Dislike to talk, answers laconically. Alternate paroxysms of laughter and tears. Great, inconsolable anxiety. Anxiety respecting one’s malady, and despair of a cure. Fear of spectres. Fear of the dark. Disposition to run away from one’s bed. Mind, as it were, paralysed, with incapability of reflection, and a sensation as if all the intellectual functions were performed in the region of the stomach. Paroxysms of folly and madness. Unsteadiness of ideas. In the delirium is unhappiness, worry, despair and raving, with expression of fear upon the countenance, but there is rarely unconsciousness. Delirium, chiefly at night, with ecstasy. Weakness of memory. Ailments from fear, fright, vexation.
Head
Head affected, as if the brain was nailed up, principally in the heat of a room. Vertigo, particularly on rising from bed, or else on getting up from one’s seat, on stooping, on moving or shaking the head, and often with a sensation of intoxication or dizziness in the head, loss of consciousness, dimness of the eyes, nausea, and sensation of weakness at the pit of the stomach. Vertigo, with inclination to fall to right side. Vanishing of sight, bleeding of the nose. Sensation, as though the brain were rolling loosely in skull, increased by the least motion, and even by speaking and drinking. Pain in the head, with inclination to vomit, also vomiting. Head, as if bruised, with sensation of bruising in the limbs. Stupefying pain in the head with sensation of compression and drawing together as from cramp, principally in the forehead and at root of the nose. Weight and Fullness in the forehead and in the temples, with expansive pressure, as if everything was going to issue forth through them, chiefly on stooping forward. Feeling as of a board before forehead. Shooting, blows and beatings in the head. Drawing cephalalgia, sometimes semi-lateral. Sensation as if a ball were mounting in the head, and spreading a coolness over it. Congestion of blood in the head, with heat and redness of face, or with a sensation of heat in the brain, sweat on a shrivelled skin, and paleness in the face. Inflammation of the brain. Sensation of Fulness and heaviness in the forehead, with the sensation as if the whole brain would start out of the eyes, with nausea and giddiness, aggravated by talking and from motion. Heat and ebullition in the head, as if there were boiling water in the brain. A roaring and cracking in the head. Sensation in the vertex, as if dragged by the hair. Sensation as if the hair were standing on end all over the head. Pain in the head, as if in consequence of cold or suppressed perspiration, with a buzzing in the ears, cold in the head and colic. Aggravation of the pains in the head by movement, by speaking, by rising from a recumbent position, and by drinking, relief experienced in the open air.
Eyes
Eyes red and inflamed, with deep redness of the vessels, and intolerable pains. Profuse lachrymation. Heat and burning in the eyes, with pressive and shooting pains, especially On moving the balls. Swelling of the eyes. Dilated pupils. Lids feel dry, hard, heavy, sensitive to air. Red, hard swelling of the lids. Eyes sparkling, convulsed, and prominent. Look fixed. Cannot bear the reflection of the sun from the snow, it causes specks, sparks, and scintillations to dance before the eyes. Excessive photophobia, or a strong desire for light. Black spots and mist before the eyes. Disturbed by flickering, fears he may touch others passing by. Vision as if through a veil, difficult to distinguish faces, with anxiety and vertigo. Sudden attacks of blindness. A sensation of drawing in the eyelids with drowsiness. Ophthalmia, very painful, with blear-eyedness, or from foreign bodies having come into the eyes (dust, sparks), from operations.
Ears
Tingling and buzzing in the ears. Tickling and sharp pain in the ears. Sensation as if something was placed before the ears. Excessive sensibility of hearing, all noise is intolerable. Music goes through every limb, makes her sad. Tearing(left ear). Roaring in the ears.
Nose
Stunning compression or cramp at the root of the nose. Bleeding at the nose, bright red, especially in plethoric persons. Excessive sensibility of smelling, especially for unpleasant odour. Violent sneezing, with pain in the abdomen, and in the left side. Coryza, with catarrh, pain in the head, buzzing in the ears and colic. Coryza caused by cold, dry winds. Checked coryza with headache, better in open air, worse from talking. Fluent coryza, frequent sneezing, dripping of a clear, hot water, fluent mornings.
