Native Sulphide of Antimony. Sb2 S3.
Clinical
*Anus, *irritation of. *Callosities. *Catarrh. Chorea. Constipation. Corns. *Diarrhoea. *Dyspepsia. *Eczema. *Feet, *sore and horny. *Fever. *Gumrash. *Nails, *degeneration of. *Nettle-rash. Piles. Prolapsus recti. *Red gum. *Remittent fever. *Stomach, *disordered. Sunstroke. Tendons inflamed. *Tongue coated. *Voice, *low. Warts. Whooping-cough.
Characteristics
*Antim-crud. corresponds in a sense to the race of swine, as *Arsenic does to horses and *Pulsatilla to sheep. It is pre- eminently a scrofulous medicine, corresponding to gross constitutions with tendency to rough scaling skin with horny patches. With these horny patches is great tenderness, the patient can hardly bear to walk on them. Analogous to these horny excrescences are warts, and *Antim crud. has cured many cases of these. A student, 17, had twenty-three on right hand and thirty- four on left, mainly on backs and fingers, but a few on interior surface of fingers. In addition redness inflammation of eyelids. Cured in 7 weeks with *Ant-c. 200X. In the same category may be mentioned the tendency of the nails to grow in splits. *Ant-crud. is specially suited to infants and children (with coated moist white tongues) and also to elderly persons. Tendency to grow fat. When symptoms recur they change their locality or go from one side of the body to the other. Left side predominates, especially lower left and upper right. Among special symptoms are: Itching of scalp and falling out of hair. Tendency to take cold about head. Scrofulous ophthalmia, canthi especially affected (*Graphites the whole margin). Otorrhoea. Moist eruption behind ears (*Graphites). Slight noises startle. Nose-bleed with vertigo, after headache, after rush of blood to head. Children are peevish, won’t bear to be touched or looked at. Adults are sulky or sad. Weeping and impressionable. Sentimental mood by moonlight. Amativeness. Suicidal. Gastric and remittent fevers, and fevers of children, with great thirst and the characteristic white tongue. The fever runs higher at night. The child is cross, but unlike the *Chamomilla patient, who wants to be carried, this will scream and show temper at every little attention. There is a form of diarrhoea which alternates with constipation, often found in old people, to which *Ant-crud. corresponds. “Stomach weak, digestion easily disturbed, in old people.” It cures many cases of mucous piles: continuous oozing, staining linen. In connection with the intolerance of wine of the remedy, it may be mentioned that in one case it produced a feeling of intoxication like that of alcohol, so that the patient refused to take any more of it. A number of nervous symptoms appear in the provings=restlessness, jerking of muscles, etc. Dr. M. Jousset has recorded a severe case of chorea which resisted all the usual remedies and was cured with *Ant-crud. prescribed on the digestive symptoms, particularly the characteristic white tongue. A notable characteristic of *Ant-crud. is the thickly coated tongue. Generally it is thick and white, milky-white, or like whitewash evenly laid. The edges may be red and sore. Sore, cracked and crusty nostrils and corners of mouth. Abnormal hunger, not relieved by eating, emptiness of epigastrium and want of animal heat. Disgust for all foods. Nursing children throw up a little sour milk as soon as they take the breast or bottle (*Aethus-c., after vomiting the child sleeps and wakes hungry, *Ant-crud. the child refuses to nurse again). The sulphur element in *Ant-crud. is strongly pronounced in the provings as in the constipation and other intestinal disorders of the drug. Worse By heat is a marked characteristic (*Apis, *Pulsatilla, *Chamomilla, *Secale, *Camph.), also worse from cold washing (less severe after warm washing), from cold water and cold food. In spite of the worse from heat there is great sensitiveness to cold, hence it is suitable to the hydrogenoid constitutions. Moonlight worse mental symptoms. Many symptoms are worse at night. Worse By touch. Worse From wine, especially sour wine; from vinegar and acids (though tamarind water does not disagree); from fruits. Worse From pork, bread, and pastry. Better By rest, by lying down, worse rising up; worse ascending stairs.
Relations.
*Compare: Aethi-a., Ant-t., Am-m., Apis, Bryonia, Graphites, Pulsatilla, Ran-b., Rhus-t., Sulphur, Vario., Chamomilla, China, and Stramonium (Averse to be looked at), Hepar, Rhus-t, Sepia, Spigelia and Sulph. (Averse to be washed). *Complementary: Squil. *Follows well: Pulsatilla, Ip. Followed by: Pulsatilla, Mercurius, Sulphur *Antidote to: Stings of insects. *Antidoted by: Calcarea, Hepar, Mercurius Bryonia Compares very closely in digestive condition, loaded tongue and worse from warmth, in summer complaint.
Causation
Gluttony. Hot weather. Heat of sun. Getting over-heated. Disappointed love. Suppressed eruptions.
Mind
Ecstasy and exalted love, with great anxiety about his fate and inclination to shoot himself, worse when walking in the moonlight, and then his conduct is like than of an insane person. Desponding reflections upon one’s condition. Disgust of life, with an inclination to blow one’s brains out, or to drown oneself. Tendency to be frightened. Peevish humour, ill-humour. To be looked at and to be touched are unbearable (in the case of a child). Dull intellect, imbecility. Madness.
Head
Confusion of head, as after long labour in the cold. A feeling of intoxication. Dizziness with nausea, or bleeding of the nose. Attack of apoplexy, with frothy salivation. Cephalalgia, after bathing in running water. Cephalalgia with dizziness from the smoke of tobacco, better in the open air. Sensation, as if the forehead were going to burst. Dull pain in the sinciput and vertex, increased by going upstairs. Cramp-like pain in the head, ameliorated by walking in the open air. Piercing pain in the forehead and in the temples. Sharp pains as from knives in head and under left breast. Congestion in the head, painful and followed by epistaxis. Pain in the bones at the vertex, as if from a swelling in the periosteum. Teasing itching in the head, with falling off of the hair.
Eyes
Shooting in the eyes. Red, inflamed, eyelids. Inflammation of the eyes, with itching and nocturnal agglutination of the eyelids. Slight oozing of the skin near the external angle of the eye. Humour in the corners of the eyes. Enlargement of the eyes. Sensibility of the eyes to the light of day. Blindness. Chronic sore eyes of children.
Ears
Shooting in the ears. Redness, swelling, and heat in the ear. Otorrhoea. Digging and murmuring in the ears. Deafness, as if one had a bandage over the ears, as if a leaf were lying before the ears. Buzzing in the ears. Continual roaring in the ears.
Nose
Eruption in the nose. Excoriation of the nostrils, and of the corners of the nose. Nostrils chapped and scurfy. Stoppage of the nose. Bleeding at the nose, especially in the evening. Sensation of coldness in the nose, when inspiring air. Dryness of the nose, chiefly on walking in the open air. Accumulation of thick yellowish mucus in the nostrils.
Face
Sad countenance. Heat in face, and chiefly in the cheeks, with itching. Red, burning, suppurating eruptions on the face, with yellowish scurf. Lumps and blisters on the face, as if from the stings of insects. Granular eruptions, yellow as honey, on the skin of the face. Eruption, like conoid chicken-pox, on the face and on the nose. Sensation of excoriation of the chin. Painful fissures at the commissures of the lips. Pimples on the upper lip. Dryness of the lips.
Teeth
Pains in carious teeth, with dull pricking, successive pullings and gnawing, even in the head, renewed after every meal, increased by cold water, and mitigated in the open air. Jerking toothache in the evening, in bed, and after a meal. Grinding of the teeth while sleeping in a sitting posture. Stitches in and about the teeth when inspiring cold air. Bleeding of the teeth and of the gums, which become detached.
Mouth
Bitter taste in the mouth. Ptyalism (tasting salty). Dryness of the mouth. Accumulation of water on the tongue and in the mouth. Salivation. Tongue loaded, with a white coating. Pain, as of excoriation at the edges of the tongue. Blisters on the tongue.
Throat
Soreness of the throat, as if there were a plug in it. Inability to swallow. Dryness and scrapping, or an accumulation of viscid mucus in the throat.
Appetite
Aversion to all food. Longing for acids. Thirst chiefly in the night. Loss of appetite. Sensation of hunger and of emptiness in the epigastrium, in the morning especially, and which is unappeased by eating. After a meal, dejection, lassitude, fullness and tension in the abdomen. Great desire to take food, which is not appropriated to strength.
Stomach
Eructations with taste of food, or very acid. Regurgitation of a watery fluid. Hiccough on smoking tobacco. Loathing of food, nausea, and inclination to vomit, as if caused by indigestion. Heartburn with good appetite. Nausea after taking wine. Nausea and vomiturition, from overloading the stomach, or after drinking (sour) wine. Vomiting of mucus and of bile, sometimes accompanied by diarrhoea, great anxiety, and convulsions. Pain, burning, and cramp-like in the pit of the stomach, sometimes with despair and inclination to drown oneself. Tension and pressure in the pit of the stomach. Painful sensation, as if the stomach were overloaded with food. Pain in the region of the stomach on being touched. Gastric catarrh with characteristic white tongue, even if caused by metastasis of rheumatism or gout.
