Electricity. The effects of atmospheric electricity and static electricity. Attenuations are made from sugar of milk saturated with the current.
Clinical
Chorea. Headache. Hysteria. Paralysis. Rheumatism.
Characteristics
Caspari is the authority for the symptoms caused by electricity, but every one knows the powerful effect exercised on some persons by the approach of a thunderstorm, and the influence of an electric current. Nervous tremors, anxiety, fear, restlessness, anxiety, and anguish, violent headaches, palpitation, swelling of parts, are among the most prominent symptoms. Dr. Seward (*Medorrhinum *Adv., xxvi. 150) has related a number of cases in which the injudicious use of electric baths brought on phthisis. In another case the chest and arms became stiff and paralysed. A young married woman, who had general and local (uterine) electric treatment, complained after it of feeling very heavy, as if she weighed a ton. One patient, after a bath, said his chest and shoulders “felt like marble.” He became phthisical and died. The paralysis caused by electricity was in several cases quickly relieved by *Morph. *acet., both in the solution and in the potencies.
Relations
*Antidoted by: Morph. acet. I have found Phosphorus the best antidote to the effects of storms. Electricity antidotes Mercury. *Compare: Galvanismus and Magnetismus.
SYMPTOMS.
Mind
Tears, sometimes with timidity. Sighs, sometimes with tears, the patient cries aloud. Restlessness, anxiety, anguish, sometimes more particularly in the chest, internal anguish, violent agitation, timidity, fear on the approach of a storm. Ill-humor. Involuntary laughter. Furor. Loss of consciousness, insensibility, foolish actions, haggard eyes. Errors in the appreciation of time, loss of memory.
Head
Giddiness, especially on stooping. Confusion of head. Dullness. Embarrassment in the head. Vertigo. Cephalalgia. Pains in the head, sometimes drawing. Bruise-like pain in occiput. Crushing pressure in forehead, as from a stone. Shootings in right side of head, or from vertex to the temple, and right side of forehead, tearings in the occiput, from the nape of the neck to the forehead. Painful cramps in the head. Disagreeable shaking, most frequently from behind. Violent pulsations (beatings), or else
heat throughout the head. Murmuring throughout the top of the head. Dartings in the head, as from pins. Tingling in the teguments of the head. Ebullition under the scalp. Sensation of cold in the vertex. Sensation of torpor in a part of right side of head. Darting itching on the head and legs. Scurf on the scalp. The growth of the hair much promoted.
Eyes
Aching in the eyes, as from dryness. Gnawing sensation in left eye, or else violent drawing pains, extending to forehead. Sensation as if the eyes were much sunken. Sensation as if something were passing out of the eye. Redness of the vessels of the conjunctiva, as far as the cornea, of the edges of left eyelid, at the exterior angle. Inflammation of the eyes. Swelling of edges of eyelids, at the external angle. Considerable lachrymation. Lachrymation, especially of right eye. Wandering and haggard looks. Contraction of pupils, which were abnormally dilated. Clouded vision. Everything appears pale. Blindness. Sight improved (curative symptom). Little black spots before right eye. Objects all appear yellow to the sight. A dark room appears to be illuminated.
Ears
Pains in the ear. Drawing pains from the jaws to the ears. Lancinations in right ear, proceeding from the neck. Pulsations in the ear. Redness and heat of the ear. Swelling of the interior of the ear. Suppuration, and a small pustule in the auditory duct. Vesicles full of acrid serum behind the ear. Augmented secretion of wax. Murmuring, sometimes with a sensation as if a flock of wool were before the ears.
Nose
Tingling in the nose, or else with pressure outwardly. Epistaxis. Loss of smell. Sneezing. Augmented secretion of nasal mucus. Discharge, on blowing the nose, of a liquid like milk, aggravation of preexisting coryza.
Face
Color, bright red. Expression of alarm on the face. Increase of sweat on the face. Violent drawing pain above left eyebrow. Contraction of the muscles of the face, especially of the mouth. Swelling of the face. Scabby eruption on the face, on the arms, and over the body. Large blisters on the cheeks. Lips cracked, the upper lip puffed out. Eruption about the mouth and on the chin.
Teeth
Tearing pains in upper teeth, proceeding from the head. Pain as of subcutaneous ulceration in places once occupied by molar teeth. Quick dartings in a hollow molar tooth. Quick growth of the teeth in children. Drawings in the gums, proceeding from right ear.
Mouth
Increase of excoriation already existing in the interior of the mouth. Pain of excoriation, and excoriation in the interior of right cheek. Great dryness of the mouth. Augmented secretion of saliva. Foam at the mouth. Sensitiveness of the tongue, especially at the point, which is also red. Papillae very prominent. Dry tongue, charged with a yellow coating. Swelling, thickness of the tongue. Vesicles on the tongue, with pain of excoriation. Dumbness, inability to utter a sound. On the palate, vesicles with desquamation of the epidermis.
Throat
Constant tickling in the throat. Pressure on swallowing. Difficult deglutition. Inflammation of the gullet.
Appetite
Sour taste. Increase of appetite. Great inclination to eat between meals. Thirst during febrile shivering. Pyrosis. Abundant accumulation of water in the mouth. Loathing. Nausea, sometimes after a meal, with a more abundant accumulation of saliva. Retching, with inflammation of throat, and cough. Vomiting, and inflammation of the throat. Vomiting of blood.
Stomach
Fullness of the stomach, after eating the least thing.
Abdomen
Spasmodic tension and contraction in the abdomen. Aching in the abdomen. Colic. Cutting pains on the approach of a storm, or else with diarrhoea. Dartings from left to right side. Shivering in the abdomen, or else burning, sometimes with tension. Inflation of the abdomen, borborygmi in the abdomen, sometimes with fermentation.
Stool and Anus
Fruitless inclination. The stools are at first facilitated, and afterwards restricted. Stools frequent and liquid, of a blackish yellow, and of a fetid smell. Diarrhoea, sometimes entirely liquid, hot. Tenesmus and cutting pains. Diarrhoea with colic, or else at the approach of a storm. During the diarrhoea, retraction of the testicles. After the diarrhoea, constriction in anus, with dry stools. Heat in the whole body. Violent pressure in the rectum (during the stools). Burning in anus. Haemorrhoidal flux.
Urinary Organs
Sensations as though the bladder were going to burst. Augmented secretion of urine. Very frequent emission of urine. Involuntary emission of urine. Urine, in the morning, an orange-yellow, during the day, like water in which meat has been washed. Urine thick, deep-colored. Red like blood, abundantly charged with mucus. Discharge of blood with the urine. White sediment.
Female Sexual Organs
Appearance of the catamenia (in the electric bath). Copious menses, sometimes with pressure in the rectum. Blood of the catamenia, black and thick. Leucorrhoea, at first serous, afterwards thick, in pieces of the size of a hazel-nut.
Respiratory Organs
Roughness of the larynx. Cough, with much tickling in throat, or else with pressure in forehead from within outwards. Short irritable cough. Spitting of blood. Feeble and faint respiration. Respiration arrested. Dyspnoea. Respiration accelerated. Asthma, sometimes lasting for life, with palpitation of the heart, and disposition to syncope, oppression of the chest.
Chest
Constriction of the chest. Pains in the chest, sensation of coldness in the left side. Chest and shoulders feel like marble.
Heart
Palpitation of the heart, sometimes especially at the approach of a storm, or else with a disposition to fall in syncope. Palpitation of the heart with fever, or with headache, or else with restlessness and vivid redness of the face. Painful and rapid lancinating pain proceeding from the heart across the chest.
Back and neck
Difficulty in moving the neck. Tingling in a muscle shortened by suppuration. Dartings in an enlarged gland of the neck. Tingling in the vertebral column. Furunculi on the back, and nape of the neck. Drawing pains across the shoulder-blades, as by a thread. Burning in the shoulder.
Upper Limbs
Tearings in right shoulder, which disappear in the heat of the bed. Excruciating pains in arms (and legs). Intense pains at night. Startings, or else tearings, in articulations of arms and hands. Paralysis of the arms, one being much swollen. Scabby ulcer in the arms (and on the legs). Violent starting in the upper part of the arms. Drawing pain in the radius of right forearm. Violent tearing in hand. Trembling of the hands. Sensation of paralysis in the articulation, on the slightest movement. Prominence of the veins. Swelling of the hand, sometimes red, or itching. Red smooth spot on the hand. Whitish, itching place in the palm of right hand. Tension or drawing pain in the fingers. Sensation of torpor at the ends of the fingers. Vesicles full of a greenish liquid, sanguineous at the articulation of the finger which has received the shock.
