An oxidation product from the juices of several plants, chiefly Ind.fera tinctoria. *N. O. Leguminose. Trituration.
Clinical
Acne. Amenorrhea. Anus, prolapse of. Brachial neuralgia. Constipation. Cough. Diarrhoea. Epilepsy. Epistaxis. Face, pimples on. Headache. Hysteria. Renal colic. Sciatica. Skin, affections of. Toothache. Urethra, stricture of. Worms.
Characteristics
*Ind. was introduced into medicine as a remedy for epilepsy. It has been extensively proved by homoeopaths, and observations have also been made of its effects on epileptic patients who were receiving large doses from old-school practitioners. The provings bring out a number of neuralgic and nervous symptoms. These have been supplemented by clinical observations, and the place of *Indg. in the materia medica is now fairly well defined. Teste tried *Indg. in cases of epilepsy, but with little success, except in cases arising from the presence of worms. In cases of worm fever he has used it with great effect. The patients were children, from ten to twelve years old, lymphatic, apathetic, peevish, who ate a great deal. The symptoms were: Chilliness, catarrhal cough, coming in long paroxysms in evening, whitish, moist tongue, sour or foul breath, large but soft abdomen, diarrhoea of two or three stools in twenty-four hours, like greyish paper, sour, ascarides in rectum, even crawling out during sleep. Teste also used *Indg. with success in the following cases: (1) Semi-liquid diarrhoea (three to four stools a day, coming on especially after exercise in a stout old man, frequently given to excess of eating). (2) Chronic catarrh of the bladder. (3) Stricture of urethra after old gonorrhea (with *Plumb. and *Sepia). ***E. P. Colby (*N. A. J. H., November, 1879, 666) give it in all cases of epilepsy coming under his care during twelve years, with the result that he apparently cured 10 per cent., and reduced the frequency of attacks in many more. The dosage is not mentioned, but was probably crude. In the dynamic cures of epilepsy effected by *Indg., there has been great melancholy which the patient has sought to hide, spending many nights crying alone, or a furious excitable disposition before the attacks and mild and timid after. The attacks have been sudden, apparently originating in the solar plexus, from which flushes of heat arise to the head, induced by cold or fright. A peculiar sensation is an undulating sensation in the brain (which I have also observed in a case of epilepsy benefited by *Actea r. The *Indg. undulation causes obscured vision). A dry suffocative cough in evening and after going to bed, and a cough always attended by nose-bleed are characteristics. ***S. T. Young (quoted *H. R., ii. 271) relates that he had used *Indg. successfully as an emmenagogue, having been led thereto by the discovery that a patient of his habitually employed it to procure abortion. He gave it in amenorrhea in one to four-drachm doses. His contraindication are important to homoeopaths. In very large doses, he says, the crude drug produces nausea and vomiting. It should not be given to pregnant women, nor where there is an irritable stomach, nor where there is the history of a previous pelvic inflammation, nor where there is marked cerebral anemia. A case narrated by Nash (*Medorrhinum Adv., xviii. 223) brings out one of the characteristic conditions of *Indg. A hard-working man, over 70, gradually became unable to work. Weak, stiffness all over, especially right side, arm and leg. Pain in right hip running down leg, worse beginning to move after resting. Can hardly turn over in bed. Appetite poor, stomach distressed, four or five hours after eating, if he eats more than a very little. *Pains in the limbs decidedly worse *after every meal. *Indg. cured promptly. There are marked symptoms of brachial and sciatic neuralgia which have this peculiarity: they come on or are worse while sitting and are better by moving about. Symptoms in general are: Worse by rest, when sitting. Better by motion, rising, walking. Better by pressure, by rubbing. Worse in afternoon, in evening. The vertigo with headache is better in evening, and worse in open air. Warmth rushes to head on entering a warm room after walking in cold air. All symptoms are worse after eating and after evening meal.
Relations.
*Antidoted by: Camph., Nux. *Compare: Sul. (Epilepsy, sinking sensation, hot flushes, worm fever), Kali-br. (Epilepsy, acne), Act-r. (epilepsy with waving sensation in brain), Rhus (worse by rest, better by motion), Bufo (epilepsy: Ind., timid, sad, low- spirited, Bufo, vehement or excitable), Lycopodium (worse in afternoon), Ignatia (sad, introverted), Baptisia (“Wild Ind.”), and other Leguminose. SYMPTOMS.
Mind
Melancholy, sadness. Discontented, retired in himself.
Head
Vertigo, excessive with headache. Rush of blood to the head. Sensation, as if the head were larger than its natural size, and occupied more space. Sensation as if the head were tightly bandaged around the forehead. Pressure deep within the brain. Shooting and tearing pains deep in the brain. Tearing in the vertex. Sensation as of a weight on vertex. Noise and throbbings in the head. Heat and bubbling in the occiput, as if produced by boiling water. Undulating sensations in head from behind forward, causing vision to become indistinct. Flushes of heat from the abdomen to the head. Warmth and rushing like boiling water in occiput. Heat in occiput, later more in middle of brain. Violent stitches in occiput (left and right). Peculiar sensation of fine sticking and of coldness in scalp, in front and above right ear, spreading out like rays from this point. Headache, with sensation as if the head was frozen, and anorexia. Sensation in the crown of the head as if a bunch of hair were being torn out.
Eyes
Convulsive twitching and quivering of the eyelids, impeding the sight. Pressure in the ball of the eye. Inflammation of the meibomian glands on the lower lids.
Ears
Tearing, in and behind the ears, as well as in the lower jaw. Pressure and roaring in ears.
Nose
Epistaxis, with vanishing of sight (afternoon). Excessive continued sneezing, succeeded by violent bleeding of the nose. Tearing and incisive pains in the bones and cartilages of the nose.
Face
Tearing, piercing, and gnawing pains in bones of the face, and especially of lower jaw. Pricking in right malar bone. Pain in the submaxillary glands extending to the teeth. Congestion in the fact, with burning cheeks.
Teeth
Drawing, gnawing, tearing pains in teeth (right), as if being pulled out, along ascending ramus of jaw into temple and ear, with increase of saliva and sweat of right half of head, and general sweat evening in bed, pains worse by warmth, better by motion, momentarily better by cold air, pulsation in whole right lower jaw. *(Nux relieved this, but it returned succeeding days and became paroxysmal).
Mouth
Numbness of interior of mouth, in the morning after waking. Sensation of burning on the tongue and in the bottom of the palate. Vesicles on the tip of the tongue. Metallic taste in tongue with contracted feeling in pharynx. Spitting of bloody saliva.
Stomach
Empty risings. Risings having the taste of ink. Sweetish risings. Retching and vomiting of watery fluid. Vomiting of glue- like mucus. Sensation in the stomach, as when fasting, with hot risings from time to time, when sitting. Tingling pain in the pit of the stomach.
Stool
Loose evacuations with pinchings in the abdomen, and urgent desire to evacuate. Dull sticking in rectum. Emission of an excessive quantity of flatulence. Diarrhoea, stool liquid, with flatulence, creeping over the skin and cold hands and colic. Obstinate constipation, stool scanty, hard, retained. Itching at anus. Pin worms. Prolapsus ani after each stool.
Urinary Organs
Renal colic. Frequent desire to urinate, with burning in the fundus of the bladder, painful emissions of small quantities of turbid urine. Increased emission of turbid urine, containing much mucus, without thirst, with violent contraction of the urethra and pain in the bladder. (Stricture of urethra.).
Male Sexual Organs
Depressed sexual desire. Itching of the urethra, glans, and scrotum.
Female Sexual Organs
Menstruation too early. (Acts as an emmenagogue. Has been used to produce abortion.) Stinging in the mammae, going off momentarily by rubbing. Burning in the mammae during the menses.
Respiratory Organs
Violent cough, inducing vomiting, bleeding of the nose. Suffocating cough, exciting vomiting in the evening, before and after lying down.
Chest
Rumbling and grumbling in the chest at every inspiration. Shooting pains in and round the mammae.
Back and neck
Stitch between the scapula. Stitch in the small of the back, going off after an evacuation.
Upper Limbs
Weakness of arms. Drawing in muscles, in deltoid. Drawing, extending, down left arm from lower part of neck. Drawing, extending from right shoulder-joint through whole arm to below joint of thumb, where it ended in the bone with a jerking while sitting, better moving about. Tearing pains in the forearms, from the elbow to the fingers, which change their place on motion. Convulsive startings in the arms. Veins of the hands red, inflamed, and tense. Shooting and tearing pains in the upper extremities.
