When should Ipecac be given?
When the case is mixed up; there is a short chill, long fever, a predominance of gastric symptoms, and marked nausea.
Give indications for Cornus florida, another remedy useful in intermittents.
Sleepy before chill; dullness, drowsiness, headache and exhaustion; very weak between paroxysms, with diarrhoea and jaundiced skin.
What are the indications for Cinchona in hectic or suppurative fevers?
Hot cheeks, patient nervous and prostrated, very sensitive, diarrhoea and copious night sweats.
When is Cinchona indicated in neuralgia?
Periodical infra-orbital neuralgias of malarial origin, where the slightest draft makes the patient worse.
When is Chininum sulphuricum indicated in spinal irritation?
Where there is great sensitiveness of the spine in the dorsal region; the last cervical and first dorsal vertebrae are very sensitive to pressure.
What is the action of Quinine on the spleen?
It enlarges it, hence may be useful in enlargement of that organ.
What is the action of Ceanothus on the spleen?
It enlarges it, producing a persistent pain in the left hypochondrium, under the short ribs, with intense dyspnoea. Acute and chronic splenitis, patient is worse in damp cold weather, is chilly and dreads the cold.
Give symptoms of Grindelia robusta, another spleen remedy.
Sore, aching or cutting pain in region of spleen extending as low down as hip; spleen large and tender; sallow complexion.
IPECACUANHA.
Where are studies of Ipecac to be found?
In Hahnemann’s Materia Medica Pura, L’Art Medical, 1868, British Journal of Homoeopathy, Vols. XXVI and XXVIII.
What is Ipecac?
A small shrub growing in Brazil, whose common name is Vomit root, and our tincture is prepared from dried root in the same manner as Colocynthis and Cinchona are prepared.
What conditions does Ipecac powder frequently produce in pharmacists?
Conjunctivitis, inflammation of the mucous membrane of the nose and bronchial tubes.
What is its general action?
Its chief action is on the ramifications of the pneumogastric nerve, producing spasmodic irritation in chest and stomach. Gastric symptoms, especially a persistent nausea and vomiting predominate.
Besides these, the symptoms of Ipecac reveal distinctly an intermittent character, and hence its great use in malarious states.
What is the grand characteristic of Ipecac?
Distressing and intense nausea and inclination to vomit, and after vomiting there is immediate inclination to do so again. Constant nausea with a clean tongue is the watchword.
What are the indications for Ipecac in headache?
Sensation as if the bones of the head were crushed or bruised; there is an unilateral sick headache over one eye, with deathly nausea and very pale face; there is a drawn, nauseated expression about the mouth.
Give the stomach symptoms.
Intense nausea and vomiting, which are followed by exhaustion and sleepiness. Troubles arising from fat food, pork, pastry, candy, etc. The stomach has a hanging down, relaxed feeling.
What distinguish it from Antimonium crud, in stomach troubles?
The tongue is clean, whereas in Antimonium crud. it is thickly coated white.
What other drugs have a relaxed hanging down feeling at the stomach?
Staphisagria, Tabacum and Sepia.
How is Pulsatilla distinguished in gastric troubles?
The distress in Pulsatilla comes on while the food is still in the stomach; with Ipecac it is while the stomach is empty; the tongue, too, with Ipecac is clean, in Pulsatilla coated.
What are the stools of Ipecac?
Green, bloody or fermented, looking like molasses, accompanied by griping about the umbilicus, worse by motion.
What is the action of Ipecac on the respiratory system?
In the nose there is a coryza; there is a dry spasmodic cough, ending in choking and gagging, and a tickling which extends from the larynx to the extremities of the bronchi; coarse rales all over chest, with violent paroxysms of coughing and retching, face pale and great dyspnoea; incessant cough with every breath.
How do these symptoms compare with Antimonium tart?
This has fine rales, very little cough, increased dyspnoea, weakness and drowsiness; the chest seems full of mucus, but they cannot cough it up.
What are the symptoms of Ipecac in asthma?
Spasmodic asthma, with weight and anxiety about the chest; sudden wheezing dyspnoea, threatening suffocation; aggravated by motion; the cough causes gagging and vomiting.
What are the symptoms of Lobelia inflata in asthma?
There is a weak sensation in epigastrium extending up into chest; nausea; profuse salivation; great oppression of chest, relieved by moving about; sensation of lump in stomach.
What is the whooping cough of Ipecac?
Convulsive cough, where the child stiffens and becomes pale or blue and loses its breath; great nausea and relief from vomiting.
What remedy is complementary in whooping cough and convulsions?
Cuprum.
What are the hemorrhages of Ipecac?
In haemoptysis, where the blood is bright and in gushes, with nausea and gagging. In hemorrhages of bright red blood, which flows steadily; nausea, etc.
COFFEA CRUDA.
Where is the pathogenesis of Coffea to be found?
In Stapf’s additions to the Materia Medica.
From what is the tincture prepared, and what is the alkaloid of Coffea.
From the unroasted beans of the Coffea Arabica. Caffeine, and it is similar to Theine or that found in tea.
How is the tincture prepared?
One part of the best unroasted Mocha beans is coarsely powdered, moderately heated and macerated eight days with six parts of strong alcohol and then filtered. The residuum is then boiled down in a glass retort with 40 parts of distilled water, so far that its filtrate and the alcoholic extract mixed together make to parts by weight. Drug power, 1/10.
What is the general action of Coffea?
It produces a nervous erethism-over-sensitiveness, all the senses are rendered more acute, pains are felt intensely.
What are grand characteristic of the drug?
1. Great nervous excitement, excitation of mind and body.
2. Great sensitiveness to pain.
3. Sleeplessness from excitement.
Name five remedies having irritabilty; how may they be distinguished?
Aconite-Fearful and anxious, dreads things.
Aurum.-Suicidal irritabilty.
Chamomilla.-Spiteful and uncivil.
Coffea.-Wakeful and on the constant move.
Nux.-Sullen; wants to be let alone.
What are the head symptoms of Coffea?
Congestions, with excited state of the mind; headache, as if a nail had been driven into the parietal bone; worse in open air; hemicrania.
What remedies are often required for complaints from the abuse of coffee?
Chamomilla, Ignatia, Nux.
When is Coffea applicable in toothache and when Chamomilla?
The toothache of Coffea is relieved permanently by holding cold water in the mouth; that of Chamomilla is only temporarily relieved.
What is the sleeplessness calling for Coffea?
It is where the patient is quiet and sleepless, where the senses are all acute, hears distant noises with great distinctness, the mind is active with plans and fancies, and the next day the patient is tremulous; also where hyperaesthesia of the skin keeps him awake.
As the symptoms of Piper methysticum or kava-kava are similar to those of Coffea, give them.
There is buoyancy and exaltation of the mind and fulness of the vessels of the brain, followed by brain fag and dull aching in the head; the mental symptoms are relieved by diverting the mind; the patient is also very sensitive to external impressions. It is a useful remedy in cystitis and catarrh of the bladder.
What drugs of the Apocynaceae family do we use in our Materia Medica?
Apocynum can., Apocynum andros., Gelsemium, Oleander, Vinca minor, Strophanthus hispidus, and of the Loganaceae, which is by some considered a separate family, Alstonia, Ignatia, Nux vomica, Spigelia, Woorari or Curare.
NUX VOMICA.
Where are studies in the action of this polychrest found?
In Hahnemann’s Materia Medica Pura, Hartmann’s Practical Observations, and Hughe’s Pharmacodynamics.
How is Nux vomica obtained?
Our tincture is made from the finely pulverized seed of the Strychnos Nux vomica, a large tree found in the East Indies, in the same manner as Colocynthis and Cinchona are prepared.
What are the alkaloids of Nux vomica, and what is a peculiarity of Strychnia?
Strychnia and Brucia are the two principal ones. Strychnia is so intensely bitter that 1 part in 600,000 can be detected by the taste.
What is the general action of Strychnia?
The motor centres of the spinal cord are powerfully irritated, and hence their reflex excitability is enormously increased; the medulla is also stimulated and the respiratory centre is increased in activity, causing increased frequency and depth of movements of the chest; peristalsis is increased. It produces a condition very much like tetanus.
Mention three grand general characteristics of Nux vomica.
1. Thin, spare, irascible patients of a nervo-bilious temperament, with great sensitiveness to external impressions.
2. Ailments brought on by the use of drastic medicines, purgatives, sedentary habits, rich food, etc.
3. Tired, worn-out feeling in the morning on waking.
In what class of patients is Nux most applicable?
Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Michigan Homeopathic Medical College. Member of American Institute of Homeopathy. In addition to his editoral work he authored or collaborated on: Boericke and Dewey's Twelve Tissue Remedies, Essentials of Homeopathic Materia Medica, Essentials of Homeopathic Therapeutics and Practical Homeopathic Therapeutics.