The marking nut, Semecarpus Anacardium, a native of the East Indies, is a small tree belonging to the Anacardiaceae. A tincture is prepared from the crushed seeds.
General Action
Essentially similar to Rhus tox. The mental symptoms are very pronounced and characteristic: the characteristic sensation is that of a “plug.”
Allies Anacardium occidentale (the cashew nut), Rhus, Ailanthus, Comocladia, Nit-acid, Mercurius
Generalities
Emaciation. Startings when awake in evening in bed. Trembling from weakness at every motion. Motions more energetic and persevering, muscles contract more vigorously, but on motion the fibres seem stretched too much or as if there were not sufficient fluid in the joints. Indolence; after siesta, so that he can scarcely move his limbs, and loathes speaking.
Stitches externally at several places, pectoral muscles, forehead, wrist, etc. Aching internally in whole body; in all tendons, so that he cannot walk and sinks down; like a boil in affected parts, so that he dare not touch them; burning in affected parts. Bruised sensation in all bones, morning in bed, with stiffness of nape of neck and small of back, and headache in forehead and temples, all (>) rising (Rhus t.). Drawing and pressive pain in almost all parts. Drawing in abdomen and thighs, with subsequent burning, then pain in bones on touch, so that she cannot fall asleep.
Uneasiness every other night, so that he could scarcely sleep; feverish, in afternoon, as during a cold, with faintness and tremor of limbs. Weakness after eating; W. during a short walk; after a short walk; so that he wants to sit or lie all the time. Faintness on ascending stairs; when walking, (>) continued walking, with heaviness of feet. Dullness of senses, with confusion of head and prostration. Heaviness in morning, with disinclination to rise; H. and fulness of body from playing on piano. (Any part which he does not move immediately goes to sleep). Paralysis of some parts. Painting, languishing condition, like paralysis, in afternoon after a short walk. Disappearance of most symptoms during dinner, but reappearance of them two hours afterwards. Periodicity in appearance of symptoms, the attacks ceasing for one or two days and then continuing again for a couple of days. Open air is unpleasant to him and feels too rough.
Clinical Alcoholism, restlessness, sleeplessness, twitching of muscles, he hears voices saying that he is going to die. It has been found useful in injuries of tendons and in chronic rheumatic troubles.
Mind
Labor is difficult, like absentmindedness. Stupidity; after waking. Vanishing of thought. Deficiency of ideas and loss of his subject without knowing it. Weakness of understanding. Loss of comprehension in morning, with confusion and emptiness of head. Confusion of the present with the future; C. as if a cold were coming on. Dreamy state day and night, without sleeping, with anxiety about his business. Memory weak (Mercurius, Acid nitricum, Rhus t.); in morning, especially as regards single names; (<) forenoon; in afternoon, with diminution of imagination; confused; lost, with impaired speech; vivid. Animation and liking for acute analysis, but every effort of this kind causes tearing pressive headache in forehead, temples and occiput.
He constantly thinks of some new object to which the mind forcibly clings. Excitement of fancy from 9 to 10 P.M., with many projects, but without ability to control his attention, and the mind gradually becomes dull, so that he is without ideas. Illusions of fancy, with apprehension; melancholy I. that he or his friend is lying on a bier in the side room.
He is separated from the whole world and despairs of being able to do what is required of him. Dread of labor. Disinclination to read in the morning. Despondency, Anxiety (Rhus t.); in evening; about every trifle; with Dullness of senses; as if pursued, with suspicion of everything around him (Mercurius), when standing and walking; A. driving him out of bed. Anxious actions and imagination that he is surrounded by enemies, then warmth and boiling of blood. Apprehension; in evening; A. when meditating upon his destiny, with thoughtfulness. Lack of confidence in his own strength. Sadness; after eating; S. in forenoon, with awkwardness and indolence.
Excessive anger at a slight offense, breaking out in personal violence. Irritability; with desire to go into the open air; irritable and contradicting. Takes everything in bad part and becomes violent. Great susceptibility to insults. Impatience and activity; I. with the play of his children, which usually pleased him. Indifference. Listlessness in morning. Irresolution, awkwardness and querulousness. Laughing when he should be serious. Great cheerfulness; and more disposed to work in after- noon, as soon as the sleepiness after dinner is past.
Clinical Loss of memory, with melancholia, great difficulty in collecting the thoughts; the weakness of memory and mental depression have been relieved in syphilitic patients, but without marked relief of the general syphilitic symptoms. Melancholia, with fixed ideas of demons. At times inclination to swear; or the idea that he is possessed of two persons or wills. Fears that he is pursued or suspected. In general it cures a great variety of troubles associated with profound melancholy and hypochondriasis, associated with complete loss of memory, or with tendency to use violent language. Extremely valuable for brain fag.
Head
Swelling. Twitchings from behind forward, reaching across l. side of vertex and forehead. Tearing during hard labor; T., returning every third day, with chills in whole body, low spirits and restlessness. Aching; (<) motion; with stitches in l. temple; occasionally; grinding in evening; stupefying, especially in forehead, exciting vertigo, so that he threatened to fall to the left when sitting; throbbing. Pressure inward in small places. Bruised feeling on waking from vivid dreams; in brain from mental effort. Confusion; in morning after rising, with heaviness; painful, when he lies in an uncomfortable position. Heaviness. Vertigo; afternoon after a walk; with blackness before eyes; as if turning in a circle, on stooping; as if all objects were too distant, when walking; as after spirituous drinks.
Forehead – Stitches when coughing, or in side of head; tearing S. over r. eye. Pinching in fore part of head, with tearings towards fore-head. Grinding in r. half of fore part of head, especially along the border of the orbit, (>) strong pressure and when eating, with pain as if a heavy load were forced in, the pain being (>) in evening when lying with the painful spot on the arm. Compression and dull pressure below l. eminence. Aching in morning; A. in angle between frontal and nasal bones; in centre of forehead, gradually extending deeper and over whole front of head, in evening; drawing, and in occiput and l. vertex; constrictive, from 5 P.M. till morning, with peevishness and a grinding pain, which is (>) by strong pressure, afterwards extending to whole head, with painful feeling of a band reaching from nape to ears; constrictive A. in r. side, especially at external border of orbit. Pressure from without over l. brow; outward at r. side; coming out at r. eminence; as if brain were shaken, every morning on waking, (<) walking. Painful confusion, extending to root of nose. Soreness.
Temples – Twitchings in head in from of l. ear. Stitches in l., with jerking tearings; S., drawing from temple into forehead, when breathing. Tearing in l.; in brain, just above r.; piercing and biting, extending into brain. Neuralgia in r. Pressure in r.; inward in l.; inward, (>) towards evening, with squeezing in temples and constriction in vertex; tearing, in l. Compression in both.
Vertex – Pressure as from a plug on l. side. Aching when coughing or inspiring deeply.
Sides – Stitches through l., extending deep into brain; incipient tremulous S. in upper part of l. Tearing in r. side of head, face and neck, then humming before l. ear. Pressure in r., changing to stitches; P. in r., interrupted by stitches. Drawing pain in l. Confusion in l., then r.
Occiput – Twitching shoots and tearing, (<) bending head backward, and in temples. Tearing in successive attacks, reaching to temple; T. in lower part of r., extending to forehead. Aching in r.; during cough.
Scalp – Boils, feeling sore when touched or scratched. Soreness at 4 P.M., or of dura mater. Itching.
Clinical The headaches are digging, throbbing in character, (>) by eating, but (<) by any attempt to use the mind or by overwork.
Eyes
Rheumatic tearing in l. (more in lids), extending to temples. Pain. Pressure upon, (<) l., and in l. external canthus when looking long at one object. Tearing in balls and orbits, mornings when walking. Pressure in balls from before backward or from above downward. Sensation as of something between ball and upper lid, which caused rubbing, something seems to rub between ball and lower lid. Pupils dilated. Pupil contracted; r. contracted.
Born in 1837in Westminster, Vermont. . He was an orthodox doctor who converted to homeopathy
Dr. Allen compiled the Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica over the course of 10 years.
In 1881 Allen published A Critical Revision of the Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica.