A clear liquid, distilled from a mixture of Caustic Lime and bisulphate of Potash (see Hahnemann’s direction for preparing it), is mixed with an equal part of Alcohol. Chemically and pathogenetically it is doubtless a solution of Potassium hydrate. General Effects.- The general key to the action of Causticum is the same as that to all the Potashes, namely, paralysis, slow pulse, low temperature, etc. Diuresis is a general concomitant. Allies.- Kali in general, Rhus-t., Zincum met., Sulphur, Sep, etc.
Generalities
Spasm, when slumbering in evening he felt that he could not move the tongue well, rose, cried out, but fell back again, stretched arms and legs, then moved them, eyes were distorted, gnashed his teeth, saliva flowed from mouth, with icy coldness, consciousness returned after half an hour, with anxiety, transient thoughts, lolling tongue, all (>) a swallow of cold water. Spasm, in morning in bed heat, after rising cold sensation in the arm in which he had at first a jerk, with twitchings in upper part of body, in trunk and in arms, full consciousness but with apprehension. Spasm in evening, vertigo as if turning involuntarily hither and thither, (>) open air, with apprehension, stupid expression of face and heat over whole body.
Falling suddenly without consciousness while waking in open air, but immediately rising again. Twitching here and there; T. in r. side of body and in various other parts of skin. Starting in frequently at night. Trembling; in morning on waking; after supper, with apprehension; anxious T. in morning and forenoon, with sleepy confusion of head, heavy pressure in occiput and forehead, with heaviness of limbs, pain in joints and muscles of fingers, arms, shoulders, knees and feet.
Sticking in nearly all parts; now here, now there (after menstruation), or contractive pain. Tearings, especially in joints, or from them through various bones, sometimes in several at once. Pinching here and there; and in various parts of skin. Drawing pain, especially above knees. Drawings in several parts, increasing to tearings. Soreness as if bruised or pressed in the side, hip and thigh on which he lay at night, with frequent necessity to turn over. Bruised pain in every part when touched (Arnica); general B. pain when sitting, (>) working and in open air, especially in arms; B. feeling in whole r. side. Sensation of internal trembling.
Inability to lie still a moment at night (Rhus-t.). Uneasiness of body while sitting, with anxiety about heart; U. at night in bed, with anxious weeping and indistinct talking; when rising from a seat and when walking; in blood, with anxiety of mind and sudden sickness and weakness, so that the must lie down; especially of head, like a painless burrowing.
Weariness in morning on rising, and lack of cheerfulness; all forenoon, with feeling as if crushed; at noon, (>) in walking in open air; in evening, with sleeplessness till A.M. and with heavy pain in legs; after copious micturition; after slight effort, after walking in open air, with disinclination to work; (<) evening, with general sick feeling, as if a severe illness were imminent; with sweat on beginning to walk; with anxiety; with sleepiness; faintlike; in morning in bed, as if he would fall asleep again, (>) rising; after a short walk, so that he could not mover his legs; tremulous, after a stool, with palpitation. Sensation as if he would fall, without vertigo. Attacks of faintness after going to bed. Stiffness of joints if she did not move for a quarter of an hour. Numbness and deadness of all soft parts on l. side, even in foot and head, as if there were on blood in the skin. Aggravation when walking in open air and in evening; A. in open air; A. from coffee. Amelioration in the room of the symptoms which originated in the open air, except of the pain in forehead. Sees only terrible visions and distorted human faces when she closes the eyes.
Clinical Children are slow in learning to walk. Cracking in joints. The pains, neuralgic or rheumatic, make the patient very restless, but are not (>) motion. Chorea, especially affecting the muscle of the r. side and eyeballs. Epileptiform spasm or chorea-like spasm, especially at the time of puberty. Patients requiring Causticum are always weak, anaemic, have no desire and scarcely the ability to make an effort. General tendency to paralytic affections (like all the Potashes). Paralysis resulting from rheumatism, after diphtheria, etc.
Mind
Peevish; during menstruation, with weariness; and weeping mood; and self-absorbed; takes no pleasure in music. Morose silence; persistent silence. Taciturn in forenoon and indifferent. Sullen. Sensitiveness and inclination to anger, chilliness and on motion easily heated. Irritability, so that her knees sink under her at the slightest vexation. Sensitive, hot-headed and vehement. Furiously opinionated and quarrelsome. Violent after midday sleep, with despondency. Melancholy; before menstruation; M., with prostration. Sad weeping mood, full of care. Inclination to scold; and make a disturbances, without being peevish. Discontented with herself, with gloomy looks. Whining at every trifle (ion a child). Sympathetic, beside herself with weeping and sobbing and cannot be contented when hearing of hardships.
Anxiety; in morning on waking; evening, with unwillingness to go to bed; at night, with uneasiness, preventing sleep; after stool, also with heat in face and inclination to sweat; with uneasiness as if something unpleasant impended; with sweat; as if stupefied; as if he had done something bad or apprehended it, or as if he had been unfortunate. Apprehension whenever anything happens; A. of evil, with urging to stool. Frightful ideas in evening. Fear; at night; and anxiety, so that she did not wish to live; of a dog near by, so that she trembled, apprehension at every noise in the street and when she saw boys climbing. Thoughts of death, with uneasiness and solicitude. Disinclination to work. Mirth alternating with depression. Joy alternating with peevishness. Good humor in forenoon, with talkativeness.
Inattention and distraction. Absentminded, with loss of idea. Cloudiness. Weakness of thought, slow succession of ideas. Mispronunciation of words and confusion of syllables and letters (e.g., “fluent coryza”). Weakness of memory. Coma.
Head
Involuntary nodding while writing, as if pressed down. Stitches in morning on waking and almost all day; S., especially in orbits, all night, (>) during the day; S., with warmth in it. Tearing. Jerking-pinching through H. Screwings, (>) open air, with heaviness. Aching caused by hunger; A. in whole pain on shaking head; with nausea; from all sides, with pinching in ears and boring toothache; deep-seated, with heaviness as night as from an ulcer; compressive; throbbing, with painful throbbing in cerebral arteries. Jerkings and beatings. Painless digging in whole H.
Confusion in morning with coryza; C., with heat in it; painful tensive, almost like a throbbing headache, (>) after eating; all day, as if in a damp room where clothes were washed and dried, (<) stopping, not(>) by walking in open air, but on returning to the room. Dullness all day after an emission; D., with a screwed together feeling, also (>) open air; with intoxicated feeling and with redness of face. Feeling of stupefaction and drunkenness. Rush of blood in evening; R. after short walk in open air, and to face, with dim vision; (>) open air, with sensation as if intoxicated; with heat in it. Sensation as if brain were loose and shaken when walking in open air.
Vertigo; in morning on rising; in morning on stooping, (>) rising; in morning on waking, with painful confusion of head; at night on rising in bed and lying down again; during menstruation, (<) stooping, (>) afternoon; on fixing vision; on looking up (to a high tower), so that he fell; while standing; while standing and sitting, with heaviness of head; while sitting, as if he would stagger; in open air, everything turned about with her and persons seemed larger than usual; (>) open air; with anxiety of whole body; with weakness of head; with falling down; forward and sideways; as from compression of head; as from spirituous drinks; almost like loss of consciousness, after walking, he nearly fell while sitting.
Forehead.- Tensive stitching from lower part of F. to upper part of head; shifting slow S. above l. eye. Tearing in middle, during the day in a heated room and in tobacco-smoke (<) night, when it prevented sleep, and in cervical vertebrae; sticking, extending to r. side through the whole head. Cutting in upper part of bone on violent motion of arms while stooping. Pain in r. eminence; Sharp, in l. side; sharp, after large flow of urine; extending to eyes; twitching, in r. side of F. and head; burning, as if forepart of brain were inflamed, after entering the house; as if something were forced in between frontal bone and cerebrum, or as if the place behind frontal bone were hollow; constrictive, in open air, (<) fast walking, suddenly (>) stopping low; stupefying, when sitting and reading, not (>) walking or standing; tensive nd drawing, between eyes. Drawing in l. side; between eyes, with pressure; painful, in forepart. Slow pressure above r. orbit. Tension and warmth in F., and nose, with intermittent drawing in eyes. Throbbing, (<) afternoon, with tension in neck; painful, and arteries above orbits; painful, as with a dull point. Sensation as if everything in head would come out in front on stopping.
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.