And Ignatia has another thing:”thinks she has neglected some duty.”
Kent says again, “Ignatia is full of surprises in Ignatia you find what is unnatural, and what is unexpected. You see an inflamed part where there is heat, and redness, and throbbing, and weakness; you will handle it with great care for fear-it will be painful but you find it is not painful: sometimes not painful at all, and sometimes ameliorated by hard pressure. Is not that a surprise?
“You look into the throat. It is tumid, inflamed, red; the patient complains of a sore throat and pain. Naturally you do not touch it with your tongue-depressor for fear it will hurt. You have every reason to suppose that the swallowing of solids will be painful. But you ask the patient when the pain is present, and the patient will say, `When I am not swallowing anything solid.” The pain is ameliorated by swallowing anything solid, by the pressure. It pains all other times.
“Mentally the patient does the most unaccountable and most unexpected things. Seems to have no rule to work by, no philosophy, no soundness of mind, and no judgment. The opposite to what would be expected, then, will be found. The patient is better lying on the painful side: instead of its hurting the pain, it improves the pain. `Pain like a nail sticking into the side of the head,’ and the only comfort that is felt is lying upon it, or pressing upon it, and that makes it go away.”
And Kent says the stomach is just as strange in its indigestion. That gentle food, and the simplest possible things are given, because she has been vomiting for days, and she can keep nothing down. “It is hysterical stomach, ” and she eats some raw cabbage and some chopped onions, and from that time on she is well.
Again with cough. He says, when people cough from irritation, from a sensation of fullness, or a desire to expel something, this is better by coughing. But when such irritation comes in and Ignatia patient, you have the unexpected again: because the more she coughs the more is the irritation to cough, till the irritation is so great that she goes into spasms. You may be called to the bedside of a patient where the more she coughs the greater the irritation to cough and she is drenched with sweat, sitting up in bed with her night-clothes drenched; gagging, and coughing and retching, covered with sweat and exhausted. Don’t wait. You cannot get her to stop coughing long enough to say anything to you about it, only you will see that the cough has grown more violent. Ignatia stops it at once. Or spasm of the larynx from mental disturbance, fright or distress, a laryngismus that can be heard all over the house. Ignatia stops it at once.
Thirst when you would not expect it. Thirst during chill, but not during fever.
Ignatia will cure many “corporeal conditions” where the mental symptoms demand the remedy.
One of our doctors, late one night, was called to see a case of acute rheumatism, where the apparently indicated remedy had not helped. He was now confronted by a perfect picture of the Ignatia mentality, and gave that remedy-which promptly cleared up the whole case, rheumatism and all.
Clarke had a similar case. He says, “In the early days of my homoeopathic career I astonished myself once by curing rapidly with Ignatia (prescribed at first as an intercurrent remedy) a severe case of rheumatic fever, which had been making no progress under Bryonia, etc. The mental symptoms called for Ignatia, and along with these the inflammation of the joints, as well as the fever, disappeared under its action.” One must never forget that the mental symptoms, if marked, and especially if indicating a change of disposition due to acute illness, are the most important in determining the choice of the remedy.
One remembers well an Ignatia case in early Dispensary practice. A youngish woman, who had been given Sepia for her goitre-a large, soft swelling of the thyroid-returned in a week in an alarming condition of distress and gasping for breath. The Hospital, rung up, had no bed to offer, and the only thing was to give her Ignatia, and to tell her to come back in a few days. When she reappeared, calm and happy, the goitre had completely disappeared! One wondered, which of the two remedies had done the trick? Ignatia is the acute of Sepia, as well as of Natrum mur. Did Sepia, perhaps, cause an initial aggravation-a very severe one, and then cure?-or was Ignatia really the curative remedy?
But one thing is certain-if you have to treat a goitre in the acute stage with Ignatia mental symptoms, you cannot go far wrong if you prescribe IGNATIA.
Ignatia is the “sighing remedy”.
Ignatia yawns.
Ignatia cannot stand smoking, or tobacco smoke.
Ignatia is one of the very important remedies to be considered in troubles of rectum and anus.
BLACK LETTER SYMPTOMS
(Hahnemann and Allen)
Uncommon tendency to be frightened.
Audacity.
Fickle, impatient, irresolute, quarrelsome, recurring every three to four hours.
Incredible changes of disposition, at one time he jokes and jests, at another he is lachrymose, alternately every three to four hours.
Whispering voice. He cannot speak loudly.
Delicate disposition, with very clear consciousness.
Finely sensitive mood, delicate conscientiousness.
Slight blame or contradiction excites him to anger, and this makes him angry with himself.
Incredible changes of mood.
Heat in the head. Head is heavy.
He hangs the had forward. Lays the had forward on the table.
Headache, increased by stooping forwards.
Aching pain in forehead above root of nose which compels him to bend forward the head, followed by inclination to vomit.
Headache like a pressure with something hard on the surface of the brain, recurring in fits.
Throbbing headache. Headache at every beat of the arteries.
Itching in the auditory meatus.
Shooting in the lips.
Inner surface of lower lip painful, l as if raw and excoriated.
Lips are cracked and bleed.
He is apt to bite on one side of the tongue posteriorly when speaking or chewing.
Stitches in palate extending into the external ear.
Sour taste in the mouth.
Aching pain in cervical glands.
Formication in the oesophagus.
Belches up a bitter fluid.
What he had ingested is belched up again into the mouth.
Retching (constrictive) sensation in the middle of the throat, as if there were a large morsel of food, or a plug sticking there, felt more when not swallowing than when swallowing.
Sore throat: sticking in it when not swallowing and even some what while swallowing; the more he swallow, however, the more it disappears: if he swallows anything solid, like bread, it seems as though the sticking entirely disappeared.
After eating and drinking, hiccough.
Aching in scrobiculus cordis.
Extreme aversion to smoking tobacco.
A feeling in the stomach as from fasting.
Feeling of flabbiness in the stomach.
Peculiar sensation of weakness in upper abdomen and pit of stomach, and paleness of face.
Rumbling and rattling in the bowels.
On the left, above the navel, a sharp shooting.
Pinching and shooting pains in abdomen.
Prolapsus of the rectum during moderate straining at stool.
Violent urging to stool, more in the upper bowels and upper part of the abdomen; he has great desire, yet the stool, though soft, does not pass in sufficient quantity.
Painless contraction of the anus.
A coarse stitch from anus deep into the rectum.
Pain one or two hours after stool, pain in rectum, as from blind piles, compounded of contraction and sore pain.
Blind piles, painful while sitting and standing, less while walking. Prolapsus of the rectum, from moderate exertion at stool.
Sharp pressive pain in the rectum.
Sore pain in the anus, without reference to the stool. Great urgency and desire for stool, in the evening, felt mostly in the middle of the abdomen, but no stool follows, only the rectum protrudes.
Frequent discharge of much watery urine.
Irritation and ulcerative pain–genitalia.
Complete absence of sexual desire, alternating with the reverse.
Provocation to cough in larynx, not relieved by cough, but only by suppressing cough.
Sensation of dry feathery dust in pit of throat, not relieved by coughing: but more excited the more he allows himself to cough. Inspiration is impeded as by a weight lying upon him: expiration is all the easier.
Single jerking of the limbs, on falling asleep.
Pain in sacrum, also when lying on the back in the morning in bed.
Pain in the joint of the humerus when bending the arm back, as from prolonged hard work, or as if bruised.
In the deltoid muscle a quivering twitching.
Hot knees with cold nose.
Creeping, gone-to-sleep feeling of the limbs.
In the joints of the shoulders, hip and knees, a pain as from a sprain or dislocation.
Simple violent pain, only felt when touched, here and there, on a small spot, e.g. on the ribs, etc.
Sleep so light that he hears everything in it.
Fixed idea in dream. Dreams all night of the same subject.
Snoring inspiration during sleep.
One ear and one cheek red and burning.
Sudden attack of flying heat all over the body.
External heat and redness, without internal heat.
