Tabes Dorsalis
Aesculus-hip [Aesc]
Paralytic weakness of the symphyses, making locomotion difficult or impossible; fulgurant pains through lower extremities.
Aluminium [Alum]
Great muscular weakness and impairment of coordination; superficial symptoms of formication, tickling irritation of skin and mucous membrane, especially eyes, pharynx and larynx, (<) by warm food and drink; loss of contractive power of the bowels, with diminished secretion and tendency to rupture of haemorrhoidal vessels; weakness of bladder and sexual organs; confusion and obscuration of intellect; WHITE CLOSED EYES HIS WHOLE BODY TOTTERED; ptosis and diplopia; pain in the sole of the foot, on stepping, as if it were too soft and swollen; arms and legs heavy when trying to walk, great weakness and uncertainty in lower limbs, has to be led; disposition quiet and resigned.
Argentum-nit [Arg-n]
Mental confusion; tendency to fall sideways; fulgurating pains and abolition of tendon reflexes muscular coordination; vertigo when walking with eyes closed, he staggers and has to seize hold of things; legs feel like wood; soreness in the lumbo-sacral region, pain in small of back very severe when rising from a sitting posture, (<) when walking; want of feeling and exhaustion in extremities; impotence, want of desire, organs shrivelled; loss of pupillary reflexes; gastralgia; incontinence of urine; sleeplessness, drowsy during day; girdle sensation.
Belladonna [Bell]
Early stage with incoordination of the muscles of both upper and lower limbs; cannot tell when the hand holds an object, he raises the feet slowly and puts the head down with force, or when walking he raises his legs as if he had to pass over an obstacle; great restlessness with sudden startings; gastric crises, forcing one to bend the body backward; frequent desire to urinate (Sulphate of Atropine).
Causticum [Caust]
Vertigo and feeling as if there were an empty space between the brain and cranial bones; (<) by warmth; with tendency to fall forward or sideways; constipation with constant urging; unsteady walk; tearing, boring pains in lower extremities.
Colchicum [Colch]
Locomotor ataxia after getting wet; shooting, tearing pains in extremities, with great irritability and weakness and exhaustion as after exertion.
Duboisin [Dubin]
(O. & O., 80).-Almost impossible to stand alone with eyes shut, constantly swaying forward and backward and must be held to prevent falling; sensation as if the floor were coming up to him, when walking makes high steps; feeling as if treading on empty space or as if legs could not hold up the body; staggering from one side to the other when walking, but can go straight when concentrating mind and eyes on every step he takes; tired feelings; vertigo; PARALYSIS OF ACCOMMODATION.
Fluoric-acid [Fl-ac]
Tabes dorsalis with great sexual excitement; venereal rheumatism of upper and lower extremities, followed by weakness and numbness; (<) in wet, cold weather.
Gelsemium [Gels]
FRESH CASES; spinal weakness from exhaustion; confusion of head; strabismus, ptosis, diplopia on including head towards shoulder; paresis of tongue and glottis; fatigue of lower limbs after slight exercise, cannot control the movements of his lower limbs; sexual weakness from irritability of seminal vesicles; genitals cold and relaxed.
Ginseng [Gins]
VERTIGO OF OCCIPITAL ORIGIN, with consequent incoordination, gait unsteady and difficult; lancinating pains in epigastrium; painful lassitude along the back with bruised feeling down to the sacrum; formication in legs, accompanied with stiffness.
Kali-brom [Kali-br]
Numbness, stinging in legs and in spine, at first increase of sexual nisus, in later stages absence of erection and too frequent nightly emissions; melancholy; staggering gait.
Nux-moschata [Nux-m]
Spasmodic pain from right to left hypochondrium, then in a circle in lower part of abdomen (girdle pain), inclined to coitus, but genitals are relaxed; pains now in back, now in sacrum, knees very tired, (<) during rest; wandering, digging, perplexing pains, confined to small spots, lasting but a short time and soon returning; staggers in walking, falls often; soreness of all parts on which one lies, tendency to bedsores.
Nux-vomica [Nux-v]
Partial paralysis of lower limbs from overexertion and being drenched in rain; drags limbs in walking; cannot lift them from the ground, sensation of lower limbs impaired, feels the sticking of a pin only when it penetrates deep enough to draw blood; legs always cold, bluish; constipation, haemorrhoids; burning at anus; paralysis vesicae; sexual nisus excited, but power is weak; stitches through the body in jerks; feel sore all over, (<) mornings; headache. (Sulphur of Strychnia and Atropine in fortnightly alternation).
Onosmodium [Onos]
DULL HEAVY PAIN IN OCCIPUT PRESSING UPWARD, with dizzy sensation; diminished sexual desire; cold feeling in glans penis; dull aching pain in back; tired, weary and numb feeling in the legs, mostly below the knees; disturbance of the gait in walking; LOSS OF MUSCULAR COORDINATION IN WALKING; staggers; he cannot keep in the walk, sidewalk seems to be too high, which causes him to step very high; sensation of formication in the calves of the legs.
Phosphorus [Phos]
BURNING HEAT IN BACK; hands and feet numb, clumsy; limbs tremble from every exertion; when walking missteps from weakness; swelling of hands and feet with stinging pains; paralysis; formication and tearing pains in limbs; anaesthesia; great irritability and nervousness; increased heat; sexual irritation; nocturnal emissions.
Phosphorus-hydrogenatus [Phos-h]
(Allen. vii. 465)-Unsteadiness of upper and lower extremities, with undercurrent shooting pains in them and in abdomen, tottering gait; ATAXIA, stands with extremities separated; coordinate movement impossible; when the eyes are closed he staggers and falls down; electric irritability increased.
Physostigma [Phys]
On walking, feeling of unsteadiness from knees down ward, so that he has to tread carefully especially when eyes are shut; HE MUST SEE where he is going, wants a cane to support himself; stiffness in recti femoris; languor; flatulence.
Plumbum [Plb]
ADVANCED CASES OF TABES DORSALIS AND OF DISSEMINATED SCLEROSIS, where the paralyzed parts soon fall off in flesh; sclerosis from hyperplasia of neuroglia in posterior columns; loss of sexual desire, impotence; paroxysmal, lancinating, neuralgic pains in limbs; (<) at night, (>) by pressure; total loss of coordination; formication, anaesthesia and paralysis of limbs which are atrophied, though body remained plump; pains in limbs (<) at night, (>) by rubbing; sensitiveness to open air.
Rhus-tox [Rhus-t]
Rheumatic paralysis from getting wet or lying on damp ground; (<) in cold, wet weather, in bed and at rest; pain in small of back as if bruised; aching pain in both hip-joints at every step and a paralytic feeling in anterior muscles of thighs; jerking in thighs, with tremor of knees. LOSS OF POWER OF COORDINATION of lower extremities; staggers; takes long strides, steps higher than usual; tearing pains during rest.
Secale-corn [Sec]
ABSENCE OF KNEE-JERK; FULGURATING PAINS; ATAXY; shuffling gait as if the feet were dragged along difficult, staggering gait; complete inability to walk, not for want of power, but on account of a peculiar unfitness to perform light movements with limbs and hands; formication of hands and feet; feeling as if walking on velvet; gentle creeping sensation in back as if a soft air were blowing through it; painful jerking of limbs at night; lassitude, heaviness, and trembling of limbs; painful constriction in epigastrium; formication under skin; aversion to heat or to being covered; anxiety, sadness and depression.
Stramonium [Stram]
Vertigo when walking in the dark, can only walk in the light; totters as if dizzy, cannot make even a few steps without support; trembling of limbs; muscles will not obey the will; limbs feel as if gone to sleep; melancholy, weeps all the time.
Sulphur [Sulph]
GIRDLE PAINS; painful sensitiveness of abdomen to touch; weak sexual powers with coldness of penis; tearing in limbs, muscle and joints, from above downward; limbs go to sleep; unsteady gait, tremor of hands; soles of feet become soft, sensitive and painful when walking; great debility and trembling.
Zincum [Zinc]
BEGINNING OF LOCOMOTOR ATAXIA, when fulgurant pains were marked and intense; twitchings and intense; twitching in various muscles; the whole body jerks during sleep; great weakness of limbs, especially of lumbar region and bends of knees, when walking in open air; burning along spine; impotence; cerebral exhaustion; [Charcot recommends suspension of the patient, clothed in a Sayre’s corset, on a horizontal bar for a few minutes (Bulletin med., 10.89) every other day.
Dr. Samuel Lilienthal was the author of many great books including “Homeopathic Therapeutics”. For many years, with the support of Dr. Constantine Hering, he was the editor of the North American Journal of Homeopathy. Dr. Lilienthal passed away on February 2nd 1891 in San Francisco.