Materia Medica


Materia Medica. INTRODUCTORY.-With some exceptions, the remedies prescribed in this work are restricted to the fifty in the list, pages 63, 64. Physicians s…


INTRODUCTORY.-With some exceptions, the remedies prescribed in this work are restricted to the fifty in the list, pages 63, 64. Physicians skilled in homoeopathic therapeutics, however, as a rule, have a choice of several hundred remedies, each in different potencies. A physician has, therefore, great advantage over the amateur prescriber.

A difficulty will sometimes be experienced in choosing between two or more remedies, the symptoms of which bear many points of resemblance; still, in nearly every instance characteristic differences exist which the experienced eye can detect. Remedies which, to the superficial observer, seem identical, will be found on closer inspection to possess distinctive features, determining, in the ensemble of the symptoms, the constitution and temperament of the patient to which it is adapted. Indeed, it rarely happens that either of two remedies can be selected indifferently.

A prompt and successful use of the Materia Medica can only be attained after persevering study and practical application; but the student should not be attained after persevering study and practical application; but the student should not be deterred, though difficulties surround, and occasionally failures attend, first attempts; for a deeper acquaintance with the remedies, and enlarged experience in using them, will enable him to be the instrument of restoring multitudes to health who need and claim his aid.

1. Acidum Muriaticum-Muriatic Acid.

Hydrochloric Acid.

This is a colourless liquid when pure, having a very sour taste and a suffocating odour.

LEADING USES. -Such fevers as Enteric, Influenza, Typhus, etc., when there is little natural reaction; aphthous, ulcerative, and malignant affections of the mouth, tongue and throat; Scarlatina Anginosa in the septic stage and Diphtheria (as a local application); blackish or brownish sordes on the teeth, etc. In the above conditions it rivals Arsenicum. Ac-Mur. is recommended for chronic earache following Scarlatina, and we have found it most useful in several affections consequent on Scarlatina, Enteric fever, etc., especially Deafness, offensive purulent discharge from the ears, nose, etc., more particularly in tubercular patients; burning itching eruptions, ulcers, secreting a foetid ichor, Eczema of the ear, etc.

Ac-Mur. may be used as a gargle or paint in ulceration of the throat, and in Diphtheria; taken internally, it is generally prescribed in the IX to 3X dil. but is also active in high potencies when well indicated.

2. Acidum Nitricum.-Nitric Acid.

LEADING USES.-In many chronic affections which result from infection by Tubercle, Syphilis or Gonorrhoea, especially in Syphilitic cases over-dosed with Mercury and Mercurial poisoning; chronic varicose veins, with tendency to ulceration. In certain fevers, Ac-Nit. is frequently required, especially in typhoid or malignant Scarlatina, Small-pox, etc.

EYES, EARS, ETC. Purulent Ophthalmia, Otorrhoea and Ozaena.

RESPIRATORY SYSTEM.-Chronic violent, dry, laryngeal cough, with stinging or smarting sensation on one side, as if a small ulcer was there; Whooping cough.

DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. Sore and ulcerated throat (internally and as gargle); diphtheria occasionally; Salivation, with spongy swelling and bleeding of the gums; heartburn, with sour eructations; chronic Gastritis of drunkards; some diseases of the liver of a chronic kind; Diarrhoea of children, the motions being green, curdled, mixed with mucus, and passed with straining; chronic Diarrhoea and Dysentery; Fistula and Fissure of the anus; Prolapsus ani; Haemorrhoids, with weakness of the sphincter ani.

URINARY AND GENERATIVE SYSTEM.-Enuresis, with foetid, purulent urine. Ac-Nit., sufficiently diluted, has been recommended and successfully employed, as an injection, for chronic cystitis and foul leucorrhoea; also as a local application for soft Chancre, syphilitic Ulcers, and Condylomata. Two drachms of the dilute acid to a pint of water is the strength Ringer recommends, and with this wash the Condylomata are to be constantly kept moist.

SKIN.-Ulcers, with rapid destruction of tissue, soft edges of greyish-green colour, and tendency to fungoid growth.

3. Acidum Phosphoricum.-Phosphoric Acid.

This is a colourless inodorous liquid, of an agreeable acid taste. It is obtained by the mutual action of Phosphorus and Nitric Acid in distilled water.

LEADING USES.-Physical or nervous debility from any cause with cold, clammy sweats or profuse perspiration; exhaustion from loss of the fluids of the body, as in haemorrhage, excessive or prolonged. Diarrhoea, Spermatorrhoea, etc.; passive Haemorrhage; consequences of grief, care too rapid growth, Onanism, etc. Phthisis, with colliquative sweats, great exhaustion, Diarrhoea and debility in any conditions of septic absorption. Spinal weakness, with great fatigue on exertion and frequent inclination to pass water; curvatures of the spine; Caries of bone. Falling -off of the hair after a sever illness or as a sign of general debility. In old-school materia medica it is considered tonic, and is administered in large doses (10 to 30 min.).

HEAD, ETC.-Headache at the back and nape of the neck, with pale face, from nervous exhaustion; dull or confused intellect, weak memory, dejection of spirits, etc. from brain-fag, seminal or other losses, or exhausting disease. Weakness of sight and deafness, during or consequent on, severe disease.

RESPIRATORY SYSTEM.-Chronic Bronchitis, with bloody purulent expectoration, and night sweats; Pneumonia with hardness of hearing, excessive weakness, pale sunken face, Diarrhoea, etc.

URINARY SYSTEM. -Too frequent desire to pass water, especially in the morning, the urine being copious and light-coloured; frequent involuntary emissions of urine, with nervous symptoms; Diabetes Mellitus; phosphatic deposits in the urine, or alkalinity of urine, milky urine in children.

GENERATIVE SYSTEM.-Seminal emissions from self-abuse; impotence, from too rapid escape of the semen after an erection, or before it is complete; general debility from sexual excesses or Spermatorrhoea; thin, acrid, chronic Leucorrhoea, with pale face and general debility.

4. Acidum Sulphurosum-Sulphurous Acid.

When Sulphur or brimstone is burnt a highly characteristic, pungent, and stifling odour is evolved, which is the odour, not of Sulphur, but of its dioxide, and when this gas is collected in water it forms Sulphurous Acid.

It has a powerful deoxidizing property, and a most destructive action on vegetable life; it is upon this latter property that is therapeutic value mainly depends. It can by used locally as a disinfectant and deodorizer; as an application to septic wounds or as a gargle or spray for infected throats in the proportion of one part of the alcoholic solution of Sulphurous Acid to ten parts of water. But agents such as formaldehyde have largely displaced it.

LEADING USES.-Throat and chest affections-septic. Sore throat, Tonsillitis, clergyman’s hoarseness, chronic Catarrh, Influenza, Cough, Bronchitis, Asthma, etc,;’ in conditions of this kind it is a valuable remedy when administered in potencies from IX upwards. The indications for its use remedies those of Sulphur and of Sulphuric Acid, and the latter is more frequently employed internally. Neuralgia and Toothache, cutaneous diseases- Ringworm, Eczema, Chilblains, Cracked and Chapped hands, Ulcers, Sores, etc. vegetable and animal Parasites-Scabies, Pediculi. Helminthiasis, etc. It is chiefly appropriate to chronic affections requiring Sulphur internally, when local medication is also desirable, and especially, when parasitic, or septic conditions are present.

Besides its use in the form of a spray, it may also be applied by fumigation, or by inhalation, a few drops being poured on boiling water, and the vapour therefrom inhaled. Further, it may be used as a paint for the skin or throat, diluting the acid with about twice its bulk of Glycerine.

5. Aconitum Napellus.-Monk’s-hood-Wolf’s bane.

This plant is a native of Asia and of Central Europe, and grows spontaneously in the damp and covered parts of almost every mountainous country, especially in Switzerland, Germany and Sweden. On account of its beautiful flowers, not with standing its poisonous properties, Monk’s-hood is cultivated, and grows readily in the gardens of our own land.

The parts used are-the leaves, flowers and root, from which tinctures are made; but it is from the root that the most active preparation is obtained.

THERAPEUTIC VALUE.-As a therapeutic agent in the hands of a homoeopathic practitioner, Aconitum is one of the first importance. “This medicine,” says Hempel,” constitutes the backbone, as it were, of our Materia Medica”; there being scarcely an acute disease in which it is not more or less required. Had Hahnemann’s labours extended no further than the discovery and demonstration of the wide and inclusive curative power of this great remedy, they would have entitled him to the gratitude of countless myriads of his fellow-creatures in every succeeding generation. He most appropriately ranks it as first and foremost in his Materia Medica, not because its name begins with the first letter of the alphabet, but because of its transcendent power and extensive sphere of action; he terms it a “precious plant,” whose “efficacy almost amounts to a miracle.” Let the septic in homoeopathic therapeutics test its power in acute fevers in accordance with the directions laid down in this Manual, and he will witness a curative action of a most striking kind. As confirmatory of this assertion, we may cite the extensive use of Aconite now adopted by allopathic practitioners of eminence, but they were slow to recognise its value. Some striking instances of this adoption of Hahnemann’s teachings and practice by men of the old school are given in the early numbers of the Homoeopathic World. (*The Lancet regards it as an almost infallible remedy and in estimating the “cooling power f drugs,” remarks: “It is curious here to observe how really powerfully agents have been neglected, while an absurd confidence has been reposed in remedies which could not possibly have any genuine effect. Only think of the gallons of `sweet spirits of nitre’ that have been poured down people’s throats! Yet this is a medicine which may be confidently pronounced to be unworthy of the slightest confidence, were it only for the fact that no two specimens ever resemble each other in composition, and that a considerable number probably contain scarcely a vestige of the real drug. And then reflect, on the other hand, of the extraordinary neglect of Aconite, a drug which enjoys certainly the nearest approach to infallibility, as a reliever of dry heat of ski, of any remedy that we possess.” “Curious,” indeed, to this allopathic editor;but the virtues of Aconite had at that time been well known to Homoeopaths for nearly eighty years! Ringer, in the fourth edition of his “Therapeutics.” writes:”Perhaps no drug is more valuable than Aconite. Its virtues are only beginning to be appreciated” (l).)

Edward Harris Ruddock
Ruddock, E. H. (Edward Harris), 1822-1875. M.D.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.

Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."