The circulation in the part is so feeble that if there is any pressure the part becomes numb. The surface is cold. The extremities are cold. He is indolent, weak and always tired, with an aversion to mental and physical work. Every little exertion brings on a feeling as if he would faint and collapse.
The sleep is full of dreams. He wakes up with dyspnoea, wakes with cold limbs, especially cold knees. Legs drawn up during sleep. Unrefreshed after sleep. The dreams he has are the kind that most of these patients have where the remedy acts so violently upon the veins, upon the basilar portion of the brain, and upon the voluntary system. They are awful. He dreams of fire, burglars, fearful and horrible things.
Anxiety, restlessness and congestion of the head prevent his going to sleep. Rush of blood to the head. His head feels hot, but to the hand the skin feels cold. The inner chest feels as if burning, but the outer chest feels cold to the hand. So it is in the abdomen. The feeling of internal heat and burning, with external coldness, is a common feature of Carbo veg.
The fever is violent; it has a violent rigor or chill. Of course during the chill he is cold, but there is one strange feature, he wants cold water during the chill, and when the fever comes on he has no thirst.
That is strange; it is uncommon. It is common for patients to be thirsty when they are hot with fever, and when cold not to ask for water. It is common not to ask for water during sweat. But in this patient you observe coldness, rigor, cold breath, and even in the chill sometimes a cold sweat, and you say that it is peculiar that he drinks so much cold water. It is strange; it is uncommon; rare. Hence it is one of the strong features of Carbo veg. febrile conditions.
With the chill of this remedy one side of the body frequently feels in its natural state of heat, that is, naturally warm, while the other side, is cold. One-sided chill. Chill with icy coldness of the body. Chill with great thirst. Sweats easily, especially about the head and face Exhausting night or morning sweats. Sweat profuse, putrid or sour.
Low forms of fever like yellow fever, and a very low type of typhus and typhoid fevers. After the fever has somewhat subsided he has prolonged cold spells with lack of reaction. He does not seem to rally, but he is cold, his knees are cold, his breath is cold, cold sweat, a sort of paralytic weakness. Cadaveric aspect of the face. Cyanotic face. Coldness of the limbs.
Yellow fever in the last stage, the stage of haemorrhage, with great paleness of the face. Violent headache, trembling of the body, collapse with cold breath, cold sweat, cold nose. Nose and face pinched. Vital powers very low, tells a great deal of the story of Carbo veg.
Lack of reaction after some violent attack, some violent shock, some violent suffering. In weakly persons who give right out, with dyspnoea, coldness, copious sweat, exhaustion, collapse and cadaveric aspect, Carbo veg. must be*given.
Carbo veg. is indicated after surgical shock, when the patient goes into collapse, and is in danger of dying from the shock of the operation. This is before inflammation sets in, for there is not vitality enough to arouse an inflammation. The heart is too weak to establish reaction enough for an inflammation. Inflammation comes after a reaction. But if reaction does not take place, Carbo veg. is one of our most important remedies.
In 1881, Kent accepted a position as professor of anatomy at the Homeopathic College of Missouri, an institution with which he remained affiliated until 1888. In 1890, Kent moved to Pennsylvania to take a position as Dean of Professors at the Post-Graduate Homeopathic Medical School of Philadelphia. In 1897 Kent published his magnum opus, Repertory of the Homœopathic Materia Medica. Kent moved to Chicago in 1903, where he taught at Hahnemann Medical College.
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