The complaints of Graphites are worse morning, evening and during the NIGHT, especially before midnight. It is useful in people who are morbidly fat, or have been fat and are now emaciating; with constipation more commonly than diarrhoea; in women in these conditions whose menstrual habit is pale, late, short and scanty; catarrhal discharges that are albuminous and viscid represent to the mind some peculiar general states of the sick man not explainable and not common to diseased conditions nor to many remedies; hence, strange, rare and peculiar. Raw surfaces upon the skin are generally marked by such viscid glutinous discharges.
It is a very deep acting remedy, like all carbons, and is accompanied with induration and burning in the base of the ulcers, inflamed tissues and old cicatrices; hence, its great usefulness in cancerous growths and ulceration.
Cancerous development in old cicatrices is a strong feature of this remedy. Contraction of tendons, especially behind the knee. It has hemorrhagic oozing of pale blood. In the higher sense the patient is anaemic and chlorotic. From eruptions, catarrhal discharges, menstrual flow, ulcers, breath and perspiration there is marked offensiveness (likeCarbo vegetabilis, Psorinum, Kali phos., Kali ars.).
When eruptions or discharges have disappeared suddenly from any cause and grave chronic phenomena have followed Graphites is one of the medicines to be studied. Scrofulous conditions and swelling of glands; recurrentherpes upon all parts of the body and especially about the anus and genitals; burning in many parts and especially in old cicatrices; general dropsical tendency; weakness in muscles and tendons after straining them by overlifting.
Modalities: The patient is very sensitive to cold and needs warm clothing; he is sensitive to the cold in winter and to the heat in summer; he is sensitive to a warm room and desires open air which is grateful. Worse in a warm bed; complaints come on from becoming cold or heated; the headaches are worse in a warm room and better in the open air. Graphites has cured deep seated spinal complaints, and in such cases the patient delights to lie heavily covered in a cold draft from an open window.
It is easy to see in this, the resemblance to Carbo veg., which often cures when the patient wants to be fanned.Craving for air is strong in the carbons, yet often easily chilled and just as easily overheated and complaints that come from overheating are related to the carbons. This one becomes ill from being overheated; exertion makes all symptoms worse.
Motion increases all symptoms except the numbness and general feeling of stagnation which come on during rest. Extreme weakness. Weakness and desire to lie down. Paralysis in any part but especially in the lower limbs; sensation of paralysis or stagnation creeps over the body and limbs.
He is made sick by bathing and is sensitive to cold, damp weather. What there is in the general life to cause eruptions to come out in the bends of the joints must be left for others to explain, but such is the case with this wonderful remedy.
Convulsions: The same may be said of rawness and excoriation in the same regions. Cataleptic conditions are very marked in which the patient is conscious but without power to move or speak; tremulous sensation throughout the body; sudden sinking of strength; sudden weakness. Constriction in many parts. It has cured many kinds of convulsions. It is not the remedy for the convulsion, but in chronic sickness where the convulsion is but one of many elements it is often suitable. It has cured epilepsy and hysterio-epilepsy and epileptiform spasms many times when the totality of symptoms furnished the basis for the prescription.
A careful comparison of the symptoms shows that this remedy acts predominantly on the left side of the body. The patient is oversensitive to pain and outer parts are very sensitive.
Pains: The pains are burning, drawing, pressing. Soreness. Stitching and tearing. Numbness is more characteristic than pain. The formation of fissures in all the commissures and in the anus with cracked and bleeding skin in many parts with much hardening; the tendency to grow wens on the scalp and elsewhere are features of this remedy not to be overlooked, and when coupled with the mental symptoms form such a strong and striking image of perverted vital action that the neophyte should not overlook Graphites.
It is as broad and deep as Sulphur, showing the great similarity to this great remedy in chronic cases.
Mind: The patient becomes very restless when attempting close mental work and there is a marked dread of mental work. The mental depression is extreme, and it is made worse by music; her sadness is so great that she thinks only of death and salvation. Grief and vexation cause of recurrence of all her distressing mental sufferings.
Her moods are constantly changing; while she may recall all the events of youth, recent events are forgotten; slow of thought and weakness of mind worse in the morning; often excited, hurried and exhilarated in the evening; extremely fretful and impatient; irritable about trifles and very critical. Irresolution is a marked symptom.
She cannot make, up her mind to do or not to do. Extreme activity of mind in the evening and first half of the night, which, prevents sleep until midnight; apprehensive and distressed in the. morning and excited. in the evening; extreme anxiety even to desperation.
Vertigo in the morning on waking; in the evening; on looking upwards; on rising from stooping; compelled to lie down; with inclination to fall forward.
When the above general symptoms strongly predominate in any given sickness the following particulars will be cured by this remedy.
Hyperaemia of the brain in the evening in a warm room; frequent moments of congestion to head and face with faint feelings; numbness felt in whole head; burning spot on the vertex; drawing, pressing and tearing in forehead over the eyes; stitching pains in the temples; pain from temples to side of face and to shoulders; one-sided headaches in the morning on waking; tearing in one side of head extending to teeth and side of neck; pressing pain on the vertex and occiput; compressing, constricting pain in occiput and back of neck; pain as though the head were numb; violent headaches during menses.
Head: The headaches are brought on from becoming cold and from looking into a bright light; are worse in a warm room, and better in the open air. There is marked soreness in the scalp; itching of the scalp with or without eruptions; eczema of the scalp oozing a glutinous fluid; eczema behind the cars; fissures that bleed behind the ears; scaly eruptions on scalp; falling out of the hair; bald, shiny patches on the scalp.
Eyes: Extreme photophobia in the sunlight with copious lachrymation. No remedy has photophobia more marked than Graphites. Pain in the eyes and over the eyes by looking long toward a sun lighted window; complaints from eyestrain.
Letters appear double when writing, letters run together when reading; flickerings and fiery zigs-zags just outside the field of vision in the evening; misty vision; vanishing of sight during menses.
Burning, pressing, stitching pains in the eyes. It has cured ulceration of the cornea. Recurrent pustular inflammation of the cornea. Keratitis pustulosa in children with fissures in the canthi, extreme photophobia and eczema on the face.
Marked congestion and injected veins of the conjunctiva. Chronic lachrymation in open air, tears acrid. The fissured canthi bleed easily and itch violently. Purulent discharges from the eyes; the lids are stuck together at night; the eyes feel hot; the lids are much swollen and the margins are red, raw and bleed easily-sometimes hard; ulcers on the; margins of lids; the lids are covered with crusts; eczema of the eyelids and about the eyes; dry mucus in the lashes, styes on the lids, with drawing pain, especially when they recur frequently. Cystic tumors on the lids.
Ears: Discharge from the ear of sticky, viscid pus; bloody, offensive.
Noises in ears; cracking; bumming; hissing; ringing; rushing, roaring; reverberations. Violent roarings at night and the ears feel stopped; thundering, rolling sounds in ears.
Deafness in various degrees and he hears better in a noise. He can hear better when riding on the cars, in the roaring of the train.
Deafness with eczematous eruptions on and behind the ears. Stitching pains in ears in cold air. Marked swelling of the ears.
Nose: Smell very acute; she cannot tolerate flowers; loss of smell with dryness in the nose; with coryza. Discharge from nose bloody mucus or pus, very offensive, viscid, thick, sometimes yellow.
It is a most useful remedy in chronic nasal catarrh. Very painful dryness in the nose. The bones and cartilages of the nose become very sore to touch. Sneezing and fluent coryza as marked as in Carbo veg.
Frequent attacks of coryza all winter, worse in cold air; the coryza extends to larynx, like Carbo veg; the excoriated, sore, cracked nostrils are plugged with scabs and hard mucus far up in the nose. Ulcers in the nose. Fissures in the nostrils that burn and indurate.
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.