“They do not mean me, they do not apply to me, they mean somebody else.”
“Thinks he is in the wrong place.
Thinks he is not at home.
Sees persons who are not and who have not been present.
Fears being left alone.
Fears poison or being bitten.”
These phases sometimes take on fear in the sense of fear, but it comes from that suspicion that was spoken of; he suspicions or fears these things will take place. He imagines these things are to take place, and hence he is suspicious of all his friends.
Another thing running through the remedy, in insanity and in the delirium of fevers, is a fear of water, fear of running water. Of course, hydrophobia, which is named because of that symptom being a striking feature, has fear of water, but some remedies also have that fear of water.
“Anxiety on hearing running water.
A fear of water.”
That runs through Belladonna, Hyoscyamus, Cantharis, and, of course, the nosode Hydrophobinum. Stramonium has the fear of water. Stramonium has the fear of anything that might look like water, shining objects, fire looking-glass. Fear of things that have in any manner whatever the resemblance of fluids, and hence the sound of fluids. Hydrophobinum has cured
“involuntary urination on hearing running water.
Involuntary discharge from the bowels on hearing running water.”
It has cured a chronic diarrhea when that symptom was present. Hyoscyamus “makes short, abrupt answers to imaginary questions.”
Imagines that somebody has asked a question, and he answers it; hence, you will find a patient with typhoid fever answering questions that you have not asked. He imagines that persons are in the room and asking him questions. You hear nothing but his answers; he is in delirium or insane.
“Mutters absurd things to himself.
Cries out suddenly.”
There is another form of his delirium, and there are two phases of this. He wants to go naked; wants to take the clothing off, and this must be analyzed. At first you might not understand that. Hyoscyamus has such sensitive nerves all over the body in the skin that he cannot bear the clothing to touch the skin, and he takes it off. That occurs in insanity and sometimes in delirium, and he has no idea that he is exposing his body. He appears to be perfectly shameless, but he has no thought of shamelessness, no thought that he is doing anything unusual, but he does it from the hyperesthesia of the skin.
There is another phase running through the insanity, which is salacity, and it is violent at times, so violent that nobody but the old doctor can form any conception of the awfulness of it, and the dreadfulness of its effects upon those in the room. With a woman, a wife or a daughter, this state of salacity is manifested in this way: she exposes her genitals to the view of everybody coming into the room. There are instances where in these violent attacks of salacity a woman has gathered her clothing up under her arms to expose her genitals to the doctor as he walked into the room.
“Violent sexual excitement and nymphomania.
Obscene things.
Speech illustrated by urine, faeces and cow dung,” and all sorts of things come out in this state of insanity and delirium – and yet – this is only sickness.
“He is violent and beats people.
Strikes and bites.
Sings constantly and talks hastily.
Erotic mania, accompanied by jealousy.
Lascivious mania.
Sings amorous songs.
Lies in bed naked, or wrapped in a skin during summer heat.”
Not because he is cold, but because of a fancy. Complaints involving any of these mental phases may come on in a young woman from disappointed affections, from coming to the conclusion that the young man in whom she has reposed her confidence has become wholly unworthy of her. It drives her insane, and she may take on any of these phases.
Eyes: Patients who have come out of continued fevers, convulsions, or insanity have paralytic condition of the eyes, of the muscles of the eyes.
“Disturbances of vision.
Far-sightedness.
Drawing tension in some of the muscles, and paralysis in others. Strabismus.”
This is one of the most frequently indicated remedies. The strabismus that comes on from brain disease should be cured with a remedy.
In the Hyoscyamus fevers there is so much brain trouble, and there is left behind a tendency to muscular weakness of the eyes, disturbances of the eyes, and congestion of the retina, and disturbances of vision. Double sight.
“Obscuration of vision.
Night-blindness.
Distorted appearance of the eyes.
Spasmodic action of the internal recti.”
“Pupils dilated and insensible to light.”
Sometimes contracted, but in these low unconscious states of typhoid it is likely to be dilated. Then again, after he recovers from these low forms of disease there is quivering of the lids, and jerking of the lids, jerking of the muscles of the eye, so that the eyeball is unsteady. It moves from little spasms of the various muscles of the globe of the eye.
All of these symptoms occur either along with the fever, or afterwards. The child goes into convulsions, or has periods of convulsions, where, during the course of a week or ten days, there have been from fifteen to fifty convulsions, and it may be the convulsions have been remedied with Belladonna or Cuprum, or any one of a number of remedies, and afterwards these eye troubles, strabismus and disturbances of vision.
“An object looked at jumps.”
The letters jump while reading. Spasmodic complaints, periodical complaints, paroxysmal complaints of a nervous character will run through the remedy in various regions, and especially in its coughs, its stomach troubles and abdominal conditions.
Mouth and tongue: The mouth brings forth a lot of symptoms. The mouth is very dry, “as dry as burnt leather.”
The tongue tastes like sole leather. because of dryness. Sometimes the patient will say,
“My tongue rattles in my mouth, it is so dry.”‘
Very great dryness of the mouth, throat and nose, wherever the mucous membranes are. Dry, cracked, red, will bleed in low forms of typhoid. About the second week, going into the third, the teeth are covered with black blood, lips cracked and bleeding.
“Tongue cracked and bleeding.
Patient unconscious, except by much shaking or repeated calling be is roused” and slowly puts out that trembling tongue, which is covered with blood, cracks, and is dry.
“Sordes on the teeth” in low forms of fever.
“Twitching of the muscles of the face upon attempting to put out the tongue.”
It trembles like it does in Lachesis, catches on to the teeth from its great dryness, and the jaw hangs down, relaxed, the mouth wide open.
The whole mouth is dry and offensive. Sometimes during fever the jaw becomes fixed as if it were locked, and it is with great difficulty that it can be moved.
“Closes the teeth tightly together.
Pulsating pains in the teeth.
Jerking, throbbing, tearing in the teeth.
Sordes on the teeth;” and in sleep in these low forms of fever he is grinding the teeth. Children, either in convulsions, or between convulsions, in congestion, also grind the teeth in the night, and in this comatose state. It says in the text,
“The tongue is red, brown, dry, cracked, hard.
Looks like burnt leather.
The tongue does not obey the will.
Difficult motion of the tongue; it is stiff, protruded with great difficulty.
Biting the tongue in talking.”
The tongue becomes paralyzed.
“Loss of speech.
Utters inarticulate sounds.
Speech embarrassed.
Talks with difficulty.”
The muscles of the throat, of the tongue, those that take part in swallowing, the muscles of the oesophagus, of the pharynx, become stiff and paralyzed so that swallowing is difficult.
“Food taken into the throat comes up into the nose.”
Fluids come out of the nose, or go down into the larynx.
“The sight of water, or the hearing of running water, or the attempt to swallow water produces spasmodic constriction of the oesophagus.”
Stomach and abdominal symptoms: The next very important feature of this medicine is its stomach and abdominal symptoms. Vomiting. Dread of water. Unquenchable thirst. Aversion to water, as it were, from the stomach; a mental fear of water.
The stomach is distended. Great pain in the stomach. Dryness evidently in the stomach like there is in the mouth, because it occurs along with it. Burning and smarting in the stomach; and when there is no inflammation there is vomiting of blood. Stitching pains, colicky pains, distension. The distension of the whole abdomen.
“Abdomen wonderfully distended, almost to bursting.”
Feels like a drum, tympanitic.
“Great soreness; can hardly touch the abdomen because of the soreness.
Cannot be handled, cannot be turned except with great difficulty, very slowly, and with caution.
Cutting pains in the abdomen.”
Inflammation of all the viscera of the abdomen in low typhoid state, with great distension. Petechia upon the abdomen, such as is found in a typhoid.
Then comes the diarrhoea, very much like that which is found in low forms of continued fever.
“Bleeding from the bowels; ulceration of Peyer’s glands,” and the yellow, cornmeal mushy stool. In Hyoscyamus there is that mushy stool that occurs in typhoid fever, pappy consistency. Again, a watery, horribly offensive, bloody fluid. Most of the time the stools and the passages are painless.
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.