This is a very deep, long acting remedy, and one greatly abused by traditional medicine in the form of Fowler’s Solution. It was used extensively as an antiperiodic after quinine had failed, and as a tonic, for skin diseases of all sorts, for syphilis, for anaemia, etc. It is a most positive remedy in all of these complaints, when it suits the patient’s symptoms. The toxicological symptoms following the traditional abuse have furnished a broad beginning for the homoeopathist to build upon. How well it was known to the good old doctor that Fowler’s Solution must be stopped if the patient became pale, waxy, puffed under the eyes and was weak. Who does not know the “fattening” powers of this drug! Horses become fat and shiny of coat after taking Fowler’s Solution for a while. The jockey knew this too well. He traded off a broken-down horse as a fine animal, but the horse soon gave out; his wind was short; he would sweat easily, become weak and incapable of work. It was then said: “That horse must have been jockeyed up on arsenic.” The old medical journals are full of effects of overdosing with this drug. A summary of old school drugging, a few pathogenetic symptoms, and extensive clinical observation with the use of this remedy in potentized form, have given the basis of this study. Not too much reliance should be placed upon the writer’s clinical opinion; let the remedy be tested along the lines indicated until provings shall fix the finer action. While it has morning and evening aggravation, the nights are full of suffering; midnight especially, and from I to 3 a. m., there are many sufferings. The chilliness is very marked. Extreme sensitiveness to cold, and complaints are aggravated from cold, from cold air and from becoming cold, from entering a cold place. Aversion to open air. Takes cold from a draft, and from being heated. Anaemia. Chlorosis. Pale, waxy, and covered with sweat. Ascending brings on suffocation, cough, and manifests the weakness of body and limbs. Glands dwindle and the extremities become numb and prickly. Molecular death prevails extensively. Cancerous ulceration has been restrained by this remedy many times. It has cured lupus.
The weakness that it has produced is much like that found in patients looking toward phthisis and Bright’s disease. Clonic spasms have been produced by it. Convulsive action of muscles with full consciousness is not uncommon. It has cured epilepsy and hysterio-epilepsy. It has caused abdominal dropsy and oedema of all the limbs, face and eyelids. While taking it there is an increase of flesh and weight, but after stopping it the prover emaciates. Most complaints are aggravated after eating and after exertion. The muscles are flabby. Faintness and fainting spells. Eating ice cream when overheated brings on many complaints. Aggravated from cold foods, cold drinks, milk and fat food. There is formication all over the body. It sets up inflammation in many organs and glands, especially the stomach, liver and kidneys. Great dread of motion. All mucous membranes become catarrhal. It is a most painful remedy; burning, stitching and tearing. The most marked periodicity is every third day pulsation felt all over the body. It is a deep acting antipsoric, and often useful in rheumatic and gouty affections. It has cured syphilis in the hands of the traditional doctor, and in the highest potencies it cures many specific complaints when the symptoms agree. Some symptoms come on first falling asleep, but during and after sleep are also marked times of aggravation. Rheumatic and gouty stiffness of all the joints with oedema of legs and feet. Swelling from inflammation of joints and glands. Trembling from noise, or sudden unexpected motion. Tension of muscles. Twitching of muscles. Extremely sensitive to touch. Ulceration of skin, especially of legs and of mucous membranes, with burning and spreading. Uncovering brings on the pains, and increases many complaints. Symptoms aggravated on waking. Walking fast aggravates most symptoms, especially the breathing and weakness. Warmth ameliorates most complaints. He is so weak he cannot sit up in bed. The restlessness of arsenic is often present. Arsenicum is stamped upon the mental symptoms. Anxiety even to great anguish, with great fear. Anxiety in the morning on waking, but most marked in the evening and during the night. He is anxious without cause, about his health; anxious before stool; wakens during the night with anxiety and fear. He fears to go to bed. He fears death, or a crowd of people, yet equally dreads being alone. Fear that something will happen. Fear of people. He is very easily frightened and startled. He has frightful delusions and sees images. He despairs of recovery. he sees dead people in his nightly delirium. His thoughts dwell upon death, and he is sure he is going to die. He is very fretful, and dislikes to answer questions. He behaves like a crazy man. Fickle-minded, with confusion. Constantly discontented. Very excitable. Mental exertion intensifies mental and head symptoms. Always in a hurry, and very excitable. Many hysterical symptoms, with cramps and fainting. Indifference to all pleasure. Cannot settle upon what he wants to do. Wakens up in the morning very fretful. He is irritable during chill, and during headache. He has impulses to do violence to his friends, to kill somebody. Lamenting and bewailing. His memory is weak. He grows morose and quarrelsome, fault-finding, and scolds those about him. He is restless of mind and body, evening and night; anxious tossing all night, during chill and heat; also during menses. Sadness in the evening when alone, and during the fever. Oversensitive to noises, and especially to voices. Becomes so beside herself that she shrieks. There are long spells of silence in which she refuses to answer questions; at these times she sits even with others near her and refuses to speak. Easily startled from noise, on falling asleep and during sleep. Thinks of death and of suicide. Suspicious of all her best friends. Persistent tormenting thoughts often keeping him awake at night, with feet and legs icy cold and head hot. He becomes increasingly timid. Weeping at night without cause. Weeping in sleep.
Vertigo in the evening, during headache, with nausea, and when walking in the open air.
The forehead perspires easily, and complaints and the pains come on from uncovering the head. There are congestive, pulsating headaches, with electric shocks through the head. The head feels cold, and is sensitive to cold air and to drafts. The neck is stiff, and the head is drawn to one side. During the headache the head feels heavy and enlarged. Eruptions with crusts, dry or moist, form upon the scalp. It has cured many cases of eczema. From the suppression of eruptions on the scalp, many chronic periodical sick headaches have come, lasting a lifetime, or until cured with a similar remedy. These headaches begin in the afternoon and evening, very severe after midnight, worse from cold by checking a chronic catarrh, or such as come with coryza, or with gastric disturbances. Rheumatic headaches. Congestive headaches during chill, during fever and during menses. All headaches of this remedy are aggravated after eating, while lying during motion, from noise after sleep, from standing, and walking in cold air; ameliorated from sitting, external heat and hot drinks, and wrapping and up the head. The pains are paroxysmal, and the headaches are often periodical. The pains come in the forehead, over ever the eyes and in occiput, and in parietal bones. Sides of head become sore. Burning, stitching and tearing are most common pains. Pressing outward over the eyes, and stitching on coughing. Tearing over eyes and in occiput. Many of these headaches come from suppressed malaria, and it will be stated that these headaches began after having been cured (?) of ague. This remedy is an excellent antidote to the abuse of quinine.
Catarrhal conditions of the eyes, excoriating mucous discharges, and the lids stick together in the morning. The veins are injected, the balls feel enlarged, and there is free lachrymation. The eyes look glassy, pale, fishy. Opening of the lids difficult because of dryness. Oedema under the eyes, and the lids are swollen. Ulceration of the cornea. The eyes are jaundiced, and tears acrid. Staring, fixed, startled look. Spots on the cornea. Redness of the eyes and lids. Pains at night, worse from motion and reading, and ameliorated from warmth. The pains are burning, tearing and pressing. Sensation of sand in the eyes. Smarting in eyes while reading. There are colours in the field of vision, green and yellow. Vision is dim and foggy. Sparks before the eyes. Asthenopia. Vision lost.
The ears tingle, and are hot. Ears swollen. Eruptions on ears. Ears cold. Otorrhoea, bloody, fetid and yellow. Itching deep in auditory canal. Noises in the ears; buzzing, cracking, humming, ringing, roaring, rushing; after quinine. Earache evening and night, ameliorated by heat; aggravated in cold air. The pains are burning, stitching and tearing. The hearing is at first acute, later impaired, and finally lost. This remedy cures chronic nasal catarrh that has lasted from childhood, when the discharge is excoriating, bloody, burning, greenish, thick, or yellow. It is purulent and offensive. Dryness in nose nights. The nose is obstructed. Epistaxis. Itching of nose, and inside of nose. Sneezing, frequent and violent.
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.