Throbbing pain, as from an ulcer.
Jaundice, with faint spells; caused by anger, by cold, “high- living,” debauchery, etc.
Dragging in the abdomen as from a load; weak feeling in one of the abdominal rings, as if a hernia would protrude. Piles, bleeding or not; constricting pain in rectum and anus, worse after a meal and after exerting the mind (19): Burning, smarting (17), sticking, pressive pains. Proctitis; evacuation of dark- coloured mucus.
Stools hard, dry; with ineffectual urging, or with incomplete evacuation, and followed by a sense of constriction of the rectum.
Diarrhoea scanty and attended with irregular, unsatisfactory urging and tenesmus, with smarting and burning in the rectum. Mucous and bloody stools.
URINARY ORGANS (3).
From imperfect action of the liver, etc. the urine contains lithic acid;;and so the remedy is useful in renal colic when the characteristic pains obtain. The same irregular, spasmodic action observed in the rectum occurs also in the bladder.
Renal colic, worse on the right, side, with ineffectual urging to urinate.
Ineffectual urging to urinate; strangury. Burning, tearing pain during micturition. Tenacious mucus in the urine. Dirty-yellow sediment. Haematuria.
GENITAL ORGANS (3)- MALE.
Irritable weakness, hence sexual desire is easily excited, but erections are too short or the emission is too speedy. Therefore, useful after excesses. (See spine.)
Chancroid. Gonorrhoea with thin discharge and strangury. Orchitis, when there is spasmodic contraction with retraction of the testicle.
Soreness on the margin of the prepuce; biting, itching of inner surface.
GENITAL ORGANS (3)- FEMALE
The usual bearing-down, cramping pains of the remedy, with exquisite over-susceptibility; hence many reflex symptoms; but irritability, faintness and weakness predominate.
The menses are too early and long-lasting, though not necessarily profuse; flow dark, clotted.
Displacements of the uterus; recent cases after lifting, over- exertion, etc. Bearing-down in abdomen and back, with ineffectual urging to stool and urination. Labor-pains, Metrorrhagia, etc., with the same concomitant.
Internal swelling of the vagina, like a prolapsus, burning pain; touch intolerable.
LUNGS– HEART (3) Chest symptoms are usually reflex. Thus, there are Asthma, tightness, dyspnoea and congestion, caused by spinal irritation, dyspepsia, suppressed haemorrhodial flow. The Asthma is worse after midnight and is felt more in the lower part of the thorax.
Spasmodic palpitation of the heart, fluttering at the pit of the stomach. Palpitation on lying down after dinner.
SPINE (3) By increasing the reflex action, Nux Vomica causes many motor symptoms. These are inharmonious, in-co-ordinate, and finally followed by paresis. Hence, the symptoms are spasmodic, paretic and mixed, giving the so called irritable weakness; tetanus, trismus, renewed by touch, a strong light or a draft of cold air. Tonic spasms. Spine symptoms from loss of fluids with dyspepsia, constipation, etc.
Spasmodic trembling.
Burning, tearing in the back. Bruised pains; worse 3 A.M.
(18). Pains in lumbar and sacral regions.
Gait tottering, inco-ordinate as in Ataxia. Sense of sudden loss of power. Bruised, tired pains in the legs; irresistible desire to lie down. Numbness, stiffness and tension in the limbs. Cramps in the calves.
MUSCLES AND JOINTS
Are bruised, swollen, tense; over-lying skin, pale with tearing pains; affects generally the large joints and the muscles of the trunk. The tearing pains compel a change of position, but with only momentary relief; the bruised sensation, the swellings, etc., are made worse by motion. Tension, shortening of the tendons, jerks on going to sleep, cramps and numbness, point to co-existing nervous irritation.
SKIN
As in mucous membranes, so here, there are soreness, as if ulcerated, especially on the margins (17) of skin and mucous membrane, crawling, itching and burning. There is also extreme sensitiveness of the skin to slight touch (see Senses), to drafts of cool air, etc. Painful desquamation, especially of the lips, whenever fatigued or after excess.
Acne on the face, after excessive use of liquor; also after cheese.
Ulcers with raised, pale edges; pain, as if beaten; itching, worse in the evening; feeling of tension; burning and sticking of flat ulcers in the mouth and throat. Boils. Abscesses.
SLEEP
Falls asleep early in the evening; awakens at 3 or 4 A.M., and cannot sleep again; or dozes for a while, and on again arousing (18) feels tired, sore and sleepy. An uninterrupted nap relieves him very much. (See Diphtheria.)
FEVER
Not synochal, but Intermittent, with accompanying gastric or bilious symptoms. Heat and chill are intermixed or paroxysms are irregular, intolerance of uncovering, even when hot; and yet covering does not relieve the coldness.
Chill preceded by aching in the limbs; blue nails; vomiting.
Chill and coldness with blue nails; skin painful, as if frozen; limbs numb.
General heat, burning hands, thirst for water and then beer; heat, headache, roaring in the ears and nausea; hot and chilly.
Sweat sour, offensive; one-sided or only on upper part of body; alternate with chill. Bathed in sweat. Worse after midnight and in the morning (18). Relieves the pains.
RELATIONSHIP (16), ANTIDOTES, &C. (16)
Similar to Bryonia, Ipecac., Sulphur, Zincum met.
Distinguished from the tetany of Aconite, Cicuta and Hydrocyanic Acid by its marked increased reflex excitability; from that of Cocculus by the spasmus glottidis of the latter; and from traumatic tetany, by the interruption of spasms and the late onset of trismus.
Antidoted: Large doses, by Chloral, Potass, Bromide, and by the maintenance of artificial respiration, Small doses, by Coffea, Chamomilla, Pulsatilla
Incompatible with Zincum met.
At considerable sacrifice, we have reduced Nux Vomica to the prescribed limits. It will occupy about six and one-half pages, brevier, leaded.
It will be seen that our plan of procedure enables the reader to keep ever before him the entirety of drug action. If, now, he reads consecutively the generalizations which preface the various headings, he will find a brief but important abridgment of the remedy, that will enable him to apply it intelligently. Particular characteristics may mislead him.
We have purposely avoided such synthetic study as would tend to present the remedy already for application to a given disease. However desirable such studies may be they can from no part of a Materia Medica, which should leave its readers free to prescribe according to the rules and laws of Institutes.
NOTES
(1) There are numerous instances of this in the symptomatology of Nux Vom., e.g irritable, irascible, worse from slight disturbances cannot bear light, noise, touch (spasms renewed ) or odors (faints)-stomach rejects all food-retching predominates over vomiting-ineffectual urging to stool-strangury, etc., etc. Here too, we may find a reason for the efficacy of Nux after abuse of drastics; it calms the irritability they induce. Sedentary habits and mental exertion aggravate, the first because they lead to the irritability of fibre so characteristic of Nux; the second for this reason, and also because it wears out the brain and spine just as does Nux in its prolonged effects. Hence, Nux is useful in fatty degeneration of the brain, coeteris paribus.
(2) Periodicity since it shows how a drug acts upon the nervous system, cannot but be of universal value in a nerve-affecting drug like Nux. So Characteristic is this morning aggravation, that we shall see it guiding us even in Scrofulous Ophthalmia.
(3) Each heading should be as comprehensive as possible, and should include a full symptom record. Just as the entire remedy is prefaced with a brief general account of the action of the drug upon the part under consideration. They should follow particulars under these generals.
(4) Ailments of the mind may be comprised under those of the will on the one hand and those of the understanding on the other. Hence, we mention one group and then the other. If there are opposite phases, as when a function is at one time exalted and at another time depressed, the contrast should be shown.
(5) Nux causes irritation and congestion of the brain and spine. and also induces congestions reflex from abdominal plethora. It is therefore suited for the initial symptoms of Apoplexy. But since the ultimate effect of irritation is paralytic weakness and degeneration of tissue, Nux bears some relation to the apoplectic seizure, especially when the history reveals such causes as abuse of Alcohol, etc., and when the attack is associated with gastric symptoms.
(6) Vertigo belongs to hundreds of drugs. To be of any practical value, then, it must be considered as to its from and origin.
(7) In arranging headaches, we refer to congestions, then to nerve forms, then to reflex kinds, and then to two sorts expressive of relaxation and depression. Catarrhal headache is referred to another place.
(8) Beginning as usual with a general account, we proceed to mention such individual and local symptoms as characterize the remedy under consideration. Such symptoms as soreness of nostrils, etc., are omitted as vague or as necessarily implied in cases in which the specified symptoms are present.
