In a peculiar chronic affection of the stomach and bowels, marked by constant distress and burning about the epigastrium, continual tumbling and foetid flatulence, with papescent stools and general distress from, and mal-assimilation of the food, Ammoniacum (first to third trituration) will often prove a remarkable palliative, and frequently remove the disorder.
It should be thought of in chronic dysentery; and when there is a mucous diarrhoea, with colicky pains and flatulence, connected with a feeble, or torpid, or scrofulous state of the alimentary mucous membrane, and especially when this condition happens to be associated with a chronic cough, there is a double indication for its use. Some authors speak highly of its utility in long and obstinate colics depending upon thick mucous matter lodged in the intestines.
It is homoeopathic to mucous piles, to mucous diarrhoea, and to many other chronic affections of the intestinal mucous membrane. Noack recommends it in diarrhoea-mucosa, when attended with chills, cutting pains in the abdomen, and profuse slimy stools; also in colic with diarrhoea, when there are violent cutting pains in the bowels, soft pappy stools, with profuse discharge of wind, and much rumbling in the bowels. It is also recommended in the dominant school in abdominal cramps and flatulent colic. In all these cases, if smaller quantities fail, moderate doses of Lac-ammoniacum will often prove useful.
In passive dropsy, it has been advised by Fordyce, but it is a remedy of inferior value. Frank says it has been used externally with success in many cases of hydrocele, especially in young persons. It should be thought of in chronic gonorrhoea and leucorrhoea; in diseases of the spermatic cord; in tendency to diabetes; in the uric and lactic-acid diathesis, and in the peculiar forms of indigestion and urinary derangement which attend them. Its action on the urinary organs is said to be inferior to that of the balsams, but greater than that of any other gum-resin. It is most homoeopathic when there is an increased flow of urine, followed by dripping of a few drops, the urine being loaded with lactate of urea. It has been advised against haematuria and diabetes.
Sobernheim says it causes a congestive state of the uterus, and even excites a flow of blood from it, and hence has obtained the reputation of an excellent emanagogue, and has, in fact, afforded excellent service in amenorrhoea when there was local debility or torpor of the uterine mucous membranes. Schneider has recommended it in menostasia and dysmenorrhoea, when arising from obstruction in the portal system, and in irregular menstruation. Also in amenorrhoea arising from chlorosis, and in those hysterical affections which attend these disorders. It may prove useful in some cases of dysmenorrhoea and partial retention of the menses, arising from a scrofulo-catarrhal thickening of the mucous membrane of the cervix- J.C.P.
The complaints in which it is most frequently used are chronic catarrh, asthma, and other pectoral affections, attended with deficient expectoration, without acute inflammation, or with a too copious secretion from the bronchial mucous membrane, dependent upon debility of the vessels. In spasmodic asthma, Ammoniacum often proves highly serviceable, relieving the symptoms in a remarkable manner. It is best given in alternation with Scillae, or with a small portion of Hyoscyamus or Conium. Plasters of Ammoniacum applied to the chest also afford evident relief. In hysterical asthma it also proves most useful. It may be alternated with equal doses of Asafoetida. In asthenic pulmonary complaints, it proves useful by promoting expectoration when this is deficient, and by assisting its expulsion, when it accumulates in the air-passages, and the patient has not strength to expectorate. Pereira says, in chronic cough, with deficient expectoration, or in chronic catarrhs and asthmatic affections, with profuse secretion, it sometimes affords slight relief; but although he has seen it extensively employed, he had observed it to prove useful in a few cases only. Quarin, Wedekind, and Selle advise it when the mucus is tough, profuse, and hard to be expectorated. Peter Frank in chronic, pulmonary, and bronchial catarrhs, with nauseous, thinly-fluid, and purulent-like expectoration; Brumer, Quarin, and Behrends, in mucous asthma; also in asthenic inflammation of the lungs, especially when the expectoration is checked. In alternation with Nitric-acid, it is said to be an excellent remedy in cases where large accumulations of purulent or viscid matter exist, with feeble or difficult expectoration.- J.C.P.
It has been recommended in joint and hip-pains, and in gouty nodes; but it is more homoeopathic to pains seated in the lymphatic vessels, and which are often mistaken for rheumatism. It is most specific against pains in the joints and limbs, when attended with affections of one or several mucous membranes, with derangement of the urinary organs, and excess of lactate of urea in the urine.
GENERAL SYMPTOMS
Swelling of the joints of the upper and lower limbs. Neuralgia? Languor after making the least effort; heaviness of the limbs towards evening; heaviness and languor of the body, with despondency of mind. Drowsiness in the day-time, in the morning when rising, with lazy feeling; restless night-sleep, disturbed by dreams, unrefreshing; falls asleep late; heavy dreams. Coldness and chilliness; disposition to sweat. Pulse small, tight; quick and hard. Gloomy mood; not disposed to do anything; ill humor; he is displeased with anything he does; inability to make any mental exertion.
HEAD
Dullness of the head, with inability to work; heaviness of the head. Violent headache. Pressure in the forehead, on one side; pressure over the eye-brows. Sense of dullness in the fore head, with dimness of sight. Tearing in the right side. Pressure in the occiput. Stinging of the hairy scalp. Sense of swelling in the region of the occiput. Itching, tingling; pimples on the borders of the hairy scalp.
EYES
Pressure and tingling in the upper portion of the eye-ball; beating and tingling in the upper part of the left eye, succeeded by pressure. Feeling of dryness in the eyes, with sensation as if a foreign body were lodged between the upper lid and the left eye. Dim-sightedness in the evening, and particularly early in the morning, immediately after rising, and heat in the eyes. In order to read, he has to exert his eyes. Photophobia, even in cloudy weather.
EARS
Tearing in the right meatus auditorius externus. Roaring in the ears, with hardness of hearing.
NOSE
Disagreeable dryness of the nose, early in the morning on waking. Increased secretion of mucus. Sneezing, followed by a copious flow of mucus.
FACE
Pale countenance with sick feeling, preceded by frequent change of color. Drawing in the right malar bone, towards the temple. Dartings from the region of the lower jaw to the interior of the mouth.
MOUTH, PHARYNX,.
Dryness of the mouth and throat, early in the morning on waking. Sense of fullness in the fauces and pharynx, with nausea. Sensation as if a foreign body were lodged in the throat, with inclination to swallow it. Burning roughness in the pharynx and oesophagus.
GASTRIC SYMPTOMS
Frequent eructations. Nausea, with inclination to vomit. Pappy taste; insipid, sweetish, in the morning; bitter taste in the pharynx, with absence of taste on the anterior portion of the tongue.
ABDOMEN
Rumbling in the hypogastrium, with sense of dullness in the frontal region. Pinching. Violent colic. Violent pressure in the public region.
STOOL AND ANUS
Insufficient stool; retention of stool. Stool loose, papescent; loose, with a good deal of flatulence, and preceded by rumbling i the abdomen; slimy, preceded by chilliness and writhing colic. Liquid stools; mucous diarrhoea. Pressure in the rectum.
URINARY AND SEXUAL ORGANS
Increased secretion of urine the urine contains a good deal of urea and lactic acid. Burning in the urethra. A few drops come out after micturition. Stinging in the right spermatic cord, and near it; drawing in the cord. Stinging in the root of the penis. Itching of the public region.
LARYNX AND TRACHEA
Roughness of the throat. Continual tickling, without any desire to cough.
CHEST
The breathing is short and loud, with anxiety; accelerated; oppression and stitches in the left half of the chest, during an inspiration. Pressure in the chest; dullness and numbness of the posterior part of the right half of the chest, with subsequent pressure deep in the chest.
UPPER LIMBS
Lancinations in the shoulder-joints; tingling in the left joint. Rheumatic pain; pain as if bruised, particularly in the elbow and left wrist-joint, accompanied with tearing in the right hand. Swelling of the fingers; drawing in the middle finger of the right hand; rheumatic pain in the right index-finger.
LOWER LIMBS AND LOINS
Weight and pressure in the lumbar vertebrae; stitches in the loins, particularly during an inspiration. Rheumatic pain in the left side of the region of the pelvis; stitches over the hip, when walking, obliging him to limp; in the right hip-joint when sitting. Languid feeling in the lower limbs. Darting pain in the left thigh, along the crural nerve; violent pain over the knee, when walking. The knees feel swollen in the evening, when sitting, with pinching in the bend of the knee; stitches in the right knee. Tension in the knee-joint when walking. Lacerating in the tibia. Lacerating in the tarsal joint; tearing and burning in the metacarpus. Sense of weight in the right foot; pinching, burning, tearing, and drawing in the left foot; tingling in the right foot. Swelling of the toes.
