A case of diabetes is reported in Frank’s Magazine as cured by Ammonium-carb., in a lady, aged forty-eight, past menstruating. Symptoms: Violent thirst, dryness of the skin, constant chilliness, emaciation, oedema of the feet, with gradually increasing ascites, passing from fifteen of twenty quarts of urine daily, of a greenish color, clear and without smell, appetite voracious. The length of time in effecting the cure not mentioned. In cases of urinary calculi, in which the urine is acid, and alkalis are indicated, especially if the constitution is much debilitated, the Carbonate of Ammonia is the most preferable alkali for administration. At the same time that it corrects the acid diathesis, it determines to the skin, and gives a stimulus to the system generally.
In chronic bronchitis, and catarrhal affections occurring in debilitated constitutions, this salt will be found serviceable. It is also very useful in that form of catarrh which Laennec designates as “suffocative.”
In the advanced stages of croup, the Sesqui-carbonate has been prescribed as a stimulant, expectorant, and occasionally as an emetic in order to promote the discharge of effused lymph. When the patient is greatly debilitated, it may prove useful, but some caution is necessary in its use.
In those forms of asthma arising from, and connected with disease of the heart, Dr. Hope states that he has derived more benefit from this salt than from any other remedy. In a very obstinate case, which resisted all other means, the alternation of Ammonium-sesqui-carb. and Antim-tart. afforded great relief.
In pneumonia, in the advanced stages, when the inflammatory symptoms have subsided, and it becomes of importance to promote expectoration, Dr. Williams states that he has seen this indication well answered by the Sesqui-carbonate of Ammonia in doses of five grains or more, every two or three hours, as the urgency of the case may require. He advises its exhibition in alternation with infus. Senegae, and with five to ten drop doses of tincture Lobelia-inflatae.
It acts specifically upon the mucous membrane of the bronchi, and their ramifications through the lungs, augmenting the secretion, and giving rise to a congested sensation in this structure. It also stimulates temporarily the lungs, increases the number of respirations, and causes slight dyspnoea and some uneasiness of this organ.
It is an excellent remedy against very troublesome dry or moist short coughs, day and night, with irritation of the bronchial membrane and its ramifications, and of the substance of the lungs, with dyspnoea after the slightest exertion, stitching pains through the sides of the chest, palpitation of the heart, accelerated respirations, worse on ascending stairs; or from exertion of any kind, a general feeling of malaise.
In advanced stages of pneumonia, when the lungs are approaching a paralytic condition, with a general loss of vital energy, this is a remedy of great value. It tends to re-establish the impaired vitality, and, by promoting expectoration, and imparting to the pulmonary structures increased activity, it not unfrequently induces a permanent improvements of all the symptoms.
Ammonium-carbonicum is homoeopathic to one form of hydrothorax, and occasionally will cure it when the disease has advanced to that stage where the effusion becomes general, as shown by oedema of the lower extremities, enlargement of the abdomen,.
HAHNEMANN. “Ammonium-carbonicum has been found useful in the following affections: “Fearfulness; disobedience; want of docility; loathing of life; uneasiness in the evening; attacks of anxiety; anxiety, with weakness; diminution of the thinking faculty; vertigo, when sitting or reading; chronic headache; headache as if something would get out at the forehead; headache, with nausea; hammering headache; falling off of the hair; dry pus on the eye-lids; burning and feeling of coldness in the eyes; dimness of sight, with a sense as of waving before the eyes; black points and streaks of light covering before the eyes; cataract of the crystalline lens; shortsightedness; hardness of hearing, accompanied by suppuration, and itching of the ear; humming and tingling before the ears; itching of the nose; pustules in the nose; bleeding at the nose, early in the morning, when washing; summer freckles; tearings, extending from the left upper lip across the cheek as far as the ear; cracking in the articulation of the jaw, when chewing; chronic looseness of the teeth; sore throat, like rawness of the throat; soreness of the throat; swelling of the inner mouth; eructations tasting of the ingesta, either food or drink; bitter taste in the mouth, especially after a meal; rawness and burning of the oesophagus from below upwards, after a meal; headache after a meal; nausea after a meal; vertiginous giddiness during a meal; unconquerable desire to eat sugar; thirst; want of appetite in the morning, sour eructations; heartburn; eructations and vomiting; pain at the stomach; spasm of the stomach; contractive pain in the pit of the stomach, when stretching one’s self; burning pain in the liver; boring stitches in the liver, in the evening, when sitting; uneasiness in the abdomen; painful concussion in the hypogastrium, when setting the foot down in walking; costiveness; difficulty of passing the stools; colic, with diarrhoea; blood with the stools; discharge of blood from the rectum (flowing haemorrhoids); itching of the anus; varices of the rectum; nightly micturition; pollutions; (deficiency of the sexual desire); scanty menses, sterility, with scanty menses; menses too short and scanty; menses too early; during the menses, she experiences a pressure upon the genital organs, cutting in the abdomen, tearing in the back and the genital organs, these symptoms obliging her to lie down; watery discharge from the uterus; leucorrhoea; profuse, acrid, corrosive leucorrhoea; chronic dryness of the nose; chronic coryza; dry coryza; shortness of breath; asthma; cough; cough with hoarseness, the body being warm; caused by titillation in the throat, with discharge; cough by day; cough at night; stitches in the small of the back when coughing; burning in the chest from below upwards; tearings, beginning at the upper left side of the chest, and extending as far as the shoulder-joint; stitches in the fleshy part of the chest; goitre, swelling of the cervical glands, accompanied by an itching eruption of the face and body; pain in the nape of the neck; rigidity of the arms and fingers, they becoming cold and insensible, at night, early in the morning, and when closing the hands in seizing something; pain if the wrist- joint, which had been sprained sometime ago; swelling of the fingers, when letting the arms hang down; the fingers go to sleep; great lassitude in the lower extremities; drawing pains in the legs, when sitting; stitches in the heel; sweating of the feet; swelling of the feet; cramp in the sole of the feet; pain as from a sprain in the ball of the big toe, at night when in bed; burning in the hands and feet; feeling of weakness in the limbs, when walking in the open air; disinclination to walking; drawing and tension in the small of the back, in the back and in the joints curvature of the bones; warts; burning stitches and tearings in the corns; drowsiness by day; sleeplessness at night; nightmare on falling asleep; feverish heat in the head, with cold feet; evening chills; sweat.
“This remedy may be repeated with advantage, after some intermediate remedies. Its effects, when excessive, may be diminished by smelling of Camphor.”- ED.
GENERAL SYMPTOMS
Violent headache after walking in the open air; violent rheumatic pain, with sensation as of drawing, through all the limbs, hands, feet, nape of the neck, head,. The hands and feet go to sleep when sitting; this symptom passes off by moving about. Cold hands and feet, even in a warm room, and when they are well covered; all her limbs ache in the forenoon, and at night, with gnawing pain in the small of the back, more when at rest than when moving about. The right side of the body appears more affected than the left. Visible emaciation of the whole body. Tired and weary all day, without being either sad or cheerful. Excessively tired. Extreme lassitude; weariness and moroseness when walking in the open air; he trembled with weakness; when walking, she trembles all over; she staggers when rising. Great lassitude in her limbs, and complete disinclination
to work; great lassitude and fatigue of the body, early in the morning and in the forenoon, as if he had worked too much; relieved by walking in the open air. Sensation as if bruised in the whole body, lassitude and whining mood, early after rising; sensation as if the limbs were bruised, in the evening; great fatigue and weakness of the limbs, especially in the evening hours, in the knees and legs; he is obliged to lie down. Pains in some parts as if ulcerated; or lancinations and tearing, relieved in the warmth of the bed. Pains as if sprained in the joints; drawing and tension in the joints, as if the tendons were too short. Curvature of the bones (and other rickety and scrofulous complaints) Sprains Local inflammations. Scorbutic affections Glandular swellings.
