Notes on Arnica in Pleurisy and Pneumonia. a. In pneumonia notha Arnica is an excellent remedy, if the irritation of the vascular system is very moderate, with a sensation of soreness of the chest, cough not frequent, and the expectoration of slime is streaked with blood.
b. Characteristic indications for the use of Arnica in pleurisy are especially; uneasiness in the affected side; a constant desire for change of position in bed; a painful soreness of the chest, with general internal heat, with cold hands and feet; or when the patient complains of stitching pain in the affected side, with feeling of tightness of the chest, and frequent dry cough, causing increase of pain. HARTMANN.
c. If the expectoration in pneumonia is watery and foaming, or brown, of foul odor, and mixed with foul blood, and brings no relief, then Arnica will be the best remedy; also if stitching pain remains after a deep inspiration, in traumatic inflammation after surgical operations and extensive injuries; not less useful in the rheumatic form, especially when there is a certain degree of mental depression; also in nervous and torpid inflammation. BUCHNER.
d. According to Watzke, Arnica is indicated in the first stage of pneumonia in strong-built individuals, with consensual irritation of the brain.
e. According to Peschier, in the remaining pain in the chest, oppression, and dyspnoea, after the inflammation condition has been removed by Aconite and Bryonia.
f. Dr. Wurmb, of Vienna, says: “As Arnica is one of the few remedies which cause resorption, it is a pity that it is overlooked too often by physicians in cases such as pleurisy; although Arnica appears to act more speedily when there is an exudation of plastic lymph, nevertheless it is very efficacious in serous exudations.”
g. The physiological provings of Arnica completely show its specific sphere of action on the lungs and pleura, with its numerous symptoms of bleedings from the substance of the lungs, and its prompt action on the heart.
GENERAL SYMPTOMS.
Complaints of nervous individuals, or of plethoric persons with red face; sometimes also of lymphatic, weak persons, with pale, livid face. * Rheumatic and arthritic pains, with inflammatory or erysipelatous swelling of the affected parts. Atrophy of children. Mechanical injuries; sprains, dislocations, strains, contusions, concussions. * Bad effects from China,. *Paralysis after apoplexy. Jerks and shocks in the body, as by the electric fluid. *Hot, hard, and shining swelling of the affected parts. *Red, blue, and yellow spots, like ecchymosis. *Bites of insects. Wounds by dull interments, with more or less contusion; *wounds inflicted by the teeth, by cutting, and by pointed instruments, firearms; tearing of the fibre; *sore excoriated places of the skin; bedsores; *corns (after cutting them). Jactitation of single muscles in every part of the body, especially in the limbs. *From time to time, sense as of lacerating in almost every part of the body; especially in the lower and upper extremities; the pain for the most part appears to rise from below upwards. Darting pain in the affected part. Twitchings in all the limbs, especially in the feet and shoulders, with heat of the feet. Uneasiness in the whole body, without any mental anguish; a kind of excessive mobility, *which finally increases to a kind of trembling of the whole body, *with a throbbing sensation in all the vessels. The parts of the side on which he is resting go to sleep. Painful sensitiveness of all the joints, and of the skin, on making the slightest motion. *Painful and excessive sensitiveness of the whole body. *Heaviness in all the limbs, with painful lameness in all the joints, during motion, as if the joints were bruised. Painful concussion in all the limbs; it is felt when the carriage in which one is riding shakes, or when one treads too hard in walking. Disagreeable sense as of dull tingling, or dull pain in a contused part. *Rending pain in the limbs. Excessively violent pain, which caused many to scratch the tissue more than an hour (immediately after taking the medicine). *Tremor of the limbs. Pain in all the limbs, as if they had been bruised, both when at rest and in motion. Languor in the feet and arms, when walking in the open air. Languor, weariness, sensation as of being bruised, obliging him to lie down. *Tremulous uneasiness and languor. He feels faint when walking; he recovers himself when standing. The feet felt tired after a walk in the open air; the knees gave way; she became sleepy immediately, fell asleep, and dreamed. When walking in the open air, he feels as if the whole right side, especially the shoulder, were too heavy and paralyzed. Lassitude and laziness of the whole body. General sinking of strength; he can scarcely more a limb. Fainting turn, with loss of consciousness, in mechanical injuries. *Paralysis of the right side of the body, after apoplexy. *Convulsions and tetanic spasms consequent mechanical injuries.
CHARACTERISTIC PECULIARITIES.
The pains increase by talking, moving about, blowing, and even by every sound. The pain quickly wander from one part to another. The violence of the pains almost makes him crazy.
SKIN.
Deeply penetrating, dull stitches in the limbs, here and there. *Pricking in the skin. *Fine prickings in almost every part of the body, especially the nose, eyebrows, eyelids, even hands and fingers. Stinging, burning, and itching pain in the skin. Burning and cutting pains.
SLEEP.
In the evening, one feels sleepy too soon. Sleepy after a walk. Starting during sleep. Moaning when sleep. Loud, unintelligible talking when sleep. *Involuntary expulsion of faeces while asleep. His sleep full of dreams and does not refresh him, he feels as if he had not slept at all. Sleepiness during the day. Sopor, starting as in affright, when falling asleep. Dreams about frightful objects, of the lightning having struck, graves. Sleeplessness, with anguish, as if occasioned by heat, until two or three o’clock in the evening.
FEVER.
Great internal heat, hands and feet being cold, with chills lover the whole body. Dry heat in bed, with violent thirst. Violent shivering when gaping. Dry heat over the whole body, after waking, early in the morning. Occasional flushes of heat in the back. Nightly thirst. Thirst without any external heat, the pupils being scarcely capable of dilatation. Feeling of cold all over the body, although the skin feels warm. Chilliness mostly in the evening. Fevers: *tertian, quartan; *in the afternoon, *or evening. *Typhus. Fever early in morning; *first chilliness, then heat. Extremely disagreeable painfulness of the periosteum of all the bones, resembling almost a drawing in all the limbs, such as occur sin an attack of fever and ague: *accompanied and succeeded by headache, yellowness of the face, want of appetite, aversion to meat, and bitterness of mouth. Shivering over the whole body and the head, with heat in the head, and redness and heat in the face, accompanied by coldness of the hands, and a feeling as if the hips, the back, and the anterior surface of the arms were bruised. *A good deal of thirst and drinking during the yawning stage previous to fever; afterwards thirst, but little drinking during the hot stage. Shaking chills, without any thirst. External and internal chilliness and hour after the headache and constant anguish. Seething of the blood of in the evening, accompanied by dizziness of the head; he feels pulsating in the whole body (and coughs for hours until he vomits; this wakes him at night).
MORAL SYMPTOMS.
Violent attacks of anguish. Irritable, sensitive mood. Depression of spirits and absence of mind. *Hypochondriac anxiety, peevishness. Uneasiness of body the mind (without anxiety). Indifference to everything. Excessive sensitiveness of the wind. Quarrelsomeness and peevishness. *Obstinate and headstrong resistance to other people’s opinions. Sullen insolence and imperiousness. Weeping. Apprehension of future evils. Hopelessness. Tendency to start. *Frivolous, wanton ill- behaved; absurd talk.
SENSORIUM.
Vertigo; *in the forehead, especially when walking, everything turning with her, and threatening to fall over with her. Vertigo; *when raising or moving the head, she feels as if everything were turning with her. Dullness of the head, with vertigo and anguish. Stupefying headache, early in the morning. Heaviness in the forehead. Want of memory. Absence of mind. Contraction of the pupils, with cloudiness of the head, and dullness of one half of the head. *Loss of consciousness; *delirium; *vertigo, with obscuration of sight. *Apoplexia sanguinea, with extravasation of blood. *Concussion of the brain and spinal marrow by a fall or blow. *Hydrocephalus.
HEAD.
*BUrning in the brain, the remainder of the body being cool. *Heat in the head; the remainder of the body being cool. Aching in the temples. Headache, followed by a throbbing pain in the temples. *Aching in the forehead, which increases near the warm stove, ascending the stairs, walking, or reading. Headache as if the head were distended from within outwards. Headache over the eyes, extending towards the temples, which sensation as if the integuments of the forehead were spasmodically contracted. Stupefying, dull, continued pain in the forehead, more externally. Headache on the top of the heat. In the left side of the forehead, as after a violent knock against something. *Lancinations in the for parts of the head, when coughing. Lancinating pain in the forehead, which becomes worse by lifting up the eyes, with heat in the face and thirst. *Stitches in the forehead. Headache as if a nail had been trust into the temple, with general sweat about midnight, followed by languor. Aching in the left temple, lancinating and lacerating. Stitching pain in the forehead. Darting, lancinating headache when stopping, as if everything would issue through the forehead, with nausea, qualmishness. *Lancinating and tearing pain in the head, increased by stooping and coughing. *Darting pain in the fore part of the head. Great internal and external heat of the head. Transitory burning on the top of the head and on the neck, externally. Headache, worse when sitting up.
