VOLATILE AMMONIA-SMELLING SALT.
Introduction
(Aromatic spirits of ammonia, which we do not use, is a mixture of Ammonium carb. and hydrate, oils of lemon, nutmeg and lavender, alcohol and water.).
Symptoms
Am. carb., which Hahnemann speaks of as using in the 30th, is a remedy to be thought of in states of great prostration, with falling temperature (156), in purpura haemorrhagica (158), and in haemorrhage from the bowels (193).
It is of use in cases of poisoning from coal gas or charcoal fumes (27), with oedema of the lungs, cyanosis (207) and unconsciousness.
Am. carb. is a remedy to be thought of in the beginning of cerebro-spinal meningitis (133), when the severity of the symptoms is the pronounced feature of the case; the patient falls into a stupid non-reactive state, he is cold, the surface of the body and the lips are cyanotic (207) and the pulse weak. In such a case Am. carb. will bring about a reaction so that you may be enabled to see the picture of the remedy that will effect a cure.
On the same lines and with similar symptoms, it is of use in uraemia (193), especially with somnolence, or drowsiness, and cyanosis; in pneumonia when there is great debility, with symptoms pointing to the formation of a heart clot; in low types of scarlet (164) and typhoid fevers, with stupor, cyanosis and tendency to haemorrhage (193).
Ammonium carb. has vertigo, especially in the morning, and a feeling of looseness of the brain (91), as if it fell from side to side, whichever way the head was turned. In the eyes it may be thought of in muscular asthenopia (72) from overstraining the eyes, as from sewing, with the appearance of yellow spots on looking at white objects.
It is a remedy that has cured epistaxis, caused by washing the face (142) or hands, or that comes on after eating, and it has a coryza, not fluent, but with acrid (37) and hot discharge (39).
As might be expected the menses are too early and too profuse (135) and acrid, making the thighs sore. There is also tendency to easy haemorrhage from the uterus.
The leucorrhoea is profuse (126), acrid (126) and burning (126), and Minton speaks of it as “smelling like ammonia.”
In chronic coughs it is of value, and in chronic bronchitis of old people (47), the worse in the early morning hours, the pathogenetic symptom saying 3-4 A.M. (40), sometimes with bloody expectoration (69).
The cough is either dry, as from dust or tickling as from a feather (43) in the larynx or under the sternum, and with great shortness of breath; we also find large amounts of mucus in the chest (45), especially with emphysema (66) and Hering speaks of it as “one of the best remedies in emphysema,” with inability to raise any mucus at all or only after the greatest exertion.
Lach, is incompatible with Ammonium carb.
I use Ammonium carb. 3rd.
