CARBO ANIMALIS


Hahnemann’s proving symptoms of homeopathy remedy Carbo Animalis from Materia Medica Pura, which Samuel Hahnemann wrote between 1811 to 1821…


(Animal charcoal.)

(In order to prepare animal charcoal, thick piece of ox-leather is placed among red-hot coals, and allowed to burn until the last flame has completely expired, and then the red-hot piece of leather is quickly placed betwixt two stone plates, so as to extinguish it immediately, otherwise it could continue to smolderin the air, and thus dissipate the greater portion of its charcoal. A grain of this is triturated with 100 grains of milk-sugar in a pocelain mortar for an hour (every ten minutes being divided between six minutes of trituration and four minutes of scraping); of this product one grain is again triturated in a similar manner with 100 grains of milk-sugar, and of the powder thus made one grain is again triturated for an hour in the same manner with 100 grains of fresh milk-sugar, in order to produce the million-fold potentized attenuation of carbo-animalis.)

Although the animal charcoal presents so much similarity in its effects on the human health to the vegetable charcoal, yet there are so many differences from the latter in it, and so many peculiar symptoms, that I consider it useful to record here what I have observed from it.

Some symptoms were observed by a Russian physician, Dr. Adam; these I have indicated by the letters Ad.

A very small portion of a grain of the million-fold (1/1) pulverulent attenuation is usually quite sufficient for a dose and acts for at least three weeks in chronic diseases. Camphor proved itself an antidote and alleviating remedy for its too energetic action in highly sensitive persons.

[ Beside ADAM, above mentioned, HAHNEMANN got a few symptoms from WEISE in Rust’s Magazin f. d gesammte Heilk., vol. xxii. This medicine makes its first appearance in the 2nd Edit., where its symtpoms are 191; in the Chr. Kr. there are 728, 214 of these being selected from the 254 symptoms in HARTLAUB and TRINKS”S R.A.M.L., and 23 contributed by WAHLE.]

CARBO ANIMALIS

Vertigo: it becomes black before her eyes.

Vertigo with nausea, on rising up after stooping.

Vertigo: towards evening (7 o’clock) when she raised up her head all went round in a circle with her; she must always sit in a stooping posture, and when she rose up she staggered to and fro; she felt dull in the head and as if all objects moved; while lying all night long she felt nothing of it – but did so in the morning again on getting up.

Sensation in the head, as on coming out of great cold into a room and going up close to a hot stove – a sensation as if there was something heavy in the forehead, or as if a board was before the head.

5. In the morning, on awaking, headache, as after drinking much wine.

Heaviness of the head. [Ad.]

The head, especially the occiput (and the left temple) is heavy and confused. [Ad.]

Rush of blood to the head with confusion of the head.

Aching pain in the occiput. [Ad.]

10. Aching pain on a small spot in the occiput.

Headache: aching in both temples.

On the lower part of the temple a pinching pain. [Ad.]

Boring pain in the temporal bone extending into the zygomatic process. [Ad.]

Boring drawing pains in the head accompanied by tearings; when the head becomes cold it is worse, especially towards the ear (aft. 7 d.)

15. Shooting in the head, especially in the temple.

Severe tearing in the external parts of the head.

Tearing on the right side of the head.

The left side of the head is painful as if festering.

Anything upon the head pressed him; his neck-cloth also oppressed him(aft. 18 d.).

20. At night, pain on the head and neck as both were gone to sleep and dislocated.

Falling out of the hair (aft. 12 d.).

Feeling as if something lay in the forehead above the eyes, so that he cannot look upwards (aft. 6 h.).

Pressive shooting pain from above the left eye, the eye-lid, and upper part of the eye-ball.[Ad.]

(Shooting in the eyes.)

25. Aching in the eyes in the evening by artificial light.

Aching in the inner canthus(aft. 72 h.).

In the evening the eyes are hurt by the light.

Weakness in the eyes.

In the outer canthus sore burning pain.

30. Disagreeable sensation in the left eye as if something had flown into it, which interferes with vision; he must always be wiping it; at the same time the pupil is extremely dilated with great long-sightedness – he could not distinctly recognise any object held near him.

Coppery eruption on the face. (The author prepared his animal charcoal in rather a differet manner.He took any kind of flesh freed from fat, added one third by weight of bone to it, and roasted the mixture in an ordinary coffee roaster.) [Rust’s Magaz., f. d. gesammte Heilk., Statement from observation (by Weise) vol. xxii, pt, i, p. 198.]

Pimples on the face in quantities without sensation.

Eruption on the cheek like red spots.

Frequently flying heat in the cheeks, with redness.

35. In the afternoon heat of face and head.

(Smarting of the skin on the cheeks, about the mouth, and on the chin, after shaving.)[Ad.]

Cramp-pain in the interior of the left ear. [Ad.]

Cramp in the ear down towards the gullet on the left side, whereby swallowing was rendered difficult.[Ad.]

Drawing in the ear.

40. At night constant ringing in the ears.

Behind the right ear a sort of periosteal swelling, with shooting therein every evening from 5 o’clock onwards.

Swelling in the parotid glands. [Rust’s Magaz., l. c.]

Epistaxis (in the morning when sitting).

Nose and mouth swollen.

45. Bilsters on the lower lip.

Chapped lips.

Stiffness on the left side of the nck.

The cervical glands are swollen.

The guns are red and swollen and very painful.

50. Pain in the lower gums and looseness of the lower teeth.

Looseness of the teeth and tearing in them, most violent in the evening in bed.

Great looseness of the teeth, so that he cannot chew the softest food without pain (aft. 12 d.)

The upper and lower teeth are loose and too long.

The hollow tooth is dully sensitive and as if projecting; it is painful when biting and still more in the evening in bed, with much saliva in the mouth.

55. In the teeth a drawing to and fro, also in the front teeth.

Drawing in the teeth, with flying heat in the face.

Vesicles on the tongue which are painful as if burnt.

Blisters in the mouth which cause burning (aft. 21 d.).

(Burning feeling in the throat.)

60. An aching in the throat and dryness on the tongue.

Aching in the throat, only when swallowing.

Internal aching in the gullet down to the stomach.

Bad smell from the mouth.

Bitter taste every morning.

65. Sometimes bitterness in the mouth.

Bitter foul taste in the mouth.

Bitter sour taste in the mouth.

Sour taste in the mouth (aft. 5 d.).

(The appetite quickly goes off while eating.)

70. On commencing to eat, internal chilliness.

After eating a little, with good appetite, soon fulness of the stomach.[Ad.]

After eating, aching in the stomach.

After eating, tightness of the chest.

Soon after eating, anxiety and uneasiness in the back, without pain.

75. After eating, palpitation of the heart.

Eructation, with the taste of food that had been long eaten.

Several times eructation.

Towards evening qualmishness in the abdomen, with heat rising up (aft. 10 d.).

After much walking, when he comes to sit down, nausea.

80. Aching in the stomach, even when fasting.

Severe aching in the stomach, in the evening, after lying down in bed; in order to relieve herself she must press her on the gastric region (aft. 16 h.).

On breathing deeply a quick, short, pressive pain in the scrobiculus cordis.[Ad.]

In the scrobiculus cordis pain, as after violent coughing (as if bruised) (aft. 6 d.).

Clucking in the stomach. [Ad.]

85. Audible rumbling in the stomach in the morning on waking. [Ad.]

Pressive in the liver, even when lying.

A severe aching pain in the liver, almost like cutting, the region even externally felt as if sore when touched.

A heavy weight in the abdomen like a lump, also when fasting for several days.

Painful tension in the abdomen, with pain under the ribs, on touching, as if there were a sore there and the parts were festering (aft. 18 d.).

90. Great distension of the abdomen.

The abdomen is always very distented with flatulence.

He is very much troubled with flatulence.

When walking burninin the abdomen.

Cutting in the abdomen, in the forenoon.

95. Pain in the abdomen, as if diarrhoea would come on. [Ad.]

Audible rumbling in the abdomen and stomach (immediately). [Ad.]

Audible rumbling and grumbling in the large intestine, which then rose to beneath the stomach, and then went down again. [Ad.]

After drinking (warm milk), rumbling an grumbling in the right hypogastrium, sometimes above, sometimes below, with ineffectual desire to discharge flatus.[Ad.]

(Fermentation in the bowels.)

100. The hernia comes out, and is painful when walking, moving, and touching.

Rumbling in the rectum. [Ad.]

Frequent discharge of fetid flatus (while walking, after supper). [Ad.]

Frequent pressing on the rectum, but only flatus comes, and then the pressing returns immediately.

Frequent but ineffectual urging to stool in the lower part of the rectum.[Ad.]

105. After 24 hours only a scanty stool, hard, and in small pieces.

Before the stool a drawing from the anus through the pudendum (aft. 22 d.).

Samuel Hahnemann
Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843) was the founder of Homoeopathy. He is called the Father of Experimental Pharmacology because he was the first physician to prepare medicines in a specialized way; proving them on healthy human beings, to determine how the medicines acted to cure diseases.

Hahnemann's three major publications chart the development of homeopathy. In the Organon of Medicine, we see the fundamentals laid out. Materia Medica Pura records the exact symptoms of the remedy provings. In his book, The Chronic Diseases, Their Peculiar Nature and Their Homoeopathic Cure, he showed us how natural diseases become chronic in nature when suppressed by improper treatment.