Amelioration. From slight exercise; from solitude.
Conditions. In persons who, though weak and nervous, have a very red face; in delicate, chlorotic women; sanguine temperament.
Compare. Arsenicum, Belladonna, Calcarea c., Cinchona, Gelsemium, Helonias, Ipecac., Lycopodium, Mangnan., Nux v., Phosphorus, Pulsatilla, Sulphur, Sabin.
Antidotes. Arsenicum, Cinchona, Hepar s., Ipecac., Pulsatilla, Veratrum alb., Thea.
Ferrum Antidotes. Copper, Mercury, Prussic ac., Arsenicum, Iodi., Cinchona
THERAPEUTICS.
Iron is undoubtedly often the true homoeopathic remedy in anaemia (see General Analysis(; but it is not the only remedy, and should never be prescribed unless the symptoms indicating it are present. There is always a sort of nervous erethistic condition present if Iron is the remedy. It is never indicated in anaemia characterized by a torpid, sluggish condition. Though there is great weakness, and the patients cannot endure the slightest excitement or fatigue, yet they cannot keep quiet and are better from very gentle exercise. The face is of a pale earthy hue, but flashes very easily; there are frequent attacks of severe headache, the head is inclined to be hot and the extremities cold, and the hands and feet are often oedematous. The patient is very easily excited, is sensitive to cold air and cannot endure pain. Often there is palpitation of the heart, with a well-marked bellows murmur. Iron is an exceptionally valuable remedy in erethistic chlorosis with the above symptoms, and in addition there is usually a milky, acrid leucorrhoea, and pale, watery menses, with lumps of blood, and attended with labor-like pains in the abdomen; also gastric symptoms, especially nausea after eating, or about midnight. Sometimes the menses are suppressed, and vicarious discharges of blood occur from other parts, especially the nose or lungs. Sometimes a remedy for menorrhagia in anaemic subjects. Haemorrhage from the uterus, with labor-like pains in the uterus, and glowing heat in the face; also the consequent anaemia. Headache after menses, with hot head and cold feet. Iron is frequently a valuable in haemoptysis occurring in phthisis, especially in young people who are in the incipient stage of phthisis florida, flying pains in the chest; patients flush easily and get epistaxis, dyspnoea and palpitation; cough spasmodic from tickling in the larynx; thin, frothy expectoration streaked with bright-red blood; later the expectoration may be purulent and greenish. According to T. F. Allen, Ferrum is “extremely useful when the chest symptoms seem to occur from a mind of surging of blood to the chest a n to infrequent symptom in persons whose circulation is feeble; in such cases there are oppression and dyspnoea. It has been prescribed for asthma and even for pneumonia, and it is very probable that Ferrum has been overlooked as a valuable remedy for inflammation of the thoracic organs, for it certainly maybe indicated when there is marked febrile excitement.” Iron undoubtedly produces true febrile paroxysms, and may be indicated in fevers, especially intermittents, when the foregoing symptoms of prostration are present, and when there is a profuse, clammy debilitating sweat; especially after the abuse of quinine, with enlarged spleen, anaemia and dropsical swellings of the extremities. Ferrum is often a valuable remedy in chronic diarrhoea, with anaemic symptoms, and in the diarrhoea which accompany phthisis and other exhausting diseases. The stools are painless, watery, sometimes containing undigested food, and always brought on by taking any food or drink. Sometimes useful in the diarrhoea of teething children; also with vomiting, which too is worse after food, drink or nursing. The drug is also useful in the dyspepsia of anaemic patients; usually a voracious appetite, or else the patient feels full and has no appetite; considerable flatulence; cannot eat, because it produces vomiting and sometimes diarrhoea. Bleeding haemorrhoids. Ascarides. Enuresis; both day and night, in children. Bright’s disease. Violent neuralgias, with anaemia and characteristic symptoms, always better from moving slowly; pains usually throbbing. Paralysis. Exophthalmic goitre. Sometimes useful in lumbago and rheumatism, especially of the shoulders and lower limbs; better from walking about slowly.
ALLEN CORSON COWPERTHWAITE was born at Cape May, New Jersey, May 3, 1848, son of Joseph C. and Deborah (Godfrey) Cowperthwaite. He attended medical lectures at the University of Iowa in 1867-1868, and was graduated from the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia in 1869. He practiced his profession first in Illinois, and then in Nebraska. In 1877 he became Dean and Professor of Materia Medica in the recently organized Homeopathic Department of the State University of Iowa, holding the position till 1892. In 1884 he accepted the chair of Materia Medica, Pharmacology, and Clinical Medicine in the Homeopathic Medical College of the University of Michigan. He removed to Chicago in 1892, and became Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College. From 1901 he also served as president of that College. He is the author of various works, notably "Insanity in its Medico-Legal Relations" (1876), "A Textbook of Materia Medica and Therapeutics" (1880), of "Gynecology" (1888), and of "The Practice of Medicine " (1901).