Neck and Back. Stiffness of he nape of the neck (Kali carb., Ignatia, Phosphorus, Rhus tox.) Sensitive to external pressure. Pain in small of back, s if lame and weak (Rhus tox.). Drawing pains in small of back; extending into hips and legs.
Limbs. Great weakness in both arms and legs. Aching pains in shin bones. Weakness in knees after eating. Ulcers on lower extremities (Arsenicum, Lycopodium). Perspiration on feet. Red, bluish, painful swellings of legs and feet.
Generalities. Weakness of whole body in morning on rising. emaciation with suffering and weakness. Trembling as from anxiety, without anxiety. Sudden jerking of whole body when sitting. Starting from below. Necessity to do everything rapidly. Great physical and mental exhaustion, in morning. Fainting, with pain in heart; nausea;pale face; vertigo. Pricking, pulsating, tearing pains (Puls). convulsions; epilepsy (bell., calc. c., cupr.) Affected parts look bluish. Restlessness tossing about, with moaning in children with sore throat. Restlessness and longing to get into the open air. Great inclination to lie down. especially after eating. Rheumatic pains, first in the left side, then in the right. Feels bruised in the morning after waking, slight touch intolerable. Complaints mostly on left side of body. Obliged to wear cloths loose; cannot bar the contact.
Skin. Sore, Spots fungoid, dark-red, brownish, with whitish spots, burning on wiping. Superficial ulcers, foul at the bottom (Mercurius, Nitr., ac.); black-bluish appearance. Military eruption;l rash appears slowly, or turns black or bluish. Erysipelatous eruptions. Carbuncles, with purple surroundings. Old scars break open and bleed; the open spots dark-red, looking like a flat sponge. Itching over the whole body.
sleep. Sleepiness without being able to sleep (Belladonna, cham., Op). Tossing and moving during sleep. Lively and wide awake in the evening. Restless sleep, with many dreams and frequent waking. Waking in fright at a trifle. Amorous dreams. Dreams with meditation.
Fever. Chilliness in back (Abies can.); commence in small of back (Caps., Eupat. perf.). Coldness in evening, with chattering of teeth. Shivering during the heat. Chill runs chattering of teeth. Shivering during the heat. Chill runs up the back; on alternate days. Icy coldness of the feet; with oppression of chest. Heat as from orgasm of blood; mostly at night (Calcarea c.). Heat particularly in hands and feet, evenings; burning in palms and soles (Sulphur). Perspiration at night (Calcarea c., Cinchona, Phosphorus, Phosphorus ac., Silicea, sulph.). Intermittents, recurring ever spring, or after suppression in the previous fall, by quinine.
Aggravation. After sleep; in morning in evening; after evening; from acids or alcoholic drinks from sub’s rays; from extremes of temperature.
Amelioration. From loosening the clothes; from eructations.
Conditions. Often useful in women during climacteric period. In persons of a phlegmatic constitution, with disposition to melancholic and indolence. Persons with dark eyes and dark complexions.
Compare. Apis, Ars, Belladonna, Causticum, Cinchona, Hepar s., Lactic ac., Lycopodium, Mercurius, Naja., Nitr. ac., Phosphorus, Pulsatilla, Rhus tox., Sulphur, Tarent.
Antidotes. Arsenicum, Belladonna, merc., Nux v., Phosphorus c., Heat, Alcohol, Salt. Acids disturb the curative action action.
THERAPEUTICS.
A knowledge of the general clinical range of Lachesis is very readily inferred from the preceding general analysis and pathogenesis. It is especially useful in diseases characterized hand, and the peculiar nervous phenomena upon the other, while the two combined present a perfect picture of the general action of the drug, only applicable, however in he individual case when the symptoms of the latter correspond with those of the drug. It is a valuable remedy in all dynamic and typhoid types of disease, where the symptoms correspond, whether the case be a true typhus or typhoid fever, or the condition accompanying asthenic inflammations, ulcers, suppurating wounds, abscesses, malignant diseases eruptive or otherwise,, gangrene, pyaemia, etc.
The discharges, whether from the bowels or from ulcers, etc., are always offensive, and in case of local inflammations of whatever nature the affected parts present a bluish or dark purplish appearance. Tendency to ecchymosis and bed sores. In typhoid fever haemorrhages of decomposed blood. Purpura haemorrhagica. Indolent ulcers. Varicose ulcers. Carbuncles Erysipelas. Pustular and other eruptions, which turn black or blush. Fungus haematodes. Yellow fever, with characteristic haemorrhages etc. Scarlatina of a malignant type, dark eruptions, or none at all, virulent throat symptoms, advanced stages, signs of blood poisoning, great prostration. Lachesis is valuable in a get variety of nervous troubles. Convulsions epileptic and historical. Chorea. Tetanus,. Paralysis; left- sided; after apoplexia, or cerebral exhaustion. Progressive locomotor ataxia. Neuralgia of he spine. Coccygodynia; myelitis; neuritis; sciatica. Mania. Dementia; Melancholia. Delirium tremens. Mania after over-study. The characteristic delirium is of a low, muttering type. In mania loquacity predominates. Neuralgic headaches. Meningitis. Threatening apoplexia, m especially in drunkards. Retinitis apoplectica, whether idiopathic or secondary; absorbs the haemorrhage. Haemorrhages into optic nerve, also in eye chambers. In these are other similar eye affections dimness of vision is the most prominent symptom. Defective sight after diphtheria, the most prominent symptom. Defective sight after diphtheria, a paralysis of accommodation, requiring far-sighted glasses (Gelsemium). Keratitis. Ulcers on cornea. Orbital cellulitis, especially following operations for strabismus., Amblyopia, with lung or heart affections. Dark epistaxis in typhoid also in amenorrhoea. Coryza. Hay asthma. chronic nasal catarrh. Facial neuralgia, especially left side. Facial erysipelas, dark, bluish hue, infiltration into cellular tissue. Gangrene of the mouth. Haemorrhage from the gums. Syphilitic ulceration of mouth and throat. Lachesis is a very valuable remedy in tonsilitis, pharyngitis and other forms of sore throat. the left side is most often affected, or beginning on right side and going to left. The throat symptoms are well defined and have been fully detailed under their appropriate head, and need to be repeated.
According to Hering, there is no remedy so often effective in breaking up an attack of quinsy at its inception, nor in promoting resolution in the late stages. A most valuable remedy in malignant diphtheria, and malignant ulcerations of he throat, the fauces and pharynx presenting a purplish appearance great prostration and other characteristic symptoms. Gangrenes sore throat. Elongated uvula, constant inclination to hawk, hacking cough. l chronic irritability of fauces. Lachesis us useful in a variety of affections of he lower air passages Aphonia from paralysis or oedema of the vocal chords. Laryngitis, catarrhal, croupous or diphtheritic, with the sensitiveness of throat, suffocation and other symptoms already mentioned. Spasms of the glottis. Whooping cough. Subacute and chronic bronchial catarrh. Asthma, paroxysms awaken from sleep., intolerance of pressure about neck and chest, relief from expectoration. Hay asthma. Only useful in pneumonia when typhoid symptoms supervene, especially after abscesses have formed. The threatening paralysis of the lungs, greatest difficult in breathing with long lasting attacks of suffocation. Hydrothorax, suffocative fits, waking from sleep, cyanotic symptoms. emphysema. nervous cough of reflex origin, especially from uterine or ovarian disease.
Lachesis is an important remedy in the female sexual sphere. It is especially useful; in ovarian disease, the left ovary being most often affected. Ovarian neuralgia., Ovaritis. Ovarian tumors. Pelvic cellulitis and peritonitis. Acute general peritonitis, pus formed typhoid symptoms. Puerperal metritis, metro-peritonitis, offensive lochial discharge. Endometrots. Dysmenorrhoea. Hot flashes. Metrorrhagia and other troubles during the climaxis. Cancer of the uterus. Displacements of the uterus. In all uterine and ovarian disease the chief symptoms is an intolerance of clothing or bed clothes about the abdomen, which, with other characteristics of the drug, may indicate its useful in any disease of the pelvic viscera. mastitis, bluish appearance. Cancer of the breast. Extreme sensitiveness of the nipples. Phlegmasia alba dolens. Syphilitic ulceration, especially of external genitals. Vaginal fistula becoming gangrenous Subacute or chronic cystitis, especially from uterine disease. Post-scarlatinal nephritis. Sometimes useful in dyspepsia and gastralgia. Gastritis in drunkards or after Mercury. Hepatitis, liver swollen, painful and sensitive, throbbing, intolerance of clothing, abscess forming, typhoid symptoms supervening. Gall-stones. Jaundice. A valuable remedy in typhlitis. Fistula in ano. Haemorrhoids, with stitches in tumors from every cough or sneeze; strangulated from constriction of sphincter. Chronic diarrhoea, watery offensive stools; in drunkards; during hot or relaxing spring weather; reflex from uterine irritation; in the course of dynamic diseases. Often useful in cardiac troubles. Pericarditis. Rheumatism of the heart. Hypertrophy. angina pectoris. Reflex functional disturbances, especially from ovarian or uterine disease. Atheromatous arteries, chronic aortitis. Threatened heart failure after exhausting diseases. Cyanosis neonatorum. In all cardiac troubles the terrible dyspnoea is a prominent indication. Intermittent fever recurring every spring, or after suppression in the previous fall by quinine.
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).