Synonym. Lithium Carbonicum. Preparation. Triturations of pure Carbonate of Lithium.
GENERAL ANALYSIS.
The sphere of action of this drug is not well defined. It evidently acts most prominently upon mucous surfaces and muscular tissues. Its local action upon the heart, kidneys and eyes seems most pronounced, ant it is in diseases of these organs that its curative virtues have mainly been displayed.
CHARACTERISTIC SYMPTOMS.
Mind. Difficulty in remembering names. Anxiety and hopelessness at night.
Head. Heaviness in sinciput; worse in frontal eminences. Confusion of the head. Headache ceases while eating, but returns an remains until food is again taken. Headache, like a stitch, superiorly in the vertex, on right side, sensitive when touched. Sunlight blinds him.
Eyes. Black motes before eyes; eyes sensitive after using them by candle light; asthenopia. Vision uncertain; entire vanishing of the right half of objects; if two short words occur in succession, that on right hand is invisible (Calcarea c., Lycopodium Lower half. Aurum). Eyes pain as if sore; pain as from grains of sand; feel dry and pain after reading.
Nose. Swollen, red; worse right side; internally sore and dry; shining crusts form. Coryza; dropping from nose.
Throat. Sore throat, extending into the ear, and from ear to throat (Hepar s., Kali bichromicum). Hawking up mucus in large quantities.
Stomach. Acidity of stomach. Appetite decreased, satisfied on beginning to eat (Lycopodium). Nausea, with gnawing in stomach, fullness in temples, headache. Fullness in stomach; cannot endure slightest pressure of clothes (Calcarea c., Lycopodium, Nux v.). Sticking burning extending upwards in epigastrium).
Abdomen. Pressure in hepatic region. Violent pain in hepatic region, between ilium and ribs. Feels swollen as if distended with wind.
Stool. Diarrhoea; stools light-yellow; (Chelidonium); offensive (Arsenicum, Asafoetida).
Urinary Organs. Pain in bladder extending into spermatic cord (Clem., Pulsatilla, Spongia), after urinating. Tenesmus of urinate a pressing in the region of the heart, which did not cease until after urination. Urine scanty, dark, acrid; pain when passed; emission difficult, with dark, reddish-brown deposit; turbid, with mucous deposit; profuse, with uric acid deposit.
Respiratory Organs. On inspiring the air feels cold, even in the lungs (Hydras.).
Heart and Pulse. Violent pain in region of heart (Aconite, Cact., Digit.), when bending over bed in morning. Pressive pain in heart (Cact., Lilium tigrinum, Digit.). Valvular deficiencies, worse from mental agitation, which causes a fluttering and trembling of the heart. Sudden shocks in cardiac region. Rheumatic soreness in region of heart. Pains in heart before and at time of urinating; also before and at time of menses. (Lilium tigrinum).
Back. Pressure as with a dull point, here and there, internally, as if near the sacral bone, in evening; most on left side.
Limbs. Occasional rheumatic pains in the limbs. Pain in right shoulder joint near insertion of pectoralis major, at margin of muscle. Rheumatic pains in the fingers and thumb. Gouty pain in ankles and bones of feet.
Generalities. Pains burning sticking in jerks outward, and ending in burning itching. Paralytic stiffness of whole body. Prostration. of whole body; especially knee joints and sacrum. Bones, joints, muscles of whole body sore, as if beaten. Before menses, symptoms more violent on left side; after menses on right side. All symptoms worse on right side.
Compare. Cact. Digit., Lachesis, Lycopodium, Graphites, Magnesia carb.
THERAPEUTICS.
Lithium is of great value in the treatment of rheumatism and gout, especially acute arthritis inflammation of the small joints, occurring occasionally in gouty subject. It is a valuable remedy in rheumatism of the heart, chronic rheumatic endocarditis, with soreness about the heart, and pain, especially before and at the time of urinating; usually associated with chronic arthritis of the finger joints. Valvular insufficiency. Useful in asthenopia, anaemia of the retina, ophthalmia and other eye affections, the symptoms agreeing. Acid dyspepsia in gouty subjects. Useful in irritation of the bladder, dysuria, and even albuminuria, where the urine is scanty and very acrid; excess of uric acid deposit, gouty symptoms; acid dyspepsia. Inflammation of the prostate gland, with pink sediment in urine.
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).