He avoids the society of his fellow creatures. He desires above all peace and quietness and seeks to be alone. He cannot control his actions or his muscles and flies into a temper for the least thing or trembles on any exertion or emotion.
This weakness is marked and may even lead to incoordination of his limbs. His pulse is slow at rest and accelerated on movement. He passes gradually into a state of apathy and difference and does not want to speak or drink. He suffers also from severe migraine, preceded by ocular disturbances.
The Sepia patient is characterized by sadness and indifference. His depression is profound and he looks only on the black side of things. He is apathetic and cares not for his family or his family duties or pleasures. Nothing interests him and he desires to be alone. Any attention from his friends irritates him. He does not exhibit the nervous irritability of Ignatia with its alternations of exaltation and depression. With Sepia, the depression is constant and it does not vary. The liver is often affected, leading to portal congestion, constipation, haemorrhoid and symptoms of pelvic congestion.
Ignatia, Gelsemium and Sepia correspond to three different nervous conditions, between which a certain relation can be established. An Ignatia patient may become Sepia. A Sepia subject may become one of Gelsemium, owing to the action of various toxins which are operating on the system, toxins of autogenous or tuberculous nature. But with the Ignatia patient we must think of the possible origin of his troubles and also of the possible consequences of their long duration if an efficacious treatment cannot be found to deal with them.
Undoubtedly, the signs of Ignatia do not often correspond to those of organic lesions. More often they are due to functional conditions whose paradoxical nature shows their nervous origin. The prolongation of these symptoms leads progressively to a deep fatigue of the patient. The nervous system wears itself out. Profound depression gradually overcomes the patient.
He cannot put his thoughts together, cannot find words to express his thoughts. Physical weakness: he cannot walk far, suffers from headaches, grows thin, sweats heavily and shows signs of decalcification, such as Phosphaturia and dental caries. Then we find all the signs of Phosphoric acid, the indication of which is obvious.
The demineralization is in fact one of the most important causes of the nervous depression. It is often accompanied by the usual symptoms of the Tuberculinique state and it is necessary to prescribe one of the diluted Tuberculins and the indication of Natrum muriaticum becomes apparent.
Compare this latter remedy with Ignatia. The last named cannot bear to be left alone, whereas Natrum muriaticum prefers to be alone. Ignatia wants to be made a fuss of and desires to be commisurated with, whereas Natrum muriaticum dislikes consolation and weeps if one tries to console him. Ignatia shows no objective sings other than the imprint of the teeth on a clean tongue.
Natrum muriaticum has a mapped tongue, a cleft in the middle of the lower lip, intermittent oedema of the eyelids, labial herpes, eczema of the flexor folds of the limbs. The patients depression is aggravated at 10 A.M. and is always accompanied by emaciation.
Ignatia, Phosphoric acid and Natrum muriaticum form a logical series of remedies whose complementary action is demonstrated successfully on the patient whose equilibrium has been upset by mental shocks or deep anxieties.
I think that this account covers most of the signs and symptoms of Ignatia and I hope that its presentation may be of interest and use especially to the younger members who are studying the Materia Medica. They will certainly find that Ignatia is a remedy that in these days is frequently needed and if it is prescribed on the indications given, they will find its use a great benefit to their patients and a source of much encouragement to themselves.
DISCUSSION OF DR. QUINTONS PAPER.
DR. PATERSON, in opening the discussion, wished to congratulate Dr. Quinton on a very excellent clinical homoeopathic paper and study. He agreed most heartily on the necessity for the provings to be presented in a different form that of the present day. The student was not attracted by a mass of details a given in the Materia Medica, he wanted a living picture.
Dr. Quinton had very rightly pointed out that the Ignatia patient was aggravated by tobacco, alcohol and coffee, and during the War years these things had been in greater use than ever before. He had found that women today were showing more signs of high blood-pressure, which was usually associated with males. The last patient he had seen before coming to London was a woman who had been under orthodox treatment with a blood-pressure, as she said, “higher than the instrument would record.” On the first occasion he had recorded it, it was up over 260.
On the second occasion, knowing the systolic pressure was high, he had rushed the mercury up and again it seemed to be about 260. Thinking it was not correct he had slowly repeated, and on this occasion it was down to 220: he then talked to the patient for a time and on the third recording it was 140. It was a point to be borne in mind, that there was a type of high blood-pressure which was probably due to an unstable nervous system, and Ignatia was very possibly the remedy.
To give another clinical picture, he had been present at the operation for the removal of the appendix in a young girl, and the surgeon, calling attention to the very great distension of the caecum, said that if X-ray had been taken before he would probably have sought permission to perform an actual plastic operation. Actually an X-ray had been taken, and no distension was seen. Since the operation, owing to clinical signs of distension of colon, a further X-ray was taken and it was found that there was no evidence of distension, but in fact a marked ring constriction, later found due to spasm. She was a typical Ignatia patient.
Another clinical type of case was the patient who complained of pain in the cardiac area and quite sure it was an angina, and gain the spasmodic nature of the clutching of the throat was very often a symptom of Ignatia.
Dr. Quinton had very wisely pointed out that all instability of the nervous system was not necessarily Ignatia, and he had given comparisons. Nux vomica and Ignatia each contained strychnia, Ignatia in fact containing more than Nux vomica, but they were not interchangeable as remedies.
There was just one point he had not understood, namely, Dr. quintons reference to auto-intoxication in comparing Pulsatilla with Ignatia. When he Dr. Patersons, used the term “auto- intoxication” he was thinking of a focal infection somewhere, but he did not presume DR. Quinton was thinking of some actual focus of infection.
Dr. PEARSON thanked Dr. Quinton very much for his Paper because he was personally experiencing great difficulty in precisely the direction he had mentioned, in that he was having to commit to memory ninety-three drugs for his Membership, and he found the Materia Medica was rather like trying to learn off a railway guide.
He had found it impossible to remember all the remedies in the way they were listed, and the most useful book he had found so far was Dr. Borlands Childrens types, which gave groups of drugs which were similar except for certain things. He had been working on three particular drugs and soon came to the conclusion that they were similar and that having learned one he knew the other two, except for a very few points. As a student rather than as doctor he wished to thank Dr. Quinton for his paper on behalf of beginners.
DR. McCRAE thought it would be interesting to hear what Major Gordons Army experiences were. The account of psychological battle casualties showed that their breakdown was not primarily due to battle but mostly had to do with personal problems. The weight of the worry of these personal problems developed into an overload during the added excitement of battle. Complexes arose which would surely be covered by the appropriate homoeopathic remedy.
Translating a remedy into modern psychological parlance would be very nice for the orthodox student. But this would mean sticking labels on to drug pictures. The homoeopath had an abhorrence of labels. The patient is not conversant with technical jargon. Ignatia is a splendid example of this. Its drug picture is the story of the ordinary man. That seems to be one of the greatest difficulties of the specialist. When he masters the ability to learn about simplicity in symptom pictures he may learn of the beauty in Homoeopathy.
It is all very well to talk learnedly about superiority complexes or all the varied forms of neurosis. Sadly enough they only served to confuse the main object of the physician-his search for the remedy. Here, in the drug pictures of superb provings, we had these translations ready made for immediate use. Ignatia was a gem for the worries and anxieties of war and post-war complications.
