Hot flashes begin in the face and extend over the body; palms hot.
Sexual desire increased; erratic; exotic. In the active tuberculo-sycotic we are usually confronted with excessive gonadal activity (decreased-Syphilinum). Do not forget the Kalis which likewise debilitate the sexual function.
Presentiment of death; although in apparent good health has urge to arrange affairs.
Dreams are sad and full of remorse, aggravated after midnight; there is a mournful tinge to dreams concerned with past events.
The element of remorse is found in the dream and conscious state, which places the remedy in a position of great importance in meeting the effects of emotional shock. The constitutional state is such that the will of the person has no control over recurring shock exacerbations, and if so acts as a repressant.
Medorrhinum stands out in all forms of psychic shock, the susceptibility increased by a long chain of recurrences. In one case I could trace it back three generations. We often fail to realize that in the difficult problem of disease we may have a clear-cut family habit groove, temporarily obscured in early life by a favorable environment or the abundance of vitality of youth and the first half of adult life.
Desire for open air.
Chilliness, aggravated 11 to 3 p.m., with fear of becoming unconsciousness and incapacitated.
Haemorrhagic tendency; small wounds bleed profusely (Lachesis, Phos.).
GENERAL SORENESS AND ACHING; soreness in muscles and joints, aggravated before storm, soreness with cramping; soreness of teeth; of arch of foot.
Dull pain deep in brain with confusion and forgetfulness. Vertigo, occipital, aggravated before chill and from concentration.
Dim vision; yellow-green spots in field of vision; muscae volitantes.
Nasal obstruction; discharges green crusts from nose. Sharp pain in right middle ear, aggravated from blowing nose.
Enlargement of cervical glands; glands sensitive to touch.
Salivation, profuse, fills mouth when talking; slimy (Nat. sulph). Taste brassy.
Inflammation of gums; root abscess; stimulates chronic inflammations; soreness of teeth loosen; gums recede.
Chilliness between scapulae, extending to sides and back of arms; aggravated morning and afternoon, malaria dumb chills.
SPINAL SORENESS AND STIFFNESS OF MUSCLES OF BACK, extending entire length.
SPINAL ANAEMIA (Kali phos.); occipital vertigo (Sil.); sensation of disjointure with symptoms of incoordination of delicate, movement, transfixing, wandering pains when indicated with a history of suppressions or a symptom complex indicating same. It is to be thought of in that long train of vague and indefinite symptoms leading to cerebral and spinal sclerosis.
Medorrhinum represents psycho-mento-physical chaos, up on the borderland leading to almost any organic condition; the patient needing it is trying to discover a natural relation to the whole and in the same manner the physical functions fail to maintain a balance.
The dynamic balance is a constructive force and assists to ward the development of a more normal realization of what one actually is. Medorrhinum brings to the light the good and evil tendencies which lie dormant within and tends to establish rhythm in expression through understanding.
The nosodes represent the added artificial complexities which have resulted from repeated interference of man with the unfoldment of the basic natural miasms.
Ravenous appetite wanting; desires hot drinks; sweets bread; potatoes; fruit; salt; onions, which aggravate (Thuja), and is a sycotic symptom; meat, fried foods (tubercular, who do not care of vegetables).
Pulsation in stomach, aggravated a.m. (Sulphur). Emptiness in stomach. Hunger, aggravated after eating. Nausea, aggravated after eating. Thirstless; aversion to water (Pulsatilla).
Cramping pain in abdomen, with flatulence, aggravated after eating and in evening, ameliorated passing flatus and from stool. This may be a persistent symptom and date back to a sycotic colic in infancy.
Constipation with cramping pain and ineffectual urging to stool, aggravated evening, company, and travelling on train. There is a tension of the rectal muscles, is too restless to sit, walks around for relief of distress in abdomen. It is an anxious restlessness similar to Ars. Stools soft and mushy; forcible expulsion; hurried desire.
Urine scanty. Frequent urging to urinate. Dribbling of urine. The irregular feature of Medorrhinum is seen in the prostatic urethra, there being a tendency to pocket formation functional or pathological. The stream forks cross each other hand and pass in expanding sheets forming ribbon spray. Prostatic congestions. Sensation bladder is not emptied; last drop burns and profuse deep prostatic soreness.
Oppression; desire to breathe deeply. Anxiety and sadness centered in chest, aggravated by company, music, morning and evening. Stitching pain in apex of heart, comes and goes quickly.
Awkwardness; tendency to fall; lack of finer coordination in lower limbs, with occipital vertigo. Numbness of extremities. Shooting pain in left wrist to hand. Cramps in calf. Heat, beginning in feet and passing upward. Palm of hand and feet hot to touch. Hang-nails with inflammations around the nails.
Tensions; sensation of general contraction of the musculature with difficulty to relax. Perspiration in palms, soles and axilla, aggravated anxiety. Corns sore with stitching pains. Sensitiveness of soles.
PEARLY WHITENESS OF SKIN, especially of legs exfoliation of a shower of fine flakes on rubbing briskly (sycosis). This is an important diagnostic point and is equal in value to the spider web capillary enlargement and the red macular eruption. We find this trinity of objective symptoms under Medorrhinum.
Itching of skin, aggravated undressing; itching of back; voluptuous, on sides near axilla (no eruption) Discoloration of skin in varying shades of black.
Profuse perspiration, without weakening effect; offensive perspiration, aggravated genitals.
Sleepless, aggravated after 4 a.m. (Bacillinum, Sulphur); after midnight.
NEW HAVEN, CONN.
DISCUSSION.
DR. A. PULFORD: This paper is very valuable and Medorrhinum is among our latest infantile developments. There is one hint I picked up from Kent that I think ought to be passed along for I have found it valuable Sulphur for burning feet that you must put out of bed to cool off; Zinc for restless feet; but Medorrhinum as a combination.
DR. H.B. BAKER: A symptom of Medorrhinum is intense sensitiveness of the feet as if walking on eggshells. I had that very beautifully developed in a patient once. He came into my office just as though he were stepping on eggshells, afraid he would break something. Medorrhinum cleared him up very nicely. Then there is another symptom that has led me to this remedy very often, and that is when a child sleeps on the knees and chest with the face bored into the pillow. I remember walking in on the case of a child with ordinary colitis, who was down on the floor that way. One dose of Medorrhinum cleared that case right up. This symptom is only marked in the lowest degree in the Repertory. But I have confirmed it I know half a dozen times.
DR. C.A. DIXON: I want to confirm the knee-chest position. I have found it at least three times, twice in gallstone colic, once in renal colic. I found the patient in bed in that position distracted with pain.
DR. H.FARRINGTON: That is evidently a typical, and I might say a hereditary, effect of the psychotic mind: that infants and small children take that knee-chest position in sleep. And it is a valuable keynote and pointer. Looking up the other symptoms we find that they usually agree. I have cured three cases of asthma in children in which that was the leading symptom.
DR. H.A. ROBERTS: I think that knee-chest position, while it is not ranked, has not been valued highly enough because I have verified it many times, especially in infants. And in doing so you eradicate early in life a train of symptoms that otherwise would follow.
DR.G.B. STEARNS: A few years ago Philip Krichbaum was giving Medorrhinum to his pneumonia cases one winter, and the only keynote I know that he gave it on was that they were very painful cases.
DR. J.W. WAFFENSMITH: There is nothing further I have to say except that this paper was not intended as an exhaustive study, but only to bring out certain features that have especially appealed to me which were not in the Repertory. For instance, the sensitiveness of the soles of the feet is marked in a high grade in Kents Repertory and is generally used. In reference to the knee-chest position and the aggravation by day, I think those symptoms have been recognized as characteristic of the remedy and of course help us remarkably in the totality of the case.
I believe, as has been said, that Medorrhinum will grow remarkably in the future in the estimation of the homoeopathic profession because it is so many times needed and we dont think of it. If it doesnt directly help us clear the case it may open up the way for an earlier remedy which has been obscured by a series of suppressions.
Education: Cincinnati College of Medicine & Surgery
Author, Distinctive Phases Of Kali Carb. and Homeopathy , the medical stabilizer