ABROTANUM ARTEMISIA
This remedy is useful in rheumatism from checked diarrhoea, with inability to move, with great pain but no swelling; also early in inflammatory rheumatism before swelling begins, but when there is great pain on slightest motion; in gouty conditions of the wrist and ankles alternated with haemorrhoidal troubles. It is a valuable remedy in metastases of acute diseases when taking a rheumatic course, especially if the heart is attacked.
HEART: SHARP AND SEVERE PAIN ACROSS THE CHEST IN REGION OF HEART, PULSE WEAK AND SMALL.
NECK AND BACK: Weak back. Drawing pain in chest muscles, especially on motion. PAIN IN SACRUM.
SUPERIOR EXTREMITIES: (Fugitive pains in shoulders at night preventing sleep.) Aching pain from shoulder joint to elbow. Numb sensation in fingers. Dull aching in fingers. GOUTY INFLAMMATION IN WRISTS.
INFERIOR EXTREMITIES: Drawing in ankle joint. Deadness and coldness of feet. GOUTY INFLAMMATION OF ANKLE.
EXTREMITIES IN GENERAL: INABILITY TO MOVE ARMS; LEGS ONLY WITH DIFFICULTY.
CONCOMITANTS: VERY LAME AND SORE ALL OVER. GREAT WEAKNESS AND PROSTRATION. HIGH FEVER. ALTERNATE DIARRHOEA AND CONSTIPATION RHEUMATISM AFTER CHECKED DIARRHOEA, HAEMORRHOIDS GET WORSE AS RHEUMATISM GETS BETTER.
GRINDELIA ROBUSTA.
Grindelia has marked rheumatic troubles of the eye resulting form exposure to cold or metastasis from some other part, always with intense pain and high fever.
EYES: RHEUMATIC IRITIS FROM EXPOSURE TO COLD OR METASTASIS OF RHEUMATISM; PAIN IN INTENSE, RUNNING DIRECTLY BACK TO THE BRAIN, < ON MOVING EYES.
CONCOMITANTS: HIGH FEVER. FEAR OF GOING TO SLEEP ON ACCOUNT OF LOSS OF BREATH, WHICH AWAKENS HIM.
IGNATIA.
The singularly contradictory character, both mental and physical, of Ignatia, gives on insight into the sphere of usefulness in character; the aggravations and ameliorations are peculiar and marked, and when taken in connection with the concomitant symptoms point unmistakably to its selection.
EYES: Rheumatic ophthalmia with feeling of sand in eye.
NECK AND BACK: STIFFNESS OF NAPE OF NECK. STITCHES IN NAPE OF NECK. Tensive pain in back on standing erect. SIMPLE PAIN IN BACK WHICH IS APT TO BECOME EXCESSIVE FROM SLIGHTEST TOUCH; jerking pain through body. STITCHES IN SMALL OF BACK. SHARP CUTTING STITCHES IN BACK, through loins into legs. PAIN IN SACRUM WHEN LYING DOWN IN BED MORNINGS. Violent pain in small of back like clawing and working together.
SUPERIOR EXTREMITIES: Quivering jerks in deltoid muscle. PAIN IN SHOULDER JOINT AS IF DISLOCATED on moving arm. LANCINATING CUTTING PAIN IN SHOULDER JOINT when bending arm forward. Bruised pain in joints of arms when bending them backward. NUMBNESS OF ARM AT NIGHT IN BED. Drawing pains in arms.
INFERIOR EXTREMITIES: Lancinating, cutting pain in hip joint. PAIN INCISIVE, THROBBING, INTERMITTENT–AT FIRST EVERY OTHER DAY, THEN EVERY DAY; RETURNS EVERY WINTER ALONG THE COURSE OF THE SCIATIC NERVE. Paroxysmal tearing, boring, digging pains along course of sciatic nerve, preceded by intense coldness, < at night, lasting from one to three hours. BEATING PAIN in ischial region as though it would burst hip joint, intermittent with chilliness and < at night. TEARING PAINS IN BACK OF LEGS. Crackling of knee joints. TEARING PAINS IN BACK OF BOTH LEGS, ESPECIALLY CALVES AND TENDO ACHILLES, AS THOUGH PARTS WOULD BE CUT OFF, < when standing or on motion. Numbness of feet and legs. Bruised or stinging sensation in soles of feet.
EXTREMITIES IN GENERAL: SINGLE JERKS OR MUSCLES WHEN FALLING ASLEEP. LIMBS GO TO SLEEP EASILY. PAIN AS IF DISLOCATED IN SHOULDER, HIP AND KNEE JOINTS. Neuralgic pains in all the limbs.
CONCOMITANTS: MELANCHOLY SILENT GRIEF, BROODING OVER SORROWS. VERY SENSITIVE CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. PAIN IN HEAD AS IF NAIL WERE DRIVEN OUT THROUGH SIDE. SORE THROAT > FROM SWALLOWING. Heat without thirst. CHILL WITH RED FACE. EXTREME AVERSION TO TOBACCO. DURING FEVER WANTS TO BE COVERED; DURING CHILL THIRSTY AND DOES NOT WANT COVERING. WEAKNESS.
AGGRAVATIONS: MORNINGS. IMMEDIATELY AFTER SLEEP, EVENINGS AFTER LYING DOWN. FROM SLIGHT TOUCH. FROM TOBACCO AND COFFEE. WALKING FAST. Winter.
AMELIORATIONS: WHEN LYING ON BACK IN EVENING. CHANGE OF POSITION. Firm pressure. EXTERNAL WARMTH.
HEPAR SULPHUR CALCAREA
Hepar is especially to be thought of after the abuse of mercury in scrofulous patients when the marked indications for the remedy are present. In rheumatic troubles, the result of exposure to cold dry winds, and in suppurative articular arthritis it is one of the first remedies in importance. In all articular affections the hot red swollen joints with the marked aggravation from touch and the relief from wrapping the joint up warmly, together with the general symptoms of Hepar, make a picture not seen elsewhere in our materia medica.
NECK AND BACK: Drawing pains between the scapulae. Great weakness of whole spine. BRUISED SENSATION IN SMALL OF BACK. Sharp pressive pain, as if from bruises, in small of back and lumbar vertebrae, worse at sacro-iliac symphysis, felt constantly. Stitches with rheumatic pains in back.
SUPERIOR EXTREMITIES: : Pain in shoulder as if a weight were resting upon it. TEARING IN ARMS, EXTENDING TOWARDS THE BREAST. BRUISED SENSATION IN THE HUMERUS. HOT RED SWELLING OF JOINTS OF FINGERS AND HANDS. Swelling of fingers of both hands with stiffness. Tingling in tips of fingers. INFERIOR EXTREMITIES: SPREAD PAIN IN LEFT HIP WHEN WALKING. Buttocks and posterior thigh painful when sitting. Sensation of soreness in thighs. Bruised pain in anterior muscles of thighs. Bruised pain in knee joint. Swelling of keen joint. Cramps in calves. Swelling of foot about the ankle. Pain as if he had taken a misstep, in foot after taking cold. Cramps in soles and toes. Burning, stinging pains in toes. VIOLENT STITCH EXTENDING TO GREAT TOE. Gout with arthritis.
EXTREMITIES IN GENERAL: BRUISED FEELING WITH WEAKNESS IN LIMBS. Drawing pain in limbs, especially mornings. RHEUMATIC PAINS AFTER THE ABUSE OF MERCURY. RHEUMATIC PAINS IN LIMBS WITH STITCHES IN JOINTS.
JOINTS: RED AND HOT SWELLING.
CONCOMITANTS: FRETFUL AND IRRITABLE MOOD. FAINTING FROM A SLIGHT PAIN. SENSATION AS OF A PLUG IN ONE HALF OF THE BRAIN. PURULENT CONJUNCTIVITIS. STICKING IN THROAT AS OF A SPLINTER. SWELLING AND SUPPURATION OF GLANDS. CROUPY COUGH. CANNOT BEAR TO BE UNCOVERED GREAT CHILLINESS IN OPEN AIR. SWEATS EASILY; SOUR OFFENSIVE SWEATS. UNHEALTHY SUPPURATIVE SKIN; SLIGHT INJURIES SUPPURATE.
AGGRAVATIONS: AT NIGHT. COLD DRY AIR. AFTER BECOMING COLD IN DRAFTS. DRY WEATHER WHEN LYING ON PAINFUL SIDE. AFTER ABUSE OF MERCURY. MOTION. WHILE RISING FROM BED. STOOPING. TOUCH OF PART. UNCOVERING. WALKING. GETTING WET. NORTHWEST WIND. WINTER.
AMELIORATIONS: WARMTH. WRAPPING UP WARMLY.
DERBY, CONN.
It is of the utmost importance that our materia medica should always retain this quality of “purity”, this freedom from fiction and from hypothesis. Very justly, therefore, of the leaders of our school denounce and discourage all attempts to incorporate into the materia medica speculations upon the modus operandi of remedies, and inferences concerning the diseases which they may be likely to cure.–CARROLL DUNHAM, M. D., 1865.
