Antimonium crudum Fever Symptoms


Allen gives the therapeutic indications of the remedy Antimonium Crudum in different kinds of fevers like: Continued, Bilious, Intermittent, Malarial, Remittent, Pernicious, Typhoid, Typhus, Septic fever, etc…


Fever

Characteristic – Gastric complaints from over-eating, stomach weak, digestion easily disturbed, thick, milky-white coating on the tongue.

Young people disposed to obesity (Calcarea). Old people with morning diarrhea suddenly get costive, alternate diarrhea and constipation (Nux).

Sensitive to cold, aggravated after taking cold.

Child is fretful, peevish, cannot bear to be touched or looked at, sulky, does not wish to speak (Ant.t., Iodium, Silicea), angry at every attention.

Great sadness, with weeping.

Loathing life, abject despair, suicide by drowning.

Anxious, lachrymose mood, the slightest thing affects her (Pulsatilla). Irresistible desire to talk in rhymes or repeat verses.

Headache: after river bathing, from taking cold, alcoholic drinks, deranged digestion, acids, fat, fruit, suppressed eruption.

Longing for acids and pickles.

Gastric and intestinal affections: from bread and pastry, acids, especially vinegar, sour or bad wine, after cold bathing, over – heating, hot weather.

Constant discharge of flatus, up and down, for years, belching (Alumina), tasting of ingesta.

Mucus: in large quantities from posterior nares by hawking, from anus, ichorous, oozing, staining yellow, mucous piles.

Disposition to abnormal growths of skin, finger nails do not grow as rapidly, crushed nails grow in splits, like warts, and with horny spots.

Large horny places (corns) on soles, which are very sensitive when walking, especially on stone pavements.

When symptoms re-appear, they change locality, or go from one side of body to the other.

Aversion to cold bathing, child cries when washed or bathed with cold water, causes headache, suppressed menses, colds or fevers from swimming or getting wet (Rhus).

Cannot bear heat of sun, aggravated from exertion in sun, exhausted in warm weather.

Aggravation: After eating, cold bathing, sour wine or acids, heat of sun or fire, extremes of heat or cold.

Amelioration: During rest, in the open air, a warm bath.

Time: 12 M. or afternoon. Sweat at same hour every other day. Type: Quotidian, double quotidian, tertian. remittent of children. Continued: typhoid.

Prodrome: Ushered in by gastric disturbances, with great melancholy, sadness, and a woeful mood.

Chill: Without thirst (Apis, Pulsatilla, Cinchona). Violent shaking at noon, or chill in the afternoon with shivering in the back, chill with sweat at same time, chill and shivering over the back, feet cold as ice, with sweat on rest of body, chilliness predominates (Meny.), even in a warm room, cold and chilly during the day (chill worse in warm room or near a stove, Apis – chill aggravated external heat, motion, Ipecac. ). Painful coldness of nose during inspiration, as if inhaling cold air. Great desire to sleep (wants to sleep during hot stage, Apis. ). Drawing pain in sacrum.

Heat: When sweat sets in with the heat, great heat for an hour, then sweat ceases suddenly, followed by dry heat for two hours, or even all night. Heat with sweat. Heat with thirst followed by sweat. Great heat from the least exercise, especially in the sun. Heat at night, before midnight, with cold feet. During heat, pain in chest. Vomiting during the heat (Natrum mur.).

Sweat: Sets in simultaneously with or immediately after the chill (Podophyllum). Sweat in the morning when awaking which causes shrivelling of tips of fingers (Canch., Verbascum). Sweat which returns at precisely the dame hour every other morning. Sweat alternating with chilliness, or vice versa. Sweat soon disappears, dry heat remaining. After sweat is over heat and thirst return.

Tongue: Thickly coated: milky white is characteristic. Taste bitter. Great desire for pickles. Saliva saltish. Hunger, which eating does not relieve.

Heart: Pulse. Irregular, rapid, then slow, changing every few beats.

Apyrexia: Predominance of gastric symptoms (Ipecac., Pulsatilla, Nux.). Want of appetite, nausea, vomiting and bitter taste in mouth (Ipecac.)., tension and pressure in region of the stomach, belching with taste of ingesta, pain in bowels with diarrhea, or constipation: aversion to food, longing for acids, particularly pickles (longing for salt, Nat.m. ), disgust for drink and food, increasing sweat.

Difference between Antimonium crud and Pulsatilla

Antimonium crud.

Prodrome: Great sadness, and a woeful mood. Chill: Predominant, followed by sweat, then heat, or chill and sweat simultaneous, or chill and sweat, or sweat and heat, alternating. Tongue: Thickly coated, milky white. Diarrhea or constipation. No thirst in any stage.

Pulsatilla.

Prodrome. – Thirst and diarrhea at night. Chill. – Heat and sweat in usual order, but apt to run into each other. One-sided coldness. No two chills alike. Tongue. – Coated with yellow mucus, feels sore, as if scalded. Diarrhea. Thirst before chill. Antimonium crudum will often relieve, where Pulsatilla or Ipecacuanha seem indicated and fail. One of the few remedies where sweat follows chill and is followed by heat. Gastric symptoms usually present, acts promptly and cures completely.

Relapses often occur from derangement of stomach. Quotidian or tertian fever with loathing, nausea, vomiting, cutting in bowels and diarrhea or constipation ( Pulsatilla, but no constipation).

Analysis – The sad, woeful, suicidal mood. The gastric derangements from over eating. Tongue thickly coated, milky white.

Aversion to food and drink.

Craving for acids, especially pickles.

Paroxysm mixed: chill predominates, followed by sweat, then heat, or chill and sweat, or sweat and heat, no thirst in any stage.

Frequent relapse form gastric derangement, in all types of fever, especially from over eating during typhoid convalescence.

H. C. Allen
Dr. Henry C. Allen, M. D. - Born in Middlesex county, Ont., Oct. 2, 1836. He was Professor of Materia Medica and the Institutes of Medicine and Dean of the faculty of Hahnemann Medical College. He served as editor and publisher of the Medical Advance. He also authored Keynotes of Leading Remedies, Materia Medica of the Nosodes, Therapeutics of Fevers and Therapeutics of Intermittent Fever.