Arsenicum album Fever Symptoms


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


Fever

Characteristic – Great prostration, with rapid sinking of the vital forces. Fainting.

The disposition is:

a. Depressed, melancholic, despairing, indifferent. b. Fearful, restless, anxious, full of anguish. c. Irritable, sensitive, peevish, easily vexed. – Dunham.

Mentally restless, but physically too weak to move, cannot rest in any place, changing places continually, wants to be moved from one bed to another, and lies now here, now there.

Anxious fear of death, thinks it useless to take medicine, is incurable, is surely going to die, dread of death, when alone, or, going to bed.

Burning pains ameliorated by heat, is very characteristic Burning pains, the affected parts burn like fire.

Excessive anxiety, great anguish, extreme restlessness, fear of death.

Burning thirst, without special desire to drink, the stomach does not seem to tolerate, because it cannot assimilate, cold water, it is wanted but he cannot drink it.

Great thirst for cold water, drinks often but little at a time, simply to moisten the dry mouth and lips, eats seldom but much.

Teething children are pale, weak, fretful, and want to be carried rapidly.

Cannot bear the smell or sight of food (Colchicum, Sepia).

Desires: acids, beer, brandy, wine, coffee, warm food, milk, fruits and vegetables.

Aversions: sweets, meats, fatty things, farinaceous food, loathes even the thought of food.

Gastric derangements: after cold fruits, ice cream, ice water, sour beer, bad sausage, alcoholic drinks, strong cheese.

Bad effects from decayed food or animal matter, whether by inoculation, olfaction or ingestion.

Diarrhea after eating or drinking, stool scanty, dark color, offensive odor, followed by great prostration.

Rapid emaciation: with cold sweat and great debility (Verbascum – of affected parts, Tuberculinum).

Excessive exhaustion from least exertion.

Exhaustion is not felt by the patient while lying still, when he moves he is surprised to find himself so weak.

Skin: dry and scaly, cold, blue and wrinkled, with cold, clammy perspiration, like parchment, white and pasty, black vesicles and burning pain.

Breathing: asthmatic, must sit or bend forward, springs out of bed at night, especially after twelve o’clock, unable to lie down for fear of suffocation, attacks like croup instead of the usual urticaria.

Relation: Complementary: Alliums., Carbo vegetabilis, Phosphorus, Pyrogen

Aggravation: After midnight (1 -2 A.M., 1 – 2 p.m.), from cold, cold drinks or food, when lying on the affected side or with the head low.

Amelioration: From heat in general (rev. of Secale) except headache, which is temporarily ameliorated by cold bathing (Spigelia).

Type: Quotidian, tertian, quartan, double tertian and quartan. Anticipating (Bryonia, Cinchona, Nux). Every fourteen days. Yearly (Lachesis, Nat.). Irregular, both in type and stage (Nux). Remitting and relapsing both tend to typhoid and typhus, especially after abuse of Quinine.

Septic, typhoid, typhus or yellow fever.

Time: All periods mostly afternoon paroxysms, 1 to 2 P.M., 12 to 2 A.M., 3 to 6 p.m., 5 p.m., 12 m. Every fourteen days (Calcarea, Cinchona, Pulsatilla).

Anticipates, one hour every other day.

Yearly return of complaints (Carbo vegetabilis, Sul., Thuja).

Fever without chill – 2 A.M., 4 p.m., 10 p.m.

Afternoon intermittents of nursing children, without chill, must be covered, and very thirsty, fever lasting all night.

Prodrome: “Sleepiness night before paroxysm.” – H. V. Miller.

Yawning and stretching, malaise, debility, weakness, headache, vertigo, great weariness and inclination to lie down, slight creepings over the back after drinking, cutting pain in chest and bowels like knives, and watery diarrhea, shuddering. every morning stretching of limbs, gaping, emptiness in head, anxiety, thirst, and immediately after drinking chilliness and crawling.

Chill: Without thirst, irregularly developed, never clearly defined, simultaneously, or alternating with heat, mingling of heat and chilliness, all ameliorated by external warmth ( Ignatia – aggravated by external heat, Apis, Ipecac. ). Irregular chills at any time of day. Shuddering when walking in the open air. Generally little if any thirst during chill, then prefers hot drinks, if thirsty, frequent drinking but little at a time, but drinking increases the chilliness and causes shuddering, nausea and vomiting (drinking hastens and aggravates chill and causes nausea, Eup.perf. causes headache, Cimex every drink causes shivering and chill, Caps. ), oppression of the chest (Apis), coldness of abdomen (Men.), blue nails and lips (Nux), tastelessness of food, shuddering without thirst, worse in the open air. Internal chill, with external heat and red cheeks, coldness of body and dryness of the skin, burning heat of skin, cold to the touch, headache.

Coldness of the whole body, pale, sunken face, very sickly appearance, lips pale, rigor, pains in limbs, back and chest, breathing impeded, restless, trembling.

Crawling in the evening, with stretching of limbs and anxious restlessness. Chill gradually increasing shaking rigor.

Concomitants of chill: colic and nausea, diarrhea, unconsciousness, drawing, tearing in limbs, thighs feel as if beaten, cramps and contraction in chest, difficult breathing, desire to urinate and frequent urination, hunger.

With the shivering and coldness, aggravation of other complaints. Coldness and chilliness renewed after drinking and after eating.

“Chill in forenoon not relieved by anything, external coldness, with cold, with cold, clammy sweat.” – Hering.

Chill or chilliness without thirst, if there be thirst during chill except for hot drinks, do not give Arsenic. – H.N.Guernsey.

Heat: The hot stage of the fever is intense, long lasting, dry, burning and pungent to the touch, with inclination to uncover (Apis, Secale). and insatiable thirst for cold water, drinks little and often, with vomiting after drinking several times. Internal, burning, dry heat at night, must be uncovered. Burning heat as if hot water were poured over one, or as if hot water were coursing through the blood-vessels (Bryonia, Rhus.). Oppressed breathing (Apis), Great restlessness, and pressing, burning pain in the region of the spleen. Burning pain in stomach and bowels. During chill and heat, aggravation of previously existing symptoms. Heat following the chill is dry, burning, unbearable, lasts three or four hours, with painful pressure and tension in both hypochondria, fulness in epigastrium, pressing pain in forehead, restlessness, anxiety and unquenchable thirst, sometimes a great desire for acids and acid drinks.

Sweat: This stage is as variable as that of chill – with unquenchable thirst for large quantities of cold water (Cinchona), which causes vomiting. Sweat, with cessation of all the previous symptoms (Nat.of all except headache, which is increased, Eup. ). Sweat, sometimes offensive and sour smelling. Sweat during first sleep, or during entire night, cold, clammy sweat. Sweat with excessive thirst. Sweat with thirst, coming on several hours after the heat, or, which is oftener the case, there is no sweat at all, the dry heat continuing all night. After the paroxysm with or without sweat great weakness and prostration. and a desire for stimulants, wine or coffee. There is more headache than in the hot stage, unless there be copious sweat (most intense in hot stage, Nat. ). Drinks large quantities in sweat, little and often in chill and heat.

With the various stages of the fever always appear other symptoms.

Tongue: Sides furred with red streak down the middle (Ant- t.) and red tip, yellowish – white, brown, bluish. Water tastes bitter, desire for acids, brandy. Aversion to food (aversion to meat, Arnica ).

Pulse: Weak, small, easily compressible. Very frequent in morning, slower at night. Pulsations through whole body (Arnica, Nat.). Burning or cold sensations in the blood – vessels (Rhus).

Apyrexia: Never clear of symptoms. Great debility, lassitude, weakness of all the limbs and constant inclination to lie down (Arnica). Face pale, sunken, sallow, clay – colored, bloated, dull aching in region of liver and spleen, painful on pressure, with sensation as if swollen. Abdomen bloated (Apis), fetid, watery, diarrheic stools, which are very debilitating, urine scanty and turbid. Constant desire for acids or something refreshing. The patient is constantly chilly and must be in a warm room. General anemic appearance (Eup., Cinchona, Ferrum). Skin pale, often covered with cold perspiration. Icterus after the fever. Fevers contracted at sea – shore watering places, coming on in the autumn, or “wintered over” and not coming on until spring (Gelsemium).

“The paroxysm is not complete. One (especially the cold) stage is generally wanting.” – Carroll Dunham.

The following admirable analysis of the indications for Arsenic in intermittent (or other) fever is by Dr. Wurmb in Homoeopatische Clinische Studien, I, p. 179:

“Arsenic is one of those few drugs whose action is distinguished not alone by its intensity, but equally by its extent, it involves the entire organism. Every system, every organ of the body, every nervous filament, is so subjected to its powerful influence that we are not able to say which of its symptoms are primary, which are secondary, and where the focus of its action chiefly lies. We see the entire nerve – life attacked in all directions, from the mere sensation of weakness to actual paralysis, and then we see, like wise, another series of disturbances aries from its action, which advance in regular gradation from the most inconsiderable acceleration of the circulation to the most violent febrile storm, from the slightest irregularity in the vegetative sphere to a cachectic dyscrasia, yes, even to decomposition and destruction of the organic substance.

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.