Lycopodium Fever Symptoms


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


Fever

Characteristic – Best suited to persons intellectually keen, but physically weak, upper part of body wasted, lower part semi – dropsical, lean and predisposed to lung and hepatic affections (Phosphorus, Sul.), the extremes of life, children and old people.

Children: weak, emaciated, with well – developed heads but puny, sickly bodies.

Weeps all day, cannot calm herself, very sensitive, even cries when thanked.

Irritable, peevish and cross on waking, ugly, kick and scream, easily angered, cannot endure opposition or contradiction, seeks disputes, is beside himself.

Baby cries all day, sleeps all night (rev. of Jal., Psorinum).

Avaricious, greedy, miserly, malicious, pusillanimous.

Ailment from fright, anger, mortification, or vexation with reserved displeasure (Staphysagria).

Catarrh: dry, nose stopped at night, must breathe through the mouth (Am.c., Nux vomica, Sambucus), snuffles, child starts from sleep rubbing its nose, of root of nose and frontal sinuses, crusts and elastic plugs (Kali bichromicum, Teuc.).

Deep – seated, progressive chronic disease. Pains, chiefly aching – pressure, drawing, right – sided, aggravated from 4 to 8 P.M.

Dread of men, of solitude, fear of being left alone (Arsenicum, Bismuth, Kali carb.).

Red sand in urine, on child’s diaper (Phosphorus), child cries before urinating (Borax), pain in back ameliorated by urinating.

Gastric affections: excessive accumulation of flatulence, constant sensation of satiety, good appetite, but a few mouthfuls fill up to the throat, and he feels bloated, borborygmus.

Complexion: pale, dirty, unhealthy, fan – like motion of alae nasi (see Ant.t), sallow, looks older than he is.

Affects right side, or goes from to left, throat, chest, abdomen, ovaries.

One foot hot and the other cold (Cinchona, Digitalis, Ipecac.).

Constipation: since puberty, since last confinement, when away from home, of infants, with ineffectual urging, rectum contracts and protrudes during stool, developing piles.

Impotence: of young men, from onanism or sexual excess, penis small, cold, relaxed, old men, with strong desire but imperfect erections, Fall asleep during embrace, premature emissions.

Dryness of vagina: burning in, during and after coition (Lyssinum), physometra, prevents coition.

Discharge of blood from genitals during every stool.

Fetus appears to be turning somersaults

Pneumonia, neglected or maltreated, base of right lung involved especially, to hasten absorption or expectoration.

Cough deep, hollow, even raising mucus in large quantities affords little relief.

Relations – Complementary: Iodum.

Follows well: after Calcarea, Lachesis, Pulsatilla, Sul.

Aggravation: From 4 to 8 p.m., after eating, cold food or drinks, oysters, salt food.

Amelioration: On getting cold, uncovering, warm food and drinks, loosening the garments.

Type: Quotidian, tertian, double tertian, quartan, double quartan, every seventh day (Cinchona), typhoid, typhus..

Time: Morning paroxysm, 8 or 9 A.M., afternoon paroxysm, 3 or 4 p.m.

Evening paroxysm (the most severe), 6 or 7 P.M., and continues until morning.

Evening fever without chill, every day, or every other day, at same hour.

Prodrome: Sometimes flushes of heat, and nausea and vomiting precede the chill, without thirst.

Chill: Without thirst. First, she awoke in the morning with chilliness, followed by great heat. Violent chill at 8 A.M., lasting half an hour, and followed by little heat. Chilliness at 9 A.M., over the whole body, she cannot get warm even by a stove. Pernicious intermittents with a long – lasting chill coming on at 9 A.M. and finally passing off without subsequent heat or sweat. Febrile paroxysm every afternoon at 3 o’clock, lasting till late in the evening, a constantly increasing chilliness, without subsequent heat or sweat (Bovista). Evening paroxysm, slight chill, followed immediately by violent, long – continuing heat, weariness, prostration, and pains in the limbs (Arsenicum). Alternating chill and heat, with great redness and heat of the cheeks (Belladonna). Chilliness at 4 P.M., goose-flesh over the whole body, with incessant yawning, nausea, inclination to vomit, chilliness starting from the back and extending over the whole body (Caps., Gelsemium), with numbness and coldness of the hands and feet, no sweat, no thirst, but heat, which was confined to the face, the chill lasted two hours and a half, and ended with excessive weakness and weariness of the feet, inclination to sleep, and slight drawings in the wrists and fingers of both hands, she slept well through the night and woke well the next morning.

Chilliness over the whole body in the evening at 6 p.m., starting from the back, with a feeling as if water were spurted upon the back (Ant.t. Ledum, Rhus), chilliness with stupefying sleep, followed by uneasy sleep, with dreams, chilliness over whole body lasting two hours, with stupefaction of the head, sleepiness, tearing in the limbs, no thirst, and no sweat. At 7 p.m., shaking chill, commencing in the back, with numb, icy cold hands and feet (Ced., Sepia), she cannot get warm in bed for two hours, the tearing in the limbs is worse, with uninterrupted yawning, nausea and inclination to vomit.

Febrile paroxysm at 7 p.m., shaking chill, with icy coldness even in bed, as if she were lying on ice, lasting two hours, with drawings in all the limbs, back and whole body, on waking from sleep full of dreams, perspiration all over, with great thirst after the sweat. During chill it seems as if the blood ceased to be warm and every thing internal would come to a stand – still. Chill on left side of the body (Causticum, Carbo vegetabilis – right side, Bryonia ). Nausea and vomiting, then chill, followed by sweat, without intervening heat (Causticum), Sour vomiting between chill and heat ( bitter, bilious vomiting, Eup., Ipecac. ), face and hands bloated (Apis, Arsenicum). Shivering after drinking (Arsenicum, Caps., Eup.) and while eating.

The first chills are usually one – sided, most frequently on the left.

Heat: With thirst. Flushes of heat over the whole body in the evening, with frequent drinking of small quantities at a time (Arsenicum, Cinchona). After eating, heat of the head and a red spot on the left cheek. Frequent rising of heat from the abdomen to the head, with burning in the cheeks. Great heat and redness of the face, with irresistible inclination to sleep (Apis, Ignatia). Face, cheeks, ears, eyes, fingers and palms of hands hot and burning. Nausea after cold drinks (nausea relieved by drinking, Lobelia), warm drinks are grateful (Casc., Ced.). Constipation, increased urination, which relieves the backache. Sour vomiting often occurs in or lasts during entire hot stage. Must uncover (Lachesis).

Sweat: Perspiration in the night, or in the morning after a restless night. Profuse sour – smelling perspiration on the body, but not on the lower legs. Night – sweat on body, not on the limbs. Morning – sweat only of the joints. Morning – sweat cold, sour, offensive, bloody, or smelling like onions. May be general over whole body. Perspiration immediately after the chill, without intervening heat (Causticum). Thirst after sweating stage.

Tongue: Clean, but dry, red, trembling, stiff, vesicles on tip, or brown, or cracked. Taste: sour, bitter, fatty, eructations sour. Desire for sweets (Ipecac.), for oysters, which disagree. Aversion to boiled warm food, tobacco smoke (Ignatia).

Pulse: Sensation as if the circulation stood still, accelerated in evening or after eating, ebullition with trembling (Mercurius).

Apyrexia: Not pronounced, but the concomitants are often guiding symptoms. Constant sense of fullness in the stomach and abdomen as if they would burst. Repletion after eating ever so little. Rumbling in the bowels, obstinate constipation. Cough, with thick, yellow, salty expectoration. Red, sandy sediment in the urine (Natr.). Patient cannot bear to be left alone (wants to be alone, Cinchona, Nux. ).

This remedy is frequently rejected, when indicated, in intermittent fever, if the paroxysm does not occur at 4 p.m., and the red, sandy sediment is not present in the urine. The sediment rarely occurs in acute cases, and the most severe and most frequent paroxysm is the evening one at 6 or 7 p.m., which lasts all night. The flatulence, sour eructations, sour taste, sour sweat, sour vomiting, are much more reliable guides, because more often present. No single symptom, however guiding, is sufficient to warrant a prescription. If the totality corresponds, Lycopodium will cure, irrespective of time of paroxysm. The general symptoms of Lycopodium are aggravated from 4 to 8 P.M., and if present, constitute an additional indication.

Analysis: The time 4 – 8 p.m. or 6 – 7 p.m. Sour eructations, sweet taste and vomiting. Sour vomiting between chill and heat or, during heat. Chill, severe, with icy coldness, as if lying on ice. Heat, thirst for warm drinks, must uncover. Sweat, immediately after chill, most thirst after sweat. Gastric repletion after eating ever so little. Red, sandy sediment in the urine.

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.