Calcarea phos [Calc-p]
Nervous prostration, with depression of spirits; profuse night-sweats; pale, and emaciated countenance; loss of virile power; habitual coldness and venous congestion of the extremities from debility, sleeplessness and loss of appetite; numb sensations.
Silicea [Sil]
Confusion, difficulty of fixing attention. Yielding and anxious mood. Reading and writing fatigue, cannot bear to think. Sense of great debility, but patient can arouse himself, has grit, but soon tires and is compelled to rest. Brain-fag in school girls, become confused during recitations, because they cannot concentrate their thoughts. Want to think, but are unable to do so.
Kali phos [Kali-p]
To restore lost nervous energy. Covers the whole field of neurasthenia. Dull heavy aching in occiput, drowsy and restless, foul breath from tongue.
Natrum mur [Nat-m]
With sleeplessness, gloomy forebodings, exhaustion after talking, embarrassment of the brain.
Magnesia phos [Mag-p]
In many cases of neurasthenia where there are characteristics of neuralgic pains, trembling and general weakness, it is the chief remedy.
BRAIN-FAG CASES [Brain-fag Cases]
In treating a number of cases of this trouble, the “Tissue Remedies” have been of the greatest service and the most rapid in their curative action. Cases which have been treated with various other methods and then changed on to the Tissue Remedies soon show the marked change for the better and take on a more rapid improvement. The great variety of causes and the different styles and conditions in which you first find the patients preclude any set rule in treatment, but the prime and all important condition to establish is proper nourishment to every part and tissue, and then to apply by the use of tissue remedies the most necessary demands. In order to supply the proper nourishment it may be necessary for the patient to have change of surroundings, happy occupation, change of air, scenery and food and then to build up with the Tissue Remedies the tissues or forces that have been overtaxed, overworked or under nourished and more or less exhausted. A regular method should be established regular exercise, regular meals, regular sleep and regular evacuations of the bowels and bladder. These are important. Usually Kali phos. is a good remedy to start with, it gets the mind in good condition, and aided by Calcarea phos., Ferrum phos. or Natr. phos., dependent on condition, soon begins the improvement. Then follow with the Calcarea sulph. as soon as the Phosphorus has built up the nerve cells, and the Sulph. is needed to finish up the work which may take from three months to two years or more, but can be done as positively with these remedies and the proper application of hygiene as it is possible to cure any disease in the domain of curative measures. (F.D. Bittinger, M.D., Dayton, Ohio).
The following two cases are taken from my note book at a dispensary:
January 23, 1893, Mrs. J., aged nineteen, twitching of eyelids, worse at 5 p.m. every day, after lamp is lighted. Eyes water with the twitching. Has dread of an accident until a shudder passes over the body; is then relieved of the nervousness. Feels weak, is often dizzy. In walking on the street steers for gutter, either to right or left. Despondent, had chorea when twelve years old, lasting two years. At seventeen had sense of dread at intervals for some months.
Prescribed Kali phosphoricum 4x, one grain tablet, four times daily. Jan. 30th mental state and dizziness improved. Remedy repeated. Did not return.
June 4th I went to her home and she told me that the twitching, dread and difficulty in walking passed away during the second week of treatment and had not returned. She was also relieved of the dizziness but has some now, due, she thinks, to pregnancy.
March 30th, Jas. C., aged twelve, pain in right leg, right arm and back. Drops things, especially if startled. Difficult speech, irritable, restless, constipated, sleep poor. Been nervous since seven years of age, at which time he was kicked in the back. After treatment for two years he was much better. Salt water bath down spine had benefited him. Last attack one month ago.
Kali phosphoricum 4x was prescribed, and he was kept on that remedy with continued improvement.
May 4th, reported better every way, except occasional inability to hold things in right hand; worse in the morning, gets better about noon.
May 11th, holds things with less difficulty, can write with more ease, always at his best at noon.
June 8th, has none of the above symptoms; the spine was bathed with salt water at first, but that measure was discontinued over five weeks ago. (T.C. Wiggins).
A Japanese laborer complained that he could not see after 4 p.m. He could see large objects, as a tree or a man, but could not tell whether he was hoeing out sugar cane or weeds. Learning that he did not notice such a condition on Sundays or holidays, I concluded that fatigue was the cause of his trouble, and put him on Kali phosphoricum 6x, with most gratifying improvement in two or three days. Soon he ceased to call. (T.C. Wiggins).
Mr. S., over sixty years of age, having been under heavy financial strain for months, was suddenly stricken the afternoon of August 14, 1893. He became unconscious in a store, where he had gone for help. I saw him the next day and he was evidently on the verge of prostration. I advised him to give up business and go away for at least a month. He could only leave the city for the rest of the week but that, with Kali phosphoricum 6x, helped him to go on with his business, till he could go away for a longer stay, which was some weeks later. He said, “The medicine braced me up wonderfully.”
The patient came to California with a modest fortune, which he has lost in unfortunate speculations a common occurrence. Anxiety, business cares and overwork had been telling upon him for months. Finally, about three months ago, while on the local train going home, he suddenly experienced a peculiar cerebral sensation, and became unconscious, but in a few minutes recovered, and asked the conductor to assist him from the train when he arrived at the station, and had the presence of mind to remember a bundle, which lay on the seat at his side, but was still dizzy and confused. After arriving at home, he experienced a severe spasmodic pain in the cardiac region, which was accompanied by faintness, shortness of breath, and coldness of the extremities. This lasted several hours, and continued thereafter to return for two weeks or more, without improvement, sometimes several times a day, at irregular intervals. This finally was attended by more or less mental weakness at times; and, as his physician informed him that he was suffering from an organic affection of the brain, the result of apoplexy, he became very despondent.
After three or four weeks he improved somewhat, but, in performing some trivial manual labor about his home, he experienced a relapse; and, as his physician insisted that his days were few, he concluded to try an eclectic physician, as he employed one in the East formerly as his family adviser.
When the patient came, in company with his wife, we found the case an unpromising one. He was past sixty years of age, of careworn appearance, despondent, and presenting marked evidence of nervous exhaustion. There was no paralysis, however, and no evidence of any loss of motion, sensory function, and upon making the effort we found he could call into use all his reasoning faculties. He complained of sleepless nights from lancinating pains in the left chest and left side of the face.
The prescription was Kali phos. 3x, to restore lost nervous energy, and Magnesia phos. for the spasmodic pains. Add five grains to a tumbler half full of water, each agent to be dissolved in a separate glass, and alternating give a teaspoonful every hour during the day, and until bedtime. In about a week the patient returned for more medicine, and marked improvement was observable. The careworn, despondent appearance of countenance had more of an expression of comfort and hope. He said he was better; had felt but one spasmodic attack since beginning the medicine, and could now go about and do light chores without becoming exhausted, and slept well all night. In another week his wife reported him as well as ever.- Editor California Medical Journal.
Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Michigan Homeopathic Medical College. Member of American Institute of Homeopathy. In addition to his editoral work he authored or collaborated on: Boericke and Dewey's Twelve Tissue Remedies, Essentials of Homeopathic Materia Medica, Essentials of Homeopathic Therapeutics and Practical Homeopathic Therapeutics.
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