Ferrum phos [Ferr-p]
Consequences of anger. Indifference to ordinary matters, loss of courage and hope, trifles annoy.
Kali phos [Kali-p]
Brain-fag from overwork, with loss of appetite, stupor, depressed spirits, irritability, or great impotence, loss of memory or sleeplessness. Crossness and irritability in children; ill temper often arising from nervous disturbances. Fear, fretfulness in children, crying and screaming. Somnambulism. Very nervous, starts at the slightest sound, talks while asleep, wants to be carried while awake from room to room. Wakes easily. Rambling talk while awake. Despondency about business and pecuniary affairs. Indisposition to mix the people. Low spirits, feeling of faintness. Dread of noise. Oversensitiveness to noise. Dulness, want of energy, timidity. Hallucinations, homesickness. Morbid activity of memory, haunted by visions of the past and longing after them. Hypochondriasis, melancholy, ill-humored from nervous exhaustion. Mental illusions (an abnormal condition of the gray nervous matter), false impressions and fancies. Lassitude, depressed state, want of energy. Madness, loss of correct reasoning faculty requires this remedy. Mania in its various stages and degrees. Melancholia accompanying exhausting drains affecting the nerve-centres of the spinal cord. Loss of memory. Melancholia from overstrain of the mind. In paresis it will brighten and stay for a time the incurable disease. Night terrors in children; they awake screaming and in fright. Restlessness and irritability. Too keen sensitiveness. Sighing and depression, with inclination to look at the dark side of everything. Sighing and moaning in sleep. Shyness, excessive blushing from emotional sensitiveness, lack of controlling force over the nerves of the coats of the vessels. Starts on being touched, or at sudden noises; whining disposition, makes “mountains out of mole-hills.” After effects of grief. It is an invaluable remedy in the convalescing stages of all forms of mental disease.
“When insanity is caused from masturbation, and the patient is not idiotic in his action, but is restless and morose and at times quarrelsome, even though it be very aggravated but not of too long standing, it yields more readily to Kali phos. than any other remedy we have used.” (W.E. Taylor, Supt. Western Asylum for the Insane).
Natrum sulph [Nat-s]
Suicidal tendency, must exercise great restraint. Mental troubles arising from falls and injuries to head. Music unbearable. Makes him melancholic.
Magnesia phos [Mag-p]
Illusions of senses. Very forgetful. Dulness and inability to think clearly. Indisposed to any mental effort.
Natrum mur [Nat-m]
Great sadness, apprehension for the future, like to dwell on unpleasant occurrences, consolation only makes matters worse. Hypochondriasis, accompanied with dryness and irritable conditions of mucous membranes, and constipation with hard stool. Sadness with palpitation, avoids company, being too easily vexed.
Natrum phos [Nat-p]
Nervous, irritable, vexed at trifles. Anxious and apprehensive. Imagines that pieces of furniture are persons; that he hears footsteps in the next room.
Silicea [Sil]
Imagines he is in two places at the same time. Monomania about pins. Longing for home and relatives, pensive, obstinate, irascible. Prostration and nervous weakness, restlessness and heavy dreams accompany symptoms, which are also aggravated about the time of full moon, in change of weather and during a storm.
Calcarea fluor [Calc-f]
Great depression, with groundless fear of financial ruin. Indecision.
MENTAL CASES [Mental Cases]
IDIOCY – In January, 1891, a lady came to consult me about the mental condition of her youngest boy. Her boy, C.S., was then 26 years old, 5 feet 8 inches tall and although pretty strong physically, appetite good, etc., he was a perfect idiot, unable to answer any questions except by yes or no, and even these answers were stupid. His appearance and his manner of acting was that of a child only a few years old. I remarked that all his teeth were decayed, and that one side of his head, the left, was a great deal smaller than the right. He was very nervous in his demeanor, unable to remain quiet on the chair for five minutes, and when these spells of nervousness reached the paroxysm, he generally tore off all his clothing and flung it in every direction about the room, until he was completely naked. However, he seemed to have some fear or respect for his old mother, the only one, indeed, able to handle him. He was not addicted to masturbation, but absolutely nothing seemed to interest him.
From time to time for several years, this boy had been treated by several physicians of the old school, but without any success. This patient was the seventh child of the family; all the others were healthy, as also were the father and mother. I inquired if during the pregnancy of the mother with this child she had been subject to any accident or fright. She answered no; on the contrary, she had always had a quiet and happy life.
I prescribed for this patient: Magnesia phos., Calcarea phos., both in the 3x tr., in 5-grain doses to be taken in alternation every hour during the day, the boy usually sleeping very quietly at night; I recommended that the patient be brought to me every week; of course, I did not promise a cure, but warned the mother to be patient with the poor boy, for the treatment would be long and tedious one.
After a month of the above treatment, the mother reported that the bad nervous spells of tearing the clothing were stopped; the boy was more quiet, following her all over the house, and seeming to take interest in her household work.
Two months after the beginning of the treatment, his intelligence seemed to develop in some respect; he helped the mother sweeping the rooms and washing the dishes without breaking them, getting interested in many different other things, particularly in looking at images or photos, and pointing correctly that such and such were pictures of his brothers and sisters, etc. After the fourth month of treatment, I advised the mother to let him go with his brothers, who were carpenters, and see whether he could make himself useful for them in their work. So he did; he commenced by helping them in carrying boards and sometimes planing them when necessary; week after he became more and more interested in their work.
Finally, after eight months’ treatment, always under Magnesia phos. and Calcarea phos., he was able to do eight hours of common carpenter work for his brothers, and to make dollar 2 a day, without experiencing any dislike, fatigue or laziness. He is still working steady, of course, like a man of poor intellect, but he is no more a burden as before to the great satisfaction of his poor old mother.
The improvement of that idiot has been permanent until now. (Dr. E. A. de Cailhol, Los Angeles, Cal).
MENTAL DISORDERS. – Lady, 26 years of age, insane but not violent melancholia due to domestic troubles; weak mind, depressed spirits, cross, fretful, constantly looking on the dark side of life; hallucinations of hearing. Emaciated, sleepless by night, gloomy by day. Great dread, cries much of the time, only takes food by persuasion. Many seemingly indicated remedies were given with no effect; a better history was taken, Kali phos. prescribed. In a few short days she became much brighter, played on the piano and sang, and each day improved, both mentally and physically, until she seemed perfectly well and was sent home. (W.E. Taylor, Supt. Western Asylum for Insane).
Patient aet. 89, suffering from deep hypochondriasis, melancholia, tediousness of life, fear of death, mistrust, downhearted and morose. After the failure of the ordinary homoeopathic remedies he was entirely restored by Kali phos. 6.
Another case of religious melancholia, of three weeks’ standing, in a woman, was entirely cured by Kali phos. 6 in one week. (Dr. Arnberg, Allg. Hom. Zeit., 1881.) Detailed description below.
Miss M., the daughter of the late Dr. M., has been suffering since her eighteenth year from occasional attacks of aberration of the mind. But as years passed on, these attacks of insanity became worse and more frequent, until it was deemed advisable by her brother to make arrangements with the doctor of the lunatic asylum in the district to have her removed there. As a last recourse, a friend called to see if new remedies could be of any service in such a hopeless case. Having assured him that Kali phos. would do her good, they gave it very steadily, four doses daily for weeks. this was four years ago. The result was most satisfactory. After taking it she never had another attack, and is completely cured; able to superintend home duties, receive callers and make calls, which she had not been able to do for years, on account of feeling so nervous and shy during the intervals of the attacks. Several cases of a similar nature have been treated with equal success – two of these puerperal mania. (M.D.W. From Schussler).
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.