Phosphoric acid. H3PO4. Dilution. (The dilute acid of ***B.P. forms the homoeopathic ix. In U.S. the first solution is made of glacial Phosphoric Acid.).
Causation
Bad news. Grief. Chagrin. Disappointed love. Separation from home. Loss of fluids. Sexual excesses. Injuries. Operations. Over-lifting. Over-study. Shock.
Clinical
*Amblyopia. Asthma. Boils. *Brain-fag. Bronchitis, capillary. Chancre. Chilblains. Cholera. Climacteric flushes and vertigo. Coccygodynia. Condylomata. Corns. Cough. Coxalgia. *Debility. *Diabetes. *Diarrhoea. Dyspepsia. *Emissions. *Enteric fever. Enuresis. *Feet, *sore. Flatulence. Ganglion. Gout. *Gravel. *Hair, *falling off. *Headache, of school children. Hectic. Herpes. *Hip-joint disease. *Home-sickness. *Impotence. *Joints, *scrofulous. Lactation defective. Levitation. Lienteria. Locomotor ataxy. Love, disappointed. Masturbation. *Mental weakness. Mercurial syphilis. Navel, pains in. Neurasthenia. Nymphomania. Osteomyelitis. *Perspiration, *profuse. Phosphaturia. *Physometra. Pimples. *Pregnancy, *diarrhoea of, nausea of. Prepuce, warts on. Psoas abscess. Puerperal eclampsia. *Purpura. Rheumatism. Sciatica. Scurvy. *Self-abuse. *Spermatorrhoea. Spinal caries. Sycosis Hahnemann. Syphilis. Tetters. Typhus fever. Ulcers. *Urine, *phosphatic. Uterus, prolapse of. Varices. Vertigo. Warts. Wens. Worms.
Characteristics
*Phos-ac. is less poisonous than *Phosphorus Our chief knowledge of it is derived from Hahnemann’s provings in *M.M.P. These show a marked action on the emotional and sensorial faculties, a drowsy, depressed, apathetic state being produced, such as is not infrequently met with in typhoid fevers. The keynote of the *Phos-ac. stupor is that the patient is easily aroused and then is fully conscious. Indifference, prostrated and stupefied with grief, effects of disappointed love. Home-sick. The mind is confused, thoughts cannot be connected, thinking makes him dizzy. The legs tremble in walking and the limbs are as difficult to control as the thoughts. Many symptoms of vertigo are produced, and one is peculiar. *Phosphorus has a sensation as if the chair he was sitting on was rising, *Phos-ac. Has this: Sensation as if the feet were rising until he stood on his head. This very symptom occurred in a patient of Skinner’s suffering from small- pox. The disease had been cut short by Variol., when the patient, a lady, complained that her feet were rising to the ceiling, and begged her nurses to keep them down. Phos-ac. speedily put her straight. Phos-ac. causes illusions of the senses as well as of the sensorium, bells are heard, ciphers, sparks, &c., are seen. At the same time there is exalted sensitiveness to light, sound, and odours, “odours take away his breath.” A remarkable effect was noted by Becher, one of Hahnemann’s provers (the same who experienced the topsy-turvy symptom just mentioned), namely, that the right pupil became widely dilate while the left remained normal: the more he strained the eye the wider the pupil became until the iris almost disappeared. Franz had this symptom: “Sees things lying near him (outside the sphere of vision) moving.” Meyer had a somewhat analogous mental symptom: “When reading a thousand other thoughts came into his head, and he could not rightly comprehend anything, what he read became as if dark in his head, and he immediately forgot all, what he had long known he could only recall with difficulty.” Such states of mind and the senses are frequently observed in those under the influence of grief and other depressing emotions, from over-study, and in the subjects of venereal excesses and seminal loss. But whilst these losses produce extreme weakness of mind and body, and an abashed, sad state of mind with despair of cure, there is one drain which does *not debilitate a diarrhoea. “President, painless, watery diarrhoea, often containing undigested particles of food, and which does not debilitate,” is a keynote of *Phos- ac. Another characteristic in connection with the debility of *Phos-ac. is that though the weakness is very great the patient is *rested by a short sleep. (*Phosphorus also has better by sleep, but not so markedly by a *short sleep.) The copious discharges of *Phos-ac. appear in the sweat and urine. The keynote of the enuresis of *Phos-ac. is that the child passes a *great quantity of urine. The polyuria and dry mouth and throat give leading correspondences for *Phos-ac. In diabetes, and when there is in addition a history of sexual excess, or of severe mental or emotional over-strain, the indications will be very clear. White, milky urine, and also white stools, are very characteristic of *Phos-ac. The urine may be passed clear but turns milky at once, and is very offensive. If flatulence is to be regarded as an excretion that is another instance of the excess of *Phos-ac. There is meteoristic distension and passing of flatus in large quantities, sometimes with odour of garlic. “Meteoristic distension, rumbling or gurgling and noise as if there were water in abdomen, worse when touched and when the body is bent backward and forward.” A case quoted from *H. Maandblad. illustrates the action of *Phos-ac. In gastric affections. A married woman, 36, mother of eight children, had for some time been so melancholy and depressed as to be unable to fulfil her household duties. There was no discoverable mental cause, though her condition had been made worse by a sudden death in the family. The beginning of the illness was apparently a weakness of the stomach: small appetite, always pain and distension after eating, the food seemed to lie long in the stomach undigested. *Phos-ac. 6x, ten drops three times a day, soon restored the patient. In connection with the flatulence of *Phos-ac. there is even bloating of the uterus with gas. The menses are excessive and premature, and there are many symptoms connected with the pregnant and puerperal state, including debility from lactation. *Phos-ac. Has many respiratory symptoms, and this is a keynote: “Weak feeling in chest from talking, coughing, or sitting too long, better by walking.” Hoarseness and nasal voice, dyspnoea, capillary bronchitis. The cough seems to be caused by tickling of a feather from middle of chest to larynx, low down in chest, about ensiform cartilage, pit of stomach, is worse evening after lying down, expectoration muco-purulent, salty, bloody, offensive. Every draft of air causes fresh cold. Cough causes headache, nausea and vomiting of food, spurting of urine. A very prominent sensation running through the proving is that of *pressure; pressure as from a crushing weight in vertex, forehead, sternum. Pressure in eyes, in navel, in left breast. Squeezing above the knee, in the sole. The haemorrhages of *Phos-ac. are dark, profuse, with passive haemorrhages. A case of land scurvy (quoted *Amer. *Hom., xxii. 421) contracted in mining camps presented the usual condition of the gums, and also purpureal spots covering the whole body. Patient was able to be about, and had little pain, but was despondent. Pulse weak, very slow. Had been months ill under old-school treatment. Mercurius Sol. was given but did not relieve. *Phos-ac. given strong enough to taste acid speedily cured. A peculiar symptom of *Phos-ac. is involuntary biting of tongue in sleep. The sphincters are weakened, and there is involuntary escape of faeces and urine, the latter especially on coughing or movement. *Peculiar sensations are: As if intoxicated. As if head would burst. As if feet going up. As if weight in head. As if brain crushed. Bones as if scraped with a knife. As if eyeballs too large. As if white of egg had dried on face. As if lower jaw were going to break. Nausea as if in soft palate, in throat. As if stomach being balanced up and down. Heavy load in stomach. Ants crawling over body. Uterus as if filled with wind. Tickling in chest as with a feather, as with down in larynx. Red-hot coal on arm and shoulder. *Phos-ac. is suited to: (I) Persons of originally strong constitution weakened by loss of fluids, excesses, violent, acute diseases, chagrin or a long succession of moral emotions. (2) Persons of mild disposition. (3) Children and young people who have grown too rapidly, tall, slender, and slim, with pains in back and limbs as if beaten, growing pains. Lutze (*Hahn. *Adv., 1900,664) cured with *Phos-ac. a German woman, 66, of chronic, early morning, painless diarrhoea after the failure of Podophyllum and partial success of *Gelsemium The patient had been ill two years, dating from the time she came to Brooklyn from Germany to be near her daughters. One of the latter gave Lutze the keynote of the case by telling him that her mother was *home sick, and wanted to return to Germany, though she had not a single relative there. The symptoms are: worse By music (every note causes stitch in ears, violent pains in head). Slight shock or noise causes pressure in head to be extremely violent. Odours causes vomiting. Bad news, depressing emotions causes cough, diarrhoea, etc. Touch worse. Movement of child causes escape of stool. Many symptoms are worse evening and night. Better after short sleep. Many symptoms are better by walking. Sitting worse. Standing worse. Better lying on left side. Worse side on which he lies. Worse talking. Better from mental affections, suppressed eruptions, loss of fluids, especially seminal, masturbation, perspiration, urination. There is desire for warm food, which ameliorates pressive pain in stomach. Warm room worse. Warmth of bed ameliorates pains in bowels. Aversion to uncover in heat. Worse by draught, wind, snowy air. Cannot bear draught on chest. Every draught causes fresh cold. Catching cold in summer causes diarrhoea. Least cold causes arthritic pains. Coldness of part causes diarrhoea. Least cold causes arthritic pains. Coldness of part worse pains. Fresh air causes invigoration.
