Moschus moschiferus. Musk deer. N.O. Mammalia. Triturations of the inspissated and dried secretion of the preputial follicles of the musk deer.
PATHOGENESIS.
MOSCHUS stimulates the nerves. It has a very powerful odour, and from its inhalation the imagination and general nervous sensibility are greatly excited, so much so that an overpowering effect may be produced and the patient faints, becomes unconscious and may even go into convulsions.
The sexual functions are much excited, sexual desire is aroused even in those who are unaccustomed to experience it or are aged, the menses are brought on several days before their time, and menstruation may be started again after it has ceased. Accompanying the stimulation of the sexual organs is an hysterical mental and moral condition. Pains and sensations are felt all over the body which cannot be attributed to any obvious cause, the circulation is quickened, blood rushes to the head and causes giddiness with a sensation of falling, sensations of heat and coldness occur in different parts-often heat in one part with coldness in an adjacent or opposite part, such as “one cheek hot, the other cold.” or “one hand hot and pale, the other cold and red.” There is a sensation as of a cold wind blowing on the patient or on some part of him; the shins, especially, feel cold. Feeling of tension are felt in the skin and muscles, the stomach and abdomen feel constricted and drawn in towards the spine, and the muscles of the face feel contracted. Sensations of pressure outwards occur in the heart and in the eyes. In the ears a rushing as of a strong wind or a fluttering is felt. The stomach feels full, with pressure towards the thorax, which feels constricted and oppressed, giving rise to spasmodic breathing. The mouth and throat are dry; there is burning in the oesophagus; food is loathed, but there is a longing for brandy and beer. Eructations and vomiting occur. Rumbling in the bowels is followed by discharge of flatus, or the abdomen is distended from inability to get rid of it up or down. There may be diarrhoea with retraction of the abdomen. Clear, copious urine accompanies many of the symptoms, especially the headaches, which are mostly in the frontal region, are a painful fulness and confusion with rush of blood to the head, and staring eyes, which feel forced outwards. There may be pressing and throbbing of the whole head, and a sensation of drawing, as with a thread, into the spine down the cord to the first lumbar vertebra. Sweat occurs on the forehead and the back of the head. There is painful pressure over both orbits, sight becomes dim or vanishes, or objects are distorted and look like “big black figures trying to press on him.” Power to concentrate is lessened, memory is impaired, the patient is nervous and anxious, thinks he is going to die when there is no reason for it, and is entirely unreliable in the relation of his symptoms, which are partly real and partly imaginary. The prover may have violent fits of anger with rage and scolding till she is blue in the face and fall in a faint.
The patient is usually drowsy by day and wakeful at night. He trembles and feels faint, and often actually faints. Sensations of falling are common. Spasms of the mouth prevent speech, and there are movements of the lower jaw as if chewing something. The general aspect is one of pallor, frequently with distortion of the facial muscles. Coldness is characteristic, Stiffness occurs in the hands and feet, especially in the fingers, which are stretched out stiffly.
THERAPEUTICS.
Nervous System.-Moschus is pre-eminently a remedy for hysterical complaints and for affections which, though they may have a certain slight basis in functional disorder, are much exaggerated as to their severity by the hysterical imagination of the patient. It is, therefore, a medicine suitable to hysterical manifestations in self-willed, over-indulged women who have never been sufficiently disciplined in the control of their feelings and desires. These patients get hysterical imaginations of the patient. It is, therefore, a medicine suitable to hysterical manifestations in self-willed, over-indulged women who have never been sufficiently disciplined in the control of their feelings and desires. These patients get hysterical headaches, which are accompanied with the passage of much watery urine, they may have attacks of spasmodic dyspnoea amounting to asthma, associated or not with nervous palpitation. Palpitation may occur without asthmatic breathing but with feeling of oppression in the chest, mental excitement and possibly fainting.
Moschus is suitable for attacks of laryngismus stridulus occurring in children and in self-willed girls when they cannot get their own way, for globus hystericus and for spasmodic hiccough. Great general coldness of the body and pallor of the face are indications for moschus in these cases. Even epilepsy is benefited by it when the general coldness, shuddering and the mentality of the patient are in agreement with that of the drug.
LEADING INDICATIONS.
(1) Hysteria.
(2) Coldness; pallor.
(3) Easy fainting.
(4) Sexual excitement with emotional manifestations.
(5) Sensation of cold wind blowing on parts.
(6) Sensation of tension and pressure outwards.
(7) Sensation of falling from a height.
(8) Irregular distributions of the circulation and of cold and heat.
AGGRAVATION:
From pressure, motion, sitting in a room (headache and nausea), becoming cold, after coitus (male subject, vomiting), during and after a meal, on side lain on.
AMELIORATION:
From getting warm (tension in head), open air (headache and vertigo).
Edwin Awdas Neatby founded the Missionary School of Homeopathy and the London Homeopathic Hospital in 1903, and run by the British Homeopathic Association. He died in East Grinstead, Sussex, on the 1st December 1933. Edwin Awdas Neatby wrote The place of operation in the treatment of uterine fibroids, Modern developments in medicine, Pleural effusions in children, Manual of Homoeo Therapeutics,