General Action
Spirits of Ammonia and Carbonate of Ammonia are powerful but transient cardiac stimulants, very similar in action to Alcohol; they also increase the reflex activity of the spinal cord and even induce convulsions.
(The Muriate of Ammonia has, however, quite a different action). When the secondary effects of Ammonium carb. are studied it will be observed that there is a well-defined tendency to disorganization of the blood and numerous indications of defective nutrition, similar to scurvy, dark fluid haemorrhages, wasting of muscles, ulceration of the gums, looseness of the teeth and finally a low type of recurrent fever.
Generalities
General emaciation with a haemorrhagic tendency. Haemorrhages thin, dark. A general scorbutic state. Restlessness. Weakness. Extreme sensitiveness to cold. Constant desire to stretch. Bruised feeling of the flesh. General right-sided character of symptoms. Aggravated in evening at 3 A. M. (Uraemic convulsions).
Mind
Listless, difficult to think. Stupor (in scarlatina, diphtheria, etc.).
Head
Fulness or throbbing, bursting headaches, especially in forehead and vertex. The brain feels loose. Chronic headache with nausea, aggravated by walking in the open air. (In low types of meningitis, especially in eruptive diseases, with cyanosis; of temporary use).
Eyes
Burning. Vision dim, with flickerings. Photophobia. Muscular weakness. Yellow spots before vision.
Ears
Hearing difficult but painfully sensitive. Parotid gland swollen.
Nose
Tip seems full of blood on stooping. Nose bleed, dark, thin. Stoppage at night. Sneezing. Coryza dry, then fluent, with acrid liquid from nose, burning. Nostrils raw.
Face
Deathly pale; sometimes puffy. Freckles easily. Tetter around the mouth. Lips cracked in the corners.
Mouth
Gums swollen, bleeding easily. Teeth loose, elongated. Toothache, aggravated by biting on teeth, worse evening on first going to bed. Swelling of inside of cheeks. Blisters on mouth and tongue. Increased saliva, sour, salt or foul tasting.
Throat
Sore throat, (right side worse), swelling dark and bluish, feeling of a foreign substance, tonsils swollen, sub-maxillary glands swollen. (Frequently needed in low types of scarlatina, diphtheria, etc.).
Stomach
Great desire for sugar. Appetite quickly satiated. Must drink while eating. Constant thirst. Heartburn after eating, with scraping. Nausea and vomiting of food. Stomach oppressed after eating, with tenderness of pit of stomach. Cannot bear pressure of clothes after eating.
Abdomen
Symptoms accompanying the flatulent and acid dyspepsia, as above. Cramps, contractive, cutting, tearing, largely from gas, accompanied by nausea, waterbrash, followed by loose stool.
Stool
Constipation, hard nodular stool, with bleeding. Diarrhoea, preceded and followed by cutting in the abdomen.
Anus and Rectum
Haemorrhoids, bleeding with a hard stool. Itching piles.
Urinary Organs
Urine copious, depositing a red sediment. Micturition frequent, especially at night, even involuntary during sleep.
Sexual Organs
Sexual desire increased; involuntary emissions at night.
Sexual Organs, Female
Pruritus vulvae, with swelling and burning. Leucorrhoea watery, excoriating. Menses too frequent, profuse, preceded by colic (often by diarrhoea); blood dark or black, acrid, clotted, causes burning on the thighs. Menses followed by bowel troubles, especially straining at stool, colic, constipation.
Respiratory Organs
Laryngitis, with collection of mucus. Hoarseness. Dyspnoea, especially on ascending or in a warm room. Dyspnoea, at night, with palpitation, with dropsical symptoms, bloody expectoration, etc. (Emphysema.) Cough dry, as from a feather in the throat, aggravated at 3 A. M., with asthmatic constriction in the chest; expectoration bloody or taste of blood in the mouth. Cough from cardiac diseases; especially valuable in pneumonia with a weak heart.
Chest
Internal oppression, as if filled with blood. Stitches in left side, aggravated by lying on it.
Heart
Weak, pulse quick. Palpitation, with cough and dyspnoea. (Angina pectoris.).
Neck and Back
Drawing pains from sacrum to nape. Pain in back during menses.
Extremities
Tearing in the joints, ameliorated by warmth of the bed. Inclined to stretch. “Falling asleep” when sitting.
Upper Extremities
Right arm very heavy and powerless, veins swollen, aggravated by washing in cold water. (The skin of the palms peels off.) (Pains in old sprains of the wrist.).
Lower Extremities
Bruised pain in the hip joint and thighs. Jerkings in the knees. Restless legs. The big toe is swollen and painful, aggravated in evening in bed with swelling of foot. (Compare symptoms of acid dyspepsia!).
Skin
A scarlatina-like rash over upper half of the body (see throat and glands!). Itching and burning vesicles.
Sleep
General tendency to sleep and even stupor, with febrile conditions as well as gastric disturbances. Night-sleep restless from dreams and startings.
Fever
Chilliness, in evening, when going to bed. Heat general with stupor; local in face, in great toe. (Low type of exanthemata, coldness with a cyanotic hue, fever with stupor, etc.) Study Magnesia carb. and Apis.
Born in 1837in Westminster, Vermont. . He was an orthodox doctor who converted to homeopathy
Dr. Allen compiled the Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica over the course of 10 years.
In 1881 Allen published A Critical Revision of the Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica.