Agaricus Muscarius


James Tyler Kent describes the symptoms of the homeopathic medicine Agaricus Muscarius in great detail and compares it with other homeopathy remedies. …


Generalities: The most striking things running through Agaricus are twitchings and tremblings, jerkings of the muscles and trembling of the limbs; quivering and tremors, everywhere these two features are present in all parts of the body and limbs.

The twitching of the muscles becomes so extensive that it is a well-developed case of chorea. It has in its nature all that is found in chorea and has cured many cases. This is a general belonging to all parts to all muscles.

Throughout the body there is a sensation of creeping and crawling. It is hardly confined to the skin, it is felt as if in the flesh, a sensation as if of ants.

Itching of the skin all over which changes place from scratching. No place is exempt from this. There are strange sensations here and there upon the skin or in parts, cold sensations, sensations of cold needles and of hot needles; stinging and burning where the circulation is feeble, about the ears, nose, back of hands and fingers and toes, red spots with itching and burning as if frostbitten. It is a great remedy for chilblains.

The patient is extremely nervous and sensitive to cold. Itching, pricking, tingling, etc., come on from mental exertion and are relieved from physical exertion.

All the symptoms of Agaricus are also aggravated after sexual intercourse, especially in the symptoms of the spinal cord. It is useful for the symptoms which come on after coition in young, nervous married women, hysterical fainting after coition.

Mind: The mental symptoms are such as you would expect.

Great changeability, irritability, mental depression and complaints which come on from overexertion of the mind and prolonged study. The brain seems to be developed tardily.

Children are late in learning to talk and walk, thus combining the features of two remedies, Natrum muriaticum, which has the symptom “late learning to talk,” and Calcarea carb., which has the symptom “late learning to walk.”

It will be noticed in Calcarea that this is due to a defect in bone weakness. In Agaricus it is a mental defect, a slowly developing mind.

Children with twitching and early fainting, nervous girls prior to puberty who have convulsions from being scolded, from excitement and shock; late in mental development.

Children who cannot remember, make mistakes and are slow in learning. Nervous patients who on going over their manuscripts find out their mistakes in writing and spelling.

The condition of the mind is one in which they are slow to grasp ideas; wrong words float in kaleidoscopically.

When we read in the book “the whole psychological sphere as if paralyzed,” we must read between the lines.

The whole mind and sensorium seem paralyzed; the patient is sluggish, stupid, at times seems to be delirious; there is confusion of the mind so nearly like delirium that it is not unlike intoxication.

A delirium such as is produced by alcohol. He also becomes silly, says foolish and silly things, sings and whistles at an inopportune time, makes verses and prophesies; or he lapses into an opposite state, becomes indifferent to Ids surroundings. One who is mild and placid becomes self-willed, obstinate and conceited.

Difficulty in coordinating the movements of the muscles of the body. Incoordination of brain and spinal cord. Clumsy motion of the fingers and hands. In handling things she drops them. Fingers fly open spasmodically while holding things.

You will sometimes cure Bridget in the kitchen with Agaricus or Apis, when the trouble is that she is continually breaking the dishes by letting them fall. These two remedies are opposites,

Agaricus must stay near the fire, while Apis she wants to get out of the kitchen. The awkwardness, clumsiness, etc., are both mental and bodily.

Every sort of change is rung on the patient and the doctor. At times the patient is stupid, awkward and clumsy, at other times quick and poetical, can run off poetry without effort, especially at night.

In the morning he is tired and sluggish and this may last till noon. The mental symptoms are worse in the morning and are relieved towards evening.

All jerkings and twitchings subside during sleep. There is vertigo when walking in the open air. He is always chilly. On undertaking to do something he does the opposite. Vertigo and confusion of mind are mixed up.

Head: It is a common feature for the headaches of this remedy to be associated with the spinal symptoms, the quivering and jerking.

Headaches in spinal patients. Pain as though sharp ice touched the head, or as if from cold needles. – That is general; we find it in other parts.

Pain in the head as if from a nail. There is some bleeding in the morning, and the blood is thick, black and will hardly drop. Coldness in the head.

In the scalp there are all sorts of queer sensations; icy coldness after itching or scratching. That runs all through the body. There is itching, although no eruption is visible; can’t let it alone, and after scratching there is a sensation of icy coldness in the part or as if the wind was blowing on it.

The head is in constant motion as in chorea. Itching of the scalp, especially in the morning on rising.

There again we have the general aggravation in the morning. There are marked eruptions on the scalp. Eczema with crusts.

Eyes: Twitching and jerking of the eyes.

You will observe this about the Agaricus eyes; as the patient looks at you there is a pendulum like action of the eyes, they go back and forth all the time; they oscillate, though he tries his best to fix his look on you.

This stops only during sleep; all the motions subside during sleep. A few other medicines have cured this eye symptom, Cicuta, Arsenicum, Sulphur, Pulsatilla, but Agaricus also produces and cures it.

There is every conceivable kind of deception in colors and in vision. Flickering before the eyes; he reads with difficulty. Objects seem to be where they are not. Black flies before the eyes; black motes; sees double; floating flies before the eyes.

Muscular weakness of the eyes. Irregularity of the motions of the eyes; pupils dilated; pupils contracted. Sensation as of a mist or cobweb before the eyes. Spasmodic twitching and jerking. The jerkings and twitchings are the most marked symptoms, as also the choreic movements about the eyes, and the deceptions in colors and figures before the eyes.

Ears: Redness, burning and itching of the ears as if they had been frostbitten.

The sensation as of chilblains, the same sensation as found throughout; the same itching and tingling as of the remedy in general. Dullness of hearing. Deafness. Hearing acute. in the morning he is dumb, sluggish, stupid, tired, but when evening comes he brightens up, becomes warmed up, becomes excited, poetical and prophetical, wants to sit up late at night, is brilliant, wants to play games.

Nose: Nosebleed; profuse, foetid discharge from the nose.

Agaricus will cure the most inveterate chronic catarrhs with dryness and crusts, in tubercular constitutions, so deep-seated is it.

It has cured many cases of incipient phthisis. It cures old coughs and catarrhs. Red nose, as if frostbitten. It is as good as Ledum and Lachesis for the red-tipped nose in old drunkards.

Face: From what we have already seen we expect twitching of the muscles of the face, and itching and redness and burning as if frostbitten, paralytic weakness, etc., because these are general features, and just as we expect we see these things in the text.

Choreic spasms. Expression as of idiocy. Now notice this: some patients when going on with their own usual vocation are pretty smart, but if you put some new idea before them, something not in the routine of their work, they are perfectly idiotic.

This is especially noticeable in the morning. He can’t take in anything new in the morning, but he is able to take in new ideas and is bright in the evening, like the effect produced by tea and coffee and alcoholic beverages.

This remedy is a great antidote to alcoholic beverages. In this remedy and in Zincum the spine is affected and both of these have aggravation from stimulants.

Agaricus has cured many cases of epileptiform convulsions, more commonly the hystero-epileptic type with frothing of the mouth, opisthotonos, drawing of the muscles of the face.

The Agaricus patient has spells in which a little muscle of the face or a few fibres of a muscle will quiver for a few minutes and stop, and then in another part of the face the same thing, an eyelid will quiver, and then another set of fibres, sometimes so bad as to nearly drive him crazy. Such is an Agaricus state as well as Nux vomica.

Mouth: The teeth feel too long and are sensitive to touch. The tongue quivers, twitches, jerks and causes disorderly speech; articulates violently.

Tongue, dry, tremulous. Learns to speak with difficulty. Spasms of the tongue, inarticulate speech. Phagedenic ulcer on the fraenum of the tongue; eats it away. Soreness of the tongue. Mercurial aphthae in roof of mouth. Little white blisters like nursing sore mouth. Chronic sore throat. Induration of tonsils. Burning thirst, ravenous appetite. Gnawing in stomach as if from hunger, without desire for food.

James Tyler Kent
James Tyler Kent (1849–1916) was an American physician. Prior to his involvement with homeopathy, Kent had practiced conventional medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. He discovered and "converted" to homeopathy as a result of his wife's recovery from a serious ailment using homeopathic methods.
In 1881, Kent accepted a position as professor of anatomy at the Homeopathic College of Missouri, an institution with which he remained affiliated until 1888. In 1890, Kent moved to Pennsylvania to take a position as Dean of Professors at the Post-Graduate Homeopathic Medical School of Philadelphia. In 1897 Kent published his magnum opus, Repertory of the Homœopathic Materia Medica. Kent moved to Chicago in 1903, where he taught at Hahnemann Medical College.

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