In this part we have only pointed out a few of the leading indications for the use of about fifty remedies including those in the list (see pages 69, 70), and a few others which are often useful. Many, such as Aconite, Nux Vom., Arsenicum, Sulphur, etc., are termed polycrests or many-healing remedies medicines possessing curative power in many diseases. For a fuller description of each, the reader is referred to the Author’s Text-book.
In prescribing for so many complaints from such a limited list of remedies, it is necessary to remark that the Homoeopathic Materia Medica now includes several hundred medicines; domestic practitioners, therefore, who restrict themselves to these forty or fifty must not, in cases of failure, conclude that they have exhausted the resources of Homoeopathy, nor despair when so wide a range of appliances is available to the professional man.
Many missionaries in foreign lands, as well as persons at home, desirous of spreading the benefits of Homoeopathy among the poor, or in districts distant from a physician, have sought instruction from the Author of this Manual, and during the number of years that have elapsed since the first edition of this little work was published, not a few have been actively engaged in restoring to health multitudes from those classes who need and claim such aid.
1. Aconitum Napellus. The English names of this plant are Wolfsbane, because it proves exceedingly poisonous to wolves, and Monkshood, because its beautiful flowers resemble the hood which monks used to wear. “This medicine,” writes Hempel, “constitutes the backbone, as it were, of our Materia Medica;” there being scarcely an acute disease in which it is not more or less required.
The prominent uses of Aconitum are as follows: All feverish and inflammatory affections, chiefly at their commencement, and often during their course. Its especial indications are thirst, and dry, hot skin; chills and shiverings, succeeded by burning heat; strong, rapid pulse; restlessness, anxiety, flushing of the face; pain; quick or laboured breathing; dry cough, with fever; deficient, hot, and high-coloured urine; first stage of cold-in- the-head, etc. It probably surpasses all other known remedies in its power of controlling the circulatory system, and triumphantly supersedes the lancet and the leech. “To enumerate,” says Dudgeon, “the diseases for which it is suitable would be to mention the acute inflammation of every possible order and tissue of the body; and if it be not for all of these the sole remedy, it is almost always useful either previous to, or in alternation with, another remedy which has perhaps a more specific relation to the part affected.” Had Hahnemann’s labours been limited to the discovery and demonstration of the wide curative power of this great remedy, they would have entitled him to the gratitude of countless myriads of his fellow-creatures in every succeeding generation. He most appropriately ranks it as first and foremost in his Materia Medica, not because its name begin with the first letter of the alphabet, but because of its transcendent power and extended sphere of action; he terms it a precious plant, whose efficacy almost amounts to a miracle.
2. Antimonium Crudum. This remedy is chiefly valuable in affections of the mucous membrane and the skin, and more especially when they are concurrently diseased.
It is indicated when the mucous membrane of the stomach and alimentary canal is loaded with mucus, producing eructation, foul, bitter, or tasting of the food; in nausea, with occasional vomiting; foetid flatulence; loss of appetite; constipation, alternating with diarrhoea; mucous discharge of the anus; secretion of tenacious mucus, with much hawking for its removal; milky-white tongue; slow digestion, with drowsiness, loss of strength, etc. It corrects that unhealthy condition of the digestive organs which favours the production of worms.
Its skin indications are pimples or blotches; rough irregular eruptions on the nose or cheeks; ill-conditioned, unhealthy appearance.
3. Antimonium Tartaricum. The chief sphere of action of this medicine lies in the mucous membranes, the lungs, and the skin. In large doses it produces a kind of catarrhal inflammation, beginning in the lining membrane of the throat, and extending to the trachea and bronchial tubes, and even exerting its irritant influence on the lung tissues themselves. Clinical experience has amply proved its value in certain inflammations involving these parts, especially in Catarrhal Croup, Bronchitis, and Pneumonia.
On the skin it causes a pustular eruption resembling that of Small-pox. It also produces vomiting, and that peculiar alteration of the blood, which are characteristic of Small-pox. As it might be supposed, then, Antim tart. has been found a remedy of the first importance in this disease, and if timely used, scarcely requires the aid of any other medicine. The vomiting to which this remedy is homoeopathic is nervous and sympathetic rather than gastric, and is attended by nausea, cold and pale skin, and great prostration.
4. Apis Mellifica. Rapid swelling (oedematous) of various parts; Erysipelas, with great oedema: Nettle-rash, and itching-stinging eruptions, with swelling; stings; hoarseness and dry cough, with urinary difficulties, frequent urging and inability to pass water; Dropsy after Scarlet-fever, etc.
5. Arnica Montana. Its chief uses are in affections resulting from injuries, tingling of the skin, convulsive and spasmodic affections, Lock-jaw, active discharges of blood, vomiting and spitting of blood, and other complaints from bruises, falls, etc.; severe concussions, such as often occur in railway accidents, or in the hunting fields, without leaving external marks of violence; pains, supposed to be rheumatic, from long, heavy, physical toil; concussion of the brain; immediate treatment after operations and childbirth; rheumatic pains; stitch-in-the-side; fatigue; chilblains, with hot swelling and tingling; swelling of the breast, soreness of the nipple, etc.
EXTERNAL USE:
Bruises, concussions, incisions, fractions, sore nipples, after extraction of teeth, etc. The discoloration, stiffness, swelling, and soreness consequent on bruises by blows or falls, may be almost entirely prevented by the prompt use of this remedy. Its striking and rapid remedial effects, however, depend greatly upon the promptitude with which it is applied after the injury.
Formula. For a lotion. Ten to twenty drops of the strong tincture to about half a teacupful of water; the bruised parts should be bathed with this lotion, or cloths, saturated with it, applied and covered with dry cloths to prevent evaporation. Generally Arnica, as prepared for internal use, will hasten the cure, and should be administered at the same time.
CAUTION:
In some constitutions the application of Arnica-lotion produces a very troublesome eruption closely resembling Erysipelas. For such constitutions, Ruta Grav., or Hamamelis Virg., is a safer and better remedy. Arnica should never be applied when the skin is broken.
6. Arsenicum. Cold, Influenza, Asthma, Bronchitis, with difficult expectoration, wheezing breathing, etc.; fevers Intermittent, Typhoid, and putrid, with great thirst, debility, etc.; diseases marked by depressed and almost exhausted vitality; Cholera, in the more violent forms of the malady; diseases of the stomach and bowels, especially when accompanied by great prostration or burning pains; severe vomiting, Diarrhoea, with watery, green or dark, burning motions; skin diseases, particularly those of a scaly nature; eruptions about the mouth and other parts, attended with burning, and the discharge of a thin, watery fluid; old or obstinate Ulcers, with burning or itching, or with a bloody, thin, or foetid discharge; and dropsical complaints.
7. Baryta Carbonica. Quinsy; chronic enlargement of the tonsils.
8. Baptisia Tinctoria. Influenza, chronic Dyspepsia, Gastric or Enteric Fevers, and Dysentery in aged persons.
9. Belladonna. This medicine almost ranks in importance with Aconite in inflammation diseases, characterized by bright-redness of the parts, pain, intolerance of light and sound, and other brain symptoms. It is often required after Aconite, or in alternation with it, in Inflammation of the eyes, with dilated pupils, dread of light, etc.; Sore throat with redness and sense of rawness; Toothache with throbbing, and congested face; complaints marked by congestion in the head, or with Convulsions, Neuralgia, and Delirium. Affections of the brain and nervous system; eruptive fevers, especially simple Scarlatina (for which it is often specific) and Erysipelas (not vesicular); violent Headache, especially frontal, with throbbing and redness, aggravated by movement; rheumatic inflammations with hot swellings, and swollen glands. Its power in preventing attacks of epidemic Scarlatina, as well as of curing that disease, has been abundantly established by facts.
10. Bryonia. Pleurisy; Pneumonia; dry, severe cough, with a sensation of tickling under the the breast bone; cold-in-the- chest; stitches, and shooting pains in the chest, acutely increased by coughing, a deep inspiration, or even movement; derangements of the liver and bowels; Lumbago, Sciatica, Rheumatism of the joints; and all rheumatic affections in which the pain is aggravated by movement; bilious headache, rheumatic fever, Jaundice, etc. The prominent gastric symptoms are water- brash; bitter or sour risings; pressure on the stomach, or sensation as if a stone were there; and constipation from inertia of the bowels. An irritable temper, and a gloomy depression of spirits, are additional indications for Bryonia.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.
Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."