Baryta Muriaticum

Excerpted from Absolute Homeopathic Materia medica

Bar-m. – Barium Chloride 

REGION

Nerves: Vagus. Solar plexus. Brain. Spinal cord

Glands: Ovaries. Testes. Lymphatic. Tonsils. Endocrine. Thyroid. (Adrenal). Liver. Pancreas

Blood vessels: Large arteries (aorta)

Alimentary canal

Kidneys

Left side. Right (mumps, throat)

WORSE

Wet weather. Cold air. Open air (though liked)

Bath. Becoming cold

Morning. Night

Periodically Spring. Autumn 3 am to daybreak?

Suppressed: Gonorrhea. Foot sweat

Fats. (Yoghurt. Banana)

During sleep, siesta, morning second sleep

Mercury. (Lead)

Exertion; of vision

BETTER

Discharge

Lying on abdomen (Med.)

(Citrous fruits)

MONOGRAM

EXUDATIVE. SCROFULOUS. BACKWARD. SENILE. DEGENERATIVE. SCLEROTIC. TUBERCULOUS.

• A sclerotic and glandular Baryta, scrofulo-sycotic; scrofulous wormy children. Both extremes of life: children, aged. Stunted/senile but more physically than mentally (opp. to Bar-c.);and with unmitigated, rather heightened, sex (perverted, Bufo).
• Children may be backward (like Bar-c.) or even mongol, with tonsil or glandular problems, worms, Pott’s disease, low hearing. Phthisical conditions. Scrofula is a major cause of dwarfism. “Mentally weak, physically anxious, sexually excited.” – Pulford.

Nerves:

• Increased irritability of nerves. General physical anxiety.
• Pains: Bruised; burning; tenderness of parts; stiffness. Also, painlessness (dysentery); more heaviness than real pain. Pains in fits and starts.
• Numbness; in fingers (toes). Tingling.
• Weakness: Predominant. A general feeling of lassitude and profound and progressive debility, esp. in morning, even a faint sinking feeling, a syncope, a paralytic weakness debarring ascending; bathing or even urinating are too much. A general heaviness. Lax flabby muscles. Feeble peristalsis. Limbs weak and tremulous; legs weak and stiff; tottering gait; increasing muscular weakness. Sudden or constant, vertiginous debility and mental prostration, from increased pulse-pressure. Lameness, paresis, after influenza, diphtheria.
• Convulsive trembling (Gels.). Twitching general or local. Periodically returning convulsive fits with jerking, tossing about, stiffness or insensibility of body, shaking like electric shocks (Arg-m.);with headache, deafness, vomiting and burning in stomach, attacks of dyspnea, great sexual excitement (Stram.), consciousness intact. Epilepsy, periodical fits, clonic spasms, with imbecility and sexual excitement. Jerking of limbs; during sleep; periodical. Cramps in toes. Hyperaesthesia of nerves with debility (like Sil.).
• Paralysis: With icy coldness of body; voluntary muscular power gone, but perfectly sensible; one sided, more often left, (but with aphasia). Paraplegia. Pseudo-hypertrophic muscular paralysis. Internal, of involuntary muscles e.g. peristaltic. Respiration, catching (arrested).
• Sensation of internal fulness.
• Tension: In head, face, stomach, abdomen, knees, skin. Congestions. Distension of blood-vessels. (No venosity).

Tissues:

• Glands: Scrofulous; inflamed, enlarged, indurated, even ulcerating lymphatic and other glands; salivary (parotid, sub-maxillary), mesenteric, pancreas, inguinal (buboes after suppressed gonorrhea), testes, ovaries (later atrophying), cervical, (prostate left for Bar-c. and thyroid better covered by Bar-i.).Both Barytas and Muriaticums are absorbents and Bar-m. therefore doubly so, recalling here Calc-f. also.
• Tubes: Stenosis (esophagus, ends of stomach, rectum, bronchial).
• Catarrhs: Of eyes, ears, nose, throat, bowels, vagina, larynx, bronchial.
• Discharges: Smell like rotten cheese; purulent.
• Dropsy: After scarlatina. Swelling of hands and feet (acromegaly).
• Blood: Hemorrhages. Extravasations (Arn.).Leucocytosis. (Threatened) Apoplexy, with buzzing in ears. Chlorosis; with anemia, esp. in scrofulous constitutions.
• Growths: Ovarian tumors with a scrofulous taint. An induration below stomach causing paroxysmal dyspnea from pressure on diaphragm. Hard (cancerous) tumors of mammae. Goitre. (Lipoma).
• Degenerative changes or organic lesions: Vascular degeneration, arteriosclerosis.
• Multiple sclerosis: Of brain, cord, liver, heart, stomach, lungs. Fatty metamorphosis, followed by calcification. Cerebral softening belongs to (tertiary) syphilis, hence better left for Bar-c. or Aur-m. Our remedy may develop along any of the three lines: nerves, glands or blood vessels.
• Emaciation: Phthisical; of thighs, nates (Lach.);of aged; of children.

Mind: 

• Anxiety; with any pain, nausea, retching, vomiting; with oppression of chest; a general physical anxiety; apprehension felt in pit of stomach.
• Mental alienation (imbecility, mania or insanity) with enlarged glands, increasing muscular weakness and strong sexual excitement (even satyriasis; or nymphomania with dejection and dread of men like Bufo).
• Childishness (not very apparent, but) with aversion to play, to strangers; backward, semi-idiotic, shy, timid, dazed.
• Suspicious. Fickle minded. Averse to bath, light. (Sex maniacs). Censorious. Introvert. Fastidious. Infection phobia. Indolence. Weak memory.

PARTICULARS

Head:

• Vertigo, from cerebral anemia; reeling; staggering; of old people; constant, with heaviness (and confusion) of head and noises in ears; when walking; swimming before the eyes; things turn round.
• Constant headache, without acute crisis, occurring in old people; < lying down at night, during sleep or siesta; a dull headache that is more of a heaviness than a pain; with occasional crackling, sparkling or streaking (as of lightning). Headaches of the under-nourished, with flatulent dyspepsia; flatulent twinges in head or chest (alternating). It comes from exertion of vision (Onos.). Ischemic headache. Stunning pains or shocks in head.
• Eczema. Crops of pimples. Thick offensive crusts. Abscess behind ears, after scarlatina; copious pus.

Eyes:

• Scrofulous ophthalmia; injected; pus. Photophobia. Staring. Scrofulous ulcers on lids; corneal ulcers. Staphyloma spurium (protrusion of cornea due to struma). “Hernia tunicae humeris aquei” (hernia related to space between lens and retina that causes accumulation of gel in vitreous humor). Left eyelid paralysis. Dim vision.

Ears:

• Recurrent otitis. Otorrhea: Pus copious, offensive, like rotten cheese; after scarlatina.
• Pain: In angina pectoris; < lying on painful side, > sipping cold water; after repeated otitis or scarlatina; with induration and swelling of sub-maxillary glands, sore throat. Throbbing in.
• Roaring, wheezing, buzzing, clucking noises on swallowing, chewing sneezing; with cerebral symptoms (vertigo, congestion, apoplexy). Stitching-crawling in. Meniere’s disease. Deafness.
• Catarrh and paresis of eustachian tubes and pharynx; tubes feel wide open; air is forced into the tympanum too easily. Calcareous deposits on the tympanum (Calc-f.).”Inflates middle ear on blowing nose.”- Boericke.

Nose:

• Fluent coryza; with fever. Discharge copious, thick, yellow. Sneezing; during sleep. Painful nodule or pimple on nose-tip.

Face:

• Mumps (right) after scarlatina; not much pain. Tension of face; with nausea, diarrhea. Drawing pains in face muscles.

Mouth:

• Shooting, throbbing pains in teeth; on waking after midnight. Loose teeth with salivation. Gums swollen, bleeding.
• Tongue: Furred, coated, dry, ulcerated; paralysed.
• Taste putrid (also to food), mouth dry (with thirst), or saliva. Fetor, as if mercurial, not self-noticed, with salivation. Saliva drooling in pancreal induration, with toothache, sore throat. Mouth full of vesicles.

Throat:

• Tonsils: Inflame, swell and suppurate, after every cold taking, esp. in spring and autumn; recurrent tonsillitis, after suppressed foot sweat; during exanthem; chronic hypertrophy.
• Dysphagia; paretic condition. Uvula elongated, with hyperemia and blenorrhea.
• Varices in throat. Exophthalmic goitre. Cervical glands indurated like beads.

Stomach:

• Appetite suffers (anorexia). Desires dry food (as toasts). Anxiety in pit; great anxiety with gastralgia (a pressing), with nausea, retching and vomiting (watery or stringy) or purging; during spasm; has to bend double.
• Generally, a gone feeling in epigastrium (in chronic affections); inflamed, with (isolated ecchymoses and) tenderness on an indurated spot (initially flatulent). Induration and consequent narrowing of the cardiac orifice (pyloric, Lyc.), with pain on eating and attacks of dyspnea (from pressure on diaphragm).
• Digestion very slow, stomach is feeble, must take only the simplest food, else severe indigestion. Constant eructations, esp. after eating; bitter; waterbrash; offensive flatus. Drowsy after dinner. Flatulent dyspepsia of aged (esp. the arteriosclerotic) due to mal-assimilation; flatus impinges on stomach, chest, throat, or even brain, with anxiety, with a tender spot below stomach.
• Burning, as if afire, with vomiting, in epilepsy; a glow rises from stomach to chest and head (from feet, Visc.). Acidity.

Abdomen:

• Distended, swollen and hard, esp. liver, mesenteric glands, pancreas. Fatty stools etc. of pancreatic disorder (or coeliac disease). Burning in.
• Colic: After exanthem; in worms (with fetor, nausea, vomiting); in convulsions (periodical); in diarrhea (also a painless diarrhea); esp. in umbilical region; < morning. Flatulence; in the aged; incarcerated; rises up about 3 am causing oppression, dyspnea and twinges.
• Inguinal region: Glands swollen, hard, painful; ulcers; hernia (?).

Rectum:

• Spasmodic pains.
• Piles protrude during urination. Worms (with uneasiness in abdomen or colic, fetor, vomiting etc.). Fistula. Abscess of anus.
• Chronic (yellow) mucus diarrhea with or without pains, slimy tongue. Painless dysentery; after suppr. eruptions. Stools: bloody mucus, jelly-like; in puny children (Med.).
• Constipation: No desire or pain, paralyzed rectum and sphincter; stool hard, white, mucus-coated.

Urinary:

• Cystitis: Frequent, painful or involuntary urination at night. Urine offensive, yellowish, or with a white sediment.
• Increased uric acid and diminished chlorides; gravel.
• Diabetes (from pancreatic pathologies).

Male:

• Sex-obsessed (Fl-ac.).Frequent emissions. Satyriasis. Later impotence.
• Chronic gonorrhea/gleet. Suppressed gonorrhea: Buboes, or testes disorder (inflammation, induration, hypertrophy).

Female:

• Menses: Too early, copious.
• Leucorrhea: Acrid, yellowish ‘constant running from vulva’. Pinching, squeezing or bruised pain in pelvic cavity.
• Ovaries: Induration and tumor, swelling, later atrophied.
• Nymphomania from utero-ovarian disorders; even in the idiotic. Sterility. Slow or retarded fetal growth (Bar-c.).

Respiratory:

• Voice weak, husky; hoarse, from enlarged tonsils. Respiration fast, catching (sudden, arrested), anxious, must sit up; asthma senilis.
• Chronic cough, dry or rattling, with difficult throw-up, in scrofulous children with mumps, tonsillitis or Pott’s disease etc.
• Bronchial affections (catarrhs) of the scrofulous aged, with cardiac or bronchial dilatation (bronchiectasis). Morning, muco-purulent sputa.
• Anxiety and oppression of chest with dyspnea. Heat in upper part of chest; with pulmonary catarrh.
• Phthisical condition of lungs. Fibroid phthisis. Mucous phthisis; with herpes, glands (mesenteric, cervical), testes etc. Phthisis is a sycotic condition, says Gregg.

Circulatory:

• Palpitation: On ascending. Beats rapid, irregular; pulse full, soft, irregular, or lastly imperceptible.
• Pain in chest, with otalgia. Chronic endarteritis; of aged. Aneurism of large arteries/aorta. Distressing throbbing in a tumor (initially flatulent); in abdominal aorta (aneurism), with fullness and pain in chest, persistent palpitation and swelling of thorax near sternum. Distended blood vessels. Induration of descending aorta.
• Arteriosclerosis of aorta and major blood vessels similar to senile atheroma; with increased pulse-pressure (high systolic / low diastolic, like Lyc., opp. to Crat.)and cerebro-cardiac (or chest) symptoms, hot head and cold termini and increased sexual desire. Modifies the arterial tension in senile atheroma.
• Vascular degeneration, with hypertension; “High BP not involving kidneys or calcareous concretions” (dubious).
• Ischemia of heart and brain (cause of pain like Lyc.). Dilatation; senilis.

 Neck and back:

• Myelitis. Spinal curvature. Backaches. “Beginning struma”, the whole neck and throat full of hard glandular swellings.

Locomotor:

• Limbs heavy, cold, paralyzed. Stiff and weak muscles and joints. Convulsive jerking. Trembling. Nightly twitching or jerking in arms (during sleep); with faintness. Pain in legs, > drawing them up. Numb limbs (local), fingers (or toes). Cramps in toes. Drawing pain in thighs. Bloody extravasations in knee-joint. Ulcers on legs.

Skin:

• Formication all over body. Pricking-itching. Swelling and tension.
• Scrofulous eruptions; urticaria, erysipelas, eczema, lichen, herpes. Small (scrofulous) ulcers on body; burning ulcers. Seborrhoea.

Sleep:

• After dinner. Broken sleep. No sleep until midnight.

Thermic States:

• Cold body (in paralysis); sweat (with polyuria); head; hands and feet. Alternate chill and heat (tonsillitis). Constant dry heat; of head and face (with cold termini).
• Tertian fevers. Fever with thirst. Spring / Autumn fevers. Dul. acute esp. during a cold wave.

Relations:

• Murs are acutes of Carbs (excepting perhaps Natrums).
• Complementary to: Ambr., Arg-n., Arn., Ars., Bell., Con., lod., Kali-c., Kali-i., Lach., Lyc., Merc., Nux-v., Psor., Puls.
• Aur-m. concentrates on nerves, Bar-i. on glands (including mammae) and is syphilitic, while Bar-m. is scrofulo-sycotic and emphasizes both nerves and glands and arteries too.
• Pathology in Bar-m. prevails over symptoms (like Plb.), hence repertorization is likely to miss this very officious remedy.
• Bar-m. is chronic of both Caust. and Con. Similar but much deeper-acting than Con. which it complements in glandular affections.
• Useful after Arn. in extravasation of blood (like Sul-ac.).
• A blend of Bar-c. (shyness, slowness, childishness, backward, glandular), Nat-m. (sensitive; introvert; hot; emaciation; phthisical) and Bufo (childish; backward; epileptic; sexually excited; unsocial).
• Acute of Bar-c. in tonsillitis. Calc-f. is similar.
• Shares similarity with its fat brother Bar-c. But Bar-m. is less shy, less slow but more sensitive, sexually excited and epileptic than Bar-c.
• Hydr.-Con.-Bar-m. is a promising trio, as also Ambr.-Caust.-Bar-m., Ambr.–Arg-n.–Bar-m. or Nux-v.- Lyc.- Bar-m.
• Antidoted by: Absin.

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