Acidum picri(ni)cum Anhang

Headache: students, teachers and overworked business men; from grief or depressing emotions; in occipital-cervical region (Nat-m. Sil.); < or brought on by slightest motion

or mental exertion.

Priapism, with spinal disease; erections violent, long-lasting; profuse seminal emissions; satyriasis (Canth. Phos.).

Small boils in any part of body, but not especially in external auditory canal.

Weariness, progressing from a slight feeling of fatigue on motion to complete paralysis.

DD.: Arg-n. Gels. Kali-p. Ph-ac. Phos. Petr. Sil.

>: cold air and cold water;

<: Least mental exertion; motion; study; wet weather;

[R. Sankaran]

Remedy of the mineral kingdom. The main theme of an acid is struggle followed by collapse; exertion and exhaustion. The struggle is constant. It is an effort that, the person feels, has to be made in a particular direction. At some point in this constant struggle, the patient is so exhausted that a small setback like the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back, leads to a state of collapse.

In Picricum acidum we see a tremendous effort in the direction of intellectual achievement. The main are: “Delusion, arms reach the cloud when going to sleep”, “Delusion, tongue seems to reach the clouds when going to sleep” and in the original proving we have “Forehead seems to extend towards the clouds”.

What do these delusions represent?

The forehead is for thinking, the hand is for writing and the tongue is for speaking. These are the three organs of intellectual activity and they feel stretched to the limit, extended right up to the clouds. Thus the main feeling in Picricum acidum is: “I feel that my intellectual capacity and organs used to express it are stretched far beyond their limits. So I now need to rest and bring them back to health.”

The situation of Picricum acidum is one where a man has extended his intellect beyond his limit, has used these organs beyond their limit so that they are stretched beyond the clouds and now he needs to shut up, cut off and take rest. To help him do this, he gets increased sexual thoughts; the opposite to the intellectual activity.

Thus in the failed state of Picricum acidum we see dullness, sluggishness, inability to think long, mental work becomes impossible. Such a state is reached usually in a person who had made a tremendous mental effort and is now exhausted – brain-fatigue. This may be seen, for example, in students preparing for highly competitive exams.

Other rubrics:

o Concentration difficult, studying, reading, etc., while.

o Dullness, think long, unable to.

o Lascivious.

o Prostration of mind, writing, after.

o Work, aversion to, mental.

o Fear, examination, of (Phatak’s Repertory).

[William Boericke]

Causes degeneration of the spinal cord, with paralysis. Brainfag and sexual excitement. Acts upon the generative organs probably through the lumbar centers of the spinal cord; prostration, weakness and pain of back, pins and needle sensation in extremities. Neurasthenia (Oxal-ac). Muscular debility. Heavy tired feeling. Myelitis with spasms and prostration. Writer’s palsy. Progressive pernicious anæmia.

Uræmia with complete anuria. 1% solution applied on lint, is the best application for burns until granulations begin to form. Sallow complexion.

Mind: Lack of will-power; disinclined to work. Cerebral softening. Dementia with prostration, sits still and listless.

Vertigo: and noises in ear.

Head: Pains; > bandaging tightly. Occipital pain; worse, slightest mental exertion. Boils within ears and back of neck. After prolonged mental strain, with anxiety and dread of failure at examination. Brain fag.

Eyes: Chronic catarrhal conjunctivitis with copious, thick yellow discharge.

Stomach: Bitter taste. Aversion to food.

Urinary organs: Scanty; complete anuria. Dribbling micturition. Urine contains much indican, granular cylinders and fatty degenerated epithelium. Inflammation of kidneys with profound weakness, dark, bloody, scanty urine.

Nightly urging.

Male organs: Emissions profuse, followed by great exhaustion, without sensual dreams. Priapism; satyriasis. Hard erections, with pain in testicles and up cord. Prostatic hypertrophy (not too far advanced).

Female organs: Pain in left ovary and leucorrhœa before menses. Pruritus vulvæ.

Extremities: Burning along spine. Great weakness. Tired, heavy feeling all over body (limbs); < exertion. Feet cold. Cannot get warm. Acute descending paralysis.

Modalities: < least (mental) exertion/after sleep/wet weather. < summer/hot weather; > cold air/cold water/tight pressure.

[C. Hering]

Discovered by Hausman in 1788.

Crystallizes in bright yellow needles or scales.

Proved: Couch, N.Y.J. of Hom., 1874, vol. 2, p. 149; T. F. Allen, Linsley and S. A. Jones, Allen’s Encyclopedia, vol. 7, p. 519.

Brain fag, Allen, Organon, vol. 3, p. 94; Headache, Hale, B.J.H., vol. 36, p. 389; Otitis, Houghton, T.W.H. Con., 1876, p. 649;

Boils in meatus auditorius, Houghton, B.J.H., vol. 34, p. 356, from Hom. Times, Nov. 1875, N.E.M.G., vol. 11, p. 188; Enuresis, Martin, Trans. H.M.S. Pa., 1883, p. 59; Satyriasis, Allen Hah. Mo., vol. 13; p. 202;

Spermatorrhoea, Allen, Times Ret., 1875, p. 89, from N.Y.J.H., 1874, p. 412; Posterior spinal sclerosis, Lilienthal, N.A.J.H., vol. 24, p. 64;

Debility, Morgan, Hah. Mo., vol. 19, p. 101; Nervous disorder, Jones, Hom. Times, vol. 6, p. 70.

Mind: Great indifference, lack of will-power.

Cannot collect thoughts; quickly prostrated from using mind.

Disinclination for mental and physical work; desire to sit still without taking any interest in surroundings.

Mental prostration after least intellectual work; any attempt to study brings on brain symptoms anew, and develops burning along spine, with great weakness of legs and

back, with soreness of muscles and joints.

Brain fag.

Vertigo: Vertigo and nausea, with intense pain in frontal region and vertex; could not sit up; < from raising head.

Vertigo < from stooping, walking, going upstairs.

Head: Dull headache in forehead or occiput (ext. down spine;) < from slightest attempt at using mind.

Severe pains in neck and occiput going up to supraorbital notch or foramen, then ext. eyes.

Headaches, with dull throbbing, heavy feeling or sharp pains; < from study or movement of eyes; > from rest/open air/binding head tightly;

Any attempt at using mind brings on headache and causes burning along spine.

After every severe mental effort, intense throbbing headache, < at base of brain; often with congestion of spine, increase of sexual excitement and violent erections.

Headache of students and overworked business men, or when grief or other depressing emotions have resulted in nervous exhaustion with passive congestion; seat of pain

is in occipito-cervical region.

Brain fag in a school-teacher; so tired after her labors can scarcely reach home; headache completely incapacitating her for work, begins in morning on waking, increases

as day advances, always > by sleep at night; chiefly affects forehead, extending gradually to vertex and involving entire cerebrum, with constant vertigo, < from motion, mental exertion (schoolwork) going up-stairs; at times intense throbbing, at others dull pressing; always > by quiet; pain in eyes < moving them; with the headache sense

of terrible prostration, she feels so tired; feels > in open air, but too tired and exhausted to walk; after walking a few yards thinks she will never reach next block, it seems

so far away; sometimes unrefreshing sleep.

Brain fag of literary or business people; slightest excitement or mental exertion, or any overwork, brings on headache.

Congestion of head with nosebleed.

Cerebro-spinal congestion.

Eyes: Pupils dilated.

Dryness of eyes; tingling and smarting, < by constant use and by lamplight; acrid, thick matter in corners in morning.

Feeling of sand in eyes, smarting pain, acrid tears.

On waking and for an hour, feeling of sticks in eyes.

Pressure over eyes < from studying and motion, > sitting still.

Severe pain over right eye, sharp, vibrating, intermittent.

Conjunctiva yellow.

Eyes smart and burn.

Thick matter forms in canthi.

Eye symptoms < from artificial light.

Sight: Sparks before eyes.

Sight dim, confused.

Has to bring objects close to eyes to see them; everything blurred as from looking through fog.

Ears: Otitis externa circumscripta, furuncle in ear; burning sensation in external ear; pain behind r. ear, running down side of neck.

Furuncular or circumscribed inflammation of meatus; chronic or subacute forms; debilitated cases with redness and localized tenderness of meatus. θ Otitis.

Furuncles in external auditory canal.

Nose: Full of mucus; can breathe only with mouth open.

Face: Papules on face, which turn into small boils.

Mouth: Sour, bitter taste in mouth.

Bitter taste with thirst.

Saliva frothy; stringy.

Throat: Thick white mucus on tonsils.

Throat feels rough and scraped; > from eating, < from empty swallowing and after sleep.

On swallowing throat feels sore, as if it would split.

Stomach: Wants to belch but has not the power.

Sour eructations with frontal headache.

Nausea, < in morning and on attempting to rise and move about.

Nausea, < 5 h. and when attempting to rise.

Pressure and weight about stomach.

Abdomen: Tendency to jaundice.

Liver full of fat granules.

Rumbling of flatus in abdomen.

Rectum: During stool: burning, smarting and cutting at anus.

After stool: great prostration; burning and smarting at anus.

Diarrhoea in persons exhausted by mental overwork.

Stool: thin, yellow, sometimes oily, with much burning and smarting at anus; prostration and ineffectual urging to stool; yellowish-grey (like gruel).

Urinary organs: Kidneys congested.

Dribbling after urinating.

Urin: Urine of abnormally high specific gravity and containing sugar; albuminous.

Urine rich in phosphates and uric acid, and poor in sulphates and urates.

Albumen and sugar in urine.

Urine red as blood.

Male sexual organs: Great sexual desire, with emissions; emissions every other night.

Violent erections all night; profuse seminal emissions.

Terrible erections, with restless sleep.

Overexcitement of sexual organs from irritation of cerebellum, in both sexes.

Priapism, associated with spinal disease; erections violent, penis distended almost to bursting.

Satyriasis of three years’ standing.

Impotence or weakness with irritability; penis relaxed and shrunken; coldness of genitals.

Spermatorrhoea.

Female sexual organs: In diseases of nipples; (locally) inflammatory symptoms cease and skin becomes tougher.

Back: Heaviness in small of back.

Burning along spine and very great weakness of legs and back, with soreness of muscles and joints; < from study.

Tired aching feeling and some burning in back and legs; in women.

Heat in lower part of spine; aching and dragging in lumbar region, < from motion.

Tired, aching in lumbar region on awaking.

Urine intense red; violent, long-lasting, painful priapism; anesthesia of legs, with a feeling as if enclosed in an elastic stocking; chest feels as if encircled in a tight band; pricking, as if from needles, in legs and feet; < from least motion. Tonic and clonic spasms; keeps legs wide apart when standing; looks steadily at objects, as if unable

to make them out; limbs too weak to support body. θ Myelitis.

After doing much fine work (at night), gradual failing of eyesight, blur before eyes; hands became very tired, even when doing but little, and was unable to manage them skillfully; noticed first of all in hands; sat in a chair and desired to remain very still; on attempting to walk pressed hand upon loin and slid feet along ground, as in a paretic condition, soon becoming exhausted; constipation; could not read a line without becoming much exhausted; played-out feeling of whole body; no will or power at all; chilliness down back, in immediate region of spine, during damp weather; paretic condition of lower extremities; dull and heavy headache in occiput; bodily exhaustion

with mental clearness; sleepless at night from exhausted feeling; as soon as he falls asleep priapisms and seminal

emissions, with or without sensual dreams; semen ejaculated too quickly during coition. θ Posterior spinal sclerosis.

Completed the cure of a case of spinal exhaustion following acute disease.

Limbs: Great weakness and heaviness of lower limbs and back, with soreness of muscles and joints.

Great weakness of legs (l.), which trembles; heavy, like lead; lifted from floor with difficulty.

Great weakness in region of hips.

Numbness and crawling in legs, with trembling and pricking as if from needles.

Heaviness of feet, with dull frontal headache.

Great coldness of feet.

Great heaviness in arms and legs (legs) on exertion.

Extremities cold.

Sleep: restless and disturbed by erections.

Fever: Chilliness followed by clammy sweat.

Useful in typhoid conditions.

Skin: Small furuncles in any part of body (ears).

REST, POSITION, MOTION.

Rest: > headaches; pressure over eyes.

Lying down > headache.

Raising head < vertigo.

Could not sit up: vertigo.

Stooping < vertigo.

Motion: vertigo <; pressure over eyes <; nausea <; aching and dragging in lumbar region; pricking in legs worse.

Walking: vertigo <; up hill, readily winded.

Going up-stairs: vertigo worse.

NERVES.

Tired feeling: on least exertion; all over body; with heaviness; excessive languor; no desire to talk or do anything; indifferent to everything; is obliged to lie down; it seems difficult to move limbs; great muscular debility; readily winded by walking up hill; inclined to day-sleepiness; poor appetite; general sense of torpidity.

Generally “run down,” owing to anxiety, loss of sleep, etc.; left lower first and second molars had been recently filled and the gum between, in contact with the metal,

became sore and painful; inflammation extended to third molar, which was painfully loose, and also to upper jaw and auditory meatus; a furunculoid swelling, as from lymphatic extension, appeared on the lower wall of latter, with soreness going from teeth to ear, on pressing jaws together; dull pain in back of neck and head, due to astigmatism, returned in spite of glasses; sexual system irritable but weak; despondent yet enduring mood, with sensitive feelings.

Great prostration; ears transparent; face, neck, lips and hands of a deathlike whiteness; three to five attacks of vomiting, coming on suddenly and without warning,

ejected matter being of bright-yellow color and very bitter; easily prostrated, slightest exertion obliging him to quit; often the prostration caused by some little outdoor work

in morning compels him to keep his bed the remainder of the day; sometimes feels like dropping down where he is, as if he were unable to reach house; mouth badly ulcerated; tongue smooth, cracked, having appearance of alligator’s hide; mouth very dry; dry feeling commencing in throat and working upward, causing him to drink often, but little at a time; cannot double tongue; a feeling as if tongue would crack were it not moistened; “As of a lump back of thyroid” cartilage; very troublesome when swallowing; appetite poor; no desire for any particular kind of food, eats what is set before him; what he eats tastes well and seems to digest well; retires about 11 h. almost prostrate, but in a short time it passes away, and he quickly goes to sleep; awakens a number of times in night to moisten tongue, but readily goes to sleep again; when he awakens in morning feels quite strong, but this soon passes away and he dreads the day; constipated eight months; evacuation once in four or five days; stool hard as a rock, sometimes bloody; great straining, with pain during and after, easing up after a little; head feels badly all through, but pain is on right side, extending from forehead back and in top of orbit of eye;

> in a cool room or lying down; inclined to be drowsy; sometimes feels as if he could sleep all day; when walking up-stairs or up a hill has a sensation as if stairs or ground were coming up to meet him; vertigo on rising from bed, chair or stooping position and immediately after work; unable to retain urine, it was hot, almost scalding, but soon passed off, leaving him weak; no erections; scrotum lengthened, hanging down almost to knees; penis retracted.

After a severe mental shock from a death, languor, exhaustion, feels so tired, wants to lie down and sleep all the time, which she would do if not aroused.

Neurasthenia.

Weariness progressing from a slight feeling of fatigue on motion to complete paralysis.

Paralysis from softening of cord.

Tingling of lips, formication about head and crawling, as of ants over surface.

Morning: thick matter in corners of eyes; nausea <; out-door work easily prostrates.

At 5 h.: < nausea.

Night: sleepless

Open air: headache >; work in, prostrates.

Cool room: headache better.

Pains < wet weather. θ Locomotor ataxia.

> cold air and water;

PERIODICITY.

Every other night: emissions.

Every four or five days: evacuations.

Three years: satyriasis.

LOCALITY AND DIRECTION.

Right: severe pain over eye; pain behind ear.

Left: leg trembles.

SENSATIONS.

As of sand in eyes; as of sticks in eyes; as if throat would split; legs as if enclosed in an elastic stocking; chest as if encircled in a tight band; pricking as if from needles

in legs; as of a lump back of thyroid cartilage; as if stairs or ground were coming up to meet him; as of ants crawling over surface.

Pain: in eyes; behind right ear; running down side of neck.

Intense pain: in frontal region and vertex.

Severe pain: in neck and occiput to supraorbital notch or foramen, thence into eyes; over right eye.

Cutting: at anus.

Dull, throbbing, heavy, sharp pains: in head.

Aching: in back.

Dull pain: in head; in back of neck.

Smarting pain: in eyes; at anus.

Burning: along spine; of eyes; in external ear; at anus.

Heat: in lower part of spine.

Soreness of muscles and joints; of throat; from teeth to ear.

Pressure: over eyes; about stomach.

Heaviness: in small of back; in legs.

Dryness: of eyes; of throat.

Numbness: in legs.

Played-out feeling: of whole body.

Weakness: of legs and back; in region of hips.

Coldness: of genitals; down back; of feet.

Crawling: in legs.

TISSUES.

Restorative of a wasted and worn-out system.

Progressive pernicious anemia.

Cortex cerebri cerebellum, medulla oblongata and spinal cord were found reduced to a soft, pulpy mass, dark brown in color and loaded with shining, greasy particles.

RELATIONS.

Sexual.- In accordance with its influence on the sexual organs, picric acid is a remedy for sexual weakness with seminal emissions; for satyriasis; for spermatorrhoea with

the resulting impotence, and for sexual neurasthenia.

In the female system useful for prostration the result of too profuse menses and for vulvar pruritus preceding menses. It has cured warts on the genitals.

Efficacious in nephritis, chronic or subacute, with dragging-down pain in the region of the kidneys, dark, scanty urine and prostration. The dimness of sight and hardness

of hearing for which it is useful are those accompanying or the result of the brain fag and nervous prostration, which are the main sphere of action of the drug. It is useful

for ophthalmia > cold bathing and cold air, if part of a neurasthenia complex.

Skin.- Furunculosis (auditory meatus), in which it is specific. It is also good for pustular acne. Externally, a valuable application for burns of the 3^th and 2^nd degrees.

A saturated solution (picric acid 90 gr. to alcohol 3oz.) dissolved in 1 quart of water is applied to the burnt surface by means of strips of sterilized gauze soaked in it, and retained by a bandage to be removed after three days, and re-applied till healing takes place, which quickly occurs with little or no pain.

<: noise/mental or bodily exertion/wet weather/warm room/wrapping up;

>: rest/lying down/sleep/open air/cold water/tightly binding the head (headache);

Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum