Alumina Anhang

Gemüt: Alzheimer und Demenz.

Eher dünn/zarte Konstitution.

Akut: MÜDE und schwach. Benötigt Ruhepausen und häufig zu weinen geneigt/sehr träge, innere Wärme fehlt. VERwirrung und Furcht den Verstand zu verlieren.

Kind: Sehr weinerlich und müssen häufig aufstoßen.

Krankheitsprozess langsam fortschreitend und breitet sich besonders im Zentralen Nervensystem aus. Die nervale Reizübertragung ist gestört, gibt Probleme zu koordinieren.

Alles läuft langsamer ab, Bewegungen und Sprechen sind unkoordiniert, für den betroffenen Person unbewusst.

1. Kurzzeitgedächtnis funktioniert nicht mehr richtig, und nimmt bewusst war, wie die Erinnerungen verschwimmen. 2. Desorientiertheit und starke Unsicherheit. Die betroffene Person entwickelt teilweise sogar ein schlechtes Gewissen und glaubt, sie hätte etwas Schlimmes getan, jemanden umgebracht oder dergleichen. Die große Unsicherheit und Unwissenheit versetzen den/die in Panik. Es kann einen starken Hang zu Selbstmord entstehen, wenn die Desorientierung zu sehr belastend wird.

Eile fühlt sich immer gehetzt, es kann nichts schnell genug gehen. Und ist selbst die Langsamste.

Körper: Schwindel. Kopfschmerz oft + Schwindel (Augen schließen). Morgens nach dem Aufstehen. Kopf „Wie ein zu enger Schal um ihn gebunden“. Stechend/brennend/zusammenquetschend. > nach dem Frühstück.

Trockene Schleimhäute und Haut wund/rissig (Akne/trockenen Ekzemen). Jucken teilweise so stark, dass so lange kratzt, bis es blutet.

Hals sehr trocken und brennend, und hat eine ständige Neigung sich zu Räuspern, um den zähen Schleimpfropfen loszuwerden.

Frühe Haarausfall, Kopfhaut juckt und fühlt sich kribbelig und taub an.

Verstopfung:. Stuhl hart, wie ausgetrocknet. Schwierig (weiche Stühle) auszupressen. hängt mit der zunehmenden Muskelschwäche und verringerten Reizübertragung zusammen.

Schließmuskel des Afters scheint gelähmt zu sein, und so kostet es oftmals große Anstrengung, Harn und Stuhl auszuscheiden.

Frau: heftige, nächtliche Ausfluss (die Unterhose feucht morgens).

Muskelschwäche, die bei fortgeschrittener Pathologie bis hin zur Muskellähmung führen kann.

Schlafen die Beine oder Hände ein, sie kribbeln und fühlen sich taub an.

Hat Koordinationsstörungen und verliert nach und nach die Kontrolle über die Körperbewegungen. Ataxie ist die Folge. Die verzögerte Reizübertragung ist auch durch verzögerte Reflexe festzustellen.

Schlaf: Sehr ängstlich, unruhig und träumt sehr viel. Häufig sind es Alpträume oder Dinge, die den Patienten aufwühlen und verwirren.

Allgemein: Hunger auf normalerweise nicht essbare Dinge (Kohle/Kreide/Erde) Unverträglichkeit von Kartoffeln. Verlangt trockene Nahrung (Trockenobst/trockenen Reis).

< morgens nach Erwachen/Aufenthalt in warmen Räumen.

> abends/an der frischen Luft/waschen mit kaltem Wasser;

Periodisch jeden 2en Tag.

[M.L. Tyler]

Hufeland: "Alum. causes induration and scirrhus uteri, if continually used for copious menstruation and haemorrhages".

Evidently Alum may be one of the irritants of tissues on which cancer grafts itself.

Alum. is one of our greatest remedies in constipation, of he peculiar from of constipation it induces: "on desire for stool and-no power to strain at stool, however soft". Here one has used it from time to time with great success. And from what one has observed of the effects of Alum., one opines that the almost universal use of aluminium cooking vessels must be worth thousands a years to the chemists who sell laxatives and purgatives galore to the public. As said, idiosyncrasy no doubt comes in: but whatever else the aluminium salts may do in the way of vitiating health, interference with the normal bowed function os certainly one. No power to strain even for a soft stool; and no desire for stool-for a week or two, even: and as one has observed, the hold-up seems to be in the neighbourhood of the splenic flexure, or the upper part of the descending colon.

But not only here, but in many parts of the body, Alum. is a remedy of paresis and paralysis. In the ptosis of eyelids (Caus). Again in its paralytic effects on intestines (Plb-met., to which, by its similarity of symptoms, it stands in the relation of antidote. But its pitiful, increasing, and chronic condition of weakness and heaviness (lower limbs), make the drug very interesting. It weakens alike mentally and physically. In these days when national fitness is the ideal of the moment, a possible constant source of deterioration, mental and physical, dose not appeal to one as particularly helpful.

Apparently, as usual, the crude poison is antidoted, by its potencies, (200 etc.).

Craves indigestible things: slate pencils/earth/chalk/clay/white rags/charcoal/cloves/acids/coffee and tea-grounds/dry rice. Aversion to potatoes and disagree, it has aversion to meat which has no taste; to beer; and a longing for fruits and vegetables-barring potatoes. < all irritating things, like salt, vinegar, pepper; gets a sore throat from eating onions; gets easily drunken from the weakest spirituous drinks; and is < tobacco smoke. Considering its dryness and irritation of mucous membranes, one can understand some of these things.

Eyes inflamed; itching at inner canthus; agglutination at night, lachrymation by day. Burning; dryness; smarting.

Yellow halo round the candle.

Eyelids thickened, dry, burning.

Redness of nose.

Point of nose cracked.

Involuntary spasmodic twitching of lower jaw: with haemorrhage of bowels, and dark offensive stools.

In evening, dryness of throat, which induces frequent clearing of throat.

< eating potatoes.

Painters colic.

Inactivity of rectum; even the soft stool needs great straining. Rectum seems paralysed.

No desire for, and no ability to pass stool till there is a large accumulation.

Stools: hard, knotty, covered with mucus; like sheeps dung, with cutting in anus, followed by blood; like pipe-stems.

Soft and thing stool, passing with difficulty.

Severe haemorrhage from bowels, with flow of urine. Diarrhoea wherever she urinates.

Evacuation of small quantity of hard faces, with pressure and a sensation of excoriation in the rectum.

Urine voided when straining at stool; or cannot pass urine without straining.

Constipation of sucklings.

Continual dry, hacking cough, with vomiting and arrest of breathing; with frequent sneezing.

Every morning a long attack of day cough, ends with difficult raising of a little white mucus.

Great heaviness in lower limbs; he can scarcely drag them.

When walking he staggers and has to sit down.

Great weariness of the legs when sitting.

Faint and tired; must sit down.

Seeing blood on a knife, has horrid ideas of killing herself, though she abhors the idea.

Great dread of death, with thoughts of suicide.

Fear of losing his reason.

Uneasiness, evening, as if evil impending.

Weeps constantly, without wishing it.

Sneers at everything. Peevishness. Grumbles.

Intolerable ennui: no disposition for any kind of work.

Headache; violent stitches in brain; stabs: as with a knife.

Headache, as if hair pulled.

Vertigo.

Inability to walk, except with eyes open and in daytime.

Cloudiness and drunken feeling, alternating with pain in kidneys.

Easily made drunk, by weakest spirituous drink.

Sees fiery spots; white stars.

Objects appear yellow.

As if looking through a fog, or feathers.

Itching, corners of eyes, and of lids.

Upper lids seem to hang down, as if paralysed, especially the left.

Ears hot and red (evening).

It seems as if, in right ear, he had an entirely different voice.

Skin of face tense, even round eyes, as if the while of an egg had dried upon it.

Stitches in throat on swallowing; something pointed seems to stick in throat.

Sense of constriction, oesophagus down to stomach, every time he swallows a morsel of food.

Violent Pressive pain, as if part of oesophagus were contracted or compressed in middle of chest.

Rabid hunger; or aversion to food; no desire to eat.

No taste in food; or everything tastes like straw or shavings.

Rancid eructations; pyrosis; waterbrash. Worse after potatoes; a loathing which makes him shiver.

Crawling at pit of stomach, as from a worm.

Crawling in rectum as from worms.

Dropping of blood, or a stream of blood during, or after evacuation.

And, can only urinate when straining for stool. Can only pass stool when standing, is one of its curious symptoms.

Oppression, chest: constriction round chest.

Twitching and involuntary movements of limbs and fingers.

Heaviness of legs, can hardly lift them.

Heaviness in feet, with great lassitude of legs.

Pain in sole of foot, on stepping on it, as if it were too soft and swollen.

Lassitude: great; of whole body; slow, tottering gait; excessively faint and tired; great fatigue (talking).

HUGHES: "In mucous membranes, the characteristic feature seem to be dryness with more or less irritation: . . . in morbid sensitiveness of nasal mucous membrane to cold; in chronic dry catarrh of conjunctivae, even when granular; in chronic pharyngitis, where membrane looks dry, red glazed; in dry, hacking coughs from pharyngeal irritation; in dyspepsia from deficiency of gastric juice; in constipation from lack of intestinal secretion. Has also cured a frequent desire to urinate during the night. Chronic affections of old people, or dry, thin persons." He says, Dunham recommends it for violent cough excited by an elongated uvula.

GUERNSEY: "Peculiarities about rectum and stool afford hints to the use of this remedy. . . . Inactivity of her the rectum, requiring great straining to evacuate even a soft stool. No desire for stool for days, sometimes a week, until there is large accumulation, and even then evacuation seems only after great effort. Even if the accumulated stool be very soft, the same effort required to pass it. One must strain at stool in order to urinate. We see this in dysentery, typhus, and in many other disorders, when Alum. will be very likely the remedy.

FARRINGTON says: "Alum. has been used in nervous affections of a very grave character. Boenninghausen used the mental Aluminium for the following symptoms in that dreaded disease, locomotor ataxia: frequent dizziness; objects turn in a circle; ptosis; diplopia or strabismus; inability to walk in the dark or with the eyes closed without staggering; feels as if walking on cushions. Formication, or sensation of creeping as from ants in the back and legs. The nates go to sleep when sitting. The heels become numb when walking. A feeling in face as though it was covered with cobwebs, or as if white of egg had dried upon it. Pain on the back, as though a hot iron were thrust into the spin. These are the symptoms indicating Alum., and these are the symptoms which led Boenninghausen to Alum., and enabled him cure four cases of the disease".

"Hypochondriacal men, with lassitude and indifference to labour or to work. An hour seems to them half a day. Peevish and fretful, here rivaling Nux and Bry. . . .

"Alum. acts on skin just as if does on mucous membranes; produces dryness and harshness; indicated in rough dry eruptions which crack, and may bleed, but not often-but which itch and burn intolerable, and are worse in the warmth of the bed. . . .

"Feeling of constriction along oesophagus when swallowing food. Always worse from potatoes is a good indication for Alum. There is aversion to meat, and a craving for indigestible substances.

"There are diseases of the blood to which it is applicable. Anaemia, chlorosis, especially young girls at puberty. Menses pale and scanty. Abnormal craving for indigestible articles, such and scanty. Abnormal craving for indigestible articles, such as slate pencils, chalk, whitewash, Leucorrhoea may be profuse, even running down to the feet (Luet.)".

"Alum. acts best in spare aged persons, rather wrinkled and dried-up looking; and in girls at puberty, especially if chlorotic. Also in delicate children, especially those who have been artificially fed, i.e. nourished by the many varieties of baby foods with which the market is glutted. Such children are weak and wrinkled; nutrition is decidedly defective. Bowels inactive-(with the characteristic constipation as described). The child too my suffer, when teething, from strabismus; from weakness of internal rectus of affected eye".

KENT: From him we best get its mental symptoms. "It affects intellect; confuses intelligence; so that patient is unable to make a decision. Judgment is disturbed. Unable to realize; things he knows seem to him to be unreal" (Med.). Kent quotes Hahnemann, in Chronic Diseases, as giving the best expression of Alum. mentality that occurs anywhere. . . . "When he says anything, he feels as if another person had said it; when he sees anything, as if another person had seen it, or as if he could transfer himself into another and only them could see. . . ." The consciousness of personal identity is confused. He is dazed; makes mistakes is writing and speaking; uses words not intended.

"Then, another phase; gets into a hurry. Nothing moves fast enough; time seems slow, everything delayed.

"Then, impulses: when he see sharp instruments or blood, impulses rise within, him, and he shudders because of these impulses. An instrument that could be used for murder of for killing causes these impulses. Impulse to kill herself.

"Thinks surely he is going to lose his reason. Thinks about this frenzy and hurry and confusion of mind; how he hardly knows his own name, and how fretful he is, and finally thinks he is going crazy".

[Frans Vermeulen]

One of the great disadvantages of hurry is that it takes such a long time.

[Chesterton]

Aluminium is the third most abundant element [8%] in the Earth's crust, exceeded by oxygen [47%] and silicon [28%]. It is a silvery white metal in group 13 of the periodic table, the other members being borium, gallium, indium, and thallium.

Related is group 14: carbon, silicium, germanium, tin and lead. No other group of elements is so diverse as these two: black, brown, white, soft, hard, metallic or non-metallic. This might be explained by the fact that both groups are situated about halfway in the periodic table, between the super metals [alkali metals] and the halogens. Out of this no man's land, man and the living world emerge!

Because of its chemical activity, aluminium never occurs in the metallic form in nature, but its compounds are present to a greater or lesser extent in almost all rocks, vegetation, and animals. Bauxite, a mixture of hydrated aluminium oxides, is the principal aluminium ore. "In nature, aluminium occurs primarily as clay, aluminium oxide, combined in manifold ways with other substances. Thus it has an important share in the formation of rock and of fertile soil. Without aluminium there would be no fertile earth. ... Clay conveys to the soil the properties of plasticity and water absorption. ...

Aluminium unites the life-bearing water with the earthy element that is to be plastically formed. It is with good reason that clay, uniting so readily with the life-bearing water, is the moulding stuff of the ceramic worker, the potter, and the plastic artist. The noblest vessels for holding liquids have from time immemorial been made of clay - majolica, faience, terracotta, porcelain. The sculptor works out his inspirations in clay before he hews them out of stone."

Alumina is pure clay. Natural clay is mainly aluminium oxide with impurities of various sorts, but chiefly silica. "Nature seems to expect aluminium to remain clay. The metallic condition is unnatural for it; the metal is not only difficult to extract, but the extraction would immediately be undone if a peculiar circumstance did not protect it from attack. Like an impenetrable armour, aluminium oxide immediately covers the metal with a fine protective layer of patina, a 'noble rust.' We may well call it this, for aluminium oxide as a mineral can achieve the noblest form of which the metal is capable; it can appear as corundum, sapphire, or ruby, those unusually hard and costly jewels. In contrast to the precious metals, the most precious condition of aluminium is not its purity, but its rust." The key process for fertile soil is the formation of clay. Both the physical and the chemical properties of soil depend on the amount and kind of clay particles they contain. The supply of minerals to plants depends on the presence of clay particles, which have a net negative charge, in the soil. Many of the minerals that are important for plant nutrition, such as potassium, magnesium, and calcium, exist in soil as positive ions chemically attached to clay particles. To become available to plants, the positive ions must be detached from the clay particles, which is accomplished by reactions with protons [hydrogen ions]. The protons trade places with ions such as potassium and calcium on the clay particles, thus putting the nutrients back into the soil solution and thereby determining the fertility of the soil. Clay particles, however, do not hold and exchange negatively charged ions, which results in the leaching from the soil of important negative ions such as phosphate, nitrate, and sulphate. To replace them elements as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are commonly added to agricultural soils. 3

Aluminium is ductile, nonmagnetic, and an excellent conductor of electricity and heat. In its thermal and electrical conductivity it is inferior only to silver, gold, and copper. Its ductility makes it possible to flatten it into foil a mere 3 microns thick, or to draw it into a wire not thicker than a spider's web [1.000 meters of it weighs 27 grams and can be folded into a match box]. Only its strength characteristics could be better, which has prompted scientist to seek ways of improving it without impairing its good properties [alloys]. Its best-known quality is its light weight, being about one-third as dense as iron, copper, or zinc. Nonetheless, it can be easily made strong enough to replace heavier and more costly metals in thousands of applications.

Aluminium oxide is used as an abrasive, as a refractory [to break in pieces], and in chromatography [method of separating substances]. Also as filler for paints and varnishes; in the manufacture of alloys, ceramic materials, electrical insulators and resistors, dental cements, glass, steel, artificial gems; as a catalyst for organic reactions. Aluminium as pure metal or alloys [magnalium, aluminium bronze, etc.] is used for structural material in construction, automotive, electrical and aircraft industries. Furthermore, in cooking utensils, highway signs, fencing, containers and packaging, foil, machinery, corrosion resistant chemical equipment, dental alloys. The coarse powder is used in aluminothermics [thermite process], while the fine powder is employed as flashlight in photography, in explosives, fireworks, and paints, for absorbing occluded gases in manufacture of steel. Used in testing for gold, arsenic, and mercury; as a reducer for determining nitrates and nitrites; instead of zinc for generating hydrogen in testing for arsenic.

Aluminium is capable of taking brilliant polish which is retained in dry air. In moist air, an oxide film forms. The protective layer seals off oxygen, thus preventing further oxidation. Few chemicals can dissolve this colourless, tough, and nonflaking film, although it is only 0,0001 millimetre 'thick'. Without this protective film aluminium would flare up even in the air and burn with a blinding flame.

Being an excellent conductor of heat Aluminium is widely used in automobile radiators, cooling coils and fins, heat exchangers in industries, and heater fins. Its property of reflecting all forms of radiated energy - Aluminium reflects about 90% of radiated heat - is utilized in building isolation and to keep heat out or in. Raincoats made from fabrics with a super-thin aluminium coating will protect both from heat and cold: worn with the metal lining on the outside it will shelter against heat, and when reversed, it will keep one warm. Curtains made from it will let in light but keep out the heat if hung with the metal facing the outside on a hot summer day. In winter the metal surface of the curtains should face the room and it will keep the warmth in.

Aluminium's high qualities made it an indispensable metal in space conquest as well as in the study of the ocean depths. In 1919 the first airplanes were made of duralumin [an aluminium alloy containing copper]. Since then aluminium has firmly been associated with the destiny of aviation, earning itself the reputation of a "winged metal."

The relation with water is shown by the fact that hygrophytic plants contain more aluminium than plants preferring dry habitats. Aluminium promotes the absorption of water. Its main functions are holding and retaining water.

"The role aluminium plays in human physiology is not known. Although the metal is ingested through food and water, most of it is believed to be excreted. Aluminium has been detected in the brain cells of patients with Alzheimer's disease, but it is not known whether the metal's presence is a cause or an effect of the disease." Likewise, Down's syndrome babies have higher levels of aluminium in their brains. Probably associated with high aluminium concentrations in the brain as well, is the neurologic syndrome dialysis dementia. The exact source of the aluminium is controversial, but high concentrations in tap water have been found in epidemic areas. Another source may be aluminium-containing antacids prescribed to control phosphor balance. The syndrome is characterized by progressive dementia, dyspraxia, facial grimaces, myoclonic seizures, and characteristic EEG.

Storage of aluminium in the human body is in the lungs, liver, thyroid, bones, and brain. Bone and lung have the highest concentrations of aluminium, suggesting that bone may be a 'sink' for aluminium.

Aluminium has moderate acute toxicity [but high chronic toxicity] to aquatic life and high acute toxicity to birds. Acid rain has virtually eliminated the fish populations in acidified lakes in some parts of the world. It has been suggested that much of the toxicity to fish is actually due to increased aluminium concentrations, rather than being directly attributable to acidic water. Aluminium is almost completely insoluble in neutral or alkaline water, but, due to a decreasing pH as a result of acid rain, concentrations of dissolved aluminium in some lakes have increased to levels toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms.

"Aluminium has marked differences in its effects on animals at different points in their lifespan and in different species. The normal concentration of aluminium in the mammalian brain is approximately 1 to 2 ng/g. In certain aluminium-sensitive species, such as cats and rabbits, increasing aluminium by intrathecal infusion, so that brain concentration is greater than 4 ng/g, induces a characteristic clinical and pathological response. Initially, animals show subtle behavioural changes, including learning and memory deficits and poor motor function. These changes progress to tremor, incoordination, weakness, and ataxia. This is followed by focal seizures and death within 3 or 4 weeks of initial exposure. With lesser doses, there is longer survival but no recovery. ... Aluminium competes with or alters calcium metabolism in several organ systems including the brain. Brain tissue calcium rises following aluminium exposure. ... The Chamorro people of the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific Ocean (Guam and Rota), have an unusually high incidence of neurodegenerative diseases associated with nerve cell loss and neurofibrillary degeneration of the Alzheimer's type. Garruto et al [1984] noted that the volcanic soils of the regions of Guam with a high incidence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and parkinsonism-dementia syndromes contained high concentrations of aluminium and manganese and were low in calcium and magnesium."

Sources of aluminium: processed cheeses, baking soda, table salt, pickled vegetables, pancake mixes, toothpaste and antiperspirants. Aluminium disturbs the calcium-phosphorus balance and causes the loss of vitamin B 1. It also inhibits fluoride absorption and may decrease the absorption of iron compounds. Long-term use of large amounts of antacids containing aluminium [hydroxide] can cause phosphate depletion as a result of binding of phosphate by aluminium in the GI tract. Symptoms include anorexia, weakness, and malaise. Aluminium hydroxide may cause constipation. "Although aluminium is a common mineral and is present in many foods, it is very poorly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. Most of the aluminium in our diet passes straight through unchanged, and any that is absorbed is rapidly removed by the kidneys. In infants, however, both the gastrointestinal tract and the kidneys are still in the stages of development, and it has been suggested that [i] infants may absorb the mineral more readily than adults do and [ii] their capacity to eliminate through the kidneys is less efficient than in adults. There is a dearth of data on these two aspects of aluminium bioavailability in infants. One survey has been carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Milk-based infant formulae and soy-base formulae were purchased at retail outlets during 1987 and 1988 and the aluminium contents of the formulae [made up to the manufacturer's instructions] were measured. The levels in milk-based formulae were 0.03 to 0.20 mg per litre with a mean of 0.11 mg per litre; those in the Soya-based formulae were higher at levels between 0.64 and 1.34 mg per litre with a mean of 0.98 mg per litre. Plant-based foods like soy milk are usually higher in aluminium than those from animal sources. It was calculated from these figures that between the ages of 0 and 4 months, an infant fed cow's milk formulae will receive between 0.2 and 0.55 mg aluminium per week, and one fed soy milk formulae will eat between 2.5 and 4.9 mg of the mineral per week. Both intakes are well below the joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives recommendations that the Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake on aluminium is 7 mg per kg body weight."

Symbolically, clay [or mud] signifies the union of the purely receptive principle [earth] with the power of transition and transformation [water]. Clay is regarded as the typical medium for the emergence of matter of all kinds. Plasticity is one of its essential characteristics. By analogy, clay is related with biological processes and nascent states.

THEMES The properties of separating, fragmenting, and shattering show one side of Alumina's picture, uniting and moulding being the other.

PROVINGS •• Hahnemann - 6 provers; method: unknown.

[1-2] Pelikan, The Secrets of Metals. Purves et al, Life: The Science of Biology. Merck Index. Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Merck Manual. Klaassen, Casarett and Doull's Toxicology. Melvyn, Vitamins and Minerals.

Affinity: SPINAL CORD; lumbar region. RECTUM. Lower limbs. Mucous membranes. Skin. * Right side.

Modalities:

<: WARMTH (ROOM)/bed/food [artificial]/potatoes/salt/wine/vinegar/pepper/spirituous drinks/soup/speaking/dry [cold] weather/awaking early/sitting/

after menses/winter/alternate days/new and full moon/during micturition;

>: Evening/open air/moderate exercise/moderate temperature/mild summer weather/wet weather/warm drinks/while eating;

DD.: Phosphorus is not mentioned in the relationship-rubrics [compare, antidote, inimical, etc.] of Alumina. Both elements, however, have much in common. Physiologically, Aluminium appears to be rather selective in disturbing the phosphorus balance in the body, resulting eventually in phosphate depletion. Therapeutically, aluminium salts are used to reduce phosphate absorption in patients with chronic kidney failure. Elementary phosphorus [the colourless or 'yellow' modification] glows in the dark and combusts spontaneously upon exposure to air. To prevent spontaneous ignition phosphorus is stored under water [in dark bottles] [compare: < or > darkness; > cold drinks]. Without its protective film of oxide, aluminium would also flare up in the air and burn with a blinding flame [compare: > open air]. The oxide layer is like an armour, neither allowing penetration from the outside nor escape from the inside [the Alumina patient has difficulties in both expressing himself and reacting to external impulses]. The similarity even includes their names. Phosphorus means light-bearer, while Alumina proves to be a-luminant, without giving light. This implies that in both the issue of light, or clearness, plays a major role. They are both on the same curve, but just on opposite ends, at least as far as the drug picture is concerned.

Homoeopathically, Alum. and Phos. share many rubrics, such as:

Anxiety on waking at night. - Vertigo after eating. - Pressing frontal headache > open air. Electric-like shocks through head. - Changing colour of face. - Long, narrow stool. - Excessive sexual desire. - Tickling sensation in air passages on talking. - Palpitation of heart on waking. - Incoordination of lower limbs. - Itching on becoming warm in bed. - Weakness [and trembling] from hunger. - Weakness after menses. - Twilight >. - Salt food <. Main symptoms M CONFUSION OF MIND, AS TO HIS IDENTITY. • "A numb feeling in the head as if his consciousness was outside of his body; when he says anything, he feels as if another person had said it; and when he sees anything, as if another person had seen it, or as if he could transfer himself into another and only then could see." [Hahnemann]

• "Groans at night, and says it is not him, and wants them to stop." [Guernsey]

• "The disturbance and confusion of the sphere of comprehension, the ability to form ideas and decisions is characterized through the restraint of imagination. On this basis arises the impulse for murder, for example, at the sight of the knife, of blood, etc." [Leeser]

• "The situation of Alumina arises from conflict between parent and child where the child is not being given identity. Whatever the child does they say no, not this. His identity and individuality has been broken down, whatever the child says is not right - you are no one, you know nothing and then comes despair. I don't know what to do, I don't know what I am, I don't know who I am. I don't know what I want, I don't know what I want to be and I am so small, I am so timid, completely dependent on parent." [Sankaran] M Yielding disposition - obstinacy. • "His real identity is being suppressed, is being pushed in, so he has to mould himself according to what people want." [Sankaran]

• "Aluminium oxide is the hard substance that forms on Aluminium that gives the hardness to the metal since Aluminium is the soft, easily malleable metal. The feeling of Alum. inside is too soft and easily mouldable so that there is no identity. So he needs to be hard and rigid to keep up his identity. In the coped up state the Alum. patient can be quite hard and rigid." [Sankaran] M CLARITY.

Lack of clarity: IDEAS are very VAGUE and HAZY, like undefined shadows, And Difficulty in expressing what is happening. • "Various objects occupy his mind, but none is distinctly impressed upon his recollection." [Allen]

Or the opposite: Lots of clarity: • "I have never heard a homoeopath talk very enthusiastically about the inherent possibilities our Aluminium 'personality] has. I have never heard any homoeopath talk about the sense of humour, the quiet wittiness that I have witnessed in several Alumina cases. I have never heard about the tenacity they can display in sticking to a course of action, even while very confused. Nor have I heard about the opposite of mental confusion as an inherent quality: mental clarity. It may be noted that Alum-met. used to build aeroplanes. Aluminium may be of help in getting an overview. Aluminium may be of help in giving direction, in giving perspective. From the confusion, open-minded self-determination may emerge. An aspect of Alumina's qualities is the ability to cut crap surgically [with a knife]? To divide and separate crap from essence?"

M INTERNAL HASTINESS, but slowness of execution, hence mistakes in speaking, writing, etc. TIME PASSES TOO SLOWLY.

• "Intolerable ennui, an hour seems to him half a day." [Hahnemann] M Restlessness. • "Uneasiness when sitting or lying; she had to shift the position of her hands and feet."

• "Uneasiness; she constantly had to move her feet and to go about."

• "Uneasiness, in the evening, as though some evil were impending." [Hahnemann]

Patient CANNOT BE HURRIED; > at own pace, < time limits. Panic sets in and they take longer to do what is needed.

Fear of pointed things, of knives, at the sight of blood.

Frequently changing mood [during the day]; sometimes self-confidence, sometimes timidity; increased animation alternating with absence of mind.

Somnambulism.

• "Rising from bed without being aware of it and going anxiously from one room to another, rubbing his firmly-closed eyes." [Allen] M Violence.

• "Alumina should come to mind whenever the homeopath comes across a case which combines mental confusion with violent thoughts and impulses. Alumina feels violent at times towards herself, and at other times towards those around her. She may be subject to sudden bouts of rage, although often she will not take out her rage on others, but rather slam doors and smashes things, or curses out loud. Alumina is usually a quiet, gentle person who hates her violent side. ... These violent thoughts nearly always involve cutting, be they suicidal or homicidal. ... There is often a marked increase in moodiness before the menses. Both despair and aggression may increase at this time, along with the fear that the patient will hurt herself." [Bailey]

DRYNESS of BODY and MIND. Nothing flows.

• "Everything is slowed down. The conductivity of the nerves is impaired so that a prick of a pin upon the extremities is not felt until a second or so afterwards. All of his senses are impaired in this way until it really means a benumbing of the consciousness and appears to be a kind of stupefaction of his intellect, a mental sluggishness. Impressions reach his mind with a marked degree of slowness." [Kent]

• "The disturbance of the mucous membranes are for the most part to be compared with those of the skin. The mucous membranes are dry and covered with tenacious deposits or crusts, thus in the nose where the crusts are offensive, the picture of a chronic atrophic catarrh occurs. It is the same in the posterior nasal or pharyngeal space where dryness, burning, tenacious mucus and crusts, stitches as from splinters on swallowing, stitches towards the ears on swallowing, suggest the chronic retronasal and pharyngeal catarrh." [Leeser]

• "The basic function of Alumina is holding and retaining, as it does through the layers of clay which hold and retain the water. ... The main points of attack of Alumina are the organs where the general function of reception has its particular seat: the pharynx and stomach receive the food, the larynx is the first receptacle of air, and the bladder and rectum are the receptacles for the body waste before its elimination. ... Turning to the characteristic mental symptoms we find: inability to concentrate, wandering thoughts, very poor memory, fear of one's own impulses, fear of losing one's reason. Again the faculty to hold, to hold and retain one's thoughts, to take a hold of and control one's impulses, to retain one's reason, is impaired. When one prover experiences a sensation 'as if the mind were outside his body, as if what he speaks is spoken by someone else, and what he sees is seen by someone else', we encounter finally a phenomenon of exteriorisation, a loss of the ego function as an expression of inability to hold and retain the very 'I', the ego itself. ... In the sphere of the unconscious, expressed in a symbolic language through dreams, we find dreams of thieves. Also in this sphere the inability to hold and retain what belongs to one is symbolically expressed. ... Aggravation from dry weather, better from wet weather, is natural in the 'dry' Alumina case. Warmth aggravates due to its drying-up effect. Alumina is one of the remedies which has a definite aggravation from moon phases, new and full moon, which influence the tides and the flow of water. Aggravation after menses which constitute a loss of fluids. ... When man for the first time wanted to hold the precious liquid he stretched out his hand - for clay to form the first vessel to hold water. And in the myth of creation man himself is formed from clay as a vessel to hold and contain the spirit of life." [Gutman] DRYNESS. Diminished secretions. • "Excessive dryness of the scalp; it goes to sleep; feels light, and the hair falls out." Dry skin, even in hot weather.

• "Seems unable to perspire."

• "Eyes burning and dry, without much discharge and without destruction of tissue; esp. useful in catarrhal inflammation of the conjunctiva, with dryness and smarting, and great loss of power of the eyelids, 'esp. the left', so that it is difficult to open the lids." [Hering]

Aged persons of spare habits, girls looking wrinkled and dried-up at puberty. Delicate or scrofulous children, weak or wrinkled, esp. if artificially fed.

• "Mentally unstable patients with a tendency towards hysteria. Such patients often have a history of unstable childhood circumstances, including a family history of mental illness and alcoholism, a reflection of the syphilitic miasm in the family." [Bailey]

Ailments from prolonged treatment with allopathic medicines; artificial food; prolonged use of aluminium kitchen utensils; disappointment; violent anger; apoplexy; and prolonged mental exertion. G Weariness during menses; prostration and weakness after menses. Weakness from talking, walking.

• "Excessively faint and tired; he is obliged to sit down." • "Unconquerable disposition to lie down [after three hours]." [Hahnemann]

< Heat and cold (air/tendency to take cold)/summer.

< When HUNGRY [= trembling and weakness].

CANNOT DIGEST FARINACEOUS FOOD (POTATOES). [= eructations, heaviness, indigestion, nausea, pain in stomach]

• "A peculiar Alumina symptom, always repeated and obviously confirmed, but up to now never explained, should be specifically mentioned: stomach complaints < from eating potatoes. Potatoes contain normally 3-20 mg percent, sometimes up to 43 mg percent solanin. Even when cooked and according to the type of potato and its preparation, traces of solanine may remain. Solanine produces, like the related alkaloids of Belladonna, dryness of the mucous membranes and inhibits the stomach secretion. A sensitive prover, subject to the 'drying' toxic effect Alumina has also on the mucous membranes of the stomach, would be naturally aggravated by any trace of an additional 'drying' agent as contained in potatoes, and so will the Alumina patient who reacts like a sensitive prover." [Gutman]

< MORNING ON WAKING.

• "In morning when awaking, as if depressed by sorrow, without clear consciousness."

• "Anxiety, early in the morning, as though he were threatened with an epileptic fit." [Hahnemann] • "In the morning, the urine is slower to pass than after he has moved about and warmed up a little. His limbs are stiffer in the morning and in the morning he has to whip up his mental state. He wakes up confused and wonders where he is. You will see that in children especially - they wake up in the morning in a bewildered state, such as you will find in Alum., Aesc., Lyc. He has to put his mind on things to ascertain whether they be so or not, as to how things should look and wonders whether he is at home or in some other place." [Kent] > forenoon/evening/twilight.

Lack of coordination; ataxia and paralysis.

• [Leeser] "There are many paraesthesias: feeling of crawling on the skin of the face or other places, feeling of tension, a peculiar sensation on the face or on other uncovered areas as from dried egg or spider web [as Borax!]. These sensations are so disturbing that the pain seeks to rub the part constantly.

The extremities go to sleep on sitting or from light pressure, a numbness of the heels develops on standing, pain in the soles of the feet on stepping as if they were too soft and swollen, a band sensation on the body or about a part, the prover cannot hold objects [observed with Alumen], sticking and burning in the back and a pain as though a hot iron had been pressed through the lowest vertebra, drawing and beating pains in the back like electric shocks through the body, contractions of the extremities, lancinating pains. All these symptoms are more or less common in the course of posterior columns degeneration in tabes."

< Lying on right side. > Walking in open air.

RETENTION. [severe constipation, amenorrhoea, scanty perspiration, delayed urination]

Frequent electric sensation on touching objects.

Vertigo when closing eyes or in the dark.

Vertigo and fear of falling forward.

and Drawing and stiff sensation in nape of neck.

and Nausea.

Intolerable itching of skin in bed; WITHOUT eruption.

Skin symptoms > warm weather; < winter. Frans Maan, Homoeopathy in Reflexive Perspective. Rubrics Mind Anguish in morning. Anxiety from thinking about it. Aversion to the colour red. Awkward from haste. Cannot look at blood or a knife. Confusion, knows not where he is on waking; after smoking; when spoken to. Excitement on walking in open air. Fear of his own impulses. Sudden impulse to kill. Lamenting involuntary. Contemptuous laughing. Prostration of mind after menses. Everything seems unreal. Vertigo In morning, > breakfast. Can't walk with closed eyes. Wiping eyes >.

Head: Empty sensation in forehead. Pain, > on going to bed; from looking downward; in forehead on blowing nose.

Eye: Strabismus during dentition.

Vision: Colours, white sparkling stars on blowing nose; yellow halo around the light. Images too long retained.

Mouth: Dryness during coryza. Bitter taste after eating apples.

Throat: Food is felt until it enters the stomach. Swallowing difficult at night, on waking.

Stomach: Bitter eructations after potatoes.

Food and Drinks:

Aversion to: Beer/meat/potatoes/smoking/wine;

Desires: Beans and peas/cloves/coffee/cold drinks/dry food (rice)/farinaceous food/fruit/lime/indigestible things (charcoal/coal/chalk/lime)/soft food/starch/strange things [pregnancy]/tea grounds/vegetables [cabbage/coffee (beans)/(fried) potatoes/pickles]/pungent/raw/uncooked food/sour/acids/tea/whisky;

<: Cold drinks and food/potatoes/milk/salt/vegetables/alcohol (wine/beer)/apples/artificial food/farinaceous/soup/onions/pepper/vinegar/warm food;

>: Warm drinks/cold food;

Rectum: Diarrhoea in dry weather; > wet weather.

Male organs: Pressing pain during coition; at beginning of erection.

Larynx: Voice, hoarseness > walking in open air.

Chest: Oppression < bending head forward; while lying on back. Palpitation before menses; on turning in bed on right side. Limbs Soles of feet as if soft and swollen when walking.

Chill: Chilliness after headache. < drinking warm drinks.

Generals: Faintness at sight of blood.

Lassitude after talking, > walking in open air. Pain, sensation of splinters.

Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum