Phosphoricum
acidum Anhang
[M.L. Tyler]
Hahnemann: "The following remarkable, pure, artificial morbid symptoms
produced by Ph-ac. on the healthy body indicate of themselves the natural
morbid states in which it is specially curative by reason of its homoeopathic
similarity".
Some drugs exhilarate, others depress: but among the depressants there
may be an active depressant condition, Aurum being an extreme instance, where
the depression is so great as to drive the victim towards suicide. Ph-ac.:
INdifferent. Listless, apathetic; remarkable indifference to everything in
life: especially if there be emaciation and debility.
It is "the remedy of ailments from care, grief, sorrow, chagrin,
homesickness, disappointed love: particularly + night-sweats towards morning,
and emaciation". Bodily, as well as mental functions share in its
depression and debility.
Ph-ac. is a drug of rather narrow, yet very definite and great utility.
Look at the types that need its help. The weedy, over-grown, over-wrought
school children, with growing pains that may spell heart-destruction. The tired
and apathetic from unequal struggling with adverse circumstances, mental and
physical.
The "neurasthenics" that plague us; those: worn out,
indifferent, apathetic and emaciated. Those for whom life-civilization-has been
too strenuous: and its burdens and disappointments have prone the breaking
strain.
"Deterioration of health from nursing." Here one considers
Chin.: which is also apathetic, indifferent, taciturn, but from loss of vital
fluids, - haemorrhages, excessive lactation, suppurations. One has probably
often prescribed Chin., when Ph-ac. would have been the better prescription,
with it breaking down (nerve strain). Mental enfeeblement, as
Consider further: "Ailments from care, grief" (Ign.:
sensitive, the easily excited:with incredibly rapid changes of mood; very
unlike the apathy and indifference of Ph-ac.
"Ailments from chagrin." One thinks at once of Staph., also
apathetic, indifferent, low spirited, but its ailments from pride, envy or
chagrin.
"Ailments from disappointed love": Nat-m. or Hyos. or Ign. But
Hyos. has marked jealousy, and is far more intense mentally: quite a different
drug picture, and Nat-m. with, possibly, the emaciation of Ph-ac., is
passionate, intense: weeps, hates sympathy: has none of the dull apathy that
cries aloud for Ph-ac.
KENT: Ph-ac. and Mur-ac. In Ph-ac. he says, the mental symptoms are the
first to develop: the remedy runs from the mental to the physical, from the
brain to the muscles: the muscles may remain strong after the mind has given
out. In Mur-ac. the muscular prostration comes first, and the mind seems clear
until long after the muscles are prostrated.
KENT: the Ph-ac. patient pines and emaciates, grows weaker and weaker,
withered in the face; night sweats; cold sweats (down the back/on arms and
hands more than on feet)/cold extremities: feeble heart and circulation;
catches cold easily and it settles on the chest and so on to tuberculosis.
Pallor with increasing weakness and emaciation.
Most writers on Ph-ac. give prominence to the curious fact, that with
all its prostration, its diarrhoea, acute or chronic, does not cause
prostration, and they point to Calcarea, which "feels better, every way,
when constipated." In Ph-ac. there may be "> complaints by their
ending in a diarrhoea." Kent talks, under Ph-ac. of the child with
copious, watery stools in summer: so copious that the napkin seems no use: the
stool runs all over the mothers dress and forms a great puddles on the floor:
the stool is almost odourless, thin and watery, and the little one smiles as if
nothing were the matter.
The mother wonders where it all came from, yet the child seems
well." "The Ph-ac. often > diarrhoea many symptoms/feels better.
Some patients say they are never comfortable with diarrhoea".
N.B. Ph-ac. pinching and
squeezing pains.
Besides ailments from mental affections, he gives: "after
suppression of cutaneous eruptions: i.e. any bad effect that comes from such
suppressions; from loss of fluids, especially seminal.
NASHS Leaders: Drowsy apathetic: unconscious of all surroundings, but
can be roused to full consciousness.
Chronic effects of grief: hair turns gray: hopeless, haggard look.
Grows too fast and too tall: young persons with growing pains in bones
and so on.).
Ph-ac. is one of the drugs that are better after a short sleep
(Camph./Phos./Sep.).
Salty expectoration. (Phos./Ars./Sep./Lyc./Puls.).
Stupefied with grief: a settled despair.
In regard to growth: "with Calc. grows too fat; with Ph-ac. too
fast and tall.
In regard to hard study, Nash says, "While it is true that youth is
a time to get education, it is also true that it is the time when too great a
strain in that direction may wreck and for ever incapacitate a mind which
might, with more time and care, have been a blessing to the world. Ph-ac.
properly exhibited, may be of incalculable benefit in such cases".
He says: "it seems very singular that, after so much talk about the
general depression or weakness of this remedy we should be obliged to record
that profuse and sometimes long-continued diarrhoea should not debilitate, as a
characteristic symptom. Well there are a good many unaccountable things in both
disease and therapeutics, and this is one of them, but the fact remains and we
act upon it. The profound weakness and depression of Ph-ac. is upon the
sensorium and nervous system. He points out that Chin. debilitates by its
diarrhoea or loss of fluids: Ph-ac. attacks the nervous system primarily and it
effects or results are not so much the loss of vital fluids, as in
In regard to the profuse watery urine of Ign. and Ph-ac. he points out
that in the first case it is hysterical, the latter not at all so.
Quiet. Indifferent.
Loss of ideas, and weakness of mind.
He cannot collect his thoughts in proper manner.
He speaks unwillingly; talking is irksome.
Speaks little and answers questions unwillingly.
Listless, apathetic: remarkable indifference to everything in life,
especially if there be emaciation and debility.
Ailments form care, grief, chagrin, homesickness, or disappointed love:
particularly with drowsiness, night sweats towards morning; emaciation.
He looks very ill humoured and sullen.
Sad humour, on account of concern for the future.
He became very cheerful and well disposed : (secondary, curative
reaction).
Schoolgirls headaches, from over-use of eyes.
Occipital headaches and pain nape of neck from exhausted nerve power or
excessive grief.
Confusion of whole head. Headache like stupidity; buzzing in head.
Constant headache.
On the slightest shock or noise, the pains in the head become extremely
violent.
Hard pressure on left side forehead.
Squeezing pressure right temple, more violent on moving.
Squeezing pressure in both parietal bones; worse on moving.
Pain as if temples were pressed towards one another, as if violently
pinched by forceps.
Drawing pressure in right parietal and occipital bones, more violent
when moving.
Tearing and squeezing pain in brain, here and there.
Tearing pressure in occiput, worse noise and slightest movement.
Violent shooting pain, right temporal, extending into right eye.
Burning, sore pain on the side of nape.
Vertigo towards evening, when standing and walking.
Vertigo in the morning, making him fall when standing.
Transient burning left eye, as if something pungent had been smelt.
Pain as if eyeballs were forcibly pressed together and into head.
Itching in the point of nose: must scratch.
Violent burning pain in right lower lip, persisting when moved.
Bleeding gums.
Dry feeling, palate. Nausea, palate.
When swallowing food, shooting in throat.
An almost insatiable thirst for cold milk.
After eating, pressing down weight in stomach and aching.
In navel a periodical aching squeezing.
Loud rumbling in abdomen, especially upper part.
Extremely violent pinching contraction of bowels from both sides of the
umbilical region.
Pressure on several parts of hypogastrium. Distress in the abdomen.
Thin, whitish-grey stools.
White or yellow watery diarrhoea, chronic or acute, without pain or
marked debility or exhaustion.
Stools involuntary.
Urging to urinate, with scanty discharge of urine.
Quite pale urine which immediately forms a thick whitish cloud.
Very profuse emissions.
Onanism, with distress at its culpability.
Great hoarseness.
Difficult inspiration, from pressure and oppression behind the sternum.
Pain in chest from weakness.
Pressive pain in middle of the chest, most severe when expiring.
Felt as if sternum would be pressed out: pain more violent on pressing
hand on sternum, stooping, coughing etc.
Dry cough from tickling low down just above pit of stomach.
Feels bruised in hips, thighs, arms, and nape: like growing pains: with
single tearing stitches in all these parts at once.
Exhaustion in legs when walking. Formication right leg.
Squeezing pressure in soles (one or other).
Here and there, a creeping, like ants running about.
Itching creeping in body and hands, evening, lying down.
Drowsy in the morning: can hardly be roused from sleep.
Deterioration of health from nursing.
Weak and prostrated: weak and apathetic in the morning.
Neurasthenia: cerebrospinal exhaustion from overwork: least attempt
causes heaviness in head and limbs.
Interstitial inflammation of bones: scrofulous, syphilitic or mercurial.
Periosteal inflammation, with burning, gnawing, tearing pains.
Scrofulous affections of children: hip disease, curvature of spine,
rickets, „As IF BONES WERE SCRAPED WITH A KNIFE“.
Children and young people who have grown too rapidly: tall, slender,
slim: pains in back and limbs as if beaten: growing pains.
HUGHES (Pharmacodynamics) says, "Failure in memory is reputed a
special indication for it in cerebral depression: the emotional condition is
one of apathy and indifference. It is to nervous debility want iron is to
anaemia".
It is in diabetes that Ph-ac. has won its greenest laurels. Not only in
the "insipid" form but in true glycosuria cure has repeatedly
followed administration of this acid.
In low fevers it is indicated when the nervous system rather than the
blood is affected by the poison. It has more than once proved curative in
purpura and passive haemorrhages.
HERE is typical Ph-ac. in typhoid:
HERING:
TYPHOID: complete apathy and indifference; takes no notice, even when
pinched; utterly regardless of surroundings: face pale; nose pinched; eyes
sunken; staring, stupid, vacant gaze; eyes glassy; desires nothing, asks for
nothing; grasps about him with hands as if he wished to seize something;
answers questions not at all or unwillingly; gives short unintelligible
answers, which at times are inappropriate, as of one slumbering; sopor; falls
asleep while talking; when awake complains of great and very annoying confusion
and cloudiness in head, with great anxiety; when slumbering sees many visions;
great roaring in ears; hardness of hearing; lies with eyes half-closed,
indifferent to all around her reflects long, then answers correctly, but
slowly; vertigo; pointed nose; dark blue rings around eyes; rapid sinking of
strength; nose bleeds, which, however, gives no relief to symptoms in early
stages; bores fingers into nose; itching of nose from irritation of Peyers
patches; crusty lips; sordes on teeth; fetor oris; thirst; abdomen distended
and bloated, with much gurgling and rumbling; left side abdomen sensitive to
touch; stools watery, sometimes involuntary and contain undigested food; milk
passes more or less undigested; copious escape of flatus with stool; stool
bloody and slimy; tongue dry, may have a dark red streak down centre, but is
apt to be pale and clammy and sometimes covered with slimy mucus; bites tongue
involuntarily while asleep; urine highly albuminous, milky, decomposing
rapidly, loaded with earthy phosphates; petechiae; ecchymosis; decubitus;
enlargement of spleen.
[William Boericke]
The common acid “debility” is very marked in this remedy, producing a
nervous exhaustion. Mental debility first; later physical. A congenial soil for
the action of Phos acid is found in young people who grow rapidly, and who are
overtaxed, mentally or physically. Whenever the system has been exposed to the
ravages of acute disease, excesses, grief, loss of vital fluids, we obtain
conditions calling for it. Pyrosis, flatulence, diarrhœa, diabetes, rhachitis
and periosteal inflammation. Neurosis in stump, after amputation. Hæmorrhages
in typhoid. Useful in relieving pain of cancer.
Mind: Listless. Impaired memory (Anac). Apathetic,
indifferent. Cannot collect his thoughts or find the right word. Difficult
comprehension. Effects of grief and mental shock. Delirium, with great
stupefaction. Settled despair.
Head: Heavy; confused. Pain as if temples were
crushed together. Worse, shaking or noise. Crushing headache. Pressure on top. Hair
gray early in life; falls out. Dull headache after coition; from eye-strain
(Nat-m). Vertigo toward evening, when standing or walking. Hair thins out,
turns gray early.
Eyes: Blue rings around. Lids inflamed and cold.
Pupils dilated. Glassy appearance. Averse to sunlight; sees colors as if a
rainbow. Feel too large. Amblyopia in masturbators. Optic nerves seem torpid.
Pain as if eyeballs were forcibly pressed together and into head.
Ears: Roaring, with difficult hearing. Intolerant
of noise.
Nose: Bleeding. Bores fingers into nose. Itching.
Mouth: Lips dry, cracked. Bleeding gums; retract
from teeth. Tongue swollen, dry, with viscid, frothy mucus. Teeth feel cold. At
night, bites tongue in voluntarily.
Face: Pale, earthy; feeling of tension as from dried
albumen. Sensation of coldness of one side of face.
Stomach: Craves juicy things. Sour risings. Nausea.
Symptoms following sour food and drink. Pressure as from a weight, with
sleepiness after eating (Fel tauri). Thirst for cold milk.
Abdomen: Distention and fermentation in bowels.
Enlarged spleen (Ceanoth). Aching in umbilical region. Loud rumbling.
Stool: Diarrhœa, white, watery, involuntary,
painless, with much flatus; not specially exhausting. Diarrhœa in weakly,
delicate rachitic children.
Urine: Frequent, profuse, watery, milky. Diabetes.
Micturition, preceded by anxiety and followed by burning. Frequent urination at
night. Phosphaturia.
Male Organs: Emissions at night and at stool. Seminal
vesiculitis (Oxal acid). Sexual power deficient; testicles tender and swollen.
Parts relax during embrace (Nux). Prostatorrhœa, even when passing a soft
stool. Eczema of scrotum. Œdema of prepuce, and swollen glans-penis. Herpes
preputialis. Sycotic excrescences (Thuja).
Female Organs: Menses too early and profuse, with pain in
liver. Itching; yellow leucorrhœa after menses. Milk scanty; health
deteriorated from nursing.
Respiratory Organs: Chest troubles develop after brain-fag.
Hoarseness. Dry cough from tickling in chest. Salty expectoration. Difficult
respiration. Weak feeling in chest from talking (Stann-met.). Pressure behind
the sternum, rendering breathing difficult.
Heart: Palpitation in children who grow too fast;
after grief, self-abuse. Pulse irregular, intermittent.
Back: Boring pain between scapulæ. Pain in back and
limbs, as if beaten.
Extremities: Weak. Tearing pains in joints, bones, and
periosteum. Cramps in upper arms and wrists. Great debility. Pains at night, as
if bones were scraped. Stumbles easily and makes missteps. Itching, between
fingers or in folds of joints.
Skin: Pimples, acne, blood-boils. Ulcers, with very
offensive pus. Burning red rash. Formication in various parts. Falling out of
the hair (Nat mur; Selen). Tendency to abscess after fevers.
Sleep: Somnolency. Lascivious dreams with emissions.
Fever: Chilliness. Profuse sweat during night and
morning. Low types of fever, with dull comprehension ans stupor.
Modalities: >: keeping warm. <: exertion/being talked to/loss of
vital fluids/sexual excesses; Everything impeding circulation causes
aggravation of symptoms.
Relationship: Compare: Œnothera biennis-Evening primrose–(Effortless
diarrhœa with nervous exhaustion. Incipient hydrocephaloid. Whooping-cough and
spasmodic asthma). Nectranda amare (Watery diarrhœa, dry tongue, colic, bluish
ring around sunken eyes, restless sleep).
Antidotes: Coffea.
[Janet Gray]
Phosphoric acid was originally produced by Hahnemann by soaking small
pieces of bone in sulphuric acid for 24 hours, then diluting with brandy and
filtering off the liquid. After several more steps of diluting the remaining
solid material with brandy and filtering, the fluid was allowed to settle and
the clear liquid decanted off, and evaporated, then heating to red heat. The
resulting crystal was phosphoric acid, which had to be kept in a sealed
container, as exposure to air results in it deliquescing into liquid. Today,
Phosphoric acid is produced chemically from phosphate minerals (apatite).
Pharmacologically, phosphoric acid acts on the central nervous system as
a depressant and the gastrointestinal tract as an irritant.
Remedy profile
The picture of Phosphoric acid is very unlike that of its metal,
Phosphorus, which is very well known as it is one of our most useful polychrest
remedies. Phosphorus is typified by a person who is extremely sensitive, both
to external stimuli and to other people. They radiate sympathy and caring,
being empathetic to a degree that often exhausts their emotional reserves. They
are often attractive, charismatic people, with striking physical
characteristics.
Less well known is the picture of Phosphoric acid but the acid remedies
as a group are typified by weakness, lethargy and exhaustion, and were
discussed in some detail by Jonathan Hardy in the winter 2004 edition of Health
& Homeopathy in his article on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The
characteristics of Phosphoric acid should logically, therefore, be a picture of
Phosphorus modified by being changed chemically into an acid.
However, at first glance, Phosphoric acid is nothing at all like its
constituent metal, Phosphorus. There is none of the vibrancy of Phosphorus, but
rather one sees a broken-down, apathetic person.
This makes more sense when we look at the extreme picture of Phosphorus
– that is in a very ill patient. Here the sparkle of Phosphorus is gone and is
replaced by indifference to such an extent that the picture of Phosphorus is
scarcely recognised. This, then, is the part of Phosphorus that combines with
the acid features to make up the materia medica of Phosphoric acid.
The picture of Phosphoric acid is one of lethargy, despair, lack of
motivation, inability to cope and physical exhaustion. These symptoms have been
brought on by emotional trauma and stress.
So we see physical breakdown as a result of emotional shock, as opposed
to Kali-p. which has physical breakdown as a result of prolonged adverse
physical factors. It also occurs as a result of loss
of fluids (China).
Bereavement, a broken relationship, homesickness and other stresses can
produce symptoms that need Phosphoric acid to put them right. The typical
person requiring Phosphoric acid might be a tall, gangly teenager, homesick
from going off to university, or an adult emotionally crushed from a
bereavement, displaying a flat effect, slow to answer, apathetic and almost
lifeless.
Teenagers
In William Boericke’s materia medica it states that: “A congenial soil
for the action of Phos acid is found in young people who grow rapidly, and who
are overtaxed, mentally or physically.” Although this was written nearly 80
years ago, it is even more applicable today, with all the stresses young people
have to face, from examinations to peer pressure. Add “homesickness” to this,
and you get a young person who has gone up to university at the age of 18, and
finds him or herself unable to cope with their new situation. They may abuse
alcohol or drugs. They may become anorexic, have frequent illness or become
depressed. They may also be at risk of developing Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
(CFS). Phosphoric acid is helpful in all these situations.
Repertories
If you have access to a repertory, you will see that Phosphoric acid is
well represented in the rubric “Ailments from”. It is in bold type (meaning
that it is very important) in “Ailments from grief”, “Ailments from
homesickness”, “Ailments from disappointed love” and “Ailments from fright”. It
is also in “Ailments from anticipation; bad news; business failure; cares and
worries; death of a child; mortification; emotional excitement; sexual excesses
and disappointment generally”. So you can readily see how important Phosphoric
acid is in ailments from emotional origins.
Gastro-intestinal symptoms
The symptoms produced by grief are often related to the
gastro-intestinal tract, in the form of irritable bowel syndrome, with much
loud rumbling, distension and discomfort about half an hour after
a meal. This is so severe as to make the patient have to remove any
clothing from around the waist, as any pressure cannot be tolerated. Diarrhoea
often follows with embarrassing passage of flatus. There may also be nausea,
loud burping and even vomiting. The appetite is completely lost, save for
craving juicy fruit. Nothing tastes right and the tongue and mouth are dry.
I had a patient who had tragically lost her son in a car accident and
presented to me with just such abdominal symptoms. She had completely lost her
appetite, and if she did force anything down,
it resulted in such huge distension that she had to change into her
dressing gown, even having to take off her bra. She was highly embarrassed by
loud burping that she was totally unable to control, but did relieve the
distension somewhat. Her tummy rumbled loudly all the time and she had copious
diarrhoea. Mentally she was just completely flat. She had lost any motivation
to do anything – from being an efficient housewife, she now could not bring
herself to cook the simplest meal. She just wanted to sit all day and was very
cross with herself over this because she felt that she should be able to “pull
herself together”. She described herself as “tense and fragile”, and was
nonemotional. She was sleeping well – “disappearing into sleep”, as she
described it to me. Normally she was
a very caring person, but had now sunk into complete apathy and
indifference.
I have to confess to trying both Ignatia and Carbo vegetabilis first
(which did nothing for her) before I realised that her correct simillimum was
Phosphoric acid. Indeed, there was nothing remotely ”Phosphorus-like” about her
although, in retrospect, she did display the Phosphoric “indifference”. However
Phosphoric acid transformed her – the distension and belching ceased, and she
started getting her appetite back. She slowly picked up the threads of her
life, although, of course, was still deeply grieving. This case taught me a lot
about Phosphoric acid.
Other materia medica of Phosphoric acid:
Headache: The head feels heavy and muzzy, < noise or
being shaken (like Belladonna). It may be described as a “crushing” feeling
across the temples.
Eyes: There may be styes on the upper lids, with
swollen, heavy eyelids.
Ears: Tinnitus may be present, especially in
patients suffering from CFS, often associated with some earache for which no
cause can be found.
Respiratory system: There is a tendency to catch colds easily,
and these may go down onto the chest. The cough < contact with cold air, and
also on lying down (the same as Phosphorus).
Cardiovascular system: There are frequent palpitations or
irregularity of the pulse. This was the case with my patient described
previously. Her own GP had investigated her with a 24hour ECG tape, but no
abnormality had been found. However the palpitations cleared with Phosphoric
acid.
Genital system: In men, impotence often accompanies the
general physical debility, and there may also be tender, swollen testicles.
In women, the periods are often early and heavy.
Urinary system: There may be frequency of passing urine,
especially at night, with even some bed-wetting.
Musculo-skeletal system: The arms and legs feel weak, and
there may be tearing pains in the joints and bones, often much < at night.
There may also be cramps in the arms. The person may be unsteady walking, and
stumble easily. All these symptoms may be recognised as present in CFS.
Sleep: Tired all the time, and >a short nap. They generally sleep well, but wake
feeling unrefreshed.
Skin: May be unhealthy with acne and there may be
an unpleasant feeling of ants crawling all over the skin. The hair may fall out
easily, and the patient may become prematurely grey.
Generals: There is a general improvement from heat,
whether it be the limb pains, the headache or the person generally.
Chronic fatigue syndrome
I have made frequent references to CFS throughout this article, and it
is in this sphere that I use Phosphoric acid the most. I use it a bit like a
“homeopathic tonic” in low potency, and find that if the symptoms described
above are present in the case, it works extremely well to lift the fatigue. In
cases of grief, I tend to use higher potencies.
Conclusion
Although not one of the polychrest remedies, Phosphoric acid is
certainly a most useful medicine, not easily recognised at first if one is
looking for Phosphorus characteristics. However, if one thinks about the
Phosphorus characteristic of “giving out of love and caring”, one can easily
understand that the person who has exhausted their emotional reserves, needs
some energy put back into their system. That energy is supplied by Phosphoric
acid.
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