ARSENICUM ALBUM
Arsenious Acid-Arsenic Trioxide
A profoundly acting remedy on every organ and tissue. Its clear-cut
characteristic symptoms and correspondence to many severe types of disease make its
homeopathic employment constant and certain. Its general symptoms often alone lead to its
successful application. Among these the all-prevailing debility, exhaustion, and restlessness, with nightly aggravation,
are most important. Great exhaustion after the slightest exertion.
This, with the peculiar irritability of fiber, gives the characteristic irritable
weakness. Burning pains. Unquenchable thirst. Burning relieved by heat. Seaside complaints (Nat mur; Aqua
Marina). Injurious effects of fruits, especially more watery ones. Gives quiet and
ease to the last moments of life when given in high potency. Fear
fright and worry. Green discharges. Infantile Kala-azar (Dr. Neatby).
Ars
should be thought of in ailments from alcoholism, ptomaine poisoning, stings, dissecting wounds, chewing tobacco;
ill effects from decayed food or animal matter; odor of discharges is putrid;
in complaints that return annually. Anćmia and chlorosis. Degenerative changes. Gradual loss
of weight from impaired nutrition. Reduces the refractive index of blood serum (also China and Ferr phos).
Maintains the system under the stress of malignancy regardless of location. Malarial cachexia.
Septic infections and low vitality.
Mind.–
Great anguish and restlessness.
Changes place continually. Fears, of death, of being left alone. Great fear, with
cold sweat. Thinks it useless to take medicine. Suicidal. Hallucinations of smell and sight.
Despair drives him from place to place. Miserly, malicious, selfish, lacks courage. General
sensibility increased (Hep). Sensitive to disorder and
confusion.
Head.–
Headaches relieves by cold, other symptoms worse.
Periodical burning pains, with restlessness; with cold
skin. Hemicrania, with icy feeling of scalp and great weakness. Sensitive head in open air.
Delirium tremens; cursing and raving; vicious. Head is in constant motion. Scalp itches intolerably; circular patches of bare spots; rough,
dirty, sensitive, and covered with dry scales; nightly burning and itching; dandruff. Scalp
very sensitive; cannot brush hair.
Eyes.–
Burning in eyes, with acrid
lachrymation. Lids red, ulcerated, scabby, scaly, granulated. Śdema around eyes. External inflammation, with extreme painfulness; burning, hot, and excoriating lachrymation. Corneal ulceration. Intense photophobia; better external warmth. Ciliary neuralgia,
with fine burning pain.
Ears.–
Skin within, raw and burning. Thin,
excoriating, offensive otorrhśa. Roaring in ears, during a paroxysm of pain.
Nose.–
Thin, watery, excoriating
discharge. Nose feels stopped up. Sneezing without relief. Hay-fever and coryza; worse in open air; better
indoors. Burning and bleeding. Acne of nose. Lupus.
Face.–
Swollen, pale, yellow, cachectic,
sunken, cold, and covered with sweat (Acetic acid).
Expression of agony. Tearing needle-like pains; burning.
Lips black, livid. Angry, circumscribed flush of cheeks.
Mouth.–
Unhealthy, easily-bleeding gums. Ulceration of mouth
with dryness and burning heat. Epithelioma of lips. Tongue dry, clean, and red; stitching and
burning pain in tongue, ulcerated with blue color. Bloody saliva. Neuralgia of teeth; feel
long and very sore; worse after midnight; better warmth. Metallic taste. Gulping
up of burning water.
Throat.–
Swollen, śdematous, constricted, burning,
unable to swallow. Diphtheritic membrane, looks dry and wrinkled.
Stomach.–
Cannot bear the sight or
smell of food. Great thirst; drinks much, but little at a time. Nausea, retching,
vomiting, after eating or drinking. Anxiety in pit of stomach. Burning
pain. Craves acids and coffee. Heartburn; gulping up of acid and bitter substances
which seem to excoriate the throat. Long-lasting eructations. Vomiting of blood, bile, green
mucus, or brown-black mixed with blood. Stomach extremely irritable; seems raw, as if torn.
Gastralgia from slightest food or drink. Dyspepsia from vinegar, acids, ice-cream, ice-water,
tobacco. Terrible fear and dyspnśa, with gastralgia; also faintness, icy coldness, great
exhaustion. Malignant symptoms. Everything swallowed seems to lodge in the śsophagus, which
seems as if closed and nothing would pass. Ill effects of vegetable
diet, melons, and watery fruits generally. Craves milk.
Abdomen.–
Gnawing, burning pains like coals of fire; relieved by
heat. Liver and spleen enlarged and painful. Ascites and
anasarca. Abdomen swollen and painful. Pain as from a wound in abdomen on coughing.
Rectum.–
Painful, spasmodic protrusion of rectum. Tenesmus. Burning pain and pressure in rectum and anus.
Stool.–
Small, offensive, dark, with
much prostration. Worse at night, and after eating and drinking; from chilling
stomach, alcoholic abuse, spoiled meat. Dysentery dark, bloody, very offensive. Cholera, with
intense agony, prostration, and burning thirst. Body cold as ice (Verat).
Hćmorrhoids burn like fire; relieved by heat. Skin excoriated about anus.
Urine.–
Scanty, burning, involuntary. Bladder as if paralyzed. Albuminous. Epithelial cells; cylindrical clots of fibrin and
globules of pus and blood. After urinating, feeling of weakness in abdomen. Bright’s disease.
Diabetes.
Female.–
Menses too profuse and too soon. Burning in ovarian
region. Leucorrhśa, acrid, burning, offensive, thin. Pain as from red-hot wires; worse least
exertion; causes great fatigue; better in warm room. Menorrhagia.
Stitching pain in pelvis extending down the thigh.
Respiratory.–
Unable to lie down; fears suffocation.
Air-passages constricted. Asthma worse midnight. Burning in chest. Suffocative catarrh. Cough
worse after midnight; worse lying on back. Expectoration scanty,
frothy. Darting pain through upper third of right lung. Wheezing respiration. Hćmoptysis
with pain between shoulders; burning heat all over. Cough dry, as from sulphur fumes; after drinking.
Heart.–
Palpitation, pain, dyspnśa, faintness. Irritable heart
in smokers and tobacco-chewers. Pulse more rapid in morning
(Sulph). Dilatation. Cyanosis. Fatty degeneration. Angina
pectoris, with pain in neck and occiput.
Back.–
Weakness in small of back. Drawing in of shoulders. Pain
and burning in back (Oxal ac).
Extremities.–
Trembling, twitching, spasms, weakness, heaviness,
uneasiness. Cramps in calves. Swelling of feet. Sciatica. Burning pains. Peripheral neuritis.
Diabetic gangrene. Ulcers on heel (Cepa; Lamium).
Paralysis of lower limbs with atrophy.
Skin.–
Itching, burning, swellings; śdema, eruption, papular, dry, rough, scaly; worse cold and scratching. Malignant
pustules. Ulcers with offensive discharge. Anthrax. Poisoned wounds. Urticaria, with burning
and restlessness. Psoriasis. Scirrhus. Icy coldness of
body. Epithelioma of the skin. Gangrenous inflammations.
Sleep.–
Disturbed, anxious, restless. Must have head raised by
pillows. Suffocative fits during sleep. Sleeps with hands over head. Dreams are full of care
and fear. Drowsy, sleeping sickness.
Fever.–
High temperature. Periodicity
marked with adynamia. Septic fevers. Intermittent.
Paroxysms incomplete, with marked exhaustion. Hay-fever. Cold sweats. Typhoid, not
too early; often after Rhus. Complete exhaustion. Delirium; worse after midnight. Great
restlessness. Great heat about 3 am.
Modalities.–
Worse, wet
weather, after midnight; from cold, cold drinks, or food. Seashore. Right side. Better from heat; from head elevated; warm drinks.
Complementary: Rhus; Carbo; Phos. Thuja; Secale.
Antidotal to lead poison.
Antidotes: Opium; Carbo; China; Hepar; Nux.
Chemical Antidotes: Charcoal; Hydrated Peroxide of Iron; Lime Water.
Compare: Arsenic stibatum 3x (Chest
inflammations of children, restlessness with thirst and prostration, loose mucous cough,
oppression, hurried respiration, crepitant rales). Cenchris
contortrix; Iod; Phosph; China; Verat alb; Carbo; Kali phos. Epilobium (intractable
diarrhśa of typhoid). Hoang Nan. Atoxyl. Sodium arseniate
3x, sleeping sickness; commencing optic atrophy. Levico Water–(containing
Ars, Iron and Copper of South Tyrol). Chronic and dyscratic skin diseases, chorea minor and
spasms in scrofulous and anćmic children. Favors assimilation and increases nutrition.
Debility and skin diseases, especially after the use of higher potencies where progress seems
suspended. Dose. Ten drops in wine glass of warm water 3 times a day after meals (Burnett). Sarcolatic acid (influenza with violent vomiting).
Dose.–
Third to thirtieth potency. The very highest potencies
often yield brilliant results.
Low attenuations in gastric, intestinal, and kidney diseases; higher in
neuralgias, nervous diseases, and skin. But if only surface conditions call for it, give the
lowest potencies, 2x to 3x trit. Repeated doses advisable.