Aconitum napellus

Robust habit. Sudden, violently acute, painful effects, a big storm that soon blows over. Tension. Congestion; often apoplectic. Excited nervous and vascular systems. Inflammation. Congestion to head and chest: acute. Inflammation: internal; rheumatic. Bright red hæmorrhage (Bell.). Acute senses. Sticking, tearing pains. Parts feel numb, big, burn, tingle, prickle or crawl; remain sore or numb after the pains. Neuralgia. Crepitation. Painfully sore externally, with internal heaviness. Collapse. .................... TERROR. ANXIETY. AGONIZING FEAR; of death, crowds, etc. RESTLESS, excited, nervous, feverish, impatient and anxious. Beside himself; frantic from intensity of the pain; WITH FEAR; screams, moans, gnaw the fist, bites the nails (Ars.), wants to die. Delirium. Convulsions. Forebodings; predicts time of death. Sensitive. Music saddens. Anxiety, congestion and pain. Head heavy. As of a hot band about head, or boiling heat in brain. Hair seems on end. Violent squeezing or bursting, in forehead or eyes; crackling in, throbs in l. forehead (r. Ant-t. Bell. Ign.); aches, with more urine; burning in. Shooting in eyeballs. Numb nose; with epistaxis (Bell. Med.). Nose runs hot water. Coryza. ANXIOUS LOOK (Spo.). Eyes glitter; stare; bleared; foreign bodies in. Hot, red cheeks. Face: ghastly look; alternately red and pale; one cheek red and hot, other pale and cold. Face pales on rising. Faintness. Toothache. Throbbing in teeth and in head. Everything tastes bitter. Water has a bad taste. Chokes on swallowing. BURNING THIRST; craves acids, beer; < after ices. Appetite: milk agrees. Projectile vomiting (Ver-v.). Violent bilious or bloody vomitus. Stools of pure blood; slimy, grass green, or white; < hot days and cold nights (Dul. Merc-c.). Dysentery. Itching, sticking at anus. Retained, scanty, red or bloody urine. Agonizing dysuria. Cystitis. Urethral chill. Orchitis. Suddenly suppressed menses. Respiration short; during sleep; anxious; hard; sits erect. Dry, hoarse, painful cough, or short, barking, ringing, or whistling cough, < from every inspiration. Grasps larynx; < night or drinking. Laryngitis. Croup with fever. Violent rushes of blood to chest. Pneumonia. Stitches in chest. Oppression of left chest. Pleurisy. Heart feels swelled. Carditis. Complaints of heart worse from sitting erect. Palpitation, anxious; with pain down l. arm. Red finger-tips. Powerless legs. Red, shining swelling. DRY, HOT SKIN, or as if ice water on it. Miliary eruptions. Sleepless and nervous. Pulse fast, bounding, shaking, forcible and tumultuous or wiry. Pulse very irritable. Arterial tension (Ver-v.). CHILL; in waves; alternates with heat. HIGH FEVER. Dry, burning heat; in eyelids; nose, mouth, throat, lungs; on palms; must uncover. Sweat: on uncovered parts; wants covers; drenching. Back and sacrum feel bruised. Remote effects of fright (OP.). Cries out and grasps genitals.

Violent emotions: FRIGHT. SHOCK. Vexation. Sleeping in sun. Chilled by: COLD, dry winds. While sweating. Pressure and touch. Noise. Light. Dentition. During menses. Night; in bed, P.M. lying on side.

Open air. Repose. Warm sweat.

MIND: Brain. NERVES: Medulla. Sympathetic. Vagus. Respiratory centre. HEART: Arterial. Circulation. Viscera: Larynx. Chest. Abdomen. Joints.

Complementary: Sul. Related: Bell. Cham. Cof.

Aconitum napellus

Monkshood. Ranunculaceae.

Is generally indicated in acute or recent cases occurring in young persons, especially girls of a full, plethoric habit who lead a sedentary life; persons easily affected by atmospheric changes ; dark hair and eyes, rigid muscular fibre.

Complaints caused by exposure to dry cold air, dry north or west winds, or exposure to draughts of cold air while in a perspiration; bad effects of checked perspiration.

Great fear and anxiety of mind, with great nervous excitability ; afraid to go out, to go into a crowd where there is any excitement or many people; to cross the street,

The countenance is expressive of fear; the life is rendered miserable by fear; is sure his disease will prove fatal; predicts the day he will die; fear of death during pregnancy.

Restless, anxious, does everything in great haste; must change position often; everything startles him.

Pains : are intolerable, they drive him crazy ; he becomes very restless; at night.

Hahnemann says : “Whenever Aconite is chosen homoeopathically, you must, above all, observe the ■ moral symptoms, and be careful that it closely resem- \ hies them : the anguish of mind and body ; the rest- ! lessness; the disquiet not to be allayed.” '

This mental anxiety, worry, fear accompanies the most trivial ailment.

Music is unbearable, makes her sad (Sab. — during menses, Nat. c.).

On rising from a recumbent position the red face becomes deathly pale, or he becomes faint or giddy and falls, and he fears to rise again ; often accompanied by vanishing of sight and unconsciousness.

Amenorrhoea in plethoric young girls ; after fright, to prevent suppression of menses.

For the congestive stage of inflammations before localization takes place.

Fever: skin dry and hot; face red, or pale and red alternately; burning thirst for large quantities of cold water; intense nervous restlessness., tossing about in agony ; becomes intolerable towards evening and on going to sleep.

Convulsions: of teething children; heat, jerks and twitches of single muscles; child gnaws its fist, frets and screams; skin hot and dry; high fever.

Cough, croup: dry, hoarse, suffocating; loud, rough, croaking; hard, ringing, whistling; on expiration (Caust. — on inhalation, Spong. ) ;from dry, cold winds or drafts of air.

Aconite should never be given simply to control the fever, never alternated with other drugs for that purpose. If it be a case requiring Aconite no other drug is needed ; Aconite will cure the case.

Unless indicated by the exciting cause, is nearly always injurious in first stages of typhoid fever.

Aggravation. — Evening and night, pains are insupportable; in a warm room; when rising from bed; lying on affected side (Hep., Nux m.).

Amelioration. — In the open air (Alum., Mag. c.. Puls., Sab.).

sleeplessness, intolerance of pain; to Arnica in traumatism ; to Sulphur in all cases. Rarely indicated in fevers which bring out eruptions.

Aconite is the acute of Sulphur, and both precedes and follows it in acute inflammatory conditions.

Lecture XXXI — Ranunculaceae — Aconitum napellus

Ranunculaceae.

Aconitum napellus.

Helleborus niger.

Clematis erecta.

Paeonia.

Pulsatilla.

Hydrastis Canadensis.

Staphisagria.

Actea racemosa (Cimicifuga).

Actea spicata.

Radix coptidis.

Ranunculus bulbosus.

Ranunculus sceleratus.

Today we have on the board the Ranunculaceae , an order of plants containing many medicines. It receives its name from the different varieties of the buttercup. As a whole, the order seems to be characterized by acridity, and some of its members are slightly narcotic. From this order we obtain Aconite , Actea racemosa, Actea spicata, Radix coptidis, Ranunculus bulbosus, Ranunculus sceleratus, Hepatica, Pulsatilla, Hydrastis Canadensis, Clematis erecta, Staphisagria, Helleborus and Pceonia. Staphisagria contains Delphinine. Hydrastis Can. when fresh is said to be narcotic as well as acid. It is used for its tonic action, and it is said to cause, when abused, symptoms like those of Sulphate of Quinine, such as tight feeling, buzzing and ringing in the ears and reduction of the pulse. The Clematis vitalba is so caustic that it has been used as a substitute for Cantharides. Similar properties belong to Clematis crispi, on which the Spanish flies feed with avidity. The Clematis viorna whose tough shoots are made into paper, is also vesicant. We shall have time to study only the principal members of this order, and first of all let us consider Aconite. Aconitum Napki^us.

Aconitum napellus is the monkshood. Aconite itself means "without dust." The plant has been so named from the botanical fact that it grows on dry rocks, with scarcely enough earth about to enable it to take root. This shows the hardiness of the plant. It is called the monkshood because of the shape of the flowers, which turn over and give the appearance of a hood thrown over the head.

Aconitum napellus contains a crystalline alkaloid called Aconitine. It is found in largest quantity in the root. Several other active principles occur with it. They are of uncertain composition and are difficult to isolate. In fact, commercial Aconitiiie practically always contains some of these substances. Aconitine and its related active principles are found in differing proportions in many of the members of the order. Aconitic acid is said to occur in some of them combined with calcium. I have heard that some of the inhabitants of Persia dry the tops of the Aconitum ferox, and eat them with impunity. I cannot say how true this is, but it is known that this species of Acoiiite contains Pseudo-aconiti?ie , which is less toxic than true Aco7iiti?ie. It is also asserted (this, too, I cannot vouch for) that, in some parts of Switzerland, Aconite is grown in rows along the streets, and the tops are cut off and used as greens. Perhaps this illustrates the fact that plants alter their properties under domestication.

When taken in poisonous doses, Aconite acts as a depressant to the cerebro-spinal nervous system. It produces a sensation of numbness attended with pricking and tingling in the extremities, and even complete anaesthesia. It also affects the circulatory system. After the first sensation of diffused warmth is experienced, there follows an intense internal heat and profuse hot sweat. At other times the skin becomes covered with a miliary rash which itches intensely. The pulse and respirations are greatly accelerated. Secondarily, the surface of the body becomes cool, with cold clammy sweat, the pulse grows feeble, and death ends the scene.

Aconite does not at first impair the intellect and the emotions. In its action on the nerves it thus differs from Cocculus Zndicus, which early disturbs consciousness. This drug, moreover, produces a complete motor and not sensory paralysis. It differs also from Geisemium, Coninm and Nux vomica, which early destroy motor rather than sensory activity. As regards its symptoms of collapse, they resemble those of Camphor and Veratrum album. But only Veratrum has the characteristic purging and vomiting, with cold sweat on the forehead. Both Aconite and Nux vomica cause tetanic convulsions, but they are only partial in Aconite, and are accompanied by great muscular weakness.

Aconite produces two different sets of symptoms, entirely distinct in their character, and as separate as though the drug were composed of two substances, each developing its own symptoms. The second set of symptoms, that which is most thoroughly known, is the tendency of Aconite to develop fever and inflammation. This it does through its action on the sympathetic nervous system. We find it indicated in genuine inflammatory fever of the type called synochal or sthenic fever. These terms apply to a fever which has about it no quality of weakness or asthenia. The symptoms of the fevers calling for Aconite are these: there are usually dry heat of the skin, and full, hard, bounding pulse. This fever is always associated with anxiety. The mental symptoms and those which are local, Hahnemann has told us, are the true guiding symptoms in the selection of Aconite. It cannot be the remedy unless there are present anxiety, restlessness and fear of death. The sweat which follows the fever is usually critical, and gives relief to all the symptoms; it is profuse, warm or even hot. It has been proved that Aconite does not produce any alteration in the quality of the blood; hence, you cannot expect it to be indicated in any form of fever in which there is a poison in the blood, destroying that fluid or impairing its corpuscles, altering its plasma, or in any way changing its quality. The type of the Aconite fever is sthenic and continuous, and not intermittent or remittent. It has no symptom in its pathogenesis which points to intermittency. Beginning with the initial chill or chills, the dry heat follows and continues until sweat brings relief. Then the fever is over so far as Aconite is concerned. It has no typical return of these febrile attacks. Hence, you cannot give Aconite in intermittent fever. Then, again, it must be borne in mind that sometimes the fever is not the disease itself, but a symptom which is necessary for the proper development of the disease. You should no more attempt to remove this fever by the administration of Acoyiite than you would attempt to remove a single symptom in any other disease. Hence when fever is only a symptom, Aconite should not be given to control it. Take scarlatina, for instance. The fever here may run high, the skin may be hot and dry, and the pulse hard. Superficially, Aconite appears to be indicated, yet you know, with the other symptoms present, backache, vomiting, sorethroat and the existence of other cases of the disease in the neighborhood, that scarlatina is developing. You know, by removing this fever, you take away a symptom which is necessary for the proper development of the rash belonging to the disease. Therefore, Aconite is rarely to be thought of in scarlatina. There may be exceptional cases, when the fever is disproportionately severe and the characteristic mental symptoms are present, in which Aconite may be administered, but nine cases out of ten would only be spoiled by its administration. Again, a mistake is made in giving Aconite in typhoid types of fever to diminish the pulse and control the temperature. Aconite has no relation whatever to typhoid fever. It is here given from mere symptom practice and not through any knowledge of pathology and symptomatology. Let me beg of you not to commence this practice; it will only lead you to alternation.

In traumatic or inflammatory fevers, Aconite must give way to other remedies unless this restlessness or anxiety is present. One of these remedies is Bryonia, which has full, hard pulse, increased action of the heart, dry skin and aggravation of all the symptoms by motion. The patient lies perfectly quiet. He is not at all restless. It is important that you distinguish between Aconite, Gelsemium and Apis mellifica in febrile states. I will therefore give you in detail the symptoms and conditions which make the selection of one or the other of these remedies certain. If I repeat what has already been said, the repetition will only serve to impress the distinction between these remedies more firmly on your minds.

Aconite typifies the synochal fever; Gelsemium the remittent or intermittent; Apis the intermittent or typhoid. Aconite causes decided chill, followed by dry, hot skin and full, hard, bounding pulse, followed later by a warm, profuse, critical sweat, with relief. Gelsemium causes partial chill, beginning in the hands or running up and down the spine, followed by general heat, most decided about the head and face. Sweat is gradual and moderate, but always gives relief. Apis causes a chill, which is followed by burning heat all over, or heat in some places and coolness in others. The heat is felt particularly in the abdomen. The skin is hot and dry, or alternately dry and moist. Sweat is absent or breaks out only in spells, soon drying off. Under Aconite the pulse is, as stated, full, hard and bounding. Under Gelsemiu??i it is full and flowing, but not hard—the so-called " waterhammer pulse." Under Apis it is accelerated, full and strong, or fluttering, wiry and frequent. Aconite presupposes that the blood is not qualitatively altered. Gelsemium admits of any change which may favor depression. Apis tends towards toxaemia, with a typhoid type. Aconite, therefore, is the remedy only when the fever is sthenic, such as arises from exposure to dry, cold winds; from exposure after overheating; from cooling suddenly when warm and sweating, etc. In bilious fever it is indicated in the early stages when the fever is sthenic, especially because it acts on the liver. It is also the remedy in inflammatory fever, whether traumatic or not, the type agreeing; it is particularly applicable to full-blooded, robust individuals, who readily suffer from sudden active congestions. It bears no relation to the intermitting type of fever, and, when given during such a fever, acts only by subduing the heart's action, and never curatively, hence never homceopathically. Neither does it hold any relation to typhoid fever. Gelsemium is the remedy when the fever develops under circumstances which favor a paresis of motor nerves of both voluntary and involuntary muscles. It corresponds to that stage in which the blood-vessels are dilated and full, but lack the firmness and resistance of a fully developed sthenic inflammation. Such a form of fever is accompanied by languor, muscular weakness, desire for absolute rest, and drowsiness. Under such conditions congestions might still be arterial, as under Aconite, but they exhibit a passivity which is sufficiently characteristic. The pulse is full, flowing, but not hard. So Gelsemium may be indicated in bilious fevers, the liver being passively congested. Again, it applies in typhoid forms, but never after the languor and drowsiness belonging to relaxation, and consequent passive congestion of the brain, pass into great prostration and stupor. Apis has an apparent resemblance to the sthenic fever of Aconite in its hot skin, strong pulse, etc., and this is especially so in the beginning of erysipelatous inflammations, or, still more, in inflammation of serous or synovial membranes. But the tendency of Apis is toward typhoid or toward effusions; Aconite never develops either. Thus Aconite may suit the fever attending the initiation of a meningitis, pleuritis or synovitis; but its power ceases when the cri cephalique, the dyspnoea and dull percussion note, or the puffy, doughy swelling about the joint, announce the appearance of effusion. In its intermittent form of fever, Apis bears no resemblance to either Aconite or Gelsemium. Even in a rheumatic type, in which Aconite and Apis both appear, the resemblance is only superficial; for Apis either develops an erysipelatous inflammation, or causes burning-stinging pain and an exquisite soreness, all referable to the blood-vessels. In its lower forms Apis deserts Aconite and completely supersedes Gelsemium. It is indicated in genuine scarlatina, in diphtheria and in typhoid fever. There is a tendency to defibrination of the blood, and lastly to decomposition of the fluids. In such cases the anxious restlessness of Aconite and the irritability or drowsiness of Gelsemium are replaced by a fidgety restlessness and stupefaction. The excitement and delirium of Aconite and the semi-conscious muttering of Gelsemium are changed into low muttering delirium and unconciousness. Arranging the respective symptoms according to the requirements of the Organon, we have each remedy characterized as follows: Aconite y anguish; despair; restless tossing about during the fever; fears he will die; throws off the clothes; pulse full, hard, bounding; skin hot, dry; all symptoms end in copious sweat. Gelse??iium, irritable; sensitive; children sometimes wakeful; nervous; even threatened with convulsions; or drowsy; eyelids heavy; look as if intoxicated; want to remain perfectly quiet. Chill up and down the back, followed by fever with increased drowsiness; pulse full, flowing. Sweat moderate, gradual, but giving relief. Apis, fidgety restlessness; wants to sleep, but so. nervous, cannot; or low, muttering delirium; sopor. Chill begins in the knees or abdomen at three p. m.; heat, with dry skin or occasional transient spells of sweating; desire to uncover; great oppression of the chest; skin hot in some places and cool in others. Pulse accelerated and strong; or, as debility shows itself, wiry and frequent, intermittent, or imperceptible.

Belladonna comes in as another concordant remedy to Aconite. This drug, as we shall see in the future, does not act primarily on the vasomotor nerves or sympathetic ganglia; hence it does not control the calibre of the blood-vessels. It acts primarily on the cerebro-spinal nervous system, and we therefore find it indicated in fevers which begin with symptoms of the brain and spinal cord, or in fevers which have commenced with the Aconite type, but have, by extension, involved the brain. Thus we often find Belladomia following Aconite well. Remember that Belladonna requires the presence of brain symptoms, such as starting from sleep, throbbing headache, hot head and cold body and extremities.

Veratrum viride takes the place of Aconite in fever marking the onset of pneumonia, when there is great arterial excitement and engorgement, as indicated by full rapid pulse; labored and difficult breathing; or later, nausea on rising, faintness, slow pulse and coldness.

When synochal fever fails to yield to Aconite, the best remedy is Sulphur. The symptoms that will lead you to the selection of this remedy are these: despite the administration of Aconite, the dry heat persists; either no perspiration shows itself, or, if any, it is simply transient. The patient, at first sleepless and restless, becomes drowsy and answers questions slowly or permits an interval to elapse between your question and his reply, as if not fully comprehending. The tongue becomes dry and the speech a little thick. The patient gives evidence of falling into a typhoid state owing to the continued exhaustion from this heat.

Ferrum phosphoricum, of which I have already spoken more than once, should be distinguished from Aconite. It acts upon the bloodvessels, producing a sort of semi-paretic state, in which they become dilated as in the second stage of inflammation. The pulse is full and rather soft; not hard or tense, as with Aconite. It is indicated in congestions of any part of the body when the discharges from that part are blood-streaked. This may be applied to dysentery; to haemoptysis, or to secondary pneumonia.

Arsenicum album, like Aconite, causes intense fever, with anxiety, restlessness, and fear of death; but the fever and inflammation of Arsenic are such as belong to intense local disease, to inflammation progressing to the destruction of the part, to fever of a typhoid type with putrid discharges, etc.

Aconite may be used in inflammatory affections of the brain. You must, however, distinguish between an idiopathic cerebral inflammation and one arising from deep-seated disease. Aconite can have but little influence over tuberculous meningitis. But in meningitis or cerebral congestion from lying with the head exposed to the direct rays of the sun, especially when asleep, it is the best remedy, being superior here to either Glonoi?i or Belladonna. But Glo?win and Belladonna are preferable in sunstroke from exposure under ordinary conditions. Aconite may further be indicated in sunstroke when the great heat has had a paralyzing effect on the circulation. At first the heart works harder. It then begins to lose its force and beat from 120 to 130 beats per minute.

AmyI nitrite causes a similar picture. The face is flushed; the eyes protruding; there are roaring in the ears, vaso-motor paralysis and paralysis of the heart secondary to reduced pressure in the capillaries. Aconite may also be used when cerebral congestion results from a fit of anger.

You may use Aconite in affections of the eyes. It is of service in conjunctivitis following surgical operations, or resulting from a foreign body in the eye. It is also indicated in inflammatory affections of the eyes, arising from exposure to dry cold winds. There is a great deal of heat, dryness and burning in the eye. The eye feels as if full of sand, and is exceedingly sensitive. The pains are so intense that the patient wishes to die; he declares that he cannot stand them. The eye-ball feels as if forced out of the orbit, and aches; this aching is worse when the affected part is moved or touched. Photophobia is intense. The pupils are contracted, and there is a blue circle around the cornea, and violent aching in the eye-balls as in episcleritis. Kven glaucoma may demand Aconite when, in addition to the symptoms above enumerated, there are pains extending down the face, as in tic douloureux, especially after exposure to intense cold or to cold winds or in rheumatic patients. If, however, Aconite does not relieve promptly, you must resort to other measures at once, as this disease may destroy sight in an incredibly short time.

Sulphur is indicated in conjunctivitis from irritation of foreign bodies when Aconite fails.

Spigelia has many pains similar to those of Aconite, especially in the left eye; but its inflammation is less general than in the case of Aconite.

You will recall that I said Aconite had two distinct types of action. We have considered the second and better known type; let us now study the other, which is very different from the former. The symptoms of this type belong more to the cerebro-spinal nervous system. First, we shall speak of the symptoms of the mind itself. We find Aconite useful for mental disease or hysteria when there is particular aversion to excitement, especially to busy streets. The patient dare not cross these streets because of fear that something will happen to him. This symptom is perfectly normal under some circumstances, but when extreme, denotes over-excitement of the brain, common enough in hysterical patients. They are anxious. They show an intolerance of music. They can bear no sounds, so sensitive are the ears. They imagine that some part of the body is deformed, e.g., a limb displaced, lips too thick, or features distorted. They imagine that they do all their thinking from the stomach. Sometimes such patients, during attacks of illness, have "spells" in which they predict the hour of death. You may note this symptom in puerperal fever. Argentum nitricum and Coffea also have the symptom, prediction of the hour of death, the latter especially in child-bed. Furthermore, Aconite causes paralysis; a paralysis which may easily he remembered from two or three subjective symptoms; paralysis accompanied by coldness, numbness and tingling. Unless there is tingling in the affected part, we seldom find Aconite indicated. Even paralysis of both legs—paraplegia—may yield to Aconite with this characteristic coldness of the limbs and tingling. We may also use Aconite in various forms of local palsies, as facial paralysis, when associated with the above-mentioned symptoms, and when traceable to exposure to dry cold winds. But this paralysis is never of organic origin.

Sulphur is the main antidote when paralysis results from overdoses of Aconite.

Cannabis Indica and Staphisagria should be remembered in paralysis, with tingling in the affected parts; Rhus tox., Sulphur and Causticum are preferable later, especially in paralysis from cold. The neuralgia for which Aconite is the remedy, is caused by exposure to dry cold winds. Especially is it indicated when there is violent congestion of the affected part, which is usually the face. The face will be red and swollen. The pains drive the patient almost to despair. There is usually tingling in the affected part. You may here compare Spigelia, which is indispensable in left-sided prosopalgia, with severe burning, sticking pains. The patient exhibits intense excitement and great intolerance of the pains.

Colchicum is likewise indicated in left-sided prosopalgia. The pains are associated with a paralytic weakness of the muscles, but lack the severity of those of Spigelia, and the excitement and intolerance of pain which characterizes that remedy is wanting under Colchicum. Amyl nitrite may be needed rather than Aconite in prosopalgia with much local congestion.

Aconite is a very important remedy in the treatment of affections of the heart. The symptoms indicating it in these cases are numerous and important—necessarily so, since Aconite disturbs the blood-flow so markedly, and in addition exerts a special action on the heart and its nerves. There are congestions to both heart and lungs, palpitation with anxiety, cardiac oppression, and even syncope. The palpitation is worse when walking. Lancinating stitches occur and prevent the patient from assuming an erect posture or taking a deep inspiration. Attacks of intense pain extend from the heart down the left arm, and are associated with numbness and tingling in the fingers. - In hypertrophy of the heart, Aconite is indicated by this numbness and tingling in the fingers. It is in uncomplicated hypertrophy of the heart only that jqm should give this remedy. In hypertrophy from valvular disease it may do great harm. You should here compare Aconite with Arnica, Aurum met., Rhus tox., and Cactus grandifloms. Kahnia and Rhus tox. also have numbness and tingling in the left arm with heart disease.

Aconite may be used in the first stage of pneumonia when the fever is high and has been preceded by a chill. Symptoms of engorgement of the lungs are present. The cough is usually hard and dry and rather painful. The expectoration is serous or watery, and a little blood-streaked, but never thick and blood-streaked. The patient is necessarily full of anxiety.

Veratrum viride, as already indicated, competes with Aconite in the incipiency of pneumonia. It acts admirably when the pneumonic engorgement is severe, with violent excitement of the heart, as indicated by rapid full pulse, nausea, faintuess on rising, tongue red down the centre.

B/youia comes in to take the place of Aconite especially when hepatization has commenced. The cough is still hard and painful, and is associated with thicker expectoration. The anguish is now traceable to oppression of breathing and not to the fever; the patient prefers to lie still rather than to toss about.

Aconite may also be indicated in pleurisy, in the very beginning, before there is any exudation; there are sharp stitches on either side of the chest, with chills followed by febrile action. Aconite is to be thought of here particularly when the trouble has arisen from a checked perspiration or confinement from the fresh air. In croup you should give Aconite when the trouble has arisen from exposure to dry cold northwest winds. The patient is aroused from sleep with long suffocating attacks. The cough is of a hard, dry, barking character, and may be heard all over the house. There are great difficulty of breathing, anxiety, and high fever. Spongia is to be used when the breathing becomes " sawing." The cough is still barking, harsh, and rasping. It is especially indicated in light-complexioned blue-eyed children, when the trouble is worse before midnight.

Hepar should be given when the cough is worse toward morning,, and on uncovering, and is associated with rattling of mucus. Sambiicus is called for when there is spasm of the glottis. The breathing is of a wheezing, crowing character, and is worse after midnight and from lying with the head low.

In haemoptysis calling for Aconite the blood is bright red. The trouble is always associated with anxiety, and fever is invariably present. In haemoptysis, you may compare with Aconite the following remedies:

Millefolium, which has haemoptysis, with profuse flow of bright red blood, but without fever.

Ledum for haemoptysis of drunkards or persons of a rheumatic constitution. The blood is bright red and foamy.

Cactus grandiflorus for haemoptysis with strong throbbing of the heart and a sensation of constriction, as of a band about the chest. It has, however, less anxiety and less fever than has Aconite. Aconite is frequently of use in abdominal diseases, especially if they be inflammatory. You may use it in gastritis or gastric catarrh,, when the trouble has been caused by exposure, by the checking of an acute eruption, or by sudden chilling of the stomach from drinking ice water. There is pressure in the stomach as if a cold stone lay there, persisting even after repeated vomiting. Compare also Colchicum, Arsenicum, Elaps, etc. You may also give Aconite in inflammatory colic when the pains force the patient to bend double, yet are not relieved by this or any other position. This symptom is invaluable in the beginning of inflammatory processes within the abdomen, and also in some cases of ovarian dysmenorrhcea. Colocynth may be compared here. This drug lacks the inflammation, however, and finds relief in bending double and from pressure.

Aconite may be used in dysentery, especially if the disease occurs in the autumn, when warm days are followed by cold nights; the stools are scanty, bloody and slimy, with much tenesmus. In this disease, Aconite is followed very well by Mercurius.

The diarrhoea of Aconite is of inflammatory origin. It usually appears in summer, as the result of indulgence in cold drinks or from checked perspiration.

• The stools are watery, slimy and bloody.

Cholera infantum calls for Aconite when the stools look like chopped spinach, and the inflammatory symptoms already mentioned are present.

You should also remember Aconite in incarcerated hernia, when inflammation has started in the strangulated bowel, with burning pain in the affected part. There are also vomiting of bile, great anxiety and cold sweat.

In incipient nephritis, whether true Bright' s disease or not, Aconite has relieved when the patient complains of sharp cutting pains going in a circle from the renal region around to the abdomen over each ilium.

Coming now to the genital organs, we find Aconite sometimes indicated in dysmenorrhea supposed to result from thickening of the peritoneum over the ovaries, and in suppression of the menses, due to anger or fright. The characteristic colic which I described a few minutes ago is present.

During pregnancy, Aconite may be administered for certain mental symptoms, such as fear of death, excitable temperament, etc. It may also be used for impending abortion caused by fright or anger. During labor itself it may be given when the pains are unnatural^ violent, rapid and frequent. The patient complains that she cannot breathe; that she cannot bear the pains. She is restless and anxious, and the body is covered with a hot sweat.

In the so-called "milk-fever," Aconite is to be given when the mammary glands are hot and swollen, and the skin hot and dry. These symptoms are associated with restlessness and anxiety. Suppression of the lochia is an indication for Aconite, when the trouble is caused by exposure or by some violent emotion, provided high fever, thirst and anxiety are present. The mammae are lax, and the abdomen is distended and sensitive to touch.

Aconite is not often indicated in puerperal fevers because they are generally of septic origin, but for one form of child-bed fever it is the only remedy capable of subduing the whole affair within a few hours. The nurse, perhaps, has carelessly exposed the patient after a hard labor, or she has bathed her with too cold water, or has thoughtlessly changed her clothing without the necessary precautions, and the following symptoms result. High fever; thirst; eyes glaring and wild; sharp, anxious expression; abdomen distended and sensitive to touch; mammae lax and without milk. When you have this symptom-picture, you may confidently give Aconite.

While Aconite is not called for in scarlatina, still it may be used during that disease, after the stage of desquamation, when the child catches cold and acute Bright's disease results. The child starts up from sleep in perfect agony, with cold sweat on the forehead and with cold limbs. Dropsy is also present.

In measles Aconite is called for early in the case, where there are high fever; redness of the conjunctivae; dry, barking cough; restlessness; and itching, burning of the skin. It precedes Pulsatilla, and may be relied upon so long as the high fever lasts. The rash is rough and miliary.

Gelsemium differs in that it causes more drowsiness and desire to remain quiet.

In acute coryza you will find Aconite indicated when the nasal mucous membrane is dry and hot, and when there is most violent throbbing headache, better in the open air. Or, the coryza may be fluent and hot, with frequent sneezing. The muscles all over the body feel sore, so that sneezing forces him to support his chest. There are fever, restlessness and the accompanying symptoms. All these are provoked—not by damp weather, and not, as some teach, by exposure to any sort of atmosphere capable of producing cold, but by cold, dry winds, or checked sweat.

You may compare Nux vomica in colds caused by cold weather. The nose is stuffed and dry, and the throat feels rough as if scraped:. Belladonna is to be given if the head is intensely hot, the throat red and the tonsils swollen.

China is useful if there is headache from suppressed coryza, with pains worse in the open air, instead of better, as under Aconite. In skin diseases, Aconite is sometimes indicated. It is not a remedy for scarlatina, but you will sometimes find it useful in so-called scarletrash, with high fever, anxiety and other appropriate symptoms. Sulphur is the proper remedy when Acoyiite has been abused.

Great fear, anxiety, and worry accompany every ailment, however trivial. Delirium is characterized by unhappiness worry, fear, raving, rarely unconsciousness. Forebodings and fears. Fears death but believes that he will soon die; predicts the day. Fears the future, a crowd, crossing the street. Restlessness, tossing about. Tendency to start. Imagination acute, clairvoyance. Pains are intolerable; they drive him crazy. Music is unbearable; makes her sad (Ambra). Thinks his thoughts come from the stomach––that parts of his body are abnormally thick. Feels as if what had just been done was a dream.

A state of fear, anxiety; anguish of mind and body. Physical and mental restlessness, fright, is the most characteristic manifestation of Aconite. Acute, sudden, and violent invasion, with fever, call for it. Does not want to be touched. Sudden and great sinking of strength. Complaints and tension caused by exposure to dry, cold weather, draught of cold air, checked perspiration, also complaints from very hot weather, especially gastro-intestinal disturbances, etc. First remedy in inflammations, inflammatory fevers. Serous membranes and muscular tissues affected markedly. Burning in internal parts; tingling, coldness and numbness. Influenza. Tension of arteries; emotional and physical mental tension explain many symptoms. When prescribing Aconite remember Aconite causes only functional disturbance, no evidence that it can produce tissue change––its action is brief and shows no periodicity. Its sphere is in the beginning of an acute disease and not to be continued after pathological change comes. In Hyperæmia, congestion not after exudation has set in. Influenza (Influenzin)

Better in open air; worse in warm room, in evening and night; worse lying on affected side, from music, from tobacco-smoke, dry, cold winds. Vinegar in large doses is antidotal to poisonous effects.

Fullness; heavy, pulsating, hot, bursting, burning undulating sensation. Intercranial pressure (Hedera Helix). Burning headache, as if brain were moved by boiling water (Indigo). Vertigo; worse on rising (Nux. Opium) and shaking head. Sensation on vertex as if hair were pulled or stood on end. Nocturnal furious delirium.

Red, hot, flushed, swollen. One cheek red, the other pale (Cham, Ipec). On rising the red face becomes deathly pale, or he becomes dizzy. Tingling in cheeks and numbness. Neuralgia, especially of left side, with restlessness, tingling, and numbness. Pain in jaws.

Red, inflamed. Feel dry and hot, as if sand in them. Lids swollen, hard and red. Aversion to light. Profuse watering after exposure to dry, cold winds, reflection from snow, after extraction of cinders and other foreign bodies.

Very sensitive to noises; music is unbearable. External ear hot, red, painful, swollen. Earache (Cham). Sensation as of drop of water in left ear.

Smell acutely sensitive. Pain at root of nose. Coryza much sneezing; throbbing in nostrils. Hæmorrhage of bright red blood. Mucous membrane dry, nose stopped up; dry or with but scanty watery coryza.

Numb, dry, and tingling. Tongue swollen; tip tingles. Teeth sensitive to cold. Constantly moves lower jaw as if chewing. Gums hot and inflamed. Tongue coated white (Antim crud).

Red, dry, constricted, numb, prickling, burning, stinging. Tonsils swollen and dry.

Vomiting, with fear, heat, profuse sweat and increased urination. Thirst for cold water. Bitter taste of everything except water. Intense thirst. Drinks, vomits, and declares he will die. Vomiting, bilious mucous and bloody, greenish. Pressure in stomach with dyspnœa. Hæmatemesis. Burning from stomach to œsophagus.

Hot, tense, tympanitic. Sensitive to touch. Colic, no position relieves. Abdominal symptoms better after warm soup. Burning in umbilical region.

Pain with nightly itching and stitching in anus. Frequent, small stool with tenesmus; green, like chopped herbs. White with red urine. Choleraic

discharge with collapse, anxiety, and restlessness. Bleeding hæmorrhoids (Hamam). Watery diarrhœa in children. They cry and complain much, are sleepless and restless.

Scanty, red, hot, painful. Tenesmus and burning at neck of bladder. Burning in urethra. Urine suppressed, bloody. Anxiety always on beginning to urinate. Retention, with screaming and restlessness, and handling of genitals. Renal region sensitive. Profuse urination, with profuse perspiration and diarrhœa.

Crawling and stinging in glans. Bruised pain in testicles, swollen, hard. Frequent erections and emissions. Painful erections.

Vagina dry, hot, sensitive. Menses too profuse, with nosebleed, too protracted, late. Frenzy on appearance of menses. Suppressed from fright, cold, in plethoric subjects. Ovaries congested and painful. Sharp shooting pains in womb. After-pains, with fear and restlessness.

Constant pressure in left chest; oppressed breathing on least motion. Hoarse, dry, croupy cough; loud, labored breathing. Child grasps at throat every time he coughs. Very sensitive to inspired air. Shortness of breath. Larynx sensitive. Stitches through chest. Cough, dry, short, hacking; worse at night and after midnight. Hot feeling in lungs. Blood comes up with hawking. Tingling in chest after cough.

Tachycardia. Affections of the heart with pain in left shoulder. Stitching pain in chest. Palpitation, with anxiety, fainting, and tingling in fingers. Pulse full, hard; tense and bounding; sometimes intermits. Temporal and carotid arteries felt when sitting.

Numb, stiff, painful. Crawling and tingling, as if bruised. Stiffness in nape of neck. Bruised pain between scapulæ.

Numbness and tingling; shooting pains; icy coldness and insensibility of hands and feet. Arms feel lame, bruised, heavy, numb. Pain down left arm (Cact, Crotal, Kalmia, Tabac). Hot hands and cold feet. Rheumatic inflammation of joints; worse at night; red shining swelling, very sensitive. Hip- joint and thigh feel lame, especially after lying down. Knees unsteady; disposition of foot to turn (Aescul). Weak and lax ligaments of all joints. Painless cracking of all joints. Bright red hypothenar eminences on both hands. Sensation as if drops of water trickled down the thigh.

Red, hot, swollen, dry, burning. Purpura miliaris. Rash like measles. Gooseflesh. Formication and numbness. Chilliness and formication down back. Pruritus relieved by stimulants.

Nightmare. Nightly ravings. Anxious dreams. Sleeplessness, with restless and tossing about (Use thirtieth potency). Starts up in sleep. Long dreams, with anxiety in chest. Insomnia of the aged.

Cold stage most marked. Cold sweat and icy coldness of face. Coldness and heat alternate. Evening chilliness soon after going to bed. Cold waves pass through him. Thirst and restlessness always present. Chilly if uncovered or touched. Dry heat, red face. Most valuable febrifuge with mental anguish, restlessness, etc. Sweat drenching, on parts lain on; relieving all symptoms.

Acids, wine and coffee, lemonade, and acid fruits modify its action. Not indicated in malarial and low fevers or hectic and pyæmic conditions, and in inflammations when they localize themselves. Sulphur often follows it. Compare Cham and Coffea in intense pain and sleeplessness. Agrostis acts like Acon in fever and inflammations, also Spiranthes. Complementary: Coffea; Sulph. Sulphur may be considered a chronic Aconite. Often completes a cure begun with Aconite. Compare; Bellad; Cham; Coffea; Ferr, phos. Aconitine.––(Heavy feeling as of lead; pains in supraorbital nerve; ice-cold sensations creep up; hydrophobia symptoms. Tinnitus aurium 3x). Tingling sensation. Aconitum Lycotonum.––Great yellow wolfsbane.––(Swelling of glands; Hodgkin's disease. Diarrhœa after eating pork. Itching of nose, eyes, anus and vulva. Skin of nose cracked; taste of blood). Aconitum Cammarum.––(Headache with vertigo and tinnitus. Cataleptic symptoms. Formication of tongue, lips and face). Aconitum ferox.––Indian Aconite.––Rather more violent in its actions than A. napellus. It is more diuretic and less antipyretic. It has proved valuable in cardiac dyspnœa, neuralgia, and acute gout. Dyspnœa. Must sit up. Rapid respiration. Anxiety, with suffocation from feeling of paralysis in respiratory muscles. Cheynes-Stokes breathing. Quebracho (cardiac dyspnœa) (Achyranthes.––A Mexican drug––very similar to Aconite in fevers, but of larger range, being also adapted to typhoidal states and intermittents. Muscular rheumatism. A great diaphoretic. Use 6x). Eranthis hymnalis––(Winter Aconite––acts on solar plexus and works upwards causing dyspnœa. Pain in occiput and neck).

Sixth potency for sensory affections; first to third for congestive conditions. Must be repeated frequently in acute diseases. Acon is a rapid worker. In Neuralgias tincture of the root often preferable, one drop doses (poisonous), or again, the 30th according to susceptibility of patient.

Aconitum Napellus

Introduction: Aconite is a short-acting remedy. Its symptoms do not last long. It is a violent poison in large doses, either destroying life or passing away in its effects quite soon, so that if the patient recovers, the recovery is not delayed. There are no chronic diseases following it. Like a great storm, it comes and sweeps over and passes away. By a little meditation we will discover what kind of sickness all this is like, and what kind of a patient is most likely to have that short, sudden sickness.

If we think a moment from experience and homoeopathic observation, we will remember that vigorous, plethoric individuals, when they take cold, come down violently, whereas feeble people, sickly people, come down and recover slowly from acute diseases, and do not become so violently and so suddenly sick.

From this, and from examining the sudden effects of Aconite, it will be easy to see that persons who come down with Aconite sicknesses are plethoric individuals.

Strong, robust people, rugged children and infants become sick, not a very slight cold, or from slight exposure, but from more violent exposure. From being exposed with deficient clothing; from (sudden, violent changes; from prolonged exposure to the cold, north, dry wind. A vigorous person caught out with thin clothing, or remaining out in the cold, dry air of midwinter, with its sudden, violent changes, comes down even before night with violent symptoms. This is the class of patients, the plethoric and vigorous, who have a strong heart, active brain, vigorous circulation, and come down suddenly from violent exposure, that need Aconite. Aconite has in its nature none of the results usually following inflammation. The storm is over so quickly that it seems mostly to conform to the earlier condition. In these vigorous patients sudden congestions are likely to be thrown off by good reaction.

The patient seems to be threatened with a sudden and violent death, but recovery is quick. So, as was observed by Dunham, it is a great storm and soon over. Dunham's discussion of this remedy in his Materia Medica is very poetical and well worth reading.

Generals: Attacks come on suddenly from exposure to a dry, cold wind. In plethoric children we have an illustration of that in, the sudden congestion of the brain with intense fever, or with convulsions.

We get illustrations of its suddenness and violence in any organ of the body, the brain, the lungs, the liver, the blood, the kidneys. It is suited to the complaints that come on suddenly from the very cold weather of winter, or from the intensely hot weather of summer.

It has the lung and brain complaints of winter, and the bowel inflammations and stomach disorders of summer. We know how these plethoric individuals become suddenly overheated and become violently sick.

Their sudden attacks are frightful to look upon. All these inflammatory conditions are attended with great excitement of the circulation, violent action of the heart, a tremendous turmoil of the brain, a violent shock. with intense fear.

Mind: The mind symptoms that are nearly always associated with Aconite conditions stand out in bold relief.

The patient feels the violence of his sickness, for he is under great nervous irritation and excitement.

Fear is depicted upon his countenance, and the heart's action is so overwhelming the first thing he thinks of is that he must die; this must mean death, which he fears. It stands out upon his countenance.

He says:

"Doctor, there is no use; I am going to die." Many times he actually predicts the moment or the hour of his death. If a clock is in the room, he may say that when the hour hand reaches a certain point he will be a corpse.

When we see this intense fear, this awful. anxiety, great restlessness, the violence and the suddenness of these attacks, we have a case, perhaps, that is dying from the poison of Aconite, or one who needs Aconite.

One who has a sickness resembling the poison of Aconite needs the smallest possible dose of Aconite. It is a very short-acting medicine, and that must be remembered.

It hardly matters what part of the body we are considering we will find inflammatory conditions. But regardless of the region or the locality of the inflammation, that which I have described is the appearance of the patient. Such are the symptoms that will stand out, that you will observe first - the appearance of the face, the mind symptoms, the restlessness, the intensity. Now, there are many little mental symptoms that are of much less importance than this fear, this anxiety, symptoms that will be masked by these marked symptoms that indicate the patient. He has lost all affection for his friends. He does not care what becomes of them, he has not the slightest interest in them. It sometimes may be a state of indifference.

What I have brought out will enable one to readily see that this picture does not belong to all the remedies in the Materia Medica. In fact, it belongs only to Aconite. No matter what remedy you compare this with, you would find it only under Aconite.

You will find some of the features in the text under other remedies, but those which I have mentioned collectively will be found only under Aconite.

Take the mental symptoms, intensity marks every one of them. If it is a delirium, it is an intense delirium, with excitement, with fear, with anxiety.

Patients in delirium, with excitement and fear, will weep, as in great torment.

Great excitement, fear, fear of death. You wonder what she is weeping about. There are all sorts of moods intermingled also with the fear of Aconite.

There is moaning and irritability, anger, throwing things away, all attended. with the violence and anxiety. These features that I described as uppermost are intermingled with all the other symptoms.

"Screams with pain."

The pains are like knives, they are stinging, cutting, stabbing. The intensity of the Aconite suffering is wonderful, so that if the nerves take on neuralgic pains the pains are intense. It is the feeling that some awful thing must be upon him or he could not have such dreadful suffering. It says in the text, "predicts the day of his death."

This to a great extent is the result of the awfulness that seems to be overwhelming him. And this mental picture is always present, in pneumonia, in inflammatory conditions of any part of the body, in inflammation of the kidneys, of the liver, of the bowels, etc.

Vertigo: Dizziness prevails throughout all this symptom picture.

"Vertigo, turning and whirling."

A woman out shopping runs up suddenly against a dog and becomes violently dizzy, she cannot even get to her carriage.

"Vertigo that comes on from fear, from sudden fear, and the fear of the fright remains." There is a remnant of that fear left, but it will lead you no more strongly towards Opium. "Complaints from fear. Inflammation of the brain from fear, dizziness from fear."

Even congestion of parts as a result of fear. A turmoil in the whole sensorium. Things go round and round.

Head: The headaches can hardly be described, they come with such violence. Tearing burning in the brain, in the scalp, attended with fear, with fever, with anguish; headache from taking cold, from suppressing catarrh in the nose.

Catarrh stops suddenly in plethoric people, from exposure, from riding in the dry, cold wind such as we have in this northern climate in winter. "Violent headache over the eyes.

Congestion of the brain, with congestive headache, with anxiety, with hot face."

Eyes: The symptoms that would lead you to give Aconite for affections of the eye are numerous. Eyes take on sudden inflammation. Congestion of the eye. Blood red appearance of the eye. Sudden inflammation of all the tissues; conjunctivitis, etc., from taking cold, from exposure to dry, cold winds.

There is a teaching that has long prevailed: give Aconite for the first stage of an inflammation. It is not good teaching, although it is recommended in all of our books. It does not say for what kind, of a constitution, or how it comes about. Do not practice that way. Get all the elements for an Aconite case, if possible, or give a better remedy. Another practice has prevailed, viz., giving Aconite for fever. Aconite was the fever remedy of many of our early routinists, but it is a bad practice.

Aconite has an inflammation of the eyes that comes on so suddenly that one wonders how that inflammation came in so short a time.

The eyes take on great swelling without any discharge, or only very watery mucus. The sudden inflammations that come on with thick discharges would never be Aconite.

Fever and Chills: Aconite has no results of inflammation. Those conditions that are about to take on the results of inflammation will always indicate some other remedy. You are not to think of Aconite in fever unless the Aconite patient is present.

With the Aconite fever there will be sensitiveness to light.

"Great restlessness with fever."

Eyes staring, with pupils contracted, "violent aching and inflammation of the deep structures of the ball."

Give Aconite only when the symptoms agree. An inflammation that is about to run a prolonged course, to take on suppuration, or if it is mucous membrane to take on discharge of pus, will never show you the symptoms of Aconite.

Never give Aconite in blood poisoning, such as we find in scarlet fever, in typhoid fever, etc. We find nothing of the violent symptoms of Aconite in such conditions. The nervous irritation is never present, but the opposite, the stupor, the laziness, the purple skin - whereas Aconite is bright red.

Never give Aconite for any form of zymosis, for it has no zymotic history. There should be no thought of Aconite in the slow coming, continued fever. Aconite has no symptoms like the slow types of continued fevers.

The Aconite fever is generally one short, sharp attack of fever. It is in no way related to an intermittent fever, as it has no such symptoms. You might find something that would deceive you in one attack of intermittent fever, but the very fact that there was a second one would shut out Aconite. Some remedies have periodically or waves, Aconite has no such a condition. The most violent attack of fever will subside in a night if Aconite is the remedy. If it is not it is a pity that you made a mistake in giving it, for it will sometimes do mischief. All things that exist in a sickness must be taken into account, not only what the remedy does cover, but what it does not cover.

Aconite has inflammation of the eyes, with burning and sudden swelling; the lids swell so rapidly that they cannot be opened except with great difficulty, and when they are forced open by seizing the margins of the lids with a pair of forceps drops of hot water will fall out, but no pus.

This comes on rapidly from taking cold. Whenever there are inflammations of the mucous surfaces bloody water is apt to flow.

Suddenly the blood vessels become engorged and ooze, the blood vessels rupture and the capillaries ooze.

Ears: Inflammation of the ear comes on just as suddenly.

"Throbbing, intense, cutting pains in the ear." The child comes home after being out in the cold north wind, and is not sufficiently clad, and now it screams and puts its hand to the ear. The attack comes on early in the evening, after being out in the daytime.

Fever and anxiety; child must be carried. The suffering is intense. Noise intolerable. Music goes through every limb, so intense is the sense of hearing.

Everywhere in the body will we find that same intense condition of the nerves. Wherever there are complaints they are intense, violent, and the patient is always in a state of anxiety and irritability.

"Stinging, burning, rending, tearing, cutting pains in the ear."

Coryza: Coryza if attended with violent headache, coming on in the night after exposure and taking cold during the day, suddenly, this short acting, very quick-acting remedy will be indicated.

The coryza that comes on from Carbo veg. comes on several days after the exposure. The coryza that comes on from Sulphur also develops several days after the exposure.

The Carbo veg. patient becomes overheated and takes cold by keeping on his overcoat when he comes into your office. In Aconite he goes out in cold air with his light clothing, and comes down, if he is a plethoric individual, before midnight. But especially is it often indicated in the coryza of the rosy, chubby, plethoric baby. Not in the sickly or pale ones.

These sickly ones will come down later; their vital activities are so reduced that their complaints do not come on sometimes for two, or three days.

So that if you take a sickly one and a vigorous one in the same family and expose them both one will have croup tonight and need Aconite, and the other will have it the next morning and need Hepar.

Face: The symptoms likely to occur with coryza are nosebleed, headache, anxiety and fear. The anxious expression is one of the first things observed in the Aconite sufferer. The Aconite pneumonia will often show itself on the face. Look at the face; there is great anxiety. It shows much of the proving of Aconite. You know there is much in the expression of the face that will enable one to read all that is going on in the body; it tells the story, The pleasures and sadness, and the distress of the human family, much of which you can generalize, and see at a glance that some great thing has happened. You have only to guess once or twice before you hit it. Here you have the anxiety.

"One cheek red and the other pale" is in a good many remedies, but the anxious expression, and the fear, and the heat, and the restlessness, and the suddenness with which it comes on in a plethoric individual yesterday it was very dry and windy - and you will at once place this symptom with Aconite.

But it might be one of several other remedies, were other conditions present.

"Neuralgic pains in the face, like hot wires running along either side of the face." The individual rides in the cold, raw wind, and his face was exposed to the cold wind. He becomes numb, then pain sets in, intense pain. He cries out and shrieks with the knife-like cutting pains. Aconite will relieve.

"Crawling, creeping like ants"; Aconite has that sensation along the course of the nerves. It has a sensation like ice water poured along the course of the nerves.

Sciatica when the sensation is felt down the nerve like ice water.

"Creeping, tingling and crawling in the face, with or without pain."

There is intense heat intense fever in the face. The side of the face laid on will often break into a sweat, and if the patient turns over, that side will at once become dry, and the other side will at once break out in a sweat.

Mouth and teeth: Oh, what a comforting remedy it is for toothache.

It has been so useful in toothache that nearly every old lady nowadays knows enough to put a drop of Aconite on a bit of cotton and put it in the old hollow tooth. It will quite often palliate. A dose of Aconite will act much better. But the violence of the toothache; again the same old story, from the dry, cold winds, plethoric individuals, with hollow teeth, pain intense, cutting, shooting pains in the teeth.

Sometimes these pains are in sound teeth and affect the whole row of teeth. Violent pains from exposure, such as riding in the wind. The pains are relieved and go away speedily after a dose of Aconite.

Disturbances of taste, disordered stomach. Everything tastes bitter, except water; and, oh, how the Aconite patient longs for water. It seems almost impossible for him to get water enough and it agrees well.

Burning is a symptom that runs all through the remedy, you will find it descriptive of all the pains. Burning in the head, burning along the course of nerves, burning in the spine, burning in fever, sometimes burning as if covered with pepper.

Throat, palate and tonsils: Aconite is a very useful medicine in inflammation of the throat, when there is burning, smarting, dryness, great redness of the tonsils, or the fauces, the whole throat.

Sometimes the soft palate is greatly swollen. A high grade of inflammation, acute inflammation of all that can be seen and called throat. But that alone would not indicate Aconite.

It cures that kind of case, it cures inflammation of the throat, but every homoeopathic physician knows that forty or fifty remedies could be selected just as well as Aconite from all that I have said.

I have only mentioned a nondescript case. No homoeopathic physician could prescribe upon that kind of evidence.

But you note the kind of throat - every physician must ask himself the question:

"What would make that kind of a throat an Aconite case?"

And then the question would come up, could he not prescribe for it as well if he had not seen, the throat?

The throat does not do much towards representing, to an intelligent physician, the patient.

If it was necessary to represent to the mind of the physician the inflamed part itself, how would he treat the liver?

He cannot see it. How would he prescribe for the stomach? He cannot see it. We are then compelled to fall back upon that which represents to the intelligent physician the very nature of the patient himself, and then at once we will see the reason for some of these things. If you present and Aconite patient well before the mind you can prescribe. It would be well to see anything that is visible. If you could see, the liver, I would say look at it. If you could see the heart, I would say examine it.

What is it in this throat that really represents the patient?

Of course, any soreness of the throat makes it difficult swallow. I mean to infer that there is nothing in the soreness to represent to the physician the Aconite patient. If that individual were a plethoric individual, if he had been riding in a cold, raw wind a good part of the day, and he had wakened in the night with a violent burning, tearing sore throat, and he could not swallow, and the fever came on high, and he had thirst for cold water and he could not get enough of it, he was in an anxious, feverish state, you have then a patient to prescribe for.

Many times will patients become intelligent enough under your observation to write just what some member of the family acts like. You know just what the patient looks like. The black man will sometimes give the best kind of a description, better than the Vassar girl, who writes us:

"Doctor, will you please send the medicine have looked into the throat and it is red."

Stomach: With the stomach symptoms what an anxious patient we have! The pains are dreadful. Burning pains, tearing pains, with anxiety, with restlessness, with fever, coming on from taking cold - not from overeating, but from taking cold, which has settled in the stomach; from exposure to an ice bath, or in a very hot summer from intense heat, associated with an irritable brain in vigorous children.

Vomiting and retching, tearing, as it were, the very inside out by the awful retching. The vomiting of blood, bright red blood.

This is descriptive of the general stomach trouble. During this febrile state he craves bitter things, wine and beer, and brandy, but they will come up as soon as they reach the stomach. He craves pungent things, nothing tastes bitter enough.

"If he could only get something bitter." And yet his food tastes bitter, everything he eats tastes bitter, everything except water.

The word in the text is a clinical word; it says "gastric catarrhs."

It is a very sharp, acute inflammation of the stomach. Retching, vomiting, of bile, vomiting of blood. Ineffectual urging to vomit, when there is nothing in the stomach.

With it there will be anxiety, restlessness, fear of death. The fear depicted upon the countenance makes an awful expression.

Aconite is a useful medicine in inflammation of the liver, when it comes suddenly. It is not very useful in repeated attacks, but in the first attack.

Liver: Violent inflammation of the liver, with violent tearing pains and much burning. Then comes the restlessness, the awful tortures of anxiety, moving constantly, fear of death, red face, glassy eyes, great thirst.

"Anxious restlessness" covers nearly all of these things.

Abdomen: In the abdomen there are shooting pains, burning, stinging pains, after exposure to cold, becoming chilled.

We will soon come to think that it does not make much difference where the disorder occurs, we must have the Aconite patient.

We also have inflammatory troubles of all the viscera of the abdomen. It may be a violent catarrhal inflammation. It may be a catarrhal condition of the lower portion of the colon, or a catarrhal condition of the rectum, when we will have a dysentery.

In dysentery, that which is found in the commode is almost pure blood, blood and a little slime. It seems impossible for him to leave the commode.

Vomiting a little blood and passing bloody mucus from the rectum. Always they will predict they will die tonight, or in a few hours. They look as if they realized the sensation of death.

The whole body is in a state of anguish, but the tenesmus and cramp, the urging to stool are simply terrible. It has a watery diarrhea, but that is not a very important symptom, although it is doubly marked in Hering.

But when pure blood is passed, and mucus, with tenesmus, or when a little green mucus is passed by infants with summer troubles, pure blood or grass-green discharges with fever coming on suddenly, in bright, rosy little ones, think of Aconite.

Most of the bowel troubles come on from intense heat, in the children. The infant takes on inflammation of the liver from the heat, and the stool becomes white like milk, of putty consistency. The child becomes yellow and screams with pain.

Urinary organs: It is useful in urinary troubles, bladder and kidney troubles. inflammatory conditions, and with bloody urine.

Scanty urine, suppressed urine, or retained urine. Retention from shock. This retention from shock makes it one of our best remedies for retention in the new-born.

The infant just born into the world has undergone a shock.

At your next visit the nurse says, "The child has not passed urine."

The functions of that little one are not yet established, because of the great shock the little one has gone through.

Inflammation of the bladder, with cutting, tearing pains. Burning pains with burning urine. Urine is hot, dark, colored red; red and clear, or bloody. Retention from cold, especially in children, with crying and restlessness. With inflammatory conditions of the bladder, either in adults or in infants, there will be all the mental states representing the Aconite patient.

Genital: Aconite cures most violent cases of orchitis, which come on suddenly.

Orchitis from cold, from being chilled, in plethoric men. But in the common orchitis from suppressed gonorrhoeal discharges Aconite is useless.

The woman is a natural Aconite patient, with her sympathetic natural sensitiveness. She usually takes on complaints from nervous shock, from fear, and she naturally takes on complaints from causes other than those from which men take on sickness.

It is very seldom that fear will give a man inflammation, but fear is a common cause of inflammation of the uterus, and of the ovaries, in plethoric, vigorous, excitable women.

Fear will often cause abortion, but when Aconite is given early enough it will check the abortion that comes from fear.

We will have the stitching, burning, tearing pains of Aconite sometimes following fear or sudden emotion.

Sometimes a pregnant woman will say, "Doctor, there is no use your planning for my confinement.

I know I am going to die in that confinement." If there is any one thing that is a really strong symptom to prescribe on it is that, A dose of Aconite, and then change the subject, she goes away, and in a few days you ask her about that fear and she says, "Oh, never mind that." Many little things like that can be singled out. But that state of fear is a very peculiar thing, and really represents the whole nature and being of the woman.

She predicts the day of her death. The reason that Aconite is so often the infant's remedy is because the infant is so often made sick from fright.

"Inflammation of the genitals in plethoric women."

Aconite is more frequently indicated in women and children than in men. Sensitive, vigorous, excitable women.

It is indicated in men in inflammatory conditions from becoming chilled in dry, cold air, and it is wonderful how you can convince a patient who needs Aconite what wonderful things there are in Homoeopathy by showing him how rapidly, with Aconite, you can put him in a sweat and break up a sharp fever when that is a recent and single attack.

"After tedious and difficult parturition. Violent after-pains.

Shooting, tearing after-pains, with febrile conditions."

Uterine haemorrhage with bright red blood and fear of death. It is wonderful what Aconite will do in some cases arising from taking cold in the puerperal state, but do not mix that up with puerperal fever.

The first is a simple form, non-septic; perhaps the breast is involved, with soreness in the breast, suppression of the milk and febrile conditions; but if there is suppression of the lochia do not give Aconite.

New-born children, with difficulty of breathing, after the use of forceps, or from a tedious labor; the child is breathless, there is difficulty with the heart, and in a few hours fever comes on. Aconite is a very simple remedy.

The retention of urine in the infant is so commonly an Aconite condition that you will hardly ever need to use any other medicine. The little one cannot yet talk, it cannot manifest very much, and, to a certain extent, the practitioner is compelled to be somewhat routine in these affairs, and the routine practitioners have been more or less successful with Aconite for the retention of the urine. Again, it is true that in many cases, of retention of the urine in the mother, it will disappear after a dose of Causticum.

Throat: Aconite is a great routine croup remedy, one that is misused; but it is indicated in all those cases of croup which come on suddenly in plethoric children, from exposure to dry, cold wind, having been out in the cold wind with the mother during the day.

The child is put to bed and rouses up from the first sleep, perhaps at 9 or 10 or 11 o'clock, grasps the throat, coughs violently, a croupy, choking cough, with hoarse bark.

Hardly any other remedy can correspond to that rapidity of action, taking cold in the daytime and developing itself so suddenly.

Croup that comes on from exposure today, and does not develop until tomorrow morning or tomorrow evening, may correspond to quite a number of other remedies but especially Hepar, which is slower in its pace.

And it is more suitable in children somewhat run down and subject to frequent attacks of croup. Spongia is also similar, but it lacks many of the elements more likely to occur in run-down children, those always taking cold.

It would be a difficult matter to distinguish between the appearance of the Aconite and the Spongia croup so far as the croup is concerned, because both have all the anxious appearance found in croup.

The Aconite croup is a violent croup, inflammation of the larynx, and, at the same time, spasms of the larynx, coming on with great rapidity.

The Spongia croup is less inflammatory, the inflammation grows with the spasms; but while Spongia may rouse up at 11 o'clock at night, suffocating and choking, it has not the intense febrile excitement that belongs to Aconite, nor the anguish, although it has all the dryness that is found in Aconite.

Aconite conditions are dry as a usual thing, or there is only a little watery discharge. Spongia is entirely dry; if there is an inflamed mucous membrane, it is dry. We have in the croup symptoms in Aconite: Larynx sensitive to touch.

"Croup, waking in first sleep, after exposure to dry, cold winds."

Lungs and respiration: Aconite is full of disturbances of respiration, dyspnoea from contraction of the smaller bronchial tubes, which we find resembles asthma.

It is indicated in that dyspnoea that belongs to capillary bronchitis, in that dyspnoea that belongs to cardiac excitement in plethoric persons, from taking cold, becoming exposed or from shock.

Dyspnoea from fear, such as occurs in nervous women, excitable, easily affected, nervous, plethoric women. Breathing short, labored, anxious, quick, It is an asthmatic dyspnoea and there is usually dryness of the mucous membranes of the small bronchial tubes.

"Sits up straight and can hardly breathe." Aconite has such a sudden violent cardiac irritation, pulse fluttering, weak, full and bounding; sits up in bed, grasps the throat, wants everything thrown off; before midnight, a hot skin, great thirst, great fear-everything is associated together.

"Anguish with dyspnoea.

Sudden attacks of pain in the heart, with dyspnoea." All go together.

"Great suffocation."

From this fear and from anxiety he breaks out in profuse sweat; he is drenched with sweat - and yet he is hot.

When this anxiety passes off he becomes hot. So there is heat and sweat with this awful anxiety. Pulse like a thread.

"Better during expiration."

The spasm of the larynx often comes on during inspiration.

"Worse during inspiration.

Constant short, dry cough.

Difficult breathing.

Breathes only with the diaphragm.

Chest troubles, such as pneumonia."

Aconite produces a very rapid inflammation of the viscera of the chest, of the pleura, of the lungs, of the mucous membrane lining the air passages. In pneumonia we have this dyspnoea, the suddenness with which it comes on. If it spreads rapidly it may go into pneumonia. Inflammation runs so high that the mucous membrane oozes blood, cherry red, or the mucus that comes up is white and heavily streaked with bright red blood.

You go to the bedside of broncho-pneumonia and you will find in the pan mucus streaked with bright red blood. Now, take the violence with which that comes on, the restlessness and anxiety of the individual - he predicts the hour of his death - that would be the case with the Aconite patient.

In the case of pneumonia where the lung is involved, it is likely to be the upper half of the left lung when Aconite is indicated.

Sometimes the whole mucous membrane, the visible throat, the larynx, trachea, the bronchial tubes, will all ooze blood, sometimes a mouthful of blood, so violent is the inflammation. In these chest troubles there is much pain. Shooting, burning, tearing pains, and the patient is compelled to lie in a somewhat elevated position, on the back.

Cannot lie upon either side, but upon the back. Lying on the side increases the pain. The dry cold winds. Sudden shocks, in persons of good, strong, vigorous circulation. The Haemoptysis that is spoken of is not such as occurs in phthisis, but is involuntary; the blood comes up with a slight cough.

Some one might be deceived to give it in such cases in broken down constitutions in sickly patients; but it is not to be administered in such cases, we have much better remedies.

The patient does not always become a pneumonia patient, but inflammation of the small air passages may be all that is present. "Dry cough, vomiting and retching, intense fever, spitting of blood."

No expectoration except a little watery mucus and blood. It occurs a good deal in this way. Dry cough, sensation of dryness of the whole chest, sensation of dryness in the larynx and throat. Pours down great quantities of cold water, and once in a while after a violent coughing spell he gets up a little blood. But the expectoration is generally mucus.

Pneumonia is generally attended with an expectoration looking like iron rust, as if iron rust had been mixed in with it. Such medicines as Bryonia and Rhus tox, and a few others have that expectoration as a common feature, as natural to the remedies themselves, but Aconite is the cherry - red, bright red expectoration. Its hemorrhages are bright red, and sometimes copious.

All these coughs in pneumonia, in croup, and chest troubles come on suddenly, and if he goes to sleep he will have spasm of the larynx, with dryness of the larynx. He goes to sleep and the larynx becomes dry and he wakes up and grasps his larynx; he thinks he is going to choke. All these come on from cold winds. Vigorous persons get into a draft and get a chill that will bring on Aconite symptoms.

Aconite has in all inflamed parts a sensation as if hot steam were rushing into the parts, as if warm blood were rushing into the parts, or "flushes of heat in the parts." Along nerves, a sensation of heat, or sensation of cold. The pulse in the highest form of the fever is full and bounding; strong, vigorous pulse. When the attack is first coming on and the awful anxiety and nerve tension are present the pulse is very small, but after the heart's action is well established, then the pulse becomes stronger. "Tearing pains down the spine.

Painful, stiff neck.

Crawling in the spine like insects".

That is a peculiar feature, this crawling sensation; it comes from cold, from being suddenly chilled.

Extremities: "Trembling of the hands" associated with these sudden acute attacks.

"Creeping pains in the fingers" associated with these sudden acute inflammatory attacks. "Cold as ice. Feet cold as ice.

Hot palms."

Hot hands and cold feet are sometimes present. Rheumatic conditions of the joints. Those that come on as a first attack. Not old rheumatic and gouty attacks, but those that come on as acute rheumatism, those that come on from sudden exposure to cold, from long rides in a dry, cold wind.

They also are attended with fever, with anxious restlessness, with a critical state of mind so often described.

"Trembling, tingling, convulsions of the muscles." But the nerves are full of Aconite symptoms and Aconite sufferings. Aconite is a wonderful remedy for neuritis in plethoric persons.

Numbness along the course of the nerves, from cold, from exposure. Numbness and tingling, along the course of the nerves, especially those that run close to the surface.

"Inflammation of the nerve sheaths.

Nervous excitability.

Excessive restlessness."

Relations: Sulphur has a strong relation to Aconite. It has many Aconite symptoms. In many of the old chronic cases where Sulphur would be used in strong, vigorous constitutions Aconite will be suitable for a sudden attack, and Sulphur for the chronic.

In sudden attacks that Aconite conforms to, that is the whole attack, there may be left in that constitution a tendency to return of a similar attack.

Aconite has no power over that tendency, but Sulphur has. Of course, most of the symptoms must agree but it will seem to you frequently where Aconite has been suitable in the acute disease that Sulphur symptoms will follow, and many times a very violent attack leaves a weakness in the constitution which Aconite has no power to contend with. It has no power to keep off recurrent attacks. It does all that it is capable of doing, and that is the end of it. But it is not so with Sulphur.

After Aconite follow well Arnica and Belladonna. Sometimes it is true it will appear to you that Aconite is capable of coping with all there is in the disease.

But there seems to be a lingering something that holds on, and such medicines as Arn. and Bell., and Ip. and Bry., do have to come in to finish up the attack or sometimes Sulphur. Very commonly Silica. So we have to study the relations of medicines.

If you have administered Aconite in too many doses, or given it too strong, and your patient is slow in recovering from the attack, or your patient has taken Aconite himself unwisely, then Coffea or Nux will often put the patient into a better condition.