Carbo animalis
as H.C. Allen recorded it in Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons of Some of the Leading Remedies of the Materia Medica, 1899
This is one author on one remedy. The few symptoms that, when genuinely present, point at one remedy and not its neighbours. Read Carbo animalis in every book at once →
Keynotes
Carbo animalis
Animal Charcoal.
Headache: as if a tornado in head; as if head had been blown to pieces ; has to sit up at night and hold it together.
Diseases of elderly persons with marked venous plethora, blue cheeks, blue lips, and great debility.
Circulation feeble, stagnated, and vital heat sinks to a minimum; cyanosis (Ant. t., Carbo v.).
Glands : indurated, swollen, painful ; in neck, axillae, groin, mammae; pains lancinating, cutting, burning (Con.).
Benign suppurations change into ichorous or malignant conditions.
Easily strained from lifting, even small weights; straining and overlifting easily produce great debility; ankles turn when walking.
Joints weak; easily sprained by slight exertion (Led.).
Aversion to open, dry, cold air.
After appearance of menses so weak she can hardly speak (Alum., Coc.) ; menses flow only in morning.
Hearing confused; cannot tell from what direction a sound comes.
A stitching pain remains in chest after recovery from pleurisy (Ran. b.).
Menstruation, leucorrhoea, diarrhoea are all exhausting (Ars. — are all offensive, Psor.).
Similar: to. Bad., Brom., Carbo v., Phos., Sep., Sulph.
Carbo animalis is often useful after bad effects from spoiled fish and decayed vegetables (Carbo v., Cepa).
Aggravation. — After shaving (> after, Brom. ); slightest touch ; after midnight.
What the other books say about Carbo animalis
The same remedy read by a different author. They disagree, and the disagreements are where the remedy becomes recognisable.
- Carbo animalis in Boericke — The concise clinical Materia Medica that most Indian colleges teach from, in full.
- Carbo animalis in Farrington — Lectures that teach remedies in families, by comparing them with each other.
- Carbo animalis in Kent — Kent teaching a class, one remedy at a time — fewer remedies, far more on each.
- Carbo animalis in Boger — A compressed key — the generals and the characteristic modalities, with very little narrative.
Search every book at once, take rubrics from Kent and Bönninghausen, and practise on a patient who answers back — free account.
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Cite this page. H.C. Allen. Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons of Some of the Leading Remedies of the Materia Medica. 3rd edition (1910). Philadelphia: Boericke & Tafel. Carbo animalis — Keynotes, pp. 82–83. HomeopathyWorld, https://homeopathyworld.in/materia-medica/books/allen/carbo-animalis. Published 1910: public domain in the US (before 1931) and in India (author died 1909). Replaces B. Jain's 2005 "rearranged and classified" edition (© the publisher), per the owner's decision of 13 Sep 2026. Reproduced as the author wrote it; a historical reference for students and practitioners, not medical advice.