Lac caninum
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 Lac caninum in every book at once →
Keynotes
Lac caninum
Dog’s Milk.
For nervous, restless, highly sensitive organisms.
Symptoms erratic, pains constantly flying from one part to another (Kali hi.. Puls.) ; changing from side to side every few hours or days.
Very forgetful, absent-minded; makes purchases i6o and walks away without them (Agnus, Anac., Caust., Nat.).
In writing, uses too many words or not the right ones; omits final letter or letters in a word; cannot concentrate the mind to read or study; very nervous (Bov., Graph., Lach., Nat. c., Sep.).
Despondent, hopeless; thinks her disease incurable; has not a friend living; nothing worth living for; could weep at any moment (Act., Aur., Cal., Lach.).
Cross, irritable ; child cries and screams all the time, especially at night (Jal., Nux, Psor.).
Fears to be alone (Kali c.) ; of dying (Ars.) ; of becoming insane (Lib); of falling down stairs (Bor.).
Chronic ‘‘blue” condition; everything seems so dark that it can grow no darker (Lyc., Puls.).
Attacks of rage, cursing and swearing at slightest provocation (Lib, Nit. ac.) ; intense ugliness; hateful.
Coryza, with discharge of thick, white mucus.
One nostril stuffed up, the other free and discharging; these conditions alternate; discharge acrid, nose and lip raw (Arum, Cepa).
Diphtheria and tonsillitis ; symptoms change repeatedly from side to side.
Sore throats and cough are apt to begin and end with menstruation; yellow or white patches ; pains shoot to ear.
Throat: sensitive to touch externally (Lach.); < by empty swallowing (Ign.) ; constant inclination to swallow, painful, almost impossible (Mer.) ; pains extend to ears (Hep., Kali bi.) ; begins on left side (Lach.).
i6i
Shining, glazed appearance of diphtheritic deposit, chancres and ulcers.
Very hungry, cannot eat enough to satisfy; as hungry after eating as before (Case., Cal., Cina, Lyc., Stront. ) .
Sinking at epigastrium; faintness in stomach.
Menses: too early; too profuse; flow in gushes, bright red, viscid and stringy (dark, black, stringy. Croc.) ; breasts swollen, painful, sensitive before and during (Con.).
Discharge of flatus from vagina (Brom., Lyc., Nux m.. Sang.).
Breasts: inflamed, painful; < by least jar and towards evening; must hold them firmly when going up or down stairs (Bry.).
Serviceable in almost all cases when it is required to dry up milk (Asaf. — to bring back or increase it. Lac d.).
Sensation as if breath would leave her when lying down; must get up and walk (Am. c.. Grind., Lach. ).
Loss of milk while nursing, without any known cause (Asaf.).
Palpitation violent when lying on left side, > turning on right (Tab.).
Sexual organs easily excited, from touch, pressure on sitting, or friction by walking (Cinn., Coff., Mur., Plat. ) .
When walking, seems to be walking on air; when lying, does not seem to touch the bed (Asar.).
Backache: intense, unbearable, cross super-sacral region, extending to r. natis and r. sciatic nerve; < by rest and on first moving (Rhus) ; spine aches from base of brain to coccyx, very sensitive to touch or pressure (Chin, s., Phos., Zinc.).
Relations. — Similar: to, Apis, Con., Murex, Lach., Kali bi.. Puls., Sep., Sulph.
It generally acts best in single dose.
Probably no remedy in the Materia Medica presents a more valuable pathogenesis in symptoms of the throat, or one that will better repay a careful study.
Like Lachesis, this remedy has met with the most violent opposition from prejudice and ignorance, which its wonderful therapeutic powers have slowly, yet surely, overcome. It was successfully used by Dioscorides, Pliny, and Sextus in ancient times, and revived in New York by Reisig, Bayard and Swan in the successful treatment of diphtheria. Reisig was the first to potentize it.
What the other books say about Lac caninum
The same remedy read by a different author. They disagree, and the disagreements are where the remedy becomes recognisable.
- Lac caninum in Boericke — The concise clinical Materia Medica that most Indian colleges teach from, in full.
- Lac caninum in Kent — Kent teaching a class, one remedy at a time — fewer remedies, far more on each.
- Lac caninum 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. Lac caninum — Keynotes, pp. 159–162. HomeopathyWorld, https://homeopathyworld.in/materia-medica/books/allen/lac-caninum. 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.