Alumina

as William Boericke recorded it in Homoeopathic Materia Medica, 1927

This is one author on one remedy. The concise clinical Materia Medica that most Indian colleges teach from, in full. Read Alumina in every book at once →

Mind

Low-spirited; fears loss of reason. Confused as to personal identity. Hasty, hurried. Time passes slowly. Variable mood. Better as day advances. Suicidal tendency when seeing knife or blood.

General

Oxide et Aluminum-Argilla A very general condition corresponding to this drug is dryness of mucous membranes and skin, and tendency to paretic muscular states. Old people, with lack of vital heat, or prematurely old, with debility. Sluggish functions, heaviness, numbness, and staggering, and the characteristic constipation find an excellent remedy in Alumina. Disposition to colds in the head, and eructations in spare, dry, thin subjects. Delicate children, products of artificial baby foods.

Modalities

Worse, periodically; in afternoon; from potatoes. Worse, in morning on awaking; warm room. Better, in open air; from cold washing; in evening and on alternate days. Better damp weather.

Head

Stitching, burning pain in head, with vertigo, worse in morning, but relieved by food. Pressure in forehead as from a tight hat. Inability to walk except with eyes open. Throbbing headache, with constipation. Vertigo, with nausea; better after breakfast. Falling out of hair; scalp itches and is numb.

Face

Feels as if albuminous substance had dried on it. Blood-boils and pimples. Twitching of lower jaw. Rush of blood to face after eating.

Eyes

Objects look yellow. Eyes feel cold. Lids dry, burn, smart, thickened, aggravated in morning; chronic conjunctivitis. Ptosis. Strabismus.

Ears

Humming; roaring. Eustachian tube feels plugged.

Nose

Pain at root of nose. Sense of smell diminished. Fluent coryza. Point of nose cracked, nostrils sore, red; worse touch. Scabs with thick yellow mucus. Tettery redness. Ozœna atrophica sicca. Membranes distended and boggy.

Mouth

Sore. Bad odor from it. Teeth covered with sordes. Gums sore, bleeding. Tensive pain in articulation of jaw when opening mouth or chewing.

Throat

Dry, sore; food cannot pass, œsophagus contracted. Feels as if splinter or plug were in throat. Irritable, and relaxed throat. Looks parched and glazed. Clergyman's sore throat in thin subjects. Thick, tenacious mucus drops from posterior nares. Constant inclination to clear the throat.

Stomach

Abnormal cravings-chalk, charcoal, dry food, tea-grounds. Heartburn; feels constricted. Aversion to meat (Graph; Arn; Puls). Potatoes disagree. No desire to eat. Can swallow but small morsels at a time. Constriction of œsophagus.

Abdomen

Colic, like painter's colic. Pressing in both groins toward sexual organs. Left-sided abdominal complaints.

Stool

Hard dry, knotty; no desire. Rectum sore, dry, inflamed, bleeding. Itching and burning at anus. Even a soft stool is passed with difficulty. Great straining. Constipation of infants (Collins; Psor; Paraf) and old people from inactive rectum, and in women of very sedentary habit. Diarrhœa on urinating. Evacuation preceded by painful urging long before stool, and then straining at stool.

Urinary

Muscles of bladder paretic, must strain at stool in order to urinate. Pain in kidneys, with mental confusion. Frequent desire to urinate in old people. Difficult starting.

Male

Excessive desire. Involuntary emissions when straining at stool. Prostatic discharge.

Female

Menses too early, short, scanty, pale, followed by great exhaustion (Carb an; Coccul). Leucorrhœa acrid, profuse transparent, ropy, with burning; worse during daytime, and after menses. Relieved by washing with cold water.

Respiratory

Cough soon after waking in the morning. Hoarse, aphonia, tickling in larynx; wheezing, rattling respiration. Cough on talking or singing, in the morning. Chest feels constricted. Condiments produce cough. Talking aggravates soreness of chest.

Back

Stitches. Gnawing pain, as if from hot iron. Pain along cord, with paralytic weakness.

Extremities

Pain in arm and fingers, as if hot iron penetrated. Arms feel paralyzed. Legs feel asleep, especially when sitting with legs crossed. Staggers on

walking. Heels feel numb. Soles tender; on stepping, feel soft and swollen. Pain in shoulder and upper arm. Gnawing beneath finger nails. Brittle nails. Inability to walk, except when eyes are open or in daytime. Spinal degenerations and paralysis of lower limbs.

Skin

Chapped and dry tettery. Brittle nails. Intolerable itching when getting warm in bed. Must scratch until it bleeds; then becomes painful. Brittle skin on fingers.

Sleep

Restless; anxious and confused dreams. Sleepy in morning.

Relationships

Compare: Aluminum chloridum (Pains of loco-motor ataxia. Lower trits in water). Slag Silico-Sulphocalcite of Alumina 3x (anal itching, piles, constipation, flatulent distention); Secale; Lathyr; Plumb. Aluminum acetate solution. Externally a lotion for putrid wounds and skin infections. Arrests hæmorrhage from inertia of uterus. Parenchymatous hæmorrhage from various organs-23 % solution. Hæmorrhage following tonsillectomy is controlled by rinsing out nasopharynx with a 10 % sol. Complementary: Bryonia. Antidotes: Ipecac; Chamom.

Dose

Sixth to thirtieth and higher. Action slow in developing.

What the other books say about Alumina

The same remedy read by a different author. They disagree, and the disagreements are where the remedy becomes recognisable.

  • Alumina in Allen's Keynotes — The few symptoms that, when genuinely present, point at one remedy and not its neighbours.
  • Alumina in Farrington — Lectures that teach remedies in families, by comparing them with each other.
  • Alumina in Kent — Kent teaching a class, one remedy at a time — fewer remedies, far more on each.
  • Alumina 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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← Every remedy in Boericke

Cite this page. William Boericke. Homoeopathic Materia Medica. 9th edition (preface dated San Francisco, June 1927). Alumina — Mind. HomeopathyWorld, https://homeopathyworld.in/materia-medica/books/boericke/alumina. Published 1927: public domain in the US (since 2023) and in India (author died 1929). Reproduced as the author wrote it; a historical reference for students and practitioners, not medical advice.