Petroleum
as William Boericke recorded it in Homoeopathic Materia Medica, 1927
Petroleum rectificatum
This is one author on one remedy. The concise clinical Materia Medica that most Indian colleges teach from, in full. Read Petroleum in every book at once →
Mind
Marked aggravation from mental emotions. Loses his way in streets. Thinks he is double, or some one else lying alongside. Feels that death is near, and must hurry to settle affairs. Irritable, easily offended, vexed at everything. Low-spirited, with dimness of sight.
General
Crude Rock-oil Strumous diathesis, especially the dark type, who suffer from catarrhal conditions of the mucous membranes, gastric acidity and cutaneous eruptions. Very marked skin symptoms, acting on sweat and oil glands; Ailments are worse during the winter season. Ailments from riding in cars, carriages, or ships; lingering gastric and lung troubles; chronic diarrhœa. Long-lasting complaints follow mental states-fright, vexation, etc. Chlorosis in young girls with or without ulceration of the stomach.
Modalities
Worse, dampness, before and during a thunder-storm, from riding in cars, passive motion; in winter, eating, from mental states. Better, warm air; lying with head high; dry weather.
Head
Sensitive, as of a cold breeze blowing on it. Feels numb, as if made of wood; occiput heavy, as of lead (Opium). Vertigo on rising, felt in occiput, as if intoxicated, or like sea-sickness. Moist eruption on scalp; worse, back and ears. Scalp sore to touch, followed by numbness. Headache, must hold temples to
relieve; provoked by shaking while coughing. Use thirtieth.
Face
Dry; feels constricted, as if covered with albumin.
Eyes
Loss of eyelashes. Dim sight; far-sighted; cannot read fine print without glasses; blenorrhœa of lachrymal sac; marginal blepharitis. Canthi fissured. Skin around eyes dry and scurfy.
Ears
Noise unbearable, especially from several people talking together. Eczema, intertrigo, etc, in and behind ears, with intense itching. Parts sore to touch. Fissures in meatus. Dry catarrh, with deafness and noises. Ringing and cracking in ears. Chronic Eustachian catarrh. Diminished hearing.
Nose
Nostrils ulcerated, cracked, burn; tip of nose itches. Epistaxis. Ozæna, with scabs and muco-purulent discharge.
Stomach
Heartburn; hot, sharp, sour eructation. Distention. Feeling of great emptiness. Strong aversion to fat food, meat; worse, eating cabbage. Hunger, immediately after stool. Nausea, with accumulation of water in mouth. Gastralgia when stomach is empty; relieved by constant eating (Anac; Sep). Ravenous hunger. Must rise at night and eat (Psorin). Odor of garlic.
Abdomen
Diarrhœa only in the daytime; watery, gushing and Itching of anus. After cabbage; with empty feeling of stomach.
Male
Herpetic eruption on perineum. Prostate inflamed and swollen. Itching in urethra.
Female
Before menses, throbbing in head (Kreos). Leucorrhœa, profuse, albuminous (Alum; Bor; Bov; Calc p). Genitals sore and moist. Sensation of moisture (Eup purp). Itching and mealy coating of nipple.
Respiratory
Hoarseness (Carbo; Caust; Phos) dry cough and oppression of chest; worse, cold air. Dry cough at night, coming deep from chest. Croup and laryngeal diphtheria.
Heart
Sensation of coldness (Carb an; Nat mur). Fainting, with ebullitions, heat and palpitation.
Back
Pain in nape of neck, stiff and painful. Weakness in small of back. Coccyx painful.
Extremities
Chronic sprains. Fetid sweat in axillæ. Knees stiff. Tips of fingers rough, cracked, fissured every winter. Scalding sensation in knee. Cracking in joints.
Skin
Itching at night. Chilblains, moist, itch and burn. Bed-sores. Skin dry, constricted, very sensitive, rough and cracked, leathery. Herpes. Slightest scratch makes skin suppurate (Hepar). Intertrigo; psoriasis of hands. Thick, greenish crusts, burning and itching; redness, raw; cracks bleed easily. Eczema. Rhagades worse in winter.
Fever
Chilliness, followed by sweat. Flushes of heat, particularly of the face and head; worse at night. Perspiration on feet and axillæ.
Relationships
Compare: Carbo; Graph; Sulph; Phos. Complementary: Sepia. Antidotes: Nux; Coccul.
Dose
Third to thirtieth and higher potencies. Material doses often better.
What the other books say about Petroleum
The same remedy read by a different author. They disagree, and the disagreements are where the remedy becomes recognisable.
- Petroleum in Allen's Keynotes — The few symptoms that, when genuinely present, point at one remedy and not its neighbours.
- Petroleum in Farrington — Lectures that teach remedies in families, by comparing them with each other.
- Petroleum in Kent — Kent teaching a class, one remedy at a time — fewer remedies, far more on each.
- Petroleum 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.
Create a free accountCite this page. William Boericke. Homoeopathic Materia Medica. 9th edition (preface dated San Francisco, June 1927). Petroleum — Mind. HomeopathyWorld, https://homeopathyworld.in/materia-medica/books/boericke/petroleum. 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.