Phosphoricum acidum
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 Phosphoricum acidum in every book at once →
Mind
Listless. Impaired memory (Anac). Apathetic, indifferent. Cannot collect his thoughts or find the right word. Difficult comprehension. Effects of grief and mental shock. Delirium, with great stupefaction. Settled despair.
General
Phosphoric Acid The common acid "debility" is very marked in this remedy, producing a nervous exhaustion. Mental debility first; later physical. A congenial soil for the action of Phos acid is found in young people who grow rapidly, and who are overtaxed, mentally or physically. Whenever the system has been exposed to the ravages of acute disease, excesses, grief, loss of vital fluids, we obtain conditions calling for it. Pyrosis, flatulence, diarrhœa, diabetes, rhachitis and periosteal inflammation. Neurosis in stump, after amputation. Hæmorrhages in typhoid. Useful in relieving pain of cancer.
Modalities
Better, from keeping warm. Worse, exertion, from being talked to; loss of vital fluids; sexual excesses. Everything impeding circulation causes aggravation of symptoms.
Head
Heavy; confused. Pain as if temples were crushed together. Worse, shaking or noise. Crushing headache. Pressure on top. Hair gray early in life; falls out. Dull headache after coition; from eye-strain (Nat m). Vertigo toward
evening, when standing or walking. Hair thins out, turns gray early.
Face
Pale, earthy; feeling of tension as from dried albumen. Sensation of coldness of one side of face.
Eyes
Blue rings around. Lids inflamed and cold. Pupils dilated. Glassy appearance. Averse to sunlight; sees colors as if a rainbow. Feel too large. Amblyopia in masturbators. Optic nerves seem torpid. Pain as if eyeballs were forcibly pressed together and into head.
Ears
Roaring, with difficult hearing. Intolerant of noise.
Nose
Bleeding. Bores fingers into nose. Itching.
Mouth
Lips dry, cracked. Bleeding gums; retract from teeth. Tongue swollen, dry, with viscid, frothy mucus. Teeth feel cold. At night, bites tongue in voluntarily.
Stomach
Craves juicy things. Sour risings. Nausea. Symptoms following sour food and drink. Pressure as from a weight, with sleepiness after eating (Fel tauri). Thirst for cold milk.
Abdomen
Distention and fermentation in bowels. Enlarged spleen (Ceanoth). Aching in umbilical region. Loud rumbling.
Stool
Diarrhœa, white, watery, involuntary, painless, with much flatus; not specially exhausting. Diarrhœa in weakly, delicate rachitic children.
Urinary
Frequent, profuse, watery, milky. Diabetes. Micturition, preceded by anxiety and followed by burning. Frequent urination at night. Phosphaturia.
Male
Emissions at night and at stool. Seminal vesiculitis (Oxal acid). Sexual power deficient; testicles tender and swollen. Parts relax during embrace (Nux). Prostatorrhœa, even when passing a soft stool. Eczema of scrotum. Œdema of prepuce, and swollen glans-penis. Herpes preputialis. Sycotic excrescences (Thuja).
Female
Menses too early and profuse, with pain in liver. Itching; yellow leucorrhœa after menses. Milk scanty; health deteriorated from nursing.
Respiratory
Chest troubles develop after brain-fag. Hoarseness. Dry cough from tickling in chest. Salty expectoration. Difficult respiration. Weak feeling in chest from talking (Stann). Pressure behind the sternum, rendering breathing difficult.
Heart
Palpitation in children who grow too fast; after grief, self-abuse. Pulse irregular, intermittent.
Back
Boring pain between scapulæ. Pain in back and limbs, as if beaten.
Extremities
Weak. Tearing pains in joints, bones, and periosteum. Cramps in upper arms and wrists. Great debility. Pains at night, as if bones were scraped. Stumbles easily and makes missteps. Itching, between fingers or in folds of joints.
Skin
Pimples, acne, blood-boils. Ulcers, with very offensive pus. Burning red rash. Formication in various parts. Falling out of the hair (Nat mur; Selen).
Tendency to abscess after fevers.
Sleep
Somnolency. Lascivious dreams with emissions.
Fever
Chilliness. Profuse sweat during night and morning. Low types of fever, with dull comprehension ans stupor.
Relationships
Compare: Œnothera biennis-Evening primrose––(Effortless diarrhœa with nervous exhaustion. Incipient hydrocephaloid. Whooping-cough and spasmodic asthma). Nectranda amare (Watery diarrhœa, dry tongue, colic, bluish ring around sunken eyes, restless sleep). China; Nux. Pic ac; Lactic ac; Phos. Antidotes: Coffea.
Dose
First potency.
What the other books say about Phosphoricum acidum
The same remedy read by a different author. They disagree, and the disagreements are where the remedy becomes recognisable.
- Phosphoricum acidum in Allen's Keynotes — The few symptoms that, when genuinely present, point at one remedy and not its neighbours.
- Phosphoricum acidum in Farrington — Lectures that teach remedies in families, by comparing them with each other.
- Phosphoricum acidum in Kent — Kent teaching a class, one remedy at a time — fewer remedies, far more on each.
- Phosphoricum acidum 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). Phosphoricum acidum — Mind. HomeopathyWorld, https://homeopathyworld.in/materia-medica/books/boericke/phosphoricum-acidum. 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.