Ammonium muriaticum

Lecture LXIV — The Ammonium Preparations — Ammonium carb., Ammonium mur. and Ammonium phos.

Ammonium Muriaticum.

( Apis, Arnica, Natrum mur.

Ammonium mur. < Kali bichromicum.

( Sepia, Sulphur.

As I have already explained to you, Ammonium mur. is suited to sluggish persons, who are rather corpulent as to the body, but dispro" portionately thin as to the limbs. Like the carbonate^ it produces violent inflammation of the mucous membranes. It also disturbs the circulation of the blood. The face reddens during a short, animated conversation, especially so, as you might expect, in a warm room. There are ebullitions of blood, violent throbbing in all the arteries, accompanied by anxiety and weakness, as if paralyzed. The nervous system surfers, too, from the action of Ammonium mur. There is a certain periodicity of symptoms, as shown in the chills and fever. The paroxysms return every seven days. There are many other symptoms of the nervous system; especially do we find this characteristic: pain in the left hip, as if the tendons were too short; this makes the patient limp when walking. While sitting there is gnawing referred to the bones.

Sciatica is very readily cured by Ammonuim mur. when the symptoms call for it. The pains are worse while the patient is sitting, somewhat relieved while he is walking and entirely relieved when he lies down.

Ammonium mur. has also been used for the neuralgic pains which may occur in the stumps of amputated limbs. Compare Cepa Staphisagfia.

Ammonium mur. is also useful for tearing, stitching pains from ulceration in the heels, worse at night in bed and better from rubbing. Other remedies attacking the heels are, Pulsatilla (inflamed); Causticum, Manganum, (cannot bear the weight on them); Aiitimonium crudum, Ledum, Graphites, Ignatia, (they burn at night); Natrum card,, and Allium cepa. Sabina is particularly suitable in plethoric women who suffer from what they call rheumatic inflammation. Manganum is an excellent remedy in rheumatic patients when the heels are affected and the patient cannot bear any weight on the heels. In addition to this you will find that Manganum is indicated when the rheumatic symptoms come in dark, almost bluish, spots.

Antimonium crudum is useful in soreness of the heels, worse walking on a hard pavement.

Ledum palustre, Graphites and Natrum carb. cause blisters on the heels. Sepia, ulcers.

Allium cepa cures ulcers on the heel when developed by friction of the shoe or stocking.

Anunonium mur. has some influence on the joints. It causes a feeling of constriction in these parts. It is one of the remedies that have been used in the treatment of chronic sprains. It also affects the fibrous tissues about the joints. Thus, it is one of the remedies when there is contraction of the hamstring tendons. When the patient walks these seem to be drawn tight. This symptom is relieved on continued motion.

On the female organs, Ammonium mur. acts more powerfully than does Ammonium carb. It has a great many symptoms referred to the inguinal and hypogastric regions which would suggest the use of the drug in uterine and ovarian diseases. For instance, the patient complains of tensive pain in one or the other groin. Sometimes this symptom is described as a feeling as if she had sprained herself. There are stitches, cutting and soreness, or, what is more characteristic than all, a strained feeling in the groin, which forces the patient to walk bent. That is an indication which leads to Ammonium mur. in the treatment of deviations of the uterus, and also in ovarian diseases. You will find in almost all these cases the characteristic muriate stool, crumbling as it passes the anus. We have, too, a characteristic leucorrhcea attending the symptoms, a brown and lumpy or else clear and albuminous leucorrhoea, which follows every urination.

Ammonium mur., in that feeling as if sprained in the groin in women, finds its counterpart in several other remedies: in Arnica, which has that same strained feeling in the groin; in Apis, which has it all the way across the hypogastrium, with a sensation as if the skin were tight or stretched.

Next, we have to consider the action of Ammonium mur. on the mucous membranes. Beginning with the nose, we find that it causes coryza. The nose is "stopped-up" more at night than in the daytime. One nostril is usually stopped-up at a time; there is an excoriating, watery discharge from the nose, which makes the inside of the nostrils and upper lip sore. The throat is swollen so that the patient cannot open his mouth. The mouth and throat are filled with a viscid phlegm, which the patient expels with great difficulty. There is throbbing in the tonsils. This is characteristic of Ammonium mur. It is a symptom which may suggest it in tonsillitis or in scarlatina when the faucial symptoms are so severe as to produce almost complete strangling.

The chest symptoms are by no means unimportant in Ammonium mur. We find a cough which may accompany the foregoing symptoms or which may be separated from them. The cough is very violent, and seems to excite the salivary glands, for during it the mouth fills with saliva. Hoarseness, with burning and rawness in the larynx, necessarily belong to such an acrid remedy as Ammonium mur. Coldness between the shoulder-blades accompanies the chest affections, as in bronchitis and phthisis. The patient also complains of heaviness in the chest. This is also noticed in Ammonium carb. where it is associated with burning. Sometimes the patient will describe his sensation to you as a feeling as of a lump in the chest. Again, he will complain of certain spots in the chest which burn, throb and beat with the pulse.

Ammonium mur. may be used in chronic congestion of the liver. Depression of spirits accompanies the disease, and the stools are coated with mucus.