Sulphuricum acidum

Lecture L — Phosphoric and Sulphuric acids

Sulphuric Acid.

f Arnica, Conium, Ruta.

Sulphuric acid. <j Pulsatilla, Nux vomica.

^ Lachesis.

V.

Pulsatilla.

> Pulsatilla.

Sulphuric acid is indicated when the patient is hasty, quick and restless in his actions, sometimes, too, when there is the opposite condition, one of great depression, as in typhoid states. He answers questions slowly and with great difficulty, just as does the Phosphoric acid patient. You find that there is a general sensation of trembling in the Sulphuric acid patient. He feels as if he were trembling from head to foot, although there is no sign of it on the surface. The face in these conditions is rather peaked and is apt to be pale with blue rings around the eyes. Sometimes there is a feeling as though white of egg were dried on the skin. The patient is particularly weak about the digestive organs ; thus there is a cold, relaxed feeling about the stomach, making the patient long for some strong or stimulating drink, as brandy, and this, too, in persons who are not addicted to drink. So weak is the stomach they vomit all food ; the ejected matters are very sour.

You will find Sulphuric acid indicated especially for inebriates who are on their "last legs." They have run down completely, and have long since passed the Nux vomica condition. You find them pale, shrivelled-looking and cold ; their stomachs so relaxed as not to be able to tolerate any food. They cannot even drink water unless it contains whiskey. The liver is enlarged. They have a dry stomach cough, often followed by belching, the act of coughing hurting the liver. The diarrhoea is watery and offensive, and is accompanied by excessive irritability of mind. ' They have a quick, hasty manner of doing everything. There is always dampness or oozing of moisture from the rectum. They frequently suffer from piles which burn, and are so large that they fill up the rectum. These cases are relieved by Sulphuric acid.

There is another use we may make of Sulphuric acid, and it is derived from its power of modifying the thirst for spirituous liquors. You should take two or three drops of the pure acid and dissolve them in a glass one-half full of water. Give it to the inebriate every two or three hours in teaspoonful doses, and it will overcome the physical craving. Give it until he gets well, even if it produces a sore mouth. Should it produce diarrhoea, Pulsatilla is the proper antidote.

Another effect of Sulphuric acid is its action in aphthous sore mouth occurring in debility from protracted disease, or in children with summer complaint or marasmus. The mouth is filled with yellowish aphthous spots. There is a profuse flow of saliva. With this there is apt to be vomiting of sour milk or sour mucus. The child smells sour despite the most careful washing. The stool is yellowish or slimy, having the appearance of chopped eggs. The child is very apt to have a cough, which is very likely a stomach-cough, with belching of wind after the cough.

You may think of Sulphuric acid also in diphtheria. The tonsils are bright red and quite swollen, so swollen in fact that liquids escape through the nose. The child is deathly pale, so pale that it looks like a corpse. It is inclined to drowsiness or somnolence. It can hardly breathe or talk, or make any noise on account of the abundance of membrane.

Sulphuric acid is also useful as a traumatic remedy. It may be used for bruises of soft parts after Arnica; in bruises of glands after Conium ; in injuries of bones after Ruta. Particularly may it be used when there are long-lasting black and blue spots with soreness and stiffness. Again, Sulphuric, more than any other acid, is useful in hsemorrhages. It causes haemorrhage from every orifice of the body, the blood being dark and thin.

You may differentiate Sulphuric acid from Carbo veg. in the dyspepsia of drunkards by the fact that Sulphuric acid is more of a " sour remedy '

and Carbo veg. a "putrid remedy."