Ferrum metallicum

Pale mucous membranes. False erethism or plethora; weak; lies down. Excited, irregular surgings. Wandering orgasms; head, face, chest, etc. Pulsations. Hæmorrhages (bright or with small clots); in rapidly growing youths. Relaxed blood-vessels; dilated veins, < during menses, etc. Red faced old men. Exophthalmos. Pressure on chest, stomach, etc. Nightly pains that compel motion of part. Dry; food seems; vagina, etc. Rapid emaciation. Anæmia. Cachexy. Irritable mind and body. .................... Always in the right; excited by the least opposition. Weeps and laughs immoderately. Sensitive and excitable; < least opposition. Brain-tire. Throbbing, hammering headache, starts in the temples; < cough or stooping; > letting hair down; with vertigo. Pain over l. eye. Blind attacks. Puffy eye-lids. Nose-bleed. Face flushes and pales or reddens from the least thing; florid; feels bloated. Erethistic chlorosis. Toothache, > ice water. Stomach won't tolerate any food. Averse to meat. Spits up his food. Nausea at mid-night. Easy vomiting. Diarrhœa; painless lientery; < while eating; nightly gushing; spluttering; alternating with constipation; < if nervous or tired. Chronic nephritis. Enuresis by day only. Emissions; nightly, with backache; after over-exertion. Raw vagina, < coition. Menses pale; intermit. Leucorrhœa; acrid, milky, watery, at puberty. Changeable voice. Dry, tickling cough. Blood- spitting (streaked). Constriction of or flying stitches in chest. Dyspnœa or palpitation, > motion. Sudden cramps or tearing boring in limbs. Cracking joints. Omodynia. Swelled hands and feet. Heels pain, if lies on back. Sleepless. Chill, with red face and thirst. Heat, with distended veins. Sweats, clammy, yellow, cold, acrid or debilitating. Soft pulse.

NIGHT. Emotions. Violent exertion. Eating. Drinking. Vital losses. Sweats. Quinine. Eggs. Heat and cold. Sudden motions. Raising arms.

Gentle motion. Slight bleeding (Calad. Card-m. Lach.). Leaning head on something.

VASO-MOTORS: CIRCULATION. Blood-vessels. Blood. Spleen. Digestion. Left deltoid.

Complementary: Chin. Related: Arn. Mang.

Ferrum metallicum

Iron. The Element.

Persons of sanguine temperament; pettish, quarrelsome, disputative, easily excited, least contradiction angers (Anac., Coc., Ign.) ; > from mental exertion.

Irritability: slight noises like crackling of paper, drive him to despair (Asar., Tar.).

Women who are weak, delicate, chlorotic, yet have a fiery red face.

Extreme paleness of the face, lips and mucous membranes zvliich become red and flushed on the least pain, emotion or exertion. Blushing (Amyl., Coca).

Erethitic chlorosis, worse in winter.

Red parts become white ; face, lips, tongue and mucous membrane of mouth.

Vertigo: with balancing sensation, as if on water; on seeing flowing water; when walking over water, as when crossing a bridge (Lys.); on descending (Bor., Sanic.).

Headache : hammering, beating, pulsating pains, must lie down; with aversion to eating or drinking. For two, three or four days every two or three weeks.

Menses : too early, too profuse, too long lasting, with fiery red face ; ringing in the ears ; intermit two or three days and then return; flow pale, watery, debilitating.

Haemorrhagic diathesis ; blood bright red, coagulates easily (Fer. p., Ipec., Phos.).

Regurgitation and eructation of food in mouthfuls (Alum.), without nausea.

Canine hunger, or loss of appetite, with extreme dislike for all food.

FBRRUM

Vomiting: immediately after midnight; of ingesta, as soon as food is eaten; leaves table suddenly and with one effort vomits everything eaten, can sit down and eat again; sour, acid (Lyc., Sul. ac.).

Diarrhoea : undigested stools at night, or while eating or drinking (Crot. t.) ; painless with a good appetite ; of consumptives.

Constipation : from intestinal atony ; ineffectual urging; stools hard, difficult, followed by backache or cramping pain in rectum; prolapsus recti of children; itching of anus at night.

Always feels better by walking slowly about, although weakness obliges the patient to lie down.

Cough only in the day time ( Euphr. ) ; relieved by lying down ; > by eating ( Spong. ) .

Dropsy ; after loss of vital fluids ; abuse of quinine ; suppressed intermittent (Carbo v.. Cinch.).

Cinch. : the vegetable analogue follows well in nearly all diseases, acute or chronic.

Should never be given in syphilis; always aggravates the condition.

Aggravation. — At night; at rest, especially while sitting still.

Amelioration. — Walking slowly about; in summer.

Lecture LXII — Ferrum and the Magnesia Salts — Magnesia carb. and Magnesia mur.

Ferrum Metallicum.

f Ipecacuanha, Arsenicum,. China, Veratrum alb.

- | Pulsatilla.

Ferrum. <( V V China. Alumina.

Iodine.

j Arsen.

Cuprum. > 1 Pals.

Ferrum has two complements, Cinchona or China, and Alumina. Ferrum and Alumina are complementary in chlorosis; and Ferrum and Cinchona in anaemia from loss of animal fluids.

Now the best antidote to Iron I know of is Pulsatilla. And, as good fortune will have it, Pulsatilla also antidotes Cinchona, which is so frequently given in combination with Iron by old-school physicians.

Ferrum acts best in young persons, male or female, who are subject to irregular distributions of blood. The cheeks are flushed a bright red, giving them an appearance of blooming health; and yet this is only a masked plethora. When they are unexcited and quiet they are apt to be pale, and the face has an earthy color. Among the evidences of this irregular distribution of blood we have the following symptoms: violent hammering headache, which is usually periodical in its return and worse after twelve o'clock at night; nose-bleed, with bright red flushing of the cheeks; the nose is filled with dark, clotted blood during an attack of catarrh; asthma, associated with an orgasm of blood to the chest, and worse after twelve o'clock at night, at which time the patient must sit up and uncover the chest. He uncovers the chest to get cool, and sits up in order to breathe, and moves slowly about for relief. Ferrum is also suited to haemoptysis, especially in young boys or girls who are subject to consumption and who are just in the incipient stages of phthisis florida. Almost all these symptoms are excited by any emotion and are accompanied by great fatigue, despite the appearance of health. Even the neuralgia which Ferrum may cure has fulness of the bloodvessels as a concomitant condition. This neuralgia is excited by washing in cold water, especially after being overheated. The pains are of a throbbing character, and are worse at night. Almost all of these symptoms, both the congestions and the pains, are relieved by slowly walking about. Now, you may understand the action of Ferrum if you remember this one quality of the drug. It has the power of dilating the blood-vessels, probably by diminishing the action of the vaso-motor nerves; hence, you do not find a full, bounding pulse, as under Aconite, but a full, yielding pulse. You will find, when Ferrum is indicated, that the walls of the abdomen are sore, as if bruised. This is due, not to inflammation, but to dilatation of the blood-vessels. This places Ferrum alongside of Gelsemium and separates it from Aconite.

We have next to study Ferrum as a chlorotic remedy. We do not use Ferrum, or, at least, we should not, as allopathic physicians do, because, in this disease there is a defective amount of iron in the blood. That is not the homoeopathic principle for giving the drug. Homoeopathy aims to correct the defective supply of haematin which lies back of the want of iron in the blood. This deficiency is due not to want of iron in the food taken,.but to want of power on the part of the system to assimilate it. Therefore, Ferrum is not the remedy in chlorosis. It may, however, be called for in that disease when the following symptoms are present: in the first place, in a general way, it is called for in erethistic chlorosis—that is, chlorosis with erethism of blood. It may be aggravated during the cold weather, less so, however, than it is during warm weather. The face is ordinarily of a pale, waxen or earthy hue, and subject, at every little emotion, to flush up red. The slightest emotion of pleasure or distress, the sudden entrance of any one into the room, the meeting of a stranger, and, in fact, anything that is calculated to disturb the mind, causes flushing up of the face. The cheeks become bright red. Now, this is not a true plethora; it is a masked case. The face is really of an earthy hue, but flushes up on any little emotion. The stomach is always out of order, the patient being subject to gastralgia and heavy pressure in the region of the stomach. With this there is a feeling as if something rolled into the throat and closed it like a valve. There is great aversion to meat, and, in fact, to anything that is really nourishing. Food has little or no taste. The patient has frequent spells of nausea^ FERRUM. . t 641 which come as soon as he eats, or periodically at twelve o'clock at night. Here it reminds one of Arsenicum. Mucous membranes are abnormally pale. For instance, the vermilion of the lips is exchanged for a simple pale pink. In the case of a male patient the glans penis is shrivelled and white, almost as pale as the prepuce. So, too, the cavity of the mouth and the gums are almost white, showing this bloodlessness. The menses are profuse and consist of watery and lumpy blood, and are attended with labor-like pains in the abdomen. The patient is very inactive; it is with great effort that she can move about. She is relieved by exercise. She is chilly during most of the day, with bright red flushing of the cheeks in the..evening. There is palpitation of the heart, well-marked bellows murmur. The bloodvessels all over the body throb violently. Sometimes the anaemia progresses so far that the patient becomes affected with oedema of the feet.

Manganese is very like Iron in its haematin effects but in nervous symptoms is more like Cuprum, Argentum and Zinc. Symptoms agreeing, it may be interpolated to favor the action of Ferrum in chlorosis, etc.

The Ferrum patient is subject to frequent; congestive headaches,' with pulsating pain in the head, worse usually after midnight. The face is fiery red during the attack, and the feet are cold. It is here very much like Belladomia, but is indicated in a very different class of cases from those calling for that remedy. Such patients always com: plain of vertigo or dizziness, which is worse when they rise suddenly from a lying to a sitting posture. Walking over a bridge or by some running water or riding in a car or carriage also causes this vertigo. These are the cases in which you will find Ferrum to succeed. An English physician has advised that Ferrum, be administered after a meal instead of before. He thinks it acts better then. I do not know whether this is so or not.

Another use that we may make of Feryum, arising from its tendency to produce ebullitions of blood, is in phthisis florida. It is indicated in young people who are subject to tuberculosis, here rivalling the well-known Phosphorus. It is indicated more than Phosphorus when there is this apparent plethora, with great oppression of the chest from any little exertion. The nostrils dilate with the efforts to breathe. There is frequent epistaxis or nose-bleed, and also haemoptysis, the blood being bright red and coagulated. The cough is of a dry, teasing 4i character, and is made worse after drinking anything warm. It is usually associated with bruised, sore feeling in the chest, and with dull, aching pain in the occiput. In addition to this erethistic phthisis, we may have Ferrum indicated later in the case when expectoration is purulent and greenish and has a very bad odor, and is mixed with blood streaks.

This reminds me of a salt of Ferrum, Ferrum phosphoricum. This is a remedy which was suggested by Schussler in all cases of inflammation before exudation has taken place. He bases his prescription on the combined effects of Ferrum and Phosphorus, berrum phos. stands midway between Aconite and Gelsemium. In fact it develops that stage of inflammation which the pathologists describe as indicated by enlargement of the blood-vessels, paresis of the vaso-motor nerves. Schussler proposed Ferrum phos. as a substitute for Aconite. It has been confirmed so many times that I now offer it to you with these qualifications. The indications for Ferrum phos. are these: the pulse is full, round and soft; the inflammation has not yet gone on to exudation; the discharge, if it is a mucous surface that is affected, is blood-streaked. In other words, the condition calling for it is surcharged bloodvessels, t If a patient with phthisis should take cold, and so become greatly prostrated, and have this blood-streaked expectoration, Ferrum phos. even in the two hundredth potency will quickly quiet the pulmonary congestion. So, too, in the secondary congestion following pneumonia. The right lung, for instance, is inflamed, when suddenly the left becomes congested. Here Ferrum phos. again acts. Or, again, on a warm summer's day, a child is exposed while perspiring, and the perspiration is checked. In consequence of this, inflammation of the bowels sets in. The stools are watery and bloody. Here, again, is a case for Ferrum phos. In the beginning of dysentery, Ferrum phos. never does any good if there is tenesmus. Then you will have to give Mercurius or some other remedy.

We may use the metal itself in diarrhoea. The stools contain undigested food, and come as soon as the patient attemps to eat. In summer complaint of children or cholera infantum, we find these symptoms recurring quite regularly or periodically just after midnight, when the lienteric stools may be accompanied by periodical vomiting. These symptoms of Ferrum place it with Cinchona and Arsenic in a little group of diarrhoea remedies, and rather in advance of Oleander, this last-named drug being indicated when the lienteric stools occur hours after eating. The child passes one day that which he had eaten the day before. With Cinchona and Arsenic, the stool appears more after than during eating, and with Arsenic more after midnight. Argentum nitricum may also be thought of in these cases of diarrhoea. It seems as if the child had but one bowel, and that extended from mouth to anus.

In uterine haemorrhages, Ferrum is useful when there is a flow of bright red blood, often mixed with coagula, and this is associated with a great deal of flushing. The face, which is ordinarily earthy and sallow, becomes bright red and flushed, breathing becomes rapid and a little labored, just as it is in Ipecac. The pulse itself is very much increased in frequency and in strength. Ferrum in haemorrhages seems to stand between Cinchona and Ipecac. Like Cinchona, it is suited to very much prostrated cases in persons naturally anaemic. It is allied to Ipecac, in the bright red gushing flow of blood and the difficulty of breathing.

Ipecac, suits haemorrhage that conies with a gush. It may be associated with nausea and it may not, but there is very apt to be loud, hurried breathing.

Ferrum has sometimes been of use in prolapsus uteri; but the Ferrum iodide is a better preparation here. Soreness in the abdominal walls. On sitting down he feels as if something were pushed upward in the vagina.

Lastly, Ferrum is indicated in intermitting types of fever, particularly after the abuse of quinine. You find during the heat distension of the bloodvessels, particularly about the temples and face, throbbing headache, enlargement of the spleen, and even dropsy.

Irritability. Slight noises unbearable. Excited from slightest opposition. Sanguine temperament.

Best adapted to young weakly persons, anæmic and chlorotic, with pseudo- plethora, who flush easily; cold extremities; oversensitiveness; worse after any active effort. Weakness from mere speaking or walking though looking strong. Pallor of skin, mucous membranes, face, alternating with flushes. Orgasms of blood to face, chest, head, lungs, etc. Irregular distribution of blood. Pseudo- plethora. Muscles flabby and relaxed.

Better, walking slowly about. Better after rising. Worse, while sweating; while sitting still. After cold washing and overheating. Midnight aggravation.

Vertigo on seeing flowing water. Stinging headache. Ringing in ears before menses. Hammering, pulsating, congestive headache; pain extends to teeth, with cold extremities. Pain in back of head, with roaring in neck. Scalp painful. Must take down the hair.

Fiery-red and flushed from least pain, emotion, or exertion. Red parts become white, bloodless and puffy.

Watery, dull red; photophobia; letters run together.

Mucous membrane relaxed, boggy, anæmic, pale.

Pain in teeth; relieved by icy-cold water. Earthy, pasty taste, like rotten eggs.

Voracious appetite, or absolute loss of appetite. Loathing of sour things. Attempts to eat bring on diarrhœa. Spits up food by the mouthful (Phos). Eructations of food after eating, without nausea. Nausea and vomiting after eating. Vomiting immediately after eating. Vomiting after midnight. Intolerance of eggs. Distention and pressure in the stomach after eating. Heat and burning in stomach. Soreness of abdominal walls. Flatulent dyspepsia.

Undigested, at night, while eating or drinking, painless. Ineffectual urging; stool hard, followed by backache or cramping pain in rectum; prolapsus recti; itching of anus, especially young children.

Involuntary; worse daytime. Tickling in urethra extending to bladder.

Menses remit a day or two, and then return. Discharge of long pieces from uterus. Women who are weak, delicate, chlorotic, yet have a fiery-red face. Menses too early, too profuse, last too long; pale, watery. Sensitive vagina. Tendency to abortion. Prolapse of vagina.

Chest oppressed; breathing difficult. Surging of blood to chest. Hoarseness. Cough dry, spasmodic. Hæmoptysis (Millefol). With the cough pain in occiput.

Palpitation; worse, movement. Sense of oppression. Anæmic murmur. Pulse full, but soft and yielding; also, small and weak. Heart suddenly bleeds into the blood vessels, and as suddenly draws a reflux, leaving pallor of surface.

Rheumatism of the shoulder. Dropsy after loss of vital fluids. Lumbago; better, slow walking. Pain in hip-joint, tibia, soles, and heel.

Pale; flushes readily; pits on pressure.

General coldness of extremities; head and face hot. Chill at 4 am. Heat in palms and soles. Profuse, debilitating sweat.

Antidotes: Ars; Hep. Complementary.: Chin; Alum; Hamamel. Compare: Rumex (similar in respiratory and digestive sphere and contains organic iron). Ferrum aceticum (alkaline urine in acute diseases. Pain in right deltoid. Epistaxis; especially adapted to thin, pale, weak children who grow rapidly and are easily exhausted; varices of the feet; copious expectoration of greenish pus; asthma; worse, sitting still and lying; phthisis, constant cough, vomiting of food after eating, hæmoptysis). Ferrum arsenicum (enlarged liver and spleen, with fever; undigested stool; albuminuria). Simple and pernicious anæmia and chlorosis. Skin dry. Eczema, psoriasis, impetigo (Use 3x trituration).

Ferrum bromatum (sticky, excoriating leucorrhœa; uterus heavy and prolapsed, scalp feels numb). Ferrum cyanatum (neuroses with irritable weakness and hypersensitiveness, especially of a periodical character; epilepsy; cardialgia, with nausea, flatulence, constipation, alternating with diarrhœa; chorea). Ferrum magneticum (small warts on hands) Ferrum muriaticum (Arrested menstruation; tendency to seminal emissions or copious urination at puberty; very dark, watery stools; diphtheria; phlegmonous erysipelas; pyelitis; hæmoptysis of dark, clotty blood; dyspareunia; pain in right shoulder, right elbow, and marked tendency to cramps and round red spots on cheeks; bright crystals in urine. Anæmia, 3x, after meals. Tincture 1-5 drops 3 times daily for chronic interstitial nephritis). Ferrum sulphuricum (Watery and painless stools; menorrhagia pressing, throbbing between periods with rush of blood to head. Basedow's disease. Erethism. Pain in gall-bladder; toothache; acidity; eructation of food in mouthfuls); Ferrum pernitricum (cough, with florid complexion); Ferrum tartaricum (cardialgia; heat at cardiac orifice of stomach). Ferrum protoxalatum (Anæmia). Use 1x trit. Compare also; Graph; Mangan; Cupr.

States of debility where the blood is poor in hematin require material doses; plethoric, hæmorrhagic conditions call for small doses, from the second to the sixth potency.

Ferrum Metallicum

Iron: We will take up the study of Ferrum metallicum. The Old School has been giving Iron for anaemia throughout all tradition. They have given it in great quantities in the form of the tincture of chloride, and the carbonate. Whenever the patient became anemic, pallid, waxy and weak, Iron was the tonic. It is true that Iron produces anemia, and it would be astonishing to any one who ever read the provings of Ferrum of the allopaths did not create additional bloodlessness with the doses of Iron they administer.

It is true that under the provings, and under those circumstances where Iron has been given in excess, the patient becomes greenish, waxy, yellow and pallid, with a sickly and anemic countenance. The lips become pale; the ears lose their pink color; the skin of the body becomes waxy, and there comes a tendency to hemorrhage, at times with clots, but commonly with copious, thin, liquid blood, very dark. The clots will separate and the fluid parts look brown, dirty and watery. The patient gradually emaciates. He is pallid and waxy; his muscles become flabby and relaxed; he is incapable of endurance. All the muscular fibers become tired from any exertion. Rapid exercise, or, any unusual exertion. is impossible. Any rapid exertion or motion brings on weakness, dyspnea, sinking and fainting.

A strange thing running through all the constitutional conditions of Ferrum is that the pains and sufferings come on during rest. The palpitation sometimes comes on during rest, the dyspnoea comes on during rest, and even the weakness. The patient is ameliorated by moving gently about, but any exertion tires and causes faintness.

Any rapid motion aggravates the complaints. The pains are ameliorated by moving about the house slowly, so that the exertion does not excite or fatigue. In many cases the patient is dropsical. The skin pits upon pressure and is pale, yet the face shows an appearance of plethora. From every little excitement the face becomes flushed.

During the chill the face becomes red. From taking wine or stimulant the face becomes flushed, and the patient, though flabby, relaxed and tired, does not get credit for being sick. She fails to get the sympathy of her friends. She is feeble, she suffers from palpitation and dyspnoea, she has great weakness with inability to do anything like work, she feels that she must lie down-yet the face is flushed. This is called a pseudo-plethora.

The blood-vessels are distended, the veins varicose, and their coatings relaxed. On this account bleed ing takes place easily; capillary oozing; hemorrhage from all pass of the body, haemorrhage from the nose, the lungs, the uterus.

Women suffer much from haemorrhage from the uterus, especially during and after the climacteric period. Ferrum will be found of great value when the symptoms agree in that wonderful anemic state called "green sickness," that comes on with girls at the time of puberty and in the years that follow it.

There will be almost no menstrual flow, but a cough will develop, with great pallor. So common is this sickness among girls that all mothers are acquainted with and dread it. In a large practice you will have a number of cases of chlorosis. Sometimes the early menstrual period is attended with a copious, and then occurs, and this goes on for a number of years before anything like menstrual regularity is established. In these cases the Old School always used to feed their patients Iron in great quantities, but the more Iron the patient took the worse she grew.

Congestion, tending upwards, with red face, hot head and coldness of the extremities. But the heat of the head and face is not at all in proportion to the red appearance. It will be found that this congestion upward in Ferrum will take place during a chill, in septic fevers or in other forms of fever, and the head is not always hot, but sometimes cool. The face may be red and cool.

Face: Another grand feature of Ferrum is that, like China, it has complaints from loss of animal fluids; from prolonged haemorrhage, with weakness remaining a long time. There is no repair, no assimilation. The bones are soft and easily bent; they take on crooks. Emaciated and feeble children. Dryness of the joints, causing cracking on motion. Sudden emaciation, with false plethora.

Redness of face - a healthy looking bloom - in one who is unable to walk fast on the street, or to stand any exertion. Yet some of the complaints of Ferrum are better from occupation, from doing something, from taking a little exercise, because the complaints come on during rest.

Over-excitability and sensivity of the nerves; oversensitiveness to pain. The sensitive woman who needs Ferrum has a flushed face and is often complaining because she gets no sympathy. She does not look sick, yet she puffs on going up stairs; she feels weak and wants to lie down.

Restless when keeping still; must keep the limbs moving. Rending pains in the limbs; dull aching in the limbs. These pass off when moving about quietly and gently, like Pulsatilla. But Ferrum is a very cold remedy, and is ameliorated by warmth, except the pains about the neck, face and teeth, which are ameliorated by cold. But most of the pains are ameliorated by heat; the patient wants to keep warm and dreads anything like fresh air or a draught.

Weakness and prostration; weakness even from talking. Prostration with irregular pulse and rapid pulse, or with too slow pulse; palpitation. And then comes paralytic weakness; the limbs give out. Paralytic conditions from anaemia or haemorrhage. Fainting spells from haemorrhage. Jerking and twitching of the muscles; chorea; catalepsy.

Mind: You may easily imagine something of the character of the mental symptoms, for they are like the physical. The mind is confused and the patient tearful. Depression of spirits; mental weariness and depression. The highest degree of depression and despondency. Anxiety from the slightest cause; irritability.

The least noise, like the crackling of paper, sets the patient wild. It brings on nervous excitement and restlessness; she must get up and move. Excitement from the slightest opposition. Any sudden or rapid motion, or the least hurry, causes blackness before the eyes; dizziness; things turn in a circle; she must sit down. And with all this the face is red. When alone and at rest, the face becomes pale and cold, but the least excitement brings a flush to the cheeks.

Headaches: The headaches are congestive in character, with mounting of blood upwards. There is a sense of fullness and distension, with red face.

Fullness and distension of the eyes; fullness of the neck. Palpitation of the heart. Exophthalmic goitre. The headaches are ameliorated by pressure. Ferrum wants to be pressed to support the veins. Throbbing like hammers in the head. Every quick motion aggravates the headache. Coughing aggravates the headache; pain in the head and occiput from coughing. These pains are sometimes ameliorated by walking gently. Going up stairs, sitting down, rising from a seat unless it is done very deliberately - will arouse all the pains of Ferrum.

Any sudden motion will bring on hammering and a feeling of great expansion in the head. And then will come more or less shooting, tearing pains. Beating in the back of the head from rising or from coughing, because coughing is a sudden motion. Confusion of mind with hammering headache. Rush of blood to the head. Congestive headaches from excitement; from taking cold; from exposure; lasting three or four days or a week. The face is gushed and perhaps cold, the head somewhat hot, but not as hot as would be expected.

Redness of the eye; engorged vessels. Great weakness, dyspnoea and palpitation. Writing - a mental operation - causes the headache to reappear. Great sensitiveness of the scalp. The patient must let the hair hang down. Mental disorders and headaches accompanying or following haemorrhages, and in lying in women. Bloated appearance about the eyes. All sorts of disturbance of vision from congestion. Venous stasis; swelling of the eyelids; pus-like discharge. Over-sensitiveness to sound; ringing in the ears. The symptoms of the nose are numerous. Colds and catarrhal troubles, ending in nosebleed. Nosebleed on slight provocation, with headaches at the menstrual nisus.

Scabs form in the nose. Extreme paleness of the face; face becomes red and flushed on the least emotion. Flushed face with dropsy of the lower limbs; flushed face with chill. Thirst during the chill is a striking feature of Ferrum. During the menstrual period there are violent pains, and as soon as the pain starts the face becomes flushed. Nothing taken into the stomach digests, and yet there is no special nausea. It is the exception to find nausea in Ferrum. Food goes into the stomach and is vomited without nausea-simply emptied out. Sometimes there are eructations of food by the mouthful, like Phosphorus.

Food: Phosphorus was the remedy with all the old masters for spitting up of food by the mouthful until. the stomach was empty. Canine hunger. It says in the next:

"Double the amount of an ordinary meal in the evening was hardly sufficient."

All food tastes bitter; solid food is dry and insipid. After eating there are eructations. Heat in the stomach; regurgitation of food. Spasmodic pressure in the stomach after the least food or drink, especially after meat. Aversion to meat, to eggs, to sour fruit. Aversion to milk, and to his accustomed tobacco and beer. Sweet wines agree, but sour wines and all sour things disagree. The tongue feels as if burnt. As soon as the stomach is empty vomiting ceases until he eats again. Vomiting of food, immediately after midnight, Vomitus tastes sour.

Pregnancy: Ferrum is occasionally indicated during pregnancy. A few weeks after becoming pregnant the woman commences to throw up her food by the mouthful.

There is no nausea, but the face is flushed and the woman is flabby and weak. She vomits without becoming sick. Fullness and pressure in the stomach; pressure in the stomach after eating. Ferrum is an unusually interesting remedy because of this peculiar stomach. It is like a leather bag; it will not digest anything. Fill it up and it empties itself just as easily as it was filled.

Ferrum has a troublesome diarrhoea, with acrid watery excoriating stool. Morning diarrhoea. Many of these patients are old sinners with broken-down constitutions, who have suffered long from constipation. Chronic constipation with ineffectual urging and hard, difficult Stools. Relaxation runs through the remedy. From this relaxation there is prolapsus of the rectum, vagina and uterus. Dragging down in the lower part of the body, as if the organs would come out-and sometimes they do come out.

Bladder: The bladder is also relaxed. Its sphincter is weak, and there is no regularity of its muscular action. Hence, we have involuntary urination from sudden motion, from walking, or from coughing. In little children the urine dribbles all day just as long as the child plays the urine dribbles and keeps the clothing wet, but this better while keeping perfectly quiet. The bladder is so relaxed and tired that it cannot hold the urine, and as soon as it is partially filled it allows its contents to escape. This relaxation runs through the remedy and gives it character, just like a human being. You know what each one of your friends is likely to do on every occasion. So it is with a remedy. You ought to know what it is most likely to do, in order to know what it will accomplish in curing the sick.

Genital: Weakness and relaxation of the genital organs is common to Ferrum. The menstrual flow comes in for its share. Copious, watery flow; haemorrhage or suppression - amenorrhoea - no flow at all, only a leucorrhoea. Suppression of the menses with great nervous excitement; with flushed face; with weakness and palpitation. Prolapsus of the vagina. Insensibility of the vagina during coition. Metrorrhagia. Menses too soon too profuse and lasting too long.

Respiration: Difficult respiration; pains and disturbances in the chest. Difficult breathing, with a sense of a great load on the chest. Suffocating fits at night; catarrhal conditions of the respiratory tract; congestion of the chest; dyspnoea.

Spasmodic cough, such as we find in whooping cough, coming on in violent paroxysms. Cough after every meal, with gagging, emptying the stomach of its contents. Cough felt in the head. Cough worse from the abuse of brandy, tobacco or tea. Cough coming on after the loss of fluids, as after haemorrhages.

Chest troubles following uterine hemorrhage, and after other hemorrhages. Coughing up blood; bleeding from the lungs. Persons debilitated by secret vices, with a tendency to go into tuberculosis.

Palpitation of the heart from fear, excitement, or exertion. Rapid action of the heart, or sometimes slow action. Fatty degeneration of the heart. Pulse accelerated toward evening. Pulsations throughout the body, feeling like little hammers.

Rheumatic pains: in the extremities, ameliorated by heat and by gentle motion; aggravated by cold, by exertion, or by rapid motion. Pains through the deltoid muscles are spoken of more prominently than pains in other parts, but these pains are no more striking than the pains anywhere in Ferrum.

Tearing pains through the limbs. Inability to raise the arm; paralytic pains, - that is, pains that are benumbing. Pains that make him feel as if he were going to lose the power to move the part. Violent pains in the hip-joint are just as common as the pains in the shoulder.

Lippe says, "Rheumatism in the left shoulder," but it is just as common in the right. Rheumatic pains in the deltoid muscle of either side. Violent pain in the muscles and along the nerves. Pinching in the right deltoid; boring in the right shoulder; aggravated by motion and by the weight of the bedclothes; ameliorated by heat.

Tearing and stinging pains. The Ferrum pains come on in the night, because the patient attempts to keep still in bed. Rest brings on the Ferrum pains. When moving gently about in the daytime be will not have so much pain. Coldness of the limbs; and again, heat of the soles and palms, they change about. With all this weakness and prostration dropsical conditions come on, so that the feet and hands become bloated. Evening chill or chilliness with fever, cold hands and feet and red face. Icy cold feet with the chill. Chill ameliorated after eating. Thirst with the chill. Copious sweat which stains yellow. All symptoms worse while sweating. Strong-smelling night sweats. All the febrile symptoms are better by slowly moving about. In intermittent fever after the abuse of quinine.

We read in the text that Ferrum is a remedy for diarrhea in the last stages of consumption. Well, sometimes it is, if the patient is prepared to die. Ferrum will stop the diarrhea, but after it is stopped the patient will not live long. The diarrhea is not usually painful. It is annoying, but it is painless, and the night sweats are painless. Do not suppress them; they had better be let alone. Let the patient go on to a peaceful termination.

The best remedy for diarrhoea in the last stages of consumption is Saccharum lactis in the crude form, given in very small quantities and repeated as often as is required by the patient and the bystanders.