Fluoricum acidum

Always too hot; wants to bathe in cold water. Pale, miserable, cachectic, flabby and broken down. Slow deeply destructive effects. Puffy, indurated or fistulous tissues. Palmar abscess. Felon. Caries. Bed-sores. Ulcers. Œdema. Secondary syphilis. Thin, foul, acrid or salty discharges; that cause itching. .................... Necessity to be always in the move. Impulse to walk fast. Melancholy. Lecherousness. Stunning headache; > urinating. Brittle, tousy hair. As of a cold wind in eye. Lachrymal stricture. Deafness, > bending head back. Puffy glabella. Thin enamel. Teeth decay rapidly; < at roots. Fissured tongue. Gnawing hunger; for pungent or cold things. Stale eructations. Itching or burning at anus. Upward drawing in urethra (down-Merc.). Profuse, acrid leucorrhœa. Sexual erethism. Œdema of scrotum. Distorted nails. Varicose veins; varicocele. Dry, harsh, itching or cracked skin; seeming to emit a hot vapor. Scars surrounded by pimples. Keloid. Ebullitions of heat; with pains in bones. Acrid, eroding sweat; excites itching. Oily, pungent sweat on genital. Sweat on hands and feet.

HEAT; of room. Night. Alcohol. Sour foods.

COOL BATHING. Rapid motion. Short sleep. Bending head back. Eating.

FIBROUS TISSUES: VEINS. Skin. Bones. Mastoid.

Complementary: Sil. Related: Calc-sul. Pul. Sul-ac.

Fluoric acid

Hydrofluoric Acid. flP'

Complaints of old age, or of premature old age; in syphilitic mercurial dyscrasia; young people look old.

Increased ability to exercise without fatigue (Coca) ; is less affected by excessive heat of summer or cold of winter.

Old cicatrices become red around edges, and threaten to become open ulcers (Caust., Graph.).

Varicose veins and ulcers, obstinate, long standing cases, in women who have borne many children.

Caries and necrosis, especially of long bones, psoric or syphilitic, abuse of mercury or silica (Angus.).

Nsevus, flat, of children (r. temple) ; capillary aneurism (compare. Cal. fl.. Tub.).

Ulcers : red edges and vesicles ; decubitus ; copious discharge; < from warmth, > from cold; violent pains, like streaks of lightning, confined to a small spot.

Rapid caries of teeth ; fistula dentalis or lachrymalis ; exostoses of bones of face (Hekla).

Follows well : after, Ars. in ascites of drunkards ; after. Kali c. in hip disease; after, Coff., Staph, in sensitive teeth; after, Phos. ac. in diabetes; after, Sil., Symph. in bone diseases ; after, Spong. in goitre.

Lecture XLIX — The Acids — Fluoric and Muriatic acids

Fluoric acid. Phosphoric acid. • Muriatic " ' Hydrocyanic "

Nitric "

' Picric "

Sulphuric "

' Lactic Oxalic " Malic Citric "

Silicic Arsenious acid. .

There are many of the acids, many more in fact than have been placed on the board. There are not many of them, however, with which we are thoroughly acquainted, and there are but few facts that need be stated with reference to others. The very idea of acid, you will at once understand, implies more or less of an electro-negative character. They all combine very readily with the electro-positive substances, as potassium and sodium. You must rid yourself of the impression that the term '

' acid '

' necessarily implies that these substances are sour, for all acids are not sour nor do all acids redden litmus paper. It was formerly supposed that all acids contained oxygen, and that oxygen was one of their necessary ingredients. This has been disproved, for certain acids—as hydrofluoric and muriatic acids—contain no oxygen. These acids are derived from the mineral and vegetable kingdoms. Of those derived from the former, we use in medicine Fluoric and Muriatic acids, which are obtained from the halogens; Nitric acid, a combination of nitrogen and oxygen; Sulphuric acid, Phosphoric acid, Silicea or Silicic acid, which exists as sand in nature and is by no means sour. So, too, the substance which we term Arsenicum is an acid — Arsenious acid.

From organic chemistry Hydrocyanic acid, sometimes called Prussic acid. That, we shall find, exists in a great variety of plants. Then here is Oxalic acid, with which you are already somewhat familiar. Many of you who have tasted the '

' sorrel grass '

' know how sour the leaves are. It is Oxalic acid which gives them their acidity. It exists also in the rhubarb. Rhubarb, either the medicinal or the edible variety, may or may not be poisonous. When raised on new ground it is very apt to contain an undue amount of Oxalic acid, and thus may make some persons very sick. Malic and Citric acid are derived from the vegetable kingdom. Malic acid is found more particularly in apples and pears and also in raspberries. Citric acid is found chiefly in oranges and lemons. Acetic acid is an organic acid, and is the principal ingredient of vinegar. Lactic acid is derived from sour milk. In the first place we may say a few words about the acids in general and tell what characterizes them as a class. It has been determined by careful experimentation with the acids as a class that they decrease the acid secretions of the body and increase the alkaline. If, for instance, a quantity of acid, such as Citric acid, is taken into the stomach, it will diminish the secretion of the gastric juice. On the other hand, it will increase the secretion of the saliva. The practical value of this hint is hygienic rather than therapeutic, and yet in that degree it is of great use. For instance, we know how intolerable, at times, thirst is in fevers. Now this thirst may be due, at least in part, to lack of secretion from the salivary glands. The mouth is parched and dry; the tongue cleaves to the roof of the mouth. In such cases as this, acidulated drinks, by acting reflexly, increase the flow of saliva, and will give your patient great relief. For instance, you may give lemonade, providing, of course, it is not antagonistic to your indicated remedy. There are some medicines which Citric acid will antidote and some which will disagree with it. Again, if you are giving Belladonna, you would not think of using vinegar, as vinegar retards the action of that drug. But when giving Belladonna you may use lemonade, as that aids the action of the remedy. Antimonium crudum will not tolerate acids, but you may use tamarind water. Now if you find the mouth or throat sore in fever, the '

' edge '

' must be taken off the acid by the admixture of some mucilaginous substance to the drink. You might use gum Arabic, but that interferes with digestion somewhat. Irish moss, Iceland moss and slippery-elm are too medicinal. They all act powerfully on the lungs, and you might induce medicinal symptoms if you employ them. Flaxseed has some medicinal effect, but not sufficient to make its use inappropriate. Another substance which may be used is gelatin, that is, if you know that it is pure. Some of it is made from the refuse of the tanner; some from fish-bones, and this is quite palatable; but best of all is that made from calves' feet. This last may be used in water to relieve the sharpness of the acid.

We find that vegetable acids may be useful in dyspepsia, simply for their hygienic value. You may give them, for instance, in sour stomach. You then administer the acid before eating. Allow the patient to drink lemonade before meals and you will often find that the usual heartburn and sour risings after eating are thus diminished. Pepsin, which is often used as an adjuvant in the treatment of dyspepsia, is perfectly allowable, as it does not interfere with the action of any medicine and is not itself a medicine. It is often aided in its action by some kind of acid, particularly in the digestion of nitrogenous articles of food.

Vinegar has been used as an antidote for intoxication.

There is a property of Lactic acid which is well worth noticing. This is a very corrosive acid. It will eat into every tissue of the body. In fact, it will dissolve the enamel of the teeth, so that great care must be used in its administration. When prescribed in material doses, it is usually administered through a tube, wmich prevents it from touching the teeth. Dr. Hering w ras in the habit of recommending that the teeth be w rashed occasionally with cream that had become sour by keeping twenty-four hours.

Muriatic and Lactic acids favor digestion. Some persons are greatly relieved by drinking sour milk.

Sulphuric acid must be avoided in any form whatever, because it tends to make the food insoluble \>y combining with its albuminous constituents. Sulphuric acid is not used in dietetics, except by children in the cheap candy called "sour-balls," which are acidulated almost exclusively with this acid.

Hydrocyanic acid certainly aids digestion. There are some persons who have been cured of dyspepsia by eating peach-kernels, which contain this acid.

There is a distinction between the mineral acids on one side and the organic acids on the other. The mineral acids, as a class, all produce an irritability of fibre together with weakness and prostration. I am now speaking of their medicinal effects. You will find them to produce an irritable weakness—with the weak and irritable pulse — whereas the vegetable acids produce weakness without irritability. The acids, too, as a class, check haemorrhages. This is a quality that belongs to nearly all of them. We all know that Acetic acid is useful in this sphere. When I have a patient who is subject to haemorrhage, I am in the habit of instructing the nurse, in case haemorrhage sets in before I can be called, to dip a cloth in vinegar and place it over the pubes. In many cases, this will be successful. We all know, too, that Citric acid will produce and cure haemorrhage. A child, after eating too freely of lemons, had haemorrhages from every orifice of the body, even from the conjunctiva. We shall see that Phosphoric, Sulphuric and Arsenious acids all produce and all check haemorrhages. It is said that they all do this by reason of their astringency. But how can this be so when they act favorably even in the two-hundredth potency ?

Another quality of the acids is their tendency to produce pseudomembranes. Thus we find some of them indicated in diphtheria; Muriatic, Phosphoric, Stdphuric and Nitric acids, for instance. Here, again, caution is necessary. As these acids, particularly the vegetable acids, may cause croupous deposits, do not permit a child convalescing from croup to partake of acid fruits. When the child is susceptible, any one of these acids may tend to produce this disease again.

We find that all the acids cause a peculiar debility. This is not a simple functional weakness, such as might result from a rather exhausting diarrhoea, such as you find under Cinchona, or such a functional weakness of the nerves as will be curable by Zinc, but it is a debility which arises from defective nutrition, particularly from blood disease. Thus we find them called for in very low types of disease, disease in which blood poisoning is a prominent feature, in typhoid states and in scarlatina, particularly when of a low type, in conditions of exhaustion from abuse of various organs of the body. Thus drunkards, who have long been indulging in liquors to excess, may be relieved by Sulphuric, Phosphoric and Arsenious acids.

We find them indicated, too, in diabetes mellitus. The principal acids for this condition are Phosphoric and Lactic acids. We find, too, that many of the acids are useful in scurvy, particularly when it has arisen from a diet of salty food with deprivation of vegetables. So much for our general review of the acids. We will now begin to speak of the acids in order, and, first of all. of Fluoric acid.

Fluoric Acid.

Silicea, Calcarea ostr. , Calcarea fluor.

Kali carb.

Fluoric acid, i Arsenicum, Phosphoric acid.

Mercurius.

^Rhus tox.

This is a highly excoriating acid, eating, as you know, even into glass. It is to be particularly remembered by its action on the bones and on the skin. It acts especially upon the lower tissues of the body. We find it indicated in caries, particularly when the long bones, as the femur, humerus and radius are affected. The discharges from the affected parts are thin and excoriating. The symptoms are frequently relieved by cold applications. Fluoric acid is frequently useful for caries of the temporal bones, and especially of the mastoid process, and that, too, whether it be the result of syphilis, or of scrofulous catarrh of the middle ear.

We also find it indicated in dental fistulse. The discharge is bloody, and has a saltish, disagreeable taste, rendering the mouth foul, and gradually undermining the whole constitution. Fluoric acid will here relieve. There .is another remedy which has not been thoroughly proven, but which seems to act better here than the Fluoric acid, and that is the Fluoride of Calcium or Calcareafluorica.

Calcarea fluorica is especially useful for osseous tumors and for enlargement of bones with or without caries, Last summer a lady came to my office with what the dentist had pronounced to be necrosis of the lower jaw on the left side. The teeth had been removed by him, but the patient, instead of getting better, grew worse, and there was a continual discharge from the cavity. The molar just back of the one taken out had been filled with gold, and that I found on examination to be rough at its root; and when she pressed her jaws together tightly, there would ooze, apparently from its socket, a fluid which was offensive, dark and bloody, and mixed with fine pieces of decayed bone. The gum around the bone was purple and offensive in itself. The dentist had said that a surgical operation was necessary. The first remedy given was Silicea, which seemed to have some effect. This was followed by Fluoric acid. These two remedies are complementary, and you will frequently find in the bone disease that you will have to give one after the other. Fluoric acid is especially indicated when Silicea has been abused. It is also indicated when Silicea apparently does some good, but fails to complete the cure. Now, in the case I have just related, Fluoric acid also helped for awhile, but improvement again came to a stand-still, and now I noticed a swelling of the bone on the outer surface. This led me to think that Calcarea fluoriccu would act better, and I gave it in the sixth trituration. That she had been taking since the first of August. A week ago* the discharge had entirely ceased. The tooth, which had been filled with gold, was no longer painful. Pink granulations were springing up all over the gums. The probe can no longer detect bone which is diseased.

You will remember, as a distinction between Fluoric acid and Silicea in bone affections and ulcers, that Fluoric acid has relief from cold, whereas Silicea cannot bear anything cold. The slightest draught is intolerable.

We next have to speak of the action of Fluoric acid on the skin. It seems to produce a decided roughness and harshness of the skin, developing cutaneous eruptions of various kinds. There is itching. I do not know of any remedy that causes such general and persistent itching as does Fluoric acid. There is itching in small spots here and there over the bod}'-. This is worse from warmth and better from a cool place. You will find, under Fluoric acid, that old cicatrices will become redder than normal and itch. By and by, little vesicles will form on or near the cicatrix, thus showing you the affinity of fluoric acid for this kind of tissue. I^ittle red blotches appear on the body, and you have well-marked tendency to desquamation. No remedy has this more marked than Fluoric acid. You will find that Fluoric acid also attacks the nails, causing them to grow rapidty. Thuja has the effect of making the nails grow soft.

We may use Fluoric acid in felons, particularly in bone felons. Here, as in case of other diseases of the bones, the discharge is offensive. Here, also, we may make the same point of distinction between it and other remedies, namely, by relief from cold applications. Fluoric acid also acts upon the muscles. Here its effects are rather novel. It causes an increase in muscular endurance. Under its influence a person is able to withstand unusual muscular exertion. More than this, he seems to be better able to withstand the heat of summer *The lecturer was speaking on October 17th.

and the cold of winter. Thus the drug has a general invigorating or tonic effect.

This same effect we find under other drugs. We know how Rhus tox. will enable persons to withstand muscular fatigue. The same is also true of Arsenicum. But the remedy that has this property, more than any other I know of, is Coca. This interesting plant is used by the people of South America, particularly by those who climb the Andes. It prevents all the symptoms arising from the fatigue of the journey and from the disproportion between the external and the internal atmospheric pressures. We may make use of this in persons who are weak, particularly for old people who get out of breath easily and particularly if they cannot stand a rarefied atmosphere. In that condition Coca relieves.

Under the influence of Fluoric acid, a short sleep seems to refresh. This effect may also be produced by low potencies of Mephitis putorius. We find that Fluoric acid has produced, and therefore ought to cure, varicose veins. Little blue collections of veins in small spots were caused in two or three provers by the drug. It may also be of use in naevus.

Other remedies here are Hamamelis, especially in acute cases. It is often used externally and internally in the treatment of enlarged veins.

Indifference towards those loved best; inability to realize responsibility; buoyancy. Mentally elated and gay.

Hydrofluoric Acid Especially adapted to chronic diseases with syphilitic and mercurial history. Glabella region bloated. Acts especially upon lower tissues, and indicated in deep, destructive processes, bedsores, ulcerations, varicose veins, and ulcers. Patient is compelled to move about energetically. Complaints of old age, or the prematurely aged, with weak, distended blood vessels. Hob-nailed liver of alcoholics. Goitre (Dr. Woakes) (Kali fluoride produced bronchocele in dogs). Early decay of teeth. Old cases of nightly fevers, coming on periodically.

Worse, warmth, morning, warm drinks. Better, cold while walking.

Alopecia. Caries of skin. Pressure on sides of head from within outward. Caries of ossicles and mastoid, with copious discharge; worse warmth (Silica; worse cold). Exostosis.

Sensation as of wind blowing through eyes. Lachrymal fistula. Violent itching of inner canthus.

Chronic nasal catarrh with ulceration of the septum; nose obstructed and dull heavy pain in forehead.

Dental fistula, with persistent bloody, salty discharge. Syphilitic ulceration of throat, which is very sensitive to cold. Teeth feel warm. Affects teeth and bones of upper jaw.

Heaviness and weight in stomach heat in stomach before meals. Sour eructations. Averse to coffee, wants fancy dishes. Stomach symptoms relieved by tight clothes. Desire for highly seasoned food. Craves cold water, hungry. Warm drinks produce diarrhœa.

Soreness over liver. Flatus and eructations.

Bilious diarrhœa, with aversion to coffee.

Scanty, dark. In dropsy, produces frequent and free discharge, with great relief.

Burning in urethra. Sexual passion and desire increased with erections at night, during sleep. Swollen scrotum.

Menses copious, frequent, too long. Ulceration of uterus and os. Copious and excoriating leucorrhœa. Nymphomania.

Oppression of chest, difficult breathing, great dyspnœa. Hydrothorax.

Inflammation of joints of fingers. Feeling as of a splinter under nail. Nails crumble. Caries and necrosis, especially of long bones. Coccygodynia. Ulcer over tibia.

Varicose veins. Nævi. Ulcers; red edges and vesicles. Decubitus; worse, warmth. Syphilitic rupia. Itching of cicatrices. Feels as if burning vapor were emitted from pores. Itching especially of the orifices, and in spots, worse warmth. Nails grow rapidly. Periosteal abscess. Profuse, sour, offensive perspiration. Syphilitic tubercles. Dropsy of limbs in old, feeble constitutions. Atony of capillary and venous system. Tissues bloated.

Compare: Thiosinaminum (action on cicatricial tissues; adhesions, strictures, tumors); Calc fluor; Silica. Complementary: Silica.

Sixth to thirtieth potency.

Fluoricum Acidum

It takes a long time for this remedy, in the proving, to develop its symptoms. It is a very deep-acting medicine, and an antipsoric, antisyphilitic and anti-sycotic.

It is insidious in its action and its symptoms are slow in approach; it is like the deepest and slowest and most tedious diseases, the miasms, and hence it is suitable in the very slowest and lowest forms of disease.

While it has in its nature some febrile action, it is not for this purpose that it is oftenest called for its most typical febrile action is very slow and insidious. It corresponds to overheated states of the system, old cases of nightly fevers, coming on week after week and year after year. It is an unusually hot-blooded remedy at times, and again it has conditions of coldness. In the evening and night great heat seems to evolve from the body without increase of temperature. The skin becomes very hot.

That patient is often < from warm things, < from covering, < from warm air; suffocates somewhat like Puls. in a warm room. He wants to bathe the face and head in cold water; such bathing is grateful.

The feet burn and are put out of bed in the night; he hunts around in bed for a cool place for the feet and bands. The soles perspire, and the palms perspire, and the sweat is acrid, making the parts sore; excoriation from the sweat between the toes.

The perspiration is offensive; offensive, acrid sweat between the toes. Burning, unusual heat and acridity are words that modify a great many symptom s; an acrid lachrymation or other discharge from the eye; acrid discharge from the nose, acrid sweat, etc.

Sensation of burning and burning pains in parts; heat evolved from the body as a chronic state. Aggravation from heat, from outward heat and from inward heat, belongs to this remedy. It is a strong feature, of this remedy to be worse from drinking tea and coffee. Warm, drinks bring on a diarrhea, or flatulence, or disturbance in the stomach, and cause indigestion to manifest itself in various way The symptoms are worse standing and sitting and better in the open air. It is a remedy of great depth of action. It so disturbs the functions that there are peculiar outward signs in the nails, in the hair, in the skin; they are all imperfectly developed.

Skin: Whenever such is the case, we know that a remedy has great depth of action and that it is very long acting. It forms like incrustations here and there upon the skin that seem to have no tendency to heal.

A crust forms, but there seems to be no healing beneath the crust. The hair loses its luster; it falls out, and if examined closely under the microscope it is seen to be necrosed; little ragged ulcers will be found along the course of the hair.

The ends of the hair are dry, the hair mats and splits and breaks, becomes ragged in masses and lustreless. The nails are crippled, likewise corrugations in the nails; the nails grow too fast and grow awkwardly; that is, they are deformed and crippled, too thick in some places, and too thin in others; break easily, brittle. There is a tendency to breaking down of a slow character, where the circulation is very feeble and the skin is near bone or cartilage as in the cartilages in the ears, and in the cartilages of joints.

Ulcers develop over the tibia. There is feeble circulation in the hands and feet and they become cold. In the evening the extremities burn and are feverish, because that is the time of the feverish state; but in the morning and in the daytime there is coldness of the extremities. The patient is pallid and sickly, and at times becomes waxy and dropsical; oedema of the extremities, and particularly of the lower extremities; oedema of certain parts; oedema of the prepuce.

When a debilitated subject, one suffering from bone and cartilaginous troubles, contracts gonorrhoea, with it he will have enormous swelling of the prepuce, and nothing seems to act upon it. Fluoric acid will cure oedema of the prepuce with gonorrhoea in such a subject. Cannabis sativa has the same symptom, but it is especially useful in robust cases.

Fluoric acid will prevent the manifestation of disease in sycotic subjects, will prevent formation of fig warts. It cures fig warts. It produces hardened, dry warts, and dry crusts upon the skin, and crusts not unlike rupia. It is useful in syphilitic rupia.

Bone affections stand out prominently. Necrosis, especially of the long bones, but also of the bones of the ear. It creates an offensive acrid discharge from the ear. It establishes an offensive oezena, an acrid discharge, with necrosis of the nasal bones.

It is very analogous to Sil., and it is one of the natural followers of Sil. where Sil. has been too frequently repeated by persons who do not know that Silicea does its best in a single dose and that it is a long acting and slow medicine. It not only antidotes the abuse of Sil., but also follows Sil., After practicing a while you will be surprised to observe the Pendulum like -action between beat and cold in various complementary remedies.

To make that clear I will illustrate it by using the series in which this remedy is set and to which it naturally belongs. You take a patient who is hotblooded, who is always suffering from the heat, from too much clothing and too warm a room especially in the evenings, a patient that is tearful and sad, and may be a blonde.

Why you say, I am trying to describe a Pulsatilla patient. Well, yes; anyone can see that. Puls. is a hot-blooded patient, but after using that remedy a while you notice that the patient goes to the other extreme and becomes chilly, and wants much clothing; the heat is taken out of the case. Sil. is the natural follower of Puls., and you would be astonished to know bow often a patient leaving Puls. runs toward Sil.

Sil. goes deeper into the case, it does more cutting, and it is the, natural chronic of Puls. Other remedies of course follow Puls., but Sil. more frequently than any other medicine. Now, that is the second step; the patient has gone from a warm to a cool state; the overheated state has been lost and he has gone into Sil., but when Sil. has been administered for a while it cures the cold state, and removes the chilliness of the patient (remember, however, that Sil. has at times something of Puls. in it; in some of its complaints it is < from being overheated) and the patient under Sil. goes back to the warm state again, becomes hot-blooded, wants the warm covers thrown off, wants to be lightly covered.

Then it is that this medicine comes in the series. Fluor. ac. follows Sil. as naturally as Sil. follows Puls. They exist in threes.

Series: There are other remedies that exist in threes, but the most common ones you will think of will be:

Sulph., Calc. and Lyc.; Sulph., Sars. and Sep.; and Coloc. and Caust. and Staph., which often follow each other and rotate in this way.

Do not let these facts make you give a routine remedy unless the symptoms agree, but it does help to remember that remedies are somewhat similar. It is true that Puls., Sil. and Fluor. ac. are similar all along the line as to the nature of their symptoms.

Puls. corresponds to more acute disturbances, or to the earlier stages of chronic disease, the more active or violent operations of chronic disease. It will take off the wire edge of the disease, and it will be followed by some medicine that is complementary to it, always to be determined by the symptoms that arise.

There are cases that would be greatly injured by so deeply acting a remedy as Sil. if given in the beginning, that is, the suffering would be unnecessary; but if you commence with Puls. you can mitigate the case and prepare it to receive Sil., providing the two would appear to be on a plane of agreement.

A very serious case had better first receive Puls., and the way being paved by that remedy follow it up with Sil.

Bones: Think of the remedy, then, in vicious bone diseases, in necrosis and caries, in fistulous openings, fistula leading to the teeth, fistula lachrymalis and fistula in ano; in calcareous degenerations; in deformity of the nails, hair and teeth; in affections of the thigh bones and leg bones, with chronic fistulous openings leading to bone discharging pus which excoriates the parts all around.

The patient is over-sensitive; is made worse if the bowels do not move regularly; is distressed if the menstrual flow is slightly delayed; suffers if the call to urinate cannot be immediately attended to, hence, as in the text, "headaches > by micturition."

Headache: That symptom is all that is given in the text; but remember something that is analogous to it, viz.; If the call to urinate be not attended to the headache will continue to grow < until the urine is avoided.

That is a peculiar symptom, and it sometimes leads to the study of Fluor, ac. Violent congestive headache with beat and fullness. Violent occipital headaches, worse from motion.

Now, if we take into consideration its great depth of action, we will see furthermore that it is suitable in some brain diseases. In persons who have overworked, who have been working day and night to establish a business, or to keep it up, and when there has been constant use of the brain it is suitable.

Mind: In mental depression and melancholy, with great sadness, in young men who have destroyed the nervous system by vicious practices, by secret vice. It is particularly suitable for that disorder of the human economy where men have continuously changed their mistresses.

There is a state in which a man is never satisfied with one woman, but continually changes and goes from bad to worse until he is a debauchee. If a young man cannot keep away from women, he is not so bad off if he will only keep to one, but he goes from one to many, until he stands upon the street corners and, in his lust, craves the innocent women that go along the street. Fluoric acid is suitable in that state, like Picric acid and Sepia, and these medicines are particularly suited to that condition of enfeeblement of the mind and that disorder of the human economy that makes man so low, that we have the state described as "low mindedness."

It takes that form in one who is a sort of debauchee, running after alt sorts of things to tickle his fancy, but it takes another form in a man who stays at home with his good wife. He takes an aversion to his children and to his dearest friends and his wife, that is, he has lost that true and noble and orderly affection and friendship and companionship which ought to exist, and he fights against it.

An orderly man considers his wife his best friend and he would rather stay with her than go anywhere else. To him there is no place like home. Now, when man arrives at the state when he wants to go somewhere else, that he wants to go away from home, that be is disturbed at home, that everything annoys him at home, that be no longer loves his children as he once did, he needs Fluoric acid.

"Feeling of indifference towards those he loves best."

The Sepia state is like this, but Sep. is more frequently indicated in women. The woman will say, "Doctor, there is one thing that I regret very much, and that is, I do not seem to enjoy my children, my home, my companions, my husband and my friends.

There is a sort of alienation."

Such is the way it is told where it is Sepia. In the man it is more commonly Fluoric acid, in the woman more commonly Sep., but this need not necessarily be so. Sepia corresponds more closely to the condition of the uterus and ovaries, and such conditions, as the woman alone can have. (Compare Calcarea.)

Men: Fluoric acid has with this state an overwhelming sexual erethism.

He is kept awake nights by erections. This state of desire forces itself upon him, not only when he is with the opposite sex, but at all times. At times, in the beginning of a gonorrhea, this condition of priapism and intense uncontrollable sexual desire, with swelling of the foreskin is overcome by Fluoric acid. There are times when this priapism demands Canth., but that remedy differs wholly in its nature from this.

Mind: Reticence and silence; sitting and saying nothing. This reticence is like Puls., and often belongs to the insane who will sit in the corner and say nothing all day, never uttering one single word, and hardly answering when spoken to.

A patient sits in the corner and says nothing and does nothing, eats when food is offered, is led to her room when the time comes, resists nobody, answers nothing; such a state is found in Pulsatilla, and is closely allied to this remedy. There, is some insanity in it, but especially the fatigue and mildness of a the brain. Mental exhaustion from overwork or from vices. It is suitable after Sil. in the spinal affections that are attended with paralysis, trembling and numbness in the soles of the feet. It will often stop the progress of structural nervous diseases and prevent the, case from getting worse.

Veins: An excellent and very useful feature of this remedy is its ability to produce varicose veins and varicose ulcers.

The veins become varicosed anywhere, but particularly upon the lower limbs, especially following pregnancy.

Hemorrhoids protrude after a stool; the anus and rectum protrude, and there is some bleeding, because of the hemorrhoidal condition. Varicose conditions with very old ulcers upon the lower extremities; the varicose veins ulcerate. You might predict what kind of ulcer and what kind of a margin Fluoric acid would produce. We see the feebleness of its circulation, we see its tendency to create hard crusts, and hardened, horny skin and eruptions.

We might now easily assume that the inflamed borders of an ulcer would become indurated, hard and glassy. The margins of ulcers are indurated and the ulcer is an old, indolent ulcer. Parts once broken will not close up. Union will not take place between the broken ends of bones, there is no repair. From bones and from ulcers, we have the foetid, acrid, thin, watery discharges, or at times very scanty discharges, but acrid, burning the parts all around, raising eruptions and scurfs around the ulcers. From the feebleness of the circulation one might suppose that numbness would naturally be present, and it is true.

The ears become numb, the scalp becomes numb, there is a sensation as if the back of the head were made of wood. The scalp loses its sensation, the hair falls out and crusts form. The extremities become numb and there is numbness of the feet and bands extending upwards; numbness, with or without dropsy; numbness in spinal affections; numbness in brain diseases. Numbness of the limb not laid on.

"Crusta lactea; dry scales; itches very much, bald places.

Caries of the temporal bone; discharges offensive smelling pus periodically." "whole left side of the head retarded in growth, left eye seems smaller."

Skin: That is a clinical state, but it is significant. Its use in syphilis must not be overlooked. in old cases with exostoses, caries and necrosis, cases that have been mercurialized, and treated by other drugs until ulcers have developed or those affections of the nose that we have often observed in syphilitic states. He blows small pieces of bone out of the nose; great pain in the nose; nasal bones all destroyed, and the nose becomes flat as though only a soft piece of flesh with perforations.

The vulva is eaten off and the tonsils become honeycombed by syphilitic ulcers.

Lingering, low forms of ulcers and eruptions. The teeth decay or break off or ulcerate at the roots; fistulous openings from the root of the tooth, continuing to discharge.

Many a time has this remedy taken away that ulcer of the root, closed up that fistulous opening, cured the pain, saved the tooth. "Craves cold water and is continually hungry." Often that "all gone" sensation in the stomach. Is always eating and is relieved from eating, but like Iodine it does not last long, for soon be becomes hungry again. Such medicines are very deep. We see that they go, to the very root of assimilation and nutrition.

Chronic ulcers of the throat not necessarily syphilitic, but it is particularly useful in the old forms of syphilis; not generally so suitable in the earlier ulcers as in those that are associated with the tertiary forms, with debilitated states, with brain disease, with nervous symptoms that go on for years when the patient is supposed to be cured.

Very often the trouble will come back in the throat, and the ulcers consist of little gummatous growths. Sil. especially covers such a condition, and Sil. is also one of the most useful medicines for rooting out Mercurius.

In potentized form sil. and Merc. are inimical, yet the high potencies of Sil. will antidote crude Mercury.

This patient craves pungent, highly seasoned things. The appetite must be tickled; there must be some inducement to eat. At times the appetite is changeable in spite of the fact that he is overwhelmingly hungry; he cannot eat, yet he is > when the food is in the stomach, > after eating.

The most vicious kind of chronic diarrhea with this low feeble constitution, in insidious complaints.

"Morning diarrhoea."

The itching of the anus is sometimes intense; protrusion of the anus during defecation; profuse haemorrhage after stool; constipation with piles; itching around and in anus, in perineum, etc, This drug is also suitable in the dropsy of drunkards. They are very often liver dropsies. Old cicatrices become red around the edge surrounded by itching vesicles, itching violently; squamous eruptions upon the body; dry, cutaneous eruptions upon the body, very scaly. "Sensation as if a burning vapor were emitted from the pores of the body."

Especially under the covers there is this sensation of great heat, tremendous, like steam. It is not in fever. He has no fever but it is a chronic state of giving out heat without thirst, or increase of temperature.