Natrum muriaticum

Thin, thirsty, hopeless and poorly nourished. Emaciation; descending; < neck or abdomen. Anæmia. DRYNESS; skin, mouth, throat, rectum, vagina, etc. Numbness; of one side; parts lain on; fingers. Tremulous. Easy exhaustion. Parts seem short, hamstrings, nape, etc. Not very sensitive to pain. Takes cold. Nervous erethism. Thick white or clear acrid discharges. Exact periodicity. Malarial cachexia. .................... Hateful; detests consolation or a fuss. Inconsolable. Easily angered; < if consoled. Sad, reserved; company distresses. Hypochondria. Weeps bitterly. Boisterous grief. Scattered thoughts, or an idea clings, prevents sleep, inspires revenge, etc. Anxiety. Apprehension. Fears or dreams of robbers. Vertigo; as if falling, on closing eyes. Nodding motions. HEADACHES; hammering; heavy; bursting; maddening; over eyes; on vertex, on awaking; with partial numbness or disturbed vision; < reading; < motion, even of eyes; > pressure on eyes. Migraine. Falling hair. Eyes feel drawn together. Lachrymation on affected side (Spi.); on sneezing, coughing, etc. Ptosis, on lying down. Vision blurred, wavering. Letters run together. Hemiopia, then headache. Can't read by artificial light. Nose stopped, high up; sneezing early in A.M.; alternate fluent and dry coryza; gushes of fluid; little ulcers in. Face; pale, muddy or greasy. HERPES ABOUT LIPS; or at edge of hair; pearly. Throbbing in lower jaw, < biting, < heat and cold. Exophthalmic goitre. Hawks much mucus; bitter. TONGUE MAPPED; beaded or striped along edge. Blunted taste and smell. Uvula hangs to one side. Throat; a spot is dry, sore, tickles, causes cough, etc.; glistens. Thirst; drinks large quantities. Hunger great, yet emaciates; without appetite. CRAVES SALT. Averse to bread. Burning eructations; after eating. Waterbrash. Epigastric pulsation. Anxiety in stomach, rises to head. Tense abdomen; < groins. Dry, hard, crumbling stool, tears anus or causes burning; coated with glassy mucus; on alternate days. Chronic diarrhœa. Constricted rectum. Herpes ani. Red urinary sediment. Coition; painful; averse to; then backache, weak legs, depression, etc. Suppressed gonorrhœa. Debilitating leucorrhœa, replaces menses. Cough; from tickling in epigastrium; with asthma or palpitation; < winter. Respiratory catarrhs, after suppressed sweats. Heart; palpitation, shaking body or alternates with beating in head; fluttering; weak; sore; < emotions, lying on (l) side, or motion. Sore neck muscles. Bruised backache, early in A.M.; < coughing, > lying on back, or pressure. Cracked finger-tips. Catch in knees. Hamstrings seem short or drawing in. Sobs during sleep. Awakes feeling weak. Skin, oily; dry, harsh, dirty, unhealthy or yellow; chaps or herpetic eruptions, < flexures or about knuckles. Coldness of many parts; hands, feet; heart. Morning chill, with thirst. Chilly, but < in sun. Sweat, cold, scanty; at edge of hair; on nose, on face, while eating (Cham.).

PERIODICALLY: 9-11 A.M. With the sun. After menses. Alternate days (Ars. Chin.). HEAT: Sun. Summer. Dampness. Exertion; eyes, mental. Violent emotions. Sympathy. Puberty. Quinine. Old malaria. Silver salts.

Open air. Cool bathing. Sweating. Rest. Before breakfast. Deep breathing.

NUTRITION: Digestive tract. BRAIN. BLOOD. MUSCLES. MIND. HEART. GLANDS: MUCUS. Spleen. Liver. Skin.

Complementary: Ign. Sep. Related: Pul.

Natrum muriaticum

Common Salt. NaCl.

For the anaemic and cachectic; whether from loss of vital fluids — profuse menses, seminal losses — or mental affections.

Great emaciation ; losing flesh while living well

(Abrot., Iod.); throat and neck of children emaciate rapidly during summer complaint (Sanic.).

Great liability to take cold (Cal., Kali c.).

Irritability: child cross when spoken to; crying from slightest cause; gets into a passion about trifles, especially when consoled with.

Awkward, hasty, drops things from nervous weakness (Apis, Bov.).

Marked disposition to weep ; sad weeping mood, without cause (Puls.), but consolation from others < her troubles.

Headache: anaemic, of school girls (Cal. p.) ; from sunrise to sunset; left-sided clavus; as if bursting; with red face, nausea and vomiting before, during and after menses; as though a thousand little hammers were knocking in the brain during fever; > by perspiration.

Headache; beginning with blindness (Iris, Kali bi.) ; with zig-zag dazzling, like lightning in eyes, ushering in a throbbing headache; from eye strain.

Lachrymation ; tears stream down the face whenever he coughs (Euphr.).

Hay fever : squirming sensation in the nostril, as of a small worm; brought on by exposure to hot sun or intense summer heat.

Sensation as of a hair on the tongue (Sil.).

Tongue: mapped, with red insular patches; like ringworm on sides (Ars., Each., Mer., Nit. ac.. Tarax.) ; heavy, difficult speech, children slow in learning to walk.

Constipation ; sensation of contraction of anus ; torn, bleeding, smarting afterwards; stool, dry, hard, difficult, crumbling (Am. c., Mag. m.) ; stitches in rectum (Nit. ac. ) ; involuntary, knows not whether flatus or faeces escape (Aloe, Iod., Mur. ac.. Clean., Pod.).

•Urine : involuntary when walking, coughing, laughing (Caust., Puls., Scilla) ; has to wait a long while for urine to pass, if others are present (Hep., Mur. ac. ) ; cutting in urethra after ( Sars. ) .

Seminal emission : soon after coition, with increased desire; weakness of organs with retarded emission during an embrace; impotence, spinal irritation, paralysis, after sexual excesses.

Pressing, pushing towards genitals every morning; must sit down to prevent prolapsus (Lib, Mur., Sep.).

Fluttering of the heart: with a weak faint feeling < lying down (Each.).

The heart’s pulsations shake the body (Spig.).

The hair falls out when touched, in nursing women (Sep.) ; face oily, shiny, as if greased (Plb., Thuja).

For the bad effects: of anger (caused by offence) ; acid food, bread, quinine, excessive use of salt; of cauterizations of all kinds with the silver nitrate; of grief, fright, vexation, mortification or reserved displeasure (Staph.).

Hangnails : skin around the nails dry and cracked (Graph., Pet.) ; herpes about anus and on borders of hair at nape of neck (in bend of knees. Hep., Graph.).

Warts on palms of hands (sore to touch, Nat. c.).

Dreams : of robbers in the house, and on waking will not believe to the contrary until search is made (Psor. ) ; of burning thirst.

Fever blisters, like pearls about the lips; lips dry, sore and cracked, ulcerated (Nit. ac.).

Painful contractions of the hamstrings (Am. m., Caust., Guaiac.).

Craving for salt (Cal., Caust.); great aversion to bread.

Eczema; raw, red, inflamed, especially in edges of hair; < from eating too much salt, at sea shore, or from ocean voyage.

Urticaria, acute or chronic; over whole body; especially after violent exercise (Apis, Cal., Hep., Sanic., Urt. ) .

Intermittents ; paroxysm at lo or ii a. m. ; old, chronic, badly treated cases, especially after suppression by quinine; headache, with unconsciousness during chill and heat; sweat > pains.

before and after it.

Natrmii mur. is the chronic of Ignatia, which is its vegetable analogue.

Is followed by Sepia and Thuja.

Cannot often be repeated in chronic cases without an intercurrent, called for by the symptoms.

Should never be given during fever paroxysm.

If vertigo and headache be very persistent, or prostration be prolonged after Natrum, Nux will relieve.

Aggravation. — At lo or ii a. m. ; at the seashore or from sea air; heat of'suh'or stOve; mental exertion, talking, writing, reading; lying down.

Ameloriation. — In the open air (Apis, Puls.) ; cold bathing; going without regular meals; lying on right side (on painful side, Bry., Ign., Puls.).

Lecture LXVIII — Natrum muriaticum and Natrum arsenicatum

Natrum muriaticum.

Bryonia, Rhus tox.

Caust., Kalic, Sepia, Lycopod.

Puis., China, Eupator. perf., Apis, Arsen.

Lach., Mercurius.

V l Arg. nitr.

Apis. Arg. nit. > Nitri sp. dulc.

> Arsenicum.

> Phosphorus.

To-day we begin our study of Natrum muriaticum or common table-salt. This has always been held up to us as an opprobium against medicine, and as a confirmation of the fallacies of Homoeopathy. A physician once said to me: "What! will you use a substance which is used in almost every food and call it a medicine, and say that you obtain good effects from it ? " I can assure you, gentlemen, as I assured him, that Natrum muriaticum is a medicine, and I can assure you, too, that that man afterwards became a warm advocate of its medicinal virtues. When you potentize a drug you will find that you no longer have to depend upon the ordinary laws of dietetics, hygiene or chemistry, but you step into a realm which is distinct from the laws of chemistry and of physics. Medicines are then no longer subject to the grosser laws.

Natrum mur. was re-proved by a company of Austrian physicians who made heroic provings of some of our drugs. Some of these men died from the effects of their provings, so large and powerful were the doses of the medicines they took. One of the provers, whose name I have forgotten, said, when he published his provings of Natrum mur., that the higher potencies of the drug produced the most symptoms, and these symptoms, moreover, were more valuable than those produced by the low. It is true of Natrum mur. as of most other drugs, that the high potencies act best.

You will notice on the board that I have placed Argentum nitricum and Apis as complementary to Natrum mur. Argentum nitricum holds a complementary relation to Natrum mur. It also, at times, antidotes. It acts as a chemical or as a dynamic antidote according to the quantity of the drug taken.

The relation between Apis and Natrum mur. is particularly evident in the treatment of chills and fever, and skin affections. Salt is one of the substances used to antidote the poisonous effects of bee-stings. When salt has been abused as a condiment, sweet spirits of nitre may be used as a successful antidote. Some other effects of Natrum mur. are antidoted by Arsenicum, and still others by Phosphorus. I do not now recall any remedy inimical to Natrum mur.

Natrum muriaticum or Chloride of Sodium may be considered first in its physiological relations, so that we may learn something of its value as a medicine. It enters into every tissue of the body, even into the enamel of the teeth. Speaking now physiologically, it is regarded as a stimulant to the various tissues into which it enters. It exists in quite considerable quantities in the various humors of the eye, particularly in the aqueous humor and crystalline lens, and also in the vitreous humor. It has been said that its function here is to preserve the transparency of the respective tissues. Virchow, in his Pathology, quotes an authority who gave Chloride of Sodium to dogs until he produced opacity of the crystalline lens. Hence, cataract may be produced by Natrum mur.

Chloride ofSodium in the stomach stimulates digestion and this, too, within the bounds of physiology. It stimulates digestion in various ways. First, it improves the flavor of food. We all know how insipid certain articles of diet are unless salted. We know from physiology that if a substance has its taste enhanced, its digestibility is also increased. That which is agreeable, digests more readily than that which is unsavory. Salt also acts on the stomach itself by favoring the secretion of gastric juice. Salt acts on the glands, producing an increase in the glandular secretions. Thus we find it acting on the sudorific glands and also on the mucous glands.

Schiissler argues that salt is excreted through the mucus, which is true. Therefore, he says, that as salt has a function here, it must be the remedy for all catarrhs. That is too sweeping a conclusion for so limited a premise. It is true that if you examine healthy mucus you will find that it contains considerable salt. It is true also that Chloride of Sodium produces an excessive flow of normally constituted mucus. From this you may take a useful hint. Wherever you find a catarrh with a copious secretion of clear normal mucus, there Natrum mur. may be the remedy. We find it acting also on the sebaceous glands. These little glands are quite numerous in certain parts of the body, particularly around the wings of the nose and the cheeks. Their function is to lubricate the skin. Natrum mur. stimulates these, and as a result the skin becomes oily in appearance. We notice this particularly in the face, in the scalp, though it occurs, more than likely, in other parts of the body.

Salt also has a stimulating effect on the nervous system, keeping up its tone. Muscular tone is also favored by the presence of salt within the tissues of the muscles. This brings me to give you the hint that common salt may be used as an external application in weaknesses of the muscles and nerves that favor deformities of the limbs. When you first notice that a child is walking on the side of its feet, or when you meet with a case of post-diphtheritic paralysis, you may use friction with salt to great advantage. I do not mean to say that it will cure all deformities, for some arise from inflammation of the anterior gray cornua of the cord. Chloride of Sodium cannot cure these, for the trouble is due to organic disease.

In weak ankles study Causticum, Sulphuric acid, Sulphur, Natrum carb., etc.

Again, we may sometimes use salt in the form of the sitz-bath for obstinate amenorrhcea.

We shall frequently find Natrum mur. indicated when the blood is impoverished. The nutrition of the whole system, therefore, suffers. We find it indicated in anaemia, particularly in anaemia provoked by loss of fluids, hence often with women who suffer from menstrual disease and with men who suffer from loss of semen. We shall often find it indicated in scorbutic states of the system when the patient suffers more or less from scurvy. It is quite likely that the prolonged use of salt meat is a common cause of scurvy. In these cases the mouth becomes sore, ulcers form on the tongue and on the gums, and the breath has a foetid odor. The tongue presents a mapped appearance, a symptom we also find in other remedies, as Arsenicum, Rhus tox., Kali bichromicum and Taraxacu?n.

Again, as a result of this impoverishment of the blood, we find the nervous system suffering secondarily.

Natrum mur. may be given for the following symptomatic indications: the patient is emaciated, and this emaciation is very marked. The skin is rather harsh and dry and of a yellowish hue. The patient feels greatly exhausted from any little exertion of mind or body. On account of the anaemia we have the circulation readily excited, so that every little exertion produces throbbing all over the body. The patient suffers frequently from palpitation of the heart, and this, too, is excited by every motion and ever}' strange or sudden noise. It is often described by the patient as a sensation as though a bird's wing were fluttering in the left chest.

Mentally, w Te find these patients sad and tearful. You will seldom find Natrum mur. indicated in chronic affections unless there is this low-spirited condition of the mind. The patient seems to be made worse by any attempt at condolence. Consolation may even make her angry. This tearful condition is accompanied by palpitation of the heart and intermittent pulse. Xow, this intermittent pulse does not necessarily imply organic disease of the heart, but simply a nervously weak heart.

At other times the patient is decidedly hypochondriacal, just as we have already found with Natrum carb. This hypochondriasis is directly associated with indigestion, as in Natrum carb. But there is this difference: with Natrum mur., the remedy under consideration, this hypochondriasis keeps step with the degree of constipation, not alone with the indigestion, as in the other.

In addition to this melancholy mood we also have irritability developed by Natrtun mur. The patient becomes angry at every little trifle. He stores up in his mind every little real or imaginary offence. He wakes up at night with palpitation of the heart and cannot go to sleep again, because past unpleasant events occupy his mind. Intellectual ability is impaired. He becomes disinclined for mental work; makes mistakes, as if confused; has loss of memory; study aggravates. Frequently school girls suffer from headache, as if little hammers were pounding the head, whenever they study. Excitable, laughs immoderately at something not ludicrous; fingers move involuntarily, as in chorea; trembling of the limbs; muscular jerks; awkward; she drops things. Now add to these chronic symptoms the following, and you have a complete picture of Natrum mur. Excitement is always followed by melancholy, anxiety, fluttering at the heart; limbs go to sleep, with "crawling," is noted also in the lips and tongue; limbs heavy, especially in anaemic girls, whose faces are yellow, skin dry and shriveled, and menses scanty or checked. Mental emotions cause such weakness that one or more limbs are useless. Sometimes Kali card, follows in menstrual difficulties. It may bring on the menses when Natrum mur. fails.

While on this subject of the nerves we may as well add the remaining symptoms: spinal irritation; backache relieved by lying on something hard; small of back pains, as if broken; paralyzed feeling in lumbar region, worse in the morning after rising; tongue stiff, clumsy speech; joints weak, especially the ankles, worse in the mornings. This last symptom accompanied by imperfect nutrition, growing thin in spite of good appetite, has led to the successful topical and internal use of salt in children with weak ankles; the feet turn under while walking.

Now, in mental symptoms, Natrum mur. runs against several drugs. One of these is Pulsatilla, which is the most lachrymose remedy of our materia medica. But Pulsatilla has rather a tender, yielding disposition, that seeks consolation. The more you console her the better she likes it.

Sepia is more similar to Natrum mur. than is Pulsatilla, in that both remedies have this low-spiritedness and vehement angry disposition combined. Both have Indian-like hatred of those who have injured them. In fact, these remedies are complementary to each other. The Sepia patient, however, has marked indifference to her household affairs.

The patients who suffer from these mental symptoms calling for Natrum mur. are generally chlorotic. They suffer from leucocythsemia. The menses are often late and scanty, or else cease altogether. When the menses have not entirely ceased and are scanty they are accompanied by such marked symptoms as these: decided increase of the sadness before menses; palpitation of heart, which, too, is apt to be of this fluttering variety, and throbbing headache, which headache continues persistently after the menstrual period. The Natrum mur. patient frequently suffers too from uterine displacements. She has quite characteristically prolapsus uteri, which is induced particularly when she gets up in the morning. The symptom reads, '

' When she gets up in the morning, she must sit down to prevent prolapsus." This is a functional disease altogether. There is no organic change in the uterus, but there is great relaxation in the ligaments which support that organ. As she arises in the morning, relaxed instead of refreshed after her night's sleep, the uterus falls and she has to sit down to prevent this dragging. You will find these uterine symptoms accompanied by backache and decided spinal irritation, which is greatly relieved by lying flat on the back or by pressing a pillow firmly against the back. That I have confirmed over and over again as an excellent indication for Natrum mur. In addition, you will have a characteristic symptom of the bladder that is just as often present as is the prolapsus itself, and that is, cutting in the urethra after urination. That symptom, I have seen successfully applied many times. Backache and morning aggravation are symptoms which will aid you in the selection of Natrum mur.

Natrum mur. produces a headache, worse from any use of the mind. In the morning on awaking, there is throbbing, mostly in the forehead, as if from many little hammers beating in the head. This, too, is worse from any use of the mind. The pain is so severe at times as to make the patient almost maniacal. With this kind of headache, the tongue is dry and almost clings to the roof of the mouth, although it may look moist when put out. There is great thirst. The pulse is almost always intermittent. This helps you to distinguish it from its complement, Sepia, which has a similar symptom. I do not want you to forget that sharp headache of Sepia, in the lower part of the brain, apparently in the meninges, shooting upwards. The patient can bear neither light nor noise. The pain is usually attended with nausea and vomiting as a secondary symptom.

This headache of Natrum mtir. resembles that of Arsenic, Veratrum album and China, none of which however have the accompanying dry tongue and intermittent pulse of the former.

Natru??i mur. also produces a headache simulating that of Bryonia; sharp stitching about the head and sore bruised feeling about the eyeballs, especially when the eyes are moved. I may say that these headaches of Natrum mur. are particularly common in school children at the age of ten or eleven.

Calcarea ostrearum is also a good remedy here.

You may have occasion to use Natrum mur. in ciliary neuralgia, especially when the pains are periodical, returning from sunrise to sunset, being worse at mid-day.

Spigelia is a drug which also has headache or ciliary neuralgia, coming and going with the sun and worse at mid-day. The eyes feel too large.

Gelsemium and Glonoin have not so much neuralgia as throbbing in the head, which grows worse with the sun.

Natrum mur. also causes headache with partial blindness; here it resembles Kali bichrornicum, Iris and Causticum.

Natrum mur. has a very powerful influence on the various portions of the eyes. Now all over the body, the drug produces weakness of the muscles. This is especially manifest in the muscles of the eyes. The muscles of the lids feel stiff when moving them. Letters blur and run together when looking steadily at them, as in reading. You see that there is marked asthenopia. Natrum mur. is especially indicated when the internal recti muscles are affected. These asthenopic symptoms depend upon a general break-down. The spine is weak and irritated, digestion is slow and imperfect, and nutrition is not as rapid or as complete as it should be.

Another form of eye disease in which Natrum mur. is indicated, is scrofulous ophthalmia. You will be called upon to use the drug in such cases when nitrate of silver has been abused. There are smarting and burning pains and a feeling as of sand beneath the lids. The tears are acrid and there is very marked spasmodic closure of the eyelids. You can hardly force them apart. Ulcers form on the cornea. The eyelids themselves are inflamed and agglutinated in the morning. In addition to these eye symptoms, these scrofulous children suffer from eruptions particularly marked at the border of the hair. Scabs form on the scalp and from these there oozes a corrosive matter. There are moist scabs in the angles of the lips and wings of the nose, and with these, emaciation.

In scrofulous ophthalmia you should compare with Natrum mur. , Argentum nitricum, Arsenicum and Graphites.

For scabs in the corners of the mouth and wings of the nose, compare Antimonium crudum, Graphites and Causticum.

Natrum mur. also causes half-sight. Here you should compare Aurum, Lithium carb., Lycopodiwn and Titanium.

Natrum mur. acts on the mucous membranes. We find it indicated in catarrhs with mucous secretion abnormal in quantity rather than in quality. This hypersecretion of mucus is accompanied by paroxysms of sneezing. Fluent alternates with dry coryza. Every exposure to fresh air gives the patient cold. The wings of the nose are apt to be sore and sensitive. There is almost always in the Natrum mur. catarrh loss of smell, and in the acute, frequently loss of taste. Natrum mur. is one of the best remedies for hawking of mucus from the throat in the morning, when the symptoms call for no other remedy.

The tonsils are often very red. The uvula is elongated, probably from relaxation of its muscles. There is a constant feeling as of a plug in the throat and the patient chokes easily when swallowing. The tongue is coated in insular patches.

The cough arises from the accumulation of clear mucus in the posterior nares, pharynx and larynx. Of course, there is hoarseness. Another form of cough calling for Natrum mur.

y is cough arising from tickling in the throat or at the pit of the stomach. This kind of cough is accompanied by bursting headache, here reminding one of Bryonia, and sometimes, by involuntary spurting of urine, as we find under Scilla and Causticum, and often, too, by stitches in the liver. Natrum mur. has marked action on the male genital organs. It causes great weakness of these, giving rise to seminal emissions during sleep. These are followed by debility and great weakness. The genital organs are greatly relaxed. Wet dreams may even occur after coitus. That may seem to you an anomalous symptom, but it is not. During the act of coitus, erections are not strong and the ejaculation of semen is weak or even absent. The consequence is, there is not an entire emptying of the seminal vesicles. There is still irritation remaining there. When the man goes to sleep, this irritation, by reflex action, excites lascivious dreams. As consequences of the excessive seminal loss, we find backache, night-sweat, weakness of the legs and the melancholy which is characteristic of the remedy. Natrum mur. is not alone among the soda salts in this class of ailments. Natrum phos. was proved by gentlemen in this college. They had seminal emissions every night. At first, there seemed to be erethism with lascivious dreams, but later, emissions took place, one or two in a night, without any sensation whatever. These were followed by weakness of the back and by trembling of the knees, which felt as though they would give way.

You will find, too, that gonorrhoea is curable by Natrum mur., especially when chronic. The discharge is usually clear, though it may be sometimes yellowish. There is well-marked cutting in the urethra after urination. Natrum mur. is especially indicated in cases that have been abused by the nitrate of silver.

Nutrition is greatly impaired under Natrum mur. as I have already told you. Emaciation is marked in almost every case in which it is the similimum. We may make use of this fact in children who suffer from marasmus from defective nourishment. They are thin, particularly about the neck. They have a ravenous appetite and, despite this, they grow thin, at least they do not grow fat. Here you find it comparable with Iodine, but the peculiar emaciation of the neck, disproportionate to that of the body, is sufficient to distinguish it from that drug. In addition to this, you may have, at times, well-marked thirst. The child craves water all the time. This is what the laity term inward fever. There is constant heat and dryness of the mouth and throat, which the water relieves. If there is constipation when Natrum mur. is the remedy, there is a very characteristic stool, hard, difficult to expel, Assuring the anus and, as a consequence, there is bleeding with the stool. Of course, smarting and soreness is the result of the laceration from this large stool.

Veratrum album has emaciation about the neck, especially in whooping-cough.

Lycopodium has dwindling of the upper part of the chest. Natrum mur. , like the other salts of soda, is a first-class remedy in the treatment of dyspepsia. We find it indicated when farinaceous food, particularly bread, disagrees. The symptom reads, "He is averse to bread of which he was once fond." On the other hand, there is craving for oysters, fish and salty food or for bitter things. After eating, the patient is very thirsty. There is a distressed indescribable feeling at the pit of the stomach. This is relieved by tightening the clothing, just the opposite to Lachesis and Hepar; and precisely the same as Fluoric acid. The constipation, which I have described, causes hypochondriasis. The patient is low-spirited and ill-humored, and this mental condition seems to keep pace with the degree of constipation. When the bowels are moved, the mind is relieved. You must use this symptom rationally. Those who have been accustomed to taking purgative medicines will almost always feel badly if their bowels remain costive longer than the usual time. They have dull headache, nasty taste in the mouth, etc. , and when the bowels move, they feel better. Here, Nux vomica is the remedy. It is not often that undisturbed constipation produces this condition of mind, but when it does, Natrum mur. is the remedy.

The rectum suffers from tenesmus with slimy discharge as in chronic proctitis. Prolapsus ani with discharge of bloody mucus and water, and burning preventing sleep; dryness and smarting of rectum and anus, with tendency to erosions of the mucous membrane. Sensation of a rough substance in the rectum and yet the bowels are loose. Constriction of the anus, faeces hard and evacuated with such exertion as to tear the anus. Chronic water}' diarrhoea with dry mouth, secondary to dry stool.

In proctitis and constipation you should compare Sepia, which has lump in rectum: sEsculus and Collinsonia, which have sensations as of splinters or sticks in the rectum.

The extreme dryness of the rectum resembles Alumina, Graphites, Magnesia mur., Ratanhia, sEsculus, etc. G'rapJutes has mucus-coated stools; Alumina has smarting soreness; Magnesia mur., crumbling stools; Ratanhia, feeling of splinters of glass and fissures. We find Natrum ??iur. indicated in affections of the coarser tissues, for instance, of the skin. I have already told you how it affects the sebaceous glands. We find that it produces urticaria. The itching is very annoying. It occurs about the joints, particularly about the ankles. Wheals form on different parts of the body and these itch, smart and burn. Especially do we find Natrum mur. indicated when these symptoms accompany intermittent fever, or occur after exposure to damp cold, especially at the seaside. Exercise makes this nettlerash intolerably worse. • Just here, we find Natrum mur. complementary to Apis.

Apis is an excellent remedy in the treatment of urticaria, but it is not so good, I have found, in the treatment of the chronic form of the disease. Here we have to use other drugs, as Natrum mur., and above all, Calcarea ostrearum.

There is another form of eruption yet to be thought of for Natrum mur., and that is herpes. Thus, we find particularly characteristic of Natrum mur., what are called hydroa-labialis. They are little blisters which form on the borders of the lips and which accompany every marked case of chills and fever indicating Natrum mur. They are akin to what are commonly known as fever blisters. Hepar, Natrum mur. and Rhus tox. are the remedies which have this symptom most marked. Arsenicum also has it. In the very beginning of these cold sores, the application of camphor will stop the trouble. If, however, they are well advanced, Hepar relieves them and prevents their return. Camphor is not a curative remedy, but Hepar is.

Herpes circinatus, a variety of ring-worm, calls for Natrum mur. Other remedies for this trouble are Sepia, Baryta carb. and Tellurium. Another form of eruption calling for Natrum mur. is eczema, which appears in thick scabs, oozing pus, and matting the hair together, a crusta lactea in fact.

Lastly, I come to speak of the well-known application of Natrum mur. to intermittent fever. There it shares the honors long accorded to Cinchona and Arsenic. Natrum mur. is to be considered when the chill comes characteristically between ten and eleven a. m. The chill begins in the small of the back or in the feet. It is accompanied sometimes by thirst, and by aching pains all over the body. Sometimes urticaria complicates the case. Fever is usually violent. Thirst increases with the heat. The headache becomes more and more throbbing. So severe is this cerebral congestion at times that the patient becomes delirious. By and by, sweat breaks out quite copiously and it relieves the headache and also the other symptoms. This is the intermittent fever curable by Natrum mur.

When chill occurs at ten a. m., as a result of hectic fever or phthisis, Stannum is to be used and not Natrum mur.

Psychic causes of disease; ill effects of grief, fright, anger, etc. Depressed, particularly in chronic diseases. Consolation aggravates. Irritable; gets into a passion about trifles. Awkward, hasty. Wants to be alone to cry. Tears with laughter.

Chloride of Sodium The prolonged taking of excessive salt causes profound nutritive changes to take place in the system, and there arise not only the symptoms of salt retention as evidenced by dropsies and œdemas, but also an alteration in the blood causing a condition of anæmia and leucocytosis. There seems also to be a retention in the tissues of effecte materials giving rise to symptoms loosely described as gouty or rheumatic gout. The provings are full of such symptoms (Dr. Stonham) A great remedy for certain forms of intermittent fever, anæmia, chlorosis, many

disturbances of the alimentary tract and skin. Great debility; most weakness felt in the morning in bed. Coldness. Emaciation most notable in neck. Great liability to take cold. Dry mucous membranes. Constrictive sensation throughout the body. Great weakness and weariness. Oversensitive to all sorts of influences. Hyperthyroidism. Goitre. Addison's disease. Diabetes.

Worse, noise, music, warm room, lying down about 10 a m;, at seashore, mental exertion, consolation, heat, talking. Better, open air, cold bathing, going without regular meals, lying on right side; pressure against back, tight clothing.

Throbs. Blinding headache. Aches as if a thousand little hammers were knocking on the brain, in the morning on awakening, after menstruation, from sunrise to sunset. Feels too large; cold. Anæmic headache of school-girls; nervous, discouraged, broken down. Chronic headache, semi-lateral, congestive, from sunrise to sunset, with pale face, nausea, vomiting; periodical; from eyestrain; menstrual. Before attack, numbness and tingling in lips, tongue and nose, relieved by sleep. Frontal sinus inflammation.

Oily, shiny, as if greased. Earthy complexion. Fevers-blisters.

Feels bruised, with headache in school children. Eyelids heavy. Muscles weak and stiff. Letters run together. Sees sparks. Fiery, zigzag appearance around all objects. Burning in eyes. Give out on reading or writing. Stricture of lachrymal duct with suppuration. Escape of muco-pus when pressing upon sac. Lachrymation, burning and acrid. Lids swollen. Eyes appear wet with tears. Tears stream down face on coughing (Euph). Asthenopia due to insufficiency of internal recti muscles (Gels and Cup acet, when due to external muscles). Pain in eyes when looking down. Cataract incipient (Secale).

Noises; roaring and ringing.

Violent, fluent coryza, lasting from one to three days, then changing into stoppage of nose, making breathing difficult. Discharge thin and watery, like raw white of egg. Violent sneezing coryza. Infallible for stopping a cold commencing with sneezing. Use thirtieth potency. Loss of smell and taste. Internal soreness of nose. Dryness.

Frothy coating on tongue, with bubbles on side. Sense of dryness. Scorbutic gums. Numbness, tingling of tongue, lips, and nose. Vesicles and burning on tongue, as if there was a hair on it. Eruptions around mouth and vesicles like pearls on lips. Lips and corners of mouth dry, ulcerated, and cracked. Deep crack in middle of lower lip. Tongue mapped (Ars; Rhus; Tarax). Loss of taste. Large vesicle on lower lip, which is swollen and burns. Immoderate thirst.

Hungry, yet loose flesh (Iod). Heartburn, with palpitation. Unquenchable thirst. Sweats while eating. Craving for salt. Aversion to bread, to

anything slimy, like oysters, fats. Throbbing in pit. Sticking sensation in cardiac orifice.

Cutting pain in abdomen. Distended. Pain in abdominal ring on coughing.

Burning pains and stitching after stool. Anus contracted, torn, bleeding. Constipation; stool dry, crumbling (Am m; Mag m). Painless and copious diarrhœa, preceded by pinching pain in abdomen.

Pain just after urinating (Sars). Increased, involuntary when walking, coughing, etc. Has to wait a long time for it to pass if others are present (Hep; Mur ac).

Emission, even after coitus. Impotence with retarded emission.

Menses irregular; usually profuse. Vagina dry. Leucorrhœa acrid, watery. Bearing-down pains; worse in morning (Sep). Prolapsus uteri, with cutting in urethra. Ineffectual labor-pains. Suppressed menses (Follow with Kali carb). Hot during menses.

Cough from a tickling in the pit of stomach, accompanied by stitches in liver and spurting of urine (Caust; Squilla). Stitches all over chest. Cough, with bursting pain in head. Shortness of breath, especially on going upstairs (Calc). Whooping-cough with flow of tears with cough.

Tachycardia. Sensation of coldness of heart. Heart and chest feel constricted. Fluttering, palpitating; intermittent pulse. Heart's pulsations shake body. Intermits on lying down.

Pain in back, with desire for some firm support (Rhus; Sep). Every movement accelerates the circulation. Palms hot and perspiring. Arms and legs, but especially knees, feel weak. Hangnails. Dryness and cracking about finger- nails. Numbness and tingling in fingers and lower extremities. Ankles weak and turn easily. Painful contraction of hamstrings (Caust). Cracking in joints on motion. Coldness of legs with congestion to head, chest, and stomach.

Greasy, oily, especially on hairy parts. Dry eruptions, especially on margin of hairy scalp and bends of joints. Fever blisters. Urticaria; itch and burn. Crusty eruptions in bends of limbs, margin of scalp, behind ears (Caust). Warts on palms of hands. Eczema; raw, red, and inflamed; worse, eating salt, at seashore. Affects hair follicles. Alopecia. Hives, itching after exertion. Greasy skin.

Sleepy in forenoon. Nervous jerking during sleep. Dreams of robbers. Sleepless from grief.

Chill between 9 and 11 am. Heat; violent thirst, increases with fever. Fever-blisters. Coldness of the body, and continued chilliness very marked. Hydræmia in chronic malarial states with weakness, constipation, loss of appetite, etc. Sweats on every exertion.

Complementary to Apis; Sepia; Ign. Compare: Aqua marina-Isotonic plasma. Marine plasma is a sea water taken some miles from shore and some depth below surface, filtered and diluted with twice as much pure fresh water. It acts primarily on the blood, as in intoxications, scrofulous conditions, enteritis. It disintoxicates in cancer (administered subcutaneously in the treatment of diseases of skin, kidneys and intestines, gastro-enteritis, and tuberculosis). Scrofulous affection of children. Lymphadenitis. Lupus, eczema, varicose ulcers. A great "blood purifier and vitalizer. " Potentized sea-water in weakness, lack of reaction; symptoms worse seaside (Goitre). Sal marinum sea salt, (indicated in chronic enlargements of glands, especially cervical. Suppurating glands. It appears likely to become a most useful remedy as an auxiliary, if not as a principal, in the treatment of diseases in patients of a strumous diathesis. Also useful in constipation). Natrum selenicum (laryngeal phthisis with expectoration of small lumps of bloody mucus and slight hoarseness). Natrum silicum (hæmophilia; scrofulous bone affections; given intravenously every 3 days for senile pruritus); (Dolichos. Fagopyr). Ignat; Sep; Thuja; Graph; Alum. Antidote: Ars; Phos; Spir nit dulc.

Twelfth to thirtieth and higher. The very highest potencies often yield most brilliant results. And in infrequent dosage.

Natrum Muriaticum

Generals and aspect: Salt is so common an article of diet that it has been assumed that it could be of no use in medicine.

This is only the opinion of men who, operate entirely on the tissues. There are no constitutional effects from crude salt. One may find an individual growing thin with all the symptoms of salt; he is taking salt in great quantities, but digesting none of it. Salt will be found in the stool, for it does not enter into the life. There is a Natr. mur. inanition, a starving for salt. The same is true of lime. Children can get plenty of lime from their food and that is better when the salt or the lime is given in such shape that it cannot be resisted by the internal man aimed not at the house he lives in, but at the individual himself-then the bone, salt inanition, the Natr. mur. inanition, will soon pass away. We do not with our small dose supply the salt that the system needs, but we cure the internal disease, we turn into order the internal physical man, and then the tissues get salt enough from the food. Drugs must all be administered in suitable form. We may need to go higher and higher until the secret spring is touched. Natr. mur. is a deep acting, long acting remedy. It takes a wonderful hold of the economy, making changes that are lasting when given in potentized doses.

A great deal is presented that can be seen by looking at the patient, so that we say: this looks like a Natr. mur. patient. Experienced physicians learn to classify patients by appearance. The skin is shiny, pale, waxy, looks as if greased. There is a wonderful prostration of a peculiar kind. Emaciation, weakness, nervous prostration, nervous irritability.

Mind: There is a long chain of mental symptoms; hysterical condition of the mind and body; weeping alternating with laughing; irresistible laughing at unsuitable times; prolonged, spasmodic laughter.

This will be followed by tearfulness, great sadness, joylessness. No matter how cheering the circumstances are she cannot bring herself into the state of being joyful. She is benumbed to impressions, easily takes on grief, grieves over nothing.

Unpleasant occurrences are recalled that she may grieve over them. Consolation aggravated the state of the mind - the melancholy, the tearfulness, sometimes brings on anger. She appears to bid for sympathy and is mad when it is given.

Headache comes on with this melancholy. She walks the floor in rage. She is extremely forgetful; cannot cast up accounts; is unable to meditate; forges what she was going to say; loses the thread of what she is hearing or reading. There is a great prostration of the mind. Unrequited affection brings on complaints. She is unable to control her affections and falls in love with a married man. She knows that it is foolish, but lies awake with love for him. She falls in love with a coachman. She knows that she is unwise, but cannot help it. In cases of this kind Natr. mur. will turn her mind into order, and she will look back and wonder why she was so silly. This remedy belongs to hysterical girls.

In a mental state where Ign. temporarily benefits the symptoms, but does not cure, its chronic Natr. mur. should be given. It is as well to give Natr. mur. at once if there is an underlying constitutional state too deep for Ign.

Modalities: Aversion to bread, to fats and rich things.

The Natr. mur. patient is greatly disturbed by excitement, is extremely emotional. The whole nervous economy is in a state of fret and irritation, < from noise, the slamming of a door, the ringing of a bell, the firing of a pistol, < music.

The pains are stitching, electric-like shocks, convulsive jerkings of the limbs on falling asleep, twitchings, shooting pains. She is oversensitive to all sorts of influences, is excitable, emotional, intense.

Complaints come on in the warm room, worse in the house, she wants the open air. The mental complaints are > in the open air. She takes cold easily from sweating, but is generally > in the open air, though worse on getting heated; < by sufficient exertion to heat up, but > by moderate exertion in the cold air.

Both Natr. carb. and Natr. mur. have the general nervous tension of Natrum, but one is a chilly patient, the other warm, blooded.

Face: The face is sickly looking, the skin greasy, shiny, sallow, yellow, often chlorotic, covered with vesicular eruptions around the edges of the hair, the ears and back of the neck.

There are scaly and squamous eruptions, with great itching, oozing a watery fluid, or sometimes dry. An exfoliation takes place, a shining surface is left. In the meatus, scales form, and peel off, leaving an oozing surface. Watery vesicles form about the lips and wings of the nose, about the genitals and anus. Vesicular eruptions, white, oozing a watery fluid, come and go. Great itching of the skin is present, The skin looks waxy, dropsical. There is great emaciation, the skin looking dry, withered, shrunken. An infant looks like a little old man. There is a down on the face that passes away when improvement sets in. Emaciation takes place from above downward.

The collar-bones become prominent and the neck looks scrawny, but the hips and lower limbs remain plump and round. Lyc. also has emaciation from above downward. The directions of remedies will often enable us to distinguish one from another.

Discharges: The characteristic discharge from the mucous membranes is watery or thick whitish, like the white of an egg.

There is a marked coryza with a watery discharge, but the constitutional state has thick, white discharges. He hawks out a thick, white discharge in the morning. There are gluey oozings from die eyes. From the ears flows a thick, white, gluey discharge. The leucorrhoea is white and thick.

With the gonorrhoea the discharge has existed a long time and become gleety. There is smarting m the urethra only after urination.

Head: The headaches are awful; dreadful pains; bursting, compressing, as if in a vise; the head feels as if the skull would be crushed in. The pains are attended with hammering and throbbing. Pain like little hammers in the head on beginning to move.

Hammering pains in the head on waking in the morning.

The pain comes on in the latter part of sleep. There is great nervousness during the first part of the night; she falls asleep late and awakes with hammering in the head. There are also headaches beginning at 10 to 11 A.M., lasting until 3 P.M. or evening.

The headaches are periodical, every day, or third day, or fourth day. Headaches of those living in malarial districts, > from sleep; the patient must go to bed and be perfectly quiet, > from sweating, headaches associated with intermittent fever.

During the chill it seemed as though the head would burst; he is delirious and drinks large quantities of cold water. There is no relief to the head until after the sweat. Sometimes all the symptoms are relieved by the sweat except the headache.

In another form of headache; the greater the pain the more the sweat; sweating does not relieve; the forehead is cold, covered with a cold sweat. When the head is covered warmly he is > moving about in the open air.

Headache due to disturbance of vision where there is inability to focus rapidly enough. Headache < from noise.

Headache involving the whole back of the head and even going down the spine in troubles following the brain diseases, hydrocephalus.

Spine: In spinal troubles, when there is great sensitiveness to pressure an irritable spine. The vertebrae are sensitive and there is a great deal of aching along the spine. Coughing aggravates the pain in the spine, also walking makes it worse, but it is > from lying on something hard, or pressing the back up against something hard; they may sit with a pillow or the hand pressed against the back. In menstrual troubles, you find the woman lying with some hard object under the spine.

A general nervous trembling pervades the body. There is jerking of the muscles, trembling of the limbs, inability to keep the limbs still, as in Zincum.

Stomach and liver: The stomach and liver are closely related.

The stomach is distended with flatus. After eating there is a lump in the stomach. It seems to take a long time for food to digest. < from eating. Whitish, slimy mucus is vomited attended with relief.

There is great thirst for cold water, sometimes there is relief from drinking, sometimes the thirst is unquenchable. We find fullness in the region of the liver with stitching, tearing pains. The bowels are distended with gas. There is slowing down of the action of the bowels, the stool being very difficult, in hard, agglomerated lumps.

Bladder: There is slowing down of the action of the bladder.

Must wait before the urine will start, and then it comes slowly-dribbles; there is not much force in the flow.

After urination there is a sensation as if more urine remained in the bladder. If anyone is present he cannot pass urine, cannot pass it in a public place.

There is also continued urging, he must pass the urine often.

This remedy and Natr. sulph. were used by the homoeopaths to clear up chronic diarrhoea, the old army diarrhoea.

Natr. mur. is useful in the complaints of women, in troublesome menstruation. There is a great variety of menstrual complaints: menses too scanty or too free, too late or too soon. We cannot individualize from the menstrual symptoms, we must do it from the constitutional state.

Examine every possible function to be sure you have all the symptoms. Examine every organ, not by examining it physically, for results of diseases do not lead to the remedy, but examine the symptoms.

Observe the rapidity with which remedies affect the human system there are some that are long acting, deep acting. Natr. mur. is one of these. It operates very slowly, bringing about its results after a long time, as it corresponds to complaints that are slow, that are long in action. This does not mean that it will not act rapidly; all remedies act rapidly, but not all act slowly; the longest acting may act in acute diseases, but the short acting cannot act long in chronic diseases. Get the pace, the periodicity of remedies. Some remedies have a continued fever, some a remittent, others an intermittent fever. In Acon., Bell. and Bry. we have three different paces, three different motions, three different forms of velocity; so in Sulph., Graph., Natr. mur., Carbo veg. a different form, a different development. Some would not hesitate in a continued fever to give Bell., but its complaints come on in great haste, with great violence and have nothing in their nature like a continued fever. This is not like typhoid. Bell. and Acon. have no manifestations of typhoid, even if the symptoms are present.

Be sure that the remedy has not only the group of symptoms, but also the nature of the case. The typhoid case has a likeness in Bry. or Rhus, but not in Bell. We owe no obedience to man, not even to our parents, after we are old enough to think for ourselves. We owe obedience to truth. Natr. mur. is a long acting remedy; its symptoms continue for years; it conforms to slow-coming, long-lasting, deep-seated symptoms. It requires a long time for a man to be brought under the influence of it, even when moderately sensitive. The chill comes in the morning at 10-30; every day, every other day, every third or fourth day. The chill begins in the extremities which become blue; there is throbbing pain in the head, the face is flushed; delirium, talking of everything, constant maniacal actions.

They grow worse until a congestive attack comes. During the entire attack there is thirst for cold water. During the coldness he is not > by heat, not > by piling on the clothing, but wants cold drinks.

We would naturally suppose that a person freezing to death would want warm things, but the Natr. mur. patient cannot bear them. The teeth chatter, he tosses from side to side, the bones ache as if they would break, and there is vomiting as in congestive conditions. In the fever he is so hot that the fingers are almost scorched with the intense heat, and he goes into a congestive sleep or stupor. The sweat relieves him; the aching all over is > by the sweat, and in time the headache passes away.

There is intense chill, fever and sweat. Sometimes the attacks are in robust, strong people, but usually in the anaemic, in emaciated people full of malaria; lingering, chronic cases. Complaints do not always have this long prodrome. Its most striking use is in cases that have been living a long time in malarial swamps; saturated with the malarial atmosphere; they are anaemic, often dropsical; in old cases that have been mixed with arsenic and quinine, the crude drugs used by the Old School to break the fever as long as the patient is under their sway, but the patient is sick internally even more than before, and when the condition comes back, it is generally in its original form; the crude drug is usually unable to change the type of an intermittent fever.

Remedies only partly related to the case will change the character of the sickness so that no one can cure the case. The homoeopathic remedy will cure intermittent fever every time if you get the right remedy. If there is a failure the case is mixed up so that no one may be able to cure it. First of all a master must realize the case and turn it into order so that it can then be cured. There are few men who never spoil a case of ague, because many cases come from partly developed, marked cases, the symptoms not being all out, especially in cases that have taken homoeopathic remedies. The homeopathic failures are the worst failures on earth. Natr. mur. is irregular enough in its nature to develop the chills into regularity. When it has come into better order, wait: either the whole case will subside, or another remedy will be clear. There are other remedies that can turn cases into order. Often cases spoiled by homoeopaths can be turned into order by Sep. Marked cases with congestion of the head, aching in the back and nausea are turned into order by Ipecac.

The cure is permanent after homoeopathic prescribing; the chills do not return. Natr. mur. not only removes the tendency to intermittents, but restores the patient to health, and takes away the tendency to colds, the susceptibility to colds, and to periodicity. It is the susceptibility that is removed. We know that every attack predisposes to another attack. Each attack of ague is more destructive than the previous one. The drugs used increase the susceptibility; the homeopathic remedy removes$ the susceptibility. Homeopathic treatment tends to simplify the human economy and to make diseases more easily managed. Unless this susceptibility be eradicated, man goes down lower and lower into emaciation, emaciation from above downwards.

Children born in a malarial region are likely to go into, marasmus. They have a voracious appetite, a wonderful hunger, eating much, but all the time emaciating.

Pregnancy: Conditions of pregnancy.

The mammary glands waste, there is wasting of the upper parts of the body. The uterus is intensely sore.

The leucorrhoea, which is at first white, turns green. Women take cold in every draft of air. There is pain during sexual congress with dryness of the vagina, a feeling as though sticks pressed into the walls of the vagina; pricking pains.

There is dryness of all mucous membranes; everywhere the membranes are dry. The throat is dry, red, patulous; a sensation of a fishbone jagging into it when swallowing; there is inability to swallow without washing down the food with liquids; there is sticking all the way down the oesophagus.

Throat: Most prescribers give Hep. for every sticking or fishbone sensation in the throat; this is the old keynote, the old routine.

Nitr. ac., Argent. nit., Alum. and Natr. mur. all have it, but all differently.

Hepar sulfur: The tonsils are swollen, full, purplequinsy.

The patient is sensitive to the slightest draught, there is pain in the throat even on putting the hand out of bed; he sweats in the night with no relief; he is sensitive to every impression; feels everything ten times amplified.

Nitricum Acidum: There are yellow patches in the throat; ragged, jagged ulcers in the throat, or it is inflamed and purple.

The urine smells like horses' urine.

Argentum nitricum: There is much hoarseness, the vocal cords being disturbed.

The throat is swollen, patulous; the patient wants cold things, cold water, cold air. Adapted to those cases that have had ulceration of the os uteri with cauterization.

Natrum Muriaticum: There is extreme dryness of the mucous membranes, as if they would break; chronic dryness without ulceration.

There is much catarrhal discharge like the white of an egg, with dryness of the mucous membranes when not covered by this mucus. The patient is extremely sensitive, sensitive to a change of weather.

Every remedy has its own pace, its order or succession. We must bear in mind the order of succession.

Natr. mur. is useful in old dropsies, especially dropsy of cellular tissues. Sometimes there is dropsy of sacs, dropsy of the brain following acute diseases. In acute spinal meningitis with extreme nervous tension, where there is chronic drawing back of the head, chronic jerking of the head forward.

Acute diseases that result in hydrocephalus, or in irritation of the spine. Sometimes useful in abdominal dropsy, but more often in oedema of the lower extremities. Acute dropsies after scarlet fever; the patient is oversensitive, starts in his sleep, rises up in the night with confusion; there are albumen and casts in the urine, In dropsy after the malaria, Natr. mur., when it acts curatively, generally brings back the original chill. The only cure known to man is from above down, from within out, and in the reverse order of coming. When it is otherwise, there is only improvement, not cure. When the symptoms return there is hope; that is the road to cure and there is no other.

The skin symptoms are sometimes very striking. In old lingering cases where the skin looks transparent as if the patient would become dropsical, a waxy, greasy, shiny skin; other remedies with greasy, shiny skin are Plumb., Thuja, Selen.

These remedies go deep into the life. Any remedy that can produce such wonderful changes is long-acting.

Useful after labor when the mother does not progress well; she is feeble and excitable; the lochia is prolonged, copious and white; the hair falls out from the head and genitals; the milk passes away, or the child does not thrive on it. Useful in after pains where there is subinvolutÓon of the uterus, the uterus is in a state of prolonged congestion.

She is < noise, music, the slamming of a door. She craves salt and has an aversion to bread, wine and fat things. Sour wines disorder the stomach. Natr. mur. will clear up the case, restore the milk, turn the case into order. Natr. mur. is needed by those chlorotic girls who have a greasy skin, a greenish, yellowish complexion; who menstruate only once in two or three months.

The menses are copious, or scanty and watery. Where the symptoms agree, this remedy can eradicate this chlorosis and turn the countenance into a picture of health, but not in a short time. It takes years to establish health in a typical chlorosis; the cut finger bleeds only water; the menstrual flow is only a leucorrhoea; there is pernicious anemia. Natr. mur., goes deep enough into the life to restore the pink complexion.