Picricum acidum

Weak, tired and heavy, in mind and body. Profound anæmia. Easily prostrated. Burning, in many parts; along spine; in legs, etc. Numbness. Formication. .................... Weak will. Heavy occiput; down spine and in lower limbs. Brain-fag. Headache, < mental exertion, > nose-bleed (Fer-p.). Neurasthenia. Oily burning stool. Ammoniacal, dribbling urine. Priapism, or sexual erethism. Backache with languor; from mental exertion. Writers' cramp. Aching, legs. Small, painful boils, < nape. Sleepiness.

Exertion; mental or physical. Seminal losses. Heat.

Rest. Cold. Bandaging. In sun.

Nerves: Brain. Occiput. Cord. Lumbar region. Kidneys. Sexual organs.

Related: Gel. Ox-ac. Pho. Pho-ac.

Picric acid

Picric acid. HCqH2(N02)s0.

Is often restorative of a wasted and worn-out system; a fair picture of “nervous prostration” (Kali p.). Progressive, pernicious, ansemia; neurasthenia. Brain fag: of literary or business people; slightest excitement, mental exertion or overwork brings on headache, and causes burning along the spine ( Kali p. ) .

Headache: of students, teachers and overworked business men; from grief or depressing emotions; in occipital-cervical region (Nat. m., Sil.) ; < or brought on by slightest motion or mental exertion.

Priapism, with spinal disease ; erections violent, long-lasting ; profuse seminal emissions ; satyriasis (Canth., Phos.).

Small boils in any part of body, but especially in external auditory canal.

Burning along spine and great weakness of spine and back; softening of cord (Phos., Zinc.).

Weariness, progressing from a slight feeling of fatigue on motion to complete paralysis.

Tired heavy feeling all over body, especially of limbs, < on exertion.

ac., Phos., Petr., Sil.

Amelioration. — From. cold air and cold water.

Aggravation. — Least mental exertion; motion; study ; wet weather.

Lecture LI — Nitric, Hydrocyanic and Picric acids

Picric Acid.

Picric acid at first causes congestions. These are soon followed by weariness and mental inactivity, showing how intensely the remedy attacks the vital forces. This weariness progresses from a slight feeling of fatigue on motion to complete paralysis. It is accompanied by indifference, want of will-power, and desire to lie down and rest. Animals, poisoned with this acid, were affected with paralysis of the hind legs, with slow breathing and great muscular weakness. At the autopsies made on them, the cortex cerebri, the cerebellum, medulla oblongata and spinal cord were found reduced to a soft, pulpy mass. The blood was dark brown in color, and loaded with little shining, greasy particles. The urine was rich in phosphates and uric acid, and poor in sulphates and urates. Albumen and sugar were also found in the urine. The liver was full of fat granules and its borders dark with stagnant blood.

These symptoms and pathological observations bespeak the use of Picric acid in diseases of the brain and spinal cord. To give it, we need not wait until paralysis has set in. We may find it useful in typhoid conditions and also in conditions of brain fag when the mind has been over-worked. In the latter affection, Picric acid is one of our best remedies.

It is also useful in neurasthenia. You will find dull headache with aggravation from the slightest attempt at using the mind. This may be in the forehead or in a still worse place, in the occiput, and may then extend down the spine. The patient complains of feeling constantly tired and heavy. Any attempt to study brings on anew these symptoms of the brain, and also develops burning along the spine and very great weakness of the legs and back, with soreness of the muscles and joints. Sometimes sleep is restless and disturbed by priapismic erections. With these, of course, there will be frequent seminal emissions. Sometimes you will find severe pains in the neck and occiput going up to the supraorbital notch or foramen, then extending down into the eyes. There are hot feeling in the lower dorsal region, and aching and dragging in the lumbar region, which is worse from motion. On awaking from a sleep the patient has a tired aching in the lumbar region. The legs are heavy and, at the same time, weak. With this heaviness of the feet he sometimes complains of dull frontal headache. Sometimes he complains of numbness and crawling in the legs, with trembling and with pricking, as if from needles. He has tingling of the lips, formication about the head, and crawling as of ants over the surface. The least exertion causes prostration. He also has vertigo, worse when he stoops, walks or goes up-stairs. He has headaches, with dull, throbbing, heavy, sharp pains, worse from study or movement of the eyes, and better from rest, the open air, or binding the head tightly. The pupils are dilated. Sparks appear before the eyes, which may even smart and burn. Thick matter forms in the canthi. The eye symptoms are worse from artificial light. Accompanying the congestion of the head is nose-bleed. The nose is full of mucus. The patient can breathe only when the mouth is open. The saliva is either frothy or stringy. The taste in the mouth is like that of the acid itself, sour and bitter. The throat feels rough and scraped; better from eating and worse from empty swallowing, and worse after sleep. There is thick, white mucus on the tonsils. On swallowing, the throat feels so sore that it almost seems as if it would split. Sour eructations may accompany the frontal headache. Now, these gastric symptoms may accompany the brain fag. Nausea, which is worse about five o'clock in the morning and worse when attempting to rise. He also complains of pressure and weight about the stomach. He wants to belch, but does not seem to have the power to do it. The irritating effect of the drug is further shown by diarrhoea with stools which are thin, yellow and sometimes oily, with a great deal of burning and smarting at the anus, with prostration and unsuccessful urging to stool. The kidneys are congested. The urine has an abnormally high specific gravity, and contains sugar. It is also albuminous. The conjunctivae are yellow, just as you find in jaundice. Papules appear on the face and turn into small boils. The feet are apt to be cold. These, then, are the main symptoms of Picric acid. Now, let us study those of a few of its related remedies.

Phosphorus, like Picric acid, causes fatty changes in the blood, kidneys, brain and spinal cord. Both remedies meet in sexual excesses and priapism, and both may be indicated in brain fag; both have congestive vertigo and crawling and tingling sensations here and there over the body. The distinction lies principally here: Phosphorus causes more irritability with the weakness, as displayed by over-sensitiveness to all external impressions. Hence, the senses are too acute, or, if failing, there are present photopsies; loud noises in the ears; sensitiveness to odors, to electric changes in the atmosphere; head weak; cannot think, with aggravation from loud noises. Phosphorus also has backache, with feeling as if the back would break on any motion, and with burning spots in the back, better on rubbing. Sexual excitement is very strong, but the erections are not so intense as under Picric acid, although the lasciviousness is more marked. Even when, in extreme cases, all irritability has ceased, the history shows that it once characterized the case.

Nux vomica resembles Picric acid, somewhat, in the brain fag and in the gastric symptoms, in the sour eructations, in the aggravation towards morning, and in the inability to study. Nux is distinguished by the prominence of its gastric symptoms.

Oxalic acid, more than Phosphorus, resembles Picric acid in the extreme picture of spinal softening. There are weakness about the loins and hips, extending down the legs, and numbness in the back. Picric acid has more heaviness and Oxalic acid more numbness. The legs are apt to be bluish and cold. The patient complains of paroxysms of dyspnoea. Another symptom, and one indicative of spinal meningitis, is intense inflammatory pain all through the back. A general symptom of Oxalic acid is pains coming in small spots, and greatly aggravated on thinking of them.

Another remedy closely related to Picric acid is Sulphur. This causes congestion of the lumbar spine, so intense congestion that paraplegia, with numbness and tingling, results. Heat in the spine. Retention of urine.

Phosphoric acid suits cerebro-spinal exhaustion from over-work. The least attempt to study causes heaviness, not only in the head but in the limbs; numbness; vertigo; confusion of thought; tingling, formication, especially in small of back; back and legs weak, yet no pain, except a subjective sense of burning; emissions even during stool; genitals relaxed, Argentum nitricum has backache, worse when first rising from a seat and better from moving about, with trembling weakness of the limbs; vertigo, with fear of projecting corners, etc.; bones at sacrum give out; limbs tremble; impotency; organs shrivelled.

Alumina is indicated in cases somewhat like those calling for Picric acid, but is distinguished by the pains in the spine as though a hot iron had been thrust into the part. The patient staggers when walking in the dark. He also has painful feeling about the soles of the feet. Silicea is quite similar to Picric acid. It is useful in nervous exhaustion, where the patient dreads any exertion either of body or mind. When he is warmed up to his work, he can get along pretty well. He also has numbness in the toes, fingers and back, and the constipation peculiar to Silicea.

Zinc causes nervous exhaustion. Its backache is worse at the last dorsal vertebra, and is worse while sitting; burning along the spine; formication in the calves; weak limbs; weak back and limbs, with goneness when hungry, especially at 11 A. m. All the nervous symptoms are worse from wine.

Of the remedies which cause violent erections you may compare the following: Cantharis, Phosphorus, Capsicum, Agariais, Pulsatilla, Platinum, Opium, Ambra grisea, Zincum, Physostigma, Pet7'oselinum and Mygale.

Lack of will-power; disinclined to work. Cerebral softening. Dementia with prostration, sits still and listless.

Picric Acid Trinitrophenol Causes degeneration of the spinal cord, with paralysis. Brainfag and sexual excitement. Acts upon the generative organs probably through the lumbar centers of the spinal cord; prostration, weakness and pain of back, pins and needle sensation in extremities. Neurasthenia (Oxal ac). Muscular debility. Heavy tired feeling. Myelitis with spasms and prostration. Writer's palsy. Progressive, pernicious anæmia. Uræmia with complete anuria. A one per cent solution applied on lint, is the best application for burns until granulations begin to form. Sallow complexion.

Worse, least exertion, especially mental, after sleep, wet weather. A summer or hot weather remedy; patient is worse then. Better, from cold air, cold water, tight pressure.

Head pains; relieved by bandaging tightly. Occipital pain; worse,

slightest mental exertion. Vertigo and noises in ear. Boils within ears and back of neck. After prolonged mental strain, with anxiety and dread of failure at examination. Brain fag.

Chronic catarrhal conjunctivitis with copious, thick yellow discharge.

Bitter taste. Aversion to food.

Scanty; complete anuria. Dribbling micturition. Urine contains much indican, granular cylinders and fatty degenerated epithelium. Inflammation of kidneys with profound weakness, dark, bloody, scanty urine. Nightly urging.

Emissions profuse, followed by great exhaustion, without sensual dreams. Priapism; satyriasis. Hard erections, with pain in testicles and up cord. Prostatic hypertrophy, especially in cases not too far advanced.

Pain in left ovary and leucorrhœa before menstruation. Pruritus vulvæ.

Burning along spine. Great weakness. Tired, heavy feeling all over body, especially limbs; worse, exertion. Feet cold. Cannot get warm. Acute descending paralysis.

Compare: Oxal ac; Gels; Phos; Sil; Arg nit. Compare: Zinc pic (facial palsy and paralysis agitans); Ferr pic (buzzing in ears, deafness; chronic gout; epistaxis; prostatic troubles); Calc pic (boils in and around ears).

Sixth potency.

Picricum Acidum

Mind: The weakness of body and mind is the first impression wrought upon the mind of the reader who goes carefully over this proving. It is progressive, passing from weariness to paralysis. The evidences of softening of brain and cord are strong. He, soon becomes sensitive to heat and desires the cool air which ameliorates his head and bodily condition.

Cold air and cold bathing are grateful to him. He is sensitive to wet weather. Numbness of many parts, trembling, lassitude, heaviness, must lie down, worse from least exertion are marked features. Loss of sleep, mental, worry, mental labor, are the exciting causes of symptoms. Extreme indifference.

It is a typical brain-fag remedy with indifference and lack of will power, aversion to talk, think, or perform any mental exertion. He is quickly prostrated from the least mental work, and it brings on many complaints, such as soreness and lameness, diarrhea, burning along the spine, general weakness and heaviness of limbs and back. He loses all interest in things; becomes irritable from any mental exertion.

Head: In young school children we have a common use for this very valuable but neglected remedy. When the child begins to learn the alphabet, headaches come, and return with every repeated effort, often with dilated pupils. After every examination at school come these violent headaches. A young man at school with the following symptoms was cured promptly. Student's headache, vertigo when remaining standing, heaviness in the head, epistaxis, dilated pupils, congestion of conjunctiva, inability to bear artificial light, loss of appetite, bitter taste in mouth, vomiting, jaundice. Vertigo from mental exertion, lameness from stooping, walking, ascending, from raising the head from the pillow, can not sit up, soon nausea comes from it.

It is often associated with the head pains, For headaches of students, teachers, professional men, and overworked business men, it is a most useful remedy. For headaches with great nervous weakness from grief and de pressing emotions, it has been often overlooked.

It has violent pain in vertex, forehead and occiput, extending down the spine with much heat. Congestive headaches. The head must be cool, it is worse from warm room, and wrapping up the head or body, and better from rest of mind and body.

The headaches often begin and increase with the day, and are better by sleep at night. The patient is wholly incapacitated in the daytime, but comfortable from rest and sleep during the night. Extreme prostration often comes with these headaches. Extreme sexual excitement often comes with the headache as with many of its "complaints," but it is not an essential concomitant.

Eyes: The eye symptoms are due to loss of tone in the eye muscles of such as are suffering from brain fag. Looking, reading We print and exertion of vision will bring on the headache and eye symptoms (Onosmodium).

Sensation of sand in the eye, smarting, acrid tears, sparks, fag before the eyes, near sighted, dim vision, objects confused, pupils dilated, severe pain over eyes. Thick mucus in eyes. The symptoms from the eye arc worse from artificial light.

Small boils and pustules in external auditory canal.

Digestion: Eructations, abortive, sour. Nausea in the morning worse on rising and moving about.

There is evidence of liver trouble, and the patient is jaundiced.

Rumbling in the abdomen, diarrhea from mental exertion.

Yellow, watery or thin faecal, oily stool; smarting after stool; stool like yellow cornmeal gruel. Great weakness after stool, in debilitated persons.

Urine contains sugar and albumen, Urine of high specific gravity. Urine heavy with urates, uric acid, phosphates, and poor in sulphates. Dribbling after urination. Weakness of the bladder. Great waste of phosphates.

In the proving it turns the normal sexual sphere into lust, and salacity with violent erections, especially during the night. It has many times cured these symptoms even when of long standing.

Pain in occiput and spine, heaviness of limbs and sexual excitement. Where great restlessness of feet is present the Zincum Picricum acts better. It cures impotency and spermatorrhea when the mind is unable to control the lustful state. Burning heat in the spine from mental or physical exertion. Weakness of the spine and heaviness of the limbs, especially the lower limbs. The back is so tired that he cannot sit up erect, he must slide down in the chair or lie down. He is relieved while lying. It has been very useful in myelitis, with the weak limbs and a sensation as if body and limbs were bandaged or constricted; also with anesthesia of legs and as if he had on elastic stockings.

In locomotor ataxia where there are tormenting erections and emissions as soon as he falls asleep, Many cases of spinal weakness have been cured by this remedy.

Weakness of the lower limbs with trembling, numbness and constriction. Formication and prickling as from needles. Marked coldness of the feet. Physical exertion greatly intensifies all these symptoms after long rest he is ameliorated. Tired after least exertion in limbs and whole body; excessive lassitude. Great muscular weakness. Sleepiness in day-time and sleepless at night, especially after mental labor.