Tabacum

Relaxing irritant; causing prostration, free secretions and exciting muscles of hollow organs. Cramp, then paralysis; of bowels, heart, etc. Paroxysmal or jerky effects. Stormy, dangerous cases, with rapid changes. Pains, < from heat. Faintness; slides down. Tremor. .................... Morose, despairing and wretched or indifferent. Confusion. Mental fag. Excessive vertigo; with copious sweat (cold), < opening eyes. Retina retains images too long. Deathly pale, pinched look. Retracted lips. Spasm of lower jaw. Tetanus. Much spitting; with complaints. Clutching about throat. Deathly nausea and violent vomiting; < least motion; with much spitting. Retching. Pregnancy. Seasickness. Acidity. Sinking at epigastrium. Wants abdomen uncovered. Heaviness in r. abdomen. Colic; with weakness. Involuntary choleraic or thick, curdled, watery stool; like sour milk. Ileus. Dribbling urine. Renal colic. Emissions. Impotency. Constricted chest. Asthma. Twisting about heart. Angina pectoris; with nausea, cold sweat and collapse. Unsteady heart beat. Backache, < lying > walking. Fuzzy fingertips. Nightmare. Icy cold skin. Thready, intermittent pulse. Cold legs. Heat; of one cheek; down spine; internal. Sudden cold sweats; with chills; in renal colic, angina pectoris, etc.

MOTION; of riding. Lying on left side.

Cold; fresh air. Twilight. Uncovering abdomen.

Nerves: Cerebro-spinal. Vagus. Sympathetic. Ganglia. HEART. GLANDS. SECRETIONS.

Complementary: Op. Related: Ars. Gel. Ver-a.

Tabacum

Tobacco. Solanaceae.

Diseases originating in cerebral irritation followed by marked irritation of functions of vagi.

Emaciation of cheeks and back.

Complete prostration of entire muscular system. Sensation of excessive wretchedness.

Icy coldness of surface; covered with cold sweat. Symptoms occur in paroxysms — asthma, sick headache, vertigo, sneezing.

Great despondency with indigestion, palpitation, intermittent pulse.

Vertigo: death-like pallor, increasing to loss of consciousness; relieved in open air and by vomiting; on rising or looking upward ; on opening the eyes.

Sick headache coming on in early morning, intolerable by noon, deathly nausea, violent vomiting; < by noise and light ; periodical, lasting one or two days.

Sudden pain on right side of head as if struck by a hammer or a club.

Dim-sighted : see as through a veil ; strabismus, depending upon brain troubles.

Amaurosis, from atrophy of retina or optic nerve.

Face pale, blue, pinched, sunken, collapsed, covered with cold sweat (cold sweat on forehead, Ver.).

Nausea; incessant, as if seasick; vomiting, on least motion ; with faintness ; > in open air.

Vomiting: violent, with cold sweat; soon as he begins to move; during pregnancy, when Lactic acid fails (Psor.).

Seasickness ; deathly nausea, pallor, coldness ; < by least motion and > on deck in fresh, cold air.

Terrible faint, sinking feeling at pit of stomach.

Sense of relaxation of stomach with nausea (Ipec., Staph. ) .

Child wants abdomen uncovered ; relieves nausea and vomiting; coldness in abdomen (Colch., Flaps, Lach.).

Constipation : inactive bowel or paralysis of rectum ; spasms of sphincter; prolapsus ani; of years^ standing; herpes of anus.

Diarrhoea : sudden, yellowish, greenish, slimy ;

urgent, watery ; with nausea, vomiting, prostration and cold sweat (Ver. ) ; with extreme faintness; from excessive smoking.

Renal colic : violent spasmodic pains along ureter, left side (Berb.) ; deathly nausea and cold perspiration.

Palpitation : violent when lying on left side ; goes off when turning to the right.

Pulse : quick, full, large ; small intermittent, exceedingly slow; feeble, irregular, almost imperceptible.

Hands icy cold, body warm.

Legs icy cold, from knees down; trembling of limbs.

Relations. — Antidotes, for abuse of tobacco, are :

Ipec., for excessive nausea and vomiting.

Ars., for bad effects of tobacco-chewing.

Nux, for the gastric symptoms next morning after smoking.

Pbos., palpitation, tobacco heart, sexual weakness.

Ign., for annoying hiccough from tobacco chewing.

Clem, or Plant., for tobacco toothache.

Sep., neuralgic affections of right side of face; dyspepsia; chronic nervousness, especially in sedentary occupations.

Lyc., for impotence, spasms, cold sweat from excessive smoking.

Gels., occipital headache and vertigo from excessive use, especially smoking.

Tabacum, potentized (200 or 1000) to relieve terrible craving when discontinuing use.

Amelioration. — Open, fresh, cold air; uncovering.

Lecture XLI — Tabacum, Dulcamara, Capsicum and Glonoin

Tabacum.

Tabacum contains several active ingredients, the most important of which is Nicotine. Ever since smoking was an " art," attempts have been made to get rid of this Nicotine. Every one acknowledges that it has a serious effect on the body. There are three groups of symptoms which may follow the use of tobacco. The primary symptoms are the well-known gastric symptoms, deathly nausea and vomiting. The patient is deathly pale, does not care whether he lives or dies. Sometimes cold sweat breaks out on the body. The secondary effects are more remote, coming months or even years after using the weed, and these are dyspepsia, amblyopia and also some symptoms of the heart.

These symptoms of the heart I would have you remember. If they are not caused by tobacco, Tabacum will be a very valuable remedy in their cure. I refer especially to dilated heart when these symptoms are present: there are frequent pallor, with lividity of the face; diarrhoea, alternating with constipation; palpitation when lying on the left side; muscse volitantes, tinnitus aurium and dry cough, which is cardiac in its origin; paroxysms of suffocation, with tightness across the upper part of the chest; feeble and irregular pulse; pains like those of angina pectoris shoot from the heart down the left arm or up into the neck, and involve different plexuses of nerves; the extremities are cold and covered with a clammy sweat. Another symptom that may come as a secondary symptom of tobacco is neuralgia of the face. This symptom, when thus caused, is curable by Sepia, as is also the dyspepsia.

Impotence also follows tobacco, and often yields to Lycopodhmi. The tertiary effects of tobacco include apoplexy.

Tobacco, in its effect on the gastric organs, very much resembles Hydrocyanic acid, Veratrum and Camphor. For instance, we find it indicated in cholera, when the nausea and cold sweat persist after Veratrum, Secale or Camphor has stopped the diarrhoea. This nausea is accompanied by burning heat about the abdomen, the rest of the body being cold. The patient persists in uncovering the abdomen.

I would remark here that this kind of sickness suggests Tabacum in renal colic or in strangulated hernia. There are this deathly nausea and sickness, with slimy stool, from irritation of the bowels. The resemblance to Hydrocyanic acid is found in asphyxia. The latter drug acts upon the medulla, and, hence, upon the heart through the pneumogastric nerves. Consequently, the symptoms you would expect it to produce are those of the heart and lungs. We find it producing convulsions, with drawing at the nape of the neck from irritation at the base of the brain. Along with this, respiration is irregular or gasping, and there is great distress about the heart, with repeated weak '

' spells '

' and coldness and blueness of the surface of the body. It is well to remember this fact in ursemic convulsions when the medula is affected. Hydrocyanic acid is then our only hope. Tabacum is used as an antidote to the bad effects of Cicuta virosa. The primary effects of tobacco are generally relieved by Ipecac. Nux vomica is indicated for the bad taste in the mouth and the headache worse in the morning from excessive smoking.

It is said that Plantago major produces a distaste for tobacco. I have seen one or two patients who, after taking it, supposed they had contracted a dislike to tobacco.

Sensation of excessive wretchedness. Very despondent. Forgetful. Discontented.

The symptomatology of Tabacum is exceedingly well marked. The nausea, giddiness, death-like pallor, vomiting, icy coldness, and sweat, with the intermittent pulse, are all most characteristic. Has marked antiseptic qualities, antidotal to cholera germs. Complete prostration of the entire muscular system. Collapse. Gastralgia, enteralgia, seasickness, cholera infantum; cold, but wants abdomen uncovered. Vigorous peristaltic activity diarrhœa. Produces high tension and arteriosclerosis of the coronary arteries. Should prove the most homeopathic drug for angina pectoris, with coronaritis and high tension (Cartier). Constriction of throat, chest, bladder, rectum. Pallor, breathlessness, hard-cordlike pulse.

Worse, opening eyes; evening; extremes of heat and cold. Better, uncovering, open fresh air.

Vertigo on opening eyes; sick headache, with deathly nausea; periodical. Tight feeling as from a band. Sudden pain, as if struck by a hammer. Nervous deafness. Secretion from eyes, nose and mouth increased.

Pale, blue, pinched, sunken, collapsed, covered with cold sweat (Ars; Verat). Freckles.

Dim sight; sees as through a veil; strabismus. Amaurosis; muscæ volitantes. Central scotoma. Rapid blindness without lesion, followed by venous hyperæmia and atrophy of optic nerve.

Nasopharyngitis and tracheitis, hemming, morning cough, sometimes with vomiting. Hoarseness of public speakers.

Incessant nausea; worse, smell of tobacco smoke (Phos); vomiting on least motion, sometimes of fecal matter, during pregnancy with much spitting. Seasickness; terrible faint, sinking feeling at pit of stomach. Sense of relaxation of stomach, with nausea (Ipec). Gastralgia; pain from cardiac end extending to left arm.

Cold. Wants abdomen uncovered. It lessens the nausea and vomiting. Painful distension. Incarcerated hernia.

Constipation; rectum paralyzed, prolapsed. Diarrhœa, sudden, watery, with nausea and vomiting, prostration, and cold sweat; discharges look like sour milk, thick, curdled, watery. Rectal tenesmus.

Renal colic; violent pain along ureter, left side.

Difficult, violent constriction of chest. Præcordial oppression, with palpitation and pain between shoulders. Cough followed by hiccough. Cough dry, teasing, must take a swallow of cold water (Caust; Phos). Dyspnœa, with tingling down left arm when lying on left side.

Palpitation when lying on left side. Pulse intermits, feeble, imperceptible. Angina pectoris, pain in præcordial region. Pain radiates from center of sternum. Tachycardia. Bradycardia. Acute dilatation caused by shock or violent physical exertion (Royal).

Legs and hands icy cold; limbs tremble. Paralysis following apoplexy (Plumb). Gait shuffling, unsteady. Feebleness of arms.

Insomnia with dilated heart, with cold, clammy skin and anxiety.

Chills, with cold sweat.

Compare: Hydrobromic acid; Camph; Verat; Ars. Compare: Nicotinum (Alternate tonic and clonic spasms, followed by general relaxation and trembling; nausea, cold sweat, and speedy collapse; head drawn back, contraction of eyelids and masseter muscles; muscles of neck and back rigid; hissing respiration from spasm of laryngeal and bronchial muscles). Antidotes.––Vinegar; sour apples. Camphor in the physiological antagonist. Ars (chewing tobacco); Ign; (smoking); Sep (neuralgia and dyspepsia); Lycop (impotency); Nux (bad taste due to tobacco); Calad and Plantag (cause aversion to tobacco); Phosph (tobacco heart, sexual weakness).

Third to thirtieth and higher potencies.