Kali arsenicosum

This is a very deep, long acting remedy, and one greatly abused by traditional medicine in the form of Fowler’s Solution. It was used extensively as an anti periodical after quinine had failed, and as a tonic, for skin diseases of all sorts, for syphilis, for anemia, etc. It is a most positive remedy in all of these complaints, when it suits the patient’s symptoms.

The toxicological symptoms following the traditional abuse have furnished a broad beginning for the homeopathic to build upon. How well it was known to the good old doctor that Fowler’s Solution must be stopped if the patient became pale, waxy, puffed under the eyes and was weak. Who does not know the “fattening” powers of this drug! Horses become fat and shiny of coat after taking Fowler’s Solution for a while. The jockey knew this too well. He traded off a broken-down horse as a fine animal but the horse soon gave out; his wind was short; he would sweat easily, become weak and incapable of work. It was then said: “That horse must have been jockeyed up on arsenic.” The old medical journals arc full of effects of overdosing with this drug. A summary of old school drugging, a few pathogenetic symptoms, and extensive clinical observation with the use of this remedy in potentized form, have given the basis of this study. Not too much reliance should be placed upon the writer’s clinical opinion; let the remedy be tested along the lines indicated until provings shall fix the finer action.

While it has morning and evening aggravation, the nights are full of sufferings; midnight especially, and from 1 to three AM, there are many sufferings. The chilliness is very marked. Extreme sensitiveness to cold, and complaints are aggravated from cold, from cold air from becoming cold, from entering a cold place. Aversion to open air. Takes cold from a draft, and from being heated. Anemia. Chlorosis. Pale, waxy, and covered with sweat. Ascending brings on suffocation, cough, and manifests the weakness of body and limbs. Glands dwindle and the extremities become numb and prickly. Molecular death prevails extensively. Cancerous ulceration has been restrained by this remedy many times. It has cured lupus.

The weakness that it has produced is much like that found in patients looking toward phthisis and Bright’s disease. Clonic spasms have been produced by it. Convulsive action of muscles with full consciousness is not uncommon. It has cured epilepsy and hysterio-epilepsy. It has caused abdominal dropsy and edema of all the limbs, face and eyelids. While taking it there is an increase of flesh and weight, but after stopping it the prover emaciates. Most complaints are aggravated after eating and after exertion. The muscles are flabby. Faintness and fainting spells. Eating ice cream when overheated brings on many complaints. Aggravated from cold foods, cold drinks, milk and fat food. There is formication all over the body. It sets up inflammation in many organs and gland, especially the stomach, liver and kidneys. Great dread of motion. All mucous membranes become catarrhal. It is a most painful remedy; burning, stitching and tearing. The most marked periodicity is every third day. Pulsation felt all over the body. It is a deep acting antipsoric, and often useful in rheumatic and gouty affections. It has cured syphilis in the hands of the traditional doctor, and in the highest potencies it cures many specific complaints – when the symptoms agree. Some symptoms come on first falling asleep, but during and after sleep are also marked times of aggravation. Rheumatic and gouty stiffness of all the joints and edema of legs and feet. Swelling from inflammation of joints and glands. Trembling from noise, or sudden unexpected motion. Tension of muscles. Twitching of muscles. Extremely sensitive to touch. Ulceration of skin, especially of legs and mucous membranes, with burning and spreading. Uncovering brings on the pains, and increases many complaints. Symptoms aggravated on waking. Walking fast aggravates most symptoms especially the breathing and weakness. Warmth ameliorates most complaints. He is so weak he cannot sit up in bed. The restlessness of arsenic is often present.

Arsenicum is stamped upon the mental symptoms. Anxiety even to great anguish with great fear. Anxiety in the morning on waking, but most marked in the evening and during the night. He is anxious without cause, about his health; anxious before stool; wakens during the night with anxiety and fear. He fears to go to bed. He fears death, or a crowd of people, yet equally dreads being alone. Fear that something will happen. Fear of people. He is very easily frightened and startled. He has frightful delusions and sees images. He despairs of recovery. He sees dead people in his nightly delirium. His thoughts dwell upon death, and he is sure is going to die. He is very fretful, and dislikes to answer questions. He behaves like a crazy man. Fickle-minded, with confusion. Constantly discontented. Very excitable. Mental exertion intensifies mental and head symptoms. Always in a hurry, and very excitable. Many hysterical symptoms, with cramps and fainting. Indifference to all pleasure. Cannot settle upon what he wants to do. Wakens up in the morning very fretful. He is irritable during chill, and during headache. He has impulses to do violence to his friends, to kill somebody. Lamenting and bewailing. His memory is weak. He grows morose and quarrelsome, fault-finding, and scolds those about him. She is restless of mind and body, evening and night; anxious tossing all night, during chill and heat; also during menses. Sadness in the evening when alone, and during the fever. Oversensitive to noises, and especially to voices. Becomes so besides herself that she shrieks. There are long spells of silence in which she refuses to answer questions; at these times she sits even with others near her and refuses to speak. Easily startled from noise, on falling asleep and during sleep. Thinks of death and suicide. Suspicious of all her best friends. Persistent tormenting thoughts often keeping him awake at night, with feet and legs icy cold and head hot. He becomes increasingly timid. Weeping at night without cause. Weeping in sleep.

Vertigo in the evening, during headache, with nausea, and when walking in the open air.

The forehead perspires easily and complaints and pains come on from uncovering the head. There arc congestive, pulsating headaches, with electric shocks through the head. The head feels cold, and is sensitive to cold air and to drafts. The neck is stiff, and the head is drawn to one side. During the headache the head feels heavy and enlarged. Eruptions with crusts, dry or moist, form upon the scalp. It has cured many cases of eczema. From the suppression of eruptions on the scalp, many chronic periodical sick headaches have come, lasting a lifetime, or until cured with a similar remedy. These headaches begin in the afternoon and evening, very severe after midnight, worse from cold air and from a draft. Headaches caused by checking a chronic catarrh, or such as come with coryza, or with gastric disturbances. Rheumatic headaches. Congestive headaches during chill, during fever and during menses. All headaches of this remedy are aggravated after eating, while lying, during motion, from noise, after sleep, from standing, and walking in cold air; ameliorated from sitting, external heat and hot drinks, and wrapping up the head. The pains are paroxysmal, and the headaches are often periodical. The pains come in the forehead, over the eyes and in occiput, and in parietal bones. Sides of head become sore. Burning, stitching and tearing are most common pains. Pressing outward over the eyes, and stitching on coughing. Tearing over eyes and in occiput. Many of these headaches come from suppressed malaria, and it will be stated that these headaches began after having been cured(?) of ague. This remedy is an excellent antidote to the abuse of quinine.

Catarrhal conditions of the eyes, excoriating mucous discharges, and the lids stick together in the morning. The veins are injected, the balls feel enlarged, and there is free lachrymation. The eyes look glassy, pale, fishy. Opening of the lids difficult because of dryness. Oedema under the eyes, and the lids are swollen. Ulceration of the cornea. The eyes are jaundiced, and tears acrid. Staring, fixed, startled look. Spots on the cornea. Redness of the eyes and lids. Pains at night, worse from motion and reading, and ameliorated from warmth. The pains are burning, tearing and pressing. Sensation of sand in the eyes. Smarting in eyes while reading. There are colors in the field of vision, green and yellow. Vision is dim and foggy. Sparks before the eyes. Asthenopia. Vision lost.

The ears tingle, and are hot. Ears swollen. Eruptions on ears. Ears cold. Otorrhoea, bloody, fetid and yellow. Itching deep in auditory canal. Noises in the ears; buzzing, cracking, humming, ringing, roaring, rushing; after quinine. Earache evening and night, ameliorated by heat; aggravated in cold air. The pains are burning, stitching and tearing. The hearing is at first acute, later impaired, and finally lost.

This remedy cures chronic nasal catarrh that has lasted from childhood, when the discharge is excoriating, bloody, burning, greenish, thick or yellow. It is purulent and offensive. Dryness in nose nights. The nose is obstructed. Epistaxis. Itching of nose, and inside of nose. Sneezing, frequent and violent.

Cachectic, anxious, frightened look. Pale, waxy and chlorotic. Lips pale. Lips bluish, or even black. Dark circles below the eyes. The face is sunken and pinched. Face covered with eruptions; eczema, herpes, scurfs, vesicles. Furfuraceous eruption in the beard. Eruptions on nose, and about the mouth. The face is sickly, haggard and suffering. Itching of the face. Inflammation of the parotid and submaxillary glands. Much perspiration on face. Twitching of the muscles of the face. Ulcers on face and lips. Epithelioma of lips. (Edema of face. Swollen lips. Pain in face in cold air, ameliorated by heat. Rheumatic and neuralgic pains, coming periodically. The pains are burning, stitching and tearing.

Aphthae and ulcers in mouth. Dryness of mouth and tongue. Tongue is red, and coated white. Inflammation of tongue. Bleeding gums. Offensive odors from mouth. Burning, raw mouth and tongue. Excoriation of tongue. Swollen gums and tongue. Taste bad, bitter, insipid, putrid, sour, sweetish. Vesicles in mouth and on tongue.

The teeth are sore, and there is pain on masticating. Pain in teeth from cold drinks, during menses, extending to ear, head and temples; ameliorated by warmth. Pulsating, tearing pains in teeth.

Sensation in throat and larynx as if forced asunder. Inflammation, with heat and dryness. Lump rising from stomach to throat, like globus hystericus, ameliorated by eructations. Choking, with copious flow of saliva. Roughness, and scraping in the throat. Spasms of the esophagus. Swallowing is very difficult and painful. There are burning, soreness and stitching in throat. Ulcers in throat.

A multitude of sufferings is found in the stomach. Great anxiety. An anxiety from stomach to spine, with palpitation. Appetite ravenous, or wanting. Aversion to food and meat. Coldness in the stomach. Desires sour things, sweets, warm drinks. The digestion is poor and the stomach is easily disordered, with distension from flatulence. Empty, sinking sensation and faintness. Eructations after eating, bitter, empty, of food, or sour fluid; water brash. Fullness after eating. Heaviness after eating like a stone. Heartburn. The most obstinate form of gastritis, acute and chronic. Loathing of food. With most complaints there is intense nausea. It has nausea during chill after cold drinks, during cough, after dinner, after eating, during headache, during menses, and during stool. It has cured nausea during pregnancy. The pains are burning, cramping, cutting, pressing, soreness, stitching; and they come on at night and are worse after food, and cold drinks; and ameliorated by heat. Retching on coughing. Pulsating in stomach. Tightness felt in stomach. Thirst extreme during heat, and for warm drinks during chill. In chronic complaints it is thirstless, like Arsenicum. Vomiting bile, food, mucus, sour, watery; aggravated morning and during night, on coughing, after drinking cold water, after eating, with headache.

Coldness felt in whole abdomen; must have much warmth. Distension of abdomen after eating. Tympanitic distension and dropsy. Flatulent distension. Inflammation of intestines with ulceration, and of peritoneum. The abdomen is very painful at night. Pain on coughing, during diarrhea, after eating, during menses, during stool. Pains all paroxysmal and violent, ameliorated by warmth. Pain in liver, hypogastrium. Gall-stone colic. The whole abdomen burns. Cramping before stool, and constant desire for stool. Cutting in abdomen and liver. Pressing pain in liver. Soreness in abdomen and liver. Stitching in abdomen, liver and groin. Pulsating in abdomen. Great uneasiness in abdomen. Rumbling before stool. Twitching of the muscles of abdomen.

There is some constipation, alternating with diarrhea. Constriction of the anus. Violent diarrhea at night, after midnight, after cold drinks, after eating, after milk. Much pain during and after stool. Involuntary stool. Itching and excoriation about the anus. Hemorrhoids, and bleeding from the anus. External and internal piles, aggravated waking. Burning as with a red hot iron, with piles, and diarrhea, during and after stool. The pains are cutting, pressing, soreness, stitching. There is tenesmus during and after stool. Paralysis and ineffectual urging for stool. Catarrh of the colon.

Stool is acrid, black, bloody, brown, copious, frothy; or scanty, watery, white and frothy; or hard, dry, dark, knotty. Sometimes light colored, offensive, or purulent, yellow.

Inflammation of the bladder. Retention of urine. Urging to urinate at night, constant, frequent, ineffectual. Urination is dribbling, or difficult and painful. Urination frequent at night. Incontinence. He feels that he had not finished.

Inflammation of the kidneys. Pain, cutting and stitching. Cutting along the ureters. It has been of service in Addison’s disease.

Hemorrhage from the urethra, and burning during urination.

Urine albuminous during pregnancy. Urine bloody, burning, cloudy. Color of urine is black, greenish or red. Urine copious. Urine scanty with pellicle on surface. Sediment copious, mucus, pus, red. Specific gravity diminished. Urine watery and clear.

The testes are hard, painful and swollen. Seminal emissions, Erections feeble.

This remedy has greatly restrained the development of cancer of uterus. It is mentioned for cauliflower excrescence with putrid discharge. Itching of vulva, Leucorrhoea excoriating, burning, offensive, putrid, yellow; aggravated after menses. Menses absent, acrid, bright red, copious, frequent, offensive, painful, pale, protracted, scanty, suppressed. Uterine hemorrhage. Burning in the genitalia. Pain in uterus. Stitching in ovaries. Prolapsus.

Catarrh of larynx and trachea. Sensation in throat and larynx as if forced asunder. Dryness in larynx. Rawness soreness and scraping in larynx Hoarseness, and voice lost.

Respiration is rapid, anxious and asthmatic at night aggravated from 2 to three AM. Difficult evening and night, and aggravated 2 to three AM, on coughing, on exertion, on lying, on motion, when waking. Respiration rattling, shod suffocative, wheezing and whistling.

In the cold anemic patient there is a morning cough with copious expectoration and a night cough that is dry. The cough is aggravated after midnight and at two AM, and three AM. The cough is a hacking cough during the afternoon and evening. The cough is aggravated in cold air, on becoming cold, after cold drinks; aggravated lying in the evening, and on motion. The cough comes during chill, and fever, and with coryza. It is a choking asthmatic cough sometimes. It is spasmodic and suffocative. Irritation to cough is felt in the larynx and trachea, and he coughs until exhausted.

Expectoration morning and evening, bloody, copious, difficult, greenish, purulent, viscid and yellow. It tastes bitter, sickening, putrid or sweetish.

In the chest there is great anxiety and oppression. It has cured obstinate cases of catarrh of the chest. It has constriction of chest and heart. Effusion of the pleura sac. Hemorrhage of the lung. Inflammation of bronchial tubes, endocardium, pericardium, lungs and pleura. Cardiac and anemic murmurs. Oppression of heart and chest. Anxious and violent palpitation. Weak feeling in chest. A most useful remedy in threatened phthisis, and especially when there are cavities in the lungs, and the patient cannot get warm even with warm clothing and in a warm room. Cannot get warm in summer; and when cold drinks bring on many symptoms. The pain in the chest is aggravated from coughing, and from inspiration. It is felt most in the sides of chest and in the heart. The pain is burning, cutting, soreness and stitching. The stitching pains are aggravated on coughing, and on the left side.

The back is cold, and sensitive to cold air and drafts. Pain in the back during heat, and during menses. Pain in the cervical region, scapulae and between the shoulders. Pain in lumbar region and sacrum. Aching, bruised, burning, drawing in back. Tender spine. Stiffness in the back.

Cold hand and feet. Cold feet evening in bed. Cold extremities during fever. Knees bent up by muscular contractions so he could not move his feet. Corns on the palms, and soles. Cramps in the thigh and calf. Blueness of the nail during chill. Herpes on the shoulders. Pimples and vesicles on the extremities Fissures on the elbows and wrists. Vesicles on the upper limbs. Pimples and vesicles on the hand. Eruption on thighs and legs. Vesicles on the soles. Excoriation between the thighs. Formication of the limbs Burning heat of feet. Heaviness of lower limbs. Insensibility of the fingers. Itching of hands, lower limbs and feet. Numbness of the extremities, hands, fingers and feet. Rheumatic and neuralgic pains in the limbs during chill, in cold air, ameliorated by heat. Aching in the shoulder. Sciatica, extending downwards. Pain in hips, thighs, knees and leg. Pain in the knee as if bruised. Burning in hands and fingers, feet and soles. Drawing in lower limbs, knees, tibia, and feet. Stitching pains in the limbs when the legs are cold; especially knee, foot and heel. Tearing pains in shoulders, upper arms, elbows, wrist, hand and fingers; also in hip, thigh, leg and foot. Paralysis of limbs, upper and lower. Perspiration of feet. Restlessness of the lower limbs. Stiffness of knees. Dropsical swelling of hand and knees, legs and feet. Tension in the hollow of knee and hamstrings. Trembling limbs. Twitching in the thighs. Ulcers on the legs. Varicose veins on lower limbs. Weakness of all the limbs, but greatest in lower limbs.

The sleep is much disturbed by dreams, amorous, anxious of the dead, of death, fantastic dreams, of fire, frightful, misfortune, nightmare, vivid. He is late falling asleep. The sleep is restless; he tosses and turns all night. Sleepiness afternoon and evening. Sleepless before midnight, but worse after midnight. Sleepiness, but cannot sleep. If he wakens cannot sleep again. Wakens early and cannot sleep again. Distressing yawning.

Constitutional coldness is a marked feature of this remedy. It has intermittent fever with chill, fever and sweat. The chill may come at any time, but most likely in the afternoon. Chilliness from drinking cold water, from walking in the open air, and from motion. The periodicity is not very regular. It has chill with perspiration. The paroxysm may be daily, tertian or quartian. It has a violent shaking chill. The time most common is four PM, eight PM and one PM. Warm room ameliorates the chill. This remedy has fever without chill. It has fever with chilliness. Dry external heat. Flushes of heat. It has been helpful in hectic fever. The heat is intense. It has internal heat with external chill. The perspiration is often absent. It is a very useful remedy in chronic intermittent fever. He sweats copiously at night from great weakness, as well as from fever. He sweats while eating, from slight exertion and from motion, and during sleep. The sweat is cold and offensive. When the sweat has been suppressed, from entering a cold damp room or cellar, complaints come on much like this remedy.

There are blotches on the skin. There are burning spots, and the skin burns after scratching. It is an excellent remedy to be used against the spread of malignant disease, as so often the symptoms are found in this remedy. The skin is cold. Desquamation, with or without eruptions. Pale waxy skin, or yellow skin. Liver spots, red spots and yellow spots. The skin is dry and burning. Inability to perspire. The complaints of this remedy are often associated with eruptions. It has moist, and dry eruptions. Blisters, and bloody eruptions. The eruptions burn. Eruptions that are furfuraceous and powdery, mealy. It has cured eczema many times. Itching, scaly herpes. The eruptions itch and burn violently. They are painful, and spread rapidly, often turn into phagedenic ulcers. Psoriasis must scratch until moist. Pustules. Rash. Scabby, scaly eruptions. Stinging in the skin after scratching. Nodular urticaria. Vesicular eruptions. Vesicles come after scratching.

It cures erysipelas, when the symptoms agree. Intertrigo. Itching when undressing, and when warm in bed. Itching, burning, crawling, and stinging. Sensitive skin, sore to touch. Sticking after scratching. The dropsical swellings burn. Pain in the skin as if an ulcer were forming. Ulcers; bleeding, burning, indolent, phagedenic, suppurating, with ichorous bloody discharges, and turned up edges. Warts grow easily.

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