Nux Vomica nux-v.

Adapted to thin, irritable, choleric persons, with dark hair and bilious or sanguine temperament, disposed to be quarrelsome, malicious; spiteful, melancholic.

Debauchers of a thin, irritable, nervous disposition (debauchers with light hair, blue eyes, Lob.); prone to indigestion and hemorrhoids.

"Nux vomica is chiefly successful with persons of an ardent character; of an irritable, impatient temperament, disposed to anger, spite, or deception."—HAHNEMANN.

Anxiety with irritability and inclination to commit suicide, but is afraid to die.

Oversensitive: to external impressions; noise; odors; light or music; trifling ailments are unbearable (Cham.); every harmless word offends (Ign.).

Persons who are very particular, careful, zealous, inclined to become easily excited or angry; irascible and tenacious.

Bad effects: of coffee, tobacco, alcoholic stimulants; highly seasoned food; over-eating; long continued over-mental exertion (Arg. n.); sedentary habits; loss of sleep; aromatic or patent medicines; sitting on cold stones.

One of the best remedies with which to commence the treatment of cases that have been drugged by mixtures, bitters, vegetable pills, nostrums and quack remedies, espe- cially aromatic or "hot medicines," but only if symptoms are similar.

Pains are tingling, sticking, hard, aching, worse from motion and contact.

Cannot keep from falling asleep in the evening, while sitting, hours before bedtime, and wakes at 3 or 4 A. M.; falls into a dreamy sleep at daybreak, from which he is hard to arouse, and then feels tired and weak (with many complaints).

Eructations: sour, bitter; nausea and vomiting every morning, with depression of spirits; after eating.

Nausea: constant; after eating; in morning; from smoking. "If I could only vomit I would be so much better."

Stomach: pressure an hour or two after eating as from a stone (immediately after, Kali bi., Nux m.); pyrosis, tightness, must loosen clothing; cannot use the mind for two or three hours after a meal; sleepy after dinner; from anxiety, worry, brandy, coffee, drugs, night watching, high living, etc.

Convulsions, with consciousness (Strych); < anger, emotion, touch, moving.

Constipation: frequent unsuccessful desire, passing small quantities of feces, sensation as if not finished (no desire, Bry., Op., Sul.).

Alternate constipation and diarrhœa (Sul., Ver.) in persons who have taken purgatives all their lives.

Menses: too early, profuse, last too long; or keeping on several days longer, with complaints at onset and remaining after; every two weeks; irregular, never at right time; stopping and starting again (San., Sul.); during and after < of old symptoms.

Labor pains violent, spasmodic; cause urging to stool or to urinate; < in back; prefers a warm room.

Strangulated hernia, especially umbilical.

Backache, must sit up to turn over in bed; lumbago; from sexual weakness, from masturbation.

Complementary: Sulphur in nearly all cases.

Is often indicated after Ipecacuanha, which it follows well.

Nux should be given on retiring or, what is better, several hours before going to bed; it acts best during repose of mind and body.

Morning; mental exertion; after eating or over-eating; spices; narcotics; contact, noise, anger; dry weather.

Evening; rest; lying down, and in damp, wet weather (Caust.).

Fevers of every type. Simple; quotidian; tertian; quartan; but like Natr. mur. it is more frequently called for in the morning paroxysm and in the tertian type than perhaps in any other. Every Spring (Lac c., Sul.). Anticipating; congestive; monthly; after the menses; apoplectic intermittents; malarial; continued; remittent; pernicious.

Irregular in paroxysm; may come on at any hour of the day, and return at the same hour, or earlier, or later.

Irregular in stage; may consist of heat, then chill, then sweat; or sweat, then chill, then sweat again; or external heat and internal chill or vice versa.

Anticipating, every other day. Every day paroxysm, regular.

Anticipating. Paroxysm and stages usually irregular.

Night or early morning, 6 to 7 A. M., 11 A. M., 12 M., 4, 5, 6 P. M.; 7 to 9 P. M. Evening paroxysm usually lasts all night (Lyc., Polyp., Puls., Rhus).

Fever without chill, at 6 or 7 P. M.

5 to 8 A. M., 10 to 11 A. M., and 4 to 7 P. M.

Fever, without chill, 10 or 11 A. M.

6 to 7 A. M., 11 A. M., or 12

M.; and 5 to 9 P. M., lasting all night.

Fever, without chill, 6 or 7 P. M.

Typical cases are apt to occur in men of active, "rushing," business habits; nervous, dyspeptic from worry, care, too much mental and too little physical exertion. Irregular, unseasonable, rapid eating; too much coffee, tobacco, stimulants; late suppers, late hours of debauches.

Intolerable drawing pain through the thighs and legs, that obliged him to draw them up and stretch them out. Prostration. Sensation of paralytic weakness; especially in the limbs. Often heat, and sometimes sweat before the chill.

Dreads the chill.

Languor, headache, thirst, nausea and vomiting.

Drawing pain in limbs; weak and paralyzed. Heat and sweat sometimes before the chill.

Chill —Without thirst, shaking, with blue face and hands; pain and numbness of limbs, as if gone to sleep; relieved neither by warmth of stove nor covering in bed.

Without thirst. Chilliness every morning after rising. Violent, shaking chill, lasting three-quarters of an hour, with bluish cold face and hands, followed by violent heat and moist skin.

Anticipating morning fever; chill with gaping, and aching in the limbs (sore, bruised pain in limbs, as if in periosteum, Arn.); blue nails; no thirst; then long-lasting heat with thirst (Nat.), and stitches in the temples; sensation of chilliness on the back and limbs, followed by light sweat in the morning with painfulness of the skin, as if it had been frozen, and numbness of limbs, as if gone to sleep, as they do in cold weather.

Afternoon paroxysm: Chilliness and coldness with blue nails, for four hours, followed by general heat and burning of the hands, with thirst at first for water, afterwards for beer, without subsequent sweat. Shivering and chilliness after drinking (chill after every drink, Caps., Eup.). Drinking increases and hastens chill, and causes vomiting (Ars., Eup.—drinking relieves the chill, Caust.). Coldness of the whole body, with blue hands and blueness of the skin. Great coldness, relieved neither by warmth of the stove, nor by covering in bed (worse from uncovering, Phos.—worse in a warm room or near the stove, Apis—chill increased by external heat, Ipec.). Shivering and chilliness for an hour from the slightest contact with the open air (excessively sensitive to cold air, Camph.—coldness and chills as soon as she attempted to rise or put one limb out of bed, Canth.). Violent chill, and sleep for an hour in the evening after lying down, followed by heat, with headache and roaring in the ears. Chill evening and night in bed, lasting till morning, worse when moving. Pain in sacrum during chill (pain in dorsal vertebræ, Chin. s.). Congestive chill, with vertigo, headache, anguish, delirium, terrible coldness of body, with blue face, nails and hands, accompanied by vivid visions, distention of the stomach, stitches in the sides and abdomen; worse from the slightest attempt to uncover or move in bed. Sleep after chill (Nux m., Pod.—sleep during heat, Apis.).

With thirst, drinking often and much at a time, with blue lips and nails, and bursting headache; tearing in bones and chattering of teeth.

With thirst. Violent, long-lasting heat, with great thirst. Flushing redness and heat of the cheeks on the slightest motion or exertion (heat relieved by moving about, Caps.); worse in the open air; averse to uncovering when in bed, day or night; desire to uncover, but chilled when uncovering (Acon.—averse to uncovering, Bell.—cold and chilly on putting hands out from under bedclothes, Bar. c.—cannot move or uncover in the least without feeling chilly, Arn.); heat of hands and feet, which must be covered because cold causes intolerable pain (Stram.). Great heat; whole body burning hot, yet patient must be covered up (must be uncovered, Sec.). Heat and redness of face, cheeks, hands, with stitching headache, especially in the sinciput; anguish, vertigo, and delirium, with redness of the face (Bell.); roaring in the ears; pain in chest, sides, abdomen; feet cold and shivering.

"During the fever a round spot at the pit of the stomach of two inches in diameter, feels hot to the patient, but is cold to the touch. Cured by Nux vom."—C. LIPPE.

With thirst; increased headache, unconsciousness and ex- cessive weakness.

Sweat—With thirst, gradually relieving all pains except headache, which is not so severe. Profuse sweat breaks out easily on motion.

Sour-smelling.

With great thirst, violent and long-lasting. Cannot move or uncover in the least without feeling chilly.

Without thirst (with great thirst, Ars., Cinch.). Usually, sweating stage light, with chilliness from motion or allowing the air to strike him. Sweat relieves pains in limbs (Eup., Lyc., Nat.). Sweat alternating with chill (Ant. c.—chill alternating with sweat, always either chilly or in a sweat, Caust.). Sweat one-sided (right), or only on upper part of the body (Acon., Cinch., Nit. ac., Puls.—sweat on trunk, but not on legs, Lyc.); cold on face; sour, clammy, offensive.

Profuse perspiration, after the severest paroxysms, or attending the congestive chill (reverse of Eup., which has light chill and profuse sweat; or hard, shaking chill and light, scanty sweat); only on right side.

Without thirst; with chilliness from motion or allowing the air to touch him. Sweat on one side (right) or upper part of body.

Relieves pains in limbs.

Heavily coated, white or yellow. Taste so bitter, sour, putrid; must rinse the mouth (Thuja). Canine hunger; with aversion to bread, water, coffee, tobacco. Longing for brandy, beer, fat food (see Puls.).

Mapped tongue, like herpes, on the side; yellow coat; salt taste.

Nux vomica.

Heavily coated white or yellow; putrid taste; must rinse the mouth.

"Children's intermittents; shaking chill, with blue-mottled skin, especially on covered parts. Morning chill, very severe, with skin blue-mottled; thirst very great during chill and fever; great tendency to spasms (and even convulsions), as the chill went off and sweat came on. Bowels constipated, with ineffectual urging to stool, especially in nursing children; appetite poor, urine red and fetid, and generally a dry, hacking cough (Crotalus, if right side was most mottled)."—DR. HIGGINS, N. A. J., p. 182.

The anticipating chill always denotes increasing severity of the fever, and the remedies which correspond to it are among the most prominent and frequently called for, viz., Arsenic, Bryonia, Cinchona, Chininum s., Natrum mur., and Nux vomica. Ipecacuanha may anticipate. Ignatia anticipates and postpones.

By many professing homeopaths Nux vomica is used in alternation with Ipecacuanha, and they boast of their successs in the treatment of ague. However successful such treatment may be, it is routine practice, and, like the empiricism which leads the other school to the indiscriminate use of Quinine, must often fail. Nux vomica deserves, and will repay, a careful indvidualization.

Full, hard, quick; small, quick during fever heat; fourth or fifth beat intermitting.

Gastric and bilious symptoms are always present.

Legs feel weak and paralytic; head heavy, dull, with vertigo and severe frontal headache, especially in morning; pains are pressive, pulsating, sticking, worse in temples and sinciput; face pale and waxy, as in chlorosis; debility; soreness of liver and spleen, which are sensitive to least pressure; loss of appetite and obstinate constipation, with frequent but ineffectual inclination (rarely canine hunger and diarrhœa); great sensitivenes in and distension of the epigastrium. Vomiting of food or bitter fluids and sour mucus; emaciation; anxiety; and great weakness of the whole body. Chilly on the least movement, repugnance to cold, or cold air. Nightly paroxysm of dry cough. Many of the symptoms, after continuing with greater or less intensity, gradually pass into the succeeding prodrome.

Natrum mur.