Alumina - General symptoms - Clarke

GENERAL

General

Argilla. Oxide of Aluminium. Pure Clay. AL2 O3 3H2O. Trituration.

Like its relative Alumen ^Alumen, Alumina produces irritation of mucous membranes with dryness or extreme secretion and paralysis of involuntary muscles, as those of the rectum and of the nervous and muscular systems generally.

Alumina paralyses the bowels in the same way as lead, to which it is an antidote.

Even small and soft stools are passed with great difficulty.

Pregnant women and children are liable to this kind of constipation.

A very prominent characteristic is that a person must strain at stool in order to urinate.

Teste groups Alumina with Sepia ^Sepia and Copaiva.

He considers it the chronic of Sepia ^Sepia as Silica Marina ^Silic. is of Pulsatilla ^Puls.

Paralysis of the internal rectus muscle of the eye, causing squint.

Also ptosis. Drawing, pains appear in the limbs; a sensation of constriction in several organs.

Several painful symptoms show themselves after the midday meal, and continue till evening, when they disappear or are replaced by others which begin only then.

On the other hand the pains which appear in the morning or in the evening are abated after eating.

Trembling, convulsive movements of the limbs and head; spasms, with tears and laughter alternately.

There is exaltation of the whole nervous system.

Trembling of the whole body with desire to lie down, which, however, agg. the fatigue.

Great general fatigue, even after a short walk, but chiefly after speaking.

Frequent stretching while sitting.

The nates go to sleep while sitting.

Drags legs (especially left).

Many of the symptoms of locomotor ataxy are reproduced by Alumina, and it is one of the most useful remedies in that disease.

Boenninghausen cured a case with Aluminium.

Sluggishness of action is characteristic of this medicine.

urine is slow in passing.

great straining to pass even a soft stool.

can only evacuate bowels when standing.

has to strain as if abdomen and rectum were paralysed. (Causticum ^Caust. has defecation only when standing; but the straining is less.) Sensations are slow in being transmitted to the centres.

In the mental sphere there is confusion. "When he says anything he feels as if another person had said it, and when he sees anything, as if another person had seen it, or as if he could transfer himself into another, and only then could see." A feeling of hurry follows, things do not move fast enough.

Impulses. Suicidal tendency, a sudden impulse from seeing blood on a knife.

Sad; apprehensive; wants to getaway; fears going crazy.

Mental symptoms mostly come on in the morning on waking.

Vertigo on closing eyes.

Catarrh is a very general feature.

Catarrh with dryness of mucous membranes.

The throat looks parched and glazed.

The nose is stopped, feels dry, and the point of it is cracked.

Alm. has the fish-bone sensation in the throat on swallowing.

There is profuse leucorrhoea running down to the heels, sometimes excoriating.

As with the mucous membrane so with the skin itching eruptions agg. from warmth of bed.

Eruptions of all kinds, indurations, ulcers.

Granular eyelids. Hairs fall out all over body.

The skin of the face feels as if covered with dried white of egg, or as if a cobweb was on it.

Fissures. Alumina has some curious symptoms in the digestive sphere.

There is a craving for dry rice and dry food.

It has agg. from starch, especially the starch of potatoes. agg.

From salt, wine, vinegar, spirits.

Burning pains in the back are very characteristic, and especially a sensation as if a hot iron were forced through the lower vertebrae.

There are pulsations in various parts.

The pains go upward. Upper left; lower right affected (opposite of Lycopodium ^Lyc.).

The symptoms are agg. on alternate days; periodically.

Guernsey describes a characteristic periodicity thus "Patient gets along nicely for a time, then, from no apparent cause, gets worse for a time, then better, and soon a relapse may be worse than the original illness, another relapse not so bad, and so on with longer intervals between." In afternoons.

at new or full moon. agg. in the morning on waking. agg.

After coitus. agg. In cold air, out of doors; in dry weather.

They are amel. by cold washing; by moistening the part; by warm food or drink; by warmth generally.

Alumina is suited to persons of sedentary habits who suffer from chronic ailments; to constitutions with diminished animal heat.

Psoric persons. The action of Alumina is slow in developing, and the remedy must not be changed quickly.

Clinical

Anus, affections of. Boils. Bubo. Catarrh. Chlorosis. Constipation. Constipation of nursing infants. Cough. Disappointments, effects of. Dysentery. Dyspepsia. Eczema. Eyes, affections of. Fissures. Fistula. Headache. Hernia. Irritation. Leucorrhoea. Locomotor ataxy. Nails, affections of. Otorrhoea. Ozaena. Paralysis. Pregnancy, constipation of. Pregnancy, toothache of. Prostatorrhoea. Rhagades. Scrofula. Strabismus. Taste, disordered. Tetters, moist and itching. Throat, affections of. Trismus. Typhus.