Nux Moschata - General symptoms

GENERAL

General

(Morning), On waking, throat and mouth dry.

tongue cleaves to roof of mouth.

pain in left anterior molars, extending into right molars.

spasmodic stitches in heart, with slight colic.

sneezing. crawling and tickling in right side of chest.

throbbing headache above left eye.

headache in forehead. pain in small spot in forehead above left eye.

pain in right eye. while standing, pain in anterior surface of left leg.

thin evacuation. chalky taste.

after taking milk, diarrhoea.

pressive pain in right cheek.

taste as after intoxication.

burrowing pain in soles of feet.

griping pain in joints of left little finger.

sleepiness..

(Evening), Dull head.

slimy tongue. cheerful mood.

colic. pain in small of back.

coated tongue. pain in soft palate.

difficult respiration.

sleepiness. dryness in the eyes.

head and forehead dull.

eyes would close from sleep.

headache. dryness of mouth.

painfulness of left upper and lower molars.

sticking in front teeth.

pain in forepart of chest.

oppression. pressure, with difficult respiration.

during rest, pain in small of back.

in bed, griping at the umbilicus.

sensation in rectum of diarrhoea.

difficult stool. flatulent troubles.

griping colic. hands and feet warm..

(Night), After lying down, warmth and throbbing in right foot.

uneasiness. dry heat. sleeplessness.

sticky lips and tongue.

throbbing sensation in throat.

pressure in head, convulsions.

slimy feeling in mouth.

thirst. dryness. sensation of flour on palate.

tongue seems dry, and feels like leather.

palate dry. nose stopped with mucus.

cutting, commencing at navel, extending toward sides.

after lying down, boring pain in toe of right foot.

in bed, griping in umbilical region..

Everything provokes laughter, quite contrary to habit.

this was especially noticeable on going into the open air. He stood still upon the street, made foolish gestures.

between the attacks he sank into absence of mind, and on collecting himself everything about him seemed ludicrous. During this he looked foolish and childish, like an idiot. On being brought into the house he became somewhat better (first day),.

I took a broken nutmeg and put it in my pocket, and in the course of six hours, I had eaten half a one. Soon after I felt a dizziness and an unaccountable derangement of intellect, transient loss of memory, but a perfect consciousness of all that I said or did.

I became remarkably loquacious and seemed to be neither in this world nor the other.

I felt happy and free from any pain.

I was truly in an indescribable state.

I felt as I supposed one might feel that had been magnetized.

my friends were greatly alarmed, and the doctor was sent for in great haste.

bleeding was proposed, but as I thought I knew at least as much as any one, I was not willing to be bled.

after keeping them laughing and crying till about 11 o'clock at night, I retired to bed, without anything having been done for me.

I woke in the morning, and was well as usual, having never been sick a day in my life. Since this occurred, several cases have come to my knowledge in which persons having eaten nutmegs, were affected in the same way that I had been. Had I eaten a little more, I have no doubt it would have proved fatal, as I learn it has done in other cases,.

As soon as she lay down felt a sinking sensation, as though she were going to die, with no fear, however, being perfectly at ease in mind, and free from pain or any suffering.

felt happy and unconcerned.

sensation was not complete.

faculties undisturbed up to this time, save in the expression of her ideas.

knew all that was transpiring about her, but could not express herself clearly (ideas muddled, tongue thick, with coldness commencing in lower limbs),.

Many ridiculous or extravagant acts or expressions, like idiocy, while she seemed perfectly conscious, and at the next moment would appear chagrined at her conduct, and said she could not control her actions.

*disposition to laugh or jest at everything.

stupid look for a moment.

changeable humor. one moment laughing, the next crying (after seven hours),.

After about an hour he was seized with drowsiness, that gradually increased to complete stupor and insensibility, and not long afterwards he was found fallen from his chair, lying on the floor of his chamber in the state mentioned.

being laid in bed he fell asleep, woke a little from time to time, when he was quite delirious.

he thus continued alternately delirious and sleeping for several hours.

by degrees these symptoms diminished, so that in about six hours from the time of taking the nutmeg he had pretty well recovered. Although he still complained of headache and was somewhat delirious, he slept naturally, and the next day was quite well,.

From eating three nutmegs, after a moderate dinner, he is taken with unconquerable desire to sleep.

he passes the afternoon in delirious slumber, with pleasant, peaceful dreams.

at half past 5 o'clock he went to the theatre, which was at some distance.

the way seemed to have no end.

he has perfect control over his limbs, but is lost each moment in fanciful images, from which he has to tear himself away, with great energy, in order to continue on his way. Although he was, at times, quite unconscious, his limbs did not fail to do their service.

he went straight on, without recognizing the streets that crossed his way.

he was most concerned about the time.

he feared to come too late, but came to the theatre much earlier than he thought.

during the entire play, fancy and reality battled with each other,.

On rising from dinner (after four hours), felt the blood rush to my head, but the feeling was as if an electric current had passed from the crown of the head downwards.

I made an effort and got mechanically downstairs.

I then felt the same sensation which I suppose a person would experience who had become nearly insensible from extreme cold, and that, if I yielded myself to its influence, I could have slept away out of existence without pain.

I felt this sensation twice.

in a few minutes a cold shiver came upon me.

from that time I felt every variety of heat and cold from their respective extremes.

at every time the blood went from and returned to my head the current changed the sensation, sometimes feeling myself very hot, and the next very cold, but never the same sensation.

I felt at one time such a pressure in the head that it appeared as if all the blood in the body had rushed to obtain possession of that region, and I though I could hear it gushing in my ears.

these symptoms became gradually weaker,.

While riding in a wagon, towards evening, just before a storm of wind and rain, he experienced a painful sensation of heat, extending from within the ear towards the posterior wall of the pharynx (tuba Eustachii), almost as if a rough body had lodged there, and had to be pressed out forcibly.

the sensation began first in the posterior wall of the pharynx, afterwards in the ear, and at last extended to the buccal cavity (eleventh day),.

Upon making an attempt to open the mouth, for the purpose of examining the tongue, found the jaws so firmly closed that it was impossible to separate them without undue force.

calling for a spoon, I made several efforts to accomplish my object, but failed, and was obliged to desist from further efforts for fear of breaking the teeth,.

After four minutes a very slight burning sensation was felt, which gradually increased, so that after fifteen minutes it became very unpleasant, and on being touched the reddened spot caused much pain.

after thirty minutes the moistened spot was red.

it burned like a sinapism when the skin is moderately reddened.

upon being washed the burning sensation disappeared within an hour.

the epidermis did not scale off. In a second experiment with another individual the symptoms were much slighter, the burning appeared only after ten minutes, and became rather strong after another ten minutes.

the hand being then washed, after thirty minutes, the burning sensation was still very intense, but the skin was not red.

the burning sensation continued for about half an hour.

the epidermis did not scale off,.

(Oppression of the chest, as if it were fatty, or as if there were a piece of perforated bacon in the throat (trachea), which did not allow the passage of enough air; he feared that he would suffocate; this condition appeared toward the evening, while walking in the cool air, lasted eight minutes, and was unaccompanied by anxiety), (first day),.

They all were attacked the next day with such oppression of the chest and tightness of the throat that it seemed as though they would choke.

the mouth was dry, the lips swollen, and stuck together as if covered with glue.

they breathed with the greatest difficulty.

the bowels were hard and constipated.

the head heavy, dizzy.

memory lost,.

A spasmodic pressing pain like a pressure from within outward, and also from without inward (as from a weight lying upon the chest), in the region of the insertion of the diaphragm, extending from the pit of the stomach to the back and scapulae (after ten hours).

together with difficult respiration and necessity for taking a deep breath and expanding the chest, together with a dry cough, that was somewhat loose in the morning, and that came from the back. This attack lasted several days, and was associated with sleepiness and dryness of the nose. On the third day there were also pains in the middle of the back between the scapulae (seeming to him to be in the lungs),.

A most distressing urgent want of breath, and painful feeling of oppression upon the chest, to relieve which, would straighten up, when other distressing effects would ensue.

a rush of blood to head, obscuring the sight.

quivering of the heart.

violent palpitation. the great central organ laboring under fearful embarrassment.

pulse intermitting, the intervals between the pulsations being so protracted as to excite fears of impending dissolution.

the hands would be placed upon the sides, the constriction about the waist and abdomen being so persistent and so oppressive as instinctively to welcome any, even the slightest palliation,.

Feeling as if the blood were rushing to the heart, thence to the head, and then all over the body.

again to the heart and repeat (the extreme coldness and other symptoms still present).

the alternate paleness and redness of the surface, indicating this varied and increased action of the circulation, was distinctly visible about 4 P.M.,.

(A melancholic, choleric man, suffering with bleeding haemorrhoids in the fall and spring took with nearly all his food and drink Nux Vomica ^Nux moschata, as a preventive for the fall dysentery; the haemorrhoidal flow was stopped; he became out of breath, and panted when at work, and at last went into dropsy), .

Impaired digestion. after each meal patient complains of a sense of weight over epigastric region, followed with at times gulping up of wind, prior to which a feeling as though there was a lump in the throat (globus hystericus), which disappears in part as soon as the stomach is relieved of wind.

Lachesis ^Lachesis 2c. relieves this condition usually,.

Pressure in the liver, as from something sharp, as if stones were pressing out or would cut their way out, as though it caused a tearing, this was accompanied by diarrhoeic stools, always preceded by an agreeable sensation in the stomach.

the relief was such that it seemed as though the evacuations came down from the liver (in a woman suffering from enlargement of the liver), (second day),.

In the evening, a sensation in the rectum as though diarrhoea would occur.

it seems as though a part of the rectum were dragged downward.

it seems to press down a portion of the rectum.

the evacuation, however, did not occur until the next morning, with a slight urging and a kind of tenesmus in the rectum.

the stool was scanty and rather diarrhoeic (first day),.

Lay down on her bed and quickly passed into a deep slumber, feeling very uncomfortable, was very restless and tossed about much, which lasted about half an hour.

she was then roused by her sister (who accompanied her) calling her by name.

she heard the first summons and answered reluctantly, but could not rouse herself to a state of wakefulness,.

At 9 P.M., felt chilly, amounting to a shake, with coldness, commencing in lower limbs.

this was succeeded by several chills, with marked intervals of immunity between, lasting for several minutes.

conscious during chills, *but a desire to sleep between then if left alone, the movements of those around her alone preventing her from sleeping,.

Chilliness, associated with pain in the small of the back, towards evening, in the open air, and from external cold, increasing to a shaking chill, entirely disappearing in a warm room.

together, with dulness of the head, especially of the forehead, diminished appetite, and somewhat slimy tongue, with a very lively and cheerful mood, disposed to make fun, in the evening (eighth day),.

Marked tendency to Fainting fits, with heart failure. Cold extremities, Extreme dryness of mucous membranes and skin. Strange feeling, with irresistible Drowsiness. Indicanuria. General inclination to become unconscious during acute attacks. Lypothymia ( Ignatia ^Ignatia.) Staggers on trying to walk.

Narcotic effects and dryness Little pain

OVERPOWERING DROWSINESS, with or caused by almost every condition; by day; worse exertion; during menses; when flatulent; with dryness, yet NO THIRST; with coldness Fleeting pains

Heaviness; of eyes, tongue, etc

Dark, heamorrhages Scrawny women, who faint easily; worse at stool or menses; laugh or cry by turns; have small breasts, etc

As of hard lumps in stomach, liver, throat, etc

Hysteria

Automatism

Dreamy, clairvoyant state

Dazed; objects seem changed or to grow larger

Slow ideation

Thoughts suddenly vanish

Uses wrong words

Brain exhaustion

Talks loud

Mockery

Laughing

Jesting

Vertigo Sense of levitation

Headache; in temples; better hard pressure

Cerebral congestion

Pale face

Retracted lips

Teeth feel pulled

Dry mouth and throat, without thirst; worse sleep

Tongue sticks to palate

Thick, cottony saliva

Chalky taste

Loathing, when eating or thinking of food

Weak digestion

Enormous bloating; all food turns to gas

Flatulent colic As of a board across hypogastrium

Stool difficult, although soft; putrid, bright yellow and lienteric; worse night

Inactive rectum

Strangury from alcohol

Thick, dark, irregular menses

Flatus from vagina

Leucorrhoea; replaces menses

Deficient, irregular labor pains

Cough, better heat of bed

Hoarse; when walking against wind

Palpitation, better walking

Acute pain now in spine, now in lumbar region

Dry palms

Dry, cold skin

Sleepy attacks

Sudden; with vertigo

Weak, irregular pulse

Alternate chill and heat

Chills with sopor

Red sweat, or sweat absent

Myristica Sebifera ^Myristica fragrans. M. officinalis. M. moschata. Nutmeg. N. O. Myristicaceae. Tincture of powdered seeds deprived of the Mace.

Abortion. Apoplexy. Asthma, hysteric. Brain, softening of.

infantile affections of. Catalepsy. Chilblains. Cholerine. Clairaudience. Clairvoyance. Convulsions. Cough. Debility. Deltoid rheumatism. Dysmenia. Dyspepsia. Eructations. Eyes, sight weak. Fainting. Flatulence. Freckles. Frost-bite. Gastralgia. Haemorrhage. Headache. Head, convulsive movement of. Hiccough. Hoarseness. Hysteria. Intermittent fever. Locomotor ataxy. Lumbago. Marasmus. Menopause. Menorrhagia. Menses, suppressed. Metrorrhagia. Mind, affections of. Pelvis, congestion of. Perspiration, bloody.

Nux Vomica ^Nux mosch. is one of the many examples of powerfully poisonous and medicinal substances used as common articles of food. The Nutmeg has a popular repute for putting off the menstrual period or else for bringing it on.

as a remedy for diarrhoea, and also for boils. It is the use of ground Nutmeg for these purposes that has led to many cases of poisoning, and has supplied a large number of the symptoms of the Schema. Nux Vomica ^Nux m. is one of the most profoundly active of psychical remedies in the Materia Medica, producing states of exaltation resembling hysteria, and the mesmeric state with exalted senses and consciousness of double personality. A case reported by Stonham (M. H. R., xl. 494) brings this out. A dark-haired young man ate two nutmegs one morning. In afternoon was exhilarated, able to do more than usual, to argue on any subject. At dinner mouth dry, great thirst, felt he could not drink enough to quench it. After dinner, head felt strange as if in a dream.

but he joined a small musical party, as he had intended. He seemed to be two persons, and his real, conscious self seemed to be watching his other self playing. He could not play well.

and had to desist. He seemed lost, and when spoken to would come to himself with a start. Hearing for distant sounds much more acute than usual. A woman who ate several nutmegs with the idea of bringing on abortion had the hallucination that she had two heads. A. P. Williamson records (N. Y. Med. Times, October, 1882) one case of a woman who took grated nutmeg for diarrhoea. After second dose of half nutmeg head felt queer and dizzy, then head felt large, could not reply to questions, though eyes were open and seemed to understand. Pupils dilated, eyes staring, face pale, respiration laboured. Semi-conscious and had to be shouted at, but relapsed into semi-consciousness. Pulse at first small or rapid, but during unconscious period, irregular, fuller, and weak. When consciousness first returned kept hands to her head "to prevent it falling off".

was obliged to move her head with her hands, "it being too large and heavy for her body." Her chest felt as if in a vice. For some days was unable to use words properly, frequently obliged to stop in middle of a sentence and change it entirely from not being able to use appropriate words. Exaltation of the senses and sensibilities runs through the remedy. One hypersensitive patient to whom I gave a single dose of Nux Vomica ^Nux m. 30, said it seemed to put a coat of cotton wool over her. The senses of sight and touch are exalted in the same way as hearing. The mental disturbance may take all the protean forms of hysteria and even mania. Vanishing of thought. One man had complete loss of memory of his past life, and did not recover it for a week. The sensorium is disturbed as much as the mind, and a state of staggering, helpless drunkenness is induced. Connected with this are the sleep symptoms of Nux Vomica ^Nux m., which give the leading keynote of the remedy.

Drowsiness. Nux Vomica ^Nux m. is needed for drowsiness more frequently than Opium itself. When any complaint causes drowsiness or is accompanied by drowsiness, Nux Vomica ^Nux m. must be considered.

and if in addition there is chilliness and thirstlessness, Nux Vomica ^Nux m. must be given. For Nux Vomica ^Nux m. is a chilly medicine, agg. by cold and damp, amel. by warmth (with one or two exceptions). Chilliness may be considered the second keynote. But quite as important is the third.

Dryness. The dryness may be only sensation, or it may be actual as well.

Dryness of the mouth and tongue (usually, but not always, without thirst); tongue so dry it adheres to the roof of the mouth.

Neurotic patients who always awaken with a very dry mouth and tongue. "The saliva seems thick, like cotton." (I cured with Nux Vomica ^Nux m. 30 a very bad case of indigestion with acne in a youth who had this symptom).

Eyes dry; too dry to close the lids.

The skin is dry; and Nux Vomica ^Nux m. is suited to people who readily perspire.

Another keynote is tendency to fainting.

Nux Moschata is allied to the drowsiness, sudden loss of memory, and vanishing of ideas.

Persons who easily faint away from sight of blood.

from standing (as to have a dress tried on) and those who have faintness or fainting during or associated with evacuations.

these are likely to want Nux Vomica ^Nux m. One or more of the above conditions will be present in the majority of cases needing Nux Vomica ^Nux m.

but there are few remedies which have more of the striking and peculiar symptoms, the value of which Hahnemann was the first to perceive, than Nux Moschata, and when these are present (or the well-marked conditions of agg. and amel.) they will be sufficient indication independently of those mentioned.

Here are some Sensations As if drunk.

Limbs as if floating in the air.

Forehead as if as large again.

Forehead as if pushed out.

As if brain struck against side of head.

Brain as if loose. Objects appear much too large.

Pain as of a rough body in Eustachian tube.

Pricking as of electric sparks on cheek.

As if wind incarcerated in stomach.

As if a piece of bacon were in throat.

As if food had formed itself into lumps in stomach.

As if a piece of wood stretched across small of back were pressing from within out.

As if heart would be squeezed off.

As if something grasped heart.

As if heart were beating in a vacuum.

As if it were difficult to move tongue.

As if blood were rushing to heart, and then all over body As if left shoulder contained lead.

As if a string were tied round arms.

As of a grasping hand in upper arm.

Pains as if bruised, sprained, wrenched; as if bones smashed.

As if electrified. Pressure, throbbing, drawing, burning, are all common sensations.

The sensitiveness of Nux Vomica ^Nux m. comes out in the soreness of parts lain on.

The use of Nutmeg as a condiment has doubtless its origin in the fact that Nux Vomica ^Nux m. is specifically related to weak digestion.

It is indicated in conditions of excessive flatulence, and when the smallest excess in eating or drinking sets up indigestion.

The domestic use in menstrual irregularities has also a specific foundation. "Irregularity" is the chief note of the remedy here.

Much bearing-down pain; blood dark.

Uterine prolapse and displacements have been remedied by it, and threatened abortion warded off.

In pregnancy, labour, the puerperal state (convulsions, head jerked forward), it has a large sphere.

There is a cough occurring only when warm in bed, or agg. then.

In constipation with drowsiness, Nux Vomica ^Nux m. is as often indicated as Opium.

Faintness during or after stool is a great indication. Nux Vomica ^Nux m. is also haemorrhoidal and haemorrhagic.

Protruding piles. Haemorrhage of typhus; fetid flatus.

Incontinence of urine.

The haemorrhages of Nux Vomica ^Nux m. are dark.

All kinds of spasms and convulsions are developed in the provings.

Catalepsy. Clairvoyant state answers questions accurately quite out of her sphere, and on returning to consciousness knows nothing about it.

Jactitation of muscles, chorea, jerks in inner parts in muscles; recovers with a start.

Paralysis; with spasms and trembling; of tongue; eyelids; oesophagus.

Locomotor ataxy excited by cold and wet.

Puffiness, swellings, dropsy of outer parts.

Buzzing sensation with numbness of hands and feet.

The symptoms are agg. by touch.

Pressure amel. some symptoms and agg. others.

Lying on parts = soreness.

Riding in carriage = headache; water-brash; backache.

Rest amel. headache; agg. bellyache; backache; rheumatism.

Lying down agg. head. agg.

On side lain on. Stitches in spleen = bending double.

Motion agg. Shaking head agg.

Walking agg.; (amel. palpitation).

Many symptoms appear in the morning.

Drowsy by day. Dry mouth agg. evening and night.

Diarrhoea agg. night. Heat amel.; hot summer agg. (summer complaint of children); hot weather = loose feeling in brain.

Heat of bed agg. or = cough.

Warmth of room = hands to feel as if frozen.

Warmth amel. other symptoms.

Open air agg. Walking against wind = hoarseness. agg.

Damp, wet weather; cold weather; getting wet; before a shower; washing.

A bath = check of menstrual flow. agg.

After eating and drinking; after cold drink.

Drinking = dry cough; colic.

Drinking beer = strangury.

Brandy = electrifying effect.

Milk = diarrhoea. Alcohol agg.

Eating a little too much = headache. Nux Vomica ^Nux m. is suited to Children.

Women. Pregnant women.

Persons with cool, dry skin, who do no t easily perspire.

Weakness of old age. Dyspepsia of old people.

Constitutions with stiff, straight hair rather than crisp and curly.

Delicate constitutions.

Hydrogenoid constitution.

P. P. Wells (Med. Adv., xxi. 84) says that "in brain affections of infantile life.

Hysterical temperament, Ignatia ^Ign. (Nux Vomica ^Nux m. has excessive dryness of mouth).

Rheumatism of left deltoid, Mg. c., Ferrum Met ^Ferr. (right deltoid, Sanguinaria Canadensis ^Sang.).

Prolapsus uteri, Aesculus ^AEsc. h., Sepia ^Sep., Platinum Metallicum ^Plat., Lilium Tigrinum ^Lil., Murex ^Murex, Nux Vomica ^Nux, Podophyllum Peltatum ^Pod., Pulsatilla ^Pul., Sepia ^Sep. All ailments accompanied by sleepiness, Antimonium Tartaricum ^{Ant. t}., Op.

Loss of memory, Anacardium ^Anac., Lac c., Lycopodium ^Lyc.

Does not recognise well-known streets, Can. i., Lachesis ^Lach., Camphora ^Camph. bro.

Dry mouth, Agaricus Muscarius ^Agar., Lachesis ^Lach.

Dry throat without thirst, Pulsatilla ^Puls.

Soreness of parts lain on, Baptisia Tinctoria ^Bapt., Pyr.

Distress in stomach while eating or immediately after, Kali Bich ^{K. bi.}.

Epidemic in autumn, white, fetid stools, Colchicum Autumnale ^Colch.

Leucorrhoea in place of menses, Cocculus Indicus ^Cocculus.

Physometra, Bro., Lycopodium ^Lyc., Lac c. Sudden hoarseness from walking against wind, Euphras., Hep Sulph Calc ^Hep. Cough during pregnancy, Conium Mac ^Con. (of menstrual period, Lachesis ^Lach.).

Effects of getting wet.

damp weather. lying in damp places, Natrum Sulphuricum ^{Nat. s}., Rhododendron ^Rhod., Rhus Tox ^Rhus.

of cold, moist winds, Arsenicum Album ^Ars., Calc Carb ^Calc., Dulcamara ^Dulc. (cold, dry winds, Aconite ^Aco., Bryonia ^Bry.).

Effect of riding in carriage, Cocculus Indicus ^Coccul. agg.

Lying on painful side (Pulsatilla ^Puls. agg. on painless).

Pressure and pushing towards genitals, Nat Mur ^{Nat. m}., Belladonna ^Bell., Sepia ^Sep., Sulphur ^Sul.

Head tends to fall to left (Lac d. to right).

Nutmeg. Helbig. Myristicaceae.

* * *

Menses irregular in time and quantity.

flow generally dark, thick.

bearing down in abdomen, with drawing in limbs.

pains from small of back downward.

limbs feel weak, ache.

pain in small of back as if a piece of wood was lying crosswise and being pressed out.

pain in uterus at the outset.

tension in hypogastrium.

unconquerable drowsiness.

profuse, with fainting, drowsiness.

mouth dry. hysteric laughing, worse in open air.

scanty or suppressed, from fright.

from debility. a cold.

overexertion. in hysteria.

cramp low down in abdomen, constriction in the bowels.

sharp stitches in left lower abdomen, worse when sitting.

Nux Moschata is not a very great remedy; it has not a very wide range of usefulness, but it is often overlooked when needed.

We get into the habit of relying entirely on the polychrests.

The old women used to give nutmeg to hysterics, and wonderful to tell its provings justify its use. It must have had some palliative relation to the hysteria. The root is much stronger than the nut, in the same proportions, and contains the real medicinal qualities.

The patient appears to be dazed.

there is a complete loss of memory.

she is automatic in her actions. This is a wonderful state of the mind. She goes about the house performing her duties, but if interrupted, forgets what she has been doing, forgets that she was all day in conversation with her son.

she has no recollection of past events.

Sometimes it is impossible to find out what state of the mind is present she is so forgetful. She lies with the eyes closed and yet knows everything that is going on, but remembers nothing. She speaks with intelligence about the things of the moment, but knows nothing of the past. She prophesies, predicts with a sort of clairvoyance.

The mental state is the keynote. Sometimes she is worse in the morning, sometimes in the evening, or on waking. She performs all her duties and yet seems to be in a dream, she seems not to know her friends.

The sleepiness and the dazed state are two things combined, and when combined are difficult to cover by a remedy. This state is somewhat like Opium

Faintness and even fainting when standing long, such as occurs in a nervous woman standing to have a dress fitted.

There is a dry mouth, the tongue cleaves to the roof of the mouth in all complaints. There is great sleepiness and automatic conduct, especially in nervous women. It has cured petit mal.

The hemorrhages stand out in bold relief; hemorrhages from the nose, uterus and bowels. There is vomiting of blood.

The patient is sensitive to wind, to a draft, to damp air. She has a headache worse walking against the wind.

hoarseness from walking against the wind.

she is so sensitive to cold weather that she comes home dazed and sleepy from walking against the wind.

her mouth is dry but there is no thirst, she doesn't desire water (sometimes thirst is present).

The patient may hold water in the mouth without desire to swallow it. Nux Vomica ^Nux mos holds ice water and succulent fruits in the mouth to relieve the sensation of dryness. Often there is a sensation of dryness when the mouth is moist.

In the extremities there is numbness, tingling, prickling, paralytic weakness; there is threatened paralysis; momentary hysterical paralysis; coming for a short time and then going away.

Aphonia with a dry mouth, in hysterical patients; when walking out of doors. This aphonia passes away on going into the house.

The whole back is sensitive to pressure, the vertebrae are sensitive.

Nux Moschata has prolonged and inveterate constipation; prolonged urging to stool followed by a soft stool. (Alumina ^Alum., Psorinum ^Psor., China ^China) The stool is difficult but soft. He wonders why he has to urge for a soft stool.

Women In woman there are many troubles.

menorrhagia lasting ten or fifteen days.

the blood is clotted. the menses are too often, last too long, are irregular. The abdomen is full of colic.

cramping pains extending to be broad ligaments and down the limbs.

most distressing dysmenorrhoea from exposure to cold, riding in the wind or living in damp houses.

With this there is a dry mouth and thirstlessness; she wakes at night with a dry mouth; it seems as if the tongue cleaved to the roof of the mouth.

Nux Moschata is especially suitable for lean women, those who have lost flesh. The breasts are flat. I remember a case of a woman thirty five years old whose breasts which were once well rounded became perfectly flat. Nux Vomica ^Nux mos. restored the breasts.

Nux Moschata is a little remedy, but when wanted nothing will take its place.

Stupor insensibility, unconquerable sleep; sleepy with most all complaints.

Excessive dryness of the tongue, mouth, lips and throat; no thirst.

And worse cold damp weather, getting wet, or washing; after eating (bloating); better in room, dry weather.

Changeable humor; one moment laughing, the next crying.

The nutmeg, though frequently used for its peculiar flavor in common cookery, is nevertheless a powerful poison, hence a valuable remedy.

The mind and sensorium are profoundly affected by it, as shown by the following characteristic symptoms "Stupor and insensibility and unconquerable sleep." Again "Vanishing of thought while talking, reading, or writing." Again. "Weakness or loss of memory." Again, "Fitful mood, changing from deepest sorrow to frolicsome behavior; now grave, now gay." Again, "Absence of mind, cannot think.

The effect upon the brain, while producing a sleepiness and dulness almost equal to that of Opium, is of an entirely different character, the Opium being seemingly due to fullness of the blood-vessels and pressure, while that of Nux Vomica ^Nux moschata seems to be a benumbing of the very nerve substance itself.

All three of these remedies in bowel complaints of children have this symptom in common, but it is not hard to choose between them.

Another very characteristic symptom of Nux Moschata is excessive dryness of the mouth.

Mouth so dry that the tongue sticks to the roof, yet no thirst. The tongue, lips and throat are all dry.

Of course, there are other remedies having this dryness without thirst, such as Apis Mel ^Apis, Pulsatilla ^Pulsatilla and Lachesis ^Lachesis, but in this respect Nux Vomica ^Nux moschata is the strongest.

Then again Nux Vomica ^Nux moschata is greatly troubled with flatulence.

The abdomen is enormously distended, especially after meals.

Where are two remedies which have pain and distress in the stomach immediately after eating, even when the patient is still at the table.

They are Nux Vomica ^Nux mos. and Kali Bich ^{Kali bichromicum}.

With Nux Vomica ^{Nux vomica} and Anacardium Occidentale ^Anacardium the pain comes on an hour or two after eating.

With Nux Vomica ^Nux mos., everything they eat seems to turn to wind (Kali Carb ^{Kali carb}, Iodium ^Iodine), and fills the stomach and abdomen so full as to cause pressure upon all of the organs of the chest and abdomen.

Again there is diarrhoea with Nux Moschata.

It is very efficacious in cholera infantum, when the above mentioned sensorial symptoms are present.

On account of the stupidity, the yellow watery diarrhoea, and rumbling and bloating of the abdomen, I thought surely Acid Phos ^{Phosphoric acid} must help; but it did not.

I finally discovered the excessive dryness of the mouth, which had escaped my attention before.

Nux Moschata completed the picture of Nux Vomica ^Nux moschata.

Under the action of the 200th potency, the patient rapidly improved unto complete recovery.

So we must "watch out" when the seemingly indicated remedy does not cure, for it may not be Sulphur ^Sulphur, Opium, Laurocerasus ^Laurocerasus or Psorinum ^Psorinum that will have to be given, as we said when writing on Opium and Sulphur ^Sulphur; but we have not, no matter what the "seemings," chosen the homoeopathic remedy at all, and, as in this case, some symptom may appear that will change the prescription entirely.

Now we will notice in detail the mind and sensorium symptoms that we have given, by way of comparison. I will add to the comparison made between Nux Moschata and Antimonium Tartaricum ^{Antimonium Tart}. and Opium, Apis Mel ^{Apis mellifica}, which has soporous sleep; but it is interrupted by piercing screams, especially in brain diseases, where the sopor is generally found. None of the other remedies have these screams (cri encephalique) so prominently. "Vanishing of thought while talking, reading or writing" may find their similar under Camphora ^Camphor, Cannabis Indica and Lachesis ^Lachesis. "Loss of memory" under many remedies, but notably under Anacardium Occidentale ^Anacardium, Lycopodium ^Lycopodium, Bryonia ^Bryonia alb., Sulphur ^Sulphur and Nat Mur ^{Natrum muriaticum}. The "fitful, changing moods and disposition" is found under Aconite ^Aconite, Ignatia ^Ignatia, Crocus Sativus ^Crocus and Platinum Metallicum ^Platina. "Absence of mind," Anacardium Occidentale ^Anacardium, Kreosotum ^Kreosote, Lachesis ^Lachesis, Nat Mur ^{Natrum mur}. and Merc Viv ^Mercurius. I notice that those remedies that are oftenest similar to Nux Vomica ^Nux moschata in its mind and other symptoms are often found among the so-called hysteric remedies. And why not? For Nux Vomica ^Nux moschata is one of our best in this hydra-headed complaint. Taking together all of the symptoms we have been over, and adding to them that other one, "easy fainting," where can you find a more complete general picture of the average hysteric? I will not use more space here for Nux Moschata, but recommend to every careful student, and practitioner, who does not already understand it, a careful study of this certainly valuable drug. That it has not received the use in practice that it should is due, I have no doubt, to the fact that it is used so frequently in foods, that many think it cannot be much of a remedy.

Dose

First to sixth potency.

Region

SENSORIUM

Mind

NERVES

FEMALE ORGANS

Digestion

Children and old women

Characteristics

in the stupor, insensibility, and unconquerable desire to sleep

whether in idiopathic affections of the brain or in those occuring during cholera infantum

Nux Vomica ^Nux m. is one of the most precious remedies in the materia medica." J. C. White (H. P., xvii. 326) gives a striking instance of Nux Vomica ^Nux m. headache amel. by hard pressure in a man convalescing from a severe gunshot-wound of the head. He wanted the nurse to "bear her whole weight on it." With the headache was rapid, anxious breathing, as if he could not get air enough and the "wind would be shut off." Nux Vomica ^Nux m. always relieved it. The 3x was first given, then a higher potency.