– TESTE A, GROUP REMEDIES, GROUP I,ARNICA MONTANA
Sesquioxyde of iron; magnetic iron
– In the Alloeopathic materia medica, there reigns such a confusion concerning the compunds of iron, that it is absolutely impossible to find out what statements refer to one or the other of these compounds.
– Formerly, the so-termed eau de boule de Nancy was used in muscular pains, in paralysis, contusions, sprains, etc., that is to say, in affections to which the magnetic iron seems especially to corresponds.
– But this preparation, which is an impure tartrate of iron, is only remotely related to our ferrum magneticum.
– In this instance, therefore, empiricism is dumb, or, at any rate, has to be considered so by us.
– Jahr, this clever and indefatigable compiler, who has already rendered great service to the cause of homoeopathy, gives us in the last edition of his Manual, the synopsis of a pathogenesis of the magnetic iron, (Gaspari’s,) to which I refer the reader.
– This synopsis, short and incomplete as it doubtless is, deserves nevertheless to be read and studied.
– In some of the symptoms which the magnetic iron produces on the head and eyes, this drug seems to be somewhat analogous to pulsatilla, or rather graphites; all its other symptoms justify the place which I have here assigned to it.
– I am convinced (and my clinical observations confirm me still more in my belief) that the primary actin of Ferrum magnet. takes place on the organs of locomotion, and gives rise to general and partial effects, which, by a process of reasoning, may be ranked with those of arnica, and still more with those of rhus and spigelia.
– Until now I have employed this drug in a very small number of cases only, with the following results :–
– 1st. In a case of chronic rheumatism of the nape of the neck, in an old man with bad humors and an irritable disposition, (after Spig.)
– 2nd. In a case of compound capsular cataract, in a gouty patient; the patient was not cured, but considerably relieved.
– 3d. In a case of rheumatism of both thighs, and coming on after violent exercise; the patient was a servant, and was obliged to rub every morning the floors of a suite of large rooms.
– I treated him at two different periods for the same disease.
– The first time I gave him Ferrum magneticum after arnica, but the second time, four or five months after, I gave him Ferrum at once, and the effect was speedy and marked.
– 4th. Lastly, in a case of mercurial neurosis, in an individual who was very sensitive to medicine, and in whom ferrum developed some of its symptoms almost instantaneously with an incredible vehemence.
– One of the symptoms which had induced me to prescribe it in this case, was a painful contraction of the posterior cervical muscles, and against which none of the remedies which I had tried, had had any effect.
– Ferr. magn. was given in the sixth dilution, four globules in a tumblerful of water, two table-spoonfuls every day.
– The first table-spoonful, which was taken in the morning, seemed to produce a sensible improvement; but, a quarter of an hour after the second dose, which was taken at four o’clock in the afternoon, the sight became dim; a halo of fire, red and violet, was seen first in from of the right, and afterwards in front of the left eye; soon after, this halo, which formed a circular zigzagshaped line, became narrower and narrower, and finally produced such a complete blindness, that the patient assured me he was unable to distinguish night from day-light.
– This condition, which was undoubtedly very alarming, considering that my patient’s eyes were very weak, lasted about an hour, and did not pass off entirely until after a meal.
– This accident was followed by other much more distressing and alarming phenomena.
– Towards eight o’clock in the evening, the pain in the nape of the neck, which first was seated on the left side, passed to the right side, invading the whole extent of the trapezoid muscle, where it became literally frightful.
– For two days and nights, this patient who was a brave and strong man, and whom I had seen bear the most painful surgical operations without uttering a sound, suffered to such an extent, that he uttered heart-rending cries.
– Camphor, which was given as an antidote, seemed to aggravate this frightful pain; nor were Puls. or Bry. any more efficacious; rhus tox. effected some relief.
– This drug, however, did not prevent the recurrence, for eight days in succession, of the visual phenomena, although with less intensity than the first time, and at irregular intervals, generally towards six or seven o’clock in the morning, and sometimes even at night, in perfect darkness.
– A drug which is capable of causing such violent symptoms, must necessarily contain great curative virtues.
– I therefore recommend to my colleagues the study of magnetic iron, whose pathogenesis requires, above all things, to be completed.
– I am not yet acquainted with the true antidote of this drug.