ACONITUM NAPELLUS
Monkshood
A state of fear, anxiety; anguish of mind and body.
Physical and mental restlessness,
fright, is the most characteristic manifestation of Aconite.
Acute, sudden, and violent invasion, with fever, call
for it. Does not want to be touched. Sudden and great sinking of strength. Complaints and tension caused by exposure to dry, cold weather, draught of cold air, checked
perspiration, also complaints from very hot weather,
especially gastro-intestinal disturbances, etc. First remedy
in inflammations, inflammatory fevers. Serous membranes and muscular
tissues affected markedly. Burning in internal parts; tingling, coldness and numbness. Influenza. Tension of
arteries; emotional and physical mental tension explain many symptoms. When
prescribing Aconite remember Aconite causes only functional disturbance, no
evidence that it can produce tissue change--its action is brief and shows no periodicity. Its sphere is in the
beginning of an acute disease and not to be continued after pathological change
comes. In Hyperæmia, congestion not after exudation has set in. Influenza (Influenzin)
Mind.--Great
fear, anxiety, and worry accompany every ailment, however
trivial. Delirium is characterized by unhappiness worry, fear, raving, rarely unconsciousness. Forebodings and fears. Fears death but believes that he will soon die;
predicts the day. Fears the future, a
crowd, crossing the street. Restlessness,
tossing about. Tendency to start. Imagination acute, clairvoyance. Pains are intolerable; they
drive him crazy. Music is unbearable; makes her sad (Ambra). Thinks his thoughts come from the stomach--that parts
of his body are abnormally thick. Feels as if what had just been done was a
dream.
Head.--Fullness; heavy, pulsating, hot,
bursting, burning undulating sensation. Intercranial
pressure (Hedera Helix). Burning headache, as if brain were moved by boiling water (Indigo). Vertigo; worse on rising (Nux. Opium) and shaking head. Sensation on vertex as if hair were pulled or stood on end. Nocturnal furious delirium.
Eyes.--Red,
inflamed. Feel dry and hot, as if
sand in them. Lids swollen, hard
and red. Aversion to light. Profuse watering after exposure to dry, cold winds, reflection from snow, after extraction of cinders
and other foreign bodies.
Ears.--Very sensitive to noises; music is unbearable. External
ear hot, red, painful, swollen. Earache (Cham). Sensation as of
drop of water in left ear.
Nose.--Smell
acutely sensitive. Pain at root of nose. Coryza much sneezing; throbbing in nostrils. Hæmorrhage of bright red blood. Mucous
membrane dry, nose stopped up; dry or with but scanty watery coryza.
Face.--Red, hot,
flushed, swollen. One cheek red, the other pale (Cham, Ipec). On
rising the red face becomes deathly pale, or he becomes dizzy. Tingling in cheeks
and numbness. Neuralgia, especially of left side, with restlessness,
tingling, and numbness. Pain in jaws.
Mouth.--Numb, dry, and tingling. Tongue swollen; tip tingles. Teeth sensitive to
cold. Constantly moves lower jaw as if chewing. Gums hot and inflamed. Tongue coated white (Antim crud).
Throat.--Red, dry, constricted, numb, prickling, burning,
stinging. Tonsils swollen and dry.
Stomach.--Vomiting,
with fear, heat, profuse sweat and increased urination. Thirst for
cold water. Bitter taste
of everything except water. Intense thirst. Drinks, vomits, and declares he will
die. Vomiting, bilious mucous and bloody, greenish. Pressure in stomach with dyspna. Hæmatemesis.
Burning from stomach to sophagus.
Abdomen.--Hot,
tense, tympanitic. Sensitive
to touch. Colic, no
position relieves. Abdominal symptoms better after warm soup. Burning in umbilical region.
Rectum.--Pain with nightly itching and
stitching in anus. Frequent, small stool with tenesmus; green, like chopped herbs. White with red urine. Choleraic discharge
with collapse, anxiety, and restlessness. Bleeding
hæmorrhoids (Hamam). Watery diarrha in children. They cry and complain much, are
sleepless and restless.
Urine.--Scanty, red, hot, painful. Tenesmus and burning at neck of bladder. Burning
in urethra. Urine suppressed, bloody. Anxiety always
on beginning to urinate. Retention,
with screaming and restlessness, and handling of genitals. Renal region sensitive. Profuse urination,
with profuse perspiration and diarrha.
Male.--Crawling and
stinging in glans. Bruised pain in testicles, swollen,
hard. Frequent erections and emissions. Painful erections.
Female.--Vagina dry,
hot, sensitive. Menses too profuse, with nosebleed,
too protracted, late. Frenzy on appearance of menses.
Suppressed from fright, cold, in
plethoric subjects. Ovaries congested and painful.
Sharp shooting pains in womb. After-pains,
with fear and restlessness.
Respiratory.--Constant
pressure in left chest; oppressed breathing
on least motion. Hoarse,
dry, croupy cough; loud, labored breathing. Child grasps at
throat every time he coughs. Very sensitive to inspired air.
Shortness of breath.
Larynx sensitive. Stitches through
chest. Cough, dry, short, hacking; worse at night and after
Heart.--Tachycardia.
Affections of the heart with pain in left shoulder.
Stitching pain in chest. Palpitation,
with anxiety, fainting, and tingling
in fingers. Pulse full, hard; tense and bounding;
sometimes intermits. Temporal and carotid arteries felt when sitting.
Back.--Numb, stiff,
painful. Crawling and tingling, as if bruised. Stiffness
in nape of neck. Bruised pain between scapulæ.
Extremities.--Numbness and tingling; shooting pains; icy coldness
and insensibility of hands and feet. Arms feel lame, bruised, heavy, numb. Pain down left arm (Cact,
Crotal, Kalmia, Tabac). Hot hands and cold feet. Rheumatic inflammation of joints; worse at night; red shining
swelling, very sensitive. Hip-joint and thigh feel lame, especially
after lying down. Knees unsteady; disposition of foot to turn
(Aescul). Weak
and lax ligaments of all joints. Painless cracking of
all joints. Bright red
hypothenar eminences on both hands. Sensation as if drops of
water trickled down the thigh.
Sleep.--Nightmare.
Nightly ravings. Anxious
dreams. Sleeplessness, with restless and
tossing about (Use thirtieth potency). Starts up in
sleep. Long dreams, with anxiety in chest. Insomnia of the aged.
Skin.--Red, hot,
swollen, dry, burning. Purpura
miliaris. Rash like measles. Gooseflesh. Formication and numbness.
Chilliness and formication down back. Pruritus relieved by stimulants.
Fever.--Cold stage most marked. Cold sweat and icy coldness of face. Coldness and heat
alternate. Evening chilliness soon after going to bed.
Cold waves pass through him. Thirst and
restlessness always present. Chilly if uncovered
or touched. Dry heat, red face. Most valuable febrifuge with mental anguish, restlessness, etc.
Sweat drenching, on parts lain on; relieving all symptoms.
Modalities.--Better in open air; worse
in warm room, in evening and night; worse
lying on affected side, from music, from tobacco-smoke, dry, cold winds.
Vinegar in large doses is antidotal to poisonous effects.
Relationship.--Acids, wine and coffee,
lemonade, and acid fruits modify its action.
Not indicated in malarial and low fevers or hectic and pyæmic conditions,
and in inflammations when they localize themselves.
Agrostis acts like Acon in fever and
inflammations, also Spiranthes.
Complementary: Coffea; Sulph.
Compare; Bellad; Cham; Coffea;
Ferr, phos.
Aconitine.--(Heavy
feeling as of lead; pains in supraorbital nerve; ice-cold sensations creep up;
hydrophobia symptoms. Tinnitus aurium 3x). Tingling sensation.
Aconitum Lycotonum.--Great yellow
wolfsbane.--(Swelling of glands; Hodgkin's disease. Diarrha after
eating pork. Itching of nose, eyes, anus and vulva.
Skin of nose cracked; taste of blood).
Aconitum Cammarum.--(Headache with
vertigo and tinnitus. Cataleptic symptoms. Formication
of tongue, lips and face).
Aconitum ferox.--Indian
Aconite.--Rather more violent in its actions than A. napellus. It is more diuretic and less antipyretic. It
has proved valuable in cardiac dyspna,
neuralgia, and acute gout. Dyspna. Must sit up. Rapid
respiration.
Anxiety, with suffocation from feeling of paralysis in respiratory
muscles. Cheynes-Stokes breathing. Quebracho (cardiac dyspna)
(Achyranthes.--A Mexican drug--very
similar to Aconite in fevers, but of larger range, being also adapted to
typhoidal states and intermittents. Muscular
rheumatism. A great diaphoretic. Use 6x). Eranthis hymnalis--(Winter Aconite--acts on solar
plexus and works upwards causing dyspna. Pain in occiput and
neck).
Dose.--Sixth potency
for sensory affections; first to third for congestive conditions. Must be repeated frequently in acute diseases. Acon is a
rapid worker. In Neuralgias tincture of the root often preferable, one drop
doses (poisonous), or again, the 30th according to susceptibility of patient.