Saccharum officinale

Sugar. (Including Saccharum album, White Sugar.) Saccharose. CzsHmOxx. Trituration. Solution.

Clinical

Ascites. Cataract. Chlorosis. Cornea, opacity of. Diabetes. Dropsy. Dyspepsia. Hair, rapid growth of. Headache, periodic Hoarseness. Liver, affections of. Ranula. Rheumatism. Rickets. Scurvy. Spleen, affections of. Tabes mesenterica.

Characteristics

Like so many other articles of diet, Sugar may be a poison and a medicine as well as a food. Sugar preserves food, as salt does ; and both sugar and salt have produced scurvy. Cases of scurvy-rickets in bottle-fed children have been traced to excess of sugar in their food ; and the exclusion of sugar from the dietary of the gouty, rheumatic, and the diabetic, shows the pathogenetic power it is credited with among practitioners of the present day. Acidity of the stomach and itching at the anus are common effects of taking too much Sugar. Lippe published " Fragmentary provings and clinical observations obtained principally from S. Boenninghausen and S. E. Bute, who proved the 30th potency on himself" (Allen). To these symptoms have been added others observed by Swan on a patient who accidentally discovered, after twenty-five years of suffering, that the cause of his trouble was Sugar, All the symptoms disappeared when he abstained from sugar in food or drink, and only reappeared when he took it again byway of experiment. Then, from two to four days after taking sugar, the same train of symptoms invariably occurred in this order : (i) A burning at pit of stomach. (2) A white coat on tongue, so thick as to cause stiffness of it. (3) Sharp burning pains run up from kidneys to shoulders, passing under scapulae. ( Pains in bones from head to foot, causing a rigidity of the muscles so that it was impossible to rise from bed till he had been rubbed. (5) Chill commencing in small of back and spreading up and down* Severe headache and occasional vomiting with the chill. Fever followed with headache, morbid hunger, and a hectic flush. (6) Increased urine, strong odour, white sediment. (7) Great pain in kidneys. (8) Constipation. (9) Sleeplessness. (10) CEdema of feet and ankles. (11) Weakness of legs, as if paralysed, causing staggering. (12) Painful jactitation of feet and legs during the burning in the stomach. (13) Oppression, slight cough, profuse cream-like expectoration, very offensive, cold. Sac, a. lom and 5m cured him of some remaining symptoms, and the 41m enabled hun to eat sugar with impunity. Swan also reports (Of. iii. 342) this case : Miss L. was continually eating candies, of which she was very fond, till her digestive organs were affected. A few doses of Sac. a. 30m changed her taste so that she ate no more, and could not even bear the sight of them. This case was also cured with Sac. off, : "Vomiting bile, < in night and at i a.m. ; old-standing dyspepsia, milk, eggs, and bread being the only food tolerated ; great longing for su, which > the symptoms." Farrington traces a great similarity between Sac. off. and Calc. Sac. off. is indicated, he says, in children who are large-limbed, fat, and bloated, with a tendency to dropsy. It has produced opacity of the cornea, and ought to cure it. The children are dainty and capricious ; care nothing for substantial food, but want Little ' nicknacks " ; always cross and whining, and, if old enough, are insolent, and do not care to occupy themselves in any way. Everything too much trouble. H. C. Allen relates (H. P., x. 478) a case of opacity of cornea cured with Sac. a. ; and with the same remedy in 2m potency he cured swelling round the ankles following rheumatism. According to Lippe, black-and-tan terrier dogs that eat sugar go blind. The cataract and amblyopia of diabetics are well known. Here, again. Salt and Sugar meet : Burnett has shown in his Supersaliniiy of the Blood that excess of salt in food has been an important factor in tue production of cataract The symptoms are < in early morning. < From anger. > In erect position (dyspnoea).

Relations p. 1061

Compare : Sacch. 1. In rickets, acidity, fat children, Calc. Craving for sweets, Arg. n., Sul. Rickets, Sil. Diabetes ; swelled ankles, Arg. n. Kidney-ache, Santal.

Causation p. 1061

Anger.

Mind p. 1061

Violent temper; irritable; quarrelsome. — Bilious, sanguineous temperament — Increased modesty of women. — Melancholic mood with the chilliness. — Dainty, capricious ; cross and whining ; indolent. — Lowspirited, hypochondriacal mood ; peevish. — Indifference ; as from homesickness. — Disinclined to talk ; want of interest — Stupid.

Head p. 1061

Giddiness from indigestion. — Severe headache with the chill. —Headache every week the same day. — Hair grows rapidly.

Eyes p. 1061

Eyes closed by swelling (and inflammation) of lids.— Varicose distension of vessels of eyes. — Ophthalmia. — Sight dim. — Cataract.

Ears p. 1061

Discharge of pus from ears.

Nose p. 1061

Sneezing ; diy coryza.

Face p. 1061

Changed expression.— Face : pale ; deathlike ; bloated ; œdematous. — Twitching of muscles of r. cheek over malar bone.

Mouth p. 1061

Dulness of teeth (with sour vomiting). — A white coat on tongue, so thick as to cause stiffness in it— Rhagades, cracks on the tongue. — Ranula. — Inflammation of salivary glands of lining membrane of mouth. — Aphthse of children.

Throat p. 1061

Ulcers in throat.

Stomach p. 1061

Morbid hunger with the fever. — Nausea early in morning.— Solent retching.— Vomiting of white, viscid, tough mucus.— Periodical vomiting. — Vomiting: of blood; add, making teeth doll; occasional, with the chill — Stomach bloated. — Stomach overloaded with sour mocns. — Disordered stomach. — Digestion : impaired ; weak, with acidity. — Burning at pit of stomach. — Heat in stomach. — Ck>ldness of stomach. — Pressure i& stomach, morning, fasting. — Painful constriction of stomach. — Painful sensitiveness of pit of stomach. — Pain in stomach with hypochondriacal persons.

Abdomen p. 1062

Liver : swollen ; indurated. — Bile increased. — been swollen. — Pain in liver and spleen. — Abdomen : swollen ; dropsical ; hard as a stone (in children). — Tabes mesenterica. — Swelling and induration of mesenteric glands.

Stool and Anus p. 1062

Congested and painful haemorrhoids. — Itching at the anus. — Diarrhoea, stools watery and debilitating ; of mucus and blood ; bilious. — Constipation alternating with mucous diarrhoea. — Constipation ; stools difficult.

Urinary Organs p. 1062

Sharp burning pains run from kidneys to shoulders, passing under scapulae. — Great pains in kidneys. — Increased urination ; strong odour ; white sediment — Urine diminished.

Male Sexual Organs p. 1062

Enormous swelling of scrotum ; r. genitals. — Increased desire. — Frequent involuntary emissions.

Female Sexual Organs p. 1062

Menses diminished. — Menstrual blood pale. — Suppressed leucorrhoea.

Respiratory Organs p. 1062

Irritation of larynx, causing a slight hacking cough, with yellow, saltish sputa, which floats on water. — Dry rawness in larynx. — Hoarse, catarrhal voice. — Hoseness from reading a short time. — Dry cough. — Cough with children. — Expectoration very offensive. — Breathing oppressed, cold expectoration. — Suffocative attacks, must be bolstered up.

Chest p. 1062

Chest muscles wasted. — Pneumonia. — Swelling of lower part of sternum. — Fulness > by expectorating. — Stitches in l. chest

Heart p. 1062

Rheumatic pain in heart region. — Pulse weak and irregular.

Limbs p. 1062

Tingling in limbs. — Emaciation of hands and thighs.

Upper Limbs p. 1062

CEdema of arms.

Lower Limbs p. 1062

*<Œdema of lower limbs ; hard as stones.— Paralytic weakness of legs. — Painful jactitation of legs during burning in stomach. — Cramps in calves.

Generalities p. 1062

Emaciation with great appetite. — Chlorosis: with dropsy ; after anger. — Plethora. — Fainting attacks.--&turvy rickets in children. — Pains in bones from head to foot.

Skin p. 1062

Dry skin ; perspiration suppressed. — Scurvy. — Pale and red blotches over body. — Panaritium. — Proud flesh in the ulcers. — Old her)>es.

Sleep p. 1062

Sleeplessness. — Starts in sleep.

Fever p. 1062

Chilliness from 10 a.m. till evening with melancholic mood. — Chill commencing in small of back, spreading up and down ; severe headache and occasional vomiting ; fever, followed by headache, morbid hunger, and hectic flush in cheeks ; no sweats except when weakened by repeated attacks ; before and during the paroxysm burning in stomach and back was simply intolerable ; no thirst. — Chilliness alternates with person.— Cold in the head. — Intermittent fever every one, two, or three days, irregular in its type. — Chill followed by profuse sweat. — Sweat on head (neck and shoulders).