Arsenicum album

Characteristic symptoms

It causes general emaciation, a wasting of all the tissues, robbing the blood of all its red corpuscles and of superinducing a general condition of anaemia, with all its usual concomitants, anasarca, dropsies, disorders of the gastro-intestinal apparatus, great loss of vitality ; cardiac derangements, pulmonary oppressions and cerebral and nervous symptoms ; drawing and tearing in the extremities, with impossibility to lie on the affected part, and remission only when moving the affected part ; pains seem intolerable, drive one to despair and frenzy, and come on principally in the evening, when lying down, after midnight, early in the morning, when rising after dinner ; a kind of desperate restlessness and anxiety accompanies the pains; burning pains ; periodic, typical appearance of the symptoms ; amelioration of the pains by walking about and external warmth ; the paroxysms of pains are frequently accom panied with secondary complaints ; anguish, excessive failing of strength and inability to remain up ; great emaciation and consumption ; trembling on account of debility ; cold, parchment-like, dry skin, also with blueness ; burning eruptions and ulcers, flat and ichorous ; laziness, sleepiness, dread of movement, great weariness ; starting of the limbs, when on the point of falling asleep and during sleep ; frightful dreams; general external coldness, with cold, clammy perspiration ; anxious heat at night, with burning in the blood-vessels, as if boiling water would course through them ; intermittent pulse ; perspiration towards the end of the fever or at the beginning of sleep ; religious melancholy ; excessive anguish and agony, especially at night ; fear of death ; fear of thieves ; vexed mood, with disposition to censure the weaknesses of other people ; beating pain in the head, particularly in the forehead over the root of the nose ; swelling of the he,ad ; suppurating crusts on the hairy scalp ; dim cedematous eyes ; yellowness of the whites ; difficulty of hearing the human voice ; burning coryza ; sunken, pale, livid, cadaverous countenance, with hollow eyes, surrounded by blue margins, and with blue nose ; swelling of the face, particularly under the eyes ; jaundiced appearance ; blackish, cracked, swollen or ulcerated hps ; spasmodic grinding of the teeth ; blueish, brown or blackish trembling tongue ; desire for brandy ; thirst, but can drink only a few drops at a time ; excessive nausea, so that he is obliged to lie down ; vomiting of blood or black substances ; vomiting of the ingesta, or as often as he takes a drink ; burning in the stomach, anguish, painfulness of the pit ; pressure at the pit, as if the heart would be pressed out of its position ; colic, spasmodic and cutting, driving one to despair ; burning and watery diarrhœa, with tenesmus and colic ; stools involuntary and unnoticed, excoriating the anus ; burning varices of the anus ; profuse and premature menses; corrosive leucorrhœa ; cough after drinking or after going in the fresh air ; orthopncea ; nightly suffocative fits ; palpitations while patient is lying on the back, ceasing on rising.