Boenninghausen's Characteristics: Materia Medica
Causticum caust.
Mind
Sorrowful thoughts with weeping, day and night. Timorous anxiety and apprehension. Fear at night. Peevish, quarrelsome and self - opinionated.
Vertigo
Dizzy, with weak feeling in head.
Head
Congestion to, with roaring in head and ears. Loose feeling in brain. Feeling of an empty space between frontal bone and brain. Stitches in vertex and both temples. Tensive ache externally as well as internally, most in forehead and temples. Worse: Evening, early on awaking, walking in cold, open air, lying on back, sitting upright, reading. Better: Lying in bed, warmth, opening eyes.
External Head
Itching sticking in many parts of. Numbness on occiput. Tensive tearing in muscles especially of sides and behind ears. Tension and tightness of skin of. Worse: Drafts, dry or open air, cold wind, scratching, rubbing. Better: in warm bed or room, moist weather, washing.
Eyes
Inflamed eyes and lids. Ulceration of. pressure, as of sand in. Warts in brows. Sees a dark web suspended before. Incipient cataract and amaurosis.
Ears
Earache as though everything would be forced out. Painful swelling of external. Roaring and humming in head, and before ears.
Nose
Eruption on tip. Warts on. Continued, stuffed coryza and obstruction of both nostrils. Coryza, dry at night, fluent in daytime.
Face
Yellow, especially on temples Eruption on, and on cheeks. Unilateral facial paralysis. Convulsive sensations in lips. Tension and tearing in lower jaw and chin. Trismus.
Teeth
Tearing in, and through upper and lower jaw. Elevated in their sockets, and very painful. Sticking in. Suppurating gums and dental fistula. Throbbing ache with painful easily bleeding gums and rending pains in eyes, ears and facial muscles.
Mouth
Dry. Much mucus in, and in pharynx. Inclination to swallow, with a swollen feeling in throat. A sense of coldness rising in throat. Roughness of throat. Soreness and burning in fauces. Voiceless, from paralysis of vocal organs. Difficult speech.
Appetite: Averse to sweet things. Thirst: For cold drinks, intense, with a small appetite.
Taste: Unctuous, greasy, in mouth.
Eructations: Empty. Abortive, with retching.
Nausea, etc. - Qualmishness during and after eating. vomits sour water followed by sour eructations.
Stomach
Pain, with heat of head and shivering over entire body, better lying. Spasm of. Pressure, after eating bread.
Hypochondria: Stitches in liver. Clothes are oppressive about.
Abdomen
Painful distension of. Protuberant, hard belly in children. Painfully swollen navel.
Stool
Too slender in from. Painful, ineffectual urging to, with anxiety and a red face. Anxiety after. Chronic constipation.
Anus
Itching. Hemorrhoids. Rectal fistula.
Urine
Thirst with frequent scanty micturition. Involuntary urination: When coughing, sneezing and walking, day and night.
Sexual Organs
Aversion to coitus in women.
Female
Menses: Too late, but profuse, during which the blood passes in coagula. First menses are delayed at puberty. Profuse leucorrhoea.
Respiration
Spasmodic tightness of chest, Intolerance of tight clothes about chest, they obstruct the breath.
Cough
Incessant, short, hollow, from crawling, tickling and much mucus in throat, mostly dry by day, loosening an acrid, greasy tasting mucus by night, which must be swallowed, better by cold drinks. Pain in hip while coughing. With sore pain in chest.
Larynx, etc
Chronic hoarseness with a low, muffed voice. Aphonia from weakness of laryngeal muscles. Painful soreness in, and in trachea when not swallowing. Laryngeal phthisis.
Chest
Rattling. Burning, sticking and soreness in. Pressure in. Oppression at heart with low spirits. Stitches about heart. Palpitation.
Back
Painful stiffness of, especially when rising from sitting.
Neck: Goitre - like, swelling of glands of. Moist herpes on. Stiffness and tension in nape, and down the back.
Upper Extremities
Drawing and tearing in arms and hands. Sense of fullness in hand when grasping anything tightly. Shortening and induration of tendons of fingers.
Lower Extremities
Pain in the hips as if luxated. Dislocative pain in the hip joint when stepping. Tension in knee and ankle joints. Marbled skin on legs. Children have an unsteady gait and fall easily Shortening of muscles of and tension in instep. Swollen feet.
Generalities
Gouty and rheumatic tearing in limbs, better in bed and from warmth. Contraction of flexor muscles. Distortion and paralysis of limbs. Paralytic, tremulous weakness of limbs when not in bed. Insufferable restlessness thro' entire body in evening. Epileptic spasms. Chorea. Sensitive to drafts and cold. The symptoms are intensified in evening, in open air and after drinking coffee. The primary action appears later, and the secondary symptoms continue relatively longer, then in other antipsoric remedies. Acts long.
Skin
True itch. Moist tetter. Excoriated in children. Painful varicosities
Sleep
Somnolency in daytime. Nightly sleeplessness with anxiety, dry heat and frequent starting up. Frequent walking on account of cough. Anxious dreams.
Fever
Pulse: Somewhat excited toward evening only, from ebullition of blood Chill: And chilliness predominate, often with coldness of entire left side of body. Great internal, quickly followed by sweat, without previous heat. Strong, internal, about midnight, Shuddering, spreading from face. Heat: In evening from six to eight o'clock. Overrunning body, then chill. Sweat: Profuse, when walking in open air. Sour smelling nightsweat. In early morning, about four o'clock.
Relationship
Allied Remedies: Asaf., Bell., Bry., Calc-c., Clem., Coccl., Coloc., Cupr., Gel., Graph., Hep., Ign., Kali-bi., Kre., LACH., Lyc., NAT C., (NIT-AC.), Nux-v., Phos., Plat., (PLB.), Puls., Rhod., Rhus-t., SEP., Sil., SUL., (SUL-AC.).