Cuprum Sulphuricum
By Constantine Hering — The Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica
Sulphate of Copper. Cu SO 4 5H 2 O.
The pure sulphate of copper is prepared by trituration.
Fragmentary proving by Berridge.
Observation of a case of poisoning by Cup. sulph. made by Guerard, Allg. Hom. Ztg., v. 36, p. 14.
CLINICAL AUTHORITIES.
- Baldness , Kissel, Frank's Mag., v. 4, p. 137 ; Syphilis , 50 cases, Martin and Oberlin, Gaz. Méd. de Paris, April 10, 1880 ; Inveterate itch , Bayes.
MIND [1]
Anxiety, or great apathy.
Remarkable disturbance of mind ; every utterance distorted.
SENSORIUM [2]
All senses vanish.
Vertigo, with prostration of strength, and dim sight.
INNER HEAD [3]
Violent pain in forehead, with severe tensive pain at root of nose.
After rising from bed, pain like a tight, narrow band all round head (on a level with upper part of forehead) and feeling as if top of head would come off ; < laughing or stooping ; > by cold wind ; desire to be quiet.
Shooting inwards in temples at short intervals, the left being first affected, > by pressing temples with hands ; irritability of temper.
Crawling, dull sensation in vertex, as if going to sleep, with a pressing-down sensation, and stupefaction.
Throbbing and roaring in head.
Severe headache, in morning.
OUTER HEAD [4]
Bald spot over right parietal bone, not depending upon any discoverable cause.
SIGHT AND EYES [5]
Eyes stiff and dim.
Eyes moving to and fro.
Icteric color of conjunctivæ.
Twitching of closed lids.
(OBS :) Trachoma ; granular lids ; catarrhal and purulent conjunctivitis.
UPPER FACE [8]
(OBS :) Face pale : emaciated, eyes sunken ; puffy, red, covered with great drops of sweat.
LOWER FACE [9]
Lips pale, bluish, at corners and internal edges.
TEETH AND GUMS [10]
Greenish tint along free borders of gums.
TASTE, SPEECH, TONGUE [11]
Taste : sweetish ; bitter ; coppery ; metallic on waking.
Tongue : white furred ; coated, bluish, cold ; swollen, stiff, as if paralyzed.
Tongue small, white, rough.
INNER MOUTH [12]
Burning in mouth and œsophagus in morning.
Sharp biting heat in mouth and throat.
Ulcer in the mouth, after fever.
PALATE AND THROAT [13]
Tensive pain in mouth, pharynx, root of nose, and stomach.
Choking and contracting sensation in pharynx.
Throat painful and as if burnt.
APPETITE, THIRST. DESIRES, AVERSIONS [14]
Loss of appetite.
Great thirst ; want of thirst with sweat.
Thirst with sweat and oppression of chest.
HICCOUGH, BELCHING, NAUSEA AND VOMITING [16]
Hiccough.
Excessive nausea ; qualmish nausea.
Vomiting forcible, returning from time to time.
Vomiting : of greenish-brown mucus ; of a bluish matter.
Nausea ; vomiting < after 5 A. M.
SCROBICULUM AND STOMACH [17]
Pressure in pit of stomach.
Distension and fulness of stomach rather than pain.
Burning in stomach.
Violent pain in stomach followed by faintness.
HYPOCHONDRIA [18]
Tearing pains in hypochondria, on inspiration, painful on touch as if bruised.
Liver enlarged.
ABDOMEN AND LOINS [19]
Pain in epigastrium, sensitive to pressure.
Abdomen swollen, tender, and painful ; flat and painful ; drawn in.
Constant cutting, burning pain in bowels.
Enteritis.
STOOLS AND RECTUM [20]
Urging to stool.
Four pultaceous, greenish-yellow stools.
Vomiting, soon followed by paleness and cold sweat ; severe efforts at stool, alternating with vomiting, frequent attacks of unconsciousness, copious stools.
Diarrhœa of children.
(OBS :) Chronic diarrhœa with ulceration.
URINARY ORGANS [21]
No stool nor passage of urine for twelve hours.
Urine scanty and bloody.
FEMALE SEXUAL ORGANS [23]
(In sick :) Profuse catamenia with violent pains ; induced three successive times by bathing frosted feet in the solution.
VOICE AND LARYNX. TRACHEA AND BRONCHIA [25]
Voice husky or veiled.
RESPIRATION [26]
Rapid sobbing respiration ; breathing short and labored.
Respirations anxious and frequent ; 48-50 per minute.
Anxious and interrupted breathing.
COUGH [27]
Hacking cough impeding respiration.
Croupy cough with very tenacious mucus.
INNER CHEST AND LUNGS [28]
Anxiety and oppression in chest.
Pressive pain in chest.
Painful contraction of chest, < after drinking.
Tearing pains behind sternum, extending over several parts of chest.
Hæmoptysis.
HEART, PULSE AND CIRCULATION [29]
Feeling as of a throbbing lump in heart internally, beating of heart seemed louder ; lasted five minutes, and went away gradually.
Sounds of heart weak and limited ; slight friction-sound at base.
Pulse : small, soft, or hard ; quick and small ; full and hard.
NECK AND BACK [31]
Uneasiness between shoulders.
Collection of wind pressing against back ; stiffness and pain on moving.
LOWER LIMBS [33]
Dull aching soreness in middle of tibia, when walking ; > at rest ; tenderness on pressure.
Formication in legs.
Great coldness of feet.
LIMBS IN GENERAL [34]
Extremities cold, nails cyanotic.
REST. POSITION. MOTION [35]
Rest : > pain in tibia.
Desire to be quiet : with headache.
Stooping : as if top of head would come off.
After rising from bed : pain as of tight band around head ; as if top of head would come off.
Inspiration : tearing pain in hypochondria.
Laughing : as if top of head would come off.
Moving : pain in back.
Walking : dull aching pain in tibia.
NERVES [36]
Restless, throws himself about in bed.
Restlessness at night ; twitchings ; trembling in the limbs ; copious stools.
Frequent subsultus tendinum.
Lassitude, debility.
SLEEP [37]
Drowsiness, frequently interrupted by abdominal pains.
TIME [38]
Morning : headache ; burning in mouth and œsophagus.
After 5 A. M., vomiting.
At 5 P. M. : pains < with restlessness.
Night : restlessness.
TEMPERATURE AND WEATHER [39]
Fire : sat near to > shivering.
Cold wind : > head.
FEVER [40]
Coldness beginning in small of back, going all over body, then suddenly going into legs, first left, then left, with shivering so that she sat near fire for a few minutes.
Skin cold ; shivering.
Internal, debilitating, exhausting heat.
Flashes of heat, with burning of soles.
Heat beginning on dorsa of feet, first left then right, then extending up anterior part of legs as far as knees ; lasted thirty minutes, then went off, leaving a sensation as if needles were pricking the parts for five minutes.
Chilliness, shuddering, heat and sweat rapidly following each other.
Cold sweat on forehead and extremities.
Copious sweat, without thirst.
ATTACKS, PERIODICITY [41]
Lasting five minutes ; palpitation ; pricking in feet and legs.
Lasting thirty minutes : heat of feet and legs.
Three successive times : profuse catamenia, induced by bathing feet in solution.
Rapidly following each other : stages of fever.
Frequent : subsultus tendinum.
At short intervals : shooting in temples.
From time to time : vomiting.
Chronic : diarrhœa.
LOCALITY AND DIRECTION [42]
Left : shooting in temple.
Left to right : coldness in legs ; heat on feet and shins.
Right : bald spot on parietal bone.
Inward : shooting in temples.
SENSATIONS [43]
As of a tight narrow band round head ; as if top of head would come off ; as of going to sleep in vertex ; as if paralyzed, tongue ; as if burnt, throat ; as if bruised, hypochondria ; as of a throbbing lump in heart ; as if needles were pricking on feet and legs.
Pain : violent in forehead ; violent in stomach ; in epigastrium ; in abdomen ; in back.
Tearing : in hypochondria ; behind sternum.
Shooting : in temples.
Cutting : in bowels.
Pricking : as of needles on feet and legs.
Burning : in mouth and œsophagus ; in stomach ; in bowels ; of soles.
Dull aching : in tibia.
Pressure : in pit of stomach ; in chest.
Pressing down : in vertex.
Soreness : in tibia.
Tensive pain : at root of nose ; in mouth ; in pharynx ; in stomach.
Contraction : in pharynx ; of chest.
Choking : in pharynx.
Twitching : of closed lids.
Throbbing : in head.
Roaring : in head.
Dull sensation : in vertex.
Uneasiness : between shoulders.
Formication : in legs.
Crawling : in vertex.
Itching : nodules on shoulders ; on skin.
Heat : sharp biting, mouth and throat ; on dorsa of feet, up anterior part of legs to knees.
Coldness : of tongue ; of feet ; in small of back ; in legs ; of skin.
TISSUES [44]
(OBS :) Destroys flabby granulations and exerts a powerful excitant influence ; its solution acts more feebly, and is sometimes employed as a dressing for indolent ulcers.
(OBS :) Fifty patients, who showed various manifestations of syphilis, were cured by the copper sulphate ; the copper salt proved more efficacious and required less time for its beneficial action than did the mercury salts ; in a case of very grave syphilis, where mercury had proved useless, copper effected a rapid and complete cure.
TOUCH. PASSIVE MOTION. INJURIES [45]
Touch : hypochondria painful.
Pressure : epigastrium sensitive ; tenderness in tibia.
Pressing temples : > shooting.
SKIN [46]
Skin pale ; icteric.
Itching nodules on shoulders.
Considerable itchiness ; a kind of dry itch.
STAGE OF LIFE, CONSTITUTION [47]
Man, æt. 38, strong, healthy, had thick, shining, black hair ; baldness.
RELATIONS [48]
Antidoted by : milk, eggs ; pure yellow prussiate of potash.
Compare : Kali bich . in croupy cough, with tenacious mucous expectoration ; Mercur . in syphilis.