NATRUM HYPOCHLOROSUM. Authorities.

1 , Dr. Robert T. Cooper, Brit. Journ. of Hom., vol. xxxv, 1877, p. 337, Labarraque's solution (hypochlorite of soda), half a drop of the solution per diem, given well diluted in three doses before meals; any important alteration from this dose is stated; 2 , A. Jacobi, M.D., Med. Record, vol. xv, 1879, p. 243, a man was told to use internally 10 drachms of the chlorate of soda within six days, but he took the whole within six hours.

MIND

Much distressed, laughs, cries, and talks in her sleep; keeps her husband awake, 1.
(Lowness of spirits increased), 1.
Very low-spirited and depressed, could cry all day, 1.

HEAD

Vertigo caduca; a very constant and a very characteristic symptom along with an aching across the forehead, 1.*
Swimming feeling, as though the top of the cranium were about to float off, worse when looking upward, 1.
Momentary indescribable sensation all over her head, 1.
Paralyzed feeling of her brain, with a similar sensation in all her limbs, and numbness of the tips of her fingers, and recurrent fainting, 1.
Caused in a woman, æt. fifty-one years; great depression, and a feeling in the head as though the cranial bones were being crossed one over the other, and as if she must fall forward, a sort of silly feeling, with a nasty taste, just as she used to have after taking Iodide of potassium, but without the iodine coryza, 1.
(The headache across her eyes and over the vertex is increased), 1. [10.]
Pain across forehead, extending down the nose, and up over entire head, with great tenderness of the scalp, and a thumping noise in the ears, which is aggravated by lying on either side; has to place the back of her head against the pillow in order to gain sleep, 1.
Pain darting from one temple to the other, coming and going with equal suddenness, 1.
Throbbing headache in the left temple, coming on immediately after her midday meal, and going off after tea, 1.
Pain in the right side of her head going from behind the mastoid process to the upper part of the orbit, "across the eye," causes the eye to feel stiff and weak, aggravated by having slept, but continuing by day as well as by night, 1.
Pain under the right ear when swallowing, with much pain, tenderness, and swelling up the side of the head, followed by a most painful gathering, which burst and discharged strongly, 1.

NOSE

Influenza, with much nasal discharge, and sore places on the inside of her cheeks, which began on the left side, 1.
Epistaxis; the blood comes away both by night and day in clots, and is dark-colored. (Produced in a pregnant woman), 1.

FACE

Pain in the left side of her face, shooting up from a decayed tooth; the pain is worse the first thing in the morning, and the last in the evening, with the formation of gum-boils one after another, and sick feeling after taking food. (Produced?), 1.
Pain, neuralgic, in the left side of the face, from the lower jaw, extending to the upper, and across the eyes and nose to the forehead, coming on irregularly, and lasting from an hour to an hour and a half. (After taking the Soda chlorata for four days), 1.
A tugging pain in the left side of the face, aggravated by warmth, coming on every half hour, and flying up the side of the head to the ear. (Produced? In am unable to refer, while writing, to the source from which I took this symptom), 1. [20.]
Swelling affecting the upper and lower jaw of the left side, with swelling on the inside of the jaw, between the gum and tongue, with throbbing in the part, and shooting pain extending up to the temples and down the left side of the neck; relief from cold applications, increased by worry, not interfering with appetite, 1.

MOUTH

Teeth become loose, and a swelling forms along the right lower jaw, the gums are sore and the tongue swollen; there is much pain and tenderness along the jaw, which prevents his being able to masticate his food, but though this pain is worse at night, it does not hinder sleep in the early part of the night, but at midnight he awakes and does not fall asleep again till 5 or 6 A.M. This swelling suppurated in about two weeks. (Came on very soon after taking the Soda chlorata, in a phthisical patient), 1.
His teeth become brittle, 1.
The tongue is white and shrivelled at the sides, and there is a taste as if she had been sucking alum; appetite for meat fell off, 1.
The tongue is furred in the morning, and there is a constant putrid taste throughout the day, 1.
Swelling upon the right upper jaw, close upon the gum (gum-boil), very painful to the touch, 1.
Aphthous ulcerations in the mouth are a frequent result of using the Soda chlorata as a gargle, 1.
Sores on the inside of her cheeks, which began on the left side, and gradually spread over the mouth, with nasal discharge and influenza, 1.
Sore pimples come on the inside of the under lip at the commencement of the cold, 1.

THROAT

The throat becomes red and sore, (Observed in a man of twenty-one, whose health was quite good, except for a nasal polypus), 1. [30.]
Sore, irritable spots form in the throat and along both sides of the tongue, 1.
His throat invariably becomes sore when taking it. (Observed in several cases), 1.
Sore throat, with difficult deglutition; a flat ulcer forms on the tongue far back towards the root, after taking the Soda chlorata for a week, and goes away immediately it is discontinued, 1.

STOMACH

Nausea and sick feeling; she becomes drowsy during the day, and wakeful at night, 1.
When taken while the patient is recumbent the Soda chlorata gave rise to a feeling of sickness, 1.
A weight seems to fall from across the pit of her chest to the pit of the abdomen, and an aching, dull sensation, indescribable, but different from an ordinary headache, occurs on the top of her head after each dose, and lasts for a quarter of an hour, 1.

ABDOMEN

Swelling low down in the abdomen, going up to her chest, and causing dyspnœa, worse after eating, with a great deal of flatus, 1.
A Bloated, tight feeling comes after eating and drinking across the upper part of the abdomen, and which is not lessened by loosening her clothing, and is accompanied by a sick feeling. (This symptom came on in a girl, æt. twenty-one years, four days after she had discontinued taking Soda chlorata, which had disagreed with her), 1.
In a girl of twenty-one years, an aching pain in her left side at her waist, preventing her from sitting upright, 1.
After taking the Soda chlorata for a week she got a fearful pain in the lower abdomen, which settled in the right hip-joint, and spread over the whole abdomen, as far as on a line with the umbilicus; it lasted a week, leaving her free from a tenderness of the abdomen that she had had for a year, and free also of pain in the hip-joint (right), and of an inability to flex the hip upon the abdomen from pain; and besides, she ceased to pass "white gravel," which she had been voiding for the last twelve months with great suffering. (On referring to the notes of this previously trouble-some case, I can, with present experience, come to no other conclusion than that the primary cause was ovarian; the symptoms had followed upon the cessation of a metrorrhagia. The woman's age was thirty-four years, 1. [40.]
(There was an aggravation of the following already existing symptoms; soreness in the lower abdomen, as if bloated, with intense pain on placing her hand there; next day felt the tenderness with distended feeling higher up round the hypochondria, obliging her to unfasten her clothing; trembled all over; her knees felt too weak to support her body; the lower part of her back became excessively tender, and the burning in the vagina, an old symptom, reached an unendurable pitch), 1.

ANUS

In a woman, aged forty-two years, cutting pain like knives in the anus, which comes on every evening between 6 and 7 o'clock, and goes away during the night, but not at any stated hour, 1.

STOOL

Confinement of the bowels for three days, and then passage of a large hard offensive motion, 1.

URINARY ORGANS

Within twenty-four hours he suffered from diffuse nephritis. What little urine he passed was smoke-colored, and afterwards black. It contained a large percentage of albumen, blood, hyalin, and granular casts. Then there was complete suppression. There were vomiting and diarrhœa, headaches, and coma. He died on the fourth day, 2.
In a little girl of three, years, scalding when urinating, with soreness, itching, and smarting of the vagina, 1.
In a female, aged thirty-two years, it brought on excessive action of the kidneys after each dose, the patient was at the time supposed by Priestley to be suffering from cauliflower excrescence of the uterus, 1.
In a woman with mitral valve lesion a quantity of red sand was found in the urine for the first two days after taking the Soda chlorata. She never remembers such a symptom before. (The dose being one drop in a wineglassful of water), 1.

SEXUAL ORGANS

Almost unconquerable sexual desire after each dose, with priapism, 1.
Great sexual excitement comes on after each dose, in a man, aged twenty-five years, of impressionable temperament, 1.
She cannot take the Soda chlorata, as it causes a feeling as of "opening and shutting" in the womb. (In a healthy woman, aged sixty-five years), 1. [50.]
Uterine bearing down; severe backache, and headache affecting the temples and back of the head, making her feel "light-headed" and sickish, generally worse at night, 1.
Violent metrorrhagia, 1.
The monthly period comes on at once, a week before its time, in a perfectly healthy woman, after a dose of two drops in water, 1.
The monthly illness a week over time, and during the first day has more than usual aching in the back. (In a fairly healthy girl, aged twenty-one years), 1.

RESPIRATORY ORGANS

Cough, distressing, with a little phlegm, continual during the day. (In a woman, æt. thirty-five years), 1.

CHEST

Tightness on the chest, with dyspnœa, inability to move quickly; a feeling of weight in front of her chest; these usual symptoms become aggravated, and there appears as a new symptom pain under the heart, with catching inspiration; these symptoms ceased on discontinuing the Soda chlorata, 1.
(A feeling in front of the chest, as if something were gnawing at the chest, was aggravated), 1.
Pain across the upper part of her chest, off and on, and pain with fulness across the hypochondria, with pains extending down from both sides of her waist to the womb, causing a phlegmy discharge, 1.
Pain under the felt axilla and left mamma, aggravated by lying down, with a sickish giddy feeling. When walking about is obliged to keep sitting down, 1.

BACK

Much pain across the small of her back, worse on getting up in the morning, existing along with a want of appetite for breakfast, but a fair appetite for supper, 1.

EXTREMITIES. [60.]

An aching in all her limbs, and a feeling as if bereft of all power, and as though she would faint upon the slightest movement, 1.

SUPERIOR EXTREMITIES

Both hands are swollen every morning. (Observed in about three cases), 1.
Note-This morning swelling of the hands appears to be a very characteristic symptom.

INFERIOR EXTREMITIES

Pain in both hip-joints, and in the calves of her legs, with tingling extending to her toes, 1.
Extreme weakness in her ankles and knees, 1.

GENERALITIES

Rapid emaciation (in a girl of twenty-one years), 1.
She becomes quite overpowered (from 1/3 of a drop three times a day, in a woman, æt. sixty-five years), 1.
In a delicate, highly nervous woman, suffering from uterine weakness that followed two months after her confinement, the Soda chlorata, after removing most of the symptoms within the first fortnight of treatment, began to tell on the patient. She became very weak, with shooting pains all over the body, and in the limbs, especially between her shoulders, and at the points of her shoulders (the inferior angles of the scapulæ), worse in the morning before getting up; these shooting pains are worst in the arms, and very bad in different parts of her head; day and night, but principally by day, she has much headache, worse, if anything, on the very top of her forehead, an aching pain without throbbing, 1.
In a delicate anæmic woman, suffering from uterine weakness, the Soda chlorata caused a pain to appear in the left infra-mammary region, which affected the left side of the chest, the shoulders, and top of the head; the shoulders became stiff and painful, and the top of her head and side felt tender to touch and ached, an unbearable pain; felt drowsiness after meals, the left hand, and left alone, was swollen one morning after waking, and next morning the right only was similarly affected. The bowels became confined and less urine was voided, 1.
In a decidedly consumptive girl, æt. sixteen years, it improved her cough, and made her feel stronger; its continued use made her feel drowsy and lazy, as if she could lie in her bed all day, and her skin became covered with pimples, that smart after washing, and upon going into the open air; the slightest drop of cold water as a irritates these pimples, 1.
In a delicate consumptive girl, subject to convulsive seizures and bearing down in the lower abdomen, the first dose caused a strange lifeless feeling, which made her apprehensive of fainting, followed in about an hour by sickness; this was succeeded some three days afterwards by vertigo caduca ; the bearing down temporarily improved, 1. [70.]
Great exhaustion, as if about to die before the bowels act; sudden and forcible expulsion, with consequent complete relief, 1.
Aggravation of symptoms before each monthly period. (Observed in many cases), 1.
Pulsatilla is antidotal to many of the aggravations from Soda chlorata; Guaiacum seems to lessen the rheumatic and myalgic pains. The Pulsatilla influence I have several times observed, that of Guaiacum only twice. Strychnine overcomes the powerless feeling produced by it, 1.

SKIN

Pimples are thrown out on her skin, which smart when washed or when going into the open air; the slightest drop of cold water as a drink irritates these pimples, 1.
Pimply rash appears on her face and irritates a great deal, especially at night, 1.
In a woman of thirty-one years, from three-quarters of a drop, diluted: Red smarting rash on the face and neck, worse after meals or after warm drinks; a uniform redness, with tendency to blister, "as if from a mustard-plaster," 1.
Sores, angry-looking and moist, break out about the mouth, 1.
Small gatherings form on the fingers of both her hands, 1.

SLEEP

Drowsiness after meals, 1. [80.]
Drowsy during the daytime, wakeful at night, 1.
She is unable to sit down without falling asleep; her appetite falls off, but bowels are regular and tongue clean, 1.
Heavy sleep, with much disinclination to get out of bed, in the morning, 1.
The child, when asleep, has a ghastly look, as if dead. His sleep is quiet, 1.

NATRUM HYPOCHLOROSUM.