Picric Acid. HC 6 H 2 (NO 2 ) 3 O.

Discovered by Hausman in 1788.

Crystallizes in bright yellow needles or scales.

Provings by Couch, N. Y. J. of Hom., 1874, vol. 2, p. 149 ; T. F. Allen, Linsley and S. A. Jones, Allen's Encyclopædia, vol. 7, p. 519 .

CLINICAL AUTHORITIES.

Brain fag , Allen, Organon, vol. 3, p. 94 ; Headache , Hale, B. J. H., vol. 36, p. 389 ; Otitis , Houghton, T. W. H. Con., 1876, p. 649 ; Boils in meatus auditorius , Houghton, B. J. H., vol. 34, p. 356, from Hom. Times, Nov. 1875, N. E. M. G., vol. 11, p. 188 ; Enuresis , Martin, Trans. H. M. S. Pa., 1883, p. 59 ; Satyriasis , Allen Hah. Mo., vol. 13 ; p. 202 ; Spermatorrhœa , Allen, Times Ret., 1875, p. 89, from N. Y. J. H., 1874, p. 412 ; Posterior spinal sclerosis , Lilienthal, N. A. J. H., vol. 24, p. 64 ; Debility , Morgan, Hah. Mo., vol. 19, p. 101 ; Nervous disorder , Jones, Hom. Times, vol. 6, p. 70.

MIND [1]

Great indifference, lack of will-power.

Cannot collect thoughts ; quickly prostrated from using mind.

Disinclination for mental and physical work ; desire to sit still without taking any interest in surroundings.

Mental prostration after least intellectual work ; any attempt to study brings on brain symptoms anew, and develops burning along spine, with great weakness of legs and back, with soreness of muscles and joints.

Brain fag.

SENSORIUM [2]

Vertigo and nausea, with intense pain in frontal region and vertex ; could not sit up ; < from raising head.

Vertigo < from stooping, walking, going upstairs.

INNER HEAD [3]

Dull headache in forehead or occiput, may extend down spine ; < from slightest attempt at using mind.

Severe pains in neck and occiput going up to supraorbital notch or foramen, then extending into eyes.

Headaches, with dull throbbing, heavy feeling or sharp pains ; < from study or movement of eyes ; > from rest, open air and binding head tightly.

Any attempt at using mind brings on headache and causes burning along spine.

After every severe mental effort, intense throbbing headache, < at base of brain ; often with congestion of spine, increase of sexual excitement and violent erections.

Headache of students and overworked business men, or when grief or other depressing emotions have resulted in nervous exhaustion with passive congestion ; seat of pain is in occipito-cervical region.

Brain fag in a school-teacher ; so tired after her labors can scarcely reach home ; headache completely incapacitating her for work, begins in morning on waking, increases as day advances, always > by sleep at night ; chiefly affects forehead, extending gradually to vertex and involving entire cerebrum, with constant vertigo, < from motion, mental exertion, especially schoolwork and going up-stairs ; at times intense throbbing, at others dull pressing ; always > by quiet ; pain in eyes < moving them ; with the headache sense of terrible prostration, she feels so tired ; feels > in open air, but too tired and exhausted to walk ; after walking a few yards thinks she will never reach next block, it seems so far away ; sometimes unrefreshing sleep.

Brain fag of literary or business people ; slightest excitement or mental exertion, or any overwork, brings on headache.

Congestion of head with nosebleed.

Cerebro-spinal congestion.

SIGHT AND EYES [5]

Sparks before eyes.

Sight dim, confused.

Has to bring objects close to eyes to see them ; everything blurred as from looking through fog.

Pupils dilated.

Dryness of eyes ; tingling and smarting, < by constant use and by lamplight ; acrid, thick matter in corners in morning.

Feeling of sand in eyes, smarting pain, acrid tears.

On waking and for an hour, feeling of sticks in eyes.

Pressure over eyes < from studying and motion, > sitting still.

Severe pain over right eye, sharp, vibrating, intermittent.

Conjunctivæ yellow.

Eyes smart and burn.

Thick matter forms in canthi.

Eye symptoms < from artificial light.

HEARING AND EARS [6]

Otitis externa circumscripta, furuncle in ear ; burning sensation in external ear ; pain behind r. ear, running down side of neck.

Furuncular or circumscribed inflammation of meatus ; chronic or subacute forms ; debilitated cases with redness and localized tenderness of meatus. θ Otitis.

Furuncles in external auditory canal.

SMELL AND NOSE [7]

Nose full of mucus ; can breathe only with mouth open.

UPPER FACE [8]

Papules on face, which turn into small boils.

TASTE, SPEECH, TONGUE [11]

Sour, bitter taste in mouth.

Bitter taste with thirst.

INNER MOUTH [12]

Saliva frothy ; stringy.

PALATE AND THROAT [13]

Thick white mucus on tonsils.

Throat feels rough and scraped ; > from eating, < from empty swallowing and after sleep.

On swallowing throat feels sore, as if it would split.

HICCOUGH, BELCHING, NAUSEA AND VOMITING [16]

Wants to belch but has not the power.

Sour eructations with frontal headache.

Nausea, < in morning and on attempting to rise and move about.

Nausea, < 5 A. M. and when attempting to rise.

SCROBICULUM AND STOMACH [17]

Pressure and weight about stomach.

HYPOCHONDRIA [18]

Tendency to jaundice.

Liver full of fat granules.

ABDOMEN AND LOINS [19]

Rumbling of flatus in abdomen.

STOOLS AND RECTUM [20]

Stools : thin, yellow, sometimes oily, with much burning and smarting at anus ; prostration and ineffectual urging to stool ; yellowish-grey (like gruel).

During stool : burning, smarting and cutting at anus.

After stool : great prostration ; burning and smarting at anus.

Diarrhœa in persons exhausted by mental overwork.

URINARY ORGANS [21]

Kidneys congested.

Urine of abnormally high specific gravity and containing sugar ; albuminous.

Urine rich in phosphates and uric acid, and poor in sulphates and urates.

Albumen and sugar in urine.

Urine red as blood.

Dribbling after urinating.

MALE SEXUAL ORGANS [22]

Great sexual desire, with emissions ; emissions every other night.

Violent erections all night ; profuse seminal emissions.

Terrible erections, with restless sleep.

Overexcitement of sexual organs from irritation of cerebellum, in both sexes.

Priapism, associated with spinal disease ; erections violent, penis distended almost to bursting.

Satyriasis of three years' standing.

Impotence or weakness with irritability ; penis relaxed and shrunken ; coldness of genitals.

Spermatorrhœa.

PREGNANCY. PARTURITION. LACTATION [24]

In diseases of nipples ; (locally) inflammatory symptoms cease and skin becomes tougher.

NECK AND BACK [31]

Heaviness in small of back.

Burning along spine and very great weakness of legs and back, with soreness of muscles and joints ; < from study.

Tired aching feeling and some burning in back and legs ; in women.

Heat in lower part of spine ; aching and dragging in lumbar region, < from motion.

Tired, aching in lumbar region on awaking.

Urine intense red ; violent, long-lasting, painful priapism ; anesthesia of legs, with a feeling as if enclosed in an elastic stocking ; chest feels as if encircled in a tight band ; pricking, as if from needles, in legs and feet ; < from least motion. θ Myelitis.

Tonic and clonic spasms ; keeps legs wide apart when standing ; looks steadily at objects, as if unable to make them out ; limbs too weak to support body. θ Myelitis.

After doing much fine work, especially at night, gradual failing of eyesight, blur before eyes ; hands became very tired, even when doing but little, and was unable to manage them skillfully ; this tired sensation was noticed first of all in hands ; sat in a chair and desired to remain very still ; on attempting to walk pressed hand upon loin and slid feet along ground, as in a paretic condition, soon becoming exhausted ; constipation ; could not read a line without becoming much exhausted ; played-out feeling of whole body ; no will or power at all ; chilliness down back, in immediate region of spine, during damp weather ; paretic condition of lower extremities ; dull and heavy headache in occiput ; bodily exhaustion with mental clearness ; sleepless at night from exhausted feeling ; as soon as he falls asleep priapisms and seminal emissions, with or without sensual dreams ; semen ejaculated too quickly during coition. θ Posterior spinal sclerosis.

Completed the cure of a case of spinal exhaustion following acute disease.

LOWER LIMBS [33]

Great weakness and heaviness of lower limbs and back, with soreness of muscles and joints.

Great weakness of legs, especially left, which trembles ; heavy, like lead ; lifted from floor with difficulty.

Great weakness in region of hips.

Numbness and crawling in legs, with trembling and pricking as if from needles.

Heaviness of feet, with dull frontal headache.

Great coldness of feet.

LIMBS IN GENERAL [34]

Great heaviness in arms and legs, especially legs, on exertion.

Extremities cold.

REST. POSITION. MOTION [35]

Rest : headaches > ; pressure over eyes.

Lying down : headache better.

Raising head : vertigo worse.

Could not sit up : vertigo.

Stooping : vertigo worse.

Motion : vertigo < ; pressure over eyes < ; nausea < ; aching and dragging in lumbar region ; pricking in legs worse.

Walking : vertigo < ; up hill, readily winded.

Going up-stairs : vertigo worse.

NERVES [36]

Tired feeling : on least exertion ; all over body ; with heaviness ; excessive languor ; no desire to talk or do anything ; indifferent to everything ; is obliged to lie down ; it seems difficult to move limbs ; great muscular debility ; readily winded by walking up hill ; inclined to day-sleepiness ; poor appetite ; general sense of torpidity.

Generally "run down," owing to anxiety, loss of sleep, etc. ; left lower first and second molars had been recently filled and the gum between, in contact with the metal, became sore and painful ; inflammation extended to third molar, which was painfully loose, and also to upper jaw and auditory meatus ; a furunculoid swelling, as from lymphatic extension, appeared on the lower wall of latter, with soreness going from teeth to ear, on pressing jaws together ; dull pain in back of neck and head, due to astigmatism, returned in spite of glasses ; sexual system irritable but weak ; despondent yet enduring mood, with sensitive feelings.

Great prostration ; ears transparent ; face, neck, lips and hands of a deathlike whiteness ; three to five attacks of vomiting, coming on suddenly and without warning, ejected matter being of bright-yellow color and very bitter ; easily prostrated, slightest exertion obliging him to quit ; often the prostration caused by some little outdoor work in morning compels him to keep his bed the remainder of the day ; sometimes feels like dropping down where he is, as if he were unable to reach house ; mouth badly ulcerated ; tongue smooth, cracked, having appearance of alligator's hide ; mouth very dry ; dry feeling commencing in throat and working upward, causing him to drink often, but little at a time ; cannot double tongue ; a feeling as if tongue would crack were it not moistened ; sensation as of a lump back of thyroid cartilage ; very troublesome when swallowing ; appetite poor ; no desire for any particular kind of food, eats what is set before him ; what he eats tastes well and seems to digest well ; retires about 10 P. M. almost prostrate, but in a short time it passes away, and he quickly goes to sleep ; awakens a number of times in night to moisten tongue, but readily goes to sleep again ; when he awakens in morning feels quite strong, but this soon passes away and he dreads the day ; constipated eight months ; evacuation once in four or five days ; stool hard as a rock, sometimes bloody ; great straining, with pain during and after, easing up after a little ; head feels badly all through, but pain is on right side, extending from forehead back and in top of orbit of eye ; > in a cool room or lying down ; inclined to be drowsy ; sometimes feels as if he could sleep all day ; when walking up-stairs or up a hill has a sensation as if stairs or ground were coming up to meet him ; vertigo on rising from bed, chair or stooping position and immediately after work ; unable to retain urine, it was hot, almost scalding, but soon passed off, leaving him weak ; no erections ; scrotum lengthened, hanging down almost to knees ; penis retracted.

After a severe mental shock from a death, languor, exhaustion, feels so tired, wants to lie down and sleep all the time, which she would do if not aroused.

Neurasthenia.

Weariness progressing from a slight feeling of fatigue on motion to complete paralysis.

Paralysis from softening of cord.

Tingling of lips, formication about head and crawling, as of ants over surface.

SLEEP [37]

Sleep restless and disturbed by erections.

TIME [38]

Morning : thick matter in corners of eyes ; nausea < ; out-door work easily prostrates.

At 5 A. M. : nausea worse.

Night : sleeplessness.

TEMPERATURE AND WEATHER [39]

Open air : headache > ; work in, prostrates.

Cool room : headache better.

Pains < wet weather. θ Locomotor ataxia.

Amelioration from cold air and water.

FEVER [40]

Chilliness followed by clammy sweat.

Useful in typhoid conditions.

ATTACKS, PERIODICITY [41]

Every other night : emissions.

Every four or five days : evacuations.

Three years : satyriasis.

LOCALITY AND DIRECTION [42]

Right : severe pain over eye ; pain behind ear.

Left : leg trembles.

SENSATIONS [43]

As of sand in eyes ; as of sticks in eyes ; as if throat would split ; legs as if enclosed in an elastic stocking ; chest as if encircled in a tight band ; pricking as if from needles in legs ; as of a lump back of thyroid cartilage ; as if stairs or ground were coming up to meet him ; as of ants crawling over surface.

Pain : in eyes ; behind right ear ; running down side of neck.

Intense pain : in frontal region and vertex.

Severe pain : in neck and occiput to supraorbital notch or foramen, thence into eyes ; over right eye.

Cutting : at anus.

Dull, throbbing, heavy, sharp pains : in head.

Aching : in back.

Dull pain : in head ; in back of neck.

Smarting pain : in eyes ; at anus.

Burning : along spine ; of eyes ; in external ear ; at anus.

Heat : in lower part of spine.

Soreness of muscles and joints ; of throat ; from teeth to ear.

Pressure : over eyes ; about stomach.

Heaviness : in small of back ; in legs.

Dryness : of eyes ; of throat.

Numbness : in legs.

Played-out feeling : of whole body.

Weakness : of legs and back ; in region of hips.

Coldness : of genitals ; down back ; of feet.

Crawling : in legs.

TISSUES [44]

Restorative of a wasted and worn-out system.

Progressive pernicious anemia.

Cortex cerebri cerebellum, medulla oblongata and spinal cord were found reduced to a soft, pulpy mass, dark brown in color and loaded with shining, greasy particles.

TOUCH. PASSIVE MOTION. INJURIES [45]

Binding head tightly ; headache >.

SKIN [46]

Small furuncles in any part of body, particularly in ears.

STAGE OF LIFE, CONSTITUTION [47]

Man, æt. about 30 ; enuresis.

Man, æt. 35, lithographer, marked hydrogenoid constitution, father of two children ; posterior spinal sclerosis.

Man, æt. 62, weight 140 lbs. ; nervous disorder.

Woman, principal of school ; brain fag.

RELATIONS [48]

Compare : Arg. nitr . (headache and backache) ; Gelsem . (brain fag, occipital headache in sexual neurasthenia) ; Phos. ac . (tired feeling, exhaustion from sexual excesses) ; Phosphor . (effects of mental application) ; Petrol . (occipital headache) ; Oxal. ac . (softening of spinal cord) ; Sulphur (congestion of lumbar spine) ; Alumina (spinal pains) ; Silica (nervous exhaustion, sensitive spine).