Tabacum
By Constantine Hering — The Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica
Tobacco. Solanaceæ.
Introduced by Hartlaub.
The provers were Nenning, Schreter, Hausbrand, Hartlaub and Trink's Mat. Med. ; Seidel's Collection, A. H. Z., vol. 12, p. 150 ; toxicological effects, Allen's Encyclopædia, vol. 9, p. 467 .
CLINICAL AUTHORITIES.
- Sick-headache , Alley, N. A. J. H., vol. 2, p. 394 ; Gastric disorder , Dudgeon, Hom. Rev., Oct., 1888 ; Dyspepsia, with craving for tobacco and stimulants , Smedley, H. M., 1872, p. 510 ; Constipation , Dudgeon, Hom. Rev., Oct., 1888 ; Use in chronic diarrhœa , Swan, N. A. J. H., vol. 19, p. 254 ; Use in cholera , Lippe, Hah. Mo., vol. 1, p. 425 ; Sporadic cholera , Gross, Knorre, Rück. Kl. Erf., vol. 1, p. 894 ; Cholera , Fleischer, Kurtz, Knorre, Rück. Kl. Erf., vol. 1, p. 964 ; Rück. Kl. Erf., vol. 5, p. 484 ; Constipation , Minnichreiter, Rück. Kl. Erf., vol. 5, p. 397 ; Asthma , Schleicher, Rück. Kl. Erf., vol. 5, p. 800 ; Whooping cough , Schrön, Rück. Kl. Erf., vol. 3, p. 84 ; A. R., Rück. Kl. Erf., vol. 5, p. 730 ; Insomnia , Blake, Hah. Mo., vol. 10, p. 375 ; Climacteric affections , Blake, Hom. Rev., Feb. 1, 1875 ; Hah. Mo., vol. 10, p. 375 ; Vomiting of pregnancy , Simpson, Hom. Rev., vol. 18, p. 211. Debility , Frost, H. M., vol. 5, p. 411 ; Ague , Allen, Hom. Phys., vol. 8, p. 525 ; Tobacco habit , Smedley, H. M., vol. 7, p. 510.
MIND [1]
Forgetful ; slow perception.
Difficulty in concentrating his mind for any length of time on one subject.
Idiotic ; epileptic idiocy.
Cheerful, merry, loquacious ; sings all day ; talks nonsense.
Becomes quite stupid, loses his senses ; precordial anguish, with faintness.
Melancholy ; anxiety > from weeping.
Sudden anxiety, with angina pectoris ; also with oppression of chest, driving him from place to place.
Excessive depression of mind, with indigestion and palpitation ; intermittent pulse ; great despondency.
SENSORIUM [2]
Vertigo : excessive heaviness in head ; with qualmishness in stomach ; deathlike paleness of face and sensation as if he could not support himself, increasing to loss of consciousness ; > in open air and by vomiting ; cannot rise up ; face deathly pale ; vertigo < on rising and looking upward, brought on by immoderate smoking of cigars.
Apoplexy and paralysis.
INNER HEAD [3]
Headache : with vertigo ; < indoors ; > in open air.
Sick-headache coming on early in morning, intolerable by noon ; deathly nausea, violent vomiting greatly < by noise and light.
When walking, indoors or outdoors, suddenly, as if struck by a hammer or club on right side of head, throws him to left. θ Ague.
Periodical sick-headache, lasting one or two days and generally brought on by fatigue or excitement ; intense, agonizing pain as if head would burst, and again as if brain were being bored out ; sought continually to hide her head in pillow, or to change it to a position that might relieve ; faintness, nausea and vomiting of food, and painful retching to vomit small quantities of mucus and bile ; skin pale and cold with clammy sweat ; breathing oppressed and labored ; face sunken and anxious.
SIGHT AND EYES [5]
Dimsightedness, sees as through a veil, evenings.
Heat and burning in eyes.
Contraction of lids.
Retinal images retained.
Strabismus, dependent upon brain troubles.
Amblyopia, vision twenty-one hundredths, refraction normal, divergence of one and a half lines behind a screen, diplopia in distance ; dimness and confusion of sight, as if black dots filled visual field ; < after stimulants.
Asthenopia ; strabismus ; white atrophy of retina with amaurosis.
HEARING AND EARS [6]
Nervous deafness.
Sensation as if ears were closed.
Ears burning hot and red.
SMELL AND NOSE [7]
Smell feeble.
UPPER FACE [8]
Emaciation, deathlike pallor of face. θ Cholera infantum.
Face : blue, pinched ; sunken ; deathly ; pale ; pale and collapsed, covered with cold sweat ; pale, with drawn features and deeply-sunken eyes, surrounded by blue rings.
Glowing heat in face, with redness, frequently only on one side.
Violent tearing in bones of face and teeth, in evening.
TEETH AND GUMS [10]
Drawing, rending toothache ; violent tearing pains in facial bones.
TASTE, SPEECH, TONGUE [11]
Cannot speak. θ Angina pectoris.
While reading cannot articulate ; hoarse, reads very indistinctly, quite contrary to habit ; speech difficult, unintelligible.
INNER MOUTH [12]
Burning in mouth and throat.
Frothing from mouth.
Mouth full of white tenacious mucus which must be frequently expectorated.
Increased secretion of thin, watery saliva ; spits much.
PALATE AND THROAT [13]
Throat dry, can hardly swallow ; burning in throat and mouth.
Violent constriction of throat. θ Angina pectoris.
Much viscid phlegm in throat.
APPETITE, THIRST. DESIRES, AVERSIONS [14]
Constant hunger ; nausea if stomach is not satisfied.
Complete loss of appetite.
Thirst : especially at night ; in cholera infantum.
Thirstlessness.
Does not eat, but drinks eagerly, < at night ; violent vomiting.
Dyspeptic ; uses tobacco ; knows chewing hurts him and has tried in vain to stop ; Tabacum 2c appeased craving for tobacco and stimulants.
EATING AND DRINKING [15]
Sensitive to smell of wine ; fumes all but intoxicate her.
HICCOUGH, BELCHING, NAUSEA AND VOMITING [16]
Hiccough.
Nausea : incessant, with frequent vomiting ; as if seasick, vertigo in paroxysms, cold sweat ; amounting to faintness, disappears in open air ; when moving in least ; with a sinking feeling in epigastrium.
Nausea and vomiting on least motion. θ Cholera.
Nausea and cold sweat remaining after Verat. and Secale checked stools. θ Cholera.
Violent efforts to vomit.
Vomiting : violent ; in morning, before breakfast ; of watery liquid, sometimes insipid, sometimes bitter ; as soon as he begins to move ; during pregnancy, deathly nausea ; of water ; of sour fluid, with mucus.
Seasickness, deathly nausea ; pallor ; coldness ; < from least bodily motion ; > on deck in fresh, cold air.
SCROBICULUM AND STOMACH [17]
Sinking at pit of stomach.
Cardialgia with frequent fluttering sensation in epigastrium.
Shocks in stomach, at night while sleeping, so great that patient is awakened.
Weakness of stomach.
Sensation of relaxation of stomach with nausea.
Dreadful faint feeling in stomach.
Spasmodic pressure in pyloric region.
Writhing in pit of stomach. θ Cardialgia.
Sticking in pit of stomach through to back.
Feeling of coldness in stomach with nausea.
Burning in stomach.
A lady, æt. about 70, ailing for upward of a year, always sick, constant pains in stomach, throws up all food, often mucus and blood, lives on biscuits and champagne ; moans incessantly from pain in stomach ; formerly chronic diarrhœa, now bowels not open freely, motions very small, light-colored ; urine color of blood ; sleeps badly ; feeling of sickness intense and constant ; Tabacum 2 relieved, but patient was tormented by smell of Tobacco, which seemed to be all through her ; could not divest herself of strong odor of tobacco she constantly perceived.
HYPOCHONDRIA [18]
Pressure, heaviness or stitches in liver.
Hepatic and renal regions sensitive to pressure.
ABDOMEN AND LOINS [19]
Gurgling in bowels ; shifting of flatus.
Abdomen tympanitic ; constipation.
Violent burning in abdomen, horrible pains, must shriek.
Spasmodic pressure in hypogastrium. θ Cardialgia.
Violent contractions in abdominal muscles ; navel retracted.
Coldness in abdomen.
Tympanitic bloating of abdomen ; dyspnœa.
Child wants abdomen uncovered, which relieves nausea and vomiting.
Spasms of bowels ; nausea, vomiting and cold sweat.
Strangulated hernia ; nausea, deathly faintness, cold ; cold sweat ; vomiting ; sudden cerebral hyperemia.
Deathly nausea and sickness ; slimy stool. θ Strangulated hernia.
STOOLS AND RECTUM [20]
Sudden, papescent, yellow-green or greenish, slimy stools ; tenesmus ; shifting flatus.
Diarrhœa : urgent, watery, painless stools ; stools resembling those of cholera ; with colic, nausea, vomiting, flatulence and soreness of anus ; with sudden attacks of extreme faintness, with cold perspiration.
Stools : yellowish, greenish, slimy ; papescent, fecal.
During stool : colic ; tenesmus .
Violent pain in small of back during soft stool ; tenesmus and burning in anus. θ Dysentery.
Cholera infantum : body cold, abdomen hot ; not satisfied until clothing is off abdomen ; stools yellow, sometimes greenish slime ; vomiting, debility, cold sweat ; icy coldness of legs from knees down ; warmth of body with icy-cold hands ; great thirst ; emaciation and deathlike pallor ; nausea and vomiting on making least motion ; violent vomiting and diarrhœa with debility and cold sweat ; face blue and pinched ; < at night.
Sporadic cholera : coldness of body ; distorted countenance ; fainting ; clonic spasms ; cold sweats and nausea remained after copious evacuations had been checked by Verat. and Secale ; nausea and vomiting persistent after purging yielded, recurring in constant paroxysms, with cold sweat, oppressed stomach, anguish and restlessness, cramp and tearing in limbs, occasional drawing in calves ; vomiting, sometimes in a stream ; body cold, face distorted, spasms, vomiting, or no stool or vomiting, but complete collapse ; all sphincters paralyzed.
Gastric cholera, when spasmodic condition prevails ; cold skin covered with clammy perspiration, cyanosis not prominent.
Sudden vomiting and diarrhœa in morning, discharges whitish, colorless ; attacks of fainting ; sitting up or moving caused vomiting ; stools every ten, twenty to thirty minutes ; deathlike pallor ; surface cold ; pulse small and weak. θ Sporadic cholera.
Attack of sporadic cholera after catching cold while overheated ; cramps with every attack of vomiting, at one time tonic, at another clonic ; loss of consciousness ; involuntary evacuations, generally accompanied, or quickly followed by vomiting ; whole body cold ; face distorted ; great prostration and thirst.
Constipation.
Chronic constipation, great pain in and tympanitic distension of intestines ; great dyspnœa.
An elderly lady whose bowels for last twenty years had always been a trouble to her, could not be moved without an enema, and very often not with one ; when moved stools generally were of a clay color, or at least mottled clay color and brown.
Habitual constipation ; paralysis of rectum ; spasms of anal sphincter.
Prolapsus ani ; great drowsiness during day when trying to read or study.
URINARY ORGANS [21]
Renal colic ; violent pains along ureters ; cold sweat, deathly nausea.
Increased discharge of urine, or scanty high-colored urine.
Paralysis of sphincter vesicæ, constant dribbling of urine.
Enuresis.
MALE SEXUAL ORGANS [22]
Nocturnal emissions ; without waking.
Genital organs flabby ; no erections or sexual desire.
Discharge of prostatic fluid.
Varicocele.
FEMALE SEXUAL ORGANS [23]
In climacteric period, also during catamenia ; subjective coldness, epigastric sinking, palpitation, slight diarrhœa, muscular relaxation, excessive sense of wretchedness.
Leucorrhœa of serous fluid after menses.
PREGNANCY. PARTURITION. LACTATION [24]
Morning sickness.
Nausea and vomiting, patient dreads least movement.
During pregnancy, insupportable pruritus over whole body, pyrosis, toothache and other gastric symptoms.
RESPIRATION [26]
Difficult, oppressed respiration ; paroxysms of suffocation.
Dyspnœa ; costiveness.
Hurried, anxious, irregular respirations.
Asphyxia.
Sticking under sternum, with inability to take a deep breath.
Continual paroxysms of sneezing, for weeks. θ Catarrhal asthma affecting nostrils.
Spasmodic asthma ; laryngismus stridulus.
Freely developed asphyxia ; great dyspnœa (almost as important as Hydrocyanic acid).
Periodical attacks of asthma ; sits up in bed suffering with extreme dyspnœa ; face blue ; terrified expression ; respiration short and rapid ; gasps for air, fears suffocation ; jugular veins swollen ; pulse 100 ; heart beats very strong ; liver and heart displaced ; spleen enlarged ; had ague for a year.
COUGH [27]
Dry cough.
Hiccough following a severe cough.
Cough and hiccough at same time.
Whooping cough, violent straining and vomiting, stitches in pit of stomach, inability to breathe deeply ; hiccough, as if he would suffocate, after coughing.
Cough produces in pit of stomach sensation as of a wound by some sharp instrument.
INNER CHEST AND LUNGS [28]
Very violent constriction of chest.
On taking a deep breath it seemed as if chest were too tight.
Sensation as if a crowbar were pressed tightly from right breast to left, till it came and twisted in knot around heart, which stopped, then leaped violently ; after the attack heart missed every fourth beat.
Tightness across upper part of chest. θ Angina pectoris.
Phthisis is said to make less rapid progress among tobacco workers.
Hæmoptysis, laryngitis, chronic bronchitis with general emaciation, anemia, palpitation, oppression and pains in shoulders at night.
HEART, PULSE AND CIRCULATION [29]
Palpitation : violent when lying on left side, goes off when turning to right ; in attacks, at night, with tightness across chest (angina pectoris).
Oppression at heart ; pulse feeble, irregular. θ Cholera.
Violent beating of heart and carotids.
Sudden precordial anguish.
Angina pectoris : pallor ; features drawn ; cannot speak or walk ; coldness all over ; sudden periodical anxiety ; violent constriction in throat ; tightness across upper part of chest ; nocturnal attacks of tightness in chest, with paroxysmal oppression and palpitation ; neuralgia up into neck ; pain between shoulders ; pulse small, irregular or imperceptible.
Heart's action very feeble.
Dilated heart ; frequent pallor, lividity of face ; diarrhœa alternating with constipation ; palpitation while lying on l. side ; muscæ volitantes ; tinnitus aurium ; dry cough, cardiac in origin ; paroxysms of suffocation with tightness across upper part of chest ; feeble, irregular pulse ; pains like those of angina pectoris shoot from heart down left arm, or up into neck, and involve different plexuses of nerves ; extremities cold and covered with clammy sweat ; neuralgia of face.
Functional diseases of heart, hypochondriasis, intermittent pulse, palpitation, dyspepsia, sinking, gone feeling in stomach.
Pulse : quick, full, large ; small, intermittent ; exceedingly slow ; soft, full and feeble ; feeble and irregular ; imperceptible.
NECK AND BACK [31]
Neuralgic pains into neck and between shoulders. θ Angina pectoris.
Violent pain in small of back and loins. θ Renal calculi.
Pain in small of back most severe after stool.
Throbbing in sacral region, evening.
UPPER LIMBS [32]
Left arm exhausted, painful.
Cramps in arms and hands.
Spasmodic contractions in arms and hands.
Hands feel lame, cold, then burning, with bloated fingertips.
Hands icy-cold ; body warm.
Trembling of hands.
Cramps in single fingers, especially while washing ; early morning.
LOWER LIMBS [33]
Legs icy-cold from knees down.
Cannot walk. θ Angina pectoris.
Formication in left leg from knee to toes.
Tremor and disabling weakness of feet.
Cramps in legs.
LIMBS IN GENERAL [34]
Coldness, trembling of limbs.
Cramp : tearing in limbs ; in hands and arms ; from toes to knee.
Spasmodic contraction of arms, hands and legs.
REST. POSITION. MOTION [35]
Changes position : to relieve head.
Lying : on left side, palpitation.
Sitting up : asthma >.
On rising : vertigo <.
On looking upward : vertigo <.
Motion : nausea and vomiting < ; seasickness.
Coughing : causes hiccough ; stitches in pit of stomach.
Walking : as if struck by a hammer on head.
NERVES [36]
Weary, languid ; tremor ; general debility ; feeling of great exhaustion ; profound prostration with cold sweat.
Restlessness, requiring continual change of place.
Mrs. H., black eyes, heavy black hair, nursing a babe of three weeks, complained of spells of debility, with cold perspiration, especially on feet and lower limbs ; < from least exposure to air ; goose skin ; weakness and numbness in general ; pain in head over eyes ; dimness of vision by spells ; no appetite ; had a hard labor and has not been well since.
Horrid pains with involuntary contractions.
Spasmodic contraction of muscles, spasms, general insensibility, relaxation.
Head drawn back, with rigidity of muscles of neck and back ; contraction of eyelids and masseter muscles ; hissing respiration from spasms of laryngeal and bronchial muscles ; alternate tonic and clonic spasms, followed by general relaxation and trembling ; retraction of abdominal muscles ; contraction of parts supplied with involuntary muscles, as intestines, ureters, etc., accompanied by intense pains, nausea, cold sweat, and speedy collapse, with asphyxia.
From excessive use of tobacco : convulsions, head drawn firmly back, with rigidity of muscles of posterior part of neck ; constantly recurring, rigid, tetanic spasms, muscles of back being principally affected.
Spasms of paralysis.
Collapse, anguish and restlessness, deathlike pallor, coldness, fainting, cold sweat, deathly nausea, without vomiting, or vomiting of water, when moving.
SLEEP [37]
Drowsiness, going off in open air.
Stupefying sleep, at night.
Insomnia ; especially with dilated heart.
TIME [38]
Morning : vomiting ; diarrhœa ; sickness of pregnancy ; cramps in fingers ; sick-headache begins.
During day : drowsiness.
Evening : dim sight ; tearing in facial bones and teeth ; throbbing in sacral region ; coldness and shuddering.
Night : thirst ; shocks in stomach ; palpitation ; stupefying sleep ; insomnia.
TEMPERATURE AND WEATHER [39]
Temperature and Weather
Open air : vertigo > ; headache > ; faintness and nausea > ; seasickness > ; drowsiness >.
Indoors : headache <.
Chilliness, with cold sweat.
Cold skin.
Coldness and shuddering in whole body, evenings.
Icy coldness of legs from knees to toes.
Body warm, hands icy-cold, or body cold. θ Cholera.
Sweat : cold on hands, forehead and face ; viscid, cold ; cold over whole body.
ATTACKS, PERIODICITY [41]
Symptoms come on in paroxysms.
Periodical : sick-headache ; asthma.
For weeks : paroxysms of sneezing.
LOCALITY AND DIRECTION [42]
Right : as if struck on head with a hammer, throws him to left ; spots on shoulder.
Left : pains in arm from heart ; formication in leg.
Right to left : as if crowbar were pressed through chest to heart.
SENSATIONS [43]
Sensation of excessive wretchedness.
As if struck by a hammer on right side of head ; as if head would burst ; as if brain were being bored out ; as if black dots filled visual field ; as if ears were closed ; as if seasick ; as if stomach were relaxed ; as if chest were too tight ; as if a crowbar were twisted around heart.
Pain : in stomach ; between shoulders.
Agonizing pain : in head.
Writhing : in pit of stomach.
Horrible pain : in abdomen.
Violent pain : in small of back during soft stool ; along ureters ; in small of back and loins from renal calculi.
Drawing rending : toothache.
Stitches in liver : in pit of stomach.
Sticking : in pit of stomach through to back ; under sternum.
Tearing : in facial bones and teeth ; in limbs.
Neuralgic pains : in neck and between shoulders ; in face.
Burning : in eyes ; of ears ; in mouth and throat ; in stomach ; in abdomen ; in anus ; of hands ; spots on face and right shoulder.
Drawing : in calves.
Pressure : in liver.
Spasmodic pressure : in pyloric region ; in hypogastrium.
Tightness : across chest.
Constriction : of throat ; of chest.
Cramps : in limbs ; in arms and hands ; in fingers ; in legs.
Shocks : in stomach.
Throbbing : in sacral region.
Oppression : at heart.
Dreadful faint feeling : in stomach.
Sinking feeling : in epigastrium ; in stomach.
Weakness : in stomach.
Heaviness : in head ; in liver.
Heat : in eyes ; of ears ; in face.
Coldness : in stomach ; in abdomen ; of hands.
Formication : in left leg from knee to toes.
Lameness : of hands.
Itching : in spots on chest and shoulders ; of whole surface ; as from flea-bites.
TISSUES [44]
Diseases originating in cerebral irritation, followed by marked gastric symptoms.
Emaciation, especially of back and cheeks.
Adapted to diseases of nervous system, where there is prominent irritation of functions of vagi, or sick-headache that comes on early in morning and by noon is intolerable, with deathly nausea and violent vomiting, greatly < by noise and light, with dreadful faint feeling at stomach.
Spasmodic contractions of muscles ; spasms and general insensibility.
Complete prostration of whole muscular system.
TOUCH. PASSIVE MOTION. INJURIES [45]
Uncovering : abdomen, > nausea and vomiting.
Pressure : hepatic and renal regions sensitive.
Motion of vessel : seasickness.
Strychnia poisoning : tetanus.
SKIN [46]
Skin : cold, in cholera ; livid, with angina pectoris.
Red spots on face and on right shoulder, burning when touched.
Itching, with red or yellow spots on chest and shoulders.
Violent itching of whole surface. θ Prurigo.
Dark, walnut color of skin ; jaundice.
Red eruption on back.
Pimples on chest and fingers.
Pustules on nape of neck and upper limbs.
Miliary rash on both cheeks.
Increased turgescence of skin, which is yellow, hot and dry.
Vesicles contain a yellow serum, and are surrounded by a red areola.
Itching as from flea-bites.
STAGE OF LIFE, CONSTITUTION [47]
Woman, æt. 26, single, for a year has suffered from ague, which greatly affected her health ; asthma.
Lady, æt. 30, lymphatic temperament ; sick-headache.
Woman, æt. 70, thin, sickly ; sporadic cholera.
Lady, æt. 70, suffering a year ; gastric disorder.
RELATIONS [48]
Antidoted by : Ipec ., vomiting ; Arsen ., chewing tobacco ; Nux vom ., gastric symptoms next morning after smoking ; Phosphor ., palpitation ; Ignat., Pulsat ., hiccough ; Clemat ., toothache ; Sepia , neuralgia right side of face ; dyspepsia, chronic nervousness ; Lycop ., impotence ; wine, spasms, cold sweat from excessive smoking.
Plant. maj . has several times caused an aversion to tobacco.
It antidotes : Cicuta, Stramon .