Lithium

Lithium Carbonate, LiCO3.

Preparation , Triturations.

Authorities. (Hering's provings, Am. Hom. Rev., 3, p. 485).

1 , C. L. R., effects of triturating (to the third?); 2 , C. Hering, took half a grain of 3d trit.; 3 , same, took 5 drops of a solution 1 to 100 of Lithium Causticum which had stood three years; prover had for several weeks experienced a pain in the external lower part of the right scapula, which this morning showed itself on the left side also; 4 , a young lady, aged 20, took L. carb. 30, for violent pains in the region of the heart before and during menstruation; 5 , a young man with irritability of bladder took the 30th (case detailed as a whole); 6 , A. G., a young lady, took 1st cent. trit.; 7 , a man, aged 70, took 3d trit.; 8 , Dr. Neidhard, took half a small vial of 1st cent. dil., in evening, half next morning; 8 a , same, took 3d in evening; 9 , Dr. Geist, took 5th, 1 drop first morning, same second morning, same third morning; after several weeks, a dose of 2 drops; 10 , Mrs. P., took globules of 6th dil., on two successive days; 10 a , same, took 5th dil., twice daily for three days; 10 b , same repeated, three doses; 10 c , same, another dose.

MIND

• Memory for names less retentive than usual (second day), 3.

HEAD

• Confusion.
• Confusion of the head, with pain in sacrum when standing (third day), 9.
• Confusion of the head in both temples; a dull pressure from without inwards, with moderate pain in the left abdominal ring, like a pressing from within outwards (soon), (second day), 9.
• Head painfully confused on both sides (after ten minutes), 2.
• General Head.
• A young lady of twenty years took Lithium carb. 30th evening and morning, on account of violent pains in the region of the heart, before and during menstruation; menstruation ceased too soon and suddenly, and at the same time the pains in the heart ceased also Violent headache in the vertex and temples, on awaking in the morning (second day); headache still continues (third day); less (fourth and fifth days); very severe again in the left eye, in the temple, and in a small spot in the occiput (sixth day); very severe in the temple and vertex, and inasmuch as she thought vomiting might relieve her, she drank some warm water, but to no purpose; it is like a heavy weight upon the vertex and pressing in the temple; the whole head seems to large, and as if it were seized; the most violent pain is in small spots, and this in particular increased the nausea; could hardly keep the eyes open; they pained as if sore from morning till noon; when looking at anything the head became worse; she cannot remain lying down; it pains everywhere; when sitting somewhat better; relieved by going out (seventh day), 4.
• Forehead.
• Heaviness in the sinciput, especially in the frontal eminences; the whole day (second day), 8a.
• Heaviness of the whole forehead (after one hour and a half), 8.
• Gentle pressing pain in the left forehead, and subsequently over the eyes; the pain in the forehead becomes gradually worse and extends to the left side, with nausea (after one hour and a quarter), 8.
• Temples.
• Once, a transient pain in the left temple (third day), 10b. [10.]
• Pain in the left temple extending into the orbit, accompanied by gnawing in the stomach, began about an hour before dinner; the pain in the orbit passed away while eating, but came back about fifteen minutes after the meal, and at the same time was felt in the right temple; a fulness remained in the temples the whole afternoon (third day), 10a.
• Transient pain in the left temple, then in the right brow, during slow driving, .

EYE

• Heat in the eyes, 10c.
• In the right inner canthus a cooling sensation, as if from salt (after five minutes), 2.
• Eyes pained during and after reading, as if dry, and the lids especially were sore, 10c.
• Pains in the eyes as if little grains of sand were in them; decidedly greater in the left eye; later, stitches in the right eye (when making the trituration), 1.
• Brow and Orbit.
• Pain now and then in the right brow (three days after ceasing to take the medicine), 10b.
• Pain at the outer end of the right brow, gradually extending to the temples and about the ear (after ten or twelve hours), 10b.
• Pain inwardly above the globe of the eye; above the external canthus (after six minutes), 2. [30.]
• Twitching, drawing pain around the right eye, above on the external side especially, and deep in the orbit (after half an hour), 2.
• Pain, a burning-sticking sensation over the right eye outwardly (after twenty minutes), 2.
• Lids.
• Sore pain in the margin of the superior right eyelid, a feeling of dryness (second day), 2.
• Vision.
• The sunlight blinds him upon the streets , on a dull day (after half an hour), 2.*
• *On the second day of the menses, while reading, she was obliged to get up and go out of doors for a short time; when she came back she noticed an uncertainty of vision, and an entire vanishing of the right half of whatever she looked at; or if two short words occurred in succession, that on the right hand was invisible ; she tried each eye alone; it was the same with both; during the uncertainty of vision, pain over the eyes and tension, as if bound in the temples; this ceased while she was eating, but soon after it came as an unpleasant sensation in the temples, and remained, as a pressure, until in the night, and seemed to go away during sleep (after the proving), 10a.

EAR

• Pain behind the left ear in the bone, extending somewhat towards the neck and further (after two hours and a half), 2.
• Some pain in the right ear, with fulness in the temples (fifth day), 10a.
• Pain went from the throat into the left ear, and caused earache (second day), 10a.

NOSE

• Dropping from the nose in open air (after half an hour); also, later, in the room, 2.
• Coryza (dropping), (after half an hour), 2. [40.]
• Must blow the nose a great deal; more mucus hangs behind (in the nares), in the evening (first day), 3.

FACE

• Pain in the right side of the face from the root of a tooth (which had been sawn off) up towards the temple; not severe, but continuing a long time, in the afternoon (first day); the same pain in left side of the face; after breakfast (second day), 10a.
• Pain in the right malar bone, a sticking-burning sensation, going from below upwards (after six minutes), 2.

MOUTH

• Pain in the right molar teeth, a sticking-burning, going from below upwards (after twenty minutes), 2.
• Now and then, toothache on the right side and posteriorly (after three hours), 3.
• Toothache in a left lower molar tooth, late in the evening (first day), 2.

THROAT

• Sensation in the throat as though it would become sore (after half an hour), 2.
• Sore throat posteriorly, on the right side, as if sore when swallowing, for an hour (after eight hours and a half), 2.

STOMACH

• Appetite.
• For several days past, a striking decrease of appetite; neither desire for breakfast in the morning, not during the day any desire to eat anything; on beginning to eat the appetite is immediately satisfied; no desire for wine, beer, coffee or sugar; for several days, when eating and drinking, all further desire ceases, yet without any aversion (fourth day), 3.
• Eructation.
• Slow belching eructations before dinner; then pain in the left parietal bone (after three hours and a half), 3.
• Nausea. [50.]
• Easily nauseated, before meals, when driving (fifth day), 10a.
• Nausea, with the pain in the forehead (after one hour and a quarter), 3.
• Stomach.
• Restlessness in the stomach, and pain and heaviness over the brow, unaltered by the evening meal, and by walking out; towards evening, lasting until she fell asleep (second day), 10b.
• Pain in the epigastrium, a sticking-burning sensation, going from below upwards (after ten minutes), 2.
• A fulness in the pit of the stomach; she could not endure the pressure of her clothes upon the parts; pressure upon it with the hand would have made her vomit; she had never before felt so; before breakfast (second morning), 6.
• Painless, but unpleasant tensive pressure on a small spot in the neighborhood of the stomach, towards the right of and below and behind the epigastrium (after three hours and a half), 3.
• A sensation as if a heavy, hard body were in the stomach, only for a short time, soon after supper (third day), 10a.
• Gnawing sensation in the stomach, which increased almost to vomiturition, in the forenoon; it increased about dinner-time, yet she ate without repugnance (first day), 10a.
• Gnawing sensation in the stomach, before mealtimes, especially before dinner (second day); it began an hour before dinner, accompanied by pain in the left temple, which extended into the orbit; the appetite was good, and the gnawing sensation passed away while she was eating (third day), 10a.

ABDOMEN

• Hypochondria.
• Violent pain in the region of the liver, between the crest of the ilium and the ribs (upon the extreme right), such as she had sometimes had previously; and in the left iliac bone a pain such as she had often had before; on going out in the afternoon (second day), 8.
• General Abdomen. [60.]
• Pressure in the region of the liver, (after one hour and a quarter), 3.
• Very offensive flatus (second evening), 8.
• Very any small, penetrating, putrid smelling evacuations of flatus (first, second, and third days), 3.
• Pain in the abdomen, in the forenoon (first day), 10a.
• Hypogastrium and Iliac Regions.
• Violent pain horizontally in the hypogastrium, in the upper region of the bladder (after half an hour), 3.
• Moderate pain in the left abdominal ring, like a pressing from within outward, with confusion of the head in both temples; a dull pressure from without inwards (soon), (second day), 9.

ANUS

• Itching in the anus, very sharp, sudden, and short (after ten hours and a quarter), 2.
• A violently painful, dull stitch in front of the anus in the perineal region, from within outwards and from above downwards, when walking (after eight hours and a half), 2.

STOOL

• Diarrhœa.
• Wakened early by a pain in the abdomen, followed by diarrhœa, which was repeated now and then the next day; had five or six more stools, without much pain; gentle pains on the two ensuing days, 10.
• Very offensive diarrhœa (second night), 8. [70.]
• Diarrhœic stools, in the morning, immediately after chocolate (fourth day), 2.
• The stool, which usually passed only by considerable straining, because of its solidity, was soft and easily discharged (second morning), 8.
• Two hours after dinner, a hard stool, the first since day before yesterday (second day), 2.
• Stool first hard, then soft and bright-yellow (yesterday evening, he ate eggs in bread soup), (second day), 3.
• Constipation.
• No stool (first day), 3.

URINARY ORGANS

• Bladder.
• Pain on the right side in the ureter, and through the spermatic cord into the testicle, which, however, did not become sensitive to the touch, 7.
• Tenesmus of the bladder for awhile and then a discharge of clear frothy urine in great quantity, thirteen ounces; more than he could retain so long when in health; in the morning (second day), 2.
• Tenesmus of the bladder, and micturition in the street (between nine hours and a half and ten hours and a half after taking); before and for a short time after it, Lithium-pains in the region of the neck of the bladder and other parts of the urinary organs; the same pain in the region of the neck of the bladder on the right side, 2.
• Sudden violent tenesmus of the bladder; the dark yellowish urine is in much smaller quantity than usually follows such tenesmus, with him; seven ounces, instead of nine, ten, or eleven ounces (after two hours); (the next morning, the urine was turbid, without deposit or cloud, such as had always accompanied this phenomenon before); five minutes later, sensitiveness and pain in the middle of the urethra, a kind of pressure; yet without any tenesmus, 2.
• Sensation as if the bladder were affected (after twenty minutes), 2. [80.]
• Sensitive pain in the region of the bladder; a sharp pressure, more on the right side, like a flatulent colic (after two hours and ten minutes), 2.
• Fugitive, sensitive pains in the lower region of the bladder, somewhat towards the right before urinating; pains extending into the spermatic cords, more on the left side, after urinating (second day), 2.
• Urethra.
• (A customary burning of the urethra was diminished), (second morning), 8.
• Micturition.
• Passes less urine, although he drinks as much as usual (first day), 3.
• Urine.
• Urine redder (second day); more scanty (third day), 8a.
• The urine of the forenoon, two to three ounces, is peculiarly turbid, and forms a scanty flocculent deposit (second day), 2.
• After pain on the ureter and through the spermatic cord into the testicle, turbid urine with more mucous deposit; after which, the urine became and continued clearer than for a long time, .

SEXUAL ORGANS

• Male.
• Lithium-pain on the right side of the penis and at the root of the penis, throbbing stitches when sitting, at 8 P.M. (second day), 2.
• Gentle twitching to and fro in the seminal cords and vesical region (after two hours and a half), 2.
• Female. [90.]
• Menses a few days later, and also less in quantity, 10c.
• Menses occurred three or four days later, and were diminished (after five days), 10a.

RESPIRATORY ORGANS

• When lying down, has a violent cough, without expectoration, which compels him to sit up; the irritation which provokes the cough is in a small spot posteriorly and low in the throat; it consists of quick shocks, which do not seem to come out of the chest, not from low down, but they seem to be produced in the throat, only in short paroxysms, but very violent and exhausting; ceases gradually (after four days), 3.

CHEST

• Pressing pain in the middle of the chest outwards towards both sides, in the region of the fourth rib, with pressure in both temples, from without inwards, immediately, 9.

HEART

• Pain in the heart, 10c.
• She bent forwards over the bed, and felt instantly a very violent pain in the region of the heart; in the morning, after rising (fifth day), 10a.
• On rising to pass water in the morning, pressure about the heart, which ceases only after urinating (second day), 2.
• Pain in the region of the heart, twitching, like a dull stitch, lasting from five to ten minutes (after two hours), 2.
• Sometimes, a sudden jerk or shock in the heart (second day), 8a.

BACK

• A pain, or rather a feeling of soreness, on the right side, near the spine, below the loins, in a spot not larger than the end of the finger; sensitive to the touch, in the morning on rising; continuing all day until bedtime (fourth day), 10a. [100.]
• A pain, or rather a feeling of soreness, on the right side, near the spine, which seemed to change to a dull pain in the sacrum, and which did not pass away until she got up (fifth night), 10a.
• Pain in the sacral region (after one hour and a half), 8.
• Weakness in the sacrum, when writing, standing at a high desk, in the afternoon (second day), 9.
• Pain in the sacrum when standing, with confusion of the head (third day), 9.
• A violently painful, dull stitch from within outwards, and from above downwards, in the sacrum (after ten hours and a half).
• Pressure as with a dull point here and there internally, as if near the bone ; in the evening, most on the left side (first day), 2.

SUPERIOR EXTREMITIES

• Pain on the anterior side of the right shoulder-joint, near the insertion of the pectoralis major, at the margin of the muscle (after half an hour), 2.
• Pain in the metacarpal bone of the little finger of the left hand, in the evening (first day), 2.
• The middle finger of the left hand, which was chafed about two hours ago, is painful; a pain which goes from other parts towards the spot, precisely of the same character as the other Lithium-pains (after half an hour); the spot very painful (after three hours), 2.
• Pain along the middle finger towards the extremity, then in the left metacarpus, in an outward direction, with burning stitches as if it would itch, especially in the ball of the thumb; the burning-sticking pain, in jerks from within outwards, and ending in itching, seems to the prover to be characteristic (after three hours), 2.
• Burning stitch in the ball of the left thumb (after three hours), 2. [110.]
• Twitching pain in all the fingers, especially in the second and third fingers of the left hand, as if in or upon the bones, internally from the hand towards the extremities, throbbing, twitching; very sensitive during repose, but ceasing on pressure, on being grasped, and on motion; first on the right side, then on the left (after five hours), 2.
• For several weeks, on the borders of the nails, soreness, redness, and pain, only prevented from extending by constantly loosening the fold of skin from the root of the nail; it is more at the external angle, first of the left thumb, then of the right fourth finger, then of several fingers of the left hand, then of the middle finger of the right hand; the skin adheres more firmly to the growing nail; which had also been observed before and since (after four days), 3.

INFERIOR EXTREMITIES

• Hip.
• Pain in the left hip, in the night, 10c.
• Itching-burning pain in a small spot, externally on the right hip, then on the thigh, then on the outside of the little toe (after half an hour), 2.
• Thigh.
• Pain in right thigh (three days after ceasing to take the medicine), 10b.
• Pain in the right thigh in front and towards the outside, in a small spot, as if were the seat of insertion of a muscle (third day), 10b.
• Itching, sticking pain internally on the left thigh (after half an hour), 2.
• Knee.
• Great weakness of the knees on going upstairs this morning, but not at noon, nor in the afternoon and evening (first day), 2.
• The knees pain on going upstairs; but more the parts above the knees (after half an hour), 2.
• Pain internally on the left knee, a sticking-burning sensation, going from below upwards (after fifteen minutes), 2. [120.]
• Pain, a burning-sticking sensation above the right knee, and inwardly towards the patella (after twenty minutes), 2.
• Leg.
• Now and then, rheumatic sensations in the legs (after the proving), 10a.
• Pains externally, first in the left skin, then in the left hand (after two hours and a quarter), 3.
• Pain superiorly in the right calf, which goes downward (after half an hour), 2.
• Ankle.
• *The ankle-joints pain when walking, first the right the more, and then the left; frequent urgent pains, of moderate severity, of a sticking character, from within outwards, ending in a burning itching , in a small spot, more on the left side, in the evening (first day), 2.
• Foot.
• Pain and weakness of the feet, in the afternoon (second day), 9.
• Pain through the hollow of the left foot, extending horizontally to the outside of the foot, and thence along the leg to a little below the knee; this pain was the most violent and most persistent; when walking (more than twenty-four hours after last dose), .

GENERAL SYMPTOMS

• Paralytic stiffness in all the limbs and whole body (before three hours), 3.
• Lax feeling of the whole body, especially in the knee-joints and in the sacral region (second day), 8a.
• Pain and heaviness over the brows, and restlessness in the stomach, unaltered by the evening meal and by walking out towards evening, lasting until she fell asleep (second day), 10b.
• Slight pains here and there, sometimes becoming more violent, most perceptible in a small spot in the right temple (for several days together), (after three hours), 3.
• It seems to her as if the symptoms occurred earlier when the remedy is taken after breakfast, 10c.
• The pains on the left side were more violent, and lasted longer than the pains of the day before, on the right side (second day), 10a.
• Before the menses, the symptoms were most violent on the left side; after the menses on the right, 10c.
• A young man, R., who has been for several years tormented with a peculiar irritability of the bladder, a frequent burdensome tenesmus, which rendered all business, society, or travelling irksome to him, took for experiment Lithium carb. 30, from 20 to 100 globules; the first day, the first dose was taken after a regular stool, after breakfast; an hour afterwards, a second stool, which was quite uncommon; in the evening, the second dose; at night lustful dreams; on awaking, micturition, and after it a violent erection and lustful feeling, such as he had never before had, for an hour; then he slept again; this night he waked two or three times again with erection, tenesmus vesicæ, and lascivious titillation in the urethra; and, on account of the erection, he could not pass water; when, however, he succeeded in doing so, the erection ceased entirely; therewith, pain in the bladder, and scanty urine, about three wine-glassfuls. The second day in the morning, he took nothing; urinated more frequently and more copiously, and had after it the lustful titillation in the urethra; his customary bladder symptoms, however, did not appear; at noon he took the third dose; at 2 P.M. a disposition to weep over this lonesome condition, so that he sobbed, the nose being full of water; the whole afternoon, very frequent urination; in the evening, 9 o'clock, the fourth dose; this night, again, lustful dreams; on awaking tenesmus vesicæ and erection, which ceased after urinating. The third day, in the morning, the fifth dose; urination; noon, the sixth dose; afternoon, better; evening, the seventh dose. The first three days, he had expectoration of mucus from the choanæ and fauces, in thick masses, especially morning and forenoon; at noon, the whole abdomen felt as if swollen, distended with wind; from 3 P.M. till 10 in the evening frequent discharge of very offensive flatus. The third day, in the morning, the urine was scanty, dark, and very acrid; pain on passing it, as when lye passes over an irritable surface; the evacuation of it is thereby rendered difficult. The fourth day the same; and the whole day pain in the bladder; in the evening, sweat on the backs of the hands, while the palms are dry; itching on the sole of the left foot, on the inner margin, compelling to vigorous scratching; the offensive flatus still continues. The fifth day, on going out after breakfast, a constriction of the chest, then by hawking, an expectoration of mucus in great quantity, appearing to come from the middle of the sternum; the whole day, a restlessness, in the renal region; afternoon, again a pressure in the middle of the chest, pain in the bladder, frequent urination, yet all these less than formerly, and all ceasing gradually; after drinking water, unusual gulping up of water, and for a whole week diarrhœa after fruit, which was also unusual, and for which he took Nux and Puls; this increased the quantity of urine and the sudden tenesmus vesicæ; he took Rhus., whereupon the quantity diminished, but the irritation continued; he therefore again took Lithium carb. 30, 100 globules, whereupon it ceased. The following day he took, in the evening, the second trituration in water. The next morning and whole forenoon the nose was obstructed, above in the nose and forehead; the bladder less irritable until 3 P.M.; the acidity of the stomach ceased. The next day he alternated globules of the 30th and solution of the 2d trituration, and continued them for several days, without noticing anything, except a very copious sweat; he took on this account Lithium mur.; he had to go on a journey, and while on the road was seized with cholera, and subsequently with a cough, which indeed he did not connect with these circumstances, but which had already previously befallen him after many remedies taken at random. The same has had for several years a sore nose; the nose very much swollen, and was so, with a moderate redness, inwardly sore, and sometimes forming thin crusts or scabs; everything was on the right side; the nose dry and as if inflamed; at the same time his former bladder symptoms; frequent urinating, especially at night; after Lithium carb. , the nose became immediately moist, and every sign of inflammation, redness, and swelling entirely disappeared the frequent urination ceased, he slept undisturbed at night; the painful tenesmus of the bladder had been also relieved by Argentum nitr., which, however, does not act upon the nose; if he had both troubles together, he must take Lithium. As an entirely new symptom, he perceived, after taking Lithium, fine twitching stitches through the pubis, passing from behind forwards and across, as fine as the smallest line, passing suddenly and like lightning hither and thither, and repeated every time after taking it anew; it leaves an enduring pain after it; after repeated doses he feels, over and over as if beaten, stiff and sore in all bones, joints, and muscles; he took for this in alternation Bryonia, which did not hinder the good action of the Lithium upon the other symptoms, until the general symptoms vanished, .

SKIN

• Intense itching, compelling to scratch until the part becomes raw, on the whole inner side of the right thigh, and also on small spots in the adjacent parts, late in the evening (first day), 3. [140.]
• Itching of the left middle finger, near the nail and around on the left side of the finger, in the evening (first day), 3.

SLEEP AND DREAMS

• Very sleepy; can hardly open the eyes, in the morning (third day), 9.
• Very sleepy in the evening (second day), 9.
• But little sleep, without restlessness (fifth night), 10a.
• Restless dreams (second night), 9.

FEVER

• A shudder runs over the anterior surface of the body, starting from the thorax, like a drawing together (after half an hour); (other shudderings, subsequently, starting from other regions), 3.
• General feeling of heat in the body (second day), 8a.

CONDITIONS

• Aggravation.
• ( Night ), Pain in foot.
• ( Slow driving ), Pain in temple, etc.
• ( Lying down ), Headache; cough.
• ( Reading ), Pain in eyes.
• ( Rest ), Pain in fingers.
• ( Standing ), Pain in sacrum.
• ( Walking ), Stitch in perineal region; pain through hollow of foot.
• Amelioration.
• ( Going out ), Headache.