Petroleum appears in 11 of the 13 classic books on Similia. Each was written to do a different job — here is what each adds on this remedy, with the opening of its entry.
- Allen HC — The keynotes that separate this remedy from its nearest neighbours.
“Coal or Rock Oil. (Anthracite) Adapted to persons with light hair and skin; irritable, quarrelsome disposition (Nux); easily offended at trifles (Ign., Med.); vexed at everything. Ailments: from riding in a carriage, railroad car, or in a ship (Coc., Sanic.). Ailments which are worse before and during a thunderstorm…”
- Allen TF — The raw proving record — symptoms as the provers reported them, unedited.
“Rock-oil; Stein-oel; Oleum petræ. The crude Rangoon oil, thin and light yellow, is to be used. Authorities.”
- Boericke — The quick clinical read — keynotes, modalities and the conditions it is actually prescribed in.
“Crude Rock-oil Strumous diathesis, especially the dark type, who suffer from catarrhal conditions of the mucous membranes, gastric acidity and cutaneous eruptions. Very marked skin symptoms, acting on sweat and oil glands; Ailments are worse during the winter season. Ailments from riding in cars, carriages, or ships…”
- Boger (GA) — Which general headings this remedy belongs under — the analytical scaffolding.
“ALBUMINOUS, glairy discharges (Comp. Gelatinous) APPETITE, Changed CHANGE OF TEMPERATURE, weather, seasons, oncoming storms, etc. Agg. CRACKING JOINTS CRACKS, fissures, chaps, etc. DUALITY, IN PIECES, SEPARATED, AS IF SOME ONE ELSE, ETC. EARS EATING, a little, Agg. FISTULAE ITCHING, tickling, etc., internal LYING…”
- Clarke — The widest entry — sources, provings, clinical uses, relationships and antidotes in one place.
“Oleum petræ. Rock-oil. Coal Oil. Trituration and tincture of the rectified oil. (Preparations of the non-rectified oil should also be made.) Addison's disease / Albuminuria / Anæmia / Angina pectoris / Anus, fissure of / Bed-sores / Breath, offensive / Burns / Chilblains / Chlorosis / Constipation / Cracks in skin /…”
- Hering — Graded symptoms, each weighted by how often provers and practice confirmed it.
“Rock or Coal Oil. Anthracite. Introduced by Hahnemann and proved by himself and Froissac, Chronische Krankheiten, vol. 4 ; Benson, Trans. Hom. Med. Soc. N. Y. State, 1868, p. 297 ; Schelling, A. H. Z., vol. 83, p. 189 ; Berridge, N. A. J. H., N. S., vol. 2, p. 51. CLINICAL AUTHORITIES. Mental disturbance , Knorre…”
- Kent — The mental and general picture — who the patient is, before what the remedy cures.
“It is one of the abused remedies. It is used externally in rheumatism, bruises and all sorts of troubles, and the amelioration that comes is the result of establishing a disease on the surface, by counter-irritation, and not by homoeopathic action. Crude Petroleum is extensively used in the oil regions on both man and…”
- Lippe (MM) — The strict Hahnemannian reading — the symptom picture without clinical interpretation.
“Excited, irritable, with inclination to anger and to scold; anxious and irresolute. Sadness and despondency, inclination to weep. Weakness of memory. Delirium; imagination; thinks another person is lying with him in bed; or always and continuously delirious talk of the same distressing and unpleasant subject. Headache…”
- Lippe (Red) — Keynotes with the most-trusted ones marked as red-line symptoms.
“Common names: rock oil; coal oil. It acts prominently on the skin, producing eczema, fissures and pustules, and upon the glandular and digestive systems (D.). Particularly indicated in diseases of the ears, mucous membranes, skin, and joints (Ml.). Symptoms appear and disappear rapidly (Bell., Mag-P.; reverse of…”
- Nash — The comparisons — the remedy set beside the ones it is most often confused with.
“Eczemas, on scalp, behind ears, scrotum, anus, hands, feet, legs; hands chap and bleed; all < in winter; get better in summer. Diarrhœa preceded by colic, only in the day-time. Headache, or heaviness like lead in the occiput; sometimes with nausea on vomiting; < by motion, as in riding in boat or carriage. One of our…”
