Graphites

The complaints of Graphites are worse morning, evening and during the NIGHT, especially before midnight. It is useful in people who are morbidly fat, or have been fat and are now emaciating; with constipation more commonly than diarrhoea; in women in these conditions whose menstrual habit is pale, late, short and scanty; catarrhal discharges that are albuminous and viscid represent to the mind some peculiar general states of the sick man not explainable and not common to diseased conditions nor to many remedies; hence, strange, rare and peculiar. Raw surfaces upon the skin are generally marked by such viscid glutinous discharges.

It is a very deep acting remedy, like all carbons, and is accompanied with induration and burning in the base of the ulcers, inflamed tissues and old cicatrices; hence, its great usefulness in cancerous growths and ulceration.

Cancerous development in old cicatrices is a strong feature of this remedy. Contraction of tendons, especially behind the knee. It has hemorrhagic oozing of pale blood. In the higher sense the patient is anaemic and chlorotic. From eruptions, catarrhal discharges, menstrual flow, ulcers, breath and perspiration there is marked offensiveness (like Carbo v., Psorinum, Kali phos ., Kali ars.).

When eruptions or discharges have disappeared suddenly from any cause and grave chronic phenomena have followed Graphites is one of the medicines to be studied. Scrofulous conditions and swelling of glands; recurrent herpes upon all parts of the body and especially about the anus and genitals; burning in many parts and especially in old cicatrices; general dropsical tendency; weakness in muscles and tendons after straining them by overlifting.

Modalities: The patient is very sensitive to cold and needs warm clothing; he is sensitive to the cold in winter and to the heat in summer; he is sensitive to a warm room and desires open air which is grateful. Worse in a warm bed; complaints come on from becoming cold or heated; the headaches are worse in a warm room and better in the open air. Graphites has cured deep seated spinal complaints, and in such cases the patient delights to lie heavily covered in a cold draft from an open window.

It is easy to see in this, the resemblance to Carbo veg., which often cures when the patient wants to be fanned. Craving for air is strong in the carbons , yet often easily chilled and just as easily overheated and complaints that come from overheating are related to the carbons. This one becomes ill from being overheated; exertion makes all symptoms worse.

Motion increases all symptoms except the numbness and general feeling of stagnation which come on during rest. Extreme weakness. Weakness and desire to lie down. Paralysis in any part but especially in the lower limbs; sensation of paralysis or stagnation creeps over the body and limbs.

He is made sick by bathing and is sensitive to cold, damp weather. What there is in the general life to cause eruptions to come out in the bends of the joints must be left for others to explain, but such is the case with this wonderful remedy.

Convulsions: The same may be said of rawness and excoriation in the same regions. Cataleptic conditions are very marked in which the patient is conscious but without power to move or speak; tremulous sensation throughout the body; sudden sinking of strength; sudden weakness. Constriction in many parts. It has cured many kinds of convulsions. It is not the remedy for the convulsion, but in chronic sickness where the convulsion is but one of many elements it is often suitable. It has cured epilepsy and hysterio-epilepsy and epileptiform spasms many times when the totality of symptoms furnished the basis for the prescription.

A careful comparison of the symptoms shows that this remedy acts predominantly on the left side of the body. The patient is oversensitive to pain and outer parts are very sensitive.

Pains: The pains are burning , drawing, pressing. Soreness. Stitching and tearing. Numbness is more characteristic than pain. The formation of fissures in all the commissures and in the anus with cracked and bleeding skin in many parts with much hardening; the tendency to grow wens on the scalp and elsewhere are features of this remedy not to be overlooked, and when coupled with the mental symptoms form such a strong and striking image of perverted vital action that the neophyte should not overlook Graphites.

It is as broad and deep as Sulphur , showing the great similarity to this great remedy in chronic cases.

Mind

The patient becomes very restless when attempting close mental work and there is a marked dread of mental work. The mental depression is extreme, and it is made worse by music; her sadness is so great that she thinks only of death and salvation. Grief and vexation cause of recurrence of all her distressing mental sufferings.

Her moods are constantly changing; while she may recall all the events of youth, recent events are forgotten; slow of thought and weakness of mind worse in the morning; often excited, hurried and exhilarated in the evening; extremely fretful and impatient; irritable about trifles and very critical. Irresolution is a marked symptom.

She cannot make, up her mind to do or not to do. Extreme activity of mind in the evening and first half of the night, which, prevents sleep until midnight; apprehensive and distressed in the. morning and excited. in the evening; extreme anxiety even to desperation.

Vertigo in the morning on waking; in the evening; on looking upwards; on rising from stooping; compelled to lie down; with inclination to fall forward.

When the above general symptoms strongly predominate in any given sickness the following particulars will be cured by this remedy.

Hyperaemia of the brain in the evening in a warm room; frequent moments of congestion to head and face with faint feelings; numbness felt in whole head; burning spot on the vertex; drawing, pressing and tearing in forehead over the eyes; stitching pains in the temples; pain from temples to side of face and to shoulders; one-sided headaches in the morning on waking; tearing in one side of head extending to teeth and side of neck; pressing pain on the vertex and occiput; compressing, constricting pain in occiput and back of neck; pain as though the head were numb; violent headaches during menses.

Head

The headaches are brought on from becoming cold and from looking into a bright light; are worse in a warm room, and better in the open air. There is marked soreness in the scalp; itching of the scalp with or without eruptions; eczema of the scalp oozing a glutinous fluid; eczema behind the cars; fissures that bleed behind the ears; scaly eruptions on scalp; falling out of the hair; bald, shiny patches on the scalp.

Eyes

Extreme photophobia in the sunlight with copious lachrymation. No remedy has photophobia more marked than Graphites. Pain in the eyes and over the eyes by looking long toward a sun lighted window; complaints from eyestrain.

Letters appear double when writing, letters run together when reading; flickerings and fiery zigs-zags just outside the field of vision in the evening; misty vision; vanishing of sight during menses.

Burning, pressing, stitching pains in the eyes. It has cured ulceration of the cornea. Recurrent pustular inflammation of the cornea. Keratitis pustulosa in children with fissures in the canthi, extreme photophobia and eczema on the face.

Marked congestion and injected veins of the conjunctiva. Chronic lachrymation in open air, tears acrid. The fissured canthi bleed easily and itch violently. Purulent discharges from the eyes; the lids are stuck together at night; the eyes feel hot; the lids are much swollen and the margins are red, raw and bleed easily-sometimes hard; ulcers on the; margins of lids; the lids are covered with crusts; eczema of the eyelids and about the eyes; dry mucus in the lashes, styes on the lids, with drawing pain, especially when they recur frequently. Cystic tumors on the lids.

Ears

Discharge from the ear of sticky, viscid pus; bloody, offensive.

Noises in ears; cracking; bumming; hissing; ringing; rushing, roaring; reverberations. Violent roarings at night and the ears feel stopped; thundering, rolling sounds in ears.

Deafness in various degrees and he hears better in a noise. He can hear better when riding on the cars, in the roaring of the train.

Deafness with eczematous eruptions on and behind the ears. Stitching pains in ears in cold air. Marked swelling of the ears.

Nose

Smell very acute; she cannot tolerate flowers; loss of smell with dryness in the nose; with coryza. Discharge from nose bloody mucus or pus, very offensive, viscid, thick, sometimes yellow.

It is a most useful remedy in chronic nasal catarrh. Very painful dryness in the nose. The bones and cartilages of the nose become very sore to touch. Sneezing and fluent coryza as marked as in Carbo veg.

Frequent attacks of coryza all winter, worse in cold air; the coryza extends to larynx, like Carbo veg ; the excoriated, sore, cracked nostrils are plugged with scabs and hard mucus far up in the nose. Ulcers in the nose. Fissures in the nostrils that burn and indurate.

Face

The face is pale, waxy and sickly.

Eczema and herpes are found on the face with glutinous moisture. Itching with or without eruptions. A sensation as of a cobweb on the face. The commissures of mouth are fissured and the fissures ulcerate and the edges become bard and there is great burning in them. The skin chaps and cracks and often becomes excoriated and bleeds. Erysipelas of the face, spreading from right to left. The beard falls out.

Crusts form on the lips and the chin is covered with eczema. The submaxillary gland is swollen and indurated.

Mouth

The gums are settling away from the teeth; the teeth burn and sting; drawing pain in teeth in cold wind; tearing in teeth worse from warmth.

Taste in the mouth is bitter, salty, sour and like spoiled eggs; nauseating taste in the morning; sour taste after eating. The tongue is coated white; burning blisters on lower lip and on tip of tongue, painful ulcers on under surface of tongue, putrid odor from gums and mouth; breath smells like urine.

Dryness of the mouth in morning on waking; also in the night on waking; saliva flows from the mouth during the night.

Throat

Chronic sore throat with ulceration and swelling; swollen tonsils; nightly pain in throat; copious white, viscid mucus; a continuation of the nasal and post nasal catarrh.

Constant choked feeling or constriction in the throat that makes swallowing difficult. Constant spasms in the throat compelling swallowing.

Stomach and abdomen: Ravenous appetite.

Violent thirst in the morning with dry mouth and internal fever. Aversion to meat; to cooked food; to fish; to salt, to sweets. He is driven to eat to relieve a feeling of suffocation and burning gnawing in the stomach.

Pain in the stomach, relieved by eating. Eructations bitter; sour; putrid; tasting of food eaten; of greenish water. Rancid heartburn after eating; nausea much of the time during menses, with trembling; vomits all she eats; vomiting, purging and cold sweat.

The stomach feels constantly in a spoiled state or as from indigestion. Flatulence is as marked as in Carbo veg ., and the relief from belching is just as great. Burning, constriction, pulsation and cramping are frequent symptoms. Fullness, distension, pressure are constant features of Graphites.

Retching on swallowing food (like Merc. c.). Gastric catarrh with internal heat drive him to eat and drink. Gastric pains worse from cold drinks and better by warm milk; periodical gastralgia with vomiting of food soon after eating. It is a wonderful remedy for old drunkards when the gastric symptoms agree (like Carbon bisulphide).

It is a most useful remedy in hard, swollen, sore liver with weight and distress in the liver; stitches in both hypochondria, burning in left hypochondrium when lying on it; sensitive to clothing in the liver region. Great suffering in the abdomen from flatulence; incarcerated flatus causes cramping pains, distension, and a continual source of distress.

Everything eaten seems to ferment and turn to gas; rumbling and movements felt in the abdomen; there is great burning and griping; cramping in the abdomen soon after eating; the clothing distresses the abdomen. The slightest indiscretion in eating causes increased flatus, rumbling and diarrhoea; the abdomen is distended with dropsy. Herpes zona oil the side of abdomen; herpes over lower abdomen and groin; hard swelling of inguinal glands; oedema of the abdominal walls.

Anus and stools: From the anus there is copious discharge of very offensive flatus day and night. While diarrhoea is not so common as constipation, yet it is a marked condition in some patients, The diarrhoea is painless with much flatus, with watery, brown, putrid, lienteric stools; excoriating stools, extreme soreness of the anus; fissures of the anus; great burning. Chronic diarrhoea; from the slightest indiscretion in eating on comes a renewed attack.

With the loose stools, and with the constipated stools copious white jelly-like mucus is often found. Discharge of mucus from anus and a constant moisture about the outside parts. Large hemorrhoids extremely sore with fissures.

Constipation with large, hard, knotty, difficult stools passed with extreme pain from soreness and fissures of the anus. Long narrow stools (like Phos.). Violent burning in the anus, prolapsus of the anus.

It has cured many cases of bleeding piles of long standing where there was extreme soreness and fissures and great burning. Violent pains during stool. No desire to go to stool for many days. It requires a long time with hard straining to pass the stool.

It often suits patients who have no stool except by injection or cathartic. Violent itching of the anus; eczema and herpes near the anus or involving the anus. It has cured the stomach and abdominal conditions that favor the tapeworm.

Genitals and urines: The urine flows in a feeble stream, becomes very putrid after standing and deposits much red or white sediment; after standing the urine is covered with an iridescent cuticle.

After urination there is some dribbling; burning in the urinary passages and neck of the bladder when not urinating; pain in the sacrum and coccyx when urinating.

Violent sexual excitement and nightly emissions; the excitement is so strong that ejaculation comes instantly after intromission. The opposite state is also found where there is aversion to coition and erections are wanting. It is a most useful remedy for impotency following secret vice and sexual excesses. Emissions with feeble erections.

Herpes on the prepuce; excoriated and fissured glans penis; dropsical swelling of the scrotum and penis, hydrocele in small boys and baby boys. Itching and moist eruptions on the scrotum. It has cured gleety, viscid discharge from the urethra. It has cured swollen testes.

In the female it causes aversion to coition; enlarged, hard ovaries great tenderness in uterus and ovaries. It has cured ovarian tumor. Pain in the uterus when reaching high with hands; bearing down in uterine region.

It cures cauliflower excrescence of the uterus; it has restrained the growth of cancer in the cervix uteri, when there was burning and putrid bloody discharge; in this it resembles Carbo an. Menses late, irregular, scanty, pale or mixed with scanty dark, small clots, short duration. Menses six or eight weeks apart.

Menses suppressed or very late in chlorotic girls. First menses delayed. Leucorrhoea instead of the menses ( Cocculus ). Oedema of the vulva. Leucorrhoea in gushes day and night. Dryness and heat in the vagina; coldness in the vagina.

Extreme lassitude during the menses. Many symptoms come during menses; dry cough, copious sweat; oedema of feet; hoarseness; coryza; headache; nausea; morning nausea. Violent itching of the vulva before menses; marked excoriation of the genitals and between the thighs during menses; excoriating leucorrhoea before menses.

Leucorrhea white; yellowish-white; thin; viscid; offensive. Sore, cracked nipples in nursing women. Cancer of the breast coming in the cicatrix of an old cancer.

Larynx and cough: sensitive to touch.

Hoarseness in the evening (like Carbo veg .). Dryness in the larynx in the night; copious glutinous mucus in the daytime.

He suffocates when falling asleep (like Lachesis ) and often wakes up in the night gasping for breath; constriction of the chest.

Paroxysmal cough like whooping cough, cough is followed by expectoration of copious white viscid mucus; paroxysms come at any time It has cured whooping cough. Cough from tickling in the larynx or trachea; violent night cough; deep inspiration causes cough.

Rawness in the trachea; stitching pains in the chest.

Constriction of the heart; electric shocks in the heart; palpitation on motion or exertion with strong pulsation all over the body and in the extremities, pulse full and heard, slow during day but fast in the morning; fast pulse in evening after eating, with fever. Itching herpetic eruption on the chest; herpes zona on left side of chest with pain. It is a useful remedy to ward off phthisis.

Enlarged hard painful glands of neck. Painless swollen glands of neck. The spine is very sensitive to the jar of the bed; pain in lumbar region as if " spine were broken "; pain in sacrum with numbness down the limbs; pain in sacrum and coccyx while urinating; itching and moisture over the coccyx.

Drawing and tearing pains in limbs; weakness of all limbs; sensation of paralysis of limbs; herpes and eczema on the limbs; marked numbness of the upper limbs, during rest and when lain on; numbness and coldness of fingers and hands.

Skin

Rheumatic and tearing pains in shoulders, worse in left.

Herpes in axilla and bend of the elbow; horny callosities on the palms; skin of the hands hard, fissured, hot and bleeding. Psoriasis of the hands and fingers; raw, moist places between the fingers; the finger nails thick and brittle; the finger nails become black and fall off. Great heat of palms.

Smarting and sore between the nates; excoriation from walking. Many eruptions on the thigh, but especially herpes and eczema; eruptions that ooze a glutinous fluid. Numbness of lower limbs during rest; the legs are weak and heavy as if paralyzed; oedema of the legs and feet.

Herpes in the groin and hollow of the knee. Cold feet in evening in bed; copious, offensive sweat of the feet; ulcers on the feet and legs; tearing in thighs, legs, feet and toes; burning heat in soles and heels; gouty-tearing in the toes; spreading blisters on the toes that become ulcers; the toenails become black; thick; and crippled toenails the nails are painful; ingrowing toenails.

Dreams vivid; anxious, horrible, vexatious. Sleepless before midnight; sleepiness during the day. Nightly pains in sleep. Frequent waking. Unrefreshed in the morning.

Graphites should be used more frequently in chronic recurrent intermittent fever. Chill in the evening with tearing in the limbs chill intermingled with the fever; wants to be covered in all stages chill worse after eating, better after drinking and in open air. Nightly fevers with chilliness but no sweat; dry beat evening and night, especially before midnight; anxiety and restlessness during the fever, hands and soles very hot; even burning heat.

It has chill with fever followed by sweat; sweat from slight exertion; sweat on front of body; the sweat is offensive, cold and stains yellow; copious night sweats in weakness and during phthisis; entire inability to perspire, in many chronic complaints.

Itching of the skin all over the body, with or without eruptions itching worse at night in the warm bed; itching and burning with eruptions; the skin is very hot at night; excoriation of the skin in the bends of joints.

Every injury festers. Fissures on ends of fingers, on nipples, labial commissures at anus and vulva, between the toes. Itching blotches. Erysipelas beginning in face and spreading to other parts; erysipelas beginning in face and going from right to left.

Itching over varicose veins; itching piles. Herpes and eczema oozing a glutinous moisture. Crusty and scabby ulcers. Hard, painful cicatrices; old ulcers with proud flesh and burning, itching and stinging ulcers with indurated base and margins.