Antimonium Tartaricum
Tartar Emetic
2[ K(SbO)C4H4O6 ] H2O
Trituration and solutions
The essential features
This remedy finds its primarily usefulness in severe cases and hospitalized cases; these cases may be classified according to the organ system principally affected: a. the respiratory system
the digestive system
the nervous system
This remedy is most frequently of use in affections of the respiratory system (in contradistinction to Antimonium crudum where the main seat of trouble is the digestive system). Antimonium tartaricum is most effective for disorders of the lower respiratory tract – the trachea, bronchi, and lungs. Inflammations of the lower respiratory tract must be serious for this remedy to be indicated.
It is especially useful for advanced stages of bronchitis, broncho-pneumonia or pneumonia; also in weakly children with low to moderate fever, nausea and audible rattling of mucus in the chest; and in the pneumonia or bronchopneumonia of old, “broken down” people whose immunological reactive ability is almost extinct, and who appear to have no power to expel the respiratory tract mucus, which makes an audible rattling noise as the patient labors to breathe.
In such patients one realizes immediately that the case is one of severe lung inflammation; the patient appears to be nearing death quickly. Kent writes: “If you have ever been in the room of the dying, you have heard what is called the death rattle; it is coarse like that. Now and then there is expectoration of a mouthful of light-coloured, whitish mucus. The condition is one in which the chest is steadily filling up with mucus, and at first he may be able to throw it out; but finally he is suffocating from the filling up of mucus and the inability of the chest and lungs to throw it out….This remedy has the coughing and gagging and retching, but in the state of great relaxation, prostration and coldness. It seems as if he will die. When you hear him cough, you are at once impressed with the idea that there must be some profound weakness in his lungs’ power. We know that it is the power of the lungs to produce an expulsive action with the deep inspiration. They have no such power in Ant-t. The chest is full of mucus and it rattles … he is suffocating and is really passing away, dying from carbonic acid poisoning due to a lack of expulsive power…” Nash says that Antimonium tartaricum is one of our best remedies for the hepatization of the lungs after pneumonia.
The clinical signs in such cases readily suggest that hypoxia is severe; a compensatory laboring of the heart is evident. Amidst this distressing presentation another characteristic sign of Antimonium tartaricum is apparent – drowsiness. The patient feels very sleepy, and on closing the eyes, he feels as if he is losing consciousness. It is a form of sleepiness that is close to a comatose state. Were you to have to wait until the next day to prescribe the remedy, you might well fear that it would be too late.
Your apprehension might be multiplied as you further observe the patient: the face looks very pale, or livid, sickly and shrunken; the nose is pinched; the eyes are drawn back, with dark rings around them; the lips are pale, dry, shrivelled; the nostrils are flapping, and there is a dark appearance inside the nostrils. The face is covered with cold sweat. You hear the laboring respiration with the coarse rales, and you wonder whether he will be able to empty the chest of the accumulated mucus. You stand there, taking in the situation – the patient looks exhausted and almost ready to faint; then a retching and gagging comes, and the patient turns around to vomit and begins to struggle to expel some matter, as you sit there observing helplessly. You see the mucus coming out, yet you do not know whether it is from the stomach or from the lungs, and after he has struggled so and has finally expelled some matter, he looks so sleepy and exhausted that you do not feel like asking any questions. Such is the situation with an Antimonium tartaricum bronchopneumonia.
The patient becomes increasingly weak. He looks anxious and desperate. His face twitches, and it is drenched with sweat. He becomes more and more drowsy, and it is obvious that his power of reaction is receding. At this point delirium may supervene – muttering delirium; talking to himself. If he is spoken to, he seems to return to consciousness; he answers correctly but drifts back into the delirium at once. In some cases stupor is interrupted from time to time by spasms.
The above is the general picture that you will face with a typical serious Antimonium tartaricum case. However, whether the disease in question be acute or chronic, the Antimonium tartaricum patient will give the impression that his ailment is serious, that death is approaching. This impression is shared by both the patient and the doctor and accurately reflects the gravity of the clinical situation. Kent describes his experience concerning this matter: “The atmosphere of the room is pungent, more pungent than foetid or putrid, and makes you feel that death is in it. The family is disturbed; they are going hither and thither, and the nurse is in an excited and busy state, and you enter upon this scene to make a homeopathic prescription. It is one of excitement and one that you cannot act rapidly in, but one in which you must make a very quick prescription. These things will interfere somewhat with your thinking at the time that you must do the best thinking and the most rapid thinking. ”
Many times you will have to differentiate between an Antimonium tartaricum and a Carbo vegetabilis lung inflammation. The difference is that in Carbo vegetabilis the rattling is not so prominent or coarse; also the breath and the extremities are cold. In Carbo vegetabilis the shrunken features of the face do not figure so strongly. In the Antimonium tartaricum patient you will have some nausea or retching and gagging, and though the dyspnea, the paleness of the face, the cold perspiration, and the desire to be fanned are present in both remedies, the differential diagnosis is not so difficult. Tyler writes: “One sees how invaluable it is for desperated conditions, and how with Carbo vegetabilis it is one of the “last gasp” remedies.”
The homeopathic physician should be sensitive enough to such situations and at the same time balanced enough in his mind and psyche to be able to assess the situation correctly, evaluate it properly, and act accordingly. This is not a matter of intuition, but rather of clear knowledge, aided by a well-classified anamnesis consistent with the clinical situation that he is facing. We must never forget that ours is an art and a science that takes into consideration the unstable parameters of all life’s energies and how they change and interact in health and disease, and we must honor the science by applying our knowledge with prudence and wisdom. I am greatly exasperated when I hear homeopaths say in a totally irresponsible way, “My intuition says that this is the remedy.” I have seen repeatedly that this kind of practice can lead to protracted suffering for the patient. When you have firmly fixed in your mind the situation described above and meet it in a patient, you can make a quick decision, one that looks like intuition, but which is in fact knowledge properly applied.
Because of deficient oxygenation of the brain, this remedy is prone to have profound sleepiness bordering on a comatose state with most of its complaints.
When Antimonium tartaricum affects the gastrointestinal system, we see intense nausea, vomiting, prostration, general coldness, cold perspiration and sleepiness. Nash says it is a great remedy for cholera morbus, for the advanced stages of this severe acute gastroenteritis, as long as the patient’s appearance is similar to the one described above.
When this remedy affects the nervous system, we see trembling, internal and external: trembling of the head with paralytic trembling of the hands on every motion; trembling of the whole body with great prostration and faintness. Convulsions also occur: convulsions with tetanic spasms, with unconsciousness; epileptic convulsionswith intense nausea or vomiting; convulsive movements; convulsions from suppressed eruptions; contraction of all the muscles, especially of the abdomen and upper limbs.
The two remedies Antimonium crudum and Antimonium tartaricum have much in common, though as we have seen they also have differences, each one possessing its own individual nature. The similarities between the two become most apparent when we consider the mental-emotional picture of this remedy, beginning first with the
Antimonium tartaricum child.
The child is fretful, peevish, whining, moaning, and it will not allow you to touch it. It will resist being examined by the doctor. It is an angry child, one which will yell if you merely look at it while it is cross. The anger actually affects the child’s entire system, as is reflected in our texts; e.g. , the child coughs when he is angry. This is only a partial indication of the nervous state of this remedy – the sensitivity and the suffering. Despite being difficult, however, the crying of Antimonium tartaricum will not be as exasperating as the crying of the Antimonium crudum child.
“Ill humor on waking, with rubbing of his eyes as if in a stupid sleep, and howling if anyone looked at him; with intolerance of noise.” (Emphasis mine.) Farrington says that “if you persist in your unwelcome attention (looking at the child), it will have a convulsion.” When a child reacts so strongly when looked at and is so averse to being touched, it indicates that the nervous system is in a very precarious state. The child feels that it needs protection; this need then accounts for another charcteristic of this remedy: the child, seeking protection from people (even those he knows) around him, clings to his mother. Such behavior immediately brings to mind Baryta carbonica. However this child is much more irritable and peevish than is the Baryta carbonica child; it seems to be very emotionally upset and clings for help out of despair rather than timidity, as is the case with Baryta carbonica. The Baryta child is quiet and placid and usually wants to remain unnoticed, but it never shrieks when looked at. Nonetheless, the two remedies act in a complementary fashion.
Here we must mention an important observation made by Hahnemann: “The child will not allow itself to be touched, without whining and crying, whereby the toes and the fingers are drawn inwards!!” I stressed the last sentence myself as it reflects the magnitude of the reaction. This observation provides a measure of the effect of this remedy on the nervous system. It shows how the “endmost parts” of the nervous system (the toes and fingers through which, in large part, we are able to stay “in touch” with the outside world) almost convulse to protect the organism from unwanted external contact! From this observation we can understand why this child does not want to be touched.
Antimonium tartaricum children do not want to remain lying down in bed, but instead want to be picked up and carried around in an upright position, especially when suffering from asthma or bronchitis. If they lie down, their breathing becomes quicker, irregular, unequal, and more difficult; they gasp more, cannot expel phlegm, and in general seem to suffer when they lie down. They toss about with great restlessness and throw their arms about constantly. Farrington says, “A nursing infant suddenly lets go of the nipple and cries as if out of breath, and seems better when held upright and carried about…” In general, whether suffering from difficult breathing or colicky pains or toothache, these children want to be carried upright and will feel better in that position.
The Antimonium tartaricum patient is an irritable, quarrelsome, despondent, and nervous individual; one who is usually in a bad humor. Anything disturbs him. He is depressed, melancholic, and he complains often of different ailments. It is immediately apparent, when faced with such a patient, that his nervous system is in an excitable state, and that peevishness and fretfulness are its primary characteristics. The muscles of the face twitch; the entire organism trembles and is prostrated: trembling of head, trembling of hands. This remedy’s picture fits that of alcoholism.
In the midst of this nervous state, apprehension and fear emerge; a sensation of fullness in the heart and a feeling of heat emanating from this area make the individual even more anxious. Nausea evokes anxiety, and the greater the nausea, the greater the anxiety. He has the impression that he is actually going to die. A similar anxiety surfaces during the respiratory problems: the chest fills up with mucus, which he cannot expel, and then he becomes apprehensive that he cannot survive this situation for long. It is not a fear of death that he experiences, but a sense that death is near. He becomes restless and anxious; he worries about what will happen to him. He fears that he will not recover, that this illness will last forever, and then he becomes desperate.
The Antimonium tartaricum patient is an angry person, but the anger tends to be self-destructive, damaging his own organism rather than other people. He will seldom be inclined to violence toward others. If strong emotions arise within him, they tend to upset his system and create symptoms. Consequently, it has ailments from anger or vexation. Some examples are: amblyopia after strong emotions in a pregnant woman; breathing and toothache worse upon becoming irritated; and coughing after anger, especially in children, is a keynote.
In the texts we note, “Dreaded to be left alone even for a few moments lest he should be dreadfully nervous and not know what to do with himself.” In Antimonium tartaricum there is a tremendous mental restlessness, a mental unease that frightens him. What he actually dreads most is that this nervousness will overcome him and will become self-destructive, beyond his control, and he will commit suicide. Actually, we see that if this nervousness does become overpowering, he can go into a suicidal mania. In such a state he will rave and not know what is doing. He can be overpowered by thoughts of shooting himself; even worse, he may develop a craving for self-destruction.
The state of excitement of Antimonium tartaricum sometimes can manifest as a kind of “wild,” abnormal gaiety, which later subsides to be replaced by peevishness and anxiety.
Mental confusion, especially after sleep, may be seen. With the confusion, there is indifference to everything. Antimonium tartaricum will often be of service for teething children with a rattling cough.
Generalities
Much rattling of mucus with little expectoration, usually frothy, white. Edema of lungs. Emphysema. Cyanosis. Cyanosis neonatorum. Threatening paralysis of the lungs. Drowsiness, sleepiness, debility and sweat. Intense nausea that causes anxiety and vomiting. Vomits with great effort. Vomiting is followed by great debility, drowsiness, loathing and a desire for cooling things. Eruptions on face and chest.
Worse: with warmth in general; warm room, warm weather or being overheated. Worse from cold and damp. Generally the attacks are worse at night. Considerable aggravation towards evening, continuing all night.
Lying down. Motion. Sour things. From anger or vexation. From touch, from being looked at.
Better: General amelioration after frequent emission of pale urine. From expectoration, sitting erect, from vomiting, eructations.
Head/vertigo
Vertigo with sudden flickerings in front of eyes. Dizziness with cough. Consciousness faints away on closing the eyes. Vertigo alternating with drowsiness.
Head feels heavy and confused in the morning on waking, as if he has to sleep more. Clears up during the day. Dizziness on raising the head from the pillow. On waking in the morning feels as if the brain were balled into a heavy lump. Painful drawing in the right temple extends down to the zygoma and upper jaw. Feels as if brain was pressed together; stupid and sleepy.
Headache worse lying down, better sitting erect. Headache as from a band compressing the forehead. Headache with sensitiveness of epigastrium. Head hot and sweaty.
Eyes
Kent gives a picture of the whole remedy in his description of the eyes:
– “Clinically Ant-t. has been confined in its use mostly to the mucous membranes of the chest, but it has the same passive conditions of all the mucous membranes of the body, discharge of white mucus from the eyes. “Eyes prominent, glaring. Dim, and swimming. Gonorrheal ophthalmia.” But the rheumatic furnish another form of this remedy, another face of it, like the Antimonium crudum. The joints are affected, take on a passive, slow infiltration and become dropsical. Gouty infiltration of the joints, and these are especially bad during the cold wet weather. Eye symptoms of this gouty character. Eyes infiltrated along with the joints, so there is a gouty state of the eyes. The gouty state affects the whole body. The mucous membrane is pale instead of being red and inflamed; it is pale and relaxed and it appears to ooze; mucus forms upon it very readily.” –
Flickering, sparks before the eyes. Vanishing of sight and hearing. Blackness before the eyes. Eyes feel so tired that they close. Inclination to press the eyes tightly together. Sticking, like electric stitches, in both inner canthi.
Face
Hippocratic face in serious acute diseases, sunken, with extreme paleness, cold sweat, black circles around eyes, with an expression of extreme anxiety. Dry, scurfy, shrivelled lips, sometimes livid or cracked. Face bright red and bloated; smutty, filthy color. Spasmodic agitation of facial muscles. Convulsive twitches in almost every muscle of the face. Facial twitching especially when coughing. Incessant quivering of lower jaw. Eruptions around the mouth, especially in corners with pimples, vesicles and swelling. Aphthae on lips. Pustular eruptions resembling smallpox and leaving a bluish mark.
Mouth
Burning blisters on left side of the tongue. Tongue very red and dry in the centre. Tongue covered with a thick, white pasty coat; in the morning thick and yellow. Biting nails. It is painful to move the tongue. Increased saliva, must expectorate frequently. Flow of tasteless, clear water in mouth which runs out in great quantities. Sour taste in the mouth. Profuse spitting; must often spit even while eating. The gouty state also affects the teeth; rheumatic pains in teeth with pains in joints. Teeth covered with mucus. Gums bleed as if scorbutic.
Stomach
The word “emeticus” employed for this remedy has been coined from the Greek, meaning “something that makes you vomit”, and the nauseous properties of this drug confirm its reputation. There is intense nausea, retching and gagging, and then vomiting even with the least food or water; vomiting of even a spoonful of water. Kent says – “With the stomach symptoms and bowel symptoms there is this constant nausea, but it is more than the nausea, it is a deadly loathing of every kind of food and nourishment, a nausea with the feeling that if he took anything into the stomach he would die; not merely an aversion to food, not merely a common nausea that precedes vomiting, but a deadly loathing of food. The weakness takes on an increased anxiety, and he increasingly suffocates when he is offered food. Kind-hearted people often want him to take something, for perhaps he has not taken any food all day, or all night; but the thought of food only makes him breathe worse, increases the dyspnea, increases the nausea, his loathing and his suffering…… The vomiting is more or less spasmodic… Gagging and retching and straining to vomit. The stomach seems to take on a convulsive action, and it is with the greatest difficulty after many of these great efforts, that a little comes up, and then a little more, and this is kept up. Vomiting of anything that has been taken in to the stomach with quantities of mucus.” –
If you can perceive the meaning of the word deadly that Kent uses then you understand the extend of the nausea. The nausea is accompanied by an anxiety; the greater the nausea the greater the anxiety. Anxiety in stomach, a deathly sinking as if about to die.
After vomiting feels relieved but exhausted and wants to go to sleep. You have to visualise the whole scene, the intensity of the organism’s reaction, to get the feeling and be able to recognise it in the patient.
This remedy should be carefully differentiated from Ipec. as the two remedies have a lot in common, especially in affections of the chest, with coarse rattling and nausea or vomiting. But the Ipec. has a more steady and constant nausea where in Ant-tar. the nausea is intermittent, comes in crisis, in waves. There is violent retching and gagging and straining to vomit. But if he manages to bring out some matter he is relieved while Ipec. is not. The nausea is more intense but less obstinate than the Ipec.
The problem for contemporary Western homeopaths is that they do not handle cases of such severity any more and they do not see these situations frequently, whereas in India or Pakistan one can see many more such cases.
We hope that homeopathy will soon be given a chance to prove what it can do in Hospital cases; before that however we need totally dedicated homeopaths able to make a proper study of the materia medica and who can then apply it easily and correctly.
There is no worse feeling than a severe case on which you do not know what to do homeopathically – and there is no better satisfaction than a severe case that has done well under homeopathic treatment.
It is a thirstless remedy, like Ipecacuanha. If water is offered by others in the acute cases it will irritate the patient, especially if the nausea is present. Sometimes there will be thirst but this will be the exception.
Violent pains in region of stomach, constantly increasing until they cause fainting. Vomiting until he faints away. Once he vomits there is exhaustion and sleepiness.
Vomiting returns after sleep. The vomiting is better on lying on right side.
Vomiting of thick, white, ropy mucus. Tough and stringy. Vomiting large quantities of mucus. Vomiting of slime with bile, a tough, watery mucus, then some food, then bile. Vomiting of blood. Bleeding ulcers in stomach. Desires apples, fruits. Craves sour fruits, buttermilk and acids which aggravate. The stomach is immediately upset if he takes vinegar with his food, or anything sour. Aversion and worse from milk, makes him nauseous and vomits it in curds.
Abdomen
Passive congestion of the liver with vomiting of bile. Pressure in hypochondria with distention, mostly in region of liver. Region of liver sensitive.
Abdomen distended, tympanytic and sensitive to pressure. The abdomen may be distended from serum or from flatus. Feels as if full of stones, though he may have not eaten anything, worse after long sitting or stooping. Sensation of a lump in abdomen.
Colicky pains, cutting like knives. Violent pains in abdomen with vomiting and purging; severe colic with drowsiness. Pains in abdomen after vomiting. Pains in inguinal region before menses.
Rectum
Violent shifting of flatulence, without distention of abdomen. Watery, mucous, bloody diarrhea; stools as green as grass, slimy; frequent, profuse. Relief of pains after loose stools. Tenesmus during and after loose stools. Diarrhea in eruptive diseases; cholera morbus. Diarrhea from alcoholic drinks, in drunkards.
Urinary organs
Highly reddened urine. Urine dark brownish-red, of strong odor; spasm of bladder, urine scanty and red. Violent tension in perineum, especially on walking, with strong inclination to urinate. Sediment of urine, gray, milky, red filaments.
Genitalia – male
Pain in testes after suppressed gonorrhea. Orchitis; sexual excitement; warts behind glans penis, with ulcers elsewhere. Pustules on genitals and thighs. Tingling, formication in penis.
Genitalia – female
Severe bearing down in vagina. Before menses, pains in groins and cold creepings.
Leucorrhea of watery blood, worse when sitting, comes in paroxysms. Menses too short.
Chest
For the real picture of the symptoms of the respiratory system the reader is advised to refer to the chapter “essential features” where they are quite thoroughly described. Here we shall add some detailed symptoms that you may meet with in this remedy:
Feeble voice, he cannot speak a loud word. Groaning and moaning with a weak, hollow, soundless voice. Breathing quick, short, trembling, difficult. Attacks of unequal breathing, sometimes shorter, sometimes longer, which is better on sitting upright. Abdominal breathing. Gasps for air at the beginning of every coughing spell. As the cough grows less frequent the patient shows signs of “carbonised blood”. Edema and impending paralysis of the lungs. During five hours had at least six pounds of fluid evacuated, and still both lungs seemed filled with a fluid secretion. Acute pulmonary edema. Atelectasis, with symptoms of asphyxia; with edema of unhepatised portions of lungs; breathing labored, orthopnea; mucous rales. Violent cough after each meal, ending with vomiting of food. Sensation as of a leaf obstructing wind pipe. Asphyxia neonatorum, the new-born is breathless, pale and gasping. Child springs up, clings to those around; calls for help in a hoarse voice, or bends backward and grasps at its larynx.
Cough and dyspnea better lying on right side and by eructations. Cough after 2 or 3 or 4 a.m. ; sitting erect ameliorates. Coughing and gasping consecutively. Velvety feeling in chest in heart diseases. An uncomfortable hot feeling arising from the heart with anxiety. Pulse rapid, weak, trembling; very much accelerated with every motion. Palpitation of heart with loose stools. Sensation of coldness in blood vessels.
Back
Violent pain in lumbo-sacral region; slightest effort to move causes retching and cold clammy sweat. Pain in the back as from fatigue especially after eating and while sitting. Cramp in muscles of neck, stiffness. Pain in the small of back before and on rising from bed, as if one had carried a weight there. Sensation as of a heavy weight hanging on end of coccyx. Sensation as if vertebrae rub against each other. Painful pustules, like small-pox on back; miliary eruption on the nape of neck.
Extremities
Gouty, rheumatic and arthritic conditions. Synovitis. Limbs overfatigued, a sensation coming from the back; weakness of all limbs especially the legs. Hands cold and moist with icy-coldness of the finger-tips; tips of fingers dead, without sensation, dry. Numbness and coldness of the legs; the feet go to sleep immediately after sitting down. Tension in the hamstrings on walking. Trembling of the hands. Jerking up of limbs during sleep.
Sleep
Great sleepiness with nearly all complaints. Sopor. Coma, with pale puffed face; sleep comatose with delirium. Deep, stupefying sleep. Restless at night with anxious tossing about; awakens with dyspnea. In the morning when awaking sweat all over and clear remembrance of heavy anxious dreams. Lying on back while sleeping with the left hand passed under head. Cries during sleep, with fixed eyes, and trembling limbs. Yawning alternating with coughing.
Fever
Extreme coldness of the whole body and shiverings are characteristics of the remedy. Sudden drops in body temperature. The temperature tends to drop below normal in many serious acute conditions. Chill lasting 45 minutes followed by vomiting, headache heat and thirst. Chill spreading from within and from vertebra over abdomen and limbs, with retching, belching and a drawing tensive pain in lower limbs. Violent but not long-lasting heat, succeeding a long lasting chill; worse from every exertion. Long lasting heat, after a short chill, with somnolency and sweat on forehead. Burning heat of the whole body, chiefly in the head and face, increased by the least movement.
Perspiration on parts affected. Profuse nightly perspirations; perspiration frequent, cold and clammy. Intermittent fevers, with lethargic condition. Skin covered with a running, sticky sweat.
Skin
Eruption of pustules like varioloids, as large as peas, filled with pus, with red areola (like small pox) and which afterwards form a crust, and leave a scar. Itching pustules that soon dry up. Vesicular eruption over body filling quickly with pus, very painful, soon drying up and forming crusts. In variola: backache, headache; cough and crushing weight on chest before or at beginning of eruptive stage.
Clinical
Bronchitis, broncho-pneumonia, croup. Atelectasis. Emphysema. Acute pulmonary edema. Asthma. Cyanosis, asphyxia neonatorum.
Crusta lactea: vitiligo; prurigo; obstinate pustules, pustular impetigo. Variola.
Chorea. Alcoholism, delirium tremens. Paralysis agitans.
Acute gastro-enteritis. Stomach upsets, vomiting. Gout, arthritis, rheumatism, lumbago, stiff neck.
Relationships
Should be compared with: Ipecacuanha, Carbo vegetabilis, Ammonium carbonicum, Arsenicum, Laurocerasus, Aethusa, Baryta carbonica, Opium. Complementary: Phosphorus, Silica, Baryta carbonica.
Dosage
From the lowest to the highest.
Cases
A little son of C.P. K. Esq., aged two years, became hoarse and croupy from almost any exciting cause. His father was an asthmatic subject, and his mother was feeble and cachectic, and their little son was, on the whole far from being strong and vigorous. His nurse had observed for some days that he was indifferent about his playthings and wanted to be held in the arms, and yet he ate and slept as usual. Without any previous exposure, a severe attack of croup came on in the middle of the night; all at once he became hoarse and coughed frequently. Being called immediately, I observed that his breathing was very labored and that a profuse perspiration was standing upon the face, and that the trachea and larynx were rapidly contracting. Gave Tart-emet. 3rd trit. about five grains in half a tumbler of water, and a teaspoonful every ten or fifteen minutes. The effect was almost magical, as the disease seemed to be arrested at once. The medicine was continued for more than an hour, when the little fellow went to sleep. He breathed better and better, until he awoke quite relieved. He had attacks subsequently, which the same remedy speedily removed.
Dr.A. E. SMALL
“The indications for this remedy in croup are based on the predominating symptoms of partial paralysis of the pneumogastric nerve. The short, hoarse, nearly suffocative breathing is accompanied by a whistling noise, heard even at a distance, whilst the thorax expands only with the greatest muscular effort, and the greatest anxiety and uneasiness, together with great prostration is manifested. The head is thrown backwards; face livid and cold”
Pustular eruption leaves ugly, bluish-red marks on the face, also similar eruption on genitals and thighs; so painful patient can neither sit nor walk. Sleepless from pain and irritation. Tart-emet 2 cured. Dr Dudgeon.
Pustules with red areola, which leave large scars behind; crusts brown; eruption very painful; decided drowsiness, with nausea; longing for acids, with aversion to milk; the eructations taste like sulphur; severe colic pains; short breathing, and rattling respiration; do not like to be touched.
M. Choudhuri, Materia Medica, pp. 48-49
Gave Tart-emet in the case of a lady who was in the fifth month of pregnancy, of good constitution, with the following symptoms; febrile motion after every meal, with pungent heat in the face, dampness in the palms of the hands, anxiety during the paroxysms which lasted two or three hours, mouth slightly bitter, not much appetite, no thirst, constipation.
Ant-t.
- TESTE, Homeopathic Materia Medica, pp. 383-384.
