HOMŒOPATHIC MATERIA MEDICA by William BOERICKE, M.D. Presented by Médi-T   ANACARDIUM ORIENTALE Marking Nut (ANACARDIUM)

The Anacardium patient is found mostly among the neurasthenics; such have a type of nervous dyspepsia, relieved by food; impaired memory, depression, and irritability; diminution of senses (smell, sight, hearing). Syphilitic patients often suffer with these conditions. Intermittency of symptoms. Fear of examination in students. Weakening of all senses, sight, hearing, etc. Aversion to work; lacks self-confidence; irresistible desire to swear and curse. Sensation of a plug in various parts-eyes, rectum, bladder, etc; also of a band. Empty feeling in stomach; eating temporarily relieves all discomfort. This is a sure indication, often verified. Its skin symptoms are similar to Rhus, and it has proved a valuable antidote to Poison-Oak.

Mind.--Fixed ideas. Hallucinations; thinks he is possessed of two persons or wills. Anxiety when walking, as if pursued. Profound melancholy and hypochondriasis, with tendency to use violent language. Brain-fag. Impaired memory. Absent mindedness. Very easily offended. Malicious; seems bent on wickedness. Lack of confidence in himself or others. Suspicious (Hyos). Clairaudient, hears voices far away or of the dead. Senile dementia. Absence of all moral restraint.

Head.--Vertigo. Pressing pain, as from a plug; worse after mental exertion-in forehead; occiput, temples, vertex; better during a meal. Itching and little boils on scalp.

Eyes.--Pressure like a plug on upper orbit. Indistinct vision. Objects appear too far off.

Ears.--Pressing in the ears as from a plug. Hard of hearing.

Nose.--Frequent sneezing. Sense of smell perverted. Coryza with palpitation, especially in the aged.

Face.--Blue rings around eyes. Face pale.

Mouth.--Painful vesicles; fetid odor. Tongue feels swollen, impending speech and motion, with saliva in mouth. Burning around lips as from pepper.

Stomach.--Weak digestion, with fullness and distention. Empty feeling in stomach. Eructation, nausea, vomiting. Eating relieves the Anacardium dyspepsia. Apt to choke when eating or drinking. Swallows food and drinks hastily.

Abdomen.--Pain as if dull plug were pressed into intestines. Rumbling, pinching, and griping.

Rectum.--Bowels inactive. Ineffectual desire; rectum seems powerless, as if plugged up; spasmodic constriction of sphincter ani; even soft stool passes with difficulty. Itching at anus; moisture from rectum. Hæmorrhage during stool. Painful hæmorrhoids.

Male.--Voluptuous itching; increased desire; seminal emissions without dreams. Prostatic discharge during stool.

Female.--Leucorrhœa, with soreness and itching. Menses scanty.

Respiratory.--Pressure in chest, as from a dull plug. Oppression of chest, with internal heat and anxiety, driving him into open air. Cough excited by talking, in children, after fit of temper. Cough after eating with vomiting of food and pain in occiput.

Heart.--Palpitation, with weak memory, with coryza in the aged; stitches in heart region. Rheumatic pericarditis with double stitches.

Back.--Dull pressure in the shoulders, as from a weight. Stiffness at nape of neck.

Extremities.--Neuralgia in thumb. Paralytic weakness. Knees feel paralyzed or bandaged. Cramps in calves. Pressure as from a plug in the glutei. Warts on palms of hands. Fingers swollen with vesicular eruption.

Sleep.--Spells of sleeplessness lasting for several nights. Anxious dreams.

Skin.--Intense itching, eczema, with mental irritability; vesicular eruption; swelling, urticaria; eruption like that of Poison-Oak (Xerophyl; Grindel; Croton). Lichen planus; neurotic eczema. Warts on hands. Ulcer formation on forearm.

Modalities.--Worse, on application of hot water. Better, from eating. When lying on side, from rubbing.

Relationship.--Antidote: Grindeleia; Coffea; Juglans; Rhus; Eucalyptus.

Compare: Anacard occidentale (cashew nut) (erysipelas, vesicular facial eruptions), (anæsthetic variety of leprosy; warts, corns, ulcers, cracking of the skin on soles of feet). Rhus; Cypriped; Chelidon; Xerophyl.

Platina follows well. Cereus serpentina (swearing).

Dose.--Sixth to two hundredth potency.