Understanding Phosphoricum acidum

Dr. Claudio C, Araujo M.D. F.F.Hom.(Lon.) et al.

If we start this understanding when Ph-ac. is still a child, there is a clear picture right in front of us: from the very beginning of his life, Ph-ac. is suffering from malnutrition and a poor development.

Weakness and tubercular manifestations runs through out this remedy.

The child constantly longs for food, without eating it,

Constant vomiting of milk in a suckling; waxy color of face; blue rings around eyes; child does not cry; mother has very little milk.

Child weak, pale, cold; painless stool; bones diseased. 


Palpitation: in children and young persons who grow too fast (…)

 (…) jaundice in scrofulous children or from grief.

Spondylitis of cervical vertebræ; frequent formation of abscesses; three or four fistulous passages, at bottom of which caries vertebræ could be felt with sound; body of vertebræ considerably enlarged; painless diarrhœa with much rumbling in abdomen; stools white or greyish-white, often undigested; involuntary; stool escapes when child is moved or turned; urine profuse, clear, becoming turbid and milky, of offensive odor, escaping involuntarily, especially on passive motion; child morose, will not tolerate brothers or sisters near him; face pale; great emaciation; loss of appetite; marked sleepiness and yet does not go to sleep; cannot move head; cries out at least careless handling.

The next point is something that will pervade Ph-ac. entire life. As Kent denominates, that’s his “mental feeblement”.

Kent: "Mental enfeeblement" is the thought that will come into the mind when considering what the Phosphoric acid patient says, does and looks.

The mind seems tired. When questioned he answers slowly or does not speak, but only looks at the questioner. He is too tired to talk or even think. He says:

"Don't talk to me; let me alone."

This state is found in both acute and chronic diseases. He is so tired in mind, perfectly exhausted.

The Ph-ac. patient didn’t become a weak or emaciated person  due to some other problem or further diseases. He will develop it gradually. The child will not be able to study in the first years. She can’t read or study, not from a lack of mental development, but because she is unable to focus her attention at the blackboard or in her books.

Schoolgirl's headache; from overuse of eyes. 

In chronic diseases when brought on from long study; (…); in feeble schoolgirls, when become relaxed from very little effort. In acute diseases he, especially in typhoid fever, is averse to speaking or answering questions. He merely looks. Finally he rouses up and says:

"Don't talk to me, I am so tired."

He cannot think what he wishes to say, cannot frame his answers to questions. 

Everything that means effort - like for instance giving birth and nursing - would became a burden for Ph-ac. She has not too much resistance or energy saved for that moment. So the Ph-ac. mother will have few or almost no milk to feed her child. Or it will be to exhausting, making her sick.

Ovaritis, metritis, or prolapsus from debilitating or emotional influences;

Deterioration of health from nursing.

Kent: It suits the woman who has been nursing her child a long, time, or nursing twins, and who gives much milk. She becomes tired and weakly. Loss of fluids, blood; prolonged nursing, and weakness from such causes.

Ph-ac. lack energy and disposition to work, he has neurasthenia and exhaustion from work. It’s quite possible that we can find a Ph-ac. patient complaining that he lacks disposition to work, that he had been avoiding it due to an extreme mental exhaustion.

Disinclined to work.

Indolent, dull, unbalanced mind, without fancy; disinclination for even agreeable mental work, [11]. 

Disinclined to work, [1]. 

Cerebral weakness from brain fag. 

Neurasthenia: cerebro-spinal exhaustion from overwork; least attempt to study causes heaviness, not only in head, but also in limbs.

Internal uneasiness hindered him at work, [1]. 

Being that picture belonging to someone demonstrating a strong lack of disposition and energy, his intellectual attitude towards reality will follow the same path. He is not confused or delirious. He is not suffering from delusions of any sort, fantasies or misinterpretations of reality. There is only one point in Ph-ac. life: enfeeblement, weakness, lack of disposition and strength.

Weak memory; loss of ideas and weakness of mind; on thinking he becomes dizzy; cannot collect his thoughts in proper order. θ Brain fag.

Incapacity for thought in morning. 

Cannot find the right word when talking; answers either reluctantly and slowly or short and incorrectly.

When reading, a thousand different thoughts come to mind; he can understand nothing; what he reads is obscure, and everything is immediately forgotten, with difficult recollection of what he has known a long time, [10]. 

He cannot get rid of an idea, and the thoughts connected with it do not come to him, [1].

He cannot find the right word when talking (after two hours), [1]. 

Loss of ideas and weakness of mind; on thinking he becomes dizzy, [7]. 

He cannot collect his thoughts in proper order, [1]. 

Almost complete loss of memory of the occurrences of the day (first day), [16]. 

Another aspect present in Ph-ac. is his strong sensitivity to disappointment, grief, sorrow and care. He will become sick from love disappointment, from rudeness, from grief, fright and from loss.

Occipital headache and pain in nape of neck from exhausted nerve-power or excessive grief. 

Chronic congestions to head, caused by fright or grief. 

Weakness: of parts of body; disinclination for business; prostrated; apathetic in morning; from loss of fluids; from typhoid fever; from grief; from sorrow or unfortunate love; from suppression of eruptions; from talking; from seminal loss, perspiration, leucorrhœa or excessive grief; pale face; paralytic, or semi-paralytic; with or without sciatic pains.

Fainting: after a meal; from loss of fluids; from emotions; with desire to lie down.

Ailments from care, grief, sorrow, chagrin, homesickness or disappointed love; particularly with drowsiness; night sweats towards morning; emaciation. 

Anxiety and doubt concerning his recovery; insomnia and prostration. 

Hectic fever, sweat and flushing of face, especially in afternoon, evening or towards night; of crushing weight on vertex. θ Effects of grief. 

After severe disappointment in her affections, no outward demonstrations of grief, but her color faded, plumpness disappeared; extremities cold; dry hacking cough; breathing shallow; dyspnœa from slightest exercise; mind obtuse, brooding over her sorrow; heart beats feebly and quick; pulse almost imperceptible. θ Cardiac weakness.

Ph-ac. suffers with “no outwards demonstrations of grief” keeping his sufferings and sorrows for himself. Any sort of complain may arise from grief. From suffering silently up to the point when a lung disease starts or any other deep complain that follows his grieving.

We have at this point someone that was someday a weak child. This child lacked of proper feeding, had difficulties in school, suffered from many symptoms related to his several strong silent emotions. He had complaining through his life about his mental weakness, headaches at any mental effort, his almost impossibility of making any strong mental effort to achieve something.

He was now in a certain way being put aside by society, by his friends, relatives and girlfriends.

He had probably failed in his school exams; he will never become someone in the high ranks of society. He lacks mental stamina to do it. His girlfriend is now part of his fantasy, she is the one now living and belonging to his dreams. 

He dreams about what he would become someday, who will be one’s partner; he daydreams about life and its achievements.

Disappointments are part of her fantasies. A famous rock singer who got married, an artist who “chose” another girl to date, a “candidate” who got married to someone else, these are one’s disappointments, one’s losses. Ph-ac. will live through his whole life at home; he is to be confined by himself, to his dreams and fantasies.

Wonderful dreams, [1]. 

Vivid dream of feasting, as in the day, [1]. 

Dreams pleasant before midnight, fearful though little remembered after midnight, [5].

Sad, earnest, discouraged only when walking in the open air, the farther he walk the more it increases; in the house it gradually disappears, and he becomes more lively, [1].

Is very weak and indifferent to the affairs of life. 

Sadness, grief and disposition to weep. 

Lachrymose, as from homesickness, [12]. 

Why? Probably the riddle could be solved if we look deep into his first years.

What had Ph-ac. felt when he woke up in our reality?

Aversion to sunlight, sees colors, as of rainbow, or is dazzled on looking at bright objects; sees variegated colors where there is but one.

Intolerance of noise, especially of music. θ Headache. 

Every sound re-echoes loudly in ears.

Sense of smell too acute.

Homesickness, with inclination to weep. 

Listless, apathetic; remarkable indifference to everything in life; especially if there be emaciation and debility. 

Did Ph-ac. rejected life due to his already strong sensitivity? 

Did he felt away from home, did he have already his senses too acute, since the very beginning? 

Did he felt the environment already too aggressive?

Did he decide not to live, did he give up feeding and now he has to walk on Earth in that weak, feeble state and became too sensible scared, full of fantasies?

Constant vomiting of milk in a suckling; waxy color of face; blue rings around eyes; child does not cry; mother has very little milk.

The child constantly longs for food, without eating it,

         

                           Groups in Phosphoricum acidum

Hahnemann, Allen, Hering & Kent

 

Dr. Claudio C. Araujo M.D., F.F.Hom. (Lon.)

Humor

Lively

Lively vivacious mood (after twenty-four hours), [3]. 

Very lively and frequently quite let loose, [1]. 

Very lively and good-humored, [2]. 

Wonderful dreams, [1]. 

Vivid dream of feasting, as in the day, [1]. 

Dreams pleasant before midnight, fearful though little remembered after midnight, [5].

She dances, without consciousness, violently and wildly, for several days, without lying down, except at night, [6]. 

Anxiety

Apprehension, as if the chest were too tight, with internal heat (after eight hours), [7]. 

Great anxiety; was obliged to lie down, in the afternoon (third day), [1]. 

Anxiety and restlessness throughout the whole body, [1]. 

Hastiness in speech; he cannot do anything rapidly enough, [1]. 

Ill-humored

He looks very ill-humored and morose, so that every one asks him what the matter is, although he is not sick, [11]. 

Very ill-humored, weak, and sleepy, in the morning on rising, [1].

Very ill-humored, peevish, irritable, [11]. 

Very irritable depressed mood, with physical prostration, [1]. 

Obstinate about everything, [1]. 

Easily vexed and easily gets into a passion, [1]. 

He is beside himself, and hot from the slightest vexation, [1]. 

Quiet fretfulness, [7]. 

Sadness

Sadness, grief and disposition to weep. 

Lachrymose, as from homesickness, [12]. 

Sad and solicitous concerning the future, [5]

Sadness and feeling of solicitude, as if she would be sick, [1]. 

Sad, [1]. 

Sad, earnest, discouraged only when walking in the open air, the farther he walk the more it increases; in the house it gradually disappears, and he becomes more lively, [1].

Depression (after four days), [1]. 

He was constantly complaining about his illness, [14]. 

Indifferent

Quiet indifferent and much boring in the nose, [14]. 

Indifferent, restless, [11]. 

Is very weak and indifferent to the affairs of life. 

With Oneself

Ailments from grief

Ailments from care, grief, sorrow, chagrin, homesickness or disappointed love; particularly with drowsiness; night sweats towards morning; emaciation. 

Anxiety and doubt concerning his recovery; insomnia and prostration. 

Hectic fever, sweat and flushing of face, especially in afternoon, evening or towards night; of crushing weight on vertex. θ Effects of grief. 

After severe disappointment in her affections, no outward demonstrations of grief, but her color faded, plumpness disappeared; extremities cold; dry hacking cough; breathing shallow; dyspnœa from slightest exercise; mind obtuse, brooding over her sorrow; heart beats feebly and quick; pulse almost imperceptible. θ Cardiac weakness.

Hypochondriasis from sexual abuse.

Dread of the future; brooding over one's condition.

Discontented with himself, reproachful, [9]. 

Diarrhœa caused by fear during cholera season; restlessness; constant rumbling in abdomen; hot hands; body bathed in anxious sweat; great thirst; thin, painless stools.

Chronic effects of fright.

Dreams, in part vexatious, in part indifferent; towards morning he places the arms under the head; they then fall asleep, [3]. 

With the Others

Quiet, indifferent, unwilling to speak, or hasty speech. 

He speaks unwillingly; talking is irksome, [11]. 

He speaks little, and answers questions unwillingly, [7]. 

Disinclination to talk, [9]. 

He cannot be alone without losing his thoughts and becoming unconscious, in the morning, [2].

Anxious dreams of dead people, with fear, on waking, [3]. 

Dreams full of quarrel and strife, night restless, [9].

With the Environment

Listless, apathetic; remarkable indifference to everything in life; especially if there be emaciation and debility. 

Aversion to sunlight, sees colors, as of rainbow, or is dazzled on looking at bright objects; sees variegated colors where there is but one.

Intolerance of noise, especially of music. θ Headache.

Every sound re-echoes loudly in ears.

Sense of smell too acute.

Nervous deafness, after typhoid diseases.

Homesickness, with inclination to weep.

Male Sexuality

Dreams: with erections; lascivious with emissions; anxious; restless sleep; after midnight.

Sleep full of dreams, with erections, [1]. 

Lascivious dreams, with emissions, [5]. 

Emissions: frequent, profuse and debilitating, causing hypochondriasis; from weakness of parts from onanism; with very little sexual excitement; during stool; with dragging aching in testes.

Onanism when patient is distressed by culpability of his indulgence.

Excessive erections, without sexual desire, [1]. 

Erection, in the morning, in bed, [1]. 

Erections, in the morning, while standing, [1]. 

Erections, at night, which formerly had entirely ceased (third day), [16]. 

Erections without sexual desire; morning when standing. 

During coition sudden relaxation of penis preventing emission.

Weakness after coition; also after pollutions.

Sexual desire suppressed. 

Impotence, especially when sensibility of part is excessive and semen is discharged shortly after an erection, or before an erection.

Remote effects of loss of animal fluids; long-lasting effects of seminal emission, whether occurring during sleep or when awake, with every effort at stool or urination, or from excessive venery; whole system seemed weakened.

Nightly pollutions, sometimes several in one night, and even after coitus; immediately after pollution wakes with an erection; after an emission has more sexual desire than at any other time; for desire, as a rule, is reduced to a minimum; after a pollution has all day an itching sensation, as if ants were crawling over body, but particularly on genitals; also constant desire to urinate, quantity passed being larger than usual; after coitus urine flows in a broken stream; looks like chalk and water, or like buttermilk, causing a burning sensation at the orifice of urethra; appetite good; emaciation; sad, depressed, despairing of recovery. θ Spermatorrhœa.

Very profuse emissions, [1]. 

Profuse emission, [17]. 

Loss of sexual desire, [1]. 

Emission, without erections, at night (first night), [16]. 

Emission, while pressing at stool, [14]. 

With normal, physical, and mental sexual desire and ability for continued coition, the penis finally becomes relaxed, with complete satisfaction, without emission, [1]. 

Kent: Another cause is sexual excesses in young men, or in those guilty of secret vice. Weakness; lack of reaction; state of stupor, with impotency; mental prostration, and as if the spine had given out.

Female Sexuality and Pregnancy

Ovaritis, metritis, or prolapsus from debilitating or emotional influences;

Deterioration of health from nursing.

Kent: It suits the woman who has been nursing her child a long, time, or nursing twins, and who gives much milk. She becomes tired and weakly. Loss of fluids, blood; prolonged nursing, and weakness from such causes.

Childhood

Diseases of children during dentition.

Heaviness, stitches, burning of one spot in region of liver in passage of gall-stones; jaundice in scrofulous children or from grief.

Constant vomiting of milk in a suckling; waxy color of face; blue rings around eyes; child does not cry; mother has very little milk.

Palpitation: in children and young persons who grow too fast; in onanists  after depressing emotions.

Child weak, pale, cold; painless stool; bones diseased.

The child constantly longs for food, without eating it,

NECK AND BACK. 

Spondylitis of cervical vertebræ; frequent formation of abscesses; three or four fistulous passages, at bottom of which caries vertebræ could be felt with sound; body of vertebræ considerably enlarged; painless diarrhœa with much rumbling in abdomen; stools white or greyish-white, often undigested; involuntary; stool escapes when child is moved or turned; urine profuse, clear, becoming turbid and milky, of offensive odor, escaping involuntarily, especially on passive motion; child morose, will not tolerate brothers or sisters near him; face pale; great emaciation; loss of appetite; marked sleepiness and yet does not go to sleep; cannot move head; cries out at least careless handling. 


Schoolgirl's headache; from overuse of eyes.

Work

Disinclined to work.

The sensations experienced on taking from 40 drops to 3 drachms were those of moderate alcoholic stimulation. There was slight pain through the frontal region, and a buoyancy and lightness of feeling rather agreeable. When larger doses were taken there was a feeling of drowsiness, an inclination to lie down, and an unwillingness to undertake mental labor. This continued for some hours, [18]. 

Indolent, dull, unbalanced mind, without fancy; disinclination for even agreeable mental work, [11]. 

Disinclined to work, [1]. 

Cerebral weakness from brain fag. 

Neurasthenia: cerebro-spinal exhaustion from overwork; least attempt to study causes heaviness, not only in head, but also in limbs.

 Internal uneasiness hindered him at work, [1].

Intellectual

Weak memory; loss of ideas and weakness of mind; on thinking he becomes dizzy; cannot collect his thoughts in proper order. θ Brain fag.

Incapacity for thought in morning. 

Cannot find the right word when talking; answers either reluctantly and slowly or short and incorrectly.

When reading, a thousand different thoughts come to mind; he can understand nothing; what he reads is obscure, and everything is immediately forgotten, with difficult recollection of what he has known a long time, [10]. 

He cannot get rid of an idea, and the thoughts connected with it do not come to him, [1].

He cannot find the right word when talking (after two hours), [1]. 

Loss of ideas and weakness of mind; on thinking he becomes dizzy, [7]. 

He cannot collect his thoughts in proper order, [1]. 

Almost complete loss of memory of the occurrences of the day (first day), [16]. 

Kent: "Mental enfeeblement" is the thought that will come into the mind when considering what the Phosphoric acid patient says, does and looks.

The mind seems tired. When questioned he answers slowly or does not speak, but only looks at the questioner. He is too tired to talk or even think. He says:

"Don't talk to me; let me alone."

This state is found in both acute and chronic diseases. He is so tired in mind, perfectly exhausted.

In chronic diseases when brought on from long study; prolonged worry in business men; in feeble school girls, when become relaxed from very little effort. In acute diseases he, especially in typhoid fever, is averse to speaking or answering questions. He merely looks. Finally he rouses up and says:

"Don't talk to me, I am so tired."

He cannot think what he wishes to say, cannot frame his answers to questions. 

Neurologic symptoms

Unconsciousness, no complaints; even pinching is not noticed. 

Hysteria, in women of dark complexion; change of life. 

Hysteria in a woman of dark hair, eyes, complexion, during change of life. 

Hysterical affections of young women with irritable fibre, accompanied with extreme delicacy and sponginess of organic tissue; vascular orgasm or atonic debility. 

Delirium, quiet, not violent, with stupefaction and dullness of head. 


Depression of sensorium, and muttering, unintelligible speech; lies in a stupor, or in a stupid sleep, unconscious of all that is going on around him ; when aroused is fully conscious. 

Generals

Kent: In every case we find the mental symptoms are the first to develop. The remedy runs from the mental to the physical, from the brain to the muscles.

This is so striking that it is contrasted with Muriaticum acid. in the latter remedy the muscular prostration comes first, and the mind seems clear until long after the muscles are prostrated. In Phosphoric acid the muscles seem strong after the mind has given out. The patient seems vigorous physically.

He says he is all right physically, can work, can exercise even violently; but the mind is tired, there is mental apathy, he can not add up a column of figures, can not read the newspaper and carry the trend of thought, can not connect circumstances. He forgets the names of those in his family; a business man forgets the names of his clerks; he is in confusion. Yet he can exercise, can go out and walk; the weakness in the muscles will come later.

Phosphoric acid has also great physical weakness; so tired in the back; so tired in the muscles; so tired all over; a paralytic weakness. Later there is sexual impotence; aversion to coition; loss of sexual desire; no erections; penis becomes relaxed in the midst of an embrace and he cannot finish the act, (Nux v.)

Occipital headache and pain in nape of neck from exhausted nerve-power or excessive grief. 

Chronic congestions to head, caused by fright or grief.

Weakness: of parts of body; disinclination for business; prostrated; apathetic in morning; from loss of fluids; from typhoid fever; from grief; from sorrow or unfortunate love; from suppression of eruptions; from talking; from seminal loss, perspiration, leucorrhœa or excessive grief; pale face; paralytic, or semi-paralytic; with or without sciatic pains.

Nervous debility, with cold clammy sweats or profuse perspiration. 

Fainting: after a meal; from loss of fluids; from emotions; with desire to lie down.

Great apathy and drowsiness. 

Lies in a deep sleep, but when aroused is fully conscious. θ Typhoid.