Arsenicum album

The white oxide of Metallic Arsenic, As₂ O₃
J.H. Clarke

• Very prone to take fright.
• Irritability, desperately angry; almost furious.
• Despair, hopelessness, unutterable misery.
• The irritability and sadness of malarial cachexias; of the cachexias of quinine, mercury, and syphilis.

• Restlessness.
  • Exceedingly nervous.
  • Constantly moving about, restless to a degree.
  • Fits of restlessness with anxious moaning.
  • Anxious, full of fear of death, restlessness compelling frequent change in position.
  • Jerks and starts on falling asleep.
• Burning.
  • Burning, lancinating pains.
  • Burnings that are > by heat.
  • Burning in the throat is > by eating or drinking hot things.
• Prostration.
  • States of lowered vitality.
  • Prostration, with desire to move or be moved constantly.
  • The patient is exhausted from the slightest exertion. Exhaustion is not felt while lying still, but as soon as he moves he is surprised to find himself so weak. The prostration seems out of proportion to the rest of his illness. Must lie down. Exhaustion from hill-climbing, breathless, sleepless.
• Predominantly right-sided.
  • The neuralgias affect the right side most.
  • The right lung ("acute, sharp, fixed or darting pain in apex and through upper third of right lung") is more affected than the left.
  • Also the right side of the abdomen, hence typhlitis.
• Puffiness in one of its characteristics; and from this to dropsy. All mucous membranes are irritated.
• Arsenic is a hæmorrhagic.
  • Acts on both blood and blood-vessels.
  • Varices burn like fire.
  • Anæmia, chlorosis, and pyæmia - which corresponds also to states resulting from losses of blood (as venesection, metrorrhagia, hæmoptysis).
• Periodicity
  • Every day.
  • Every third or fourth day.
  • Every fortnight.
  • Every six weeks.
  • Every year.
• Time
  • Pronounced night aggravation, the pains are unsupportable with restlessness.
  • < Midnight and after (Acon. is rather before midnight).
  • < 3 am
• Weather / Environment
  • < from cold and damp.
  • > warmth (loves warmth; hugs the fire and likes warm wraps).
• < Lying on affected side, or with head low.
• > Lying with head high.

• Mouth
  • The lips are so dry and parched and cracked that the patient often licks them to moisten them. The mouth is aphthous, ulcerated, or gangrenous.
  • Thirst for little and often (Ant. t., Lyc.), wants it very cold and immediately rejects it (Phos. as soon as it becomes warm).
• Nose & Respiration
  • Before and after the cough of Arsenic there is an attack of asthma (Phos.) Arsen. has a great place in acute coryza and hay-fever.
  • The fluent coryza is corrosive, reddening the upper lip, and has more burning than either Merc. or Cepa. Also it is < out of doors, and > in warmth, which distinguishes it from Cepa especially.
  • The patient cannot lie down; must sit up to breathe; anxious; restless; < about 1 am.
• Skin
  • "Staring coat" in animals, and "dry, rough, scaly, unhealthy-looking skin" in human beings.
  • The skin is cold and clammy.
  • Scurfy eruptions.
  • Bran-coloured scales on head coming down to forehead.
  • Arsenic has cured epithelioma of the lips and closely corresponds to the cancerous diathesis.
• Stomach
  • Cold food and cold drinks < stomach irritations.
  • The stomach is so irritable that the least food or drink causes distress or vomiting, or stool or both together.
• Abdomen
  • Abdominal pains are intense, causing the patient to turn and twist.
• Stools and Anus
  • Hæmorrhoids are exceedingly painful as if burning needles plunged in.

• Ars. goes from room to room, from bed to bed; Mag. c. must get out of bed and walk the floor to relieve pain.
• The fear of death is not that of Acon., but is an anxiety and a feeling that it is useless to take medicine as they will surely die (more like Agnus).
• Bry. drinks much and seldom: Ars. little and often.
• Ars. eats much at a time, Bry. often and little.

• Effects of eating ices and drinking ice-water.
• Many dropsical conditions are controlled by Ars. Especially has it done brilliant work in cases of hydrothorax. It has been called the "liquid trochar," on account of the expeditions way in which it will remove a watery effusion.