GRAPHITES

Every homeopathic remedy is explained in detail by William Boericke, M.D. in the Pocket Manual of Homeopathic Materia Medica and Repertory, a book which is highly respected by the homeopathy profession. The following text is excerpted from that book and explains the symptoms covered by this remedy:

GRAPHITES
Common name: Black Lead-Plumbago

Like all the carbons, this remedy is an anti-psoric of great power, but especially active in patients who are rather stout, of fair complexion, with tendency to skin affections and constipation, fat, chilly, and costive, with delayed menstrual history, take cold easily. Children impudent, teasing, laugh at reprimands. Has a particular tendency to develop the skin phase of internal disorders. Eradicates tendency to erysipelas. Anæmia with redness of face. Tendency to obesity. Swollen genitals. Gushing leucorrhœa. Aids absorption of cicatricial tissue. Induration of tissue. Cancer of pylorus. Duodenal ulcer.

Mind: Great tendency to start. Timid. Unable to decide. Want of disposition to work. Fidgety while sitting at work. Music makes her weep. Apprehensive, despondency, indecision.

Head: Rush of blood to head with flushed face also with nose bleed and distension and flatulence. Headache in morning on waking, mostly on one side, with inclination to vomit. Sensation of cobweb on forehead. Feels numb and pithy. Rheumatic pains on one side of head, extending to teeth and neck. Burning on vertex. Humid, itching eruption on hairy scalp, emitting a fetid odor. Cataleptic condition.

Eyes: Ophthalmia, with intolerance of artificial light. Eyelids red and swollen. Blepharitis. Dryness of the lids. Eczema of lids; fissured.

Ears: Dryness of inner ear. Cracking in ears when eating. Moisture and eruptions behind the ears. Hears better in noise. Hardness of hearing. Hissing in the ears. Detonation in ear like report of a gun. Thin, white, scaly membrane covering membrane tympani, like exfoliated epithelium. Fissures in and behind the ear.

Nose: Sore on blowing it; is painful internally. Smell abnormally acute; cannot tolerate flowers. Scabs and fissures in nostrils.

Face: Feels as if cobwebs were on it. Eczema of nose. Itching pimples. Moist eczema around mouth and chin. Erysipelas, burning and stinging.

Mouth: Rotten odor from mouth. Breath smells like urine. Burning blisters on tongue, salivation. Sour eructations.

Stomach: Aversion to meat. Sweets nauseate. Hot drinks disagree. Nausea and vomiting after each meal. Morning sickness during menstruation. Pressure in stomach. Burning in stomach, causing hunger. Eructation difficult. Constrictive pain in stomach. Recurrent gastralgia. Flatulence. Stomach pain is temporarily relieved by eating, hot drinks especially milk and lying down.

Abdomen: Nauseous feeling in abdomen. Fullness and hardness in abdomen, as from incarcerated flatulence; must loosen clothing; presses painfully at abdominal ring. Croaking in abdomen. Inguinal region sensitive, swollen. Pain of gas opposite the side on which he lies. Chronic diarrhœa, stools brownish, liquid, undigested, offensive. Very fetid gas preceded by colic.

Stool: Constipation; large, difficult, knotty stools united by mucus threads. Burning hæmorrhoids. Prolapse, diarrhœa; stools of brown fluid, mixed with undigested substance, very fetid, sour odor. Smarting, sore anus, itching. Lump stool, conjoined with threads of mucus. Varices of the rectum. Fissure of anus (Ratanhia; Paeonia).

Urine: Turbid, with sediment. Sour smelling.

Female: Menses too late, with constipation; pale and scanty, with tearing pain in epigastrium, and itching before. Hoarseness, coryza, cough, sweats and morning sickness during menstruation. Leucorrhœa, pale, thin, profuse, white, excoriating, with great weakness in back. Mammæ swollen and hard. Induration of ovaries and uterus and mammæ. Nipples sore, cracked, and blistered. Decided aversion to coitus.

Male: Sexual debility, with increased desire; aversion to coition; too early or no ejaculation; herpetic eruption on organs.

Respiratory: Constriction of chest; spasmodic asthma, suffocative attacks wakes from sleep; must eat something. Pain in middle of chest, with cough, scraping and soreness. Chronic hoarseness with skin affections. Inability to control the vocal chords; hoarseness on beginning to sing and for breaking voice.

Extremities: Pain in nape of neck, shoulders and back and limbs. Spinal pains. Pain in small of back with great weakness. Excoriation between thighs. Left hand numb; arms feel asleep; finger-nails thick, black, and rough, matrix inflamed (Psor; Fluor ac). Œdema of lower limbs. Toe-nails crippled. Stiffness and contraction of toes. Nails brittle and crumbling. Nails deformed, painful, sore, thick, and crippled. Cracks or fissures in ends of fingers. Offensive perspiration of feet.

Skin: Rough, hard, persistent dryness of portions of skin unaffected by eczema. Early stage of keloid and fibroma. Pimples and acne. Eruptions, oozing out a sticky exudation. Rawness in bends of limbs, groins, neck, behind ears. Unhealthy skin; every little injury suppurates. Ulcers discharging a glutinous fluid, thin and sticky. Swelling and induration of glands. Gouty nodosities. Cracks in nipples, mouth, between toes, anus. Phlegmonous erysipelas of face; burning and stinging pain. Swelling of feet. Wens. Chronic Poison Oak.

Modalities: Worse, warmth, at night, during and after menstruation. Better, in the dark, from wrapping up.

Relationship: Complementary: Argent nit (follows well in gastric derangements); Caustic; Hep; Lycop; Ars; Tuberc.

Compare: Petrol; Sep; Sulph; Fluor ac. The associated constipation with mucus-covered stools and gastric flatulency should be taken into consideration and differentiate it from such remedies as Petrol and Lycop (Raue).

Antidote: Nux; Acon; Ars.