Kent's - Classical Homeopathy Online

and the urine becomes copious; free urine and solids increased; the urine becomes heavy, whereas itwas light. "Hard, frequent pulse".The extremities are full of rheumatic affections. "Lassitude in lower limbs". "Swelling of knee".All gouty affections belong to this remedy. "Gouty concretions". "Nodes on joints". Benzoic acid isoften an excellent palliating remedy in old gouty constitutions; they want to be relieved of the pains intheir fingers and in the nodes and joints. The fingers crack and are clumsy and painful. But often thepain has been relieved and gone to other parts. This is one among the remedies that will drive thecomplaints away from the internal organs and generally increase the pain in the extremities, which theywill scold about. "Trembling with palpitation of heart". "Extreme weakness; sweat and comatosecondition". Note that comatose condition with sweat; the Benzoic acid patient sweats without relief.Copious, exhaustive sweat and profound sleep, but there is no relief."Awaken with difficulty of breathing". Pulsation all over."All sorts of catarrhal states; gouty diathesis, gout with arthritic nodosites, syphiliticrheumatism, etc". These patients are getting low down in the scale of life, the tissues become feeble.Ulcers form upon the skin and mucous membranes.BERBERIS VULGARIS [berb] [Kent’s]When we have finished the study of Berberis we will see that it is not a very extensive remedy,but it is a very important one. Like Benzoic acid, fits into the gouty and rheumatic sphere.It corresponds to such gouty conditions as do not determine to their proper places. A low stateof the economy is present; anemic condition; feeble constitution; pallid and sickly, old and worn out;prematurely old and wrinkled men and women. They are too feeble to determine the gouty deposits tothe finger joints, where they naturally belong, and the trouble is yet, as it were, wandering aroundthrough the economy. Wandering pains in the nerves, and nerve sheaths. The wandering, stitching,tearing, twinging pains that run though Berberis are found in old gouty constitutions, and that is wherewe get the greatest benefit from Berberis. Its proving would let us to see it is similar to the wandering,twinging and tearing pains of old gouty constitutions, in persons who are pallid, and sickly, and chilly,where the deposits have not been so marked in the joints; but where the twinging in the fingers and inthe toes are just such as are found where the deposits do exist. Of course in all of the gouty states wemust look to the liver and kidneys for pains and various distresses; they are centers of observation,because these organs are more or less disturbed. And very often cardiac troubles go along with them.The kidneys, liver, and heart are more or less disturbed in their functions and we see that Berberis takeshold of these organs. We have the uraemic state, and the state of disorder that ends in these conditions.We will have twinging pains along with kidney disturbances.Irregularities of the urine. Copious discharges, alternating with scanty discharges. Light urine,,and heavy urine, excessive deposits of uric acid and urates. It is changeable, like Benzoic acid Thesetwo remedies run very much together, yet their symptoms are wholly unlike. We find among thesesensations that stitching pains are found in almost every region of the body, and they are all the timechanging. Wandering and stitching pains; little twinges. As you sit by his side and talk to a goutypatient---"Ow", he will say. What does he mean by it? He has had one of those twitching pains. Thenext thing he knows it is in his knee; then it is in his toes; then it is in his head, all over him. Finally thegouty deposits become prominent in the fingers, and after the gout has determined itself, then we havesore fingers; but these correspond more particularly to Ledum, Sulphur, Aesculus and Lycopodium,where the disease has become marked and has located in the joints. In Berberis these twinging, tearing,stitching, burning pains are everywhere, they never remain in one place, but are always moving, andthey are not often affected by motion. Whether he moves, or keeps still, they keep coming. In a fewinstances we have pain aggravated by motion, but a very few in proportion to the many pains inBerberis. He moves many times, because he cannot keep still. He moves, because he suffers. There arealso many pressing pains.Put the burning, stinging, tearing, stitching, wandering pains are the main feature, the grandfeature of Berberis. If you single them out in places, in a given joint, from that one joint they willradiate in every direction. If it is the knee joint, they will go up, and down, and every way; if it is thefinger joint, they will run in every direction. If it is the kidney, they will go down the ureters; if it is theliver, they will go down into the abdomen in every direction. "Radiating from a particular point", is adistinguishing feature, and it puts Berberis almost alone for radiating pains. This is such a strongfeature that Berberis has cured renal colic in many instances because of its well known ability to shootout in every direction. It cures gall-stone colic when these little twinges go in every direction from thatlocality. We see these twinging, shooting pains in gouty constitutions are associated with urinarytroubles, and with liver troubles, and we begin to lay a foundation for the study of Berberis.