Silicea

S I L I C E A

Source: Pure Silica (Silicic Oxide)

Constitutional taint:  Psora, Sycosis.

Silicea is another of our invaluable constitutional remedies, and also one which is of little or no use except as developed by Hahnemann's process of  potentization. Like Calcarea it is especially useful sweaty-headed children (Sanicula) with defective assimilation.  It is not in the fat, torpid, obese patients, over nourished in one part and insufficiently  so in another, like Calcarea,  that Silicia is indicated,  but in the oversensitive, imperfectly nourished (generally), not from want of food but from imperfect assimilation The Silicea child is not larger than natural anywhere except in its " big belly", which is due to diseased mesentery. Its limbs are shrunken, its eyes sunken and its face pinched and old looking.  It does not increase in size or strength, learns late; in short, if not actually sick in bed, everything seems to have to a standstill so far as growth or development is concerned. Now if this state of things continues the bowels become very constipated and a peculiar constipation -the little follow strains and strains, the stool partly protruding and then slipping back( Sanicula & Thuja) as though the general weakness of  the patient  affected the expulsive power of the rectum or else the bowels become very persistently loose, especially during dentition or the hot weather of summer.  The stools are changeable  but Pulsatilla does no good, almost every kind and color of loose stool appearing.  The child takes  nourishment enough, but, whether vomited or retained, goes on emaciating and growing weaker and weaker until it dies of inanition, unless Silicea checks this process. Nash says that he has cured many cases had have saved with this remedy and made them healthy children. He has always used 30^th and upwards, hence cannot speak of the lower.

Kent says that the "action of Silica is slow. In the proving, it takes a long time to develop the symptoms.  It is, therefore, suited to complaints that develop slowly.   At certain times of the year and under certain circumstances, peculiar symptoms will come out.  They may stay with the prover  the balance of his life.  Such are the long-acting, deep-acting remedies, they are capable of going so thoroughly into the vital order that hereditary disturbances are routed out. 

The SILICIA patient is CHILLY; his symptoms are developed in cold, damp weather, though often better in cold, dry weather; symptoms come out after a bath. He has a lack of vital warmth, even when taking exercise; must be wrapped up, especially the head which >.

Unhealthy skin; every little injury suppurates.  Ill effects of vaccination(Thuja).

Promotes expulsion of foreign bodies from the tissues, fish bones, needles bone splinters.

Nash sahs he have several times found a Silicea child sufffering from epileptiform spasms which were always worse at new moon.  A few doses of Sil.200 set them allright.

Mental symptoms:  

Oversensitive, both mentally and physically.  Yielding mid, anxious mood, faint-hearted. Lacks grit or mental stamina. A speaker is under the impression that he would fail to conduct himself properly as he used to do on previous occasions.  But his usual self command returns to him and he does well, he does his work with promptness, fullness, and accuracy. This is the early state of course there comes a time when he cannot perform the work with accuracy and still he may need Silicea.

Another case is illustrated in a young man who has studied for years and is now nearing the end of his course.  He dreads the final examination but he goes through them all right, then a fatigue comes upon him and for years he is  unable to enter his profession. He has this dread of undertaking anything.

The patient is gloomy, feels if she would die.  Mental labor seems to be very difficult :reading and writing are fatiguing.  Brain fag. Fixed ideas; thinks only of pins, searches and counts them(as in insanity).  Child is obstinate and headstrong; cries when kindly spoken to. Weakness of memory. Disposition to fly into a rage, obstinacy, and great irritability.  Tendency to misapply words in speaking.

Head:

Headache from fasting;; better, wrapping up warmly; when lying on left side(Mag.mur; Strontia)  Pain begin at occiput, and spsreads over head and settles over eyes._Profuse sweat , offensive and extends to neck.  Begins to sweat as soon as he falls  asleep.  Children perspire all about the head;(lower than Calcarea). head is wet from sweat, esp. at night.  Sweat is over the scalp neck and face, and is apt to be offensive, but it may be sour-smelling. Scrofulous rachitic children with large heads, open fontanelles and sutures;(H.C.Allen)

Eyes:

Swelling of lachrymal duct. Perforating  or sloughing ulcers of cornea.  Abscess in cornea after traumatic injury After effects of keratitis and ulcus(ulcer)  cornae, clearing the opacity. Boericke says use 30^th potency for months. Styes

Ears:

Fetid discharge. Caries of mastoid.  Roaring in ears.

Nose:

Itching at point of nose.  Perforation of septum. Sneezing in morning.

Face:

Pale and earthy complexion.  White spots on cheeks, from time to time.  Cracks and  rhagades in skin of face .  'Face is sickly, anemic, waxy, tired.'.  Pustular and vesicular eruption on face. Herpes on chin. Schirrhous  induration  in face and upper lip.  Swelling of lips. Ulceration of commissures of lips.

Mouth:

Sensation of a hair on tongue.  Gums sensitive to cold air. Boils on gums.  Abscess at root of teeth Pyorrhoea (Merc. Cor.) Sensitive to cold water.The teeth break down, lose their enamel surface; the dentine is made up largely of the silicate of lime and the surface of the tooth becomes rough, loses its shiny appearance and caries sets in. This often takes in the margin of the gum; ulcers form on the tip of the fangs. Toothaches are >in a warm room and from hot drinks.  Abscesses around gums.

Throat:

Periodical quinsy.  Pricking as of a pin in tonsil.  Colds settles in throat. Parotid glands swollen.(Bell, Rhus, Calc.) Hard, cold swelling of cervical glands.

Stomach:

 Desires: Great appetite; For cold and raw things only.

Aversions: to all food, esp. to cooked and hot things. To boiled food. Loathing of animal food which cannot be digested.

Although the patient has an aversion to hot things and desires to eat cold things, yet in chest complaints cold water, ice cream and cold things in general, increase the cough to gagging, and then the retching is dreadful, violent, retching, gagging cough..  Child is averse to its mother's milk with vomiting after sucking.

Abdomen:

Colic, cold feeling in abdomen, better by external heat. Hepatic abscess.

Rectum:

Feels paralyzed. Fistula in ano (ber,; Lach.)Fissures and haemorrhoids, painful with spasm of sphincter ; Stool comes down with difficulty; when partly expelled, recedes again.  Great straining; recturm stings; closes  upon stool. Faeces remain a long time in rectum. Constipation always before and during menses with irritable spnincter ani.  Diarhhoea of cadaverous odor- from overheated(Sulphur).

Urinary:

Prostatic fluid discharged when straining at stool. Nocturnal enuresis in children with worms.

Male :Burning and soreness of genitals, with eruptions in inner surface of thighs.  Chronic gonorrhoea with thick, fetid discharge. Elephantiasis of scrotum. Sexual erethism; noctural emissions.

Female:

Entire absence of menses for months , amenorrhoea.  Serous cysts in the vagina as large as a pea or an orange, projecting from the vagina or projecting upwards and flattened out in conformation with it.  Leucorrhoa profuse, acrid corroding milky, preceded by cutting around the navel, causing biting pain, especially after acrid food; during the urination ; in gushes with cancer of the uterus. Hard lumps in the breasts. Threatened abscesses of the breasts.  If the remedy is given in time it will abort the entire trouble .Women who area so weak they tend to abort, or no conception takes place. It would seem if the organs were tired out and unable to perform their functions. Constipation always before and during menses(diarrhoea before and during menses, Am.c, Bov.)

Respiratory:

. The Silicia cough is dangerous one; the remedy suits the early stage of phthisis, when the lung is not extensively involved, it suits a cough of catarrhal character when the symptoms agree. If there is a small abscess in the lung with no tendency to heal, it brings about repair.  Asthmatic attacks from suppressed gonorrhoea with liability to develop complaints from over exertion and over heating as in most sycotics.

Chronic tendency  for colds to settle in the chest and bring on asthmatic symptoms.  Chronic bronchitis; inflammation of the lungs with suppuration. Silicia especially suits the later stages of pneumonia and the old, chronic complaints following pneumonia. Colds fails to yield;  sputum persistently muco purulent and profuse..  Cough and sore throat, with expectoration of little granules like shot, which broken smell very offensive.

Tuberculosis; thick, yellow, green foetid sputa, more pronounced coldness than  Calc.; and  head sweat, pains in the lungs sore lungs, stitches.

Back:

Weak spine; very susceptible to draughts on back. Pains in coccyx.  Spinal irritation after  injuries to spine; diseases of bones of spine.  Pott's disease(tubercular spondilitis).

Sleep:

Night walking; gets  up  while asleep.  Insomnia with great orgasm of blood and heat in head.  Frequent starts in sleep.

EXTREMETIES:

Affections of the  finger nails, especially if white spots o  nails.  In growing toe nails. Icy cold and sweaty feet.  The parts lain on go to sleep.  Offensive sweat on feet, hands and axillae. Panaritium. Pain in k nee as if tightly bound.  Calves tense and contracted.  Pain beneath toes.  Soles sore (Ruta0.  Soreness in feet from instep through to the sole.  Suppurates.

SKIN:

Felons(abscess around nails) abscesses, boils, old old fistulous ulcers.  Delicate, pale, waxy. Cracks at end of fingers.  Painless swelling of glands.  Rose-coloured blotches.  Scars suddenly become painful. Pus offensive .  Promotes expulsion of foreign bodies from tissues.  Every little injury suppurates.  Long lasting suppuration and fistulous tracts.  Dry finger tips.  Eruptions itch only in daytime and evening.  Crippled nails.  Keloid growths.

Fever: 

Chilliness; very sensitive to cold air.  Creeping shivering over the whole body.  Cold extremities, even in a warm room . Sweat at night; worse towards morning.  Suffering parts feel cold.

Thermal:

Silicea is disturbed by the extremes of heat and cold, easily affected in changes even of a few degrees; he has complaints from being overheated he gets overheated easily, sweats easily from a slight change in the temperature and comes down with a cold.

Case: A physician waiting on an obstetrical case, had a little difficulty in the last stage and he became overheated; putting on his overcoat and hat he went out on the porch to cool off and was taken down with asthma, violent cough, copious expectoration with gagging and vomiting which lasted him for months . The acute remedies he had taken only palliated, but a dose of Silicia cured him almost as quickly as he was taken down; he could not tolerate a warm room;  the acute complaints of Silicia are often worse in a warm room and from heat.

Modalities:

Aggravation:    Cold; during menses; during new moon, in morning , uncovering especially the head;  lying down.

Amerlioration: Warmth, especially from wrapping up the head; all the symptoms except gastric which are >by cold food(Lyc.)   Silicia is the chronic of Pulsatilla.

Relationship:

Complimentary:  Thuja; Sanic. Puls. Fluro. Ac.  Merc. And Silicia do not follow each other well.

Antidotes: Hepar Sulph. Calcarea carbonica.

Dose:  Sixth to thirtieth Potency.  The 200^th and higher of unquestioned  activity.  In malignant affections, the lowest potencies needed at times.

Summary of Indications:  Gastro intestinal disorders (digestive disorders, anal fis                                   sures, fistula)-chronic infections --expulsion of of foreign bodies - paronychia(nail bed infectins)- osteomyletis - silicosis - emphysema - skin disorders.