Benzoicum acidum
Benzoic acid · Benzoic acid · Human-made/chemical
Benzoic ac. is best suited to those who tend to alternate between excitable behavior and a state of deep, stuporous sleep, general dullness, and weariness. A preoccupation with unpleasant topics may cause them to dwell on their own and other people’s misfortunes. They are often extremely sensitive to noise, especially if they have Ménière’s disease (a disorder of the inner ear). Babies who respond well to Benzoic ac. like to be picked up and held, but dislike being laid down.
Wandering pains are the key symptoms associated with this remedy, such as pains that move from the leg joints to the internal organs, especially the heart, and then radiate to the joints of the extremities. Other symptoms may include joints that crack, with redness and swelling that may be linked to acute gout, and sharp, tearing pains in the joints of the big toe.
The remedy is used particularly if symptoms include profuse, dark brown, strong-smelling urine and incontinence at night, or if there are frothy, white stools that smell offensive.
Key symptoms
- Urine highly colored, very offensive with strong characteristic odor
- Gouty symptoms with uric acid diathesis; renal insufficiency
- Pains suddenly change their locality
- Child wants to be nursed in arms and will not be laid down
- Frothy, offensive, liquid, light-colored stools like soapsuds
- Depression; prone to dwell on unpleasant things from the past
- Stitching in liver region; cutting about navel
- Anti-sycotic; gouty and asthmatic tendency
Worse (aggravation)
Better (amelioration)
Benzoic Acid
The most marked characteristic pertains to the odor and color of the urine. It has a marked action on metabolism. It produces and cures symptoms of a uric acid diathesis, with urine highly colored and very offensive, and gouty symptoms. Renal insufficiency. Child wants to be nursed in the arms, will not be laid down. Pains suddenly change their locality. Anti-sycotic. Gouty and asthmatic.
Mind
Prone to dwell on unpleasant things in the past. Omits words in writing. Depression.
Head
Vertigo inclination to fall sideways. Throbbing in temporal arteries, causes puffing around ears. Noises when swallowing. Ulceration of tongue. Swelling behind ears (Caps). Cold sweat on forehead. Pricking, puckered constriction of mouth, bluish and bleeding gums. Wens.
Nose
Itching of septum. Pain in nasal bones.
Face
Copper-colored spots. Red, with little blisters. Circumscribed redness of cheeks.
Stomach
Sweat while eating; pressure in stomach, sensation of a lump.
Abdomen
Cutting about navel. Stitching in liver region.
Rectum
Stitches and constricted feeling. Puckering constriction of rectum. Itching and watery elevations around anus.
Stool
Frothy, offensive, liquid, light-colored, like soapsuds, bowel movements, mostly windy.
Urine
Repulsive odor; changeable color; brown, acid. Enuresis; dribbling, offensive urine of old men. Excess of uric acid. Vesical catarrh from suppressed gonorrhœa. Cystitis.
Respiratory
Hoarse in morning. Asthmatic cough; worse at night; lying on right side. Chest very tender. Pain in region of heart. Expectoration, green mucus.
Back
Pressure on spinal column. Coldness in sacrum. Dull pain in region of kidneys; worse, wine.
Extremities
Joints crack on motion. Tearing with stitches. Pain in tendo Achillis. Rheumatic gout; nodes very painful. Gouty deposits. Ganglion; swelling of the wrist. Pain and swelling in knees. Bunion of great toe. Tearing pain in great toe.
Fever
Cold hands, feet, back, knees. Chilliness; cold sweat. Internal heat on awakening.
Skin
Red spots. Itching in spots.
Modalities
Worse, in open air; by uncovering.
Relationship
Useful after Colchic fails in gout; after Copavia in gonorrhœa.
Compare: Nitric acid; Ammon benz; Sabina; Tropoeolum.
Garden Nasturtium--(fetid urine).
Antidote: Copaiva.
Incompatible: Wine.
Dose
Third to sixth potency.
Whenever we see in the nature of a remedy a well-defined state and condition of the human system pointed out by certain distinctive groups of symptoms we may know that there is such a diseasedstate in the human family.
They have not the power to create by themselves any diseased state except there is first such a state in the economy of the human race to be aroused.
They simply call up in a single individual something that the individual has, and that something belongs to the human race, and so whenever we see a diseased state in the remedy we know that it exists in correspondence to something in the human race.
Things are so adjusted that everything is for use. There may be conditions in the human race that we, as yet, know no remedy for.
Benzoic Acid. C6 H5 CO. OH. Obtained, by sublimation, from Gum benzoin; or artificially from several aromatic hydrocarbons. Tincture or trituration.
Clinical
Asthma. Bladder, affections of. Bunion. Cracks. Diarrhœa. Enuresis. Eye, tumours of. Ganglion. Gonorrhœa. Gout. Joints, affections of. Knee, pain in. Rheumatism. Sycosis. Throat, sore. Tongue, sore. Tonsils, enlarged. Ulcers. Urine, disorders of. Wens.
Characteristics
The leading note of Benzoic acid is the occurrence, as a concomitant of any morbid condition, of strong-smelling urine, generally also dark. Benzoic acid is a chilly medicine, the symptoms being < in open air; by uncovering; > by heat. Pains suddenly change their locality, but are mostly felt in region of heart. Joints crack when moving. Symptoms appear left side first, then right. Asthma has been cured by it, especially in rheumatic persons. Inflammation of bronchi and lungs, with great tenderness of chest, cough < night, lying on right side. Some of the chief symptoms are: Inclined …
(C6H5COOH.)
A gouty, rheumatic diathesis engrafted on a gonorrhoeal or sypilitic patient. Gouty concretions; arthritis vaga; affects all the joints, especially the knee, cracking on motion; nodosities (Berb., Lith., Lys.). Urine dark brown, and the urinous odor highly intensified. Enuresis nocturna of delicate children; dribbling urine of old men with enlarged prostrate; strong characteristic odor; excesses of uric acid. Catarrah of bladder after suppressed gonorrhea. Diarrhoea of children; white, very offensive, exhausting liquid stools, running "right through the diaper" (Pod.); urine offensive and of a deep red color. Cough: with expectoration of green mucus (Natr. s.); extreme weariness, lassitude. Pains tearing, stitching, in large joints of big toe; redness and swelling of joints; gout < at night.
Mouth and Throat
Angina facium and tonsilitis; with exceedingly offensive and high-colored urine.
Urinary Organs
Urine highly colored; urinous odor exceedingly strong; offensive, pungent smell (with many complaints).
- Urine highly coloured, and of an exceedingly strong. offensive, pungent odour.
Phatak's chapter on Benzoicum acidum is available in the app.
Read Phatak in the appClassical texts are in the public domain. Educational reference only — not medical advice.
