Salicylicum acidum
Salicylic acid (2-hydroxybenzoic acid) · Salicylic acid · Human-made/chemical
This remedy is most appropriate for those who are prone to extreme prostration, weakness, and fainting, often due to post-viral fatigue. They may be mild-natured, restless, or anxious, and tend to be either overexcited or stupefied and dull. They are sleepy and yawn often, but wake frequently from sleep thinking that they can hear music.
Key symptoms associated with Salicylic ac. are weakness, ulceration, and ear problems such as tinnitus, vertigo, and progressive deafness, possibly due to Ménière’s disease (a disorder of the inner ear). The remedy may also be used for severe headaches with piercing pains that start at the top or back of the head. Any ulceration tends to focus on the mucous membranes: mouth ulcers, for instance, may be treated with Salicylic ac.
Key symptoms
- Roaring and ringing in ears; deafness with vertigo
- Meniere's disease with tinnitus and vertigo
- Fermentative dyspepsia with flatulence and hot sour belching
- Acute articular rheumatism; pain shifts; worse touch and motion
- Prostration after influenza
- Vertigo with tendency to fall to the left side
- Putrid diarrhea in children; stools like green frog's spawn
- Sciatica with burning pain worse at night
- Haematuria
Worse (aggravation)
Better (amelioration)
Salicylic Acid
The symptoms point to its use in rheumatism, dyspepsia, and Meniere's disease. Prostration after influenza; also tinnitus aurium and deafness. Hæmaturia.
Head
Vertigo; tendency to fall to left side. Headache; confusion in head on rising suddenly. Incipient coryza. Piercing pain in temples.
Eyes
Retinal hæmorrhage. Retinitis after influenza, also albuminuric.
Ears
Roaring and ringing in ears. Deafness, with vertigo.
Throat
Sore, red and swollen. Pharyngitis; swallowing difficult.
Stomach
Canker sores, with burning soreness and fetid breath. Flatulence; hot, sour belching. Putrid fermentation. Fermentative dyspepsia. Tongue purplish, leaden-colored; foul breath.
Stools
Putrid diarrhœa; gastro-intestinal derangements, especially in children; stools like green frog's spawn (Magn carb). Pruritus ani.
Extremities
Knees swollen and painful. Acute articular rheumatism; worse, touch and motion, profuse sweat. Pain shifts. Sciatica, burning pain; worse at night. Copious foot-sweat and ill affects where suppressed.
Skin
Itching vesicles and pustules; better by scratching. Sweat without sleep. Urticaria. Hot and burning skin. Purpura. Herpes zoster. Necrosis and softening of bones.
Relationship
Compare: Salol (rheumatic pain in joints, with soreness and stiffness, headache over eyes; urine violet-smelling); Colch; China; Lact ac. Spiræa and Gaultheria contain salicyl acid.
Dose
Third decimal trituration. In acute articular rheumatism, 5 grains every 3 hours (Old school dose).
Salicylic acid. C6H4(OH).CO.OH. Found in Spiræa blossoms, Gaultheria, &c. Artificially prepared from Phenol. Trituration.
Clinical
Bone, caries of. Climacteric. Coryza. Diarrhœa. Diphtheria. Dyspepsia, flatulent. Flatulence. Flushes. Foot-sweat; suppression of. Gastritis. Intestines, ulceration of. Iritis. Necrosis. Pharyngitis, herpetic. Puerperal fever. Rheumatism. Rheumatoid arthritis. Scarlatina, anginosa. Sciatica. Stomatitis. Tapeworm. Throat, sore.
Characteristics
Salicylic acid is found in nature in the leaves and barks of Willows, in Oil of Wintergreen (Gaultheria), which is one of the chief sources of its supply, and is obtained synthetically from Carbolic acid. Like Carbol. ac. it has been largely used as a disinfectant, and as it is supposed to be non-poisonous it is used for mixing with and so preserving foods. MacLagan, of London, and Senator, of Berlin, introduced it into medicine as a remedy for rheumatism. Over-dosings led to the discovery of its power to set up the phenomena of …
Phatak's chapter on Salicylicum acidum is available in the app.
Read Phatak in the appClassical texts are in the public domain. Educational reference only — not medical advice.
