If Nat. carb. is the typical salt of the Natrum group (as Kali carb. is of the Kalis), Nat. m. is the most important. In power and range it stands in the first rank of homoeopathic remedies, but it has an additional significance, in that it exemplifies the power of attenuation in a remarkable way. The problems involved in Nat. m. may be regarded in a sense as the pons asinorum of homoeopathy. Those who are able to grasp in a practical way the homoeopathic uses of this remedy are not likely to meet with any insuperable difficulties elsewhere. Those who can see nothing but "common salt" in Nat. m. may conclude that they have not "the root of the matter" in them. It may be inconceivable to some that the attenuations of Nat. m. should act independently, as curative or pathogenetic, at the same time that crude salt is being ingested in quantities; and it may seem that an infinitesimal amount of a substance which is a necessary constituent of our tissues cannot possibly have any action at all; but this problem is constantly before the homoeopathist, and if he cannot master it in respect to Nat. m. he need not trouble his brains to try elsewhere. Nat. m. has been extensively proved, both in the lower triturations and in the 30th and higher attenuations, and the latter produced the most marked effects. I have mentioned in the Preface an experience of my own, which I will give here in more detail. For a common cold which had proved troublesome I took eight globules of Nat. m. 200. The next day the cold was not better, but I felt ill, and presently a copious, gushing, watery, light-coloured diarrhoea set in, and persisted for some days, draining all my tissues and reducing my weight by half a stone before I could think of the cause. Then the dose of Nat. m. flashed on my mind, and I at once began to smell at a bottle of Sweet Nitre, the antidote. The diarrhoea and all other symptoms vanished in a way I have never forgotten; and the lesson was well worth all the suffering I had undergone. My weight came back as rapidly as it had disappeared. In Nat. m. is illustrated the antidotal action of a substance of high attenuation over the effect of a lower. A large number of people are steadily poisoning themselves by taking excessive quantities of salt with their food; and it is generally useful to ask patients if they are fond of salt. Without restricting the amount of salt taken, Nat. m. 30 will antidote most of the effects of the crude, and enable the patient to cut down the quantity taken afterwards. But the effect of a high potency can also be antidoted by a higher. A patient to whom I gave Nat. m. 1m developed this new symptom: Aching pain deep in left shoulder and down the arm; < lying on right side; no tenderness. A single dose of Nat. m. c.m. quickly removed it. Nat. m. is one of the remedies adopted by Schüssler from homoeopathy. Though arrived at by a different route, his indications are for the most part identical with Hahnemann's, and a recital of them will serve to emphasise some points; and there is no need to accept Schüssler's semi-material theories as an all-sufficient explanation of the remedy's action, for they do not anything like cover the field. Says Schüssler: "The water which is introduced into the digestive canal in drinking or with the food enters into the blood through the epithelial cells of the mucous membrane by means of the common salt contained in these cells and in the blood, for salt has the well-known property of attracting water. Water is intended to moisten all the tissues, i.e., cells. Every cell contains soda. The nascent chlorine which is split off from the Nat. m. of the intercellular fluid combines with this soda. The Nat. m. arising by this combination attracts water. By this means the cell is enlarged and divides up. Only in this way can cells divide so as to form additional cells. If there is no common salt formed in the cells, then the water intended to moisten them remains in the intercellular fluids, and hydraemia results. Such patients have a watery, bloated face; they are tired and sleepy and inclined to weep. They are chilly, suffer from cold extremities, and have a sensation of cold along the spine. At the same time they have a strong desire for common salt. (The cells deficient in salt cry for salt.) The common salt, of which they consume comparatively large quantities, does not heal their disease, because the cells can only receive the common salt in very attenuated solutions. The redundant common salt present in the intercellular fluid may in such cases cause the patients to have a salty taste in their mouth, and the pathological secretions of the mucous membranes, as also of excoriations of the skin, may be corrosive (salt-rheum)." Disturbances in the distribution of salt in the cells cause: Lachrymation; salivation; toothache with salivation; watery diarrhoea; mucous diarrhoea; lack of mucus; catarrh of stomach with vomiting of mucus; water-brash; vesicles clear as water on skin or conjunctiva; constipation.—Thus far Schüssler. But whilst using his theory as a useful means of stringing many characteristics of Nat. m. together, it is necessary to free oneself from them entirely in order to see the remedy in all its range of action. A complete view of the symptom picture can alone give that. In old-school practice Nat. m. is used chiefly in solution as a douche or spray in nasal and other catarrhs, and in the mixture of "Brandy and Salt," in which large quantities of salt are given for pulmonary haemorrhages. The relation to catarrh, which Schüssler brings out, is specific. Excessively fluent coryza, with much sneezing; sore nose, especially the left wing; cold sores on lips and nose; loss of smell and taste, are indications which I have verified repeatedly in acute colds and the tendency to them. With the coryza there is copious lachrymation; and whether or not Schüssler is right on the chemistry of the process, Nat. m. is indicated by tears. ("Flow of tears with cough" is Burnett's keynote of Nat. m. in whooping-cough, H. W., xviii. 179.) The characteristic of the tearful Nat. m. patient is that she (or he) wants to be alone; any attempt to console irritates beyond endurance. "Wants to be alone to cry." "Very much inclined to weep and be excited." There are even tears with laughter. For in addition to the sadness there is hysterical laughter; laughs till she weeps at things not at all ludicrous. The excitement of Nat. m. is always followed by melancholy. The hypochondriasis and hysteria of Nat. m. generally go pari passu in the degree of constipation; and Nat. m. is one of the most commonly needed remedies in that complaint. The most characteristic symptom in this connection is a sensation of "contraction of the rectum during stool; hard faeces at first evacuated with the greatest exertion, which causes tearing in anus, bleeding and soreness; afterwards thin stools also passed; constipated every other day." There is also retention of stool; and a feeling after stool as if there were more to pass. Nat. m. answers equally well to constipation and diarrhoea when the collateral symptoms correspond. The constipation is often found associated with anaemia; with chilliness, cold feet and chills down the back; with indigestion such as is met with in victims of masturbation: Nat. m. is one of the most helpful of remedies in such cases. The unclean complexion of earthy line, "dirty face" in spite of any amount of washing, is a still further indication. The skin is greasy from excess of sebaceous secretion. Nat. m. corresponds to affections due to loss of fluids. This recalls China, with which it has a very important antidotal relation. Both correspond to the effects of masturbation, haemorrhages, and loss of fluids; both are remedies for intermittent fever, and Nat. m. is the chief antidote to the effects of over-dosing with China and Quinine. Another important antidotal relation of Nat. m. is to Arg. n. And here another interesting fact appears-namely, the parallel between chemical and the dynamic action. Salt is the best antidote to poisoning with nitrate of silver, as it changes the soluble nitrate of silver into the insoluble harmless chloride. Nat. m. in the attenuations is also the best remedy for the ill effects of Arg. n. whether used as a cautery or administered as a medicine. Whenever there is a history of cauterisation and Arg. n. has been used, Nat. m. will do great good. Scrofulous ophthalmia which has been treated locally in vain with Arg. n.; sore throats that have been cauterised; the effects local and remote of uterine injections of Arg. n., or cauterisings of the os uteri. W. J. Guernsey (H. P., vii. 127) relates a striking instance of the last. Mrs. P., 32, complained of "lump" in the throat which could not be swallowed, and yet required constant efforts to do so. < On empty swallowing; yet on swallowing food it seemed to pass over a sore spot. Bar. c., Lach., Bell. were given in succession in vain. Remembering the injunction of the Organon, § 207, to inquire as to what allopathic treatment a patient has been subjected to in order to discover if there is anything to correct, Guernsey discovered that the patient had had a severe ulceration of the womb which had been "burnt out" several times and was "now well." She had had a very profuse discharge, but that had stopped, and on the same day she had commenced to "choke" with the throat trouble. Nat. m. 295m (F.) was given. In a few days the throat was better and the discharge had returned, much to the patient's horror. Without further treatment throat and vaginal discharge were both cured. Lambert has recorded (L. H. H. Rep., vii. 144) several cases of headache associated with errors of refraction and consequent eye-strain cured with Nat. m. 30. The headaches were noticed on waking. In one case it was like a cloud over brain with intense depression and had lasted ten years. It disappeared before the vision was corrected. The effect of living too exclusively on salt food in producing scurvy gives a key to the use of Nat. m. in many conditions of blood degeneration, haemorrhage, and skin disorder and ulceration. In aphthous and ulcerative conditions of the mouth it is a leading remedy. The characteristic tongue of Nat. m. is either a mapped tongue, with red islands; or a clean shining tongue with froth along each side. There are many characteristic symptoms in connection with the tongue: hair sensation; numbness and stiffness of one side; heavy, embarrassing speech. Nat. m. corresponds to children who are late in talking. The tongue is blistered; sticks to roof of mouth. Dryness of mouth and throat. Unquenchable thirst. Nausea. Vomiting. The drying-up property of Nat. m. is general. One very characteristic effect is dryness of vagina, with painful coitus; aversion to coitus (in the female); aversion to men. Menses may be early and profuse; or scanty and delayed. Nat. m. corresponds to many cases of anaemia, and especially to delay in the first appearance of the menses. Much bearing down and much leucorrhoea. Backache generally accompanies these, and the backache has this peculiarity, that it is > by pressure; by lying down with the back on something hard. There is also sensitiveness of the back and spinal irritation. With the menses there is generally headache, both before, during, or after. The headaches of Nat. m. are intermitting. They come on in the morning on first waking up and last throughout the day; or else they come on at 10 or 11 a.m. They are < from mental exertion. Nat. m. is one of the first remedies for headaches of schoolgirls. Headache with partial blindness. Headache much < by coughing. Throbbing; beating as with little hammers; pain as if the head would burst. The throbbing headache has its analogue in palpitation of the heart. Nat. m. is a great heart remedy. Fluttering palpitation with faint feeling, < lying down. In one case of huge hypertrophy with degeneration of most of the valves, the patient told me nothing gave her so much relief as Nat. m. (which I had given for some incidental condition). Very characteristic is sense of coldness at heart or precordia with trembling of heart. Constrictive sensations run throughout this remedy: in heart; chest scalp; throat; rectum; of anus (sensation as if anus were closed) cramps in uterus; vaginismus; contraction of hamstrings. Paralytic symptoms with numbness are the counterpart of these. Nat. m. has the sinking sensation of the antipsorics. Great hunger, with no appetite. Eats heartily but emaciates. Heartburn after eating. Emaciates whilst living well. Ravenous appetite but grows thin, especially about neck. There are some very characteristic desires and aversions: Desires: bitter things; beer; farinaceous foot; sour things; salt; oysters; fish; milk. Aversion to: bread; meat; coffee; tobacco. While eating, sweat on face. Is > when stomach is empty. After eating: empty eructations; nausea; acidity; sleepiness; heartburn; palpitation; epigastric pressure and heat radiating up to chest. Violent hiccough. The nausea and vomiting of Nat. m. have been turned to account in the morning sickness of pregnancy. One patient, who said she could "eat the brine out of a mackerel kit," was cured with a single dose of Nat. m. (Amer. Hom., xxiii. 385). Nat. m. is a great periodic remedy. It not only antidotes Quinine, but it causes intermittents on its own account. Chilliness predominates. Chill 10 to 11 a.m. with thirst, drinks after a meal; fever blisters round mouth. Fever with violent headache; great thirst; nausea; vomiting; blueness; faint; averse to uncover. Fever may come on without chill 10 to 11 a.m. Sweat > headache and other symptoms though it weakens; averse to uncover. There are many eruptions, herpes, hydroa, eczema. Eczema on hair margins, especially at back of head. Warts on palms of hands. Corns. Painful scars. Nat. m. is suited to: Cachectic persons; old people; teething children; anaemic, chlorotic people with catarrhal troubles; tuberculous; scrofulous; dropsical; emaciated persons. Among Peculiar Sensations are: As if head too heavy and would fall forward; as if some displacement in head had taken place; as if cold wind blowing through head; as though forehead would burst on coughing; as if head in a vice; pain like a rope round head drawing tighter and tighter; as if nail driven in left side of head. As if eyeballs too large; as if foreign body in eyes; as if eye being torn open. As if a small worm squirming in nose. Of hair on tongue. Splinter in throat. Plug in throat. As if one had to swallow over a lump. Difficulty of talking, as if organs of speech weak. As if foreign body sticking in cardiac orifice behind sternum. When walking, as if abdominal viscera loose, dragging. As if rough, hard, foreign substance in rectum. As if there was a string between uterus and sacrum in hind part of fornix. Back as if beaten; broken. Nat. m. corresponds to effects of going to seaside; and if patients say they are always < at seaside or cannot stay by the sea, Nat. m. will probably be the remedy. Constipation at seaside. But > at seaside may also indicate it. There is great desire for open air and washing in cold water. < Heat of stove; of room; of sun. < In summer. Warm food < toothache. Drawing in air < toothache; cold drink < toothache. Likes to be covered but it does not >. Lying down > vertigo, headache, constriction of scalp; < cough; fluttering of heart. Lying on left side <. Moving, least exertion <. Exercising arms > breathing. Walking <. In back troubles, can stoop readily but it hurts to straighten. < Mental exertion; talking; writing; reading. < After sleep. Coitus <. Most symptoms are < in morning; < after sleep. < 10 to 11 a.m. < During full moon. < By eating. < From bread, acid food, fat, wine. < After breakfast. > Going without regular meals. < Touch and pressure. Full sensation is > by tight clothes. Back > lying on something hard. > Rubbing.