MORRISON

RADAR KEY NOTES

PHOSPHORICUM ACIDUM (ph-ac.)

* WEAKNESS AND ENFEEBLEMENT OF THE EMOTIONAL PLANE, progressing to the

physical and mental planes.
Mind
- AILMENTS FROM GRIEF. Suffers in silence.
- Softening or a dropping down in tone on the emotional plane, leading to
INDIFFERENCE, APATHY.
- Wants to be left alone. Sleeps with face to the wall.
- 'Frozen down' emotions, indifferent to any kind of stimulation (Hyos, Sep).
- Forgetfulness and weakness of memory, especially for words.
- Answers slowly (Hell).
Generalities
- AILMENTS FROM GRIEF, DRUG ABUSE, LOSS OF VITAL FLUID, after illness, sexual
excess.
- WEAKNESS with tendency to perspire or sensation of heat; in rapid growing
children.
- agg. After coition.
- amel. Sleep.
- Falling of the hair (head, eyebrows, genitalia, etc.)
- Dryness of mucous membranes.
Food and drinks
- Desire: REFRESHING THINGS, JUICES, FRUIT, cold milk.
Head
- FALLING OF HAIR; hair becomes gray (lyc, Sep).
- Headache as from a weight on the vertex, agg. mental exertion, after coition; goes
to the side lain on.

Eye
- Sight confused, as if looking through a mist.
Rectum
- Diarrhea, painless, not exhausting though long-lasting; agg. summer.
Urine
- Milky, like curdled milk at the end of the urination.
Male genitalia
- Loss of prostatic fluid agg. night, during stool.
- Impotency, early ejaculation, often after excess.
Chest
- Palpitation in children who grow too fast, after grief, self-abuse.
Extremities
- Numbness and weakness. Great fatigue after walking.
- Growing pains.
Compl.
Chin, Ign, Sulph.
Dd
Aur, Gels, Hell, Ign, Mur-ac, Pic-ac, Sel, Sep.

VITHOULKAS
Phosphoric acid is characterised by great weakness or enfeeblement which begins
on the emotional plane and progresses subsequently to the physical and mental
planes. Prolonged grief or sudden, severe grief are the usual exciting causes. My
clinical experience does not bear out Kent's description of mental enfeeblement
being the primary pathological state in Phosphoric acid. In patients I have seen, the
enfeeblement seems to affect primarily the emotional level, with subsequent
progression to either the physical of mental level depending on the hereditary
strength or weakness of the constitution.

By contrast, two other acids primarily affect the other levels; Picric acid leads all
remedies by susceptibility to mental enfeeblement, while Muriatic acid is primarily
characterised by muscular enfeeblement.
In Phosphoric acid, there is usually a history of grief. This may be grief of a minor
nature over a prolonged period of time, or it may be a sudden major grief. In
Phosphoric acid, it is not necessary for the grief to be of great intensity; Ignatia, by
contrast, requires a greater shock than Phosphoric acid to experience pathology.
Characteristically, the phosphoric acid patent suffers the grief in silence - it should
be listed in italics in the Repertory under Silent Grief, alongside Ignatia, Natrum
mur., and Pulsatilla. The patient's initial response in a kind of softening, or a
dropping down in tone on the emotional plane. This then leads to emotional
indifference. The patient becomes isolated, wants to be left alone, much like Sepia.
The isolationism is even typified by the Phosphoric acid tendency to sleep facing the
wall in bed.
A dramatic personality change may occur in patients who have undergone a very
powerful shock - such as the sudden and unexpected loss of a loved one. In this
circumstance, the physical level may be bypassed; instead, the defence mechanism
reacts with emotional paralysis or stillness. Someone who was active and full of life
becomes withdrawn into himself. This is not due to actual depression, but more to
inefficiency of emotions and mind. Such a patient neither wishes to die nor to live.
This house is in disorder and dirt piles up on the floor, but he does not want to do
anything about it. There may be thoughts of suicide, but he does not have the
power to actually carry it out.
After the initial stimulus on the emotional level, degeneration may progress to
either the physical level in patients with relatively strong constitutions - or to the
mental plane in those with very weak constitutions experiencing a sudden loss. We
will begin with consideration of cases focused primarily on the physical level by the
time the homoeopath is consulted. A common story is, "I had been very well - quite
healthy and active - until a year ago, but there has been a steady degeneration
since". The patient is easily tired, whereas his stamina used to be quite good. Upon
further enquiry, it is found that the patient had silently suffered a prolonged grief. To
most people, the degree of the grief might seem to be insufficient to explain the
severity of subsequent breakdown. A women may complain that her husband pays
too much attention to his mother. Or perhaps she has long suspected her husband
of adultery, but she tells no-one of her suspicions.
During the stage of physical breakdown, there may be wide variety of symptoms.
The hair falls out suddenly and rapidly. There may be a marked decline in vision.
There might be headaches, especially in the temples, with a boiling sensation in the
head. There may be chills followed by flushes with perspiration (this symptom is
also common in Gelsemium, which s also physically very tired). Often there is a
history of unexplained low-grade fever, similar to Ignatia there is a frequent desire

to breathe deeply. There may be flatus. Often there is milkiness in the urine, like
small curds, particularly at the end of urination. There may also be indifference to
sex, impotency, and premature ejaculation.
Dryness is a common symptom in Phosphoric acid. There is dryness of the nose and
the eyes. The mouth is dry, with a bitter taste. There is usually a desire for fruits,
juicy things, and refreshing things. It is a s if the patient were dehydrated.
Considering the extreme physical exhaustion, the physical inertia, the falling of hair,
the change in visual acuity, the dehydration, and the sexual weakness, one can
conjecture that a basic aspect of the Phosphoric acid pathology arises from
hypofunction of the endocrine system - particularly the adrenal and sex glands. In a
related fashion, the picture is comparable to the known clinical state of metabolic
alkalosis.

During the stage of physical breakdown, few emotional or mental symptoms are
evident. There may only be silent grief, and perhaps some fear of heights or vertigo
from high places. The patient prefers to be left alone, and there may be some
degree of apathy.
The next stage of pathological development, whether in patients with slow
progression after prolonged grief, or in those in which a powerful shock penetrates
immediately into the emotional level, is a weakening and degeneration of the
mental faculties. Characteristically, the first mental symptoms to occur are
tremendous forgetfulness and weakness of memory, particularly for words. Upon
questioning, the patient displays a vacant look, finally answering after one or two
minutes. The question registers in the mind of the Phosphoric acid patient, but he or
she is unable to find the right word for the answer. This is different from the process
seen in Mercurius, which is also slow in answering; the Mercurius slowness occurs
both because the mind does not easily comprehend the question and because it
takes a long time to find the right answer. Phosphorus is another remedy which
answers slowly, but this is because of an irritability, an unwillingness to answer.
After a prolonged period of emotional standstill, there is a further enfeeblement of
the entire sphere of mental functioning. Mental activity of any kind becomes
profoundly difficult, although usually the Phosphoric acid patient is able to continue
working. This is in contrast to the Picric acid patient in whom the first stages of
weakness begin on the mental plane, resulting in complete inability to do even
simple mental work.
Finally, there is a profound apathy affecting all areas of life. In Phosphoric acid this
is not a true insanity but merely a deep lack of interest. Insane patients in whom the
apathy becomes complete and total, who merely sit and stare at an object, are
more likely to require Pulsatilla.

Phosphoric acid needs to be clearly differentiated from other acids. "Paralysis" is a

key them for Phosphoric acid, Picric acid, and Muriatic acid, but with emphasis on
different levels. In Phosphoric acid the emotional is the initial primary focus. In Picric
acid the weakness begins on the mental level and works down through the
emotional to the physical plane. For Picric acid, the exciting cause is exertion of the
mind. Picric acid patents can stand very little mental exertion; if they continue to
work despite the mental weakness, they are liable to get a headache; this is
particularly true of Picric acid children (compare Calc. phos. in this situation). Next
follows indifference - not, however, as profound as in Phosphoric acid. Finally, there
occurs paralytic weakness in the extremities and in the entire body; this is a result
of degeneration of the spinal cord. Another differential point is that Picric acid is
aggravated by heat, whereas Phosphoric acid is chilly.
Muriatic acid weakness begins in the physical body. There is a profound weakness
of muscles - so much so that the patient slides down in the chair or bed because of
sheer lack of muscular power. There is also a weakness or paralysis of the tongue
and sphincter muscles. From the physical level, the weakness progresses into the
emotional and eventually the mental plane.
Phosphoricum acidum
Ill-effects of grief, disappointed love, over-study, sexual excess.
Mild disposition, indifferent to surroundings and current events.
In coma or delirium, can be roused to answer sensibly, then relapses into stupor.
Headache pressing on vertex, worse from least noise.
Diarrhoea, painless and not debilitating.
Urine thick with phosphates.
Masturbation, especially with excessive remorse.
Excessive nocturnal emissions.
Typhoid when brain is affected.
Weak feeling in chest from talking.

Scholten
Group analysis
The central theme of Phosphoric acid is the exhaustion of communication. They like
to have many contacts with friends and acquaintances, and they like this contact to

be meaningful. In the beginning stages Ph-ac does not give us the impression of
being exhausted at all, they are more like Phos, very open and profound in their
communications.
The second variation is linked to the first. This is when the possibilities for
communication become exhausted. They feel that they have done their utmost to
maintain a good contact, and now they have lost that contact in spite of all their
efforts. This could be in the case of someone moving house, where they have lost all
their old and trusted friends, neighbours and other relations. Homesickness is an
important symptom of Ph-ac.
They become tired and exhausted, because they have lost the usual contact with
their friends. This may lead to a state of apathy and indifference. The expression
'emotional exhaustion' is not entirely correct. The exhaustion is not so much
emotional in the sense of deep feelings about a love relationship, but more in the
sense of contact with friends and relations and the effort they have invested in this.
Phos-ac is therefore not usually the remedy for lovesickness, unless the most
important aspect of the relationship had been the exchange of ideas, whereby the
loss of this contact is the greatest source of grief.
A third variation on the theme can be a longing for a feeling of unity with brothers
or friends. A typical Ph-ac situation can be that of identical twins. They are very
close to each other; no words are needed to understand each other. Parents and
friends are often just outsiders who don't really understand what goes on between
them. Then at one time an outsider, like a partner, may come into their life. Or one
of them may want to start to find his own identity. At that point the other one feels a
great loss of their former intimate contact.
Another variation might be exhaustion from studying too much. In this aspect there
may be a similarity with the other Phosphoricums, but in Ph-ac the exhaustion and
the apathy are much more prominent.

KENT

Phosphoricum acidum
[PHOSPHORIC ACID]
- "Mental enfeeblement" is the thought that will come into the mind when
considering what the Phosphoric acid patient says, does and looks.
- The mind seems tired.

- When questioned he answers slowly or does not speak, but only looks at the
questioner.
- He is too tired to talk or even think.
- He says: "Don't talk to me; let me alone."
- This state is found in both acute and chronic diseases.
- He is so tired in mind, perfectly exhausted.
- In chronic diseases when brought on from along study; prolonged worry in
business men; in feeble school girls, who become relaxed from very little effort.
- In acute diseases he, especially in typhoid fever, is averse to speaking or
answering questions.
- He merely looks.
- Finally he rouses up and says: "Don't talk me, I am so tired."
- He cannot think what he wishes to say, cannot frame his answers to questions.
- Another cause is sexual excesses in young men, or in those guilty of secret vice.
- Weakness; lack of reaction; state of stupor, with impotency; mental prostration,
and as if the spine had given out.
- In every case we find the mental symptoms are the first to develop.
- The remedy runs from the mental to the physical, from the brain to the muscles.
- This is so striking that it is contrasted with Muriatic acid.
- In the latter remedy the muscular prostration comes first, and the mind seems
clear until long after the muscles are prostrated.
- In Phosphoric acid the muscles seem strong after the mind has given out.
- The patient seems vigorous physically.
- He says he is all right physically, can work, can exercise even violently; but the
mind is tired, there is mental apathy, he cannot add up a column of figures, cannot
read the newspaper and carry the trend of thought, cannot connect circumstances.
- He forgets the names of those in his family; a business man forgets the names of
his clerks; he is in confusion.
- Yet he can exercise, can go out and walk; the weakness in the muscles will come
later.

- Phosphoric acid has also great physical weakness; so tired in the back; so tired in
the muscles; so tired all over; a paralytic weakness.
- Later there is sexual impotence; aversion to coition; loss of sexual desire; no
erections; penis becomes relaxed in the midst of an embrace and he cannot finish
the act (Nux v.).
Ailments from business cares; prolonged grief; young women suffering from
unrequited affection, or from the loss of a loved one.
- Some suffer more intensely than others; some seem more philosophical.
- "Ailments from care, grief, sorrow, chagrin, homesickness or disappointed love;
particularly with drowsiness; night sweats towards morning; emaciation."
- The patient pines and emaciates, grows weaker and weaker, withered in the face;
night sweats; cold sweat down the back; cold sweats on the arms and hands more
than on the feet; cold extremities; feeble circulation, feeble heart; catches cold on
the slightest provocation and it settles in the chest; dry, hacking cough; catarrhal
conditions of the chest; tuberculosis; pallor with gradually increasing weakness and
emaciation.
- Limbs seem to be lifted up while the head does not seem to move; as if the limbs
were floating.
- Congestive headaches; in school girls from slight exertion of the mind and use of
the eyes.
- Most of the complaints are ameliorated from keeping warm, from absolute quiet,
from being alone at peace.
- There is aggravation of the complaints from exertion, mental or physical, from
being talked to.
- Morning headaches.
- He must lie down with the headaches.
- Headache aggravated from being talked to.
- He is sensitive to cold weather.
- He is sensitive to a warm room.
In the headache the pain often begins in the back of the head and spreads to the
top of the head; feels as if a crushing weight were on the top of the head; worse
from motion, talking and light.
- "Pressure as from a weight in head from above downward."

- These headaches are associated with mental weakness, brain-fag; so tired and
exhausted.
- Vertigo with ringing in the ears and glassy eyes.
- Its use in low fever must be studied.
- The complaints come on slowly, slow decline, slowly increasing prostration.
- Such appearances as are found in advanced typhoid.
- It has the prostration, tympanitic abdomen, dry, brown tongue, sordes on the
teeth, gradually approaching unconsciousness; little thirst increasing to intense
thirst with craving for much water during perspiration; wants to be let alone; looks
at the questioner with glassy eyes as if slowly comprehending the question; pupils
contracted or dilated; eyes sunken; hippocratic countenance; continued fever;
bleeding from the nose, lungs, bowels; haemorrhage from any mucous membrane;
sunken about the eyes; discolored lips, covered with sordes, becoming very black;
prostration gradually increasing.

- From the beginning the mental state has been most marked, and finally comes the
muscular weakness, which increases until the jaw drops and it seems that the
patient must die of exhaustion.
- Such states of weakness may come on from haemorrhages (China was the routine
remedy among the older homoeopaths).
- It checks the haemorrhage and causes a rally, prevents the dropsy.
- There is a state like anaemia; pale lips and tongue; face, hands and feet waxy.
- The pains seem deep-seated, often along the nerves, but especially along the long
bones, as if the bones were scraped; as if a rough instrument were dragged over the
bones.
- The pains are commonly worse at night.
- Severe bone pains.
- The stomach refuses to do its work.
- The food remains in the stomach and sours.
- Sour vomiting.
- Old dyspeptics with brain-fag.

- Complaints from acid drinks, cold drinks and rich foods.

- Sinking sensation in the abdomen after a normal stool.
- In most of the complaints of Phosphoric acid a marked feature is milky urine.
- Sometimes it is milky when passed; milky flakes in the urine.
- At time the male urethra seems to clog up an examination will show these little
milk-like flakes.
- The urine becomes milky on standing, like flour, chalk or phosphate deposits
stirred up in it.
- In Phosphoric acid there is often an amelioration of complaints by their ending in a
diarrhoea.
Copious, thin, watery stool.
- From the quantity it would seem that the patient would be exhausted.
- Child with copious, watery stool in summer; so copious that the napkin seems of
no use; the stool runs all over the mother's dress and on the floor forming great
puddles; the stool is almost odorless, thin and watery, and the little one smiles as if
nothing were the matter.
- The mother wonders where it all comes from, and yet the child seems well.
- The Phosphoric acid diarrhoea often ameliorates many of the symptoms and the
patient feels better.
- Chronic diarrhoea, copious, thin and watery, whitish gray, and the patient feels
comfortable, free and happy.
- If the diarrhoea slacks up the patient is worse and on come symptoms of
tuberculosis, weakness, prostration, brain-fag.
- Some patients say they are never comfortable unless they have diarrhoea.
- Podophyllum is the very opposite.
- Take the same child; the stool is very copious and runs all over the floor, the
mother wonders where it all comes from, but the stool is so offensive, a horrible
stench, and the patient looks as if dying; mouth and nose drawn, countenance
hippocratic; almost unconscious.
- There is painless stool in both, but Phosphoric acid has not the great prostration.

- In Phosphoric acid the stool is whitish gray, like dirty white paint; in Podophyllum
it is yellow.
- Gratiola has a similar state of prostration, but the fluid is green water; when seen
it looks like light shinning through a green glass; sometimes thicker, like green bile.
In the diarrhoea from sour wine, such as claret, from acids, vinegar, lemons, be sure
to study Antimonium crudum.
- This is a very striking feature of that remedy.
- Male sexual organs.
- Sexual weakness, prolonged exhaustion, impotency; masturbators; nightly
pollutions with great exhaustion.
- "Prostatorrhoea; immediately after every erection discharge of prostatic fluid."
- Even when passing a soft stool the prostatic fluid is discharged.
- Falling out of the hair is a striking feature; falling of the hair from the genitals,
whiskers, eyebrows, head.
- It is closely related to Natrum mur. and Selenium in falling out of the hair.
- Selenium has falling out of the hair from the head, eyebrows and lashes, beard
and genitals, from all over the body.
- Natrum mur. causes the hair to become very thin; during confinement the hair
falls from the genitals.
- Phosphoric acid produces a troublesome leucorrhoea; "yellow, mostly after
menses, with itching; profuse, yellow; thin, acid mucus; with chlorosis."
- It suits the woman who has been nursing her child a long time, or nursing twins,
and who gives much milk.
- She becomes tired and weakly.
- Loss of fluids, blood; prolonged nursing, and weakness from such causes.
- The tendency of the Phosphoric acid patient at the end of the brain-fag and
weakness is to run into chest troubles.
- If a diarrhoea comes on then the chest trouble is averted.
- Pains in the long bones between the joints, better by motion.
- Red spots appear wherever the flesh is thin over the bones, and these spots
become inflamed and form open ulcers.

- Creeping, tingling and crawling all over the body, especially where there is hair, as
if in the roots of the hair; formication; especially in those debilitated from sexual
excesses.
- "Formication over whole body."
"Itching between the fingers or in the bend of joints or on hands."

PATHAK
Pho-ac, affects the Mind esp. its Emotional Side; in addition its influences sensory
nerves; sexual system and bones.
- Weakness and Debility common to all acids is very marked in this acid; with free
secretion; profuse urination; loss of fluids; sweatings etc. except with diarrhoea.
- Mental debility appears first, then physical.
- Slowness of mind, and special senses.
- Pains go to part lain on.
- Sensitive to light, sound and odours, which takes away her breath.
- Sense of pressure; as of causing weight; in forehead, in sternum, in vertex; in
eyes, navel, breasts etc.
- Formication; at root of hair; along the spine; limbs.
- Useful to those young people who grow rapidly and who are over taxed mentally
and physically; when the system is ravaged from acute diseases; venereal
excesses; grief, loss of vital fluids, it calls for this acid.
- Bruised soreness; like growing pains.
- Haemorrhages, blood dark.
- Bone diseases.
- Osteitis.
- periosteitis.
- Caries.
- Rachitis.
- Diabetes.

- Neurosis of stump after amputation amel. from deep breathing.

- Relieves the pains of cancer.
- Coldness; of parts.
- Ill effects of bad news; disappointed love, grief; chagrin, injuries; shock.
- Pining; with emaciation.
- Neurasthaenia.
- Formation of abscesses after fever.
- Gnawing pain in bones.
- Loose joints.
- External parts become black; senile gangrene.
Worse
- Loss of Fluids.
- Sexual excess.
- Fatigue.
- Convalescence from fevers.
- Emotions; grief; chagrin.
- Mental shock.
- Home sickness.
- Unhappy love.
- Drafts; cold.
- Music.
- Talking.
- Sitting.
- Standing.
- Over lifting.
- Operations.

- Fright (chronic).
Better
- Warmth.
- Short sleep.
- Stooling.
Mind
- Quiet; unwilling to speak, or hasty speech.
- Indifferent; to everything.
- Apathetic; from unequal struggling with adverse circumstances, mental and
physical; obtuse, or torpid; with tendency to diarrhoea or sweatiness.
- Slow grasp.
- Can not collect his ideas; hunts for words.
- Poor memory.
- Settled despair.
- Aversion to talking.
- Answers, reluctantly or slowly, short, incorrectly.
- Hysteria at change of life.
- Home sickness with inclination to weep.
- Mild delirium; easily aroused.
- Brain fag.
- Hopelessness.
- Dread of future; broods over one's condition.