Antimonium tartaricum
Made from tartar emetic — antimony potassium tartrate, the old expectorant whose very name taught medicine the word 'emetic'.
The whole picture, in one breath
Think of a drowsy, sinking person with a chest full of rattling mucus they are too weak to raise: audible rattling with each breath, drowsiness slipping toward stupor, nausea, pale or bluish face, tongue thickly coated white. Rattling, drowsy, unable to expectorate: that is Antimonium tartaricum.
The substance, in plain words
Tartar emetic — antimony bound to wine-stone salt — was for centuries a standard expectorant, emetic and blister agent. In overdose it causes the very picture it was meant to treat: violent vomiting, copious mucus, sweating and collapse. The proving and the poisonings are one continuous lesson.
The traditional picture Classical sources
The inner state
- Drowsiness and stupor. The mental keynote: sleepiness deepens toward stupor in chest complaints; answers slowly, sinks back to sleep.
- Irritability when disturbed. Cross when roused, better left to doze.
- Anxiety with suffocation. Fear and fighting for air during the rattling paroxysms.
The body
- Rattling, weak chest. The grand keynote: loud rattling of mucus with every breath, yet too little strength to cough it up.
- Coated tongue, nausea. Thick white-coated tongue, vomiting, no thirst or aversion to food and drink.
- Sinking states. Pale, dusky or bluish face; cold sweat; the books' remedy for the 'sinking' stage of chest illness and childhood pneumonias.
- Worse lying down. Breathing worse recumbent; must sit up; also worse from warm rooms and being overheated.
- Better from expectoration. Relief the moment mucus is finally raised.
- Skin eruptions suppressed. The old books note it when a rash or sweat is suppressed and chest trouble follows.
Modalities (worse and better factors)
| Worse from ⬇ | Better from ⬇ |
|---|---|
| lying down; warmth and warm rooms; evening; overfeeding; anger. | sitting up; cool open air; expectoration; vomiting. |
Where it acts (organ affinities)
Chest and bronchial mucus, stomach and vomiting centre, skin (pustular eruptions).
Where the classical picture comes from
Tartar emetic was deliberately used to provoke expectoration — and its poisonings taught the full picture: profuse mucus, vomiting, sweat and prostration. The homeopathic proving simply wrote down what the drug already did.
The substance in real medicine Pharmacology
What this section is: the pharmacology and toxicology of the source substance. It is not clinical evidence that a homeopathic preparation of it treats any condition. What controlled trials do and do not show is set out on the Evidence page.
Antimony compounds are remembered in medicine chiefly as toxicology classics and as the historical stage before modern expectorants; antimony itself is a heavy metal with no therapeutic role today. The conditions Ant-tart portrayed — mucus-filled weak chests — are now managed with physiotherapy, oxygen and, where needed, antibiotics.
Look-alikes (how the classical authors told it apart)
| Remedy | Looks similar because… | Tells it apart because… |
|---|---|---|
| Ipecacuanha | Nausea, chest complaints | Ipecac is bright-eyed with constant nausea and a clean tongue; Ant-tart is drowsy, coated and sinking. |
| Justicia adhatoda | Rattling loose cough | Justicia is sneezy-onset with a sore chest; Ant-tart is weak, drowsy and coated. |
| Phosphorus | Chest, drowsiness | Phosphorus is sensitive, thirsty and bleeding-prone; Ant-tart is sweaty, coated and rattling. |
| Carbo vegetabilis | Sinking, cold, collapse | Carbo wants air fanned and is icy with gas; Ant-tart rattles and vomits. |