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Leaders In Homoeopathic Therapeutics
by E. B. NASH

Presented by Médi-T

   

OPIUM.

Abnormal painlessness.

Want of susceptibility, trembling, lack of vital reaction.

Blunted morals, worst liars in the world.

Reversed peristalsis and fæcal vomiting.

Fright; the fear of the fright remaining.

Sleepy but cannot sleep. Hears sounds not ordinarily noticed.

Very hot skin with sweating; perspiration.

Profound stupor with dark-red face and stertorous breathing.

Bed feels so hot she cannot lie on it; moves often in search of a cool place; must be uncovered.

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One of the worst abused, because frequently used, remedies of all schools of medicine. I must explain. I said all schools. The true Homœopath does not abuse it, but many members of the school calling themselves homœopathic do. A teacher in one of the homœopathic colleges defended its use in narcotic doses in many cases to produce sleep and relief from pain. I will say just here that any homœopathic physician that feels obliged to use Opium or its alkaloid in this way and for this purpose does not understand his business and had better study his Materia Medica, and the principles of applying it according to Hahnemann, or else go over to the old school where they make no pretensions to have any law of cure. In the first place Opium in narcotic doses does not produce sleep, but stupor, and it only relieves pain by rendering the patient unconscious to it. How many cases have been so masked by such treatment, that the disease progressed until there was no chance for cure? Pain, fever and all other symptoms are the voice of the disease, telling where is the trouble and guiding us to the remedy. The true curative often relieves pain even more quickly than Opium, and does so by curing the condition upon which it depends. And even in cases where it does not so quickly stop the pain, it is often far better to suffer awhile until the curative can get in its work. Probably ninety-nine in a hundred of those suffering from the terrible habit of morphine eating are first led into it by physicians who prescribe morphine to "relieve pain and procure rest and sleep." And when we take into this account the abuse of stimulants, under the name of tonics, habitually prescribed by the same class of physicians it is no wonder that they are often heard to say, I don't know whether I have done more good or harm.

It is this very narcosis which presents the leading characteristic indication for the Homœopathic use of this drug. No remedy produces such profound stupor, and it is expressed in our Materia Medica as follows: "Stupid, comatose sleep, with rattling, stertorous breathing." In addition to this the face is red and bloated, the eyes blood-shot and half open and the skin covered with hot sweat. Now this condition, which is nothing more or less than such a fullness of the vessels of the brain or head that, from pressure, a paralysis or semi-paralysis of the nerves which carry on the act of breathing, keep the lower jaw up (which drops), and close the sweat glands, takes place. There are many diseases in which this state of things may appear, such as typhoid fever, where the patient becomes totally unconscious and oblivious to all around. There is no response to light, touch, noise or anything else, except the indicated remedy, which is Opium. So in pneumonia, where Opium has made remarkable cures in Homœopathic hands; while in massive, or what they like to call heroic, doses of the old school (given to stop pain and procure sleep) it has sent many a poor victim to his long resting place. In many other diseases, in fact in any disease where these symptoms are found, we may confidently expect Opium either to cure the case or to so change the condition that other remedies will follow it to a perfect cure. Other remedies may vie with it, for instance in typhoids, such as Lachesis or Hyoscyamus. These two remedies will often claim attention in typhoid pneumonia. It often requires close discrimination to choose between them. Apoplexy often calls for Opium, but here as elsewhere the symptoms must decide.

The fact that Opium is capable of banishing pain, or, rather, I should say, rendering the organism incapable of sensing pain, is one of the chief indications for its use in homœopathic therapeutics. There is not only complete absence from pain, but as complete unsusceptibility to general drug action. You know that we are told that when the seemingly indicated remedy does not act give Sulphur. Now it may be that Opium is a better remedy to give, if all there is of the case is that there seems to be no vital reaction. Sulphur would be likely to be the best remedy if the lack of reaction were due to some psoric taint; but even here all the symptoms must be taken into account. Laurocerasus is another remedy to arouse reaction when it seems to depend upon excessively low vitality. Psorinum may succeed in psoric obstructions to vital reactions when Sulphur fails. There is nothing to be more condemned in homœopathic prescribing than routinism. This same paralyzing effect of Opium is seen in the intestines. Their irritability is lost. Peristaltic action is entirely suspended. There is no desire even for movement. The fæces lie there in the convolutions of the intestines, form into hard, black balls, which must be removed by enemas or purgatives. Again, the urinary organs come under the same action. The urine is retained from paralysis of the fundus of the bladder; can't pass water from blunting of the sensitiveness of the walls of the bladder, etc. Or the other extreme, involuntary urination or stool from paralysis of the sphincters. Everywhere Opium is a producer of insensibility and partial or complete paralysis and, other things being equal, is homœopathically indicated there.

Now we find an exactly opposite state of things under Opium to that we have been describing as indicated by the following symptoms: "Delirious, eyes wide open, glistening; face red, puffed up." "Vivid imagination, exaltation of the mind." "Nervous and irritable, easily frightened." "Twitching, trembling of head, arms, hands; jerking of the flexors, even convulsions." "Sleeplessness (Cimicifuga, Coffea), with acuteness of hearing; clock striking and cocks crowing at a great distance keep her awake." These are the secondary or reactionary symptoms of Opium. Nature has been pushed like a pendulum, clear to one side of the perpendicular or normal condition. Now, nature endeavouring to undo this mischief, like the law of gravity with the pendulum, pulls back with such force that the pendulum swings not only to its normal state, but clear over to the other extreme, and then if left to herself will continue to oscillate back and forth until the normal place is found and natural law again reigns supreme. It must be remembered here that the fist class of symptoms are drug action, the later action nature's efforts against the drug; so that such excitement, irritability and spasms never come under the homœopathic action of Opium as a remedy unless this state has been preceded by drowsiness stupor and insensibility, etc. It cannot be the homœopathic remedy to the case without this, for its perfect similarity is not to be found there This is the reason why the homœopath can make his sleepless patient sleep a natural sleep with Opium in the little dose, while the allopath forces his patient into a stupor (not a sleep) with his big dose. The one is curative, the other poisonous.

   

NUX MOSCHATA.

Stupor insensibility, unconquerable sleep; sleepy with most all complaints.

Excessive dryness of the tongue, mouth, lips and throat; no thirst.

And < cold damp weather, getting wet, or washing; after eating (bloating); > in room, dry weather.

Changeable humor; one moment laughing, the next crying.

* * * * *

The nutmeg, though frequently used for its peculiar flavor in common cookery, is nevertheless a powerful poison, hence a valuable remedy. The mind and sensorium are profoundly affected by it, as shown by the following characteristic symptoms: "Stupor and insensibility and unconquerable sleep." Again "Vanishing of thought while talking, reading, or writing." Again. "Weakness or loss of memory." Again, "Fitful mood, changing from deepest sorrow to frolicsome behavior; now grave, now gay." Again, "Absence of mind, cannot think; has to collect his thoughts before he can answer simple questions." Many more symptoms appear among the provings that show the action of this drug upon the brain. The effect upon the brain, while producing a sleepiness and dulness almost equal to that of Opium, is of an entirely different character, the Opium being seemingly due to fullness of the blood-vessels and pressure, while that of Nux moschata seems to be a benumbing of the very nerve substance itself. It is interesting to notice the sleepiness of Opium, Nux mos. and Tartar emetic, and to study these drugs in comparison. Opium and Tartar emetic are often remedies for pneumonia, but the concomitant symptoms are very different. Opium and Nux vom. in typhoid fever, but the choice, notwithstanding, this symptom of stupor common to both, is not at all difficult. All three of these remedies in bowel complaints of children have this symptom in common, but it is not hard to choose between them. Another very characteristic symptom of this remedy is excessive dryness of the mouth. Mouth so dry that the tongue sticks to the roof, yet no thirst. The tongue, lips and throat are all dry. Of course, there are other remedies having this dryness without thirst, such as Apis, Pulsatilla and Lachesis, but in this respect Nux moschata is the strongest. Then again Nux moschata is greatly troubled with flatulence. The abdomen is enormously distended, especially after meals. Where are two remedies which have pain and distress in the stomach immediately after eating, even when the patient is still at the table. They are Nux mos. and Kali bichromicum. With Nux vomica and Anacardium the pain comes on an hour or two after eating. With Nux mos., everything they eat seems to turn to wind (Kali carb, Iodine), and fills the stomach and abdomen so full as to cause pressure upon all of the organs of the chest and abdomen. Again there is diarrhœa with this remedy. It is very efficacious in cholera infantum, when the above mentioned sensorial symptoms are present. I once had a very severe case of typhoid fever of the nervous stupida variety. On account of the stupidity, the yellow watery diarrhœa, and rumbling and bloating of the abdomen, I thought surely Phosphoric acid must help; but it did not. I finally discovered the excessive dryness of the mouth, which had escaped my attention before. This completed the picture of Nux moschata. Under the action of the 200th potency, the patient rapidly improved unto complete recovery. So we must "watch out" when the seemingly indicated remedy does not cure, for it may not be Sulphur, Opium, Laurocerasus or Psorinum that will have to be given, as we said when writing on Opium and Sulphur; but we have not, no matter what the "seemings," chosen the homœopathic remedy at all, and, as in this case, some symptom may appear that will change the prescription entirely.

Now we will notice in detail the mind and sensorium symptoms that we have given, by way of comparison. I will add to the comparison made between this remedy and Antimonium tart. and Opium, Apis mellifica, which has soporous sleep; but it is interrupted by piercing screams, especially in brain diseases, where the sopor is generally found. None of the other remedies have these screams (cri encephalique) so prominently. "Vanishing of thought while talking, reading or writing" may find their similar under Camphor, Cannabis Indica and Lachesis. "Loss of memory" under many remedies, but notably under Anacardium, Lycopodium, Bryonia alb., Sulphur and Natrum muriaticum. The "fitful, changing moods and disposition" is found under Aconite, Ignatia, Crocus and Platina. "Absence of mind," Anacardium, Kreosote, Lachesis, Natrum mur. and Mercurius. I notice that those remedies that are oftenest similar to Nux moschata in its mind and other symptoms are often found among the so-called hysteric remedies. And why not? For Nux moschata is one of our best in this hydra-headed complaint. Taking together all of the symptoms we have been over, and adding to them that other one, "easy fainting," where can you find a more complete general picture of the average hysteric? I will not use more space here for this remedy, but recommend to every careful student, and practitioner, who does not already understand it, a careful study of this certainly valuable drug. That it has not received the use in practice that it should is due, I have no doubt, to the fact that it is used so frequently in foods, that many think it cannot be much of a remedy.

   

BARYTA CARBONICA.

Mental and physical weakness; both ends of life; don't grow. Almost imbecile (children) feeble and tottering; childish and thoughtless (old age); loss of memory.

Tonsils inflame, swell and suppurate repeatedly, on every cold exposure; chronic hypertrophy afterwards.

Glands swell, infiltrate, hypertrophy; neck, parotids, submaxillary, groin, lymphatics, in the abdomen; hypertrophy, sometimes suppuration.

Offensive foot-sweats; toes and soles get sore; throat affections after checked foot-sweat.

Great sensitiveness to cold.

* * * * *

This is one of the leading so-called anti-scrofulous remedies. Please refer to what I said on this subject (scrofula) while writing on Sulphur. This is also one of the remedies which has one of its leading indications, like Calcarea ost., in the constitution of the patient. Complaints of dwarfish children; mind and body weak; don't grow; inclined to glandular swellings. The defective growth is both mental and physical. The weakness of the mind may amount almost to idiocy or imbecility. Then again it is equally adapted to old age, with mental and physical weakness; feeble and tottering; childishness and thoughtless behavior. It is especially adapted to apoplexy of old people, or a tendency thereto. For loss of memory in such subjects it stands equal to Anacardium. Now we see that if all this is true, Baryta carb. becomes a valuable remedy at both ends of life. Marasmus, infantile or senile, comes equally within its range. In the marasmus of children we may have to choose from among other remedies such as Silicea, Abrotanum, Natrum muriaticum, Sulphur, Calcarea and Iodine. Under all these remedies we may find emaciation of the rest of the body, while the abdomen is greatly enlarged. Again under every one of them, the child may have a voracious appetite; eat enough, but grow poor all of the time. It is defective assimilation. There are some strong points of resemblance between Baryta carb. and Silicea, namely: Offensive sweat on the feet. The head is disproportionately large for the body. Both suffer from damp changes in the weather and both are sensitive to cold about the head. But Silicea has the important diagnostic difference -profuse sweat on the head equal to that of Calcarea ost., which Baryta has not. And there is not that weakness of mind in Silicea that is found in Bryonia; on the contrary the child is self-willed and contrary.

The resemblances to the other remedies, other than those we have mentioned, are so many that we will not undertake to compare them here, but will proceed to notice some of the other strong points of Baryta.

Besides the strong action of Baryta upon the glandular system generally, it seems to have a peculiarly strong affinity for the throat, especially the tonsils, which become greatly inflamed, swollen and suppurate as a consequence of the least exposure to cold. Thus it becomes one of our most valuable therapeutic agents in old quinsy subjects. Alone it is often sufficient to abort an attack of quinsy and with an occasional dose at long intervals with a high potency, to overcome the tendency thereto. (Psorinum). But like Lachesis, Lycopodium, Phytolacca and other remedies, it must be chosen according to all the indications. Baryta is really fully as useful to change the constitutional tendencies to quinsy, as it is in the acute attack. You will find occasionally a case of chronic cough in children with enlarged tonsils, reported in the journals as cured by this remedy. The cure of the cough depends evidently upon the power of the remedy over the condition which produced the enlarged tonsils, for aside from this I have never found it to be a great cough remedy. In tonsilitis acute or chronic which seems to have come as the result of a suppressed foot-sweat, we would immediately think of Baryta notwithstanding Silicea has more troubles arising from such suppression than any other remedy, but Silicea has not nearly the same affinity for the throat that Baryta has.

Here we will close Baryta, for while it is a remedy of the greatest value, its range is not a wide one. Some of the remedies of this kind make up for the lack of range by a positiveness within their range, and this is one of them.

   

IODIUM.

Always hungry; eat or wants to all the time, yet emaciates; > while eating.

Hypertrophy of all glands except mammary, which dwindle; while body withers glands enlarge.

Mentally anxious, anguish, wants to move, do something, hurry, kill somebody, etc. (Arsen.)

Warm blooded notwithstanding emaciation; wants a cool place to move, think, or work in.

Pulsations all over, stomach, back, even arms, fingers and toes (Bell.)

Especially suitable to dark haired, dark eyed, dark skinned persons of scrofulous habit.

Modalities: < fasting, in warm air or room; > while eating; moving, and cold air.

Great weakness and loss of breath on going up stairs.

Hard goître in dark haired persons; also tumors in the breast.

Sensation as if the heart was squeezed together; as if grasped with an iron band. (Sulph.).

Croup; membranous; in scrofulous children; child grasps the larynx; face pale and cold; in fleshy children.

* * * * *

This is another so-called anti-scrofulous remedy. Here are a few characteristic indications:

First: "Scrofulous diathesis; low cachectic condition, with profound debility and great emaciation."

Second: "There is a remarkable and unaccountable sense of weakness and loss of breath on going up stairs."

Third: "Ravenous hunger; eats often and much, but loses flesh all of the time."

Fourth: "Feels relieved after eating or while eating."

Fifth: "Dwindling of the mammæ and soreness."

Sixth: "Profuse uterine hæmorrhages; cancer of uterus."

Seventh: "Chronic leucorrhœa, which is abundant and so corrosive as to eat holes in the linen."

Eighth. "Swelling of glands, especially mesenteric and thyroid."

Ninth: "Membranous croup, wheezing, sawing respiration, dry, barking cough, especially in children with dark eyes and hair; child grasps the throat with the hand when coughing."

Tenth: "Aggravations in general from warm room."

Here is Iodine in a nutshell. The remarkable hunger relieved by eating, with progressive emaciation, is the first in importance. This relief by eating is not only of the sensation of hunger, but his sufferings in general; he only feels well while eating, or always feels best while eating. It makes no difference whether it is phthisis pulmonalis, mesenteric, or general, that this symptoms well developed rules out everything but Iodine in almost every case and it has made many remarkable cures. I have cured many cases of goître with Iodine c. m., when indicated, giving a powder every night for four nights, after the moon fulled and was waning.

I have only failed in one case either to check the further development or cure. Some will sneer at this, but the cured ones do not. The local application for glandular enlargement is foolish and dangerous.

   

BROMINE.

An element proven and arranged by Hering and an important remedy in laryngeal affections. Also in scrofulous and tubercular affections of the glands. It is well known to act best on persons with light blue eyes, flaxen hair, light eye-brows, fair, delicate skins, red cheeked scrofulous girls. It will be remembered how almost exactly opposite, so far as temperament is concerned, is Iodine, which is also one of our chief anti-scrofulous remedies. In glandular affections, three remedies that are not as often thought of as they perhaps should be, are Carbo animalis, Conium and Bromine; in all three the glands are stony hard with a cancerous tendency. In Bromine the pains are not characteristic, but with Conium and Carbo animalis they are lancinating, cutting or burning, more like cancer pains.

In diphtheria, where it has done some wonderful work, the membrane first forms in the bronchi, trachea or larynx, running upward, just the opposite of Lycopodium, which often forms first in the nose and runs downward.

In membranous croup, there is great rattling of mucus like Hepar, but no expectoration. There seems to be great danger of suffocation from accumulation of mucus in larynx (in bronchi, Ant. tart.).

Sensation of cobweb in face. (Bar., Graph. and Borax).

Fan-like motion of alæ nasi (Ant. t. Lycop.).

Hypertrophy of heart from gymnastics (Caust.).

Membranous dysmenorrhœa (Lac can.).

   

CINA.

The child is cross and ugly, kicks and strikes, wants to be carried or rocked or don't want to be touched or looked at; wants things and pushes them away when offered.

Frequently boring the nose with the fingers.

Pale sickly look about the eyes, or white and blue about the mouth.

Frequent swallowing as if something came up in the throat.

Alternate canine hunger or no appetite at all.

Urine turns milky on standing.

Frequent sudden attacks of very high fever, with glowing red hot face, with paleness around mouth and lips, or sometimes alternates with pale face with dark bluish ring around the eyes.

* * * * *

Here is a truly unique remedy that none but the homœopathist knows how to use. The old school chagrined at our success with it, and not willing to resort to our small doses, have bungled with its alkaloid, doing more harm than good, and at last have come to sneer at the idea of children being troubled with worms at all. I have known of several instances of the kind and it has become so common in the region where I practice that the people often ask me -"Doctor, do you believe in worms? Old school doctors don't. I have found several worms that my child has passed, and have come to you to see if you can do anything for them." It is of great advantage to us Homœopaths to cure the little patients, whether we believe in worms or not. But Cina is not always the remedy for worms. But it is perhaps the oftenest indicated remedy for complaints arising from lumbricoides, or children infested with the animal. Another thing I have proven to my entire satisfaction, and that is, that it is more efficacious for these cases in the 200th or highest potencies than in the alkaloid or lower potencies. Now I say this in order to induce those who have lost faith in the remedy to try it high, according to well-known indications as laid down in our Materia Medica. So many "lose the good they oft might win by fearing to attempt." Let us look at a few of the leading symptoms. The wormy child will be very restless nights, "screams out sharply in its sleep," making one think of Apis, but other symptoms appear which rules Apis out. The child is cross and ugly like Chamomilla, kicks and strikes the nurse, wants to be carried (Chamomilla) or rocked, or don't want to be touched or looked at (Antimonium crud.), desires things and then refuses them when offered (Bry. and Staphisagria), or, unlike Chamomilla, it cries if any one tries to take hold of or carry it. Isn't that a perfect picture of the mind of a wormy child? When these symptoms appear in a child we may sometimes be at a stand between Cina and Chamomilla, but close watching will generally decide. For instance, if you watch or inquire of the nurse you will find that it alternates between a red-hot face, glowing with a bright redness of both cheeks, and a pale, sickly face, with dark rings or circles around the eyes; or, again, red face with great paleness around the mouth and nose. This is Cina. If the face is frequently red and hot on one side and pale and cold on the other, it is Chamomilla. Then again, on inquiry, or we may observe ourselves, the child is boring or picking its nose a great deal of the time, grinds its teeth when asleep, and jumps and jerks in its sleep, frequently swallowing as if something came up into the throat, or even choking and coughing for the same cause. Such a combination is not found under any other remedy. Both Chamomilla and Cina have profuse and pale urine, but Cina urine becomes milky after standing awhile. Cina has alternating canine hunger and no appetite at all. Cina is one of our best remedies for whooping cough, also jerking, trembling, twitching and even convulsions; but in all these affections I have found it efficacious when the aforementioned worm symptoms were present. I once had, at one time, and in one family, five cases of typhoid fever, and they were all very sick. There was no mistake about the diagnosis, and I speak thus positively, because some think. that a child under the age of six years cannot have this disease. This child, five years of age, was the last one of the family attacked with the disease, and it persued the same course as the others in its regular rise and fall of temperature, bloating of abdomen, diarrhœa and other symptoms common to this disease. This being in the earlier years of my practice, and Cina not being set down in the textbooks as a remedy for typhoid, I selected as well as I could from the usual remedies for typhoid. I knew perfectly that she had Cina symptoms all mixed in with those already mentioned, and as the case "got no better fast," I resolved to give a few doses of Cina anyway, and to my surprise I found my patient much better every way at my next visit and the improvement progressed right along to complete recovery. I had to learn several such lessons as that was in my "kittenhood" of homœopathic practice before I learned for good, that, for purposes of prescribing, the name of the disease was of little account. Since I settled that question, I have had frequent opportunities to help my younger brethren out of difficulties along the same line, and they have been as much astonished as I was.

   

DULCAMARA.

Affections caused by taking cold when the air changes suddenly from dry and warm to wet and cold.

Tongue and jaws become lame, if cold air or water chills them; neck stiff, back painful, loins lame, after taking cold.

Colic as if diarrhœa would occur, from taking cold.

Yellow watery diarrhœa with cutting colic before every stool, or dysentery from taking cold.

Most catarrhal states, with secretion of much mucus, caused by exposure to damp cold.

Dropsical swelling after suppressed sweat, or paralysis and other troubles from suppressed eruptions, after taking cold.

Modalities: < from wet, cold weather after warm, dry; at nights and when at rest; > rising from a seat; motion; warmth in general and dry weather.

Glands; swell and hypertrophy on repeated exposures to cold, damp air, also acute and chronic tonsilitis.

* * * * *

This remedy, like many others, finds its chief characteristic in its modality. "Complaints caused or aggravated by change of weather from warm to cold." Of course all kinds of inflammatory and rheumatic diseases may spring from such a cause and so Dulcamara comes to be indicated in a long list of them. For instance: After taking cold the neck gets stiff, back painful, and limbs lame, or the throat gets sore and quinsy results, with stiff tongue and jaws; the tongue may even become paralyzed. We see here a resemblance to Baryta carb., and indeed the two remedies complement each other nicely. If we had present in a sore throat the above mentioned stiffness and lameness, Dulcamara would be preferred. This cold in throat may travel downward and invade the bronchi and lungs, and cough and bloody expectoration result. It is especially apt to occur in children or old people this way, and then there is apt to be much mucous secretion, hard to raise, with threatened paralysis of the vagi. Here it again resembles Baryta carb. It also resembles it in the tendency to get these colds. Asthma humidum, loose cough and rattling of mucus is another affection, and the choice here may lie between Dulcamara and Natrum sulphuricum, which is another wet cold weather remedy. Colic and diarrhœa, from cold exposure, are often quickly relieved by Dulcamara, especially if taking place in hot weather, when the days or nights become suddenly cold; also dysentery. Let me repeat that it is a great remedy for back troubles from taking cold. I have made particular mention of these affections because such marked relief has followed its administration; but we need not by any means stop here. The bladder, skin or any other part of the body comes in for the beneficial action of this remedy, when we have present its characteristic modality. Dulcamara is for affections from damp cold, what Aconite is for the same from dry cold.

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