Thus one may avoid dangerous abscess and peritonitis. In acute cases the compress may be left on the liver and made humid every three or four hours with re-impregnation with the tinctures. In chronic cases where the patient is not bed-ridden, and who may move here and there during the day, the compress may be kept on the liver at night. The sedative action is undeniable and much more superior to using ice, cold or hot compresses.
3. The Remedies of Hepatic Insufficiency.
It remains now the study of the most important remedies of cholecystitis; those which may attack the cause itself, hepato- biliary or hepato-bilio-pancreatic deficiency. These remedies may not only be preventive but also curative which are very important to take into account, being given that habitually this infection comes slowly, after a long phase of dyspeptic and hepatic troubles, and after successive appearances.
I will not study in detail the symptoms of all these remedies, which will be long and fastidious. I will speak a few words only on those that are well known, but I will speak in detail about those that are less known and proposed since recently though they are very important to know.
Are known by all :
China. Abdominal meteorism, big liver, big spleen, jaundice. Liquid non-digested stools. Weakness. Sensitiveness to touch, to contact, to air-current.
Chelidonium. Already described.
Myrica. Bitter and nauseating taste, anorexia, painful liver, discoloured stools, intestinal gas, charged urine, insomnia.
Chionanthus. Jaundice, big and painful liver, constipation, soft pasty and discoloured stools. Anorexia, big spleen Periodic Hepatic Pains.
The Mercuries. Specially Mercurium dulcis. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea with incessant desire for stools and the sensation of having no end. Salivation, foetid breath. Thirst with humid mouth. Flabby yellow tongue, having imprint of the teeth. Tendency to cirrhosis of liver. Possible jaundice.
Juglans Cineria. Choleolithiasis. Sensitive liver, gastric distension. Occipital headache.
Ptelia. Cannot lie down on the left side. Eructations, vomiting, nausea, vomiting and weakness. Abdominal meteorism.
Kali Carbonicum. Frequent nausea, better by lying down. Flatulence. Weakness. Sweats. Lumbar pains. Possible jaundice. Pricking as if by Needles on the Region of Liver (“Stitches”)
Nux Vomica. Nausea in the morning, after meals. Vomiting which is difficult. Epigastric sensitiveness to pressure. Big, sensitive liver; constipation with inefficacious desire. Sedentarism. Abuse of stimulants.
These are classical remedies. Only Vipera and Ricinus communis are not generally well known. Both are of great value, specially the second one. These remedies are very much used by Dr. William Bas, but priority goes to Gallivardin.
Vipera is a valuable remedy. Boerick is proud of this remedy. Big painful liver. Jaundice and fever; pain irradiating to shoulder, to right hips. Dry, brown tongue. Veins are swollen on legs. Pains of the legs or of the liver with Bursting Sensation. Cannot keep the Legs Hanging.
Ricinus communis is a marvellous remedy and cures immediately the nausea of hepatic origin or biliary nausea. Anorexia, nausea, Vomiting. Dry mouth. Diarrhoea possible with colic or very often without pains. Fever, emaciation and somnolence.
I give Ricinus in fixed times according to the time of nausea as stated by the patient as for example, in the morning after waking up or very often at four in the evening in order to check the aggravation from 5 to 8 p.m. in relation to Lycopodium, the ground remedy. Ricinus is also a good complementary of Phosphorus in hepatic insufficiency and cholecystitis.
It remains for us to study the ground remedies, remedies of temperament of cholecystitis, remedies that are to be used at long intervals, rarely repeated and in high dilutions.
In these cases, though they are rare, Calcarea Carbonica, Aurum metallicum, Sulphur, Sepia, Graphites may be used according to the symptoms presented by the patient.
More often symptoms of Natrum Sulphuricum, Lachesis and Arsenicum are seen.
Natrum sulphuricum is a well known remedy for elimination of bile containing in the gall bladder. It suits to hydrogenoid patients having big or torpid liver. Diarrhoea is more frequent than constipation, coming specially in the morning immediately after break fast.
Lachesis often acts deeply on the liver. It antidotes Vipera. So it is related to it. It suits to women in time of Lachesis menopause, cholecystitis after stoppage of menses. Amelioration after the return of menses.
Arsenicum Album. It may be frequently indicated as a ground remedy (it may be given in medium or in lower dilutions ) of worn out patient, suffering since long-time from cholecystitis, restless and prostrated at the sametime. Nightly aggravation from one a.m. or from midnight to 3 a.m.
But the two great ground remedies of cholecystitis that are the most frequently indicated are Lycopodium and Phosphorus.
Lycopodium and Phosphorus. Both used in deficient liver, but in a different way. Lycopodium or vegetable sulphur recalls to us by the outline of its pores, the form of hepatic lobula. Lycopodium is also easily combustible. It contains besides Sulphur and is related more to Sulphur than to Phosphorus medically. It is much less violent than the latter and should not act deeply like the other on the hepatic cells. The mentality of Lycopodium is also very different from Phosphorus. Lycopodium is quarrelsome, often aggressive, angry, extremely irritable, violent in his words and in his letters. Phosphorus is at first exalted, over-active, then prostrated. Lycopodium acts on the bile excretion and elimination of toxins that come out of the muscular activity. Lycopodium is bilious par excellence. “It is the remedy of bitter”. Phosphorus on the contrary is the remedy of sugar troubles, it destroys the glycogen. It acts on the blood and on the walls of the vessels. Lycopodium is not indicated in both these cases. Phosphorus has deep action and is used in still more grave cases and often, we may say, that a patient who was formerly a patient of Lycopodium has come to be the patient of Phosphorus. Phosphorus is the most important remedy of fatty degeneration, Lycopodium never.
But the value of Phosphorus in high dilutions is not yet known in acute and specially in chronic cholecystitis.
In almost all the cases of cholecystitis that I have treated since 8 years, I have arrived at complete success by Phosphorus M, when drainage was assured by Berberis, China, Bryonia, Ricinus communis. The last one is a marvellous remedy of nausea of hepatic origin.
Lycopodium should be used with great precaution because it is often dangerous in persons suffering from cholecystitis who do not drain themselves.
It is necessary to being with 6 or 12 to rise later on to 30, 200 and M rarely repeated.
Phosphorus on the contrary is not dangerous in this case (It is dangerous only in laryngeal tuberculosis). It acts marvelously in high dilutions, preferably M. I use it alternately with Cholesterium M.
By the side of Phosphorus, it is necessary to use in cholecystitis three new remedies on which I must insist. Cholesterinum, Lutein, Lecithin.
Cholesterinum is well studied in the last editions of Boerick. I do not agree with the opinion of the author about the dilutions. He recommends the 3x. All the lower dilutions and triturations have given me no good result. Even the 30th hardly acts. Cholesterin is active only in high dilutions 200 or M. What is curious is that when it is alternated with Phosphorus M, it ameliorates cholecystitis but does not bring down the cholesterin of the blood.
China is the classical remedy of hypercholesterinemia. Really speaking China, Phosphorus and Cholesterin act on the bad result of excess of Cholesterin. An alimentary regimen is necessary at the same time to lower down the cholesterin content of the blood. Lecithin is the physiological opposite of Cholesterin. It contains phosphorus which cholesterin does not. Lecithin is a phosphorated fat contained in the brain and in the yellow of egg. I have used it successfully on the indications of Phosphorus in 200 and M. It is perhaps the first trial, because this use is not indicated in the books. It is used only in convalescence, in tubercular patients, in insomnia, in neurasthenia and for nurses who have not sufficient milk. One of its good indication is the presence of large quantity of phosphate in the urine.
Lutein. It was first used by our friend Martiny. It is used in medium dilutions 30 or high 200 or M, in hypercholesterinemia and cholecystitis of menopause. It acts marvellously on this type of women.
Bernoville was a major lecturer in homeopathy, and he was active in Liga Medicorum Homeopathica Internationalis, and a founder of the le Syndicat national des médecins homœopathes français in 1932, and a member of the French Society of Homeopathy, and the Society of Homeopathy in the Rhone.
Fortier-Bernoville wrote several books, including Une etude sur Phosphorus (1930), L'Homoeopathie en Medecine Infantile (1931), his best known Comment guerir par l'Homoeopathie (1929, 1937), and an interesting work on iridology, Introduction a l'etude de l'Iridologie (1932).
With Louis-Alcime Rousseau, he wrote several booklets, including Diseases of Respiratory and Digestive Systems of Children, Diabetes Mellitus, Chronic Rheumatism, treatment of hay fever (1929), The importance of chemistry and toxicology in the indications of Phosphorus (1931), and Homeopathic Medicine for Children (1931). He also wrote several short pamphlets, including What We Must Not Do in Homoeopathy, which discusses the logistics of drainage and how to avoid aggravations.
He was an opponent of Kentian homeopathy and a proponent of drainage and artificial phylectenular autotherapy as well.