PAPERS ON SUBJECTS RELATING TO DISORDERS OF THE HEART



Various remedies have been recommended and used successfully for this condition. Iron, especially the iodide of iron, has been found useful. The bark of the wild cherry (Prunus v.) has a specific effect on the heart, especially when its action is rapid, weak, and irregular. Lycopus virginicus is useful in moderating excessive action, and will probably be found curative in cardiac diseases, with exophthalmia.

Dr. Fenner, above quoted, says the specific remedies for this condition are Cactus grandiflorus, in doses of 10 to 20 drops of the tincture three or four times a day (he acknowledges that he gets his information from homoeopathic sources). Pulsatilla, Collinsonia, and Lobelia, in non-nauseating doses, are also claimed to possess specific powers over cardiac irritation.

The homoeopathic treatment of irritation of the cardiac nerves has never been fully elucidated, nor the specific indications given for the use of our remedies. It is obvious that we must be guided by the pathological condition, as well as by the totality of symptoms, modified by those characteristic indications which are sometimes so useful in practice.

A careful study of the heart symptoms given in the Repertory to Jahr’s Materia Medica, will afford a comparative analysis of the remedies we have at our command.

It is probable that all those medicines included in the Aconite group, viz., Gelsemium, Veratrum viride, Veratrum alb., and Cactus grand., are in many cases homoeopathic to this malady. Digitalis, Hydrocyanic acid, Kalmia, Laurocerasus, Prunus, Thea, Tabacum, may each be found useful if we select them with a full knowledge of their pathological action.

My experience leads me to prefer Cactus, Digitalis, Lycopodium, and Collinsonia, as being most generally useful in this complaint.

DIGITALIS has succeeded best in my hands when the excessive excitement was an idiopathic affection consequent on nervous depression secondary to some excitement; or was the result of previous inflammatory action in the system which left the heart itself in a debilitated condition, or hypertrophy with thinning of the walls; or was caused by loss of fluids, or was present in convalescence from acute disease.

CACTUS is most useful in affections of the motor and sensory nerves; when the increased action alternates with spasms of the tissues of the heart, and congestions of the head and chest occur as complications or results.

COLLINSONIA, although it has been of great value to me in this disorder, has not been sufficiently subjected to physiological experiments on the healthy to enable us to explain its method of action. It is a little strange that Dr. Burt did not observe any cardiac symptoms; nor have those patients who have been treated by large doses observed any derangement of the heart. It may be that it should be proven in the higher potencies in order to bring out these cardiac symptoms which certainly appear to belong to it, if we can judge by its curative action.

Dr. Fenner says: “I have tried as yet only the Collinsonia, not having had occasion to go beyond this agent for the relief of this affection. In every instance in which I have used it improvement has followed its administration.” He gives it in doses of 10 to 30 drops every three or four hours, if the case demands. I have not found it necessary to use more than 5 or 10 drops of the first decimal dilution. The symptoms cured by Dr. Fenner are these:

Periodical spells of faintness and oppression.

Pulse 140 per minute, steady and quick.

Attacks of syncope, with fulness of the chest and difficulty of breathing.

The slightest emotion or excitement of any kind would aggravate the symptoms.

Pulse very strong, 128 per minute, and intermittent.

Severe attacks of dyspnoea, with great weakness.

We shall not venture to theorize on the probable method of action of this remedy, but it will do no harm to place before the physician some facts relating to its effects on disease.

I. It relieves headaches consequent on suppressed haemorrhoidal discharges at least under its action the hemorrhoids return and the headache disappears.

II. In preliminary hemorrhages the Collinsonia arrests the bleeding, but brings back the haemorrhoids which existed before the hemorrhage.

III. In cardiac disorders, such as palpitation, irregular action, and excessive action, this remedy relieves; but under its action haemorrhoids appear, or a suppressed menstrual flow returns.

These three facts seem to show that the reflex action on the nerves controlling the circulation are in some way controlled by Collinsonia in a remarkable degree.

The symptoms existing between congestion of the pelvic viscera and the heart, are always worthy our attention. Collinsonia is not inferior to any remedy when this complication obtains. In such cases it is the rival of Aloes, Aesculus, Nux vomica, and Sulphur.

THE RELATION OF ABNORMAL STATES OF THE HEART TO ABNORMAL CONDITIONS OF OTHER ORGANS OF THE BODY.

THE subject of this paper appears to me a most vital one. It closely concerns the etiology, diagnosis, and especially the therapeutics of many of the diseases of the human body. Not all the disorders of the various organs commence in those organs. They often have their initial starting point in other and often remote organs. This is a consideration which we should always take into account in our diagnosis. But even if a disorder does commence in the liver, for example, it sometimes occurs that owing to the fact that another organ has been sympathetically affected, the original disorder is continued by the morbid condition of the one secondarily affected.

With this preamble, I will now discuss the subject I have chosen. There is a physiological condition of the heart which we call normal. This is when it beats at the average rate of 72 per minute; when the beats are regular; when the blood-pressure does not exceed or go below the normal standard. Any deviation from this normal standard tends to disturb the equilibrium of the circulation in some, if not all, the organs supplied with the blood.

If the beats of the heart are too strong or too frequent, in time arterial congestion must obtain in those organs, or the one organ most susceptible to morbid impressions. The only restraining influence to this lies in the vaso-motor centre. This centre soon becomes stimulated by the increased amount of arterial blood, and an attempt is made to stem the current by the vaso-motor constrictor nerves, which go out from the centre to every organ. They cause a contraction of the smaller arteries, and thus prevent the abnormal pressure which constitutes congestion. But if the heart persists in exerting its excessive force, the constrictors finally give way, and the arterioles are flushed, resulting finally in inflammation or extravasation.

Take the opposite condition that of a weakened heart. Here the systole is destitute of its normal power; it does not force the blood through the arterial system with sufficient force; they are all the time partially empty.

No organ receives its proper amount of arterial blood. It is not propelled into the veins with force enough to drive the blood back into the heart, and two conditions surely obtain, namely, arterial anaemia and venous stasis. Now, as I said before, the bearing of the above facts in diagnosis and treatment is of the greatest importance. On examination of a patient, as soon as we locate the seat of the organ diseased, the first question is, Did the disorder originate in that organ? Was there a local irritant cause? If we cannot decide as to the local origin, we must get a history of the patient’s condition previous to the local disorder. Are all the other organs of the body in a healthy state? If we find they have been and are now, we must then interrogate the great central organ of circulation. Does the heart beat with normal force and frequency and rhythm? If not, how long has it been beating in an abnormal manner? Is the heart too large, too thin, or are its walls too thick? Is here any valvular lesion? Is it a nervous or an organic disease which affects it?

Not until all these questions are answered by an examination exact and scientific can we diagnose with any certainly the nature of the affection now located in the diseased organ. In order to illustrate this subject I must draw copiously upon our medical literature and upon my own experience, and I shall try to give cases which will further illustrate the matter under consideration. That there shall be some method, I will take up briefly each important organ, beginning with.

THE BRAIN.

In many febrile states, even when the heart is normal, the hot blood is thrown into the brain with abnormal force. Not only the cerebral mass, but its meninges are stimulated and irritated to the verge of inflammation. Delirium ensues, and often cerebritis.

This often occurs in pericarditis. The hard-bounding pulse, the flushed face and injected eyes demand that we shall subdue the unnatural force of the heart.

Before physicians knew the value of Aconite and Veratrum viride, they believed it necessary that the volume of the blood should be lessened by venesection. It cannot be disputed that, in such cases, moderate bleeding did ward off serious damage, but such a practice can now be safely abandoned. Under the timely influence of Veratrum viride the heart’s action becomes slower, softer, and soon the blood becomes cooler, and reaches the brain in less quantity.

Edwin Hale
Edwin Moses Hale 1829 – 1899 was an orthodox doctor who converted to homeopathy graduated at the Cleveland Homoeopathic Medical College to become Professor Emeritus of Materia Medica and Therapeutics at Hahnemann Medical College, editor of the North American Journal of Homeopathy and The American Homeopathic Observer and a member of the American Institute of Homeopathy. Hale was also a member of The Chicago Literary Club.

Hale wrote Lectures On Diseases Of The Heart, Materia medica and special therapeutics of the new remedies Volume 1, Materia Medica And Special Therapeutics Of The New Remedies Volume 2, Saw Palmetto: (Sabal Serrulata. Serenoa Serrulata), The Medical, Surgical, and Hygienic Treatment of Diseases of Women, New Remedies: Their Pathogenetic Effects and Therapeutic Application, Ilex Cassine : the aboriginal North American tea, Repertory to the New Remedies with Charles Porter Hart, The Characteristics of the New Remedies, Materia Medica and Special Therapeutics of the New Remedies, The Practice of Medicine, Homoeopathic Materia Medica of the New Remedies: Their Botanical Description etc.