Silicea-Catarrhal affections of the respiratory system of children who are tubercular or sycotic. Chronic sequences of acute suppurative diseases, abscess of the lungs, purulent pleurisy. Should be given at the end of these affections to stop the suppuration or to check a fistula.
Tuberculosis with purulent expectoration. Hectic fever, with sweats. Asthma. Aggravation by cold. Better by covering (even the head.)
Spongia tosta-Larynx dry, sensitive with a sensation of constriction and burning. Continual cough aggravation in the evening. Tickling in the trachea. Suffocating cough aggravation at night by heat, by bending the head. Better sitting, drinking hot water. It is a very important remedy of false croup. It is very important remedy of cough, false croup, trachitic asthma. Recurrent cough.
Stannum-Hoarseness. Fits of cough of weak subjects, aggravation while speaking, laughing and drinking. Purulent expectoration like white of eggs having sweet taste. Sensation of emptiness in the chest. Profuse night sweats. Cachexia, tuberculosis.
Sticta pulmonalis.-Sneezing. Painful sensation of pressure and fulness at the root of the nose. Rhino-pharyngitis, asthma.
Sulphur.-It is an important remedy of centrifugal action. It is indicated at the beginning of the acute diseases of children. Should be used in 30th potency. It very often checks the course of the disease and cures the disease. It is preferable not to give it during the evolution of the affection. After the defervescence when convalescence has begun, it is to be used to eliminate the toxins and to check the tendency to chronicity and to avoid morbid metastasis and complication. Sulphur 30 to 200 should be given a new in all acute infections of infancy. When there is the fear of aggravation in less resistant tubercular child it is to be substituted by Sulphur iodatum.
Inspite of the value of Homoeopathic medicines and the excellent results obtained it is often necessary to add with them some nosodes in the affection of the respiratory system of infants.
The selection of nosodes are based less on their pathogenesis than on their general clinical symptoms and the ideas that we have about the epidemic in question. At the beginning of influenza it is necessary to prescribe Influenzum 30. But we must know that it will act according to the seasonal character of the epidemic. It is for this reason we get prepared different stocks at the beginning of the epidemic and experience has taught us that a stock which was curative in the month of November was not efficacious in March.
Pyrogenium-Excellent remedy in grave cases of influenza or in pneumopathy. Septicemia is feared. Pyrogenium is a nosode prepared from putrid meet in trituration, administered in 30 or 200. It is a remedy of great value. It is generally clinically applied to grave states of the type of Arsenicum which it follows very successfully Dissociation of pulse and temperature. But it may be applied even without this symptom. It is a remedy which has helped in cases of mastoiditis and it has cured many cases of influenza, pneumonia, bronchopneumonia of grave types. We should make delay for its application.
Marmoreck, Aviary, Bacillinum are used when the remedies indicated do not give satisfactory results in pneumonia and in bronchopneumonia.
Pertussin.-At the beginning use 30th and during convalescence use 100 or 200. A useful method communicated to us by Roche (de Poille) consists in applying Pertussin 30 & Sulphur 30 alternately every five days, We have tried it and have found very useful.
Nux vomica-Coryza after cold and humid weather with nasal obstruction, heaviness at the root of the nose. Watery discharge during the day which stops at night in a hot room with sensation of dryness in the nose. Hypersensitiveness to smell. Cough aggravates towards 3 to 5 A.M. by inhalation of cold air, by exercise while eating. Amelioration by heat, rest and by hot drinks.
Coryza, sinusitis, rhino-pharyngitis.
To illustrate the theoretical ideas, we have selected from our case book of acute infantile pulmonary affections some cases. Here is a summary.
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.