A product of distillation of Wood Tar.
Introduction
ANOTHER of the “offensive” drugs. Its vile odours are those of putridity. “Putrid odour from the mouth. Diphtheria with terrible fetor oris. Decomposition of mucous membrane, throat. Cadaverous smelling vomiting. Putrid stools. Urine fetid. Putrid state of the womb after childbirth. Leucorrhoea; putrid, acrid. Lochia; blackish, lumpy, very offensive; excoriating. Septic pharyngitis, with softening and degeneration of mucous membrane of larynx, and especially of oesophagus. Gangrene of lungs. Putrid fever. Tendency to decomposition.”
Putrid, then, and ACRID. Excoriation of mucous membranes generally.
Withal, rapid emaciation. One of the drugs of despairing conditions. But it alleviates, and when things have not gone too far (symptoms agreeing) may cure.
One has personally experienced the great value of Kreosotum in a few striking cases not easily forgotten. As, for example :
Some twenty years ago an old woman was brought into our hospital, dying of bronchitis, with fearful-smelling breath and sputum; it was almost impossible to go near her screened bed. Two or three doses of Kreosote 200 entirely changed the picture– rapidly : and she made a good recovery.
Again, in cancer of the uterus, especially of cervix, with terrible offensiveness and bloody, fetid oozings, Kreosotum has at least palliated and made the neighbourhood of the patient bearable.
One has also used Kreosotum in potency for wee children on the indication; “teeth decay as soon as erupted”.
BLACK LETTER SYMPTOMS
Chronic swelling of eyelids and their margins: agglutination of lids.
Lupus on NOSE : left side.
Bad odour from decayed TEETH.
Toothache; extending to temple and left face: drawing, extending to inner ear and temples : caused by caries.
Teeth show dark specks and begin to decay as soon as they appear.
Gums: bluish-red, soft, spongy, easily bleeding, inflamed, ulcerated, scorbutic.
Putrid odour from MOUTH.
VOMITING: of sweetish water: undigested food with dimness of vision: of large quantities of sour, acrid, fluid, or white, foamy mucus.
Water, after it is swallowed, tastes bitter.
Painful hard spot at, or to left of stomach.
Frequent urging to URINATE, with copious, pale discharge; at night, cannot get out of bed quick enough.
Urinates six or seven times a day, always with great haste, and always passing a great deal.
Smarting and burning in pudenda during and after micturition.
LEUCORRHOEA of a yellow colour, also stains linen yellow, with great weakness of limbs.
Leucorrhoea, if white, has odour of green corn.
Burning between pudenda after urinating.
Soreness between pudenda, with burning biting pains, as in little children.
Violent itching of vagina; obliged to rub it. Posteriorly there is smarting: external genitalia swollen, hot and hard.
On urinating, vagina pains as if sore: in the evening.
Violent itching and biting between the labia: she could not refrain from rubbing.
Corrosive itching between pudenda and in vagina: so that she was obliged to rub them: with a feeling of burning and swelling in the pudenda.
Scirrhus of vagina, painful to touch.
Inveterate ulcers on neck of uterus.
Severe headache before and during menses.
Her haemorrhage seems to pass into a corrosive, ichorus discharge, and then to freshen up again and go on.
During pregnancy, nausea and vomiting: ptyalism, vomiting of sweet water.
Lochia: blackish; lumpy, very offensive; excoriating: almost ceasing, freshens up again; persistent, brown and offensive.
Gangrene of LUNGS.
Left THUMB pains as if sprained and stiff.
SKIN: itching: towards evening so violent as to drive one almost wild.
CURIOUS OR SUGGESTIVE SYMPTOMS.
Protruding gums infiltrated with dark, watery fluid.
Absorption of gums and alveolar process.
Black softening and decomposition of mucous membrane of throat, with atony and extension of softening, especially towards oesophagus, in diphtheria.
Keen appetite, especially for meat: craves smoked meats.
Desire for spirituous drinks.
Stomach aches from acid food.
Deep and lasting disgust for food in convalescence.
Seasickness.
Cold feeling, epigastrium; as if cold water or ice was there.
Malignant induration, fungus, and ulcers of stomach: ulcerative pain with haematemesis.
Painful sensation of coldness in abdomen; icy coldness in epigastrium.
Colic, resembling labour pains.
Diarrhoea with vomiting: continued vomiting. Straining to vomit predominates: child resists tightening of anything round abdomen which increases restlessness and pain.
Wets bed at night: during first sleep. “Dreams he is urinating in a decent manner.”
Mammae: stitches; dwindling away; small, hard, painful lumps in them; hard, bluish-red, covered with little scurfy protuberances, from which blood oozes when scurf is removed.
Shortness of breath: as if sternum crushes in.
Cough, with concussion of abdomen and escape to urine.
Cough, aggravated from exhaling.
Asthma: jars abdomen; retching; discharge of urine: chills and headache; sleepiness.
Cough of old people: winter cough of old people; spasmodic turns at night, pain or pressure referable to sternum. Better pressure.
Dreadful burning in chest: constriction.
Coughing spells with expectoration of greenish pus: of blood: of black blood.
Fever and inability to lie on one side.
Emaciation: intense hectic fever; night sweats; shortness of breath; dry, teasing cough. Great debility.
Anxiety at heart. Stitches.
Pulsation in all arteries when at rest.
Small of back will break: worse at rest: better motion.
Drawing pain along coccyx to rectum and vagina, where a spasmodic, contractive pain is felt.
Wants to be in motion all the time.
In turning quickly, danger of falling.
Child moans constantly, or dozes with half-open eyes (Dentition).
“Perfect depression of trophic nervous system.”
Tosses all night without apparent cause.
Great drowsiness: frequent yawning.
Starts, when scarcely asleep: laughs in sleep.
Burning, as of red hot coals deep in pelvis.
BURNING PAINS are also a feature of Kreosotum: eyes, ears, bowels, genitalia, back and lower abdomen, in chest, in small of back.
Heaviness: stiffness: numbness: tingling: crawling: itching.
As to the use of Kreos, in vomiting: HUGHES considers it is especially useful in sympathetic vomiting, where the irritation starts from some other organ than the stomach: i.e., in the vomiting of the phthisis, of hepatic and uterine cancer, and of chronic kidney disease.
He says, Kreosotum in children and adults is the chief remedy for odontalgia, when caused by caries of the teeth.
Also “when dentition is so badly performed as to become a disease, comprising general irritation and cachexia with degeneration of the teeth themselves, especially when the child is constipated. Kreos is the specific remedy”.
And as to teething, he quotes Dr. Madden in regard to his first case–his own baby. “She had been extremely fretful and irritable and sleepless for three or four days, and Chamomilla had done on good. I gave Kreosotum 24, and in a quarter of an hour she was asleep, and slept eleven hours right off, and woke cheerful. The nurse was almost frightened, thinking I must have given an opiate.” And HUGHES quotes Teste, “The symptoms are usually worst from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., so that the child (and nurse) gets little sleep.”
Guiding Symptoms gives, “great restlessness, wants to be in motion all the time, and screams the whole night (Dentition).”
HERING gives, under TISSUES–
Haemorrhages: small wounds bleed much.
Typhoid haemorrhages with fetid stools, followed by much prostration.
Fetid evacuations and excoriation of mucous surfaces generally.
Skin wrinkled: restless and sleepless nights.
Profuse and offensive secretions of mucous membranes, and ulceration of the same; with greatly depressed vitality.
Rheumatic pains with numbness.
Rapid emaciation.
Spongy, burning ulcers: pus acrid, ichorous, fetid, yellow.
Gangrenous, cancerous and putrefying ulcers.
Epithelioma: carcinoma ventriculi or uteri.
Carbuncle.
Tendency to decomposition: great irritability: worse at rest.
Anthrax.
GUERNSEY’S chief indications for Kreosotum:–
Leucorrhoea putrid, with accompanying complaints. Leucorrhoea especially if very fetid and exhausting.
Putrid ulcers of any kind. Putrid diarrhoea.
Yawning in general, complaints accompanying yawning.
Child suffering from very painful dentition–won’t sleep at night unless caressed and fondled all the time.
NASH. Cholera infantum: profuse vomiting: cadaverous smelling stools.
Haemorrhagic diathesis; small wounds bleed profusely (Phosphorus).
Acrid, fetid, decomposed mucous secretions: sometimes ulcerating, bleeding, malignant.
Sudden urging to urinate during first sleep, which is very profound in some cases there is awful burning in the pelvis, as of red-hot coals, with discharge of clots of foul smelling blood. I see that GUERNSEY recommends it in cancer of mammae, saying it is hard, bluish-red and covered with scurfy protuberances. I have never so used it, but in corrosive leucorrhoea and ulcerations I have used it with great satisfaction. I generally use it in the 200th, with simply tepid water injections for cleanliness.
