CAUSE.- Purpura is a symptom rather than a disease and the causes are numerous. It occurs in certain diseases and a as result of certain poisons. Purpura Simplex is usually associated with joint pains and slight fever, and is called Rheumatic. A more severe from is associated with urticaria, and multiple arthritis (Schonlein’s disease). Purpura haemorrhagica is much more serious and may be associated with marked abdominal symptoms and Nephritis.
SYMPTOMS.- Languor, faintness, and gnawing pains in the stomach, usually precede, for some weeks, the appearance of spots. The appetite is variable, the tongue yellowish, the countenance is sallow, dingy, or bloated and pale, with swelling beneath the eyelids. The spots first appear on the legs, and afterwards, without any certain order, on the thighs, arms, and trunk of the body, their presence being attended with treat weakness and depression of spirits. They are first bright red, but are distinguished from flea-bites by the absence of a central a puncture; in a day or two they become purple, afterwards brown, and when about to disappear, they assume a yellowish, tint, and frequently have the appearance of bruises.
The pulse is feeble; there are deep-seated pains in the stomach, chest, loins, or abdomen. Constipation, Palpitation, and irregular action of the heart, with a tendency to frequent Syncope, are the most distressing and dangerous symptoms. A peculiar danger attends this disease, in the occurrence of extravasation of blood into internal organs-the lungs, the brain, the liver, or the alimentary canal (Aitken).
P. Simplex is a disease of very little consequence, but P. haemorrhagica is a much more serious affection.
EPITOME OF TREATMENT.-
1. Febrile symptoms.- Aconite
2. Purpura simplex.-Aconite (sometimes alone sufficient) Belladonna, ARn., Merc., Ac.-Sulph., Rhus.
3. Purpura haemorrhagica.- Hamamelis, Mercurius, Arsenicum, Phosphorus, Crot., Laches.
ACCESSORY MEASURES.- The general health must be improved by simple, good food (including plenty of fresh fruit juices), plenty of exercise in the open air and sunlight, healthy dwelling, and other hygienic conditions.
69.- Scurvy (Scorbutus).
DEFINITION.- A chronic disease, characterized by sponginess of the gums, and the occurrence of livid patches under the skin, of considerable extent, which are usually harder to the touch than the surrounding tissue.
CAUSES.- Vitamines.- During the last few years it has been established that health is dependent on a sufficient supply to the body of ingredients present in some foods but not in others, known generally as vitamines. They exist in minute quantities and cannot be isolated yet. Their action is no doubt upon the general metabolism and very likely on internal gland secretions. By experiments in feeling it is possible to determine that certain foods contain them and certain other foods do not, and three classes have been identified. When any one of them is lacking, certain diseases (deficiency diseases) develop. Of these Rickets (q.v.) is certainly one and Scurvy is another. Beri-beri, a tropical form of neuritis is yet another. An adequate supply of appropriate food cures these deficiency disease.
SYMPTOMS.- The condition is essentially marked by a dull leaden pallor of complexion; excessive bodily and mental lethargy; dyspnoea upon slight exertions, unaccounted for by the auscultatory signs; spontaneous effusions of blood-coloured fluid into the various tissues in the body, causing petechiae and bruise-like patches to appear on its surface; together with (commonly) a livid, swollen, and spongy state of the gums, and a disposition for them to bleed upon the slightest irritation (Buzzard).
TREATMENT.- All that is required to cure a scorbutic patient is the supply of those articles of food-fresh vegetables, milk, and good dietary generally-which contain elements the absence of which had led to the diseased condition. Eight to twelve ounces of potatoes a day are sufficient to prevent scurvy. Good lemon- juice and other vegetable acids are also recommended. An ample supply of these acids, as well as of preserved vegetables should be provided for ships which are engaged in war, or have to make a prolonged sojourn where fresh vegetables cannot be obtained. For the ecchymosis and infiltration, compresses moistened with aromatic vinegar, or spirits of Camphor, are very useful. Bryonia and Ferrum will correct some of the scorbutic symptoms. Mercurius and Phos others.
70.- Anaemia.
DEFINITION.- A condition of the blood in which the red corpuscles are deficient.
SYMPTOMS.- The skin, the lips, and the mucous membrane generally have a pallid, bloodless appearance, and the face looks like wax; the lining of the gums and mouth is white, and the tongue is large, flabby, and pale; the pulse is feeble, thready, beats about eighty times in a minute, and is easily excited. The patient becomes very weak and languid, is easily fatigued and loses breath; there is Indigestion, loss of appetite, flatulence, and irregular action of the bowels; in women there is scanty menstruation, palpitation, deficient temperature of the extremities and surface, and generally oedema of the ankles or even of the feet. There may be also dejection of spirits, and morbidly heightened nervous sensibilities.
CAUSES.- Seclusion from air and sunlight, and a poor quality of food. On these points Dr. Pollock says The sufferers are the victims of our subterraneous kitchens and back shops, and to that atrocious domestic system deprives young women in service of open-air exercise and enjoyments peculiar to their age. Secondarily, a depraved appetite arises, and tea with bread-and- butter come to form their sole diet, as all healthy desire for meat soon vanishes. These devitalized plants, which never see the sun, languish in nervous power, and furnish our worst cases of Hysteria.
Other causes are, copious or frequent small discharges of blood, as in Haemorrhoids, too profuse menstruation, venesection, etc.; profuse or prolonged evacuation of fluids which contain much of the organic constituents to the blood also gives rise to Anaemia, as in Diarrhoea, Dysentery, Ague, etc.
ANAEMIA AND PHTHISIS.- The diagnosis between these two diseases is easy to the physician, as the physical signs of Phthisis are absent in Anaemia. In the latter the pulse is about normal; in the former; it is accelerated; and, again, in Anaemia the temperature is below the normal standard; whereas in Phthisis it is considerably higher.
EPITOME OF TREATMENT.-
1. From loss of animal fluids.- China, Ac.- Phosphorus
2. With scanty or suppressed menstruation.- Pulsatilla, Ferrum
3. From deficient open-air exercise and Sunlight.- Ferrum and Pulsatilla, or Nux vomica Nat. Sulph. has been recommended as specific.
ACCESSORY MEANS.- The above remedies are only prescribed as auxiliaries to the hygienic treatment. Nourishing digestible diet is needful in quantities as large as can be assimilated-milk, eggs, and afterwards, fish, poultry, game, mutton, etc. Moderate daily out-of-door exercise in a pure air is indispensable; bathing, especially sea bathing, aids restoration.
71. Chlorosis.
DEFINITION.- This is a variety of anaemia accompanied by A condition of general debility affecting young persons at about the age of puberty. There is deficiency of the red corpuscles of the blood, which gives the skin a pale, yellowish, often greenish huc. The temperature of the body is diminished, and morbidly sensitive to cold. In females there is generally delayed, suppressed, or imperfectly performed menstrual function. Respiration, circulation, and digestion are also disturbed; and the whole organism, physical and mental, is feeble and enervated.
The chief remedies are- Ferrum, Calcarea carb., Ac.-Phosphorus, Pulsatilla, Sulphur, Sepia
72.- Pernicious Anaemia.
Chlorosis and Simple Anaemia are often troublesome and long lasting diseases, but with care and patience are curable. But the anaemia known as Pernicious anaemia is a much more grave disease. It its early stages, it can only be distinguished from simple anaemia by an examination of the blood, which requires an expert. In simple anaemias, there is a deficiency of red blood corpuscles and of hemoglobin, the red colouring matter of the corpuscles, which acts as oxygen carrier, but in Pernicious anaemia there are serious structural changes in the corpuscles themselves. Its course is often prolonged over months, even years, and apparent often prolonged over months, even years, and apparent improvement for a time may arouse hope but the usual course is gradually downward to increasing weakness, heart failure and death. The best chance of successful treatment lies in early treatment so that an expert should be called in to any case of anaemia that fails to improve. The treatment is in a general way fresh air and rest and good food, and in the sphere of drugs, the metallic remedies, Arsenicum, Mercurius, Cuprum, Plumbum, etc., are most likely to be of use, especially Arsenicum. As in all chronic diseases, however, the symptomatology of the case should be worked out in detail by an expert in Homoeopathy, and the drug so found administered in infrequent doses of a high potency.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.
Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."