Respiratory Diseases



TREATMENT. Camphor. This remedy is suited to the chill or cold stage, when its prompt administration, in two drop doses, repeated several times, every ten or twenty minutes, will often terminate the disease in the first stage. It should be chosen in preference to Aconite, when the patient has still to be exposed to atmospheric changes. It is of little or no use except in the incipient stage.

Aconitum. Commencement of a Cold, or in the precursory stages of diseases resulting from a cold, with feverishness. If promptly administered, it often obviated the necessity for any other medicine. A dose every second or third hour. If the cold has advanced into any other disease, Aconite may be alternated with, or substituted by, some other remedy.

Bryonia. For Bronchial Catarrh cold on the chest with hard Cough, shaking the head, etc., and soreness of chest, Bryonia is one of the best remedies, with or without Aconite

Gelsemium. Watery discharge from the nose, soreness in the throat and chest, Cough and Hoarseness; early stage of acute Bronchitis, without the excitement calling for Aconite catarrhal Ophthalmia.

Arsenicum. Abundant discharge of thin, hot, excoriating mucus from the nostrils, with burning sensations; flow of tears; lassitude and prostration.

Allium Cepa. Thin excoriating discharge, better in open air, violent spasmodic cough.

Pulsatilla. Impaired taste and smell; thick foetid discharge from from nose; heaviness and confusion in the head; aggravation of the symptoms in the evening or in a warm room; sharp pains in the ears and sides of the head, frequently changing from one place to another.

Mercurius. Constant sneezing, with soreness of the nose; thick mucous discharge; alternate heat and shivering; profuse perspiration; sore throat; aggravation of the symptoms towards evening. It is often useful in alternation with Nux V. If merc. fail, Hepar S. may be substituted.

Euphrasia. Acrid fluent Coryza, with involvement of the lining membrane of the eyes, and profuse lachrymation. Better out of doors.

Kali Bichromicum. Chronic Catarrh, and chronic affections of the respiratory mucous membrane generally with Hoarseness, tough stringy sputa, chronically inflamed or ulcerated throat, Cough, etc. An additional indication is a concurrent affection of the digestive mucous membrane yellow coated tongue, etc.

Baptisia (with feverish Cough); Nux V. (stuffy Cold); Ipecac. or Cact. (rattling of mucus); Cimic. (chronic); Rumex (sensitiveness to cold air); Chamomilla (infants and young children); Dulcamara (often preventive or curative of cold from damp). Sufferers from regularly catarrh should have the offending germs determined and isolated, and a vaccine made. Vaccine treatment of this disorder is very satisfactory. ([ See Homoeopathic world for 1913).

ACCESSORY MEANS. The hot foot bath at bedtime, and warm gruel when in bed. When the directions are promptly and efficiently carried out, Cold may generally be arrested in its incipient stage. When the Catarrh is established, the most essential measure to insure a rapid recovery is to avoid exposure to atmospheric vicissitudes until the attack has passed away. In serious cases the patient should remain in bed for two or three days. As a rule, high food, and a very sparing use of meat, should be adopted at the commencement of a cold. Young infants should be fed with milk be means of a spoon, and simple cerate, cold cream, or tallow applied to the nostrils.

TO DIMINISH EXCESSIVE SENSIBILITY TO COLD. Extremely sensitive persons should consult a homoeopathic physician, who will be able to prescribe both hygienic and medicinal measures suitable to individual cases. The two following measures are, however, recommended for general adoption. 1. Free exposure to the open air daily. Familiarity with the atmosphere has a wonderful influence in demising the sensibility of the skin, and enabling the body to resist the invasion of cold. 2. The morning cold bath. Especially when preceded by the performance of such regular muscular exercises as those of Lieut. Muller’s system. Cold sponging over the entire surface of thee body, the plunge bath, or the shower bath, is an invaluable method of protecting the body against injury from exposure to changes of temperature, in those who can obtain a good reaction, and who do not feel tired afterwards. Taken regularly in the morning, the cold bath inures the surface of the body to a greater degree of cold than it will probably encounter during the day; and at the same time it promotes a vigorous capillary circulation, which is essential to the harmonious and healthy working of the system. For hints on the use of the bath, see sec. II.

108. Aphonia Loss of Voice Hoarseness.

DEFINITION. Aphonia is a temporary or permanent paralysis of the muscles which approximate the vocal cords in the production of sounds.

CAUSES. Acute of the inflammatory condition of the mucous lining of the larynx and trachea, a frequent accompaniment of a common Cold. Severe ulceration of the larynx from Syphilis, Tubercle or Cancer, may cause Aphonia. Hysteria or debility is a cause of simple Aphonia. Aphonia from the pressure of an Aneurism of glandular Tumours is also accompanied by marked dyspnoea. It is rather a symptom than a disease per se.

SYMPTOMS. The voice is hoarse and husky, at times almost or entirely inaudible; there is a ticking, dryness, or irritation and perhaps soreness in the throat with a short, dry Cough.

EPITOME OF TREATMENT.

1. Simple hoarseness. Phyto, (also complete of chronic loss of voice); Hepar S. (wheezing); Phosphorus (Paralysis of the vocal cords); Carbo V. (chronic).

2. With cold in the head or chest. Aconite, Causticum, Mercurius, Bryonia, Spongia, Phosphorus, Dulcamara

3. From over exertion of the voice clergymen, singers, etc. Phyto., Causticum, Arnica, Bary. C., K. Bich., Belladonna

In some cases the sulphurous Acid spray may be effectually employed. The throat and neck should be often bathed with cold water, as a preventive. Electricity is also of use.

Leading Indications and Accessory Means are pointed out in the preceding Section; also in that on Sore Throat.

109. Bronchitis.

(a) ACUTE BRONCHITIS is acute Inflammation of the mucous membrane of the bronchi the air tubes of the lungs. It may affect either the large or the small bronchi; and smaller the tubes in which the inflammation exists, the greater the danger. Bronchitis is most common in elderly persons, although it is not infrequent in children.

SYMPTOMS. At first there is fever, with headache, lassitude, anxiety, Hoarseness, Cough, heat,, and soreness of the chest, and other symptoms of a common Cold. The mucous secretion is at first arrested, but afterwards increased in quantity. There is a sense of tightness or constriction of the chest, especially of the upper front part; oppressed, hurried, anxious, laboured breathing, with wheezing, severe Cough, which is at first dry, but is afterwards accompanied with viscid and frothy expectoration, sometimes streaked with blood; the breathing sounds are accompanied by dry or moist rales; subsequently the sputa become thick, yellowish and purulent, but never rusty coloured as in Pneumonia, although it is frequently streaked with blood. The pulse is frequent and often weak; the temperature of the body is always raised, in severe cases as high as 105 degree; there is throbbing in the forehead and aching in the eyes, aggravated on coughing; the tongue is foul; the urine is scanty and high coloured, with other febrile symptoms. In favourable cases the disease begins to decline between the fourth and eighth days, when the breathing becomes easier, and the expectoration thicker, less frothy and stringy; and the compliant soon entirely disappears, or assumes the chronic form.

In cases about to terminate fatally, the skin becomes covered with cold perspiration; thee cheeks and lips are pale and livid; the extremities cold; there is rattling and a sense of suffocation, the breathing being nearly suspended by the morbid secretion which choked up the bronchial tubes and their ramifications, and which the patient has not longer power to cough up; at length, extreme prostration and complete insensibility end in death.

MORBID ANATOMY. On a post mortem examination, we find the trachea, the bronchi, and their divisions and sub – divisions, completely blocked up by a frothy, adhesive mucus, resembling that which had been expectorated during life.

(b) CHRONIC BRONCHITIS is a somewhat different disease, very common in advanced life. In mild cases there in only habitual Cough, Shortness of breath, and copious expectoration, and entire absence of Pyrexia. Many cases of winter cough in old persons are example of chronic Bronchitis. It is often insidious in its approach, although it sometimes succeeds to acute Bronchitis, when that disease has been neglected or badly treated. As result of the constant coughing, the air vesicles of the lungs become stretched and ruptured, producing a condition known as Emphysema, and the bronchial tubes become sacculated, forming at times cavities of some size. This conditions is known as Bronchitis. Some degree of Emphysema or Bronchitis (or both) accompanies Chronic Bronchitis. Both add to the shortness of breath and neither can be entirely removed though the symptoms can be relieved.

Edward Harris Ruddock
Ruddock, E. H. (Edward Harris), 1822-1875. M.D.
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."