CAUSES. Similar to those of common Cold Infection by bacteria of various kinds. Predisposing causes exposure to cold draughts of air, to keen and cutting winds, sudden changes of temperature, scanty clothing, or undue exposure of the throat and neck after public speaking and singing. There are certain social indiscretions which are fertile causes. Among these are the habits of our business men. who, after a hurried early breakfast, hasten to catch the train or ‘bus to the city, where they work all day on little or no food, and start on the homeward journey in the evening with the vital powers depressed, and in a condition most favourable to the inroad of disease. Ladies are also ‘indiscreet’ in exposing themselves to draughts of cold air in the thinnest and scantiest clothing, in halls or passages, or even in the open street on the way between a crowded room and their carriage. Thin boots, and too late resort to winter habiliments, are also sources of danger of danger; as is also inattention to the fact that those advanced in years require warmer clothing than the middle aged.
Winter Cough, often regarded with indifferent, is, in many cases, but a precursor or symptoms of this common disease. When an epidemic of cholera sweeps away its hundreds, public attention is attracted, and fear induces attention to precautions hitherto despised. Bronchitis sweeps away it thousands annually, and is surely deserving of more general attention than is generally given to a mere winter Cough.
EPITOME OF TREATMENT.
1. ACUTE BRONCHITIS. Aconite, Ant. T., K. Bich., Bryonia, Phosphorus, Ipecac.
2. chronic. Ant. T. (much loose mucus) K. Bich. (tough, stringy phlegm); Carbo V. or Arsenicum (great debility, stringy phlegm); Ammonium Carb. (incessant Cough, with sensation as it there wee wool in the larynx); Mercurius (Purulent expectoration) Silicea, Phosphorus, Sulphur, Cact. Ac. Nit. is of great service in may cases.
3. In children. Aconite, Phosphorus, Bryonia, Pulsatilla (loose cough); Ipecac. (spasmodic Cough) Ant. T. (accumulation of mucus).
4. Remedies sometimes requires. Belladonna, Coni., Seneg., Spongia, Iodium, Opi.
LEADING INDICATIONS.
Aconitum. Should commence the treatment of all cases with the usual febrile symptoms. If administered early and frequently it will materially shorten the attack, and perhaps be alone curative. A short, hard Cough., excited by tickling sensations in the windpipe and chest, inducing frontal headache; and burning and sore pain in the chest, are also indications.
Bryonia. Violent Cough, chiefly affection the upper part of the chest, under the breast bone, with copious expectoration of thick yellow mucus, sometimes blood streaked. In advanced stages the choice often lies between this remedy and Phosphorus. With Bryonia the cough is worse on going from cold air into a warm room; with Phosphorus vice versa. Bryonia is also useful in the acute attacks of children with suffocative Cough, great agitation and anxiety.
Kali bichromicum Bronchitis, with irritation in the larynx and chest, inducing severe and long continued paroxysms of Cough, with tenacious and stringy phlegm.
A yellow coated tongue, and loss of appetite, are also indications. It is very useful when Catarrh runs on into Bronchitis, and in the Chronic Bronchitis, with the above symptoms.
Antimonium Tart. Paroxysms of suffocative Cough with loose expectoration, wheezing respiration; the whole chest seems to be involved; frequently also there is Palpitation, pain in the loins and back, Headache, thirst, etc. In chronic Bronchitis it is often useful in promoting expectoration.
Ipecacuanha. Spasmodic Cough, with or without expectoration of blood, often with sickness, and great difficulty of breathing; also as an expectorant.
Phosphorus. Chronic cases, and whenever the lungs are involved, or there is inability to remove the phlegm.
Arsenicum. Chilliness in the chest; a suffocative sensation on lying down; anxious, laboured breathing; or when the lungs do not permit the fresh entrance of oxygen into the air tubes, and thus are incapable of expelling the morbid secretions. Arsenicum is well indicated in the aged or feeble.
Arsenicum Iodium Frequent Cough, with muco purulent or stringy expectoration, often aggravated on exertion, and at night; dyspnoea on exertion; asthmatic sensations, compelling the patient to sit up in bet to breathe; slight night sweats.
Carbo Veg. Chronic Bronchitis in the aged; profuse expectoration, or profuse mucous accumulation, which the patient is unable to remove; blueness of the nails, coldness of the extremities, and loss of voice. Solan. is useful in similar cases.
China. Useful in sustaining the constitution under the heavy discharge of mucus. It may be administered alone or in alternation with another remedy.
Administration. In acute cases, a dose every two to four hours; in chronic, thrice daily.
Kreasote Inhalations. In chronic Bronchitis, with excessive expectoration, the inhalation of the vapour of Kreasote three or four drops in a pint of boiling water checks the secretion. It also corrects the foetid sputa. See also Section on Cough.
ACCESSORY MEANS. In acute Bronchitis the diet should be light and liquid, including barley water, gruel, jelly, beef tea, etc. Free diaphoresis should be induced by frequent draughts of water and a couple of extra blankets. In both acute and chronic Bronchitis great relief is obtained by the use of the alkaline mineral waters of Ems, Seltzer, and Obersaltzbrunnen. The air of the patient’s apartment should be maintained at a temperature of about 665 degree to 70 degree Fahr., and be kept moist by the evaporation of hot water from shallow dishes near the bed; but proper ventilation should also be preserved. Congestion of the lungs may be relieved by covering thee chest with large hot linseed meal poultices. If there is great prostration, nutritious liquid diet and stimulants are necessary; if they cannot be taken by the mouth, they should be administered in the form of enemata.
PREVENTIVE MEANS. The first and most important is, cold bathing in the morning, that particular form of bath being adopted which is found most useful or convenient. (See bathing) Susceptible patients may wear a good respirator whenever exposed to night air, or during inclement weather; but such exposure should be avoided as much as possible. Keeping the mouth shut, and breathing the nose only, on exposure to cold air, often answers as well as a respirator.
Another preventive in the case of males is the beard, which protects the respiratory pass- ages against the effects of sudden changes of temperature. In many instances the beard would protect clergymen, barristers, and other public speakers, as well as singers, from the injurious effects of sudden variations of the atmosphere, from which professional men often suffer.
110. Asthma
DEFINITION.-Asthma is a spasmodic disease, characterized by paroxysms of difficult breathing, with great wheezing, and a dreadful sense of constriction across the chest; each paroxysm terminates by the expectoration of a more or less abundant quantity of mucus.
SYMPTOMS.-A paroxysm generally occurs in the night, particularly from midnight to early morn; the patient wakes suddenly with a sense of suffocation, springs up in bed, and assumes various postures; or he even rushes to the open window, where he leans forward on his arms employing all the muscles of the neck, back, and chest to assist respiration; and, wheezing loudly from the great obstruction to the entrance and exit of air, labours for breath like one struggling for life. The countenance bears evidence of great distress; the eyes protrude; the skin is cold and clammy, the pulse small and feeble; the perspiration stands in large drops on the forehead, or runs down the face; and he often looks imploringly sometimes impatiently, at his medical attendant, for relief from his misery. At length, after an uncertain time, one to three hours, or longer, there comes a remission; cough ensues, with expectoration of mucus, and the paroxysm cease, permitting the suffer to fall into the long desired slumber.
The attacks are unattended with fever, but are generally preceded by some disturbance of the digestive organs. They are often periodic and sudden, and attended with distressing anxiety.
PHYSICAL SIGNS. On percussion during a fit, the chest is resonant, showing that the lungs are distended with air; but on applying the stethoscope little or no respiratory sound is heart, as if the air were imprisoned or in a state of stagnation in the air cells; and it is probable there is a spasmodic contraction of the muscular fibres of the air passages which stops or modifies the respiratory murmur.
DIAGNOSIS. The physical conditions of the chest just pointed out, the abruptness and violence of the symptoms and the comparative good health enjoyed between the attack, are sufficient to distinguish the disease.
CAUSES. Irritation of the nerves of respiration resulting in most cases from deranged digestion, from the intimate nervous connection existing between the digestive and the respiratory organs; it may also be produced by changes of the atmosphere, or by introduction of some poisonous but subtle material floating in the atmosphere, and brought by inspiration into contact with the respiratory surface, such as the minute particles, or the mere odour, which passes of from powdered ipecacuanha or hay; the vapour of sulphur, sulphurous acid gas, or chlorine. Asthma is now considered by many to be intimately associated with poisoning by protein foreign to the body, and to be related to what bacteriologists call anaphylaxis. Asthma is often associated with the gouty or rheumatic diathesis. Excessive exertion and mental emotion frequently bring on a paroxysm. After is has once occurred, Asthma is easily reproduced in Indigestion, especially after late dinners or supers. A frequent repetition of the fits leads to a dilated state of the air passages and air cells of the lungs (Emphysema), dilatation of the right cavities of the heart, and the general displacement of that organ which uniformly exists in persons who have long suffered from this disease. The disease may also be hereditary. Diseases of the nose (Polypus, etc.) may cause attacks of Asthma.
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."