Pulsatilla, one of the most frequent indications in this affection, was, however, entirely omitted. This remedy will be called for in females of a mild and tearful disposition who have blue eyes, in whom the sufferings are all much worse towards evening. Other symptoms and conditions of the patient may lead to this, or some more closely indicated remedy. External treatment, such as bandaging with a roller, is of far less value than internal medication which radically cures the affection. In extreme cases, where the Homoeopathist is called late and there appears danger of bursting of the vein, a roller may be applied to support the limb, till the remedies have time to act. In such cases also, placing the lower limbs, which are the seat of the varicose affection, upon a stool or chair, relieves the over- distended vessels from the downward pressure of gravity. Perfect rest and quiet are indispensable in the treatment of these cases.
Under Allopathic treatment, the constipation, which either causes the piles or is inseparably connected with them, is attacked by purgatives, which are incapable of removing either the cause or the consequences. While the properly-indicated Homoeopathic remedy exerts a beneficial influence equally upon the obstruction of the bowels and upon the enlargement of the hemorrhoidal veins. The following remedies should be diligently studied; and that one selected which best corresponds to all the conditions and symptoms of the patient, who should carefully abstain from coffee and from food too much concentrated, and take as much daily exercise as her circumstances and situation will allow with comfort to herself.
Aconite Where there is shooting and constant pressure at the anus, or pain in the back and sacrum, as if bruised.
Ammo. mur.
Continual sore smarting, particularly if a leucorrhoea has been suppressed.
Apis.
Much stinging pain in the anus; constipation and scanty urine.
Antimonium crud. Secretion of much mucus, with burning and tingling-itching, so that she can hardly keep still.
Arsen.
Burning and shooting pains; heat, agitation, and some times a sensation of great weakness.
Bellad. Piles accompanied with a sensation as if the back were breaking, or would break.
Calcarea carb.
In leucophlegmatic temperaments; feet cold, as if she had on damp stockings; when not pregnant she menstruate too frequently and too much. Vertigo on going up stairs; or palpitation and great weakness on ascending. Swelling at the pit of the stomach like an inverted saucer.
Capsicum Burning and smarting as though Cayenne pepper were sprinkled on the parts.
Carbo veg.
The hemorrhoidal tumors are large and blue, with shooting pains in the loins, stiffness in the back, burning and rheumatic pains in the limbs. Burning feces. Frequent congestion to the head; epistaxis; flatulence. There may also be much burning mucus from the rectum.
Chamomilla In painful, bleeding, burning hemorrhoids; but the mental symptoms will particularly indicate this remedy. She is restless, can hardly control herself; gives short answers; she can hardly endure her slight sufferings.
Colocynth Terrible colic, causing cramping up double, and great restlessness from or on account of the hemorrhoids.
Graphites The varices of the rectum feel sore after an evacuation. Itching blotches here and there on various portions of the skin, (painful burning fissures between the varices).
Ignatia When the piles are attended with pains shooting deep into the rectum, seemingly up into the abdomen. Itching and tingling in the anus, and prolapsus recti during an evacuation. Sensation of excoriation and contraction in the rectum.
Lycopodium Much rumbling in the abdomen; red sand in the urine; itching eruption around the anus; great tendency to excoriations, which bleed easily.
Muriatic acid Exceeding tenderness of the parts; she cannot bear the least touch upon them, not even of the sheet.
Nitric acid Old hemorrhoidal tumors secreting much slime, and bleeding profusely at every fecal evacuation.
Nux vomica
This remedy should be thought of for all persons of sedentary habits, and for those who use spirituous liquors or coffee in excess. It is especially indicated when there are shooting and shocks in the loins; contused pains which hinder from rising up; constipation with frequent and ineffectual effort to evacuate, and sensation as if the anus were closed or contracted; no appetite; sleepless in the latter part of the night; headache; loss of energy.
Petroleum Hemorrhoids with itching about the anus, which compels her to rub and scratch till the part becomes raw and sore.
Podophyllum Piles with prolapsus ani; (prolapsus uteri,) constipation, or morning diarrhoea; too frequent but natural passages.
Pulsatilla Discharge of blood and mucus during stool; pallid countenance, and disposition to faint; dysuria; tearful disposition; mild and gentle; bad taste in the mouth in the morning.
Sabina The piles discharge bright red blood and cause pain in the back from the sacrum to the pubis.
Sulphur The indications for this remedy are to be found rather in general characteristics than in local symptoms. Heat on the top of the head; general flushes of heat; weak, fainting feeling; very hungry and faint about twelve o’clock; awakens frequently at night, and feels very weak and faint in the morning; very cold feet; sometimes burning in the soles of the feet at night in bed.
Many other remedies may be indicated in hemorrhoids and varices of pregnant females, but these are the most frequently called for.
FISSURES OF THE ANUS:- This very painful and distressing disease is far more common among women than in the opposite sex; and since it is very apt to appear in pregnant females, and is very nearly connected with hemorrhoids, although an entirely distinct affection, we subjoin a brief notice of the disease itself, and of the remedies which best correspond to its symptoms.
Fissure of the anus in the milder cases only, is confined to the mucous membranes; but in the severer forms it involves also the sub-mucous muscular tissue. This disease is an actual ulceration about the eighth of an inch in breadth, and from a quarter to an inch in length, situated immediately within the anus, with its inferior extremity corresponding to the margin of the sphincter ani. In recent cases the edges of the fissures are soft and pliant; but in chronic cases they are indurated and prominent.
Fissures of the anus should be distinguished from hemorrhoids; they are sometimes, but not always found together. Hemorrhoids are almost always attended with constipation, which acts as a provoking cause; but fissures of the anus are as often accompanied by looseness of the bowels as otherwise. These fissures consist in cracks in the folds of the rectum, and are always very painful after an evacuation, sometimes even before. They are accompanied by a constriction of the sphincter ani in many cases, which renders the evacuation of the bowel still more difficult and painful, in some instances almost impossible. The pain is increased by forced expirations, as in coughing, sneezing, and urinating; every effort to discharge gas and feces is attended with excruciating torment, which continues for one or more hours, attended with violent spasmodic action of the sphincter ani. So violent is the agony that most persons thus afflicted put off the calls of nature, and maintain the recumbent position, the pain is also increased by stimulating food and during menstruation.
This disease results from a constitutional dyscrasia; hence the impropriety of attempting its cure by surgical operations, hence too, the ill success which in most instances attends such efforts. The treatment by Homoeopathic remedies is as easy, pleasant, and successful, as the Allopathic method by dilatation and incision is painful and unsatisfactory.
With anal fissure is always present more or less chronic inflammation, which is aggravated of course by each evacuation of the bowels; constriction of the anus, (sphincter ani,) and, in the worst cases, ulceration of the parts involved. The spasmodic constriction of the anus, and the intensity of the shooting and lancinating pains which follow even a soft stool, enable us readily to distinguish this affection from hemorrhoids. And even if we did not always, in our own minds, thus distinguish the true pathological condition, the severe and often remarkable symptoms will infallibly lead to the right remedy.
The suppression of these fissures, which, like fistulae, are the developments of constitutional psora, will be followed by disastrous results; just as the healing up of fistulae by surgical means is known to lead directly to tuberculous disease of the lungs. What have been termed rhagades or cracks of the anus, appear to be a milder form of anal fissures.
Nitric acid This remedy we mention first, because it is used more frequently than any other. The symptoms which indicate it are: On going to stool, pain in the rectum as if something were torn away; or twitchings, in the rectum and spasmodic contraction of the anus, many hours afterwards. Smarting more in the rectum than in the anus, immediately after stool, and continuing two or three hours. Sometimes prolapsus of the rectum or discharge of much blood accompanies some of the above symptoms.
