Coccus cacti. The urine does not form the usual jet, but runs down over the surrounding parts.
Conium. The urine flows and stops, and flows and stops again, and so on.
Graphites. Urinary troubles with burning in the urethra between the acts of micturition.
Hepar. Intense soreness in the urethra during the emission of urine.
Laurocerasus. Acid urine, corroding the labia.
Lycopodium. Much pain in the back previous to the emission of urine, so that she even screams out. Itching in the urethra during and after micturition. Violent jerking, sharp-shooting, tearing or cutting pains in the urethra not long after urinating. Red crystals are deposited in the urine, the urine itself being clear.
Mercurius corr. Constant desire to urinate, the desire not lessened by urinating. Pieces of filaments, flocks and hard pieces of mucus resembling pieces of flesh are passed in the urine. Burning and scalding sensation of the urine, from raw surfaces and otherwise.
Nux vomica. She watches to urinate very frequently, only a little at a time being passed with a sore burning pain, – usually accompanied with constipation. Strangury. Bloody urine.
Pulsatilla. Retention of urine with redness, heat and soreness of the vesical region externally. Continued pressure on the bladder without desire to urinate. Desire to urinate with drawing in the abdomen. Involuntary emission of urine when sitting or walking. After urinating, spasmodic pain in the neck of the bladder extending to the pelvis and thighs. Frequent and almost ineffectual urging to urinate with cutting pain.
Rhus tox. Involuntary urination, particularly during rest. Dysuria with discharge of drops of bloody urine. Snow-white sediment in the urine.
Ruta. At every step after micturition, she feels as if the bladder were full and moved up and down. She feels as if she could not retain the urine, so urgent is the desire, although she can pass only a very small quantity. Involuntary emission of urine whether at rest or in motion.
Stramonium. The urine dribbles away very slowly and feebly.
Sulphur. This remedy is very often called for and useful in the dysuria of pregnancy.
ALBUMINURIA, or the presence of albumen in the urine constitutes one of the most interesting of the pathological changes induced by pregnancy. Healthy urine contains no albumen, and the urine of healthy females in the pregnant state is equally destitute of this element. This change in the urine is not always constant or equal in amount; in proportion as females are constitutionally healthy, they will be found free from albuminuria in pregnancy. And in proportion as their systems are affected by some psoric dyscrasia, the derangement of the vital fluid will be greater; for it must be borne in mind, that albumen must be diminished in the blood in the same ratio that it is increased in the urine. Cases of albuminuria might be cited illustrating all the different degrees, from the slightest and scarcely perceptible trace of albumen which appears in the urine for a brief period only of pregnancy, up to those forms of anasarca which involve the entire system, and in which the urinary secretion, almost totally suppressed, is so loaded with albumen as to become entirely solid on boiling. (*Am. Hom. Review, vol.v., p. 492)
Albuminuria may be either temporary or permanent. In the former case it may arise from a great variety of morbid influences and in connection with various forms of disease. And it may be occasioned by pregnancy, which, although not itself a morbid condition, seems to develop in some form or other any latent dyscrasia which may have been lurking in the system; just as scarlatina develops any scrofulous taint which may belong to the constitution of children whom it attacks. And, in fact, scarlatina does actually develop an albuminuria, – in post- scarlatinal dropsy, – which must be deemed a purely psoric affection, since it appears only in a particular variety of constitution; although the presence of the albumen is partially accounted for by the temporary failure of the functional action of the skin during its desquamation.
Permanent albuminuria is principally found in connection with chronic disease of the kidneys, -whether in the pregnant or in the unimpregnated condition. In that form of hypertrophied degeneration in which the kidneys become white and enlarged, the urine is greatly diminished in quantity and contains a large amount of albumen. This nephritic affection never proves fatal without the previous occurrence of dropsy, which is one of its most usual and prominent symptoms. Such cases belong to strongly-marked psoric diatheses, of which instances have been observed in three successive generations, – in which the albuminuria, morbid affection of the kidney, almost total suppression of the secretion of the urine, and general dropsy, were the unavoidable attendants of every pregnancy. This intimate connection of albuminuria with psora is well illustrated in the report by an Allopathic physician of the treatment with Arsenic of this disease complicated with psoriasis and lichen. (*Braithwaite’s Retrospect, July, 1862, p. 95) The Arsenic chanced to be the true Homoeopathic similimum to the entire case; and, although given in Allopathic doses, both albuminuria and skin disease were thoroughly cured.
The prompt disappearance of the albuminuria at the termination of pregnancy, in many cases, gives rise to the belief that some local influence, such as pressure of the gravid uterus upon the emulgent veins, may be an important cause of this condition. But, as already stated in the case of varices and hemorrhoids, such results can occur from local pressure only in persons constitutionally predisposed to this affection. Thus, in the milder cases particularly, we see all the abnormal symptoms removed by the recuperative energy of nature alone on the discontinuance of the provoking cause. Thus, too, even during the continuance of pregnancy, the Homoeopathically indicated remedies are so far capable of antidoting the constitutional dyscrasia, that the albuminuria in many instances may be made to disappear entirely in spite of the persistence of the provoking cause. And these remedies may even then have been selected under the prevailing influence of other (sensational) symptoms, – remedies perhaps in which we have hitherto discovered neither pathogenetic nor clinical evidences of their adaptation to albuminuria.
The important relation which albuminuria bears to puerperal insanity and convulsions, ought not to be overlooked in this connection. “Albuminuria precedes and attends the first access of puerperal insanity in a large proportion of cases; but not perhaps so frequently nor so constantly as it precedes and attends upon attacks of puerperal convulsions. The coagulability of the urine generally disappears within a short time after an attack of puerperal insanity commences. When the insanity recurs in the form of successive attacks or explosions, each attack is connected with a new attack or advent of albuminuria.
The albuminuria mostly appears in the later months of pregnancy; and its presence, especially if accompanied by anasarcous conditions, – will serve to place the physician on his guard against puerperal convulsions. And while on the one side the albuminuria seems to predispose to severe nervous affections, – on the other, excessive nervous excitement appears to cause albuminuria.
The uraemia, or retention of the urea in the blood, which usually forms a part of the albuminuria, is probably the direct cause of the convulsions and other nervous affections. And it is remarked that these difficulties are more apt to occur in primiparae than in multiparae.
This affection has been mentioned as a powerful and frequent cause of abortion, of premature labor, and of the death of the foetus; this however is more apparently than really correct. Fro the presence of albumen in the urine forms but a single one of the symptoms of general psoric dyscrasia, which pervades the entire system, and whose radical cure forms one of the most remarkable and gratifying proofs of the value of our Homoeopathic science and art.
The anaemia, oedema, ascites and anasarca, which appear in connection with albuminuria, will be subsequently considered. The following remedies, as well as those mentioned under dropsy, may be particularly studied in cases of albuminuria:
Allium cepa; Aurum mur.; Ononis sp.; Glonoine; Cobalt; Ammo. carb.; Nat. mur.; Cinnabar and Lachesis.
Aurum mur., pains in the regions of the kidneys, urine pale and clear.
Ononis sp., urine turbid, with ammoniacal smell.
Glonoine, albuminuria with congestion to head.
Lachesis, albuminuria with hydrothorax and very great dropsical enlargement of the left side and left lower limb.
OEDEMA – ANASARCA – ASCITES.
We have ranged here the names which belong to the various dropsical affections, – in the order in which they may necessarily appear in cases of pregnancy. As the gestation advances, what at the first was merely an oedematous enlargement of the feet and ankles, may be developed into a general dropsy; the primary infiltration into the sub-mucous cellular tissue, being finally accompanied by extensive effusion into the great serous cavities.
