Conium m.
The induration is very hard. The urine intermits, stops and flows again. Particularly suitable for women with tight, rigid fibres, and easily excited, as well as to those in the opposite condition.
Lycopodium Borborygmus, especially in the left hypochondrium. Much pain before passing water. Great delay in the flow of the urine. Red sand in the urine.
Magnesia mur.
Where there are present hysterical symptoms, and spasmodic paroxysms. Constipation, with large, hard stools, which crumble as they pass the verge of the anus.
Mercurius Will be required where we find the well-known indications of the mercurial diathesis; more or less salivation; scorbutic gums; moist skin; soreness of the throat; soreness of the inguinal glands. The indurated tumor may have a raw, sore feeling. All the symptoms are worse at night. Perspiration, which does not relieve.
Petroleum Tenderness in the swollen parts. The labia majora perspire and itch very much. Unhealthy skin, even small wounds ulcerate and spread.
Pulsatilla Mild temperament. The patient is moved to tears in giving her symptoms.
Sepia Small, stitching, burning pains in the parts; great sensitiveness of the parts; fetid urine, etc.
Sepia Putrid urine. Sediment, from the urine, adhering to the vessel, like reddish clay burnt on.
Sulphur Flashes of heat; coldness of the extremities, especially of the feet. Burning in the soles of the feet at night. Spells or weakness and faintness. The general, characteristic sulphur symptoms. These, like the other great indications for polychrest remedies, will recur again and again, in many forms of disease. Sulphur will always do good where it is indicated; and it is very often indicated in chronic inflammations and other disorders, which may be considered as the ultimate developments of internal psoric miasms.
VAGINAL FISTULAS
Inflammation, abscesses, accidental wounds, or the use of instruments, may occasion fistulous openings through the walls of the vagina into some one or more of the adjacent organs. Thus there may be an opening from the vagina into the urethra, urethro-vaginal fistula; from the vagina directly into the bladder, vesico-vaginal fistula; from the vagina into the rectum, recto-vaginal fistula; from the vagina into some other portion of the intestines, intestino-vaginal fistula; or finally from the vagina into the peritoneal cavity, peritoneo-vaginal fistula.
Recto-vaginal fistula is most frequently the result of violence from the use of instruments in labor; or it may arise in connection with rupture of the Perineum. This unfortunate condition will be at once recognized if the patient complain of the involuntary escape of half liquid, fecal matter, of intestinal gas, or of both, through the vagina.
In addition to those cases which may arise from mechanical violence, urethro-vaginal and vesico-vaginal fistulas are more frequently the results of the extension of cancerous or other inflammation to the walls of the bladder, followed by ulceration and perforation. The same result may sometimes succeed the strangulation of the parts by the long-continued pressure of the head of the foetus, in labor, against the inner border of the arch of the pubis. The involuntary and constant flowing of the urine through the lower part of the vulva, and the consequent urinous odor which is diffused from the person, but too manifestly indicate the existence of one of the most serious and distressing misfortunes than can befall the female.
These distressing lesions are neither very rare, nor are they easily or always susceptible of cure by surgical means. The failure here of the Allopathic practice arises in part from considering these ulcers too exclusively as local affections; when in fact they are often, in their persistence, as much dependent upon a constitutional support as are ulcers in any other portion of the body; and this is none the less true of cases which originate in mechanical injuries. Fortunately these fistulas are more amenable to Homoeopathic medication, which is capable of reaching the constitutional psora lying at their foundation, and at the same time of including within its influence all the morbid and symptomatic conditions of the system. Thus it happens that some so-called hopeless cases of vaginal fistula have been completely and permanently cured. But to secure this end, perfect rest will in many cases be indispensably necessary. And the proper medicines should be carefully administered, before resorting to surgical means, which however skilfully employed are often insufficient and leave the patient in a worse condition than before. The guides in the selection of the remedy, must be found principally in the constitutional and accompanying symptoms, and in their conditions of aggravation and amelioration. These may seem but far-off and indirect guides; but in many instances they have been proved amply sufficient. Those desirous of fully studying the Surgical treatment of these Fistulas, are referred to the very able to work of Scanzoni on the Diseases of Females.
As already stated, these lesions are more readily cured by proper Homoeopathic medication, than by surgical means; and in some cases given up as hopelessly incurable by Allopathic surgeons the most satisfactory results have been obtained from such remedies. But in these, as in many other forms of structural disease, the constitutional symptoms will afford almost the only guide to the selection of the remedy.
Asarum The patient has a great want of vital heat. She feels cold continually.
Belladonna Will often be required in the case of females of delicate skin, and red complexion. Aggravation of the symptoms at three o’clock in the afternoon.
Calcarea carb.
Will be found especially indicated in leucophlegmatic temperaments. Feet constantly cold and damp, as though she had on cold, damp stockings. The least cold air chills her through and through. She cannot sleep after three o’clock in the morning.
Carbo veg.
Burning in the fistulous ulcer, with much belching of wind, which affords relief for a short time only.
Conium The urine when being discharged, flows and stops, and then flows again.
Ledum Absence of vital warmth. Still she is made very much worse when warm in bed, or from getting warm by the fire, or over the register.
Lycopodium The ulcer bleeds frequently. Much borborygmus, particularly in the left hypochondrium. Red crystals, or red sand in the urine. Always feels worse from four till eight o’clock in the evening.
Nitric acid The urine has an intolerably strong smell like that of horses. May be suitable in cases where Allopathic doses of mercury have been given.
Pulsatilla Tearful disposition. Scanty urine and no thirst. She has always a very bad taste in the mouth, early in the morning. Craves fresh, cool air. No sleep till after twelve at night, and then sleeps late in the morning.
Sepia The urine is so putrid that it cannot be suffered to remain in the room. The urine deposits a reddish clay-colored sediment, which adheres to the bottom and sides of the vessel, as if it had been burnt on, like burnt clay.
Silicea General scrofulous diathesis. Much tenderness of the ulcer, or of the parts adjacent to it.
Sulphur Constant heat in the crown of the head. Flushes of heat, passing off with moisture and debility. Burning in the soles of the feet at night. Short naps of sleep all night; and dead heavy sleep. Sense of hunger and faintness, daily from eleven o’clock till noon.
When the symptoms improve under the influence of remedies given in accordance with any of the above mentioned indications, we have only to wait patiently, and in a few weeks the fistulous ulcers will be seen to heal.
Thuya, Causticum, Antimonium c., Mercurius, &c., should be carefully studied, where their characteristics symptoms are present.
And for some of the most distressing concomitant symptoms, compare:
Aurum Where there is much pain in the bones, day and night. A sensation of internal emptiness and weakness of the whole body.
Lachesis Where there is much pain of an aching character in the shin- bones only. The patient feels unhappy and distressed after sleeping.
Petroleum If diarrhoea is apt to occur very frequently, and through the day only.
GANGRENE OF THE VAGINA.
Gangrene of the vagina may be the result of pressure and contusion produced during difficult parturition; and it may occur in the shape of gangrenous eschar and gangrenous or putrid fusion of the mucous and submucous layers. The same from of destruction of the tissues of the vagina is liable to occur in consequence of strangulated hernia or prolapse of some portion of the vaginal walls.
As in other forms of mortification, the Homoeopathic remedies are capable of exerting a most astonishing influence in aiding Nature to slough off the decaying tissue, to arrest the gangrenous process, and to repair the loss of substances with new growth. The following remedies should be carefully studied; and one or the other of them will be found, without any doubt, sufficient to effect the requisite change.
