There may be diphtheritic exudations in the throat, but round about it there are those low, dark, offensive surfaces. The throat is greatly swollen, and it is with difficulty that he can swallow.
Baptisia has been a very useful remedy in gangrenous sore mouth and sore throat.
“Cancrum oris.” The ulcers spread rapidly and eat rapidly.
They are really phagedenic. Sordes form rapidly on the teeth. And when he is roused from sleep after a few hours of stupor there is a building up on the lips and around the corners of the mouth ridges of dry blood; very offensive.
Bleeds much from the mouth, throat and nose. Thick oozing. Putrid.
“Tongue red, and dry in the middle, The roof of the mouth swollen and feels numb. Foul or bitter nauseous taste in the mouth. Tongue of a dark hue. Tongue dry, brown down the centre. Tongue covered with a thick, brown crust. Tongue yellowish white, deeply furred.”
Ulcers all over the mouth. Baptisia has cured the ulcerated sore throat of young mothers – and nursing sore mouth in children, when the parts become dusky and ulcers spread, and the mouth is putrid, and prostration is coming on rapidly. The child or the mother is growing weak with great rapidity, is becoming prostrated.
Now, all this without fever.
Many of these ulcerative states in Baptisia are not attended with fever, it seems sometimes as though there were not life enough to get up a fever. Aphthous appearance in typhoid, in children, and with nursing mothers.
Canker sores in the mouth.
“Putrid ulceration of the whole buccal cavity.”
Now, with all this trouble saliva pours into the mouth, is thick and ropy and runs all over the pillow; like we find in Mercury.
The sore throat may be gangrenous. A strong feature of it is that the ulcers are rapid and painless, as if numb, without sensation. But it has a painful sore throat.
“Fauces dark red; dark, putrid ulcers; tonsils and parotids swollen. Putrid sore throat. Tonsils and soft palate swollen, not accompanied by pain.”
Great swelling; great tumefaction; purplish.
The darker it is the more likely would I be to think of Baptisia -but never a bright red. I have never seen the Baptisia mental state associated with a bright red appearance. That low form of mental state is associated with blood decomposition, with duskiness, with a dark appearance of the skin, and of the mucous membranes. Not bright red, not pink, as we find in Belladonna
Bell is more commonly bright red, although it has duskiness, but nothing to the extent of Baptisia.
There is nothing like the putridity in Belladonna that there is in Baptisia.
“Oesophagus feels as if constricted from above down to stomach.”
Oesophagus: Now, we have another phase of it. From the sore throat the trouble extends into the oesophagus, and the oesophagus is at first in a state of spasm. Later it is paralyzed. Fluids will at first go down the throat, but he cannot swallow a particle of solids.
The bolus of food will go into the upper end of the oesophagus and there it chokes him and feels like a lump, and he chokes and struggles and gags and throws it back, and then takes water or fluids.
He can swallow fluids but he cannot swallow solids. Every particle of solid food gags; but he can swallow liquids. Natr. mur. and quite a number of other remedies have spasms of the oesophagus coming on with nervous complaints, but in this low state I know of no other medicine having that one symptom, having these features, and the paralysis, and the spasmodic condition of the oesophagus.
“The oesophagus feels as if constricted from above down to the stomach.”
Constrictive feeling causing frequent efforts at deglutition; throat sore, feels constricted. Can swallow only liquids. Children cannot swallow solids. The smallest solid substance causes gagging, thus he cannot use anything but milk; sometimes, thin, watery, offensive passages day and night; associated with the putridity, with the offensiveness, with the duskiness and with the prostration.
You need to know no more, if it is diphtheria, or scarlet fever, if it is typhoid fever, that will lead you to a certain remedy.
“Paralysis of the organs of deglutition.”
To draw out from every remedy that which is positive to get the associations that make up a particular remedy and that only is the duty of every clinician.
Abdomen: The abdomen is distended; the stomach is distended. We may have these symptoms in inflammation of the liver, when this remedy would be useful. Along with the diseases that I have mentioned, tympanitic abdomen.
Great soreness in the right iliac fossa; so sore and tender, no bigger than a fist; but all of this putridity, – I am sure, would prevent you from using a knife to cut off that little appendix.
“Foetid, exhausting diarrhoea. Aphthous diarrhoea which means that the parts of the anus that roll out are ulcerated, little aphthous patches inside of the margin.”
“Involuntary diarrhoea.”
Involuntary urine and stool in these low forms of disease.
“Dark brown, mucous and bloody stools. Foetid stools.”
It has dysentery. After confinement the lochia stops. Great tenderness of the abdomen. All these putrid signs-breaking down of the blood, the appearance of the face, the sudden prostration, suddenly becoming stupid; and add to that the mental symptoms-these are all signs for Baptisia in puerperal fever.
Now, intermingled with this after the case has been running on a few days the limbs become helpless and tremulous.
The tongue when it is put out is tremulous. The hand when it is raised is tremulous, and the limbs are tremulous. Quivering all over the body. Prostration. increases. The jaw drops and he lies upon the back unconscious, with the mouth wide open. He gradually slides down toward the foot of the bed.
A peculiar sort of paralytic weakness. This is how the prostration increases with the disease; but even yet when he is as low as this, with the signs present, Baptisia will break that fever. Baptisia will stop the typhoid fever, when it is indicated. Prostration and trembling Huddles down in bed, feels as if sinking away.
Lies in a semiconscious condition when she appears dying. Excessive drowsiness. Delirious stupor, Lies in a semi-comatose state.
“Discharges and exhalations foetid.”
Breath, stool, urine, ulcers; all putrid. Ulceration of mucous membranes.
In 1881, Kent accepted a position as professor of anatomy at the Homeopathic College of Missouri, an institution with which he remained affiliated until 1888. In 1890, Kent moved to Pennsylvania to take a position as Dean of Professors at the Post-Graduate Homeopathic Medical School of Philadelphia. In 1897 Kent published his magnum opus, Repertory of the Homœopathic Materia Medica. Kent moved to Chicago in 1903, where he taught at Hahnemann Medical College.