The following case serves to bring out the point of this paper.
CLINICAL CASE
Miss L.D., aet I8, brunette type.
Dull pain over eyes, aggravated by sunlight and motion, by loss of sleep and by sewing, or reading; ameliorated by stool along with the headache. Swelling of upper eyelids worse in the morning.
Sometimes a bad taste in the mouth.
Menses irregular, profuse, dark; feels tired and weak; is addicted to eating cloves.
In hot weather sweats profusely and easily about the head and chest, sweat stains yellow; is very susceptible to cold.
Cough provoked by oppression of breathing and by talking.
Is afflicted with right-sided deafness from a former catarrh; had typhoid fever two years ago, at which time she was allowed unlimited quantities of ice; preceding the fever had a post-auricular eczema suppressed by salves; is now anaemic and bloated.
A urinary analysis showed the following condition: small round and spindle form epithelium present, pavement form in quantity, chlorides I8 per cent, calcium oxalate a quantity; traces of albumin. The first two prescriptions for this case were flat failures, then Glonoin helped for about a week when it also refused to act. This was a hint, however, to lead me in the right direction which I reasoned out thus: here was some help from a nitrate, a vasomotor remedy, the kidneys show albumin, probably due to the clove habit in part, the excess of chlorides with calcium oxalate point to a faulty digestion; now if I am able to select a remedy which affects the vasomotor system the kidneys and the digestive tract conjointly, a cure is almost certain. Strontium irritates both the kidneys and the intestines and its nitrate combines vasomotor effects.
For these reasons I gave Strontium nitrate 6x prepared by myself; in a few days the headache vanished, at the end of a month the post-auricular eruption returned, thus showing its deep antipsoric action; in five months there has been no return of the oedema or headache, the craving for cloves is gone and by the way, Nit. acid has all sorts of cravings for odd things and entered into the prescription in combination with the Strontium in the form of Strontium-nitrate. The patient has taken on good flesh and color, although the eruption is not yet all gone nor will it be for some rime; lately the prescription has been repeated in order to remove all that is left of the eczema.
Boenninghausen mentions Strontium as an antipsoric and there is a proving in the Symptomen- Codex copied from Hartlaub and Trinks Materia Medica, but almost no cures have thus far been recorded in our literature. Lately the allopaths have used it in various combinations in Bright’s disease, indigestion, rheumatism, nervous conditions and locomotor ataxia, but through it all the fact shines transparent as daylight, that they seem to regard the Strontium as a base with which to combine other drugs like iodine etc., endeavouring thereby to get a better and milder and less irritating effect from the latter. Many of these applications really rest on a crude homoeopathic basis and when the combined gastro-intestinal and nephritic symptoms groups have been present, they have had striking results. The drug will stand out, I predict, in the future as a very prominent remedy in these states.
The purpose of this paper is two-fold; first to point out the necessity of proving the various Strontium salts, in order that the most active one may speedily come into use, for we have been very neglectful of this truly noble drug.
The Magnesium salts formerly found a very limited usefulness, until Mag. phos., was brought forward by the Schusslerites; now almost every one prescribes it at one time or another. In a like manner I predict a brilliant future for Strontium just as soon as good provings are available. Since treating the above case, I have successfully relieved a case of passive congestion of the kidneys with the nitrate. This patient said that although she had always had homoeopathic treatment for her children, personally she had never derived the least benefit from it. She obtained complete relief, and her menstrual flow, which is usually exceedingly scant, became very profuse; as she is now in her climacteric, the relief was correspondingly great.
A sciatica with oedema of the left ankle, after refusing to yield to several remedies, was completely cured by the carbonate; this oedema of the ankle is a symptom in the original pathogenesis although I believe it is clinical there; it has been a frequent observation in practice that severe sciaticas also exhibit concomitant kidney disturbances, and remedies directed to the combined conditions have been the most successful.
Whenever we can detect the combination of organs, primarily affected by a given drug and then define its modalities by means of provings, we will hold in our hands the key to that ponderous symptomatology of which we now hear so much complaint.
In a given case the question is not what organ is affected, but what phase of the disease is exhibited by the combined affected organs; all authors recognise these varying types of each disease and it is our special business to detect the remedies which have, in there pathogeneses a corresponding COMBINATION of affected organs, after which there remains the modality, which, once determined, the longest steps have been taken towards the final choice.
Boenninghausen emphasises the following symptoms, which, moreover, only comprises what I have already pointed out; they also show Strontium to be a congestive remedy.
VERT1GO, WITH HEADACHE AND NAUSEA. DISTENSIVE PRESSURE IN ENTIRE
HEAD; IN LEFT SIDE OF HEAD.
Heat, heaviness, drawing and sticking in head.
Head symptoms are worse in forehead, occiput and RIGHT SIDE of head, aggravated in the evening and during vertigo.
BURNING, DRAWING, AND REDNESS IN EYES. Quivering and twitching in eyebrows.
Sparks before vision, aggravation in the dark.
ITCHING OF NOSE. REDNESS, BURNING, heat and itching of face, itching of cheeks and
chin; twitching of face and lips, tearing in face.
Aggravation in afternoon and evening.
STICKING, drawing, griping and tearing in teeth, SWELLING OF GUMS.
DRYNESS, heat, numbness and bad odour from mouth; dry palate. RAWNESS, inflammation, sticking, dryness and pain in pharynx on swallowing. Increased saliva.
TONGUE DRY, sensitive, sore sensation on; slimy coating, aggravation on swallowing and in the MORNING.
Loss OF APPETITE, aversion to meat; CRAVES BREAD, BEER. Tastelessness of food.
NAUSEA, STICKING, cutting, contraction, pressure in stomach, aggravations; afternoon on inspiration, walking amelioration from eructations after eating.
ABDOMEN; INFLATED, motions in, burning pressure, squeezing, PINCHING, CUTTING, twinges, fullness, itching on, aggravation from touch, stooping, afternoon, rising from sitting, pressure, inspiration, during menses, amelioration: external warmth.
ST1CKING IN ABDOMINAL RING. RUMBLING AND DISCHARGE OF PUTRID FLATUS.
Diarrhoea, BURNING IN ANUS DURING AND AFTER STOOL, TENESMUS.
BURNING IN ANUS AND RECTUM.
URINE PALE, ammoniacal, DIMINISHED or INCREASED; NIGHTLY URI-NATION.
Menstrual blood watery and clotted. COUGH HACKING, dry, short; with expectoration; aggravated at NIGHT. STICKING IN CHEST, with cough. Contractive sensation in chest.
PALPITATION IN THE EVENING. BRUISED PAIN IN LUMBAR REGION. Aggravated.
FORENOON AND EVENING. TEARING PAINS IN SHOULDERS, ELBOWS, WRISTS.
DRAW-ING IN THE FINGERS. AGGRAVATED EVENING AND NIGHT. GRASPING IN LOWER EXTREMITIES. TEARING PAINS IN LOWER LIMBS. Aggravated on LYING,
TWITCHING DURING SLEEP.
DISCUSSION
W. M. James M.D.: In regard to the Strontium salts, the carbonate is an excellent remedy for rheumatic pain in the shoulder, right side. I have been vainly trying to remember the particular indication by which I was led to it. I have had several cases in which there was pain in the right shoulder, for which we usually give Sanguinaria, Ferrum Muriaticum or Ferrum metarlicum, all of which are useful in rheumatism in the right shoulder. The point I wish to make is this: A patient who prided herself upon her physica1 vigour after some over exertion in climbing mountains, in which she probably strained her heart, came home with typhoid fever, high pulse, etc; then came severe pain in the right shoulder. The pain remained after the fever abated, and became very violent. I studied the case and finally selected Strontium and in the course of a week or ten days the improvement was marked and soon the cure was complete.
I thought that would be a good confirmation of what Dr. Boger has been saying about the Strontium salts. I have had other cases and have relieved the pain considerably and restored the shoulder to use. I will say for Ferrum that it helped me out of a difficult case of a similar nature. An old woman 76 years of age had a chalk stone in the shoulder; you could fee1 the stone slightly project from the socket. The arm was confined to the side, for she could not move it much without suffering. I gave her Ferrum metallicum which seemed to release the arm somewhat, and then Ferrum phos., and finally Ferrum muriaticum. The result was entire restoration of the use of the arm.
Born in Western Pennsylvania, he graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and subsequently Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia. He moved to Parkersburg, W. Va., in 1888, practicing there, but also consulting worldwide. He gave lectures at the Pulte Medical College in Cincinnati and taught philosophy, materia medica, and repertory at the American Foundation for Homoeopathy Postgraduate School. Boger brought BÅ“nninghausen's Characteristics and Repertory into the English Language in 1905. His publications include :
Boenninghausen's Characteristics and Repertory
Boenninghausen's Antipsorics
Boger's Diphtheria, (The Homoeopathic Therapeutics of)
A Synoptic Key of the Materia Medica, 1915
General Analysis with Card Index, 1931
Samarskite-A Proving
The Times Which Characterize the Appearance and Aggravation of the Symptoms and their Remedies