It has become an approbrium of Homoeopathic practice that post- nasal and pharyngeal catarrhs are frequently not cured by internal medication. Specialists, treating nose, throat and ear affections are daily receiving patients who have been dismissed by Homoeopathic physicians as incurable, or who have become disgusted with the general practitioner.
I grant that one who devotes his exclusive attention to a given subject should be better qualified therein than those engaged in common practice. But the question is not one of comparative success in the employment of internal medicine; it is one of contrast between local applications and legitimate Homoeopathy. If the system of Hahnemann is universally true, that is if it is founded upon law and does not constitute a mere rule, it must as assuredly remove a post-nasal catarrh as a sore-throat or a cold on the chest.
There are three modes of defence, one or another of which is invariably employed in defending Homoeopathy against a charge of inefficiency; first, that if one can obtain the similimum, the cure or relief will follow; secondly, a local affection is always a part of a more or less latent constitutional dyscrasia, and therefore cannot be permanently cured until the latter is; thirdly, the failure is claimed to be due to errors in selection or in potency, in repetition or in the administering of drugs singly or in alternation.
To all such illogical proposition, I emphatically object. I believe that the similimum will help, because I believe in the universality of the law, and consequently. I reject alternation of remedies. I accept the law because I think that it is logically deducible from revealed truth. If any one agrees with me here, my strictures do not apply to him. They apply to those who admit the truth of Homoeopathy, because, they have tested it and have been satisfied from experience; and this class includes the entire medical profession.
Having proved Homoeopathy, then, in the same manner as did Hahnemann, the only reasonable position is that the system is effective because it cures. When, therefore, it fails, a consistent defence is not paucity of material and knowledge, but an earnest, painstaking and persistent series of experiments instituted as a crucial test.
With all due deference to specialists, they have not carried out this plan. Failing with the means at hand, they have felt compelled to preserve their reputations by resorting to collateral measures; for more is expected of them by the public, than of the general practitioner. Specialists should spare no pains to institute provings.
There are many unproved or partially proved plants and minerals which are known to exert some sort of an influence upon the naso-pharyngeal passages. It is incumbent upon those most interested to thoroughly explore the subject and determine what this influence is in each drug. A few years ago we could not readily cure cases, which now, since the introduction of Sanguinaria Nitrated and Antimonium Auratum, are easily relieved.
I propose to enumerate the remedies known to affect the posterior nares, and to offer some suggestions concerning a few not often employed.
The Known drugs are :-
Aconite.
Aesculus Hip.
Alumen.
Alumina.
Anacardium.
Ant.Crud.
Ant. Sulph. Auratum.
Argentum Nit.
Ammonium Bromium
Baptisia.
Bryonia
Baryta
Calcarea Ost.
Calcarea Sulphur
Carbon An.
Carbo Veg.
Cepa
Coccus.
Coral. Rub.
Cistus.
Cinnabaris
Chlorine
Digitalis
Eriodictyon
Euphrasia
Fagopyrum
FerrumPhosphorus
Flouric Ac.
Gallic Ac.
Granatum
Hepar
Helianthus
Hydrastis
Iodine
Iris Vers.
Kali bichromicum
Kali Jod.
Kali Mur.
Kreosote
Lycopodium
Mercury
MercuriusBin.Iodium
MercuriusCor
MercuriusCyan.
MercuriusProt.
Mag.Carb.
Mag.Sulph
Mezereum
Natrum Arsenicum
Nat.Carb.
Nat.Phos
Nat.Mur.
Nitric Acid
Nitrum
Nux Mosch.
Osmium
Oxalic Acid
Petroleum
Plumbum
Psorinum
PhosphorusAcid
Phytolacca
Penthorum
Physostigma
Phosphorus
Paeonia
Rhus Tox.
Rumex
Saponine
Staphisagria
Sumbul
Sepia
Sulphur
Silica
Sinapis Nig.
SanguinariaNit.
Spigelia
Theridion
Thuja
Tellurium
Ustilago
Vinca Minor
Wyethia
Yucca
Zinc
Zingiber.
Of these eighty or more drugs, some are so rarely indicated as to be of little value to the general practitioner, several are useful only in acute catarrh, and but a few offer the usual symptoms of chronic catarrh of the posterior nares. These few are:
Alumina Hepar Psorinum
AmmoniumBromium Hydrastis Sepia
Ant.Auratum Kali bichromicum Sulphur
ArgentumNit. Kali Mur. Silica
Calcarea Ost. Mercurius Proto. Lod. Sanguinaria Nit.
Corallium MercuriusBin.Iodium Spigelia
Cinnabaris Natrum Arsenicum Thuja.
Fagopyrum Nitric Acid
The relative value of this group is indicated by the variety of type, reducing those of the highest value to the two Mercuries, Sang, Nitrate, e and Kali Bich, and Kali Mur. a very small armamentarium for so stubborn a disease. But the list could be enlarged if specialists would test known symptoms and publish the results.
For instance, Phos, Nat.Mur., Cistus, Nat.Arsenicum, Alumina, have glazed or varnished appearance of the posterior wall of the pharynx. Why not use one or another of these when such a state of the membrane obtains higher up?
Alumina and Nat.Mur. affect the mucous membranes, causing scanty secretions, the latter drug being distinguished by smarting sensation. Why, then, may not Alumina be often used, especially as in addition it causes, scurf in the nose, plugging of the Eustachian tubes, snapping sound in the ears on swallowing or chewing, and dropping of mucus from the posterior nares.
Kali Mur. Often relieves hawking of mucus from the posterior nares. Why not note carefully its effect upon the catarrh itself and report results at a future meeting? Compare also Paeonia.
When the pharyngeal walls are varicose, Pulsatilla, Hamamelis, Vespa, Nat. Ares, and Phytolacca may be consulted. The first two have relieved the catarrh, though I have been compelled to follow Hamamelis with some other drug to effect a cure.
Vespa, like Nat.Arsenicum, Produces oedema and varicosis. The first caused purulent catarrh of the middle ear, and also recurrent Tonsillitis and ought to be used. The second, with thickening of the mucous membrane, lasting for months and hawking of a thick mucus from the posterior nares, offers a valuable remedy for Winter Catarrh.
Fagopyrum pictures a common and very annoying from of the disease, one in which exposure is sure to increase the catarrh with rawness and dryness, formation of dry crusts, granular appearances of the mucous membrane and an intolerable itching and burning.
Sensitiveness to inhaled air is not especially important in acute catarrh, but is in chronic. It calls for Arsenic, Nat. Arsenicum Corallium, Hydrastis, Lithium, Osmium, Kreosote and probably Fagopyrum.
Dryness of the posterior nares is not only in the latter remedy but also in Alumina, Aesculus, Sinapis Nigra, Wyethia, and a few others.
Aesculus, as well shown by Dr.T.F.Allen, suits colds extending from the posterior nares down the pharynx, with dryness, scraping and burning; at times secreted mucus drops low down and causes choking. Patients are weak, with soft pulse, backache, constipation and Piles. Why should we neglect this and devote our attention to the more familiar Nux? Aesculus would relieve more promptly and more permanently.
Sinapis Nigra has cured dryness of the anterior nares, and has caused dry sensation in the choanae and pharynx. Why not try it when, in addition, there is the characteristic condition of the mucous membranes, viz, dryness, with at most scanty chunks of tenacious mucus secreted?
Wyethia I have never used; it is claimed to have produced and cured pricking and dry sensation in the posterior nares. According to Hale, it is useful in chronic Pharyngitis, removing the granular appearance, and never failing to relieve dryness of the pharynx and burning of the epiglottis.
Penthorum Sedoides belongs to a class of plants that do not act very deeply. Still by reason of their acridity they produce catarrh, skin symptoms, and some of them, Haemorrhoids. The Penthorum ought to be tried when there is a continual feeling, as if the nose were wet, but without coryza. Sense of fulness in nose and ears. Posterior nares feel raw, as if, denuded.
Osmium rivals the more commonly employed Phosphorus. It is highly irritating to mucous surfaces, provoking coryza, sneezing as from snuff; nose and larynx sensitive to the air. Small lumps of phlegm are easily loosened from the posterior nares and larynx.
Like Phosphorus,, it attacks larynx and lungs. Characteristic severe pain in the larynx, worse when coughing or talking; hoarseness.
Ammonium Bromidum is said to be effective when the patient hawks down a stringy, bloody mucus. Here it resembles sanguin. Nitrate and Kali Mur. but is far inferior to either.
If the mucus is of a lemon-yellow color and not very fibrinous, Sulphuric Acid is almost sure to cure. It is only when it is tough and stringy that Kali bichromicum claims precedence.
When hardened clinkers are hawked from the posterior nares, Kali Bich, Cinnabaris, Sepia and Teucrium are serviceable. The latter, suggested by Dr. Walter Williamson, Jr., is needed when very large and irregular masses are hawked down. Cinnabar for dirty yellow lumps.
