The bowels are inactive and the large intestine wanting in peristaltic action so that even a soft stool is passed slowly and with difficulty (34) and only a part can be forced out even by the aid of the abdominal muscles.
In diarrhoea the stools are painless, white or clay-colored (58), green (59) or undigested (60), of sour (59) or decayed odor (59). The diarrhoea is especially a chronic condition (58) and may be worse during the day and after eating (57) and perhaps associated with sweat on the perineum.
Hepar sulph, is frequently called for in children with marasmus (129), with sour stool and general sour sweat.
It will, of course, be indicted in abscess of either the liver or kidneys, and in the latter stage of suppurative or secondary nephritis when you are unable to get rid of the pus that so persistently shows in the urine, Hepar sulph. 30th will often clear up the case. In croups inflammations (124), especially resulting from the abuse of mercury, it is often of value.
In the bladder we have paralysis (22) or atony, with lack of expulsive power (21). He must wait for the urine to start and then it flows very slowly and “drops down vertically.” The bladder does not seem to empty itself and it seems as if he could never finish urinating (200).
Hepar sulph is the only remedy in the handbook where there is clinical mention of an oily film on the surface of the urine (the others that are spoken of at all prominently are only in italics) (199).
On the genital organs it is of value for abscesses of all kinds, with sharp pains and offensive odor to the discharge; it is one of the best remedies to clear up an old gonorrhea (83) and for pyo-salpingitis
The leucorrhoea is offensive (126), of putrid odor.
In membranous (52) as well as in spasmodic croup Hepar sulph. is of great value. It is not to be given early in the disease but later when there is little or no fever, the child is weak and perspires easily and the cough is loose. Allen says it “should be given very cautiously even in a late stage of membranous croup; over-dosing with it is apt to cause recurrence of the more acute symptoms, to lessen the secretion of mucus, rendering the cough dry and tight, and increase the difficulty in breathing.”
I will ask you to look up the differentiations between various remedies as made by Allen under this remedy, as I wish to speak of a method used by Boenninghausen that has been the cause of much misunderstanding. Many people from a distance would come to him to ask that he prescribe for their people at home. In cases of croup it was his custom to give three powders to be dissolved in water.
No.1. Aconite 200th for the beginning of the trouble, with high fever, dry skin, tight cough and the other Aconite symptoms.
No.2. Spongia 200th to be taken after the fever had subsided but with the cough still tight and croupy.
When the cough had loosened and there was an accumulation of mucus, then give No.3, Hepar sulph.200th.
If through any mischance, either that the cough became tighter or that Hepar sulph. has been given too soon and the cough remained more or less tight, they were to go back to No.2, or Spong, until the cough was thoroughly loose and then No.3, or Hepar sulph., would complete the cure.
From this innocent procedure has grown the belief, amongst many, that it is good practice, irrespective of the symptoms, to return to Spongia after giving Hepar sulph., or that Boenninghausen alternated and, therefore, they are justified.
We all know good men who alternate, but I doubt if there is anyone who takes pride in so doing, and but few, who down in their own heart do not acknowledge that the reason they do so is because they do not know enough of the Homoeopathic Materia Medica.
Hepar sulph. is of value in bronchitis and broncho-pneumonia (151), with a good deal of mucus in the chest (45). The cough is loose and rattling, worse towards morning and from cold air (40); so susceptible is the patient to cold that the slightest draft or even putting the hands out from under the bed-clothes is enough to set them coughing (41).
While I find no mention by Hahnemann or Allen of this symptom, Lippe gives, cough caused by “eating or drinking (41) anything cold” (41).
The mucus in all these cases is difficult to raise, although there is so much in the chest, and the effort to bringing it up causes is difficult to raise, although there is so much in the chest, and the effort to bring it up causes nausea and easy perspiration (51); in these respects the remedy is similar to what we find in Ant. tart., but in Hepar sulph. there is the decided aggravation from cold air.
Hepar sulph. is of value in pleurisy with exudation (150), in the late stage of pneumonia and in phthisis, with profuse purulent expectoration, and in abscess of the lungs, with the characteristic indications for the remedy.
It has been used for chronic malarial poisoning that “has been maltreated with calomel and quinine” (Allen), the leading indications being the easy and offensive sweat and the extreme sensitiveness to air. We may have urticaria (121) “preceding” (Hering) or associated “with the chill” (H. C. Allen) and disappearing as the heat begins.
I use Hepar sulph. 1x and 30th.
