Almost any cough with a ***hectic flush and dryness of the throat will yield to **Sanguinaria.
Antimonium tartaricum. [Ant-t]
With this remedy the cough sounds loose and the patient feels sure that the next cough will raise the mucus; but it does not, no phlegm is raised. There is drowsiness accompanying the cough and the dyspnoea increases. Bayes says that the 3d and 6th potencies harden the cough, but the 2x loosens it. The characteristic then are the loose cough, the rattling in the chest and the absence of expectoration. It is a convulsive, concussive cough, attended with copious secretion of mucus. It is worse at night and in bed. The expectoration when present is either lemon-yellow or blood streaked.
**Ipecac has a loose, rattling cough occurring with every breathe, accompanied by asthma and nausea and vomiting. As with **Antimonium tartaricum, the chest seems full of mucus, but does not yield to coughing. A cough that has lasted a long time and been neglected will oftentimes be benefited by Ipecac.
**Hepar sulphur. The cough of **Hepar is husky and hoarse, never a perfectly dry one; it has a loose edge and the patient coughs into a fit of choking.
**Scilla. Rattling in chest; patient coughs a long time before a little mucus is raised, which relieves.
Kali bichromicum. [Kali-bi]
This remedy has a constant metallic barking and its great characteristic is the presence of a thick tenacious mucus, which is exceedingly difficult to expectorate. It corresponds well to coughs following measles and to wearisome morning coughs where there is the difficult expectoration. These symptoms distinguish the remedy, together with its amelioration at night in bed.
**Kali carbonicum has a paroxysmal cough, which is violent and long continued, and after a tedious effort a small quantity of tough stringy mucus is dislodged. The cough may cause gagging and vomiting.
**Nitric acid. The **Nitric acid cough is essentially chronic, often short and dry on first lying down at night; is accompanied by great physical depression and a stinging and smarting sensation in the larynx; there is little or no expectoration.
**Nux vomica is sometimes useful in short, dry and fatiguing coughs accompanied by headache and soreness in the epigastric zone. If the pharynx and fauces are affected **Nux will be more especially indicated.
**Mercurius is adapted to a dry cough that is passing into a moist stage after Belladonna, Bryonia, etc. Dry cough with roughness, burning feeling of rawness from fauces to sternum.
Sticta pulmonaria. [Stict]
Dr. M. D. Youngman, of Atlantic City, thus summed up the indications for **Sticta in coughs:
1. It is indicated in harsh, racking, incessant, ” unprofitable ” cough of spasmodic type.
2. It is particularly adapted to neurotic, rheumatic, and gouty individuals.
3. It is more valuable in sub-acute and chronic cases.
4. It is most suitable to old age.
5. It allays irritation, soothes irritable tissues, removes hyper- sensitive conditions of the respiratory mucous membrane and promotes sleep.
6. He suggested it as being worthy of a trial in whooping cough.
Lachesis. [Lach]
The cough of Lachesis is dry, spasmodic, in suffocative fits, tickling at night. There is but little secretion and much sensitiveness, worse from pressure on the larynx, after sleep and in the open air. The mucus cannot be brought up it ***will **stick there. Useful in the harassing coughs accompanying organic diseases of the heart, also **Naja.
**Dulcamara has a spasmodic cough, with profuse secretion of mucus in the larynx and trachea, easy expectoration of tasteless mucus; the coughing spells are long and damp weather aggravates.
**Causticum has a dry, hollow cough, with tightly adhering mucus in the chest, relieved by a drink of cold water, as in the nervous spasmodic cough of **Cuprum. It is accompanied often times with pain in the hips, more frequently the left, and with involuntary spurting of urine. **Scilla and Natrum muriaticum also have this last symptom. With **Causticum the patient cannot cough deeply enough to raise the mucus, being similar to **Lachesis in this sticking of the phlegm. The **Causticum cough is attended with morning hoarseness.
**Senega is useful in coughs with profuse secretion of mucus, causing ineffectual efforts for its expulsion, though the cough is loose and rattling. Burning in the chest before or after coughing is an excellent symptom.
Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Michigan Homeopathic Medical College. Member of American Institute of Homeopathy. In addition to his editoral work he authored or collaborated on: Boericke and Dewey's Twelve Tissue Remedies, Essentials of Homeopathic Materia Medica, Essentials of Homeopathic Therapeutics and Practical Homeopathic Therapeutics.