**Jatropha.
This has a profuse, gushing, watery diarrhoea; but here there is much wind and flatulence and great prostration. The fourth is **Gamboge. This has a stool expelled “all at once”, with much relief following. Stools thin and watery. The characteristics of the stool of **Croton tiglium are:
1. The yellow, watery stool.
2. The sudden expulsion.
3. The aggravation from drink and food; and to this we may add the quite common accompaniment of nausea, preceded by a little pain in the abdomen.
Rheum. [Rheum]
One symptom always leads to the thought of this drug, and that is sourness of stools and sourness of the whole body, though **Rheum is not only remedy for sour stools nor are sour stools the only indication for **Rheum; indeed, they may be wanting in sourness and **Rheum still be the remedy. For sour stools, besides **Rheum, we have notably **Calcarea carbonica, Magnesia carbonica and Hepar. Magnesia carbonica is said to follow Rheum well, and, besides sourness, it has the frothy, green, frog-pond scum stool, and it is especially suitable to infants when the stools are of the above character and accompanied with discharge flatus and much crying. Debility is also characteristic of the remedy. Characteristic among the symptoms of **Rheum, besides the sourness, is a griping colic often followed by tenesmus. In color, the stools are brown and frothy, and usually sour; they are worse from motion and after eating. Chilliness during stool is also characteristic. The continuance;of the colic after the stool also suggests the remedy.
Podophyllum. [Podo]
**Podophyllum, as we have seen, has an early morning diarrhoea. The stools are watery, yellow, profuse, forcible and occur without pain any time from three o’clock to nine in the morning, and a natural stool is apt to follow later in the day. It occurs, too, immediately after eating resembling **cinchona and Colocynth, and it has still another resemblance to **Colocynth in its colic, which is relieved by warmth and bending forward. Following the diarrhoea of **Podophyllum is a sensation of great weakness in the abdomen and rectum, this weakness of the rectum being a great characteristic of the remedy. The rectum prolapses before the faeces are evacuated; here it differs from the prolapses which would call for **Ignatia, Carbo vegetabilis and Hamamelis.
**Podophyllum has proved useful in the diarrhoea of dentition when cerebral symptoms are present. Sometimes a headache will alternate with the diarrhoea. This also occurs with **Aloes. The stools of **Podophyllum are often undigested; and here the remedy touches **China and Ferrum, which are the great remedies for undigested stools. A deposit of mealy sediment further indicates the remedy in diarrhoeas of children.
**Podophyllum and Mercurius have some symptoms in common; both affect the liver both have a tongue taking the imprint of the teeth, but the stool of Mercurius is accompanied by straining. The great characteristics of Podophyllum may be thus summed up:
1. Early morning stools.
2. Watery, pasty yellow or undigested stools, forcibly expelled.
3. Painless.
4. Weakness in the rectum following stool.
**Podophyllum also resembles **Calcarea carbonica and Phosphoric acid in many respects; the rapid debility and exhaustion distinguish it from the acid, and the absence of general **Calcarea symptoms from Calcarea. It is especially useful in the obstinate diarrhoeas of unhealthy infants in the 3x dilution.
Mercurius. [Merc]
Straining at stool is the great characteristic of Mercurius, and this is more marked under **Mercurius corrosivus than under the solubilis. The former is the great homoeopathic remedy for dysentery. It may be remarked, in passing, that the allopaths have recently discovered this application of **Mercurius corrosivus. The stools of Mercury are slimy and bloody, accompanied by a straining and tenesmus which does not seem to let up; so we have what is characteristically described as a never-get-done-feeling. There is accompanying, much hepatic soreness, flabby tongue taking imprint of the teeth, and before the stool there is violent urging and perhaps chilliness. Bayes praises **Mercurius in a diarrhoea of yellow or clay-colored stool. A sickly smell from the mouth is characteristic of the remedy, and if the remedy perspiration so characteristic of **Mercurius be present the choice is easy. Prolapsus of the rectum may follow the stool.
Calcarea. [Calc]
**Calcarea should never be overlooked in any intestinal trouble; as we have seen, it is one of the great remedies for sour stools, and for undigested stools. It is one of our best remedies for chronic diarrhoea, its symptoms produced by the provers are very few, yet prescribed for its general symptoms it has proved very useful, for it is just in a genuine **Calcarea patient that one usually finds diarrhoea. Diarrhoea occurring during dentition in infants with open fontanelles call for **Calcarea. **Calcarea phosphorica, too, is a very useful remedy in these diarrhoeas, but the diarrhoea of **Calcarea phosphorica is distinguished by being a ***spluttering diarrhoea, forcibly expelled, but watery, greenish, or undigested, and with a great deal of offensive flatus. **Calcarea carbonica is more suited to fat children. **Calcarea phosphorica to those who are old and wrinkled. Both of these remedies, as well as **Silicea and Sulphur, come in most frequently in the diarrhoeas of scrofulous and rachitic children. In the **Calcarea carbonica patient there is usually a ravenous appetite, and, as in **Phosphoric acid, the stools do not seem to weaken. This is especially true of another of the Calcareas, Calcarea acetica. **Calcarea Prescribe for the patient instead of the diarrhoea at all times, but more especially if Calcarea be given.
Phosphorous. [Phos]
**Phosphorous is especially a remedy for chronic forms of diarrhoea. It has green mucous stools worse in the morning, often undigested and painless. The stools pass as soon as they enter the rectum, and contain white particles like rice or tallow. **Apis has a sensation as if the anus stood open, and the involuntary escape of faeces in **Phosphorous reminds also of **Aloes. **Chronic, painless diarrhoea of undigested food call sometimes for Phosphorus. It is profuse and forcible and aggravated by warm food, and the patient often vomits; in fact, one of the characteristics of **Phosphorous is the vomiting of what has been drunk as soon as it becomes warm in the stomach. With the diarrhoea there is a weak, gone feeling in the stomach, and perhaps burning between the shoulders. The frog spawn, or sago, or grain of tallow stool is most characteristic of the remedy.
Argentum nitricum. [Arg-n]
**Argentum nitricum is quite similar to **Arsenic in many ways. The stools are green, slimy and bloody, like chopped spinach in flakes. **Aconite has a green stool like spinach. With the stool there is a discharge of flatus and much spluttering, as in **Calcarea Phosphorica. The stools are worse from any candy, sugar, or from drinking. The sudden attacks of cholera infantum in children who have eaten too much candy will often be removed by **Argentum nitricum. The children are thin, dried up looking, and it seems as if the child had but one bowel and that extended from the mouth to the anus. Another characteristic of **Argentum nitricum is its use in diarrhoea brought on by great mental excitement, emotional disturbance, etc.
**Gelsemium is one of the most prominent remedies for diarrhoea produced by fright or fear; it appears suddenly and the stools are yellow and papescent.
**Opium has diarrhoea from fright and so has **Veratrum album.
**Pulsatilla, too, may be indicated in diarrhoea from fright; the stools are greenish yellow and changeable.
**Dulcamara has diarrhoea from changes in the weather or in temperature, as in those employed in packing house who change frequently from hot to cold, or diarrhoea in the mountains where the midday is hot and the nights excessively cool.
There are a number of minor remedies for diarrhoea, but these very minor remedies become of major importance when they are closely indicated.
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.