Pericarditis due to septic condition will call for **Rhus, and in heart troubles, as in all others, it follows **Bryonia well; and **Bryonia may be an early remedy in pericarditis. The rheumatic basis of nearly all the heart symptoms and the general condition of the remedy will decide.
Bryonia. [Bry]
In affections about the membranes of the heart, of course, **Bryonia is one of the most prominent remedies. It corresponds to the first or second stage of pericarditis when of rheumatic organ and especially if pleuritic symptoms be present. There are intense fever, frontal or occipital headache, and acute stitching pains which are aggravated by movement, and the friction murmur is always present. It does not usually corresponds to pericarditis from Bright’s disease or pyaemia.
**Asclepias tuberosa is similar to **Bryonia, but the symptoms are not so acute, the fever is not intense, the pain is pricking and extends to the left shoulder; there is a dry spasmodic cough and the pain is relieved by bending forward.
A valuable group of symptoms calling for **Bryonia is the following : Cramp in region of the heart, aggravated by walking, raising one’s self or using the slightest exertion, even raising the arm. Heart beats valiantly and rapidly.
Convallaria. [Conv]
There is quite a large class of remedies affecting the heart which might be termed the newer remedies. Among these in **Convallaria. It is useful in valvular diseases of the heart with scanty urine, dropsy and great dyspnoea. It has so relieved the oedema in a number of cases that the patient could lie down. Dyspnoea, palpitation and oedema due to mitral disease have been relieved by it. The provings of the remedy show a feeble heart sound, anaemic murmurs over the jugular vein, pain in region of heart and an uneasy fluttering; a sensation when exercising as if the heart stopped beating and then started up again, causing a faint, sick feeling. This uneasiness about the heart should suggest its use in the condition known as cigarette or tobacco heart.
**Agaricine should also be thought of in patients addicted to the excessive use of tea, coffee, or tobacco. Twitchings should be present to well indicate the remedy. Dilatation associated with emphysema.
Another of the new remedies is **Adonis vernalis. It increases arterial tension, regulates the heart beats by lessening the frequency of the pulse and increasing the force of the cardiac contraction. Blackwood thinks anasarca should be a prominent symptom with scanty urine, low in urea and asthma or dyspnoea present. Dr. Gisevius, of Germany, believes that a leading indication for **Adonis is a previous attack of rheumatism. It may be useful in serious dilatation or even in fatty degeneration. The remedy is well tolerated, increases diuresis and acts with rapidity. Otherwise it is similar to **Digitalis. Cowperthwaite praises it in feeble heart action, saying that it is far better and safer than **Digitalis, the continued administration of the latter being exceedingly dangerous, to which the writer heartily agrees.
**Lycopus Virginicus is still another heart remedy of this class. It is useful in cardiac irritability with depressed force, after abuse of cardiac depressants or cardiac stimulants, excessive hypertrophy, muscular weakness, etc. Its use has been limited, chiefly confined to the condition known as cardiac asthma, where it works well. The rapid regular pulse, tumultuous and forcible heart action, indicate it in exophthalmic goitre.
Another remedy useful in irritable heart is **Collinsonia, and **like Digitalis and Lycopus it is secondarily homoeopathic. It suits hypertrophy of the heart with palpitation and pain. Irritability of the heart due to suppression of haemorrhoidal flow especially indicates **Collinsonia.
**Strophanthus is one of our recent accessions to the line of cardiac remedies. Dr. George Royal thinks it acts better in the lower dilutions, 1,2 or 3, than in the customary large doses of the tincture, and many observers have verified this observation. It has been found useful in weak, hypertrophied, irritable heart, with tense arteries and a free discharge of urine. It relieves dyspnoea and praecordial distress and promotes diuresis and removes dropsy. It is useful in heart failure of the aged and heart diseases in children. It reduces the pulse and increases the power of the heart. It probably suits better heart troubles dependent on kidney disease, or where coffee, tea, tobacco or alcohol have already poisoned the heart.
**Crataegus oxyacantha. This is a new remedy, and useful when the hearts action is feeble and irregular and the pulse small and intermittent; sensation as if the heart would stop. It suits cases of failing compensation with dilatation of the heart and also fatty hearts. It acts well in functional diseases of the heart, palpitation and tachycardia dependent upon anaemia. In threatened heart failure during acute diseases it will frequently work well. Exhausting overwork. Nervous shock and neuraesthenia are casual symptoms. Dr. G.H. Wells gives a painful sensation of pressure in the left of the chest below the clavicle as a verified indication. As a palliative in heart affections it is a far safer remedy than **Digitalis and can be used for a long period as a tonic to weakened hearts.
**Sparteine sulphate has also been used in feeble heart and nervous and hysterical persons, and at the climacteric; but as most of these remedies are used for the physiological effect they, as yet, should find no place in homoeopathic therapeutics. **Sparteine is said to be further indicated when compensation is failing and the hearts action is weak; the pulse is irregular, feeble, and dropsy is present; there are dyspeptic symptoms with great accumulation of gas in the gastro-intestinal canal and the patient is subject to nervous and hysterical attacks. Sudden painful “seizures” may further indicate **Sparteine. In such cases its use will be palliative.
Lachesis. [Lach]
The snake poisons exercise as a marked effect on the heart and circulation, as well as on the blood itself. **Lachesis produces a palpitation of the heart and a constrictive feeling in the cardiac region. There is a smothering sensation about the heart, waking the patient out of sleep. He can bear no pressure on the chest. Pulse small and weak. It has more septic elements than the other venoms.
**Kali hydroiodicum has this same smothering sensation about the heart, waking him out of sleep and compelling him to get out of bed.
**Graphites has a similar symptom, and also a cold feeling about the heart, found under **Petroleum and Natrum muriaticum as well.
**Naja tripudians, another of the snake poisons, has been used with good effect in valvular affections of the heart with a dry, teasing cough; there is also a tremulous action. The pulse is slow, the patient is melancholic and all the symptoms are worse from stimulants and better walking or riding in the open air. It is a remedy that should not be overlooked. Hypotension is marked. It has much pain and resembles herein **Spigelia, but it comes in later in valvular affections. Reflex palpitations and cardiac pain associated with ovarian neuralgia, well indicate **Naja.
**Oxalic acid is a useful remedy to subdue the praecordial pain which radiates so frequently to the left shoulder in cases of aortic insufficiency.
**Lachesis has also the symptom that the heart feels too large for the chest. Atheromatous conditions of the heart and blood vessels call for **Lachesis, especially in old people when symptoms of dropsy are present.
Lilium tigrinum. [Lil-t]
**Lilium has some important heart symptoms. It has a pain in the heart as if grasped in a vise, which awakens the patient suddenly. There is much fluttering about the heart, and faintness. It is a sensation as if the heart were grasped and then released. **Lilium will be found useful in purely functional affections, independent of organic lesion. There is much cardiac irritability nervous palpitation and the symptoms are ameliorated by lying on the left side. Motion aggravates.
**Sulphur may be the remedy when it seems as if there were almost too much blood sent to the heart, producing palpitation, grasping for breath, and sensation as if the heart were too large for the chest.
**Lilium is useful in conditions of nervous palpitation, and in functional cardiac disorders in women with uterine disease.
Arsenicum. [Ars]
**Arsenicum is a remedy often thought of in heart affections and often useful. Like **Lachesis, it is more adapted to later stages of heart trouble, when the course is downwards. **Arsenicum produces great irregularity of the heart, or the pulse may be quick and weak. It is especially useful in pericarditis or endocarditis after suppression of measles or scarlatina. A grand remedy in disease of the heart depending upon constitutional causes like sepsis, also in affections of the heart depending upon fatty degeneration of the blood vessels. Restlessness will be present, and oedema, puffiness of the eyes and swelling of the feet. Great dyspnoea, attacks of suffocations at night on lying down and particularly after midnight.
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.