Arsenicum. [Ars]
This remedy corresponds to all stages of Bright’s disease, bearing a closer resemblance than any other remedy. It comes in later in the disease where there is dropsy, pale skin, waxen appearance, watery diarrhoea and great thirst. The urine is dark, casts are abundant, and it contains much albumen. There are attacks of dyspnoea when lying down in the evening and after midnight, relieved by an expectoration of mucus. It may come in immediately after **Aconite in many cases. Dr. Pope found **Arsenicum 3X efficient in acute nephritis. ” Blood boils ” make a special indication for this remedy. Baehr, Millard and Hale question the usefulness of **Arsenicum in kidney affections. However, it seems a simile to the large white kidney; in fact, one could hardly wish for a closer correspondence. Hughes considers it a favorite with anxiety and sinking of vital forces will call for **Arsenicum.
**Calcarea arsenica has been used in the anaemia, progressive emaciation and debility of this disease with success.
Apis mellifica. [Apis]
**Apis is not so much a remedy for chronic Bright’s disease as for the acuter forms. There are oedematous swellings of the face and extremities, paleness, ascites, oedema pulmonum, pains in the head, back and limbs. Albuminuria following scarlatina. It may be of use in any form of Bright’s disease when there are dull pains in the kidneys, scanty urine and frequent Micturition. The urine is heavily charged with albumen and contains blood corpuscles. The oedema appears quickly, there is general dropsy and suppression of urine and perhaps an eruption of the skin like a nettle rash. The patient is drowsy, apathetic and has a bruised feeling all over. **Apis in such cases acts best in trituration; do not depend on the tincture or dilutions. **Hepar is recommended by Kafka in Bright’s disease following scarlatina. A valuable symptom for **Apis is the feeling of suffocation. He does not see how he is get another breath.
Mercurius corrosivus. [Merc-c]
This remedy corresponds to the large white kidney. There is an albuminous, scanty and red urine; pale waxen color of the body; there are lumbar pains, great dyspnoea and excessive strangury. It takes the first rank among all the mercurials for nephritis, and it comes in the later stages. Syphilitic complication further indicate it. There is an expression of uneasiness on the face. Dr. Ludlam considers it our best remedy for the albuminous nephritis of pregnancy and Baehr lauds it in suppurative nephritis.
**Kali chloricum. This remedy is said to be the most homoeopathic of all remedies in Bright’s disease. It has scanty, dark, albuminous urine containing casts. It excites a violent nephritis.
Terebinth. [Tereb]
One of our reliable and most frequently indicated remedies in the early stages of renal diseases when congestion is prominent, when there is much pain in the back of a dull character extending along the ureters. The great characteristic of dark smoky urine will be present. There is anasarca, and, of course, the urine is bloody and albuminous. It is recommended in post scarlatinal renal affections. The prostration is not accompanied by the restlessness of **Arsenicum.
**Cantharis. This remedy pictures nephritis with cutting pains in the lumbar region; the urine is passed in drops and is mixed with blood, with much urging. Post scarlatinal and post diphtheric kidney diseases with dropsy may indicate **Cantharis. If renal congestions arise from Spanish fly blisters, give **Camphor as an antidote. The prostration of **Terebinth lacks the restless anguish of **Arsenicum.
Digitalis. [Dig]
This remedy has an irritant action on the kidneys. It is homoeopathic to granular degeneration. Heart symptoms, feeble pulse, scanty, dark, turbid urine, faintness at the stomach, rheumatic pains will indicate it. It is especially useful when the circulation is weak. Rheumatic pains, pulmonary catarrh with profuse expectoration are marked symptoms.
**Glonoine has albuminous urine and will sometimes be found useful in acute and haemorrhagic nephritis.
Plumbum. [Plb]
Granular degenerations of the kidneys, with tendency to uraemic convulsion. Dropsy, sallow face, emaciation, oedema about the ankles. It seems to corresponds to the contracted or cirrhotic form of nephritis, holding the same relation here that **Arsenic and **Mercury do in chronic nephritis. Royal emphasizes this remedy saying that it arrested the progress in many cases and permanently cured not few for him. He never used it below the 30th potency.
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.