Balsam Peru is a useful remedy in catarrhal phthisis, with a copious purulent expectoration.
Coccus cacti [Coc-c]
Is also useful in catarrhal phthisis, with ropy phlegm and sharp, stitching pains under the clavicles.
Yerba santa or Eriodictyon Californicum, a California plant, has been successfully used in bronchial phthisis with night sweats, emaciation, intolerance of food, and it will often cause a free expectoration of the mucus, and thus relieve the asthmatic breathing. Phthisis resulting from bronchial catarrhs.
Remember that Stannum suits neglected catarrhs which threaten to pass into phthisis.
Sulphur [Sulph]
Is best adapted to the early stages of phthisis when there is an increase of blood to the chest, beginning dullness over the apices of the lungs on percussion and diminished chest motion. The guiding symptoms are hot feeling of the body, desire for air, flushes of heat and pain from the left nipple through to the back. After tubercles have become deposited, Sulphur is a dangerous remedy to use; indeed, Baehr does not look with favor on Sulphur in tuberculosis. The cough is mostly dry, worse in the evening, excited by talking, with occasional profuse discharges of mucus; there are profuse night sweats and the perspiration is offensive; there is emaciation, weakness and languor and burning of the soles and palms.
Unless Sulphur be cautiously used it may rouse and ignite the dormant tuberculous spark and hasten the disease; this fact seems well established. It should be used in the higher potencies.
Arsenicum. [Ars]
Is another remedy that must be used cautiously in tuberculosis. It effects on the blood is similar to the tuberculous process, and its pathogenesis is hectic; the fevers, sweats, diarrhoea, dyspeptic symptoms and debility make it similar in general to phthisis. It corresponds well to the tuberculous cachexia. The symptoms calling for its are these : Utter prostration, emaciation, thirst, hectic, oppressed breathing and sharp pains, darting in character and aggravated by motion. The cough is worse at night on lying down and in the morning on rising; the paroxysms of cough are long and lasting and ushered in with dyspnoea; the expectoration is profuse, greenish and salty, there is throughout much apprehensive anxiety. By remembering that it is not on local symptoms that a homoeopathic prescription should be made Arsenicum will be correctly chosen.
Arsenicum iodide [Ars-i]
Is very closely allied to tubercular manifestations and the profound prostrations, rapid irritable pulse, recurring fevers and sweats, emaciation and tendency to diarrhoea indicate it. Patient is cachectic; hacking cough; cavities; hectic fevers, night sweats; great debility.
Sanguinaria pictures phthisis florida; it has the hectic fever worse about 4 p.m., the bright circumscribed flush on the cheeks, the dry cough caused by tickling in the larynx and upper part of the chest, and a great characteristic of the drug is a burning and fullness in the upper part of the chest as if full of blood. There are sharp stitching pains in the right lung about the nipple, soreness of the chief muscles and dyspnoea. It is a remedy in incipient phthisis in the pretubercular stage as well as in the second and third stages; there is a chronic dry cough the cough may be loose, but the expectoration is difficult; worse lying down. In the later stages it comes in when the sputa and breath are offensive, even to the patient himself; it renders the expectoration easier even to the patient himself; it renders the expectoration easier and the breathing freer. Persistent coldness of the extremities and burning in the chest are good symptoms for sanguinaria.
Ferrum metallicum. [Ferr]
Haemorrhages in the incipient stage of phthisis florida. There is a general haemorrhagic tendency with inter-scapular pains.
Lachesis. [Lach]
Tuberculosis following pneumonia.
Bryonia. [Bry]
Nearly all cases of tuberculosis have at some -period of their course pleuritic complications, and although Bryonia is rarely, if ever, of use in true tuberculosis, yet it may ofttimes be the proper remedy in the fibroid or interstitial form with these pleural complications. The chief symptoms calling for its use are these: a teasing dry cough as if the head and chest would burst, or as if coming from the epigastrium, forcing the patient to sit up; sharp stitching pain in the sides; painful larynx; perspiration and pains at the apices of the lungs. Inability to take a deep breath on account of these sharp pains is an important indication.
Kali carbonicum. [Kali-c]
Hahnemann says that patients suffering from ulceration of the lungs can scarcely get well without the use of this antipsoric. Like Bryonia, it has stitching pains through the chest, with dry cough and much difficulty in raising the expectoration; it seems to come up part way and slip back, or files in lumps from the mouth while coughing. The expectoration is profuse, purulent and perhaps bloody; the cough is worse from 3 to 5 in the morning and the patient is apt to be chilly, especially in the middle of the day; there is much whistling respiration which prevents sleep, and a marked symptoms is weakness of the chest. It is especially the remedy when cardiac or dropsical symptoms complicate, and the patient is bloated, has puffiness of the eyelids, etc. Incipient phthisis in women who have become run down from over-lactation may indicate the remedy. It is also a valuable remedy in the later stages.
Zopfy recommends Kali hydroiodicum and Cannabis sativa in tuberculosis; his sixty years’ experience verified their use. He used the Ix of each in alternation, and asserts that no remedies in the entire materia medica have such an influence in lessening the cough the expectoration, the colliquative sweats and the hectic fever.
Drosera. [Dros]
The therapeutic action of Drosera in tuberculosis is an important one. Jousset recommends it highly as a curative remedy. Drosera is a remedy in the first stages and often corresponds to incipient phthisis in young girls. There is a paroxysmal cough frequently ending with vomiting, worse at night on lying down; profuse expectoration yellow and bitter in the morning, diarrhoea, suffocative hoarseness and gastric irritation and vomiting brought on by coughing. It suits the tubercular disposition and Hahnemann considered it the only remedy in laryngeal phthisis. The characteristic cough is a deep sounding, hoarse barking one, is accompanied with pains in the chest and has a nocturnal aggravation; the cough is paroxysmal and the expectoration is at the end of the paroxysm.
Laurocerasus is useful in the dry teasing coughs of consumptives at night; the expectoration has little specks of blood in it.
Codeine also corresponds to these dry teasing coughs which annoy the patient night and day. It is a homoeopathic as well as a palliative remedy.
Conium [Con]
Is a useful medicine in tuberculous tendencies which is shown by its action on the glands. It has a hacking cough worse at night on lying down.
Dulcamara [Dulc]
Is one of our best remedies in catarrhal phthisis. There are pains in the sides at every slight cold the patient takes; in fact, there is a disposition to take cold, and any damp weather is a common cause. The cough is generally loose, with an abundant muco-viscid expectoration, which is tough and greenish. There is also a violent oppression of the chest.
The cough of Dulcamara is worse from lying down, from warmth of the room and is better in the open air. Chronic coughs following measles may indicate Dulcamara.
Senega has also a loose cough and mucous rales.
Lycopodium [Lyc]
Is a useful remedy when phthisis follows neglected pneumonia and there is an incessant cough, day and night, with expectoration of large quantities of yellowish pus which tastes salty and smells foul, or is yellowish with chest pain; there are hectic, night sweats and rattling breathing. The emaciation is about the upper part of the body. Suspected phthisis in young men is an indication given by Hughes. There is a peculiar irritation to hawk, with tickling in the throat. The dry continuous cough causes pains in the sides of the abdomen. There is an early morning acid smelling sweat and the hectic afternoon fever, hot hands and burning soles. Constipation and debility. Few remedies are so valuable in mitigating the cough, the gastric irritation, the exhaustion, the intercurrent attacks of pleurisy as Lycopodium. It is a real vegetable Sulphur, and there is no better for loose cough in which the patient raises whole mouthfuls at a time.
Sticta, according to Hering, is also a useful remedy in the croupy or dry racking cough of consumption. A proving of this remedy by the writer emphasized its value in dry racking coughs.
Digitalis. [Dig]
Baehr claims this remedy to be the most reliable one to subdue the hectic fever of the disease.
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.