12. DIATHETIC DISEASES



Auri et sodii chloridum.- Syphilis, after abuse of mercury, or when, during secondary or tertiary stages, the bones of the nose are affected, or the throat is ulcerated.

Badiaga.- Syphilitic bubo, as hard as a stone, uneven, ragged, at night violent lancinations, as if with red not needles, even when decided fluctuation has already set in.

Belladonna.- Large and painful buboes, with intense inflammation of integuments, presenting a deep-red hue, and extending over large surfaces; phlegmonous phimosis and paraphimosis; erysipelatous balanitis; painful eruptions.

Berberis aquifolium.- Inveterate cases of tertiary syphilis.

Calcarea fluor.- Chancres hard and indurated.

Calcarea sulph.- In bubo to control suppuration. Chronic suppurating stage of syphilis.

Carbo veg.- Indurated buboes, with lancinating or cutting pains; chancre; nasal syphilis.

Carbo veg.- Syphilitic ulcers with high edges that become irritable from topical treatment; margins of sores harp, ragged, undermined; discharge thin, acrid, offensive; ulcer painful and liable to bleed freely when touched; vesicles or blisters on prepuce; burning of labia; burning eruptions on skin.

Cinnabaris.- Swelling of penis; redness and swelling of prepuce, with painful itching; violent itching of corona glandis, with profuse secretion of pus; small shining red points on the glans; blennorrhoea of gland; sycotic excrescences; violent erections in the evening; small ulcer on roof of mouth, on the right side of tip of tongue, and on tip.

Coral, rubr.- Chancre and gonorrhoea of glans.

Corydalis.- Syphilitic nodes on skull; ulceration of fauces; profuse morbid secretion of mucus; tongue coated, with fetid breath.

Ferrum phos.- Bubo with heat, throbbing or tenderness.

Hecla lava.- Destructive ulceration of the nasal bones.

Hepar.- Mercurius-syphilitic diseases of gums; pains in bones; chancres not painful, but disposed to bleed readily; margins of ulcers elevated and spongy looking, without granulations in their centre; buboes after mercurial treatment; phimosis, with discharge of pus, accompanied by throbbing; itching of penis, glans, and fraenum; ulcers like chancres on prepuce; humid soreness on genitals, scrotum, and folds between thigh and scrotum; humid, suppurating herpes praeputialis.

Hydrastis.- Ozaena, with ulceration, bloody or mixed purulent discharge; mercurial salivation.

Kali bichr.- Syphilitic affections of mouth and fauces; bone pains, with stitches as if from sharp needles; periodical wandering pains all over the body; pustular syphiloderma; indurated chancre.

Kali hydroiodicum.- Secondary had tertiary syphilis; abuse of mercury.

Kali mur.- Soft chancre, 3x tr. internally, and also externally as a lotion; chronic stage of syphilis. In bubo for the soft swelling.

Kali phos.- Phagedenic chancre and bubo.

Kali sulph.- Syphilis, with yellow, slimy coating; tongue coated yellow; aggravation in the evening. Chronic syphilis.

Lachesis.- Phagedenic chancre; gangrene of glans and mons veneris; ulcers in throat and inflamed tonsils; caries of tibia; flat ulcers on lower extremities, with blue and purple areola.

Lycopodium.- Chancres with raised edges; indolent chancres, with thick, rounded, prominent prominent margins, granulations flabby of absent; eruptions on glans; condylomata; syphilitic ulcers in mouth.

Mercurius corros.- Excessive pain, swelling, and inflammation; regular indurated Hunterian chancre with lardaceous bottom; swelling and redness of nose, ozaena; margins of soft chancre dark-red, painful, and easily bleeding; neighboring parts oedematous, hot, and painful; chancres on inner surface of praeputium or corona glandis; chancres with ichor adhering to the bottom of ulcer so firmly that it cannot be removed by washing; ulcers with thin pus, leaving stains upon the linen, as from melted tallow; phagedenic ulcers in mouth, gums, and throat, with fetid breath; tonsils swollen and covered with ulcers; bubo and swelling of glands generally.

Mercur. iodat. rubr.- Hunterian hard chancre; threatened gangrene of glans in paraphimosis; soreness of bones of face; sharp shooting stitches in the end of penis through the glans; old buboes, discharging for years.

Mercur. vivus.- Red chancre on prepuce; spreading and deeply penetrating ulcer on glans and prepuce; pale red vesicles, forming small ulcers after breaking, on glans and prepuce; painful bleeding chancres, with yellowish fetid discharge; small chancres, with a cheesy bottom and inverted red edges; ulcers of glans and prepuce, with cheesy, lardaceous bottom and hard edges.

Mezereum.- Syphilitic periostitis; constant headache from tophi of skull; pains through whole body, with nightly pains in the bones, brought on by syphilis, mercury, or both combined; bones inflamed, swollen, especially shafts of cylindrical bones; fainting sort of vertigo; weary of life.

Natrum mur.- Chronic syphilis, serous exudations, etc.

Natrum sulph.- Condylomata of anus, syphilitic in origin, externally and internally.

Nux vomica- Chancroid; shallow and flat-bottomed ulceration, showing, a disposition to spread irregularly and indefinitely, exuding a thin, serous discharge.

Nitric acid.- Phagedenic chancres; ulcers in urethra, with purulent or bloody mucous discharge; ulcers bleed when touched, with exuberant, but pale and flabby granulations, irregular edges; moist condylomata, like cauliflower, or on thin pedicles; ulcers in vagina, looking as if covered with yellow pus, with burning pain or itching; copper-colored spots on anus; syphilitic ulcers in mouth; syphilitic epilepsy and melancholia.

Phosphoric acid.- Chancres with raised edges chancres like an indolent ulcer, edges thick, rounded, and prominent; granulations pale and flabby, or absent; corroding, itching herpes praeputialis; blisters and condylomata on glans; sycotic excrescences, chronic, with heat, burning and soreness, when sitting or walking; figwarts, complicated with chancre; painless swelling of glans; interstitial ostitis of mercurio-syphilitic origin, with nocturnal pains, as if bones were scraped with a knife.

Phytolacca.- Secondary syphilis; ulcers in throat land genitals; syphilitic rheumatism and syphilitic eruptions; pains shift; joints swollen, red; periostitis; pains in middle of long bones, or attachment of muscles, worse at night, and in damp weather glans inflamed, swollen; ulcers with appearance as if punched out, lardaceous bottom; weakness and prostration, but no paralytic symptoms.

Sepia.- Indolent chancre; burning itching, humid, or scurfy herpes praeputialis; chappy herpes, with a circular desquamation of skin; eruptions on glans and labia; itching and dry eruptions on genitals; chancres on glans and prepuce.

Silicea.- Chancres with raised edges; inflamed, painful, irritable chancres, with discolored, thin, and bloody discharge, granulations indistinct or absent; painful eruptions on mons veneris; itching, moist or dry eruptions of red pimples or spots on genitals; chronic syphilis with suppurations or indurations; ulcerated cutaneous affections where mercury has been given to excess, nodes in tertiary syphilis; caries and necrosis with discharge of offensive pus.

Staphisagria.- Soft, humid excrescences on and behind corona glands; dry, pediculated fig-warts; excrescences and nodosities of gums; female sexual organs painfully sensitive, especially when sitting; mercurialism.

Stillingia.- Secondary syphilis; extreme torture from bone- pains; nodes on head and legs.

Sulphur.- Inflammation and swelling of sexual organs, with deep rhagades; burning and redness of prepuce; deep suppurating ulcer on glans and prepuce, and with puffed edges; phimosis, with discharge of fetid pus; glandular swelling, indurated or suppurating.

Thuja.- Chancres, with pain as from a splinter sticking; sycotic moist excrescences on prepuce and glans; moist mucous tubercles; itching ulcers with unclean bottoms, or whitish chancres with hard edges.

Condylomata, Sycosis, Fig-warts.

These excrescences are a morbid growth of the skin and mucous membrane, or, better defined, of the subcutaneous and submucous cellular tissue. They are of different external appearance, according to their coating. When they are covered by the epidermis they appear dry, hard, horny, like common warts; when covered with thin epithelium, or when they are entirely bare and excoriated, they appear soft, moist and secrete more or less of a slimy, acrid, badly-smelling fluid. These latter are the genuine syphilitic condylomata or tubercula mucosa.

Their forms are likewise various; some are flat, upon a broad basis; others are conical, growing on a pedicle; others appear like a cock’s comb. The flat fig-warts are chiefly found around the anus, between the glutens muscles; on penis, and on the external surface of the labia in women; whilst the conical and pediculated are usually found in the entrance of the vagina, on the clitoris and even far back in the vagina, and on the neck of the womb; in males on the interior surface of the prepuce; also between the nates. They sometimes grow so luxuriantly that the whole vagina and interior surface of the prepuce is covered by them. A third kind is quite small, in the shape of pin-heads, which are generally found around the corona in men, and on the interior surfaces of the labia in women. In secondary syphilis they appear also in other localities, especially on the tongue, corners of the mouth, chin, face, forehead, eyelids, iris, scalp, meatus auditorius, axillae, nipples, and between the toes. Soon after the outbreak of this pest in the middle ages we read of condylomatous excrescences in the face, which were of a finger’s length, and which caused, for their bearers, more ridicule than compassion.

Melford Eugene Douglass
M.E.Douglass, MD, was a Lecturer of Dermatology in the Southern Homeopathic Medical College of Baltimore. He was the author of - Skin Diseases: Their Description, Etiology, Diagnosis and Treatment; Repertory of Tongue Symptoms; Characteristics of the Homoeopathic Materia Medica.