After oral doses of the poorly absorbed salts as sodium sulfate, at first comes a thickening of the blood in consequence to the marked water withdrawal so that there is an increase in the hemoglobin. Presumed here is that a deprivation of water has not previously occurred, and that the salt is given without or with only a little water. The immediate thickening of the blood through the withdrawal of water toward the intestine soon diminishes. But after about twelve hours a somewhat weaker blood thickening occurs of longer duration. For this the influence of the salt resorbed into the blood is made responsible. In spite of poor resorption, after some time the salt obtains a concentration in the blood which releases an increased diuresis. Now sodium sulfate is a foreign substance which is pressed for excretion. As long as it is present in increased amounts in the blood, and this lasts longer with a poorly diffusible salt in iso-or hypotonic solutions, a hydremia must be assumed. With the excretion through the kidneys it takes water with it, and it is thereby striking that it does not belong to the swelling materials and also is not resorbed through the tubules, as perhaps sodium chloride, when the threshold in the blood is exceeded. The water withdrawal toward the urine with sodium sulfuricum in also final. The sodium sulfate diuresis differs from that of sodium chloride also in that it is bound with active work of the kidney. Barcroft and Straub found that the sulfate diuresis, in contrast to the sodium chloride diuresis, is associated with an increased oxygen utilization of the kidney.
The crude withdrawal of water to the intestine with thickening of the blood cannot be drawn into consideration as a nonresorptive action for the hydrogenoid character of the remedy. A definite absorption appears only when the amounts of salt introduced are so small that they cannot produce a purgative effect. We can assume that, through potentization, the absorption capacity and, with this, the ability for resorptive action can be definitely facilitated. This manner of introduction would therefore correspond more with a direct introduction into the blood. So the hydremic plethora as well as the subsequent diuresis must ceteris paribus be more significant and persistent with sodium sulfuricum than with sodium chloride.
DIABETES
The sodium sulfate a special suitability for diabetes has been ascribed in homoeopathy. Now this has apparently a crude external justification in that sugar may appear in the urine in the sodium sulfate diuresis. But this is also the case in the diuresis with many other salts; indeed, one knows a sodium chloride glycosuria which likewise depends upon a hyperglycemia. Whether perhaps with ntr. sulf. some still dark connection to the liver conditions a favored action on carbohydrate metabolism must be left undecided for the present.
BLOOD COAGULATION
Among the clinical reports in natr. sulf. in homoeopathy are found (similarly as with natr. nitr., where it is supported by provings on the healthy) influences on the coagulation of blood, in particular in hemophilia. Reverdin has seen a coagulating effect after small doses of natr. sulf. (0.1. g. hourly). This has been brought into connection with the blood- thickening action, though, with such small doses and such momentary action, how rightly is more than doubtful. Moreover, as regards the use of sodium chloride as homeostatic in hemoptysis, one might wonder if this is concerned with a general salt action. But it is remarkable that, in the test tube, natr. sulf. acts depressing on coagulation; indeed, in consequence to calcium deionization it is often used with natrium citratum for the removal of coagulation.
SCHUSSLER’S INDICATIONS
Schussler has taken over his indication for natr. sulf. from v. Grauvogl entirely and together with the defects. Among the latter, I count the coupling with sycosis of Hahnemann and the hydrogenoid constitution and also acute gonorrhea, furthermore the inclusion of leukemia in the hydrogenoid constitution. Schussler has reported natr. sulf. as a remedy for leukemia and, though on another basis, still just as unmentionable. According to him, natr. sulf. should withdraw water from the leukocytes and so effect their destruction. Moreover Schussler perceives natr. sulf. as a stimulus agent and regulator for the secretion of the urinary passages, the biliary passages, the pancreas and the intestine. This seems justified up to a certain extent. But one cannot well speak of this end-product and excretory substances as a necessary tissue salt. With some right Schussler has seen a contrast between NaCl and Na2SO4 when he believes that NaCl regulates water for the functions of the organism and, on the contrary, Na2SO4 promotes the excretion of used water toward the exterior. At least one can again find the contrast between the renal threshold substance, NaCl and the non-threshold substance Na2SO4 in broad directions. Schussler perceives hydremia as a result of a failure of natrium sulf.
THE DRUG PICTURE OF NATR. SULF.
Provings of natrium sulfuricum are found in:
(1) Hartlaub and Trinks; Annalen f. hom.Klin, Bd. 3, 1832; Bd.,4 1833.
(2) Crosseria: Arch.f. hom Heilk., Bd.16 p.164.
(3) Lembke: Neue Ztschr. f. hom. Klin, Bd. 11, pp. 97, 105, 113.
Natrium sulfuricum holds as the chief agent for the hydrogenoid constitution. In many provings (for example, of Lembke) the aggravation from damp, wet weather, etc., naturally did not appear. But it has proven itself many times. There also exists chilliness; the patient cannot become warm in bed at night. On the contrary, the inclusion of so-called sycosis with wart formation and leukemia can scarcely be maintained. If in gonorrheal rheumatism, which is also ascribed to sycosis, at times good results are obtained, then too the joint pains from the provings offer a certain point of departure for this; but more important than the etiology is the modality worse from damp and wet weather.
To the hydrogenoid constitution also belong periodically appearing complaints. So natr. sulf. has acquired a reputation in chronic malaria. In moist skin eruptions the periodic recurrence each spring should suggest natr. sulf.
Brought into association with the hydrogenoid constitution is the clinical indication of bronchial asthma, particularly when morning diarrhea gives a further indication; dyspnea in foggy weather, each new chilling provoke an attack of asthma. Particularly the moist asthma with rales and childhood asthma should be suitable for natr. sulf. On coughing the patient must hold his chest; the cough compels him to raise up in bed. The sputum is said to be thin and greenish. Schussler has asserted that all secretions are yellow-green in color, and so too the leucorrhoea after female gonorrhea.
But natr. sulf. has also an empirically founded reputation in another constitutional domain, in metabolic disturbances from which the triad, obesity, diabetes and gout, remove themselves. A stronger influence on the liver, the great chemical workshop is attached to natr. sulf. For the excitation of bile preparation and excretion some experimental evidence is available. Naturally, the subjective symptoms, as sensitiveness of the liver region on contact, sticking and tension in the depth of the liver region, worse from pressure and from lying on the left side, can support this affinity only slightly. The disturbances of secretion in the upper intestinal segment, particularly in the duodenum, add themselves for the explanation of medicinal effectiveness in the so-called bilious states with the accompany- ing headache and migraine as well as inflammatory processes in the biliary passages with icterus. But likewise other functions of the liver and perhaps also of the pancreas seem to be under the influence of natr. sulf. even if a certain basis fails at present. The oftrepeated recommendation in diabetes, in any case, should not be entirely lost from sight.
Apart form the bilious digestive disturbances to which a bitter taste and a dirty-gray-green or brown coating of the tongue belong, are found many symptoms in agreement with the acid dyspepsia of natr. carb. and natr. phos. The disposition, melancholia with the symptom, music makes him sad, recalls natr. carb. The disposition seems to be dependent upon the digestive disturbances, because, after the evacuation of stool, the cloudy frame of mind should clear up.
Best founded and confirmed though experience are the intestinal actions of natr. sulf. drawing pains about the umbilicus with flatulence, painful collections of gas, noises throughout the intestine with sudden pinching, then diarrhea with very offensive flatus. Often the stools are said to smell strongly of H2S. (That a reduction of sulfate occurs in the intestine is, however, excluded.) Lippe has characterized the natr. sulf. diarrhea in the following manner: diarrhea worse early morning, first flatulent colic, then yellow watery stools mixed with small clumps of feces, coming in gushes. With each stool is a marked evacuation of gas.
Leeser, a Consultant Physician at the Stuttgart Homeopathic Hospital and a member of the German Central Society of Homeopathic Physicians, fled Germany in 1933 after being expelled by the German Medical Association. In England Otto Leeser joined the staff of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital. He returned to Germany in the 1950s to run the Robert Bosch Homeopathic Hospital in Stuttgart, but died shortly after.
Otto Leeser wrote Textbook of Homeopathic Materia Medica, Leesers Lehrbuch der Homöopathie, Actionsand Medicinal use of Snake Venoms, Solanaceae, The Contribution of Homeopathy to the Development of Medicine, Homeopathy and chemotherapy, and many articles submitted to The British Homeopathic Journal,