TREATMENT.- If the exciting cause be known, the medicine most closely indicated in such a case should be administered, but if the cause cannot be ascertained, Camphor may be employed at once pending the arrival of professional assistance, or until the choice of the appropriate remedy can be made. The Camphor may be given by inhalation, or by putting a drop of the tincture of the tip of the little finger, and inserting it between the lips of the patient. After Camphor, Belladonna and Chamomilla and the most important remedies.
EPITOME OF TREATMENT
From Teething.- Aconite, Belladonna, Chamomilla, Kali Bromium, Verbascum-Vir.
From Mental Emotions. – Aconite, Opi., Coffea.
From Gastric Derangements. — Nux V. (constipation), Ipecac. (vomiting), Puls, (from fatty food).
From Brain Disease. – Aconite, Belladonna, Gelsemium, Helleborus, Hyoscyamus, Kali Bromium, Verbascum-Vir.
From Repelled Eruptions.- Ammonium-Carb., Belladonna, Bryonia
From Worms.- Calcarea carb., Cina., Ignatia, Sulphur
INDICATIONS FROM SOME OF THE MOST USEFUL REMEDIES.
Aconitum.-Fever; restlessness; fits caused by fright or excitement.
Belladonna.- Red face; brilliant eyes; heat of the head; starting at the least noise; rigidity of the whole body.
Bryonia.- From repelled eruptions; cough and difficulty of breathing.
Camphor.- Depression of the fontanelles.- (For infants one or two drops on a little loaf sugar, which should be crushed and mixed, and a small quantity of the camphorated sugar placed on the child’s tongue.
Chamomilla.- Redness of one cheek, and other being pale; twitching of the muscles of the face, sour vomiting.
Hyoscyamus.- Much starting and twitching in sleep; heaviness of the head, and fretfulness.
Opium.- Dark red or purple, swollen and hot face; turning the eyes upward; insensibility to light; snoring breathing; suppressed urine; confined bowels.
Veratrum Viride.- Convulsions following each other rapidly.
ACCESSORY TREATMENT.- The clothing should at once be loosened, the head raised, and face sprinkled with cold water, and fresh air be admitted. Should the child not at once recover, he should be placed in a warm bath at 90o, as follows :-
The patient should be immersed in water up to the neck, and directly afterwards a towel or sponge, squeezed out of cold water, applied to the head; the cold towel or sponge may be applied for about two minutes, but the patient kept in the bath for five or ten minutes. The temperature should be full maintained, by additions of hot water carefully poured down the side of the bath till the patient is taken out. The bath should be given in front of a good fire, and a warmed blanket be in readiness to wrap the child in directly he leaves the bath. The hot bath is of great service; it draws the blood from the over- loaded brain to the general surface of the body.
If there be sickness without vomiting, warm water should be administered, or the throat tickled with a feather. If the child’s bowels are constipated, a simple enema should be given. When a nursing mother becomes over-heated, or violently excited, her blood and milk are thereby poisoned. Under such circumstances the milk should be withdrawn, and the brain and blood allowed to cool down before nursing again, or serious or even fatal results may ensue. In some cases one or two doses of Aconite or Opium should be given to the mother.
PREVENTIVE.- When there is a tendency to Convulsions, as shown by a foul tongue and breath, disordered evacuations, with screaming, restlessness, etc., the addition of lime-water to the child’s milk (a table-spoonful to a feeding-bottle of milk) often acts as a preventive. It has been thought that the old remedy – Hyd.cum creta – owed its doubtful reputation to the quantity of chalk this preparation contained, the chalk neutralizing to a certain extent the acid secretions of the intestinal canal.
35. Spasmodic Croup – Child-crowing (Laryngismus Stridulus.)
DEFINITION.- These names are applied to a disease quite distinct from true Croup (see Section 48), for it is a purely nervous affection, including Spasm of the glottis. It occurs in early childhood, before the end of the first dentition.
CAUSES.- Child-crowing is essentially a nervous disorder, the one almost constant antecedent or concomitant of which is Rickets.
SYMPTOMS.- It comes on suddenly, most often in the night, with a spasm of the glottis. The child stops breathing, becomes livid and seems about to suffocate, when he gives a loud “crow”. This inspiratory effort is followed by rapid recovery. The spasm may last a few seconds or it may last minutes. Death sometimes occurs in an attack.
DIAGNOSIS FROM CROUP (Catarrhal Laryngitis).- Laryngismus Stridulus is a nervous spasm that comes on suddenly, and is not usually or necessarily attended with hoarseness, cough, or fever.
TREATMENT.- Aconite is of priceless value in Spasmodic Croup, and should be given before any other remedies – a dose every five or ten minutes, for three or four times, or until the spasm relaxes. Belladonna is also of great service, and is preferred to Aconite by some physicians.
INDICATIONS FOR THE ABOVE ABOVE OTHER REMEDIES.
Aconite Is to be preferred if the skin be hot and dry, and the pulse hard, full, and accelerated.
Belladonna- Much arterial and cerebral excitement.
Hepar-S – To be used after Aconite or Belladonna if wheezing or hoarseness is left after the spasm is relaxed.
Moschus.- When the constriction in the larynx feels as if caused by the vapour of sulphur, and with inclination to cough. Sambucus Nigra.- Suffocating cough, waking the child up in the middle of the night, with wheezing and difficult breathing, but without Croup.
Spongia.- An excellent remedy to be administered after Aconite or Belladonna, and for some days – a dose three times a day.
ACCESSORY MEANS.- Fomentation to the throat, by means of a sponge wrung out of hot water; the warm bath; squeezing cold water on the child’s face; making it retch by putting a finger or a feather down its throat; a whiff of chloroform; and the removal of any known existing cause, especially such as arise in the digestive organs.
36. Epilepsy – Falling-Sickness
DEFINITION.- Sudden and complete loss of consciousness and sensibility, with spasmodic contractions of the muscles, followed by exhaustion and deep sleep/ The fit is often ushered by a cry or scream, and the tongue is bitten unconsciously.
PREMONITORY SYMPTOMS.- An approaching seizure is sometimes announced by headache, shooting pains, giddiness, indistinctness of vision, sparks of various colours, strong odours, sneezing, strange tastes, hoarseness, humming noises, loud reports, irritability, dejection, and various illusions. But the most striking premonition is the aura epileptica, a peculiar sensation passing along the limbs, the had, or stomach, which, as soon as it stops, is followed by the fit.
SYMPTOMS.- The patient utters a loud terrifying shriek, and falls convulsed and insensible. The movements of the head and neck are often most violent, one side being more affected than the other; the jaws are clenched, foam issues from the mouth, often tinged with blood from the tongue being bitten; the eyes are fixed and staring, or roll about; the hands are firmly clenched over the thumbs; urine and faeces sometimes escape involuntarily; breathing is difficult, the face pale, the veins of the forehead distended; the heart’s action violent and irregular, and death seems inevitable. After from one to three minutes the fit relaxes, leaving the patient insensible, and in a profound sleep. On awaking, the child generally seems bewildered.
There is a milder form, in which the child suddenly leaves off play, stands stupefied for a few seconds, the face turning pale, then resumes his play, as if nothing had occurred. This is le petit mal of the French, and may grow into the severer form, le grand mal, previously described.
CAUSES.- Hereditary tendency : injury of the skull; local irritation, as a splinter or shot under the skin; tumours; inflammation; parasites in the brain; malformation of, or deposits in the skull; cutting teeth. The exciting causes in children are fright, fits or rage, nervous perturbation, Hysteria, physical and psychical prostration. Fits are most likely to occur between the second and tenth years, during the period of the second dentition.
Other causes are – gastric disorder, the irritation of worms, repelled eruptions, especially about the head. This disease is more amenable to treatment in children than in adults; but hereditary tendency is always an unfavourable element in a case.
TREATMENT.-1. During the fit.- It is very doubtful whether any medicine is of much service when given immediately before the occurrence of or during a paroxysm. 2. Between the fits.- Belladonna, Calcarea carb., and Cuprum have acquired the highest reputation in the treatment of this disease. A dose of the selected remedy may be administered once or twice a day.
INDICATIONS FOR THE ABOVE AND OTHER REMEDIES.
Acidum Hydrocyanicum.- Recent Epilepsy.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.
Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."