At that time the cough had completely disappeared, no foreign sounds in the lungs, the dyspnoea on exertion had become less. The hypertrophy of the heart was of course just the same. I advised the patient to see me at the intervals of one month. The blood pressure on practically every occasion had been 120/95. He had no attack of headache and no cough. Patient has not seen me now since May last, but on inquiry I have learnt that he is getting on quite well.
DISCUSSION.
DR. L. D. DHAWALE: While treating cases of hypertension one should try to decide whether the patient is psoric, sycotic or syphilitic. In psoric cases there are a large number of subjective symptoms. In sycotic cases, the pathological changes are more apparent, subjective symptoms being few.
Iodine, Phosphorus, Arsenic, Strychnine and their compounds are the most important remedies indicated in the degenerative changes of the cardiac apparatus. Adonis in some cases relieves the patient of the oedema and acts very powerfully in certain cases. In coronary thrombosis, Arnica and Kali mur would prove useful in absorption of the pathological products in the cardiac muscle caused by the disease.
The modalities given by Dr. Vaidya are not very characteristic and are very few. Phosphorus proved useful in the case because it has action on the respiratory as well as the cardiac symptoms. In finding out a similar remedy, a thought should be given whether the remedy to be selected has got an action on the particular tissue or organ which is the seat of the disease in that particular case.
Silicea lacks in the list of remedies given in the Synoptic Key (By C. M. Boger), for Heart, Circulation and Pulse. The treatment in Dr. Vaidyas case therefore, could better have been started with Phosphorus than with Silicea. It is worth while to remember that repertory analysis of the case is not the final appeal in the selection of the similar remedy. The presence of the highest number of marks in favour of any particular remedy in the study, is not a sure sign for its being a similar remedy in that particular case. The final appeal has to be carried to Materia Medica to settle the final claim of the most similar remedy from amongst those few which top the list in the repertory analysis. From analysis, one has to go to synthesis, to evolve the similar drug picture for the case on hand.
I would like to endorse my opinion that very often hypertension is brought under control of the indicated homoeopathic remedy.
