Editorial

MANAGEMENT OF LEPROSY LOCAL SYMPTOMS.

1. Skin; Hyperaesthesia Anaesthesia. Hyperaesthesia followed by Anaesthesia Thickness of skin Elevations of the surface Discolourations Formation of nodules or tubercles colour of the tubercles, brown, dark red Fissures and desquamations Hairs fall out finger nails decay Pale red discolourations Dark brown or black stains white and glistening spots. Bullous eruptions upon skin. Spots location, colour, shape, sensations, ulcerations. Discharges. Skin dry, thin, wrinkled. Oily skin or oily face.

2. Tubercles location, painful, painless, ulcerated, shape irregular, appearance smooth and glistening. Colour, pale red, dark brown etc.

3. Ulcers. Rapid extension, deep, fetid. Necrosed tissue slough away location of ulcers, fingers, toes, wrists, ankles, mucous membranes, mouth, nose, throat, larynx tongue, conjunctiva, cornea (destruction of iris).

4. Discharges, offensive, excoriating, scanty, profuse, colour (black, white, yellowish, bloody etc.) acrid, bland, bloody etc.

5. Conditions: Ulcers or eruptions worse or better in open air or a closed room. Better or worse by heat or cold, worse during day or night or noon or midnight. Sensitiveness to touch or devoid of all feelings. All aggravating or ameliorating circumstances.

6. Aggravations: Morning, noon, forenoon, afternoon, evening, night, midnight, after midnight. Early morning. Day or night. Seasons (summer, winter, spring, rains, etc). Heat, cold, open air. In a closed and heated room, warmth of bed, touch, motion. Fullmoon, new moon, decreasing or increasing moon, salt, sugar, acid, meat, fish, eggs, alternate days, sea-side. Lying, sitting, walking, ascending, descending, covering, uncovering. Fasting, coition, discharges. Light or darkness. During thunderstorm, etc.

7. Amelioration: Heat, cold, open air, cold application, etc. (see conditions under aggravation).

8. Nails, pale, fissured, brittle, crumbling, white spots etc.

9. Wandering pains, in bones, on various parts of body, aggravation and amelioration of the pain. Effects of heat and cold, rest or motion, etc.

10. Forms: Tubercular lepra or Anaesthetic lepra or lepra Maculosa.

11. Complications: Erysipelas, elephantiasis Arabum,Syphilis, Scabies, flavus, eczema, Herpes, Pneumonia, Pleurisy, Pericarditis, Peritonitis, Nephritis, Hepatitis, Iritis, Conjunctivitis, Leprous fever etc.

12. Leprous fever, chill, its time, duration, symptoms during chill. Heat, symptoms during heat, sweat, its quantity, time, smell, colour, symptoms during sweat. Thirst, appetite, restlessness, burning, headache, etc. (as in the treatment of Malaria). Time of the fever should be carefully noted; also the attending symptoms of fever.

GENERAL SYMPTOMS.

1. Head pain, its location, its time, and its aggravations and ameliorations. Vertigo (agg. and amelioration), Falling off of hair, heaviness of head, eruptions and their nature and conditions, etc.

2. Eyes Lachrymation, its time, profuse or scanty, salty tears, hot or cold tears, ulceration, iritis etc. Effects of heat and cold, cold application and application of heat. Time of the aggravation of the eye symptoms.

3. Ear Enlarged, discoloured, ulcers etc. Pus from ear, its colour, quantity, smell, bland or acrid etc.

4. Nose, Eruptions, tubercles, ulcers, discolourations. Effects of heat and cold. Aggravation and ameliorations of nose symptoms, Epistaxis.

5. Tongue, its colour, ulcerations, eruption, aggravations and ameliorations.

6. Mouth, salivation, dryness, ulceration, offensive breath, taste of mouth, aggravation and amelioration of mouth symptoms. Effects of heat and cold.

7. Aversions to meat, fish, sugar, sweets, salt, hot food, cold food, milk butter, bread, eggs etc.

8. Craving for sweets, salt or salty things, milk, tea, fish eggs, meat, etc.

9. Desire for open air, chilliness in open air, avoids open air, wants warm covering etc. Wants company or wants to remain alone.

10. Mind, irritable, angry, weeping mood, cheerful, hopeless of cure, fear of death, thinks it useless to take medicine, etc.

11. Stool constipation or diarrhoea, colour of stool, smell, quantity, painful or painless. Pain continues after stool. Pain ceases after stool. Hard stool, first part hard, rest soft or thin or watery. Sensation after stool as if not finished. Stool partly expelled but reenters rectum, etc.

12. Urine, offensive, sediments, scanty urine or profuse urine, hot or cold urine, foamy urine, painful urine etc.

13. Sweat, palms, soles, feet, armpit, head, back, single parts, character, quantity, its time, colour, smell etc.

14. Salivation, fetid, bloody, profuse, thick, sweat, salty, sour, at night during sleep, constant, etc.

15. Effects of ascending or descending, lying on a particular side. Sleeps in knees chest position.

16. Sleep and dream with their peculiarities.

17. Cough, its aggravates or amelioration, type of expectoration etc.

18. Sensations and pains with their aggravations and ameliorations.

19. General peculiarities about the patient. Desire for bath or aversion to bath. Wants to remain clean or dirty, etc. condition of hair, nail.

20. Family history of tubercular diseases, Gonorrhoea, Syphilis, Cancer, Ringworm, Asthma, Hysteria, Epilepsy etc. Personal history.

21. Precautions: In all suspected cases blood is to be examined in order to determine the presence or absence of the bacillus of lepra. Most rigorous isolation should be enforced. Lepra bacilli are destroyed with great difficulty, they live and multiply for a long time even after the death of the patient whose body they inhabit. Hence burial is a source of danger. Meat, fish, eggs and other kinds of animal food should not be taken by the patients.

Coition is injurious. Dals or pulse like Mussoor, urad are to be avoided. Regular bath in the Ganges, daily application of the mud from the bed of the Ganges and drinking of Ganges water are advisable. Bland and nutritious diet is recommended. Measures are to be taken to improve the general condition of the patient. A different climate and improved modes of life often ameliorate the disease.

GENERAL OBSERVATION.

Leprosy is a chronic and constitutional disease exhibiting numerous local and general symptoms. Like all other chronic diseases it should be treated with carefully selected Homoeopathic drugs and rules for treatment of chronic diseases are to be closely followed. Due attention is to be paid to the subjective and objective symptoms and remedies should not be frequently changed or repeated.

A master prescriber belonging to the new school of medicine has a fair chance of curing this disease. Some cases, of course, will resist even the most efficient treatment, but it is not peculiar to Leprosy alone, it occurs even in curable diseases like typhoid, cholera, Pneumonia, etc. So every homoeopath, quite unmindful of occasional failures, should make honest endeavours to cure leprosy in all its forms and stages.