NATRUM SULPHURICUM
Put on your rain coat and rubbers. Here comes Glaubers Salt (Sal Mirable). A shorter word for Nat. s. is wet. So much so that one needing it may be upset even by eating plants which thrive near water. he is also disturbed by residence in damp cellars, on marshy ground, from spring weather or change from dry to wet weather. It leads all others in Von Grauvogls hydrogenoid constitution, meaning too much fluid in the blood and tissues. One would naturally expect this remedy to help evacuate dropsies of different sorts but it has never been useful here so far as I can discover.
Also on approach of a storm Nat. s. does not appear. Rhod. and Psor. are leaders here with Agar, Cedr, Gels, Kali b, Lach, Lyc, Nat c, Phos, Rhus t, Ran b, Sep and Tub, trailing. Not even on getting wet where Rhus t, Calc, Caust, Puls, and Sep are tops. Nor in wetting of feet of Puls, and Sil; nor of head of Bell and Puls. But in wet weather, especially in asthma, diarrhoea, rheumatism and neuralgia, Nat. s. is out in front.
Dont get the idea that dampness is the whole of Nat. s. There is a deal more to it. For instance, liver. Just listen to this. “Great sensitiveness in liver, very painful when touched, cannot bear lightest clothing about waist, bilious colic, excruciating pains, jaundiced with watery blisters, vomiting of bile, of sour then bitter fluid, acidity, tension, sticking pains on walking, on taking a deep breath, sharp violent stitch in right abdomen, as if liver would burst open there, worse at 4 p.m. sitting, and unchanged by pressure.”
In gall stone colic it holds high rank along with such old reliables as Bell, Berb, Card mar, Lyc, and Verat. For asthma, especially of children, it is a outstanding as Ars, Cham, Ip, Nux v, Puls and Samb, each in its own place with its exclusive syndrome. Here great dyspnoea, with desire to take a deep breath, during damp weather points the way to Nat s. And if in addition there be copious expectoration particularly greenish, one need not look further. In some asthmas of children where, in addition to the wheezing and frequency of attack, there is the great prostration one would expect in Ars, and Ars. palliates only, try Nat x. It has saved the day in such cases.
I mean cures, and by cure I mean that it not only clears up untoward symptoms, but brings the patient to an improved state of health, a sequence seen only in homoeopathic prescribing. We talk much about the similimum, but when there is recovery from illness and subsequent better general health, more pep, we know. Here is a gem of that elusive thing we dub truth. What a grand and glorious feeling to hit the bulls eye; and I know of no other way to improve our marksmanship in this respect than that of persistent study, digging, hammering it out, midnight oil.
It is, and I suppose will continue to be, a mystery why, to put on their show, certain drugs go for their own spot in our anatomy. Why Sang. selects the right shoulder, Led and Sul. the left, Nit ac. margins of outlets, Kali b. the nose, Con. and Phyt the breast, Bry. the serous membranes. Solidago for kidneys, Bell, Lyc and Podo the right and Arg n, Lach and Podo the left ovary. The Nat s pain in the left lower chest is as characteristic as that of Kali c for the right lower chest.
Experience teaches us that Bry. puts a stop to many chest pains, striking at the root of the trouble; its pain on motion is in our minds first of all, but Nat s. has that also. However, there is no need for confusion here as Bry. is a dry as Nat s. is wet. Copious expectoration eliminates dusty Bry. Pressure on the sore spot aggravates or makes no difference in Nat s. cases, while everyone knows the relief from pressure of a Bry. pain.
Diarrhoea after rising in the morning is as marked in Nat s as the hurry-out-of bed of our old friend Sul., other symptoms agreeing and of course wet weather brings it on. And there must be reason for Bogers largest print of FLATULENCE, GURGLING IN BOWELS, THEN SUDDEN, GUSHING, NOISY, SPUTTERING STOOL.
Nat. s. is Schuesslers specific for epidemic influenza where it has given good account of itself, witness Plumb Browns case records. But specific for any disease is a lie, there being no such animal. so if we have any such motion, the sooner we dismiss it as a myth, the better for our prescribing. Consideration of results, ultimates of disease, as basis for a prescription is another stumbling-block just as difficult to eradicate from our slow-learning minds.
Nat s. occupies a very useful place in late effects of head injuries. The mauling of mastoidectomy comes under this head, and it has been our good fortune to see Nat s at work here. By the way this operation is less often necessary under Homoeopathic prescribing. Seeing a ripe, discharging, oedematous, necrotic mastoid resolve under Silica medication is too much to believe, expect it has been under ones personal observation; so we wont burden you with that.
This being a symposium on Nat s I leave off here this incomplete picture. And, besides, we are beginning to wander from our subject.
