QUESTIONS
1. What are the complementary remedies of Kali mur., especially in chronic catarrh of the nose and throat?-M.D.BAIG.
ANSWERS TO QUESTION IN THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE.
Referring to Tuberculinum test., of what is the “test” the abbreviation?.
-The remedy is Tuberculinum testis, made from a tubercular testicle.-E. W. HUBBARD.
ANSWERS TO QUESTION IN THE NOVEMBER ISSUE.
What is the most frequently indicated remedy in angina pectoris?.
-In answer to the above question I refer to an article in the Pacific Coast Journal of Homoeopathy, Vol. XLI, April 1930 p. 128, Therapeutic of Angina Pectoris by Francois Cartier of Paris, France, part of which I am abstracting.
Hydrocyanic acid or Glonoinum for paroxysm. In false angina due to tobacco, lead, alcoholism, etc., Spigelia can remove the cause and prevent the attack, especially when diurnal, because Spigelia has an aggravation corresponding to the course of the sun. Violence is marked in this remedy with intense pain especially on the left side with a sensation as if the heart were being squeezed or compressed with a hand, or as if everything were too tight in the chest, or as if something were tearing in the parts. Lilium tigrinum is much indicated in females. Moschus for attacks due to nervousness or hysteria. Spigelia is also indicated in true anginas but it does not act immediately on the tissues.
In the comparative study of Spigelia and Tabacum we see clearly that the two remedies function differently. Tab. acts slowly in pathological lesions; Spig. acts rapidly like Aconite upon the nerves of the heart and kills through the nerve centers. The pathogenesis of Tab. is very interesting.
The circulatory system furnishes well-known arguments for condemning tobacco. It effects on the heart and vessels are doubled. There are at first evident marks of irritation by poisoning, and finally a generalized fibrous degeneration of the heart and vessels, similar but in a less degree than the intoxication by alcohol and lead. In advanced cases there is a marked arteriosclerosis especially of the coronary arteries.
The first stage, that of extreme irritation, is seen often in young smokers of cigarettes, and is characterized by palpitations, by irregularities and by tachycardia. The following stage seems to be especially vaso-motor: the intoxication produces a vaso constriction of the capillaries. Frequently is noted pain in the praecordial region of an anginous character probably due to a spasm of the coronary vessels. Syncope and a retardation of the two ventricles are not rate; they are associated with a pulse that is small and at the same time tense, chill and paleness of the extremities.
The third stage is characterized by attacks simulating true angina and is very likely due to an established arteriosclerosis of the coronary arteries. In this stage are also seen attacks of fainting arising from the same cause as in bradycardia. This bradycardia or slowness of the pulse is due to the cardiac obstacle that hinders the passage of the cardiac impulsion through the “Fascicle of His” in the auriculo-ventricular system. In certain conditions of poisoning only one out of two or three auricular impulses reach the ventricle (Dolbey). Special studies have been made in France and they have proved that tobacco smoke can produce a hypertension of one or several degrees sometimes; but in grave cases tobacco becomes a depressor of the heart, and cases are cited where the pulse has fallen to 48 or 34.
Cowperthwaite advises Tabacum in angina. Indications: Pains radiate to sternum especially left side extending to left arm, with nausea, fainting, cold perspiration. Indicated in intermittent heart of aged. Indications by Clarke: Sudden praecordial anguish, general coldness, nausea, fainting. Angina from use of tobacco. Tabacum reproduces quite precisely the phenomena of angina pectoris with coronaritis. Spigelia has not in its toxicology the characteristics of coronary sclerosis such as is present in Tabacum.
Homoeopathy is best used outside the paroxysm. Long treatment with Baryta carb., Baryta mur. (This will be discussed under another article), Ars. iod., Nat. iod., etc.
Latrodectus mactans is a recent acquisition for angina. Its pathogenesis recalls angina: Acute pain from the sting, followed by increases and difficult respiration, fright, anxiety and fear of death. Consider Kalmia in angina of tobacco origin. Cuprum has slow pulse and crampy sensation. Dewey suggests Cimicifuga. Aurum has a sensation of weight like a heavy stone under the sternum. Haematoxylin has constriction and weight in the chest. Ressier suggests Plumbum (great neuritis remedy) in cases with small dicrotic pulse.
Allan D. Sutherland was born in Northfield, Vermont in 1897, delivered by the local homeopathic physician. The son of a Canadian Episcopalian minister, his father had arrived there to lead the local parish five years earlier and met his mother, who was the daughter of the president of the University of Norwich. Four years after Allan’s birth, ministerial work lead the family first to North Carolina and then to Connecticut a few years afterward.
Starting in 1920, Sutherland began his premedical studies and a year later, he began his medical education at Hahnemann Medical School in Philadelphia.
Sutherland graduated in 1925 and went on to intern at both Children’s Homeopathic Hospital and St. Luke’s Homeopathic Hospital. He then was appointed the chief resident at Children’s. With the conclusion of his residency and 2 years of clinical experience under his belt, Sutherland opened his own practice in Philadelphia while retaining a position at Children’s in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department.
In 1928, Sutherland decided to set up practice in Brattleboro.