SNAKE POISONS



Lachesis is also a flatulent remedy. When the abdomen is distended with flatus and even the least touch of clothing is distressing Lachesis will do good. He is generally dyspeptic and feels worse after eating and return again when the stomach becomes empty. Abdomen is hot and sensitive, painful and tympanitic and all clothing around the waist creates much uneasiness and until he loses all the clothing he is restless.

The liver region is sensitive; liver troubles with jaundice, vomiting of bile, continuous nausea, gallstone colic are generally Lachesis indications but Crotalus has a more specific action on liver.

Diarrhoea and constipation alternate in Lachesis patients. There is obstinate constipation but more often there is violent, painful, watery, light yellow, dark or chocolate-colored foul smelling diarrhoea, evacuations of decomposed blood looking like charred straw, mixed blood and slime, < at night and during warm weather. The anus feels tight and pain darts up the rectum every time he sneezes or coughs; haemorrhages from the bowels like charred straw, black particles; haemorrhoids protrude and bleed, freely, become constricted and purplish. Hard stools like sheeps dung.

The urine is almost black; frequent, foamy and dark due to degeneration and decomposition of blood. Difficult and painful micturition and violent pains in urethra. Lachesis corresponds to all the general symptoms appearing in women at the menopause or climacteric changes; the flushes, the nervous sensibilities, all the pains and the mental and moral symptoms at this period required Lachesis. Dysmenorrhoea when the menses is delayed and scanty, and headache, generally precede the flow. He feels as if a ball were moving loose in the bladder.

Lachesis is extremely useful in ulcers, carbuncles, abscesses, malignant pustules when they have a bluish appearance and have intense burning pain relieved when cold water is poured over. The big abscesses are surrounded with small boils in crops, and black swellings and itching over the whole body are some of its skin symptoms. The skin presents a purplish, mottled, spotted appearance. In severe forms of typhoid fever with the characteristic sensitiveness, slow and muttering delirium and aversion to bed clothes, loquacity, tremor of hands, dry parched leather-like tongue, debilitating offensive diarrhoea with bloody evacuations like charred straw Lachesis works wonders.

It is likewise indicated in certain types of malarial fevers when the chill starts from the small of the back, with shivering and trembling of teeth; during the chill he must be held tightly and firmly. The perspirations is profuse and smells like garlic. Intermittents recurring every spring or after suppression by quinine are cured by Lachesis. Lachesis patients have a great desire for oysters, wines, liquors and coffee and have a general aversion to food, acids and drinks.

The aggravation from sleep, the general location of the symptoms on the left side of the body or beginning in the left side and changing to the right; the feeling of constriction and hypersensitiveness and the manifold ailments at the climacteric period and the peculiar mental symptoms are the leading characteristics of the remedy.

We have verified all these symptoms in our practice and even when the drug is routinely prescribed on single symptoms we have seen it work wonders. Lachesis has converted many an admirer of allopathy into a homoeopath.

CASE: Lady, age 41, was suddenly attacked with paralysis while eating some fruits on a summer evening. The whole left side was affected; the arm and the leg were becoming paralyzed. She became unconscious for a half hour and gradually regained her consciousness. I was then called for. After carefully examining the patient I found that there was constriction in the throat and moreover it was the climacteric period and a left-sided affection. So I gave her Lachesis 1000, one dose. In three hours she was able to get up and gradually recovered in six hours. Continued Sac. lac. She was completely recovered in four days and never had another attack though 4 years have passed.

ANOTHER CASE: Man, age 62. Diabetic patient. Specific gravity 1036. Had a carbuncle on the back and was operated by some allopath. On the third day of operation the bandage was opened for dressing. The wound was in a very bad condition. The adjacent tissue was degenerated and the surrounding pars became mottled. The doctor told them that it should be operated again but they did not accept the second operation and wanted me to see the case. I went there and found that the wound was completely decomposed, discharging an offensive blackish fluid. The patient was slightly delirious and the whole body had become septic. I gave him Lachesis 10M., one dose and gave placebo to be repeated every hour. By the next morning the delirium had gone and the patient looked cheerful. Continued Sac. lac. The patient was gradually improved and was completely recovered in 14 days.

CROTALUS HORRIDUS.

It is preeminently a haemorrhagic remedy. There is bleeding from every orifice of the body even from the pores of the skin. In zymotic diseases blood oozes out from skin, nails, gums, and every outlet. It corresponds to low septic states and general disorganization of the blood. There is extreme prostration of the vital forces as a result of haemorrhage in typhoid, smallpox, measles and other zymotic diseases. It is an excellent remedy in purpura haemorrhagica, malignant diphtheria and malignant jaundice. This remedy is indicated in all cases of blood decomposition, tendency to carbuncles, plague, cholera and scarlatina. The whole body is yellow and it is a very important remedy in yellow fever and it acts even as a prophylactic in yellow fever epidemic. The jaundice is attended with haemorrhages and ecchymoses in this remedy.

It is a good remedy for cerebrospinal meningitis. The complaints of a Crotalus patient have a peculiar periodicity of appearing in every spring when the cold weather subsides and warm weather begins. The blood poisoning in Crotalus is so rapid that the patient grows unconscious very quickly and drifts soon into a low muttering delirium. This remedy is indicated in amblyopia and momentary disappearance of vision also.

CASE: Male. Aged 25. Attacked with measles. Had temperature of 104. The whole skin became scarlet red. I gave him Belladonna 6x., one dose every 4 hours. The temperature did not come down. It continued for three days and in the fourth day the temperature suddenly came down to 97. Then he had vomited blood, coffee colored. I gave him Arsenic. alb.200, one dose, but to no effect. The whole body became cold and the vomiting persisted. On close study of the vomiting matter, I gave Crotalus one dose on the symptom of vomitus of black blood and the thinness of the blood which did not become coagulated. The vomiting immediately stopped. Gave Sac. lac. By the next day he was quite all right.

NAJA TRIPUDIANS.

When there is a tendency of all complaints to settle about the heart, when the patient is threatened with paralysis of the heart and where there are hypertrophy and valvular lesions, Naja is the indicated remedy. In the Naja patient there is a suicidal tendency, depression of mental and physical powers. He feels worse form stimulants as the heart cannot bear any stimulus and feels much relieved when walking in open air. He faints easily and cannot support himself even in sitting posture.

His pulse is irregular and the affections of the heart are manifold. There is acute and chronic endocarditis. His heart is much affected as a result of infectious diseases. He suffers frequently form angina pectoris. Naja is very useful for reviving a heart damaged by acute inflammation and for sufferings of chronic hypertrophy and valvular lesions and is also indicated in rheumatic endocarditis. The Naja patient appears as if intoxicated, feels great uneasiness and has a loss of sense of feeling. He suffers from headache every morning; there is a general < from exertion. It is an excellent remedy for cardiac asthma; chronic nervous palpitation with inability to speak on account of choking.

ELAPS CORALLINUS.

It has a much limited sphere of action and is specially indicated in some affections of the ear, nose and throat. It is indicated in pains in the ear with sudden deafness accompanied with roaring and cracking in the ears in the nights. The patient suffers from chronic otorrhoea with deafness and buzzing in ears. Its discharges are black. It is useful in ozaena. It is also indicated in violent headaches beginning in the left and then in the right eye and extending to the occiput. It is a good remedy for uterine cancer if the discharge is black.

VIPERA TORVA.

This is the best remedy for varicose veins and acute phlebitis. There is a bursting pain in the affected parts when they are allowed to hang down. The patient feels great relief by having the extremity elevated.

This is also indicated when there is jaundice as a result of mental emotions and the liver is enlarged and painful. Excruciating pain radiates to the shoulder and from there down to the hip.

Lanka Rama Rao