4. INCIDENTAL DISEASES



The importance of this last point cannot be too strongly stated, for without due attention to cleanliness all other efforts may prove futile. The leucorrhoeal secretion is at best exceedingly irritating, but when it is permitted to accumulate and remain for a long time in contact with the mucous membrane, it becomes partly decomposed, foetid, and highly pernicious to the healthy condition of the parts. On this account the frequent and thorough use of local applications of tepid or cool water should be strictly carried out. The use of the enema syringe, having the vaginal tube attached, is necessary efficiently to carry out this part of the treatment. For delicate ladies we recommended.

THE VAGINAL OR UTERINE DOUCHE. – In order to insure a continuous stream of water on the lower portion of the womb, and on the vaginal mucous surfaces, without any any manual effort on the part of the patient, a self acting douche has been constructed. It consists of a japanned metal reservoir, fitted with six or more feet of tubing, to which a vaginal pipe with an ivory nipple is attached.

The reservoir has merely to be filled and suspended above the level of the hips, when a continuous stream is obtained, the force of which is easily regulated by a stop cock. The degree of pressure can be increased by a greater or less elevation of the vessel. The water for the douche should never be cold when pregnancy is supposed to exist.

17. – INFANTILE LEUCORRHOEA

DEFINITION – Catarrhal inflammation of the vulva, occurring chiefly in strumous children.

SYMPTOMS – Irritation of the vulva, occasioning a frequent desire to rub the part, sometimes slight pain in passing water, and a tin, colourless, or thick creamy discharge. In unhealthy children, of bad hygienic conditions, the Leucorrhoea may become copious and corrosive, giving rise to ulceration of the mucous membrane. The discharge is infectious, causing severe inflammation if brought in contact with the lining of the eye, or other mucous surface.

CAUSES – Sudden check of perspiration or exposure to cold; acrid urine; neglect of cleanliness; the use of infected sponges 1 (1 Mr. Copper Forster relates a case in which a woman communicated an infectious discharge to two girls by washing them with her own sponge.) worms; manual irritation, etc.

DIAGNOSIS – Girls of all ages are liable to a discharge from the vulva, quite independently of infectious matter. The remembrance of this fact may save much distress; for the occurrence of this discharge in children has often caused unfounded suspicious and anxiety.

But the absence of swelling, heat, and redness; the limitation of the discharge to the external parts, and the integrity of the hymen, tend to prove that the affection has not been communicated. In infectious discharges, the parts are inflamed and swollen, the inflammation extending high up into the vagina, and passing of urine causes pain.

MEDICINAL TREATMENT. –

Calcarea C. – Chronic whites in strumous children, the discharge being milky.

Cannabis Sativa – When the discharge is yellowish, and there is swelling, heat and redness of the parts and painful urination.

Iodium – For the leucorrhoea of strumous children; the discharge is usually thin and offensive; and there is considerable emaciation.

Mercurius Cor. – Acrid yellowish discharge with soreness, scalding urine etc.

Pulsatilla – Milky discharge in children of fair complexion, with symptoms of indigestion or catarrh.

Teucrium – Leucorrhoea from the irritation of thread worms.

For additional remedies and fuller details of symptoms, the previous Section should be consulted.

ACCESSORY MEASURES – The parts should be frequently washed with tepid or cool soft water, carefully dried, and a little finely powdered starch or violet powder applied. The diet should be good and digestible, taken regularly in three meals daily, and properly varied. Fresh air is necessary but without too much exercise at first. Salt baths, sea-air, and cod-liver-oil are often advantageous, and in strumous children essential; for the general health, which is at fault, must be corrected before a cure can be effected. When worms are the exciting cause, the treatment pointed out in the Author’s work on the “Diseases of Infants and Children’ should be carried out.

18 – CHLOROSIS – GREEN SICKNESS

DEFINITION – A condition of general-debility affecting young women at about the age of puberty (from sixteen to twenty-five years of age), due probably to nervous causes. There is anaemia or deficiency of the red corpuscles of the blood, which gives the skin a pale, yellowish, or greenish, and almost transparent hue. The greenish hue is so characteristic as to have given rise to the name – “green sickness”.

The temperature of the body is diminished, and morbidly sensitive to cold. There is generally delayed, suppressed, or imperfectly performed menstruation. Respiration, circulation, and digestion are also disturbed, and the whole organism, physical and mental, is feeble and enervated.

SYMPTOMS – In addition to those given in the preceding paragraph, the following symptoms are always more or less prominent:- loss of appetite, the patient often subsisting upon an incredibly small quantity of food; or the appetite is perverted, and such articles craved for as chalk, coal, cinders, etc. In other cases, the appetite becomes fitful, or the patient eats simply as a duty. Most patients complain of obstinate constipation, or this condition may be alternated with relaxation. Sometimes the breath is offensive, or there may be ulceration of the stomach, and persistent vomiting, or even Haematemesis. These and other gastric disturbances are attended by loss of the cellular tissues, and even wasting of the muscles.

The face becomes puffy, and the features somewhat observed; the eyes languish, the lids are oedematous, and surrounded by dark circles, which strongly contrast with the pearly translucent appearance of the white of the eyes, and the pallor of the lips. A species of dropsy, most generally affecting the ankles, is often present, and the whole surface is dry and bloodless. The hands are shriveled, and the nails brittle. Nervous affections of the heart, unattended by any structural change, are very common, with palpitation, chilly turns, with cold and often oedematous extremities. The pulse is usually, but not invariably slower, and also weaker than in health. But the most marked symptom affecting the circulation is the anaemic bruit or bruit de diable; this is a continuous humming or cooling sound heard over the precordial region, and especially over the large blood- vessels of the neck. It can also be felt, and under the finger resembles the vibrations of a musical cord. It is supposed to be due to the tenuity of the blood.

CHLOROSIS AND ANAEMIA – The table on the following page, from Dr. Ludlam’s Clinical Lectures, with enable the reader indistinguish between these diseases. Sometimes the symptoms are less clearly marked than in the table, and probably in rare cases the two diseases may co-exist.

It is very rare for Chlorosis to exit without menstrual irregularities; Amenorrhoea is the most common complication. Sometimes the monthly discharge, if it every occurred, is superseded by a copious Leucorrhoea. The co-existence of non- menstruation and gastric disturbance has sometimes given rise to a suspicion of pregnancy, and we have not infrequently been consulted from the fear which has thus been excited.

Chlorotic patients become listless lethargic, and melancholy. They lose interest in society and in the general events of life, preferring solitude and quiet repose. There is frequently paroxysmal, often regularly periodic headache, chiefly affecting one temple, greatly aggravated by over anxiety, worry and other emotional influences. In short, as the foundation of all the symptoms, the nervous system is so completely the seat of the disease that there is not an organ, or tissue, or fluid of the body that escapes.

CAUSES – The chief predisposing causes are the lymphatic temperament, and a tendency to struma. In these persons the blood-making function is liable to such disorder as results in a deteriorated quality of that fluid.

CHLOROSIS

1. Is an idiopathic affection 2. Is not caused by loss of blood or other debilitating discharge. 3. May result suddenly from mental causes alone.

4. The mental and nervous symptoms are especially prominent.

5. The nervous symptoms initiate an attack.

6. Fugitive neuralgic pains in the head, the spine, the stomach, the chest, and especially in the side, are almost invariably present.

7. May be accompanied or followed hysterical spasms, Chorea, Paralysis, or Epilepsy

8. The skin is of a greenish or greenish-yellowish tint.

9. Haemorrhages are not very frequent.

10. Is very rare in male subjects. 11. Rarely happens in those who are under twelve or over thirty years old.

12. Is limited to women of tympanitic temperament.

13. Is very liable to be accompanied by suppression or retention of the menses.

14. May exist and run its course without any perceptible change in the composition of the blood.

Edward Harris Ruddock
Ruddock, E. H. (Edward Harris), 1822-1875. M.D.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.

Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."