4. INCIDENTAL DISEASES



15. The degree of change in the blood is in direct ratio with the degree of functional disease.

16. Is most common among the better classes of society.

ANAEMIA 1. Is an accident or sequel of other diseases.

2. Is frequently caused by haemorrhage, suppuration, Leucorrhoea, Diarrhoea, colliquative sweats, etc. 3. Never does. 4. Not so in Anaemia. 5. The opposite occurs in Anaemia. 6. These pains are lacking. 7. These complications and by sequelae are not incident to this affection. 8. The skin is blanched, pallid, puffy, and doughy. 9. Haemorrhages are very frequent. 10. Affects the sexes indiscriminately – men, women and children. 11. May occur at any age. 12. May happen to men and women of any temperament. 13. Is more likely to be accompanied by too frequent and copious menstruation. 14. Is always characterised by an impoverishment of the blood. 15. The impoverishment of the blood bears no necessary relation to the severity of disorder. 16. Is most common among the poorest classes.

Hence the relative diminution of the red corpuscles, and the proportionate increase in the watery part of the blood. This predisposition is fostered by hygienic conditions which tend to lower the standard of health, and to vitiate the progress of sanguinification (Ludlam).

Among the hygienic conditions, the most favourable to the production of Chlorosis are-confinement in badly ventilated or imperfectly lighted or shaded rooms-under ground kitchens and back rooms, shut in by high walls excluding the direct rays of the sun, and a free circulation of air – and deprivation of open air exercise and recreation. Some time since, the writer was requested to visit a chlorotic patient in London, in whom the symptoms were very marked. She lived in a large house thickly hemmed in by lofty buildings, and for convenience or from choice passed most of the day in a low dark room. We saw flowers in the upper rooms and remarked as we entered the patient’s room. “You have no flowers here.” Our patient quickly answered, “Oh no! they won’t grow in this room; they want more light.” But she failed to perceive that her devitalised frame and languishing nerve-power were the result of those bad hygienic conditions to which she should not even subject her plants!

Other causes are-too studious and sedentary habits; chronic inflammation of the intestinal canal; enlargement and inaction of the mesenteric glands; long-continued grief, unrequited love, anxiety, fright, or fatigue; abnormal excitation of the sexual organs; uterine or ovarian disease, innutritious food. Bread- and-butter forming the staple diet, the relish for animal food of every kind almost completely ceases. These and similar causes not merely effect gradual changes in the composition of the blood, but impair the process by which the blood itself is made.

EPITOME OF MEDICINAL TREATMENT –

1. For Cachexia. – Arsenicum, Calcarea carb., ferrum, Kal-C., Lycopodium, Natrum muriaticum, Sulphur

2. Nervous Symptoms – Aconite, Belladonna, Chamomilla, Coffea, Ignatia, Phosphorus-Ac.

3. Menstrual Irregularities – Calc-C., Chamomilla, Caulophyllum, Conium, Cyclamen, Graphites, Gelsemium, Helonias, Lep., Senec., Sepia

4. Digestive Symptoms – Lycopodium, Nux -V., Plumb., Pulsatilla

LEADING INDICATIONS FOR THE PRINCIPAL REMEDIES –

Arsenicum – OEdematous swelling of the feet, puffiness of the eyelids, distention of the abdomen morbid cravings, frequent fainting, and extreme debility.

Calcarea Carb. – In cases in which there is tendency to scrofula, or consumption, as evinced by the presence of glandular enlargements, cough etc., and in other cases attended with dropsical swellings of the feet and difficulty of breathing.

Cyclamen – The patient is pale, chilly, and languid, with nausea, loss of appetite, headache, vertigo, dimness of sight, and tendency to looseness of the bowels.

Ferrum – Fits of oppression, palpitation and anxiety, poor appetite, pale face, swelling of the face and ankles, absent, scanty, pale, or watery menstrual discharge, especially in patients of strumous constitutions and lymphatic temperament.

Graphites – Too late, scanty, painful menstruations, dull, pressive or wrenching pain in the lower part of the back, constipation, and unhealthy condition of the skin.

Helonias – Chlorosis with atonic conditions of the womb, and defective digestion and assimilation.

Ignatia – Nervousness; mental depression, or rapid emotional changes.

Natrum M. – Sadness, oppression, anxiety, coldness of the hips, heat in the face, weight in the abdomen, oedema, and with occasional, ineffectual indications of menstruation; constipation.

Phosphoric Acid. – Great debility, listlessness, and apathy; night sweats, leucorrhoea, etc., especially if the chlorosis be due to continued abnormal excitation of the sexual organs.

Plumbum M. – Chlorosis with obstinate constipation and a general cachectic condition.

Pulsatilla. – Scanty or absent menses; loss of appetite or, taste, and tendency to relaxed bowels; weeping mood. Pulsatilla is chiefly suited to uncomplicated cases.

Sepia – Painful downward pressing in the pelvis, aching pain in the abdomen, swelling of the sexual organs, leucorrhoea, sick headache, etc.

Sulphur – The medicine is of great service in all patients who have been habitually unhealthy, with a tendency to constipation and cutaneous eruptions.

ADMINISTRATION – A dose three or four times daily. When improvement sets in, the remedies should be given at longer intervals.

ACCESSORY MEANS – Good nourishing food, including milk and milk diet, brown bread, animal broths. Oysters, cod-fish, and juicy varieties of meat. Frequent exercise in the open air and sunshine, avoiding fatigue; horseback exercise is particularly advantageous; also rowing, lawn tennis, and other out-of-door games. Riding in an open carriage and walking, are also useful. The air breathed, both indoors and out-of-doors, should be pure. Light should be freely enjoyed. Cold bathing, particularly in sea-water, is much to be commended. Those unaccustomed to bathe, or extremely sensitive persons, should commence with tepid water, and the temperature be gradually lowered till a cold bath can be advantageously borne. Cold bathing is very necessary, in consequence of the extreme sensitiveness of chlorotic patients, which may by this means be diminished.

Chlorotic patients are notoriously fond of nose, and desire to remain in a state of muscular activity; but this desire must no more be yielded to than that of travellers to the soporific effects of intense cold; for the habitually cold skin of the chlorotic patients causes a half-poisoned state of the blood, by the retention of what should be excreted, and the imperfect oxygenation it undergoes. They should therefore be urged and forced to exert themselves, so that the blood may circulate more rapidly, and thus absorb that due quantity of oxygen which is necessary to impart to it those vital properties which excite all the organs to perform their proper functions (Tilt).

It is very important that cases suspected to be due to secret habit should be unobtrusively watched, and, when once certainty concerning the all-important subject has ascertained, every means should be adopted to induce the patient to abandon the injurious practices.

CHLOROSIS AND CONSUMPTION. – In chlorosis there is often a slight hacking cough, dyspnoea, or other chest symptoms, leading to a suspicion of Consumption; although an examination at once enables a professional man to decide on the real nature of the case. The presence of the anaemic murmurs, previously described, the normal characters of the respiratory movements and sounds, the absence of hectic, and of wasting to any great extend, are sufficiently marked to distinguish Chlorosis from Phthisis. Chlorosis essentially consists in the absence of the red corpuscles or colouring matter of the blood; whereas in Consumption contamination of the blood is superadded. In the former disease the temperature is below, but in the latter it is above the normal standard. There is also this essential difference in the treatment, -that in the former we have but to supply the missing elements of the blood, and even the most unpromising cases are readily and perfectly amenable to our remedies; but in the latter we have to exterminate a poison, and we need not remark that too many cases resist every known means of cure.

19. – FALLING OF THE WOMB (Prolapsus Uteri)

DEFINITION – Prolapsus, the most frequent form of uterine displacement, consists of a descent of the womb, in different degrees, from simple relaxation and bearing down upon the upper portion of the vagina, to complete protrusion of that organ from the vaginal passage. It most frequently occurs in married ladies beyond the middle age, but it is also liable to occur in young unmarried females or relaxed constitution after dancing, running or too severe exertion during menstruation.

DEGREES – Three degrees of prolapsus uteri have been described – viz., relaxation, where the smallest descent has happened, with slight pressure on the higher parts of the vagina; prolapsus, where the organ descends farther, or presents at the external orifice; and procidentia, where there is protrusion though the external parts. But the term “prolapsus” is now generally used to express all the varieties. In any descent of the womb, the degree will vary considerably if examined immediately after active exercise, or after quiet rest in the horizontal posture. Slight relaxation often exists a long time without attention being directed to it.

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."