Mercurius Sol. may be classed among the leading specifics for Jaundice, and will frequently perform a cure without the aid of any other medicine. The leading indications for the administration of this medicament are-moderate vascular excitement; accelerated pulse; yellowish tinge of the conjunctiva; a slightly-coated tongue; constipation; a pale and dry consistence of the faeces; urine of a deep yellow colour, with but slightly impaired appetite.
Chamomilla ranks high as a remedial agent in Jaundice when caused by a fit of anger, or any undue excitement, attended with subacute congestion of the liver, loss of appetite, nausea, a foul, slimy taste in the mouth, with spasmodic pinching and twisting pains in the abdomen.
Chelidonium Majus, though little known as a Homoeopathic remedy, is, nevertheless, a very useful one in certain forms of hepatic derangement. The provings of this drug, as collected by Hahnemann, repeated by the Imperial Prover’s Society of Vienna, and confirmed in the writings of Hempel and Frank’s Magazine, confirm the views taken of it by the ancient physicians, of its exercising a marked influence over the gastro-hepatic viscera. In Jaundice it is indicated for slight yellowness of the conjunctiva; sallow complexion; bitter taste; a deep-red colour of the tongue; fulness in the left hepatic region, with tenderness on pressure; brown-red urine, and light clay-coloured stools. Nux Vom. is likewise a useful medicine in Jaundice when there are combined dyspeptic symptoms; aversion to food; debility, and short fainting fits; throbbing pains in the region of the liver; a foul, musty, or bitter taste, with tendency to piles and constipation. In such a condition, Sulph, administered in alternation, acts very efficaciously.
I have been particular in first treating of these, the more generally recognised symptoms of pregnancy, because in practice I have most often been consulted to afford relief to the feelings of the patient. How far such emotions, trivial as they may appear to the judgment of the medical man, can unsettle and derange a home, especially of a newly married couple, the capable reader can easily imagine. Nevertheless, most persons do not understand how easily they may themselves minister to such afflictions. I have therefore written, intending to instruct the novice, and hope I have been sufficiently plain to be readily understood.
It, however, now becomes my duty to touch upon the more serious branch of my subject. When doing so, every lady who chances to take up this essay, must not necessarily believe herself to be the victim of such afflictions. The minor annoyances are common enough, and may be rated among the evils flesh is heir to; but the major troubles are happily of rare occurrence. Of the numerous mothers in this kingdom, many are graced with large families, who happily know such things only by report. As a cheerful mind affords the best support in the hour of labour, the reader is entreated not to dwell too poignantly on the foregoing matters. Were it not to complete the present treatise, gladly would I omit the larger portion of the following details, as I well know how impressionable the mind is during the period of gestation.
SALIVATION
Among the curious and rarely witnessed signs of pregnancy is salivation. This, when it appears, is most often exhibited during the earlier months. It is accounted for by the salivary glands being influenced by the REFLEX – NERVOUS action which commences in the womb. A thick, heavy, and copious flow of saliva runs from the lips. It is in vain the handkerchief is applied to arrest the fluid; that soon becomes saturated, and the patient finds herself ultimately compelled to relieve herself by expectoration.
Cases are on record of poor girls, in such a condition, having been ignorantly persecuted. It, however, requires little discrimination to detect the salivation following upon pregnancy and that morbid state which is induced by large doses of Mercury. The gums are not sore, the teeth are not loose, the tongue is not coated, the glands are not enlarged, neither is the breath foetid when such a condition shortly appears after impregnation; though I am not conscious that all of the above symptoms can be absent during any phase of mercurial salivation.
This unpleasant and distressing symptom quickly yields to one or other of the following medicines, viz. Arsenicum, Mercurius Solubilis, Natrum Muriaticum, Pulsatilla, Sulphur, or Veratrum Album.
“Give,” says Hippocrates, “the patient a draught of the medicine in a smaller dose than will induce the disease, and he will be cured.” How small he does not say. These memorable words were uttered by the sage philosopher of “Cos” nearly five hundred years before the birth of Christ. We, who have embraced Homoeopathy, carry out the same principle, and to cure the salivation of pregnancy, first administer a smaller dose of Mercurius than would induce such a disease; how small is a matter of experience. Should, however, Mercurius fail in covering, as it were, the totality of the symptoms, the other medicines must then be brought to bear, either separately or in alternation. Thus-
Pulsatilla-When the salivation is accompanied with nausea and repugnance for food.
Arsenicum – If the patient suffers from great debility and emaciation, indicated by a pale, sunken countenance and leaden hue, by nausea, pyrosis, and vomiting of food, and tendency to dropsy of the extremities.
Veratrum Album – When there is great debility, coldness of the body, a tendency to faint, and sensation of paralysis of the extremities.
Natrum Muriaticum – When the symptom assumes an obstinate form, coupled with a general cachectic condition of the body, ulcers on the tongue, angles of the lips and inner walls of the mouth, with a constant and copious discharge of limpid saliva; and
Sulphur – When the saliva is tinged with blood; a smarting pain in the tongue, with a sensation as if the surface of that organ were covered with vesicles coupled with a tendency to haemorrhoids and constipation. Sulphur is also well adapted when we have reason to suspect the symptoms to be aggravated, if not entirely produced, by the disappearance or sudden suppression of an accustomed eruption on some part of the body.
PAIN IN THE BREASTS
The mammae, during gestation, part with much of their natural softness: they become hard and knotty, or have what ladies term “cores” in them. They also enlarge; the delicate shade around the nipple, which had hitherto been natural, changes in colour, becoming darker. A pricking or shooting sensation is felt, and often grows very acute; sometimes the skin is morbidly painful and red.
For these symptoms, general practitioners resort to severe, and altogether unnecessary, measures. Fomentations, narcotics, leeches, venesection, and tartar emetic are among the remedies proposed for such a state in a delicate female. My readers, however, must not be alarmed at the list I have given, since such barbarities are altogether unknown in the line of practice adopted by Homoeopathic physicians.
A false delicacy, however, too often induces young mothers to endure and conceal such symptoms. They thereby debar themselves the relief which medicine can afford; and frequently convalescence, subsequent to delivery, is retarded by fearful abscesses in the breast. Such misfortunes are to be avoided, and the pains are to be greatly alleviated, if not entirely removed, by such remedies as Aconite, Belladonna, or Bryonia Alba, administered in accordance with the following indications:-
Aconite – Suited for plethoric individuals of a lively, bilio-nervous or sanguineous temperament, with increased frequency of the pulse; distended veins; when the pains are of a shooting or pricking kind with at times oozing of milk from the nipple of the affected breast.
Belladonna – Is more particularly indicated when the mammae feel hard and knotty, with deep-seated, throbbing pains or a crawling, tingling, pricking sensation, with a diffusable erysipelatous blush covering the surface.
Bryonia Alba – When the breast is hard and knotty, without the red blush which is so characteristic an indication of Belladonna; and when the patient is slender, and of a nervous, irritable temperament.
In some cases, I have found great benefit to follow the application of a compress saturated in cold water; while in other cases, warm fomentations have proved more beneficial, particularly when the pains were of a spasmodic nature, and the temperament of the patient of a nervous and hysterical kind.
PALPITATION OF THE HEART
Another troublesome indication of pregnancy is palpitation of the heart. The attack is generally sudden, or may be preceded by digestive derangement; the arteries throb throughout the entire body; the patient suddenly starts out of her sleep, being alarmed by fearful dreams; or if walking, is obliged to stand still to recover herself. Hysteria is sometimes provoked; and it is not unusual for the head to ache, the vision to become cloudy, sounds to be heard, and a sensation of giddiness to seize the patient.
William Morgan wrote The homeopathic treatment of indigestion, constipation, and haemorrhoids, The philosophy of homeopathy, The Text Book for Domestic Practice, The Liver and Its Diseases, Both Functional and Organic, Diabetes Mellitus, Syphilis and Syphiloidal Diseases, Cholera, Diphtheria, The signs and concomitant derangements of pregnancy, Contagious diseases; their history, anatomy, pathology, and treatment, Diseases of the Liver, and their homeopathic treatment.