SYMPTOMS:
Soreness in the ball of the eye, sensation as of sand under the lids, redness of the eyes, with swelling of the vessels, itching and shooting pains, pustules and scales on the lids; the pains, increase in the evening, and on exposure to cold, and there is agglutination in the morning.
TREATMENT:
Aconite. Acute inflammation of the eyes of any kind, especially after injuries or operations.
Arnica. Inflammation from external injuries. It may be used both internally and externally.
Belladonna. Pain, redness, and swelling; throbbing in the temples; flushed cheeks, glistening eyes, and intolerance of light. Belladonna is often useful after Aconite, or in alternation with it.
Calcarea Carbonica. Chronic Ophthalmia, in scrofulous, debilitated children; secretion of mucus, causing the lids to stick together in the morning.
Hepar Sulphur. Chronic scrofulous Ophthalmia, especially if much calomel has been administered. It is generally most beneficial after the acute symptoms have yielded to such remedies as Aconite and Belladonna
Sulphur. Frequent relapses in scrofulous persons; or it may follow other remedies after the more urgent symptoms have subsided.
ACCESSORY MEASURES:
If inflammation has been caused by sand, dust, lime, flies, or hairs of the lids, the irritating body should be immediately removed; and if the inflammation be considerable, a shade should be worn. Strong light, wind, and cold air should be avoided. To prevent the eyelids from being cemented together in the morning, the margins of the lids should be gently smeared with a little olive-oil by means of a camel’s hair brush, or with simple with cerate, or vaseline, at bedtime. Except the Calendula-lotion, the only further local application admissible in domestic practice is a piece of lint, wetted with tepid or cold water. Patients in crowded and unhealthy towns should remove for a time to the country, where they may take daily out of door exercise in a pure and bracing air. The food should be plain and nourishing, the habits early and regular, and frequent bathing should be practised. Chronic, especially strumous, Ophthalmia, requires Cod-liver oil. Persons predisposed to Ophthalmia should guard against exposures during easterly and north-easterly winds.
30. Stye on the Eyelids (Hordeolum)
The stye is a little boil projecting from the margin of the eyelids, causing pain, till relieved by the escape of matter.
TREATMENT:
Pulsatilla is the chief, remedy, and the first to be used, unless considerable inflammation exists, when it may be preceded by one or two doses of Aconite But Pulsatilla will not prevent a tendency to its return.
Sulphur. To remove the tendency to recur.
Silicea and Calcarea. Scrofulous patients, predisposed to Styes; the remedies may be administered each for a week or ten days in succession, allowing an interval of two or three days between: afterwards, if necessary, the course may be repeated.
Administration. In acute cases, every three hours; in chronic cases, morning and night.
AUXILLARY TREATMENT:
Fomentations of tepid water; if pus form, a bread-and-water poultice at night. The eyes should rest, and be protected from a strong light, especially from gaslight.
31. Inflammation of the Ears (Otitis) Earache (Otalgia).
SYMPTOMS:
Sudden pain, sometimes so acute as to cause delirium; tenderness and soreness; unnatural noises; deafness, or morbid sensibility to sound; more or less redness swelling of the ear passage; flushing of the face on the affected side, etc.
CAUSE:
Cold Currents; imperfectly drying the ear after washing; injudicious bathing; probing or syringing an inflamed ear. Inflammatory affections of the ear often follow the eruptive fevers in strumous children.
TREATMENT:
Aconitum. Recent inflammation from cold.
Belladonna. Tearing pains in the head, with tendency to delirium.
Pulsatilla. Sticking or tearing pains in and behind the ear, swelling and a feeling as if the ear were closed. It is specially suited to the Earache of children, and after the inflammatory symptoms have been controlled by the former remedies.
Chamomilla. Earache from cold or suppressed perspiration; stabbing, tearing pains in the ears; extreme sensitiveness and irritability.
Mercurius. Pains in the ear extending to the cheeks and teeth; discharge; swelling of the glands, etc.
Sulphur. After the use of other remedies, as an intermediate one, or, to complete the cure.
Dose and Administration. See pp. 72-73.
ACCESSORY MEANS:
Hot fomentations, poultices, or the steam of hot water, to mitigate the pain. Cotton wool should be put in the ear for a short time afterwards by avert cold.
32. Discharge from the Ears (Otorrhoea)
This disease is commonly met with in scrofulous children, and if not soon amenable to the remedies, should be treated professionally.
TREATMENT:
Mercurius. Thick, bloody or foetid discharge; tearing pains in the side of the head or face; swelling and tenderness of the glands about the ear; also when the complaint follows Scarlatina, Measles, Small-pox, etc. A dose thrice daily.
Hepar and Sulphur is preferable if the patient has been dosed with Mercury.
Pulsatilla. Simple discharge from the ear, with deafness, in non-scrofulous children.
Calcarea. Tedious cases in strumous children.
Arsenicum. Excoriating discharge in feeble patients.
ACCESSORY MEASURES:
Change of air is often necessary; country air, in a dry, salubrious district, or, in the autumnal months, sea air, is generally or marked utility, Cod-liver oil (p. 155) is also strongly recommended.
33. Deafness (Surdity)
CAUSES:
Deafness is generally a symptom of some other disorder, such as inflammation of the ears, severe cold, glandular enlargement or chronic disease of the ear. It may also be occasioned by loud noises, or by the accumulation of ear-wax or other substances lodged in the ear-passage.
TREATMENT:
Deafness of recent date may generally be quickly cured by skilful homoeopathic treatment; long-standing cases are often obstinate.
Pulsatilla. Recent deafness from cold, with noises in the ears.
Mercurius. Catarrhal deafness, with swollen glands of the neck and throat; suddenly suppressed discharge from the nose and ears; roaring and buzzing sounds in the head. Also deafness after Small-pox.
Phosphorus. Deafness of nervous patients, or following any nervous disorder.
Calcarea Carbonica. Sensation as of obstruction in the ears; humming noise; throbbing; dryness of the ear, or discharge.
Nux Vomica. Buzzing, tingling, or whistling noises, particularly whilst eating, with disordered digestion.
Administration. In recent cases, a dose every four hours; in chronic, twice daily.
ACCESSORY MEANS:
Hard ear-wax, or any foreign substance, causing deafness, should be early removed by skilful hands, after first gently syringing the ear with warm water. All nostrums, to be dropped into the ear, should be eschewed.
34. Bleeding from the Nose (Epistaxis).
Bleeding from the nose is of frequent occurrence in children; a fit of sneezing or coughing, a slight blow, severe exercise, or even the heat of summer, often serving as the exciting cause. Bleeding from the nose also occurs in the course of many diseases, or at their termination, and often affords consideration relief. It should not be interfered with unless it is excessive, recurs too frequently, or takes place under a weak state of the system. When it arises from injuries, or in patients already reduced by disease, and is excessive, remedies are necessary.
CAUSES:
Undue fulness of the blood-vessels of the head; local disease of the nostrils; or a constitutional haemorrhagic diathesis. In men it frequently succeeds suppression of haemorrhoidal discharge, and in young women it may be vicarious of the menstrual function. Under peculiar conditions of the constitution, Epistaxis often occurs periodically in some adult persons, and then its cessation, without judicious treatment, may become a source of danger.
TREATMENT:
Aconitum. Bleeding after being over-heated, or in plethoric persons, with fever, strong pulsations of the arteries of the temples and neck, and full, hurried pulse. A dose every fifteen or twenty minutes, during the bleeding.
Belladonna. With flushed face and congestion to the head.
Bryonia. Coming on every morning.
Arnica. Haemorrhage from violence a blow, fall, or excessive bodily exertion preceded by heat and itching of the nose.
Pulsatilla. In females, from suppressed or scanty monthly discharge. 1 See the “Lady’s Homoeopathic Manual,” Eleventh Edition. See also Bryonia.
China. If the loss of blood has been such as to weaken the patient, producing paleness, fainting, etc. A dose three or four times daily for a week or ten days. At the same time the food should be nourishing, and taken at regular hours, avoiding, of course, over-repletion.
ACCESSORY MEASURES:
So long as the haemorrhage continues, the patient should be kept standing, as that posture favours fainting, which is often nature’s mode of cure. If the haemorrhage has caused debility, a nourishing but digestible diet is necessary.
Cold is a most successful means of arresting haemorrhage; it may be applied to the nose or forehead by a handkerchief wetted in cold water, or by ice, or by the sudden application of cold water to the neck or back, or by placing a cold key or any other iron instrument to the spine. In these latter instances the influence of cold is not restricted to the part to which it is immediately applied; the bleeding is arrested by the sympathetic constriction of blood-vessels which it produces in remote parts. In most cases, however, the simple plan of causing the patient to raise his arms above his head, and holding them so for a little time, promptly arrests haemorrhage.
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."