40. Inflammation of the Lungs (Peri-pneumonia), and Pleurisy (Pleuritis)
1 These diseases are treated of more fully, and separately, in The Vade Mecum of Modern Medicine and Surgery, and in The Text-Book of Modern Medicine and Surgery.
Pneumonia affects one or both lungs, or, in technical terms, is single or double. The right lungs is more liable to inflammation than the left, and the lower lobes suffer oftener than the upper. In Pleuritis, the inflammation affects the pleura or serous membrane investing the lungs and lining the cavity of the thorax. These diseases frequently co-exist, require similar medicines, and should be treated, if possible, by a homoeopathic practitioner.
SYMPTOMS:
Shivering; headache; hard, wiry pulse, about 100 in a minute, and other symptoms of fever; the breathing is hurried, the patient refuses to take a full breath, and inspiration is often interrupted by a “stitch” or “catch,” by a cough which is short and painful, by lying on the affected side, and by pressure. This is Pleurisy.
In Pneumonia, the skin is burning, especially about the ribs and arm-pits; there is no moisture in the nostrils, and the eyes are tearless; the breathing is much more hurried than in Pleurisy, but the only pain is of a dull aching character; the cough is frequent and short, and there is spitting of tough, rusty coloured phlegm, subsequently streaked with blood. Favourable symptoms are less labored and frequent breathing, freer expectoration, moister skin and tongue; also increased excretions from the bowels and bladder. Unfavourable symptoms are small, feeble pulse, cold clammy, perspiration, rapid breathing, blue lips, foul tongue, offensive breath, excessive debility and languor.
CAUSES:
Atmospheric changes, sudden checking of the perspiration, mechanical injuries, etc. These diseases often arise during the course of the eruptive and other fevers; feebleness of constitution is often a predisposing cause.
TREATMENT:
Aconitum. Pre-eminently suitable, either alone or in turns with other remedies, whenever inflammatory symptoms run high, and the secretory functions are suspended.
Bryonia. Laboured, short, catching, and rapid breathing; stinging, shooting, or burning pains in the side, aggravated by inspiration; the cough is painful, dry, or with expectoration of glairy sputa; the patient is irritable, restless, weary, and disposed to retain the recumbent posture.
Phosphorus. Severe sticking pains in the chest, excited or increased by breathing or coughing; the breathing is short, the cough dry, or accompanied by rusty-coloured expectoration.
Antimonium Tart. Greatly oppressed breathing; cough attended with much rattling of mucus; nausea; profuse and difficult expectoration; violent throbbings of the heart, and a feeling of suffocation.
Arsenicum. Tedious cases with extreme prostration of strength; painfully oppressed breathing.
Sulphur. When the prominent symptoms have yielded to other remedies.
GENERAL TREATMENT:
See “Accessory Measures,”pp.73-82. External Applications of heat, hot flannels, linseed-meal poultices, etc., afford much relief. Rubbing the chest and back with cod-liver oil, or olive oil, nourishes and warms the patient. Plenty of fresh air at a temperature of 65 degree, moistened with steam, facilitates the action of the lungs. Diet should at first be light, without stimulants; later on stimulants judiciously given may be necessary. Blood-letting in every form must be avoided.
41. Cough (Tussis)
Cough, like Hoarseness, is rather a symptom of some more general disease, than a disease in itself. It is often the forerunner or attendant of some of the most fatal diseases of our climate, and should, therefore, never be neglected. There are many varieties of cough, but our prescriptions are only intended for such as are common and uncomplicated. Cases that persist, in spite of one or more of the annexed remedies, should be regarded as too serious to be treated merely by the aid of books.
TREATMENT:
Aconitum. A dry hard cough, accompanied with inflammatory symptoms flushed face, headache, thirst, scanty urine, confined bowels, restlessness, etc.
Ipecacuanha. Irritating, nervous, and spasmodic cough, attended or followed by vomiting (also Drosera). The chest is oppressed by the accumulation of mucus in the air vessels, rendering breathing difficult, almost to suffocation.
Belladonna. Short, dry, hollow, convulsive cough, generally worse at night, in bed, excited by a sensation of tickling in the throat, and accompanied by flushed face and headache.
Dulcamara. Loose cough from getting wet, with much phlegm and oppression at the chest.
Bryonia. A hard, dry cough, attended with pain in the side, chest, and head; cough aggravated by passing from warm air to cold, or vice versa; loose cough, with white or yellow expectoration, sometimes streaked with blood.
Hepar Sulphur. Irritating cough, with hoarseness and smarting of the throat, excited or aggravated by cold to the surface of the body, or exposure to atmospheric changes.
Phosphorus. Dry cough, excited by tickling in the throat; hoarseness, and pains or soreness in the chest, with rusty- coloured, bloody, or purulent expectoration.
Chamomilla. Coughs of children during teething, with wheezing breathing, fretfulness, etc.
Carbo Vegetabilis. Cough on taking the least cold; obstinate hoarseness or loss of voice.
Kali bichromicum Cough, with very tough expectoration, preceded by great wheezing, with difficult breathing, and followed by dizziness.
Sulphur. Obstinate dry cough, with tightness in the chest, and retching; loose cough, with expectoration of whitish or yellowish mucus during the day, and dry cough at night, attended with headache, spitting of blood, etc.
BEVERAGES:
Gum-water, barley-water, and other mucilaginous drinks, or if preferred, simple cold water, in small quantities, at frequent intervals, are highly beneficial in almost every variety of cough.
PREVENTIVES:
Cold bathing or sponging the whole surface of the body every morning as directed under bathing (pp. 56-58). Clothing adapted to the varying conditions of the atmosphere (pp. 58-59). Exercise in the open air, every day, if possible, beyond the boundaries of a town or city. Familiarity with the free atmosphere affords a security against excessive sensibility to variations of the weather. Morning air is the best; damp, or confined air, or the air of crowded assemblies, should be avoided. Here, again, keeping the mouth shut, and breathing through the nose, is a great preventive, more especially when irritability or tickling of the throat exists.
CHAPTER VI
DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
42. Thrush (Aphthae) Frog
SYMPTOMS:
Small vesicles or white specks upon the lining membrane of the mouth, sometimes so connected as to form a continuous dirty diphtheritic-like covering over the tongue, gums, palate, etc. In some forms of the disease, microscopical, parasitic plants are developed in the mucous membrane, which are readily transferred to the mother’s nipples; but they are never developed on the interior of the stomach or bowels, being limited to those portions of the mucous membrane which are lined with scaly epithelium. Severe diarrhoea, fever, and other constitutional disturbances indicate great peril. In adults the disease is the result of some constitutional malady, as Consumption, Enteric fever, or senile decay; it is then also always of grave import. 1 See also “Diseases of Infants and Children.” By Dr. Ruddock, 6th Edition, 1899.
CAUSES:
A delicate or strumous constitution; insufficiency or unhealthy condition of the mother’s milk, or an unsuitable quantity or quality of food in infants fed with the bottle or spoon; general want of cleanliness; constitutional disease.
TREATMENT:
Borax. The child’s mouth should be washed with a weak solution of Borax, (four grains to half an ounce of glycerine and half an ounce of water), by means of a soft brush or soft rag. It has a specific power over this affection, and will cure it probably quite as well if used internally only, and if the disease is limited to the mouth, without the aid of any other remedy. After a while it may lose its efficacy, and then some other remedy must be resorted to.
Mercurius. Is indicated by dribbling saliva, diarrhoea, offensive breath, etc.; if administered when the white specks first appear, it is often alone sufficient. A dose every six hours, for several days.
Arsenicum. Dark colour of the eruption; offensive odour from the mouth; exhausting sickness and diarrhoea; great debility. A dose every four hours.
Carbo Vegetabilis. This has similar indications to the last, and may be given if that remedy fail to effect more than a partial cure.
Sulphur. This remedy may follow any other when the latter does no further good; when the Thrush has nearly subsided, to prevent a relapse; and when there are eruptions on the skin, or sour- smelling breath.
GENERAL DIRECTIONS:
Cleanliness, ventilation, fresh air, and proper diet, are essential. When Thrush is due to ill-health in the mother or nurse, the infant should be at once weaned, and fed with the following substitute:-
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."