GENERAL TREATMENT:
Cleanliness and change of air are of great importance. When the complaint affects the scalp, the hair should be cut short and the head washed with tepid water, using a transparent soap. The patient’s towels, hair-brushes, combs, sponges, etc., should on no account be used by those unaffected. The hair and head should be well brushed, so as to excite the vital action of the skin by the friction. A nutritious diet is recommended; also an occasional tepid bath. Scrofulous, emaciated children may require a teaspoonful of Cod-liver oil twice a day. Sudden and extreme changes of temperature should be avoided. Popular remedies ink tobacco-water, etc. are dangerous.
68. Shingles (Herpes)
SYMPTOMS:
An eruption of vesicles on an inflamed patch of integument, accompanied with a burning, tingling sensation, and occasionally severe neuralgic pains. Neuralgia may precede or follow the eruption as well as accompany it. It is usually found in a half- circle round the waist, or chest.
TREATMENT:
Rhus. In recent cases, much burning in the vesicles.
Arsen. More chronic cases, and in debilitated persons.
It is a good plan to paint the eruption over with collodion.
69. Chilblains (Perniones)
Chilblains are due to a languid circulation of the blood, and consist of a low kind of inflammation of the skin, generally of the hands or feet, and are attended with itching, tingling, burning, swelling, and sometimes ulceration.
CHAPPED HANDS:
This affection consists of slight inflammation of the skin of the back of the hands, which become cracked, or “chapped.” It occurs in frosty weather when it sometimes gives rise to much inconvenience and pain. It requires similar external treatment to Chilblains.
CAUSES:
Exposure to cold, damp, or to sudden changes of temperature; feeble circulation.
TREATMENT:
Tamus Communis, in nearly all cases, either removes the disease, or affords material relief. Unbroken chilblains should be painted morning and night with the strong Tincture of Tamus, or it may be used as a lotion. Should the skin be broken or ulcers exist, Calendula should be substituted for Tamus, and applied as a lotion, or in the form of cerate. Carbolic acid and oil (one part of the former t o six of the latter): Arnica and Soap liniment (one part of strong tincture of the former to eight of the latter) are also efficacious. Internal treatment is generally required for chilblains.
Arnica. Hard, shining skin; pain and itching of the parts.
Belladonna. Inflammation, pulsative pains, fiery redness, and swelling.
Arsenicum. Burning pain, accompanied by ulceration, especially in emaciated children.
Sulphur. Chilblains of a blue-red colour, with itching, aggravated by warmth. Also to remove the constitutional tendency.
ACCESSORY MEANS:
For ulceration, poultices, or other mild applications, should be applied until relieved. Pork, salted meats, and all irritating or indigestible articles of food should be excluded from the dietary. Extremes of temperature are to be avoided, such as a cold stone floor, and warming the feet on a fender, or the hands close to the fire. After washing them, the hands should be well dried. The soreness of chapped hands may be much mitigated by wrapping them in a water-bandage and covering them with oil silk on retiring to bed.
70. Ulcer (Ulcus) Sores
Ulcers may arise from burns, bruises, inflammation, varicose veins, or constitutional disturbance. They require careful management, and many can only be successfully treated by a homoeopathic practitioner.
TREATMENT:
Kali bich. Ulcers on the leg, deep, with hard bases and over- hanging edges.
Belladonna. Painful Ulcers, having an erysipelatous blush.
Arsenicum. Ulcers with burning pain, easily discharging blood or thin matter, and presenting a livid appearance.
Carbo Veg. may follow, or be alternated with Arsenicum, if the Ulcer have an offensive smell.
Silicea. Simple Ulcers.
Hepar Sulph., or Sulph., may also be required.
GENERAL TREATMENT:
A little soft linen or lint, wetted in cold water, placed on the sore, covered with oiled silk, and lightly bound up with a bandage; or Calendula-lotion in the same manner. Ulcers on the legs require rest, the horizontal posture, and constitutional treatment. Open-air exercise should be taken, especially during recovery, but much standing, or sitting with the legs hanging down, is unfavourable. Among dispensary patients, we find Ulcers on the legs very intractable, as the necessary rest and general hygienic conditions cannot be observed.
71. Boil (Furunculus)
An inflamed, pointed tumour, painful or tender, of a deep-red colour, terminating in suppuration. Boils generally indicate a disordered condition of the blood, as the result of insufficient, poor, or indigestible food, anxiety, insufficient rest, etc.
TREATMENT:
Belladonna. An excellent remedy for arresting a Boil in its early stages, before matter has formed; it also relieves the pain.
Hepar Sulphur. Pain of a pulsative character, indicative of suppuration which it promotes.
Silicea. Indolent Boils.
Sulphur. To prevent a recurrence of Boils.
GENERAL TREATMENT:
As soon as Hepar is indicated, a poultice, covered with oiled silk and one or two thickness of flannel should be applied. The poultice should be kept hot and renewed until suppuration is nearly completed, when a wet compress should be substituted. To prevent a recurrence of Boils, attention must be directed to their causes. If from derangement of the digestive organs, seasoned dishes, pastry, sweetmeats, etc., should be avoided, and a generous diet, including animal food once a day, should be adopted. Proper food, daily bathing, and recreation in the open- air, will go far towards eradicating a predisposition to Boils. In obstinate cases, changes of air is very beneficial.
72. Whitlow (Panaris)
This is an inflammatory swelling at end of the finger, with a tendency to suppuration.
CAUSES:
Cutting the nail to the quick; a bruise, burn, or other mechanical injury; the introduction of poisonous or acrid matter into scratches on the finger; unhealthy constitution.
TREATMENT:
Silicea. The first and often the best remedy for Whitlow; administered early, it often prevents its maturation. If necessary, a warm bread-and-milk poultice may be applied, and the finger held in a raised posture.
Aconitum and Belladonna, in alternation, every three hours, if there be much pain, redness, throbbing, thirst, restlessness, etc. Hepar Sulphur. During suppuration. Poultices and general treatment as for Boils.
73. Corn (Clavus)
CAUSES:
Long-continued pressure or friction, or both combined.
TREATMENT:
If medical treatment be required, one of the following may be chosen: Calcarea, Sulphur, Silicea. A dose morning and night, for a week or ten days. After waiting a few days, if necessary, the same or another remedy may be administered.
ACCESSORY MEANS:
Corns can only be eradicated by wearing easily-fitting boots and shoes, frequently washing the feet and changing the stockings. As soon as a Corn appears, the surrounding skin should be softened by a warm foot-bath, the hard head of the Corn gently extracted with the finger-nail, or some convenient instrument, and the thickened skin peeled off with a sharp knife; the corn should then be dressed with Arnica-lotion (thirty drops to a wine-glassful of water); and next morning a piece of Arnica-plaster, or an Arnicated corn-plaster, having a hole punched through its centre, applied. The dressing may be repeated until the inconvenience is removed.
74. Warts (Verrucae)
TREATMENT:
Thuja. The Warts should be painted once or twice daily with the mother tincture; at the same time a dilution of the same medicine may be taken internally, morning and night; it is especially necessary when the Warts appear in crops. This course may be followed for a week or ten days, and if improvement ensues, as it often does, the treatment should be continued longer. When Thuja does not succeed, Rhus Tox. may be substituted, and used both internally and externally.
Sulphur, once a day for a week or two, is an excellent remedy for numerous and obstinate Warts upon the hands. It is also useful after other medicines, as a preventive.
CHAPTER IX
UNCLASSIFIED DISEASES
75. Derbyshire Neck Goitre (Bronchocele)
This is a chronic painless enlargement of the thyroid gland, attended with but little danger, unless it increases so as to interfere with swallowing and breathing. Women are more subject to it than men, in the proportion of about twelve to one. It is commonly met with in chalky districts, and in Switzerland and other mountainous countries, and is often associated with Cretinism.
CAUSES:
The use of water which percolates through rocks of magnesian limestone. Difficult labours, uterine ailments, twists of the neck, etc., may act as exciting causes. Strumous subjects are predisposed to it.
TREATMENT:
Spongia is useful for reducing the swelling; a dose night and morning for a week; then, after pausing a few days the course may be repeated as often as it does good.
Calcarea, Merc-Iodium, Iodium, Sulphur, etc., are remedies often required. External applications of the drug used internally are often employed with good results. If indigestion or uterine disease exists, it should, if possible, be corrected.
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."