Magnesia phos [Mag-p]
Deafness or dulness of hearing from diseases of the auditory nerve-fibres. It supplements Kali mur. Proliferous disease of the middle ear. (Dr. Rounds.) Otalgia, purely nervous in character.
Kali sulph [Kali-s]
Earache with secretion of thick, yellow, or greenish fluid after inflammation. Sharp, cutting pain under the ears. Stitches, tensive and piercing pain below the mastoid process. Discharge of watery matter or yellow pus. Throat deafness with catarrh, causing swelling of Eustachian lining and middle ear, with yellow, watery discharge and yellow coating on the tongue. Deafness worse in a heated room. Stinking otorrhoea. Polypoid excrescence closes meatus. In suppurative inflammation of the middle ear when the discharge is thick. (H.C.F).
Silicea [Sil]
Dulness of hearing with swelling and catarrh of the Eustachian tubes and of the cavity of the tympanum. External ear inflamed, swelling of the external meatus. Mastoid disease (see clinical case below). Oversensitive to noise. Foul otorrhoea. Ears open at times with loud report. Suppurative otitis when discharge is thin, ichorous, and offensive and attended with bone destruction.
Natrum phos [Nat-p]
Ears sore, outer part covered with soft, thin, cream-like scabbing, deposit on tongue yellow. One ear red, hot, frequently itchy, accompanied by gastric derangement and acidity. Discharge of pus from ears.
Natrum sulph [Nat-s]
Earache as if something were forcing its way out. Worse in damp weather. Ringing in ears as of bells.
Calcarea fluor [Calc-f]
Mastoid disease when the periosteum is affected rather than the bone itself. (Houghton.) Calcareous deposits on the tympani and tinnitus.
EAR DISEASES- CASES [Ear Diseases- Cases]
Boy, with history of catarrhal disease of the ear of seven years’ standing, suffers at times pain, and has often tinnitus; at present suffering with a subacute attack of catarrhal inflammation of middle ear with slight pain. Ferrum phos. relieved this; the next time he was seen there still remained closure of the Eustachian tube; the mucous membrane of the pharynx was pale. Kali mur. entirely removed this, and normal hearing returned.
A boy, aet. 15, had an ear trouble of twelve years’ standing, and suffered from suppuration of the middle ear, resulting from scarlet fever. At present both ears are inflamed; no pain, but has subjective noises, hearing greatly diminished, pus fills the meatus, Eustachian tube is dilatable, right membrana tympani is granular and left perforated pharynx thick. Calcarea sulph. commenced at once and continued to improve; the granular appearance of the right membrana tympani disappeared, and the improvement was phenomenal.
Chronic suppurative inflammation of the middle ear from scarlet fever, both ears suppurating, both canals filled with pus of a dark color and foetid in character. Kali phos. entirely cured. (Houghton, Clinical Otology).
CALCAREOUS DEPOSITS AND TINNITUS AURIUM- Case of man, aged 43, complained of crawling sensation all over skin, roaring in ear, worse night, cold feet, ankles and wrists; calcareous deposits on membrana tympani of right ear, largest about size of a pin. Calcarea fluor200. cured in four months. Deposits and roaring remained cured as proved by examination less than a year afterward. (Dr. Royal E. S. Hayes).
Prof. Houghton, in his excellent treatise on Clinical Otology, presents many remarkable cases illustrative of the action of these remedies. The above cases were selected as those in which no other remedies or means were employed. Numerous cases of the beneficial action of Ferrum phos., Kali mur. and Calcarea sulph. in aural practice can be found in this work.
Acute inflammation of the middle ear commenced by a full feeling in the ear and dull hearing. Pain occurred on performing Valsalva’s procedure, This condition, which grew rapidly worse, continued for forty-eight hours, when the physician was called and found the following conditions. The pain was paroxysmal, there was a sensation of a plug in the ear, membrana tympani injected and bulged, but no evidence of exudation in the tympanic cavity. Posterior wall of meatus auditorious bright red in color, ear very sensitive to manipulation. Ferrum phos. 6x, every hour. Improvement was immediate. Remedy discontinued in forty-eight hours.
Dr. H.W. Champlin reports several cases of otitis media treated successfully with Ferrum phos. He says it is effectual in potencies from 3x to 6x, and insists that it should be given alone. Prescribe no other medicinal agent with
it.
Mrs., aet. 45, February 16, 1887. About three years ago began to be troubled with pain and noises in the left ear, aggravated greatly at the time of the menses, the pain severe and neuralgic in character, extending over the left side of the head. The noises seem to get their character from some pronounced sound which is heard, and this persists sometimes for hours. For the last six months there has been no further pain on left side, but deafness is constant. The right side is now beginning to become deaf, but with no pain and no noises. This has been going on upon the right side for several months. General health excellent, with the exception of redness, fulness and desire to rub and pull the skin about the neck, for a few days after the menses, with marked swelling of the glands of the neck at the same time. This has been noticed only during the time that the ears have been troublesome. The fork is heard best on the left side by bone conduction, and best on the right side by air conduction. Meatus tympani dry and depressed. Eustachian tube on the left almost occluded, on the right more free. Frequent burning of the auricle on the left side Kali mur. 6x cured. (H.P. Bellows, M.D., in N.E. November, 1889).
A weak, cachectic woman suffered for three or four days from earache and pain in the right side of the head. The ear has been discharging for three days, but no mitigation of the pain, which is very severe and radiating from the ear, membrana tympani beefy red, swollen and perforated, discharge profuse and muco- purulent, meatus red, swollen and inflamed. Ferrum phos. 2x in water, every hour. In three days was better in every way, discharge and pain less. A week later all inflammatory symptoms had disappeared.
Dr. Wanstall reports three other cases cured by the use of Ferrum phos., from the 2x to the 12x trituration, with results the most gratifying, controlling the high fever, delirium and pain accompanying the acute middle ear inflammation. Transactions American Institute of Homoeopathy, 1886, p. 398.
Case of a young girl, light complexion, scrofulous with brown, offensive secretions from the right ear. Polypoid growth or excrescence closes the meatus near the opening. For eight weeks she had been entirely deaf in this ear, the deafness having gradually increased for four months. Kali sulph22. given. In two weeks the offensiveness had entirely disappeared. On examination find polypus shriveled to a small, hard, black mass. The hearing has entirely returned, with a slight whizzing noise. Every third day two doses were taken. This case was entirely cured. (W.P. Wesselhoeft, M.D. From Hg).
OTITIS EXTERNA- Dr. Stanley Wilde reports a case of otitis externa with subsequent otorrhoea and deafness, the latter resisting several remedies as Mercurius sol., Hydrastis and Sulphur. The case presented a thickening and narrowing of the meatus, with a thin flaky discharge therefrom, watch hearing 4 in. Kali mur. 3x stopped the discharge and the hearing became normal. Dr. Wilde has used this remedy with good effect in Eustachian deafness in children from chronic enlargement of the tonsils. Hom. Review.
Dr. Goullon reports a case of an old gentleman who suffered greatly with a buzzing in ears, which was made much worse in the noisy street. The patient had repeated attacks of inflammatory rheumatism, and the tinnitus was probably of rheumatic origin. Mentally much depressed. Difficult hearing. After a few days’ use of Kali phos6. all symptoms, including the mental condition and difficult hearing, permanently disappeared- Pop. Hom. Zeitung.
A gentleman wrote me the symptoms of otitis of a little child, aet. 4 months, who had a discharge from one ear of an ichorous, thin, offensive character, producing, an eruption wherever the pus came in contact with the integument. I at once sent Kali phos. 6x, ordering it given every six hours. In three months the running had all ceased and the hearing was perfect. I frequently use the Silicea in alternation with the Kali phos., when the connective tissue is involved. (A.P. Davis, M.D).
Another case of “otitis catarrhalis internus” came into my office to see me, after spending over dollar 600 with the “regulars.” This case was the most remarkable that I ever witnessed or treated. The man was a tall, slim, sanguine, nervous specimen of the genus homo, rude, illiterate, backwoods, gawky looking, seedy, cross between the ourang-outang, monkey, and Chinaman, but possessed of sensation, motion and reflection, proving to my mind that he was a man for “a’ that” and “a’ that.” Well, I went through the examination sufficiently scrutinizingly to ascertain the exact pathological condition of the trouble I had to meet. There was an enormous protuberance involving the whole mastoid region, the skin red and glistening, soft, pappy, showing signs of an induration and broken-down connective tissue, and the whole mass filled with pus, and emitting an odor that was as sickening as carrion. I at once plunged a knife into the mastoid process, out of which ran about a half pint of blood and pus. After cleansing the tumor with Eucalyptus I bound up the wound, leaving in it a drainage-tube. I treated the wound every day, putting him under the influence of Silicea, a dose every two hours. Under the treatment I had the satisfaction of seeing him improve from day to day, and in four weeks the whole trouble ceased. He had no relapse, but the cure advanced steadily until he was well. This case was pronounced hopeless by several allopaths. (A.P. Davis, M.D).
Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Michigan Homeopathic Medical College. Member of American Institute of Homeopathy. In addition to his editoral work he authored or collaborated on: Boericke and Dewey's Twelve Tissue Remedies, Essentials of Homeopathic Materia Medica, Essentials of Homeopathic Therapeutics and Practical Homeopathic Therapeutics.