Tuberkulose Anhang 2
Vergleich: Siehe: Husten + Lungen
PULMONARY
CONSUMPTION
[W. H.
BURT, M. D.; 1890]
It is
estimated that more than one-eighth of the entire mortality of the human family
is due to the fatal ravages of tuberculosis. Any treatment, there-fore, that
will lessen this great mortality, will be accepted by man, as not
only a
blessing, but a great boon to those suffering with this fatal malady.
Eight
months ago, while reading about the wonderful cure of obesity in Prince
Bismarck, by taking away all liquids and the carbo-hydrates, and putting him
upon a nitrogenous diet, this flashed through my mind: If the taking
away of
water and the carbo-hydrates from an obese person will arrest the obesity, will not the giving of an abundance of water,
comingled with the carbo-hydrates, cure all wasting diseases, especially that
of tuberculosis:
at once I
resolved to give this hint a clinical test, and the results have surpassed my
most sanguine expectations, and I now have the great pleasure to announce that
the suralimentation of liquidfood is not only the greatest
of all
known prophylactics, but that it will actually arrest and cure tuberculosis, or
pulmonary consumption. When used in the first and second stages of phthisis, it
will enable the physician to cure more than 50%, of the
patients
that would have to die, with the best methods known to medical science up to
the present date. In the third, or last stage, it will give only temporary
relief.
All persons
suffering from wasting diseases, and particularly that of tuberculosis, require
considerable more food than people in health, on account of the greater bodily
waste going on in the system. The digestive powers
of the
system in those suffering with phthisis have no relation to the appetite; when
liquid food is introduced into the digestive canal, an immense quantity will be
digested and assimilated perfectly, with the result of building
up
nutrition, and reproducing the appetite.
Suralimentation
(excess of food) of liquid food, produces rapid gain in weight and strength of
the body: surpassing anything known to science.
When fluid
food is taken in excess the general atonic condition of the body, with its
emaciation and debility, gives away to increased nutrition and toxicity. The
cough, expectoration, hectic fever and night sweats cease
under the
influence of the suralimentation of water, with greater rapidity than by any
other agent known to the physician.
Water is
the most important of all liquid foods: over ¾ of the human body being water,
it follows, therefore, that over three quarters of our food should be water.
Water is
the greatest tonic that can enter the human body: when taken into the system,
it assists in building up the organism and repairing its tissues when worn out.
Water
constitutes a part of every tissue in the human body: both uncombined and also
chemically combined, with the tissues in such a way that it can not be driven
off by evaporation.
Water
maintains a proper bulk in both the blood and tissues, rendering them mobile
and soft, instead of dry and hard.
Water holds
in solution the waste matter of the body and transports it out of the system.
Water takes
up the waste heat of the body and caries it away, and three quarters of our
bodies being water, it wastes with every breath and motion of the body: and
this waste must be constantly restored by a fresh supply.
Water is
the natural beverage of man: it slakes his thirst, and cools his blood in warm
weather and during a fever. When taken hot, it carries heat into the
circulation, after exposure to cold.
Water is
essentially requisite in the process of digestion and absorption, and as a food
solvent.
Water
promotes an active circulation of the fluids, and accelerates albuminous
metabolism.
Water
increases the activity of the kidneys and the amount of urine secreted.
Water, in
large quantities, increases the elimination of urea, and in this way acts as an
accelerator of nutritive changes.
Water,
passing from the fluid form to that of vapor, is the means of keeping down body
temperature, which otherwise would rise to a point incompatible not only with
the capacity for exertion, but with life itself.
Water being
exhaled in great quantities from the skin, renders drink imperative, whether it
be in the tropics, or the heat of iron works, or in stoke holes.
Water, to
the amount of six pints, is required daily, to meet the water loss by the
kidneys, skin and lungs, to sustain the normal adult body in health: and twice
that amount in wasting diseases.
Water is
required for the secretion of the saliva, the gastric juice, the bile, the
pancreatic flow, and the intestinal secretions.
Water drunk
copiously at our meals does not dilute the gastric juice, but greatly assists
digestion.
Water
enters into the composition, in greater or less proportion, of all solid and
liquid foods, and is the essential basis of all our beverages.
Suralimentation
of liquid food should always have combined, and used in conjunction with it,
the best remedies known to medical science, and with this in view, I have added
all of the most practical remedies in our literature, together with all of the
auxiliaries at our command, so as to make this volume practical and complete.
The pathology has been omitted, as every physician has it well written up in
his library.
A FEW words
as to the cause of tuberculosis. To me its neural origin is as plain as any
fact in pathology: its real cause being a debility, pareses or neurasthenia of
the organic nervous system;
the
cerebro-spinal being in strong sympathy with the organic. This neural debility
produces mal-nutrition with tubercular infiltration and all its symptoms.
It is a
well-known law in nature, that like produces like. Now, when one, or especially
both parents are afflicted with tuberculosis, their offspring have, at the
moment of conception, this tubercular diathesis
stamped
upon their bodies, and ninety children in every hundred, born of such parents,
will die of tubercular consumption.
The
physical make-up of a tubercular patient, which is stamped upon him in utero,
and during the whole period of his organic Kfe, is shown by the large cerebrum,
small cerebellum, slender neck and chin,
contracted,
long, flat thorax, with its small antero-posterio diameter, creating the
impression as if the arched chest-wall had sunken in, or the vertical diameter
had been enlarged at the expense of the sterno-
vertebral
diameter. With this there is thinness of the adipose layer and muscular tissue
and slight inspiratory elevation of the chest. The term '' para-lytic
thorax" describes this appearance very appropriately. The separation
of the
clavicles from the chest-wall is caused in part by the emaciation of the soft
parts, but only attains higher grades by the sinking in of the thorax over the
retracted apices of the lungs. The separation of the scapulae also
results
from the thinness of the adipose tissue, and the emaciation and atony of the
muscles (trpezius7 rhomboids, latissimis dorsi, serratus) and is found most
distinctly when the neck is "hollow," i. e., when there
is marked
convexity of the upper dorsal vertebrae, with compensatory lordosis of the
lower dorsal and lumber spine, as is found so often in a long thorax.
The
flatness of the thorax and its small antero-posterio diameter are best
recognized when the chest is looked at from the side, the arms being raised.
Still more convincing are the figures obtained by means of Woilldez's
cyrtometer.
On the following page I show you a few of these sections made through the
spinous process of the ninth dorsal vertebra and the base of the xiphoid
appendage, and in patients between the ages of 24 - 40 years, as
a matter of
course, they are greatly reduced in size.
Taken from
Dr. H. Yon Ziemssen's JEtiology, Diagnosis and Treatment of Tuberculosis.
It takes but
a small exciting cause to develop in such a party, a well-marked case of
consumption: as for example, puberty with its manifold excitements and
depressions: excesses of all kinds (sexual) dampness;
want of
exercise; occupation; bad ventilation: physical exposure in cold damp
atmosphere, climate, etc.; anything which tends to enervate such people. Their
effects will soon be shown in the peripheral nerve endings of the
great
sympathetic nerve in the lungs, or any other organ the disease centers upon.
This
innervation, neurasthenia, paresis, or neurosis, is shown to us in capital
letters in the
1. General Atonic Condition of the Body..
2. Emaciation and Debility.
3. Dyspnoea.
4. Haemoptisis.
5. Cough and Expectoration.
6. Hectic Fever.
7. Asthma.
8. Thoracic Pains.
9. Diarrhoea.
10. Night Sweats.
11. Aphthae.
12. Oedema.
13. Bed Sores.
That the
animal nervous system is involved, as well as the organic, is shown to us by
many pathological facts. For example: when the lungs are involved, the functions
of the vagi are greatly interfered with, producing
dyspnoea
and asthma. Brown Sequard found that if the base of the brain of an animal was
injured, it would produce haemorrhage in the lungs, showing the direct action
of the pneumogastric nerve upon the capillary vessels
of the
lungs.
This
paresis, or innervation of the lung capillary vessels in almost all cases,
commences in the apices oft he lungs, in the lobules that are used the least,
and the first organic lesion in pulmonary tuberculosis is always found
in the
apices of the lungs: the capillary vessels of these fine lobules become
congested, tubercular infiltration soon take place, with softening,
haemorrhage, followed by ulceration, with all the other symptoms of phthisis.
The first
pulmonary haemorrhage of tuberculous individuals does not come from healthy
tissue, but from diseased lobules of the lung.
In every
case of consumption, and other wasting diseases, there is present from the
first inception of the malady, a marked inability to appropriate a normal
quantity of Oxygen by respiration. This may be owing to structural defects:
confinement indoors, in a vitiated atmosphere, nervous debility, or catarrhal
diseases of the air-passages. Let the cause be what it may, so soon as a normal
quantity of Oxygen fails to reach the blood and tissues, the digestive and
assimilative powers fail, followed by a feeble circulation of the blood and
mal-nutrition. The earliest defect in digestion is in the direction of fatty
matters, for the reason that there is not present a sufficient
quantity of
Oxygen to utilize these foods. Every 100 parts of fat, requires 295 parts of
Oxygen for its perfect transformation into tissue; and failure to get Oxygen,
means want of power to digest fatty foods, consequently there
is a steady
waste of tissues, with all that this implies.
This is
true not only of carbonaceous foods, but of all foods, as the quantity of
Oxygen present determines the capacity to digest any and every kind of food. Now
Carbon in the human system, as elsewhere
in nature,
is converted into potential energy only when it meets with Oxygen. Carbon and
Oxygen are the great force producing elements of life: when these are
abundantly furnished to the victim of wasting
disease,
assimilation is stimulated and all kinds of food can soon be utilized. (If pure
distilled rain water is charged with Carbonic acid and drunk to
suralimentation, the system has just what it is praying for, assimilation will
be
stimulated, and the tissues will resume their normal life again. What is
composed of Oxygen aud Hydrogen: the air, of Oxygen and Nitrogen, and with the
addition of Carbonic Acid, we have about all the elements of the
human body;
and this is the scientific explanation why water with the carbo-hydrates is so
successful in the treatment of tuberculosis.) But as soon as the functions of
the lungs are impaired and we have feeble respiiation,
we also
have a feeble circulation, and the blood does not give oif its Carbonic acid,
which poisons and retards nutrition, producing loss of appetite, and all the
factors that go to produce tuberculosis.
Tubercular
Bacillus: Dr. Koch's theory of the bacillus as being the cause of tubercular
consumption, has been accepted by a great majority of our profession. This
beautiful, but impractical theory, I have tried hard to accept,
but after
having read about all that has been written upon it in the English language, I
am sorry to say, I cannot accept it. To me, no more silly, and unscientific
craze has ever found a foot-hold in scientific pathological medicine,
than this
Bacillus Theory, and I predict, that in ten years from to-day, the great
majority of physicians that accept it now, will have discarded it as a
delusion. If Dr. Koch is right, these five corollaries naturally grow out of
it,
viz.:
contagion, aetiology, diagnosis prognosis and treatment are settled. But is
this a fact? No, most emphatically no. Is it contagious?
No, and not
over one-half of the physicians that accept the bacilli theory, believe that it
is. But it would be if they were right. The intimate contact of a wife with a
husband dying with phthisis, or vice versa, or the intimate
contact of
the nursling with a phthisical mother or nurse: the kisses of a tubercular
mother; or the inhalation of the breath and dried sputa from phthisical
patients: or the infection of the child's food with the bacilli.
All these,
if it was contagious, would soon give us positive evidence. But have they done
so? No. The best writers on this subject are none of them quite satisfied. In
the Reference Hand Book of Medical Science we read:
"But
after all, the immense amount of clinical observation on this point at the
command of every experienced practitioner, must convince us that the danger is
far less than would first appear."
Dr. H. Von
Ziemssen says: "We must, therefore, still cling to heredity as the
explanation of the enormous frequency of tuberculosis in the children of
tubercular parents. Every day the physician sees tuberculosis
reap its rich
harvest among the progeny of a tubercular father or mother. The children of
such parents grow up scrofulous in childhood, and perish tuberculous in youth.
We must wait for the explanation of its contagion, for
the further
development of our science." There is much evidence to show that
tuberculosis is exceedingly rare among the Jewish nation. Why? Simply because
they spring from a good, non-tuberculous stock, contagion and heredity cannot
effect them.
Transmission
of Phthisis in Married Life: M. Leudet has occupied himself with collecting
some statistics on the question of whether a wife can give phthisis to her
husband, or a husband to his wife. He has taken 112 widows
and
widowers, whose husbands or wives respectively have died in undoubted phthisis.
Out of these seven were phthisical: but several of them had facts in their
previous history, before marriage, showing a phthisical tendency.
His
reference was, therefore, that the transmission of phthisis in married life
must be very rare; even more rare in the upper classes than in the middle and
lower. In 80 out of these 112 eases there was a family history which he could
follow: and 27 of these showed some members who were phthisical: Tie
Practitioner.
The
doctrine of the contagiousness of phthisis is working a great evil in the
outside world. A case in point: A nervous timid lady living in Chicago, has
been in the habit of going every fall to Florida, and spending the winter.
Last summer
she happened to read in a paper that phthisis was very contagious. In the fall
she went as usual to Florida, and she met in every hotel and boarding-house,
numbers of phthisical patients, and the most that greeted
her ears,
was, the constant coughing of these patients; this so worked on her mind that
she imagined there were in every room, on every wall and in every bed, millions
of these wicked and poisonous bacilli laying in wait
for her,
ready any moment to inoculcate her with consumption. She became so terribly
frightened that in two weeks, packed her trunk and returned to Chicago.
Now there
are thousands of timid, but healthy people just like this lady, where this
nonsensical doctrine is working a great physical injury. Already the State
Board of Health of California has been greatly exercised over this supposed
danger. It even suggested in a recent bulletin, the advisability of
establishing a strict quarantine against consumptives until measures of
isolation and disinfection could be undertaken. The daily press has taken up
this
question, and the result is a monster scare all over the State.
I am
perfectly satisfied that phthisis is not contagious, but I can imagine, that,
by simple contact in nursing phthisical patients if the pus and mucus of the
phthisical person were taken in large enough quantities, into the system,
it might be
infectious; the same as a fly might produce syphilis. If a fly should light on
a syphilitic ulcer, crawl about and feed on it, then immediately light on the
moist mucus membrane of a man's genitalia, the result would be
that he
would have syphilis. Was the fly the cause of the syphilis? Most certainly not;
it was simply the carrier of the poison. The same might be the case with the
tuberculous bacilli. A man can never inhale enough of these
bacilli by
simply associating with a phthisical patient, to produce phthisis, but they
might cause it when injected directly into the tissues.
The early
diagnosis of pythisis is of the most vital importance to the patient, but the
detection of tuberculous bacilli at first stage of the disease is utterly
impossible; even in a later stage when extensive tubercular deposits exist,
often they cannot be found. A case like this has just come under my personal
observation. A patient suffering with phthisis went to the erudiate professor
of practice in Rush Medical College, he examined the sputa carefully with the
microscope, could find no bacilli, pronounced the case not phthisis, but
chronic bronchitis, advised the patient to go to Denver, and he soon would be
well. He went to Denver, and came back a corpse in seven weeks,
having
succumbed to genuine phthisis. Now this is a well educated physician, second to
none in the city and if he cannot detect these bacilli in the advanced stages
of phthisis, of what practical use is this theory?
As to the
value of the theory in prognosis, it has none. Patients can be found by the
score, going rapidly down, losing flesh and strength from day to day, whose
expectoration after repeated micros* optical examinations is found
to contain
but few, and often no bacilli, because of the cheesy matter not having entered
the bronchi. While on the other hand, large numbers of the bacilli might be
found in the sputa, of of those whose disease was advancing
but slowly,
it not at all.
In regard
to treatment based on the discovery of the bacilli tuberculosis, 1st
cleanliness it is pronounced by the best and most able living physicians, as
absolutely valueless, and in many cases harmful. Antiseptics are only of value
in the way of cleanliness and removing morbid secretions. The germicidal
treatment with Iodoform, Corrosive Sublimate, Creosote, Acetate of Lead, Tannin
and Benzoate of Soda, have been signal failures.
The
strongest argument that can be used against the bacillus theory, is this: Cod
Liver Oil has cured thousands of cases of phthisis. The attenuated homoeopathic
remedy has cured many thousands of cases, and the
suralimentation
of liquids have cured many cases. Can any of these kill the bacilli
tuberculosis? The answer is no; on the contrary, they are decidedly favorable
to the growth and propogation of the bacillus. But how do they
cure? Why,
by so acting upon the nerve filaments. of organic life that nutrition is
stimulated, and the tissues resume their normal functions again.
Bacteria.
These Micro-organisms, schezomycetes, bacilli, or bacteria, are found
everywhere: in the air, on the surface of the ground, in our food, and in the
water. Of what use are these micro-organisms?
Why, of
great use: some cause the fermentation of the yeast plant; some that of
Alcohol: some that of Acetic acid, and some that of putrefaction of dead
animals and vegetables. What are their uses in man? Why, they are man's true
scavengers, and are found wherever there is disease, with inflammation,
ulceration, or decomposition in any of its forms.
Their food
is decomposition, and if it were not for these micro-organisms absorbing the
poisonous ptomains and gases produced by disease, man would be destroyed from
off the face of the earth. Instead of bacteria being a
cause of
disease, they are only the effects, and are one of God's greatest blessings to
man. Pasteur rightly concluded, that bacteria are necessary for the life of
animals and plants: for without their agency in the putrefactive disintegration
of dead bodies, the higher plants incapable of feeding upon the complex
molecules of dead animals and plants, would die.
Prophylaxis.
Here is where the physician can prove himself of absolute use to his patient.
It is in the prophylaxis of this fatal disease, that the greatest triumph of
the fluid diet is shown. When a person having a predisposition to consumption,
with a delicate constitution, shows signs of defective nutrition, with steady
diminution in the weight of the body, it has a decidedly unfavorable
significance, and so much the more, the more rapidly it progresses.
On the
contrary, a steady, though slowly increasing weight, informs the patient that
his condition is growing more satisfactory, and he is physical walking away
from consumption. Just here, nothing known to science up to the present moment,
can equal the nutrient fluids, to invigorate the debilitated constitution and
nourish the wasting tissues. Nutrition is the grand factor in the prevention of
tuberculosis. If we fail in nutrition, our patient is lost.
But if we
succeed in nutrition, to build up and fatten the tissues, we can bid defiance
to that great destroyer, tuberculosis. It is always understood that with these
fluids he should eat in addition a well selected solid diet.
What favors
the development of tuberculosis? Why, very little recreation, no exercise in
the open air, monotonous diet, loss of sleep, confinement to the atmosphere of
one ill-ventilated room (badly ventilated sleeping-room)/
mental
disturbances, spiritual struggles and particularly worry, associated with deep
remorse. This will soon produce anaemia muscular weakness, dyspnoea, and
tubercular infiltration of the lungs. Our prisons give us fine examples of
these truths. Tuberculosis has a mortality three to four times greater in
prisons than among the free population.
The most
important prophgy lactic measures to take: Instead of remaining in doors,
out-door exercise; instead of exhausting constant work in doors, regular, not
too exhaustive out-door exercise with intervals of rest: instead of meagre
fare, a generous mixed diet combined with a large quantity of the fluid, the
fluid being taken, at least, every half-hour between meals. Joined with this,
the patient should sleep at least nine hours in the twenty-four.
If the
patient be wealthy, recreation should be sought in mountain or sea air. The
climbing of the mountain will not only cause him to take deep respiration of
the purest air that can be found, but will increase his lung capacity, something
greatly to be desired in the feeble-chested consumptive. . Nothing should be
left undone, that will increase and deepen the breathing capacity of a
phthisical patient. Very important is au erect carriage of the body,
with gymnastic
exercise, so as to develop the muscles of the chest: also, pure, fresh,
unlimited amount of air, at all hours, at all times, and in all places. Pure
air is not to be found in crowded habitations, in work-shops, in
school-rooms,
in church-rooms, in theatres, or in a crowd anywhere.
It has been
determined statistically, with regard to the soldiers of the French and English
armies, that the number of phthisical affections rapidly diminishes with the
beginning of war operations and manoeuvres, and rises at once with the return
to peaceful life in the barracks. The German army undoubtedly owes its slight
tuberculosis morbidity not alone to the careful selection of recruits, and to
the good hygenic condition of the barracks, but chiefly to
the marches
and other open-air exercises which are carried out regularly during the summer
and winter.
"This
is also true of all seminaries, orphan asylums, and schools of a conventional
character. The greater the interference with the free movements of the youthful
individual, the more frequent is tuberculosis in such institutions. Fourcault's
examples furnish the most striking proof of this. In fact, state supervision of
the hygiene of seminaries and similar institutions, especially girls'
boarding-schools, is urgently required. The degree of freedom and of
active
out-door exercise among the youth is much too small. Even in the public schools
(middle schools), the youth suffer from pedantic restriction of the enjoyment
of fresh air in the intervals between lessons, owing to the
over-anxious
care for order and discipline. At home also, the child must return to his
lessons immediately after lunch. There are, no doubt, many bright pupils who
easily master their home lessons in an hour, and then have time
for walks, play,
or instruction in music, but the average pupil, if industrious, works the
greater part of the afternoon and evening at his lessons, and goes into the
open air very little, or not at all. How many constitutions are destroyed
yearly by this preposterous mode of life. Look at the pale, lean, boys and
girls as they leave school tired and worn at the end of the school day, and
compare them with English boys and girls, who are permitted to
enjoy every
free moment, in school as well as out, in playing ball. climbing, wrestling,
rowing, etc. What a difference in the complexion, the brightness of the eyes,
the activity of the bodily movements?
Methodical
exercises in mountain-climbing, form an extremely efficient curative agent in
chronic pulmonary disease, and are so much the more efficient, the higher the
plateau from which the patient starts, and the slighter the atmospheric
pressure; and the more free fix)m dust, fog, rain and wind, the better.
This
methodical exercise accelerates the respiration, deepens the breathing, expands
the lungs, Strengthens and develops the thoracic muscles, increases the
circulation in the lungs, thereby producing perfect nutrition. If no mountain
is close by, the patient should erect an inclined plane out in the open air, twenty
or more feet high, and make a regular business of walking slowly up and down
this inclined plane, from 3 – 6x daily. Each
exercise
should last until he becomes quite tired. This will greatly increase the lung
capacity, thereby producing perfect nutrition. This inclined plane can easily
be made out of common lumber in this shape, with
small
cleats nailed across the plank, so as to make the walking good. When the
weather will not permit of this out-of-door exercise, open the doors and
windows to get good air, and then climb your stafrs in the house, in the
same
methodical way, and thus nutrition will be increased, and the lung capacity
developed, although not so well as it would be out in the open atmosphere.
Select for this inclined plane a spot where there will be much sunshine.
The amount
of effort required, and the result should be carefully noted, so that the
patient's strength will not be overtaxed.
It is time
that medical influence should be extended to securing sufficient physical
recreation to properly develop muscular vigor. These games and exercise should
be taken in the open air, and so selected that
all the
muscles of the body will be invigorated and developed, especially those of the
thorax, so that the vital capacity of the lungs will be constantly increased.
This can be done by various gymnastic ex-
ercises,
singing, playing wind instruments, base-ball, turning, skating, running,
swinging the Indian clubs, tennis, hunting, horse-back riding, rowing,
bicycling and especially mountain climbing.
The erect
posture and the practice of deep breathing are of vital importance to those who
are the least suspicious of an hereditary taint towards tuberculosis.
(To those
in moderate circumstances that cannot afford a trip to the mountains, or the sea-shore,
an excellent substitute is a stay in the country, more or less remote from the
large cities, and every moment
of
favorable weather must be spent in the open air).
Physical
Culture Clubs should be formed by all phthisical people to play lawn-tennis.
Playing lawn-tennis is the best open air physical exercise a woman can take.
The best stimulant for nutrition is appropriate exercise,
which by
accelerating the circulation and respiration, and thereby causing natural
wasting of the tissues, excites the demand for substance to repair it. The
object of respiration is constantly to introduce into the blood from the
atmospheric air, a certain amount of Oxygen, and constantly to give off from
the blood to the air a corresponding amount of Carbonic acid gas. Perfect
nutrition, then, is the perfect union of Oxygen with carbonic acid gas
in the
lungs. This calls for perfect ventilation in the sickroom, While the giving off
of carbonic acid gas by the lungs makes no impression upon the mass of the
atmosphere at large, it soon sensibly deteriorates the
amount of
air inclosed in a moderate sized room, the breathing of which is most
destructive to the phthisical invalid. Instead of inhaling only Oxygen and
nitrogen, and expiring Carbonic acid gas and Nitrogen,
betakes in
a sensible amount of Carbonic acid at each inspiration, which prevents perfect
combustion in the lungs by poisoning the arterial blood, rendering it unfit for
nutrition: the lungs become irritated and burdened with loss
of appetite,
a watery condition of the blood, and every condition of the system takes place
to hasten the disease to a fatal end. A proper ventilation of the room occupied
by the patient is, therefore, absolutely necessary, and this (sleeping-room).
Mankind spend 1/3 of their lifes in
sleep, while the invalid remains in bed much longer. How important, then, is it
to secure a pure breathing air during this period.
Paris,
March 7th, 1890.
Dr.
Dujardin-Beaumetz read a report on a work by Dr. Nicaise, at the last meeting
of the Academy of Medicine, in support of his candidateship as a member of that
learned body, the subject of the work
being the
treatment of phthisis by the permanent aeration of the dwellings occupied by
phthisical patients, particularly the rooms in which they sleep: this to be
effected by keeping the windows constantly ajar, even in winter, measures being
at the same time taken to prevent the patients being cold.
Dr.
Dettweiler has proved that phthisical patients can live in the open air. In the
establishment at Falkenstein, of an altitude of one thousand three hundred and
twelve feet, in the midst of woods, the phthisical
patients
pass their time in the open air in all seasons.
The results
obtained are very favorable. It is reckoned that there are 25%, of absolute
cures, and 27%, of relative cures.
Aeration is
therefore very useful for tuberculous subjects.
The
researches of Dr. Nicaise have shown that at Carabaul a room with a southern
aspect and a temperature which at sunset was 14° C, the window having been left
wide open all day, could be maintained at about 10° C
during the
night, even when the temperature fell to 2° C, if the shutters were closed and
if the windows were left ajar about 30 - 40 centimetres. In these conditions
the aeration of the room, which was provided with a chimney,
was
perfect, and the temperature very acceptable, provided that the patient is
warmly covered in his bed. These points are very important. It is true that the
air respired by tuberculous subjects does not contain bacilli, but with
them, as
with healthy subjects, the expired air contains irrespirable gases; and the
researches of MM. Brown-Sequard and d'Arsonval have shown the existence of
volatile products and of toxines. These substances are dangerous
to breathe;
they end by accumulating in the rooms where the aeration is imperfect: it is
therefore very important to get rid of them. Dr. Dujardin-Beaumetz thinks that
it will be good practice to accustom phthisical patients gradually to live in
an atmosphere properly renewed, which may be affected by certain arrangements
which should not inconvenience the inmates. He adds that the non-success of
specific medications in tuberculosis should
engage us
to ameliorate the hygiene of tuberculous subjects. To procure them proper
aeration would be a real progress, but this must not be considered sufficient,
and he concludes his report by insisting on the necessity of associating to the
hygienic means a rational pharmaceutical treatment.
In cases of
great weakness, emaciation and loss of appetite, when tuberculosis is not
active, massage of the muscles of the body can be practiced with great benefit,
and frequently with decided gain in weight
and
appetite, with improved digestion.
The choice
of the life occupation, to those who have a tubercular predisposition, is of
vital importance. Those occupations are to be selected which will bring the
patient in constant contact with the fresh out-door air, and
maintain
the muscular and respiratory systems in vigorous action. I would first of all,
select the occupation of a butcher for a phthisical patient, and have him do
his own slaughtering.
The act of
taking life cultivates life, every animal he kills adds new life to his, as
nothing else will, known to man. Others favorable, are farming, forestry,
gardening, marine service, military service, theology and medicine.
In the
latter, the whole world is open to him and it is the best profession he can
follow.
Avoid those
occupations which entail constant stay in the impure air of closed rooms, and
insufficient muscular activity: and a sudden change from life in the open air
to that of indoors, is particularly to be avoided.
The
prophylaxis against phthisis should date from birth. An infant should not nurse
a mother who is consumptive, or whose milk is of poor quality. If a healthy
wet-nurse cannot be secured, the bottle and cow's or goat's milk
will be
better for the child.
Phthisical
patients should not live on a low humid soil, or work underground in mines from
which light, as well as pure air, is excluded. A deficiency of good wholesome
food is another exciting cause of phthisis.
They should
not breathe air laden with foul vapors, or fine particles of dust. Avoid hot
crowded apartments, and sudden changes in temperature. All sitting and sleeping
rooms should be provided with fire-places, and never left long without a fire.
Flannels
should be worn next the skin the year round, selecting white or bluish-white.
The white flannel permits a free escape of Carbonic acid gas, while red and
other dark colors interfere with its escape. The supposed liability
to, and
danger of, catching cold often leads phthisical patients to wear an over-plus
of clothing. When they strip for examination of the chest, not unfrequently they
remove 2 - 3 undershirts, a woolen or fur chest-protector,
an oil-silk
jacket, or chamois-skin vest. The body is kept in constant perspiration by
these articles. They occasion, not only discomfort, but debility. Comfort
should be the governing principle in clothing. Articles of dress
should be
adapted to the seasons and to changes of temperature so as to secure comfort.
This should be the guide to the patient, so as to avoid an over-plus of
clothing. The underclothing should be of white flannel, or lambs wool, encasing
the whole body and lower extremities, with woolen socks or stockings, the feet
of which should always be white.
During the
summer months the under flannel should be made of lighter material. During
out-door exercise, as carriage riding, the patient must prevent the chilling
effect of radiation from his body, by wrapping up warmly in
rugs and
furs, with heat to the feet. It is very important to keep the arms warm days,
and especially nights. Cold arms act as refrigerators to the blood immediately
before it is discharged into the heart and lungs.
Hydro-Therapeutics:
This is an important agent in the prophylaxis of phthisis, as well as in its
more advanced stages. Water, in its various forms, is the best, simplest, and
most acceptable means for strengthening and hardening
a feeble
body, which is predisposed to catarrhs and colds. Even the simple rubbing of
the entire surface, immediately after rising from bed, with a wet cold cloth,
accustoms the skin to sudden cooling, exercises the neuro-
muscular
system of the peripheral arteries to prompt reaction, and acts as a thermic
irritant centripitally on the central nervous system: and from thence acts
eccentrically, stimulating the innervation and functions of
respiration,
circulation and digestion. The temperature of the water should range from 90°
F. to 40° F., commencing with the high for one-half a minute, and ending with
the low temperature occupying one minute. The rubbing should be brief and the
cloth should be well rung out: our object being to exercise a thermic and
mechanical irritation on the cutaneous nerves, and vessels, and not to withdraw
considerable heat from the body. This would happen if much cold water were left
in the cloth, and it should be entirely warmed at the expense of the bodily
heat. In feeble individuals, whose appetite and assimilation are below par, add
to the water, after the third week, one-
half to one
pound of common salt, and one-quarter of litre of mother-lye to one quart of
water, making an artificial brine. This exercises a more vigorous and prolonged
stimulus on the nervous system, than the simple thermal irritant, and, like the
action of the brine bath, increases the nutritive changes and the desire for
food.
These
rubbings may be carried out even in the poorest famihes, entail no expense, and
are adapted to every occupation of the patient, in as much as they are
performed in the morning immediately after rising, after which the patient may
dress, eat breakfast, and then attend to his work. He is advised to exercise in
the open air, if the weather permits, and he should not take breakfast until
half an hour later.
Very
delicate individuals, particularly women, may be permitted to take a cup of
warm coffee, or tea, before the rubbing.
Patients
who have no attendant to perform the mechanical work of rubbing, must rub
themselves, as well as they can, with large towels or obtain an apparatus for a
shower douche. The shower bath does
not
entirely replace the rubbing, because the intense mechanical irritation and the
uniform application to the entire surface, are wanting, but it is nevertheless
a valuable means of hardening and strengthening the body.
The effect
of this simple procedure, which may be varied in different ways, is one of the
best that can be attained by the physician. It removes the sensitiveness to
changes of temperature, wind, and moisture,
and the
tendency to colds, remove the constant gentle perspiration, the everlasting
nasal and bronchial catarrh, the rheumatic disposition, etc. It gives to the
body freshness and elasticity, which can only be secured in a similar
way by
brine or sea baths. In sea bathing, the chemical and thermal action of the cold
salt water and the mechanical irritation of the movement of the waves, come
into play, together with the rapid movement of the air, which
is almost
free from dust and bacteria while rich in water and chlorid of sodium. All
these factors stimulate and invigorate the nervous system, and through it all
the functions of the organism, particularly the appetite, nutrition:
and of the
respiratory apparatus, which is forced to take deep respirations and whose
epithelium is strengthened by the rapid motion and the quality of the air.
A full warm
bath should be taken by the patient two or three times a week.
Climate.
The selection of a suitable climate for a phthisical patient is a matter of
considerable importance. What is really required is a cool temperate climate in
an elevated country free from great alterations of temperature,
which
should range from 55° to 65° F. during the day, and from 45° to 55° at night.
There should be a clear bright sun, as much as possible, with but little
moisture in the air. In such a climate exercise can be taken daily, in the open
invigorating atmosphere, which will greatly aid nutrition. In this country this
climate can be best found in the elevated mountain slopes of Colorado, New
Mexico, Texas, California and Georgia. To a less extent in Virginia, Kentucky,
Adirondack, Michigan, Florida, South Carolina, Louisiana and Minnesota. The
foreign resorts are in Egypt, Algiers, Nice, Mentone, Nassau, Lima, Rio
Janeiro, Cuba and the West India Islands.
The
essential requisite to a favorable climate is a high altitude, of from 4000 to
8000 feet above the ocean level, where we have the elements of dryness,
equability, and a pure rarefied atmosphere. A patient who in health has
found cold
weather more favorable to vigor and well-being, than warm weather, will be
likely to find a cold climate more beneficial than a warm climate, and vice
versa: and a cold climate is better suited to men than to women.
In many
patients it will be found that the agencies by which a favorable influence is
exerted relate to accessory or incidental circumstances more than to purely
climatic conditions. Climate has no specific influence in arresting phthisis,
but through the exhilarating influence of a pure dry rarefied atmosphere,
respiration is increased, and this increases the systemic circulation, which
greatly stimulates and increases nutrition: and in this way, the
phthisical
patient is benefited. But to get this benefit, daily appropriate exercise out
of door must be insisted upon. A protected place should be selected, and the party
should live in a tent as much as possible. When a change of climate proves
beneficial, the party should not leave it for at least five years. Experience
has taught us, that to those patients benefited by a change of climate, if they
return as soon as benefited, the disease will return with such fury that
nothing will stay its progress but death.
Patients
should never be sent from home when the disease is in active progress, with
high temperature great emaciation muscular feebleness, cough and night sweats,
etc. For when they leave home, they leave all the comfort
that a home
implies, to suffer many deprivations of luxuries, that loving kindred would be
rejoiced to do, and to die among strangers.
General
Conclusions: The testimony of the physicians in Denver and at Colorado Springs
was this: The high altitude is specially recommended for
1) early phthisis, or where there is a tendency
to this from hereditary predisposition;
2) haemorrhagic phthisis;
3) chronic pleurisy, where after removal of the
fluid the lung does not expand, and in chronic pneumonia where the
consolidation is not removed:
4) the second stage of the disease when it
appears to be quiescent and there is no evidence of rapid disintegration.
Patients
who should not be sent, are those who suffer from heart disease, chronic
bronchitis, emphysema, or where with phthisis in the first two stages, there is
any nervous irritation and sleeplessness, or affection of the kidneys. They
were also pronounced on a crucial question - that there was not complete
recovery, except in the incipient stage: that there was only a drying up of the
tubercular deposit, which would again become active if the patient return, for
however brief a time, to a climate which was variable and moist. The continuance
of the dry aseptic air was essential, and disregard of this fact, led to a
rapidly fatal issue. The patient, male or female, in whose case the phthisis is
arrested, must necessarily live permanently in Colorado, or a high altitude.
Fortunately this State is young, and there is room for all, and with renewed
vitality and vigor the no longer invalid can find something to do, either in
the open air or in some in-door employment.
Whatever
change the patient should make, and wherever he should live, he must ever
persevere to keep his system tilled with fluids by taking fluid in some of its
manifold forms every hour of the day.
Drinking
nourishing fluids should ever be before him as his life work, and go where he
will, do what he may, drinking fluids must be first at all times, and in all
places.
Oxygen Gas:
The inhalation of Oxygen is a pro-phylactic of great value in people
predisposed to phthisis. One of the first and most marked effects of Oxygen gas
is stimulation of the digestive and assimilating organs.
When it is
inhaled three gallons at a time should be taken three times a day. The appetite
is greatly increased and the whole system invigorated to a marked degree,
especially when this treatment is accompanied with active
open-air
exercise.
Dr. S. S. Wallen
says: "Oxygen will be found of service in the following classes of cases:
First, those in which, from some obstruction in the air-passages, an insuffient
supply of Oxygen is allowed to enter the lungs, as in croup, constriction of
the larynx or trachea, asthma, accumulation of mucus in the trachea, or bronchi
during coma, or severe bronchitis.
Second,
where the lung is afflicted from either pneumonia or tubercular deposit, or in
a state of atelectasis, or compressed by pleuritic accumulation, so that only a
portion of the lung is pervious to air.
Oxygen is
competent to render great assistance to consumptives, at the beginning of that
period which we will call the dyspeptic stage, when the patient coughs but
little, grows thin, has no relish for anything, and is suffering
from
difficult or imperfect digestion. Especially useful in asthmatic lymphatic
subjects with bronchial dilatation."
Oxygenated
Water. A combination of Oxygen and Nitrous oxide gases. Three parts Oxygen to
one of the Nitrous oxide gases. Three parts Oxygen to one of the Nitrous oxide,
forms a valuable prophylactic in phthisis.
If pure
distilled water is charged with these gases, under a pressure of 200 pounds, it
takes up more of the gases than any other form of water. The Nitrous oxide
gives piquancy to the taste, and makes a very palatable drink.
When this
water is taken as a beverage, one pint once in three hours, the results are
almost incredible, increasing the strength, appetite and spirits, to a
remarkable degree: in this way acting as a valuable prophylactic
and
curative agent in phthisis, and diseases of the digestive organs, this gas
being absorbed into the portal venous system, enters the right side of the
heart and thus is carried directly to the lungs. A drug administered by
inhalation
is absorbed by the vessels of the bronchial tubes and these do not lead into
the lung-tissue, but away from it, passing to the root of the lung. And
moreover, a volatile drug taken in with the respired air is not actively
carried farther into the lung than the normal tidal air, if it is carried so
far, so that if it get to the end of the bronchial tube, it would have to
diffuse like the rest of the air in order for this result to be accomplished.
And this is
a strong reason against an antiseptic drug, taken by inhalation, ever reaching
the phthisical consolidation of the lung, and as a matter of fact, there is no
evidence in favor of phthisical consolidation being
beneficially
affected by the inhalation of drugs. Then the only scientific way to administer
drugs is, either by the mouth or rectum. And this explains why gases introduced
in drinking water, or administered by the rectum,
are so
efficient. Through the portal circulation, it is all actually poured directly
into the lung and there does its curative work in the diseased tissues.
Carbonic
Acid Water: Carbonic acid water is the product of the solution of Carbon
dioxide (carbonic acid gas) in water. In such solution there is a chemical
union between the gas and the water, molecule
for
molecule. At the ordinary pressure of the atmosphere, water absorbs about one
volume of Carbon dioxide, but under a pressure of two hundred pounds, will take
up as much as ten volumes of the gas, soda water contains
from five
to ten volumes of CO2. Beer, mineral waters, sparkling wines and all
effervescing liquors, owe their life to this gas. Carbonated water is a
valuable and pleasant water to drink.
Like all
acids, it tends to excite the secretion of saliva and buccal mucus, and so
relieves thirst more permanently than plain water, and it is peculiarly
grateful to the stomach, tending to allay nausea and expelling flatus. It
increases the rapidity of the absorption of water in the intestinal canal, as
is shown by the fact that water containing Carbonic acid is excreted by the
kidneys much sooner after it has been drunk than water without it.
Carbonic
acid is in greater quantities in the large intestine than in the small, and
part of the COg, affter introduction into the stomach, passes into the blood
and is excreted by the lungs.
Natural
waters charged with CO2, and drank freely, are a valuable prophylactic in
phthisis: and if the CO 2 could be added to all the liquids taken it would
greatly facilitate the cure of phthisis. Milk charged with this acid is not
only preserved thereby, but many times more valuable. Every hospital for
consumptives should be supplied with the whole apparatus necessary for charging
all the liquids taken by the patients, with this gas or with Oxygen
gas,
associated with the Nitrous oxide. Seventy-five dollars will buy the whole
outfit, which would be extremely valuable to the patients. If the patient is
troubled with rheumatism, CO is still more called for. The inhalation of CO 2
often acts beneficially in asthma.
Carbonic
Acid in Phthisis: Dr. Hugo Weber describes a novel way of treating consumption,
in the Berlin. klin. Wochenschrift, Sep. 2d, 1890. This consists in
administering a teaspoonful to the patient, of Bicarbonate of soda
before meals
and following it with a glass of water containing twelve drops of Muriatic
acid. There is generated about half a pint (270 cc.) of COa which is gradually
absorbed and exhaled by the lungs. Weber reports in some
detail nine
cases favorably affected by this treatment.
From one to
four quarts of carbonated water should be taken daily.
Those that
inherit the phtliisical diathesis, and those afficted with phthisis, as well as
all lean, thin, spare people, with but little adipose tissue, should be great
drinkers of water in its manifold forms. But fleshy, well built people, well
padded with fat, do not need so much water and should take it sparingly.
Diet: This
is one of the most difficult, and at the same time, one of the most practical
subjects the physician is called upon to decide in the treatment of phthisis.
Shall it be a vegetable diet, or animal diet, or a mixed diet?
So far as I
am able to judge, a mixed diet will prove the most beneficial to the largest
number of patients, but many will be found where a vegetable diet will prove
the most useful.
There being
such a loss of the potash salts in phthisis, a diet should be selected that
would replace this loss, and that will be found in a vegetable diet.
Potash is
nature's true solvent for urea and uric acid, and this consideration is a
strong factor in the selection of a vegetable diet. In all cases where a mixed
diet is used, vegetable should greatly predominate over the animal.
Different
experimenters have found that a normal food must not consist of one element
exclusively; whether nitrogenous, starchy or fatty: farther, as no one food
contains the different essential principles in the necessary proportions, a
mixed diet must be employed, and the nature of this diet must vary with the
manner of living, and the climate and the seasons. The necessary Nitrogen and
Carbon will be best and most economically obtained
from a
mixed dietary.
As a rule,
animal food should be in the proportion of one to four of vegetable. Thus two
pounds of bread and three-fourths pounds of beef will supply the necessary
amounts of Carbon and Nitrogen which would require over six pounds of meat and
more than four pounds of bread alone. Bread would give too much Carbon, and the
meat too much Nitrogen. For a healthy man, his food taken in twenty-four hours
should contain from 4000 to 5000
grains of
Carbon, and from 250 to 3000 grains of Nitrogen. The Nitrogen is furnished from
animal diet of albumen, fibrin, casein, legumin, etc. The Carbon from the
Hydro-carbons, Carbohydrates, starches, sugar, etc.
The dynamic
value of a food depends on its richness in easily assimilable proteins, and its
calorific value on the quantity of heat it produces when burnt in the organism.
The digestibility of a food must also be taken in consideration. Great
differences exist in the absorption of different foods; thus, rye bread,
potatoes, and green vegetables produce large quantities of fresh and dry
excrement; while white bread, fresh meat, and eggs are
absorbed to
a greater extent, and are therefore more valuable. Fat of butter is easier of
digestion than bacon fat, and should be freely eaten by the phthisical. The
carbo-hydrates are easily assirailat/cd when contained in white
bread, rice
and macaroni; but with more difficulty from potatoes, rye bread and turnips,
and Nitrogen is more easily absorbed from meat, eggs and animal substances
generally, but with more difficulty from rye bread and vegetables. (Rubner.)
The
constituent parts of the human body are gaseous, liquid and solid. Of the
gases. Oxygen, Nitrogen and Carbonic acid are the chief. These are in a state
of solution in the liquids, the largest proportion consisting of water, holding
in solution different acids, salts and organic bodies. Now this explains the
great value of the liquids introduced into the system by my method of
treatment. When these fluids have commingled with them some of the
carbo-hydrates,
they practically contain about all the body is composed of, and are in such a
state of solution that the system assimilates them at once, with but little
labor on the part of the assimilating organs.
Another
thing that forces itself upon us, is the fact, that if we take simple water and
highly charge it with Carbonic acid gas, we have in it alone almost all of the
chemical constituents of the human body. No wonder that water constitutes our
greatest food.
What is
food? Any substance capable of replacing any of the body waste, or maintains
any vital process. All the tissues being composed of over three quarters water,
explains why water is the most important food we have.
I would
then classify food in, the following six classes:
1. Water.
2. Carbo-hydrates, Starches and Sugar.
3. Albuminoids, Animal Foods.
4. Hydro-carbons, or Fats.
5. Salts, Mineral Substances.
6. Air or Gaseous Food.
Carbo-hydrates:
Under these are found the starchy, amyloid, or farinaceous, and the saccharine
elements of our food, and in the treatment of phthisis they occupy the first
place as a food to build up the wasting tissues of the body.
Starch
consists of Carbon, Nitrogen and Oxygen (having the formula of C + N + O) and
is found in all cereals used for the food of man: wheat, oats, barley, maize,
rye, rice, buckwheat, peas, beans, potatoes, sago, tapioca, arrowroot, carrots,
parsnips, turnips, etc.
Starch is
not only the food of man but also of the plant. Take a grain of any cereal, it
contains starch, albuminoid matter and earthy salts. When the plant germinates,
the starch is converted into sugar, and the plant requires it
by the
action of the diastaste (an albuminous ferment) as the seedling grows. Man
takes for his own use the food that the plant has stored up for its own young.
The
carbo-hydrates by the act of digestion, become the great fuel food of our bodies.
How do they do this?
1. The saliva converts starch into grape sugar.
2. The gastric juice, Albuminus into acid
albuminates, and then into proteins.
3. The pancreatic juice. Starch into dextrine
and grape sugar: Albumens into globulin substance, and then peptone, leucin,
tyrosin, aspartic acid: and fats into glycerine and fatty acids, partly
saponifying them.
4. The bile (of which is secreted about two and
a half pounds every twenty-four hours) assists the pancreatic juice in
digesting the fats and acids in their absorption.
5. The intestinal juice completes the
digestion. As the more or less disintegrated starch granules pass along the
small intestines, they become fully dissolved into grape sugar, which passes
into the blood of the
portal vein.
6. When the soluble grape sugar, whether
derived from starchy or saccharine elements of our food, it matters not, passes
into the portal vein, and thence into the liver. Here it is dehydrated, or
turned back into glycogen
or animal starch, and stored up for the bodily
needs. This grape sugar forms the fat, or adipose tissue, of the body.
Carbo-hydrates then furnish the glycogen or body-store of fuel in the liver.
The liver
stores up from each meal so much of glycogen, and gives it off as required. The
muscles have also their little stores of glycogen. This insoluble stored up
glycogen is given off as required and burnt up as lactic acid
in the form
of soluble grape sugar with Soda and Lactate of soda; and in this way, the
carbo-hydrates become the great fuel food of the body,”
Starch,
sugar and dextrine are easily assimilated, the gums and cellulose with
difficulty. As force-producers they possess a very high dietetic value, and as
great store houses of potential energy they may be
regarded as
the intimate, though not necessarily the direct sources of heat as well as
muscular energy. The potential energy of the fats, however, is much greater
than that of the cardo-hydrates, developing
more than
twice as much heat.
Albuminoids
or Nitrogenous Poods: The chief of these are the Albumens. The most important
single element in nitrogenous food is the albumen. It contains nutrative
material in a condensed and easily assimilated form;
its
composition is almost identical with the albumens of blood and the animal
tissues. Rich albuminous foods are found in the flesh of all animals, fowl,
fish, eggs, oysters, milk, etc., and to a smaller extent in most of our
cereals.
The vegetable albumens are not so rich in Carbon as the animal albumens, but
are richer in Nitrogen. This accounts for their less nutrative value and the
greater difficulty in their assimilation. They are,
however,
like eggs and fish, very rich in Phosphorus. It may be stated generally that
vegetables are more difficult and slower of digestion than most animal foods
but when combined with animal in suitable
quantities,
digestion is much easier and assimilation more perfect. Albuminoids are
digested exclusively in the gastric juice of the stomach, of which is secreted
every 24 hours, from 16 to 31 pounds, or an average of 20 pints,
or about 18
ounces per hour. The carbo-hydrates and fats are there untouched. An albuminoid
previous to digestion is termed ar "proteid." When digested in the
stomach a "peptone.^' This peptone then passes into the
intestines
and from there into the portal venules, where it is dehydrated and once more
made a proteid in the portal blood. When this does not take place properly, the
peptone appears in the urine as albuminaria.
When the
albuminoid matters reach the liver a portion of them is elaborated into the
serum-albumen of the liquor sanguines for the nutrition of the tissuas.
Most people
eat daily more nitrogenous food than their bodies actually require. This
surplus is called the 7i7xu5 consumption. What becomes of this luxus
consumption? It is burnt up, and oxidized in a descending
series as
tyrosin, lucin, kreatine, kreatinine, then passing on to uric acid and urea:
and so long as the liver possesses the power of converting this luxus
consumption into soluable urea, all is well. Soluable
urea passes
out of the liquor sanguines in the renal secretion without any difficulty, but
not so uric acid:
uric acid
is the poison of gout, and when an excess of it is formed in the system,
lithemia, choloemia or biliousness supervenes, or the kidneys become injured by
the out-put of lithates and Bright's disease is the
result.
Choloemia and lithaemia are equally and alike, casually related to the
albuminoid elements of our food. Those who lead an invalid or sedentary life,
should never eat much meat, especially those advancing in age,
for most of
the diseases which fasten on the body as age approaches, are casually linked
with the excessive use of an albuminoid diet. In conclusion, with regard to
albuminous food, "it may be stated, in general terms, that wherever vital
operations are going on, their nitrogenous matter is to be found, the
operations of life occurring through its instrumentality. The nitrogenous
tissues which are the machines for living actions, have first to be
constructed
and then maintained. Accordingly, nitrogenous food is required for the
construction, as well as the maintenance, of the tissues. Hard work is best
performed with an abundant supply of proteins, as this leads to a
better
nourished condition of the animal machine, and its compound parts, such as
muscle, etc., and to keep up this good condition, for work, a liberal supply of
nitrogenous food is absolutely essential. In addition to supplying
the
nitrogenous waste, and forming one of the great sources of fat in the economy,
the proteins excite the metabolic activity of the body, and hence they are not
stored up so readily as the fats and carbo-hydrates.''
(T. C. Cartes, M.
D.)
Hydro-carbons
or Pats - The 4th great element of our food is fat derived both from the animal
and vegetable kingdoms, and is composed of stearin, palmitin and olein. The
first two being solid at ordinary temperatures,
are held in
solution by the olein at the temperature of the body. Fat can be readily broken
up into a fatty acid, and glycerine.
The fatty
acids are three, st-earic, palmetic and oleic. Stearine is the firmest fat,
readily solidifying in a low temperature, palmitin next, while olein still
remains liquid. Animal fat contains more stearine than that
of vegetables.
Mutton and beef suet quickly get hard, and the more stearine a fat contains the
harder it is to digest.
"Fat
is not affected by salivary, nor yet by gastric digestion. It is only when
gastric digestion is over, and fat comes into contact with the bile and the
pancreatic secretions, that any change is affected in it. The change is not
molecular, like the hydration of carbo-hydrates and albuminoids; but is merely
an emulsification, i. e., a division into minute particles. These small
particles are fine enough to enter the mouths of the lactels in the initestinal
villi,
which may be said to eat the fat globules. From thence the emulsionized fat
passes on to the lymphatics. The history of fat in the body after this is
obscure: we know that some of it is taken up by the tissues, and
the rest is
burnt up as body fuel (and passes oif as CO2). There is no proof of fat being
stored up in the body as fat. Indeed, Ebestein has advocated the Substitution
of fat for carbo-hydrates in the treatment of obesity: and that,
too, with
success.
*'The
difficulty with fat lies with the stomach. A delicate fastidious stomach is
offended by the presence of fat in it; and this reacts upon the palate. Some
stomachs will tolerate cold butter, which promptly and pronouncedly
take
offense at warm fat. Rancid fat is objectionable to civilized stomachs, and
compels the most scrupulous attention to all culinary utensils. With some
persons, fat turns rancid in the stomach by the formation of an acrid
acid-butyric,
causing heart-burn. There is a growing dislike to (animal) fat, at the present
time. Many children will no more eat fat than they will a cat. They will turn
with loathing from the fiweet pieces of fat on their plates,
yet they
will readily swallow fishy cod-liver oil. Their choice is instinctive, and
evidently linked with the fact that they can digest the one and not the
other." Intelligent persons are now eating fat because they know it is
good for
them. Whenever there is any tendency to tubercle, the individual should learn
to eat fat, just as a sea-faring man learns to swim. As a physician to a Chest
Hospital, I have learned to dread the announcement that fat is
not longer
taken, especially if the individual is of a strumous build, with a small narrow
chest. In my opinion of a considerable area of affected lung, where the
digestive powers keep up, is less fraught with evil, and less prognostically
significant, than intractable wasting with little disease in the lung."
(J. Milner Fothergill, M. D.)
"Origin
and source of the fat in the organism: Part of the fats is absorbed as such in
the intestines, in entering the capillaries in the form of scarcely saponified
glycerides, that are subsequently transformed into alkaline soaps.
But they
also arise in the body at the expense of the albuminoids. It seems doubtful
whether any of the fat is derived directly from the sugar absorbed, though this
is asserted: but it is probable that the accumulation of
fats
occurring on a mixed diet, rich in sugar, is due to the conversion of the sugar
into fat, but rather to the protection thus afforded against the oxidation of
the fats that, however, a large proportion of the fat of fattened animals
is not
derived from ingested fat, but directly or indirectly from the carbo-hydrates,
as well as the nitrogenous elements of the food, particularly when the latter
are in excess, seems most probable, and there is no doubt but that
a
combination of nitrogenous food and saline matter, together with
carbo-hydrates, conduces most to the production of fat in the organism. The
carbo-hydrates play a distinct part in the formation of fat in the carnivora
and herbivora." (T. C. Charles, M. D.)
The fats
that are not stored up by the tissues requiring them, disappear probably by
direct oxidation, being transformed into water and Carbonic acid gas, evolving
much heat or force in potential form. The amount of
Carbonic
acid gas given off during exercise is much greater than during rest. If we wish
to apprease the weight of the body and add to its constituents, we must combine
fats with the albuminates, as these given alone only lead
to
increased weights: But if we combine fats with albuminates, in proper
proportions, an increase of both nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous constituents
of the body can be maintained for a long time. Fat economizes
the
albuminous elements of the food, and checks the waste ofthe albuminous tissues.
Fat enters into all the tissues, and by its oxidation, it yields muscular force
and heat and it is largely consumed in muscular exercise. The capacity of fat
being stored up as adipose tissue makes it a reserve store house of
force-producing and heat-generating material to be used when great muscular
exertion is required. "The capacity of a material for heat production
depends upon the amount of unoxidized Carbon and Hydrogen it contains: and of
all elementary materials, the fats hold the highest place in this respect.
While in the starchy, saccharine and such-like materials, a sufficient
amount of
Oxygen exists in the compound to oxidize all Hydrogen present, leaving only the
Carbon, in an oxidizable condition: in the fats not only is the Carbon, but
also the chief of the Hydrogen, in an oxidizable state."
"To
illustrate the difference existing, it may be stated that starch contains, in
round numbers, 45% of Carbon, and 6% of Hydrogen, making 51%, of Carbon and
Hydrogen together. The remainder consists of Oxygen,
amounting
to 49%, of the whole. Sugar, and gum likewise, in round numbers, contain 43%,
of Carbon and 6%, of Hydrogen, making 49% of Carbon and Hydrogen together, and
leaving 51%, to be made up by Oxygen.
Fat, on the
other hand, contains about 90% of Carbon and Hydrogen - 79% of Carbon and 11%
of Hydrogen, and 10%, of Oxygen.
"According
to what is here shown, a given quantity of fat will have the power of
appropriating about 2.4x as much Oxygen as the same quantity of starch; or
stated in other words, will develop about 2.4x as much heat in the
process of
oxidation and hence has about 2.4x as much value as a heat-producing
agent."
"Actual
heat, expressed in units (the unit representing the heat required to raise one
gram (15.432 grains) of water 1° C or 1.8° F) developed by one gramm when burnt
in Oxygen.
HEAT UNITS.
Beef fat
9069
Starch
(arrow root) 3912
Cane (lump)
sugar 3348
Commercial
grape sugar 3277
"
Looking at this difference in the relative value of fatty, starchy and
saccharine matters as heat producers, we see the wisdom of the instinctive
consumption of food abounding in fatty matter by the inhabitants of the Arctic
regions. The Esquimaux and other dwellers in the frigid zone, devour with
avidity the fat of whales, seals, etc., and find in this the most efficient
kind of combustible material. In the tropics, on the other hand, the food
consumed by
the native inhabitants, consists mainly of farinaceous and succulent vegetable
material. On account of the elevated temperature of the surrounding air, less
heat is required to be produced within the body, and a
less
efficient combustible material is able to supply what is needed for the
maintenance of the ordinary temperature.
*The
adipose tissue fills up interstices between muscles, bones, vessels, and the
other anatomical structures, and by its accumulation under the skin, it gives a
regular and rounded form to the outer surface of the body.
As a bad
conductor of heat, the layer of adipose tissue beneath the skin contributes
toward retaining the animal warmth. This function it most conspicuously
fullfill in the aquatic warmblooded animals, such as the seal,
porpoise,
whale, etc., in which a coat of hair would prove of no service.
The very
great thickness of the subcutaneous layer of adipose tissue met with in these
animals is evidently designed to meet the demand occasioned by the
unsuitableness in this particular instance of the ordinary provision.
"Accumulated
with the vesicles and susceptible of re-absorption into the blood, the fat
forms a store of force-producing material to be drawn upon as circumstances may
require. Hence it is that life is sustained longer in a fat animal under
abstinence from food and with a supply of water, than in a thin one."
(F. W.
Pavy, M. D.)
Animal fat
is very much easier of digestion than the vegetable fat. When fat is not easily
assimilated by the system, it is owing to the secretions of the liver and
pancreas being in some way defective. In these cases by the
addition of
powdered pancreatin and inspissated ox gall, one hour after eating, we can
often so aid the digestive organs that the fats will be readily emulsified and
assimilated. Fat cannot be digested and absorbed into the
system
without the emulsifying aid of the bile and pancreatic juice.
Cod-liver
Oil - Oleum Jecoris Aselli: is obtained from the liver of the common cod: the
process is thus described by Dr. Garrod: "The livers are collected daily,
so that no trace of decomposition may have occurred: carefully examined, so as
to remove all traces of blood and impurity, and to separate any inferior
livers: they are then sliced and exposed to a temperature not exceeding 180° F
till all the oil is drained from them. This is filtered,
afterwards
exposed to a temperature of about 50° F in order to congeal the bulk of the
margarine, and again filtered, and put into bottles well secured from the
action of the air." The best oil comes from Norway.
Cod-liver
oil, being the only agent in which the old school have any confidence as a
curative agent in tuberculosis, contains.
Dr. Jongh found
the principal constituents of these oils to be oleate and margarate of
glycerine, possessing the usual properties, but they also contained butyric and
acetic acid, the principal constituents of the bile
as
fellenic, carbolic and hillifellinic acids, and bilifalvin, a peculiar
substance soluble in alcohol, or ether; iodine, chlorine, and traces of
bromine; phosphoric and sulphuric acids; phosphorus; lime; magnesia, soda and
iron.
These were
found in all the varieties, though not in equal proportions in all, yet it is
quite uncertain whether the difference had an relation to their degree of
efficacy.
This
analysis gives us a compound of 20 different remedies, all of which, it will be
seen, act especially upon the great sympathetic or vegetative nervous system,
the grand centre for the action of the tubercular poison,
and, it
will be 'seen, are the principal remedies used by our school for the cure of
tubercular consumption. This analysis also gives us an explanation how
cod-liver oil cures consumption.
First, it
holds in solution a fine attenuation of lime. Iodine, Phosphorous, Bromine and
a large number of other valuable remedies, and it is nonsensical to think they
do not act medicinally.
Our
preparations of the same remedies in which we all have such unbounded
confidence, contain far less medicine of each one of the ingredients, at the
30th and 200th attenuation, than the oil. We would like to see the
chemist who
would give the amount of Iodine the 30th or 200th centesimal attenuation
contain to the grain or ounce. We are certain that they do act medicinally in
those attenuations. A chemist can tell us the quantity
of Iodine
contained in an ounce of oil, but he cannot tell in an ounce of the 200th
attenuation of Iodine. Consequently, we must conclude from this, that the
beneficial influence exerted by cod-liver oil in phthisis, is to a large
extent
medicinal. Secondly, it is also highly nutritious and easily assimilable food.
In all ages oleaginous substances have been esteemed highly as curative agents
in consumption, whether their action was to be attributed to
their
medicinal or to their nutritious properties. We now see that it supplies
nutriment in a concentrated form, and at the same time holds in solution
medicines that are homoeopathic to the tubercular diathesis.
Dr. C. J.
B. Williams, in his late work on Pulmonary Consumption, says: After a quarter
of a century's experience, it is the only agent in any degree deserving the
title of a remedy in this disease. Its mode of action is still a
matter of
uncertainty, but we can at least offer some reasonable conjectures. That it is
in itself a nutriment cannot be doubted, and that its nutritious properties go
farther than to augment the fat in the body is proved by the
well
ascertained fact that the muscles and strength also increase under its use. In
fact, it has been proved to increase the proteinaceous constituents of the
blood except the fibrin which is diminished: in truth, the beneficial operation
of cod-liver oil extends to every function and structure of the body. In cases
most suitable for its use, there is a progressive improvement in digestion,
appetite, strength and complexion: and various morbid conditions perceptibly
diminish.
Thus
purulent discharges are lessened, ulcers assume a healthier aspect,
colliquative diarrhoea and sweats cease: the natural secretions become more
copious, the pulse less frequent. It is difficult to comprehend
how it can
produce such marvellous salutary effects.
[Through
the vegetative nervous system it produces these marvellous effects.] When we
remember that in a teaspoonful of oil we are administering a dose of Iodine
equal to a drop and a half of its 3rd decimal
dilution,
and that we are generally giving it in cases to which the drug is thoroughly homoeopathic,
can we doubt that it exerts a curative action: if we disbelieve this, we have
no reason for believing in the
action of
infinitesimals anywhere. Moreover, were it the oleaginous matter per se which
cures, why should all attempts to find a substitute for the oil of fishes be so
unsuccessful? "
In cases
that are benefited by the use of cod-liver oil, the nutrition of the body is at
fault, and we find the loss of flesh or emaciation a prominent symptom, with
marked debility, or we may have enlargement of the lymphatic glandular system,
the swelling of the cervical or sub-maxillary glands. Such cases are sure to be
benefited by the oil, especially if in little children.
There are
three varieties of oil in use: the dark brown; a brown, and a pure, pale oil.
The latter is the only kind that ought to be used for medicinal purposes. The
strong smelling and dark colored oils owe their offensive
properties
to the partial decomposition and putrefaction that has taken place before the
oil is taken from the livers. Speaking about the various kinds of oil. Dr.
Williams says in his work on consumption: *It was not until the
pure, pale
oil was brought under my notice that the difficulties in administering it gave way;
and during the last 25 years I have prescribed it (the pale oil) for between
twenty and thirty thousand patients, and with such success
that it was
taken without material difficulty by about 95%, of the whole number, and of
those who thus took it, full 90% derived more or less benefit from its use.
This experience, which is in accordance with that of many
of my
professional friends, is at least quite as strong as any that could be adduced
in favor of the brown or impure kind of oil, and it does seem absurd to
recommend the exhibition of the remedy in its offensive form, when the
pure fresh
oil has been proved to be at least equally effective."
To get the
full benefit of the oil, its use must be persevered in for at least several
months, and some patients will find it their staff of life and will have to
continue it their whole lifetime.
To preserve
the oil, the bottle should be well corked and kept in a cool place: the oil
should not be exposed to the air any longer than is necessary to take it.
Dr.
Meyhoffer says: Cod-liver oil justly merits the high reputation which it has
acquired in correcting those deficiencies of nutrition commonly comprehended in
the terms of scrofulosis and tuberculosis.
In patients
exhibiting a strumous diathesis of a slender and lean figure and thin
transparent skin, we generally find combined frequent weak pulse, great
excitability of the nervous system, with high specific gravity of the
urine-
all signs
of an accelerated meta-morphosis. It is in this condition that the action of
cod-liver oil has obtained its anti-scrofulous fame, in a short time after its
use the angular forms acquire more roundness, and the general susceptibility as
well as the morbid phenomena gives way to its influence. Scrofulous
individuals, however, who exhibit a fatty, puffy, leuco-phlegmatic body,
swollen nose and upper lip, slowness of the cardiac contraction,
defective
irritability of the nervous system, and low specific gravity of the urine, far
from being benefited from cod-liver oil are the very victims who have been made
to swallow it by quarts, and to no purpose. The reason of
this is
obvious: fat requires nearly double the amount of oxygen for its combustion
(100:292.14) to that demanded by albumen (100:153.31), and as it evinces a greater
tendency to generation of acid than the latter, acts, when introduced into the
organism the part of a moderator to the metamorphosis of
nitrogenous*substances. On the other hand, that part of the oleaginous matter
which has not furnished its share towards the production of animal heat
by
combustion, does so by its accumulation under the cutaneous surface, or enters
as a necessary element into the formation of cells. It is thus evident that
cod-liver oil can only be of service when the destructive, nutritive
process
prevails over the constructive one, and that otherwise its agency must rather
increase than diminish, a lymphatic tendency of constitution.
But the
virtues of this animal product are, by a great number of physicians, attributed
in a measure to the Iodine contained in it. There can be no doubt as to the
salutary influence exercised by this metalloid over some special scrofulous
affection: but this does not destroy the fact that cod-liver oil, like any
other fatty substances (the fat of dogs is a popular remedy in Germany for
scrofula and phthisis), produces its best effects on lean persons who,
as
physiology teaches, consume more Oxygen and excrete Carbonic acid and bile than
fat ones, while on those who show a disposition to the formation of adipose
tissue, it effects a contrary result to that which is desired, in
spite of
the Iodine which it contains. Cod oil is a specific only in a limited number of
morbid conditions: in the majority of instances it derives its importance from
its value as a nutritive agent arresting a preternatural waste.''
Dr. Walshe,
an allopathic physician, whose authority on this subject no physician can
outrank in any school, draws the following conclusions:
(1) That cod-liver oil more rapidly and, more
eflfectually induces improvement in the general and local symptoms than any
other known substance.
(2) That its power of curing disease is
undetermined.
(3) That the mean amount of permanency of the
good effects of the oil is undetermined.
(4) That it .relatively produces more marked
effects in the third than in the previous eases.
(5) That it increases weight in favorable cases
with singular speed, and out of all proportion to the actual quantity taken,
that hence it must, in some unknown way, save waste and render food more
readily assimilable.
(6) That it sometimes fails to increase weight.
(7) That in the great majority of cases where
it fails to increase weight, it does little good in other ways.
(8) That it does not relieve dyspnoea out of proportion
with other symptoms.
(9) That the effects traceable to the oil in
most favorable cases are: increase of weight, suspension of colliquative
sweats, improved appetite, diminished cough and expectoration, cessation of
sickness with cough, and gradual disappearance of physical signs.
(10) That in some cases it cannot be taken,
either because it disagrees with the stomach, impairing the appetite (without
being itself absolutely nourishing), and causing nausea; or because it produces
diarrhoea.
(11) That in the former cases it may be made
palatable by associating it with a mineral acid: and in the latter prevented
from affecting the bowels by combination with astringents.
(12) That intrathoracic inflammations and
haemoptysis are contra-indications to its use, but only temporarily so.
(13) Diarrhoea, if depending on chronic
peritonitis or secretive change, or small ulcerations in the ilium is no
contra-indication to the use of the oil; even profuse diarrhoea caused by
extensive ulceration of the larger
bowel is not made worse by it.
(14) That the beneficial operation of the oil
diminishes, coeteris paribus, directly as the age of those using it increases.
(15) That the effects of the oil are more
strikingly beneficial when only a small extent of the lung is implicated in an
advanced stage, than where a relatively large area is diseased in an insipient
stage.
(16) That where chronic pleurisy or chronic
pneumonia exists on a large scale, the oil often fails to relieve the pectoral
symptoms.
(17) That it often disagrees, when the liver is
enlarged and probably fatty.
(18) That weight may be increased by
it, the cough and expectoration diminished, night sweating cease, the strength
which has been failing remain stationary under the use of the oil and yet the
local disease be all the
while advancing.
' Singular
proof, ' says Dr . Walshe, “of the nutritive power of the agent,” and, we may
add, of its sufficiency as a medicine. "This admirable exhaustive summary
of the knowledge which is possessed of the subject to which
it relates,
confirmed, as it has been by the conclusion of competent observers, shows a
wide difference between the anticipations which were indulged respecting the
virtues of cod-liver oil and the sober realities of experience.
But enough
remains to prove that among the remedies that have been proposed for pulmonary
consumption none can be compared with its efficacy.
More than
any other, it mitigates the symptoms of the disease and delays its march: while
in some cases it appears permanently to arrest the degeneration of tubercles
already deposited, and so to improve the nutrition as to
prevent the
formation of new ones." (Stille.)
Dr. H. C.
Wood says: " There can be no doubt that consumption often commences with
catarrh, and is often developed slowly, as the result of frequently '* catching
cold." Whenever a patient is feeble, pale,
somewhat
anaemic, complains of his liability to catch cold on the slightest exposure,
even though no local disease exists anywhere, or rather because no local
disease exists anywhere, there is cause for alarm;
and it is
of the most vital importance that the patient be put upon a tonic treatment,
whose basis is cod-liver oil.
It remained
for Reed and Carnrick to bring out the perfection of all cod-liver oil
preparations, in the form of Peptonized Cod-liver Oil and Milk. It is partially
predigested, and is therefore more easily digested and assimilated, especially
by weak and enfeebled stomachs. Eructations are much less likely to follow than
when any other form of the oil is taken.
It contains
50%, of pure Norwegian Cod-liver oil, the remaining percentage is composed of
milk and an emulsion formed with Irish moss. No gums are used in its
manufacture. But the great feature of this preparation is this:
it mixes
readily with water, and makes a pleasant drink, and in this way any child or
adult can easily take it; and we not only get the benefit of the oil, but we
get the fat contained in the milk, and that greatest of all foods, water.
I am delighted
with this preparation of cod-liver oil and milk, for it so aids me in giving
liquid food to the phthisical. Fat, Oil and Water are the only deadly enemies
that the poison of phthisis has. This poison flourishes and
runs riot
in a tall, slim, feeble, emaciated and poorly nourished person, but a stout,
well nourished, fleshy person, well padded with fat, causes the poisonous
bacillus tuberculosis to turn pale, wither and die.
Dose: One tablespoonful, dissolved
in a tumbler full of water, and drank 4x daily.
Caution:
Cod-liver oil: should not be administered indiscriminately during the
persistence of acute febrile symptoms, congestion, hemorrhages, or any active
form of disease; digestion being then impaired, and the mucous membrane
irritable, the oil is only likely to increase the disorder. The sphere of
cod-liver oil is to remove exhaustion and impart general tone: this is best
accomplished when active morbid processes and local irritation have subsided,
for then the system is in a condition to appropriate a larger amount of
nourishment." (Dr. Ruddock.)
Exhibition:
Many people and even children have no trouble in taking cod-liver oil, in fact
cod-liver oil is taken better by children than by grown people; but with some,
the sweetest oil is taken with great difficulty: those who
are so
sensitive should take it in the form of capsules.
One of the
best methods I have ever found to administer it is for the patient to suck the
juice of a lemon, or chew a little of the lemon skin before taking the oil, and
the same after: the taste of the oil is generally all gone a
minute
after.
Another
good way is to take it floating on a weak solution of Phosphoric acid, or an
infusion of orange peel, the quantity of the vehicle should not exceed a
tablespoonful, with a teaspoonful of the oil, which, should be gradually
increased to a tablespoonful for adults and half the quantity for children.
The oil
should be taken morning and night directly - after eating. Experience has
taught us that if taken directly after eating, it is not so apt to disagree,
and rises much less, leaving the appetite free for the next meal. If taken on
an empty
stomach it leaves for hours a rancid, unpleasant taste, with frequent
eructations, tasting of the oil.
Children
generally take it very readily; if they should not like it, the best way is to
form an emulsion with the yolk of an egg, or mucilage, and flavor it with some
syrup, or if the child is very young, the first three decimal triturations can
be given in many cases with excellent results, at the same time it can be used
on the child by in unction. Better still, give Peptonized Cod-liver Oil and
Milk.
Dr. Hempel:
'If the stomach should not be able to retain the oil, a minute portion of
common salt taken both before and after the dose of oil, will sometimes enable
the stomach to bear this remedy when all other devices fail."
Dr.
Ruddock: Probably the best method of rendering the oil palatable is to have it
made up into bread, as it is then scarcely tasted. The proper proportions is
two to four tablespoonfuls of the oil to one pound of dough.
Patients to
whom we have recommended this method of taking the oil, assure us that while
pleasant and digestible, it is as effective taken in this as in any other way.
Small pieces of ice in each dose of oil also renders it
almost
tasteless. Malt is another excellent vehicle to administer this oil in.
"Its
assimilation is promoted and its beneficial action greatly enhanced by the
addition of ten drops of the first solution of lodium to each pint of oil. This
addition is especially recommended in Phthisis, Pulmonalis and Atrophy. Claret
is another vehicle for cod-liver oil. The oil should be poured upon the wine so
that it does not touch the glass, but floats as a large globule: in this way it
may be swallowed untasted."
Take one
orange and divide it into two equal parts: squeeze the juice of one-half into a
cup: pour the oil upon it, then squeeze the juice of the other half very gently
on the oil. By swallowing the whole cautiously, not the least
taste of
the oil is experienced." (Lancet.)
Dr.
Buchner: essay on Air and Lungs, "Adverts to the fact that in England they
burn cod-liver oil in several lighthouses, and that a number of
light-housekeepers, who had been threatened with phthisis, before entering upon
the duty above mentioned and who inhaled day after day the air of the lantern
impregnated with the volatile parts of the oil, became fleshy and robust. I
have acted on the above hint for 5 - 6 years past. In all my prescriptions of
cod-liver
oil I have directed the inhalations of the vapors arising from gently heated
(not burned or scorched) crude cod-liver oil, and have in more than one case,
seen happy results. I direct my patient to fill a saucer with the
crude oil,
place the saucer over a tin dish filled with sand, and heat the bottom of this
either by stone or other convenient means. To some the effect is very soothing
and grateful. I remember only one instance in which the inhalation of the fumes
was at once very distasteful and nauseating, that of a young lady whose health
failed repeatedly whenever she lived in New Bedford (near salt water), and
gained on her going West to Illinois."
(G. F.
Matthes.)
I have tested
the fumes of the oil as given above, and am pleased with its action. Inhaling
the fumes all night during sleep will be found of much value in the first stage
of phthisis.
As to the
kind of diet the patient should use while taking the oil Dr. Williams says:
'With some individuals the oil agrees so well and so much improves their
digestion, that they require little or no restriction in diet, but this is
not the
case with the majority.
The
richness of the oil does prove more or less atrial, sooner or later, (such
persons should take the Peptonized Cod-liver Oil and Milk) to most persons, and
to diminish this trial as much as possible, it obviously becomes proper
to omit or
reduce all other rich and greasy articles of diet. All pastry, fat meat, rich
stuffing and the like should be avoided, and great moderation observed in the
use of butter, cream and very sweet things. Even milk in any quantity is not
generally borne well during a course of oil, and many find malt liquor too
heavy, increasing the tendency to bilious attacks. A plain nutritious diet of
bread, fresh meat, poultry or game, with a fair proportion
of
vegetables and a little fruit, and a moderate quantity of liquid at the earlier
meals, commonly agrees best, and facilitates the exhibition of the oil in doses
sufficient to produce its salutary influence in the system.''
Salts
- Mineral Substances. ' ' These are of
great importance, and are as essential to nutrition as the albuminates. There
is no tissue that does not contain lime, chiefly in the form of the Phosphate,
and it would seem that cell growth cannot go on without it, indeed Calcium
Phosphate is the most abundant salt in the body, seeing that it forms more than
½ of our bones. Calcium carbonate occurs associated with this Phosphate, but in
relatively much
smaller
quantity. Sodium chloride is also a very important salt, which likewise occurs
in all the tissues and fluids of the body. It plays a very important role in
promoting the diffusion of fluids through membranes, and its
presence is
necessary for maintaining the globulines in solution. It is absolutely
necessary to existence, and its entire withdrawal from food would be speedily
fatal. (The want of common, salt often causes albuminuria). Rather more than
200 grains are secreted daily, chiefly by the kidneys. It is a matter of common
experience in the treating of cattle, that the addition of common salt to their
food greatly improves their condition.
The
Phosphates of Sodium and Potassium are also important salts. The alkaline
reaction of the bloodplasma, and some of the other fluids are due partly to
these alkaline phosphates. The acid sodium phosphate is the chief cause
of the acid
reaction of the urine. Sodium carbonate and bi-carbonate are also found in the
blood-plasma; they are ingested in small quantities in the food, and they are
partly formed in the body from the decomposition of the salt
of the
vegetable acids. They play an important part in the blood in carrying the
Carbonic acid from the tissues to the lungs.
Sodium and
potassium sulphates occur in small quantity in the body, and are partly derived
from the oxidation of organic substances containing Sulphur.
Potassium
chloride is widely distributed, and is found especially in the closed blood
corpuscles and in muscular tissue. Magnesium phosphate occurs together with
Calcium phosphate, but in much smaller amount;
it is
probably essential to the growth of some tissues.
"Iron
is an essential constituent of hemo-globin, and therefore, of the red blood
corpuscles. It is found also in striped muscle and in other tissues in minute
quantity." The two alkalies, Potash and Soda, have a
different
distribution in the body, and one cannot supply the place of the other. The
Potassium salts exist especially in the formed tissues, as the blood corpuscles
and muscular fibre, and the sodium salts are found more
abundantly
in the intersticial fluids: so in the blood, Sodium and the Chloride are found
especially in the plasma and Potassium and the Phosphates in the corpuscles.
'The
Chlorine of the Chlorides would appear to be easily set free in the body, so
that it can combine with Hydrogen and form a powerful action, having a special
solvent action on albuminates. The Sulphur and the Phosphates
of the
tissues appear to be introduced as such in the albuminates.
"All
these mineral substances are introduced into the body as constituent parts of
the various ordinary articles of human food, animal and vegetable, with the
exception of Sodium chloride which is usually added to the food in greater or
less amount in addition to what they may themselves contain.
"Certain
salts such as the Lactates, Tartrates, Citrates, and Acetates, become converted
into Carbonates within the body and confer upon the system that alkalinity
which appears to be necessary- to the integrity of the molecular currents. The
state of malnutrition which in its highest degree we call scurvy appears to
follow inevitably on their absence: and as they exist in fresh vegetables it is
a well known rule of dietetics to supply these with great care, though their
nutritive power otherwise is small.
"Rabbateau
observed that the addition of 150 grains of Sodium chloride to the daily
rations increased notably the amount of urea excreted; it would seem therefore,
to promote the metabolism of the albuminates: it acts probably simply by
stimulating the digestive functions, and probably increasing the acidity of the
gastric juice; it is itself almost wholly eliminated in the urine.
''The
utility of adding Phosphates to food mth a view of increasing its nutritive
qualities has been warmly discussed and it has been pointed out as a proof of
their inutility that the soluble Phosphates so given, are eliminated in
their
totality in the urine and the insoluble ones in the faeces, but as has been
argued by Dujardin-Beaumetz, the same happens with regard to Chloride of sodium
and it does not follow because of this that it has no influence on
nutrition.
The favorable action of the Phosphates soluble or insoluble, which is certainly
at times absorbed is probably due, as he suggests, either to a regulating
action on the functions of the alimentary tube, or to the acid
elements
they convey into the stomach, or to some other indirect action. As a rule, we
take in with our food a far larger quantity of salt than is necessary for the
replacement of the tissues. The excess is excreted »with the urine
and only
when an increase of the body weight occurs is any large amount of salts
retained in the body." (I. Burney Yeo, M. D.)
A good
illustration of the value of the body salts is furnished by watching the
effects of arresting the night sweats of phthisis. As soon as the out-pouring
of the salts in the sweat is checked, the appetite returns, and soon the
pallor of
the features give way to the hue of returning health.
The most
complete food we have is milk. Next to that is the egg. In them exist besides
the organic principles all the inorganic matter, including both saline and
water that is needed to build up the human organism.
In the
preparation of food for human consumption the natural article is greatly
depreciated in nutritive value by the abstraction in boiling, not only of some
of its soluble portion, but of much of its nutritive salts. Boasted meat
on this
account is of more value than when boiled, without the meat is made into a
soup. In the boiling of vegetables, nutritive principles, and especially the
salts are removed by the water. The preparation of flour leaves the product
much inferior to the grain from which it is derived.
Both the
saline and nitrogenous matter contained in the wheat are chiefly found in the
outer part of the grain and they are usually thrown off into the bran. Magenda
has proved by experiment that a dog dies if fed on white bread, while its
health does not suffr at all, if its food consists of brown bread, or bread
made of unbolted flour. We should consume the whole of the grain to obtain all
the nutritive principles we require. Cracked wheat should be eaten largely by
the phthisical. If the great majority of mankind did not live on a mixed diet
of animal and vegetable food, sickness and death would soon be developed, and
man would be destroyed from the face of the earth.
Gaseous
Pood - The Atmosphere: Composition of atmospheric air.
Gas By
weight By
volume
N 23.015 20.96
CO2 70.985
99.02
Besides the
above it contains aqueous vapor, Ammonia and organic matter. Oxygen forms
20.96% by volume of the gaseous mixture: and this proportion is preserved in
all parts of the atmospheric ocean. A certain small
amount of
the O of the air exists in the form of Ozone, a peculiar modification of
Oxygen, not yet understood. Oxidation goes on more rapidly when Ozone exists in
the air than it does with Oxygen alone, and it is said to
destroy the
volatile substances which are evolved during putrefaction. The atmosphere is
the only gaseous food required by animals and man, and the necessity for its
Oxygen is absolute and continuous. When the
mixed gases
of the air are drawn into the lungs a portion of the Oxygen is absorbed by the
blood, and in the circulation, unites chemically, with the Carbon, Nitrogen and
Hydrogen of our food, forming chemical compounds,
called
Carbonates, Nitrates and Hydrates. Some of the compounds go to form part of the
substance of the body, but the major portion of them after producing heat,
leave the body as Carbonic acid and water. Chemically speaking, the living body
is a great oxidizing machine, constantly burning up its own substance and every
act of man, and even each unconscious change within the body, is accompanied by
a consumption of Oxygen. The quantity of air consumed when compared with our
other food is large: for an adult, the average being 360 cubic feet or about
2000 gallons daily, which would weigh about twenty-five pounds.
Nitrogen:
This being the largest constituent of the air, it must play an important part
in the nutrition of the body, instead of being, as many think, only a dilutant
of the air. God never makes anything but for use. Notwithstanding
up to the
present time its real functions are not fully known, one thing we do know: that
is, if the supply of Nitrogen be cut off from the body, its various functions
languish: but if we desire to increase the energies of the body, Nitrogen must
be supplied, without the participation of the Nitrogenous bodies, no oxidation
or manifestation of energy is possible. The active principle in the various
secretions of the body is Nitrogen. Nitrogenous
food
develop and maintain the tissues in their secretions in the body. It has been
proved that the elimination of urea in the urine is in proportion of
Nitrogenous food eaten: and it is therefore certain, that the Nitrogenous
alimentary principles must undergo such chemical changes in the system as to result
in the production of urea. Nitrogen, therefore, plays an important part, in the
absorption and utilization of Oxygen in the system. Electricity transforms
nitrogen into Ammonia, and Nitric acid, and thus it becomes assimilated by the
vegetable kingdom.
Aqueous
Vapor: This is always present in the air, but it varies greatly in amount,
increasing with the increase of temperature. All air breathing organ- isms
would perish were the humidity of the atmosphere entirely removed.
It is a physiological
necessity to the existence of a man's life. If the air be too dry, it irritates
the respiratory mucous membrane. If too moist, there is a disagreeable
sensation; and if it be too warm, a feeling of closeness. Hence
the air
should be saturated with watery vapor to the extent of about 70%. The air in
mid-summer contains 3x as much watery vapor as it does in mid-winter, and the
moisture is greater with a south and west wind, than with a
north and
east wind.
Ammonia:
This emanates and is diffused from putrefactive processes in progress on the
surface of the earth. It is also produced from the Nitrogen of the air by
electric agency, as during a thunder storm.
The
quantity in the air varies, but it average about 1 grain to 23,000 cubic feet.
Rain washes the ammonia from the air to the surface of the earth, and in a
rainfall it may always be detected and measured, and its quantity is increased
during thunder storms, and this ammonia is of great use to vegetation.
Carbonic
Acid: This is produced by the oxidation of Carbon in dead and living tissues.
The average amount found in the air is about four volumes of Carbonic acid to
10,000 volumes of atmospheric air.
Its
percentage varies with the local causes which determine its production. The
diffusive power of gases, and the wind, tend to equalize the percentage. Thus
it is greater in the streets and alleys of a city than in the country, and
greater in a damp atmosphere before rain has fallen, than in the air in the
same locality after a rain storm. There is more Carbonic acid in the air in
summer than in winter by about one-half, its sources being organic
decomposition
occurring in the soil, animal respiration and the combustion of fuel: the
greatest quantity of the gas is found near the surface of the ground. Carbonic
acid is harmless of itself, unless it is in very unusual quantities, but it may
carry with it from a damp soil, miasma and organic matters that would make it a
poison to organic life. Carbonic acid from fuel is generally accompanied by Carbonic
oxide and Sulphurous acid, which become very deleterious. Carbonic acid from
animal respiration is accompanied by organic exhalations, which is well known
to cause headache, febrile action and even phthisis, when the exposure is
continuous. 'During the English war in India, in the last century, 146
prisoners were shut up in a room scarcely large enough to hold them. The air
could enter only by two narrow windows. At the end of 8 hours but 22 prisoners
remained alive, and those were in a most deplorable condition. This prison is
well called the 'Black Hole of Calcutta.' Percy relates that after the battle
of Austerlitz 300 Russian prisoners were confined in a cavern, where 200 of
them perished in a few hours.
The stupid
captain of the ship Londonderry, during a storm at sea, shut the hatches. There
were only
seven cubic
feet of space for each person and in six hours ninety of the passengers were
dead." This teaches us that the breath exhaled is loden with Carbonic acid
and organic matter, that should never be re-breathed and that our living and
sleeping rooms cannot be too well ventilated.
Organic
Matter, such as bacteria, miasmas and exhalations from contagious diseases in
the sick, in ill-ventilated rooms, adhere to the walls and the various textures
in the room with great tenacity and not only require time, but anti-septic
means to dissipate them.
The
clearness of the atmosphere after a rainstorm is a matter of common
observation, and can be readily understood. The impurities of the air are washed
down to the surface of the earth: and in this way,
rain water
becomes the sewage of the atmosphere.
Fresh air
is one of the most abundant things in nature, and costs nothings yet it cannot
be doubted that thousands of people, especially those that live a sedentary
life, and spend a large proportion of their time indoors, have their health
injured, their working capacity greatly diminished and their length of days
shortened, by an insufficiency of air. They are literally starving to death for
this form of food.
WATER.
Water: 2
parts H + 1 part O. The uses of this agent in disease have been known and
valued from the commencement of man down to the present age. But its full
therapeutic value is far from being exhausted. Every year
something
new of its uses in disease is being found out, and now I have the pleasure to
announce one more clinical use of this great agent, and that is, its power to
cure pulmonary tuberculosis in man, a disease that is said to have destroyed
1/8 of the human family, and is dreaded by the physician more than any other
disease that he has to do battle with, because death always comes out
victorious.
Before
giving this new use of water in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis, it
will be beneficial to first show what part water occupies in the human body,
and what are its uses in the animal economy.
The
chemical constituents of the human body, when dissolved into its original
elements, as every physician is well aware, contain 70%, of water. That is to
say, if a man weighs 200 pounds, one hundred and forty of this is water. This
one fact I wish to have fully understood, for it illustrates fully why my new
method of treatment is so successful , and is the real and only scientific way
to treat tuberculosis.
T.
Cranstonn Charles, M. D., in his Elements of Physiological Chemistry, says:
"Water forms about 70%.'of the adult and 88%, of the embryo’s and is the
medium in which the chemical (biological) changes of the organism
occur. In
the accompanying table the average proportion of water in several of the
tissues is given:
Lymph - 93-96%
Brain – 75%
Chyle - 90-95%
Cartilage -
67-73%
Blood – 78%
Bones – 13%
Kidneys – 82%
Teeth – 10%
Nerves – 78%
Enamel - 0.2%
Muscles – 76%
Lungs - 79.6%
Salts: The mineral
salts form 3 - 6%, of the adult's body, and about 1%, of that of the foetus.
Alkaline chlorides and phosphates, earthy Phosphates, with some Carbonates and
Sulphates form the chief of these salts of which
Sodium
chloride is the most important, its presence exciting assimilative changes and
assisting in the secretions of many of the juices, particularly the gastric:
and so necessary is it to the organism that when it is supplied
in
insufficient quantities it is retained by the tissues and not excreted. When
deprived of it, animals lose weight, spirits and activity. The Potash salts are
also indispensable, acting as exciters of the nervous system and
increasing
the cardiac pulsations.
'A great
daily loss occurs in the salts, which of course must be restored in the diet.
'By the urine of a healthy man of average weight, there is a daily discharge of
about 180 to 250 grains of Chloride of sodium, and 120 to 130
grains of
other salts, and by the faeces about 130 to 140 of different salts. These salts
are principally Phosphates of Potash and Phosphates and Carbonates of lime,
etc. Accordingly, the food should contain at least 250 grains of Sodium
chloride and about half that amount of other salts, and especially those of
Potash to make good this daily loss."
From the
above it will be seen that water is the most important element in the human
body. No one function can be carried on without the aid of water. It assists
digestion by promoting the solution of our food, and acts as a
vehicle to
convey the more dense and less fluid substances from the stomach to their
destination in the body, giving fluidity to the blood, holding in solution or
suspension the fibrin, albumen, red globules and all the different substances
which enter into the various tissues of the body, for the whole body is formed
from the blood. Water forms a necessary part of our bodily structure, and acts
as a lubricator of all its tissues. Water regulates the
biological
and chemical changes resulting from nutrition and decay, and the effete
products of the bodily waste could not be removed without the aid of water.
Water
regulates the temperature of the body:
In 24 hours
the solid food eaten by an adult contains from 15 to 25 ounces of water, and to
digest this properly there should be added from 60 to 70 ounces more of water,
making from 75 to 95 ounces of this fluid required daily
to keep our
bodies properly nourished.
Now how
does the system get rid of so much water daily? Why, by the four great emunctories
of the body, viz:
Kidneys 50 ounces
Skin 32 ounces
Lungs 12 ounces
Bowels (faeces) 5 ounces
Total, 99
ounces of water.
It will be
seen by the above, that the kidneys are the greatest excretory organs in the
body, skin second, lungs third and the bowels the least.
Kidneys.:
Constituents
of Urine.: Besides the filtration of water
from the blood, the kidneys excrete a great proportion of the solids of the body.
These waste products are carried to the kidneys by the blood from every tissue
in the body. These waste products may be classified into organic and inorganic
bodies.
Organic:
These belong to the fatty series. First of which we have the urea, uric acid,
kreatin and kreatinin, xanthin and hj^poxanthin, oxalic oxaluric, lactic, and
glycerophosphoric acids.
Added to
these we have the Aromatic series or hippuric, benzoic, phenosulphuric
indoxylsulphuric and scatolsulphuric acids, urobilin and organic bodies
containing Sulphur.
Inorganic
Salts: Sodium chloride, Alkaline sulphates and phosphates of lime and magnesia,
Iron Ammonia, Silicic acid, Nitric acid, and gases of Nitrogen, Oxygen and
Carbonic acid.
The most
important of these constituents are urea, sodium, chloride and the potash
salts. The urea and the Sodium chloride normally bear to each other the
proportion of 2 : 1, in febrile conditions may be altered to 30 : 1.
In 24 hours
the solids of the urine average from 840 to 920 grains and in general, the
solids increase with the quantity of urine excreted. Hence the value of water
in phthisis.
Urea and uric acid. are formed
in the liver and lymph glands, and are derived from the decomposition of
albuminous bodies. Parks: 97% of Nitrogen of the food (urea) is thus eliminated
by the kidneys. Urea is always increased
by a diet
rich in proteins. With a pure animal (Nitrogenous) diet there is formed in 24
hours 51 to 91 grains of urea, and with a non-nitrogenous diet only 16. The
formation of urea and uric acid is increased by muscular exertion, and greatly
so, in the dyspnoea of phthisis. Fasting lowers the urea by 10 to 11 grains and
the excessive consumption of water raises it to 50 or more grains. In phthisis
more Nitrogen (urea) is eliminated than is present in the food consumed.
Lessened respiratory power and disturbance of the circulation increases the
formation of urea and uric acid and decreases the Potash salts and Sodic
chloride.
The
proportion of Sodic chloride in normal urine, is greater than that of all other
salts combined, but in high fevers, the Sulphates and Phosphates predominate.
The average of Sodic chloride voided in 24 hours is 180 grains.
It is
increased after a meal, by the excessive use of common salt, by the drinking of
water, by Potash salts and by muscular exertion. With an animal diet, the
earthy basis predominates, but with a vegetable, the potash salts predominate.
A fever
patient excretes more Potash than Soda; the convalescent more Soda than Potash.
The Potash salts are greatly diminished in phthisis, and in some cases the
urine becomes albuminous. The Soda salts predominate in the
fluids of
the body and the Potash salts in the formed tissues.
Skin.: The amount of water given off by
the skin in 24 hours is 1 - 5 pounds, averaging about two (32 ounces). Dr.
Seguin says there is about 18 grains of fluid given off from the skin and lungs
every minute, 11 by the skin and
7 by the
lungs. Of this large amount of water the greater portion passes off as
insensible perspiration. Perspiration greatly influenced by exercise, the
amount of fluid drunk, temperature and the dryness of the atmosphere.
The sweat is
secreted in the sudoriparous glands. As long as the secretion is small it
passes off as insensible perspiration, but when the secretion is increased,
evaporation is prevented, and drops of sweat appear on the surface of the skin.
The
influence of nerves upon the secretion of sweat is very marked, and the medulla
oblongata contains the dominating sweat centre, assisted by the vasomotor
nerves, especially the vaso-dilators. These are excited directly by
a highly
venous condition of the blood, as during dyspnoea, by [overheated blood
streaming through the centre, or by poisons. Reflex symptoms often excite these
centres.
Chemical
Composition of Sweat: Water is the chief component with a small amount of salts
and Carbonic acid. Human sweat (after Picard, Schottin, etc.)
Water - - - - 98.88
Solids - - - - 1.12
Salts - - - - - 0,57
Sodic Chloride 0.22 to 33
Alkaline sulphates, phosphates, and lactates
and potassic chloride 0.18
Fats, fatty acids and cholesterin - - - - 0.41
Epithelium - - - < 17
Urea - - - - - - - 0.08
Strongly
Alkaline sweat from the presence of ammoniacal salts is occasionally met with
in uraemia and gout, and very acid sweat in acute rheumatism, rickets and
especially the night sweats of phthisis.
Sebaceous
Glands: The fatty secretions of these glands keep the skin supple. The
cheniieal constituents of this secretion are olein, cholesterin, a small amount
of albumen, insoluble phosphates, and traces of alkaline chlorides. These are
all perverted in phthisis.
Cutaneous
perspiration: The skin absorbs Oxygen and exhales Carbonic acid gas. The CO2
exhaled from the skin daily averages about 60 grains and the absorbed is from
50 to 60 grains. The exchange of gases depends upon
the
vascularity of the skin, and the absorption of Oxygen depends upon the number
of red corpuscles in the blood.
Lungs: The
average amount of water given off by the
lungs in a healthy adult in 24 hours is 12
ounces, the expired air being constantly saturated with watery vapor.
When the watery vapor in the air varies, the lungs give off different
quantities of water from the body, and the watery vapor is greatly increased,
when the blood is thoroughly saturated with water. During dyspnoea and rapid
respiration found in phthisis, asthma and all fevers the watery
vapor is
greatly lessened and physically the system is crying for water to flush out the
poison. Aqueous vapor is always present in the air, generally it contains about
¾ as much as it can hold when saturated. If the air be too dry,
it
irritates the mucous membrane. If too moist, there is a disagreeable sensation,
and if too warm, a feeling of closeness. The most agreeable atmosphere to
breathe is that saturated with watery vapor to the extent of about
70%. The
amount of moisture in the air varies: during the day it increases with the
increase of temperature, and diminishes as the temperature falls. It also
varies with the direction of the wind, height above the sea level, and
season of
the year.
There is
more watery vapor in the south and west wind, than there is in the north and
east wind: more in winter than in summer, and but little on high mountains.
Muscle work also greatly increases the watery vapor exhaled from the lungs,
sometimes more than doubling it. The object of respiration is to supply Oxygen
from the external air necessary for the oxidation processes that are going on
in the body, and to remove the Carbon dioxide (CO2) and
water
formed within the body. There are two respirations, first outer, the exchange
of gases between the external air and the blood gases in the lungs and skin.
Second, the exchange of gases between the blood in the capillaries
of the
systemic circulation and the tissues of the body.
The daily income
and expenditure of Oxygen and Carbonic acid gas are, Oxygen 744 grains (625
pints) taken in, and Carbonic acid gas 800 grains (714) pints) given off.
In the
young, before the body has its growth, the CO 2 increases and it decreases as
the bodily energies decay. Weight for weight, a child gives off twice as much
CO 2 as an adult, and males give off one-third more CO2 than females.
Energetic, muscular, active people use more and excrete more CO 2 than the less
active or listless people. During sleep the CO 2 given off is diminished ¼, due
to the absence of muscular exertion, constant heat of the surrounding bed
clothing, darkness and non-taking of food. It is diminished in darkness and
increases in the light. Animals fatten more rapidly if kept in darkness. Oxygen
is not stored up during sleep, but a slight amount is
absorbed
and retained beyond what occurs during a period of wakefulness. Taking of food
increases the amount of CO2 given off, the greatest amount being about one hour
after eating. Food rich in carbo-hydrates cause a
greater
excretion of CO2 than the albumens (nitrogenous). Regnault found that a dog
gave off 79%, of the inspired after a flesh diet and 91%, after a starch diet.
Respiratory
Excitants: The most powerful respiratory excitants as to the excretion of CO2:
coffee, tea, sugar and rum.
Non-Excitant:
starch, fats and alcoholic mixtures.
Respiration.
The average number of respirations per minute in the adult is from 15 to 24.
The pulse beats about four times to one respiration. The respirations are
greatly influenced by position of the body. In the horizontal position, Guy
counted 13, while sitting 19, and while standing 22 per minute.
Muscular
exertion and high temperature increases the respirations. Gorham counted in
children of 2 - 4 years of age during sleep 24 and standing 32 respirations per
minute. Gases in the blood, and fever greatly increase the respirations.
Respiration is increased a little after midday and a little after eating. The
will powder can modify it to a certain extent for a short time (Yoga).
Strange as
it may seem, Dr. Hutchinson's experiments show that the height of the
individual, instead of the circumference of the chest, governs the lung
capacity in the normal lung. This seems the more remarkable From the
fact that
the height does not depend so much upon the length of the body as upon the
length of the lower extremities.
Good health
requires that there should meet together in the lungs every 24 hours, 2000
gallons of blood and 3000 gallons of air to feed the system with and expel the
CO, and watery vapor from the body.
The soluble
salts consist chiefly of Sodium chloride mixed with Phosphate and Sulphate of
soda. The soluble salts chiefly of Phosphate of lime with a little Carbonate,
Silica and Oxide of iron, sometimes cholesterin and a little
of the
proteins.
The above
shows us why water is so valuable in arresting and washing out (when formed)
this tubercular deposit, for over ¾ of the component parts of tubercule is
formed of water.
SPUTA: Normally
there is but little mucous secreted from the air passages, but in pulmonary
diseases the mucous membrane lining the respiratory tract in some cases secrete
an enormous amount of mucous, mixed with saliva, nasal mucous and pus.
In phthisis
it ranges from 80 to 150 grams, in 24 hours, in bronchitis and pneumonia it
often exceeds this. The color, odor, vicidity vary in different pulmonary
affections, red coming from the presence of
blood,
green from biliary pigment, black from particles inhaled by miners, a putrid
odor in chronic bronchitis and in gangrene.
In phthisis
the sputum contains tubercle corpuscles, mucous, blood, albumen, fat, yellow
elastic fibers and tubercular bacilli.
In chronic
cases there are but few tubercle bacilli
found.
Abundant bacilli are found when there is
rapid
softening, hectic fever and night sweats. This
is absolute
proof that these bacilli are nothing but
scavengers
and they are always on hand when their
food is
abundant and they can be of service to
man.
Faeces. In
a healthy adult the excretion of faecal matter averages about five ounces in 24
hours, varying with the amount and kind of food taken. A vegetable diet greatly
increases the amount of faecal matter discharged, and
it is
lessened by a diet of albumen and flesh. The quantity of water taken has no
effect upon the amount of water in the fasces, but the energy of the
peristalsis has. The more energetic the intestinal peristalsis the more watery
the faeces,
because sufficient time is not allowed for the absorption of water from the
ingesta. The amount of the water present in the faeces averages about 75%. A
flesh diet causes dry faeces; a diet rich in sugar yields watery faeces.
Analysis of
Faeces in a mixed diet (Berzelius).
Water -
- - 75.3
Parts soluble in water - - - - 5.7
Bile -
- - - 0.9
Albumen -
- - - 0.9
Extractives -
- - - 2.7
Salts -
- - - 1.2
Insoluble constituents - -
- 21.0
Undigested food - - - - 7.0
Mucous, fat, etc. - - - 14.0
Color: This
varies with the nature of the food and with the altered bile pigments. A meat
diet gives us dark brown stools, mixed diet yellowish brown, and a milk diet
yellow.
The smell
depends principally upon the indol and skatol present, to a less degree on the
sulphuretted hydrogen, Valerianic and Butyric acids and is stronger after a
flesh diet than after a vegetable.
Indol: This
is one of the products of the putrefaction of the albumen.
Skatol:
constant constituent of the faeces, formed by the putrefaction of albumen.
Excretin:
found in very small quantities in the faeces and is principally cholesterin.
Micro-Organisms.
Micrococci and bacteria are constantly found, and the yeast plant is seldom
absent.
Air is
constantly swallowed with the food, rapidly absorbed in the intestinal tract,
and the blood vessels in the intestinal wall give off CO 2 by diffusion from
the blood and this CO2 is discharged in the faeces. Normally,
the food
taken should remain in the small intestines 3 hours, and 12 hours in the large
intestines, where the water and nourishing portions are absorbed and taken into
the circulation to nourish the body. In phthisis
accompanied
with diarrhoea, the water and nutritious elements are lost, hence the
emaciation.
Foregoing shows
us how the four emunctories of the system take care of and evolve so much water
daily from the body. Any variation of this results in disease.
Fluid Food:
In all wasting diseases, especially in consumption, there is a defeciency or
lack of water in the system, and without this deficiency is made up, death must
be the inevitable result. To make up this deficiency
the system
demands daily much more water than it does in health, for the waste of the body
is much greater in disease than in health. How to make up this great deficiency
of water is the great problem for the physician to
solve in
the treatment of tuberculosis. To make up this deficiency of fluid there should
be introduced from one to two gallons of water daily into the system in
addition to that taken with the food. Physiology teaches us that to nourish the
body properly the food eaten daily by an adult should contain from 15 to 25
ounces of water, and to digest this there should be added from 60 to 70 ounces
more of fluid, making in all from 75 to 95' ounces of
water daily
to carry on the proper physiological functions of the body. Now, if the system
demands ¾ of a gallon of water daily, to carry on its natural functions, it is
not only reasonable, but good practice, to introduce more
fluid into
the system in a diseased condition, with fever and all the secretions more or
less arrested, to flush and wash out the poisonous waste matter constantly
accumulating in the body; and the introduction of one or two
gallons
more fluid, according to the size of the person, is not any too much to
cleanse, nourish and lubricate the tissues, and restore them to their natural
functions.
Now, how
shall so large a quantity of water be introduced into the system daily? Many
patients will have no trouble at all in drinking this amount of fluid, but with
some the task will be performed with great difficulty, and it
will
require all the persuasive powers of the physician and their surrounding
associates to get them to perform it. I have learned that it is better that
patients should not take this large amount of water pure, but to commingle it
with
various nutritious substances that will have a tendency to build up the solids
as well as the fluids of the body, for it is as important to build up the
solids, as well as the fluids of the body. The great aim of a physician
in treating
a case of consumption should be to build up and fatten his patient, and that is
what takes place in this new method of treating phthisis. The patients all gain
from ½ to 2 pounds of flesh a week, according to the emaciation present.
The
following list of fluids contains ' the most common and useful drinks to be
used in the treatment of tuberculosis; many more can be added as the
practitioner deems useful:
Water
Juice
Milk
Condensed Milk
Skimmed Milk
Buttermilk
Whey
Barley-water
Extract of Beef (Armour)
Tea
Chocolate
Cocoa
Rice Water
Oatmeal Porridge
Oat Meal Gruel
Arrow Root
Decoction of Iceland Moss
Decoction of Carragreen Moss
Horlick's Malted
Gum water
Koumi’s
Kefir
Fruit Syrups
Malt Extracts
Granum
Chicken Broth
Beef Soup
Oatmeal water
Linseed Tea
WATER: Pure
water constitutes the essential physiological basis of all our drinks, and is
more essential to the life of man than solid food. Without water there can be
no circulation nor molecular mobility of any kind.
Water forms
the liquid element of all the secretions, and is the medium for dissolving the
food during digestion so that the system can absorb the nutritious elements of
the food and cause the eifete portions to pass out
of the
body. True aliment is a mixture of food-stuffs with water co-mingled with the
Oxygen and Nitrogen of the air.
Water
Generally: The purer the water, the better it is suited for our use. For
drinking purposes, it should be bright and clear, devoid of taste and smell. It
is always more or less impregnated with a certain amount of gaseous
and solid
matter. When the gaseous matter consists of air and Carbonic acid it gives the
water an agreeable briskness and a much better taste. The less there is of
solid matter, the better the water is for drinking purposes.
Rain Water.
This constitutes the aqueous vapor which has existed in the atmosphere and
becoming condensed has descended in a liquid form, and may be considered our
purest water. It is found to be highly aerated, contains
traces of
Ammonia, Nitric acid, etc., with a little organic matter. It is particularly
eligible for drinking purposes and domestic use, on account of its freedom from
earthy salts. Great care should be taken in collecting it in its
purity.
Spring
Water. This is rain water which has percolated through the earth, and made its
escape through some opening at a lower point admitting its flow. It is charged
with saline and gaseous matter, according to the composition
of the soil
it has permeated. Many of these springs furnish us with the best kind of
drinking water. Surface water from superficial wells, is liable to be
contaminated with organic impurities, that often give rise to serious
consequences.
All such wells should be avoided. Carbonic acid, in some proportion, is found
in almost all spring water, and if these waters could be thoroughly charged
with Carbonic acid gas and Sulphuretted hydrogen when
drunk,
their curative properties would be greatly enhanced. We would then get the same
effect as produced by injections of this gas per rectum. (Dr. L. Bergeon's
method.)
River
Water: This consists partly of rain water and partly of spring water. Some
rivers furnish us with good drinking water, but they are the exception. As a
rule, river water should not be drunk: when co-mingled with refuse of towns and
cities.
Mineral
Waters. These are simply complicated medicines, containing various salts and
gases blended together, these being derived from the soil and rocks through
which they have percolated. Some of these waters (Sulphur
Waters),
earthy mineral waters. Carbonic acid waters and Chalybeate waters have been
very useful in chronic pulmonary diseases. Their best effects are produced when
drunk at their source. But this is often impossible, the
patient not
being able to go to them, in this case, the waters must be brought to them.
Purification
of Water: Water from shallow wells and river water should always be regarded
with suspicion and subjected to a preparatory purification before being used as
drinking water. Filtration through sand and gravel that
is well
covered with animal charcoal, will remove the organic matter and noxious
excreta that are so dangerous to life, and render such water excellent for
drinking purposes.
But when
such water is greatly contaminated with the noxious excreta from typhoid fever
and cholera patients, or sewage, the water should be discarded, or if it has to
be used, it should be thoroughly boiled instead of relying solely on
filtration. Boiled water is absolutely sterilized and freed from all noxious
poisons. Water containing an excess of lime can be purified by Prof. Clark's
method of adding caustic lime, which will cause the foreign
element to
fall to the bottom in an insoluble state, or a solution of Iron, or Alum, one
part to twenty thousand clarifies the muddiest water.
MILK: This
is the most useful drink given to man, for it not only contains water, but all
the chemical elements that go to make up his body, and life can be sustained
with it alone for a long time, but to administer it successfully
for any
length of time, it must be commingled with some of the carbohydrates, for milk
alone contains too' much nitrogenous matter in proportion to the carbohydrates
to form a complete food for adults: but when taken
with a
small amount of bread, oatmeal, corn bread, potatoes, etc., then it becomes a
perfect food for an adult. A nitrogenous diet of milk and meat alone, is
unphysiological and wrong. The great tax upon the liver and kidneys
with this
diet will soon produce albuminuria.
The utility
of fatty substances in phthisis is undoubted, and in those cases in which we
encounter an insuperable difficulty in procuring the acceptance of the
digestion of cod-liver oil, we should urge our patients to consume as much
butter and cream as they can digest.
Malted
Milk. Horlick's preparation of Malted Milk contains all the elements of
nutrition and as a drink is of untold value to the phthisical patient. It requires
no cooking, and will dissolve readily in either hot or cold water,
making a
highly nutritious and pleasant drink, that can be taken and digested by the
weakest stomach. From two to six quarts of this malted milk should be taken
daily, combined with solid food.
Peptonized
Milk. Milk, when peptonized, contains but an insignificant amount of un
assimilable material. When taken hot, it is absorbed with remarkable rapidity,
and the beneficial influences, so justly attributed to hot milk
by the
record, are experienced in a still greater degree from the ingestion of hot
peptonized milk. We are able to state this from our personal experience and
observation of its use. Not only for invalids and delicate people, but
for
students and overtaxed people. For one who is obliged to study late at night, a
glass of peptonized milk taken at such times, has most beneficial and
sustaining effects in every way. There is nothing better to work
upon,
nothing better to sustain one's energies, both of mind and body, under such
circumstances than hot peptonized milk, as a nourishment before retiring when
fatigued and overworked, it is the ideal food.
It can be
prepared in one's room without much trouble, or any special conveniences. The
peptonizing powder should be mixed with the cold milk and heated gradually over
a flame for a few minutes until it is as warm as can
be
agreeably borne by the mouth, and sipped like a cup of tea or bouillon.
Buttermilk,- This is an elegant drink for some patients,
and is of considerable nutritive value, containing albumen, finely coagulated
casein salts, water and sugar, which are largely converted into lactic acid. It
should be drunk fresh as it soon decomposes. It contains less fat than skimmed
milk and is a favorite beverage with many. It can be taken in large quantities
the same as milk.
Skimmed
Milk: This is the residue after the removal of the cream. Many patients that
cannot take fats can use milk in this form with great benefit. It has long been
the standard diet in albuminuria; from 1 - 2 gallons can be taken daily.
Whey:
Though not very nutritious, this is an exceedingly useful fluid food in
phthisis, and in many febrile diseases, when milk cannot be digested. It is a
pleasant beverage and can be given freely, from 2 - 4 quarts daily, and in
this way
much nutritive matter can be introduced into the system. It is eliminated by
the kidneys rapidly. Much fruit and vegetables should be taken with the whey.
It contains in solution the sugar and the salts of the milk and
holds also
in suspension a considerable portion of casein and fat, which passes through
the strainer.
This whey
can be made more nutritious by adding strong beef tea, or Valentine's Meat
Juice, or the yolk of an egg previously whipped up with a little hot water.
Wine Whey:
Put one pint of fresh milk into a vessel and let it come to a boil: then add
slowly half a wineglass full of sherry wine, boil for fifteen minutes, skimming
of the curd; then add two table-spoons more of wine, sweeten
to taste
and it is ready for use.
Cream: This
is the fat of milk, and patients that can use fats, a little of this diluted in
hot water can be drunk with great benefit. Butter taken with other food should
be eaten in large quantities by patients suffering from phthisis:
it will prove
a good substitute for cod-liver oil.
Condensed
Milk: Where pure fresh milk cannot be obtained, condensed milk will be found
invaluable. Dilute with warm or cold water, from ten to thirty parts according
to taste.
GRAPE
JUICE: Unfermented grape juice, such as used for sacramental and medicinal
uses, is probably the most useful element (outside of milk) we have to mix with
water to form a beverage for a patient suffering with phthisis. A patient can
live a long time on grape juice alone, for it not only contains water, but many
of the elements that go to build up the solids of the body. When it cannot be
taken in its purity, one ounce, more or less, can be added
to a pint
of water and taken at once. This will be found, not only palatable but very
nourishing, and can be drunk longer than any substance that I am acquainted
with or have used. The best preparation that I have found is that prepared by
Dr. Welch of Vineland, N. J., for sacramental and medicinal uses;
it is so
carefully prepared, and so thoroughly clarified, that when uncorked, if kept in
a cool cellar, it will not ferment for many days.
Grape Cure:
That is, a diet composed exclusively of grapes, to which can be added for many
patients with profit, currants, green gages, peaches, figs, raisins,
raspberries, blackberries and strawberries.
Van Swieten
is said to have recommended in special cases the eating of twenty pounds of
strawberries in one day, and reports a case of phthisis cured from eating
strawberries; but grapes have proved the most beneficial.
Grape juice
is looked upon by many chemists as a sort of vegetable milk, the composition of
which closely resembles that of human milk, and is almost identical with that
of buttermilk. Patients can eat from one to ten pounds
daily,
selecting those that are not too acid. In some patients this will prove
laxative, but differing from mineral waters, for while increasing the
excretions the grapes also increase the weight and vigor of the body.
Often bread
and milk can be added to the grapes with benefit to the patient. Many cases of
consumption have been reported cured with grapes alone, especially in the first
stages.
KOUMISS: To
prepare koumiss, take three quarts of milk, one quart boiling water one small
teacupful of granulated sugar, and one desert spoonful of brewer's yeast, stir
well, put in ajar, cover with a plate and keep in a warm room from 4 – 6 hours,
until a slight singing sound is heard, a sign of commencing fermentation.
Bottle and secure corks well by tying them in. Patent ale or beer bottles are
good. Ready for use in six hours. Improved by age.
Keep in a
cool room, use with a champagne tap, take from one quart to six quarts daily.
KEFER, OR
WINE OF MILK: To fresh milk add 2%, of simple syrup, a little Citric acid:
after being well shaken, cork securely and keep in a warm place. Ready for use
in four days. It is strongly effervescent, contains 2%, of
Alcohol and
ranks with koumiss. Use same as koumiss.
The juice
of these various fruits when mixed with water forms an elegant drink for many,
patients. Use one ounce of the juice, more or less, according to the taste, to
one pint of water.
The various
fruit jellies when commingled with water, in the proportion of one or more
teaspoonfuls of the jelly to one pint of water, form one of the most palatable
and delicious drinks a patient can take, and not tire of them
for a long
time.
LEMONADE OR
ORANGEADE: These palatable drinks can be taken in large quantities by
phthisical patients, especially in hot weather. It is better to combine with
these fluids some of the carbo-hydrates, as bread in some of
its various
forms. The white of an egg or a whole egg added to lemonade enables it to be
frothed up, and makes a pleasant and nutritive drink.
GRUELS.
Mixing of farina with water or milk, forms a gruel, and oatmeal is the form of
farina most used. Oatmeal gruel made with water or milk is a splendid food: a
piece of butter and a little sugar and salt improves the drink. An excellent
drink is made by adding a handful of oatmeal to a gallon of water.
RICE WATER:
This is a pleasant nutritive drink. It may be flavored by any vegetable juice,
as that of the current, raspberry, apple, grape, mulberry, etc. Malt extract
can be added with profit.
BARLEY
WATER: The same applies to this as that said of. rice water; both can be drunk
in large quantities.
TOAST WATER
AND CRUST COFFEE: Many patients can drink large quantities of toast water and
crust coffee. The various jellies can be added to this water, which makes it a
pleasant and nutritious drink. Use from 1 - 6
quarts
daily.
MALT
EXTRACTS: The extracts of malt is a most excellent fluid food in phthisis. One
teaspoon full of the extract contains a larger quantity of the soluble
constituents of malt than is found in a pint of the best ale.
It contains
as well as carbo-hydrates some soluble albumenoids and salts without alcohol.
Ground malt has a great future before it, as the digestive organs are enfeebled
by the advance of civilization, pre-digested starch must
come more
and more into use, and ground malt added to baked flour, or baked farina in any
form, before the hot milk is poured on, makes a most digestible dish. This milk
pudding should, when mixed, be placed on a hot
plate,
where its heat will be maintained, and then the diastase of the malt acts
promptly upon the farina. Such a milk pudding is very fluid and can be taken in
large quantities. It may be enriched by the addition of an egg.
Directions.
As a table drink it may be used at pleasure: as a nutrient or tonic for
invalids, persons in delicate health, nursing mothers, etc., it should be taken
in doses of from a wine glassful to 1/3 of a bottle 3x daily, before or during
meals.
The best
medicinal effects are obtained by taking the malt extract regularly for a
definite period in doses as above, and the result will be that the food will be
properly digested and assimilated and a healthy increase of weight observed.
For obstinate coughs, bronchitis, asthmatic affections, and disorders of the
chest and lungs, warm it thoroughly, and add a lump of sugar and take in the
morning, at noon, and before retiring at night. On each occasion
1/3 of a
bottle. In hot climates, or in cases where the malt extract is thought to be
too heavy for delicate stomachs, it may be diluted with plain soda water
(Carbonated water) to suit the taste. In the intervals between taking the
malt
extract, the bottle should be tightly corked and laid upon its side in a
refrigerator or other cool place. The most useful and best way for a phthisical
patient to take malt is to dissolve the malt extract in aerated water (1 ounce
of malt to
the quart) and drink from 2 - 4 quarts of this aerated water daily. If aerated
water cannot be had, use hot water, commingled with milk.
EGGS: The
egg is the most concentrated and nutritious food we have. If we include the
shell, it contains all the elements of the body. Hen's eggs are those chiefly
used for human food, but those of the duck, goose, turkey and guinea-fowl are
also much used. Turtle eggs ought to be valuable in phthisis. The eggs of all
birds have the same composition and are suitable for food, but are, as a rule,
too small to bother with.
The average
weight of a hen's egg is two ounces, of which 105 grains are shell, 405 grains
white, and 240 grains yolk. In every 100 grains. Parks calculated there would
be ten grains of the shell, 22.8 of albuminates and fat, and 67.2 of water. He
also estimated that an egg weighing two ounces would contain just 200 grains of
solids, and Pavy says such an egg would yield 100 grains of nitrogenous
substance, 82 grains of fat, and 11 grains of saline
matter. The
shell is composed of 91%. Calcium carbonate, six%. Calcium phosphate, and 3%,
organic matter.
The white
of an egg contains less solids than the yolk, and much less fat. It consists
chiefly of albumen dissolved in water, and enclosed in a delicate membrane, it
coagulates at 158° F.
The yolk
contains much more fat than the white, vitillin is its chief albuminous
constituent. It also contains olein, palmitin, cholesterin and much lecithin,
and a yellow coloring matter, inorganic salts, extractives, and a little
grape
sugew. The yolk has an excess of Phosphate and the white an excess of
Chlorides.
The yolk in
an alimentary point of view, is of more importance than the white, as it
contains more fat as well as a peculiar form of albumen, whereas the white is
chiefly a simple solution of albumen. The white of an egg,
if taken in
large quantities, in some persons, will produce albuminuria, but the slightest
amount of cooking will prevent this. Eggs are an easily digested food, if taken
raw or slightly cooked, but hard cooked eggs are difficult
of
digestion. In albuminuria and the uric acid diathesis, eggs should not be used.
In phthisis an egg is of great value, beaten up in milk and wine, or brandy,
forming an excellent concentrated and nutritious food, and may be
taken 3x
daily between meals. An egg beaten up in coffee or lemonade is also excellent.
One pint of milk, one egg, a teaspoonful of sugar, two spoonfuls of rum, and a
suspicion of nutmeg, all beaten together, taken first thing
in the
morning, has been credited with curing consumption. If this is taken just
before going to bed, it will often prevent night sweats. Eggs beaten up with
hot water and milk, with a little wine or brandy, sweetened if desired,
form an
excellent drink in phthisis.
There are
more than 500 ways eggs may be prepared as food, all of which are more or less
useful, but a soft boiled or dropped egg, is probably the best form for the
sick.
FLUID BEEF
EXTRACTS: In phthisis, and other febrile diseases, there is, so to speak, a
mineral inanition, or famine of saline salts and water. In the administration
of the various forms of Suid beef, we are enabled to supply
the tissues
with these saline matters and water, that are being constantly drained away,
and in this way, the albuminous extracts of meat perform a great use in the
system, not only by building up tissue formation, but especially
by checking
tissue waste. Water, commingled with saline matter is the greatest tonic that
can be given to man.
These
proteins or albuminoids, form the solid constituents of the blood, nerve,
muscle, glands and organs generally of the body. They also constitute more than
half the solids of the gray matter of the nerve centres, and about
¼ of the solids of the white matter of the
same. They form in fact, in combination with much water, and associated with
certain acids, bases and salts, the chief mass of the animal tissues. In all
protoplasms, there appear to
exist a
vitellin, as well as myosin-like body.
Robin says
that the daily losses of mineral salts in fevers are from 3 to 4 grammes of
Chloride of sodium, 1 to 2 grammes of Phosphoric acid, 2.967 of Sulphuric acid,
and 1.730 of Potash.
Practical
experience shows that albuminous and gelatinous fluids, as found in beef
extracts, beef tea, soups and broths, greatly support the bodily strength and
prevent exhaustion.
It is an
error to give these preparations of beef in too concentrated a form, in which they
often prove repugnant to the sick. They should always be mixed with
considerable quantities of milk or water..
This is why
soups are so valuable to patients.
The
albumens seem to exist in a special state of hydration, apt to be modified very
rapidly and unceasingly under the influence of variations in the salts
dissolved in the different fluids of the body.
Beef tea,
as ordinarily made in the homes of the sick, is not, scientifically speaking, a
food, but a decided stimulant, because it contains no albumen. But the fluid
and solid extracts prepared by Valentine, Armour, Bush, etc.,
are not
only stimulants, but true nutrients, because they contain the albuminous matter
of the meat, as well as the salines. Albumen is material of which, and from
which tissue can, and is formed, and Valentine's Meat Juice, Armour's Extract
of Beef and Bush's Bovinine, should always take precedence over the beef tea
that is commonly made at the homes of the sick.
Nutrition
is the physical basis of all animal LIFE, and unless the system can be properly
and adequately nourished in sickness by a highly condensed and easily
assimilated food, no amount of medication will suffice to effect a cure. This
concentrated liquid food is perfectly represented in Armour's solid and fluid
extract of beef.
LIEBIG'S
BEEFTEA: Take half a pound of raw, lean beef (chicken or other meat) and mince
it finely. Put it in an earthenware vessel. Pour on it ¾ of a pint of water,
add four drops of muriatic acid and one teaspoonful of salt.
Stir well
together, and allow it to stand for an hour. Strain through a fine sieve and
rinse the residue with a quarter of a pint of water. This liquid not only
contains the juice, but the albumen of the meat in an uncoagulated state, with
the muscle and fibrine, which makes it much richer and more nutritive than
ordinary beef tea. It can be taken cold or warm.
BEEF TEA:
Take a pound of lean beef, cut into fine pieces in a chopping bowl, put the
meat in a wide mouthed bottle, cork loosely, and put it into a pot of cold
water; heat gradually, then let it boil slowly for 3 hours, which
will
extract all the juice from the meat. Pour off the juice and season to suit the
taste. This is an excellent nutritive stimulant. The addition of the extract of
malt adds to its flavor and increases its nutritious value.
BEEF JUICE:
Take fresh steak, free from fat; broil over hot coals for one minute, so as to
heat it thoroughly, cut it in many places, then press out the juice by means of
a meat squeezer into a warm bowl: add a little salt and serve at once. '
CHICKEN
BROTH: Cut the fowl into small pieces, and crack the bones. Put it into three
pints of cold water: cover closely and boil for three hours, or until the meat
falls to pieces. Strain, then add a little rice, which has been soaked in warm
water. Simmer for twenty minutes. Season and serve with crackers.
VALENTINE'S
MEAT JUICE: This is a precious preparation of meat juice and none in the market
can surpass it, in consumption and all wasting diseases. It is the pure juice of
the best beef, concentrated so that 2 ounces of the liquid represents four
pounds of the best lean beef. Extracted from the flesh by a special process, it
holds all the important soluble constituents in an unchanged condition, for it
has never been cooked; the albumen along with
the
haemoglobin, being preserved unaltered in the solution, makes it not only a
meat stimulant, but also a valuable flesh forming food. It can be retained and
digested by the most delicate stomach. This meat juice is very
palatable
and can be prepared in a moment, by merely the addition of warm or cold water
(not hot) - one teaspoonful in from two
to four ounces of water: and when to be taken as a beverage, two teaspoonfuls
to one pint of water makes an excellent and very nutritious drink. Four pints
of this can be taken daily. Season to suit the taste, as there is no seasoning
in this meat juice. Stale bread, oatmeal, arrowroot or com starch may be added
to this drink
with
profit.
SOUP: In
the preparation of soups, the articles used should be chopped or broken into
fine pieces, and the bones broken into small fragments and placed in cold
water, allowed to macerate for a short time for the soluble constituents to
become dissolved out. It is then heated gradually to a point which should vary
according to the product required. Then a prolonged gentle boiling is required
in order that the gelatine may be extracted, this being
the
principle which gives to good soup its property of solidifying on cooling.
Bones require boiling a longer time than meat. The chief principle they yield
is gelatine. The marrow of bones is the best form of fat that can be used
by man, and
much of it should be eaten by the phthisical. Soup introduces at once into the
system a small installment of ready-digested food. By filling the vessels of
the stomach it assists in the secretion of gastric juice and
saves the
period of trial, which, in the absence of soup, must be spent by the stomach in
deriving some portion of the nutriment from solid aliment: and thus the organ
of digestion itself is indirectly strengthened for its forth-
coming
duties.
Soup should
be made from the leg or shin of beef, clod, oxtail, neck, cheek or any of the
bones. With these there should always be added fresh vegetables, as potatoes,
split peas, beans, onions, etc.
Take one
small turnip, one carrot, one stick of celery, a sprig of parsley, and a
teaspoonful of Solid Beef Extract. Cut the turnip, carrot and celery into small
cubes, add 1% to 2/4 of water, simmer for 1% to 2 hours, then add the Beef
Extract, and boil together gently for 20 minutes.
Chop the
parsley fine, sprinkle it in the empty soup tureen, pour in the soup and serve.
Fruits:
Fruit forms an agreeable and refreshing kind of food, and when eaten in
moderate quantity exerts a favorable influence as an article of diet. Its
proportion of nitrogenous matter is too low, and of water too high, to allow it
to possess
great nutritive value. It is chiefly of service looking at the actual material
afforded, for the carbo-hydrates, vegetable acids and salts it contains. All
fruits contain levulose sugar, and usually some acid in varied
proportions,
ranging from the pineapple to the lime. They all contain alkaline salts, which
are good for the blood. It has long been observed that after eating juicy
fruits, cherries, strawberries, apples, etc., the urine becomes alkaline. In
rheumatic and gouty people, this is a practical hint of great value. Fruits
should be eaten largely in such condition. Tubers and green vegetables all contain
these alkalies in the form of salts of the organic acids.
The
agreeable taste of fruits partly depends on the aroma and partly on the
existence of a due relation
between the
acid, sugar, gum, pectin, etc., and likewise on the amount of water and the soluble
and insoluble constituents. The sour taste of certain berries, as the currant,
etc., arises from the presence of a considerable quantity
of free
acid. The growth arid decay of fruit is thus described by Pavy: ''During its
progress it increases more or less rapidly in bulk and weight, and as it
approaches maturity it loses its green color, becomes brown, yellow or red, and
no longer acts on the air, like the leaves, but, on the contrary, absorbs
Oxygen and gives off Carbonic acid. As this process advances, some of the
proximate principles contained in the unripe fruit, particularly the vegetable
acids and Tannin, in part disappears, apparently by oxidation, and thus it
becomes sour and astringent. At the same time the starch undergoes
transformation into sugar, and the insoluble pectose into pectin and other
soluble substances of allied composition and having more of a gelatinous
character.
The fruit
in this way arrives at a state of perfection for eating. Oxidation, however,
still advances, and now the sugar and remaining acid becomes destroyed, giving
rise to the loss of flavor, which occurs after the full ripened
state has
been attained and deterioration has set in." From this we can readily see
why unripe fruit as well as overripe fruit is not wholesome and salutary. The
vegetable acids and the pectin disappear in the body speedily after being
eaten: while the alkaline base appears in the urine as a Carbonate: though if
uric acid be present, as a urate. Preserved fruits, w^here cane sugar is used,
cause acidity of the stomach in some people, but are invaluable to
the
phthisical.
A great
variety of fruits, both in the fresh and dried state, are consumed as articles
of food or as flavoring agents and luxuries. The following are the principal
varieties used.
1. The apple, pear and quince.
2. The peach, plum, apricot, cherry, olive,
date.
3. The orange, lemon, lime, shaddock, pomelg.
4. The grape, gooseberry, currant, cranberry,
barberry.
5. The strawberry, raspberry, blackberry,
mulberry.
6. Melon, banana, pineapple, fig.
The
analysis of the ash shows these fruits to be particularly rich in Potash salts.
The apple and the strawberry are also rich in Soda salts, especially the
strawberry. They also contain salts of Lime, Magnesia and Iron.
Their chief
food value is in the water and sugar which they contain.
Apple.
Pear:
Quince:
Peach:
Plum.
Apricot:
Cherry:
Olive:
Date.
Lemon.
Lime.
Pomelo.
Grape:
Gooseberry, Currant, Cranberry, Barberry:
Strawberry, Raspberry, Blackberry, Mulberry:
Melon:
Banana.
Pineapple:
Figs.
How TO
Administer these Liquids - Their Technique: After selecting the fluids to be
used through the day, so that the patient will know just how much he has drunk,
prepare in 2 one-quart glass fruit jars, each full, one
of grape
juice and the other of milk: or one jar can contain fluid beef, and the other
oatmeal water: or one currant jelly water, and the other pulque; or one malt
and the other pineapple juice; or one blackberry juice and the
other
Beefjuice; or one peach juice and the other rice water. And so on with the long
list of liquid foods mentioned in this volume, trying, wherever practicable, to
alternate a carbo-hydrate with an albuminoid.
Solid Pood
In Phthisis: When a child or an adult shows signs of defective nutrition, and
he has a delicate constitution, especially if one or both of his parents have
died of phthisis, and this disease is hereditary, a sound and
rational
diet, both in infancy and adult life, acts as a most efficient prophylactic
against the development of this fatal malady. We must strive to so improve
nutrition that the body may gain in weight: for it is a well
established
fact, that when we can improve nutrition, the disease itself becomes favorably
influenced thereby. Nutrition gives the system force power to resist the forces
that cause iphthism,h\it mal-nutrition gives the
forces that
cause phthisis power to destroy the body. Then a person predisposed to phthisis
should be placed, if possible, under influences calculated to invigorate the
constitution^ and to extinguish such morbid tendency,
A person
with a constitution where phthisis is inherited must avoid all evil
surroundings, and any habits of life that would tend in the least to weaken his
body, such as bad air, illventilated, dusty, damp rooms, loss of rest;
over sexual
indulgence, self pollution, intemperance of all kinds; bad food, such as living
exclusively on rye bread and potatoes; going poorly clad, and exposure in damp,
cold atmosphere, and over-exertion. He should strive
to live in
a pure atmosphere, at all times, and in all places, with an abundance of
regular, outdoor exercise; cultivate cheerfulness at all times, and eat a well
selected, mixed diet of both vegetable and animal food.
The
vegetables supply the Phosphate of soda, and especially the Potash salts,
nature's true solvent of uric acid and the urates: as well as the starches and
sugar, carbo-hydrate or fuel foods, supplying animal heat, and
building up
the tissues of the body. The potential energy of the fats, however, is much
greater than that of the carbo-hydrates. Nitrogenous food, as found in an
animal diet, is absolutely essential for the construction and maintenance of
the tissues. Hard work is best performed with an abundant supply of nitrogenous
food.
Fruits
possess precious qualities as a food for the phthisical, and should occupy a
prominent place in the diet of one suffering with consumption. Their juices,
distilled in nature's laboratory, need no boiling or filtering, and
never
convey the germs of disease. How easily they go through the tissues of the
body, leaving their precious salts of Potash, Soda, Phosphorus, etc. Their
acids, how refreshing; their salts, how stimulating; their delicious
flavors,
how they play on the nervous system! They clog not, neither do they cloy, but
are always a luxury.
The
following list contains the leading articles of solid foods that may be eaten
by the phthisical and scrofulous:
Phthsical
patients, whose digestive functions are unimpaired, can eat any form of
nourishing food, that enters into the ordinary dietary of the healthy.
Beside the
solid food, large quantities of liquid food should be taken between meals to
build up and fatten the body.
What is
termed by the French physician, 'Forced Alimention Forces'- i, e. forced feeding- is an expedient suggested by Dr. Debove, of
Paris, for introducing food in large quantities into the stomachs of phthisical
patients
who have
lost all appetite, or even acquired a positive repugnance for food.
Debove also
maintains that his method of artificial alimentation, with or without a
previous washing out of the stomach, with iced water, is a most efficacious
measure for arresting the vomiting of phthisical patients.
Debove discovered
by accident, that in cases in which all food introduced into the stomach in the
ordinary way, was rejected by vomiting, food introduced by the oesophageal tube
was, strange to say, retained; and on this observation he founded his method of
'Sur alimentation’, He finds he is able to introduce by this means into the
stomach an "excess" of food which is retained and digested: and he
truly observes that a patient with phthisis,
requires considerably
more food than a person in health, on account of the greater bodily waste
taking place. He has observed that the digestive power of the patient has no
relation with appetite. "A patient who has no appetite,
or who has
a marked disgust for all food, will digest perfectly a large meal introduced by
the tube, and even at the end of a certain time will recover his appetite.
"As
the results of suralimentation, or excess of food, he has observed
disappearance of night sweats, cough, and expectoration; increase of strength,
rapid gain in weight, and at the same time a considerable amelioration in the
physical signs.
"By
the use of powdered raw meat, Debove, and Dujardin-Beaumetz in Paris, and Piper
in Greifswald, have been able to apply the principle of suralimentation without
the necessity of using the oesophageal tube.
"Dujardin-Beaumetz
gives the following instructions for making this powder: Take the lean of beef
and cut it up into small pieces: dry it in a waterbath; when thoroughly dried,
reduce it to powder in a coffee-mill.
This powder
can be mixed with lentil flour and taken in the form of soup, or, better still,
it may be mixed with chocolate. mixed with milk; first adding just enough milk
to make a smooth paste, and then mixing in the
remainder
so as to make a uniform fluid mixture that can be readily drunk. It is
necessary in using these powders to see that they are genuine, and not
overdried.
'Debove
attempts to explain the beneficial effect of suralimentation, in the following
manner: The tubercle bacillus develops in a certain soil, a soil which becomes
less favorable to its culture when it is modified by suralimentation (excess of
food); this, indeed, augments combustion, as is shown by the amount of urea
excreted in the twenty-four hours-amounts which reach from 900 to 1.200 grains,
and even more. We may also say
that by
this method we give our patients the power to resist their disease: as when the
vine is attacked by the phylloxera, one of the best remedies is to manure well
the land; by so doing we do not destroy the parasites, but we
give the
plant the force necessary to struggle against it." (This is a strong
argument in favor of suralimentation of liquid food, and a death blow to the
bacillus theory.)
'Since the
adoption of powdered raw meat for suralimentation the introduction of food into
the stomach by means of the oesophageal tube is reserved for those cases in
which, owing to the irritability of the gastric mucous membrane, food taken in
the ordinary way cannot be retained in the stomach.
"While
we should do all in our power to encourage our phthisical patients to take an
abundance of nourishing food (and for this purpose we should make their diet as
varied and attractive as possible),
we must be
careful not to admit into their dietary forms of food which, although
attractive to the patient, tend to exhaust his digestive forces without
rendering him an equivalent amount of support and nourishment. We should,
therefore, exclude pastry, uncooked fruits, salads, pickles, and all forms of
indigestible food.". (I. B. Yeo, M. D. )
It would be
undesirable to fix too rigidly the daily dietary of those suffering with
phthisis, but in distinctly febrile cases a much more fluid dietary will have
to be followed, and some of the food should be taken at least every
hour. When
the patient is able to be about, and there are no active febrile symptoms, a
mixed solid diet of the most nutritious food that can be procured should be
taken with an everchanging variety. The same kind of food
eaten daily
is bad. Try to have something different every day. A change of food is not only
more satisfying, but more nutritious. In the use of bread, I cannot urge the
patient too strongly to use the whole wheat flour.
He greatly
needs the Phosphates, and in no place can they be found equal to those in
cracked wheat, and the flour from the whole berry. He should also use much of
the oat-meal flour (rolled avena) and corn-meal. Butter and
fat should
be freely eaten. A taste for these fats should be cultivated: if the patient
eats one-half a pound of butter daily, so much the better.
The
fattening properties of milk and cream are well known, and they should be used
in large quantities,- the more the
better, especially in the young. Malt mixed with milk is one of my favorite
foods, especially if some of
the
farinaceous foods are added. The banana is of great value as a fat-producing
food in phthisis; from one to two pounds of this food should be eaten daily, by
the phthisical.
Noodles in
all its forms is highly nutritious; being chiefly gluten, it is the most
valuable part of wheat. Weight for weight, it is equal to meat, and for flesh
making is equal to meat.
Water:
There should be taken large quantities of water during the meal, and it should
be warm or quite hot. And if some alkaline water, like Vichy, could be drunk
one-half hour before a meal, it would greatly benefit those who
are
inclined to indigestion.
The freer
the supply of water to the blood, the more copious the gastric and intestinal
secretions will be, and the more perfect the digestion. In febrile cases, the
patient will have to almost live on water and fluid foods. Much
water is
needed not only to replace the loss of water from the heated body, constantly
passing away by the kidneys, cutaneous and pulmonary surfaces, but also to
provide a necessary solvent medium to dissolve and carry
away the
waste products of the increased metabolism of the tissues.
Such
patients should be urged to take often lemonade, pure water, or effervescing
water, or some of the fluid foods. Malt with water, or beer, drunk at meals, is
excellent for the phthisical. It is a great mistake
to think
that a large quantity of fluid interferes with digestion; on the contrary, it
greatly facilitates digestion.
Dr. G.: As
a rule, people eat too much and drink too little, A phthisical patient cannot
drink too much water. Soups and broths should form a part of the meal as often
as 3x a week. Beef gives us the weakest broth, mutton broth
is a little
stronger, and chicken broth is the most nutritious of all.
Dr. I. B.
Yeo: '"In order to yield the necessary ration of Nitrogen and Carbon the
following quantities of the under-mentioned articles would be required: for
experience has shown that the diet best suited for the body must contain one
part of nitrogenous foods to four of the non-nitrogenous:
It would be
scarcely possible for any individual to consume and digest daily 2620 grammes
(= about 90 ounces) of meat, the quantity necessary in order to yield the daily
requirement of Carbon, while the waste of Nitrogen
would be
prodigious. On the other hand, it would require 4575 grammes, or about ten
ponds, of potatoes to yield the daily requirement of Nitrogen. And milk, which
is the food of nature's own selection for the infant, would be most wasteful as
the sole food for the adult, as he would require 4652 grammes, or ten pints, to
furnish the daily supply of Carbon he requires and a considerable portion of
the Nitrogen would be wasted.
Whereas, in
a mixed diet of meat and potatoes less than 538 grammes of the former, together
with less than 3114 grammes of the latter, would yield respectively the amount
of Nitrogen and Carbon required.
The Carbon
necessary for nutrition can be provided, as we have seen, either in the form of
fats or of carbo-hydrates. If in the form of fat, then, according to Voit's
calculations, an average working-man would require for his daily consumption
346 grammes , 'if in the form of starch, 596 grammes. But it is no doubt better
to obtain the Carbon that we require in our food in part from both classes of
aliments - from a mixture of fat and
farinaceous foods.
This
appears to suit the digestive capacities of man, as well as his nutritive
requirements, best.
"Carbo-hydrates
are not able to minister as completely as the fats do to the functions of
tissue growth and repair: while, on the other hand, a large proportion of fat
in the food is not, as a rule, well tolerated by the digestive
organs for
long at a time, unless under exceptional conditions of climate, as among the
inhabitants of Arctic regions, where food possessing a relatively large
capacity for heat production is especially needed. It is not
uncommon,
moreover, to find individual peculiarities with regard to the capacity for
taking fats, some persons being incapable of digesting but very small
quantities: in such cases the deficiency must be supplied by a
proportionate
allowance of carbo-hydrates."
Dr. I. B.
Yeo:, ''Scrofulous children should have an abundant supply of good milk as the
basis of their diet, also sound, wholesome meal bread and plenty of butter.
Easily absorbable fats are especially valuable to the scrofulous. Cod liver oil
is one of the best, but many other forms of fat are extremely useful, such as
butter, cream, bacon fat, dripping. Bread lightly toasted, and soaked in fluid
bacon fat or dripping, is generally liked by children, and is
most
wholesome. Suet puddings served with treacle, sugar, or jam, are also generally
popular with children, and may be the means of introducing a considerable
amount of fat in the food, which would be rejected if presented in
its natural
form. Mutton suet, chopped fine and boiled in milk and sweetened, is another
useful expedient.
"It is
always necessary to pay much attention to the digestion, and to at once modify
the diet if it is attended with signs of dyspepsia. In scrofulous children of
the fat and flabby type, it is not so important to administer fatty foods. It
is better in such cases to give a diet rich in albuminates, but small in bulk.
The common error is to keep such children too exclusively on farinaceous food,
and to give them a very insufficient supply of animal food.
In children
with a very delicate digestion it is often difficult to get them to take fats
or oils of any kind. In such cases inunctions with oil - Cod liver oil or Olive oil- after washing the surface with hot water and
soap, is a
good plan.
All these cases require also an abundance of respiratory food, an abundance of
active oxygen, which they should be allowed to obtain by a life in the open
air, in the country or by the sea." In these children
Peptonized
Cod liver oil and milk is the best form of fat that can be given them.
Rectal
Alimentation. Numerous experiments have demonstrated the fact that food
introduced into the rectum is assimilated, and is capable to maintain the
normal temperature and weight of the body. Dr. Flint thinks that food
introduced into the rectum excites secretion of the gastric and intestinal
glands, and in the absence of ingesta in the stomach and small intestine, the
fluids secreted by these glands pass into the large intestine in sufficient
quantity to
effect digestion within the latter. But it remained for Dr. Campbell to solve
the problem as to the rectal feeding. He asserts that instead of the digestive
principles descending to the food to digest it, the food ascends
to these fluids in the small intestine, and
that it is there digested and prepared for absorption by the proper organs in
precisely the same manner as after buccal ingestion. A great number of well
established cases are on record to establish the fact that reverse peristaltic
action of the intestinal canal is of frequent occurrence. Many substances, even
suppositories, and pieces of tallow candles, introduced into the rectum have
been vomited up.
Various
kinds of nutrient foods can be used for rectal feeding; as milk, peptonized
milk, malted milk, all kinds of fluid beef, raw eggs, soups, gruels, and about
all the fluid foods enumerated in this book.
When rectal
feeding is resorted to-
1st. The rectum should be washed out once daily
by a copious injection of quite hot water.
2nd. Rest in a recumbent position should be
taken, on the right side, with the shoulders much lower than the pelvis, for
thirty minutes after receiving the enema.
3rd. The temperature of the fluid used should
be quite warm, a little above that of the body.
4th. The quantity of the various nutrients used
should be from six to sixteen ounces at a time: and when water is used, commingled
with some of the juices from fruits or liquid food, there should be used
each time from one to two quarts.
5th. From two to four clysters should be used
daily. If rectal feeding is intended to wholly substitute buccal ingestion,
milk, and the various forms of fluid beef and eggs, should be used: but, if
only supplemental to buccal ingestion, all the fluids recommended in this
volume may be used, and in quantities as large as the bowel can be taught to
retain at each injection.
6th. At the commencement of the use of nutrient
enemata, the rectum may be intolerant of the invasion and strive to expel the
aliment. When this is the case, the operator should firmly press a folded
napkin over the anus for a few minutes, until the desire to empty the rectum
shall have passed away. The rectum can be educated to retain a large amount of
fluid.
7th. The best instrument for rectal feeding is
a soft-rubber bag syringe without valves, for where valves exist they are
liable to be gummed over and choke the syringe. An ordinary soft-rubber female
syringe is all that
can be desired, care being exercised to
thoroughly cleanse it.
A. Wilford
Hall, of New York, has a treatment for consumption, and all other diseases,
that is well worth investigation by the physician, for it does make many good
cures. His treatment consists of injecting quite hot water into
the bowels,
commencing with one pint of water: then waiting two days and injecting one
quart: two days after, one more quart, and then once in three days, two quarts.
After this, every third day, he increases the quantity slowly,
as the
bowels will bear it, until he can use a gallon at a time. He does not think it
necessary for the patient to retain the water until absorption takes place, but
simply to wash out the colon = human sewer, as he calls it: his theory being
that all diseases arise from three different sources:
1. If the bowels do not move regularly the
small intestines secrete a gas which is carried into the circulation and
vitiates the blood, producing many constitutional diseases.
2. When the kidneys do not perform their
functions, uric acid is absorbed into the system, producing rheumatic and gouty
diseases.
3. All specific and contagious diseases.
Enemata in
the last two stages of phthisis is the most useful expedient we have. When the
patient has absolute loss of appetite, and food cannot be eaten, nutrient
enemata, persevered in, will bring back the appetite, and revolutionize the
whole case.
General
Atonic Condition of the Body, with Emaciation and Debility:
1° Calc. Iod. Sil. Kali-i. Ars. Ferr-s. Lyc.
Phos. China. Stann-met. Cod-lover oil
2° Calc-p. Ferr-p. Nat-s. Calc-s.
3° Nux-v. Rhus-t. Spong. Ant-t. Kali-bi.
Cupr-met.
Adjuvants:
Fluid diet. Outdoor exercise (mountain climbing).
Haemoptysis,
Pulmonary Haemorrhage.
1° Acon. Ip. Cocaine. Ham. Mill. Phos. Bell.
Morph. China. Verat-v. Trill-p. Cupr-p. Sulph. Ars. Lach. Ergot. Arn.
2° Elaps. Sang. Amyl-n. Crot-h. Bry. Nit-ac.
Puls. Sul-ac. Coll. Dig. Gal-ac.
3° Kreos. Calc. Plb-met. Iod. Croc-s. Erig. Nux-v. Merc. Ant-t. Carbo-v. Sil. Cact. Ust. Sabad. Apoc-c. Caul. Dros. Matico. Led. Ph-ac.
Ferr-p.
Adjuvants.
Absolute mental and bodily repose.
Rest in
bed, with head and shoulders elevated. Swallow often small pieces of ice. Cold applications
to the chest, as ice in a bladder, or a rubber bag. Place the ice within
several folds of a towel before applying to
the chest.
Dry cupping over the chest. Sinapisms.
Ether spray
to the spine and chest. Spinal hot water bag to cervical and dorsal region.
Inhalation of cold air passing over ice. Transfusion of blood or water when
death is imminent. Subcutaneous injections of
Morphia or
Cocaine act quickly. Diet of milk, koumiss, soups, beef tea, chicken broth,
cold tea, coffee, cocoa. Inhalation of Oxygen gas. Application of a ligature to
one or more of the extremities for a short time. Injections
per rectum,
of carbonic acid gas mixed with Sulphuretted hydrogen. Drink as much as one
pint of very hot water every hour.
Cough dry:
1° Acon. Bell. Ars. Bry. Con. Hyos.
Gels. Kali-hyd. Lach. Merc.
Phos. Rumx. Spong. Sulph. Rhus-t. Morph. Apom. Pilo. Iod. Naph. Tann-ac.
Ferr-p. Kali-s.
2° Caust. Kali-c. Nit-ac. Nux-c. Op. Cina. Santonin. Camph. Chloral. Ether. Cub.
Ferr-met. Grind. Cer-ox. Petr. Stig. Cupr-p.
3° Ambra. Arn. Arg-n. Cham. Coff. Dros. Dulc.
Graph. Ign. Sep. Sul-ac.
Cimic. Kali-br. Verat.
Cor-r. Stict. Spig. Sabad. Caul. Phyt. Zinc-met.
Adjuvants:
To loosen and allay a dry, teasing cough, administer glycerine, or the syrup of
tolu in teaspoonful doses, or mix them with as much brandy or whiskey. Bass's
ale is excellent to loosen a cough. Inhalation of hot
steam with
hot fomentations about the throat. Inhalation of Chloroform or Ether, vapor of
glycerine, inhalation of Carbonic acid gas, Tar in Capsules, Tar water, or the
Oil of tar, mucilaginous drinks, as gum arable water,
barley
water, linseed tea with lemons, slippery elm, oat-meal water, frequent drafts
of a httle cold water. The patient should try and resist the cough. A mucilage
of Tragacanth. Decoction of Iceland moss, infusion of Marsh mallow. Liquorice
jujubes. Balsam of Peru with mucilage, glycerine and whiskey, Carbonic acid
mixed with sulphuretted hydrogen injected per rectum. Avoid damp air and
crowded assemblies. Cold compress upon the
throat can
give relief. Practice cold sponging of the surface of the body every morning,
and be out in the open air as much as possible: wear under flannel winter and
summer. Apply daily Cod Liver oil to the abdomen.
Charcoal
crackers. Pineapple juice, two teaspoonfuls to a pint of water drunk every hour
is an excellent expectorant. Expectorate upon cloths and paper and then bum
them at once. Strive to keep the spittoon thoroughly
disinfected.
Moist or
Loose Cough:
1° hep. Puls. Ip. Calc. Lyc. Kali-bi. Merc. Iod. Sang. Sil. Stann-met. Digin. Ant-t. Sulph. Sulph-i. Cupr-p. Kali-p. Petr. Ars-i.
2° Am-c. Ars-n. Ant-c. Kreos.
Seneg. Verat. Lob. Sabad.
Silph. Cub. Acidum salicylicum
3° Aur-mur. Carb-v. Carb-an. China. Cheli. Kali-br. Squill. Samb. Kali-m.
Hoarse,
croupy Cough:
1° Acon. Spong. Hep. Iod. Ant-t. Jab. Merc-cy. Apom. Rhus-t. Kali-s.
2° Sang. Bromiums. Caust.
Kali-br. Cub. Naph. Carb-v. Rhus-v. Nat-p.
Asthmatic,
Suffocative Cough:
1° Ars. Ip. Kali-h. Kali-bi. Naph. Stram. Verat-v. Digin. Acidum salicylicum. Bell. Pilo. Sang. Lach. Am-br. Hep. Sulph. Chinin-i. Kali-s. Cupr-p.
2° Grind. Cupr-met. Kreos. Ant-t. Nux-v. Iod.
Lyc. Phos. Verat. Chloral. Lob. Feer-p.
3° Caust. Gels. Hyos. Morph. Asaf. Camph.
Calc-f. Strych.
Hectic Fever:
1° Acon. Bell. Ars. Calc. China. Hep. Lyc. Sil.
Sulph.
2° Iod. Tart-em. Stann-met. Merc. Cod Liver Oil.
3° Sul-ac. Nit-ac. Ph-ac. Mur-ac. Graph.
Rhus-t. Bry. Gels. Dig. Ip. Sep. Morph. Puls. Ferr-met. Zinc-met. Zinc-o.
Adjuvants.
Sponging in cold salt water, sea water, alcohol or vinegar, followed by brisk
friction.
Inhalation
of Oxygen gas, or drinking water charged with Oxygen and Nitrous oxide gases.
Injections of Carbonic acid gas with Sulphuretted hydrogen. Flannel
under-clothing should be worn winter and summer.
Take daily
open air exercise, Diet of solids and liquids, Inunctions of cod liver oil,
Peptonized cod liver oil and milk.
Night
Sweats:
1° Bell.
Calc. Ars. China. Merc. Pilo.
Lyc. Sil. Sulph.
Sul-ac. Nit-ac. Mur-ac. Ph-ac. Morph. Zinc-o. Picrotoxine. Ergot. Carb-an.
Carb-v. Cod Liver Oil. Sulphonal.
2° Bell. Ferr-met. Iod. Samb. Psor. Gall-ac.
Acidum salicylicum. Acon.
Rhus-t. Tann-ac.
3° Polyp-p. Sep. Graph. Petr. Phos. Fl-ac. Lac-ac. Staph. Stann-met. Thuj.
Adjuvants:
Sponging the body with vinegar and dilute Sulphuric acid, warm Alcohol, or very
hot water at bed time. Warm or cold baths, well salted. If the sweating is
copious, add Cayenne pepper or Mustard to the substances enumerated. To
stimulate the sweat glands, lime water baths are excellent. A tumblerful of
skimmed milk, or koumiss drunk on going to bed arrest many cases. Oil rubbs!
into the skin at bed time. Ice bag to spine.
Sponge the
patient every evening with a solution of Chloral, one drachm to a tumbler of
brandy and water. Many cases will be arrested by rubbing the skin with powdered
chalk. Two fluid drachms of ergot hypodermically,
injected
half hour before perspiring will arrest most cases. Awaken the patient before
the hour of sweating, and give him a copious drink of grape juice or milk.
Sulphonal in eight- grain doses will arrest most cases.
Aphthen
(Thrush, Muguet, Sore Mouth):
1° Borx. Merc. Kali-m. Nit-ac. Mur-ac. Sul-ac. Arg-n
2° Kali-h. Nux-v. Hydr. Ars. Cupr-met. Phos. Eucal. Kali-s.
3° Kreos. Nat-m. Sang. Phyt.
Staph- Iris-v. Sulph. Canth.
Ham. Rhus-g. Iod. Zinc-met.
Adjuvants:
A crystal of Chlorate of potash or Borax kept in the mouth and allowed to
dissolve slowly, is the best known remedy. Locally, Nitrate of Silver is
excellent. Sulphurous or Muriatic Acid spray.
Apply
glyceroles of Hydrastus, Eucalyptus, or Sanguinaria. Apply Bismuth or Oxide of
Zinc freely to the sores. Locally, apply Carbolic Acid, Sulphate of copper.
Sulphite of Soda, or Permanganate of Potash. Eat freely of vegetable acids (lemons/oranges/apples)
Milk and soda water.
Use a
generous diet, especially of liquids, milk, koumiss, buttermilk, bovinine, beef
tea, or Armour's Extract of Beef.
Diarrhoea
(Tubercular):
1° Ars. Merc. NMit-ac. Mur-ac. Sul-ac. Ip. Lept. Podo. Guarano. Coto.
Cocaine. Arg-n. Calc. Ferr-met. Sulph. Guaco. Morphia. Ferr-p. Kali-s.
2° Nux-v. Bry.
Rhus-t. Camph. China. Crot-t. Ph-ac. Rheum. Sec. Tere. Verat. Cod Liver Oil
3° Bism-met. Op. Gummi gutti. Nat-s. Petr. Psor.
Coll.
Adjuvants:
Food must be non-irritating and in a liquid form. Boiled milk, or milk and lime
water half and half. Peptonized liquid food, rice or arrow root, Armour's beef
extract, Bovinine, or Valentine's meat juice.
Stomach
involved: lactopeptine; Intestines involved: pancreatine or inspissated ox
gall, raw, half cooked eggs, oysters, ripe fruit in moderation.
Great
acidity: substitute soda water for lime water. Mucilaginous drinks. Absolute
rest in the recumbent position. Keep the abdomen and extremities warm. The
whites of ten eggs in a pint of water flavored with lemon or
sugar, is a
nutritious beverage of great value. Lemonade or orangeade. Chicken boiled with
rice. Warm peptonized milk one pint every three hours. The griping pains may be
palliated by either dry or moist heat applied
to the
abdomen. Mustard plasters to the abdomen. Wear a wet girdle, covered with oiled
silk, about the abdomen. Tepid baths. Warm linseed poultice to the abdomen.
Turpentine stupes.
Keep the
feet warm and dry, and the abdomen covered with flannel. Avoid cold, damp air.
If possible, live in a mountainous country.
Drink four
quarts of blackberry juice in water daily.
Thoracic
pain:
1° Acon. Bry. Rhus-t. Kali-c. Morph.
2° Kali-s. Macrotin. Bell.
Kali-i. Ruta. Thuj.
3° Arn. Seneg. Spig. Cact. Phyt.
Adjuvants:
Apply heat to the chest in the form of poultices, or flannel rung out of hot
water. Rubber bag filled with hot water will keep the heat longer than anything
else. Sinapisms. Wet pack to the
chest.
Turpentine stupes. Dry cupping. Ether spray often arrests the pain at once.
Aconite and Chloroform liniment. Apply Chloral and Camphor. Iodine locally.
Arnica, Bryonia, Belladonna, Rhus tox. plasters.
Porous
plaster. Immobilize the side by adhesive plaster.
Bed Sores:
1° Sil. Sulph. Hep. Merc. Ars. Iod. Calc.
2° Sul-ac. Nikt-ac. Fl-ac.
Mur-ac. Lyc. Chin. Iodoform. Kali-s.
3° Calc. Carb-ac. Acidum
salicylicum. Phyt. Kali-p.
Adjuvants:
Lessen the amount of pressure by the use of circular cushions, filled with water,
air, or down. Water bed. Dust Iodoform over the sores.
Bathe the
sores twice a day, and then dress them with the Glycerole of Iodoform, Carbolic
Acid, Calendula, Hamamelis, or Arnica. Apply twice a day an ointment of
Sub-iodide of Bismuth. Iodoform,
Napthol,
Acetate of Lead, or Zinc. Tar-oid. Apply sponges alternately wet with hot and
cold water for a few minutes, and then apply lint saturated with Phosphoric
acid.
Prevention:
Great cleanliness. Have the patient change position often. Wish the skin with
Alcohol, Proof spirit, Lime water, Camphorated spirits, or a liniment of Opium
and Hamamelis, Gutta percha, or Chloroform.
Alum and
Camphor mixed with the white of eggs and applied bis die. Olive oil three parts.
Laudanum one part, Brandy two parts, applied twice a day is excellent. Silver
nitrate (20 gr. 1 dr.) painted on unbroken skin as soon
as it
becomes red, will prevent bed sores in most cases.
Acon.: Dry
croupy cough, or dry titillating cough, every inspiration seeming to increase
it- resulting from an exposure to dry
cold air. The patient is greatly disturbed in his sleep by the cough; as soon
as he is fairly
settled
down to sleep the cough commences, and so continually repeats itself. Great
restlessness with a dry cough and high fever. Cough with active haemorrhages
and great fear of death. Bad effects brought on from
sudden cold
changes of the atmosphere. Uncontrollable anguish, with great fear of death, is
a marked characteristic of Aconite. Aggravated at night with high fever and
full bounding pulse.
Especially
adapted to people of sanguine temperament, and a full plethoric habit, where
the primary or inflammatory stage has not passed. If there is. high fever
present, it suits a loose as well as a dry cough: but, as a rule,
will be
found to act best where there is a dry cough, and aggravated at night.
"There is almost always a tingling sensation in the chest after coughing.
There may be stitches in the chest and side, which are often so severe as to
interfere considerably with respiration, permitting only half-inch
respirations: sometimes there is an oppression of the chest without pain, which
keeps one from taking a deep breath, palpitation of the heart with
great
anguish. In dry bronchial catarrh, in its most obstinate form, it is the most
reliable agent we have. It is also of great value in those long fits of dry
morning and evening coughs, so trying to the patient from their everyday
recurrence.
Left lung
most involved and the pleura at the same time, sharp stitching pain on
breathing, the cough, which would be very hard were it not suppressed on
account of the pain, is almost dry, extremely difficult to raise anything.
The little
that is brought up is tenacious, falling in a round lump, and of a dark,
cherry-red color. (C. Pearson, M. D.)
Active and
sudden haemorrhages, with much congestion of the lungs, after severe exertions,
a fit of passion or sudden changes in the temperature from warm to cold. The
blood is expectorated with a dry teasing cough:
flushed
face, with great anxiety and restlessness. Asthma with great anxiety of mind
and restlessness.
<:
evening/at night/in a warm room;
>: When
still and in the open air;
Antimonium
tartaricum: Loose, rattling cough, sounds as if there was a cupful of mucus in
the lungs, and they were about to run over; large collection of mucus in the
bronchial tubes, expt-ctorated with great difficulty from paralysis of the
vagi. Paralysis of the lungs with great dyspnoea, and fits of suffocation. Very
great thirst day and night, with nausea and vomiting. Oedema of the lungs;
coliquative diarrhoea.
Much
yawning. Lumbago.
In phthisis
this remedy is indicated when we have a very loose, rattling cough, the lungs
seem loaded with mucus, but none is expectorated.
Dr.
Hirschel: " Ant-t. Cough rattling; it sounds loose without being loose:
cough with vomiting of food after eating; stertorous tracheal and bronchial
rattling; the rattling necessitates sitting up, with vomiting or
dyspnoea
and fear of suffocation. In the teething cough of children, where we frequently
hear the rattling from afar, and disappearing after the paroxysm of cough. In
pneumonia with high-graded hepatization, it aids
expectoration
when resolution begins to take place. In chronic bronchial catarrhs, emphysema
bronchiectasia, senile catarrhs. It gives great alleviation in tuberculosis
pulmonum, but also more rapid dissolution of
the
tubercles, and hastens the downward course. In croup, as an intermediate remedy
for the solution, and to keep off paralysis. It acts well in those cases
without producing emesis."
Meyhoffer:
'Copious accumulation of mucus in the air-passages, deficiency of aeration
caused by its presence, numerous moist rattles, severe spasmodic suffocative
cough. Tart. em. is more adapted to subacute than to chronic affections
of the
air-tubes; hence its frequent application in bronchial catarrh for children and
aged persons. Infants especially sometimes exhibit in the course of chronic
bronchitis sudden and alarming symptoms of suffocation, and
mechanical
irritation of the fauces is not always convenient or tolerated. In such cases a
vomiting dose of this salt does much good and cannot do harm. A solution of one
grain of the first decimal trituration to half an ounce of water, one
teaspoonful every ten minutes, usually suffices in two or three doses to
produce emesis: and in this way tlirows off the accumulated mucus, and then the
third trituration will finish the cure.'
Dr. T.
Nichol says: "Ant-t. unquestionably the great remedy for capillary
bronchitis, a dangerous form of bronchitis.
Dr. Hughes:
perfectly homoeopathic to both the local and the general condition. I have
almost invariably relied upon it single-handed, and have seen desperate cases
recover under its use.'
Kreussler:
very efficient in the last hours, when the patient struggles hard.'
Baehr:
remarks that it is really the second stage of the catarrhal process that is
adapted to the curative action of this drug; ' but my experience is that it should
be given promptly and without delay as soon as the disease is diagnosed.
Aconite is the only remedy that can compare with it in value in this disease.
Ant-t. indicated by severe spasmodic suffocative cough, with wheezing
respirations and marked dyspnoea; also by rattling cough ending
with
vomiting of thick white mucus; also when the cough suddenly ceaaes from
weakness or paralysis. The actions of the patient seem to show that he is
suffering from oppression at the chest; and the mucous ronchus, indicating
a very
copious accumulation of mucus in the bronchial tubes, is one of the leading
features of the case.
This
accumulation forms a mechanical obstruction to respiration, and accordingly we
have a group of symptoms of Carbonic acid poisoning more or less pronounced:
great anxiety and agitation, pale and
bloated
face, coma or delirium, with coldness of the extremities. Profuse, cool sweat,
not followed by relief, and a disposition to vomiting and diarrhoea would be
additional indications. In humid asthma this is often valuable in acute cases
complicated with catarrh of the lungs (child), with much congestion and
inflammation of the bronchial mucus membrane, and the tubes filled with mucus;
much choking and rattling, but the mucus cannot be raised
without
great exertions."
<:
Evening/cold damp weather/warmth;
>: in
daytime/open cool air;
Arsenicum:
Rapid and great prostration, with sinking of the vital forces, in lymphatic
people. Great debility and extreme emaciation, restlessness, anguish of mind and
fear of death. White, waxy, pale face, with great debility;
great
thirst; craving for cold water,
Lymphatic,
nervous temperaments, that are constantly sad and irritable.
The organic
functions of the whole sympathetic nervous system are stricken down and
destroyed from the inmost recesses of vitality. Drinking often, but little at a
time.
Watery
diarrhea of a cadaverous smell, with excessive prostration. All symptoms <
at night (after midnight). Burning, the parts burning like fire, < by rest,
> by motion.
Dry cough,
excited by a sensation as if fumes of sulphur were inhaled, with excessive
dyspnoea.
Craves warm
air, is sad and irritable, cannot lie down for fear of suffocation. Obstinate
nausea and vomiting. Anasarca
of the
whole body. Cold night sweats. Tongue dry, brown or black, constantly licking
the dry, cracked lips. Gangrenous aphthaeo. Tympanitis of the abdomen.
The nervous
system is completely annihilated by the action of Arsenicum, the poison acting
directly upon the red corpuscles, diminishing their power of taking up the
oxygen supplied to them in the lungs:
and the
carbonaceous compounds thus unconsumed deposit themselves in the form of fat.
If this direct action on the corpuscles be granted, many of the phenomena of
arsenical poisoning become explicable.
No wonder
that the blood is black and coagulable, resembling that of malignant fever and
cholera. Petechial eifusions frequently occur, with profound cachexia."
Dr.
Hirschel says, "Arsenic applies in all kinds of coughs, predominantly,
however, in the dry cough. In acute and chronic affections of a torpid or
dangerous nature;
especially
indicated for cough in organic diseases of an incurable or destructive nature,
either in the larynx, bronchi, lungs, pleura, or heart. Its choice depends upon
others than cough symptoms. These functional symptoms
are:
dyspnoea, asthma, suffocating spells, cyanosis, heart symptoms of all kinds,
disturbed circulation, decomposition of the blood, exudations, decay and
gangrene of organic substance, disorganizations, excessive pains.
Constitutional
indications are: exhaustion of life-power, collapse, high degree of weakness,
syncope, anaemia, nervous irritability, disposition to ulceration etc., nightly
aggravations, < from lying down/drinking/change of weather."
Arsenicum
is, after Aconite, one of the most important medicines in dry catarrh not of
recent date. It operates its most striking effects in the form of dyspnoea,
which results from a more or less extensive emphysema and consecutive pulmonary
congestion. Thus the difficulty of breathing, which is relieved by Arsenic,
does not entirely cease in the intervals of coughing, and also returns in
periodical severe paroxysms (at night).
None the
less remarkable is its action when the obstruction in the pulmonary circulation
is caused by regurgitation of the blood from the ventricles into the auricles.
There may be oedema of the lungs, but the secretion
is scanty,
and a sensation of dryness in the respiratory lining prevails. The patients
complain of an exasperating titillation in the windpipe or under the sternum,
chiefly in the night, that provokes a dry, wheezing, often very
violent
cough: this is attended, after a time, by a white, frothy, sometimes sticky,
mucus. Its action is prompt and intense. Numberless invalids, who without its
aid would have passed agonizing nights, are, by its use, enabled
to rest
tranquilly. This vitalizing action of the mineral on the nervous system has
often been the means of saving the lives of children arrived at the last stage
of suffocative catarrh. No remedy will be found more powerful or
more sure
to raise the vitality when asphyxia is too far advanced for the exhibition of
Ant-t., and the tumultuous agitation of the heart foretells its fast
approaching paralysis.
"Though
rarely of much service in simple catarrh it is invaluable in the treatment of
bronchitis connected with deficient assimilation and arrested organic
metamorphosis. As a haematic and ganglionic neurotic, it displays remarkable
regulating effects on nutrition in great emaciation or tendency to fatty
deposits; in anaemia, malaria, cachexia and fatty degeneration of the kidneys.
No less valuable is this mineral in all formsof bronchitis dating
from a
herpetic taint.'
In anaemic
subjects, with dry asthmatic nightly cough, or if there is disturbed
circulation from atheromatous disease of the valves of the heart, Arsenicum
will be found of much value. Anguish and despondency are prominent symptoms in
cases that call for the use of this drug.
<: In
the night after midnight, in cold air, or getting cold; after drinking; from
exertion: while lying down with the head low and from cold drinks;
>: By
being wrapped up warm/from warm food and drinks/in a warm room/by a hot stove;
Argentum
nitricum: A withered, dried-up state from constitutional disease. Patient can't
think, can't talk, can't walk, very dizzy.
Minutes
seem hours to the patient; time seems so long to the patient about everything.
In a great hurry to do things. Great distension of the stomach with gas.
Has a
special and specific action upon the cartilagenous system: in tuberculosis,
with ulceration of the larynx and trachea, + a dry, racking cough, it will be
found invaluable, especially with a syphilitic taint in the system.
Dr.
Meyhoffer: Nitrates seem to run straight through the intestinal canal without
stopping.
Ulceration
of the bowels, with chronic watery diarrhoea. Increases the activity of the
secretions, removing carbon and nitrogen from the organism.
<: at
night/early in the morning/after eating cold food/in cold weather/during
rest/from walking;
>: in
open air, craves open air/eructations/cannot sleep without fresh air.
Belladonna:
Pain come and go. Furious delirium, wild look. Face flushed, eyes. red,
photophobia, rage, tears, bites, and strikes, and desire to quarrel, violent
congestion of blood to the head, with strong throbbing of the carotids.
Throbbing
headache < from motion and noise. Extreme sensitiveness to the least jar.
Great
dryness of the mouth and fauces; tonsils bright red and swollen, very dry.
Spasms of the throat. Constant dry cough. Haemoptysis with a dry teasing,
spasmodic cough + inflamed throat, and difficult, painful de-
glutition.
Dr.
Hirschel: "Bell has great sensitiveness in contradistinction to the
irritable Aconite. Vasomotory stimulation with increased nervosity; sensitive
persons, woman and children, for erethic inflammatory forms,
not for
croupy, plastic ones; spasmodic states, coughy dry barking spasmodic, in
paroxysms, with titillation in the trachea and bronchitis, < suddenly.
All
symptoms < evening/at night; >: by anything cold. Disposition to
perspire, with high fever.
< at
night, with continuous sensation of having swallowed dust. >: anything cold;
sensation of constriction in the throat, difficulty of swallowing: congestion
to the head: stitches in the chest. In simple inflammatory catarrh of
the larnyx,
trachea down to the lungs, especially in the first stages: more in capillary
bronchitis than in pneumonia; in the beginning of whooping cough; influenza; in
affections of the brain, spinal cord or heart; inflammation
of parts
adjacent to the respiratory organs. In stenosis of the glottis, in bronchial
asthma, as an intercurrent. The parts show a pinkish, smooth redness in the
larnyx, uvula, and fauces.
Dr. Baehr:
"A disposition to perspire while the skin is very hot, with a dry,
continual, distressing, spasmodic cough; short paroxysms of cough, but very
violent, especially towards evening; no expectoration, or else a yellowish,
tenacious,
blood-streaked, scanty expectoration. Sensation of great fullness in the lungs
without pain."
Larynx
exceedingly painful with constriction of the trachea, hoarseness, paralytic
aphonia of a cerebo-spinal origin, that has come on very suddenly: the
paroxysms of dry cough come on, with fits of short, difficult, irregular
and
suffocative respiration, anxiety and great irritability, << at night.
The active
principle of Belladonna, Atropine, given in the 2d and 3d decimal trituration, is
the most precious remedy we have in the same kind of cough calling for
Belladonna, with the neurotic elements predominating.
The parts
are in a more nervous, irritable state, instead of the congestion calling for
Belladonna.
<: at
night/moving/touching the parts; >: during rest and in a warm room;
Baptisia:
Accretions foetid, with foul breath.
Chill at 10
h. and 15 h. High fever and temperature.
Great sinking sensation in the stomach with faint feeling. The parts rested
upon feel sore and bruised. Can swallow nothing but liquids. Exceedingly weak.
Particularly
indicated in the last stages of phthisis, where the glands of the bowels are
ulcerated, with diarrhoea and great foetor of the stools and urine.
Tongue
coated brown, dry offensive breath, stupid, typhoid condition. Tightness of the
lungs, can hardly breathe, muttering delirium: the head seems scattered, he
must toss about to get the pieces together.
Cough
loose, muco-purulent, and very foetid.
<: in
close, warm room; >: Amelioration: in open, fresh air;
Bryonia:
All the symptoms << by motion and in hot weather. Patient cannot sit up
from nausea and faintness.
Lips dry
and cracked; stools hard and dry “As if burnt”. Extremely irritable, aching in
the forehead with a feeling “As if it would burst open”.
Severe
stitching pains during inspiration. Dry cough, compels the patient to sit up.
Usefulness
in all inflammatory affections of the respiratory organs, the lungs, and their
enveloping membranes, that have advanced to the stage of effusion.
Dr.
Hirschel: 'Bryonia stands in close relation to the chest. It frequently follows
Aconite, to remove the debris’.
Respiration
oppressed, wishes to take in a long breath but cannot, from a feeling of
oppression. Stitching, tearing pains, << by motion, and at night. > by
rest.
Brick dust
expectoration.
Aconite acts more on the general
state and less on the local; and vice versa in comparison to Mercurius, the
latter acting more on the state, whereas Bryonia affects the general state. It
brings on resolution in catarrhs,
resorption in inflammation, chiefly
indicated in the second stage for slightly plastic but not highly graded
inflammatory forms in croup. It is the chief remedy in bronchial affections; in
catarrhal pneumonia only
applicable where hepatization passes over into
resolution, or where the pleura is at the same time afiected; perhaps also in
chronic pneumonia.
The Bryonia
cough is concussive by coming dry from the sternal region, as if the chest
would burst, with scanty yellow or blood-streaked thin mucus, frequently
associated with vomiting, especially after eating, with status gatricus,
difficulty of breathing, pleuritic stitches, muscular pains, and soreness of
the throat."
Dr. W. H.
Holcomb: 'Bryonia for a dry, concussive cough, producing pain both in head and
chest, with characteristic stitching pains.''
Dr.
Guernsey: 'Bryonia cough at night, in bed compelling one to spring up and
assume an erect posture at once.'
Dr. Baehr
says: "We wish to state, as an evidence of the healing powers of this
drug, that we scarcely ever notice under its administration a copious secretion
of the so-called sputa cocta, and the resorption of the infiltration
takes place
with very little, or perhaps without any expectoration, or, judging from the
standpoint of pathology, taking place in its most perfect form." It is
more particularly indicated in dyspnoea, than in genuine cases of asthma, but
will relieve some few cases of asthma, where there is much stitching rheumatic
pains.
<: In
the evening and at night/from motion and cold air; >: in daytime/during
rest; when warm in bed/in warm weather/after perspiration;
Calcarea
carbonica or Calcarea phosphoricum
Leuco-phlegmatic
constitutions, large head and features. Pale, flabby skin, with a white, chalky
look. In infants open fontanelles, with profuse perspiration of the head and
chest, standing out in large bead-like drops,
soaking the
pillow with sweat. Great debility, in going up stairs: is all out of breath,
has to sit down; running up stairs produces great vertigo. Feet feel cold
continually, as if he had on cold, damp stockings. Cold, damp,
eastern
winds are sure to bring on a cold. Great emaciation with constant disposition
to take cold: the cold goes through and through the patient.
Hectic
fever, with copious perspiration of the head and chest. Acid stomach, with sour
vomiting.
Calcaria,
in its various forms, is one of the most useful agents we have in
constitutional diseases, especially in consumption. It acts with great power
through the vegetative nervous system upon the lymphatics, mucous
membranes,
skin and osseous tissue. It is especially useful in individuals in whom the
process of formation and reformation is imperfectly performed, as in childhood
during dentition, rachitis and in flabby fat constitutions.
In cough
based on an organic foundation, that is of a loose, rattling nature, it is one
of the most useful remedies we have, many physicians give it in dry coughs, but
I am persuaded that its great field of usefulness is after the
cough has
lasted awhile, and is passing into the moist or loose stage.
Pit of the
stomach like a saucer turned bottom upwards. Chronic watery diarrhoea; food is
badly assimilated. In women, the menses are too often, too copious and last too
long. Pains < slightest touch as from a
current of
air, noise, excitement;
Walking
produces great fatigue. Whole chest intensely painful to touch. Acts much
better on the young.
Dr.
Hirschel: Calcaria is our chief remedy in scrofulosis and tuberculosis, and
therefore beneficial in many chronic coughs, especially in ulcerative processes
of the larynx, or in other kinds of cough resting upon an organic
base.'
Marcy and
Hunt: "Lymphatic temperament, scrofulous, or rickety; show plethora of the
veins, easily take cold, are frail, poorly fed, but tend to grow fat. Its
application in consumption is chiefly restricted to cases in which
these
features predominate. The patient is feeble in body and mind, though in some
cases mentally precocious, and often regarded as a genius; subject to
depression of spirits, weeping mood, restless and anxious: has no hope
of
recovery, is hypochondriacal; the hair falls off, the eyes are feeble, cannot
bear gaslight, and he suffers from all possible derangements of digestion: the
nervous system becomes excessively irritable (females),
producing
hysteria, fault-finding, nervous exhaustion (menorrhagia); in males
spermatorrhoea or exhausting emissions. It is proper in the stage of purulent
expectoration, after Sulphur or Nitric acid."
Dr. Meyhoffer:
"We fully agree with Baehr, who indicates emphysematous catarrh as being
especially within its sphere of action: no less commendable is this mineral in
bronchial dilatation and putrid expectoration."
Dr.
Holcoinb: Calcaria frequently softens and mitigates a harsh, dry recent cough,
but has quite a different indication in serious chronic and organic bronchial
disease, which frequently finds its indications in the general
symptoms or
constitution of the patient, quite as prominently as in the specific symptoms
of an individual case; and yet charteristic symptoms are not by any means
wanting; the cough is almost always accompanied with a
more or
less profuse expectoration, early putting on a purulent character. > lying
on the back: < lying upon the sides, has a more marked control over the
upper half of the right lung, than over any other portion of either lung."
Intumescence in the lymphatic and glandular systems, dyscrasial affections of
membranous structures, of ajl the white structures which have but little
vitality or blood, and are nourished chiefly by lymph. Development is also
imperfect or arrested in the tendons, cartilages, bones and serous membranes;
emaciation and debility being the most marked symptoms of Calcaria. To
eradicate the constitutional dyscrasia that lies at the foundation
of asthma
(young). The asthmatic breathing is associated with a feeling of tightness and
soreness of the chest as if too full of blood and loud mucous rales, with a
feeling of dust in the throat and lungs; worse mornings.
Copious
exhaustive night sweats that are always more abundant in the morning.
<: cold,
damp east winds/from getting wet/when ascending heights/from loss of
fluids/from light in general;
>: dry,
warm weather/after eating;
China: The
system has been debilitated by the loss of vital fluids, as blood, semen,
diarrhoea, over-lactation, night sweats, and leucorrhoea.
Great
exhaustion, no strength to walk, talk or do anything. Symptoms < every other
day; symptoms are intermittent. The symptoms < slightest touch; moving or
touching the parts brings on intolerable neuralgia.
Long-lasting
congested headache, with singing and roaring in the ears. Enormous distention
of the abdomen with gas; diarrhoea of undigested food. Exhaustive haemorrhages.
Jaundice.
Longing for
'acids; copious exhausting night sweats.
This remedy
is not what might be called a congh remedy, but for peculiar states of the
system it becomes a remedy of great value; for instance, in cases where' the
vitality has sunk very low, with great debility, and the disease
is very
dilatory in character.
Cough when
the head is low (it must be raised): violent cough after eating, with
jelly-like expectoration.
Dr
Meyhoelfer: China would be sadly missed if not at hand in chronic bronchitis with
loud coarse rattles, great debility and weakness; anaemic and (edematous
swelling of the lower extremities. It is often the natural successor
of Ars.
Baehr:
"China indicated if the pulmonary affection seems to constitute the whole
difficulty: but still more, if it commences with the symptoms of a severe
hypersemia of the liver, and if the patiellt: very soon show a cachectic
appearance. It is well known how often pains in the liver constitute symptoms
of tuberculosis."
Marcy and
Hunt: It not only prevents destruction of nerve tissue, but, by its well known
effects on the function of nutrition, contributes greatly to the reparative
process. It may, therefore, be regarded as the great conservator of
the nervous
system in conditions of febrile excitement or nervous prostration.
Drs. Kidd
and Gedham: spoke most highly of the results they had obtained from the pure
tincture of China in the advanced stage of phthisis. The power of China and its
active principle, the Sulphate of Quinine, in arresting the destructive
metamorphosis of tissue, is only beginning to be appreciated.'' If the great
key-note of exhaustion from the loss of vital fluids, be kept in mind, China
and its alkaloid, the Sulphate of Quinia, must be one of our great mainstays in
holding up the patient's strength, in the last stages of phthisis.
<:
evening/in damp, cold weather/touching the parts/eating and drinking, and lying
with the head low;
>:
afternoon/from warmth/during rest;
Cocaine:
Dry, spasmodic teasing cough, with excessive sensativeness of the throat and
larynx; the patient has to cough constantly, no rest night or day. Copious
haemorrhages. Spasmodic asthma.
No known
remedie can equal the Hydrochlorate of Cocaine in haemorrhages of the lungs,
especially where we have great excitement and fear of death.
As a remedy
to control the continual dry coughing it has no equal, when the mucous membrane
is in a state of extreme hyperaesthesse. In the last stages, a spray of 4%,
solution arrests and palliates the pain and continual
coughing,
produced by the inflammation and ulceration of the larynx and trachea. Where
asthma is associated with the disease, similar to Hay asthma, the breathing is
labored, the cough is dry, or seems loose, but nothing
is
expectorated. Cocaine will be found of great value.
<:
night/in cold air; >: warm air;
Conium:
Sad, desponding people; great vertigo, particularly when lying down and turning
over in bed,
Much
difficulty in voiding urine, it flows and stops again repeatedly during
urination. In great tenderness of the breasts, preceding menstruation;
the breasts
are very painful from the least jar or when walking. Nocturnal dry, hard,
spasmodic cough, << lying down.
Yellow
skin, scrofulous people with indurated glands.
This is one
of our most; valuable remedies in dry, teasing, spasmodoc cough, lasting a long
time after lying down at night. The Conium cough always dry and << night
air.
Dr.
Hirschel: "Its action takes in organic metamorphosis. Its cough is
periodic, dry, caused by any itching, scraping titillation in the throat, or
under the sternum: short convulsive cough, excited by horizontal position,
speaking or
laughing. The two latter exciting causes of the cough are decisive for the
choice of the remedy. The irritation of the cough is seated in the trachea or
upper bronchi. In whooping cough it suits toward the end of
the nervous
stage after Drosera, when speaking and laughing cause paroxysms, whose power
and duration are already broken. In nervous bronchial asthma, it shows good effects
and certainly brings alleviation in
organic
cases."
Its action
on the lamygeal nerves a.nd larnyx is strongly marked in the provings, and has
often been confirmed in practice: its action on the lungs is less marked. The
Conium cough is centered in the larnyx, trachea and upper bronchi.
<: at
night when lying down/from deep inspirations/laughing/moving constantly/during
rest and cold air;
>: warm
atmosphere, and continued motion;
Cuprum
phosphoricum: Loose rattling cough with much emaciation and debility.
Frequently vomits when coughing. Copious watery diarrhoea. Mucous membranes
loaded with mucus from paralysis of the vagi.
This is one
of my most useful remedies in the first and second stages of phthisis, where
tliere is hectic fever, night sweats, associated .with a loose cough;
expectoration very copious, muco-purulent sputa.
Extreme
weakness seeming to center in the lungs: emaciation, with great mental
depression. In these cases it ranks with Hepar. The cough is often associated
with vomiting and diarrhoea. In chronic bronchitis with a loose
cough, the
expectoration is copious and foetid. This is a grand remedy.
Digitalis:
A very slow, intermittent pulse, never rapid, but greatly excited by the least
movement. Exceedingly prostrated after coughing; cough after eating with
vomiting of food. Where the heart is involved,
with
anasarca and general dropsy..
Special
action upon the vagi; its functions are interfered with, the bronchial mucous
membranes become loaded with mucus; and we have a moist loose, rattling cough,
with an abundant expectoration.
Cyanotic
symptoms in the face, and a sensation of an excessive determination of blood to
the lungs, which produces great difficulty in breathing.
Dr. Baehr:
" Digitalis is particularly adapted to galloping phthisis, with intense
hectic fever from the commencement: the patient complains of palpitation of the
heart; coughs up blood frequently; has no appetite; the cough
must not be
dry; bowels constipated, and the pulse exceedingly quick. Digitalis is the most
reliable remedy to moderate the hectic fever, but the dose must not be too
small, nor should it be exceedingly large, because
large doses
are apt to excite the patient."
Meyhoefer:
"Digitalis is one of our most valuable medicines in passive congestion of
the lungs, and chronic catarrh resulting from a weakened, dilated heart,
irregularity and intermission of the pulse; scanty secretion
of urine
and oedematous swellings, are its characteristic symptoms."
Aggravation.
From motion, getting heated,and
a warm
room.
Amelioration:
During rest.
Ferrum
metallicum: Edematous with great paleness of the mucus membranes, especially
that of the mouth . Muscles feeble, easily exhausted from slight exertion. The
least emotion or exertion produces a red flushed face.
Face,
suddenly becomes fiery-red, with vertigo, ringing in the ears, palpitation of
the heart with dyspnoea. Loud bellows-sound of the heart from anaemia.
(Edematous swellingof the body; conIron especially affects the
blood plasma,
decreasing the albumen and red corpuscles, increasing the water in the serum
sanguinis, producing anaemia and chlorosis. Iron in the constitution of our
tissues acts in the twofold character of pabulum and
medicine.
In the present state of science it is often impossible to determine the exact
limit where the nutritive action ceases, and the medicinal beginns. Diseases
coincident with dropsical conditions: coldness of
the body
predominates, especially at night. Haemorrhagic tendency. Stools of undigested
food, without pain. In women, menses too frequent, too profuse, and last too
long. Chlorosis. > walking slowly.
Strictly
speaking, Iron is not what we would call a true cough remedy, but it is so
valuable in peculiar states of the system, that we class it among our most
valuable remedies.
Dr.
Rueckert: Iron produces
1) Relaxation and weakness of the entire
musculature, and emaciation, weakness of digestion, coldness of the
extremities.
2) Anaemia under the mask of plethora and
congestion, accompanied by a whitish color of the mucous membranes.
3) Pulmonary tuberculosis, especially in young
florid subjects with a. remarkable erethism of the vascular system, inclination
to congestion of the chest. But we will remind here of the property of Iron, in
larger doses,
to occasion haemorrhages, a reason for which
Allopathic physicians do not give it in tuberculosis with inclination to
haemorrhage.
4) Aphonia very distressing.
5) Chronic watery diarrhoea, especially in
children, usually soon after eating and drinking: without pain and effort
mostly containing undigested substances. Iron is the remedy often indicated
after previous abuse of
Iodine, Arsenic and Quinia."
Dr.
Meyhoffer: "Iron (acet./perchloride). Dry cough, from vascular congestion,
with difficult and oppressed breathing; diminished or rough vesicular murmur
and fine sibilant ronchi; spitting of blood, or bronchial haemorrhage, small,
weak pulse: palpitation of the heart on the least muscular exertion, deficient
gastric secretion: the food lies heavy in the stomach; bowels relaxed and
discharging undigested food; suppressed menstruation or
profuse
flooding."
The cough
of Iron predominates dry, but in the morning the expectoration may be copious,
of either mucous or purulent matter, with oppressed, short breathing, worse in
cold air, and relieved by warm air.
Dr. Pope:
The cases in which Iron is especially valuable are those in which the patient
is usually between twenty and thirty years of age; family history is free from
any hereditary taint and to tubercle: he is of a sanguine temperament, of a
florid complexion, with an active circulation, and an easily excited nervous
system: the disease has been excited by neglected catarrh, causes which
originated mal-nutrition with frequent inflammatory
attacks
upon the pulmonary organs; epistaxis, haemoptysis, headache, congestion in
various parts, easily excited: hectic fever runs high, and the loss of strength
is very rapid: there is dyspnoea, vomiting of food, or lienteria."
Dr. CI.
Miiller: " Cough, dry at night in bed: loose, and more frequent when
walking; chest painful above and behind the sternum, with burning after
coughing. The cough is appeased by eating. The night cough more oppressive,
and
sometimes attended with spitting of blood: at other times this occurs in the
morning. Tobacco and brandy cause aggravations, or increase the muco-purulent
expectoration; dryness in the chest, but transiently relieved by drinking, with
copious secretion of mucus. Shooting pains and a sense of tightness between the
shoulders, impeding movements of the joints; the chest feels full and tight,
with sanguine congestion; painful oppression which
causes one
to be seated, and sometimes amounts to a constrictive spasm: the respiration is
noisy, as in sleep: the breathing slow and painfiil, relieved by walking, or in
speaking, and when most preoccupied in reading and writing; it is most
troublesome when in bed, and in the evening: the pains < after eating. I
cannot better characterize the sphere of Iron in phthisis, than in affirming
its indication by those very states in which Allopathists have found counter
indications and danger. It is most suited for young and florid subjects,
presenting a transient erethism of the circulation, with congestive tendencies
toward the chest and head. The special symptoms are: agitation and heating,
easily induced by corporal movements and moral emotions; and as a consequence,
palpitation, dyspnoea, cough, sudden flushes of the cheeks, epistaxis,
hsemoptisis, quick fatigue and nervous excitability. Iron rarely
fails to
help these subjects. It is also useful in hectic fever, colhiquation, with
weakness and emaciation- thus either at
the beginning or towards the end of the disease. Much is to be hoped from Iron
when the hereditary
germ breaks
out in the midst of florid health: and it is well known that these cases are
not the least serious. The palliation effected by iron in the third stage,
often suffices to banish for a time the varied phenomena of hectic fever, while
the gastric forces recuperate under it.
<: morning/at rest/from noise; >:
daytime/from slow exercise;
Hamamelis:
Especially called for in passive haemorrhages. The blood is dark and comes into
the mouth without any effort, like a warm current out of the chest.
Tickling
cough with a taste of blood on waking.
In
haemoptysis, this is well nigh a specific. No remedy has given such prompt and
satisfactory results in active or passive venous haemorrhages from the
pulmonary mucous membrane.
Dr. Hughes:
haemorrhages it cures depend rather upon the state of the blood-vessels than
that of the blood.
It probably
cures haemorrhages by its specific action upon the muscles of the capillary
blood-vessels, causing them to contract. When the blood comes from the pulmonary
mucous membrane this is well nigh a
specific;
but if the haemorrhage is due to a rupture of the blood-vessds from deep
ulceration: Aconite, Cocaine, Veratrum viride or Millefolium will act better.
Hepar
sulphuris: Great disposition to take cold: excessively sensitive to cold air.
Sweats day and night without relief (chest); Perspiration has a very sour
smell. Cannot bear to be uncovered. Coughs when any part of the body
is
uncovered. Second stage, when suppuration is inevitable. Hoarse, dry, croupy
cough; loose cough: expectorating large quantities of mucus and pus.
Laryngo-tracheal catarrh with much hoarseness. Symptoms < north
or cold
west winds.
This is the
most useful and the most frequently indicated remedy we have in phthisis.
After the
first stages of cough have passed, and we commence to have a loose, hoarse,
rattling cough, no remedy can equal Hepar.
Dr.
Hirschel: Hepar suits those cases which are so far advanced by Acon., Bry.,
Brom., Merc, lod., or Spongia, that they have passed into the stage of
resolution. It is our most important remedy where, in acute forms,
this
resolution has been prepared, or in moist coughs, resting on a catarrhal thing,
cannot bear the slightest draft of air or noise.
Cough
involving the whole respiratory organs. In croup, as well as pneumonia, it can
only be indicated in the second stage. It suits tuberculosis far less than
cheesy and chronic pneumonia. It may also be indicated in gastric and
intestinal catarrhs or complications, or in sympathetic cough, or in such ones
extending from inflammations of adjacent parts of the mouth and fauces.
Hoarseness, scraping irritation in the larynx, or in the parts,
mucous
rales, are important indications for this remedy, acting on the plasticity of
these processes."
Dr.
Guernsey: Hepar has a rattling cough; it seems as if the patient would choke in
coughing; in croup, whooping cough, or in catarrh, < towards morning/after
eating."
Marcy and
Hunt: "Hepar is an important specific for the following characteristic
symptoms: Anxious, hoarse, wheezing respiration, much < lying down: attacks
of suffocation, which force the patient to throw the head back
in order to
take breath; dyspnoea, dry and hollow cough; hoarse voice; cough with
expectoration of mucus; fever, < all day and night sweats. In cases which
seem to have been connected with suppression of salt rheum,
or other
eruptive diseases, or metastasis of arthritic inflammations. The patient has an
unhealthy skin, which cracks or chaps, and runs into suppuration or ulceration
from slight injuries: is subject to pimples and blotches:
sweats from
the slightest exertion, and profusely at night; mentally irritable, impatient;
has vertigo, with pain in the head; falling off of the hair; erysipelatous
eruptions of the face: feeling in the throat of something sticking,
or rough
scraping or stinging stitches; rawness of the fauces, swelled tonsils;
expectoration mixed with blood. Putrid taste in the mouth, loathing of food:
vomiting and water-brash."
Dr.
Meyhoffer: 'Hepar, 2d or 3d decimal, one grain morning and evening, will not be
unworthy of reliance in the chronic catarrh of scrofulous children and adults,
especially when the morbid process shows a tendency to invade
the
pulmonary vesicles. This is the moment when careful auscultation will enable
the physician to nip in the bud the further progress of catarrhal pneumonia by
appropriate means, of which Hepar is one of the most
efficient.
This substance is not of minor importance in the bronchitis engendered by
swelling of the bronchial glands. In such cases the remedy must be continued as
long as the improvement progresses. In subacute catarrhal processes Hepar
corresponds to the stage characterized by the incipient collection of mucus in
the air tubes. As this fluid at that period is composed essentially of mucous
cells, and contains but a small proportion of pus-corpuscles, it is thus
rendered particularly glutinous and sticky. Hence the violent and suflbcating
paroxysms of coughing, often attended by retching."
Dr. Nichol:
"The characteristic cough of Hepar is a dry, rough and hollow cough; or
the cough maybe dry and crowing, coming on in violent paroxysms. The
expectoration is generally mucus, though sometimes bloody froth
is raised,
and occasionally small, hard, tuberculous masses. The respirations are hoarse,
anxious and wheezing, and the difficulty is much aggravated by lying down. The
dyspnoea is very marked, with suffocative attacks which force the patient to
throw the head back in order to take breath. The voice is hoarse and croaking,
and the fever, which exacerbates towards evening, is followed by night
sweats."
Dr. Baehr:
A characteristic indication for Hepar is a dry, spasmodic, barking cough, with
a wheezing sound over the whole thorax, without any mucous rfiJes: it is a
steeuiy cough, only at intervals increasing to dreadful
paroxysms,
with danger of suffocation: it is excited by every attempt to draw a long
breath, and only results in the expectoration of a yellowish, tenacious
mucus."
To
eradicate the peculiar dyscrasia that hes at the foundation of asthma, where
the attack comes on in the night, with constriction of the chest and
suflfocative breathing, with a choking cougb, and a large collection of
mucus in
the bronchi: Tuberculosis or chronic Bronchitis being at the foundation of the
asthma.
<: at
night/cold (north-east winds); >: warm air/warmth;
Iodine:
Remarkable sense of weakness and loss of breath in going up stairs. Low,
cachectic, scrofulous people with enlarged lymphatic glands (thyroid). In
women, emaciation of the mammae which hang down long
and heavy;
with copious menstruation, or long lasting uterine haemorrhages. Dry cough
predominates, with hoarseness.
This is a
grand constitutional remedy in chronic cases that are engrafted on a low, cachectic,
scrofulous constitution, with much emaciation, profound debility: can hardly
breathe on going up stairs; night sweats.
The
lymphatic glandular system is greatly enlarged, and nutrition is extremely bad.
Atrophy of the mammae and testes. Great emaciation, debility with copious night
sweats. Skin dark brown, with brown or black hair.
All the
symptoms < warm air and > by cold.
The
specific action of Iodine upon the thyroid gland and upper portion of the air
passages is very marked.
Dr.
Hirschel: "Iodine, Bromine and Spongia have this in common; that they
especially cure the affections of the upper parts of the respiratory organs:
that they correspond to dry cough, if of a catarrhal, inflammatory or
organic
origin. All are deeply penetrating and reliable remedies. Spongia might be
considered the most volatile and dynamic; Bromine is materially incisive,
forcible, and helps quickly: Iodine is the strongest, but most slow
in action.
They are the chief remedies in the affections of the larynx and trachea
(catarrhs, inflammations, especially croup, changes in texture); also in
stenosis of the glottis, Iodine alone has also some relations to the bronchi,
and even to
the pulmonary tissue. According to the symptoms we find in Bromine dry croup
cough, with scraping titillation and hoarseness: this is a special indication
for Bromine, where small follicles are found on the
posterior
mucous membrane of the pharynx, extending to the larynx, and producing
continued titillating cough, with swelling of the mucous membrane of the
fauces, the larynx being painful to the touch, Bromine specific.
In Iodine
the cough is also dry, croupy, with titillation and sensation of soreness in
the larynx: barking, with gray or white salty, sweetish expectoration; shrill
whistling and rattling in the chest: sawing, hissing respiration,
with
oppression. The subjective sensation of soreness and pain fi:equently extends
to the upper third of the sternum. Hoarseness, difficult speech and
expectoration of tough mucus, I have frequently witnessed from Iodine
splendid
effects in long-standing laryngeal catarrhs with the above symptoms. It
alleviates in tuberculosis; in croup it is our last anchor, where Spongia and
Bromine fail. It is not an easy matter to select from these 3 remedies:
each may be
indicated according to circumstances. The more plastic the exudation, the more
Iodine is indicated. Anatomically, we might say, spongia is more suitable for
stases, simple inflammation;
Bromine for
swelling and hypertrophy of the mucous membranes; Iodine for exudation."
Dr.
Meyhoffer: "The effort to give precise clinical indications for Iodine is
to us a diflBicult one. For example, as regards the respiratory surface, we
meet within the range of its salutary influence the dry, congestive
catarrh,
profuse bronchorrhoea and catarrhal pneumonia, with all the intermediary morbid
conditions. Still one link exists which binds all these so contradictory
symptoms together, and this is irritation.
Torpidity
and atony of the ventilating apparatus does not lie within its range. Iodine
has, in common with Cod-liver Oil, the property of being exquisitely adapted to
delicate constitutions, with quick pulse,
tendency to
bronchial and pulmonary congestion and haemorrhage. For the same reason it is
also an excellent remedy for over-grown lads, with weak chest and dry cough,
subject to spitting of blood and cardiac palpitation.
The cough
is always more or less severe, be the expectoration scanty or copious: fine or
coarse rattles and sibilant ronchi give way to its influence. Swelling of the
cervical and bronchial glands, nocturnal sweats, great weakness and progressive
emaciation, notwithstanding a good appetite and bowels, are confirmative
indications for the exhibition of Iodine."
Dr. Baehr:
"Iodine is undoubtedly one of the most important remedies in confirmed
phthisis; it only suits, however, after the expectoration has become purulent.
This remedy effects more frequently than any other curative
results,
provided we do not obstinately insist upon giving only small doses. Iodine 6x
sometimes has a good effect, but Iodine 1x is often indispensable; nor need any
unpleasant effects be apprehended from the use of large
doses.
Iodine is more particularly indicated if tuberculosis is the result of
scrofulosis in the case of young and robust individuals: if diarrhoea is
present. Iodine does not act favorably. Chronic catarrh of scrofulous and
mercurialized individuals, or remaining after croup or other acute affections,
or complicated with chronic pharyngeal catarrh, are affections lying within the
range of Iodine. The most prominent symptomatic indications are
the
following: Disposition to take cold, with long duration of the acute stage; the
larynx is painful when pressed upon; burning, sore pains in the larynx confined
to a definite spot, felt especially during cough; embar-
rassed
respiration; wheezing inspirations, causing real attacks of dyspnoea,
especially at night: a good deal of hawking, with difficulty in bringing up
tenacious mucus: a high degree of hoarseness, even aphonia; tickling in the
larynx, frequently causing paroxysms of cough without expectoration, or else
with scanty expectoration of a tenacious mucus, sometimes mixed with streaks of
bloo^J. The general organism is very much affected by the disease. The presence
of ulcers points particularly to Iodine."
Dr. Hughes:
'Its true action is one of a depressant character, exerted upon the lacteal
vessels and mesenteric glands, giving a sluggish taking up of the fatty
elements of the food by the lacteals, and an insufficient elaboration of
their
contents by the mesenteric glands; and we have at once a most important channel
of nutrition choked up and rendered useless. The fatty aliments being those
taken up by the lacteals, the emaciation becomes more rapidly apparent than if
it had been the albuminous constituents of the diet whose supply was cut off.
The action
on the glands and the emaciation of Iodine is thus a prominent symptom. It has a
specific action on the salivary glands, the liver, the glands of the generative
system and the thyroid. Upon the glands of the generative system it exerts a
depressing and atonizing influence. The mammae and testes have more than once
wasted away and disappeared under its use; and a diminution of the functional
energy of the ovaries makes it probable
that these
are similarly affected. The most marked effects of Iodine are: Over-excitement
of the whole nervous system: ebullition of the blood and pulsations over the
whole body, greatly increased by every effort; trembling, tottering gait; great
debility, atrophy: extreme emaciation: general oedema: pulse accelerated, hard
and small; hectic fever; variable appetite, either excessive or absent;
digestion very feeble: dyspnoea: suffocation: out of breath
on going up
stairs, with violent palpitations and cramp-like pains about the heart on the
least effort."
<:
exertion/in a warm room/wrapping up warm generally; >: cold air and after
sleep;
Ipecacuanha:
Constant great and long continued nausea; vomiting gives no relief, the nausea
still remaining. Haemorrhages from all the orifices of the body, accompanied by
nausea. Severe, suffocative cough, chest seems full
of mucus,
but does not yield to coughing; asthmatic cough with excessive mucous rattling
in the lungs; loss of breath when coughing with great paleness of the face.
Incessant sneezing with large secretion of mucus in
the
nostrils.
The cough
of Ipeccac has not an organic base, but is of a simple catarrhal origin, mixed
up with a neurotic element. It is a loose, spasmodic cough, with spasm of the
bronchial tubes, and they are loaded with mucus.
Dr.
Hirschel: "Catarrhal, or spasmodic titillating cough, or suffocating
cougb, with dyspnoea, nausea, vomiturition, especially at the end of the
paroxysm, or with expectoration of a scanty, albuminous, nauseous mucus;
or if
mucous rftles and vomiting of food are present. The inclination to vomit and
the absence of every inflammatory irritation, and the tendency to resolution
are indications for this remedy.
Gastric
catarrh, bronchial asthma, more in bronchial than in laryngeal affections. In
whooping cough only towards the end. It has special relations to the vagus, and
suits all women and children."
Dr. Nichol:
Ipecac is one of the principal remedies for bronchial catarrhs of infancy and
childhood: in action it closely resembles Ant-t. It is almost indispensable in
those peculiar attacks, partly neurosis, partly phlogosis-
a kind of
mixture of asthma and bronchitis- which
frequently occur in young children, and which are so fatal in the old school.
It is indicated by loud and sonorous mucous rattles in the chest, with wheezing
respiration.
There is
great dyspnoea, coming on in paroxysms in the evening, continuing with slight
remissions during the night, and intermitting distinctly through the day. The
cough is convulsive and suflFocative, relief partially from vomiting. During
the vomiting the face assumes a bluish hue, and bleeding from the nostrils may
take place. A slight degree of spasm of the glottis is not unfrequent, and
there maybe convulsive twitches or even spasmodic
rigidity of
the body of the child. Sometimes, in spite of the mucous rumors, the cough is
dry; though, as Baehr remarks, this is certainly not according to its
physiological symptoms." If, instead of the usual tenacious and scanty
mucus, a
large quantity of simple catarrhal mucus accumulates, so that the cough is
preceded and accompanied by loud rattles, and every paroxysm of cough is attended
with vomiting, excited by the least quantity of food:
Ipecac is
the certain remedy. In recent cases of asthma, especially in the young, to
arrest the paroxysm Ipecac is equal to any remedy we have, where we have
spasmodic constriction of the air passages and the bronchial tubes
are loaded
with mucus, there is much nausea, the face is pale and cold, and covered with
sweat.
For acute
haemorrhages from the lungs, no remedy is more frequently indicated: the great
key for its selection being great and long continued nausea, with spasmodic
suffocative cough; much rattling of mucus and blood in the bronchi. Blood very
dark, and mixed with mucus. Constant taste of blood in the mouth. If there is
organic heart disease, Digitalis will take its place.
<: At
night/by exertion/in warm air; >: rest/closing the eyes and mouth;
Kali
bichromicum: Cough with expectoration of tough, stringy mucus; adapted to the
second stage where the mucus appears to be loose, but it sticks to the parts
very tenaciously, and can be drawn out in long strings.
Chronic
catarrh affecting nose, fauces and larynx; parts smooth and red. Fleshy people,
with light hair and eyes. More useful in catarrhal diseases of the air passages
than in genuine phthisis.
For
sub-acute and chronic tedious cases of cough, where the large bronchi, trachea,
larynx and fauces are involved.
The cough
seems loose and what is expectorated is very sticky and ropy, can be drawn out
into long strings.
Dr.
Meyhoffer says: "Inhalations, and the internal use of Kali bi. form our
standard course of treatment in those numerous cases of common bronchitis
vacillating between the acute and the torpid, inveterate character of the
disease. A certain degree of irritation, vascular congestion, and moderate
muco-purulent expectoration marks the morbid state ready to give way to the
specific working of this salt. Inhalations, however, do good service in
bronchial dilatation, with fcetid breath and expectoration. The sputa soon
undergo a favorable change of aspect, while they lose at the same time their
offensive odor and diminish in (quantity. If the catarrh be attended by
periosteal
or rheumatic pains of a chronic nature, all hesitation as to the selection of
the medicine must subside.
Dr.
Hirschel: Its characteristic symptom is a smooth or follicular in mammartory
redness of the pharynx and fauces, with its dry, titillating cough and
ulcerative pain in the larynx; it suits tedious cases."
Dr.
Lilienthal: "It suits best fat, chubby children. Onset gradual and insidious;
constant hoarse voice: cough at intervals, hoarse, dry, barking, metallic;
deglutition painful; tonsils and larynx red, swollen, covered with false
membrane, difficult to detach, with expectoration of tough, stringy
mucus."
Dr.
Guernsey: "Kali bi. Cough with expectoration of tough, stringy mucus: it
sticks in the throat, causing a choking sensation, sticks to the tongue, teeth
and lips, and in attempting to remove it from these parts it will be drawn
out into
long strings." For chronic hoarseness in laryngitis, it is one of our most
useful remedies. Coughs up casts of elastic fibrinous nature; loud mucus
rumors; wheezing, rattling respiration when asleep.
<:
morning/after eating and from cold; >: evening and from heat;
Kalium
carbonicum: Cough brought on from cold, damp weather. Cough very violent,
mostly dry, commencing at 3 h. Severe stitching pain is the most characteristic
symptom of this remedy. Chronic, organic coughs.
Lower
portion of right lung.
In
emaciation and debility, with a disposition to tuberculosis. Where there is a
dry cough, invariably aggravated, about 3 h.: hectic fever and night sweats,
with many stitching, darting, shooting, cutting pains, this remedy is
invaluable.
It seems to act on the system so as to produce dryness of the serous membranes,
which gives rise to the stitching pains, the great leading characteristic of
the remedy. Suppuration of the lungs, with great emaciation
and
debility, accompanied by profuse night sweats, affecting especially the head
and chest. Excessive dryness of the scalp, with falling off of the hair. Great
liability to take cold at every change of the weather;
great
irritability with much anxiety, fever and tendency to start from the least
noise. Rheumatic subjects whose mucous membranes are very dry and irritable,
with a dry, racking cough, associated with stitching pains in the chest
in cold,
damp weather.
The
breathing becomes difficult and labored after the frequent paroxysms of dry
coughing; cough when first waking, without expectoration. Stitching pains that
come on during rest, with extreme tympanitis.
<: at
night (after midnight)/by all kinds of motion/damp, cold air; >: warm, dry
air/rest;
Kali
Hydriodicum: scrofulous or syphilitic people, who have been thoroughly
saturated with Mercury. Secondary and tertiary syphilis, where the patient
suffers much from chronic rheumatism. Mucous membranes of the mouth, air
passages and kidneys chronically inflamed. Fetid odor from the nose and mouth,
from chronic catarrh and ulceration of those passages. Chronic nasal catarrh in
its worst form; ptyalism. Degeneration of the mucous
membranes.
Mucous phthisis, with purulent mucous.
The action
of this remedy is very similar to Iodine, especially in scrofulous glandular
swellings, and goitre; but differs in many points.
Dr.
Meyhoffer: "The lower dilutions, 1st and 2d, from 4 - 8 drops at a dose,
form one of our standard prescriptions, whenever no special symptoms indicate
the use of another drug. In glandular swellings it cannot be omitted.
Dry, irritating
cough, with scanty, frothy, rather than mucous expectoration, or none at all;
obstinate tickling and irritation in the trachea.
Expectoration,
associated with exhausting nightsweats. Asthma in young people that are growing
rapidly, associated with rheumatism. All forms of scrofula, with enlarged
glands; severe nightly bone-pains. Profuse
purulent
mucous secretions, very sensitive to the least cold, damp air.
Dr.
Hitchman: "Kali hy. is beneficial, indeed often of great service in those
cases where there exists a considerable degree of irritation in the bronchial
tubes, especially the larger channels, with hollow, dry cough, day and night,
but worse towards evening; or cough with scanty, viscid, ropy expectoration:
heat in the chest; burning, tickling irritation in the laynyx; quick, anxious,
laborious respiration, with hoarseness: abdominal pains, slight, but at the
same time most insiduous, dangerous and fatal in their ultimate results. They
are augmented by pressure; fullness and tension of the belly, particularly a
deepseated tightness, as if the integument and muscles were gilded over;
too tightly
stretched, and thickened peritoneum or serous membrane: coughing and deep
breathing are painful, with fever and emaciation." This is one of the best
remedies we have for phthisis associated with asthma, but to get
its best
effect, it has to be given in large doses, of from one to five grain doses of
the crude drug. Some cases the first dec. will be strong enough. Symptoms are:
severe coryza: nose red and swollen, with profuse, watery nasal discharge;
constant sneezing; dry, hard, barking cough, afterwards accompanied by a
copious, greenish expectoration: great oppression of breathing, with loss of
voice; suffocative oppression and arrest of breathing; the constriction of the
chest is so great that the lungs cannot be inflated by the greatest effort of
the patient, and is aggravated by rest: patient must move about to get relief;
the dyspnoea is so distressing the patient declares he
will die.
In chronic cases, there is often a large secretion of mucus in the lungs,
which, when expectorated, has a green appearance, from having been secreted and
remained in the lungs a long time. Auscultation reveals an
immense
amount of bronchial spasm, as indicated by the whistling, wheezing noises all
over the chest: has sharp, violent stitches in the chest, associated with many
rheumatic symptoms throughout the body generally, with emaciation and great
debility. Adapted to both the dry and humid asthma, but acts best in the dry
form.
<: cold,
damp weather/rest; >: motion/in warm, dry air;
Kalium
chlorioum: Has a specific action upon the buccal mucous membrane and mucous
follicles of the mouth. Follicular ulcers upon the inside of the cheeks and tongue.
Aphthous ulcers cover the whole mucous surface of the mouth; mouth filled
constantly with saliva; glands enlarged and sore: gums inflamed and bleed much;
burning, stinging blisters on the tongue and buccal cavity, with great heat in
the mouth. Syphilitic subjects.
In the last
stages of phthisis, where we have aphthous sore mouth, no remedy can equal
this. My favorite way of administering it, is to let the patient put a small
chrystal of the Chlorate in the mouth, and suck it until all is dis-
solved and
then swallowed. If this is repeated every one or two hours, the majority of
cases will bcf cured in from 2 - 6 days.
Kreosotum:
Putrid diseases, with great acidity of the secretions. Disposition sad and
irritable. Paroxysmal moist cough, the lungs being loaded with mucus,
expectorated with great difficulty; patient has to cough a long time.
Foetid
sweat of the feet, that are often (edematous). Complexion livid. Tall, slim
people. In women, the menses are too frequent, too profuse and last too long.
In organic
affections of the mucous membrane of the bronchi, this is a remedy of great
value. Its symptoms greatly resemble those of Pulsatilla, the distinction being
this: the cases adapted to Kreosote are more deeply
seated,
have lasted longer, and in the case of women the menses are too often, too
profuse, and last too long; whereas, in "Pulsatilla, the menses are apt to
be delayed and scanty. Kreosote is adapted to coughs that
have passed
from the dry, first stage, and the second stage has fully set in: the cough
sounds very loose, the upper bronchi being loaded with mucus but expectoration
is very difficult. The cough has much of the nervous element about it, which
makes it paroxysmal in character.
Marcy and
Hunt: "Constant spasmodic, violent cough, accompanied by violent retching:
the expectoration copious, mucous and purulent; the patient cannot lie down
without great distress; stitching pains in the chest:
bitter
taste in the mouth; cadaverous breath; frequent greenish, watery diarrhoea;
hectic fever; copious secretion of the mucous membranes, and abscesses of the
lungs, which are excessively offensive in character,
accompanied
with depression of nervous power.
Dr. Kurtz:
" Kreosote is much more effectual than Arsenic, which is usually prescribed."
Cough with pain in the chest and sternum compelling the patient to press the
hand on it; frequent desire to take a long breath from oppression of the chest:
shortness of breath, with sensation of heaviness on the chest: stitches in the
chest, above and in the region of the heart, with oppression of breathing in
the right side, extending under the shoulder blade, arresting the breathing.
The chest feels bruised, especially the sternum. Patient wants to sleep all the
time, and is extremely irritable.
Bouchard:
Kreosote in Phthisis: Since its introduction by in 1877, Kreosote has steadily
grown in favor. By its use it is claimed that there is diminution of cough and
expectoration, reduction of fever, increase of appetite and of weight, and
clearing up of consolidations.
Dr.
Rosenbusch, Lemburg: , prefers the injection of Kreosote into the tissues of
the lung. About eight drops of a 3%, solution of Kreosote in almond oil were
injected in each of two spots by means of a Pravaz syringe with a
needle 6 to
8 centimeters in length, using strict antiseptic precautions. No haemorrhage
followed: Whittaker, Annual of Universal Medical Sciences, 1889.
<:
morning/evening/open air/motion and eating cold food; >: warm air;
Lachesis:
Throat exceedingly sensitive, cannot bear the least touch of the finger. When
anything touches the larynx, it is not only sensitive, but feels as though he
would suffocate: touching
In the
first stages of phthisis, especially in women at the climacteric, this remedy
is frequently suitable. Through the vagi it has a powerful action upon the
lungs, and when the throat causes a dry, hacking cough; dry spasmodic cough,
< nights, with a choking sensation in the throat; empty swallowing is
perfectly agonizing. All symptoms << after sleep: patient is very unhappy
and distressed after sleep.
Women have
frequent hot flashes, especially at the climacteric; cannot bear any pressure,
not even the clothes, on the uterine region or upon the neck; keep constantly
lifting the clothes from the abdomen and throat.
Cough, or
asthma takes on a neurotic or spasmodic action, Lachesis will often be found
invaluable.
Dr.
Guernsey: Cough, excited by pressing, even lightly, upon the larynx, clothing
must be removed from about the parts, its pressure excites the cough: cough as
soon as one falls into a sound sleep, often with choking, as if suffocation
were inevitable. Cough excited by a sensation as if a crumb of bread were
sticking in the throat, or some other substance, with frequent hawking.
Dr.
Holcomb: ''Lachesis acts beautifully for tickling, worrying night cough, with
sensation of a lump in the throat, sensitiveness of the larynx, and especially
when after a long, dry paroxysm there is suddenly a profuse expectoration of
frothy mucus."
Dr.
Meyhoffer says: ''Lachesis and Naja always contribute to allay the harassing
cough, secondary either to nervous palpitation or organic alterations of the
heart. Deficient nervous influence of the parvagum, dilitation and fatty
degeneration of the heart constitute the sphere in which these poisons display
their restorative influence."
Dr. T.
Nichol: "Lachesis = the Belladonna of chronic diseases - is suitable to children suffering from
hydrothorax, or where there is a largely bloated or lymphatic appearance;
shortness of breath after a meal: tight breathing, dyspnoea and oppression of
breathing, with aggravation after eating; suffocative and swallowing."
feeling in
a recumbent position, or when touching the neck. Spasmodic constriction of the
chest, obliging the patient to rise from bed and to sit with the trunk bent
forward: slow and wheezing breathing: desire to take a deep
breath,
especially when sitting."
<: at
night/after every sleep/touching the throat or larynx, and in cold, damp
weather; >: While eating, and from warmth;
Lycopodium:
Great quantities of red sand in the urine. Much pain in the back previous to
urinating, relieved by urination. Excessive accumulation of flatulence in the
stomach and bowels. Constant sensation of satiety, the
least morsel
of food fills him up to the mouth; much borborygmus, especially in the left
hypochondrium;
constant
sensation in the abdomen like a pot of yeast working; obstinate constipation.
Great disposition to take cold at every change of the weather, with cold,
clammy night sweats, mostly on the chest and head.
Loose,
rattling cough, with great difficulty in breathing during the period of
coughing. Fanlike motion of the alae nfisi, in diseases of the lungs; humid
asthma, with much debility.
This is one
of the most frequently indicated remedies we have in phthisis, and no remedy
can be given with more confidence as to its curative effects. In action it
greatly resembles Pulsatilla, Hepar and Kreosote.
The cough
is loose, rattling, but expectoration is not easy: sounds very loose, but
remains in the lungs very tenaciously. The sputa is thick, yellow, or greenish.
Dr.
Meyhoffer: A long time was necessary to conquer my repugnance to the use of
Lycopodium, excited by the exaggerated laudations of its medicinal virtues
which I had been condemned to listen to;
now I have,
on the other hand, to guard against falling into the same error myself. The
fact is, since I learned to appreciate its efficacy in chronic pneumonia, I
have not failed to observe also its vitalizing influence in those forms
of
bronchitis characterized by >copious muco-serous, or muco-purulent
secretion. These morbid phenomena being habitually the result of more or less
serious alterations, it follows that Lycopodium acts favorably in emphysema, dilitation
of the air-tubes and senile catarrh. Constant tickling cough, worse at night,
numerous loud mucous rattles, with rare and scanty sputa, are symptoms lying
especially within the range of its action. But the varieties of
bronchitis
above mentioned are often attended or complicated by the phenomena of abdominal
vascular obstruction and atony of the alimentary canal, or by those of the acid
diathesis. The signs which arise in such circumstances, as congestion of the
liver, flatulency, obstinate constipation, cachectic complexion, red gravel in
the urine, and lithic acid dyspeptia are all indications for this drug. Low
dilutions are not ineffectual, but higher ones work better."
Dr. Baehr
says: "It is suitable for old people, if emphysema and marked changes in
the bronchial mucous membrane have taken place; there is constant tickling in
the throat, loud ratles with scanty, or unfrequent expectoration,
of a gray
and saltish taste: nightly exacerbations. Usually, Lycopodium is indicated in
moist mucous, or muco-purulent coughs, but it has acted well in some cases of
dry cough."
Dr.
Hitchman: "Lycopodium will almost invariably afford signal relief when
there is fluent coryza with cough and hoarseness; stufling of the nostrils;
formication or ant-like crawling in the wind-pipe at night: dry cough in the
morning: cough after drinking: cough which affects the chest: a loose cough
with spitting of purulent matter, like confirmed consumption; short breathing
of children;
constant
oppression with snflfoeation on doing the least work: painful stitches in the
left part of the chest, with bruised feeling; beating of the heart in bed;
herpetic spots on the neck and chest; pain in the loins in bed: stitches in the
back after stooping: dragging in the shoulder blades: stiffness of the nape of
the neck; boring pains in the arms; twitching in the arms during sleep: dry
skin, and the patient complains of having lost all strength in the arms
and having
cold feet; moreover when the cough is troublesome and materially worse at
night, and attended with thirst, quickness of pulse, subsequent tendency to
moist skin, expectoration grayish, saltish or yellowish,
with
oppression about the bronchial tubes, this medicine is strikingly
indicated."
Dr. Pope:
Few medicines are so valuable in pulmonary phthisis as this, when persistently
used. The cough, gastric irritation, exhaustion and intercurrent attacks of
pleurisy are wonderfully mitigated by it." Expectoration
of large
quantities of pus: cough day and night: hectic fever; circumscribed redness of
the cheeks; great emaciation of the upper part of the body, while the lower is
enormously distended.
C. Pearson,
M. D.: Where the right side is more affected, the cough loose, full and deep,
sounding as though the entire parenchyma were softened, the patient raising a
whole mouthful of mucus at a time, which in color
is a light
rust, not much unlike that of Bryonia, but not so thick, more stringy and
easily separated, and if, in addition, there should be present fan-like motion
of the alse nasi, the 200th is certain to give relief."
In
prescribing Lycopodium, its action on the digestive organs, liver and urinary
organs should never be lost sight of. The digestive symptoms, such as fatulence
and constipation, together with the red sand in the urine, are the
great
key-note for the administration of this remedy.
In
emaciation and debility, where Lycopodium is indicated, there will always be
found many dyspeptic symptoms present, with an immense accumulation of gas in
the stomach and bowels: the stomach is acid,
and the
least morsel of food seems to fill the patient full up to the throat. For Humid
asthma of longstanding, where the digestion is greatly perverted, with
excessive accumulation of gas, which might well be called flatulent asthma,
relieved by eructations of gas, Lycopodium will be found a sovereign remedy.
<: 16
h./exertion/lying down/cold, high winds;
>:
Forenoon/continued motion/warm food and drink;
Mercurius
solubilis: Symptoms << at night/in
cold, damp weather. Spongy gums that bleed easily; salivation; thick
yellow-coated tongue, or red like with very foetid breath, aphthae of the mouth
and fauces. Enlarged salivary
glands.
Great thirst. Much perspiration that does not relieve. Jaundice. Watery, serous
diarrhoea, or muco-sanguinolent stools. High-colored urine. Hectic fever, with
dry cough;
In
phthisis, after the primary stage has been nearly subdued by Aconite,
Belladonna or Bryonia. The cough is dry and just passing into the moist stage,
and is greatly aggravated at night. In chronic cases, where the bron-
chial tubes
are involved, and there is a copious secretion of mucus or muco-purulent sputa,
with exhaustive night sweats.
Dr.
Hirschel: 'How the Allopaths, and more particularly their paroughness and
burning down the sternum, showing that the mucous membrane is inflamed. Ropy
sputum. Chronic nasal catarrh; in scrofulous people, with indura-
tion of the
glandular system.
Patients,
are to be pitied that their school should lack a knowledge of Mercurius
solubilis as a cough remedy!
Where is
there a more certain, a more specifically acting remedy for the appropriate
kinds of cough of a catarrhal, inflammatory, organic nature, running from the
fauces through the trachea, and down to the finest
bronchi;
decisive in acute affections, > in the chronic; slime-loosening, resolvent,
restorative? Where there are roughness, burning, feeling of soreness, from the
fauces down to the sternum, hoarseness of voice, dry cough, raw, concussive,
exhaustive, naturally exacerbated; sputum ropy, watery, spittle-like, nasty,
bloody; catarrhal headache; coryza; diarrhoea; fever; non-ameliorating night
sweats ;- here is the real province of
Mercury.
Its place
is somewhere after Aconite, before Bryonia or Pulsatilla or Hepar or Ant-t.;
also ushering in the turning point, critical intervening, so that the last
mentioned may finish the affair. Mercury is a sovereign remedy for inflammatory
bronchial catarrh."
Dr. T.
Nichol: Mercurius sol. is an excellent remedy for capillary bronchitis. The
cough is dry, racking and violent (evening until midnight) excited by a
tickling or sensation of dryness in the chest, with expectoration of
yellowish,
tenacious mucus, sometimes tinged with blood. Each paroxysm of cough is
preceded by anxious oppression, with hoarseness and caryza; violent fever, with
a disposition to perspire, which gives no relief; the tongue
is thickly
coated, and the alternate chills and heat are succeeded by exhausting sweats.
This remedy acts best in repeated doses of the fourth and fifth trituration,
dry on the tongue. In chronic bronchitis, paroxysms of cough
at night,
with coldness during the paroxysms and distress for breath: there is a good
deal of yellow muco-purulent expectoration, or there is raising of sweetish or
saltish mucus and blood; soreness and ulcerative pain in the air passages,
especially during the cough, and the cough may give rise to nausea and
vomiting." One of the most prominent indications for this remedy is a
constant alternation of chills and fever; the fever is often very high, with a
remarkable
sensitiveness "to the most trifling changes of temperature; thick,
yellow-coated tongue, with diarrhoea, and a great longing for icy cold drinks,
although they aggravate the cough. In pneumonia.
Dr. Muller:
The hepatization of a portion of lung continues, and the critical sputa are
entirely wanting; the cough is dry; not frequent; very rough and fatiguing,
with violent irritation and urging to cough; the dyspnoea remains unaltered,
the fever is continuous and lentescent, with profuse and exhausting sweats; the
urine is scanty and high colored; jaundiced skin; there is gastro-intestinal
catarrh, and the patient has a scrofulous or dyscrasic
organism."
Dr. Baehr:
'The selection of Mercury in broncho-pneumonia may be justified by its
admirable action in bronchitis, for it cannot be denied that the greatest
danger proceeds from this quarter, and that, after the removal of the bronchial
symptoms, the remaining pneumonia is comparatively insignificant. A third form
of pneumonia, which is particularly adapted to Mercury, is the catarrhal form,
or lobular pneumonia, which has an entirely different meaning from the former.
As soon as we have reason, in a ease of bronchitis, to suspect the formation of
small foci of exudation. Mercury will first commend itself to our judgment as a
remedial agent, and we shall have before
our eyes an
image of epidemic influenza. In tubercular pneumonia we have never noticed any
good effects from Mercury.
In phthisis
caused by syphilis, Hartmann says he has cured several cases by it perfectly. I
commenced the treatment with several doses of Mercurius sol. when syphiUtic
ulcers were still visible in the throat, extending deep down, involving the
larynx, occasionally hoarseness and that ominous cough with irritation,
together with the burning and tickling in the region of the larynx. The red
precipitate often does better than the solubilis. And if they have
been
poisoned with Mercury, give Nitric acid." In the last stages of tuberculosis,
with ulceration of the lungs, accompanied with aphthous ulceration of the
mucous membrane of the mouth and intestinal tract, Mercury will be
found of
great service. The Mercurius solubilis acts best on women and children, and the
corrosivus upon men. In deep-seated organic cases of asthma, associated with
bronchitis, and great discharge of mucus from the lungs.
Mercury
will offcen do good service.
<:
evening and particularly at night, from heat in bed/cold, damp air: wet
weather/during perspiration, and from motion;
>:
daytime/rest/work.
Mercurius
protoiodatus: Enlarged and indurated glands (parotid and inguinal). Tonsils and
buccal glands are greatly enlarged, inflamed and very painful, with constant
flow of tough, ropy mucus. The mucous membranes raw,
the
epithelium being entirely destroyed; complete destruction of the respirartory
mucous membrane, with loose, rattling cough, and copious mucopurulent
expectoration.
Subject is
very scrofulous, and is a constant sufferer of catarrh, this is a remedy of
great value. The cough is inclined to be loose, the bronchial mucous membrane
seems to be undergoing complete solution on account of the
great
secretion of mucus. The mucous membrane of the nose and pharynx is greatly
congested and swollen (nose); in many cases it is impossible to breathe through
it; the breath is extremely foetid. In chronic tubercular sore
throat and
laryngitis, the fauces and epiglottis have a deep, Uvid purplish hue: the secretions
are thin and acrid, frequently with ptyalism, and the breath is extremely
foetid. There is a vast amount of mucus in the nose, much of which descends
through the posterior nares into the throat. The cough is very loose, and
expectoration quite easy.
Bowels
inclined to be loose: dark red urine, and the tongue is coated thickly yellow.
Dr.
Meyhoffer: 'Iodide of Mercury corresponds more particularly to subacute
processes arising from the influence of cold or atmospheric variations;
protracted cases, after Belladonna, when the parts are much swollen, dark
colored, with much hawking, coughing, and viscid muco-purulent expectoration,
particularly in the morning. In follicular laryngitis, it has been highly
commended in the more acute forms, from the 1st to the 3d trituration.
<: at
night/in a warm room;
>: in
cool air/active exercise;
Millefolium:
Active or passive haemoptysis.
This remedy
has a special action upon the vascular capillary circulation, controlling both
active or passive pulmonary haemorrhage.
Hartmann:
In almost every variety of haemorrhage (pulmonary). Millefolium is a splendid
and indispensable remedy, more especially in the fleshy and robust; the
spitting of blood is unattended with cough, or the cough is very slight and is
caused by the newly accumulating blood: at the same time there is bubbling up
in the chest, with a sensation as if warm blood were ascending in the throat,
gradually increasing in intensity until blood is raised."
Spitting of
blood, with violent palpitation of the heart; much excitement, accompanied with
a feeling of great oppression of the chest. Active haemorrhages from deep
ulcerations in the lungs.
<:
Evening and at night.
>:
During the day.
Muriatic
acidum: Acts especially upon the mouth and anus. Mouth and tongue excessively
dry; tongue is heavy and seems paralyzed. Breath is excessively foul, from
ulceration of the mouth; salivary glands inflamed,
tender and
swollen. In the last stages of consumption, with aphthous ulceration of the
mouth and bowels, with watery diarrhoea and excessive debility, this acid is of
great value. The aphthous ulcers of the mouth and throat
slough and
tend to run together. Aphthae in the last stages of tuberculosis denote great
debility, and are often the harbinger of dissolution; consequently what we do
has to be done at once. These mineral acids tone up
the body so
rapidly that often life may be prolonged when it would seem impossible. They
should always be used locally as well as internally.
<: Cold,
damp air/stormy weather and exertion; >: warmth: lying down and evening;
Nitricum
acidum: Feeling as if sharp sticks were being stuck into the affected parts.
Diseases depending upon some virulent poison, such as syphilitic, mercurial,
and scrofulous miasms; secondary syphilis, with mucous patches, and tubercles;
salivation from abuse of mercury. Spreading ulcers in the mouth and throat;
mouth full of foetid ulcers with putrid smelling breath; sore throat
discharging thin purulent matter; diarrhoea, with great pain in the
anus as if
it was fissured; painful, watery diarrhoea.
old broken
down constitutions that have had syphilis, or are suffering from the effects of
Mercury: extremely weak, and perspire profusely at night, sweat smelling like
horse's urine and is extremely offensive.
Dr. Gorton:
an invaluable remedy in those dyscrasic conditions in which the blood is
impoverished and the secretions foul, with weakness of the vital forces. I have
used it for foul-smelling perspiration of the hands and feet, with
gratifying results;
sometimes the sweat excoriates the toes.
In women,
violent pressure as if the womb would be forced into the world; bloody
leucorrhoea. Colliquative nightsweats, that are very offensive, with great
emaciation and debility. Lean people, with bilious temperament, who take cold
easily. Symptoms worse
at night,
especially after midnight.
It must be
given in large doses. In the last stages of consumption, nitric acid may be
indicated when there is loose cough, but, as a rule, it is inclined to be dry when
this remedy is called for.
Dr.
Hirschel: "Nitric acid has its sphere of action in chronic inflammatory
forms of cough; in ulcerous or tuberculous processes of the larynx and bronchi;
in pneumonia, which tends towards phthisis: in cirrhosis of the lungs:
and
especially in chronic catarrhs combined with angina pectoris, or diseases of
the heart."
Dr.
Meyhoffer: "Nitric acid, when there is great irritation, redness and
ulceration of the epiglottis and larynx, with difficult and painful deglutition,
violent dry cough, and nocturnal perspiration.- The inhalation of 5 or 10 drops
of the first dilution to an ounce of water has mitigated rapidly the
troublesome throat symptoms in tubercular laryngitis. In syphilitic laryngitis,
with hoarseness, aphonia, ulceration of the buccal mucous membrane, complete
obstruction of the nose, or foetid yellow discharge, 'with nose inflamed and
swollen: coryza; dry cough, etc.; for the above it is well-nigh a specific.
Dr.
Holcomb: "Nitric acid, 1st dec. dilution, frequently succeeds with those
obstinate dry coughs affcer Atropine has failed. Nitric acid is an admirable
remedy to eradicate the asthmatic disposition in patients suflering from
secondary syphilis or from the poisonous effects of Mercury, especially if they
are scrofulous subjects.
<: at
night/warm room; >: In cold weather, and riding in a carriage;
Nux vomica:
Choleric, san^ine, malicious, irritable people, who make great mental
exertions. People that live high, and take intoxicating liquors; suffer much
from dyspepsia, and are greatly troubled with sour stomach.
Constipation,
with frequent urging to stool. Greatly troubled with haemorrhoids. Dry, racking
cough, with great soreness of the stomach. Symptoms << 3 h. The cough
curable with nux vomica is of recent origin, of a dry, scraping character, and
not founded on an organic base, but of a simple catarrhal nature, or of a
reflex character from the spine or digestive organs.
Dr.
Hirschel: "Nux vomica has only a limited application in cough (pharynx and
fauces). The cough is scraping, rough, with irritation in the throat, or under
the upper sternal parts, with difficult expectoration of tough
mucus on
awakening from sleep in the morning; renewed or aggravated by vomiting and
eating. Dry coryza, influenza or general simple catarrhs."
Dr. T.
Nichol: ^Nux vomica is decidedly the leading remedy when the innervation of
both branches of the pneumo-gastric nerve - its gastric as well as its
pulmonary portion - is alike vitiated,
and then the dyspepsia and the asthmatic affections are inseparable parts of
one whole.
Dr. Sutter:
the dyspeptic symptoms are the manifestations of the gastric portion of this
deranged innervation, and the asthma, of the pulmonary portion of it.
Dr.
Ruddock: Nux-v. is probably the best anti-spasmodic remedy to that condition of
the digestive system which is the most common cause of irritation, which
results in bronchial spasm. Nux-v. is about the best remedy we
have for
simple spasmodic asthma where there is no bronchial lesion, but a standing
reflex excitability of the pneumogastric to impressions from without or through
the stomach. One of the early cases which made Hahnemann famous was of this
kind, and the Nux-v. was given in material doses.
Dr. Kidd:
one of our best anti-asthmatics. While the gastric origin of the Nux asthma is
often unmistakably evident, the paroxysm itself often depends upon congestion
of the lungs, and it is a characteristic symptom that the oppression is more
troublesome than the spasmodic symptoms. After the paroxysm subsides it leaves
a condition of the digestive organs for which Nux-v. is the great remedy. The
tongue is coated with a thick yellow fur; slight
nausea;
flatulence and constipation; the breathing is not quite right."
<: 3
h./in open air/cold and vexation;
>:
warmth in general (air)/wet weather;
Opium: Dry,
teasing titillating cough, day and night, especially at night: cough of a
cerebra origin. Face swollen and purple, with soporous sleep and stertorous
breathing. Constipation, stools composed of round, hard, black balls. In
phthisis, when there is a dry, spasmodic, teasing, titillating cough, < at
night, where the brain seems to greatly sympathize.
Dr.
Hirschel: "Opium spasmodic cough with continued perspiration that is cold
and clammy. Bed feels so hard he cannot lie upon it. Frequent hot flushes. No
pains are found in the opium cough. Bad effects from fright.
Cough dry
titillation, allowing no rest either by day or night. In every other case, as
in the cough of phthisical patients, where it keeps off nightly paroxysms, it
acts onlypalliatively by its narcotic quality; but for such cases
large doses
are necessary."
Baehr:
" Never give Opium in cough with profuse expectoration of mucus, or it
will tend to great dryness. It is erroneous to suppose that the narcotic effect
of Opium suspends the desire to cough only for a short time, for there
are many
forms of cough where Opium only aggravates, and does not afford any relief, or
affords relief only when administered in very large doses, to be followed
afterwards by an increase of the cough. In our opinion Opium is admirably
homoeopathic to a spasmodic, dry, paroxysmal, titillating cough, which is
especially tormenting at night, and has but a scanty expectoration. The fact
that we have often cured a cough of this kind permanently by means of a few
doses, entitles us to the belief that Opium is something better than a mere
palliative in this affection. In the later course of tuberculosis, after
suppuration had really set in, we have obtained
speedy and
real relief by means of small doses of Morphine, one-twentieth or one-fiftieth
of a grain at a dose. Nor have we ever hesitated to avail ourselves of the
narcotic properties of this agent." It is only useful in asthma in the
reflex or nervous forms, the brain being the centre. There is tightness of
breath, with oppression and spasmodic constriction of the chest; suffocative
fits during sleep. The cough is dry and suffocative, with bluish redness of the
face and dryness of the skin. A copious secretion of mucus always
counter-indicates Opium. Morphine is often a valuable palliative, and the
physician need not fear the effects of one-eighth, or, in some cases,
one-quarter
to a half a grain at a dose. These large doses will ward off the so-called
hay-asthma entirely in some people. I know one physician that could not
practice in the fall without his Morphine to ward off the asthma. Morphine, in
the last stages of tuberculosis, is the only comfort and real blessing the
patient has in this world, and the physician who would withhold this only
comfort to a suffering mortal ought not to practice medicine.
<: At
night/during sleep/stimulants;
>: in
daytime/from cold/motion;
Phosphorus:
a true lung remedy and affects more favorably tall, slender people, with fair
skin, sanguine temperament and very sensitive dispositions. Deepseated organic
diseases where death is inevitable.
Sensation
of weakness and emptiness in the stomach and abdomen: this emptiness aggravates
all other symptoms, and is the ruling key for the use of Phosphorus. Great
thirst, drinks large quantities of water; vomits whatever
Is in the
stomach.
In
phthisis, when the disease is deeply seated, much emaciation + great nervous
prostration, and more or less complicated, with gastric and intestinal disease.
Phosphorus is a king of remedies. There is much anaemia and deliquescence of
the blood, with frequent haemorrhages of the lungs, of a dark fluid blood. The
emaciation + a dry, hard cough, the expectoration is frequently mixed with
blood: the lungs more or less hepatized with much
sanguineous
infiltration of the parenchyma of the lungs.
There is a
great tendency to a watery, exhaustive diarrhoea, or much gastric irritability;
the tongue is red at the tip and at the sides; nausea and frequently vomiting.
A sensation of goneness, or great weakness in the abdomen,
that
aggravates all the symptoms. In copious and long lasting pulmonary
haemorrhages, Phosphorus is the best remedy we have.
Dr. W.
Arnold: "The changes occasioned by it in the blood, and through the blood
in the whole organism, have been overlooked for a long time. In numerous cases
of poisoning by means of Phosphorus-matches, and by
Phosphorus-paste,
the changes in the blood are too conspicuous to remain unnoticed any longer.
Almost all observers speaking on this subject describe the blood as being dark,
even black, and of fluid consistence. As a rule it is thin, flowing, more
rarely of molasses-like, or of more thick, flowing appearance. The blood is
more fluid if Phosphorus does not kill quickly, but has a chance to effect
changes in the blood in consequence of a more lasting
action for
several days. These changes, however, usually set in with great rapidity. The
results of microscopic investigations of the blood offer important disclosures.
Stools slim
hard and dry, evacuated with great dilficulty, looking 1ike a dog's. Diarrhoea,
which pours out in great quantities, like water from a hydrant. Hard, dry,
tight, rough cough. Obstinate, and copious haemorrhages from
the lungs,
small wounds bleed, much. Much heat in the back between the shoulders.
Emaciated people that take cold very readily, are extremely sensitive to cool
air, and suffer much with cold extremities. Great sexual desire or impotence.
Degeneration of the brain and liquefaction of the spinal cord. Fatty
degeneration of the liver.
Phosphorus
occasions an important change in the blood discs: their decrease in consistency
and circumference is very conspicuous. They become smaller, more extensible,
and consequently can assume different forms: they
change
their form in many ways, especially in their passage through narrow vessels,
and in their proportion to each other. One might say, almost, that Phosphorus
acts as a dissolvent upon the blood discs. This action touches the blood
cell-membrane more than the nucleus. Greater luster, a less granular
appearance, irregular and less distinctly deffned outlines, - these are the most conspicuous changes of the
blood discs which can undoubtedly be
accredited
to the direct action of Phosphorus.
Rummel: the
destruction of blood-discs is the most essential phenomenon when Phosphorus has
been introduced into the stomach, or injected into the blood. The blood-discs
separate into haematine and globuline. The former floats as a purple coagulum
in the plasma, or may even be dissolved therein, while the form of the latter
is preserved. Another observation of Rummel is very worthy of notice for the
explanation of hoemorrhages after
Phosphorus
poisoning. If a rabbit, into whose vena cruralis Phosphorus oil had been
injected, was held head downwards, he soon saw red-colored plasma, which under
the microscope was free from any blood discs, flow from
the nose.
The blood in this dissolved stat;e had passed through the walls of the vessels.
On opening a vessel, numerous blood discs could still be found."
This
striking resemblance in the change of the blood, and especially of the
blood-discs after poisoning with Phosphorus, shows us why it is of such wonderful
eflScacy in the cure of haemorrhages.
Raue:
profuse haemorrhage, pouring out freely, then ceasing for some time.
For deep
seated organic affections of the lungs, with a short, dry, rough cough,
Phosphorus is of inestimable value.
Dr.
Hirschel: The indications for Phosphorus in nervous cough are similar to Opium,
and may also be compared with Belladonna and Drosera. In Opium one might say
the titillation is the chief indication. In Phosphorus, the cough is more
tormenting. The irritation from Phosphorus is not so continuous as that of
Opium. In Belladonna, also, the cough is more mild, not so deeply seated. The
similarity with Drosera consists in this, that in both the cough comes in
paroxysms with intervals. The cough in Phosphorus is cut off short: rough,
short, dry; between every single coughing sound there is a short interval,
which is wanting in the Drosera cough. Where they follow one another in quick
succession, the cough does not begin with deep inspiration, but the expiration
prevails: the patient keeps coughing when lying down, without any necessity to
sit up for it, and the fit does not terminate with expectoration or vomiting
mucus, but ceases
gradually.
Neither does the Phosphorus cough come so apparently from the depth of the
abdomen: the patients rather point to the upper or lower respiratory organs. It
is quite certain that in such nervous
coughs
Phosphorus is a grand remedy, hence its splendid effects in stenosis of the
glottis, in coughs
from
bronchial asthma, in angina pectoris. Phosphorus is of equally great value in
catarrhal, inflam-
matory or
organic diseases of the respiratory organs.
Everywhere
in laryngeal, tracheal, bronchial, pulmonary catarrh up to inflammation, even
in the most croupous form. The painfulness of the larynx to the touch: the
different pains, soreness, stitches, burning; the expectoration of foamy,
sticky, purulent, salty, sweetish, brown, rust-colored, bloody mucus: cough
< speaking/laughing/eating/motion; hoarseness and aphonia: shortness of
breath and orthopnoea:
the great
prostration, the fever- all of them prove the deeply penetrating action of this
remedy; still showing its power in emphysema and tuberculosis.
In
pneumonia it always remains our sheet-anchor, and it prevents, in croup,
paralysis and narcosis through the carbonized blood."
Dr. C. C.
Smith: 'Phosphorus-goneness in the region of the stomach; hoarseness and
aphonia in the evening; tormenting cough, tight and < before midnight:
painless diarrhoea: puffiness around the eyes: night sweat, (during sleep)
cough < eating and drinking, with bursting feeling in head; aphthous patches
on roof of mouth and tongue."
Dr. W. H.
Holcomb: "Especially when there is sensitiveness and dryness of the larynx,
with a feeling as if it was lined with fur, and inability to utter a word,
every effort to do so being painful;
nervous
exhaustion: suspected atrophy of the nerve tissues."
Baehr:
"Phosphorus, according to our own experience, is less adapted to phthisis
as a whole than to single symptoms. It has to be used with caution, for no
other medicine causes hsemoptoe early as Phosphorus. No other medicine
disagrees so completely in the long run. The chief indications for Phosphorus
are: continued hoarseness, with a distressing dry cough, sore feeling in the
larynx and trachea: pain in the stomach after every meal: also retching and
vomiting of mucus; continual diarrhoea, which is excited by eating, and after
every meal:
excessive excitement of the sexual passion."
Meyhoffer:
"Phosphorus will rarely much benefit the chronic catarrh of persons
otherwise healthy; but it is admirably suited to the intercurrent, acute, or
subacute attacks of bronchitis in emaciated, cachectic or young, overgrown
invalids.
The tendency
to pulmonary congestion and catarrhal pneumonia, so often, under such
circumstances,
either the
proximate cause or complication of bronchial irritation, is additional and
important indications for Phosphorus, is also one of our chief remedies in broncho-pulmonary
catarrh, resulting from dilatation or fatty degeneration of the heart. I am as
yet unable to give an opinion as to the dose, the 3rd
and 30th
having served me equally well."
Dr. T.
Nichols: "Phosphorus is the principal remedy in bronchitis of any kind,
when the inflammatory irritation threatens to attack the parenchyma of the
lungs, and it is customary to administer it after the more acute symptoms have
been subdued by Aconite. The cough is dry and hacking, with burning and tickhng
in the air passages, and stitches in the chest. It is aggravated by speaking,
laughing, or drinking, and is followed by expectoration of a bloody, frothy
mucus. There is also painful sensitiveness of the larynx, with hoarseness, or
complete aphonia. The respiration is loud and panting, indicative of great
oppression, and the pulse is hard and hurried, or rapid and feeble. Phosphorus
seems useful in almost any dilutions, but the 6th to the 12th serves me the
best.''
Dr. C.
Pearson: 'In incipient as well as confirmed phthisis, in persons of meagre,
slender form, fair complexion, and strong sexual feelings; when in the lower
lobes and of an asthenic type; in children
and young
people, of delicate constitutions, with dry, short cough, shortness of breath,
great emaciation, tendency to diarrhoea, or perspiration. It is no specific for
phthisis, but acts usually on certain states of lowered nervous energy, violent
pneumonia, with sticking pains in chest, excited or aggravated by coughing or
breathing also in pleuro-pneumonia; when they are \nolent and extend over a
large surface, a large portion of the lung is inflamed, with dyspnoea the cough
is dry, and the sputa rust-colored. Phosphorus is in many cases the only
remedy, and it affords relief in from four to eight hours.
Cough is
not SO loose and rattling as for Lycopodium, or so close and tight a,s for
Bryonia, the secretion being much less, but more profuse than for either
Bryonia or Aconite, and in color somewhat like that of Lycopodium, but being of
a more dirty appearance resembling pus but. thinner, and when falling on any
hard, smooth surface, breaking and Sying to pieces like thin batter:')
In asthma,
Phosphorus is often of great service, in the congestive form with symptoms of
paralysis of
the lungs,
and the above characteristic symptom: the asthma being based on organic lesions
of the lungs.
<: at
night/cold air/motion;
>: Warm
air/in the dark/after sleeping;
Phosphoricum
acidum: People who have been weakened by the loss of animal fluids, sexual
excesses, or a long succession of moral emotions.
Cerebral
weakness from brain fag; patient can hardly be persuaded to speak, is
indifferent to all about him. Painless, watery diarrhoea, with much rumbling in
the abdomen, from much accumulation of flatulence;
stools
undigested.
In the
first stages of phthisis, Phosphoric acid is often of great value. When there
is great loss of strength, from loss of vital fluids, as in sexual excesses, or
impotence. The patient is indifferent to everybody and everything, cannot be
interested in anything; has copious night sweats of a cold, clammy nature. It
is to nervous debility what iron is to anaemia.
<: at
night/from loss of animal fluids/mental work/cold, dry weather;
>:
motion/warmth/wet weather;
Pulsatilla:
Very affectionate people, with blue eyes, yielding disposition, and easily
excited to tears. Symptoms << in a close, warm room: craves fresh, cool
air. Symptoms very changeable, well one hour
and sick
the next. Especially acts upon the posterior spinal nerves, as shown by the
constant chillings, complains of being cold all the time. Weeps very easily,
can hardly give her symptoms without crying; inclined to be fleshy, and is very
affectionate. Women fleshy, with delayed and scanty menses.
Loose,
rattling, racking cough that makes the stomach sore and causes emissions of
urine at every paroxysm
of
coughing. Always has a very bad taste in the mouth in the morning from bad
digestion; has a thickly coated white or yellow tongue.
In
phthisis, where the bronchial mucous membrane is greatly involved. The cough is
very loose, with copious mucous expectoration, accompanied with great soreness
of the epigastric region and if in females, the urine is emitted at each
coughing fit. Loose through the day and tight at night.
Dr. Hirschel:
"Pulsatilla is similar to Hepar; when given too early, even in the third
dilution, it will produce-
aggravation
and render the cough dry aftser rests, in Pulsatilla, like Hepar, suits only
moist cough with copious mucous expectoration, especially when yellow, whitish,
salty, towards the end of catarrhs, or in chronic catarrhs. Pulsatilla
encroaches not so deeply upon the metamorphosis as Hepar, and is, therefore,
only a palliative in chronic organic cases. It is especially indicated for
mucous rattles, where asthmatic disturbances arise
Especially
bad effects from rich, fat food. Inclined to mucous diarrhoea, worse at night.
Flying rheumatic
pains, that
come on suddenly.
from the
accumulation of phlegm (emphysema), with catarrhal irritation in the throat:
> in the
fresh air;
< in the evening and at night. It is specific in those cases where the cough
is moist
through the
day, with dry, titillating cough at night in a recumbent posture."
Meyhoflfer:
What could we do without Pulsatilla in presence of copious muco-purulent .
expectoration in lymphatic and anaemic females. There is no remedy which
corresponds so well with the irregularities of function in the reproductive
organs, as well as with the symptomatology of the bronchial affection, so common
to this class of women, as Pulsatilla. Nocturnal paroxysms of dyspnoea: gouty
or rheumatic pains, flying about from one part of
the body to
another, < at night, fix as characteristic symptoms the selection of this
remedy."
Baehr:
'Pulsatilla is much more useful in chronic than in acute bronchitis, if the
following symptoms prevail: cough principally at night, excited by itching in
the trachea, with copious expectoration of mucus; the mucus mostly white but
frequently mingled with yellowish or greenish lumps with an oily, offensive
taste. Pulsatilla is next to indispensable in the bronchial catarrh of
chlorotic females, which almost always, although not in every case,
depends
upon tubercles. If, in the case of children, an acute catarrh gradually changes
to the chronic form Pulsatilla is a remedy of the first importance."
Haemoptisis, especially in women that have suppression of the menses;
they are
very tearful.
The cough
is loose and rattling, the expectoration is mixed with mucus and blood. The patient
is chilly all the time. Asthma of a humid nature (in women with menstrual
disturbances). There is congestion of the bronchial mucous membrane, and after
the paroxysm the patient is relieved by raising large quantities of mucus.
There is partial emphysema of the lungs. The prominent gastric symptoms
produce, through sympathy, great depression of spirits, melancholy, anxiety,
and great dread of suffocation. Short suffocative, and extremely difficult
respiration, as if from want of sufficient air, or choked by some irritating
substance: obliged to retain the erect posture: movements
rapid and
whole appearance indicates great distress and anxiety; tongue loaded with a
thick yellow, or white coating; breath offensive: frequent eructations;
countenance pale, and the attack usually comes on at night.
<:
evening until midnight/warmth (warm, close room)/lying down/fat, rich food;
>: in
open, cool air/cold drinks/and motion;
Rhus
toxioodendron: In phthisis that is brought on by cold, damp weather; always
< in cold, damp weather. Cannot lie long in one position, has to shift about
constantly to get relief lasting but a short time, then has to move
In phthisis
associated with rheumatism, complains of stiff joints. Has a hard, dry, racking
cough, < night/just before and during a cold rain storm. The case is apt to
assume a typhoid form.
Always
worse alter midnight. Great stiffness of the limbs before a storm.
Lame, the
joints are stiff and pain greatly on first moving, after rest, > continued
motion. Fiery red tongue; putrid taste; after the first mouthful has no
appetite. Looseness of the bowels, < at night; stools involuntary
with great
exhaustion.
Cough
brought on by repeated drenchings in the rain. Terrible cough, which seems as
if it would tear something out of the chest; brick-dust expectoration, raised
with great difficulty. Vesicular eruption on the skin. Erysipelas.
Dr. Baehr:
'Rhus-t. if the local affection is so disguised by the constitutional disease
that we seem to be dealing with typhoid fever, complicated with bronchial
catarrh. Use suggested by great debility, a prostrate condition
of the
whole organism, symptoms of violent reaction, such as a rapid pulse, burning
heat, dry skin and tongue, delirium, sopor, a short, distressing, dry cough,
mostly at night, excited by motion, and every little cold current of air;
tickling and feeling of dryness in the throat, down the trachea;
the
symptoms abate for awhile after a swallow of warm water or tea, but soon
reappear again in the same degree, + tearing pains in the extremities,
especially if they set in at the same time as the cough, in consequence of the
being
exposed to the influence of a d^mp and cold air, or getting soaking wet: the
paroxysms occur in the night, attended with complete sleeplessness; the cough
is complicated with coryza, and frequent spasmodic
sneezing,
or, in case of influenza, with typhoid symptoms."
Marcy and
Hunt: Rhus-t. < evening/at night/and in perfect rest; > rising from bed
and walking about. On the other hand, they are aggravated by external cold,
while frictions and warni applications relieve them: < all rough movements
or severe exertions."
Dr. Boyce:
Acute catarrh, the nasal, laryngeal, tracheal and bronchial passages seem stuffed
up; commencing at about sunset, with sneezing and dry, hard, tickling cough;
continuing very severe until midnight, when all the sufferings > ; but are
renewed the next morning."
In
phthisis, complicated with pneumonia, expectoration of brick-dust or bloody
sputa, raised with great difficulty; accompanied with low typhoid symptoms.
<: at
night/at rest/on beginning to move/before a cold rain storm/especially from
getting wet while perspiring; from anything cold/or getting cold;
>: in
daytime/continuous motion/warm, dry weather/wrapping up warm/hot drinks/change
of position;
Rumex
crispus: Especially drafts upon the mucous membrane of the larynx and trachea.
Violent and incessant, dry, fatiguing cough, with little expectoration, < at
night/by pressure/talking/inspiring cool air; cannot bear the
cold air,
covers up the head to exclude it; complete aphonia; sense of excoriation behind
the sternum.
In the
first stage of phthisis, where the mucous membrane of the larynx and trachea is
involved, and there is a hard, dry, teasing, nocturnal cough, <<
breathing cool air, especially at night.
Dr. C.
Dunham: Used Rumex chiefly in acute catarrhal affections of the larynx,
trachea, and bronchi. In these cases it presents a close analogy in its action
to Bell., Lach., Phos. and Causticum. Diminishes the secretions and
at the same
time exalts in a very marked manner the sensibility of the mucous membrane of
the larynx and trachea. The cough is frequent and continuous to an extent quite
out of proportion to the degree of organic affection
of the
mucous membrane. It is dry, occurs in long paroxysms, or, under certain
circumstances, is almost uninterrupted. It is induced or greatly aggravated by
any irregularity of respiration, such as inspiring cold air; by
irregularity
of respiration and motion of the larynx and trachea, such as are involved in
talking; and by external pressure upon the trachea. The subjective symptoms are
rawness and soreness of the trachea, extending a short distance below the
supra-sternal fossa and laterally into the bronchi, chiefly the left; and
tickling in the supra-sternal fossa and behind the sternum, provoking the
cough; this tickling is very annoying and very persistent, and
is only
partially relieved by coughing. The cough is much worse in the evening after
retiring. The mucous membrane of the trachea is particularly sensitive to cool
air; the patient often covers his head with the bed-clothes to
avoid the
cold air, and refuses to speak for fear of increasing his cough."
<:
evening/after lying down/inhaling cool air/pressure upon the larynx and
trachea;
>: in
daytime/warm air;
Sanguinari
canadensis: Cough that has passed into the second state and the lungs are
filled with mucus, raised with great difficulty; rusty-colored sputa, in the
second stage of pneumonia; excessive dyspnoea. Constitutional
and severe
cough, always attended with circumscribed redness of the cheeks; cough with
coryza. Croup membrane very difficult to detach; constant and incessant dry
cough on lying down at night, > by sitting up.
In
catarrhal phthisis, this is a precious remedy for cough where the larger
bronchial tubes are involved, and the stage of copious mucous secretion has set
in. The cough sounds exceedingly loose, but the secretion of mucous is raised with
great difficulty.
Dr.
Holcomb: Prescribes it in a certain troublesome harassing cough without marked
inflammatory action, when you are uncertain whether you are dealing with a
chronic bronchitis
Dr. C. C.
Smith: 'Sanguinaria - emptiness of stomach, < after eating, flushes to face,
followed by hectic spots upon cheeks: constant tickling at entrance of larynx,
causing constant cough, with a crawling sensation down behind
the
sternum; chest sore and painful to touch: hot streamings from chest to abdomen;
cold hands and blue nails; breath and sputa offensive, even to patient: extreme
dyspnoea: desire to take a deep breath, which is followed by
intense
pain in right side of chest; lassitude mornings; aversion to motion; stools
predominantly loose; cough relieved by passage of fatus upward or downward'
Marcy and
Hunt: "This is one of the best agents we have for the prevention, if not
the cure, of consumption. We have used it with success in patients who were
subject to distressing affections of the chest, repeated attacs of pneumonia
resembling pertussis. Also in protracted catarrhal fever, which leaves
obstinate cough and threatening consumption. The cough has generally been
mitigated, the pulse diminished in frequency: the power of the
whole
digestive system increased: the appetite is always improved, or regulated in
cases where it has been morbidly great. Chronic dryness in the throat:
continual severe dry cough, with pain in the chest and circumscribed
redness of
the cheeks: tormenting cough with expectoration of mucus. The peculiar cough,
emaciation and hectic fever of pulmonary consumption: hydrothorax, asthma,
pneumonia, and pneumonia typhoides, pain in the chest, with cough and
expectoration; burning and pressing in the breast and back: palpitation of the
heart: burning of the palms of the hands and soles of the feet at night."
Sanguinaria catarrh is first acrid, watery coryza, rawness of
the throat,
painful bronchial catarrh, which finally terminates in diarrhoea.
<:
Morning and evening/noise/light/motion/open air;
>: in
daytime/quietness/in the dark;
Silicea:
Chronic suppuration; has a wonderful control over the suppurative process,
seeming to mature abscesses when desired. Great lack of vital heat, is cold and
chilly all the time, cannot keep warm even when walking.
Great
disposition to take cold, even from the slightest draft of air. The head and
chest is constantly wet with perspiration; copious night sweats; extremely
foetid foot sweat. Children with large, open fontanelles, and who wish
the head
covered up; rachitis with slow dentition. Obstinate constipation; the rectum
does not have the power to expel the stools, the stool often recedes after
having been partially expelled.
Fistulous
ulceration of the anus. In women, great chilliness during menstruation, with
constipation. Caries of the bones and chronic suppuration of joints. Assails
nutrition rather than the functions of an organ.
In
phthisis, no remedy controls the suppurative process equal to Silicia. In
organic diseases of the air-passages, where suppuration has taken place, with a
suffocative, racking, loose cough, and copious expectoration of thick, yellow,
greenish pus, or muco-pus, accompanied with hectic fever, great emaciation and
debility and copious night sweats, this remedy is our sheet-anchor. As a remedy
for chronic bronchitis, it is only second to Sulphur. Meyhoffer says: I think
it hardly possible to overcome radically the catarrh pituiteux without the
intervention of Silicea. In this form of bronchial disease no other agent
contributes so largely towards recovery. Not less
beneficial
in bronchial affections of rachitic children.
Hughes:
Silicia may find its place in chronic bronchitis with puriform expectoration,
and it is one of the principal remedies in obstinate or severe cases
characterized by racking cough, with copious expectoration of transparent
purulent
matter. The cough is sufifocative, with oppression at the chest, and aggravated
at night, and is sometimes accompanied by sore throat, with loss of breath when
lying on the back and when stooping.
All unite
in prescribing the higher dilutions, and Baehr says that we have never derived
any advantage from alcoholic attenuations, but always from the higher
triturations."
Marcy and
Hunt: ''This remedy embraces most of the symptoms that belong to the phthisical
dyscrasia, consequently it is of great value for the constitutional condition
in congenital or hereditary cases. The dyspeptic symptoms peculiar to
consumption are also nearly the same as under Hepar. The symptoms that show
themselves in the respiratory system are: roughness and sore feeling in the
larynx, with dry hacking cough, causing soreness in the chest, hoarseness with
cough: suffocative night cough; excessive continual cough with discharge of
translucent or bloody mucus: vomiting of purulent matter when coughing;
ulceration of the lungs; discharge of clear, pure blood, with deep, hollow
cough: the chest painful as if bruised: shortness of breath felt on walking or
exercising: weakness and oppression of the chest, with chilliness of the
surface: oppressive heaviness in the region of the heart and
palpitation
when sitting still."
Especially
adapted to children that are inclined to rachitis, with large bellies and weak
ankles; great diffilculty in learning to walk, emaciation with ulceration of
the lymphatic glandular system. The emaciation that calls for
Silicia has
been brought on by a long lasting organic disease of the lungs, or some other
organ undergoing suppuration.
<: at
night/cold air/after sweating;
>: Warm
air/in a warm room;
Sponia:
Chronic hoarseness; dry, sibilant, croupy cough, with great dryness of the
larynx; every secretion is perfectly tight and dry, with suffocative breathing,
must have the head high. Has a specific action upon the larynx
and
trachea. Goiter and indurated lymphatic glands.
In
phthisis, corresponds to affections of the upper part of the respiratory organs
(larynx and trachea). The cough croupy, dry, sibilant, sounding like a saw
driven through a thin pine board, each cough
corresponding
to a thrust of the saw.
Baehr:
characterized moist cough, at night, by a hollow, barking, dry, seldom
continuing all day, and likewise long-lasting, distressing paroxysms, sometimes
accompanied with rales. The remedy most appropriate for children, more
particularly if the disease set in as laryngitis and gradually extended to the
lungs.
It is an
excellent remedy in croupous bronchitis.
Dr. Nichol:
Often the patient is quite convalescent, when on very slight exposure the cough
returns with redoubled violence- the
most pressing dyspnoea, sibilant ronchi and violent convulsive cough. When this
relapse occurs, Spongia is preeminently the remedy, even though it had not been
given previously."
The first
inflammatory symptoms should be subdued by Aconite. Spongia is not used as much
as it ought to be in those hard, tough cases of what might be called dry
bronchitis. There is an absence of inflammatory symptoms,
but the
patient has a terrible hard, dry, racking cough, slight expectoration and
dyspnoea. In dry, spasmodic asthma, with severe dyspnoea on lying down,
exertion produces great exhaustion in the chest.
<: at
night/cold air/lying with head low;
>: warm
air and head high;
Stannum metallicum:
Great weakness of the chest; the least exertion puts patient all out of breath;
cannot answer questions, there is such debility, all centering in the chest;
reading aloud, coughing, or the effort to expectorate, produces great weakness
in the lungs. Feels so weak can hardly sit down, must drop down suddenly, but
can get up very well. Great weakness of the legs, they cannot support the body.
Can go up
stairs nicely, but coming down stairs produces great faintness. Pains commence
lightly, increase gradually to a very high degree, and then decrease again
slowly. Bronchial dilatation, with loose cough,
and green,
muco-purulent expectoration. Exhausting night-sweats.
In phthisis
where the bronchial tubes are inflamed and dilated; the secretion of mucus is
very great, of a green, yellow, or muco-purulent character, with a loose,
rattling cough, accompanied with excessive prostration,
especially
centering in the chest, Stannum will be found of great utility.
Hahnemann:
'Rough throat, hoarseness, weakness and emptiness in the chest; the hoarseness
was sometimes relieved by a fit of cough: mucus in the trachea, in the
forenoon, easily thrown off by a slight cough, the chest
feeling
very weak, with faintness, and weakness of the whole body. Accumulation of
mucus in the chest, with rattling breathing, which can be felt internally;
constant desire to cough, owing to too much mucus in the
chest;
continued desire to cough, from a constriction of the trachea, expectorating a
greenish mucus; sore feeling in the chest, with a horrid cough, expectorating
blood: yellow expectoration having a putrid taste; salty expectoration. Fit of
asthma, obliged to breathe hurriedly for a long time.
<: at
night/motion/reading aloud;
>:
During the day/warmth/sitting down;
Stigmata
maidis: Great excess of lithic acid gravel in the urine; the urine is loaded
with lithic acid and deposits a large amount of red sand; chronic cystitis.
Much mucus in the urine
This is one
of our best remedies for phthisis, as soon as the cough begins to loosen: the
accumulation of mucus is great, raised with some difficulty. The party coughs
day and night, but < at the night; hoarseness, the larynx and trachea being
much inflamed. All the symptoms of Stigmata greatly resemble those of Lycopodium,
and it is hard to distinguish which one of the remedies should be selected.
There is more flatulence in the digestive organs
where
Lycopodium is indicated, and the disease is more chronic. Stigmata cases are
more acute in nature, and develop with more rapidity.
<: At
night;
>: in
daytime;
Su1phur:
Constant heat on top of the head, palms of the hands and
In phthisis
this remedy is the back bone of our school and soles of the feet, constantly
putting the feet out of bed to get them cool. The patient feels constantly hot
all over the body. Very weak and faint at 11 h., cannot
wait for
dinner. Early morning diarrhoea, that drives the patient out of bed in great
haste, can't wait, must go to stool as soon as the desire is felt. The stools
are extremely acid, the anus is sore and excoriated. Obstinate chronic
constipation, stools dark, hard and dry, expelled with great straining;
accompanied with piles that bleed much; from abdominal plethora. Excoriating
diarrhoea, especially in infants. In women, menses too early, too profuse
and last
too long, and are very excoriating; acrid, excoriating leucorrhoea. Feels
suffocated, wants the windows and doors open, with frequent hot flashes, with
faintness, followed by perspiration and much debility.
Much
rattling of mucus in the lungs; catarrhal symptoms get worse and worse with a
loose cough. Plastic pleurisy with serous exudations. Chronic rheumatism.
All kinds
of coughs more particularly chronic bronchial catarrh, with excessive
collection of mucus, or muco-purulent matter and loose, rattling cough, and
easy expectoration, especially in the daytime. At night, the mucus is
more
tenacious and raised with greater difficulty, but becomes easy again in the
morning.
Baehr: In
chronic bronchitis. Sulphur is undoubtedly the most important remedy we have,
because it corresponds to the worst and most inveterate cases.
If
emphysema is present, this remedy may never yield any marked results. Brilliant
results may, however, be obtained in cases of chronic catarrh of long standing,
if the mucus is secreted in large quantities, or is very tenacious, and the
symptoms point to a decided thickening of the mucous membrane.
An eminent
indication for Sulphur is, the excessive sensitiveness of the skin, so that
every trifling change of temperature. Eruptions on the skin, greatly aggravated
by warmth. Excessive sensitiveness of the skin; patient is powerfully affected
by changes of temperature, which aggravates all symptoms. Patient is happy, has
happy dreams and everything looks beautiful. Aggravation in cold, damp weather,
from getting warm in bed, and afternoon
to
midnight. Adapted to sub-acute and chronic cases.
Change in
temperature causes an exacerbation, and that even if the patient remains in his
room, he is still powerfully affected by changes in the weather. Only this
hyperaesthesia must not be caused by pulmonary tuberculosis;
the
tubercles at least must not be in a state of suppuration. What we have said
shows that the symptoms may be distinguished in two series. The cough is either
loose, the mucus easily detached, but only at times, so that at
night, for
instance, there is a good deal of dry cough, whereas in the morning and during
the day the cough is moist. The expectoration is mostly white, compact, but
mixed with a number of yellow or green lumps, showing that
the mucus
had been secreted in the bronchi for a long time before being coughed up: it
has a foul taste and even a bad odor, and accompanying hoarseness and sensation
of rawness, show that the larynx and trachea have become
involved in
the pathological process. Or else the cough commences in more violent
paroxysms, with considerable dyspnoea, is dry and spasmodic, with wheezing in
the chest; it occurs most generally late in the evening and in the night, and
it is only towards morning, or after rising, that a tenacious, glossy mucus is
brought up after a slight coughing spell. The digestive symptoms, and the
condition of the liver, which generally appears very much en-
larged in
chronic catarrh, confirm the selection of Sulphur. It has always seemed to us
that the triturations did not act so well in this disease as the attenuations
prepared from the alcoholic tincture, and that as a rule, higher potencies
acted better than the lower: and finally Sulphur acts better on the young than
in the old."
Dr.
Hirschel: ' Sulphur allows a far more extensive application in chronic forms:
less, perhaps, by its specific relations to cough than by its vasomotor efiect,
and by its power of causing a reaction in the metamorphosis. It acts favorably
where the course of the disease is slow, without coming to any decision in
acute cases; as in catarrh or inflammation (Sulphur eflectually develops
hepatization), as well as in chronic diseases of the respiratory organs,
and of the
heart. Sulphur shows in the proving all sorts of coughs, and different
expectorations: but the constitution of the patient and the adjectiva of the
disease give us hints for its selection. Whenever a dyscrasia is on hand,
the physician
remembers sulphur."
Marcy and
Hunt: "Hahnemann regarded phthisis as a psoric disease, and Sulphur as the
first anti-psoric remedy. He refers to six cases in which consumption was
caused by the repulsion of psora from the skin: later writers have admitted
that Sulphur is a specific for itch, and also for the diseases caused by its
recession. Sulphur is specifically suited for phthisis in psoric constitutions
of lymphatic temperament, subject to venous plethora and haemorrhoids. There is
predisposition to take cold from slight exposure, running into chronic catarrh:
eruptions resembling those of scrofula appear on the skin; rheumatic -pains
without swelling; drawing pains in the limbs: unsteady gait and tremor of the
hands; great general prostration; nervous exhaustion following debilitating
losses: numbness of different parts, paralysis and emaciation; pains < at
night, relieved by external warmth; drowsiness and disturbed sleep: disturbing
dreams: hallucinations and timidity. The patient curable by Sulphur has
generally some eruptive disease of the skin , or has had such affection ( not
necessarily the itch ) repelled from the surface at some former time:
he is
subject to abscesses, boils or swelling of the glands: hectic fever, followed
by night sweats, or profuse sweat from slight heat or exercise. There is
hypochondriac sadness, disposition to weep; irritated, taciturn disposition;
the head is
dizzy; intolerance of light. Pale face, wan, blanched, sickly, bloated, with
wrinkled countenance: blue margins around the eyes; hepatic spots in the skin:
swelling of the gums; dryness of the tongue; favus on the skin.
Throat is
dry; mucous expectoration; sore throat; vesicles on the surface; pressure in
the throat as if from a lump: tonsils red and swollen: uvula enlarged: putrid
taste in the morning: ravenous appetite, or loss of appetite; acidity
of the
stomach and sour eructions: heartburn, morning nausea, waterbrash, acid
vomiting. The stomach is painful on pressure: swelling, burning and cramplike
contraction or spasm of the stomach; malaise before a meal;
nausea
after eating. Pain in the abdomen, with sensitiveness of the surface; spasmodic
contraction; colic, cutting pain with nausea, followed by diarrhoea and
tenesmus; haemorrhoids, constipation with pain in the rectum as if
it would
protrude; mucous stools streaked with blood, passed with ascarides or lumbraci:
strangury, foetid urine. The throat feels rough, the larynx dry, sore, its
sides swollen and feeling as if something lodged there. Hoarseness
or loss of
voice: catarrh: fluent coryza, rawness or spasmodic contraction of the chest:
cough dry, short and hacking, and after a meal exciting retching or vomiting.
At a later stage the cough is looser, raising thick mucus, then greenish
masses; the cough excites violent headache, which in the occiput is pulsative;
spitting blood. The breathing is spasmodically arrested; asthma excited by a
long rapid walk, or ascending the stairs: suffocative paroxysms, especially
coming on at night; talking causes weak feeling in the chest; oppression or
contractive pain there: neuralgic stitches of the chest, extending to the
sternum or back: palpitation of the heart, anxious throbbing with flush
of the
face, or rush of blood to the head. Leucorrhoea; irregular menstruation; cold
hands and feet."
Asthma, in
chronic cases, complicated with eruptive skin diseases; rheumatism, or some
constitutional taint; it may be either humid or dry, but generally the
breathing and cough is neither loose nor dry, but half way between,
of a
wheezing character: there seems to be much mucus in the lungs, but none, or
only a trifle, is expectorated; sensation as if the lungs touched the back
while coughing. Sulphur is adapted to nearly every kind of asthma, but
is the most
useful in the humid form. Burning of the feet at night; patient has to put them
out of bed to cool them: frequent flushes of heat, with suffocative cough.
Haemoptysis- that gets almost well, then returns again and again.
The
symptoms of Sulphur are so numerous and so contradictory, that I will leave the
physician to make out the balance by physiological induction and clinical
experience.
<:
Afternoon to midnight/cold, damp weather/open cold air/from getting warm in
bed;
>: By
heat/dry weather/motion;
Sulphuricum
acidum: Great debility, with sensation of tremor all over the body without
trembling. Great exhaustion from some deep-seated dyscrasia. Aphthae, attended
with much pain. Coldness and relaxed feeling in the stomach, with loss of
appetite and great debility. Diarrhoea with excessive prostration, haemorrhages
from all the outlets of the body, of dark blood. In women, constant flushes of
heat at the climacteric, with a tremulous
sensation
all over the body; menses too early, too profuse, and always preceded by a
distressing nightmare.
Patient
feels as if everything must be done in a great hurry. General and great
debility. Copious and exhausting nightsweats.
In the last
stages of phthisis, with aphthous sore mouth and profuse exhausting night
sweats, it is the best remedy we have, and the physician is often made happy
for its great value in this tormenting and prostrating symptom.
It is more
especially called for in profuse morning sweat; affecting principally the upper
part of the body, and accompanied with excessive and extreme debility.
In Aphthae,
when the mouth is filled with ulcers, which are exceedingly painful to the
patient in the last stages of consumption: the saliva is secreted in great
quantities. Sulphuric acid applied with a spray 3x daily will greatly comfort
the patient and arrest the ulceration. Or it can be mixed with glycerine and
applied with a camel's hair pencil. Dilute Sulphuric acid may also be used as a
gargle.
<:
evening/open cold air;
>: open warm
air/from vomiting;