The Science of Therapeutics - Classical Homeopathy Online

Full text of "The Science of Therapeutics: According to the Principles of Homeopath...Page 152 of 653course correspondingly affected. The dyspnoea now increases fromhour to hour and soon reaches a degree of intensity that is in norespect inferior to the worst attack of croup, and becomes stilldistressing in consequence of the unceasing efforts on the part othe children to obtain relief by coughing. Tlie pulse becomes frequent and small, the skin on the extremities and head is coveredwith perspiration, the face is pallid or livid, becomes bluish duan attack of cough, the anxiety and restlessness reach the highesdegree of intensity. If at this stage of the disease there is noprovement by an increase of the expectoration and a relief from tdyspnoea, the disease presents the same picture as in the last stof croup, only the hissing sound caused by the stricture of the gtis is wanting. The children become calmer, pallid and cool, theyare lying in a state of unconsciousness or sopor, the respirationbecomes very superficial, the paroxysms of cough abate more andmore, and the children die comatose. This fatal termination someBronchitis Acuta. 178times takes place already in the first week of the disease, lessquently after the fourteenth day, provided no adventitious influecauses an exacerbation of the disease. Recovery always takes placslowly, the liability to relapses is very great ; the strength doeasily return, and the cough sometimes continues for many weeks.The diagnosis is only difficult in the case of very small childrehere the characteristic cough is almost always entirely absent, igeneral the reaction against the disease is either slight or nonapparent. The prognosis is the more doubtful the younger thepatient. That dentition complicates the prognosis, cannot be takefor granted. The greater liability to the disease at this periodprobably owing to the increased susceptibilities of the infantileorganism.In describing the treatment of bronchitis, we commence with thetreatment of the previously-described forms, in order not to crowtoo much material into one chapter, although influenza and chronicatarrh really belong in this category of disease. These two formhowever, cannot well be treated from the same point of view as asimple acute bronchitis. Let us first consider the leading remedifor the more important forms of bronchitis, to which afterwards,when we come to enumerate the remedies for the diflferent formssingly, the less essential forms can be added. We placeAconitum at the head of the list, not so much because we considerit as one of the more important remedies, but because it seems tohave become a matter of routine to recommend it for incipientcatarrh. We have on several occasions expressed our doubts concerning the propriety of recommending Aconite for catarrh. Acommon catarrhal fever is not the province of Aconite, and if weshould be told that Aconite has moderated this fever in so manycases, we suggest that the improvement might likewise have takenplace spontaneously without Aconite. How many catarrhs commence in the first twenty-four hours with a feeling of anxiety, afrequent pulse and an extraordinary rise of temperature, and yetrun their course afterwards without any fever. This should not beattributed to the action of Aconite. A remittent fever is least sable to this medicine. Where the fever, as is often the case in abronchitis, is continuous, the skin is dry and the heat is not mihttp://www.archive.org/stream/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog_djvu.txt