The Science of Therapeutics - Classical Homeopathy Online

Full text of "The Science of Therapeutics: According to the Principles of Homeopath...Page 190 of 653Opium must not be overlooked. It is erroneous to suppose thatthe narcotic effect of Opium suspends the desire to cough only foa short time, for there are many forms of cough where Opium onlyexacerbates, but does not afford any relief, or affords relief onwhen administered in very large doses to be folIo\v;ed afterwardsan increase of the cough. In our opinicm Opium is admirablyhomoeopathic to a spasmodic, dry, paroxysmal, titillating coughwhich is especially tormenting at night, and has but a scanty exptoration. The fact that we have often cured a cough of this kindpermanently by means of a few doses of Opium, entitles us to thebelief that Opium is something better than a mere palliative in taffection. But we warn our readers against giving Opium, if thecough is attended with a profuse expectoration of mucus, since adecrease of the cough must necessarily lead to great dyspnoea.Digitalis purpurea is mentioned here as a remedy for pulmonarytuberculosis to which chapter the reader is referred. A special idication for this remedy are cyanotic symptoms in the face and thsensation of an excessive determination of blood to the lungs, bywhich the breathing is at times oppressed and suspended.Arsenicum album is one of the most important remedies for chronicbronchial catarrh. However, it will rarely be indicated in simpleuncomplicated, chronic, bronchial catarrh, but so much more frequently if emphysema has taken place, and if the symptoms whichBronchitis Chronica. 219we have indicated as peculiar to Digitalis, prevail. The cough isalways attended with more or less considerable asthmatic distresswhich does not entirely cease even during the intervals between tparoxysms ; the cough is excited by a severe tickling in the tracor under the sternum, by cold air and more particularly by changein the atmosphere; it breaks out particularly in the middle of thnight, has a dry and wheezing sound, and it is only with difficulthat a frothy and occasionally a tenacious, white mucus is raisedThe symptoms indicating Arsenicum are only occasionally met withamong young people, and only rarely among old ones. If the remedy acts favorably, it does so speedily ; if Arsenic does not impthe case in the first eight days, no favorable change need be expfrom the further use of this drug. Arsenic acts with particularbenefit, if the catarrh has become associated with heart disease,though, in such a case, a radical cure can no longer be expected.Carbo vegetabilis ranks with Arsenic in curative power. Thesymptoms of both drugs are very much alike. Carbo likewise actsbest in old and neglected cases, with emphysema and hyj)ertrophyof the mucous lining ; the circulation of the lungs and heart aswell OS of the head and abdominal viscera is very much impeded;the patient is very sensitive to cold and to the direct action oftants upon the lungs \ the symptoms exacerbate at night, but theexpectoration differs from that of Arsenic : Carbo affording helponly if the expectoration is profuse, not when scanty. At timesthe expectoration consists of mere lumps of mucus ; at other timeit is purulent, or yellow and green, sometimes having a bad tasteand a pungent odor, suggesting the possibility of an approachingpulmonary phthisis. If the larynx is very much involved, Carbois indicated so much more. The drug must not be expected to acthttp://www.archive.org/stream/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog_djvu.txt