The Science of Therapeutics - Classical Homeopathy Online

Full text of "The Science of Therapeutics: According to the Principles of Homeopath...Page 288 of 653effusion neither increases nor is reabsorbed. In pleuro-Bryonia, after Aconite has been permitted to act for a short periis almost an absolute specific. It is scarcely less specificallycated in cases where bronchitis and pleuritis coexist.Arnica. Hartmann's indications either occur very rarely in pleuritis, or else they are so little characteristic of pleuritis thamay be said to point to any form of this disease. Nevertheless, oMateria Medica Pura contains a sufficient number of symptomaticindications upon which the choice of Arnica can be predicated witgreat precision. Among these indications we range the stitchingpain in the lower part of the chest, which is aggravated by pressure, motion and cough, shortness of breath, a continual day, hacking cough, or else a painful cough with expectoration of a frothyand bloody mucus. This last-mentioned symptom is particularlyvaluable, for it indicates Arnica in cases of pleuritis accompaniby hypersemia of the non-affected side. We do not limit this remedy to the few cases of pleuritis occasioned by mechanical injuriThe excellent effect of Arnica in certain kinds of exudation is lwise verified in pleuritis, if the exudation is rather serous thaplastic, or is copiously mixed with blood. In purulent pleuritisshould scarcely ever think of resorting to Arnica. An existino*Pleuritis, Pleurisy. 887hyperamia of the brain comes within the curative range of thisdrug as much as pneumonia within that of Belladonna. Old exudations are not acted upon by Arnica as positively as exudationsof recent origin.Digitafis purpurea. Wurmb writes concerning this drug: "Thereis a great difference between pleuritis serosa occasioned by anincreased activity of the secretory functions, and hydrothoraxoccasioned by mechanical obstacles. This difference remained unknown to physicians who had been in the habit of confoundingthese two diseases, until more recently pathological anatomydirected our attention to the differences in the pathological appances and a stethoscopic examination corresponding with thesepathological appearances succeeded in clearing up the diagnosis.It is because these two different diseases have been confounded bphysicians, that some of them report such favorable results fromthe use of Digitalis in watery accumulations in the pleural cavitwhereas others, on the contrary, report nothing but utter failureAn enlightened physician will certainly not expect any thing fromDigitalis in hydrothorax occasioned by mechanical obstacles, suchas an insufficiency of the valves of the heart ; nor will he, onaccount, entertain a less favorable opinion of the curative virtuof Digitalis, which renders such excellent service in pleuritis swhere this remedy is really in its place. Dr. Fleischmann has noticed the best effects from Digitalis in pleuritis serosa, and II may very properly recommend this remedy so much more urgently as I attach the highest value to the experience of this ablpractitioner. I prescribe this medicine in the first attenuation;higher attenuations have never shown any curative powers in thisaffection." If Wurmb recommends Digitalis only for chronic pleuritis serosa, we do not think he has done this remedy full justicIts frequent employment by Old School practitioners, of course, ilarge doses, although only intended to depress the fever, is saidhttp://www.archive.org/stream/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog_djvu.txt