Kent's - Classical Homeopathy Online

Tongue dry; great thirst". There is another remedy that comes into this sphere that will be veryoften misunderstood, too, and will likely in most instances to be given before this remedy. It is Ars. Ithas all the dropsical conditions of Apis and Apocynum.It has all the coldness and distension of the abdomen and of the shut sacs. It, too, is amelioratedin all of its symptoms, and the patient himself is ameliorated, from heat, and intense heat is required forthat purpose. He wants to be in a very hot room, but it has something else. It has a deathly prostration, adeathly anxiety and terrible restlessness, not found in either of these remedies. It has also such acadaveric odor, discovered on entering the room, which is not common to either of these remedies. Inthis way we have to take up our medicines and study them only one at a time, but we have also to studythem by comparison. The medicines that are similar in generals have to be compared, as to heat andcold. In that way we get a list of those that are ameliorated by cold, and a list of those that areameliorated by heat; and another nondescript list nor ameliorated by either. That is the starting point,and we have to divide and sub-divide these, and so on."Thick, yellow mucus in the throat. Great thirst. Stiffness in the thoracic region. Fullness. Asense of distension". You will think a moment and see that filling up the pleural cavity does not causevery much out- ward distension, because the ribs prevent it. They form a wall, and hence the growth ordistension is towards the lungs, and downward towards the diaphragm. By this means we get increasingdyspnoea, with cough. This medicine, like Apis, must sit up; cannot lie down. You will find it is acommon feature in hydrothorax for the patient to be compelled to sit up, because lying down increasesthe pressure upon the lungs and narrows the breathing space; and hence, he must sit up in order to letthis heavy water bag, the pleural sac, hang down, against the diaphragm, and that produces pressure inthe abdomen and distension of the bowels. "Thirst on waking. Thirsty all day.Great thirst but water disagrees". He likes cold water, but it so disagrees with his stomach,causing pain in the stomach, or causing him to vomit before it even gets warm, or causing distension,or causing uneasiness, so that he dreads to take cold drinks. He is more comforted by hot drinks. Warmdrinks warm him up, make him more comfortable, cold drinks aggravate. Yet his thirst is for cold.Then come distension and vomiting. You will find patients so distended in all their cellulartissues with a general anasarca that it seems that no more water can be taken from the stomach into theblood. He is full. The blood vessels are distended, his stomach is distended and he must vomit; andwith this distension of his whole body he drinks and vomits. It is with difficulty he can eat; cannot keepit down; it will not digest. From this comes a part of these symptoms. "Sense of pressure in theepigastrium, in the chest", so that it is almost impossible for him to get breath enough to move. Verylittle food makes him feel distended.He wakes up and wants something in his stomach. There is a gnawing hunger, but every littlething, even a mouthful, makes him feel distended. His stomach is already full of water and he vomitsup great quantities of water, of bile, and of undigested substances that he has swallowed. The stomachfinally, in dropsical conditions, becomes very irritable. It seems as if nothing passes through him. Hefinally becomes paralyzed in the bowels. The kidneys are not acting, and scarcely any urine passes. Thetongue becomes inflamed. The mucus membranes are all inflamed, and probably the stomach is.Abdomen very much distended; dropsy of the abdomen.Then another phase comes on. It seems that one by one each organ ceases to perform itsfunctions. The ovaries and uterus fail to perform their functions, and amenorrhoea comes on withdropsical conditions. Many times this seems to be the beginning of such troubles; a failure of theseorgans to perform their functions, and then dropsy sets in. A woman passes along to a low state ofweakness and nervous excitement, no menstrual flow, tenderness of the abdomen, distension of theabdomen, and then distension of the limbs.Apocynum has been a curative remedy in diarrhoeic conditions alternating with dropsy.Sometimes a diarrhea will set in and all the other troubles go away. The diarrhea is copious, yellow,watery and involuntary. I once knew large doses to be given in a case of dropsy, and it established itsown peculiar diarrhea, and while that diarrhea lasted the enlarged spleen and the dropsical condition ofthe body all went away apparently, to the doctor, in a natural manner. It was brought to my observation,and I said, "Wait". Finally he was brought to stop the poisoning by Apocynum, and heart failurefollowed at once. A similar effect is to be seen from the allopathic use of Digitalis. The time comeswhen the doctor will be compelled to stop Digitalis, and the patient dies of heart failure; Digitalis isnever charged with the death, and the doctor never seems to learn that Digitalis will kill.Everywhere the functions are impaired, in the skin, the kidneys, bowels, uterus, and all tendstoward the formation of dropsy. Urinary troubles are exceedingly troublesome. Scanty urineaccompanies many complaints among the early symptoms.