Layman
AN unmarried lady of about 30 came to me some months ago complaining about an intractable leucorrhoea from which she had suffered for a great many years. The discharge was profuse, extremely irritating, irritation was relieved by heat, she had smelly feet, skin between toes peeled, she had a sensation of a hair on the tongue, hard crusts in nose, inflammation of the eyes, trouble in the right kidney, etc.
Many of the symptoms, particularly the hair on the tongue, pointed to Silica, and I gave her Silica for a few weeks with some benefit. Then I was told that the discharge burned holes into the linen. This is an Iodium symptom and so I gave her Iodium, with temporary benefit, but I was not able to effect a cure. Kidney trouble on the right side forced me to leave off the treatment of the leucorrhoea, and to give her Berberis and Lycopodium.
I then found that she was very restless, physically and mentally, a strong Arsenicum symptom. Arsenicum iodatum, the Iodine of Arsenic, should be given, according to Boericke, “for persistently irritating corrosive discharge which irritate the membranes from which it flows and over which it flows.
The discharge may be foetid or watery, and the mucous membrane is always red, angry, swollen, itches and burns.” Although Boerickes Materia Medica does not mention leucorrhoea or inflammation under the healing “Female Organs”, I gave the young lady Arsenicum iodatum on general grounds of resemblance with most satisfactory results. Study of the Materia Medica enables one to cure such conditions without local examination and pathological investigation.
