ATYPICAL CASES OF SALIVARY GLAND INVOLVEMENT


A curious thing about these four cases is that in both instances the two cases showed the same symptoms at practically the same time, although not having any relationship to the other in the matter of location in the city, nor even being in the same social circles.


[Read before the I.H.A., Bureau of Clinical Medicine, June 1931.].

The patient complained of a soreness and swelling and throbbing of the floor of the right side of the mouth. The temperature was 101; the mouth was exceedingly dry and the mucous surface very red. The sublingual gland had continued to swell until it was about the size of an egg. The general symptoms were those of throbbing headache, < jars and motion, even the motion of talking. The dreams were disagreeable, with startings from sleep. On these symptoms I prescribed Belladonna.

Two days afterward the swelling had increased still more; the patient complained of sticking pains in the sublingual region, and had broken out into a moist perspiration. The prescription this time was Hepar sulphur.

The next day, upon examination of the gland, I discovered a white speck on the floor of the mouth, which upon touching with a probe gave out a metallic sound. With a pair of forceps I removed a half-inch of calcareous matter, perfectly white, from the lumen of the canal to the submaxillary gland, having the form of the canal.

This case illustrates the use of complementary remedies. Belladonna was called for in the acute manifestation, then Hepar, which is complementary to Belladonna. Later Calcarea symptoms developed and Calcarea carb. made a complete cure.

This case I have just quoted was that of an adult. Another case, almost identical in the symptom picture, and with the same prescriptions and sequence of events, even to the calcareous deposit in the gland canal, occurred in a child of eight years at the same time as the first case quoted. At the end of the acute manifestations this case also called for the chronic constitutional remedy of Calcarea carb.

Very recently I had two cases of idiopathic inflammation of the parotid gland, where the swelling was very extensive, more so than in any case of mumps I have ever seen. The pain was intense at first, and the temperature 102. In both cases the parotid gland of the right side was affected, with intense throbbing pain. The mouth was exceedingly dry, with complete tetanus of the jaw, which could not be opened at all; the headache was severe, throbbing,< night, < motion and jars; pupils dilated. Belladonna was prescribed.

This condition lasted for three days, with practically no sleep because of the intense pain.

On the third day when I visited these patients I found both of them with their heads done up in large shawls, and they were in a drenching perspiration. Silica was administered, and the patients made rapid and uneventful recoveries.

A curious thing about these four cases is that in both instances the two cases showed the same symptoms at practically the same time, although not having any relationship to the other in the matter of location in the city, nor even being in the same social circles.

I have reported these cases as illustrative of very peculiar a typical infection of the salivary glands. The sublingual glands produce a great deal more mucin, which probably accounts for the deposit of calcareous matter from that source, whereas the parotid gland secretes very little mucin and therefore the secretion is much more liquid and less liable to crystallization.

These four cases illustrate very clearly the sequence of remedies and the complementary nature of certain remedies. The constitutional remedy is seldom called for in the acute manifestations; but as Hahnemann and Boenninghausen and Kent suggest, the chronic constitutional remedy may very appropriately be administered at the close of an acute manifestation of disease to excellent advantage, whereas the complementary remedy will be the one to relieve the acute distress.

DERBY, CONN.

DISCUSSION.

DR. A.H. GRIMMER: It would not do to let such a paper as this go by without some discussion. There isnt anything to criticize in it. Our discussions bring out the helpful things in the paper. When we get response from men like Dr. Boger, and others here, and their slant on it, it helps us all to standardize, as it were, the homoeopathic prescribing. I think I can confirm Dr. Roberts observation about the necessity many times of giving a constitutional remedy after the acute exacerbation he mentioned.

DR. EUGENE UNDERHILL, JR.: I had a case this winter of abscess of the submaxillary gland, and it broke externally and drained first pus and then saliva. Prior to the rupture of the abscess, there came on very aseptic symptoms, so characteristic of Pyrogen that I gave a dose of Pyrogen, which ruptured the abscess within twenty-four hours. It drained for about a months time, and then held up leaving just as small a scar as possible, I never used an external applications except plain, hot olive oil to relieve the tension. That was in a child about nine years old.

DR. A. H. GRIMMER: Excuse me for speaking again, but there is something that might be of some value to you. In glands anywhere, the cervical or parotid, showing a stony hardness with symptoms somewhat like one of the cases that Dr. Roberts described, with the sweating and chilliness, Calcarea silicata will work like magic. We have cured a number of cases with Calcarea silicata.

DR. C.L. OLDS: Do you mean general sweating?.

DR. A. H. GRIMMER: It may be general or especially around the head, but very frequently they are weak and sweat and are chilly.

DR. EUGENE UNDERHILL, JR.: I have come to the opinion, that if we will study our double salts and mineral remedies these deep- acting drugs, especially combinations such as Calcarea carb. and Calcarea fluorica, Calcarea phos. and Calcarea sulph., and the same way with the Kali group and others, we will get far better and far more lasting effects than by just prescribing a single remedy.

I had a case of tubercular nature which I have been treating about three years, a young married woman, about twenty-four or twenty-five years of age. She had beautiful symptoms of Phosphorus. I gave her Phosphorus. It ameliorated her. She got along fine. But I was careful about repeating it on account of the violent action. In my early days of practicing I repeated Phosphorus in a young man with tubercular symptoms and stepped it up to 10M potency. Result an acute case of tuberculosis which looked bad.

I went to see Dr. Thacher, and he said, “The only trouble with you is you have murdered the man; he is going to die”. He was very frank, and he told the truth. So I was careful in this case of repeating the Phosphorus. However, I did repeat it finally, and it did not take hold well. I looked the case over, and finally figured out there were some Calcarea features about it. Still there were Phosphorus features. I studied up on Calcarea phos. and finally gave powder of 30th potency. That did wonders for her.

The probabilities are Calcarea phos. was the true similimum all the time, and I didnt see it. I think sometimes we dont study those double remedies enough. The twelve tissue remedies, and not only those but similar combinations have tremendous depth of action and do not seem so violent as some of the single ones.

DR. C. L. OLDS: I want to ask a question suggested by Dr. Grimmer. I have a case with this symptom: She has swollen glands, and these swollen glands are hard. But they simply drip sweat, and other parts do not seem to be affected. We have in Kali carb. the painful sweat of parts, but these are not particularly painful. I wonder if there is any remedy anyone knows that has that particular symptom.

DR. A. H. GRIMMER: This case if the glands are hard, calls for Calcarea silicata. It may not have been brought out. It is the proving of Calcarea silicata more or less fragmentary but there is a fairly good proving that Dr. Kent inaugurated some years ago. I helped to prove that remedy and know it pretty well. It was at the end of my second year and the effect of the proving was so great that I had great difficulty getting through the examinations. It destroys the memory faculties and the ability to concentrate is laid aside almost entirely under its action.

DR. C. L. OLDS: That is in the book of new remedies?.

DR. A. H. GRIMMER: Yes, it is well worth your study.

DR. W. J. S. POWERS: I think the proving of Dr. Kents is a very good one. I had a patient who had almost a duplicate symptom complex to the one in the proving that fear of something going to happen. He acknowledged that he was cowardly. He was chilled. He was a man who always went outside without many clothes on him. He was so chilled he couldnt go around in his bedroom without wrapping a blanket about him. All through it he portrayed a typical picture of the whole complex. I think it is a very accurate proving.

H.A. Roberts
Dr. H.A.Roberts (1868-1950) attended New York Homoeopathic Medical College and set up practrice in Brattleboro of Vermont (U.S.). He eventually moved to Connecticut where he practiced almost 50 years. Elected president of the Connecticut Homoeopathic Medical Society and subsequently President of The International Hahnemannian Association. His writings include Sensation As If and The Principles and Art of Cure by Homoeopathy.