HOMOEOPATHY IN THE TREATMENT OF CARBUNCLE.
A carbuncle is easily differentiated from a boil and is due to an infection with the staphylococcus bacillus. Commonly, it is looked upon as a surgical disease and is treated accordingly, which may, and often does, mean the knife. In any patient who is afflicted with this very painful and at times dangerous disease, the urine must be examined to determine the presence or absence of sugar, for if the former is the case, it is likely that we are dealing with a diabetic patient.
In these days of modern, scientific medicine very few physicians are to be found who depend upon homoeopathic prescribing only in their treatment of a carbuncle, yet it remains amazingly true that carefully prescribed remedies are entirely capable of modifying the symptoms of such cases and bringing the latter to a safe and speedy conclusion.
Two such cases will verify this assertion and amply illustrate the contention. A man in his middle thirties came down with a carbuncle on his upper lip which had the usual appearance and was a dark purple in color. The temperature was above 104 and the man was delirious. Thus, as it can readily be seen the symptoms were purely objective and but one remedy was definitely called for, Tarentula cubensis, which was given in the 30th potency, repeated at three hourly intervals. Resolution was prompt and recovery rapid; the resulting scar was covered by a fair sized mustache, grown later.
The second illustration is that of a man in his middle seventies, not diabetic, but probably infected by a barber’s hair clippers on the right side of the head, just above the ear. Red face, throbbing pains in the head, although no temperature was present, apparently demanded Belladonna which was given in the 900th potency of Fincke and modified these symptoms; but in two days there developed marked oedema of the side of the head and of the right cheek, almost closing the right eye.
A few doses of Apis mellifica 200. now modified this condition, but by this time the carbuncle was pronounced and covered by a thick, irregular scab, painful to touch. There was still no rise of temperature, but bruised pain in the scalp and head became marked. Arnica montana 900., Fincke, was now taken in repeated doses and soon modifies the pain; three or four days later the jagged scab became dry and partly loose so that in another two days it could easily be picked off. A little calendula cerate was then applied.
More usual remedies are Arsenicum album, to be given when weakness, restlessness, fever, thirst for small amounts of water at frequent intervals and after midnight aggravation are present; Rhus tox. when aching pains in the body and limbs, with momentary relief from a change of position, thirst for cold water, coated tongue with a red tip, general aggravation at night, are all marked. Anthracinum, the nosode, is, in a sense, an exaggerated Arsenicum case, with severe burning pains, great weakness and a decidedly septic appearance of the patient. In such cases, Pyrogen must be thought of, especially when there is either a very rapid pulse with a low temperature, or the exact reverse.
As with Arnica, Baptisia and Silicea, a sensation as though the bed feels hard is often present. Other symptoms will serve to differentiate these useful remedies. Theoretically, almost any remedy may be indicated by the symptoms of the patient, for it is the latter, as an individual, who must be prescribed for Nevertheless, as a rule, a small group of remedies will suggest themselves and these are easily recognized. In any event, homoeopathic prescribing gives by far the best results and the patient is not overwhelmed by powerful drugs or by unwise resort to surgery.
It is unfortunate that, in these allegedly “streamline” days, homoeopathic physicians are induced to employ chemotherapy and other methods of treatment when the simpler remedies of homoeotherapeutics are so eminently successful and so close at hand. In a day when almost any ailment is treated with the ubiquitous Penicillin. Homoeopathy is buried under an avalanche of the antibiotics.
Born in Torrington, Litchfield, Connecticut, USA on 20 Oct 1871 to Royal Edmund Hayes and Harriet E Merriman. He had at least 4 sons and 1 daughter with Miriam Martha Phillips. He lived in Torrington, Litchfield, Connecticut, United States in 1880. He died on 20 July 1952, in Waterbury, New Haven, Connecticut, United States, at the age of 80, and was buried in Waterbury, New Haven, Connecticut, United States.