INDICATIONS FOR HOMOEOPATHIC REMEDIES IN DIPHTHERIA


Only indicated in plethoric patients at the very onset of the disease; fauces, especially right side, highly inflamed, bright red and shining; dryness of throat, submaxillary glands swollen and tender to touch; stitches in throat and fauces with painful deglutition, particularly of fluids, every attempt to swallow causes tears to flow, aggravated by turning head or lying down; high asthenic fever, skin hot, urine scanty, blood-red, cerebral symptoms predominate.


Gargling or spraying with alcohol destroys the diphtheritic germs, dissolves the membrane and counteracts the terrible prostration.

AMMONIUM CAUSTICUM.

Diphtheritic croup, very hoarse; almost aphonia; low, guttural, husky cough, with smothered whoop, followed by suffocative spells, with great anguish; irritable and fretful; weak, moaning in sleep, hurried, labored, anxious breathing; pulse very rapid, feeble, wiry. Deep redness of velum, pillars, tonsils, posterior wall of pharynx and epiglottis. Lower part of pharynx covered with white exudation; intense pain in throat and dysphagia; burning, excoriating discharge from the nostrils; excessive prostration and exhaustion, not in proportion to the short duration of the disease.

APIS MELLIFICA.

Useful in the first stage and may be given as a preventive. Great debility and prostration from the start; suspicious absence of heat, not much fever; pulse rapid but not strong.

Diphtheria insidiously progressing, small amount of pain accompanying intense and extensive inflammation; tonsils, more often the right one, studded with deep gray, angry looking ulcerations, exuding a scanty, putrid discharge; oedema of the throat, uvula edematous and elongated; membrane of a dirty, gray color; throat tender and sore on swallowing, pain extending to the ears when admitting air; cold water relieves the itching and stinging; diphtheritic patches usually appear first on the arches of the palate over the uvula; breathing difficult from oedema of the glottis; breath foetid or not; thirstlessness; painful and scanty urination, urine voided in drops with burning; perspiration frequently breaks out and dries up; heat unpleasant; over-sensitiveness of the skin to touch; tendency to heart failure; diphtheritic croup with rough, hoarse voice and sensation of rapid oedematous swelling of the membrane of the air passage; speaking painful; intense sensation of suffocation; high fever; numbness and even paralysis of the throat or of the lower extremities (Merc. cyan. follows well).

ARSENICUM ALBUM.

Membrane dry looking and wrinkled, covering entire fauces; ulcers extending from throat to roof of mouth; tongue white; cervical glands swollen; thin excoriating discharge from nose; sensation as if a hair had lodged in throat; great foetor from the diphtheritic deposits and oozing of blood from under th elevated portions of the thick membrane; sleep broken by starts, crying out, jerking of limbs; great weakness and prostration; great restlessness and anxiety, patient wants to change position often notwithstanding the debility; child wants to be carried from one room to another; cannot bear to be alone; constipation or exhausting watery and offensive diarrhoea; urine frequent or scanty, burning, pulse rapid and weak, thirst, but takes only sips; worse after midnight; better from warmth and warm drinks. Paralysis as a sequela of these bad and sometimes epidemic cases of diphtheria; albuminuria.

ARUM TRIPHYLLUM.

Diphtheritis scarlatinosa septica, especially of Schneiderian membrane, with acrid discharge from nostrils; mouth studded with ulcers, especially on inside of cheeks, on lips and borders of tongue, red papillae elevated; putrid odor from mouth; excessive acrid salivation; throat sore, excoriated, cannot swallow on account of the pain and soreness; sensation of something hot in throat, especially during inspiration; submaxillary glands much swollen; great restlessness and prostration, throwing himself in all sorts of positions; urine scanty and voided often; fever and irritability worse afternoon, pulse intermits every third or fifth beat.

Besotted look from great prostration; discharge from mouth and nose horribly offensive, livid color of membrane; very little pain of fauces in spite of oedema of the parts affected, especially of the posterior chloanae; throat feels sore and contracted, can only swallow liquids, tonsils and soft palate swollen with constant inclination to swallow, not accompanied by pain; dull, bruised feeling in occiput; delirium with confusion of sight and almost complete deafness; burning heat in face with flushes cheeks; roof of mouth feels numb; tongue feels as if burned or scaled; oppressed breathing into suffocation on account of pulmonary stasis, must have fresh air; chilliness of back and limbs; stools dark and blood-streaked; great prostration,particularly during reconvalescence; no desire for mental or physical exertion; paralysis of organs of deglutition; aphonia.

BELLADONNA.

Only indicated in plethoric patients at the very onset of the disease; fauces, especially right side, highly inflamed, bright red and shining; dryness of throat, submaxillary glands swollen and tender to touch; stitches in throat and fauces with painful deglutition, particularly of fluids, every attempt to swallow causes tears to flow, aggravated by turning head or lying down; high asthenic fever, skin hot, urine scanty, blood-red, cerebral symptoms predominate.

BROMIUM.

Malignant forms of diphtheria, invading larynx down respiratory organs, leaving great weakness and lassitude, no fever, cool skin, sweating and spasm; husky tone of voice, rattling of mucus in larynx when coughing, cough has a croupy sound, with strangling rattling mucus in breathing; face ashy-gray, cheeks sunken, stiffness of neck, prostration. Suits children with fair hair and skin, blue eyes, etc., and Teste affirms than milk neutralized the action of Brom. and Iod. (Kali bich., no spasm).

CAPSICUM.

Sensation of contraction in throat, continuing between the acts of deglutition; burning and soreness in fauces and throat, which are partially covered with a diphtheritic deposit; senses of suffocation; burning blisters in roof of mouth with odor like that of carrion, chilliness in back; beating and throbbing in head; vertigo, rapid pulse, epistaxis; prostration; gangrene of throat.

CARBOLIC ACID.

Low adynamic fever, absence of pain great accumulation of deposits spreading a most offensive stench; glands of neck swollen; aphonia and croupy cough; foetid discharge from nose, liquids when being swallowed return by the nose; excessive prostration with violent fever, headache, dizziness, pale face, nausea, weak and thready pulse.

CROTALUS.

Persistent haemorrhage, blood oozes from nose and mouth, not merely from posterior nares, but escaping from the mucous membranes of the nasal cavity; fauces much swollen and dark red; pulse small and weak; skin hot not perspiring; frightful headache; difficult swallowing, vomiting and diarrhoea; great thirst; prostration excessive, can hardly raise himself up in bed. (Carbo. veg.); gangrene of fauces and tonsils.

IGNATIA.

Pricking sensation in throat; soreness of throat worse between the acts of deglutition (Caps.); stitches extending from throat into ears; glands of neck swollen; craving for ice and ice water; much sneezing and coryza; offensive odor from throat; disease commences on right side, extending to both sides; irritable, whining, nervous; delirium at night characterized by fear and dread; pain in occiput and sometimes in ears; putrid sore throat, seldom painful; greenish patches, green vomiting and green stools; stiffness in nape of neck painless glandular swelling around neck.

Diphtheritic deposits in nose, pharynx, larynx, vulva and vagina; membranes greenish-gray, brownish-yellow, like washleather, with increased redness and sensitiveness of the still healthy parts of the mucous membrane of mouth and fauces; swelling of tonsils and submaxillary gland; oedematous swelling of the vulva; tongue, cheeks, gums smelling like decayed meat.

Disease spreading upward into nostrils and down into larynx and trachea, all throat symptoms worse by putting out tongue; shrill, croupy cough or whistling and wheezing, with difficulty of breathing as though the lungs were stuffed with cotton, expectoration of viscid, tough mucus which may be drawn out in long strings, frequently streaked with blood; hoarseness; tongue red or covered with a thick, yellow layer; exudation tough and deeply adhering (Carb.ac., loosely adhering); deep-eating ulcers in fauces, throat purple with numerous isolated patches of greenish-yellow, excoriating; cachectic look; swollen glands; thirst and desire for beer; measly-like eruptions.

KALI PERMANGANATUM.

Odor of breath unbearable; whole throat covered with black, foul exudation; submucous tissue dark and dry; face purple; throat swollen inside and outside; thin sanious discharge from nose, excoriating upper lip; fluids taken by mouth returned through nose; great dyspnoea; general and excessive prostration; dark colored offensive diarrhoea.

KREOSOTUM.

Putrid odor from mouth; malignant diphtheria, when confined to fauces, especially in scrofulous and lymphatic patients; black softening and decomposition of mucous membrane with atony and extension of softening to oesophagus; fever, vomiting, loss of appetite, restless sleep; swelling of glands.

LAC CANINUM.

Diphtheria begins on left side and spreads to right; migratory condition, membranes leave one side and go to other repeatedly, pains also constantly flying from one side to another; ulcers on tonsils, and fauces covered with a yellowish-gray curdy deposit, glistening as if varnished; pricking sensation in throat as if full of sticks (Nit.ac.); stinking breath; constant inclination to swallow; profuse salivation, saturating the pillow; tongue, fauces and tonsils swollen and covered with a dirty coating; dry exudation diffused like the lid of a pepper-box; pricking and cutting pain when swallowing, shooting up into the ears, aversion to liquids, especially water.

George E. Dienst