Alternating remedies in hydrocephalus

Differing ways of dealing with HYDROCEPHALUS


EXAMPLES FROM GRAUVOGL CONSTITUTIONAL MEDICINE
CASE VIII.
Hydrocephalus.
Sulphur, Calc. phos., Arg. nit.
A young married couple had, two years previously lost a child from acute hydrocephalus. The second child, then eight months old, was committed to my charge when the disease had already reached the convulsive stage, and it died in a few days.
It now devolved on me; as the family physician to solve the problem of protecting the neat child from this disease and thus remove the conditions under which, both times, the development of this fatal disease had been possible, a problem which, as everybody knows, the physiological school is not able to solve.
Both parents were perfectly healthy and never ill. Both had blonde hair, thin skin and blue eyes. The husband was spare, the wife of full habit. Hence no positive point of support could be gained from either. The wife had nursed both children, but without having sufficient nourishment for them as I learnt on enquiry, for she was obliged to give them in addition milk and sugar-water, and both were taken ill when they began to cut their teeth.
In hydrocephalus the nutrition of the bones is always deficient and hence during the period of dentition this nutrition must be carried on at the expense of other tissues. But the conditions of this deficient nutrition of the osseous system must have been effective long before the period of dentition.
Hence I told the wife that she must not nurse the next child, and that she must during her next pregnancy take Sulph. 6 one day and Calc. phos 6 the next ,so that she should not lose third child by this disease'.
Sulphur I wished to exhibit as a nutritive remedy favouring the formation. of tissues, while Calc. Phos. was to favour that of bones.
'Five-weeks later the woman informed me that she was again pregnant and asked me for these remedies. She was delivered at term and this child, now five years old, remains healthy, as well as a second, now three, which was carried the regular term under this prophylactic treatment.These are not solitary cases, for I have pursued this method for six years in all families in which there has ever been a hydrocephalic child, and with the same good result.
But where I have taken charge in other. families of children who had already suffered from hydrocephalus none have died during the last seven years. During this period I have given such children every morning and evening a powder of the second trituration of Calc. Phos. and only such children as I first see in the last stage receive morning and evening a few drops of Arg. nit. 6 and every two hours the powder ol Calc. Phos. with the best result. At the same time I have repeatedly convinced myself in such cases one of these remedies alone affords no such relief.

LEADERS IN HOMEOPATHIC THERAPEUTICS by Dr. B. NASH. [4th edition]
_ CASE IX.
TUBERCULINUM
Weak, pale and short breathed on any exercise. The menses appeared twice under the action of Pulsatilla, but at intervals of several months, and finally not at all. After the failure of several other remedies to give her any benefit, she took one dose of Tuberculinum I m. with prompt, easy and natural appearance of the menses and corresponding improvement in other respects, and is now attending school in apparent good health.
Again, while on a visit to my daughter in Athens, Pa., I called upon one of the homoeopathic physicians of the place, whom I had never met before. He had read "Leaders," and after we had talked books a while he asked me if I would not like to see a curious case, and there was no money in it, but it had come into his hands from the allopaths who had given it up to die. Of course, there being no money in it, I readily consented to go. Found a child of seven months, with "head on him" larger than a man's head, with eyes pushed out and turned upwards, only movable a little from side to side. It looked idiotic. The fontanelles could not be felt, because of the hydrocephalic condition which filled the whole scalp, distending it as above described.
I could not see that the child recognized anything. except that its whining, moaning (almost constant seemed to increase if it was spoken to or moved.
Inquiry into its family history discovered that several of the mother's sisters had died with tuberculosis. She was the only one left of the family, I think. I gave, with the doctor's consent, a powder of Tuberculinum I m. and to let it act.
This was on the Monday following Sunday.
24th, 1900, I received the following letter: B. Nash, and, N. Y.
Doctor:-You will doubtless remember the case hydrocephalus you saw with me while in Athens, which you prescribed Tuberculinum. Well, from then, the head ceased to increase in size and (though taken no medicine at all, since taking that) has begun to gradually decrease. They measure it in the same place every Sunday, and last Sunday it was half an inch smaller than a week before. Will you kindly send me a draught at once of Tuberculinum high, that I may give the remedy at intervals, etc., etc."
I received one letter since, reporting further improvement I can hardly expect a cure in such a case, but the effects of the remedy, so far, seem to be quite remarkable.
A case of lung trouble brought to me over a year ago from Seneca Falls, N. Y., had been under allopathic treatment for four years and had been every summer the Adirondacks at Saranac, at a Sanitarium
established by Dr. Loomis, of New York, lung specialist. but continued to grow worse until I took her case in hand. Under the action of two doses of Sulphur c.m. followed by Tuberc. c.m. she is so improved that I think it would be hard to convince any one that she ever suffered from such conditions.
The trouble located in the upper left lung, where there was a distinct cavity, which as far as I can discover, is now healed , though there is a little dullness of respiratory murmur remaining.

The MATERIA MEDICA OF THE NOSODES
[ with the provings of the X-RAY ]
by H.C. ALLEN . M. D.

TUBERCULINUM
probably from healed-up cavities, as he at one time suffered from pulmonary phthisis. Burnett. -
Sullen, taciturn, irritable, screams in his sleep, is very restless at night, constipated; sister died of tubercular meningitis. Burnett.
Fretful and ailing, whines and complains, indurated glands can be felt everywhere, child hot, drowsy, urine red and sandy, much given to be frightened, particularly by dogs; was vaccinated and had a very bad arm for four months thereafter; would not smile, whimpers when spoken to, skin dingy, skull hydrocephalic. -Burnett.
Boy, aged 20 months, ill for days with head, high fever, restlessness and constant screaming; finally no sleep for forty hours, followed by a condition of collapse; peculiar smell of body; family history of tuberculosis. Burnett.
Tubercular meningitis, with effusion; head gradually enlarged; alternately wakeful and delirious at night, talked nonsense by day, at intervals; nocturnal hallucinations and fright, delirium; pyrexia; had eczema which almost disappeared after two unsuccessful vaccinations, and which were soon followed by above condition; after administration of remedy there occurred a severe pustular eruption, then patches of a lepra and eczema appeared.-Burnett.
Basilar meningitis. Sinker.
Tubercular meningitis.-Sinker. Acute cerebral meningitis, with intense strabismus.-Biegler.
Plica polonica: several bad cases permanently cured with Tuberculinum. Jackson.
Eyes.-Swollen lids; headache with swollen lids in morning. R. eye much swollen, conjunctiva inflamed.
Dullness and heaviness of eyes; darkness before eyes. Obscuration of vision with vertigo.
Opens r. eye (which had been closed).
Breaking down of cicatrices of old corneal ulcers (Stoker). Clearing of corneal opacity the result of old tuberculous corneitis (Stoker).
Tuberculosis of eyelids, small grey and yellow nodules, existing in conjunctiva of outer sections of lids, increased in size, ran together, then suddenly disappeared.