Hepar sulphur

CATARRH.

CHRONIC NASAL CATARRH.

Hepar sulphur. If the patient’s nose stuffs up tight on any exposure to the cold air; and is extremely sensitive to cold air, which brings on the catarrh, croup or cough. It is especially useful in cases that have taken Mercury in large doses.

LARYNGITIS.

Hepar sul. Croupy cough < in the morning. The patient is very sensitive to dry cold winds, which bring on repeated attacks, and the cough is aggravated even if exposure of the body or a hand to cold air takes place. Generally there is rattling of loose mucus, but little is expectorated. Even asthmatic wheezing may be present. Hepar is a valuable remedy in both the acute and chronic form of the disease.

CROUP.

Aconite will relieve nine-tenths of the cases of catarrhal laryngitis or croup as it occurs in our northern latitudes. It generally occurs as the result of exposure to dry, cold air, attacking the child in the evening or first part of the night, with great excitement, high fever, tossing and gasping for breath. A little of the 12th or 30th dilution in water in teaspoonful doses once in ten or 15 minutes, until the child becomes more quiet, and then at longer intervals until the fever subsides, will be all that is necessary if administered early in the disease. If, however, the cough persists with a rough, croupy sound, as of a “saw driven through a pine board,” and the stridulous breathing continues between the paroxysms Spongia is apt to be the next remedy. If the cough becomes more rattling, but still croupy, as if the mucus would come up but does not, and the aggravations are in the latter part of the night or morning, and especially if all the symptoms are made worse by cold air striking the patient, Hepar sulphur. comes in. These three were Bœnninghausen’s great remedies, and with them he had success never before his time attained. He gave them in the 200th. They are still as useful as then, and must always be, because Homœopathy is always the same. But there are cases that will not respond to this treatment, which proves that routinism won’t do.

BRONCHITIS.

ACUTE BRONCHITIS.

Hepar sulphur. is indicated when there is a loose, rattling cough, with choking or wheezing breathing. It is not so dry and barking as Spongia, still little is expectorated, and the cough is made decidedly worse by exposure to cold air, even if a hand becomes uncovered. The cough is also generally < in the early morning hours.

PNEUMONIA.

Hepar sulphur. often helps where there remains a wheezy condition, and the least cold air makes the cough worse. This combination of Lime and Sulphur is wonderful, and while it has symptoms similar to each, has new ones of its own. It is a remedy well worth bearing in mind in these cases.

PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS.

Hepar sulphur, combining the properties of both Sulphur and Calcarea ost., and also possessing those peculiar to the combination, must never be forgotten in the first stage of this disease. The Hepar patient is extremely hypersensitive, not only to pain, but to touch, even to the exposure of any part of the body to cold. He is always taking cold, in this resembling the Tuberculinum. The tendency to eruptions is like Sulphur, and they are inclined to be pustular or to form abscesses and are always extremely sensitive to touch. On the other hand, Hepar is like the Calcarea element, so sensitive to cold air, wants to be wrapped up even in warm weather (Psorin.). The nervous system is just as sensitive as is the skin. He is angry at the slightest cause, and faints with the pains if he has any. Great tendency to pus formations, whether in lungs or elsewhere; also to croupous membrane formations. So far as local manifestations are concerned the larynx and trachea are favorite points of attack in both children and adults, so that the tubercular deposit is particularly apt to light there at the first. It is one of our best remedies for laryngeal phthisis. As elsewhere, the larynx is sensitive to cold air, and to touch, croupy manifestations, and the child is, or was when young, always having croupy attacks from the least exposure, especially to cold, northwest winds. The

COUGH is dry, hoarse, or croupy sounding at first; but afterwards becomes loose, wheezing and rattling, and is < from cold air (even the exposure of a hand or foot) or uncovering; touching the parts (larynx or throat) or swallowing, especially solid foods (parts so sensitive). The BREATHING is wheezing, whistling, often asthmatic, must sit up and bend the head backward. If he can cough up the mucus with which the tubes seem loaded relief for a time follows. The SPUTUM varies from scanty, tenacious, muco-purulent, to pus-like, bloody, tuberculous masses, or small balls, which, when crushed, emit a carrion-like odor. But the leading characteristic is the exceeding hypersensitiveness, both mental and physical. No remedy can surpass it here, and it is capable of checking the progress of a tuberculosis if not too far along, and greatly ameliorating if too far advanced to hope for a radical cure.

COUGH.

Character—Dry and hoarse; at other times LOOSE and RATTLING; chocking; wheezing; croupy; paroxysmal.

Caused by—Exposure to cold, especially to dry, cold air, west or northwest winds.

Aggravated—< when slightest portion of body becomes uncovered, limb getting cold; eating or drinking anything cold; towards morning; after eating.

Ameliorated—> wrapping up; keeping warm.

Concomitants—Hoarseness < in cold air; croup or bronchitis, with wheezing and rattling of mucus, difficult to expectorate; soreness and weakness in chest; pneumonia or abscess of lungs; pleurisy with croupous exudates; consumption.

A combination of the two great polychrests, Sulphur and Calcarea carb., still developing those belonging to neither alone, this becomes one of our greatest polychrests. The action toward catarrhal affections of the membranes, even to the degree of croupy formations, and suppurative destruction, is not found so strongly in any remedy. Again the exceeding sensitiveness to pain, touch and mental irritability, even to fainting, is most prominent. This exceeding sensitiveness is especially manifest in the suffering caused by the least exposure to cold air. China and Silicea must be remembered here. Ulcers and eruptions are sensitive to touch. Everywhere and all the time sensitiveness. While the cough symptoms are well defined these constitutional symptoms are always found associated. No remedy will better repay a careful and thorough study to understand its genius.