The Chronic
Diseases, their Peculiar Nature and their Homœopathic Cure.
by Dr Samuel Hahnemann
Presented By Médi-T
(Page 70 … 79)
Intolerable [1]
pain in the skin (or in the muscles, or in the periosteum) of some
part of the body from a slight movement of the same or of a more
distant part; e.g., from writing
there arises a pain in the shoulder or in the side of the neck, etc.,
while sawing or performing other hard labor with the same hand causes
no pain; a similar pain in the adjacent parts, from speaking and
moving the mouth; pain in the lips and in the back at a slight touch.Numbness of the skin or of
the muscles of certain parts and limbs. [2]Dying off of certain fingers
or of the hands or feet. [3]Crawling or also prickling
formication (as from the limbs going to sleep) in the arms, in the
legs and in other parts (even in the fingertips).A crawling, or whirling, or
an internally itching restlessness,
especially in the lower limbs (in the evening in bed or early on
awaking); they must be brought into another position every moment.Painful sensation of cold in
various parts.Burning pains in various
parts (frequently without any change in the usual external bodily
temperature).Coldness, repeated or
constant of the whole body, or of the one side of the body; so also of
single parts, cold hands, cold feet which frequently will not get warm
in bed.Chilliness, constant, even
without any change in the external bodily temperature.Frequent flushes of heat,
especially in the face, more frequently with redness than without;
sudden, violent sensation of heat during rest, or in slight motion,
sometimes even from speaking, with or without perspiration breaking
out.Warm air in the room or at
church is exceedingly repugnant to her, makes her restless, causes her
to move about (at times with a pressure in the head, over the eyes,
not infrequently alleviated by epistaxis).—–
[1]
Of incredible variety. Often burning, jerking, lancinating, but
often also indescribable, are these pains which communicate a
similar intolerable excessive sensitiveness to the mind. These pains
thus affect chiefly the upper parts of the body, or the face (tic
douloureux), or the skin of the neck, etc., at even a
gentle touch, in speaking and chewing, -in the shoulder at a, slight
pressure, or movement of the finger.[2]
The sense of touch is lacking; the parts feel hard and tumid, either
periodically or permanently (constant insensibility).[3]
The limb than becomes white, bloodless, without feeling and quite
cold, often for hours, especially while it is cool (stroking with a
piece of zinc toward the tips the fingers or the toes usually drives
it away quickly, but only as a palliative.Rushes of blood, also at
times a sensation of throbbing in all the arteries (while he often
looks quite pale, with a feeling of prostration throughout the body).Rush of blood to the head.
Rush of blood to the chest.
Varices, varicose veins in
the lower limbs (varices on the pudenda), also on the arms (even with
men), often with tearing pains in them (during storms), or with
itching in the varices. [1]Erysipelas, partly in the
face (with fever), partly on the limbs, on the breast while nursing,
especially in a sore place (with a prickling and burning pain).Whitlow, paronychia (sore
finger, with festering skin).Chilblains (even when it is
not winter) on the toes and fingers, itching, burning and lancinating
pains.Corns, which even without
external pressure cause burning, lancinating pains.Boils (furuncles), returning
from time to time, especially on the nates, the thighs, the upper arms
and the body. Touching them causes fine stitches in them.Ulcers on the thighs,
especially, also upon the ankles and above them and on the lower part
of the calves, with itching, gnawing, tickling around the borders, and
a gnawing pain as from salt on the base of the ulcer itself; the parts
surrounding are of brown and bluish color, with varices near the
ulcers, which, during storms and rains, often cause tearing pains,
especially at night, often accompanied with erysipelas after vexation
or fright, or attended with cramps in the calves.Tumefaction and suppuration
of the humerus, the femur, the patella, also of the bones of the
fingers and toes (spina ventosa).Thickening and stiffening of
the joints.Eruptions, either arising
from time to time and passing away again; some voluptuously itching
pustules, especially on the fingers or other parts, which, after
scratching, burn and have the greatest similarity to the original
itch-eruption;or nettle-rash,
like stings and water-blisters, mostly with burning pain;
or pimples without pain in the
face, the chest, the back, the arms and the thighs;
or herpes in fine miliary
grains, closely pressed together into round, larger or smaller spots
of mostly reddish color, sometimes dry, sometimes moist, with
itching, similar to the eruption of itch and with burning after
rubbing them. They continually extend further to the circumference
with redness, while the middle seems to become free from the
eruption and covered with smooth, shining skin (herpes
circinatus). The moist herpes on the legs are called
salt-rheum;
or crusts raised above the
surrounding skin, round in form, with deep-red painless borders,
with frequent violent stitches on the parts of the skin not yet
affected;
or small, round spots on the
skin, covered with bran-like, dry scales, which often peel off and
are again renewed without sensation; or red spots of the skin, which
feel dry, with burning pain; somewhat raised above the rest of the
skin.—–
[1]
The swellings of the arteries (aneurismata) seem to have no other
origin than in the psora.Freckles,
small and round, brown or brownish spots in the face, on the hands and
on the chest, without sensation.Liver
spots, large brownish spots which often cover whole limbs,
the arms, the neck, the chest, etc., without sensation or with
itching.Yellowness of the skin,
yellow spots of a like nature around the eyes, the mouth, on the neck,
etc., without sensibility. [1]Warts on the face, the lower
arm, the hands, etc. [2]Encysted tumors in the skin,
the cellular tissue beneath it, or in the bursæ
mucosæ of the tendons (exostosis), of various forms and
sizes, cold without sensibility. [3]Glandular swellings around
the neck, in the groin, in the bend of the joints, the bend of the
elbow, of the knee, in the axillæ, [4]
also in the breasts.Dryness of the (scarf) skin
either on the whole body with inability to perspire through motion and
heat, or only in some parts. [5]—–
[1]
After riding in a carriage, yellowness of the skin comes on most
quickly, if it is not yet constant but only occasional.[2]
Especially in youth. Many remain only a short time and pass away to
give place to another symptom of psora.[3]
The fungus hematodes, which has lately become such a dreadful
plague, has, according to the conclusions I am compelled to draw
from several cases, no other source than psora.[4]
At times they pass over, after lancinating pains, into a sort of
chronic suppuration, in which, however, instead of pus, only a
colorless mucus is secreted.[5]
Especially on the hands, the outer side of the arms and legs, and
even in the face; the skin is dry, rough, parched, feels chapped,
and often has scales like bran.Disagreeable sensation of
dryness over the whole body (also in the face, around and in the
mouth, in the throat, or in the nose, although the breath passes
freely through it).Perspiration comes too easily
from slight motion; even while sitting, he is attacked with
perspiration all over, or merely on some parts; e.g.,
almost constant perspiration of the hands and feet, [1]
so also, strong perspiration in the axillæ [2]
and around the pudenda.Daily morning sweats, often
causing the patient to drip, this for many years, often with sour or
pungent-sour smell. [3]One-sided perspiration, only
on one side of the body, or only on, the upper part of the body, or
only on the lower part.Increasing
susceptibility to colds, either of the whole body (often
even from repeatedly wetting the hands, now with warm water, then with
cold, as in washing clothes), or only susceptibility of certain parts
of the body, of the head, the neck, the chest, the abdomen, the feet,
etc., often in a moderate or slight draught, or after slightly
moistening these parts; [4]
even from being in a cooler room, in a rainy atmosphere, or with a low
barometer.So-called weather
prophets; i.e., renewed severe pains in parts of the body
which were formerly injured, wounded, or broken, though they have
since been healed and cicatrized; this renewed pain sets in, when
great changes of the weather, great cold, or a storm are imminent, or
when a thunderstorm is in the air.Watery swelling, either of
the feet alone, or in one foot, or in the hands, or the face, or the
abdomen, or the scrotum, etc., alone, or again cutaneous swelling over
the whole body (dropsies).Attacks of sudden heaviness
of the arms or legs.Attacks of paralytic weakness
and paralytic lassitude of the one arm, the one hand, the one leg,
without pain, either arising suddenly and passing quickly, or
commencing gradually and constantly increasing.—–
[1]
The latter is usually very fetid and so abundant that, after even a
short walk, the soles of the feet, the heels and toes are soaked and
sore.[2]
Not infrequently of red color or of a rank small like that of he
goats or that of garlic.[3]
Here belongs the perspiration of psoric children on their head after
going to sleep in the evening.[4]
The ailments following from it, immediately afterwards, are then
considerable and manifold: Pains in the limbs, headaches, catarrh,
sore throat, and inflammation of the throat, coryza, swelling of the
glands of the neck, hoarseness cough, dyspnœa, stitches in the
chest, fever, troubles of digestion, colic, vomiting, diarrhœa,
stomachache, rising of water from the stomach, also stitches in the
face and other parts, jaundice-like color of the skin, etc. No
person who is not psoric ever suffers the least after-effects from
such causes.Sudden bending of the knees.
Children fall easily, without
any visible cause. Also similar attacks of weakness with adults in the
legs, so that in walking one foot glides this way and the other that
way, etc.While walking in the open air
sudden attacks of faintness, especially in the legs. [1]While sitting, the patient
feels intolerably weary, but stronger while walking.The predisposition to
spraining and straining the joints at a mis-step, or a wrong grasp,
increases at times even to dislocation; e. g., in the tarsus, the
shoulder-joint, etc.The snapping and cracking of
the joints at any motion of the limb increases with a disagreeable
sensation.The going to sleep of the
limbs increases and follows on slight causes; e.g., in supporting the
head with the arm, crossing the legs while sitting, etc.The painful cramps in some of
the muscles increase and come on without appreciable cause.Slow, spasmodic straining of
the flexor muscles of the limbs.Sudden jerks of some muscles
and limbs even while waking; e.g.,
of the tongue, the lips, the muscles of the face, of the pharynx, of
the eyes, of the jaws, of the hands and of the feet.Tonic shortening of the
flexor muscles (tetanus).Involuntary turning and
twisting of the head, or the limbs, with full consciousness (St.
Vitus’ dance).Sudden fainting spells and
sinking of the strength, with loss of consciousness.Attacks of tremor in the
limbs, without anxiety. Continuous, constant trembling, also in some
cases beating with the hands, the arms, the legs.Attacks of loss of
consciousness, lasting a moment or a minute, with an inclination of
the head to the one shoulder, with or without jerks of one part or the
other.Epilepsies of various kinds.
Almost constant yawning,
stretching and straining of the limbs.Sleepiness during the day,
often immediately after sitting down, especially after meals.Difficulty in falling asleep,
when abed in the evening; he often lies awake for hours.—–
[1]
At times the feeling of faintness seems to rise up even to the
scrobiculus cordis, where it turns into a ravenous hunger, which
suddenly deprives him of all strength; he is attacked with tremor
and has immediately to lie down for a while.He passes the nights in a
mere slumber.Sleeplessness, from anxious
heat, every night, an anxiety which sometimes rises so high, that he
must get up from his bed and walk about.After three o’clock in the
morning, no sleep, or at least no sound sleep.As soon as he closes his
eyes, all manner of fantastic appearances and distorted faces appear.In going to sleep, she is
disquieted by strange, anxious fancies; she has to get up and walk
about.Very vivid dreams, as if
awake; or sad, frightful, anxious, vexing, lascivious dreams.Loud talking, screaming;
during sleep.Somnambulism; he rises up at
night, while sleeping with closed eyes, and attends to various duties;
he performs even dangerous feats with ease, without knowing anything
about them when awake.Attacks of suffocation while
sleeping (nightmare).Various sorts of severe pains
at night, or nocturnal thirst, dryness of the throat, of the month, or
frequent urinating at night.Early on awaking, dizzy,
indolent, unfreshed, as if he had not done sleeping and more tired
than in the evening, when he lay down; it takes him several hours (and
only after rising) before he can recover from this weariness.After a very restless night,
he often has more strength in the morning, than after a quiet, sound
sleep.Intermittent fever, even when
there are no cases about, either sporadic or epidemic, [1]
or endemic; the form, duration and type of the fever are very various;
quotidian, tertian, quartan, quintan or every seven days.Every evening, chills with
blue nails.Every evening, single chills.
Every evening, heat, with a
rush of blood to the head, with red cheeks, also at times an
intervening chill.Intermittent fever of several
weeks duration, followed by a moist itching eruption lasting several
weeks, but which is healed again during a like period of intermittent
fever, and alternating thus foryears.
Disturbances
of the mind and spirit of all kinds. [2]—–
[1]
Epidemic intermittent fevers probably never seize a man who is free
from psora, so that wherever there is a susceptibility to them, it
is to be accounted a symptom of psora.[2]
I have never either in my practice, nor in any insane asylum, seen a
patient suffering from melancholy, insanity, or frenzy whose disease
did not have Psora as its
foundation, complicated at times, however, though rarely, with
syphilis.Melancholy by itself, or with
insanity, also at times alternating with frenzy and hours of
rationality.Anxious oppression, early on
awaking.Anxious oppression in the
evening after going to bed. [1]Anxiety, several times a day
(with and without pains), or at certain hours of the day or of the
night; usually the patient then finds no rest, but has to run hither
and thither, and often falls into perspiration.Melancholy, palpitation and
anxiousness causes her at night to wake up from sleep (mostly just
before the beginning of the menses).Maria of self-destruction [2]
(spleen ?).A weeping mood; they often
weep for hours without knowing a cause for it. [3]Attacks of fear; e.g.,
fear of fire, of being alone, of apoplexy, of becoming insane, etc.—–
[1]
This causes some patients to break out into a strong perspiration;
others feel from it merely flushes of blood and throbbing in all the
arteries; with others, the anxious oppression tends to constrict the
throat, threatening suffocation if all the blood in their arteries
were standing still, causing anguish. With others, this oppression
is associated with anxious images and thoughts, and seems to rise
from them, while with others, there is oppression without anxious
ideas and thoughts.[2]
This kind of disease of the mind or spirit, which is also merely
psoric, seems not to have been taken into consideration. Without
feeling any anxiety, or anxious thoughts, therefore also, without
any one’s perceiving such anxiety in them, apparently in the full
exercise of their reason, they are impelled, urged, yea, compelled
by a certain feeling of necessity, to self-destruction. They are
only healed by a cure of the Psora,
if their utterances are noticed in time.
I say in time, for in the last stages of this kind of insanity it is
peculiarly characteristic of this disease, not to utter anything
about such a determination to anyone. This frenzy manifests itself
in fits of one-half or of whole hours, usually in the end daily,
often at certain times of the day. But besides these fits of
destructive mania, such persons have usually also fits of anxious
oppression, which seem, however, to be independent of the former
fits, and come at other hours, accompanied partly with pulsation in
the pit of the stomach, but during these they are not tormented with
the desire of taking their own life. These attacks of anxiety which
seem to be more of a bodily nature, and are not connected with the
other train of thoughts, may also be lacking, while the fits of
suicidal mania rule in a high degree; they may also return, when
that mania is in a great part extinguished through the anti-psoric
remedies, so that the two seem to be independent of one another,
though they have the same original malady for their foundation.[3]
This is a symptom, however, which seems to be caused by the diseased
state, especially of the female sex, in order to soothe temporarily
more and greater nervous disorders.Attacks of passion,
resembling frenzy.Fright caused by the merest
trifles; this often causes perspiration and trembling.Disinclination to work, in
persons who else are most industrious; no impulse to occupy himself,
but rather the most decided repugnance thereto. [1]Excessive sensitiveness. [2]
Irritability from weakness. [2]
Quick change of moods; often
very merry and exuberantly so, often again and, indeed, very suddenly,
dejection; e.g., on account of his
disease, or from other trifling causes. Sudden transition from
cheerfulness to sadness, or vexation without a cause.These are some of the leading
symptoms observed by me, which, if they are often repeated, or become
constant, show that the internal Psora
is coining forth from its latent state. They are at the same time the
elements, from which (under unfavorable external conditions) the
itch-malady, as it manifests itself, composes the illimitable number
of chronic diseases, and with one man assumes the one form, with
another another, according to the bodily constitution, defects in the
education, habits, employment and external circumstances, as also
modified by the various psychical and physical impressions. It thus
unfolds into manifold forms of disease, with so many varieties, that
they are by no means exhausted by the disease-symptoms enumerated in
the pathology of the old school, and erroneously designated there as
well-defined, constant and peculiar diseases. [*]—–
[1]
Such a person, when she desired to begin one of her domestic
occupations, was seized with anxiety and oppression; her limbs
trembled, and she became suddenly so weary, she had to lie down.[2]
All physical and psychical impressions,
even the weaker and the weakest, cause a morbid excitement, often in
a high degree. Occurrences affecting the mind, not only such as are
of a sad and vexatious kind, but also those of a joyous kind, cause
surprising ailments and disorders; touching tales, yea, even
thinking of them and recalling them, cause a tumultuous excitement
of the nerves, and drive the anxiety into the head, etc. Even a
little reading about indifferent things, or looking attentively at
an object; e.g., while sewing, attentively listening even to
indifferent things, too bright a light, the loud talking of several
people at the same time, even single tones on a musical instrument,
the ringing of bells, etc., cause harmful impressions: trembling,
weariness, headache, chills, etc. Often the senses of smell and of
taste are immoderately sensitive. In many cases even moderate bodily
motion, or speaking, also warmth, cold, open air, wetting the skin
with water, etc. Not a few suffer even in their room from a sudden
change of the weather, while most of these patients complain during
stormy wet weather, few of dry weather with a clear sky. The full
moon also with some persons and the new moon with other, has an
unfavorable erect.[*]
They bear the following names: Scrofula,
rickets, spina ventosa, atrophy, marasmus, consumption, pulmonary
consumption, asthma, tabes mucosa, laryngeal phthisis, chronic
catarrh, constant coryza, difficult dentition, worms and consequent
diseases, dyspepsia, abdominal cramps, hypochondria, hysteria,
dropsy, dropsy of the abdomen, dropsy of the ovaries, of the uterus,
hydrocele, hydrocephalus, amenorrhœa, dysmenorrhœa, uterine hæmorrhages,
hematemesis, hæmoptysis and hæmorrhages, vaginal hæmorrhages,
dysuria, ischuria, enuresis, diabetes, catarrh of the bladder,
hematuria, nephralgia, gravel of the kidneys, stricture of the
urethra, stricture of the intestines, blind and running piles,
fistula of the rectum, difficult stools, constipation, chronic
diarrhœa, induration of the liver, jaundice, cyanosis, heart
diseases, palpitation, spasms of the chest, dropsy of the chest,
abortion, sterility, metromania, impotence, induration of the
testicles, dwindling of the testicles, prolapsus uteri, inversion of
the womb, inguinal, femoral and umbilical hernias, dislocations of
the joints from an internal cause, curvature of the spine, chronic
inflammations of the eyes, fistula lachrymalis, short-sightedness
and long-sightedness, day blindness and night blindness, obscuration
of the cornea, cataracts, glaucoma, amaurosis, deafness, deficient
smell or taste, chronic one-sided headache, megrim, tic douloureux,
tinea capitis, scab, crusta lactea, tetters (herpes), pimples,
nettle-rash, encysted tumors, goitre, varices, aneurism, erysipelas,
sarcomas, ostecsarcoina, scirrhus, cancer of the lips, cheeks,
breast, uterus, fungus nematodes, rheumatism, gout in the hips,
knotty gout, podagra, apoplectic fits, swoons, vertigo, paralysis,
contractions, tetanus, convulsions, epilepsy, St. Vitus’ dance,
melancholy, insanity, imbecility, nervous debility, etc.These are the characteristic
secondary symptoms, [*]
of the long-unacknowledged, thousand-headed monster, pregnant with
disease, the psora, the original miasmatic malady which now makes its
manifest appearance. [**][*]
The supreme royal councillor Kopp,
an Allopath, who is unwillingly and only half and half approaching
Homœopathy, pretends to have seen chronic diseases disappear of
themselves -he may have seen some particular symptoms disappear,
which symptoms the old school, in its shortsighted fashion,
considered, with him as so many entire diseases![**]
I will grant that the doctrine, that all chronic
non-venereal diseases which are not extinguishable by the vital
force, in an orderly course of life, while external circumstances
are favorable, but which even increase with the years, are of psoric
origin, is for all who have not fully weighed my reasons and for
all narrow-minded people, too great, too overwhelming. But it is
none the less true. Or should we regard such a chronic disease as
not being psoric, because the patient cannot remember, that he at
sometime, all the way back to his birth, has had several or more
(intolerably voluptuously) itching pustules of itch on his skin, or
(since the itch-disease is considered as something disgraceful) is
not willing to acknowledge it? His non-acknowledgment here proves
nothing to the contrary.
Since at all times, all the innumerable chronic diseases resulting
from an acknowledged preceding itch (when this has not been cured)
are ineradicable through the vital force, and advance in their
equable course as psoric ailments, and are continually aggravated:
so long as the doubters of the psora doctrine cannot show me any
other source which is at least as probable for a
(non-veneric) ailment, which, despite of favorable external
conditions, correct diet, good morality and vigorous bodily
constitution, nevertheless increases every year, without any
preceding infection from itch so far as memory goes: so long I have
on my side an overpowering analogous probability, i.e., 100
to 1, that also the individual cases of chronic disease, which show a
like progression, probably also are, yea, must also be of
a psoric nature, although the patient cannot or will not remember a
preceding infection.It is easy to
doubt matters which cannot be laid before our ocular vision, but in
itself this doubt proves nothing at all, for according to the old
rule of logic: negantis est probare.
To prove the psoric nature of these chronic diseases without
acknowledged infection, we do not even need the fact that the
anti-psoric remedies prove effectual therein; this serves only like
the proof to a correctly solved mathematical problem.
Now since, in addition, the other remedies, although also selected
according to the similarity of their symptoms, do not by far yield
so durable and thorough a cure in such chronic diseases, as those
which are recognized as anti-psoric, and which are selected in as
Homœopathic a manner, because these more than the others are
adequate to the whole extent of the endless number of symptoms of
the great psora malady: I do not see why men will deny to the latter
the title of the especially anti-psoric
remedies, unless this springs from dogmatism.
And just as little is there any good reason for contradicting me,
when I (Organon, §73,) explain
the acute diseases which return from time to time; e.g.,
inflammations of the throat, of the chest, etc., as flaming up from
a latent psora, simply because their inflammatory state, as they
say, is mostly to be combated by means of the anti-phlogistic
remedies, which are not anti-psoric; i.e.,
Aconite, Belladonna, Mercury and the like. These, nevertheless, have
their source in a latent psora, because their customary return
cannot be prevented by anything but a final cure with anti-psoric
remedies.
Copyright © Médi-T
2006