Homeopathy LibraryKreosotum
Hempel - Materia Medica and Therapeutics · Charles Julius Hempel · 9,103 chars
General
[kreasote.]
From kreas (flesh) and sodso (I preserve) ; so called by its dis- coverer, Reichenbach, on account of its antiseptic properties.
It is obtained by the destructive distillation of organic substances, contained in tar, Dippel's oil, wood-smoke, etc.
Pure kreasote is colorless and transparent; its odor, that of smoked meat; its taste, burning and caustic. It is soluble in alcohol. Its antiseptic properties depend upon its power of coagulating albumen ; no muscular fibre, apart from albumen, is capable of the putrefactive process.
In a case of poisoning, where the dose swallowed was two drachms, the patient suffered agonizing, burning pains in the bowels, and died in thirty-six hours of gastro-enteritis.
Large doses of kreasote cause diarrhoea, and even dysentery, with nausea, vomiting, heat or burning in the stomach and bowels ; these symptoms may be attended with symptoms of cerebral irritation, such as giddiness, headache, heat in the head and even insensibility. Guided by these symptoms we may therefore recommend kreasote for gastro-intestinal irritations of a typhoid nature, when such symp- toms as I have enumerated just now, are present, and the foul or ichorous character of the discharges indicates a disorganizing process in the intestinal mucous membrane.
Kreasote was formerly used extensively in surgical practice ; at the present time we use carbolic acid for the same purposes.
Taken internally, kreasote acts upon the mucous membrane and upon the generative organs of women, producing an inflammatory condition with a decided tendency to disorganization. The secre- tions from the membrane are very acrid and corrosive.
The following symptoms have been, among others, recorded by provers :
Mind
Drowsiness, forgetfulness, weakness.
Head
Dullness, as if a board were pressed against the forehead ; throbbing and tearing ache in the forehead, extending to the teeth, jaws, neck. Pressure from within outward.
Eyes Confusion of sight, as if looking through a veil. Spas- modic twitching of the eyelids ; swelling, redness, heat and burning
'268 KREASOTUM.
in the conjunctiva, swelling of the margins of the lids; acrid, burn- ing lachrymation.
Eaes. — Itching, darting, spasmodic pains in the ears ; humming, ringing in both ears.
Nose
Delusions of smell, especially in the morning; frequent nosebleed of black blood.
Face
Pale, bluish, bloated. Occasional flushing or circum- scribed redness.
Organs of Digestion
Putrid odor from the mouth.
Bitter taste.
White, dirty coating of the tongue.
Scorbutic, spongy, ulcerated gums.
Belching up of air, of sour fluid.
Nausea.
Vom- iting of insipid, watery fluid, especially in the morning.
Distention of the abdomen; fulness, cannot bear tight clothing.
Constipation.
Dry, hard stool.
Difficult evacuation of stool.
Organs of Circulation
Intermittent, darting pain in the heart, small and somewhat retarded pulse.
General chilliness.
Chill without thirst and subsequent heat; shaking chill with heat in the face and nosebleed, highly flushed cheeks and icy cold feet, heat, alternating with chilliness ; dry, general heat ; periodical flushes of heat.
Organs of Bespiration
Boughness and scraping in the throat, with hoarseness.
Cough, with expectoration of thick, yellow mucus.
Fatiguing, wheezing cough, excited by a sensation of crawling below the larynx, or as from mucus in the bronchi, which cannot be dis- lodged.
Hawking up of small lumps of mucus.
Dyspnoea.
Dry, spasmodic cough.
Constrictive pain in the chest ; stitches in the left chest, over the heart.
Burning pain in the chest.
Urinary Organs
Frequent urination, especially at night, with much urging.
Urination, followed by smarting and burning in the pudenda.
The urine is turbid, offensive, depositing a red sediment.
Discharge of bland, yellow leucorrhcea before each urination.
Sexual Organs
The effect upon men is not marked.
Iu women we find very decided effects, which Dr.
Dunham describes in the following language: "There are pains in the pudenda; stitches in the vagina proceeding from the abdomen.
Intolerable itching in the vagina; the labia swell and become excoriated, and in this condition smart exceedingly during and after urination, which is frequent.
The leucorrhceal discharge is very acrid, excoriating the parts which it touches.
The menses come too soon and are too copious, the flow being dark and thick.
It is followed by lencor-
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rhoea and by the local symptoms just described.
The* menses arc accompanied by many accessory symptoms, e. g., nausea, deafness and abdominal colics.
The menstrual flow often ceases on the third or fourth day, and after a few hours, or a day, reappears.
The flow is abundant and anticipates.
The menses are followed by leucor- rhoea, which is at first very acrid and dark brown in color, and quite offensive.
In a day or two the leucorrhcea of kreasote becomes deep yellow, and has a peculiar odor, like that of fresh green corn when it has just been husked.
Along with the leucorrhcea there is much pain in the back, a dragging pain from above downward, a pain as if something would come out, or as after long stooping.
This pain is relieved by stooping."
Skin
Violent itching, with burning after scratching. Pustular eruptions over the entire body; purple spots on the legs as from contusion.
Kreasotum has been employed in the treatment of the following:
LEUCORRHCEA
The discharge is acrid, corroding, offensive, before and after the menses ; worse when standing, better when lying down ; inclined to be intermittent, just before urinating.
White, painless leucorrhcea, smelling like fresh corn ; scirrhous in- durations of the uterus.
Too early, too profuse, too long-continued urination.
MENORRHAGIA, with great distention of the abdomen ; dis- charge of thin, black, offensive blood ; corrosive itching of the part ; the haemorrhage remits.
METRITIS
Putrescence of the uterus; discharge of black, offensive blood.
Mental confusion ; loss of memory.
After child- birth.
MENSTRUAL DIFFICULTIES, accompanied by the character- istic leucorrhcea, etc., just described.
Scirrhous indurations of the uterus.
Burning and itching in the external genitals.
The mouth of the womb stands wide open; tenderness of the vagina, causing severe pain during an embrace.
PUERPERAL FEVER, with excoriating, offensive lochia, which stops, to return again in a few hours.
Urine fetid, with a reddish sediment.
Distention of the abdomen, which is often excessive.
Sensation of coldness in the abdomen.
Putrescence.
ENURESIS, especially of children, with copious discharge of pale urine, with urging, during sleep, for immediate evacuation. Worse when lying down.
270 KKEASOTUM.
DIABETIS with great mental depression ; characteristic gastric disturbances, constipation ; impotence.
CARDIALGIA, hi cases where we may suspect scirrhous indura- tion. Pressing, gnawing pain in the stomach, with distention of the abdomen ; patient cannot bear tight clothing ; hgematemesis.
INDIGESTION, with constant nausea, especially in the morning ; rising of water from tbe stomach ; belching of wind ; gnawing pain at the stomach, coldness in the epigastric region ; distention of ab- domen ; constipation.
CONSTIPATION with stitches in the rectum and much pressing down at stool.
SUMMER DIARRHOEA, of children.
The stools are offensive, gray, chopped.
Eace cold, bloated, bluish.
Great and rapid emaci- ation.
Belching of wind ; nausea ; spitting of water ; hiccough, especially when the child is carried.
During teething, when convul- sions are apt to set in and the teeth look black, and decay as fast as they appear.
ATROPHY of children, with similar symptoms.
Cough
Especially of old people, hard and fatiguing, excited by a feeling as if mucus had lodged in the trachea, or a crawling below the larynx or in the upper bronchi.
Dyspnoea.
Copious, thick, yellow expectoration.
Expectoration of black, coagulated blood.
Expectoration very offensive.
Dyspnoea.
Whooping cough.
GANGRENE OE THE LUNGS with similar symptoms and difficult breathing.
OPHTHALMIA with burning, smarting, corroding discharge from the eyes.
Dimness of sight, as if looking through a veil.
Heat in the eyes.
Photophobia.
SCIRRHOUS AFFECTIONS, especially o. the uterus, with characteristic indications; also of the stomach, with characteristic gastric derangements.
HERPES, especially on the back of the fingers and hands, and in the joints.
Scratching is followed by a severe burning and a watery, corroding discharge.
Worse in the open air ; better from warmth.
IMPETIGO on any part Ox the body, especially on the face ; sticking pains ; worse in the open air ; better from warmth.
ULCERS
Old, painful ulcers, discharging acrid, ichorous, cor- roding pus.
Burning pain in the ulcers.
LACHESIS. 271
In a case of poisoning by kreasote we use ammonia and other stimulants.
Oleaginous and mucilaginous drinks, albumen, etc., must be used freely.
Vinegar is said to increase the activity of the poison.
Artificial respiration must be kept up perseveringly.