BY DR. A. CHARGE, FRANCE.

[Translated and condensed from “La Biblioteque Homoeopathique,” Feb., 1881.]

THE principal symptoms of haemorrhoidal disease are: a constant congestion at lower portion of rectum; tumors, formed by a varicose dilatation of the veins at lower extremity of rectum and at anus; first a discharge of blood, and later, a whitish mucoid discharge.

SYMPTOMS OF HEMORRHOIDAL INFLAMMATION.—Heaviness of the head, cephalalgia,vertigo; digestive troubles, such as loss of appetite, eructation; sensation of fullness in the abdomen with pressure in rectum and at anus. Patient is gloomy, despondent and very irritable; is not comfortable in any position, either sitting or standing. Pulse is full and hard. Constipation,with frequent ineffectual desire for stool. There is heat, itching and pricking, at anus; heat in the urethra and bladder during micturition. Defecation is difficult, painful and often accompanied by a slight discharge of blood. In slight cases, this discharge of blood terminates the inflammatory trouble.

SYMPTOMS OF HEMORRHOIDAL TUMORS.—These may be internal or external; flowing or dry (blind). The internal are hid in the rectum and only protrude from the anus when straining at stool. These internal tumors may be protruded by persistent straining or by increased congestion; they are then either reducible or irreducible tumors. The reducible tumors are of minor importance; while the irreducible are most troublesome and are accompanied by inflammation, heat, and tenesmus of bladder and rectum. The tumors are of purplish hue at first, then they be come darker, finally even black and gangrenous, caused, perhaps, by strangulation. The hemorrhoidal blood is nearly always black, and escapes most frequently at stool. This hemorrhage is caused by either a rupture or an engorgement of the hemorrhoidal veins. The blood lost is variable in amount and frequency of occurrence. Following the bloody discharge there may appear a whitish mucoid discharge, arising from the continuance of the inflammatory trouble, which in its turn is caused by some particular dyscrasia.

CAUSES.—Constipation is often cited as the cause of hemorrhoids. This is false in theory; constipation is certainly a complication of hemorrhoidal disease, but there is no valid relation between them, as of cause and effect. Hemorrhoids are very often seen, it is true; but constipation is still more prevalent.

[We might put it thus: All hemorrhoidal patients have not constipation; nor have all constipated persons hemorrhoids; the case is merely this, most hemorrhoidal persons are constipated, and the cause of one must be the cause of both.—ED.]

The true cause of hemorrhoids is an internal condition caused by a miasmatic infection of the system, nearly always of a psoric nature. I wish to give here another proof of the truth of the Hippocratean aphorism, so often seen in these cases—Naturam morborum ostendit curatio. The good effects of Sulphur upon these hemorrhoids, so real, so constant, serves to show the psoric origin of this disease.

Haemorrhoids being caused by an internal, general and constitutional trouble, for that very reason the flow should not be suddenly checked, nor the tumors treated by improper applications nor by revulsive medicines, nor by knife or cautery. The knife cuts, the cautery burns, but neither reaches the real cause of the disease. The radical cure of any malady, proceeding from an internal cause, can only be obtained by attacking the primary cause of the disease; so in hemorrhoids the flow and the tumors are lesions, which if simply suppressed without curing their cause, what happens most frequently? New lesions, graver, perhaps, will follow, and endanger the life of the patient. We see every day, as a consequence of such brutal suppression of hemorrhoids, cerebral congestion, apoplexy, softening of the brain, incurable dyspepsias, etc.

The physician, then, avoiding dangerous palliation, should always consider the necessity of remembering the general disease which causes the hemorrhoids, and so painful and so various are the sufferings of the hemorrhoidal patient, that he should treat them only by specific remedies; that is, by medicines whose pathogenesis shows them to be especially fitted to the individual case under observation. For it is the homoeopathicity of remedies which proves their specificity and gives the reason for it.

The old school is nowhere poorer than in the treatment of hemorrhoids; we do not make this charge; it is sufficient for us not to deny the truth, of their own confessions.

“The treatment of hemorrhoids is, without contradiction, one of the richest” (rich in words! for pathology without therapeutics can not be considered as rich as medicine which claims to be a healing art), “as no part of medicine has been more diligently studied. Still, it is a confused mass of varying methods, through which one must search diligently to find those having practical experience in their favor.”(“Valleix,” vol. iii. p. 89).

Is this clear? poor young physicians! what can you gather from it? And you are not yet at the end of your troubles; for they tell you of hot baths, of cold baths, of cold lotions, of astringents, narcotics, purgatives, etc. Choose your method, if you dare.

“We are little in favor of prolonged baths, having observed that their use prolonged the trouble and increased, the inflammation.” ( Dict, de med. et de chir. pratique, vol xvii, p. 425). Cold lotions and cold seat [or hip] baths. “All physicians consider these means as very dangerous.” “Astringents act in same manner as cold water and are also regarded as very dangerous.” (Valleix, eod. loc). “Narcotics fail completely to do any good, purgatives render the constipation more persistent,” etc.

Enough, enough! Yet we were informed at the commencement, that the treatment of hemorrhoids was, without contradiction, one of the richest! Judge, then, of the rest.

Surgery avenges the incapacity of the physician, but at what a price!—ligatures, excision, the cautery, caustics, liquid and solid —the cost is paid by the patient!

No, we can gather nothing useful from the old school treatment of hemorrhoids; but yet, we are glad to be able to commend their hygienic and dietetic regulations. The patient should avoid spices, etc., alcoholic drinks, strong wines, tea and coffee. Digestion can be aided by daily out-door exercise and by using ripe fruits, fresh vegetables, etc.

TREATMENT.

Hemorrhoids, painful: Ant. crud., Ars., Bell., Ignat., Lycop., Puls.,

Sed. teleph.

H. with nightly aggravation: Ars., Collins., Carbo veg.

— —evening aggravation: Alum., Am. m.,Collins. Platina,

Pulsat.

— —morning aggravation:Nux vom., Podoph.

— —amelioration from the night’s rest:Alumina.

— —amelioration from cold water: Aloes, Apis.

— —dry, blind: Aesculus hipp., Collins., Graph., Sed. teleph., Sulph.

— —flowing, bleeding: Acon., Am. c, Bell., Caps.,Erigeron, Ferr.,

Hamamelis, Ign., Ipec, Millefol., Kreos., Nux vom., Platina, Trilli pend.

— —with mucous discharge: Ant. crud., Carbo veg., Colchic,

Merc, Puls.

— —muco-sanguinolent discharge : Ant. cr., Borax, Ign., Merc,

Puls.

— —muco-purulent discharge:Ant. cr., Hepar, Lyc.

— —protruding: Aloes, Amm. c., Ars., Carbo veg., Graphites, Mur.

ac. Nitric acid.

— —easily replaced: Ignatia.

— —irreducible: Atropia sulph., Ars., Bell., Silicea.

— —with colic: Ant. cr., Coloc, Nux vom., Puls.

— —flatulence: Ant. cr., Ignat, Lyco., Phos., Ph. acid.

— —pain in lumbar regions: Bell., Nux vom., Rhus t.

— —tenesmus: Aloes, Merc, Platina, Ph. acid.

H. with constipation: Ant. crud., Alumina, Aeculus hipp., Collins.,

Lyco., Nux vom., Sulph.

— —alternation of constipation and diarrhoea: Ant. crud.

— —diarrhoea: Aloes, Capsic, Podophyl.

— —falling of rectum: Ignat., Graph., Lyc., Natr. mur., Nux

vom., Podoph., Sulph.

— —falling of rectum while urinating: Muriatic Acid.

— —eczema of perineum:Hepar, Petroleum.

— —herpetic eruptions around anus: Hepar, Lyco., Merc,

Natr. mur., Petrol., Sepia.

— —pustulus eruption: Amm. mur., Caustic, Kali carb.

— —fistula: Hydrastis, Silicea, Sulphur.

— —fissures: Arsenic, Caust., Graph., Nitr. ac., Ledum teleph.,

Petrol., Ratanhia.

— —ulceration: Phosphorus.

— —dysuria: Belladonna.

— —in infants: Amm. c., Borax, Collins., Merc.

— —old people: Amm. c., Anacardium.

— —during pregnancy: Nux vom., Lycopodium.

— —confinement: Pulsatilla.

— —in clerks: Nux vomica.

— —drunkards: Ars., Nux vom., Lachesis.

Treatment: Special Indications.

ACONITE NAP.—It is most generally taught that Aconite has no place in the treatment of haemorrhoids; a study of the pathogenesis of this remedy and its clinical record teaches us the contrary. Under it we find: itching in rectum and anus; tenesmus of rectum; pain in rectum; stinging and constant pressure in rectum and at anus. In these symptoms, we have evidence for the use of Aconite in haemorrhoids.

Aconite is the more indicated if the patient be young, plethoric, especially when the haemorrhoids are inflamed, bleeding, very painful and protruding, accompanied by fever; or when the local inflammation produces a discharge of whitish mucus, accompanied by heat and incessant itching at anus and surrounding parts. Aconite is also indicated by the following group of symptoms: cephalalgia pressing from within outward, pressure in the temples with vertigo and weakness of memory; nausea and sleepiness after eating; scanty urinary excretion accompanied by violent tenesmus. Small appetite and thirsty; pressure in region of the liver; pains in lumbar region; troubled sleep.

AESCULUS HIPP.—Painful haemorrhoids, which are prolapsed on account of the constipation, with but very little bleeding; sensation of fullness in rectum which causes frequent desire to go to stool; considerable swelling, and dark purple color of haemorrhoidal tumors, dryness of rectum, with burning, smarting pain in the loins and hips with pressure below.

The history of the horse-chestnut is so curious that we may be pardoned for inserting it here, parenthetically. The attentive reader will gather three facts from these new proofs.

It amounts to nothing for the therapeutist to turn indefinitely our attention to the analysis of the constituent parts of medicines. Example: skillful analysis of Aesculus hipp. shows that the bark of the young branches of the horse-chestnut contains some tannin, some fraxine or paviine which are changed by acids into fraxetine, glucose and another glucoside. Conzonieri found a non azotic substance, yet alkaline, and able to combine with Sulphuric acid, forming a chrystallized salt like silky needles. Wurtz places it among the glucosides; its aqueous solution is blue by reflection, colorless by transmitted light. Aesculine changes into aesculitine and glucose; it is a little bitter, and slightly deliquescent in the air. (Cauvet, Hist Nat. Med.) These observations may be very interesting to the chemist, but I am positive of their uselessness to the therapeutist. They have beautifully described these points in works bearing such a title as “The History and Properties of Plants useful to Man.” No one can convince me that the useful properties of plants are contained solely in their color, etc. This materialism is done away with; and a science capable of teaching us the curative action of medicines has now all to do; unless we take as serious the stammerings of ignorance and intolerance in a field where facts alone ought to speak. “The bark of the young branches of the horse-chestnut has been recommended as a febrifuge, its decoction has sometimes served as an antiseptic in wounds of a bad nature. They call it (Aesculine) a febrifuge and also prescribe it for periodical neuralgias.” (Cauvet, eod. loc.). What therapeutics! based on ipse dixit, chance and empiricism! It is not necessary for us to credit such dubious teaching as we find in our classic works, now that the logic, good sense and genius of Hahnemann have shed a great light upon therapeutics.

“There is no method more safe or more natural for obtaining reliable knowledge of the proper effects of medicines, than to administer each drug separately and in small doses to healthy persons and to note the symptoms occurring, physical and mental; that is, the symptoms of disease each medicine is able to produce.”(Hahnemann’s “Organon,” § 108) A different method has taught the use of Aesculus hipp. The regular school is ungrateful to empiricism, which has given it much, and many of the methods borrowed from empiricism have become the most beautiful flowers in its crown. But, in spite of all that, while keeping all it has gathered from chance the regular school, proud and conceited, has none the less sworn an implacable hatred against empiricism. For a long while Aesculus hipp. has been used as a domestic remedy for haemorrhoids. “For a long time the inhabitants of India (East) have considered the fruit of the Aesculus hipp., as a preventative against haemorrhoids. This prophylactic action is due to the miasmatic emanations of this fruit.” (Dr. Dibot, haemorrhoids and their treatment, Paris, 1881).

Besides, it is not only the prophylactic action which is so constant; its curative power is wonderfully and surely demonstrated. “A member of the Institute, brother of one of our most celebrated dramatic authors, and himself a distinguished writer, of a very healthy complexion and sanguineo - bilious temperament, born of a haemorrhoidal parent, had suffered several times in his youth with irregular attacks of haemorrhoids. When about twenty-eight or thirty years old, he was attacked by haemorrhoids which lasted two years, with fearful pain and such a continued and abundant discharge that he wondered at his strength lasting under it. While this trouble was at its worst, one day walking through a grove of horse-chestnut trees, his hostess advised him to place some of the nuts in his pocket, saying it would cure him. After some joking about such a singular remedy, he placed five nuts in his pocket, simply to please her. The next day, without thinking of the horse-chest-nuts, he was most agreeably surprised not to experience, on going to the water-closet, a renewal of the pains he was accustomed to suffer, for the pains were much less. We can easily imagine that he then remembered the horse-chestnuts and was careful not to throw them away! The improvement continued, and so rapidly that at the end of three or four days he was completely cured. Since then, that is, for twenty-six or twenty-seven years (he is to-day fifty-seven), he has not experienced the least trouble and generally enjoys the best health, this in spite of sedentary work, very troublesome and surely a great cause of these sufferings.” ( Montegre, Diet, des Sciences Med., vol. xx, p. 437).

It had been my intention to curtail this case and not relate it in full as given by Montegre. But there is all through it such an air of honesty and conscientious observation, that one can not doubt it. He himself vouches for its truth. So we are much more advanced than the inhabitants of East India; from the prophylactic power of the horse-chestnut we have derived a complete demonstration of its curative action, as shown in a case, most remarkable for its intensity and chronicity

Aesculus hipp. has been thoroughly experimented with by man and with this result: congestion of rectum, haemorrhoidal tumors as large as a nut, of a dark purple color and very painful, with a burning sensation. Desire to strain at stool for a long time; pains in sacrum and buttocks; constant desire to go to stool, with fullness and pressure in rectum; difficult evacuation of hard faeces caused by dryness and constriction of rectum; violent pains in rectum, abdomen; lumbar region, etc.*[Aesculus has some very characteristic symptoms: “Dry uncomfortable feeling in the rectum, which feels as if filled with little sticks; excessive dryness with sensation of heat;” mucous membrane of rectum seems to be thickened or stiffened and so to retard passage of stool; has soreness, burning, itching, etc., haemorrhoids are like ground nuts of purple color; stools generally hard with pain in back, also a liquid stool, white as milk; the fullness and itching at anus are worse when walking, also backache –Trans.How, after these symptoms can one refuse to admit the great similarity of the symptoms of Aesculus hipp. to those of haemorrhoids, in a certain number of cases. It is not upon the custom of the inhabitants of India, nor even from the cure of the member of the Institute which we heard to-day, it is on the pathogenesis of the drug, our corner-stone, that we build its curative powers. Carrying horse-chestnuts in one’s pocket has prevented, and even cured, certain cases of haemorrhoidal disease of long standing; this double action—prophylactic and curative— some may attempt to explain as due to miasmatic emanations from the horse-chestnut.

As that explanation serves as well as any other, I will not contest it I will only say with Montegre: “There is a great difference between a fact and the hypothesis by which it is attempted to explain it; facts will always be admitted when confirmed by sufficient evidence, the explanations will be made when they are able to do so.”(Diet, des Se. Med., p. 632).

One last word; when our learned men are willing to reflect deeply on the power of the miasmatic emanations of the horse-chestnut, we shall find them less opposed to our dilutions and globules. These are, at least, tangible, and the emanations are not. Among the physicians who espouse the same cause as we do, perhaps these miasmatic emanations, considered in the double character of their reality and their efficacy, may cause them to adopt a posology more Hahnemannian.

ALOES.—Local symptoms; haemorrhoids prolapsed, painful, with heat and tenesmus; tumors very large, constant pressure in rectum. Pain, pulsation, itching and heat at anus. Haemorrhoids protrude like grapes, they burn and bleed during and after stool. Cutting pain at anus and through rectum into abdomen. Ameliorated by cold water. Profuse emission of gas before each stool The rectum constantly secretes mucus which escapes from anus, even with attempts at defecation. While Sulphur, Aesculus and Collins, have constipation as an indication, in haemorrhoids, Aloes, is especially indicated in diarrhoea.

GENERAL SYMPTOMS.—A headache characterized by a dull pain, pressing in the frontal region; not very annoying except for the difficulty of thinking which follows. A learned surgeon of Paris has recently declared that Aloes has no special (congestive) action upon the haemorrhoidal veins; we are surprised at this for experience contradicts it, and also we give credit to the following testimony of Trousseau: “Two grains are sufficient to promptly cause a slight irritation of the rectum, which will certainly produce a haemorrhoidal flow. We are able in a certain number of cases, to cause an active irritation in the lower part of the intestine and a heaviness in lower part of abdomen; Sometimes even a discharge of blood sufficient to have come only from the haemorrhoidal veins. The use of this drug causes various serious affections.” (p. 763).

Trousseau (eod. Loc).; lays the peculiar blame on Aloes that it can not cure real haemorrhoidal tumors. It is possible. How does the vital power affect the organism so as to cause haemorrhoids? We do not know and probably will always be ignorant of it. But we do know very well that haemorrhoids are caused by some particular predisposition. This predisposition is not so well combated by Aloes, but is most effectually com-batted by Sulphur. Hence Sulphur should not be overlooked in the treatment of haemorrhoids.

ALUMEN, (Bi- sulphate of aluminum and potassium). — Some physicians of our school praise Alum as the equal of Hamamelis in haemorrhoidal haemorrhage, recollecting, perhaps, the astringent power inherent in Alum, which has been lauded beyond measure by the old school and used for a long time in washes and suppositories. For us, who only use the primary effects of a drug as symptoms which the medicine will cure; for us, who have learned from Hahnemann that medicines will cure diseases whose symptoms are similar to those of the remedy; for us who are convinced that in all cases and for all remedies “that that drug proved in its effect upon healthy persons, to produce the greatest number of symptoms similar to those found in the case of disease to be treated, and when ad-ministered in properly potentized and diminished doses, will rapidly, thoroughly, and permanently cancel and turn into health the totality of the symptoms of the present case of disease.” (The “Organon,” § 25). To us, the astringent property of Alu-men is valueless, and the pathogenesis of the drug does not authorize us to utilize its haemostatic properties.

The use of Alumen is confined to the following symptoms: tumors prolapsed after hard stool; sharp pain inside rectum; violent itching around anus, evening and night especially; severe pains in anus during stool and for some minutes after, ameliorated by bending forward and by pressure; (worse lying on side), ulcers of rectum, with ichorous, foetid or sanguinolent discharge. Dyspnoea during efforts at stool; asthmatic troubles with haemorrhoids. Weakness of neck of bladder with incontinence of urine. There is reported, in “Allen’s Encyclopaedia,” the following case: “Frequent attacks first hard, then soft stools, and after it for three hours, the most violent pains, burning, shooting, and particularly cutting in the rectum upward, lasting from morning till noon; with the stool passes a great deal of blood, without any relief; sometimes a sensation as if the anus would protrude. After the patient had carried a piece of Alum in his breeches pocket, he never had it again. (Reported to Dr. Neidhard). Same symptoms have in many cases been cured by giving high potencies.(200th, Jenichen).”

ALUMINA (Aluminum oxide.)—Complete inertia of rectum; seems paralyzed and inactive as from deficient peristaltic power; soft stool hard to evacuate, must strain; stools hard and dry as from want of proper intestinal secretions; after stool dropping of blood, or the blood spurts out. Pain in rectum, lasts long; itching, pricking and burning at anus; haemorrhoids prolapsed by standing or walking, worse in evening, ameliorated by the night’s rest Crawling sensation at anus as from worms. Sweat on perineum with intolerable itching which is increased and becomes painful from scratching.

AMM. CARB.—Tumors painful to touch bat not inflamed; bleeding at each stool; the discharge consists of pure blood, without any muco-purulent matter. Constipation. Indicated in case of children, old men and in pale subjects, with bloated face,, weak and inclined to be sad, troubled by constant thought of death, which causes continual misery. These concomitant symptoms are of characteristic importance; pustules on nose and face.

AMM. MUR.—Constipation is less marked than under Amm. carb., when present stools are hard and crumbling, require effort to pass them (Hg.); haemorrhoids protrude during stool, or in the intervals between efforts at stool, are sore and smart. During and after stool, even when faeces are soft, there is heat in rectum; pustules around anus itching and painful; sticking and cutting pains in perineum, while walking and in the evening. Weakness, debility; frequent sensation of weakness or faintness in morning and after dinner. Haemorrhoids from suppressed leucorrhoea (Hg.).

ANACARDIUM.—Haemorrhoids seem to cause frequent and urgent desire for a stool, but the desire passes away with the effort, without an evacuation. Rectum feels as if plugged up. [Kali. bich. and Lach., have sensation of plug in anus; cannot sit.] Deficient power of rectum; even soft stools cause straining to pass them. [Alum., Calc., China., Carbo. veg., Sil., Sepia, Psor., Phos. ac] Moisture from anus. [Baryta c., Carbo. an., Carbo. v. (acrid), Caust., Coloc., Natr, m., Sepia.] Itching at anus; stools of pale color (Hg.); profuse hemorrhage when at stool. Pain about umbilicus as of a dull plug squeezed into intestines. (Hg.)

Concomitant symptoms: Nervous prostration; weakness of intellect, especially for proper names, in mornings; feebleness of sight; weak digestion, with no appreciable gastric disease; hypochondriac, with gastric disorders; erections during day, at night seminal emissions without lascivious dreams. Females are nervous and hysterical.

ANT. CRUD.—Haemorrhoids that have been bleeding for some time, or a white mucoid discharge, which leaves a yellow stain, also irritates surrounding parts, and causes pricking and burning. This discharge is more profuse at night than during the day. When there is constipation, or when the stool is preceded by colic, there is some blood mixed with the mucous discharge.

Concomitant Symptoms: Predominance of gastric disorders; foetid eructation; bitter or tasting of ingesta; nausea and sometimes vomiting; foetid gas; small appetite; constipation alternating with diarrhoea [especially in the aged]; tongue coated white, a milky white; this coating differs from that of Kali. bich. and Pulsat., though not any thicker; gastric troubles and concomitant cutaneous affections; frequent congestion of blood to head; stiffness of back, and rheumatic pains in various parts of the body.

APIS MELL.—Especially indicated when the pains are marked by a continued stinging sensation. [Carbo. an. and Caust. have piles burning and stinging, worse walking; Natr. m. has stinging pain; Sulph. ac. burning, stinging, tearing pain. But these drugs are more or less aggravation from cold and amelioration by heat, which is vs. Apis.] Excessive smarting around anus; excoriation [throbbing in rectum, with sensation as if stuffed full, AEsculushipp.]; frequent desire to go to stool; frequent stools, watery, of dark blood [greenish-yellow, olive-green, with bright red lumps; thin yellow, with weakness; stool with every motion of body, as if anus were constantly open. Phos. Hg.]; urine dark or bloody; dysuria. Apis has aggravation of the pains from heat and amelioration from cold and cold water; nocturnal aggravation.

ARSENICUM.—Burning pains; sensation of burning is so strong that patient compares it to a burning coal;*[Pain as if caused by a burn; Ant. crud., ARS., Carbo veg., Caust., Creos., CYCLAM., Euphorb., Hyos., Rhus., Sec-cor., Stram—Boenninghausen.] worse at night. The haemorrhoidal tumors are swollen, inflamed, prolapsed and bunched; bleed from the least touch. The haemorrhoids are irreducible, even to the most skillful manipulation, and are even strangulated; rhagades often appear at various points. Their color is violet [Phos., Verat.] or blackish [Lach., Rhus.]. The discharge is ichorous; fissures with burning pain. [Anus red and sore; parts around excoriated by the evacuations. Hg.]. Tongue dry, cracked [tongue red, edges red, with imprints of teeth. Hg.]. Violent thirst, patient drinking little and often. Pain in lumbar region, as if back would break; impossible to stoop. Heat; trembling; with great weakness and prostration of all the vital forces. The patient feels constantly a sensation of heat in the veins and skin. Excess of alcoholic drink is an occasional cause of Arsenic haemorrhoids. [The Arsenic haemorrhoids have a stitching burning when walking or sitting, but not at stool; worse at night; wakes patient; relieved by heat.]

BELLADONNA.—Haemorrhoids prolapsed; irreducible on account of a spasmodic contraction of the sphincter ani. The tumors are of a bright red color, and bleed profusely, worse from the lightest touch. The patient constantly seeks various (grotesque) positions to lessen the pain caused by compression. Unbearable pains in the loins, and a sensation in the sacrum as if the bone were broken. Urinary troubles; micturition frequent and difficult; burning in bladder and urethra. Pulse full; face red, purplish. Congestive headache.

BORAX.—Haemorrhoids discharging slimy mucus, mixed, of yellowish or brownish color. Itching and pricking at anus and in rectum. Indicated in children with liquid stools, green like chopped spinach.

BRYONIA.—In bilious persons and in the hot summer weather, “is indicated more certainly when the disease causes a sensation of fullness in eighth lumbar region, and when this fullness changes during movement to a sharp, cutting pain, eased by rest, and seems to be caused by congestion of spleen.”—Hartman. Aching piles: Stool hard and black; dry, as if burnt; scanty; straining to pass it

CALCAREA CARB.—Haemorrhoids prolapsed, much congested; painful while walking, eased by sitting; they render defecation very painful. Profuse hemorrhage is as prominent for Calcarea as for Belladonna. Foetid sweat around anus; prickling in rectum, as if from ants [as of ascarides.—Jahr]. Heat in rectum and at anus.

Especially indicated if there exist such a sympathy between the haemorrhoids and the head, that the latter is disturbed when the haemorrhoidal flow ceases; this trouble of the head is generally vertigo, felt especially when going up-stairs, with dullness and heaviness of head. In women with menses early and profuse. Is an excellent remedy for the bad effects of suppressed haemorrhoidal flow (Nux.), when these symptoms are present: continued vertigo, with fear of falling; tottering gait; pressing and stupefying headache, heaviness of head; weakness of memory. Frequent stools, first hard, then soft, and lastly, liquid. Profuse sweat of the feet, which is foetid, and excoriates the skin.

CAPSICUM AN.—Burning and itching at anus; cutting and smarting during defecation, even when the stool is liquid. The haemorrhoids are very painful, and consequently very much inflamed, with free discharge of blood, and after the blood a discharge of mucus. Haemorrhoids blind or flowing, with burning pain; piles, swollen, itching and throbbing; stools of dysenteric character; burning in abdomen. Urinary troubles, such as tenesmus, frequent and futile urging to urinate; smarting and burning in the urethra during and after urination. Those who constantly use Capsicum as a condiment suffer from haemorrhoids, with burning at anus and constriction of rectum. Suppressed haemorrhoidal flow, causing melancholy. [Hg.]

By so doing they would very soon perceive that Capsicum possesses no privileges not enjoyed by our other drugs. These accidental discoveries often occur thus: one day (why do not these days of light come more frequently?) some one mentions a drug that possesses a great efficacy in curing painful and inflamed haemorrhoidal tumors; this drug is Capsicum annum. For a wonder the announcement is believed and a commission appointed to investigate; this commission experiments and makes its report. The report is favorable. I quote it verbatim: “We observed that after the second day of using this drug there was a very appreciable amelioration of the symptoms; and the disease was ordinarily cured in a few days. After administering it for some days the pains were eased, the size of the tumors lessened, and very soon they dried up and healed.” When it is asserted that Capsicum cures haemorrhoids, the Academy willingly bears witness to it. Experiments on healthy men.

CARBO VEG.—In old external haemorrhoids, tumor large and of bluish color. Incessant sweat; a mucous discharge, giving out a very bad odor. Tardy stools, accompanied by violent burning pains, and sometimes by a discharge of blood. [Acrid corrosive moisture discharged from rectum, while urinating; a great amount of hot, moist and offensive flatus, ameliorated by its escape (China, Lyco., nux, Puls., verat.); soft stool, passed with difficulty (Alum, China, Silicea, Sepia, Phos-ae.); stools burning, light colored, covered by filamentous yellow mucus, last part bloody; stool in fragments, tough and scanty, with urging and tingling in rectum; putrid smelling stools.—( Ars., China, Puls., Silicea, Sulph.)]

General Symptoms: Rush of blood to head; lancinating pains in kidneys; worse from a false step; stiffness in lumbar region; cutting burning pains under the scapulae, in fore-arms, and sometimes in the knees. Loss of appetite, fullness in stomach, bad taste in mouth and bad odor. Intolerable flatulence. Gout. Adynamic conditions, with no fever.

CAUSTICUM.—Haemorrhoids impeding walking on account of the pain they cause; also impede stool; are swollen, itch; stitching in them; burn and sting, worse walking and when thinking of them; Stool shines, is first hard, then soft; passed better when standing. Tumors sensitive to touch. Frequent and ineffectual urging to stool with pain, anxiety and redness of face. Painful pustule near anus, with discharge of pus and blood. Fissures which render walking very painful.

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