Kreosotum


Kreosotum signs and symptoms of the homeopathy medicine from the Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica by J.H. Clarke. Find out for which conditions and symptoms Kreosotum is used…


      Kreosote or Creosote. A product of distillation of Wood Tar. 8C H10 O2.Solution in Rectified Spirit. (J. Meredith makes dilutions of “the first heavy distillate of hard green wood,” which he has named Carbo pyroligneous.).

Clinical

Acne. Amenorrhoea. *Cancer. Carbuncle. Change of life. Cholera infantum. Coccygodynia. Congenital syphilis. Constipations. *Consumption. *Dentition. Diarrhoea. Ear, affections of. Enuresis. Epithelioma. Eructations. Eruptions. Flushings. Gastromalacia. Glossitis. Haemorrhages. Haemorrhagic diathesis. Herpes. *Hysterical vomiting. *Irritations. *Leucorrhoea. Lip, epithelioma of. Lupus. *Menstruation, disorders of. Neuralgia. Ovary, affections of. Prostate, irritation of. *Pregnancy, vomiting of. Pustules. Rheumatism. Seasickness. *Stomach, affections of. Syphilis. Syphilitic deafness. *Teeth, caries of. *Toothache. Ulcers. *Urine, incontinence of. Uterus, affections of. Vomiting. Whooping-cough. Yawning.

Characteristics

*Kreosote, a product of the distillation of pyroligneous acid and of tar, the preservative principle of the smoke, used for smoking meats and fish, was discovered by Reichenbach, a Moravian chemist, early in the nineteenth century. The second edition of his work, published in 1835, supplies many of our data, but independently Kreosotum has been well proved. Its name, derived from the Greek, means “flesh-preserver”, and Teste includes it with *Arsen., Mercurius Cor. Plumb., Stannum, nitricum acidum, Sul-ac., Crocus, and Argentum met., in his Mercurius Sol. group. He remarks that several members of this group, while preserving dead organic matter from decomposition, have just the opposite effect on living tissues. The entire group have these characters: Suppressed or more frequently increased secretions with putridity. *Foul breath. Bloating. Caries of teeth and bones. Cadaverous coldness. *Predominant left-sidedness. Deep, nervous and mental derangement. Violent oscillation of symptoms. ravenous hunger to anorexia, etc. All favor the production of intestinal parasites and all are therefore anthelmintic. Excessive indulgence in smoked meats and fish is very injurious to the health. The principal observed effects are: Scorbutic condition of gums, falling out and decay of teeth, foul breath, costiveness, malaise. (*Salt, another great preservative, also produces scurvy.) Kermes, of Weinsberg, had collected 135 cases in which death has occurred apparently from eating smoked food. The leading symptoms in all were: Burning pain at epigastrium, bloody vomiting, meteorism, violent colic with constipation, slow breathing, sinking of pulse and dilatation of pupils. (Teste.) Reichenbach not only discovered *Kreosotum, he also introduced it into medical practice, and there was, as usual, a rush for the new remedy, which for a short time was a panacea, and then, except among homoeopaths, fell into neglect. Teste observed that it *acted particularly well on infants in the cradle, and congenital syphilis was a very strong indication for it. The marked action of *Kreosotum on the teeth and dentition confirms this. (Cooper cured with *Kreosotum 30 a case of auditory vertigo in a patient with pegged teeth. No other medicine would touch the case.} But it is also frequently called for in acquired syphilis, especially in the skin manifestations.Nash confirms the action on children and especially during dentition. The teeth decay almost as soon as they appear. Gums dark red or blue and very painful, incessant vomiting, cadaverous-smelling stools. The urinary symptoms are also marked, and *Kreosotum is one of the most important remedies in enuresis. The chief urinary features are: (1) Copious pale urine. (2) Sudden, great urging, the patient cannot go quick enough. (3) The child wets the bed during the first sleep which is very profound. *J. Meredith (“Agricola”) proved on himself (*H. W., xxviii. 84) ” the first heavy distillate from hard green wood,” obtained at charcoal works, in the 4X attenuation. The symptoms observed were so like those of pure *Kre. that I do not think they need be separated. Among them were: Great thirst in evening. Enormous appetite. Stabbings here and there. Eyes feel as if in a woody smoke. Sneezing. Spleen pain. Nasal pus [Teste emphasizes a discharge “of fetid pus from nostrils.”) At 7 a.m. sitting up in bed, pain and stiffness across hips and sacrum, which continued during the day. *Prostate and bladder irritation, during night frequently rises to pass a very little urine, coming away like spray. It cured at the same time constipation of ten to twelve days’ duration. Meredith cured with it a girl, et. 17, of intense urethral scalding after urination (*H. W., xxx.83). Kreosotum is no less suited to women than it is to children, and especially to the leucophlegmatic temperament. Grauvogl cured with *Kreosotum 3x a girl of 20 of suppression of menses, with a concomitant state of imbecility. (In another woman who had suppressed menses with tertian intermittent fever, the intermittent was cured with *Chi. Sul one grain four times a day, and then Grauvogl, hearing for the first time of the suppression of the menses, gave *Kreosotum 3x, with the result that the fever returned in full force. *Quinine was again given, and the fever again disappeared. Before the next period, as the patient was of the *Nux type, that remedy was given and the period was re-established. According to Grauvogl *Kreosotum has a short period of action, one or two days, *Chi. Sul having two or three weeks, and he quotes the case to illustrate the law or incompatibility, in intermittents *Chi. may be given after *Kreosotum, but not *Kreosotum after *Chi.) Guernsey summarizes the action of Kreosotum on women thus: *”Leucorrhoea putrid, with accompanying complaints, leucorrhoea in general, especially if very fetid and exhausting. Female genitals in general. Complaints after menstruation, of females at change of life.” According to the same authority *Kreosotum affects especially the inner temples, external ears and lobe of the ear. It is suited to *very severe old neuralgias with tearing pains, sensations affecting upper jaw, upper teeth, inner navel region, shoulder-blades. Dry- peeling lips are a characteristic: and *Kre. has cured a tumour of lower lip, supposed to be epithelioma, with dry, cracked skin. In my own experience *Kreosotum (3 and 30) meets a very large proportion of toothache cases where the teeth are decayed, especially if the gums are scorbutic. It’s nearest rivals are *Staphisagria with *blackened teeth, and *Mercurius with suppurating gumboil. The scapular pain is illustrated by a case of Lutz’s. A lady had a pain under left scapula, worse by motion, excruciatingly worse by riding in a carriage, better by pressure, by lying with that shoulder on something hard, and by warmth. A long succession of homoeopathic remedies was given in vain. Then the old school had a trial with *Antipyrine and *Morphia, with no better success. Long after, Lutze met the patient causally, and she mentioned that she had pains in the *left thumb. This led him to *Kreosotum, under which he found the other symptoms of the case. He asked the patient to let him give her one other dose. She consented. *Kre.200 was given and completely cured the patient, who had become nervous zoo and worn out by the suffering she had endured (*F. of Homoeopathic, May, 1890)., In the same number of the same journal a case is recorded by Jean. I. Mackay in which Kre. 45m. twice repeated at long intervals, wrought a cure: Mrs. L., 28, fair, nervous. Has one child, et. 9. Six years before Mackay saw her had an abortion and since then health had been failing. Her chief complaint was of haemorrhage from the uterus, brought on by lifting, over-exertion, and *always followed coitus. No pain during coitus. Menses regular but profuse and clotted. Constant dull aching pain in back. The day after the flow has a terrible left-sided headache better by hot water applied to head. Annoying itching in genitals at time. OS eroded, speculum soon filling with clotted blood. “Coitus followed by flow of blood the next day ” is a keynote for *Kreosotum ***W. P. Wesselhoeft (*Hahn. Ad., xxxviii.23) confirms these symptoms: Coarse, red elevated acne pimples, especially in *blonde women. Nocturnal enuresis from too profound sleep, child cannot be awakened when taken up. Giving out of knee-joint with annoying cracking (in a large, fat *blonde woman). Large purulent blisters on concha of both ears, with a red base, like small-pox pustules. Chronic headache accompanied with great drowsiness, during which the patient would sleep most of the time, and groan is his sleep. Relief was followed by the appearance of a great number of small warts on scalp. (Hering mentions these constitutions as suited to *Kreos: Dark complexion, slight, lean. Complexion livid, disposition sad, irritable. Old women. Torpid, leucophlegmatic temperament. Old-looking children, hard to awaken. Blondes.) The following case of coccygodynia was reported in *Amer. Hom. Miss A. complains of unbearable burning pains in sacrum extending down to coccyx, with feeling there when sitting as if an electric battery were attached with needles which were pricking through the skin. Better rising from seat. Attended with milky leucorrhoea. *Kre. cured in three days. James H. Freer (*N. A. F. H., xli. 489) cured a lady over 80 who suffered from incontinence of urine on the occurrence of a bronchial attack which compelled her to keep her bed. Villers has reported a case of incontinence worse *when lying down cured by *Kreosotum, and this led Freer to the remedy, which rapidly cleared up the case, bronchitis and all. (In Villers’ case *Kre. 30 was given for “incontinence of urine when lying down” because he had cured with it many cases of uterine haemorrhage occurring only in, or worse by, the horizontal position. *H.R., x. 24.) Freer also cured incontinence in a case of locomotor ataxy (man, 74) with *Kre. 6. An allopathic authority, Vladimir de Holstein, of Paris (*Amer. Hom. xxiv. 93), accidentally cured with 6-drop doses of *Kreosotum, given in beer or milk, aggravated constipation in a chlorotic girl. He gave it with the sole idea of “disinfecting” the intestines. The vomiting of *Kre. is noteworthy. The most characteristic form is that due to weakness of stomach, which cannot digest, and which rejects a meal undigested some hours after it was eaten. Vomiting of pregnancy, sweetish water with ptyalism, of cholera infantum, incessant vomiting with cadaverous stools, in malignant disease of stomach. Gentry has recorded the following: Lady, 45, on visiting a fried ill with dysentery, was struck with the odor, went home, commenced to vomit, and vomited all food or drink and continued, without ceasing, vomiting or retching for three weeks, being fed by the rectum all the time. She had to be held up by the nurse. She was greatly emaciated. *Kre. 200, one dose given. In twenty minutes the retching ceased. The patient fell asleep, had no more vomiting, and rapidly recovered. Up to this time she had been under allopaths, who advised that homoeopathy should be tried, as they could do no more. Harmar Smith (*H.W., xxiii. 496) cured a girl of I0 of very frequent and violent eructation, she was apparently healthy in other respects. *Belladonna and *Pulsatilla did no good. *Arg-n., aggravated. *Kre. 2x at once did good and cursed in a few days. A fatal case of poisoning with eighteen drops of *Kre. has been recorded (*H.W., xxix. 344) and brings out many of the symptoms in the cases above quoted. A woman, 52, was given for a pulmonary affection *Kre. six drops in milk three times a day. After the third day she had: Dysphagia, gastric pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, and a distressing tendency to cough. On admission to hospital twenty-four hours later the breath smelt of *Kreosotum Skin and mucous membranes pale, lips blue, dysphagia marked. Mucous membrane of mouth of a dull white colour in parts. Paralysis and anesthesia of palate, paralysis of larynx, analgesia of left arm and part of left leg. Later, albumen and casts in urine. After four days, some stupor, and weakness more marked. Next day collapse and death. After death two large erosions were found on upper part of esophagus and others about pylorus. Stomach red and congested. Kidneys acutely inflamed. Cloudy swelling of liver. Burning pains are a marked feature of *Kre. (lupus of nose with burning pains. Chronic pneumonia with pain like red-hot coals in chest), and stitches are even more characteristic. Itching is intense. Among the *peculiar sensations are: As if a board was across forehead. As if brain would force through forehead. As if something floating before eyes. As if a hard twisted ball was lying in umbilical region. During defecation children struggle and scream and seem as if they would go into fits. Burning as of hot coals deep in pelvis. As if something coming out of vagina. As if a load was resting on pelvis. As if sternum being crushed in. As of a heavy burden on crest of ilium. As if small of back would break. As if scapula and other parts bruised. As if tendon of elbow-joint too short. As if small of back would break. As if hip dislocated. As if leg too long when standing. There is general sensitiveness to touch and contact. Marked periodicity is apparent. Intermittent fevers. Prostration and restlessness. Fretful, irritable, apprehensive. Music makes him weep. Weak-minded with suppressed menses. Sufferings from the non-appearance of menses _ hence at change of life. The symptoms are worse after menstruation, during leucorrhoea, when yawning. worse in open air, cold weather, when growing cold, from cold washing or bathing. Worse at rest and especially when lying. Leucorrhoea is better sitting, worse standing and walking. Cough compels sitting up all night. Touch worse. Pressure better. General better from warmth. worse by coitus and after coitus. Hoarseness is better by sneezing. Coughing causes involuntary micturition. Drawing in limbs alternates with sufferings in the eyes.

John Henry Clarke
John Henry Clarke MD (1853 – November 24, 1931 was a prominent English classical homeopath. Dr. Clarke was a busy practitioner. As a physician he not only had his own clinic in Piccadilly, London, but he also was a consultant at the London Homeopathic Hospital and researched into new remedies — nosodes. For many years, he was the editor of The Homeopathic World. He wrote many books, his best known were Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica and Repertory of Materia Medica

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