I learnt the value of this
nosode from Skinner, who has made with it some very brilliant cures. It has been proved by
Swan in the potencies, and Hering's Schema, from which mine is taken, comprises also disease
symptoms─marked "(n)"─and cured symptoms,
which have generally the name and the disease appended. Cured cases of secondary syphilis I
have marked "(s.s.)." The widespread distribution of syphilis, acquired and
hereditary, and the virulence and persistence of the virus, give this nosode a high degree
of importance in homœopathic practice. It has been mainly, almost exclusively, employed by
those who are familiar with the use of high attenuations. I have used no potency lower than
200, and rarely repeat the dose oftener than once a week. The leading features of the
disease are the keynotes for the use of the remedy, and (1)
first in importance is the "Night <":
"Pains from darkness to daylight; begin with
twilight and end with daylight." "All symptoms <
at night." "Terrible dread of night, on account of mental and physical exhaustion
on awaking." This night aggravation will be found in a large proportion of the cases
needing Syph.; in ophthalmia, the pains are < at night, and during the night the lids grow together.
Neuralgia, and headache, asthma, coughs < from sunset
to sunrise, whether syphilitic or not, will be benefited by Syph.
Sleeplessness is itself a leading indication for Syph.,
which vies with Sul. as a sleep restorer. (2) Next to the Night <, is
Ulceration: this may affect mouth, nose, genitals, or skin, and the ulcers have greyish
bases; in the nose they produce the most offensive form of ozæna with discharge of fetid
clinkers. In such cases I have found Syph. of the
greatest service. Fetid discharges from the ear come in the same category. (3) Abscesses with foul secretions. (All pus-formations of Syph. are fetid.) Succession of
abscesses is one of the grand keynotes of the materia medica. Eyes, teeth, and
skin give other leading indications. In ophthalmia neonatorum the lids adhere during sleep;
pains < 2 to 5 a.m.; pus profuse; > cold bathing. Iritis, syphilitic or rheumatic, has been
cured with Syph. Ptosis; sleepy look from drooping lids.
Diplopia, one image seen below the other. Teeth decay at the edge of the gums and break off;
are cupped, have serrated edges; dwarfed in size and converge at their tips. The typical
eruption of Syph. is copper-coloured spots, but it
covers many other forms, including pemphigus. The glandular system is affected throughout
and nutrition impaired, leading to extreme emaciation. Burnett has recorded in his book on Delicate Children many instances of the power of Syph. to free stunted children from this constitutional blight.
Further indications for Syph. are: Pains < and > gradually; are
shifting, and require frequent change of position. Leucorrhœa; profuse, soaking through
napkins and running to heels. Craving for alcohol in any form. Hereditary tendency to
alcoholism. (Bacchus and Venus are close allies). The orifices of the body are all affected
by syphilis, and Syph. has a great sphere in rectal pain
and constipation. "Obstinate constipation for years; rectum seems tied up with
strictures; when enema was used the agony of passage was like labour." Bones are
affected, and especially bones of head and tibiæ. Nodes on the head. H. C. Allen says:
"Syphilitics, or patients who have had chancre treated by local means, and as a result
have suffered from throat and skip troubles for years, are nearly always benefited by this
remedy at commencement of treatment unless some other remedy is clearly indicated."
Thomas Wildes (H. P., xi. 267) gives his experience with
Syph. In chancre he gives Syph.
1m (Swan)─according to Skinner's calculation this is much lower than 1m
of the centesimal scale─one dose every night. The chancre increases for
the first two weeks and then gradually fades away, not being followed by secondaries. Where
the edges of the chancre assume the appearance of proud flesh in the third or fourth week,
and become everted, jagged, and angry dark red, he gives Lac can.
cm (Swan) every night for ten to fourteen days, until the sore takes on a more natural
appearance, when Syph. 1m is again given to finish the
case. For any remaining induration Nit. ac. 30, four
times a day, is given. Headaches in great variety he cured with it; aphasia; ptosis;
paralysis of tongue; facial paralysis; hemiplegia; "persistent pains in any part of the
body;" catarrhal and nerve deafness; itching of nostrils; dark purple lines between
alæ nasi and cheeks. Itching scabby eruptions on face or breast; singly or in clusters,
looking like herpes. Pain and pressure behind sternum. Epilepsy. Wildes cured with Syph. 1m a bookkeeper who for many months had had a piercing,
pressing, excruciating headache over right eye extending deep into brain. It was so severe,
he was losing continuity of thought and memory. Under Syph.
every night the headache disappeared entirely in ten days and the mental faculties were
fully restored; but in six weeks the whole eyebrow on that side broke out into a sickly,
yellow, syphilitic eczema with a red, angry, and oozing base extending under the arch to the
lid from canthus to canthus up into forehead and down the side of the nose. The cure of this
was tedious, because, Wildes thinks, he did not stick to Syph.,
but changed the remedy. This man had had syphilis a few years before. In 1879 a lady, 26,
extremely bright and intelligent, came to Wildes with a dreadful ozæna. She had also
curvature of the spine and congestion of right ovary. Always delicate from a child. Syph. cured the ozæna and improved the health, but it
"drove out a saddle to which the Sepia saddle is
but a shadow"─a furious inflammatory mass of syphilitic sores,
scabs, and eczema, red and angry, with a fiery base extending from one malar prominence to
the other, across nose up to eyes and forehead. This took eighteen months to cure. The ozœna
never returned. A boy, 4, had an obstinate rash, a combination of prurigo and herpes, on
chin, lips, cheek-bone, forehead, and hairy scalp; on arms, chest, back, bends of joints and
on the joints, and on fingers and hands, nowhere profuse. In spite of authorities to the
contrary, Wildes maintains that syphilitic rashes may itch, and that prurigo is infectious
and is one of the initial stages of leprosy. This boy had a spot of eruption on the left
thigh the size of the top-joint of a man's thumb. This was distinctly a leper spot. Syph. 1m caused the rash to come out strongly all over the body
in patches, the face was one-third covered with a thick, yellow, scabby eruption. The remedy
was continued and the boy got well, wonderfully improved in health, no longer nervous,
growing well; sleeping well; appetite good. Girl, 16, had measles a year before which did
not come out properly. A year and a half prior thereto subject to neuralgic headaches.
Ailing about two years; very despondent, wants to die, headaches growing more violent.
During the headaches the temple veins stand out, has pains all over the body, is very
irritable, restless, walking about much of the time,
does not wish to be soothed, violent on being opposed,
has tremors and seems on the verge of convulsions,
dazed, absent-minded, and almost insane. Always washing her hands. Was formerly constipated, but
now subject to "a kind of diarrhœa." Menses never have come on properly, and for
the past year have been very irregular, much delayed, scanty, and always
extremely painful. Often feverish. Sleep anxious, distressed, and often wakeful and violently restless.
The italicised symptoms indicated Syph., and under this
she steadily recovered. A young lady contracted "lepra-syphilis" from vaccination.
She had an immense blood-boil on her arm which would not heal. Face broken out with a lumpy
fiery rash. With Syph. 1m at bedtime she recovered
rapidly; the arm healed quickly and her face became free from eruption. Boy, 3, had cluster
of yellow blotches on fingers and roots of nails, distorting the nails. The boy's father was
epileptic. The boy was helped with Fluor. ac. and cured
with Syph., the nails becoming straight. Many persons,
says Wildes, after taking Syph. for a few days,
complained of heavy, crushing, cutting pains across the base of the cerebellum; others of
heavy aching and stiffness from base of neck up through muscles and cords of neck and into
the brain; others of a heavy, clouded, dull feeling at base of brain with physical lethargy,
and sometimes with dizziness, sometimes with confusion of thoughts and often a feeling as if
going insane or about to be paralysed. Sometimes a far-away feeling, with a feeling of
indifference to the future. Accompanying these there may come a heavy, dragging, dull
feeling in lumbar region, with stiffness and want of elasticity. Peculiar
Sensations are: A seething feeling as if hot water or hot oil running through all
veins of the body, all night long. As if going insane or about to be paralysed. Tongue feels
as if paralysed. A far-away feeling with apathy. As if head were pulled back by a weight. As
if blood went to right inner canthus and temples and could get no further. As if sand in
eyes. As if right eye were wide open and cold air were blowing in it. Fluttering as of
something alive in teeth. As if a worm in tooth. As if teeth had got out of place. Distress
as if in omentum. As if rectum were tied up with strictures. As if urethra had been stuffed
up and clogged. As if sternum was being drawn towards dorsal vertebræ. As if she would
suffocate with rough. As if skin were drawn up in centre of chest on drawing back head.
Coccyx as if swollen. As if toes on right foot were disjointed. Like growing-pains in limbs.
As if bones were sawed. Palms and soles as if pricked by needles. As if throat tearing to
pieces. As if top of head were coming off. As if teeth were loose. As of a nervous chill
commencing in anus and running down legs. As if bitten by bugs. A number of linear pains have been observed in Syph.
cases. G. H. Carr (M. A., xvii. 162) relates this case:
An old man had been troubled two or three winters with an intense
cold pain in both legs; it came on every night on lying down; and lasted all
night, the only relief being by getting up and walking. Magnetic leggings had given most
relief. Syph. mm, one dose daily, was given. He lost the
pain for six weeks, when it returned in milder form. Syph.
cmm was given, and he had no more pains all the winter. This medicine, he said "made
his genitals ache so that he couldn't sit still." This lasted over a month. Syph. cm cured (ibid.) a lady
of "asthma" that she had had for twenty-five years, the attack coming on only at night after lying down, or during
a thunderstorm. Swan (M. A., xxviii. 239)
says he gave crying infants, when they developed the propensity immediately after birth and
did not cease, one dose of Syph. cmm, and it was
difficult to make them cry after that. Yingling (M. A.,
xxix. 135) reports this case: Rev. D., 30, dark, free from venereal taint, had a constant
dull, heavy ache above inner angle of right eye, very distressing, with an occasional thrust as of an iron rod from the same spot through to lower part
of occiput. This thrust was excruciating. He was due to preach next day, but the pain quite
incapacitated him, hence his appeal for help. Haggard look. Syph.
cm, one dose, was given. He was free from pain before he reached home, next morning was
perfectly well. The symptoms are < by touch (tibia;
os uteri). Pressure = pain in spot middle of thigh; > throat; pressing teeth together >
toothache. No position suits. Motion <. Raising arms
laterally <. Walking >
pain in hips and thighs. < At night. Warmth and cold < and >. Warmth > headache; of stove >
pain in swollen wrist and big toe. Hot or cold things <
toothache. Cold water > ophthalmia pains. Damp
weather; warm, damp weather; thunderstorm; seaside <.
> In mountains. <
Winter.