Mirza Tahir Ahmad James Tyler Kent
Silicea or Silica is an element naturally present in sand and certain stones. It is widely distributed in the entire world. This element, along with clay, became the first building block for the creation of life.
No wonder it is present in each and every living cell. Through the work of some renowned homoeopaths, Silicea has been found to possess many qualities. Silicea has never been used as a remedy except in homoeopathy. Its symptoms and signs have been discovered on homoeopathic proving, over a long period. Silicea is one of those remedies in which proving is a very slow and time consuming process. On proving, it has been found to be a profoundly active remedy, capable of working for a long period of time.
Silicea cannot tolerate the presence of any foreign material in the body. It stimulates the body defences to react against any foreign body and expel it as soon as possible. If the foreign material happens to be inanimate, then Silicea initiates the process of pus formation around it. The pus formed creates a soft resilient medium like Mobil oil, through which the foreign body gets expelled gradually and softly without further injury to the soft tissues. If the foreign body happen to be animate, such as bacteria, viruses or intestinal worms, etc., then Silicea provokes an appropriate body response. This process is definitely more effective than the conventional antibiotic therapy. Silicea may simply kill the germs and worms, liquefy them in the form of pus or just expel them through the different natural orifices.
In some diseases, Silicea has little or no effect on the patient, such as the typhoid fever. Similarly, in certain cases of blood poisoning (toxaemia and septicaemia) it may not be as effective as Sulphur and Pyrogenium, which are definitely much superior. Now, after long experience, we have come to know the diseases where Silicea will be definitely effective, as well as the conditions where something else would be more appropriate. For certain deep-seated illnesses of a grave nature, requiring the activation of a very specific response on the part of the body, the physician has to work hard in order to find the most appropriate remedy, keeping in mind both the nature of the disease as well as the remedy. The powerful defence system of the body is very intricate and individually designed to combat hundreds of thousands of illnesses. The system is like a great powerful factory beyond the comprehension of not only ordinary people but also the expert scientists. Silicea, despite appearing wideranging and powerful, has yet to overwhelm the natural defence system or even match it.
Generally speaking, Silicea is very effective against contagious disease, boils and abscesses. Similarly, it provokes a surprisingly strong reaction against inanimate foreign objects entering the body. For example, Silicea is extremely effective in the expulsion of a retained nail, fishbone or shotgun pellets in the body. Here, it works in two ways. When given in low potency, it gradually increases the local blood flow, kills the germs and produces pus. The process of healing of the boils and abscesses, which normally takes seven to ten days to get ready to burst open, may be completed in two to three days. Moreover, the pain is relatively less and much less pus is formed. The hole through which the pus exudes is also small and insignificant. On the same lines, Silicea helps the expulsion of a needle, piece of metal or stone retained in the body. The process is very intricate and yet to be understood but the practical examples are so obviously true. Once, an eminent surgeon told me that one of his patients had swallowed a needle, which became stuck in his intestines. Obviously, it was dangerous to remove it surgically. The surgeon had heard about the efficacy of Silicea and decided to use it. After a while, the needle showed up on the surface of the skin, without injuring the internal organs. The path adopted by the needle was the shortest towards the skin surface. There was no damage inflicted to the linings of the intestines, or the fat inside the abdomen. The method by which Silicea performs this harmless function cannot be conjectured by human intellect and imagination, but the observation is too weighty and hard to be denied. Once when I was in Rabwah, a large irregular piece of glass got stuck in the foot of a child, deep to the bone. The foot became extremely swollen and the doctor refused to remove it surgically. The child was treated with Silicea 6X for a month. At first, the swelling started getting less and then the large piece of glass started to gradually emerge from the skin. It was then safely removed with forceps.
Due to the use of contaminated water in Africa and Sindh province of Pakistan, quite commonly a worm enters the body, which can be very dangerous. It starts growing in length like a tape. It then shows up like a cotton ball under the surface of the skin, which may grow up to the size of a football. The leg may grow to the size of the foot of an elephant. This is why this condition is called elephantiasis. A Waqfe- Jadid missionary Homoeopathic doctor named Nisar Maurani, a convert from Hinduism, successfully made use of Silicea in the treatment of this disease. He observed that Silicea 6X simply dissolves the worm inside the body and thus obviates the need for surgery. Surgery can in fact be very dangerous. If the worm is not completely removed and is severed or accidentally cut into pieces, every piece will then rapidly grow into a new worm, wherever it deposits in the body. This is potentially fatal. Local experts in Africa extract it by rolling it on a thorn or a matchstick. The worm may be hundreds of feet long. If it gets severed during this process, all the hard work goes in vain. Be it Sindh or Africa, Silicea works equally well everywhere. It dissolves the worm and lets it be extruded through a minute hole.
Sometimes, a fishbone gets stuck in the throat and is difficult to remove. Once, I confronted a similar situation myself. I tried to remove it but failed. Then, I took Silicea 6X. Within a few hours, the fishbone came out with an act of a mild cough. I have found it effective in children too. With rare exceptions, Silicea is always effective.
When given in high potency, Silicea dries pus. Large abscesses thus gradually regress and disappear. Pus does not form with the use of Silicea in high potency. Pus formation is usual with Silicea used in low potency. One must understand the dual role of Silicea, which obviously is under the control of the natural defence system of the natural human body. In tuberculosis, Silicea in high potency plays the role of expulsion of the germs by way of formation of pus. It cannot kill the tuberculous Bacillus however. In case the germs happen to settle in the vicinity of an artery, then Silicea may result in rupture of the artery and cause severe haemorrhageing, which may prove fatal. Therefore, the physician has to be very cautious before embarking on the use of Silicea 6X or 30 even. In general a, low potency works rather slowly and mildly and thus prevents against any serious reaction. According to Dr. Kent, whether given in low or high potency, Silicea is dangerous to the patients of tuberculosis. So, as far as possible it should be avoided but if it needs to be given at all, only potency 30 should be used. It is neither too high, nor too low.
Silicea is incompatible with some remedies and should never be mixed with them. For example, it is incompatible with any form of Mercury, so Silicea and Mercury should never be given together. Hepar Sulph is similar to Silicea in some respects and similar to Merc Sol in others. It must always be used in between the usage of Silicea and Mercury. It serves as a bridge between the two remedies. Sometimes, Silicea works in an unexpected way, for example, a patient has infection in the root of a tooth, but is not aware of it. If by chance, he is treated with Silicea, his jaws will start swelling up and the tooth will become loose. At this stage, he should take Hepar Sulph (the antidote for Silicea). He will be relieved of the pain immediately and will also know for sure that he had an infection in the root of the tooth. A suitable homoeopathic remedy then can be administered to help restore the tooth.
A general symptom of Silicea is that the patient feels very cold. His hands and feet remain cold. This symptom may however be deceiving and hinder the way to proper treatment. In general, the patients suffering from infectious fever (septicaemia) have very hot hands and feet. Many a physician will then treat them with Pulsatilla instead of Silicea. Obviously, it is of no avail. The real diagnosis of Silicea is that before the onset of fever, the hands and feet become cold. As the temperature rises, the symptoms of Pulsatilla manifest. It must be remembered that Silicea is the chronic of Pulsatilla. Sometimes, the body of a patient is fiery hot, including the hands and the feet, but he needs to be treated with Silicea instead of Pulsatilla. It happens very commonly in the treatment for severe infection of the tonsils. Some of these children who are wrongly treated with Pulsatilla instead of Silicea may lose their life.
A Silicea patient is by nature, apprehensive of failure i.e. job or exam. Particularly school children have this problem. For example, many people who in spite of being able to drive efficiently, repeatedly fail in the driving test, in spite of having reasonable knowledge and practice of driving. Similar fear is also found in some other homoeopathic remedies. Therefore, Silicea is often forgotten. Nevertheless, administration of Silicea 6X along with Kali Phos can produce wonderfully positive results.
Some wounds and ulcers become indolent and resistant to healing. If the patient exhibits the symptoms of Silicea, then Silicea can activate the healing process of this dormant condition, by way of formation of pus. After the pus comes out, the wound becomes dry, leaving a very inconspicuous scar.
Silicea is extremely useful in the treatment of enlarged body glands in women. It is very effective against the common skin infections such as pustules, blisters and abscesses. Ugly looking pubertal acne often responds very well to the treatment with Silicea 30 and Kali Bromide. It can often cure the stubborn type of acne. The treatment should continue for at least a month, and then repeated on and off, as needed.
One should never forget using Silicea for infection causing the formation of pus, in any part of the body. Excessive sweating of the feet in Silicea resembles Sulphur. In Sulphur, the feet remain warm, sweat and feel burning. In Silicea, the patient feels cold, yet sweats excessively on his feet.
In Silicea, the headache begins in the nape of the neck, commonly in the morning. Thus, it is different from the headache of Gelsemium. Both Silicea and Gelsemium are of mild, cold nature. In Silicea, the headache may shift to the front of the head, forehead or even the eyes. If this symptom is evident, then the treatment should be Silicea. The headache begins in the morning and continues till late night.
In Silicea, sometimes, the lower part of the body is dry, while the upper part is sweaty. In Calcarea Carb, it is only the head that sweats. In Rhus Tox, the upper part of the body sweats, except the head. In Silicea, the ailment begins in a very timely manner and finishes on time (periodicity). The symptoms can recur however. The symptoms aggravate on the rise of the new moon.
In some children, asthma becomes more severe with the appearance of the new moon. This is typical of Silicea. Certain kinds of fevers, irregularity of the menstrual cycles and epilepsy is also related to the moon. Most of the ailments of Silicea last seven days.
In Silicea, besides the nape, the headache is mostly on the right side of the head, resembling Mag Phos (for details, please refer to Mag Phos). Silicea is also very useful in the treatment of severe and troublesome eczema over the scalp. However, the treatment should be combined with Psorinum and Graphites, which will definitely ameliorate the chronic eczema. These remedies should be given in potency 1000 and repeated alternately. In psoriasis too, the patient has to be given Psorinum, Sulphur, Silicea and Graphites one after the other. The disease being very deep and serious cannot be controlled with one or two remedies.
Sometimes, children develop blood naevi (haemangioma) in the form of raw-looking blood-filled blisters. If the patient is of cold constitution, then by Allah’s grace, Silicea will be very useful. Otherwise, Ferrum Metallicum would be the first choice, which has also been found to be useful in the treatment of large birthmarks.
Silicea is very beneficial in the treatment of dangerous and deepseated illnesses of the glands. It is capable of softening and reducing the size of the glands. Calcarea Fluor, Baryta Carb, Phytolacca and Causticum may also be useful. If the glands at the jaws, in the neck and in the armpits start growing rapidly and the patient is of cold constitution, then Silicea must be used. If Silicea does not offer any relief, then the condition is probably cancer. In this condition, Silicea alone will not benefit. This patient should be treated with Sulphur CM. When the patient starts feeling cold with the treatment of Sulphur, then one dose of Silicea CM should be given. As long as the symptoms of cold or heat do not change, the treatment should not be changed either.
Silicea is also useful in the treatment of ulcers of the cornea. Corneal ulcer is difficult to treat, but if the patient is of the constitution of Silicea then Silicea would work extraordinarily well. (For other similar remedies, please see under Calcarea Fluor).
Tonsillitis associated with catarrhal conditions is found in many homoeopathic remedies. Silicea will only be successful if this is a constitutional remedy. Silicea, like Calcarea Fluor, can also be useful in the treatment of brittle teeth.
In most homoeopathic literature, Silicea is not mentioned as the treatment for acute inflammation of the throat. It is only described for chronic illnesses of the throat. This is incorrect. In fact, Silicea is capable of curing the acute infection of the tonsils (quinsy) associated with fever. Simultaneous use of Kali Mur, Ferrum Phos and Calcarea Fluor 6X will help the fever subside rapidly, by the grace of God. If the fever does not come down on the first day, it will gradually subside in two to three days.
A patient of Silicea feels cold, yet likes to drink very cold water. He wants to eat ice or put ice in all the drinks. In some homoeopathic literatures, it is mentioned that a Silicea patient hates to take meat or if he likes meat at all, he likes to eat it cold. My own vast experience does not support this notion. Most Silicea patients do not in fact, dislike meat.
Silicea is also very useful in the treatment of chronic diarrhoea, which may be due to tuberculosis or unclean and unhealthy food (as the food sometimes available in refugee camps). In chronic diarrhoea or dysentery, besides Sulphur and Croton, Silicea may also be useful, provided that the patient’s body remains cold. During a world war, a homoeopath used Silicea very successfully in the treatment of diarrhoea. At another occasion, Silicea did not benefit. The reason is that the diseases adopt different nature in different kinds of weather and epidemics, and will obviously need different remedies to treat them.
Some of the Silicea symptoms resemble those of Kali Carb. Both are of cold constitution. Silicea works extremely well in the treatment of sexual diseases (like Kali Carb). If the patient wets his bed due to cold, this can also be treated with Silicea.
Sudden cessation of periods in women, especially young girls can be effectively treated with Silicea, provided the patient also exhibits other symptoms of Silicea, so much so that it can effectively cure even the epilepsy resulting from the cessation of periods.
Silicea is also very useful in the treatment of asthma. Fever during asthma can best be treated with Silicea. Silicea given after the asthma attack is over will prolong its effectiveness and will stop the tendency towards asthma in the future.
Silicea is the treatment of epilepsy if the patient is of cold constitution and if the epilepsy is preceded by an aura originating at the abdomen and then affecting the brain. One should never forget using Silicea for the treatment of epilepsy occurring in the early part of the lunar month.
In Silicea, the tongue hurts, as in gout, and is swollen. One part or other of the tongue keeps hurting constantly. Blisters form over the gums. Silicea also relieves the hiccuping resulting from stomach upset. Nux Vomica and Ignatia are also very useful in the treatment of hiccups.
In Silicea, there is a tendency towards nausea and vomiting. The general symptoms of Silicea being present, Silicea can also cure the liver dysfunction. The patient dislikes hot food, but loves to eat it cold.
Sometimes, children develop severe constipation and strain hard. In these children, Silicea and Veratrum Album are very useful. (For detail, see under Veratrum Album).
Silicea is also useful in many urinary problems. If the urine contains pus as well as blood, or there is frequency of urination due to an irritable bladder or the urine contains particulate matter settling in the bottom of the container, then Silicea will be beneficial.
The oxalate stones produced in the kidneys, which are not amenable to any other treatment, may be excreted in the urine by using Silicea 6X. These stones are usually not visible in the x-rays. The diagnosis is mostly based on the severe pain (renal colic). Oxalate stones are more common in the areas where the food gets contaminated with minute stone particles. My pupils in homoeopathy have widely used Silicea in the treatment of these stones in Afghan refugee camps successfully.
Sometimes, cysts form in the lower part of the uterus, which can rupture letting their sticky contents flow out. It is a pretty troublesome and disturbing condition. The ovaries become inflamed and may even produce pus. Small nodules form inside the uterus. Silicea is very effective in the treatment of all these symptoms if it matches the constitution of the patient.
Warts, inflammation and pain due to an in-growing toenail or formation of the calluses due to tight shoes can be treated with Silicea or Sulphur according to the overall symptoms of the patient. But some homoeopaths claim that the best treatment of an in-grown nail is the homoeopathic remedy prepared from a magnet found in Northern part of Australia.
Adjuvants: Thuja, Pulsatilla, Fluoric Acid
Potency: 30 or higher as needed, to be used with extreme caution.
by Mirza Tahir Ahmad
SILICEA
The action of Silica is slow. In the proving, it takes a long time to develop the symptoms. It is, therefore, suited to complaints that develop slowly.
Generalities: At certain times of the year and under certain circumstances peculiar symptoms will come out.
They may stay with the prover the balance of his life. Such are the long-acting, deep-acting remedies; they are capable of going so thoroughly into the vital order that hereditary disturbances are routed out. The Silica patient is chilly; his symptoms are developed in cold, damp weather, though often better in cold, dry weather; symptoms come out after a bath.
Mind: The mental state is peculiar.
The patient lacks stamina. What Silica is to the stalk of, grain in the field, it is to the human mind. Take the glossy, stiff, outer covering of a stalk of grain and examine it, and you will realize with what firmness it supports the head of grain until it ripens; there is a gradual deposit of Silica in it to give it stamina. So it is with the mind; when the mind needs Silica it is in a state of weakness, embarrassment, dread, a state of yielding.
If you should listen to the description of this state by a prominent clergyman, or a lawyer, or a man in the habit of appearing in public with self-confidence, firmness and fullness of thought and speech, he would tell you he had come to a state where he dreads to appear in public, he feels his own selfhood so that he cannot enter into his subject, he dreads it, he fears that he will fail, his mind will not work, he is worn out by prolonged efforts at mental work.
But he will say that when he forces himself into the harness he can go on with ease, his usual self-command returns to him and he does well; he does his work with promptness, fullness, and accuracy. The peculiar Silica state is found in the dread of failure.
If he has any unusual mental task to perform, he fears he will make a failure of it, yet he does it well. This is the early state; of course there comes a time when he cannot perform the work with accuracy and still he may need Silica.
Another case is illustrated in a young man who has studied for years and is now nearing the end of his course. He dreads the final examinations but he goes through them all right, then a fatigue comes upon him and for years he is unable to enter his profession. He has this dread of undertaking anything.
Irritable and irascible when aroused; when let alone he is timid, retiring, wants to shirk everything; mild, gentle tearful women. The Silica child is cross and cries when spoken to. It is the natural complement and chronic of Puls. because of its great similarity; it is a deeper, more profound remedy.
Religious melancholy, sadness, irritability, despondency. Lyc. is stupid, the dread of undertaking any thing in from a general knowledge of inability. In Silica it is imaginary.
Silica is not suitable for the irritability and nervous exhaustion coming on from business brain-fag, but more for such brain-fag as belongs to professional men, students, lawyers, clergymen. A lawyer says,
"I have never been myself since that John Doe case"
He went through a prolonged effort and sleepless nights followed. Silica restores the brain.
Skin: The remedy produces inflammation about any fibrinous nidus and suppurates it out.
It acts upon constitutions that are sluggish and inflames fibrous deposits about old imbedded missiles. Slow nutrition; if the individual receives a slight injury it suppurates and the cicatrix indurates, is hard and nodular.
Along the track of a knife-cut, is a fibrinous deposit due to inferior and slow nutrition. An old ulcer heals with induration. Where cicatricial tissue forms, it is indurated, shiny, glassy. If Silica is given in such cases, it will throw out abscesses in these cicatrices and open them out. It will open up old ulcers and heal them with a normal cicatrix.
In ordinary people if a splinter lodges in the tissues, a suppuration will slough it out, but in these feeble constitutions a plastic deposit takes place about it and it remains. This is not the highest state of order. Suppuration takes place about a bullet and pushes it out, that is the best state that can be asked for.
Silica, therefore, hastens the formation of abscesses and boils. It suppurates out old wens and indurated tumors. It has cured recurrent fibroids and old indurated tumors.
It there is a deposit of tubercle in the lungs, Silica establishes ail inflammation and throws it out, and if the whole lung be tubercular a general suppurative pneumonia will be the result; hence, the danger of giving such remedies and the danger of repeating them in advanced stage of phthisis. Not only Silica but many other remedies have the power to suppurate out deposits, the result of poor nutrition.
Warty growths on the skin, moist eruptions, pimples, pustules, abscesses. Suppurating cavities. It establishes healing in old fistulous openings with indurated margins. Catarrhal suppurations; copious muco-purulent discharge from the eyes, nose, ears, chest, vagina, etc.
Suppression: Complaints from the suppression of discharges; suppressed sweat.
These suppressions produce a state in the economy that threatens what little order is left. An offensive foot-sweat ceases after getting the feet wet, and is followed by chills and violent complaints.
Silica cures long lasting foot-sweat when the symptoms agree, or complaints that have lasted since the suppression of a foot-sweat. Thick, yellow catarrhal discharges.
They say,
"I have had this discharge so many years," and when you investigate, you find that there has been some, shock, a cold, that suppressed the foot-sweat and it has not appeared since. Silica will bring back that sweat, cause the catarrhal discharge to cease and in time cure the foot-sweat.
Catarrhal discharges from the nose and other places, indurations, tumors, chronic gastritis, brain- fag, all dating back to the suppression of foot-sweat or otorrheoa, or to the healing up of a fistula.
Head: Chronic sick-headache attended with nausea and even vomiting.
Headache commencing in the back of the head in the morning or towards noon going to the forehead, worse towards night, from noise; better from heat; supra-orbital neuralgias; better from pressure and heat and attended with profuse head-sweat.
Cold, clammy, offensive sweat on the forehead. When a Silica patient exerts himself he sweats on the face, the lower part of the body is dry or nearly so. It requires great exertion to produce general sweat. A striking feature is the sweat about the upper parts of the body and the head.
Headache once a week (Gets., Lyc., Sang., Sulph.). Headache up through the back of the neck and especially to the right side of the head. Resembles Sang. Weight in the occiput as if it would be drawn back, with a rush of blood to the head, like Carbo veg. and Sepia.
Headache worse from cold air. Psor. wears a fur cap even in summer. Magn. mur. is better from wrapping up the head but still wants to be in the air. Rhus sweats on the body; the head is dry. Puls. sweats on one side of the head.
Vertigo to fainting; with nausea; vertigo creeping up the spine into the head.
It is especially necessary for the Silica patient to avoid the cold air, must have the head well wrapped up, especially the part that is painful, and this part perspires copiously.
"Headache worse from mental exertion, excessive study, noise, motion, even jarring from foot-steps, light, stooping, pressing at stool, talking, cold air, touch."
Skin: Moist, scaly eruption on the scalp, eczema capitis.
Silica is suited to the phagedenic ulcers of syphilis, eating and spreading ulcers on the scalp. Inflammatory conditions between the scalp and skull, tumors forming, filled with a grumous fluid; as in infancy, it will remove blood tumors.
Cephalatoma neonatorum, enchondroses. Silica is especially of use in the treatment of affections of the cartilages, growths about the joints, about the fingers and toes.
The complaints of Silica are associated with hardened glands, but especially about the neck, the cervical, salivary, and particularly the parotid glands; large, hard parotids. The parotids enlarge from every cold and get hard. (Bar. carb., Calc., Sulph,)
Puls. suits the acute inflammation of the parotid, but Silica is indicated in the more chronic forms due to psora, "scrofulous glands."
Eyes: Many inflammations and conditions of the eyes.
Ulcers on the cornea; pustules on the lids, falling of the lashes, suppuration of the margins of the lids with burning, stinging and redness. Intense photophobia in all eye complaints.
Scrofulous cases with sore eyes, the most inveterate and chronic cases; suppuration; thin, watery, copious discharge, or bloody, thick and yellow like pus, with ulceration.
Syphilitic iritis.
"Perforating or sloughing ulcer on the cornea.
Spots and cicatrices on the cornea.
Fungus haematodes.
Eyes inflamed from traumatic causes; foreign particles have lodged in the eyes; abscesses; boils around the eyes and lids tarsal tumors, styes.
Affections appearing in the angles of the eyes fistula lachrymalis; stricture of lachrymal duct."
This is a general survey of the eye affections in Silica.
Ear: There is no deeper remedy than Silica in eradicating the tubercular tendency, when the symptoms agree; most tubercular cases are worse from cold, wet weather; better in cold dry weather.
The most inveterate cases of catarrh of the ear; old offensive, thick, yellow otorrheoa; following scarlet fever; all sorts of abnormalities in hearing, even to deafness.
Roaring in the cars associated with many diseases and hardness of hearing; hissing, roaring like steam; like a train of cars, many times from mechanical cause and other times from a condition of the nerves.
It is commonly the beginning of a dry catarrh of the middle ear; the remedy is especially useful when, in catarrh of the middle ear and Eustachian tube, the deafness goes on for some time and the hearing returns with a snap, due to the escape of the accumulation of fluids somewhere and described by the patient as a snap or report.
Sudden reports in the ear like a cannon, distant noises with return of hearing.
"Otorrheoa, offensive, watery, curdy, with soreness of inner nose and crusts on upper lip, after abuse of Mercury, with caries."
Caries of bone in any part of the body, but especially of the small bones of the car, nose and mastoid process,
"Scabs behind the cars."
Rupture of the drum of the ear.
Catarrhal conditions of the internal car and Eustachian tube, with
"feeling of sudden stoppage in the ear, better by gaping or swallowing."
Especially with ear troubles, there will be associated indurated parotid glands.
Nose: Accumulation of hard crusts in the nose, loss of taste and smell epistaxis, thickening of the mucous membrane; most vicious catarrh with discharge of bone from the nose.
Horrible, foetid ozaena, old syphilitic cases where the nasal bones are destroyed and the nose becomes a flabby bag, is sunken in or ulcerated away, leaving an opening. Silica may cure and an artificial nose be made afterwards.
Hepar competes with Silica in syphilitic nasal catarrhs where the parts are phagedenic; Hepar, Merc. cor. and Ars., are the principal antisyphilitics when there is phagedenic ulceration of the nose. Babies suffer from bloody nasal discharge. This is often Calc. sul.
Face: The aspect of the Silica face is silky, anemic, waxy, tired. Pustular and vesicular eruptions spread over the face, the wings of the nose crack, the lips easily fissure; crusts form on the margin between the mucous membrane and the skin; eruptions and crusts, indurations form under the crusts, they peel off and there is no healing.
These indurations are the same kind of inferior tissue that is found under lupus and epithelioma, a low tissue formation, a low state of eczema that favors infiltration. The small blood-vessels that lead to them become thicker and thicker until they become gristly. There is a tendency to make the soft tissues harder and the hard tissues harder.
In childhood the bones become softer and even necrose or there is an inflammation of the periosteum and a consequent necrosis. Caries of the shaft of the long bones, the head of the bones and the cartilaginous portions; abscesses in cartilages, enchondromata.
Bones break down and form fistulous openings. Necrosis of the jaw, the joints, the hip-joint, the tibia, necrosis of the spine, of the vertebrae, so that there is curvature of the spine, lateral especially. The homoeopathic physicians may treat these affections of the bones with the help of accessory contrivances or supports.
The Silica patient has rough lips, they crack and peel; rhagades. Scaly appearances at the margins of the lips, fissures in the corners of the mouth that indurate. There is often a line of fissure about the margin of the crust. Little crusts like epithelioma form upon the wings of the nose and when picked off leave a raw surface with no tendency to heal.
Crusty formations upon the ears.
The teeth break down, lose their enamel surface; the dentine is made up largely of the silicate of lime and the surface of the tooth becomes rough, loses its shiny appearance and caries sets in.
This often takes place at the margin of the gum; ulcers form on the tip of the fangs. The teeth suffer when it is cold or damp; toothache in wet weather, and the teeth are yellow, decay rapidly, and the gums settle away from. them.
All the neuralgias and toothaches are better in a warm room and from hot drinks. Abscesses about the gums and face, better by warmth. Severe pain in the jaw, rending, tearing at night, better from heat; these pains often end in abscesses about the teeth. Sometimes relieved by pressure unless the part is extremely sore from inflammation.
The tongue takes on inflammation of gouty character; inflammation with threatening abscess, it fills the whole mouth; rending, tearing pains, worse at night and better from heat.
Throat: In the throat and neck we have inflammation and swelling of all the glands, external and internal, all at once or singly.
Quinsy with great pain in the tonsils, one or both; threatening suppuration. Inflammation of the parotid, sublingual and much less frequently the submaxillary and cervical glands; painful, tumid and hard, with pain in the neck, shoulders and head, even in acute inflammations. But then we have the opposite state of affairs. In an old chronic case broken down with suffering the symptoms are worse after a bath, he wants warmth, dread the cold, is always shivering.
But when in the neck there is an acute inflarnmation the very opposite is present; he suffers from flushes of heat, an irregular, flushing fever, cold extremities while the upper part of the body is hot, sweat about the head and neck, sensation of heat and suffocation in a warm room. This will be present in quinsy and abscesses of the glands of the neck, if acute. Silica here shows its relation to Puls. The latter in its chronic manifestations is overburdened with heat, but in an acute trouble is chilly. They are reversed as to their acute and chronic states. Puls, in the beginning is chilly and sweating.
Silica is full of throat symptoms but is seldom indicated in acute forms because its pace is too low; it comes on after there has been a series of colds, such colds as are ameliorated a number of times by Bell. or other acute remedies but still continue to settle in the tonsils and in the glands of the neck.
Silica breaks up the tendency. There is a catarrhal state in the throat that is roused up by every cold into an increased flux, with hoarseness, settling back into the chronic state again; chronic catarrhs of the pharynx.
It competes with Natrum mur. in inveterate sore throat.
Stomach: Silica disturbs the stomach, causes hiccough, nausea and vomiting disturbs the liver.
All these symptoms are connected and are hard to separate. Decided aversion to warm food, desires cold things, wants his tea moderately cold, he is willing to have his food cold, dislikes warm food. Sometimes there is a decided aversion to meat, but if he does take it, he prefers cold, sliced meat. He likes ice cream, ice water, and feels comfortable when it is in the stomach; it is sometimes impossible for him to drink hot fluids, they cause sweat about the face and head and cause hot flushes. (Bar. c.)
Silica is disturbed by the extremes of heat and cold, easily affected, in changes even of a few degrees; he has complaints from being overheated; he gets overheated easily, sweats easily from a slight change in the temperature and comes down with a cold.
Case: A physician waiting on an obstetrical case, had a little difficulty in the last stage and he became overheated; putting on his overcoat and hat he went out on the porch to cool off and was taken down with asthma, violent cough, copious expectoration with gagging and vomiting which lasted him for months.
The acute remedies he had taken only palliated, but a dose of Silica cured him almost as quickly as he was taken down; he could not tolerate a warm room; the acute complaints of Silica are often worse in a warm room and from heat.
Silica has an aggravation from milk. Many times the infant is unable to take any kind of milk and, hence, the physician is driven to prescribe all the foods in the market if he does not know the right remedy. Natrum carb. and Silica are both useful when the mother's milk causes diarrhoea and vomiting.
The routinist is likely to give such medicines as Aethusa, entirely forgetting Silica. The latter, as well as Natrum carb., has sour vomiting and sour curds in the stool.
"Aversion the mother's milk and vomiting."
"Diarrhea from milk."
Put these two together.
Although the patient has an aversion to hot things and desires to eat cold things, yet in chest complaints cold water, ice cream and cold, things in general, increase the cough to gagging, and then the retching is dreadful; violent, retching, gagging cough. Retching from an endeavor to expectorate is usually controlled by Carbo veg., but Silica his it.
"Water brash, with chilliness, with brown tongue; nausea and vomiting of what is drunk, worse in the morning; water tastes bad; vomits after drinking."
The Silica stomach is weak, in a do-nothing state; old dyspeptics that have been vomiting a long time, especially those who have an, aversion to hot food, who cannot take milk, are averse to meat, where, the mental and bodily symptoms agree.
Silica was one of the greatest remedies for the chronic diarrhoea in the soldiers of our Civil War. It cured a fair percentage of those sick from sleeping on damp ground, eating all sorts of food until the stomach and bowels were prostrated, from long marches, from going into the South from the cold North, from becoming overheated. It is like Sulphur in these symptoms.
Silica has some pain in the stomach and bowels, but there is more soreness to pressure; colic and flatulence and tenderness to pressure; a chronic soreness in the stomach and if it goes on too long, a tubercular state comes on.
Abdomen: Abdominal pain relieved by heat; distension of the bowels with flatulence and rumbling.
Enlarged abdomen in children and adults (Bar. c.); tightness across the abdomen. Disturbed by the pressure of the clothes and worse after eating; the decided feature is the amelioration from heat.
Constipation from inability of the rectum to expel the faeces. It is seldom that the stool lies in the rectum without urging like Alumina; there is much urging to stool but inability to expel. The stool may be in small balls or large and soft or large and hard, but there is much straining and sweating about the head and great suffering while straining; the rectum becomes impacted, he strains until he is weak and exhausted, the stool slips back; and he gives up in despair.
The only way he can relieve himself is by some mechanical method. Great straining at stool belongs to many remedies, but especially to Alumina, Alumen, China, Natr. mur., Nux vom., Nux mosch., and Silica.
Silica has removed tape-worm, when the symptoms agree(Calc., Sulf.)
It has also cured fistulous openings. Patients who have a tendency to phthisis are subject to abscesses about the region of the rectum, that break inside or out and form complete or incomplete openings.
These seem to take the place of what would otherwise come, and if healed by operation or other external means, the tendency is to end in chest trouble, either in form of a fixed catarrh or tubercular infiltrations.
Silica is one of the remedies that turns the constitution into order and in one to five years the opening ceases to be necessary and it will heal. Surgeons heal it up at once, and for a time the patient is comfortable, but in a few years he breaks down.
Caust., Berb., Calc. c., Calc. phos., Graph., Sulph., etc., are suitable; in such cases. Silica here follows Thuja well.
Urinary: Suppurative conditions in the urinary tract, catarrh of the mucous membranes; old inveterate catarrh of the bladder with pus and blood in the urine; copious, stringy, deposits in the urine.
Prostatitis, suppuration, thick, fetid pus from the urethra. Gonorrhea, pus, or pus like discharge from the urethra, slight, shreddy discharge, bloody, purulent discharge. It is sometimes thick, or is curdy; this is from any mucous membrane.
Men: Abscesses along the penis, in the perineum, prostate gland, testes.
Chronic inflammation and induration of the testes with much pain; testes feel as if squeezed, sensitive, painful. Hydrocele in boys or adults.
In the male, impotence, weakness of the genitals after coition, easily exhausted, lacks power; exhausted if he has coition with anything like ordinary frequency; it takes him a week or ten days to rest up (Agar.).
Much sweating of the genitals with exhaustion, tired out in the spine, weak back. Involuntary discharge of urine at night; enuresis in little boys and girls.
Women: In women a prostrated condition of the sexual functions.
Serous cysts in the vagina, fistulous openings and abscesses about the vulva, which heal with hard nodules or do not heal at all; little oozing fistulae, offensive, cheesy discharge. They heal in little nodules and then break out again in the same nidus. Women who are subject to these abscesses.
Bloody discharge between the periods. In Silica there is very easy flow of blood from the uterus; a hemorrhagic flow comes on before the menses from excitement, and especially when nursing; when the child is put to the breast a flow of blood starts.
Notice the distinction between Calc. and Silica. Calc. has a tendency to flow during lactation, but not when the child is put to the breast.
Silica cures hydrosalpinx and pyosalpinx, with copious, watery discharge from the uterus. Sometimes a woman has a lump on one or the other side of the uterus, which steadily increases and all at once there is a flooding of watery, bloody, purulent fluid and the lump disappears, soon to fill up again and empty in the same way in a gushing flow.
Such are the manifestations of hydrosalpinx and pyosalpinx. Entire absence of the menses for months; amenorrhoea.
Serous, cysts in the vagina as large as a pea or an orange, projecting from the vagina or projecting upwards and flattened out in conformation with it. Many little cysts like hickory-nuts grouped together. Rhod. and Silica have cured these even when there is a paucity of other symptoms.
"Leucorrhea, profuse, acrid, corroding, milky, preceded by cutting around the navel, causing biting pain, especially after acrid food; during urination; in gushes; with cancer of the uterus. Hard lumps in the mammæ."
Threatened abscesses of the breasts. If the remedy is given in time, it will abort the entire trouble. Where the remedy has come too late and suppuration is inevitable, Silica comes in for its share. There may be throbbing, tenderness, and weight, yet the remedy controls the pain, hastens the conclusion, and the opening comes naturally, discharges little and closes at once. As sure as an anodyne is given, a hot poultice applied, you will fail with your remedies.
There is too much blood in the part, and the application of a poultice increases the trouble; it causes an increased determination of blood to the part, and if suppuration takes place it causes more breaking down of tissue. Instead of a thimbleful of pus you will have cupfuls for days and half of the gland is destroyed
Women who are so weak they tend to abort, or no conception takes place. It would seem if the organs were tired out and unable to perform their functions.
The infant has all sorts of troubles. It grows up sickly; cannot tolerate its mother's milk or indeed any kind of food; vomiting and diarrhoea. A healthy child will digest even unwholesome milk.
Chest: The Silica cough is a dangerous one; the remedy suits the early stage of phthisis, when the lung is not extensively involved; it suits cough of catarrhal character when the symptoms agree.
If there is small abscess in the lung with no tendency to heal, it brings about repair, causes contraction of its walls. Inveterate cases of catarrh of the chest with asthmatic wheezing, overexertion. After violent exertion and overheating, gets in a draft, or takes cold from a bath, becomes chilled.
Humid asthma, coarse rattling, the chest seems filled with mucus, seems as if he would suffocate. Especially the asthma of old sycotics, or in children of sycotic parents. It competes with Nat. sul. in such cases. The patient is pale, waxy, anaemic, with great prostration and thirst.
Asthmatic attacks from suppressed gonorrhoea, with liability to develop complaints from over-exertion and over-heating, as in most sycotics.
Dry, teasing cough with hoarseness, threatening tuberculosis of the larynx, peculiar cracked voice from thickening of the laryngeal mucous membrane or tubercular involvement; soreness of the chest threatening miliary tuberculosis, with aggravation from cold and amelioration from warm drinks.
Pulmonary affections in stone-cutters. The fine dust causes chronic irritation. Silica establishes a suppuration and throws off these particles of stone.
Expectoration profuse, foetid, green, purulent; only during the day viscid, milky, acrid-mucus, at times pale, frothy blood.
Chronic tendency for colds to settle in the chest and bring on asthmatic symptoms. Chronic bronchitis; inflammation of the lungs with suppuration. Silica especially suits the later stages of pneumonia and the old, chronic complaints following pneumonia.
Slow recovery after pneumonia (Lyc., Sulph., Phos., Sil., Calc.). Flushes, rattling in the chest. Flushes in the face during the day (Sulph., Sep., Lach.), rattling like Ant. tart., flushes like Sulph. and Lyc.
Phthisis; thick, yellow, green, foetid sputa, more pronounced coldness than Calc., and head sweat, pains in the lungs, sore lungs, stitches.
In the extremities we have inflammation of the periosteum. Corns (Ant. cr., Graph.). Ingrowing toe-nails. Rheumatism of the soles of the feet. Cannot walk (Ant. cr., Med., Ruta, Sil.). Begins to sweat as soon as he falls asleep (Puls., Con.).
Epilepsy; aura in the solar plexus creeping into the chest and stomach.
Complementary to Calc., Puls., and Thuja.
by James Tyler Kent