Roasted Sponge
Anxiety and fear. Every excitement increases the cough.
Disconsolate and lachrymose humour.—Timidity and tendency to be
frightened—Combative and boastful humour.—Immoderate and mischievous gaiety.—Great
inclination to sing.—Mental obtuseness, with complete disinclination and incapacity for attending
and anxious about her condition, fears she will die of suffocation.—Anxious sweat and
faintness.—She is very timid, and is esp. pursued and incessantly tormented by a frightful scene
of some mournful event of the past—Anxious as from presentiment.—Fright awakens.—Satiety of
life, with the heat—Obstinacy.—Every exertion < the cough.
Uncomfortable feeling of the clothes, they being an oppression and
annoyance to the wearer; growing pains; darting pains from within outward; itching, no better
testicles and spermatic cord; anterior surface of thigh.—Phthisis pulmonalis, cough, breathing,
&c., being very tight and dry.—< From turning head; on ascending (going up stairs, up a hill,
pain in limbs, esp. joints.—Painful sensitiveness of body to touch, with chilliness on the parts
touched, or with tingling running through whole body.—Sensation of torpor in lower part of
body.—Heaviness when walking in open air, must sit down.—Heaviness (and soreness) of the
body (when rising from a seat)—Excessive moral and physical dejection.—Extreme exhaustion
and heaviness of the body after slight exertion, with orgasm of blood in chest, heat of face,
vessels hard and distended, great anxiety, and difficult breathing.—More relief is experienced
from lying down quietly than from any other position.—Fits of anguish, with pain in region of
heart.
Rush of blood; bursting headache; worse, forehead.
Vertigo, with giddiness, to such an extent as to fall, sometimes in evening, or else with
a sensation as if head were about to fall on one side.—Vertigo, with nausea, on waking at
night—Heaviness and fulness of head.—Dull semilateral headache on entering a warm room
from the open air.—Headache, with lachrymation, when looking fixedly at an object.—Pressive
headache, sometimes with compression.—Pressing headache in (r.) frontal eminence, from within
to without, < when sitting, when entering a warm room, after walking in the open air, when
looking intensely at anything; > when lying on back in a horizontal position.—Sharp stitches in 1.
temple extending to forehead.—Pains in head as if it were about to split, esp. in
forehead.—Throbbing and pulsation in head.—Congestion of blood in head, with pressing,
beating, and pulsation in forehead, with redness of face, anxious look, restless sleep, > in a
horizontal position.—Disagreeable tenderness of exterior of head.—Sensation as if hair were
standing on end (on vertex).—Troublesome (violent) itching in scalp.
Watering; gummy or mucus discharge.
Eyes dull and clouded, with puffing in lids——Eyes deeply sunk; or protruding,
staring. —Macule of cornea.—On looking intensely at one spot lachrymation and
eyes.—Double vision > lying down.
inf.
Fluent coryza, alternating with stoppage. Dryness; chronic, dry, nasal catarrh.
Epistaxis, esp. after blowing nose (at dinner).—Fluent coryza, with much
sneezing.—Dry coryza; nose stuffed up.—Eruption on point of nose.
Paleness of face, with dulness of eyes (with sunken eyes).—Face bloated, red, or bluish,
with anxious expression; heat on one side of face, renewed when thinking of it—Cold sweat on
eating. —Swelling of the submaxillary glands with tensive pain; painful to touch—Numbness in
chin.—Heat in chin.
Tongue dry and brown; full of vesicles.
Mouth and tongue covered with vesicles, with burning and shooting pain (on that
account cannot eat any solid food).—Salivation—Speech difficult—Tongue dry and
brownish.—Vesicles on edge of tongue.
Sensation of bluntness and looseness in teeth while masticating.—Itching and
shootings in teeth.—Heat in teeth.—Swelling of gums, with pain during mastication.
Burning sensation and stinging in throat——Rawness, swelling, and scraping in
throat —Penetrating tickling in throat, toward ear.—Sore throat < after eating sweet
things.—Throat symptoms > lying down.—Constantly recurring needle-like stitches above pit of
throat, externally, in lower part of goitre —Sticking internally in throat, esp. after
eating.—Thyroid gland swollen and hard, with suffocative attacks at night; stitching pains and
projecting from r. to 1—Swallowing difficult—On swallowing: stitches in neck pass off; violent
straining pain; pain in goitre; moving sensation in goitre.—(Goitre painful, pain synchronous with
Excessive thirst, great hunger. Cannot bear tight clothing around trunk. Hiccough.
Diminished taste.—Bitter taste, sometimes only in throat.—Sweetish taste in
mouth.—Moderate appetite and speedy satiety.—Increased appetite—Excessive, insatiable
hunger.—Desire for dainties —Thirst, sometimes insatiable —Thirstlessness; rarely thirst with
chill —Violent thirst after smoking.—Tobacco smoke is disagreeable.—After a meal, fulness and
pains in abdomen, as from difficult digestion —Eating and drinking > cough.—Drinking milk, ale,
spirits, cold or hot tea, cold water = cough.
Risings, sometimes with cuttings and tearings in stomach.—Bitter risings.—Sour
eating has dyspeptic distress and fulness of stomach; > from warm drinks, esp. colicky pains in
abdomen.—Vomiting after having partaken of milk.—Relaxation of stomach, with sensation as if
it were open.—Aching in stomach and scrobiculus.—Pressure of (tight) clothing on stomach is
unbearable.—Contractive pains in stomach.—Stitches in region of stomach from least
pressure. —Chill in pit of stomach.—Craving at stomach before menses.
Abdomen hard and tight.—Spasms in abdomen.—Violent action of abdominal
digging and choking; > after discharge of wind; at times as if something alive were moving
in the abdomen, esp. in evening and morning when lying down.—Pain as from a hernia in
Hard (insufficient) and retarded evacuations.—Loose, whitish
evacuations.—Before the evacuation shootings in the anus and gurgling and rumbling in the
abdomen.—During the evacuation tenesmus in the anus.—Itching, smarting, and pain as from
excoriation in anus.—Passage of ascarides from rectum and tingling in rectum.—Diurnal diarrhoea
with a large number of ascarides, after which she always feels great relief.
Increased secretion of urine.—Frequent want to urinate, with scanty
urine.—Thick, whitish, greyish, or yellow sediment in the urine.
Catamenia too early and profuse.—Before the catamenia,
palpitation of the heart, following pain in back.—During the catamenia, drawing in the
thighs.—Enlargement and induration of ovaries.
Swelling of spermatic cord and testicles, with pain and tenderness. Orchitis. Epididymitis. Heat in parts.
Spasmodic contraction in the testes.—Hard swelling of the testes, and
of the spermatic cord, with pressive pain.—Drawing, painful stitches extending from body
through glans. —Voluptuous itching at point of glans for several hours, urging him to rub
it.—Pinching, bruised, squeezing pain in testicles.—Stitches from testicles into spermatic
and cords.—Sexual desire very moderate.—Absence of erections.
[Affections in general of larynx and trachea, particularly in all such
affections as croup, asthma, &c., where everything is perfectly tight and dry, no loose rattling
sound appearing in the breathing or cough.—Burning sensation is felt in throat after coughing,
suffocative attacks of breathing (as in asthma), without any mucous rattle; respiration loud; very
cracked); sometimes with cough and coryza.—Weak, husky voice, which fails in singing and
conversation.—Pain in larynx on touching it, and on turning head.—Pressure in larynx when
singing.—Sensation of obstruction (as from a plug) in larynx, with impeded
respiration.—Dyspncea > by bending the body forward.—Roughness and dryness in
throat —Burning pain in larynx and trachea.—Cough, proceeding from bottom of chest with pain
as from excoriation and burning sensation.—Cough, with yellowish expectoration and
hoarseness.—Great dryness of larynx, < from hawking.—Sensation in region of thyroid and
cervical glands on breathing, as if forced in and out.—Hollow, dry, barking or whistling cough,
day and night, < towards evening, and sometimes with pain in larynx.—Laryngeal cough, croupy-
expectoration of viscid mucus.—Expectoration: scanty, of saltish mucus; tenacious, yellow,
indurated, sour; loosened mornings but must be swallowed again; smelling like milk; of yellow
mucus in little lumps; of cutaneous masses.—Dry cough, excited by a burning tickling in the
whistling, sawing, anxious breathing; < during inspiration and when lying down (with violent
labouring of abdominal muscles).—Mucous rale in trachea by fits.
Respiration, quick, anxious, and difficult, sometimes with fits of suffocation, and
mucous rattling in chest—Short, panting respiration, surging from heart into chest, as if it would
force out upward.—Awakens from sleep with suffocative sensation.—Fixed, lancinating, and
pressive pain in region of bronchia.—Spasmodic, constrictive pains in whole chest (and
chest.—Burning sensation, which ascends into chest.—Burning; rawness, soreness in
chest.—Ebullition of blood (congestions) in chest after slightest effort and least movement, with
obstructed respiration, anguish, nausea, and weakness, which induces syncope.
Pains and anxiety in region of heart —Constricting, stinging, pressing pain in cardiac
region.—Palpitation of heart (before menstruation), with suffocation, violent gasping respiration,
pain in heart.—Rheumatic affections of valves of heart (fibrous deposit on valves).—Violent
palpitation of heart, beats rapid (each beat was accompanied by a loud blowing as of a bellows),
awakens him after midnight, with a sense of suffocation, loud cough, great alarm, agitation,
anxiety, and difficult respiration. —Pulse full, hard, and frequent.
Painful tension and rigidity in muscles of neck, nape, and throat; on 1. side
and hard, with pressure, tingling, and shootings.—Cramps in the muscles of neck.—Coldness in
back, not > by warmth of stove.-—Sacrum sore before menses.—Sensation of numbness in loins
and buttocks.—Drawing, tearing, and pressive pain in loins.
Jerking of muscles about |. shoulder-joint—Heaviness and trembling of
forearms and hands.—Drawings in forearms and joints of hands.—Large blisters in the
forearm.—Swelling of hands, with stiffness of fingers ——Redness and swelling in joints of fingers,
with tension when they are bent.—Numbness in points of fingers ——Cramp-like pain in ball of (r.)
thumb; on moving hand it extends to thumb.
Nates and thighs numb and cold.—Jerking of muscles of buttocks.—The
thighs are spasmodically drawn forward or backward.—Irritation and restlessness of both
legs. —Tearing in tibia all afternoon.—Rigidity of legs —Drawing and tearing in legs and feet,
sometimes at night only.
Swelling and induration of glands; also exophthalmic; cervical glands swollen with tensive pain on turning head, painful on pressure; Goitre. Itching; measles
Swelling and induration of the glands.—Itching shootings in the skin, esp. on
becoming warm in bed.—Sensation of something creeping over the skin, with redness and heat of
the part when it has been scratched.—Red, itching spot (blotches) on the skin.—Itching
eruptions.—Miliary eruptions.—Tetters.
Awakes in a fright, and feels as if suffocating. Generally worse after sleep, or sleeps into and aggravation (Lach).
Sleepy, yawning, no activity, afternoons.—Sleeplessness, with fantastic dreams and
delirium on going to sleep.—Sad, anxious, frightful dreams.—Awakens towards morning from a
jerk upwards from the larynx, as if she would suffocate, must sit up, and raises sour, salty mucus.
Attacks of heat with anxiety; heat and redness of face and perspiration.
Pulse full, hard, and quick.—Frequent shiverings over the whole body, esp. the back
(even near a warm stove).—Violent heat, soon after the chill, with dry, burning heat all over the
body with the exception of the thighs; they remain numb and chilly.—Anxious heat, with red face
and weeping, inconsolable mood.—Cool perspiration on the face in evening.—Morning, sweat
over the whole body.—Flushes of heat.—Feverish heat, with skin dry and hot, continued thirst,
headache, and delirium.—Nocturnal perspiration.
Characteristics—According to Hahnemann, Toasted Sponge was first mentioned as a specific
for goitre by Arnald von Villanova in the thirteenth century; but it was generally given mixed
with other substances, and had fallen into disuse when Hahnemann proved it. The virtues of
Spongia have been attributed to the /odine contained in it, and partially liberated by the presence
of roasting. But Spongia contains many other elements besides Jodine, and it has a distinctive
action of its own. It is antipodal to /od. in this respect, that it is best Suited to blue-eyed, fair-
often indicated with women of lax fibre, and children. One of the keynotes of Spo. is Dryness of
mucous membrane—of tongue, pharynx, larynx, trachea. Cough is caused by dryness. The cough
itself is dry, intensely hacking, crowing, "dry as a bone," or sounding like a saw being driven
through a pine board. Dry asthma. In laryngismus, croup, and asthma the patient rouses up
generally after midnight with fear of suffocation and death. The sputa cannot be raised, must be
swallowed, swallowing >. In laryngismus there is contraction of larynx as if suddenly grasped.
With the dyspneea there is terrible sinking; he seems to be sinking down in a pit. The larynx is
sleep as if in a great fright. Cough is excited by talking; by dry, cold winds; > by eating or
drinking; by swallowing; especially > by warm food. Sweets <. Spo meets some cases of true
tuberculosis; of larynx; of apices, with commencing solidification; tubercles spreading
downwards. Congestion of chest coming on when the patient is moving about with sudden
the respiratory organs is closely connected with its action on the glandular system, the
lymphatics, the thyroid, and testes are indurated. The blood, heart, and veins are also involved,
and with the protruding eyes a perfect picture of exophthalmic goitre is produced. Hypertrophy
of the heart is frequently met by Spo., and it is especially indicated when the right heart is
affected and when asthmatic symptoms are associated with it. Spo. meets some cases of croupous
deposit on the valves of the heart as it does croup of the larynx. The Spo. patient in phthisical and
other conditions is subject to frequent flashes of heat. The chill commences usually across the
back. He shakes near a warm stove. The heat which follows extends over the whole body except
the thighs, which remain numb and chilly. In the heart affections the patient is aroused from
sleep as if smothering; sits up in bed with an anxious look, flushed face, and hard, rapid
heated, with arising heart complications." Nash gives this keynote of Spo. in valvular diseases:
"Awakes out of sleep from a sense of suffocation, with violent, loud cough, great alarm,
agitation, anxiety, and difficult respiration." He says it is better than Lach. here; and relieves the
"dry, chronic, sympathetic cough of organic heart disease" more frequently and more
permanently than Naja. Spo meets also thickening of joints after rheumatic fever. In orchitis,
with heaviness and screw-like squeezing pain in cord and testicle, Spo is the chief remedy,
though others are generally needed before that stage is reached. Timidity, fear, and terror are
leading mental symptoms. Any excitement and thinking of symptoms <. Peculiar Sensations are:
guns were discharged in ears. Stitches as if passing through tympanum. Nodule in concha as if it
chin as if ulcerated. As if something had got jammed between teeth in chewing. As if gums and
teeth were swollen, the latter being lifted. Outside of throat as if something were being pressed
out. As of a plug in throat. As if he had drunk a great deal of luke-warm water, relaxation of
obstruction in abdomen (and in trachea). As if something alive moving in abdomen. As if
something alive beneath skin of abdomen. As if diarrhoea would ensue. As of a plug in larynx.
As if a stopper or valve were in larynx. As of a nail pressing in larynx. As if larynx and trachea
accumulation and weight at chest. As if a broad body armed with points were pressing upward.
As if a weight were dragging down on chest. As if she had something hot inside chest. As if
blood would burst out of chest. As if cervical glands were swelling. As if skin of neck were
compressed between fingers. As if air were passing up and down thyroid and cervical glands.
Thyroid gland as if hardened. As if everything were shaking and moving about in goitre. As if
goitre were alive. As if a pointed instrument were thrust into scapulze. As if bones of forearm
were being pressed together. As if parts in and between wrists were weakened by decay. As if a
muscle were too short in upper end of thigh. As if knees would give way. As if weight hanging
on lower end of tibia As of pins in heels. As if she were going to faint. As if everything were in
flames. As if sweat would break out. There is excitement of the nerves; tendency to start;
twitching of muscles, with fever. Stiff without ability to move. "Conscious but unable to act on
numbness of lower half of body. < When thinking of her symptoms. Complaints extend
downwards; from within out; from right to left. There are cramp-like pains. Bitter taste in throat.
Aversion to tobacco. Desire for dainties (but sweets <). The symptoms are < by touch and
pressure. Scratching does not > biting itching. < Motion; walking; stooping; rising; raising arms
(becomes faint); talking; singing. Bending forward > dyspnoea; < symptoms of circulation. >
night. Before midnight: croup <; dry sound of breathing and cough sleepless until midnight.
After midnight: wakes with palpitation with suffocation. < Warm room. > Warm food or drink.
drinking > cough; drinking = cough. < Sweets. < After sleep.
Second trituration, or tincture to third potency.
deeper in its action than Aconite, Its cardiac diseases tend to develop
slowly, with actual tissue changes, enlargement of the heart, it takes on
a steady growth and the valves become changed, do not fit, hence, there
are blowing and whizzing sounds, regurgitation with the mental symptoms. The two are similar in croup, but Spbngia is deeper, slower in
onset, taking several days for its development. Aconite from exposure to a dry cold wind takes a cold to-day and, of course, comes down
with croup to-night in the first sleep. Before midnight has a dry spasmodic cough ; hoarse cough ; Spongia has taken a cold yesterday or the
day before. First there is roughness and dryness of the mucous membranes, sneezing. Both remedies have croup before midnight with
dry, hoarse, barking cough, sawing respiration and dry air passages.
They are so similiar that when Aconite only partially controls the condition and it returns the next night, or lasts on beyond midnight, Spongia becomes its natural follower. Spongia comes in because it was
probably the remedy in the beginning. Cases that grow v>^orse each
succeeding night, hoarse barking and crowing before midnight, though
it also has a croup aftci midnight. It is a deep-acting remedy though
its complaints sometimes come on suddenly.
Hepar is worse at night and in the morning. And when Aconite has
apparently controlled, but the croup returns the next morning, Hepar
comes in. Or if it comes on again the next evening with rattling
Hepar will also be suitable. Dry, with no rattling is Spongia. If the
child wants to be covered or says that it is chilly, Hepar, If it says the
room is too warm and kicks the covers ofF, it needs Calc, sul.
The Spongia patient is worse from a warm room, from heat. Wants
to be cool like Iodine, but is better from warm drinks, like Ars,, Nux,
Lyc,
The tendency to affect the glands is striking. As a matter of fact
carditis, cardiac croup and many other inflammatory diseases of the
heart resulting from rheumatism. Hypertrophy of the thyroid, goitre,
when the heart is affected and the eyes protruding. Cervical glands
enlarged ; inveterate cases of enlarged testes ; orchitis from a suppressed gonorrhoea, a cold or other causes ; gradually increasing hardness.
The whole respiratory apparatus is acted upon ; cardiac dyspnoea
and the most severe forms of asthma. Dryness of the air passages with
whistling and wheezing, seldom rattling, must sit up and bend forward ;
at times after great dyspnoea, white, tough mucus forms in the air
passages, difficult to expectorate ; it comes up and often has to be swallowed (Arn., Caust,, Lack,, Kali c,, Kali $., Nux mos,, Sep,, Staph,y
Dyspnoea worse lying down. The modality is common to its other
complaints ; violent, basilar headache forces him to sit up in I)ed and
keep still. Holding the head in the upright position relieves the dull
pressure in the occiput.
There are many headaches. In the occiput, in the forehead, congestive headaches, but most of them are associated with goitre, cardiac
affections and asthma ; they arc due, probably, to sluggish circulation
in the brain.
Face distressed in croup ; anxious ; livid ; pale and bloated ; blue,
pale with sunken eyes ,* red with anxious expression ; alternating red
and pale ; cold sweat. These symptoms are the natural effects of difficult breathing and are, therefore, not essential in the selection of a
remedy. As primary symptoms, they would probably indicate Ars.^
but when due to cardiac difficulties, they are unimportant.
“Sore throat worse after eating sweet things. Thyroid gland swollen even with the chin ; at night, suffocating .spells, barking cough, with
stinging in the throat and soreness in the abdomen.” Enlargement of
the tonsils. Difficult swallowing.
Spongia is the remedy w^hen dyspnoea and cough arc relieved by
warm food ; may be better from warm drinks.
Laryngeal troubles with great hoarseness, in individuals tending
towards phthisis, with tubercular heredity, cachectic aspect, weak lungs,
but no deposit of tubercle. But all at once hoarseness sets in. There
is a tendency for the larynx to becoitie involved in phthisical patients
that need Spongia. This patient takifs an acute cold and it settles in
the larynx with hoarseness. Look Oi|t for that patient, for there is a
tendency for tubercles to deposit where there is inflammation, and the
infiltration instead of being fibrinous may become tubercular. Tendency for the larynx to be first involved in phthisical patients.
In Spongia do not look for the exudative, but tlic infiltrative form
of croup.
Hoarseness with loss of voice, great dryness of the larynx from a
cold ; coryza, sneezing, the whole chest rings, is as dry as a horn ; voice
hissing, croupy, nose dry. There is very little accumulation of mucus,
but at a late date ulceration begins and then there may be a copious
expectoration of mucus. In proportion to the extent of rattling, this
remedy is decreasingly indicated, Hepar has the coarse rattling with
much mucus.
At times an adult takes cold and rawness of the larynx and trachea
is the result. On going to bed she is taken with a spasmodic constriction of the larynx. Laryngismus stridulus is commonly found in
women, fgw.. Gels,, Lauroc, and Spongia. Ign, and Gels, will cure
eight out of ten cases.
The larynx is sensitive to touch in croup, etc., like Phos,
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