Diphtherinum
as H.C. Allen recorded it in Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons of Some of the Leading Remedies of the Materia Medica, 1899
This is one author on one remedy. The few symptoms that, when genuinely present, point at one remedy and not its neighbours. Read Diphtherinum in every book at once →
Keynotes
Diphtherinum
Homoeopathic Antitoxin. A Nosode.
Especially adapted to the strumous diathesis; scrofulous, psoric or tuberculous persons, prone to catarrhal affections of throat and respiratory mucous membranes.
Patients with weak or exhausted vitality hence are extremely susceptible to the diphtheritic virus; when the attack from the onset tends to malignancy (Lac c., Mer. cy.).
Painless diphtheria; symptoms almost or entirely objective; patient too weak, apathetic or too prostrated to complain; sopor or stupor, but easily aroused when spoken to (Bap., Sulph.).
Dark red swelling of tonsils and palatine arches; parotid and cervical glands greatly swollen; breath and discharges from throat, nose and mouth very offensive ; tongue swollen, very red, little coating.
Diphtheritic membrane, thick, dark gray or brownish black; temperature low or subnormal, pulse weak and rapid, extremities cold and marked debility; patient lies in a semi-stupid condition ; eyes dull, besotted (Apis, Bap.).
Epistaxis or profound prostration from very onset of attack (Ali., Apis, Garb, ac.) ; collapse almost at very beginning (Grot., Mer. cy.) ; pulse weak, rapid and vital reaction very low.
Swallows without pain, but fluids are vomited or returned by the nose ; breath horribly offensive.
Laryngeal diphtheria, after Ghlor., Kali bi. or Lac c. fail; postdiphtheritic paralysis, after, Gaust., Gels, fail.
When the patient from the first seems doomed, and the most carefully selected remedies fail to relieve or permanently improve.
The above are cured symptoms, verifications which the author has found guiding and reliable for twentyfive years.
The remedy is prepared, like all nosodes and animal poisons, according to the Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia, and like all homoeopathic remedies entirely safe when given the sick.
Like all the nosodes it is practically worthless in potencies below the 30th; its curative value also increases with increase of potency from the 200th to the m. and c.m. It need not and should not be repeated too frequently. It will cure in every case that crude antitoxin will and is not only easy to administer, but safe and entirely free from dangerous sequellae. Besides, it is homoeopathic.
The author has used it for twenty-five years as a prophylactic and has never known a second case of diphtheria to occur in a family after it had been administered. The profession is asked to put it to the test and publish the failures to the world.
What the other books say about Diphtherinum
The same remedy read by a different author. They disagree, and the disagreements are where the remedy becomes recognisable.
- Diphtherinum in Boericke — The concise clinical Materia Medica that most Indian colleges teach from, in full.
- Diphtherinum in Boger — A compressed key — the generals and the characteristic modalities, with very little narrative.
Search every book at once, take rubrics from Kent and Bönninghausen, and practise on a patient who answers back — free account.
Create a free account← Every remedy in Allen's Keynotes
Cite this page. H.C. Allen. Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons of Some of the Leading Remedies of the Materia Medica. 3rd edition (1910). Philadelphia: Boericke & Tafel. Diphtherinum — Keynotes, p. 112. HomeopathyWorld, https://homeopathyworld.in/materia-medica/books/allen/diphtherinum. Published 1910: public domain in the US (before 1931) and in India (author died 1909). Replaces B. Jain's 2005 "rearranged and classified" edition (© the publisher), per the owner's decision of 13 Sep 2026. Reproduced as the author wrote it; a historical reference for students and practitioners, not medical advice.