Spongia tosta
Great croup remedy. Dry, barking, croupy cough sounding like sawing through a pine board. Wakes from sleep with suffocation and anxiety. Thyroid enlargement. All complaints worse before midnight.
Source
Prepared from the roasted and powdered skeleton of Spongia officinalis (marine sponge), which contains iodine.
Available Potencies
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Keynote Symptoms
Dry, barking, croupy cough — sounds like a saw being driven through a pine board. Waking from sleep with suffocation, anxiety, and loud cough. All respiratory complaints worse before midnight. Larynx dry, burning, constricted. Thyroid and testicular enlargement. Dryness of all air passages.
Mind & Emotional Symptoms
Anxiety and fear, especially with respiratory distress. Wakes in a fright. Fear of suffocation. Every excitement increases the cough. Stubbornness and ill humor.
General Symptoms
Dryness of mucous membranes, especially respiratory. Worse before midnight, from ascending, wind, touch, roused from sleep, sweets. Better from warm food and drinks, descending, lying with head low.
Physical Symptoms
Head
Fullness and heaviness. Rush of blood to head. Headache worse from right side.
Throat
Thyroid enlarged, hard. Goitre. Throat dry, burning, constricted. Sore throat worse from swallowing, touch, turning head. Stinging, pressing sensation.
Respiratory
Croup — dry, barking, sawing cough worse before midnight, waking from sleep. Larynx painful to touch. Wheezing inspiration as if breathing through a sponge. Asthma alternating with skin eruptions. Whooping cough with dry, ringing barking.
Chest
Great dryness of air passages. Bronchitis with dry, sibilant rales. Palpitation with suffocative spells. Valvular heart disease.
Male Genitalia
Orchitis — swollen, painful testes. Epididymitis. Testicular induration. Spermatic cord painful and swollen.
Skin
Itching, measle-like eruptions.
Fever / Chill / Perspiration
Chilliness with hot face. Heat of body without thirst.
Sleep & Dreams
Wakes from sleep with suffocation, cough, and great anxiety. Cannot lie down, must sit up.
Modalities
Better From
Warm food and drinks, descending, lying with head low, eating or drinking (temporarily)
Worse From
Before midnight, ascending, wind, touch, roused from sleep, sweets, cold drinks, talking, singing, swallowing, dry cold air
Constitutional Type
Light-haired individuals. Children prone to croup. Persons with thyroid or testicular enlargement. Tubercular diathesis.
Clinical Indications
Croup, laryngitis, whooping cough, asthma, goitre, thyroid disorders, orchitis, palpitation, valvular heart disease
Comparative Materia Medica
Aconitum croup comes first with more fear and before midnight; Spongia follows with the dry barking cough; then Hepar sulphuris when the cough loosens (the classic croup trio: Acon→Spong→Hep). Iodum also has thyroid symptoms but with more emaciation and heat. Bromium has croup but worse from inspiration and warm room.
Safety Information
Camphora, Hepar sulphuris.
Roasted sponge is non-toxic. Contains traces of iodine. Safe in all potencies and in mother tincture.
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