Homoeopathy — Page 643
Spongia Tosta 643 SPONGIA TOSTA (Roasted Sponge) This is a soft and porous sponge type of marine life. It usually clings to the rocks and stones in the sea. Once detached or severed, it settles to a new stony surface and starts growing rapidly. Thus a new sponge colony forms. When dead, it floats on the surface of the sea. Some people pick it up from there and sell it to make their living. On squeezing a sponge loses its water, which it reabsorbs on the release of pressure. This quality of sponge is permanent. Even if left as such for hundred years, it keeps its quality. The Sponge is of great domestic use, and besides this, it has been used in many remedies in a roasted form. The homoeopathic remedy prepared from roasted sponge is useful in many diseases. Its use is mostly related to asthmatic bronchitis and heart problems. Cardiac asthma / cough is a condition in which the muscles of the heart become weak, swollen and flabby. The resultant failure of the heart muscles causes water logging in the lungs (pulmonary congestion), leading to shortness of breath. Spongia is the best remedy for this condition. In this type of cough, the breathing sounds like the sound of a saw. Spongia definitely benefits the cough arising from failure of the heart. No other remedy will be of avail in this kind of cough. Cardiac cough , associated with the feeling of fear, rapid shallow breathing and the feeling of a failing heart, resistant to common remedies for asthma, will be benefited by Spongia significantly. Spongia, by way of the associated fear, also resembles Aconite. In fact, fear is a very salient feature of cardiac asthma. On waking up at night, the patient feels disorientated as to where he is and where the door/window is. This can happen in the patient’s own house, supporting further the diagnosis of Spongia. This kind of mental confusion is very pronounced in Spongia, though it can happen in other homoeopathic remedies too. A sudden frightful wake-up at night with anxiety is a very salient feature of Grandiola and Arsenic, but disorientation as to where the patient is, besides