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SUPPRESSED
INTERMITTENT FEVER
In the year 18-- I was called on to visit a Mrs. D., aged 40,
who had come some forty miles to place herself under my care for
the treatment of an obstinate and grave inflammation to both
eyes, supposed to have arisen from cold, and which had hitherto
resisted all attempts at cure. The inflammation was severe, and
the eyes so extremely sensitive that any examination beyond a
mere glance was out of the question, and I hesitated somewhat to
assume the responsibility of the case. Without delay she was
placed under the use of such remedies as seemed indicated by the
ascertained totality of symptoms, the names of which, writing
from memory, cannot now be recalled.
This treatment continued about three weeks, the only beneficial
result obtained being a slight mitigation of the symptoms. Not
satisfied with so poor a return, and diligently searching for
some cause for this partial success, I conceived that the
history of the case might not have fully reached me. So I sat
down for a patient inquiry, from which was gathered that Mrs.
D., with her husband, emigrated from the city of London some
years before this and had purchased a piece of land on our
Northern Railroad contiguous to a marsh, the proximity of which
induced recurring attacks of intermittent fever, for which
Quinine had been freely and often taken, with the usual effect
of at length "breaking the chills," as it is termed, and, as our
patient supposed, of curing the disease. Unfortunately, when the
ague ceased its chill, etc., the eyes, which had hitherto been
sound, became greatly inflamed, and so persistent and severe
that at times total loss of vision seemed imminent.
My inference from
this statement was that the intermittent fever had not been
cured by the Quinine, but suppressed, and so thrown back into
the system to concentrate its baneful effects in another form,
which I conceived to be this affection of the eyes. Should these
deductions be correct, it was further premised that no
improvement in the eyes was possible unless the restraining and
suppressive action of the Quinine on the primary disease could
be antidoted ; and if this were predicable, the intermittent
might return. Actuated by these thoughts, and the presence of
nausea as a prominent but hitherto unrecognized symptom, I gave
Ipecac 30, four times daily, during several days, when, to my
surprise and delight, one morning about 9 o'clock a very decided
chill set in more severe than any which the patient had yet
experienced, followed by intense fever and subsequent
perspiration.
The next day was an intermission, succeeded on the third day by
a renewal of all the symptoms, time etc., of the first I had
then a clear tertian, beginning at 9 A. M., from which, and
other symptoms now forgotten, there remained no reasonable
ground for rejecting Nat. mur. as the remedy. It was accordingly
administered in the 30th potency four times daily for a while,
an after three paroxysms, occupying nine days, the disease
ceased to return, being, as the sequel showed, completely cured
; and, to my great delight, the Natrum had acted so beneficially
that nothing else was required, and I shortly had the pleasure
of sending my patient home, cured of both the malarial fever and
the terrible effect on the eyes of its having been suppressed.
(John Hall).
INTERMITTENT
FEVER
I was called to Mrs. Shultz, a young married woman, who had a
short time before (three months, I think) had a miscarriage. She
had, under the care of an old school physician, who stood high
in the profession, not recovered her health, but had grown
anæmic, weak and emaciated, and a bad cough, with considerable
expectoration, had set in. Now the doctor gave it as his opinion
that she had consumption and an unfavourable prognosis.
This of course was discouraging, and as he had treated her so
long with this result they concluded to change doctors.
I took charge of the case with some misgivings, as the former
physician was a man of acknowledged ability, but, as I watched
the case, after a few days I observed that what the doctor had
called hectic fever every afternoon was preceded by a distinct
chill every day at 10 A. M. with clock-like regularity. I also
noticed that the high fever was accompanied with very red face
and throbbing headache, and was followed by sweat, which
relieved all the suffering, and the rapid pulse became nearly
normal in the morning. I also observed that the patient lived
right on the banks of a swampy marsh. So I concluded to ignore
the name the doctor had given the disease and give the remedy
covering the symptoms. I gave Natrum mur., although it had never
cured a case of consumption, and cured the patient, completely
and rapidly. (Nash.)
SUPPRESSED INTERMITTENT FEVER
Woman aged 53. She complains of a dull heavy feeling all over
her ; almost continual headache, which is worse in cloudy and
damp weather ; extremely sensitive to cold air, especially the
head and feet ; sleeps well, but dreams bad dreams. There are
also unmistakable evidences of liver trouble, which she says
have existed for twenty-five years. The period of aggravation of
all her symptoms, especially headache, is between
10 A. M. and 12 noon ; the appetite is generally fair ; has a
craving for salt. The history of this case shows that when she
was a girl she had frequent and protracted attacks of fever and
ague, during which she took large quantities of Quinine in some
form or other. She says she has never been well since then ; she
continually experiences a dull and heavy feeling throughout her
whole body.
Her only recollection of these attacks, of the fever and ague,
is that she was at that time fond of salt ; craved salt. It is
very evident that this patient, when she had the fever and ague,
was a subject for Natrum mur., and the probability is that had
she had the remedy administered at that time her life would not
have been so miserable an existence during the interim. The
remedy is clearly indicated at the present time, especially by
the craving for salt, and the persistent headache agg. between
10 A. M. and 12 noon and the bad reams. Jan. 29th three powders
of Nat. mur. 1 m were prescribed.
Feb. 5th. Headache less, dull heavy feeling of body less, and no
bad dreams. Sac. lac. prescribed.
Feb. 12th. Same report ; still improving.
Feb. 19th. Continual improvement.
March 4th. The patient seemed almost well and said she had
improved more during the past week than in any previous week
since taking the medicine, notwithstanding she had taken no
medicine except that prescribed at her first visit. (C. M. Boger.)
INTERMITTENT FEVER
R., boy aged four years, had for fourteen months continued
attacks of tertian intermittent. Quinine had been given until
the little fellow sensibly refused to take more.
In August, 1880, I learned that he had had a paroxysm every
other day for seven months. The malarial and quinine cachexia
was well marked, and with the chill, which began between 10 and
11 A. M., there was intense thirst for large draughts of water,
and during the fever which followed he complained of his head
"hurting and jumping." One dose of Natrum mur. (30) was given at
the end of a paroxysm. He remained free from another attack
until in the following October, when, the same symptoms
presenting, another dose of Nat. mur. was given, and he has no
chills since (May, 1881), and has continued to live in the same
place, and his health is constantly improving. This case came
under observation while I was visiting the section in which he
resides with his parents, and on learning that many cases of a
similar character were in the neighborhood I felt a vial of Nat.
mur., with directions to give one dose to any case met with ;
and I learned a few months afterwards that several cases had
been cured with that remedy. (Geo. H. Clarke.)
LIVER DISEASE
R., lad, æt. 12, living at Park-gate. He suffered for some time
from constipation, loss of appetite, dirty looking complexion,
emaciation, frontal headache going round to the back, sleepiness
towards evening and, first thing in the morning, urine thick,
with nasty smell.
Excepting the "nasty" smell, which the boy could not define, I
find these symptoms in the pathogenesis of Natrum muriaticum in
Allen's Encyclopædia of Pure Materia Medica and numbered
respectively 529, 353, 251, 885, 64, 970, 561. Therefore, Natrum
mur. 6, and that six grains in water, forenoon and afternoon.
After taking 24 powders he returned, cured of all the symptoms
except the odor of the urine and the emaciation, and "feeling
very much better." The prescription was repeated and the patient
did not return. His father subsequently informed me that the
cure was complete. (Burnett.)
RHEUMATISM
Mrs. Dr. Keese was attacked with a severe inflammatory
rheumatism of the knee. The swelling was very red and painful.
There was high temperature, quick pulse, great restlessness and
exceeding sensitiveness to the pain.
Aconite brought very little if any relief, and Bryonia next on
account of the < on movement and great thirst suffered like
defeat. Now (said the patient) why don't you help me ? I know
you can if you have a mind to. That was flattering, and I
naturally wanted to "make good." I turned down the bed clothes
to view the situation. As I put out my hand to feel of the knee,
she exclaimed in terror, Oh ! don't touch it. The least touch is
unbearable and brings on the pain for hours.
I said you hold still, and put my hand carefully on the inflamed
knee and gradually increased the pressure until I pressed it
hard and firm. The patient looked astonished and ashamed as she
said why, doctor, that don't hurt me, but I tell you that the
least touch has put me in agony before. I took off the pressure
as gradually as I had put it on, and the usual severe < did not
follow. She then got China 200th, and when I visited her
twenty-four hours later she exclaimed, there, I knew you could
help me if you wanted to. No other remedy was needed. (Nash.)
NEURALGIA
Chas. P., a tailor, came to see me at the dispensary, having
suffered a long time from facial neuralgia. Had been treated by
several old school doctors, but each one after treating for some
time with remedies and liniments with hardly any relief told him
that he would have to be operated on to have the diseased nerve
cut out, as it was the only way he could ever be cured. This was
to him always a signal to try another doctor, as he did not
relish the idea of an operation. He had been so long unable to
work and had spent all his savings for doctors and drugs that he
was now compelled to try the free dispensary.
The pain was entirely on the left side of the face and neck. It
would come and shoot through the face like lightning, especially
in the house, especially if the tried to sew on the machine, or
the children made any noise. The only relief he could get was by
walking slowly about in the open air. He could only sleep after
applying cloths, wet with cold water, to the left side of the
face and head ; when these got warm the pains would awaken him,
but on re-applying them he could go to sleep again. The relief
from cold, open air and slow motion decided me to give him
Pulsatilla c. m., but all in vain.
I then assured him he must be mistaken about his symptoms, for,
if correct, I thought he ought to have been cured, but he
persisted that he had given his symptoms correctly, and
continued : "If I only touch my nose or cheek ever so slightly,
thus," suiting the action to the word, "I can bring on that
pain," and the expression of his face and his groans showed that
he had been more than successful. He was still worse from any
noise indoors, heat, lying on the left side of the face and from
eating, better from fresh open air, walking slowly and from cold
in general. Stools daily, but almost black, urine dark yellow. I
now gave him China 200, to take one powder mornings and
evenings. After three days he returned, saying : "I have had no
more neuralgia since taking the second powder, and have slept
well every night since without the cold cloths. You are the
thirteenth doctor who has treated me for this, but the only one
who has cured me." (F. H. Lutze.)
TYMPANITES
J. Hall, a young man, unmarried, has had for a long time great
bloating of the abdomen, with severe paroxysms of colic. When I
was called to him he had been in bed some time, a number of
days, as the colic and bloating was getting worse continually.
He was a dark complexioned, medium height and build, dark hair
and eyes. He was jaundiced and had a yellow, watery diarrha,
which passed with much flatus, but did not relieve the pain or
reduce the size of the abdomen. The abdomen was as full as that
of a woman ready to be confined ; very tympanitic, and the
convolutions of the whole length of the colon bulged out so that
they could be seen as well as felt through the thin abdominal
wall, for he was quite emaciated generally. He laid straightened
out on the bed on his back, except when the painful paroxysms
came on, when he would throw himself about in agony and groan.
I tried various remedies, among which were Colocynth., Arsenicum,
Nux vomica, and finally Dioscorea, which I thought would
certainly relieve him, because he bent backward instead of
doubled up with the pain, and Dioscorea is a great flatulent
remedy, and had served me well in such cases. China, Carbo v.
and Lycopod. had also been tried. They were all used in the 30th
and below. But no good from any of them. It was a poor family,
and the mother being worn out with night watching (no nurse to
help her) fell asleep, and the patient became delirious with the
pain and escaped from the bed, and in his night clothes was
overtaken three miles from home and taken back. Of course,
things got serious, but they had one advantage, they were too
poor to change doctors or to pay for an operation of any kind.
Well, as has been my custom, I sat down and studied up the case
again. Nearly all his symptoms called for China. But he had had
China low. Now the only thing to do was to try it high. What, in
such a desperate case ? Yep. Only thing to do. So I gave him
some China 5m. made on my own potentizer (so I knew what it
was). The result was all a Lippe could desire. The terrible pain
grew promptly but gradually less, the tympany gradually
subsided, the diarrha stopped, and in a month from its first
administration he was working on the road with the rest of his
fellow laborers. There was no return. Now there was a very
prominent subjective symptom in the case which I have not
mentioned. As H. N. Guernsey used to give it : "Uncomfortable
distention in the abdomen, with a wish to belch up, or sensation
as though the abdomen were packed full, not in the least
relieved by eructations." In this case neither belching nor
stool relieved in the least. (Nash.)
NEURALGIA
Mrs. R., age 65, had been treated during five or six years at
different times by two homopaths for torpid liver. During all
this time she had not had a natural evacuation, the stool had to
be washed out by an enema ; there had not been the least desire
for stool, nor any urging.
She had become very feeble and emaciated and suffered frequently
and severely from neuralgia on the right side of the face, which
the treatment of her physicians did not seem to relieve. An
allopath being called in gave her a lengthy prescription,
containing Quinine, Strychnia, Aloe, Podophyllum, Euonymus,
etc., to be made into pills to take two mornings and evenings.
The first dose aggravated her so much that she did not take the
second dose until the following morning ; this making her still
worse, the pills were abandoned and I was called. I found her
delirious, temperature 104 degrees, but could obtain no
symptoms.
Nux vom. 200, given at bed-time, produced a favourable change by
next morning, but in the evening neuralgia of right side of head
and face appeared, with symptoms of Bellad., and this soon
relieved the neuralgia, as also another attack a month later.
During the interval and after the second attack she was treated
according to symptoms, but after two months the neuralgia made
its appearance again ; this time on the left side of the head,
face and neck, with exactly the same symptoms, but Bellad. gave
no relief whatever ; she was rather worse in the afternoon. Mrs.
R. then told me that the slightest touch would not only
aggravate the pain, but actually reproduce it in its worst form,
if touched when she was free from it. Chin. sulph. covering all
the symptoms, including the reproduction of pain by touch, which
is not found under Bellad., I gave her a dose of Chin. sulph.
45m in water, to take two teaspoonfuls every two hours, which
gradually improved her, so that she was free from pain in four
hours and never had another attack of neuralgia. (F. H. Lutze,
1893.)
DIARRHA
A delicate girl, three years old, has had an exhausting diarrha
three weeks. It is now painless, consisting of brownish yellow
fluid, with much undigested food. She has ten or twelve
operations in twenty-four hours, and is much debilitated. China
200, every two hours, produced decided improvement in thirty-six
hours, and complete convalescence in two days more. (J. B.
Bell.)
RHEUMATISM
I was called to see a man with rheumatism. He had been confined
to his bed and arm chair for many months, and had suffered
greatly from the disease and many doctors. Had not tried
homopathy, for there was "nothing in it." I found joints
swollen (hands, feet, knees, body). The affection had continued
all the time to move from joint to joint since he was attacked.
Heat did not > but <.
Tongue coated white, poor appetite, no thirst.
Very greatly discouraged, depressed.
Temperament, fair ; mild disposition. There were other symptoms,
but these were leading. He received Pulsatilla c. m. (Fincke).
He improved promptly, but in a few days sent for me. He showed
me a discharge from the urethra that looked gonorrhal in
character. That was in the days of long ago, when we did not
know so much about bacteriology. He said that his wife had given
it to him, for he had, as everybody knew, not been able to get
away from home. The wife indignantly denied the imputation. Both
looked to me for a solution of the mystery. I said to him - did
you ever have clap before ? He hesitated under the scrutiny of
the flashing eyes of his wife. Then said : Yes, I did when I was
a young man, before I was married. I said your rheumatism is
improving since this discharge appeared. Yes. How were you cured
of the clap ? By an injection. Well, then, I said neither you
nor your wife are guilty of inconstancy toward each other. This
rheumatism from which you are now suffering is the result of
that suppressed gonorrha of twenty years ago, and you will get
well of both under the action of appropriate medication. But no
more local injections, please. He recovered rapidly. I have seen
other cases similar from such suppressions and am careful not to
resort to them. I did not know of the history of gonorrha in
the case, but treated it on the symptomatic indications. (Nash.)
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