Mulhausen, 1833. - A labouring weaver required my attendance. He had a very high fever; the face very red; the neck stiff; the deglutition very difficult; and he experienced an intolerable thirst, which nothing was able to satisfy; his speech was painful; this voice altered and nasal. I endeavoured in vain to see the posterior part of the pharynx; the mouth could not be opened sufficiently wide; but those portions of it that could be seen were red and swollen. On placing my hand on his neck, a very evident swelling was felt in the region which corresponds to the amygdalae. The disease had affected him for three days. He had made use of gargles and emollient cataplasms; and fifteen leeches had been applied under the angles of the lower jaw. Notwithstanding these means, the disease was manifestly much on the increase.
I suspended the antiphlogistic treatment, and gave immediately 3 globules (at 30) of Aconite. This dose was repeated six hours afterwards. I gave him also three globules of Belladonna , to be taken early on the ensuing morning. - At my visit, I was gratified to see every symptom sensibly ameliorated. The fever was subdued, and I could see the back part of the mouth. The redness there was vivid, and the amygdalae much swollen.
Next morning I repeated Belladonna ; and saw the patient in the afternoon. - The natural voice had returned; deglutition had become easy; and there was less pain. The swelling of the tonsils had sensibly diminished; the thirst was appeased; and the patient was able to take some soup.
I prescribed nothing for the next day, wishing to see if, under the action of the last dose, the malady would continue to decrease. On my arrival, the mother of the patient told me that her son was much better and had returned to work. Notwithstanding this imprudence, the patient had no relapse.
It is impossible here to deny the action of the Aconite and Belladonna. Under their influence, two days sufficed to cause the disappearance of an extremely acute disease.
If any one should tell me, it often happens that very acute diseases of the throat come on quickly and as quickly disappear, I should add that I have witnessed the most severe cases of that kind, but they had no resemblance to that which I have just reported. The patient, in fact, was bedridden for three days; the fever had increased in an unequivocal manner; the pain was aggravated in the same proportion; the jaws could scarcely permit anything to enter them. In similar cases, we never see the inflammation disperse so quickly as in the case I have reported. I will add more - in the greater number of such cases, the malady terminates in suppuration, and sometimes death.
R-, of Mulhausen, aged ten years, was seized, in the spring of 1833, with a very intense quinsy. It was characterized by swelling of the tonsils, with a very vivid redness, pain chiefly during deglutition, the voice altered, the speech difficult, and very considerable fever.
Six leeches were applied to the neck of the little patient, and a linseed-meal poultice.- The disease abated nothing, Nevertheless, during the entire day, I limited myself to prescribing poultices and emollient gargles. In twenty-four hours, it was evident that the disorder was becoming worse and worse, and the fever had redoubled in intensity.
By this time, I thought it my duty to save the infant from being sacrificed to the routine practice. I prescribed 2|30 of Aconite , and, six hours afterwards, the child took 2|30 of Belladonna. - The patient was agitated during the night; the neck became for some seconds more painful; and the child was delirious until the morning.
At my visit, I thought that the Belladonna still continued to act; and I therefore prescribed nothing further. - Twelve hours afterwards, the fever had much diminished; the deglutition had become more easy, though still painful; the voice was clearer.
I now prescribed a single globule of Belladonna. - Some hours afterwards, the patient experienced a painful sensation along the neck and head. Next day, however, he was so much better that he sat up, and took a little nourishment; and, in a few days more, he recovered health and strength.
Scarcely had the preceeding patient recovered, when his elder brother was attacked by the same malady, but with symptoms much more intense. Being of the same nature, I need not recount them.
The Aconite , and after it several doses of Belladonna , administered at intervals of six and twelve hours, mastered the disease.
This child was not subject to any allopathic treatment, - In the former case, I had yielded to the wishes of the father; and besides, I must acknowledge that, at that period, I was not so well satisfied that the most violent inflammation might be safely treated without the abstraction of a single drop of blood. I was still possessed of old prejudices, although I had long acknowledged the truth of the homoeopathic principle. But how difficult it is to believe, before having seen and proved it one's self, that inflammatory diseases are much more easily overcome by Aconite , Belladonna , Bryonia , &c. in extremely small doses, than by bleedings the most abundant! - Yet this is a fact so certain, that there is nothing more easily verified in practice. The single circumstance of the general abolition of sanguineous evacuations, is so vast a benefit that the result will immensely ameliorate the health of mankind.
Mulhausen, 1833. C-, a nurse, usually enjoying excellent health, was, without any assignable cause, attacked on the 13th of August with a very intense fever. The heat was considerable; the pulse beat with force and rapidity; the skin was moist; the head highly injected; and the patient had a slight cough, with hoarseness.
I prescribed 3 globules of Aconite at the 30th attenuation, and repeated the dose six hours afterwards.- On the 14th, the fever had remarkably diminished; but the hoarseness was greater; and the neck was very painful in swallowing. It seemed to her that she swallowed needles; and yet she felt the necessity of producing frequent movements of deglutition
I prescribed 3 globules of Chamomile at the 15th dilution. - Next day, the affection of the throat had completely disappeared. In mentioning a case so very simple as the foregoing, my object has been to have it compared with the preceeding cases of quinsy cured by Belladonna , and to compare both with the common practice.
According to that practice, different diseases bearing the same name, are treated by the same means - Antiphlogistics under all their forms, to which are added revulsives to the intestinal canal, or to the skin. No account is taken but of the common elements of irritation and inflammation; and for that reason, the treatment should be identical. When one thing will not answer the purpose, recourse is had, it is true, to other means, but without any certain data to describe the choice of medicines.
By these simple cases, however, may be seen the great superiority of homoeopathic medicine. It prescribes Aconite to regulate the excitement of the sanguiferous system in those cases where physicians are obliged to debilitate the constitution by means of an abundant abstraction of blood, in order to dissipate the excitement of the vascular system, so common in all forms of disease. With the smallest doses of Aconite , homoeopathy cures more quickly and more surely than the strongest medicines or the art of bloodletting has ever done.
After sanguineous evacuations, or Aconite , there remain other symptoms peculiar to each case,- In the old routine, what would be the course as to them? what guide should be followed? Alas! there remains to it no more than to abandon itself to empiricism and groping in the dark.- homoeopathy, on the contrary, after the administration of Aconite , proceeds with the same certainty, which pointed out to it the choice of the medicine, to regulate the sanguiferous system; for, in every given case, it has its immutable law.
London, 1836. - I was consulted at the commencement of the summer by Mr. B-, who was attacked by a violent inflammation of the throat, for which he had already taken a dose of Belladonna , and if I rightly recollect, a dose of Aconite at the beginning. He suffered cruelly during two days, could scarcely open his mouth, and swallowed with great difficulty and much pain. The velum palati and amygdalae could scarcely be perceived, but appeared to be very red and much swollen. The voice was so completely altered, that what the patient uttered could scarcely be understood. The neck, even externally, was swollen. The patient was restless, and could not sleep; and the pulse indicated a high state of fever. He told me that the Belladonna had greatly aggravated the disease, without being of service. I thought that the disease had augmented in strength, owing to the patients not having often enough repeated the medicine. The Belladonna appeared to me well-chosen.
I prescribed two globules more to be dissolved in water, for the patient to take during the day. - At my second visit, I found him still worse than the day before; the symptoms appeared absolutely the same, but more intense.
I now noticed one circumstance which, at my former visit, had escaped me. - The patient spit a great deal; and he told me that a thready mucus was secreted in great abundance. This led me to think that the disease belonged to Mercury and not to Belladonna. Mercury , in fact, produces the same kind of excretion, with which the patient was affected; whilst, if Belladonna do produce a kind of viscid salivation in the mouth, the symptoms of inflammation of the neck and amygdalae are characterized rather by a state of dryness.
After having remarked this, I administered immediately a globule of mercury of the 15th attenuation; and I dissolved 2 others in a glass of water, that the patient might take a spoonful every two hours. - Next day the symptoms amended considerably, and two more doses of mercury made them entirely disappear.
This case points out the importance of enquiry into all the symptoms, and shows also how necessary it is that we should not, as usual, treat diseases according to the names given by pathologists, but that we should vary the treatment by following the particular symptoms which belong to each variety and which differ widely in diseases bearing the same common name.
B-, aged six years, enjoyed habitually the best health, but had been indisposed for some days, although his indisposition offered no precise character, up to the eve of the day when I saw him for the first time. He had, at that time, an intense fever; the pulse beat at least a hundred and twenty strokes a minute; he complained of pain the head; his face was yellow; and the tonsils and velum palati were very strongly inflamed, and covered with a layer of thick mucus. The patient had his mouth constantly open and thrown back, owing to the difficulty which he experienced in breathing; and the tongue was protruded from the mouth. The throat was much swollen, and a considerable quantity of mucus issued by the nose. The abdomen was swollen, hot, and rather painful upon pressure; and there was constipation.
Until that time, the child had been submitted only to treatment the most insignificant, consisting of emollient clyster, poultices on the abdomen, and infusion of violets to drink. I gave him a globule of Aconite , and desired that the dose should be repeated six hours afterwards. - The medicine had no very remarkable effect; the pulse diminished only ten strokes a minute; and the affection of the throat visibly augmented. The mouth was constantly open; the tongue protruded from its cavity; and the head was strongly turned back in order to assist the entrance of air into the trachea; the patient was much weakened, and dozed without ceasing.
I prescribed 2 globules of Belladonna , at the 30th dilution. - The aggravation was visible to those who had watched the patient; the fever acquired more intensity; the abdomen became hotter; the child threw back his head in a manner much more determined; and in the night was delirious.
In the morning he was in the same state as in the evening before the administration of Belladonna - I made him take a single globule of the same medicine. - Next day the disease began to yield, though before this there had been a remarkable increase of it. The pulse was at 120; the abdomen slightly flattened; and the tongue less protruded from the mouth. The child, although always sleepy, roused with less difficulty from that state; the mouth appeared much swollen; and a thick mucus covered the tonsils and the velum palati.
I again administered a globule of Belladonna - Next day, the state of the patient was alleviated; for the tongue protruded much less from the mouth; the glands of the neck were diminished in size; somnolency was less obstinate; the little patient also had tried to amuse himself.
I prescribed a globule of Soluble Mercury at the 15th dilution.- The medicine had the most striking result. From next day, the state of the child presented nothing further to alarm. The tongue had ceased to protrude; the glands of the neck had much diminished; the velum palati and the tonsils were infinitely less swollen; the mucus was discharged with the greatest facility; and the abdomen retained only its natural heat. I gave nothing that day; and the improvement continued till the next.
I then ordered a second globule of Soluble Mercury. This was the last medicine. -The child had already begun to amuse itself; and, twenty-four hours later, it remain up for some hours. The appetite reappeared a little later; and not many days elapsed before the patient had recovered his strength.
London, 1837.- I was consulted by Miss B-, at the time when the influenza was prevalent in London and its environs. This young lady had suffered inconvenience for some days, - until, on Friday, she felt the approaches of a complaint to which she had been subject to some years before.
She apprized me, that she had many attacks of the same kind, and dreaded them much; that no treatment had ever facilitated their cure; that she had generally been ill for three weeks, and remained feeble for some time afterwards; that her periodical discharges (to which she was subject to three times in five weeks,) were abundant, and supervened on the least agitation.
On Sunday, when I first saw her, she was suffering greatly. Her lips were red and dry; her throat and tonsils were also red and inflamed; her deglutition was painful; she experienced a grating sensation, as if there were something in the throat; there was some little swelling toward the outside of the neck, which was painful when touched; there was also a bitter taste in the mouth; loss of appetite; pain of the ears during swallowing; pain in all the limbs; general fatigue, a little frequency of the pulse.
Finding Belladonna the suitable remedy, I gave her two globules immediately, and one globule to be taken eight or ten hours afterwards. - The first dose of Belladonna did not afford any relief; on the contrary, that evening the patient was worse; she could scarcely swallow at all; her lips were more dry; there was much mucosity in the throat; and many shooting pains about the head. In the night she was much agitated; next day, the body was covered with a natural perspiration, and the throat became better after the second dose.
On Tuesday morning, all the symptoms became more violent; the exterior of the neck was painfully sensible and much swollen; there was dryness of the mouth and throat; great thirst; great difficulty of swallowing; heat and fever.
I prescribed, to be taken immediately, a globule of Aconite ; six hours afterwards, another globule of the same substance; and, six hours after the latter, two globules of Belladonna. - After the second dose of Aconite she vomited abundantly, and an improvement immediately after commenced, at the same time the little vesicles broke out around the mouth. - The Belladonna (given ten, and not six hours after,) conquered the remaining symptoms.
On Wednesday, then, she began to feel pretty well toward the evening; on Thursday she, in some degree recovered her appetite; and on Friday she might be considered cured. On the Sunday following I found her perfectly recovered,- three or four days having effected that which perhaps had never before been obtained in less than three weeks; and besides this, the menstrual functions have since been performed infinitely better, and, since that painful but short illness, she enjoys good health.
I shall not report any more cases of quinsy treated with Belladonna. All that I need add is, that I have always seen the same successful results follow the employment of Aconite and Belladonna in similar cases; and as such cases are very frequent, physicians can easily put to the test the accuracy of the opinions of Hahnemann
Madame Z-, thirty-two years of age, was pregnant for the seventh time. All her pregnancies had been accompanied by aversions, vomitings, inexpressible discomforts, with extreme lowness of spirits, involuntary fits of weeping, and various indispositions during a great portion of the period. I undertook the treatment of Madame Z- in the first weeks of her pregnancy; all the inconveniences above stated existing in a high degree, and the lowness of spirits appearing similar, though greater than in the preceding pregnancies.
I administered two doses of Ipecacuanha. - A little improvement followed, preceded by a very slight exacerbation.
I then had recourse to Nux vomica. Two doses of that medicine, administered six days apart, completely removed the uneasiness. The melancholy, which had generally lasted for many months, also disappeared.
Some weeks afterwards, Madame Z- was threatened with the same inconveniences. - The Nux vomica , administered again, immediately dispersed the symptoms.
[Still] later, after a chill, Madame Z- was attacked by a cough and an oppression so great, that she felt as if there were a determination of blood to the chest. Some globules of Aconite re-established quietude as by enchantment. In former times, when I followed the common practice, to obtain the same result, I had been obliged to have recourse to bloodletting.
The infant of this lady was born strong and healthy.
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