2c. During 16th felt moderately well, but for pressure on chest, and sense of fatigue. At 66 p.m. 10 drops only. Immediately lost all taste; burning in mouth and stomach returned; felt chilly- in short, all the symptoms returned only in a more moderate degree, till vomiting 15-20 morning afterwards again brought relief. No more medicine.
2d. L- further affirms that he felt during the intoxication a heaviness as of lead all over the body, always relieved by vomiting. During entire poisoning his colour was cadaverous. On 17th still complained of burning constricting sensation in mouth and fauces, his taste altered, and his vision unusual. A few days later complained of unwonted difficulty of breathing; his taste is not as good as usual, and the teeth are more sensitive when biting. the urine also usual, and the teeth are more sensitive when biting. The urine also passes only in drops, and less easily. No more hemicrania. (BUSCHER, in Berl. klin. Wochenschrift, 1880.)
3. Dr. Meyer, the physician who prescribed for the foregoing, drank 50 or 60 drops of the mixture in the wife’s presence to assure her of its harmlessness. It seems that the alkaloid used was Petit’s, which is 170 times stronger than Friedlander’s, the latter being intended by the prescriber. Hence his patient’s peril and his own death. He was found dead 5 hours after taking dose. At the autopsy 43 hours later, the body was strikingly pale and the jaws firmly closed.
Internal Examination. – Diaphragm on both sides reaches fifth rib; muscles of bright red colour when cut; momentum pale and anaemic; colon partly filled with gas, partly with solid and fluid contents, its colour pale, no injected vessels visible. Duodenum from below upwards more injected, of darker colour as t approaches stomach, but mucous membrane intact. Interior of stomach strongly hyperaemic and bright red from intense vascular injection. Spleen of twice its size, of dark, nearly black-red colour: incised it is full of blood, soft and friable. Liver enlarged, exterior smooth, dark posterior part nearly black: incised seen to be full of blood, but otherwise normal. Kidneys equally hyperaemic. The fluid contents of the abdominal cavity thin fluid and of bright cherry red colour. Right ventricle holds much bright red thin fluid blood; coronary arteries full of blood; in pericardium much bloody serous fluid. The very voluminous brain, even in its membranes, very hyperaemic: sinuses full of thin bright red blood. In hemispheres sub-arachnoid extravasations here and there. The grey substance of brain shows on surface of section small red blood points, the whose very hyperaemic, less so in the medullary substance. [ The post- mortem examination of the lad Malcolm John, poisoned with a. by Lamson in 1881, disclosed a precisely similar state of stomach, duodenum, liver, spleen and kidneys.-EDS.] (Ibid.)
4a. N-, aged 62, of good constitution; never sick save some slight colds. After having felt well the day previous, went to bed March 20th, 1880, feeling unusually cold, and later felt an anxious pressure on the chest. An our later, his wife heard him moaning, and found him in spasms, though fully conscious. As his state grew worse, Dr. Buscher was called at 3 a.m. He found the patient in bed, very restless but quite conscious. Skin very pale and cold, especially in extremities, which are bedewed with cold clammy sweat; radial pulse very small, irregular, dicrotous, sometimes it can scarcely be felt. Sounds of heart only heard at apex, and scarcely distinguishable; heart’s action very weak, irregular and quick. Breathing very laborious, short, very irregular, superficial, sometimes 40 per morning, a few morning later much slower. Pupils contracted, with sluggish reaction; features spasmodically distorted, especially about mouth (facies hippocratica); swallows without difficulty; patient complains of terrible praecordial anguish; throws difficulty; patient complains of terrible praecordial anguish; throws himself continually around in bed; conscious; very irritable and quick in his replies.
4b. During my observation of patient (Dr. B. writes) a sudden change took place. The extremities turned colder; heart- sound and pulse disappeared. His skin turned of marble colour, face somewhat turgescent, pupils dilated, conjunctiva became injected, whole body bathed in cold, clammy sweat; breathing more laborious and superficial; tracheal rattling sets in; a peculiar, shrill, short moaning is heard. Beginning in fingers, then in face, tonic spasms, trismus; after a while, clonic convulsions over whole body. Consciousness is lost. This convulsive paroxysms lasted about 5 or 6 minutes, during which we expected his death every second. It then abated; skin took on a better colour; a warmer sweat occurred; pulse could against be felt; sounds of heart became more clear, and its action, though irregular, at some moments was full and strong. Consciousness returned; opened eyes, and said, ” I must have slept and had bad dreams.” he tried to remove a mildly burning night lamp, as the light felt disagreeable. This amelioration lasted 15 minutes. (thought the praecordial anguish and chilliness continued), and then the convulsions returned in same manner as before, followed nearly stopped, and the pupils were found insensible to light.
4c. Fully conscious again, he replied to question how he felt “Pretty fair, only I feel a terrible anguish in the gastric and cardiac region, and am dreadfully cold.” The anguish he believed to be diaphragmatic. No other pain; of his whole body he feels only these regions and his head, all other parts seem as if filled with lead; no headache or vertigo, only some deafness.
4d. Immediately after taking a large cup o strong coffee, copious vomiting. A second cup, shortly after taken, remains, as also ether given in full doses and strong Spanish wine. Vesicants and sinapisms along medulla and on the extremities. Another exactly similar convulsive attack occurred, but lighter and shorter than before. With returning consciousness he complains now of deathly lassitude. Requested to state his sensations before the convulsions set in, he replies: “I get colder and colder, become blind and deaf; I feel as one sleeping and dreaming.” Now continuous severe vomiting occurs during which convulsions decrease in duration and strength, and intervals of relaxation lengthen. At 5 a.m. danger seemed to have passed, and at 7 nothing remained but some praecordial anguish and sensation of coldness, with slight spasms. At 10, after a refreshing sleep, he awoke well. He did not urinate till noon, when 200 grammes, of dark colour, were passed. [ It is merely said, with reference to this case, that the quantity of the drug taken was unknown. No statement is made as to any being taken at all; but it is put forward with the other as a case of poisoning with aconitine, and its symptoms are such as would be thus caused.-EDS.] (Ibid.).
Experiments on Animals
1. VON PRAEG. The following are his conclusions from various experiments: Respiration was more or less retarded in the mammiferae; beatings of heart become irregular; muscles are relaxed; there is excessive feebleness and inertia horror of all movement (so to speak) in the most acute cases paralysis of all the muscles is the most frequent symptoms the action of a. is thus to depress the muscular system without previous excitation. The brain was evidently attacked, in three cases loss of consciousness, and in all a certain apathy was present, in one case complete anaesthesia; eyes become very sensitive, pupils dilated. Stomach presents symptoms common to all poisonings, retching, vomiting, etc. Urinary system was affected (ischuria) in one out of 13 experiments: 3 salivations. with dogs, remain length of intoxication was 5 hours 10 morning: greatest length, 28 hours 40 morning; least, 11 morning. Largest dose was 2 grs.: 1.1/2 grs. injected into jugular occasioned death in 11 morning. With birds, general depression of muscular system; dilated pupil was only seen in one case, salivation in one case. With frogs, very speedy adynamia soon followed by paralysis, loss of reflex irritability, and complete anaesthesia; hind paws, front paws, finally muscles of head, were successively paralysed; in one case, respiration was suddenly suspended, in another it was, on the contrary, stimulated; heart preserved its reflex irritability just as long as in cases where the heart is simply cut out. With fish, same symptoms on apart of muscles, dyspnoea and diminution of respiratory movements. Post-mortem examination showed membranes of brain very much congested, as well as brain itself, jugulars distended with blood. The blood varied, in some cases viscid and uncoagulated, in others there were firm fibrinous clots as after natural death. (Virchow’s Archiv, vii, 438.)
2. HARLEY made 9 experiments with hypodermic injections of alkaloid in horses, dogs and cats. His results (which he considers to present “the most perfect uniformity”) he sums up thus:-
Hughes was a great writer and a scholar. He actively cooperated with Dr. T.F. Allen to compile his 'Encyclopedia' and rendered immeasurable aid to Dr. Dudgeon in translating Hahnemann's 'Materia Medica Pura' into English. In 1889 he was appointed an Editor of the 'British Homoeopathic Journal' and continued in that capacity until his demise. In 1876, Dr. Hughes was appointed as the Permanent Secretary of the Organization of the International Congress of Homoeopathy Physicians in Philadelphia. He also presided over the International Congress in London.