16b. The proving was continued in the same manner till May 20th, and from 24th to 31st 20 drops were taken daily in morning fasting. Former symptoms occurred, but more severely. He woke in m. with urgent call to stool, which continued after the (copious) motion. After dinner a small soft stool, followed by sore feeling in abdomen for some hours, as though stool would come. On June 4th, when eating dinner an extremely painful cutting in the bowels prevented further eating; this went off in 10 m., and was not followed by stool. 16c. The after-effects were very persistent, lasting from 6 to 8 weeks. W. enumerates them as: A difficulty in evacuating even a soft stool; a distressing, occasionally very marked, fulness and painful tension of abdomen; violent cuttings in intestines; urging to stool at unusual times and frequently during the day, which persisted even after a stool, and sometimes was followed by sticking, cutting pain in rectum; feeling of heat and swelling in rectum, usually more acute when walking; and decided weakness and powerlessness of the sphincter ani, which closed so lazily and incompletely after stool that it was difficult to wipe the anus clean (Ibid., 1xxiv, 29.) 17 a. A boy, age 5, took at 10 a.m. 3 drops of 3x. Slight bellyache followed, with tension and some inflation of abdomen, then discharge of inodorous flatus. Three day after he complained of pain at anus and had frequent tenesmus, during which he pressed out small quantities of yellow mucus. He had intercurrent chilliness and bellyache with retraction of the umbilicus.[ Dr. M. thinks it necessary to mention that the boy had sat on a cold doorstep. This however, he had often done before with impunity; and on the present occasion the bellyache, tenesmus, and chilliness preceded his doing so.-EDS.] (J. O. MULLER, Zeitschr. d. Vereins day hom. Aertz., 1857, i, 38.) 17b. A healthy, strong brunette, age 32, took at 4 p.m. 5 drops of same potency. Two hours afterwards came on intermittent tearing in head, here and there, with heaviness, confusion, and vertigo. To this were added scotomata – flickering or whirling before eyes, yellow rings that moved in field of vision in circles and were now and then replaced by shining bodies that shot across eyes. Eyes felt swelled and dim as if she had not slept for several nights. The head symptoms were worse in the dark, better in the light. She had also inclination to vomit when moving about hurriedly; rumbling and swashing in stomach and abdomen; and very restless sleep, in which the threw off the bedclothes. She was very prostrate and weary, as in nervous debility. On rising from bed, there was pain and shooting from sacrum to anus, hips and abdomen, which went off as the moved about. (Ibid.)
17c. Dr. M – himself took 20 drops of same. He had eructations of gas with slight pain in stomach and flow of saliva; pinching bellyache in umbilical region, with chilliness; three thin, pappy, dark coloured, scanty stools during day, preceded by rumbling and pinching in hypogastrium, and followed by tenesmus-like pressure; irregular contraction and unusual dirtiness of anus after evacuation, and sense of increased warmth in rectum and anus in intervals of stools. There was also tickling, creeping, and spotty redness on glans penis, especially about corona and frenum; and urine was scanty and dark. (Ibid.) 18. DR. A. FISCHER gave to five persons 4 to 6 drops of tinct. every morning, for 3 days. 18a. A women nursing a two months’ old baby had, a 4th day, cramps in hypogastrium and right groin, going down right thigh beyond knee; thereon followed metrorrhagia; she felt ill all over, and very sensitive, and had tension and compression in nape, behind both ears. Her baby took a drop of tincture and had a green motion in 4 hours; next day was fretful, groaning during sleep, and screaming on waking (as a rule, he slept quietly), with copious sweat all over. 18b. A woman, age 28, had on 1st day, at noon, a whistling in throat, as if something had fallen into trachea, and impeded respiration; dyspnoea; pressure behind sternum; scraping in larynx. 18c. In night after third dose, a single woman, age 30, dreamed at midnight of being seriously ill, and awoke with oppression at chest, breathing whistling and painful, larynx tight as if she would be strangled, throat dry, tongue dry and stiff; she cried, and was obliged to sit up in bed. This lasted 1 hours, then came several fits of coughing, and gradually all passed away. 18d. A child, age 3, had, early in middle of day after second dose, a soft, very abundant motion. On previous day passed blood at stool, as from piles. 18e. A child, age 4, 2nd day had pains in nose, followed by coryza; on 3rd day had a stool, consisting of undigested material, with traces of blood. Being slightly chilled from uncovering himself in bed, was seized, during night, with hoarse, rattling, low-pitched cough, as if all the trachea were raw, harsh, and full of phlegm. On 3rd day the child was troublesome, crying at the slightest thing. 18f. The following symptoms are not referred to the individual provers: In 15 minutes, nausea and feeling of emptiness in stomach, with digging around navel. In 30 minutes, feeling of wind rising through throat, as before sickness. In 3 hours, quivering and shaking in larynx and tongue, for some m.; cough, followed by a sputum size of bean, yellow and tenacious; stitches in sacral region on bending. In 4 hours, throbbing in left side of head, at first painless, then aching for 1/4 hours at a time, head much affected. In 6 hours, burning, as of fire, in left nostril; stitches under right side in region of liver. At 4 p.m., pricking in left hypogastrium, deep in body, as if in left ovary and uterine ligaments; in evening, headache on left side, with tension; hoarseness and slight cough, with continual expectoration, provoked by tickling and scraping in larynx, thirst and dryness in throat (cough continued for several day, worse towards m.; on 1st day there was pricking in right side of larynx at each fit, and raw pain when expectorating); pressing pains in right side, under armpit, extending in direction of right shoulder towards back. On this 1st day motions were soft and pasty, later solid or absent. On 2nd day a round, red spot at edge of left lower jaw, between lower margin, angle and chin; motion followed by sensation of burning at anus; urine scanty, twice only in 24 hours, and little at a time, containing yellow, branny deposit; pain under nail of left forefinger (in one of the children). On 2nd night a man dreams he is mad, and that everyone is watching him. On 3rd day tearing pain deep in right eye, lasting some m.; rumbling in belly, most frequently in hypogastrium; piercing and twisting pain around navel; pricking sensation in rectum (afternoon); the third finger of right hand, in which there is a torn sensation, presents a kind of ulcer on first phalanx, it is red, and seems inflamed. On 4th day, pains on right side of forehead; in two subjects, nausea, mounting up into throat, with inability to vomit; from afternoon till evening, tearing sensation in right thigh above knee; stitches in right knee (in three provers); in evening, pain, as if strained, in outer ankle of left foot while walking; at night ineffectual tenesmus. In evening of 1st 5 day, headache, involving whole head, and twitchings above right eyebrow, deep in right side of forehead. On 6th night, when but just. in bed, sudden and clashing explosion in left ear, like breaking of glass, – the noise seems deep in head, whence it goes towards right ear. Without note of time are mentioned:- Jerking pain in right parietal bone towards vertex, with pain when touched; head affected, with turns of nausea; menses appeared 6 day too soon, with a sensation of cold, blood dark, flowing abundantly, with clots; coryza and heat of nose; stitches in right chest, under (female) breast; sleeplessness before midnight (three provers), from midnight to 5 a.m. (in one); dreams of monsters, and of all kinds of animals. (Journ. du Disp. Hahn., Bruxelles, iii, 235.) 19. Health sound, pulse 65, regular; took at 7 a.m. 10 drops 1x dil. in 1/2 oz. water. 7.2 Increased saliva with eructations. 7.5. Itching behind knee, also of scalp; distension of stomach. 7.7. Itching in various parts; distension and rumbling in bowels. 7:15. Borborygmus and drawing in bowels very annoying. 7:45. Pressure and drawing in hypogastric region. with drawing in spermatic cords; griping in transverse colon followed; passed flatus with relief. 8:10. Drawing in cervical region; legs and feet cold. 8:20. Pulse 75; eructations; arms feel weak; hands cold to touch; chilliness on moving; cramp in right foot. 8:45. Stool, unusually free and forcible, with noisy flatus, followed by drawing in bowels and extremities. 12:15 p.m. Slight nausea, griping and noisy rumbling in bowels; cold feet are now hot; pulse 90; normal urine. 1:30. Hearty meal followed by urgent stool with heat and irritation of anus. During p.m. increased rectal irritation with loud rumbling; pulse 94. 8.0. Gloominess and slight headache; some languor and thirst; n. sleep interrupted by haemorrhoidal irritation and unusual sexual excitement; during sleep seminal emission without dream. Waked at 6 a.m. with urgent call to stool, difficult to retain, copious and loose, followed by haemorrhoidal irritation; headache and languor until after breakfast. Occasional sneezing during the day. (A. W. WOODWARD, MS. Communication.) 20. A. acts in small doses on the nervous plexuses and vessels of the abdomen; in stronger doses it acts as well upon the intestinal canal, especially the large intestine; and produces, easily, and without inconvenience, increased and watery evacuations, though after some interval, at times as long as 24 hours; in very strong doses it acts as a very drastic purgative, with griping, at times with bloody stools. (VOIGTEL, System der Arzneimittellehre, ii, 2, 114.) 21a. In large doses A. acts as a purgative. There are, however, some peculiarities attending its cathartic operation deserving of notice. In the first place, these effects are not so speedily produced as by some other purgatives; for 8, 12. and sometimes 24 hours elapse before they are produced. Secondly, A. acts especially on the large intestines, and a full dose is in some persons apt to produce heat and irritation about the rectum, and tenesmus; and in those troubled with haemorrhoids, it is said not infrequently to increase, or even to bring on, the sanguineous discharge. The purgative effects of A. do not arise merely from its local action on the alimentary canal, since this effect is sometimes produced when the medicine had been neither swallowed nor given by the rectum; so that it appears to be of a specific kind. 21b. The uterus, in common with all the pelvic viscera, is stimulated by A. A determination of blood towards these organs, and a fulness of the blood-vessels (especially of the veins), are produced, and thus uterine irritation and menorrhagia are apt to be increased by it. (PEREIRA, Mat. Medorrhinum, sub voce.) 22. If pushed far, a slight degree of enteritis may be set up. The motions are highly coloured, like bile, soft, seldom watery. (WIBMER, Wirk. d. Arz. u. Gifte, i, 105.) 23. Administered in small doses of five to thirty centigrammes, once or twice a day, A. causes slight colic, followed by expulsion of one or several diarrhoeic stools. We see that the action of this purgative is very gentle; stools rarely occur in less than 5 or 6 hours, and it often happens that patients do not go to stool until 24 hours after the administration of the drug. The first effect, therefore, is to increase the number of stools or to facilitate them, and it also stimulates the functions of the stomach, but only in those cases where the weakness of digestion is not accompanied by signs of chronic gastritis. If the use of A. is continued for some time, we do not fail to see symptom of sanguineous flux towards the pelvic viscera; there are heat and feeling of weight towards the extremity of the intestinal canal; excitement of the genitals and increased venereal appetite, with more frequent desire to urinate; in women, pain and weight in the womb, and in the loins; increased flow of whites; uterine colic more painful at the period, and increased menstrual flow. In heavy doses, A. acts like all drastic purgatives. (TROUSSEAU and PIDOUX, Mat. Medorrhinum, sub voce.) 24a. A. evidently acts by irritating the mucous membrane of the intestines, and producing a larger secretion; this is manifest from the large quantity of mucus often passed out with the evacuations when aloetic aperients have been taken….. When administered in larger doses than 2 to 5 gr., it is apt to cause griping, heat about the anus, and haemorrhoids; it also loses its effect of properly emptying the large intestines, producing small frequent evacuations, consisting principally of mucus, and attended with tenesmus, the abdomen being at the same time distended and tender, the patient complaining that “his bowels feel as if scraped;” the pulse is sensibly quickened, and a sense of distension is felt about the head. The long-continued use of aloetic aperients has a tendency to produce emaciation, and their action upon the bowels becomes capricious and uncertain, sometimes failing to produce any effect, and at others producing frequent small evacuations, as before described; the mucus being occasionally passed in long membranous bands, and sometimes in substances resembling pieces of flesh. I have also seen two cases in which the mucus passed along with the evacuations had all the appearance of fat. 24b. I have seen cases of enteritis which I believed to be traceable to the inordinate use of A. 24 c. I have many times found that when squill, along with other diuretics, failed to act, the addition of A. has speedily produced a copious diuresis. (GREENHOW, Lond. Medorrhinum Gaz., xix, 269.).
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.