Introduction
Alumina Potassic-Aluminic sulphate. K2AL24SO4,24H2O.
Provings
1. Dr. JEANES took 3rd cent. trit. (how is not stated). On 8th day had bruised feeling on lower edge of left orbit, on pressure or on moving lids, lasting 2 days; and piles, with aching within anus. On 11th day, three yellow diarrhoeic stools, like an infant’s. (HERING, Mat. Medorrhinum, vol. i. 1873.) 2. N. N – took 5 daily doses of same, – 1st 3 in evening, 4th and 5th in morning. After 1st dose, slept well; in morning, 1 hours after rising, weariness, and for 3 hours twitching in limbs, particularly in arms, – therewith much excited. In 1/2 hours after 2nd dose felt very tired; but slept well. Same sensation at same interval after 3rd dose; night again good; in morning some headache over eyes, and pain in left chest. After 4th dose, very soon tired; warm ebullitions like spasms spread over whole trunk, particularly back; no pains, but trembling of muscles; towards 2 o’clock pains in chest return, better when walking. In 15 m. after 5th dose a kind of cramp in back just below hips on both sides; very warm ebullitions; the sensation went from the hips up the left side; it so frightened him that he took a cup of coffee to remove it. (Ibid.) 3. Dr. RHEES proved same (manner unknown). In 1/2 hour after 2nd dose had rheumatic pains in arms and chest, over left eye. Other symptoms are not dated: they are- Pain in head, coming and going, from place to place; sensation of fulness in chest, also in arms (especially after supper); stitching pain down middle of chest, later in right side; severe pain in left shoulder; pain in right arm as if a string were tied tightly round it; bruised pains in joints of arms, hands and feet; rheumatic pain in left hand and all finger-joints; pain in both knees, particularly in right., when waling; uneasiness in knees, with pain just above them; rheumatic, and bruised, pain in whole body; sensation, all forenoon, of inward heat. (Ibid.)
4a. Miss R. A. RHEES took 6th dil. (manner not stated, but evidently in repeated doses). Her symptoms were-Dull heavy pain in head, particularly in back part; in 3rd week unusually good appetite and thirst, on 21st day little appetite; after a meal, heaviness in stomach and throbbing as in an abscess, also distension at epigastrium; 2 h. After taking it in morning, seized with nausea, faintness and weakness, lasting till afternoon, when pain returned; with nausea, nervous restlessness and excitement, mental rather than bodily; on another occasion nausea and faintness, accompanied with sick, griping pain in stomach and loathing of food; on 22nd day nausea in morning, and so weak that she could not sit up, felt a heat in stomach with great thirst, relieved by drinking cold water; at 11 a.m. sinking sensation at stomach, after eating something she felt stronger, but had for 15 minutes a violent throbbing there, extending to heart, and violent palpitation; for several weeks after proving distension at epigastrium after eating; soon after taking it in evening, felt a slight pain or binding sensation in her breast, especially on right side, which disappeared on (almost immediately) retiring to rest. Besides these symptoms, Miss R. had two singular attacks while taking drug, which she thus describes:
4b. “Between 3 and 4 p.m. I felt a pain in my right arm as though a cord were drawn tightly round it, just below shoulder, occasioning great fulness of blood-vessels and deprivation of strength. The pain was dull and heavy, not general throughout the arm, but rather in lines extending in different directions from the ligature which apparently bound it; the weakness was such that I could not hold the needle which I was using when the pain commenced. The attack began suddenly, continued for a few moments, and then abated, though it did not leave me entirely, and returned at regular intervals during remainder of day and evening. Renewed doses increased pain in arm, which is this evening quite severe.” Writing apparently of and at same time, she describes a “sensation as if a cord were tied around the leg, under right knee; pain extends downward and upward, but is confined to lower leg. To-night a similar feeling, though much slighter; the pain is on the under part of the limb only.”
4c. On 5th day, about 3:45 p.m., sitting in church, was seized with a sharp, steady pain in the stomach, accompanied with the most deathlike faintness she ever remembered to have felt, with extreme sickness and immediate loss of strength. A cold sweat covered her, she thinks she must have been deathly pale, for she felt as though the blood (which had at first been driven to the head by the suddenness and severity of the pain) were leaving it and the extremities altogether; they were quite cold; her sight grew dim, and she became so faint that she expected every moment to fall from her seat. The pain in stomach felt as though it would draw her double. The attack lasted, she thinks, about 1/2 hours, after which violence of pain gradually abated, faintness passed off, chilliness gave place to heat, and the blood rushed to her head with such a force that she could hardly hold it up, or keep her eyes open, though quite conscious of what was going on about her. After service, she was able to walk slowly home, though very weak, feeling very much as if she had been ill for a month. She felt the weakness especially in her back, although she had no pain there; but during rest of evening, whenever drawing a long breath, it appeared to come from a spot on each side of spine, about middle of back, on line with inferior angles of scapulae. Effects passed off with night’s rest, and there was no return of symptoms. (Ibid.) 5. Miss ALICE RHEES, a younger sister of above, commenced proving same dilution, but next day had similar attack at noon. Was seized instantaneously with most acute pain in stomach; was found sitting drawn together, with knees against breast and face like a corpse, deathly pale, lips blue. Chamomilla relieved, but there remained great vertigo and nausea; she complained of being very cold, but did not shudder; great weakness, as after long illness, with headache lasting all afternoon. (Ibid.) 6. Mrs. RHEES experienced similar symptoms from the 12th, of which she took repeated doses. The attack occurred on two successive m., about 1 hours after rising; 1st day pain was absent, but nausea, faintness and coldness were very pronounced, 2nd day pain was severe. Dr. HUSEMANN also, while taking same potency, twice had sudden sharp pain in region of stomach. (Ibid.) 7. Tr., friend of Dr. Husemann, took 6th on May 11th and 12th. On m. of 12th and 13th, woke with pressing headache over eyes, which lasted till 10 a.m., relieved by drinking cold water; about 9:30 p.m. same headache, with vertigo, lasting till bedtime, lessening after lying down to sleep. Also on both mornings, while washing and dressing, pains in left chest, near middle of sternum, lasting till 9 a.m. He also had tickling in larynx, causing cough; tongue rough, and as if scraped, in morning; lassitude in whole body, especially in left leg; very light and restless sleep. On 3rd day, in m. on rising, he spat a lump of coagulated blood. (Ibid.) 8. BARTHEZ took, fasting, zss of alum in zj of water, Immediately contraction in whole mouth, lasting 1/4 hours, with very painful pressure in stomach. During rest of day no marked symptoms. After 3 day took zj in zij water. This was followed by more violent contraction than before; appetite was not diminished, but on the contrary he thought it improved, and digestion rather better than usual. After this took doses increasing every time by zss, till he took ziiss at once. Thereupon he experienced violent urgency to vomit, lasting nearly 1/4 hours, but without vomiting. Throughout day no marked disturbance. The inclination to vomit seemed to depend rather on the astringency and disagreeable taste of drug than upon any irritating influence on stomach. After 6 day took fasting ziij at a dose, and in 3 or 4 m. vomited twice a portion of solution. Through day no symptoms of any kind; only 2 or 3 day after stools were more difficult than usual. The vomiting spoken of occurred without effort and without previous nausea. (Recueil des Mem. de Medorrhinum, 1835.) 9. WIBMER, in experiments on self with alum in doses of gr. iij in zv of water, taken several times a day, observed dryness of mouth and throat, thirst, diminished frequency and increased consistency of stools. (Wirkung, &c., I, 114.) 10. In the experience of Begin, and also of Barbier, the long-continued use of small doses of alum produces cough in persons with sensitive bronchial tubes.[ Prover No. 6 (but no other) experienced hoarseness, and even loss of voice, with tickling cough on talking.-EDS] (LEWIN, Opium cit., p. 51.) 11. A. W -, health sound, pulse 65, regular, took 10 gr. of 1x at 6 a.m. Soon, watery eyes, followed by sneezing. At 6:10 tasteless eructations and shifting flatulence. 6:15, drawing in plantar surface of right foot, afterwards in epigastrium. 7.0, free and watery urine (had been relieved at 5:30). 7:30, cramp- like drawing and stiffness in cervical region. 8.0, discharge from eyes has become glutinous and annoying; occasional wandering cramps. 8:30, urination as before; pulse 76. 9.0, no appetite for delayed breakfast; slight irritative cough. 9:45, urging to stool with much borborygmus; ringing in right ear; cough while exercising; 10.0, burning and itching in right outer canthus. 10:35, urging to urinate. 11:30, easy fatigue from short walk, followed by backache in lumbar region; pulse 86. 12:45, faint as from hunger; palpitation; much abdominal flatus. 2.0, languor and headache; voice uncertain; nostrils and mouth dry; no thirst. 4:30, loose stool, much flatus; haemorrhoidal irritation followed. Was constipated for 2 day afterwards; urine was scant and high coloured. (WOODWARD, Medorrhinum Era, Jan., 1885.) 12. The received theory of the action of alum is that it causes a contraction of the blood-vessels; but we have failed in most cases to see any evident alteration, as ascertained by direct measurements on the mesentery of the frog, in the size of the blood-vessels when alum solutions were dropped upon them. In a few cases an expansion, and in two only a slight contraction, was noticed; the capillaries themselves were generally expanded. Nevertheless, a stasis in the circulation often occurred. (NOTHNAGEL and ROSSBACH, Arzneimittellehre, sub voce.).
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.