Poisonings
1. LOHMEYER has observed the following effects of antimonial vapours on those employed in works where the ores of the metal are smelted:- 1a. One workman, D. W-, after a long exposure to vapours, had oppression of chest and slight headache; oppression gradually increased to violent stitches, darting toward shoulders and back, accompanied by dry, painful, violent cough. Headache likewise increased to a stitching and burning, especially in occiput and nucha. The dry cough was at last accompanied by difficult expectoration; rattling and wheezing in air-passages on inspiration. At night painful uneasiness soon increasing to complete loss of sleep; a short nap ended in a profuse distressing sweat, followed by great exhaustion. Patient was altogether prostrated, appetite impaired, abdomen distended from the commencement; frequent attacks of diarrhea with pinching in abdomen, by which the food soon after being taken would pass off undigested, whilst the belly remained distended and slight. He had difficulty in passing urine, which was attended with urging and pain at neck of bladder and painful burning in urethra, from which a few drops of a liquid mucus were occasionally discharged. Urine had dark orange or reddish colour. A few pustules broke out on scrotum resembling those of smallpox; pains were felt in testicles, sexual desire was weakened and gradually became extinct even to impotence; seminal discharges and erections entirely ceased. Incipient atrophy of penis and testicles accompanied this loss of power.
1b. G. H-, age 28, began to complain in the spring of 1839 of violent headache, soon accompanied by tearing in all limbs, violent stitches in chest, and cough. Anorexia, pain in abdomen, with diarrhea, and a pustular eruption, first on throat, very thick, then on body, and very severe on genitals; urination difficult, with pains and by drops, with clap-like discharge from urethra; loss of sexual power; total impotence; penis shrivelled; testicles diminished in size. The pustular eruption at length kept him confined to the house.
1c. J. F-, age 30 was exposed to same influences at various times in 1837 and 1838. In 1837 had headache, tightness of chest, with stitches in it; shaking, dry cough; later the pustular eruption, confined to throat. In 1838, on being again exposed, he had headache, which he described as boring, oppression of chest, violent dry cough, anorexia, cutting pains in abdomen followed by diarrhea. The pustular eruption again appeared on neck and arms, less on body, but on genitals to such an extent that he could not walk. Blennorrheic symptoms of bladder and urethra; difficulty, occasional impossibility of passing urine; tearing in urethra and mucous discharge; at length impotence. Testicles diminished in size.
1d. K. J-, age 30, had tensive headache and febrile drawing in back. On continuing more constantly at the work had tensive pain in forehead behind glabella, with lightning-like stitches through the back of head, which were transient, but the frontal pain lasted. Some pain in sacrum; general prostration with sleeplessness; anxious dreams, starting, and night sweat; anorexia, pain in belly, and occasional diarrhea. Painful swellings of cervical glands, pustular eruptions in bend of joints of upper extremities, but especially on abdomen and genitals; pains in testicles; strangury; urine dark red, for 14 day bloody, causing burning in urethra, when a whitish mucus was discharged. Loss of sexual power, diminished size of testicles, impotence. (He got ill after the cessation of these symptoms when he left off his work. It seems to have been a severe attack of intermittent fever, and probably had nothing to do with the ant.) (Casper’s Wochenschrift, 1840.) 2. A sick woman, for whom her physician had prescribed tincture of antimony, took a large spoonful of it without vehicle; whence arose pustules on the fauces, and macula, and a red exanthem over the whole body, with some delirium. (GHOLIUS, Medorrhinum Pract. Clin. et For., 1734.) 3. In a case of pneumonia treated by the white oxide of antimony, in doses of 20-24 gr., there appeared on the 4th day an eruption of small pimples, similar in their confluence to those I have had occasion to observe on the genitals as a consequence of the external use of tartar emetic. I have observed the same phenomenon in other cases of peripneumonia treated by the same preparation. (MICHEL, Gaz. Medorrhinum, 1835, p. 310.).
Experiments on Animals
1 a. HARTING says the only after-effects of 3 oz of ant. sulph. aur. on horses and cows were that the faces were brighter coloured and loose, the urine yellow coloured and increased.
1b. HELLEFELD gave at 3 p.m. to a cat 15 grains in water. In 1 hour it vomited coloured material, but was otherwise well; soon afterwards it had a fluid stool and urinary discharge; this was repeated later, then it became quiet, sad, and could not eat. After 8 days again ate with appetite.
1c. MAYERHOFER gave to a strong young butcher’s dog the Ist day 1 gr. without apparent effect; next day 2 and 3rd day 3 gr. in divided doses. It ate a great deal and passed much urine and loose faces. 4th day 3 gr. in 3 doses. After the first dose in 1 hours vomited soup and much mucus, passed more urine, and had three stools of reddish-brown loose faces. The next 4 days it got daily 3 gr. in 3 doses. Appetite increased, urine more copious, 2-3 pappy, reddish stools containing unaltered ant. sulf. aur. 5th day he got 3 gr., and had at night 3 dirty light-brown, clayey stools. Belly felt unusually warm, and on hypogastrium towards genitals several discrete pustules which formed scabs, they came and went off gradually. 6th day 4 gr. in 4 doses. Several stools with tenesmus, sometimes slimy, sometimes only pappy. The next 14 day 6 gr. daily. Appetite not diminished; every day 2 to 3 pappy and sometimes thin, slimy, generally reddish stools, sometimes with, sometimes without tenesmus, and always very fetid. After this for some day got no medicine, and the functions became regular. For 8 days daily 8 gr. in 4 doses. The above symptoms recurred and much of the drug passed away unaltered. Then frequent hawking of phlegm came on, the phlegm came away with much retching as if it would vomit. Ever day the straw of its bed was quite wet through with the hawked up and vomited phlegm. Appetite sometimes greater, sometimes less; eyes dropping, and the pustules on the belly came and went. After 8 day it got daily 12 gr. in 3 doses. It became thin, but ate more than usual. The above symptoms remained the same. On the 4th day there were loud mucous rales in the throat, so that it seemed as if it must be choked by the constant cough and hawking until it brought up the phlegm. It ate as usual, had dirty grayish- blue, slimy stools, of the consistence of pus, but after some day they were again pappy and of the colour of the drug. The extremities were painful when pressed or bent; the pustules itched, as it licked and gnawed at them. The stools were always fetid and it exhaled a bad smell from its body. Urine always increased. For 8 days it had no more of the drug, but its state remained the same. After 8 day more it got 4 gr. in the day, and soon afterwards vomited. It now got in the m. doses from 4 to 20 gr. for 8 d. The stools became thin and pappy, appetite diminished, and the mucus became more viscid, general restlessness came on, and it lay down first in one place then in another, dragged itself about weakly and cowed together. Twitchings and paralysis of the extremities ensued. Pulse small and compressible. Belly very sensitive to touch. Breathing gasping, often groaning, frequent retching and flow of mucus from nose, the region of stomach very painful to touch, trembling of whole body, immobility of eyes, paid no attention when called, and becoming generally paralyzed it died. P. M. Cerebrum much injected and partially softened, spinal cord normal. Fauces, trachea, and bronchial tubes full of frothy viscid phlegm, lungs slightly reddened, partly infiltrated, partly hepatised, of dark red colour, spongy in structure and full of viscid frothy mucus. Some grey tubercles on both upper lobes. Cavities of heart normal, but on the external walls of the aorta and pulmonary artery there were fibrous and polypus formations. Liver very much discoloured, dirty grayish brown, spotted, swollen, spongy, and full of dark blood. Spleen red and blue flecked, esophagus full of frothy mucus and very brittle. Stomach very much enlarged, lax, and soft, external coat in some parts thickened, in others thinner; the lining mucous membrane quite smooth, as if swept out clean; exactly like the stomach in gastromalacia. All the bowels lax, much mucus and thin coloured faces containing many worms, the blood-vessels of omentum and intestines very much injected. The bladder contained a little dark-coloured urine; in other respects all was nearly normal. (N. Z. f. hom. Klinik, xix, 27.) 2. RAYER introduced 3ss of ant. crudum into cellular tissue of dog’s back without effect. Fifteen gr. placed in peritoneal sac caused inflammation, and in 24 hours death, but without any peculiar symptoms. Moiroud says that, given to horses in doses of -3iv, it acts as an excitant, causing increased frequency of pulse and respiration, and softer stools. (PEREIRA, op. cit.) 3. Dr. SAIKOWSKY, of Moscow, has found (Virchow’s Archiv, xxxiv, 78) that when animals are fed upon antimonic acid (1/2 to 1 grm. daily) or other preparation of the metal for 14-19 day, the liver, kidneys, and even the heart, undergo a fatty degeneration; also that there is a lessening of the amount of glycogen in the liver, and in some cases even a total disappearance of it. This has been confirmed by Professor Grohe and Mosley, who state that in the Duchy of Brunswick the peasantry give to the geese, when producing the famous fatty liver, a certain quantity of the white oxide of antim. every day (H. C. WOOD, op. cit.).
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.