2f. 8th, 9 a.m. took 5 gr. of 1st trit. 5 p.m., cutting pain lasting several seconds, in l. fibula as with a fine knife, when standing. N. good. -9th, 5 a.m., 10 gr. In 1 h. head dull as if numb, dryness of buccal cavity, powerlessness of limbs, knuckling of knees when going upstairs, painful pressive tension alternately in tendon of r. psoas and deltoid muscle, bruised pain when pressed. 8 a.m., shuddering horripilation through whole outer side of l. lower extremity when standing in room. 11:30, when walking in street dislocation pain in top of right shoulder and l. inner ankle; on coming home giddy in head with slight shudder through skin. Afternoon when writing painless jerking of whole r. thumb (10 or 12 times repeated) which jerked it away from the other fingers. N. good. -10th, m., 15 gr. In 1 h. giddy stupefaction of head, dryness of mouth, hot feeling in face without redness, drawing pains successively in forehead, occiput, l. elbow-joint, when at rest; bruised pain in front of l. thigh and l. knee, dislocation pain in. hip-joint, jerking subsultus above left patella, paralytic weakness on moving, and very slight sweating, especially during and after eating. 3 p.m., drawing pain in r. submaxillary gland lasting 5 or 6 seconds. E., some itching, inviting scratching, on inner surface of l. ear-lobe and burning sore feeling betwixt nates after a short walk. N., difficulty in getting to sleep on account of pain in corn; sleep full of dreams. M., after waking, feeling of hunger, drawing pains in r. frontal eminence, and throbbing tearing in middle of r. tibia.
This ended the proving. Many of the above symptoms continued for some day after the cessation of the proving, and some new symptoms occurred up to 24th June, which were evidently owing to the silver. These were: drawing tearing in r. zygomatic process. A pain brought on by a drought of air in cricoid cartilage of larynx, lasting 1/2 a day; it felt like a cork in the throat; when pressed caused bruised pain. Before midnight, in bed, desire to sleep, but inability to go to sleep on account of heat and pricking on skin, and when he fell asleep attack of giddiness in head so that he felt as though his head would tumble out of bed, followed by a violent convulsive shock like epilepsy, when the vertigo and sleepiness went off. Feeling in anus as if long air- bubbles were passing away. On sneezing a cutting dislocation pain on the cartilages of the left false ribs in a horizontal direction on the l. of the scrob. cordis. (Oest. Zeitschr. f. Homoeopath., 1845, ii, 158-172.)
3. Proving of Argentum muriaticum, by Dr. LEMBKE, of Riga. 27th Jan., 1866, 7 a.m., 10 gr. 3rd trit. 9 a.m., 10 gr. E., boring in borders of r. foot. -28th, 7 a.m., 10 gr. 8 a.m., drawing in skin of l. temple as if skin were contracted there. 11 a.m., when walking drawing in skin of outer side of l. thigh, afterwards the same above inner condyle of l. elbow. 4 p.m., severe shooting in r. eyelids. N., frequent micturition, urine normal-29th, 7 a.m., 10 gr. Boring in outer side of r. ankle-joint. -31st, 7 a.m., 10 gr. No symptoms. -Ist Feb., 7 a.m., 10 gr. 2nd trit. 8 a.m., violent stitches in skin of r. eyelids. 9 a.m., great call to urinate, which must be immediately obeyed; much clear urine passed. 10 a.m., the same, and again repeatedly till 4 p.m. 1 p.m., several times drawing in skin above inner condyle of right elbow. -4th, 7 a.m., 10 gr. During forenoon very frequent and strong call to urinate; much urine. The same state towards evening -5th. Frequent and great discharge of yellowish urine. The same n. -7th, 7 a.m., 10 gr. Frequent and profuse discharge of urine, but with less urgency. -8th, 7 a.m., 10 gr. Frequent micturition; much bright yellow urine. -9th. Less frequent micturition. Woke with pressure in forehead, lasting till 4 p.m., increased by stooping; cough better in open air; some nausea along with a severe fit of headache, which was not of equal intensity all the time it lasted, but at times declined considerably, then without cause became suddenly very severe. After 4 p.m. the headache again occurred, especially on stooping. -10th, 7 a.m., 5 gr. Ist trit. Taste slightly metallic, rather bitter. -14th, 6 a.m., 10 gr., and 8 a.m., 10 gr. Ist trit. Tearing in frontal bone. 8:30 a.m., and later again at 4 p.m., heaviness and pressure in frontal bone, with head in forehead, increased by stooping. This pain lasted till bedtime, was sometimes more violent, e.g. at 9 p.m., when walking in open air. 10:30 p.m., tearing from forehead spreading back over the crown. 2 p.m., tearing on r. side of upper jaw. 10:45 p.m., spasmodic contraction in gullet. 11 p.m., 10 gr. Pressure deep in r. leg for some m. when seated, and recurring several times, followed by above pain in forehead in l. knee. -15th, 6 a.m., 10 gr. 6:30 a.m., tearing in crown and occiput, below right eye in superior maxilla, at 7 a.m. on both sides of occiput and l. shoulder. 7:30 a.m., the pain again on r. lower orbital border. 8 a.m., 10 gr. 8:30 a.m., great urging to urinate; urine dark yellow, very acid. – 16th, 8:30 a.m., 40 gr. 9 a.m., tearing in l. side of head and left thumb. 3 p.m., tearing in left temple several times. Frequent call to urinate. (N. Zeitsch. f. hom. Klin., xi, 129.).
Experiments on animals
1. An elaborate series of physiological researches on the effects of silver salts on animals, by Dr. Bogolowsky, of Moscow, has led him to the following conclusions.
1a. Silver produces a decidedly antiplastic effect on the blood, making that fluid more fluid, darker, and more prone to the formation of ecchymoses and effusions. A longer continuance of this influence produces chlorosis. The blood-corpuscles give up their hemoglobin to the plasma, become transparent and pale, and are altered in shape. The effused hemoglobin passes gradually into hematine, and the latter into a dark yellow colouring matter, in consequence of which the gall-bladder is constantly distended with a dark green bile.
1b. The quantity of urine was generally diminished, while its sp. gr. was increased. The evacuations were notably increased, and coloured dark yellow, or like chocolate.
1c. The fluctuations of temperature were not particularly remarkable; nevertheless there was a pretty nearly constant lowering by a few tenths of a degree, both in acute and chronic poisoning.
1d. The mucous membrane of the air-tubes and of the intestines was catarrhally affected by the prolonged use of silver, gastric of sub-cutaneous.
1e. The liver-cells and the epithelium of the canals of Bellini were mostly in a state of cloudy swelling, or else of fatty degeneration. The liver was sometimes found congested and enlarged; sometimes, on the contrary, reduced in size and anemic. The gall-bladder was in the majority of cases found distended with a large quantity of bile, the intestinal evacuations, as already remarked, containing a notable admixture of this fluid.
1f. In the urine of animals who had long taken silver the presence of albumen was in many cases detected; in such instances the medullary cones of the kidneys were richer in blood than the cortical substance.
1g. In various researches changes in the muscular fibres of the heart were observed, which were analogous to the morbid process in the liver and kidneys. The fibres were increased in circumference, and were cloudy, with a large quantity of granular substance which, on addition of acetic acid, vanished; the transverse stria were obliterated; and, not rarely, enlargement of the nuclei of the sarcolemma was observed. A thoroughly developed fatty degeneration of the muscular fibre of the heart was not seen, even in a single case. Similar changes were simultaneously found in the other muscles of the body.
1h. The fatty tissues were in most cases atrophied, and the inter-muscular cellular tissue often in a state of “mucous” degeneration.
1i. A universal blood-stasis (repletion of all the veins of the body with a very fluid blood containing coagula, hypostasis of the lungs, repletion of the vessels of the medullary cones of the kidneys) was the general phenomenon found, on dissection, in all animals killed either by acute or by chronic poisoning with silver. Not frequently there was transudation into the two pleura and into the peritoneal sac, in consequence of this blood-stasis.
1j. In many of the observed cases the urinary bladder was found distended in consequence of disease of the spinal cord, which was usually developed some days before death in animals which died of chronic silver poisoning.
1k. The continued administration of silver in progressive doses causes a loss of weight, and visibly destroys the nutrition, so that an impoverishment and a chlorotic transformation of the blood are produced. This last occurrence takes place most rapidly when the silver salt has been administered by means of subcutaneous injection.
These results followed equally when a peptonate or albuminate as when the nitrate of silver was employed. (BOGOLOWSKY, Virchow’s Archiv, vi, 4, and Practitioner, iii, 65.)
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.