12. On last d. of Sept. commenced trials. To four cats 2 months old, and two 3 months old, were given dissolved in water in m. 1/8 gr. kal. ars., and this continued every day until 20th Nov.; from that time each cat got every day 1/4 gr. By the 8th Dec. the four youngest cats were dead. Beyond increased indifference to the drug dose and cessation of former struggling, greater thirst, licking mouth and urethral orifice, lying close together and unwillingness to move about, a peculiar quietness and staring look on the last 3 or 4 day before death, nothing remarkable was observed. The two other cats got now irregularly every 2 or 3 d. each 1/2 gr. till 12th Sept. and 2nd Aug. respectively.
Results of P. M. made on the 4-year old [1/4 year?] cat.
12 a. Female, black and white striped cat, besides being well nourished showed an uncommon quantity of fat under skin, about heart and kidneys, in omentum and mesentery. Lungs normally red, completely inflated, emphysema the size of a pea in 2 places of lower lobe of left lung. Pericardial fluid of normal quantity; heart very hard to feeling, the shape of a rounded cone; considerable hypertrophy of left ventricle, which was much firmer and redder than right, which looked like a mere appendage of left, right ventricle contained cherry red, thin fluid blood and a thick fibroid clot, many column carne extending far into pulmonary artery. Stomach distended by gas; just before pyloric orifice a circumscribed, dark blue, gangrenous-looking spot the size of a sixpence-the commencement of a perforating ulcer; round about it the signs of chronic catarrh of stomach. Peritoneal covering of small intestines injected in spots; ileum almost everywhere strongly contracted. In bladder little greenish- yellow, faintly smelling urine, which contained a great quantity of albumen, a good many fat-corpuscles, and in its sediment glandular epithelia of the tubuli uriniferi, fibrin cylinders, and blood-corpuscles; reaction neutral, the quantity of urea, of uric acid, and especially of sod. chl., very much diminished. The kidney’s about twice the normal size, very full of blood, especially their cortical substance which is brownish red and tender, and much increased in diameter; from the cut surface exudes a viscid red fluid; the pyramids hyperemic, reddened in stripes, the glomeruli very full of blood. Bellini’s tubules filled with fibrinous coagula mingled here and there with blood- corpuscles. (Commencement of 2nd stage of Bright’s disease.)
12 b. Grey and white striped male cat. The subcutaneous tissue contains much less fat than that of No. 1. Pleural sacs empty, left lung normal, upper lobe of right lung almost throughout hepatised, when cut into exuding bloody frothy fluid (pneumonia serosa). In pericardium double the normal quantity of serum; left ventricle dilated and hypertrophied, muscular substance pale. In stomach, the m. m. swollen up in ridges, like a number of tapeworms; liver discoloured, containing much thin dark blood, unequally hyperemic as in commencing putridity, gall- bladder full of blackish-green fluid bile, the several coils of bowels stuck together and to abdominal walls by means of slightly plastic thready exudations; cecum completely united with the subjacent ileum by large masses of exudation; m. m. of head of cecum near vermiform process, on a spot the size of a hazel nut, bluish black, gangrenously inflamed. Urine contained fibrin cylinders, fat-corpuscles, little albumen, urates; kidneys very considerably swollen, but less hyperemic than in the first cat; the capsule easily removed; the cortical substance yellow, friable; the fibrinous exudation permeated by fat-corpuscles, still more frequently washed out of the tubuli, the latter to a great extent with altered epithelial covering; the cells and epithelia are larger, filled with cat and granules. (2nd stage of Bright’s disease.)
12 c. Black, female cat; thin, undeveloped; the eyelids on both sides fast closed for the last week; on forcibly opening them there gushed out a quantity of whitish yellow thick pus; the conjunctiva was injected and swollen, no pustules, no ulceration of conjunctiva or cornea; lens of both eyes hard and opaque. The left ventricle of the heart showed commencing hypertrophy. Intestines normal; the kidneys were enlarged, somewhat harder, with shiny surface; the pyramids contained many tubuli filled with fibrin. (End of Ist stage of Bright’s disease.)
12 d. Brown and yellow striped female cat. The centre cartilage and alae nasi covered with an adherent, viscid, fetid, ozena-like discharge, as also the Schneiderian m. m.; the cartilages of the alae nasi necrosed, thin almost to perforation, the m. m. of left nostril especially dissolved into an ichorous mass. The right eye has no pus on its conjunctiva, but its lens is quite opaque. The m. m. of larynx on right side injected, dark red and swollen, bronchial tubes and right lung normal; in centre of upper lobe a hepatised spot the size of a shilling, and in lower lobe hepatization to within 1″ of anterior border; in upper lobe bloody serum exudes when cut into. Pericardium contains 1/2 drachm of fluid; left ventricle hypertrophied, head projecting like a ball from the highly developed ventricular septum. Liver, pancreas and spleen normal. Stomach distended by gas, towards the cardiac orifice covered with shining black, Indian-ink looking, adherent pigment; the pyloric part, the duodenum, and the whole of the remainder of the alimentary tract very constricted, empty; the ileum congested externally on its m. m., contained some worms; the folds of the m. m. of the colon very swollen; at the lower end of the cecum there was a deposit of ochre-coloured pigment the size of a bean, resembling the metamorphosed blood in an apoplectic deposit. In the bladder a little bright yellow urine, which contained fat-corpuscles, crystals of uric acid, some crystals of oxalate, and epithelia of Bellini’s tubules. The kidneys, whose capsule was easily detached, showed many epithelia in the process of becoming fatty, other tubules without epithelium, but most of the tubuli very dilated so that granulations appeared on the surface of the kidneys.
12 e. Results of P. M. of the two older cats poisoned with arsenic. Dark grey female cat. Great increase of size of left ventricle of heart, the walls of which were three times as thick as normal, rigid, and dark red. Kidneys soft, rather anemic, when cut into showing yellow stripes and fat on the knife blade, the tubuli very full of oily fluid from the fatty degeneration of their epithelial lining.
12 f. Light grey female cat, 1 year old. Hypertrophy of left ventricle especially noticeable in the papillar muscles (column. carn.?). Blood very fluid, like cherry water, poor in solid constituents. Great accumulation of fat in omentum and mesentery; liver very large, hardish, pale with ununiform hyperemia (nutmeg liver), spleen not enlarged, but tough, granular, cherry-red, no alteration in bowels. A little greenish-yellow urine in bladder, urine contained a little albumen, many fat-corpuscles, some crystals of oxalate of lime, almost no salts and little urea, pavement epithelium from bladder and beautiful fibrinous cylinders, externally studded with fat and granules. The kidneys, pretty hard and dark, double the normal size, showed masses of fibrin round single tubuli; red fluid escaped when they were cut into, to the surface of which oily patches rose, and fatty degeneration of the epithelia of the tubules of Bellini. (QUAGLIO, Allg. hom. Zeit., lv, 85.)
13 a. Dr. A.T. THOMSON experimented on dogs with ars. iod. Simply introduced into stomach, 4-20 grs. caused speedy vomiting, and no other bad symptoms. When esophagus was tied, 3j caused violent efforts to vomit; evident pain at stomach; fluid stools, chiefly of mucus; rapid, sharp, irregular pulse; spasmodic twitchings in extremities; general tremor, evident failure of muscular power in limbs. In 20 m., dog fell on side; left fore and right hind leg twitched continually, while other two limbs were at rest; later, these and lower jaw, and in 5 m. more whole body, were involved in the convulsive movement. Respiration became slow and deep; tonic spasm affected intercostal muscles, and emprosthotonos supervened. Paralysis now appeared in limbs first affected by twitchings, later in others. Sensibility, unimpaired up to this time, was lost (save at muzzle) in 1 3/4 h. In 2 1/2 h. the dog was dead. P. M. Lining membrane of stomach intensely inflamed, -this process extending upwards to esophagus, downwards as far as ileum, and taking a fresh start in rectum. Lungs collapsed, but not inflamed; both sides of heart turgid with coagulated blood.
13 b. Injected (3ss) into abdomen, vomiting came on in 10 m.; a few seconds before death, violent spasmodic twitchings affected back. P. M. Peritoneum highly inflamed; lungs greatly congested and red; right heart turgid with blood, left empty.
13 c. Injected (3ss) subcutaneously into right thorax, in 5 m. animal fell on side, and had violent tetanic convulsions; breathing extremely slow and altogether abdominal. In 10 m. heart’s action still slower and intermittent; in 11 m. forelegs in violent movement, and whole body in tetanic spasm; in 15 m. death. P. M. Lungs collapsed, and heart and diaphragm insensible to stimuli; stomach much inflamed and thickened; duodenum slightly so. (Lancet, 1838-39, i, 176.)
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.