RANUNCULUS (see vol. iii, p.699)
Dr. Portalius speaks of R. scel., acris, bulbos. and flammula. He says they are powerful in the order given. The action of R. on the skin is in 4 degrees. 1st, redness, or very violent itching, which comes on in 12, 24 or even 48 hours, and lasts 3 – 4 d. Then the itching ceases, as also the redness, and the epidermis desquamates. 2nd, redness, local heat, elastic swelling of skin, and violent itching; this comes on 10 – 12 hours after application and goes off in 5 – 6 d. During this time there was found in the irritated portion of skin small eruptional vesicles, which dry up without bursting. 3rd, intense redness, great heat, swelling, and formation of a blister filled with yellow serum. The blister is surrounded by small phlyctenulae and a broad round areola; for 3 or 4 day much serous fluid flows, then the skin inflames, becomes purple and secretes pus. Often several small pustules are formed. 4th, true sloughing of the skin, preceded by phlyctenulae. (Annali Universali di Medicina, Feb. 1841, quoted in Arch., xix, 2, 181.)
RATANHIA,.
Introduction
Root of Krameria triandra, Ruiz and Pavon. Nat. Ord., Polygalaceae.
Provings
1. [The symptoms here given are probably Nenning’s, though without name or other information. We shall deal with them in the usual manner.] Ill – humour and quarrelsomeness (12th d.); peevishness and fretfulness (7th d.). Headache mainly tearing and stitching. Inflammation of white of eye, it seemed as if a membrane extended to central point of eye, and burnt (26th d.); twitching of right under lid for 2 hours, after which her sight was weaker (13th d.); dimness of vision, absolutely or for distant objects; a white spot seemed to be before eyes, preventing vision, she was constantly obliged to wipe the eyes, which afforded relief. Tearing and stitching in ears. Violent epistaxis 3 times a day for 5 successive day (after 5 d.). Painful spasmodic contraction in throat during which she could not speak a loud word (5th d.). Very violent hiccup, so that stomach is painful (1st d.). Sore pain at epigastrium and cutting in abdomen. Much borborygmus. After straining in rectum, stool so hard that she cried out, and haemorrhoids protruded much, – thereafter long – lasting burning in anus. Bowels rather diarrhoeic than the reverse. Much stitching about chest; and once throbbing, burning, cutting, and ulcerative pain beneath left breast near scrob. cordis, relieved by pressure and aggravated by motion (1st d.). Stiffness and tension in neck; tearing and bruised pain in spine. Much tearing in extremities; painful constriction, as with a cord, 2 in. above and below right elbow, she did not dare to stretch out arm, which yet was relieved thereby (6th d.); stitch extending from left axilla into chest, as if a sharp substance were sticking deeply in, aggravated by expiration, relieved by inspiration, p. m. (3rd d.). Chilliness. (Hartlaub u. Trinks, Reine Arzn., iii, 57.)2. (Of these symptoms Teste says – ” They are the result of my own observations: I have seen them several times, in one instance in a female patient whom an allopathic physician had drenched with ratanhia.”) Fitful mood, gloomy and quarrelsome; deep depression of spirits when alone, passing off in society, and sometimes replaced by a sort of gaiety; constant disposition to irascibility. Small red or white pimples which do not suppurate, especially between shoulders and in lumbar region, remaining a long time. Flashes of heat in face. Swelling of gums, which are soft; vomiting of blood – streaked mucus. Dry heat at anus, with sudden stitches, which patient compares to stabs with a penknife; dampness at anus. Delay of menses; suppression of menses, with swelling of abdomen and breasts, as if she had been pregnant for several months, with profuse leucorrhoea, cutting colic and constant pain in loins. Formication and itching eruption in dorsal region. (Teste, Mat. Medorrhinum)
3. When the extract is given, in doses of 10 20 gr., it produces in the stomach a very painful sensation of weight, and sometimes a pinching pain; digestion is more difficult; the bowels become constipated. A few hours after taking drug, patient experiences a general malaise. This is not very marked if the right is taken by a healthy person, but is sensibly felt by those to whom it is given for the purpose of arresting a haemorrhage, and provided this object has been attained; the discomfort shows itself by frequent yawning, by repeated and laboured attempts to draw a deep breath, and by a sort of distressing constriction across the chest. (Trousseau et Pidoux, op. cit.)
4. Dr. A. M. Cushing some 12 or 13 years ago was afflicted with a chronic diarrhoea which resisted all homoeopathic remedies; the doctor finally made use of powerful astringents with but transitory relief. Among other remedies he took right for about a week, with but slight amelioration of his symptoms; but while taking it he experienced a most intolerable pruritus ani, only to be likened to the itching of ascarides; it soon ceased after stopping the remedy. (Hom. Recorder, 1, 39.)
RHUS DIVERSILOBA [Rhus-d].
Introduction
Poison – oak California.
Poisonings
1. a. In Feb., 1876, Miss M -, a slight, brown – haired, but fair – complexioned lady of 25, walked up a hill at San Raphael, 15 miles north of San Francisco, on a warm morning, and while perspiring freely gathered ferns which grew among the poison – oaks. She did not handle the leaves of the latter, though she must have often touched them. About this time of the year the young leaf – shoots are beginning to sprout, and, the California sun – rays being as powerful in February as in July, their virus is pretty energetically developed. Miss M – proved very much infected – quite unknown to herself, for on the next day (Saturday), having returned to the city, she felt in the afternoon chills and feverishness by turns, and general malaise. Next day (Sunday) she awoke feeling really ill. She had a dull frontal headache, anorexia, nausea, stiffness of limbs, extreme languor, and an eruption of itching red papules behind each ear and on the neck. On Monday these papules enlarged and became more numerous, and the eyelids were red and oedematous. Face was red and swelled; the cervical glands became tumid and slightly tender. On rising from bed she fainted, and again later in the day syncope came on. On Tuesday the rash had extended all over face and hands, and between toes and thighs. The itching was becoming more and more intolerable, and partook of a burning character; the nausea continued, and vomiting occurred this d. During this day and the two following urine was scanty, high – coloured and passed with a feeling of heat in urethra. Bowels were costive all through the attack. About the 5th day from their first appearance the papules had become vesicles, which rapidly coalesced on the face and burst, emitting an acrid serum, which, on drying, formed a crust, so dense as to make the movement of the facial and buccal muscles painful. Nose and lips were much swollen. OEdema of eyelids was so great as to close up left eye entirely and right partially. The burning and itching were somewhat relieved after the breaking of the vesicles. The acute stage was now over (6 day after the commencement), but the cracking of the crusts over the face, &c., occasioned such disfigurement that the lady was confined to the house for a fortnight more; by that time all traces of the skin – erysipelas had disappeared, only an unusual irritability (to flannel, &c.) of the integument remained, and a hyper – sensitiveness to cold air. She felt very weak afterwards.1 b. A second attack in Aug. from a slight exposure to the shrub at Menlo Park, an open flat country 30 miles south of San Francisco, abounding in scrub – oak, poison – oak, tarantulas, and gophers (a kind of mole), was promptly checked by the local use of camphor dissolved in arnica tincture. The erysipelas of the face, however, was very intense for 4 – 5 d. A third and a fourth attack in Sept. were promptly checked (as to the face symptoms) by the same lotion; and, so far, it has proved the only abortifacient of the Rhus – erysipelas I have known or heard of; but it is too strong for many people’s skins, and must be used with great caution. The virus must have remained in Miss M – ‘s system, for, about 5 months afterwards, when in the city, a fifth attack came on, without any fresh exposure, shortly after taking a bath rather too hot. One of the earliest symptoms this time was the peculiar rheumatism of Rhus, affecting the legs chiefly, a stiffness of all the joints on first moving them; aching pains in the joints, constant feeling of lameness in the legs. The vesicles that appeared during the first two days were few and scattered, and strongly resembled the eruption of chicken – pox. There was a slight amount of pyrexia. After an illness of nearly three weeks, during which the rheumatism and derangement of the whole digestive system was very marked, a course of four Turkish baths rapidly restored the health and the smoothness of the integument. For three successive springs, 1878, 1879, and 1880, crops of itching pimples came out on the neck and hands. All manifestation of Rhus poisoning then ceased. (J. Murray Moore, Annals of Brit. Hom. Soc., viii, 470.)
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.