11 b. During the next 2 years numerous contacts with the growing shrubs, both by accident and by design, have afforded me a most extended experience, and many instances of acute agony on and in hand, wrist, arm, &c.: while recently simple contact of thumb’s outer surface with the growing woody stem produced in an hours the circumscribed local consequences peculiar to the poison. Each contagion is more rapid in its appearance and more energetic, topically, in its form. (” Agricola, ” Hom. World, Jan. 1891.)
SALICYLICA (see vol.iv, p. 12)
II. 17. Miss B -, aet. 26, subject of chronic eczema, went out on a cold day, and in evening complained of muscular rheumatism of arms and legs. Salicylate of soda was taken in 15 gr. doses for 3 day with much advantage. A week afterwards rheumatism returned, and drug was taken again. Dr. Barrow was sent for after 2 or 3 doses had been taken, and found her in a state of great distress. She was covered with an intense erythematous rash, with tingling sensation over whole body; eyelids, hands, face and legs were swollen; there was sense of weariness and depression, and a highly nervous dread; breathing was shallow and hurried; and there was severe headache, ” as though the head would burst.: Pulse 120, fluttering and feeble; temp. 107 o, with intense thirst. Nothing in diet could account for this condition; and on leaving off the salicylate, and adopting remedies to meet the symptoms, in 48 hours rash had disappeared, and pulse and temp. had resumed their normal condition. A few day later rheumatic pains again came on; the salicylate was once more taken; and after 2 doses a similar train of symptoms set in. (Lancet, 1890, i, 1173.)
18. Dr. Dubrisay observed in three gouty patients young enough to be good tests of the question, an absolute but temporary virile impotence which seemed to depend upon 3 – 4 grms. of salicylate of soda administered for 20 day (Am. Hom., March, 1881.)
19. In a communication made Dec. 23rd, 1881, to the Societe Medicale des Hopitaux de Paris, Dr. Rathery states that every time he has taken salic. of soda he has had a pemphigoid eruption on the hands and on other parts of his body. (L’Hom. Mil., iii, 414.)
On p. 21, left 2 from bottom, after ” Allen’s Encyclopaedia, ” add ” viii, 474. ”
SANTONINUM (see vol.ii, p.236)
II. 12. A girl, aet. 4, was given a ” worm – cake ” containing S. After some hours she had shivering, rigors, fever, vomiting, and diarrhoea. On 2nd day same symptoms; on 3rd day a doctor was called. The child presented a jaundiced tint in skin and sclerotics; T. 39.3 o.: face and ankles oedematous; urine red, containing bile and a great quantity of albumen, casts, and red and white corpuscles. When tested for S. this also was found there. Abdomen was tender, liver especially so. The child was exhausted and depressed, with headache, but no other nervous symptom. The following days the jaundice decreased, until the fever began to diminish; the stools were but slightly tinged with bile. The albuminuria persisted with the jaundice for 12 day, and then the two disappeared together. Recovery was complete. ( Deutsch. Medorrhinum Wochenschr., Dec. 26th, 1889.)
13. A young woman with pulmonary tuberculosis, believing she had intestinal worms, took one day 2 lozenges of S., each containing 2 1/2 centigr. After 3 hours she became aphasic and could only pronounce the single word ” mais ” (but). This speechlessness did not last more than 2 h. Patient stated afterwards that a few seconds after taking the lozenges she began to see objects yellow, and soon it became impossible for her to speak or to answer questions, though she understood these well. ( Gaz. Medorrhinum de Paris, Sept., 1884.)
SECALE (see vol.iv, p.46)
21. Dr. H. C. Allen proved drug, mainly in dilutions from 30th to 200th, on 12 students, male and female. Three of these took 2nd dil. (none knew what they were taking).
a. Man took Zj of 2nd, in repeated doses. He reports: Sensation as of intoxication while undressing at n. (3rd and several following e.); passive morning epistaxis, left side, blood bright red; soreness of throat, with dryness and sense of constriction, better by swallowing, – this worse in m.
b. Another male student took several doses of same dil, without effect.
c. A third, who took same for two weeks, reports same feeling in throat as a; the soreness was most felt on left side, and ran up into ear. (Trans. of Amer. Inst., 1885, p. 117.)
II. 33. Mrs. M -, aet. 48, suffered from fibroid tumour of uterus, which caused menorrhagia. On 2nd day of period, flow being excessive and more uncontrollable than usual, at 10 a. m. Dr. Hulme administered a small teaspoonful of Squibb’s fluid extract, and left patient quite comfortable. On returning, less than 40 m. afterwards, he found her in a half – fainting condition. Countenance was swollen, pallid, and denoted great anxiety; respirations were shallow and frequent; extremities were swollen, and hands increased 1/4th in size. Abdomen also was much enlarged; pulse frequent, weak, irregular; pupils equally dilated and vision indistinct. She complained of great dizziness and nausea. Menstrual flow continued as before, and no signs of uterine contraction were evident. She had no pain. Dr. Hulme administered a teaspoonful of whiskey and 10 dr. of aromatic spirit of ammonia every 1/2 h. In 4 hours patient felt stronger, and pulse was regular, though very full and quick. Pupils were still widely dilated, and vertigo prevented patient leaving her bed. Swelling of face and extremities continued to increase for 11 h. In 24 hours symptoms began to decrease, and gradually subsided, – dizziness and indistinct vision being the last to subside, and continuing several day (Phil. Medorrhinum News, Nov. 5th, 1887.)
34. June 4th, 1890, I was called at 7:30 p. m. to come at once to Mrs. P -, who was suffering from severe abdominal cramps. I found her curled up in bed, shrieking with pain, which seemed to start from the lower part of the abdomen, more on the left side, and run upward towards the chest, shooting and stabbing in character, and coming suddenly in spasmodic attacks. They caused her to toss about in agony. The abdomen was very sensitive to touch; the pain doubled her up, but she could not bear much pressure. There were also sharp pains from the fingers running up the arms. The pains made her silly and foolish, as if intoxicated, but she had taken no stimulants. She had been taking essence of peppermint in water without relief. I gave her one dose of bellad. She had one severe attack of pain and several milder ones, but was free from them in 15 or 20 m. I then found that she had taken several ergot pills; and, her pains being relieved, she began to complain of numbness in her fingers and toes, in left hand and arm to shoulder and head, right arm to elbow, and in feet, legs heavy. She exclaimed, ” Where are my hands? I can not feel them. ” She was not conscious of having hands, and did not feel severe pricks of a pin. The abdomen was, perhaps, slightly swollen, but she felt swollen from abdomen to throat, and said it felt as if the swelling were choking her. Dryness of mouth, with tingling in tongue and throat. Very thirsty, craves ice. Sensation in head as if she were afar off; sensation on closing eyes as if falling, as if bed and everything were going down, down. Self – willed, restless, insists on walking about room, which brought on an attack of the severe pain before my arrival. Eyes dull, heavy; face flushed; acts in a foolish and silly manner; talks and laughs as if intoxicated. The next day, June 5th, I was enabled to obtain a history of the case. It seems that, fearing she was pregnant, she took 6 – 8 2 gr. ergot pills the n. before I was called. The next m. she was nauseated and vomited. She had considerable nausea all day and an almost constant vertigo. She could not see well; things appeared hazy. She had sensation of falling on closing eyes, and feeling in head as if she were afar off, at times during the d. About 4:30 p. m. she started to go out, thinking it might make her feel better, when a severe pain seized her in outer and middle part of left thigh, as if she were clutched by a hand. It moved quickly up to just below the crest of the ilium and then across abdomen to uterine region, when she began to have severe cramps and bearing down pains, and she passed a small lump of gelatinous mucus, tinged with blood. It was carefully examined, but seemed nothing more than a little mucus that the uterine contraction had expelled. Then the pains became more severe, and resulted in the spasmodic, shooting, stabbing pains, for which the belladonna was given. She had all these symptoms before the peppermint was taken, which had no effect on any of them. It seems that she laughed and talked nearly all n. This m. she had an almost constant vertigo; hands felt big and swollen; feet felt numb, and on walking the soles feel swollen and as if pins were sticking into them. Still has the sensation of falling on closing eyes, as if bed were going down with her. Legs feel heavy and not just right. Region of stomach sore, abdomen slightly swollen, feels swollen and sore; eyes slightly sensitive to light. Disagreeable, nasty, brassy taste in mouth. 6th. – She says there is a black and blue spot on outside of left hip, a little below crest of ilium, where the clutching pain was most severe, and also on left side of the abdomen, low down, where the pain there was more severe. All this time she was rocking in a rocking – chair, and I asked the reason. She said, ” It makes the dizziness better. ” The vertigo had been constant, walking, sitting, stooping, going up stairs, &c., and only relieved by rocking. Very sore in uterine region. Yesterday, about 5 p. m., the same time that the severe cramps seized her the day before, she began to have cramps in uterine region, bearing down pains, as if menses were coming on. The pains were at first constant, then intermittent, and were relieved by doubling up, pressure and heat. Eyes still sensitive to light, with desire to close them, but still has sensation of falling on doing so. Sees frightful visions on closing eyes; she saw a rat in the room, she thought, the n. before. Chilly all over at 11 a. m.; began in feet, went to head. Soles of feet still feel as if asleep when walking. Feels discontented, uneasy, wants to go out. Thirsty for lemonade; feels dry from mouth to stomach. 7th. – She was out when I called and I did not see her again until the 19th, when she informed me that she had been having the vertigo most of the time, chiefly in the occiput, but it was much better when rocking. There was numbness in finger tips at times during day, more in fingers of left hand; and occasionally numbness and tingling in toes. She still had the sensation of falling on closing the eyes at n., and on waking in m. She had been having a diarrhoea, but as she had been treating it herself with ” home – made ” remedies, the symptoms were not trustworthy enough to be recorded. She had been feeling restless; uneasy all the time, and yet without energy enough to apply herself to anything; this was before the diarrhoea. (S. N. Kimball, Medorrhinum Advance, Nov., 1890.)
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.