7 a. About 4:30 p.m., I took a very large dose of an extract from a hemp – plant grown in Kentucky, the summers of which approach in heat the more temperate parts of India. No immediate symptoms were produced. About 7 p.m., a professional call was requested, and, forgetting all about the hemp, I went out and saw my patient. Whilst writing the prescription I became perfectly oblivious to surrounding objects, but went on writing, without any check to, or deviation from, the ordinary series of mental acts connected with the process at least that I was aware of. When the recipe was finished, I suddenly recollected where I was, and looking up, saw my patient sitting quietly before me. The conviction was irresistible that I had sat thus many m., perhaps h., and the idea directly occurred that the hemp had began to act, and had thrown me into a trance-like state of considerable duration, during which I had been stupidly sitting before my wondering patient.
7 b. I hastily arose and apologized for remaining so long, but was assured I had only been a very few m. About 7:30 p.m., I returned home. I was by this time greatly excited, and the feeling of hilarity now rapidly increased. It was a sort of bien- etre, a feeling of inner joyousness; the heart seemed buoyant beyond all trouble; the whole system felt as if all sense of fatigue were for ever bashed; the mind gladly ran riot, free constantly to leap from one idea to another, apparently unbound from its ordinary laws. I was disposed to laugh; to make comic gestures; one very frequently recurrent fancy was to imitate with the arms the motions of a fiddler; and with the lips the tunes he was supposed to be playing. There was nothing like wild delirium, nor any hallucinations that I can remember. At no time had I any visions, at least any that I can now call to mind; but a person who was with me at that time states that once I raised my head and exclaimed. “Oh, the mountains, the mountains!” Whilst I was performing the various antics alluded to I knew very well I was acting exceedingly foolishly, but could not control myself.
7 c. I think it was about 8 when I began to have a feeling of numbness in my limbs, also a sense of general uneasiness and unrest, and a fear last I had taken an overdose. I now constantly walked about the house. My whole surface felt flushed and warm, my mouth and throat were very dry; my legs put on a strange, foreign feeling, as though they were not a part of my body. I counted my pulse, and found it 120, full and strong. A foreboding, an undefined horrible fear, as of impending death, now commenced to creep over me; in haste I sent for medical aid. The curious sensations in my limbs increased; my legs felt as though they were waxen pillars beneath me. I remember feeling them with my hand, and finding them (as I thought at least) very firm, the muscles all in a state of tonic contraction.
7 d. I then began to have marked “spells” – periods when all connection seemed to be severed between the external world and myself. I might be said to have been unconscious during these times, in so far that I was oblivious to all external objects; but on coming out of one, it was not a blank, dreamless void on which I looked back, a mere empty space, but rather a period of active but aimless life. I do not think there was any connected thought in them; they seemed simple wild reveries, without any binding cord each a mere chaos of disjointed ideas. The mind seemed freed from all its ordinary laws of association, so that it passed from idea of idea, as it were, perfectly at random. The duration of these spells was to me very great, although they really lasted but for a few seconds to 1 or 2 m., Indeed, I now entirely lost my power of measuring time; seconds seemed hours, minutes seemed days, hours seemed infinite. Still, I was perfectly conscious during the intermissions between the paroxysms. I would look at my watch, and then after an h. or two, as I thought, would look again and find that scarcely 5 m. had elapsed. I would gaze at its face in deep disgust, the minute- hand seemingly motionless, as though grown in the face itself, the laggard second hand moving slowly, so slowly. It appeared a hopeless task to watch during its whole infinite round of a m., and always would I give up in despair before the 60 seconds had elapsed. Occasionally, when my mind was most lucid there was in it a sort of duplex action in regard to the duration of time. I would think to myself, It has been so long since a certain event, an h., for example, since the doctor came; and then reason would say, No, it has been only a few m.; your thoughts or feelings are caused by the hemp. Nevertheless, I was not able to shake off this sense of the almost indefinite prolongation of time, even for a minute.
7 e. About 8:45 I was standing at the door, anxiously expecting the doctor, the spells coming on from time to time, and unaccompanied by any muscular relaxation, so that I remained standing, leaning perhaps slightly against doorway. After a while I saw a man approaching, whom I took for him. The sound of his steps told me he was walking very rapidly, and he was under a gas lamp, not more than the fourth of a square distant, yet he appeared a vast distance away, and a corresponding time approaching. This was the only occasion on which I noticed an exaggeration of distance; in the room it was not perceptible. My extremities now began to grow cold, and I went into the house. I do not remember further, until I was aroused by the doctor shaking or calling me. I narrated what I had done and suffered, and told the doctor that my opinion was that an emetic was indicated, both to remove any of the extract still remaining in my stomach, and also to arouse the nervous system. I further suggested our going into the office, as more suitable than the parlor, where we then were. There was at this time a very marked sense of numbness in my limbs, and what the doctor called a hard pinch produced no pain. When I attempted to walk upstairs my legs seemed as though their lower halves were made of lead.
7 f. After this there were no new symptoms only an intensifying of those already mentioned. The periods of unconsciousness became longer and more frequent, and during their absence intellection was more imperfect, although when thoroughly roused I thought I reasoned and judged clearly. The oppressive feeling of impending death became more intense – it was horrible. Each paroxysm would seem to have been the longest I had suffered; as I came out of it, a voice seemed constantly saying, “You are getting worse; your paroxysms are getting longer and deeper; they will overmaster you; you will die.” A sense of personal antagonism between my will power and myself as affected by the drug grew very strong. I felt as if my only chance was to struggle again these paroxysms; that I must constantly rouse myself by an effort of will, and that effort made with infinite toil and pain. I felt as if some evil spirit had the control of the whole of me, except the will power, and was in determined conflict with that, the last citadel of my being. I have never experienced anything like the fearful sense of almost hopeless anguish and utter weariness which was upon me. Once or twice during a paroxysm I had what might be called nightmare sensations; I felt myself mounting upwards, expanding, dilating, dissolving into the wide confines of space, overwhelmed by a horrible, rending unutterable despair. Then with tremendous effort, I seemed to shake this off, and to start up with the shuddering thought, Next time you will not be able to throw this off, and what then? Under influence of an emetic I vomited freely, without nausea, and without much relief. About midnight I went upstairs to bed. My legs and feet seemed so heavy I could scarcely move them, and it was as much as I could do to walk with help. I have no recollection whatever of being undressed, but am told I went immediately to sleep. When I awoke, early in the m., my mind was at first clear, but in a few m. the paroxysms, similar to those of the evening, came on again, and recurred at more or less brief intervals until late in afternoon. All d. there was marked anaesthesia of skin. At no time were there any aphrodisiac feeling produced. There was a marked increase of the urinary secretion. There were no after-effects, such as nausea, headache, or constipation. (H. C. WOOD, Therapeutics, sub voce.)
8. a P. A. -, aet. 24; nervous temperament, good health. Took 3 grms. of fresh alcoholic extract 1 h. before eating. Felt about mid meal vague sensation of drawing (tingling), which is a commencement of anaesthesia of skin, and which has been likened to that felt on entering bath. Soon palpitation of heart came on, increased, then diminished and disappeared only to come again shortly after. Pulse small, rapid at times irregular. Difficulty in swallowing, owing to want of saliva, and I could not eat any more. Feeling as if “stunned” and of compressing in head. Felt no longer master of myself; remained motionless on chair for some time. Pulse rapid, about 100 breathed strongly, puffs of heat rising. Head began to make circular movement, which extending to whole body, carried me off with chair on which I sat, and I fell down. This happened twice more; I got up then and walked, but as if I had St. Vitus’s dance, made contortions and grimaces, burst out laughing, emitted harsh cries. I often had brief remissions, during which I told bystanders that the effect was over, but I could not finish my phrase before a severe attack came on. Movements suddenly got more regular, and I began to dance, turning and singing, until I fell down worn out. Got up a moment later, and sat down in armchair, shut eyes, and soon felt sensation in head as if stunned and compressed stronger and stronger; at same time I lost consciousness of existence of my limbs. I can only compare this to sensation experienced just before losing consciousness under chloroform. Remained in this state five of six m., then I returned for a moment to normal state. Had been during this attack very sad, whereas previously I was very gay. Felt effects going off, got on to a bed, slept for 20 m. pursued by tiring thoughts, woke up quite well again, whole effects lasted 2 h. 8 b. Took 2 grms. of another extra. 20 m. before food. Very acrid taste, nearly made me vomit. Effects began in 5 m., had vertigo and tendency to laughter, ran about, gesticulated for 10 m., then I sat down, determined that no one should notice anything of my state. Nevertheless, I could not contain myself on the entrance of somebody. Had contortions, got up, ran about gesticulating and with choreic movement. Sat down to dinner after awhile, could not eat owning to total absence of saliva. Got up and walked like on with St. Vitus’s dance. Pulse frequent, 110. Tension about head, deep inspirations, eyes red, attacks of gaiety. This state lasted 2 h. and then entirely disappeared.
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.