same bed, to touch him. Fresh vesicles on palms and shoulders, always feels a pricking where they are about to appear. 8th. – Arms, legs, and eyes smart only in day; scabs falling off; at night itching continues very severe, coming on like a shot. Numbness of right hand continues, also yellow spots on abdomen and thighs. Says he is all the time uneasy; must be doing something or other, snaps his fingers or picks them; limbs move about in spite of him. From thence gradual abatement of symptoms, but they did not wholly disappear till 48th days. ( Hom. Examiner, iii,145)
17 a. A boy gave a girl, aet. 13.1/2, a jam tart which contained a Spanish fly. In 1/2 hour after eating it she was attacked with giddiness, pain between shoulders, and burning in throat, and finally fainted. Her mother gave her two rhubarb pills, and put her to bed. After restless night next morning abdomen was found much distended with swelling and irritation of vulva. She complained of bearing – down pains, and suffered much from nausea, which was soon followed by vomiting of blood. Urine was scanty and high coloured, but strangury was only complained of next morning (July 12th), when it soon became very painful and distressing. At same time she complained of strong and disagreeable odour in nostrils. Nausea and occasional haematemesis lasted 3 days., and other symptoms – though less in degree – till 29th, when at 2 p. m. she had a sudden epileptic attack, lasting a long time, and very severe. At 10 a. m. occurred another fit, complicated with hysterical symptoms, and during following days fits continued to return in quick succession, but subsequently became less frequent. Therewith came ischuria, seeming also for the most part hysterical, but on one occasion urine was suppressed for 4 days. Later she is said to have had “renal congestion.” On October 15th her face was very sallow and puffy. She had much increased in height and size during her illness, during which also menstruation had entirely ceased, though it had occurred on three occasions previously. Urine was now normal; but sleep was bad, and she was at all times restless and uncomfortable. On being sent to a convalescent institution, health was restored; but catamenia did not appear till 7 months had elapsed.
There was no previous history of epilepsy in patient or her family, and there was no return of the fits for a twelve month later. ( Medorrhinum Times and Gaz., 1864, ii, 617.)
18. A gentleman, aet. 63, swallowed by mistake a bottle of liniment, of which the tinct. of C. was a principal ingredient. In about 3/4 hour an emetic was administered; nevertheless, he was immediately afterwards affected with paralysis of the lower extremities, and inability to void his urine. For the first fortnight he was under the necessity of having his urine drawn off at stated intervals. After this he regained the power of making water, but was tormented with an incessant desire to do so. When I was consulted, four years after the commencement of the attack, he was able to walk with the aid of crutches. At times he had a sudden and irresistible impulse to void his urine, and expelled a small quantity by a voluntary effort; but at other times it flowed involuntarily, without his being conscious of what happened, so that his clothes were as wet as possible. (BRODIE, Works, ii, 474.)
19. a. The topical effects of C. are those of a most powerful acrid. When these insects are applied to the skin, the first effects noticed are, a sensation of heat, accompanied by pain, redness, and slight swelling. These phenomena are soon followed by a serous effusion between the corium and epidermis, by which the latter is raised, forming what is commonly termed a blister, but in the more precise language of the cutaneous pathologist, an ampulla or bulla. The effused liquid has a pale yellow colour, with a very feeble taste and smell. (It is mainly a solution of about 6 per cent. of albumen in water.) If the cuticle be removed, the subjacent corium is seen intensely reddened, and by exposure to the air, oftentimes becomes exceedingly painful. If irritants be applied, a secretion of pus takes place, and sometimes a whitish false membrane is formed. Not infrequently I have noticed ecthymatous pustules around the blistered surface; and in one remarkable case which fell under my notice, the whole body, but more especially the pectoral region (to which the blisters had been applied), was covered with them. Sometimes the vesicles of eczema occur. Ulceration and gangrene are not uncommon; the latter effect is occasionally observed after exanthematous diseases, especially measles. I have seen death result therefrom in two instances.
19 b. The constitutional symptoms frequently produced are excitement of the vascular system (as denoted by increased frequency of pulse, heat of skin, and furred tongue) and irritation of the urinary and genital organs (marked by heat and pain in passing urine, which is usually high coloured), or there may be complete suppression. (PEREIRA, op. cit.)
20. a. The effects of C., applied in the form of blistering plasters and otherwise, on the urinary organs, have been long observed; but it is only of late that inquiries have been made as to the actual changes induced in kidneys and bladder, giving rise to the symptoms ordinarily known as strangury. It is now ascertained that the application of a blister to the skin, but more especially when the integument has been wounded – by cupping, for instance – induces the presence of albumen in the urine, as in Bright’s disease. the French physicians, and especially MM. Moral – Lavallee and Bouillaud, have recently paid particular attention to this form of albuminuria, which they term “cantharidien.” There is a considerable diversity in the results obtained by the two observes named. The former describes the albumen as found in three forms, in solution in the urine, as a deposit, and in the character of false membranes formed in the bladder; whereas M. Bouillaud says that the albumen is only found in solution in the urine, and that any mass resembling false membrane which may occasionally be found at the bottom of the vessel, if truly so, must be, as are all other false membranes, essentially composed of fibrin. M. Bouillaud especially insists on the influence of blisters on the secreting surface of the kidneys, as bringing about the effusion of albumen, an influence which M. Lavallee has confined solely to the bladder, in which viscus he supposes the albumen formed.
20 b. Unless a blister be very small, the escape of albumen with the urine is always met with, at all ages and in all states of system. The duration of the albuminuria is mostly from 1 to 3 days. Three blistered patients, in whom death occurred from the disease under which they laboured, were examined. In one, whose death happened 3 days after the onset of the albuminuria, the only notable lesion was an injection and redness of the lining membrane of the urinary tubes. In a second, whose death did not happen for a month subsequently, an opaline appearance and a thickening of the membrane were observed. The third case was that of a man who died from fever with pneumonia; albumen appeared in the urine nearly 2 days before death; kidneys were red and congested externally, redness penetrating into cortical substance, pyramids presented a rosy hue and seemed elongated; lining membrane of calyces and pelvis was injected, and strewed with ecchymotic spots, and also with white salient points, of irregular figure, and consisting of patches of false membrane; and in one of the calyces of each kidney a more continuous and tough piece of false membrane was found, of yellowish colour and in part adherent. Internal surface of ureters was also congested, and false membrane dispersed over it, especially at openings into bladder. Same appearances were shown in base of bladder. (Lancet,1848, i, 402)
21. A boy aet. 4 years had by mistake a Spanish – fly plaster applied to swollen cervical glands, and after 18 hours, when the began to be delirious, it was taken off. It had raised large blisters. The following days fever, and with great pain there came away a little black – coloured urine. The urine then increased to four times the amount of the fluid drunk, with great thirst and voracious hunger, especially for meat. After a few hours the urine lost its black colour. The patient emaciated considerably, but the face and feet became oedematous, and the child could eat animal food only. The urine gradually decreased and in 6 weeks the child was well. The swollen glands disappeared completely. (WEISSE, Petersburger Vermischte Abhandlungen, v. 427, from Frank’s Mag.)
22. A man, aet 26, had a blister applied to side for pleuritic pain, though he said that 5 years previously he had got a gonorrhoea that lasted 5 weeks after the application of a blister. The pain disappeared. But 4 days later, on the recurrence of the pain, he put on another blister. This was followed by a deep, profusely suppurating excoriation the size of a six pence on the corona glandis, not of a syphilitic character. He had had no coitus for three months. Under a saturnine lotion the sore healed in 3 weeks. (HECKER’s Lit. Annal. d. ges. Heilk. iv, 4. 399, from Ibid.)
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.