1 b. Bernard and Kolliker have explained the chief effects of C. It does not paralyse the central motor organs; but the seat of paralysis is to be sought in the intramuscular termination of the motor nerves. Interrupted communication between motor nerves and muscular fibre, by C. circulating in the blood, renders all voluntary or reflex motion impossible. Frogs are simply paralysed, while warm-blooded animals die of suspended respiration. as the heart does not suffer from the die of suspended respiration. As the hart does not suffer from the poison, asphyxia and death can be prevented by means of artificial respiration.
1 c. The heart’s action is increased by paralysis of the terminal fibres of the vagi, hence it cannot be arrested by
irritation of these nerves. The pupil does not dilate, nor is the saliva increased. The peristaltic motion of the intestines is undisturbed, and not arrested by irritation of the splanchnic plexus. The lymph-hearts of the frog are arrested in diastole. C. has no effect on muscular fibre itself; nor does it affect organs controlled by ganglia with in their parenchyma.
1 d. Besides the motor fibres, the secretory nerve-fibres are affected, as shown by profuse lachrymation, salivation and urinary secretion in warm-blooded animals maintained alive by artificial respiration. The urine contains much sugar, which appears as well in starving animals, whose liver contains no glycogen, as in those well nourished. The temperature is not increased, but, according to some observers, considerably diminished. (HERMANN; from Wesselhoeft, loc. cit.)
2 a. C. paralyses peripheral ends of motor nerves, even when given in very small doses. Larger doses paralyse vagus and ends of sensory nerves. As poisoning progresses, spinal cord is paralysed, and finally heart. Voluntary muscles appear to be little affected, yet their contractility is somewhat diminished, and this diminution begins even before the motor nerves themselves are paralysed. The vessels of the surface become dilated, and sometimes a peculiar erythematous rash appears on the skin in dogs. The blood pressure is little affected by small
doses, but is much lowered by large ones. When injected into salivary glands it causes intense salivation, which appears to be paralytic. Large doses produce death by paralysis of muscles of respiration, but, motor nerves are paralysed to such an extent that they will not excite muscular contractions, even when the nerve-centers are powerfully stimulated by asphyxial blood, they still cause muscular contraction when irritated by a interrupted current in a warm-blooded animals poisoned by C. In frogs the poisoning may be so complete that no irritation of the trunk of a nerve will excite contraction in the muscles supplied by it.
2 b. C. is rapidly eliminated by the kidneys, and if artificial respiration be kept up, complete recovery occurs. I have succeeded in restoring an animal completely by this means after it had been apparently dead for 4 hours. When given internally, C. is so rapidly eliminated that it usually produces no symptoms. When given in a very large dose on an empty stomach, symptoms of poisoning may occur.[*”A dog was made to swallow 4 ctgrm. of a concentrated solution while fasting. After 3 hours it fell, and gradually lost sensibility; respiratory movements became feeble, and then ceased; cornea lost its sensibility; and heart, which still continued to beat very well, and some slight convulsive movements, alone showed that life was not extinct”(CL.BERNARD, Legons sur les subst. tox., p.338*]. If elimination be prevented, in excision of kidneys or ligature of renal vessels, poisoning occurs, and in this case death is usually preceded by convulsions. (BRUNTON, op. cit.).
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.