5 b. The other recruit, alarmed by this result, confessed to having taken some of these pills, but for a shorter time. he complained of loss of appetite, loathing of food, nausea, vomiting, constipation for 3 or 4 day, tinnitus aurium and vertigo, and the sense of a thick cloud before his eyes (Lancet, 1876, i, 582.)
6. A servant – maid, aet. 22, took at 7 a. m., February 4th, a tablespoonful of tinct. of D. she took her usual meal at 8, and felt no effect until 12:30, when she had malaise, followed in an hour by vomiting. At 8 p. m. she was admitted into the Hotel Dieu, Paris. She had had frequent and violent vomiting, first of food, then of greenish brown viscid liquid; very violent epigastric pain, intense pain over right orbit, disordered vision, noise in ears, and great weakness. Towards 5 p. m. there had been some spasmodic movements of thighs, then occasional shivering followed by sweats, at the same time flashings of heat towards ears, and from thence spreading all over body. Pulse was scarcely to be felt. The night passed without sleep, frequent vomiting of greenish thick matter; throughout the night general numbness. 5th, morning face very pale, greenish and livid, with redness over malar bones; look of extreme exhaustion; more
headache; vertigo an noise in ear; sight disordered, scarcely able to see surrounding objects, pupils dilated and in active; intelligence clear; extreme malaise referred especially to epigastrium, causing frequent sighing; continual nausea, occasional vomiting; the tongue pale, not coated; no appetite, great thirst, desire for cold drinks; no action of bowels since yesterday; she has passed no urine, bladder feels distended; respiration deep and unequal, 3 or 4 inspirations are followed by a deep and moaning expiration; the action of the heart most violent affecting the head of the auscultator, no bruit, the first sound deep and dull, the second very sharp; the pulse is irregular, intermittent, and 44. Skin cold, especially on extremities. At night urine was drawn of by catheter. 6th. – No sleep, occasional vomiting of greenish mater, slight delirium with agitation. Face is less livid, great thirst, intense frontal headache, vision clear; pulsation of heat still very violent, heard all over chest; pulse hard and resistant, 48. 7th. – No leap, violent delirium during night, no vomiting, still the violent headache. This morning one vomiting; acute pain at epigastrium and in abdomen; pulse 38. No urine passed. 8th. – Violent delirium, no sleep; continued whining, acute epigastric and abdominal pain; no vomiting, no action of bowels for 2 days, intense thirst. Face pale and expressing great prostration, eyes fixed, pupils less dilated. Heart-beats weaker, more frequent, and always intermittent; the pulse easily compressed, irregular intermittent, 48 – 60. She had passed urine, thick, and holding in suspension whitish mater, which was not examined. On 9th no delirium, less anxiety, abdomen, painful; she had passed urine once, pulse 62. On 10th a little sleep; headache, and heat of the extremities; general aching; the pulse very unequal, 60. 11th and 12th. – Continued improvement, but on the last date a soft bellows murmur is audible at base of heart, and up aorta towards carotids. 13th. – Ten loose motions. More calmness, but heart’s action violent and continuance of murmur wit first sound; pulse strong, a little unequal, intermittent, 68 – 84. It ceased to be irregular after 21st, but preserved its tenth. (TARDIEU, del’ Empoisonement, p. 685.)
7. A servant-maid, aet.27, who was pregnant, took for oedema f the legs a large quantity of the fresh juice. After taking it she frequently vomited and lost a considerable quantity of blood from the uterus, which led the attendants to suppose abortion had taken place. On the 5th day she was seen by a medical man; she was then in a state of complete prostration and quite comatose; face pale; the tongue swollen, red at edges, white in centre; pulse very slow; epigastrium tender; frequent hiccough and diarrhoea. She grew worse, and urine and stools passed involuntarily. She died on 12th day. Autopsy showed, partial inflammation of stomach and a little serum in pericardium (Ibid. p. 687).
8. I was called, September 16th, 1870, to see Mrs. H-, who complained of a very distressing nausea, together with a heavy headache, and flashes of light before her eyes. There had also been great commotion of heart -“a great throbbing and pounding, ” as she expressed it. It was found she had been drinking for a cough a tea made from foxglove instead of mullein. On leaving this off symptoms promptly subside. (P. K.GUILD, M. D., publ. of Mass. Hom. Soc., viv, 30.)
9. The effect of too large or long-continued does of day is manifested by the disordered condition of the alimentary canal, of the circulating organs, and of the cerebro-spinal system. The more ordinary symptoms are nausea and actual vomiting, slow and often irregular pulse, coldness of extremities, syncope or tendency thereto, giddiness, and confusion of vision. Sometimes the sickness is attended with purging, or even with diuresis; at other times the patient is neither vomited nor purged, and the principal disorder of system is observed in the altered condition of th nervous and vascular organs. External objects appear of a green or yellow colour; the patient fancies there is a mist, or sparks before his eyes; a sensation of weight, pain, or throbbing of the head, especially in the frontal region, is experienced; giddiness, weakness of the limbs, loss of sleep, and occasionally stupor or delirium, or even convulsions, may also be present. The pulse becomes feeble, sometimes frequent, sometimes slow; and there may be profuse cold sweats. Salivation is sometimes produced by poisonous doses, and has been known to last three weeks. (PEREIRA, op. cit.)
10. a. D., in common with only a small number of other drugs, possesses the peculiar faculty (which is probably due solely to an unusually slow elimination through the kidneys) of unfolding its action in the body during a relatively long period, and therefore of developing cumulative effects when repeated doses are administered. These may, under certain circumstances, produce threatening phenomena, or even symptoms of poisoning, among which are headache, dryness of throat, nausea, sensation of choking, and-in well-marked case-buzzing in ears, disturbances of vision (manifested by appearance of sparks before eyes, amblyopia, or diplopia), also dizziness, swooning, vomiting, diarrhoea, sleeplessness, a thready, scarcely appreciable, and sometimes arrhythmical pulse, and a very great fall in the bodily temperature, a result of the of the slowing of the circulation. A headache, which appeared after even 0.030 – 0.09 grm., was a prominent symptom in many cases.
10 b. Traube has observed an affection of the skin after the use of D. In a case of pleuritic and pericarditis, th patient took from 4th – 6th D. of his illness 3:75 grms. in infusion. Four days after last dose there appeared, while bodily temperature was normal, an erysipelatoid affection of the face, which resulted, 5 days later, in an excessive ragged desquamation. In a second case, of pleuro-pneumonia, 4.08 grms. were taken in 5 day Four days after last dose, patient-then free from fever – experienced a rise in temperature; and on 5th day there appeared on body, supinator surfaces of forearms, and back of hands, a papular exanthema, made up of quite prominent, carmine-redounded spots is appearing on pressure, the majority of which united to form large patches elevated above surface of skin. Next day desquamation began on face in tolerably large masses, whilst now eruptions showed themselves on upper arms and neck. Four days later still, exanthema had almost entirely disappeared; and not until some time afterwards, during the course of a newly – developed typhoid affection, did desquamation, in large flakes, occur on the body and extremities. A similar exanthema, spreading over the whole body, was observed
by Schuchardt in the case of a young man who had taken day for a long time for the relief of endocarditis. When same patient took day again, one year later, same eruption appeared with equal intensity. (LEWIN, op. cit.)
11. In the case of a man, aet. 50, the tinct. taken in medicinal doses for about 20 days produced the following symptoms: – The pulse, which during a former use of the medicine had lessened by 10 or 15 beats, sank almost to half its usual number. The patient was tormented with the most painful disquietude, so that, even in night, he left the bed every moment, could not sleep, and with his eyes open conversed with persons who were not present. At same time pupils were dilated, and conjunctiva both of eyes and lids red; he had but little appetite, with great nausea, violent thirst and dryness of mouth; alvine evacuations were scanty; secretion of urine increased. These phenomena lasted 6 days, when restless diminished, sleep returned, and dilation of pupils disappeared. ( Medorrhinum Times, xxxi, 275.)
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.
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