Introduction
Drosera rotundifolia, L. Sun -dew. Nat ord., Droseraceae.
Provings
I. HAHNEMANN, Mat. Medorrhinum Pura, vol. vi of original, vol. i of translation. Contains 132 symptoms from self, 152 from 3 fellow – observers, and 3 from authors.
Experiments on animals.
1. a. I chose for the object of my experiment the cat, as that is of all our domestic animals the one least liable to exhibit spontaneous tubercular lesions; indeed, it is not certain that tubercles have ever been found in them, for I am informed by competent authorities that in this class of animals lobular pneumonia has been mistaken for phthisis. This the results should be all the more conclusive, an the quality of the subjects experimented on will in some measure make up for their small number – three only.
1 b. The first I killed (by means of ether) at the end of the six weeks, having mad him swallow daily 15 ctgrm. of D. triturated with sugar of milk. The second I killed after one year of treatment; he took at first 1 dr, gradually increased till dose reached 1600 dr. daily, of alcoholic tinct. The third is still alive, and has been under the drug for 6 months. As he present the same symptoms as the two others there is every probability that the same lesions will be found post mortem. As regards functional symptoms, all three had diarrhoea at commencement, and very marked weakness of voice was observed after 6 weeks of treatment, although in the two animals dissected there was no perceptible lesion in trachea. The first, on being opened, showed beneath pleura some almost gelatinous deposits, surrounded by an anomalous redness; on the whole there was but little to be seen, and the characters detectable by the naked eye were not sufficient to prove the existence of tubercle, had not the microscope removed all doubt about the matter. Dr. Gratiolet kindly verified my examination, and satisfied himself that these deposits were of tubercular nature. Besides the pulmonary lesion I found in its cat a very considerable enlargement of the mesenteric glands. The second animal showed much more characteristic lesions in the lungs, though they were not of great extent. These lesions consisted of small white granules, the size of a pin’s head, situated beneath the pleura, and surrounded by a very red injection of the neighbouring tissue, to the extent of several millimeters – an injection that penetrated into the pulmonary issue, but was unaccompanied by in duration. I only found these granulations under the pleura; if there were others in the middle of the pulmonary parenchyma they completely escaped my observation. they were moderately hard; could be crushed on the glass; and showed under microscope as irregular corpuscles, granular internally and externally – latter brilliant. Most of the corpuscles were 6/1000 of a millimeter in diameter. They were almost unaffected by acetic acid. Besides this pulmonary lesion I may mention the enormous development of the submaxillary gland, and the hypertrophy of the glands of Peyer, and of the shut vesicles of the large intestine, containing an opaque fluid that showed under the microscope glandular corpuscles. In conclusion I may allude particularly to the development of the acini in the spleen. They were so enlarged that they could be seen through the exterior covering; and the spleen, when cut into seemed to be formed entirely of them. They were larger than a larger pin’s head, and contained in the interior a mass of glandular corpuscles. But unlike what I had observed in the first cat, the mesenteric glans were not appreciably enlarged. (EUG. CURIE, Ull. de la oc. Medorrhinum Hom. de Paris, November, 1861.).
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.