17. M. V-, aet 50, tall and stout, and in good health. He had from youth a goitre, which was very slowly increasing. I prescribed 10 centing. of K. iod to 120 grms of water, a dessertspoonful every morning fasting. After the first does, M. V.- felt an indefinable sense of anguish, of painful drawing together, in the left hypochondrium, on a line with the greater curvature of the stomach. The same sensation recurred on the following day. On the 6th day, finding himself far from well and growing thin, he left off the medicine. I saw him 2 days later; he was so changed that a first I did not recognise him. The most remarkable thing was a fixed, wild, uncertain look; an expression of sadness and lassitude, a discolored complexion cheeks wrinkled and pendent. a general feeling of debility and discouragement made work impossible to him; he had difficulty in walking and keeping upright; he was inclined to sadness and tears. His sleep was not good, but he had no nightmare. His voice was broken, a little tremulous at times, and a similar tremor affected the limbs; these and there trunk shared in the emaciation of the face. The goitre had shrunk to 3/4 of its original size. This occurred in April, and in spite of the discontinuance of the medicine and the most appropriate treatment, it was not till the winter that he regained his usual health (and therewith the goitre in its former dimensions). (MAUNOIR, in Rilliet, op. cit.)
18. A man of 52, of good constitution and health, had for some years had a goitre which was interfering with respiration. I gave him pilules of K. iod., each containing gr. 1/24, and he was to take one daily. However, in 16 days he had taken 60 pilules (= 12.1/2 centigr.), when he came to consult me. He had an earthy complexion; the face and neck were emaciated; eyes sunken and dark-circled; he had an anxious look (very characteristic). Bulimia had set in for some time; there was burning during digestion; pulse was quick and small, palpitation very annoying, and he was fermented by agitation and general nervousness. The goitre had in great measure disappeared. These symptoms were from no other apparent cause. Under a regime of ice and cold milk they subsided within 2 mo., but the goitre returned to its former size.(D’ESPINE, in Ibid.).
19. Twenty-nine person, all in good health, took with the salt used at meat and for cooking a 1/10000 th part of K. iod. as a prophylactic against goitre. They consumed altogether 110 kilograms, i.e, 11 grm of K. iod., or 40 centigr. to each person. Three of these persons showed symptoms of iodism, two ladies of 60 or more, and a gentleman of 45. The latter, in good health and easy circumstances took the iodized salt from May to July, and again from August to January l (1851-2). At the beginning of December he began to be indisposed, and did not entirely regain his health till March. The symptoms were emaciation, palpitations, lassitude, sadness, and moral impression of a distressing character, quite unreasonable and tending to become fixed ideas. There was an indescribable feeling of malaise in the bowels, without anorexia or dyspepsia. Not suspecting the salt, which from accidental circumstances he had suspended since January, he resumed its use during August and September, during which he must have taken about 10 centigr. of K. iod. At the end of September he was attacked afresh and severely. The symptoms he had previously manifested were reproduced in much greater intensity. The chief of them were, – marked emaciation, though the appetite was maintained; sense of malaise in the stomach, especially at night., accompanied by constipation; palpitations; trembling; fixed look; bad complexion; emotional susceptibility, leading even to tears; disturbed sleep, from which he awakes with a start under a sense as of some heavy calamity; he dreads beginning each day, and the details of daily life are an almost insupportable burden. Though a very tender father, his children were a trouble to him; he had to make a strong effort over himself to retain them about him, and to avoid being irritable with them. Physical signs in chest and abdomen were entirely absent
The salt was discontinued, and iron and a generous diet prescribed. In November an erythematous eruption appeared on the abdomen, and from this time patient gradually recovered. One of the two ladies affected had similar symptoms; the other only emaciation, palpitation, and insomnia. (RILLIET, ot. cit.)
20. A lady of 40, in excellent health, took for goitre 2 pilules daily, each containing gr. 1/30 of K. iod., some time previously having taken over a gramme in a fortnight with nothing but advantage. This time, when she had taken 20 pilules, he was suddenly seized with severe vertigo, to which she was not at all subject. This did not recur, but it was soon followed by a persistent dimness of vision, black objects floating before the eyes, with hemiopia or microbia. At the same time she had neuralgic pains in the right side of the face and trembling of the limbs. She grew sensibly thinner, slept badly, and was plunged into a profound sadness, feeling herself so very and so unaccountably ill. Her appetite, however, was actually increased, even to bulimia. She would not see a doctor, but after 3 mo. gradually recovered her health. (Ibid.).
Experiments on animals
I. a DEVERGIE administered to a dog, through an opening in the oesophagus, 3ij in 3j of water. efforts at vomiting ensued, the animal seemed prostrated and died on the 3rd day. Upon dissection the gastric mucous membrane was found red, especially at the greater extremity of the organ, and numerous dark striae ran in various directions. Some spots of ecchymosis existed in the submucous sue. In another experiment 3iij were employed and a ligature was applied to the oesophagus. After some indications of pain, the animal became quiet, and grew more and more dull, until, on the 3rd day, it died in a state of complete relaxation. In addition to the lesions found in the first case there were superficial ulcers of the mucous membrane. In other cases submucous emphysema was observed in the stomach.
1 b. In the experiments of Stenbearauch, who gave rabbits 3ij Q 3j dissolved in water, the symptoms were slow respiration, a feeble pulse, diuresis, spasms, and death in 1-4 hours.
1 c. When a solution is injected into the veins of an animal, death takes place very speedily and is preceded by convulsions. Experiments upon larger and smaller animals (horses and rabbits), performed by various persons, have furnished almost identical results. In most cases the blood is of a bright red colour and shows but little tendency to coagulate. (STILLE, 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.