Poisonings
1. A nobleman, aet. 36, of good temperament and excellent health, having felt for some day a little flatulent colic, to ease this ate 4 nutmegs (weighing together about 2 oz.), drinking some beer the while. He had scarcely finished when he was seized with great heat, violent pain in head, vertigo, and delirium, and forthwith became deprived of speech, sight, and all senses. he was put to bed, where he remained 2 day and 2 n., his body overpowered with lassitude, always drowsy, but nevertheless unable to sleep. I was called on the 3rd day; I found the symptoms I have just reported; he was in the state known as coma – vigil; pulse was feeble and intermittent. Under nervine stimulants he had on the 4th day come somewhat out of his lethargic state, but he had entirely lost all memory of his past life. A continued fever supervened, accompanied by obstinate sleeplessness; palpitation followed, and at length paralysis of all limbs. After 8 day he recovered his reason, and said that during the first 12 hours of his illness it seemed as if a thick veil were before his eyes, and that a multitude of sparks continually issued from them. The symptoms now gradually went off, and after 3 mos. his health was completely re – established. (SCHMIDIUS, Eph. Nat. Cur., dec. ii, an. 2, obs. 120. 1683.)
2. A person by mistake took 3ij or a little more of powdered nutmeg. He felt it warm in his stomach, without any uneasiness, but in about an hours he was seized with a drowsiness, which gradually increased to a complete stupor and insensibility, and not long after he was found fallen from his chair, lying on the floor of his chamber, in the state mentioned. being laid abed he fell asleep, but waking a little from time to time, he was quite delirious; and he thus continued, alternately sleeping and delirious, for several h. By degrees, however, both these symptoms gradually diminished, so that in about 6 hours from the time of taking the nutmeg he was pretty well recovered from both. Although he still complained of headache and some drowsiness, he slept naturally and quietly though the following n., and next day was quite in his ordinary health. (CULLEN, Mat. Medorrhinum, ii, 204. 1780.)
3. A shoemaker, troubled for 8 day with diarrhoea, took a whole nutmeg, powdered, on bread and butter. the n. was quiet, and the diarrhoea ceased, but on waking next m. he found that he could not appreciate distances, his workshop appeared so far off that he felt he could never reach it. His whole body felt heavy, his head muddled and quite hot; he could not find words to express his thoughts. he returned to bed, and drank an infusion of elderberries in rum. Such aggravation ensued that his physical found him unconscious, with protruding red eyes, open mouth, rattling breathing, l pale face, and contracted pulse. Copious bleeding and antiphlogistic purgatives restored him. (THUMEN, Berl. med. Zeit., 1833.)
4. I took a broken nutmeg and put it into may pocket, and in the course of 6 hours had eaten half of it. Soon after I felt a dizziness and an unaccountable derangement of intellect, transient loss of memory, but perfect consciousness of all that I said or did. I became remarkably loquacious, and seemed to be neither in this world nor in the other; felt happy and free from any pain; was truly in an indescribable state. My friends were greatly alarmed, and the doctor was sent for to it. After keeping them laughing and crying till about 11 p. m., I retired to bed without anything having been done for me. I awoke in the m. as well as usual. (Communication to portland Advertiser (about) 1840; from HERING, Mat. Medorrhinum, vol. i.) 5. a. A man took about a teaspoonful of mace, eating it in small bits between 11 a. m. and 12:30 p. m. At latter time, he writes, “I felt a pain on the crown of the head, extending over a space about the size of penny piece, also slight nausea in stomach as if I had been smoking inordinately. I walked home, and dined about 3. I still felt the pain slightly, and also the nausea, with slight giddiness. On rising from dinner l felt the blood rush to m, y head, but the feeling was as if an electric current had passed from the crown of the head downwards. I got mechanically downstairs, and then felt the same sensation which I suppose a person would experience who had become nearly insensible from extreme cold, and as if, should I yield to its influence, I could have slept away out of existence without pain. I felt this sensation twice. I walked about in the back yard to endeavour to drive away these extraordinary feelings, but in a few m. a cold shiver came upon me. I returned to the house, and lay down on a sofa near the fire. From that time I felt every variety of heat and cold from their respective extremes. At every time the blood went from an returned to my head the current changed the sensation, sometimes feeling myself very hot, and then very cold. I felt at one time such a pressure in the head that it appeared as if all the blood in the body had rushed to obtain possession of that region, and I thought I could hear it gushing in my ears. These symptoms gradually became weaker. Some brandy was then administered. The effect of this upon me as if I had been electrified from the roof of the mouth downwards in a straight line, current dying off towards the feet; it then seemed to diffuse itself over the whole body, as if I had hold of slightly galvanised wires, apparently working in antagonistic directions, out of tune and jarring with each other. The state of the mind was, I should suppose, similar to that of the opium – eater, entertaining no apprehension of the result, though aware of the presence of some danger. the pulse during the several paroxysms was very varied, from 70 to more than 100. During the attacks I felt every nerve in my teeth, but no pain.” b. The reporter adds: – “Praecordial anxiety was remarkable. The feet were cold, and required artificial heat; head throbbed, eyes looked injected, and countenance acquired a singular expression, while the words patient employed to express his sensations were the very opposite of what should have been used. his temporal arteries beat strongly for several h. The persistence of the intellectual disturbance was remarkable; for on the 3rd day the excited state of the sensorium had not quite disappeared, so that he even then felt himself unable to attend to his office books. His thoughts hardly submitted themselves to his control unless by a consciously great effort.” (WATSON, Lond. med. Gaz., 1848, i, 260.) 6. A man, aet. 25, of nervous temp., but in good health, ate 2 nutmegs about 9 p. m. In 15 m. he was asleep. on awaking he experienced the following symptoms: – head seemed bulky, and rolled round almost uncontrollably, were obliged to bring to its support one or both hands, while sitting at a table; intense frontal headache, with tense and painful sensation in scalp; eyes enlarged, with intolerance of light, while objects seemed to float before vision; lids dropped, and could only be fully opened by use of hands; buzzing in ears; paralysis of organs of deglutition, making it difficult to swallow saliva; nausea, with shuddering aversion to food, vomiting, foul taste in mouth; pressure in pit of stomach; constriction about waist and abdomen, so persistent and distressing that hands are placed on side to try and relieve it by lateral pressure; a most distressing urgent want of breath and painful feeling of oppression upon chest, to relieve which he would straighten up, when rush of blood to head occurred, obscuring sight; quivering of heart or violent palpitation, – the organ labouring under fearful embarrassment; pulse intermitting, intervals between pulsation s being so protracted as to excite fears of impending dissolution; nape of neck tremendously constricted, all bodily lapsing into passive suppleness in the grasp of the unseen giant; arms and legs felt Sourish, large, and heavy; great languor and drowsiness, with no desire to move, felt unwieldy like a mass of metal; chilliness. Went to bed, and slept profoundly. In m. was several times called before he could rouse; could not account for his strange feelings on waking, but was painfully conscious of some powerful influence exerting itself upon his system; started for office through a park, but to retain footing was obliged to catch hold of tress and fence, turned home, went to bed, and did not get about again for 2 or 3 day (M. M. DOWLER, from Hering.) 7. A woman, aet. 30, in order to check a too profuse menstruation grated 2 nutmegs into a half – pint of boiling water, and began taking the “tea” about 8 – 9 a. m., stirring before sipping. She continued this during m., bring unusually lively, laughing, and bright; but about 1 she began to feel giddy and light in her head, chilly and cold all over. She stopped taking mixture at 2, symptoms gradually increasing in severity, with loss of memory, thought uncontrollable, objects would vanish for an instant, and at times she would lose consciousness alike momentarily, though it seemed to be for 1/2 h. Sickness at stomach, but no vomiting. About 4, feeling as if blood were rushing to heart, thence to head, then all over body, then again to heart, and so on (the extreme coldness and the other previous symptoms being still present). The alternate paleness and redness of the surface, indicating this disturbance of circulation, was distinctly visible. About 5 she complained of sensation as if heart was grasped, with sharp cutting pain in cardiac region. At 5:30 I found her sitting up in bed, tossing from side to side. Surface cold and blue; deep blue semicircles under eyes; hippocratic countenance; pulse almost imperceptible; skin cold over whole body. She complained of feeling faint, with lightness, giddiness, and emptiness of head. She answered promptly and correctly all questions put to her, but had great fear of death. Under stimulants and a mustard foot – both she promptly recovered. (ROBERTS, Hahn. Monthly, iii, 530.)
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.