6a. A somewhat stout maidservant, who had always been in good health, took the desperate resolution, on account of some disagreeable circumstances she had encountered, to deprive herself or life. She asked an apothecary for three pence worth of rat poison (ratten kraut) – by which arsenic is here understood – instead of which th apothecary gave her about two drachms of grated Nux v. About 10 a. m., 10th May, 1796, she took the whole of this quantity in a little water. In 1/2 hours she complained of severe pains in the bowels, which increased every moment and soon reached an indescribable degree of severity. I was called to see her about noon, and found her in bed suffering the most dreadful convulsions, especially opisthotonos, which abated and returned several times in a. m. The face was strongly suffused with blood, scarlet, the eyes fixed and glistening, the hands cold, the pulse almost gone. All this time she was perfectly conscious and told me she had taken three penny worth of rat poison, upon which she soon felt pain in the bowels and then an indescribable anxiety, which still continued. She had drunk a quantity of lukewarm milk without the smallest relief. Under the certain belief that she had taken arsenic, in addition to the ordinary external applications I made her take a solution of the liver of sulphur, gave her a clyster, and opened a vein. But all in vain! The pains went off, a cold sweat broke out, and she died a little after 12 at n.
6b. An examination of the body took place the following day in the presence of several witnesses. Externally the whole right side was purple, the abdomen dreadfully distended, the hands convulsively clenched, the head pale and collapsed, the mouth shut, the lips blue with traces of blood having run out of them, the nails natural and firm, but the hair was easily pulled out. In the abdomen, the liver, spleen, kidneys and womb were perfectly sound. the intestines strongly distended with air. The stomach violently inflamed and in the neighbourhood of the pylorus almost mortified (brandig). the inflammation extended to the middle of the jejunum. The ileum was quite healthy. In the stomach a large worm (spulwurm) was found eaten through into three different portions, and about six ounces of pulpy matter, which I carefully collected into an iron pot for examination of this pulp revealed the presence of a quantity of grated Nux v. but no trace of arsenic. (CONSBRUCH, Hufeland’s Journal, v, 42.)
7. A lady, aet 50, affected with some abdominal complaint, took by mistake a teaspoonful of a sol. of 3ij of the alcoholic extract in 3ij of menstrum. Almost immediately after taking the medicine she was attacked with rigor and vomiting, and got worse every m. Her face, previously pale, became of a very red colour; her cheeks were burning hot; eyes were fixed, and often so strongly drawn upwards that the (contracted) pupil could not be seen; features were distorted; mouth fast closed; grinding of teeth; rapid, grunting, interrupted breathing; great anxiety; violent palpitation; and involuntary loud crying out. When she screamed out her head was drawn backwards, whereupon the mouth was opened wide and gave her countenance a horrible expression; the tongue was at same time protruded, and was several times severely wounded by the jaws closing suddenly upon it. She had great aversion to fluids, which she was sometimes utterly unable to swallow. She trembled all over, and could only keep seated for a few m. at a time; was then compelled, as by an electric shock, to rise up and totter about room. Speech was continually interrupted by hiccup; it was weak, monosyllabic, and often quite unintelligible, so that her wishes could only be guessed at from signs. Pulse small, hardish and quick. These symptoms lasted about 3 hours; they were followed by great exhaustion for several day, and an eruption (kind not stated) over whole body. [ A young man, aet.20, whose l. arm was completely and r. partially paralysed, was given pills of equal parts of extr. and powder of Nux-v, weighing 2 gr. each. Gradually increasing dose he finally took 6 pills m. and e. On the 12th d. he was seized with raging pain and shuddering in r. arm, with violent redness and swelling of limb and breaking out of pustules, which seemed to form an almost confluent eruption and gradually spread over whole body, the paralysis improving in proportion. Six d. after eruption had appeared it dried up and fell off in large whitish scales. Patient continued his pills, and eruption broke out a second time, preceded by rigidity of limb. From 16 pills daily he now came down to 8; the former had caused shocks and tetanic rigidity, 8 produced heaviness of tongue and hurriedness in all his motions. At last he only took 1 pill and d. The eruption broke out twice more, but only in the shape of small vesicles, which dried up and left patient perfectly cured DIERBACH, in Hempel, op. cit] (LEONARD, Medorrhinum Zeit., II Jahrg., p.225.)
8. a. E. S -, aet. 16, was low – spirited in her situation, and left her mistress’s house about 10:30 a. m., Jan. 25th, 1856. about noon she reached her home, about 2 miles off; and rushed into a room in a state of great mental excitement, exclaiming that her mother had been murdered, seating herself suddenly on a chair, and then being seized with convulsions. Mr. sleeman was sent for, and 2 more fits supervened before his arrival at 12:30. He found her lying down in violent tetanic spasms. Her head was drawn back, arms extended, fingers flexed to palms, jaws firmly contracted, countenance somewhat livid, eyes open, fixed, and somewhat protruding, trunk stiff, legs extended, feet turned outward, toes flexed to planter surface, skin dry and warm; respiration aloud, almost amounting to stertor; pulse could not be counted. this paroxysm lasted about 2 m. An interval of perfect sensibility ensued, during which she admitted having taken the poison (about 1/2 oz.), expressed her sorrow for it, and said that during the fits she suffered much pain.
8b. A full dose of sulphate of copper was administered as an emetic, but did not produce vomiting. The stomach pump was about to be used, but a fresh paroxysms all the limbs were perfectly relaxed, the body pliant, and she was much exhausted; occasionally, after one of more than usual severity, there was a slight tendency to coma. Countenance was pallid, eyes and breathing natural; pulse about 80, moderately full; skin warm and dry. the paroxysms lasted about 2 m., the intermissions about 5 m., when patient was first seen; former gradually increased in severity, and latter became shorter, but always allowing of consciousness even to that before the last paroxysm, which occurred a few m. before 2. During the last 1/2 hours the slightest movement caused a paroxysm, even an attempt to speak or drink: she begged to be left alone because of the pain she suffered “when in a fit.” The P. M. examinations presented no feature of interest. (Medorrhinum Times and Gazette, Feb. 9th, 1856.)
9. A lady affected by rheumatism took, at 7 a. m., 60 dr. of tinct. She remained quite well for 2 hours, then she suddenly became convulsed, and in a few m. was quite tetanic. the lower jaw moved in a jerking way from side to side, but could not opened. the arms were drawn spasmodically up close to the chest, thighs upon abdomen; fingers and toes were strongly flexed. It was with great difficulty that the bent limbs could be extended. the patient whined and groaned, but could not speak a word. Her skin was perfectly insensible, and she felt neither pinching nor pricking. These symptoms lasted 1/4 hours and then went off. ( Horn’s Archiv, xx, 2, 245.)
10. A chemist, by way of bravado, took one n. 3 or 4 dr. of the homoeopathic mother tincture of Nux v. he awoke early next m. with feeling as if head would burst. He was so giddy that he could neither sit nor stand; he had rushing sounds in his ears, intolerance of light and sound, and could not see. His face was tumid, and he looked besotted, like a man reeling drunk. (CHAPMAN, Annals of Brit. Hom. Soc., i, 380.)
11. On August 14th I was suddenly called to attend a lady who, I was told, had just had a stroke of paralysis. I found a young woman lying upon a bed, where she had been laid fainting a few m. before. She had regained consciousness as I entered the room, and was much alarmed, complaining that she had suddenly lost all power over her hands and feet, and was unable to move them. her fingers were extended, and she could not flex them; close inspection detected almost continuous twitchings of the small muscles of the hand. The Condition was evidently one of tonic spasm, and not of paralysis. The face was pale, and the pupils were equal and widely dilated; the patient complained that she could not see distinctly, and that everything looked far away and blurred. the respirations, although disturbed in rhythm by nervousness and excitement, were, nevertheless, evidently efficient; a moment’s auscultation showed the heart beating clearly and forcibly about 100 times per m. The patient’s mind was even abnormally sensitive, and she herself keenly apprehensive; despite her alarm, natural under the circumstances, there was a certain dignity and apparent effort to keep calm – an absence of the dramatic element in her manner, which silenced any suspicion of hysteria which might have been suggested by symptoms somewhat difficult to account for in any other way under the circumstances. In addition to this, the dilatation of the pupils was so conspicuous as to call from some other explanation. the mental clearness, associated with marked disturbance of the functions of the spinal cord, at once suggested strychnia, and I asked if she has not taken something – a medicine for her eyes, the last teaspoonful of a tonic mixture, &c. The members of the family denied that she had taken any medicine for a long while, and,. being wedded to the opinion that the trouble was paralysis (of which they said many of their relatives had died), almost resented my persisting in asking questions. Suddenly the patient herself remembered that she had taken some homoeopathic granules which she had long been in the habit of prescribing for herself when threatened with a sick headache. The dose had originally been five granules, taken two or three times; but than m., feeling very badly, and fearing that the medicine might have lost its strength by having been kept for a year or so, she increased the dose to 14 granules, and took it five times – 70 granules in all – in the course of 1 1/2 hours This occurred about an hours before the alarming symptoms presented themselves; she had for the time forgotten that she had taken the medicine, no dreaming that it was the cause of her sickness, and, indeed, considering that “homeopathic medicine was in any case harmless, since it affected merely the disease, and not the patient.” The vial of granules was given me, and on the cork I read “Nux.” During the few m. required for diagnosis, the symptoms became more marked; a slight convolution occurred, with suspension of respiration and a suggestion of opisthotonos. The face became deathly pale, the pupils even more widely dilated, and the patient fainted – apparently from cerebral anaemia. The inhalation of a few drops of nitrite of amyl (a bottle of which I was fortunate enough to have with me) rapidly restored her. Some chloroform was obtained just in time to be administered during a second convulsion, which was a little more marked than the first had been; 2 drachms of bromide of potassium were given as soon as the patient was able to swallow. the room was darkened and kept quiet, and slight inhalations of chloroform were continued for about 20 m. until the bromide of potassium could be absorbed and produce its effects. no further convulsions occurred; in an hours, the danger had passed, and very soon afterward the symptoms had all disappeared. I have been unable to discover the strength of the granules; they were obtained while the patient was travelling in the West, and the circumstances attending their purchase have been forgotten. One of them, which I allowed to dissolve in my mouth, had a distinctly bitter taste, and the symptoms above recorded undoubtedly attest the presence of a larger proportion of the original drug than is sustained by any tenet which survives the visionary Hahnemann. (N. Y. Medorrhinum Record, 1880.)
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.