7 c. As the most important symptoms came on 6 to 7 hours after taking the ergot, it was given her – 3ij in divided doses – at 11 p. m. At 5 a. m. great restlessness, trembling of whole body, strongly dilated pupils. At 5:30 she got bandage off her mouth, and vomited part of the ergot in a half – digested state. In course of day precisely the same symptoms came on as in previous experiment; but there was with the excitement of the system a greater degree of weakness and paresis. She staggered in walking, was easily thrown on her side, and then had great difficulty in getting on her feet again; hind legs were remarkably weak, and in walking she made almost exclusive use of her fore – paws, dragging the others after them. Action of heart was weak, but, as also respiration, accelerated. She left her food untouched. Next day lassitude, weakness of limbs, want of appetite; eyelids adhered by a sticky effusion; excrements hard and dry. After this nothing but some lassitude remained. (GASPARD, quoted by Buchner, no reference given.)
8. STRAHLER made a number of trials on dogs with ergot in powder or infusion and with ergotin. He says there is an acute and a chronic poisoning. The acute shows predominant gastric and narcotic symptoms. The gastric symptoms are chiefly nausea, vomiting, colic, diarrhea, scraping in esophagus. There is always increased flow of saliva. The gastric symptoms are not persistent, for the appetite soon returns. It acts as a paralyser on the nervous system, first on the brain, causing restlessness, anxiety, stupefaction, &c.; after larger doses numb feeling, stiffness, and paralysis of lower extremities; when the poisoning is more intense there is sometimes paralysis of the upper part of the spinal cord and of the medulla oblongata; pupils generally dilated, respiration slowed, pulse more or less altered, urinary secretion diminished. The paralytic symptoms are sometimes preceded by twitchings in muscles of cheeks and thighs. In the chronic intoxication the reflex excitability of the spinal cord is sometimes increased to tetanic convulsions; peripheric symptoms usually precede the central paralytic ones. There is formication, and the appetite is increased to bulimy. – P. M. Putrefaction takes place rapidly, there are signs of inflammation in stomach, and intestines, thickening and corrugated appearance of the coats of the stomach, narrowing and thickening of intestines, dark colour and fluidity of blood, congestion of blood in brain, liver, spleen, lungs and heart, and especially in the nerve trunks. The gall and urinary bladders are generally full, during life there is retention of urine. In the chronic poisoning the organs are atrophied, and the appearance is livid and cachectic. (Vierteljahrsch. f. gericht. Medorrhinum, l. 1856.)
9. a. WERNICH made a number of experiments, chiefly on frogs, and found that the effect of ergotin was to produce great congestion of the veins of omentum, mesentery, intestines, and bladder; all other organs, especially the spinal cord, were anemic. This has also been noticed by Handelin in his experiments with evening on dogs. Briesemann found that whilst the veins were almost everywhere full of blood, the arteries were much contracted and bloodless. W. ‘s conclusions as to the effect of evening on the circulation are – I. Ergotin first reduces the tone of the vessels, so that a large quantity of blood accumulates in the veins. 2. The arteries appear narrower, because they are more empty. 3. The blood – pressure is first considerably diminished, afterwards it gradually increases. 4. The heart’s beats are slower and lethal doses cause the heart to stop in diastole.
9 b. Action on uterus. – A young rabbit got an injection of 0.3 ergotin in left thigh. In 10 m. there appeared a slow contraction of uterus from above downwards, this was continued 5 or 6 times in 1/4 h.
10. TESSIER mixed ergot with food of pigs; they showed reluctance to eat it. Its first effects were redness of eyes and ears; latter organs and limbs then grew cold, cold, joints swelled, gangrene attacked ears, limbs, and tail, and the animals died in convulsions. One of them 6 mo. old lived for 66 d.: its intestines were found inflamed and gangrenous. (Revue Medorrhinum, xliii, 140.)
11. BONJEAN gave 3ij daily to cocks and hens. About 7th day they became dull, languid, without appetite, and were affected with diarrhea. In some cases the comb grew cold, bluish, flaccid, and covered with ecchymoses; in others it was ulcerated. Black blood flowed from nostrils; the animals were unable to walk, their breathing grew slower, and emaciation and death followed. In other cases the plumage was shed, and the beak and claws were surrounded by a bluish circle. (Traite de l’Ergot de Seigle, Paris, 1845.)
12. As early as 1827 M. Courhaut advanced the opinion that ergot produces a spasm of the blood-vessels; but, although his theory was very generally adopted, only within a few years has any earnest attempt been made to prove or disprove its correctness. In 1870 Dr. Ch. L. Holmes (Arch. de Phys., iii) found that when the blood-vessels of the frog’s web were watched under the microscope, and the animal poisoned either with the aqueous extr. or with the powdered drug, the vessels, both venous and arterial, could be seen to undergo a very great contraction. These observations have been confirmed by other observers. See II, 10 and III, 9 of this article.–EDS.. He found also, however, contrary to what might have been expected, an immediate, rapid, and very decided depression of arterial pressure, with violent cries and efforts on the part of the dog, followed by a period of quiet and a rise of the pressure above the normal point. These alterations of pressure, he finds, cannot be dependent on the cardiac action of the drug. He asserts that after section of a sympathetic nerve and injection of ergot the vessels supplied by the divided nerve can be seen to contract; and Wernich confirms this observation, which, however, is directly contradicted by some apparently careful and elaborate experiments of Dr. Paul Vogt, in which the dilated vessels of the ear of a rabbit whose cervical ganglion had been extirpated could not be made to contract by the hypodermic injection of E. Eberty’s results (Inaug. Dissert., Halle, 1873) are in accord with those of Vogt, and disagree with those of Holmes, especially in their bearing on the question whether the contraction of the arteries is centric or peripheric in its origin. He finds that the arterial pressure rises directly and enormously after the injection of ergotin. This rise, which he acknowledges to be chiefly due to the contraction of the vessels, occurs in the veins as well as in the arteries, and in the frog as well as in the dog and the rabbit. According to his experiments it must be, at least in the batrachian, centric, since here it does not take place after destruction of the medulla. (H. C. WOOD, op. cit.)
13. I subjected a frog to its influence in the following manner. Having extended the web of its foot under a microscope, I injected subcutaneously 1 gr. of ergotin in solution. The effect was apparent in a few minutes; at first the circulation became much quicker, than very soon it seemed to stop for a few seconds, and the larger vessels were much diminished in size; for some m. the circulation was disturbed, it was irregular, spasmodic, the blood now retrograding then advancing. In this fluctuating condition it remained for upwards of 1/2 hours, when the effect gradually passed off, and the current went on steadily and uniformly again. This experiment I have repeated twice in the same frog, and again in another, with the same results. (MEADOWS, Pract., i, 163.).
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.