24 b. In the case of the woman, she found herself almost immediately affected with giddiness; her arms seemed to have the weight of lead; she saw thousands of flies about her, to which succeeded a number of serpents, lighted kilns, and apartments hung with black; but in the midst of these objects she occasionally perceived those by whom she was really surrounded; she saw her own apartment, her husband, her furniture, &c. She continued the whole of the day sitting in a chair, and she thought that needles, scissors and pieces of cloth lay about her. Sometimes she tried to lay hold of these things in order to occupy herself at per accustomed work, but they seemed to elude her grasp. Sometimes she felt that she had succeeded in getting hold of them, and she set about using them as usual. The above she afterwards related from recollection; and Dr. Sarlandiere had noticed that her actions during the paroxysm corresponded with her accounts. In her, as well as in her husband, the pupil was excessively dilated; the eyes themselves were fixed and fully open; throughout she was more alive to her actual condition, and when questioned as to the cause of her disorder, she attributed it to the enema she had taken in the morning. Sometimes she suddenly started, as if urged by a momentous impulse; sometimes she rose up as if to run rapidly from a pursuing enemy. But during the whole time she preserved the use of her speech, her ears, and even her eyes, when her attention was forcibly called to surrounding things. ( Lond. Medorrhinum Rep., xv, 337. 1821.)
25. A girl, aet. 2 1/2 years, ate some seeds in the forenoon. The first symptoms was a high degree of exhilaration, in which she excited much merriment by her extravagant gestures and speeches. This soon became alarming; and when I was called to see her she was laughing, crying, and singing by turns, proceeding from one to the other state with the greatest rapidity. She occasionally started with great force and alarm, crying out that she was going to fall; when she would cling to her mother with as much desperation as if she was about to be thrown from a precipice. She would next become calm, then whistle, and afterwards point with her finger at musce Volitantes, which she followed with her eye and hand, at last clutching at them with an appearance of disappointment at the want of success. The colour of her face was of a scarlet red. I have certainly never seen so intense a red in scarlatina. Her skin was hot; pulse much accelerated; tongue and fauces dry and red, – the former so dry that it glistened. The face, neck and breast were covered with hundreds of small brilliant petechiae, many of which had a stellated from. After an emetic and purgative the cerebral symptoms gradually diminished till midnight, when she fell asleep. 2nd day-Tolerably well. The petechiae still quite evident, not being much changed. A troublesome itching of the whole skin, which came on yesterday, was gone. 4th day-Child is well, but petechiae not gone. 12th day-Petechiae no longer visible. (MEIGS, Ibid., N. s., IV. 422.)
26. A man, et. 69, drank a decoction in milk of 1 1/2 apples of stramonium about 8 a. m., fasting. Presently afterwards he became vertiginous or giddy, and therefore rose from his chair to take the air, with an intention to pluck more fruit. In walking 200 or 300 yards from his house he staggered as if drunk, feared he should fall upon his head, and that he was about to lose his senses, but had no sickness or the least inclination to vomit. As soon as he got home he went to bed, and complaining of an excessive dryness of his tongue and throat, a little water mixed with wine was given him; he also felt an odd sensation of dryness in, and violent girding across, the thorax. In less than 1/2 hour he began to falter in his speech, became insensible, restless, and muttered frequently, in which condition I found him. His extremities, and also the trunk of his body, were cold; his pulse small and quick. He often raised himself on his knees, continually stretched out his arms, and employed his hands as if searching for something he wanted; his eyes were dull and heavy; after some time he became dumb and more quiet; had almost no pulse; and upon his being taken out of bed, that it might be put into better order, his limbs were visibly paralytic. Although he changed postures a little, yet he remained stupid for 6 or 7 hours, then he raged furiously, requiring two persons to hold him in bed; notwithstanding which he raised himself up, tossed greatly, and seemed to catch at the bystanders with his hands, uttering incoherent sentences. At last he became sensible and more quiet; restless and delirious by turns. At about 10 p. m. of same day he had perfectly recovered. After taking a purgative he slept well all n., and had several stools in the m. For the space of 14 hours he neither slept, vomited, nor discharged anything by stool or urine, though he frequently passed urine at other times, being grievously afflicted with the gravel. (SWAIN, in Essays and Obs., Edinb., ii, 267.)
27. The patient, who was about 70, a fine, tall, stout, well – built man suffering from asthma, took 3iss of tincture of stramonium about 1 a. m. He had gone to bed about 11:20 p. m., and had been heard pacing his room, and making an unusual noise, up to a late h. The last time he was heard moving about 4 or 4:30 a. m. About 7 a. m. they rapped at his door as usual, but obtained no response. At 8 a. m. they tried to open the door, but found some resistance. They pushed it open by force, and then saw the patient lying on the floor in his night-shirt, with his feet at the door, as if he had been pushing against it, and his head right under the bed. They spoke to him, and tried to make him reply, but found him cold and apparently dying. I was at the house in 7 or 8., m., and on going to the bedroom found a strange scene of disorder as regards the furniture, and the patient in an alarming state of collapse, just in the position in which he had been discovered. The features were sunken; the skin icy-cold, and covered with clammy sweat; the hands and feet livid (the former much bruised); no pulse to be felt at the wrists; the hearts action excessively feeble and intermitting; the pupils so contracted as scarcely to be discernible, smaller than I have ever seen in a cat’s eye. I endeavoured to pour a little brandy down the throat, but there was not the slightest attempt at or power of swallowing. He remained perfectly unconscious and could not be roused; paid no heed to the loudest shouting; did not feel the smartest pinching; while the arms and legs, when lifted, fell flaccid and lifeless. There was terrible dyspnoea; indeed, the the function of respiration was rather a succession of deep gasps and sobs, and the little vitality still left in him seemed becoming rapidly expended by the tremendous effort and increasing struggle to breathe. The first evidence of returning power was that of a slight gurgling in the throat, induced by my pouring a teaspoonful of brandy into his mouth, and then tipping the head gently back to help it down the throat. This gurgling continued about 2 m., when I thought he made a slight attempt to swallow, but the presence of the brandy instantly produced a violent spasm, and it was again seen running from the mouth. After about 2 hours there were signs of returning animation. The pulse was perceptible at the wrist; the heart’s action became firmer; the breathing less gasping, and the surface warmer. I had an immensity of trouble still to get him to drink the smallest sip of brandy and water. Every attempt at deglutition brought on a spasm, evidently from violent constriction of the pharynx. As the powers of life gradually returned there was a constant sort of gulping, as if striving to swallow even when no fluid was being given, and it appeared to be the cause of much distress to him, though he was still unconscious. Sulphate of zinc was given, which caused the ejection of the whole contents of the stomach. He then gradually rallied, opened his eyes, and stared wildly about him, though evidently unable to see anything; the pupils still intensely contracted, and on waving the hand before them he never blinked or took the least notice. I now gave him ammonia and ether. There was still the same terrible spasm of the throat at each attempt to swallow, like that in hydrophobia, though still the fluids did pass, eventually, after much struggling; but there was no other kind of convulsive movements in any other part of the body. The ammonia and ether draught was vomited almost immediately, and at the same time, from this effort, a large quantity of peculiarly offensive urine passed involuntarily. The vital powers now gradually returned. About 12:30 the pupils began to expand, and vision gradually returned. He looked inquiringly round the room, and with some degree of terror, apparently wondering at the strange scenes dawning upon him. He continued gulping, as if striving vainly get rid of some substance in the throat; and he made ineffectual attempts to speak, but not a syllable could be articulated, the mouth was too dry and parched, the secretion of saliva being evidently entirely suspended. Before 1 p. m. the castor oil he had taken acted, bringing away a highly offensive evacuation. Shortly afterwards smart reaction set in. The face became flushed, the head congested. He muttered unintelligible sounds, looked wildly around, and could not be made to do what he was told, though he apparently understood all that was going on. He kept wanting, seemingly, to clutch at some person or persons who he imagined were before him, but he could not use his arms, though he tried to do so. There were no convulsions, but the arms and legs were quite rigid, and when they were moved remained in any position in which they were placed. The room presented a disordered appearance; all the furniture was displaced or broken, and the whole apartment appeared as if a desperate struggle had taken place. He kept improving all that day, but wandered in his mind and could not articulate. He took what was given him, became more tractable and gentle, and all the different symptoms gradually disappeared. He could not, however, speak at all intelligibly till the end of the next day, and then continually misplaced words, calling his head his foot, his arms his leg, and misnaming the things he required, though ludicrously unconscious of his perpetual misnomers. All this day, too, he simply answered when spoken to, but never volunteered any remarks, and was constantly muttering a strange jargon of sentences. It was several days ere he could converse without calling something by a wrong name. At my evening visit on the 3rd day he could speak with tolerable distinctness, but thickly, like a person with quinsy, and the throat and tongue were painfully dry, the glands of the mouth not yet fulfilling their natural functions. By the 4th day he was convalescent, but complained of much tingling of lips and itching of skin. He now said that he took the dose about 1 a. m., felt dizzy and stupid shortly after taking it, and lay down in his bed about 1:30, thinking he was likely to drop off to sleep directly. He could not remember anything more till 3rd day afterwards, when he saw me by his beside (at my evening visit); and said that he then began to wonder what was going on, and what had happened in the long interval which he felt sure had elapsed since he went to bed. Whatever had been going on was unknown to him, even though he had been answering questions, and doing whatever he had been desired to do so. He said he should always look back upon those 3 day as “a void in his life; that he had had a three days’ trance.” (C. PAGET BLAKE, St. George’s Hosp. Rep., iii, 159.)
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.