11. A stout man complaining of anomalous symptoms took one Sunday at 7 a. m. 3iss. In about 3/4 hours he felt inclination for stool, and on rising for purpose fell backwards and was seized with spasms. These were quickly succeeded by a severe epileptic fit, which continued for 30 m., and left him senseless. In course of day he had 3 more, and during ensuring n. suffered from constant spasms and twitchings. Countenance was a times much flushed, at others pale; breathing occasionally sonorous and laborious, but generally quick; pulse oppressed and full, sometimes intermitting; belly hard and distended. No stool occurred till middle of next day, and till then he remained perfectly senseless. By the Tuesday the spasms had entirely ceased, but urine was bloody and thick, and voided not without uneasiness; he had pain in region of kidneys and also in head. On Thursday urine became clear, and no distress remained save the pain in head, which lasted into the following week. (MONEY, lac. cit., p. 448.)
12. From the smell of T there was observed: – Spasm of face commencing under chin, spreading up face to cheeks and nervous drawings in cheeks. These symptoms are only subjective, nothing observable on the face; they pass off to give place to a supra- orbital cephalalgia, as if the part were bruised. (DEMEURES, Journ. d. l. Soc. Gall., iv, 108.)
13. BOUCHARDAT inhaled the vapour of T. by remaining for 5 or 6 hours in the laboratory, the atmosphere of which was loaded with the vapour. All this time he felt only slight headache. At bedtime he had sleeplessness, persistent excitement, heat of skin; pulse rose from 65 to 86, he had difficulty in passing urine, which had the well-known violet odour strongly marked. Next day an extraordinary stiffness of body, combined with weight and pains in renal region. For 2 or 3 day had weakness and felt faint, which deprived him of the power of working (Ann de Theridion, 1846, p. 66.)
14. Miss H-was convalescent from an attack of acute rheumatism, when she had the windows and doors of her sleeping apartment painted with oil colour, composed of ceruse, oil of prinks, and oil of T. She retired early that n., and had not been asleep more than 2-3 hours when she awoke in a state of alarming uneasiness, but having sufficient strength to cry out. Mr. Favrot found her with countenance anxious, shrunk, and pale; eyes sunk, and surrounded by a dark ring; voice gone, and strength so completely exhausted that limbs on being raised fell heavily back of their own weight; acute pain in all joints; violent and continuous abdominal pain, causing patient to lie doubled up; nausea, yet inability to vomit owing to excessive weakness; resp. hurried, short, and anxious; pulse thread-like and scarcely perceptible; a cold and clammy perspiration all over body. M. Favrot would have suspected cholera but for the strong odour of T. he perceived in the room. She was immediately removed and stimulants exhibited, but she remained utterly prostrate for 36 hours, and it was a week before she had strength to stand. ( Revue de Theridion Medorrhinum – Chir., Jan., 1858.).
Experiments on animals
1. A 3 – year old dog got 3ij rectified T. It immediately ran a few steps, tumbled down, screamed loudly, and fell into a tetanic fit; heart’s beats much quickened, almost uncountable; died in 3 m. P. M. – Stomach smelt of T, but not a trace of redness in it. A small red spot on cardia; liver and lungs full of blood. Bloody froth in bronchial tubes; a very red spot on m. m. of trachea, cricoid cartilage; heart flaccid, auricles and left ventricle bloodless, right filled with coagulated blood. (SCHUBARTH, Horn’s Archiv, xiv, i, 89, in Frank’s Mag., ii, 240.)
2. A large young dog got 3ij T. It immediately staggered as if intoxicated, crossed the feet over one another, and slavered much. After 1/4 hours vomited twice, later three times more, throwing up bloody froth. After 1 hours of rigor again vomited bloody froth with great effort. After 3.1/2 hours it walked slowly about very exhausted and sad, lay down, and remained several hours lying. Killed by prussic acid. The P. M. showed the m. m. of oesophagus inflamed, stomach and intestines normal, lungs full of blood, bladder full of urine. (Ibid.)
3. A 6 year – old horse got 3j T. After 1/4 hours restlessness, scraping with fore – feet; pulse rose in 2 hours from 36 to 45, fuller and harder. After 4 hours pulse as at first, restlessness almost ceased, passed dung several times, and a large quantity of milky, whitish, very fetid ammoniacal urine; other functions normal. (Ibid.)
4. A large rabbit got 3ss T., whereupon there ensued great restlessness, quick breathing, and rapid pulse, which gradually subsided, lasting altogether 2 h. After 4 hours repeated discharges of violet smelling urine and soft drug. It usually sat with its legs all gathered together, seemed to be suffering, but still are and drank. the condition lasted 60 hours, the diarrhoea and weakness continually increasing, and then it died without convulsions. The evacuations from the bowels consisted partly of faeces and T., partly of mucus containing large numbers of swollen cylinder – cells. – P. M. No inflammation of stomach or intestines, but the former showed a large number of bluish spots with whitish borders. It contained much food smelling of T., and a thick layer of mucus with normal and shrivelled cells. the epithelium underneath was thinner than usual, consisted of cells of normal form and size, and in many places we raised up like a blister. These blisters were the size of peas; they contained blood – corpuscles and dissolved blood, and gave the interior of the stomach a blackish – brown colour, the exterior a bluish – black appearance. Several of them had burst, leaving a depression in the vascular membrane, and the m. m. wa coloured by the exuded blood. The epithelium between these blisters was normal. The small intestines were of normal colour, contained a fluid smelling of T., and much mucus; their epithelium was very thin. The large intestine contained soft dung with the odour of T., and its thin epithelium consisted partly of swollen, partly of imperfectly formed cylinder – cells of various shapes. The bladder was full of urine, and was only slightly red; the urine contained many small round bodies, apparently cell nuclei. Other organs normal. (MITSCHERLICH, Medorrhinum Zeit. v. Verein f. Heilk. in Preussen, xii, 1843, Nos. 44 and 45. In Frank’s Mag, i, 121.)
5. A large rabbit got 3j T. It died in 44 hours with similar symptoms, only that the diarrhoea was greater, and latterly consisted of mucus only with swollen, almost round, cells. – P. M. The stomach had from 40 to 50 brownish – black spots the size of pins’ heads and larger; these had no epithelium, but a plug of blood projected into the stomach, and when this was removed there was a depression that extended into the vascular membrane. These spots wee covered with mucus stained brown from the exuded blood, and they had all a white border without inflammatory redness. The hemorrhagic blisters and therefore burst. The very thin epithelium of the large intestine consisted chiefly of imperfectly formed cells. Otherwise the appearance were the same as in the other case. (Ibid., 122.).
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.