Let it be understood that the relation spoken of is not to be taken in the sense of causality; nor do I even profess to say, that the benefit we derive from the administration of Cuprum in the treatment of cholera cases, is directly owing to the drug;s homoeopathicity to the disease. What we, homoeopaths, call the curative law of similitude, may, for all we know, not be, in a strict sense, a real principle of cure, nor a natural law, but only an empirical maxim, a therapeutical rule. We do not mean to say that, a homoeopathic remedy cures, because it produces in a healthy body similar symptoms; the similarity of rather, symptoms is only the indication to find out the right remedy. It may not be the cause of the effected cure, but only the guide to it. In fact neither Hahnemann nor his disciples were able to give a satisfactory explanation of the process of the homoeopathic cure. Between the homoeopathic similitude and the cure there may be a third link in the chain of causation, at present unknown to us; and this may so much the more be the case with regard to prophylactic remedies.
As to special indications for Cuprum in cholera, it may be said that the drug is indicated by colic of a paroxysmal character, by soreness in the praecordial region with sensitiveness to touch, and lastly by cramps in the extremities beginning at the fingers and toes. Drinking cold water, it is said, relieves the vomiting; (in Arsenic cases, cold water is immediately brought up) and the act of drinking, it is said by others, is accompanied by a gurgling noise, which would indicate a state of paresis of the oesophagus. The chlorotic constitution, and generally speaking all such constitutions where disordered nutrition goes hand in hand with what is called nervosity, are according to the late Dr. V.Grauvogl, especially apt to derive benefit from Cuprum The Reviewer of this book (British Journal of Homoeopathy, april 1884) says: Of Cuprum Dr. Salzer does not speak so highly as we should have expected. It would then appear that Cuprum has done better service in England than in India. This may be accounted for by the fact, well-known in out school, that the drug acts better in light-haired people.
It may not be out of place here to say a few words on the subject of drug alternation in homoeopathic practice. There has been much discussion about the subject, since Hahnemann first enunciated his great principle, that drugs, homoeopathically administered, in order that they should cure promptly, safely and surely, should be administered singly. There is, to my mind, not only a great truth no less. But not always are we in a position to lay hold upon the truly, all-sided homoeopathic remedy. The question then arises: Are we to trust to a remedy, the homoeopathicity of which to the case before us we know to be deficient in many essential points, or are we to complement the deficiency by a second remedy, to be given in alternation with the first? Well, a long and varied experience has taught us that the should alternative is the best, that is to say, is the least of the two evils; for an evil it is, not to be able to lay hold upon the single homoeopathic remedy, which no doubt attains a far greater therapeutic result, than any combination of remedies, all other circumstances being equal.
Missionaries report good results from Cuprum in cholera. Of course, we must take what they say with a grain of salt, otherwise we might be carried away to believe that Cuprum is infallible in all stages, ages and seasons. They give low triturations (one reports excellent results from Cuprum Met. 2x Trit.) and it remains to be seen whether their alleged better results are due to the low trituration in which they say to administer the drug. There is one missionary (Rev. H. Lorbeer of Ghazipore) who sells a cholera-mixture which I had go analysed by Dr. Kanai Lal Dey, Chemical Examiner to the Government of Bengal; it is composed of Sulphate of Copper and Camphor. He state in a letter to the Englishman of the 2nd. May, 892, that his cholera mixture saves 80 out of hundred patients. of late, l he says, he adopted the method of administering 2 or 3 drops of Opium in case his remedy does not act promptly. The suggestion is, to my mind, a very reasonable one. Cholera patients become often so frightened that their whole nervous system becomes upset, and they become un-impressionable to drug action. Opium would calm them and restore the receptivity to drug action. It is a piece of reasonable homoeopathy taken form Hahnemann again. Why the Rev. gentlemen commits himself to gross plagiarism for the sake of money-making is one of those unpleasant puzzles concerning which the less said the better. Since the above was written Dr. Mittra, chief of the medical Department, Kashmir, had, in a severe and long lasting cholera epidemic, tried, amongst other cholera nostrums, Rev. Lorbeer’s infallible cholera-mixture. Dr. Mittra gave a fair trial to all and every cholera-mixture known to him; he did, however, not try Homoeopathy. This Rev. Lorbeer’s plagiaristic proceeding had one good result, namely, that it was systematically and impartially put to test. The therapeutic result as recommended by Dr. Mittra was a sad failure, more than 60 Percent died under Lorbeer’s medicine.
We are, therefore, so much the more disposed to welcome the introduction of a drug which unites in itself the physiological action of copper and arsenic; I speak of the Arsenite of Copper. Dr.Hale in his New Remedies, 5th Edition, says: This heroic remedy has always been a favorite one with me. Many years before it was proved by Dr. Blackley, I had used it in many cases, and with uniformly good results. I selected it according to the well- known provings of both drugs, and from the recorded cases of poisoning found in the standard works on toxicology.
I first used it in some severe cases of cholera, which occurred in the year 1867 and 1876. These cases were marked by the usual intestinal disorder, to which was added severe and painful cramps in abdomen and extremities. The alternation of Arsenicum and Cuprum did not prove as satisfactory as I expected, but the use of Cupric Arsenite in the 6x trituration, in water, for children, and dry on the tongue in adults, generally acted promptly. I can recommend it in cholera infantum, spasmodic and neuralgic pains in the bowels, accompanied by screams, and cramps in the fingers and toes, attended with great debility and threatened collapse. I have also used it with good effects in cholera, dependent on a profound affection of the nervous centres, and presenting the well-known characteristic symptoms of Cuprum, united to the dyscrasia which always indicates Arsenic. Again in cases of spasmodic cholera with great anxiety and restlessness associated with unbearable pain in the extremities, respiratory and abdominal muscles etc. Cuprum Arsen. has often done for me what none of its components given alone or in alternation could do. In the state of uraemia. or especially uraemic convulsions, we may also find in Cuprum Arsen. what Hydrocyanic Acid might fail to effect (see last lecture, ix) In the tenth volume of Allen’s Encyclopaedia, you will find under Cuprum Arsen. the following symptoms mentioned : Cold, clammy perspiration of intermittent nature. If you now study the section of paroxysmal Sweat in my book on Periodic Drug-Disorders, you will find there mentioned, Bellad., Hepar Sulph., Lachesis, Sepia, Conium, Saccharum Album. None of these drugs has cold clammy perspiration; Cuprum Arsen. alone has it, and, therefore, the more worthy of our notice in cases of emergency.
There is one drug more to be mentioned in connexion both with the spasmodic variety of cholera and with the spasms occurring in cholera, the well-known ergot of rye, Secale Cornutum. Wibmer gives the following graphic description of toxic effects of this drug:
At first the patient only complains of languor, and of formication of the tips of the toes and fingers, which sometime look blackish blue in some places. Frequently it commences with nausea, violent vomiting and pains in the stomach; the abdomen becomes distended and hard; the head feels dizzy; the senses become blunted. At a later period the patients are attacked with violent convulsions of the hand, feet, knees, shoulders, elbows, mouth, lips and tongue. These shift from one side of the body to the other and are generally accompanied with violent pains; at times by a burning heat, and at other times by chilliness; sometimes they abate periodically, and then return again; sometimes the spasms assume the form of emprosthotonos; at other times that of opisthotonos. These convulsions most frequently terminate in epilepsy. They are very destructive to children. Between the paroxysm most of them manifest a craving for food, without being able to satisfy themselves. They are exceedingly feeble and languid, complain of dizziness and hardness of hearing; their limbs are rigid and motionless. Sometimes they are attacked with violent diarrhoea; the tongue swells very much; the secretion of saliva is increased, the eyes frequently become covered with a thick mist so that the patients become blind or see double. Their mental faculties are disturbed; melancholia, madness, intoxication set in, the vertigo increases, the pains now cease, sensibility is extinguished. The hands and feet are sometimes covered with spots resembling fleebites; they dry up as it were; the skin turns black, wrinkles, whole extremities sometimes become gangrenous and fall off. In this way the patients escape death, dragging their mutilated bodies about for months and even years afterwards. Many, however, die within nine or twelve weeks…. It was observed in various epidemics, that the convulsions and pain in the limbs with stupor, would prevail; and in other epidemics gangrene of the extremities; hence the distinction between convulsive and gangrenous ergotism.
