We have seen cases which we looked upon as quite hopeless, steadily rally under this treatment; and we have no doubt of the beneficial effects of the remedies.
By far the fullest account of the effects of Ergot of Rye is that given by Dr. Buchner of Munich in the 4th volume of the British Journal of Homoeopathy. It is well-known that a very fatal disease like an epidemic has frequently prevailed from the use of this substance among the poor of France and Germany. In the district of Guyenne and Lorraine alone there died in the year 1770 no less than 8,000 persons from this poison. It is described by Traube(* Geschichte der Kriebelkrankheit, Goetlingen 1782*) as coming on `suddenly, without any warning; the patient is attacked with giddiness; dimness of sight; frightful contortions of the body; trembling of the limbs; cold perspiration; great anguish; restlessness; hippocratic countenance; intense thirst; pain at the sternum; oppression of the chest; the pulse small, intermittent often imperceptible.’ If to this we added vomiting and purging, which Secale Cornutum sometimes produces it would impossible to discriminate between the Ergot disease and cholera.
And yet Ergot has been tried in cholera and failed Dr. Kafka distinctly tells us that from Secale Cornutum or Veratrum we have never derived any benefit in the stage of cholera collapse. Dr Bahr mentions the drug, but says that owing to deficient provings, he cannot recommend it in practice. Dr.Joslin in his `Homoeopathic Treatment of Epidemic Cholera’ does not mention the drug at all. I my self had once a great confidence in Secale on, (false-understood) theoretical ground till I have come to learn better.
Whenever we have to overcome arterial spasms in cholera, Secale may, for reasons explained before, find a place, when the best indicated homoeopathic remedy has failed. Whenever you try it singly in such cases, it will fail; and it is, therefore, that the drug has fallen out of practice. Dr. Russell’s observations, as to the alternation of the drug, deserve our full respect and imitation. You will save many a desperate cholera case by knowing how to apply Secale Cornutum.
But it is not only in the cholera attack itself that Secale is often serviceable; it is as serviceable, often even the more so, in the sequelae of the disease. When the stage of reaction has set in, with its manifold congestions in the brain, the lungs the kidneys, the intestines etc.; then we are apt to ascribe the incompleteness of the reaction to the thickened state of the blood to the depressed state of the sympathetic nervous system, etc. We forget altogether, that the unequal flow and distribution of the blood through the various organs of the body, might as well be owing to the want of elasticity on the part of the walls of the blood-vessels and their incapacity on the one hand to resume their natural calibre, and on the other hand to obey by vaso-motor nerve impression exerted upon them. A few doses of Secale will here prove to be as beneficial, as they sometimes do in the algid stage of cholera.
Secale is again one of the best remedies in some of the remote sequelae of cholera, going by the name of asthenia. When a cholera patient has apparently gone through the whole ordeal of the disease and is just about to progress towards recovery, it may happen, that he is found to be lingering, unable to regain health and strength, and sinking every day lower. It is as if the whole of his recuperative power had exhausted itself in the struggle with cholera, and nothing is left in him for the sustenance of life. As long as the asthenia is general, that is to say, not marked by any local disorder, we shall hardly see much benefit from Secale alone. We have here to deal with a case of mal-nutrition, or mal-assimilation, and shall have to administer such remedies, as were characterised by the late Dr. Grauvogl as nutrition-remedies, of which more hereafter. Secale must here take the place of an auxiliary remedy, though often indispensable, as such. But when the general asthenia is associated with some distinct local of mal-nutrition, then think of Secale. The existence of bed-sores point to Secale; and should they be sloughing or even gangrenous, you will still do best to have recourse to Secale. In cancrum oris, Secale vies with Arsenic and other remedies. In uterine haemorrhage it is our leading remedy. All the symptoms are aggravated on the appearance of the menses, is a characteristic of Secale. You have learnt from Wibmer`s description, how deeply Secale disorganises the organs of sight and hearing. Ulceration and ultimate sloughing of the cornea is one of the sequelae of cholera; should you have the chance of detecting the coming evil early enough, when there is some obscuration of sight, the cornea looking dim and hazy, without there being yet any pronounced ulceration, then you may in a short time, restore an eye which is otherwise almost doomed. One of my first cures in Calcutta was the case of a middle-aged Eurasian lady who suffered from deafness for 4 or 5 years, consequent upon an attack of cholera. Secale in various dilutions cured her in about two months’ time.
And finally let us not forget-what has hitherto entirely been forgotten both on the part of our authors and practitioners- that Secale has amongst its pathogenesis a considerable number of febrile symptoms as a reaction from the state of lowered temperature, primarily caused by the drug; and that of one prover typhoid symptoms are recorded as having occurred, while under the drug`s influence. :Between the paroxysms, says Wibmer, the patients lie in an uninterrupted sopor. When cholera patients gradually enter into a state of coma we are in the habit of administering Opium. Secale, or such other drugs as shall be mentioned hereafter, are far more suitable to such a condition.
I close the chapter of Secale with the following quotation from Kafka:-
We administer Secale, the first to the third solution, every quarter or half hour, whenever Cuprum is insufficient to cope with the spasms; when, moreover the cramps of the extremities are associated with collapse and cyanosis (which is not necessarily required for spasms calling for Cuprum); when the spasms are so violent as to produce opisthotonos; when the extensors of the fingers and toes are spasmodically affected). Should we fail in such cases with our remedy, then we should remember, that the drug we use may be deteriorated, and we resort to Ergotin, 1 to 3, which we administer every half hour or every hour, according to the frequency and severity of the spasms. We have, at a previous occasion, warned against a too persistent use of Camphor, especially in the case of children, as such a proceeding is liable to bring on a too stormy reaction, with violent congestions in head and chest. A similar caution is to be observed with regard to Ergotin, as there are likely to occur, in consequence of an eventual overdose, cerebral hyperaemia, associated with narcotic phenomena.
