On the whole it may be said that, the cholera-like effects produced by Arsenic, contingent as they are, represent a far greater resemblance to the general feature of the disease in all its possible varieties, than any other drug, except one, of our Materia Medica. Camphor may come out better in a comparison, with regard to a certain stage of a certain choleraic variety; another drug may beat Arsenic in some other variety; none bears in itself so closely the chief elements of what constitutes cholera in all its varieties, as Arsenic : and should I ever be restricted in the treatment of cholera in all its possible varieties and phases, to one single drug, I hardly think I could do better than decide for Arsenic.
In administering Arsenic to cholera patients, especially to children in Bengal, we should not forget that the sweetmeats (Mithais) as sold in the bazar are often colored with ingredients containing Arsenic and that such sweetmeats are liable particularly during cholera season, to give choleraic attacks to those who partake of them. Thus it may, and does, often come to pass, that cholera cases which show symptoms most strikingly similar to cholera are, instead of being benefited, seriously aggravated by our Arsenic administration. The poisonous dose in such cases is never large enough, as to require chemical antidoting. Our usual cholera drug Camphor, Veratrum Alb. and perhaps Ipecacuanha and Nux Vomica are our best antidotes. But it would be injurious to administer Arsenic in however small doses. Whether high dilutions; say the 200, might be relied upon as an antidote must be left to the consideration of the attending physician. Arsenicum Hydrogenisatum is said by Dr. Carpenter (Human Physiology 1881 p. 359) to reduce the haemoglobin, and after first exciting rapidly paralyse the respiratory centres. I cannot say in how far we may make use of this Arsenic preparation in preference to others.
Cutting from the Englishman : 11th July, 1887.
POISON OR CHOLERA?
The recent death, in Bombay, of a Hindu mendicant from Arsenical poisoning, suggests to the Bombay Gazette the possibility of some of the deaths said to be due to cholera, and which occur suddenly in that city, being caused by some other poison than that of cholera. The deceased has lately arrived in Bombay, and was living in a Dharmsala in Falkland Road. He was alone, having, no friends, apparently, in Bombay. He was admitted into the Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Hospital as a patient suffering from cholera, and treated for that disease. Death supervened, it was supposed, from cholera. A post-mortem examination of the body was, however, made, and the result was the discovery of a quantity of Arsenic, which was the real cause of death. Our contemporary says-
If the symptoms of Arsenical poisoning and of cholera are so much alike as to baffle skilled medical opinion, there is little hope of ordinary people being able to distinguish between them. It is very much to be feared that the occurrence of outbreaks of cholera give opportunities to wicked people to make away with those disagreeable to them. We are told by those who are in a position to observe such things, that they have often been struck by the number of old and infirm people who disappear in times of cholera. The practice of prompt burial, necessitated by the climate, and still more, cremation limits the chance of detection.
Allopaths have already lately taken to Arsenic in the treatment of their cholera patients. Of course, they do so, not because it is homoeopathic, but because Dr. Ringer in his Hand- book of Therapeutics say so. I wonder who will ever dare to write a Hand-book of Therapeutics for a class of men who would not allow others to think for themselves. Arsenic has been strongly recommended in cholera, says Dr. Ringer, especially in the later stages, when there is much collapse. Dr. Ringer is evidently no fool; he was looked into homoeopathic literature, and he knows all about it. He knows even by whom it has been strongly recommended in cholera. But he dares not say, for fear……yes for fear he might be cried down as a homoeopath, and -lose caste! At first sight it would appear, the question is a mere question of medical secterianism, and has very little to do with the merit of the thing itself. If clinical experience has taught that cholera patients have been benefited by Arsenic, let it, so would people argue, by all means be prescribed for them; it does not matter to the patient, nor to his medical adviser either, if it was Homoeopathy or Allopathy or indeed any other Pathy which has accomplished the therapeutic feat. Men, professional men, who would argue thus, show before all a lamentably low level of scientific attainment. Can they really be satisfied in doing the work of a prescribing machine? Can such a work ever prosper in the hands of a medical man? Let the History of Medicine say, what unreasoning empiricism has done in the hands of unreasoning physicians; how many millions have been sacrificed to the Moloch of Mercury, others to the Service of Tartar Emetic, other again to the worship of wholesale medicinal stimulation, and so on. An indifference towards a right understanding of the law by which a prescribed drug works out its therapeutic results in the sick, must therefore denote, as I have already said, a most lamentable state of mind on the part of the prescribing physician. Such men could not be classified as belonging to the learned profession; they belong, by right of their passive mental attitude, to the taught professions. They may have grown old and grey in the practice of their profession; but they have never outgrown the state of pupilage.
The worst is yet to be said. For when these men go and prescribe homoeopathically indicated drugs, on some fanciful allopathic principle, or on no principle at all, then they simply kill now and then a patient, whom they could easily have cured, had they only had the courage to know what they are doing; and they allow further many a man to die, unkilled, whom they could easily have saved, had they only been acting in accordance with what they claim to be, men belonging to an honourable and learned profession. They do not feel ashamed to lay aside a pernicious practice, and it is most pernicious to administer Arsenic in cholera, otherwise than in fractional, if not infinitesimal does altogether. As such it has been strongly recommended in cholera, and if they are willing blindly to follow clinical experience, without enquiring about the principle underlying such experience, then there is so much the more reasons that they should blindly carry it out, as it has been followed in our school for many years. Cholera collapse in one of the most precarious states a man can ever be in; and Arsenic is one of the most poisonous agents of our Materia Medica. Under such circumstances it does not require much overdosing to give a patient the last coupde- grace. A little aggravation in such cases means almost sure death. And what is worse, you can never know who had actually been killed by an overdose; the Arsenic and the cholera-collapse being so similar, that it is impossible for any man to distinguish between them. Yet even in such extreme cases, the allopathic dignity (?) has to be guarded before all; the patient’s welfare is a matter of secondary consideration. Smuggling is to be carried on in the face of death, and homoeopathic remedies are to be administered in as small doses only, as the allopathic standard of drug administration will allow.
Such is allopathic deceipt? Such is allopathic conscience!
I have told you, gentlemen, in my previous lecture, how to counteract, dynamically, an eventual overdose of Camphor. I can say nothing as to how to counteract a criminal overdose of Arsenic.
