Introduction


In the Introduction of his book Cholera and it’s Homeopathic treatment, Leopold Salzer described the efficacy of Homeopathic treatment in epidemics of Cholera in Various places of world….


CHOLERA AND Its Homoeopathic Treatment by Salzer

GENTLEMEN,

There are various reasons why I have chosen cholera and its Homoeopathic treatment as the subject of my present lectures. The disease, as you are well aware, is endemic in India, and has been unusually severe during the last season. It has been generally felt-although having been absent from India, I cannot speak from personal experience-that, owing to its unusual virulence, the last outbreak has more or less baffled the practitioners of Homoeopathy on less than the practitioners of the old school of medicine. Now, virulence of type is indeed a potent factor in the result of the treatment of diseases. All other circumstances being equal, it gives rise to a larger portion of failures. We have not yet arrived at a mode of treatment which shall wipe off the disease altogether without leaving behind a residuum of death. And so long as this is the case, so long shall our therapeutic success be relative-proportionate, in an inverse manner, to the severity of the disease. It would, therefore, betray a lamentable state of mind on our part, should we, moved by the sight of a comparatively large failure in certain epidemics, lose confidence in the system of our treatment altogether, a system which has stood the test of experience for more than three quarters of a century.

On the other hand it would be no less fatal to our cause, should we, in the presence of overwhelming failures, insist on grinding at the same therapeutic mill as we have done for the last half a century, regardless of what comes out of it. Such proceeding would bring upon us the very same reproach as we are ever so ready to heap upon our friends of the old school of medicine the reproach of routine practice. It will, therefore, be our task to inquire, whether we have not altogether run into a groove with regard to our treatment of cholera; whether we have not held fast to our traditional mode of procedure, while the type of the disease may have have gradually changed.

There are other weighty reasons why I have chosen cholera as a subject of these lectures. It has been said, and truly said, that the Homoeopathic treatment of cholera has been the pioneer of Homeopathy all over the world. He, therefore, who has to make some useful suggestions concerning the treatment of cholera, will not only have benefited a certain branch of therapeutics, but will at the same time have helped on the spread of Homoeopathy in general. It behoves us, therefore, to consider, in how far our mode of treatment of cholera, as laid down by Hahnemann, is amenable to improvement, if not to perfection.

Indigenous as the disease is to India its waves often spread from the shores of the Ganges over the seas, devastating large tracts of human habitation in Europe and America. What better could we then do for those countries, who suffer so severely through us, though through no fault of ours, than to give them the best of our experience in the treatment of this dire disease.

That our Homoeopathic treatment of cholera, as usually carried on now a days, is far from being perfect, our statistics will show, even if there were no outbreaks of unusual virulence. The mortality of cholera patients when left to themselves amounts in the average to 50 per cent., while under Homoeopathic treatment the mortality is said to be reduced to about 26 per cent. in the average. (See Appendix II.) I shall not enquire for the present in how far statistics derived from one or two hospitals during an outbreak of cholera are entitled to be set up as the average standard for all times to come. Anyhow, Homoeopathy at her best, could claim to have saved 24 out of every hundred patients who would naturally have succumbed. This is a great deal, if generally true, but it nevertheless shows at the same time how large a margin there is anyhow yet left for improvement.

So much is sure that cholera has paved the way to Homoeopathy all over the world, India not excepted. There is one particular circumstance connected with the homoeopathic treatment of cholera, which has, no doubt, to a large extent contributed to the spreading of a blessing,- a blessing which the world at large has hardly yet begun to realize to its full merits. It is this, namely that the treatment of cholera as laid down by Hahnemann is so simple, that any layman of average intelligence can easily carry it out. Here are Hahnemann’s instructions:

When cholera first appears, it usually manifests itself somewhat in the following manner. The strength of the patient suddenly sinks, he cannot stand upright, his expression is altered, the eyes sunk in, the face bluish an icy cold, as also the hands, with coldness of the rest of the body;hopeless discouragement and anxiety, with dread of suffocation, is visible in his look; half stupified and insensible, he moans or cries in a hollow, hoarse tone of voice (*Bambery noticed that in cholera there is impaired sensibility of the larynx, on the other hand Dr. Mackenzie (Reynolds Vol.II. P.36) states that some morbid phenomena of a functional character such as a vocalist’s inability to produce certain notes which previously could be easily formed are probably in some cases where the larynx appears healthy, due to impaired muscular sensibility. The hoarseness of a cholera patient in whom the nerves of the vocal cord have been dessicated by a profuse loss of water appears then to be purely nervous in its origin. There is some loss of laryngeal sensibility or muscular power from the very beginning which must no doubt contribute to intensify the Dyspnoea (See p.211.) As a matter of curiosity in connexion with the above it may be worth mentioning that according to Dr. Vincent Richards’ `Landmarks of snake Poison’ P. 132 the ptomaines generated in the bowels of choleraic patients when injected in animals produce results similar to those produced by cobra bites. Our school has up to date not yet tried any of the ptomaines clinically; so the above must for the time being stand as a mere curiosity. It is, however, worth noticing that ptomaines are not as generally believed mere post-mortem products of putrefaction, but that such products are generated during the life time of patients and that they often suffer from the effects of a kind of self-poisoning (See Pharmacological Therapeutics and Materia Medica by Lauder; Brunton London, 1885, P. 350). Even the mere absorption of retained fecal matter causes a state of pathological disorder, known by the name of Coproemea. It would then appear that the cholera produce cholera, while their product produces some poison like that of cobra poison. And as microzymes are best killed by their own product, an injection of these ptomaines would no doubt kill the bacilli, but would unfortunately kill the patient first. Whether we would under the circumstances fare better by injecting cobra poison remains to be seen. So much is sure that cholera poison is certainly not similar in its action to cobra poison, and could not be applied on the principle of similia similibus (See DeBary on Bacteria. Oxford 1887, P. 159).

After due reflection it appears, however, that the matter stands thus. The cholera bacilli produce a ptomaine which ptomaine produces cholera in man and in animals when properly injected. On the other hand the ptomaine of the cholera victimes (not of the bacilli) has been found to be equal in its action to cobra poison. It would be interesting to know what the toxic action of the ptomaines of cobra victims is like without making any distinct complaints, except when asked: burning in the stomach and gullet, and cramp-pain in the calves and other muscles; on touching the precordial region, he cries out; he has no thirst, no sickness, no vomiting or purging.

In the first stage Camphor gives rapid relief, but the patient’s friends must themselves employ it, as this stage soon ends either in death or in the second stage, which is more difficult to be cured, and not with Camphor. In the first stage, accordingly the patient must get as often as possible (at least every five minutes), a drop of spirit of camphor (made with one ounce of camphor to twelve of alcohol), on a lump of sugar, or in a spoonful of water. Some spirit of camphor must be taken in the hollow of the hand and rubbed into the skin of the arms, legs and chest of the patient; he may also get a clyster of half-a-pint of warm water, mingled with two tea spoonfuls of camphor, and from time to time some camphor may be allowed to evaporate on a hot iron, so that if the mouth be closed by trismus, and he can swallow nothing, he may draw in enough of camphor vapour with his breath.

The quicker all this is done at the first onset of the first stage of the disease, the more rapidly and certainly will the patient recover; often in a couple of hours warmth, consciousness, rest and sleep return, and he is saved.

If this period of the commencement of the disease, so favourable to recovery and speedy cure, by the above indicated employment of camphor, has been neglected, then things look worse; then camphor is no longer serviceable. There are, moreover, cases of cholera, specially in northern regions, where this first stage, with its tonic spasmodic character, is hardly observable, and the disease passes instantly into the second stage of clonic spasmodic character: Frequent evacuations of watery fluid, mixed with whitish, yellowish, or reddish flakes, and along with insatiable thirst and loud rumbling in the belly, violent vomiting of large quantities of the same fluid, with increased agitation, groaning and yawning, icy coldness of the whole body, even of the tongue, and marbled blue appearance of the arms, hands and face, with fixed sunken eyes, diminution of all the senses, slow pulse, excessively painful cramp in the calves, and spasms of the limbs. In such cases the administration of a drop of camphor spirit every five minutes must only be continued so long as decided benefit is observable (which with a remedy of such rapid action as camphor manifests itself within a quarter of an hour). If in such cases decided benefit is not soon perceived, then no time must be lost in administering the remedy for the second stage.

Leopold Salzer
Leopold Salzer, MD, lived in Calcutta, India. Author of Lectures on Cholera and Its Homeopathic Treatment (1883)