CASE VII.
Cardiac collapse, Cough, Ataxy.-Aconite, Pulsatilla; Argentum nit. The president of a court of justice, whose father had died of tuberculosis, suffered from his youth up with a cough with purulent expectoration. After a seton had been placed between the fifth and sixth ribs of the left side, and which he has since worn, the cough became more endurable and lost its malignant character. Still he daily coughed when lying down and on wakening; and on ascending long stairs he had to rest often or he lost his breath.
In his thirty-sixth year, however, is wife observed that he always avoided walking in certain streets. Questioned at to the reason of this he replied that the sight of high houses always made him dizzy and caused him to stagger; it seemed to him as if the houses on both sides would approach and crush him. This vertigo disappeared at once as soon as he saw no more high houses, and it was noticed on no other occasion.
After the lapse of several years he was taken with pneumonia, during which much blood was taken from him. He recovered very slowly and when, after two months, he finally endeavoured to leave his bed he was seized with dizziness which he could not overcome. He was finally taken to the baths at Kreuth and at length returned to his calling. Yet, in exposure to any exhausting labour he always had a pain which affected the whole head and which made the letters run into one another when reading.
When 56 years old he came under my treatment for the cough which had never left him since that attack of pneumonia. He was much emaciated, looked pale, and had the sunken features of an old man. In the upper parts of both lungs there were now large, now small vesicular rales; on the left lower portion none but vesicular and bronchial, and the irritation to cough lay behind the middle of the sternum.
Aconite relieved him of his cough by day and by night so promptly compared with his previous allopathic drugs that he became henceforth a faithful adherent of the system.
On examining the chest I found stenosis and insufficiency of the bicuspid valves, and since the cough was confined again to morning and evening I ordered him to take Sulphur 6 once in eight days. He now kept tolerably well for a year.
After this his wife requested me to examine him again. He had been obliged to work very hard and she was now alarmed to see that he stood and walked unsteadily again, as often as he thought himself unobserved. Before I had a chance to propose to him an examination, he sent to me a few days later, and his servant said i must make haste as he had left his master pale, breathing heavily and blue in the face as if he were dying. In this condition I found him, lying on a sofa and without any pulse, hardly able to speak, which I also forbade him after he had assured me that he did not know of any reason for this distressing condition. Pulsatilla 3 was given. He rallied sensibly from second to second; his pulse, which I had known before to be irregular, returned, and after a few days’ rest he was convalescent from a condition which I could only explain as caused by a disturbance in the tract of the Vagus and Sympatheticus, which must have been occasioned by a diminished process of oxidation in the blood continuing for so many years. A long respite followed again and he always relieved himself with Aconite and Pulsatilla.
He finally came to me, however, unbeknown to his wife, and complained that he could only pursue his calling by the greatest effort of will, and that we would be compelled to ask for a vacation because of incessant vertigo pursued him, compelling him always to go close to houses in order to have something to hold on to. Moreover, the little and ring fingers of the left hand had become insensible. He noticed also in the whole left side of the body an indescribable weakness.
Now according to what principle was this man to be treated, or was he to be held as beyond treatment? Did he belong to the category of Tuberculosis, of Ataxy, or of diseases of the heart or brain, or where, in the drug-provings even could there be found the truly indicated remedy without considering the concomitant conditions which were also presented therein?
After the patient had taken Argentum nit. 2x every two hours for five days he was relieved of the affections of the brain and spinal marrow which had lately renewed their attacks and more violently than ever. Even on the very first day he was able to go to his office without fear of staggering and stumbling like a drunken man. Two weeks later he had lost also the insensibility of the left hand. His complaints of weakness of the left half of the body were heard no more and his respiration was again as free as it ever had been.
CASE VIII.
Haemoptysis Hydrogenoid. Constitution changed to Carbo- nitrogenoid under treatment.- Nux.,
Nat. sulph., etc., finally Argent. nit.
A merchant, 37, his parents still living and healthy, and taken part, sound and healthy, in the revolutionary war in Baden as a common cannonier without any bodily injury. When seven years old he had fever and ague; in his twentieth year he had gonorrhoea, which was suppressed by injections. Apart form these he had never been ill.
In April, 1860, when he was, 37, while stooping to pat his dog, he was surprised, being then in the best of health, by suddenly coughing up, blood, and within the course of half an hour he coughed up a wash-basin full. He had, indeed, for several past, coughed somewhat every morning without taking any notice of it. This cough, however, with bloody expectoration, had now been diagnosed as haemorrhoidal congestion and treated with leeches ad anum and cathartics, although the patient assured his physician that he had never suffered form piles.
On account of the pulmonary haemorrhage itself, which lasted three days, common salt was ordered internally and those purgatives were given daily in the form of pills to force the evacuations which, however, had never been wanting. Four weeks later haemorrhage recurred, and now for half a year it returned almost every four weeks, sometimes lasting only half a day, sometimes two or three days. After this the haemorrhage intermitted for four months.
While taking a walk in February, 1861, he suddenly had another violent attack of haemorrhage, and to the treatment of this attack I was called in.
Of tuberculosis of the lungs or of piles there was no trace whatever. The man had a yellow complexion, was emaciated, very weak and had no appetite since he began taking the pills. Sleep good; pulse 90′ respirations 35; stitching pain in the region of the fifth rib on the left side. In the same place there was a fine crepitant rale occupying the space of a florin. He was ordered Aconite 3, in alternation with Arnica3, every quarter of an hour. The bloody expectoration steadily diminished from hour to hour.
The next day Aconite and Arnica were given in hourly alternation and it was two days before all blood had disappeared and it was two days before all blood had disappeared from the expectorations. Now oedema of the feet ensued.
Thus far the haemorrhages had always taken place during a longer spell of damp weather, and his condition is even more acutely aggravated when there is a cold rain.
On the sixth day, on account of the loss of blood China 3 was given every two hours; and nourishing food, since his appetite was restored, with wine or wine and seltzer water. The pulse remained the same; the respirations fell to 28. But on the least mental emotion the pulse rose and palpitation of the heart ensued.
The patient assured me that conformably with his excitable temperament his pulse had always been very rapid; that he had always been liable to attacks of palpitation, and that for many years he had been careful not to run upstairs so rapidly as he had been previously accustomed to do. His bowels moved generally every day, sometimes not so often, but always of themselves. As his appetite increased the patient gained strength very rapidly, but on account of his decided hydrogenoid constitution it was necessary that he should take every day from this time forth one dose of Nux. 3. and three or four doses of Nat. sulph. The oedema of the feet disappeared after ten days.
On May 27th, another haemorrhage occurred after a fit of passion; Acon, and Arn, prescribed as above. The haemorrhage stopped on the second day, and from this time forth I gave Nux. and Nat, sulph. daily. Rapid improvement followed and the remedies were intermitted. The patient spent every evening in the summer in his usual society whose members could not sufficiently wonder at his healthy appearance after what he had gone through.
On November 10th, after a business journey, haemorrhage again occurred, but lasted only half-a-day and ceased of itself. Nux. and Nat. sulph. were taken as ordered above on the patient’s own responsibility.
On January 27th, 1862, after violent excitement, a new haemorrhage occurred, but lasted only half an hour.
Notwithstanding these repeated attacks the patient had enjoyed remarkably good health, and congratulated himself on his fine fresh appearance and good spirits. The beat of the heart, however, always kept up to 85 or 90.
