The sum and substance of the whole complaint was, indeed, trifling enough to the ignorant, and was as follows: “Within a period of three years it has already happened to me three times when in perfect health, and the last time three days ago, that when walking I am suddenly taken with such an acute stitch in the left hip as utterly disables me from walking I am suddenly taken with such an acute stitch in the left hip as utterly disables me from walking further because it is absolutely impossible to stand on that foot since it becomes so weakened as to be utterly incapable of furnishing any support. This stitching pain is so severe that I think for the moment that I shall lose my senses and must fall to the ground every moment; that I am sure I could not bear it if it lasted but a minute; the pain of having a tooth drawn being child’s play compared to it, and no words can describe it. But the strangest thing is that, in the very moment when it seems as if I must succumb to it, it disappears without leaving a trace just as suddenly, and apparently just as suddenly, and apparently just as much without cause, as it came, after having lasted according to my calculation two or three seconds, and I can at once go on my way s if nothing had happened. Before and after it I am quite well; but the dread of never being secure for a moment against this most fearful of all pains does not allow me to rest till I find help, and indeed I am all the more disquieted by it as the last time the pain was not only in the hip but at the same time reached to the knee joint.”
This symptom was already known to me as a precursor of sycosis in a high state of development, and although the patient assured me that he had always been quite well, I had him undress himself and found upon his chest the characteristic exanthem which he made very light of, since now it mostly broke out in the Spring, now soon disappeared of itself, while during the whole Summer and Winter it was not to be seen, and he thought it was to be attributed to the time of year. On further enquiry I learned that three years ago a friend of his, a physician, had touched some whitish-blue spots, which he showed him on his lips with Nitrate of Silver, whereupon after a few days they disappeared and have never re-appeared since. Moreover, he was often overtaken with such a disgust for life that he had to summon all his moral force to refrain from shooting himself, though he did not know any other cause for this than a disheartening disgust for life. Beyond this I could learn nothing, and as regards any results from sexual intercourse, he assured me that he had never observed any whatever. We know very well how little we can credit such statements. In the meantime it was not essential to know whether such a cause had existed or not, for a pathological form is always the combined result of causes and conditions; hence the specific disease-form according to time, place and circumstance, is the only object of Therapeutics. For the sake of curiosity I examined a drop of his blood, which contained, however, no more colourless corpuscles than is customary in non- leucaemic blood.
It had long been known to me that at the outset of the so- called Sycotic cases the percentage of water of the blood is increased, as also in the later stages, in which Virchow had discovered leucaemic blood. It was also known to me that Glauber’s Salts protected the red corpuscles from the influence of an excess of water, while in Bruminghausen, Handschuk, Wilhelm, Klurge, etc., I had men before me of great powers of observation, who were in favour of treatment syphilis with Glauber’s Salts, but who are long ago forgotten, because Sycosis and Syphilis were confounded and there was no indication for Glauber’s Salts in the latter disease and as a matter of fact it never accomplished anything. Thus both theoretical and practical experience sustained me, which left no doubt in me that Glauber’s salts were indicated for this case. I did not acquire certainty, however, except through the Homoeopathic provings of Glauber’s Salts- Natrum sulphuricum-likewise known to me in so far as this that no other remedy belonging to this category presents these relations to the hip and knee joints in connection with other circumstances as do Glauber’s Salts. Without hesitation I prescribed Nat., sul. 3x, five drops every two hours. Since prescriptions which are based not only on theoretical and practical experience, but also on the law of specific direction, or the law of similars, can never fail of success, so did the result not fail in this case, although it required nearly a year to complete, and to guard, however, there was no trace of the exanthem to be seen, the former cheerfulness of the patient as well as his blooming complexion had returned, and since he has now passed five years in this desirable condition without further use of the remedy and without complaints, I may consider the cure to be complete.
CASE IV
Latent Intermittent Simulating Consumption. Chinin. sulph.
A married woman, 29, suffered from a cough for eight years years without any known cause, the cough having every year terminated in pulmonary haemorrhage. Four years ago she had for six months pains in the face on the right side, which would yield to no medical means of the physiological school, though these pains ceased of themselves after a change of residence; hereupon, however, the cough, which during the continuance of the pains had disappeared, returned again, so that the woman became much emaciated, and had to drink Ems. By this means, however, however, her strength was so far restored that the following year she was able herself to go to Ems there to continue the cure.
After four weeks she returned home no better. Blood was always present in the copious puriform expectoration, and her physician, who only saw her every week or two, told her husband that his wife was incurable. She herself, believing what the physician said of her hopeless condition, became despondent, and her condition sensibly grew worse.
She now thought of consulting me. Her husband requested me, after telling me everything, and after all hope of any improvement had long been given up, at least to pay her a visit.
One cannot refuse even such a somewhat unreasonable demand. I found a woman in a great state of depression, always weeping, with marked mucous rattle on the right upper part of the chest, and on the left side as well as the right a clear sound on percussion, puriform expectoration, constant irritation to cough under the sternum. The menses, however, were not yet deranged, appetite and sleep were good, pulse 72; the face was very pale but did not have the expression of the tuberculous. On being questioned she assured me that she had long ago observed that she had two good days and one poor one, and that only in damp weather did she suffer all days alike; that she had told this to her physician many years before, but he had always said that it was irrelevant, as well as the circumstance that she always had cold feet and hands.
I could now no longer doubt that here a latent intermittent had existed for eight years, and the remedy which I gave, Chinin. sulph., and a dose every two hours, had such an effect that, from the first day the cough became less frequent and on the eight day had entirely disappeared. The patient soon appeared very happy and gained in strength from day to day.
Since then four years have elapsed and there has never been any return of the cough, or of the haemorrhage, and the abnormalities on the upper part of the lungs could no longer be observed.
This woman, granting that I saved her life, would have been buried long since as surely as the treatment of her physician of the physiological school was a false one; because these physicians, on account of the knowledge which they have obtained mechanically, and of which they always boast as infallible, are not able in such cases to establish a true diagnosis; for they cannot, and never could, estimate the circumstances accompanying any disease-form.
Uterine Fibroma in a Hydrogenoid. Nux and Ipecac.
A married woman, 28, who gave birth to her last child some years ago without difficulty, and who appeared to have no predisposition to any disease, complained that for six months her abdomen had been greatly enlarging to such an extent that everyone had been congratulating her on a new pregnancy, which, however, could not be the case, as she had none of the usual indications. Her periods were regular, every four weeks as usual and only for a few weeks she had a constant leucorrhoea. The abdomen was round and everywhere uniformly hard all round in a circumference of about six inches diameter above the symphysis pubis, but it was entirely free from pain even on pressure. An examination showed a condition of the os uteri as in the fourth month of pregnancy. The os was high and directed backwards.
Around it, in the bottom of the vagina, the same cartilaginous resistance was felt as externally on the abdomen, and this resistance formed the immediate prolongation of the cervix and thus belonged to the womb. I have twice happened to observe a similar swelling of the womb arising from a dead foetus; in one case the foetus lay five and in the other eleven months in the uterine cavity without being expelled. In the first case metritis suddenly set in and during its course, which could not be mitigated, the separate bones of the foetus were discharged one after the other through the rectum. The other case escaped my further observation. Both cases were free from doubt by means of the signs of pregnancy which had been manifestly present, and in the latter case even the parts of the foetus could be distinctly felt. All this was absent here. Thus it could only be considered a fibrous polypus, or, more probably, a round fibroid within the uterus.
