In the end allopathy will have to kiss the cast for magna est veritas criproevalebit.
CASE OF CYANOSIS
There will be harm in giving the following practical case of Blue Disease for what it is worth:-
Morbus Coeruleus, Cyanosis or Blue Disease. Whether this was due to a permanence of the foramen ovale, and thus allowing the passage of the venous blood from the right auricle to the left or to other abnormal apertures in the septum of the auricles and ventricles of the heart or to any other maldisposition or abnormality or to patescence of the ductus arteriosus, I know not, but the subject was a young man of 25 or thereabouts. He had been a labourer in Laird’s shipbuilding yards for years but latterly had become unable for work. On my visiting him, I found him sitting propped up in a chair, his face of deep purple blue coloration with which we are familiar as Cyanosis and considerable oedema of the lower extremities, and hydrothorax; the dyspnoea was very great and the distal ends of his fingers were clubbed in a most extraordinary degree worse than I ever saw in the most advanced case of phthisis; a hacking cough; difficulty of speech; racking pains in all his bones and joints, so that he could neither move them nor yet remain quiet. That was just the character of the pain: feels easier by motion. A more perfect picture of inhuman ugliness in a human being it was never my lot to behold, and this was rendered worse by the hanging jaw and large oedematous face, and glaring blood-shot eyes. And yet his mother fondled and petted him as only mothers can! After going over the case and learning that the and that he had only been so bad as at the present for a few weeks, I set about treating the most urgent symptoms, viz, the rheumatic pains. Rhus toxicodendron was given at frequent intervals. Now comes the strange part of the story: The Rhus not only gradually cured the rheumatism (which I expected) but it cured the oedema the hydrothorax, the dyspnoea and actually lessened the general venosity very considerably and in the course of time even his clubbed finger ends went a little smaller. As nearly as I remember he took the Rhus for about three months and he then resumed his work as labourer.
That this was mere fluke on my part I need not say neither do I now comprehend how the amelioration came about, – I merely narrate a most interesting clinical fact. During a period of about two years subsequent to this used to put in an appearance at the Wirral Homoeopathic Dispensary every month or two to be treated for various little colds and the like and then I left the neighbourhood, so I do not know what became of him, but so long as I remained at Birkenhead he continued to work in Laird’s shipyards.
I do not merely mean that this poor fellow got over his rheumatism oedema hydrothorax and dyspnoea, and was them merely as blue as he had previously been, but his ordinary blueness had very materially diminished about one half-as his mother and the neighbours very loudly and unanimously maintained. Here the choice of Rhus for the kind of pain was strictly scientific; its having brought about a remarkable amelioration in an old-standing case of morbus coeruleus is an empirical fact that I do not understand, and of which I therefore can offer no explanation.
This empirical use of Rhus I have since remembered with advantage.
RHUS IN THE TREATMENT OF BLUE-FACED BABIES
I have never since met with another case of regular morbis coeruleus, but I have had to treat very young babies with cyanotic faces, and have here used Rhus 3 with striking benefit. One was an eight-month child, whose circulation was apparently not quite normal as its face was very pale and bluish. It was not purple by any means still everybody remarked “how peculiar, bluish its face was.” Rhus 3 was given one pilule three times a day, and the beneficial effect was unmistakable, for within a very few days the face assumed a normal coloration. In several other cases in little infants in whom I had noticed a bluishness of the face, or just of the lower lips only I have used Rhus with undoubted benefit; the bluishness disappeared. Quite lately a little blond of two, with a blue lower lip, was ordered Rhus by me, and the blueness disappeared in a fortnight. Quo modo?
HAEMORRHOIDS IN CONNECTION WITH ENGORGED SPLEEN
A well-nourished healthy lady of fifty years of age came under observation in April 1880, complaining of the following series of symptoms. Pain in the left side corresponding to the region of the spleen so bad that she cannot lie on the left side; with this pain in the side there are two other disturbances, indicating that a kind of vascular turgescence an orgasmus humoured turgescence an orgasmus humoured – underlines the whole, viz.: palpitation of the heart and piles. With these also some indigestion and a feeling as if the visceral contents of the abdomen were being pulled down.
Rx Tc. Ceanothi Americani 3x 3iv. There drops in water three times a day.
She came from the country so I did not see her again; but as I asked for a report in a fortnight, her husband wrote at the end of the that period to say that she was well and needed no further attention.
The case of this lady rather interested me, as some six years previously she came under my care for chronic headaches that seemed climacteric; I treated her for these headaches but could not make any impression upon them, and then on going over the various organs I found that the urine contained a small quantity of albumen. This our ordinary remedies removed in about two months and the headaches disappeared. About a year later the albuminuria again returned in a very slight degree, and with it some cephalalgia; both yielded at once to the same remedies and she had remained well till she came with the splenalgia and haemorrhoids I suspect therefore that the old albuminuria was not due to any kidney mischief, but to venous congestion of the kidneys.
CASE OF VARICOCELE WITH VENOUS ZIGZAG
This was a well-nourished healthy looking gentleman of 29 years of age. He first came under observation on April 16th. He had sinned against his own body formerly, and, being happily enlightened on the subject of bodily chastity had for years given it up, and ever since been seeking to regain his self-respect and bodily vigor, By the way, when will fathers become sufficiently manly to teach lads how to become men? On carefully examining him, there were four points came out: 1.- There was an endocardial bruit de souffle most audible at the xiphoid cartilage.
2.- The before mentioned venous zig-zag line on the chest.
3.- A left-sided varicocele these seven years; not very large.
4.- He had once had a slight attack of piles – none now. Diagnosis: General varicosis expressed especially in the right heart vena portae, and spermatic veins.
TREATMENT: Tc Bellis perennis 1, 3iv, Five drops in water three times a day.
June 2. Feels better in himself th old feeling of blightedness left by the miserable habit of youth has gone. The effects of Bellis (Common daisy) in this state, that I think of as auto traumatism is often little short of marvellous. But I cannot go into that at present. The varicocele is better; the endocardial bruit is less audible he feels his heart comfortable now; the venous zigzag is slightly better- less distinct, but I am not so very sure about this having only the eye to go by.
Rx Tc Acidi fluorici 6, m. XXIV. Sac. Lac qs. Div. in p. aeq. xxiv.
To take one powder in a little water at bedtime, and report progress in a month.
July 3. The varicocele is much smaller it formerly became very much more distended towards evening, especially after his having been on his feet a good deal all day, and notably worse in hot weather; but now he has no inconvenience from the varicocele even after being on foot all day in this hot weather. The endocardial bruit can now be heard only with difficulty. I hear very well indeed with both ears yet the acuity of the right one is greater than that of the left (is it so in everybody – i.e., do the ears differ normally?) and this quality of my hearing I make use of for differential diagnosis when using the stethoscope. Now I could formerly easily hear this bellows murmur -with either ear, now I can barely hear it with the right aided by the stethoscope. By the way, we want some clinical acoumeter to aid us in coming to an opinion as to the quantitative value of endothoracic sounds for many of these bellows murmurs proceeding from the heart do disappear under treatment; may be they are only haemic but any-way we want to gauge them.
patient is informed that in my opinion he is well and fully fit for marriage. To this end he had sought advice. Of course the result requires consolidating with some further medicinal treatment but taking a drop or two of Acidum fluoricum 6 at bedtime does not seriously interfere with any human duties even if they be marital.
UNILATERAL VARICOSIS
Apart from varicocele which is very commonly unilateral one meets in practice with a considerable number of cases of varicosis of one extremity only and a careful diagnostic survey generally leads to the discovery of the cause. This form of varicosis is of all the most readily amenable to treatment always assuming that its cause has been accurately made out, and that said cause can be removed. I will give a case two in elucidation of this:
Burnett was one of the first to speak about vaccination triggering illness. This was discussed in his book, Vaccinosis, published in 1884. He introduced the remedy Bacillinum. He authored twenty books, including the much loved "Fifty Reason for Being a Homeopath." He was the editor of The Homoeopathic World.