He also suffered alternately from constipation and diarrhoea. His diarrhoea was very watery and very evil smelling. The stomach was distinctly swollen and very sensitive to touch. He could not stand any pressure round the abdomen and had lost a great deal of weight. What medicine should be given?.
Should he be given Arsenicum album because of quinine poisoning? As the patient had no longer fever and as he did not complain about anxiety and thirst, leading characteristics of Arsenicum which must always be present if Arsenicum is indicated, that remedy was not to be considered.
Should he be given Nux vomica, which cures 80 per cent of all cases of cramp in the stomach? No, because Nux vomica has not the characteristics of a clean and very red tongue and of an evil-smelling diarrhoea, but it has a dirty tongue and constipation. Graphites also was out of the question because the patient was not anaemic.
The sensitiveness of the stomach region to pressure of clothing is a leading symptom of Lachesis and a very red varnished-looking tongue is another Lachesis indication. The swelling of the abdomen and the watery, evil-smelling diarrhoea, were further Lachesis symptoms and so was the old malaria. Lachesis was exactly indicated. A dose of Lachesis 6 produced an initial aggravation. Therefore Lachesis 15 was given night and morning and in a few days it produced a complete cure.
A MALARIA CASE.
A relative of mine had been dismissed from the army because malaria which he had contracted in the Tropics had proved incurable, notwithstanding large doses of quinine which he had been given. As quinine is indicated only if the leading symptoms point to it and as these symptoms were missing, it was clear that the poor fellow suffered from quinine poisoning. Arsenic is the antidote to quinine.
I therefore gave him Arsenicum album 4x in the liquid form and I told him to take five drops of the medicine three times a day in a little water. Some weeks afterwards he wrote to me that from the day when I had given him the medicine he had not had a single attack of fever.
