(Second Article)
IN my long experience I have found many people who are always anxious to talk to the man behind the counter in a confidential way of their ailments, much the same as they trust the medical practitioner. A lady consulted a homoeopathic doctor for neuralgia. About a week previously she had had a chill, the immediate effect of which was a cold in the head. With this her appetite had gone off; and in a day or two a pain had set in above her left eye, which after moving about for a little, had become a periodical orbital neuralgia — the pain came on daily at noon, and continued till between 4 and 5 p.m.
She had a prescription for Spigelia 3–five drops every two hours. This quickly gave her relief and in three or four days and completely cured here. She became so enthusiastic about the cure that she started looking round for other sufferers of neuralgia, and handed her prescription over to a friend. She was not aware of the fact that Spigelia will not cure all cases of neuralgia and her friend was doomed to disappointment. I pointed out to her that her friends neuralgia might be quite a different neuralgia altogether, and the symptoms not the same. This proved to be the case. Her friend consulted the same doctor who found the cause of the pain was a discovered liver. Chelidonium cured her.
I MAKE A CAPTURE
Leaving the homoeopathic path for a time, I now take the road that leads to the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey). Entering the shop one morning a gentleman (?) asked for two pennyworth of Epsom Salts. I handed him the packet and he tendered a half-crown in payment. I looked at the coin carefully and found it was a counterfeit. I made no remark, but went in front of the counter and grabbed him by the arm. He made a desperate struggle, but I held on, and handed him over to P.C. 10, of the “A” division. He proved to be one of a gang that the police were after. In a few days I was facing the criminal in the court. In addition to the Epsom Salts he received eighteen months hard labour.
A MORPHIA MANIAC
About 1889 a gentleman consulted a Harley Street physician for asthma, and received a prescription for a hypodermic solution of strychnine and morphia, to be injected when the attacks came on. This gave him temporary relief, due to the action of the strychnine, but he soon found the strychnine producing unpleasant jerking of the limbs, so that was left out of the mixture. In those days there was no Dangerous Drugs Act, and once you had a doctors prescription you could get it repeated as often as you liked. He became a slave to the Morphia, and it held him in its grip.
I have known him have enough in one week to kill half a dozen people. We were very glad when he left the locality. This is an interesting case to the homoeopaths, as we have here a proving of Strychnine. This remedy in doses of I in 10,000 to I in 1,000,000, will cure jerkings and spasm of the limbs. I heard from an attendant at the chambers he vacated that the carpet had to be cleaned. I suppose he must have wasted a good lot of the Morphia, which was perhaps as well for him.
QUEEN VICTORIA
Born, Kensington Palace, May 24th, 1819. Ascended throne, June 20th, 1837, aged eighteen.
By the time this article is in print we shall be celebrating the Jubilee of King George. This reminds me of the years 1887 and 1897, as I was privileged to witness the two great processions on the occasion of the Golden and Diamond Jubilees, –Sixty Years a Queen. On both occasions the weather was perfect, the sun glistening on the breast plates of the Horse Guards, the hundreds of thousands of people in the street, windows and housetops crowded, anxious to get a view of Kings and Princes in the procession.
But the greatest ovation of all was when the Queen herself came in sight, the open carriage drawn by the famous cream ponies, with their magnificent harness, the grooms in scarlet and gold, was a sight never to be forgotten. I think this was almost the last great occasion on which she appeared in Public. She died four years later, 1901. I witnessed the funeral procession, in which Kaiser William was a prominent figure in his white uniform.
