ALL homoeopathic physicians learn a great deal about suppression in the course of long practice; they cannot help it, if they would, in this day of great wear and tear, hurry and worry, strong drugging, injection treatment. When the effects show viciously in little children the spectacle is truly pathetic, even tragic.
This short paper aims to report three desperate acute cases and two chronic once in which Zinc unlocked closed door and set a child upon the path to health.
CASE I.-
This was reported once to the I.H.A. It is referred to again because it belongs in this Zinc group. During up to die with double pneumonia and suspected empyema.
He had been ill four or five days, had been given, as I recall if, acetanilid, strychnia and Browns mixture for the cough; as vitality waned, the dosage of these drugs was triple. Aspiration of the chest had been considered, but not done, on account of the chest had condition of the patient Homoeopathy was tried as a last resort.
After ordering an interval of several hours without medicine, I went at night to sit by thee bedside and watch for symptoms, Suppression had been so violent that nothing could be observed but deep coma, irregular pulse and respiration, great pallor with bluish tint about eyes and mouth. He was entirely limp and barely alive. Finally I noticed a few fine muscular twitchings. After nearly four hours the eyelids and the high, shrill cry came, “Rub my feet”. The mother complied, telling me that the child had asked for this before he went into coma and had been soothed by the rubbing.
Another long silence was interrupted by the same cry, a little stronger. “Rub my feet, quick. Rub my hands.” Here was only one symptom but in the “Strange. rare and peculiar” class always welcomed by the homoeopathic prescriber. Taken along with the evident deep suppression, it was sufficient. A dose of Zinc 10m. brought that boy back to consciousness within an hour, caused him to announce of his own accord that the pain in his chest was better now and allowed the doctor to go home in the early morning sure of victory. No other medicine was needed; the dose was repeated once in the next ten days and within two weeks the boy was dressed, playing on the floor.
CASE 11.-
During my absence last Christmas, a girl of eight had an attack of grippe. A local doctor was called who prescribed a codeine mixture for the cough. Next day he pronounced it pneumonia, took the child to the local hospital, started oxygen and a heart tonic. On my return two day latter the mother begged me to do something, the patient was desperately ill, was given oxygen all the time and had a blood transfusion that morning.
The child had been my patient since two years old and family history plus her own health history was anything but good. I called up the doctor, stating my position as as family physician and asking what he thought of her, hoping he would offer to withdraw. He did not do so. I told him the mothers request of me and proposed that he allow me to do the drug prescribing and he keep on with adjuvant treatment. He balked at stopping the codeine mixture because she was so weak, he would not like to have her cough hard, but finally he consented provided I would tell him what I was giving.
So I wrote it on the hospital chart, “Zinc one thousandth potency,” and wandered what he thought of it. The child was semiconscious, markedly cyanotic, moaning with every breath, chest loaded with coarse rales, pulse thready, irritable, restless, oversensitive to noise, voice high pitched and weak. The medicine was given in midforenoon. That evening showed some general improvement; next morning she was bright, colour fair moaning stopped, resting quietly. Next day the doctor charted a normal temperature and clear chest. In two days she was taken home, made a very rapid recovery, needed no more medicine.
The doctor did not communicate with me; never saw him; he had made no comment to the parents, so probably he thinks his treatment triumphed in spite of mine. What is the use of trying to disillusion him ?.
CASE 111.-
Late one evening this spring a frantic call came from a father who had heard of the last case. This time it was a four- weeks-old baby given up to die of pneumonia by the doctor in charge. It had been a breech presentation at birth with deep cyanosis and a long time before respiration was established. In fact the child had cried only twice in the four weeks of its life, seeming weak but not ill; a breast-fed baby.
It had been taken to a hospital in the middle o that day, the fourth day o illness which began with only sniffles. This child, too had been given something to stop the cough which it did promptly and effectively. Oxygen was used and some sort of heart stimulant. Transfusion had been advised but refused by the father.
I found this tiny mite of humanity lying quite limp, eyes closed, lips parted, blue all over, skin rather cool, respiration gasping for five or six breaths then no respiration or three- quarters of a minute, then five or six more gasps and the same interval; pulse very thready during the attempts at respiration and gone in the interval between; ability to swallow gone.
I did not wonder that the doctor in charge had felt hopeless. However, I A watched closely for a time, could not find more symptoms except slight twitching of facial muscles and a chest just loaded with mucus.
So I put a dose of Zinc I. on the little tongue, with a few drops of water to moisten it, and sat, watch in hand, counting the respiration and intervals. In twenty minutes respirations were nine or ten before the interval; in another twenty minutes they were twelve or fourteen, the interval a little shorter and pulse correspondingly more perceptible. This went on until she breathed one thirty-three time before stopping and colour was decidedly better. She opened her eyes one but they closed again.
Then suddenly she dropped back to the first state. A second dose of Zinc I. produced slow improvement which did not reach half way to the highest point before the sudden drop. A third dose did very little. It was the we small hours and my little patient was growing weaker. I had questioned the mother about symptoms which preceded the suppression of thee cough and secured a fair picture of Kali bi. This was given in the I. a single dose. Again reaction was slow but quite perceptible for half an hour, again the sudden dropping back.
Repetition did not do much but the child was holding her own, not improving. At 5 a.m. I left. not knowing what else to do and believing vitality was low for recovery. The same intervals in respiration over and over, the same cyanosis and utter lumpiness. Late in that forenoon I received the message that the baby was much better. Hurrying back, I found that she began to move arms and legs and open eyes about 9.30. and that she had cried twice and coughed once.
Colour had become nearly normal and respiration had been continuous for about an hour and a half. When I arrived, however, she was blue again and had slipped back into the old condition though not so bad. The hospital people would not co-operate at all so she was taken home; almost died on arrival but revived with oxygen and Kali bic.
To make a long story short, she began next day vomiting thick mucus, quantities of it, and passed more in her greenish stools. The chest cleared nicely during the next three days and temperature dropped. She continued with spells of cyanosis and irregular respiration until I gave one dose of Lachesis 1m., no more after that.
Fever rose again once and was gone when both ears began to discharge.
Four weeks after this desperate illness, she had gained a pound and a half.
Another crisis of those first days was the sudden vanishing of the mothers milk from anxiety long nursing. A. dose of Caust. set this right within t few hours.
At four months she had doubles her birth weight. Now for chronic conditions:.
CASE 1V.-
In infancy a boy had a bad eczema on the scalp and some on the face.
This was suppressed over and over during the first two years of life by a skin specialist who bound up the head with salves and ointments. Whenever the eruption appeared again after an interval, more treatment was given until there was no return.
I saw this boy first at 5 years. He was then pale with waxy pallor, puffy under the eyes, easily tired, not equal to one half the play other boys his age could stand, and very nervous. He was in his first year at public school and could not stand it; was in school half a day, then must be put to bed at least two hours, sometimes four. After playing for two hours would throw himself down to rest.
He had naturally a quiet, sweet disposition but when tired was cross and very restless, complaining frequently of twitching in his legs aching legs and head; could not get to sleep on account of fidgety legs. He was hungry frequently but seemed ill nourished. He had high fever at times without apparent cause or any but these nervous symptoms. If he had a could or any acute attack, he was long recovering.
