(NATRUM MURIATICUM)
OBS. XIX. –
Mrs. B., aet. 53. For four or five weeks cold shakes many times a day and night, beginning in the shoulders like cold creeps, and going down the back and then all over; cold creeps in legs in bed at night; head cold and sweaty; nauseous taste in mouth; great sleeplessness these four or five weeks, viz. wakes at 2 a.m., and is unable to get off to sleep again.
She is very tearful; merely describing her symptoms brings tears into her eyes.
Rx. Nat, mur. 6 trit. Six grains in water every four hours.
On my calling a few days later to see how she was progressing, I got the following report:- “The cold creeps and shakes left off after the first powder.” (she speaks of the powders subsequently as “those powders that made me warm”.) Feels altogether warmer now, not like the same, and sleeps well. She never had ague.
Two months after this I had occasion to see her daughter, when patient (the mother) said, “Those powders did me so much good that I have been better than I had been for years”.
Subsequent to the cure I thought I should like to know whether patient was in the habit of partaking of salt with her food; and on enquiring was much astonished to hear the following statement from her:-.
“About a year ago I was recommended by a friend to take a good deal of salt, as she thought it would be good for me, and since then I have taken about one-and-a-half teaspoonful a day often spread on bread”.
Query: Was this a case of chronic salt poisoning antidoted by its own dynamite?.
This is a most interesting observation indeed. Here we have a lady who in addition to partaking of salt in the ordinary way with her food, and in her food, had actually partaken of one-and- a-half teaspoonful of salt daily for a twelve month, and was even still doing so during the cure, and yet the very first powder of triturated salt wrought such a marked change.
The difference in the look of the patient was also remarkable: at my first visit she came to me in her drawing room with a shawl over her shoulders, and looking evidently cold; at my second visit only a few days later she wore no shawl, and was quite free from any chilly feeling.
This lady suffered for years from Angina pectoris (true breast- pang), and had been given up by members of both schools to the brandy bottle; but under my treatment (extending over two years) she made a complete recovery, having been now quite well of it these 18 months.
OBS. XX. –
Mrs. W., aet. 60. Came under treatment for coldness of the legs from the knees to the feet, for three months; she cannot keep them warm in any manner; at night she wraps them up in flannel, and encases them also by day, but still they are cold; the coldness is subjective but not objective; she suffers also very much from sleeplessness and great nervous irritability.
Rx. Nat. mur. 6 trit.
At the next visit a few weeks afterwards she reported that she had been promptly cured by her old insomnia, and also of the coldness of the legs, but the legs were not as she would like, the coldness having given place to a burning feeling, especially in the veins of the part, which now swell. She no longer wraps up or encases her legs, but on the contrary they are almost too warm.
To continue the medicine.
The cure was permanent. The medicine so improved her nervous state that she still speaks of it as the “powders that soothed her nerves”.
OBS. XXI. –
Constipation, of long standing, in a pale anemic young lady of 23; only one motion in two or three days.
Rx. Nat. mur. 6 trit. Twenty four six-grain powders, one in water forenoon and afternoon.
This one set of the quite cured it; there is now daily stool. Also the menses came on a week late (very unusual), and the usual painfulness was absent; they were also not so excessive as usual.
OBS. XXII. –
A gentlemen, aet. 60, with oedema of the praeputium for some weeks; severe intertrigo between thighs and scrotum, with a good deal of acrid discharge, and considerable excoriation; this condition has existed for many months, notwithstanding daily ablutions often several times repeated. Patient is arthritic and very melancholy and despondent.
His skin is very dusky and unhealthy looking.
Rx. Nat. mur. 6 trit. Six grains four times a day.
In a week the oedema and intertrigo were nearly well, and he was in very much better spirits, and at the end of the second week he was well. He continues well, and the skin of his face is lighter in colour, but the colour of that of the trunk remains as before. The change in his mood was quite remarkable.
OBS. XXIII. –
Gentleman of 35. Pain in left side of lower jaw extending to the end tooth of left upper jaw, and up to the left eye, always after food, throbbing wrenching pain, making the tears come into his eyes; the pain he describes as terrible, and it lasts about an hour.
He has been in this condition for three months, which coincides with his leaving Liverpool and coming to reside to Tranmere.
Urine high coloured and thick.
The pain evidently proceeds from a decayed tooth.
He sleeps well after the after-supper pain has gone.
Rx. Nat. mur. 6 trit. Six grains in water three times a day.
In a week he reported: pain much better, it comes on and lasts only five or six minutes, and tears come into his eyes.
to continue the medicine.
The next report was that just as he thought he was cured he caught a slight cold, and the pain came on in all its original violence, when a dentist relieved him of both tooth and pain.
Goes under treatment for haemorrhoids. The fact that the pain returned in all its original violence is only what we should expect under the circumstances, and it militates against the case as one of permanent cure, but does not invalidate the evidence of the potent drug action.
OBS. XXIV. –
A gouty gentleman of 70. Until three years ago he was in habit of perspiring freely, but latterly he perspires less and for three years he has always felt chilly and cold.
Urine bloody and thick; he urinates with great difficulty, and uses the catheter at night these two years.
He takes Nat. mur. 6 trit. for three weeks, and reports that after the first day or two he ceased using the bladder; the urine is free from blood and slime, but still thick, but not so red or brick-dusty; he is more costive than usual, and feels considerably warmer.
He begs to go on with the medicine, to which I agree.
He did not consult me again, but when he came to pay his little bill he informed me that he had gradually got quite well of his chilliness, that his urine had become normal, and that he no longer needed to pass the catheter at all.
The urine may possibly have come right of itself, and passing the catheter those two years may have been a mere habit and unnecessary;p but how are we to account for the disappearance of the cold, chilly sensation that had lasted three years?.
OBS. XXV.-
Gentleman of 50, usually enjoying good health, and of splendid physique. Symptoms: For the last six weeks coldness of the abdomen, from the navel downwards, including the genitals; swelling of the abdomen after late dinner, with flatulence; passes a very large quantity of water with a strong odour; it does not contain any sugar; he is cold about the legs, and is restless at night, with cold creeps from navel down the legs; as he sits on the sofa before me, I noticed that he holds both his hands tight over the pubes; and to the enquiry why he does so, he replies that he is so cold about those pars that he holds his hands there to warm them.
The sensation is as if his shirt were wet and cold; when he urinates it seems as if he would never leave off for the dribbling. Fearful thirst of mouth, not of the stomach; bowels regulated; tongue coated, breath foul. Very despondent of himself.
Takes vapor baths regularly. Here the chilliness, profuse urination and thirst seem the prominent symptoms, and as we all know, they are those of Natrum muriaticum.
Rx. Nat. mur. 6 trit. gr. vj. Fiat pulv. Tales xxiv. One in water four times a day.
Eight days later: The coldness a great deal better; does not pass quite so much water, and its smell is less bad; the coldness of legs better a great deal, as also that of the pubic parts; the thirst is also much better, so also the tongue; breath sweet; feels better all over; warmer.
Is anxious to continue the medicine, which is done.
He did not come again, so I wrote to him to enquire how he was doing, and received a reply to the effect that the second lot of powders had finished th cure, except a little thirst, for which he intended coming to see me again, but he never did.
From a mutual acquaintance I learn he continues well.
In this case the amelioration commenced immediately after the powders were taken, and as far as I can see the cure can be attributed to them only.
This, critical reader, is the way I have wandered in my search after truth as it is in nature; from it I am forced against my will to admit the existence of a something in drugs that becomes operative by trituration.
What it is, I do not know; what you call it, I do not care.
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.