He says, ” Discharges cease, or are suppressed, and sudden convulsions, come on: here Cuprum will re-establish the discharge, and stop the convulsions.” “Or, inflammations cease suddenly and you wonder what has happened. All at once comes on insanity, delirium, convulsions, blindness metastasis. A perfect change from one part of the body to another.” “The same may occur from a suppressed eruption-discharge-diarrhoea, and it goes to the brain, affects the mind and brings on an insanity; a wild, active, maniacal delirium. Convulsions where a limb will first flex and then extend. In a child you will see the leg all at once shoot out with great violence, then up against the abdomen again with great violence, and then again shoot out. It is hard to find another remedy that has that. (Tabacum) Convulsions with flexion and extension are common to Cuprum.
“Jerking of the eyes: snapping of the lids. Face and lips blue:- purple in convulsions. Paralysis of the tongue.
“Many complaints are ameliorated by cold water. The cough is brought on by inhaling cold air, but stopped by drinking cold water, like Coccus cacti. A wonderful remedy in anaemia.”
One does not know how to stop quoting from Kent! The more one reads in Kent, the more one marvels at his realization of the characteristics of drug action, and his wonderful power of graphic expression. One of our best prescribers carried Kent’s Materia Medica about with him all through the war, and his powers of assimilation must have been great!-judging by his rapidity in spotting the homoeopathic remedy.
For beginners, Nash’s Leaders is probably the better book to start with: it is less bulky, and (for a beginner) less overwhelming. It teaches one to think homoeopathically, and is full of invaluable comparisons between drugs:-but-KENT! Kent once declared, “I have originated nothing. All the teaching is Hahnemann’s.” Certainly the mantle of Hahnemann must have fallen on Kent, with a double portion of his spirit.
Coming down to commonplace recollections and experiences. Patients who come to Hospital complaining of severe cramps- especially in calves-very often have to get either Cuprum or Calcarea. Calcarea cramps are especially worse at night in bed, and on stretching the leg in bed. One remembers a case where in malignant disease-I think of uterus-Cuprum was given for the violent cramps of which the patient complained, and it not only stopped the cramps, but, for a time, ameliorated the disease symptoms.
One remembers a wee boy in hospital, very ill with pneumonia, complicated with diarrhoea and severe cramping pains. Here Cuprum very quickly brought down the temperature and cleared the lung, as well as disposing of the diarrhoea and cramps.
PECULIAR AND DISTINGUISHING SYMPTOMS.
Child has a complete cataleptic spasm, with each paroxysm of whooping-cough.
Cough worse by inhaling cold air: better by drinking cold water.
Cough in children, threatening to suffocate.
In asthma, clutches air with hands, unable to speak or swallow.
Muscles of calf contracted in knots. Spasms and cramps in calves.
Spasms with blue face and thumbs clenched across palms of hands.
Spasms after vexation, or fright.
Child lies on belly, and spasmodically thrusts breech up.
Convulsions with biting.
CUPRUM ACETICUM AND SMALL-POX (Reprinted from The Homoeopathic World)
SIR,-As I visited Gloucester during the late epidemic of small- pox in the Southern half of the city, and took great interest in the methods of treatment pursued there, your readers may like to learn (in the absence of a resident homoeopathic medical man in that city) the impressions left upon the mind of an amateur with some slight knowledge of Hahnemann’s law.
The fatalities under different treatments varied greatly, as the following approximate list will show:
In Isolation Hospital during the 54 per cent. In Isolation first regime under Dr. Brooke 8 ” With Hydropathy, under Mr. Pickering 10 ” With Crimson Cross ointment under Captain Feilden 2 ”
I found during my visits that a great and growing confidence had superseded scepticism in regard to the Crimson Cross ointment, which the above rough gauge of results justifies. Feeling sure that if there were any curative effects in the ointment they must be due to our law, I asked Captain Feilden if he would tell me what the ingredients of his ointment were. He readily complied, and I found that the green paint-like unguent, which was smeared over his patients from head to foot, owed its remedial powers to Acetate of Copper. On learning last Monday from Dr. Hadwen the approximate results given above, it was evident that it was desirable to compare the symptoms of small-pox with the provings of Cuprum acet. The following are the results: SYMPTOMS OF SMALL-POX, FROM DR. PROVINGS OF Cuprum aceticum, FROM H.VON ZIEMSSEN’S Cyclopedia. ALLEN’S Encyclopedia. Fever and disturbance of Skin warm and dry, or covered general system. with sweat. Pulse accelerated. Pulse accelerated: from 120 to 140. Frequency of respiration Respiration accelerated. increased. Dyspnoea. Cramping spasms in chest(?) (Suffocative arrest of breathing. Jahr.) Initial (prodromal) rashes. Query. Languor. Remarkable weakness. Prostration. Vertigo and syncope. Exhaustion. Faintness. Fetor oris. Hoarseness. Spotted redness of the fauces Aphonia. (Speech is either arrested, or entirely annulled. Jahr.) Nausea, gagging, vomiting. Jaundice, with vomiting and eructations. Nausea and vomiting. Anorexia. Loss of appetite. Aversion to food. Constipation, occasional Diarrhoea, occasional constipation. diarrhoea. Severe headache. Agonizing headache. Face red and bloated: Face very red and swollen, puffy, violent pulsation in red, hot. carotids. Delirium, sleeplessness, Delirium. Sopor. Coma. disquiet. Pain in the back (less Pain in the loins and sacrum-at the constant than gastric navel and on the iliac region. symptoms and Headache). Drawing, tearing pains in Cramps in the calves, tetanic spasms the extremities. in large toes, most violent pains in the soles of the feet. Bronchitis less constant. Query. Eruption, almost always Eruption, seemingly of leprous worse upon face and hairy kinds, consisting of spots of scalp. different sizes, the largest white and scaly with moist base, as if something acrimonious had been secreted under the cuticle; eruption more or less over the body, and very much among the hair of the head.
The above symptoms and provings correspond too closely for the similitude to be altogether fortuitous; and the starting success of the Crimson Cross ointment points to its being a fresh illustration of the law, similia similibus curentur. The homoeopathic branch of the profession have lost a great chance by not unanimously declaring the irrelevancy of vaccination to small-pox; it may be that, to make up for this lost chance, in Cuprum aceticum they have a remedy for variola which may rank with Aconite in fever, or with Camphor in the early stages of cholera.
I am, Sir, yours faithfully, A. PHELPS. Edgbaston, September, 11th, 1896.
