By reproducing in this connection my manuscript chapters upon these novel questions, I could more completely set forth the numerous psychical effects of the thirty-four principal kinds of alcoholic beverages upon their six hundred millions of consumers, of tea upon its five hundred millions of consumers, of tobacco upon its two hundred millions of consumers, of coffee upon its one hundred millions of consumers, of betel upon one hundred millions of opium upon one hundred millions of Hindus, of opium upon one hundred millions of Asiatics, of hashish upon several millions of Egyptians and Asiatics, of mate upon fifteen millions of South Americans, of coca upon fifteen millions of South Americans, of arsenic upon thousands of people in Austria and in the United States of America, of the musk-toad-stool upon the Laplanders, of the falezlez upon the negroes; but I think it has been sufficient to note, even incompletely, a few of the psychical effects of wine, tea and coffee to show that men, always and everywhere, have felt the urgent need of having recourse themselves to psychical remedies, since hitherto the physicians have not satisfied this want and have been content, I repeat it, to practice a species of veterinary medicine upon man, treating only his somatic or bodily symptoms.
At the present time the Persians, after a rather severe novitiate, use a drug which seems to procure for them the pleasures of the passion which they prefer. The Egyptians, without a preliminary novitiate, make use of another drug, which seems to procure for them also, in some cases at least, the pleasure, of their favorite passion. These facts were reported long ago in French and German medicinal journals.
The use of these divers psychical drugs is so frequent, the drugs themselves are so numerous, that one could apply the German proverb, The trees prevent your seeing the forest, to those superficial observes who do not see that this psychical treatment is as widely as it is unconsciously used. The soldiers of the Argentine Republic, who prefer tobacco and mate to food, call these two substances, in their incorrect but picturesque language, Los vicios de entretenimiento (vices for entertainment). Might not the same name be applied to the numerous psychical remedies in use among all nations
CERTAIN men, who merely reason and refuse either to observe or experiment, reproach us with violating the freedom of our patients will when we administer psychical remedies to them. But these are the very men who, by absorbing the eleven psychical substances mentioned above, frequently, if not habitually, weaken their judgment, their freedom, their will, and even their morality, since some of these substances (alcoholics, coffee, mate, coca, arsenic, etc.) are aphrodisiacs. We, on the contrary, by means of psychical treatment moderate passionate impulses, develop reason, the sense of duty, the will to accomplish it, and consequently the freedom which every man has, in varying degrees, to resist personal or hereditary tendencies to evil.
After having noted above the dangers and counter-indications of alcohol, Mr. de Parville forgot to make known its advantages and indications. These were set forth by Dr. Bayes at the Homoeopathic Medical Congress held in Manchester, September 9th, 1875. I will now proceed to condense and complete Dr. Bayes’ observations.
The muscular beats of the normal heart represent one-fifth of the total muscular expenditure of the body. Those beats are accelerated by labor, by walking, by ingestion of alcohol.
Let a man at rest, seated or lying down, with, say, sixty heart-beats per minute, drink a glass of strong wine or of brandy, and from fifteen to thirty minutes later the number of his heart-beats will increase to eighty, ninety or a hundred per minute.
In a healthy man at rest, seated or lying down, with, say, sixty heart-beats per minute, drink a glass of strong wine or of brandy, and from fifteen to thirty minutes later the number of his heart-beats will increase to eighty, ninety or a hundred per minute.
In a healthy man at rest you count sixty throbs of the pulse at the wrist per minute. The same man, after one or two hours of marching or working, will have a pulse of eighty, ninety or a hundred per minute.
The muscular expenditure of the heart is, therefore, increased by alcohol as much as by walking. But if alcohol is given to a man immediately before a march of several hours’ duration, these two cases-the alcohol and the march-will be seen to doubly accelerate the beating of the heart, and consequently to double the expenditure of the heart’s muscular force, whence comes a more rapid and noticeable exhaustion of the strength. Hence it is noticed that soldiers who indulge in alcoholic drinks before beginning a march tire easily and rapidly, and sometimes are quite unable to keep up with their more abstemious comrades. The latter, however, who partake of alcoholic beverage only when the march is over, are rid of the feeling of weariness, and made to feel strong again by these drinks taken in small quantities. In these cases alcohol acts as a homoeopathic remedy, according to the law, Likes cure likes.
Upon the one hand, alcohol, administered to a man at rest, increases the number of the heart-beats, and hence the heart expenditure; upon the other hand, alcohol, administered, in smaller doses especially, to a man after a march or after labor, diminishes rapidly the number of the heart-beats, and hence the sum of heart expenditures, and removes the feeling of physical weakness. I will now explain why the feeling of lassitude disappears sooner under the influence of alcohol.
If, after several hours of march, which have caused the pulsations of his heart to increase in number from sixty to one hundred per minute, a man sits or lies down to rest, the muscular expenditure of his limbs will cease immediately; not so the muscular expenditure of the heart, which continues much the same as during the march. It is only little by little that the number of the heart-beats diminishes, falling gradually from 100 to 95, 90, 85, 80, 75, 70,65 and finally 60 per minute. One, two or three hours have elapsed before this gradual moderation is completed, and during that time the muscular expenditure of the heart constitutes at first one-third, then one-fourth, and finally one-fifth of the total muscular expenditure of the body, which is the normal proportion. But if the soldier, immediately after a long march, takes a swallow of alcoholic liquor, it reduces in from fifteen to forty minutes the beating of the heart, whose muscular expenditure, rapidly diminished, soon returns to its normal amount. At the same time and in the same ratio that the number of the heart-beats diminished the respiratory movements also diminish. Hence a double diminution in the expenditure of the muscular power of the soldier, whose rest or sleep then more rapidly restores his general strength. When the acceleration of the heart-beats has been caused, not by labor or marching, but by the intense heat, such as that of the torrid zone, for instance, and when this feverish acceleration prevents sleep, with its restorative influence, alcohol in small quantities, drunk in the evening after sunset, quickly produces balmy sleep. This was noticed by Stanley in Africa, and later by myself in the South of France.
OBSERVATION 1-Stanley has noted that the use of alcoholic beverages is extremely dangerous, indeed, to the Europeans who sojourn in Central Africa. It produces in them mania, liver complaints and sunstroke, even when they are in their tents. But if they drink it in small quantities, in the evening after sunset, the frequency of the heart-beats produced by the intense heat diminishes, and they soon fall into a restful sleep, which permits them to attend to their business on the morrow with undiminished strength and vigor.
OBSERVATION 2.-A Lyons merchant, whose business compelled him to travel during the greatest heat of summer in Languedoc, had noted that the heat prevented his sleeping calmly and restfully. Taught by Stanley’s experience, I advised him to take in the evening, after sunset, a small drink (15 to 30 grammes) of brandy. This always brought about the desired sleep in his case, as well as in that of a friend of his who used the same means.
OBSERVATION 3.-But, as in such cases the proper dose of alcohol may be overstepped and evil result, it seems to me proper to mention some other remedies which have also the property of dissipating fatigue. These are:
1st. According to Dr. Ozanam, the infusion of Hieracium pilosella;
2nd. According to Dr. Moore, a few drops of the tincture of Gelsemium sempervirens;
3rd. According to a botanist, Mr. Boulu, the infusion of the entire plant in bloom of Asperula odorata;
4th. The tincture of Arnica – a few drops in a glass of water.
5th. Aconite, which diminishes the beating of the heart and thus lessens the mechanical expenditure of the heart. After each day’s march a young soldier easily dissipated his fatigue by drinking at one draught a glass of water, into which he had dropped two drops of Aconite-mother tincture. This would be the most comfortable and advantageous, means to adopt, since Aconite cures, and may prevent, the consequences of the chilling which so often occurs after a march.
Jean Pierre Gallavardin (1825 – 1898) was a French orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy to gain international renown. Gallavardin was a Physician at the Homeopathic Hospital in Lyons.
Gallavardin set up a homeopathic Dispensary for the cure of alcoholics, often working in conjunction with priests, and he wrote several books on this subject.
Jean Pierre Gallavardin wrote Psychism and Homeopathy, The Homoeopathic Treatment of Alcoholism, How to Cure Alcoholism the Non-toxic Homoeopathic Way, Repertory of Psychic Medicines with Materia Medica, Plastic Medicine, and articles for The British Journal of Homeopathy, On Phosphoric Paralysis, and he collated the statistics on pneumonia and other cases for the United States Journal of Homeopathy, and he contributed widely to homeopathic publications.
