In a public letter contained in the report of the Homoeopathic Hospital, and addressed to one of the physicians of this hospital, Dr. McLaughlin, Government Inspector, says: (1 1See “Return to House of Commons.”)
“You are aware that I went to your hospital prepossessed against the homoeopathic system; that you had in me, in your camp, an enemy, rather than a friend, That there may be no misapprehension about the cases I saw in your hospital, I will add that all I saw were true cases of cholera, in the various stages of the diseases; and that I saw several cases which did well under your treatment which I have no hesitation in saying would have sunk under any other.
“In conclusion, I must repeat to you what I have already told you, and what I have told every one with whom I have conversed, that although an allopath by principle, education, and practice, yet, was it the will of Providence to afflict me with cholera, and to deprive me of the power of prescribing for myself, I would rather be in the hands of a homoeopathic than an allopathic prescriber.
“I cannot suppose that anything I have said above can be of value to the homoeopathic system; but, such as it is, you are at full liberty to make what use you please of this letter. “LONDON, February 22, 1855.”
Let it be remembered, as a grand result of statistics hitherto, that in the cholera the homoeopathic treatment saves 91 in 100 cases; allopathy saves never more than 68 in 100 cases.
These are facts, and they are re-assuring facts! The wise will heed them.
V.
The homoeopathic treatment of cholera, as of every disease, requires, in order to the attainment of the greatest success, a strict individualization of cases, and a special modification of the treatment to meet the peculiarities of each case. This can be done only by a skilful and experienced homoeopathic physician; and no general directions for treatment can be published which will give the best possible method for treating each person attacked with cholera. Those, therefore, who are within reach of a physician, should summon him at the earliest moment. The following memoranda are offered for the assistance of such as have no physician at hand.
The subject divides itself into questions of:
1. PROPHYLAXIS, OR PREVENTION OF CHOLERA.
2. TREATMENT OF CHOLERINE, or PRELIMINARY DIARRHOEA.
3. TREATMENT OF CHOLERA PROPER.
1. PROPHYLAXIS. The fundamental principle of the homoeopathic practice of medicine is this: that a sick person is to be treated by the administration of a drug which has been found, by experience or observation, to produce upon healthy persons symptoms very similar to those which the sick person presents.
In accordance with this great principle, it is clear that if the symptoms which a drug produces upon healthy persons are known, it is possible to foresee and to foretell what kinds of sickness that drug will cure.
In this way, long before cholera had invaded Europe on its first westward march, Hahnemann, having become acquainted with the action of these drugs upon the healthy, perceived and announced that Camphor, Veratrum album, and Cuprum metallicum, would be the most efficacious remedies for cholera, and so it proved.
A similar application of the same law induced Hahnemann to recommend one or another of these remedies (according to circumstances), as prophylactics, or preventives of cholera. The great weight of testimony compels us to believe that this use of prophylactic remedies has saved very many who would otherwise have been attacked. Dr. A. Cricca, of Smyrna, in a report dated September 28, 1865, says of those who, under his directions, used the prophylactic remedies: “Out of the very considerable number of persons of all classes and conditions (600 families or about 3,000 individuals) not one (to our knowledge) has been attacked with real cholera. Their slight derangements of stomach have been easily cured by Veratrum album.”
The selection of the prophylactic remedy must, to some extent, be governed by the nature of the epidemic, and therefore the best preventive cannot always be determined until the epidemic has appeared, and its peculiar nature has been ascertained.
Cuprum. But, as a general rule, both in Europe and in this country, Cuprum has been considered the most efficient preventive. A dose of Cuprum metallicum should be taken every third day, on rising in the morning. It was noticed that during the epidemic of 1849, in Paris, workers in brass and copper escaped the disease.
Sulphur. In some epidemics, Sulphur has been the best prophylactic. It will be suitable if the diarrhoea which prevails at the same time as the cholera, and the diarrhoea which precedes many cases of cholera, be of the character hereinafter described, as indicating Sulphur. It should be taken as directed for Cuprum.
2. PRELIMINARY DIARRHOEA. It has been stated that almost every attack of cholera is preceded by a diarrhoea, which may last from six hours to six days, and which, if promptly treated, is almost always easily cured.
During the prevalence of an epidemic of cholera, every diarrhoea, however slight, should be regarded as being, possibly, a preliminary to an attack of cholera, and should at once receive careful attention. At the same time, it is all-important that the patient should not give himself up to fear and panic. Let him use his utmost self-control to keep his mind calm and his faculties clear, so that he may be able to observe his own condition and note its changes. Every thing should be done quietly, and without precipitates haste. Prompt attention to the diarrhoea is advised, not so much because the patient’s condition is already a perilous one, but rather that he may prevent it becoming such.
As soon as diarrhoea occurs, the patient should go to bed and be warmly covered, but not so as to produce perspiration. He should keep the recumbent position as long as diarrhoea continues, using a bed-pan when the bowels move. If thirsty, he may drink cold water, but in moderate quantities. The food should be light, but nutritions, and taken frequently in small quantities. The appropriate remedy should be taken without delay.
If the diarrhoea come on in the night, no matter how slight it may be, the patient should immediately call assistance, or begin to treat it. He must on no account wait until morning, as many do, thereby losing precious time.
The following remedies are likely to be suitable: Sulphur. If the diarrhoea comes on in the night, after midnight, the stools being yellow, pappy, and attended by great urgency, though the urging is often ineffectual; and if, at the same time, there are cramps in the soles of the feet, Sulphur should be taken, a dose every two hours, until relief is experienced. It is a general rule that doses of medicine should not be repeated after the patient has begun to improve, nor so long as improvement continues to progress.
Phosphoric acid. If the evacuations are light colored, liquid, copious, and not attended by pain; if the tongue is covered with a gluey mucus, and there are cramps in the arms, with a general sense of weakness, Phosphoric acid is the remedy. Take as above.
Arsenicum. If the evacuations are frequent, small in quantity, liquid, dark- colored, and quite offensive; attended by sharp pain very low in the abdomen and by burning in the rectum, and followed by great prostration of strength; if, likewise, the patient has great thirst, drinking but little at a time, and is very restless in body and anxious in mind, he should take Arsenicum, as directed for Sulphur.
Croton tigrium. If the evacuations are sudden and very copious, consisting of a large quantity of yellow water, which passes with a rush, and if an evacuation occurs every time the patient drinks, Croton tigrium is the remedy. Take as directed for Sulphur.
Veratrum album. If the diarrhoea is watery, copious, and very painful, and is accompanied by copious vomiting, which is repeated every time the patient drinks, and by coldness and blueness of face and hands, and cold sweat on the forehead, Veratrum album must be taken, and repeated every fifteen minutes until warmth returns and water can be retained on the stomach.
3. CHOLERA. A case may pass gradually from choleraic diarrhoea into real cholera; or a neglected diarrhoea may apparently cease for a time, and then cholera may suddenly supervene; or cholera may come (it rarely does so) without warning.
In the last two cases, symptoms resembling those already described as characterizing COLLAPSE are present. The patient suddenly loses strength, and looks pinched and blue. The skin becomes very cold; the voice husky and deep; the skin of the fingers shrivels. There are intense distress and anguish at the pit of the stomach and burning in the bowels. The patient tosses in agony. There are cramps in the calves, and sometimes nausea and vomiting, with cold sweat; but generally, the evacuations, both up and down, are moderate and infrequent.
Camphor. This is the form of the disease for which Camphor has been proved to be so excellent a remedy.
Dr. Dunham graduated from Columbia University with Honours in 1847. In 1850 he received M.D. degree at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York. While in Dublin, he received a dissecting wound that nearly killed him, but with the aid of homoeopathy he cured himself with Lachesis. He visited various homoeopathic hospitals in Europe and then went to Munster where he stayed with Dr. Boenninghausen and studied the methods of that great master. His works include 'Lectures on Materia Medica' and 'Homoeopathy - Science of Therapeutics'.