The following symptoms may be referred to this condition; cramp-pain in the right temple in the afternoon; cramp-pain in the forehead, as if between screws; cramplike tension in the temples, as if between screws; compression in the forehead, in paroxysms; sudden and short pressing from without, inward in the vertex; pressure under the right frontal eminence, increasing and decreasing in paroxysms; sudden attack of contusive pain in a small spot of the left parietal bone; dull pressure in the right parietal bone, as of a plug being lodged in it; violent boring in the center of the forehead, decreasing gradually, and finally disappearing.
Let us now leave the subject of hysteria, and consider the farther action of Platina on the healthy body; and, first:
III. THE DISTURBANCES IN THE VEGETATIVE NERVOUS SYSTEM.
Viscid and slimy in the mouth the whole day, especially after a meal, also in the morning, with very bad humor; upper part of the tongue as if burnt, increased by rubbing the teeth over it; scraping sensation in the throat, as if raw, in the evening after lying down, and on the day following, sometimes accompanied with an irritation resulting in short cough; sweet taste on the tip of the tongue; no appetite; she relishes the first mouthfuls, but she is soon replete; she is speedily satisfied at supper owing to great sadness, later she eats; pinching in the umbilical region after a meal, as if diarrhoea would come on; empty eructations in the morning; loud eructations in the morning, and after dinner; sudden gulping up of a bitter sour fluid, inducing cough and a scraping sensation in the throat; nauseous feeling in the region of the stomach; qualmishness in the region of the stomach in the morning; continual nausea, with great faintness, anxiousness, and a trembling sensation through the whole body in the forenoon; desire to vomit, without vomiting, coming and going increasingly accompanied with great qualmishness and uneasiness in the limbs.
Stomach. Pressure in the pit of the stomach, also when touching it; pressure in the pit of the stomach after eating bread and butter, as if he had eaten something that had not been digested; repletion in the stomach and abdomen, as if overloaded, in the morning before breakfast, with a good deal of empty eructation; distension of the pit of the stomach and the stomach itself, with a
scratching and tearing sensation in the stomach; drawing pain, with pressure under the pit of the stomach, as if occasioned by a strain; contractive pain around the pit of the stomach, as if she had laced herself too tightly, with a suffocative sensation; painful sensation around the pit of the stomach, as if she had laced herself too tightly, with sensation as if it would go off by eating; oppression around the pit of the stomach, independent of breathing; pinching in the region of the scrobiculus cordis, and shortly after sensation as if pressing into the hypogastrium, as if flatulence were crowding down; the sensation went off when a desire for emission of flatulence made its appearance, which, however, took place with great difficulty, the sensation in the groin returned all the time, with distension of the abdomen; creeping in the pit of the stomach, rising into the throat, as if she had swallowed little particles of a feather, vomiturition ensued; itching in the region of the stomach going off by friction; fermenting sensation in the region of the stomach; dull beating as with a hammer in and near the pit of the stomach, in the region of one of the cartilages of the ribs (immediately); violent stitches on the right side near the pit of the stomach; dull shocks in the pit of the stomach; violent dull stitching shocks in the pit of the stomach, slowly going and coming; gnawing and writhing sensation in the stomach early in the monring, with canine hunger and accumulation of water in the mouth, not relieved by eating.
Abdomen. Colic toward evening increased by raising one’s self in the bed, and then ceasing gradually; great distension of the abdomen in the evening; spasmodic distension of the abdomen in several places, causing elevations and depressions on the surface; sensation in the whole of the abdomen, as if she had laced herself too tightly; sensation in the whole abdomen, as of being pinched together from the umbilicus to the back; painful pinching under the left short ribs; jerking pinching in various parts of the abdomen; jerking drawing in the right side of the abdomen, with some arrest of breathing; a darting pain through the abdomen, succeeded by weariness of the knees; drawing through the abdomen, from the chest toward both groins, this drawing terminates in the genital organs, where it causes a pain; a writhing sensation around the umbilicus, with oppressed breathing, and a tremulous sensation through the whole body; very painful stitch deep in the abdomen above the umbilicus, when suddenly raising one’s self after cowering; dull stitches in the middle of the umbilicus; dull shocks in the abdomen, at intervals, below the short ribs; stitches in the abdomen in the morning; fine stinging in the right side of the abdomen, moving in the umbilical region when lying upon the affected side, but increasing when lying on the left side; anxiety in the whole abdomen, succeeded by a pain in the abdomen as after fright, accompanied by a desire as if diarrhoea would come on; slight burning around the umbilicus; sudden burning darting from above downward in the right side of the abdomen; burning sensation in a small spot of the left side of the abdomen, in paroxysms; sudden jerking, resembling a dull shock in a small spot in the abdominal integuments; dull contusive pain below the umbilicus in the integuments; dull shocks, a sort of beating in the region of a true lower rib; motion in the abdomen as of flatulence; rumbling in the epigastrium before breakfast; rubbing sensation in the abdomen, before breakfast, with a pinching anxiety in the intestines; emission of short, interrupted flatus, sometimes difficult; copious emission of flatulence.
Constipation, lasting several days.
Constant tenesmus.
Frequent ineffectual desire for stool, or with scanty stool, which passes only part at a time, with violent straining and painful sensation of weakness and tension in the abdominal muscles.
Difficult stool, with cutting, burning, and protrusion of the varices.
Stool hard, as if burned, with slight tenesmus before and after it.
Scanty, tenacious stool, cohering like clay, with long pressing and straining of the abdominal muscles.
Papescent stool in the morning, half digested and somewhat bloody; afterward, increased tension in the left hypochondrium and loins.
Papescent stool in the evening, with ascarides.
Tenesmus, with evacuation of a piece of tape-worm.
Violent, noisy evacuation after dinner, first thin, then solid, expelled in fragments almost pulverulent, with great straining; after the expulsion he feels a shaking and shuddering, especially in the upper part of the body, and after rising from stool he feels aslight pain and weakness about the umbilicus; considerable tenesmus, even when the stool is not hard, and after every stool a violent stitch in the anus, with subsequent cramp-like contraction of the nates, extending toward the small of the back.
Shuddering after stool and urination.
Much discharge of blood from the anus.
Tingling tenesmus in the anus, as if diarrhoea would set in, every evening before going to sleep, at the same hour each day.
Burning in the rectum during stool, and, afterward, violent itching.
Violent, dull stitches in front part of the rectum, so that she could cry out.
Urine pale yellow in the morning, clear as water in the afternoon.
Very red urine, with white clouds.
Urine becomes turbid, and leaves a red stain on the sides of the vessel.
If we cast a glance over all these symptoms, we find here torpor of the intestinal canal distinctly pronounced. The flatulent colic, which is clearly depicted in the symptoms, depends, here, on a paralytic weakness of the whole intestinal tract. The peristaltic action is diminished; hence an inordinate development or retention of intestinal gas, and manifold digestive disorders, as consequences. Eructations, nausea, anorexia, partial or complete, oppression at the stomach, fullness, distension of the stomach and abdomen, distension of an isolated part of the abdomen and drawing in of the rest, cutting, gnawing, wrenching, gurgling, finally, discharge of flatus, sometimes very troublesome; constipation, very dry or papescent stools, containing half-digested matter, all these phenomena furnish clear evidence of the torpidity of the muscular fiber, or, rather, of the diminished activity of the intestinal motor nerves. Homoeopathists are acquainted with several remedies which develop in a high degree the signs of flatulence and its attendant difficulties. I mention only for example Colocynth, which is sure to occur to the mind of every homoeopathist when flatulence is mentioned. But the flatulence of Colocynth depends rather on an abnormal composition of the gastric juices, and a vicious bilious secretion; hence the bitter taste, the green vomiting, the abdominal pain after anger, the altered color of the stools. The Platina symptoms, on the other hand, indicate by no means an altered composition of the fluids necessary to digestion; and nothing is left to which to attribute the flatus and other abnormal symptoms of the intestinal canal, save a diminished activity of the intestinal muscular fiber.
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'.