I. Improper Food.
CASE I. CONVULSIONS FROM EATING INDIGESTIBLE FOOD, CURED BY Nux vomica.
SOME years ago I was called in a great hurry to see a girl, about eight years old, in convulsions. The child was completely unconscious, was struggling violently, the eyes were distorted, and the face dark. It was the beginning of the fruit season, and I discovered that she had eaten some foreign plums an hour or so before the attack came on. There was scarcely any remission in the convulsions; she went out of one into another. I mixed a few drops of Nux vomica in water, and put a little of it between her teeth every two or three minutes. After a few doses she was quieter, and at last was able to swallow the medicine. I stayed with her for about an hour, by which time the convulsions had entirely ceased, and they did not return. She passed a quantity of the indigestible fruit by the bowels, and the next day was quite well.
Nux vomica is the most frequently called-for remedy in cases of acute indigestion from improper food. But if the food is of a rich or fat kind, as fat pork, Pulsatilla must be given.
The dieting in these cases is a simple affair. No food of any kind should be given until the attack is over. If there is thirst, water or toast-water may be given, as much as is desired.
When habitual disregard of the stomach’s requirements has set up a chronic indigestion, the same remedies will be demanded according to their symptoms. Consult also in the MATERIA MEDICA, Arsen., Hydrast., Ac. carbol., Kali bichrom., and the chapter on DIET.
2. Irregularities of Diet.
CASE II. -EXTREME DYSPEPSIA
WITH MENTAL SYMPTOMS FROM
IRREGULARITIES OF DIET, etc.
-Sulphur, Lycopodium, and
Nux vomica.
In November, 1890, I was written to from the country by a young lady, who complained of inability to take any kind of food, more especially meat, without the most intense suffering, bodily and mental. From her description of her case I gathered that she might be helped by treatment, and asked her to come to town to see me, which she did, accompanied by a friend. She was extremely thin, somewhat anaemic, with the ruddy complexion on a pale skin that is found in many cases of anaemia. She looked greatly depressed, and was, in fact, in very low spirits; very irritable, and liked to be alone.
Up to the previous June she had been in excellent health. In that month she had visited a sister who was ill, and helped to nurse her. This entailed much worry, and she was subjected to great irregularity in the times of taking meals. In addition to this, she was frequently exposed to cold, going out in thin shoes and getting her feet wet when heated.
The first symptoms which ensued were-continual and almost unbearable pains in the back, severe headaches, loss of appetite, unpleasant taste in the mouth, and a great distaste for meat. She had much thirst, and the bowels were constipated. At last she could not take the smallest piece of anything without great pain, and she became dreadfully low-spirited and cried much. She had a “queer feeling in her head as if she could not think.” She took medical advice, but did not improve. In August her friends became so much alarmed about her condition, both mental and bodily, that they induced her to go away for a change to the seaside. There things got worse rather than better. She forced herself to eat in spite of the intense pain and general discomfort the food caused; she had constant nausea, especially in the morning, and either had diarrhoea or was constipated. Returning home, she tried starving herself, taking only liquid foods and not much of them, and she found that the less she took of anything the better she felt, though she became very weak and felt dreadfully exhausted at times.
Things went on very much in this way till she consulted me in November. Her condition at that time was as follows :-
She was extremely thin and weak. Though quite young, her hair was greyish, and had been so for three months. Her face burned frequently, and more especially after food. Her tongue was white; she had thick white phlegm in the throat, which felt sore and rough in the evening.
The especial dyspeptic symptoms were the following: A craving for food and a sense of weight felt in the lowest part of the abdomen, and made worse by eating. Sinking, empty feeling all day. Flatulence both of stomach and bowels. Vomits food at times. Sour eructations at times, and sometimes she hawks or coughs up white or yellow phlegm. Rumbling in the bowels, distension after food, particularly after breakfast. Bowels always constipated; motions dark, accompanied with pain; urine has been very thick and red, with sediment at times.
There was aching in chest in the morning on waking. Pulse slow and soft. Continual and almost unbearable pain in the back. Aching in limbs from exertion. Feet very cold; hands and feet used formerly to perspire much, but have not done so for the last three or four months. Sleep poor, wakes between 3 and 4 a.m. She is very chilly, and is better when warm. She received Sulphur as a medicine, and was told that, in spite of the suffering it gave her, she must persevere in taking food. She was to have scalded milk (that is, cold milk into which an equal quantity of boiling water has been poured) in place of tea and coffee. Breakfast at 8, of porridge, raw egg or bacon. At I o’clock, beef-tea, milk pudding, no vegetables. At 5, toast with scalded milk. At 8.30, bread and milk.
In a fortnight she reported herself better in some respects. The pain in the back was less severe. She had not vomited, though the nausea continued. She complained of a sensation as if the food rose up into the throat and stuck there. There was less flatulence. The urine was clearer. The bowels were still confined, though she had an action each day. She felt the intense cold of the weather very much. She still slept badly. Eggs disagreed with her.
The next prescription was Lycopodium; and in the way of diet I ordered Nichol’s “Food of Health” (a preparation of wheat) in place of oatmeal porridge. The Lycopodium seemed to aggravate her symptoms; she felt less well; the constipation became worse; she had a worrying headache in forehead and left temple; thick jelly-like and greenish or yellow phlegm from upper part of throat came after eating. The Lycopodium was now replaced by Nux vomica, and this made a speedy change for the better. In a week the pains in the body and back were much better; the headaches had gone; the constipation was better; she could eat eggs without any discomfort; and her spirits were very much better. Though still waking early in the morning, she was practically quite well in body and mind by the end of January. I forgot to mention, as showing the alarming state she was in, that the friend who came with her when she visited me first, asked me privately, after the interview, if I did not think the patient was going out of her mind. My reply was that the mental condition was secondary to the bodily disease, and would become all right when the latter was remedied.
This was a case in which the condition had gone so far that mere reform in diet was not sufficient to restore the patient; the additional help of the gentle powers of homoeopathic medicines was needed for the cure.
3. Alcohol.
The value of Nux vomica in dissipating the effects of a too free indulgence in the pleasures of the table is too well known to need illustrating. The splitting headache, dirty tongue and absence of appetite, experienced the following morning, send the delinquent who has once tried it to the Nux vomica bottle ever after. Older sinners, with tremulous, white-coated tongue, vomiting in the morning, pale face, and no appetite, will find some relief from Antimonium tart., and if they can be persuaded to give up their tippling habits, they may recover and preserve a measure of the strength they have squandered. And even when it has come to a case of “hob-nail” liver and dropsy, hope must not be abandoned, as the following case will show :-
CASE III.-CHRONIC ALCOHOLISM;
CIRRHOSIS OF THE LIVER;
DROPSY; INDIGESTION; GREAT
AMELIORATION-China, Kali carb.
On the 11th of December, 1886, there came to my clinique at the Homoeopathic Hospital a man, E. T., aged 45, an inspector on the railway by occupation. He was a tall, large man, having his face covered with the red spots characteristic of spirit drinkers. He had recently been discharged from St. Thomas’s Hospital as incurable, having been in there thirteen weeks, during which period he was tapped four times for dropsy. Ever since he was tapped the third time he had suffered from pain about the navel shortly after anything he had eaten or drunk.
In addition to this, he complained of swelling of the limbs and body, coldness of the hands, pain in the bowels, the motion being light, and bad sleep. The tongue was clean, the appetite good, in spite of the pain caused by eating. There was much dropsy of the legs and body, the liver was hard and small, and its sharp edge could be distinctly felt beneath the ribs. He had been a great drinker, his favourite drink being gin and water, cold. When he left St. Thomas’s Hospital he was not warned about his drinking habits.
