Nine months previous to the date of my seeing him first he had been for six weeks under his club doctor, and received so much benefit that he thought he was cured.
Three years previously he had lost his wife, and his health had never been the same after. He suffered from rheumatic gout at times. Sixteen years before, he had gastric fever very badly, but except for these had never suffered from any illness.
When this patient came to me first I happened to have several medical students connected with St. Thomas’s Hospital watching my work, and as they were acquainted with the case of E. T., and the treatment he had received at St. Thomas’s and its results, they were anxious to see what else could be done for him.
I prescribed China in the IX dilution to be taken three times a day, with the same medicine in the 30th dilution to be taken at bedtime. I also cautioned him about his drinking habits, but, I regret to say, without very much effect.
He returned in a fortnight, and his former hospital acquaintances were able to note a marked change for the better. He had lost all pains after food, and also the pains in his limbs which were less oedematous; the abdomen was less distended; the motions were darker in colour, and a troublesome cough from which he suffered was better also.
Under this same medicine he steadily improved; gradually all the dropsy disappeared out of his legs, and he was able to do his work with comfort. Once, when his face became very troublesome, the pimples being inflamed and red, I gave him Kali carb. 30 for a few days, and with good effect. This was the only alteration I made in the original prescription, and he ceased attending on March 25th.
He continued at work till the following autumn, and might have been at work still, in my opinion, if he could only have kept from alcohol. This, however, he failed to do, and I heard that he died after a very short illness following a severe cold.
4. Tobacco.
CASE IV.-AGGRAVATED DYSPEPSIA
CAUSED BY TOBACCO POISONING,
CURED MAINLY BY Nux vomica.
At Christmas, 1886, an active man of business came up from the country to place himself under my care with symptoms of acute indigestion. He was 46 years of age, short but stout, and had been exceedingly strong; his complexion was dark and rather sallow. There was not much doubt about the cause of his indigestion. He had commenced to smoke at 12, and had continued to use the drug in excess, both chewing and smoking until a year before he came to see me. At that time he had met with an accident, being thrown from his trap, and after this his health failed rapidly. He began to be sick after his breakfast; and tingling in his right thigh; lost flesh; was bilious and depressed. He left off his after-breakfast pipe, and only smoked after his dinner. The sickness then ceased for a time, but soon returned as badly as ever. He consulted several medical men, and received a little help from some of them. In September a lay friend, who is skillful in the use of Homoeopathy, happening to be visiting at his house, took him in hand, and gave him Nux vomica. At that time smoking was an impossibility; he vomited as soon as he attempted to smoke; his sickness was extreme; he could not walk along the street without vomiting. Under Nux vomica he improved in a surprising manner, and soon regained appetite and digestion. In a week he felt so well that he thought he might try a pipe again. Again the sickness came on as violently as before, and this time, though the Nux helped him, it did not restore him so completely as at first. Now his sensitiveness to tobacco was so great that he could not bear to be in a room where anyone was smoking.
When he came under my care, Nux was again the chief agent in his restoration. Calcarea carb. was very efficient in correcting the acidity which was one of his symptoms, and Iodide of Arsenic also did him great good, but Nux again practically cured him. He was able, when I heard from him last, to eat any kind of food; he attended to his business, and was steadily gaming weight. Of course, all this time he abstained from tobacco.
Besides the remedies used in this case, Ipecac. is also a useful remedy in tobacco dyspepsia, relieving the sickness greatly.
CASE V.-INDIGESTION WITH INDURATED
LIVER; ALCOHOLIC HISTORY.
A city gentleman, about 50, came to me in the summer of 1895, complaining of a pain in his left flank and round the body, giddiness, flatulence, and great depression of spirits. Eight years before he had stone in the bladder. For the last two or three years he had suffered from liver symptoms, and since then he had been very chilly, whereas previously he never felt the cold. He had eczema severely, but he found out that it was only when he took fruit. The giddiness occurred when he turned his head. This had troubled him at times since the previous winter, when he had several severe attacks, the first one occurring in a train.
His tongue was dirty. Good appetite except for breakfast. His appetite was better than his digestion. Formerly he had been in the habit of drinking too much beer, but recently he had taken none, though he had not given up alcohol altogether. He had a sinking sensation at the epigastrium before lunch. Had a pain in left flank and all round the abdomen when he moved. The bowels used to be constipated, but since he had taken Carbo veg. on his own account that had been remedied, and he had discarded the use of Hunyadi Janos water, on which he had depended before. He had a pain in the soft part of the loins going round to the front on both sides. The fingers were shrivelled as in cholera patients; and after washing there was a peculiar odour from the tips, lasting a long time.
On examination I found his liver was considerably enlarged, and very hard and tender. There was a venous zigzag along the attachment of the diaphragm. The indication for Bryonia, especially the marked aggravation from movement, was sufficiently clear, and he received that medicine in the 30th.
Sixteen days later he reported that the pain gradually disappeared, also the deadness of the fingers; he was free from headache, but had slept badly on account of irritation at the rectum.
R Sul. 30 ter die. Verbascum Ointment.
Three weeks later he reported himself much better. Irritation gone. Very little indigestion. The liver was softer, though the spleen dullness was increased. He was suffering from a cold, for which Cepa 30 was given with relief, and then he had Nat. mur. 30. Calcarea c. and Psorinum 30 were given later, and he lost all his distressing symptoms, though his weight remained much below his normal.
CASE VI.-TOBACCO AND WHISKY
DYSPEPSIA -Lycopodium.
Here is a somewhat similar case of more recent date. J. M., 35, wrote to me from the North of Scotland in May, 1890, complaining of indigestion which had troubled him for four years, before which time he had been exceptionally strong.
The chief symptoms he complained of were : A sweetish taste in the mouth; tongue thickly coated, white in the morning and yellow in the evening; hot, burning risings in the throat, which was inflamed at the right side sometimes; white sediment in the urine after standing. Besides these, he had other related symptoms; he was unable to think at times, could not concentrate his thoughts on any matter he had to do, and at those times he had a feeling as if the blood were running cold in his head; he was either very drowsy or sleepy, or else very cross, and his sleep was unrefreshing. He was always chilly, always catching cold, and obliged to wear very heavy clothing. He was a heavy smoker, and also took whisky. These I stopped, and also forbid all kinds of stimulating food and drinks. The medicine I prescribed was Nux vomica in a high attenuation.
In a month he wrote that he was still troubled a good deal with the sour risings, the condition of the mouth, and the white sediment in the urine. It was evident the Nux was not a sufficiently deeply-acting remedy to reach his complaint; though for the purpose of antidoting the effect of his bad habits and of preparing the way for the constitutional remedy it was the natural one to think of first. The next medicine on the list of similars was Lycopodium, the leading indications being-acid risings, sore throat, worse on right side, white sediment in urine (though with Lycopodium it is more characteristically red), excessive chilliness, mental confusion. I sent him three powders of the medicine in the same attenuation, with directions to take one at bedtime, on the following morning, and one again at bedtime. The medicine was now allowed to act without further repetition.
The change wrought by these three doses may be estimated by the man’s own words. Writing a month later, he said : “I have felt much better with the last medicine than the first. The tongue is less white, sometimes the coat has cleaned right off, though it has come on again. I feel much stronger now and quite warm.” No more medicine was given or required. The increase in the bodily heat is a sure sign of regained vitality.
