I told him to take only three meals a day, at 8.30, I, and 6.30. He was never to eat as much as he could; he was to take no tea nor stimulants of any kind, but to drink, for breakfast, milk with boiling water, take only a very light meal in the middle of the day, of beef or mutton, vegetables (excluding potatoes), and some milk pudding; a similar meal was to be taken at 6.30, and nothing after or between. For breakfast I allowed him bacon with stale bread, toast, or biscuit. After the last meal he was not to study, but to read light things, and take a two miles’ walk before going to bed.
Then I cut down his sleeping hours. He had been sleeping too much, from about 10.30 to 7.30. I ordered him to be in bed at 10.45, and to rise at 6.45, take a cold sponge bath, and work before breakfast.
Under this regimen he made considerable improvement, but the chief features of his indigestion remained unchanged.
Nux vomica gave him a great deal of help, and Nux moschata did something towards relieving the drowsiness. Acid. phos. IX, five drops in water for a beverage, to be drunk at lunch and dinner, also proved helpful. Calcarea c. and Pulsatilla relieved the acidity, and finally Natrum muriaticum completed the cure, relieving constipation as well as the other remaining symptoms of indigestion.
He was altogether under treatment about ten months. At the end of this time he was able to work many hours a day without feeling any drowsiness. He could eat eggs, rice, and other articles without inconvenience; and he was able to make a good appearance in a scholarship examination.
I have found Nat. mur. of immense service in similar cases. China, Ignatia, Platina, Oxalic acid, and Sulphur have also helped much.
12. Indigestion and Chlorosis.
Anaemia, green-sickness, or chlorosis is attended with indigestion as one of its main symptoms. CASE XV.-INDIGESTION OF CHLOROSIS, CURED BY Petroleum.
Not long ago I was asked to see the maid of a patient of mine. She was pale and bloodless to an intense degree, had no appetite, loathed meat, and could hardly be persuaded to swallow solid food of any kind. It gave her pain and made her sick. She had great breathlessness on exertion, especially on going upstairs, of which she had much to do in the course of the day. I put her on milk diet, and allowed her nothing else. At first she was only able to take this diluted with boiling water. This effected some improvement. I then gave her as a medicine Petroleum, and the benefit was soon manifest. The sickness left her; she was able to take other food besides milk, and with appetite; her colour came back, and the catamenia, which had completely stopped, returned. She was able to do her work with much less difficulty, for she did not give up for a single day. Here is a similar case :–
CASE XVI.-DYSPEPSIA OF ANAEMIA
SIMULATING ULCERATION OF THE
STOMACH, CURED BY Argent. nit.
Alice C., consulted me at the Homoeopathic Hospital. She complained of severe pain after eating. It had been worse the last three weeks. She had the same pain in previous winter. The pain was in the pit of the stomach, which was very tender. It came on an hour after food. She grew sick, but did not vomit. She was thirsty and had no appetite. The tongue was clean; bowels regular. She had diarrhoea.
The pulse was frequent; she was very breathless; was pale, and had all the symptoms of anaemia.
I gave her Argentum nitricum thrice daily, and all the indigestion symptoms disappeared. She told me that when she had missed taking the medicine at proper times, she had return of the pain.
In this case there was more pain and less sickness and absence of appetite than in the one cured by Petroleum. Also the anaemia was less intense.
13. Drug Dyspepsia.
When dyspepsia is the result of frequent drugging, the first thing to do is to stop everything in the shape of drugs, and put the patient on strict rules of diet. He should not be closely restricted to articles of diet, but should be very particular about the time of feeding, giving the stomach proper intervals of rest. He must beware of taking too little food. Dyspeptics of this kind are very apt to leave off by degrees one article of diet after another which they have found disagrees with them (and everything disagrees), till they have hardly anything left that they can eat. They must be encouraged to be a little daring, and as everything will give them pain at first, to eat everything except the most indigestible articles. In this way the stomach will become accustomed much more to proper meals. When this treatment has been pursued for some time, then Homoeopathy will be able to step in and help the patient. In these cases there is no very definite set of symptoms, and therefore the Materia Medica must be consulted to discern which drug is likeliest in its effect to the condition of the patient.
14. Miscellaneous Kinds.
Among the unclassed kinds of dyspepsia I will mention next the case of a young lady who was never well in London, and never ill out of it.
CASE XVII.-LONDON DYSPEPSIA-Abies nigra.
This patient had been under me some years before for a sharp attack of inflammation of the bowels, recovery from which was greatly retarded by an arsenical wall-paper with which her bedroom was papered.
Now, whenever she is in London she has violent attacks of indigestion, and also has constipation. The pain she suffers is in the pit of the stomach and right side. It is of a cramping, tearing nature, and is much worse when the bowels are relieved. She has great chilliness. She cannot eat meat or any solid food, and is obliged to restrict herself to diet of milk with boiling water (in place of tea or coffee), revalenta, figs stewed in milk, and biscuits in place of bread. I found some medicines helped her a little, especially Abies nigra, which relieved the pain, the chilliness, and the constipation, and seemed at one time as if it was going to cure her. But the constipation returned, though not the dyspeptic symptoms in their old intensity. However, nothing cured her till she went into the country, and within a week of her leaving she was able to eat anything she liked, and the bowels gave no trouble at all.
I have known the reverse of this happen-people who are healthy in London and yet suffer all kinds of discomfort when living at home in the midst of a pine-forest.
CASE XVIII.-DYSPEPSIA OF SIX
YEARS’ STANDING, CURED BY
Abies.
A barrister consulted me in the autumn of 1886 about an indigestion from which he had suffered for six years. He was temperate, and there was no clear cause for his trouble. His symptoms were oppression, feeling as if something stuck in the pit of his stomach, flatulence, tendency to constipation, depression, great chilliness, difficulty in concentrating his thoughts; he felt worse when he ate a good deal. His pulse was 84, soft. Before his illness came on he had had exceedingly good health. The symptoms all pointed to one medicine.
-Abies nigra. I gave this, and the one prescription practically cured him. When he returned, though his symptoms had not all gone, he was practically a different creature. The pain at the stomach pit had almost disappeared. He was no longer chilly. He was able to work better. His bowels were open. I repeated his medicine, and that completed the cure.
15. Constitutional Indigestion.
When indigestion is one of the symptoms of a morbid constitutional state-whether gout or rheumatism, or one of those designated by Hahnemann psora and sycosis-the treatment will have to be adapted to the constitution, and not directed to the stomach alone or chiefly, as when that organ is primarily at fault.
The remedies most useful in dyspepsia of gout are, Sulphur, Carbo vegetabilis, and Lycopodium. Patients who have loss of appetite every spring and autumn, and find they cannot digest eggs as they can at other times, who suffer from drowsiness, heaviness on waking, unpleasant taste in the mouth, and possibly constipation, will be greatly benefited by a few doses of Sulphur. Others who have flatulence with pains in the chest, are chilly, and yet desire air; bowels open or loose, require Carbo veg. Lycopodium is suited for those who have flatulence in the bowels, with constipation, and urine giving a red deposit.
I will now relate two cases in point.
CASE XIX.–A CHRONIC CONSTITUTIONAL
CASE WITH DILATED STOMACH; RECURRENT FISTULA,
CURED WITH Sulphur.
A year or two back an officer in the army, who had seen a good deal of service abroad, came to consult me about his digestion. He was 45 years of age, and though a man of large frame, was wasted to a degree. He brought with him a photograph taken before the illness commenced, and it was difficult to recognise any resemblance between it and the patient in his then condition.
His history in brief was as follows : For ten years he had indigestion with constipation and piles. He had lost much flesh, especially in the last year. In India he had fever and had taken much quinine. Lately he had taken much quack medicine, principally for opening the bowels.
