Methinks now that some of our allopathic brethren, especially Dr. Dietl (Der Aderleass in der Lungenetzuudung.) of Vienna, have statistically proved not only the absolute uselessness but the positive injuriousness of bleeding in pneumonia, there is little occasion for us to defend, still less to recommended the employment of such a hurtful mode of treatment, when we have real antiphlogistics of undoubted efficacy with which to combat every variety of inflammation. It may inspire ignorant bystanders with great respect for us to see us plunge our lancet into the turgid vein of our oppressed patient, draws off a crimson stream of that vital fluid, “for which,” as Hahnemann says, (Lesser Writings, p.609.) “even Moses showed so much respect,” and thereby procure for him an immediate though transient remission from his sufferings; but we shall better consult his advantage and our own credit as curers of disease, if we resort to the more laborious but less ostentatious work of carefully selecting the specific remedy homoeopathically indicated for the disease.
We occasionally, though rarely, find that it will not do to stop suddenly the use of purgatives in those long accustomed to their almost daily use, we shall succeed much better if we gradually limit their employment; though, on the other hand, in most cases, we can prohibit them at once and ever, without any bad results. In the course of some diseases it undoubtedly happens that the bowels will not display any reactive power to influences of our homoeopathic medicines, and in such cases it occasionally becomes necessary that we should cases it occasionally becomes necessary that we should assist their action by means by a lavement, a cold-water compress, or a dose of castor-oil. There is no advantage gained by bigotedly refusing to avail ourselves of these almost mechanical means of removing a mass of impacted indurated faeces, under the delusion that by so doing we are departing from the homoeopathic principle. The cause of the obstruction is, in nine cases out of ten, owing to some anterior allopathic treatment, to the sudden stoppage of all the accustomed irritant medicines which had been used for bringing the bowels into unnatural activity, and which, by their over- stimulating effects, had left them in a state of morbid insensibility to the usual stimuli.
I have recently treated with perfect success a cause of chronic disease of many years duration where the patient had been in the habit of taking a daily purge, gradually increased from the weakest to the strongest doses, and where the bowels could not be brought to act by any known homoeopathic medicament, nor even by the most diligent use of lavement or the kinesipathic processes. As the patient suffered excessively if the bowels remained constipated for a few days, I allowed her to use castor-oil occasionally at her own discretion, advising her not to the it oftener than twice a week. She soon found, as her health improved under the homoeopathic treatment, that much smaller quantities of castor-oil sufficed than those she had been in the habit of using; subsequently that the could substitute the lavement of warm water for the castor- oil; then that the bowels would be opened twice or thrice a week naturally, and finally, they came to open every day without assistance, at first with some considerably straining, but afterwards without disagreeable feelings.
In the eleventh volume of the British Journal of Homoeopathy the question of the necessity for occasionally having resort to purgatives has been well discussed by Dr. Black, who, whilst he contends for the general sufficiency of homoeopathic treatment for the cure of diseases where drugs are required, admits that there are exceptional cases where the use of aperients is necessary. These exceptions may, he says, be classed under three heads:- 1 Where a foreign body has been swallowed, and it is deemed expedient to hurry its expulsion through the bowels. 2 Where a patient has for a long time taken aperients, and where, at first, the careful administration of homoeopathic remedies is for a short time insufficient to produce an evacuation, even with the aid of simple injections. 3. Where organic stricture or other mechanical obstacle prevents the passage of a solid stool.
I am inclined to doubt if purgatives will be of much service in the first class of cases supposed by Dr. Black, except the foreign body be small, and its composition of such a nature as to render its expulsion a matter of immediate necessity. Thus in the case supposed by Hahnemann, of a hard dry pill of belladonna or other narcotic poison, we can conceive that if it ass rapidly through the bowels it may produce no poisonous effects, but that it might be dissolved and so be enabled to act, by a longer sojourn in the alimentary canal, exposed to the action of the intestinal secretions; hence its rapid expulsion by a saline purgative would perhaps be a judicious and even a necessary procedure. In the second case, the occurrence of a prolonged constipation might, in many cases be innocuous, if unattended by other sufferings attributable to the confined state of the bowels, such as headache, pain, etc. In the third case, purgatives are sometimes imperatively required.
The use of certain derivative appliances has been practised and recommended by some homoeopathists (and by Hahnemann himself as lately as 1830, as I have shown above); for instance, in cases where the eruption of an exanthematous fever has been suddenly suppressed and serious cerebral excitement has resulted, it has been proposed to apply some irritant to the skin, such as mustard, ammonia, or tartar-emetic ointment, friction with onions etc., with a view of obviating the immediate danger by a restoration of the exanthematic process to the skin. I am unable to speak from experience of this plan, but there seems to be some plausibility in it, and might be tried in the event of the failure of our homoeopathic remedies to restore the eruption to the skin.
The employment of stimulants, such as wine and brandy, in certain forms of typhus, with low muttering delirium, feeble, pulse, and and excessive prostration of the vital powers, is occasionally necessary; and I have seen many cases which were apparently rescued from sinking by their use. Most homoeopathists are agreed on this point, and the exhibition of such stimulants may be looked upon more as a dietetic than a medicinal remedy, but though very useful in the such cases their indiscriminate use in the debility accompanying may chronic diseases is highly pernicious, and their occasional employment in such cases is only to be allowed under certain rare circumstances. Such an employment of them clearly belongs to dietetics.
In croup, I have fond it a good plan, at the suggestion of Griesselich, (Handbuch, 282.) to apply to the throat a sponge dipped in hot water, it often gives almost immediate relief; it should be applied disagreeably warm.
There are many of the processes of the water-cure and of the kinesipathic system that may be used with advantage as auxiliaries to homoeopathic treatment.
The employment of a small galvanic battery or of the galvanic chains of Pulvermacher is often advisable; and I have witnessed remarkable results from the use of Burq’s metallic chains in nervous and hysterical subjects, where there is deficient sensibility of the skin of the extremities. The hemospastic apparatus of Dr. Junod was employed occasionally by Hahnemann himself, and seems to offer certain advantages in the treatment of congestions of important organs. In such cases its application will often enable us to administer with success a homoeopathic remedy, which might be unable to act in consequence of the congestion. In cases of apoplexy and hemorrhage from various internal organs it seems to offer every chance of being useful. Dry cupping, of which Junod’s apparatus is a modification, has been used and recommended in similar cases by many homoeopathists.
We have the authority cases of Hahnemann for the employment of animal magnetism in certain cases, and most of us have witnessed its good effects in some affections.
Now is it beneath the consideration of the homoeopathist to attend to the practical rules deducible from the observations of Riechenbach, more especially in reference to the position of the bed, in cases of nervous patients, as it has been found, as you are doubtless aware, that certain nervous patients cannot obtain quiet sleep unless they lie in what is called the magnetic meridian, that is, with he head to the north and the feet to the south.
Another method of treatment, which is but little known in this country, but of which some of the homoeopathists of Germany have availed themselves to a considerable extent, is the so-called thirst-cure of Scroth, which consists in forbidding the patient drinks of all kinds, except perhaps a very small quantity of wine every two or three days, and in allowing as the only food stage wheaten bread. I have heard of some extraordinary cures, especially of malignant tumours and other supposed incurable maladies, effected by this method, of which an account has been given in the eighth volume of the British Journal of Homoeopathy.
Robert Ellis Dudgeon practiced at the London Homeopathic Hospital and specialised in Optics.
Robert Ellis Dudgeon wrote Pathogenetic Cyclopaedia 1839, Cure of Pannus by Innoculation, London and Edinburgh Journal of Medical Science 1844, Hahnemann’s Organon, 1849, Lectures on the Theory & Practice of Homeopathy, 1853, Homeopathic Treatment and Prevention of Asiatic Cholera 1847, Hahnemann’s Therapeutic Hints 1847, On Subaqueous Vision, Philosophical Magazine, 1871, The Influence of Homeopathy on General Medical Practice Since the Death of Hahnemann 1874, Repertory of the Homeopathic Materia Medica, 2 vols 1878-81, The Human Eye Its Optical Construction, 1878, Hahnemann’s Materia Medica Pura, 1880, The Sphygmograph, 1882, Materia Medica: Physiological and Applied 1884, Hahnemann the Founder of Scientific Therapeutics 1882, Hahnemann’s Organon 1893 5th Edition, Prolongation of Life 1900, Hahnemann’s Lesser Writing.