ATROPINE

INTRODUCTION

(Sulphate of Atropine).

INFORMATION

The action of this salt differs from that of Belladonna only in degree. We have some excellent provings of this agent by Kafka of Prague. According to Kafka, this salt should be preferred in those case in which Belladonna does not act effectually and permanently. He recommends it in inflammation where the symptoms seem to indicate Belladonna rather than Aconite. With the subsidence of the inflammatory symptoms, the re-absorption of the exudation is very rapid. In painful affections from spinal irritation. In hyperaesthesia of some nervous branch, viz: of the ophthalmic, auditory, olfactory, vagus, and plexus solaris, of the uterus and sphincter of the bladder. In severe forms of meningitis, cerebritis, of tuberculous disease of the cerebral membranes, and hydrocephalus acutus; in some forms of epilepsy and chorea, as well as in typhoid and septic fevers: Klafka recommends 1/300 of a grain at a dose. In a case of severe neuralgia of the peritoneum an ointment, one grain to two drachms of lard, has proved of great service. See British Journal XV. page 238. A beautiful cure of disease of the pancreas with Atropine is reported in British Journal vol. XVI. page 577.

Charles Julius Hempel

Charles Julius Hempel (5 September 1811 Solingen, Prussia - 25 September 1879 Grand Rapids, Michigan) was a German-born translator and homeopathic physician who worked in the United States. While attending medical lectures at the University of New York, where he graduated in 1845, he became associated with several eminent homeopathic practitioners, and soon after his graduation he began to translate some of the more important works relating to homeopathy. He was appointed professor of materia medica and therapeutics in the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia in 1857.