Averse fat (p. 482).-Bryonia Mercurius Nat.-m. PTEL. PULS. Sul.
Averse milk (p. 483).-Bryonia Pulsatilla Sul.
Headache (<)sleep (p. 149).-Argentum-n. Aurum Bryonia Kali-bi. LACH. Lycopodium Mercurius NAT.-M. Pulsatilla Sul. Thuja.
=Lachesis 25; Lycopodium 35; Mercurius 34; Nat.-m. 4 9; Pulsatilla 4 7; Sul. 4 7; Thuja. 3 4.
Pulsatilla could never come in outruled by “(<)consolation” test, and by look of patient. Leaves Nat.-m. and Sul. Aspect typical Nat.-mur. Nat.-mur. 30, 4 doses, 6 hourly.
October 21 st.-Not been laid up with headaches for the last three weeks; and not been sick, but hardly so well in himself. Has had a cold and is heavy and dull. No medicine.
November 11th.-One attack threatened but passed off. If they came on before, they always laid him up for a week. he feels stronger, brighter, more heart for things. Sleep less heavy; dreams the same. Hair the same. No medicine.
December 7th.-Had bilious attack on the 3rd inst., but was not sick; only headache; same character. No medicine.
December 13th.-Nat.-mur. 30, 6 doses 6-hourly.
January 4th, 1912.-had four attacks since here, two bad. Same character. Bryonia 30, 6 doses 3-hourly.
Remarks. It is never wise during an acute exacerbation of a chronic malady to prescribe the chronic remedy, as you are apt to increase needlessly the sufferings of your patient. Under such circumstances one prescribes a more superficial remedy corresponding to the immediate modalities: e.g., Bryonia in a Nat.- mur. case: Belladonna in a Calcarea-c. case, etc.
January 11th.-Cannot eat: though headache (>). Nat.-mur. 200, 4 doses 6-hourly.
February 1st.-Not had a headache for 2 months. Indigestion immediately p.c. Feels better in himself. No medicine.
March 14th.- Only slight headache since here, but was able to stop at work and right again. No medicine.
CASE VI Miss R.G. aet. 20.- (Outpatient, Hospital) February 15th 1912. Pain back, when she catches cold. Head, burning pain on vertex: (>)on closing eyes. Feels sick with headache daily:(<) at M.P. Cough on and off for four years. Been treated at hospitals or privately all the time; really never free from cough, No pain: no sputum.
Worse heat.
Faintish in warm room. Depressed, (<)consolation. Irritable with noises. Fidgety.
(<)Heat-(used as eliminating symptom to cut out cold remedies from lists).
(<)Consolation (Kent, p. 16).-Lilium-t. Lycopodium NAT.-M. Platina Thuja. Noises=irritable (p. 59).-Iodium Nat.-m. (later addition to Repertory).
{Faint in warm room (p. 1323).-Lachesis Lilium-t. Lycopodium PULS.
{Faint in crowd (p. 1321).-Nat.-m. Sul.
Headache (>) closing eyes (p. 138).-Aloe Bryonia Iodium Nat.-m. Platina Sul.
Pain, burning, vertex (p. 181).-Bryonia Lachesis Nat.-m. Nat.-s. Sul.
Pain, burning, vertex at M.P. (p. 181).-Lachesis Nat.-m. Sul.= Bryonia 2 4; Lachesis 3 6; Lyc, 2 2; Nat.-m. 6 11; Sul. 4 7.
Nat. mur. 30, 4 doses 6-hourly.
March 14th, 1912.-Very much better in herself. Hardly had a headache. No burning vertex. Not the least faintish. Pain in back gone. No cough: never been so free of cough since it began years ago. No medicine.
Of course there are heaps of cases, where you cannot get any mental or other general symptoms so definitely marked as in the foregoing, and where you have got to be most careful not to take symptoms too easily for “eliminating” purpose, or to knock out drugs on insufficient cause. If you do, you will find yourself landed with-Sepia probably, most times: though you might very often do worse.
Times of day, if very definite, help. some people are perfectly well all day, but their nights are purgatorial. Some are in pain all day long, but perfectly well all night. Some rise feeling miserably ill and tired after a good night’s rest, and with nothing to account for it (it is important to ascertain this!) and only feel pretty well as the day wears on, and are bright and happy and ready for work, mental and physical, in the evening, when you might expect them to be tired. Others have all their weariness and languor, all their sufferings, in the evening-after days neither strenuous nor fatiguing. These are important generals, and very useful in helping to determine the drug. Some drugs have their very hour on the face of the clock: and others a very marked periodicity. The worse in the evening people, by the way, have a talent for working out at Lycopodium.
Worse from damp, and worse from dry weather are deep-seated, and very important: if strongly-marked in the patient, they may be used as eliminating symptoms. “I feel ten years younger to-day because it is raining; all my joints are quite loose, and I can move freely”, said a patient a few days ago: while others stiffen and ache for a mere passing shower. There is a small important list, patient better in wet weather which is not in Kent’s Repertory*-Alumina Arsenicum ASAR. Belladonna Bovista BRY. Carb.-an. Carb.-v. CAUST. Chamomilla Fl.-ac. HEP. Ip. Laur. Mang. Medorrhinum Mez. Mur.-ac. Nit.-ac. NUX Platina Rhododendron Saba. Sepia Silicea Spigelia Spongia Staphysagria Sulph. Zincum met. (Rheumatic pain better in wet weather, means, practically, Causticum, Hepar or Nux-v.) Dr. G. Miller says, “in rheumatism where we expect as a rule to have an agg. from weather changes, its absence becomes peculiar; where the patient is not affected by change of weather, exclude Dulcamara Nux-mos. Phosphorus Ranunculus- b. Rhodo. Rhus Sil Tuberc. And where the patient is not affected by wet weather exclude Calcarea Mercurius Nat.-c Nat.-s. Ruta.”
Then there are patients who never dare to get into a bath, who are obliged to “wash in sections” as one of them expressed it; since they feel faint, or actually do faint, as soon as the water flows over their skins: while in a lesser degree, others feel miserably weak and ill after a bath. Such symptoms must be very marked and definite to carry great weight or to rule out drugs; but they help immensely: the last may give the casting vote between Puls and Sulph.
Last, and least important of all, comes the name of the patient’s malady. Look it up, if you like, at the very end, and it may joyfully confirm your choice of drug, which it must not unduly bias. If your patient is an asthmatic patient, it is comforting to know that the drug his symptoms demand has again and again cured bad cases of asthma. But remedies that have never been recorded as having cured asthma will do the trick, if the symptoms of the patient cry out *Dr. Kent points out that this rubric appears in his Repertory as “Dry weather agg.”, p. 1319, and ” Cold dry weather agg.”, p. 1312. for them, as their simillimum. Drugs have not all been pushed far enough to produce lesions; and their voices do not carry, as a rule, deeper than function-except in the cases of accidental poisoning. But get the right drug, the stimulus needed, and you will find the reaction of the organism deep enough in all conscience, and long-sustained. Then KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF! Wait long for a second very definite cry, before you dare to interfere. You may have to wait months-then wait! Remember, it is the patient who has to cure himself; the drug cannot cure him; the drug is only the stimulus that starts the vital reaction. So long as curative reaction is in progress, it is senseless- criminal-to interfere. This is the way to crush your work, to vitiate your experience, to break your heart. So long as the patient is improving, let him be, and never meddle till he begins to slip back: that is the first possible moment to repeat, or to reconsider the case. It is safer to be a little late than a little soon. You must “go fast slowly”, there is no other way.
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