I had a request from your president to write a paper for this society on the above subject, I could not refuse him, but what I shall say is not new and should be known by all homoeopaths. My authority for these prescriptions come from the textbooks on materia, medica; the only point, therefore, in this paper is to reiterate old and previously tested truths.
The routine procedure in most hospitals, before major operations, is to give morphine in some form. This adds to the comfort of the patient and to the convenience of the anaesthetist as well. But on recovering consciousness and returning reflexes, the patient is greatly troubled with nausea and vomiting; this latter is usually due to the morphine. Chamomilla will promptly relieve this condition, and the patient will usually not need more narcotics.
Phosphorus: We all know the Phosphorus thirst. The patient recovering from an abdominal operation and needing this remedy should by all means have it. It relieves shock, subdues the thirst, and gas pains are not likely to appear; of course this will do away with the further need for morphine.
Opium: The nondescript case that does not rally from operation due to shock, as a rule will need Opium or Sulphur.
Bismuth: Operations on the gastrointestinal tract that causes much shock and general disturbance, with vomiting, and where Chamomilla and Phosphorus have been eliminated from consideration probably should have Bismuth.
Carbo vegetabilis: I was called about three years ago to attend a patient that had been injured by having his arm caught in some machinery and the arm broken in three places above the elbow. When I arrived he was being held up in bed, complained that he could not get his breath and wanted to be fanned-he had every one fanning him that was free to do so; his lips were blue. Carbo veg. was given and in a very few minutes he was lying down,
and condition good. I cleaned the arm as best I could and immobilized it with small sacks of wheat. He made an uneventful recovery and has good use of the arm.
Arnica montana: Last winter I was called to see an old lady of eighty-eight years that had been knocked down by an automobile and the surgical neck of the femur was fractured. The car came to a stop with the rear wheel standing on her hand. She was bruised and sore all over, and mind disposed to wander. Arnica was given and she rallied. Later, she developed hypostatic pneumonia, which responded nicely to Ferrum phos. 3x. She walks the aid of a crutch now. Diagnosis confirmed by X-ray. Note that I did not put this patient in a cast.
Hypericum perfoliatum: For the lacerated nerves, I have prescribed this remedy many times for patients who have had teeth extracted and the jaws were locked. It will also relieve the pain in such cases very quickly, even though codein, migrone, aspirin, etc. fail completely. I have kept my dentist supplied with a few powders in the 200th for this extreme cases.
A young farmer came to me a year ago with a foot injury, caused by stepping on a nail. He had had an old school man treat him at first. The wound had been opened and cauterised and tetanus antitoxin administered. The numbing pain with shooting pains up the leg, with which he was suffering when I saw him first, were quickly relieved with Hypericum. He was well in a few days and had no other remedy.
Staphisagria: Frequently a patient, after abdominal operation will complain of the itching in the scar. Staph. will relieve this at once and the patient will make a much better recovery.
A lady with a stone in the bladder was left an invalid by old school physicians who dilated the sphincter vesicae to remove the stone. The subsequent illness in bed was due to shock from stretching the sphincter muscle and Staph. was the remedy that quickly put her on her feet.
Natrum sulphuricum: A patient had had a severe injury to the top of the head, with much haemorrhage. next day he was prostrated and in a day or two a diarrhoea developed that lasted two or three days. He made a very poor recovery, and was not his usual self again. In a few years he lost the sight of one of his eyes. Natrum sulph. partially restored the sight and his general health to a large degree. Patients who have had mastoid operations and that do not clear up properly, frequently need this remedy. Read Kent on this remedy with head injuries in mind.
Nux vomica: You will not go far wrong if you give every patient a dose of Nux when they leave the hospital after major surgery. It is almost routine with me.
The above remedies by no means cover the field in surgery. They represent conditions that are met with so frequently that they are almost routine with the writer.
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA.
DISCUSSION.
DR. HEIMBACH: I should like to add another remedy I had experience with in a child six years of age who was in a automobile accident and had a fractured femur, and the child was unconscious. We tried everything but he responded finally to Hyoscyamus 30x.
DR. BRYANT: In postoperative cases when you have an adynamic ileus, we have used Raphanus on one indication, and the only one I know of, particularly in the cases here, and that is that nothing passes either way. You should elicit that from the patient.
Of course, in attempting to diagnose paralytic ileus, you have what is known as the silent belly. That can usually be told by the stethoscope and careful watching. In all the postoperative cases if you keep that in mind, think of that remedy with the silent abdomen.
DR. GRIMMER: I should like to add one more remedy that I have found very useful in fractures, that the doctor didnt mention, a remedy that encourages the formation of callus, even in the aged. Bones that refuse to knit will frequently knit under Symphytum officinalis, wonderful remedy given at any line from the tincture to the CM. potency.
