Dr. Ghose is Editor-in-Chief of the Hahnemannian cleanings and Editor of Hahnemann of Calcutta.-ED.
When the Chairman of your Bureau very kindly asked name to submit a paper before the Association, I felt some hesitation in acceding to his request, but as I am an Honorary Member of this Association, I am bound by convention to contribute by humble mite to the furtherance of the object with which he has been actuated,.
I have chosen this paper with the object that it will throw some light over the treatment of cholera which has fixed its permanent abode in India. Cholera is a deadly disease which has been found to be the deadliest of all in the nomenclature of diseases; this fact can hardly bear any contradiction and is freely acknowledge by all. The followers of the old school of medicine with all the good array of their multitudinous heroic weapons can hardly cope with the fury of a cholera epidemic, nay, even the strength of all their long-fostered dogmas is not at all commensurate with the ravages inflicted by this dreadful pest.
If there be any scientific remedy for the eradication and cure of this malady, it can only be found in the Hahnemannian system of treatment; the truth of this assertion is placed upon the foundation of such incontrovertible facts that it is acknowledged by the majority of mankind all over the universe. Nobody can deny the uncontested truth that this fell malady itself has now became the glorious medium, throughout the length and breadth of the world, of exhibiting the marvellous efficacy, undying renown and withal the superiority of homoeopathic remedies.
What mind can comprehend the irreparable loss of mankind and the great misery entailed that the figures of the cholera statistics in India reveal? It is very difficult to grasp a more horrible state of things. What dashes to the earth so many hopes, breaks the ties of so many promising alliances, demolishes the fabric of so many hopeful undertakings, as premature death! And these untimely deaths from cholera, I can dare say, would not have occurred had the cases been placed under homoeopathic treatment.
I should be chary to over-estimate the value of our remedies, but I can not but say that the allopathic mode of treatment in cholera seems to be a despairing irredeemableness. For the cholera patients the word “Hope” appears to be struck out of the vocabulary of existence, before whom nothing seems to loom but a long vista of painful sufferings. And it is just to these- the despairing of life-that homoeopathy possesses the rare fortune of infusing the precious balm of relief and recovery.
I had treated innumerable cases of cholera with hydra-headed symptoms and almost all of them were cured. The paper that I am presenting today, is the fruit of my study and long experience extending over more than thirty-five years of my practice. That which is guiding and characteristic in the individuality of our remedies, i.e., when they should be used, has been dealt with in the paper. I hope my colleagues will look upon my paper with indulgent eyes.
Aconite: It is very useful in the first and last stage of cholera. If an attack comes on after exposure to cold, or after perspiration has been checked by a chill, or if it proceeds from fright or fear; the stools are white, watery, or bilious; cutting pains are felt before and during stool; unbearable thirst: mental anxiety, worry, and fear, restlessness; urine high colored; general dry heat, full, hard, very quick or imperceptible pulse. Acon. may be used in the very commencement of the disease when cutting pains in the bowels are present. It is very useful in the paralytic variety of cholera.
Aloe: It is used in the first stage. The stools are bloody, jelly-like, mucous; they may be also watery; feeling of weakness and loss of power of sphincter ani; cutting, griping pain before and during stool; constant rumbling in the abdomen with a feeling as if the patient must have stool, but no evacuation takes place.
Antimonium tart.: It is used when cholera appears simultaneously with or preceded by an outbreak of variola. Cutting colic exists before stool; thirstlessness or thirst for cold drinks; continuous nausea, straining to vomit with sweat on the forehead; nausea and vomiting are < by lying on left side, with forehead; nausea and vomiting are < by lying on left side, with Extreme languor, drowsiness, sunken face.
Arsenicum: The stools are dark or black, watery or fluid, offensive, accompanied by considerable prostration, worse after eating or drinking; great restlessness and anguish; the patient cannot rest in any place or position; unbearable, burning thirst, drinks often, but little at a time; vomiting comes on immediately after eating or drinking; burning in stomach, extreme weakness and prostration; fear of death; the skin is dry, cold blue, or wrinkled, with cold, sticky sweat; < from cold, and > from heat.
Asarum Europeum: The stools are tenacious mucus; the patient is constantly chilly; oversensitiveness of nerves, cannot bear the sound of scratching of linen or of any similar substance; loss of appetite; constant yawning.
Belladonna: It is used in brain disturbance and during typhoid stage; ; delirium; rolls the head from side to side; disposition to bite, spit, strike, and tear things : the face is cold or flushed, with congested, half-opened eyes; dilated pupils, and severe throbbing if brain and carotids; the face appear and disappear suddenly.
Bryonia: The stools smell like rotten cheese; it is very useful in morning diarrhoea, nausea, etc.; < from any motion or movement; used also in the typhoid stage; delirium; talks constantly about his business or desires to go home; great thirst for large quantities at long intervals nausea and faintness on sitting up.
Camphor: It is used to both first and last stage of cholera, Sudden attack of diarrhoea, preceded from a chill, chilly feeling, not intermingled with a feeling of heat; no sweat, or, if there be any, it is rather cold, clammy; stools faecal, dark brown; no thirst coldness of the surface without change of color; sudden and extreme sinking of strength; icy coldness of whole body.
Cantharis: It is used in retention or suppression of urine, with uraemic coma, delirium, and convulsions. Frequent in effectual desire to urinate; burning during micturition, white or pale reddish mucous stools, like scrapings of intestines.
Carbo veg: Frequent, involuntary, cadaverous-smelling evacuations, followed by burning; when attack begins with haemorrhage from the bowels; collapse without stool: copious cold sweat, cold breath, cold tongue, and cold voice; respiration is weak and labored; hoarseness and loss of voice; pulse thread- like, intermittent, hardly perceptible; desire to be constantly fanned; hiccough; distention of abdomen; sopor without vomiting, stool, or cramps.
Chamomilla: Stool smells like bad eggs; the attack appears during dentition, or after taking cold, or after anger, chagrin; the patient becomes quiet only when carried.
China: Diarrhoea due to fruits; the stools are yellow watery or black watery; painless, undigested watery stools; there is flatulence in the abdomen; comes on after a meal or at night.
Crotalus hor.: Collapse; cramps; vomiting; respiration is embarrassed; suppression of urine; vomiting and micturition appear simultaneously; disagreeable sensation through the whole body.
Croton tig: The stools are yellow, watery; profuse yellow, watery stools,. coming out like a shot; the symptoms are < after eating or drinking ; pallor or weakness.
Cuprum met: Convulsions, with blue face and clenched thumbs; clonic spasms begin in fingers and toes and spread over entire body; restlessness; violent vomiting of bile or water, with colic and cramps; coldness or blueness of the surface of the body; violent cramps in the extremities; vomiting is > by cold drinks; stool are watery, with flakes.
Hyoscyamus: It is used in the typhoid stage. Low, muttering delirium; jumps out of bed and tries to escape makes short answers to imaginary questions; desires to uncover and remain naked; urine is scanty and retained or passed in voluntarily in bed, which leaves streaks of red sand on the sheets. In delirium this medicine occupies a place midway between Stramonium and Belladonna. It wants the violent rage and maniacal delirium of the former and constant cerebral congestion of the latter.
Ipecac: The stools are green, mucous; colic and nausea before and during stool; constant nausea may be regarded as the characteristic symptom of this remedy.
Iris versicolor: Burning at the anus during stool; great burning of the anus after stool; severe vomiting of bile or an extremely sour fluid; burning from the mouth to the anus.
Jatropha: The stools are watery and come out like a torrent; insatiable thirst; violent vomiting of white jelly-like substances resembling the white of an egg or albuminous substance; rumbling in the abdomen; cramps in the calves.
Lachesis: The stools consist of decomposed blood, appearing like charred straw, and are very offensive; much distress after sleep; great languor and exhaustion; great loquacity exists; all the symptoms < by sleep; excessive sensitiveness to touch or contact exists; the left side of the body is principally affected: > takes place as the onset of a discharge is noticed.
Corresponding Member of the British Homeopathic Society, French Homeopathic Medical Society, and Hahneman Institute of Brazil.
AUTHOR OF “CHOLERA AND ITS HOMEO. TREATMENT,” “PLAGUE AND ITS PREVENTION AND HOMEO. TREATMENT," “ CHOLERA AND ITS PREVENTION AND HOMEOPATHIC THERAPEUTICS,” “DIABETES AND ITS HOMEOPATHIC TREATMENT” AND OF A HOMEOPATHIC CHARACTERISTIC MATERIA MEDICA, IN BENGALI ; EDITOR OF THE INDIAN HOMEOPATHIC REPORTER.