SOME EMERGENCIES OF GENERAL PRACTICE



The RAPHANUS type of post-operative colic is again slightly different. Instead of getting the right side of the abdomen distended as in Lycopodium, or the swelling up in the middle as in Opium, in Raphanus you get pockets of wind, a small area coming up in one place, getting quite hard, and then subsiding, followed by fresh area doing exactly the same. These pockets of wind may be in any part of the abdomen.

In the acute attacks of pain the patients tend to get a little flushed, but not so flushed as the Opium patients, and they do not have the tendency to eructation that one associates with Lycopodium, in fact they do not seem to be able to get rid of their wind at all either upwards or down wards. But it is these small isolated pockets coming up in irregular areas throughout the abdomen which give you your main lead in Raphanus cases, and I have seen quite a number of them now, post-operative cases, and it is astonishing how quickly after a dose of this remedy the disturbance subsides and the patient begins to pass flatulence quite comfortably.

In post-operative cases I usually give Lycopodium in 200th potency. In Raphanus I always use the 200s, having found this potency worked I have stuck to it. In Opium I usually give a higher potency because these cases are pretty extreme.

There are, of course, endless other drugs which have colic, but I am trying to pick out those most useful in emergencies. There is one other which you ought to know, PODOPHYLLUM. Podophyllum you will find useful in hepatic colic mainly, It is helpful in intestinal colics associated with diarrhoea, I mean with acute diarrhoea, but then you prescribe it much more on the diarrhoea symptoms than on those of the colic. But you do get indication for it in hepatic colics purely on the local symptoms.

I think in these cases where you have Podophyllum indicated in hepatic colic you always have degree of infection of the gallbladder, and one of the first things that makes you think of the possibility of Podophyllum is the fact that the maximum temperature is in the morning and not in the evening. It has a 7 oclock on in the morning peak temperature.

In addition to that, the Podophyllum patients are very miserable and depressed, almost disgusted with life.

There is always a degree of jaundice in the gallbladder cases, and it may be pretty marked.

In the majority of these cases the pain is not definitely localized in the gallbladder area, it s more in the epigastrium as a whole, and tends to spread across from the middle of the epigastrium towards the liver region. The pains are twisting towards the liver region. The pains are twisting in character, and they are much aggravated by taking food.

In these Podophyllum cases when the acute pain has subsided there is a horrible feeling of soreness in the liver region, and you find these patients lying stroking the liver, which gives a great sense of comfort. When I see an infected gallbladder with a morning temperature instead of an evening one I immediately think of Podophyllum. It is astonishing how often one gets his indication, and then you generally see the patients lying in bed stroking the liver region. In every case where the morning temperature and that relief forms stroking have put me on to Podophyllum I have found that the other symptoms fitted in.

DISCUSSION.

DR. McCRAE thought the paper was a master piece. There was nothing in it to criticize, there were details of valuable help to everybody which were like the artist sharpening his pencil to produce some like of particular splendour which would make the picture complete. Most had pencils but they were blunt, and the homoeopath would away be grateful for these amazingly useful hints. He hoped Dr. Borland would soon return so that members could thank him personally. He also thanked the President for the way in which he had read the paper.

Dr. JOHN PATERSON said that they had listened to a real clinical paper. There was not much in it which one could criticize, but one might add a little. With regard to the cardiac cases, Arsenic and Sulphur, his experience was that Arsenic was often the Acute of Sulphur and on the mental side they were the exact opposite. One found that a Sulphur patient swung in an acute condition to Arsenic and Dr. Borland had brought out that point. He was interested in the question of Aconite acting in the first attack but not in the second.

There had been many discussion about covering the totality of the symptoms and here was evidence that the homoeopathic remedy could be prescribed on the mental symptoms which worked in the first instance but it did not cover the whole of the case. It was possible to prescribe homoeopathically without covering the whole of the case, only covering a phase because obviously not the next occasion the pain was present but not the fear, the Aconite had removed one phase of the case-mental fear. Aconite came out very strongly in the air raids. Another remedy was Natrum mur.

He wondered if any orthodox practitioners were surprised that there was no mention of Digitalis, but Digitalis was quite useful in these slightly relaxing hearts in homoeopathic doses, not in the massive doses given in allopathic medicine. With regard to renal colic, examining the stools of patients the Bacillus Morgan came out very frequently and he associated Lycopodium with it.

Lycopodium and always been considered to be a a right-sided remedy but the peculiar point about a case in which it had proved successful was that the pain had been left-sided and when the case had been X-rayed it had been found that the right kidney was more involved than the left, so that it looked a if the actual renal colic condition started in the left kidney but gave no trouble. It was only when the right kidney was involved that the first symptom developed, so that even with a left sided renal colic Lycopodium should not be excluded.

Dr. STONHAM said that the paper was excellent and the sort of paper which would appear to the general practitioner. who was always coming up against acute cases. To have such cases so plainly stated with the drug indications for them was very valuable. There were one or two points he would like to mention with regard to Aconite which, as Dr. Borland had said, was very useful in many cases. The case which he did not mention was the acute pulmonary oedema.

He had given Aconite 30 in such cases and it quickly calmed the patient in that distressing and somewhat dangerous condition and he had found it valuable not only in the first case but also in cases when the attack has been repeated. Dr. Borland said he gave Laurocerasus in acute heart complaints. He had had an acute case with Cheyne-Stokes respiration, it looked as if the patient would die, he gave Hydrocyanic acid and he recovered very nicely. Many people would substantiate the valuable of Dr. Borlands paper.

Dr. G.R. MITCHELL said that a clinical paper was most useful. He wanted to criticize something Dr. Paterson said when he took the Aconite example as not prescribing on the totality. He would have thought it was an example of prescribing on that procedure because in the first case, on all the manifestations, Aconite was the drug, and it worked, and on the second occasion there was a different totality, and the Aconite did not work. That was the way he would have regarded the matter.

DR. HARDY added her grateful thanks to Dr. Borland for his paper. With regard to medicines for heart complaints she agreed with Dr. Paterson that Digitalis 200, one dose, was very effective in the semi-chronic or chronic case of right-sided congestion, blue face and blue nails, but not in the acute patient. She also used mother tincture Crataegus for heart patients because it was specific for the cardiac muscle. Another drug which was used in Russia was Adonis mother tincture, five drops to a dose. There was a remark which she did not like about Chelidonium-that the patient did not respond and that is must therefore be cancer. The case was Lachesis to start with and that did not exclude the possibility of cancer. She had a very bad case of cancer which was cured by Lachesis, a liver case with constant pain. In her personal experience Raphanus was indicated in hepatic lesions, and Mammormic in splenic lesions.

Dr. LE HUNTE COOPER did not think too much could be said about the work which had been put into this paper and the wonderful collection of details on which indications had been given and which were of the greatest possible value. The paper would require a great deal of study, so that these indications could be take for future use.

He was rather in favour of trying to keep the remedies which were very definitely specific for particular conditions because in cases where there was an emergency, there was not time to seek for was an emergency, there was not time to seek for all the exact indications which might help, but he was rather surprised that Dr. Borland did not make or of the Snake Poisons in heart cases because he must admit he would not be without Lachesis. If there was any suggestion of heart failure he would give Lachesis and would be surprised if it did not answer.

Douglas Borland
Douglas Borland M.D. was a leading British homeopath in the early 1900s. In 1908, he studied with Kent in Chicago, and was known to be one of those from England who brought Kentian homeopathy back to his motherland.
He wrote a number of books: Children's Types, Digestive Drugs, Pneumonias
Douglas Borland died November 29, 1960.