CONVULSIONS.
Case I. My son, Julius, a thin lad, when three years old got fever one morning and was seized with convulsions accompanied with the following aspect: unconsciousness with pale face, locked jaws, and jerking of the extremities with clenched hands.
Cicuta 30., one drop in a teaspoonful of water, was poured into the mouth; and the jerking stopped in no time.
After a couple of days his eczema, which was suppressed by “Septanillum” ointment, reappeared on front part of both the legs as before; and he began to get emaciated, big-bellied with frequent lienteric and offensive stools. The stools were aggravated early in the mornings. He ran galloping to the commode as soon as he woke up from sleep.
Sulphur 1M, two doses, completely made him wholesome.
Case II. Mr. M., my friend, came running into my office one morning in frantic haste and requested me to come and see his sons terrifying aspects, having become suddenly ill. He was so perturbed and anxious that he could not talk any more.
I took my medicine bag and off I went with him. The child was unconscious with locked jaws and open eyes. His hands were clenched and the extremities were jerking so violently that the whole bed was shaking like anything.
I opened my bag and gave a drop of Cicuta 200. in a teaspoonful of water, which, as soon as it was poured into the mouth, stopped the jerking, the stiffness of the limbs relaxed, and the eyes closed. But soon snoring and rattling breathing started. The belly, too, began to swell like a balloon, as though it was full of wind. I advised hot fomentation over the belly and to let me know the condition in about fifteen minutes.
After twenty or twenty-five minutes, my friend came in again telling that the condition was the as I saw the child before I left his residence.
Opium 200, one dose, was sent in.
He came in smiling after half an hour, as I had instructed, and told me that after the administration of the medicine the child passed flatus six or seven times with loud noises and, opening his eyes, came to his senses.
“Shall I give him some milk? He is asking for it,” he said.
“No, it may harm him, it forms wind in the stomach. You better give him some barley water, if you like,” I suggested.
After a few months the child was seized with same convulsive aspects. My friend came to me but unfortunately I was out of town. So he had to take recourse to allopathy. But later on he let me know what had happened.
Since the aura began in the head and came down to the lower limbs, I prescribed Absinthinum 6., thrice daily.
Result: no more convulsions.
Case III. Mr. C.s son, a three-year-old child, was subject to convulsive fits seven or eight times a month. This began when he was six months old. The convulsion was followed by deep sleep. Mr. C., too, had been subject to such fits in his childhood.
Concomitant symptoms of note were as follows:.
1. Keeps picking and boring into the nostrils.
2. Ravenous appetite.
3. Stomachache (once in a while).
4. Threadworms found in stools.
5. Clear fluid running all the time from the nose.
6. Dry cough, aggravated at nights.
Cina 30., one dram globules, no. 60, one pill four times daily.
The child was all right for a month and a half. After that he was seized with such violent convulsions as he had never had before.
The anxious father of the child came cycling a distance of seven miles and conveyed to me the sad news.
I, giving him sac. lac. to administer, asked him to stop the former medicine.
Result: the child has been free from convulsions for the last six months.
BIBAR, INDIA.
REPORT OF A CASE OF ANTERIOR.
POLIOMYELITIS.
Read before Bureau of Pediatrics, I.H.A., June 25, 1947.
MARTHA I. BOGER-SHATTUCK, M.D.
In this paper the writer will not attempt to give a treatise on infantile paralysis. Instead, she presents a few random notes on “polio” taken at a symposium attended recently, as well as a case which received homoeopathic treatment.
Acute anterior poliomyelitis was first reported by the British in 1789 at which time Dr. Underwood recommended the use of heat, early immobilization, and iron in treating this strange malady affecting children.
Up to and including the present time there have been developed no accurate and positive diagnostic tests for “polio”; hence the symptomatology must determine the diagnosis.
During 1946 there occurred 25,000 cases of infantile paralysis in the United States. In the six-month period, January 1st to May 31st, 1947 some 20,000 cases have been reported. This seems to indicate an even greater number of cases for 1947. It has been shown that this disease is more prevalent in alternate years. Seasonal heat seems to bear a definite relationship to it, though sporadic cases are encountered in all seasons.
American Homeopathy Doctor.
Rabe graduated from the New York Homeopathic Medical College and trained under Timothy Field Allen and William Tod Helmuth.
Rabe was President of the International Hahnemannian Association, editor in chief of the Homeopathic Recorder, and he wrote Medical Therapeutics for daily reference. Rabe was Dean and Professor of Homeopathic Therapeutics at the New York Homeopathic Medical College.