Mr. M. M., aged 53, suffered more or less all his life from constipated bowels, attended with frequent severe headache and haemorrhoids and salivation during sleep. He had lost his teeth before the forties.
Three years ago he had a severe, acute cerebral attack which was met with active depletory measures together with mercurial purgatives. Restored by these means to comparative health, the bowels became more and more constipated with great augmentation of haemorrhoidal suffering. The ordinary aperients soon lost their effect and even decoction of Senna leaves in ordinary doses became insufficient.
In this state he had recourse to the late Hakim Sha Din and to several other physicians successively without benefit. He followed strict instructions as regards diet and purgatives by pills and powders of mercurial substances. These failing, every variety of aperient, irrigation, antimonials, together with counter irritation over the liver, were tried without benefit.
As a “forlorn hope” he thought he would try the natural cure methods and see that diet alone would do. Accordingly he took no aperients, but only copious draughts of cold water on first rising and also at various times throughout the day and had recourse to enemas and sitz-baths when completely constipated. He restricted himself to brown bread loaves and milk of which he partook three times a day to the exclusion of every other kind of food or drink. During this experiment of ten days he had one of the most severe attacks of headache that he ever experienced before.
The result was that he was obliged one morning to take curd and lassi (whey) with buttered loaf of the brown bread; so that he again resorted to the former plan of treatment. In fact, nothing afforded him any substantial relief. His general health became so broken down that he was advised to give up his office job, or else to go to his native place until his health was sufficiently restored to resume it. His sufferings at this time (12th December, 1945) when he took to homoeopathic treatment were as follows:
December 12. Pain and heat in forehead, becoming worse at about 7:00 p.m., accompanied by giddiness and languor and followed by restless nights and suffocative spells; at times the pain would be of a darting character, going through the occiput like an electric shock or a gun shot, as sudden in its invasion and as quickly passing off; throughout the day, a constant but ineffectual desire to go to stool with much straining and rectal suffering; at times coldness between the shoulders, right foot being very cold. Appetite poor, no relish for food, emaciation progressing, thirstlessness, aggravation by cold drinks and drafts with prostration of mind and body.
R.Nux vomica 30. three times a day and after interval of three days Nitric acid 30. three times a day.
Nux vomica exerts a powerful action upon the cerebral axis but more especially on the spinal cord and those of its branches which are distributed to the digestive organs. Moreover it is our great antidote to purgative treatment. It has also a remarkable characteristic action on the venous congestion, hence it has an inestimatable value in the treatment of gastro-hepatic disorders with obstinate intestinal inaction and headache from venous congestions which arise from stagnation and toxicity in the portal and haemorrhoidal system. The medicine also suited my patient for his mental symptoms of tenacity and fixity of purpose and will.
The immediate effect of Nux vomica 30. was truly marvelous for, in November, 1946, Mr. M.M. reported his indebtedness to Hahnemann and said that he found a remarkable relief in all of his ailments. In fact, from that day until the present time, his bowels have acted spontaneously two or three times a day, of course with occasional exceptions; but his previous sufferings have never returned. He is an altered man. He can now take any kind of food, coarse and rich-articles which he never had tasted for years. The duties of his profession which are more arduous than ever, are now, comparatively speaking, a mere past time and he once more enjoys the pleasure of existence.
The permanent cure in this case was evidently due to the constitutional prescription. The cure was very simple and nature adapted her mode of treatment to the necessities of an exceptional constitution as soon as the remedial stimulus (Nux vomica) exhibited it s action. The over-section of bile had become a habit but had no facility of exertion. Nux vomica corrected this malfunctioning of the liver and established it as a permanent habit of the body.
Nitric acid was given to antidote the mercurial Blue Pills which the patient had used so often in his life. It also cleared the offensiveness of the urine.
