Cases of Whooping Cough


Cases of Whooping cough cured with homeopathic medicines have been presented by J.H.Clarke in his book Whooping cough….


CASES CURED WITH COQUELUCHIN

WHOOPING-COUGH, as every one knows, is an infectious disease. It is characterised at the outset by catarrhal symptoms which cannot be distinguished from an ordinary cold in the head. The catarrh is soon followed by a cough, at first irritating, but rapidly becoming spasmodic. When the disease is fully developed the fits of coughing fit terminating in the characteristic “whoop,” which announces that the air has at last been admitted into the lungs. There is another feature of the cough which is no less characteristic- the expectoration of a clear, glairy, tenacious mucus. This mucus contains the virus of the infection, and it is from this that the Coqueluchin of homoeopathy is prepared.

It is not my purpose now to describe whooping-cough and its dangers and possible consequences, which are numerous; but merely to give an account of a powerful remedy which may be used to meet it. As my practice is a consulting and not a general one, I do not have many opportunities of treating cases of this disease, and my experience with the remedy is not very extensive. But it will be found to be sufficiently striking.

I may state here that I have used the remedy in one preparation only-the thirtieth centesimal potency.

CASE 1.

A maiden lady, verging on 60, of very gouty history, a governess by profession, continued her duties throughout the summer 1905 whilst her pupils were undergoing an attack of whooping-cough. She herself contracted a violent spasmodic cough, which the allopathic family doctor pronounced to be “not whooping-cough.” The family moved to their country house in Hertfordshire, and there Miss. H. came under the care of Dr. X. After due consultation, Dr. X. concurred, and found the cough “not whooping-cough.” However, the lady was too ill to leave when the term of her service came to an end; but after a time she was thought well enough to be sent to the seaside, but the cough continued as before. In London she saw a homoeopath, who thought there couldn’t be any whooping-cough in it after all that time. But the remedies he gave made no impression, and when I returned to town after the holidays she asked my opinion on the case. That was on September 28th, after she had well nigh coughed herself to pieces for three months. She looked completely broken down. Had violent fits of coughing; coughed till she retched; did not whoop, but the fits of coughing sometimes ended in a sob. I unhesitatingly pronounced the case to be one of whooping-cough, and set about to verify my diagnosis by the treatment.

The patient had allopathic cough remedies and homoeopathic cough remedies, she evidently now needed something fresh.

My prescription was- Coqueluchin 30, gl. iv. in powder of Sacch. lact. Mitte xxiv., one every four hours.

Oct. 3rd.-Cough nearly gone: what there was left of it was quite easy and no trouble. A thing to be noted was that since getting Coqueluchin she had very copious expectoration, which gave great relief. Before this she could hardly get anything up at all.

The improvement went on steadily under the same remedy, and as an old patron of hers, Lady——, wished her to take charge of her children for a time, said children having all had whooping-cough, I allowed her to do so.

All went well till the end of the month, when an epidemic of influenza broke out in the house, and claimed my patient for one of its victims. This cleared up quickly under Influenzinum 30; but the influenza, as its evil habit is to wake up the germs of any old malady that may be lurking about, aggravated the cough, which started again with some violence, each cough ending in a sob, or gasp, or sigh.

Nov. 12th.-Coquel.30, every four hours.

Nov. 23rd.-Expectoration very copious. Is very well in herself, but has a fearful cough, keeping her awake for one to two hours in the night.

The conditions being different, the nosode no longer had complete control of the case.

Here I may remark that the use of nosodes in no way excludes the use of other homoeopathic remedies. Nosodes form a splendid addition to our armamentarium; but if we don’t know how to supplement them with other remedies, we are just as badly off as if we didn’t know how to supplement other remedies by the use of nosodes.

I now dropped the nosode and ordered Corallium rubrum 30, every four hours. The indication for this remedy was -“violent spasmodic cough with copious expectoration.” Moreover, it was a nervous cough in a nervous patient. That was Nov. 23rd.

Dec. 7th.-The cough altered in two days after beginning the medicine. No more fits of coughing. A little short cough during the day. Expectoration wearing off.

Dec. 13th.-Cough keeps under. Very little expectoration. From this time on the cough gave no trouble.

CASE II.

Miss P., 20, an American, had been coughing for fourteen days, when I was sent for to see her at the Hyde Park Hotel on Oct. 3rd, 1905. The patient was a victim of infantile paralysis, and was very easily upset in her nerves. At the age of 10 she had a cough like this, which went on indefinitely; and since that time the family always got into a panic when a cough started with her, because it was apt to keep on for a very long time. On the present occasion the whole family were detained in London by it, as they dared not risk travelling, though they very much wished to continue their journey. Miss. P. had been once successfully vaccinated, but the doctors tried to vaccinate her several times before they could get it to “take.” She was subject to bad sick headaches, which she used to get at the monthly period. She was also subject to heavy colds in the head. Feet cold and dry. When she goes to bed, on first lying down she coughs, and when once she can get over this she sleeps well for a time. The cough is dry, and is brought on by motion.

I may say the family were allopaths for the most part, but they had heard of me from a nurse whom they met in Paris. Their one sheet-anchor in these conditions was Nepenthe, given in one or two-drop doses. This was the only thing that sufficed to keep the patient quiet till she could get sleep.

There was nothing very characteristic in this cough that I could then discover, and my first prescription was Stannum 3, gr. v., every two hours.

Oct.4th/-No change. Nepenthe had to be used.

Now I had to go more deeply into the case. One new symptom I elicited was “pricking in the roof of the mouth on lying down.” I was told when I first saw the patient, that she had “never had whooping-cough.” But when I came to cross-examine, I found that when she had the first attack of this cough, ten years before, the question of whether or not it was whooping-cough was canvassed, and all the pros and cons having been duly considered, it was decided in the negative. “She must have had whooping-cough many times, if it was,” was the mother’s remark. At any rate, I thought it was near enough to make a “like,” as she had “strangling fits” with the cough, as if she would never get her breath. I prescribed Coquel. 30, gl. x.; aq. 3vi.; 3ii. every two hours.

October 5th.-Cough better; not so constant; strangling fits in bed not so bad. Less pricking in roof of mouth. Very little expectoration, but much nasal discharge, which is thick.

Repeat.

The patient was so much better that the parents thought they need not trouble me again.

On October 8th I received a polite note from Colonel P., the patient’s father : “My daughter has improved so much since she has taken the second remedy, that Mrs. P. has decided to leave on Tuesday.”

I have no doubt whatever that this was a case of whooping- cough in the first instance, and that this delicate girl had never had the strength to get completely over it, and had never had the “simillimum”–i.e., the exact homoeopathic remedy- to help her until she got my Coqueluchin.

CASE III.

Since the first edition of this work was printed I have had an opportunity of treating the father of this patient, and his case will form an appropriate pendant to her own, so I will give it here.

On May 25th, 1906, Colonel P. sent for me on his own account. He was 65 years of age, and was a “martyr” to cardiac asthma, which came on eighteen months before, after a treatment at Carlsbad. He had good general health, except that he was very gouty. His mother and a maternal uncle had both died of heart disease, and his father had died at 60 of paralysis. He had been twice badly wounded in the American War. He had suffered from a delicate throat since he was four years old. His throat, I found, was gouty-looking, and he was troubled with tickling in it, which caused the cough. The cough was in paroxysms. There was some wheezing in the chest. and bronchial rales at the bases of the lungs. The heart was enlarged. There was free nasal discharge. The tongue was fairly clean, appetite good for breakfast and lunch. The bowels were regular, but for twenty years he had been liable to suffer from chronic diarrhoea. He had been eight times vaccinated, the last being at the age of 40. The cough and asthma were the trouble. In consequence of the asthma he was an exile from his native land-he positively could not exist in America. Whilst I was examining him it fortunately happened that a fit of coughing came on, and I was thus enabled to observe it. During the paroxysm the appearance of the patient was exactly like that of a person in a fit of whooping-cough, although there was no whoop. As Coqueluchin had done so exceedingly well for the daughter, and as the case of the father was so very much like hers, I thought I had very good ground for giving the same remedy. I therefore prescribed Coquel. 30 gl. vi. to aq. 3vi., a dessert spoonful every three hours.

John Henry Clarke
John Henry Clarke MD (1853 – November 24, 1931 was a prominent English classical homeopath. Dr. Clarke was a busy practitioner. As a physician he not only had his own clinic in Piccadilly, London, but he also was a consultant at the London Homeopathic Hospital and researched into new remedies — nosodes. For many years, he was the editor of The Homeopathic World. He wrote many books, his best known were Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica and Repertory of Materia Medica