Part 1 (2/2)
(In 1885 Dr. Peter Cooper, of Wilmington, Delaware, read a paper on the drug _Acalypha Indica_ of which the following is an abstract:)
Professor Jones recapitulates as follows: ”_Time._ Haemorrhage occurs in morning. _Blood._ Bright-red and not profuse in morning; dark and clotted in afternoon. _Pulse._ Neither quickened nor hard; rather soft and easily compressible. _Cough._ Violent and in fits at night; patient has a played-out feeling in the morning and gains in strength as the day advances.
”_N. B._--Worthy of trial in all pathological haemorrhages having notedly a morning exacerbation.”
Such is an outline presentation of the drug given us by so eminent an authority as Professor Jones, of the University of Michigan. It was his ”N. B.,” his suggestion that _Acalypha_ was worthy of trial in all pathological haemorrhages from any source, providing the morning aggravation was present, that fixed my attention upon the drug especially. At the time I had a case of haemorrhage per r.e.c.t.u.m that had baffled me for several months. No remedy had aided the case in the least, so far as I could see, unless it was Pond's Extract used locally in the form of injection; and I finally came to the conclusion that the relief apparently due to the _Hamamelis_ was merely a coincidence. I had given all the haemorrhagic remedies I knew of or could hear of. Still the bleeding came just as often, with increasing severity. Each time the patient was sure she would ”bleed to death,” and I was not positive she would be disappointed. In fact, I was so hopeless that I used to delay the answer to her summons as long as possible, so that the bleeding might have time to exhaust itself. She became reduced in flesh and the haemorrhagic drugs became reduced in number, until like the nine little Indians sitting on a gate the last one tumbled off and then there was none. As soon as I read Dr. Jones' monograph on _Acalypha Indica_, I determined to try it. She had all the symptoms--bright-red blood in the morning; dark and clotted in the afternoon and evening; weak and languid in the forenoon, stronger during the afternoon--except one, _i.e._, instead of the blood coming from the lungs it came from within the portals of the a.n.u.s. I procured the 6x dil. and served it in water. It gave speedy, almost immediate relief. Each subsequent attack came less profuse and at longer intervals. She has not had a haemorrhage now for two months, while before she was having from seven to one (continuous) a week. She is gaining in flesh, is in every way improved, and keeps _Acalypha Indica_ constantly by her.
ACIDUM LACTIc.u.m.
COMMON NAME, Lactic acid.
ORIGIN.--Lactic acid is obtained from sour milk, resulting from the fermentation of the sugar of milk under the influence of casein.
PREPARATION _for h.o.m.oeopathic Use_.--One part by weight of pure lactic acid is dissolved in 99 parts by weight of alcohol.
(A very complete proving of this remedy will be found in Allen's _Encyclopaedia of Pure Materia Medica_, but little use seems to have been made of it, though the following by Dr. Tybel-Aschersleben, _Allgemeine Hom. Zeitung_, March 13, 1890, seems to show that it is very efficient in certain forms of rheumatism.)
We are by no means rich in remedies against arthritic rheumatism, and those which we do use lack the reputation of being reliable. A new and a valuable remedy will therefore be a welcome addition to this list. I say reliable, inasmuch as this remedy is truly h.o.m.oeopathically indicated for, according to Foster, of Leitz, Niemeyer's Pathology, 10th edition, 2d vol., pp. 561: ”_Lactic acid in large doses and used for a long time will produce symptoms entirely a.n.a.logous to arthritic rheumatism_.” We also find mention elsewhere that the use of lactic acid occasioned rheumatic pains in the thigh.
CLINICAL CASES.
1. A young girl aet. 15 was afflicted with acute arthritic rheumatism, she received _Acid Lactic.u.m_ 2x dil., a dose every 2 or 3 hours, and was so much improved in two weeks that the pain had subsided, and for her remaining weakness _China off._ sufficed.
2. A nine-year-old girl was confined to her bed for three weeks with acute arthritic rheumatism. _Acid Lactic.u.m 2_ speedily cured her.
3. A miner, B., had been afflicted over six weeks with acute arthritic rheumatism. The first dose of _Acid Lactic 2_ gave relief and a second dose cured the man.
4. In a case with swollen and very painful joints one dose of _Acidum Lactic 2_ sufficed to overcome the pain and the swelling. Against the remaining weakness _China_ proved efficacious.
5. Arthritic rheumatism of the wrist vanished slowly after using _Acid Lactic 2_ from two to three weeks.
6. A patient afflicted with arthritic rheumatism for four weeks, accompanied by copious perspiration, soon mended under the use of _Acid Lactic 2_ and was entirely cured within two weeks.
7. Even in a case of chronic arthritis with inflation of the Epiphyses of Metacarpal bones and consequent partial displacement of the fingers, _Lactic Acid 2_ produced such a decided amelioration that two months later the report said: all pains are gone even the anchylosis has disappeared.
(It has also been successfully employed in cases where the digestive powers are weak and is said to be preferable to other acids in such cases. It has also been successfully employed in cases of dyspepsia.)
aeTHIOPS ANTIMONIALIS.
(This remedy is prepared by triturating together equal parts of _aethiops mineralis_ and _Antimonium crudum_; we may add that the first named consists of a trituration of equal parts of _Mercurius viv._ and washed flowers of sulphur. Therefore _aethiops antimon._ consists of mercury, crude antimony and sulphur.
The following clinical cases ill.u.s.trating the use of the preparation is by Dr. H. Goullon and was published in Vol. II of the _Zeitschrift fuer h.o.m.oeopathie_:)
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