Part 6 (2/2)

This power of _Bacillinum_ to relieve oppression in pulmonary catarrh is in no way surprising from the point of view of the law of similars; for in the acute and infectious stage of tuberculosis the dyspnoea is a characteristic symptom, and is far more distressing than the cough. I have read with pleasure in the work of Dr. Mersch, of Brussels, on _Tuberculin_, of a fact which corroborates my statement as to the influence of _Bacillinum_ over catarrhal dyspnoea. After the sixth dose the patient, who was suffering from bronchial asthma, was seized with violent intercostal pains, with augmented cough; but the oppression entirely disappeared after the first day, and did not return even three months after the treatment had ceased.

In _L' Art Medical_ of January, 1894, and in the _Hahnemannian Monthly_ of July, 1894, I published the case of an old man of eighty years of age, suffering from broncho-pneumonia, who, in the last stage of asphyxia, had been saved by _Bacillinum_. Two years ago I was called upon to treat another octogenarian who, as the result of a cold, developed an obstruction in the bronchial tubes, and at the basis of the lungs. He pa.s.sed sleepless nights in a sitting posture, striving to draw deep inspirations. _Phosphorus_, _a.r.s.enic_, and _Stibium_ produced no relief. I gave him _Bacillinum_ 30th, and he slept the whole night through. Doses of this remedy, administered _at longish intervals_, always produced a remarkable amelioration. Last year I was called to the house of an upholsterer. He preferred not going to bed at all to pa.s.sing the night in bed without closing his eyes. He had humid asthma with incessant cough, which ended by causing him to eject thick yellow and puriform mucus. For eight days he took _a.r.s.enic_ and _Blatta_, and for a whole week he pa.s.sed the nights without sleeping. From the day he took _Bacillinum_ he was able to sleep. I saw him again this year in good health. Once or twice he was attacked with the same bronchorrhea, and had my prescription made up at the chemists, with the same success. This year, too, I have given _Bacillinum_ to several patients at the Hopital St. Jacques for the same symptoms, and it has never yet failed me.

When I am called upon to treat a patient suffering from an obstruction of the bronchial tubes occasioned by mucus, which is frequently thick and opaque and puriform--an obstruction extending to the delicate bronchial ramification, and causing oppression more frequently than cough, I turn my thoughts at once to _Bacillinum_. _Bacillinum_ is a drug for old people, or, at any rate, for those whose lungs are old; for those chronically catarrhal, or whose pulmonary circulation is enfeebled without regard to the age of the subject; for those who have dyspnoea, and who cough with difficulty from inaction of the respiratory ducts; for the humid asthmatic, the bronchorrheal, who feel suffocated at night; and, finally, for those who, after taking cold, are straightway attacked with pulmonary congestion. Here, I believe, is the exact sphere of action of _Bacillinum_ as a h.o.m.oeopathic remedy.

_Bacillinum_ has been stigmatized as an unstable product. I consider this reproach ill-founded. _Bacillinum_ is no more unstable than _Psorinum_, which is an approved remedy in h.o.m.oeopathy. Typical tuberculous lungs contain practically almost invariable elements. Do not the microbes produced by cultivation and the animal extracts show any variation in quality, and do they not change in the long run?

Like most h.o.m.oeopathists who have made use of _Bacillinum_, I think it is best given in the high dilutions and at long intervals. Dr. J.

Compton Burnett and Van der Berghe recommended the higher potencies--the 1000th, 100,000, etc., whereas I content myself with the 30th, which satisfies every requirement. As regards the intervals which must elapse between the doses, certain writers recommend from one to two weeks. In acute cases I generally give six globules of _Bacillinum_ 30th every two or three days; and in chronic cases of tuberculosis, etc., one dose about twice a week.

We are no longer permitted to include in the same description the tuberculosis of birds and that of mammals. Although the two bacilli, as far as form and color are concerned, are absolutely identical, the evolution of the two forms of tuberculosis presents characteristics so different that we are forced to study them separately. At this day the debate is a question of words, and experts discuss whether there are two distinct genera or merely two different species.

It is this characteristic of non-transmissibility from mammals to birds, and _vice versa_, which forms the chief difference between the two kinds of tuberculosis. Strauss failed in his endeavor to inoculate a fowl with tuberculosis by injecting fifty kilogrammes of tuberculous human sputa, whereas the fowl, absolutely impervious to human tuberculosis, became infected when treated with a very slight quant.i.ty of the avian tuberculosis. The guinea-pig, so sensitive to the human microbe, presented encysted abscesses when treated with the virus of birds; it dies of cachexia, but never, as far as the naked eye can discern, of generalized tuberculosis. Rabbits are more sensitive to the avian infection. Dogs are absolutely refractory. The monkey, so delicate in our climate, and which almost invariably perishes from tuberculosis, is uninjured by inoculation from avian virus. The parrot is a remarkable exception to the general rule; it is the only bird which resists avian tuberculosis, while, on the other hand, it is sensitive to that of man.

Such facts as these irrefutably differentiate the two kinds of tuberculosis.

[H] _Tuberculosis of Birds._ _Tuberculosis of Mammals._

Aspect of Extreme softness on Human tuberculous cultures. glycerine jelly or growths are adherent, on serum. hard and difficult to break up even with a strong platinum wire on glycerine jelly as well as on serum.

Medium of Transferred from a Cultivation more difficult.

cultures. solid to a liquid medium the bacillus grows rapidly, having the appearance of rounded grains.

Temperature. Develops at a Ceases to develop at temperature of 45 C. temperatures under 41 C.

Odor. Somewhat sour. More subtle and fresh odor.

Duration. Takes longer to develop, Is with difficulty generated and may remain again at the end of six for a year or months. At the end of thereabouts. eight or ten months loses its vegetable character.

Seat of the In animals usually In the lung, generally in tubercles. on the liver, the men, and in certain animals; spleen, the intestines, in the spleen, the and the peritoneum. liver, and the glands in rabbits and guinea-pigs.

Transmissibility.

Only from one bird Mammals are unaffected by to another, except the tuberculosis of birds, in the case of the and _vice versa_.

parrot.

[H] I have tabulated shortly their various characteristics.

Ever since this variety of tuberculosis has been distinguished, attempts have been made to inoculate or cure human tuberculosis with that of birds. In our school the thing has been attempted at the Hopital St. Jacques, where _Aviaire_ has been administered in h.o.m.oeopathic dilutions, in potions or through punctures in cases of consumption. As a matter of fact, neither allopaths nor h.o.m.oeopaths have succeeded in obtaining a formula which will cure consumption with the virus of birds.

Amelioration has been noted as with other remedies, but never a series of authenticated cures. Nevertheless, in every country experiments are continually being made; we must hope that they will end in a more decisive success than is at present the case.

Hoping to profit by the h.o.m.oeopathicity of an active virus, I was, I think, one of the first who employed _Aviaire_ in non-tuberculous respiratory affections on the lines of _Bacillinum_, and I am bound to say that up to the present my faith in the law of similars has not been shaken by my experiments.

In _L'Art Medical_ (August, 1895) I published a number of cases in which I successfully treated localized bronchitis, generally the result of influenza, and reproducing the symptoms of tuberculosis, with _Aviaire_.

The most characteristic of all these observations is that of which I have spoken above. The patient was restored to health as if by magic with _Aviaire_ within three weeks. Dr. P. Jousset, antic.i.p.ating my observations, thus expressed himself in the number of _L'Art Medical_ preceding the one which contained my remarks: ”A young woman entered the Hopital St. Jacques at the end of January, 1895, with feverish influenzal bronchitis. At first the patient was treated with small doses of _Sulphate of Quinine_, and a little later she took _Ipecac_ and _Bryonia_ alternately. The fever disappeared and the general condition improved considerably, and the sub-crepitant rales became confined to the top of the left lung. The patient continued to expectorate thick nummular and puriform sputa, as in the influenza. After some days the disease resumed its sway, the bodily forces diminished, the emaciation made great progress, and local and general signs indicated rapid consumption. Bacteriological a.n.a.lysis led to the detection of numerous Koch's bacilli. I gave over the case at this time, and some weeks afterwards I learnt with surprise that the patient was well and growing fat, and that the inoculation of the sputa had produced no effects. The cure has been maintained for three months, and the young woman has resumed her employment.” I had prescribed _Aviaire_ 100th, five drops a day, during the whole period of the disease, unaccompanied by any other remedy.

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