Part 1 (1/2)
Apis Mellifica.
by C. W. Wolf.
PREFACE.
Every physician who has spent years of an active life in prescribing for large numbers of patients, is morally bound to publish his experience to the world, provided he is satisfied, in his interior conscience, that such a publication might be useful to the general interests of humanity.
In offering the following essay to my readers, I simply desire to fulfil an obligation recognised as valid by the inner sense. This essay contains every thing that an experience of forty years in the conscientious and philanthropic exercise of my profession has sanctioned and confirmed as truth. Nor have I adopted a single fact, suggested by my own observation, as correct, without contrasting it with the most approved records of medicine. To every true friend of man, and more particularly to every physician who considers the business of healing disease as the highest office of medical art, I offer this essay for further trial and examination. May the statements expressed in it either be confirmed or else corrected and improved by those who excel in more thorough knowledge and ability.
THE AUTHOR.
_Berlin, Oct., 1857._
APIS MELLIFICA.
”The bee helps to heal all thy internal and external maladies, and is the best little friend whom man possesses in this world.”--More in Cotton's _Book of the Bee_, p. 138.
Since Hahnemann's successful attempt to develop the medicinal nature of Aconite, no other discovery has been made in the domain of practical medicine, as comprehensive and universally useful as the discovery of the medicinal virtues of the poison of the bee. It is of the utmost importance to the interests of humanity to become as intimately acquainted with the efficacy of this poison as possible. It is the object of these papers to contribute my mite to this work.
As soon as Dr. Hering had published the provings of the bee poison, in his ”American Provings,” I at once submitted them to the test of experience in an extensive practice. I prepared the drug which I used for this purpose, by pouring half an ounce of alcohol on five living bees, and shaking them during the s.p.a.ce of eight days, three times a-day, with one hundred vigorous strokes of the arm. From this preparation, which I used as the mother-tincture, I obtained attenuations up to the thirties centesimal scale. So far, the effects which I have obtained with this preparation, have been uniformly satisfactory. It has seemed to me that the lower potencies lose in power as they are kept for a longer period; hence, I consider it safer to prepare them fresh every year. As a general rule, I have found either the third or the thirtieth potency, sufficient.
Day after day I have obtained more satisfactory results, and now I look upon Apis mellifica as the greatest polychrest, next to Aconite, which we possess.
The introduction of this poison to the medical profession, will be looked upon as the most brilliant merit of one of the most deserving apostles of h.o.m.opathy, and will secure immortality to the honored name of Constantine Hering. The following statements will show how far this faith of a grateful heart is founded upon facts:
_Apis mellifica is the most satisfactory remedy for acute hydrocephalus of children._
The more acute and dangerous the attack, the more readily will it yield to the action of Apis. Sudden convulsions, followed by general fever, loss of consciousness, delirium, sopor while the child is lying in bed, interrupted more or less by sudden cries; boring of the head into the pillow, with copious sweat about the head, having the odor of musk; inability to hold the head erect; squinting of one or both eyes; dilatation of the pupils; gritting of the teeth; protrusion of the tongue; desire to vomit; nausea, retching and vomiting; collapse of the abdominal walls; scanty urine, which is sometimes milky; costiveness; trembling of the limbs; occasional twitching of the limbs on one side of the body, and apparent paralysis of those of the other side; painful turning inwards of the big toes, extorting cries from the patient; accelerated pulse, which soon becomes slower, irregular, intermittent and rather hard; these symptoms inform us that life is in danger, the more so the more numerous they are grouped together.
In comparing with these symptoms the following symptoms from Hering's American Provings, Part I., 3d Num., p. 294: ”40, 41, muttering during sleep; muttering and delirium during sleep; 83, 84, he had lost all consciousness of the things around him; he sank into a state of insensibility; 140, 144, sense of weight and fulness in the fore part of the head; heaviness and fulness in the vertex; dull pain in the occiput, aggravated by shaking the head; pressure, fulness and heaviness in the occiput; 170, her whole brain feels tired, as if gone to sleep; tingling; she experiences the same sensation in both arms, especially in the left, and from the left knee down to the foot; 175, 176, sensation as if the head were too large; swelling of the head; 391, when biting the teeth together, swallowing; after gaping or at other times, a sort of gritting the teeth; only a single, involuntary jerk frequently repeated; 501, nausea and vomiting; 506, nausea, as if one would vomit, with fainting; 512, vomiting of the ingesta; 619, retention of stool; 640, retention of urine; 665, scanty and dark-colored urine; 980, 984, 985, trembling, convulsions, starting during sleep as if in affright; 1020, sudden weakness, compelling him to lie down; he lost all recollection; 1032, great desire for sleep, he felt extremely drowsy.”
If we compare these effects of Apis to the above-mentioned symptoms of hydrocephalus, we shall find the h.o.m.opathicity of Apis to this disease more than superficially indicated. If we consider, moreover, that the known effects of Apis show that it possesses the power of exciting inflammatory irritation and dematous swellings, we are justified, by our law of similarity, in expecting curative results from the use of Apis in all such diseases.
The experiments which I have inst.i.tuted for the last four years, have convinced me of the correctness of this observation. Whenever I had an opportunity of giving Apis at the commencement of the diseases, it would produce within twelve to twenty-four hours quiet sleep; general perspiration, affording relief; the feverish and nervous symptoms, together with the delirium, would disappear from hour to hour, and on waking, the little patient's consciousness was lucid, the appet.i.te good and recovery fully established. This is a triumph of art which inspires us with admiration for our science. Less surprising, but equally certain, is the relief, if Apis is given after the disease has lasted for some time. In such a case, the medicine first excites a combat between the morbific force and the conservative reaction. The greater the hostile force, the longer the struggle between momentary improvement and aggravation of the symptoms; it may sometimes continue for one, two, or three days. It is not until now, that a progressive and permanent improvement sets in. The desire to vomit is gone; the twitching, trembling, and the struggle, generally diminish from hour to hour; consciousness returns; the squinting and the dilatation of the pupils abate; gritting of the teeth and protrusion of the tongue cease; the position and movements of the head and limbs become more natural; the pulse becomes more regular; its slowness yields to a more normal frequency; the feverish heat terminates in sweat which affords great relief, and the retention of stool and urine is succeeded by a more copious action of both the bowels and bladder. The natural appet.i.te returns; the reproductive process is restored; sleep is quiet and refres.h.i.+ng, and recovery is perfectly established in an incredibly short period. A cure of this kind generally requires five, seven, eleven, and fourteen days. This result is so favorable, that those who have not witnessed it, or who are too ignorant and egotistical to investigate the facts, may reject it as incredible.
Such brilliant results are obtained by means of a single drop of Apis, third attenuation. I mix a drop with seven tablespoonfuls of water, and give a dessert-spoonful every hour, or every two or three hours; the more acute the attack, the more frequently the dose is repeated; this method generally suffices to effect a cure more or less rapidly. As long as the improvement progresses satisfactorily, all we have to do is to let the medicine act without interfering. If the improvement is arrested, or the patient gets worse, which sometimes happens in the more intense grades of this malady, the best course is to give a globule of Apis 30, and to watch the result for some twenty-four hours. After the lapse of this period the improvement will either have resumed its course, or else it will continue unsatisfactory. In the latter case we should give another dose of the above-mentioned solution of Apis 3. Not unfrequently I have met with patients upon whom Apis acts too powerfully, causing pains in the bowels, interminable diarrha, of a dysenteric character, extreme prostration and a sense of fainting. In such cases the tumultuous action of Apis is mitigated, and the continued use of this drug, rendered possible by giving Apis in alternation with Aconite in water, every hour or two hours.
Except such cases, I have never been obliged to resort to other accessory means.
_Apis is no less efficacious against the higher grades of ophthalmia._
It is particularly rheumatic, catarrhal, erysipelatous, and dematous ophthalmia, which is most rapidly, easily, and safely cured by Apis, no matter what part of the eye may be the seat of the disease.
The symptoms 188-307 distinctly point to the curative virtues of Apis in ophthalmia: ”Sensitiveness to light, with headache, redness of the eyes; he keeps his eyes closed, light is intolerable, the eyes are painful and feel sore and irritated if he uses them; weakness of sight, with feeling of fullness in the eyes; twitching of the left eyeball; feeling of heaviness in the eyelids and eyes; aching, sore-pressing, tensive, shooting, boring, stinging, burning pains in and around the eyes, and above the eyes in the forehead; redness of the eyes and lids; secretion of mucus and agglutination of the lids; the lids are swollen, dark-red, everted; the conjunctiva is reddened, full of dark blood-vessels which gradually lose themselves in the cornea; the cornea is obscured, smoky, showing a few little ulcers here and there; profuse lachrymation; stinging itching in the left eye, in the lids and around the eye; sensation of a quant.i.ty of mucus in the left eye; sensation of a foreign little body in the eye; soreness of the canthi; styes; dema of the lids; erysipelatous inflammation of the lids.”
I have found the correctness of these observations uniformly confirmed by the most satisfactory cures of such affections. I use the medicine in the same manner as for acute hydrocephalus. In some cases I found the eye so sensitive to the action of Apis, that an exceedingly violent aggravation of the inflammatory symptoms ensued, which might have proved dangerous to the preservation of such a delicate organ as the eye.
Inasmuch as it is impossible to determine beforehand the degree of sensitiveness, I obviate all danger by exhibiting Apis in alternation with Aconite in the manner indicated for hydrocephalus. By means of this alternate exhibition of two drugs, we not only prevent every aggravating primary effect, but we at the same time act in accordance with the important law, that, in order to secure the effective and undisturbed repet.i.tion of a drug, we have first to interrupt its action by some appropriate intermediate remedy. All repet.i.tions should cease as soon as a general improvement sets in; if the medicine is continued beyond the point where the organism is saturated with the drug, it acts as a hostile agent, not as a curative remedy. This important point is known by the fact, that the improvement which had already commenced, seems to remain stationary; the patient experiences a distressing urging to stool, a burning diarrha sets in, and a disproportionate feeling of malaise develops itself. Under these circ.u.mstances, a globule of Apis 30 will quiet the patient, and the action of the drug will achieve the cure without any further difficulty, and without much loss of time, unless psora, sycosis, syphilis, or vaccine-virus prevail in the organism, or sulphur, iodine or mercury had been previously given in large doses. In the presence of such complications Apis will prove ineffectual until they have been removed by some specific antidote. After having made a most careful diagnosis, a single dose of the highest potency of the specific remedy be given, and be allowed to act as long as a trace of improvement is still perceptible. As soon as the improvement ceases, or an aggravation of the symptoms sets in, Apis is in its place and will act most satisfactorily. We then give Apis 3 in water, as mentioned above, with the most satisfactory success.
_Apis is the most appropriate remedy for inflammation of the tongue, mouth, and throat._