Part 3 (1/2)

If the dysenteric disease has had a chance to localize itself, and to a.s.sume a higher degree of intensity, it becomes necessary to excite the organic reaction all the more frequently. Under these circ.u.mstances we repeat the medicine every hour, or every two or three hours, one globule at a time, until all further medication has become unnecessary.

It is well known that epidemic diarrha, viz., a diarrha resulting from peculiar alterations of the normal condition of the atmosphere, earth, water, indispensable food, or from other still unknown elementary influences inevitably acting upon every body, commences in the form of a simple, apparently unimportant diarrha; that it gradually increases in intensity as the processes of nutrition and sanguification become more deeply disturbed, and that it finally terminates in life-destroying cholera. All these different stages of diarrha, whether with or without vomiting, watery or papescent, of one color or another, with or without pain, with or without fever, have yielded readily, safely and thoroughly to Apis in my hands. I must except, however, cholera of the epidemic form, where I have not yet been able to try Apis for want of opportunity. As far as my personal observations go, I am disposed to affirm that the best mode of effecting a good result, is to give Apis 3 and Aconite 3, in alternation, one drop of each preparation well shaken in a bottle containing twelve tablespoonfuls of water, and giving a tablespoonful every hour or three hours, if the danger is great, and in milder cases a full drop alternately morning and evening. This treatment is continued until an improvement sets in, after which the organic reaction is permitted to develope itself, which will terminate in a few hours or days, according as the disease is more or less violent, and a.s.sistance was sought more or less early, in the perfect recovery of the patient.

This end is not always attained with equal certainty and rapidity, if Apis is not given in alternation with Aconite. In such a case, Apis alone often develops a powerful reaction, which is avoided by the alternate use of Aconite. Wherever the case is urgent, and it is important to shorten the durations of the organic reaction, the two remedies should be given in alternation. In most cases I have seen a few alternate doses give rise to a pleasant perspiration, speedily followed by quiet sleep and recovery on waking. May we not expect the same result at the commencement of Asiatic cholera, and thus arrest the further development of the disease?

Apis is no less effectual against _chronic diarrha_, more particularly if resulting, not from any deep-seated disorganizations, but from some permanent inflammatory irritation of the intestinal mucous membrane, and which causes and fosters so much distress, by rendering all normal digestion impossible and finally bringing on its inseparable companion, the last degree of hypochondria. This misery is so much more lamentable, as it is, so to say, forced upon mankind from the cradle to the grave by the still prevailing and almost ineradicable delusion of _cathartic medication_.

Scarcely has the little being seen the light of the world, when the process of purgation begins. Nurse, aunt, grandmamma, everybody, hasten to hush the cries which the rough contact of the outer world extorts from the little being, by forcing down its throat a little laxative mixture, and the family-physician, who goes by fas.h.i.+on, approves of all this. It is his habit, in after-life, to combat every little costiveness, every digestive derangement, every incipient disease, by means of his cathartic mixture, and his skill is considered proportionate to the quant.i.ty of stuff which the bowels expel under the operation of his drugs. Laxative pills, rhubarb, glauber-salts, bitter-waters, aloes, gin, etc., etc., are in every body's hands, and become an increasing necessity for millions. An ancient prejudice decrees that, to permit a single day to pa.s.s by without stool, would be to expose one's life to the greatest danger. Every year we see thousands rush to warm and cold springs that have the reputation of being possessed with dissolvent and cathartic properties. Those who cannot afford to go to the springs, use artificial mineral water in order to accomplish similar purposes. Very seldom a disease is met with, that is permitted to run its course without dissolvent or cathartic means. It is still a profitable business to sell patent purgatives, such as cider in which a little magnesia has been dissolved.

Everybody feels how offensive these things are to nature; how they attack the stomach and bowels; how they derange digestion and nutrition; how slowly patients recover from the effects of such drugs; how chronic abdominal affections, after having been eased for a while by such drugs, soon return again with redoubled vigor; how the dose has to be increased in order to obtain the same result; how the intervals of relief becomes shorter and shorter, and how, in the end, the stomach is totally ruined, and the abnormal irritation and paralysis of this viscus, with the diarrha and constipation, corresponding to these conditions, gradually lead to the complete derangement of the reproductive process.

In spite of all this, long habit has secured to these pernicious customs a sort of prescriptive right. The distress consequent upon them, increases in proportion as the reactive powers of the organism decrease, which is more particularly the case in the present generation. The suppression of these abuses has never been more necessary than in our age. Indeed, the old proverb is again verified: ”Where need is greatest, there help is nearest.”

The world is not only indebted to Hahnemann for a knowledge, but also for a natural corrective of this serious abuse. His provings on healthy persons show this beyond a doubt. Few men, if their attention has once been directed to this abuse, will feel disposed to deny its extent. Nor has a favorable change in this respect been looked for in vain, since h.o.m.opathy has now, for half a century at least, shown the uselessness of all regular methods of purgation, and the superiority of the means with which this new system accomplishes most effectually all that those pernicious methods promised to do. It should be considered a duty by every physician, to be acquainted with the new means of cure. The continued use of purgatives should be considered a crime against health.

They will soon cease to exist as regular means of treatment, and their pernicious consequences will no longer have to be relieved by remedial means. But until their use is abolished, we shall have to counteract them by adequate means of cure, more particularly the abnormal irritation and the paralytic debility, which are the most common consequences of the abuse of cathartics.

It is a most fortunate thing that we have in Apis one of the most reliable means of removing the evil effects of cathartic medicines. A single globule of Apis 30 is sufficient to this end. It is best to use it as follows: dissolve the globule in five tablespoonfuls of water by shaking the mixture well in a well closed vial, and let the patient take a tablespoonful of this solution. If this dose acts well, no repet.i.tion is necessary for the present. If this dose should not be sufficient, we prepare a new potence by throwing away three tablespoonfuls of the former solution and subst.i.tuting four tablespoonfuls of fresh water, shaking the mixture well. We give a spoonful of this second solution, twenty-four hours after the first had been given, and, if necessary, a third spoonful prepared in the same way, and even a fourth and fifth, after which we await the result, without thinking either of improvement or exacerbation.

Generally, a feeling of ease is experienced shortly after taking Apis.

The painful sensitiveness of the pit of the stomach and of the abdomen, together with the troublesome, disagreeable and oppressive distention and weight, soon disappear; the tongue gradually loses its swollen and cracked appearance, its dirty redness, its slimy coating, its sore spots, tardy indentations along its edges, the burnt feeling at its tip, which is dotted with very fine vesicles, that cause a good deal of soreness; the pappy, sour, bitter, metallic, foul taste disappears; the appet.i.te is again normal; both the previous aversion to food and the excessive craving disappear; the absence of thirst, which is so common in this condition, again gives place to a natural desire for drink, the bluish-red color and swelling of the palate and throat, and the incessant urging to hawk, decrease visibly: the distress after eating; the sour stomach with or without nausea or heartburn; the excessive rising of air; the regurgitation of the ingesta; the eructations which taste of the food that had been eaten long before; the yawning; the irresistible drowsiness when sitting; the general loss of strength; the vacuity of mind, the aversion to talking and to company, decrease more and more every day; the whole abdomen feels easier and softer: the excessive and irresistible urging to urinate, especially after rising from a chair or from bed, and accompanied by a distressing nervousness, abates; the diarrhic and abnormally colored evacuations, together with the frequent and irresistible urging, increased after eating, early in the morning and after sour and flatulent food, and accompanied by various sore pains in the r.e.c.t.u.m, diminish more and more, and give place to normal evacuations, first for days, next for weeks, although they continue to alternate more or less with constipation, or painful, insufficient, hard stool, until they terminate sooner or later, according as the disease is more or less deep-seated, and had lasted more or less long, in permanent restoration of the normal secretions and excretions of the digestive organs. At the same time the many distresses which the abnormal condition of the bowels and stomach had occasioned in the head and heart, disappear; the poor patient who had been a prey to so many sufferings, feels like one born again.

This is the general result, unless psoric, sycosic, syphilitic or vaccinine complications should be present. Unfortunately the abuse of cathartics excites these miasms if they exist in the organism, and at the same time prostrates the reactive powers of the organism, and enables its enemies to rise against it. The distress becomes more and more complicated; disorganizations, alterations of the fluids, disturbances of the a.s.similative sphere, nervous derangements from simple illusions of the sentient sphere, and occasional trembling and twitching, to spasmodic and convulsive movements, and final extinction of nervous power, marasmus of the spinal marrow or a ramolliss.e.m.e.nt of the brain; these are the consequences of such miasmatic complications.

In such a case Apis alone is not sufficient. We have to employ such antidotes as _Sulphur_, our most powerful anti-psoric which, unless it had been abused previously, never leaves us in the lurch in the presence of psora; _iodine_ which, under similar circ.u.mstances, becomes indispensable wherever psora and sycosis are combined; _b.i.+.c.hromate of potash_ or _fluoric acid_, if psora, syphilis and mercurial poisoning are united; and lastly, _tartar emetic_, or again _fluoric acid_, if the vaccine poison alone, or in combination with the other poisons, occupies the foreground.

This is not the place to treat of these special forms of human distress, and to individualize their treatment; I shall endeavor to do this on a more suitable occasion. I shall have to limit myself here to a superficial sketch of the treatment, adding merely that a single dose of the specific antidote will act best if given highly potentized, and that the improvement should afterwards be allowed to progress as long as a trace of it remains visible. But as soon as the improvement stops and an exacerbation sets in, which is not speedily followed by another improvement, or which seems to require our aid, we use Apis 3, one drop every day, until the improvement is again perceived, after which we wait until another exacerbation demands our interference. One dose of Apis is often insufficient; if not, from three to five doses will be found sufficient to mitigate the pains, and to advance the cure which Apis will complete in conjunction with the high potency that should not be repeated, and which is not interfered with by the Apis. What more precious boon for the physician and patient in these serious moments? It is only a physician who has inst.i.tuted provings upon himself, that is capable of comprehending this harmonious blending of the two therapeutic agents. He sees the well known effects of a well known cause go and come at alternate periods. What man of common sense would be willing to repudiate such evidence?

But even in a case where Sulphur and Iodine had been given to excess, and a sort of Sulphur and Iodine diathesis had been established in consequence, Apis is still the best remedy to meet this complicated derangement.

Although we may believe that the time is at hand when this kind of ignorance shall no longer be tolerated, it unfortunately is still a prevailing sin of the profession. Even if we should be unable to effect a perfect cure, yet we may afford essential relief to such patients; we may often arrest their sufferings for a longer or shorter period, and shorten the paroxysms until they become almost imperceptible. Apis is particularly instrumental in effecting this end. Diseases of the

RESPIRATORY ORGANS