Part 3

(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 rectum 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 anus. 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 LACTICUM.

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 Homoeopathic 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 homoeopathically 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 analogous 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 Lacticum 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 Lacticum 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 illustrating the use of the preparation is by Dr. H. Goullon and was published in Vol. II of the Zeitschrift fuer Homoeopathie:)

The following case was cured in a few days by AEthiops antimonalis after having been treated by a homoeopath who strictly followed Hahnemann's rules, but failed to make an impression beyond a certain point.

Miss A. inherited from her father, who was reported to have suffered from laryngitis, a distinct disposition to scrofulosis and tuberculosis. This was proved two years ago by a bloody cough caused by lung catarrh. After the lung was affected she suffered from profuse sweats, especially down the back, but of special interest was the appearance of a "quince colored" swelling of the size of a pea at the extreme corner of the left eye with suppuration which threatened the bulbus. A skilled specialist removed by operation this pus-hearth, which no doubt acted as a fontanel. The immediate result was a large furuncle under the arm and the affliction for which I was consulted. A patient presented herself to me whose appearance was shocking. Numerous parts of her face were literally covered with thick, elevated fissured scabs. A scrofulent liquid was oozing out, and the worst were those parts on the side of the lower lip, the nostrils and the root of the nose. On the whole, a certain symmetry could be observed in the arrangements of these frightful diseased products.

This eruption, which according to its nature must be called herpetic-eczematous, had existed for five months. The patient, who has red hair, and is between 20 and 30 years old, contracted this disease at the sight of a fainting sister. This kind of genesis is an established fact. I remember of reading in Stark's "General Pathology" of an instance where a mother was affected with eczema of the lips immediately on seeing her child fall on a knife.

Our patient, however, lost the above mentioned sweats, which proves that the fright had a metastatic effect. I learned that at first there appeared very small spots which developed into pustules, infecting half of the forehead. Scratching aggravated the condition, so that some places assumed a cup-like appearance, somewhat as favus.

When patient came to me the face was oozing so terribly that the pillow was thoroughly soaked in the morning, and she suffered greatly. When asked the nature of the pains she said that they were sometimes itching, sometimes tensive, and often indescribable, suddenly appearing and disappearing.

What should be done? Certainly no strictly homoeopathic indication presented itself since one might think of Sulphur, another of Arsenicum, Silicea, Hepar sulphur, Causticum, Mezereum, etc. In such case I have laid down, as a rule for my guidance, never to experiment at the cost of the patient (and my own as well as Hahnemann's), but to employ a so-called empirical remedy. I know AEthiops antimonialis as a very effective remedy through its recommendation (by the Berlin Society of Homoeopathic Physicians) in ophthalmia scrofulosa of the worst kind, a fact which I proved myself to be correct. In this case, also, we find the deepest and most stubborn disturbance of the organic juices and a subject with every indication of the worst form of scrofula, ending in lethal cancer--dyscrasia or tuberculosis.