Part 54

PREPARATION.--It is prepared in three degrees of strength:

No. I. Is the water that stood on decomposed vegetable matter for one week at a temperature of 90 deg. F.

No. II. Is the water that decomposed vegetable matter for two weeks.

No. III. Is the water that decomposed vegetable matter for three weeks.

(The following is an abstract of a paper on this peculiar remedy, by Dr. G. W. Bowen, that appeared in the Transactions of the Indiana Institute of Homoeopathy, 1895):

In the summer of 1862 vegetable matter of different forms was decomposed in my office in glass jars, and malaria was freely generated. Persons were hired to inhale the gas evolved in its different stages of decomposition, and a careful observation of its effects on them was made that gave me a clue to its future use, and the only reliable guide for combatting its effect when acquired naturally.

Not only did the gaseous form demonstrate, but subsequent use of the liquid product proved it capable of producing not only the three leading types that the past years had made me conversant with, but also others of a minor grade yet of unsuspected parentage.

The miser made delight of added gain, Was like a pebble on the shore again,

In comparison to the satisfactory consolation that came as a realization of the comprehension of the producing cause. Henceforth the battle need not be carried on mid the gloom of the night.

The decomposition of the vegetable matter passed through three stages or degrees. The first gave off gases freely, yet of not so offensive odor as later. After ten days or two weeks the expense of securing inhalers was more than doubled, even for one moment of time. After three or four weeks not much gas was generated, for it seemed only capable of lying still and sending its fearful odor heavenward. Inhalation of the gases evolved produced for the first week or ten days a headache, nausea, distress in the stomach, coated the tongue white, and this in from one to two hours time generally; and there, if not carried too far, would generally pass off in two or three days. Inhalations after ten days or two weeks did not produce results in less than twelve or twenty-four hours, according to time and amount inhaled. Then there was fearful headache, nausea, aversion to food, distress through the hypochondriac region, first in the spleen, the liver and stomach, and on the third day chills that would doubtless have continued on indefinitely if not interfered with.

After decomposition had gone on for three or four weeks it was ascetic and simply fetid to a fearful degree, and no results except nausea were apparent in any one exposed to it in less than three or four days. The first was extreme lassitude and loss of appetite, and apparently a continued fever, with an unlimited amount of pains and aches and a lassitude that limited locomotion.

Three vials of the watery tincture were saved, one each from the various stages of decomposition, and from these an attempt was made to make provings and find out what were the reliable antidotes to them, and thus be able to cope with my invisible foe in my daily avocation. Their provings were not carried far enough, or continued long enough to be justified in placing them in our Materia Medica, but are ample to aid and guide the future steps that ought to be taken. Its discontinuance was rendered rather necessary by my enthusiasm that led too far in a few cases, but the antidotal effects of certain remedies amply compensated me for my financial and reputational loss.

Bilious colic, nausea, cramps, diarrhoea and headaches were readily secured from a few drops of the first vial, in many cases, while the second vial gave me a large number of cases where the liver, spleen, stomach and kidneys were apparently seriously involved, and not them alone, but fair types of intermittent fever with its attendant shakes, some daily, some tertian.

With the third vial trouble came, as it did reduce many that had been able to be up and around to their beds, and unmistakably cause them to get worse, and cause them to degenerate into a typhoidal or semi-paralytic condition. In a few cases I was deprived the liberty of finding my antidotes and helping them out of the dilemma.

(Among the experiments made with these strange tinctures, if they may be so called, was the following, which is strangely confirmatory of a speculation advanced by several old physicians that consumptives are benefited, or even cured, by being exposed to malaria):

It was a lady, the last of a family of five, all others had died of consumption, and three in her preceding generation of the same disease. I doubted the probability of saving her, yet theoretically decided that as the primitive action of malaria was, first, the spleen, next the liver and stomach, that I would develop an artificial or drug disease there, in hopes that her chest would be relieved and doubtless be benefited. She was given the tincture from second vial, and on the fifth day she had a fairly perceptible chill, and a harder one the sixth and seventh. On the eighth I saw her shake for one hour, and her fever lasted over six hours. Out of pity my drug was neutralized and her health was restored, with no more cough distress in her lungs or heart. She was cured of her tendency and certainty of dying with consumption. She remained well for twelve years when she was lost to my call.

(In his search for remedies, or antidotes, for the malarial poisons, Dr. Bowen was disappointed in Eupatorium perf. In his experience the following remedies are best):

For the first or primitive effects, the remedies that did act most promptly and effectually were Nux vomica and Bryonia, thus calling to mind the effect of those remedies that experience had led me to use in the attacks that come in the summer, that are usually designated as of a bilious nature.

In the secondary form, or where my malaria seemed to be the result of the decomposition of the material or vegetable fiber, its effects were more permeating, as different symptoms were developed by it. Then a change of remedies (or chemical antidotes, if you please), became necessary, and far the best results were secured by the use of Bryonia and Arsenicum. China did not act well or give any reasonable satisfaction.

Prior and later experience give ample satisfactory proof of the utility of the use of Arsenicum in all types of an intermittent nature, yet not to discredit the fact that other remedies can and will cure this form. But that a pernicious case can, or will, be as readily restored by any other remedy, I reserve to myself the liberty to doubt. Opportunities and time have demonstrated that these two remedies are able to restore the system and remedy a majority of the diseases that are wont to make their advent in the early autumn or late in the spring.

Later, after the total decomposition of my vegetable matter had taken place, and it almost seemed to possess a demoniacal potency or power to undermine the humblest human form, then to my surprise Bryonia seemed to hold prestige and give splendid results, but needed a different assistant, one that could and would permeate the muscular system, yet slowly, and for this Rhus tox was called into requisition, and from that day to this it has not been the means of causing me a single disappointment.

(Again, and as a last quotation from this interesting paper, we quote):

Many years of observation have demonstrated one more important fact in relation to the means that will render the system less liable to its absorption, at least to that extent that it will give evidence of its presence, and that is, by the liberal use of coffee.

(In 1897 Dr. Bowen sent the following to the Homoeopathic Recorder concerning Malaria off.):

Messrs. Boericke & Tafel prepared me a new supply of it, and I have used so far only one form of it and in the one attenuation.

It was prepared in three degrees of strength:

No. I is the water that stood on decomposed vegetable matter for one week at a temperature of 90 degrees.

No. II is the water that decomposed vegetable matter for two weeks.