Part 14

7 A.M., January 10, 1893. Thank God I began this day with more comfort and more control of myself; my limbs are easier to manage; a little giddiness and staggering, and stiff, bruised sensation in my back and lower limbs. My cervical vertebra is less sore and have little pain; and altogether feel very much better. My pulse rate is 80 this A.M.; full and round; no jerks perceptible. Temperature 98 under the tongue, by the root. Mercury very slow in rising; had to keep the thermometer in a long time. I have a flushed, hot feeling in my face and head; no trembling, less staggering, and can manage my limbs fairly well. I feel as I dared not trifle with myself any further, for I am very weak. A very little exertion would make me feel very ill. I am feeling like a man who had just come from under a deadly risk; am very weak and prostrated, with every nerve on the jump. Oh, so very weak! A sinking feeling. A parched thirstiness in my throat and mouth. My tongue is clean; bowels regular; a good deal of flatus, very fetid; pale yellow, greenish urine (specific gravity 1008), smelling very fetid; same smell as the flatus; more like the smell of rotting sweet fruit or vegetables. * * *

January 14, 1893. Could not get out of bed at my usual time; very severe pain in head and back of neck, going down my back and right leg; twitches, with cold, stinging, ice-needle pricks. My right hand is feeling as if it were frozen. Pulse rate 64; full, round, but appears to have a pendulum motion or twitch. Temperature 96 3-5. Mind clear, but very weak in my body, and I can not get warm over a hot register or with hot fluids. This constant arctic cold is very hard to bear and makes me this morning feel as if I had a cake of ice on my back. My hands are blue with cold and my feet feel like lumps of ice. Headache and giddiness; could not keep from trembling while some patients were in my consulting room, and had a good deal of difficulty in steadying and controlling my voice; when excited could not get hold of the right words I wanted and dropped some when speaking, from a want of flexibility or a catch in my tongue. Pains in various parts of my body; the same locations and character. Quite a rush of business to-day and very ill-fitted to attend to it. My hands and feet blue and aching with cold, even while I was sitting over a hot register that scorched my boot leather, yet no feeling of warmth in hands or feet. A good deal of throbbing and aching in the upper part of my kidneys, the right one the sorest. Sharp pains in my bowels, near the cæcum; some trembling (when asleep it awoke me) in my right arm and left leg, with a sharp pain near the ankle joint. * * *

January 20. Awoke this morning in a shivering fit. Trembling, giddiness and headache, but not very severe. Cold arctic feeling. Pulse 68. Temperature 97 1-5. My feet, 8 A.M., cold. Severe pain in left testicle, extending through to the back to anus. Bleed very much from old piles. An aching at end of penis, and no sexual desire. A feeling as if the testicles were swollen and painful, as in orchitis; this is only a transient pain, and comes and goes at infrequent periods, or remittent in their character. I notice my urine is taking on the greenish-yellow again, and my right arm is chilly from the arctic rays. My feet are cold, and the coldness creeps up higher in my legs. A great deal of arctic feeling in and around my heart. My breath is cold. Headache, but mind clear. Cold chills run over me in various parts of my body. My hands tremble very much at times, so that I can not write. Pain in testicles and coldness, as if they were frozen. Pass a large quantity of urine. * *

January 21. 8 A.M. Did not get up before, owing to the pressure in my skull, as if it were too full; dropsy or some swelling of my brain; giddiness, and a numbness down my left leg, and a jerking upward in both of them. Some trembling and coldness around my heart, and in my lungs and down my arms. My feet were very hot in the night until 5 A.M., when they became cold, numb and jerky, upwards. My pulse rate is very slow this morning, only 56 beats. Temperature is slowly forced up to 98. I have a sensation as if my left cheek were swollen, but it is not so. Trembling very much in my hands.

2:30 P.M. Have not been warm yet to-day; very intense arctic sensation in my body and heart and lungs. Slight cough. Numbness in my right arm. Much trembling, and a sensation of inward trembling in all parts of my body. Generative organs frozen cold, and this coldness extends up my back. My feet so cold that I have burned my boots, and yet cannot get them warm. Coldness extends up to my knees. Stiffness and pain in left thigh. Cold arctic band round my head, with fulness in skull. Pulse 60. Temperature 97 4-5. Good appetite. Mentally clear, although very weak; very tired and discouraged that these feelings last so long. They seem to be all beginning over again; worse now than they were a week ago. I feel more like giving up and going to bed sick, but I cannot afford to do so, so I brace up and resist this temptation to try and find an antidote for these recurring series of feelings. * * *

January 23. Slept well until 5 A.M.; then awoke with pains in head and burning in my feet, with some trembling and stiff feeling in my lungs and heart, as if they were tied or unable to move. As I lay awake I could hear my heart pounding away, but, oh! so slow. Felt very weak and wanted to stay in bed, but after some hard thinking I got up. 7 A.M. Very weak; staggered about while dressing. Pains in the base of the brain. Pulse 64 and irregular in its beats, some of them failing altogether to declare themselves only by their absence to respond. Temperature, after being held under my tongue ten minutes, 97 2-5. Very cold in my back and over my shoulders; hands and feet are blue with cold. Itching all over my body, and as if I was bitten with fleas or bugs were crawling over me. Skin of my hands very rough and cracks are in them. My ears have a feeling as if wax were running out of them.* * *

January 26, 10 P.M. It has required a mighty effort to keep up this day. My pulse 56, slow and irregular; temperature 98. Headache, yet mind clear; backache. Weakness in all my body; my limbs so weak in walking that it was difficult to keep going, and felt as if I could lay down or drop down anywhere. What heart failure symptoms are I do not know, but fear I came very near it and yet I have resisted this feeling, and kept awake and about. Have felt very ill all the day, and am so now on retiring, 11 P.M. * * *

January 29. 9 A.M. Just after breakfast, pulse 68, temperature 99; slept very heavy, but dreamed of treating many cases of black diphtheria. Awoke, slept, dreamed the same dream again, and again the same dream, three separate times. How very singular! During these provings, I have done this three separate times. Three dreams in one night--the same dream, the same disease, the same families in my dream. This singularity caused me to lay awake wondering what this can mean. I have not any patients suffering from this disease, and I do not know of any in the town, and nothing that I know of to bring this disease to my mind. Awoke feeling very stiff and sore. * * *

January 30. Head pains again, the same old character. Sensation of swelling in my face and pain in nerves of teeth, molars. Hot feeling. Pulse, 68. Temperature, 99. Very weak, but my mind clear. Much trembling and the oppression round my heart and chest producing a suffocating feeling that makes me afraid, and I must now seek some means to arrest this difficulty and give me some relief. I know it looks cowardly to give up, but my family compels me to do something to enable me to keep about. I cannot do any more; this heart oppression makes me think of heart failure. Pulse, 56, and temperature 96. Very weak. I hope it will wear away and this trembling improve. They have been caused by this drug, one of the most powerful. I gave up and went to bed very ill. I had to keep it from my family, but I was afraid my heart would stop beating and had a very restless night. I took acetic acid, as vinegar I had in some pickles I thought changed or relieved the first class or effort of provings and caused me to stop and begin again. I think it did help me. Next day very prostrated but did not take any note of my pulse or temperature, because I had began to try to find an antidote, and this vinegar and lemon juice has relieved many of them. I fear sometimes that the trembling in my hands may never fully leave me now.

February 12, 1893. Copying my notes has brought so vividly to my memory that I can almost feel the old arctic rays through my body, and the giddiness and staggering gait of the _Heloderma hor._ days. I hope that you may have many others more courageous than I have been, whose provings will compare or improve upon this poor effort of mine.

CLINICAL.

The case of paralysis that I spoke of, whose staggering gait was called to my mind by my feelings, is now taking _Heloderma_.

In the following case, Mrs. Ford, eighty-one years of age, has been my patient several times during the last four years. She suffered from erysipelas and dropsy in the legs. In September I was again called in for the same old trouble; the usual remedies were effectual. In October she caught cold, and had also a bad fall; her symptoms were those of pneumonia, fever, delirium and cough, pain in chest and hard work to breathe, blueness of lips, tongue and cheeks, cold extremities and was very low in appetite, and appeared to be sinking. Pulse, fifty; temperature, ninety, and to all human appearance was rapidly dying; all said so, and I fully believed so, but left _Heloderma horridus_, one powder in water, and ordered her tongue to be moistened with a feather dipped in this every half hour. I did not call the next day until evening. I was waiting to be notified of her death, but no such notice coming called to see, and, to my surprise, found everything changed. I then gave _Helo. hor._ 200, every four hours, with placebos. All the bad symptoms gradually disappeared, breathing became natural, heart gained strength, pulse increased to seventy, temperature to ninety-eight and appetite became better, asking frequently for food. This continued so long as she was taking this medicine. She was so well that I ceased to attend, she having no aches or pains, was eating and sleeping well, bowels moved regularly and night watching was given up. All who saw the recovery were pleasingly surprised, and so was I, and have frequently asked myself could anything else have done this. _Lachesis_ has changed a slate colored tongue, and has aroused those who appeared to be dying for a short time, but to extend the life of one as good as dead for thirty days is a triumph for the _Helo. hor._

(To the foregoing we may add that some have thought that the proving was too sensational, but other evidence that has not appeared in print leads to the conclusion that it is essentially true, and that the proving was made by one peculiarly susceptible to the remedy. We know of one gentleman who laughed at it and in bravado took a number of doses during an afternoon. He felt no immediate effects, but during the night awoke with some very peculiar feelings that he could attribute to nothing but the _Heloderma_, and they were of such a character that he refused to take any more. It would be well to use the remedy with caution until the practitioner has gauged its powers.)

(Dr. Charles E. Johnson wrote as follows to Dr. Boocock concerning the remedy):

"I have had under treatment a case that has been pronounced incurable by many physicians. She has had most of the symptoms developed in your proving, that awful coldness being most pronounced. She has had two doses of the 200th. I learn through a neighbor that she is delighted with the result of the last medicine. The coldness has nearly disappeared, leaving a comfortable glow upon the body. She tells her neighbors this without having been informed by me what results I expected from the medicine."

(Dr. Erastus E. Case contributed the following detailed clinical case to the _Medical Advance_, July, 1897):

An auburn haired woman, 55 years of age, had numbness in the feet two years ago. It has gradually extended upward until it now includes the lower part of the abdomen.

Tingling, creeping sensation on the legs as if from insects.

Worse when lying in bed at night.

Worse from exposure to cold air.

Worse from touch; she cannot endure to place her bare feet together.

Legs insensible to an electric battery.

Legs wasting away, skin very dry and inelastic.

Ankles turn easily when trying to walk.

Numbness of the arms from the hands to the elbows.

Forgetfulness.

Melancholy with weeping.

Worse in stormy weather.

Worse when thinking of her ailments, cheered by company.

Pain in the forehead in the morning, aggravated by turning the eyes.

Tongue dry and cracked in the morning.

Swallowing difficult.

Empty eructations, especially before breakfast.

Empty, gone sensation in the stomach.

Dislikes sweet things and worse from taking them.

Sensation of constriction about the whole abdomen.

Constipation from torpor of the rectum.

Hemorrhoids and itching of the anus.

Burning in the urethra during and after micturition.

Burning and dryness of the vagina.

Palpitation and dyspnoea from slight exertion.

Drawing sensation in all the extremities.

Yellow skin.

April 11, 1895. _Heloderma horridus_ four powders, one every four hours.

April 23, 1895. Decidedly more cheerful and memory is better.

Bowels more active.

Legs more reliable, with the numbness and tingling.

No medicine.

April 26, 1895. Alarmed because the palms and soles are swollen and itching.

No medicine.

May 22, 1895. She gained rapidly in both flesh and strength, until a week ago.

_Heloderma horridus_ one powder.

Soon after this an itching eruption came all over her, which subsided without any further medication. She was restored to a fair degree of health so that she has taken care of her house and family up to the present time.

(The following arrangement of Dr. Boocock's proving was made by Dr. Lilienthal):

_Mind._--No inclination for exertion in any way.

Difficulty in remembering the spelling of simple words.

Depressed, feels blue.

_Head._--Sensation of heat in head; heat on vertex.

Headache over right eyebrow.

Pressure in head and scalp; pressure in skull as if too full.

Soreness and stiffness in occiput, extending down neck; sore spot in various parts of head.

Intense pain over left eyebrow, through eye to base of brain and down back.

Aching at base of brain.

Sharp, digging pains.

Benumbed feeling all over head.

Burning feeling in brain.

Throbbing on top of head; head sore and bruised.

Sensation of band around head.

Cold band around head.

Sensation as if scalp was drawn tight over skull.

Bores head in pillow.

Vertigo and weakness when moving quickly.

Dizziness, with inclination to fall backward.

_Eyes._--Itching of eyelids, lachrymation.

Weight of eyelids, difficult to keep them open.

_Ears._--Pressure behind left ear; pressure in ear from within outward.

Copious flow of wax.

Ears dry and scurfy.

_Nose._--Left nostril sore; ulcerated.

Dry, itching scurfs in nostrils.

Severe attack of sneezing. Fluent discharge.

_Face._--Sensation of heat. Flushes of heat.

Cold, crawling feeling from temple down right cheek.

Sensation as if pricked with points of ice.

Sensation as if facial muscles were drawn tight over bones.

Stiffness of jaw.

_Mouth._--Dryness of lips.

Soreness.

Very thirsty.

Tongue tender and dry.

_Throat._--Dryness; parched sensation.

Tingling.

Soreness, tenderness to touch.

Stinging, sore feeling in right tonsil.

_Stomach._--Acid burning in stomach.

_Hypochondria._--Gurgling in region of spleen.

_Abdomen._--Sharp shooting pain in bowels, more on left side.

Pain across pubic bones, extending down into left testicle.

Stitching pains in bowels.

Throbbing in bowels.

Rumbling in bowels.

_Stool._--Loose, copious stool, lumpy, preceded by stitches in abdomen.

Stool loose, mushy with considerable flatus.

Stool soft, dark, difficult to expel.

Hæmorrhoids swollen, itch and bleed.

_Urinary Organs._--Bladder irritable, frequent urging to pass urine.

Tenderness in urethra, with sensation of discharge.

Urine not as free as usual, muddy.

Intermittent flow.

Urine, specific gravity, 1010; greenish-yellow, fetid (decaying fruit).

_Sexual Organs._--Erections.

Cold penis and testicle, with gluey discharge.

Pain and enlargement of left testicle.

_Female._--

_Respiratory Organs._--Slight, hacking cough, with pain in left scapulæ.

Fulness in chest, requiring an effort to inflate the lungs.

Oppressed for breath from least exertion.

_Chest._--Sharp stitch through right nipple to inside of right arm.

Cold feeling in right lung.

_Heart._--Pressure at heart.

Tingling around heart.

Trembling and coldness around heart.

Oppression around heart.

Sticking pains, shooting from left to right.

Stitches in heart.

Soreness in heart, more under left nipple.

Pulse, 56-72; full and jerky.

_Back._--Stiff neck; aching in bones of neck.

Painfulness of upper neck.

Coldness across scapulæ.

Chill in back from base of brain downwards.

Pain in back; pain in lumbar muscles awakening him.

Aching in right kidney; stitch pain in right kidney.

_Upper Extremities._--Numbness of right arm and hand with trembling.

Tingling in arms and hands.

Tingling in palm of left hand and along fingers.

Drawing in left hand, followed by tingling and prickling.

Pains in hands, if holding anything for some time.

Trembling of hands.

Hands blue, cracked and rough.

_Lower Extremities._--Numb feeling around and down left thigh.

Pain in left thigh and calf as if bruised.

Numb feeling down right leg.

Coldness extending from knee to calf.

Coldness of legs and feet.

Boring sharp pain on tibia of right leg.

Sensation of tight hand around left ankle.

Trembling of limbs. Jerking of limbs.

Tingling and burning of feet as if recovering from being frozen.

Burning in feet, preventing sleep, had to put them out of bed.

Sensation as if walking on sponge and as if swollen.

Staggering gait.

Tendency to turn to right when walking.

When walking lift feet higher than usual and put down heel hard.

_Skin._--Itching of skin as from insects.

_Sleep._--Drowsiness, but inability to sleep.

Restless sleep; awakens at 3 A.M.

Awakened from sleep by jerking in head; trembling of limbs; pain in lumbar muscles.

_Fever._--Internal coldness.

Severe chill ran down back.

Cold rings around body.

Cold waves ascend from feet, or downward from base of brain.

_Nerves._--Startled easily. Trembling.

Tired feeling; very weak and nervous.

Intense aching in bones and all parts of body.

Trembling of left side; hands shaky.

Trembling can be controlled by effort of will.

_Generalities._--Stretching relieves pains in muscles and limbs.

Stitch pains going from left to right.

Weak, giddy, making it difficult to stand.

Unable to balance myself.

Movement does not increase the pain.

Throbbing all over body.

Bone pains.

JACARANDA GUALANDAI.

NAT. ORD., Bignoniaceæ.

COMMON NAME, Carroba.

PREPARATION.--The dried leaves are crushed and macerated in five parts by weight of alcohol.

(Of this South American remedy the _Dispensatory_ says it is used in Brazil and other South American countries for syphilis; sometimes under the name _Carroba_. Its value was also asserted in _British Medical Journal_, 1885. The following letter from Dr. J. F. Convers, of Bogota, to Messrs. Boericke & Tafel, throws some further light on its use; the letter is dated November 24, 1888):

_Dear Gentlemen_: Please to accept the leaves of a tree of the Bignoniacea family, called _Jacaranda gualandai_, that I send you with this, because it is very much used by our natives to cure illness of a syphilitic character. I have used the mother tincture (5 drops _pro dosi_), and the 3d dilution of it, in the treatment of blennorrhagia and chancroids with the greatest success. In my experience I have found that this medicine is a complementary and antidote to _Merc. v._

Mr. José M. Reyes, who proved the [Greek: theta] and the 2x dilution during more than one month three times a day, found the following results:

HEAD.--Vertigo on rising after stooping, with momentary loss of sight, and sensation of heaviness in the forehead. Weakness of memory and inability to study.

EYES.--_Pains and inflammation of the eyes, with redness more marked in the left eye. Sensation of sand in both eyes._ Ophthalmia, which begins in the left eye, with lachrymation and night agglutination of the eyelids. Weakness of sight. Syphilitic-like ophthalmia.

STOOL.--Diarrhoea with dark mulberry-colored stools without pain or tenesmus, but with mucus.

URINARY AND SEXUAL ORGANS.--Increased secretion of the urine. Pain in the penis. _Blennorrhagia_ with a discharge which stains the linen a dirty yellow color. _Chancroids._

THROAT.--Pain and burning of the larynx, when laughing or reading aloud, and small vesicles in the pharynx.

BACK.--Weakness of the lumbar region.

These are not doubtful symptoms.

N. B.--This remedy acts on the head at first, afterwards on the intestines, and on the eyes last.

Please try it, and make it known to our colleagues. Should it prove to be there as good as here, I assure you it will be a valued remedy.

(Dr. J. S. Whittinghill contributed the following, _Eclectic Medical Journal_, concerning _Jacaranda_):

Let me give the results of my experience with _Jacaranda_. I believe it to be a true specific for certain kinds of rheumatism. Its first trial was given a patient suffering as follows: She had had rheumatism for about ten years--never became serious. Sometimes she was nearly relieved from it; again lost much rest and sleep from it. Her wrist would become painful and very weak from ordinary labor. She always suffered very much in the morning upon any motion, and complained of being stiff. Had to have assistance in dressing. Upon sudden motion, sensation in the muscles as of tearing and being bruised--even painful upon pressure.

I gave her different remedies as they seemed to be indicated, with no results towards removing the trouble. I thought there could be nothing lost by trying _Jacaranda_. It met with decided success. She was entirely relieved of muscular pains in a few days. Had the recurrence of some symptoms in about six weeks after; tried _Jacaranda_ again with the same decided success. Some eight weeks have elapsed since, with no recurrence of muscular pains. I have tried it on three other patients with the same peculiar morning stiffness and soreness of muscles. All were relieved in a few days. They have no more muscular trouble. So I put morning soreness and stiffness of muscles as the guide in prescribing _Jacaranda_.

LAC CANINUM.

PREPARATION.--The fresh milk from a bitch is triturated in the usual way.

(The late Dr. Sam. Swan had a proving of this remedy, dog milk, in the Materia Medica he attempted to publish, but of which only one volume appeared. The work is now very rare. The following clinical cases were contributed by Dr. Philip Rice to the _Medical Century_, Vol. IX, No. 24):

_Lac caninum_ is a remedy of undoubted value, though not very thoroughly understood and consequently not very extensively used in this dread disease. And since a proving has never been made, and since we have to depend entirely upon clinical reports I feel it my duty to report a few cases in which a clear demonstration of the value of this remedy was made.