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to the class as to whether he was minus a shirt sleeve, or some other man.

I have never seen such a case. But I have seen poverty and distress and some unique cases, a few of which I will relate.

CASE 1.

I was called one summer evening five miles into the country. I found a three year old child looking out through a hole in her eyelid, caused by the sharp hoof of an unshod colt. The wound was a clean longitudinal incision three-quarters of an inch long, through to the ball without injury to the latter. I had neither suture nor chloroform with me, and five miles from my office. This was in the early eighties, when not much attention was paid to antiseptics. Rolling the child in a blanket with her arms at her side, with a piece of ordinary white sewing thread and cambric needle, and by the light of a flickering tallow dip, I placed three sutures. The eye was not bandaged. Healing was by first intention.

One bitter cold night in the winter of '88 I was summoned to go three miles into the country to see a sick child. I found a case of double pneumonia in the second stage. This child must be poulticed at once. "Have you flaxseed meal?" "No." "Have you corn meal?" "No." "Have you ground horse feed or chicken feed ?" "No." "Have you "Yes." potatoes?" "Hustle a halt dozen into the dinner pot and don't stop to peel them." In twenty minutes they were done, mashed and applied fore and aft. The child was soon breathing easier and made a slow but uneventful recovery. Irish lemons will never disappoint you, inside or outside. Thanks to potatoes and the man who invented them.

CASE 3.

One sultry day in July about fourteen years ago, I received a call to go four

miles into the country to attend a case, the nature of which I did not know. A tumble-down rail fence surrounded the house and near the front door a razorback hog was trying to establish a short cut to China; near the back door another hog, the husband of my star patient, was sleeping off a hard cider drunk. Inside the house the conditions were even worse-no hogs, but a heart-broken woman in the second stage of labor, lying upon a bed of straw, with no sheet either under or over her, covering herself as best she could with a ragged quilt, with a calico. bag filled with straw for a pillow. The only articles of furniture the room contained were the bed upon which the patient lay, and the relics of three or four chairs, as some were without backs and others without bottoms. I never saw such abject poverty. It seemed as if shiftlessness, laziness and drunkenness were the husband's cardinal virtues. A neighbor woman dropped in about the time I arrived and immediately went to her own home for supplies for mother and baby. She returned just in time for me to appropriate her apron string to tie the cord with, as not a thread or piece of twine was to be found in the house. I soon took my departure but left instructions to call the township physician for any further attention needed. God pity the poor, but cuss the lazy, shiftless and drunken.

CASE 4.

In the month of February, 1883, about midnight when the thermometer was trotting around several degrees below zero, a man aroused me from my slumber and in excited tones begged that I go with all possible speed to his house, a few miles in the country, to attend his wife, who was flooding. "Is she pregnant?" "Yes, eight months gone." I thought I knew what the trouble was and lost no time in getting there. We

passed through a cold kitchen and up a steep narrow stairway into a room minus windows and the floor partly covered with snow, and on to the northwest corner of the house and into a little seven by nine bedroom, where lay my patient on a husk mattress, insensible from loss of blood. A bed vessel stood near the edge of the bed partly filled with frozen blood. A piece of rag carpet had been placed under the bed and an icicle of blood extended from the under side of the husk mattress to the carpet. I was too cold to dispense with my overcoat. I hastily gave a hypodermic of strychnia, shoved up my coat sleeves as best I could and made an examination, finding placenta.

previa, as I had surmised. Through an opening I made in the placenta, I applied the forceps and delivered. The child, of course, was dead, but my patient showed signs of life. Wrapping a blanket about her as best I could, I lifted her out of that pool of blood, carrying her out into that windowless room through which we had previously passed, and into an adjoining bedroom which was warmed by a friendly stove-pipe leading from the kitchen stove of another tenant, and to whom this room and bed belonged. As a calm succeeds a storm, so in this case, the storm had passed and the calm of restoration and recuperation was unusually rapid and uninterrupted.

Materia Medica Notes

WORTH REVIEWING.

Cina. In whooping cough cina is often followed by drosera. The pains of cina increase on the least pressure. On drinking the least wine she shudders. (Remember

the same symptom in zinc.)

Stillingia.-Aching bone pains down the arms and legs, more in daytime than at night. The pains seem to come first in right side, then on left, going down the long bones of arm and leg. These pains are of most severe and distressing character, of syphilitic origin. Stillingia is the great anti-syphilitic remedy of the eclectics.

Mercury. The pains of this remedy are aggravated by the warmth of the bed, and sweat, which latter is extremely offensive and profuse.

Antimonium Crud.-Patient can't bear to be looked at or touched. In adults look for that peculiar whitewashed tongue, and the alternative diarrhea and constipation.

Natrum Mur.-When attempting to console patients they fly into a passion of rage and anger. Bryonia flies into a passion if he be moved or talked to. Wants to be quiet. Stool symptoms will differentiate rather closely. Natrum mur. stool usually difficult,

with blood, from dryness of the mucous membrane, fissures and the like. Byronia large, hard, dry, and black, as if burned. Natrum mur. is thin, scrawny, yellow, parchment-like face. Byronia the "retired pugilist;" deep red or purplish face; the face usually found when the lungs are filling under pneumonia.

Anacardium.-In dyspepsia and spinal irritation patient has a disposition to swear, especially when in bed and acute attacks. Compare this profanity with the same inclination in veratrum alb. The latter remedy is a cholera remedy par excellence, and seldom has hard stool.

Aconite has been found efficient in the treatment of the commencement of pyæmia, while mercury is indicated when the pyæmia has advanced.

Hepar sulph. is the main remedy to promote the pointing of boils or abscesses. (Note what Farrington says concerning the potencies for affecting this purpose.) In carbuncle or anthrax important remedies to be given are bell., lach., arsenicum, and silicea. Silicea is especially useful given internally to prevent the return of boils.

Lycopodium has great fear of being left

.

alone.

ness.

Mental, nervous, and bodily weakMuch red sand in urine. One foot cold, the other hot. The baby cries all day and sleeps all night. Nipples bleed much and are very sore. Night sweats; perspiration cold, clammy, sour, fetid, bloody, smelling like onions. Disease always worse between 4 and 8 p. m.

Magnesia mur. is best remedy given internally to children with congenital scrotal hernia. For inguinal hernia, nux vomica and opium are best.

Oxalic acid is worse when thinking of pain. It is said by some of the other schools to be almost a specific in certain forms of cancer-notably mammary.

Arnica and Spongia.-In these remedies the patient prefers to lie with the head low, especially with headaches.

Chamomilla and Platina.-Under these remedies the patient sleeps with the legs far apart.

Conium. Cancer of the breast has been wonderfully helped-and in some quarters claimed to have been cured-by giving a few doses of the 1000th potency repeated, in four weeks. Conium is known to have almost a specific action upon the breast. Bear it in mind in troublesome breasts of young girls who have been surreptitiously reading literature not of the best order for such young women. (See what Nash says about the remedy in his "Leaders.") Fluoric acid ought to cure many cases of cancer. Silicea should also be given.

In all iron springs there are small quantities of arsenic. Be on your guard, therefore, for such symptoms when treating a patient taking iron waters.

Ruta grav. for jaundice. Also dolichos when there is incessant and unbearable itching of the skin. Don't get confused with the itching of stramonium.

Graphites may be given to soften, if not wholly to obliterate, scars of wounds of the breast. Think of this remedy also in little babies who will not get dry behind the ears. These babies have a bluish, smuggy look about the shadowy parts of the face and body. Apt to be fat and chubby childrena trifle greasy and unclean. If mother, nursing the baby, is fat and "sloppy," give her capsicum, and give the baby nothing for a while.

Stannum is indicated in certain diseases, when the patient sleeps with one leg drawn up and the other stretched out.

Croton tig. is given when the patient feels tight all over; the skin feels tight, as if shut up. Differentiate from cactus, which has a constricted feeling of parts of the body, principally of the heart-as if grasped by the hand and squeezed, and then let go. Can't wear garters or tight gloves or shoescactus can't.

Arum Tri.-Child has headache; puts its hand on back of head and cries. A raw spot appears on the lip, corners of the mouth, or on nose, emitting a drop of blood. The urine is scanty. This raw spot may occur on the hand when the child bores and digs at it. Scarlet fever has been cured by it. A favorite remedy of the late Dr. P. P. Wells.

Staphisagria is well indicated when the patient bends the head forward, with the tongue dropping out of the mouth; swelling and soreness at root of tongue. Remember this remedy in newly married wife. The rhus and pulsatilla patients have relief of their muscles by stretching them.

Cina patient has the head turned to one side when asleep, though lying on the back.

Pulsatilla.-Some women in sleeping have the hands over their head. This indicates a medicine. It sometimes indicates in women a tendency to falling of the womb. The medicine most prominently indicated for this tendency is pulsatilla. Nux vomica is the next best remedy for this disposition to place hands over the head.

Arsenicum, bell., and platina are indicated where the woman puts her hands under her head. The latter remedy is also to be thought of when the woman, having extremely tender genitalia, places her hands over her head. Look for the trouble in the uterine region.

Nux Moschata. In the late stages of typhoid fever we are apt to have a tremulous tongue, teeth and tongue covered with sordes. There will be immobility of features; loss of consciousness, tonic spasm, catalepsy; the hands feeling as heavy as lead. Here nux moschata (the nutmeg) is well indicated, and will give good results.

Kali Carb.-The chills of consumption come on in the night. Feeling as if pulsations of heart went clear to the tips of fingers.-The American Physician, January.

Whooping Cough.-In all contagious diseases, the genus epidemicus must be considered and respected. I must confess that I

have never seen any marked results from the drugs which were lauded by Hahnemann and his immediate followers. Drosera may be an exception to this statement. In the early years of my practice I experimented with corallium rubrum, mephitis, coccus cacti; with tartar emetic, phosphorus, and other general cough remedies, but without suc

cess.

I have later tried naphthalin and other of the newer remedies, but only to meet with disappointment.

With all due respect to others, whose experience differs from mine, I submit the following list of medicines with which I have had every reason to be satisfied: Belladonna, or hyoscyamus, ipecac, drosera, cuprum. I generally alternate either one or the other of the first two remedies with ipecac, giving the third decimal alternation at hourly intervals while the child is awake.

Belladonna and hyoscyamus are very much alike in their symptomology, and both cover the main symptoms of a typical case of whooping cough.

But there is a difference. Belladonna has the flushed face and the injected eyeballs, which are absent when the case calls for hyoscyamus. Both have the night aggravation, but in belladonna cases the aggravation is before midnight; with hyoscyamus after midnight.

Belladonna has for a leading symptom bloodshot eyes, and during the paroxysm there are indications of suffocation.

The cough is prolonged and nervous apprehension is marked. The child dreads the cough and catches hold of the first support available.

The cough is excited by eating dry food, such as crackers or dry toast. Hyoscyamus is indicated when the cough is induced by lying down, whether in daytime or night, and is relieved by sitting up.

The symptoms are generally milder than in well-marked cases requiring belladonna. The symptoms, however, are so similar that my only guide is in the flushed face, the dilated pupils, the suffused eyes (belladonna), and the absence of these features when hyoscyamus is indicated.

Drosera is indicated in cases where catarrhal symptoms predominate. The child vomits strings of mucus and the paroxysms of cough are violent and frequent. This remedy is never indicated until the disease

is well defined and the diagnosis is unquestionable. I only use it when belladonna and hyoscyamus have been used without results or the results are required.

Ipecac is always indicated in cases accompanied with vomiting, that is to say, in all well marked typical cases. With belladonna and ipecac I have repeatedly abated an attack of whooping cough in early cases and terminated them in a week or ten days' time.

Whatever remedies are used, they should always be given in liquid-never in dry powder form.

When convulsions occur or threaten, I have come to regard cuprum met. as nearly specific.

I use the 3x with three or four tablets in water, and give it hourly and intercurrently with the other remedies. I have yet to see a case of convulsions in a victim of whooping cough that did not yield to this remedy. Especially when it has been accompanied as it always should be with the usual expedients always called for in eclampsia, regardless of cause, viz.: hot water baths, cold applications to the head, etc. During convalescence, great care should be used in the matter of clothing, diet and exposure to cold, but these matters are so generally known and understood as to be barely mentioned.-R. N. Tooker, North American Journal of Homeopathy, January.

I was called in 1894, one morning about 4 a. m., to see one of my patients, a young girl aged eighteen, who two days before had one of her molars extracted by a dentist. In spite of different treatment and liquid perchloride of iron, the bleeding was not checked. She was pale as a ghost and extremely weak, and her mouth was black from the iron. I made her rinse her mouth with water first, to have a little better view. I saw the gap and plugged it with Rohland's styptic cotton and told her to bite on it in order to secure good pressure, and gave her China xxv. gtt. in half a glass of water, every one-half to one hour. In the afternoon I was called and found the bleeding had stopped since I had left her. The next day I removed the plug. There was no hemorrhage, but for security I put another plug in. The next day I removed the plug and she was gaining strength, color of the face returned to normal. Since then I have

had four or five other similar cases, with the same result.-J. A. Arschagouni, in Jousset's Practice.

A Partial Proving of Anacardium.-Several years ago while prescribing for a student in a neighboring city who was preparing for mid-year examinations and fearful of the result, as his memory utterly failed him in the sphere of absorption, several drops of the second decimal of the drug came in contact with the back of my left hand. It was removed with a handkerchief and nothing thought of the matter until the next morning. On arising there was a slight itching, burning, prickly sensation of the hand, cheeks, eye-lids, lobes of the ear and inguinal regions. Application of hot water was decidedly disagreeable, much increasing the burning and prickly sensations. Lightly rubbing the parts gave temporary relief. As the day advanced these sensations increased in severity until evening, when the regions before mentioned were found intensely reddened, somewhat hardened, itching intolerably with the suggestion of a vesicular eruption, which was plainly evident in the morning of the next day, or about thirty-six hours after the drug came in contact with the hand. In two days more the vesicles had changed to pustules, the affected parts were much swollen, skin thickened, dry and hot around the pustules. These were opened, contents evacuated and the same train of symptoms again appeared, due in all probability to the poisonous nature of the pustular discharge. While hot water at first produced intense aggravation it was followed by the most relief-as lotions of acetate of lead, carbolic acid, alcohol and boracic acid did not in the slightest degree produce any amelioration. Searching in Hughes' Pharmacodynamics for a remedy my attention was drawn to anacardium, and there the exciting cause was discovered. Juglans cinera was mentioned as antidotal. This was tried with no results, so hot water was continued and the pustules allowed to dry up. In about ten days the skin exfoliated with the gradual cessation of the objective and subjective symptoms. My experience was

communicated to the Hahnemannian Monthly, substantially as here presented.

Three or four months later a communication was received from a homeopathic physician residing in Denver, Colorado, giving the particulars of a case under treatment with the drug, the administration of which caused the same cutaneous disturbance, and marked mental excitement which was more forcible than elegant. He wished to confirm the symptoms as described and desired information as to what gave the best result in removing them.

Substantial proof of the power of anacardium to produce cutaneous disturbances of the character mentioned having been conclusively shown, should we not expect a curative action in poisoning by the varieties of sumach, and in dermatitis, herpetiformis, herpes zoster and some forms of urticaria. During the summer the most favorable results were observed from its administration in supposed brown tail moth poisoning, the 3x being employed.-C. H. Thomas, New England Medical Gazette, January.

A Belladonna Characteristic.-A man aged seventy-seven, so demented that he is scarcely able to make known his wants or safe to be out on the streets unattended, was taken ill with a dull, heavy pain in the left hypochondrium, extending down to the iliac fosThere was slight fever, the tongue carried a yellowish white coat and there was but little appetite and no thirst. During the night before I saw him he had slept but little and moaned at every breath while awake.

sa.

He presented no especial belladonna symptoms save the moaning at every breath, and yet this remedy in the third decimal solution, taken each hour, relieved the pain entirely after a few doses and really cured him in twenty-four hours, to the great delight of his attendant.

But for this "moaning at every breath," so characteristic of belladonna, this remedy would have scarcely been thought of, and yet ignoring the symptoms of indigestion and prescribing on this one characteristic symptom alone the case was speedily cured. —W. A. Burr, The Critique, January.

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