Curiosities of Medical Experience Part 33

It has been advanced by the opponents of h.o.m.oeopathy that the insignificant dose of three or four medicinal globules cannot possess any power, since one might swallow a thousand of them with impunity. To this it is answered, that it is only under certain morbid conditions that these medicines act by their h.o.m.oeopathic affinities. Moreover, it is well known that small doses of medicinal substances will frequently produce more powerful effects than larger quant.i.ties. Tartar-emetic, sugar of lead, calomel, afford daily instances of this fact; and it is also admitted that many substances act differently upon the healthy or the sick. An individual in health can take any food without apprehension; but when his functions are deranged, the slightest imprudence in regimen may lead to serious consequences. There are primordial and inscrutable peculiarities in our const.i.tution that cannot be accounted for; and the medicine which relieves one patient will aggravate the sufferings of others. The exhalations of the American _rhus_ are deadly to some persons, but innocuous to others; and many poisons which cause instantaneous death to some animals may be given with safety to others. Whence has arisen the controversy regarding damp sheets, which many maintain are not dangerous, simply from the fact that a healthy person with a vigorous circulation may sleep in them with impunity, when a feeble and languid subject will be exposed to some dangerous determination of blood?

A learned writer already quoted thus expresses himself on this matter:[40] "The virtues of medicines cannot be fairly nor beneficially ascertained by trying their effects on sound subjects, because the peculiar morbid condition which they are calculated to remove does not exist." It may be said that this observation militates against the h.o.m.oeopathic experiments, and to a certain extent it evidently does; but it cannot be inferred that because a medicinal substance will occasionally act differently in health and in disease, that it may not frequently operate in a similar manner when the morbid condition does prevail, since it is generally admitted that medicines act in a relative manner according to the state of the system. Hence cla.s.sifications of medicines are too frequently erroneous and imperfect. The doses of medicines determine their effects. Linnaeus says, "Medicines differ from poisons, not in their nature, but in their dose;" and Pliny tells its aphoristically, "_Ubi virus, ibi virtus_." According to their doses, medicines will produce a general or a local effect; and Dr. Paris, whom I feel much gratification in quoting, lays down as a rule that "substances perfectly inert and useless in one dose may prove in another active and valuable." It would be foreign to my purpose to enter more fully into this most important subject; but the cases which shall be adduced will be deemed sufficient to convince the most incredulous, of the power of h.o.m.oeopathic doses.

Those who have denied this property have boldly attributed h.o.m.oeopathic cures to dietetic means. Admitting this statement by way of argument, surely, if any observer, by ascertaining the peculiar action of our ingesta, can so regulate the regimen as to produce salutary effects without the aid of medicine, mankind would be most essentially benefited.

How many persons do we not daily meet with, who have never taken any medicine since their childhood, when maternal care strove to destroy their digestive organs with apothecary's _stuff_, and who regulate their functions by mere attention to their mode of living. I know one gentleman, a physician, who relieves constipation by green chilies; another, with cold milk; a third, with warm milk: in some habits spinach and sorrel will act as a powerful and safe aperient; in others, cheese, or a hard egg, will operate in a contrary way. Fermented and spirituous liquors all possess specific properties. Some gouty persons cannot drink Claret without bringing on a paroxysm, and others dread a gla.s.s of Champagne or Burgundy. Nay, different wines have been known to bring on arthritic attacks in particular parts; and I have known Champagne to produce gout in the wrist, and Burgundy in the knee, in subjects who under other circ.u.mstances never experienced the disorder in those articulations. Our peculiar aversion, nay, our dread, of various alimentary substances are well known. The odour of cheese, of strawberries, have occasioned fainting and convulsions; and in certain const.i.tutions, several articles of diet bring on indigestion. In short, the study of our ingesta is one of the greatest importance; and here again the h.o.m.oeopathist is ent.i.tled to our best thanks.

This investigation will moreover prompt physicians to be more attentive in inquiring into the various effects of alimentary and medicinal substances on their patients. Instead of hastily drawing out routine prescriptions for such and such a disorder, they will accurately ascertain the physical and moral condition of the subject, taking into due consideration previous habits, predispositions, and pursuits in life. Indeed, it would be desirable that pract.i.tioners followed the example of army medical men, who keep an exact register of every individual they attend, and in which is diligently recorded every circ.u.mstance connected with the disease and its treatment.

Moral influence has also been called into aid in opposition to this practice, and cures have been attributed to the mere power of fancy and credulity. We have certainly known superst.i.tion and mental imbecility to be productive both of good and evil,--to have created some maladies, and cured others; but h.o.m.oeopathy has succeeded when the patient was unaware of the treatment to which he was submitted. But, conceding the point, and admitting that inert substances, such as starch, (and this experiment was resorted to in Paris,) may have obtained singular beneficial results,--the results of a weak imagination, this circ.u.mstance alone would be ill.u.s.trative of the power of moral agency; and who would not gladly wish for a mental relief in lieu of a nauseating and injurious course of medicine?

Others will exclaim, although the h.o.m.oeopathist disavows the _vis medicatrix naturae_, that he solely succeeds by leaving the malady to the salutary efforts of the const.i.tution. Here again we must admit, that, were we to leave many diseases to run their course, we might be more successful in obtaining a cure than by a rash and detrimental interference, founded on the principle that a physician "must order something."

But the facts I am about to record,--facts which induced me, from having been one of the warmest opponents of this system, to investigate carefully and dispa.s.sionately its practical points,--will effectually contradict all these a.s.sertions regarding the inefficacy of the h.o.m.oeopathic doses, the influence of diet, or the agency of the mind; for in the following cases in no one instance could such influences be brought into action. They were (with scarcely any exception) experiments made without the patient's knowledge, and where no time was allowed for any particular regimen. They may, moreover, be conscientiously relied upon, since they were made with a view to prove the fallacy of the h.o.m.oeopathic practice. Their result, as may be perceived by the foregoing observations, by no means rendered me a convert to the absurdities of the doctrine, but fully convinced me by the most incontestable facts that the introduction of fractional doses will soon banish the farrago of nostrums that are now exhibited to the manifest prejudice both of the health and the purse of the sufferer.

CASE I.

A servant-maid received a blow of a stone upon the head. Severe headache, with dizziness and dimness of sight, followed. Various means were resorted to; but general blood-letting could alone relieve the distressing symptoms, local bleeding not having been found of any avail. The relief, however, was not of long duration, and the distressing accidents recurred periodically, when abstraction of blood became indispensable. Reduced by these frequent evacuations, I was resolved to try the boasted "bleeding globules" of the h.o.m.oeopathist, when, to my great surprise, I obtained the same mitigation of symptoms which the loss of from twelve to sixteen ounces of blood had previously accomplished. Since the first experiment no venesection became necessary, and the returns of the violent headache were invariably relieved by the same means.

CASE II.

An elderly woman was subject to excruciating headache, with an evident determination of blood to the brain. Numerous leeches were constantly applied. The usual remedies indicated in similar affections were resorted to, but only afforded temporary relief. A h.o.m.oeopathic dose of aconite was given, and the relief that followed was beyond all possible expectation.

CASE III.

My much-esteemed friend Dr. Grateloup of Bordeaux was subject to frequent sore-throats, which were only relieved by local blood-letting, cataplasms, &c., but generally lasted several days, during which deglut.i.tion became most difficult. I persuaded him to try a dose of the belladonna, neither of us having the slightest confidence in its expected effects. He took the globules at twelve o'clock, and at five P.M. the tumefaction of the tonsils, with their redness and sensibility, had subsided to such an extent that he was able to partake of some food at dinner. The following morning all the symptoms, excepting a slight swelling, had subsided.

Since this period Dr. G. has repeatedly tried the same preparation in similar cases, and with equal success. In my own practice, I can record seven cases of cynanche tonsillaris which were thus relieved in the course of a few hours.

CASE IV.

H--, a young woman on the establishment of the Countess of --, was suffering under hemiplegia, and it was resolved by Dr. Brulatour and myself to try the effects of nux vomica. At this period the wonders of the h.o.m.oeopathic practice had been extolled to the skies by its advocates, and we were resolved to give one of their supposed powerful preparations a fair trial. The girl was told that the powder she was about to take was simply a dose of calomel; and on calling upon her the following morning we did not expect that the slightest effect could have been obtained by this atomic dose, when, to our utter surprise, the patient told us that she had pa.s.sed a miserable night, and described to us most minutely all the symptoms that usually follow the exhibition of a large dose of strychnine.

It is but fair to mention that the h.o.m.oeopathic treatment did not cure the disease; but the manifest operation of this fractional dose, that could not possibly be denied, is a fact of considerable importance.

CASE V.

Mrs. ---- of Brompton, Bow, had laboured under hectic fever for several months, and was so reduced by night perspirations, that she was on the very brink of the grave. Called into consultation, I frankly told her husband that every possible means known in the profession had been most judiciously employed, and that I saw no prospect of obtaining relief. At the same time I mentioned to him that the h.o.m.oeopathic pract.i.tioners pretended that they had found the means of relieving these distressing symptoms, which he might submit to an experimental trial if he thought proper. He immediately expressed his wish that it should be adopted. I gave her a h.o.m.oeopathic dose of phosphoric acid and stannum; and, to the surprise of all around her, the night sweats did not break out at their usual hour,--three o'clock in the morning. What renders this case still more interesting is the fact of these perspirations recurring so soon as the action of the medicine ceased; a circ.u.mstance so evidently ascertained, that the patient knew the very day when another dose became necessary.

CASE VI.

A daughter of the same lady was subject to deafness, which I attributed to a fulness of blood. This cause I clearly ascertained by the relief afforded by the application of a few leeches behind the ear. I was therefore induced, on a recurrence of the complaint, to endeavour to diminish vascular action by a dose of aconite. The effects were evident in the course of four hours, when the deafness and the other symptoms of local congestion had entirely disappeared.

I could record numerous instances of similar results, but they would of course be foreign to the nature of this work. I trust that the few cases I have related will afford a convincing proof of the injustice, if not the unjustifiable obstinacy, of those pract.i.tioners who, refusing to submit the h.o.m.oeopathic practice to a fair trial, condemn it without investigation. That this practice will be adopted by quacks and needy adventurers, there is no doubt; but h.o.m.oeopathy is a science on which numerous voluminous works have been written by enlightened pract.i.tioners, whose situation in life placed them far above the necessities of speculation. Their publications are not sealed volumes, and any medical man can also obtain the preparations they recommend. It is possible, nay, more than probable, that physicians cannot find time to commence a new course of studies, for such this investigation must prove. If this is the case, let them frankly avow their utter ignorance of the doctrine, and not denounce a practice of which they do not possess the slightest knowledge.

Despite the persecution that _Hahnemannism_ (as this doctrine is ironically denominated) is at present enduring, every reflecting and unprejudiced person must feel convinced that, although its wild and untenable theories may not overthrow the established systems (if any one system can be called established), yet its study and application bid fair to operate an important revolution in medicine. The introduction of infinite small doses, when compared, at least, with the quant.i.ties formerly prescribed, is gradually creeping in. The history of medicine affords abundant proofs of the acrimony, nay, the fury, with which every new doctrine has been impugned and insulted. The same annals will also show that this spirit of intolerance has always been in the _ratio_ of the truths that these doctrines tended to bring into light. From the preceding observations, no one can accuse me of having become a blind bigot of h.o.m.oeopathy; but I can only hope that its present vituperators will follow my example, and examine the matter calmly and dispa.s.sionately before they proceed to pa.s.s a judgment that their vanity may lead them to consider a final sentence.

DOCTRINE OF SIGNATURES.

One of the most absurd medical doctrines that ever prevailed in the dark aeras of science was the firm belief that all medicinal substances displayed certain external characters that pointed out their specific virtues. This curious theory may be traced to the Magi and Chaldaeans, who pretended that every sublunary body was under a planetary influence. To find the means of concentrating or fixing this stellary emanation became a cabalistic study, called by Paracelsus the "_ars signata_;" and talismans of various kinds were introduced by the professors of sideral science. The word talisman appears to be derived from the Chaldaean and Arabic _tilseman_ and _tilsem_, which mean characteristic figures or images.

Paracelsus, Porta, Crollius, and many other philosophers and physicians, cherished this vision, which had been transmitted to them through the dense mists of superst.i.tion from more ancient authorities; amongst others, Dioscorides, aelius, and Pliny.

The _lapis aet.i.tes_, or eagle-stone, which was supposed to be found in the nests of this bird, but which, in fact, is nothing more than a variety of iron-ore, was said to prevent abortion if tied to the arm, and to accelerate parturition if affixed to the thigh. This conceit arose from the noise that seemed to arise from the centre of the stone when it was shaken: "aet.i.tes lapis agitatus, sonitum edit, velut ex altero lapide praegnans." From this absurd hypothesis sprung the doctrine; and the very names of plants were supposed to indicate their specific qualities. For instance, the _euphrasia_, or eye-bright, exhibiting a dark spot in its corolla, resembling the pupil of the eye, was considered efficacious in affections of that organ. The blood-stone, the _heliotropum_, from its being marked with red specks, was employed to stop haemorrhage; and is to this day resorted to in some countries, even in England, to stop a bleeding from the nose.[41] Nettle-tea was prescribed for the eruption called _nettle-rash_. The _semecarpus anacardium_, bearing the form of a heart, was recommended in the diseases of this viscus. The _ca.s.suvium occidentale_, resembling the formation of a kidney, was prescribed in renal complaints; and the pulmonary lichen of the oak, the _sticta pulmonaria_, from its cellular structure, was esteemed a valuable substance in morbid affections of the lungs. Deductions still more absurd, if possible, are recorded: thus saxifrage, and other plants that grow in rocky places, embodied as if it were in calcareous beds, were advised to dissolve the stone; and the _echium_, bearing some faint resemblance to a viper, was deemed infallible in the sting inflicted by this reptile. The divers colours of substances supposed to be medicinal were also another _signature_. Red flowers were given for derangement in the sanguiferous system, and yellow ones for those of the bile. In Crollius's work, ent.i.tled "_De Signaturis Plantarum_," many curious observations may be found; and Sennert, Keuch, Dieterich, and other writers displayed great industry in the division of these signatures, which, by the ancients, were considered as something denoting no particular quality, and were then called [Greek: asemoi charakteroi]; or [Greek: semantikoi], when their virtues were evident.

Amongst the various influences and indications that were attributed to colours, black was especially considered as the mark of melancholy.

Baptista Porta affirms, that if a "black spot be over the spleen, or in the nails, it signifies much care, grief, contention, and melancholy."

Cardan a.s.sures us that a little before his son's death he had a black spot, which appeared in one of his nails, and dilated itself as he approached his end.

While nature was thus supposed to mark the virtues of her productions on their external configuration, man a.s.sumed the same authoritative power, and marked medicines with certain signs or seals. For this purpose, the ancient physicians carried signets or rings, frequently worn upon the thumb, and on which were engraved their own names, sometimes written backwards, or the denominations of the nostrums they vended. On one of these seals we find the word _aromaticu_, from _aromatic.u.m_; on another, _melinu_, abbreviation of _melinum_,--a collyrium prepared with the alum of the island of Melos. A seal of this kind is described by Tochon d'Annecy, bearing the words _psoric.u.m crocodem_, an inscription that has puzzled medical antiquaries. The word _psoric.u.m_ was applied to an eruptive affection of the eye; and Actuarius mentions a _collyrium psoric.u.m_ of aelius; while Marcellus Empiricus records the virtues of the _psoric.u.m stratiotic.u.m_, which restored sight in twenty days to a patient who had been blind for twelve years; but, when it was applied, it was ineffectual, unless the words "_Te nunc resunco, bregan gresso_," were religiously p.r.o.nounced. _Crocodem_ was also supposed to apply to _crocus_ or saffron, or to _crocodes_, a remedy for sore eyes, mentioned by Galen; while some learned men refer the word to the dejections of the crocodile, which were said to possess various virtues. The earth of Lemnos was sealed with the figure of Diana, and to this day the bolar argils, brought from Greece, bear various seals and characters; hence the _bolus Armeniae_, and _bolus ruber_, are called _terra sigillata_.

The influence of colours was supposed to have been so great, that in our own annals we find John de Gaddesden, mentioned by Chaucer, ordering the son of Edward I., when labouring under the small-pox, to be wrapped up in scarlet; and to the present day, flannel, died nine times blue, is supposed to be most efficacious in glandular swellings. Tourtelle, a French army physician, has made the following singular observation on this subject: "I observed that those soldiers of the Republic who were affected with diseases connected with transpiration were more severely indisposed, and not unfrequently exhibited symptoms of putrescency, when their wet clothes had left a blue tinge on the skin, than when they had been merely wetted by the rain." The explanation of this supposed phenomenon, is simply that those men who had been coloured by their uniforms, had, no doubt, been long wearing them, saturated by incessant rains, whereas the others had merely been exposed to occasional showers. From this observation, I do not pretend to affirm that any deleterious substances in a dye might not occasion a dangerous absorption; but the accidents that may result from such a circ.u.mstance could be easily explained without having recourse to any particular influence of colour. The colour of cloth, especially in army clothing, may also materially tend to influence cutaneous transpiration, as some colours are more powerful conductors of heat than others; and it is not impossible that the French soldiers, not belonging to fresh levies, and who had always been clad in white, might have experienced some difference of temperature when marching under intense heat in dark blue and green uniforms.

Some of the terms used by the signature doctrinarians may puzzle the most learned. The Greeks called them [Greek: semantika]; and, in addition to the all-powerful _abracadabra_,--an infallible cure of ague, when suspended round the neck,--we find the magic terms of _sator_, _asebo_, _tenet_, _obera_, _rotas_, _abrac_, _khiriori_, _gibel_, engraved upon amulets. For the bite of a mad dog, _pax max_, and _adimax_, were irresistible; and for a fractured arm or a luxation, _araries_, _dandaries_, _denatas_, and _matas_, would have set at defiance the most experienced chirurgeons. I must refer the curious reader on this important subject to the work _De figuris Persarum Talismanicis_ of Guffarel, to the _Oedipus_ of Kircher, the book of Crollius _De signaturis internis rerum_, and _Isagoge physico-magico-medica_ of Elzer.

The church vehemently denounced these abominations; and we find in the council of Laodicea an injunction forbidding the priesthood the study and practice of enchantment, mathematics, astrology, or the binding of soul by amulets. These incantations were dreaded in every age. Thus Lucan:

Mens, hausti nulla sanie polluta veneni, Incantata perit.

Philosophers have justly observed that most of the diseases treated and supposed to have been cured by these mystic means, were of a nervous description, and therefore depending, in a great measure, upon moral influence. Here faith and hope a.s.sisted the physicians,--two great auxiliaries in every worldly turmoil and trouble. Therefore do we find most of these cures referred to epilepsy, paralysis, melancholy, hypochondriasis, hysteria, as well as to many periodical affections, the return of which is frequently arrested by mental impressions. A fright has checked the paroxysm of an intermittent fever; and many natural functions are impeded or brought on by a similar agency. The sight of a dentist has been often known to calm an excruciating toothache; and there is no complaint that has been cured by more singular means than this troublesome affection. In 1794, a tract was published in Florence by Dr. Ranieri Gerbi, a professor of mathematics in Pisa, ent.i.tled _Storia naturale di un nuovo insetto_, which he called _curculio anti-odontalgicus_, and which, being squeezed between the fingers, imparted to them, for the period of one year, the wonderful power of relieving toothache with the mere touch; and the author a.s.serts that by this simple process he cured four hundred and one cases out of six hundred and twenty-nine. This may be considered a branch of magnetism, and has been treated by Schelhammar, in his book _De Odontalgia tactu sedanda_.

This wonderful insect belonged to the _coleoptera_, and was simply the _curculio_ and the _coccinella septem-punctata_, well known to entomologists, and which, according to Cipriani Zuccagni, and more particularly Carradori, possessed these singular properties, which, however, subsequent experiments have fully disproved.

While we find some _charms_ having sufficient power over our weak imagination to cure diseases, there were others considered sufficiently energetic to occasion death. Sometimes a wax figure was made, supposed to represent the devoted victim, and which was pierced with a pointed instrument, each stab being accompanied by a magic imprecation:

Devovet absentes, simulacraque cerea fingit.

These means the ancients called _carmina, incantationes, devotiones sortiariae_. It is somewhat strange that this same ceremony of the waxen image to destroy the object of our hate was also employed to obtain love.

The figure was on these occasions called by the name of the person, and afterwards placed near the fire, when, as the heat gradually melted it, the obdurate heart of the lover was simultaneously softened. At other times two images were thus exposed to heat, the one of clay, the other of wax; and, while the one melted, the other became more hardened:--a vindictive feeling, to render our own heart insensible, while we mollified that of an ingrate; or perhaps with a view to render that heart inflexible to others, while it propitiated the addresses of the supplicant. Thus Virgil:

Limus ut hic durescit, et haec ut cera liquescit, Uno eodemque igni; sic nostro Daphnis amore.

Sparge molam, et fragiles incende bitumine lauros.

Daphnis me malus urit, ego hanc in Daphnide laurum.

The wishes of the ancients for those they loved were sometimes curious, and they often turned round a mystic wheel, praying that the object of their affections might fall down at their door and roll himself in the dirt.

The ancients, who daily witnessed this influence of the imagination in causing and in curing disease, have left us many valuable injunctions on the subject; and Plato thus expresses himself: "The office of the physician extends equally to the purification of mind and body; to neglect the one is to expose the other to evident peril. It is not only the body that by its sound const.i.tution strengthens the soul, but the well-regulated soul, by its authoritative power, maintains the body in perfect health."