A Case of Dysentery.
By K.L. Gupta, M.D.
In the evening of the 23d of July, 1906, I was called in to see a widow lady aged about twenty. I learned that she had passed not less than thirty stools of bloody mucus during the previous night and the morning following. She had much tenesmus during and after stool. The thirst was almost absent. The thermometer indicated the temperature of the body to be 10240. There were no tensesmus vesicae. She got four doses of Merc. sol. 6c. That night. The following morning she was no better. On the other hand, in addition to the troubles stated above, she complained of a feeling of excoriation about the anus. That night she had passed forty-five bloody stools.
Finding that the case improved not in the least, I changed the medicine, and prescribed Sulphur 30th, she having received only two doses of the remedy. The following morning I found her state as bad as before, she having passed nearly seventy stools during the last twenty-four hours. That morning I found the stools, which she had passed during the preceding night, consisted of nothing but thick, white pus, the quantity being not less than a pound. I was also given to understand that in the morning the muco-purulent stools alternated with offensive, bloody stools containing small black balls of hard faces. The high temperature of the body still persisted. The patient then began to complain of intolerable lancinating pain in the intestines. On palpation i found the whole of the transverse colon hard and extremely sore to touch. She also complained of burning in soles and palms. All the above symptoms clearly pointed to Sulphur. But as Sulphur had already been used in the 30th potency with no effect whatever, I hesitated to prescribe it again. But finding no other remedy to fit the case so well I determined to try Sulphur high. So Sulphur was exhibited in the 200th potency. The effect was magical. The next morning. I found the fever was gone, and was given to understand that all the complaints had gradually disappeared, and that she was feeling hungry. She had passed only ten stools during the last twenty-four hours, the last one or two of them being bilions, and having not the least trace either of blood or pus.
It must be mentioned here that the application of a hot poultice of the husks of wheat on the abdomen had been recommended at the time when the pain in abdomen became intolerable.
Camphor in Colic.
On the 17th of June, 1906, I went to a widowed lady, nearly sixty years old, who had been suffering from a violent colic for the last three hours. She had taken Halna (a preparation of flour and clarified butter) the preceding night, the following day being the eleventh day of the moon, which is strictly observed for fasting by the Hindu widows. I found the old lady almost mad with the pain, which she seemed to locate under the hypochondria. I learned that she had four of five purging and vomiting in the morning. But the purging and vomiting had entirely stopped for the last four or five hours: She also had passed no urine during all this time. First I Prescribed Pulsatilla 30th, then Aconite IX, but to no effect. I was informed that the colic was rather increasing. I was again called in, and on examination I found no distention of the abdomen. But the pulse was very weak. The extremities were cold. She also complained of burning within, although external coldness made her feel chilly. She was found rolling on the floor. I prescribed spirit camphor in drop doses, and gave only three doses of it. Within half an hour after the exhibition of the first dose she passed urine and the colic had almost subsided before the repetition of the dose, which was given an hour and a half later. The second dose cured her completely of the colic.
Nyctanthes in Fever. “Nothing Ailed Him.”
In January, 1906, Babu D., aged about forty-five, and belonging to a high aristocratic family, came under my treatment for an acute attack of bilions fever. Although the man himself had no faith in Homoeopathy, I was called in by his relatives, who had much faith in the method of treatment of the new school. It was nearly 8:30 P.M. when I first saw him. Finding the two-fold task of curing the patient of a noble family and of convincing a skeptic in the efficiency of the dynamic remedies, I sat down to study up the case most carefully. Learning that his son-in-Law, who was a civil surgeon, practicing in Calcutta, was to be sent a telegram to come and take up the case, I determined to make the man all right before the arrival of his son-in-law. His condition was as follows: There was marked anxiety and restlessness about his person. A Continuous moaning seemed to indicate some indescribable pain within. He had intense thirst. But the water was thrown up sometimes after it was taken. He was troubled very much with nausea and vomiting. There was a thick, furred, white coating on the tongue. The liver was much congested. The temperature of the body was 1034. The bowels were also constipated. Sweat was totally absent since he had the attack, even when the fever abated intense frontal headache was present. He told me that the first thing that I must do for him was to stop his nausea and vomiting. He also wanted to have his bowels moved, and for which he had already taken an indigenous purgative, but without effect. I at first gave him a dose of Sulphur in the 30th potency, which moved his bowels once. Three hours after the exhibition of Sulphur the temperature was found to be 1030. I then prescribed a few drops of Nyctanthis IX in A cupful of water, and ordered a teaspoonful of it to be taken when there was tendency to vomiting. The next day at about 2 P.M. I was requested by his relatives to come and see the patient at once, as he had long been sleeping, which they suspected to be a coma. When I got to the patient he was awake, and said that he had a very refreshing, sound sleep for the last three hours. The fever was gone and he was perspiring profusely from head to foot.
It is really amusing to state what happened when the doctor son-in-law made his appearance next evening to see his father-in-law quite at ease on the sofa. The only remark which he made and which I think worth mentioning is that there had been nothing serious with him. He said that the patient most probably had been a little feverish, and the symptoms appeared to be so much troublesome to him because he was an opium eater. But we are sorry to say we failed totally to understand his logic.
