Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

tion, and I only speak of it that some of you may have an opportunity to either verify or explode the idea.

I will here give you a few cases illustrative of the foregoing : CASE I. Mrs. S; aged fifty years; had a constant feeling as of a lump in the throat-pit, or something there which she wishes to hawk up; more annoying at times than at others. Examination with the throat-mirror revealed large glandular hypertrophies at the base of the tongue, which were removed at two sittings, followed by complete relief of the annoying symptoms.

CASE II. Mrs. P—; aged about forty years; whenever she took cold always had a long-lasting and severe cough; had been treated by an old-school physician, receiving no benefit, the cough wearing off with the approach of warmer weather. I was called during one of these attacks and succeeded in relieving her by the proper homœopathic remedies. In about a year from that time I was again called, this time an unusually severe attack, lasting for a month or two, and had been treated by the family physician (old school) during that time, without benefit; the cough kept her awake nights and extremely busy during the day. I prescribed and succeeded in only ameliorating. Examination discovered two large hypertrophies on each side of the tongue; applications of nitrate of silver sol. afforded some relief, but not lasting. I then advised the removal of the growths, and, with her consent, did so in two sittings, almost immediately curing the cough.

CASE III. A lady of about twenty-eight or thirty years of age, had a cough for a long time; throat became irritated and raw; she was losing flesh and was gradually assuming a cachetic appearance. Examination of throat revealed slight congestion of the laryngeal mucous membrane, while the base of the tongue was highly congested and raw in patches slightly with two small hypertrophies on either side of the median line, touching the epiglottis. This case I treated with nit. solution, and after about four applications the cough entirely disappeared, improving rapidly with the first application.

There are many cases with which I might continue, but I will simply say that I have rarely met a case that has not received almost immediate relief, and in many a second application was not needed. By this means, I have been enabled to cut short cases which would have undoubtedly required a much longer time by medication alone. In cases of great hypertrophies, the applications only relieve for a short time, and the only way to permanently and speedily relieve is by their removal.

COMPOUND FRACTURE OF THE TIBIA AND FIBULA:

BY N. W. RAND, M.D., MONSON, MASS.

[Read before the Massachusetts Homeopathic Medical Society.]

A CASE.

I hope no one has inferred from my title that I intend to give a general resumé, or enter into any discussion, of the literature relating to this subject. For your sakes I will forego all the advantages that such a course would be to myself, and only ask your attention to the brief report of a case which has been of unusual interest to me.

Memorial day in Monson, as elsewhere, is a legal holiday, and Monson boys, like others on such occasions, are more likely to be engaged in rollicking sports than in the recollections of departed heroes.

P. W, aged eight years, with his companions had been thus enjoying the day. Everything had passed off happily, and as night approached, he with a lad of his own age and an older brother were leisurely enjoying themselves upon an old-fashioned see-saw, commonly known as a "teeter." The older brother could out balance the two smaller boys, and so had everything his own way. He amused himself by sitting on the ground and holding them aloft, until the thought occurred to him that it would be great fun to slip off and let them suddenly drop. He did so, and his little brother unfortunately came down with the right foot under the end of the plank.

The blow broke both bones just above the ankle, their rough ends lacerated flesh and stocking, and that of the tibia was driven into the dirt. His companions took him up and, placing him on a rude seat, made him as comfortable as possible. Here I found him with his foot turned out at nearly a right-angle from the leg. With the help of the boys I succeeded in finding a narrow strip of board, to which, with our handkerchiefs, I bound the broken leg as firmly as possible. We lifted him into a carriage and took him home. I asked for assistance, and Dr. F. W. Ellis, a friendly surgeon in the place, responded to the call. Having placed our patient under the influence of ether, we removed his clothing and proceeded to extract from the wound the remaining fragments of bone. We then washed out the cavity, together with the protruding tibia, with a solution of carbolic acid. By making steady traction upon the foot and exercising moderate force in manipulating the fractured bones, we were surprised at the facility with which they slipped back into their normal position.

Iodoform was thoroughly applied and the wound closed, except at its most dependent part, with silk sutures. No drainage tube was used. Ahl's felt splints, well padded with oakum,

were applied, and extension obtained by means of weight and pulley. As soon as possible we exchanged the mode of extension for an especially devised apparatus consisting of a long side splint, foot-rest and fracture box; the extension being made by the long splint, above from the perineum and below from the foot.

We anticipated that inflammation and suppuration would necessitate much careful attention on our part, and frankly told the parents that there was yet a possibility that the leg might have to be amputated.

We watched for surgical fever, but the temperature never arose above 100°, and as there was no excessive pain or other evidence of trouble, we waited sixteen days before disturbing the dressings. On removing the anterior splint the upper part of the wound was found to be entirely healed, and we took out the stitches. This did not expose the lowest part of the laceration; yet, as there had been no signs of suppuration, we allowed the posterior splint to remain unmolested for seventeen days longer. Its removal at that time revealed the fact that there had been quite a little discharge of pus which, having dried, had caused the oakum to adhere to the skin, and it was perceived that at one point a slight discharge still continued.

After a few days this had ceased and a small collection of pus had gathered at the point where the provisional callus approached most nearly the surface, This discharged, however, but a short time, and gave no further trouble.

In just six weeks and two days from the time of injury the box and extension splint were removed, and the little fellow allowed to sit up and move about. From that time until the present the limb has been constantly improving.

I saw him last Monday, and he was going without his crutches although he had not entirely discarded their use. His legs are now of exactly equal length, and the broken one is rather the straighter of the two. I do not mean to intimate that it is better than the other, or as good as it was before, but that the application of the splints has reduced the natural curve of the tibia is evident. He has perfect use of the ankle, and the extent of the deformity in any way is scarcely noticeable.

But it

Doubtless some of you older surgeons would have considered this case too ordinary to justify so extended a report. was the worst mutilated limb that either Dr. Ellis or I had ever seen saved, and we congratulate ourselves upon having been able to assist in restoring it to so nearly its normal condition in form and usefulness.

A CAREFUL PHYSICIAN.-Rich patient (wearily)-Doctor, do you think I'll be well very soon? Doctor (absent-mindedly)—Not if I can help it.-Washington Post.

THE SCIENTIFIC AND PHYSICAL BASIS OF HOMEOPATHY.

BY A. F. MOORE, M.D., WEST SHREWSBURY, VERMONT.

(Read before the Vermont Homœopathic Medical Society.)

Not all diseases are dynamic. It has been proved that bacteria do cause at least some diseases, if not all. And it has been found that they do it by means of poisonous products of fermentation, called ptomaines, which they form and excrete in their life processes. Thus, as the yeast organism forms alcohol (and carbonic acid), so there are at least eight varieties of bacteria which are capable of producing lactic fermentation in milk, sterilized; that is, they produce the ptomaine, lactic acid. These are the micrococcus lacticus, bacterium lactis aerogenes, bacterium coli commune, staphylococcus pyogenes, (further divided into aurcus, albus and citreus by their manner of growth under cultivation), streptococcus pyogenes (of erysipelas), and the bacillus of pneumonia. Brieger found "that the pneumococcus of Friedländer and Frobenius is capable of producing formic and acetic acids and alcohol from carbohydrates." Pouchet isolated from the watery and almost colorless fæces of cholera patients an alkaloid, very poisonons even by inhalation of its vapor, which was identical with that found in cultures of Koch's comma bacillus of cholera. In the dirt of old gardens and dust and mould of old buildings is found an "anaerobic bacillus capable of producing symptoms of traumatic tetanus in animals, in cultures of which two alkaloids were found by Brieger endowed with similar physiological action. And the same were found in cultures bred, by Rosenbach, of the same bacillus from a wound of a man who died of tetanus. Both these alkaloids, or ptomaines, produce tetanus." The bacillus tuberculosis has been demonstrated to be the cause of tuberculosis. And Prof. Hermann M. Biggs, of Bellevue Hospital Medical College, says the disturbance of nutrition in this disease is due in part to the long continued fever, "but probably to a far greater extent to the action of a chemical poison resulting from the life processes of the tubercle bacilli. This latter view has received great support in an experimental way from observations in which it has been shown that there is a progressive loss of weight and strength, with anorexia, gastric irritability, etc., produced in various animals by the daily injections of increasing quantities of an alcoholic extract of the sputum from cases of pulmonary tuberculosis. The symptoms produced are proportionate to the amount of the extract employed, and finally, if the injections are continued, death results." Of course no tubercles are produced because no bacilli are injected to cause them, but the emaciation and death follow, the same as in consumption, for

the ptomaine formed by the bacilli is in the fluid injected. Incidentally we may remark that it is not the tubercle which kills, but the ptomaine, - (paratoloid or tuberculin of Prof. Koch), produced by the bacillus tuberculosis, which causes death in tuberculosis unaccompanied by purulent formations, as may be inferred from the above. Finally, to conclude our list for the purpose in hand, cheese sometimes becomes very poisonous when certain microbes have begun the work of putrefaction in it; and if such cheese is eaten, it causes a violent cholera-morbus. These microbes are of the class called spirillum, to which the comma baclllus of Prof. Koch belongs, and they are called spirillum tyrogenum. It has been pretty clearly demonstrated that the comma bacillus produces cholera. And Brieger obtained from cream-cheese which had undergone complete putrefaction through the agency of spirillum, tyrogenum neuridene and trimethylamine. Vaughn obtained from cheese which had caused symptoms of poisoning, a crystalline substance which caused, when placed upon the tongue, a sharp, burning sensation, dryness of the throat, a sense of discomfort, and diarrhoea." This substance was given the name of tyrotoxicon, said to be probably a diazobenzol; and a similar substance has been found in milk, capable of producing "nausea, vomiting, dryness of the fauces, a sense of constriction of the throat, colic, purging, and a tendency to collapse in some, in others a tendency to stupor," when taken with the milk; and when isolated, caused "nausea, dryness of the fauces, and headache in the human subject, and purging and vomiting in a dog." But all the poisonous symptoms of this ptomaine are easily and quickly removed by the homœopathic remedy.

The writer was once one of a number badly poisoned by such cheese, and had all the symptoms detailed above as caused by tyrotoxicon. They were all cured in his case, in a few hours, by lobelia inflata 3x. But how did it cure? Of course because

it is able to produce symptoms similar to those which tyrotoxicon causes; hence must have similar chemical constitution and physiological action, for no two chemically dissimilar substances have been proved to produce exactly the same "totality of symptoms." Again, cod-liver oil has been found to be the best antidote for the progressive waisting and chilliness of tuberculosis. And it is not because of its food propities, for it is equally or more efficient in the Ix potency, made according to Neidhart's rules, in Hale's Materia Medica, than when taken in bulk, as the writer has proved in many instances. But the proving of cod-liver oil in Hale's Materia Medica shows that it is capable of producing the same progressive loss of weight and strength, anorexia, dyspepsia, and constant chilliness, with dis

« PředchozíPokračovat »