STOMACH PAIN CURED BY CHAMOMILLA.
I WAS visiting a young colleague of mine with whom I was to have dinner, and found him and his wife terribly worried. Their baby, a little boy, was suffering from severe colicky pain. He cried and shrieked unceasingly and he had a very evil-smelling green diarrhoea. Besides, he was feverish. His skin was hot and dry and he breathed pantingly. His condition seemed serious.
He demanded to be carried, but he struggled all the time in the arms of the parents; he demanded his toys, but he was in a fearful temper and threw away every toy that was handed to him. I discovered that the mother had a bad cold and that she had given to the baby the breast. Obviously the cold had upset her milk and had caused colic in the child. It was quite obvious to me that this was a clear case of Chamomilla because of the childs restlessness, bad temper, desire to be carried, and green evil smelling motions.
I put ten drops of Chamomilla 2x into a wineglassful of water and told the parents to give the child every half hour a teaspoonful of the mixture. The cure was so rapid that my young colleague became an enthusiastic supporter of homoeopathy. Unfortunately he was killed in the war.
WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH A HOT SAUCER.
Years ago I had to act as locum tenens to a colleague who had to go a broad. When I arrived at his house, I found his wife in a very excited condition. Her baby cried in obvious pain and was quite inconsolable. The mother was walking up and down, carrying the child. I recommended that she should put the child to bed, heat a saucer and put it on the childs stomach, and left the house.
When I returned a few hours later I found that the good lady was still walking up and down the room with the shrieking baby. She had not tried the simple remedy I had recommended. After earnest persuasion on my part she at last put the baby down and placed a heated saucer on the abdomen. Immediately the child became quiet and a cure was effected through the gentle heat.
A DISTURBED WEDDING PARTY.
I had a very similar experience at a wedding party to which I had been invited. One of the ladies had brought her baby, who wept and cried with pain, upsetting all the people. No one knew what to do, and the guests were anxiously awaiting my arrival.
Unfortunately I did not have any medicines with me, but, remembering the previous case, I took a saucer, put it in boiling water for a few moments, wrapped it into a cloth, and put it on the childs abdomen, and in a minute the baby was quiet, smiled happily, and fell asleep. When babies and small children have pain in the stomach or abdomen, the application of warmth is the first thing to be done.
SAVED FROM IMMINENT DEATH.
With the help of homoeopathy one can often save a human being from apparently inevitable death. In a house near by there was a child who had been attacked with whooping cough of such severity that breathing was practically impossible and the little thing lay dying.
The parents sent for me, but I was at school and could not leave it. In their distress they asked my wife to help them. My wife rushed to the house. She found the child in agony, struggling for breath and there was an ominous rattle in the chest. The room was filled with women in despair who did not know what to do. My wife lifted the child up to a sitting posture, opened the mouth, put her finger deep down the throat and succeeded in drawing out a large quantity of sticky phlegm which prevented breathing.
That commonsense measure gave immediate relief. Then my wife gave to the child a few pilules of Lachesis 5, a most wonderful throat remedy if there is imminent danger of asphyxiation, as in quinsy, especially if the trouble is worst at the left side. Besides, Lachesis is a splendid heart stimulant. In half an hour the child gave a deep sigh, sat up in bed, and reached out for its toys.
A CASE OF PERSISTENT VOMITING.
I was called to a young girl who during several weeks had vomited frequently and who was rapidly losing strength and weight. She told me that she had no pain in the stomach nor anywhere else. Besides, she has no symptoms enabling me to prescribe and her tongue was clean. Sometimes the food was vomited immediately after a meal, sometimes an hour after a meal. The case was a mystery.
Should one give Ipecacuanha, which has the characteristic of a clean tongue? That drug was scarcely indicated because she did not have the constant nausea characteristic of Ipecacuanha. Should she be given Arsenicum album because she vomited water? Certainly not, because she lacked the burning pain and the anxiety which indicate Arsenicum. Should one give Pulsatilla? No, for she had not eaten much butter, fat, sugar, or rich foods, and she did not have the heavily coated tongue of Pulsatilla.
I was mystified because the patient had not told me all she ought to have told me. Her illness had followed a grave mental upset. Since then she would not speak to anyone, she had become very morose, and she wept often. These happen to be the leading symptoms of Ignatia. She was therefore given a few pilules of Ignatia 15, and immediately the vomiting came to an end, and the girl lost her melancholy disposition and became perfectly normal. One must see to it that patients tell us everything which ought to be told.
A CASE OF GASTRIC ULCER.
I was called to a lady patient who also vomited everything. The tongue was clean, as in the preceding case, but there had not been a serious mental upset. Consequently Ignatia was not indicated. However, the sufferer complained about a gnawing pain in the stomach region.
She told me she had a sensation as if the food touched a sore place in her inside and as soon as that happened she had to vomit what she had eaten or drunk. When I pressed the sore place with my finger the lady told em that she felt a pain resembling the pricking of needles, which radiated towards the back. Besides, she suffered frequently from a headache which was relieved by tying a cloth firmly round the head.
The statement that a patient suffers from vomiting is in itself without any value. The practitioner must always enquire into the cause of the vomiting. It was obvious that in this case there was the beginning of a gastric ulcer.
The pain on slight pressure resembling pricks of needles indicated that Argentum nitricum ought to be given, particularly as Argentum nitricum has produced in those who have taken the drug experimentally a severe headache, relieved by tight bandaging and pressure. The patient was therefore given Argentum nitricum 15, three doses per day, and in a week she was perfectly restored. Of course the ulcer was only beginning to form.
TWO OTHER GASTRIC ULCER CASES.
It should not be believed that the infinitely small doses of homoeopathy can cure gastric ulcer only at its beginning. I would describe two cures of gastric ulcers of long standing.
A lady had suffered for years from a gastric ulcer which had caused, occasionally, vomiting of blood, which was always preceded by a pronounced taste of blood or of ink. Further she complained of a pain which radiated from the stomach towards the back, even if one did not press on the abdomen. She was given Argentum nitricum 6, of which ten drops were put into a tumblerful of water, and she was told to take a tablespoonful of the mixture every three hours, and to live exclusively on milky foods.
The pain diminished so much that after twenty-four hours I gave her permission to add other foods to the milky diet. I then gave the patient a dose of Nux vomica 6 an hour before every meal and a dose of Graphites 6 an hour after every meal. She was to take Argentum nitricum 6 only if she should notice a taste of blood. However, the taste of blood did not reappear and in two months the patient was completely cured.
Another patient was very pale and anaemic and felt always tired and she had been like this for many years. Besides, she vomited her food frequently although she did not suffer from nausea, and she vomited easily and without pain.
She complained about a slight feeling of discomfort or fulness or pressure in the stomach, but that sense of discomfort was not increased by pressing on the outside of the stomach. One could therefore surmise that there was no gastric ulcer. On the other hand, I discovered that she was always constipated, and the question arose what remedy she should be given.
Ignatia came not in question because she had no sorrow. Ipecacuanha was not indicated because she lacked the typical nausea of that drug. Kreosotum was not called for because her stomach was not enlarged. Should Nux vomica be given because she was constipated? At first sight it seemed called for, but then Nux vomica is not an anaemia remedy. Nearly all her symptoms pointed to Graphites.
There was the feeling of heaviness in the legs, pressure in the stomach, constipation from bowel atony. Therefore I determined to give her Graphites, and as the woman was hysterical, I gave her Graphites in a high potency and I gave her Nux vomica as well. She was told to take a dose of Graphites 6 an hour before every meal, and a dose of Nux vomica 6 an hour after every meal, and in two months she was perfectly well.
CHRONIC CATARRH OF THE STOMACH.
A gentleman had been suffering for six months from cramp in the stomach, accompanied by nausea and vomiting. His tongue was perfectly clean and red. In fact it was brilliantly red and looked as if varnished. He had lived many years in the Tropics and he had suffered from malaria which had been suppressed by large doses of quinine and since then he had suffered with his digestion.
