IN the month of August, 1931, I was called to attend a case of typhoid with haemorrhage. One child had already died of typhoid in the very house some two weeks ago after a prolonged treatment of forty days, by two doctors of the old school.
The patient (a student) was aged 24, fatty and nervous. Had passed without any event his second week of disease and had a perfect remission of fever. It was at noon on the fifteenth day he began to purge a copious quantity of blood with no exciting cause. In three hours time he had passed three motions of pure blood mixed with coagula- a quarter of a pint every time as if draining away his vitality every time.
Two old school regular doctors had been in attendance and the civil surgeon of the town came in consultation. They all sat mute after they had their every method tried along with their fashionable injections of horse serum, etc.
The boy was pale and very nervous. Pulse was low and quick, temperature sub-normal. He had had his fourth stool. This time a quantity of dark decomposed blood, very offensive and of penetrating odour. Here I intervened, with the common consent, with my “harmless globules” of Lachesis 200, one dose dry on the tongue. We had to wait one more hour, i. e. by 5 p.m.
Then the patient passed a motion full of blood of bright red hue with no odour. I administered a dose of Nitric acid 200 in distilled water which stopped the motion for eleven hours. On the following morning he had a semi-solid stool, slightly tinged with blood. A dose of China 200 was required for complete recovery.
