Some Cases Of Acids.
Kulay F M.
Cases.
` Hydr-ac / Acet-ac / Ph-ac / Pic-ac.
EDITOR: The Acid Issue was completed in a record time of three weeks. Later we still had an overflow of acid cases, some of which have been included in this issue. But we request readers to please send articles in time)
Ideal prescriptions for various reasons, are quite rare. In acutes especially, one prescribes in a short time on the basis of a few symptoms, or on the phone in a few seconds. Most of us repertorise our cases when necessary. Key-note prescribers do not often have such good results as they suppose. The most successful prescribers, especially in acutes, as also in chronic cases, are undoubtedly those who are masters of Materia Medica and who have grasped remedy-essences; yet they of course refer to repertories to confirm. They do not fail to identify Alumina or Cenchris or Paris-q or Sinapis-n, and so forth. When they report cases, it is often difficult to understand their basis for prescription, but a little effort reveals the secret of the reasons for the remedy they prescribed. In one case, a patient complained, among other things, that he felt his scalp fitted tightly, and also one of his eyes felt as if fitted tightly in the socket, though these were not his main complaints. It is mentioned in the Materia Medica of Paris-q. "Sensation as if head is enlarged,". It was easy for Dr. Kent to "see" in the patients language, the image of the Materia Medica language. Only a larger thing can fit tightly in a container.
CASE 1:
A friend of mine has a chest box of Homoeopathic drugs. He frequently consults me on phone and quite often he benefits. Once, he was suffering from cough. I kept on prescribing on phone, wrongly. After 10-12 days, he began to feel exhausted; he had been a strong-built, sturdy man. "Acid" flashed across my mind. I told him to have a blood-test (for Eosinophils) and come over the next day. The count was 14 percent. In addition. So he was given Hydrocyanic-acid 200, 1 dose, and advised to have a blood-test again. He complained of choking in the throat.
The new report showed 2 percent Eosinophils, while he improved. That was 8-10 years ago.
CASE 2:
This refers to January, 1992. I had a chamber then in Dentomania Polyclinic in Yari Road. Dr. S.C. Bhagwat used to come there as an anaesthetist. Generally healthy, 31 year old, with 2 children then. Complaint? Green mucus from nose almost every hour with headache. Eight months ago, surgery for Sinusitis, and no headaches since. Either, he says, can be smelt by anybody if he yawns. He adds, "you cant sit in my car for five minutes, for my car always carries the dead-ending kit of course, I cant feel it any more. "I thought of giving him Acetic-acid more so in order to learn but I took the case nevertheless. Nothing of prescribing value emerged from this healthy young anesthetist. The only pertinent symptom I could elicit was "Sleeps on abdomen", and now looking at the records I regret I didnt ask "since when?" He improved greatly under Acetic-acid (200 , 1M given in single dose two months apart.) He became a friend and I told him to make vinegar a part of his diet in the form of salad, etc. He has shifted to Pune permanently. I hope he is well.
CASE 3:
From the experience of behaviour-patterns of chronic disease, I disapprove of reporting recent cases, I have seen physicians reporting a case on the basis of the first "good" report. A physician of international "repute" published the result in his Book of an "acute" as cured by Lyssin because the patient (a case of malaria) never came back. The patient went worse, and I was called in on the 35th day or so, when I prescribed China 200. 1 dose (no thirst during chill and after, but as fever began to establish itself, thirst began). The next day by 6 p.m. he was fine and went out to play. He was a young boy, son of an eminent doctor.
The following case, therefore, is being reported not to show success, but to explain th e difficulties of the first prescription - the most important artistic duty.
Mr. SAM - 18 years - illiterate boy from the UP working in Bombay.
Rashes - all over - last one year - red - itching. Face, scalp, arms, especially.
Confluent and become one. One satisfactory stool - strains. Occasional : diarrhoea from
cereals. Urethral burning during urination.
Pain stomach, occasional. Not much thirst - takes lukewarm tea. Likes: milk, egg, sweets,
Not fond of fish.
Feels very weak - occasional non-descript vertigo.
Eyes burn. Lethargy - Moderately warm?
The following rubrics were selected
- KR 1310 - Skin, Eruptions, confluent
- KR 530 - Stomach, Thirstlessness
- KR 675 - Urethra: Pain, burning, urination, during.
- SR II 242 - Aversion fish.
Phosphoric acid takes 2-3-1-0 marks, (Phos takes two marks in the last rubric). Add weakness in a lad of 18.
Prescription: Phos-ac 200, 3 doses to be taken in one day.
A week after: Skin better. No urethral burning. Stools same.
After another week - Skin better. No urethral burning. Stool same.
Some significance can be attached to "stool same".
Once I had a case of a young girl whose chief complaints was constipation.
On the basis of the symptoms which I cannot recall, I gave her Phos-ac 200, one dose. Never since did she complain of constipation. I feel "stool same" is not really discouraging. A diarrhoeic drug did not worsen it then it is good enough. May be, in course of time, the constipation (generally a chronic state) may also go.
Some PICRIC-ACID cases of Dr. J.T. KENT: (collected from Kents Minor Writings - Ed by K.H. Gysper M.D.)
CASE 1:
A woman passing through menopause. Burning heat in the back, in paroxysms like flushes, brought on or made worse by mental exertion or excitement. Cold extremities. Face cold and pale. Heat in head. Violent occipital headaches. Heaviness of limbs, especially the lower. "Picric-acid 10M produced a marvellous constitutional improvement in the case". (pg. 455). (emphasis added).
CASE 2:
A busy lawyer had brain-fag. Pain in forehead and temples extending to occiput and down between the shoulders. Nausea, Tongue loaded with yellow fur. Often clay-coloured diarrhoea, stool mixed with greenish slime. Great exhaustion after motion and mental effort, better rest in recumbent posture and open air. "After many remedies apparently indicated, had failed, Picric-acid 9x improved all symptoms from the first dose". (Pg.24) (emphasis added).
CASE 3:
A lad of four, after cerebro-spinal meningitis (cured) was left with paralysis of lower extremities. Usual remedies failed. "Picric-ac 12X improved from the beginning, and in six weeks he was well". (Pg. 240) (emphasis added).
CASE 4:
30 year male staggering gait, weakness of lower extremities, aggravated right - Anesthesia of both limbs from knees down, aggravated left - could not walk with eyes closed - Had suffered from painful erections, that it seemed as if his penis would burst. "He took Picric-acid and made a good recovery". (Pg. 24) (emphasis added).
In the above cases of Dr. Kent, I have added the emphasis to make the essence of Picric-acid "stand out" so that one can see its image in widely different problems - Menopause, Locomotor ataxia, paraplegia, sexual hyper-excitability in a debilitated person, children woefully poor in mental work (school) with unaccountable leg pains and so forth.
While on the subject of PICRIC-ACID, it would be worth our while to look at the inimitable conciseness of Dr. C.M. Boger in his Materia Medica (Synoptic key) in which no sentence or verb appears - only eloquent phrases
Under Picric-acid, his chart reads:
Region; Brain; Worse, Exertion - Mental or Physical
Nerves; Occiput Cord, Lumbar region, Seminal losses. Heat. Better
Kidneys; Rest, Cold, Bandaging
Sexual organs; In Sun
Then follows a nine-line disjointed-looking, yet meaningful Materia Medica. For one who
knows already Materia-medica a more time-saving account of old drug-pathogenesis is hard
to find elsewhere.
I have, however, not found the rubric "Better in Sun", nor "Better in WHAT? IN Sun?" Dr. S.R. Pathak mentions it under "Better" but does not mention it in the Materia MEdica that follows. Perplexing! for Picric-acid is "worse heat" in the italics in the chart above. I shall be obliged to have a clarification from anyone.
