of the same disease that presents itself, though the cases may widely differ from one another in character while called by the same nosological name. Failure here is inevitable. To take the instance of neuralgia and Phosphorus. This drug is applicable to only a given kind of neuralgia, and if administered indiscriminately to all cases of neuralgia it needs must fail to cure some, and thus its therapeutic powers are discredited, and it falls into disgrace as rapidly as it rose into favour. Such has been the process pursued by Mr. Thompson. He has been lucky to meet

with so many ses for which the drug is suitable, and probably he is indebted to what is understood by the genius epidemicus for the nearly simultaneous appearance of a number of cases of neuralgia curable by Phosphorus. We venture to predict, however, that if he goes on in this kind of fashion he will soon meet with an equally numerous series of cases of neuralgia in which Phosphorus will be useless.

In our school we escape those fluctuations of opinions. with respect to the value of drugs for which our opponents are so distinguished. The provings on the healthy teach us the precise forms of disease in which each drug must be used, and with the sure foundation of pathogenetic knowledge we are independent of accident and caprice in the selection of our remedies, and run little danger of discrediting valuable drugs by ignorantly administering them in unsuitable cases.

CASES OF LEAD POISONING FROM WELL WATER.

By Dr. J. W. VON TUNZELMANN.

HAVING recently had some serious cases of lead poisoning under my care, which occurred under circumstances where one would not have expected to find such a deleterious agency at work, viz. from well water having become VOL. XXXII, NO. CXXVII.-JANUARY, 1874.

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impregnated with lead to a dangerous extent, I report them, as they may be interesting to others. I sent an abstract of them soon after their occurrence to the Medical Times and Gazette,* as I considered it my duty to inform my colleagues (of the profession as a whole) in this neighbourhood, of what I found to have been going on unperceived for some time. The chief interest of these cases to us as homœopathic physicians consists in the assistance which I derived from our law of healing, in its practical working, in arriving at a correct diagnosis before any very serious mischief had occurred.

CASE 1. Diplopia.-I was requested at the end of April, this year, to see Miss A-, æt. 23, who had suffered for some days from a troublesome affection of the eyes; she could not see anything distinctly, objects appeared double, except when she was quite close to them.

She appeared to be in very good health otherwise, complaining only on being closely questioned of lassitude, and a weary feeling in the back, hardly amounting to pain; there was also a tendency to constipation, but it was not troublesome; there was no headache, no pain in the eyes, and no photophobia. The only constitutional state that was amiss was a tendency to relaxed throat in damp weather. The catamenia were

generally two or three days before the time, but otherwise normal. The mother of this patient, accustomed to act on her own responsibility, as there has not been, till quite lately, a resident homœopathic physician at Wimbledon, had given her Gelseminum, on the recommendation, I believe, of Dr. Ruddock, in one of his domestic works; it had not produced any effect. I could not satisfy the anxious questionings of the mother as to the cause of the ailment. Miss A was fond of study and had been learning German diligently, and therefore it might have been partly owing to fatigue of the eyes and brain, but as there was no photophobia, that did not satisfy me, though I could not suggest any other cause for this state of things. I gave her Belladonna 3, and as all the solanaceæ produce diplopia in

*Med. Times and Gazette, September 27th, 1873.

large doses, I was at least acting by rule, to which we are sometimes reduced in obscure cases.

I saw her again in three days, and had studied her case meanwhile there was : no improvement and I gave her Conium, as Con. produces diplopia as a pathogenetic symptom, and it is also an excellent remedy in hysteria, and for lack of evidence I could only regard this diplopia as a sympathetic hysterical symptom. She took Conium in different dilutions for ten days, and as there was no perceptible improvement, and there was an opportunity of sending her to Hastings with a relative, I recommended the change and also advised Mrs. A- to let her daughter have the benefit of the advice of a homeopathic physician of eminence at Brighton, under whose care a sister of my patient had recently been while at school there. Phosph. was recommended, in alternation with Nux vomica, and these medicines were taken for some time, and apparently with some benefit, but as the change had to be taken into account also it was hard to tell what share the medicines had in the improvement. She was away for three weeks, and on returning continued the medicines, but as no further improvement took place, I recommended after three weeks another change, and she went to Chiselhurst, still continuing the same medicines, except that after a while Ignatia was substituted for Nux vom., as she had began to suffer from headache. She remained at Chiselhurst for three weeks, and on returning was able to report a very distinct improvement. While at Chiselhurst she had been able to drive a pony phaeton, which she could not do at Hastings, showing that the vision was decidedly improved. The improvement did not progress after her return, the medicines were therefore discontinued, and Phosph. acid alone given for a time, on account of the continuance of excessive lassitude. While I had been relieved of the immediate responsibility of the case I had still been considering it carefully, and I felt convinced from the persistence of this one symptom, while the general health was not amiss in any particular way, not more than we constantly find in young ladies of the present day, that

there was some hitherto undiscovered influence at work which was producing it. I was strongly inclined to give Plumbum, as that is one of the medicines which produces ambylopia more markedly perhaps than any other of the medicines whose action is of sufficiently long duration to be relied on in chronic cases, but I felt that I ought to be quite sure before giving it that lead was not the cause of this ailment. I therefore questioned Mr. A— about the water supply of the house, thinking that as it lay at a distance of about 200 yards from the main road, possibly the water which supplied the house was conveyed to it by a leaden pipe from the main in the road; but I learned that the house had a well from which all the drinking water was derived, and I therefore came to the conclusion that I was not on the right track, and I turned my attention to the paper hangings of the house, as arsenic produces amaurosis with all the minor symptoms in that direction. One paper was found in the dining room which was of a dark green colour (a flock paper); it had been up for sixteen years, and on being analysed by Dr. Williamson of University College, was reported to contain arsenic in considerable quantity. I expected this from the colour of the paper, but as the pathogenetic symptoms of Arsenic which have been observed in cases of poisoning from arsenical paper, have all been more or less of an inflammatory character I did not feel at all sure that the ailment would cease on removing the paper. Its removal was, however, decided on, as the family did not relish the thought of inhaling poison any longer. Meanwhile I had been attending a case of a different nature, not far off (about a quarter of a mile), one which gave me still more anxiety, and which I will now relate, as it became the key to this one.

CASE 2. Icterus saturninus. I was requested, on June 11th, this year, to see the cook in one of the best houses in the outskirts of Wimbledon, who had been ill for three weeks; she vomited constantly, not being able to retain any food; there was also constant nausea, and even when no food was taken, there was still frequent vomiting of a

greenish watery fluid. She had been taking different homœopathic medicines, given to her by a member of the family, without any relief. The skin had a yellowish tint, the conjunctivæ were also decidedly yellow; the tongue furred, the mucus on its posterior part very yellow; she complained of a horrible taste in her mouth; there was no abdominal pain (neither at the epigastrium nor in either hypochondriac region); there was no tenderness in the region of the liver, even on strong percussion, and the region of hepatic dulness was not increased-the abdomen, in fact, appeared in every respect normal except that, after retching, she sometimes felt slight pain in the lower part of it, evidently of a myalgic nature, from fatigue of the abdominal muscles; the bowels were very confined, not having acted for several days, and I was told that this was her great constitutional trouble. The case was puzzling, as there was no definite symptom but the vomiting, which was very frequent, and she was extremely debilitated. I gave her Lachesis 6, which I had by me, as another of the snake poisons (Crotalus) has been found, in the Southern States of America, to be one of the most efficacious medicines in the homœopathic treatment of yellow fever, in which malady persistent vomiting is one of the gravest symptoms (in fatal cases of snake-bite vomiting is often, though not always, a prominent symptom); claret and water, and beef tea (cold), in small quantities, were ordered. On the following day I found her decidedly better, the vomiting being much less frequent. She continued to improve for two or three days, so as to be able to take a little fish (sole), but whatever she took came up after a while; she also vomited very much in the night, especially the early morning (this was so constant throughout, and as she took no nourishment in the night, from her great aversion to it, it showed very plainly that the vomiting was irrespective of the presence of food in the stomach). What could it be? Other medicines were now given for three or four days, Mercurius solubilis 6, Nux vom. 8, Bryonia 3, but without any good result; then Hydrastis 3 was given, which checked the vomiting greatly, and after its continued use for some