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favourable subject for neuralgia, though no family predisposition is recorded of her.

These two non-neuralgic persons then, after taking respectively seven and nine doses of this minute quantity of Zinc phosphide, "complained of severe frontal headache accompanied by frequent stabs of pain, apparently darting from before backwards to the occipital region, but intracranial, and not attended by any disturbance of sensation in the scalp." Then follows the very curious dénouement: "Under a dose equivalent to th of a grain of Phosphorus both patients very quickly recovered, and have had no return of pain. These are the only two cases in which, under favourable circumstances of experiment, I have observed any apparent confirmation of the homoeopathic hypothesis, and I will not attempt to explain these phenomena from that point of view. But since, after its first prescription by Dr. Radcliffe, the use of Phosphorus in neuralgia was practically reintroduced to notice under auspices of homoeopathy, it may not be out of place to remark here that it holds no more distinguished a place in the Homœopathic Pharmacopaia than the other thirty-and-odd drugs which are there recommended in the treatment of this disease."

There are several statements in this passage which appear to us to require comment.

And, first, we would observe that no conclusion can be drawn relative to the effects of Phosphorus from the administration of Zinc phosphide or even of Sodium hypophosphite. Neither can the cure of symptoms caused by the

nd of a grain of a drug by the th of a grain of the same drug be regarded as either a real or an apparent confirmation of the "homoeopathic hypothesis." What Mr. Thompson apparently fails to perceive is that the production of neuralgia in patients not subject to that affection by a drug which has the power of curing similar neuralgia occurring spontaneously, as some of his cases prove it to possess, is a real and not at all an apparent confirmation of the truth of the homoeopathic therapeutic maxim, similia similibus curantur. What Mr. Thompson means by the "homœopathic hypothesis we do not know, the maxim

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being merely a therapeutic rule and not a hypothesis at all.

Again, he might have known that no one neuralgic remedy in the Homœopathic Pharmacopoeia holds a more distinguished place than another. Every one is equally distinguished for the cure of its own peculiar form of neuralgia. This is one of the most frequent errors of the allopathic sect, treating names in place of individual forms of disease. If there are thirty-and-odd drugs used according to the homœopathic method for neuralgia they are for the treatment of thirty-and-odd forms of neuralgia, and the form produced on the healthy by each of these gives the guide to the form spontaneously occurring it is capable of curing. To his great surprise Mr. Thompson made an accidental proving of the Zinc phosphide, and had he carefully noted the pathogenetic effects developed they would have surely guided him to the form of neuralgia for which the drug is curative. That Zinc phosphide is not indicated for the same cases as Phosphorus is shown by one of his own cases, No. 35, which was fruitlessly treated with the former remedy, but rapidly yielded to the latter. Mr. Thompson would have conferred a real benefit on therapeutics had he set himself to differentiate the forms of neuralgia for which Phosphorus and Zinc phosphide are respectively indicated.

Mr. Thompson is mistaken in supposing that Dr. Radcliffe was the first to prescribe Phosphorus in neuralgia, even admitting, which we are not the least disposed to do, that his prescription of Sodium hypophosphite was equivalent to a prescription of Phosphorus. Long before Dr. Radcliffe was a doctor, and long before Phosphorus had been proved by Hartlaub, it had been successfully used in neuralgia by physicians of the old school.

It may interest our readers to give here a slight sketch of the employment of Phosphorus in neuralgia by both schools.

Kunckel (Chem. Anmerk., Erfurt, 1721) was probably the first that used Phosphorus for curative purposes. He gave it in the form of pills, and lauds its strengthening and painsubduing properties. Thirty years later we find a notice of

Phosphorus as a remedial agent in an inaugural treatise by J. G. MENTZ, Dissertatio inaug. medica de Phosphori loco medicinæ assumpti, virtute medica, aliquot casibus singularibus confirmata, Vittemberg, 1751.

The singulares casus alluded to are mostly of malignant fevers, some petechial. Various allopathic practitioners have confirmed the utility of Phosphorus in such cases, and it is well known to homoeopathists as a sovereign remedy in typhus. But this by the way.

We shall now give some cases from allopathic authors of the cure of neuralgias of the head by means of Phosphorus. The first case is one by Dr. Löbenstein von Löbel from the 22nd vol. of HORN's Archiv, which is given in full detail in the 2nd vol. of FRANK's Magazin (from which we translate) and in a more condensed form in SORGE's Phosphor.

The author (Dr. L. v. L.), a thin, delicate, and highly irritable subject, had had an attack of podagra in January, 1805, which was cured in six weeks. He remained well for two years, with the exception of a violent headache that used to torture him for a day at a time. It was not produced by anything he ate, nor by mental fatigue, but came on without any assignable cause. It did not always attack the same part, but, on the contrary, always chose a new spot, which was sometimes the forehead, sometimes the occiput, &c. Where the pains were most severe the part swelled and caused the most intolerable pain when touched. His mind became so weak that he could not do the simplest intellectual work, and the left eye was so affected by the pain that he could no longer see things distinctly—although no change was perceptible in the eye itself. He considered his ailment to be a transient arthritic headache. [The name is, of course, of no importance, except as it led the patient to use a farrago of anti-arthritic remedies without benefit.] He rubbed his head several times a day with Camphorated spirit and dosed himself with Rad. calam. arom., Tinct. Guaiac., and Laudanum. At the same time he avoided all intellectual work and bodily exertion and took frequent tepid baths. Still the headache always returned, and that notwithstanding that the doctor employed many other external and internal remedies and was

frequently prescribed for by other doctors. At first the headaches seemed to get better, he had no attack for a fortnight, but they then unexpectedly returned in great intensity, and each successive attack seemed to be worse than the preceding one. They also became more frequent and lasted longer; whereas formerly they had come on only once or twice a week and lasted only one day, now they occurred every two days and lasted without cessation from two to three days. With the headache were associated eructations, extreme weariness of the limbs, a confused empty feeling in the head, low spirits, ill humour, and gloominess; the hair fell out, he had violent pain in the loins after the attacks; the pulse was extremely slow (45); the urine pale, watery, of a disgusting sweet smell; appetite unaffected, except during the attacks, when he felt disgust at all food, thirst, restlessness, and such a feeling of anxiety that he could neither lie, stand, nor walk.

In this state of things he took, every two hours, from twenty to twenty-eight drops of the following mixture:-Phosphor., gr. iv, Eth. Sulph., 38s, Ol. Caryophyll., ǝss.

After the third dose he experienced agreeable warmth throughout the body, frequent passing of water, cheerfulness, indeed an indescribable joyfulness; the pulse rose; the intolerable aching pain in the head changed to a dull headache; inclination to rest. There was moist skin all over the body and perspiration on the head; he slept quietly through the night and next morning felt wonderfully refreshed. His head was quite free from pain, the weary feeling was gone, the appetite good. He now took twenty-five drops of the Phosphorus mixture on sugar every three hours. The following day indescribable good temper and cheerfulness, and agreeable warmth throughout the body. The headache now ceased entirely for a long time.

Six weeks afterwards he got a severe chill, beginning with such a general rigor as if he was going to have a febrile paroxysm. At the same time nausea, uncommon weariness, and return of the usual headache with great severity. He took the above preparation of Phosphorus in doses of thirty drops on sugar. After the first dose he felt nothing but warmth throughout the body; half an hour after the second dose he fell into a refreshing sleep that lasted five hours. On waking he found himself in a profuse perspiration, free from headache, quite well, and with

good appetite. After waking he passed red pellucid urine, smelling of sulphur, which, after standing two hours, deposited a thick, white, slimy sediment. The medicine was continued in the dose of twenty-five drops every two hours, from the 18th to the 29th of January, and from that time the patient never had an attack of his most prostrating headache.

Dr. Lobstein wrote a work, entitled Recherches et observations sur le phosphore, ouvrage dans lequel on fait connaître les effets extraordinaires de ce remède dans le traitement de différentes maladies internes, 1815.

Among the cases given in this work is the following one of periodical headache, which seems to have been of a typical neuralgic character, though it is not described more minutely than Mr. Thompson's cases. We translate from

FRANK'S Magazin, vol. iii, p. 875.

A lady, æt. 28, of very excitable nervous character, was subject to a violent headache, chiefly located in the forehead over the orbit, and coming on about every ten days. She had taken many remedies from many medical men and from the author without much benefit. She now got the following prescription:-Phosphorus, gr. iv; Eth. Sulph., 388; Ol. Caryophyll., gtt. x. To take twenty-five drops on the commencement of an attack and the same dose two hours later.

One hour after the first dose there was manifest improvement; the attack lasted only three quarters of an hour. No more medicine until the occurrence of the next attack, when the same remedy was used; the attack was much slighter, lasted only a quarter of an hour and never afterwards recurred.

The following case by Dr. Löbenstein von Löbel, quoted by Sorge from HORN's Archiv, is interesting in several points of view.

A. H—, æt. 65, a market porter, had for three years suffered off and on from a violent one-sided headache. His sight too gradually became impaired until he became quite blind. The headache increased and along with it there came violent trembling in the right arm, the same side on which his headache was. There was also great debility, so that he could not raise himself up and complained of cold all over. Amaurosis was

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