Since all these conditions are recognisable as well at the os uteri as in any other part of the body, and since they are all drawn from the pathogenetic symptomatology of the materia medica, it appears to me that the absence of the more precise local data is of less importance than has been imagined, and if we add the two other important elements of practice, namely, the temperament and the diathesis, which not unfrequently form the closing link in the chain of concordance, the homœopathicity of a remedy may be pretty well established, while we shall be working upon a safe foundation, and most probably be conducted to a successful issue.

If I have been fortunate enough to make myself understood, the purport of my observations has been to draw attention to an analogical survey of the symptoms of disease and of the therapeutic indications, whenever the state of the organ itself or the character of the general symptoms precludes a direct comparison, and as this especially holds good with respect to the diseases of the uterus, I have made them the subject of my remarks, because it is quite evident that the general symptoms offer little or no assistance in finding a corresponding remedy for the disease, and we cannot strive too hard to supersede the use of such fallible auxiliaries as the application of caustics.*

*In the October number of the British Journal of Homœopathy, the reviewer of "Homoeopathy as applied to the Diseases of Females, &c.," has, among other objections, commented on the subject of hysteralgia and the "bare enumeration of seventeen remedies without one single definite indication, &c." I would only observe that hysteralgia partakes most prominently of the obscurity and indefinite character of the general symptoms which appertain to the diseases of the uterus generally, and which give no clue by which to unravel this from any other form of uterine disease; besides these, the only salient points, unless some idiosyncracy prevails, are the occasional absence of leucorrhoea, the aggravated periodic pain, and the local tenderness. Again at page 665, the cases referred to in the work and critically handled by the reviewer were described as exhibiting superficial pinhole ulcerations, coalescing and so extending, of which I have now given an illustration, the ulcerations were said to heal up kindly, although the malignant induration remained, and I consider this a positive gain in the treatment, as the tendency of such ulcerations is to spread, but I never said that the maligant disease was cured.

[NOTE. We have received with much pleasure the foregoing interesting paper of our esteemed contributor, and think nothing but practical good can

FACTS AND THOUGHTS IN RELATION TO SCURVY, HÆMORRHAGE, AND THE HOMEOPATHIC LAW.

By DR. HAYLE, of Newcastle.

THE fact that lemon juice may be so used as to produce scurvy was denied by Dr. Wood in his attack on homœopathy, and the only authority (Stevens) produced by its defenders was rejected by him-without justice, as would appear from the closing remarks in the British Journal of Homœopathy. Since that I have met with the following extract from the Penny Cyclopædia, vol. xxi, p. 143, in the Journal of Health and Disease, vol. ii, p. 168:-" Dr. Henderson, a naval surgeon, recently stated in a medical periodical, that he has seen scurvy

eventually issue from a subject being canvassed in all its different bearings: but we cannot help remarking that Mr. Leadam's cases are treated in direct opposition to the principles of Hahnemann, which, oddly enough, he quotes in this very paper. Hahnemann disapproves of healing the local disease by any means, even by the local application of the same homœopathic remedy as is given by the mouth (except in a single case, the application of Thuja to condylomata.) At other places, as is well known, Hahnemann lays it down as a fundamental principle that only one remedy is to be used at once; again, no remedy should be chosen whose pure symptoms do not correspond with those of the disease. Now all these principles are directly violated by the use of Calendula as a local application while other remedies are used internally. Here we have two medicines used simultaneously, and one of them for the purpose of healing up the local disease, and moreover it is a remedy whose pure symptoms relating to the uterus and vagina are not known, and it is therefore used quite empirically. We do not object to the publication of such cases, on the contrary we are glad to receive all additions to the field of practical knowledge and resources; but we cannot help noticing the remarkable inconsistency displayed by Mr. Leadam while criticising the practice of Dr. Madden as displayed in his paper in our first number of last year. For our own part we think that the practice of both these gentlemen is inconsistent with the strict letter of the Organon, but of the two that of Mr. Leadam is incomparably the most inconsistent. The use of an occasional escharotic is only a surgical operation which removes a thin layer of morbid tissue without any medicinal action, and leaves free play to the homœopathic treatment; whereas the simultaneous use of a local homœopathic medicine may be a disturbing cause of the other homoeopathic medicine that is given inwardly.-EDS.]

VOL. X, NO. XXXIX.-JANUARY, 1852.

F

occur in persons who were taking daily doses of lemon juice as a prophylactic (preventive) against the disease."

I have not met with any more evidence of this kind in my reading, and therefore hope that the following particulars will be interesting to your readers.

A ship's crew of about seventeen hands left a port in England for Madras on the 15th December, 1849. A tablespoonful of lemon juice daily and half a pint of vinegar weekly were allowed to and taken by each man during the whole voyage out. After having been in port at Madras seven weeks, they set sail for England on the same allowance of acids. Having been a month at sea, the scurvy broke out severely in several, and almost all were touched in the gums. They arrived at an English port (I believe North Shields, at least my patient presented himself to me there) on the 3rd of November, 1850. He came under my care on the 27th of November, was 23 years of age, well-built.

His first symptom of indisposition, he said, was night blindness: as soon as the sun went down, and before it got dark, he became blind. Shortly afterwards the scurvy appeared. He had it very severely. His left thigh became extensively discoloured, and a boil came out on the left foot. He discontinued his lemon juice, and took raw potatoes sliced like cucumbers with his vinegar, about half a dozen a day, and with benefit.

When I saw him the night blindness had left him, the only symptoms being redness and oedematous swelling, worse towards night, of the left foot. He rapidly improved under Sulphur, a pilule of the 12th attenuation every morning. He was improving before, and would probably have got well at any rate.

It is now some time since lemon juice has become popular among the practitioners of the old school as a remedy in rheumatic fever, and I am convinced, from the perusal of several cases, that it is often of great service. Accounting to myself for its good effects on chemical principles, and believing that it acted by increasing the fluidity of the blood, and thus removing obstructions in the minute capillaries, I thought that I might try similar agents in conjunction with homœopathic remedies. The latter would alter the nervous actions of the system, while the

former might make the fluid it had to do with, the blood, more manageable. The two cases of rheumatic fever in which I have on this reasoning allowed either lemon-juice or oranges, have certainly been very speedily relieved of pain, much sooner than is usual in my experience. Of course the subject requires a fuller investigation. In these cases there was a great thirst for acids, (and, if I recollect right, this is generally the case in rheumatic fever) a circumstance that encouraged me in the course I pursued. Both patients took Aconite while they were taking oranges or lemon-juice, without the good effects of the former being neutralized. In one of the cases in which I gave a small quantity of lemon-juice and at the same time gave Belladonna, I observed a very remarkable aggravation of pain, on which account I gave up for a time both the Belladonna and the lemon-juice. Every homeopath is of course aware of the relation of vegetable acids to Belladonna. After the subsidence of this aggravation, the patient continued free of pain, or nearly so. A remarkable circumstance in this case was the appearance of petechiæ over both ankles, but especially, I think, on the left, during the convalescence, without, however, any general symptoms. Now every day for three weeks had this patient taken two oranges, and my knowledge that scurvy might be produced by vegetable acids suggested the thought that the petechiæ might be due to the use of the oranges.

Another case in relation to this subject presents itself to my mind. A man who about seven years ago was snatched, I may say, from the very jaws of death, when sinking under a profuse discharge of pus from a large abscess in his right lung, by Aconite, Phosphorus and China, was seized (about two years ago) with violent hæmorrhage from the lungs. On two consecutive nights he spat up about a pint and a half of blood each night. On enquiry I found he had been in the habit for some months of drinking large quantities of lemonade daily. On discontinuing the lemonade he had no return of the hemorrhage. I gave him a few doses of China, if I recollect right.

On mentioning some of the facts in this article to an intelligent and conscientious friend last night, he told me that for many years he never could eat an apple without producing