TREATMEKT. 109 



After examining the symptomatic provings of this drug, 

 and especially its power to produce — 



** violent oppression of the chest ; want of breath ; desire to draw a 



deep breath (prevented by a pain in the region of the oesophagus) 



excessive exhaustion and muscular debility, &c.; trembling; chilli- 

 ness ; pulse at first small, afterwards becoming more rapid, &c.;" 

 — or those of its congener, the Carbonate, in producing as 

 additional symptoms — 



" swelling, itching and burning of the pudendum; painful varices of 

 the rectum, with bloody discharge; burning pimples of the size of a 

 millet grain, with a scarlatina rash over the upper part of the body ; 

 red, itching eruption (fluid and then becoming sometimes fetid), dis- 

 appearing in a few days, &c.;" 



— we can hardly fail to find some counterpart of the Pest in 

 this drug. But we cite from the Edinburgh Medical and 

 Surgical Journal for 1841, this interesting case : 



" A young man who usually slept in a chemical laboratorj^ was 

 poisoned by the fracture of a vessel containing nearly fifty pints of 

 volatile alkali (liquid ammonia). The accident occurred in the night 

 without his knowledge, and he was exposed to the vapors nearly an 

 hour. He was roused by violent constriction of the throat and dysp- 

 noea. He arose, but felt suffocated .... The mucous membrane of 

 the mouth and nostrils appeared to be destroyed , and bloody, frothy 

 matter flowed from the mouth and nose. The tongue was of a bright 

 red color, and had lost tnost of its cuticular covering .... The dysp- 

 noea was extreme ; great thirst .... deglutition almost impossible, c&c.'' 



It is di £8 cult, at least from the stand-point of the Homoe- 

 opath, to conceive how Smart's stimulant mixture, as he is 

 pleased to style it, in which Ammonium appears in another 

 form also, that of the Acetate (Spiritus Mlnderenis), could 

 have had any special eflScacy, unless Ammon. Caust. sustains 

 a special relation to this disease. Nor is it easy for a disciple 

 of Hahnemann to conceive how the secretions from the eyes, 

 nose, bowels, skin, should be alkaline, unless the morbific 

 influence should hold a close similarity in its action to that 

 of an alkali. 



We confess that we cannot find in Arsenicum any true rap- 

 port with the Pest. It corresponds in most of its provings 



