EARTH-EATING AND THE EARTH-EATING HABIT IN INDIA. 269 



What is more marvellous is that the patient found himself stronger and brighter as if the medicine had nourished 

 him. I have likewise employed this medicine in the treatment of affections of the stomach, in nausea and indiges- 

 tion which followed the taking of food, and saw that it was necessary to administer a small quantity after each 

 meal, which relieved the indigestion, chills of the stomach and the tendency to vomit and to facilitate descent 

 of food to the lower part of the bowels. Its use strengthens the upper parts of the stomach, dries it quickly 

 and relieves pain and nausea. I consider it a capital remedy for the treatment of the affection of the stomach 

 specially with people where there is no appearance of obstruction of the liver or contraction of the intestine. 

 In these cases this remedy is rarely harmful, and the body seems to acquire stoutness. I have given it also to 

 those persons who suffer from excessive secretion of saliva and to all patients affected by violent hunger ; all 

 have been radically cured." 



From our enquiries it appears that clays for the most part used in. medicine are 

 usually administered locally, rarely internally. Gul-i- Armani, Multani matti, and Gopi- 

 chandana are applied in a paste made with water in cases of inflammatory and glandular 

 swellings, and clay is used externally in Madras for eczema and herpes. 



According to S. C. Mitra, of Bihar, a kind of yellow ochreous earth, called in 

 Hindi pcori mitti, is mashed with hailstones into a paste, which, after being dried, is 

 preserved carefully as a medicine. A little of this paste is rubbed over the chest of 

 patients suffering with cholera. It is supposed to allay burning sensations and cool the 

 whole system. 



The matter of the medicinal use of earth has recently been revived in England and 

 has formed the subject of correspondence in the British Medical Journal} The case was 

 recorded of a cure of piles from taking clay. The patient swallowed a bolus of about i 

 drachm of yellow clay, and next day he expressed himself as well. There was no 

 abdominal pain, no diarrhoea, no blood, no heat or pain in the rectum. The patient 

 declared that it was an old and common cure and was always successful. 



In a further letter, reference was made to the fact that Hahneman {Chronic Diseases, 

 Vol. II.) was the first to test alumina (or argilla) physiologically, and he demonostrated 

 that amongst other properties it had a very decided action on the rectum and anus, pro- 

 ducing constipation and symptoms of piles, which have provided homeopaths with indica- 

 tions for its use in these affections ever since. Therefore, ' clay pills ' as a remedy for 

 piles do not constitute a strange phenomenon to homeopaths. 2 



The general opinion appeared to be that its action is purely mechanical and analo- 

 gous to that of bismuth. The effect attributed to it — removal of pain, diarrhoea, &c. — is 

 quite possible, and solely due to the excessively fine state of division of the particles. It 

 was also stated that in Norfolk and Birmingham, fuller's earth was used for the same 

 purpose. 



A most important and quite recent reference to the use of clay is as a remedy for 

 Asiatic cholera. Powdered clay is put forward by J. Stumpf, 3 who declares that if given 

 in large doses — 70 to 100 grams for an adult, 30 grams, for a child, or 10 to 15 

 grams, for an infant — clay administered upon an empty stomach is capable of affording 



1 Brit. Med. Journ. September 9th, 16th and 23rd, 1905, p. 616, 688, and 760 



2 It is curious to note that one of the writers was recently informed by a Bengali gentleman that he was in the habit of using 

 clay himself as a remedy for piles. 



3 In the Berl. Klin. Woch. per Apoteker Zeitung, 1905, p. 750. 



