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en:ahr:cushing-am-whooping-cough-158-10392

DR. A. M. CUSHING, BRADFORD, VT., reports the next cases to which we wish to call attention.

Two cases of Whooping cough, treated successfully by him with the Mephitis putorius, related in a letter to the REVIEW, bear out the favorable opinion of many of our best practitioners of this drug in this disease.

Dr. Cushing was called on the 16th Sept. 1857, to visit and prescribe for a child five months old, who had been suffering for two weeks from a very severe attack of Whooping Cough. The little patient had been subject to the varied treatment of several physicians of the precise nature of whose prescriptions Dr. C. was uninformed. The multitude of counselors had, however, failed of any essential service to the sufferer, and the family at length consulted our correspondent. Mephitis putorius in, the third dilution was ordered-two globules every two hours. The child visibly improved after the first two doses, and after twenty-four hours' use of the remedy, the cough entirely ceased, and the patient rapidly convalesced. The peculiar symptomatic phenomena which constituted the indications for the Mephitis, in this case, are not given, but in the following one they are very evident.

On the 28th December, 1857, Dr. Cushing was called to visit a boy ten years of age, living in a town adjoining the one where Dr. C. resides. The patient had been given up by most of his friends. It was supposed he must die of Whooping Cough, and our professional brother seems to have been called in as a sort of last resort. The excellent success which followed his prescription fully justified the experiment, if such it was, on the part of those who had the care of the boy.

When first seen, the patient had been ill with Whooping Cough for eight weeks. He had had the disease very violently for all the latter part of this period, and was now the subject of half-hourly paroxysms, of extreme severity. The poor little fellow had become pale and emaciated; his eyes were blood-shot and askance, through the violence of his cough. Every paroxysm was very severe, accompanied by vomiting, and followed by great prostration. The pulse was quick and weak, and the little fellow showed signs of approaching exhaustion.

Mephitis putorius 3d was prescribed. Half a drop of the third dilution was placed in half a tumbler of water, to be administered in doses of a teaspoonful every hour until decided improvement took place, when the intervals were to be lengthened. Those having charge of the administration of these doses were so discreet, and the good effect of the solution was so immediately manifest that the Doctor was not again called to the case. Another patient in the same house, however, having been in need of his services ten days after the above prescription, the little patient was found quite well, playing out of doors, and with no sign of the cough about him.

Dr. Cushing writes that he has never seen the Mephitis fail in the cure of Whooping Cough, and is satisfied it is to be preferred to Hypericum perfoliatum, Drosera, etc., inasmuch as no lingering cough is left behind after the worst symptoms disappear. We are ourselves disposed to think that this disease as found in any particular epidemic and in any particular locality, follows the same law as to its therapeutics, as do all other diseases of endemic character. That the endemic of one section and of one season will require one remedy, and that that one remedy, in some one or other of its potencies, will cure every case we do not doubt. And we are equally sure that another epidemic, occurring in another locality and during another season, may require a different remedy, which different remedy will cure all the cases as did the first. Mephitis was evidently the remedy in the cases above narrated, and would doubtless have cured all the cases occurring during that particular epidemic. We do not mean to say that no other remedy than the purely homoeopathic one will cure a case of Whooping Cough in an epidemic to which Mephitis is antidotal, but the proper drug is more certain, and in our view should always be exhibited. If it fails in the lower potencies as it may, it is best to give it in the higher, et vice versa.

With us, in New York, the present epidemic of Whooping Cough seems to correspond very nearly to Belladonna. In one case accompanied with very serious convulsions, in which Mephitis in the third dilution had failed to make any impression on the disease, a single dose of Belladonna 200 accomplished a perfect cure. Whooping Cough in cities, however, is very apt to be complicated with Psora, and we hardly ever expect a cure of the lingering cough, which is apt to remain after the worst symptoms have subsided, without Sulphur, Calcarea, or some one of the great antipsorics.


DOCUMENT DESCRIPTOR

Source: The AMERICAN HOMOEOPATHIC REVIEW Vol. 01 No. 05, 1859, pages 206-209
Description: Treatment of Whooping Cough.
Remedies: Mephitis putorius, Belladonna
Author: Cushing, A.M.
Year: 1859
Editing: errors only; interlinks; formatting
Attribution: Legatum Homeopathicum
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en/ahr/cushing-am-whooping-cough-158-10392.txt · Last modified: 2012/07/12 10:55 (external edit)