A clinical materia medica : being a course of lectures delivered at the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia / by the late E.A. Farrington ; reported phonographically and edited with the assistance of the lecturer's manuscript, by Clarence Bartlett and revised by S. Lilienthal ; with a memorial sketch of the author by Aug. Korndoerfer.

  • Farrington, E. A. (Ernest Albert), 1847-1885.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A clinical materia medica : being a course of lectures delivered at the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia / by the late E.A. Farrington ; reported phonographically and edited with the assistance of the lecturer's manuscript, by Clarence Bartlett and revised by S. Lilienthal ; with a memorial sketch of the author by Aug. Korndoerfer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    In ill-effects of the heat of the sun, compare Glonoine, Belladonna, Camphor, Natrum carb. and Theridion (see above). The first two, with bloated red face, paralytic weakness (Glon.), unconsciousness, etc., resemble Lachesis, but the latter displays the effects of heat upon one already exhausted. All the Ophidians are intolerant of warm, relaxing weather, and so we find many ailments returning in spring and summer. In the Lachesis case, the patient may be an inebriate or one prostrated by mental fatigue. The sun's heat makes him languid, dizzy, faint, or, if congestions ensue, the face is dark red, and looks at the same time sunken and cadaverous; the extremities are cold. Here Camphor may be demanded if vitality is ebbing away, the fainting spells growing worse, and the body icy cold and bathed iii cold sweat. Both Lachesis and Natrum carb. are useful when hot weather fatigues, in which case you should compare, also, Selenium and Natrum mur. Returning now, after this digression, to the mental symptoms of Lachesis, we find that the delirium is of a low, muttering type. At other times the patient seems to be going deeper and deeper into a torpid state, with coolness of the extremities, trembling of the hands and body. When asked to protrude the tongue, it comes out trem- blingly, or catches in the teeth, or, if he does get it out, it is trembling, and is usually coated dark brown, sometimes with little blisters on the tip. The lips crack and ooze dark blood. Loquacity is commonly followed by depression, and by weakness which amounts to a typhoid state; then he is delirious, the delirium not being of the violent Bel- ladonna type. The typhoid type is shown by the dark coating on the tongue; the paralytic state of the brain by the difficulty in protruding the tongue and its catching on the teeth. These symptoms show Lachesis to be an invaluable remedy in typhoid fever, and in fact in all diseases of a typhoid type. The loquacity just referred to is particularly characteristic. Another mental state which these typhoid patients may have as indicating Lachesis, is that they feel as if they were under the influence of some overwhelm- ing power. Diarrhoea is usually present, and is characterized by the horribly offensive odor to the stools. That is a characteristic of Lachesis, whic h will also aid you in diphtheria or scarlatina. Even when the stools are formed, and in every way natural in other respects, they give forth this horrible odor. Lachesis may also be indicated late in the course of typhoid fever, when the patient lies in a stupor with dropping of the lower jaw, and other symptoms indicative of im- pending paralysis of the brain.