BY EDWIN M. HALE, M. D., JONESVILLE, MICH.

Case I. Mrs. C, wife of a clergyman, aged 22. A few months previous to the birth of her child, now one year old, she had unusual pain in the back, renal region and down the ureters into the bladder, accompanied by urine of a very dark color and strong odor, and depositing a black sediment. These symptoms had persisted, varying in intensity, but on the whole increasing, until the lime she came under my care. She had been treated by two eminent physicians in the city of Cleveland, but had received no benefit from either.

Present symptoms. — Emaciation, anaemia, an appearance of having lost a large amount of blood; weakness, exhaustion upon walking a short distance; after going upstairs, palpitation, dyspnea, and throbbing in the head. Skin very pale, and had an unhealthy feel; flushes of fever in the afternoon followed by profuse night sweats; constipation; tongue pale and flabby. Urine dark, almost black when first emitted; depositing a sediment amounting to nearly one-twelfth of its quantity, and black as coal dust. The urine was not much below the normal amount; looked smoky, as Dr. Todd says urine always does when it contains blood.

Here was apparently a grave case of chronic hematuria; what the actual pathological condition was, it seemed difficult to decide.

That the blood came from the kidneys, constant pain in the back and ureters, which had persisted from the commencement, would seem to prove conclusively. The question next arose, was it blood? In certain morbid states the urine may be brown or blackish, and may deposit a dark sediment somewhat like that produced by blood. But bloody urine is generally turbid when discharged and afterwards becomes clear by subsidence; the matter deposited is not dissolved when the urine is heated. On the contrary, colored urine, above alluded to, is often transparent when discharged and becomes turbid upon standing, re-dissolves the deposit when heated and is not coagulable.

In order to test the patient's urine for blood, it was heated; it coagulated somewhat, and the sediment was not dissolved. Under the microscope the sediment resolved itself into disorganized blood globules. But there were none of those cylindrical coagula which are supposed to be formed in the ureters. There was no trace of pus, mucus or casts of the tubuli uriniferi.

The following conclusions were arrived at:

1st. It was a chronic, passive hemorrhage.

2d. It did not depend on ulceration, inflammation or any organic disease of the kidneys.

3d. It was a condition of passive congestion, relaxation, with perhaps enlargement of those organs, associated with a depraved state of the blood, like that present in purpura hemorrhagica. The patient was therefore slowly bleeding to death.

After much consideration of the various remedies recommended for hematuria in general, I determined to try the Oil of Turpentine. In the meantime, the physicians who had treated her were written to with a request as to what remedies had been tried, but as yet no answer has been received.

It was presumed that the homoeopathic physician had tried all our prominent remedies during the six months he treated her. Moreover the testimony was so strong in favor of the Turpentine, which is so little used in our school,' that I felt solicitous to test its obvious homoeopathicity.

Our provings mention that it causes bloody urine. Dr. Todd says, “that the kidneys of those poisoned by Turpentine, are enlarged, the uriniferous and Malphigian corpuscles full of blood — the precise source of the hemorrhage — thus clearly displayed, and farther that Turpentine causes an excessive excitement of the kidneys, which diminishes the flow of urine, the state of engorgement being too great to be compatible with the healthy functions of the organs; finally the vessels yield and hemorrhage is the result.”

Dr. Wood says, “I have known bloody urine to result from inhalation of the vapors of Oil of Turpentine.” Yet both these justly eminent allopathic authorities strongly advise the use of Turpentine in renal hemorrhage, especially if passive! Are they willfully blind?

Finally this drug causes a condition of the blood analogous to that in purpura hemorrighaca and typhoid fever. It disorganizes the blood globules, diminishes the fibrin, while it increases the albumen.

The first decimal dilution of Oil of Turpentine was given to this patient, in doses of five drops every four hours. No other medicine used. In twenty-four hours the sediment had sensibly diminished; in forty-eight hours only a slight deposit could be seen, and in sixty hours no sediment was discovered. It is now nearly eight months and as yet no trace of blood has even been seen in the urine. The woman has constantly improved in health since that time, and is now as well as over before in her life. I will add that the Turpentine was suspended at the end of a week, and ten drops of syrup of Superphosphate of Iron given three times a day instead, continued for several months or until she had regained her usual health. I use this preparation in preference to the trituration because it is much more efficient; and as each drachm contains only one grain of the iron, it is analogous to the first trituration in point of strength. For the same reasons I prefer the syrup of the Iodide of Iron.

It is my conviction that the members of our school do not sufficiently appreciate the great therapeutical value of Turpentine, as I shall try to show by further illustrations.

Case II. Mr. E., aged 30, had typhoid fever which had been treated with Baptisia, Belladonna, and Phos. acid, and seemed to be progressing favorably. The bowels had been rather loose, three or four soft yellowish-green evacuations a day; when on the fourteenth day of the disease, he was taken with profuse diarrhea of the color of prune juice, dark

red, reminding me of the juice of the berries of the Phytolacca. Under the microscope it showed a large amount of bran like particles, mingled with disorganized blood globules. Pieces of linen dipped in it became of a red color. It had a peculiar fetid odor, small coagula were found in the bottom of the vessel, they were not firm, but deliquescent. There was excessive tenderness in the left iliac region, stupor, mild delirium, dry tongue, red at the tip, heavily coated at the back, subsultus, etc.

Here the totality of the symptoms indicated Turpentine, although tympanites, one of the most characteristic, was not present. Five drops of the first dilution (decimal) wa3 given and the patient had but two more evacuations, each less in amount, while the general condition changed favorably. The tongue became moist, slightly coated white, and the stupor, etc., gradually disappeared. The medicine was continued one day, every three hours; then three times a day in alternation with Muriatic acid. The patient recovered.

It is one of the most potent remedial agents which we possess in the treatment of the severest form of typhoid or enteric fever, and should be oftener resorted to. (See article on “Turpentine in Typhoid Fever, ”N. American Journal of Homoeopathy, Vol. VII.)

Case III. Mrs. Mc K., had a severe attack of Enteritis, marked by the following symptoms: intense febrile heat, preceded by a chill; excessive tenderness of the abdomen; tongue red in the centre and dry; thirst, but drinks, especially cold, aggravated the pain in the bowels; tenesmus, with very scanty bloody evacuations; urine scanty, painful and high colored. Under the use of Aconite and Belladonna the fever abated. Colocynth relieved the severe lancinating pains, and Mercurius mitigated the tenesmus. On the fifth day she seemed to be doing well, abdomen slightly distended but not very sensitive to pressure. But on the morning of the sixth day I was sent for in great haste, as she was said to be dying. On my arrival I found her almost pulseless; face, hands and limbs cold; great agitation of mind; fear of death; much difficulty of breathing owing to a tympanitic state of the abdomen which was of enormous size, not sensitive, but hard and resonant like a base drum. There had been no evacuation of flatulence or urine for twenty-four hours. The tongue was dry and looked as if seared with a hot iron in the centre.

Here was evidently paralysis of the muscular tissue of the intestines or perforation of the bowels. If the former, the patient might possibly be saved, if the later, no human aid would avail.

After thinking of China, Coloc., Ars. and Colc., recommended in our books, I preferred to trust to the efficacy of Turpentine as the only remedy which seemed to be capable of causing the same symptoms and pathological condition. Ten drops of the first decimal dilution were accordingly given in a little brandy, and at the same time one dram of the same dilution was mixed with one pint of milk and water and the whole thrown up into the bowels by one of Davidson's syringes. The effect of these measures was wonderful. In less than fifteen minutes the pulse rose, and vast quantities of flatulence were emitted with much force and noise. A rapid convalescence followed under the use of Nux vomica and China.

Our allopathic colleagues recommend the Oil of Turpentine in similar cases, and are successful in the treatment of severe and even dangerous conditions like the above. They know too that Turpentine in large doses will cause fever, inflammation of the bowels, suppression of urine, tympanites, collapse and death. And yet this drug is “not homoeopathic to such morbid conditions!” Oh no! It removes them “by — ah — by — stimulating the muscular fibres — and — and — .” O blind leaders of the blind! when will ye ever consent to see the truth?

Whenever tympanites occurs during attacks of typhoid fever, malignant dysentery, peritonitis and enteritis, colic and even in hysteria, Turpentine is the homoeopathic remedy, because capable of itself causing similar diseases and conditions. Colocynth and Colchicum are useful in similar conditions, but of much less intensity. China is only useful when it is the result of general and local atony, and is not an acute, but a chronic affection. The same may be said of Nux vom. Carbo and Sulphur. Arsenicum and Phosphorus will be found useful when the other symptoms correspond. Nux mos., Moschus and Asafetida are most useful in hysterical cases. The Aesculus glabra and AEthusa cynapium cause fatal tympanites.

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