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DROSERA IN TUBERCULOSIS.

Dr. Curie, of Paris, has laid before the Academy of Sciences the results of his experiments upon the physiological and therapeutic action of Drosera. Sept. 2d, 1861.

1. This substance was given for a long period to two cats, and caused in both animals the formation of tubercles in the lungs and the abnormal development of various parts of the lymphatic system (the lymphatic glands, Peyers glands, etc.)

2. Drosera was given to patients suffering under tubercles in doses of from four to twenty drops daily. It appeared to be a powerful remedy. The disease was almost uniformly healed, wherever the general condition was favorable; at the same time the truth of the homoeopathic law in Therapeutics was demonstrated in so far as this particular case is concerned. Dr. Curie's paper was referred to a commission.

Gazette des Hopitaux, 1861. — No. 106.

From Dr. Curie's essay, published in the Bulletin de la Société Homoeopathique, we make the following extracts:

“My experiments were made upon three cats. This animal was chosen because of all domestic animals it is the least subject to tubercular degeneration. Indeed some observers deny that tubercles are ever found in cats. The results of my experiments, must, therefore, be so much the more certain and convincing.

Of the three cats, I killed the first within the space of three weeks, giving her daily three grains of Drosera, triturated with sugar of milk.

The second was sacrificed within a year. Beginning with a dose of a single drop, and gradually increasing the quantity, I gave her finally 1600 drops daily of the alcoholic tincture of Drosera.

The third cat is still alive. She has been the subject of experiment for six months. Inasmuch as she presents the same symptoms as the two others, it is very probable that her autopsy will disclose identical lesions with theirs.

As functional symptoms, all three presented, in the beginning, diarrhea, and after six weeks a very decided weakness of the voice.

It is an interesting fact that, in neither of the two cats on which an autopsy was held, could any noticeable lesion of the trachea be discovered, and yet in all three the voice was altered. They could still utter sounds, but these were almost inaudible — whereas during the early periods of the experiment the cries of the animals had been quite disagreeable to the neighbors.

The first cat, which I killed at the end of six weeks, presented at the autopsy an almost jelly-like deposit surrounded by a red margin, under the pulmonary pleura. By the aid of the microscope I could quite clearly discern tubercles in this mass. Dr. Gratiolet, prosector to the Anatomical Museum, verified my observations, and he also recognised the fact that these deposits contained tuberculous matter.

In addition to these lesions of the lungs, I observed also in 'this cat a very considerable development of the mesenteric glands.

The second cat, which I killed after a year of experimenting, presented many characteristic alterations in the lungs, although they were not very extensive. The lesions consisted in small white granulations as large as a pin-head, which lay under the pulmonary pleura and were surrounded by a very red injection of the contiguous tissue. The injection penetrated into the pulmonary tissue, but was not indurated. In the pulmonary tissue itself I could find no granulations.

These grey granulations had a moderate consistence; they could be compressed between two plates of glass, and offered, under the microscope, the following characteristics. They were irregular corpuscles, granular within and without. The majority had a diameter of 1/6000 millimetre, and they were scarcely affected by acetic acid.

In addition to this I may mention, the excessive development of the submaxillary lymphatic glands; the hypertrophy of the glands of Peyer and of the cells of the colon, which were filled with a turbid fluid, which a microscopic examination proved to contain lymph-corpuscles. But I must especially mention the development of the corpuscles of the spleen. These were so much enlarged that they could be perceived even through the external tunic, and that after the spleen had been incised it appeared to be made up almost wholly of these corpuscles.

On the other hand, however, the mesenteric glands were not perceptibly enlarged in this cat.

After these results we are justified in affirming that Drosera conditions the development of pulmonary tubercles, and acts at the same time also upon the lymphatic system, and thus it confirms the analogy which has already been assumed to exist between tuberculosis and, I do not say scrofulosis, but at least the lymphatic temperament I may remark further that the hypertrophy of the lymphatic organs affected the proper constituents of these organs, and did not result from a plastic exudation.

But Drosera can not only produce tubercles, it can also cure them if the disease be not too far advanced.

In the first period of this disease it has in fact so seldom left me in the lurch that I believe that in the few cases in which it did no good, either my diagnosis was faulty, or the subjects had not patience enough to pursue the treatment. I give it in daily doses of from four to twenty drops of the tincture. The stethoscopic signs in the various cases in which it acted favorably, were as follows: More or less extensive dulness on percussion, diminished vesicular murmur, rough inspiration or expiration, prolonged expiration and bronchial respiration in the region of the scapula.

The functional symptoms were cough generally dry, oppression, hemoptysis, pains in the chest, night sweats, emaciation.

Under the use of Drosera I have seen each of these symptoms diminish and even entirely vanish if the general state of the patient was good.


DOCUMENT DESCRIPTOR

Source: The American Homoeopathic Review Vol. 03 No. 03, 1862, pages 120-123
Description: Drosera in Tuberculosis.
Remedies: Drosera rotundifolia.
Author: Ahomeo03
Year: 1862
Editing: errors only; interlinks; formatting
Attribution: Legatum Homeopathicum
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