Fragmentary Provings

BY HENRY USSHER, B.A., M.B.

(1) Apis, 4 decimal, given for edema of lower lids, produced, after two or three doses, an appearance at external angle of right eye like inflammation of the ciliary body, with lachrymation, and unusually brilliant cornea of both eyes. In two or three days the left eve exhibited the same at the nasal side, but not so severe; Sulph. 6 decimal cured it as by magic.

(2) Plumbum Nitricum, 2 decimal, was sprinkled on the right great toe for Onychia, and given internally every second or third day. The right testis swelled very much, and was painful; it was rapidly cured by Merc. Sol. 3 decimal.

(3) Colocynth, 6 decimal, in three doses, caused dark redness and painfulness of the fraenum penis; it ceased after a while.

(4) Psorinum, 6, given to a woman for intense sleepiness in the forenoon, of some years’ duration, caused intensely ulcerated tongue and gums, with sore throat.

(5) A patient took Psorinum Cm. (Swan). His throat became covered with spots the size of an ordinary pilule, and larger, covered with a cheesy-looking creamy top, a pink circle round the base, and some of them looked as if mortification was setting in; they turned black, but there was no foetor. The throat symptoms were worse from hawking up, worse from gargling with cold water, and always better from his beer. I think it began on the left side, and was confined mostly to that side, perhaps extending a little to the right velum.

[The latter case was a patient whom Dr. Ussher sent to one of us for consultation. He suffered from a cough, the characteristic symptom being pain in the right hypochondrium on coughing, for which he received Psorinum Cm. (Swan). Improvement set in at once; but instead of leaving off the medicine altogether, the patient repeated the dose, with the above result. The above symptoms of Psorinum are of great value, and may be compared with the following from Stapf’s proving with the 30th potency “The gums on the right side are ulcerated, after the long-lasting toothache is entirely gone.” “Severe angina; on the right side, an ulcer, with a sore pain deep inside, and burning in the fauces.” “A painful pustule on the fauces”, etc.. Some of the “unco guid” among us turn up their eyes and noses with horror at the idea of using the diluted and potentized products of disease to cure the sick; yet, with singular inconsistency, while they are shocked at infinitesimal doses of a disease-virus, so small as to remove all idea of nastiness, they uphold the practice of vaccinating a healthy (!)infant with the crude virus, which has passed through the systems of no one knows who, and may be contaminated with all the rottenness and filth of past generations. These Nosodes, when highly diluted and potentized, according to Hahnemann’s method, are most powerful curative agents, as we shall in due time point out. In the meantime, we call attention to Dr. C. Hering’s promised collection of the symptoms cured and produced thereby, in the North American Journal of Homoeopathy.—EDs.]