Rattlesnake poison.
Introduction
THERE are drugs whose malign effects on the human body present an almost perfect picture of some disease. The glaring instances that occur to one being.
Belladonna and scarlet fever: who will diagnose between them, without some corroborative history?
Arsenicum and ptomaine poisoning.
Mercurius cor. and dysentery.
Latrodectus mact. and angina pectoris.
Crot. hor. and black water fever.
Where such correspondences occur, Hahnemann tells us that we have specifics. Otherwise, merely to attach to disease-names drugs that have sometimes been found useful, or have a reputation for being useful for them, will lead to disappointment. It is only where their drug-pictures coincide that we may confidently expect dramatic results.
Of course any and all of these drugs may prove useful quite outside their complete symptomatology which, in ordinary practice, one seldom gets. You do not wait for the complete scarlet fever picture before prescribing Belladonna, which can be useful in a very wide number of common complaints. Only, the peculiarities-the “modalities”-of Belladonna must be there, to call for the drug. For instance, it is one of our greatest headache remedies: but their characteristics must be those of Belladonna viz, bursting, throbbing headache, usually with its fiery red hot face; and here Belladonna will cure, even where there is no sore throat, no high temperature, no red rash. Or again, a very dry, stiff, smooth, swollen throat will suggest Belladonna, without the bursting head, or the bright eyes with dilated pupils. But throat, or head, or whatever it may be, must be of the Belladonna type, or nothing doing. Patchy, septic throats with excessive, perhaps offensive salivation will not be affected by Belladonna They are outside its picture and its range of action.
Drugs become very dear to memory when one has once seen their extraordinary promptitude rescuing someone near and dear from desperately threatening conditions. Such a drug is Crot. horridus. We have written of this elsewhere, but cannot omit it from our Drug Picture of rattlesnake.
A young R.E. officer, home from delimitation work on the Gambia and from frequent attacks of malaria and much quinine-which disadvantages pursued him home, sent down a message one morning. “I have got black water fever”. And, oh! the fearful rapidity of that deadly disease! In a few hours inability to lift head from pillow: yellow all over; chest going green: stool black with blood: urine nearly-black jelly. Then the starting of the dreaded black vomit, supposed to be fatal. One can never forget the peculiar sound of that constant retching the following night, when we sent to beg Crot. from grandson of Hahnemann, an old man who lived in the neighbourhood. Then Crot. with a few doses (in alternation) of Phosphorus, prescribed by the homoeopathic doctor who had been called in, and who had had more experience of Phosphorus in haemorrhagic conditions; and the rapid, glorious subsidence of all the terrible symptoms: so that the few fateful hours-the very few-gave life for imminent death. But of course the pace of remedies is a most important factor, and the pace of Phosphorus would have been quite inadequate for such a disease. A few weeks later, when a large palmar abscess supervened, very fierce and painful, with high fever, Crot. came again to the rescue, and, the “basinful of pus” as the surgeons expressed it, having been let out, summarily finished the matter. Never did abscess get well more quickly and completely. No wonder one learnt to regard that particular snake venom with peculiar veneration, and to use it enthusiastically again and again in septic conditions:-septic foci, even in the gums; with lows, abscesses, especially where there was much “spoilt” dark, uncoagulable blood. Its rival here being, perhaps, Lachesis. but one has an idea that Crot. is more rapid, more deadly, and more yellow.
Another case of years ago:- a young girl dying in hospital of malignant disease, her pitiable emaciation dark yellow, almost brown. Crot. strikingly improved her appearance and her condition; for the time, anyway.
And yet one more well remembered triumph for rattlesnake: a memory from medical school days. A surgeon lecturing to the students, faltered, sat down, turned yellow, buried head between knees in the effort to retain consciousness. He explained that he had been operating on a bad septic peritonitis the previous afternoon, when he had pricked the finger of one hand, and cut the other hand. There were already glands in both axillae. The magic effects of Crot., ” one of the homoeopathic medicines” was explained to him, and there was a rush to get the promised remedy and to deposit it at his house. Next morning a glad message came through, “Tell the students that I am much better.” A fortnight later he was lecturing again, and lingered to speak his acknowledgments.
“I took your medicine. I also took quinine. But the man who did the same thing at Charing Cross-died.”
Hence Crot. stays “grappled to one’s soul with hoops of steel”, and in writing of the drug one desires that others should realize what a power resides in the poison of the rattlesnake-one of the deadliest and most rapidly fatal of all the snake poisons. The Cyclopoedia of Drug Pathogenesy amply attests to that. But the greater the poison the greater the remedy, provided you know how to prepare and use it. And here it is helpful to remember that, as Hahnemann proved and laid down, no poison is dangerous after the third potency,- that is ” one in a hundred three times; or one part in a million. But, not just mixed, however painstakingly! The mixture would probably be irregular, imperfect-not safe. It must be “potentized” after the manner of Hahnemann, viz. one drop in a hundred of alcohol or water (according to its solubility) vigorously succussed; and one drop of that (the first centesimal potency) in another hundred of the medium, again succussed, to make the second centesimal potency; of which again, one drop in 100, once more well succussed, to give the third centesimal potency: one in a million. And here you may be perfectly happy in prescribing the most virulent remedies. Their power to harm is gone from them, leaving only their power to heal.
Our remedies for sepsis are so many and so convincing that people find it difficult to diagnose between them. The most frequently considered being Lachesis, Crot. hor., Tarantula cub., Anthracinum, Pyrogen, Sepsin: while the less deadly, or at all events the less rapid cases, are brilliantly controlled by Hepar, Silicea, Mercurius, etc. But., as said, the pace of the disease must be taken into account: and the most rapidly fatal diseases are those of the tropics, and the most rapidly-acting remedies we have are the tropical snake and spider venoms.
Let us try to give suggestive differentiating symptoms. In Pyrogen, ceaseless movement, as a rule; marked inco-ordination between pulse and temperature, such as a high temperature with low pulse-rate, or, less frequently, the reverse. In axillary abscesses one thinks, after happy experiences, of Tarantula cub.; also for the virulent insect-stings of some hot summers; and, since, Tarent. cub. is said to be made form a rotten Cuban tarantula, it will probably come into line with Pyrogen and Sepsin. The latter won its spurs in the South African War, where it proved remarkably curative of the dysentery that there prevailed (she Clarke’s Dictionary). But one must not forget Anthracinum, with its great record not only for anthrax, but for septics states, and for boils and carbuncles with burning pains. (Arsenicum)
But our two most usual snake poisons being Lachesis and Crot. hor., let us try to extract their diverse, and their common characteristics, as pointed out by various observers.
ALLEN (Keynotes), says, “In Lachesis, the skin is cold and clammy: in Crot., cold and dry. Crot. has the greatest tendency to haemorrhages: Blood dark, fluid, offensive.” Haemorrhagic diathesis: blood flows from eyes, ears, nose and every orifice of the body: bloody sweat.” “Purpura haemorrhagica; comes on suddenly from all orifices; skin, nails, gums.”
But they are both haemorrhagic remedies: only Crot. is even more so. And they have many other symptoms in common. Both have loquacity: both are worse for sleep, and sleep into an aggravation; and both are intolerant of pressure and clothing about the abdomen:- Lachesis from its intense sensitivity to touch, pressure and constriction: Crot. more probably from its specific effect on the liver. Both have blueness of parts; Lachesis especially so: both have yellowness and jaundice, but Crot. most especially so. Crot. more affects the right side; Lachesis the left.
NASH (Crot.) seems to have shown its greatest usefulness in diseases which result in a decomposition of the blood of such a character as to cause haemorrhages from every outlet of the body; even the sweat is bloody. Useful in diphtheria when the profuse epistaxis occurs which marks many cases of a malignant type.
