PREPARATION.--The virus, obtained by irritating the animal and allowing
it to bite on glass, is triturated in the usual way.
(Dr. T. L. Bradford furnishes us with the following
classification of this reptile):
The heloderma is classed as follows: Order: Saurii. Lacertilia. Lizards.
Sub order: 5. Fissilinguia. Family: Lacratidae. Heloderma horridum of
Mexico; the crust lizard; the Mexican Caltetopen. Called heloderma from
its skin being studded with nail or tubercle-like heads. The Gila
monster is a native of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. It is smaller than
the Mexican variety, and is called, by Cope, Heloderma Suspectum. It is
the only lizard whose character is not above reproach, hence the name.
Zoology says: An esquamate-tongued lizard with clavicles not dilated
proximally, a postorbital arch, no postfront-osquamosal arch, the pre
and post frontals in contact, separating the frontal from the orbit, and
furrowed teeth receiving the different ducts of highly developed
salivary glands.
(There has been considerable difference of opinion as to
whether the Heloderma is poisonous or not; but the
following abstract from a paper on the subject read
before the College of Physicians, Philadelphia, 1883, by
S. Wier Mitchell, together with the provings made later,
ought to very effectually settle all dispute on this
point; the conclusions are the result of experiments on
animals):
The poison of heloderma causes no local injury. It arrests the heart in
diastole, the organ afterwards contracts slowly--possibly in rapid rigor
mortis.
The cardiac muscle loses its irritability to stimuli at the time it
ceases to beat. The other muscles and nerves respond to irritants.
The spinal cord has its power annihilated abruptly, and refuses to
respond to the most powerful electrical currents.
This virulent heart poison contrasts strongly with serpent venom, since
they give rise to local haemorrhages, causing death chiefly through
failure of respiration and not by the heart unless given in overwhelming
doses. They lower muscle and nerve reactions, especially those of the
respiratory apparatus, but do not cause extreme and abrupt loss of
spinal power. They also produce secondary pathological appearances
absent in heloderma poisoning.
The briefest examination of the lizard's anatomy makes it clear why it
has been with reason suspected to be poisonous, and why it poisons with
so much difficulty. Unless the teeth are entire, the poison abundant,
and the teeth buried in the bitten flesh so as to force it down into
contact with the ducts where they open at the crown of the teeth, it is
hard to see how even a drop of poison could be forced into the wounds.
Yet it is certain that small animals may die from the bite, and this may
be due to the extraordinary activity of the poison, and to the lizard's
habit of holding tenaciously to what it bites, so as to allow time for a
certain amount of absorption.
(The provings and the clinical cases that follow were
from the virus of the Gila monster obtained by Dr.
Charles D. Belden, of Phoenix, Arizona, in 1890, who
suggested it as a possible remedy for paralysis agitans
and locomotor ataxia. He obtained the virus from a
captive monster by irritating it and then letting it
strike, or bite, a piece of heavy glass; by this means he
obtained a few drops of a pasty yellowish fluid. In his
letters Dr. Belden quotes Sir John Lubbock as follows):
This animal does not bite frequently, but when it does it is understood
that the result is a benumbing paralysis like to paralysis agitans or
to locomotor attaxia. There is no tetanic phase, being, as I apprehend,
a condition almost reverse in objective symptoms to hydrocyanic acid or
strychnia.
(Dr. Belden also writes):
It seems to me that it (the poison) differs in so many points from all
present known venoms that it is worth our having. In the first place it
is alkaline, and all other poisons of reptiles are acid. Second, its
effect is not always sudden but is lasting--causing sickness for months
and death even after a year. Again, although it does not produce
paralysis it is not the tonic spasm, but rather the slow creeping death
from extremities. It does not seem to excite but to depress.
(A supply of this poison was sent to Dr. Robert Boocock
at his request for proving, and he made three different
trials of it, the results of which were published in the
_Homoeopathic Recorder_ for March and April, 1893; but
as Dr. James E. Lilienthal has arranged the matter in
schema form we will here only give fragmentary quotations
from Dr. Boocock's papers, which are quite long, covering
nearly thirty pages. The following is from Dr. Boocock's
paper):
I am in my sixtieth year, sanguine, bilious temperament, fair complexion
and weigh 160 pounds; height, 5 feet 6 inches. My normal pulse rate is
72, full, round and regular. I am in very good health. I do not drink
alcoholic beverages of any kind, neither do I smoke nor drink strong
coffee, or tea, or cocoa. My usual and favorite beverage is hot water
with a little milk and sugar in it. If much sugar or salt is used my
stomach gets very sour, and water-brash is the result. I therefore use
very little of either, though I am very fond of sweetmeats.
When I received the first bottle of _Heloderma horridus_, I took a one
drachm vial and filled it with the 6x trit., and dissolved it in four
ounces of diluted alcohol, of which I took a few drops, dried my fingers
on my tongue, and a severe feeling of internal coldness, so intense as
to cause me to fear being frozen to death, ensued. I had some twitches
about my heart, as if the blood was hard to get in or out. I was
somewhat alarmed, but as I had no trembling I sat over the register and
tried to get warm. The day was a very cold one, but my office was
comfortably warm, and I had no consciousness of having taken cold.
I was not surprised at feeling this so soon after taking the few drops,
for I know that I am very sensitive to any medicine and have a bad habit
of tasting medicine, but never without being conscious of its effects,
sometimes very unpleasantly so.
Now, to-day is warm and damp, thunderstorm this morning, although it is
December 9th. The storm lasted three or more hours; lightning very
vivid. I had already taken one drop of the 30th, with a very severe
nervous headache, but I forgot that when I took the medicine. I have
medicated 2 oz. No. 35 globules with 30th dilution, and having taken six
globules as a dose before they were dry.
A feeling of heat in head and face, some headache over the right
eyebrow. Cold feeling in my legs; after two hours a numb feeling around
and down my left thigh; feeling very drowsy, so took a short nap in my
chair. Was awakened suddenly with a jerking in my head. Central part of
frontal bone so queer as to awaken me.
When my office bell rang it threw me into a startled and trembling
condition, something new to me. At 5:30 took four globules more.
8 P.M. The pressure at my heart and in my head and scalp is very great.
A feeling of great heat and some pressure. Not so much burning in my
face, but a feeling on my left cheek as if being pricked with points of
ice. A very severe and tired feeling, with coldness of legs and feet. A
slight dryness of my lips, with a tingling feeling and great dryness in
my throat. Gurgling in the region of the spleen.
9:30 P.M. The pressure and heat on the top of my head appears like an
inflammation of the meninges. It does not affect my mind; that remains
clear, and I can think and read as well and as long as ever. No more
medicine. * * *
December 29, 1892. No medicine. Some trembling, but not so great or so
extensive; it does not now extend along the whole limb. Parts of right
arm and left thigh hemiplegial; no acute feeling. But some muscles will
twitch and tremble for a few seconds. Just enough to arrest my attention
and amuse me, and feel like saying, "Hello, _Heloderma hor_! have you
not done with me yet?" For it is a great surprise to me how these
feelings will come on and creep over me. And I am inclined to ask
myself, can it be that all these strange and to me new feelings can be
the effects following the taking of these few doses? And yet, if it were
necessary, I could swear they were. I have my fears if I will ever be
free from these nervous trembling spells, and the feeling in my head and
heart.
(The foregoing gives the gist of the first trials. The
third and last now follows. It was made with repeated
doses of the 30th potency.)
12 meridian. Sensation as if a cold, freezing wind were blowing upon me
from the bend of my knees. Head feeling as if the scalp were being drawn
tight over my skull, and my facial muscles were being drawn very tight
over the bones. A giddiness and a cold pressure from within the skull. A
cold, running chill from superior maxillary down to the chin. Trembling
of limbs. Coldness extending from the knee into the calf of the leg.
Pain and pressure within the skull from crown to occiput, and from back
forward over the left eye. A very drowsy feeling. I could sleep if I
gave way to the feeling. * * * *
January 4, 1893, 7:45 A.M. Took another dose of six globules. Pulse, 72.
Temperature, 97 3.5. A flush of heat in my face. A feeling as if I were
walking on sponge or as if my feet were swollen. Dull headache. The
arctic cold feeling is more in my right arm, elbow joint, and right
thigh and left foot. A great trembling of my arm. It is hard work to
steady my hand, which holds my book, enough to continue reading or
writing.
The feeling of swelling in my feet of walking on sponges sensation
continues; a springiness, with a sense of looseness in stepping out,
which requires some caution, as if I were not sure of my steps. The
trembling of my hands is on the increase; feeling of soreness in my
heart, more under left nipple; pain in my back, lumbar region. Some
little scalding of urine; flow not so free and full, intermitting
slightly, as if I had some calculus in the bladder which interfered with
continuous flow. Stool more free and full.
Earwax, which had been very dry, now flows from both ears, but is more
free on the left side. Left nostril sore; ulcerated. Throat sore and
tender to outside touch. * * *
9 P.M. Very weak feeling, with pain in my heart; same place, under left
nipple. Head aches and arctic rays in various parts of my body. * * *
January 5, 12 noon. Took twelve more globules. Numb feeling in my head.
A feeling as if I would fall on my right side. A good drive this morning
in the snowstorm; and felt a desire to bear to the right side and could
not walk straight because of this, and had repeatedly to stop or step to
the left to get a straight course on the causeway. A good deal of the
same feeling, but very weak and sleepy; was compelled to lie down, but
did not sleep, although feeling very drowsy; laid very quiet, as if I
was in a stupor; the old feeling in various parts of my body, only more
acute; a feeling in various parts as if a needle were being thrust into
my flesh.
4:45 P.M. Took thirteen globules. A very stiff neck the most prominent
feeling. All the previously recorded feelings, only more intensely. I
have a painful boring feeling in the middle third of left thigh. * * *
8:30. Flushed, hot feeling in my head and face, but no increase in
color; but then I have just come out of the storm.
9:30. Took twelve globules more and retired to rest; very tired; slept
very profoundly until 1 A.M., then could not sleep. My back, in the
lumbar muscles, ached so and my left leg that I could not sleep for
hours, and my brain felt as if scalded; an intense burning feeling in
the meninges, for this did not affect my power to think. This hot
feeling commenced and spread down my back. An intense pain over left
eyebrow, through my left eye to base of brain and down my back. The pain
in the back of my head caused me to bore my head deep into my pillow,
and reminded me of cases I have seen of cerebro-spinal meningitis. An
intense weakness, as if I had no power to move, and no wish to do so,
and yet I was afraid I could not attend to my business. Yet, strange to
say, I was not alarmed, but passively indifferent. I could not open my
eyes without great effort; it was hard work to keep them open and the
easiest thing for them to close, as if there were a great weight upon
them, keeping them down. I begged to be allowed to remain in bed until
some one wanted me professionally, and yet I could not thus give way to
my feelings, and so got up.
7 A.M. Feeling very weak and giddy. Staggering about my bedroom trying
to dress. It was all that I could do to lift a hod of coal to the stove.
The pains in my head and lumbar muscles, back of my head near atlas and
middle third of left thigh and right elbow are the most noticeable from
the great pains; and arctic coldness in my feet and hands and arms; have
had a transient feeling of pain in the little finger and little toe of
right side. Very feverish or parched in the night, and my breathing was
hard and sounded as if I was drawing my breath through iron pipes. I
feel that I must not take any more medicine at present. When I remember
what a long time I was in getting to the end of the previous proving, I
feel that I dare not go any further.
The dose I have been taking, a No. 35 globule, is as large as ten such
as is ordinarily used for the 30th or for high dilutions, so that I have
taken as good as sixty high dilution globules as a dose, and lately as
high as one hundred and twenty-four and sometimes oftener daily.
I was surprised at these hot flushes and burnings in my head and along
my spine. And these strongly reminded me of some feeling a proving of
_Gelsemium_ caused, only that has sweat, whilst this has no moisture,
everything being dried up. Saliva, tears, nostrils, and earwax; the
great weakness and pain in the body reminds me of cerebro-spinal
meningitis.
My pulse rate is 68. 8:15. Temperature, 97 only.
1 P.M. What fearful aching in my body! Arctic feeling throughout my
body, except my head and face, and oh! so tired. A feeling as if it were
almost impossible to keep my eyes open. While out on my professional
rounds a feeling came over me as if it would be far easier to lie down
in the snowy streets than to keep trying to get along. The trembling is
very persistent.
9 P.M. Oh! this bad feeling in my head, the aching, aching in my bones,
in every part of my body, head to feet; no part entirely free from pain,
my body so cold; a feeling as if I had holes in my garments, and cold,
frosty winds were blowing through and freezing my flesh; cold penis and
testicles, no feeling but coldness. A slight gluey discharge; a fluent
discharge from nose, with great sneezing. * * *
January 9th, 8 A.M. Pulse rate 68; is not so full or jerky, but it is
some. Temperature under the tip of the tongue, 96; deeper in, 97. This
morning awoke at 3 A.M. and got up to urinate, but I could not stand
without I had hold of something. Oh, such a weak, giddy feeling! I never
fainted but once, from loss of blood, and these sensations are similar.
Plenty of strength to hold me up, but unable to balance myself, and when
I put forth an effort I staggered about like a man trying to walk with
paralysis or locomotor ataxy. This idea was the most prominent in my
mind, but I have a patient recovering from paralysis who has to swing
his body as he walks, to get his feet forward, and is very weak and
shaky about his knees, and these sensations very strongly reminded me of
his efforts. His weakness is in his knees, but mine was from the base of
my skull--cerebrum--where the pains have been so persistent near the
atlas extending downward. When I arose, at 7 A.M., it was very hard work
for me to balance myself enough to complete dressing myself, and very
hard work to carry my head. If I bent forward, then it required great
effort to keep from falling on my face or backward. This lack of
balancing power was accompanied by a sensation of nausea, as if I were
going to vomit. I persisted in my efforts to work, in hopes of shaking
off these very alarming sensations, and by effort got through my morning
work. Whilst shaving a severe jerk of my right arm caused me to gash my
face; very strange, but I ought not to have tried to do this. I have now
some numbness in my right hand and arm, and a good deal of trembling.
Arctic feeling in my feet and in various parts of my body. This feeling
of want of balancing power does not entirely leave me; a full, pressing
feeling in all parts of my head. And when I walk I notice I lift my feet
higher than usual, or than is necessary, and I put my heel down hard, as
if I was not sure of holding on to the ground. I notice some twitching,
as if my feet would spring up, making me walk as if I had the cock's
gait, as it is described. * * *
7 A.M., January 10, 1893. Thank God I began this day with more comfort
and more control of myself; my limbs are easier to manage; a little
giddiness and staggering, and stiff, bruised sensation in my back and
lower limbs. My cervical vertebra is less sore and have little pain; and
altogether feel very much better. My pulse rate is 80 this A.M.; full
and round; no jerks perceptible. Temperature 98 under the tongue, by the
root. Mercury very slow in rising; had to keep the thermometer in a long
time. I have a flushed, hot feeling in my face and head; no trembling,
less staggering, and can manage my limbs fairly well. I feel as I dared
not trifle with myself any further, for I am very weak. A very little
exertion would make me feel very ill. I am feeling like a man who had
just come from under a deadly risk; am very weak and prostrated, with
every nerve on the jump. Oh, so very weak! A sinking feeling. A parched
thirstiness in my throat and mouth. My tongue is clean; bowels regular;
a good deal of flatus, very fetid; pale yellow, greenish urine
(specific gravity 1008), smelling very fetid; same smell as the flatus;
more like the smell of rotting sweet fruit or vegetables. * * *
January 14, 1893. Could not get out of bed at my usual time; very severe
pain in head and back of neck, going down my back and right leg;
twitches, with cold, stinging, ice-needle pricks. My right hand is
feeling as if it were frozen. Pulse rate 64; full, round, but appears to
have a pendulum motion or twitch. Temperature 96 3-5. Mind clear, but
very weak in my body, and I can not get warm over a hot register or with
hot fluids. This constant arctic cold is very hard to bear and makes me
this morning feel as if I had a cake of ice on my back. My hands are
blue with cold and my feet feel like lumps of ice. Headache and
giddiness; could not keep from trembling while some patients were in my
consulting room, and had a good deal of difficulty in steadying and
controlling my voice; when excited could not get hold of the right words
I wanted and dropped some when speaking, from a want of flexibility or a
catch in my tongue. Pains in various parts of my body; the same
locations and character. Quite a rush of business to-day and very
ill-fitted to attend to it. My hands and feet blue and aching with cold,
even while I was sitting over a hot register that scorched my boot
leather, yet no feeling of warmth in hands or feet. A good deal of
throbbing and aching in the upper part of my kidneys, the right one the
sorest. Sharp pains in my bowels, near the caecum; some trembling (when
asleep it awoke me) in my right arm and left leg, with a sharp pain near
the ankle joint. * * *
January 20. Awoke this morning in a shivering fit. Trembling, giddiness
and headache, but not very severe. Cold arctic feeling. Pulse 68.
Temperature 97 1-5. My feet, 8 A.M., cold. Severe pain in left testicle,
extending through to the back to anus. Bleed very much from old piles.
An aching at end of penis, and no sexual desire. A feeling as if the
testicles were swollen and painful, as in orchitis; this is only a
transient pain, and comes and goes at infrequent periods, or remittent
in their character. I notice my urine is taking on the greenish-yellow
again, and my right arm is chilly from the arctic rays. My feet are
cold, and the coldness creeps up higher in my legs. A great deal of
arctic feeling in and around my heart. My breath is cold. Headache, but
mind clear. Cold chills run over me in various parts of my body. My
hands tremble very much at times, so that I can not write. Pain in
testicles and coldness, as if they were frozen. Pass a large quantity of
urine. * *
January 21. 8 A.M. Did not get up before, owing to the pressure in my
skull, as if it were too full; dropsy or some swelling of my brain;
giddiness, and a numbness down my left leg, and a jerking upward in both
of them. Some trembling and coldness around my heart, and in my lungs
and down my arms. My feet were very hot in the night until 5 A.M., when
they became cold, numb and jerky, upwards. My pulse rate is very slow
this morning, only 56 beats. Temperature is slowly forced up to 98. I
have a sensation as if my left cheek were swollen, but it is not so.
Trembling very much in my hands.
2:30 P.M. Have not been warm yet to-day; very intense arctic sensation
in my body and heart and lungs. Slight cough. Numbness in my right arm.
Much trembling, and a sensation of inward trembling in all parts of my
body. Generative organs frozen cold, and this coldness extends up my
back. My feet so cold that I have burned my boots, and yet cannot get
them warm. Coldness extends up to my knees. Stiffness and pain in left
thigh. Cold arctic band round my head, with fulness in skull. Pulse 60.
Temperature 97 4-5. Good appetite. Mentally clear, although very weak;
very tired and discouraged that these feelings last so long. They seem
to be all beginning over again; worse now than they were a week ago. I
feel more like giving up and going to bed sick, but I cannot afford to
do so, so I brace up and resist this temptation to try and find an
antidote for these recurring series of feelings. * * *
January 23. Slept well until 5 A.M.; then awoke with pains in head and
burning in my feet, with some trembling and stiff feeling in my lungs
and heart, as if they were tied or unable to move. As I lay awake I
could hear my heart pounding away, but, oh! so slow. Felt very weak and
wanted to stay in bed, but after some hard thinking I got up. 7 A.M.
Very weak; staggered about while dressing. Pains in the base of the
brain. Pulse 64 and irregular in its beats, some of them failing
altogether to declare themselves only by their absence to respond.
Temperature, after being held under my tongue ten minutes, 97 2-5. Very
cold in my back and over my shoulders; hands and feet are blue with
cold. Itching all over my body, and as if I was bitten with fleas or
bugs were crawling over me. Skin of my hands very rough and cracks are
in them. My ears have a feeling as if wax were running out of them.* * *
January 26, 10 P.M. It has required a mighty effort to keep up this day.
My pulse 56, slow and irregular; temperature 98. Headache, yet mind
clear; backache. Weakness in all my body; my limbs so weak in walking
that it was difficult to keep going, and felt as if I could lay down or
drop down anywhere. What heart failure symptoms are I do not know, but
fear I came very near it and yet I have resisted this feeling, and kept
awake and about. Have felt very ill all the day, and am so now on
retiring, 11 P.M. * * *
January 29. 9 A.M. Just after breakfast, pulse 68, temperature 99; slept
very heavy, but dreamed of treating many cases of black diphtheria.
Awoke, slept, dreamed the same dream again, and again the same dream,
three separate times. How very singular! During these provings, I have
done this three separate times. Three dreams in one night--the same
dream, the same disease, the same families in my dream. This singularity
caused me to lay awake wondering what this can mean. I have not any
patients suffering from this disease, and I do not know of any in the
town, and nothing that I know of to bring this disease to my mind. Awoke
feeling very stiff and sore. * * *
January 30. Head pains again, the same old character. Sensation of
swelling in my face and pain in nerves of teeth, molars. Hot feeling.
Pulse, 68. Temperature, 99. Very weak, but my mind clear. Much trembling
and the oppression round my heart and chest producing a suffocating
feeling that makes me afraid, and I must now seek some means to arrest
this difficulty and give me some relief. I know it looks cowardly to
give up, but my family compels me to do something to enable me to keep
about. I cannot do any more; this heart oppression makes me think of
heart failure. Pulse, 56, and temperature 96. Very weak. I hope it will
wear away and this trembling improve. They have been caused by this
drug, one of the most powerful. I gave up and went to bed very ill. I
had to keep it from my family, but I was afraid my heart would stop
beating and had a very restless night. I took acetic acid, as vinegar I
had in some pickles I thought changed or relieved the first class or
effort of provings and caused me to stop and begin again. I think it did
help me. Next day very prostrated but did not take any note of my pulse
or temperature, because I had began to try to find an antidote, and this
vinegar and lemon juice has relieved many of them. I fear sometimes that
the trembling in my hands may never fully leave me now.
February 12, 1893. Copying my notes has brought so vividly to my memory
that I can almost feel the old arctic rays through my body, and the
giddiness and staggering gait of the _Heloderma hor._ days. I hope that
you may have many others more courageous than I have been, whose
provings will compare or improve upon this poor effort of mine.