§ 55. Febrile conditions resembling Cholera.

Many will say that the various kinds of fever which we have treated in the preceding paragraphs are very-much like the febrile conditions which we shall speak of in this chapter, and that the treatment, at any rate, is very nearly the same. Although we are willing to admit that the febrile conditions which we have alluded to in the heading are not essentially different from one or the other of those fevers, yet we think that we ought to be as explicit as possible in this work, were it only for the sake of beginners in homeopathy, for whom this work is more particularly designed. It is for this reason that we will make particular mention of a kind of cholera fever which is very much related to a gastric or bilious fever, and frequently occurs as a sporadic disease in some parts of Germany. After that we will likewise give a minute account of the treatment of the Asiatic cholera, which having appeared once, is likely to appear again amongst us some time or other.

The sporadic cholera generally appears suddenly and without any precursory symptoms. If there exist precursory symptoms, they resemble those of a sabur-ral, bilious, and pituitous gastroataxia, or the precursory symptoms of saburral, bilious, and pituitous fevers, such as: general malaise, heaviness and indolence of the body, yellowish complexion, yellow slimy coating of the tongue, the root of the tongue being more thickly coated than the tip; these symptoms are frequently accompanied with a slimy, bitter taste, and beside this, nauseating bitter eructations are sometimes present; there is likewise a pressure, a crampy drawing and fulness in the pit and region of the stomach, with anxiety; flatulency, nausea, distention of the abdomen, rumbling and colicky pains in the bowels, the urine causes a burning in the urethra, has a fetid smell, and deposits a reddish sediment.

If these symptoms be not speedily removed by suitable homoeopathic remedies, or if the disease have no precursory symptoms, the symptoms of the disease itself set in. In the commencement the patient vomits suddenly and repeatedly, until the ingesta have been removed from the stomach, after this a watery, slimy, and at last a bilious fluid is thrown off in a larger or smaller quantity; the substance which is thrown off is yellow, green, brown, sometimes blackish, frequently fetid, causing renewed paroxysms of nausea all the time. This vomiting is accompanied with frequent and violent diarrhoea, consisting at first of faeces, and afterwards of a watery and bilious fermenting liquid; the diarrhoea is generally accompanied with violent burning, cutting colic, especially in the umbilical region.

If the disease last longer, the following symptoms supervene: fulness in the pit of the stomach, hurried respiration with anguish, violent cardialgia, spasmodic and sometimes scarcely perceptible pulse. When the disease has reached its acme, the above-mentioned symptoms attain their highest development, the pulse and strength of the patient collapse speedily, and other spasmodic pains in the bladder and the extremities, cold sweats, fainting turns, and hippocratic countenance, are sometimes present.

§ 56. We have already stated that the sporadic cholera is most frequent in our country (Germany). In hot summers, however, it may likewise break out as an epidemic disease, without having the character of the Asiatic cholera.

Predisposing causes of sporadic cholera are, undoubtedly, intense heat continuing a long while; catching cold suddenly in hot weather; an irritable constitution and temperament, as is frequently seen in hypochondriac and hysteric females; childhood, especially during the period of dentition; violent emotions, such as fright, anger, vehemence; cold in the abdomen, or by the feet; cold food and drink, unripe, sour, watery fruit, such as peaches, melons, grapes; ice and pastry; acrid, sour, non-fermenting drinks; fat, rancid food; spawn of perch, pike, and of caviar; acrid medicines and poisons, like the resinous and acrid emetics and cathartics, jalap, colocynthis, mineral acids, zinc, and sulphate of copper, tartar emetic, mercurial salts, arsenic, etc.; suppression of cutaneous eruptions, gout and menstruation.