Homoeopathy and its principles explained / [John Epps].

  • John Epps
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Homoeopathy and its principles explained / [John Epps]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    SECT. V. arrowroot made with milk was given to the patient, which occasioned alarming symptoms and aggravation of disease: that sometimes the patient said he was hungry, but could not eat: that it is witness’s firm opinion, that if the patient had taken food during the attack, he would have died. Lord llobert Grosvenor will state: That witness has known several instances where patients, suffering from Asiatic cholera, have been kept without any other food than the nourishment derivable from toast water, gum water, or thin barley water, for upwards of a week, and recovering well afterwards: that such patients were treated homoeopathically, and the abstinence from food, in witness’s opinion, tended most materially to hasten their convalescence. John Epps, M.D., is a physician of the University of Edinburgh, and was for several years a lecturer on Materia Medica, being one of the lecturers recognized by the Royal College of Surgeons, the Apothecaries’ Company, and the Army and Navy Boards; will state : That for the eleven years last past he has practised exclusively on the homoeopathic system : that he has had considerable experience in cholera: that in that disease, in its most fully developed form, total abstinence is essential to the recovery of the patient: that abstinence must be carried on, not only during the stage in which the vomiting and the purging of rice water evacuations prevail, and the stage of collapse, but also in the stage which succeeds, as long as cere- bral symptoms manifest themselves : that the fever which follows the stage of collapse is one peculiar in its nature; that it is even more dangerous than is the actual attack of cholera, and that the taking of food in this stage is often attended with fatal results : that in this typhoid-like fever, a craving for food is, in many cases, a marked symptom of the diseased state; the patient indeed demands food, says he is starved, and this demand for food is present even when the tongue is coated with a brown fur: that if the statements of Mr. Davis, as to the post mortem appearances, be correct, the deceased’s life would, in the witness’s opinion, have been saved, if the abstinence enforced by Mr. Pearce had been followed out, and homoeo- pathic treatment pursued; and witness further believes, supposing the statement of Mr. Davis to be correct as to the post mortem appear- ances, that the giving food by the widow and the ordering brandy and beef-tea by Mr. Davis caused the fatal result: that in reference to want of power of digestion in fever, witness will state that food does not digest in fever: that it is a fact proved by the observations of Dr. Beau- mont, that while in the healthy state gastric juice is always poured into the stomach when any substance is introduced into that organ, in the febrile condition, gastric juice is not poured out when food is introduced into the stomach, and the gastric juice not being poured out the food taken remains in the stomach undigested, even for forty-eight hours, producing