PYROGEN [Pyrog]:
-M.L.Tyler.
Introduction:
ANOTHER great FEVER remedy! ---but not the remedy of simple acute fevers, like Aconite, but the remedy of septic conditions-- typhoid conditions--typhoid. Pyrogen is a weird medicine--weird in origin--weird in symptoms; and it belongs to Homoeopathy alone. We owe this remedy to Dr. Drysdale, who published his pamphlet "On Pyrexin or Pyrogen, as a Therapeutic Agent", in 1880. Dr. Drysdale had been greatly struck by a remark made by Dr. Burdon Saunderson in a British Medical Journal in 1875. It runs thus: "Let me draw your attention to the fact that no therapeutical agent, no synthetical product of the laboratory, no poison, no drug is known which possesses the property of producing fever. The only liquids which have this endowment are liquids which either contain Bacteria, or have marked proneness to their production." Drysdale says that: "this last clause is qualified by statements elsewhere, and from other sources, that the fever-producing agent is a chemical non-living substance formed by living bacteria, but acting independently of any further influence from them; and formed not only by the bacteria but also by living pus-corpuscles, or the living blood or tissue- protoplasm from which these corpuscles spring. This substance when produced by Bacteria is the sepsin of Panum and others, but in view of its origin also from pus, and of its fever-producing power. Dr. B. Saunderson names it Pyrogen." The above may not be the last word in bacteriology--or in Homoeopathy--but one records it in toto, because to its inspiration we owe a unique and very useful remedy, as will be seen. But Dr. Drysdale, of course, cannot admit that no other drug or poison can produce fever, because "Aconite, Belladonna, Arsenic, Quinine, Baptisia, Gelsemium and a host of other drugs do produce more or less of the febrile state, among other effects. But they produce it only after repeated doses and contingently on the predisposition of the subject of the experiment--or they produce it as a part of a variety of complex local and general morbid states. Therefore, " he says, "it is practically true that no other known substance induces idiopathic pyrexia, certainly, directly, and after a given dose. This directness of action ought to make it a remedy of the highest value, if it can ever be used therapeutically, and if the Law of Similars is applicable here also, we ought to find it curative in certain states of pyrexia and certain blood disorders to which its action corresponds pathologically." Drysdale gives Burdon Saunderson's experiments on animals which show that Sepsin or Pyrogen, given in lethal doses, kills-- having produced changes in blood and tissues analogous to those of septicaemia after wounds: while in non-lethal doses, after severe symptoms, "the animal, in a few hours, recovered its normal appetite and liveliness with wonderful rapidity showing that this septic poison has not the slightest tendency to multiply in the organism." So, pondering these things, Drysdale set out to prepare his remedy for fevers of the worst type--from sterilized putridity. He chopped up half-a-pound of lean beef into a pint of tap- water, and set it in a sunny place for three weeks. The maceration fluid was reddish, thick and fetid; and the stench can be imagined when he set to work to render his material absolutely sterile and safe. It was strained; filtered; evaporated to dryness at boiling heat; rubbed up in a mortar with spirits of wine; boiled ; again filtered; again dried to form a brownish mass; rubbed up now with distilled water, and again filtered. The clear amber-coloured resulting fluid was a watery extract, or solution of Sepsin. This, mixed with an equal volume of glycerine, was labelled Pyrexin O. (But Burnett, when it was prepared for him some eight years later, had it run up with spirits of wine to the sixth potency, which he used curatively in cases of typhoid fevers; and some of Burnett's preparation went on to Dr. Swan, on high-potency fame, who prepared from this the very highest potencies of Pyrogen; much used in U.S.A.) To be absolutely sure that his "Pyrexin" or Pyrogen was pure poison--sterile--and incapable of carrying or breeding disease, it was tested, by injection, on white mice. And Drysdale was able to state that "Sepsin or Pyrogen is only a chemical poison, whose action is definite and limited by the dose: it is incapable of inducing an indefinitely reproducible disease in minimal dose, after the manner of the special poisons of the specific fevers." He says: "The most summary indication for Pyrogen, would be to term it the Aconite of the typhus, or typhoid quality of pyrexia." Burnett, always on the look-out for curative agents, wrote a small monograph on Pyrogen in Typhoid, giving cases; because Drysdale's work had been more or less passed over, and he realized and had experienced the importance of the remedy. Then Dr. H. C. Allen not of the Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica, but of Allen's Keynotes, and Allen's Materia Medica of the Nosodes), by including Pyrogen among his remedies brought it into practical use. But by far the most illuminating article on Pyrogen comes from Dr. Sherbino, of Texas, published in the Homoeopathic Physician, in April, 1893; and in the same volume is to be found an article by Dr. Yingling, who "collates the reliable indications of Pyrogen". Yingling says: "As the larger part of this record is clinical, and as the symptoms cured with a single remedy are reliable between the symptoms of the provings, and the symptoms cured.) I have not been able to find, so far, a proper and complete proving of Pyrogen on humans. But Clarke used to insist that it was only a case of "what a remedy can cause it can cure", but the other way about; what it can cure, it can also cause. In the latter case the remedy, according to him, was born by breach presentation: and he was jubilant when, later, his cured symptoms were found to have been also caused by his remedy. Dr. Sherbino not only gives arresting indications for Pyrogen, but a set of telling cases which show its great power and utility, and also the rapidity of its action; and he stresses the very striking and peculiar symptoms that should suggest its use. We will give some of his pointers, and then, briefly, some of his cases. The hard bed--hard pillow sensations--the intolerable aching, compared to lying on a pile of rocks, show the extreme soreness of Pyrogen. (Arnica, Baptisia) The patient may "feel as if a train of cars has run over him". Extreme restlessness, better when first beginning to move. This is the great difference between Rhus and Pyrogen. Rhus is worse when beginning to move, but better for continued motion. As the relief from movement in Pyrogen only lasts a few moments, the patient has to keep on moving. Hence its frightful restlessness. Restlessness better sitting up in a chair and rocking hard. Pyrogen has only momentary relief from moving, but must move for that relief. (One thinks of Pyrogen as the dream of scientists--perpetual motion.) Fan-like motion of the alae nasi (Ant. t., Bapt., Bell., Brom., Hell., Lyc., Phos., Rhus tox.) Vomits water when it becomes warm in stomach (Phos.). Sick stomach, better by drinking very hot water (not Phos.). Coughs rusty mucus : pain in right lung and shoulder, agg. from coughing or talking. Throbbing of vessels of neck (Bell., Spig.). Violent heart's action. Heart beats hard: sensation as if too full of blood: beats very loud, can be heard a foot away from thorax. Can't sleep for heart whizzing and purring so. Delirium on closing eyes: sees a man at foot of bed, or in far part of room. Inclined to talk all the time at night during the fever. Talks to herself. Whispers to herself. If asked what she said, does not answer. Cries out in sleep that some one, or a weight is lying on her. Sensation of a cap on head. When she awakens and feels the cap, knows that she is not delirious! Sensation as if she covered the whole bed: or she knew that her head was on the pillow, but could not tell where the rest of her body was. (Comp. Bapt., Petrol.) Feels when lying on one side that she is one person, and that when she turns to the other side, she is another person. Felt as if existing in a second person, or as if there were two of her. The fever would not run in each alike. (Bapt. the fever wants to run separate.) Feels crowded with arms and legs. Can tell when fever is coming on, because he must urinate. Urine clear as spring water. Intolerable tenesmus of bladder. Coldness and chilliness that no fire would warm. Sits by fire and breathes the heat from the fire. Then later, sensation of lungs on fire, and that he must have fresh air, which relieved. Knife-like pains in side, go through to back; worse from motion, coughing, and deep breathing; better lying on affected side (Bry.). Groaning with every breath. Face and ears red, as if the blood would burst through. After the fever, the hallucination still persists that he is very wealthy, and has a large sum of money in the bank; this is the last to leave him--this idea that he has the money. Numbness hands and feet: extends over whole body. Hands cold and clammy. Bowels so sore he can hardly breathe. So sore, can bear no pressure over right side abdomen. Tongue coated white: yellow-brown streak down centre (Bapt.). Tongue dry: dry down the centre: not a particle of moisture on it. Bitter taste. (Allen gives also, tongue clean, smooth and dry; fish fiery red, then dark and intensely dry; smooth and dry; glossy, shiny as if vanished ; dry, cracked, articulation difficult.) Rolling of head from side to side. And a most curious symptom. Bearing-down pain and prolapsus uteri, only relieved by holding the breath and bearing down. Pain starting at umbilicus, or just above, passing down towards uterus, but intercepted by just the same kind of pain starting from the uterus and passing up till they met midway and died away till another came. Dr. Sherbino calls Pyrogen a "grand nosode--one of the greatest monuments to Hahnemann and to Homoeopathy, as it covers a very wide range of action, and fills a place of its own that no other full" The above is greatly condensed, as are the cases that follow. Dr. Sherbino uses Swan's very high potencies of Pyrogen in these cases. As we said, Burnett's work was done with the sixth potency, which is a very useful one. PNEUMONIA. Girl of 14. Had been ill for a week. Temp. 105 1/2; resp. 52; pulse 120; rusty sputum. Part rt. lung and shoulder, worse talking and coughing. Fan-like motion alae nasi. Restlessness. Temp., on succeeding days, 1021/2 (improving fast); 100; 971/2--subnormal in three days. She took four doses of Pyrogen CM. "Cured" on the third day. (But pneumonias have a way of resolving rapidly by crisis or lysis. So, much cannot be claimed for this case.) MRS. X. Aching all over: so very restless all last night; couldn't keep still. Pyrogen dmm. Cured by next morning. LITTLE GIRL with paralytic symptoms. Couldn't stand on her feet, and when they set her up in bed she would wave back and forward as if she had no control of herself. Her pulse was 120. Taking the increased heart-action as a leading symptom, I gave her Pyrogen cmm. which cured her quickly. MRS. A. Fever began yesterday. Had a miserable night. Temp. 103, pulse 130. Very restless, especially after midnight; constantly changing her position in bed. Rhus did not help. Next morning no better. Had had a bad night: no sleep: says it keeps her busy trying to get into an easy position, and she noticed that she was better while she kept up this motion all the time. Pyrogen cmm. Began to improve at once, rested better at night, and next day aching gone, pulse 108, temp. normal. She had a great deal of throbbing in vessels of thorax and neck, so violent it would shake the bed. CHILD WITH LA GRIPPE. Her father called to ask for medicine. Said she was very restless, worse lying down, better sitting up. Vomited after drinking as soon as it gets warm in stomach. Better by vomiting. Cured with one dose of Pyrogen cmm. LA GRIPPE. Mr.--Coldness and chilliness no fire can warm. Grew more restless towards night. Had been breathing hot air from fire, now had a desire for fresh air, or his lungs would burn up. Groaned all night, and rolled and tumbled from one side of the bed to the other, not lying on one spot but a moment at a time. The bed was as hard as a board, the pillow was hard, and he was as sore as if a train had run over him. He tried to lie on his face, but found that that side of his body was sore too. Before daylight he awoke and told his wife he was so glad that he had got rid of those arms and legs that had crowded him all night ; if he turned over they were there, and he was trying all night to get them out of the bed. He took two or three doses of Pyrogen cmm. DYSMENORRHOEA. Mrs. W.F.F. has had painful menstruation for several years, always preceded by aching in bones, causing her to complain of the bed being hard, and accompanied by intolerable restlessness. Better when first beginning to move-- and she has to keep this up, as it affords some relief to the restlessness. I saw her have one of these spells, and she was on the floor, and she would curl up and then straighten out, and then turn and twist in every possible position. The cmm. of Pyrogen would always relieve her, till now she does not have the aching. This remedy has cured this condition, but other remedies had to be used. I was called to see A COLOURED GIRL about twelve years old, who seemed to be partially paralysed. She could not sit up or stand; nor walk a step without help. She was very restless and kept rocking back and forth while sitting on the edge of the bed. She said that this rocking motion relieved her and so she kept it up. I gave her a dose of Pyrogen cmm. and she was all right in a day or two. CHILD had a fever for several days and was getting worse. (Bell. and Rhus had failed). I sat up all night with the case and it had all the restlessness of approaching death. There was more motion of the right leg and arm, and she would make a semi-circle from left to right, and her feet would get up upon the pillow, and she was not still for one moment all night long. She would make this peculiar circle and would have to be put on the pillow, and in a very short time she would be kicking the headboard with her feet. All of these symptoms passed away under the action of Pyrogen dmm. MRS. M. has been troubled for some time with bearing down feelings in the uterine region, relieved by holding her breath and pressing down as if in labour. She was very restless at night and had to keep in motion, as only then could she get any relief. (Better when first beginning to move.) Cured by Pyrogen dmm. Other cases, Pneumonia--typhoid pneumonia--relapse after typhoid fever, cured by Pyrogen, in very high potencies, are too lengthy to quote here. They are all on the same lines, as regards symptoms. Dr. Yingling collates the reliable indications of Pyrogen, giving them in schema form. He "omits any symptoms where the action of other remedies used in connection with Pyrogen might have influenced its curative range." Among his additional symptoms, one may quote: Very loquacious. "I never talked so much in one day in all my life. I could think faster than ever I could." Frightful throbbing headache, better for a tight band. Every pulsation felt in head and ears. Excruciating, bursting, throbbing headache with intense restlessness: with bleeding of nose, nausea and vomiting. Sneezing every time he put his hand out from under the cover. Terrible fetid taste, as if mouth and throat were full of pus, as if a broken abscess in mouth. (Proving.) Tired feeling about the heart, "feels like taking it out to let it rest; it would be such a relief to stop it, let it lie down, and stop throbbing". Perspiration horribly offensive, carrion-like: disgust, up to nausea, about any effluvia arising from her own body. Great restlessness. "Thought she would break if she laid too long in one position." Septic states. Typhoid conditions. Yingling also gives a few cases--Neglected pneumonia: cough, night-sweats, frequent pulse, and to all appearance as if the last stage of pneumonia consumption. An abscess had burst that day was discharging a great amount of pus; tasted like matter. Made a rapid recovery on Pyrogen cm., a few doses. "Knew he was going to have typho-malarial fever, which he had two years previously, after a malarious exposure on a foreign mission field." Had every other day what he called "dumb ague". Pyrogen cured. Yingling says, Pyrogen has cured cases of blood poisoning. It should be thought of in dissecting wounds; and he quotes: "In all fevers when other remedies do not act, think of Pyrogen" (Swan). "In septic poisoning from wounds--after abortion-- accouchment, etc., etc., think of Pyrogen" (H. C. Allen). "Pyrogen resembles Ipecac. very closely in uterine haemorrhage. If you have an Ipecac. case, and that remedy fails you, think of Pyrogen." Kent says: "Septic conditions, where there is a continuous intermingling of little chillinesses and little quiverings throughout the body and the pulse has lost its proper relationship to the temperature, Pyrogen must be administered." Allen's Nosodes has a chapter on Pyrogen: and here is a little quotation from "Notes from Lectures by H. C. Allen", which sums up well the "inwardness" of this powerful and rapidly acting remedy. I have found this remedy invaluable in fevers of septic origin, all forms ; when Bapt., Ech., Rhus or the best selected remedy fails to relieve or permanently improve, study Pyrogen. The bed feels hard (Arn.); parts lain on feel sore and bruised (Bapt.); rapid decubitus (Carb. ac.); of septic origin. Chill:--Begins in the back between scapula, severe general coldness of bones and extremities. Heat:--Sudden skin dry and burning; pulse rapid, small, wiry, 140-170 ; temp. 103-106*. Sweat:--Cold, clammy, profuse, often offensive, generally exhausting. Pulse abnormally rapid, out of all proportion to temperature (Lil.). In septic fevers, especially puerperal, where foetus or secundines have been retained, decomposed; foetus dead for days, black, horribly offensive discharge. When patient says: "Never been well" since septic fever, or abortion, or a bad confinement. To arouse vital activity of uterus and enable it to expel its contents. Much of this--and much more--will be found in Clarke's Dictionary. And, by the way, one of the indications for Pyrogen that we have forgotten to mention is: Pulse very high, out of proportion to temperature. One wonders whether it might not even save life in those desperate conditions when, with a soaring pulse, the high temperature suddenly drops. One's experiences of Pyrogen seem hardly worth mentioning after the foregoing, and yet they are corroborative. INFLUENZA. One recalls the early days of severe Influenza, which came, like a bolt from the blue, after many years' absence-- so one was told. It was called the Russian Influenza, because it was supposed to have spread from the Foreign Office, having come in Despatches from Russia. One remembers the agonies of restlessness, with the utter impossibility of remaining for more than one moment in any position, till, from a chair, one wriggled and twisted, in search of relief, till down on the floor, when one had to start again. This was a cry for Pyrogen --had one then known it! The year when the Duke of Clarence died, the doctors were writing to the papers, almost in panic (because so many people died), that it was imperative, since the disease was so severe and brief, to give the patients quantities of alcohol. With Burnett's Pyrogen 6 we had a wonderful experience. At that time we had a number of adults and children living on the place--the family, indoor servants, out-door servants and their families (not the restricted families of 1932!)--and as they went down with influenza one by one, or in batches, Pyrogen 6, given six- hourly for a few doses, cured every single case in from twenty- four to forty-eight hours; and there was no alcohol, and there were no complications. And after that it was Pyrogen, a dose or two at the sudden onset of the violent pulsations, that used to announce a fresh attack of Influenza, that, for me, finished its bi-annual recurrences. Of course, epidemics of what we call influenza vary greatly in their symptoms, and in the remedy of the "genus epidemics", needed to combat them. One year it may be Mercurius--one Gelsemium; one year most of the cases will be of the Baptisia type, and so on. But the fever of violent pulsations an intense restlessness, because it is only constant movement that makes existence possible, needs Pyrogen. A doctor was telling me the other day about a recent Pyrogen case. It was not yielding to likely remedies, when the symptom, "Felt as if he covered the bed", led him, to prescribe Pyrogen, which promptly cured. American doctors find one of their most dramatic uses for Pyrogen in sepsis after delivery, with offensive discharges, and where part of the placenta has been retained. They say that they give Pyrogen and it "pops out". Here is such a case: A couple of years ago one of our cows calved away in the fields. Calf was found dead, and no placenta. Vet. removed some of it, but failed to get it all away. She had fever and was very ill, and he was thinking of exploring further; but she was given Pyrogen, and the next day the fever was gone and she was well. I don't know if it was a case of "popping out", but there was no further trouble. One has seen very great relief from Pyrogen in abscess and whitlow. But here Homoeopathy has such a wealth of helpful remedies--Crotalus, Lachesis, Anthracinum, Silica, Arsenicum, Hepar, Pyrogen, etc. One remedies a case of diarrhoea persisting for years after typhoid fever, and other cases of diarrhoea, cured by Pyrogen; also a case of diabetes (indications forgotten) where Pyrogen removed the sugar. Allen's Nosodes gives a number of cases showing rapid curative action of Pyrogen: cases of sepsis after parturition with offensive discharges: cases of varicose ulcer with offensive, discharges ; of diarrhoea with frightfully offensive stools, after poisoning by sewer gas, etc. He quotes a case of Bogers: "An old woman dying of gangrene inoculated one of her nurses; the nurse had chills, high fever and red streaks running up the arm following the course of the lymphatics. Pyrogen rapidly removed the whole process." Allen says: "I can hardly mention Pyrogen without becoming enthusiastic, on account of the wonderful results I have had from it in blood poisoning. In any kind of septic infection, either puerperal or traumatic, Pyrogen, will do wonders, when the symptoms correspond. It is similar to Anthracinum in some respects." Pyrogen, as we saw, is made from putrefying animal matter. Allen, in his Nosodes, compares it with another powerful fever- producing and curing remedy, made from decaying vegetable matter, i.e. the decaying vegetable matter of a very malarial region on the Wabash river. He calls it "Malaria officinalis, the vegetable Pyrogen", and describes its preparation, and the symptoms produced in its provers. He also says: "I know several localities in South America, Africa and Spain, where the marsh miasma has unquestionably arrested phthisis pulmonalis, without any other treatment or restriction in food or drink." Provers of Malaria had fearful headache, nausea, vomiting in some cases, distress in stomach, hypochondria--"first in the spleen, then the liver and stomach, and on the third day pronounced chills, which were so severe that they had to be antidoted." With one of the preparations, the stomach, spleen, liver and kidneys became involved, with quartan and tertian intermittent fevers. In one case a genuine typhoid condition was set up, which compelled the provers to take to bed. It would be most interesting to try the effect of Malaria officinalis in G.P.I. It would be simpler and less risky than by imported mosquitoes.--P.S.
Introduction:
ANOTHER great FEVER remedy! ---but not the remedy of simple acute fevers, like Aconite, but the remedy of septic conditions-- typhoid conditions--typhoid. Pyrogen is a weird medicine--weird in origin--weird in symptoms; and it belongs to Homoeopathy alone. We owe this remedy to Dr. Drysdale, who published his pamphlet "On Pyrexin or Pyrogen, as a Therapeutic Agent", in 1880. Dr. Drysdale had been greatly struck by a remark made by Dr. Burdon Saunderson in a British Medical Journal in 1875. It runs thus: "Let me draw your attention to the fact that no therapeutical agent, no synthetical product of the laboratory, no poison, no drug is known which possesses the property of producing fever. The only liquids which have this endowment are liquids which either contain Bacteria, or have marked proneness to their production." Drysdale says that: "this last clause is qualified by statements elsewhere, and from other sources, that the fever-producing agent is a chemical non-living substance formed by living bacteria, but acting independently of any further influence from them; and formed not only by the bacteria but also by living pus-corpuscles, or the living blood or tissue- protoplasm from which these corpuscles spring. This substance when produced by Bacteria is the sepsin of Panum and others, but in view of its origin also from pus, and of its fever-producing power. Dr. B. Saunderson names it Pyrogen." The above may not be the last word in bacteriology--or in Homoeopathy--but one records it in toto, because to its inspiration we owe a unique and very useful remedy, as will be seen. But Dr. Drysdale, of course, cannot admit that no other drug or poison can produce fever, because "Aconite, Belladonna, Arsenic, Quinine, Baptisia, Gelsemium and a host of other drugs do produce more or less of the febrile state, among other effects. But they produce it only after repeated doses and contingently on the predisposition of the subject of the experiment--or they produce it as a part of a variety of complex local and general morbid states. Therefore, " he says, "it is practically true that no other known substance induces idiopathic pyrexia, certainly, directly, and after a given dose. This directness of action ought to make it a remedy of the highest value, if it can ever be used therapeutically, and if the Law of Similars is applicable here also, we ought to find it curative in certain states of pyrexia and certain blood disorders to which its action corresponds pathologically." Drysdale gives Burdon Saunderson's experiments on animals which show that Sepsin or Pyrogen, given in lethal doses, kills-- having produced changes in blood and tissues analogous to those of septicaemia after wounds: while in non-lethal doses, after severe symptoms, "the animal, in a few hours, recovered its normal appetite and liveliness with wonderful rapidity showing that this septic poison has not the slightest tendency to multiply in the organism." So, pondering these things, Drysdale set out to prepare his remedy for fevers of the worst type--from sterilized putridity. He chopped up half-a-pound of lean beef into a pint of tap- water, and set it in a sunny place for three weeks. The maceration fluid was reddish, thick and fetid; and the stench can be imagined when he set to work to render his material absolutely sterile and safe. It was strained; filtered; evaporated to dryness at boiling heat; rubbed up in a mortar with spirits of wine; boiled ; again filtered; again dried to form a brownish mass; rubbed up now with distilled water, and again filtered. The clear amber-coloured resulting fluid was a watery extract, or solution of Sepsin. This, mixed with an equal volume of glycerine, was labelled Pyrexin O. (But Burnett, when it was prepared for him some eight years later, had it run up with spirits of wine to the sixth potency, which he used curatively in cases of typhoid fevers; and some of Burnett's preparation went on to Dr. Swan, on high-potency fame, who prepared from this the very highest potencies of Pyrogen; much used in U.S.A.) To be absolutely sure that his "Pyrexin" or Pyrogen was pure poison--sterile--and incapable of carrying or breeding disease, it was tested, by injection, on white mice. And Drysdale was able to state that "Sepsin or Pyrogen is only a chemical poison, whose action is definite and limited by the dose: it is incapable of inducing an indefinitely reproducible disease in minimal dose, after the manner of the special poisons of the specific fevers." He says: "The most summary indication for Pyrogen, would be to term it the Aconite of the typhus, or typhoid quality of pyrexia." Burnett, always on the look-out for curative agents, wrote a small monograph on Pyrogen in Typhoid, giving cases; because Drysdale's work had been more or less passed over, and he realized and had experienced the importance of the remedy. Then Dr. H. C. Allen not of the Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica, but of Allen's Keynotes, and Allen's Materia Medica of the Nosodes), by including Pyrogen among his remedies brought it into practical use. But by far the most illuminating article on Pyrogen comes from Dr. Sherbino, of Texas, published in the Homoeopathic Physician, in April, 1893; and in the same volume is to be found an article by Dr. Yingling, who "collates the reliable indications of Pyrogen". Yingling says: "As the larger part of this record is clinical, and as the symptoms cured with a single remedy are reliable between the symptoms of the provings, and the symptoms cured.) I have not been able to find, so far, a proper and complete proving of Pyrogen on humans. But Clarke used to insist that it was only a case of "what a remedy can cause it can cure", but the other way about; what it can cure, it can also cause. In the latter case the remedy, according to him, was born by breach presentation: and he was jubilant when, later, his cured symptoms were found to have been also caused by his remedy. Dr. Sherbino not only gives arresting indications for Pyrogen, but a set of telling cases which show its great power and utility, and also the rapidity of its action; and he stresses the very striking and peculiar symptoms that should suggest its use. We will give some of his pointers, and then, briefly, some of his cases. The hard bed--hard pillow sensations--the intolerable aching, compared to lying on a pile of rocks, show the extreme soreness of Pyrogen. (Arnica, Baptisia) The patient may "feel as if a train of cars has run over him". Extreme restlessness, better when first beginning to move. This is the great difference between Rhus and Pyrogen. Rhus is worse when beginning to move, but better for continued motion. As the relief from movement in Pyrogen only lasts a few moments, the patient has to keep on moving. Hence its frightful restlessness. Restlessness better sitting up in a chair and rocking hard. Pyrogen has only momentary relief from moving, but must move for that relief. (One thinks of Pyrogen as the dream of scientists--perpetual motion.) Fan-like motion of the alae nasi (Ant. t., Bapt., Bell., Brom., Hell., Lyc., Phos., Rhus tox.) Vomits water when it becomes warm in stomach (Phos.). Sick stomach, better by drinking very hot water (not Phos.). Coughs rusty mucus : pain in right lung and shoulder, agg. from coughing or talking. Throbbing of vessels of neck (Bell., Spig.). Violent heart's action. Heart beats hard: sensation as if too full of blood: beats very loud, can be heard a foot away from thorax. Can't sleep for heart whizzing and purring so. Delirium on closing eyes: sees a man at foot of bed, or in far part of room. Inclined to talk all the time at night during the fever. Talks to herself. Whispers to herself. If asked what she said, does not answer. Cries out in sleep that some one, or a weight is lying on her. Sensation of a cap on head. When she awakens and feels the cap, knows that she is not delirious! Sensation as if she covered the whole bed: or she knew that her head was on the pillow, but could not tell where the rest of her body was. (Comp. Bapt., Petrol.) Feels when lying on one side that she is one person, and that when she turns to the other side, she is another person. Felt as if existing in a second person, or as if there were two of her. The fever would not run in each alike. (Bapt. the fever wants to run separate.) Feels crowded with arms and legs. Can tell when fever is coming on, because he must urinate. Urine clear as spring water. Intolerable tenesmus of bladder. Coldness and chilliness that no fire would warm. Sits by fire and breathes the heat from the fire. Then later, sensation of lungs on fire, and that he must have fresh air, which relieved. Knife-like pains in side, go through to back; worse from motion, coughing, and deep breathing; better lying on affected side (Bry.). Groaning with every breath. Face and ears red, as if the blood would burst through. After the fever, the hallucination still persists that he is very wealthy, and has a large sum of money in the bank; this is the last to leave him--this idea that he has the money. Numbness hands and feet: extends over whole body. Hands cold and clammy. Bowels so sore he can hardly breathe. So sore, can bear no pressure over right side abdomen. Tongue coated white: yellow-brown streak down centre (Bapt.). Tongue dry: dry down the centre: not a particle of moisture on it. Bitter taste. (Allen gives also, tongue clean, smooth and dry; fish fiery red, then dark and intensely dry; smooth and dry; glossy, shiny as if vanished ; dry, cracked, articulation difficult.) Rolling of head from side to side. And a most curious symptom. Bearing-down pain and prolapsus uteri, only relieved by holding the breath and bearing down. Pain starting at umbilicus, or just above, passing down towards uterus, but intercepted by just the same kind of pain starting from the uterus and passing up till they met midway and died away till another came. Dr. Sherbino calls Pyrogen a "grand nosode--one of the greatest monuments to Hahnemann and to Homoeopathy, as it covers a very wide range of action, and fills a place of its own that no other full" The above is greatly condensed, as are the cases that follow. Dr. Sherbino uses Swan's very high potencies of Pyrogen in these cases. As we said, Burnett's work was done with the sixth potency, which is a very useful one. PNEUMONIA. Girl of 14. Had been ill for a week. Temp. 105 1/2; resp. 52; pulse 120; rusty sputum. Part rt. lung and shoulder, worse talking and coughing. Fan-like motion alae nasi. Restlessness. Temp., on succeeding days, 1021/2 (improving fast); 100; 971/2--subnormal in three days. She took four doses of Pyrogen CM. "Cured" on the third day. (But pneumonias have a way of resolving rapidly by crisis or lysis. So, much cannot be claimed for this case.) MRS. X. Aching all over: so very restless all last night; couldn't keep still. Pyrogen dmm. Cured by next morning. LITTLE GIRL with paralytic symptoms. Couldn't stand on her feet, and when they set her up in bed she would wave back and forward as if she had no control of herself. Her pulse was 120. Taking the increased heart-action as a leading symptom, I gave her Pyrogen cmm. which cured her quickly. MRS. A. Fever began yesterday. Had a miserable night. Temp. 103, pulse 130. Very restless, especially after midnight; constantly changing her position in bed. Rhus did not help. Next morning no better. Had had a bad night: no sleep: says it keeps her busy trying to get into an easy position, and she noticed that she was better while she kept up this motion all the time. Pyrogen cmm. Began to improve at once, rested better at night, and next day aching gone, pulse 108, temp. normal. She had a great deal of throbbing in vessels of thorax and neck, so violent it would shake the bed. CHILD WITH LA GRIPPE. Her father called to ask for medicine. Said she was very restless, worse lying down, better sitting up. Vomited after drinking as soon as it gets warm in stomach. Better by vomiting. Cured with one dose of Pyrogen cmm. LA GRIPPE. Mr.--Coldness and chilliness no fire can warm. Grew more restless towards night. Had been breathing hot air from fire, now had a desire for fresh air, or his lungs would burn up. Groaned all night, and rolled and tumbled from one side of the bed to the other, not lying on one spot but a moment at a time. The bed was as hard as a board, the pillow was hard, and he was as sore as if a train had run over him. He tried to lie on his face, but found that that side of his body was sore too. Before daylight he awoke and told his wife he was so glad that he had got rid of those arms and legs that had crowded him all night ; if he turned over they were there, and he was trying all night to get them out of the bed. He took two or three doses of Pyrogen cmm. DYSMENORRHOEA. Mrs. W.F.F. has had painful menstruation for several years, always preceded by aching in bones, causing her to complain of the bed being hard, and accompanied by intolerable restlessness. Better when first beginning to move-- and she has to keep this up, as it affords some relief to the restlessness. I saw her have one of these spells, and she was on the floor, and she would curl up and then straighten out, and then turn and twist in every possible position. The cmm. of Pyrogen would always relieve her, till now she does not have the aching. This remedy has cured this condition, but other remedies had to be used. I was called to see A COLOURED GIRL about twelve years old, who seemed to be partially paralysed. She could not sit up or stand; nor walk a step without help. She was very restless and kept rocking back and forth while sitting on the edge of the bed. She said that this rocking motion relieved her and so she kept it up. I gave her a dose of Pyrogen cmm. and she was all right in a day or two. CHILD had a fever for several days and was getting worse. (Bell. and Rhus had failed). I sat up all night with the case and it had all the restlessness of approaching death. There was more motion of the right leg and arm, and she would make a semi-circle from left to right, and her feet would get up upon the pillow, and she was not still for one moment all night long. She would make this peculiar circle and would have to be put on the pillow, and in a very short time she would be kicking the headboard with her feet. All of these symptoms passed away under the action of Pyrogen dmm. MRS. M. has been troubled for some time with bearing down feelings in the uterine region, relieved by holding her breath and pressing down as if in labour. She was very restless at night and had to keep in motion, as only then could she get any relief. (Better when first beginning to move.) Cured by Pyrogen dmm. Other cases, Pneumonia--typhoid pneumonia--relapse after typhoid fever, cured by Pyrogen, in very high potencies, are too lengthy to quote here. They are all on the same lines, as regards symptoms. Dr. Yingling collates the reliable indications of Pyrogen, giving them in schema form. He "omits any symptoms where the action of other remedies used in connection with Pyrogen might have influenced its curative range." Among his additional symptoms, one may quote: Very loquacious. "I never talked so much in one day in all my life. I could think faster than ever I could." Frightful throbbing headache, better for a tight band. Every pulsation felt in head and ears. Excruciating, bursting, throbbing headache with intense restlessness: with bleeding of nose, nausea and vomiting. Sneezing every time he put his hand out from under the cover. Terrible fetid taste, as if mouth and throat were full of pus, as if a broken abscess in mouth. (Proving.) Tired feeling about the heart, "feels like taking it out to let it rest; it would be such a relief to stop it, let it lie down, and stop throbbing". Perspiration horribly offensive, carrion-like: disgust, up to nausea, about any effluvia arising from her own body. Great restlessness. "Thought she would break if she laid too long in one position." Septic states. Typhoid conditions. Yingling also gives a few cases--Neglected pneumonia: cough, night-sweats, frequent pulse, and to all appearance as if the last stage of pneumonia consumption. An abscess had burst that day was discharging a great amount of pus; tasted like matter. Made a rapid recovery on Pyrogen cm., a few doses. "Knew he was going to have typho-malarial fever, which he had two years previously, after a malarious exposure on a foreign mission field." Had every other day what he called "dumb ague". Pyrogen cured. Yingling says, Pyrogen has cured cases of blood poisoning. It should be thought of in dissecting wounds; and he quotes: "In all fevers when other remedies do not act, think of Pyrogen" (Swan). "In septic poisoning from wounds--after abortion-- accouchment, etc., etc., think of Pyrogen" (H. C. Allen). "Pyrogen resembles Ipecac. very closely in uterine haemorrhage. If you have an Ipecac. case, and that remedy fails you, think of Pyrogen." Kent says: "Septic conditions, where there is a continuous intermingling of little chillinesses and little quiverings throughout the body and the pulse has lost its proper relationship to the temperature, Pyrogen must be administered." Allen's Nosodes has a chapter on Pyrogen: and here is a little quotation from "Notes from Lectures by H. C. Allen", which sums up well the "inwardness" of this powerful and rapidly acting remedy. I have found this remedy invaluable in fevers of septic origin, all forms ; when Bapt., Ech., Rhus or the best selected remedy fails to relieve or permanently improve, study Pyrogen. The bed feels hard (Arn.); parts lain on feel sore and bruised (Bapt.); rapid decubitus (Carb. ac.); of septic origin. Chill:--Begins in the back between scapula, severe general coldness of bones and extremities. Heat:--Sudden skin dry and burning; pulse rapid, small, wiry, 140-170 ; temp. 103-106*. Sweat:--Cold, clammy, profuse, often offensive, generally exhausting. Pulse abnormally rapid, out of all proportion to temperature (Lil.). In septic fevers, especially puerperal, where foetus or secundines have been retained, decomposed; foetus dead for days, black, horribly offensive discharge. When patient says: "Never been well" since septic fever, or abortion, or a bad confinement. To arouse vital activity of uterus and enable it to expel its contents. Much of this--and much more--will be found in Clarke's Dictionary. And, by the way, one of the indications for Pyrogen that we have forgotten to mention is: Pulse very high, out of proportion to temperature. One wonders whether it might not even save life in those desperate conditions when, with a soaring pulse, the high temperature suddenly drops. One's experiences of Pyrogen seem hardly worth mentioning after the foregoing, and yet they are corroborative. INFLUENZA. One recalls the early days of severe Influenza, which came, like a bolt from the blue, after many years' absence-- so one was told. It was called the Russian Influenza, because it was supposed to have spread from the Foreign Office, having come in Despatches from Russia. One remembers the agonies of restlessness, with the utter impossibility of remaining for more than one moment in any position, till, from a chair, one wriggled and twisted, in search of relief, till down on the floor, when one had to start again. This was a cry for Pyrogen --had one then known it! The year when the Duke of Clarence died, the doctors were writing to the papers, almost in panic (because so many people died), that it was imperative, since the disease was so severe and brief, to give the patients quantities of alcohol. With Burnett's Pyrogen 6 we had a wonderful experience. At that time we had a number of adults and children living on the place--the family, indoor servants, out-door servants and their families (not the restricted families of 1932!)--and as they went down with influenza one by one, or in batches, Pyrogen 6, given six- hourly for a few doses, cured every single case in from twenty- four to forty-eight hours; and there was no alcohol, and there were no complications. And after that it was Pyrogen, a dose or two at the sudden onset of the violent pulsations, that used to announce a fresh attack of Influenza, that, for me, finished its bi-annual recurrences. Of course, epidemics of what we call influenza vary greatly in their symptoms, and in the remedy of the "genus epidemics", needed to combat them. One year it may be Mercurius--one Gelsemium; one year most of the cases will be of the Baptisia type, and so on. But the fever of violent pulsations an intense restlessness, because it is only constant movement that makes existence possible, needs Pyrogen. A doctor was telling me the other day about a recent Pyrogen case. It was not yielding to likely remedies, when the symptom, "Felt as if he covered the bed", led him, to prescribe Pyrogen, which promptly cured. American doctors find one of their most dramatic uses for Pyrogen in sepsis after delivery, with offensive discharges, and where part of the placenta has been retained. They say that they give Pyrogen and it "pops out". Here is such a case: A couple of years ago one of our cows calved away in the fields. Calf was found dead, and no placenta. Vet. removed some of it, but failed to get it all away. She had fever and was very ill, and he was thinking of exploring further; but she was given Pyrogen, and the next day the fever was gone and she was well. I don't know if it was a case of "popping out", but there was no further trouble. One has seen very great relief from Pyrogen in abscess and whitlow. But here Homoeopathy has such a wealth of helpful remedies--Crotalus, Lachesis, Anthracinum, Silica, Arsenicum, Hepar, Pyrogen, etc. One remedies a case of diarrhoea persisting for years after typhoid fever, and other cases of diarrhoea, cured by Pyrogen; also a case of diabetes (indications forgotten) where Pyrogen removed the sugar. Allen's Nosodes gives a number of cases showing rapid curative action of Pyrogen: cases of sepsis after parturition with offensive discharges: cases of varicose ulcer with offensive, discharges ; of diarrhoea with frightfully offensive stools, after poisoning by sewer gas, etc. He quotes a case of Bogers: "An old woman dying of gangrene inoculated one of her nurses; the nurse had chills, high fever and red streaks running up the arm following the course of the lymphatics. Pyrogen rapidly removed the whole process." Allen says: "I can hardly mention Pyrogen without becoming enthusiastic, on account of the wonderful results I have had from it in blood poisoning. In any kind of septic infection, either puerperal or traumatic, Pyrogen, will do wonders, when the symptoms correspond. It is similar to Anthracinum in some respects." Pyrogen, as we saw, is made from putrefying animal matter. Allen, in his Nosodes, compares it with another powerful fever- producing and curing remedy, made from decaying vegetable matter, i.e. the decaying vegetable matter of a very malarial region on the Wabash river. He calls it "Malaria officinalis, the vegetable Pyrogen", and describes its preparation, and the symptoms produced in its provers. He also says: "I know several localities in South America, Africa and Spain, where the marsh miasma has unquestionably arrested phthisis pulmonalis, without any other treatment or restriction in food or drink." Provers of Malaria had fearful headache, nausea, vomiting in some cases, distress in stomach, hypochondria--"first in the spleen, then the liver and stomach, and on the third day pronounced chills, which were so severe that they had to be antidoted." With one of the preparations, the stomach, spleen, liver and kidneys became involved, with quartan and tertian intermittent fevers. In one case a genuine typhoid condition was set up, which compelled the provers to take to bed. It would be most interesting to try the effect of Malaria officinalis in G.P.I. It would be simpler and less risky than by imported mosquitoes.--P.S.
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