Main
Pathogénésies
de l’an 1900
New, Old And
Forgotten Remedies
By Edward
Pollock Anshutz
Presented
by Dr Robert Séror
Indol
Proving of
Indol
(Doctor William B. Griggs
of Philadelphia)
The following proving of
Indol
was presented by
Dr. William B. Griggs
of Philadelphia
before the Bureau of Materia Medica at the meeting of the American
Institute of Homoeopathy,
Baltimore, 1916.
The proving was made under the auspices of the
Constantine
Hering Laboratory of Hahnemann
College of Philadelphia. Dr. Griggs
is Director of the Laboratory.
A great deal has been said during the last few years regarding the
presence of indican in
the urine, and a great deal has been written on, the subject of intestinal
putrefaction as being the result of the decomposition of the protein
material.
This also has been the subject of a great deal of discussion along the
lines of autointoxication.
The
prominence that many clinicians have given to the subject of intestinal
putrefaction has prompted the writer to import some Indol
from Merck’s
Pharmacy at Darmstadt, Germany,
and begin a proving of it upon volunteer students in the Constantine
Hering Laboratory at the Hahnemann
Medical College, Philadelphia,
in order to determine whether Indol,
in the dynamic form, would produce in the healthy subject the symptoms
incident to the clinical findings when indol is present to excess in the
urine.
Putrefactive processes in the intestines are the result of the action,
of bacteria upon the protein material present.
This bacterial action, which is the result of the combined efforts of
many forms of microorganisms, is confined almost exclusively to the large
intestine.
Some of the products of the putrefaction of proteins are identical with
those found in tryptic digestion, although the decomposition of the
protein material is much more extensive when subjected to putrefaction.
Some of the more important of these putrefaction products are the
following :
Indol, Skatol, Paracresol, Phenol, Para-oxy-phenyl-proprionic acid,
volatile fatty acids, hydrogen sulphid, methane, and carbondioxid ;
besides peptones, ammonia and the amino-acids.
Indol
is a
derivative of the tryptophan
complex, Skatol-amino-acetic
acid.
Structurally it is closely related to
Indigo
; and, according to Nence,
this transformation may be effected by the action of ozone.
Conversely,
Indigo
may be transformed into Indol
by reduction.
From the albumins, the substance can also be obtained by fusion with
potassium hydro-oxid. [
Merck.]
The greater part of the
Indol
that is formed in the
large intestine is no doubt eliminated in the feces.
A certain amount, however, is absorbed, and, after oxidation of the
Indoxyl,
appears in the urine in combination with Sulphuric
acid as so-called Indican.
If large quantities are formed a variable fraction is further
eliminated in the urine as
Indoxyl,
compound of glycuronic
acid.
The following students were carefully examined physically before taking
the drug, which was administered in the sixth centesimal dilution :
Messrs. Pilgram, Powell, Mills, Goeckler, Hawn, Mast, and Parsons.
These men were under my personal supervision for at least sixteen
weeks, and developed the following symptoms in common, the control. men
being negative as to symptoms in every sense :
(Provers’ language used).
General action :
There was a stupid feeling in the morning, with a discontented mental
condition ; then restlessness and the desire to be walking.
A sensation of aching was felt through the head and the entire body.
Later, there was experienced a “
dull,
don’t care feeling”
; and in one man, who was irritable and did not like to be teased, there
was first an exhilaration, a diametrically opposite state of mind, and-ho
was not easily “peeved.”
He afterwards became depressed, had no ambition, could not concentrate
his mind on anything, and grew desperately irritable.
On washing in the morning, there was felt a continued desire to sleep.
I may call it a persistent desire for sleep, even after a good night’s
rest.
On continuing to take the drug, one of the men would fall asleep as
soon as he sat down in the lecture-room.
Later, he felt so tired that he absented himself from laboratory work
in order that he might go home and go to sleep.
He had a desire to sleep all the time ; and upon waking, he felt
miserable.
He developed a state of drowsiness similar to that caused by
morphin.
Towards the last of the proving, quite marked nerve symptoms developed.
In one man, there was a desire to crack his fingers all the time and
inability to keep his fingers still.
On almost any occasion, he would laugh at trivial things.
There was a jerking of the muscles of the lower jaw and neck.
Two of the provers had hideous delusions.
On waking, they believed that they were being operated on, and
shuddered at the thought that the knife was touching them.
Later, they developed a continual desire to keep their fingers and feet
moving.
Accompanying all this, there was a throbbing of the blood vessels in
the neck.
The Head :
At first, an occipital headache was experienced, extending to the
frontal area.
It was dull and numb in character, occurring mostly in the afternoon,
and lasting throughout the evening.
This symptom was developed by almost all the provers.
There was an aching feeling all through the head, with pain in the
frontal region, accompanied with nausea, which disappeared as the headache
cleared up.
There was a marked dull sensation in the frontal region, immediately
over the eyes.
This was relieved by walking in the fresh air.
This particular symptom was present for days in succession.
The headache occurred time and again during the proving, and was always
relieved in the same manner.
There was also headache developing in the evening, with a depressed
feeling and inability to study. In one prover, after contracting a cold,
the entire head felt sore when touched or jarred.
There was also ringing in the right ear.
Sleep :
Sleepiness, mostly in the daytime, developed in the beginning of the
proving ; and most of the provers noticed it corning on about noontime,
particularly during their recreation hour.
Later, it was present at all timer.
At night, there was continuous dreaming, persisting as long as the drug
was continued.
The dreams were pleasant in character and easily remembered.
The prover who developed influenza had most terrifying dreams about
snakes.
Face and Eyes :
The eyeballs felt hot, and hurt when moved.
In fact, there was a great deal of suffering on moving the eyeballs.
Redness and soreness of the eyes also occurred, with frontal headache.
In one prover there developed a persistent dilatation of the pupils.
This lasted as long as the frontal headache continued, and both
symptoms became markedly worse as the provings progressed.
The Mouth :
In the first part of the proving, there developed a bad, foul taste in
the mouth, with the tongue coated a brownish white.
There was a peculiar foul, fecal odor to the breath.
The Stomach :
The early symptoms developed were a full feeling in the stomach and a
general full sensation, which extended up into the oesophagus, but was not
at all uncomfortable.
It was even accompanied with a feeling of exhilaration, just as though
the patient had had a large, substantial meal.
This continued, off and on, throughout the first day.
The next day, it was accompanied with occipital headache.
Later, in the evening, a bloated sensation appeared.
This became more and more noticeable as the proving was pushed, until
it finally became very marked.
It was usually worse at night.
A prominent symptom that developed and persisted was a hungry sensation
after eating a full meal.
The prover was not satisfied by eating, no matter how much he ate.
He would feel very hungry again, a short time after leaving the table.
After this inordinate appetite had persisted for a week or ten days,
there developed a peculiar thirst, which could not be satisfied, even
though the amount of fluid ingested caused distress.
The urinary organs :
At first, the provers passed more urine than usual ; and then they
urinated much more frequently than normally was the case.
This was particularly noticeable in the evening, while studying.
The smallest amount of urine was sufficient to irritate the bladder to
such an extent as to cause a desire to pass water.
The provers had twenty-four hour specimens of their urine examined for
thirty-one days.
During this time, they were on a rigid diet with restricted proteins.
Mr.
Goeckler,
who acted as the control, showed practically no variation from the normal
excretion of urine on any day during the test.
His urine was never examined by himself, and he did not know that he
was the control.
Mr.
Hawn,
Mr. Mast
and Mr. Paxon
all showed an increase in the specific gravity, 1023 plus ; acidity, 30-51
; solids, 52-58 ; quantity, 750-1065 ; showing a trifle of scantiness ; urea,
20-22.5; indican,
in the beginning of the proving, excessive in nearly all the
provers.
In the latter weeks, it was reduced to a trace or to normal.
This shows that the primary action of
indol
in the human economy is to increase the elimination of indican.
It had no effect upon the earthy phosphates, sugar, acetone or albumin,
and did not seem to produce any particular disturbance in the kidney
function.
Rectum and Stool :
At first, indol produced constipation.
The stools were light gray or greenish brown, and were difficult to
pass.
Later, more severe constipation occurred, with stools hard, dry and
light in colon.
The bowels would not move until they felt so bloated that they could
hold no more ; and then there were several small movements of dry, hard
faeces only.
This is the language of one of the provers, and it describes the actual
condition as it existed.
Towards the last part of the proving, the stools became more nearly
normal.
There was a large amount of gas in the stomach and intestines, passing
both by the month and the anus.
It usually formed in the evening. The constipation had in frequent
association with it a peculiar light, swimming sensation in the head,
probably due to a mild intoxication.
In fact, one prover said that he could not distinguish his sensations
from those produced by a mild intoxication with alcohol.
Free catharsis relieved this feeling promptly.
Respiratory Organs :
Towards the last of the proving two of the men developed acute symptoms
like those of influenza.
There was first a feeling of aching all over ; and then a thick mucous
discharge from the nose occurred, with a feeling of chilliness accompanied
with sneezing,
These men had no temperature, and the symptoms were evidently the
result of taking the Indol.
They described their sensations at times as “
a
broken-up, grippy feeling.”
Extremities :
One of the patients felt very tired and sore in the lower limbs.
The feet burned all day long, and the condition became so aggravated
that relief was sought by removing the shoe.
The burning of the feet persisted for at least ten days of the proving,
and the right foot became quite swollen and painful.
The knee joints became so sore and tired that simply standing on the
feet aggravated that condition.
Another prover reported that his legs were sore, especially at the
knees.
There was pain at the calf, and also in the ball of the great toe of
the right foot.
The Skin :
In one case, the skin on the left leg became dry and rough, and peeled
off ; in areas on the right foot below the ankle, it cracked and became
sore.
One prover, before commencing with the drug, reported an eruption on
his body, which became very much irritated and itchy after taking violent
exercise or from heat.
He reports this eruption to be slowly, but surely disappearing, and his
general health wonderfully improved.
I will now supplement this proving with several clinical cases, showing
the successful use of indol.
Failures arc not reported, because I wish to exploit the clinical place
for indican.
I believe that there is a great deal more to be developed from this
substance, and I will ask the profession to put it, to the test and
publish their failures to the world.
Only by this means of confirming and corroborating the important
symptoms can we properly utilize this substance, which seems to cause so,
much distress when it exists to excess in the human organism.
The following cases cover a period of more than two years.
Case 1 :
(1915)
Miss
0. X., a student in the
high school, for more than six months had been subject to dull headaches,
usually worse in the morning and at the menstrual period.
She seemed depressed in spirits at times ; but this depressed state was
broken at intervals by periods of happiness, and even hilarity.
She had a dull backache, and her appetite was capricious.
She was never rested, and her bowels were constipated.
There were frequent eructations, languor and drowsiness. No marked
degree of anemia was noted.
Every afternoon, on returning from school, she would have to lie down,
on account of excessive drowsiness. After supper, she could hardly sit up
to study the next day’s lessons.
After the failure of several remedies to produce any effect, with the
exception of the free elimination treatment, this patient was finally put
on
indol
in the sixth potency, with the result that in ten days she developed
severe urticaria, which necessitated her going to bed.
As the urticaria cleared up, the drowsiness increased ; and she slept
for nearly forty-eight hours.
When she finally awoke, she was feeling better than she had felt for
months before ; and from this time on, her color improved, her appetite
became more normal, her backache disappeared gradually, and her headaches
and lassitude cleared up.
Her weight also increased, and her physical condition markedly
improved.
Case II :
The patient was a baby girl, two years and a half old.
This child’s environment was poor, it being a social service case. She
had had spells of extreme irritability, with occasional attacks of
vomiting without apparent cause, strongly resembling cyclic vomiting.
She was always hungry. The bowel movements were dark or variable in
colour coming in small, hard balls, and very offensive. The skin was
rough, with the occasional development of a toxic rash.
After going the rounds of several prescriptions, I finally decided to
try
indol
; with, the result that in the course of two weeks the child had
absolutely normal stools. The irritability ceased. The languor and
sleepiness entirely cleared up, and the child has remained in apparently
perfect health.
Case III :
The patient was a corpulent woman of about sixty years of age, who
complained of severe intestinal indigestion.
She was puffed up and bloated. She was excessively irritable and
drowsy. For a year back, she had been unable to sit up for one hour a day
without falling to sleep over her work.
She would awake occasionally at night with a dry, parched month. She
had a bad taste in her mouth, and an offensive odor to her breath. The
bowels were constipated.
A great deal of drowsiness occurred while sitting, relieved by walking
fast in the open air.
There was a sense of intoxication. A small, acuminate, itchy rash
appeared over the abdomen.
This woman presented many other symptoms of a minor character ; but the
excessive drowsiness and the dry, foul month were the most characteristic.
She had received
Nux
moschata, Sulphur, Opium
and Baptisia,
with no result.
Indol
, in the sixth
potency, was administered, every two hours, with the result that the
excessive sleepiness completely disappeared and the foul mouth cleared up.
Case IV :
This case was in a freshman student in
Hahnemann
Medical College, Philadelphia,
who was sent to me by Dean Pearson.
This young man, while examining his urine, in the laboratory of the
College,
discovered an excessive precipitate of indican.
Finding that he was distressed about this, the Dean
sent him to me.
Without any change of diet, I prescribed
indol
in frequent doses, with the result that the indican
completely disappeared from the urine, which was examined by the Dean
each day.
Within two weeks, after taking
indol,
this young man’s general health improved, and he remained well while under
my observation for five months subsequently.
Indol
is no panacea
for cases of indicanuria.
It can be curative only when the symptoms agree according to the law of Similars,
but I believe that in this new substance we have a valuable agent for many
of these cases of autointoxication that are the result of various forms of
intestinal putrefaction.
Actualisé ce Mardi 12 Juin 2001
Dr R. S.