Mr. Y—— had acquired the gutta rosea on his nose, and applied a saturnine solution on it for a few nights, and was then seized with paralysis on one side of his face; which however he gradually recovered, and has since acquired the gutta rosea on other parts of his face.
These fatal effects were probably caused by the disagreeable sensation of an inflamed liver, which used before to be relieved of the sympathetic action and consequent inflammation of the skin of the face, which was now prevented by the stronger stimulus of the application of calx of lead. The manner in which disagreeable sensations induce epilepsy and palsy is treated of in Class [III]. In some cases where habitual discharges, or eruptions, or ulcers are stopped, a torpor of the system may follow, owing to the want of the accustomed quantity of sensation or irritation. See Class [I. 1. 2. 9]. and [II. 1. 5. 6]. In both these situations some other stimulus should be used to supply the place of that which is taken away; which may either be perpetual, as an issue; or periodical, as a cathartic repeated once a fortnight or month.
Miss W. an elegant young lady of about twenty, applied a mercurial lotion to her face, which was covered with very small red points; which seemed to have been not acquired by any known or avoidable means; she was seized with inflammation of her liver, and after repeated bleeding and cathartics recovered, and in a few weeks the eruption appeared as before.
M. M. Five grains of calomel once a month, with a cathartic, five grains of rhubarb and a quarter of a grain of emetic tartar every night for many weeks. With this preparation mercurial plasters, made without turpentine, and applied every night, and taken off every morning, will sometimes succeed, and may be used with safety. But blistering the face all over the eruption, beginning with a part, succeeds better than any other means, as I have more than once experienced.—Something like this is mentioned in the Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, who blistered her face with balsam of Mecca.
Mrs. F. had for many years had a disagreeably looking eruption on her chin, after a cathartic with calomel, she was advised to blister her whole chin; on the healing of the blister a few eruptions again appeared, which ceased on the application of a second blister. She took rhubarb five grains, and emetic tartar a quarter of a grain every night for many weeks.
Miss L. a young lady about eighteen, had tried variety of advice for pimples over the greatest part of her face in vain. She took the above medicines internally, and blistered her face by degrees all over and became quite beautiful. A spot or two now and then appeared, and on this account she frequently slept with parts of her face covered with mercurial plaster, made without turpentine, which was held on by a pasteboard mask, and taken off in the mornings; if any part of the plaster adhered, a little butter or oil destroyed the adhesion.
[7]. Odontitis. Inflammatory tooth-ach is occasioned by inflammation of the membranes of the tooth, or a caries of the bone itself. The gum sometimes suppurates, otherwise a swelling of the cheek succeeds by association, and thus the violence of the pain in the membranes of the tooth is relieved, and frequently cured; and when this happens the disease properly belongs to Class [IV]. as it so far resembles the translations of morbid actions in the gout and rheumatism.
At other times the tooth dies without caries, especially in people about sixty years of age, or before; and then it stimulates its involving membrane, like any other extraneous substance. The membrane then becomes inflamed and thickened, occasioning some pain, and the tooth rises upwards above the rest, and is gradually pushed out whole and undecayed; on its rising up a pus-like mucus is seen discharged from the gum, which surrounds it; and the gum seems to have left the tooth, as the fangs or roots of it are in part naked.
M. M. Where the tooth is sound it can only be saved by evacuations by venesection, and a cathartic; and after its operation two grains of opium, a blister may also be used behind the ear, and ether applied to the cheek externally. In slighter cases two grains of opium with or without as much camphor may be held in the mouth, and suffered to dissolve near the affected tooth, and be gradually swallowed. See Class [I. 2. 4. 12]. Odontalgia may be distinguished from otitis by the application of cold water to the affected tooth; for as the pain of common tooth-ach is owing to torpor, whatever decreases stimulus adds to the torpor and consequent pain; whereas the pain of an inflamed tooth being ceased by the increased action of the membranes of it is in some measure alleviated by the application of cold.
[8]. Otitis. Inflammation and consequent suppuration of some membranes of the internal ear frequently occur in children, who sleep in cold rooms, or near a cold wall, without a night-cap. If the bones are affected, they come out in a long process of time, and the child remains deaf of that ear. But in this case there is generally a fever attends this inflammation; and it then belongs to another genus.