Carbo Animalis

[animal charcoal.]

We obtain this preparation by roasting lean veal, which has pre- viously to be freed from all fat and cut in small lumps, in a common coffee-roaster, taking care not to burn it. When sufficiently and uniformly carbonized, we make triturations in the usual proportions. Animal charcoal is not quite as black as vegetable charcoal ; it some- times has a faint metallic gloss, and may be converted into an exceedingly fine powder.

Animal charcoal has been principally used as a remedy for gland- ular indurations, scirrhus and cancer. Alloeopathic physicians are divided in opinion concerning its efficacy in these diseases. Some speak of it with great praise, others deny its usefulness. Dierbach mentions a number of authorities both for and against. It is said to have acted with good effect in

SCIRRHUS OF THE BREAST.— Wagner relates several cases very successfully treated with animal charcoal. From them I select the following :

A lady, aged about twenty years, of a nervous temperament, had very imperfectly developed scirrhus in the left breast. Two of these were of the size of a small bird's egg ; the third was not as large nor as hard. There was an enlargement of the breast itself; she showed no other symptoms of glandular trouble and had not commenced to menstruate. The cause of her disease was not known.

She received each morn- ing and evening two grains of carbo animalis pulverized in sugar. Two weeks later, the enlargement could still be distinctly felt, but had softened considerably. In six weeks time, under continuance of the same treatment, the indurations disappeared entirely ; the breast itself, however, remained somewhat larger than the other. (It must be remembered that no curative power is attributed to the charcoal, after carci- noma has fully developed itself.

The use of the remedy in scirrhous affections is presumed to date back to the days of Paracelsus and is, in some form or other, men- tioned by many ancient writers, Plinius among them.)

GLANDULAR INDURATIONS.— In indurated goitre and gland- ular iudurations generally, it is claimed to have produced curative effects.

Liebenhaar relates a case of a single woman, aged thirty-six years, whose family record was bad, who ceased to menstruate and suffered severely from oppression in the epigastric region, with frequent sickness at the stomach; vomiting, especially after eating and so great an increase in the secretion of thin, tasteless saliva, that she was obliged to spit every few minutes. On January 30th, 1833, her condition was as follows : Greatly emaciated, pale, hollow-eyed ; pulse rapid and feeble ; skin dry and loose ; the stomach was very sensitive to pressure, but not bloated ; there was a white coating of the tongue with an entire loss of appetite; bowels inactive; the urine, upon standing, deposited a copious, whitish-yellow sediment; the saliva had a peculiar foul, sweetish odor, not unlike that of mercurial ptyalism ; a sensation of coldness in the mouth and throat, seemingly originating in the lower abdomen. Respiration free, with only occasional tightness in the chest; little or no incliration to cough; sleep uneasy and depression ol spirits. The reporter of the case d^.gnosti-

VOL. I. — 41.

658 CARBO ANIMALIS.

cated a chronic inflammation and, at least, incipient induration of the pancreatic gland. After varied treatment, two grains of carbo animalis in sugar of milk, morn- ings and evenings, were given on March 19th. On the 25th of March the dose was increased to three grains, and continued until April 17th. Under this treatment the nightly fever gradually disappeared, the salivation improved, the appetite increased, digestion became normal, the oppression in the epigastric region ceased to annoy her and soon left her entirely and in the forepart of April menstruation reappeared, fol- lowed in due season by a far better state of health than she ever enjoyed.

SCIRRHOUS INDURATIONS OF THE UTERUS.— Some very satisfactory cures have been reported.

Mrs. von H., aged thirty-three, in poor circumstances, of weakly constitution, pale and cachectic, very feeble, of constipated habit, with a poor appetite and a slimy, coated tongue, consulted me in April, 1831, for a severe pain in the back, which ex- tended into the hip, burning pain in the bowels below the umbilicus, deranged menstruation, and very profuse discharge of slimy, ill-colored blood, accompanied by labor-like pains, which had of late made their appearance. Examination showed a con- siderable enlargement and induration of the uterus.

After relieving the haemorrhage and the most urgent symptoms by ordering laxative remedies and perfect quiet in the horizontal position, carbo animalis was given in doses of three grains, three times each day. This treatment was continued throughout the following summer. Later, baths were ordered and the patient sent upon a pleasure trip. The enlargement and the indurations gradually lessened, menstruation became regular, the countenance assumed a healthy look and the other symptoms disappeared altogether.

A year later (1832) she again became pregnant, gave birth to a healthy child and has since then enjoyed a very high degree of health. (Dr. Schmalz in Frank's Magazine, Vol. iv.)

Erom four grains of the drug taken four times a day, and gradu- ally rising to twenty-four grains three times a day, Dr. Duplan and others, observed a copper-colored eruption over the whole body, more particularly in the face. Small furuncles, of the size of peas, likewise broke out ; when discharging, they smelled like burnt meat ; the excrements spread a similar odor.

In another case, three grains, taken morning and night, caused gastric derangements, occasional attacks of diarrhoea, difficulty of digestion, loss of appetite.

Some of Wibmer's students likewise swallowed large doses of the crude charcoal, five and ten grains, and finally whole pieces of the drug, without experiencing any other result than a more frequent urging to stool ; the discharge was of a medium consistence. Wib- mer, in reporting these experiments, remarks, however, that the con- tinued use of animal charcoal will most probably derange the digestive system ; for a short while after instituting their experiments, the provers were attacked with loss of appetite and various gastric derangements, for the cure of which laxatives had to be taken.

Dr. Weise, who has published a pamphlet on the dispersion of scirrhous tumors and polypi and on the cure of cancerous ulcerations by means of animal charcoal, informs his readers that healthy per- sons who swallow this substance for a sufficient length of time, are

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attacked with painful indurations in the breasts, swelling and indu- ration of the parotid glands, acne rosacea, etc. ; these effects soon, however, disappear again after the charcoal is discontinued.

If Weise's observations are correct, we perceive that the homoe- opathicity of animal charcoal to indurations of glands, nodes in the breast, and perhaps scirrhus, is tolerably well established.

In the acne rosacea of drunkards and for a dyscrasia characterized by the breaking out of furuncles, which discharge a foul, fetid blood ; in the case of persons whose blood is, according to popular parlance, impure, or who have a cachectic, strumous appearance, carbo animalis may prove of eminent use.

DYSPEPSIA. — For dyspepsia, weakness of digestion, with loss of appetite, uneasiness in the stomach, occasional attacks of watery or papescent diarrhoea, or frequent evacuations of soft fecal matter, we may often prescribe carbo animalis with benefit.

Among the symptoms which constitute Hahnemann's record of the proving of this substance, the symptoms of the gastric sphere are the most marked. Nevertheless they do not show any great thera- peutic power and only justify the use of the drug in gastric affections of an annoying but not severe nature. The more charac- teristic symptoms of the series are : Bitter and sour, and sometimes foul taste in the mouth ; pressure and fulness in the stomach after eating, also with oppression of breathing, anxious feeling in the back, palpitation of the heart ; eructations ; pressure and rumbling in the stomach ; weight in the abdomen, also distention with soreness under the ribs when touching them, as if ulcerated ; rumbling in the bowels, fetid flatulence, also with urging to stool. In

CANCER OF THE WOMB, Dr. Rothamel found that animal charcoal improved the ichorous discharge and diminished the haemorrhage.

One of Hahnemann's provers reports: "Leucorrhoea, staining the linen yellow," affording us an indication for animal charcoal in this weakness.