Pyrogen

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 (Am.) ; 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 or 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 epidemicus ", 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 and 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 remembers 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 Boger’s : " 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 putrifying 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.

SEPTICAEMIN

A like remedy to Pyrogen is Septicaemin (another of Swan's Nosodes ) : potencies made " from the contents of a septic abscess ".

Clarke (Dictionary of Mat. Med.) says that Skinner gave a supply to a volunteer going out to the Boer War, with instructions to take a globule every four hours if attacked by anything like typhoid fever.

He wrote home, " Septicaemin is like magic in diarrhoea and dysentery in Camp life ", and asked for more, as his supply was largely drawn on by his friends. — Ed.