Pyrogenium

The following paper is by Dr. J. S. Hunt , of Santa. Monica, Calif., and was published in the Pacific Coast Journal of Homeopathy, 1903 .

The drug, or nosode, might be classed under "too little known remedies."

It is a ptomaine, a word meaning, broadly speaking, the alkaloid of decomposition or death.

It is the product of decayed flesh in an extreme state of decomposition, potentized, of course, until the danger of actual poisoning is far passed yet the curative powers remain.

Dr James Compton Burnett (1840-1901)

Burnett , who really made the remedy known, generally prescribed it in the 6th potency, though it is effective in the 30th, or higher.

For a pathogenesis of Pyrogenium see the paper on " Sepsin " in this volume :

A few years ago my attention was called to this remedy as being, possibly serviceable in combating certain diseases in which there are conditions of actual blood-poisoning.

Upon investigation it was found that information in regard to its usefulness or symptomatology was very meager, the most authentic being a treatise by Dr. J. Compton Burnett , entitled, " Fevers and Blood-Poisoning and Their Treatment, with Special Reference to Pyrogenium."

Men who show particular zeal in following new lines of thought or action are often accused of being visionary, and Dr. Burnett has not escaped this accusation.

It must be acknowledged, however, that he has been an ardent student and that he has favored the medical profession with many pertinent suggestions.

In his preface he says :

"Experience teaches that over-praise is the bane that blights new remedies, and I would be very chary in praising Pyrogenium too much, still I have more than half a conviction that the action of Pyrogenium in the pyrexia from blood-poisoning comes very near to one's conception of a specific ; however, let it go forth and fight its own battles, which I think it is well able to do."

The remedy was first introduced to the profession by Dr. Drysdale of Liverpool , who very tersely calls it the " Aconite of the typhus or typhoid quality of pyrexia."

The favorable experience of Drs. Drysdale and Burnett led me to give the remedy a careful test in my practice, with the result that i have no hesitancy in giving it my unqualified endorsement, for their experience and observation has been borne out many times.

Dr. Drysdale's deductions are so very explicit that you will pardon the quotations.

He says in part :

"It is practically true that no other known substance induces idiopathic pyrexia certainly, directly and at will after a given dose. This directness and certainty of action ought to make it a remedy of the highest value, if it ever can be used therapeutically ; and if the law of similars is applied here as it is in so many other instances, we ought to find it curative in certain blood disorders to which its action corresponds pathologically."

In order to put this suggestion to the test practically let us first shortly sum up the symptoms and pathological changes caused by Pyrogen . freed from all bacterial, self-productive, or transmissible causes of disease. In a series of experiments by Dr. B. Sanderson on dogs, after a non-fatal dose of Pyrogen , (i.e. 1 1/4 cubic centimeter of the aqueous solution per kilogram of body weight, or 1/2 grain of the solid extract for an ordinary sized dog) the animal shivers and begins to move about restlessly ; the temperature rises from 2° to 3°, the maximum being reached at the end of the third hour.

There is great muscular debility and vomiting, followed by feculent and thin mucus, and finally sanguinolent diarrhea and tenesmus.

These symptoms begin to subside in four or five hours, and the animal recovers its normal appetite and liveliness with wonderful rapidity.

I mention this fact as proving that the septic poison has not the slightest tendency to multiply in the organism ; and, secondly, as rendering it extremely probable that when death occurs it is determined not so much by alvine disorders, which are so prominent, as by the loss of power of the voluntary muscles and of the heart.

Again he says :

"As Aconite is well known to be the most important of the remedies for the synochal or inflammatory pyrexia, so the most summary indication for Pyrogen . would be to term it the Aconite of the typhus or typhoid quality of pyrexia."

This being a condition and not a distinct disease, it is to be looked for as occurring in a variety of diseases, such as the typhus and enteric fevers themselves, always, and more or less it may occur in intermittents, so-called bilious remittents ; in certain varieties or stages of the exanthemata, especially scarlatina, measles, and smallpox ; of dysentery and of epidemic pneumonia, diphtheria, etc.

From the gastro-enteric symptoms Pyrogen . may possibly also apply to some stages of cholera and the yellow fever.

It is, of course, to be distinctly understood that this substance is only recommended at certain and phases of these diseases, and entirely as a remedy of a secondary or subordinate character, and not in any sense as a specific for the whole disease."

As showing the practical utility of Pyrogenium in its remedial aspect, Dr. Burnett cites several interesting cases, principally relating to its use in typhoid fever.

My own experience with the remedy in this disease has been very satisfactory.

I will not take up your time to give particular instances. Suffice it to say that it forms an important part of the treatment in all cases where the symptoms point to septic contamination of the blood.

In pneumonia it has proven its worth on many occasions, and likewise in diphtheria and scarlet fever. A test was made in several cases of puerperal fever with most gratifying results.

A striking feature of Pyrogenium is the rapidity of its action, especially in bringing down the temperature, the benefit following its administration being often so marked as to admit of no question regarding its efficacy.

While homeopathy has won many laurels by the action of a few well-known remedies in the treatment of the above named diseases, and while comparative statistics show a decided advantage in favor of our school in the management of these cases, it is still a matter of disappointment that we are sometimes compelled to witness a complete failure of all our efforts to prevent a fatal termination, and that, too, after careful selection of apparently indicated remedies.

It would appear from this that there is a niche to be filled by some remedy or agency, and, as Pyrogen . covers the totality of symptoms in these septicemic conditions as nearly perhaps as any other remedy, it should be given an opportunity at least to show what it can do, or "to fight its own battles," as Dr. Burnett puts it.

Numérisation, vérification, illustrations, restructuration et mise en page par le Dr. R. S.