Under this methodical procedure the relative value of drugs apparently
indicated in these diseases gradually became better known; some,
although presenting many and varied symptoms, were found by experience
to be superficial and evanescent in their action, while others proved of
the greatest efficacy in the most serious lesions, and became
indispensable in the armamentarium of the physicians of the hospital
staff.
In the latter group, rhus tox. speedily assumed prominence as a drug of
special value in ocular disease, and this was enhanced by such a large
measure of success in its application over a wide range of affections
that it came to be regarded (at least in this hospital) as a veritable
sheet-anchor in ophthalmological work, and as time passed it was used
more or less in almost all the acute diseases to which the eye and its
adnexa are subject.
A prominent symptom of rhus is great swelling of the eyelids. This it
has in common with a number of other remedies, but differentiation
becomes less difficult when we remember that rhus is specially indicated
when swelling and œdema of the lids are the result of the deeper and
more serious lesions. After the operation for cataract, one of the first
symptoms indicating danger is œdematous swelling of the lids, and no
drug in the materia medica compares with rhus for insuring the safety of
the eye. When the pathological process becomes advanced, even to the
appearance of pus within the eyeball, still we may confidently rely on
this remedy, which has cured many such cases when they were apparently
hopeless. In all postoperative complications it is of the greatest
value, and too much emphasis cannot be placed upon this statement.
When a sound eye takes on sympathetic irritation from its diseased
fellow, the fact is first manifested by a certain amount of swelling of
the lids and more or less profuse lachrymation, the latter another
valuable indication for rhus tox. In this condition I have personally
used it many times with complete success, and it is the first drug to be
thought of in this extremely dangerous complication.
It is a well-known fact at the present time that rhus is particularly
applicable in rheumatic conditions, especially where these are resultant
upon a wetting or exposure to dampness. This, together with its nightly
aggravation, points to another sphere of usefulness in rheumatic iritis,
where it will prove all-sufficient when the characteristic symptoms
exist. In suppurative iritis and cyclitis it is very serviceable, no
matter what the cause.
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