Variolinum.

From Clarke's Materia Medica

Variolinum. Nosode of Small-pox. Trituration of matter from small-pox vesicle.

Clinical.-Asthma. Backache. Chill. Fever. Headache; occipital. Herpes zoster. Neuralgia. Small-pox. Testicle, swelling of.

Characteristics.-The cardinal symptoms of small-pox are the keynote symptoms for the use of Variolinum.

The backache of small-pox is about the worst backache known, and Var. has cured in my practice a number of bad backaches

that nothing else seemed to touch. Var. was Burnett's chief remedy in shingles; it generally, as he expressed it,

wiped out the disease, eruption and pain as well. It will also cure neuralgia left by herpes. Var. has aborted many

cases of small-pox, and has proved an efficient preventive against small-pox contagion and vaccinal infection.

G. M. H. (H. W., xxxii. 546) records this experience: Var. 6 (three pilules) was given to the mother and children of a

family, one of whose members was taken with small-pox and removed to an isolation hospital, with his mother to nurse him.

The patient (who did not receive Var.) was dangerously ill for a month. Neither the mother who nursed him nor any of

the other children took small-pox. Vaccine was sent by the Government and all the family were vaccinated, but it did

not take with any of those who had taken Var., although the vaccination was repeated. Moreover, G. M. H. himself, who

had taken a dose of Var., submitted to vaccination, but "although four thorough inoculations were given, they healed

up immediately, and did not even itch or smart.".-These are cardinal indications for Var.: Severe cold; chill; chilly

creepings as if cold water were trickling down the back; violent fever with extremely hot skin, with or without high

pulse. Violent headache. Nausea. Pain in epigastrium. Pain in limbs as if in bones. Severe backache.

There may be rash or there may not. Here is a case of Swan's, who is a pioneer with nosodes (H. W., xviii. 205): Miss H.,

21, healthy, hearty; complained of the following symptoms: Confusion of head as if going crazy, with a sensation as

if it was all in the back of the head and running down spine, followed by intense, heavy, hot headache in back of head

and neck and region of medulla; sensation as if head weighed a hundredweight, with a tendency of it to fall backwards;

deathly nausea in throat-pit during headache. During headache hands and feet icy cold, particularly the hands; tongue

coated yellow in morning, with bad, disgusting taste in mouth; no appetite; knees feel weak as if they would give way,

especially on going down stairs; pains in thighs and hips; severe aching, burning pain in small of back; skin hot and

dry; pulse not feverish. Var. cm (Swan), in water, cured in six hours, the confusion of the head ceased after the pain

did. A school of two hundred children was "internally variolated" with Var. cmm (Swan) on the evening of February 18th

and the morning of February 19th. Of two schoolmistresses one was not at all affected; the other was two days in bed ill.

On 21st many of the children were ill; by the 23rd all except forty were, the symptoms being the usual preliminary

symptoms of small-pox, and later Swan found pustules on many. After the varioloid had passed off, but before the

patients had recovered their vitality, twenty-three children were vaccinated without Swan's knowledge. All but one took

and had terrible ulcers on the arms, and had to be remedied by Vacc. (cmm, Swan). Sensations of Var. are: As if a band

tightly encircled head. Crazy feeling through brain. As if throat were closed. As of a lump in right side of throat.

Like streams of ice-water running down back. Pain as if back were broken. The symptoms are < By motion.

VARIOLINUM from Boericke's Materia Medica

Lymph from Small-pox Pustule

Used for "internal vaccination." Seems to be efficacious in protecting against, modifying and aiding in the cure of

smallpox.

Head.--Morbid fear of small-pox. Deafness. Pain in occiput. Inflamed eyelids.

Respiratory.--Oppressed breathing. Throat feels closed. Cough with thick viscid, bloody mucus. Feeling of a lump in right

side of throat.

Relationship.--Excruciating backache. Aching in legs. Tired all over with restlessness. Wrists pain. Pains shift from

back to abdomen.

Fever.--Hot fever, with intense radiating heat. Profuse, bad-smelling sweat.

Skin.--Hot, dry. Eruption of pustules. Shingles.

Variolinum. From Keynotes by H.C. Allen

Pus from smallpox pustule. (A Nosode.)

Bears the same relation to smallpox that Antitoxin does to diphtheria. An extended clinical record by competent and

reliable observers attest its curative value in variola - simple, confluent and malignant - as well as in varioloid

and varicella. It has done splendid work in all potencies, from the 6th cent. to the c. m. As a preventive of, or

protection against, smallpox, it is far superior to crude vaccination and absolutely safe from the sequenae, especially

septic and tubercular infection.