Case of C.C. Smith, M. D.
June 13, 1868, Chicago
During the winter, a married woman, aged 30 years, called to consult me about her right wrist, which she said she had sprained some two years since, while attempting to pass a large dish of apples across the dining table.
She felt her wrist give way at that time, and would have let the apples fall had not someone caught the dish at that moment. Since then she has never been able to pass even a cup of tea to a person sitting opposite to her at meal time, so weak an painful is the wrist joint when making such attempts.
I found the joint somewhat enlarged, and it seemed to be of very little use to her in lifting anything requiring extra exertion. Pains of a rheumatic nature are occasionally felt darting through the joint from side to side. The patient is of a nervous temperament, and very easily fatigued. She complains of weak lungs.
As Hahnemann (the founder of homeopathy) has taught us the great value of Rhus tox (Poison Ivy) in cases of this character, even those of long standing, and finding also a characteristic indication for Rhus tox in pains darting through the joint from side to side, I prescribed with great confidence a powder of sugar of milk containing five pellets of Rhus tox 200. I instructed my patient to dissolve it in half a tumble of water, and take two teaspoons for a dose, night and morning, for four days and then stop. Following these directions faithfully, her difficulty vanished about one week after the last dose was taken.
