Dr S C Mishra
'Syphilinum
Comments: This case has been given in the form a of a story which is something different attempted and might appeal to many.
[A brief story of Lieutenant Col Mr Lueticum]
A man's baldheaded top was seen glittering below the street light on
Pros Quarters Road. He was busy gulping country liquor from a big
bottle. His eye lids were swollen. There was a profuse discharge from
both the eyes. It is not understood why a dog was barking at him in such
a lonely mid night street. His face was seen covered with Copper Coloured
eruptions without any itching. [With itching - psoric]. These
copper-coloured eruptions turned bluish on getting cold. The man was
laughing "Ha Ha Ha Ha. He was perhaps talking to an invisible person- My
father used to drink, my grand father used to drink, my fore-father
used to drink, so I am also drinking. I have heredity of drinking
alcohol [Hereditary tendency to alcoholism] who are you bloody fellows
to forbid me. I don't care. His mouth was full of saliva, which came out
drooling like that of Merc-sol.
His teeth while he laughed were seen black, deformed, distorted, spotted and decayed.
[He feels at times a crawling sensation in the root of decayed teeth
like a worm, His child has cup shaped teeth and the crown is serrated].
He appeared as if coming out of a horror film. He spent sleepless night
with severe headaches which gets better only by walking in open air. His
frozen shoulder pains, which is more in night with swelling on legs,
dry rasping cough especially lying on right side. Succession of boils
and other problems, gets aggravated from sunset to sunrise and
ameliorated at daybreak. His pains increase and decrease gradually like
that of Stannum. I approached him very slowly and cautiously. "Hello! What's the matter?" he failed to recognize me, though he knew me well.
Can't you recognize me, Lieutenant Col....?
No sir, I am sorry. I now forget, name, face, dates, digits and what
not. I am very weak in arithmetic. I have a very very bad ie Under Active
memory. It is worse for recent memories and I feel like an idiot now
and that is what even others say. I will go insane. I can't sleep as the
heat of bed troubles me. So I have to spend my night by walking down
the street alone. Now a days I wish to kill myself [irresistible impulse
for committing suicide and think only possible means for realizing that
impulse], I have no hope to live on. I feel burdened on this earth. All
this is due to sin commited in darkness of night by the reckless mind
in my youth. So now I am afraid of the advent of night. I start
trembling as the darkness of night starts appearing slowly.
Don't worry man; you will be all right again. Get yourself treated with some good physician.
Damn your physician....
He replied snappishly and being violently irritable.
I have taken a lot of injections, mercurial ointment for buboes,
boils, nodular formation in the testes, spermatic cord and scrotum,
rheumatism and all other complaints but to no avail. I am despaired now
of any medical help. I have lost my faith in medicine. My wife has
nodular growth in vagina and labia. She has also ulceration of uteri
with copious yellow-green leucorrhoea. She gets cutting pain in her
ovary [cystic ovary] during an intercourse, at the moment of orgasm. So I
do not dare to do that. She doesn't want a child and that's why she had
several MTP's [medical termination of pregnancy] every time she
conceived. [Desire to kill-Merc-sol]
He was about to fall as he stumbled being heavily drunk. I helped him
immediately by holding his hand that's when I saw his back full of
long-standing ulcer [indolent ulcer] which bleeds easily and profusely
on slightest provocation.
He has a habit of washing hands frequently. Perhaps due to guilt
feeling in his sub-conscious mind for some of his previous mis-deeds
done with his hands. This reminds me Shakesphere's drama of lady Macbeth
who after killing, vainly tried to wash her bloodstained hands and
thereby she suffered from hallucination of blood in her hands.
You must be feeling hungry now. Please come and have dinner with me.
My house is just nearby. I have some meat and warm food to offer you.
You can have some milk also if you like.
No Sir, Thanks, I do not cherish very warm food or drink. And meat? I
have aversion to meat. I can't stand that. Though I have some liking for
milk but I can't tolerate it.
Why don't you go for a change that can improve your health?
Yes I had been to the sea shore of Goa, Mumbai, Digha and Puri where I
felt very bad but I felt somewhat better when I had been to the high
hill of Himalayas, Darjeeling [better in high altitude, worse by
seashore].
He wanted to reach home. I helped him. The sun was about to dawn. Just when we reached his home we heard a baby's cry.
Do you hear the crying? It is my child born last week. Since his
birth ever he is crying and screaming very bitterly all night. Nothing
can stop him. Poor wretched fellow.
I bid him good bye. The sun is rising with splendorous bright light
dispelling the darkness all over the eastern horizon. I prayed for him,
might his life be full of sunshine and bliss so that he may live long
with the blessed dose of Syphilinum
