Instances of cures with whisky are numerous, and I have never heard of a failure, when it was used as here directed. I presume it will do the same for the poison of other serpents.
This symptom or affection, (if it can be classed as a disease) may depend upon so many causes, and be so very different in its effects, degrees of intensity, and the kind of pain or sensation attending it, that one will find it very difficult to mark out any definite treatment. I shall, therefore, only point out some of the more frequent cases, and the indications for certain remedies.
What is called "_sick headache_," or "nervous headache," begins by a sense of blindness or blur, before the eyes, of green or purple colors, dazzling or swimming in the head, without, for some time at first, any positive aching or pain. In the course of an hour, a longer or shorter time, the dimness of vision goes off, and the head begins to ache. This may or may not be accompanied with nausea and vomiting. Some persons are always more or less sick at the stomach, when these "nervous headaches" come on, others are not thus affected.
If taken as soon as the first blur before the eyes is noticed, or before any pain is felt in the head, _Nux Vomica_ will, in nearly all cases, arrest the disease at once. It may be necessary to take two or three doses at intervals of an hour. Later in the case, though _Nux_ may palliate, it will not cure.
If headache with sickness comes on, _Macrotin_ and _Podoph._ should be given in alternation, every half hour, if the symptoms are very severe, and the nausea great; but in a mild case, give it once an hour, lengthening the interval as the symptoms abate.
If the feet are cold, as is often the case, putting them into hot water will palliate the symptoms, and not interfere with the medicines.
If the head feels hot, apply _hot_ water to it. Never apply cold to the head, when there are any symptoms of congestion, as of fullness of the blood vessels. For
If the face is red, and the arteries of the neck and temples throb violently, give _Bell._ If there is paleness and faintness, _Pulsatilla_ is the remedy, especially if the forehead is principally affected. If the pain is mostly in the back of the head, _Nux_ is to be used; if in the front, and is sharp, affecting the eyes, _Aconite_; if at the angles of the forehead, with a sense of pinching, _Arnica_; if a sense of fullness and pressing outwards, or with an enlarged feeling, _Macrotin_; if intermitting or remitting, _Mercurius_; if there is ringing in the ears, _China_. Headache from fright should have _Aconite_.