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The foregoing case is
reported in detail because it was the most advanced case of the infection
in which I have used this plan.
Other similar
infections not so far advanced have shown the same satisfactory clinical
results. The recital of other histories would be but a repetition
of the above described case.
The reasons seem clear. As reported in the May issue of Medical
World,
Dr. Ralph McBurney, Professor of Bacteriology at the University of
Alabama, found that a solution of 1-250 of hydrochloric acid would
sterilize cultures of the staphylococcus aureus and the streptococcus
hemolyticus in an hour. And the behavior of the sinus infection described
in the first twenty-four hours illustrates the value of the cellular
stimulation in such infection.
Dr. A. M. Allen, of St. Louis, in the May issue of Medical
World,
draws attention to the fact that when water is added to the solution
it at
once breaks up into H, OH, and C. This fact is the elemental
reason for the action of the solution as a germicide. He says
that, when
the acid solution is injected into the blood stream, there may
be an enormous
increase in the rate of metabolism "and therefore greatly alter
the quality and quantity of osmotic interchange between intercellular
and intracellular areas." If this is true, and I grant
its probability, would it not be quite logical to conclude that
the
first line of defense,
the phagocytic system, is also greatly stimulated by the injections
of hydrochloric acid? At any rate, the changes in this easily
mobilized system may be witnessed in hourly counts after the
injection of
the acid. Changes in the other cells cannot be shown so easily.
After seeing the beneficial effects of the acid sprays in coryza and
sinus infections, I concluded that, in all probability, the infecting
agents of asthma made the invasion through the nasal passages, and
that in the next case of asthma which I might see, I would try this
plan. Something over a week ago, a little boy came to me. His recurrent
attacks of asthma have apparently been controlled by intravenous injections
of the hydrochloric acid. Two or three times a year he has been to
me for over two years. When I first began using HCl with him, treatment
required some 15 visits for the complete cessation of the difficult
breathing. The succeeding attacks have been much more quickly controlled;
that is, a smaller number of injections of the acid were needed. Last
week, he came with a moderately severe attack. As usual on the first
visit, I gave him the intravenous injection, forgetting my determination
to use the spray. The next day when he arrived, he was markedly better:
rales had diminished, and he was breathing with slight effort. On this
occasion. I used first the intravenous injection and then the spray
of 1-500. He was given a bottle of it with instructions to use it twice
a day. A telephone message to his home resulted in the information
that he is going to school every day and, so far as my informant knew,
is having no trouble from the asthma, which gave him so much trouble
last week. The next case of asthma I may see will have the sprays of
hydrochloric acid from the beginning.
I have never known a drug about which there were so many diverse opinions
as hydrochloric acid. Many colleagues still maintain that its injection
is followed by fatal consequences. On being asked to report the mortalities,
one is told to wait and they will come. Others say there must be merit
in the injection of the acid, but phagocytosis by no means sufficiently
explains the good results. Dr. Allen thinks the benefits come from
the chemical reactions, while Dr. Guy is equally convinced that disease
is the result of lymph stasis and that the hydrochloric acid and the
minerals serve to stimulate the flow of lymph and modify the pH of
the blood. I maintain that all of the reserve forces of resistance
are made more active by the injection of the acid, phagocytosis and
the oxygen of the red cells are greatly increased, poisons are neutralized
or modified, and wounds are repaired more rapidly by exactly the same
force that is used by mature in healing. Indurated tissue is softened,
and the exudate of serum about injuries to joints or about wounds and
other lesions of the skin is quickly taken away after the stimulation
of the white cells by hydrochloric acid.
Acne Vulgaris And The White Blood Cells
On November 26 1934, a lad was brought to me by his mother, with a
history of five months' treatment with lights, X-rays, and
salves. The conventional plans of therapeutics were so seemingly
ineffectual, I determined to look for a suggestion from nature. This
was promptly found by a count of the white blood cells: 17,700 per
cubic millimeter. The count was really not necessary, since the many
larger and smaller pustules filled with white blood cells left one
in no doubt of the mobilization of the cellular defensive forces
in and about the points of invasion of the pyogenic organisms. Many
of these pustules bore the cicatrices of incisions for the drainage
of this "laudable pus."
Since nature makes no purposeless efforts, I concluded that the one
thing needed by this lad was more activity and aggressiveness of the
cellular forces, and that this missing factor or factors could be added
by the intravenous injections of hydrochloric acid. This was done by
the injection of 15 cc of hydrochloric acid 1-250, or 0.4 cc to 100
cc of triple distilled water. The mother was asked to apply hot compresses
to his face for a half-hour every evening, which was but another effort
to still further mobilize the defensive forces about the lesions.
Whether the results were due to the hot pack, or the stimulation of
the white cells by the acid, or both, one cannot say; but, at any rate,
the mother told me on the second visit that she had never seen the
lesions drain as after the pack of the night before although no incision
had been made. This indicated, beyond question, that the induced leukocytosis
had caused such an influx of white cells into the infected foci as
to so increase the pressure that the skin was ruptured. For three weeks,
the boy came regularly every other day, and the improvement was satisfactory,
the lesions growing smaller and paler. On each of the visits, he was
given 15-20 cc of hydrochloric acid 1-250 as reported before. In this
series, he had only one inflammatory reaction, and this lasted only
two or three hours, simply the usual chill, fever, and sweat one sees
so rarely after the acid injections. With the advent of the holidays
and Christmas school festivals his visits to my office were irregular,
but the injections were given when he did come.
He returned in 48 hours; the packing was withdrawn, and there was only
a suggestion of an exudate on the gauze from the cavity. There was
absolutely no exudate on pressure from the lesion, a phenomenon I had
never seen until I began the local use of the acid a few months before.
To complete the history of the boy. he was given in this series 25
injections of the hydrochloric acid, hot packs at night, and one tablespoonful
of mineral oil every night.
This local use of hydrochloric acid, as I am using it now, is a most satisfactory
germicide apparently, and happily, there is a cogent reason for such a procedure.
For many years, the germicidal value of chlorine has been well-known. Twenty
years ago, a preparation of chlorinated lime was extensively used. It is possible
that the chlorine in this alkaline preparation was not available in a potent
form. This conclusion has been made after seeing the effect of the application
of dressings saturated with solutions of hydrochloric acid on ulcers, after
a thorough cleaning and irrigation of such lesions with solutions of 1-250
or 0.4 cc to 100 cc of distilled water. This solution is being used just as
we used solutions of bichloride of mercury or carbolic acid in the old days.
The behavior of the abscess described above is an indicator of the behavior
of ulcers and infected wounds. From the clinical results, the conclusion is
inevitable that the chlorine of hydrochloric acid is a most useful germicide.
Could it be that this chlorine of the intravenous injection of the acid adds
a noxious quality to the serum of the blood, thus accounting for some of the
inexplicable results following the intravenous injection of the acid?
The Healing of Wounds
This is in answer to E.B., in Monthly Clinic in the March issue of
Medical World.
Like you, I am often puzzled over the clinical
effects of the injections of HCl. I have had, of course, a few cases
of ulcers of the duodenum
and the pylorus, one of the former having been of 22 years' duration.
An X-ray showed active lesion. I gave the patient ten injections of
HCl, 1-1500, and she was clinically well. Three years thereafter, a
study was made of the intestinal tract and showed nothing but scar
tissue at the site of the old lesion. This patient was 73 years old
when I gave her the acid injections and is in good condition now at
78.
The white cells are the essential factor in the healing of wounds,
and I think on the chemical side the good effects you and I have seen
come from a glandular and cellular stimulation by the HCl which makes
these factors in the production of the acid return to their normal
production.
I agree with you on the difficulties in understanding these phenomena,
but if it is good for a sick man, it pleases me to give it, whether
I understand all of its manifold peculiarities or not. Try it on the
secondary anemias, and you will be still more puzzled.
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