Quite
remarkably too, at the same time the power of distinguishing colours
with the eye on the same side of the body becomes perverted ; thus the
proper colours of objects disappear in a mathematical series, first
violet, then red, then green, then yellow ; and blue is the last to
disappear. But if a piece of the same metal (as best suited to the
individual patient), let us say, of gold, is applied over the temple,
on the same side, then a proper perception of colours is restored, and
in the same order as it became lost.
Professor
Charcot, having succeeded thus far with his patient, proceeded to add
internal metallo-therapy, or metallic curing ; if "the beneficial metal
was gold, he gave ten drops (in a spoonful or two of distilled water)
of a solution of gold (with sodium as a solvent) before each meal; if
the patient had proved sensitive rather to copper, then the oxide of
copper in powder, was given ; or the natural mineral water of St.
Chrystan, which contains copper ; if the sensitiveness improved under
zinc, then small doses of its sulphate were administered ; or if iron
was the favouring metal, one of its soluble salts was similiarly given.
And
not only were hysterical, or otherwise too highly emotional sufferers
benefited by these means, but also any partial paralysis of sensation
about the head, or face, with, or without impairment of vision on one
side, was equally amenable to the said treatment.
In
such cases the metallo-therapy by iron seemed to prove most successful.
Some rare cases were found not to prove sensitive to any known metal.
As
to such subtle influences of certain metals on sensitive subjects, some
scientific discoveries made quite recently seem to bear thereupon very
suggestively.
