Great Construction

Itching

     The suffering that is caused by pain in the human body is quite familiar to all, but probably only those who have had the actual experience know the suffering that accompanies itchiness. Pathological itchiness is truly distressful, in no way inferior to pain. The cause of itching are three varieties of toxins, medicinal toxins, congenital toxins, and food poisoning, and I will start by discussing the itchiness that stems from medicinal toxins.
     To begin, of all the conditions that cause itchiness, the one probably most well known is hives. The cause of hives is usually calcium injection. The outbreak of hives to one degree or another can be observed in everyone who has received these injections. The reactions appear as early as a year, usually about two to three years, and sometimes as long as five or six years after the injection. Medical treatment recommends calcium injection for hives, and there is a favorable but temporary effect. As time passes, however, the hives break out again. Everyone knows that morphine addicts can be temporarily relieved of their pain by the injection of morphine and in the same way, for treating symptoms of poisoning, medicines that are the cause of that poisoning are used and there is a temporary benefit. Because hives are a form of purification that eliminates medicinal toxins through the skin, if left alone and the suffering can be endured for a certain period, the condition will heal. The symptoms of hives vary by person, but they are all easy to identify because they are accompanied by extreme itchiness. Antipyrine poisoning and certain types of injections can also cause hives, but all will heal naturally.
     Next is a condition that has a false similarity to hives, a disease with rashes or eruptions. Unlike the millet-shaped eruptions of hives, the eruptions of this condition are rather more granular, larger, and in severe cases, almost as big as beans. In lighter cases, the eruptions are local, but in severe cases, can spread all over the body. The itchiness is quite painful, and a very thin puss is continually being discharged. In rare cases, the puss concentrates in one area and forms a growth like a boil. The progress of the disease takes a long time. At the shortest, cases last about six months and longer cases can stretch into several years. Some patients with severe cases even contemplate suicide it is such a terrifying disease. Even after recovery has been pronounced, though, the condition often remains localized and complete recovery may take several years. The cause of this condition are dormant congenital toxins, so the disease should properly be called chronic smallpox, in contrast to genuine cases of smallpox which are acute. The condition is a result of weakening from smallpox of the purification function. The surface of the skin of patients in the peak period of the disease appear to resemble that of patients during smallpox.
     Finally, I mention the cases of fish poisoning which has symptoms like hives. The condition presents with flushed skin either locally or all over the body, with fever, rashes, and itching, but it can be healed in two or three days. This is a type of food poisoning that bears a slight relationship to the intestines, but doctors misdiagnose it as hives caused by calcium poisoning, and locate the main cause in the intestines to which they direct their main treatment, but since their measures are off the mark, they have no effect.

Medicine for Tomorrow, Volume 2, third edition, page 33, October 5, 1943
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