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THE 

Homeopathic  Physician. 


a  monthly  journal  of  medical  science. 


u  IF  OUR  SCHOOL  EVER  GIVES  UP  THE  STRICT  INDUCTIVE  METHOD  OF  HAHNE- 
MANN, WE  ARE  LOST,  AND  DESERVE  TO  BE  MENTIONED  ONLY  AS  A  CARI- 
CATURE IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  MEDICINE.  " — Constantine  Hering. 


EDI TE  £  |B;Y  _ 

W.  A  L  T  E  R  M,.  J  A  ME  S.'-'M-.*  D., 


AND 


'  '  GE;OE.Q,E'  H,'"  t  LARK,  M.  D. ' 


VOL.  X. 

JUL  ^5  1890 

PHILADELPHIA  : 

1125  SPRUCE  STREET. 
1890. 


INDEX 


TO  THE 


HOMCEOPATHIC  PHYSICIAN. 


PAGE 

Acetic  acid,   440 

Acid  lac,  398 

Actea  raceniosa   221, 508 

Actsea  spicata,  508 

Aconite  in  its  Relation  to  the  Throat. 

Ed.  J.  Lee,  M.  D.,  131 

Aconitia,  415 

Aconitum  Napellus  ...  9, 16,  266,  403, 

415,  440,  550 

Actinomycosis,  330 

Address  before  the  Hahnemann  Club 
of  Terra  Haute.    W.  H.  Baker, 

M.D.,   63 

Agaricus  muscarius,  .  16,  135,  170,  176,  440 

Agnus  cast  us  440 

Ailanthus-gland,  440 

Alcohol,  561 

Allen's  Encyclope  dia  and  Index,  Er- 
rors in.   E.  W.  Berridge,  M.  D., 

425,  477 

Allen,  T  F.,  M.  D.    Gonorrhoea  and 

Homoeopathy,  548 

A  Protest  205 

Allen's,  Dr.  T.  F.,  High  Potency  Allo- 
pathy.   B.  Fincke,  M.D  251 

Allen,  A  Replv  to  Dr.  T.  F.    Chas.  B. 

Gilbert,  If.  D.,   .   255 

Allen's  Protest :  Another  Answer  to. 

G.  W.  Sherbino,  M.  D  310 

Aloes,   11,  117,  133,  312,  440 

Aloes.  Notes  on  the  Characteristics  of. 

Walter  M.  James,  M.  D.,  .  .  .  .  229 

Alternation,  A  Plea  for  181 

Alumina  440 

Ambra  grisea  440 

American  Institute  of  Homoeopathy, 

Notice  of  Meeting  ".191 

American  Institute,  Session  of  1890,  227 

Ammonium  carb.,    40,  441,  517 

Aram,  mur  441 

Anacard.  orient.,  441 

Anemone  Nemorosa  281 

Angustura    441 

Annals  of  Surgery,  The  Review  of,  .  .  141 


PAGE 

Annual  Report  and  Election  by  the 
Managers  of  the  Woman's  Ho- 
moeopathic Hospital  of  Penna. 

E.  J.  Lee,  M.  D.,  70 

Answer.   Dr.  Guernsey's  293 

Antimon-crud,  81,  441 

Antimon-tart   441,  550 

Antipyrin.  Geo.  H.  Clark,  M.  D.,  .  .  4 
Antiseptic  Dressing.  G.  M.  Pease,  M.D.,  427 
Antiseptics.   Geo.  H.  Clark,  M.  D.,  52,  337 

Apis-mel   15,  80,  116,  364,  404,  441,  496 

Apocyn-cannab   69 

Appeal  from  the  Bureau  of  Clinical 

Medicine  of  I.  H.  A  239 

Aquelegia  vulgaris,  369 

Are  the  Two  Schools  Alike?    Ed.  J 

Lee,  M.  D   24 

Argent-met.   441 

Argentum  nitricum,  80,  81,  441 

Argentum  nitricum— Mental  and  Ner- 
vous Symptoms.    W.  M.  Butler, 

M.D  36 

Argonaut.  The.    Kent  B.  Waite.  M.  D. 

Notice  of  563 

Argument  and  Reason.  Geo.  H.  Clark 

M.D  97 

Arnica   62,  81.  220, 442, 468,  550 

Arsenicum  in  the  Vomiting  of  Preg- 
nancy,   .  284 

Arsenicum',  .  74  ,  79.  82,  93,  135,  147, 170, 

213,  310,  316,  393,  402,  442,  496,  550 

Arsenicum  metallicum  117 

Artilicial  Feedingof  Infants, The.  Geo. 

H.  Clark,  M.  D.,  241 

Arum-try.   442,  497,  551 

Asafietida  442,  479 

Asarum-europ,  117,442 

Ascot.  Dr.  Filipe.  Clinical  Notes,  .  .  66 
Ataxia.  Progressive  Locomotor.  ...  169 
Aurum,   81,  313,  319,  442,  479 

Baker,  W.  H.,  M.  D.  Address  before 
the  Hahnemann  Club  of  Terre 
Haute,   63 

iii 


ISSf? 


IV 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Balch,  Edward  T.,  M.  D.   An  Unusual 

Symptom,  186 

Help  Wanted  286 

Help  Wanted  and  Received,  ...  419 

La  Grippe   128,  222 

Verifications,  223 

Ballard,  Dr.  E.  A.,  Message  of  Sym- 
pathy to,   383 

Baltimore  Family  Health  Journal,  Re- 
view of,   525 

Baptisia   86,  134,  135,  209,  220,  222 

Baryta-carb,   442,  480,  551 

Baylies,  B.  L.  B.,  M.  D.  Homoeopathy 

and  Pathology  515 

Beaman,  Chas.  P.,  M.  D.  Puerperal 

Convulsions  467 

Belfield,  Dr.  Wm.  T.,  Solicits  Informa- 
tion. Note,  288 

Belladonna,  .  .  26,  45,  47.  80,  82,  89,  90, 176 
276,  277,  303,  312,  44a,  466,  517 

Ben  zoic-acid  443 

Berberis-aquifol,  554 

Berberis-vulg   80,  443,  553 

Berridge,  E.  W.,  M.  D.   A  Confession 

and  a  Warning   39 

Dr.  J.  C.  Boardman's  Provings  and 

Clinical  Cases,  559 

Dr.  T .  F.  Allen  on  Homoeopathy,  .  421 
Errors  in  Dr.  T.  F.  Allen's  Encvclo- 

pyedia   425,  477 

Poisoning  by  Antipyrin,  89 

Provings,  320 

Reply  to  "  A  Synopsis  of  a  Case  of 

Hemorrhoids,"   215 

Biologiciil  Students,  Notice  to,  ...  .  191 

Bismuthum,   443,  551 

Black  Eye  48 

Blunders.    Geo.  H.  Clark,  M.  D  245 

Blunder,  An  Awful.  Dr.  G.  W.  Emery,  267 
Boardman's   Provings  and  Clinical 
Cases,  Dr.  J.  C.    E.  W.  Berridge, 

M.  D. ,  559 

Boenninghausen  and  Lippe.    Ed.  J. 

Lee.  M.  D   34 

Book  Notices,  .  .  .94,  141.  190,  231,  287, 

328,  383,  429,  524,  562 

Borax,   443,  478 

Bovista  443 

British    Medicinal    Plants.  Alfred 

Heath,  M.  D.,  .  279,  367,  415,508,  553 

Bromides,   ...  335 

Bromine,  550 

Brvonia,  .  .  79,  82,  86,  170,  187,  210,  254, 

266.  308,  316,  443,  506,  551,  559 
Buffalo.     A  Synopsis  of  a  Case  of 

Hemorrhoids,  83 

Bureau  of  Surgerv  of  I.  H.  A.,  .  .  .  .  •  240 
Butler,  Clarence  Willard.  M.  D.  Clini- 
cal Reports  and  their  Relation  to 

Homoeopathy,  150 

Bulter,  W.  M.,  M.  D.  Argentum  Nitri- 
cum  —  Mental  and  Nervous 
Symptoms  36 

Cactus-grand,  443 

Caladium,  .  .  .  •  81,  318,  443 

Calthapalustris  299 

Calc-carb.,  .  .  .13,80,91,122,356,444,471 

Cal-phos   403,  404 

Camphora  444 

Cannabis  Indica,   320,  478 

Cannabis  sativa  444 

Cintharis   444,480 

Capsicum,  444 

Carbolic    Acid    Proving,   A.     C.  M. 

Selfridge.  M.  D  420 


PAGE 

Carbo-animal  31,  444 

Carbo-veg.,   79,  1 19,  316,  354 

Carleton,  Edmund,  M.  D.    A  Reply  to 

Dr.  Guernsey's  Defence,  378 

The  Ward's  Island  Difficulty  in 

New  York,  272 

Caruem,  304 

Cases  from  Practice  of  Dr.  Oscar  Han- 
sen. Copenhagen  401 

Case  Read  at  the  Meeting  of  the  Or- 
panon  Society,  of  Boston,  Decem- 
ber 28th.    Win,  P.  Wesselhoefi, 

M.D.  10 

Causticum   115,  277  ,  286,  445 

Census  Bulletins,  431,  524 

Census  Bureau,  An  Appeal  from.  Note,  334 

Cepa,  445 

Cephalalgia,  82.  222 

Chamomilla,   128,  445,  544  ,  550 

Change  of  Number   17 

Chelidonium  445 

Chemical  Lecture  Notes.    By  H.  M. 

Whelplev,  M.  D.    Review  of,  .  .  564 

China,     .  .   80,283,  391.445 

Chin-sul.,  390 

Cholera.   A   Case  of  Sporadic.  L. 

Hoopes,  M.  D.,  282 

Cholera  at  Bagdad,   191 

Chorea  :  Case  of.   Dr.  Oscar  Hansen  .  402 

Cicuta-vir.,   445 

Cimicifuga-race   31,  446,  465 

Cina,   362  ,  446,  520,  550 

Cinchona-off,  382 

Cinnabar  357 

Clark,  Geo.  H.,  M.  D. 

Antipvrin,   4 

Antiseptics   52,  337 

Argument  and  Reason,  97 

The  Artificial  Feeding  of  Infants,  .  241 

Blunders  245 

Chronic  or  Interstitial  Pneumonia,  387 
Colleges,  Journals,  Pharmacies.  .  194 
The  Difference  between  the  Old 

School  and  the  New,  100 

Dr.  Dudgeon  on  High  Potencies,  .  533 

The  European  Epidemic   1 

Grafts,  531 

Hahnemannian  Homoeopathy,  .  .  53 

Heredity  of  Tuberculosis  433 

Intermittent   Fever  Treated  bv 

Friction  103 

Intermittent  Pulse   4 

The  International  Hahnemannian 
Association's  Last  Meeting,    .  .  337 

La  Grippe  3,  49,  51,  102 

Medicinal  Aggravations,  481 

Medicine  an  Empirical  Art,    .  .  .  193 

Microbes,  Bacilli,  Cocci,  53 

The  Minuteness  of  the  Dose,  .  .  .  102 
To  Mongrels  and  Allopaths,  ...  59 
Notes  from  Fast  Meetings  of  the 

Lippe  Society,   115,  304,  350 

Pathologv.  .   55 

The  Other  Side,  535 

Physiology  56 

Progressive  Homoeopath v,  ....  58 

Quinine,  57,  102 

Recoverv  of  Dr.  P.  P.  Wells,  .  .  .  388 
The  Repetition  of  the  Dose.  .  ...  291. 

Scientific  Medicines,  .   2 

Sequela?  197 

Strong  Medicine,  57 

Surgery  the  Opprobrium  of  Medi- 
cine, .    436 

Surgical  Treatment  of  Uterine 
Troubles  243 


INDEX. 


V 


PAGE 

Clark.  Geo.  H.,  M.D. 

The  Treatment  of  Affections  of  the 

Heart,  385 

The  Unattainable  101 

The  Use  of  Crude  Drugs  by  Pro- 
fessed Homoeopaths  289 

Wines  and  Liquors  in  Medicine,  .  51 

Clarke,  Dr.  Wm.  B.  336 

Notice  of  Marriage,  144 

Clausen,  Daniel  W.,  M.  D.  Magnesium- 
phosphoricuni  and  Schussler's 

Bio-Chemistry   12 

Sanicula— A  Caution,   284,  380 

Clematis-erecta,   280,  358,  446 

Clinical  Cases,  Two,   Robert  Farley, 

M.  D  219 

Clinical  Cases.  F.  L.  Griffith,  M.  D.,  .  185 
Clinical  Cases.   Clarence  N.  Payne, 

M.  D  518 

Clinical  Cases,  Reports  of.  G.  M.  Pease, 

M.  D.,  307 

Clinical  Cases.   G.  W.  Sherbino,  M.  D., 

47,  133,  219 
Clinical   Case,  A.    Wm.  Steinrauf, 

M.  D.,  184 

Clinical  Cases.  Ella  M.  Tuttle,  M  D.,  283 
Clinical  Cases.  W.  A.  Yingling,  M.  D., 

93,  400 

Clinical  Notes.   Dr.  Filipe  Ascot,  ...  66 

Cocculus,  310,  446 

Cofi'ea,   446,  478 

Coffee  :  he  was  fond  of,  48 

Cohen,  S.  W..  M.  D.    La  Grippe   87 

Coincidences.  Walter  M.  James,  M.  D.,  198 

Co!chicum-autum  446 

Colleges,  The  Teaching  of  Pure 
Homoeopathy  in  the.  Walter  M. 

James,  M.  D  537 

Colleges,  Journals,  and  Pharmacies. 

Geo.  H.Clark,  M.  D.,  194 

Colocynthis  446 

Comments  upon   Dr.   Wolffs  Case. 

Geo.  W.  Sherbino,  M.  D.,  .  .  .  .  31 
Concordance,  Repertory  of  Charac- 
teristics   of    Materia  Medica. 
Wm.  Gentry,  M.  D.,  Review  of. .  236 
Confession  and  a  Warning,  A.   E.  W. 

Berridge,  M.D   39 

Congestion  of  the  Lungs  and  its  Dan- 
gers, by  Thos   Nichols,  M.  D., 

Review  of,   ...  96 

Con iu  i-mac,  .  .    170,446,516 

Consumption  :  Its  Cause  and  Nature, 
By  Rollin  R.  Gregg,  M.  D.  Re- 
view of,  233 

Consumption  Not  Contagious,  ....  333 
Convulsions,  A  Reportory  of.    Bv  E. 

M.  Santee,  M.  D.    Review  of,  . .  563 

Corrections,   ...  191 

Corrector  Corrected  A  Notice  of,  .  .  .  238 

Correspondence,  321 

Cough,   Winter.     Frederic  Preston, 

M.  D  •  .286 

Cranch,  Edward,  M.  D.   Watch  the 

Effect,  263 

Crocus-sat.,   82,446,552 

Croton-tig  446 

Crude  Drugs  by  Professed  Homoeo- 
paths,  The  Use  of.    Geo.  H. 

Clark,  M.  I).,  289 

<  'uprum   82,  219,  314,  316,  402,  446 

Cnnrum-acet.,   551,  552 

Cyclamen   447,  552 

Davis.  F.  S.,  M.  D.   The  Importance  of 

a  Diagnosis  210 


PAGE 

Definition  of  a  Homoeopathic  Physi- 
cian, The.    Walter  M.  James, 

M.  D.,  5,  103 

Development  of  the  Infant,  The.  A. 

McNeil,  M.  D   18 

Dever,  I.,  M.  D.,  Syphilis  and  Gonor- 
rhoea 513 

Diagnosis,  The  Importance  of  a.   F.  S. 

Davis,  M.  D  210 

Diarrhoea,  a  Case  of.    Wm.  P.  Wessel- 

hoeft,  M.  D.,  10 

Diarrhoea,  Chronic,  309 

Difference  between  the  Old  School 
and  the  New.   Geo.  H.  Clark, 

M.  D.,  100 

Dietetic  Gazette,  The.   Note  of  288 

Digitalis,   256,  447, 552 

Diphtheria,   308, 324 

Diphtheria.   Wm.  Steinrauf,  M.  D., .  .  324 

Diphtheria  and  Croup,  172 

Diphtheria,  Cvanide  of  Mercurv  in,  .  173 

Diphtherine   ...  325 

Disease  of  the  Eve  and  Ear,  Bv  C.  H. 

Vilas.  M.  D.  "Review  of,  430 

Disease  and  Sickness,  By  Samuel 

Swan,  M.  D.   Review  of,  142 

Disinfectants,   7 

Dose,  Another  Dose  about  the.  S.  L.  .  538 

Dose,  The  Question  of  the  159 

Dose,  The  Repetition  of  the.    Geo.  H. 

Clark,  M.  D.  291 

Dr.  Imposed  on,  The   192 

Drosera,   86,  447 

Drag  Pathogenesy,  A  Plea  for  the  Cy- 
clopaedia of,  165 

Dudlev  Pemberton,  M.  D.  The  Ameri- 
can Institute  Session  of  1890,  .  .  226 

Dulcamara  447,  543 

Dunlevy,  Rita,  M.  D.  Hermaphrodit- 
ism Complicated  with  Extrophy 

of  the  Bladder,  405 

Dutton,  J.  M.,  M.  D.    Some  Relations 

of  Hysteria,  108 

Dynamic  Forces  of  the  Homeopathic 
Remedies,  the.    From  Meeting 

of  I.  H.  A.,  457 

Dysmenorrheea,  309 

Eating  for  Strength.   M.  L.  Holbrook, 

M.  D.   Notice  of   95 

Eclecticism   6 

Eczema.    Wm.  Steinrauf,  M.  D  462 

Editorials,  .  .  I,  49,  97,  145,  193,  241,  289 

337,  3S5,  433 
Ehrmann,  Dr.  Frederick.     In  Memo- 

riam  380 

El  Consultor  Homoeopatico.  Notice 

of,  141 

Electrioitv  in  the  Diseases  of  Women. 
Bv  G.  Betton  Massey,  M.  D.  Re- 
view of,  329 

Electric  Railwav  as  a  Sanitarv  Meas- 
ure, The,  *  332 

Electro-Houueopathy,   167, 183 

Emery.  Dr.  G.  W.  An  Awful  Blunder,  267 
Encyclopedia,  Errors  in  Dr.  T.  F.  Al- 

len's   425,  477 

Epidemic.   The  European.    Geo.  H. 

Clark,  M.  D   I 

Epidemiological.    Dr.  Kunkel  313 

Epilepsy,  its  Pathology  and  Treat- 
ment.   Hobart  Amorv  Hare,  If. 

D.   Review  of,  526 

Errors,  Fatal.  J.  H.  Jackson.  M.  D.,  .  361 
Erysipelas.  G.  M.  Pease,  M.  D.,  .  .  .  505 
Eupat-perfol   186,  898 


vi 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Euphorbia-off.,  447 

Euphrasia-off.,   447,  552 

Evans,  L.  Hamilton,  M.  D.   The  Rela- 
tion of  Drugs  to  Pregnancy,    .  .  510 

Every  Thursday.   Notice  of,  235 

Experience,  Our  Daily.    Wm.  Stein- 

rauf,  M.  D.,  557 

Extract  from  a  Letter  of  W.  M.  Thack- 
eray, 184!),  15)1 

Familv  Homoeopath,  The.  E.  B.  Shul- 

dam,  M.  D.   Review  of  526 

Farley,  Robt.,  M.  D.    Two  Clinical 

Cases,  219 

Weakness  after  Urination  522 

Fatal  Errors.  J.  H.  Jackson,  M.  D.,  301,  361 

Ferrum-magneticum,  81 

Kerrum-met  447 

Ferrum-phos.,  118,558 

Fifth  Annual  Report  of  the  Trustees  of 

Westborough  Insane  Hospital. 

Notice  of,  95 

Fincke,  B.,  M.  D.    Dr.  T.  F.  Allen's 

"High  Potency  Allopathy,"  .  .  251 
Proving  of  Saceharum-lactis.  .  .  .  137 
Flatulent  Dyspepsia.    Dr.  Jose  Nadal,  128 

Fluoric  acid,   559 

Fowler.  S.  Mills,  M.  D.    A  Proving  of 

Lachesis,  421 

Fun  for  Doctors,   192,  336,  528 

Gailliard,  Dr.  Mono-Pharmacv,  ...  438 
Gee,  W.  S.,  M.  D.    Dr.  Preston's  Case 

in  the  August  Number  413 

Gelseniiurn   80,  119,  448,  465,  552 

German  Homoeopathic  Congress,  A. 

Dr.  Alexander  Villers  285 

Germ  Theory  and  its  Relation  to  Ho- 
moeopathy, The,  161 

Gilbert,  Chas.  B.,  M.  D.    "  High  Po- 

tencv  Allopathy,"  256 

A  Reply  to  Dr.  T.  F.  Allen,  ....  255 

Glonoinum,   448,  552 

Gonorrhoea  and  Homoeopathy.    T.  F. 

Allen,  M.  D.,  548 

Gonorrhceaand  Straight  Homoeopathy. 
The  Routine  Treatment  of  Fresh. 

Thos.  Skinner,  M.  D.,   498 

Grace  Hospital.  Detroit,  191,  528 

Grafts.   Geo.  H.  Clark.  M.  D  531 

Grafts.    W.  A.  Yingling,  M.  D.,  .  ...  520 

Graph.,  448 

Great  Grandfather?  Who  was  Your,  .  336 
Griffith,  F.  L.,  M.  D.   Clinical  Cases,  185 

Guaiacum  off.   448,  552 

Guernsey's  Answer,  Dr.,  293 

Guernsey's  Defence,  Dr.,  323 

GuernseV's  Defence,  Dr.    A  Reply  to. 

Edmund  Carleton,  M.  D.,      .  .  377 
Guernsey,  Egbert,  M.  D,,  and  Ward's 
Island  Homoeopathic  Hospital. 

A.  McNeil,  M.D.,  381 

Guernsey,  Wm,  Jefferson,  M.  D.  Veri- 
fications,  475 

Verifications  in  the  October  Num- 
ber 519 

Guiding  Symptoms  of  our  Materia  Med  - 
ica,  by  C.  Hering,  M.  D.  Review 

of,    .   •  329 

Gundlach,  J.  G.,   M.   D.  Sanicula 

Spring  Water   379,  426 

Gunpowder  Stains,  48 

Hahnemann,  Atitograph    Letter  of 

Samuel,   492,  493 


PAGE 

Hahnemann  Club  of  Terre  Haute  :  Ad- 
dress before.  W.  H.  Maker,  M.D.,  63 

Hahnemannian  Homoeopathy.  Geo. 

H.  Clark,  M.  D  ,  53 

Hall,  John,  M.  D.    Brief  Contribution 

to  the  Elucidation  of  Syphilis,  .  473 

Hall,  John,  Sr.,  M.  D.  Query  for  the 
Readers  of  the  Homeopathic 
Physician  -140 

Hallucinations,  A  Census  of,  335 

Hamamelis,   44,  448 

Hansen,  Dr.  Oscar.  Copenhagen,  Cases 

from  Practice  401 

Harper's  Magazine.    Review  of,  .  .  .  141 

Heath.  Alfred,  M.  1).  British  Medicinal 

Plants,    .  .  279,  295,  867,  415,  508,  553 

Helleborus,  307,  368,  3G9,  448 

Help  Wanted.    Edward    T.  Balch, 

M.  D.,  286 

Helf)  Wanted  and  Received.  Edward 

T.  Balch,  M.  D  419 

Hemorrhoids.  "  Replv  to."  A  Svnopsis 
of  a  Case  of.  E.  W.  Berridge,  M. 
D  215 

Henbane,  497 

Hepar-sulph.   67.94.448 

!  Heart,  The  Treatment  of  Affections  of 

the.   Geo.  H.  Clark,  M.  D  385 

j  Hermaphroditism  Complicated  with 
Extrophv  of  the  Bladder.  Rita 

Dunlevv,  M.  D  405 

j  "  High  Potencv  Allopathv."    Chas.  B. 

Gilbert,  M.  D.,  256 

Hitchcock.  H..  M.  D.  Homoeopathy 

in  New  York  City,  45 

Homceopathic  Controversy.  The,  ...  82 

Homoeopathic  Phvsician  Read?  What 

Shall  a.     Wm.  Steinrauf,  M.  D.,  224 

Homoeopathic  Prescription,  bv  M.  A. 

A.  Wolff,  M.  D.    Notice  of,  ...  237 

Homoeopathic  Therapeutics,  by  Sam- 
uel Lilienthal,  M.  D.    Review  of,  287 

Homoeopathic  Treatment  of  Alcohol- 
ism, The.  by  Dr.  Gallavardin. 
Review  of,  328 

Homoeopathy,  Clinical  Reports  in  their 
Relation  to  Homceopnthy.  Clar- 
ence W.  Butler,  M.  P.,  150 

Homoeopathy,  A  Declaration  for  Pure.  182 

Homceopathv,  Dr.  T.  F.  Allen  on.  E. 

W.  Berridge,  M.  D.,  421 

Homeopathy,  A  Few  Thoughts  for  the 
Intelligent,  by  S.  Mills  Fowler, 
M.  D.    Peview  of  190 

Homoeopathv  in  New  York  City.  H. 

Hitchcock,  M.  D.,   45 

Homceopathv  in  Pain.     Rev.  J.  K. 

Mendenhall,  213 

Homoeopathv  and  Pathology.  B.  L.  B. 

Baylies.  M.  D.,  515 

Homoeopathy  Phrenologically  Consid- 
ered.   Geo  W.  Sherbino,  M.  D.,  46 

Homceopathv,  Pure,  in  the  Colleges  : 
The  Teaching  of.  Walter  M. 
James,  M.  D.,   483,  537 

Hood.  F.  C,  M.  D.  The  Importance 
of  Choosing  the  Indicated  Rem- 
edy in  the  Minimum  Dose,     .  .  389 

Hoopes,  L.,  M  D.   A  Case  of  Sporadic 

Cholera,  282 

Hydrastis,  448 

Hydroa,  or  Fever  Blisters.     G.  M. 

Pease,  M.  D.,  263 

Hyoscyamus   47,  82,  287,  448,  497 

Hypericum   ....  449 

Hypochondria,  229 


INDEX. 


vii 


Hvsteria.  £ome  Relations  of. 
Dutton,  M.  D.,  ...  . 


J.  M. 


108 


Ignatia   130,  147,  449.  4%,  550 

Importance  of  Choosing  Indicated 
Remedv  in  Minimum  Dose.  F. 

C.  Hood,  M.  D.,  339 

Indiana  Institute  of  Homoeopathy,  .  .  325 
Indicated  Remedy  in  the  Minimum 
Dose.  The  Importance  of  Choos- 
ing.   F.  C.  Hood,  M.  D  389 

Infant  Feeding.    W.  I.  Thayer.  M.  D.,  347 
Influenza  and   Common  Colds,  the 
Causes,  Character,  and  Treat- 
ment of  Each,  bv  W.  T.  Ferrie, 

M.  D.   Review  of,  235 

In  Memoriam.  Dr.  Frederick  Ehr- 
mann 380 

In  Memoriam     Henry  Noah  Martin, 

M.  D.,  45 

In  Memoriam.    L.  S.  Reynolds,  M.  D.,  139 

Insomnia  and  Neuralgia   171 

Intermittent  Fever  Treated  by  Fric- 
tion.  Ceo.  H.  Clark,  M.  1).,    .  .  103 
Intermittent   Pulse.    Geo.  H.  Clark, 

M  D.,   4 

International  Hahnemannian  Associa- 
tion, Notice  of  Meeting  238 

International  Hahnemannian  Associa- 
tion, Eleventh  Annual  Meeting, 

338,  457,  540 

Summary  of  Proceedings,  ....  338 
Dynamic  Forces  of  the  Homce- 

bpathic  Remedies  457 

Displacement  of  the  Uterus,  .  .  .  540 
International  Hahnemannian  Associa- 
tion's Last  Meeting,  The.  Geo. 

H.  Clark,- M.  D.,  337 

International  Hahnemannian  Associa- 
tion. T.  Dwight-Stowe,  M.  D.,  .  139 
International  Hahnemannian  Associa- 
tion,   Proceedings  of.    J.  W. 

Thomson,  If.  D.,  410 

International  Homeopathic  Congress 
of  Paris,  The.   Walter  M.  James, 

M.  D   145,  165,  157 

International  Medical  Annual  and 
Practitioner's  Index  for  1890, 
The.   By  P.  W.  Williams,  M.  D. 

Review  of,  .  .  234 

Introductory.   G.  H.  Clark,  M  D.,  .  .  1 

Iodium   15,  113,  404.  449 

Iod-su'oh.,   73 

Ipecac,    449,  466 

Iritis  and  Irido-Choroiditis  171 

Ischiophagus,  An,  331 

Jackson,  J.  II.,  M.  D.  Fatal  Errors, 

301,  361 

James.  Walter  M.,  M.  D.  Coinci- 
dences 198 

The    Definition    of   a  Homoe- 
opathic Physician,  5,  103 

Dr.  Samuel  Lilienthal  536 

The  International  Homoeopathic 
Congress  of  Paris,  145,  155 

Dr.  Frank  Kraft.   437 

Notes  on  the  Characteristics  of 
Aloes,  229 

The   Teaching  of  Pure  Homoe- 
opathy in  the  Colleges,  .  .  .  483,  537 

The  Ward's  Island  "  Difficulty  " 

in  New  York  18S,  246 

Jarring,  312 

Jarring.   F.  H.  Lutze,  M.  D.,  382 


PAGE 

Jealousy.    The    Insanity  of.  Prof. 

Ball  494 

Journal  of  Balneology.  Review  of,  .  .  524 
Journals  to  the  Medical  Profession, 

Value  of,  335 

Kali-bichromicum,  .  .  16,  356,  398,  449,  472 

Kali-carb.   117,  449,516,  550 

Kali-iodid.,  74,  76 

Kidi-phos.,  342 

Kansas  City  Homoeopathic  College, 

The.  Annette  H.Waggoner,  M.  D.,  228 
Kate  Field's  Washington,  Notice  of,  .  527 
Kent,  J.  T.,  M.  D.   A  Study  in  Materia 

Medica  322 

Kraft,  Dr.  Frank.     W.    M.  James, 

M.  D.,   437 

"  Want  to  Know  you  Know,"    .  .  359 

Kreosotum,   438,  449 

Kunkel.  Dr.   Epidemiological,    .  .  .  313 

La  Grippe,  316 

Lac-can.,   306,  419 

Lachesis,  A  Proving  of.   S.  Mills  Fow- 
ler, M.  D.,  421 

Lachesis,   ...  81,  82,  276,  277,  476,  496,  551 

Lager  Beer  561 

La  Grippe.  Dr.  Edward  T.  Balch,  128,  222 
La  Grippe.   Geo.  H.  Clark,  M.  D.,  3, 

49,  102 

La  Grippe.   S.  W.  Cohen.  M.  D   87 

La  Grippe.    Dr.  Kunkel,  316 

La  Grippe.   H.  B.  Stiles,  M.  D.,  .  .  86,  127 

La  Grippe.   S.  Swan,  M.  D  124 

La  Grippe.  W.  A.  Tingling,  M.  D.,  .  286 
Laryngismus  Stridulus.     Dr.  Oscar 

Hansen,   404 

Laryngismus  Stridulus,  Clinical  Case. 

*  Ella  M.  Tuttle,  M.  D.  '  .  91 

Laurocerasus  450 

Lead  Poisoning.   Prof.  Litten, ....  31 

Ledum-palustre  81,  450 

Lee,  E.  J..  M.  D.    Aconite  in  its  Rela- 
tion to  the  Throat,  131 

Annual  Report  and  Election  by  the 
Managers  of  the  Woman's  Ho- 
moeopathic Hospital  of  Pennsyl- 
vania  70 

Are  the  two  Schools  Alike  ?  .  .  .  .  24 
Boenninghausen  and  Linpe  ....  34 
Mark  Twain's  Tribute  to  Homoe- 
opathy 203 

A  Materia  Medica  Pura,  504 

The  Vital  Necessity  for  Fresh  Air 

in  Consumption,  77 

Lilienthal.  Dr.  Samuel.  Walter  M. 

James.  M.  D  536 

Lilienthal,  Dr.  Samuel.    See  "  S.  L." 

Lil-tig.  312,  543 

Lippe  Society,  Notes  from  past  Meet- 
ings of.   Geo.  H.  Clark.  M.  D., 

115,  304,  350,  478 
Lippe.  Dr.  Ad.   The  Repetition  of  the 

Dose  199 

Lithium-carb   81 

Litten,  Prof.    Lead  Poisoning  31 

Lutze.  F.  H..  M.  D.  Duration  of  Action 
and  Antidotes  of  the  Principal 

,  Remedies,  439 

Jarring,   382 

Lutze.  Dr.  Paul.    Hysterical  Spasms 

Cured  with  Pulsatilla  366 

Lvcopodium,  ...  79,  118,  134,  198,  278, 

301,  351,  3T>9,  364,  450 

Magnes-carb  16.  450 


viii 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Magnes-mur.,   74,  450 

Magnesium-phosphoricum  and  Schuss- 

ler's  Bio  Chemistry.    Dauiel  W. 

Clausen,  M.  D.,  .   12 

Magnes-phos  14, 182 

Malandnuum  305 

Mania.   G.  W.  Sherbino,  M.  D  83 

Manganum-aoeticum   450,  479 

Mark  Twain's  Tribute  to  Homoeop- 
athy.   E.  J.  Lee,  M.  D  203 

Martin,  Henry  Noah,  M.  D.  In  Memo- 

riam  45 

Martin,  J.T.,  M.  D.  Some  Results  from 

the  Abuse  of  Quinine  484 

Marum  verum,  450 

Materia  Medica,  The  Homoeopathic,  .  163 
Materia  Medica,  A  Plan  to  Reform  the,  164 
Materia  Medica  Pura,  A.  E.  J.  Lee.M. 

D.,  504 

Materia  Medica,  A  Study  in.    J.  V. 

Kent,  M.  D  322 

McNeil,  A.,  M.  D. 

The  Development  of  the  Infant. 

Translated  from  the  German,  .  .  is 
Egbert   Guernsey,   M.    1).,  and 

Ward's    Island  Homeopathic 

Hospital,  381 

Natrum  muriaticum,  256 

The  Provings  of  Natrum  muriati- 
cum,  418 

The  Sycosis  of  Hahnemann,  .  .  .  294 

Ulcers  471 

Medical  Topics,  by  W.  A.  Chatterton. 

Notice  of  .  .   95 

Medicine  an  Empirical  Art.    G.  H. 

riark.  M.  D  193 

Medicines  Mixed  in  One  Prescription 

Absurd,  179 

Medicinal  Aggravation.  Geo.  H.Clark, 

M.  p.,  '  481 

Medo'rhinum,  499 

Meli  lotus  266 

Memphis  Journal  of  the  Medical  Sci- 
ences.  Review  of,  142,  2S7 

Mendenhall.  Rev.  J.  K.  Homoeopathv 

in  Pain,  213 

Mentagra  and  Tinea  Capitis  (Favus), 

By  S.  L  73 

Menvanthes,  450 

Mephitis    80 

Mercurius  in  Tvphoid  Fever.   Geo.  H. 

Clark,  M.*D  51 

Mercurius,   350,  451.  457  500,  551 

Mercury,   250,  3»'6  .  320  ,  479 

Mercurius  Corrosivus.  .  .  118. 172,  361.  451 
Merc  iod.  and  Kali-iod.,  SomeProvings 

of.    Ella  M.  Tuttle,  M.  U  473 

Mercurius  solubilis,   .  .  .  313,  356,  500,  514 

Mezereum  451 

Microbes,    Bacilli,   Cocci.     Geo.  H. 

Clark.  M.  D   .  .  53 

Minuteness  of  the  Dose,  The.   Geo.  H. 

Clark.  M.  D  102 

Mongrels  and  Allopaths,  To.   Geo.  H. 

Clark.  M.  D.,  59 

Mono-Pharmacv.  Dr.  Gailliard,  ...  438 
Morphine?   No!  No!  No!    M.  A.  A. 

Wolff,  M.  D.,   94 

Moschus,  .   451 

Muriatic  acid   451 

Nadal,  Dr.  Jose.  Flatulent  Dvspepsia,  128 
Nash,  E.  B.,  M.  D.     Therapeutics  of 

the  Throat  •  410 

National  Magazine,  The   142,  288 

Natrum  451 


PA/5E 

i   Natrum-muriaticum.  A.  McNeil,  M.D., 

256,  418 

!  Natrum-muriaticum,  ...  16,  263,  345, 

351,391,448,  451,  4%,  517 
!  Natrum-nitrosum,  Poisoning  with,    .  469 

Natrum-suiph.,  558 

Neurosis  of  the  Gen i  to-Urinary  System 
in  the  Male  with  Sterility  and 
Impotence,  The,  by  Dr.  R.  Ultz- 

mann.   Review  of,  .  431 

New  Remedies,  The.  Edited  by  James 

E.  Gross,  M.  I).  Review  of,  .  .  238 
|  New  York  State  Medical  Society.  Note,  192 

Niccolum   ....  438 

Nitric  acid,  .  .  16,  80.  295,  312,  358,  451, 

472,  478,513 

I  Nitrum  451 

I  Nosodes,  3or> 

Notes  and  Notices,  .  .  48,  143,  191,288, 

28S,  330,  381,  432,  528,  564 
Notes  from  Past  Meetings  of  the  Lippe 

Society,    ...  14,  79,  115,  304,  350,  478 

Nothing  New.   Note   6 

Nuggets.   C.  Carleton  Smith,  M.  D.,  .  549 

Nuphar-lutea  554 

Nux-moschata   17,  82,452 

Nux-vom.,  A  ProviDg  of.  Ella  M.  Tut- 
tle, M.  D.  523 

Nux-voua.,  .  .  121, 130, 170, 177,  186, 199, 

221,  301,  354,  390,  452,  459,  468.  558,  559 
I  Nymplnea  alba  554 

Obstetrics.  Wm.  Steinrauf,  M.  D  ,  .  .  299 
Of  the  Drug  Curative.    Dr.  P.  P.  Wells, 

7,  60,  104 

Oh-don't-ology  336 

Ointments  and  Oleates,  by  John  Shoe- 
maker, M.  D.    Review  of,  .  .  .  562 

Oleander  452 

Oleum  terebinth   73 

On  Mentasra  and  Tinea  Capitis  (Favus),  73 

Ouosmodium  520 

Opium   82,  170,  351.  452,  468 

Oregon,  Annual  Address  of  Geo.  Wigg. 
M.  D..  President  of  the  Homoeo- 
pathic Societv  of,  370 

Other  Side.  The.  Geo.  H.  Clark,  M.  D..  535 
Ovarian  Neuralgia,  Left.    Dr.  Oscar 

Hansen.  404 

Oxygen,  Verified  Provingsof.  S.Swan, 

M.  D..   397 

Oysters,  Poisoning  by.    S.  L.,  470 

Papaver  dubium  555 

Papaver  somniferum  (Opium)  555 

Paralysis  Agitans  176 

Paris  international  Homoeopathic  Con- 
gress, Proceedings  of  157 

Paris  quadrifol,   452 

Partnership  of  Dr.  Wm.  S.  Gee  and  Dr. 

H.  O.  Allen  191 

Pasteur,  M  144 

Pathology.   G.  H.  Clark,  M.  D   55 

Payne,  Clarence  N.  Another  Criticism 

of  Dr.  Preston's  Case,  414 

Clinical  Cases  518 

Pease,  G.  M.,  M.  D.  Antiseptic  Dress- 
ing,  427 

Erysipelas  505 

Hydroa,  or  Fever  Blisters,   ....  263 

Reports  of  Clinical  Cases  307 

People's  Health  Journal.  Notice  of,  .  564 

Perineum,   231 

Petroleum   351,  452 

Petroselenum  16 

Philosophy    in     Homoeopathy,  by 


INDEX. 


ix 


PAGE 

Charles  S.  Mack,  M.  D.  Review 

of,  •  383 

Phosphorus,  .  .  16.  17,  40,  67,  80,  82, 120, 

147,  276,  277,  316,  321,  395,  402,  518,  551 

Phos-ac,  453 

Physical  Diagnosis  and  Practical  Urin- 
alysis, by  John  E.  Clark,  M.  D. 

Review  of,  525 

Physician  ?  What  Constitutes  a  Ho- 
moeopathic.  P.  P.  Wells,  M.  D.,  148 
Physiology.   Geo.  H.  Clark,  M.  D.,  .  .  56 

Phytolacca-decandra,   79,  81,  453 

Picrotoxin,  117 

Platina,  539 

Poisoning  by  Antipvrin.    E.  W.  Ber- 

ridge,  M.  D.  89 

Poisoning,  Lead,  31 

Poisoning,  Novel  Cases  of,  469 

Poisoning  by  Oysters,  470 

Poisoning  by  Potatoes,  469 

Potatoes.  Poisoning  by,  469 

Plantago  major,  287 

Plants,  British  Medicinal.  Alfred 
Heath,  M.  D.,  .  279,  295,  367,  415, 

508,  553 

Platina  453 

Pleuro-Pneumonia,  307 

Plumbum,   321,  453 

Pneumonia,  307 

Pneumonia,  Chronic  or  Interstitial. 

Geo.  H.  Clark,  M.  D.,  387 

Podophyllum,   351,  453 

Polonia  officinalis,  509 

Polypharmacy,  or  Mixed  Prescriptions,  16* 
Polypharmacy  and  the  Single  Remedy,  177 

Polytechnic.  The.   Notice  of  432 

Potencies,  Dr.  Dudgeon  on  High.  Geo. 

H.  Clark.  M.  D.,  533 

Potency,  How  to  Select  the  Proper. 

Editors,  119 

Practical  Electricity  in  Medicine  and 
Surgery,  bvG.  A.  Liebig.  Review 

of,  431 

Practical  Sanitary  and  Economical 
Cooking,  by  Mrs.  Mary  Hinman 

Able.    Review  of.  430 

Precaution  Against  Consumption.  Cir- 
cular Number  20,  by  Dr.  Benja- 
min Lee.    Review  of  237 

Precautionary  Circulars  of  the  State 

Board  o*f  Health.  Notice  of,  .  .  384 
Pregnancy,  The  Relation  of  Drugs  to. 

L.  Hamilton  Evans,  M.  D  510 

Prescriptions,  Dr.  Conan's  Defence  of 

Mixed,  181 

Preston.  Frederick,  M.  D.  Winter 

Cousrh,  286 

Preston,  Mahion,  M.  D.     A  Case  of 

Syphilis  355 

Preston's  Case  in  the  August  Number. 

Dr.,  W.  S.  Gee,  M.  D  413 

Preston's  Case,  Another  Criticism  of. 

Dr.  Clarence  N.  Payne,  M.  D.,  .  414 

Prevention  of  Colds,  48 

Proceedings  of  the  International  Hah- 
nemannian  Association.     I.  W. 

Thomson,  M.  D.  410 

Proceedings  of  the  Internation  Homoe- 
opathic Congress  of  Paris,   .  .  .  157 
Progressiye  Houneopathv.     Geo.  H. 

Clark.  M.  D.,  58 

Protest.  A.  T.  F.  Allen,  M.  D.,  .  ...  205 
Provings.  E.  W.  Berridge,  M.  D.,  .  .  320 
Proving  of  Saccharum -lactis.  B. 

Fincke.  M.  D.,  137 

Psychology  of  Epidemics,  The.    Note,  143 


PAGE 

Psorinum,   132,  453 

Puerperal  Convulsions.     Charles  P. 

Beaman,  M.  D.,  467 

Puerperal  Convulsions,  A  Case.  W.  A. 

Yingling,  M.  D.,  464 

Pulsatilla  Nigricans,    .  16,  27,  118,  280, 

281,  818,  342,  366,  453,  499,  550,  552 
Pulsatilla,   Hysterical  Spasms  cured 

with.  Dr.  Paul  Lutze,  .  .  .  .  366 
Pulte  Quarterly,  The.  Review  of,  .  .  288 
Pure  Homoeopathy  in  the  Colleges, 

The  Teaching  of.     Walter  M. 

James,  M.  D.,   483,  537 

Pyrogen,   342,  344 

Query  for  the  Readers  of  the  Homoe- 
opathic Physician.  John  Hall, 

Sr.,  M.  D.,  140 

Quinine,   124,  480 

Quinine.  Geo.  H.  Clark,  M.  D.,  .  .  57,  102 
Quinine,  Some  Results  from  the  Abuse 

of.  J.  T.  Martin,  M.  D.,  .  .  .  .  484 
Quinine,  Abuse  of.  Wm.  Steinrauf, 

M.  D.,  352 

Ranunculaceae,   279,  415 

Ranunculus  acris,  297 

Ranunculus  bulbosus,  ......  298,  453 

Ranunculus  Ficaria  296 

Ranunculus  Flammula,  296 

Ranunculus  repens,  296 

Ranunculus  sceleratus,   295,  454 

Ratanhia  116 

Recollections  of  General  Grant,  by 

Geo.  \V.  Childs.   Review  of,  .  .'  429 
Regulation  of  Travel  and  Traffic,  Penna. 
State  Board  of"  Health,  Notice  of, 

Pamphlet,  236 

Remedies,  Duration  of  Action  and 
Antidotes  of  the  Principal.  F. 

H.  Lutze,  M.  D.,  438 

Removals,  ....  191,  331,  384,  432,  528,  564 
Repetition  of  the  Dose,  The.    Dr.  Ad. 

Lippe,  199 

Reply  to  Dr.  T.  F.  Allen.    Charles  B. 

Gilbert,  M.  I)  255 

Reply  to  Dr.  Allen's  "  Protest."  A.  P. 

P.  Wells,  M.  P., ........  .  247 

Report    and    Recommendations  of 
International  American  Confer- 
ence upon  Posta'  and  Cable  Com- 
munication with   Central  and 
South  America,  Notice  of.  .  .  .  527 

Report  and  Recommendations  Con- 
cerning Sanitary  and  Quarantine 
Regulations  in  "Commerce  with 
t lie  American  Republics.  Notice 

of,   .  527 

Revue     Homceopathique  Franeais. 

Notice  of.   142 

Reynolds,  L.  8.,  M.  D.   In  Memoriam,  139 

Rheum  454 

Rhododendron,  454 

Rhus  tox.,  .  27,  89,  92,  220,  263,  283,  307, 

319,  454,  507,  518 

Rumex,  93,  276 

Rumex  crispus.  Some  Remarks  on.  C. 

Carleton  Smith,  M.  D  275 

Rata  graveolens  454,  516 

Sabadilla  ISO,  316,454 

snbina   321,  454 

Saccharum-album.,    •  47  s 

Sambucus  454 

Sansuinaria-ean.,  219,  454 

Sanicula,  221 


X 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Sanicula,  A  Caution.   D.  W.  Clausen, 

M.  D.,  2c4,  380 

Sanicula  Spring  Water.    J.  G.  Gund- 

lach,  M.  D.,  378,  427 

Sanitary  Entombment,  by  Rev.  Chas. 

K.  Treat.    Review  of,   94 

Sarsaparilla,  118,  454 

Scientific  Medicine.   Geo.  H.  Clark, 

ML.  D.,   2 

Se.cale  cornut.,  ....   80,  82,  169,  314,  454 

Selenium,  455 

Selfridge,  C.  M.,  M.D.  A  Carbolic  Acid 

Proving,  420 

Senega,  455 

Sepia,   27, 223,  455, 516,  542 

Sequelae.   Geo.  H.  Clark,  M.  D  197 

Sherbino,  G.   W.,   M.   D.  Another 

Answer  to  Allen's  Protest,  ...  310 

Clinical  Cases   47,  133,  219 

Comments  upon  Dr.  Wolffs  Case,  31 
Homoeopathy  Rhrenologically  Con- 
sidered,   46 

Mania,   82 

Verilications  of  Medorrhinum,  .  .  84 

Silicea,  10,  27,  44,  318,  455 

Simillimum?   What  is  the.    M.  A.  A. 

Wolff,  M.  D.,  208 

Skinner,  Thomas,  M.  D.  "  The  Rou- 
tine Treatment  of  Fresh  Gonor- 
rhoea and  Straight  Homoe- 
opathy,"  498 

S.  L.  (Samuel  Lilienthal,  M.  D.)  An- 
other Dose  about  the  Dose,  .  .  .  538 
Cases  from  Practice  of  Dr.  Hansen,  401 

Epidemiological,  313 

Hysterical   Spasms    cured  with 

Pulsatilla,  36G 

Homoeopathic  Therapeutics,  Re- 
view of,   287 

Insanity  of  Jealousy  494 

La  Grippe,  316 

Lead  Poisoning   31 

Mentagra  and  Tinea  Capitis  (Fa- 

vus),   73 

Novel  Cases  of  Poisoning,    ....  468 

Poisoning  by  Oysters,  470 

Poisoning  by  Potatoes,  469 

Smallpox  304 

Smith,  C.  Carleton,  M.  D.  Nuggets,  .  549 
Some  Remarks  on  Rumex  Crispus,  .  .  275 
Snapping-Turtle  Baby,  A.  Note,  .  .  .  144 

Sol-nig.,    .  464 

Southern  Homoeopathic  Medical  Col- 
lege.   Note,  333 

Southern   Journal  of  Homoeopathy, 

The  Change  of  Editor.    Note,   .  240 
Spasms,  Hvsterical,  Cured  with  Pulsa- 
tilla.' Dr.  Paul  Lutze  366 

Spigelia  455 

Spinal  Concussion,  by  S.  V.  Cleven- 

ger,  M.  D.   Review  of  190 

Spongia,  455 

Squilia  455 

Stammering.  Treatment  of.   Note,  .  .  144 

Stannum,  455 

Staphisagria,   177,  456 

Statistics  of  Farms,  Homes,  and  Mort- 
gages,     .   333 

Steinrauf,    Wm.,  M.   D.  Abuse  of 

Quinine,  352 

A  Clinical  Case,  184 

Diphtheria,  324 

Eczema  462 

Obstetrics  299 

Our  Daily  Experience,  557 

Sunstroke— Asthma,   92 


PAB* 

Steinrauf,  Wm.,  M.D. 

What  Shall  a  Homoeopathic  Physi- 
cian Head,  224 

Stiles,  H.  B.,  M.  D.    La  Grippe,  ..86.127 

Stow,  T.  Dwight,  M.  D.  Interna- 
tional Hahnemannian  Associa- 
tion 139 

Stramonium,   46,  80,  82,  4u:),  4.~>G 

Strong  Medicine.  Geo.  H.  Clark,  M.D. ,  57 

Strontiana,  456 

Su'phur,  .  11,  17,  69,  74.  82,  83,  120,  134, 
169,  184,  186,  224,  266,  278,  294,  317, 

354,  363.  4.">6.  497,  618,  >17 

Sulphur  55 M.     A  Funny  Symptom. 

M.  A.  A.  Wolff,  M.  D.,  .  ...  407,  501 

Sulphuric  acid  456 

Sunstroke— Asthma.     Win.  Steinrauf, 

M.  D  92 

Surgery,  A  Good  Subject  for,  48 

Surgery  the  Opprobrium  of  Medicine. 

Geo.  H.  C  ark,  M.  D  436 

Swan,  Samuel,  M.  D    La  Grippe,    .  .  124 

Provings  of  Syphilinum,  318 

Verified  Provings  of  Oxygen,  .  .  .  397 

Sycosis  of  Hahnemann,  The.  A.  Mc- 
Neil, M.  D  294 

Sycosis,  Some  Symptoms  of,  536 

Symptoms,  The  Value  of  Trivial.  Geo. 

H.  Clark,  M.  D  146 

Symptoms,  the  Value  of  Trivial.  G. 

M.  Pease,  M.  IX,  315 

Synopsis  of  a  Case  of  Hemorrhoids,  A. 

Buffalo   83 

Syphilis,  Brief  Contributions  to  the 

Elucidation  of.  John  Hall,  M.  D.,  473 

Syphilis,  A  Case  of.    Mahlon  Preston, 

M.  1)  355 

Syphilis  and  (  ionorrhcea.  I.  Dever,  M. 

D  513 

Syphilinum,   Provings  of.  Samuel 

Swan,  M.  D  318 

Tabacnm,   170,  321,  456 

Taraxacum  457 

Tarent.,  69,  177 

Teaching  of  Pure  Homoeopathy  in  the 
Colleges.   Walter  M.  James,  M. 

D.,   483,  537 

Terebinth  456 

Thayer,  W.  I.,  Nr.  D.     Infant  Feeding,  347 
Therapeutics.  The  Three  Essential  Pre- 
cepts of  Homoeopathic  179 

Therapeutics  of  Throat.    E.  B.  Nash, 

M.  D  410 

Thompson.  J,  W.,  M.  D.  Proceedings  of 
the  International  Hahneman- 
nian Association  410 

Three  Years'  Experience  of  Water 
Purification  by  Means  of  Iron,  in 
Anderson's  Revolving  Iron  Puri- 
fier, bv  E.  Devonshire.  Review 

of,     *  231 

Thrombidium,  117 

Thuja,   133,  137,  305,  457 

To  Our  Correspondents,   7 

Trained  Nurse,  The.    Review  of.  .  .  .  96 
Transactions    of  the  Homoeopathic 
Medical  Society  of  Maine.  Re- 
view of,  ...  •  563 

Transactions  of  the  Homoeopathic 
Medical  Society  of  New  York  for 
1889,  and  of  "Pennsylvania  for 

1889.    Review  of.  235 

Treatise  on  Materia  Medica,  Pharma- 
cology. Therapeutics.  John  M. 
Shoemaker.  M.  D.    Review  of,  .  95 


INDEX. 


xi 


PAGE 

Treatment  of  Snake  Bites,  Dr.  S.  Wier 
Mitchell's  Undignified  dig  at  Ho- 
moeopathy. Wrn.  B.  Clark,  M. 
D.   Review  of  236 

Triticum,  •  561 

Tuberculosis,  Heredity  of.    Geo.  H. 

Clark,  M.  D  433 

Tnttle.  Ella  M.,  M.  D.  Laryngismus 

Stridulus— Clinical  Case,  ....  91 
A  Proving  of  Nux-vomica,  ....  523 
Some  Provings  of  Merc-iod.  and 

Kali-iod.,     .     .  •  474 

Some  Verifications  550 

Two  Clinical  Cases.     W.  A.  Yingling, 

M.  D.,  93 

Ulcers.   A.  McNeil,  M.  D.,  470 

Ulcers,  472 

Ulcus  Ventriculi.  Dr.  Oscar  Hansen,  401 
Unattainable,  The.   Geo.  H.  Clark, 

M.  D.,  101 

Unusual  Svmptom,  An.   Edward  T. 

Balch,  M.  D.,  136 

Urination,  Weakness  after.  Robert 

Farley,  M.  D  522 

Uterine  Troubles,  Surgical  Treatment 

of.  Geo.  H.  Clark,  M.  D.,  .  .  .  243 
Uterus,  Displacements  of  the,   ....  540 

Vaccination,  305 

Valeriana,  457 

Variolinum,  305 

Veratrum-alb.,  80,  82, 118,  214,  283,  313, 

316,  457,  519 

Verbascum,  457 

Verifications. -  E.  T.  Balch,  M.D.,  .  .  223 
Verifications.    Wm.  Jefferson  Guern- 
sey. M.  D.  475 

Verifications  of  Medorrhinum.   G.  W. 

Sherbino,  M.  D   84 

Verifications  in  the  October  Number. 

Dr.  Wm.  Jefferson  Guernsey,  .  522 
Verifications,  Some.   Ella  M .  Tutttle, 

M.  D.,  558 

Villers.   Dr.  Alexander,  A  German 

Homeopathic  Congress,  ....  285 

Viola-odorata  457 

Viola-tri.,  457 

Vipera  acuatica  caranita  119 


PAGE 

Vital  Necessity  for  Fresh  Air  in  Con- 
sumption, The.  E.  J.  Lee,  M.  D.,  77 

Waggoner,  Annette  H.,  M.  D.  The  Kan- 
sas City  Homoeopathic  college,  228 

"  Want  to  Know,  you  Know."  Frank 

Kraft,  M.  1)  868 

Ward's  Island  "Difficulty"  in  New 
York,  The.  Dr.  Edmund  Carle- 
ton,   272 

Ward  Island  Difficulty  in  New  York, 
The.   Walter  M.  James,  M.  D., 

188,  246 

Watch  the  Effect.   Edward  Cranch, 

M.  D.,  263 

Wells,  P.  P.,  M.  D.   A  Reply  to  Dr. 

Allen's  "  Protest."  247 

Of  the  Drug  Curative,  ....  7,  60, 104 
What  Constitutes  a  Homoeopathic 

Physician?  148 

Message  of  Svmpathy  from  the  I. 

H.  A.  to  the  Venerable  Dr.  Wells,  382 
Recovery  of,  Geo.  H.  Clark,  M.  D.,  388 
Wesselhoeft,  Wm.  P.,  M.D.    A  Case 
Read  at  the  Meeting  of  the  Organ- 
on  Society,  of  Boston,  December 

28th   10 

What  is  the  Simillimum ?    M.  A.  A. 

Wolff,  M.  D.,  27,  132 

Wigg,  Geo.,  M.  D.,  Annual  Address  of,  370 
Wines  and  Liquors  in  Medicine.  Geo. 

H.  Clark,  M.  D.,   51 

Wolff,  M.  A.  A.,  M.  D.  A  Funny  Symp- 
tom—Sulphur  55M  *.  407,  501 

Morphine?   No!   No!   No!  .  .'.  94 
What  is  the  Simillimum?  .  27,  132,  208 
Women's  Hospital,  The  Annual  Report 

of,   70 

Yingling,  W.  A.,  M.  D.   Two  Clinical 

Cases   93 

A  Clinical  Case,  400 

Grafts,  .  .  '  520 

La  Grippe,  286 

Puerperal  Convulsions,  465 

Zincum   16,80,  170,  457 

Zingiber,  118 


T  ZEE  IE 


HOMCEOPATHIC  PHYSICIAN, 

A  MONTHLY  JOURNAL  OF 

HOMCEOPATHIC  MATERIA  MEDICA  AND  CLINICAL  MEDICINE. 


If  our  school  ever  give  up  the  strict  inductive  method  of  Hahnemann,  we 
are  lost,  and  deserve  only  to  be  mentioned  as  a  caricature  in 
the  history  of  medicine."— constantine  hering. 


Vol.  X.  JANUARY,  1890.  No.  I. 


INTRODUCTORY. 

As  was  announced  in  the  last  number  of  this  journal,  the  title- 
page  will  show  a  change  in  editors.  Although  there  has  been  a 
change  in  editors,  there  will  be  no  change  in  the  principles 
which  have  been  adhered  to  since  the  journal  was  started.'  It 
is  our  intention  to  still  bear  aloft  the  best  that  is  known  and 
thought  of  Hahnemann's  Homoeopathy.  To  this  end  wTe  invite 
the  co-operation  of  the  followers  of  Hahnemann.  It  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  editors  alone  cannot  make  an  interesting 
and  successful  medical  journal.  And  we  wish  to  have  all  friends 
of  the  cause  remember  that  our  work  is  done  with  the  sole  aim 
of  advancing  the  good  work  of  genuine  Homoeopathy,  and  the 
only  compensation  we  expect  is  the  knowledge  that  we  have 
attempted  and  succeeded  in  doing  this.  We  propose  to  be 
aggressive.  We  feel  competent  to  defend  our  cause,  having 
good  reason  for  the  faith  that  is  in  us.  We  shall  strike  a  blow 
for  our  principles  whenever  and  wherever  we  think  necessary. 
Now,  as  heretofore,  let  all  who  are  in  our  ranks  assist  us  in  the 
fight,  and  we  shall  shrink  from  nothing  that  we  think  right. 
In  the  line  of  duty  we  are  without  fear,  and  we  trust  we  shall 
be  without  reproach.  G.  H.  C. 


EDITORIALS. 

The  European  Epidemic. — The  epidemic  of  influenza  now 
prevailing  in  Europe  is  being  treated  by  our  friends  the  allopaths 
in  their  usual  scientific  method.    They  spray  the  affected  raera- 
1  1 


2 


EDITORIALS. 


[Jan., 


brane  with  a  solution  of  Quinine,  freely  and  frequently  applied, 
and  give  Quinine  and  other  drugs  internally.  We  can  only 
sympathize  with  those  who  will  have  the  effects  of  this  treat- 
ment to  overcome  after  the  idiopathic  affection  has  passed  away. 
We  are  not  in  possession  of  sufficient  data  to  enable  us  to  say 
positively  what  will  be  the  genius  epidemicus,  if  we  shall  receive 
a  visitation  ;  but,  as  Hahnemannians,  we  know  that  our  patients 
will  have  no  drug  disease  to  battle  with,  and  that  when  the 
original  malady  has  gone  they  will  be  well.  It  now  looks  as 
though  Camphor,  Ars.,  Bry.,  and  Nat-mur.  will  be  called  upon  to 
assist  in  eradicating  the  trouble.  G.  H.  C. 

Scientific  medicine,  in  the  form  of  the  Health  Board  of 
New  York,  recommends  the  following  for  the  treatment  of  epidemic 
influenza  :  "  Spray  the  affected  membrane  with  a  ten  per  cent, 
solution  of  Quinine  freely  and  frequently,  and  take  four  or  five 
times  a  day  a  pill  made  as  follows  :  Quinine,  3  grs. ;  Camphor, 
|  gr. ;  extract  of  Belladonna,  J  gr."  The  New  York  Medical 
Record  says  :  "  Very  many  of  the  pharmacists  about  town  have 
very  properly  refused  to  make  up  the  prescription,  and  very 
many  patients  who  believe  in  wholesale  cheap  prescribing  may 
follow  the  directions  to  their  sorrow."  How  fortunate  for 
patients  of  regular  medicine  that  there  stand  between  the  pre- 
scription and  its  compounding  the  pharmacist.  A  short  time 
ago  a  druggist  in  this  city  showed  us  a  prescription  which  if 
compounded  according  to  the  prescribed  directions  the  patient 
would  have  taken  a  poisonous  dose  with  each  spoonful.  Compare 
this  with  the  simple  grandeur  of  Hahnemann ian  Homoeopathy, 
and  yet  some  prate  of  the  schools  coming  closer  together.  To 
confirm  one's  belief  in  Homoeopathy  one  need  only  familiarize 
himself  with  the  best  the  modern  allopath  can  do.  For  illustra- 
tion place  the  following  beside  our  therapeutics  of  typhoid 
fever,  or  any  other  disease,  and  then  say  which  is  the  scientific  : 
The  professor  of  materia  medica  and  therapeutics  in  the  "  College 
of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,"  New  York,  in  an  article  in  the 
Medical  News,  Dec.  14th,  1889,  entitled  "A  Contribution 
to  the  Therapeutics  of  Typhoid  Fever,"  says — and  he  is  here 
speaking  for  his  own  school — he  knows  nothing  of  Homoeopathy, 
evidently  : — "  The  results  in  the  treatment  of  typhoid  fever  con- 
tinue to  be  so  bad  in  general  in  this  country  as  to  constitute  a 
chronic  opprobrium  to  the  art  of  medicine  here.  *  *  *  I 
believe,  too,  that  the  fact  that  we  have  not  as  yet  arrived  at 
anything  at  all  resembling  a  general  concensus  of  opinion  [you 
need  a  law]  regarding  its  treatment  is  in  itself  evidence  that 


1890.] 


EDITORIALS. 


3 


many  cases  must  be  improperly  \_sic]  treated,  and  that  in  this 
way  much  of  our  high  mortality  is  to  be  accounted  for,"  and  so 
on  ad  nauseam.  Place  by  the  side  of  this  Dr.  P.  P.  Wells' 
article  on  typhoid  fever,  published  as  a  supplement  to  Vol.  IV  of 
tin's  journal,  and  it  will  then  be  seen  how  closely  we  are  coming 
together.  On  the  one  hand  is  mere  empiricism,  on  the  other 
there  is  what  law  makes  necessary.  We  are  not  dependent  upon 
the  contingent. 

"  La  Grippe." — We  trust  our  readers  will  report  the  results 
of  their  treatment  in  all  cases  of  the  prevailing  epidemic  which 
have  come,  and  may  yet  come,  under  their  care.  We  are  able  to 
record  no  ill  effects  after  the  first  symptoms  have  passed  away. 
On  the  other  hand,  our  allopathic  friends  have  reported  many 
deaths  from  pneumonia  and  bronchial  complications.  To  term 
these  affections  "  complications "  sounds  nicely  in  the  ears  of 
the  patients  and  their  friends;  but  we  should  give  them  their 
proper  place,  and  say  they  are  due  to  the  treatment.  The  Medi- 
cal Record  of  New  York,  of  January  4th,  contains  two  articles 
on  the  subject.  In  these  we  find  that  "for  headache,  Antipyrin, 
ten  to  fifteen  grains,  with  whisky,  is  administered.  If  the  attack 
occurs  in  the  morning  a  mild  cathartic  is  administered,  generally 
Calomel,  in  two  to  ten-grain  doses.  This  is  followed  at  night  by 
a  ten-grrain  Dover's  powder  and  ten  grains  of  Quinine.  On  the 
following  day,  when  the  catarrhal  symptoms  become  marked,  a 
pill  of  Morphine  (gr.  y1^),  ext.  Bellad.  (gr.  |),  Camph.  (gr.  J),  and 
Quin.  (2  to  3  grs.),  is  given  every  three  or  four  hours. 

u  When  the  bronchitis  is  the  prominent  feature,  a  mild  expec- 
torant mixture  is  given, containing  syrs.  Licorice,  Squills,  Senega, 
chloride  of  Ammonia,  Morphine,  etc." 

This  on  January  4th,  1890.  On  December  21st,  1889,  the 
same  journal  editorially  says  :  "  We  notice  with  considerable 
surprise  the  publication  in  the  daily  papers  of  a  prescription  for 
the  threatened  epidemic  of  influenza,  which  is  said  to  be  by  the 
sanction  of  the  Board  of  Health.  We  trust  we  have  been  mis- 
informed on  the  subject,  as  the  so-called  remedy  is  not  only  of  no 
good  whatever  (we  italicize),  but  its  use  as  directed  is  liable  to  be 
attended  ivith  great  danger.  Here  is  the  prescription  in  question  : 
•  For  Russian  influenza  or  "  grip  " — spray  the  affected  membrane 
with  a  ten  per  cent,  solution  of  Quinine,  freely  and  frequently, 
and  take  four  or  five  times  a  day  a  pill  made  as  follows  :  Quinine, 
3  grains ;  Camphor,  J-  grain  ;  extract  of  Belladonna,  J  grain.' 

"Very  many  of  the  pharmacists  about  town  have  very 
properly  refused  to  make  up  this  prescription,  and  very  many 


4 


EDITORIALS. 


[Jan., 


patients  who  believe  in  wholesale  cheap  prescribing  may  follow 
the  directions  to  their  sorrow.  We  cannot  believe  that  the  publi- 
cation of  this  prescription  is  made  by  the  authority  of  the  Health 
Board.  If  it  is,  the  Board  owes  an  explanation  and  apology  to 
the  profession  and  the  public." 

Is  comment  necessary  ?  We  have  treated  numerous  cases  of 
the  affection,  and  have  had  no  trouble  whatever.  We  used  the 
remedy  indicated  according  to  the  homoeopathic  law,  and  in  the 
potentized  form  only.  We  know  that  every  Hahnemannian  has 
done  the  same,  and  that  patients  have  onlv  praise  for  the  good 
results.  G.  H.  C. 


Antipyrin,  the  present  cureall  of  our  friends  the  allopaths,  is 
now  being  charged  with  sins  even  greater  than  have  been 
attributed  to  Morphia,  Chloral,  Cocaine,  and  other  infernal  drugs. 
It  is  so  soothing  to  the  nerves  that  the  habit  once  formed,  as 
with  the  other  drugs  of  that  class,  it  becomes  almost  impossible 
to  discontinue  it.  Notwithstanding  this,  there  are  few  prescrip- 
tions now  given  for  headache  and  neuralgic  affections  which  do  not 
contain  antipyrin.  It  is  an  excellent  substance  for  making  work 
for  the  followers  of  Hahnemann.  And  now  Antipyrin  is  recom- 
mended by  the  leading  allopaths  of  Paris  for  use  in  the  treat- 
ment of  the  prevailing  epidemic  influenza.  They  wish  it  known 
that  the  malady  is  not  so  benign  as  has  been  reported,  as 
bronchitis  and  pneumonia  may  follow.  Here  is  a  query  which 
any  Hahnemannian  can  answer:  How  much  of  the  condition 
following  the  primary  attack  is  due  to  Antipyrin  ?  We  know 
that  it  is  not  necessary  for  us  to  dwell  on  this  point.  Any  one 
who  has  practiced  Homoeopathy  conscientiously  will  attest  the  fact 
that  he  rarely  sees  any  of  the  so-called  sequelae  of  disease. 
Why  ?  He  treats  his  patients  rationally.  He  gives  them  no 
crude  drugs.  He  has  no  drug  disease  follow.  Dear  allopaths, 
study  the  natural  history  of  pathological  affections,  and  you 
will  then  soon  have  sufficient  acuity  of  vision  to  see  that  your 
sequela?  of  disease  is  drug  disease,  modified  by  the  patient's  con- 
stitutional condition.  Make  a  note  of  this,  you  who  take  the 
name  of  "  homceopathist "  and  imitate  the  druggers. 

Intermittent  Pulse. — Nature  is  coy  and  will  not  bear 
scrutiny.  The  more  closely  you  scrutinize  her  workings  of  the 
animal  economy  the  more  she  will  punish  you.  These  words 
occurred  to  us  the  other  day  when  a  patient  came  to  us  in  much 
fear  generated  by  being  told  by  a  strange  physician  that  his 
pulse  was  intermittent,  and  that  it  indicated  serious  heart  trouble. 


1890.] 


EDITORIALS. 


5 


As  a  consequence  he  had  been  closely  watching  his  pulse,  and 
was,  and  had  been,  in  a  constant  state  of  fear. 

After  examining  his  heart,  and  assuring  him  that  there  was 
no  disease  there,  and  then  giving  a  remedy  to  assist  him  in 
mastering  the  fear,  we  were  gratified  to  find  soon  after  that  he 
had  lost  all  sensations  about  the  region  of  the  heart. 

Too  often  are  patients  thus  made  miserable  by  a  superficial 
diagnosis.  It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  intermittent  pulse, 
without  other  signs  of  heart  trouble,  has  little  or  no  significance. 
Serious  organic  heart  disease  may  exist  and  yet  there  will  be  no 
intermittency  of  the  pulse.  On  the  other  hand,  intermittent 
pulse  may  be  constant  and  be  of  no  serious  import  whatever. 
Intermittent  pulse  without  organic  heart  changes  is  a  mere 
nervous  trick.  In  a  large  number  of  cases  it  arises  from  some 
depressing  emotion,  such  as  fear  or  grief  or  worry,  and  it  is 
usually  found  to  be  a  common  symptom  of  shock  to  the  nervous 
system.  The  honest  physician,  he  who  has  the  best  interests  of 
his  patient  at  heart,  will  always  "  be  sure  he  is  right  before  he 
goes  ahead."  It  is  the  part  of  wisdom  never  to  give  a  prognosis 
until  all  the  factors  entering  into  the  case  are  duly  considered. 
Even  then  the  power  for  good  of  Hahnemannian  Homoeopathy 
should  be  kept  in  view  before  any  case  is  pronounced  incur- 
able. G.  H.  C. 


The  Definition  of  a  Homoeopathic  Physician. — In 
the  New  York  Tribune  of  December  19th  is  a  report  of  the 
proceedings  of  The  Homoeopathic  Medical  Society  of  the 
County  of  New  York.  The  subject  under  discussion  related  to 
the  notorious  differences  concerning  the  Homoeopathic  Hospital 
board. 

One  of  the  most  prominent  of  the  members  of  the  Society — 
a  well-known  homoeopathic  physician  in  New  York  City — 
made  the  following  surprising  statement: 

"  The  definition  of  a  homoeopathic  physician  is  :  '  one  who  is 
a  member  of  the  Homoeopathic  County  Medical  Society.'  No 
matter  if  I  do  have  recourse  to  allopathic  remedies,  I  am  a 
homoeopathic  physician  as  long  as  I  am  a  member  of  this 
Society.  AVe  should  study  pathology  and  surgery  in  common 
with  allopaths,  but  the  time  is  not  come  for  us  to  be  responsi- 
ble for  the  actions  of  men  not  members  of  this  Society." 

According  to  this  statement  Homoeopathy  is  not  what  is  de- 
fined by  Hahnemann ;  not  what  is  defined  by  strictest  logic,  but 
what  is  indorsed  by  the  New  York  Society  ! ! 

We  always  thought  that  Homoeopathy  consisted  of  the  similar 


6 


EDITORIALS. 


[Jan., 


remedy,  the  single  drug,  and  the  minimum  dose;  but  instead 
it  is  membership  in  the  New  York  Society  ! 

Why  should  any  man  wish  to  pass  himself  off  as  a  homoeopathic 
physician  if  he  does  not  believe  in  the  principles?  Why  should 
he  not  manfully  renounce  the  title  and  fellowship  with  its  fol- 
lowers and  practice  his  own  system  after  the  example  set  by  the 
New  York  Medical  Times  f 

Statements  like  the  one  quoted  made  as  they  are  by  prominent 
men  in  practice,  do  much  harm  to  those  who  are  on  the  thresh- 
old of  a  homoeopathic  career,  and  discourage  those  who  are 
struggling  along  toward  the  light. 

The  rank  and  file  of  the  profession  will  not  try  to  make 
homoeopathic  prescriptions.  They  will  not  believe  it  possible 
to  control  pain  with  the  dynamized  similar  remedy  in  place  of 
the  ordinary  and  ruinous  anodyne.  Yet  it  can  be  done,  is  done 
constantly.  But  those  who  do  it  rarely  take  the  time  and  pains 
to  report  their  successes  to  the  journals.  So  we  earnestly  appeal 
to  our  readers  to  supply  us  with  all  the  clinical  experience  they 
can,  that  we  may  be  aided  in  our  efforts  to  teach  Hahnemannian 
Homoeopathy,  and  give  aid  and  comfort  to  all  who  are  willing 
to  stand  by  the  cause,  all  who  are  disheartened  by  the  follies 
of  those  who  assume  to  be  leaders  in  the  profession. 

W.  M.  J. 


Nothing  New. — The  idea  of  germs  acting  as  causes  of  so 
many  diseases  is  an  idea  which  has  become  almost  universal  in 
these  days  and  is  generally  considered  to  be  of  modern  origin. 
Yet  we  find  it  advanced  in  the  year  1666  by  a  Dr.  Charlton, 
who  believed  germs  to  be  the  cause  of  the  great  plague  which 
visited  England  in  1665.  These  germs,  it  was  said,  laid  micro- 
scopic eggs,  which  being  snuffed  up  by  a  dog,  caused  all  the 
symptoms  of  the  plague. 


Eclecticism. — There  is  a  so-called  homoeopathic  physician 
of  some  fame  (among  those  who  do  not  know  what  Homoe- 
opathy is),  who  has  been  heard  to  say  :  "  I  practice  Homoe- 
opathy, but  when  I  have  a  serious  case,  or  have  failed  in  my  pre- 
scription, I  resort  to  allopathy."  If  this  be  "  Homoeopathy," 
we  would  rather  £n/ allopathy  in  the  beginning.  But  there  is 
no  need  to  resort  to  allopathy  while  we  have  the  "  light 99  de- 
scended from  our  grand  leader  Hahnemann,  which  will  never 
fail  us,  unless  darkened  by  ignorance  and  cowardice. 


1890.] 


OF  THE  DRUG  CURATIVE. 


7 


To  Our  Correspondents. — We  beg  the  indulgence  of  all 
who  write  letters  to  us  for  the  seeming  neglect  to  answer  them. 
Wc  are  overwhelmed  with  work.  It  is  impossible  for  us  to  keep 
up  with  all  the  demands  upon  our  time,  and  so  our  correspon- 
dence falls  into  arrears.  We  desire,  however,  to  assure  our 
readers  that  no  communication  sent  us  will  be  totally  ignored. 
Though  an  answer  may  be  long  delayed,  it  will  be  sent  ulti- 
mately. We  therefore  hope  that  our  subscribers  will  continue 
to  favor  us  with  their  epistles. 


Disinfectants. — When  will  people  in  general, and  physicians 
in  particular,  give  up  the  fallacious,  so-called  disinfectants  ? 
Even  at  the  present  day  one's  olfactory  bulb  is  made  to  revolt 
by  the  odors  of  Carbolic  acid.  It  is  our  duty  always  to  warn 
patients  against  the  use  of  these  nasty  substances.  They  do  no 
good,  can  only  do  harm,  and  cost  a  deal  more  than  the  only  true 
disinfectant,  fresh  air. 

OF  THE  DRUG  CURATIVE. 

Dr.  P.  P.  Wells. 

Communicated  by  C.  Carleton  Smith,  M.  D., 
Philadelphia. 

It  is  difficult  not  to  sympathize  with  those  who  declare  the 
absurdity  of  the  highest  potencies,  if  the  power  to  cure  be  only 
materi'il  in  its  nature.  We  cannot  conceive  of  matter  being 
continually  expanded  through  all  these  successive  numbers,  in  a 
centesimal  ratio,  and  yet,  in  the  40,000th  number  of  the  series 
retain  a  sufficient  quantity  of  the  matter  of  the  drug  to  cure  so 
important  a  disease  as  Asiatic  cholera.  And  yet,  this  actually 
occurred  in  a  case  seen  by  the  writer  in  consultation,  which  he 
knows  positively  was  no  other  than  this  most  formidable 
disease. 

In  the  case  there  was  no  symptom  wanting  to  establish  its 
true  character  bevond  a  doubt.  Veratrurn  was  <iiven,  in 
ordinary  numbers,  high  and  low.  for  there  was  no  question  as  to 
the  simillimum  for  the  case.  The  relief  which  followed  each 
dose  was  partial  and  temporary,  but  in  spite  of  all,  the  patient 
rather  lost  than  gained,  till  the  attendant  in  a  happy  moment 
determined  to  give  his  patient  a  dose  of  Fincke's  40,0<>0th  of  this 


8 


OF  THE  DRUG  CURATIVE. 


[Jan., 


drug.  The  result  was  an  immediate  and  complete  success.  The 
convalescence  was  rapid,  and  in  all  respects  satisfactory,  though 
the  patient,  a  female,  was  sixty  years  of  age.  This  certainly 
shows  the  highest  use. .  If  there  had  been  no  other  cure  from 
these  high  potencies,  this  one  is  enough  to  raise  their  author  far 
above  the  reproaches  which  have  been  cast  upon  him  on  their 
account.  But  there  have  been  many  cures  from  these  when 
other  preparations  of  the  same  drug  have  failed.  We  repeat, 
these  many  instances  of  cures  from  these  potencies,  where  others, 
and  lower,  had  failed,  testify  to  the  true  nature  of  the  curative 
principle,  in  the  demonstration  they  present  of  a  greater  power 
to  cure  with  a  less  quantity  of  matter;  thus  showing  con- 
clusively that  the  power  that  cures  is  not  matter.  To  this  con- 
clusion we  are  compelled,  unless  we  adopt  the  absurdity  of  the 
less  exceeding  the  greater.  These  cures  are  many,  and  they  are 
facts.  For  those  who  have  no  knowledge  of  the  individual 
cases,  to  deny  the  facts  they  set  forth,  for  no  better  reason  than 
their  ownskepticism,  is  simply  an  impertinence,  not  deserving  the 
least  respect.  We  only  add,  that  in  this,  the  curative  principle 
exhibits  an  entire  disregard  of  the  laws  of  matter,  and  obeys 
only  its  own,  which  are  laws  of  force. 

From  these  facts  it  seems  evident  that  the  curative  principle 
may  be,  and  has  been,  separated  from  the  orginal  material  asso- 
ciation, and  made  free  to  follow  the  laws  of  its  own  independent 
existence.  It  is  no  longer  to  be  judged  of  as  to  its  own  habi- 
tudes, in  the  light  of  what  is  supposed  to  be  known  of  the 
material  bodies  with  which  it  was  previously  associated.  Not 
being  itself  matter  a  true  knowledge  of  it  can  be  extended  only 
by  studying  the  principle  in  its  new  conditions  and  relations. 
Of  this  we  may  have  more  to  say  in  the  future.  We  only  add 
to  the  fact  here,  as  applicable  to  the  next  example  we  are  about 
to  introduce  of  its  disregard  of  material  laws,  which  we  think 
goes  far  of  itself  to  establish  the  truth  advocated  in  this  paper. 
Taken  in  connection  with  the  other  known  facts  of  its  operations 
and  relations  to  other  bodies  and  forces,  the  truth  seems  to  be 
placed  by  them  beyond  dispute.  The  fact  to  which  we  allude 
has  received  from  one  of  its  distinguished  observers  the  nomina- 
tion of  "  potentizatio7i  by  contact.''  By  this  is  meant  to  express  in 
brief  terms  the  fact  that  bodies  charged  with  this  curative 
principle,  set  free  from  its  material  drug  association,  impart  it  to 
neutral  bodies,  when  brought  into  close  contact  with  them,  so 
that  these  last  become  medicated  by  this  contact,  and  are  made 
capable  of  affecting  the  living  organism  equally  with  other 
bodies  similarly  charged.    By  this  contact  they  receive  all  the 


1890.] 


OF  THE  DRUG  CURATIVE. 


9 


powers,  and  enter  into  all  the  curative  relations  of  the  original 
charged  body.  In  other  words,  medicated  globules  brought 
into  contact  with  those  which  are  not  medicated,  and  being  so 
kept  for  a  time,  impart  the  medicinal  or  curative  power  they 
possess  to  the  whole  mass  of  neutrals. 

That  this  actually  occurs  has  been  testified  to  by  many  of  the 
best  observers.  They  have  often  proved  the  fact  by  experiment, 
and  therefore  their  testimony  must  stand  against  whatever  of 
denial  or  sneer,  from  those  who  have  made  no  such  experiment. 

Of  those  who  have  proved  and  asserted  this  truth,  we  name 
only  one,  aud  he,  so  far  as  we  know,  was  the  first  to  observe  it. 
This  was  Dr.  Wm.  C.  Channing,  late  of  New  York  City.  To 
those  who,  like  the  writer,  had  the  privilege  of  acquaintance 
with  Dr.  C.  it  is  only  necessary  to  mention  his  name,  and  he 
stands  before  them  in  memory  as  he  was  in  life,  a  man  of  noble 
intellect,  of  rare  attainments  in  secular  and  professional  scholar- 
ship, with  talents  for  observation  surpassed  by  none,  aud  an 
integrity  never  doubted  by  any,  however  they  may  have  differed 
from  him  in  opinions.  Dr.  C.  first  called  the  attention  of  the 
writer  to  the  fact  of  potentization  by  contact,  by  relating  what 
had  then  been  his  experience  in  the  matter  for  a  number  of 
years. 

He  had  carefully  observed,  noted  and  practiced  on  it  long 
after  he  had  established  the  truth  of  the  phenomenon.  It  was 
of  his  experience  with  Aconite  that  he  spoke.  He  had,  at  that 
time  been  carrying  a  phial  in  his  pocket -case  for  a  number  of 
years,  which,  in  the  beginning,  was  filled  with  globules  charged 
with  the  30th  centesimal  potency  of  this  drug,  then  the  highest 
number  in  use.  Many  times,  and  whenever  the  phial  was 
nearly  empty  of  its  charged  globules,  he  added  others,  not  medi- 
cated, shook  the  whole  contents  till  they  were  well  mixed,  and 
then,  after  a  short  time, he  used  from  the  phial  as  at  the  first,  and 
with  the  same  practical  success  as  before. 

This,  as  we  have  said,  had  then  been  many  times  repeated,  and 
at  last  as  at  the  first,  the  same  curative  results  followed  the  use  of 
these  globules  so  medicated,  in  this  hitherto  unheard-of  way,  as 
he  had  before  witnessed  some  globules  charged  in  the  usual 
way.  At  that  time  Aconite  was  probably  more  frequently  used 
in  practice  than  at  the  present.  In  those  of  Dr.  C.  it  continued  to 
be  as  often  a  reliable  curative  as  in  the  hands  of  any  other  man. 
In  his  practice  Dr.  C.  was  eminently  successful  as  is  well  known 
by  many  of  his  surviving  colleagues. 

Now  the  globules  as  used  by  Dr.  C.  were  medicated  by  con- 
tact or  were  not  medicated  at  all.    In  the  latter  case,  he  used 


10 


BOSTON  ORG  ANON  SOCIETY. 


[Jan., 


blank  globules  for  years  supposing  them  to  be  medicated,  de- 
ceiving himself,  his  patients  (who  were  satisfactorily  cured)  and 
the  public.  He  never  once  realized  the  specific  effects  of  Aconite, 
though  he  thought  he  saw  them  constantly.  His  patients  were 
cured  by  nothing,  though  apparently  they  were  cured  by  medica- 
tion. He  and  they  were  thus  so  grossly  deceived  that  they  never 
questioned  the  genuineness  of  the  cures.  If,  as  we  have  no  reason 
to  doubt,  they  were  genuine,  they  are  each  of  them  witnesses  to 
the  truth  of  medication  by  contact. 


A  CASE  READ  AT  THE  MEETING  OF  THE  OR- 
GANON  SOCIETY,  OF  BOSTON,  DECEMBER  28th. 

By  Wm.  P.  WesselhcbfTj  M.  D.,  Boston,  Mass. 

To  illustrate  three  facts,  first :  The  difficulty  of  getting  a  good 
record  by  the  first  examination  with  many  of  our  patients,  who 
come  to  be  relieved  of  certain  symptoms  which  to  them  are  para- 
mount and  the  most  annoying  at  times,  and  if  not  absolutely  de- 
nying the  physician's  right  to  further  inquiries,  they  answer 
questions  vaguely  or  as  if  they  had  no  relation  whatever  to  what 
they  came  "  to  be  doctored  for/' 

Secondly  :  To  show  how  in  the  course  of  the  treatment  of  a 
chronic  disease,  the  reappearance  of  old  forgotten  symptoms 
should  be  estimated,  which  ought  to  have  formed  part  of  the  first 
examination. 

Thirdly  :  That  it  is  right  to  regard  the  most  recent  symptoms 
in  a  case  as  the  indicative  ones  for  the  selection  of  the  remedy. 

H.  B.  A.,  set.  twenty-seven.  Blonde,  thin,  active.  For  a 
year  troubled  with  diarrhoea.  Always  has  a  loose,  watery  stool  at 
seven  p.  M.  A  second  stool  may  follow  any  time  during  the  day 
— early  evening,  forenoon,  or  afternoon.  The  stools  are  very 
urgent,  often  nothing  but  a  little  sputter  with  much  flatus  ; 
is  obliged  to  run  to  the  closet  as  soon  as  he  feels  the  desire,  as  he 
has  but  little  power  to  retain  stool. 

Much  rumbling  of  wind  in  abdomen  after  going  to  bed. 
Usually  awakens  an  hour  after  going  to  bed  with  palpitation  of 
heart ;  after  passing  flatus  goes  to  sleep  and  rests  easily  the  re- 
mainder of  the  night.  At  night  he  can  pass  flatus  with  confi- 
dence, which  he  could  not  do  during  the  day.  All  the  flatus  he 
passes  is  hot. 

Free  discharge  of  prostatic  fluid  after  stool.    Constant  sensa- 


1890.] 


BOSTON  ORG  ANON  SOCIETY. 


1  1 


tion  of  soreness  in  lower  abdomen,  over  os  pubis,  not  sensitive  to 
pressure.    Tongue  clean,  appetite  very  good. 

He  avers  that  he  has  been  well  all  his  life  up  to  a  year  ago. 
When  a  boy  had  tinea  ciliaris. 

Now,  what  bothered  this  young  man  more  than  anything  was 
the  discharge  of  prostatic  fluid  after  the  stool,  and  that  is  what 
he  came  to  be  "doctored  for."  We  all  know  that  such  a  solitary 
symptom  will  give  us  no  indication  for  a  remedy,  and  if  I  had 
known  as  much  as  I  do  now  about  this  symptom  thirty  years 
ago  it  would  have  saved  me  much  trouble  and  often  anxiety. 
In  every  instance  I  should  have  made  this  symptom  a  secondary 
and  not  a  primary  indication,  no  matter  what  the  wishes  of  my 
patients  might  have  been.  Instead  of  trying  all  the  remedies 
enumerated  under  the  head  of  discharge  of  prostatic  fluid  during 
stool,  I  should  have  worked  at  other  more  important  features  of 
the  case.  But  how  often  is  the  young  physician  misled  by  the 
desire  to  put  an  end  to  the  symptom  which  most  disturbs  the 
patient's  mind,  and  especially  if  he  comes  with  a  diagnosis  already 
concocted  by  some  celebrity  which  aids  and  abets  the  fears  of  the 
patient  ? 

The  diarrhoea  with  the  characteristic  weakness  of  the  sphincter, 
which  would  not  allow  him  at  any  time,  except  in  the  night,  to 
pass  flatus,  the  flatus  always  being  hot  when  passed  ;  the  clean 
tongue  and  good  appetite  led  me  to  give  him  a  dose  of  Aloes. cm 
In  a  fortnight  he  came  back  with  the  following  story: 
One  formed  stool  a  day  for  the  last  ten  days.  No  urgency. 
Passes  flatus  with  confidence  and  is  not  hot.  Has  slept  well 
every  night,  no  palpitation.  Very  little  prostatic  fluid  has 
passed . 

Reappearance  of  sick  headaches,  of  which  he  had  two  violent 
ones  during  the  fortnight.  These  have  been  absent  for  over  a  year 
and  were  treated  by  Bromo-caffeine. 

Now,  consider  for  a  moment  my  astonishment  when  my 
patient  told  me  that  he  had  always  suffered  from  sick  headaches 
up  to  the  time  his  other  troubles  commenced  !    I  gave  Sac.  Lac. 

A  fortnight  later  came  the  following  report : 

Stools  have  remained  perfectly  normal.  No  discharge  of 
prostatic  fluid  for  two  weeks.  Soreness  in  lower  abdomen  over 
region  of  bladder  entirely  gone.  During  the  fortnight  has  had 
four  severe  headaches  with  nausea  but  no  vomiting.  Gets  very 
faint  at  stomach  every  morning  about  ten  o'clock — another  old 
symptom  which  accompanied  his  former  sick  headaches.  Just 
forty  days  after  the  dose  of  Aloes  he  received  a  dose  of  Sulph.cm 

Three  weeks  later  he  reports  : 


i 


12        MAG-PHOS.  AND  SCHUSSLER'S  BIO-CHEMISTRY.  [Jan., 


No  headache  to  speak  of,  one  or  two  attempts  at  one,  but  not 
severe  enough  to  keep  him  from  work.  His  stools  remain  nor- 
mal. Is  troubled  a  little  with  flatulence  which  has  easy  and 
confident  egress.  Has  gained  four  pounds  during  the  last  three 
weeks.    Is  discharged  cured. 

Inferences  :  Aloes  cleared  up  the  case  for  Sulphur.  Sulphur 
would  have  cured  his  headaches  when  he  first  had  them  ;  and  all 
the  subsequent  symptoms,  owing  to  suppression  of  psoric  head- 
aches, were  due  solely  to  a  masking  of  a  case  suited  homceo- 
pathically  and  originally  for  Sulphur. 


MAGNESIUM-PHOSPHORICUM  AND  SCHUSSLER'S 
BIO-CHEMISTRY. 

Daniel  W.  Clausen,  M.  D.,  Lately  of  Auburn,  N.  Y. 

Magnesium-phos.  is  classed  as  one  of  the  so-called  "  Tissue 
remedies"  of  Schussler,  being  considered  by  that  physician  the 
remedy  for  "  diseases  having  their  seat  in  the  nerve  fibre  cells  or 
in  the  terminal  bulbs  of  the  nerves,  in  the  muscles  or  in  the 
muscular  tissue  itself,"  and  as  the  remedy  for  all  spasmodic  con- 
ditions ;  but  the  homoeopath,  who  has  long  since  learned  the 
utter  worthlessness  of  pathological  and  chemical  theories  as  indi- 
cations for  the  selection  of  curative  agents  in  the  treatment  of 
disease,  has  also  learned  that  bio-chemistry  is  not  the  law  of 
therapeutics.  Natural  law  is  universal  ;  its  application  is  with- 
out a  peradventure.  Release  an  apple  from  your  grasp,  and  it 
will  never  ascend  to  your  zenith,  but  will  invariably  fall  in  a 
direct  line  toward  the  centre  of  the  earth,  in  obedience  to  the 
law  of  gravity.  A  law  that  governs  the  science  of  treating 
human  infirmities  must  also  of  necessity  be  a  natural  law. 
That  there  is  a  bio-chemic  law,  which  is  also  a  natural  law,  not 
a  doubt  can  reasonably  be  entertained ;  but  the  appropriation  of 
the  "  tissue  salts,"  and  their  discrepancies  in  the  living  organism, 
belong  to  the  domain  of  physiology — normal  and  perverted — 
rather  than  to  the  domain  of  therapeutics.  If  Schussler's  bio- 
chemic  theory  involved  a  natural  law  for  the  treatment  of  disease, 
that  law  would  be  universally  applicable  to  all  cases  of  sickness; 
but,  by  way  of  example,  how  many  out  of  fifty  cases  of  epilepsy, 
or  of  any  other  "  spasmodic "  affection,  could  we  cure  with 
Magnes-phos.,  which  is,  according  to  Schussler,  the  true  "  anti- 
spasmodic "  remedy  ?  Moreover,  the  fact  that  Schussler's  reme- 
dies are  limited  to  twelve  mineral  salts,  to  the  exclusion  of 


1890.]     MAG-PHOS.  AND  SCHUSSLER'S  BIO-CHEMISTRY.  13 


thousands  of  other  resources  of  nature  for  the  treatment  of  dis- 
ease, shows  the  absurdity  of  his  theory  as  a  basis  for  therapeutics. 
If  Schussler's  remedies  have  effected  cures  in  some  cases — and 
they  undoubtedly  have — it  is  not  because  the  bio-chemic  theory 
furnished  any  correct  indications  for  the  selection  of  them,  but 
,  because  of  their  homoeopathic  adaptability.  It  is  for  this 
reason  that  the  homoeopath  has  a  perfect  right  to  take  advantage 
of  clinical  experiences,  even  those  of  Schussler  himself.  The 
fifty  cases  above  mentioned  by  way  of  example,  could  not  all  be 
cured  by  one  remedy  of  Schussler's,  nor  perhaps  by  any  other 
one  remedy,  but,  if  curable,  they  could  be  cured  by  the  correct 
application  of  the  one  universal  law  governing  medical  treatment 
— the  laio  of  similars. 

Let  bio-chemistry  have  all  due  credit  for  the  faithful  perform- 
ance of  its  work  in  the  organism ;  but  let  Homoeopathy  alone 
have  the  credit  for  exciting  the  reactionary  powers  of  nature 
against  all  morbid  processes  and  influences,  and  thus  preparing 
the  way  for  bio-chemistry  to  do  its  work.  If  this  is  clearly  un- 
derstood, it  will  be  seen  how  infinitesimal  doses  cause  deficien- 
cies in  the  living  organism  to  be  supplied,  while  they  themselves 
contain  not  sufficient  material  to  meet  the  deficiency. 

I  have  seen  a  scrofulous  child  perform  locomotion  with  perfect 
ease,  run  and  jump,  in  a  very  few  months  after  the  exhibition  of 
only  two  doses  of  Calc-ostr.6000  (Jennichen),  the  child  having 
previously  been  totally  unable  to  stand.  Surely  there  was  not  suffi- 
cient lime  in  those  globules  to  "  supply  a  deficiency  "  in  the  patient. 

A  misunderstanding  of  this  causes  the  untaught  allopath  to 
laugh  at  us  for  administering  a  few  globules  of  Ferruni200  in  a 
case  of  anaemia,  while  it  causes  the  materialist  in  Homoeopathy 
to  resort  to  a  trituration  bordering  closely  on  the  crude  drug,  if 
he  is  not  mongrel  enough  to  prescribe  a  "  tonic  "  or  crude  tinct- 
ure from  the  drug  store. 

We  have  selected  Magnesium-phosphoricum  for  discussion 
this  evening,  to  illustrate  the  only  one  and  universal  principle 
upon  which  we  may  determine  its  adaptability  to  any  given  case 
of  sickness  ;  but  our  time  will  permit  us  to  offer  but  one  striking 
indication  for  its  use;  and  the  following  case  is  given  by  way  of 
illustration. 

December  5th,  1889,  Mrs.  J.  D.,  aet.  thirty-four;  has  had  facial 
neuralgia  for  the  last  eight  or  ten  days,  with  "  soreness  of  the 
front  teeth  "  (upper  and  lower),  pressure  of  the  teeth  together 
being  intolerable.  The  pain  began  in  the  cheek  bones,  and 
gradually  involved  the  upper  and  lower  jaws  on  each  side  ;  it  is 
aggravated  by  eating,  also  by  drinking  anything  either  cold  or 


14 


NOTES  FROM  THE  LIPPE  SOCIETY. 


[Jan., 


hot,  but  is  ameliorated  by  dry  warmth  externally  applied.  It  is  a 
constant  ache  in  all  parts  involved,  but  every  few  seconds  a 
severe  throbbing  occurs  from  the  cheeks  to  the  jaw-teeth,  worse 
on  lying  down,  when  there  is  also  a  throbbing  from  the  temples 
to  the  top  of  the  head,  "  as  if  the  head  would  come  off."  The 
patient  feels  as  though  she  would  "  go  crazy  M  with  the  pais 
when  lying  down  or  stooping  forward  ;  she  also  has  sharp,  lan- 
cinating pains  passing  through  the  decayed  teeth  (jaw  and  front). 
1^,  Magnes-phos.  12x  (B.  &  T.),  a  powder  at  1  P.  M.  In  half 
an  hour  or  less  time  the  pain  was  so  much  worse  that  she  thought 
she  should  "  go  wild  "  with  it.  Took  another  dose  at  4  P.  M., 
and  in  half  an  hour  after  this  second  dose  the  pain  was  gone — 
absolutely  gone.  At  supper-time  the  same  evening  she  could 
drink  hot  or  cold  with  impunity,  and  could  eat  on  the  teeth  with- 
out soreness.  I  believe  the  CM  potency  would  not  have  allowed 
any  aggravation  such  as  followed  the  first  dose  of  the  12x  ;  but 
this  preparation  (12x)  was  the  only  one  at  hand  when  the  patient 
was  seen.  December  8th  (three  days  after),  no  return  of  the 
pain.  The  indication  for  Magnes-phos.  in  this  case  was  the 
relief  from  externally  applied  warmth  ;  and  it  would  seem,  from 
this  case,  that  dry  warmth  is  a  special  indication.  Had  the  pain 
been  an  insupportable  pain  at  night,  compelling  the  patient  to 
rise  and  walk  the  floor  for  relief,  we  should  then  have  had  a 
striking  indication  for  the  exhibition  of  the  carbonate  rather 
than  the  phosphate  of  Magnesium.  Magnes-phos.  is  worthy  of 
a  careful  study,  and  is  likely  to  have  a  great  sphere  of  usefulness 
in  therapeutics.  The  last  number  of  the  Medical  Advance  con- 
tains an  elaborate  proving  of  the  drug,  besides  one  or  more  frag- 
mentary provings  of  the  same.  The  seventh  volume  of  Hering's 
Guiding  Symptoms  also  furnishes  characteristics  of  Magnes- 
phos.  ;  but  we  fear  that  too  many  "  additions  from  current  litera- 
ture" have  been  made  to  the  symptoms  given  in  this  volume,  to 
merit  our  confidence  in  them  all  as  "guiding  symptoms." 
A  very  few  more  words,  and  I  shall  have  finished.  Magnes- 
phos.  does  not  require  to  be  given  in  "  hot  water,"  as  Sch ussier 
advises.  If  the  drug  is  homoeopathically  indicated,  it  may  be 
administered  in  all  faith,  from  the  30th  to  the  CM,  dry  on  the 
tongue,  or  dissolved  in  cold  water. 


NOTES  FROM  PAST  MEETINGS  OF  THE  LIPPE 

SOCIETY. 

The  late  Dr.  Ad.  Fellger,  of  this  city,  had  a  vast  experience 
in  the  treatment  of  syphilis,  and  was  eminently  successful  in 


1S90.] 


*  NOTES  FROM  THE  LIPPE  SOCIETY. 


15 


oases  in  which  much  Mercury  had  been  given.  Having  been  a 
surgeon  in  the  German  army  for  several  years  he  was  able  to 
appreciate  the  difference  between  old-school  empiricism  and  the 
law  of  the  similars. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Lippe  Society,  in  April,  1881,  Dr. 
Fellger  said,  in  commenting  on  a  paper  on  syphilis  which  had 
been  read,  that  "  the  secondary  symptoms  of  that  affection  might 
appear  in  two  months,  or  it  might  be  forty  years."  He  then 
related  a  case  of  a  man  in  the  German  army,  who  at  sixty  years  of 
age  had  bubo  in  the  groin  which  destroyed  all  the  surrounding 
structures  down  to  the  intestines.  Another  case  occurred  in 
Philadelphia,  in  which  the  same  condition  was  present.  The 
odor  was  horrible,  and  the  patient's  wife  refused  to  attend  him. 
In  this  case  the  symptom,s  appeared  forty  years  after  the  primary 
symptoms.        ,      ,       i>  /-« 

"  You  will  sometimes  find  in  the*  neighborhood  of  a  Hunterian 
chancre  ^a  Land  lump,  which  sooner  or  iater  spreads,  but  which 
has  no  direct  connection  with  the  chancre.  ,  Tfie  ,  chancre  will 
not,heaI  if  this,  njode  be  present.  Dr.  Fellger  had  seen  such  cases 
horribly  tre^te^l  y.  iih  hnnier;se  tddses  o£  Mercuiv,  but  without 
any  favorable  result.  *  TKe  cnly  gooc-  tU;ut  came  of  them  was 
the  knowledge  of  the  effects  of  Mercury  that  he  had  gained. 
There  was  stomatitis,  ulcers  in  the  various  parts  of  the  throat, 
swollen,  ulcerated  tongue,  spasmodic  cramps,  inflammation  of 
the  skin,  with  burning,  much  perspiration,  and  great  restless- 
ness at  night. 

"The  remedy  for  painful  chancres  is  Merc-jod. ;  for  painless 
chancres,  Iodine.  Where,  in  the  latter  stages  the  hair  falls 
from  the  head,  and  grows  more  luxuriantly  on  other  parts, 
Lycop.  is  generally  the  remedy.  Falling  out  of  eyebrows 
calls  foi  Selenium.  The  stool  of  Mercury  is  diarrhceic,  there  is 
much  straining  and  a  little  blood  is  passed  ;  the  blood  occurs  in 
drops.  In  the  diarrhoea  of  Apis  the  blood  is  in  strings,  like 
small  worms.  The  Apis  diarrhoea  seems  to  be  due  to  an  ulcera- 
tion of  Lieberkuhn's  glands." 

On  the  same  evening  in  commenting  on  potencies,  Dr.  Fellger 
said  that  "  our  reason  for  believing  in  potencies  is  the  same  as 
in  the  case  of  the  magnet.  We  cannot  see  the  influence  that 
passes  from  it  to  the  bit  of  steel,  to  move  it,  yet  we  see  the  latter 
raised  when  the  magnet  is  presented  to  it.  Hence  we  believe  in 
the  magnetic  state.  The  same  idea  holds  with  regard  to 
potencies." 

Reichenback  proved  the  existence  of  the  odic  force  by  exhibit- 
ing the  flames  in  a  dark  room,  and  even  photographing  them. 


16 


NOTES  FROM  THE  LIPPE  SOCIETY. 


[Jan., 


The  positive  pole  gave  a  blue  light,  while  the  negative  gave  red. 
Water  which  has  been  magnetized  with  the  positive  pole  is 
pleasantly  sour ;  whilst  water  magnetized  with  the  negative  pole 
is  bitter. 

Dr.  Lippe,  at  another  meeting,  on  being  asked  for  a  remedy 
for  toothache,  worse  at  night,  said,  Mag-carb.  has  toothache 
coming  on  soon  after  getting  to  sleep.  It  wakes  him  up.  The 
pain  is  dull  and  grinding,  and  compels  him  to  get  up  and  walk 
about  the  room. 

Dr.  Smith  spoke  of  Phos.,  which  has  toothache  coming  on 
only  at  night.  Aeon,  has  a  teasing,  hacking  cough,  dry  and 
harsh,  worse  at  night.  A  case  of  severe  otalgia,  worse  at  night, 
puzzled  me  for  a  short  time.  I  gave  Puis.,  but  it  did  no  good. 
The  patient  was  a  reserved,  unobservant  man,  and  but  little 
information  could  be  extrapte^'.&om'.tfim.  ".Finally  he  said  that 
he  desired  to  cover  hi^lrekd  from  the  'air.- .  ;[Jyhi)  this  indication 
Silicea  was  given'  ajtfHie  got  better  immediately.,,  The  next 
night  he  wast  n$t. {breed  to  walk  tben^oor. 

Dr.  Lippefajd  that  a  desire  to  cover  the  heado(froni  the  air 
ran  through  Silicea  a.s  ajcfrai#ctefifcti(\  In  au&^ei:  to  a  question 
Dr.  L.  said  that  ffiJif^oiicwuich^^tke'Sytoptom  vertigo 
on  rising  in  the  morning. 

The  characteristic  of  Petroselinum  is  frequent  passing  of 
urine.  This  is  Hahnemann's  key-note.  Dr.  Lippe  used  it  in 
gonorrhoea  when  there  is  a  great  deal  of  burning  with  frequent 
passage  of  urine. 

Dr.  Smith  gave  Petros.  and  cured  a  child  who,  when  urinating, 
would  press  hard  as  if  pressing  something  solid  out.  It  would 
rub  the  legs  together  until  the  skin  came  off.  Dr.  Lippe  had  a 
case  of  secondary  syphilis  with  intense  pain  in  the  penis.  He 
gave  Nitric  acid  and  the  pain  was  relieved,  but  the  patient 
complained  of  feeling  as  though  splinters  were  sticking  in  the 
penis.  Dr.  L.  then  found  that  the  chancre  had  been  treated 
with  crude  Nitric  acid. 

Dr.  Guernsey,  on  the  same  evening,  speaking  of  diseases  of 
the  skin,  said  that  Natrum  muriaticum  is  useful  where  there  is 
intense  itching  of  the  eruption.  And  that  Agaricus  muse,  has  a 
more  noticeable  action  on  the  upper  part  of  the  body.  He  had 
used  Bromine  in  some  skin  affections  where  there  was  coryza 
present  with  corrosion  of  the  margins  of  the  nose. 

Dr.  Lee  described  the  case  of  a  child  whose  condition  was 
very  obscure  and  where  emaciation  was  prominent.  He  kicked 
constantly  with  his  left  foot  until  the  stocking  came  off.  Zinc, 
cured  the  case. 


1890.] 


NOTES  FROM  THE  LIPPE  SOCIETY. 


17 


Dr.  Smith  described  a  case  of  pneumonia,  a  child,  who  had 
been  given  up  to  die  by  two  allopaths.  He  found  the  child 
plunging  about  the  bed  as  if  it  were  swimming.  He  would 
dive  in  among  the  bedclothes  after  the  manner  of  a  porpoise. 
Sulphur  was  given  and  the  child  recovered. 

One  evening  Dr.  Lee  read  a  paper  on  "  Our  Materia  Medica." 
Dr.  Lippe,  commenting  :  How  do  we  know  how  to  cure  any 
affection,  fungus  hematodes,  for  instance  ?  Was  fungus  hematodes 
found  in  the  proving  of  Phosphorus?  No,  Hahnemann  gave  us 
the  symptom  :  small  wounds  bleed  much.  This  is  all  the  indica- 
tion we  have  in  some  cases  of  that  affection,  and  yet  see  what 
Phos.  will  do.  As  to  the  question  of  the  dose,  the  greatest 
liberty  of  opinion  should  be  held  ;  that  has  nothing  to  do  with  our 
law.  Cures  can  be  made  homceopathically  with  any  dose,  but 
the  best  are  made  with  the  high  potencies.  The  smaller  the 
dose  of  the  perfectly  similar  remedy,  and  the  longer  it  acts,  the 
more  lasting  is  the  cure. 

Dr.  Clark  observed  that  those  who  followed  Hahnemann  in 
practicing  Homoeopathy  were  the  positive  men,  while  those  who 
were  not  familiar  with  his  teachings,  and  yet  assumed  his  name, 
were  always  in  doubt,  in  a  negative  state,  and  would  say  the 
success  in  practice  is  luck.  Dr.  Lippe,  in  illustration  of  his 
remarks,  related  the  case  of  an  old  lady  set.  about  eighty  years,  with 
paraplegia.  On  the  indication :  ineffectual  effort  at  stool  and  dry 
tongue,  he  gave  Nux  moschata,  and  improvement  immediately 
began. 

Dr.  Fellger  told  of  an  extraordinary  case  of  an  artist  who 
had  severe  pain  in  pit  of  stomach  and  inability  to  talk  ;  he  can 
only  whisper  a  few  words,  when  he  becomes  exhausted.  If  he 
attempts  to  speak  he  is  attacked  by  this  pain.  The  sight  of  a 
picture  which  is  not  artistically  correct,  or  a  caricature,  causes 
intense  nervousness,  profuse  perspiration,  and  pain  at  pit  of 
stomach.  No  remedy  but  magnetism  had  been  of  the  least 
avail.  Dr.  Fellger  thought  it  incurable.  Dr.  Lee  suggested 
that  his  symptoms  could  be  defined  thus :  trifles  irritate  him.  Dr. 
Lippe  did  not  think  this  would  cover  the  case.  He  could  not 
suggest  a  remedy,  and  agreed  with  Dr.  Fellger  that,  it  having 
continued  so  long,  and  no  remedy  relieving,  it  was  incurable. 


Our  number. — Readers  will  please  notice  that  our  number 
is  changed  from  1123  to  1125  Spruce  Street.    We  have  not 
moved  our  office.    Our  number  was  changed  by  the  city  au- 
thorities to  make  room  for  some  new  houses  near  us. 
2 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  INFANT. 

From  Der  Zeitschrift  far  Homdopathic. 

Translated  by  A.  McNeil,  M,  D.,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

Watching  the  mental  development  of  her  baby,  as  well  as  its 
physical  growth,  is  to  every  mother  a  source  of  the  tenderest 
solicitude,  and  also  of  the  purest  maternal  joy,  even- from  the 
first  days  of  its  existence.  It  is,  however,  not  generally  known 
at  what  periods  of  its  age  that  its  powers  of  understanding  are 
awakened  before  it  manifests  by  expression,  gestures,  and  sounds 
that  sensory  perceptions  have  made  an  impression  on  it.  W. 
Preyer,  in  his  treatise  "Die  Seele  des  Kindes"  (The  Child's 
Soul)  gives  us  reliable  information,  and  it  certainly  is  of  interest 
to  wider  circles  to  learn  the  final  results  of  his  most  pains-taking 
observations. 

In  the  beginning  of  its  existence  the  nursling  is  deaf,  and  it 
is  at  least  a  month  before  we  can  perceive,  by  its  starting  at 
sudden  loud  talking,  that  hearing  has  begun.  Three  to  four 
weeks  more  pass  before  it  has  so  far  developed  that  usual  sounds, 
such  as  singing,  makes  an  impression.  But  not  till  the  age  of 
three  months  does  it  rise  to  clear  consciousness  of  these  sensory 
impressions,  for,  about  this  time,  it  begins  to  turn  its  head  in  the 
direction  from  which  sounds  have  emanated. 

The  sense  of  sight  is  sooner  developed.  From  the  second  to 
the  fourth  day  the  infant  blinks  if  its  eyes  are  touched  by  a 
bright  beam  of  light,  and  after  a  week  it  can  move  its  eyes  in- 
dependently, i.  e.,  without  moving  the  head  also  toward  the  ob- 
ject. .  At  this  time,  almost  without  exception,  there  is  observed 
squinting,  i.  e.,  the  two  eyes  are  turned  in  different  directions  ; 
this  disappears  almost  always  when  it  is  almost  three  months  old, 
and  again  returns  at  thirty-six  weeks  when  an  object  is  placed 
close  to  its  eyes.  Also  there  occurs,  regularly,  to  the  end  of  the 
twelfth  week,  turning  up  of  the  eyes,  the  pupils  are  directed  up- 
ward, and  the  upper  lid  falls  lower,  and  only  the  white  remains 
visible.  At  the  end  of  this  time,  i.  e.,  the  twelfth  week,  the 
sensitiveness  of  the  optic  nerves  is  fully  developed.  This  is 
easily  perceived  by  the  rapid  movement  of  the  eye-lashes 
which  is  always  seen  when  an  object  is  brought  quickly  before 
the  eyes,  or  when  it  is  frightened.  This  is  always  accompanied 
by  suddenly  raising  the  arms.  At  this  age  (twelve  weeks)  it 
18 


Jan.,  1890.]     THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  INFANT. 


19 


closes  its  eyes,  when  being  bathed,  in  order  to  guard  them  from 
the  water,  while,  during  the  first  days  and  weeks  of  its  life, 
the  tepid  water  of  the  bath  makes  no  impression  on  the  open 
eyes. 

The  real  power  of  the  eyes  in  discerning  is  developed  tolerably 
early — in  the  seventh  week.  Then  the  infant  begins  to  fix  its 
eyes  on  objects  at  the  distance  of  a  metre,  and  when  they  move 
its  eyes  follow  them.  Three  weeks  afterward  the  child's  expres- 
sion is  more  cheerful  on  seeing  its  mother's  smiling  face, 
brilliant  or  moving  objects. 

In  three  weeks  more — that  is,  in  the  thirteenth  week — it  dis- 
criminates between  light  and  darkness,  which  is  easily  seen  by 
its  expression  when  the  dark  room  is  lighted  up.  Between  the 
seventh  and  eighth  month  it  perceives  its  bottle  at  a  distance  of 
two  to  three  metres,  and  at  full  nine  months  it  manifests  its  de- 
sire for  the  bottle  when  it  is  being  prepared,  by  pursing  its  lips 
and  opening  wide  its  eyes.  When  a  year  and  a  half  old  it  tries 
to  catch  the  smoke  of  a  pipe  or  cigar,  and  of  a  jet  of  water. 
When  two  years  old  it  has  the  ability  to  discern  simple  colors, 
but  mixed  colors  not  till  after  the  fourth  year ;  at  this  age  its 
perception  for  forms  begins,  and  it  makes  the  first  attempt  to 
draw  a  circle. 

Taste  is  sense  which  is  first  developed,  and  which  continues 
through  the  period  of  nursing  with  the  least  change.  Even 
during  its  earliest  days  the  taste  of  sweets  produces  an  expres- 
sion of  satisfaction,  and  it  is  preferred  to  that  of  any  other. 

Likewise  an  early  development  of  the  sense  of  smell  may  be 
shown,  although  not  without  exception,  in  the'  case  of  some 
nurslings.  Many  babies  will  not  nurse  the  breast  of  a  wet 
nurse  who  has  an  unpleasant  odor  from  her  person,  but  will  im- 
mediately turn  to  another  one.  Whether  a  nursling  recognizes 
its  mother  by  the  sense  of  smell,  as  in  many  young  animals,  is 
doubtful. 

The  sense  of  touch  shows  an  early  development.  In  a  few 
days  after  birth  the  lips  make  the  motion  of  sucking  when 
touched.  The  tongue  when  touched  also  makes  the  motion  of 
swallowing,  and  the  palate  as  if  retching,  while  the  face  reveals 
an  expression  of  loathing.  If  the  eyelids  are  blown  upon  or 
touched  they  close;  the  open  eyes,  however,  as  above  mentioned, 
during  the  first  weeks  of  life  are  not  sensitive.  The  sensitive- 
ness of  the  skin  to  mechanical  influences,  such  as  the  pricks  of 
pins,  is  present  during  the  earliest  days,  and  most  clearly  on  the 
soles  of  the  feet,  palms  of  the  hands,  and  the  point  of  the  nose. 
The  very  young  infant  shows  its  sensitiveness  to  temperature 


20 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  [NFANT. 


[Jan., 


very  plainly  on  the  skin,  and  still  more  in  its  mouth.  The 
sense  of  touch  is  indistinct  till  about  the  twenty-fifth  week  ;  not 
till  after  this  period  does  it  begin  to  discriminate  the  objects  it 
touches ;  for  instance,  its  own  hand  from  that  of  another. 

Every  nursling,  even  if  only  a  few  weeks  old,  according  to 
the  development  of  its  sensory  perceptions,  which  receives  suffi- 
cient attention,  expresses  its  different  frames  of  mind,  arising 
from  its  comfort  or  discomfort,  so  clearly  that  it  might  be  called 
voluntary  if  it  had  the  power  of  voluntary  expression.  Until 
the  child  can  speak  it  can  only  reveal  its  feelings  by  gestures, 
looks,  or  inarticulate  sounds.  And  there  are  mothers  and  nurses 
not  a  few,  who,  on  account  of  the  lack  of  power  of  observing, 
or  from  thoughtlessness,  often  leave  an  infant  to  fret  and  cry  a 
long  time  before  they  discover  what  is  necessary  to  its  comfort. 
Certainly,  only  by  very  careful  observation  of  the  manifold  ex- 
pressions of  the  emotions  of  the  nursling  can  it  be  understood. 
However,  no  mother  should  neglect  the  effort  to  comprehend 
her  child  as  soon  as  possible. 

Of  course  it  demands  the  most  careful  observation  to  differ- 
entiate the  expression  of  discomfort,  which  may  arise  from  very 
different  causes.  Displeasure,  which  is  frequently  observed 
even  in  healthy  babies,  is  expressed  by  shutting  the  eyes  tight, 
turning  the  head,  change  of  the  countenance,  drawing  down  of 
the  angles  of  the  mouth,  and  crying.  From  the  twelfth  to  the 
twentieth  week  ill  humor  is  always  manifested  by  a  peculiar 
movement  of  the  naso-labial  fold,  and  in  the  same  way  during 
sleep;  from  the  third  mouth  to  the  third  year  by  the  almost 
quadrangular  shape  of  the  mouth.  The  nursling  does  not  groan 
or  moan.  When  it  cries,  whether  it  is  from  pain  or  hunger  is 
clearly  seen  by  its  sound.  The  cry  from  hunger  is  not  constant, 
but  is  interrupted  by  longer  or  shorter  intervals,  and  is  not  so 
high  or  violent  as  the  cry  of  pain.  The  hungry  baby  shuts  its 
eyes  tight,  while  the  tongue  is  broad  and  retracted  into  the 
mouth.  If  even  with  these  indications,  one  is  still  at  a  loss  to 
decide  as  to  the  cause  of  the  crying,  then  if  the  breast  or  bottle 
is  offered  it  is  stopped  immediately  and  it  expresses  satisfaction 
by  a  cooing  sound. 

During  the  first  weeks  of  life  the  feeling  of  satisfaction  after 
nursing  is  accompanied  by  fatigue  in  consequence  of  the  exer- 
tion of  sucking,  and  it  usually  sleeps.  After  the  fourth  week 
it  indicates  its  satisfaction  by  cooing  while  its  eyes  are  half  open; 
after  twenty  weeks  by  turning  away  its  head  from  the  breast  or 
bottle.  When  tired  the  nursling  stops  nursing  and  crying  and 
loses  its  interest  in  singing  and  music.    During  the  first  month 


1890.]  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  TH  NFANT. 


21 


the  infant  sleeps  sixteen  hours  a  day  and  usually  two  hours  at 
a  time.  In  the  second  month,  three  to  five  ;  in  the  third,  four  to 
five ;  in  the  fourth,  five  to  six,  and  sometimes  even  nine  ;  in  the 
sixth,  six  to  eight.  After  the  first  year  it  sleeps  thirteen,  of 
which  nine  to  ten  are  in  the  nighttime.  In  the  third  year, 
eleven  to  twelve  of  sleep  in  the  night  are  sufficient  without  any 
in  the  daytime. 

The  nursling  manifests  joy  or  pleasure  in  many  different 
ways.  In  the  first  three  months  it  reveals  its  happiness  by 
opening  its  eyes  wide,  which  are  brighter  thereby,  and  by  kick- 
ing, when  it  nurses,  is  pleased  with  its  bath,  when  its  diaper  is 
changed  or  when  it  sees  the  loving  face  of  its  mother  bending 
over  it.  After  it  has  reached  the  age  of  twenty  weeks,  carrying 
into  the  open  air  gives  visible  pleasure.  It  also  takes  delight 
about  this  time  in  grasping  with  its  little  hands,  tearing  paper, 
seeing  small  animals,  a  watch,  the  ringing  of  a  bell,  and  the 
pulliug  at  some  one's  beard  gives  it  great  enjoyment.  After  the 
twenty-fourth  week,  it  manifests  its  joy  by  laughing,  and  after 
forty-four  wreeks  by  clapping  its  hands,  and  finally,  somewhat 
later,  it  exults  at  its  attempts  to  walk,  when  it  is  wrapped  or  un- 
wrapped, when  turning  over  leaves,  when  looking  at  pictures, 
etc. 

There  remains  to  be  mentioned  the  expression  of  astonish- 
ment which  is  manifested  at  thirty  weeks  in  opening  wide  its 
eyes  and  mouth ;  of  fear,  for  instance,  of  small  animals  or  certain 
things  in  the  thirty-sixth  week.  Fear  is  an  inherited,  not  an 
acquired  emotion. 

Hand  in  hand  with  this  development  of  the  sensory  activity 
we  have  described  goes  the  development  of  the  will  and  under- 
standing. These  expressions  of  the  will  may  be  divided  into 
reflex  or  involuntary  in  design  or  voluntary  movements,  and 
in  imitation  and  expressive  ones. 

To  the  first  category  belongs  retching  and  yawning,  which  is 
observed  after  the  first  week,  and  sighing,  which  occurs  after  the 
twenty-eighth  week.  Urinating  is  of  like  character,  which  the 
nursling  of  thirty-six  to  forty  weeks  distinctly  announces, 
showing  to  the  mother  or  nurse  that  the  time  has  come  to  ac- 
custom it  to  cleanliness.  Sucking  is  an  instinctive  movement 
which  is  inherited.  Movements  belonging  to  the  second  class 
usually  develop  in  a  definite  succession.  Starting  from  the  first 
sensory  perception,  taste,  what  the  infant  tastes  he  wants  to  see. 
If  it  sees  anything  it  desires  to  taste  it,  and  as  desire  is  in  the 
baby  only  a  wish  to  taste  and  this  is  increased  when  the  object 
suits  its  gustatory  appetite,  it  finally  grasps  after  everything 


22  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  INFANT.  [J*, 


it  sees  and  puts  it  in  its  mouth  to  taste  until  it  learns  that  not 
everything  which  it  gets  is  enjoy  ably,  that  many  substances 
either  do  not  taste  at  all  or  taste  disagreeably.  Until  the  eighth 
month  the  nursling  fails  in  its  attempts  to  grasp  objects — f.  c,  it 
does  not  reach  far  enough  ;  after  that  time  its  movements  are 
more  certain,  so  that  it  is  able  in  the  eleventh  month  to  bring  its 
bottle  to  its  mouth,  for  instance,  and  to  take  a  hair  from  the 
table  and  examine  it.  Yet  all  of  these  are  to  be  considered  ex- 
perimental attempts.  Not  before  a  year  and  a  half  has  it  so  far 
developed  in  its  faculties  that  it  makes  accurate  attempts  to 
seize  objects  with  one  hand,  and  after  four  months  more  it  finally 
has  both  hands  in  complete  command. 

About  the  fourteenth  week  it  begins  to  hold  its  head  aright 
for  a  moment  at  a  time,  and  fourteen  days  afterward  it  is  so  far 
•v  under  control  that  it  no  longer  falls  to  one  side  or  the  other. 
In  progressive  development  the  will  of  the  child  gradually  con- 
trols the  whole  body.  It  begins  to  sit  up  from  the  seventeenth 
to  the  twenty-sixth  week.  It  repeats  the  attempts,  sitting 
longer  at  a  time,  so  that  at  the  forty-second  week  it  is  capable  of 
sitting  with  its  back  straight  for  mpments  at  a  time.  At  the 
forty-fourth  week  it  is  able  to  sit  up  at  will,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  legs  become  straight,  so  that  the  soles  of  its  feet  no 
longer  turn  inwards.  If  it  has  accomplished  the  first  effort  to 
stand  in  the  fortieth  week,  it  will  be  observed  to  climb  up  by 
chairs  and  stand,  and  in  the  forty-fourth  week  its  ability  to 
stand  has  become  greater,  and  while  doing  so  it  stamps  its  foot 
on  the  floor.  The  first  attempts  to  walk  are  made  in  the  forty- 
first  week  ;  till  then  all  children  creep.  From  the  first  essay  at 
walking  to  complete  success,  the  period  is  different  in  different 
children,  clearly  because  not  only  the  strength  of  will  but 
physical  power  must  both  be  considered,  for  the  latter  must 
correspond  with  the  weight  to  be  supported.  Only  a  fifth  of 
all  children  walk  entirely  alone  before  the  first  birthday;  two- 
fifths  more  before  the  fourteenth  or  fifteenth  month  ;  another 
fifth  cannot  dispense  with  leading  strings  on  the  hand  until 
from  the  sixteenth  to  the  eighteenth,  and  the  last  fifth  require  a 
still  longer  time.  But  this  physical  ability  for  a  long  time 
only  extends  to  walking  in  a  straight  line.  More  complex 
movements,  such  as  turning  around,  climbing,  jumping,  or 
throwing,  cannot  be  accomplished  before  the  second  or  third 
year. 

Imitative  movements  are  only  observed  proportionately  late, 
not  before  the  twenty- eighth  week,  as  these  require  not  only 
the  perceptive  faculties  of  the  child,  but  also  its  memory  must  be 


1890.]  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  INFANT. 


23 


exercised,  but,  as  we  will  show  further  on,  this  is  active  com- 
paratively early,  but  only  in  a  limited  degree.  So  it  is  easily 
seen  that  young  nurslings  observe  the  movements  of  grown  per- 
sons, but  they  are  unable  to  retain  these  movements  in  their 
memory  and  imitate  them,  even  if  the  physical  powers  are  de- 
veloped to  an  equal  extent  with  the  will.  The  expressive  move- 
ments occur  earlier,  which  in  their  effect  express  very  nearly  joy, 
pleasure,  or  pain,  which  have  been  already  described.  Smiling 
is  observed  in  the  seventh  to  the  tenth  week,  when  it  has  nursed, 
when  a  beam  of  light  or  music  has  pleased  it.  Laughter  is  seen 
in  many  children  in  the  eighth  week,  and  in  others  not  before 
the  seventeenth.  From  that  time  onward  every  nursling  ex- 
presses its  joy  by  laughter,  which,  week  by  week,  becomes  more 
lively  and  energetic  till  the  twenty-fourth  week  ;  it  may  change 
to  a  jubilant  happiness,  in  which,  as  is  often  expressed,  tears  of 
joy  stand  in  its  eyes. 

New  impressions  early  call  out  voluntary  expressions  in  the 
infant,  as  early  as  from  the  third  to  the  seventh  week.  It  may 
be  that  during  sleep  dreams  busy  its  senses,  and  make  an  im- 
pression on  the  taste,  vision,  or  hearing,  or  it  may  be  that  while 
awake  it  for  the  first  time  sees,  hears,  or  feels  something.  And 
during  this  period  it  may  be  perceived  that  new  impressions 
have  been  made  on  it.  About  this  time,  say  in  the  fourth  week, 
tears  will  flow  while  weeping  as  an  expression  of  physical  pain. 

Finally,  as  to  kissing.  While  the  baby  under  a  year  allows 
itself  to  be  kissed,  and  may,  even  by  opening  its  mouth  and  in- 
clining its  head  toward  its  mother,  or  the  one  in  whose  arms  it 
is. carried,  show  its  desire  to  be  thus  caressed,  yet  not  until  it 
is  fifteen  months  old  is  it  fully  conscious  of  the  meaning  of  the 
act,  and  purses  its  lips  when  kissed. 

As  to  the  development  of  the  understanding,  this  depends  in 
a  great  measure  on  inherited  ability.  The  first  to  show  its  ac- 
tivity is  memory,  which  appears  long  before  the  first  thirty 
weeks,  yet  its  development  extends  only  to  those  things  which 
are  closely  related  to  its  needs.  For  example,  it  knows  how 
milktastesand  smells,  and  therefore  detects  immediately  any  other 
drink  that  is  offered  to  it,  which  is  clearly  seen  by  its  manner  of 
taking  it.  Its  feeling  about  when  nursing,  and  searching  around 
with  its  mouth  in  order  to  find  the  nipple,  reveal  the  activity  of 
memory.  And  before  the  time  mentioned,  it  recognizes  father, 
mother,  and  nurse.  That  it  sees  the  persons  around  it  may  be 
observed  in  the  second  month, but  neither  its  features  nor  move- 
ments indicate  that  it  discriminates  between  them.  At  four 
months  it  perceives  on  awaking,  when  alone,  the  absence  of  its 


24 


A  RE  THE  TWO  SCHOOLS  ALIKE? 


[Jan., 


mother  or  nurse  with  displeatare  and  cries,  and  many  an  infant 
at  this  age  will  do  so  when  its  mother  leaves  the  room.  When 
it  is  five  months,  if  its  cloak  and  hood  are  shown  it,  or  put  on, 
it  will  manifest  by  its  countenance  or  gestures  that  it  wants  to 
be  taken  out,  and  if  this  is  not  done  it  will  cry.  In  the  twelfth 
month  it  recognizes  the  hot  stove  or  the  flame  of  a  candle,  for  it 
will,  if  brought  near  them,  always  try  to  keep  back  or  turn 
aside. 

The  slowest  sense  to  develop  is  speech,  but  we  may  observe 
in  children  mentally  sound,  that  they  understand  well  what  is 
said  to  them  before  they  are  able  to  imitate  the  sounds,  words, 
and  syllables  which  they  hear.  Evidently  the  acquisition  of 
language  is  influenced  by  the  development  of  the  memory.  If  it 
has  a  very  early  and  high  degree  of  perfection,  so  will  speech 
come  at  an  early  age. 

As  soon  as  the  infant  succeeds  in  understanding  the  sounds  of 
its  future  mother  tongue,  and  before  it  really  begins  to  speak, 
and  is  able  to  form  the  sounds  correctly,  it  jumbles  them  all 
together  of  its  own  accord  in  all  possible  variations,  and  appears 
to  derive  great  pleasure  in  making  this  babel  of  sounds.  The 
order  in  which  babies  produce  the  different  words  is  different 
in  different  individuals. 


ARE  THE  TWO  SCHOOLS  ALIKE ? 

Edmund  J.  Lee,  M.  D.,  Philadelphia. 

It  has  always  been  understood  that  the  so-called  regulars  and 
the  homoeopathists  differed  in  their  ideas  of  the  true  method  of 
practicing  medicine.  Such  is  the  prevalent  idea  held  by  the 
laity  in  general ;  such  is  the  common  opinion  of  physicians  in 
general.  The  so-called  regulars  claim  that  they  are  guided  in  their 
practice  by  "  experience/'  that  they  use  any  and  every  means 
which  experience  has  taught  them  may  be  helpful  in  relieving 
suffering  humanity.  Such  is  the  plausible  claim  of  the  reg- 
ulars ;  but,  in  fact,  it  is  not  true,  for,  for  the  most  part,  they 
are  guided  solely  by  blind  prejudice.  They  reject  with  scorn 
any  claims  for  clinical  superiority  made  by  the  homoeopaths. 
They  reject  these  claims  without  any  adequate  examination. 
They  reject  them  solely  from  prejudice.  A  celebrated  surgeon 
of  this  city,  now  deceased,  said  he  knew  the  Organon  was  not 
correct,  because  he  had  read  it. 


1890.] 


ARE  THE  TWO  SCHOOLS  ALIKE  ? 


25 


In  contrast  to  the  allopathic  idea  of  medical  practice,  we  have 
that  of  the  homoeopath,  who  proclaims  that  he  is  guided,  in  his  use 
of  drugs,  by  a  law  ;  that  the  use  of  this  law  enables  him  to  pre- 
scribe with  great  accuracy,  that  it  enables  him  to  cure  promptly 
and  permanently. 

In  view  of  the  conflicting  claims  of  these  two  schools  of  medi- 
cal practitioners,  it  is  curious  to  read  such  statements  as  thefol- 
ing  : 

'  We  are  surprised  and  delighted  to  observe  how  near  Professor  Wood's 
views  accord  with  the  great  majority  of  those  who  call  themselves  '  homoeo- 
pathic physicians,'  and  one  has  only  to  scan  the  literature  of  the  different 
schools,  as  the  writer  has  done,  to  observe  how  closely  they  approach  each 
other  in  their  methods,  and  if  it  were  not  for  the  name  it  would  be  difficult  to 
distinguish  one  from  the  other." — N.  Y.  Medical  Times. 

This  "  surprise  and  delight  "  were  called  forth  by  an  address 
delivered  at  Yale  College,  by  Professor  AVood.  In  this  ad- 
dress he  ridiculed  the  idea  that  there  could  be  any  law  govern- 
ing the  action  of  drugs.  Dr.  Wood  never  enlightened 
us  as  to  why  there  could  be  no  law  governing  this  branch 
of  Nature's  action  ;  probably  he  will  do  this  later.  There  is 
now,  and  ever  has  been,  a  very  marked  difference  between 
allopathy  and  Homoeopathy,  but  there  are  every  year  more 
and  more  so-called  homoeopaths  whose  practice  differs  little  from 
that  of  the  allopath.  It  is  the  so-called  "  literature  "  of  these 
eclectic-homoeopaths  that  closely  resembles  allopathic  literature. 
Genuine  Homoeopathy  differs  as  much  from  allopathy  as  ever  it 
did,  and  is,  as  ever  before,  greatly  its  superior. 

The  kind  of  homoeopaths  that  ape  allopathy  seem  to  abound 
in  New  York.  At  a  recent  meeting  of  a  committee  of  these  so- 
called  homoeopaths  with  the  Commissioners  of  Charities  ofXew 
York,  in  regard  to  Ward's  Island  Hospital,  a  Commissioner,  one 
Simmons,  told  the  homoeopaths :  "  You  have  a  homoeopathic 
college,  and  the  young  men  whom  it  graduates  should  be 
homceopths,  if  there  are  any.  But  it  appears  that  these  young 
graduates,  who  have  been  put  on  the  house  staff  at  Ward's 
Island  Hospital  have  used  forty-four  pounds  of  castor  oil  and 
twenty-one  pounds  of  magnesia  sulph.  Dr.  Schley,  here,  is  ac- 
cused of  giving  large  doses  of  antipyrin  and  other  non-homoeo- 
pathic remedies."  Is  it  any  wonder,  in  view  of  such  facts,  that 
Professor  Wood  should  declare  that  homoeopaths  are  either  fools 
or  knaves  ? 

If  it  be  true,  as  the  Times  declares,  that  the  "  great  majority 
-of  those  who  oall  themselves  homoeopathic  physicians"  are  in 


26 


ARE  THE  TWO  SCHOOLS  ALIKE?         [Jan.,  1890. 


accord  with  Professor  Wood's  views,  why  then  do  they  call 
themselves  homoeopathic  physicians?  Why  do  they  masquerade 
under  a  false  name  ?  Dr.  Wood  says  they  do  it  for  the  commer- 
cial value  of  the  name.  Genuine  Hahnemannian  Homoeopathy 
is  a  scientific  method  of  practicing  medicine.  It  is  not  only 
scientific,  but  it  is  also  practical  and  most  successful.  It  not  only 
enables  the  student  of  its  therapeutics  to  predict,  in  advance  of 
any  clinical  trial,  the  value  of  any  drug,  but  it  also  enables  him 
to  prognosticate  as  to  the  curability  of  any  given  case  of  disease. 
It  is  like  a  mathematical  problem,  in  that  having  two  or  more 
known  quantities  we  are  able  to  find  the  unknown.  Knowing 
the  symptoms,  we  can  readily  find  the  curative  remedy  ;  or, 
knowing  the  remedy,  we  have  a  helpful  guide  in  our  prognosis ; 
or,  knowing  the  remedy,  we  have  a  reliable  guide  for  selecting  the 
diet ;  or,  knowing  the  peculiar  cravings  of  the  appetite,  we  have  a 
reliable  aid  in  choosing  the  remedy. 

Allopathy  has  no  medical  views  that  in  any  way  "  accord  "  with 
such  scientific  practice;  it  is  a  system  of  guess-work,  as  un- 
scientific as  it  is  unsuccessful.  In  the  present  epidemic 
of  "La  Grippe/'  now  so  prevalent  here,  the  success  of  the 
old  school  has  been  simply  ridiculous.  Every  day  we  hear 
of  cases  of  persons  dying  of  "  influenza,  followed  by  pneumo- 
nia;" a  true  statement  would  read,  "  dying  of  influenza,  fol- 
lowed by  Quinine."  I  have  yet  to  hear  of  one  case  dying  under 
the  care  of  a  Hahnemannian.  About  two  weeks  ago  a  little- 
boy  of  eight  years  was  attacked  by  the  influenza ;  he  was  at  the 
house  of  a  relative  who  employs  one  of  the  best  old-school 
physicians  in  this  city.  This  regular  saw  the  little  fellow,  and 
advised  that  he  be  sent  home  at  once,  as  he  seemed  to  be  on  the 
verge  of  a  serious  illness.  When  the  little  patient  arrived  home 
he  complained  of  headache,  pain  in  back  and  limbs;  his  face  was 
very  red,  the  skin  very  hot,  iiis  eyes  injected  and  painful ;  he 
wanted  to  go  to  bed  of  his  own  accord.  One  dose  of  Belladonna 
was  given  to  him  ;  he  went  to  sleep,  and  awoke  in  about  three 
hours,  got  up,  dressed  himself,  and  went  off  to  play  with  the 
other  children.  He  has  not  been  sick  since,  nor  has  he  had 
any  more  medicine.  Was  the  allopath  mistaken  in  his  opinion, 
or  did  the  one  dose  of  Belladonna  cure  this  child  in  a  few  hours  ? 
I  may  add  that  Belladonna  has  in  the  same  manner  cured  at  least 
a  dozen  patients,  in  my  hands,  in  the  past  two  weeks. 

Genuine  Homoeopathy  is  as  far  in  advance  of  allopathy  and 
Dr.  Wood  as  it  ever  was.  It  is  only  the  "literature  "  and  the 
"  views  "  of  the  pseudo-homoeopaths  that  in  any  way  accord  with 
the  teaching  or  the  practice  of  the  old  school. 


WHAT  IS  THE  SIMILL1MUM  ? 


(And  maybe  Some  Other* Stray  Questions.) 

M.  A.  A.  Wolff,  M.  D.,  Gaikesvilo:,  Tex. 

April  9th,  1889,  called  to  Mrs.  J.  I  found  her  in  bed  very 
prostrated,  coughing.  All  I  am  now  able  to  state  is  that 
I  gave  her  Lyc.im,  one  dose,  placebo,  and  Puis.200,  the  last  one 
to  be  taken,  it*  needed,  on  account  of  night  cough.  My  second 
call  was  on  April  14th,  and  my  prescription  Sil.72000.  On  April 
30th  Mr.  J.  came  to  pay  his  bill,  and  gave  a  glorious  report. 
A  few  months  later  her  mother  (dispenser  of  homoeopathic  bene- 
fits, and,  as  she  stated,  agent  for  Mieayah's  Uterine  Wafers) 
visited  me  before  leaving  for  the  North,  and  spoke  very  pleas- 
antly of  her  daughter's  condition.  I  then  gave  her  Dr.  Rogers' 
symptom -book. 

December  27th. — Mr.  J.  brought  me  a  statement  from  his 
wife,  who  cannot  be  induced  personally  to  see  a  physician  or 
permit  any  examination,  but  who  would  willingly  consult  in 
writing,  however,  only  with  me.  The  first  part  of  the  statement 
was  but  the  number  of  groups  of  symptoms.  The  number  of 
medicines  these  characteristic  symptoms  called  for  was  twenty- 
three.  Out  of  these,  nineteen  had  only  one,  two,  three,  or  four 
symptoms,  the  rest,  Bell,  seven,  Rhus-t.  seven,  Lycop.  eight,  and 
Sepia  nine.  Arranging  these  symptoms  as  seen  below  according 
to  our  materia  medica,  and  studying  the  four  medicines  I  found 
Sepia  to  cover  exactly  thirty-five  symptoms,  and  many  of  the 
rest  by  implication,  analogy,  or  synonymic  expressions.  The 
symptoms  are  :  "  Easily  tired  out,  restless,  continually  changing 
position,  cannot  at  night  get  easy  in  any  position  or  lie  still  a 
moment.  Restless,  easy  in  each  new  position  but  for  a  moment 
(Rhus-tox.).  Always  in  a  hurry,  but  accomplishes  little.  Cries 
very  easily.  Great  tendency  to  start.  Headache  affects  exactly 
half  of  the  head.  Intense  aching  in  back  of  head  and  nape  of 
neck.  Boring  pain  in  right  side  of  head.  Head  hot,  feet  cold. 
Dark  circles  around  the  eyes,  which  are  sunken.  Light  dim,  as 
lookiug  through  a  fog.  Blurring  sight,  with  falling  of  the  womb. 
Black  spots  hovering  and  swimming  before  the  eves.  Thin, 
watery,  burning  discharge  from  the  eyes.  Pale  face  and  lips, 
with  great  debility.  The  complexion  has  a  greenish  hue.  Grayish 
yellow  color  of  face.  Feels  at  times  as  if  a  ball  were  rising  in 
throat.    Weak  digestion,  the  simplest  food  disagrees.  Craves 

27 


28 


WHAT  IS  THE  SIMILLIMUM? 


[Jan, 


salt,  likes  food  very  salty.  Awakens  at  night  very  hungry. 
Feels  as  if  there  were  a  band  around  the  waist.  Much  rumbling 
left  side  of  abdomen.  Walls  of  abdomen  sore.  Falling  out  of 
bowel  from  moderate  straining  at  stool.  Great  bearing  down 
in  abdomen  and  back.  Stool  hard,  difficult,  seems  to  slip  back. 
Rectum  seems  not  to  have  power  to  expel  stool.  Urine  scanty, 
dark.  Frequent  desire  to  urinate.  Urine  escapes  on  coughing, 
sneezing,  blowing  the  nose.  Red  sand-like  sediment  in  urine. 
Urine  covered  with  greasy  scum  on  standing.  Yellow  urine, 
looking  like  saffron.  Cannot  bear  even  pressure  of  clothing 
over  womb.  Great  bearing  down  in  region  of  womb  ;  displace- 
ment, falling  of  womb  ;  feeling  that  she  must  cross  legs  lest 
womb  fall  out.  Pain  in  groin  and  womb,  worse  from  slightest 
jar.  Breast  very  painful  through  every  monthly  period.  Menses 
too  often,  come  every  two  to  three  weeks.  Great  weakness  after 
menses.  Menses  profuse,  lasting  from  five  to  ten  days.  Pimples 
on  skin  worse  during  menstruation.  Palpitation  of  heart,  can- 
not lie  on  back.  The  least  motion  causes  palpitation  of  heart. 
An  indescribable  feeling  about  heart.  Heart  trouble,  with 
numbness  of  left  arm  and  shoulder.  Backache,  relieved  by 
lying  flat  on  back.  Great  bearing-down  pain  in  back  and  abdo- 
men. Bruised  pain  at  lower  end  of  spine.  Severe  pain  through 
hips  and  in  back.  Great  weakness  of  small  of  back  and  legs. 
Feet  cold  and  clammy  on  removing  stockings.  Troubled  much 
with  coldness  of  knees.  One  foot  cold  while  other  warm. 
Hands  and  feet  go  to  sleep  easily.  Numbness  and  paralytic  feel- 
ing of  legs.  Feels  stiff  in  rising  from  seat.  Lumbago,  severe 
aching  of  back.  Icy  coldness  of  feet.  Dreams  of  great  exer- 
tion, wakens  exhausted.  Feels  well  on  rising,  but  gives  out  by 
noon.  Pains  come  and  go  quickly.  Sitting  up  an  hour  late  is 
greatly  felt  next  day.  tipper  part  of  body  much  thinner  than 
lower  part.  Ill  effects  from  overexertion.  Bad  effects  from 
straining  and  lifting." 

I  expect  that  the  taking  down  of  these  symptoms  must  have 
been  for  several  days.  But  she  concludes  her  list  by  stating  : 
"  Suffer  sharp,  darting  pains  in  top  part  of  the  womb  which 
only  last  a  few  minutes.  Womb  so  low  at  times  that  it  comes 
out  on  stooping  down,  and  it  can  be  seen  with  a  mirror.  Around 
the  mouth  of  the  womb  are  small  granulations  like  grains  of 
sugar  and  the  neck  presents  a  purple-red  color.  Suffer  faintness 
at  times,  also  during  menstration,  after  twelve  hours  stops 
entirely  for  twelve  or  eighteen  hours — suffering  like  child-birth 
until  it  starts  again  with  a  great  gush,  when  relieved  until 
well."    Prescribed    Sepia.200,  to   be   taken   at   once,  plenty 


1890.] 


WHAT  IS  THE  SIMILLIMUM? 


29 


placebos,  and  Sepia1600  if  relapse.  At  the  same  time  gave 
prepared  sponge  and  glycerole  of  Calendula  in  water, — the 
sponge  to  be  used  only  when  on  her  feet  (during  day). 

January  1st. — Mr.  J.  stated  that  she  had  only  used  one 
powder  (Sep.200)  and  delivered  the  following  report  : 

"  First  day  after  using  treatment  felt  very  badly  in  the  after- 
noon and  did  not  sleep  much  all  night.  Had  feeling  in  head 
resembling  dizziness,  or  as  if  I  were  falling,  and  severe  pain  low 
down  in  back." 

"  Second  day  I  felt  very  comfortable  and  worked  around  on 
my  feet  nearly  all  day,  but  could  not  rest  or  sleep  at  night 
much." 

"  Third  day  did  not  feel  so  well  again,  and  had  a  great  deal 
of  water  pass  from  the  womb  every  time  I  made  any  exertion 
of  a  straining  kind,  like  rising  from  a  stooping  position,  or 
sneezing  or  coughing,  etc. ;  felt  very  nervous  and  irritable  and 
oversensitive  to  noises.  None  of  the  time  have  I  suffered  any 
severe  pain  since  the  first  day,  but  an  uneasy,  nervous  feeling 
some  of  the  time  yesterday ;  felt  as  if  menses  were  on  only  not 
severe.  Will  have  them  Sunday,  if  regular,  would  feel  much 
better  if  able  to  sleep." 

Six  powders,  Puis.200 ,  for  bed-time,  if  needed. 

Jan.  7th,  5!30  p.  m.,  received  the  following  report :  "  Menses 
appeared  on  time,  Sunday,  Jan.  5th,  much  as  usual.  I  do  not 
suffer  the  first  few  hours  (say  about  ten  hours),  after  that  I  do. 
This  time  I  commenced  to  have  quite  severe  pain  after  nine 
hours,  which  took  the  form  of  labor-pains.  They  grew  very 
hard  about  nine  o'clock  that  night,  and  kept  increasing  until 
about  1.30  Monday  morning,  when  I  fell  into  the  first  sleep,  and 
was  much  easier  after  that.  Each  pain  brought  a  discharge  of 
blood,  but  not  profuse.  After  it  began  coming  profusely  the 
pains  subsided,  although  they  kept  up  all  day  Monday,  until 
about  ten  o'clock  at  night.  I  was  quite  hot  with  fever  till  nearly 
morning  (Tuesday).  I  felt  too  weak  to  rise  and  go  about  my 
duties.  My  head  aches  severely  in  the  left  side,  down  to  the 
end  of  my  nose.  I  slept  very  well  after  taking  a  sleeping- 
powder  [Puis.200],  but  am  very  sore  across  me  where  the  pains 
were,  and  weak,  as  though  everything  would  fall  out,  and  give 
way  in  back  and  abdomen.  I  was  not  suffering  any  more  than 
usual,  nor  so  long  as  I  usually  do,  but  I  feel  utterly  prostrated. 
About  one  year  ago  I  took  a  severe  cold,  and  coughed  a  great 
deal,  which  always  hurts  me  more  in  the  lower  part  of  the 
abdomen  and  lungs.  I  had  for  nearly  two  years  before  that 
suffered  at  my  periods  with  stoppages.     When  my  cough  was 


30 


WHAT  IS  THE  SIMILLIMUM  ' 


[Jan., 


so  hard  I  strained  myself,  which,  I  suppose,  caused  my  menses  to 
come  two  weeks  too  soon  and  profuse,  and  a  stoppage,  after 
which  great  prostration,  from  which  I  could  not  rally  until  time 
for  another  similar  'spell.'  This  kept  up  until  the  strange 
attack  the  last  of  February,  when  you  came  to  see  me.  [She  is 
mistaken,  it  was  April,  as  stated  above.]  I  have  never  been 
well  since.  I  got  up  from  that  sickness  very  weak,  and  with 
frequent  fain  tings.  Most  of  the  time  I  have  worn  an  electric 
or  magnetic  belt,  low  down  across  the  region  of  the  womb,  as 
a  support,  as  it  seemed  without  it  I  could  not  keep  myself  to- 
gether. While  at  Hot  Springs  I  had  a  painless  period,  which  only 
lasted  four  days,  and  it  was  an  epoch  in  my  life,  for  I  never 
passed  through  with  more  than  three  or  four  easy  periods  in  my 
life.  Mother  told  a  physician  in  Chicago  about  me,  and  he  told  her 
if  I  would  take  one  drop  of  the  tincture  of  Ergot  for  one  week, 
then  skip  a  week,  etc.,  it  would  help  me  ;  that  my  womb 
was  flabby  [how  did  he  know  ?],  and  did  not  contract.  I  tried 
it  one  week,  and  my  period  came  on  (too  soon),  and,  though 
painful,  no  stoppage.  The  next  month  I  took  it  again,  and 
it  came  six  days  too  soon,  with  labor-pains  and  no  stop- 
page, but  too  profuse.  Have  not  taken  it  for  a  month  now,  but 
had  about  the  same  kind  of  time.  I  have  always  got  up  and 
assumed  my  duties  when  I  would  have  done  better  to  have 
been  idle,  but  I  have  a  horror  of  being  an  invalid,  or  always 
complaining  of  myself  while  my  husband  is  at  home,  so  I  always 
put  the  best  side  out  to  him,  and  don't  tell  him  much  of  how  I 
feel,  unless  I  look  badly  and  he  asks  me.  Then  I  have  often 
felt  so  badly  that  I  could  hardly  keep  up,  and  when  he  comes  I 
seem  to  feel  better  (whether  it  is  the  joy  and  happiness  of  having 
him  with  me,  or  the  influence  of  magnetism  about  him,  I  cannot 
tell),  but  after  he  goes  I  feel  gradually  let  down,  just  as  the 
effect  of  a  stimulant  leaves  any  one.  His  presence  has  always 
affected  me  in  this  way.  I  feel  less  pain  when  he  rubs  me,  or 
lays  his  hand  on  me.  I  think  I  am  very  easily  affected.  I  have 
written  quite  lengthy,  but  thought  it  might  acquaint  you  with 
my  state  of  health  and  temperament." 

The  messenger  left  me  about  half  an  hour,  when,  after  having 
studied  Dysmenorrhea  treatment  in  Guernsey,  I  decided  on 
sending  Carb.  anim.zm.  At  6.30  P.  M.  he  received  it  with 
orders  if  his  mother  were  not  better  in  two  hours  to  return, 
else  to  come  in  the  morning,  January  8th.  He  did  not  return 
before  the  morning.  The  powder  had  acted  well,  she  felt  much 
better,  had  slept  good,  but  had  sweat  profusely.  [Was  that  a 
pathogenetic  effect?] 


1890.] 


LEAD  POISONING. 


31 


I  sent  this  morning  Cimicifuga  third,  one  drop  three  times  a  da/ 
till  next  period.    Did  I  do  wrong? 


COMMENT  UPON  DR.  WOLFFS  CASE. 

Editors  of  Homoeopathic  Physician  : 

Dr.  Wolff's  ease  cannot  be  covered  by  the  simillimum  of  any 
remedy. 

She  has  a  complexity  of  symptoms  that  cannot  be  covered 
-by  one  drug.  I  have  had  just  such  cases  to  treat.  They  can 
be  cured  by  careful  study  and  the  application  of  the  similar 
remedy. 

If  I  were  going  to  begin  on  a  case  like  that  I  would  take 
down  the  most  prominent  symptoms,  the  most  peculiar  ones, 
and  those  that  have  appeared  most  lately.  The  distressing  ones 
should  be  relieved  first,  and  I  should  let  the  rest  alone  for  some 
future  time ;  in  this  way  these  symptoms  and  the  disease  con- 
dition will  be  vanquished. 

After  each  remedy  has  done  all  it  can,  after  proper  waiting, 
attack  the  next  group  of  symptoms  that  are  the  most  distressing, 
and  so  on  to  the  end,  till  there  is  no  more  battle  to  fight. 

I  will  enumerate  some  of  the  most  prominent  remedies : 

Ars.,  Bell.,  Cal-c,  Carbo-veg.,  Can.,  Caust.,  Lye,  Lach., 
Medorrhinum,  Nat-m.,  Rhus-tox.,  Sepia,  Silicea,  Sanicula,  and 
"  others." 

The  watery  discharge  was  caused  by  the  local  remedies,  and 
u  cannot"  be  accepted  only  as  an  irritant  to  the  vaginal  mucous 
membrane.  Geo.  W.  Sherbino. 

Abilene,  Texas. 

LEAD  POISONING. 

Prof.  Litten,  Berlin. 

A  compositor  suffered  for  many  years  from  lead-intoxication 
in  its  lighter  forms,  when  he  began  to  suffer  from  a  high  grade 
of  hyperesthesia  in  the  occipital  region,  in  the  muscles  of  the 
neck,  shoulders,  and  upper  extremities,  combined  with  such  an 
enormously  increased  reflex  irritability  in  these  muscles  that 
merely  touching  the  neck,  a  soft  stroking,  even  a  subjective 
turning  of  the  head,  sufficed  to  produce  a  lasting  stiffness  of  the 
muscles  with  consequent  very  severe  clonic  twitchings,  lasting 
for  several  minutes.    With  every  turn  of  the  head  it  was  drawn 


32  THE  HOMOEOPATHIC  CONTROVERSY.  [Jan., 


downward  to  the  shoulder  of  the  same  side  and  fixed  in  that 
position  by  the  stony  hardness  of  the  muscles  till  the  clonic 
twitchings  began.  No  improvement  from  Sulphur  bath  and 
Kali-iod.  This  man  of  fifty-one  years  showed  also  a  most  interest- 
ing cutaneous  affection  :  diffuse  psoriasis  over  the  whole  body, 
existing  since  infancy,  nearly  disappearing  at  times  and  then 
rapidly  spreading  again  over  the  whole  body,  so  that  hardly  a 
spot  remains  free.  The  largest  spots,  with  intensely  red  edges, 
and  pale  centres,  covered  .with  innumerable  scales,  are  on  the 
anterior  surface  of  the  lower  extremities;  on  the  posterior  part 
of  the  neck  and  back,  having  the  appearance  of  an  old  psoriasis  ; 
existing  for  years ;  and  nobody,  who  saw  the  patient  two  weeks 
before,  with  a  clean  skin,  could  believe  that  the  eruption  is  only 
two  weeks  old  ;  beyond  these  were  sn«dl  fresh  eruptions  of  the 
size  of  pinheads.  It  was  a  hereditary  eruption  dating  back  to 
infancy.  A.  M.  C.  Z.,  72-89. 

The  pains  of  this  compositor  are  well  described  by  Litten, 
VIII,  symptoms  2,583-2,590;  and  the  tremors,  3,570-80; 
epileptiform  spasms,  3,611,  etc. ;  but  as  consciousness  remained 
intact,  they  do  not  deserve  the  name  of  epilepsy  in  this  case. 
3,670,  rigidity  and  tetanus  ;  3,796,  excessive  hyperesthesia  of 
the  cutaneous  nerves. 

How  that  chronic  psoriasis  proves  again  the  old  psora  theory 
of  Hahnemann,  going  and  coming  for  half  a  century  and  still 
uncured,  notwithstanding  all  antiparasitic  treatment.  Did  the 
long-continued  lead  poisoning  have  anything  to  do  with  that 
stubbornness  of  the  cutaneous  disease  ?  What  is  meant  by  psora  ? 
In  my  lectures  on  the  Organon  I  consider  it  a  minor ;  a 
deficiency  of  vital  power,  a  morbid  disposition  to  disease,  but 
even  Hahnemann  never  satisfied  me  ;  let  the  philosophers  of 
Homoeopathy  shed  light  upon  this  doctrine,  though  we  know  full 
well  this  hereditary  or  acquired  disposition.  S.  L. 


THE  HOMCEOPATHIC  CONTROVERSY. 

From  the  New  York  Sun,  January  8th. 

There  seems  to  be  no  important  principle  of  medicine  or  of 
morals  involved  in  the  demand  of  the  Homoeopathic  County 
Society  for  the  reconstruction  of  the  medical  board  of  the 
Homoeopathic  Hospital  on  Ward's  Island,  New  York.  The 
Commissioners  of  Charities  and  Correction  are  asked  to  make 
the  change  simply  on  the  ground  that  some  of  the  physicians  of 
the  hospital  do  not  belong  to  the  society. 


1890.] 


THE  HOMOEOPATHIC  CONTROVERSY. 


33 


As  we  understand  it,  there  is  no  practical  difference  between 
the  methods  of  treatment  pursued  by  members  of  the  society  and 
physicians  of  the  homoeopathic  school  who  are  outside  of  that 
association.  According  to  Dr.  Guernsey,  the  President  of  the 
Ward's  Island  Medical  Board,  not  a  single  strict  homceopathist 
now  remains  in  Xew  York.  The  two  hundred  members  of  the 
society  and  the  two  hundred  other  practitioners  whom  Com- 
missioner Simmons  speaks  of  as  claiming  the  title  of  homce- 
opathists,  both  use  the  remedies  of  the  old  school  of  medicine 
when  they  deem  them  needful.  Therefore  the  society,  in  ask- 
ing for  the  reorganization  of  the  hospital  staff,  does  not  contem- 
plate any  change  in  the  methods  of  treatment.  It  wants  only 
that  the  principle  shall  be  established  by  the  Commissioners  of 
making  appointments  solely  from  among  the  members  of  the 
society. 

That  is  a  purely  private  matter  of  no  public  concern. 
But  it  is  of  public  interest  and  importance  that  the  homoeopathic 
school,  in  all  its  divisions,  substantially  acknowledges  that  it  no 
longer  adheres  to  the  principles  of  Hahnemann  to  the  exclusion 
of  all  other.  As  the  County  Society  defines  a  homoeopathic 
physician,  he  is  simply  a  member  of  that  association.  As  the 
resolution  of  the  Ward's  Island  staff  defines  him,  he  is  merely  a 
physician  who  believes  in  the  principle  of  like  cures  like,  but 
because  of  it  is  not  deterred  from  "  recognizing  and  making  use 
of  the  results  of  any  experience,"  "  or  any  therapeutic  fact 
founded  on  experiments  and  verified  by  experience,  so  far  as  in 
his  individual  judgment  they  shall  tend  to  promote  the  welfare 
of  those  under  his  professional  care."  That  is  the  actual  prac- 
tice at  the  hospital,  and  it  is  not  denied  that  it  is  the  actual 
practice  among  homoeopathic  physicians  generally  at  this 
period. 

The  line  of  demarcation  between  the  homoeopathic  and  regular 
practitioner  is  therefore  almost  entirely  obliterated.  The  prin- 
ciple of  like  cures  like  and  of  minimum  doses  is,  of  course, 
abandoned,  when  it  is  no  longer  made  of  universal  application  ; 
and  the  theory  that  the  medical  art  should  make  use  of  what- 
ever experiment  and  experience  have  proved  efficacious  for  the 
alleviation  of  disease,  lies  at  the  basis  of  the  old  practice.  The 
regular  school  is  not  debarred  from  using  homoeopathic  remedies, 
water-cure  remedies,  or  any  other  methods  of  treatment,  so  long 
as  they  serve  its  purpose.  It  has  the  whole  world  to  choose 
from,  and  the  homceopathists  are  exercising  the  same  liberty. 
Hence  homoeopathic  physicians  have  joined  the  County  Society 
of  the  regular  school  as  brethren  in  science  ;  and  the  abolition 
3 


34 


BCENNINGIIAUSEX  AND  LIPPE. 


[Jan., 


of  the  old  rule  of  the  regulars  forbiddiug  consultation  with 
homoeopaths  is  tending  still  further  to  wipe  away  the  distinctions 
between  the  two.  There  are  also  many  homoeopaths  who  would 
give  up  that  title  as  no  longer  describing  their  school  in  its  later 
development.  They  would  call  themselves  the  New  School,  and 
yet  there  does  not  seem  to  be  a  logical  reason  for  any  separation 
at  all  in  the  ranks  of  medicine  if  on  all  sides  the  principle 
announced  by  the  Ward's  Island  staff  is  adopted  and  followed. 

It  is  fortunate  for  the  healing  art  that  such  substantial  union 
is  the  plain  drift  of  the  period.  That  art  is  old,  and  yet  its 
greatest  progress  has  been  made  within  very  recent  years ;  and 
along  lines  now  pursued  its  future  advance  is  sure  to  be 
even  more  rapid.  But  this  progress  requires  that  investigation 
and  experiment  shall  not  be  hampered  by  theory.  There  should 
only  be  one  school  of  medicine,  the  school  which  addresses 
itself  to  making  a  science  of  the  art. 

[Note. — We  specially  commend  the  above  extract  to  the  at- 
tention of  our  readers. 

It  gives  a  good  idea  of  the  humiliating  spectacle  the  homoeo- 
pathic school  presents  before  the  world  by  reason  of  the  atrocious 
conduct  and  teachings  of  men  who  only  pretend  to  practice 
Homoeopathy  ;  but  who  really  despise  the  system  as  much  as  the 
most  hostile  practitioner  of  the  old  school. — Eds.] 

BCENNINGHAUSEN  AND  LIPPE. 

Edmund  J.  Lee,  M.  D.,  Philadelphia. 

In  an  article  in  the  Medical  Advance,  a  year  or  so  ago,  under 
the  above  title,  a  false  impression  is  unintentionally  given  of  the 
late  Dr.  Lippe  as  a  homoeopathic  prescriber;  we  read :  "  But  in 
some  particulars  his  (Lippe's)  methods  differed  so  widely  from 
those  of  Bcenninghausen  that  a  comparison  can  scarcely  do  justice 
to  either.  The  former  was  slower,  more  cautious,  and,  as  they 
say,  '  dug  out  the  remedies '  by  hard  work,  and  like  all  workers 
of  that  kind,  made  fewer  mistakes."  Further,  we  read  :  "  The 
one  (L.)  was  often  found  exhibiting  flashes  of  true  genius  in  his 
searches  for,  and  seizing  upon  the  true  remedy  for  his  case  ;  the 
other  (B.),  with  utmost  coolness  and  deliberation,  sought  for  the 
secret  of  relationship  between  sicknesses  and  their  causation,  which 
when  once  struck  was  pursued  with  the  pertinacity  and  un- 
wearied persistency  of  the  sleuth  hound,  till  he  found  the  true 
remedy  for  his  case,  and  this  he  did  with  a  certainty  which  came 


1890.] 


BCENNINGHAUSEN  AND  LIPPPL 


35 


near  to  uniform  success."  As  we  have  said,  these  opinions  give 
a  false  impression,  especially  to  those  who  did  not  know  Dr. 
Lippe  personally.  This  impression  has  already  borne  fruit,  for 
at  the  meeting  of  the  I.  H.  A.,  of  1888,  a  speaker  alluded  to 
Dr.  Lippe  as  "  a  flash  prescriber."  We  reiterate,  this  view  of  Dr. 
Lippe's  success  is  misleading  No  physician  can  succeed  in  the 
practice  of  homoeopathic  medicine  unless  he  studies  and  studies 
hard  at  that ;  no  one  knew  this  better  than  the  late  Dr.  Ad. 
Lippe.  He  was  endowed  with  the  gift  for  drug  analysis  and  a 
quickness  of  perception  in  discerning  the  symptoms  of  his 
patients  which  were  the  indicators  for  choosing  his  drug.  The 
only  other  u  genius"  Dr.  Lippe  possessed  was  a  disposition  to 
work  hard  and  a  profound  admiration  for  the  Organon.  There 
are  few  men  of  even  moderate  ability  who  cannot  achieve  all  of 
Dr.  Lippe's  "  genius  "  if  they  work  as  hard  as  he  did  and  in  the 
right  way.  Bcenninghausen  was  undoubtedly  a  grand  pre- 
scriber,  and  it  is  an  honor  for  any  one  to  be  compared  with  him  ; 
but  we  doubt  if  he,  or  any  other  physician,  ever  studied  out  his 
cases  with  more  unvaried  care  than  did  the  late  Dr.  Lippe. 
No  flashes  of  genius  could  have  enabled  one  to  cure  the  many 
chronic  cases  which  he  cured ;  diligent,  careful  work  is  required 
to  gain  such  results.  The  necessity  for  this  diligent  study  of  the 
Materia  Medica  was  impressed  upon  Dr.  Lippe  by  his  preceptor, 
the  late  Dr.  Wesselhceft ;  often  have  we  heard  him  tell  how  his 
preceptor  made  him  thumb  his  Materia  Medica. 

Often  has  the  writer  heard  Dr.  Lippe  say,  in  speaking  of 
different  physicians,  "  he  does  not  study  his  cases  thoroughly," 
or  make  some  such  remark,  indicating  the  importance  he  attached 
to  such  study.  The  writer  was  once  associated  with  Dr.  Lippe 
in  the  care  of  a  very  difficult  case,  in  which  he  has  fre- 
quently known  him  to  spend  hour  after  hour  patiently  conning 
the  Materia  Medica  (this,  too,  after  nearly  forty  years  spent  at  such 
study).  Many  a  time  would  he  say,  "  Come  over  to-night  and  we 
will  study  the  case  over;"  frequently  have  we  asked  his  advice;  be- 
fore replying  he  would  almost  invariably  take  down  a  book  or 
two  to  look  up  the  remedy  desired.  Dr.  Ad.  Lippe  was  in  no 
sense  "  a  flash  prescriber." 

Genius  has  been  defined  as  an  unlimited  capacity  for  hard 
work  ;  this  genius  Dr.  Lippe  had  and  used  it  diligently  (and  in 
the  right  way)  for  forty  odd  years.  Was  it  then  any  wonder 
that  he  could  occasionally  prescribe  quickly?  He  never  pre- 
scribed until  he  felt  sure  of  his  remedy,  and  though  he  was  quick 
in  seeing  the  peculiar  features  of  his  patient's  history,  and  rapid 
in  selecting  his  remedy,  he  was  never  so  quick  as  to  be  termed 


36  . 


ARGENT UM  NITRICUM. 


[Jan.r 


careless.  There  is  a  distinction  to  be  noted  here ;  one  man  may 
spend  hours  on  a  case  and  then  make  a  careless  prescription ; 
another  with  better  trained  mind  may  prescribe  in  a  few  minutes 
and  make  a  very  careful,  accurate  prescription. 

We  do  not  pretend  to  affirm  that  Dr.  Lippe  did  not  make 
mistakes  ;  very  probably  he  would  have  been  the  last  man  to 
deny  legions  of  them  ;  but-we  do  believe  that  as  a  homoeopathic 
prescriber  neither  Boenninghausen  nor  Hahnemann  himself 
would  suffer  in  comparing  clinical  results  with  their  great  ad- 
mirer— Adolph  Lippe. 

ARGENTUM  NITRICUM— MENTAL  AND  NERVOUS 

SYMPTOMS. 

\V.  M.  Butler,  M.  D.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Few  remedies  by  their  provings  have  shown  greater  affinity 
for  the  nervous  system  than  Argentum-nitricum.  Brain  and 
spinal  cord  alike  in  a  large  number  of  provers  evinced  marked 
evidence  of  functional  disturbance  of  a  nature  to  produce  serious 
organic,  lesions.  To  the  consideration  of  some  of  these  symp- 
toms and  their  clinical  significance  we  now  invite  your  atten- 
tion. 

The  mental  symptoms  developed,  although  not  as  numerous 
and  varied  as  under  many  other  drugs,  are  characteristic  and 
important.  Certain  provers  while  under  its  influence  seemed 
almost  entirely  devoid  of  brain  power.  Imbecile  in  appearance, 
their  weakened  memories,  childish  talk,  and  inability  to  fix  their 
minds  upon  any  subject,  makes  a  vivid  picture  of  dementia. 
In  other  provers  various  delusions  of  a  depressing  character 
appear,  these,  with  their  hypochondriacal  anxiety  about  their 
sufferings,  and  belief  that  they  are  neglected  and  despised  by 
their  families,  with  fear  of  death  and  a  belief  that  all  their  busi- 
ness schemes  will  fail,  and  their  souls  ultimately  be  lost,  remind 
us  of  melancholia.  Thoughts  of  suicide,  especially  by  drowning, 
also  occur.  A  peculiar  mental  anxiety  is  also  developed,  which 
forces  the  patient  to  be  constantly  busy,  still  he  accomplishes 
nothing.  Constantly  in  a  hurry  he  hastens  to  fulfill  every  en- 
gagement, certain  that  he  will  be  too  late,  although  he  may  have 
an  hour  to  spare. 

A  marked  peculiarity  of  the  drug  is  its  development  of  illu- 
sions of  sight,  as,  for  instance,  when  walking  the  streets  the 
corners  of  houses  seem  to  project  so  that  the  person  fears  that  he 


1890.]  ARGENTUM  NITRICUM.  37 

will  run  against  them.  The  sight  of  high  houses  causes  dizzi- 
ness, and  the  impression  that  the  houses  on  both  sides  would 
approach  and  crush  him.  Another  characteristic  hallucination 
is  that  he  sees  snakes  around  him,  upon  himself  and  all  the 
objects  about  him.  Upon  the  strength  of  this  hallucination  we 
once  cured  a  severe  case  of  melancholia  with  Argent-nit.00  after 
numerous  other  drugs  had  utterly  failed.  Another  symptom 
similar  to  that  of  formication,  common  in  many  nervous  dis- 
eases, is  that  of  a  creeping,  crawling,  itching  sensation  upon  the 
scalp,  as  of  vermin,  or  as  if  the  roots  of  the  hair  were  pulled, 
causing  a  constant  desire  to  scratch. 

While  not  as  frequently  demanded  in  mental  as  general  ner- 
vous disease,  when  indicated  Argentum-nit.  will  prove  speedily 
and  permanently  efficacious. 

Prominent  among  the  head  symptoms  we  find  vertigo,  appear- 
ing under  different  conditions — Vertigo  in  the  morning,  as  if 
she  were  turning  in  a  circle,  causing  her  to  sit  down  to  prevent 
falling;  vertigo  with  complete,  though  transient,  blindness, 
general  debility  of  the  limbs  and  trembling;  vertigo  and  stag- 
gering gait ;  vertigo  when  walking  with  eyes  closed.  Staggers 
when  walking  in  the  dark  ;  has  to  seize  hold  of  things.  On 
stooping  while  walking,  he  staggers.  These  symptoms  of  dizzi- 
ness with  defective  co-ordination  have  been  repeatedly  verified, 
and  have  proven  most  valuable  helps  in  the  assignment  of  this 
drug  to  its  most  important  place  in  therapeutics.  Farrington 
asserts  that  vertigo  is  almost  always  present  when  Argent-nit. 
is  the  remedy. 

Several  important  headaches  also  belong  to  this  drug. 
Among  the  provings  we  find  excessive  congestion  of  the  head, 
with  heaviness  and  stupefying  dullness  of  the  head.  Pain  in 
the  head,  the  head  appearing  enlarged,  if  on  only  one  side  of 
the  head  the  eye  of  the  affected  side  appears  enlarged.  Boring 
and  digging  in  the  left  frontal  eminence.  Digging  and  tumul- 
tuous raging  in  right  hemisphere  of  brain  until  he  lost  his 
senses.  Digging,  cutting  motion  through  left  hemisphere  of 
the  brain,  extending  from  the  occiput  to  the  frontal  protuberance. 
Infraorbital  neuralgia  left  side.  Neuralgia  of  head  and  face, 
which  always  takes  away  her  eyesight.  In  regard  to  these  pains 
Farrington  says :  "It  is  one  of  the  best  remedies  we  have  for 
hemicrania.  This  is  not  a  simple  neuralgia.  It  is  a  deep-seated 
neurotic  disease,  and  by  some  is  supposed  to  be  of  epileptic 
nature.  It  comes  periodically  ;  for  its  relief  the  remedy  under 
consideration  is  one  of  the  best.  There  is  frequently  boring 
pain  in  the  head,  which  is  worse  in  the  left  frontal  eminence. 


38  ABGENTOM  NITRICUM.  [Jan., 

This  boring  is  relieved  by  tight  bandaging  of  the  head,  hence 
the  wearing  of  a  tight-fitting  silk  hat  relieves.  It  is  excited  by 
any  mental  emotion  of  an  unpleasant  kind,  or  by  anything  that 
depreciates  the  nervous  system,  as  loss  of  fluids,  loss  of  sleep  or 
mental  strain.  Sometimes,  the  pains  become  so  severe  that  the 
patient  loses  his  senses.  The  paroxysms  frequently  culminate 
in  vomiting  of  bile  or  sour  fluids." 

Arg-nit.  is  also  useful  in  a  peculiar  intense  neuralgia  charac- 
terized by  a  sensation  as  if  the  bones  of  the  head  were  separat- 
ing, or  the  head  was  enormously  large ;  also  in  prosopalgia, 
when  the  infraorbital  branches  of  the  fifth  pair  and  the  nerves 
supplying  the  teeth  are  involved. 

In  both  of  these  forms  of  neuralgia  the  pain  may  be  so  se- 
vere as  to  produce  a  loss  of  consciousness,  and  is  usually  attended 
by  a  sour  taste  in  mouth,  and  terminates  with  sour  or  bilious 
vomiting. 

We  recently  relieved  a  severe  case  of  facial  neuralgia  with 
Argent-nit.  guided  by  the  characteristic  desire  for  sugar,  the  pa- 
tient being  obliged  to  eat  a  coffee-cupful  at  a  time  to  satisfy 
the  longing. 

Another  neuralgia,  in  which  this  remedy  is  often  indicated,  is 
that  of  the  stomach.  It  is  especially  adapted  to  nervous  women, 
when  the  pain  has  been  produced  by  excitement  and  loss  of  sleep, 
or  occurs  during  the  menses.  The  patient  complains  of  a  lump 
in  the  stomach,  and  a  gnawing,  burning,  griping  pain,  which, 
commencing  in  the  pit  of  the  stomach,  radiates  in  every  direc- 
tion. This  is  accompanied  by  a  feeling  of  great  distension  as  if 
the  stomach  would  burst.  The  pain  is  aggravated  by  the  slight- 
est amount  of  food,  and  relieved  by  bending  double  and  firm 
pressure.  These  paroxysms  end  by  the  vomiting  of  stringy, 
gluey,  tenacious  mucus  and  the  eructation  of  enormous  quanti- 
ties of  wind. 

We  also  find  among  the  recorded  symptoms  severe  pains 
through  the  chest,  with  irregularity  or  intermittance  in  the 
action  of  the  heart,  inability  to  breathe,  with  cold  face  and 
hands  and  faintish  nausea.  This  vivid  picture  of  angina  pec- 
toris suggested  its  use  in  this  disease,  and  the  clinical  results 
have  verified  the  correctness  of  the  proving. 

Farrington  accords  to  this  remedy  a  high  rank  in  the  cure  of 
epilepsy,  which  has  been  caused  by  fright,  or  occurs  during  men- 
struation. He  gives  as  the  strong  indicating  symptom  in  this 
disease  dilated  pupils,  for  days  or  hours  before  the  attack,  the 
patient  being  exceedingly  restless,  with  great  tremulousness  of 
the  hands  after  the  seizure. 


1890.]  A  CONFESSION  AND  A  WARNING.  39 

In  no  nervous  disease  has  this  drug  been  more  frequently 
credited  with  efficiency  than  in  locomotor  ataxy.  Nor  have  the 
provings  of  any  other  drug  presented  more  symptoms  analogous 
to  those  recognized  as  characteristic  of  this  disease.  The  in- 
tense vertigo  in  the  dark  and  inability  to  stand  with  the  eyes 
closed,  general  defectiveness  in  muscular  co-ordination,  shooting 
pains  in  ditferent  parts  of  the  body,  band-like  constriction  of 
bowels,  epigastrium,  chest,  or  waist,  paralytic  symptoms  of  blad- 
der, numbness  of  finger-tips,  legs,  and  feet,  formication  of  arms 
and  legs,  general  tremulousness,  with  weakness  and  exhaustion 
make  an  almost  complete  portrait  of  the  disease,  and  warrant 
us  in  expecting  results  from  this  drug  when  applied  to  these 
cases.  When  positive  organic  changes  have  taken  place  in  the 
cord  we  do  not  believe  that  a  cure  can  be  effected  by  any  medi- 
cine, but  in  the  early  stages,  before  any  permanent  lesion  has 
occurred,  wTe  know,  from  the  overwhelming  testimony  of  nu- 
merous writers  in  our  school,  and  from  our  own  experience,  that 
much  good  can  be  accomplished  from  the  exhibition  of  Argent- 
nit. 

If  Argentum-nitricum  had  proved  utterly  useless  in  every 
field  of  disease,  except  that  of  the  nervous  system,  we  should 
still  be  under  countless  obligations  to  its  provers  for  their  ser- 
vices in  assigning  it  a  permanent  place  in  our  medical  armamen- 
tarium. 

A  CONFESSION  AND  A  WARNING. 

E.  W.  Berridge,  M.  D.,  London. 

We  are  none  of  us  infallible,  not  even  the  youngest  of  us; 
and  much  may  be  learnt  from  our  failures  and  errors,  if  we  will 
only  have  the  manly  candor  to  admit  and  point  out  our  own 
shortcomings,  that  our  colleagues  may  learn  to  avoid  them  also. 
There  are,  of  course,  some  who  are  never  wrong,  at  least  in  their 
own  estimation.  To  this  class  belong  the  physicians  who,  while 
pretending  to  be  Hahnemannians,  declare  that  in  certain  cases 
of  severe  pain  anaesthetics  must  be  resorted  to  ;  the  cause  being, 
in  their  opinion,  not  their  own  fallibility  in  the  selection  of  the 
simil/imum,  but  a  supposed  imperfection  in  Homoeopathy 
itself.  An  instance  of  this  conceited  egotism  occurred  a  few 
years  ago,  where  a  physician,  after  finding  that  a  single  dose  of  a 
high  potency  failed  to  relieve  severe  pain,  in  fifteen  minutes,  im- 
mediately lost  heart,  if  not  his  head,  and  proceeded  to  give  an 
anaesthetic  ;  and  though  high  potencies  subsequently  relieved  this 


40  A  CONFESSION  AND  A  WARNING.  [Jan., 

very  patient  of  pain  quite  as  severe,  instead  of  admitting  the 
bare  possibility  that  lie  had  not  selected  the  sunillimum,  declared 
"  I  am  now  convinced  "  [Query,  from  the  evidence  of  one  case  ?] 
"  that  there  are  cases,  though  I  have  found  them  few  and  far 
between,  where  the  palliative  measures  must  be  adopted."  Will 
it  be  believed  that  only  two  or  three  years  after  this  occurrence, 
this  same  physician  had  the  unblushing  effrontery  to  declare,  "  I 
state  it  as  fact,  that  daring  the  past  twelve  //cars  I  have  never 
once  prescribed  *  *  *  an  opiate  or  allopathic  palliati ve." 
What  confidence  can  be  placed  in  the  assertions  of  a  physician 
who  so  flatly  contradicts  himself  in  his  endeavor  to  exalt  him- 
self above  Hahnemann,  and  yet  to  find  favor  in  the  sight  of 
Hahnemann's  disciple-  ? 

Mrs.  was  safely  delivered  of  her  first  child  Sept.  30th, 

1883.  About  the  beginning  of  October  she  began  to  suffer 
much  from  piles,  for  which  the  physician  who  delivered  her 
prescribed  Sepia20*,  which  did  no  good.  I  was  then  consulted 
by  letter  on  October  16th  and  prescribed  Phosphoruscm  (F.C.), 
which  much  relieved  her,  entirely  removing  the  following 
symptom,  "  When  sitting  or  reclining,  shooting  pains  like  fine 
darting  needles  in  vagina  near  orifice;  they  come  on  suddenly 
like  several  beats  in  succession,  then  stop  and  begin  again  after 
a  measured  interval ;  they  come  without  apparent  cause  four  or 
five  times  daily,  continuing  with  their  short  intervals  of  cessation 
for  ten  or  fifteen  minutes;  a  slight  change  of  position  seemed  to 
give  relief  at  times  ;  needle-pains  in  rectum  also  near  orifice, 
sometimes  alternating  with  the  vaginal  pains,  but  more  often 
independent/' 

On  October  28th  I  was  telegraphed  for.  She  had  been  riding 
in  her  carriage,  and  the  cold  wind  had  blown  on  her  right  side, 
causing  sciatica.  I  found  her  with  constant  dull  pain  on  outside 
of  right  hip  as  if  it  had  been  hammered  ;  worse  by  lying  on  left 
side,  better  by  lying  on  right  side  and  by  hot  applications. 
Intermittent  shooting  pain  from  right  hip  to  knee  and  toward 
centre  of  abdomen.  Cramp-pains  in  right  calf  and  back  of 
right  thigh  when  stepping  on  right  foot  or  stretching  out  the 
right  leg.  Her  attendant  physician  had  given  her  Arsenic  and 
Colocynth,  which  were  "  like  so  much  water  on  a  duck's  back." 
I  prescribed  Ammoniitm-carb.2m  (Jenichen)  every  two  hours  till 
better. 

On  November  4th  reported  pains  in  the  hip  better  after  first 
dose ;  after  further  improvement  she  continued  the  medicine  at 
longer  intervals.    Now  the  hip  pains  are  gone. 

December  7th. — Her  attendant  physician  sent  me  the  follow- 


1890.]  A  CONFESSION  AND  A  WARNING.  41 


ing  report  :  Since  November  22d  she  had  suffered  intensely 
from  piles,  and  was  getting  worse,  in  spite  of  the  Carbo-animalis 
and  Natrum-carb.  Examination  showed  three  piles  very  much 
inflamed,  the  smallest  the  size  of  a  pea  ;  the  largest  almost  the 
size  of  the  end  of  the  thumb,  and  situated  nearest  the  vagina. 
On  pressing  upward  on  this  largest  pile  on  the  side  next  the 
anus,  there  is  felt  a  knife-pain  in  pile  and  extending  far  up 
rectum.  This  pile  has  a  hard  internal  kernel,  and  shrivels  on 
touch.  Feels  weak,  nervous,  despondent,  and  utterly  incapable 
of  doing  anything.  After  stool,  excessively  sharp  pain  like  a  knife 
cutting  ;  she  walks  for  relief,  and  it  is  better  from  hot  fomenta- 
tions. Numbness  of  right  leg,  with  feeling  of  a  tight  ligature 
just  above  knee,  and  feeling  of  a  large  ball  pressing  in  just  below 
hip  at  back  of  thigh  ;  this  makes  her  walk  lame,  and  right  leg 
feels  shorter  than  left.  These  leg  symptoms  were  at  first  felt 
only  before  and  after  stool,  but  now  continue  even  when  there 
is  no  stool.  Stool  of  waxy  consistency,  gray,  comes  down  and 
then  stops,  causing  sharp,  cutting  pain.  Hands  and  feet  become 
suddenly  cold.  Before  and  after  stool,  coccyx  feels  pushed  out 
with  burning.  Pain  in  piles  after  stool,  relieved  by  lying  on 
right  side.  Enema  of  water  at  temperature  of  100°  is  of  but 
little  use;  the  anus  seems  constricted,  so  that  it  is  painful  and 
difficult  to  pass  the  enema.  Had  a  slight  stool  yesterday  evening 
from  the  enema,  and  the  subsequent  pain  was  agony,  lasting 
till  this  afternoon.  Rectum  seems  inactive,  as  if  the  stool 
escaped  only  by  gravitation  ;  the  stool  passes  slowly,  and  does 
not  all  pass,  but  some  remains  behind  in  rectum.  Sensation  of 
utter  mental  incoherence,  thoughts  are  not  ready,  and  ex- 
pression labored  ;  the  incoherence  is  with  regard  to  grammar  ; 
she  says  it  is  as  if  she  were  feeling  her  way  in  a  foreign 
language.  She  says  she  suffers  more  pain  than  in  her  confine- 
ment, and  she  wants  chloroform. 

Now  surely  here  was  a  case  where  I  should  be  told  that 
u  something  must  be  done,"  and  u  where  the  suffering  was  so 
great  that  it  would  be  inhumau  to  have  withheld  a  means  of 
relief''  which  those  physicians  who  live,  move,  and  have  their 
being  in  the  late  Sir  James  Simpson,  "  know  from  long  (allo- 
pathic) experience  if  the  agent  was  not  incompatible  with  re- 
covery." But  being  a  Hahnemannian,  though  not  claiming  to 
be  infallible,  I  preferred  to  select  the  homoeopathic  remedy  in 
order  to  cure,  rather  than  give  "  an  agent  which  was  not  in- 
compatible with  recovery."  I  sent  Kali-carbon  icumcm  (F.  C), 
a  dose  to  be  taken  at  once,  and  repeated  every  twelve  hours. 
The  first  dose  was  taken  on  December  8th. 


42 


A  CONFESSION  AND  A  WARNING. 


[Jan, 


December  10th. — Patient  came  up  to  London,  and  called  on 
me.  No  pain  to-day  on  pressing  pile.  Less  lameness  on  walk- 
ing this  morning.    No  stool  to-day.    Mental  state  continues. 

Kali-carb.3cm  (Fincke)  every  twelve  hours. 

December  11th. — Last  evening,  after  the  first  dose  of  the  new 
potency,  used  an  enema  of  warm  olive  oil  ;  constriction  of  anus 
very  much  less,  and  no  pain  or  difficulty  with  enema.  Stool 
after  enema  was  painful,  but  nothing  like  the  former  pain.  The 
pains  before  and  after  stool  of  the  same  character,  but  less  in- 
tense. No  lameness  or  other  leg  symptoms  after  last  stool. 
For  thirty  minutes,  no  pain  after  stool,  but  on  pressing  the  pile 
the  cutting  returned,  lasting  some  time.  Stool  still  slow ; 
rectum  inactive,  does  not  seem  to  expel  all  its  contents,  as  if  the 
stool  only  passed  by  force  of  gravitation.  No  coccygeal  pains 
in  connection  with  last  stool.  Hands  and  feet  less  cold.  Inco- 
herence less  yesterday,  and  still  less  to-day.    Less  despondency. 

Kali-carb. em  (¥.  C.)  every  twelve  hours. 

December  13th. — Patient  tells  me  that  the  burning  pain  re- 
ferred to  on  November  28th,  which  had  continued  getting  worse, 
improved  after  the  first  two  doses  of  Kali,  and  is  better  now. 
Constriction  of  anus  not  returned  ;  can  introduce  enema  easily. 
The  knife-pain  felt  as  the  stool  descended,  which  was  getting 
quite  unbearable  till  she  commenced  the  Kali,  is  comparatively 
slight  now.  After  stool,  has  the  same  kind  of  pain,  but  less. 
Piles  less  inflamed,  and  less  pain  on  touching  them.  Mental 
symptoms  better.  This  morning  after  stool  had  the  ligature 
sensations,  and  the  lameness,  but  no  other  leg  symptoms,  and 
even  these  were  less  than  formerly.  Feet  cold  at  times.  Action 
of  bowels  still  incomplete,  rectum  seems  to  lose  power  at  end  of 
stool,  but  not  so  much  as  before  coccygeal  pains  returned,  but 
less.    Feels  decidedlv  better  on  the  whole  than  two  days  ago. 

Kali-carb.cm  (F.  C.)  every  twelve  hours. 

December  19th. — Says  she  "  feels  herself  improving  from 
hour  to  hour."  Had  a  stool  morning  of  15th;  concomitant 
symptoms  the  same  in  character,  but  infinitely  less  in  degree  ; 
the  itching,  however,  seems  to  increase;  the  leg  symptoms  were 
present,  though  modified  ;  had  to  lie  down  only  an  hour  or  two. 
Every  morning  following  had  about  two  sharp  knife-pains  ;  no 
stool  nor  desire  for  it,  and  no  other  pains.  Evening  of  18th, 
another  stool,  some  pain,  but  stool  quite  healthy.  No  mental 
symptoms.    Kali-carb.c    (F.  C.)  once  daily  for  seven  days. 

December  27th. — Now  I  saw  the  fatal  error  I  had  committed 
in  repeating  the  dose  after  so  great  an  improvement.  I  should 
have  allowed  it  to  act.    Patient's  letter  of  to-day  says  that  on* 


1890.] 


A  CONFESSION  AND  A  WARNING. 


43 


December  20th  she  had  stool,  and  never  were  mental  symptoms 
worse.  On  21st  another  stool  ;  the  pain  equaled  anything  she 
had  ever  suffered,  and  continued  for  thirty-six  hours.  Next 
stool  on  24th  not  so  painful.  On  26th  suffered  agony,  and  at 
the  time  of  writing)  fourteen  hours  after  the  stool,  the  pain  is  at 
times  excruciating.  The  sensation  is  no  longer  like  a  cutting 
knife,  but  more  like  pulse-beats  and  burning.  There  is  a  dead 
heavy  ache  all  the  time,  and  sensation  as  if  the  bowel  protruded, 
the  pulse-beats  and  burning  being  present  at  frequent  intervals. 
The  large  pile  does  not  appear  to  have  the  kernel  it  did,  and 
there  is  no  knife-pain  on  pressing  it.  Xo  return  of  the  leg 
symptoms.  She  says,  "  my  faith  and  hope  are  entirely  gone 
that  she  will  give  Homoeopathy  one  more  trial,  and  if  there  is  no 
decided  relief  from  pain,  must  seek  it  elsewhere.  (Query,  in 
Chloroform  f) 

Such  was  the  result  of  too  frequent  repetition  of  the  dose.  I 
wrote  to  her  to  lie  on  her  back  with  the  hips  raised,  after  stool ; 
to  retain  the  stool  as  long  as  possible,  until  there  was  a  strong 
desire,  and  then  use  enema  of  warm  olive  oil.  Hamameliscm 
(Fincke)  every  four  hours  for  six  days.  On  studying  this  case 
again  after  the  further  experience  of  six  years,  I  am  not  at  all 
sure  whether  this  was  the  best  treatment.  Perhaps  it  would 
have  been  better  to  have  given  no  medicine,  and  let  the  aggra- 
vation pass  off.  Jt  will  be  noticed  that  the  relief  from  the 
HamameUs  was  not  so  marked  as  from  the  first  few  doses  of 
Kali.  However  I  did  not  give  her  Chloroform,  which  is  some- 
thing to  be  looked  back  to  with  satisfaction. 

December  31st. — Writes  that  early  in  morning  of  29th,  after 
several  days  constipation,  there  was  a  stool,  not  so  painful. 
Later,  on  29th,  the  medicine  arrived.  In  evening,  after  taking 
two  doses,  a  second  stool  came  suddenly  ;  there  were  pains  in 
abdomen,  as  if  she  had  eaten  green  fruit,  though  her  diet  had 
been  as  usual.  There  was  great  pain  in  the  piles,  with  burning 
and  throbbing  afterward,  so  that  she  nearly  fainted  ;  profuse 
perspiration  at  the  time,  followed  by  chilliness  ;  the  pains  lasted 
about  eighteen  hours.  The  large  flabby  pile  was  not  at  all  sen- 
sitive ;  but  under  it,  and  extending  beyond  it  like  a  half- moon 
around  anus  was  something  that  felt  hard  and  was  very  painful. 
The  posterior  pile  had  doubled  in  size  since  29th.  Feels  in  her 
head  as  she  did  when  a  girl,  after  being  half-starved  in  a  school 
in  Germany  ;  nails  have  ridges  in  them.  This  evening  (Dec. 
31st),  there  was  another  stool,  followed  by  pain  for  about  ten 
hours.  The  hard,  tender  swelling  under  the  anterior  pile  has 
gone;  less  burning  and  throbbing,  and  only  in  posterior  pile. 


44 


A  CONFESSION  AND  A  WARNING. 


[Jan., 


Says  she  thinks  the  medicine  has  helped  her.  Begins  the  last 
powder  to-morrow.  After  finishing  it,  is  to  take  Hamamelis*5** 
(Fincke)  three  times  daily  for  six  days. 

January  19th,  1884. — Was  telegraphed  for.  Found  she  had 
had  a  relapse  from  catching  cold,  aud  had  come  up  to  London 
on  a  visit  to  a  friend,  a  professed  homoeopathic  physician. 
This  doctor,  though  knowing  that  she  was  my  patient,  took  her 
to  consult  a  mongrel.  The  result  of  this  consultation  was,  that 
the  patient  was  ordered  to  prevent  the  bowels  from  acting. 
When  1  saw  her  she  had  not  allowed  herself  to  have  a  stool  for 
eleven  days,  except  a  slight  one  on  ninth  day,  which  she  could 
not  restrain,  though  all  this  time  there  was  great  urgency.  The 
doctor  had  given  her  several  medicines  in  rapid  succession,  with 
only  temporary  relief.  Further  particulars  I  could  not  learn, 
as  the  doctor,  annoyed  at  his  failure,  and  at  the  patient  sending 
for  me,  purposely  absented  himself  during  my  visit,  merely 
leaving  a  list  of  the  medicines  used.  I  found  the  patient  lying 
on  the  couch,  with  frequent  and  great  urging  to  stool,  which 
was  frequently  passing  in  spite  of  all  her  efforts  to  prevent  it. 
Feeling  of  a  large  mass  low  down  in  rectum,  which  felt  para- 
lyzed. Constant  aching  and  burning  in  rectum,  relieved  by 
rubbing.  Stool  feels  as  if  if  dipped  back,  with  frequent  urging, 
and  a  little  passing.  Feels  a  fear  of  suicide.  Ordered  her  to 
allow  the  bowels  to  act  at  once,  and  prescribed  Siliceacm  (F.  C.) 
every  three  hours  till  relieved. 

January  20th. — Took  first  dose  yesterday  at  five  p.m.  At 
six  p.m.,  soft,  enormous  stool,  first  part  large  in  size ;  one  knife- 
pain  as  first  portion  of  stool  passed,  but  very  little  afterward.  The 
stool  did  not  seem  to  slip  back  after  the  first  dose,  but  there  was 
a  steady  slow  stool  without  exertion.  About  seven  p.  m.,  another 
similar  stool.  At  nine  A.  M.  to-day,  a  third  stool,  with  a  little 
knife-pain  at  first  portion  of  stool,  and  rectum  felt  weaker.  After 
this  stool,  the  external  piles,  which  had  vanished,  re-appeared, 
and  the  rectum  felt  all  loose  and  flopping  about,  as  if  it  would 
prolapse  on  walking;  this  became  better  in  course  of  day.  In 
evening,  another  stool.  Mental  condition  better.  To-day, 
since  early  dinner,  on  lying  down,  hollow  feeling  in  left  chest,  as 
if  heart  would  stop,  with  feeling  of  impending  danger,  relieved 
by  sitting  up  (never  had  this  symptom  before).  Very  sleepless 
for  last  two  nights.  Burning  and  throbbing  in  piles  after  stool, 
but  decreasing  each  day.  Urine  only  passes  when  straining  at 
stool ;  no  desire  for  it,  and  it  comes  without  force ;  this  is  rather 
better  to-day.  Last  two  nights,  when  awake,  creeping  on  back 
of  hands.    No  more  medicine. 


1890.]     IN  MEMORIAM— HENRY  NOAH  MARTIN,  M.  D.  45 


March  6th. — Weaned  baby  this  morning,  and  consulted  me 
for  trouble  with  the  breasts,  which  Bellad™  (F.  C.)  quickly 
relieved.  Says  that  after  taking  the  Silicea  the  bowels  moved 
painlessly  every  day,  and  she  has  never  had  any  real  pains  since, 
though  the  piles  have  not  quite  gone. 

This  case  shows, 

(1)  The  extreme  danger  of  a  too  frequent  repetition  of  the 
high  potency. 

(2)  That  even  in  the  severest  pains  it  is  unnecessary  to  give 
Chloroform  as  an  anesthetic,  our  law  being  infallible. 

(3)  That  patients  who  leave  a  Hahnemannian  for  a  mongrel 
physician  have  to  pay  the  penalty  of  increased  suffering,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  mortification  of  being  compelled  to  return  to  their 
first  love. 


HOMCEOPATHY  IN  NEW  YORK  CITY. 

Please  take  notice  ! 

"  The  definition  of  a  homoeopathic  physician  is  '  one  who  is  a 
member  of  the  Homoeopathic  County  Medical  Society. y  No  mat- 
ter if  I  have  recourse  to  allopathic  remedies,  I  am  a  homoeopathic 
physician  as  long  as  I  am  a  member  of  this  Society. 

"  Timothy  F.  Allen,  M.  D." 
As  reported  in  the  N.  Y.  Tribune,  Dec.  19th,  '89. 

This  is  the  New  York  City  standard  ! 

No  principles  are  necessary  ! 

Homoeopathy  is  but  a  sectarian  name  ! 

The  Homoeopathic  Medical  College  and  Hospital  of  the  city 
of  New  York,  of  which  Dr.  Allen  is  the  Dean,  supports  and 
upholds  these  doctrines,  and  this  accounts  for  the  fact  that  its 
graduates  do  not  know  anything  about  the  principles,  laws,  and 
practice  of  Homoeopathy. 

The  founder  of  Homoeopathy  proclaimed  a  law  irrefutable, 
eternal,  which  should  govern  its  practice.  This  has  been  thrown 
to  the  winds,  because  it  compelled  deep  research  and  scientific 
procedures.  Principles  are  of  no  value — popularity  and  power 
are  everything.  H.  Hitchcock,  M.  D. 


IN  MEMORIAM— HENRY  NOAH  MARTIN,  M.  D. 

At  the  regular  monthly  meeting  of  the  Homoeopathic  Medical 
Society  of  the  County  of  Philadelphia,  held  November  14th, 
'  1889,  the  following  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted  : 


4f>      HOMOEOPATHY  PHRENOLOGICAL!,  Y CONSIDERED.  [Jan., 


W^HEBEAS — Having  been  called  upon  by  the  will  of  Provi- 
dence to  part  with  our  esteemed  companion  and  brother  colleague, 
Henry  Noah  Martin,  M.  D.,  we  respectfully  offer  the  following 
resolutions  : 

Resolved — That  during  his  life  we  recognized  in  him  the 
qualities  that  make  the  true  physician,  the  respected  counselor, 
and  the  safe  teacher  ;  that  in  his  numerous  contributions,  prov- 
ings,  teachings,  and  precepts,  we  acknowledge  the  deep  th  inker 
and  conscientious  worker  in  his  chosen  profession,  and  that  in 
his  death  we  feel  that  Homoeopathy  has  lost  one  of  its  most 
earnest  advocates,  and  our  Society  one  of  its  most  illustrious 
members. 

Resolved — That  we  extend  to  his  bereaved  family  our  sympa- 
thy for  the  removal  of  the  husband  and  father,  and  to  the  commu- 
nity at  large,  for  the  loss  of  a  gentle,  kind,  and  beneficent  friend. 

Resolved — That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  sent  to  his 
family  ;  that  they  be  published  in  the  Hahnnemanian  Monthly 
and  Homceopathic  Physician,  of  Philadelphia,  and  that  they 
be  entered  on  the  journal  of  this  Society. 

(Signed),  A.  R.  Thomas,  M.  D., 

Geo.  W.  Smith,  M.  D., 
C.  Mohr,  M.  D., 

Committer, 

By  order  of  the  President, 

Wm.  W.  Van  Baun,  M.  D., 

Secretary. 


HOMCEOPATHY  phrenologically  con- 
sidered. 

Geo.  W.  Sherbino,  M.  D.,  Abilene,  Texas. 

I.  The  organ  of  amativeness  is  influenced  by  Can-ind.,  Canth., 
Conium,  Hyos.,  Kali-brom.,  Lach.,  Lilium-tig.,  Murex-p., 
Nux-vom.,  Phos.,  Phos-acid.,  Sabina,  Staphis.,  Stram., 
Verat-a.,  and  others. 

II.  Combativeness,  by  Aeon.,  Agar-m.,  Alco.,  Amb.,  Ant-t., 
Arsen.,  Aur.,  Bar-c,  Bell.,  Brom.,  Bry.,  Calc-c.,  Canth.,  Caust., 
Cham.,  China,  Elaps,  Ferr.,  Hyos.,  Ig.,  Kali-i.,Lach.,  Lycopod., 
Nux-vom.,  Petrol.,  Platina,  Ruta,  Sep.,  Staph.,  Stram.,  Sul-ac, 
Tarent.,  Thuja,  Verat-v.,  Viola-t,,  Zn. 

III.  Destructiveness,  Bell.,  Hyos.,  Mer-i-f.,  Opium,  Vera- 
trum-alb. 


1890.] 


CLINICAL  CASES. 


47 


IV.  Acquisitiveness,  Bry-a.,  Cale-c.  (Calc-rlu.),  Nux-v.,  Puis. 

V.  Firmness,  Bell.,  Calc-c.,  Cham.,  Lyco.,  Nux-v.,  Nitric  acid, 
Sanicula,  Silicea,  Stram.,  Sulph. 

VI.  Caution,  Aconite,  Alcob.,  Arsen.,  Cup-m.,  Hyos.,  Nux- 
v.,  Opium,  Puis.,  Stram. 

VII.  Benevolence,  Alcoh.,  Anacard.,  Coff-t. 

VIII.  Conscientiousness,  Arsen.,  Aurum,  Igu.,  Hyos.,  Nux- 
v.,  Sil. 

IX.  Hope,  Aeon.,  Calc-c,  Ferr-m.  (alternating  with  sadness, 
Raph.)  Sulph.,  Verat-a. 

X.  Marvellousness,  Stramonium. 

XI.  Imitation,  Stram. 

XII.  Form,  Bell.,  Cup.,  Hyos. 

XIII.  Causality,  Stram. 

XIV.  Veneration,  Coff. 

XV.  Secretiveness,  Agar-m.,  Alco. 

XVI.  Mirth,  Aeon.,  iEnanth.,  Arum.,  Asaf.,  Bell.,  Crocus, 
Hyos.,  Ign.,  Nux-m.,  Puis.,  Phos.,  Sepia,  Stram. 

XVII.  Adhesiveness,  Bell.,  sweet  outpourings  of  Alco. 

XVIII.  Self-Esteem, Ign.  and  Platina. 

XIX.  Philoprogenitiveness,  Ox-ac. 

C  LIXICAL  CASES. 
G.  W.  Sherbino,  If.  D.,  Abilene,  Texas. 

Religious  Mania. — Mr.  X.,  set.  twenty-one.  Had  been  work- 
ing hard  on  a  farm.  Took  to  reading  the  Bible  excessively;  would 
sit  up  late  at  night  after  a  hard  day's  work  to  read. 

He  soon  imagined  he  was  called  to  preach,  which  he  did  do. 
He  became  sleepless;  wanted  to  talk  all  the  time  on  the  Bible; 
he  was  very  loquacious.  1  gave  him  Stramonium  CMM,  he 
seemed  a  little  better. 

They  put  him  in  jail  for  safe-keeping.  He  would  strip  off 
all  his  clothing  every  night,  notwithstanding  it  was  winter,  com- 
pelling the  jailer  to  go  in  and  admonish  him  to  dress  himself.  I 
gave  him  Hyos.  CM.  He  improved  so  much  that  they  took 
him  home  again.  In  a  few  days  the  father  called  at  the  office 
with  his  head  and  face  scratched.  He  said  his  boy  was  perfectly 
wild  ;  that  he  had  tried  to  smash  the  clock,  and  when  the  father 
interfered  he  attempted  to  bite  and  strike.  I  sent  Bell.  CM 
(Skinner),  which  fixed  him  up  in  good  shape.  They  sent  him 
to  the  asylum  for  a  short  time,  but  he  was  perfectly  quiet  and 
rational. 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 


Gunpowder  Stains. — The  unsightly  condition  produced  by  gunpowder 
stains,  it  is  said,  can  be  removed  by  first  painting  the  skin  with  a  solution  of 
biniodide  of  ammonium  in  an  equal  part  of  distilled  water,  and  then  with 
dilute  hydrochloric  acid.  Fortunately  the  general  practitioner  is  rarely  called 
upon  to  treat  such  cases,  but  when  he  meets  with  them  he  should  bear  the 
above  in  mind. 

For  "Black  Eye"  there  is  nothing  to  compare,  says  the  N.  Y.  Medical 
Times,  with  the  tincture  of  a  strong  infusion  of  capsicum  annuum  mixed  with 
an  equal  bulk  of  mucilage  of  gum  arabic  and  with  the  addition  of  a  few  drops 
of  glycerin.  This  should  be  painted  all  over  the  bruised  surface  with  a  camel's 
hair  pencil  and  allowed  to  dry  on,  a  second  or  third  coating  being  applied  as 
soon  as  the  first  is  dry.  If  done  as  soon  as  the  injury  is  inflicted,  this  treat- 
ment will  invariably  prevent  the  blackening  of  the  bruised  tissue.  The  same 
remedy  has  no  equal  in  rheumatic  sore  or  stiff'  neck. 

He  was  fond  of  Coffee. — Abd-el-Kader  Anasari  Djezeri  Hanabali,  son 
of  Mohammed,  thus  expresses  his  opinion  of  this  delicious  beverage: 

lt  O  coffee  !  thou  dispellest  the  cares  of  the  great ;  thou  bringest  back 
those  who  wander  from  the  paths  of  knowledge.  Coffee  is  the  beverage  of 
the  people  of  God,  and  the  cordial  of  His  servants  who  thirst  for  wisdom. 
When  coffee  is  infused  into  the  bowl,  it  exhales  the  odor  of  musk.  The  truth 
is  not  known  except  to  the  wise,  who  drink  it  from  the  foaming  coffee-cup. 
God  has  deprived  fools  of  coffee,  who,  with  invincible  obstinacy,  condemn  it 
as  injurious.  Coffee  is  our  gold,  and  in  the  place  of  its  libations  we  are  in  the 
enjoyment  of  the  best  and  noblest  society.  It  is  even  as  innocent  a  drink  as 
the  purest  milk,  from  which  it  is  only  distinguished  by  its  color.  Tarry  with 
thv  coffee  in  the  place  of  its  preparation  and  the  good  God  will  hover  over 
thee."— Table  Talk. 

"The  Prevention  of  Colds"  was  the  subject  of  a  recent  paper  read  be- 
fore the  New  York  Homoeopathic  Medical  Society.  In  it  the  author  declared 
that  colds  can  be  prevented  by  developing  the  elasticity  and  vigor  of  the  skin. 
The  skin  should  be  prepared  to  meet  and  resist  atmospheric  cold  by  system- 
atic and  regulated  exposures  to  cold  treatment,  which  is  easiest  applied  in  the 
bath.  We  should  begin,  he  said,  with  such  a  temperature  as  is  easily  within 
the  reactive  powers  already  present,  when  the  time  of  exposure  is  properly 
regulated,  and  increase  the  demand  for  reactive  effort  as  the  ability  to  respond 
becomes  greater.  It  is  by  a  similar  system  that  we  develop  the  muscles.  A 
case  in  point  was  that  of  a  Boston  man  whose  lungs,  after  an  attack  of  pneu- 
monia, were  thought  to  be  too  much  affected  to  bear  another  Northern  winter. 
After  spending  several  winters  in  the  South,  to  the  neglect  of  his  business,  he 
was  hardened  sufficiently  for  a  Northern  winter  by  trunk  and  spine  rubbings 
twice  a  day,  washing  off  with  water  gradually  reduced  in  two  weeks'  time 
from  90°  F.  to  70°  F.,  and  maintained  at  this  temperature  all  winter. 

A  Good  Subject  for  Surgery. — The  native  Egyptian  is  an  extremely 
good  subject  for  surgical  operation.  Clot  Bey,  the  founder  of  modern  medi- 
cine in  Egypt,  has  it  that  "  it  requires  as  much  surgery  to  kill  one  Egyptian 
as  seven  Europeans.  In  the  native  hospital  the  man  whose  thigh  is  ampu- 
tated at  two  o'clock  is  sitting  up  and  lively  at  six."  Shock  is  almost  entirely  un- 
known and  dread  of  an  impending  operation  quite  an  exception.  In  explana- 
tion may  be  noted  the  resignation  inculcated  by  their  religion,  the  very  small 
proportion  of  meat  they  eat  and  the  total  absence  of  alcohol  from  their  diet 
and  in  general  their  regular,  abstemious  out-of-door  life. — Science. 

48 


THE 

HOMEOPATHIC  PHYSICIAN, 

A  MONTHLY  JOURNAL  OF 

HOMEOPATHIC  MATERIA  MEDICA  AND  CLINICAL  MEDICINE. 


If  our  school  ever  give  up  the  strict  inductive  method  of  Hahnemann,  we 
are  lost,  and  deserve  only  to  be  mentioned  as  a  caricature  in 
the  history  of  medicine."— constantine  hering. 


Vol.  X.  FEBRUARY,  1890.  No.  2. 


EDITORIALS. 

La  Grippe. — As  the  literature  of  "  la  grippe  "  comes  along 
in  the  journals,  we  poor  benighted  followers  of  Hahnemann 
may  learn  what  heaps  of  science  and  drugs  are  required  for  its 
treatment. 

While  we  are  keeping  our  deluded  patients  from  the  under- 
takers' hands;  and  while  we  are  not  helping  to  fill  the  coffers 
of  drug  venders,  our  scientific  friends  are  still  theorizing  about 
the  pathological  character  of  the  disease,  and  are  as  much  at 
variance  regarding  its  treatment  as  they  always  are  in  the  treat- 
ment of  any  affection. 

Thus,  Dr.  Dobell,  of  London,  advises :  "  The  bowels  to  be 
kept  open  by  any  aperient  known  to  act  most  kindly  with  the 
patient/'  Then  the  following  inhalation:  "  Creasoti,  3j  ;  ole' 
caryoph.,  gj  ;  olei  eucalyp.  glob.,  3j. ;  tr.  camph.  co.  ad.,  .lij.'i 
"  To  be  put  in  a  jar  with  boiling  water  and  inhaled,  and  repeated 
every  two  hours.  In  the  interim  gargle  -occasionally  with  hot 
water.  Soon  after  the  first  inhalation  begin  the  following  re- 
storative febrifuge  :  sp.  camphorse,  3j.  ;  sp.  etheris  nitr.,  3j.;  tr. 
quin.  amnion,  ad  £ij.  Ft.  Guttae.  One  teaspoonful  stirred  in  a 
claret-glass  of  water  every  three  hours.  If  the  temperature 
rises  above  101  °  F.,  take  gr.  v.  of  antifebrin  in  two  tablespoon- 
fuls  of  beef-tea,  and  repeat  every  hour  until  the  temperature 
falls  to  100°,  continuing  the  inhalations  and  drops  as  before.  If 
pain  or  oppression  at  the  chest  sets  in,  apply  hot  poultices.,, 
That  is  the  English  of  it 

4  49 


50 


EDITORIALS. 


[Feb, 


Our  French  friends,  speaking  through  M.  Henri  Huchars,  in 
the  Revue  generate  de  Clinique  et  de  Therapeutique,  think  that 
adynamic  symptoms  are  the  most  marked.  Cinchona,  alcoholic 
beverages,  and  the  like  are  recommended  to  be  given  at  first. 
"  For  more  serious  cases,  where  prostration  is  marked,  injections 
of  ether  or  of  caffeine  should  be  used.  If  the  fever  continues 
after  quinine,  eight  to  fifteen  grains,  has  been  given,  theti  fifteen 
grains  of  antipyrin  should  be  taken.  If  rheumatoid  and  neu- 
ralgic symptoms,  the  antipyrin  should  be  given  two  or  three 
times  a  day.  Or,  in  the  place  of  antipyrin,  phenacetine  and 
salol,  in  eight-grain  doses.  When  the  adynamia  becomes  more 
marked,  from  broncho-pulmonary  complications,  stimulants  are 
to  be  used  freely.  Strychnia  is  advised  when  dyspnoea  is  ex- 
treme. And,  in, the  renal  form  of  the  affection,  sometimies,  the 
only  thing  that  will  relieve  is  venesection,  though,  ordinarily, 
this  is  the  last  thing  to  be  thought  of  in  a  disease  in  which  the 
adynamic  tendency  is  so  pronounced.  In  the  gastro-intestinal 
form  it  is  necessary  to  employ  mild  purgatives,  such  as  castor-oil 
or  calomel,  and  to  obtain  intestinal  antisepsis  by  means  of  sali- 
cylate of  bismuth,  or  of  magnesia,  naphthol,  etc.  If  an  emetic 
is  at  auy  time  indicated,  tartar-emetic  should  never  be  used,  but 
ipecac  given  in  preference." 

If  anything,  we  think  the  French  slightly  ahead  of  the 
English.  Please  note  the  Englishman  says  nothing  of  u  intes- 
tinal antisepsis,"  and  nothing  of  venesection.  We  are  standing 
up  for  both  of  these  procedures.  How  can  any  one  recover 
whose  intestines  need  "antisepsis"  and  do  not  get  it? 

And  then  the  stimulants  !  Who  will  not  stand  up  for  stimu- 
lants? It  is  true  that  they  do  render  the  chance  of  recovery 
less;  that  they  are  a  draught  on  vitality;  and  that  the  patient 
is  usually  made  more  adynamic  by  their  use.  What  of  that? 
Are  you  not  doing  something  for  the  patient?  And  when  death 
comes  can  you  not  have  all  who  knew  of  the  treatment  of  the 
case  bear  witness  that  you  have  done  all  that  is  possible?  Mon- 
grels, make  note  of  this.  The  two  schools  are  coming  closer  to- 
gether, and  even  though  you  do  take  the  name  of  beneficent 
Homoeopathy,  do  not  hesitate  to  do  as  you  always  do — what  is 
possible. 

After  doing  what  is  possible,  and  when  your  patients  are 
buried — for  you  are  the  cause  of  burying  many  who  think  you 
practice  Homoeopathy — then,  if  you  have  any  conscience,  and 
wish  to  know  how  to  do  right,  go  to  the  works  of  Hahnemann, 
and  learn  of  him  how  to  apply  the  only  law  of  therapeutics. 
Then  you  can  do  only  what  is  right;  then  you  will  more  plainly 


1890.] 


EDITORIALS. 


51 


see  what  harm  you  are  doing  to  a  principle  which*  has  its  foun- 
dation in  honesty,  and  a  superstructure  of  results  that  stand  un- 
approaehed  in  the  history  of  medicine.  G.  H.  C. 


Wines  and  Liquors  in  Medicine. — Alcohol,  in  its  various 
forms,  as  brandy,  wines,  etc.,  can  be  used  in  cases  in  which  it  is 
indicated  according  to  the  law  of  similars,  with  as  good  results 
as  other  remedies  show. 

Brandy-drinkers  are  liable  to  cancer  of  the  stomach,  in  which 
there  is  intense  burning  pain.  A  few  drops  of  brandy  in  half 
a  tumblerful  of  water  will  relieve,  temporarily,  this  intense 
burning.  Drinkers  of  Rhine  wines  are  prone  to  bladder  trou- 
bles. Of  this  fact  we  may  make  use.  Madeira  wines  cause  af- 
fections of  the  heart.  A  spoonful  of  Madeira  wine  will  often 
relieve  the  more  grave  symptoms  of  organic  heart  disease. 

The  continued  use  of  whiskey,  as  is  well  known,  causes  cir- 
rhosis of  the  liver  and  of  the  kidneys,  and  gives  rise  to  a  train 
of  symptoms  which  should  be  sufficient  to  keep  any  one  with 
this  knowledge  from  becoming  a  whiskev-drinker. 

No  one,  with  even  a  superficial  knowledge  of  Homoeopathy 
will  ever  use  stimulants  in  any  form  in  disease,  as  only  harm  can 
result.  But  where  poverty  of  the  blood  exists  there  is  nothing 
to  compare  to  red  wines,  and  our  own  country  now  furnishes  as 
good  wines  as  can  be  found.  Egg  Harbor,  Xew  Jersey,  now 
produces  wines  equal  to  Burgundy  in  being  full-bodied  and  gen- 
erous, and  we  know  of  no  native  wines  that  are  at  all  compara- 
ble with  them.  This  subject  deserves  fuller  treatment,  and  we 
trust  that  we  mav  shortly  be  able  to  go  into  it  more  deeply. 

G.  H.  C. 


Mercurius  in  Typhoid  Fever. — In  Hering's  Coiidensed 
Materia  Medica,  under  Chill,  in  Mercurius,  is  this  symptom  : 
Contra-iudicated  in  typhoid  fever,  except  for  marked  icteroid  or 
scorbutic  symptoms.  In  the  Guiding  Symptoms  there  is  this: 
Typhoid  fevers  with  marked  icteroid  or  scorbutic  symptoms. 
Among  some  of  the  older  Hahnemannians  the  same  idea  obtained. 
Upon  what  it  was  based  we  were  never  able  to  learn.  Some 
years  ago,  while  treating  a  severe  case  of  typhoid  fever,  we  called 
the  late  Dr.  Fellger  in  consultation.  At  the  time  the  symptoms 
called  for  Mercurius,  and  we  were  giving  it,  although  we  knew 
of  the  above  in  Hering's  Condensed.  Dr.  Fellger  confirmed 
our  choice  of  remedy.  We  then  spoke  to  him  of  Hering's  ob- 
servation.   He  informed  us  that  he  knew  of  no  reason  for  not 


52 


EDITORIALS. 


[Feb, 


giving  Mercurius  in  typhoid  fever,  when  indicated.  Dr.  Fellger 
said  he  had  spoken  to  Dr.  Hering  on  the  subject,  and  that 
Hering  thought  it  should  not  be  given.  Dr.  Lippe  seems  to 
have  had  the  same  idea.  Dr.  Fellger  related  a  case  of  typhoid 
fever,  which  he  had  seen  many  years  before,  in  consultation  with 
Dr.  Lippe.  Fellger  said  Mercurius  was  indicated.  Lippe  was 
averse  to  giving  it.  Dr.  Fellger  at  last  convinced  him  that  as  it 
was  indicated  nothing  else  should  be  given.  The  case  was  a 
desperate  one,  and  after  the  Mercurius  was  given  the  serious 
condition  began  to  improve,  and  the  patient  made  a  good  recov- 
ery. It  is  the  duty  of  the  homoeopath  ician  always  to  give  the 
indicated  remedy,  no  matter  what  the  condition.  Otherwise  we 
should  be  as  hopelessly  muddled  as  are  the  mongrels. 

G.  H.  C. 


Antiseptics. — "  Who  shall  ever  know  the  number  of  victims 
that  have  been  slain  in  the  large  cities,  in  hospital  and  private 
practice,  on  the  altar  of  this  Moloch  of  antisepsis  ?"  This  is  a 
query  found  in  a  letter  from  "a  country  doctor  99  in  the  Medical 
Record,  Dec.  28th,  1889.  It  is  a  pertinent  question.  In  view  of 
the  practice  now  common  of  using  so-called  antiseptics  in  cases 
of  wounds,  operations,  and  even  in  obstetric  practice  for  normal 
labor,  it  seems  time  to  call  a  halt.  If  such  be  necessary  in 
labor,  which  is  a  physiological  process,  why  should  we  not 
resort  to  their  use  when  we  take  food,  and  at  all  other  times? 
If  it  be  true  that  microbes  cause  all  the  affections  we  meet,  why 
should  we  not  constantly  live  in  an  atmosphere  made  sterile  (?) 
by  the  use  of  antiseptics?  If  Lawson  Tait's  experience  has  not 
been  sufficient  to  show  the  utter  nonsense  of  this  craze,  we 
Hahnemannians  can  bring  sufficient  testimony  to  bear  to  con- 
vince any  thinking  person  that  not  only  is  there  no  necessity  for 
such  treatment,  but  much  harm  is  done,  and  death  frequently 
follows  the  use  of  Carbolic  acid  and  bichloride  of  Mercury,  the 
substances  most  often  used. 

Lister,  the  father  of  antisepticism,  not  wishing  to  turn  aside 
from  the  usual  method  of  lauding  highly,  for  a  time,  a  plan  for 
treating  surgical  affections,  has  concluded  to  drop  what  he  has 
been  recommending  for  years,  and  has  taken  to  a  new  antiseptic, 
the  double  cyanides  of  Mercury  and  Zinc.  The  users  of  this 
will  soon  get  up  provings  of  this  double  salt,  and  we  can  then 
profit  by  their  work. 

In  making  use  of  a  mixture  of  remedies  we  are  still  following 
Hahnemann's  teachings.  It  does  not  matter  how  many  sub- 
stances enter  into  any  compound,  so  long  as  we  can  have  a  record 


1890.] 


EDITORIALS. 


53 


of  the  proving  of  that  mixture,  and  so  long  as  we  can  use  pre- 
parations made  from  the  original.  S.  L.  asks  a  question  on  this 
subject  at  p.  353,  Aug.,  1889,  number  of  this  journal,  and  wishes  to 
know  "whether  it  shall  be  considered  progressive  Hom<eopathy 
or  otherwise."  It  is  certainly  Homoeopathy,  and  Homoeopathy 
is  always  progressive.  That  which  is  a  fact  in  Homoeopathy 
to-day  will  be  a  fact  for  all  time.  Law  to  govern  and  guide  in 
the  practice  of  medicine,  an  unchangeable  law  of  Nature,  is  what 
enables  us  to  be  progressive.  Without  law  no  advance  is  made. 
Vide  the  morass  of  allopathy  and  mongrelism. 

G.  H.  C. 


Microbes,  Bacilli,  Cocci,  these  be  the  cry  of  scientific 
medicine — at  present.  How  long  will  they  continue  to  afford 
the  scientists  ground  for  their  ignorance?  Give  a  moment's 
homoeopathic  thought  to  the  subject,  and  bring  your  experience 
to  bear.  It  is  assumed  that  each  disease  has  its  microbe  ;  and 
that  the  organisms  can  be  cultivated  ;  and  that  the  same  disease 
can  be  generated  by  inoculating  this  cultivation.  Q.  E.  I). 
There  is  doubt  regarding  it  even  in  the  ranks  of  those  who  make 
the  claim.  Take  tuberculosis,  for  illustration.  How  often  have 
you  seen  tuberculosis  where  there  was  no  history  of  heredity  ? 
Doubtless  you  may  cause  disease  by  inoculating  the  cultivations  ; 
but,  are  you  not  introducing  some  septic  substance,  which  is  the 
prime  factor  in  causing  the  symptoms  of  disturbance?  Where 
tuberculosis  does  occur  with  a  want  of  heredity  to  account  for 
the  condition,  do  not  stop  there,  but  question,  and  you  will  learn 
that  the  mode  of  life  has  been  such  as  to  get  the  system  in  such 
a  state  as  to  cause  the  condition  present.  Microbes,  and  all 
other  so-called  generators  of  disease  are  vegetable  parasites,  and 
like  all  vegetable  life,  will  only  flourish  on  a  suitable  soil.  Even 
hereditary  tuberculosis  may  be  made  to  remain  latent  by  living 
properly,  and  living  properly  means,  above  all  other  things, 
plenty  of  wholesome  air  and  nourishing  food.  Live  as  a  civi- 
.lized  man  should,  and  do  not  defile  your  lungs  with  pre-breathed 
air — the  most  prolific  source  of  not  only  affections  of  the  lungs, 
but  of  all  other  maladies.  G.  H.  C. 


Hahnemannian  Homoeopathy. — Nothing  requires  more 
firmness  than  to  practice  Hahnemann ian  Homoeopathy  properly. 
The  choice  of  the  remedy  in  a  given  case  may  be  easy,  but  to 
watch  its  effects,  and  to  permit  it  to  do  all  that  it  properly  can 
do,  and  at  the  same  time  to  have  the  patient's  friends  continu- 
ally asking,  and  advising  the  physician  to  do  more,  or  some- 


54 


EDITORIALS. 


[Feb, 


thing  else,  calls  for  an  amount  of  resolution  that  many  men 
lack.  Nothing  is  more  difficult  than  an  attempt  to  show  a  pa- 
tient or  his  friends  that  it  is  necessary  to  await  the  action  of  one 
remedy  before  resorting  to  another.  Particularly  in  serious  and 
painful  affections  is  this  the  case.  And  yet,  knowing  that  one 
is  doing,  not  what  is  possible,  but  right,  it  is  one's  conscientious 
duty  not  to  be  turned  from  that  path.  The  Hahnemannian,  if 
he  has  chosen  the  remedy  after  a  careful  and  painstaking  study 
of  all  the  elements  of  the  case,  and  if  he  bear  in  mind  the  teach- 
ings of  those  who  have  given  a  lifetime  to  the  study  and  prac- 
tice of  Hahnemannian  Homoeopathy,  should  know  that  there  is 
literally  no  other  way  of  doing  good  to  his  patient. 

If  we  wish  to  know  what  Hahnemann  taught  on  this  subject, 
we  may  read  these  words  :  "  If  the  medicine  we  have  chosen  for 
the  positive  (curative)  treatment  excites  almost  no  sufferings 
previously  unfelt  by  the  patient,  produces  no  new  symptom,  it  is 
the  appropriate  medicament,  and  will  certainly  cure  the  original 
malady,  even  though  the  patient  and  his  friends  should  not  ad- 
mit that  any  amendment  has  resulted  from  the  commencing 
doses — and  so,  also,  conversely,  if  the  amelioration  of  the  origi- 
nal disease  take  place  in  its  whole  extent  from  the  action  of  the 
curative  medicine,  the  medicine  cannot  have  excited  any  serious 
new  symptoms. 

"  Every  aggravation,  as  it  is  called,  of  a  disease  that  occurs 
during  the  use  of  a  medicine  fin  doses  repeated  before  or  imme- 
diately after  the  expiry  of  its  term  of  action),  in  the  form  of 
new  symptoms  not  hitherto  proper  to  the  disease,  is  owing  solely 
to  the  medicine  employed  (if  it  do  not  occur  just  a  few  hours 
before  inevitable  death,  if  there  have  taken  place  no  important 
error  of  regimen,  no  outbreak  of  violent  passions,  no  irresistible 
evolution  of  the  course  of  nature  by  the  occurrence  or  cessation 
of  the  menstrual  function,  by  puberty,  conception,  or  parturi- 
tion) ;  these  symptoms  are  always  the  effect  of  the  medicine, 
which,  as  an  unsuitably  chosen  positive  remedy,  or  as  a  negative 
(palliative)  remedy,  either  ill  selected  or  given  for  too  long  a  . 
time  and  in  too  large' doses,  develops  them  by  its  peculiar  mode 
of  action  to  the  torment  and  destruction  of  the  patient." 

This  from  Hahnemann's  Lesser  Writings.  This  is  a 
work  that  every  practicing  physician  should  possess.  It  con- 
tains much  written  subsequent  to  the  Organon,  and  much  is  to 
be  learned  from  it  that  can  be  found  in  no  other  place.  From 
its  pages  we  may  readily  see  what  a  profound  thinker  we  follow, 
and  no  homoeopathician's  education  is  complete  without  a  knowl- 
edge of  its  contents.  G.  H.  C. 


1890.] 


EDITORIALS. 


55 


Pathology. — If  those  so-called  homoeopath ists  who  seem  so 
anxious  to  don  "  pathological  livery/'  as  our  lamented  Lippe 
used  to  say,  would  only  familiarize  themselves  with  all  that  is 
said  on  the  subject  of  pathology  by  those  who  most  cultivate 
that  field,  possibly  they  might  be  made  to  see  that  symptoma- 
tology, in  the  Hahnemann ian  sense,  is  of  more  value.  The 
President  of  the  New  York  Pathological  Society  said,  at  a  re- 
cent meeting:  "As  yet  pathology  has  advanced  medical  science 
but  little  toward  its  true  object,  the  cure  of  disease,  but  I  be- 
lieve that  the  time  is  coming  when  this  object  will  be  attained, 
and  when,  by  a  more  perfect  knowledge  of  the  beginnings  of 
disease,  its  treatment  will  be  more  rational  and  more  satisfactory 
in  its  results." 

Pathology,  relegated  to  its  proper  place ;  used  as  it  should  be 
used ;  used  as  only  a  Hahnemannian  knows  how  rightly  to  use 
it,  is  of  assistance  only  in  enabling  the  true  physician  to  approxi- 
mately estimate  the  progress  of  the  disease,  and  the  value  of 
the  action  of  the  remedy. 

Even  though  we  were  to  admit  that  pathology  can  assist  us 
in  treating  any  given  case,  can  we  also  admit  that  the  most  of 
what  is  now  given  as  pathology  is  of  any  real,  practical  value? 
Pathology  to  be  of  worth  should  be  the  natural  history  of  dis- 
eases. And  what  is  known  of  diseased  states,  minus  the  alter- 
ations in  the  various  tissues  caused  by  the  use  of  powerful 
drugs  :  and  these  mostly  in  conglomeration  ?  Literally  nothing. 
Even  histology  lacks  much  that  it  otherwise  would  possess  if  it 
had  been  elaborated  by  study  of  the  tissues  uncomplicated  and 
unaltered  by  drugs.  There  is  more  to  be  expected  from  path- 
ology, viewed  solely  as  a  knowledge  of  diseases,  when  we  know 
that  what  is  offered  as  such  is  a  real  natural  history  of  disease. 
Until  then,  those  who  vaunt  themselves  as  possessing  such 
knowledge  should  be  more  modest  in  their  claims. 

If  an  illustration  were  needed,  a  case  which  recently  occurred 
in  Philadelphia  will  admirably  answer.  Two  of  the  leading 
pathologists  of  the  old  school — one  of  them  boasts  that  he  can 
determine  the  actual  condition  of  the  internal  organs  as  well  as 
though  they  were  laid  open  before  him — were  treating  a  gentle- 
man for  a  painftd  affection  in  the  region  of  the  transverse  colon. 
After  weeks  of  drugging  with  Morphia  and  other  infernal  prepa- 
rations there  was  no  relief.  They  then  declared  that  the  liver 
was  at  fault,  and  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  cut  down  to  that 
organ  in  order  to  rid  it  of — who  knows  what  ?  The  operation 
was  performed  and  the  liver  was  found  all  right.  The  gentle- 
man lives  to  tell  the  tale,  and  to  say  that  inflammation  of  the 


56 


EDITORIALS. 


[Feb, 


colon  was  present,  and  that  he  has  had  enough  of  scientific  (?) 
medicine.  Any  Hahnemannian  can  bear  testimony  to  the  same 
effect.  We  have  always  declared  that  it  is  better  never  to  af- 
firm positively  about  the  condition  of  any  organ.  We  may  be- 
lieve that  the  symptoms  present  in  any  given  case  may  point  to 
some  special  organ  or  part ;  but  we  cannot  be  sure  we  are  right 
unless  it  be  demonstrated  post-mortem — and  that  is  a  chance  sel- 
dom offered  to  the  genuine  follower  of  Hahnemann.  G.  H.C. 

Physiology. — The  physiological  factor,  too,  is  of  import- 
ance. We  are  in  need  of  a  physiology  stripped  of  all  hypothesis  ; 
giving  only  that  which  is  known.  With  such  a  work  we 
should  be  able  to  more  fully  appreciate  the  beauties  of  Hahne- 
mannian Ploimeopathy. 

"  By  means  of  pure  observation  and  unprejudiced  reflection, 
in  connection  with  anatomy,  natural  philosophy,  and  chemistry, 
we  have  a  considerable  store  of  very  probable  conclusions  re- 
garding the  operations  and  vital  phenomena  of  the  human  body 
(physiology),  because  the  phenomena  in  what  is  called  a  healthy 
body  remain  pretty  constant,  and  hence  can  be  observed  fre- 
quently, and,  for  purposes  of  comparison,  from  all  the  different 
points  of  view  afforded  by  the  various  branches  of  knowledge 
bearing  upon  them.  But  it  is  no  less  true,  than  striking  and 
humbling,  that  this  anthropological  or  physiological  knowledge 
begins  to  prove  of  no  use  as  soon  as  the  system  departs  from  its 
state  of  health.  All  explanations  of  morbid  processes  from  what 
we  know  of  healthy  ones  are  deceptive,  approaching  more  or 
less  to  what  is  untrue  ;  at  all  events,  positive  proofs  of  the 
reality  and  truth  of  these  transferred  explanations  are  unattain- 
able;  they  are  from  time  to  time  refuted  by  the  highest  of  all 
tribunals — experience.  Just  because  an  explanation  answers 
for  the  healthy  state  of  the  frame,  it  will  not  answer  for  the 
diseased.  We  may  admit  it  or  not  as  we  please,  but  it  is  too 
true  that  in  the  moment  when  we  attempt  to  regard  the  state 
of  the  disease  physiologically,  there  drops  before  our  previous 
clear  light  of  physiology  a  thick  veil — a  partition  which  pre- 
vents all  vision.  Our  physiological  skill  is  quite  at  fault  when 
we  have  to  explain  the  phenomena  of  morbid  action.  There  is 
almost  no  part  of  it  applicable !  True,  we  can  give  a  sort  of 
far-fetched  explanation  by  making  a  forced  transference  and 
application  of  the  physiological  systems  to  pathological  phe- 
nomena ;  but  it  is  only  illusory  and  misleads  into  error. 

"Chemistry  should  never  attempt  to  offer  an  explanation  of 
the  abnormal  performances  of  the  functions  in  the  diseased 


1890.] 


EDITORIALS. 


57 


body,  since  it  is  so  unsuccessful  in  explaining  them  in  the  healthy 
state.  When  it  predicts  what,  according  to  its  laws,  must 
happen,  then  something  quite  different  takes  place  ;  and  if  the 
vitality  overmasters  chemistry  in  the  healthy  body,  how  much 
more  must  it  do  so  in  the  diseased,  which  is  exposed  to  the 
influence  of  so  many  more  unknown  forces.  And  just  as  little 
should  chemistry  undertake  to  give  a  decision  upon  the  suitable- 
ness or  worthlessness  of  medicines,  for  it  is  altogether  out  of  its 
sphere  of  vision  to  determine  what  is  properly  healing  or  hurt- 
ful, and  it  possesses  no  principle  and  no  standard  by  which 
the  healing  efficacy  of  medicines  in  different  diseases  can  be 
measured  or  judged. 

"  Thus  has  the  healing  artist  forever  stood  alone — I  might 
say  forsaken — forsaken  by  all  his  renowned  auxiliary  sciences — 
forsaken  by  all  his  transcendental  explanations  and  speculative 
systems.  All  these  assistants  were  mute,  when,  for  example,  he 
stumbled  upon  an  intermittent  fever  which  wrould  not  yield  to 
purgatives  and  cinchona  bark. 

"  1  What  is  to  be  done  here  ?  what  is  with  sure  confidence  to 
be  set  about?'  he  inquires  of  these  oracles.  Profound  silence. 
(And  thus  they  remain  silent  up  to  the  present  hour,  in  most 
cases,  these  fine  oracles)." 

These  words  were  written  eighty-five  years  ago  by  a  man  who 
has  since  been  termed  "  the  sage  of  Coethen."  Can  they  be 
successfully  refuted  to-day?  G.  H.  C. 

"  Quinine  drove  a  victim  of  influenza  to  suicide  in  Hartford, 
and  many  physicians  are  inclined  to  the  belief  that  the  use  of 
this  drug  in  excess  is  worse  than  the  disease." — N,  Y.  Commercial 
Advertiser. 

If  the  history  of  the  old-school  and  mongrel  treatment  of  this 
epidemic  could  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  intelligent  people,  we 
should  like  to  know  how  many  followers  they  would  have. 
The  same  idea  will  apply  to  their  treatment  of  all  diseases. 
We  wish  that  the  people  would  read  old-school  journals.  In 
many  of  them  we  frequently  find  cases  in  which  the  writers 
acknowledge  that  the  treatment  was  undoubtedly  the  cause  of 
death.  They  are  honest  in  admitting  the  fact  to  those  who  read 
the  journals,  but  their  to-be-pitied  patients  are  never  made  the 
wiser.  G.  H.  C. 


Strong  Medicine. — "  By  treatment  the  ordinary  physician 
often  understands  nothing  more  than  a  powerful,  violent  attack 
upon  the  body  with  things  that  are  to  be  found  in  the  chemist's 


58 


EDITORIALS. 


[Feb, 


shop,  with  an  alteration  of  the  diet,  secundem  artem,  to  one  of 
a  very  extraordinary,  very  meagre  character.  '  The  patient  must 
first  be  powerfully  affected  before  I  can  do  him  any  good  ;  I 
wish  I  could  but  once  get  him  regularly  laid  up  in  bed  !'  Rut 
then  the  transition  from  bed  to  the  straw  and  the  coffin  is  so  very 
easy;  infinitely  easier  than  to  health;  he  says  nothing  about 
that. 

M  The  physician  of  the  stimulating  school  is  in  the  habit  of  pre- 
scribing id  almost  every  case  an  exactly  opposite  diet  (such  is 
the  custom  of  his  sect)  :  ham,  strong  meat  soups,  brandy,  etc., 
often  in  cases  where  the  very  smell  of  meat  makes  the  patient 
sick  and  he  can  bear  nothing  but  cold  water;  but  he  is  also  by 
no  means  sparing  in  his  use  of  violent  remedies  in  enormous 
doses. 

"The  schools  of  both  the  former  and  the  latter  class  authorize 
a  revolutionary  proceeding  of  this  sort.  '  No  child's  play  with 
your  doses/  say  they  ;  '  go  boldly  and  energetically  to  work, 
giving  them  strong,  as  strong  as  possible  !'  And  they  are  right, 
if  treating  means  frhe  same  thing  as  knocking  down."  Hahne- 
mann, 1805.  G.  H.  C. 


Progressive  Homceopath y. — 

"  Under  fair  pretense  of  friendly  ends, 
And  well-placed  words  of  glossy  courtesy, 
Bated  with  reason  not  implausible, 
Wind  into  easy-hearted  men, 
And  hug  them  into  snares." 

Mongrels  are  now  masquerading  under  the  name  of"  progres- 
sive homoeopathists."  With  the  name  of  "  progressive  Homoe- 
opathy "  those  who  know  little  or  nothing  of  Hahnemannian 
Homoeopathy  are  being  deluded.  This  title  of  "  progressive 
Homoeopathy"  means  only  mongrelism  and  nothing  more.  Those 
who  are  familiar  with  the  doing  of  this  class  need  no  warning  ; 
but  those  who  are  unfortunate  enough  to  fall  into  their  hands 
should  be  put  on  their  guard,  and  made  to  know  the  genuine. 
Taking  the  fair  name  of  Homoeopathy,  and  using  it  for  gain, 
while  doing  all  that  is  possible  to  bring  upon  it  discredit,  "  these 
dishonest  men  are  living  a  lie."  No  Hahnemannian  should 
hesitate  to  denounce  them  whenever  and.  wherever  they  may  be 
found. 

The  .true  physician  has  only  the  welfare  of  his  patients  at 
heart ;  the  pretender  thinks  only  of  gain,  regardless  of  the  good 
of  the   patient.      The    "progressive  homoeopathist "  claims 


1890.] 


EDITORIALS. 


59 


that  his  use  of  Morphia  for  the  relief  of  pain  is  a  sign  that 
he  has  broken  .away  from  the  fossils,  and  that  he  is  always 
doing  what  is  possible  for  his  patient.  The  Hahnemannian, 
on  the  other  hand,  conscientiously  notes  and  studies  all  the  signs 
and  symptoms  found  in  his  patients,  and  then  patiently  goes  to 
work  to  tind  the  curative.  The  difference  between  the  two  is 
simply  the  distinction  between  the  true  and  the  false.  The  one 
is  an  honest  man  conscious  of  right.  The  other  is  anything 
but  honest.  No  upright  man  professing  a  knowledge  of  the 
law  of  Homoeopathy  can  do  otherwise  than  adhere  to  that  law 
under  all  circumstances  in  which  the  law  is  applicable.  And  it 
is  applicable  in  all  idiopathic  and  non-surgical  affections.  Even 
employed  in  surgical  affections  it  is  powerful  for  good.  The 
use  of  drugs  which  are  harmful  in  a  crude  form  is  no  part  of 
Homoeopathy,  and  is  to  be  decried.  Except  as  an  antidote,  the 
Hahnemannian  never  uses  such  agents.  He  knows  that  he 
possesses  remedies  so  prepared  that  they  have  no  capacity  for 
harm.  With  these  weapons  he  is  able  to  combat  the  most  maligr 
nant,  the  most  painful,  and  the  most  serious  maladies  that  ever 
appear. 

And  he  knows,  furthermore,  that  he  holds  these  agents  for 
good  for  all  time.  He  will  not  magnify  one  remedy  above  an- 
other for  a  little  period,  and  then  lay  it  aside  for  something 
new.  He  knows  that  the  law  which  governs  him  is  immutable, 
and  that  what  is  proper  for  a  given  train  of  symptoms  to-day 
will  be  proper  for  similar  symptoms  to  the  end  of  time.  A  law 
of  nature  is  unchangeable. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  drugger  is  without  a  guide,  and  his 
only  thought  is  to  make  symptoms  disappear  by  the  use  of  crude 
drugs,  and  thus  lead  the  patient  and  his  friends  to  believe  that 
he  has  dune  good.  If  he  be  the  holder  of  any  knowledge  of 
Homoeopathy  he  knows  that  his  treatment  has  only  done  injury. 

On  this  point  we  shall  let  the  Sage  of  Coethen  speak  : 

To  Mongrels  and  Allopaths. — "  Be  not  too  anxious,  I 
advise  you,  to  insist  on  the  dissection  of  the  corpses  of  those  you 
have  done  to  de*V,h  !  You  would  not  do  it  did  you  know  what 
you  thereby  revealed  to  him  who  knows  the  truth  .!  Besides, 
some  rare  congenital  malformations,  and  perchance  some  results 
of  the  deceased's  dissipation,  what  of  an  abnormal  character  do 
you  encounter  that  is  not  chiefly  the  product  of  your  injurious 
operations,  of  your  medicinal  ignorance  and  your  therapeutic 
sins  of  omission  and  commission  ?  There  is  displayed  not  what 
was  present  before  your  treatment,as  you  would  fain  persuade  the 


60 


OF  THE  DRUG  CURATIVE. 


[Feb., 


relatives,  but  what  was  produced  by  your  treatment — the  incur- 
ability of  the  deceased  was  not  before  but  after  your  treatment. 
It  avails  you  nothing,  that  you  thereby  gladly  take  the  oppor- 
tunity of  making  a  display  of  your  subtle  anatomical  termino- 
logical learning,  neither  can  it  be  concealed  from  those  who 
have  any  knowledge  that  this  is  no  test  of  ability  to  cure.  The 
result  of  such  autopsies  is  not  the  enriching  of  pathological 
anatomy,  but  the  revelation  of  hideous  therapeutic  anatomy,  to 
your  disgrace — in  spite  of  all  vour  plausible  sophistries  P  1830. 

G.  H.  C. 

OF  THE  DRUG  CURATIVE. 

Dr.  P.  P.  Wells. 

Communicated  by  C.  Carletox  Smith,  M.  D.,  Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 

(Continued  from  p.  10.) 

We  have,  at  present,  no  other  concern  with  this  process  than 
to  present  it  as  additional  evidence  of  the  truth  as  to  the  nature 
of  the  curative  principle  which  we  advocate.  In  order  to  this, 
it  was  incumbent,  first,  to  show  that  the  process  itself  is  a  fact. 
The  experience  of  Channing  is  sufficient  for  this.  But,  we  may 
add,  the  fact  has  been  known,  and  is  now  fully  accepted  by 
many  of  the  best  minds  in  our  school  of  the  profession. 

In  prosecuting  the  argument  from  the  facts  here  presented,  it 
is  pertinent  to  inquire  what  passed  from  the  globules  con- 
tained in  the  phial,  supposed  to  be  medicated,  to  those  added, 
which  were  not,  by  which  these  last  received  the  power,  like 
those  previously  contained,  to  affect  the  organism  of  the  sick. 
Was  it  matter?  Is  there,  in  the  world  of  matter,  anything  like 
this?  On  the  other  hand,  is  there  not  an  equivalent  in  the 
transmission  of  force  from  steel  magnets  to  similar  bars,  not 
magnetic,  by  contact  alone,  till  all  alike  contain  the  magnetic 
force,  though  the  original  magnet,  like  the  original  globules, 
loses  nothing  of  its  power  by  imparting  to  the  new-made  mag- 
nets a  force  similar  to  its  own.  Medication  by  contact,  then, 
becomes  little,  if  at  all,  less  than  a  demonstration  of  the  dy- 
namic nature  of  the  principle  under  consideration.  That  the 
power  which  so  passed  was  matter,  though  we  always  use  the 
word  with  reluctance,  we  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  is  impos- 
sible. 


1890.] 


OF  THE  DRUG  CURATIVE. 


61 


Argument  for  the  dynamic  nature  of  the  curative  principle 
may  be  strengthened  by  the  fact  of  the  suddenness  of  its  action. 
In  this  respect  the  considerations  presented  from  the  instanta- 
neous action  of  the  miasmata,  may  be  applied  with  so  much  the 
more  effect  to  the  power  we  are  now  considering,  as  it  is,  in  some 
respects,  brought  more  readily  and  completely  under  our  obser- 
vation. 

The  precise  time  of  the  reception  of  the  medicinal  agent  may 
always  be  exactly  known,  while  in  the  case  of  the  miasm  this  is 
not  always  easily  brought  to  a  fixed  point.  Then,  the  effects  of 
drug  agents  have  been  more  thoroughly  studied,  and  are  better 
known  than  those  of  the  miasmata,  especially  in  those  minute  de- 
tails which  characterize  the  action  of  drugs.  So  that  in  all  that 
wherein  we  are  able  to  give  increased  certainty  to  the  points,  as 
we  present  them  in  relation  to  the  subject  under  consideration, 
by  so  much  is  the  force  of  the  argument  greater  here  than  when 
applied  to  the  miasms.  Two  cases  will  be  presented  as  illustra- 
tions of  this  immediate  action  of  the  drug  power,  both  of  which 
were  under  the  immediate  observation  of  the  writer,  and  both 
are  made  up  of  elements  which,  it  is  believed,  place  them  be- 
yond reach  of  even  the  most  captious  caviler.  They  are  se- 
lected from  a  multitude  of  similar  cases  for  these  two  reasons : 
The  first  is  memorable  in  the  experience  of  the  writer,  it  being 
the  result  of  his  first  attempt  at  a  homoeopathic  prescription  for 
a  patient.  It  was  the  first  experiment  in  a  series,  which  the 
importunity  of  a  valued  friend  had  extorted  the  promise,  a  very 
reluctant  one,  that  he  would  make. 

The  whole  intention  on  the  part  of  the  writer  was,  in  these 
experiments,  to  prove  for  himself  and  his  friends  that  there  was 
nothing  in  Homeopathy. 

If  it  be  objected  that  this  was  altogether  unfair,  and  unbe- 
coming the  importance  of  the  subject,  it  is  admitted  to  be  true. 
He  intended  to  prove  the  worthlessness  of  the  whole  system,  and 
had  no  doubt  of  his  success.  Here  is  his  first  attempt  and  its 
result.  It  will  be  seen  that  Homoeopathy  had  nothing  to  expect 
from  him,  except  what  could  be  extorted  by  the  most  apparent 
and  stubborn  fact. 

The  experiment  was  made  with  the  despised  "globules"  and 
no  one  certainly  ever  held  them  in  greater  contempt. 

It  was  on  a  patient  verily  believed  to  be  incurable  of  the  par- 
ticular trouble  for  which  these  globules  were  given.  The  writer 
had  tried  his  best,  according  to  the  maxims  and  practice  of  the 
school  in  which  he  had  been  educated,  for  months  to  relieve  the 
poor  sufferer,  without  the  slightest  success.    It  was  just  because 


62  OF  THE  DKUG  CUKATIVE.  [Feb., 

he  thought  the  case  incurable  that  it  was  taken  for  experiment. 
Here,  of  course,  would  be  a  failure. 

He  wished  for  no  success.  Then  the  patient  was  poor,  igno.r- 
ant,  and  black.  She  had  never  heard  the  word  u  Homoeopathy/' 
and  so  the  wonderful  effects  of  imagination  would  be  escaped, 
which,  with  many  others,  he  thought  to  be  the  efficient  agent  in 
all  the  so-called  homoeopathic  cures.  She  had  formerly  been 
t  he  slave  of  an  old-school  doctor. 

This  person,  now  about  forty-eight  years  of  age,  when  a  child 
fell  from  a  tree,  and  struck  her  side  on  the  top  of  a  board  fence, 
breaking  several  of  her  ribs.  She  had  from  that  time,  occasion- 
ally, attacks  of  pain  at  the  points  of  fracture,  increasing  in  fre- 
quency and  severity  as  she  grew  older,  till,  at  the  time  she  came 
under  the  care  of  the  writer,  it  had  become  permanent,  and 
yielded  to  none  of  the  many  expedients  resorted  to,  as  before 
stated,  for  a  number  of  months.  Indeed,  she  grew  worse.  The 
seat  of  pain  was  so  sensitive,  she  positively  refused  to  allow  it  to 
be  touched.  Here  was  the  case  of  more  than  forty  years'  stand- 
ing. In  this  state  she  was  handed  a  powder  of  fine  sugar,  in 
which  were  concealed  six  globules  of  Arnica  of  the  sixth  potency. 
She  was  directed  to  take  t  he  powder  dry,  on  the  tongue.  This  she 
did  at  eleven  o'clock  A.  M.,  in  the  absence  of  her  medical  attend- 
ant. When  seen  the  next  day  at  nine  o'clock  a.  m.,  she  appeared 
in  great  terror.  She  seemed  as  much  frightened  as  any  person 
I  ever  saw.  She  would  not  let  me  come  near  her,  but  kept  her- 
self in  the  extreme  opposite  sideof  the  room,  and  repeated  more 
than  once,  addressing  her  physician,  "  You  meant  to  kill  me, 
you  gave  me  Mercury.  I  know  Mercury.  I  lived  with  Dr. 
Hazard,"  etc.  After  quieting  her  apprehensions — not  an  easy 
matter — she  was  asked  if  she  had  taken  the  powder.  She  said 
she  had ;  and  the  manner  of  her  reply  was  just  that  of  a  person 
who  regards  himself  as  having  just  been  made  the  subject  of  a 
joke  of  a  severe  and  unwarranted  character. 

She  was  soon  pacified,  and  then  was  asked  what  was  its  effect. 
"  Effect !  It  was  from  there  to  there"  passing  her  finger  from 
her  tongue  to  the  spot  in  her  left  side,  the  seat  of  the  old  injury, 
and  recent  pain  "like  lightning."  "  You  gave  me  Mercury.  I 
know  you  did."  And  this  thought  renewed  her  terror.  She 
could  not  overcome  the  first  impression  that  she  had  been 
poisoned.  In  a  little  time,  however,  she  answered  to  the  ques- 
tion, "  What  happened  then?"  "  Why,  the  pain  and  soreness 
went  all  right  out  of  it."  This  was  true,  and  they  never  returned. 
The  side  might  now  be  handled  with  the  utmost  freedom  with- 
out giving  pain.    The  person,  next  to  herself,  most  astonished 


1890.] 


HAHNEMANN  CLUB  OF  TEKRE  HAUTE. 


63 


was  her  physician.  Rosaua  was,  after  this,  a  servant  in  his 
family  till  near  the  time  of  her  death,  which  resulted  from  dis- 
ease of  the  heart,  and  he  knows  the  old  trouble  did  not  return. 
Of  the  suddenness  and  completeness  of  the  action  of  this  dose, 
there  was  no  possible  chance  for  doubt.  That  it  was,  liter- 
ally, as  quick  as  lightning,  she  stoutly  maintained,  that  she  was 
really  cured  of  her  great  pain,  could  not  be  denied.  And  now, 
the  only  question  we  have  with  the  case,  is — what  was  it  that 
passed  from  the  tongue  to  the  side  so  suddenly  as  to  give  this 
great  alarm  to  this  poor,  ignorant  creature,  and  so  rapidly  to 
cure  this  great  pain  ?  Was  this  matter  ?  The  suddenness  of 
its  action  proves  that  it  was  not. 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  HAHNEMANN  CLUB  OF 
TERRE  HAUTE. 

By  W.  H.  Baker,  M.  D. 

Mr.  President  and  members  of  the  Hahnemann  Club  : 

To-night  we  begin  the  study  of  the  Organon,  one  of  the 
objects  of  our  organization  ;  a  book  that  has  fallen  into  disuse  in 
one  faction  of  our  school,  but  which-the  history  of  medicine  will 
prove  has  done  more  to  bring  order  out  of  chaos,  to  place  medicine 
on  a  firm  foundation  than  any  work  published  since  the  time  of 
Hippocrates.  It  has  revolutionized  old  physic  and  is  an  unerring 
guide  for  the  cure  of  all  ills  of  humanity.  Each  generation  will 
have  cause  to  be  thankful  that  its  author  lived.  Hahnemann, 
like  all  men  who  have  proclaimed  some  great  truth  to  the  world, 
suffered  persecution,  but  he  lived  to  see  the  success  of  his  dis- 
covery. a*id,  to-day.  thousands  can  testify  to  the  truth  of  the 
law  of  similars  :  a  law  of  cure  that  will  go  down  through  all 
the  ages,  giving  to  humanity  the  relief  that  it  has  been  crying 
for  in  the  centuries  that  have  passed. 

If  we  compare  the  strict  followers  of  the  Organon  with  the 
whole  number  of  the  practitioners  of  medicine,  we  will  find 
them  in  the  minority,  but  they  are  the  vanguard  of  this  army. 
Popular  facts  will  come  and  go,  but  the  truth  of  Homoeopathy 
will  live,  and  its  followers  increase  as  the  world  grows  older  and 
learns.  Hahnemann  never  concluded  on  theory  or  speculation, 
but  always  on  facts,  and  the  doctrines  contained  in  the  Organon 
were  only  reached  after  years  of  thought  and  experience.  He 
refused  to  accept  Cullen's  explanation  of  the  curative  power  of 
Cinchona  bark  in  curing  chills  and  fever,  and  the  great  truth 
that  unfolded  itself  to  him  while  making  that  memorable  trans- 


64  HAHNEMANN  CLUB  OF  TERRE  HAUTE.  [Feb., 


latiou  you  are  all  familiar  with.  He  formulated  the  principles 
of  Homoeopathy,  and  we  find  them  in  the  book  we  meet  to  study. 
On  them  our  school  must  stand  or  fall  ;  every  student  of  medi- 
cine must  follow  these  principles  or  he  is  anything  but  a  homoeo- 
path. If  we  believe  in  the  teachings  of  the  Organon,  let  us  fol- 
low it  faithfully,  and  not  run  after  strange  gods  ;  study  its  truths 
carefully  and  then  put  them  into  practice  ;  we  will  find  it  a  pains- 
taking labor,  but  success  will  follow  our  efforts.  Let  us  not 
read  it  as  a  curiosity,  casting  aside  its  precepts  when  meeting 
disease,  but  apply  it,  test  it,  and  I  feel  sure  we  will  see  its  beauty 
and  efficacy  as  all  who  have  followed  its  teachings.  Hering, 
Bcenninghausen,  Gross,  Farrington,  Lippe,  and  many  others 
never  found  it  wanting  in  teaching  them  the  way  to  cure  disease. 

We  may  all  meet  cases  where  it  seems  to  fail,  but  let  us  be 
careful  in  condemning,  for  the  blame  will  be  in  ourselves,  in  our 
ignorance  in  applying  it.  We  as  a  Society  have  a  work  to  do 
here,  in  placing  Homoeopathy  before  the  people  in  its  true  light, 
in  demonstrating  that  pure  Homoeopathy  is  as  far  in  advance  of 
old  physic  with  all  its  boasted  progress  as  the  electric  light  is  in 
advance  of  the  tallow  dip,  but  let  us  be  consistent  and  practice 
what  we  profess,  and  not  make  it  possible  for  the  dominant 
school  to  point  us  out  as  frauds.  It  we  practice  Homoeopathy, 
we  must  follow  the  Organon,  if  we  do  not  accept  its  teachings 
we  should  be  honest  and  drop  its  name. 

To  prove  one  remedy  carefully  would  be  a  good  year's  work 
for  us.  We  can  all  help  to  verify  the  symptoms  of  our  materia 
medica,  perfecting  in  this  way  our  means  of  applying  the  law  of 
similars. 

Bcenninghausen  remarked  to  a  brother  physician  that  he  had 
read  the  Organon  fifteen  times,  and  on  each  occasion  he  always 
acquired  something  new  and  valuable.  Almost  every  page  is 
rich  in  precept,  and  the  student  is  constantly  reminded  that  the 
only  thing  is  the  totality  of  the  symptoms,  the  sole  thing,  in  fact, 
which  the  physician  has  to  take  note  of  in  every  case  of  disease. 
The  whole  of  the  perceptible  signs  and  symptoms  which  we  can 
observe,  expressing  themselves  through  sensation  and  function, 
must  be  the  sole  indication  to  guide  us  in  the  choice  of  a  curative 
remedy.  Xo  doubt  we,  too,  will  receive  new  light  as  we  meet 
and  discuss  each  paragraph  how  to  fulfill  "  the  highest  and  only 
calling  of  a  physician,  the  restoration  of  health  to  the  sick." 

In  the  second  paragraph  wTe  have  described  the  highest  ideal  of  a 
cure,  which  we  are  striving  for,  and  I  believe  this  can  only  be 
reached  by  a  strict  application  of  the  principles  laid  down  in  the 
Organon. 


1890.] 


HAHNEMANN  CLUB  OF  TERRE  HAUTE. 


65 


The  third  paragraph  teaches  us  that  we  must  individualize 
each  case  of  disease,  also  individualize  the  remedy  in  curing  it. 
Empiricism  and  routine  prescribing  have  no  place  in  Homoe- 
opathy;  the  aggregate  symptoms  make  up  the  individuality  of 
each  case.  Every  remedy  has  its  own  distinctive  character,  and 
we  must  find  the  one  most  like  our  case  before  we  can  reach  "  the 
highest  aim  of  healing,  the  speedy,  gentle,  and  permanent  resto- 
ration of  health,  or  alleviation  and  obliteration  of  disease  in  its 
entire  extent,  in  the  shortest,  most  reliable,  and  safest  manner, 
according  to  clearly  intelligible  reasons." 

When  we  have  found  the  proper  remedy,  it  is  not  all  we  have 
to  know  to  secure  a  permanent  recovery.  There  are  numerous 
impediments  which  have  multiplied  since  what  is  called  civiliza- 
tion advances,  and  must  be  discovered  and  removed.  Sewer 
gas  that  finds  its  way  in  through  permanent  washstands  and 
closets  of  our  modern  apartments  ;  decomposing  matter  in  the 
cellar;  the  dry  air  of  a  furnace  which  retards  the  recovery  from, 
pneumonia  and  bronchitis.  Many  others  might  be  mentioned 
but  would  make  our  paper  too  long. 

In  the  third  paragraph,  we  have  the  first  intimation  of  a  law 
of  cure  that  we.  must  follow  if  we  would  become  true  healers. 
There  is  also  another  point  mentioned  here  that  has  caused  much 
controversy,  and  one  of  the  reasons  of  the  division  £hat  exists 
in  our  school — viz.,  the  preparation  and  the  proper  dose,  and  the 
proper  time  of  its  repetition.  The  Organon  teaches  similia 
similibics  curantur,  the  single  remedy  and  the  minimum  dose,  and 
will  not  admit  of  any  deviation. 

Pathology  can  never  furnish  a  true  guide  for  a  curative 
prescription.  Persons  attacked  by  the  same  disease  do  not 
suffer  alike.  Hahnemann  was  the  first  one  to  call  attention  to 
this  fact,  and  the  necessity  of  observing  the  totality  of  symp- 
toms, "  this  outwardly  reflected  image  of  the  inner  nature  of 
of  the  disease — i.  e.,  of  the  suffering  vital  force — must  be  the  chief 
or  only  means  of  the  disease  to  make  known  the  remedy  neces- 
sary for  its  cure." 

The  Organon  points  out  how  we  are  to  examiue  the  sick,  how 
to  acquire  a  knowledge  of  drugs,  and  the  proper  use  of  them  in 
healing. 

This  is  an  age  of  progress,  and  if  we  take  a  review  of  medicine 
we  find  the  stamp  of  progress  here.  We  all  rejoice  in  the  ad- 
vances made  in  surgery,  pathology,  and  hygiene,  but  search  the 
medical  literature  of  the  old  school  for  a  guide  in  therapeutics 
and  you  will  find  empiricism  as  dominant  as  ever — sad  to  know 
that  some  members  of  our  school  are  filling  menial  positions  in 


66 


CLINICAL  NOTES. 


[Feb., 


the  same  boat.  Our  main  object  as  physicians  is  to  cure  disease, 
and  we  have  an  unerring  guide  in  the  law  of  similars,  universal 
in  its  application,  and  any  deviation  is  fallacious,  unscientific, 
and  empirical,  often  attended  with  fatal  results. 

Hahnemann  says,  "Imitate  my  mode  of  practice  accurately 
and  carefully,  as  pointed  out  in  the  On/anon  on  chronic  dis- 
eases, and  you  will  find  it  confirmed  at  every  step.  Take  one 
case  of  disease  after  another,  note  down  all  of  its  perceptible 
symptoms  in  the  special  manner  pointed  out  in  the  Organon, 
then,  guided  by  the  characteristic  and  striking  symptoms,  select 
the  appropriate  remedy,  and  administer  it  in  the  smallest  dose, 
according  to  the  strict  rules  and  observances  pointed  out  in  the 
Organon,  and  if  it  does  not  afford  speedy,  gentle,  lasting  help, 
publish  the  failure  to  the  world,  and  the  doctrine  of  Homoe- 
opathy shall  stand  abashed." 

CLINICAL  NOTES. 

By  Dr.  Filipe  Ascot  de  Tortosa. 

Translated  from  El  Consultor  Hoiiueopatico,  No.  24,  of  Barce- 
lona, Spain,  Aug.,  1889,  by  E.  A.  P. 

Miguel  Esteller  y  Castell,  aged  thirty-one  years,  of  San  Jorge, 
province  of  Castellon  de  la  Plana,  of  good  constitution,  sanguine 
nervous  temperament,  had  during  the  past  civil  war  received 
a  gun-shot  wound  in  the  right  arm  which  was  seemingly  cured, 
without  any  futher  consequences.  After  three  years  there  ap- 
peared on  the  elbow  a  small  tumor  that  he  tried  to  cure  by 
emollients  first,  and  after  with  salves  of  an  action  more  or  less 
astringent,  with  some  relief,  but  it  reappeared  later  in  the  same 
condition. 

He  consulted  the  doctor  residing  in  his  town,  who  treated  it 
with  Carbolic  acid  diluted  with  water,  by  injections,  and  concen- 
trated outward  applications  of  equal  strength,  but  the  result  was  not 
equal  to  expectation  ;  on  the  contrary  the  tumor  ulcerated  ;  kept 
growing  larger  and  deeper,  finding  its  way  into  the  tendons,  sup- 
puration becoming  more  and  more  profuse,  and  eating  its  way  into 
the  anterior  portion  of  the  fore-arm,  inferior  part  across  bunch  of 
tendons  of  the  abductor  and  of  the  extensor-pollicis,  leaving  un- 
covered the  radius  bone  a  centimetre  and  a  half  above  the  wrist. 

He  continued  thus  for  some  time  under  the  care  of  various 
doctors  and  consulting  many  more,  until  they  advised  him  that 
amputation  of  the  diseased  member  was  his  only  hope. 


1890.] 


CLINICAL  NOTES. 


67 


It  is  most  painful,  under  any  circumstances,  to  lose  an  arm, 
but  much  more  so  to  one  who  is  dependent  on  manual  labor  for 
the  support  of  himself  and  family.  Hence  our  patient  preferred 
death  rather  than  prove  a  helpless  burden  on  his  family  by  thus 
living  useless  and  mutilated.  Holy  resignation  was  rewarded 
in  a  way  beyond  all  expectations. 

A  carter  by  trade,  he  made  frequent  trips  to  the  suburbs  of 
this  city,  thus  sustaining  his  unhappy  wife.  In  one  of  these 
many  journeys  he  was  advised  to  consult  me,  which  he  did, 
hoping  only  that  I  would  sustain  him  in  his  decision. 

Thin,  pale,  debilitated  by  suppuration,  and  fearing  I  would 
reiterate  the  decision  that  had  been  made  by  other  doctors  at 
distinct  times,  all  of  which  placed  him  in  a  deplorable  moral  state, 
he  came  to  me  for  the  first  time,  ten  years  after  he  had  received 
the  wound  that  caused  his  later  sufferings.  The  fore-arm  with- 
out any  movement,  hollow  in  the  muscular  interspaces,  presented 
two  solutions  of  continuity;  two  fistulous  tracks,  one  in  the. 
superior  internal  part,  a  centimetre  and  a  half  below  the  olecranon 
process,  and  the  other  in  the  inferior  part  at  the  same  point 
before  mentioned.  Flowing  from  both  orifices  was  bad  condi- 
tioned, sanguineous  pus.  Introducing  the  probe  from  one  extreme 
to  the  other  of  the  track,  I  noted  with  ease  the  existence  of  the 
bone  deprived  of  the  periosteum  ;  in  passing  the  probe  it  was 
stopped  by  the  bony  roughness,  which  proved  that  the  tables  of 
the  bone  were  destroyed  to  a  great  extent.  There  was  very  little 
pain  when  remaining  quiet  in  any  position,  but  very  sensitive  to 
movement.  He  always  carried  it  tightly  bound,  uncovering  only 
when  a  change  of  application  was  necessary. 

I  proceeded  to  give  him  moral  courage,  kind  counsel,  and 
healthy  refections,  such  as  was  needed  by  so  unfortunate  a  father 
of  a  family.  I  assured  him  that  he  would  not  lose  his  arm,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  it  could  be  saved  so  that  he  could  dedicate  him- 
self to  his  family's  support  by  his  work.  This  consolation  so 
comforted  him  that  without  doubt  it  contributed  to  his  cure. 

I  resolved  to  give  him  sixteen  globules  of  Phos.30,  dissolved  in 
eight  spoonfuls  of  water  to  take  every  six  hours.  This  prescrip- 
tion was  repeated  three  times. 

After  eight  days  I  saw  him  again.  His  emaciated  face  and 
dying  look  were  reanimated  by  hope,  and  his  eyes  had  a  pleased 
and  happy  expression.  The  suppuration  continued,  but  presented 
a  better  character,  and  his  appetite,  previously  lost,  had  reap- 
peared, the  dominant  fever  ceasing.  He  continued  using  the 
medicine  for  several  days  till  the  pus  became  sanious.  I  then 
gave  him  some  doses  of  Hepar-sulph.  with  the  object  of  obtain- 


68 


CLINICAL  NOTES. 


[Feb., 


ing  the  dislodgment  of  the  enormous  sequestra.  Under  its  action 
the  inferior  opening  increased  its  dimensions  to  two  centimetres 
or  a  little  more,  the  bone  acquired  more  mobility,  and  the 
loosened  inferior  extremity  of  the  necrosed  sequestrum  appeared 
at  the  fistulous  opening. 

He  continued  the  same  for  twenty  days,  then  without  any  aid 
he  drew  away  the  sequestrum  of  fifteen  centimetres  and  a  half 
without  pain,  without  hemorrhage,  and  without  trouble. 

Silicea  for  four  days  completed  the  cure. 

To-day  Miguel  works  as  if  nothing  had  ever  disturbed  his 
arm,  loads  and  unloads  his  cart  with  ease,  and,  thanks  to  the 
virtue  of  the  infinitesimal  globules,  he  is  not  a  burden  to  his 
family,  but  rather  a  help  and  support. 

Does  this  say  anything  in  favor  of  Homoeopathy  ?  If  not 
sufficient  I  will  relate  another  case,  very  distinct,  that  can  never 
be  attributed  to  chance. 

Mrs.  J.  F.,  age  twenty-one  years,  living  at  Vilaseca,  married, 
of  good  constitution,  appeared  at  my  office,  January  4th,  1889, 
together  with  her  young  and  affectionate  husband,  justly  alarmed 
by  the  grave  prognostications  of  several  doctors  who  had  ex- 
amined her  for  a  complaint  from  which  she  had  suffered  for 
seven  months  before.  ,  It  had  arrived  at  such  an  extreme  that 
she  had  been  advised  to  go  to  Barcelona  to  be  operated  on,  and 
before  undergoing  the  operation  to  confess  herself  and  make  her 
will. 

Such  advice  to  a  young  and  happy  woman  was  not  cheering. 

As  a  last  resort  she  determined  to  try  Homoeopathy,  and  but 
a  few  days  passed  before  she  repented  of  not  having  done  so  from 
the  first  day. 

Let  us  examine  the  symptoms  of  this  patient. 

Of  apparently  good  exterior  appearance,  all  excepting  a  pale- 
ness of  face,  and  slight  lividness  of  the  lips,  indicated  her 
sufferings.  The  abdomen  was  much  swollen,  having  the  appear- 
ance of  a  woman  in  the  last  stages  of  pregnancy.  Of  this  she 
complained.  I  examined  her  at  once,  and  discovered  a  large 
quantity  of  fluid  in  the  abdomen  which  was  of  globular  form, 
more  prominent  above  the  umbilical  and  epigastric  regions. 
On  slight  percussion  the  fluxion  was  noticeable,  the  slight  pain 
was  increased  by  the  weighty  feeling.  The  respiration  impaired 
as  a  result  of  mechanical  distention,  it  wras  rather  dyspnoea,  com- 
pelling the  patient  to  seek  a  semi-recumbent  position.  There 
were  frequent,  although  not  continuous,  palpitations,  some 
vomiting  and  impaired  digestion,  and  the  tendency  to  lipoma 
constituted  the  general  condition  of  our  patient.     Let  us  add, 


1890.] 


CLINICAL  NOTES. 


69 


menstruation  normal,  the  menstrual  hemorrhage  appearing 
several  days  before  the  regular  time.  No  cause  could  be  attri- 
buted to  this  as  she  had  not  taken  cold,  suppressed  any  perspira- 
tion, or  exposed  herself  to  any  dampness. 

Diagnosis  :  Ordinary  dropsy.  I  gave  one  dose  of  Sulphur,  then 
six  of  Apocyn-cannab.5  to  dissolve  in  eight  spoonfuls  of 
water,  each  containing  a  quarter  of  a  drop,  to  be  taken  every 
three  hours. 

The  26th  of  same  month  I  again  saw  the  patient.  The  im- 
provement was  remarkable.  The  abdominal  effusion  was 
diminished  to  about  two-thirds,  the  only  complication  was  a 
slight  constipation,  that  was  relieved  by  a  simple  enema  (cold 
water).  This  was  ultimately  cured  by  some  globules  of  Nux- 
vom.,  returning  to  the  Apocyn-cannab.  in  same  proportions  as 
before,  and  on  the  loth  of  February  she  was  pronounced  cured. 
Two  months  later  she  had  a  relapse,  but  with  prompt  treatment  it 
disappeared  within  a  few  days,  and  up  to  date  she  is  well.  How 
can  a  few  drops  of  a  dilution  where  there  is  no  medicinal 
properties  (according  to  the  allopaths)  overcome  a  case  of 
dropsy  that  could  not  be  cured,  but  only  alleviated  by  opera- 
tion ? 

Let  us  take  another  case.  E.  A.,  a  lovely  girl  from  a  neigh- 
boring town,  consulted  me  for  fatigue  that  she  experienced  on 
the  slightest  exercise.  Menstruation  normal:  slightly  scarce, 
good  constitution,  a  healthy  color.  Suffering  from  slight 
cephalalgia  at  times,  and  a  light  dry  cough,  this  was  all.  On 
examination  of  the  precordial  region,  where  she  complained  of 
a  slight  pain,  some  palpitation  was  apparent.  Auscultation  re- 
vealed an  exaggerated  movement  of  the  heart,  both  in  strength 
and  frequency.  Family  history  good,  she  had  never  experienced 
trouble,  flights,  fatigues,  or  emotions.  There  were  no  good 
indications  to  account  for  the  diseased  state. 

At  once  I  judged  it  to  be  a  nervous  affection,  and  prescribed 
Hydrocyanic  acid.  Several  days  passed  with  no  relief.  Cactus 
gr.  gave  no  better  result,  the  same  was  true  of  other  medicines. 
When  I  had  almost  despaired  of  ever  curing  an  affection  which, 
at  first,  had  appeared  so  trifling,  while  talking  about  her  case  to 
an  illustrious  friend  and  great  admirer  of  Homoeopathy,  he 
alluded  to  her  moral  character.  Both  her  family's  good  repu- 
tation as  well  as  her  own  had  placed  her  above  doubt,  her  age  and 
suspicious  signs  in  her  physiognomy  which  I  now  noticed  led  me 
to  suspect  self-abuse,  and  that  the  palpitation  originated  from 
this  cause.  I  questioned  her  in  a  discreet  way,  and  in  effect  my 
suspicions  were  verified.     Tarent.6  in  a  few  days,  caused  the 


70 


THE  WOMEN'S  HOSPITAL. 


[Feb., 


complaint  to  disappear.  Also  this  exaggerated  condition  of 
nymphomania,  with  the  cephalalgia,  cough,  palpitation,  and 
existing  fatigue. 

Is  this  cure  also  chance?  How,  in  this  case,  were  some 
medicines  fallible  and  others  not?  Precisely  because  the 
applications  were  wrong,  and  did  not  correspond  to  the  especial 
symptoms  that  the  patient  did  not  confess.  As  soon  as  Tarent. 
was  used — that  was  the  corresponding  remedy — the  disease  dis- 
appeared and  health  was  restored. 

After  all,  allopathic  gentlemen,  is  not  this  sufficient  proof  for 
you  who,  with  foolish  disdain,  have  decided  that  "  homoeo- 
pathic dilutions  do  not  contain  medicine,  and  cures  obtained  by 
them  are  only  owing  to  chance." 


ANNUAL  REPORT  AND  ELECTION  BY  THE  MAN- 
AGERS OF  THE  WOMEN'S  HOMCEOPATHIC 
HOSPITAL  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

Messes.  Editors  :  I  submit  herewith  a  newspaper  report 
(Philadelphia  Press,  January  31st)  of  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
Women's  Homoeopathic  Hospital.  I  merely  add  that,  as  far  as 
personal  investigation  can  enlighten  me,  I  am  convinced  this 
report,  in  regard  to  the  charges  made  against  the  management,  is 
entirely  correct  and  truthful. 

Edmund  J.  Lee. 

THE  WOMEN'S  HOSPITAL. 
secretary's  report  and  other  business  at  the  annual 

MEETING. 
[The  Press,  January  31st,  1890.]" 

The  annual  meeting  of  the  Women's  Homoeopathic  Associa- 
tion of  Pennsylvania  was  held  yesterday  morning,  at  Early's 
Hall,  1321  Arch  Street.    Mrs.  Edward  Longstreth  presided. 

The  following  were  elected  as  the  Executive  Board  for  the 
ensuing  year  :  Mrs.  M.  W.  Coggins,  Mrs.  E.  J.  Bartol,  Mrs.  M. 
T.  Keehmle,  Mrs.  F.  B.  Skinner,  Mrs.  Roswell  Weston,  Mrs. 
W.  S.  Bailey,  Mrs.  H.  Wilson  Catherwood,  Mrs.  J.  F.  Cum- 
mings,  Mrs.  John  Lucas,  Mrs.  Richard  S.  Mason,  Mrs.  S.  Rod- 
man Morgan,  Mrs.  G.  W.  Myers,  Miss  K.  M.  Pleis,  Miss  A.  E. 
Ramberger,  Mrs.  S.  H.  Reese,  Mrs.  E.  R.  Sargent,  Mrs.  R.  J\ 


1890.] 


THE  WOMEN'S  HOSPITAL. 


71 


Stokes,  Mrs.  Jesse  W.  Thatcher,  Mrs.  Alfred  Tucker,  Mrs.  M. 
L.  Jackson,  Mrs.  Alfred  W.  Sumner,  Mrs.  Thomas  S.  Harper, 
Mrs.  A.  W.  Paxson,  Mrs.  H.  E.  Abbott. 

The  following  were  elected  as  an  Advisory  Board  :  Joseph 
Jeanes,  Edward  Longstreth,  Richard  S.  Mason,  John  R.  Long- 
streth,  Dundas  T.  Pratt,  Paschal  H.  Coggins,  Ellis  D.  Williams. 

The  medical  and  surgical  staff  as  elected,  is  as  follows  :  Resi- 
dent physician,  Lucy  H.  Porter,  M.  D.  ;  consulting  physicians 
and  surgeons,  Charles  G.  Raue,  M.  D.,  Malcolm  Macfarlan,  M. 

D.  ,  Walter  M.  James,  M.  D.,  Edward  Fornias,  M.  D. ;  attend- 
ing board  medical  department,  Charles  McDowell,  M.  D.,  John 
Y.  Allen,  M.  IX,  G.  E.  Gramm,  M.  D.,  C.  S.  Schwenk,  M.  D.  ; 
surgical  department:  Duncan  MacFarlan,  M.  D.,  Carl  V. 
Vischer,  M.  D. ;  gynecological  department,  Theodore  Gramm, 
M.  D. ;  obstetrical  department,  Jesse  W.  Thatcher,  M.  D.,  Anna 

E.  Dnmont,  M.  D.,  William  F.  Berkenstock,  M.  D.,  Eliza  J. 
Remick,  M.  D.  ;  dispensary,  Charles  McDowell,  M.  D.,  E.  J. 
Remick,  M.  D.,  L.  H.  Porter,  M.  D.,  G.  E.  Gramm,  M.  D., 
William  F.  Berkenstock,  M.  D.,  Jose  Congosto,  M.  D. ;  eye  and 
surgical  clinic,  Carl  V.  Vischer,  M.  D.  ;  dentist,  Alexander  P. 
Long,  D.  D.  S.;  special  staff,  P.  P.  Wells,  M.  D.,  William  P. 
Wesselhceft,  M.  D.,  Edward  Rushmore,  M.  D.,  Alice  P.  Camp- 
bell, M.  D.,  Levi  Hoopes,  M.  D.,  Eugene  D.  Nash,  M.  D. 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  the  annual  report  of  the 
Secretary  : 

"The  Managers  of  the  Women's  Homoeopathic  Hospital  sin- 
cerely regret  that  one  of  the  hospital  dispensary  physicians, 
whose  name  has  been  made  unpleasantly  public,  should  have 
been  so  delayed  in  complying  with  a  law  regarding  registration, 
as  to  have  become  amenable  to  a  charge  of  violation  of  a  wise 
statute,  meant  for  the  protection  of  the  public.  This  was  not 
her  intentron,  as  the  testimony  given  during  her  trial  has  fully 
proven. 

"The  arrest  of  this  physician  on  the  complaint  of  one  of  her 
own  profession  was  the  initial  step  in  what  we  believe  to  be  a 
concerted  movement,  whose  object  seems  to  be  to  cripple  the  use- 
fulness of  the  hospital.  While  her  trial  was  pending,  the  resig- 
nation of  a  number  of  the  staff  and  the  two  resident  physicians 
were  presented  to  the  Board  with  no  reasons  given.  After  vain 
endeavors  on  the  part  of  the  president  and  members  of  the  Board 
to  learn  from  the  resident  physicians,  who  would  have  been  sup- 
posed to  know  the  existence  of  any  cause  grave  enough  to  de- 
mand their  withdrawal,  and  who  had  been  considered  faithful 
enough,  to  the  confidence  placed  in  them,  to  give  timely  notice 


72 


THE  WOMEN'S  HOSPITAL. 


[Feb., 


to  the  Executive  Board,  of  any  danger  imperilling  its  interests. 
The  resignations  were  accepted  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  Board 
held  thereafter." 

At  the  same  meeting  the  following  preambles  and  resolutions 
were  unanimously  adopted,  the  Board  being  polled,  and  each 
member  present  heartily  accepting  them. 

hereas,  It  has  recently  been  publicly  asserted  or  inti- 
mated that  great  diversity  exists  in  this  Board  as  to  the  treat- 
ment to  be  applied  in  its  hospital,  growing  out  of  the  widely- 
differing  views  of  certain  of  its  members,  it  seems  a  fitting 
occasion  to  briefly  state  and  emphasize  the  objects  and  purposes 
of  this  Association  so  far  as  they  relate  to  the  above  matter  ;  we 
therefore  declare  : 

"  '  First,  That  this  is  a  Homoeopathic  Hospital ; 

"  '  Second,  That  it  is  controlled  by  a  Board  of  women  man- 
agers, which  is  non-sectarian  in  its  composition  ; 

" '  Third,  That  while  in  such  a  Board  there  have  naturally 
and  inevitably  been  differences  of  opinion  relative  to  matters  of 
hospital  management,  there  has  never  been  any  proposition, 
motion,  or  suggestion  from  any  faction  or  individual  member 
of  the  Board,  providing  for  or  tending  toward  any  change 
from  pare  Homoeopathy  as  the  sole  and  exclusive  treatment  in  its 
hospital  ; 

"  '  Fourth,  As  a  further  expression  of  the  views  and  intentions 
of  this  Board,  be  it 

" '  Resolved,  That  while  this  Board  recognizes  the  un- 
doubted right  of  each  of  its  members  to  her  individual  opinions 
upon  any  and  all  subjects,  it  would  promptly  resent  and  resist 
any  such  assertion  of  opinion  as  would  divert  this  hospital  from 
the  purposes  of  its  creation — the  administration  of  Homoe- 
opathy. 

"  ( Resolved,  That  we  cordially  invite  the  investigation  of 
our  hospital  management  by  the  proper  officers  of  the  Common- 
wealth of  Pennsylvania  at  any  time  or  in  any  manner  that  may 
seem  best  to  themselves/ 

"  This  action  of  the  Board  was  called  forth  by  vague  rumors 
outside  the  hospital  that  Christian  Science  was  used  as  a  means 
of  cure  in  its  wards,  and  had  usurped  the  place  of  Homoeopathy. 
At  a  subsequent  meeting  of  the  Board  a  letter  was  presented  from 
one  of  the  staff  physicians,  asking  definite  information  concerning 
the  rumors  in  regard  to  the  use  of  Christian  Science  in  the  hospital. 
At  the  same  meeting  the  Board  was  polled  on  the  question 
whether  Christian  Science  had  been  taught  or  practiced  in  the 
hospital,  and  each  member  stated  plainly  that  from  her  own  ob- 


1890.] 


MENTAGKA  AND  TINEA  CAPITIS  (FAVUS). 


73 


servation  she  Iiad  never  known  Christian  Science  or  anything  of 
that  nature  to  be  taught  or  practiced  in  the  hospital. 

"  The  following  resolution,  framed  on  these  statements,  was 
then  unanimously  adopted  by  the  Executive  Board,  and  sent  to 
the  physician  in  answer  to  his  inquiry  : 

"  We,  individually,  and  as  a  Board,  deny  that  Christian  Science 
has  ever  been  practiced,  taught,  or  advocated  either  to  patients 
or  nurses  in  our  hospital,  and  that  the  charges  against  us  have 
been  equally  conspicuous  for  emphasis  of  assertion  and  absence 
of  detail. 

"This  intrusion  upon  our  regular  routine  duties  has  been  an- 
noying and  needless,  but  with  the  re-organized  staff  of  intrusted 
and  faithful  physicians,  our  work  is  going  on  more  firmly 
grounded,  and  with  better  results  that  ever.  We  enter  upon  another 
year  with  renewed  strength  and  courage,  better  equipped  in  all 
material  respects  than  ever  before,  with  a  full  and  efficient  staff, 
who  are  nobly  assisting  the  management — in  carrying  forward 
the  work  of  the  hospital  on  the  lines  laid  down  in  its  charter." 


ON  MENTAGRA  AND  TINEA  CAPITIS  (FAVUS). 

By  S.  L. 

The  Allgemeine  Horn.  Zeitung,  No.  19,  1889,  contains  a  report 
of  the  meeting  of  the  Saxon  physicians,  from  which  we  extract 
the  following : 

Tillers  reports  a  partial  failure  in  treating  a  heavily  crusted 
mentagra,  whose  base  was  protruding  and  swollen.  It  appeared 
first  on  left  side,  and  healed  under  the  use  of  Kali-chrom. 
Then  it  came  out  on  the  right  side,  the  hairs  of  the  beard  fell  out, 
and  now  it  failed  to  yield  to  Kali-bichr.,  Arsen.,  Silicea,  or  Thuja. 
Kali-iod.  and  Mezereum  were  spoken  of.  Si/bel  recommends 
Cod-liver  oil  to  soften  the  crusts  and  Schiissler's  Kalium-chlo- 
ratum  or  Calcarea  sulphurica.  Heme  uses  Olium  papaveria  to 
soften  the  crusts,  and  relies  on  Hepar  internally.  He  treated  a 
boy  of  nine  years  with  heavy  crusts  on  the  face  where  Calcarea 
ostr.  failed  ;  a  layman  led  his  attention  to  Oleum  terebinth3, 
which  cured  the  case.  Stijfl  saw  excellent  effects  in  the 
Leipzig  polyclinic  in  eruptions  on  the  face  with  formation  of 
crusts  from  Iod.-sulph.3  in  a  boy  of  five  years.  Heuser  re- 
ported an  obstinate  case  of  tinea  capitis  favosa  maligna  in  an 
orphan  girl  of  twelve  years,  who  was  afflicted  with  it  since 
her  third  year.    The  mother  of  the  girl  had  it  for  years  and 


74 


M EN TAG R A  AND  TINEA  CAPITIS  (FAVUS). 


[Feb., 


died  from  it.  The  child  was  delicate,  anemic,  the  hair,  cut 
short,  was  covered  as  with  mold,  matted,  the  whole  scalp  cov- 
ered with  thick  crusts,  showing  cup-like  cells.  She  was  treated 
for  three  years  in  the  orphan  asylum  without  the  least  result, 
and  the  utmost  care  was  unable  to  destroy  the  vermin.  From 
the  edges  of  the  hairy  scalp  oozed  a  clear,  gluey,  foul-smelling 
fluid.  Cervical  glands  hard,  swollen,  and  painless.  Her  treat- 
ment so  far  consisted  in  the  external  use  of  Mercurial  ointments 
and  Cod-liver  oil  internally.  Several  children  in  that  city  had 
died  from  the  same  disease.  Heuser  ordered  a  few  drops  of 
Oleum  anisi  upon  the  head  and  covered  with  a  cloth  ;  on  the 
following  day  Olive  oil  thickly  laid  on  over  the  scalp,  and  after 
a  few  hours  to  be  washed  off  with  water  and  the  yolk  of  an  egg. 
The  lice  and  the  nits  were  killed  and  never  showed  themselves 
any  more.  Internally  Graphite,  Viiica  minor,  and  Oleander 
were  tried  and  failed,  when  she  was  put  under  constitutional 
treatment,  Kali-iod.1  three  drops  morning  and  evening.  .After 
two  weeks  a  decided  amelioration  could  be  noticed,  but  also  a 
severe  Iodine  coryza,  which  lasted  a  week.  Sulphur6  did  not 
do  much  and  therefore  Heuser  returned  to  Kali-iod.3  for  two 
weeks.  More  improvement  and  still  more  coryza,  so  that 
frequent  omission  of  the  drug  was  necessary,  but  in  ten  months 
she  was  cured  and  remained  well.  She  is  now  married  and  has 
healthy  children.  Heuser  acknowledges  that  now  he  would  pre- 
fer the  30th  potency  as  a  constitutional  remedy.  Villers  often 
uses  Staphisagria  for  the  lousy  smell  of  a  favus,  and  does  not 
think  it  necessary  to  have  the  hair  cut.  Henze  cured  a  moist 
eczema  on  the  neck  of  a  girl,  with  a  foul  discharge,  with  Arsen.5, 
a  dose  morning  and  evening,  without  despoiling  her  of  her 
hair.  Heuser  observed  a  case  where  disseminated  papules 
at  the  edges  of  the  hair  changed  to  itching  vesicles ;  by  scratch- 
ing these  became  confluent  and  covered  by  bright-red,  bloody 
crusts.  The  child  was  very  thirsty,  drank  often,  but  little  at  a 
time,  felt  weak  and  prostrated.  Arsen.  and  Rhus  failed,  but 
Magnesia  muriatica  cured,  which  is  also  an  antidote  to  Arsen. 
Tsehortner  cured  an  elderly  gentleman  suffering  from  tinea  fa- 
vosa by  ordering  a  strict  vegetarian  diet  and  Sulphur30. 

Villers'  case  of  mentagra  soon  turned  into  a  discussion  of 
scrofulous  skin-diseases,  especially  to  tinea  favosa,  and  we  see 
them  recommending  clinically:  Kali-chrom.,  Kali-bichrom., 
Kali-iod.,  Kali-mur.,  Magnesia-mur.,  Sulphur  and  Sulphur-iod., 
Arsen.,  Silicea,  Thuja,  Graphite,  Oleand.,  Vinca  minor,  etc.,  the 
preparations  of  Kalis  and  of  Iod.  being  the  favorites.    The  skin 


1890.]         MENTAGRA  AND  TINEA  CAPITIS  (FAVUS). 


75 


trouble  being  an  emanation  not  only  of  scrofulosis,  but  in  one 
case  even  of  hereditary  psora,  we  felt  rather  astonished  not  to 
see  antipsoric  constitutional  treatment  put  into  the  foreground, 
and  Tschortner's  recommendation  of  a  strict  vegetarian  diet  has 
our  full  approval.  We  know  now  that  many  a  case  of  epilepsy, 
too  often  resting  on  a  psoric  diathesis,  becomes  incurable,  be- 
cause the  little  and  the  adult  epileptic  will  regale  himself  with 
animal  food,  and  thus  may  prostrate  the  action  of  a  well-selected 
remedy.  A  mild,  nourishing  diet,  an  abstention  from  anything 
stimulating,  is  the  sine  qua  non  to  a  successful  treatment  of  any 
skin-disease,  and  it  would  be  Avell  if  the  physicians  of  our  pres- 
ent day  would  adhere  more  closely  to  the  dietary  management 
of  their  patients  as  laid  down  by  Hahnemann  in  the  Organon 
and  in  the  first  volume  of  Chronic  Diseases.  Regulation  of  diet 
first,  and  medicine  becomes  of  secondary  importance.  Cleanli- 
ness inside  and  outside,  on  the  external  and  internal  skin,  and 
the  diseased  poisons  circulating  in  unhealthy  blood  will  not  find 
habitation  in  a  pure  body. 

Heuser  destroyed  the  whole  brood  of  lice  by  a  few  drops  of 
Oil  of  Anise,  which  reminded  me  of  a  remark  made  by-  a 
physician  in  the  late  French  Congress,  that  the  active  principle, 
the  poisonous  one,  in  the  beverage  called  Absynthe  or  Vermouth, 
is  not  Absynthe  at  all,  but  the  Oil  of  Anise  which  is  contained 
in  that  drink,  and  late  old-school  journals  speak  of  Menthol  in 
the  same  direction.  Looking  at  our  Materia  Medica  and  at  the 
Cyclopedia  of  Pathogenesis,  we  read  nothing  of  that  power  to 
destroy  vermin  in  either  remedy,  and  still  we  know  from.toxi- 
cological  experiments  the  influence  of  this  kind  of  drugs  on  the 
nervous  system. 

We  can  easily  see  why  the  Kali  salts  are  in  these  psoric 
affections  favorites  with  our  German  colleagues,  for  it  is  well 
known  that  they  all  exert  a  deleterious,  and  hence  also  a  cura- 
tive effect  over  the  manufacture  of  the  blood,  qualitatively  as 
well  as  quantitatively — a  weak  heart  is  so  characteristic  of  a  Kali, 
where  the  other  symptoms  correspond.  Such  children,  showing 
their  stigma  on  their  face,  may  apparently  look  plump,  so  that 
the  old  proverb  was,  the  more  eruption,  the  healthier  the  child, 
but  we  deal  here  with  a  false  and  deceiving  plethora,  and  the 
muscular  weakness — again  a  characteristic  of  the  Kalis — will 
crop  out,  and  still  what  a  difference  is  between  them.  Thus 
we  read  how  Heuser  cured  that  obstinate  case  of  malignant 
tinea  with  the  steady  use  of  the  Iodide  of  Potassium,  and 
if  he  only  would  have  given  it  from  the  start  in  higher 
potencies  these  coryza  aggravations  might  have  been  obviated. 


76 


MENTAGRA  AND  TINEA  CAPITIS  (FAVUS).  [Feb., 


The  individuality  of  the  patient  suited  the  individuality  of 
the  drug,  but  its  application  was  faulty.  It  La  well  known 
that  Kali-iod.  is  a  great  remedy  in  tertiary  syphilis,  and  may 
not  scrofulosis  be  too  often  the  punishment  of  the  third  and 
fourth  generation  for  the  sins  of  their  ancestors?  If  it  were 
not  going  too  far,  we  might  say  there  is  nothing  refined  in  the 
skin  trouble  and  the  remedy  suits  the  disease,  aftecting  more  the 
lowest  tissues  of  the  body.  What  Kali-iod.  is  for  distant  ema- 
nation from  syphilis,  Kali-bichromicum  is  for  the  residue  of  a 
gonorrh<eaie  poison  ;  and  no  wonder  Villers  tried  it  after  the 
failure  of  such  sycotic  remedies  as  Thuja,  Sarsaparilla,  Silicea. 
While  the  Iodide  caused  a  vesico-pustular  eruption,  the  bichro- 
mate causes  a  vesicle  with  depressed  centre,  and  just  like  small- 
pox, the  pustule  suppurates,  and  on  healing  leaves  a  cicatrix. 
Let  us  study  one  of  Schussler's  favorite  drugs,  his  Kali-muri- 
aticum,  his  special  remedy  for  fibrous  exudations  in  any  tissue,  and 
in  the  treatment  of  cutaneous  efflorescences  which  are,  after  all, 
exudations.  It  holds, therefore,  with  him  a  high  place,  especially 
in  eczema,  which  has  been  developed  after  vaccination.  But  when 
Schiissler  adds  to  it  "  with  bad  vaccine  matter,"  he  is  only  par- 
tially right,  for  we  witnessed  eczema,  erysipelas,  furunculosis, etc., 
after  vaccination  with  perfectly  pure  vaccine,  when  the  psoric 
poison  needs  only  an  impulse  to  show  its  presence  by  outward  mani- 
festations. Comparing  Potassium  Chloride  with  Thuja,  we  find 
them  both  indicated  for  bad  effects  of  vaccination  and  of  gonorrhoea. 
If  Kali-iod.  suits  more  torpid  scrofulosis,  Kali-brom.  ought  to  be 
more  often  used  in  florid  scrofulosis,  but  children  suffering  from 
the  latter  are  only  rarely  affected  with  these  disgusting  eruptions, 
and  still  we  read  in  the  Pathogenesis  of  Bromium  of  pimples  and 
boils,  and  practitioners  used  Bromium  successfully  in  profusely 
discharging  malignant  scald-head  with  unbearable  fetor  and  ex- 
treme tenderness  of  the  scalp  and  for  foul  ulcers.  The  well- 
known  acne  of  the  Bromide  of  Potassium  ought  to  lead  more 
frequently  our  attention  to  this  remedy,  which  on  account  of  its 
abuse  by  the  old  school  is  too  much  neglected  in  our  school. 
Just  so  the  Iodide  of  Arsenic  became  a  standard  drug  long  ago, 
while  the  Brom-arsen.  still  awaits  its  proving  and  its  more  fre- 
quent application  in  disease,  as  especially  in  scrofulous  skin-dis- 
ease the  waters  containing  Brom-arsen.,  or  those  in  Ashe  County, 
N.  C,  have  earned  a  solid  reputation.  It  would  be  worth  while 
again  to  compare  Arsenicum  and  its  combinations  with  the  dif- 
ferent combination  of  Sulphur,  for  dryness  of  the  skin  and  burn- 
ing pains  are  characteristic  of  both  of  them.  Thus  we  might 
go  on  comparing  drugs,  for  there  is  no  more  delightful  study 


1890.] 


FRESH  AIR  IN  CONSUMPTION. 


77 


than  our  Materia  Medica,  and  find  grains  of  gold  where  others 
throw  them  away  as  cumbersome  trash. 

What  a  useless  task  this  classification  of  skin-diseases,  for  no 
two  authorities  agree,  and  it  is  well  that  for  the  relief  of  the 
patient  the  name  is  of  very  little  importance.  But  in  studying 
out  with  mathematical  precision  the  drug  which  will  be  selected 
for  its  removal  by  its  similarity  to  the  state  of  the  patient,  let 
us  not  forget  that  something  may  be  of  greater  importance  than 
even  the  selection  of  the  remedy.  "Sublata  causa  tollit  eflfectus" 
is  no  idle  dream,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  the  conscientious  physician  to 
put  his  patient  in  such  a  sanitary  state  that  his  infinitesimal  dose 
is  not  obstructed  in  its  dynamic  action  by  clogged  material. 
Our  German  colleagues  need  no  excuse  for  using  also  external 
means  to  cleanse  the  patient  from  his  unclcanliness,  and  we  can- 
not do  better  than  follow  rules  which  teach  that  cleanliness  is 
next  to  Godliness. 


THE  VITAL  NECESSITY  FOR  FRESH  AIR  IN 
CONSUMPTION. 

Edmund  J.  Lee,  M.  D.,  Philadelphia. 

Although  the  literature  of  consumption  is  almost  limitless,  it 
is  often  useful  to  repeatedly  call  attention  to  certain  necessary  facts 
bearing  upon  the  hygienic  treatment  of  this  dreadful  disease. 
Every  physician  nowadays  acknowledges  the  great  importance  of 
proper  sanitary  conditions  in  the  treatment  of  this  and  all  other 
diseases,  yet  it  may  be  safely  affirmed  that  the  majority  of 
physicians  do  not  give  this  subject  the  full  attention  it  deserves. 
It  has  been  said  that  the  three  necessities  of  health,  which  are 
free  to  every  one,  are  the  very  ones  which  the  vast  majority  of 
people  use  least,  These  three  are  fresh  air,  exercise,  and  water; 
it  is  needless  to  mention  here  the  vast  use  these  three  necessary 
things  are  to  the  human  race. 

A  comparative  few.sick  people  are  able  to  seek  hygienic  relief 
by  travel  :  but  none  are  so  poor  that  they  cannot  properly  venti- 
late their  oed rooms  or  their  sick  chambers.  Yet  it  is  by  no 
means  an  uncommon  experience  to  enter  a  sick  chamber,  even  in 
the  houses  of  the  rich,  and  find  the  air  positively  sickening  from 
bad  odors.  On  remonstrating,  we  are  often  told  the  weather  is 
too  damp  or  it  is  too  cold  to  have  a  window  open  ;  in  reality, 
fresh  air  is  never  too  damp  or  too  cold  not  to  be  preferable  to 
impure,  fetid  air  of  a  sick  room. 


78 


FRESH  AIR  IN  CONSUMPTION. 


[Feb, 


In  view  of  these  facts,  we  call  attention  to  a  paper  read  by 
Dr.  Bowditch,  on  the  benefits  of  short  walks  in  the  fresh  air; 
surely  this  simple  and  costless  expedient  can  be  tried  by  the 
poorest  or  by  the  busiest.  Don't  be  afraid  to  go  out  in  "  bad 
weather"  provided  one  is  properly  clothed.  No  out-door  weather 
is  as  bad  as  the  fetid,  disease-laden  air  of  a  sick  room. 

OPEN-AIR   TRAVEL    IN  CONSUMPTION. 

Dr.  H.  I.  Bowditch,  of  Boston,  read  an  interesting  paper  at 
the  meeting  of  American  Climatological  Association  to  show  the 
great  value  of  "  open-air  travel  as  a  curer  and  preventer  of  con- 
sumption, as  in  the  history  of  a  New  England  family."  The 
family  under  consideration  is  that  of  which  the  author  was  a 
member.  At  the  age  of  thirty-five  his  father  was  undoubtedly 
threatened  with  consumption,  having  cough,  hemoptysis, 
anorexia,  diarrhoea,  and  general  malaise,  with  fever  and  great 
debility.  In  this  condition  he  set  out  with  a  friend  as  his  com- 
panion and  driver,  in  an  open  one-horse  chaise  for  a  tour 
through  New  England.  After  the  first  day's  travel  of  twenty- 
five  miles  he  was  so  much  exhausted  and  had  so  much  bleeding 
from  the  lungs  that  the  friend  was  advised  to  carry  him  home 
to  die.  The  travelers,  however,  were  both  plucky,  and  kept  on, 
and  soon  every  day's  travel  brought  improved  health.  In  this 
journey  he  traveled  seven  hundred  and  forty-eight  miles,  going 
''down  into  Rhode  Island,  thence  by  the  way  of  Connecticut  up 
through  the  hills  of  western  Massachusetts  to  Albany  and  Troy, 
and  back  through  Massachusetts  to  New  Hampshire,  Vermont, 
and  Maine  and  then  to  the  home  from  which  he  started." 

The  benefit  which  he  derived  from  this  journey  had  proved  to 
him  the  absolute  need  he  had  of  regular  daily  exercise  in  the 
open  air.  Afterward,  under  daily  walks  of  one  and  a-half  to 
two  miles,  taken  three  times  daily  during  thirty  years  of  life, 
all  pulmonary  troubles  disappeared.  He  died  in  1838,  from 
cancer  of  the  stomach,  one  lung  presenting  evidences  of  an 
ancient  cicatrix  at  its  apex,  both  being  otherwise  normal.  He 
was  sixty-five  years  old — i.  e.,  thirty  years  after  the  journey. 
Dr.  Bowditch  tells  us  that  his  father  married  his  cousin,  who, 
after  long  invalidism,  died  of  chronic  consumption  in  1834. 
Notwithstanding  the  strong  predisposing  influence  to  lung  dis- 
ease which  would  result  from  such  a  union,  six  of  their  eight 
children  either  reached  old  age  or  adult  life,  and  were  married 
and  have  had  children  and  grandchildren,  but  not  a  trace  of  con- 
sumption has  appeared  in  any  of  these  ninety-three  persons. 


1890.] 


PAST  MEETINGS  OF  THE  LIPPE  SOCIETY. 


79 


This  remarkable  immunity  from  consumption  Dr.  Bowditch 
attributes  to  the  fact  that  his  father,  having  experienced  in  his 
own  case  a  vast  benefit  resulting  from  constant,  regular  exercise 
out-of-doors,  apparently  determined  that  his  children  should  be 
early  instructed  in  the  same  course.  Daily  walks  were  required 
as  soon  as  the  children  were  old  enough,  and  "  if  any  of  us, 
wThile  attending  school,  were  observed  to  be  drooping,  or  made 
the  least  pretense  even  to  being  n'ot  '  exactly  well/  he  took  us  from 
school,  and  very  often  sent  us  to  the  country  to  have  farm  life 
and  out-of-door  play  to  our  heart's  content.  In  consequence  of 
this  early  instruction  all  of  his  descendants  have  become  thor- 
oughly impressed  with  the  advantages  of  daily  walking,  of  sum- 
mer vacations  in  the  country,  and  of  camping  out,  etc.,  among 
the  mountains.  These  habits  have  been  transmitted,  I  think, 
to  his  grandchildren  in  a  stronger  form,  if  possible,  than  he 
himself  had  them." 

Dr.  Bowditch  adds  :  "  I  submit  these  facts  and  thoughts  for 
candid,  mature,  and  practical  consideration  and  use  in  the  treat- 
ment all  are  called  to  make  of  this  terrible  scourge  of  all  parts 
of  this  Union.  For  my  own  part,  I  fully  believe  that  many 
patients  now  die  from  want  of  this  open-air  treatment.  For 
years  I  have  directed  every  consumptive  patient  to  walk  daily 
from  three  to  six  miles ;  never  to  stay  all  day  at  home  unless  a 
violent  storm  be  raging.  When  they  are  in  doubt  about  going 
out,  owing  to  ^  bad  weather/  I  direct  them  to  '  solve  the  doubt, 
not  by  staying  in  the  house,  but  by  going  out." — Sanitary  In- 
spector. 


NOTES  FROM  PAST  MEETINGS  OF  THE  LIPPE 

SOCIETY. 

Dr.  Lippe  said  that  Phytolacca  was  indicated  in  nursing  sore 
mouth. 

Dr.  Allen  had  had  a  case  of  sciatica  cured  at  once  by  Carbo- 
veg.  16  M. 

Dr.  Lippe  said  that  Arsenic  was  the  best  remedy  to  stop  the 
ravages  of  phagedenic  chancre. 

Dr.  Geo.  H.  Clark  had  cured  a  case  of  lupus  complicated  with 
chancre  by  Lycopodium. 

Dr.  Allen  had  cured  a  case  of  epithelioma  by  Lycopodium 
very  high. 

Dr.  Lippe  had  been  very  successful  in  controlling  a  case  of 
typhus  fever  with  Bryonia,  one  dose. 


80  PAST  MEETINGS  OF  THE  LIPPE  SOCIETY.  [Feb., 


Dr.  Guernsey  had  treated  a  case  of  difficult  respiration,  espe- 
cially in  the  act  of  expiration.  Mephitis  was  the  remedy,  and 
it  acted  with  excellent  effect. 

Dr.  Lippe  spoke  of  valvular  heart  disease,  and  said  he  had 
had  excellent  results  in  prescribing  old  Madeira  wine  for  such 
cases. 

Dr.  Mahlon  Preston  reported  a  case  of  a  woman  who  passed 
no  urine  for  three  months  ! 

Dr.  Allen  had  had  a  similar  case. 

Dr.  Lippe  said  that  in  cases  of  double  vision  with  one  object 
higher  than  the  other,  Stramon.  was  apt  to  be  the  remedy. 

Dr.  Guernsey  has  cured  a  case  of  syphlitic  sore  mouth,  hav- 
ing as  a  principal  indication  burning  and  stinging,  with  Apis. 

Dr.  Allen  had  a  case  of  diarrhoea  with  vomiting  and  prostra- 
tion. He  gave  Veratrum  with  relief ;  but  spasms  and  cramps 
of  the  limbs  continued.  Finally  he  observed  that  the  patient 
would  remain  uncovered,  and  was  very  restless.  Secale  cornut. 
was  given  and  it  cured  at  once. 

Dr.  Lippe  said  that  he  had  that  day  observed  tan  spread  be- 
fore a  house  where  was  a  very  sick  patient.  He  at  once  thought 
of  Nitric-acid  as  the  probable  remedy  for  the  case.  Nitric  acid 
has  great  sensitiveness  to  noise  and  jarring. 

Dr.  Guernsey  said  that  Gelseminum  has  headache  commenc- 
ing in  the  nape  of  the  neck  and  going  all  over  the  head  to  the 
forehead. 

Dr.  Lippe  said  that  Belladonna  and  Calcarea-carb.  have  the 
same  symptom. 

Dr.  Fellger  said  that  Argent-nitricum  has  the  same  symp- 
tom. 

Dr.  Allen  had  a  case  of  probable  frost-bite.  There  was 
swelling  of  the  great  toe  with  severe  pain.  Also  severe  pain  as 
of  a  sharp  instrument  passing  upward  between  the  metatarsal 
bones  and  feeling  of  a  piece  of  ice  lying  there.  Berberis  re- 
lieved the  pain  and  cured  the  whole  condition. 

A  patient  had  a  sense  of  something  warm  rising  into  the 
throat,  causing  cough.    Zinc  was  the  remedy. 

Dr.  Lippe  said  that  in  whatever  disease  a  patient  may  have 
even  bone  troubles,  if  the  patient  can't  bear  to  be  moved  or  to  be 
touched,  China  was  the  remedy. 

Dr.  Lippe  remarked  that  the  great  remedy  for  headache  in 
school  girls  was  Phosphoric  acid. 

Dr.  C.  Carleton  Smith  said  he  had  cured  such  headaches  in 
school  girls  with  Phosphoric  acid. 

Dr.  Guernsey  related  the  case  of  a  patient  with  face-ache.  The 


1890.]         PAST  MEETINGS  OF  THE  LIPPE  SOCIETY. 


81 


patient  complained  that  the  pillow  felt  as  hard  as  iron.  Arnica 
was  given  upon  this  indication,  and  brought  immediate  relief. 

Dr.  Lee  said  Phosphorus  has  same  symptom.  Ferrum  mag- 
neticnm  has  the  symptom  that  as  soon  as  the  patient  begins  to 
eat,  he  must  go  to  stool. 

Dr.  Allen,  said  :  Kali-bichrom.  has  sudden  desire  for  stool, 
but  it  comes  before  he  has  had  time  to  get  out  of  bed. 

The  Sulphur  patient  does  have  time  to  get  out  of  bed,  but  he 
must  go  quickly. 

Dr.  Fellger  has  good  results  from  Lithium-carb.  in  cases  of 
encysted  stone  in  the  bladder. 

Dr.  Guernsey  finds  Ledum  a  good  remedy  for  horses  that 
have  wounds  from  nails.  He  puts  some  of  the  tincture  upon  a 
piece  of  absorbent  cotton  and  applies  it  to  the  wound. 

Dr.  Lippe  said  :  For  patients  having  unreasonable  fear  of 
cholera,  Lachesis  was  the  remedy. 

Dr.  Guernsey  gave  an  account  of  a  woman  with  puerperal 
convulsions  to  whom  he  administered  Arnica  with  the  most 
gratifying  results.  There  were  bruises  in  the  face  which  helped 
him  in  the  selection  of  the  remedy. 

Dr.  Guernsey  spoke  of  the  peculiar  symptom  of  Moschus : 
one  cheek  is  red  and  cold  and  the  other  pale  and  hot. 

Dr.  Allen  had  a  case  of  ulceration  between  the  buttocks  in  a 
little  child.  The  ulcers  were  blue  and  offensive,  and  sur- 
rounded by  pimples.  The  child  was  fearful  of  being  touched, 
and  cried  whenever  the  doctor  approached.  Dr.  Allen  gave 
Lachesiscm,  and  in  a  week  the  child  was  cured.  He  had  never 
seen  such  prompt  action  from  a  remedy. 

Dr.  Allen  had  a  case  of  paralysis  which  resisted  the  remedies. 
The  patient  complained  of  coldness  of  the  patella.  This  symp- 
tom led  him  to  study  Aurum,  which  was  given  and  relieved  im- 
mediately.   The  woman  was  likely  to  recover  completely. 

Dr.  Lippe  relieved  a  case  of  paralysis  with  jumping  of  the 
legs  by  Argeutum  nitricum. 

Dr.  Guernsey  had  been  successful  in  curing  canker  of  the 
mouth  with  Antimon-crnd.  He  could  not,  however,  give  any 
reliable  indications. 

One  case  had  the  symptom,  cold  saliva  flows  from  the  mouth. 
Phytolacca  relieved  this  case. 

Dr.  Lippe  said  that  Caladium  had  the  same  symptom. 


6 


MANIA. 


G.  W.  Sherbino,  M.  D.,  Abilene,  Texas. 

Mania. — Desires  to  bite  and  strike  those  around.  Bell.,Stram. 

—  Is  afraid  of  imaginary  things.  Tries  to  hide  himself. 
Bell.,  Arsenicum. 

—  Desires  light  and  company.  Stramonium. 

—  Desires  to  cut  and  tear  everything,  especially  the  clothes. 
Veratrum-alb. 

—  Desires  to  kiss  everybody.  Veratrum-alb. 

—  Desires  to  go  home.    Bry.,  Bell.,  Lach.,  Opium. 

—  Strips  off  his  clothes.    Bell.,  Hyos. 

—  Wants  to  go  naked.  Phosphorus. 

—  Mind  wandering  off  at  night.  Bell. 

—  Piety,  nocturnal.  Stram. 

—  Rage.    Bell.,  Cuprum,  Hyos.,  Secale,  Stram. 

—  Shame,  absence  of.    Hyos.,  Phos. 

—  Sings  amorous  songs.  Hyos. 

—  Laughs  and  cries.  Bell. 

—  Sings  obscene  songs.    Hyos.,  Stram. 

—  Talks  obscene.    Nux-m.,  Verat-alb. 

—  Wants  to  expose  the  sexual  parts.  Hyos. 

—  Exposes  the  pudenda.  Hyos. 

—  Desires  to  bite  and  spit.  Bell. 

—  Escape,  tries  to.    Bell.,  Stram. 

—  Expose  himself,  wishes  to.    Hyos.,  Phos. 

—  Hide,  desires  to.    Bell.,  Stram. 

—  Imagines  that  rags  are  fine  clothing.  Sulph. 

—  Religious.    Crocus,  Lach. 

—  With  lascivious  talk.    Hyos.,  Verat-alb. 
Cephalalgia. — Pain  from  the  frontal  region,  extending  up- 
ward and  backward  to  the  vertex. 

Sharp,  shooting  pain  from  left  eye  to  the  vertex. 

Bruised  feeling  in  the  brain  (Baptisia),  had  to  walk  very  care- 
fully— and  keep  the  head  erect — any  quick  motion  turning  the 
head  would  aggravate  the  pain.  Vertigo  from  rising  from  a 
horizontal  position  (Bap.,  Bry.).  Sensation  as  though  a  large 
nail  was  driven  into  the  right  side  of  the  vertex  (see  Nux-v.)  ; 
this  came  on  after  a  spell  of  chagrin. 

That  part  of  the  brain  that  aches  is  from  the  front  of  the  ears 
82 


Feb.,  1890.]  CASE  OF  HAEMORRHOIDS. 


83 


on  one  side  to  the  other.  If  that  much  of  the  brain  was  cutout 
the  balance  would  be  healthy.  A  dull  aching,  aggravated  by 
stepping  from  a  high  step  to  the  ground.  One  dose  of  Phyto- 
lacca 45M,  F.,  cured. 


A  SYNOPSIS  OF  A  CASE  OF  HAEMORRHOIDS. 

Dear  Editor  :  In  your  January  number  a  case  of  haemor- 
rhoids is  recorded  treated  by  a  homoeopathic  physician.  With- 
out going  into  the  miserable  innuendoes  leveled  apparently 
against  a  fellow-physician  of  the  same  school,  who  for  some 
reason  he  has  a  quarrel  with,  let  us  look  at  the  kind  of  treat- 
ment this  wonderful  expounder  of  the  homoeopathic  law  adopts. 

The  first  prescription  is  given  October  16th,  evidently  on  the 
one  symptom  that  the  patient  is  "  worse  when  sitting  or  lying." 
Now,  I  think  we  can  hardly  venture  to  call  such  a  symptom  a 
"  key-note,"  although  Phosphorus  is  the  only  medicine  put 
against  that  symptom  in  the  Repertory.  Take  any  case  of 
painful  piles,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  sit  down  without  pain, 
and  lying  down  needs  just  as  much  care.  Again  Phosphorus 
1  believe  does  not  give  sliooting  pains  in  the  vagina  near  orifice. 
Now  Sulphur  gives  shooting  pains  in  rectum,  and  beating  also, 
and  as  the  wall  of  the  vagina  posteriorly  is  the  wall  of  the 
rectum  anteriorly  it  seems  to  me  that  the  diagnosis  would  have 
been  more  scientific  and  correct,  if  the  vagina  had  not  been 
mentioned,  as  it  had  probably  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  the  case. 
Many  things  in  one's  daily  food,  a  little  nutmeg,  for  instance,  may 
temporarily  remove  an  attack  of  piles,  or  they  may  pass  off,  as 
this  attack  did  for  a  time,  by  an  increased  action  of  the  liver 
producing  bilious  diarrhoea,  only  to  come  on  again  if  the  case 
were  not  cured.  Next  we  have  given  us  a  long  account  of  knife 
pains  in  rectum,  or  shooting,  but  in  the  rectum  now  (evidently  the 
vagina  pains  before  mentioned) :  despondent  (no  wonder),  numb- 
ness of  legs,  feels  better  walking,  hands  and  feet  cold,  pain  after 
stool,  mental  incoherence,  thoughts  not  ready,  all  of  which  again 
strongly  point  to  Sulphur,  and  yet  this  poor  lady  is  kept  suffer- 
ing more  or  less  from  the  16th  of  October  to  27th  of  December, 
when,  we  are  told,  the  climax  of  pain  came,  and  the  physician  saw 
he  had  committed  a  fatal  error  in  giving  Kali-carb.  and  then 
makes  another  by  giving  Hamameliscm.  What  Chloroform  lias 
to  do  with  such  a  case  is  difficult  to  see.  It  almost  seems 
that  he  would  rather  have  let  the  poor  lady  suffer  than  give 
anything  short  of  a  hundred-thousandth  potency.    At  last  we 


84 


VERIFICATIONS  OF  MEDORRHINUM. 


[Feb., 


come  to  the  19th  of  January,  1884,  more  than  three  months' 
treatment  and  absolutely  nothing  done  ;  now  the  patient  develops 
a  "  key-note  "  of  Silicea — stool feels  as  if  it  slipped  hack  (the  proba- 
bility whenever  this  sensation  occurs  is  that  a  fold  of  the 
rectum  is  protruded  by  straining  and  slips  back)  consequently  on 
apparently  that  symptom  alone  Siliceacmis  given.  Now  mark, 
the  first  dose  was  given  at  5  P.  H.  and  at  6  p.m.  an  enormous 
stool  was  voided,  which  he  takes  the  credit  of  having  caused  to 
be  passed  in  one  hour  with  Siliceacm,  irrespective  of  the  fact 
as  stated  that  before  the  Silicea  was  given  the  patient  had  the 
greatest  difficulty  in  preventing  a  motion,  some  stool  having  passed 
involuntarily.  Comment  is  needless,  but  even  supposing  the 
Silicea  did  this,  it  has  taken  him  three  months  to  find  the  remedy. 
Surely,  Mr.  Editor,  you  will  give  us  something  better  than  this 
next  time. 

Now,  to  take  an  intelligent  view  of  this  case,  I  think  few 
would  disagree  with  me  in  saying  that  the  piles  were  owing  to 
pelvic  congestion,  caused  by  the  pregnant  state,  the  effects  of 
which  had  not  quite  subsided,  a  condition  of  things  that  often 
produce  piles  by  mechanical  pressure.  The  child,  we  are  told, 
was  born  in  September  (/  wonder  whether  it  was  a  thirteen  months7 
baby)  and  the  piles  gradually  went  away  of  themselves,  which 
they  would  probably  do  in  any  similar  case  in  three  months, 
often  in  less  time,  the  treatment  they  received  not  affecting  them  in 
the  least.  Piles  of  the  most  acute  and  painful  kind  are  generally 
cured  in  two  or  three  weeks  when  the  true  homoeopathic  remedy 
is  given,  which  in  this  case  seemed  to  be  Sulphur.  'I  have 
seldom  had  an  acute  case  that  did  not  get  well  in  from  two  to 
four  weeks.  So  much  for  that  physician  who  seems  to  think 
he  can  teach  better  and  wiser  men  than  himself.  As  one  of  the 
faithful,  allow  me.  Mr.  Editor,  to  sign  myself 

Buffalo. 


VERIFICATIONS  OF  MEDORRHINUM. 

G.  W.  Sherbino,  M.  D.,  Abilene,  Texas. 

Mr.  A.,  of  lymphatic  temperament,  has  been  troubled  with 
nasal  pharyngeal  catarrh  for  several  years.  I  had  given  him 
several  seemingly  indicated  remedies,  with  only  very  little 
benefit. 

He  complains  of  his  head  feeling  too  full  of  blood  on  first 
awakening  ;  pain  over  the  eyes  and  nose. 


1890.] 


VERIFICATIONS  OF  MEDORKIIIN I'M. 


85 


Eyes  more  or  less  bloodshot  at  all  times ;  a  yellow  appear- 
ance of  the  conjunctiva},  eyes  burn  and  feel  hot.  Snores  when 
sleeping  ;  always  sleepy  after  dinner  (Phos.).  If  he  goes  to  sleep 
soon  after  eating,  cannot  bear  to  rouse  up  again  ;  wants  to  be 
let  alone  ;  always  ready  to  get  up  in  the  morning. 

Drinks  a  great  deal  of  water  at  night,  not  any  through  the 
day  ;  never  hungry,  but  eats  well  when  once  he  gets  started  ;  cares 
nothing  for  dainties  ;  does  not  like  acids  ;  craves  stimulants 
after  dinner ;  cannot  drink  stimulants  before  twelve  o'clock; 
they  make  him  nervous;  often  vomits  after  dinner,  and  some- 
times after  supper  ;  vomited  matters  smell  very  sour  ;  "  always 
thirsty  after  vomiting." 

Anus  itches  a  great  deal  at  night ;  throat  feels  as  if  full  of 
phlegm,  which  causes  him  to  constantly  clear  his  throat ;  hawks 
up  phlegm,  but  usually  swallows  it.  I  rarely  see  him  spit  on 
floor  or  ground. 

Hawking  and  spitting  worse  when  first  waking  in  the  morn- 
ing, worse  when  lying  in  a  recumbent  position.  If  he  wakens 
up  at  night  it  is  as  bad  as  first  waking  in  the  morning  ;  expecto- 
rates clear,  transparent  mucus,  which  is  very  tenacious  ;  often 
feels  as  if  there,  was  a  small  piece  of  phlegm  which,  if  he  could 
get  it  up,  he  could  quit  clearing  his  throat. 

Urine  often  starts,  then  stops  again  (Con.). 

Feet  are  too  hot  at  night ;  wishes  to  uncover  them.  Lies  un- 
covered when  first  lying  down  ;  feet  do  not  burn  in  the  day- 
time. 

Dreams  troubled,  of  some  one  wishing  to  kill  him,  or  he  is 
trying  to  kill  some  one. 

Disposition  restless  ;  time  passes  too  slowly  ( Arg.-n.,  Helonias, 
Lilium-tig.),  and  that  every  one  is  so  very  slow  when  they  do 
anything  for  him  ;  wants  to  be  out-of-doors. 

Usually  of  a  cheerful  disposition,  but  if  blue  he  feels  as  if  he 
had  hurt  some  one's  feelings,  or  that  his  own  had  been  hurt ; 
always  has  these  symptoms  when  despondent,  depressed. 

Itching  on  the  calves  of  the  legs  ;  eruption  ;  scratches  till  the 
blood  runs;  worse  at  night  (Psorin);  eruption  disappears  in 
summer,  but  returns  when  the  weather  gets  cold  (Alum,  Rhus- 
tox.) ;  red  pimples,  small. 

Itching  in  the  nose,  as  if  the  hairs  caused  it. 

Sighing  respiration  ;  when  trying  to  clear  his  throat  throws 
his  head  back,  puts  the  trachea  on  stretch,  and  presses  against  it 
with  the  hand.    Medorrhinura  CM  (F.)  cured. 


LA  GRIPPE — THREE  CASES. 


H.  B.  Stiles,  A.  M.,  M.  D.,  Abilene.  Texas. 

We  are  in  the  midst  of  an  epidemic  of  la  grippe. 

In  response  to  your  request  for  reports  of  treatment,  I  forward 
accounts  of  three  cases,  typical  of  my  three  chief  remedies. 

Case  I. — C.  J.,  aet.  thirteen.  Attack  began  with  severe  aching 
of  head  and  frame  throughout.  Headache  frontal,  heavy,  bursting. 
Eyes  would  feel  as  if  falling  out.  Tongue  white.  Patient  thirsty 
for  frequent  small  drinks.  Very  bad,  putrid  taste  in  mouth. 
Patient  restless — tossing  and  rolling.    Fever  104.5°. 

^  Baptisiacm.  Briefly,  the  case  improved  forthwith,  and 
all  febrile  symptoms,  aching,  and  restlessness  were  cured  with 
Baptisia.  The  persisting  spasmodic  cough,  worse  at  night  and 
worse  lying  down,  was  cured  with  Drosera. 

Case  II. — Mr.  J.    Father  of  above  patient. 

Symptoms  :  Fever  104.5°.  Headache  very  severe,  with  spik- 
ing sensation  when  coughing.  Pains  in  back,  shoulders,  loins — 
in  fact,  all  over,  <  by  motion — Tfy  Baptisia,  which  seemed  to  be 
genus  cpidemicus.    It  lowered  fever  some,  but  that  was  all. 

Later  symptoms :  Sharp  pains  in  pleura  when  coughing. 
Rusty  sputa.  1^  Bryonia,  which  at  once  reduced  fever  almost 
completely,  relieving  headache  and  other  aches  at  same  time, 
soon  curing  the  pneumonia  also. 

Case  III. — Miss  Q.  Brunette. 

While  at  duty  in  school  on  Friday  morning  was  seized  with 
very  severe  aching  of  back,  neck,  and  head. 

Coming  to  office  at  noon  received  Bapt.cm . 

Calling  to  see  her  next  morning  I  was  informed  that  during 
the  preceding  afternoon  she  had  suffered  extremely  with  head- 
ache, of  a  bursting,  throbbing  character.  Back,  neck,  and  limbs 
all  joining  chorus  of  aching,  head  leading. 

Fever  rose  very  high,  probably  104°.  Fever  was  then  (Sat- 
urday morning)  evidently  absent,  though,  having  left  my  ther- 
mometer, I  caunot  affirm  that  it  was.  Still,  her  head  ached  in- 
tolerably. Eyes  sensitive  to  light,  pupils  dilated.  Said  that  on 
previous  afternoon  she  "  almost  went  wild"  from  nervousness, 
caused  by  listening  to  talk  of  visitors.  Every  sound  aggravated. 
Nervous  as  lightning. 

Now,  while  this  case  resembled  Case  I  in  the  aching,  thirst, 
and  restlessness,  in  general,  it  yet  differed  in  having  a  greater 
86 


Feb.,  1890.]  LA  GRIPPE.  87 

degree  of  erethism — patient  was  more  excited  and  excitable.  All 
her  symptoms  were  more  active  and  poignant  than  in  Case  L 

15*  Belladonna  every  two  hours,  and  forbade  company.  Sat- 
urday evening  all  pains  and. aches  were  relieved.  Headache  came 
in  paroxysms  instead  of  being  continuous.  Continued  Bella- 
donna. Sunday  evening,  temperature  99°.  All  pains  gone. 
Patient  discharged. 

These  three  cases  are  typical  of  the  Abilene  epidemic. 

The  Bryonia  case  is  easily  recognized  by  its  agg.  by  motion. 

The  Bell,  case  is  not  so  easily  distinguished  from  the  Bapt. 
case,  but  has,  as  said  above,  a  greater  activity,  a  more  vigorous 
nervousness,  with  severe  neuralgic  pains. 

The  first  part  of  the  Bapt.  case  is  likely  to  show  extreme 
nervousness,  but  its  tendency  is  to  become  more  and  more  quiet — 
to  take  the  low  appearance. 

Drosera  and  Pulsatilla  have  served  me  best  in  the  cough — 
prescribed  according  to  symptoms. 

We  Southern  physicians  recognize  in  this  world-wide  grippe 
our  old  enemy  the  dengue.  It  has  the  aching ;  it  has  the  putrid 
taste ;  it  has  the  debility  and  persistence  of  neuralgia  after  con- 
valescence that  marked  the  epidemic  of  dengue  in  1885.  Some 
few  cases  have  the  eruption  also  which  marked  many  cases  of 
dengue. 

Owing,  I  believe,  to  the  season,  it  has  more  of  the  catarrhal 
and  less  of  the  "  bilious "  character  of  former  invasions  of 
dengue,  though  in  some  cases  that  also  resulted  in  pneumonia. 

I  have  found  Bapt.  superior  to  Aconite  as  antipyretic  in  these 
cases,  and  superior  to  Eupatorium  for  relieving  the  aching.  It 
is  the  most  frequently  used  remedy. 


LA  GRIPPE. 

S.  W.  Cohen,  M.  D.,  Waco,  Texas. 

I  may  not  be  doing  justice  to  the  large  number  of  your 
readers  when  I  utilize  your  valuable  pages  for  the  purpose  of 
descanting  upon  such  an  inconsequential  condition  (from  a 
homoeopathic  standpoint)  as  la  grippe,  but  when  I  receive  re- 
ports which  show  that  even  in  so-called  homoeopathic  medical 
associations,  Quinine  has  been  suggested  and  indorsed  for  this 
strange  epidemic  with  a  French  name,  and  when  I  reflect  that  I 
know  many  would  be,  if  could  be,  or  rather  could  be,  if  would 
be,  homoeopath ists  who  use  Quinine  in  material  doses  in  almost 


- 


88  LA  GRIPPE.  [Feb., 

every  case,  I  think  it  no  more  than  proper  that  a  Hahnemannian 
report  should  find  its  way  into  print,  to  shame  those  who  are 
sailing  under  false  colors,  not  only  to  their  own  detriment  and 
that  of  those  who  are  confided  to  their  medical  care,  but  to  the 
prejudice  of  Homoeopathy,  as  understood  and  taught  by  the 
master. 

The  grippe  first  made  its  bow  to  our  community  about  two 
weeks  since,  though  we  had  a  forerunner  of  the  trouble  in  the 
guise  of  a  pec  a  liar  vertigo.  Possibly  six  weeks  ago  my  wife 
complained  of  intense  dizziness  from  the  time  she  arose  in  the 
morning  until  she  retired  at  night.  This  continued  for  a  week, 
and  no  medicine  that  I  prescribed  seemed  to  bring  relief  from 
the  unpleasant  sensation.  The  following  week  I  was  attacked 
in  a  similar  manner,  and  I  permitted  the  annoyance  to  wear 
itself  away.  With  this  vertigo  there  came  a  confused  and 
oppressed  condition  of  the  brain — I  could  not  study  or  think. 
The  remedies  apparently  indicated  failed  to  bring  any  ameliora- 
tion. Many  of  my  friends  were  subject  to  the  same  symptoms, 
but  none  thought  them,  of  sufficient  moment  to  ask  medical 
advice. 

This  vertiginous  attack  was  certainly  the  avant  courier  of 
"la  grippe,"  and  was,  no  doubt,  induced  by  similar  atmospheric 
influence.  My  wife  was  among  the  first  to  succumb  to  the 
fashionable  intruder.  Her  symptoms  began  to  develop  an  hour 
or  two  after  noon,  and  were  as  follows  :  Incessant  sneezing,  a 
nasal  discharge  of  clear,  hot  fluid,  which  soon  inflamed  the  alae 
nasi  and  spread  to  the  cheeks.  There  was  a  raw,  burning  sen- 
sation from  trachea  down  to  the  end  of  the  sternum.  She  re- 
ceived a  single  dose  of  Arsenicum1111*  (F.)  at' about  five  or  six 
o'clock  p.m.,  and  was  perfectly  well  next  morning.  I  did  not 
take  her  temperature.  A  few  evenings  following  I  retired  in 
my  usual  good  health,  but  was  awakened — I  know  not  at  what 
time  during  the  night — by  severe  chills  running  up  and  down 
my  back,  and  down  my  thighs.    No  amount  of  cover  relieved. 

I  dropped  asleep  and  was  again  awakened  by  a  chill,  accom- 
panied by  a  sharp  pain  running  from  my  left  foot  to  my  thigh. 
There  were  several  recurrences  of  this  attack  before  daylight. 
During  the  following  day  I  suffered  with  headache,  rheumatic 
(?)  pains  in  lower  limbs,  wrists,  finger-joints  and  lumbar  region, 
the  most  intense  pain  being  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Gasser- 
ian  ganglion.  I  bore  it  like  a  martyr  until  evening,  when  I 
was  forced  to  lie  down,  but  no  position  suited  me.  I  hovered 
about  the  fire,  stretching  my  aching  limbs.  Wife  begged  me  to 
take  some  medicine.    I  was  restless,  pains  worse  on  first  moving, 


1890.] 


POISONING  BY  ANTI PYRIN. 


89 


hut  walking  about  the  room  awhile  relieved,  until  I  was  again 
forced  to  rest.  Ameliorated  by  covering  up  warmly  :  wanted 
even  my  head  covered,  and  desired  to  lie  with  my  back  to  the 
fire.  The  weather  was  cold  and  damp.  Asked  wife  to  get  me 
a  dose  of  Rhus-tox.,  and  she  brought  me  Rhusdmm  (Swan).  I 
was  easier  in  fifteen  minutes,  and  fell  asleep.  Was  entirely  re- 
covered by  next  day,  though  even  now  I  am  troubled  with 
vertigo  daily.  My  temperature  was  normal  throughout.  I  cite 
these  two  cases  as  samples  of  many  others.  The  major  portion 
of  cases  under  my  care  had  no  catarrhal  symptoms.  Many  adult 
patients  had  fever,  but  others  none.  Children  attacked,  invari- 
ably had  fever,  and  in  all  cases  treated  by  me,  with  but  one  ex- 
ception, in  which  the  temperature  rose  to  104°,  the  thermome- 
ter indicated  102°  or  102  J°.  Every  one  of  these  cases  was 
treated  with  Bell.cm  (F.),  the  larger  number  receiving  but  a  single 
dose  of  the  remedy,  and  recovering  in  from  twelve  to  twenty 
hours.  In  no  case  was  a  second  visit  necessary.  The  only 
adult  to  whom  Bell,  was  given  was  the  mother  of  the  babe 
whose  temperature  rose  to  104°.  She  was  screaming  with  head- 
ache, and  was  asleep  within  five  minutes  from  the  time  she  re- 
ceived a  dose  of  the  CM  of  Bell.,  and  up  and  about  bright  and 
happy  the  following  morning.  In  no  case  have  I  observed 
any  complications  or  sequela? — no  bronchitis,  no  pneumonia,  and 
but  transient  debility.  The  dru^s  employed  during  the  epi- 
demic are  Acon.cc  (Dunham),  Bell.cm  (F.)/Eup.-perf.cc,  Bapti- 
sia45111  (F.),  Colch.m,  Rhus-tox.dmm  (Swan),  and  Arsenicum"1111 
(F.),  according  to  indications. 

So  much  for  treatment  under  the  guidance  of  that  infallible 
law,  Similia  simuibus  curantur,  influenced  by  that  other,  and 
corollary  legend,  Simplex  simile  minimum. 


POISONING  BY  ANTIPYRIN. 

E.  W".  Be  bridge,  M.  D.,  London,  England. 

June  14th,  1889,  6  P.  U. — The  Countess  of  took  ten 

grains  of  Burrowes  &  Wellcome's  Antipyrin  for  headache.  She 
is  sensitive  to  medicines,  and  had  had  much  mental  anxiety  lately. 
She  had  been  under  my  treatment  for  some  time  with  great  benefit ; 
but  as  she  called  to-day  after  office  hours,  she  did  not  find  me  at 
home,  and  so  some  "d  d  good-natured  friend,"  as  the  poet  pro- 
fanely says,  persuaded  her  to  take  this  drug,  stating  that  he  al- 
ways cured  his  wife's  headache  with  it. 


90 


POISONING  BY  ANTIP^RIN. 


[Feb.,  1890. 


(N.  B. — The  expression  "  always  cured  "  shows  that  the 
"  cure  w  was  not  permanent.) 

In  five  minutes  my  patient  was  seized  with  tingling  burning 
sensation  round  upper  part  of  mouth,  inside  nostrils,  and  in  pal- 
ate, just  like  cayenne  pepper  ;  this  was  immediately  followed  by 
ineffectual  desire  to  sneeze ;  then  clear  water  poured  from  both 
nostrils.  These  symptoms  ceased  as  suddenly  as  they  had  begun  ; 
and  were  immediately  followed  by  sensation  of  dryness  and 
burning  in  left  side  of  throat,  with  instantaneous  swelling  in  left 
throat,  and  for  a  few  moments  absolute  loss  of  voice.  The 
aphonia  soon  gave  way  to  hoarseness,  with  much  coughing  and 
expectoration  which  seemed  to  come  from  back  of  throat  and 
nose.  With  these  symptoms  there  was  a  lump  about  an  inch 
thick  in  left  cheek,  just  below  level  of  upper  teeth.  Head  per- 
fectly clear,  but  great  nervous  anxiety,  trembling  of  limbs  and 
weakness  in  walking.  These  symptoms  continued  till  10  P.  If., 
when  the  swelling  in  throat  was  relieved  by  sleep  and  hot  drinks, 
but  the  hoarseness  was  unchanged. 

At  3  A.  M.,  after  further  sleep,  the  swelling  in  throat  had 
almost  entirely  gone,  but  the  same  burning,  tingling  sensation 
was  felt  in  vagina,  also  nervous  pains  all  over  body.  She  now 
also  had  two  fainting  spells,  with  sensation  of  the  heart  stopping  ; 
throbbing  all  over  body,  coldness  of  hands  and  feet,  and  nervous 
shuddering  without  chill.  Then,  after  taking  half  a  wine-glass 
of  brandy  and  water,  she  slept  again,  and  at  7  A.  M.  next  day 
all  the  symptoms  had  gone  except  the  hoarseness,  with  weakness. 
The  lump  in  the  mouth  passed  away  in  half  an  hour.  During 
the  first  symptoms,  the  left  corner  of  mouth  showed  a  tendency 
to  draw  down. 

June  15th. — The  hoarseness  continues  with  fainting.  Fre- 
quent passage  of  clear  urine,  much  ano\  often,  all  the  time.  Had 
a  little  delirium  during  sleep  last  night,  seeing  faces.  Tongue 
white.  Yesterday  she  looked  at  her  throat  in  a  mirror,  and 
found  it  white,  with  left  tonsil  inflamed  and  swollen^ 

Belladona200  soon  removed  the  remaining  symptoms,  though 
the  weakness  persisted  for  some  days. 

This  Antipyrin  is  the  new  drug  which  the  allopaths  are  using 
indiscriminately  because  they  have  no  law  ;  and  the  mongrels 
because  they  do  not  really  believe  in  the  law. 


LARYNGISMUS  STRIDULUS— CLINICAL  CASE. 


Ella  M.  Ti  ttle,  M.  D.,  New  Berlin,  New  York. 

May  8th,  1889. — Was  called  to  see  Minnie  A.,  eight  months 
old.  Her  mother  told  me  that  she  had  a  hard  cold  in  April, 
and  had  not  been  well  since,  in  spite  of  much  allopathic  dosing. 
The  doctor  had  finally  told  the  parents  that  the  child  would  not 
probably  live  to  be  a  year  old,  so  as  a  last  resort  they  decided  to 
try  Homoeopathy.  On  visiting  the  child  I  found  a  well-marked 
case  of  Laryngismus  stridulus.  About  once  in  ten  minutes  the 
little  one  would  start,  throw  up  her  hands,  gasp  for  breath,  and 
become  very  red  (almost  purple)  in  the  face.  Then  after  a  few 
moments  the  air  would  enter  the  glottis  with  the  peculiar  crow- 
ing sound  so  characteristic  of  the  disease,  and  the  paroxysm 
would  terminate  in  a  short  fit  of  crying.  Several  times,  accord- 
ing to  the  mother's  story,  the  paroxysms  had  been  so  severe  that 
she  had  picked  up  the  child  for  dead. 

The  child  was  plump  and  fair  looking,  had  red  cheeks  and 
blue  eyes.  Her  appetite  was  good,  bowels  regular.  She  also 
had  the  attacks  in  the  night,  but  much  less  frequently.  From  the 
paroxysmal  nature  of  the  disease,  the  redness  of  the  face,  and  the 
crying  at  the  close  of  the  attack  I  gave  a  dose  of  Bell.3  and  left 
Sac.  lac.  to  be  taken  every  two  hours. 

May  11th. — The  child  reported  better,  the  attacks  being  lighter 
and  not  so  frequent.  Sac.  lac. 

May  13th. — The  attacks  seem  growing  more  severe.  A  dose  of 
Bell.3  followed  by  Sac.  lac. 

May  18th. — No  better.  I  now  "  took  the  case  M  again  with  more 
care.  Learned  that  for  the  last  month  the  child  had  seemed  to 
be  losing  the  use  of  its  lower  limbs.  On  putting  my  hand  on 
the  child's  feet  I  found  them  cold  and  clammy,  and  on  question- 
ing I  found  that  the  pillow  around  the  baby's  head  was  usually  wet 
from  perspiration  in  the  morning.  I  had  been  reading  in  my 
Homceopathic  Physician  the  advice  to  "  prescribe  for  the 
patient  instead  of  the  disease,"  so,  though  I  could  see  no  patho- 
logical relation  between  Calc-carb.  and  laryngismus  stridulus,  I 
gave  a  dose  of  Calc-carb.  to  be  followed  by  Sac.  lac,  for  the 
amusement  of  the  mother. 

May  21st. — The  child  has  had  no  more  paroxysms  since  the 
18th.    Sac.  lac. 

I  saw  the  child  occasiouallv  till  September,  but  there  was  no 
return  of  the  attacks,  and  she  had  begun  to  bear  her  weight  on 
her  feet.    The  one  dose  of  Calcarea  cured  her. 

91 


SUNSTROKE.— ASTHM  A . 


Wm.  Steixrauf,  M.  D.,  St.  Charles,  Missouri. 

Mrs.  K.,  aged  fifty-four  years,  was  afflicted  with  coup  de  soldi 
more  than  eighteen  years  ago, and  her  regular  allopathic  adviser 
sent  for  without  delay.  •  He  immediately  had  her  stripped  of  all 
her  clothing  and  plunged  into  ice-cold  water  for  several  hours. 
She  regained  consciousness  after  a  lapse  of  ten  hours  and  in  a 
few  days  was  able  to  attend  to  her  household  duties  again. 
With  the  exception  of  a  clogged-up  sense  of  the  nostrils  and  a 
slight  constriction  of  the  chest  she  appeared  to  be  all  right. 
Not  more  than  four  weeks  after  this  attack  she  began  to  have 
regular  asthmatic  spells,  occurring  about  every  two  or  three 
weeks,  for  which  her  doctor  gave  her  hypodermic  injections 
of  Morphia.  These  spells  have  now  been  troubling  her  with 
increased  virulence  since  the  day  she  was  taken  with  sunstroke 
and  the  injections  kept  up  the  same  length  of  time. 

When  we  saw  her  about  six  months  ago,  she  was  just  having 
one  of  her  characteristic  "spells"  and  a  pitiful  sight  it  was. 
We  found  her  propped  up  in  bed,  breathing  with  great  rapidity, 
unable  to  speak,  with  a  pulse  of  one  hundred  and  ten,  and  the 
cold  perspiration  running  down  her  face  in  great  streams.  As 
this  was  the  worst  attack  she  had  ever  had  she  thought  she 
would  die,  in  which  belief  I  was  inclined  to  coincide.  Herself 
and  husband  attributed  all  her  troubles  to  the  heroic  treatment 
she  had  received  eighteen  years  ago  for  sunstroke.  In  all  these 
long  and  weary  years  her  physician  had  failed  to  do  her  any 
good;  simply  injecting  Morphia  as  the  attacks  came  on.  Could 
Homoeopathy  do  her  any  good?  Our  divine  art  is  very  much 
decried  in  the  State  of  Missouri,  and  it  was  with  misgivings 
that  she  sent  for  me.  After  hearing  her  story  and  getting  her 
symptoms,  I  left  Sac.  lac,  and  went  home  to  study  the  case, 
promising  to  send  the  remedy  in  two  hours.  The  most  promi- 
nent symptom  was  a  continual  desire  to  move.  On  the  strength 
of  this  and  several  other  Rhus-tox.  symptoms,  I  gave  the  messen- 
ger three  doses  of  this  remedy  to  be  taken,  a  powder  every  hour, 
and  afterward  to  resume  the  Sac.  lac.  A  terrible  diarrhoea 
came  on  the  next  day  which  I  thought  best  not  to  disturb.  It 
left  after  a  few  days,  and  Mrs.  K.  has  since  been  free  of  her 
spells,  and  considers  herself  well.  I  have  reason  to  believe  that 
she  is  correct  in  her  belief.  Rhus-tox.  (Swan)  CM.  did  the 
work. 

92 


TWO  CLINICAL  CASES. 


W.  A  YlNGLIXG,  M.  D.,  NONCHALANTAj  KANSAS. 

Arsenicum  alb.3x.  Gastro-intestinal  derangement  from  eating 
ice-cream.  I  was  unable  to  eat  the  least  quantity  without  bad 
results  :  sickness  at  the  stomach,  felt  as  though  I  wanted  to 
vomit,  that  vomiting  would  give  relief,  but  could  not.  An 
uneasiness  of  the  head  as  though  it  might  ache.  Nasty,  clammy 
taste  ;  coated  tongue.  There  was  no  relief  in  the  "  regular  n 
practice  for  me,  but  after  I  became  regularly  regular  I  found 
Ars.  alb.sx,  a  dose  after  eating  the  cream,  gave  me  the  privilege 
of  gratifying  my  appetite  with  no  bad  results.  This  course  for 
a  season  has  given  me  the  ability  of  eating  all  the  cream  I  want 
with  no  fear  of  ill  results. 

I  find  a  remedy  in  Homoeopathy  for  every  ill  to  which  flesh 
is  heir,  the  most  trifling  as  well  as  the  gravest.  Where  allopathy 
knows  no  remedy,  not  even  palliation,  Homoeopathy  has  a  sure 
cure. 

Rumex  crisp.1x.  I  was  troubled  for  many  years  with  an 
intense  itching  of  the  anterior  part  of  both  legs  between  the 
ankles  and  knees,  on  the  shins,  after  getting  into  bed  at  night. 
Very  seldom  there  would  be  an  indication  of  the  itching  before 
getting  into  bed,  and  then  only  in  the  warmest  weather,  but 
when  in  bed  it  was  severe.  I  would  scratch,  scratch,  scratch 
until  the  skin  was  broken  and  my  legs  get  sore.  Scratching 
would  not  entirely  relieve,  yet  it  felt  pleasant  to  scratch  with 
some  relief  whilst  at  the  work.  At  times  I  found  myself 
scratching  in  or  during  sleep.  This  itching  would  also  commence, 
though  not  so  severely,  when  heated  in  walking,  more  especially 
when  wet  with  perspiration.  Worse  from  warmth.  As  before 
allopathy  failed  even  to  palliate,  though  tried  for  years.  I 
noticed  in  your  valuable  Journal,  vol.  VIII,  page  554,  that 
Rumexcm  had  cured  a  similar  case.  I  only  had  the  lx,  but  con- 
cluded to  try  it.  The  dose  was  taken  an  hour  before  going  to 
bed.  Would  it  help?  That  same  night,  and  for  months  after, 
I  had  no  itching  of  the  shins.  Upon  a  slight  recurrence  a  few 
months  afterward  I  took  one  more  dose.  No  itching  since, 
though  a  year  or  more  has  passed  by. 


93 


MORPHINE?  NO  !  NO  !  NO  ! 


M.  A.  A.  Wolff,  M.  D.,  Gainesville,  Texas. 

January  11th,  prescribed  for  fourteen  days  old  baby.  Janu- 
ary 13th,  for  the  mother.  They  had  been  sick  for  eight  to  ten 
days,  during  which  time  she  had  been  regaled  with  plenty  of 
Quinine  et  id  ornne,  getting  worse  all  the  time.  The  indicated 
remedy,  one  dose,  cured  as  far  as  I  knew  then,  but  on  the  15th  I 
was  recalled.  I  found  her  to  all  purpose  cured,  no  headache,  no 
deafness,  etc.  Well,  they  called  me  on  account  of  a  lump  that 
had  been  felt  in  her  left  breast,  near  sternum.  She  had  it  there 
for  a  good  while.  Could  I  cure  that  as  the  rest?  Phytolacca, 
as  long  as  I  have  known  its  use,  had  never  failed,  so  this  was 
my  prescription.  After  twenty-four  hours  there  was  a  softening, 
so  went  on  with  it  till  I  returned  from  a  trip — the  20th.  It  was 
softening,  but  an  abscess  forming  ;  on  account  of  color,  pains, 
etc.,  prescribed  Bell.30  On  the  24th  I  found  her  in  bed,  the 
pains  had  returned  and  she  could  not  be  up  ;  Bell.200.  In  the 
evening  her  husband  came  to  the  office.  Her  pains  were  so  ex- 
cruciating and  distressing,  she  wanted  Morphine.  No  !  No  !  No  ! 
I  do  not  give  Morphine,  but  wait  a  little.  I  looked  the  case  up, 
gave  him  one  powder  Hepar-sul.1200  (the  highest  I  had).  Next 
day  I  found  her  up.  The  pains  were  soon  relieved,  and  under 
the  circumstances  she  felt  comfortable.  Abscess  progressed, 
opened,  and  she  is  all  right. 


BOOK  NOTICES. 

Sanitary  Entombment;  The  Ideal  Disposition  of  the  Dead. 
By  the  Rev.  Charles  R.  Treat,  Rector  of  the  Church  of  the 
Archangel,  New  York  City. 

This  interesting  pamphlet,  as  its  name  denotes,  is  a  plea  for  an  improved  or 
"  ideal  "  method  of  putting  away  the  dead.  This  ideal  method  is  nothing 
more  or  less  than  the  method  of  nature — dessication  or  drying. 

The  proposition  is  to  build,  "  as  the  unit  of  construction,"  a  sepulchre,  con- 
structed in  such  manner  that  dried  air  should  enter,  and  after  circulating  over 
the  corpse  be  withdrawn,  laden  with  moisture  and  the  exhalations  of  the  body, 
and  conducted  to  a  furnace  where  these  would  be  disposed  of  effectually. 

These  sepulchres  would  be  gathered  together  in  large  buildings,  similar  to 
the  "  Campo  Santo  "  at  Pisa.  They  might  be  of  plain  architecture,  or  they 
might  be  of  magnificent  and  expensive  design. 

The  pamphlet  before  us  gives  cuts  of  designs  that  are  superb  specimens  of 
architecture  and  strongly  suggestive  of  that  lovely  miracle  of  architecture, 
the  Alhambra. 

Such  a  method  of  burial  would  do  away  with  the  pest-breeding  church- 
yard ;  would  meet  the  objections  of  those  who  revolt  at  cremation,  and,  gener- 
ally speaking,  would  give  the  following  advantages  : 

94 


Feb.,  1890.] 


BOOK  NOTICES. 


95 


There  is  no  mutilation,  no  substitution  of  foreign  substances  for  human 
flesh  as  in  embalming;  no  preserving  "  the  semblance  of  the  human  form  so 
long  that  sentiment  is  shocked  and  a  due  return  of  material  humanity  to 
the  elements  that  gave  it  birth  prevented;"  no  decomposition  with  its  awful 
products  polluting  the  atmosphere  and  befouling  the  streams  of  water  used  for 
drinking  purposes.  No  disease  germs  to  rise  and  start  pestilence  in  the 
cities. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  means  perpetual  care  of  the  dead  ;  it  protects  from  the 
possibility  of  being  buried  alive,  since  these  sepulchres  are  to  be  fitted  with 
electrical  apparatus  that  in  the  event  of  reviving  life  would  give  the  alarm  ; 
it  protects  the  dead  from  theft ;  "  protects  the  living  from  exposure  whilst  pay- 
ing the  last  duties  to  the  dead ;  meets  the  urgent  sanitary  demand  that  the 
dead  shall  not  endanger  the  living ;  and  meets  the  medico-legal  demand  that 
the  evidence  of  crime  shall  not  be  destroved." 

W.  M.  J. 

Medical  Topics,  published  by  W.  A.  Chatterton,  181  Clark 
St.,  Chicago.    Price,  25  cents  a  year. 

This  is  a  neat  little  sixteen-page  journal  published  monthly.  The  copy 
before  us  is  the  first  one  ever  issued. 

Its  object  is  to  give  the  busy  practitioner  clear  and  exceedingly  concise 
ideas  of  alt  the  latest  developments  in  medicine.  No  long  articles  are  ad- 
mitted to  its  pages.  Everything  is  reduced  to  the  dimensions  of  a  paragraph. 
The  idea  is  to  get  a  "short  communication  from  every  physician — only  a  few 
lines  or  words — giving  some  experience  or  some  fact  which  will  be  interesting 
and  useful  to  some  other  member  of  the  profession." 

The  low  price  places  it  within  the  reach  of  all,  and  it  should  accordingly 
command  an  immense  circulation.  W.  M.  J. 

Eating  for  Strength  ;  or,  Food  and  Diet  eh  their 
Relation  to  Health  and  Work,  together  with  several 
hundred  recipes  for  Wholesome  Food  and  Drinks.  By  M. 
L.  Hoi  brook,  M.  D.,  Professor  of  Hygiene  in  the  New  York 
Medical  College  and  Hospital  for  Women,  etc.  New  York  : 
M.  L.  Holbrook  &  Co. 

The  title  is  sufficient  to  indicate  the  scope  of  this  work.  Its  contents  bear 
out  the  title.  It  is  an  excellent  work  on  the  subject,  and  should  be  in  the 
hands  of  not  only  physicians,  but  all  others  as  well.  It  will  be  found  useful 
each  day  and  every  day. 

The  Fifth  Annual  Report  of  the  Trustees  of  the 
Westborough  (Mass.)  Insane  Hospital,  for  the  Year 
Ending  Sept.  30th,  1889, 

Comestousand  shows  that  Homoeopathy  need  not  fear  to  be  placed  on  trial 
in  the  treatment  of  the  insane.  The  leaven  is  at  work,  and  the  right  usually 
triumphs  sooner  or  later. 

A  Treatise  on  Materia  Medica,  Pharmacology,  and 
Therapeutics.  By  John  V.  Shoemaker,  A.  M.,  M.  D.,  and 
John  Ankle,  M.  D.  In  two  volumes,  Vol.  I.  Philadelphia 
and  London  :  F.  A.  Davis,  Publisher. 


96 


BOOK  NOTICES. 


[Feb.,  1890. 


Although  this  work  is  intended  for  our  allopathic  brethren,  a  glance  at  its  con- 
tents will  show  that  we  may  profit  by  much  that  it  contains.  The  authors  of  the 
work  deserve  high  praise  for  the  ability  and  labor  shown  in  its  pages.  They 
have  here  brought  together  much  that  is  otherwise  found  only  in  a  number  of 
volumes,  and  they  thus  place  the  medical  profession  under  obligations.  The 
authors  are  professors  in  the  Medico-Chirurgical  College,  of  Philadelphia,  and, 
of  course,  see  things  only  through  allopathic  spectacles,  but  they  are  more  pro- 
gressive than  the  average  allopath,  and  if  they  keep  on  they  will  find  them- 
selves viewing  therapeutics  in  a  new  light. 

The  Trained  Nurse.  Vol.  Ill,  No.  6,  of  "  The  Trained 
Nurse." 

A  journal  consecrated  to  those  who  minister  to  the  sick  and  the  suffering 
comes  to  i is  with  a  request  that  we  make  known  the  endeavor  to  form  an 
organization  of"  Trained  Nurses  for  New  York  State,  which  will  be  made  the 
basis  of  a  national  organization." 

We  are  heartily  at  one  with  the  movers  of  this  association,  as  we  believe  it 
will  be  of  mutual  interest  to  both  physicians  and  nurses.  The  Trained  Nurse 
is  a  journal  published  by  the  Lakeside  Publishing  Co.,  Buffalo,  N.  Y.  If  all 
its  numbers  are  as  valuable  as  its  holiday  number  we  would  advise  our  readers 
to  invest  the  $1.50  yearly  necessary  to  obtain  it. 

Transactions  of  the  Massachusetts  Homoeopathic 
Medical  Society. 

We  h  ive  received  Vol.  XI  of  this  publication.  It  contains  several  practi- 
cal articles  worthy  of  perusal. 

Essay  on  Medical  Pneumatology  •  A  Physiological, 
Clinical,  and  Therapeutic  Investigation  of  the  Gases.  By  J. 
N.  Demarquay,  Surgeon  to  the  Municipal  Hospital,  etc., 
Paris.  Translated,  with  Notes,  Additions,  and  Omissions,  by 
Samuel  S.  Wallian,  A.  M.,  M.  D.,  etc.  Philadelphia  and 
London  :  P.  A.  Davis,  Publisher. 

This  volume  contains  a  "  study  of  the  gases  of  the  blood  in  their  physio- 
logical condition  ;"  a  "  Medical  history  of  oxygen  and  its  physiological  action  ;" 
a  chapter  on  "The  preparation  and  administration  of  oxygen one  on  the 
u  Therapeutic  action  of  oxygen,"  and  another  on  "  Nitrogen,  monoxide  of 
nitrogen,  and  hydrogen."  It  covers  the  entire  field  of  the  present  knowledge 
of  the  various  gases,  and  we,  as  followers  of  Hahnemann,  may  get  from  its 
pages  a  superficial  pathogenesis  of  them.  Oxygen  is  more  largely  used 
therapeutically,  than  any  of  the  other  gases.  It,  no  doubt,  is  a  valuable  agent, 
bjLit  its  true  place  can  only  be  found  after  careful  proving.  It  is  not  applicable 
to  any  and  all  diseases  of  the  respiratory  organs,  as  is  claimed  by  some,  but  like 
all  other  remedial  agents  it  will  be  useful  only  in  the  cases  in  which  it  is  indi- 
cated honneopathically. 

Congestion  of  the  Lungs  and  its  Dangers.  Bv  Thomas 
Nichol,  M.  D.,  LL.  D.,  D.  C.  L. 

This  is  No.  6  of  "  Montreal  Tracts  on  Homoeopathy  "  Dr.  Nichol  calls 
special  attention  to  numbers  of  cases  of  this  affection  which  are  mistaken  for 
heart  affections.  It  is  a  valuable,  practical  paper,  and  its  low  price,  ten  cents, 
should  constrain  every  physician  to  send  to  "  The  Montreal  Homoeopathic 
Pharmacy  "  for  a  copy. 


\ 


T1  ZEE  IE 

Homoeopathic  Physician, 

A   MONTHLY  JOURNAL  OF 

HOMEOPATHIC  MATERIA  MEDICA  AND  CLINICAL  MEDICINE. 


If  oar  school  ever  give  up  the  strict  inductive  method  of  Hahnemann,  we 
are  lost,  and  deserve  only  to  be  mentioned  as  a  caricature  in 
the  history  of  medicine."— co>-sta>ttine  herixg. 


Vol.  X.  MARCH,  1S90.  No.  3. 


EDITORIALS. 

Argument  and  Reasoning. — "  We  must  meet  them  as 
gentlemen,  and  by  argument  and  reasoning  show  on  what 
false  ground  they  stand.  We  must  convince  them  by  sound 
reasoning  that  medicine  is  a  much  broader  field  than  Homoe- 
opathy, for  it  covers  every  pathy ;  and,  avoiding  the  vituper- 
ative style  of  many  of  Hahnemann's  followers,  we  should 
prove  the  narrow-mindedness  of  his  system." 

Thus  an  allopath  (he  will  not  own  that  name,  however) 
calmly  considers  the  position  of  the  followers  of  Hahnemann. 
We  have  repeatedly  seen  the  results  of  attempts  that  have  been 
made  to  convince  "  bv  argument  and  reasoning  "  against  the  law 
ot  the  similars.  Dr.  Hering  first  became  acquainted  with 
Homoeopathy  in  an  endeavor  to  write  it  down  by  "  reasoning." 
He  wrestled  with  the  angel  and  the  angel  did  not  come  out  of 
the  conflict  second  best.  Every  Hahnemann ian  can  appreciate 
the  result  of  that  wrestling  match  in  the  works  of  Constantine 
Hering. 

Dr.  P.  P.  Wells,  of  Brooklyn,  our  honored  venerable  col- 
league (may  he  continue  with  us  many  years  more),  had  a  sim- 
ilar experience,  only  to  find  that  the  reasoning  was  all  on  the 
side  of  Homoeopathy. 

If  it  would  avail,  we  should  like  to  ask,  from  whom  has 
vituperation  and  abuse  come?  Homoeopathy  has  been  mostly  on 
the  defensive  since  Hahnemann  first  promulgated  his  discover- 
ies. If  the  writer  quoted  above  would  only  read  Ameke's 
History  of  Horace > apathy,  he  would  find  that  odium  medic um 
7  97 


98 


EDITORIALS. 


[March. 


has  been,  and  continues  to  be  the  stock  in  trade  of  allopaths, 
and  of  them  alone.  It  is  true  that  Hahnemannians  have 
always  decried  mongrelism,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  they  will  con- 
tinue doing  so,  for  to  do  this  means  only  to  traduce  dishonesty. 

Reasoning  will  not  profit  allopathy.  Homoeopathy  can  go 
beyond  reasoning  and  produce  results  which  no  other  school  of 
medicine  can  approach.  These  results  have  made  Homoeopathy 
what  it  is  to-day — a  blessing  to  mankind. 

The  same  writer  says  :  "  Homoeopathy  is  not  broad  enough, 
but  its  followers  cling  to  their  tattered  standards,  believing  that 
they  must  enlist  under  the  banner  of  some  school  and  follow 
some  pathy,  whereas  their  energies  could  be  much  more  profit- 
ably employed  in  healing  the  sick  by  the  use  of  any  and  all 
agencies  known  than  in  trying  to  conform  to  a  single  theory, 
or  trying  to  make  the  people  believe  that  they  do." 

If  the  gentleman  will  make  an  honest  attempt  to  put  to  prac- 
tical test  this  Homoeopathy — which  is  based  on  an  immutable 
law  of  Nature — he  will  find  it  sufficiently  broad  to  cure  any 
curable  case  of  any  disease.  But  the  trial  must  be  an  honest 
one. 

"  Its  followers  cling  to  their  tattered  standards."  Yes,  they 
do  "  cling,"  and  the  "  tattered  "  condition  of  their  "  standards  " 
shows  what  battles  they  have  fought  and  won.  Whenever 
allopathy  has  met  Homoeopathy  in  the  open  field,  which  has 
been  the  victor  ?  Homoeopathy  has  always  been,  and  is  ever 
ready  to  put  to  actual  test  the  merits  of  the  two  schools  ;  but 
allopathy  will  never  meet  the  trial. 

"  Believing  that  they  must  enlist  under  the  banner  of  some 
school  and  follow  some  pathy."  They  do  believe  "  that  they 
must  enlist  under  the  banner  of  some  school."  This  belief,  how- 
ever, is  firmly  founded  not  upon  mere  conviction,  but  upon 
thought,  and  upon  the  "reasoning"  which  the  gentleman  claims 
as  his  school's  sole  possession.  The  "  banner  "  under  which  the 
Hahnemannian  enlists  is  inscribed  with  this  motto  :  "  Homoe- 
opathy, Scientific  Medicine,  Excelsior."  And  the  path 
which  he  follows  is  the  path  of  glory,  made  glorious  by  the  lives 
he  saves,  and  not  the  path  which  "  leads  but  to  the  grave  " — the 
allopath. 

"  Their  energies  could  be  much  more  profitably  employed  in 
healing  the  sick  by  the  use  of  any  and  all  agencies  known." 
Our  dear  friend  in  that  clause  shows  plainly  his  ignorance  of 
Homoeopathy.  Were  he  possessed  of  but  a  superficial  knowl- 
edge of  Hahnemann's  teachings  he  would  know  that  our  every 


1890.] 


EDITORIALS. 


99 


energy  is  directed  toward  "healing  the  sick  by  the  use  of  any 
and  all  agencies  known."  But  before  the  Hahnemannian  at- 
tempts to  use  "  any  and  all  agencies  "  he  brings  the  only  law  of 
therapeutics  to  his  aid,  and  he  can  then  use  these  "agencies"  in 
in  a  rational,  sane  manner.  He  has  the  light  of  this  law  to 
guide  him,  and  he  does  not  flounder  in  the  darkness  of  the 
Middle  Ages. 

"  Trying  to  conform  to  a  single  theory,  or  trying  to  make  the 
people  believe  that  they  do." 

Wrong  again,  dear  friend.  Must  we  again  repeat  that  we  have 
a  law?  This  will  bear  repetition,  if  but  for  the  simple  reason 
that  an  allopath  knows  or  seems  to  know  nothing  of  it.  People, 
generally,  give  but  little  thought  to  theory  in  medicine.  They 
wish  to  tye  cured  of  their  ailments,  and  millions  have  learned 
that  when  they  wished  to  be  cured  speedily,  safely,  and  per- 
manently they  need  only  call  on  a  follower  of  Hahnemann — 
and  they  do  not  call  in  vain  ! 

Again,  in  the  same  article,  we  read  :  "  No  theory  yet  dis- 
covered explains  how  drugs  cure  diseases,  neither  do  we  know 
how  soul  and  body  are  united,  and  it  is  not  necessary  that 
we  should  know.  But  all  that  we  can  know  certainly,  all 
that  assiduous  observation  can  teach  us  is,  that  the  cure  of  such 
a  disease  succeeds  more  or  less  constantly  the  administration 
of  such  a  remedy. " 

Has  any  Hahnemannian  ever  claimed  to  know  "  how  drugs 
cure  diseases  "?  We  are  aware  that  there  are  hangers-on  to  the 
bright  robes  of  Homoeopathy  who  profess  to  have  omniscience, 
but  these  men  are  greater  (in  their  own  estimation)  than  even 
Hahnemann  himself.  If  we  can  read  language  in  which  there 
seems  no  ambiguity,  certainly  those  who  make  this  claim  are  of 
the  allopathic  school.  Do  we  not  hear  of  them  prating  about 
this  drug  paralyzing  the  respiratory  centres,  and  of  that  being 
inhibitory  of  vaso-motor  nerves,  etc.,  etc.?  And,  having  such 
powers,  do  they  not  prattle  about  what  they  can  do  with  these 
agents?  And  yet  they  set  themselves  up  as  being  able  to  define 
a  Hahncmannian's  position  ! 

And  "all  that  we  [allopaths]  can  know  certainly,  all  that 
assiduous  observation  can  teach  us  is  [note  this,  Hahnemanians], 
that  the  cure  of  such  a  disease  succeeds  more  or  less  constantly 
the  administration  of  such  a  remedy."  Fancy  Homoeopathy 
having  nothing  better  than  this  to  offer  :  "  that  the  cure  of  such 
a  disease  succeeds  more  or  less  constantly  the  administration  of 
such  a  remedy."    And  they  call  this  scientific  medicine  ! 


100 


EDITORIALS. 


[March, 


What  is  defined  as  scientific  ?  "  Agreeing  with  or  depending 
on  the  rules  or  principles  of  science."  What  is  science? 
"  Science  consists  in  an  infallible  and  unchanging  knowledge  of 
phenomena."  Empiricism  is  an  unreasoning  and  instinctive 
imitation  of  previous  practice."  Will  a  second  glance  be  required 
to  show  one  who  knows  even  the  least  of  hoiiKeopathic  therapeu- 
tics, and  even  more  of  allopathic  therapeutics,  which  is  the 
scientific  and  which  the  empirical  ?  G.  H.  C. 

The  Difference  between  the  Old  School  and  the 
New. — A  follower  of  Hahnemann  needs  no  better  argument  for 
his  attitude  against  eclecticism  and  allopathy  than  is  found  in 
any  old-school  journal.  If  one  had  had  experience  in  putting 
to  actual  test  the  law  of  the  similars,  he  is  not  in  need  of  hyper- 
acute vision  in  order  to  see  that  scientific  (?)  medicine  is  usually 
floundering  in  the  dark  in  respect  of  the  treatment  of  disease. 

We  cannot  dwell  too  forcibly  on  the  difference  between  old- 
school  empiricism  and  homoeopathic  law.  Illustration  of  this 
difference  is  clearly  manifest  in  the  old-schooPs  present  method 
of  treating  various  forms  of  spinal  affections,  particularly 
sclerosis.  It  will  be  remembered  that  a  few  years  ago  a 
Russian  surgeon,  while  suspending  an  ataxic  patient  for  the 
purpose  of  adjusting  a  plaster  jacket,  found  that  the  ataxic 
symptoms  were  less  prominent  after  the  suspension.  This  he 
published  for  his  medical  brethren.  Instantly  from  one  end  of 
the  medical  (old-school)  world  to  the  other  went  up  the  cry, 
"  The  treatment  for  locomotors  ataxia  is  suspension."  What  a 
scientific  foundation  for  a  fact  in  scientific  medicine  !  Then  their 
journals  were  filled  with  the  good  effects  of  suspension. 

But,  like  all  their  other  good  things,  this  seemed  to  be  only  a 
fad,  and  now  we  rarely  see  anything  on  the  subject.  However, 
a  recent  issue  of  the  Lancet contains  a  series  of  twenty-one  cases 
treated  by  suspension.  A  summary  of  results  shows  that  not 
one  case  received  any  benefit,  and  that  some  were  made  worse. 
Is  there  any  follower  of  Hahnemann  who,  after  treating  twenty- 
one  cases  of  any  affection,  by  adhering  to  the  only  law  of  thera- 
peutics and  failed  to  see  any  good  results,  is  there  one  who 
would  have  the  audacity  to  believe  there  was  any  good  in  that 
law  ?  We  cannot  believe  that  one  such  person  exists.  If 
results  had  not  shown  the  truth  of  the  law  there  would  be  no 
Homoeopathy,  and  the  world  would  then  be  at  the  mercy  of 
allopathy,  as  it  was  in  the  Dark  Ages,  and  the  bright  beacon  of 
Homoeopathy  would  be  used  only  by  wreckers,  many  of  whom 
are  now  using  its  brilliant  light  to  blind  the  public  to  mongrel- 
ism  under  the  name  of  progressive  Homoeopathy. 


1890.] 


EDITORIALS. 


101 


The  Unattainable. 
A   Song   of   the  Unattainable. 

"For  the  few-and -far-between, 

For  the  yerv -seldom-seen, 
For  the  un-catch-hold-uponable  I  sigh  ! 

The  vnclutchable  I'd  clutch, 

The  untouchable  I'd  touch, 
For  the  ungrabbed  and  ungrabable  I  die  ! 

"  Oh  !  I  burn  and  sigh  and  gasp 

For  the  just-bevoud-the-grasp, 
For  the  far-unovertakable  I  jearn  ; 

And  the  vulgar  here-and-now 

I  ignore  and  disavow. 
And  the  good-enough-for-others  how  I  spurn  ! 

u  Oh  !  how  I  moan  and  screech 

For  the  just-beyoud-the-reach, 
The  too-far-a\vay-to-grab  I  would  ensnare, 

The  ungainable  I'd  gain, 

The  unattainable  attain, 
And  chase  the  un-catch-onto  to  its  lair." 

The  unattainable  is  always  being  sought  by  those  who  feel 
themselves  above  ordinary  mortals.  And  even  though  they 
claim  to  "  catch  on"  to  it,  lookers-on  dare  not  deny  it,  if  they 
value  peace,  and  do  not  wish  to  be  deluged  with  mere  assertions 
which  are  offered  as  arguments.  When  this  desire  takes  the 
form  of  attempting  to  show  that  the  product  of  a  disease  is  a 
curative  of  that  disease,  and  that  it  is  only  necessary  to  diagnose 
the  disease  as  being  present,  and  then  administer  one  dose,  or 
more,  of  its  product  in  order  to  cure  it,  then  it  is  time  to  say 
that  is  mere  assertion,  and  we  wish  the  proof. 

The  onus  of  proof  is  most  upon  him  who  affirms.  It  were 
"  a  consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished  "  if  the  treatment  of 
disease  could  be  so  simplified,  and  we  do  not  deny  that  it  may  be 
true  ;  but  we  have  never  seen  even  one  case  that  would  go  to 
show  it  to  be  true.  In  our  present  light,  before  we  may  use  the 
various  morbid  products  intelligently,  we  must  proceed  as  we 
do  with  other  substances,  prove  them.  Then,  and  only  then, 
can  we  feel  we  are  on  safe  ground.  The  true  follower  of  Hahne- 
mann will  not  theorize  in  respect  of  the  power  of  any  so-called 
curative.  He  has  an  infallible  way  of  learning  just  what  each 
is  capable  of  doing,  and  he  must  follow  in  that  way  rigidly. 
True,  by  induction  he  may  assume  that  a  certain  drug,  or  other 
substance,  ponderable  or  imponderable,  may  possess  certain 


102 


EDITORIALS. 


[March, 


powers  ;  but  he  is  not  able  to  know  until  the  proper  course  has 
been  pursued  that  his  claim  is  well  founded. 

The  literature  of  our  school  abounds  with  examples  of  this 
kind,  and  he  who  has  put  them  to  the  test  has  found  that  he  is 
a  victim  of  misplaced  confidence,  and  has  been  glad  to  hasten 
back  to  law. 

The  same  applies  to  mixed  remedies.  As  homo?opathicians, 
claiming  to  and  knowing  that  we  do  possess  an  unerring 
guide  which  leads  us  to  know  what  remedies  can  do,  we 
certainly  need  more  than  prodding  when  we  run  after  ignis 
fatui,  or,  as  Dr.  Hering  put  it,  "  We  should  not  leave  an  old 
friend  in  order  to  follow  a  coquette." 

A  remedy  is  a  remedy,  even  though  it  be  composed  of  one 
hundred  or  five  hundred  different  ingredients,  provided  it  has 
been  proved  homoeopathically.  Until  this  is  done,  even  though 
we  use  the  simplest  element,  we  can  know  nothing  of  its  powers, 
and  if  we  attempt  to  use  it  without  a  proving  we  are  guilty  of 
lawless  empiricism.  G.  H.  C. 


The  Minuteness  of  the  Dose. — "I  do  not  consider  any  as 
my  followers,  who,  in  addition  to  leading  an  irreproachable, 
perfectly  moral  life,  do  not  practice  the  new  art  in  such  a 
manner  that  the  remedy  he  administers  to  the  patient  in  a  non- 
medicinal  vehicle  (sugar  of  milk  or  diluted  alcohol)  contains 
such  a  small  subtle  dose  of  the  medicine  that  neither  the  senses 
or  chemical  analysis  can  detect  the  smallest  absolutely  hurtful 
medicinal  substance  ;  indeed,  not  the  slightest  trace  of  anything 
medicinal  at  all,  which  presupposes  a  minuteness  of  dose  that 
must  indubitably  dispel  all  anxiety  from  all  officers  of  state  who 
have  to  do  with  medical  police." — Hahnemann,  1820. 


Quinine. — A  journal  in  Boston  estimates  that  the  people  of 
that  place  consumed  about  a  ton  of  quinine  in  the  course  of  ten 
days  while  la  grippe  was  at  its  height.  Just  about  four  grains 
a  day  for  each  man,  woman,  and  child.  About  this  time  look 
out  for  an  epidemic  of  quinine  insanity.  Yet  quinine  will 
not  be  credited  with  this  dethronement  of  reason.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  will  be  considered  a  freak  of  la  grippe.       G.  H.  C. 


La  Grippe. — In  response  to  our  request  we  have  received  a 
number  of  papers  treating  on  the  late  pandemic,  "  la  grippe/' 
a  few  of  which  we  have  published.    As  we  expected,  homceo- 


1890.] 


EDITORIALS. 


103 


pat  hie  treatment  has  bean  successful,  and  no  sequelae  have  been 
noticed.  In  contrast  to  this,  old-school  journals  are  now  pub- 
lishing the  results  of  their  treatment,  and  the  published  mortal- 
ity lists  show  what  allopathy  has  done — for  the  undertakers. 

Some  of  our  correspondents  speak  of  old  troubles,  which  had 
been  suppressed  by  drugs,  reappearing  after  homoeopathic  treat- 
ment. This  goes  to  prove  Hahnemann's  observations  correct. 
In  all  cases  we  can  unhesitatingly  promise  these  patients  that  if 
they  continue  the  treatment  for  awhile  all  their  old  symptoms 
will  disappear,  and  they  will  be  in  a  better  state  of  health  than 
since  the  original  attack  was  suppressed. 


Intermittent  Fever  Treated  by  Friction. — Some 
more  scientific  (?)  therapeutics  from  the  Lancet :  "  Alois  Feny- 
kovv  communicates  to  a  Vienna  medical  journal  an  account  of 
some  observations  made  on  the  treatment  of  intermittent  fever  by 
means  of  friction  of  the  back  along  the  spine.  Many  years  ago, 
while  at  Nisch  with  his  regiment,  there  occurred  so  many  cases 
of  intermittent  fever  that  the  stock  of  quinine  was  becoming  ex- 
hausted, and,  in  order  that  the  patients  might  not  be  entirely 
without  some  sort  of  treatment,  it  was  ordered  that  they  should 
be  rubbed  twice  a  day  along  the  spine  with  simple  ointment. 
The  day  after  this  order  had  been  given  it  appeared  that  the 
usual  attack  had  not  come  on  ;  accordingly  (our  italics),  since 
that  time  Dr.  Fenykovy  has  very  frequently  employed  this 
treatment,  and  usually  with  marked  success.  Indeed,  he  says 
that  three-fourths  of  his  cases  have  done  very  well  without  any 
quinine  at  all. 

We  pass  this  on  for  the  benefit  of  those  "  progressive"  (mon- 
grel) homoeopaths  who  are  always  clamoring  about  the  necessity 
of  quinine  in  intermittents.  AYe  trust  the  source  will  be  suffi- 
ciently regular  and  scientific  to  satisfy  even  the  most  blatant. 

G.  H.  C. 


The  Definition  of  a  Homoeopathic  Physician. — In 
the  January  number,  at  page  5,  we  called  attention  to  the 
surprising  definition  of  a  homoeopathic  physician,  given  by  one 
of  the  most  prominent  homoeopathic  physicians  in  New  York 
City. 

Our  friend  and  subscriber,  Dr.  A.  McNeil,  of  San  Francisco, 
whose  interesting  contributions  to  our  pages  are  familiar  to  all 
our  readers,  in  a  recent  letter  to  us  commenting  upon  the  New 
York  definition,  gives  this  clever  illustration  of  its  absurdity  : 


104 


OF  THE  DRUG  CURATIVE. 


[March, 


"  The  definition  of  a  Christian  is  one  who  is  a  member  of  '  our 
Church.'  No  matter  if  I  have  recourse  to  a  violation  of  all 
the  commandments,  I  am  a  Christian  so  long  as  I  am  a  mem- 
ber of  our  Church.  As  all  the  members  are  like  me,  they  will 
not  turn  me  out."  \V.  M.  J. 


OF  THE  DRUG  CURATIVE. 

Dr.  P.  P.  Wells. 

Communicated  by  C.  Carleton  Smith,  M.  D.,  Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 

(Concluded  from  p.  63.) 

The  second  case  was  that  of  a  little  girl,  five  years  old,  who 
was  suffering  from  double  pleuro-pneumonia  of  exceeding 
severity.  When  the  sticking  pain  in  her  side  was  so  sharp  as 
all  but  to  prevent  her  breathing  at  all,  and  as  to  reduce  this  to 
the  shortest  time  compatible  with  life,  a  teaspoonful  of  water  was 
offered  her,  in  which  a  few  medicated  globules  had  been  dis- 
solved, with  the  assurance  that  if  she  swallowed  the  water  it 
would  relieve  her  pain.  At  the  very  instant  the  spoon  touched 
her  tongue,  she  shrieked,  and  declared  it  did  not,  but  made  her 
worse.  It  was  with  the  suddenness  of  thought.  There 
was,  however,  but  this  one  stab,  and  it  was  never  repeated. 
The  writer  gave  the  dose.  The  patient  was  his  own 
child.  The  occurrence  was  before  many  witnesses.  The 
case,  from  beginning  to  end,  was  of  a  kind  to  exclude  all 
possible  doubt  as  to  any  one  of  the  facts  here  stated.  It  is 
given  as  a  representative  of  a  class  which  bears  important  testi- 
mony as  to  the  nature  of  that  power  which  relieves  pain  and 
cures  disease.  That  testimony  declares  plainly,  it  is  submitted, 
that  this  power  is  a  force  and  not  matter. 

We  have  now,  at  some  length,  given  what  we  wished  to  say 
on  the  essential  nature  of  disease,  its  causes,  and  its  cure.  As 
might  reasonably  have  been  expected,  a-priori,  in  this  respect,  the 
three  exhibit  a  beautiful  harmony  with  each  other.  The  rela- 
tion of  cause,  effect,  and  cure  being  established,  and  the  arrange- 
ment of  relationship  being  admitted  to  the  work  of  an  intelli- 
gent and  disposing  will,  no  other  result  could  have  been  possible. 
We  think  the  course  of  reasoning  and  illustration  presented  es- 
tablishes the  fact  beyond  reasonable  cavil  that  each  of  these,  in 
its  essential  nature,  is  a  force,  and  that,  so  far  as  the  two  last 


1890.] 


OF  THE  DRUG  CURATIVE. 


105 


are  concerned,  their  only  material  connection  is  that  of  associa- 
tion, in  no  way  essential  to  their  special  action  in  the  living 
organism  as  cause  or  cure  of  disease. 

It  is  not  sufficient  to  have  established  these  facts  to  the  satis- 
faction of  candid  and  intelligent  minds,  as  a  matter  of  natural 
harmony,  interesting  to  observe  and  contemplate.  We  are  bound 
to  go  further,  and  answer  the  practical  question — What  then  ? 
What  is  the  practical  bearing  of  the  dynamic  nature,  here 
proved,  on  the  duties  of  the  physician  ? 

For,  if  not  important  in  its  relation  to  these,  the  whole  sub- 
ject is  one  of  curiosity  merely,  and  not  worth  the  trouble  of 
argument  or  demonstration. 

It  was  for  the  purpose  of  presenting  its  practical  relations  that 
the  subject  has  been  so  far  pursued. 

The  first  and  most  obvious  practical  inference,  from  the  facts 
presented,  is  this:  If  disease  be  essentially  dynamic  in  its 
nature,  a  change  in  the  state  of  the  living  forces,  merely,  if  it 
be  but  a  force  acting  in  a  destructive  direction,  which,  in  its 
normal  state,  was  active  for  conservatism,  then  the  whole  prac- 
tical duty  of  the  physician  in  accomplishing  its  cure  is  in  this 
one  act — to  change  the  slate  of  the  vital  forces  to  their  original 
conservative  balance.  If  this  be  the  nature  of  disease,  and  this 
the  duty  of  the  physician,  it  is  submitted,  as  obvious  on  the  face 
of  the  subject,  and  to  the  most  superficial  observation  that  these 
considerations  have  most  important  bearings  as  to  the  means  to 
be  employed  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  end.  If  this  be  the 
nature  of  disease  and  its  cure,  then  it  is  evident  there  must  be 
a  special  relationship  between  the  state  to  be  changed  and  the 
means  by  which  it  is  to  be  restored.  And  it  is  further  apparent 
that  this  relationship  must  be  permanent  and  subject  to  no 
change.  It  must  be  a  law  existing  in  the  very  nature  of  the 
state  and  the  means.  And,  further,  that  the  cure  must  be 
effected  through  this  relationship,  and  only  by  means  which 
comply  with  all  its  legal  requirements.  It  follows,  then,  giving 
of  massive  doses  of  drugs  to  the  sick,  in  quantities  great  as  can 
be  borne  without  poisonous  results,  and  those  selected  with 
reference  to  no  lata  other  than  that  of  the  caprice  of  the  pre- 
scribe^ is  a  crime  against  science  as  well  as  the  rights  and  wel- 
fare of  the  trusting  sick.  The  second  obvious  inference  is  that 
it  cannot  necessarily  require  massive  quantities  of  matter,  merely 
to  change  the  state  of  a  force,  even  if  it  be  matter  which,  in  its 
natural  state,  has  associated  with  it  that  form  of  the  curative 
principle  which  the  law  of  relationship  requires  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  this  change. 


106  OF  THE  DRUG  CURATIVE.  [March, 

It  is  clear  that  it  can  only  require  so  much  force  related  to 
this  changed  state  by  the  law  as  may  be  needed  for  its  restora- 
tion. 

We  have  already  seen  that  this  does  not  necessarily  bear  any 
proportion  to  any  quantity  of  matter  whatever,  but  involves 
only  force  which,  when  developed  by  expansion,  as  taught  in  the 
Organon,  has  parted  from  its  original  material  association  and 
exists  only  as  force,  which  admits  of  no  measure  of  its  capacity 
to  cure  by  the  application  of  those  rules  applicable  to  the  meas- 
urements of  material  forces  as  applied  to  other  relations.  So 
that  it  follows  not  only  is  the  law  of  selection  of  the  curative 
dominated  by  the  principles  we  have  advocated,  but  the  form 
and  quantity  of  the  related  agent  required  for  the  cure  as  well. 
The  third  inference  is  that  so  to  act  on  mere  force  as  to  change 
its  state,  only  a  mere  force  would  be  likely  to  be  requisite.  This 
would  be  the  conclusion  of  every  philosophical  observer,  and 
this  is  precisely  the  divine  arrangement  for  the  cure  of  the  sick. 
It  has  been  demonstrated  thousands  of  times  in  the  successful 
experience  of  Hahnemann  and  his  followers,  their  success  being 
ever  proportioned  to  their  adherence  to  this  arrangement,  as  em- 
bodied in  the  laws  inculcated. 

The  fourth  practical  conclusion  is  that  those  who  directed 
their  attention  chiefly  to  the  material  results  of  the  action  of  this 
changed  force — the  proper  objects  of  the  science  of  pathological 
anatomy — and  regarded  these  as  the  disease,  overlooked  entirely 
the  existence  of  the  cause  in  their  absorbing  contemplation  of 
the  effect,  and  by  this  mistake  laid  the  foundation  of  all  that  ma- 
terial philosophy  which  has  pervaded  medical  science,  and  from 
which  has  sprung  all  those  gross  ideas  of  remedial  means  and 
their  excessive  administration,  which  has  put  the  art  of  curing 
into  that  bad  harmony  with  disease  itself  which  exhibits  both  in 
their  true  character  as  destroyers  of  health  and  men.  Fifth, 
that  those  forms  of  disease  which  present  themselves  in  apparent 
changes  in  the  structure  of  organs  and  which  have  been  gener- 
ally, by  common  consent,  handed  over  to  the  province  of  surgery, 
were,  in  their  origin,  like  other  diseases  only  a  changed  force  of 
which  those  material  changes  are  the  product,  and  that  in  the 
onset  they  were  amenable  to  the  curative  action  of  those  forces 
related  to  their  state  by  the  law.  And,  further,  that  the  great 
majority  of  these  cases  are  still,  notwithstanding  the  material 
change  in  the  structure  of  organs  susceptible  of  cure  by  the 
proper  application  of  the  same  forces  on  the  well-known  prin- 
ciple that  the  effect  ceases  when  the  cause  is  removed.  It  is  well 
established  in  the  experience  of  many  who  have  recognized  this 


1890.] 


OF  THE  DRUG  CURATIVE. 


107 


fact  that  the  long  list  of  formidable  operations  which  have  here- 
tofore characterized  the  special  existence  of  surgery  as  a  distinct 
branch  of  the  healing  art,  may  be  materially  diminished,  with 
no  detriment  to  the  interests  of  society  but  great  gain  in  the 
sufferings  and  mutilations  escaped. 

Sixth.  On  this  same  principle,  many  diseases  heretofore  re- 
garded as  incurable,  and  therefore  abandoned  as  without  hope, 
are  found  to  be  quite  easily  removed  by  going  back  to  the  orig- 
inal change  in  the  vital  force  in  which  they  took  their  initiative, 
and  adapting  a  curative  force  to  it,  according  to  the  demands  of 
the  law  of  cure  discovered.  It  is  no  detriment  to  this  state- 
ment that  the  exact  nature  of  this  original  change  is  often  diffi- 
cult to  discover,  or  that  it  is  often  found  in  the  antecedents  of 
the  progenitors  of  the  present  sufferer,  until  it  is  established  in 
other  sciences  than  that  of  healing,  that  difficulty  in  the  prac- 
tical application  of  a  truth  converts  it  into  a  falsehood. 

Seventh.  The  dynamic  nature  of  the  curative  element  in 
drugs  explains  its  successful  application  in  the  treatment -of 
mental  diseases.  These  are  obviously  immaterial.  The  suc- 
cess which  has  attended  their  treatment  by  the  potentized  im- 
material medicinal  powers  is,  of  itself,  proof  that  these  diseases 
are,  also,  in  their  nature,  in  harmony  with  general  diseases  and 
their  curative  agents.  These  successes  clearly  declare  that  these 
mental  afflictions  are  but  a  branch  of  the  general  family  of  dis- 
eases, and,  like  all  the  other  branches  are  themselves  but  a 
changed  state  of  the  vital  forces. 

Eighth.  If  the  above  inferences  and  considerations  are  well 
drawn  from  the  premises  of  this  paper,  we  may  add  to  them 
this  other  maxim,  in  conclusion,  that  all  truth  has  uses  in  the 
practical  affairs  of  life.  There  is  no  exception.  Least  of  all 
are  exceptions  found  in  its  application  to  that  science  of  healing 
which  has  been  heretofore  so  largely  mixed  with  the  false.  It 
is  conclusive  evidence  of  practical  imbecility  when  one  replies 
to  the  presentation  of  a  truth — "  It  is  of  no  use  !" 

Lastly.  It  is  affirmed  of  the  truths  discussed  in  this  paper — 
the  dynamic  nature  of  disease,  its  cause,  and  its  cure — that  they  are 
of  the  greatest  possible  use,  in  this,  that  they  pervade  and  domi- 
nate all  practical  efforts  for  healing  the  sick,  made  in  accordance 
with  the  laws  appointed  by  the  Almighty  for  the  guidance  and 
control  of  such  acts.  To  ignore  their  existence,  and  yet  attempt 
practical  healing,  is  to  wander  in  a  voluntarily  chosen  darkness 
when  a  wise  and  beneficent  Creator  has  furnished  the  clear  light 
of  a  noon-day  sun. 


SOME  RELATIONS  OF  HYSTERIA. 


(Read  at  the  Meeting  of  the  Organon  Society,  Feb.  5th,  1890.) 

J.  M.  Duttox,  M.  1).,  Boston,  Mass. 

The  large  family  of  functional  nervous  diseases  seems  to  be 
constantly  increasing.  Nervous  prostration  has  become  a  house- 
hold word,  since  a  large  proportion  of  the  chronic  cases  among 
the  women  of  to-day  have  their  origin,  more  or  less  intimately, 
in  this  system  of  the  body.  In  face  of  these  facts,  the  point  of 
view  of  the  medical  profession,  and  the  ground  of  their  work 
have  greately  changed,  and  in  nothing  do  we  see  the  revolution 
more  markedly  than  in  their  estimation  of  the  origin  and  im- 
portance of  hysteria.  To  call  a  patient  hysterical  forty  years 
ago  meant,  in  the  minds  of  most  physicians,  that  she  was  silly 
or  shamming  or  could  get  well  if  she  pleased.  To-day  hys- 
teria has  taken  its  place  as  "  the  great  neurosis  "  among  the  ob- 
scure diseases  of  the  nervous  system,  and  the  expression  of  a 
diathesis  which  later  may  develop  into  an  incurable  disease. 

Believing,  theoretically  at  least,  that  Homoeopathy  includes 
all  the  scientific  work  of  allopath ists,  with  the  addition  of  a 
consistent  and  curative  system  of  therapeutics,  it  seems 
time  well  spent  to  review  briefly  some  of  the  scholarly 
work  done  recently  on  the  subject  of  hysteria  by  the 
master-minds  in  the  old  school  of  medicine.  Volume  VI  of 
the  Index  Catalogue  of  the  Library  of  the  Surgeon- General's 
Office,  contains  a  Bibliography  of  Hysteria  of  seventeen  double- 
column  pages.  The  references  are  to  three  hundred  and  eigh- 
teen books  and  nine  hundred  and  fourteen  journals.  As  homoeo- 
pathic physicians,  can  we  learn  anything  from  this  mass  of 
literature,  or  does  the  mildew  of  materialism,  which  searches 
endlessly  among  decaying  cells  for  a  departed  spirit,  blight  it  all 
for  us  ?  Fortunately,  any  pathology  of  hysteria  is,  by  the  con- 
fession of  the  old-school  men,  entirely  lacking.  They  have, 
however,  made  several  guesses  at  the  probable  state  of  the 
nerve-tracts  during  hysterical  manifestations  which  seem  worthy 
of  note.  Dr.  Chas.  K.  Mills,  a  voluminous  writer  on  nervous 
diseases,  in  an  interesting  article  on  Hysteria  in  Pepper's  System 
of  Medicine,  gives  two  hypotheses.  First,  that  the  phenomena 
are  due  to  changes  in  the  vaso-motor  system.  The  irritability 
of  the  nerves  which  control  the  calibre  of  the  blood-vessels  in 
neurotic  people  is  shown  bv  a  large  number  of  symptoms,  among 
108 


March,  1890.]      SOME  RELATIONS  OF  HYSTERIA. 


109 


them  chills,  cold  hands  and  feet,  and  a  tendency  to  fainting.  In 
syncope  the  higher  cerebral  functions  are  superseded,  presuma- 
bly through  a  contraction  of  the  blood-vessels  of  the  brain 
cortex.  In  favor  of  this  hypothesis  is  a  case  of  right-sided 
hemianesthesia.  The  special  senses  were  alfected,  the  sight  of 
the  left  eye  being  almost  wanting.  Ophthalmoscopic  examina- 
tion showed  the  fundus  of  the  right  eye  to  be  normal,  while  the 
left  gave  evidence  of  a  contraction  of  the  retinal  blood-vessels 
to  one-third  their  normal  calibre.  The  curious  researches  of 
Anjel  on  the  peripheric  blood  flow,  during  brain  activity,  give 
experimental  evidence  of  vaso-motor  changes  in  the  brain.  In 
normal  persons,  during  mental  activity,  the  turgescence  of  the 
tissues  of  a  limb,  inclosed  in  a  plethysmograph,  is  found  to 
diminish,  presumably  from  the  afflux  of  blood  to  the  brain,  but 
in  neurasthenics,  under  the  same  circumstances,  the  plethysmo- 
graph registers  no  change. 

That  this  well-known  vaso-motor  hypothesis  does  not  cover 
the  whole  ground  Dr.  Mills  allows.  It  is  interesting  to  us,  as 
homceopathists,  to  find  his  second  hypothesis  to  be  the  dy- 
namic origin  of  the  disease.  Of  this  he  makes  very  little. 
Indeed,  he  confesses  that  it  is  equivalent  to  saying  we  know 
nothing  about  it  as  yet. 

Dr.  Mary  Putnam  Jacobi  considers  the  condition  fundamental 
to  hysteria  to  be  a  congenital  or  acquired  deficiency  in  the  power 
of  nerve  elements  to  aifect  the  storage  of  force  in  nerve  tissue. 
The  centres  connected  with  the  nerves  of  special  senses  and  of 
common  sensibility  are,  from  the  beginning  of  life,  exposed  to 
the  most  incessant  stimulation  from  constant  impressions  from 
the  outside.  The  storage  capacity  of  the  sensory  centres  is  not 
deficient.  It  is  rather  the  portions  of  the  nervous  system  as- 
sociated with  the  liberation  of  energy  in  action.  These  energies 
are  of  two  kinds — motor  and  mental.  The  stimuli  which  pro- 
vide for  the  storage  of  force-material  in  the  nerve-centres  con- 
cerned in  mental  and  in  motor  action  are  far  more  indirect 
than  the  stimuli  to  sensory  centres.  It  seems  to  be  the  dis- 
charge of  motor  energy  which,  possibly  by  emptying  the  cell  of 
a  certain  amount  of  material,  determines  the  gain  of  new  ma- 
terial from  the  blood,  and  its  storage  in  forms  of  higher  com- 
plexity. It  is  evident  that  the  nutrition  of  the  muscular  fibre 
depends  largely  upon  muscular  action,  which  decomposes  and 
eliminates  the  material  from  the  storage-cells.  Where  volition 
is  involved  there  exists  the  possibility  of  avoiding  action  and  so 
lessening  the  amount  of  stimulus  which  is  necessary  to  the 
motor  mechanism.    This  theory  of  deficient  storage  force  in 


110 


SOME  RELATIONS  OF  HYSTERIA. 


[March 


hysteria  is  confirmed  by  the  inability,  as  compared  with  persons 
soundly  organized,  to  bear  fatigue,  mental  exertion  or  emotion, 
privations  of  food  or  air,  peculiarities  noticeable  even  in  persons 
who  at  the  time  seem  in  good  health,  with  these  constitutional 
tendencies  latent. 

Sir  James  Paget,  in  an  interesting  series  of  articles  on  "Ner- 
vous Mimicry  of  Organic  Disease,"  proposes  to  separate  cases 
of  simulated  hip-joint  and  spinal  disease,  paralysis,  contractures, 
etc.,  substituting  neuromimesis  for  hysteria,  as  a  name  better  ex- 
pressing the  condition.  "  Hysterical  patients,"  as  he  tersely  puts 
it,  say  "I  cannot/'  it  looks  like  "  I  will  not/'  it  is  "I  cannot 
will." 

This  is  only  partially  true.  A  true  paralysis  of  the  will 
occurs  in  non-hysterical  people  and  has  recently  been  studied  by 
alienists. 

Sir  James  Paget  is  not  alone  in  attempting  to  rid  the  world 
of  the  title  "  hysteria" — a  word  whose  derivative  preserves  to 
us  the  absurd  misconceptions  of  former  ignorance — but  none  of 
these  have  been  accepted,  nor  have  passed  into  practical  par- 
lance. Dr.  Beard's  well-known  essay  on  "  Nervous  Exhaus- 
tion," was  written  in  1868.  He  then  first  used  the  word 
"neurasthenia,"  which  lias  since  been  so  generally  adopted. 
He  distinguishes  this,  however,  from  hysteria,  and  his  lead  is 
usually  followed  in  later  articles.  The  only  distinction  between 
them,  however,  which  is  invariable  and  does  clearly  separate 
between  them,  seems  to  be  the  sex  and  temper  of  the  patient. 
If  this  be  a  female  and  notably  weak  and  selfish  the  case  is  pro- 
nounced hysteria.  If  a  man  or  a  woman  of  natural  force  of 
character  it  is  called  neurasthenia.  This  seems  hardly  a  fair 
distinction,  since  marked  intellectual  ability,  even  genius,  are 
often  found  in  hysterical  patients.  Madame  de  Stael  indulged 
in  the  most  violent  outbursts  of  hysterical  emotion,  Charlotte 
Bronte  suffered  from  prolonged  hysterical  hypochondria,  George 
Eliot  was  the  victim  of  hysterical  headaches  and  minor  forms 
of  the  disease.  Burton,  the  author  of  The  Anatomy  of  Melan- 
choly— a  monument  of  curious  learning  and  quaint  wisdom — 
was  himself  a  victim  of  the  gloomy  mood  he  so  well  dissected. 
Mahomet  had  fits,  which  do  not  seem  to  have  been  epileptic, 
which  were  accompanied  by  depression  of  spirits,  trembling,  and 
a  sort  of  trance,  with  a  strong  tendency  to  suicide. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  belief  among  many  physicians 
that  hysteria  is  the  expression  of  a  diathesis,  more  particularly 
of  scrofulosis  and  tuberculosis. 

To  followers  of  Hahnemann  this  seems  like  a  truism.  The 


1S90.] 


BOME  RELATIONS  OF  HYSTERIA. 


Ill 


expression  in  the  old  school  of  so  much  insight  into  the  causes 
and  relations  of  disease  is,  however,  rare  enough  to  be  interesting. 
Grasset,  the  Professor  of  Practice  in  the  Montpellier  School  of 
Medicine,  writiug  in  1884,  gives  utterance  to  the  following 
opinions:  "Tuberculosis,  like  all  other  diathesis,  is  an  essentially 
general  and  constitutional  disease  of  which  pulmonary  phthisis 
is  but  one  manifestation.  It  may  show  itself  as  a  neurosis,  more 
particularly  as  hysteria.  In  speaking  of  hysteria  as  a  tuber- 
culous disease,  therefore,  we  do  not  assume  the  existence  of 
tuberculous  matter  is  the  nerve  centres,  for  we  do  not  look  upon 
tubercles  as  pathognomonic  of  the  diathesis,  which  exists  with- 
out them,  as  they  may  exist  without  it.'' 

He  then  carefully  tabulates  forty-four  cases.  In  twenty-five 
the  neurosis  was  the  only  manifestation  of  the  disease,  other 
members  of  the  family  suffering  from  phthisis.  The  remaining 
nineteen  show  an  alternation  ofsymj  .  .  and  Grasset  proceeds 
to  demonstrate  how  hysteria  often  moderates  phthisis,  phthisis 
in  neurotic  subjects  having  slow  development  and  periods  of 
long  intermission.  He  adds  that  the  Montpellier  School  of 
Medicine  sanctions  and  supports  his  point  of  view. 

This  is  satisfactory,  since  with  unimportant  exceptions  the 
article  might  have  been  written  by  a  disciple  of  Hahnemann. 

There  remains  the  discussion  of  the  relations  of  hysteria  to 
insanity. 

Sir  James  Paget  believes  that  a  large  majority  of  the  worst 
cases  of  nervous  mimicry  occur  in  families  in  which  insanity  has 
been  frequent  He  believes  the  relation  of  hysteria  and 
hypochondria  to  insanity  is  often  more  one  of  degree  than  dif- 
ference in  kind.  He  considers  that,  whatever  insanity  may  be 
as  a  disorder  of  some  portion  of  the  brain,  the  like  is  nervous 
mimicry  as  a  disorder  of  other  aud  lower  nervous  centres,  and 
adds — surely  any  nervous  centre  may  "  go  mad,"  as  well  as 
any  part  of  the  brain  which  is  appropriated  to  the  use  of  the 
mind. 

Dr.  Lloyd  has  done  interesting  work  on  this  subject  in  an 
article,  "  Hysteria,  a  Study  in  Psychology,"  published  in  the 
tenth  volume  of  The  Journal  of  Nervous  and  Jlental  Diseases. 
The  reasoning  is,  however,  so  close  that  it  cannot  be  represented 
by  extracts. 

To  summarize  this  very  incomplete  review  of  some  of  the 
work  done  by  the  allopathic  school,  we  have  considered 
the  changes  of  opinion  about  the  cause  of  hysteria.  AVe 
then  reviewed  some  of  the  hypotheses  about  the  condition  of  the 
nervous  system  during  the  incubus  of  hysteria,  it  being  possibly: 


112 


SOME  RELATIONS  OF  HYSTERIA. 


[March, 


1st.  A  vaso-motor  change. 
2d.  A  change  purely  dynamic. 

3d.  Possibly  due  to  a  deficiency  in  the  storage  force  of  the 
motor  and  mental  sphere,  or, 

4th.  Due  to  a  paralysis  of  the  will. 

We  next  considered  the  causal  relations  of  hysteria  to  tuber- 
culosis, and,  lastly,  its  relation  to  insanity.  Turning  now  from 
a  review  of  hysteria,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  old  school, 
I  will  state,  as  briefly  as  may  be,  a  case  of  neurasthenia  treated 
homceopathically.  It  is  selected  because  it  shows  the  incomplete- 
ness of  Sir  James  Paget's  clever  dictum,  "she  says  'I  can- 
not '  it  looks  like  '  I  will  not;'  it  is  i  I  cannot  will.'" 

L.  E.  C,  a3t.  thirty.  Her  inheritance  is  a  peculiar  one.  Her 
mother  is  profoundly  hysterical,  and  has  never  once  in  her  life 
been  told  the  plain  truth  about  herself.  By  virtue  of  a  hyper- 
trophied  heart  she  has  kept  her  family  in  subjection  to  her 
sensations  now  forty  years.  The  father  was  reserved,  dignified, 
self-forgetful,  strong  of  purpose,  and  of  iron  will.  He  is  now, 
unfortunately  for  his  daughter,  dead.  My  patient  has  inherited 
both  these  characters  markedly.  Dr.  Jekyll  and  Mr.  Hyde 
were  not  in  closer  quarters  than  are  these  two  temperaments 
fighting  out  their  differences  as  best  they  may  in  the  narrow 
limits  of  this  body.  Here  we  have  what  we  have  supposed 
would  be  the  salvation  of  hysterical  patients,  could  we  obtain  it 
for  them,  a  vigorous  will-power  ;  but  imagination  and  sensa- 
tion in  spite  of  it  run  riot  over  and  about  it.  L.  E.  C.'s  circum- 
stances are  these — she  has  to  manage  a  house  filled  with  boarders, 
her  mother's  sensations  and  her  own,  which  are  an  army  in  them- 
selves. My  notes  of  her  symptoms  date  back  four  years.  She 
came  to  me,  drenched  with  allopathic  drugs — the  bromides, 
iron,  arsenic,  brandy  every  day.  The  report  of  her  mental 
symptoms  I  copy  from  my  note-book :  "Greatly  worse  from  the 
presence  of  people.  Before  going  down-town  the  terror  and 
apprehension  she  suffers  bring  on  vomiting  and  diarrhoea,  some 
times  two  or  three  times.  Never  eats  breakfast  when  going  out 
in  the  morning.  Believes  herself  pursued,  always  walks  near 
the  building  to  protect  one  side,  must  keep  constantly  in  motion, 
because  only  thus  can  she  distance  the  enemy.  Almost  unable 
to  sit  quietly  in  a  horse-car,  the  people  are  so  terrible.  Uses  all 
the  strength  she  has  not  to  scream  and  run  away.  Comes  out  of 
the  cars  trembling  and  in  a  cold  perspiration  from  the  effort. 
Cannot  go  into  public  assembly  ;  the  enemy  gets  up  with  her  and 
pulls  from  behind,  the  seat  moves  from  under  her  and  she 
thinks  herself  pitching  forward."    Remember,  this  woman  never 


1890.] 


SOME  KELATIONS  OF  HYSTERIA. 


113 


did  scream  or  run  away  once.  She  went  down-town,  into 
crowded  streets  when  it  was  necessary,  she  quieted  and  controlled 
her  mother  and  smoothed  the  ruffled  tempers  of  the  boarders,  at 
what  cost  no  one  but  herself  will  ever  fully  know.  Among 
physical  symptoms  were  menstruation  so  profuse  as  to  leave  her, 
after  ten  days,  exsanguinated  and  greatly  weakened  ;  constant 
dyspepsia  with  nervous  nausea.  As  a  child  she  had  had  croup 
and  suffered  now  frequently  from  acute  attacks  of  spasmodic 
strictures  of  the  throat  which  the  old-school  physicians  had 
called  laryngismus  stridulus.  This  was  the  picture  of  the  case 
as  I  first  saw  it.  Now,  after  four  years'  avoidance  of  drugs 
and  frequent  homoeopathic  treatment,  the  condition  is  this  :  Not 
well,  she  never  will  be  until  rid  of  the  incubus  of  her  mother, 
but  greatly  relieved.  No  attacks  of  stricture  of  the  throat  since 
eighteen  months;  menstruation  painless,  usually  normal  in 
amount  ;  mental  symptoms  generally  same,  with  occasional  re- 
lapses which  give  a  faint  impression  of  this  disorder  formerly 
drawn  in  with  such  black  lines.  This  usually  silent,  reserved 
woman  broke  out  recently  into  exclamations  of  praise  and  grati- 
tude to  Homoeopathy.  It  had  made  the  world  over  for  her,  it 
had  made  life  endurable. 

To  describe  the  remedies  which  have  brought  about  this 

<_> 

happy  result  is  difficult.  Under  the  wisest  and  most  experienced 
application  of  remedies  the  way  would  have  been  winding,  for 
no  one  remedy  could  probably  have  made  a  cure,  and  I  had  scant 
experience  in  the  use  of  the  homoeopathic  remedy  when  I  began 
with  the  case.  Not  to  confuse  matters,  then,  I  will  give  one  pre- 
scription : 

Dec.  28th,  188G,  three  months  after  beginning  treatment. 
"Vertigo,  vith  faint  nausea  on  turning  to  the  left;  even  one  inch 
from  the  median  line  would  bring  it  on.  This  symptom  was 
much  emphasized.  Great  terror  at  the  approach  of  people,  must 
keep  in  motion,  depressed  during  the  effort  of  digestion,  vet  has 
the  impulse  to  eat,  frequently  faint,  gone,  needs  food.  Complexion 
very  pale  and  sallow.  Menses  like  a  hemorrhage  violently  pro- 
fuse. Iodinecm." 

Jan.  18th,  record  reads:  "  last  prescription  serious  mistake. 
Patient  much  worse,  strange,  yellow  pallor  of  skin.  Dislike 
of  people  intensified,  says  :  'I  dare  not  look  at  any  one  because  I 
know  hate  is  in  my  eyes.'  Thoughts  of  suicide.  Tedium 
vita?  pronounced.  Is  menstruating.  Is  surprised  that  the 
flow  is  so  small,  thick,  black  ;  never  so  before  ;  no  pain."  I  gave 
nothing,  not  from  an  intelligent  appreciation  that  I  had  the 
light  remedy,  but  from  sheer  fear  of  doing  the  wrong  thing, 


114 


SOME  RELATIONS  OF  HYSTERIA. 


[March, 


and  because  I  could  see  nothing  to  do.  Improvement  came 
slowly  ;  nothing  more  was  given  during  two  months. 

I  now  believe  the  Iodine  was  one  of  the  most  important  agents 
in  bringing  about  improvement.  The  curious  left-sided  vertigo 
did  not  return  for  a  year,  and  then  was  far  less  marked.  The 
terror  of  people  has  substantially  never  returned.  I  was  led  to 
Iodine  in  the  attempt  to  cover  the  singular  symptom,  vertigo, 
with  sick  faintness,  on  turning  to  the  left.  Iodine  was  the  only 
remedy  I  could  find  which  had  this.  Then,  it  seemed  to  me,  no 
remedy  had  so  many  of  the  peculiar  mental  symptoms — e.  g.f 
fear  of  people. 

Fresh  from  the  study  of  diseases  under  allopathic  care,  accus- 
tomed to  .the  treatment,  which,  like  a  bow  drawn  at  a  venture, 
often  misses  entirely,  and  never  hits  the  bull's-eye  with  such 
exactitude,  I  was  bewildered  with  the  results  obtained.  In 
looking  back  and  recalling  my  sensations  I  seem  like  a  child 
who  should  set  a  match  to  a  powder  magazine  not  expecting  any 
great  effect. 

The  subject  on  which  I  need  instruction,  and  which  I  would 
like  to  present  for  discussion,  is  this  :  Was  the  aggravation 
necessary  to  the  improvement?  Is  the  patient  too  sensitive  to 
endure  a  CM  potency  ? 

These  aggravations  have  been  unfortunately  frequent  in  the 
treatment  of  this  patient.  They  certainly  are  not  a  pleasant 
cure,  and  I  question  whether  in  a  case  of  melancholia,  with  a 
suicidal  tendency,  they  might  not  be  dangerous. 

DISCUSSION. 

Dr.  Wesselhceft — The  theory  advanced  by  Dr.  Jacobi  seems 
the  most  satisfactory,  that  certain  storage-houses  of  nerve  force 
are  weak,  and  that  others  are  overstocked.  The  other  theory 
that  was  interesting  was  :  "  Why  should  not  a  nervous  centre  go 
mad  ?"  It  is  a  very  bright  thought.  These  patients  are  strong 
in  some  ways  and  weak  in  others.  They  often  have  the  finest 
perceptions  and  the  greatest  intelligence,  and  you  will  often  see 
self-sacrificing  lives  shown  in  these  neurasthenic  patients  when 
you  least  expect  it. 

In  regard  to  the  prescription  of  Iodine,  and  the  patient  in 
the  next  two  weeks  being  much  aggravated  in  her  mental  con- 
dition and  improved  in  her  physical  symptoms,  there  was  no 
doubt  about  not  interfering,  especially  as  the  remedy  was  satis- 
factory. 

As  regards  aggravation  in  general,  my  own  experience  has 


1890.]         PAST  MEETINGS  OF  THE  LIPPE  SOCIETY.  H5 


been  that  I  have  seen  more  of  them  in  the  last  ten  or  fifteen 
years  than  before,  owing  either  to  better  observation  or  to  a 
longer  time  being  given  to  the  selection  of  the  remedy.  The 
aggravations  have  been  more  intense,  but  the  cures  have  been 
better,  and  the  remedies  have  been  allowed  to  act  longer.  I 
have  now  a  case  in  which  Causticum  has  been  given  in  the 
CM,  DM,  and  CMM  potencies  at  intervals  of  not  less  than 
ninety  days.  I  used  to  repeat  oftener,  and  did  not  respect  the 
remedy.  The  long-continued  aggravation  of  two  weeks  is  rather 
rare ;  usually,  in  my  experience,  it  is  from  four  to  ten  days. 

Dr.  Tompkins — You  spoke  of  mental  aggravation  and  im- 
provement in  the  physical  condition,  did  you  mean  this  as  a  spe- 
cial indication  that  the  remedy  was  acting  well  ? 

Dr.  Wesselhoeft — Usually  the  mental  symptoms  are  amelio- 
rated first. 

Dr.  Dutton — Would  an  aggravation  have  come  from  the 
200th  ? 

Dr.  AVesselhoeft — That  is  a  question  that  can  only  be  settled 
by  a  long  series  of  observations. 

S.  A..  Kimball,  M.  D.,  Secretary. 


NOTES  FROM  PAST  MEETINGS  OF  THE  LIPPE 

SOCIETY. 

Dr.  Lippe  read  a  paper  containing  a  translation  §  154  of 
the  Organon,  with  comments  upon  the  ignoring  of  the  princi- 
ples of  this  paragraph  by  the  mongrels,  and  a  defense  of  the 
materia  medica  as  it  is  against,  the  efforts  of  the  so-called 
"  liberals  "  to  revise  it. 

[If  Dr.  Lippe  were  living  to-day  he  would  find  equally  as 
much  work  for  his  pen  against  materia  medica  "  revisers  "  as  in 
the  latter  years  of  his  life.  If  these  men  would  only  do  as  Dr. 
Lippe  did,  cure  the  sick,  they  would  not  be  such  blatant  oppo- 
nents of  Homoeopathy.] 

Dr.  Fellger  remarked  that  were  such  efforts  at  revision  suc- 
cessful there  would  be  no  Homoeopathy  at  all. 

[Dr.  Fellger's  life  was  spent  in  curing  patients  by  adhering 
to  Hahnemannian  Homoeopathy.  He  was  able  to  appreciate  its 
benefits,  as  he  had  been  a  surgeon  in  the  German  army  and  had 
become  thoroughly  disgusted  with  the  vain  efforts  to  cure  disease 
which  he  saw  while  he  occupied  that  position.  Those  who 
knew  Dr.  Fellger  are  alone  able  to  do  justice  to  his  memory.] 

Dr.  Lippe,  in  his  paper,  mentioned  the  case  of  a  man  with 


116  PAST  MEETINGS  OF  THE  LIPPE  SOCIETY.  [March, 


typhoid  fever  who  was  constantly  moaning  and  whining.  It 
was  not  the  deep,  heavy  moaning  of  Muriatic  acid,  but  a  whin- 
ing constantly  uttered.  At  the  same  time  there  was  suppression 
of  urine.  Apis  brought  about  a  cure.  Several  years  later  the 
same  man  was  taken  with  small-pox.  The  eruption  failed  to 
appear,  and  there  was  suppression  of  urine  and  constant  whin- 
ing. Apis  was  again  given,  and  the  next  morning  the  pustules 
came  out  large  as  small  grapes,  urine  flowed  in  large  quantity, 
and  there  was  no  more  whining. 

Dr.  Fellger,  speaking  of  the  effects  of  imagination,  related 
the  case  of  a  blacksmith  who  sat  down  to  dinner  at  which  a 
custard  was  served,  and  which  looked  so  like  fecal  matter  that 
he  immediately  after  vomited.  It  was  impossible  ever  to  men- 
tion the  name  of  custard  without  his  vomiting  as  a  consequence. 
Another  case  was  a  woman  who  saw  a  criminal  beheaded, 
and  who  soon  after  gave  birth  to  a  child  with  one  hand 
amputated. 

Dr.  Lee  knew  of  a  case  of  a  child  being  born  circumcised, 
the  mother  having  shortly  before  witnessed  such  an  operation. 

Dr.  Fellger  knew  of  a  woman  who,  whilst  pregnant,  at- 
tempted to  reach  for  a  book  on  a  shelf  above  her  head.  In  so 
doing  she  brought  down  upon  her  head  several  other  objects. 
When  her  next  child  was  born  it  had  a  large  swelling  upon  its 
head. 

At  a  meeting  at  which  Dr.  Berridge  was  present  a  discussion 
arose  in  respect  of  the  importance  of  avoiding  perfumes  about 
the  sick-room.  Dr.  Berridge  said  that  Dr.  Wilson,  of  London, 
who  was  a  most  careful  prescriber,  had  given  Lachesis  to  a  pa- 
tient without  perceptible  effect.  Being  satisfied  that  it  was  the 
remedy,  he  searched  for  a  cause  for  its  non-action.  He  noticed 
that  the  patient  had  a  handkerchief  saturated  with  cologne. 
When  this  was  taken  away  the  next  dose  of  Lachesis  took  effect. 

Dr.  Lippe  asserted  that  violent  emotions,  like  anger,  will 
suspend  the  action  of  a  remedy.  He  mentioned  a  case  of  tooth- 
ache for  which  he  gave  Ratanhia30  whilst  the  patient  was  smok- 
ing, and  the  pain  Avas  gone  shortly  after.  We  now,  said  Dr. 
Lippe,  rarely  see  toothache. 

I  frequently  have  seen  toothache  precede  tuberculosis.  Now 
we  scarcely  ever  see  such  a  phenomenon  ;  but  we  see  catarrh 
preceding  the  same  troubles.  If  the  catarrh  be  suppressed,  then 
the  tuberculosis  will  the  sooner  become  manifest.  This  I  have 
often  seen  in  young  girls. 

Dr.  Fellger,  on  the  subject  of  Morphia,  said  that  its  use  had 
largely  increased  in  Germany.    Some  of  those  who  took  enough 


189a]        PAST  MEETINGS  OF  THE  LIPPE  SOCIETY.  H7 


to  develop  its  symptoms  had  certain  involuntary  motions, 
especially  a  backward  ambling. 

Dr.  Berridge  remembered  that  Picrotoxin  will  make  an  ani- 
mal  run  backward.  He  had  given  that  remedy  to  a  dog  which, 
while  in  a  fit,  ran  backward,  and  cured  him. 

Dr,  Fellger  said  he  had  once  accidentally  poisoned  himself  by 
scratching  his  finger  with  a  pin  charged  with  an  arsenical  prepa- 
ration. He  was  troubled  with  dreams  in  which  everything  seemed 
dead — men,  animals,  plants,  all  seemed  dead.  Then  came 
thirst. 

Dr.  Lippe  said  that  Arsenicum  metal licum  was  proved  in 
1850  by  Dr.  Duffield  and  himself,  and  published  in  the  Exami- 
ner. Those  who  took  it,  and  who  had  had  syphilis  many  years 
before,  had  all  the  symptoms  reappear.  Their  hair  fell  out,  and 
they  had  chancres.  These  symptoms  showed  that  Arsenicum 
metallicum  was  a  remedy  for  some  cases  of  syphilis. 

Dr.  Fellger  had  seen  a  case  of  syphilis  in  which  the  patient 
became  so  violent  from  the  intense  pain  that  he  had  to  be  held 
by  tour  men.  The  symptoms  all  pointed  to  Arsenicum,  which 
quieted  the  pain  in  a  few  hours,  and  by  the  next  day  it  had  en- 
tirely disappeared,  and  in  about  nine  days  the  man  was  well. 
Dr.  Lippe  said  that  it  was  Dr.  Duffield  who  observed  that  the 
Arsenicum  pulse  was  more  rapid  in  the  morning  than  in  the 

eveninp;. 
— 

Diarrhoea. — Dr.  C.  Carleton  Smith  spoke  of  the  epidemic 
of  cholera  which  occurred  in  Chicago  while  he  was  practicing 
there.  Patients  would  come  into  his  office  holding  the  hands  upon 
the  abdomen  and  fearing  they  would  have  an  attack  of  diarrhoea 
immediately.  They  could  not  trust  their  bowels.  Aloes  would 
relieve  all  such  cases,  and  they  escaped  the  cholera  aftervvard. 

Dr.  Lippe  said  the  principal  indication  for  Thrombidium  in 
diarrhoea  was  much  pain  before  and  after  stool  and  terrible  te- 
nesmus. 

The  stool  is  mostly  mucus,  with  great  straining.  The  attack 
comes  on  always  after  eating,  no  matter  when.  Drinking  has 
nothing  to  do  with  it.  Dr.  Lippe  had  cured  a  very  bad  case  of 
this  kind  of  diarrhoea  with  Thrombidium,  his  attention  being 
called  to  it  by  the  indication,  diarrhoea  occurring  only  after  eating. 

Dr.  Preston  had  had  a  case  of  chronic  dysentery  of  only  one 
or  two  stools  a  day.  But  after  every  stool  was  a  discharge  of 
jelly-like  mucus.    Kali-carb.  cured. 

Dr.  Lippe  added  that  Asarum  has  the  same  symptom. 

Dr.  Preston  said  that  the  svmptom,  jelly-like  stool,  could  be 
found  under  Kali-carb.  in  Jahr's  Symptomcn  Codex. 


118 


PAST  MEETINGS  OF  THE  LIPPB  SOCIETY. 


[  March, 


Dr.  Fellgersaid  that  Aloes  lias  the  symptom,  mucus  passed  after 
stool.  The  principal  symptom  of  Aloes  is  jelly-like  mucous  stools. 

Dr.  Lippe  had  cured  a  case  of  diarrhoea  in  a  horse  following 
pneumonia  by  observing  the  symptom,  mucous  discharge  from  the 
wide-open  anus.  Phosphorus,  one  dose,  was  given,  and  the  case 
was  cured. 

Dr.  Clark  related  a  case  of  diarrhoea  with  tenesmus  and  violent 
pain  and  a  never-get-done  feeling.  Mercurius  corrosivus  re- 
lieved promptly  when  everything  else  failed. 

Drs.  Allen  and  Guernsey  agreed  that  Mercurius  solubilis, 
6  CM  potency,  was  a  perfectly  miraculous  remedy  for  diarrhoea 
with  tenesmus  before,  during,  and  after  stool. 

Constipation. — Dr.  Long,  of  New  Brunswick,  said  that  in 
babies  affected  with  constipation  the  doctor  should  see  that  the 
nurse  does  not  use  powders  containing  Lycopodium,  as  it  causes 
constipation  in  babies. 

Dr.  Lippe  said  that  when  babies  have  constipation  with  pain- 
ful stool,  Veratrum  would  cure  beautifully. 

Dr.  Long  had  cured  a  case  of  chronic  constipation  with  Aloes; 
the  indication  being  sense  of  weight  in  the  pelvis  before  and  after 
stool. 

Dr.  Lee  had  had  a  case  of  constipation  in  a  child,  for  which 
he  was  unable  to  find  any  suitable  remedy  that  would  relieve 
until  he  noticed  the  fan-like  motion  of  the  wings  of  the  nose.  He 
gave  Lycopodium  and  a  cure  promptly  followed. 

Disorders  of  Urination. — A  case  was  reported  of  a  man 
who  had  continual  desire  to  urinate  at  night  when  lying  upon 
the  back.  If  he  lay  upon  the  side  he  was  riot  troubled ;  but  if 
he  lay  upon  the  back,  he  must  get  up  at  once.  Pulsatilla  was 
put  down  iu  Allen  as  the  remedy  having  this  symptom.  It  was 
given  and  cured  him  at  once. 

Dr.  Mahlon  Preston  reported  a  case  of  a  woman  who  had 
not  passed  any  urine  for  three  months. 

Dr.  Allen  had  had  a  similar  case. 

Dr.  Fellger  said  that  Zingiber  is  indicated  where  suppression 
of  urine  continues  any  length  of  time. 

Dr.  James  spoke  of  the  indication  for  Sarsaparilla :  Can  pass 
urine  only  when  standing  up.  He  had  cured  a  little  girl  troubled 
for  a  long  time  with  incontinence  of  urine  at  night  during  sleep. 
She  had  this  symptom  that  she  could  not  pass  urine  voluntarily 
except  when  standing  up.  Sarsaparilla  was  given,  and  cured 
immediately  and  permanently. 

Dr.  Guernsey  said  that  Ferrum-phosphoricum  has  desire  to 
pass  urine  whenever  she  moves  about. 


1890.]         HOW  TO  SELECT  THE  PROPER  POTENCY.  H9 


Dr.  Guernsey  had  a  case  of  a  woman  who  for  two  years  had 
a  desire  to  urinate  during  the  night.  If  she  did  not  at  once 
rise  aud  pass  water  she  had  a  violent  headache.  Gelseminura 
has  the  symptom,  headache  relieved  by  urination.  Accordingly 
Gelseminum  was  given,  which  relieved  very  soon. 

Nose-Bleed. — DivFellger  related  the  case  of  a  man  who 
died  of  nose-bleed  notwithstanding  the  usual  treatment  of  tam- 
pons used  by  his  old-school  physician. 

Dr.  Guernsey  related  that  a  cork  factory  took  fire  and  burned 
down.  Every  one  of  the  firemen  was  taken  with  nose-bleed. 
The  doctor  thought  it  might  be  accounted  for  as  a  proving  of 
Carbo-veg.  The  doctor  had  cured  cases  of  nose-bleed  with 
Carbo-veg. 

Dr.  Constantiue  Lippe  said  that  Dr.  Swan  claimed  that  Vipera  . 
acuatica  Caranita  was  almost  a  specific  for  nose-bleed. 

G.  H.  C. 


HOW  TO  SELECT  THE  PROPER  POTENCY. 
The  following:  instructive  and  interesting;  discussion  is  ex- 

jo  — 

tracted  from  the  proceedings  of  the  International  Halmeman- 
nian  Association,  and  was  started  by  a  paper  of  Dr.  B.  Fincke, 
entitled  "  Contributions  to  Materia  Medica."  We  have  chosen 
it  knowing  that  it  will  profoundly  interest  the  majority  of  our 
readers.  [Eds.] 

Discussion. — Dr.  Emory — I  have  listened  to  that  paper  with 
deep  interest ;  it  is  right  along  the  line  of  thought  which  have 
exercised  me  considerably  and  often.  Dr.  Fincke  has  certainly 
shown  some  light  which  has  left  us  iu  as  bad  a  mess  as  we  were 
before.  I  would  like  to  know  if  Dr.  Fincke  has  found  out  how 
we  are  to  individualize  our  cases  in  regard  to  potencies  in  each 
case.  Is  there  any  other  way  except  empiricism  ?  Arc  there 
any  instructions  to  select  the  different  potencies  for  different 
patients?  I  am  sure  homceopathicians  all  over  the  world 
would  be  thankful  to  Dr.  Fincke  for  some  light  on  this  subject. 

Dr.  Reed — It  seems  like  something  wonderful  about  the  action 
of  potencies  on  the  human  organization.  I  have  a  case  in  mind 
of  a  patient  sick  unto  death  from  malarial  fever  and  treated  by 
an  allopathic  physician  on  account  of  the  distance  from  a  ho- 
moeopath. I  was  afterward  requested  to  make  a  visit.  The 
simillimum  was  Sulphur.  I  gave  a  potency  51  M,  Fincke,  and 
sometimes  CM,  whenever  necessary  to  go  higher.    The  man  was 


120 


HOW  TO  SELECT  THE  PROPER  POTENCY. 


[March, 


cured  with  one  dose.  In  four  weeks  afterward  he  bad  proso- 
palgia of  right  side  of  face  occupying  whole  of  the  right  side — 
with  extremely  acute,  lancinating,  cutting  pains  aggravated  by 
heat — thermometer  18°  below  zero  out-doors — and  when  near 
the  st^ve  the  pains  were  worse,  but  when  cold  the  pains  were 
easier,  could  not  bear  the  heat. 

There  is  only  one  remedy,  Bryonia  2  C.  I  gave  him  two  or 
throe  powders  to  take  with  him.  He  went  home  and  took  the 
powders  four  hours  apart  and  came  back  no  better.  I  gave  him 
another  dose  of  the  same  potency  and  he  went  home  and  took  it 
and  came  back  no  better  and  much  discouraged.  "  I  will  cure 
you  right  away,"  T  said,  and  I  went  to  my  case  and  took  a  bot- 
tle of  Fincke's  7G  M  and  gave  him  a  dose  on  his  tongue  and  in 
five  minutes  he  said,  u  Doctor,  that  is  my  medicine."  Why  did 
Bryonia  2  C  do  no  good?  Because  lie  had  had  a  potency  of  Sulphur 
51  M  and  he  had  become  used  to  high  potencies  and  a  low  potency 
could  not  act  where  a  high  potency  had  been  acting. 

It  was  the  same  way  with  a  cough  which  Professor  Kent  had 
been  treating.  I  said  Phosphorus  (was  the  remedy)  and  the 
question  was — as  she  received  no  benefit — why  was  it  ?  Because 
she  had  always  received  Phosphorus  CM,  and  Phosphorus  2  0, 
did  her  no  good,  but  the  CM  potency  cured  her  in  live  minutes. 

Dr.  Butler — It  is  all  true,  but  how  to  do  it  is  the  question. 
My  father  had  a  brother  five  feet  seven  inches  high,  and  how  is 
it  they  were  not  the  same  height  ?  We  don't  know.  I  am  quite 
agreed  to  admit  the  same  need  to  make  the  remark  you 
will  all  accept  in  the  very  line  Dr.  Emory  did.  These  are  all 
well,  and  the  paper  is  valuable  as  to  the  similitude  of  the  dose 
as  well  as  the  similitude  of  the  drug ;  but  at  present  we  have  no 
knowledge  how  to  choose  the  potency  of  the  remedy,  but  may 
give  experiments.  I  believe  that  the  lower  potencies  are  more 
safe  for  action  in  acute  cases,  and  the  higher  in  chronic  cases; 
perhaps  because  I  have  a  tendency  to  repeat  in  acute  cases  pretty 
quickly.  I  am  going  to  use  a  tincture  of  2  C  for  acute  cases  and 
try  it,  and  tell  you  by  and  by. 

Dr.  Reed — They  can  be  safely  repeated  provided  you  don't 
repeat  too  far.  Give  the  remedy  in  solution,  and  watch  the 
patient  until  you  get  a  satisfactory  action  of  the  drug  ;  then  stop, 
and  you  are  safe. 

Dr.  Schmitt — I  have  taken  that  subject  into  consideration 
many  times,  because  I  have  had  cases  where  only  certain  poten- 
cies would  act.  I  remember  the  case  of  a  man  who  was  a  con- 
tinual drinker,  and  his  stomach  was  out  of  order  very  often.  He 
came  once  to  me  with  colic  in  the  stomach  caused  by  drinking, 


1S90.] 


HOW  TO  SELECT  THE  PROPER  POTENCY. 


121 


and  I  gave  him  Nux-vom.2c,  and  he  had  hardly  taken  it,  and 
while  I  was  making  up  some  more  powders,  when  he  gave  one 
eructation  and  said  :  "  I  am  all  right  " — all  the  pain  was  gone. 
I  gave  him  a  few  powders  to  take  when  the  pain  came  on  again. 
It  lasted  half  an  hour  or  longer.  He  came  to  me  again  and 
wanted  some  powders,  I  knew  I  had  given  him  Xux-vom. 
(I  did  not  take  the  case  down),  but  I  had  forgotten  the  potency, 
and  as  I  generally  prescribe  the  CM,  I  gave  him  the  CM. 
He  went  home  and  came  back  in  the  evening,  and  said  :  "  the 
powders  did  not  do  any  good."  He  took  them  on  a  full  stomach. 
I  then  remembered  I  had  given  him  Nux-vom.2c  in  the  first 
instance.  I  gave  him  this  accordingly,  and  he  hardly  had  it  on 
his  tongue  before  he  was  all  right.  He  went  into  other  hands 
for  an  attack  of  pleurisy  because  I  wanted  to  force  him  to  high 
potencies.  I  did  not  know  as  much  as  I  do  to-day.  I  gave 
during  the  attack  of  pleurisy  Aconitecm  and  Bryonia0111 ,  but 
did  not  get  a  bit  of  response.  Then  he  called  in  another  physi- 
cian. I  shdtild  have  given  that  man  2  C,  and  I  would  have  then 
got  a  response  from  the  remedies. 

Dr.  Reed — You  established  a  precedent  in  your  2  C  potency. 

Dr.  Sch mitt — That  may  be,  although  I  have  sent  out  a  kind 
of  feeler,  as  Sulphur  or  Sepia,  especially  given  in  the  3  and  X, 
then  the  2  C,  CM,  and  MM,  especially  in  cases  of  consump- 
tion where  Sulphur  is  indicated.  I  would  rather  give  2  C  of 
Sulphur  first  instead  of  the  CM. 

Dr.  E.  T.  Adams — I  have  long  known  how  difficult  it  was  in 
my  own  cases  to  find  the  indicated  remedy,  but  I  begin  to  feel 
from  the  present  discussion  that  it  is  much  more  difficult  to  find 
the  indicated  potency. 

Dr.  Emory — Dr.  Reed  said  that  Dr.  Sch  mitt  had  established 
a  precedent  in  the  first  prescription  of  2  C.  Is  there  anything 
in  that?  Can  you  establish  a  precedent  of  that  kind  ?  It  is 
contrary  to  my  experience  in  the  treatment  of  chronic  cases.  I 
nearly  always  begin  with  the  2  C,  and  let  it  act  until  it  ceases. 
Then  if  there  is  no  change  of  symptoms.  I  give  a  higher,  and 
find  the  higher  potencies  act  more  efficiently  in  these  cases.  A 
precedent  was  not  established  by  the  2  C.  I  generally  give  a 
higher  potency  if  the  remedy  is  well  indicated. 

Dr.  Reed — I  don't  know  if  that  is  true.  Here  is  a  case  that 
occurred  after  confinement.  I  knew  her  remedy  was  Calc-carb. 
I  had  given  Calc-carb.  before  her  confinement  (2  ('),  and  I 
thought  to  myself,  I  will  give  Fincke's  85  M.  I  gave  her  85  M 
of  Calc-carb.,  but  no  benefit  accrued  therefrom.  All  the  symp- 
toms remained  the  same.    I  did  not  know  what  to  do,  and  hesi- 


122 


HOW  TO  SELECT  THE  PROPER  POTENCY. 


[March, 


tated  for  two  or  three  days  and  then  gave  Calc-carb.,  2  C,  and 
she  rested  well  afterward.  I  cannot  explain  this  thing  to  Dr. 
Emory.    It  will  have  to  be  explained  in  the  future. 

Dr.  Custis — This  is  the  most  important  discussion  started 
since  the  meeting  convened,  and  it  opens  a  subject  which  has 
shown  just  what  this  Association  is  in  existence  lor,  and  1  have 
studied  it  more  than  any  other  one.  Dr.  Butler  will  miss  it  if  he 
divides  his  cases  into  acute  and  chronic.  Some  people  are  made 
for  one  potency,  and  some  for  another,  perhaps,  but  the  difference 
is  in  the  nature  of  the  disease.  Diseases  which  depend  upon 
change  of  function,  such  as  Dr.  Schmitt's  man,  can  be  met  with 
a  lower  potency  with  effect;  but  if  there  is  organic  change,  for 
that  I  would  much  prefer,  and  think  better  results  come  from 
higher  potencies,  and  if  the  acute  condition  is  ingrafted  upon  the 
already  organically  diseased  organ,  the  higher  and  highest  act 
the  quickest,  but  will  not  bear  any  repetition  at  all. 

If.  Dr.  Schmitt's  patient  had  an  organically  diseased  stomach, 
and  then  had  gone  on  a  spree,  he  would  have  had  a  better  result 
in  the  higher  potency  than  in  the  2  C.  It  depends  more  on  the 
constitutional  condition  of  the  patient,  and  whether  the  disease 
is  purely  functional  or  threatens  organic  changes. 

High  potencies  are  more  prompt,  and  the  only  ones  that  will 
cure  diseases  where  there  is  organic  change  such  as  tubercular 
meningitis,  and  then  they  must  be  used  carefully  and  not  re- 
peated . 

Dr.  Schmitt — Is  pleurisy  an  organic  change? 

Dr.  Custis — It  is  after  it  has  started — that  depends  on  your 
man.  In  some  cases  a  low  potency  man  cannot  be  acted  upon 
by  high  potencies.  Sometimes  I  get  patients  who  have  been  all 
around  before  they  could  get  any  results  from  medicines.  It 
seems  to  me  to  be  more  in  the  peculiarity  of  the  patient. 

Dr.  Biegler — This  field  is  an  unexplored  one  to  me,  and  I 
have  never  been  able  to  obtain  a  guide  by  means  of  chart  and 
compass  to  steer  myself  with,  and  the  only  point  in  my  mind 
in  this  discussion  on  which  I  am  quite  satisfied  is  that  in 
acute  diseases,  such  as  diphtheria.  In  that  disease  I  have  never 
cured  a  case  with  low  potencies,  and  I  think  if  I  get  a  case  in 
time  and  no  interference,  I  never  lose  a  case  of  diphtheria 
with  the  high  potencies.  Also  my  experience  is  that  I  seldom 
have  to  repeat  the  dose.  They  recover  on  the  single  dose  in  the 
majority  of  cases.  I  found  that  in  a  very  severe  case  where 
the  remedy  (Belladonna)  cured  in  four  or  five  days  with  a  single 
dose.  When  we  say  that  we  ought  to  prescribe  the  high  poten- 
cies in  chronic  cases,  I  am  doubtful.    Here  is  an  illustration 


1890.]         HOW  TO  SELECT  THE  PROPER  POTENCY.  ]  23 

that  invalidates  that  proposition — how  can  I  give  yon  any  light 
except  I  select  the  potency  according  to  the  susceptibility  and 
sensitiveness  of  the  organism  of  the  patient? — I  may  say,  "  by 
guess  work" 

Dr.  Emory — I  don't  know  whether  it  would  meet  with  favor 
or  not.  I  move  that  v:e  request  Dr.  Fincke  to  follow  up  this 
paper  with  any  light  he  can  throw  upon  it. 

Dr.  Biegler — I  wish  to  suggest  that  a  vote  of  thanks  be  given 
Dr.  Fincke,  and  an  invitation  to  continue  his  good  work  and  to 
become  a  member  of  this  Society  (and  pay  his  fee). 

Motion  (President) — It  is  moved  and  seconded  that  a  vote  of 
thanks  be  tendered  to  Dr.  Fincke  for  the  able  paper  he  has  here 
presented,  and  an  invitation  or  request  be  extended  to  him  that 
he  may  at  a  coming  meeting  also  present  his  further  views  in 
regard  to  his  observations  as  to  the  result  of  the  remedies  and 
their  potencies.  Carried. 

Dr.  Sawyer — We  have  had  during  the  past  fall  and  winter 
in  our  town\m  epidemic  of  diphtheria.  Under  the  allopathic 
treatment  whole  families  died.  We  have  had  an  exceedingly 
bad  type  of  diphtheria  there — some  children  died  inside  of 
twelve  hours,  in  spasms;  from  the  time  of  taking  the  disease.  I 
had  my  full  share  of  cases,  and  in  no  instance  did  I  give  any 
potency  below  the  5  M:  I  lost  no  cases  and  rarely  repeated  my 
remedy.  I  also  had  a  case  of  acute  interstitial  nephritis  with 
black  urine  and  swelling  of  the  body  from  head  to  foot. 
Laches  is  was  the  remedy  given  in  the  CM  potency  with  slight 
amendment;  then  I  gave  one  dose  of  the  11  MM  (Fincke),  and 
in  twenty-four  hours  the  patient  was  cured  and  the  black  urine 
gone. 

Dr.  Kimball — Are  you  sure  they  were  cases  of  diphtheria  and 
not  follicular  tonsillitis? 

Dr.  Sawyer — The  best  physicians  and  surgeons  said  it  was 
true  diphtheria.  It  was  something  that  killed  in  a  few  hours 
under  allopathic  treatment. 

Dr.  Stowe — However  much  we  may  search  for  the  square  rule 
for  the  selection  of  the  potency,  we  shall  never  reach  any  other 
safe  guide  than  that  which  the  lamp  of  experience  gives  us. 
Judgment  and  experience  must  be  the  only  guide  by  which  to 
select  the  remedy  and  potency. 

Dr.  Long — The  remedy  Calc-carb.  was  mentioned.  Has  any 
physician  had  a  quick  and  prompt  action  from  Calc-carb.  in 
chronic  cases?  Dr.  Reed  waited  two  or  three  days  ;  I  waited 
six  weeks  when  I  gave  any  of  the  CM  potency. 


LA  GRIPPE. 


Samuel  Swan,  M.  D.,  New  York. 

The  wide  prevalence  of  la  grippe,  and  its  cause,  have  been 
commented  on  extensively,  but  with  no  very  definite  result. 
Certain  atmospheric  conditions  may  lead  to  a  clue  as  to  cause. 
Some  years  since,  it  is  reported,  the  mercury  in  St.  Petersburg 
rose  thirty-two  degrees  in  one  night,  and  the  next 
day  there  were  forty  thousand  cases  of  the  grippe. 
Did  the  sudden  rise  in  temperature  come  from  the 
lessening  of  ozone  in  the  atmosphere  ?  for  it  was  said 
to  be  below  normal  the  next  day.  If  investigations  have  been 
made  in  this  direction  they  have  not  appeared  in  print,  but  it 
would  be  well  to  lill  a  chamber,  where  there  were  persons  sick 
of  the  disease,  with  pure  oxygen  and  ascertain  the  effect.  There 
does  not  appear  to  be  any  symptom  of  the  disease  itself,  to  make 
it  fatal,  and  cases  left  to  expectant  treatment  have  recovered; 
but  the  parties  were  strong,  healthy  persons  when  attacked. 
Now  there  is  no  reason  for  a  strong,  healthy  person  dying  from 
the  grippe,  but  such  have  died  and  I  think  the  cause  lies  in  the 
great  quantity  of  that  deadly  poison,  Quinine,  which  is  given 
indiscriminately  to  all.  The  grippe  is  a  disease  of  a  depressing 
nature,  and,  when  added  to  that,  we  have  the  terribly  depressing 
after-effect  of  Quinine — it  is  more  than  the  vital  force  can  react 
against  and  the  croupous  bronchitis  is  followed  by  croupous 
pneumonia,  and  death  closes  the  scene.  But  this  is  not  all. 
The  iusanities,  the  suicides,  the  murders  are  greatly  due  to  this 
deadly  poison.  Hahnemann  made  a  careful  investigation  of  its 
effects  on  himself  and  his  friends,  for  it  was  from  this  drug, 
the  Cinchona,  that  he  made  his  discovery  of  the  law,  SimUia 
similibus  curantur.  I  will  quote  from  his  provings  some  of  the 
mental  symptoms,  and  the  alternate  conditions  of  exaltation 
and  depression  are  recognized  by  every  observant  physiciau  : 

"  Intolerable  anxiety,  he  jumps  out  of  bed,  and  wants  to  kill 
himself,  and,  nevertheless,  dreads  to  approach  the  window  or  the 
knife.  He  tosses  about  the  bed,  beside  himself,  and  in  despair; 
inconsolable,  distressing,  moaning,  and  screaming;  taciturn; 
obstinate  silence;  disobedience;  want  of  docility.  Ill  humor 
increased  by  caresses.  Hedespiseth  everything;  dissatisfaction  ; 
he  thinks  he  is  unhappy,  and  imagines  he  is  tormented  and 
teased  by  everybody.  He  is  vexed  and  gets  easilv  angry. 
124 


March,  1890.] 


LA  GRIPPE. 


125 


Anger  increasing  to  the  most  violent  wrath  ;  he  could  have 
stabbed  one.  Inclines  to  feel  angry,  and  seeks  opportunities  for 
it;  afterward  quarrelsome  and  disposed  to  grieve, and  reproach 
others.  Congestion  of  the  brain,  and  abolishes  the  cerebral 
functions.  It  causes  deafness,  and  serious  inflammation  of  the 
internal  ear.  Blindness,  ischaemia  of  the  retina  ;  neuritis.  It 
produces  stupor,  delirium,  and  convulsions.  Disturbance,  or 
rather  emptiness  of  the  mind — insanity,  excitement.  Feeling  of 
impending  evil  in  the  afternoon;  fretfulness;  anger  after  sleep, 
even  about  a  draught  on  the  legs.  Apathy,  indolence,  dis- 
inclination for  mental  labor.  Thought  difficult  when  writing. 
Memory  1  muddled  ' — mistakes  in  writing  '  left ?  for  '  right '  and 
vice  verm.  Loss  of  power  to  name  substances;  mistakes  in 
adding  figures ;  perception  of  quantities  impaired;  vacancy  of 
ideas." 

Quinine  has  a  specific  action  on  the  spinal  marrow  and  spinal 
nerves.  Its  first  effect  is  to  excite  the  nervous  action,  which 
is  followed  by  a  depression  of  the  vital  functions,  and  an 
increase  of  sensibility — and  the  depression  is  more  profound 
than  the  previous  exaltation.  Characteristic  indications  are 
general  languor,  sudden  sinking  of  strength,  trembling  of  the 
limbs,  nervous  Switchings,  convulsions;  violent  headache  in  the 
vertex,  causing  great  anguish  and  delirium.  It  is  not  my  inten- 
tion to  give  more  than  an  outline  of  the  effects,  but  I  quote 
from  the  respiratory  organs  to  show  why  it  produces  pneumonia, 
and  why  people,  who  have  habitually  taken  Quinine,  generally 
die  when  attacked  by  pneumonia. 

"  Hoarseness  from  mucus  in  the  larynx:  Whistling,  whizz- 
ing, rattling  in  the  trachea  and  larynx.  Tracheitis — catarrh  of 
the  trachea  and  bronchi.  Cough  from  constant  irritation  in  the 
throat,  as  from  the  vapor  of  sulphur,  without  expectoration. 
Nocturnal  suffocating  cough,  like  whooping  cough,  with  intense 
pain.  Violent  cough  after  every  meal.  Cough  with  expectora- 
tion of  blood-streaked  mucus.  Cough  with  difficult  expectora- 
tion of  clear  tenacious  mucus,  with  painful  concussion  of  the 
scapula.  Hemorrhage  from  the  lungs.  Cough  with  purulent 
expectoration.  Adynamic  preliminary  phthisis,  with  profuse 
purulent  discharge,  loss  of  strength,  evening  fever  and  night 
sweats." 

Why  sudden  deaths  occur,  may  be  inferred  from  the  following 
heart  symptoms  :  u  Faintness  ;  fell  suddenly  in  the  street ;  fell 
to  the  earth  senseless  ;  rush  of  blood  to  the  head  and  face,  which 
was  red  and  hot,  with  coldness  of  the  hands  ;  violent  palpitation 
of  the  heart ;  sensation  as  if  the  heart  had  stopped,  pulse  cannot 


126 


LA  GRIPPE. 


[March,  1890. 


be  felt ;  heart  ache;  heart  failure;  melancholy  feeling  about 
the  heart,  with  desire  to  take  a  deep  inspiration." 

It  will  be  observed  how  few  stimulating  symptoms  there  are 
compared  with  the  depressing  ones.  Business  men,  brokers  and 
lawyers,  men  engaged  in  business  that  causes  "  brain  fag," 
generally  keep  a  box  of  Quinine  pills  in  their  pocket,  and  when 
they  feel  themselves  "letting  down  "  they  take  a  pill  as  a  "pick- 
me-up."  But  should  they  have  pneumonia,  and  they  are  apt  to 
be  attacked  with  it  suddenly,  they  will  surely  die;  an  eminent 
physician,  lately  deceased,  than  whom  there  was  never  a  more 
careful  observer,  gave  it  as  his  belief,  the  result  of  many  years' 
experience,  and  my  own  observation  has  confirmed  its  truth. 
I  think  if  the  truth  could  be  known,  hardly  a  person  has  died 
of  the  grippe  that  lias  not  taken  Quinine.  But  not  all  have 
died  of  pneumonia.  The  violent,  unbearable  headache,  princi- 
pally in  the  top  of  the  head,  is  followed  by  coma,  varied  by 
violent  delirium,  stupor,  and  cerebral  apoplexy  preceded  by  the 
redness  of  the  face  closes  the  scene,  and  this  condition  is  caused 
by  Quinine. 

It  was  reported  in  the  papers  that  on  Monday,  the  6th  of  Jan- 
uary, there  were  eighty-two  corpses  in  the  morgue,  and  that  they 
were  all  the  bodies  of  suicides.  The  great  depression  and  hope- 
lessness resulting  from  Quinine  with  the  desire  to  kill,  would 
account  for  many  or  most  of  these  suicides. 

All  of  the  symptoms  mentioned  above  are  liable  to  appear 
when  massive  doses  of  Quinine  are  given — but  from  want  of 
knowledge,  physicians  declare  Quinine  to  be  harmless,  and  give 
from  five  to  fifty  grains  at  a  dose ;  and  the  result  of  too  much  is 
delirium  and  death.  Antipyrine  is  now  being  proven,  and  no 
doubt  we  shall  find  another  deadly  poison,  which  is  given  with- 
out knowledge  and  without  judgment.  If  physicians  were 
examined  as  to  their  knowledge  of  drug  action,  the  surprise 
would  be  that  they  ever  dared  recklessly  to  give  such  poisons 
at  all. 

Most  of  the  above  symptoms  were  obtained  by  the  proving 
of  Cinchona  officinalis,  or  Peruvian  bark,  while  Quinine  is 
cinchona  mixed  with  sulphur,  making  Chinium  sulphuricum ; 
but  the  addition  of  sulphur  only  intensifies  its  action,  as  there 
is  no  greater  depresser  than  sulphur. 

If  this  paper  will  "  call  a  halt"  in  the  use  of  Quinine,  the 
object  of  the  writer  will  have  been  attained. 


LA  GRIPPE. 


H.  P.  Stiles,  A.  M.,  M.  D.,  Abilene,  Texas. 

Since  writing  my  last  report  upon  la  grippe  (Homoeopathic 
Physician,  February  No.,  page  86),  I  have  bad  a  little  more 
experience  with  the  disease,  and  can  report  a  most  speedy  and 
homeopathic  remedy  for  the  tormenting  frontal  (and  other) 
neuralgia  which  in  this  country  is  an  almost  certain  sequel  of  the 
disea>e. 

In  Dr.  Jno.  Butler's  text-book  of  Electro-Therapeutics,  p.  31, 
in  the  pathogenesis  of  electricity,  will  be  found  the  following 
symptom  :  "  Pain  tingling,  acute,  darting,  lancinating  *  *  * 
sometimes  producing  great  agony."  These  are  the  indications 
for  this  mighty  polychrest.  Belladona,  Spigelia,  and  Chin-ars. 
do  relieve  tlris  neuralgia,  but  not  with  the  certainty  and  celerity 
of  the  Faradic  current. 

In  numerous  cases  Dr.  Evarts  and  myself  have  used  our 
portable  Faradic  battery  with  results  most  gratifying  to  our 
patients  and  ourselves. 

Owing  to  the  extreme  sensitiveness  of  the  affected  parts,  we 
must  make  the  current  very  light.  So  we  place  a  rheostat  in 
circuit  by  which  we  can  graduate  the  current  to  any  attenuation. 
Stroking  the  part  (usually  forehead)  with  the  electrodes  for  five 
or  ten  minutes  usually  relieves  the  pain  completely.  In  some 
cases  we  have  to  repeat  the  process  in  half  an  hour,  and  in  severe 
cases  it  is  necessary  to  treat  the  patient  on  two  or  three  days. 
But  ordinarily  the  action  of  the  current  is  quicker  than  that  of 
any  other  homoeopathic  remedy — though,  of  course,  it  must  be 
clearly  indicated.  It  is  vastly  superior  to  the  stupefying  mor- 
phine with  which  the  "  scientifics  "  have  rendered  their  confid- 
ing friends  oblivious  to  pleasure  and  pain.  It  relieves  without 
stupefying. 

A  very  small  battery  is  sufficient — one  that  can  be  obtained 
for  five  dollars,  and  even  that  is  likely  to  be  too  strong,  necessi- 
tating the  interposition  of  the  rheostat. 

Our  static  and  galvanic  batteries  also  relieve  cases  that  come 
to  the  office,  but  being  non-portable  we  do  not  use  them  so  fre- 
quently as  the  Faradic. 

Another  Case. — Sam  S.,  jet.  ten.  I  was  called  in  haste  to 
see  this  boy,  who  had  suffered  three  or  four  days  with  la  grippe 
before  I  was  called. 

127 


128 


FLATULENT  DYSPEPSIA. 


[March, 


His  mother  reported  that  two  hours  before  I  came  lie  was 
seized  with  a  spasm  which  is  briefly  described  as  a  severe  opis- 
thotonus. She  said  his  head  and  heels  came  within  fifteen 
inehcs  of  each  other,  while  every  joint  in  his  body  seemed  to 
crack.  The  symptoms  were :  red  face,  moderate  fever,  dry 
mouth,  extreme  nervousness,  starting  and  jumping  in  sleep, 
inclined  to  stupor.    I£.  Belladonna,  at  eight  p.  m. 

At  two  A.  M.  his  father  called  me.  Reported  child  as  worse. 
Had  no  more  spasms,  but  seemed  to  be  approaching  them.  More 
nervous;  boring  head  into  pillow,  gritting  teeth,  face  flushed  on 
one  side,  pain  in  epigastrium.  R.  Chamomilla,  sending  it  by 
the  father.  Followed  myself  in  half  an  hour.  Found  the 
medicine  had  acted  already  and  somewhat  soothed  the  nervous-' 
ness.  So  I  continued  it,  though  I  confess  that  appearances  then 
were  more  suggestive  of  Opium.  But  I  remembered  Dr.  G.  J. 
Jones'  advice  to  "  let  well  enough  alone"  when  medicine  is 
acting  properly.  The  child  continued  to  improve,  receiving  a 
dose  whenever  he  seemed  worse,  which  was  about  once  an  hour 
during  the  rest  of  the  night.  In  two  days  he  was  practically 
well. 


LA  GRIPPE. 

Dr.  Edward  T.  Balch,  of  South  Bend,  in  the  new  State  of 
Washington,  writes  to  us  thus  : 

"  La  grippe  has  been  in  full  force  here.  In  fifty  cases  not  a 
death,  or,  indeed,  any  sequalse.  It  yields  readily  to  the  poten- 
tized  remedy,  the  most  frequently  indicated  being,  in  order, 
Naphthaline,  Gelsem.,  Aeon.,  Ars.,  and,  in  three  cases, 
Lycopod." 

FLATULENT  DYSPEPSIA. 
Dr.  Jose  Nadal,  of  Palamos. 
(Translated  by  E.  A.  P.) 

Wre  shall  treat  of  a  loyal  son  of  the  village  of  Palamos,  aged 
thirty-seven  years,  married,  with  four  children,  bilious-lymphatic 
temperament,  educated,  kind  and  amiable  character.  He  does 
not  know  that  during  his  childhood  he  had  any  serious  illness, 
only  the  excessive  abuse  during  his  youth  of  purgatives,  espe- 
cially Brandreth's  pills,  which  have  destroyed  the  membrane  of 
the  intestinal  tubes. 

He  was  dedicated  to  the  cork  trade,  which  is  the  principal 


1890.] 


FLATULENT  DYSPEPSIA. 


129 


fountain  of  riches  of  this  district.  He  had  been  going  to 
Estremadura  for  the  last  ten  years,  staving  there  for  ten  months 
of  each  year,  buying  cork,  renting  cork  plantations,  collecting 
and  classifying  crops,  and  all  preliminary  work  which  is  neces- 
sary for  that  industry.  During  these  periods  he  has  had  at 
various  times  attacks  of  pernicious  fevers,  having  to  return  to 
the  bosom  of  his  family  in  a  truly  alarming  state.  I  remember 
at  one  time  he  was  attended  for  a  quarternary  bilious  fever  that 
was  controlled  with  Sulphate  of  Quinine  in  large  doses  besides 
many  other  medicines. 

With  all  these  antecedents,  it  can  be  well  understood  how  this 
intestinal  canal  and  its  adjoining  glands  had  suffered.  Various 
attacks  of  periodical  fevers  cannot  be  suffered  with  impunity 
that  are  treated  by  powerful  heroic  medicines  that  must  of  ne- 
cessity imprint  a  mark  more  or  less  profound  in  their  passage 
through  the  organism. 

He  had  called  in  more  than  twenty  doctors.  One  diagnosed 
his  disease  dyspepsia,  others  lithiasis  urica,  others  disease  of  the 
pancreas,  others  of  the  spleen,  and  each  one  according  to  his 
belief. 

He  had  no  need  of  ray  service  until  the  30th  of  April  last — 
that  on  the  occasion  of  visiting  one  of  his  sons.  I  found  him 
just  arrived  from  Estremadura,  and  after  having  related  to  me 
what  he  suffered  proposed,  if  it  was  my  pleasure,  to  submit  him- 
self to  homoeopathic  treatment,  to  which  I  acceded  with  pleasure. 

His  symptoms  are  as  follow:  Good  exterior  aspect,  healthy 
color,  normal  pulse,  tickling  sensation  in  throat,  producing 
cough  without  any  expectoration,  good  appetite,  no  thirst,  and 
a  saburral  white  coating  on  tongue.  He  was  not  free  from 
decubitus,  as  sleep  could  only  be  induced  lying  on  the  right  side. 
In  the  morning  he  was  rather  better  excepting  the  weariness  that 
remained  after  having  passed  a  bad  night,  which  he  always  did. 
His  sufferings  commencing  between  five  and  six  in  the  afternoon 
(six  hours  after  dinner),  consisted  of  an  intense  pain  that  began 
around  the  navel,  extending  all  over  the  abdomen,  great  swelling 
of  the  same  radiating  finally  to  all  the  lumbar  region  on  both 
sides, obliging  him  to  bend  the  trunk  backward.  These  suffer- 
ings lasted  nearly  two  hours,  but  by  his  account  the  greatest  suf- 
fering began  at  one  a.  m.  (five  hours  after  supper),  presenting  the 
same  symptoms  as  in  the  afternoon,  but  much  more  intense  ;  the 
cruel  suffering  lasted  an  hour  or  more,  falling  asleep  after  he 
was  relieved  by  vomiting  his  supper.  With  these  volumes  of 
symptoms  I  believed  I  was  treating  a  case  of  flatulent  dyspepsia. 
I  was  not  assured  whether  there  were  renal  complications,  never- 
9 


130 


FLATULENT  DYSPEPSIA. 


[March,  1890. 


theless  I  was  inclined  to  so  believe,  taking  into  account  that  gravel 
had  been  passed  several  times  at  Estremadura.  Considering  one 
medicament  alone  could  not  cover  this  volume  of  symptoms,  I 
prescribed  Nux-v.5an  hour  before  dinner  and  an  hour  before 
supper,  and  Lyc.12  two  hours  after  dinner  and  two  hours  after 
supper.  The  effect  was  such  as  could  be  expected  from  these 
two  polychrests ;  the  vomiting  ceased  from  the  first  day  and  the 
pain,  if  there  was  any,  was  only  a  faint  shadow  of  what  it  was. 
He  passed  four  days  and  four  nights  in  this  satisfactory  state 
until  one  day  that  he  spent  with  his  family  on  the  shore  near 
this  village.  He  changed  his  diet  ;  then  his  two  medicines  failed 
to  produce  a  good  effect.  The  pain  returned  in  another  form, 
accompanied  with  great  swelling  of  the  epigastric  region. 
Carbo-vegetabilis  dispelled  rapidly  these  symptoms.  I  was 
obliged  to  suspend  it  to  cure  an  anginal  catarrh  that  came  be- 
tween, but  soon  was  conquered  by  Belladonna. 

After  the  angina  more  of  the  forementioned  remedies  pro- 
duced good  effects.  Something  had  been  done,  as  the  vomiting 
had  not  reappeared,  and  the  lumbar  pain  had  all  disappeared, 
but  at  the  same  hour  as  at  first  a  pain  in  the  sigmoid  flexure  of 
the  colon  with  inflation  from  flatus  as  in  the  case  of  a  hysterical 
woman.  The  patient  seemed  to  feel  a  sore  in  this  part  of  the 
intestines,  and  that  the  pain  was  produced  by  the  friction  of  the 
excrements  passing  this  spot.  It  was  approaching  the  time  for 
his  return  to  Estremadura ;  he  was  in  despair  from  what  he 
suffered,  and  I  no  less,  seeing  that  my  desires  were  confounded 
by  the  inefl&cacy  of  my  medicines.  After  all,  considering  that 
as  a  business  man  he  might  have  suffered  some  reverses,  and 
that  this  might  help  the  cause  in  producing  his  illness,  I  pro- 
posed Ignatia  amara5 ;  the  effect  was  magical  ;  the  pain  ap- 
peared at  six  in  the  afternoon ;  he  took  the  medicine,  and  on 
going  down-stairs  it  had  disappeared  never  to  return.  He  re- 
mained here  three  days  more  without  feeling  the  slightest  pa  n, 
after  which  started  for  Estremadura  where  he  continues  in  this 
satisfactory  condition. 

From  El  Consultor  Homceopatica,  Barcelona,  September, 
1889. 


ACONITE  IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  THE  THROAT. 


Throat  in  General. — Burning.  Redness  of  soft  palate 
and  uvula.  Scraping  sensation  in  throat.  Uvula  swollen  and 
enlarged  ;  fauces  injected,  dark  red.  Pain,  and  difficulty  in 
swallowing  or  in  speaking.    Fever,  and  bounding,  full  pulse. 

Larynx  and  Trachea. — Laryngitis,  with  the  inflammatory 
and  mental  symptoms  peculiar  to  this  remedy.  Larynx  is  sen- 
sitive to  touch  and  to  inspired  air,  as  if  denuded.  Complaints 
from  overstraining  the  voice.  (Also  Alum.,  Arg.,  Arn.,  Arum-tr.) 

Especially  useful  in  croup,  when  caused  by  exposure  to  cold, 
dry  winds.  The  patient  awakes  from  first  sleep;  dry,  short 
cough,  but  not  much  wheezing  or  sawing  respiration.  Loud 
breathing  during  expiration,  every  expiration  ending  in  a  hoarse, 
hacking  cough.    The  patient  is  in  an  agony,  is  hot,  restless,  etc. 

(Hepar  ha£  loose,  rattling,  croupy  cough,  worse  after  twelve 
p.  M.  Spongia  has  sawing,  wheezing  respiration  between  coughs. 
Acetic  acid  has  loud  breathing  during  inspiration.)  The  Aconite 
cough  is  dry  and  clear,  or  hoarse  and  hollow.  It  is  worse  after 
eating  or  drinking  at  night,  lying  on  side  ;  better  lying  on  back 
(also  Euphr.,  Mang.)  Coughs  after  midnight,  and  the  more  he 
tries  to  suppress  it  the  more  severe  it  becomes.  (Like  Marum- 
verum.)  A  continuous  short,  hacking  cough,  with  agonized  toss- 
ing about ;  calls  for  Aconite  (when  the  patient  is  quiet,  study 
Squilla).  Child  grasps  at  the  throat  with  each  cough.  (Also 
Ant-tart.,  and  Allium-c.  In  croup  Iodium  and  Lachesis ;  in 
delirium,  Stramonium.)  The  respiration  is  labored,  anxious, 
short,  with  the  usual  anxiety,  restlessness,  etc.  In  pleurisy  the 
patient  lies  oest  on  the  back. 

Generalities. — Aconite  is  mainly  to  be  selected  for  any 
disease  of  the  respiratory  tract  upon  its  general  characteristics, 
which  are  very  marked.  It  is  never  indicated  in  any  patient  who 
is  quiet  and  serene,  no  matter  how  great  the  fever  or  the  inflam- 
mation. For  Aconite  to  relieve  a  fever  or  to  stop  any  inflamma- 
tory process  the  patient  must  be  restless,  anxious,  etc.  The  key- 
note of  Aconite  is  fear,  the  patient  is  never  cheerful  or  contented. 
Great  fear,  anxiety  ;  and  nervous  excitability  prevail  as  concomi- 
tants of  all  its  symptoms.  E.  J.  L. 

131 


WHAT  IS  THE  SIMILLIMUM  ? 


(Addendum  to  the  case  in  the  January  number.) 
M.  R.  R.  Wolff,  M.  D. 

February  1st  the  patient  writes:  "  For  two  or  three  days 
previous  to  appearance  of  menses  I  have  a  rushing,  gurgling  sound 
in  my  abdomen,  sounding  like  water  going  through  a  syringe. 
When  in  bed,  with  no  bands  or  belts  touching  me,  it  is  the 
same,  and  does  not  seem  to  be  gas,  nor  pass  off  any  unusual 
amount." 

Feb.  2d. — "Since  writing  the  above  have  had  my  period  of 
suffering.  Menses,  which  were  going  on  so  well,  stopped  for 
four  hours,  causing  much  pain,  but,  coming  on  in  a  gush,  re- 
lieved for  a  time,  only  to  stop  again  for  twelve  hours,  making  me 
unable  to  sleep,  and  suffering  very  much  until  another  big  gush, 
when  I  was  relieved  instantly,  and  have  suffered  no  more  since, 
although  still  having  menses  a  little.  During  the  last  stoppage 
there  was  for  six  hours  a  perfectly  hard  round-shaped  ball  of  the 
neck  of  the  womb,  instead  of  a  long  shape,  and  immediately 
after  the  flow  it  resumed  its  natural  shape,  but  with  a  soft,  flabby 
feeling.  There  is  no  coming  and  going  of  the  pains,  but  a 
steady,  crowding,  bursting  feeling  which  extends  all  through 
the  back  and  sides,  and  low  down  in  the  pelvis.  Every  time  I 
have  my  menses,  about  four  or  five  days  previous,  I  have  one  or 
more  pimples  come  on  my  chin,  which  fester  a  little  and  look 
very  ugly  to  me.  I  have  had  fever,  or  flashes  of  fever,  some- 
times during  half  the  day  or  night  for  several  days,  but  no  chilly 
sensations.    I  feel  it  in  hands  and  feet  and  eyes." 

Father  and  father's  family,  "  salt  rheum  "  people ;  the  father 
in  high  degree.  How  treated  I  cannot  say,  but  allopathically. 
(So,  too,  the  suffering  lady  in  childhood.)  Mother's  family, 
phthisical  people,  all  dying  early.  It  is  Homoeopathy  which, 
so  far,  has  saved  the  old  lady. 

Prescription. — One  powder  Psorin.15"'0  (the  highest  I  have), 
take  at  once,  dry.  The  day  next  menses  are  expected  take, 
in  advance,  with  eight  hours  interval,  one  powder  Mag- 
phos.200  (the  highest  I  have),  three  times.  Should  menses  come 
on  before  these  powders  are  taken,  do  not  take  more  before  pains 
are  felt.  Then  one  powder,  and  do  not  repeat  except  in  case  of 
relapse.  (See  proving  of  Mag-phos.  in  Advance,  and  compare 
pathogenesis  of  Mag-mur.) 

Once  more.    What  is  the  simillimum  ? 
132 


CLINICAL  CASES. 


G.  W.  Sherbino,  M.  D.,  Abilene,  Texas. 

Irritable  Ulcer  of  the  Anus. — Mr.  C,  dry  goods 
clerk,  has  been  suffering  for  some  time  with  painful 
ulcer  of  the  anus.  He  had  had  the  diagnosis  and  treat- 
ment of  two  old  school  doctors.  They  cauterized  the  ulcer. 
Its  location  must  have  been  close  to  the  verge  of  the  anus,  as  he 
suffered  great  pain  during  and  after  movement  of  bowels. 
Two  months  before  he  had  contracted  gonorrhoea,  which  was 
cured,  in  the  usual  way,  by  injections. 

Subjective  Symptoms. — He  said  of  his  own  accord  that  the 
stools  were  as  hot  as  boiled  lead  passing  through  the  rectum. 
Pain  after  stool  lasting  for  many  hours,  so  that  he  was  iu  great 
.pain  from  contraction  of  the  anus.  Pain  worse  from  motion,  even 
moving  his  feet;  and  yet  he  got  so  very  restless  that  he  must 
move.  It  always  made  him  wrorse,  and  he  got  no  relief  from  it 
whatever. 

I  gave  him  a  guarded  prognosis,  told  him  he  would  get 
discouraged  a  good  many  times  before  he  was  cured.  I 
thought  that  his  symptoms  called  for  Thuja,  and  I  gave  him 
one  dose  of  1  M  on  the  tongue.  Sac-lac.  to  last  three  days.  On 
the  third  day  he  called  again  very  much  improved.  He  said  he 
commenced  to  feel  a  relief  at  about  seven  p.  M. — the  dose  was 
given  at  one  P.  M.  He  was  to  report  as  soon  as  Sac-lac.  had 
given  out.    That  one  dose  cured  him. 

DiarrhiEA. — (1)  Mrs.  E  ,  sick  three  or  four  days  from 

eating  green  corn.  Diarrhoea  worse  in  the  morning  as  soon  as  she 
gets  up  to  move  around.  Gurgling  in  the  centre  of  the  abdomen 
before  the  bowels  move.  Can  scarcely  retain  the  stool. 
Aloes50™,  one  dose.  In  a  few  days  came  back  with  urine  symp- 
toms.   One  dose  Aloes  (H.  S.)c™.    Cured  for  good. 

(2)  A  man,  ret.  sixty,  has  had  diarrhoea  for  some  time,  the  trouble 
is  about  the  same  during  the  day  or  night. 

Subjective  Symptoms. — Burning  on  the  vertex.  Feet  get 
hot  at  night,  must  put  them  out  of  bed,  cannot  sleep  with  any 
cover  over  them  they  get  so  hot.  Must  sleep  with  the  windows 
and  doors  open;  hungry,  all-gone  feeling  in  the  stomach  about 
eleven  a.  m.  ;  weak,  faint  spells.    More  in  the  forenoon. 

Before   stool   terrible  griping    in  the  hvpogastric  regiou. 

133 


134 


CLINICAL  CASES. 


[March, 


Rumbling  and  gurgling  in  the  left  hypochondrium  (Aloes, 
Lycopod.,  Sanicula). 

He  has  to  be  very  careful  about  letting  flatus  pass,  as  some- 
times the  stool  escapes  (Aloes).  Vertigo,  zigzag,  glimmering 
up  and  dowu.  This  comes  on  after  a  feeling  in  the  stomach  as 
though  small  fry  were  swimming.  A  trembling  sensation  goes 
up  to  the  head,  and  the  vertigo  comes  on.  It  is  worse  from 
motion,  better  when  quiet.  As  the  feeling  in  the  stomach  sub- 
sides the  glimmering  commences  to  rise,  and  ascends  higher  and 
higher  till  it  vanishes.  B  Sulph.55m  (Fincke),  one  dose  ;  Sac-lac. 
every  half- hour. 

Second  day,  reports  slept  well  all  night;  had  only  one  stool 
to-day  ;  this  evening  pain  all  gone;  the  rumbling  and  gurgling 
all  gone;  feels  much  better  every  way,  but  the  glimmering.  That 
has  troubled  him  some  this  evening  ;  has  hot  flashes  over  each 
cheek  ;  a  sensation  as  though  he  had  a  fever ;  it  does  not  last 
long.    R  Sac-lac.  every  two  hours. 

I  came  very  near  making  a  mistake.  The  gurgling  made  me 
think  of  Aloes,  especially  the  insecurity  when  passing  flatus ; 
also  Lye,  but  I  could  not  get  the  four-o'clock  aggravation  ;  also 
Sanicula,  but  the  cold  neck  and  sweat  were  absent,  so  I  decided 
to  give  Sulph.,  which  cured. 

(3)  Mrs.  McC,  set.  twenty-two  years,  has  had  diarrhoea  for  four 
months.  One  month  ago  I  attended  her  in  confinement.  I 
made  but  one  visit,  and  she  was  weak  from  having  the  diarrhoea 
so  long.  I  gave  no  medicine  at  the  time  of  labor,  but  one  month 
later  I  was  called  to  see  her.  She  was  pale,  emaciated  very  much, 
could  only  walk  a  little  around  the  room.  Pulse  120;  tem- 
perature 100°.  The  only  symptom  I  could  obtain  was  fullness 
after  meals.  Gurgling  in  the  left  hypochondrium  before  stools. 
Exacerbation  from  four  to  eight  P.  iff.  Lycopodium3m 
one  dose.  I  called  second  day.  The  bowels  had  moved  only 
once  that  day.  Temperature  100°  ;  pulse  120;  third  day,  tem- 
perature 98  2-5°  ;  pulse  80.  Discharged  case.  She  is  now 
taking  on  flesh.  I  had  no  idea  of  curing  such  a  severe  case.  I 
gave  the  father  a  guarded  prognosis. 

Cholera  Morbus. — I  was  called  to  see  Captain  E.  He 
said  he  had  been  taken  with  vomiting  and  purging  that  morning 
about  six  A.  M.  Severe  aching  in  the  bones,  and  so  numb  he 
thought  he  would  be  paralyzed.  His  features  were  pinched, 
his  voice  hoarse  and  weak.  Hands  were  numb.  Tongue  coated 
brownish,  fetid  breath.  Temperature  97°.  Baptisiacm  (Fincke), 
one  dose.  Sac-lac.  every  ten  minutes  till  better.  That  one 
dose  brought  prompt  relief  and  the  sick  man  to  health  again. 


1890.] 


CLINICAL  CASES. 


135 


Little  boy,  aged  seven  years,  was  taken  at  nine  P.  M.  with  vomit- 
ing and  purging.  Had  eaten  nothing  all  day.  Was  very  thirsty 
for  water.  Wanted  to  drink  large  quantities  at  a  time,  but  as 
soon  as  it  was  down  he  would  vomit  it  up  again.  Nothing 
stayed  on  his  stomach.  Very  restless;  burning  pain  in  the 
stomach,  great  prostration  after  vomiting  or  purging.  Gave  one 
dose  Arsenicum  CM.  Wo  more  vomiting.  His  father  thinks 
there  must  be  "  something  in  "  my  sugar  pills. 

Hemorrhage  from  Bowels. — Mr.  C.  L.  W.,  lymphatic 
temperament,  weight  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  pounds,  had 
just  come  home  from  New  York.  He  was  taken  sick  with  pro- 
fuse discharge  from  the  bowels.  His  wife  gave  him  Aeon,  first 
day.  Second  day  she  gave  him  Merc-viv.  I  found  the  follow- 
ing symptoms  :  Pulse  80,  strong  and  full ;  temperature  99.2°. 
He  passed  about  half  teacupful  of  blood  every  twenty  minutes. 
Before  the  bowels  would  move  he  would  feel  a  gurgling  in  the 
left  side  just  .under  the  short  ribs,  then  it  passed  down  the  de- 
scending colon  to  the  rectum,  then  tenesmus  and  urging,  and  his 
bowels  would  move  (Lycopod.).  Bowels  very  sore  across  the 
hypogastric  region  to  touch.  Straining  during  stool.  "  Feels 
chilly."  Face  dark,  flushed,  looking  as  if  he  had  been  drinking . 
Eyes  have  a  languid  look,  could  with  difficulty  keep  the  lids  up 
(Causticum).  "  Feels  sleepy,  could  sleep  all  the  time.  Bowels 
move  whenever  he  moves  around  (Aloes,  Bry.)  ;  felt  better  when 
quiet,  lying  down.  Baptisia  CM  (Fincke),  one  dose,  cured ; 
was  able  to  be  at  the  store  in  twenty-four  hours. 

Constipation  During  Pregnancy. — Mrs.  A.,  eighteen 
years  old,  light  hair  and  blue  eyes,  primipara.  Has  had  con- 
stipation ever  since  she  became  euciente.  I  had  given  her 
several  remedies  with  no  relief  whatever. 

The  fore  part  or  the  first  of  the  stools  is  hard ;  the  after  or 
last  part  loose  or  diarrhceic.  Itching,  burning,  and  redness  of 
the  hands  and  feet.  She  says  she  can  tell  when  she  is  going  to 
be  constipated,  as  her  hands  and  feet  itch  and  burn  so,  worse  at 
night.  She  can  scarcely  sleep.  Agaricus-mus.  CM,  one  dose, 
made  her  better  for  two  weeks.    One  dose  more  cured. 


AX  UNUSUAL  SYMPTOM. 


Edward  T.  Balch,  M.  D.,  South  Bend,  Washington. 

"  Doctor,  can't  you  relieve  ray  daughter  from  this  sweating? 
She  is  obliged  to  keep  her  face  covered  to  prevent  sweating.  I 
have  to  wipe  her  face  continually  if  uncovered,  and  to  cover  it 
up  she  smothers  so.  Her  hands  and  feet  sweat  just  the  same  if 
the  clothes  get  off.  It  smells  so  disagreeable,  just  like  fish- 
pickle.  Can't  you  do  something  to  stop  it  ?"  Such  was  the 
urgent  request  made  by  the  mother  of  N.  W.,  aet.  nineteen, 
blonde,  primipara,  who  had  just  passed  through  a  tedious  and 
severe  accouchement,  and  who,  notwithstanding  my  best  efforts 
and  most  careful  nursing,  had  thus  far  failed  to  rally  from  her 
prostration  ;  her  recuperative  powers  seemed  to  lie  dormant. 
Secretory  functions  subnormal.  Wasting  in  excess  of  repair. 
Peevish,  obstinate,  "didn't  want  to  be  well  any  more,  didn't 
care."  There  seemed  to  be  an  entire  lack  of  vitality,  or  power 
to  arouse  "  and  make  an  effort"  in  her  own  behalf.  Indeed,  the 
case,  like  Mrs.  Dombey,  was  fast  assuming  a  serious  aspect. 
Friends  were  getting  anxious  for  a  change  of  result  or  treatment, 
even  the  sage  femme  thought  that  more  and  stronger  medicine, 
just  like  Dr.  gave,  was  necessary.  I  had  burned  the  mid- 
night oil,  determined,  if  possible,  to  find  a  remedy  that  would 
benefit  and  save  the  case,  and  rescue  ray  fast-waning  reputa- 
tion from  the  stigma  of  not  giving  stronger  medicine  ;  had  care- 
fully  and  diligently  watched  for  some  ray  of  light,  some  guid- 
ing symptom  that  would  assist  me  to  select  the  simillimum,  but 
as  yet  in  vain,  when  lo  !  the  mother  detects  for  me  a  symp- 
tom that  in  my  blind  zeal  I  had  overlooked.  A  symptom  that 
had  never  occurred  before  to  me  in  my  professional  life.  Sweat 
on  uncovered  parts.  I  knew  enough  not  to  spoil  a  case  by  giv- 
ing an  unsuitable  remedy,  so  prescribed  Sac-lac.  in  full  doses, 
and  quieted  the  mother's  alarm  by  intimating  that  the  sweat, 
although  an  unpleasant  symptom,  was  not  necessarily  a  serious 
one  and  that  I  had  left  "  something  to  stop  it."  at  once  hurried 
home  and  began  a  diligent  search.  Allen,  Hoyne,  Winterburn, 
and  Hering  gave  no  light.  When,  eureka  !  in  Lippe,  sweat  on 
uncovered  parts,  Thuja.  Water  to  the  wounded  soldier  was  not 
more  welcome  than  was  this  light  to  me.  Hastened  back 
to  my  patient,  and  at  once  gave  Thuja30,  a  dose  dry  on 
tongue,  continued  Sac-lac.  as  before.  This  was  at  three  P.  M. ;  at 
nine  P.  M.  she  could  sleep  without  covering  face,  next  day  be- 
136 


March,  1890.]     PROVING  OF  SACCHARUM  LACTIS. 


137 


came  more  cheerful,  and  passed  to  a  rapid  convalescence — she  is 
now  in  vigorous  health. 

Was  sycosis  latent  in  the  case,  and  did  it  prevent  recovery? 
Would  any  other  remedy  have  accomplished  the  same  result? 

PROVING  OF  SACCHARUM  LACTIS. 

B.  FinckEj  M.  D.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

(Note. — The  following  provings  have  been  sent  me  by  Dr. 
Fincke.  He  says  :  "I  give  you  my  own  literal  translation." 
Dr.  Swan's  collection  of  symptoms  produced  by  Sac-lad.,  pub- 
lished in  1888,  will,  therefore,  have  to  be  somewhat  modified  and 
enlarged,  according  to  his  original  record. — E,  W.  Berridge.) 

(1.)  Mrs.  T.,  sixty-odd  years,  in  1850  or  so  took  of  the  finest 
milk-sugar  from  Wippermaun's  chemical  factory,  in  Frankfort, 
triturated  three  times,  according  to  Hahnemann,  and  poten- 
tiated with  distilled  water,  from  the  third  centesimal  tritura- 
tion to  the  thirtieth  centesimal  potency,  two  drops  on  her  tongue, 
and  observed  immediately:  Fine  drizzling  down  the  back.  Burn- 
ing in  the  malar  bones,  going  toward  the  temples  and  jaw-bones. 

Severe  itching  of  a  liver  spot  on  the  right  hand.  A  taste  of 
fresh  nuts  and  a  desire  for  dainties,  excited  by  Spongia  tosta**, 
disappeared  after  Saccharum  lacti^\  one  drop.  (See  a  new 
proving  of  Spongia  tosta  in  Amer,  Horn.  Review,  April,  1859, 
p.  319.) 

(2.)  B.  F.,  1864.  April  6th  took  three  drops  of  Sack- 
fact.1400,  raised  by  fluxion  from  the  above  30th,  on  sugar,  and 
observed  strong  desire  to  urinate,  with  copious  discharge. 

(3.)  Mrs.  S.,  a  middle-aged  woman  ;  1864,  April  20th,  4.45 
p.  If.,  tooiv  Saeehar.-lactis™™,  raised  by  fluxion  from  the  above 
30th  centesimally,  three  drops  upon  a  lump  of  sugar. 

8  p.  M. — Burning  like  fire,  with  sensation  of  thickness  in  a 
strip  two  fingers  wide,  from  the  right  frontal  eminence  to  the 
right  side  of  the  vertex  for  fifteen  minutes. 

8.15  p.  M. — Sudden  anxiety,  with  trembling  of  the  whole 
body,  as  of  a  fright. 

Sensation  in  the  region  of  the  heart,  as  of  fire,  with  a  feeling 
as  if  it  would  burst,  or  also  as  if  something  very  heavy  were 
lying  on  the  heart,  all  of  which  spreads  from  it  to  the  whole  in- 
terior and  exterior  chest. 

Longing  and  depression  like  homesickness,  with  heavy  breath- 
ing ;  could  not  sleep  before  midnight. 


138  PROVING  OF  SACCHARUM  LACTIS.     [March,  1890. 


It  was  as  if  she  were  young  once  more,  and  longed  for  some- 
thing which  she  feared  she  could  not  get. 

Feeling  of  mortification  and  neglect,  as  if  long-forgotten  grief 
were  wakened  up  again. 

The  heart  aches  as  if  it  would  burst,  but  she  cannot  weep. 

April  21st. — Dreams  not  remembered. 

The  headache  from  the  right  frontal  eminence  to  the  right 
side  of  the  vertex,  with  sensation  of  a  strip  of  two  fingers  wide; 
repeated,  and  lasting  till  noon. 

Burning  and  pressure  at  the  heart,  with  anxiety  and  appre- 
hension similar  to  yesterday. 

Wretched  appearance,  and  sad  expression  of  the  face  ;  the  eyes 
look  as  if  she  had  wept,  though  she  had  not. 

Pressure  in  the  stomach,  as  if  she  had  eaten  something  indi- 
gestible, then  heart-burn,  with  sweetish  taste,  coming  from  the 
stomach,  but  without  water-brash. 

Sensation  of  weakness  in  the  whole  body,  as  after  great 
anxiety  and  fright. 

10  A.  M. — Burning  in  the  whole  mouth,  with  a  smoothness  as 
after  drinking  strong  liquor. 

Fine,  spicy  taste,  as  of  a  certain  root. 

April  22d. — Sleeplessness  after  midnight. 

The  sad  mood  gradually  lessens. 

The  burning  in  the  chest  came  on  and  more  coryza. 

In  the  forenoon,  a  similar  condition  as  yesterday,  with  the 
appearance  of  sadness,  but  weaker,  then  burning  and  painful- 
lness of  the  left  mamma  and  nipple.  (This  breast  had  been  sore 
at  a  time  when  she  suffered  from  melancholia  for  nine  months.) 

Sensation  like  ulceration  over  the  right  short  ribs,  anteriorly 
worse  on  touching  and  stooping,  and  slight  swelling  between 
the  ribs  and  skin,  not  in  the  liver. 

Many  dreams  of  dead  people,  of  small  children  who  are  born 
and  die,  of  brothers  who  died,  but  are  actually  alive  yet. 

April  23d. — Sensation  of  ulceration,  with  slight  swelling, 
worse  on  touching  and  stooping,  over  the  short  ribs  anteriorly, 
lasting  all  day  till  toward  evening. 

Sleep  sound.   Feeling  well. 

April  24th. — 4  p.  M.,  painfulness  of  the  right  ear-shell,  with 
burning  like  an  ulcer,  also  on  touching. 

Stitch  over  the  left  eye,  backward,  continuing  over  the  left 
eyebrow,  that  she  cannot  move  the  eye,  with  excruciating  pain. 

April  25th. — Feeling  well. 

April  26th. — Good  appearance.  Feeling  well.  The  habitual 
sighing  has  ceased.    The  vision  has  improved. 


IN  ME  MORI  AM — L.  S.  REYNOLDS,  M.  D. 


Again  we  have  to  record  the  death  of  an  earnest  and  faithful 
brother  in  medicine,  a  true  homoeopathic  student  and  homoeo- 
pathic practitioner,  Dr.  L.  S.  Reynolds. 

Among  the  earliest  students  of  Homoeopathy  he  followed  in 
the  footsteps  of  his  very  dear  friend,  Dr.  Noah  Harmer,  of  Buf- 
falo, the  pioneer  of  Homoeopathy  in  Western  Pennsylvania,  and 
was  also  closely  united  in  esteem  and  friendship  with  Dr.  P.  P. 
Wells,  of  New  York,  and  with  them  his  faith  in  the  true  old 
practice  of  Hahnemannian  theory  and  principles  was  loyal  and 
intense.  The  youngest  man  of  the  three,  his  remarkable  intelli- 
gence and  information  on  all  scientific  subjects,  particularly 
medicine,  caused  him  to  be  especially  appreciated  by  men  of 
superior  intellect. 

He  was  born  in  New  York  seventy-six  years  ago.  The  early 
years  of  his  manhood  were  spent  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

For  thirty  years  past  his  home  has  been  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
Since  his  advance  in  years  he  has  confined  his  practice  mostly  to 
suffering  patients  he  attended  gratuitously,  as  his  greatest  pleas- 
ure in  life  was  to  relieve  suffering;  permitted  so  to  do  through 
instinctive  and  wonderful  knowledge  of  materia  medica.  Those 
who  have  lost  him  best  know  his  worth,  and  Homoeopathy  in 
its  pure  perfectness  has  truly  lost  a  faithful  believer  and  dis- 
ciple. 


INTERNATIONAL  HAHNEMANNIAN  ASSOCIA- 
TION. 

Bureau  of  Surgery,  1890. 

The  following  gentlemen  and  ladies  compose  the  Surgical 
Bureau  of  the  I.  H.  A.  for  1890: 

Jas.  B.  Bell,  M.  D.,  178  Commonwealth  Ave.,  Boston,  Mass. 
Prof.  E.  Carleton,  M.  D.,  53  West  45th  St.,  New  York. 
Thos.  M.  Dillingham,  M.  D.,  46  West  36th  St.,  New  York. 
A.  McNeil,  M.  D.,  220  Turk  St.,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 
Miss  E.  J.  Myers,  M.  D.,  302  West  12th  St.,  New  York. 
In  addition  to  the  above,  very  interesting  articles  are  expected 


140 


QUERY  FOR  READERS.  [March,  1890. 


from  Miss  R.  Dunlevy,  House  Physician  of  the  Hospital  for 
Women,  213  West  64th  St.,  New  York. 

Up  to  this  date  the  title  of  but  one  paper  to  be  presented  has 
been  received,  viz.:  "  Ulcers,"  by  A.  McNeil,  of  San  Fran- 
cisco, Cal.  As  it  is  frequently  the  case  that  the  writing  of 
articles  for  any  bureau  is  necessarily  postponed  until  a  late  date, 
I  would  very  respectfully  ask  the  several  members  of  the 
Bureau  of  Surgery  for  1890  to  forward  the  titles  of  their  re- 
spective theses  to  Samuel  A.  Kimball,  M.  D.,  124  Common- 
wealth Ave.,  Boston,  Mass.,  on  or  before  June  1st,  1890.  Also, 
if  any  member  of  this  bureau  be  prevented  from  being  present 
at  the  next  meeting,  to  send  his  or  her  article  to  Dr.  Kimball 
or  myself,  in  time  for  presenting. 

I  wish  to  thank  the  gentlemen  and  Miss  E.  J.  Myers,  who 
compose  the  Bureau  of  Surgery,  I.  H.  A.,  for  1890,  for  their 
courtesy  and  promptness  in  offering  to  constitute  said  bureau. 
Also,  to  Miss  Dunlevy  for  her  kind  offer  to  furnish  an  article 
for  our  bureau.  Knowing  the  ability  of  the  several  persons 
aforesaid,  who  constitute  this  bureau,  I  have  no  hesitation  in 
stating  that  the  Bureau  of  Surgery,  I.  H.  A.,  1890,  will  not 
be  outdone  by  any  of  its  predecessors. 

Some  of  the  members  of  this  bureau  think  it  very  desirable 
to  gather  for  a  report  at  the  next  June  meeting — which  will  con- 
vene at  Newport,  R.  I. — reliable  clinical  experience  in  the  treat- 
ment of  venereal  diseases,  notably  syphilis,  including  the  use  of 
the  higher  potencies.  Therefore,  a  general  invitation  is  herewith 
extended  to  all  practitioners  and  students  of  pure  Homoeopathy 
to  furnish  anything  that  will  "  fill  the  bill 99  of  our  requirements 
for  the  June  meeting. 

Respectfully  submitted, 
Mexico,  New  York,         T.  Dwight  Stowe,  Chairman. 
Feb.  21st,  1890.  Bureau  of  Surgery. 


QUERY  FOR  THE  READERS  OF  THE  HOMOEO- 
PATHIC PHYSICIAN. 

In  case  a  person  is  under  homoeopathic  treatment  for  chronic 
maladies  and  he  takes  an  acute  form  of  disease — such  as  "  la 
grippe  " — can  he  give  a  lower  potency  for  the  recent  affection, 
say  2C,  and  how  far  may  such  treatment  be  proceeded  with? 
Will  the  2C  allow  the  higher  one  to  go  on  at  the  same  time  ? 

John  Hall,  Sr.,  M.  D. 

Victoria,  British  Columbia. 


BOOK  NOTICES. 


El  Consultor  Homceopatico. 

With  the  month  of  December,  1889,  comes  the  last  issue  of  El  Consullor 
Homceopatico,  of  Barcelona.  We  mourn  its  decease,  but  as  of  old,  at  king's 
funerals.  The  Consultor  is  dead.  Viva  !  La  Revista  ITomaopatica,  the  jour- 
nal wherein  it  will  live  anew  ! 

The  Annals  of  Surgery.  Edited  by  L.  S.  Pilcher,  A.  M., 
M.  D.,  and  C.  B.  Keetley,  F.  R.  C.  S.  J.  H.  Chambers  & 
Co.,  914  Locust  St.,  St.  Louis. 

The  February  number  of  this  excellent  periodical  is  before  us.  Among  its 
interesting  contents  is  a  case  of  traumatic  cerebral  abscess  relieved  by  a  capital 
operation  ;  a  hemorrhagic  cyst  in  the  brain  relieved  similarly.  A  remarkable 
case  of  cirsoid  aneurism  of  the  scalp  obliterated  by  multiple  ligatures  ;  a  rare 
case  of  dislocation  of  the  patella  beneath  the  inter-condyloid  groove  of  the 
femur;  the  ust  of  cocaine  in  surgery ;  a  case  of  cortical  epilepsy  following 
penetrating  wound  of  the  skull,  relieved  by  trephining,  one  year  after  injury  ; 
resection  of  the  third  branch  of  the  trifacial  nerve,  and  many  others.  It  is  a 
good  journal  to  take  with  The  Homoeopathic  Physician,  as  it  gives  the  sur- 
gical information  that  has  to  be  excluded  from  our  pages  by  reason  of  our  de- 
votion to  the  department  of  materia  medica. 

Harper's  Magazine,  for  February,  contains  a  remarkable  ar- 
ticle from  the  pen  of  Mark  Twain,  entitled,  fl  A  Majestic 
Literary  Fossil." 

In  this  article  the  incomparable  Mark  rakes  over  the  literature  of  the  old 
school  of  medicine  of  a  hundred  years  ago  and  more,  and  in  his  facetious  way 
presents  its  absurdities  in  their  most  ludicrous  light.  For  instance,  he  quotes  « 
from  an  old  book  of  medicine  that  "  the  ashes  of  an  ass'  hoof  mixed  with 
woman's  m;lk  is  good  for  chilblains."  "The  constant  use  of  milk  is  bad  for 
the  teeth,  causes  them  to  rot,  and  loosens  the  gums." 

Paracelsus  saw  a  plaster  that  had  such  drawing  quality  that  it  could  draw  a 
man's  lungs  up  into  his  mouth,  causing  him  to  be  suffocated.  It  could  draw 
enough  water  to  fill  a  cistern,  and  was  strong  enough  to  tear  branches  from 
trees  and  to  draw  a  cow  up  into  the  air.    This  must  have  been  a  fly-blister. 

He  quotes  a  wonderful  elixir  composed  of  "a  great  peck  of  garden  snails," 
earth  worms,  rosemary,  tumeric,  bark  of  barberry  trees,  goose  dung,  strong  ale, 
and  other  efficacious  remedies,  suitably  mixed  together.  Then  having  venti- 
lated these  follies  in  that  inimitable  manner  which  has  made  this  author  so 
famous,  he  closes  with  the  following  paragraph  which  we  quote  entire: 

u  When  you  reflect  that  your  own  father  had  to  take  such  medicines  as  the 
above  and  that  you  would  be  taking  them  to-day  yourself  but  for  the  intro- 
duction of  Homoeopathy,  which  forced  the  old-school  doctor  to  stir  around  :md 
learn  something  of  a  rational  nature  about  his  business,  you  may  honestly  feel 
grateful  that  Homoeopathy  survived  the  attempts  of  the  allopathists  to  destroy 
it,  even  though  vou  may  never  employ  any  phvsician  but  an  allopath  ist  while 
you  live."  W.  M.  J. 

141 


142 


BOOK  NOTICES. 


[March, 


The  National  Magazine  for  January  announces  two  new 
and  valuable  departments — "Biblical  Literature,"  and  "Ped- 
agogy"— with  Rev.  J.  C.  Quinn,  Ph.  D.,  and  J.  8.  Mills,  A.  M., 
President  of  Western  College,  as  editors. 

Agricultural  readers  will  be  especially  interested  in  the  new  "  Institute  of 
Agriculture,"  described  in  this  number— a  part  of  the  University  Extension 
System  of  the  National  University  of  Chicago,  whose  non-resident  or  cor- 
respondence undergraduate  and  post-graduate  courses  have  met  with  such 
favor.  Other  articles  are  by  Professor  E.  A.  Birge,  of  the  University  of  Wiscon- 
sin, and  eminent  specialists.  Published  at  147  Throop  Street,  Chicago,  111. 
Subscription,  $1.00  per  year.  Sample  copy,  10  cents.  Three  cash  prizes  of 
fifiy  dollars  each  for  the  best  essays  on Our  Common  Schools,"  u  Study  of 
the  Bible,"  "  How  to  Keep  Young  Men  on  the  Farm,"  are  announced. 

Revue  Homgbopathique  Franchise.  Paris,  11  Rue  D'Au- 
raale,  Tome  I,  No.  1. 

This  is  the  first  number  of  a  new  journal  devoted  to  Homoeopathy.  It  will 
be  published  and  controlled  by  "LaSocie'te*  Franpaise  d' Homoeopathic,"  a  new 
society  formed  by  a  fusion  of  "La  Soci^te  Homoeopathique  de  France"  and 
"  La  Socu6te'  Hahnemannienne  Federative,"  and  is  the  outgrowth  of  the 
Homeopathic  Congress  that  assembled  at  Paris,  in  August,  1889. 

The  new  journal  will  have  forty-eight  pages,  and  be  issued  ten  times  a  year, 
on  the  last  day  of  the  month. 

While  containing  everything  usually  to  be  found  in  a  homoeopathic  journal, 
it  will  be  especially  devoted  to  full  reports  of  the  meetings  of  the  new  society 
by  which  it  was  founded.  W.  M.  J. 

Disease  and  Sickness,  by  Samuel  Swan,  M.  D.  New  York. 
Reprinted  from  The  Medical  Current,  October,  November, 
and  December,  1889. 

This  pamphlet  of  six  pages  is  devoted  to  two  objects — one  to  prove  the 
well-known  maxim  of  the  author  that  "  morbific  matter  will  cure  the  disease 
which  produced  it,  if  given  in  the  highest  potency  and  to  any  other  person 
than  the  one  from  whom  it  was  obtained." 

The  other  object  is  the  advocating  of  a  mixture  of  remedies  for  any  sick 
condition  which  exhibits  symptoms  which  cannot  be  covered  by  a  single 
remedy.  He  proposes  to  take  the  twelve  tissue  remedies  and  potentize  them 
together  to  the  five  millionth  potency.  This  combination  then  is  to  be  ad- 
ministered, like  a  single  drug. 

He  argues  in  favor  of  it  by  pointing  to  Edison's  success  in  causing  a  dozen 
separate  electrical  currents  to  pass  along  the  same  wire  without  interference 
with  each  other. 

The  Memphis  Journal  of  the  Medical  Sciences,  for 
February,  1890,  is  before  us. 

The  leading  article,  "  Homoeopathy,  a  Persistent  Medical  Superstition,"  by 
R.  (t.  Eccles,  M.  D.,  is  exceedingly  interesting,  and  arrests  attention  at  once. 

It  compares  Homoeopathy  to  the  superstitions  of  the  ancients  and  of  savages. 

It  recalls  the  doctrine  of  signatures,  and  declares  that  the  law  of  the  simi- 
lars and  the  law  of  the  contraries  were  both  ancient  superstitions,  and  that 


1890.] 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 


143 


"  in  1796  a  German  physician,  named  Hahnemann,  began  a  crusade  for  the 
restoration  of  the  old  doctrine  with  all  its  exclusiveness." 

The  author  declares  that  u  there  never  has  been  any  organized  body  of 
physicians  calling  themselves  allopaths,  nor  would  such  a  title  be  true  except 
in  rare  instances."  Further,  he  says,  that  most  of  the  physicians  of  our  school 
are  ashamed  of  Hahnemann's  "  attempt  to  prove  that  all  chronic  maladies 
are  but  masked  manifestations  of  the  itch.  Idiocy,  gout,  cancer,  insanity, 
hysteria,  and  debility,  he  taught,  were  all  due  to  patients  catching  the  itch." 
Before  the  acarns  scabiei  was  discovered  they  were  just  as  certain  he  was 
right  in  that  as  they  now  are  of  his  main  doctrine. 

Next  follows  an  argument  upon  the  potency  question. 

The  author  has  been  looking  over  some  catalogue  of  remedies,  for  he  says  : 
u  To  think  that  men  claiming  the  degree  of  doctor  of  medicine  can  so  far  get 
rid  of  their  senses  as  to  believe  that  a  beam  of  sunlight  diluted  with  sugar  of 
milk  thousands  of  times  can  be  of  any  earthly  use  in  sickness  passes  compre- 
hension. To  see  them  adminster  the  ten-millionth  part  of  a  moonbeam,  or 
of  a  red,  yellow,  green,  or  blue  light  so  diluted  is  to  make  us  pity  frail  hu- 
manity." 

Then  follows  a  list  of  the  most  abominable  things  that  can  be  conceived  of, 
that  are  being  used  in  medicine,  and  declares  that  they  far  exceed  the  efforts 
of  Shakespeare's  imagination  in  his  description  of  the  hell-broth  of  Mac- 
beth's  witches. 

We  suggest  to  any  of  our  readers  who  have  the  leisure  that  they  would 
have  an  instructive  and  highly  entertaining  subject  for  thought  if  they  would 
read  in  full  this  clever  article,  and  then  turn  to  the  February  No.  of  Harper's 
Magazine,  and  read  Mark  Twain's  article  entitled  "A  Majestic  Literary  Fossil." 

We  can  hardly  predict  what  would  be  the  effect  upon  the  mind  of  the  aver- 
age medical  man  of  our  school  by  reading  these  two  artic  les. 

Upon  the  laymen  the  effect,  we  should  think,  would  be  to  deepen  the  dis- 
trust and  contempt  with  which  all  medical  men  are  regarded  by  a  large  num- 
ber of  people.  Well,  that  is  because  they  don't  understand  the  facts  in  the 
case. 

There  is  an  inner  history  to  the  very  truthful  statements  of  the  article  now 
in  review  which  the  author  evidently  does  not  know  of.  We  find  ourselves 
too  limited  in  space  and  time  to  make  any  rejoinder.  We  can  only  say  that 
if  the  writer  will  take  some  moderate  potency  of  some  well-known  drug  like 
Aconite,  Belladonna,  or  Nux  vomica,  and  try  it  according  to  the  law  of  the 
similars  he  will  be  surprised  at  the  results.  W.  M.  J. 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 

The  Psychology  of  Epidemics. — Every  epidemic  carries  in  its  train 
curious  exaggerations  of  many  well-recognized  characteristics,  and  these  fre- 
quently call  for  appreciation  and  for  treatment  almost  as  much  as  the  disease 
in  which  they  originate.  Perhaps  one  of  the  most  striking  of  these  mental 
perversities  is  to  be  found  in  the  idea  that  the  epidemic  is  to  be  treated  by 

common  sense."  or  by  nostra  which  have  been  largely  advertised,  or  by  spe- 
cifics which  are  known  to  the  laity  mainly  through  their  frequent  mention  in 
the  daily  press.  Those  suffering  under  this  delusion  feel  that  it  is  wholly  un- 
necessary to  seek  skilled  assistance,  and  they  boldly  dose  themselves  with 
remedies  of  whose  power  and  properties  they  are  absolutely  ignorant.  In 
Vienna  it  has  already  been  found  necessary  to  forbid  the  sale  of  antipyrine, 
except  under  doctors'  prescriptions,  as  no  less  than  seventeen  deaths  were  at- 
tributed to  stoppage  of  the  heart's  action  owing  to  overdoses.  The  freedom 
with  which  the  prescription  of  this  remedy  has  been  assumed  by  the  public 


144 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 


[March,  1890. 


has  long  since  been  viewed  with  anxiety  by  the  medical  profession,  and  fre- 
quent warnings  have  already  fallen  upon  deaf  ears ;  and  yet  it  is  to  be  feared 
that  if  the  epidemic  of  influenza  should  spread,  many  more  examples  of  reck- 
lessness will  have  to  be  recorded.  Mr.  Labouchere,  claiming  to  act  "by  the 
light  of  common  sense,"  upon  having  "  a  cough,  a  headache  and  an  all-overish 
ache,"  "accompanied  by  sneezing,"  diagnosed  the  prevailing  epidemic,  and  at 
once  administered  to  himself  "  thirty  grains  of  quinine,"  and  to  meet  the 
cough  he  took  "  unlimited  squill  pills."  He  writes  that  the  one  "settled  the 
fever"  and  the  other  "settled  the  cough,"  and  that  in  four  days  he  was  quite 
well.  Upon  this  last  fact  he  is  certainly  to  be  congratulated,  though  we  trust 
that  others  may  not  be  impelled,  "  by  the  light  of  common  sense,"  to  follow 
him  in  such  heroic  measures  or  to  emulate  his  example  by  trying  the  effect  of 
antipyrine  in  similar  unlimited  doses.  It  is  serious  enough  to  cope  with  an 
epidemic  and  its  sequehe  without  having  matters  complicated  by  ignorant  and 
reckless  experimental  therapeutics. — London  Lancet. 

Dr.  W.  B.  Clarke.  Secretary  of  the  Indiana  Institute  of  Homoeopathy, 
was  married  to  Miss  Alice  P.  Winings  on  Tuesday  evening,  February  4th,  at 
the  home  of  the  bride,  188  Blackford  Street,  Indianapolis,  by  the  Kev.  F.  A. 
Guthrie.  The  house  was  filled  with  enthusiastic  friends  who  came  to  wish 
good  luck  to  the  happy  couple. 

A  Sxapping-Turtle  Baby.— A  child  resembling  in  many  respects  both  a 
catfish  and  a  snapping-turtle  was  born  of  colored  parents  in  the  upper  part  of 
Trenton,  New  Jersey,  on  Friday  night,  January  31st.  The  weight  of  the 
child  is  about  seven  pounds  and  the  head  and  trunk  of  the  body  are  perfectly 
natural  in  form,  but  there  are  neither  arms  nor  legs.  It  has  an  abundance  of 
black,  curly  hair,  which  completely  covers  the  forehead,  from  the  eyebrows. 
The  bridge  of  the  nose  begins  between  the  eyes  and  is  about  a  half-inch  in 
length.  At  its  point  there  are  two  holes,  one  on  either  side,  and  a  partly- 
formed  mouth.  Beneath  this  partly-formed  mouth  is  another  small  projection 
similar  to  that  of  the  end  of  the  nose,  and  beneath  it,  where  the  mouth 
should  be,  is  a  wide  gash,  but  no  upper  lip. 

The  chin  is  perfect  and  there  are  two  perfectly  formed  ears,  but  they  are 
entirely  closed.  On  either  side  of  the  body,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  shoulders, 
is  a  projection  similar  in  shape  to  the  claw  of  a  snapping-turtle  or  the  fin  of  a 
catfish,  and  on  either  side  of  the  lower  portion  of  the  trunk,  just  below  the 
hips,  are  similar  fin-like  projections.  The  parents  of  the  child  are  educated 
colored  people,  and  the  attending  physician,  Dr.  A.  H.  Dey,  is  unable  to 
account  for  the  monstrosity.  The  child  was  dead  when  born  and  the  body 
will  be  presented  to  the  medical  college  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

M.  Pasteur. — Says  a  Paris  correspondent :  "  Paralysis,  if  I  am  not  much 
mistaken,  is  stealing  a  quick  march  on  M.  Pasteur.  He  had  one  attack  some 
years  ago  which  left  him  with  a  dead  leg.  The  eyelids  are  now  all  but  inert, 
and  I  noticed  that  the  timbre  of  his  voice  had  altered  for  the  worse,  and  that 
the  speech  was  thick  and  embarrassed.  There  were  wild  twitches  in  his  face, 
but  his  mind  was  as  clear  as  ever." 

Treatment  of  Stammering. — "  It  is  said  that  stammerers  rarely  if  ever 
show  any  impediment  to  speech  when  speaking  in  whispers.  On  this  fact  a 
new  method  of  treatment  has  been  advocated  by  Dr.  Coen,  which  is  as  fol- 
lows: In  the  first  ten  days  speaking  is  prohibited.  This  will  allow  rest  to 
the  voice,  and  constitutes  the  preliminary  state  of  treatment.  During  the 
next  ten  days  speaking  is  permissible  in  the  whispering  voice,  and  in  the 
course  of  the  next  fifteen  days  the  ordinary  conversational  tone  may  be  grad- 
ually employed." — Druggists1  Circular  and  Chemical  Gazette. 


T  ZEE  IE 

Homeopathic  Physician, 

A  MONTHLY  JOURNAL  OF 

H0M(E0PATHIC  MATERIA  MEDICA  AND  CLINICAL  MEDICINE. 


If  our  school  ever  give  up  the  strict  inductive  method  of  Hahnemann,  we 
are  lost,  and  deserve  only  to  be  mentioned  as  a  caricature  in 
the  history  of  medicine.  '— coxstantine  hering. 


Vol.  X.  APRIL,  1890.  No.  4. 


EDITORIALS. 

The  International  Congress. — We  give  this  month  an 
extended  summary  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Homoeopathic 
Congress  held  at  Paris  last  August.  These  discussions  were  so 
interesting  that,-  notwithstanding  their  obvious  departures  from 
the  standard  of  the  strict  Homoeopathy  of  Hahnemann,  we 
believe  they  will  be  acceptable  to  our  readers,  all  of  whom  are 
too  well  grounded  in  the  knowledge  of  the  genuine  principle  to 
be  misled  into  practicing  the  errors  several  of  these  gentlemen 
teach.  The  discussions  were  carried  on  in  French,  but,  as  we 
were  unable  to  get  a  sufficiently  detailed  report  in  that  language 
in  time,  we  had  recourse  to  a  translation  that  had  been  made  from 
French  into  Spanish  and  published  in  a  medical  journal  called 
El  Consultur  at  Barcelona.  These  we  have  had  again  translated 
into  English  for  our  own  readers. 

This  report  is  instructive  as  exhibiting  vividly  the  fantastic 
heresies  that  have  grown  like  parasites  upon  Homoeopathy.  It 
shows  how  difficult  it  is  for  a  comprehension  of  the  plain 
principles  of  Hahnemann's  system  to  penetrate  the  minds  of 
most  men.  It  gives  us  some  idea  of  who  among  Europe's  dis- 
tinguished physicians  are  and  who  are  not  strict  followers  of  the 
inductive  method  of  Hahnemann.  Here  and  there  through  the 
discussions  we  may  discover  true  Hahnemannian  sentiments, 
and  toward  the  end  a  sharp  rebuke  is  administered  to  one  of  the 
worst  of  these  heresies,  which  is  greatly  to  the  credit  of  the 
Congress. 

10  145 


146 


EDITORIALS. 


[April, 


Therefore,  while  we  are  unable  to  indorse  any  of  the  depar- 
tures from  the  true  standard  that  were  defended  in  the  meetings, 
and  disappointed  that  there  was  not  a  unanimous  sentiment  at 
the  last  for  the  cause  of  Hahnemannian  Homoeopathy,  we 
nevertheless  think  that  from  a  perusal  of  the  report  some  im- 
portant precepts  may  be  gathered,  many  instructive  lessons  may 
be  learned. 

On  the  whole,  the  proceedings  are  a  striking  pen-picture  of 
the  progress  of  medicine  in  the  new  school. 

We  shall  be  glad  to  receive  comments  for  publication  from 
any  of  our  subscribers  upon  any  question  raised  in  these  notes  of 
the  discussions.  W.  M.  J. 


The  Value  of  Trivial  Symptoms  is  so  great  that  every 
Hahnemannian  can  attest  that  brilliant  cures  have  resulted  in 
difficult  cases  from  paying  attention  to,  and  finding  a  remedy  in 
whose  pathogensis  such  symptoms  are  alone  found.  It  is  only 
the  true  disciple  of  Hahnemann  who  is  able  to  estimate  these 
symptoms  at  their  real  worth.  But  there  is  frequently  a  diffi- 
culty in  eliciting  such  symptoms.  The  patient,  thinking  them 
unimportant,  fails  to  mention  them,  and  the  physician,  hesitating 
about  leading  questions,  will  fail  to  know  of  their  presence.  A 
perplexing  case  will  offer  ;  all  the  elements  of  the  case  are 
listened  to  and  noted.  The  totality  of  the  symptoms  and  of 
each  individual  symptom  are  related,  and  yet  the  trouble  will 
be  to  find  the  remedy  most  similar  to  the  case.  Then,  as  if 
thinking  it  of  no  worth,  the  patient,  sometimes  in  doubt  about 
the  necessity  of  mentioning  such  a  trifle — as  it  appears  to  him — 
will  give  a  clue  to  the  only  fit  remedy  for  his  entire  affection  by 
stating  that  some  slight  symptom  is  present. 

The  true  physician  will  then  know  if  it  be  of  worth,  and,  find- 
ing it  so  his  labor  will  be  rewarded  when  the  remedy  to  which 
this  symptom  belongs  is  found. 

Not  only  this.  He  will  find  under  that  same  remedy  all  the 
symptoms  peculiar  to  the  case. 

By  noting  just  these  apparently  trifling  symptoms  Hahne- 
mann proved  himself  a  genius.  And  any  one  can  put  this 
proof  to  the  test  by  imitating  his  example. 

And  yet  for  this  important  work  Hahnemann  received  only 
ridicule,  and  because  of  the  abuse,  and  hatred,  and  ignominy 
which  was  showered  upon  him  he  left  his  native  land,  to  find  a 
home  and  friends  in  a  foreign  country. 

That  he  was  far  ahead  of  his  contemporaries,  his  keen  observa- 


1890.] 


EDITORIALS 


147 


tion  of  facts  which  physiology  since  then  has  proved  to  be  cor- 
rect will  bear  witness. 

We  need  no  stronger  proof  of  this  than  some  of  the  observa- 
tions he  made,  while  proving  remedies,  on  the  value  of  the  various 
symptoms  generated  by  them. 

Here  we  may  see  an  acuity  of  vision,  and  a  profundity  of 
thought  far  beyond  that  of  any  of  his  day.  Indeed,  even  with 
the  physiological  knowledge  of  the  present  day,  only  his  fol- 
lowers are  qualified  to  accept  at  their  real  merit  physiological 
facts. 

We  can  find  no  better  illustration  of  this  keen  vision  and 
deep  thought  than  by  turning  to  the  provings  of  Arsenicum, 
Ignatia,  and  Phosphorus. 

Merely  mentioning  mental  symptoms,  of  the  supreme  value 
of  which  every  homoeopathician  knows,  let  us  turn  to  the  symp- 
toms of  hearing. 

Under  Arsenicum  we  find  :  Hardness  of  hearing,  cannot  hear 
the  human  voice  ;  but  other  sounds  can  be  heard. 

Under  Ignatia  :  Hard  hearing  except  for  speech. 

Under  Phosphorus  :  Hardness  of  hearing,  especially  for  the 
human  voice. 

It  is  such  symptoms  as  these  that  have  been  laughed  at,  even 
by  some  who  call  themselves  homceopathists.  They  say,  "  if 
they  do  exist,  which  we  doubt,  they  can  be  of  no  importance." 
But  we  know  they  are  of  value,  and  their  significance  can  be 
shown  by  turning  to  any  modern  work  on  physiology.  And  we 
may  there  see  how  the  genius  of  Hahnemann  is  confirmed  by  the 
best  physiologists  of  this  day. 

Within  a  very  recent  period  more  has  been  known  of  the 
function  of  hearing  through  the  work  of  an  ingenious  Italian, 
Corti,  and  by  the  labors  of  Helmholtz.  Corti  discovered  and 
described  that  part  of  the  hearing  apparatus  known  as  the  organ 
of  Corti,  and  Helmholtz,  by  his  toil,  has  shown  the  functions  of 
this  organ,  and  what  an  essential  share  it  has  in  the  sense  of 
elaborating  the  pitch  of  various  sounds. 

This  organ  lies  in  the  centre  of  the  floor  of  canalis  cochlearis, 
which  is  formed  by  the  membrana  basilaris,  and  it  receives  the 
terminal  filaments  of  the  nervus  cochlearis.    In  the  centre  of 
the  organ  of  Corti  are  the  rods  of  Corti,  which  are  firm 
elongated  bodies  whose  bases  rest  upon -the  membrana  basilaris. 

The  radiating  fibres  composing  the  membrana  basilaris  are 
compared  to  the  strings  of  a  harp  or  piano,  and  Helmholtz  ad- 
vances the  theory  that  each  fibre  is  attuned  to  vibrate  in  unison 
with  a  note  of  a  definite  pitch.    It  communicates  its  vibrations  to 


148  WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  HOM.  PHYSICIAN?  [April, 


the  corresponding  cells  in  the  organ  of  Corti.  It  is  said  that 
the  function  of  the  rods  of  Corti  is  probably  to  take  up  the 
vibrations  from  the  labyrinthine  fluid  and  the  fibres  of  the  raera- 
brana  basilaris,  and  transfer  them  as  a  nerve  irritation  to  the 
terminal  filaments  of  the  auditory  nerve.  Varying  in  length 
and  span,  their  number  is  sufficient  to  allow  four  hundred  or 
more  rods  to  each  octave  within  the  musical  scale.  (See  article 
Hearing,  Reference  Hand-booh  of  the  Medical  Sciences.) 

Of  the  construction  and  function  of  these  organs  nothing  was 
known  in  Hahnemann's  day  ;  but  that  sagacious  observer  was 
able  to  detect  even  the  slightest  alteration  in  such  a  complex 
function. 

We  might  continue  this  subject  indefinitely,  and  treat  of  all 
the  known  functions  to  witness  the  acumen  of  the  man  we  follow, 
but  we  think  we  have  shown  enough  to  bear  out  the  assertion 
we  made  at  p.  56,  February  number,  that  physiological  facts  go 
to  confirm  all  of  Hahnemann's  observations.  G.  H.  C. 


WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  HOMEOPATHIC 
PHYSICIAN? 

P.  P.  Wells,  M.  D.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Commissioner —  What,  in  your  judgment,  constitutes  a  homoeo- 
pathic physician  f 

Physician  (a  witness  under  examination) — Belonging  to  our 
Society. 

It  would  seem  that  this  testimony  of  the  doctor  has  received 
a  good  deal  of  attention  from  many  doctors,  if  we  may  judge 
from  the  comments  made  upon  it.  It  is  not  at  all  sur- 
prising that  it  has  satisfied  so  few.  Belonging  to  a  church  does 
not  constitute  man  or  woman  a  Christian,  but  instead,  certain 
qualities  of  head,  heart,  and  character.  It  ought  to  surprise  no 
one,  this  answer  of  the  witness. 

All  are  bound  to  accept  it  as  the  best  he  knew.  That  he  knew 
no  better  should  surprise  no  one,  if  we  are  to  believe  the  state- 
ment of  another  doctor  of  Gotham,  to  the  effect  that  after 
Dr.  Bayard's  death  there  was  not  one  such  physician  in  that  city. 
It  is  not  surprising  if  so  great  rarity  of  the  fact  should  have 
begotten  so  great  ignorance  of  it  as  to  have  left  the  poor  wit- 
ness with  no  better  answer.  Did  not  know  the  fact  when  it  was 
seen,  seems  to  have  been  what  was  the  matter.  Then  how 
should  he  know  what  "  constituted  "  the  fact  of  which  he  was  so 


1890.]         WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  HOM.  PHYSICIAN?  149 


evidently  ignorant  ?  If  it  be  replied,  he  was  before  this  com- 
missioner as  a  witness  who  knew  much,  we  can  only  reply, 
true ;  but  this  only  shows  more  definitely  the  extent  of  his  igno- 
rance. Did  not  even  know  that  he  did  not  know  !  Then  sarcasm 
of  comment  should  give  place  to  compassion. 

We  have  said  there  has  been  much  comment  on  this  answer 
to  the  commissioner,  but  of  those  who  have  expressed  dissatis- 
faction with  this  answer,  not  one  of  them  has  given  a  different 
one.  No  one  has  told  what,  in  his  opinion,  does  "  constitute"  a 
doctor  a  homoeopathic  physician.  Why  have  they  not  given 
this?  Is  it  because  the  professional  strabismus  which  made  this 
the  best  possible  this  witness  could  give  has  become  so  common 
that  writers  have,  practically,  only  one  eye,  and  that  so  exclu- 
sively fixed  on  "  our  Society,7'  that  they  have  no  vision  of  the  law 
of  cure,  or  the  system  of  therapeutics  founded  thereon  ?  Is  it 
true  that  this  strabismus  disqualifies  for  looking  at  more  than 
one  object  at  a  time,  or  does  it  inflict  on  its  victim  total  blind- 
ness as  to  whatever  of  homoeopathic  truth  ?  It  may  be  that  it 
is  sometimes  the  one,  and  sometimes  the  other.  The  probability 
of  this  is  suggested  by  the  so  great  absence  of  all  relating  to 
homoeopathic  law,  philosophy,  or  practice,  from  the  recorded 
doings  of  Institute,  Societies,  and  periodicals.  Indeed,  judging 
from  these,  it  would  seem  very  much  as  if  law  and  philosophy 
had  become  mostly  obsolete  ideas  with  self-styled  homceo- 
pathists,  and  only  "  our  Society  "  remains  for  our  care  and  con- 
fidence. * 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  has  therepeutic  law  ceased  to  exist?  Has 
this  really  given  place  to  the  ever  shifting,  and  sometimes 
vaunted  rule  of  "  what  I  think  will  do  my  patient  good  "?  The 
second,  third,  and  fourth  men  may  each  think  different  ;  then 
what?  And  in  what  is  this  shifting  rule,  which  is  really  no 
guide,  and  never  can  be,  better  than  the  infallible,  God-given 
law  which  tells  what  the  patient  should  have,  and  never  makes 
mistakes  ? 

The  question — If  there  be  such  a  law,  and  if  it  is  named 
Homoeopathy }  then  it  must  be  composed  of  elements  which  may 
be  understood.  Having  its  origin  not  only  in  the  Maker  of  the 
law,  but  also  in  the  Maker  of  the  mind  of  man,  it  must  be  com- 
prehensible by  the  powers  of  that  mind.    It  must  be  composed 


*  To  so  great  extent  has  this  come  to  pass  that  at  a  late  session,  when  one 
of  its  constituent  members  was  listening  to  a  discussion  in  the  A.  I.  II.,  by 
members  present,  his  amazement  overcame  his  discretion  so  far  that  lie  cried 
oat :  "  I  thought  I  was  in  a.  homoeopathic  Institute  I"  He  was  not,  and  his  disgust 
and  disappointment  were  great. 


150 


CLINICAL  REPORTS. 


[April, 


of  principles  which  together  constitute  the  philosophy  of  that 
law.  The  u  science  of  therapeutics"  must  be  founded  on  those 
principles. 

Then  a  homoeopathic  physician  must  be  one  who  knows  that 
law,  is  intelligent  of  its  principles  of  philosophy,  and  the  sys- 
tem of  therapeutics  founded  on  them.  He  must  be  one  who 
believes  this  law,  accepts  its  philosophy,  and  practices  the  sys- 
tem of  therapeutics  founded  on  it.  And  if  he  be  a  man  of  good 
conscience,  a  man  of  loyalty  to  law,  he  will  at  no  time,  and 
never  practice  aught  else  till  he  has  found  something  more  re- 
liable and  more  valuable  than  God's  law.  Such  a  man  is  a 
"  homoeopathic  physician"  and  no  otJier  man  is.  The  man  who 
adopts  the  rule  of  doing  for  the  relief  of  the  sick  by  means  outside 
the  law,  of  whatever  character,  exalts  his  petty  thoughts  above 
divine  authority.  He  ceases  by  so  doing,  then  and  there,  quo 
ad  hoc,  to  be  a  homoeopathic  physician,  whatever  be  the  Society 
to  which  he  belongs.  He  thinks  himself  superior  to  the  authority 
of  the  Almighty,  would  seem  to  be  the  true  diagnosis  of  his 
status. 

CLINICAL  REPORTS  IN  THEIR  RELATION  TO 
HOMOEOPATHY. 

Clarence  AVillard  Butler,  M.  D.,  Moxtclair,  N.  J. 

The  consideration  of  clinical  reports  in  their  relation  to  Homoe- 
opathy, since  Homoeopathy  is  the  " science  of  therapeutics" 
admits  of  such  consideration  only  in  respect  of  their  relation  to 
therapeutics,  and  its  correlative,  materia  medica. 

The  homoeopathic  materia  medica  is  woefully  imperfect. 
No  argument  is  needed  to  prove  this  assertion  true.  Our  medical 
journals  teem  with  pleas  for  a  reconstructed  materia  medica, 
and  our  medical  societies  are  diverted  from  other  work  to  the 
consideration  of  tedious  and  chimerical  plans  for  its  reconstruc- 
tion. 

The  American  Institute  of  Homoeopathy  is  but  just  delivered 
of  the  first  offspring  of  this  necessity,  and,  much  as  I  dislike  to 
cast  any  reflection  upon  her  integrity,  the  size  of  the  progeny 
proves  the  labor  premature,  while  its  complexion  makes  gravely 
doubtful  its  legitimacy. 

The  ideal  is  seldom  attainable.  While  the  ideal  materia 
medica  should  contain  such  complete  provings  of  every  drug  as 
will  present  to  the  student  all  its  producible  effects,  from  the 
most  palpable  anatomical  lesion  to  the  most  trivial  functional 
irregularity,  so  long  as  man  remains  unpatriotic  enough  to  decline 


1890.J 


CLINICAL  REPORTS. 


151 


to  kill  himself  slowly  for  the  benefit  of  succeeding  generations, 
our  knowledge  of  drug  action  will  still  be,  as  it  has  heretofore 
been,  derived  from  three  sources,  viz. :  poisonings  (involuntary 
provings),  provings  (voluntary  poisonings),  and  clinical  experi- 
ence. 

With  our  present  lack  of  wisdom  as  to  the  best  methods  of 
making  them  available  to  our  urgent  need,  all  these  are  incomplete 
and  unsatisfactory.  The  toxicological  dose,  acting  with  undue 
%  violence  and  rapidity,  does  not  picture  completely  the  functional 
changes  which  experience  has  taught  us  are  the  most  reliable 
guides  in  prescribing  ;  provings  cannot  with  due  regard  for  the 
health,  or  even  the  life  of  the  prover  be  carried  to  the  ultimate 
of  drug  action  ;  clinical  experience  and  knowledge  is  obtained 
only  after  so  many  and  serious  difficulties  that  the  dangers  to  a 
pure  materia  medica  from  this  source  are  much  greater  than 
from  any  other.  It  is,  however,  a  perfectly  legitimate  source, 
and  if  its  teachings  are  admitted  to  the  general  fund  of  knowledge 
of  drug  action  only  after  repeated  observations  by  conscientious 
observers ;  after  the  most  rigid  tests,  and  with  the  utmost  pre- 
caution, it  becomes  a  most  valuable,  indeed  an  indispensable 
one. 

If  similia  similibus  curafdur  formulates  nature's  order  in  cura- 
tive drug  effect,  voices  a  natural  law,  then  it  is  no  less  true  that 
the  drug  which  cures  a  diseased  condition  is  capable  of  produc- 
ing a  similar  condition  than  that  the  drug  which  produces  a 
morbid  state  of  animal  economy  is  capable  of  curing  a  similar 
state  ;  and  the  clinical  record  establishing  beyond  doubt  the  cura- 
tive action  of  a  drug  is  as  valuable  to  the  materia  medicist  and 
the  therapeutist  as  is  the  record  of  drug  proving.  Symptoms 
then,  subjective  or  objective,  which  have  been  cured  by  a  drug 
may  be  considered  as  a  part  of  that  drug's  action,  and  as  such, 
safely  embodied  in  our  materia  medica  among  its  recorded 
effects. 

The  difficulties  in  determining  from  a  clinical  report  whether 
in  reality  the  conditions  which  presented  themselves,  and  which 
disappeared  after  the  exhibition  of  the  drug  were  really  removed 
by  it  are  so  many  that  they  may  well  seem  to  preclude  the 
possibility  of  gaining  general  knowledge  from  this  source.  The 
mauy  conditions  seemingly  moving  toward  more  grave  and 
serious  sicknesses,  which  disappear  without  homoeopathic  medi- 
cation ;  the  change  in  personal  sanitation  ;  in  environment;  in 
habits  ;  the  removal  of  aggravating  accompaniments,  all  of  which 
the  prescriber  in  the  exercise  of  his  wider  duties  as  a  physician 
enforces,  and  all  of  which  tend  to  make  possible  spontaneous 


152 


CLINICAL  REPORTS. 


[April, 


recovery;  the  optimistic  view  unconsciously  taken  by  the  always 
fallible  mortal  of  his  own  handiwork,  and  indeed,"  many  other 
potent  factors  must  be  weighed  with  due  care  before  a  positive 
opinion  may  be  gained,  much  less  a  certainty  of  curative  action 
be  established.  The  danger  of  accepting  hastily  and  upon  too 
meagre  evidence  indications  which  may  be  unreliable  must 
therefore  be  painfully  evident;  and,  in  fact,  so  much  has  been 
claimed  and  accepted  by  the  unduly  credulous  as  remedial  effect 
which  is  based  upon  single  experiment  or  partial  and  incomplete 
evidence,  that  it  is  small  wonder  that  reports  of  clinical  experi- 
ence are  regarded  practically  valueless  as  possible  additions  to 
the  materia  medica,  by  many  thoughtful  and  careful  physi- 
cians. 

That  from  this  source  more  errors  proportionately  have  been 
foisted  upon  the  materia  medica,  unintentionally  to  be  sure, 
but  none  the  less  disastrously,  than  from  any  other  is  probably 
true.  Nevertheless,  these  difficulties,  various  and  serious  as  they 
present  themselves,  are  not  insurmountable.  When  repeated 
observations  of  earnest  and  thoughtful  workers  confirm  the 
usefulness  of  a  drug  in  certain  and  definite  conditions,  recogniz- 
able by  well-marked  signs  and  symptoms,  then  doubt  gives 
place  to  certitude,  and  a  valuable  gain  has  been  made  for  the 
uses  of  the  healer  and  the  restoration  of  the  afflicted. 

The  introduction  of  new  symptoms  to  the  materia  medica, 
then,  is  one  sphere  of  the  usefulness  of  clinical  reports. 

Another  and  perhaps  a  more  immediately  necessary  one,  is 
the  confirmation  of  symptoms  already  recorded. 

That  many  symptoms  appear  among  the  records  of  drug 
effects  which  are  wholly  the  product  of  the  too  lively  imagina- 
tion of  the  prover,  or  of  the  recorder,  cannot  be  a  matter  of 
doubt. 

That  many  symptoms  appear,  the  connection  of  which  with 
the  known  action  of  the  drug  cannot  be  traced,  but  which  are 
truly  an  effect  of  its  exhibition  is  undoubtedly  true.  The  per- 
sonal idiosyncrasy  of  one  prover  will  cause  peculiar,  and  to  us 
unaccountable  action,  which  ihe  temperament  and  tendencies  of 
the  majority  of  proverswill  render  impossible.  Such  symptoms 
are  especially  valuable  because,  met  with  in  the  sick,  they  are 
frequently  the  determining  symptoms  for  the  prescription. 
These,  too,  are  those  symptoms  which  do  not  appear  in  other 
provings  and  which  for  that  reason  would  be  discarded  by  some 
of  our  most  earnest  and  ardent  materia  medicists.  A  clinical 
confirmation  proving  their  undoubted  authenticity  and  giving 
them  that  established  place  in  the  materia  medica  to  which 


1890.] 


CLINICAL  REPORTS. 


153 


they  are  justly  entitled  is  a  most  valuable  addition  to  the  sum 
of  our  knowledge  of  the  drug.  The  verification  of  symptoms, 
therefore,  is  a  most  important  and  practically  useful  function  of 
clinical  reports. 

To  the  therapeutist  those  reports  are  most  valuable  which 
teach  him  from  the  experience  of  others  the  best  methods  of  ap- 
plying remedies  in  sicknesses. 

The  two  questions  which  are  least  understood  by  the  homoe- 
opathic therapeutist  of  to-day  are  the  potency  question  and  that 
of  the  repetition  of  doses. 

To  the  solution  of  these  problems,  until  their  governing  law 
is  discovered,  clinical  experience  affords  the  only  guide.*  It  is 
unfortunate  that  controversy,  often  of  a  most  bitter  and  un- 
charitable type,  should  have  arisen  over  these  moot  questions, 
for  they  are  of  paramount  importance,  and  to  their  satisfactory 
solution  all  earnest  men  should  give  their  unbiased  and  honest 
efforts. 

Since  no  scientific  man  to-day  questions  that  all  things  in 
nature  move  in  regular  order — are  governed  by  natural  law — 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  time  will  eventually  come  when  the 
law  which  governs  here  shall  be  known  and  be  made  practically 
available.  And  it  will  be  when  a  large  number  of  clinical  re- 
ports shall  have  furnished  sufficient  data  for  extended  compari- 
sons that  such  a  generalization  can  be  made. 

Until  that  happy  time  the  uses  of  various  potencies,  and  of 
the  single  dose,  or  the  dose  frequently  or  unfrequently  repeated, 
will  be  especially  valuable  to  all  candid  and  unbiased  students 
for  comparison  with  their  own  methods  in  practice,  and  that  of 
differing  prescribers.  And  he  who  attains  to  the  highest  will 
not  hesitate  to  try  other  methods  than  those  he  has  usually 
employed  if  .they  promise  more  favorable  results.  Only  fools 
discard  that  which  they  cannot  understand  ;  wise  men  accept  the 
results  of  honest  experiment,  and  wait  for  wider  knowledge  to 
solve  the  unknown  modus  operandi. 

The  selection  of  the  remedy  based  upon  the  symptoms  pre- 
senting in  the  case  of  sickness,  and  the  symptoms  recorded  among 
the  effects  upon  the  healthy  individual  of  the  drug  chosen, 


*  The  writer  is  cognizant  of  the  fact  that  some 'physicians  have  thought 
that  a  certain  relationship  existed  between  the  doses  used  in  the  provings  of 
the  drug  and  that  potency  most  useful  in  its  exhibition  in  sicknesses,  but 
since,  so  far  as  he  has  observed,  this  relationship  is  wholly  a  matter  of  theory, 
and  since  there  seems  abundant  testimony  that  no  such  relationship  is  traceable, 
he  has  ignored  the  theory  altogether  in  the  above  statement.  To  Dr.  E.  M. 
Hale's  theories  in  posology  no  reference  is  made  for  the  same  reasons. 


154 


CLINICAL  REPORTS. 


[April, 


though  a  laborious  task  may  often  be  accomplished,  and  well 
accomplished,  by  the  neophyte  in  homoeopathies ;  the  manage- 
ment of  the  case  after  its  exhibition  frequently  calls  for  the 
highest  and  widest  knowledge  of  the  expert  in  that  science. 

Any  case,  then,  the  history  of  which  may  cast  any  light  upon 
the  moot  questions  of  homoeopathic  therapeutics ;  the  question 
of  potency  ;  the  repetition  of  doses  ;  the  clinical  proofs  of  medi- 
cinal action  ;  the  solution  of  the  often  difficult  question  whether 
such  action  is  radical  and  curative  or  only  superficial  or  palliative  ; 
the  intercurrence  of  anti-miasmatic  remedies  in  the  course  of 
treatment;  all  of  these,  and,  indeed,  many  other  matters  of  the 
highest  practical  importance,  in  records  of  illustrative  clinical 
cases,  are  in  the  most  positive  manner  important  and  useful. 

If  the  above  propositions  are  true,  the  class  of  cases  which 
should  be  reported,  and  the  style  and  form  of  their  presentation 
are  not  matters  difficult  of  decision. 

There  is  no  longer  need  to  publish  cases  which  prove  the 
action  of  the  homoeopathic  remedy.  The  recorded  experience  of 
thousands  of  competent  observers  through  many  years  has  so 
amply  established  the  truth  of  the  homoeopathic  law  that  only 
he  who  is  wilfully  blind  or  hopelessly  stupid  may  longer  enter- 
tain doubt. 

The  labors  of  the  clinician  are  for  the  advancement  of  medical 
knowledge,  he  cannot  waste  his  time  in  writing  for  the  knavish 
or  the  stupid. 

It  is  generally  useless  to  record  failures.  There  is  a  feeling  on 
the  part  of  medical  students  that  the  records  of  failure  are  of  the 
highest  value.  To  the  empirical  therapeutist,  he  who  bases  his 
prescriptions  upon  the  experience  or  theories  of  others,  such 
records  of  failure  may  have  value,  but  to  the  homoeopathician  it 
it  will  seldom  occur  that  the  record  of  failures  is  anything  besides 
a  proof  of  his  own  fallibility — a  history  of  his  own  mistakes  in 
estimating  the  relationship  of  dru£  to  disease.  Such  records  are 
valuable  to  the  prescriber,  but  wholly  valueless  to  the  great  body 
of  the  profession. 

On  the  other  hand,  that  experience  which  shows  to  the  mind 
.  of  the  recorder  undoubted  cure  of  conditions  or  symptoms,  new 
or  thus  newly  confirmed  by  a  given  drug  is  of  great  value. 
Such  record  does  not  establish  the  right  to  consider  these  symp- 
toms a  certain  and  reliable  indication  for  the  drug,  but  it  calls 
the  attention  of  others  to  that,  which,  after  a  time,  accumulated 
experience  may  confirm,  and  thus  add  to  the  armamentarium  of 
the  profession.  And  from  this  it  follows  that  all  cases  should 
be  reported  which  confirm  the  observations  of  others  in  clinical 


1890.]       INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  155 


additions  to  the  materia  medica,  or  which  are  confirmatory  of 
drug  provings. 

I  think  that  any  habitual  reader  of  our  medical  literature  cau 
but  regret  the  hasty,  and  too  often  slovenly,  manner  in  which 
many  valuable  papers  are  presented;  and,  therefore,  at  the  risk 
of  seeming  presumptuous  in  dictating  to  the  members  of  a  learned 
profession,  I  shall  make  one  suggestion  in  respect  to  the  style 
which  should  be  employed  in  clinical  reports. 

Having  chosen  such  cases  as  shall  in  the  ways  above  mentioned 
add  to  the  general  fund  of  medical  knowledge,  present  your 
paper  in  just  as  few  words  as  will  suffice  to  bring  clearly  in  view 
the  especial  point  or  points  which  have  inspired  the  writing. 
The  general  character  and  trend  of  the  sickness  having  been 
stated,  it  is  superfluous  to  give  in  elaborate  detail  the  generic 
symptoms.  TThe  determining  symptoms  alone  are  valuable  to 
your  reader,  and  any  elaboration  of  tedious  detail  will  but  ob- 
scure the  central  truth  which  you  desire  to  promulgate  or  the 
especial  fact  which  you  wish  to  record.  Of  course,  you  will  be 
accused  by  self-appointed  critics  of  "  prescribing  for  one  symp- 
tom," of  "  ignoring  the  disease,"  etc.,  etc.  But  you  cannot 
afford  to  waste  your  own  time,  or  that  of  your  thoughtful  reader r 
that  you  may  stop  the  braying  of  every  donkey  who  wears  a 
lion's  skin. 

Having  established  your  position,  or  having  completed  the 
narration  of  facts,  stop  ;  aud  it  occurs  to  me,  Mr.  Chairman,  that 
it  is  fitting  that  I  should  now  follow  my  own  advice  in  this  re- 
spect. 

THE  INTERNATIONAL  HOMOEOPATHIC  CON- 
GRESS OF  PARIS. 

Translated  from  the  French  by  Walter  M.  James,  M.  D. 

The  late  International  Homoeopathic  Congress  of  Paris  held 
its  sessions  in  the  Trocadero  the  21st,  22d,  and  23d  of  August 
last.    The  following  is  the  list  of  officers: 

President,  Dr.  Jousset  ;  Vice-Presidents,  Drs.  Leon  Simon, 
Sr. ;  Richard  Hughes,  of  Brighton,  England  ;  Gailliard,  of  Brus- 
sels, Belgium  ;  General  Sec.  and  Treas.,  Dr.  Mark  Jousset. 
Assistant  Secretaries,  Drs.  Parenteau  and  Vincent  Leon  Simon. 

Allow  us  to  say  before  all,  in  view  of  the  number  and  class 
of  its  members,  and  the  importance  of  the  subjects  discussed,, 
the  late  Homoeopathic  Congress  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
ever  held  in  Europe.  Active  and  honorary  members  together, 
we  were  more  than  one  hundred  attendants,  one-half  of  whom 


156        INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  [April, 


were  foreigners.  It  can,  therefore,  be  said  it  was  the  most 
international  meeting  we  have  attended  up  to  this  date.  The 
following  is  a  list  of  members  present  not  Parisians  : 

France.—  Messrs.  Bernay,  Gallavardin,  Imbert  de  la  Touche, 
of  Lyons  ;  Chapiel,  of  Bordeaux  ;  Conqueret,  of  Versailles  ;  De 
Crequy,  of  Amiens;  Daniel,  of  Marseilles  ;  Garcin,  of  Aix ; 
Malapert  du  Peux,  of  Lille ;  Pellerin,  of  Algeria  ;  Gras,  of 
St.  Nazaire. 

Germany. — Elb,  of  Dresden  ;  Alexander  von  Tillers,  of 
Dresden;  Griinewald,  of  Frankfort;  Lutz,  of  Koethen  ;  Gail- 
liard,  of  Brussels. 

Bulgaria. — Mircowitz,  of  Slivno. 

Spain. — Pellicer,  Jr.,  and  Alexander  Soler,  of  Madrid  ;  Juan 
Sanllehy  and  Sabater,  of  Barcelona. 
Greece. — M.  Psilla,  of  Patras. 

England. —  R.  Hughes,  of  Brighton  ;  Drysdale,  of  Liver- 
pool;  Dudgeon,  of  London;  Suss  Hahnemann,  Roth,  and 
Maurice,  of  London. 

Italy. — Alleori  and  Vinccnzo  Liberali,  of  Pome  ;  Baldelli, 
of  Florence;  Bonino  (President  of  the  Italian  Horn.  Institute), 
of  Turin;  Cigliano,  of  Naples;  Fagiani,  of  Genoa. 

Portugal. — A u gusto  de  Mello  and  Daniel  Tavares,  of  Lisbon. 

Switzerland. — Batault,  of  Geneva  ;  Beck,  of  Monthey,  Scliaed- 
ler,  and  Siegrist,  of  Basle. 

Russia. — De  Brasol,  of  St.  Petersburg. 

America. — Clark  and  Miss  I.  M.  Rankine,  of  Xew  York  ;  M. 
Wright,  of  Buffalo  ;  and  Church,  of  Boston. 
Australia. — Fisher,  of  Sydney. 

Also,  the  Count  Barbo  and  Madame  the  Duchess  de  Melzi 
d'Eril,  of  Milan,  to  whom  we  owe  gratitude,  as  their  collabora- 
tion is  a  striking  proof  of  their  attachment  to  homoeopathic 
doctrine. 

The  characteristic  note  of  the  Congress  of  1889  is  the  discus- 
sion on  the  employment  of  mixed  medicines.  It  was  the  first 
time  that  such  a  proposal  was  brought  to  an  important  assem- 
bly. It  was,  as  might  be  expected,  unfavorably  received.  During 
the  Congress  in  London,  1881,  the  employment  of  alternated 
medicines  was  discussed,  when  the  subject  was  only  skimmed. 
The  presQnt  Congress  devoted  all  of  one  session  to  discussing 
alternations  and  mixtures,  which  permitted  the  question  to  be 
carried  to  its  true  ground.  "Without  doubt  the  future  Congresses 
will  continue  anew  the  same  subject,  which  will  not  be  ex- 
hausted for  some  time  to  come.  The  Congress  has  recorded 
its  disapprobation  of  Electro-Homoeopathy.  Their  disavowal  is 


1890.]       INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  157 


aimed  not  so  much  at  the  employment  of  mixed  medicines, 
but  at  the  secret,  so  long  guarded,  as  to  the  composition  of  these 
so-called  mixtures,  and  alL  the  procedures  of  Count  Mattei  that 
are  incompatible  with  honesty  in  medicine,  and,  above  all,  com- 
pletely foreign  to  the  precise  method  of  Hahnemann.  This  de- 
cision of  the  Congress  of  1889  ought  not  to  be  compared  with 
the  famous  condemnation  of  Antimony  by  the  Parliament  of  Paris. 
What  it  has  declared  at  present  is  that  Electro- Homoeopathy 
has  nothing  in  common  with  Hahnemann's  doctrine ;  that  it 
carries  a  deceptive  title,  and  that  all  homoeopathic  doctors  re- 
fuse any  connection  with  it. 

(Bibliotheque  Homceopathique,  Sept.,  1889.) 


THE  INTRANATIONAL  HOMOEOPATHIC  CON- 
GRESS OF  PARIS,  AUGUST  21st,  22d,  and  23d,  1889. 


SUMMARY  OF  ITS  PROCEEDINGS. 


Translated  from  the  Spanish  of  M.  Cahis,  by  E.  A.  P. 

The  matters  under  discussion  at  the  double  sessions  of  the 
three  days  were  as  follow  : 

Materia  Medica  and  Therapeutics, — 1.  Contrary  effects  of 
medicines  upon  the  sick  and  upon  the  well,  and  their  relation 
to  the  doses,  Dr.  Piedvache,  of  Paris.  2.  Relations  between 
the  germ  theory  and  the  homoeopathic  therapeutics,  Dr. 
P.  Jousset,  Paris.  3.  Homoeopathic  therapeutics  and  its  rela- 
tions to  other  branches  of  therapeutics,  Dr.  Pinilla,  Madrid. 
4.  The  method  of  studying  pure  materia  medica,  Dr.  Gailliard, 
Brussels.  5.  Use  of  electricity  in  homoeopathic  medicine,  Dr. 
Conan,  Paris. 

Application  of  Materia  Medica  to  Therapeutics. — 1.  Homoeo- 
pathic treatment  of  Bright's  disease,  Dr.  Hansen,  Copenhagen. 
2.  Treatment  of  locomotor  ataxia,  and  of  the  state  of  pseudo- 
tabes, Dr.  von  Villers,  Dresden.  3.  Of  the  possible  cure  of  the 
cancer  diathesis,  Dr.  Criquelion,  Mons.  4.  Treatment  of  can- 
cerous tumors  by  homoeopathic  medicines,  Dr.  Gutteridge,  Lon- 
don. 5.  Of  Hydrastis  canadensis  in  mammary  cancers  and  in- 
farcted  glands  of  this  organ,  Dr.  Imbert  de  la  Touche,  Lyons. 
6.  Therapeutic  employment  of  some  new  remedies  under  the  law 
of  the  simillimum,  Dr.  Ozanam,  Paris.  7.  Of  massive  doses  of 
Caffeine  in  the  treatment  of  insomnia  and  neuralgia,  Dr.  Jous- 
set, Jr.,  Paris.    8.  Iritis  and  irido-choroiditis  occurring  in  uter- 


158         INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  [April, 


ine  affections,  Dr.  Parenteau,  Paris.  9.  Cure  of  a  case  of  diph- 
theria with  Cyanide  of  Mercury,  by  Dr.  Serrand,  Paris.  10. 
Croup  and  diphtheria,  by  Dr.  Oxford,  Lexington,  U.  S.  A. 
11.  Seven  observations  on  cures  of  senile  trembling  and  paralysis 
agitans,  by  Dr.  Irabert  de  la  Touche,  Lyons.  12.  Pulmo- 
nary consumption  in  Algeria,  statistics  and  treatment,  by  Dr. 
Feuillet,  Algeria.  13.  Diseases  of  women,  diagnostics  and 
cures,  by  Dr.  Blake,  London.  14.  Homoeopathic  therapeutics 
of  pregnancy,  by  Miss  H.  Keating,  M.  D.,  New  York.  15. 
Homoeopathic  therapeutics  applied  to  the  especial  diseases  of 
women,  by  Miss  Isabel  Rankine,  New  York.  16.  Some  points 
on  surgery,  by  Dr.  Watson,  London. 

Legislation. —  Colleges  and  Hospitals. — 1.  Mono-pharmacy, 
Dr.  Gailliard,  Brussels.  2.  Propagation  of  and  instruction  in 
Homoeopathy  and  its  hospitals  in  Spain,  Drs.  Pellicer  and  Gar- 
ia  Lopez,  Madrid.  3.  Proceedings  relating  to  secret  medicines, 
by  Rappaz,  Montevideo.  4.  Nomination  of  a  commission  of  phar- 
macology, by  Dr.  Ecalle,  Paris.  5.  Homoeopathy  in  the  United 
States ;  rules  for  its  practice  in  the  State  of  Minnesota,  by  Dr. 
Ferrand,  Paris.  6.  Best  methods  of  propagating  Homoeopathy, 
by  Dr.  Roth,  London.  7.  Homoeopathic  education  of  women 
in  New  York,  Dr.  Montague  Lozier,  New  York.  8.  Homoe- 
opathy in  Cook  County  Hospital,  by  Dr.  Gatchell,  Chicago. 

Owing  to  the  large  number  of  memorials  and  the  limited 
time  in  which  to  consider  them,  together  with  the  absence  of 
several  authors,  it  was  agreed  to  confine  the  discussion  to  a 
limited  number  of  subjects,  as  follows : 

Afternoon  Session,  August  2lst. — The  President,  Dr.  P.  Jous- 
set,  in  the  chair.  The  session  opened  at  four  o'clock.  The 
President  expressed  his  gratitude  for  the  honor  shown  him, 
accepting  it  as  a  recompense  for  a  life-long  service  that  has  been 
dedicated  on  all  occasions  to  the  defense  of  true  therapeutics. 

Much  is  hoped  for  the  propagation  of  Homoeopathy  through 
this  Congress,  and  it  is  believed  that  the  themes  under  discussion 
will  be  most  instructive. 

The  Congress  will  demonstrate  that,  faithful  to  the  character 
impressed  upon  it  by  its  founder,  Homoeopathy  will  energetically 
repel  all  pseudo-scientific  systems  that  have  hidden  under  its 
name  practices  of  secret  and  mysterious  therapeutics. 

Polite  and  careful  discussions  only  are  desired. 

On  motion,  Drs.  Beck  and  Drysdale  were  elected  Honorary 
Presidents. 

Dr.  Mark  Jousset,  General  Secretary,  read  letters  of  excuse 
from  absent  members,  and  Dr.  de  BrasoPs  credentials  as  repre- 


1890.]       INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  159 


sentative  of  the  Homoeopathic  Society  of  St.  Petersburg,  and 
those  of  Drs.  Helmuth,  Wright,  and  McClelland  representing 
the  American  Institute  of  Homoeopathy. 

It  was  announced  that  an  International  Homoeopathic  Con- 
gress would  reassemble  in  the  United  States,  and  that  Dr. 
Hughes,  Perpetual  Secretary  of  the  five-years'  Congress,  would 
receive  with  much  pleasure  the  assistance  of  those  who  desire  to 
attend. 

The  Question  of  the  Dose. 
The  President  invites  the  members  of  the  Congress  to  take 
active  part  in  the  discussions  on  the  works  of  materia  medica 
and  general  therapeutics,  adding  that  as  Dr.  Piedvache  had  not 
been  able  to  finish  his  memorial  on  the  contrary  effects  of 
medicine  in  sitk  and  well  patients,  and  of  the  same  in  their  re- 
lations to  the  doses,  he  begged  to  be  allowed  to  withdraw  his  con- 
clusions, but  it  being  such  an  important  subject  he  invited  its 
discussion. 

Dr.  Cigliano,  of  Naples,  thinks  that  the  absorption  by  the 
system  of  the  remedy  is  subject  to  various  laws  ;  that  when  more 
attenuated  its  absorption  is  more  rapid.  This  is  accomplished 
in  two  ways  :  by  the  most  important  veins  and  by  the  lymphat- 
ics. The  elimination  is  in  two  ways  :  rapidly  by  the  urine,  and 
more  slowly  by  way  of  the  veins  and  lymphatics.  It  is  neces- 
sary to  know  these  diverse  operations,  and  when  the  moment 
is  arrived  to  suspend  the  administration  of  the  medicine,  which 
is  as  soon  as  the  absorbtion  is  completed.  We  thus  avoid  its 
accumulation  in  these  channels  of  elimination  where  otherwise 
it  would  become  dangerous.  The  effects  of  the  medicines  are 
not  propoitioned  to  the  doses  taken,  but  to  the  amount  absorbed. 
Thus,  a  strong  dose  given  once  could  not  produce  more  than  the 
effect  of  a  small  dose  if  only  a  minimum  amount  is  absorbed, 
and,  on  the  contrary,  the  weak  doses  repeated  could  produce  the 
effects  of  a  strong  dose  by  internal  accumulation. 

Dr.  Yillers,  of  Dresden,  remarked  that  if  the  administration 
of  the  medicine  is  limited  to  one  dose,  and  waiting  before 
renewing  it  if  it  be  necessary  to  do  so,  then  the  accumulating 
symptoms  that  supervene  should  not  be  noted,  but  the  critical 
symptoms  from  which  we  select  the  remedy. 

The  progress  of  pathology  demonstrates  that  no  disease  exists 
without  the  involvement  of  the  nerves.  Why  then  cannot 
nervous  diseases  be  cured  with  small  doses?  Why  not  infer 
from  this  that  the  small  doses  can  cure  all  diseases  and  that  we 
must  return  to  the  precepts  of  Hahnemann  of  prescribing  the 
doses  as  small  as  possible  and  at  long  intervals  ? 


160        INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  [April, 


Dr.  P.  Jousset  says  that  on  the  question  of  doses  the  homoeo- 
paths are  variously  divided;  some  exclusively  employ  the  high 
dilutions,  others  the  strong,  others  both  the  one  and  the  other, 
according  to  their  cases.  I  formerly  proposed  a  law  to  fix  the 
doses  that  should  be  used  according  to  the  symptoms  combated 
and  according  to  the  remedy,  but  it  was  not  satisfactory,  and 
I  wish  that  some  of  the  members  would  arrive  at  a  decision  that 
will  assist  the  solution  of  the  problem. 

Dr.  Liberali,  of  Rome,  believes  that  it  is  not  possible  to  give 
an  absolute  rule;  and  laments  that  there  are  brethren  that  daily 
employ  massive  doses,  while  others  use  only  high  dilutions,  so 
high  that  they  almost  pass  the  margin  of  Hahnemann.  The 
doses  should  be  determined  and  subordinated  to  the  kind  of 
disease,  the  age  and  sex  of  the  patient.  Rome  has  intermittent 
fevers  and  serious  pneumonias  that  necessitate  at  times  dilutions 
relatively  low. 

Dr.  Gailliard  has  cured,  in  Belgium,  patients  with  marsh  fever 
that  resisted  strong  doses  of  sulphate  of  Quinine,  by  means  of  in- 
finitesimal doses. 

Dr.  Cigliano  believes  that  the  important  point  is  the  individ- 
ualizing of  the  remedy.  When  the  remedy  is  well  selected 
small  doses  only  are  needed ;  without  them  there  is  danger  of 
aggravation.  One  day  I  prescribed  for  an  English  lady  one 
drop  of  Lachesis  30.  The  patient  took  ten  drops,  at  once  caus- 
ing such  aggravation  that  she  believed  herself  poisoned. 

Dr.  Gailliard  remembers  a  law  proposed  in  1878  by  Dr.  . 
Jousset  that  he  thinks  excellent.  It  is  necessary  to  choose  that 
medicine  the  double  action  of  which  is  similar  to  the  pathological  case 
that  is  to  be  combated  ;  that  is  to  say,  we  should  use  the  infinitesi- 
mal doses  to  combat  those  symptoms  which  are  analogous  to  the 
effects  produced  in  a  healthy  person  by  infinitesimal  doses,  and  use 
the  ponderous  doses  against  those  symptoms  which  are  analogous 
to  those  that  are  observed  in  the  well  person  by  strong  and  poison- 
ous doses.  He  proposes  the  study  of  this  proposition  for  the  next 
Congress.    This  motion  was  approved. 

Dr.  L§on  Simon  finds  this  question  of  doses  most  complicated. 
When  he  is  in  the  presence  of  a  patient  the  first  thing  is  the 
selection  of  the  remedy,  next  the  choice  of  the  dose,  which,  of 
course,  differs  undoubtedly  with  the  case  treated  whether  it  be 
acute  or  chronic.  With  the  former  it  would  be  promptitude, 
not  contenting  one's  self  with  one  dose  a  month.  The  variety  of 
susceptibility  in  different  individuals  is  worthy  to  be  taken  into 
consideration. 

It  is  difficult  to  find  a  formula  applicable  to  all  cases,  and  it 


1890.] 


INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS. 


161 


can  be  said  with  Hahnemann  that  in  Homoeopathy  there  is  the 
absolute  and  variable.  The  absolute  is  the  law  of  the  similli- 
mum  ;  the  variable  is  the  choice  of  the  dilution  and  the  repeti- 
tion. 

Dr.  Gallavardin,  of  Lyons,  gives  habitually  a  single  dose,  and 
allows  it  to  work.  The  low  dilutions  have  an  action  of  short 
duration  ;  the  high  produce  at  times  aggravation.  Ordinarily 
begin  with  a  medium  dilution,  and  later  go  up  to  the  200th  or 
higher. 

Dr.  Leon  Simon  has  not  used  the  very  high  dilutions,  as 
very  little  is  known  of  the  way  Jenichen  and  Korsakoff  prepared 
them. 

Dr.  Vincent  Leon  Sira6n  refers  to  experiments  undertaken 
forty  years  ago  in  the  Vienna  hospitals.  During  two  years  the 
sixth  dilution  was  given,  two  years  later  the  fifteenth,  and  at  last 
the  thirtieth  was  given  ;  while  in  other  hospitals  they  only  used 
the  first  and  second.  The  results  were  analogous,  perhaps  more 
flattering  for  the  last  hospital.    The  discussion  here  ended. 

The  Germ  Theory  and  its  Relation  to  Homoeopathy. 

Dr.  P.  Jousset  then  read  his  paper  on  the  Relation  of  the 
doctrine  of  microbes  to  the  homoeopathic  therapeutics. 

According  to  the  microbe  doctrine,  all  diseases  are  caused  by  a 
pathogenetic  microbe.  Disease  then  arises  from  external  causes. 
The  immediate  consequence  of  this  etiology  is  the  application  of 
antiseptic  therapeutics,  whose  end  is  to  destroy  the  microbes  that 
cause  the  disease.  These  therapeutics  are  the  result  of  the  applica- 
tion of  the  axiom,  contraria  contrariis  curantur,  and  its  adoption 
the  discarding  of  the  homoeopathic  therapeutics  as  worthless. 

The  microbe  theory  is  false  as  an  etiological  doctrine,  because 
the  microbe  does  not  operate  without  the  presence  of  a  defined 
predisposition,  aud  because  many  diseases  that  can  be  inoculated 
may  be  produced  spontaneously  by  the  work  of  a  live  organism. 

Antiseptics  are  heroic  medicines  in  traumatism  but  ineffectual 
for  therapeutic  cures.  In  medicine  the  part  they  play  should 
be  limited  to  preventive  inoculations,  in  which  office  they  have 
given  brilliant  results  in  variola  and  rabies.  The  value  of 
Homoeopathy  is  not  deteriorated  by  the  antiseptic. 

Dr.  J,  P.  Tessier  combats  these  conclusions,  and  says  that  per- 
fection in  a  new  science,  such  as  bacteriology,  should  not  be 
expected.  Its  partisans  do  not  consider  that  all  diseases  are  pro- 
duced by  a  pathogenetic  microbe,  but  reserve  this  etiology  for 
infectious  diseases. 

They  do  not  advocate  destroying  the  microbe,  but  the  placing 


162 


INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS 


[April, 


of  the  organism  in  a  condition  that  will  impede  reproduc- 
tion. 

If  the  partisans  of  the  microbe  doctrine  should  choose  a  formula 
they  would  ultimately  have  to  adopt  the  law  siniilia  similibug 
curantur,  as  in  the  case  of  Pasteur  and  Galtier's  methods  for 
treating  hydrophobia  and  that  of  Chauveau  and  Arloing  in 
treating  septicemia,  which  are  mere  applications  of  that 
principle. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  microbes  cannot  operate  without  the 
existence  of  a  defined  predisposition,  but  they  have  a  capital 
importance,  and  syphilis,  variola,  measles,  etc.,  do  not  appear 
spontaneously  but  are  the  work  of  a  live  organism. 

It  is  evident  that  the  antiseptic  is  all-powerful  in  surgery. 
It  cannot  be  predicted  to  what  results  it  will  some  day  attain.  In 
medicine  it  is  yet  in  its  infancy.  We  cannot  say  it  will  not  go 
any  further. 

Homoeopathy  is  the  greatest  discovery  in  medicine.  It  has 
suffered  nothing  by  this  new  doctrine.  It  not  only  combats 
virulent  diseases,  but  every  kind  of  morbid  condition. 

Dr.  Dudgeon,  of  London,  believes  it  is  difficult  to  prove  that 
the  microbes  are  the  cause  of  diseases,  and  that  if  they  were,  the 
antiseptic  therapeutics  would  still  be  indefensible;  for  in  killing 
the  microbe  the  danger  is  great  of  killing  the  patient.  Many  of 
the  best  English  surgeons  have  renounced  Carbolic  acid,  as  it  is 
liable  to  accidents,  and  they  believe  that  exquisite  care  and 
scrupulous  cleanliness  are  sufficient.  Bolle,  of  Aix-la-Chapelle, 
has  replaced  Lister's  method  by  the  use  of  cotton  soaked  in 
Alcohol  and  tincture  of  Arnica.  He  makes  many  cures  and 
obtains  good  results. 

We  should  be  careful  not  to  exaggerate  the  value  of  Pasteur's 
results  in  the  treatment  of  rabies,  for  Dr.  Kranzinski,  of  Mos- 
cow, has  reported  three  hundred  and  seven  cases  of  bites  by 
rabid  animals  in  which  no  preventive  inoculations  were  made. 
Yet  only  8  or  2.6  per  cent.  died.  On  the  other  hand,  in 
England  two  hundred  and  fourteen  have  been  treated  at  Pasteur's 
Institute,  of  which  3.27  per  cent,  have  died.  With  these  results 
what  is  the  value  of  inoculation? 

Dr.  de  Brasol,  of  St.  Petersburg,  does  not  consider  preventive 
inoculations  as  the  ideal  prophylaxis.  According  to  this  idea 
the  healthy  man  must  be  inoculated  with  all  contagious  diseases, 
variola,  cholera,  typhoid  dysentery,  etc.  He  believes  that  all 
that  is  necessary  is  to  fortify  and  induce  health  in  the  human 
organism,  and  not  weaken  it  and  infect  it  by  communicating 
the  germs  of  all  these  diseases.    He  has  arrived  at  the  conclusion 


1890.]       INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  163 


that  the  results  of  vaccination  against  variola  are  not  satis- 
factory. 

Agreeing  with  Dr.  Jousset's  opinion  that  the  microbe  theory 
is  false,  as  an  etiological  doctrine,  and  that  antiseptic  thera- 
peutics is  impotent  as  a  curative  agent,  he  amplifies  his  views, 
and  affirms  that  the  microbe  theory  is  false  as  a  base  of  pro- 
phylactic therapeutics.  The  work  of  the  laboratory  is  "  Love's 
labor  lost.^ 

Dr  Yillers  is  a  microbist,  as  is  Dr.  Tenier.  Both,  however, 
attribute  great  importance  to  the  homoeopathic  treatment  even 
in  surgical  cases.  For  this  reason  he  recommends  Dr.  Bolle's 
treatment,  saying  it  does  not  affect  the  action  of  our  medicines. 
It  consists  of  coV:on  soaked  in  Alcohol  with  1-100  of  tincture  of 
Arnica.  The  cotton  prepared  with  this  solution  is  put  in  posi- 
tion and  moistened  daily  without  displacing  it. 

Dr.  Clark,  of  London,  observed  that  individuals  poisoned  by 
Carbolic  acid  show  symptoms  analogous  to  the  complications- of 
traumatism,  for  which  reason  it  can  be  said  that  the  methods  of 
Lister  work  according  to  the  law  of  the  similars.  The  session 
closed  at  6 J  o'clock. 

The  Homoeopathic  Materia  Medica. 

TJiursday,  August  22d. — Morning  Session.  President  Dr.  P.. 
Jousset  in  the  chair.  The  minutes  of  the  former  session  were 
approved. 

Dr.  P.  Jousset  thanks  Dr.  Dudgeon  for  his  contributions  to 
the  discussion  given  at  the  last  session.  He  maintains  that 
antiseptic  medicines  are  supported  by  the  laws  of  the  contraries 
when  they  pretend  to  be  curative.  The  preventive  inoculations, 
badly  named  vaccinations,  are  really  founded  upon  the  law  of  the 
similars  although  constituting  the  practice  of  isopathy.  The 
orator  defends  Jenner's  practice  of  vaccination  as  an  almost 
sure  preventive  of  variola  and  does  not  think  it  dangerous. 

On  motion  of  the  President,  it  was  decided  that  the  papers 
sent  by  absent  members  should  be  considered  after  the  regular 
order  of  the  day.  Dr.  Gail  Hard  read  his  paper  on  A  method  for 
study  of  Pure  Materia  Medica.  Hahnemann's  works  on 
materia  medica  form  three  volumes  of  the  Materia  Medica 
Pura,  and  the  Chronic  Diseases  form  two  volumes.  Allen's 
Encyclopaedia  is  much  more  considerable,  and  lastly,  in  his  dis- 
sertation before  the  Royal  Medical  Academy  of  Belgium,  in 
1877,  the  speaker  added  to  the  provings  of  Arseuic  and  Phos- 
phorus nearly  eleven  hundred  observations,  all  of  allopathic 
origin,  that  confirm  the  symptoms  of  Hahnemann's  pathogeneses. 


164        INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  [April, 


He  afterward  did  the  same  work  for  Belladonna  and  Digi- 
talis. 

The  observer  and  the  experimentor  in  materia  medica  should 
follow  three  ways  of  study  essentially  distinct,  and  that  are  all 
complete  in  one  :  analysis,  synthesis,  and  comparison. 

The  pathogenetic  studies  of  Hahnemann  and  his  followers 
are  incomplete  and  difficult  to  read  because  they  have  been  pro- 
duced exclusively  by  the  analytical  procedure. 

A  Plan  to  Reform  the  Materia  Medica. 

A  reform  is  needed  in  the  materia  medica  by  the  undertaking 
of  works  of  synthesis  and  comparison.  Once  done  it  will  be 
much  more  important  and  oftener  consulted  than  purely  analyti- 
cal work  that  is  useful  for  proofs  only. 

Analytic  study  investigates  chemical  and  anatomical  modifi- 
cations of  the  organs  and  tissues  as  well  as  the  functional  modifi- 
cations produced  by  a  simple  pathogenetic  agent. 

Synthetic  study  establishes  that  medicines  are  morbific  agents, 
and  that  the  nature  of  the  cause  alone  distinguishes  whether  the 
condition  is  from  natural  disease  or  from  the  effects  of  the  medi- 
cines. We,  therefore,  must  study  their  invasion,  their  evolution, 
their  lesions,  and  their  complications,  and  thus  hit  upon  the  cor- 
rect diagnosis. 

Comparative  study  consists  in  the  comparing  of  the  character  of 
a  medicinal  disease  with  that  of  a  natural  disease,  and  with  other 
medicinal  diseases,  establishing  thus  its  differential  diagnosis. 

These  investigations  should  be  verified  first  in  the  well  man ; 
secondly,  by  application  upon  the  sick.  But  such  investigations 
must  not  be  confounded  with  the  ab  usa  in  rnorbis.  Lastly  and 
before  all,  in  animals. 

These  complex  investigations  are  almost  beyond  the  power  of 
one  man.  It  would  be  most  profitable  to  have  them  done  in 
common — that  is  to  say,  by  a  committee  of  all  the  delegates  of 
the  different  countries. 

The  Congress  could  accept  this  proposition  and  order  the  wrork 
begun.  The  methods  of  its  execution  could  be  studied  before 
the  futura  Congress  of  London. 

Dr.  de  Brassol  does  not  believe  that  such  investigations  are 
necessary,  above  all,  in  animals,  as  in  such  a  case  they  could  not 
give  us  the  subjective  symptoms  which  the  experiments  in  the 
well  man  furnish  us.  There  are  also  differences  in  the  action  of 
medicines  according  to  the  animals  experimented  upon.  How 
much  more  then  between  the  action  on  animals  and  the  action  on 
man. 


1890.]       INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  1(J5 


Dr.  Batault  advises,  above  all,  the  study  of  physiological 
anatomy  of  the  cells,  giving  an  account  of  their  vibratory 
method  of  action.  Can  we  reach  this  desideratum  f  It  would 
be  most  difficult  to  employ  this  method  in  the  nervous  system, 
as  the  nervous  cells  differ  slightly  except  in  their  functions. 
For  all  nervous  disturbances,  and  for  many  diseases  that  exhibit 
none  or  else  only  insignificant  lesions,  analytical  experiments 
upon  the  well  man  are  absolutely  necessary.  Studying  clinically 
the  diseases  of  the  nervous  system,  it  is  necessary  to  investigate 
which  remedies  produce  analogous  symptoms  to  those  that  are 
observed  in  the  sick,  and  to  infer  from  this  that  a  medicine  has 
a  given  action  ,or  power  over  a  determined  group  of  nerve 
cells. 

Dr.  Cigliano  believes  that  what  is  necessary  for  the  materia 
medica  is  the  method  of  explanation  of  the  symptoms  consisting 
in  studying  the  following  different  circumstances :  prodromos, 
the  qualities  of  the  symptoms,  similitudes,  modalities,  con- 
comitants, increasing  and  diminishing  circumstances,  conditions, 
and  habits.  He  has  applied  this  method  to  the  work  that  he 
has  published,  Individualization  of  Medicines  for  Symptoms  and 
Diseases ;  or,  Great  Homoeopathic  Clinical  Repertory. 

This  method  would  give  the  materia  medica  a  classification  of 
which  the  pathogenesis  of  Aconite  as  presented  to  the  Congress 
is  an  example. 

Dr.  Leon  Simon  approves  in  all  its  points  of  Dr.  Gailliard's  pro- 
position. The  author  knew  in  his  youth  the  homoeopaths  of  the 
first  generation,  who  studied  the  Materia  Medica  much  more  than 
we  do  now,  and  proclaimed  highly  the  efficiency  of  Homoeopathy; 
whereas,  those  who  have  come  later  and  who  have  simplified  the 
materia  medica  come  to  a  contrary  conclusion. 

It  is  true  that  Hahnemann's  Materia  Medica  is  not  perfect, 
but  it  is  easier  to  criticise  than  to  imitate.  What  they  should 
do  is  to  try  to  complete  it.  Indeed,  Imbert  Gourbeyre  has 
partly  done  this  for  Arsenic  and  Belladonna. 

Synthesis  is  good,  and  Hahnemann  has  made  synthesis  the 
head  of  each  chapter  devoted  to  the  different  medicines,  but  the 
patient  is  a  being  essentially  analytical.  Therefore,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  analyze  individually,  and,  as  Hahnemann  said,  cure  not 
the  disease,  but  the  patient. 

A  Plea  for  the  Cyclopaedia  of  Drug  Pathogenesy. 

Dr.  Guerin  Meneville,  speaking  for  Dr.  Hughes,  who  dis- 
trusts his  own  knowledge  of  the  French  language,  says  that  he 
approves  of  the  plan  of  Gailliard,  but  before  commencing  these 


166         INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  [April, 


studies  it  is  necessary  to  collect  data.  This  work  has  been  re- 
hearsed in  the  Cyclopaedia  of  Drug  Pathogenesy. 

He  presents  the  Congress  with  the  two  parts  of  this  work  that 
have  already  appeared,  extending  to  Natrwm  muriaticum. 

The  conviction  has  been  established  that  the  homoeopathic 
materia  medica  is  far  from  what  it  ought  to  be.  The  compila- 
tions of  Jahr  and  of  Noack  and  Triuks  are  not  clear.  Dr. 
Allen's  Encyclopaedia  of  Pure  Materia  Medica  has  two  capital 
defects  that  will  prevent  its  being  the  materia  medica  of  the 
future.  First,  it  contains  all  symptoms — good,  bad,  and  in- 
different, and  secondly,  it  persists  in  the  pure  conceptive  (esque- 
matic)  form  of  explanation  adopted  by  Hahnemann.  The  symp- 
toms isolated  from  such  concepts  (esquemas)  are  completely  in- 
comprehensible. 

In  the  Cyclopaedia,  whenever  possible,  the  exposition  of  the 
pathogenesis  is  a  narrative  of  symptoms  caused  by  drugs,  fol- 
lowed by  clinical  cases,  giving  thus  a  force  and  character  analo- 
gous to  the  descriptions  of  idiopathic  diseases.  This  is  fixed  in 
the  memory,  and  is  completed  by  means  of  experiments  on  ani- 
mals. 

It  has  been  necessary  to  select  the  authors,  throwing  out  en- 
tirely such  novelists  as  Houat,  Wolf,  and  Mure,  and  yet  ear- 
nestly approving  of  the  symptoms  of  Hering  and  Peters. 

In  relation  to  toxic  symptoms,  it  has  not  given  an  extensive 
collection,  but  much  better,  only  the  typical  symptoms  of  dis- 
tinct forms.  Using  various  abbreviations,  easily  intelligible,  all 
the  materia  medica  since  Hahnemann  could  be  condensed  into 
four  volumes  of  ordinary  size.  Hahnemann's  pure  Materia 
Medica,  translated  from  the  latest  editions  with  its  preface  and 
annotations,  wTould  make  up  the  first  volume. 

Dr.  Leon  Simon  thinks  that  the  work  that  Dr.  Hughes  de- 
scribes seems  to  correspond  closely  to  Dr.  Gailliard's  programme, 
and  he  favors  its  completion. 

Dr.  P.  Jousset  makes  the  observation  that  the  opposition  of 
views  that  seems  to  exist  between  Drs.  Gailliard  and  Leon 
Simon  is  more  apparent  than  real,  as  the  first  recommends  the 
synthetic  study  of  materia  medica,  yet  wishing  that  analytical 
study  be  preserved  entirely.  When  the  symptoms  are  described 
in  the  order  of  their  appearances  we  obtain  a  species  of  synthesis 
that  gives  more  important  instruction  than  the  symptoms  ab- 
solutely isolated  by  Hahnemann. 

If  what  was  said  lately  by  Dr.  Leon  Simon  is  true,  our  ante- 
cedents knew  more  of  materia  medica  than  we  do.  It  is  probable 
we  are  not  as  assiduous  in  its  study  on  account  of  its  colossal 


i890.]       INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  167 


proportions.  Perhaps  the  explanation  may  be  that  formerly 
the  homoeopaths  were  less  called  upon  to  combat  acute  affections, 
treating  in  preference  chronic  diseases.  As  a  practical  conclu- 
sion to  this  discussion,  we  should  study  the  materia  medica  with 
greater  care. 

The  President  decided  that  Dr.  Gailliard's  proposition  had 
been  approved  by  the  Congress. 

Electro-Homceopathy. 

Dr.  Conan  read  a  paper  on  the  employment  of  electricity  in 
homieopathic  medicine,  in  which  is  used  successively  mineral 
electricity,  vegetable  electricity  of  sensitive  plants,  of  electrified 
complex  medicines  and  external  medicaments. 

Hahnemann  studied  symptoms  produced  by  the  north  and 
south  pole  of  the  magnet.  The  speaker  has  prepared  globules 
of  a  mixture  of  equal  parts  of  Alcohol  at  ninety  per  cent,  and 
of  water  in  which  he  has  submerged  a  needle  magnetized  bv-the 
north  pole  of  a  strong  magnet  or  loadstone.  One  globule  of 
Mimosa  pudica  alone  soaked  in  this  magnetized  water  cured  in 
a  few  hours  a  lady  prostrated  by  an  invincible  chronic  diarrhoea. 

I  cured  also' a  man  forty-six  years  old,  who  was  in  a  debilita- 
ted and  melancholy  state,  and  who  showed  all  the  symptoms  of 
cerebral  softening.  He  had  tried  all  other  treatments  in  vain. 
I  administered  water  electrified  with  a  negative  electrode  of  gold 
by  means  of  a  statical  apparatus.  I  believe  the  electro-homoeo- 
paths should  make  use  of  vegetables  united  with  minerals,  and 
electrified  by  means  of  a  strong  induction  machine.  The  vege- 
tables that  should  enter  into  their  composition  are  those  of  an 
especial  vitality,  such  as  the  sensitive  plant,  whose  leaves  close 
on  the  slightest  contact — the  Sparmania  Africana  whose 
anthers  are  irritable  ;  the  parietaria,  the  nettles,  berberis,  the 
filaments  of  whose  stamens  are  agitated  when  they  are  touched 
by  the  point  of  a  needle  and  fold  over  upon  the  pistil.  All  this 
•can  be  called  vegetable  electricity.  The  electro-homoeopath 
has  artificially  electrified  these  electrical  plants. 

Belotti,in  his  preface,  indicates  the  complete  way  of  preparing 
these  complex  medicines.  He  says  that  the  solubility  of  the 
insoluble  substances  that  have  to  be  triturated  is  augmented  by 
connecting  the  solvent  with  two  opposite  poles  of  an  electric 
current. 

Dr.  Conan  deduces  that  an  investigation  would  be  useful 
of  the  employment  of  magnetized  alcoholic  water  or  of 
electrified  medicines,  determining  the  character  of  the  electric 
•current  that  should  be  used  in  any  given  case,  whether  a  con- 


168        INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  [April, 


tinned  or  an  induced  current,  and  whether  through  thick  or  thin 
wire. 

Dr.  Leon  Simon  finds  in  this  paper  two  subjects  to  consider : 
First,  the  employment  of  electricity — an  agent  whose  use  is  ex- 
tending daily  more  and  more  in  medicine,  but  generally  con- 
fined to  specialists.  Second,  the  employment  of  electricity  in 
connection  with  Homoeopathy,  the  discussion  of  which  will  take 
place  to-morrow  in  the  considering  of  two  communications  on 
Mattei's  remedies. 

Polypharmacy,  or  Mixed  Prescriptions. 

Dr.  Gailliard  related  the  discovery  of  the  use  of  complex 
medicines  : 

JEgidi,  friend  of  Hahnemann,  wanted  to  administer  two  or 
three  medicaments  together  having  a  similar  action,  and  made 
vain  attempts  to  form  a  school.  Later,  Lutze  actually  practiced 
this  method.  But  only  after  thirty  years  do  we  find  that  the 
polypharmacists  have  completely  systematized  their  methods. 

About  the  year  1850,  a  poor  abbe  of  Turin,  named  Soleri, 
practiced  Homoeopathy,  availing  himself  of  the  small  manual 
of  Jahr.  One  day  he  gave  a  miserable  peasant  several  different 
powders  to  take  successively  for  a  period  of  forty  days.  His 
patient,  desiring  more  speed  than  certainty,  swallowed  it  all  at 
once,  and  was  cured  before  the  forty  days  had  expired.  To 
the  abbe  this  seemed  a  miracle,  and  forthwith  he  advocated  the 
complex  system,  and  proclaimed  the  superiority  of  it  over 
Hahnemann  ism. 

He  formed  a  partnership  in  1861  with  his  nephew,  Dr.  Belotti. 
They  classified  remedies  in  twenty-six  series,  the  cerebral,  medul- 
lary, great  sympathetic,  vascular,  lymphatic,  etc.  In  1866,  Dr. 
Finella  simplified  Belotti's  method  and  created  new  formulas, 
specifics  against  worms,  etc. 

Signor  Mattei,  who  was  then  an  unbeliever,  conceived  his 
idea  of  Electro-Homoeopathy.  This  method  was  revealed  to  him 
by  Providence,  the  secret  of  which  he  guarded  with  great  care, 
no  doubt  by  Divine  command.  We  know  to-day,  thanks  to 
Sauter  and  other  brotherly  enemies,  the  composition  of  his  pills 
for  scrofulosis,  aneurisms,  etc.,  and  his  electric  solutions,  red, 
green,  etc. 

The  latest  incarnation  of  complete  polypharmacy  has  been  re- 
vealed to  us  in  the  year  of  grace  1888,  in  that  "  Homo-homceo- 
pathist,"  Dr.  Conan.  This  "  Homo-Homoeopathy  "  comprehends 
twenty-six  series  of  medicines,  all  specifics ;  anti-febriles,  spe- 


1890.]       INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS. 


169 


cifics  for  inflammatory  diseases,  acute  or  chronic  diseases  of  the 
cerebrum,  meningitis,  etc.,  etc. 

Each  series  of  medicines  contains  invariably  six  groups  and 
each  group  embraces  from  twelve  to  thirty  remedies.  The  groups 
should  be  alternated  on  various  occasions  each  day — that  is  to 
say,  the  series  should  be  alternated  and  be  employed  successively 
in  divers  dilutions;  and,  finally,  from  time  to  time  as  an  inter- 
current, the  urinary  simillimum  dynamized  in  a  very  high  dilu- 
tion the  thirtieth,  one  hundredth,  two  hundredth,  three  hun- 
dredth. 

The  session  closed  at  quarter  after  twelve. 

Progressive  Locomotor  Ataxia. 

Afternoon  Session.  The  President,  Dr.  P.  Jousset,  in  the 
chair.    The  proceedings  of  last  session  were  approved. 

Dr.  Villers  opened  his  paper  on  Homoeopathic  treatment  of  loco- 
motor ataxia  and  pseudo-tabes.  In  all  his  cases  he  has  observed 
that  the  disease  is  to  be  attributed  to  syphilitic  infection.  At 
times  a  cold  taken  from  dampness,  he  judges,  might  be  the  im- 
mediate cause.    In  such  cases  he  finds  indications  for  Rhus-tox. 

The  diagnosis  of  true  ataxia  may  be  difficult,  as  certain  cases 
of  hysteria  present  similar  symptoms.  From  the  therapeutic 
view,  ataxia  can  be  divided  into  two  periods :  first,  the  irritable, 
that  corresponds  to  medullary  inflammation,  during  which  time 
complete  cures  can  be  obtained  :  second,  of  sclerosis  and  atrophy, 
which  are  incurable.  Secale  cornutum  is  the  most  important 
medicine  since  the  works  of  Tuczek  have  demonstrated  the  sim- 
illitude  between  the  symptoms  of  ergotism  and  of  tabes.  Dart- 
ing pains  are  the  symptoms  most  troublesome  and  most  pointed. 
Dr.  Villers  has  observed  that  they  are  aggravated  by  light 
contact  and  alleviated  by  strong  pressure.  Graphites ,  Sulphur 
and  Stannum  correspond  to  these  pains,  which  are  administered 
from  the  thirtieth  up  to  the  two  hundredth  in  single  doses,  wait- 
ing the  full  effects  of  the  remedy  before  changing. 

The  symptom  most  frequent  is  formication  that  gives  way 
to  Secale  or  to •  Nux-vomica.  A  sensation  as  if  drawing  around 
the  waist,  which  indicates  Graph.,  Nux-v.,  Stannum,  and  above 
all  Rhus  and  Alumina.  Sensations  of  heat  or  cold  at  limited 
points  in  the  skin  that  are  helped  always  by  massage  and  hydro- 
therapeutics.  The  conditions  of  sexual  excitement,  more  active 
in  woman  than  in  man,  might  be  symptoms  of  hysteric-pseudo- 
tabes.  Sulph.  is  suitable,  when  these  ideas  pursue  the  patient 
even  during  work. 

T  • 

Impotency  might  be  modified  with  advantage  by  Tabacum; 


170        INTERNATIONAL  BOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  [April, 


above  all  when  it  comes  accompanied  with  great  weakness  of 
the  knees.  Tobacco  is  almost  as  important  as  Secale-cornntum 
in  the  treatment  of  tabes,  and  the  author  saw  in  his  service  at 
North  Angel  a  patient,  a  man  who  for  many  years  had  presented 
all  the  signs  of  locomotor  ataxia,  but  who  was  really  affected 
with  nothing  but  nicotine  poisoning. 

Constipation  gives  way  to  Nux-vomica,  Opium,  and  enemas 
of  tepid  water.  Retention  of  urine  is  to  be  avoided,  according  to 
the  author.  Compression  of  the  hypogastric  region  with  the 
hand  will  cause  contraction  of  the  bladder  and  discharge,  thus 
avoiding  the  use  of  the  catheter.  Among  the  adjuvant  measures 
of  treatment,  electro-therapeutics  should  be  discouraged,  as  the 
action  of  homoeopathic  medicine  is  disturbed  in  tabes  by  such 
treatment.  But,  on  the  contrary,  baths  are  advantageous;  how- 
ever, Carbolic  acid  baths,  lately  so  recommended,  seem  useless. 
Mineral  waters  are  indifferent,  though  such  waters  as  Gastein 
are  advantageous,  but  great  prudence  is  to  be  recommended  in 
their  use  ;  at  the  most  the  patient  should  have  only  one  or  two 
baths  weekly. 

Dr.  Vincent  Leon  Simon  thinks  that  when  darting  pains  are 
aggravated  by  light  contact,  and  relieved  by  strong  pressure, 
Plumbum*  might  be  tried,  founded  upon  the  localization  of 
symptoms  in  the  inferior  parts  of  the  body.  Zincum  has  had 
desired  effects  in  urinary  disarrangements. 

With  relation  to  the  neutral  mineral  waters,  La  Malou,  in 
France,  has  a  favorable  action,  which  is  comparable  to  that  of 
Gastein. 

Dr.  Daniel,  of  Marseilles,  is  surprised  that  Dr.  Villiers  has 
not  spoken  of  Arsenic  among  the  medicines  for  tabes.  It  is  the 
agent  that  makes  the  waters  of  La  Malou  most  efficacious. 

Dr.  de  Brasol  advises  Agaricus-musc,  when  the  darting  pains 
are  accompanied  by  cold  sensations. 

Dr.  Batault  has  cured  them  with  Bryonia30. 

Dr.  Gallavardin,  with  one  dose  of  Xux30  has  enabled 
patients  with  locomotor  ataxia  to  walk  erect,  and  in  the  dark. 
He  has  often  cured  urinary  derangements  with  Conium600. 

Dr.  P.  Jousset  said  :  We  possess  to-day  sufficient  data  for  the 
treatment  of  locomotor  ataxia  by  a  medication  that  may  be  called 
Codrdenada.  The  first  period  only  is  susceptible  of  cure. 
For  this  there  are  two  remedies  above  all    others,  Sulphate 


*  Pains  which  are  aggravated  by  light  pressure,  and  ameliorated  by  strong 
pressure  are  characteristic  of  Nux-vomica.  We  have  had  brilliant  success  in 
relieving  a  case  of  renal  colic  by  attention  to  this  symptom. — W.  M.  J. 


1890.]       INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  171 


of  Atropine,  recommended  for  <ome  time  by  Dr.  Hughes,  and 
Sulphate  of  Strychnine,  These  remedies  are  given  in  third  and 
second  triturations,  never  lower.  In  the  pathogenesis  of  Bella- 
donna and  Xux-vomica,  we  find  a  faithful  picture  of  the  symp- 
toms of  ataxia  in  its  beginning.  Clinics  have  confirmed  these 
statements,  and  show  that  this  treatment  is  efficacious.  It  is  diffi- 
cult at  times  to  recognize  which  of  the  two  remedies  is  best  indi- 
cated. One  could  be  used  during  fifteen  days,  the  other  the 
fifteen  days  following,  and  thus  successively.  As  adjuvant 
treatment,  sea-bathing  appears  to  be  very  favorable. 

Insomnia  and  Neuralgia. 

Dr.  Mark  JouSset  read  a  paper  on  Massive  doses  of  Caffeine  in 
the  Treatment  of  Insomnia  and  Nocturnal  Neuralgias. 

Insomnia,  with  agitation,  is  one  of  the  effects  of  coffee  and  of 
Caffeine.  Coffee  sometimes  also  produces  neuralgic  symptoms  in 
the  interior  maxillary,  the  teeth  and  the  stomach,  producing  as 
well  hemicrania. 

Here,  then,  is  an  application  of  the  law  of  similars  in  the  use 

of  coffee  and  Caffeine  against  nightly  neuralgias  and  insomnia. 

©  ©  © 

Caffeine  in  massive  doses,  five  to  ten  centigrams  of  the  crystals, 
seems  necessary  at  times  in  some  cases.  Such  doses  have  cured 
two  facial  neuralgias,  zona  of  the  brachial  plexus,  two  left 
sciaticas,  and  a  left  intercostal  neuralgia. 

Dr.  Tesser  asks  if  he  has  had  any  failures. 

Dr.  Cigliano  laments  that  there  has  not  been  more  precise- 
ness  in  the  individualization  of  this  medicine,  and  inquires  if 
the  neuralgic  pains  are  aggravated  by  contact. 

Dr.  Mark  Jousset  has  had  failures  when  he  has  used  Caffeine 
in  cases  of  nervous  insomnia  without  nocturnal  neuralgia.  Up 
to  the  present  time  it  has  worked  well  in  the  treatment  of  noc- 
turnal neuralgia,  insomnia,  intense  restlessness,  and  impossibility 
of  keeping  in  bed. 

Iritis  and  Irido-Choroiditls. 

Dr.  Parenteau  read  his  paper  on  Iritis  and  Irido-Choroiditis 
in  connection  with  uterine  affections.  Puberty,  pregnancy,  the 
menopause,  and  uterine  lesions  might  engender  one  of  these 
ocular  affections.  Puberty  produces,  above  all,  dynamic  pertur- 
bations, pregnancy  and  uterine  affections  occasion  iritis  and 
irido-choroiditis  exudations  with  multiplied  lesions. 

The  author  gives  his  attention  by  preference  to  a  variety  of 
these  affections  :  glaucoma  (vitreitis)  an  obscure  affection  which 


172         INTERNATIONAL  HUM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  [April, 


i9  overlooked  among  a  variety  of  other  lesions  which  are  more 
obvious,  such  as  iritis  synezisis.  Tn  girls  and  female  children  it 
may  appear  alone  or  accompanied  by  lesions  so  minute  that 
glaucoma  predominates.  It  affects  most  commonly  only  one  eye, 
and  appears  at  times  most  commonly  during  the  menses  and  in 
pregnancy. 

It  is  characterized  by  symptoms  of  diminution  of  visual 
acuteness  that  appear  suddenly,  and  which  are  owing  to  a  great 
number  of  exudations,  very  delicate,  that  float  in  the  body  of 
the  vitreous  humor.  If  there  is  not  phenomenal  inflammation 
of  adjacent  structures,  the  iris  or  the  sclerotic,  the  affection  is  in- 
dolent. With  the  ophthalmoscope  a  fatty  point  more  or  less 
prominent  may  be  seen  in  the  fundus  of  the  eye. 

The  prognosis  is  grave,  as  it  may  result  in  hopeless  obscuring 
of  the  field  of  vision.  Curing  the  uterine  affections  or  re- 
establishing the  menses  might  produce  relief. 

Homoeopathic  treatment  produces  a  cure  in  a  few  weeks,  even 
in  a  few  days,  if  the  patient  is  treated  from  the  beginning.  The 
principal  remedy  is  Mercurius  corrosivus  from  the  1st  to  the  6th. 
Given  in  small  quantities  it  is  sufficient  for  the  cure.  If  at  the 
same  time  there  is  iritis,  Atropine  must  be  injected  into  the  eye. 
SulpJi.  and  Arsen.  might  be  indicated,  but  are  inferior  to  Mer- 
curius. 

Dr.  Gallavardin  refers  to  a  case  where  he  restored  sight  to  a 
lady  who  had  a  diminution  of  visual  acuteness,  and  who  wTas 
presbyopic,  by  touching  the  eyelid  with  a  steel  needle. 

Diphtheria  a^d  Croup. 

Dr.  Daniel  Serrand  read  his  paper  on  Diphtheritic  Croup  cured 
by  Cyanide  of  Mercury. 

Lily  M.  F.,  of  Philadelphia,  aged  three  years,  on  the  14th  of 
August,  1880,  presented  a  quick  angina  pulposa  {pharyngitis), 
for  which  she  took  Bellad.  From  the  16th  to  the  25th  she 
seemed  to  regain  perfect  health. 

In  the  night  of  the  2oth  the  child  was  attacked  with  croup. 
Both  tonsils  were  covered  by  a  fold  of  false  membrane,  appar- 
ently diphtheritic.  The  palate  began  to  be  invaded.  Bromine 
interiorly  by  irrigations  in  the  mouth  and  a  spray  continually 
surrounding  the  patient. 

On  the  26th,  at  six  a.  m.,  the  fold  that  surrounded  the  tonsils 
was  thick  and  a  yellowish  white,  the  palate  was  completely 
covered  ;  respiration  stridulous.  Although  weak  the  little  one 
ate  a  little.  After  consultation,  Dr.  Cretin  agreed  upon  Bromine 
every  hour  and  Byronia  every  five  minutes. 


1S90.]      INTERNATIONAL  IIOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  173 


The  27th,  the  false  membranes  had  increased.  The  swelling 
of  the  lymphatic  ganglia  was  considerable,  oppression  very 
great,  voice  gone,  and  induration  much  marked.  The  dyspnoea 
proclaimed  the  approaching  crisis.  The  question  of  tracheotomy 
was  considered.  Mecurius-cyauatus  2d  x  trituration  with  a 
spoonful  of  coffee  each  half-hour. 

About  the  middle  of  the  night  the  child  was  better,  there 
was  less  oppression;  tracheotomy  was  deferred.  The  vulva  was 
covered  with  diphtheritic  patches. 

28th,  her  voice  was  better,  the  false  membranes  were  loosened, 
child  asks  for  food ;  the  nose  less  obstructed,  tumefaction  was 
diminished  and  respiration  was  easier. 

29th,  great  improvement.  The  false  membranes  were  entirely 
dislodged.  She  had  two  diarrhceic  stools,  one  of  which  was 
entirely  covered  with  false  membranes.  The  croupy  cough  had 
disappeared.   Cyanide  repeated  from  hour  to  hour. 

30th,  she  was  growing  better  and  the  2d  of  Sept.  the 
patient  went  to  the  Isle  of  Jersey,  where  she  remained  awaiting 
the  time  for  her  return  to  America. 

Her  convalescence  was  good.  However,  in  America  para- 
lytic sequela?  occurred,  which  were  cured  later  without  leaving 
bad  effects. 

Cyanide  of  Mercury  in  Diphtheria. 

Dr.  Beck,  of  Monthev,  in  Valais,  is  happy  to  be  able  to 
present  to  the  Congress  Dr.  Alexander  von  Villers,  the  first 
patient  cured  with  Cyanide  of  Mercury,  who  is  here  present. 
Amid  the  applause  of  his  hearers,  he  explains  how,  during  the 
despair  of  Dr.  Tillers,  Senior,  the  dismay  of  Dr.  Lund,  the  at- 
tending phvsician,  and  of  the  suffering  endured  by  the  child 
with  a  courage  and  resignation  much  beyond  his  years,  the 
speaker  suddenly  remembered  having  read  an  account  of  poison- 
ing by  Cyanide  of  Mercury.  Xoting  the  similarity  of  symptoms 
between  the  recorded  poisonings  of  this  drug  and  the  symptoms 
of  diphtheria,  he  immediately  had  prepared  the  6th  x  dilution 
of  the  drug,  which  accomplished  the  cure. 

On  motion  of  Dr.  de  Brasol,  the  Congress  gave  an  ovation  to 
Dr.  Beck,  and  a  vote  of  thanks  for  the  great  service  given  to 
humanity  in  this  discovery. 

Dr.  P.  Jou^set  asked  Dr.  Beck  what  he  thought  is  the  proper 
dose  of  Cyanide  of  Mercury. 

Dr.  Beck  :  I  have  always  used  the  6th  since  the  first  case  in 
which  this  medicine  was  so  successful. 

Dr.  de  Brasol  thought  that  the  2d  trituration  of  Cyanide  of 


174 


INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  [April, 


Mercury  that  Dr.  Serrand  employed  would  be  a  dangerous  dose 
even  for  an  adult. 

As  a  physician  he  was  an  active  witness  of  a  great  epidemic 
from  1878  to  1880  in  the  government  of  Poltawa,  a  terrible  ep- 
idemic that  devastated  half  of  the  infantine  population  of  that 
region.  Treating  cases  as  an  allopath,  at  the  beginning  of  this 
epidemic,  he  employed  astringents,  antiseptics,  and  cauterization, 
etc.,  with  disastrous  results. 

At  that  time  he  had  professed  sympathy  for  homoeopathic 
medicine,  which  he  had  tried  in  chronic  affections  but  never  ap- 
plied to  such  a  malignant  disease.  Yet  after  so  manv  failures 
he  tried  Merc-cyan.,  and  was  amazed  at  the  results  obtained. 
He  gave  to  all  doses  from  the  third  trituration  to  the  thirtieth. 
In  some  cases  the  third  produced  aggravation,  and  he  hence 
prefers  the  thirtieth.  Some  cases  do  not  yield  to  Cyanide,  and 
then  Arsenicum-jodatinn,  Phytolacca,  Bromium,  etc.,  effect  the 
cure. 

Notwithstanding  all  this  there  are  some  cases  of  septic  diph- 
theria that  resist  all  treatment  and  terminate  in  death.  As  to  the 
doctors  that  make  the  pretence  of  having  cured  five  hundred  diph- 
theritic cases  at  one  time,  without  one  failure,  with  Merc-cyan. 
and  at  another  with  other  remedies,  as  we  cannot  doubt  their 
word,  we  must  doubt  their  diagnostical  capacity.  These  hasty 
affirmations  considerably  injure  homoeopathic  prestige,  and  au- 
thorize our  adversaries  to  doubt  our  cures.  We  must  be  strict 
with  ourselves,  and  not  forget  that  there  are  mild  epidemics  and 
serious  epidemics,  where  numbers  of  sick  die  notwithstanding  all 
treatment,  and  also  that  we  never  should  present  as  proofs  of  our 
treatment  any  but  serious  cases. 

Dr.  James  Love  completely  agrees  with  Dr.  de  BrasoPs  opinions. 
Dr.  Comby,  physician  of  a  children's  dispensary,  declared  lately 
at  the  Societe  des  Hopitaux,  that  he  saw  only  ten  cases  of  diph- 
theria in  a  year  at  his  dispensary.  Dr.  Love  treated  only  about 
fifteen,  and  his  personal  experience  on  Cyanide,  as  at  most  he  has 
employed  only  the  second  x  trituration,  is  but  little  satisfactory. 
He  has  cured  croup  with  this  remedy  in  ten  cases  in  twelve,  but 
he  believes  the  successes  are  not  owing  to  the  mode  of  operation 
but  to  continued  homoeopathic  treatment. 

Dr.  Serrand  believes  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  his  diag- 
nosis of  diphtheria.  The  seriousness  of  the  symptoms  and  sub- 
sequent paralysis  prove  it,  and  the  doctors  Cretin  and  Remond, 
called  in  consultation,  agreed  in  the  conclusion. 

Dr.  Boyer  has  obtained  notable  results  with  Cyanide  (sixth) 
alternated  in  verv  serious  cases  with  bromine  water  100  x  ac- 


1890.]       INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  175 


cording  to  Dr.  Teste's  formula,  a  dose  of  three  to  four  drops  in  a 
little  sugar  and  water. 

Dr.  P.  Jousset  claims  that  Ozanam  was  the  first  to  use  Bro- 
mine in  diphtheria. 

Dr.  Cigliano  has  found  the  sixth  dilution  of  Cyanide  always 
sufficient  for  the  treatment  of  diphtheria.  In  some  cases  he  ob- 
served on  the  fourth  day  some  phenomenal  aggravations,  such  as 
diarrhoea,  salivations,  augmentation  of  fever,  etc.  He  then  sus- 
pended the  treatment,  and  the  patient  was  cured.  He  has  not 
been  so  fortunate  in  the  treatment  of  croup. 

Dr.  Mark  Jousset  made  a  note  regarding  Cyanide  of  Mercury 
that  the  third  x  is  tiro  dose  most  used  in  France,  although  Dr. 
Petit,  of  Rennes,  has  observed  aggravations,  and  advises  the  use 
of  the  sixth  x. 

Dr.  Serrand's  observation  is  a  valuable  demonstration  that 
Cyanide  was  effective  until  the  laryngitis  period  of  diphtheria. 
Moreover  the  pathogenesis  of  Mcrcurius  contains  some  laryngitis 
symptoms. 

In  general  phthisis  Cyanide  of  Mercury  is  most  convenient  in 
the  pharygitis  period,  and  when  the  croupy  symptoms  appear 
other  remedies  must  be  used,  sometimes  alone  and  sometimes 
alternated.  Bromine  is  really  efficacious,  but  the  patients  do 
not  like  it.  Dr.  M,  Jousset  replaces  it  with  Spongia  tosta1, 
which  contains  Bromine  and  has  been  recommended  by  Hahne- 
mann. This  medicine  alone  or  alternated  with  Cyanide  of  Mer- 
cury has  cured  difficult  cases  of  croup  without  recourse  to  trach- 
eotomy. 

Dr.  Bonino,  of  Turin,  never  has  cured  diphtheritic  laryngitis 
with  Cyanide  alone,  always  alternating  it  with  Bromine.  He  ob- 
serves that  Dr.  Serrand's  case  is  of  little  consequence,  as  he  did 
not  employ  Cyanide  alone,  perhaps  because  with  Bryonia  the 
diphtheria  could  not  have  extended  to  larynx. 

Dr.  Beck  considers  croup  and  diphtheria  two  distinct  diseases. 
In  croup  death  is  caused  by  asphyxia,  as  it  is  impossible  for  air 
to  reach  the  lungs.  In  diphtheria  asphyxia  supervenes  because 
the  blood  corpuscles  are  altered.  Croup  can  be  conquered  with 
Aeon.,  Sponr/ia,  or  Hepar. 

Dr.  Sanllehy,  of  Barcelona,  shares  Dr.  Beck's  opinion,  and 
says  that  croup  should  not  be  confounded  with  diphtheria,  whose 
symptoms  and  duration  are  very  different.  Croup  is  a  disease 
more  localized — more  pertaining  to  children,  and  always  pro- 
duced by  catarrhal  causes.  Diphtheria  depends  on  a  general 
disposition  that  determines  the  formation  of  false  membranes, 
and  affects  most  the  lymphatic  temperament.    Necessarily  the 


176         INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  [April, 


treatment  differs  in  the  one  case  very  ranch  from  the  other. 
Croup  is  a  catarrh  ascending  rather  from  the  bronchial  tubes  or 
lungs  than  from  the  pharynx.  Aconite,  Ipecacuanha,  Bryonia, 
and  Mercury  or  some  of  their  preparations,  when  there  is  ulcera- 
tion, must  be  the  treatment.  Diphtheria,  whose  origin  is  poverty  of 
the  constituents  of  the  blood,  descends  from  the  pharynx  to  the 
respiratory  organs,  and  the  most  direct  treatment  he  has  found 
for  the  same  is  Mercury,  and  above  all  Arsenic. 

Dr.  Schoedler,  of  Berne,  recommends,  with  Dr.  Mark  Jousset, 
the  alternation  of  Cyanide  of  Mercury  and  Spongia.  In  the 
croup  treatment  it  appears  to  him  that  the  high  dilutions  work 
better  than  the  low,  and  in  cases  where  the  latter  have  failed. 

Dr.  Vincent  Leon  Simon  will  not  admit  that  croup  is  a  local 
disease.  It  is  a  general  disease,  very  dangerous  and  contagious. 
He  sees  no  difference  between  diphtheria  and  croup  except  in 
situation.  If  the  child's  larynx  is  of  preference  affected  it  is  a 
question  of  conformation,  and  of  greater  susceptibility  of  this 
organ  in  infancy. 

It  seems  to  prove  the  identity  of  both  affections  by  the  inci- 
dent that  diphtheria  can  be  contracted  side  by  side  with  one  sick 
with  croup,  or  vice  versa. 

Paralysis  Agitaxs. 

Session  of  Friday,  August  23rZ. — The  President,  Dr.  P.  Jous- 
set, in  the  chair.  The  proceedings  of  the  previous  session  were 
approved. 

Dr.  Imbert  de  la  Touche  read  a  paper  on  Seven  Observations 
on  Cares  of  Senile  Trembling  and  Paralysis  Agitans,  following 
with  an  attack  upon  the  regimen  used  in  neurasthenia.  The 
most  famous  classical  authors  consider  this  disease  incurable. 

He  first  referred  to  the  case  of  a  nun  cured  of  trembling  of 
the  hands  which  had  lasted  fourteen  years.  Secondly,  a  lady  of 
sixty  years  who  had  during  three  years  a  trembling  in  the  limbs 
that  Dr.  Heichelheim  cured  with  Bell.30  and  Sulph.6,  alter- 
nated. Thirdly,  a  gentleman  for  four  years  had  a  trembling  in 
the  hands  that  impeded  his  writing  or  carrying  a  spoon  directly 
to  his  mouth.  Rhus-tox.ls  and  afterward  Silic.30  helped  him. 
He  was  completely  cured  by  a  dose  of  Bell.18,  and  after  an  inter- 
val of  eight  days  a  dose  of  Bell.30.  Fourthly,  he  referred  to  an 
old  man  affected  with  senile  tremblings,  rapidly  cured  by  Dr. 
Hughes  with  Agaricus  muscarius.  Fifthly,  an  old  woman  of 
sixty-one  years  with  trembling  of  the  head  and  left  leg  and 
tongue.  At  night  she  was  obliged  to  walk  to  calm  her  agita-  ] 
tion,  which  deprived  her  of  sleep.    Bell.,  Nux~v.,  Iodium,  Secale, 


1890.]       INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  177 


and  Crotalus  failed.  Then  Dr.  Cramoisy  had  recourse  to  Tar- 
entula12;  that  repeated  with  persistency  and  in  different  alterna- 
tions produced  a  cure.  Sixth,  he  referred  to  an  octogenarian, 
treated  by  Dr.  Gallavardin  for  paralysis  agitans  of  the  leg  and 
right  arm  that  he  cured  by  advising  abstinence  from  wine  and 
meat,  and  giving  Xux-v.30  once  a  week,  and  later  every  fifteen 
days.  Seventh,  a  clerk  who  had  tremblings  of  the  head,  cured 
by  abstinence  from  meat,  wine,  coffee,  and  tobacco,  and  giving 
Carbo-veg.-c. 

Dr.  Imbert  de  la  Touche  strongly  insists  with  Dr.  Gallavardin 
on  abstinence  from  wine,  coffee,  and  tobacco  ;  wishing  also  to 
add  meat,  especially  that  of  the  ox,  as, .according  to  Leven,  it 
excites  the  cerebrum  and  the  nervous  centres.  These  abstinences 
are  recommended  also  in  the  treatment  of  neuroses,  and  particu- 
larly in  neurasthenia. 

Dr.  Villers  has  cured  a  stubborn  case  of  paralysis  agitans  with 
Stap  hysJ®. 

Dr.  de  Brasol  adds  to  the  medicine  named  by  Dr.  Imbert  de 
la  Touche,  Mercurius  and  Plumbum. 

Dr.  P.  Jousset  explained  that  according  to  the  order  of  the 
day,  the  papers  pf  Drs.  Gailliard,  Pellicer,  and  Garcia  Lopez 
should  be  considered,  and,  to  aid  the  discussion,  Dr.  Rappaz's 
project  should  be  included.  We  should  not  forget  that  honor 
has  always  constituted  the  strength  of  Homoeopathy,  which  is 
accustomed  to  march  boldly  without  concealing  any  of  its  pro- 
ceedings, and  he  begged  the  speakers  to  be  tolerant  in  the  follow- 
ing discussions. 

Polypharmacy  and  the  Single  Remedy. 

Dr.  Gailliard  read  his  paper  on  Pohjpliannacy.  Hahne- 
mann came  and  destroyed  polypharmacy  that  before  his  time 
ruled  absolutely.  According  to  his  conceptions,  mono-pharmacy 
consisted  in  prescribing  one  remedy  only,  or  in  the  successive 
administration  of  simple  remedies  according  to  indications. 
Finally,  never  oppose  but  one  single  medicinal  disease  to  a  natural 
disease.  The  successive  administration  of  single  remedies  has 
nothing  to  do  with  alternations  or  complexity  of  prescriptions. 

The  adversaries  of  the  single-remedy  principle,  those  who 
practice  alternations  and  complex  prescriptions,  advocate  the 
alternation  method  of  various  medicines — that  is  to  say,  oppose 
several  medicaments  to  the  natural  disease.  Some  employ  the 
alternation  of  the  remedies  as  a  resource  that  must  disappear 
•when  the  materia  medica  is  better  known  ;  others  accept  it  as 
an  easv  proceeding  that  dispenses  with  troublesome  studv  and 
12  .  . 


3  78         INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  [April, 


reflection  ;  some  others  look  on  it  as  a  reform  that  must  be  in- 
troduced, as  a  principle  that  must  be  propagated.  These  last 
are  the  dangerous  ones. 

Some  alternate  two  or  three  remedies,  others  five  to  ten,  some 
alternate  daily,  others  each  hour  or  every  two  hours,  invoking 
for  the  support  of  their  doctrine  some  passages  of  Hahnemann. 
They  pretend  that  the  alternation  of  several  medicines  works 
better  on  the  several  symptoms  presented  by  the  patient  than 
when  employing  one  remedy  alone,  which  will  cover  only  a  few 
of  the  symptoms,  and  add  that  when  it  is  a  case  that  seems  to 
correspond  to  several  remedies,  it  is  hard  to  make  the  exact 
selection. 

The  remedv  that  seems  the  most  homoeopathic  must  be  se- 
lected. The  partisans  of  alternation  must  prove  to  us  the  supe- 
riority of  their  method  ;  not  by  argument,  but  by  observation. 
They  say  that  if  the  cure  is  obtained  by  one  alone  of  the  medi- 
cines, it  is  a  sign  that  the  rest  did  not  impede  its  operations. 
What  do  they  know?  How  do  they  know  that  the  cure  might 
not  have  been  probably  more  rapidly  made  with  one  remedy  alone 
properly  selected  ? 

They  believe  that  in  certain  alternations  the  medicaments 
mutually  help,  for  having  given  under  the  same  circumstances 
the  single  remedy  and  not  having  noted  good  results  they  have 
resorted  to  alternations.  If  they  had  selected  one  remedy  alone 
truly  homoeopathic  to  the  case  in  question,  it  is  most  probable 
that  a  good  result  would  have  been  obtained. 

They  finally  affirm  that  alternated  medicines  acquire  especial 
virtues  with  new  pathogenetic  properties.  This  is  precisely  the 
best  reason,  adds  Dr.  Gailliard,  against  its  practice.  If  the  alter- 
nated medicines  have  not  the  pathogenetic  properties  of  each  of 
the  separate  medicines,  its  pure  action  remains  obscure,  and  its 
use  is  in  consequence  prohibited. 

Dr.  Gailliard  concludes  by  making  it  evident  that  the  alter- 
nationist  gives  no  rules  for  determinating  the  number  of  medi- 
cines that  must  be  alternated,  nor  for  establishing  the  frequency 
of  the  repetition,  nor  the  intervals  of  rest,  nor  the  duration  of 
the  alternation. 

This  subject  has  scarcely  been  skimmed,  and  we  will  return 
to  it  again.  We  have  wished  only  to-day  to  raise  the  cry  for 
vigilance.    Defend  Carthage  ! 

Dr.  Vincent  Leon  Simon  says  the  question  of  alternation  is  a 
question  of  acts  only  which  we  cannot  a  priori  either  accept  or 
reject. 

At  the  London  Congress  of  1881,  Messrs.  Martin  and  Bernard 


1890.]      INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  #179 


cited  an  observation  in  which  Nux-vom.  and  Opium  when  pre- 
scribed separately  had  failed,  and  when  alternated  resulted  in  a 
speedy  cure.  The  only  method  of  resolving  this  subject  would 
be  to  prove  alternated  medicines/  on  the  healthy  man  :  until 
then,  the  question  will  remain  in  suspense. 

Mixed  Medicines  in  One  Prescription  Absurd. 

The  same  arguments  could  be  applied  to  mixed  medicines 
which  Hahnemann  did  not  absolutely  condemn  on  condition 
that  they  were  proved  in  a  mixed  state  on  the  healthy  man. 
Studies  relating  to  some  medicinal  mineral-waters  have  already 
been  made  which  are  truly  complex  medicines.- 

Dr.  Bonino  says  complex  Homoeopathy,  Electro-Homoeop- 
athy, etc.,  made  their  debut  in  1862,  when  Dr.  Belotti  decided 
on  introducing  complex  medicines  and  lent  himself  to  a  specu- 
lation used  by  his  uncle,  the  Abbe  Soleri.  He  adds  that  Dr. 
Conan,  in  saying  that  electricity  had  a  part  in  Dr.  Belotti's  spe- 
cifics, intended  to  depreciate  them.    It  is  not  so. 

Dr.  Conan  observes  that  he  has  quoted  passages  of  Dr.  Belotti 
with  evident  bibliographical  preciseness. 

Dr.  Bonino,  with  the  object  of  demonstrating  that  remedies 
that  enter  into  complex  compositions  do  not  preserve  their  espe- 
cial properties,  selects  two  samples,  sea-water  and  Lycopodium. 

If  the  principal  elements  of  the  first — iodine,  bromine,  and 
chloride  of  sodium — are  as  effective  in  the  mixture  as  when 
separated,  we  have  then  in  sea-water  an  excellent  remedy  for 
syphilis,croup,  etc.,  which  does  not  prove  true.  And  Lycopodium, 
containing  Silicea,  Alumina,  Ferrum,  etc.,  should  have  the  action 
of  Silicea  on  suppurations ;  of  Alumina  on  the  intestines;  of 
Ferrum  upon  chlorosis,  etc.,  which  is  not  so.  Complex  medi- 
cines will  only  be  admitted  when  their  pathogenesis  is  made. 

Dr.  Leon  Simon  observes  that  there  are  three  points  to  be  ex- 
amined:  1st.  The  alternation  of  medicines;  2d.  The  mixture 
of  various  homoeopathic  medicines  in  one  prescription  ;  3d.  The 
mixtures  sold  as  secret  remedies.  He  wishes,  before  all,  to  record 

The  Three  Essential  Precepts  of  Homoeopathic  Thera- 
peutics. 

First.  That  a  medicine  is  not  truly  appropriate  for  a  deter- 
mined case  except  when  it  can  produce  in  the  healthy  man  the 
same  symptoms  as  the  diseased  one  presents.  Second.  That  the 
substance  should  be  administered  in  the  smallest  dose  possible. 
Third.  That  it  is  important  not  to  have  recourse  to  a  second  ther- 


180        INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  [April, 


apeutic  agent  until  the  first  has  exhausted  its  action.  We  cannot 
thus  absolutely  condemn  the  alternation  of  medicines  in  acute 
diseases ;  their  rapid  progress  and  sudden  and  repeated  trans- 
formations, in  which  the  medicinal  action  is  rapidly  spent  ex- 
cuses the  giving  of  two  medicines,  one  after  the  other,  at  prox- 
imate intervals.*  A  different  thing  happens  in  chronic  diseases. 
The  transformations  are  slow  and  the  effects  of  therapeutic 
agents  are  prolonged  during  many  days.  Mixture  of  medicines 
in  the  same  dose  is  truly  more  contrary  to  homoeopathic  pre- 
cepts. All  homoeopaths  of  the  first  generation  and  those  who 
are  vain-glorions  in  being  their  disciples  have  never  departed 
from  monopharmacy. 

Denunciation  of  Mixed  Prescriptions,  etc. 

In  such  mixtures  the  remedy  never  acts  as  it  would  if  alone. 
Each  medicine  is  a  force  and  the  reunion  of  all  forces  constitutes 
a  result.  If  its  physiological  effects  are  not  known,  if  this  mix- 
ture in  question  has  not  been  proved  on  a  healthy  person,  it  is 
impossible  to  apply  it  according  to  the  laws  of  the  similiars,  and 
this  makes  it  no  longer  a  homoeopathic  medicine. 

Before  the  compound  formulas  can  be  accepted  it  should  be 
demonstrated  in  virtue  of  what  principle  the  mixtures  have 
been  studied.  And  we  should  be  shown  how  by  the  action  of 
mixing  several  medicines  their  antidotal  relations  are  avoided 
and  even  their  chemical  reaction.  Until  then  to  use  complex 
medicines  would  be  walking  in  the  dark. 

As  to  Electro-Homoeopathy,  it  must  not  be  confounded  with 
Dr.  Conan's  experiments.  What  shall  wre  say  of  them  now 
when  we  treat  of  secret  remedies  f  We  know  nothing;  of  their 
composition  nor  their  methods  of  preparation.  They  talk  of 
white,  red,  and  yellow  electricity,  etc.,  but  most  certainly  no  one 
has  ever  bottled  electricity.    Such  remedies  are  not  electricity. 

Let  them  take  whatever  name  they  please  for  the  system  they 
recognize,  but  not  that  of  the  method  which  Hahnemann  taught. 


*The  giving  of  medicines  in  sequence — that  is,  one  after  the  other  as  indi- 
cations arise,  even  though  at  short  intervals — is  not  the  same  as  alternation, 
and  cannot  be  used  as  an  excuse  for  practicing  it.  Just  how  short  these  inter- 
vals between  repetitions  must  be  will  depend  upon  the  closeness  of  the  adapta- 
tion of  the  remedy  to  the  condition  of  the  patient,  the  confidence  of  the  doc- 
tor in  his  own  knowledge,  and  his  courage  in  awaiting  its  effects  even  through 
an  aggravation.  Thus  the  knowledge  and  personal  qualities  of  the  doctor  are 
drawn  upon,  and  it  is  the  value  of  these  qualities  that  stamps  the  man  and 
raises  him  to  a  high  rank  among  his  fellows  in  the  profession,  determines  his 
professional  standing.  This  was  the  secret  of  the  success  of  the  late  lamented 
Dr.  Adolph  Lippe.— W.  M.  J. 


1890.]       INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  181 


All  of  us  that  accept  the  title  of  homceopathists  and  bear  it  with 
honor,  declare  "  that  homoeopathic  therapeutics  does  not  contain 
any  medicine  whose  physiological  effects  have  not  been  verified 
by  proving  upon  the  healthy  man,  and  whose  pathogenesis  is 
not  well  known."  We  loathe  and  condemn  the  fabrication,  sale, 
and  use  of  medicines  whose  nature,  composition,  and  method  of 
preparation  are  secret.  Call  themselves  what  they  will,  those  who 
recommend  such  practice,  (say)  Electricians,  if  it  please  them ; 
bur  let  them  leave  us  our  title  of  homceopathists  and  Hahne- 
mann's work  the  title  of  Homoeopathy. 

A  Plea  for  Alternation. 

Dr.  Dudgeon  says  that  monopharmacy  is  the  theoretic  per- 
fection of  homoeopathic  practice;  but  it  is  not  always  practica- 
ble, or  cannot  always  be  practiced  ;  as  diseases,  being  almost 
always  complex,  we  need  to  use  several  remedies  at  a  time,  and 
it  is  not  just  to  say  that  Hahnemann  was  an  enemy  to  polyphar- 
macy. iEgidi  having  proposed  on  certain  occasions  the  mixture 
of  various  remedies,  communicated  his  ideas  to  Hahnemann, 
who  embraced  them  with  distinction.  Dr.  Dudgeon  has  just 
translated  some  of  Hahnemann's  letters,  written  between  1813 
and  1843.  In  one  of  them  he  speaks  approvingly  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  ^Egidi,  and  says  that  Hepar-sulph.  is  a  composition 
of  two  medicines.  Dr.  Dudgeon  believes  that  Hahnemann  was 
not  really  so  dogmatic  as  some  of  his  disciples  who  are  called 
Hahnemannians.  Dr.  Gailliard  has  made  good  arguments  in 
favor  of  the  administration  of  one  medicine,  but  there  are  also 
equally  good  reasons  in  favor  of  the  contrary. 

Dr.  Sanllehy  thinks  there  is  an  easy  solution  of  the  case.  Al- 
ternation must  be  distinguished  from  complex  prescriptions. 
Hahnemann  never  opposed  alternations,  as  he  advised  Bhus  and 
Bryonia  in  typhoid  fever.  There  is  not  perhaps  one  homoeopath 
who  does  not  alternate  medicines.  Hahnemann  advises,  in  the 
first  and  second  editions  of  his  Organon  the  single  remedy.  In  the 
third  it  was  not  such  an  affirmative,  owing  perhaps  to  ^Egidi's 
influence;  but  he  again  did  so  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  editions. 
The  complex  Homoeopathy  of  Mattei,  Sauter,  etc.,  is  mere 
quackery,  and  we  might  as  well  collect  in  one  mixture  alone  all 
known  medicines  to  oppose  all  known  diseases,  as  to  make  a 
number  of  groups  of  remedies,  as  they  do  to-day. 

Dr.  Coxax's  Defense  of  Mixed  Prescriptions. 

Dr.  Conan  says  :  He  alone  is  defending  complex  Homoeop- 
athy attacked  by  all  the  preceding  speakers.    He  has  been  in- 


182 


INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS. 


April, 


duced  to  leave  the  method  of  the  single  remedy  to  employ  com- 
plex medicines,  by  the  method  of  Dr.  Brunner's  book,  called 
Medicine  Based  Upon  the  Examination  of  the  Urine.  Seeking 
to  discover  a  means  to  determine  the  selection  of  medicines,  he 
examined  the  urine  with  a  microscope,  and  was  able  to  destroy 
the  abnormal  organic  elements  it  contained  with  vegetable  or 
mineral  tinctures,  adding  a  drop  of  sulphuric  acid.  He  noted 
that  ordinarily  this  examination  of  urine  indicated  three  or  four 
medicines,  and  he  was  thus  induced  to  prescribe  the  remedies 
together. 

Dr.  Conan's  investigations  have  demonstrated  to  him  that 
various  remedies  are  always  necessary  to  cover  a  morbid  state, 
and  he  has  recognized  that  this  grouping  obeys  a  particular  law 
— relative  antagonism.  Classical  homoeopathic  books  repeatedly 
recommend  the  administration  of  such  a  medicine  after  such  an- 
other, and  frequently  the  second  remedy  is  the  antidote  of  the 
first. 

Dr.  Conan  deduces  from  this  that  complex  medicines  are 
demonstrated  by  clinics,  by  materia  medica,  and  the  human 
organism,  and  that  a  group  of  medicines  is  generally  composed 
of  substances  that  have  in  themselves  an  action  analogous  and 
antidotal. 

Dr.  Chapiel,  of  Bordeaux,  asks  if  Dr.  Couan's  mixtures  have 
been  experimented  with  on  the  healthy  man. 

Dr.  Conan  replies  that,  knowing  individually  the  action  of  each 
element  of  the  mixture,  he  can  deduce  the  action  of  the  mixture 
in  conjunction. 

Dr.  Chapiel  says  the  employment  of  substances  not  proved  in 
the  healthy  man  is  quackery,  not  Homoeopathy. 

Dr.  P.  Jousset  notifies  Dr.  Conan  that  he  has  already  spoken 
more  than  twelve  minutes,  and  also  read  a  pamphlet ;  he  begs 
him  to  finish. 

Dr.  Conan  says  that  his  contradictors  have  enjoyed  a  greater 
latitude  of  time,  and  it  is  impossible  in  a  few  minutes  to  answer 
objections,  expound  his  thesis,  and  finish. 

A  Declaration  for  Pure  Homoeopathy. 

Dr.  Cigliano  begins  by  the  remembrance  of  Hahnemann's 
hatred  of  polypharmacy,  secret  or  divulged,  whose  promoters 
ignore  the  true  concepts  of  Homoeopathy.  Hahnemann  con- 
sidered that  pathology  and  physiology  should  remain  subor- 
dinate to  true  medicine,  which  consists  in  experimental  study  of 
the  remedy,  and  the  selection  of  the  same  by  the  bedside  of  the 
patient. 


1890.]      INTERNATIONAL  HOM.  CONGRESS  OF  PARIS.  183 


For  the  selection  of  the  remedy  must  know  the  individu- 
alitv  of  the  symptoms  of  the  patient,  or  what  Hahnemann  called 
the  totality  of  the  symptoms.  This  study  of  the  symptoms  must 
not  be  confounded  with  the  pathological  diagnosis,  that  gives  a 
forced,  stereotyped  picture  of  disease.  The  most  important  part 
of  medicine  is  the  experimentation  with  medicines  on  the  healthy 
man.  This  materia  medica  has  for  type  pharmacological  dis- 
ease, and  for  law  the  individualization  of  symptoms  determined 
by  differences,  conditions,  and  equivalent  particulars  for  each 
medicine.  Therapeutics  have  for  their  principle  the  law  of  the 
similars,  and  finally  the  selection  of  one  medicine.  Compound 
medicines  are  not  worthy  of  consideration,  as  they  have  never 
been  clinically  proved  nor  experimented  with  upon  the  well 
man. 

Dr.  Cigliano  hopes  that  this  assembly  or  representatives  of 
all  nations  will  hoist  very  high  the  homoeopathic  banner,  the 
only  one  in  medicine  that  attacks  impostures,  unmasks  charla- 
tanism, and,  finally,  the  only  one  that  conduces  to  medical  revo- 
lutions. 

.  Repudiation-  of  Electro-Homoeopathy. 

Dr.  Jousset  proposes  to  the  Congress  that  they  as  a  practical 
proposition  vote  the  following  : 

Tlie  members  of  the  International  Homa.opathic  Congress  con- 
sider that  Electro-Homoeopathy  consists  in  the  administration  of 
complex  medicines,  that  in  this  form  have  not  been  experimented 
with  upon  the  well  man,  and  whose  compositions  and  method  of 
preparation  are  not  exactly  known.  They  condemn  this  doctrine, 
and  declare  that  they  have  no  relation  whatever  with  Homoeopathy^ 

The  vote  was  carried  unanimously. 

Dr.  Wright,  delegate  of  the  American  Institute  of  Homoeop- 
athy, announces  that,  together  with  himself.  Professors  Tod 
Helmuth,  of  New  York,  and  McClelland,  of  Pittsburgh,  have 
been  chosen  delegates.  He  does  not  consider  himself  a  stranger 
in  Paris,  as  in  1856  he  studied  in  the  clinics  of  Tessier,  of  Teste, 
and  of  Dr.  Jousset.  Europe  gave  the  knowledge  of  Homoe- 
opathy to  America,  and  there  it  has  tlourished  and  extended 
rapidly.  The  American  Institute  of  Homoeopathy  sends  a  cor- 
dial invitation  for  the  International  Congress  of  1891. 

Dr.  Jousset  submits  the  following  propositions,  that  were 
adopted  : 

The  committee  on  organization  are  recommended  to  publish  the 
proceedings  and  the  papers  according  to  the  disposable  funds, 
publishing  all  or  those  that  have  been  subjects  of  discussion. 


184 


A  CLINICAL  CASE. 


[April,  1890. 


The  committee  is  recommended  to  nominate  a  committee  on 
pharmacology,  according  to  M.  Ecalle's  proposition,  as  short- 
ness of  time  has  not  allowed  its  discussion.  Also  nominating  a 
commission  charged  with  preparing  for  the  Congress  the  ques- 
tion of  the  laws  of  doses,  and  the  method  of  studying  the  materia 
medica. 

After  Dr.  Jousset's  thanking  the  assembly,  the  session  closed 
at  a  quarter  to  seven. 


A   CLINICAL  CASK. 
Wm.  Steinrauf,  M.  D.,  St.  Charles,  Mo. 

About  ten  months  ago  I  was  called  to  see  E.  B.,  a  child  of 
eight  years,  who  had  been  sick  for  many  weeks  with  chronic 
pleurisy.  The  pleura  was  filled  with  pus.  Two  physicians  of 
the  old  school  had  attended  the  case  during  this  time,  and  had 
dosed  the  child  liberally  with  cathartics,  Croton  Oil  to  the  chest, 
Quinine  to  keep  down  the  fever,  and  Opium  to  procure  sleep. 
They  introduced  an  aspirating  needle  into  the  pleural  cavity, 
but  the  pus  was  so  thick  it  would  not  run.  Death  stared  the 
child  in  the  face,  as  he  was  reduced  to  a  mere  skeleton.  The 
family  now  decided  to  send  for  a  homceopathist,  as  he  could  do 
no  harm  if  he  did  no  good,  and  the  boy  would  die  in  any  event. 

I  was  called  to  see  the  child  on  a  Hue  April  morning.  The 
pulse  was  130,  and  the  temperature  103°.  There  was  extreme 
dullness  on  the  whole  right  side  of  the  chest,  a  terrible  cough, 
with  a  muco-purulent,  horribly  offensive  expectoration  ;  very 
exhausting  night-sweats  ;  no  appetite  ;  in  short,  the  child  was 
in  extremis. 

Now,  here  was  a  perplexing  case.  What  could  we  do  for 
such  a  child?  There  were  no  particular  indications  for  any 
remedy,  yet  something  must  be  done.  I  therefore  dropped  ten 
pellets  of  Sulphur30*  into  a  tumbler  half-full  of  water,  and 
ordered  a  sip  to  be  given  to  the  patient  every  four  hours,  and 
the  parents  to  report  in  three  days.  At  the  end  of  this  period 
the  fever  had  disappeared,  the  bowels  had  moved,  the  cough 
became  less,  and  sleep  returned.  Xo  more  medicine  was  given. 
When  I  saw  the  boy  again  in  four  weeks,  there  was  almost  com- 
plete reabsorption  of  the  purulent  secretion  in  the  thorax. 

The  patient  has  since  continued  well. 


CLINICAL  CASES. 


F.  L.  Griffith,  M.  D.,  Edixa,  Missouri. 

For  over  a  year  I  have  read  that  valuable  journal  The 
Homoeopathic  Physician;  I  have  read  it  thoughtfully  aud 
with  great  interest.  I  cannot  see  how  any  pure  homoeopath 
can  do  without  it,  and  the  mongrel  should  take  it  in  order  to 
find  out  that  he  is  not  a  homoeopath,  or  anything  else,  though 
he  poses  serenely  under  the  protecting  wings  of  Homoeopathy. 
He  is  proud  of  the  name,  it  gives  him  prestige  among  intelligent 
people,  but  the  poor  fellow  is  too  densely  ignorant  to  know  the 
first  principles  of  a  pure  homoeopathic  prescription.  "  He  uses 
Homoeopathy  till  he  finds  it  fails,  then  he  resorts  to  something 
else"  and  lie  prescribes  the  something  else  about  as  intelligently  as 
he  did  Homoeopathy. 

I  will  tell  you,  Dr.  Mix-em- up,  that  you  are  a  disgrace  to 
our  school,  and  I  have  heard  intelligent,  honorable  allopaths 
say  you  also  disgrace  their  school.  Then  where  do  you  belong  ? 
Methinks  I  hear  the  poor  honest  old  eclectic  sigh  heavily  when  he 
sees  he  has  to  receive  you.  I  have  been  trying  for  the  past  few 
years  to  excuse  the  Mix-em-up  doctors,  but  it  is  impossible,  my 
charity  is  drawn  out  to  the  finest  point,  and  contempt  is  now  the 
most  charitable  feeling  I  have  for  them.  They  are  sailing  under 
false  colors,  aud  that  which  we  try  so  hard  to  uphold  is  held 
responsible  for  their  bungling  work. 

I  am  proud  of  the  I.  H.  A.,  and  hope  some  day  to  be  a  mem- 
ber of  that  grand  organization.  I  would  like  to  see  them  found 
a  college  in  some  conveuient  city  (say  Rochester,  X.  Y.)  where 
nothing  b  it  the  purest  of  Homoeopathy  shall  be  taught,  and  only 
members  of  the  I.  H.  A.  shall  lecture  in  the  institution  ; 
then  would  we  have  more  pure  homoeopathic  physicians. 

Most  of  our  colleges  teach  a  very  impure  form  of  Homoeopathy, 
consequently  most  of  our  doctors  who  become  homoeopaths  must 
become  such  after  leaving  the  colleges. 

I  believe  any  studious,  intelligent  homoeopath  will  practice 
according  to  the  law  of  Hahnemann. 

All  it  requires  is  a  thorough  and  impartml  test.  Oh  !  what 
beauty  there  is  in  it,  and  how  grandly  it  fulfills  our  expecta- 
tions ! 

Missouri  has  been  a  little  backward  in  accepting  Homoeopathy, 
but  we  have  now  a  few  noble  followers  of  the  law,  who  are  sow- 
ing the  seed  of  truth,  and  ere  long  this  will  furnish  abundant 
homes  for  true  disciples  of  Hahnemann. 

185 


186 


CLINICAL  OASES. 


[April,  1890. 


1  would  like  to  report  a  few  clinical  cases  here,  cases  that  were 
treated  according  to  the  law: 

Case  I. — Mr.  L          a?t.  fifty-four,  merchant  and  stock 

dealer;  tall,  slender,  black  hair  and  keen  eve,  very  wealthy,  but 
is  a  physical  wreck  from  business  anxiety  ;  stomach  revolts  at 
the  plainest  kind  of  food.  Distress  in  stomach  after  eating  even 
a  little ;  sour  stomach.  About  a  month  ago  was  attacked 
violently  with  la  grippe,  and  the  wise  old  Quinine  vendor  was 
called  in  to  assist  in  the  killing.  After  six  days  of  dosing, 
the  family  had  about  given  up  all  hopes  of  his  recovery,  but  as 
a  last  resort  they  called  in  the  homoeopath.  I  found  him  so 
weak  he  could  scarcely  speak.  Stupefying  headache,  hot  head, 
cold  feet  and  hands,  extremely  nervous,  entire  inability  to  sleep 
night  or  day,  except  perhaps  a  moment  at  a  time,  then  his  eyes 
would  be  half  open.  Great  burning  at  anus.  Redness  and 
burning  at  orifice  of  urethra.  Ears  very  red.  One  dose 
Sulph.290,  dry,  followed  by  S.  L.  in  water  every  hour  when 
awake.  They  did  not  have  a  chance  to  irive  a  dose  of  the  S.  L. 
for  nearly  three  hours,  he  having  slept  two  and  a  half  hours, 
and  awoke  feeling  wonderfully  better,  and  gradually  improving  ; 
a  few  days  later  he  was  troubled  with  chills  which  were  stopped 
with  Xux-v.30,  three  doses  thirty  minutes  apart. 

During  all  these  days  he  had  a  violent  cough,  with  profuse 
expectoration  of  thick,  yellow,  purulent  material.  One  thing 
extremely  peculiar  about  the  cough  was  its  regular  periodicity, 
coming  on  about  nine  a.  m.,  and  stopping  about  one  P.  M.  every 
day.  He  never  coughed  any  except  between  those  hours.  I 
consulted  Lippe's  Repertory  (as  I  do  in  all  cases),  and  found  on 
page  183,  "  Cough  at  same  time  every  day,  Lye,  Sabad."  One 
day,  about  three  hours  after  the  worst  paroxysm  he  had  had,  I 
gave  one  dose  of  Sabad60,  dry,  followed  by  my  friend  S.  L. 
Will  you  believe  me,  dear  Hahnemannians,  when  I  tell  you  he 
never  coughed  again  ?  This  was  as  great  a  surprise  to  me  as  to 
the  patient  and  the  other  members  of  his  household.  The 
stopping  of  such  a  cough  with  so  much  expectoration  between 
the  paroxysms  seems  incredible. 

I  am  indebted  to  Dr.  A.  A.  Whipple,  of  Quincy,  111.,  for 
valuable  assistance  in  the  treatment  of  this  case. 

Case  II. — Mr.  N.,  set.  thirty-six  years.  Chill  at  seven  a.  m., 
every  other  day.  Before  chill,  boneache  and  thirst ;  during 
chill  thirst,  headache,  eyeache,  aching  all  over  ;  chill  begins  in 
back  ;  nausea  between  chill  and  fever  ;  fever  lasts  all  day  ;  ex- 
tremely weak. 

Patient  had  been  suffering  so  much  from  chills  for  several 


1S90.] 


CLINICAL  CASES. 


187 


days  that  some  of  my  friends  persuaded  him  to  try  Homoeop- 
athy. I  was  called  and  found  him  with  the  above  symptoms, 
but  with  no  faith  whatever  in  me.  He  said,  "  Doctor.  I  don't 
believe  your  sugar  will  cure  such  chills  as  I  have.  I  am  going 
to  give  you  one  trial  to  please  my  friends,  and  if  you  fail,  I 
shall  use  Quinine,  although  that  drug  nearly  kills  me."  As  I 
was  to  have  but  one  trial  with  this  gentleman.  I  was  extremely 
thankful  for  so  plain  a  set  of  symptoms.  All  Hahnemannians 
know  with  what  confidence  I  poured  a  few  pellets  on  his  tongue 
from  my  bottle  of  Eupat-perfol.cm .  That  was  nine  days  ago, 
and  he  has  taken  nothing  but  S.  L.  since  that  dose  of  Eupat- 
perfol.    Xeither  has  he  had  any  more  chills. 

Just  such  grand  results  encourage  me  in  my  determination  to 
practice  pure  Homoeopathy. 

Case  III. — Was  called  five  miles  into  the  country  to  see  an 
old  lady  who  was  suffering  with  excruciating  pains  in  right  side 
of  abdomen  ;  most  intense  in  region  of  right  ovary.  Moving 
was  unbearable.  She  was  lying  on  the  painful  side.  Her  lips 
were  very  dry,  and  she  was  drinking  large  quantities  of  water. 
I  will  say  here  that  she  had  sent  for  a  squirt-gun  doctor,  but  he 
was  out,  and  I  went  instead.  She  beggeol  me  to  inject  Morphine, 
but  I  tcould  not.  She  had  calleol  in  her  friends  to  see  her  die, 
but  she  did  not  die.  One  dose  of  Bry.7lm,  dry  on  the  tongue. 
Before  we  could  give  her  a  dose  of  S.  L.  she  was  asleep — the  first 
sleep  for  forty-eight  hours.  She  woke  after  about  three  hours' 
good  sleep.  From  that  time  she  went  on  to  rapid  recovery.  If 
five  thousand  Hahnemannians  had  to  prescribe  for  that  case 
there  would  have  been  five  thousand  prescriptions  of  Bryonia. 

If  all  the  old-school  doctors  in  the  country  haol  to  prescribe 
for  her  there  would  have  been  no  two  alike,  except,  perhaps, 
they  would  all  have  squirteol  Morphine  into  her. 

All  our  cases  are  not  such  grand  successes,  but  when  we  fail 
we  take  the  blame  on  ourselves  and  not  lay  it  on  Homoeopathy, 
as  so  many  do.  I  find  grand  old  simiUa  similibus  equal  to  all 
emergencies,  and  the  results  are  most  gratifying,  indeed. 


THE  WARD'S  ISLAND  " DIFFICULTY "   [N  NEW 

YORK. 

Our  readers  will  recollect  the  references  made  to  this  affair  in 
the  January  number,  pages  5  and  :)2.  This  "  difficulty  "  has 
now  assumed  a  new  phase. 

The  New  York  County  Homoeopathic  Medical  Society,  at  a 
session  held  February  13th,  preferred  a  set  of  "  charges  "  against 
Dr.  Egbert  Guernsey,  President  of  the  Hospital  Board,  and 
Dr.  E.  Guernsey  Rankin.  These  charges  were  briefly  stated  by 
the  New  York  Herald  of  February  loth,  thus: 

"  Charge  No.  1  says  that  Dr.  Guernsey  lias  spoken  sneeringly  of  Dr.  Kellogg, 
who  is  a  professor  in  the  Homoeopathic  College,  saying  that  he  owed  his  po- 
sition not  to  any  merit  he  possessed,  but  to  his  qualifications  as  an  astute  wire- 
puller. Charge  No.  2  cites  the  fact  that  the  doctor  has  on  various  occasions, 
and  with  malice  aforethought,  said  that  the  principles  of  the  society  were 
based,  not  upon  truth,  but  upon  misrepresentation  and  falsehood.  Charge  No. 
3  avers  that  Dr.  Guernsey  has  spoken  of  Dr.  Allen  with  contempt  in  saying 
that  he  had  given  utterance  to  a  falsehood.  Dr.  Guernsey  is  further  charged 
with,  from  time  to  time,  ridiculing  the  doctrine  of  Homoeopathy  in  the  medi- 
cal journals  of  which  he  is  editor,  and  with  giving  official  utterances  to 
thoughts  not  in  keeping  with  the  theory  of  simUia  similibus  curantur.  All  of 
this,  of  course,  is  held  to  be  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  a  true  homoeopath,  and 
consequently  worthy  of  censure.  The  complaint  says  of  Dr.  Rankin  that  he 
■charged  the  society  with  having  fallen  into  disrepute  and  being  guilty  of  un- 
professional proceedings.  It  is  further  alleged  that  he  misrepresented  the 
New  York  County  Homoeopathic  Medical  Society  in  an  article  he  recently 
wrote  for  the  press  and  has  charged  openly  that  the  society  was  guilty  of  dis- 
honest practices." 

Upon  these  charges  Drs.  Guernsey  and  Rankin  were  formally 
summoned  to  stand  trial  before  the  official  board  of  the  society 
at  a  special  meeting.  This  meeting  was  held  on  Friday  evening, 
February  21st,  in  the  rooms  of  the  society.  When  the  meeting 
was  convened  Drs.  Guernsey  and  Rankin  appeared  loaded  down 
with  bundles  of  manuscript  and  accompanied  by  their  lawyer. 
The  defense  was  made  by  the  lawyer  for  Dr.  Guernsey.  The 
defense  denied  that  the  society  had  any  right  to  expel  the 
doctors. 

"  On  the  supposition  that  a  man  can  only  be  elected  a  member  of  the  County 
Homoeopathic  Society  by  a  three-fourths  vote  of  the  society,  and  there  being 
no  provision  in  the  Constitution  for  expelling  a  member  save  one.  which  re- 
lates to  expulsion  for  the  non-pavment  of  dues,  he  asked  by  virtue  of  what 
law  he  was  to  be  removed  from  the  organization." 

We  quote  from  the  New  York  Herald  of  Feb.  22d  : 

"  '  As  to  the  statement  that  I  and  my  friends  contend  simply  for  honesty  and 
consistencv  of  profession  and  practice,  it  simply  brings  up  the  old  question  of 

188 


April,  1890.]   WARD'S  ISLAND  "DIFFICULTY"  IN  N.  Y. 


189 


the  meaning  of  the  word  "  homoeopath."  If  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the 
proper  definition  of  the  word,  if  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  best  policy  to 
pursue  for  the  highest  interests  of  medical  science  is  to  render  one  liable  to 
censure  and  expulsion  by  a  society  which  was  itself  organized  as  a 
protest  and  a  revolt  against  high-handed  bigotry,  dogmatism,  and  ostracism,  I 
should  be  glad  to  have  the  world  know  it.  Whether  it  is  not  creditable  to 
the  society  or  to  myself  to  retain  my  membership  in  the  society  "because  I 
believe  in  maintaining  all  our  organizations  as  a  school  and  would  not 
weaken  or  abandon  one  of  them"  1  leave  to  the  society  without  comment. 
Further,  of  what  section  of  the  medical  code  is  this  a  violation  ?  "What  pro- 
vision therein  give.-;  this  body  power  to  discipline  me? 

"  '  The  second  charge,'  said  Dr.  Guernsey,  '  is  based  on  so  palpable  a  mistake 
of  the  types  as  to  seriously  call  in  question,  if  not  the  good  faith  of  the  com- 
plainants, certainly  their  intelligence.  No  one,  it  would  seem,  competent  to 
conduct  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life,  unless  blinded  by  zealous  rage,  would  have 
based  such  a  charge  upon  such  a  specification.' 

"The  third  charge  relates  to  an  editorial  which  he  wrote  for  hisjournal,  the 
New  York  Medical  Times.  In  this  article  Dr.  Allen,  a  professor  in  the 
Homoeopathic  College,  was  bandied  without  gloves.  The  complaint  against 
Dr.  Guernsey  states  that  in  speaking  of  Dr.  Allen  he  used  these  words,  '  cow- 
ardly, atrocious  and  malicious  lie.' 

u  Dr.  Guernsey  submitted  the  editorial  in  question  with  this  unique  explana- 
tion : 

"'I  deny  that  I  have  published  a  "wrongful  and  malicious  attack  upon  Dr. 
Allen."  I  admit  that  I  published  the  words  charged.  They  were  the  truthful 
expression  of  the  fact.  I  do  not  palliate  or  excuse  one  word  of  what  I  pub- 
lished. My  words  properly  characterized  Dr.  Allen's  motion  and  action. 
What  section  of  the  code  of  ethics  have  I  violated  ?  What  jurisdiction  has 
this  society  on  this  matter  ?  If  I  have  "  published  a  wrongful  and  malicious 
attack"  upon  any  one  surely  the  courts  of  this  State  are  open.  Will  this 
society  take  cognizance  of  such  a  matter  as  between  two  men  ?  A  publication 
made  not  at  a  meeting  of  the  society,  but  openly  to  the  world  !  The  dignity 
of  the  society  should  require  that  outside  personal  controversies  should  be 
relegated  to  the  public  tribunals  established  bylaw  to  remedy  whatever  wrongs 
may  have  been  suffered.' 

"In  reference  to  another  article,  in  which  Dr.  Guernsey  intimated  that  Dr. 
Allen  owed  his  position  to  his  ability  as  a  wire-puller  and  not  to  any  special 
fitness  he  had  for  the  office,  Dr.  Guernsey  replied  that  the  article  was  four 
years  old,  and  not  one  of  the  society  would  call  him  to  account  for.  The 
place  to  settle  any  such  grievance,  according  to  the  doctor,  was  in  a  court  of 
law.  In  reference  to  other  articles  where  the  doctor  is  charged  with  poking 
fun  at  honest  Homeopathy,  a  general  denial  was  entered  as  to  the  facts  cited 
in  the  charges,  with  this  interesting  explanation  by  the  doctor: 

"'Again,  let  us  say  that  for  differences  of  opinion,  honestly  held,  there  can 
be  no  words  of  condemnation  ;  but  the  man  who  has  not  the  courage  of  his 
opinion,  the  man  who  does  not  dare  to  throw  aside  his  professional  shams, 
who  is  dishonest  with  himself  and  therefore  dishonest  with  others,  who  does 
not  love  truth  for  truth's  sake,  but  rather  for  what  it  will  yield,  merits  the 
contempt  of  honest  folk,  and  has  by  his  own  acts  ostracized  himself  from  their 
numbers.' 

"Dr.  Guernsey  closed  his  statement  by  stating  his  position.  He  said  he  was 
still  a  good  homoeopath.  He  believed  that  the  doctrine  of  rimilia  similibus 
curantur  was  good  as  far  as  it  went,  but  it  did  not  by  any  means  cover  the  whole 
field  of  medicine." 


Dr.  Rankin  followed  with  his  own  defense,  which  closed  in 
this  style  : 


190 


BOOK  NOTICES. 


[April,  1890. 


"  I  deny  the  power  of  the  society  to  try  me.  I  assert  that  I  have  had  no  trial. 
I  affirm  that  I  have  committed  no  offense  against  the  code  of  medical  ethics 
which,  if  the  society  had  the  power  to  try  me,  would  render  me  subject  to  its 
discipline." 

In  this  struggle  we  see  two  factions  holding  a  dispute  as  to 
which  one  is  the  true  homoeopath.  Yet  those  of  us  who  are 
familiar  with  the  writings  of  both  sides  can  hardly  believe  that 
either  one  of  them  clearly  understands  and  practices  pure 
Homoeopathy. 

The  published  utterances  of  the  various  combatants  do  not,  in 
our  humble  opinion,  display  this  fine  knowledge.  Take,  for 
example,  on  the  one  hand,  the  definition  of  a  homoeopathic 
physician,  referred  to  in  the  January  number  of  this  journal,  at 
pages  5  and  45,  and  the  remarks  of  the  venerable  Dr.  Wells  in 
this  number. 

On  the  other  hand,  take  the  editorials  and  other  articles  in  the 
New  York  Medical  Times. 

In  the  light  of  these  utterances,  we  do  not  yet  see  how  sym- 
pathy can  go  out  from  the  true  Hahnemannians  to  either  side  in 
the  controversy.  W.  M.  J. 


BOOK  NOTICES. 

Homoeopathy — A  Few  Thoughts  for  the  Intelligent. 
By  S.  Mills  Fowler,  M.  D.,  Gainesville,  Texas. 

This  is  the  title  of  a  tiny  vest-pocket  pamphlet  published  by  Dr.  Fowler, 
for  private  circulation  among  his  patients.  It  is  a  very  clever  setting  forth  of 
the  principles  of  Homoeopathv,  and  verv  suitable  for  circulation  among  the 
laity.  W.  M.J. 

Spinal  Concussion  :  Surgically  considered  as  a  Cause  of 
Spinal  Injury,  and  Neurologically  restricted  to  a  certain  Symp- 
tom Group,  for  which  is  suggested  the  designation,  Erich- 
sen's  Disease,  as  one  form  of  the  Traumatic  Neuroses.  By 
S.  V.  Clevenger,  M.  D.,  etc.  Philadelphia  and  London  :  F. 
A.  Davis,  1889. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  remote  effects  of  spinal  concussion  may  be 
worse  than  the  immediate,  and  that  much  may  be  at  stake  in  such  cases,  it 
behooves  every  physician  to  familiarize  himself  with  what  is  known  on  this 
subject,  that  he  may  recognize  the  possible  future  condition.  This  book,  with 
its  illustrative  cases  from  practice,  adds  to  what  has  been  known  of  the  sub- 
ject. Erichsen's  labors  in  this  field  have  stimulated  the  author  to  the  pro- 
duction of  this  work,  which  we  heartily  commend  to  our  readers. 

G.  H.  C. 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 


Corrections. — March  number,  page  119,  sixth  line  from  the  bottom,  for 
organization  read  organism.  Same  page,  second  line  from  bottom,  for  51  M 
read  55  M.  Page  120,  thirteenth  line  from  top,  for  76  M  read  70  M.  Page 
120,  sixteenth  line,  for  51  M  read  55  M. 

Dr.  "William  S.  Gee,  of  Chicago,  announces  that  he  has  associated  with 
him  in  his  practice  Dr.  H.  C.  Allen,  of  Ann  Arbor,  the  well-known  editor  of 
The  Medical  Advance.  Their  office  will  be  at  at  5401  Jefferson  Avenue,  from 
which  address  The  Advance  will  hereafter  be  issued. 

Removals. — Dr.  F.  W.  Grundman  has  removed  from  S.  E.  corner  Jefferson 
Avenue  and  Washington  Street,  to  2344  "Washington  Street,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 
Dr.  J.  Adams,  from  150  Bays  Street  to  12  St.  Patrick  Street,  Toronto,  Canada. 
Dr.  R.  O.  Harris,  from  Soldier,  Kan.,  to  Boonville,  Mo.  Dr.  "W.  L.  Reed,  from 
2309  to  2812  Washington  Avenue,  St.  Louis.  Dr.  A.  McNeil,  from  220  Turk 
Street  to  784  Van  Ness  Avenue,  San  Francisco.  Dr.  Clarence  N.  Payne,  from 
Port  Jervis,  N.  Y.,  to  Bridgeport,  Conn.  Dr.  H.  C.  Allen,  from  Ann  Arbor, 
Michigan,  to  Hyde  Park,  Chicago.  Dr.  L.  L.  H el t,  from  Columbus,  Ohio,  to 
Franklin,  Ohio. 

Cholera  has  appeared  at  Bagdad,  in  Mesopotamia.  Jews,  Moham- 
medans, and  Christians  are  fleeing  before  its  grim  features  (under  allopathic 
treatment)  like  chaff  before  the  wind.  If  we  have  a  visitation  we  predict 
that  fewer  lives  will  be  lost  under  our  treatment  than  under  any  other — for 
we  have  one  of  nature's  laws  to  guide  and  strengthen  us. 

The  American  Institute  of  Homoeopathy  will  hold  its  next  annual 
meeting  at  Waukesha,  Wisconsin,  at  the  "  Fountain-Spring  House,"  on  Mon- 
day, the  16th  of  June,  at  7.30  P.  M.    The  President,  Alfred  I.  Sawyer,  M.  D., 
has  issued  a  circular  announcing  the  order  of  business,  and  a  list  of  interesting  . 
papers  to  be  read. 

The  Grace  Hospital,  Detroit,  Mich. — The  next  regular  competitive 
examination  for  the  position  of  Junior  Assistant  to  the  House  Surgeon  of  the 
Grace  Hospital,  will  be  held  at  the  Hospital  on  Thursday,  April  10th,  1S90,  at 
four  o'clock  p.  m.  Term,  eighteen  months:  first  six  months  as  junior  assist- 
ant and  anotnecary  ;  second  six  months  as  senior  assistant  and  ambulance  sur- 
geon ;  third  six  months  as  house  surgeon.  Applicant  must  show  evidence  of 
graduation  from  a  recognized  homoeopathic  college.  All  applications  must  be 
addressed  to  the  President  of  the  Medical  Board,  Grace  Hospital,  Detroit, 
Mich.,  and  must  be  accompanied  by  a  certificate  of  good  moral  character.  All 
applications  must  be  presented  not  later  than  April  1st,  1890. 

Robert  H.  Sillman,  Superintendent. 

Extract  from  a  letter  of  W.  M.  Thackeray,  1849. — "I  am  going  to 
kill  Mrs.  Pendennis  presently,  and  have  her  ill  in  this  number.  Minnie  says, 
O  papa  !  do  make  her  well  again;  she  can  have  a  regular  doctor  and  be 
almost  dead,  and  then  will  come  a  homoeopathic  physician  who  will  make  her 
well,  you  know." 

To  Biological  Students. — From  a  desire  to  verify  his  own  researches  as 
to  the  causes  of  failing  nutrition  in  aging  organisms,  the  undersigned  hereby 
offers  three  cash  prizes  of  $175,  $125,  and  $100  for  the  best  three  comparative 
demonstrations,  by  means  of  microscopical  slides,  of  the  blood  capillaries  in 
young  and  in  aged  tissues,  canine  or  human. 

For  particulars,  address  C.  A.  Stephens'  Laboratorv,  Xorwav  Lake,  Maine. 

'  191 


192 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 


[April,  1890. 


The  Doctor  Imposed  on. — Professor  Bilroth,  the  famous  Viennese  surgeon, 
some  time  ago  received  a  letter  from  a  certain  Jew  in  a  small  Russian  town  to 
come  immediately  and  perform  an  operation.  The  professor  in  his  answer 
stipulated  for  five  thousand  marks,  which  was  promised  him.  The  professor 
then  repaired  to  the  Russian  town,  and  upon  his  arrival  he  was  received  by  a 
number  of  Jews,  who  sorrowfully  informed  him  that  the  gentleman  that  was 
to  be  operated  upon  had  died,  and  had  been  buried  already.  And  seeing  that 
the  professor  felt  perplexed  and  regretted  the  journey  which  he  had  made  in 
vain,  the  Jews  comforted  him,  saying  :  "  There  is  yet  some  chance  for  you  to 
make  some  money  here.  There  are  several  sick  men  in  our  hospital  who 
would  require  your  services,  for  which  each  of  them  would  willingly  pay  you 
one  thousand  marks." 

The  professor  gladly  accepted  the  ofter,  and  after  having  performed  about 
five  operations  the  stipulated  amount  was  handed  to  him.  But  a  few  minutes 
before  starting  for  home  the  professor  learned  that  he  had  resurrected  the 
dead  man.  That  worthy  gentleman  had  been  among  the  hospital  patients 
cured  for  one  thousand  marks. — Jewish  Chronicle. 

New  York  State  Medical  Society.— The  State  Medical  Society  in  ses- 
sion at  Albany,  February  loth,  unanimously  adopted  the  following  resolu- 
tion : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  members  of  the  Medical  Society  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  which  has  represented  the  medical  profession  of  the  State  eighty-five 
years,  without  any  reference  to  political  opinions  and  affiliations,  and  merely 
guided  by  their  scientific  convictions  as  experts  in  medical  matters  and  their 
sense  of  duty  and  the  dictates  of  conscience  as  citizens,  entreat  and  urge  the 
members  of  the  Legislature,  without  distinction  of  party  or  of  local  interest, 
to  pass  the  bill  referring  to  the  pauper  insane  as  presented  by  the  State  Chari- 
ties Aid  Association,  and  thus  terminate  a  condition,  the  horrors  of  which,  as 
detailed  in  the  annual  report  of  the  State  Commission  in  Lunacy,  appear  to 
be  irretrievably  connected  with  the  county  care  of  the  insane." 

The  Society  favor  the  passage  of  Senator  Stadler's  State  Medical  Board  of 
Examiners'  bill  and  recommend  that  the  medical  schools  throughout  the 
State  add  the  study  of  Homoeopathy  to  their  respective  courses. 

About  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  members  sat  down  to  the  annual  ban- 
quet of  the  Society  at  the  Delavan  House. 

Fun  for  Doctors. 

Galligan — "  Doctor,  haven't  you  been  attending  an  old  man  Gilfullaw?" 

Doctor—"  Yes." 

"  How  is  he  to-day  ?" 

"He  is  bevond  the  reach  of  medical  assistance,  I  fear." 

"What?  *  Is  he  dying?" 

"Oh  !  no;  he's  broke." — Medical  Times. 

Doctor — "  Well,  my  fine  little  fellow,  you  have  got  quite  well  again  ?  I  was 
sure  that  the  pills  I  left,  for  you  would  cure  you.  How  did  you  take  them,  in 
water  or  in  cake?" 

"Oh!  I  used  them  in  my  blow-gun." — Fliegende  Blatter. 

A  sure  remedy. — "  Did  you  ever  call  upon  Dr.  Banquet  professionally  ?'" 
"  Yes,  once.    I  was  drowning." 
"  Drowning  ?" 

"  Yes.    He  diagnosticated  my  case  on  the  instant,  and  wrote  a  prescription 
on  a  chip,  which  he  threw  into  the  water  where  I  could  get  it." 
"  What  was  the  prescription  ?" 
"  Swim."— Life. 


T  ZEE  IB 

Homoeopathic  Physician, 

A  MONTHLY  JOURNAL  OF 

HOMEOPATHIC  MATERIA  MEDICA  AND  CLINICAL  MEDICINE. 


If  our  school  ever  give  up  the  strict  inductive  method  of  Hahnemann,  we 
are  lost,  and  deserve  only  to  be  mentioned  as  a  caricature  in 
the  history  of  medicine."— constantine  hering. 


Vol.  X.  MAY,  1890.  No.  5. 


EDITOEIALS. 

Medicine  an  Empirical  Art. — "  The  practice  of  medicine 
is — even  at  its  best — so  empirical  an  art,  the  limitations  of  our 
best  endeavors,  when  measured  by  our  aspirations,  are  every- 
where so  narrow,  that  we  should  always  be  prepared  to  hail 
with  joy  any  one  department  in  which  we  discern  some  prospect 
of  advancing  with  anything  like  scientific  accuracy. 

"  Though  pharmacology  has  made  great  strides  in  the  past 
decade,  though  we  are  well  acquainted  with  the  physiological 
action,  and  even  with  the  therapeutic  value  of  drugs;  yet,  com- 
pared with  the  vast  amount  of  labor  already  expended,  how 
small,  on  the  whole,  is  our  success  in  combating  disease  by  phar- 
maceutical agents." 

We  deem  it  superfluous  to  say  to  any  Hahnemannian  that  the 
above  comes  from  a  regular  (?)  practitioner,  and  is  found  in  an 
old-school  journal.  If  one  had  not  seen  the  title  of  the  article, 
which  has  the  above  for  a  besrinnino;,  certainly,  one  would  think 
here,  and  at  last,  we  are  to  learn  something  new  regarding  the 
treatment  of  disease. 

But  let  us  not  be  too  much  amused,  even  though  it  was  writ- 
ten in  connection  with  "  The  Physiological  Treatment  op 
Obesity,"  for  we  can  thank  the  writer — or  those  who  are  too 
13  193 


194 


EDITORIALS. 


[May, 


fat  should — for  again  calling  attention  to  the  importance  of  diet 
in  obesity. 

It  is  true  that,  even  though  we  lav  down  rules  of  diet  for 
many  who  wish  to  be  thinner,  they  will  keep  on  being  fat,  until 
we  recognize  that  obesity  in  most  cases  is  disease,  and  must  be 
treated  homoeopath ically  in  order  to  be  mastered. 

However,  we  may  gain  from  such  articles  as  the  above  men- 
tioned much  that  goes  to  prove  the  truth  of  our  position,  based 
on  Hahnemann's  indefatigable  labors. 

In  the  same  article  the  writer,  speaking  of  errors  that  have 
obtained  regarding  the  cause  of  obesity,  says:  "  It  is  but  another 
example  of  the  observation  to  which  all  of  us  must  have  been 
often  led,  namely,  that  the  most  obvious  and  plausible  explana- 
tions of  natural  phenomena  are  almost  invariably  incorrect." 
Hahnemann  had  something  to  say  on  this  subject,  and  by  turn- 
ing to  our  February  number,  p.  56,  there  will  be  found  a  few 
lines  that  fit  here  admirably.  G.  H.  C. 


Colleges,  Journals,  Pharmacies. — So-called  homoeo- 
pathic colleges,  homoeopathic  journals,  and  homoeopathic  phar- 
macies there  are  in  abundance,  but  the  doubt  is,  where  is  their 
Homoeopathy  ? 

We  are  willing  to  offer  a  reward  for  a  college  where  any  one 
may  learn  Homoeopathy  pure  and  simple,  without  any  feeble 
imitation  of  allopathic  teaching.  We  are  willing  to  increase 
this  reward  for  the  purpose  of  having  pointed  out  to  us  any 
journal  purporting  to  be  homoeopathic,  with  the  exception  of 
Dr.  T.  S.  Hoyne's  Medical  Visitor  and  The  Homoeopathic 
Physician,  which  does  not  bear,  either  in  its  reading  matter  or 
advertisements,  sufficient  evidence  to  prove  that  it  is  prostituting 
the  fair  name  of  Homoeopathy  for  the  sake  of  a  few  dollars. 
As  for  pharmacies ;  are  we  safe  in  offering  a  larger  reward  to 
be  shown  one  in  which  is  not  found  all  the  makeshift  appliances 
that  are  to  be  found  in  any  ordinary  drug-shop  ? 

Indeed,  in  looking  at  the  various  journals  bearing  the  title  of 
homoeopathic,  hearing  of  the  teachings  in  homoeopathic  (?) 
colleges,  and  seeing  what  is  displayed  in  pharmacies,  we  can 


1890.] 


EDITORIALS. 


195 


only  conclude  that  a  conspiracy  has  been  entered  into  among 
these  various  tradesmen  for  the  purpose  of  belittling  true 
Homoeopathy. 

To  know  what  is  taught  in  the  colleges  one  needs  only  to  read 
the  journals.  And  in  reading  the  journals  one  readily  sees  how 
few  there  are  who  understand  the  true  meaning  of  the  term 
Homoeopathy.  And  the  advertisements  !  Compare  them  with 
an  old-school  journal.  There  is  little  or  no  difference.  Illus- 
tration ?  A  monthly  bearing  the  name  of  Homoeopathy  a  short 
time  ago,  in  an  editorial,  strongly  indorsed  an  excellent  paper 
on  "  Antisepticism."  This  paper  wholly  condemned  the  use  of 
any  and  all  so-called  antiseptics  except  cleanliness.  With  this,  of 
course,  we  are  at  one.  But,  a  few  pages  from  this  editorial  was 
.to  be  found  an  advertisement  of  "  Listerine."  And  the  editor 
of  that  journal  is  its  proprietor,  and  has  control  of  its  advertis- 
ing pages  !  The  same  journal  is  now  engaged  in  disseminating, 
through  its  advertising  pages,  a  sure  cure  for  all  cases  of  rupture. 
And  yet  this  editor  claims  to  be  a  consistent  disciple  of  Hahne- 
mann !  Is  this  consistent?  We  should  like  to  ask,  Is  it  honest  ? 
Is  it  honest  to  condemn  in  editorial  pages  as  hurtful  things  that 
receive  indorsement  at  the  same  hands  by  being  admitted  to  the 
advertising  pages? 

Honesty  includes  faithfulness. 

Again,  in  another  journal,  whose  editor  is  a  professor — a 
teacher — in  a  homoeopathic  (?)  college,  we  sometimes  see  edito- 
rials which  have  the  true  ring;.  Then  we  read  that  this  editor — 
this  teacher  (?) — for  hemorrhage  after  labor  gave  material  doses 
of  Ergot.  Is  this  honesty?  is  this  faithfulness?  And  so  we 
may  go  from  one  journal  to  another,  and  with  the  exceptions 
noticed  above,  we  find  but  little  Homoeopathy  and  much  eclec- 
ticism. We  find  one  or  two  pages,  perhaps,  given  to  homoeo- 
pathic matter,  and  the  rest  filled  with  old-school  commendation 
of  various  mixtures  for  pathological  names,  which  any  one 
having  but  an  intimation  of  what  Homoeopathy  can  do  can  only 
turn  from  with  disgust. 

If  these  journals  have  any  excuse  for  being — aside  from  the 
dollars  their  advertisements  bring — we  should  be  glad  to  have 


19G 


EDITORIALS. 


[May, 


it  shown  us.  Our  vision  does  not  extend  so  far  as  to  enable  us 
to  see  an  excuse  for  them. 

As  for  the  pharmacies,  we  trust  the  time  is  not  far  distant 
when  we  shall  have  a  truly  homoeopathic  pharmacy ;  a  place 
where  only  homoeopathic  appliances  may  be  found  j  a  place 
where  we  may  be  sure  that  our  delicate  remedies  are  prepared 
in  a  laboratory  in  which  no  mixtures  of  drugs  are  allowed,  and 
where  we  may  feel  only  that  which  is  honest  obtains. 

We  are  not  believers  in  boycotting,  but  we  wish  to  ask  if  the 
time  has  not  arrived  for  the  followers  of  Hahnemann  to  take 
concerted  measures  to  abate  these  dishonest  practices  which  cling 
like  barnacles  to  the  good  ship  Homoeopathy?         G.  H.  C. 

"  Occasionally  a  regular  [Hahnemann  knew  of  the  regulars] 
brother  practitioner  stumbles  by  a  lucky  hit  upon  a  cure  which 
astonishes  half  the  world  about  him,  and  not  less  himself ;  but 
among  the  many  medicines  he  employed  he  is  by  no  means  sure 
which  did  good.  Not  less  frequently  does  the  neck-or-nothing 
practitioner,  without  a  degree,  whom  the  world  calls  a  quack, 
make  as  great  and  wonderful  a  cure.  But  neither  he  nor  yet 
his  wonderful  brother  practitioner  with  a  diploma  knows  how 
to  eliminate  the  evident  and  fruitful  truth  which  the  cure  con- 
tains. Neither  can  separate  and  record  the  medicine  which 
certainly  was  of  use  out  of  the  mass  of  useless  and  obstructing 
ones  they  employed ;  neither  precisely  indicates  the  case  in  which 
it  did  good,  and  in  which  it  will  certainly  benefit  again.  Neither 
knows  how  to  abstract  a  truth  which  will  hold  good  in  all 
future  time,  an  appropriate,  certain,  unfailing  remedy  for  every 
such  case  that  may  occur  hereafter.  His  experience  in  this  case, 
remarkable  though  it  seemed,  will  almost  never  be  of  service  to 
him  in  any  other.  All  that  we  learn  is  that  a  helpful  system 
of  medicine  is  possible ;  but  from  these  and  a  hundred  other 
cases  it  is  quite  manifest  that  as  yet  it  has  not  attained  the  rank 
of  a  science,  that  even  the  way  has  yet  to  be  discovered  how 
such  a  science  is  to  be  learned  and  taught.  As  far  as  we  are 
1  concerned  it  cannot  be  said  to  exist. 

"  Meanwhile,  among  these  brilliant  but  rare  cures  there  are 


1890.] 


EDITOKIALS. 


197 


raanv,  vulgarly  called  Pferdecuren  [horse  cures],  which,  how- 
ever great  the  uoise  they  might  make,  are  not  of  a  character  to 
be  imitated,  saiti  mortal  i,  madly,  desperate  attempts  by  meaus 
of  most  powerful  drugs  in  euormous  doses,  which  brought  the 
patient  into  the  utmost  imminent  danger,  in  which  life  and 
death  wrestled  for  the  mastery,  and  in  which  a  slight,  unfore- 
seen preponderance  on  the  side  of  kind  nature  gave  the  fortunate 
turn  to  the  case  ;  the  patient  recovered  and  escaped  from  the 
very  jaws  of  death. 

"This  cannot  be  the  divine  art,  that  like  the  mighty  working 
of  nature  should  effect  the  greatest  deeds  simply,  mildly,  and 
unobservably,  by  means  of  the  smallest  agencies." — Hahnemann, 
1805. 


Seqitel.e. —  We  have  always  claimed — and  we  know  that  we 
can  prove — that  no  sequelae  follow  diseases  treated  by  our  law 
of  therapeutics. 

Should  other  affections  follow  an  original  malady — that  is,  a 
state  which  is  new  to  the  patient — by  questioning  we  shall 
find  that  the  patient  had  previously  gone  through  a  similar,  or 
allied,  condition,  and  that  he  had  been  treated  in  a  way  that 
caused  the  condition  to  disappear.  But  it  was  not  cured — 
merely  suppressed.  And  we  may  thus  prove  Hahnemann's 
observation?  on  this  point  correct.  We  need  not  stop  here.  We 
can  prove,  by  the  practice  of  every  Hahnemannian,  that  our 
patients  are  not  liable  to  various  affections  which  we  see 
follow  upon  some  physiological  process,  and  which  are  said 
to  be  a  part  of  this  process,  plus  microbes.  Principal  among 
these  is  puerperal  fever.  Although  our  own  obstetric  practice 
has  been  limited,  yet  we  have  had  a  number  of  cases,  and  in 
not  one  have  we  had  puerperal  fever  to  treat.  And  we  have 
never  stepped  aside  from  our  law  and  resorted  to  makeshifts. 
We  have  always  treated  abnormal  symptoms  by  the  use  of  the 
potentized  remedy  alone. 

The  testimony  of  all  Hahnemannians  is  to  the  same  effect. 
We  shall  be  pleased  to  have  our  readers  who  have  ever  had  any 
difficulty  arise  after  labor— that  is,  any  affection  which  is  said  to 


198 


EDITORIALS. 


[May, 


be  a  concomitant  of  the  puerperum — to  give  ns  their  experience. 
In  doing  so,  it  will  be  of  more  value  if  we  have  given  as  com- 
plete a  history  of  the  case  or  cases,  as  is  possible.  And  we  shall 
be  glad  to  have  evidence  which  will  strengthen  the  position  we 
have  taken  on  the  subject.  Thus  we  may  learn  just  how  far  we 
are  justified  in  maintaining  that  position.  G.  H.  C. 

Coincidences. — In  the  March  number  of  The  American 
Homwopathist  is  a  series  of  clever  editorials  by  Dr.  Frank  Kraft, 
having  the  above  title  for  their  theme.  In  the  third  one,  on 
page  86,  is  the  report  of  a  case  of  gall-stone  colic  which  so  strongly 
recalls  an  experience  of  our  own  that  we  are  induced  to  relate  it. 

It  was  a  case  of  renal  colic  in  a  woman.  The  patient  was 
nominally  under  the  care  of  our  honored  friend  and  benefactor, 
the  late  Dr.  Lippe.  But  as  he  was  unable  to  continue  in  attend- 
ance, owing  to  sudden  illness,  the  care  of  the  case  fell  to  our  lot 
in  common  with  all  the  rest  of  his  practice. 

The  patient  had  had  numerous  and  terrible  attacks  for 
many  years.  She  had  always  been  treated  by  physicians  of  the 
old  school  of  medicine,  or  else  by  eclectic  homoeopath ists.  Con- 
sequently she  had  been  liberally  dosed  with  Morphine,  until  her 
arms  were  studded  with  painful  nodes  and  her  reason  very 
nearly  dethroned. 

At  last,  in  complete  despair,  her  friends  telegraphed  a  state- 
ment of  the  case  to  Dr.  Lippe.  We  were  present  in  his  office 
when  the  telegram  came.  It  completely  filled  three  telegraphic 
blanks.  Dr.  Lippe  advised  Lycopodium,  high.  The  effect  was 
so  remarkable  that  the  patient  came  to  Philadelphia  shortly 
afterward  to  continue  his  treatment. 

It  was  then  that  she  fell  under  our  notice.  For,  after  an  un- 
usually long  interval  of  peace,  one  of  the  attacks  came  on.  We 
were  hastily  summoned,  and  found  the  patient  groaning  loudly, 
and  writhing  about  the  bed  like  a  serpent.  Her  sister  was 
vigorously  pressing  her  closed  fist  into  the  right  inguinal  region. 
But  the  patient  constantly  exclaimed  :  "  Sister,  press  harder  n 
We  learned  that  only  this  hard  pressure  gave  relief,  whilst  a  slight 
touch  aggravated  instantly. 


1890.] 


THE  REPETITION  OF  THE  DOSE. 


199 


Upon  this  indication  we  gave  Nux-vomica20  in  water.  Ia 
ten  minutes  the  patient  was  perfectly  quiet.  The  relief  was  so 
remarkable  and  so  quick  that  the  patient  accused  us  of  giving 
Morphia.    We  had  some  difficulty  in  satisfying  her  suspicions. 

"  If  you  have  given  me  Morphia/7  she  added,  "  you  may  go 
out  that  door  and  not  return,  for  I  will  never  again  take  Mor- 
phia." 

This  was  the  last  attack  she  experienced  for  some  years.  So 
here  is  another  coincidence  to  offset  the  ambitious  dispenser  of 
lead  quoted  in  the  editorial.  W.  M.  J. 


THE  REPETITION  OF  THE  DOSE. 

Dr.  Ad.  Lippe. 

It  has  been  often  asked  by  beginners  of  the  practice  of  Homoe- 
opathy, as  well  as  by  students,  how  often  a  dose  of  medicine 
should  be  repeated.  A  priori,  no  rules  for  the  repetition  of  the 
dose  can  be  laid  down.  In  very  acute  diseases,  one  single  dose 
may  suffice,  or  it  may  be  necessary  to  repeat  the  dose  at  very 
short  intervals  ;  in  chronic  diseases,  one  dose  may  act  for  days, 
weeks,  and  months,  or  it  may  become  necessary  to  repeat  the  dose 
daily  or  oftmer  for  a  day,  a  week,  or  even  for  months.  In  all 
this  the  practitioner  must  be  guided  by  his  individual  judgment. 
Individual  judgment  must  not  be  mistaken  for,  or  confounded 
with,  individual  opinion,  individual  whim,  or  individual  caprice; 
these  mistaken  notions  of  inalienable  rights  to  indulge  in  a  licen- 
tious freedom  of  medical  opinion  and  action  are  adverse  to  the 
Scientific  and  sure  guidance  to  which  individual  judgment  sub- 
mits. Individual  judgment  implies  in  this,  as  in  every  case  in 
which  a  practical  application  of  fundamental  laws  and  rules  is 
to  be  made,  that  the  practical  application  left  to  the  individual 
judgment  of  the  practitioner  of  a  science  must  positively  be  in 
harmony  with  the  laws  governing  that  science,  and  with  the 
rules  already  established  governing  their  practical  application. 
In  chemistry,  as  well  as  in  all  scientific  pursuits,  fundamental 


200 


THE  REPETITION  OF  THE  DOSE. 


[May, 


rules  and  laws  exist  which  must  be  followed,  if  the  investigator 
expects  to  reach  or  obtain  satisfactory  results. 

The  individual  judgment  implies,  therefore,  that  the  practi- 
tioner has  to  judge  in  every  given  case  for  himself  how  previ- 
ously established  laws  and  rules,  which  he  is  supposed  to  have 
accepted  when  he  attempts  to  practice,  shall  and  must  be  applied. 
It  will  be  clear  to  his  mind  that  the  very  first  rule  ever  laid 
down  by  Hahnemann,  and  accepted  by  his  followers,  respecting 
the  repetition  of  the  dose,  is  "  The  dose  must  not  be  repeated  till 
the  action  of  the  last  dose  administered  has  been  fully  exhausted" 
Accepting  this  as  a  sure  guide,  other  questions  present  them- 
selves to  the  thinking  practitioner. 

1st.  What  are  the  infallible  indications  showing  the  favorable 
action  of  a  dose  administered? 

2d.  What  are  the  infallible  indications  that  its  action  has  been 
exhausted  ? 

After  the  administration  of  a  properly  potentized  homoeo- 
pathic remedy,  given  singly  and  in  a  single  dose,  we  see  its  effect 
in  an  acute  disease  very  soon,  often  in  a  few  minutes,  and  the 
more  acute  and  the  more  severe  the  attack,  the  sooner  may  the 
development  of  the  action  of  that  dose  be  expected.  The  close 
observer  will  perceive,  very  soon  after  the  administration  of  the 
dose,  some  auspicious  symptoms  showing  him  the  action  of  the 
dose  administered.  Great  distress  and  pains  may  suddenly,  and 
for  a  short  time,  be  aggravated,  or  may  cease  and  sleep  set  in,  or 
the  stomach  be  relieved  of  its  contents  when  it  had  been  over- 
loaded and  suffering  was  caused  by  it,  or  mental  anguish  give 
place  to  quietude,  the  pulse  may  change  for  the  better,  the  ther- 
mometer may  show  an  improvement.  If  the  action  of  the  dose 
administered  has  once  begun,  and  if  even  the  improvement  is 
slow  but  steady,  then  we  know  that  the  dose  administered  con- 
tinues to  develop  its  curative  powers,  or  we  may  infer  that  the 
vis  medicatrix  natural  once  set  to  develop  its  health-restoring 
office,  is  still  at  work,  and  wants  no  other  aid  by  medicine.  In 
chronic  diseases  the  action  of  the  dose  administered  cannot  de- 
velop such  sudden  effects ;  this  would  be  contrary  to  the  nature 
of  a  long-existing  and  deep-seated  disease.    If  such  a  sudden 


1890.] 


THE  REPETITION  OF  THE  DOSE. 


201 


exhibition  of  the  drug-action  follows  its  administration  ;  if  the 
improvement  of  the  case  is  very  rapid,  then  either  the  remedy 
acted  as  a  palliative  only,  or  was  not  rightly  chosen  ;  or,  if  very 
similar  and  carefully  chosen,  such  sudden  improvement  generally 
forebodes  no  good,  a  repetition  rarely  ever  produces  a  percepti- 
ble improvement,  and  other  ever  so  well-chosen  remedies  will 
cause  rapid  but  short-lasting  improvement.  It  is  especially  in 
chronic  diseases  that  aggravations  frequently  follow  the  admin- 
istration of  a  truly  homoeopathic  remedy,  and  if  new  symptoms 
appear,  of  which  the  sick  complained  previously,  then  we  may 
infer  with  almost  positive  certainty  that  the  remedy  is  develop- 
ing its  curative  powers.  A  very  perceptible  improvement,  such 
as  is  acknowledged  by  the  sick  himself,  very  frequently  does  not 
take  place  in  acute  diseases  before  the  third  day  ;  this  is  to  be 
accounted  for,  not  by  any  pathological  deductions,  but  by  the 
fact  that  the  sick-making  powers  of  a  single  dose  of  a  well- 
potentized  drug',  when  taken  by  a  healthy  person,  very  fre- 
quently do  not  begin  to  show  their  effects  until  the  third  day 
after  it  has  been  taken ;  the  very  attentive  observer  will  in  such  cases 
have  perceived  very  soon  after  its  administration  to  the  healthy 
the  same  auspicious  symptoms  he  has  learned  to  observe  on  the 
sick.  A  repetition  of  the  dose  before  the  one  previously  admin- 
istered has  developed  its  effects,  or  before  its  effects  are  ex- 
hausted, causes  an  interruption  of  the  internal,  to  our  percep- 
tions and  understandings,  hidden,  process  in  the  interior  of  the 
organism,  having  for  its  object  the  restoring  of  the  sick  to  health, 
therefore  must  be  avoided  :  and,  furthermore,  such  an  untimely 
interference  is  invariably  followed  by  results  retarding  a  recovery, 
and  may  even  at  times  so  derange  the  action  of  the  organism, 
striving  to  combat  the  existing  disturbances,  that  the  recovery 
may  not  only  be  retarded,  but  be  made  very  doubtful. 

We  know  that  the  curative  powers  of  a  dose  administered  have 
been  exhausted  when  the  improvement  comes  to  a  perfect  stand- 
still, especially  in  acute  diseases;  a  repetition  of  the  same  remedy 
may  become  necessary  if  the  existing  symptoms  still  indicate  it. 
It  was  HAHNEMANN  who  advised  us,  in  his  Chronic  Disrates,  then 
to  administer  a  different  jwtency,  but  if  new  or  other  symptoms 


202 


THE  REPETITION  OF  THE  DOSE. 


[May, 


present  themselves,  then  another  remedy  has  to  be  chosen.  In 
chronic  diseases  especially  will  it  happen  that  the  symptoms  for 
which  the  remedy  has  been  administered  have  been  entirely 
removed,  but  that  in  the  course  of  time,  often  after  some  weeks, 
the  same  previously  observed  symptoms  reappear  in  a  modified 
form  ;  in  this  case  the  action  of  the  formerly  administered  dose 
continues,  and  a  repetition  would  materially  interfere  with  the 
cure.  Tli is  can  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact,  that  persons  who 
have  suffered  from  a  succession  of  symptoms  from  a  single  dose 
administered,  found  these  symptoms  disappear  for  a  time,  but 
that  after  days  and  sometimes  after  weeks  the  same  symptoms 
reappeared  in  a  modified  form,  without  a  repetition  of  the  dose 
of  the  drug  first  taken.  If  a  repetition  of  the  dose  becomes 
necessary  because  the  effects  of  the  last  dose  administered  have 
been  fully  exhausted,  it  must  again  be  left  to  the  individual 
judgment  of  the  physician  in  what  manner  this  repetition  should 
be  made.  If  a  dose  administered  has  acted  for  a  long  time,  in 
acute  diseases  for  days,  in  chronic  diseases  for  weeks  or  months, 
we  may  reasonably  judge  that  it  would  be  best  to  again  administer 
one  more  single  dose;  but  if  the  action  of  the  dose  has  lasted  only 
a  comparatively  short  time,  has  been  rapidly  exhausted,  especially 
in  acute  diseases,  and  a  repetition  appears  still  advisable,  then  it 
would  almost  always  be  better  to  dissolve  a  single  dose  of  the 
remedy  now  to  be  repeated  in  some  few  ounces  of  water,  and 
continue  its  administration  in  broken  doses  till  it  becomes 
evident  that  the  action  of  the  dose  in  this  manner  administered 
has  fully  set  in,  and  the  symptoms  for  which  it  was  given  are 
yielding  to  it,  becoming  lessened  in  every  respect;  in  chronic 
diseases,  the  individual  judgment  of  the  physician  may  lead  him 
to  administer  the  remedy  in  daily  doses  or  in  many  doses  a  day 
for  a  length  of  time,  till  it  becomes  evident  that  the  symptoms 
are  materially  relieved,  and  then  the  action  of  the  repeated  doses 
will  scarcely  ever  be  exhausted  in  a  short  time,  but  will  probably 
last  for  weeks  and  months. 

The  greatest  care  should  be  taken  never  to  repeat  the  dose,  or 
administer  another  remedy  till  the  effects  of  the  dose  last  taken 
have  been  exhausted.     This  dose  may  be,  and  often  is,  a  single 


1890.]      MARK  TWAIN'S  TRIBUTE  TO  HOMOEOPATHY.  203 


dose,  or  it  may  be  a  dose  dissolved  in  water  and  given  at  short 
intervals,  or  it  may  be  a  repetition  of  doses  at  short  intervals, 
till  some  effect  of  this  dose  is  apparent. 

[The  foregoing  article  from  the  pen  of  our  lamented  master 
and  friend,  the  late  Dr.  Adolph  Lippe,  first  appeared  in  1878 
in  the  pages  of  a  journal  called  the  Organon,  published  by  the 
distinguished  Dr.  Thomas  Skinner,  now  of  London.  It  may  be 
found  at  page  286  of  volume  I. 

We  consider  the  present  a  most  fitting  time  for  the  republish- 
ing of  this  article,  as  the  question  which  it  treats  was  discussed 
in  the  International  Congress,  whose  proceedings  are  given  in 
our  April  number.  It  seems  a  comprehensive  answer  to  the 
ideas  advanced  in  the  sessions  of  the  Congress.  To  many  of  our 
readers  it  is  new,  and  we  are  sure  all  will  welcome  it  as  being 
most  instructive,  and  a  reminder  of  one  of  the  foremost  men  of 
the  homoeopathic  school. — W.  M.  J.] 


MARK  TWAIN'S  TRIBUTE  TO  HOMOEOPATHY. 

In  an  article,  contributed  to  Harper's  Monthly  for  February, 
to  which  we  have  before  called  the  attention  of  our  readers  in 
the  March  number,  p.  141,  Mark  Twain  writes,  half  humorously 
and  half  in  earnest,  upon  "A  Majestic  Literary  Fossil,"  and 
pays  a  deserved  compliment  to  Homoeopathy  for  the  purifying 
work  it  has  done  in  medicine.  And  this  work  has  been  done 
by  pure  Hahnemannian  Homoeopathy ;  not  in  the  least  by  its 
weak  eclectic  imitator.  That  the  compliment  is  deserved  on 
the  part  of  Homoeopathy,  any  one  may  convince  himself  by 
studying  the  works  upon  both  practice  and  materia  medica,  pub- 
lished and  used  by  the  old  school  during  the  past  fifty  years. 
In  the  earlier  works  he  will  read  of  all  these  ancient  methods, 
which  Mark  Twain  justly  ridicules;  in  the  works,  recently 
issued,  he  will  see  crude  imitations  of  homoeopathic  practice. 
The  change  has  been  not  only  in  the  amounts,  the  complexity, 
and  the  character  of  the  ingredients  used  in  their  prescriptions, 
but  also  in  the  manner  in  which  drugs  are  prescribed.  As  Mark 


204        MARK  TWAIN'S  TRIBUTE  TO  HOMOEOPATHY.  [May, 


Twain  says,  this  change  has  been  an  utter  reversal,  in  a  couple 
of  generations,  of  an  attitude  which  had  been  maintained  with- 
out challenge  or  interruption  from  earliest  antiquity.  He 
writes  : 

"  So  recent  is  this  change  from  a  three  or  four  thousand  year 
twilight  to  the  flash  and  glare  of  open  day  that  I  have  walked 
in  both,  and  yet  am  not  old.  Nothing  is  to-day  as  it  was 
when  I  was  an  urchin ;  but  when  I  was  an  urchin,  nothing  was 
much  different  from  what  it  had  always  been  in  this  world. 
Take  a  single  detail,  for  example — medicine.  Galen  could  have 
come  into  my  sick-room  at  any  time  during  my  first  seven  years 
— I  mean  any  day  when  it  wasn't  fishing  weather,  and  there 
wasn't  any  choice  but  school  or  sickness — and  he  could  have  sat 
down  there  and  stood  my  doctor's  watch  without  asking  a  ques- 
tion. He  would  have  smelt  around  among  the  wilderness  of 
cups  and  bottles  and  phials  on  the  table  and  the  shelves,  and 
missed  not  a  stench  that  used  to  gladden  him  two  thousand  years 
before,  nor  discovered  one  that  was  of  a  later  date.  He  would 
have  examined  me,  and  run  across  only  one  disappointment — I 
was  already  salivated;  I  would  have  him  there;  for  I  was  al- 
ways salivated,  Calomel  was  so  cheap.  He  would  get  out  his 
lancet  then;  but  I  would  have  him  again  ;  our  family  doctor 
didn't  allow  blood  to  accumulate  in  the  system.  However,  he 
could  take  dipper  and  ladle,  and  freight  me  up  with  old  familiar 
doses  that  had  come  down  from  Adam  to  his  time  and  mine ; 
and  he  could  go  out  with  a  wheelbarrow  and  gather  weeds  and 
offal,  and  build  some  more,  while  those  others  were  getting  in 
their  work.  And  if  our  reverend  doctor  came  and  found  him 
there,  he  would  be  dumb  with  awe,  and  would  get  down  and 
worship  him.  Whereas  if  Galen  should  appear  among  us  to- 
day, he  could  not  stand  anybody's  watch  ;  he  would  inspire  no 
awe;  he  would  be  told  he  was  a  back-number, and  it  would  sur- 
prise him  to  see  that  that  fact  counted  against  him,  instead  of  in 
his  favor.  He  wouldn't  know  our  medicines  ;  he  wouldn't  know 
our  practice ;  and  the  first  time  he  tried  to  introduce  his  own,  we 
would  hang  him." 

[After  giving  many  examples  of  ancient  practice,  with  its  crude 


1890.] 


A  PROTEST. 


205 


ideas,  its  horrible  mixtures,  etc.,  the  writer  concludes  by  declar- 
ing :] 

"  When  you  reflect  that  your  own  father  had  to  take  such 
medicines  as  the  above,  and  that  you  would  be  taking  them  to- 
day yourself  but  for  the  introduction  of  Homoeopathy,  which 
forced  the  old-school  doctor  to  stir  around  and  learn  something 
of  a  rational  nature  about  his  business,  you  may  honestly  feel 
grateful  that  Homoeopathy  survived  the  attempts  of  the  allo- 
pathists  to  destroy  it,  even  though  you  may  never  employ  any 
physician  but  an  allopathist  while  you  live." 

If  Homoeopathy  has  done  so  much  for  mankind,  is  it  not 
worth  preserving  in  its  purity  and  strength  ?  E.  J.  L. 


A  PROTEST. 

10  East  36th  Street,  New  York,  March  31st,  1890. 
Editors  of  The  Homoeopathic  Physician. 

Gentlemen  : — I  find  myself  compelled  to  write  to  you  com- 
plaining of  the  unfair  treatment  your  journal  pursues  toward  me 
personally.  It  is  extremely  distasteful  for  me  to  do  this,  but, 
since  for  twenty-five  years  and  more  I  have  faithfully  and  con- 
scientiously practiced  and  taught  straight  Homoeopathy  as  I 
understand  it,  and  have  persistently,  in  season  and  out  of  season, 
antagonized  mongrelism  in  all  its  forms,  it  is  not  quite  fair  to 
be  attacked  in  the  way  in  which  your  journal  is  used  for  that 
purpose.  It  would  give  me  great  pleasure  at  any  time  to 
answer  in  the  same  number  of  the  journal  any  article  reflecting 
upon  my  professional  character. 

Concerning  my  definition  of  a  homoeopathic  physician,  I  have 
simply  to  say  that  it  is  unassailable.  Dr.  P.  P.  Wells  lias  seen 
fit  in  the  last  number  of  your  journal  to  refer  to  me  as  ignorant. 
This  imputation  is  just.  Probably  no  one  has  more  critically 
or  more  steadily  pursued  the  study  of  our  materia  medica  for 
twenty-five  years  than  I  have,  and  to-day  I  am  profoundly  im- 
pressed with  my  own  ignorance  of  it,  and  I  find,  which  I  am 
sorry  to  say,  is  not  found  by  some  others,  that  my  charity  to- 


206 


A  PROTEST. 


[May, 


ward  the  opinions  of  others  increases  as  my  years  increase. 
Dr.  Wells  chooses  to  refer  as  a  parallel  case  to  those  who  pro- 
fess Christianity,  and  I  think  his  reference  is  judicious.  We 
call  every  one  a  Christian  who  professes  himself  as  such  and 
publicly  unites  w  ith  those  professing  a  similar  faith,  and  yet  it  is 
probable  that  no  one  lives  a  perfectly  Christian  life.  The  pro- 
fessing Christian  does  the  best  that  he  can,  and  in  so  doing  is 
entitled  to  be  called  a  professing  Christian. 

The  rule  of  our  Homoeopathic  Society  in  New  York  compels 
each  one  who  unites  with  it  to  declare  that  he  believes  Homoe- 
opathy to  be  the  best  way  of  treating  the  sick  ;  and  when  a  man 
publicly  unites  with  the  Society  and  signifies  his  assent  to  this 
proposition  he  publicly  declares  himself  a  homoeopathist  and 
does  the  best  he  can  to  practice  Homoeopathy,  and  therefore  he 
must  be  known  to  the  public  as  a  homoeopathic  physician.  Some 
practice  Homoeopathy  more,  some  less,  each  according  to  his 
knowledge  of  the  materia  medica  and  his  ability  to  apply  it  in 
practice.  There  can  be  no  middle  ground.  A  man  believes 
Homoeopathy  the  best  practice,  follows  it  as  much  as  he  can,  and 
is  entitled  to  be  called  a  homoeopathic  physician.  A  man  pro- 
fessing to  be  a  Christian  publicly  acknowledges  his  faith,  en- 
deavors to  live  up  to  it  and  therefore  is  entitled  to  be  called  a 
Christian. 

Furthermore,  so  far  as  my  experience  goes,  there  is  no  man 
trying  to  practice  Homoeopathy  who  always  succeeds.  I  witness 
the  most  exclusive  practitioners  of  our  art  reporting  cures  made 
with  the  highest  potencies  of  a  drug  which  has  never  been 
proved,  whose  indications  are  wholly  clinical.  This  surely  is 
not  Homoeopathy.  It  is  certainly  high  potency  allopathy. 
There  is,  I  am  sorry  to  see,  an  increasing  tendency,  even  among 
those  who  use  the  highest  potencies,  to  prescribe  from  clinical 
indications  and  to  depart  from  the  strict  law  of  Homoeopathy. 
All  my  life  I  have  been  fighting  this  tendency.  Those  who  use 
low  potencies  and  crude  drugs  are  extremely  liable  to  neglect 
the  study  of  the  materia  medica  and  to  over-dose  their  patients. 
Those  who  use  the  highest  potencies  fill  our  journals  with  re- 
ports of  cures  which  are  allopathic.    Schusslerism  has  infected 


1890.] 


A  PEOTEST. 


207 


every  branch  of  our  school.  I  was  never  more  pained  than 
when  the  late  Dr.  Hering  in  a  way  indorsed  this  practice.  Can- 
not all  of  those  who  are  devoted  to  Homoeopathy  and  who  be- 
lieve that  the  best  interests  of  the  sick  demand  its  perfect  work 
unite  in  the  advocacy  of  pure  methods  ?  Is  it  not  possible  so 
to  exemplify  its  practice  that  every  one  will  be  convinced? 
Oar  enemies,  the  allopaths,  sneer  at  us  for  our  empiricism  and 
our  differences  in  the  matter  of  the  dose.  We  have  a  great 
mission.  Let  us  not  break  ranks  by  calling  each  other  names 
or  imputing  unworthy  motives  to  those  who  follow  our  art. 

In  conclusion,  I  beg  to  make  one  more  complaint,  and  that  is 
in  relation  to  the  teaching  of  Homoeopathy  in  New  York.  That 
I  am  incompetent  to  teach  I  freely  acknowledge,  but  that  so  far 
•as  I  am  able  to  teach  I  must  affirm  Homoeopathy  is  taught 
strictly  and  purely.  The  graduates  of  the  ISTew  York  College, 
from  one  chair  at  least,  are  thoroughly  grounded  in  the  best 
methods  of  practicing  Homoeopathy.  They  are  taught  pure 
symptomatology,  that  the  best  prescriptions  are  made  from  the 
symptoms  of  the  patient  and  not  from  a  pathological  basis. 
They  are  taught  the  use  of  the  single  dose  of  any  potency  they 
may  see  fit  to  use,  and  they  are  cautioned  in  almost  every  lecture 
against  over-dosing  their  patients.  It  must  also  be  said  that 
the  Xew  York  College  endeavors  to  instruct  its  students  in  all 
other  methods  in  vogue  in  the  profession.  It  would  not  have 
its  students  leave  its  halls  ignorant  of  the  methods  pursued  by 
other  practitioners. 

Besides,  whatever  may  be  said  to  the  contrary,  it  is  absolutely 
true  that  every  physician  in  large  practice  is  obliged  to  use  other 
than  homoeopathic  methods  in  the  treatment  of  the  sick,  cer- 
tainly not  for  their  cure,  but  sometimes  for  their  palliation  when 
they  cannot  be  cured.  This  practice  will  continue  until  our  materia 
medica  is  so  complete  that  every  patient  will  be  cured.  Then 
there  will  be  no  louger  any  use  for  palliatives  in  any  form,  not 
even  a  hot-water  bag  or  an  electric  battery. 

Yours  very  truly, 

T.  F.  Allex,  M.  D. 


WHAT  IS  THE  SDIILLIMUM? 


(Continued  from  January  and  March  numbers.) 

M.  A.  A.  Wolff,  M.  D.,  Gainesville,  Texas. 
The  paticDt  again  wrote  as  follows: 

"  February  25th. — About  ten  days  ago  and  fifteen  days  after 
menses  began,  I  felt  pain  and  soreness  about  the  bladder,  uri- 
nating very  often,  and  this  trouble  has  increased  so  that  I  am 
in  bed.  I  suffer  intense  burning  and  throbbing  just  at  the 
mouth  and  neck  of  the  bladder,  and  there  is  enlargement  of  the 
little  '  kernels '  in  the  groin  and  about  my  waist.  I  feel  as 
though  a  rope  as  large  as  my  wrist  had  been  bound  around  me 
and  I  cannot  stand  up  straight  nor  take  a  deep  breath  or  sneeze 
or  cough  for  the  pain,  which  just  goes  half-way  from  the  middle 
in  front  round  the  left  side  to  the  middle  of  my  back.  My  head 
aches  in  the  right  side  with  a  clutching  feeling,  and  there  is  an 
ache  between  my  shoulders.  I  have  noticed  the  amount  and  fre- 
quency of  urine  which  I  have  passed  in  twelve  hours  through 
the  night.  I  pass  about  half  a  teacupful  of  light-colored  water 
with  no  sediment,  only  a  milky  look;  and  was  up  nine  times, 
passing  it  freely  till  it  stopped,  when  the  pain  would  make  me 
suffer  very  severely.  Had  fever  all  night.  About  eight  years* 
ago  I  strained  myself  reaching  up  to  adjust  a  stove-pipe,  and  a 
bad  cold  set  in  about  the  same  time,  and  I  became  very  sick 
with  cystitis.  I  passed  clots  of  blood  as  large  as  the  end  of  my 
little  finger  every  fifteen  minutes,  almost  having  a  spasm  when 
they  passed.  I  have  always  been  very  sensitive  in  the  region  of 
the  bladder  since,  and  have  had  three  attacks,  though  not  so 
severe  as  the  first.  I  have  taken  Cantharis  and  Apis.-mel.  I 
cannot  bear  the  weight  of  the  bedclothes  or  a  hand  to  touch  me, 
and  suffer  greatly  in  my  back.  I  expect  menses  Thursday  (27th), 
but  have  felt  no  ache  from  that  quarter  yet.  I  used  the  sponge 
after  menses,  and  on  the  9th,  10th,  and  11th  nights  after  remov- 
ing the  sponge  it  smelled  badly  ;  since  then  no  odor,  but  my 
face  has  had  several  ugly  pimples,  mostly  about  chin." 
208 


May,lS90.] 


WHAT  IS  THE  SIMILLIMUM? 


209 


When  Mr.  brought  this  report  he  stated  that  she  had 

taken  one  of  the  powders  given  to  have  in  readiness  for 
menses  (Mag.-phos.200).  So  I  told  him  that  she  must  wait  for 
the  effect,  and  gave  no  other  prescription. 

February  26th  I  received  the  following  report :  "  I  have  had 
fever  all  night  and  still  have  it.  While  my  body  is  very  hot, 
cold  chills  are  creeping  over  me  all  night.  Intensely  thirsty. 
Only  had  to  get  up  one  time  in  the  night,  suffering  a  little  less 
pain  each  time;  had  severe  headache  all  night  and  morning. 
No  portion  of  my  body  seems  to  be  free  from  pain  (little  hair- 
like pains),  and  my  body  is  so  sore  I  can  hardly  move.  I  have 
eaten  nothing  since  day  before  yesterday.  I  was  very  stupid  and 
sleepy  all  day  yesterday,  many  times  falling  into  a  restless  sleep. 
•The  dog  jumped  up  against  the  bed  and  frightened  me,  and- 1 
broke  out  into  a  profuse  perspiration,  and  the  fever  stopped  for 
half  an  hour." 

To  this  her  mother,  who  had  written  the  report  after  her  dic- 
tation, added  : 

"  Doctor,  Mrs.  is  a  very  sick  woman  and  looks  very 

badly,  but  she  will  not  take  any  medicine,  only  what  you  sent 
her,  for  fear  it  will  interfere  with  your  remedies.  I  wished  her 
to  take  Bryonia  for  her  headache ;  please  tell  her  if  it  will  make 
a  difference." 

I  answered  to  take  nothing  but  what  I  prescribed,  and  sent 
Baptisia  DMM,  one  powder. 

I  think  it  right  to  state  here  that  after  having  had  almost 
summer  weather,  the  thermometer  went  down  on  the  25th  p.  m. 
from  60°  to  40°,  on  the  26th  to  20°,  27th  p.  M.,  to  16°. 

On  this  day  I  was  called  to  Mrs.  's  bedside  at  five  P.  M. 

Her  mother  stated  that  the  medicine  (Bapt.)  had  worked  well, 
and  that  three  hours  after  she  had  taken  it  she  felt  all  right,  but 
now — as  I  saw — her  condition  was  somewhat  like  the  last  report. 
Repeated  Baptisia. 

March  3d. — Mr.  called  in  the  office  to  tell  me  that  his 

wife  was  up  attending  to  her  household  affairs,  and  the  menses, 
so  far,  had  been  all  right  without  any  trouble  as  usual. 


14 


THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  A  DIAGNOSIS. 
Illustrated  by  Cases. 
F.  S.  Davis,  M.  D.,  Quincy,  Mass. 

(Read  at  the  Meeting  of  the  Organon  Society,  March  5th.) 

I  was  called  Tuesday  p.  m.,  February  18th,  1890,  to  William 
L.  Powell,  set.  three  years,  five  months  (mulatto),  of  Milton. 
Had  been  sick  ten  days. 

Was  at  first  inclined  to  lie  down  ;  complained  of  headache ; 
face  hot,  tongue  white,  skin  dry,  thirst. 

Was  given  castor-oil  by  mother,  and  diarrhoea  set  in  ;  stools 
yellow,  with  tenesmus.    No  appetite;  some  nausea. 

This  condition  continued,  with  higher  fever,  and  Thursday 
he  seemed  to  have  pain  all  over ;  more  nausea ;  complained  of 
this  aching  pain  in  arms  and  hands,  and  was  distressed  in  breath- 
ing. Would  cry  out  with  pain  if  he  moved  in  sleep,  and  when 
awake.  Would  frequently  cry  out  a  sharp  cry  as  if  in  pain, 
but  would  not  tell  its  location.  An  allopathic  physician  was 
called  in  ;  said  he  could  not  tell  what  it  was  ;  left  some  powders, 
which  he  said  would  bring  down  the  fever. 

There  was  no  change.  Doctor  came  again  ;  said  he  could  not 
tell  anything  about  the  cause  of  the  pain  j  would  call  again ;  left 
no  medicine.  The  father  went  to  a  drug  store  and  got  a  powder, 
made  of  Sub.  nit.  of  Bismuth  and  Opium,  and  they  gave  one  or 
two  of  them.  No  better;  dull  and  stupid;  still  crying  out,  par- 
ticularly if  moved  ;  called  for  nothing  but  drink;  had  frequent 
stools.  They  sent  wcrd  to  the  doctor  not  to  come  again,  and 
telephoned  for  me. 

I  found  the  boy  stupid,  eyes  heavy  and  dull,  lips  dry  and 
cracked,  corners  of  mouth  sore.  Tongue  brown  and  dry.  Tem- 
perature 102°,  pulse  116,  skin  dry,  head  hot  and  painful ;  cries  if 
moved,  yet  wants  to  be  taken  up.  Stools  have  been  frequent,  are 
yellow,  some  flatus,  with  tenesmus  and  pain.  Diagnosis,  ty- 
phoid rheumatic  fever,    Bry.200,  one  powder  dry,  and  Sac-lac. 

February  19th,  morning. — No  fever,  pulse  104.    Less  thirst. 
210 


May,  1890.]      THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  A  DIAGNOSIS. 


211 


Is  very  fretful ;  cries  out  often ;  wants  to  be  held,  but  cries  if 
attempt  is  made  to  move  him.  Frequent  yawning  ;  corners  of 
mouth  sore  ;  lips  covered  with  dry  scabs.  Picks  at  lips,  causing 
bleeding.  Eyes  heavy  and  dull.  Is  so  fretful  nothing  suits 
him  ;  will  cry  out  if  spoken  to  ;  cries  out  in  sleep,  or  when 
sitting.  Feet  have  been  swollen  a  little  for  two  or  three  days. 
Urine  highly  colored.  Pain  is  complained  of  in  hips  and  knee. 
Mother  says  he  complained  of  pain  in  legs,  and  mostly  in  left 
knee  at  first. 

Will  cry  out  if  legs  are  moved,  also  when  turning  in  bed. 
Continued  with  Sac-lac. 

Evening,  February  19th. — More  comfortable  when  sleeping  ; 
less  crying  out;  less  thirst.  Has  taken  a  little  milk  (first  food 
taken).  Stool  only  twice;  character  same.  As  the  boy  was 
sleeping  did  not  take  temperature.    Continued  Sac-lac. 

February  20th,  morning. — Better  sleep ;  less  crying  out  in 
sleep;  no  stool.  ^No  fever;  has  called  for  an  egg,  and  has  eaten 
half  of  one  with  relish.  Tongue  cleaner.  His  mother  says  one 
half  of  his  face  is  hot,  the  other  cold  ;  noticed  it  last  evening, 
and  it  continues  to-day.  Has  been  very  fretful.  Nothing  is 
right  for  him.  Wants  to  be  held  all  the  time,  or  carried  about. 
Cham.200,  one  powder. 

February  21st. — Better.  Only  a  few  times  disturbed  through 
the  night  by  crying  out.  Bowels  regular.  More  appetite.  No 
fever.  Tongue  is  now  white  as  at  first  of  sickness.  Water 
blisters  have  appeared  between  the  toes.  Sac-lac 

February  23d. — Up  and  dressed,  sitting  up  ;  makes  no  dis- 
turbance. Tongue  cleau.  Eyes  natural  ;  good  appetite.  Dis- 
charged cured. 

The  foregoing  case  of  Master  P.,  which  I  have  read,  has 
brought  to  my  mind  the  question  of  the  necessity  of  making  a 
correct  diagnosis,  for  answer  and  discussion. 

I  believe  a  diagnosis  is  importaut,  but  far  from  being  neces- 
sary for  a  cure.  Had  Homoeopathy  not  been  able  to  meet  the 
case  on  the  basis  of  totality  of  symptoms ,  I  should  have  been 
placed  at  a  disadvantage  in  being  unable  to  decide  just  the  na- 
ture of  the  case,  as  was  the  allopathic  physician.    I  would  not 


212 


THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  A  DIAGNOSIS.       [May,  1890. 


uphold  any  negligence  of  a  thorough  examination  of  each  case, 
so  that  all  conditions  may  be  known  so  far  as  is  possible.  I 
believe  it  is  our  duty  to  take  notes  of  all  symptoms  carefully, 
and  I  think  it  will  quite  certainly  be  found  that  in  this  way  we 
shall  arrive  at  a  correct  understanding  of  the  case.  Particularly 
will  this  be  true  if  we  give  to  each  symptom  its  true  interpreta- 
tion. 

Early  in  my  practice  I  was  called  to  a  Mrs.  R.,  set.  thirty- 
seven,  who  had  suffered  for  years  from  dysmenorrhcea.  I  was 
particularly  anxious  to  make  a  cure  with  remedies,  for  the  lady 
was  a  strong  homoeopath,  and  so  situated  as  to  be  of  help  to  me 
by  her  recommendation.  I  felt  quite  sure  of  success,  for  I  got 
plenty  of  symptoms,  of  which  I  have  not  now  a  record.  Each 
lime  I  prescribed  I  felt  I  must  get  a  good  result,  but  my  failure 
was  as  marked  as  my  hope  of  success  had  been  strong.  I  con- 
fessed to  my  patient  that  I  could  give  no  reason  for  my  failure, 
and  would  only  make  one  more  request,  and  if  granted,  and  it 
gave  no  reason  for  failure  I  would  admit  that  Homoeopathy  had 
failed  at  my  hands.  I  was  permitted  to  make  a  vaginal  exami- 
nation, which  solved  the  question. 

The  neck  of  the  womb  was  quite  firmly  united  to  the  vaginal 
wall  on  the  right  side,  the  cord  of  attachment  was  a  little  less 
than  one-half  of  an  inch  in  length,  and  quite  firm,  and  about  a 
fourth  of  an  inch  in  width.  TKis  adhesion  accounted  for  the 
pain  she  had  suffered  "  as  of  something  tearing  and  pulling  her 
to  pieces."  The  neck  of  the  womb  could  not  enlarge  or  move 
except  she  felt  inconvenience. 

The  symptoms  were  all  removed  by  cutting  this  attachment. 

Our  failures  to  cure  after  careful  study  for  the  right  remedy 
should  lead  us  to  still  more  careful  examination  of  our  case  be- 
fore deciding  that  our  system  of  medicine  is  at  fault. 

Let  no  symptom  be  overlooked,  and  we  shall  be  very  likely 
to  have  our  diagnosis  with  a  sure  guide  to  the  true  remedy. 

If  careful  taking  of  notes  in  each  case  is  made  the  rule,  we 
are  prepared  for  learning  by  our  success  what  are  guiding  symp- 
toms, and  thus  make  our  experience  a  sure  help  not  only  to 
ourselves  but  to  others,  by  publication  of  these  results. 


HOMOEOPATHY  IN  PAIN. 


Rev.  J.  K.  Mendenhall,  Saratoga,  N.  Y. 

The  charge  is  often  made  against  Homoeopathy  that,  while  it 
answers  a  good  purpose  ordinarily,  in  cases  of  great  pain  it  is 
either  powerless  or  of  small  value.  In  an  experience,  covering 
more  than  thirty  years,  I  have  found  exactly  the  reverse  of  this 
to  be  true,  and  propose  to  give  a  few  cases  out  of  many  in 
corroboration  of  this  assertion. 

G.  D.,  male,  age  fifty-five,  subject  for  many  years  to  severe 
sciatica,  which  came  with  unfailing  regularity  every  week.  The 
attack  lasted  thirty-six  hours,  reaching  the  height  of  severity  in 
about  fifteen  hours,  continuing  in  its  intensity  six  or  more  hours,, 
and  then  gradually  diminishing  till  the  final  cessation  of  pain. 
Morphine  alone  gave  him  relief ;  this  it  did  promptly,  but  its  sub- 
sequent effects  were  so  bad  that  he  had  come  to  dread  them  almost 
as  much  as  the  pain. 

I  saw  him  one  day  when  the  pain  was  approaching  its  height, 
the  time  he  always  took  the  Morphine  ;  he  was  about  to  use  it 
then.  I  begged  him  not  to  do  so,  asked  a  few  questions  and 
found  Arsenicum  well  indicated  ;  gave  one  dose  (Jehnichcn  40m) 
at  five  p.  M.  Inside  of  two  hours  there  was  a  marked  relief ;  he 
slept  well  that  night,  and  next  morning  came  before  I  was  out 
of  bed  to  thank  me  for  saving  him  from  the  horrible  pain  and 
the  baleful  effect  of  Morphine. 

At  the  end  of  a  week  premonitory  symptoms  of  another 
attack  made  their  appearance,  but  a  single  dose  of  the  same 
remedy  averted  it;  and  further,  during  the  remainder  of  my 
stay  in  that  place,  more  than  a  month,  there  was  no  return. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  in  this  case  Ars.6  had  been  used 
during  the  previous  winter  with  no  results. 

H.  T.,  male,  age  about  fifty,  subject  for  more  than  fifteen 
years  to  facial  neuralgia,  which  came  weekly,  first  on  one  side 
and  the  next  week  on  the  other.  While  the  entire  side  of  the 
face  was  involved  the  centre  of  pain  was  always  in  the  eye. 

213 


214 


HOMOEOPATHY  IN  PAIN. 


[May,  1890. 


The  history  of  each  attack  was  almost  exactly  like  the  preced- 
ing case.  When  the  pain  was  at  its  height  it  produced  what 
the  patient  himself  called  hysteria;  lie  laughed  and  cried  by 
turns. 

This  case  had  been  treated  by  the  best  allopaths  of  Philadel- 
phia and  Baltimore,  but  with  no  results,  for  the  gentleman  re- 
fused to  take  Morphine.  I  saw  him  one  day  after  he  had  been 
suffering  some  twelve  hours,  the  "hysteria"  was  coming,  the 
pains  in  the  eyes  were  as  if  "red-hot  needles  were  thrust  into  it." 
At  .twelve  o'clock,  noon,  one  dose  Ars.  (Jehnichen  40m);  by  one 
P.  M.  there  was  an  amelioration.  At  four  p.  M.  on  my  return 
to  his  house  the  patient  was  dressed,  absolutely  free  from 
pain,  ready  for  a  theological  discussion,  of  which  he  was  very 
fond,  full  of  gratitude  for  the  cure,  and  equally  full  of  wonder 
at  it.  When  he  sent  for  me  he  was  careful  also  to  send  word  that 
he  expected  no  results,  for  he  had  no  confidence  in  Homoeopathy. 

Mrs.  R.  H.,  age  about  sixty,  had  severe  neuralgia  in  back  of 
neck.  She  had  been  under  the  care  of  one  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished neurologists  (allopathic)  in  the  United  States  for  more 
than  a  month  without  even  the  very  slightest  benefit.  As  a  last 
resort  he  gave  her  a  bottle  of  Collis  Brown's  Chlorodine,  with 
the  remark  that  "  possibly  it  might  do  her  good." 

One  day  sha  appealed  to  me,  saying  that  she  did  not  believe 
in  Homoeopathy,  but  was  willing  to  try  it.  The  symptoms 
seemed  to  indicate  Ars.,  which  was  given,  but  without  result. 
Next  day  Bell,  seemed  to  be  the  remedy,  but  it  did  no  good. 
The  third  morning  I  found  her  with  tears  running  down  her 
cheeks,  filled  with  despair,  sobbing  and  exclaiming  that, 
"  Nothing  could  be  done"  and  apparently  on  the  verge  of  mad- 
ness.  I  confidently  gave  her  Veratrum-alb.,  and  in  six  hours 
the  cure  was  complete  and  permanent. 


REPLY  TO  "A  SYNOPSIS  OF  A  CASE  OF  HEM- 
ORRHOIDS." 


E.  W.  Berridge,  M.  D.,  Londox,  Exglaxd. 

I  do  not  usually  take  any  notice  of  anonymous  attacks,  es- 
pecially when  they  only  show  the  iguorance  or  malice  of  their 
author,  but  as  my  silence  might  be  misconstrued  to  the  detri- 
ment of  true  Homoeopathy,  I  will  briefly  reply. 

(1.)  My  critic  accuses  me  of  prescribing  Phosph.  on  October 
16th,  on  the  one  symptom  that  the  patient  was  worse  when 
sitting  or  lying.  He  admits  that  Phosphorus  is  the  only  medi- 
cine recorded  under  that  symptom  in  the  Repertory,  but  yet  re- 
fuses to  look  upon  it  as  a  keynote,  and  evidently  thinks  I  ought 
not  to  have  prescribed  it.  This  is  the  first  proof  how  carelessly 
he  has  read  my  paper.  If  he  will  again  refer  to  the  report  on 
page  40  he  will  find  that  the  patient  wrote  to  me,  and  that  the 
Phosphorus  "  much  relieved  her,  entirely  removing  the  follow- 
ing symptoms."  To  ordinary  minds  this  would  convey  the 
idea  that  there  were  other  symptoms  indicative  of  the  remedy 
besides  the  very  peculiar  one  which  I  quoted  verbatim.  This 
was  the  case,  though  as  I  only  subsequently  copied  into  my 
case-book  the  very  peculiar  symptom  recorded,  I  cannot  now 
inform  him  what  they  were ;  he  will  doubtless  find  them  in  the 
Materia  Jledica. 

(2.)  He  declares  that  in  painful  piles  "  it  is  almost  impossible 
to  sit  down  without  pain,  and  lying  down  needs  just  as  much 
care."  I  will  only  say  that  in  my  interleaved  copy  of  Lippe's 
Repertory  I  have  added  the  following  symptoms  (whether 
pathogenetic  or  clinical  I  cannot  now  say) : 

Hemorrhoids  better  when  lying — Am-c,  Arsen. 
"  better  by  hard  pressure — Kali-c. 

"  better  by  riding — Kali-c. 

"  better  by  sitting — Arsen.,  Laches. 

These  facts  hardly  coincide  with  his  theories. 

(3.)  He  says  Phosph.  "does  not  give  shooting  pains  in  the 

215 


216  REPLY  TO  "A  CASE  OF  HEMORRHOIDS."  [May, 


vagina  near  orifice."  Possibly  not,  as  far  as  our  provings  show 
at  present,  and,  therefore,  all  the  more  reason  for  reporting  the 
complete  cure  of  the  very  peculiar  symptom  which  has  caused 
him  so  much  concern.  But  Phosphorus  has  (Lippe's  Text-book, 
p.  525),  "stitches  upward  in  the  vagina  into  the  pelvis." 

(4.)  He  says  :  "  As  the  wall  of  the  vagina  posteriorly  is  the 
Avail  of  the  rectum  anteriorly  it  seems  (!)  to  me  that  the  diag- 
nosis would  have  been  more  scientific  and  correct  if  the  vagina 
had  not  been  mentioned,  as  it  had  probably  (!)  little  or  nothing 
to  do  with  the  case."  I  would  remind  my  critic  that  the  pains 
in  question  were  expressly  stated  to  be  "  in  vagina  near  orifice," 
and  that  between  the  orifice  of  the  vagina  and  rectum  is  usually 
situated  an  anatomical  region  called  the  perineum.  Besides,  I 
may  as  well  inform  my  critic  that  my  patient  was  a  very  intelli- 
gent lady,  a  graduate  in  arts  of  a  university,  and  quite  suffi- 
ciently acquainted  with  anatomy  to  know  the  difference  between 
her  rectum  and  her  vagina.  But  what  does  my  critic  make  of 
the  concluding  part  of  the  symptoms:  "Needle  pains  in 
rectum,  also  near  orifice,  sometimes  alternating  with  the  vaginal 
pains,  but  more  often  independent"?  Does  not  this  graphic 
and  minute  description  show  that  my  patient  could  not  have 
made  the  blunder  of  which  she  is  accused  ? 

(5.)  He  says  piles  "  may  pass  off  as  this  did  for  a  time,  by  an 
increased  action  of  the  liver,  producing  bilious  diarrhoea."  But 
as  there  was  no  bilious  diarrhoea  in  this  case,  but  a  contrary 
constipation,  it  is  difficult  to  understand  his  argument. 

(6.)  He  says  the  symptoms  "all  again  point  strongly  to 
Sulphur,  and  yet  this  poor  lady  is  kept  suffering  more  or  less 
from  the  16th  of  October  to  27th  of  December,  when  we  are 
told  her  climax  of  pain  came,  and  her  physician  saw  he  had  com- 
mitted a  fatal  error  (why  all  these  italics?)  in  giving  Kali-carb. 
and  then  makes  another  by  giving  Hamameliscm."  Consider- 
ing that  I  called  this  case,  treated  more  than  six  years  ago,  "a  con- 
fession and  a  warning."  it  is  rather  rough  on  me  to  accuse  me  of 
the  errors  I  had  admitted  ;  but  ray  critic  has  again  showed  that 
he  has  read  the  case  very  carelessly.  As  to  whether  Sulphur  was 
the  simillimum  I  need  not  enter;  the  Materia  Medico,  is  open  to 


1890.]  EE  PLY  TO  "A  CASE  OF  HEMORRHOIDS.' 


217 


the  perusal  of  all  the  readers  of  The  Homceopathic  Physi- 
cian. But  he  lias  overlooked  the  fact  that  the  patient  was  not 
entirely  under  ray  care;  therefore,  I  am  only  responsible  for  my 
own  prescriptions.  Moreover,  seeing  that  the  patient  was 
greatly  relieved  of  the  piles  by  Phosph.  prescribed  on  October 
16th,  the  accidental  attack  of  sciatica  removed  by  Amnion. - 
carb.,  prescribed  on  October  28th,  improvement  commencing 
two  or  three  days  after  the  first  dose  of  Kali,  the  patient's  own 
words  on  December  19th  being  "  feel  myself  improving  from  hour 
to  hour  ;"  to  charge  me  with  having  "  kept  this  poor  lady  suffer- 
ing more  or  less  from  16th  October  to  27th  December"  is 
scarcely  an  accurate  way  of  putting  it.  Furthermore,  the 
italicized  word  "  climax  "  is  scarcely  the  appropriate  phrase  in 
which  to  describe  the  aggravation  following  a  marked  improve- 
ment as  the  result  of  over-medication.  Also,  I  did  not  confess 
a  "fatal  error  "  in  giving  Kali-carb.,  which  I  still  believe  to 
have  been  the  sknillimum,  but  in  repeating  the  dose  after  such  a 
marked  improvement.  Neither  did  I  confess  to  "  a  fatal  error  " 
in  giving  Hamamells ;  I  merely  suggested  that  I  was  not  now 
sure  if  it  would  not  have  been  better  simply  to  allow  the  over- 
action  to  pass  off  without  interference.  My  critic  has  evidently 
forgotten  the  advice  of  an  American  celebrity,  "  First  be  sure 
you  are  right,  then  go  ahead." 

(7.)  He  says,  "more  than  three  months'  treatment  and  abso- 
lutely nothing  done."  This  is  simply  an  insult  to  the  under- 
standing of  his  readers,  if  he  thinks  they  can  be  so  deceived  by 
his  reckless  and  unauthorized  statements.  Part  of  this  time  the 
patient  was  not  under  my  care,  and,  moreover,  had  been  subjected 
to  treatments  I  disapproved  of,  as  I  clearly  stated  in  my  report ; 
in  spite  of  these  drawbacks,  however,  very  much  good  was  done  ; 
and  if  I  had  not  fallen  into  the  error  of  giving  too  much  mcdi- 
cine  I  believe  the  Kali  would  have  completed  the  cure  (I  may 
here  mention,  as  I  omitted  it  in  my  report,  that  the  patient 
would  not  wean  her  baby  as  soon  as  I  advised). 

(8.)  To  his  remark  on  the  symptom  of  Silicca,  "  stool  feels  as  if 
it  slipped  back,"  I  need  answer  little.  This  symptom  has  been 
so  thoroughly  established  as  a  keynote  for  this  medicine  (what- 


218  REPLY  TO  "A  CASE  OF  HEMORRHOIDS."  [May, 


ever  the  "  probability  "  of  its  cause  may  be)  that  it  would  be 
waste  of  time  to  quote  authorities.  But  my  critic  seems  to 
doubt  whether  Silicea  did  anything,  or  whether  the  relief  was 
simply  the  effort  of  nature,  I  am  not  concerned  about  the  matter ; 
it  is  quite  possible  that  the  bowels  would  have  got  into  proper 
order  when  allowed  to  act  naturally,  but  seeing  that  a  keynote 
of  Silicea  was  present,  and  that  the  patient  had  fear  of  suicide  I 
consider  I  did  right  to  give  it.  But  the  most  amusing  part  of 
his  criticism  is  that  he  states  that  it  took  me  "three  months  to 
find  the  remedy"  for  symptoms  which  had  only  existed  for 
eleven  days  before  I  prescribed,  and  for  which  I  prescribed  the 
very  first  day  they  were  reported  to  me.  This  logic  is  quite 
beyond  me;  perhaps  the  "  Christian  Scientists  "  can  explain. 

(9.)  Finally  he  gives  his  theory  of  the  case.  He  suggests  the 
baby  was  "a  thirteen  months1  child"  (I  am  altogether  too  obtuse 
to  see  where  this  joke  comes  in),  that  u  the  piles  gradually  went 
away  of  themselves  "  ("  gradually  "  is  very  inaccurate);  and 
u  the  treatment  they  received  not  affecting  them  in  the  least  B 
(which  is  simply  at  utter  variance  with  the  facts  of  the  case). 
"So  much  for  that  physician  who  seems  to  think  he  can  teach 
better  and  wiser  men  than  himself."  If  my  critic  here  refers  to. 
himself,  he  may  rest  assured  I  shall  never  think  of  ever  accom- 
plishing that  feat  till  he  has  trained  himself  in  the  habits  of 
careful  reading  and  accurate  quotations. 

I  have  endeavored  to  find  the  true  animus  of  his  criticism, 
and  I  think  I  have  found  it  in  his  complaint  that  it  almost 
seems  that  he  would  rather  have  let  the  poor  lady  suffer  than 
give  anything  short  of  a  CM  potency.  "And  this  in  the  face 
of  the  fact  that  I  successfully  gave  her  Amm.-carb?m"  But 
we  all  know  the  proverbial  effect  of  a  red  rag  on  the  male  of  the 
bovine  species,  and  as  he  calls  himself  "  Buffalo,"  he  has  evi- 
dently been  so  infuriated  by  this  CM  potency  that  he  has  closed 
his  eyes,  lowered  his  head,  and  charged  down  furiously  upon  me. 
However  I  think  I  have  escaped  being  tossed  on  his  horns,. while 
he  is  left  impaled  on  the  horns  of  a  dilemma,  the  charge  of 
either  careless  criticism  or  intentional  malice. 

Let  me  hope  that  if  he  pursue  this  controversy  further,  he 


1890.] 


CLINICAL  CASES. 


219 


will  drop  his  disguise.  Whoever  he  may  be,  I  know  that  he  is 
not  one  of  the  I.  H.  A.,  and  for  the  opinion  of  the  anti-Hahne- 
mannians  I  have  no  regard  whatever. 


TWO  CLINICAL  CASES. 
Robert  Farley,  M.  D.,  Phcenixville,  Pa. 

In  an  epidemic  of  pertussis  during  the  past  winter,  I  have  ex- 
perienced much  difficulty  in  finding  the  homoeopathic  remedy. 
Finally  I  noticed  that  the  paroxysms  of  cough  were  preceded  by 
a  fretful,  anxious  condition  in  some  cases  for  fifteen  minutes. 
With  this  symptom  in  the  cases  I  was  led  to  prescribe  Cupr.- 
met.30  with  gratifying  results,  thus  verifying  the  symptom, 
"anxious  before  cough." 

In  June  of  1888,  I  was  called  to  relieve  a  patient  who  had  for 
many  years  been  a  sufferer  from  "  hay  fever."  He  suffered 
terribly  during  the  summer  and  autumn.  He  would  have  sud- 
den spells  of  suffocation  at  night,  causing  him  to  jump  up,  and 
only  relieved  by  eating;  would  hastily  eat  anything  he  could  get 
his  hands  on  that  was  edible.  In  studying  the  case,  I  decided 
that  Sang.-c.  was  the  most  similar  remedy,  and  gave  it  in  the 
thirtieth  potency  with  almost  instant  relief,  and  there  has  been 
no  return  of  his  trouble  to  date,  having  passed  through  two 
summers.  I  report  this  because  Sang,  is  not  credited  with  the 
above  relief  from  eating;  Graph,  being  the  only  remedy  having 
it  that  I  could  discover. 


CLINICAL  CASES. 

G.  W.  Sherbixo,  M.  D.,  Abilene,  Texas. 

Cephalalgia. — Reading  some  time  ago  in  The  Homoeo- 
pathic Physician  of  a  case  cured  by  Sepia,  in  having  the  sen- 
sation as  though  the  neck  were  swollen  or  enlarged,  I  am  led  to 
report  this  case. 


220 


CLINICAL  CASES. 


[May, 


A  lawyer's  wife  had  suffered  with  headache  and  pain  in  the 
shoulders  and  side.  There  was  nothing  peculiar  about  the  pain, 
but  she  said  her  neck  was  swelled.  It  felt  that  way,  and  she 
kept  feeling  her  neck  all  the  time  I  was  in  the  house.  I  could 
see  no  enlargement.  The  pain  was  worse  at  night  after  lying 
down  for  awhile.  It  became  worse  in  the  morning  when  com- 
mencing to  move  about.  As  she  was  engaged  about  her  work 
she  was  better.  She  always  noticed  it  more  when  she  was  quiet. 
"  She  had  no  faith,"  but  Rhus-tox.cm,  two  doses,  cured  her, 
faith  and  all,  and  she  has  remained  well  ever  since. 

Metrorrhagia. — A  married  lady  had  been  flooding  for  three 
weeks  from  a  miscarriage.  She  said  :  "  At  night  I  am  troubled 
so  about  a  peculiar  feeling  I  have.  I  try  to  go  to  sleep,  and  I 
feel  all  the  time  as  though  I  was  '  standing  on  my  head,''  or 
that  my  feet  and  legs  were  in  the  bed,  and  my  head  was  down  on 
the  floor"  She  had  other  symptoms.  Baptisia,  two  doses  of  which 
relieved. 

Concussion  of  the  Brain. — A  man  living  twenty-five 
miles  in  the  country  was  taken  suddenly  with  unconsciousness. 
He  does  not  remember  getting  out  of  bed,  or  eating  breakfast. 
Left  the  table  and  went  out  to  a  wagon.  He  leaned  his  head 
upon  a  trunk-rack  for  a  moment,  then  suddenly  straightened 
himself  up,  and  fell  backward  in  a  perfectly  rigid  state,  striking 
his  head  upon  the  hard  ground.  He  came  to  his  senses  about 
noon,  and  was  brought  home.  I  saw  him  in  the  evening.  He 
complained  of  terrible  pain  throughout  the  back  of  the  head, 
and  all  through  the  brain,  of  a  bruised  character.  I  gave  him 
Arnica  cm,  one  dose,  and  nothing  else.  The  next  morning  the 
pain  was  all  gone  from  the  back  of  the  head.  He  was  ever  so 
much  better,  only  had  slight  pain  in  the  frontal  region.  Next 
day  entirely  well.  I  have  no  reason  for  reporting  the  case  fur- 
ther than  for  the  potency  used.  One  dose  did  the  work.  I  want 
to  put  it  on  record  for  the  benefit  of  the  weak,  and  not  let  it  die 
an  ignominious  death  in  the  dark. 

Post-Partum  Hemorrhage. — Mrs.  W.  J.,  set.  eighteen, 
primipara,  was  taken  with  labor  in  the  morning;  gave  birth  to 
male  child.    Breech  presentation.    Labor  lasted  about  twelve 


1890.] 


CLINICAL  CASES. 


221 


hours  ;  the  second  stage  three  hours.  Very  hard  labor.  I  used 
pressure  of  the  abdomen  with  each  pain,  which  helped  her  very 
much.  I  had  no  trouble  to  remove  the  after-birth.  Soon  afterward 
she  said  "  I  am  flooding."  I  put  my  hand  on  the  abdomen  and 
found  the  uterus  relaxed  up  as  high  as  the  umbilicus.  I 
grasped  the  uterus  with  my  hand  and  soon  firm  contraction 
came  on,  but  in  a  few  moments  relaxation  would  take  place. 
I  gave  Bell.,  as  I  thought  it  the  remedy,  but  no  relief.  She 
thought  the  pain  went  from  her  back  through  to  uterus  or 
pubes.  I  gave  Sabiua,  but  it  acted  no  better  than  Bell.  Xow 
she  says,  "  Doctor,  whenever  a  pain  comes  on  I  feel  as  if  I  wanted 
to  get  up  ;  my  bowels  feel  as  if  they  wanted  to  move."  I  gave 
Nux-vom.cm,  one  dose.-  I  needed  no  more  pressure  over  the 
uterus,  as  she  said,  "  I  feel  better,"  and  the  hemorrhage  was  soon 
.controlled.    From  this  case  we  get  the  following  deductions  :. 

1st.  The  impossibility  of  curing  with  a  remedy  not  indicated. 

2d.  There  was  no  need  of  a  hypodermic  injection  of  fluid 
extract  of  Ergot. 

3d.  There  was  no  need  of  dashing  cold  water  over  the  abdo- 
men, or  packing  the  uterus  with  ice. 

4th.  She  was  cured  pleasantly,  safely,  and  speedily,  accord- 
ing to  Hahnemann's  instructions. 

Acxe  Facialis. — Mr.  ,  a?t.  twenty,  has  had  pimples  on 

his  face*  especially  the  nose,  too  horrible  to  look  at.  Has  had  this 
for  three  years.  Asked  me  several  times  to  cure  him.  I  told 
him  I  made  no  pretensions  to  curing  pimples.  The  only  symp- 
tom he  had  was  profuse  foot-sweat,  fetid  odor,  cold  and  clammy 
in  the  winter.  Sanicula53  m  (Sk.),  two  doses,  cured  in  one 
month,  so  that  his  face  is  perfectly  smooth. 

Cephalalgia. — Headache  for  two  days.  She  says  the  pain 
commenced  in  the  region  of  the  supra-orbital  nerve,  passing 
back  along  the  base  of  the  brain  and  down  her  neck.  The  pain 
was  all  through  her  head.  Eyes  and  lids  were  very  red  and 
swollen,  and  the  pain  was  terrible ;  worse  from  motion  or  mov- 
ing the  eyes.  Actea-rac.4)  m,  one  dose,  cured.  The  pain  in 
the  region  of  the  supra-orbital  nerve  is  characteristic  of  this 
remedy. 


222 


LA  GRIPPE. 


[May, 


Cephalalgia. — Baptisiadmm  (Swan's). — Mrs.D.,  set.  thirty- 
five,  has  had  headache  for  years.  It  comes  once  a  month,  and 
sometimes  every  week,  lasts  for  several  days.  She  took  treat- 
ment from  a  "  homoeopath,"  who  said  that  no  medicine  would 
ever  do  her  any  good.  After  a  long  search  I  obtained  the  fol- 
lowing :  She  gets  sleepy  and  stupid  as  the  headache  comes  on, 
her  hands  are  dead  and  no  feeling  in  them.  A  loss  of  sensibility. 
Pillow  feels  hard.  Cannot  find  an  easy  place  to  lay  her  head. 
Bed  is  so  hard  she  cannot  lie  long  in  one  place.  Baptisiadmm 
(Swan).  One  dose  relieved  for  three  weeks.  One  dose  at  the 
commencement  always  relieves  in  a  short  time.  She  is  now  in 
better  health  than  for  years. 


LA  GRIPPE. 
E.  T.  Balch,  M.  D.,  South  Bend,  Washington. 

With  a  zer.l  and  pertinacity  of  purpose  that  is  so  character- 
istic of  Eblis,  the  wily  one,  La  Grippe  came  down  upon  us  in 
full  force,  attacking  right  and  left,  front  and  rear,  sparing 
neither  weak  or  strong,  young  or  old,  rich  or  poor,  saint  or 
sinner — in  fact,  all  grades  and  conditions  of  men  were  alike 
placed  under  its  malign  influence.  i 

But  in  this  highly  favored  coast  country,  where  zymosis  and 
fevers  are  almost  unknown,  where  the  enigmatical  malaria  has 
neither  habitation  or  existence,  the  scourge  was  in  a  great  meas- 
ure robbed  of  its  terrors ;  so  much  so,  indeed,  that  very  many 
cases  passed  safely  through  the  siege,  and  recovered  without  any 
treatment  whatever,  either  lay  or  professional,  and  where  that 
damnable  drug  Quinine,  that  Moloch  of  modern  scientific  stu- 
pidity and  ignorance,  of  brutal  indifference  to  human  suffering 
and  life,  had  not  been  administered,  sequelse  and  complications 
have  been  very  rare — mortality  almost  nil — and  now  La  Grippe 
has  left  us  for  pastures  new,  leaving  us  the  happier  for  the  short 
acquaintance. 

?Twould  be  tedious  and  in  vain  to  give  more  than  an  outline 


1890.] 


VERIFICATIONS. 


223 


of  the  treatment  pursued ;  suffice  to  say,  that  every  case  was 
carefully  individualized,  subjective  and  objective  symptoms, 
mental  and  physical  conditions  noted,  and  especially  unusual 
characteristic  symptoms  observed  ;  then,  and  not  till  then  was  a 
prescription  made  or  given  according  to  the  law  Similia,  always 
in  a  single  dose,  and  generally  in  a  high  potency,  and  not  re- 
peated while  improvement  continued.  Effects  were  prompt  and 
relief  marked  in  from  one  to  eight  hours. 

'Tis  worthy  of  notice  that  blondes  suffered  at  the  onset  much 
more  severely  than  the  brunettes,  although  the  action  of  the 
remedy  was  quicker,  and  recoveries  more  prompt  with  the  for- 
mer than  with  the  latter. 

Then  may  wTe  not  group  our  cases  remedially  ?  as  the  Aeon, 
case,  the  Gels,  case,  and  so  through  all  the  materia  medica.  Thus, 
if  an  Aconite  case  is  sick  from  any  cause  whatever,  Aeon.,  and 
Aeon,  alone  is  the  remedy,  the  only  one  that  will  cure. 

With  us  Aeon.,  Gels.,  Bry.,  and  Napthalin  were  most  generally 
indicated.  Occasionally  an  unexpected  remedy  would  come  to  the 
front,  as  Lycopod.,  and  to  our  astonishment  it  seemed  to  cure 
more  rapidly  than  the  generally  prescribed  drugs. 


VERIFICATIONS. 
E.  T.  Balch,  M.  D.,  South  Bend,  Washington. 

July  9th,  1889. — M.,  infant,  one  month.  Spotted  in  a  most 
interesting  manner  on  scalp,  face,  and  chest  with  ringworm 
(tinea  tricophytina).  Face  pale,  body  cold,  nurses  fairly  well, 
digestion  good,  sleeps  mostly  at  night.  Parents  greatly  an- 
noyed ;  fear  that  child  will  be  disfigured.  Sepia,0  one  dose, 
dry  on  tongue.  The  mother  being  a  blonde,  decided  to  admin- 
ister to  the  child  direct. 

July  10th. — Sac-lac.  three  times  a  day  in  water. 

July  14th. — Kingworms,  dusky  looking,  many.  Can  be  rubbed 
off.    Continue  S.  L. 


224  WHAT  SHALL  A  HOM.  PHYSICIAN  READ?  [May, 

July  25th. — Child's  skin  clear  ;  only  a  few  spots  can  be  de- 
tected on  chest.    Continue  treatment. 

July  30th. — Perfectly  well.  Skin  normal ;  not  a  vestige  of 
ringworm  to  be  discovered. 

Dismissed  the  case — cured. 


Miss  Kate,  aged  eleven,  brunette,  tall,  angular,  with  hectic 
flush,  had  been  coughing  some  few  days  which  finally  culmi- 
nated in  croupous  pneumonia  with  the  characteristic  dusky 
face,  hurried  respiration,  and  rusty-colored  sputum.  Temp. 
103-104J0.  Reap.  30-35.  Pulse  125.40.  Verat.-vir.,  Phos.,and 
Bry.  were  each  prescribed  as  indicated,  but  with  negative  re- 
sults. The  fever  would  not  down,  but  like  Banquo's  ghost, 
was  ever  present  to  alarm  and  terrify  the  parents  and  endanger 
the  life  of  the  patient.  Finally,  on  the  ninth  day,  fearing  the 
worst,  I  was  urged  by  the  parents  to  stay  if  only  for  one  night, 
and  as  all  the  family  were  fatigued  and  worn  out  by  long  watch- 
ing, I  begged  them  to  retire  and  took  charge  of  the  case  myself. 
The  outlook  was  serious  enough,  but  toward  midnight  the  patient 
became  very  restless,  and,  feeble  as  she  was,  I  noticed  she  en- 
deavored to  uncover  herself — would  not  tolerate  clothing.  This 
was  plainly  enough  Sulph.  So  at  midnight  I  gave  Sulph.5,  a 
dose.  In  forty-five  minutes  sweat  appeared  on  the  face.  Tempera- 
ture fell,  respiration  diminished,  and  by  daylight  when  I  called 
the  parents  I  gave  them  joy  by  pronouncing  her  better,  in  fact, 
out  of  danger.  Did  the  Sulph.  arouse  the  dormant  absorbents; 
and  thereby  enable  the  previous  prescription  to  act  ? 


WHAT  SHALL  A  HOMOEOPATHIC  PHYSICIAN 

BEAD  ? 

Wm.  Steinrauf,  M.  D.,  St.  Charles,  Mo. 

The  above  is  surely  a  very  important  question.  There  are 
most  assuredly  many  good  medical  and  other  scientific  works 
that  may  be  studied  with  great  advantage  by  a  physician  believing 
in  the  unerring  law,  Similia  similibus  curantur,  but  the  question 


1S00.]        WHAT  SHALL  A  HOM.  PHYSICIAN  READ?  225 


of  the  utmost  importance  to  us  is,  what  must  I  study  in  order 
that  I  may  safely,  quickly,  and  surely  cure  my  patients  ?  This 
is  the  question  of  questions  to  every  true  and  honest  follower  of 
the  master. 

There  is  such  a  multitude  of  new  books  continually  advertised 
that  it  would  cost  a  little  fortune  every  year  to  buy  them.  And 
still  a  doctor  that  is  so  situated  in  this  life  that  a  few  dollars 
more  or  less  are  of  no  moment  to  him  should  purchase  every 
medical  book  published  by  our  school  and  the  best  works  by  the 
dominant  school  as  well,  even  if  it  has  no  other  object  than 
to  make  comparisons  and  draw  conclusions.  The  only  works  by 
allopathic  writers  in  my  library  are  Da  Costa  on  Medical  Di- 
agnosis and  Flint  on  the  same  subject  ;  all  others  are  homoeo- 
pathic. 

What  medical  works  shall  a  homoeopathic  physician  read? 
Above  all,  he  should  read  and  study  Hahnemann's  Organon.  It 
should  be  his  constant  companion.  I  have  read  it  through  four 
times  within  the  last  five  years,  and  I  think  a  young  doctor 
should  read  it  through  once  a  year  during  the  first  ten  years  of 
his  professional  career  in  order  to  get  a  thorough  understanding 
of  the  law.  This  is  what  Dr.  Lippe  once  told  me  he  had  done. 
Next  to  the  Organon,  the  Chronic  Diseases  and  the  Materia 
Medica  Para  need  to  be  well  studied  and  consulted  daily.  These 
three  works  by  the  author  of  Homoeopathy  should  be  found  in 
the  library  of  every  true  homoeopathist. 

Singular  *here  should  be  physicians  that  claim  to  practice  our 
system,  and  laugh  at  these  works  as  being  out  of  date,  etc.,  and 
still  we  know  of  such  men.    Shame  upon  such  creatures! 

Next  to  Father  Hahnemann,  the  works  of  a  Jahr  and  Boenning- 
hausen,  a  Hart  man  n  and  Rueckert  are  of  inestimable  value  to 
the  student  of  Homoeopathy.  Hartmann  and  Rueckert,  as  far 
as  we  know,  have  never  been  translated,  but  they  may  be 
studied  by  the  German  scholar  with  both  pleasure  and  profit. 

But,  says  one,  these  are  all  old  books,  out  of  date  long  ago. 
Well,  even  if  they  are  old,  what  of  it?  Is  the  Bible  not  also 
old  ?  The  true  homoeopathist  should  study  old  and  new,  but 
preferably  old.  I  well  know  some  will  laugh  and  sneer  at  this. 
15 


226 


THE  AMERICAN  INSTITUTE,  SESSION  OF  1890.  [May, 


But  let  them  laugh.  "  He  who  laughs  last,  laughs  best."  We 
must  go  back  to  Hahnemann,  back  to  the  fathers,  back  to  the 
fountain  to  get  Homoeopathy  pure  and  simple. 

After  studying  these  old  masters,  we  must  take  up  the  differ- 
ent materia  medicas  of  our  time.  Here  Dunham's  Materia 
Medica  and  his  Science  of  Therapeutics  demand  our  special  atten- 
tion. Hering's  Condensed,  Farrington's  Clinical  Materia 
Medica,  and  that  grand  new  work  of  Allen's. 

Hand-books  of  the  materia  medica  must  not  be  forgotten,  for 
they  are  gems  of  the  first  water.  Taken  all  in  all  the  materia 
medica  must  be  the  principal  study  of  the  true  homceopathist.  All 
other  works  can  only  be  used  as  accessory  to  this  very  import- 
ant branch  of  our  divine  art. 


THE  AMERICAN  INSTITUTE,  SESSION  OF  1890. 

Editor  Homoeopathic  Physician  : 

As  already  announced  by  circular  to  the  members  of  the 
American  Institute  of  Homoeopathy,  the  next  annual  session  of 
this  body  will  be  held  at  "  Fountain  Spring  House,"  Waukesha, 
Wisconsin,  commencing  at  7.30  P.  M.,  Monday,  June  16th,  and 
closing  Friday,  June  20th,  1890. 

Waukesha,  "  The  Saratoga  of  the  West,"  famous  for  its 
"  Bethesda,"  "  Silurian,"  "  Fountain,"  "  Clysmic,"  and  other 
mineral  springs,  is  a  town  of  six  thousand  inhabitants,  situated 
about  one  hundred  miles  north  of  Chicago,  and  twenty  miles 
west  of  Milwaukee,  and  directly  on  important  lines  of  railroad. 
The  hotel  in  which  the  session  will  be  held  is  an  immense  stone 
and  brick  structure,  capable  of  accommodating  eight  hundred 
guests,  and  furnished  with  all  modern  conveniences.  It  is 
situated  in  a  beautiful  park  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-five  acres, 
laid  out  with  drives,  shaded  walks,  flower  gardens,  etc.,  while 
the  town  itself  presents  numerous  attractions  to  visitors  in  search 
of  either  health  or  pleasure. 

The  local  Committee  of  Arrangements  is  making  provision 
for  the  comfort  and  enjoyment  of  those  who  may  attend  the 


1890.]      THE  AMERICAN  INSTITUTE,  SESSION  OF  1890.  227 


session,  such  as  to  render  the  occasion  one  of  the  most  memor- 
able in  the  Institute's  history. 

Under  the  new  rule,  the  Bureaus  will  present  a  far  greater 
variety  of  subjects  for  discussion  than  heretofore,  and  the  papers 
will  embrace  more  of  the  observation  and  experience  of  their 
writers.  Important  subjects  of  professional  interest  will  be 
introduced  and  acted  upon,  and  interesting  reports  will  be  pre- 
sented by  several  committees. 

Any  paper,  after  being  presented  at  the  session,  may  be  pub- 
lished in  the  journals  at  the  discretion  of  its  writer.  With  a 
view  to  such  outside  publication,  writers  are  especially  requested 
to  have  their  papers  in  duplicate. 

Officers  of  homoeopathic  societies  and  institutions  are  urged  to 
make  prompt  reports  (on  blanks  which  will  shortly  be  sent  to 
them)  to  the  Bureau  of  Organization,  Registration,  and 
Statistics. 

All  hospitals  and  dispensai'ies,  so  reporting,  -will  receive  a 
pamphlet  copy  of  the  entire  Statistical  Report  of  the  Institute. 

It  is  desirable  that  the  Institute  should  receive  this  year 
another  large  addition  to  its  membership,  particularly  from  the 
West  and  Northwest,  in  order  to  secure  a  more  equal  appor- 
tionment of  membership  as  between  the  East  and  the  West,  and 
to  augment  the  influence  of  our  school  in  shaping  legislation  and 
defending  the  equal  rights  of  homoeopath ists  in  public  institu- 
tions, appointments,  etc.  It  has  been  suggested  that  each 
State  and  local  society  should  provide  for  a  complete  canvass  of 
its  membership  in  order  to  secure  for  itself  a  larger  representa- 
tion in  the  membership  of  the  National  Society.  The  initiation 
fee  is  two  dollars,  annual  dues,  five  dollars,  entitling  the  mem- 
ber to  the  annual  volume  of  Transactions.  Blank  applications 
for  membership  can  be  obtained  of  the  undersigned. 

The  Annual  Circular,  giving  full  details  of  the  session,  the 
programme,  railroad  fares,  hotel  rates,  etc.,  will  be  issued  in 
May.  Any  physician  failing  to  receive  a  copy  by  May  25th, 
can  obtain  one  on  application  to 

Pemberton  Dudley,  General  Secretary, 
S.  W.  Cor.  15th  and  Master  Streets,  Philadelphia. 


THE  KANSAS  CITY  HOMCEOPATHIC  COLLEGE.*  * 


Kansas  City,  Kansas,  March  16th,  1890. 

Editors  of  the  Homoeopathic  Physician  : — I  am  glad 
to  have  recalled  to  your  mind  some  recollections  of  the  two 
Kansas  Cities.  One  of  them,  as  is  well  known,  is  Kansas  City, 
Missouri,  the  other  is  just  across  the  boundary  line — the  Kaw 
River — in  Kansas.  I  live  in  the  latter  city.  Great  changes 
have  taken  place  since  you  were  here.  Even  in  the  three  years 
that  I  have  been  a  resident  the  improvement  is  wonderful. 

To  my  mind,  the  rapid  building  up  of  attractive  homes  in  the 
suburbs  is  the  most  interesting.  But  it  is  of  a  different  subject 
I  wish  to  tell  yon. 

Two  and  a  half  years  ago  a  Homoeopathic  Medical  School 
was  organized  in  Kansas  City,  Missouri,  the  Faculty  composed 
of  several  physicians  of  that  side  of  the  river  and  three  from 
this,  who  gave  their  services  and  advanced  their  money  "  for 
the  good  of  the  cause." 

Last  Thursday  evening  I  attended  their  second  commence- 
ment, of  which  I  inclose  a  programme. 

The  institution  is  now  out  of  debt,  with  money  in  the  treasury, 
and  increasing  facilities  for  instruction. 

Of  eighteen  students  six  were  graduates,  of  whom  four  were 
ladies. 

The  valedictory  was  far  more  interesting  than  those  produc- 
tions usually  are,  and  the  appearance  and  manner  of  the  lady 
who  read  it  added  to  the  pleasing  effect  on  the  large  and  appre- 
ciative audience,  warming  the  hearts  of  the  women  of  our  pro- 
fession with  gratified  pride. 

There  are  several  allopathic  schools  in  the  city,  but  this  is 
the  first  exclusively  homoeopathic  institution. 

Respectfully, 

Axnette  H.  Waggoner,  M.  D. 

*We  publish  this  interesting  letter  of  Dr.  "Waggoner  with  the  desire  of 
calling  the  attention  of  the  profession  to  the  new  college  that  is  now  flourish- 
ing in  this  part  of  our  country,  aud  to  commend  it  to  their  good-will. 

228 


NOTES  OX  THE  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  ALOES. 


Walter  M.  James,  M.  D.,  Philadelphia. 

Head  :  Vertigo  with  constipation  (Dunham).  Vertigo 
with  pain  in  right  hypochondrium  and  at  angle  of  escapula ; 
icteric  complexion  and  bilious  urine.  Dull,  heavy  headache 
with  congestion  of  the  liver;  weight  pressing  down  forehead  to 
root  of  nose.  A  peculiar  heavy,  dull,  pressing  pain  in  the  fore- 
head, of  no  great  severity,  but  which  indisposes  to,  or  even  inca- 
pacitates for  all  exertion,  particularly  intellectual  labor  (P.  P. 
Wells). 

Dunham  says  that  Aloes  produces  a  singular  combination  of 
anxious  restlessness,  despondency,  indisposition  to  mental  or 
bodily  exertion,  and  confusion  of  intelligence. 

Aching  above  forehead  with  heaviness  of  eyes  and  nausea. 

Falling  out  of  the  hair  in  adults. 

Pressing  headache ;  pressure  extends  to  root  of  nose  or  to 
temples. 

Throbbing  headache. 

Compelled  to  make  eyes  small  during  pain  in  forehead,  to  en- 
able him  to  see.  Dunham  cured  an  obstinate  headache  by  atten- 
tion to  this  symptom. 

Aggravations  of  head  symptoms  in  early  morning  or  in  the 
evening  or  from  sedentary  habits. 

Amelioration  of  head  symptoms  by  cold  water  and  the  dis- 
charge of  flatus. 

Hypochondria  :  Pressure,  tension,  and  discomfort  in  this 
region  ;  a  sensation  of  heat,  pressure,  and  single  severe  stitches. 

Abdomen  distended  with  flatulence  and  there  is  fullness 
in  the  head  and  a  sense  of  weight  and  dragging  in  the  hypogas- 
trium.  Abdomen  tender  on  pressure.  Heaviness  of  abdomen 
extending  to  rectum  and  bladder. 

Stool  :  Violent  tenesmus,  with  stools  of  bloody  water  ; 
great  faintncss  during  and  after  each  stool.  Stool  at  first  very 
small,  then  more  free,  then  follows  a  half-fluid,  light  yellow  of- 
fensive stool  and  at  last  yellow,  watery  diarrhoea  (Dunham). 

229 


230 


NOTES  ON  THE  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  ALOES. 


[May, 


The  patient  has  frequent  calls  to  stool  which  pass  away  in 
"gobs"  either  large  or  small,  inconsistency  like  jelly-fish, 
usually  dark  in  color  but  sometimes  colorless  (G.).  Sharp  pains 
in  the  bowels  with  large  quantities  of  flatus  with  the  stool ; 
when  passing  wind  often  has  a  stool.  Stools  in  consistency  like 
jelly-cakes  j  a  quantity  of  clear,  jelly-like  substances,  which  may 
be  green  or  white  and  adhere  like  congealed  mucus  (G.). 

Sense  of  insecurity  in  the  bowels,  as  if  diarrhoea  might  occur 
at  any  time. 

Stools  lumpy  and  watery. 

Diarrhoea,  with  want  of  confidence  in  the  sphincter  ani.  The 
rectum  seems- full  of  fluid,  which  feels  heavy  as  if  it  would  fall 
out  (M.). 

Sense  of  weakness  in  rectum  and  anus,  as  if  the  latter  would 
be  suddenly  relaxed  in  spite  of  the  patient's  will,  and  permit 
escaping  faeces  (Dunham). 

Morning  diarrhoea  ;  colic,  nausea,  chilliness,  sudden  and  irre- 
sistible desire  for  stool ;  can  hardly  get  to  the  water-closet,  before 
a  dark,  almost  black,  offensive,  and  liquid  stool  passes  off.  Fear 
lest  stool  should  escape  with  flatus;  feeling  as  if  thin  stool  would 
escape  when  passing  urine. 

With  the  passage  of  stool  feeling  as  if  more  were  at  hand.  Urg- 
ing to  stool  after  eating  ;  when  rising  after  lying  ;  from  standing  ; 
when  urinating. 

Stool  preceded  and  accompanied  by  much  gurgling  and  rolling 
of  flatus  in  the  abdomen. 

Diarrhoea  brought  on  by  eating,  especially  breakfast  (Dun- 
ham). 

Fear  to  pass  flatus  lest  stool  shall  escape  (Dunham). 

Fear  to  urinate  lest  the  slight  bearing  down  involved  will 
cause  involuntary  movement  of  the  bowels  (Dunham). 

The  same  state  of  things  occurs  with  the  sj^hincter  of  the 
bladder  as  with  the  sphincter  ani  (Dunham). 

On  rising,  he  is  obliged  to  run  quickly  to  urinate ;  can  hardly 
retain  the  urine. 

Frequent  desire  to  urinate. 

Frequent  desire  to  stool. 


1890.] 


BOOK  NOTICES  AND  REVIEWS. 


231 


Dysentery,  stools  frequent  and  very  painful  with  burning 
tenesmus  at  extremity  of  rectum. 
Fistula  in  ano. 

Diarrhoea  ten  A.  M.  and  ten  p.  m.,  stool  falling  out  almost 
unnoticed. 

Diarrhoea  continues  only  after  ten  a.  m.  (Dunham). 

Diarrhoea  with  pain  ;  soreness  and  burning  in  the  rectum. 
Stools  copious  and  watery  with  much  flatus. 

Great  exhaustion  and  faintness  after  stools. 

Driven  out  of  bed  at  two  or  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  for 
stool;  can  hardly  rise  quick  enough. 

Diarrhoea  in  early  morning,  five  A.  M.  (Dunham). 

Flatus  burning  and  offensive. 

Hemorrhoids  with  little  faeces,  bleeding  often  and  profusely. 
They  protrude  like  grapes ;  sore  on  wiping  after  stool. 

Perineum  :  Sensation  of  a  weight  and  feeling  as  if  a  plug 
were  wedged  in  between  the  symphisis  pubis  and  os  coccygeus. 
Affection  of  prostate  gland  (Dunham).  Sensation  of  a  plug 
as  above,  with  urging  to  stool. 

Pelvis  :    Heat,  weight,  pressure,  and  dragging  downward. 

The  symptoms  which  seem  to  me  most  characteristic  are  those 
of  the  head  and  abdomen,  stool  and  urine.  They  are  those  on 
which  my  use  of  Aloes  in  practice  has  been  based  (Dunham). 

Genitals:  Fullness  and  heaviness  in  the  region  of  the 
uterus. 

Pressing  down  in  rectum  daring  menses.    Profuse  menses. 
Symptoms  worse  in  hot,  damp  weather. 


BOOK  NOTICES  AND  REVIEWS. 

Three  Years'  Experience  of  Water  Purification 
by  means  of  iron,  in  ander.son's  revolving  iron 
Purifier.  By  E.  Devonshire,  Assoc.  M.  Inst.  C.  E.,  3 
Whitehall  Place,  London  S.  W.,  1888. 

This  pamphlet  of  seventy  pages  and  five  large  plates  must,  when  its  title 
is  considered,  at  once  arrest  the  attention  of  every  practitioner  of  medicine. 
In  the  July  number  of  this  journal,  at  page  310,  we  called  attention  to  an 


232 


BOOK  NOTICES  AND  REVIEWS. 


[May, 


essay  by  Dr.  Currier,  discussing  the  filter  question.  It  will  be  recollected  that 
he  condemned  all  small  filters,  and  gave  a  description  of  one  at  Berlin,  the 
only  one  successful  on  the  large  scale. 

In  the  pamphlet  before  us  is  a  description  of  a  most  novel,  yet  simple,  and 
altogether  surprising  method  of  purifying  water  for  drinking  purposes.  It  is 
nothing  more  or  less  than  agitating  the  water  with  metallic  iron. 

We  quote  from  the  pamphlet : 

"The  principle  of  Anderson's  Revolving  Iron  Purifier  consists  in  the  pro- 
duction of  an  intimate  contact  between  metallic  iron  and  the  water  to  be 
purified,  by  the  showering  down  of  finely  divided  particles  of  the  metal 
through  an  onward  flowing  stream  of  water." 

To  accomplish  this  result  in  a  practical  manner,  the  inventor  provides  a 
long  iron  cylinder  of  considerable  diameter,  that  is  supported  horizontally 
upon  two  hollow  axles.  "  Within  the  cylinder  is  a  series  of  short,  curved 
shelves,  arranged  in  steps  at  equal  distances  round  its  circumference,  and 
reaching  from  end  to  end."  Into  this  cylinder  iron  in  a  moderately  fine  state 
of  division  is  introduced,  and  spread  along  the  bottom  in  sufficient  quantity  to 
occupy  one-tenth  of  its  capacity.  Water  is  allowed  to  flow  into  the  cylinder 
through  the  hollow  axle,  or  trunnion,  at  one  end,  and  permitted  to  escape 
through  the  other.  A  small  engine  causes  the  cylinder  to  revolve  slowly, 
and  the  steps  scoop  up  portions  of  the  iron  particles,  and  carry  them  up  to  the 
highest  point  of  rotation,  when  they  fall  down,  and,  descending  through  the 
water,  are  arrested  at  the  lowest  point,  there  to  be  once  more  lifted  up  and 
allowed  to  drop.  This  process  is  going  on  continuously.  The  iron  falling 
through  the  water  purifies  it,  removing  color,  destroying  bacteria  and  the 
albuminous  ammonia  upon  which  they  subsist,  and  causing  it  to  become 
limpid,  even  brilliant,  colorless,  and  free  from  taste  or  smell.  This  result  may 
be  attained  with  any  ordinary  water  "  which  the  slowest  practicable  filtration 
through  sand  is  powerless  to  render  clear  and  bright."  Portions  of  iron  are, 
of  course,  oxidized  and  dissolved  in  the  water,  giving  it  a  strong  metallic  taste. 
This  is  gotten  rid  of  by  exposing  the  water  to  the  air,  in  order  that  the  dis- 
solved iron  may  oxidize.  The  plan  for  accomplishing  this  end  is  by  directing 
it  through  shallow  troughs  to  filter  beds  of  sand,  where  the  water  stands  three 
or  four  feet  deep,  so  that  it  may  take  six  hours  before  it  reaches  the  sand.  The 
sand  arrests  the  sesquioxide  of  iron  thus  formed,  and  the  water  finally  enters 
the  reservoir,  as  before  stated,  limpid  and  pure. 

If  the  water  be  very  highly  colored,  as  with  peat,  it  needs  a  great  deal  of 
aeration  to  completely  abolish  color  and  opalescence. 

To  accomplish  this,  air  may  be  pumped  into  the  water  and  the  water  per- 
mitted to  fall  in  cascades  down  a  series  of  steps  built  of  coke. 

Air  is  carefully  excluded  from  the  revolving  cylinder,  however,  and  the  cur- 
rent of  water  flowing  through  kept  uniform.  The  iron  particles  under  these 
circumstances  do  not  rust,  the  continual  attrition  keeping  their  surfaces  bright 
and  smooth,  and  the  cylinder  itself  entirely  free  from  rust  and  scale.  Tiiebest 
form  of  iron  is  the  scrap-iron  called  "  burrs    coming  from  punching  machines. 

The  chemical  theory  of  the  process  appears  to  be  "one  of  reduction,  to  be 


•r 


1890.]  BOOK  NOTICES  AND  REVIEWS.  233 

followed,  on  the  water  leaving  the  apparatus,  by  one  of  oxidation."  The  car- 
bonic acid  contained  in  the  impure  water  acts  upon  the  metal,  forming  car- 
bonate of  iron.  On  being  exposed  to  the  air,  the  ferrous  salt  is  oxidized  and 
converted  into  the  insoluble  ferric  oxide  (Fe2  03),  the  carbonic  acid  being 
liberated  and  escaping  in  the  form  of  gas.  From  this  it  will  be  seen  that 
proper  aeration  after  purification  is  indispensable  to  complete  the  process.  It 
is  found  that  in  most  cases  four  hours'  exposure  to  air  is  ample  to  completely 
precipitate  all  dissolved  iron,  which  is  then  easily  removed  from  the  water 
by  rapid  mechanical  filtration,  no  trace  of  iron  remaining  in  the  purified  and 
filtered  water. 

The  process  has  been  brilliantly  successful  with  the  water  of  the  Nile,  which 
is  charged  with  mud  in  so  fine  a  state  of  subdivision  that  it  defies  any  practical 
method  of  filtration. 

The  three  years'  experience  with  this  process  were  obtained  by  practice 
upon  the  impure  and  highly  colored  waters  of  the  river  Nethe,  which  supplies 
the  city  of  Antwerp. 

The  author  of  the  book  under  notice  is  the  resident  engineer  and  manager 
of  the  Antwerp  Water-works  Company,  limited. 

He  is  at  present  traveling  through  the  United  States,  endeavoring  to  intro- 
duce his  system  into  the  large  cities.  March  19th.  he  delivered  an  interesting 
lecture  upon  the  subject  in  the  Franklin  Institute  of  Philadelphia. 

The  reflecting  physician  will  find  much  food  for  thought  upon  the  effect 
which  this  process'of  purifying  water  has  upon  health.  W,  M.  J. 

Consumption  :  Its  Cause  and  Nature,  by  Roll  in  R.  Gregg, 
M.  D.,  to  which  is  added  The  Therapeutics  of  Tuber- 
culous Affections,  by  H.  C.  Allen,  M.  D.  Ann  xVrbor, 
Michigan,  1889. 

When  it  was  announced  that  this  work  was  to  be  after  the  plan  of  Bell  on 
Diarrhoea  and  Dysentery,  we  looked  forward  to  possessing  a  book  that  would  do 
as  much  for  us  in  that  scourge,  consumption,  as  Bell's  work  does  for  us  in  treat- 
ing morbid  discharges  from  the  bowels.    We  regret  to  say  we  are  disappointed. 

In  the  first  part  of  the  work  is  given  Dr.  Gregg's  pet  theory :  that  this  and 
other  affections  are  due  to  a  loss  of  albumen  through  diseased  mucous 
membranes. 

Although  this  is  elaborately  set  forth,  and  many  authors  quoted  to  bolster 
up  this  idea,  we  are  obliged  to  say  that  it  is  but  theory,  and  the  arguments 
advanced  are  not  convincing.  While  it  is  well  known  that  there  is  great  loss 
of  albumen  in  this  malady,  as  well  as  in  many  others,  if  we  were  to  give  any 
theorizing  to  the  subject,  we  should  ask:  Why  this  loss?  Dr.  Gregg  says 
because  of  the  "  diseased  mucous  membranes  "  But  the  why  of  the  diseased 
mucous  membranes  is  the  pertinent  and  important  question.  When  we  reach 
this  point  we  are  approaching  a  question  that  is  not  answerable.  Certainly  it 
is  not  answered  on  p.  58,  where  the  author  says:  "Whatever  else  the  con- 
sumptive may  have  inherited  of  actual  disease,  or  a  tendency  to  it,  he  inherits 


234 


BOOK  NOTICES  AND  REVIEWS. 


[May, 


a  characteristic  weakness  of  the  raucous  membranes,  or  a  great  liability  to 
catarrhal  irritations  arising  therein  upon  slight  provocations,  from  moderate 
as  well  as  from  severe  colds,  and  the  like.  .  .  ." 

"Secondly.  When  chronic  skin  diseases  are  treated  locally,  and  thereby 
removed  from  the  surface,  no  other  result  follows,  except  that  they  are  driven 
inwardly  to  locate  upon  the  mucous  membranes,  where  they  go  into  immediate 
chronic  catarrhal  disease.  .  .  ."  All  this  is  true  of  some  cases,  but  a  very 
large  number  of  consumptives  never  present  any  skin  diseases,  and  in  many 
catarrhal  affections  do  not  appear  until  the  deposition  of  tubercles.  We  can 
see  the  theory  may  hold  good  as  to  some,  but  it  has  no  relation  whatever  to 
others.  Indeed  the  author  himself  casts  doubt  upon  the  whole  question,  at  p. 
169,  in  these  words:  "  If  the  cause  of  consumption  is  the  loss  of  albumen  from 
the  blood  through  irritated  and  abraded  mucous  membranes,  as  must  be  con- 
ceded on  the  evidence  presented  to  be  at  least  highly  probable,  then  the  curing 
of  the  cause — that  is,  properly  healing  all  the  mucous  surfaces  that  are  diseased 
— must  of  a  necessity  put  a  stop  to  the  further  production  of  tubercles  and  the 
whole  category  of  attending  conditions  and  sufferings.  Of  this  there  can  be  no 
reasonable  question,  provided  always,  of  course,  that  the  real  cause  has  been 
fathomed  and  is  the  loss  of  albumen  as  described."  If  we  had  been  impressed 
with  the  theory  before  reading  this  paragraph  we  certainly  should  begin  to 
doubt  its  correctness  after  reading  it. 

Fortunately — thanks  to  the  genius  of  Hahnemann — we  need  pay  little 
attention  to  any  theory  regarding  the  nature  of  disease.  Simply,  we  can 
know  nothing  about  it.  While  we  may  be  familiar  with  the  structural  changes 
caused  by  disease,  when  we  approach  the  problem  of  the  cause  and  nature  of 
the  various  maladies  we  advance  to  an  insolvable  problem. 

When  we  come  to  the  part  of  the  work  which  gives  us  the  therapeutics  we 
can  have  no  doubt.  No  one  who  has  put  Hahnemannian  Homoeopathy  to  the 
test  need  have  any  uncertainty  here. 

As  we  have  said  above,  we  are  disappointed  in  this  work.  Not  for  what  is 
given,  however,  but  for  the  omissions.  We  feel  that  the  editor  of  the  work 
has  not  furnished  all  that  could  be  had  ready  to  hand  for  the  taking.  We  are 
thankful  for  what  he  has  done,  and  we  trust  that  at  no  distant  day  he  will  go 
farther  and  give  us  more.  G.  H.  C. 

The  International  Medical  Annual  and  Practitioner's 
Index  for  1890.  Edited  by  P.  W.  Williams,  M.  D.,  Sec- 
retary of  Staff,  assisted  by  a  corps  of  thirty-six  collaborators 
— European  and  American — specialists  in  their  several  de- 
partments. 600  octavo  pages.  Illustrated.  §2.75.  E.  B. 
Treat,  Publisher,  5  Cooper  Union,  New  York. 

The  eighth  yearly  issue  of  this  handy  reference  one-volume  manual  is  at 
hand.  In  its  Alphabetical  index  of  New  Remedies  and  its  Dictionary  of 
New  Treatment  it  richly  deserves  and  perpetuates  the  well-earned  reputation 
of  its  predecessors.    In  this  volume  its  corps  of  department  editors  has  been 


1390.] 


BOOK  NOTICES  AND  REVIEWS. 


235 


largely  increased,  and  important  papers  upon  Thermo-Therapeutics,  Electro- 
Therapeutics,  Sanitary  Science  in  city  and  country,  and  the  Medical  Examiner 
in  Life  Insurance  are  features  of  special  interest.  It  is  truly  a  helpful 
volume,  a  resume  of  the  year's  progress  in  medicine,  keeping  the  busy  practi- 
tioner abreast  of  the  times  with  reference  to  the  medical  literature  of  the 
world.  While  there  is  a  generous  increase  in  size  and  material,  the  price  re- 
mains the  same,  $'2-7 d. 

Transactions  of  the  Homoeopathic  Medical  Society 
of  New  York  for  1889,  and  Transactions  Homoeo- 
pathic Medical  Society  of  Pennsylvania  for  1889. 

We  have  received  the  Transactions  of  the  llomceopathic  Medical  Society  of  Neiu 
York  for  1889,  also  Transactions  of  the  Homceopathic  Medical  Society  of  Penn- 
sylvania for  1889.  Both  volumes  contain  mixtures  of  allopathic  and  homoeo- 
pathic treatment.  In  the  last  named  we  notice  one  gentleman,  who  calls 
himself  a  follower  of  Hahnemann,  for  uterine  hemorrhage  following  placenta 
previa,  " gave  every  conceivable  remedy  indicated  in  such  cases.  Ergot  in 
full  doses  had  no  effect.  Finally,  after  he  had  given  about  ten  drops  of  Bovi- 
nine  to  nourish  the  patient,  he  felt  the  uterus  grow  firmer,  and  on  repeating 
the  dose  several  times,  he  had  the  satisfaction  to  find  the  hemorrhage  cease." 

Query:  If  instead  of  giving  "every  conceivable  remedy"  he  had  followed 
Hahnemann's  directions  and  given  the  right  remedy,  would  he  have  needed 
Ergot  or  anything  else?  If  only  these  people  would  use  nothing  more  hurt- 
ful than  Bovinine  ! 

Influenza  and  Common  Colds;  the  Causes,  Character, 
and  Treatment  of  each.  By  ^Y.  T.  Ferric,  M.  D. 
Percival  &  Co.,  King  Street,  Covent  Garden,  London,  1890. 
Price,  2  shillings. 

This  little  book  is  mainly  intended  for  the  laity.  The  descriptions  of  the 
affections  treated  are  terse  and  all  that  can  be  desired  for  the  use  intended. 
The  treatment  advised  is  a  mixture  of  Homoeopathy  and  allopathy.  Still  we 
may  learn  some  useful  hints  from  its  pages.  •  G.  H.  C. 

Every  Thursday  ;  An  Illustrated  Family  Journal.  Pub- 
lished by  Charles  Robinson,  150  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York 
City.    Subscription,  82.50  per  year  ;  to  clergymen,  $2.00. 

The  first  number  of  this  neat  weekly  is  before  us.  It  contains  a  variety  of 
literary  articles  all  very  interesting.  Among  these  may  be  mentioned  the 
following:  "  William  Cullen  Bryant's  Hymns,"  "  Provincialisms,"  "  Eyes  and 
Ears,"  "  Love  as  an  Embodiment  in  God,"  "  International  Sunday-School  Les- 
son," "  White  Suns,"  a  story  in  two  parts ;  "  The  Oldest  Sculpture  in  the 
World,"  etc.    There  are  several  very  excellent  illustrations.         "W.  M.  J. 


236 


BOOK  NOTICES  AND  REVIEWS. 


[May, 


The  Concordance  Repertory  of  the  More  Character- 
istic Symptoms  of  the  Materia  Medica.  By  William 
D.  Gentry,  M.  D.  Vol.  I.  New  York  ;  A.  L.  Chatterton 
&  Co. 

We  are  in  receipt  of  the  first  volume  of  this  laborious  work.  It  contains 
mind  and  disposition,  head  and  scalp,  eyes,  ears,  nose,  face. 

For  this  work  the  author  deserves  the  gratitude  and  praise  of  every 
follower  of  Hahnemann,  not  one  of  whom  can  afford  to  be  without  it.  As  the 
title  implies,  it  is  a  concordance. 

The  work  is  dedicated  "to  all  students  of  materia  medica,  and  to  all 
engaged  in  the  practice  of  medicine  according  to  the  law  of  Similia  similibus 
cwantur."  To  all  of  these  we  say  that  it  is  unique,  and  fulfils  all  the  claims 
made  for  it,  and  if  we  were  to  fill  pages  with  commendations  we  could  say  no 
more  than  that.  Dr.  Gentry  will  please  accept  our  hearty  thanks,  and  we  as- 
sure him  we  shall  look  forward  to  the  completion  of  the  work.       G.  II.  C. 

The  Treatment  of  Snake-Bites.  Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitch- 
ell's UNDIGNIFIED  DIG  AT  HoMCEOPATHY.  By  Will.  B. 
Clarke,  M.  D.,  Indianapolis,  Indiana,  Secretary  of  Indiana 
Institute  of  Homoeopathy. 

This  is  a  pamphlet  of  seven  pages  containing  an  answer  to  the  slurring  allu- 
sion to  IIora<eopathy  contained  in  Dr.  Mitchell's  article  upon  "  The  Poison  of 
Serpents,"  in  the  Century  Magazine  last  August.  In  the  course  of  his  answer, 
Dr.  Clarke  shows  that  alcohol  is  not  a  perfectly  reliable  remedy  for  snake-bite, 
but  that  in  California  there  grows  a  weed,  a  species  of  the  plant  euphorbia, 
which  is  a  safe  remedy. 

He  also  shows  that  venomous  snakes  carry  in  their  gall  bladder  an  antidote 
to  their  own  poison.  The  Lachesis  poison  may  be  antidoted  with  tincture  of 
Aristolochia  Columbiana.  To  the  poison  of  the  rattlesnake  there  is  said  to  be 
an  antidote  in  a  common  plant  called  Hyssop. 

A  strong  alkali  will,  when  applied  without  delay  to  a  snake-bite,  destroy 
the  venom.  Hence  the  value  of  Ammonium-carbonate,  the  dry  powder  of 
which  should  be  stuffed  into  the  wound  and  small  dissolved  doses  taken  inter- 
nally. 

The  local  application  of  crystals  of  Permanganate  of  Potassa,  preferably  by 
injection,  will  kill  the  venom  in  a  snake-bite.  This  is  the  proposition  of  Dr. 
Lacerda,  of  Rio  Janeiro,  and  the  Emperor  of  Brazil  gave  him  a  present  of 
$25,000  in  gold  for  his  discovery.  W.  M.  J . 

Eegulation  of  Trayel  and  Traffic,  Pennsylvania 
State  Board  of  Health. 

This  is  a  pamphlet  which  gives  the  rules  permitting  the  transportation  of 
dead  bodies  from  one  place  to  another,  with  directions  how  to  get  a  permit, 
etc. 


1890.] 


BOOK  NOTICES  AND  REVIEWS. 


237 


Homoeopathic  Prescription.  A  conversation  by  M.  A.  A. 
Wolff,  M.  D.,  Gainesville,  Texas. 

This  is  a  tract  upon  Homoeopathy,  originally  published  as  an  article  con- 
tributed to  The  People's  Journal  of  Health.  It  was  so  much  liked  that  the 
author  was  induced  to  publish  it  as  a  tract.  It  is  written  in  the  manner  of  a 
dialogue  between  a  doctor  and  his  patient.  Doctors  who  wish  to  hand  it 
arouud  among  their  patients  can  have  it  in  quantity,  with  their  professional 
card  attached,  for  $4.50  per  thousand,  by  applying  to  the  printer,  George  T. 
Yates,  Gainesville,  Texas. 

Precautions  against  Consumption  ;  Circular  No.  20, 
Penna.  Board  of  Health.  By  Dr.  Benjamin  Lee,  Secre- 
tary. 

This  well-written  pamphlet,  designed  for  distribution  among  the  laity, 
assumes  that  the  cause  of  consumption  is  indisputably  the  bacillus.  Upon 
this  it  proposes  a  series  of  precautions,  which  are  about  as  follow :  Avoid 
eating  meat  of  cattle  known  to  be  tuberculous;  avoid  living  in  damp  situa- 
tions or  a  house  having  a  damp  or  foul  cellar  ;  avoid  crowded  or  ill-ventilated 
assembly  rooms  ;  avoid  sleeping  in  poorly-ventilated  apartments ;  avoid  seden- 
tary occupations  with,in-doors. 

As  drying  does  not  destroy  the  bacillus,  consumptives  should  avoid  spitting 
where  the  expectoration  may  become  dry  and  blown  about,  and  so  inhaled. 
The  expectoration  should  be  deposited  in  a  paper  cup,  that  may  be  bought  at 
drug  stores,  and  burned.  When  away  from  home  the  patient  should  carry 
with  him  a  flask  containing  a  five  per  cent,  solution  of  Carbolic  acid  or  Corro- 
sive Sublimate  with  which  to  destroy  the  infection  of  his  expectoration. 

No  spittoon  should  be  emptied  upon  the  surface  of  the  ground  where  domes- 
tic animals  can  get  at  it.  The  ordinary  spittoon  filled  with  sand  or  sawdust 
and  found  in  public  houses  should  be  abolished.  A  consumptive  mother 
should  not  nurse  her  own  child.  The  feather  duster  should  not  be  used  about 
the  room  occupied  by  the  consumptive.  The  floor,  wood-work,  and  furniture 
should  be  cleaned  by  wiping  with  a  damp  cloth.  The  patient's  clothing  should 
be  kept  by  itself  and  boiled  when  washed.  Ventilation  should  not  be 
neglected. 

After  death  the  wood-work,  furniture,  etc.,  of  the  room  should  be  disinfected 
with  a  solution  of  Carbolic  acid  or  Corrosive  Sublimate.  The  bed  clothing 
should  be  disinfected  with  super-heated  steam. 

At  public  houses  only  china  or  metallic  spittoons  should  be  used,  charged 
with  some  disinfectant. 

The  author  concludes : 

"Should  the  recommendations  of  this  circular  be  generally  followed,  the 
expectation  is  not  Utopian  that  the  present  generation  may  witness  a  very 
considerable  reduction  in  the  ravages  of  what  has  been  not  [inappropriately 
termed  '  The  Great  White  Plague.'  "  W.  M.J.  " 


238 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 


[May, 


A  Corrector  Corrected  ;  The  Boston  Evening  Transcript, 
March  22d. 

This  is  the  title  to  a  very  clever  letter  to  the  editor  of  the  Transcript,  and 
signed  "A  Hahnemannian  Hora<eopatbist."  It  is  evidently  from  the  pen  of 
onr  well-known  friend  Dr.  Samuel  A.  Kimball. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  the  March  number,  at  page  141,  we  called 
attention  to  an  article  by  Mark  Twain  in  Harper's,  upon  Homreopathy.  The 
same  article  is  again  considered  in  the  present  number  at  page  203. 

It  seems  that  some  "  corrector"  of  allopathic  partialities  took  Mark  Twain 
to  task  on  account  of  his  preferences  for  Homoeopathy.  He  brought  up  the 
old  accusation  that  Hahnemann  attributed  seven-eighths  of  the  diseases  of 
humanity  to  the  itch. 

The  letter  here  referred  to  is  a  caustic  and  conclusive  answer  to  the  excep- 
tions of  "  Corrector."  W.  M.  J. 

The  New  Remedies  ;  A  Bi-Monthly  Epitome  of  Progress  in 
Homoeopathic  Materia  Medica  and  Therapeutics.    Edited  by 
James  E.  Gross,  M.  D.    Gross  &  Delbridge,  48  Madison 
Street,  Chicago.    Subscription,  50  cents  a  year. 
The  fourth  number  of  this  new  journal  is  before  us. 

It  contains  sixteen  pages.  The  title-page  informs  us  that  the  contributors 
are  Edwin  M.  Hale,  M.  D.,  Robert  X.  'looker,  M.  D.,  J.  H.  Buffum,  M.  D., 
A.  G.  Cowperthwaite,  M.  D.,  J.  K.  Kippax,  M.  D.,  Clifford  Mitchell,  M.  D., 
N.  B.  Delamater,  M.  D.,  W.  M.  Stearns,  M.  D.,  Henry  Sherry,  M.  D.,  and 
C.  A.  Williams,  M.  D. 

As  its  name  indicates,  this  journal  is  devoted  to  the  announcement  and  latest 
information  upon  new  medicines.  Unfortunately,  it  seems  to  recommend 
these  remedies  to  be  used  empirically.  There  are  but  few  pathogenetic  indi- 
cations for  any  remedy  to  be  found  in  these  pages.  We  are  unable  to  discover 
any  homceopathic  teachings  in  it  at  all.  Still,  a  few  interesting  items  of 
information  about  drugs  may  be  gleaned.  W.  M.  J. 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 

International  Hahnemannian  Association — Notice  of  Meeting. — 
The  next  meeting  of  the  I.  H.  A.  will  be  held  at  the  "  Ocean  House,"  Watch 
Hill,  R.  I.,  June  24th,  25th,  26th,  27th.  The  hotel  rates  will  be  $2.50  per  day 
Watch  Hill  is  about  four  miles  across  the  bay  from  Stonington,  Conn.  Stoning, 
ton  is  reached  from  New  York  City  by  the  Shore  Line  R.  R.  or  by  the  "  Stoning- 
ton Line  "  of  steamers  which  leave  New  York  late  in  the  afternoon  ;  it  is  reached 
from  Albany  via  New  York  City  or  by  the  Boston  and  Albany  R.  R.  via  Wor- 
cester ;  from  Boston  by  the  Providence  division  of  the  Old  Colony  R.  R. 
From  Stonington  steamers  run  to  Watch  Hill  at  short  intervals  during  the  day. 


1890.] 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 


239 


This  meeting  should  be  the  largest  ever  held.  It  is  very  necessary  now, 
that  we  should  make  our  efforts  in  behalf  of  pure  Homceopathy  known  by  ac- 
tion. When  one  so-called  homceopathist  of  New  York  publicly  proclaims  in 
the  daily  papers  that  "  there  is  not  a  strictly  homeopathic  physician  in  New 
York  City,"  and  another  says  that  "a  homoeopathic  physician  is  one  who  be- 
longs to  a  homoeopathic  medical  society,  no  matter  if  he  does  have  recourse  to 
allopathic  remedies" — when  such  things  are  uttered  in  the  name  of  Homoeop- 
athy, it  is  high  time  for  the  homoeopathic  purist  to  protest  and  to  make  his 
protest  known  to  the  public. 

You  can  do  this  by  attending  this  coming  meeting,  and  early  notice  is 
hereby  given  that  you  may  make  all  necessary  arrangements  to  be  present,  for 
it  is  a  duty  that  you  owe  not  only  to  yourself  but  to  all  other  practitioners  of 
the  Homceopathy  of  Hahnemann.  S.  A.  Kimball,  Secretary  I.  H.  A.,  124 
Commonwealth  Ave.,  Boston,  Mass.,  March  21st,  1890. 

An  Appeal  from  the  Bureau  of  Clinical  Medicine  to  Every  Mem- 
ber of  the  International  Hahnemanntan  A>^ociation. — My  Bear  Doc- 
tor: The  Bureau  of  Clinical  Medicine  wants  something  from  you.  The  chairmen 
"of  the  other  bureaus  selected  their  members  almost  before  I  was  appointed, 
consequently,  and  with  the  sanction  of  our  president,  I  shall  take  the  "  field, " 
and  with  your  help  get  together  the  most  important  collection  of  clinical  ma- 
terial ever  presented  to  any  homoeopathic  society.  I  am  intentionally  late  in 
sending  this  appeal,  as  it  has  left  you  free  to  send  your  opinions  to  the  other 
bureaus,  and  now  I  beg  you  to  send  the  Bureau  of  Clinical  Medicine  the  solid 
facts. 

Every  member  can  send  from  five  to  a  hundred  valuable  clinical  observa- 
tions. Since  you  began  practice,  and  even  since  the  last,  and  very  valuable, 
meeting  of  the  society,  you  have  had  your  heart  leap  with  joy  many  a  time  at 
the  wonderful  and  indisputable  effect  of  the  remedy  you  had  given.  Just  these 
facts  are  v:hal  we  want  in  this  bureau.  These  positive  and  beautifully  illustrative 
proofs  that  Similia  similibus  curantur  is  the  law  of  cure.  Confirmations  of 
previous  obseivations  are  of  very  great  value,  especially  on  the  newer  reme- 
dies. Wliether  they  are  short  and  direct  like  Hering's  characteristics,  or  as 
long  as  the  "  moral  law,"  makes  no  difference.  Send  what  most  interests  you, 
and  what  you  feel  to  be  so  true  and  valuable  that  every  true  homoeopath  in 
the  land  should  know  you  have  observed  or  confirmed  it.  Remember,  the 
truth  can  be  often  repeated.  Much,  very  much,  is  lost  to  us  by  members  who 
think  every  one  knows,  or  should  know,  what  is  an  every-day  fact  to  them. 
Now  then,  every-day  facts  are  what  we  want,  as  well  as  Sunday  facts. 

As  it  is  especially  desirable  that  all  the  papers  of  the  bureau  should  be  cor- 
rect, will  you  kindly  send  them  so  clearly  written  that  no  mistake  on  the  part 
of  the  printer  will  be  possible. 

Upon  a  postal  card  I  beg  you  will  inform  me  whether  you  can  support 
this  bureau  or  not,  and  if  so,  when  I  may  look  for  your  papers.  Respectfully 
yours,  T.  M.  Dillingham,  Chairman  Bureau  of  Clinical  Medicine,  46  West 
36th  St.,  New  York. 


240 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 


[May,  1890. 


Bureau  of  Surgery  of  L  H.  A. — In  the  March  number,  page  139,  we 
published  a  communication  from  Dr.  T.  Dwight  Stow,  giving  the  list  of  mem- 
bers of  the  Bureau  of  Surgery  of  the  I.  II.  A.     Unfortunately  two  important 

names — Drs.  Carr  and  Brownell — were  left  out. 
The  corrected  list  is  as  follows: 

Jas.  B.  Bell,  M.  D.,  178  Commonwealth  Ave.,  Boston. 

W.  G.  Brownell,  M.  D.,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 

Allen  B.  Carr,  M.  D.,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 

Prof.  E.  Carleton,  M.  D.,  53  W.  45th  St.,  New  York  City. 

Thos.  M.  Dillingham,  M.  D.,  46  W.  36th  St.,  New  York  City. 

A.  McNeil,  M.  D.,  220  Turk  St.,  San  Francisco. 

Mi^s  E.  J.  Myers,  M.  D.,  302  West  12th  St.,  New  York  City. 

Homceopateiic  Mbdical  College  of  Missouri. — The  thirty-first  annual 
commencement  exercises  were  held  on  the  evening  of  March  13th,  1890,  at 
Pickwick  Theatre,  and  the  house  was  crowded  even  to  the  galleries. 

The  programme  was  excellent.  The  Rev.  J.  D.  Wilson,  D.  D.,  delivered  a 
very  eloquent  opening  prayer,  and  the  Rev.  J.  R.  Ford,  D.  D.,  addressed  the 
class  on  part  of  the  Faculty  in  a  masterly  manner,  his  advice  being  sound  and 
practical,  yet  put  in  such  a  kindly,  earnest  way  that  it  was  deeply  felt  and  ap- 
preciated. 

The  awarding  of  the  prizes  and  presentation  of  flowers  was  made  by  Prof. 
I.  D.  Foulon,  A.  M.,  M.  D.,  LL.  B.,  in  his  inimitable  way.  At  one  moment 
the  audience  was  convulsed  with  laughter,  and  the  next  all  but  moved  to  tears. 

Dr.  W.  A.  Edmonds,  A.  M.,  M.  D.,  conferred  the  degree  of  M.  D.  upon  the 
class  in  a  well-timed  and  dignified  address,  there  being  twenty-three  regular 
graduates,  one  ad  eundem  and  one  honorary  degree.  The  graduates  were  as 
follows  : 

Max  Aszman,  W.  E.  Bruce,  J.  H.  Callan,  T.  J.  Haughton,  L.  H.  Lemke,  F. 
E.  Gladwin,  L.  E.  Schoch,  Frank  Kirsh,  F.  H.  Aufderheide,  C.  A.  Brown, 
C.  A.  Cantield,  A.  E.  Knieburg,  M.  E.  McCarty,  A.  C.  Goodbar,  E.  M.  Santee, 
R.  B.  Noe,  D.  E.  Archer,  E.  A.  Bohm,  D.  M.  Gibson,  H.  C.  Irwin,  G.  H. 
Moser,  C.  F.  Lee,  M.  E.  Tucker.  Ad  eundem  to  Dr.  Vogt,  and  the  honorary 
degree  to  Prof.  Foulon. 

The  most  attractive  feature  of  the  programme  was  the  musical  part,  Mr. 
Charles  Kunkel,  Mrs.  Mayo-Rhodes,  Miss  Claire  Stephens,  and  the  Amphion 
Quartette — all  artists  in  their  specialties — appearing  at  their  best. 

The  Southern  Journal  of  Homceopathy  has  again  changed  hand 
The  former  proprietor,  Dr.  G.  G.  Clifford,  of  San  Antonio,  Texas,  has  sold  the 
entire  property  to  Mr.  T.  Engelbach,  the  well-known  Homoeopathic  pharma- 
cist of  150  Canal  St.,  New  Orleans,  from  which  address  the  Journal  will  here- 
after be  issued. 

Dr.  C.  E.  Fisher,  of  San  Antonio,  Texas,  the  former  editor,  once  more  takes 
the  post  of  editor.  All  business  communications  must  be  sent  to  Mr.  Engel- 
bach. All  exchanges,  books  for  review,  and  contributions  to  its  pages  must  be 
sent  to  Dr.  Fisher,  of  San  Antonio. 


T  ZEE  IE 


HOMCEOPATHIC  PHYSICIAN, 

A  MONTHLY  JOURNAL  OF 

HOM(E0PATHIC  MATERIA  MEDICA  AND  CLINICAL  MEDICINE. 


If  our  school  ever  give  up  the  strict  inductive  method  of  Hahnemann,  we 
are  lost,  and  deserve  only  to  be  mentioned  as  a  caricature  in 
the  history  of  medicine."— constantine  hering. 


Vol.  X.  JUNE,  1890.  No.  6. 


EDITORIALS. 

The  Artificial  Feeding  of  Infants  is  one  of  the  most 
difficult  problems  with  which  the  physician  has  to  deal.  If  one 
could  rely  upon  the  various  commercial  foods  with  which  the 
market  is  flooded,  the  question  would  at  once  be  solved.  Un- 
fortunately, a  trial  will  convince  that  they  are  generally  not  to 
be  trusted.  This  is  the  testimony  of  all  physicians  whose  af- 
firmation is  of  worth. 

The  season  is  now  at  hand  when  this  subject  is  of  the  greatest 
importance,  and  the  closest  attention  should  be  given  to  it.  In 
a  report  of  a  special  committee  of  the  American  Medical  Asso- 
ciation, appointed  for  the  purpose  of  collecting  statistics  on  the 
matter  of  infant  feeding,  the  evidence  was  all  in  favor  of  cow's 
milk  in  some  form,  and  against  the  many  commercial  foods. 

All  who  have  had  experience  will  attest  the  truth  of  this. 
Xo  infant  should  be  given  artificial  food  so  long  as  it  is  possible 
for  the  mother  to  provide  the  natural,  until  it  has  arrived  at  the 
proper  age  for  taking  other  than  the  mother's  milk. 

When  we  arrive  at  the  point  where  other  than  natural  food 
is  necessary,  we  should  give  to  it  much  care  and  thought. 

Taking,  then,  cow's  milk  as  the  best  substitute,  what  prepa- 
ration is  requisite  to  make  it  suitable  ?  Many  and  diverse  are 
16  241 


242  EDITORIALS.  [June, 

the  ideas  in  respect  to  this.  In  the  following  we  think  we  give 
the  best  that  is  known  on  the  subject. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  composition  of  milk 
varies  considerably,  according  to  the  food  given  the  cows.  It 
is  a  platitude  to  say  that  the  milk  must  always  be  alkaline  ;  and 
that  litmus  paper  should  always  be  used  to  test  it ;  not  trusting 
to  taste.  Lime  water  and  carbonate  of  soda  should  never  be 
used  to  make  an  acid  milk  alkaline.  Better  milk  for  infant 
feeding  may  often  be  had  by  taking  the  cows  from  the  pasture 
and  stall-feeding  them.  Before  being  used  the  milk  should 
stand  two  or  three  hours,  and  then  the  upper  third  portion  only 
should  be  used.  This  will  permit  the  more  solid  parts  to  fall  to 
the  bottom,  and  thus  we  get  rid,  in  part,  of  the  most  indigesti- 
ble portion — the  casein — the  curd-forming  matter.  The  water 
used  for  diluting  should  always  be  boiled,  and  cooled  before 
adding  it  to  the  milk. 

From  birth  to  the  third  week,  three  parts  of  water  to  one 
part  of  milk  ;  from  the  third  to  the  sixth  week,  two  parts  of 
water  to  one  of  milk;  from  the  sixth  week  to  the  fourteenth 
week,  one-half  water  ;  from  the  fourteenth  week  to  four  and 
one-half  months,  one-third  water ;  from  four  and  one-half 
months  to  the  sixth  month,  one-quarter  water.  After  that  age 
no  further  dilution  is  required,  unless  it  is  found  to  disagree. 
In  some  cases  a  small  amount  of  table  salt  will  be  required  to 
make  it  more  digestible.  It  is  to  be  sweetened  with  sugar  of 
milk. 

One  of  the  greatest  difficulties  to  be  overcome  is  the  forma- 
tion of  curds.  This  may  be  avoided  to  a  great  extent  by  the 
addition  of  some  farinaceous  substance  in  which  the  starch  has 
been  changed  to  dextrin.  Malt  sugar  answers  here,  or,  four 
teaspoonfuls  of  barley  flour,  boiled  for  ten  minutes  in  a  pint  of 
wTater,  and  then  add,  when  cooled  to  blood  heat,  a  half  to  a 
third  of  a  teaspoonful  of  liquid  extract  of  malt. 

The  time  may  come  when  we  shall  have  difficulty  in  finding 
any  food  that  will  agree,  and  then  we  shall  have  to  resort  to 
various  preparations,  in  the  making  of  which  the  main  idea 
must  be  kept  in  view — i.  e.,  something  readily  absorbed,  free  from 


1890.] 


EDITORIALS. 


243 


starch,  and  containing  the  necessary  elements  of  nutrition. 
Barley  water,  rice  water,  oat-meal  water,  bran  tea  (a  teacupful 
of  wheat  bran  to  a  quart  of  water,  boil  several  minutes,  add  a 
little  milk,  and  sweeten  to  suit).  A  good  food  is  a  teaspoonful 
of  crushed  barley,  boiled  in  five  to  eight  ounces  of  water  for 
twelve  or  fifteen  minutes,  with  a  little  salt.  Strain  through  a 
linen  cloth.  For  a  child  six  to  eight  months  old,  equal  parts  of 
this  and  boiled  milk.  As  the  child  grows  older  the  milk  should 
prevail.  Whey  is  of  benefit  where  there  is  indigestion.  Care 
must  be  taken  to  have  all  food  properly  heated  before  giving. 

Infants  under  three  months  old  should  not  be  fed  oftener 
than  once  in  two  and  a  half  hours.  Above  that  age,  once  in 
three  hours.  Some  children  require  larger  quantities  of  food 
than  others.  Experience  in  each  case  will  soon  enable  one  to 
determine  the  quantity.  Under  six  weeks  of  age,  about  one 
and  a  half  ounces  should  be  given  at  each  feeding;  about  two 
and  a  half  ounces  to  those  three  months  old  ;  gradually  increas- 
ing the  quantity  each  month  until  the  tenth,  when  about  five 
ounces  should  be  given.  Cleanliness  of  everything  used  should 
be  insisted  upon. 

A  writer,  who  has  had  large  experience  in  an  institution 
where  numbers  of  infants  are  received  says  that  he  has  found 
the  best  success  depends  upon  the  freshness  of  the  milk,  and 
that,  by  paving  attention  to  this  the  mortality  was  reduced  from 
90  per  cent,  to  33.5  per  cent.  He  "  had  not  been  able  to  raise 
a  single  infant  on  any  of  the  commercial  artificial  foods,  but 
children  taken  to  the  country  where  they  could  get  cow's  milk 
fresh,  did  well  and  thrived."  G.  H.  C. 

Surgical  Treatment  of  Uterine  Troubles. — Although 
we  should  never  be  willing  to  trust  an  enemy,  on  all  occasions 
we  are  justified  in  receiving  what  we  know  to  be  of  value,  even 
from  our  greatest  opponent. 

If  we  need  any  testimony  (which  we  do  not)  to  the  efficacy  of 
our  application  of  the  law  of  therapeutics,  we  need  only  go  to  our 
friends  (the  enemy)  who  practice  regular  medicine.  Frequently 
a  ray  of  light  seems  to  penetrate  their  field  of  vision,  and  thus 


244 


EDITORIALS. 


[June, 


they  see  what  an  amount  of  harm  much  of  their  treatment  is 
doing.  This  occurs  only  after  a  long  period  in  which  their 
want  of  success  becomes  so  glaringly  apparent  that  they  are  for- 
cibly obliged  to  stop  and  give  some  thought  to  their  lawless  and 
mortal  methods. 

The  followers  of  Hahnemann  never  have  cause  to  blush  for 
adhering  strictly  to  his  teachings.  Depending  on  no  theory, 
they  are  not  to  be  confuted  with  new  pathological  ideas,  and 
with  suppositions  regarding  the  treatment  of  the  sick.  It  is 
always  found,  when  any  seemingly  new  scheme  regarding  dis- 
ease and  its  treatment  is  advanced,  that,  if  it  be  of  any  value, 
Hahnemann  and  his  disciples  have  been  utilizing  it  for  years. 

Among  the  hurtful  crazes  is  the  treatment  of  uterine  affections 
by  surgical  procedures,  and  various  injurious  drugs,  both  topic- 
ally and  internally.  From  time  to  time  we  read  of  feeble  at- 
tempts to  call  a  halt  to  this  treatment,  but  they  seem  so  infirm 
that  they  make  little  or  no  impression. 

A  recent  issue  of  The  Lancet,  of  London,  has  an  editorial 
on  this  subject,  and  we  think,  an  extract  from  it  will  go  to  prove 
the  truth  of  what  we  have  said  above :  "  We  have  from  time  to 
time  directed  attention  to  the  insignificance  of  certain  conditions 
of  the  uterus  which  have  been  supposed  to  hold  an  important 
place  in  the  pathology  of  that  organ,  and  have  combated  patho- 
logical theories  which  are  not  only  wrong,  but  which  also  in- 
volve methods  of  treatment  that  are  often  dangerous  to  life  and 
generally  injurious  to  health  both  of  body  and  mind  of  the 
patients  concerned.  It  has  been  a  misfortune  to  women  that  from 
the  time — now  fifty  years  ago — when  attention  became  directed 
to  the  diseases  peculiar  to  the  sex,  their  study  has  proceeded 
along  very  narrow  lines,  and  pathological  theories  have  been 
formulated  upon  insufficient  and  often  erroneous  data,  and  made 
the  basis  of  universal  treatment."  The  writer  then  goes  on  to 
state  that  at  one  time  inflammation  of  the  cervix  was  set  down 
as  the  base  of  all  troubles  in  women,  and  that  caustics  were  ap- 
plied for  months.  Then  stricture  of  the  cervical  canal  was  the 
fad,  to  be  treated  by  dilatation.  Flexions  and  displacements 
followed  this,  with  the  legion  of  pessaries,  which  still  exist,  to 


1S90.] 


EDITORIALS. 


245 


the  lasting  hurt — in  most  cases — of  those  who  use  them. 
Finally  pinhole  os,  conical  cervix,  laceration  of  cervix  were  and 
still  are  blamed  with  woman's  ailments.  And  such  cutting, 
cauterizing,  and  drugging  which  have  been  applied  are  enough  to 
terrify  the  bravest  ! 

To  state  this  is  sufficient.  Every  Hahnemannian  can  testify 
to  its  truth.  Any  woman  who  comes  to  him  for  relief  for  symp- 
toms indicative  of  trouble  in  the  uterine  region,  and  who  has 
been  unfortunate  enough  to  have  been  treated  by  the  scientists  (?), 
brings  evidence  of  her  sufferings  being  due  to  the  treatment 
received. 

But  what  of  those  who,  professing  to  know  better  by  taking 
the  name  of  homeeopathist,  yet  try  to  feebly  imitate  those  who 
only  hold  them  in  contempt  for  following  their  methods  ? 

"  They  should  hear 
On  all  sides,  from  innumerable  tongues, 
A  dismal,  universal  hiss,  the  sound 
Of  public  scorn." 

G.  H.  C. 


Blunders. — The  article  found  on  another  page  of  this 
number,  entitled  "  An  Awful  Blunder,"  should  be  so  indelibly 
impressed  upon  the  minds  of  all  who  read  it  that  meddlesome 
midwifery  should  never  even  suggest  itself  to  any  of  them.  AVe 
recently  read  of  two  other  cases  of  complete  inversion  of  the 
uterus  following  labor,  both  of  which  were  due  to  traction  on 
the  cord,  and  one  of  which  was  fatal.  In  these  cases  mid  wives 
were  in  attendance.  The  physicians  in  the  case  quoted  in  full 
certainly  could  not  have  had  the  daugers  of  meddlesome  mid- 
wifery fixed  very  deeply  in  mind,  else  they  would  not  have  to 
bear  the  burden  of  having  caused  their  patient's  death.  Any 
man  is  liable  to  blunder,  but  to  blunder  so  awfully  requires 
either  an  ignorance  so  profound  that  light  could  never  pene- 
trate it ;  or  a  carelessness  so  gross  that  it  is  unpardonable. 

We  were  recently  told  of  the  case  of  a  young  woman,  a 
priraipara,  whose  lacerated  perineum  was  permitted  to  take  on 
gangrene  until  the  entire  perineum  to  the  auus  and  beyond  was 


246 


EDITORIALS. 


[June, 


completely  destroyed.  Her  attendant,  we  were  informed,  was 
one  who  is  high  in  the  American  Medical  Association.  Some 
few  years  ago  we  saw,  in  a  village  of  Central  New  York,  a  young 
man  who  had  been  made  blind  by  his  doctor  (?)  ordering  fly- 
blisters  to  his  eyes  for  a  simple  ophthalmia.  This  man  was  also 
a  regular,  and  of  the  ranks  of  the  scientists. 

A  short  time  before  the  death  of  the  late  General  W.  S. 
Hancock,  we  saw  an  article  in  the  New  York  Medical  Record, 
condemning,  as  hurtful,  the  use  of  the  knife  in  carbuncle.  Soon 
after  this  we  read  in  the  same  journal  an  account  of  the  treat- 
ment of  the  case.  The  knife  was  used ;  the  General  grew 
worse.  Then  his  physicians  (regulars)  discovered  sugar  in  the 
urine.  The  patient  died.  The  doctors  said  his  death  was  due 
to  diabetes.  Physiologists — particularly,  Brown-Sequard — 
have  shown  that  irritation  at  the  base  of  the  brain  will  cause 
sugar  in  the  urine.  The  carbuncle  was  in  a  position  to  cause 
more  or  less  irritation  of  the  base  of  the  brain.  After  the 
General's  death  we  wrote  to  the  editor  of  the  Medical  Record, 
calling  his  attention  to  the  article  condemning  the  use  of  the 
knife,  and  to  the  treatment  of  General  Hancock,  and  to  sugar 
being  found  in  the  urine  after  irritation  at  the  base  of  the  brain. 
This  is  his  reply  :  "  You  are  right.  We  have  already  noticed 
the  fact  in  our  last  issue."  He  had  given  the  above  facts  no 
notice  whatever.  However,  the  treatment  of  that  case  was  not 
a  blunder — it  was  scientific  medicine  !  G.  H.  C. 


The  Ward's  Island  "  Difficulty  "  in  New  York. — 
Under  the  above  heading,  our  readers  will  remember  that  we 
have  given  some  notices  of  this  bitter  controversy,  first  in  the 
January  number,  at  pages  5  and  32,  and  again  in  the  April 
number  at  page  188. 

As  a  sequence  to  what  has  been  previously  stated,  we  now  com- 
mend to  the  attention  of  our  readers  the  correspondence  of 
Professor  Carleton,  which  appears  in  this  number  at  page  272. 

The  correspondence  was  originally  intended  for  publication  in 
Tlie  New  York  Medical  Times,  but  as  its  editor,  Dr.  Egbert 
Guernsey,  has  seen  fit  to  omit  it  from  the  pages  of  his  journal,  it 


1S90.] 


A  REPLY  TO  DR.  ALLEN'S  "PROTEST." 


247 


becomes  the  agreeable  duty  of  The  Homoeopathic  Physician 
to  lay  it  before  the  profession.  All  our  readers  will  warmly 
approve  the  sentiments  Professor  Carleton  has  so  incisively  ex- 
pressed in  his  letter,  and  will  easily  understand  why  its  publica- 
tion in  Hie  Times  should  be  omitted. 

The  original  resolutions  against  which  Dr.  Carleton  protests 
are  but  a  disguised  repudiation  of  the  homoeopathic  principle. 

This  principle,  as  a  law,  lifts  the  healing  art  to  the  level  of 
the  exact  sciences,  and  it  only  remains  for  us  to  so  practice 
it  that  we  may  enrich  our  materia  medica  with  provings  and 
continuations  by  actual  clinical  experience,  and  thus  securely 
establish  Homoeopathy  in  its  destined  place  as  an  exact  science. 

To  attain  this  end,  all  the  time  and  all  the  energy  of  the 
consistent  homceopathist  are  absorbed  in  the  eternal  relentless 
search  for  the  simillimum.  There  are  those  who  are  unwilling  to 
devote  themselves  to  such  exacting  labor,  preferring  an  easier 
method  of  practice.  All  these  delinquents,  therefore,  seek  an 
escape  from  the  trammels  of  law.  Such  an  escape  they  find  in 
these  resolutions  which  place  the  execution  of  the  law  at  the 
doctor's  caprice,  and  therefore  relegate  practical  therapeutics  to 
the  old  ground  of  theory  and  speculation  (rationalism). 

Professor  Carleton,  therefore,  cannot  be  too  highly  commended 
for  entering  his  vigorous  protest  against  such  "  resolutions  " 
being  saddled  upon  the  profession,  and  we  are  sure  our  readers 
will  cordially  support  him  in  his  stand.  W.  M.  J. 

Abuses  of  Quinine. — One  of  our  contributors  writes  to  us 
asking  for  an  article  upon  the  evils  of  Quinine  in  massive  doses. 
We  appeal  to  all  our  subscribers  to  send  us  whatever  experience 
they  have  had  with  this  drug,  that  we  may  publish  it,  and  so  en- 
able the  profession  to  get  a  comprehensive  idea  of  what  Quinine 
dosing  really  means. 

A  REPLY  TO  DR.  ALLEN'S  "  PROTEST." 

Dear  Homoeopathic  Physician  : — Though  I  have  regarded 
myself  as  retired  from  the  labors  and  responsibilities  of  writing 
for  publication,  by  reason  of  age  and  its  attendant  infirmities, 


248 


A  REPLY  TO  DR.  ALLEN'S  "PROTEST." 


[June, 


the  "  Protest "  in  your  number  for  May  of  the  current  year 
seems  to  call  on  me  to  correct  some  errors  therein,  as  my  name 
is  connected  with  the  complaints  of  the  protestant.  He 

*  *  *  "  feels  compelled  to  write,  complaining  of  the  unfair  treatment  your 
journal  pursues  toward  me  [him]  personally." 

Though  you  are  abundantly  able  to  answer  for  yourself,  and 
need  help  from  no  one,  perhaps  I  may  be  permitted  to  say, 
without  making  myself  chargeable  with  meddling  with  other 
persons'  business,  that  I  have  been  a  constant  and  interested 
reader  of  your  journal  from  its  beginning,  and  though  I  have 
seen  in  it  occasional  allusions  to  the  utterances  of  this  protestant, 
not  approving  of  them,  I  do  not  recall  one  which  has  seemed  to 
me  "  unfair."  These  being  as  alleged,  and  I  have  seen  no  denial 
of  this,  the  judgments  of  H.  P.  upon  them  have  seemed  to  me 
just  and  deserved.  In  this  case  the  only  cure  for  the  protestant's 
grief  would  seem  to  lie  in  his  more  careful  utterances. 

And  then  he  charges  that  in  my  answer  to  the  question  : 
"  What  constitutes  a  Homoeopathic  Physician  '?"  that 

"  Dr.  P.  P.  "Wells  has  seen  fit  in  the  last  number  of  your  journal  to  refer  to 
me  as  ignorant." 

This  is  a  mistake.  I  did  not  refer  to  him  at  all  as  ignorant  or 
otherwise.  He  was  not  in  my  thoughts  when  that  paper  was 
written.  Indeed  I  did  not  know  that  he  had  been  guilty  of  so 
great  and  silly  an  absurdity,  as  the  answer  given  to  the  commis- 
sioner, as  my  authority,  a  common  newspaper,  said,  it  was  given 
by  quite  another  man.  When  told  by  a  highly  valued  friend 
that  this  protestant  had  given  this  same  definition,  and  that  he 
(my  friend)  heard  him,  it  was  the  first  intimation  I  had  had 
that  there  could  be  found  two  in  any  society  so  afflicted  by  stra- 
bismus as  to  see  it  possessed  of  so  great  power  as  merely  by  its 
membership  to  convert  a  mere  man  to  a  homoeopathic  physician. 
But  so  it  is,  and  now  this  protestant  says  : 

"  Concerning  my  definition  of  a  homoeopathic  physician,  it  is  Unassail- 
able." 

This  may  be  so.    We  only  know  that  it  has  been  very 


1S90.] 


A  REPLY  TO  DR.  ALLEN'S  i;  PROTEST." 


249 


generally  laughed  at.  We  know  no  one  who  has  thought  it 
worthy  of  other  attention.  But  lest  the  outside  world  might 
think  there  was  no  better  answer  to  this  question  of  the  com- 
missioner, I  attempted,  not  to  u  assail "  this  of  the  two  mem- 
bers, but  to  give  a  definition  of  such  physician,  which  seemed 
equal  to  the  needs  of  all  times  and  occasions. 

So  far  are  we  from  thinking  this  protestant "  ignorant/'  we 
have  said  more  than  once,  when  those  utterances  of  the  H.  P. 
which  have  called  out  the  present  complaint,  have  been  spoken 
of — "  He  knows  better  than  he  talks."  We  hope  we  did  him  no 
injustice  in  this  judgment.  We  intended  none,  and  should  be 
truly  sorry  if  compelled  to  believe  we  did  any. 

But  the  protestant,  before  this  "  unassailable  "  answer  to  the 
commissioner's  question — "  What  do  you  consider  constitutes  a 
homoeopathic  physician  ?"  gets  things  a  little  in  a  jumble,  and  in 
his  protest,  in  endeavoring  to  make  things  clear,  he  tells,  with  all 
his  might,  what  his  society  calls  such  a  physician,  which  only 
answers  a  question  no  one  has  asked,  and  is  of  little  in- 
terest to  any  outside  his  "  society."  The  commissioner's  ques- 
tion was,  what  is  ?  The  "  unassailable  "  answer  is  what  "  our 
society"  calls  such — not  exactly  responsive  to  the  question. 
The  protestant  does  not  appear  to  see  the  difference.  But  the 
readers  of  the  protest,  it  may  be  supposed,  will  pardon  some- 
thing to  a  strabismus  which  sees  only  from  one  eye. 

Then  he  is  earnest  in  his  endeavor  to  create  belief  in  the 
orthodoxy  of  his  teaching  of  true  homoeopathic  therapeutics. 
This  may  be  all  as  he  says.  But  then  how  great  must  be  his 
chagrin  when  so  small  evidence  of  such  teaching  is  seen  in  the 
conversation  and  practice  of  the  graduates  sent  out !  Oue  can 
only  say  before  this  saddening  display — What  a  pity  so  great 
efforts  should  be  followed  by  so  small  results! 

Then,  in  his  last  paragraph  he  speaks  rashly,  and  thus  : 

*  *  *  "  Whatever  may  be  said  to  the  contrary,  it  is  absolutely  true  that 
every  physician  in  large  practice  is  obliged  to  use  other  than  homoeopathic 
methods  in  the  treatment  of  the  sick,  certainly  not  for  their  cure,  but  some- 
times for  their  palliation."    *    *    *    [Italics  ours.] 

This  shows  how  oue  may  be  led  astray  by  his  imagination, 


250 


A  KEPLY  TO  DR.  ALLEN'S  "PROTEST."    [June,  1890. 


especially  when  this  is  interested  in  finding  an  excuse  for  one's 
wrong-doing.  So  far  is  this  statement  from  being  "  absolutely 
true,"  we  have  no  hesitation  in  declaring  it  absolutely  false,  and 
this  from  our  own  positive  knowledge.  In  this  we  do  not  over- 
look the  qualification,  u  in  a  large  practice."  This  is  quite  a 
door  of  escape  for  one  making  rash  assertions.  Before  one  can 
be  fastened  in  the  falsehood  he  will  have  a  definition  of  a 
"  large  practice"  and  this,  where  there  is  so  gross  strabismus  as 
prevents  distinction  between  one's  imagination  and  facts,  as  in 
this  case,  may  be  difficult. 

To  meet  this  in  the  beginning  we  will  say  that  in  a  practice  of 
near  half  a  century,  which  much  of  that  time  was  as  "  large  "  as  a 
tolerably  active  brain  and  fast  horses  made  possible,  there  was  in 
no  one  instance  a  resort  to  "  other  than  homoeopathic  method-." 
A  strict  loyalty  to  law  and  obedience  to  its  demands  made  a  re- 
sort to  means  outside  the  demands  of  law  wholly  unnecessary. 
The  need  of  such  means  was  never  felt.  When  the  practitioner 
abandoned  the  practice  and  means  of  the  school  in  which  he 
had  been  somewhat  carefully  educated,  for  the  practice  and 
means  of  Homoeopathy,  it  was  because  he  had  seen  these  last  to 
be  better — in  these  years  he  had  never  seen  them  otherwise — 
always  better;  and,  properly  administered,  leaving  no  place  for 
the  abomination  of  palliation. 

The  whole  amount  then  of  this  "  absolutely  true  99  declaration 
of  this  protestant,  which  is  not  true  at  all,  is,  that  this  is  an  open 
confession  of  what  he  does,  and  therefore  he  cannot  see  why 
others  do  not  the  same.  It  is  only  another  display  of  that  ever- 
affiicting  strabismus,  which  prevents  his  distinction  of  the 
difference  between  truth  and  a  gross  slander  of  his  colleagues. 

Brooklyn,  May,  1890.  P.  P.  Wells,  M.  D. 


Mercury  causes,  among  the  workers  in  it,  an  immunity 
from  syphilis.  It  also  causes  carious  teeth,  salivation,  spongy 
gums.  It  cures  both  homoeopathically.  It  causes  tremor  of  the 
hands  among  these  workers  like  the  tremor  we  find  in  drunkards ; 
it  also  cures  it. — Extract  from  a  letter  of  the  late  Dr.  AclolpJi  Lippe. 


DR.  T.  F.ALLEN'S  "  HIGH  POTENCY  ALLOPATHY. 


B.  Fincke,  M.  D.,  Brooklyn. 

u  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against  thy  neighbor." 

Iii  a  letter  to  the  editors  of  The  Homoeopathic  Physician; 
published  in  the  May  number  of  this  journal,  the  following 
statements  are  made  : 

Page  206.  "  I  witness  the  most  exclusive  practitioners  of 
our  art  reporting  cures  with  the  highest  potencies  of  a  drug 
which  has  never  been  proved,  whose  indications  are  wdiolly 
clinical.  This  surely  is  not  Homoeopathy.  It  is  certainly  high 
potency  allopathy.  There  is,  I  am  sorry  to  see,  an  increasing 
tendency,  even  among  those  who  use  the  highest  potencies,  to 
prescribe  from  clinical  indications,  and  to  depart  from  the  strict 
law  of  Homoeopathy." 

Page  205.  "  For  twenty-five  years  and  more  I  have  faith- 
fully and  conscientiously  practiced  and  taught  straight  Homoe- 
opathy as  I  understand  it."  But,  suppose  he  don't  understand 
it  as  Hahnemann  did?  Hahnemann  stands  upon  a  rock,  but  if 
the  witness  does  not  stand  upon  this  rock  but  only  upon  his 
own  understanding,  his  standpoint  is  a  quicksand  which  must 
swallow  him  with  all  his  straightforwardness.  This  danger  is 
the  more  to  be  apprehended  as  he  humbly  professes  his  igno- 
rance after  twenty-five  years'  study  of  materia  medica.  Now 
those  u  exclusive  practitioners  "  are  standing  upon  that  rock  of 
Hahnemann.  They  are  the  thorough  homoeopathicians  of 
Hahnemann.  They  accept  and  verify  iu  their  practice  his 
teachings  uncompromisingly  when  he  demands  that  the  homoeo- 
pathician  should  heal  by  simple  similar  remedies  proved  upon  the 
healthy,  in  the  least  possible  dose, or  a  high  potency,  a  term  which 
was  introduced  by  him,  as  can  be  seen  in  his  writings  in  numer- 
ous places.  How  can  the  witness  call  these  disciples  of  Hahne- 
mann exclusive  practitioners  of  his  art,  if  he  means  to  teach  and 
practice  straight,  strict,  pure  Homoeopathy  and  consequently 
claims  the  honorable  name  of  homoeopathician  (Homoeopathiker 

251 


252     DR.  T.  F.  ALLEN'S  "  HIGH  POTENCY  ALLOPATHY."  [June, 


of  Hahnemann)  ?  If  the  witness  is,  according  to  his  own  testi- 
mony, profoundly  impressed  with  his  own  ignorance  after  twenty- 
five  years'  study  of  our  materia  medica  (page  205),  why  should 
he  impute  this,  his  own  ignorance,  to  those  exclusive  practitioners 
who  are  the  real  homceopathicians  of  our  art  and  science  ?  We 
know  of  those  who  as  a  general  rule  use  the  high  and  highest 
potencies  according  to  Similia  sim'dibus  in  remedy  and  dose,  and 
it  is  a  well-known  general  excuse  of  those  whom  the  witness 
calls  mongrels,  that  they  are  not  versed  enough  in  materia 
medica  to  prescribe  accurately  for  a  high-potency  practice,  a 
confession  which  implies  a  great  compliment  for  those  "  exclu- 
sives  "  who  not  only  understand  how  to  do  so,  but  also  practice 
it.  They  certainly  cannot  be  accused,  as  the  witness  has  it,  as 
those  "  who  are  extremely  liable  to  neglect  the  study  of  materia 
medica  and  overdose  their  patients,"  such  as  indeed  is  the  prac- 
tice of  mongrelism  (page  205)  which  he  abhors.  But  his  ob- 
jection is  not  now  directly  against  the  administration  of  high 
and  highest  potencies  at  all,  which,  at  any  rate,  marks  progress, 
because  only  five  years  ago  they  were  "  the  laughing-stock  of  all 
right-minded  men,"  but  against  those  exclusive  practitioners 
who  in  using  homoeopathic  high  potencies  " practice  allopathy" 
(page  206).  Surely  always  the  unexpected  happens,  and  this 
unexpected  discovery  was  reserved  for  the  witness  because  no- 
body else  ever  thought  of  uniting  such  disjunctive  ideas. 

Anybody  not  familiar  with  the  goings  on  in  the  homoeopathic 
profession  would  think  that  these  exclusives  and  high  poten- 
tial ists  are  a  traitorous  set  of  men  who  labor  to  destroy  Homoe- 
opathy altogether,  that  they  practice  allopathy  "  ab  usu  in  mor- 
6i's,"  according  to  "  wholly  clinical  indications,"  because  they 
don't  care  a  fig  for  provings  and  homoeopathic  materia  medica 
pura.  As  such  they  are  denounced  by  the  witness,  and  thus 
they  are  held  up  to  his  admiring  students  and  professional 
brethren,  as  the  wolves  in  sheep's  clothes,  who  have  stolen 
into  the  fold  of  the  professors  of  straight  Homoeopathy.  Never 
could  men  be  more  mistaken.  If  these  much  accused,  and,  alas  ! 
slandered  exclusives  make  use  of  clinical  symptoms,  it  is  of 
those  which  have  been  cured  with  one  single  remedy.  These 


1890.]   DR.  T.  F.  ALLEN'S  "  HIGH  TOTENCY  ALLOPATHY."  253 


clinical  symptoms,  almost  from  the  beginning  of  Homoeopathy, 
have  been  found  useful  in  practice  and  marked  in  the  materia 
medica  books  with  a  degree  sign  (°)  indicating  that  they  are  not 
merely  clinical,  but  also  pathogenetic  symptoms,  healed  by  such 
and  such  a  remedy.  They,  of  course,  have  not  the  value  of  such 
symptoms  as  have  been  observed  upon  the  healthy  in  proving 
and  verified  in  healing,  but  still  they  are  useful  if  they  form 
part  of  the  totality  of  the  symptoms,  which  is  paramount  in  the 
selection  of  the  remedy.  But  when  they  once  shall  have  been 
verified  by  provings  upon  the  healthy  in  the  future,  they  will 
acquire  the  dignity  of  the  star-symptoms. 

That  a  remedy  carefully  observed — and  as  carefully  as  in  a 
proving — to  have  healed  a  certain  state  of  the  organism  in 
disease  is  to  be  ranged,  conversely,  as  pathopoetic,  and,  therefore, 
capable  of  healing  in  a  similar  pathogenetic  state  of  the  organ- 
ism, because  it  forms  a  feature  of  the  pathogenetic  picture  does 
not  require  any  further  argument.  And  this  is  the  point  which 
the  witness  does  not  seem  to  be  aware  of.  The  clinical' symp- 
tom used  for  healing  could  not  be  of  any  avail  if  it  were  not 
homoeopathic  to  the  case. 

Besides  these  clinical  symptoms  available  for  cure,  symptoms 
frequently  appear  after  the  administration  of  a  remedy,  espe- 
cially when  given  in  a  high  potency  which  do  not  belong  to  the 
disease  under  treatment,  but  to  the  remedy.  These  are  true 
pathopoetic  symptoms  which,  though  observed  upon  the  sick, 
can  be  added  to  those  observed  from  this  remedy  upon  the 
healthy,  as  Hahnemann  says.    (See  Organon,  §  142.) 

Perhaps  an  example  may  make  this  clearer.  In  the  after- 
noon of  May  1st  a  heavy  thunder-storm,  with  pouring  rain, 
cleared  and  cooled  the  atmosphere.  This  may  have  been  the 
cause  of  a  sharp  pain  which  I  felt  next  morning  after  awak- 
ing in  the  external  condyle  of  the  humerus  going  down  half  the 
ulna  on  moving  it,  worse  on  motion  and  touch.  At  first  I 
thought  it  the  result  of  a  false  position  during  sleep,  but  as  it 
would  not  subside  and  was  very  inconvenient,  and  never  having 
had  anything  like  it  before,  I  took  a  few  globules  of  Bryonia- 
alba45111  (F.)  about  two  P.  M. 


254     DR.  T.  F.  ALLEN'S  "  HIGH  POTENCY  ALLOPATHY."  [June, 

No  change  occurred  till  after  midnight,  when  I  woke  up  with 
flatulent  pain  in  the  lower  abdomen,  followed  by  a  loose  passage, 
mixed  with  solid  lumps  and  the  sensation  of  a  ring  half  an  inch 
thick,  corresponding  with  the  anus,  with  smarting  and  pricking 
as  of  little  sticks.  Another  mushy  stool  was  passed  later  in  the 
night  and  one  in  the  morning  after  rising,  and  several  other 
similar  passages  occurred  during  the  day,  with  the  same  sensation 
in  ano,  which  I  never  had  before.  On  going  out  I  noticed  a 
stiffness  of  the  muscles  in  the  right  side  of  the  neck.  But  the 
pain,  for  which  Bryonia  was  taken,  was  almost  gone,  nothing 
remaining  there  but  a  little  sensitiveness  to  touch,  which  wore  off 
gradually. 

Now,  here  we  have,  first,  the  healing  action  of  the  law ;  then, 
second,  the  pathopoetic  action  of  Bryonia  in  the  organs  of  defe- 
cation, which  everybody  can  see  to  be  similar  to  the  symptoms 
observed  upon  the  healthy  in  the  materia  medica ;  even  the  stiff 
neck  is  there.  And,  third,  Bryonia  might  have  produced  other 
symptoms  of  its  own  not  yet  in  the  materia  medica,  which  would 
have  to  be  marked  likewise  as  pathopoetic  symptoms.  But,  fourth, 
if  in  my  case  there  had  been  symptoms  not  yet  observed  upon 
the  healthy,  but  in  a  cure  by  Bryonia  (with  exclusion  of  other 
remedies)  alone,  they  would  have  been  as  well  indicated  as  the 
other  pathopoetic  indications — for  they  would  have  been  hygio- 
poetic  symptoms — i.  e.,  obtained  by  healing — and  all  these  four 
modifications  would  have  the  right  to  be  called  homoeopathic  indi- 
cations. 

The  witness,  according  to  his  utterances,  would  be  the  last  to 
expect  from  a  high  potency,  a  Cm  or  a  M  (million)  centesimal, 
an  allopathic  effect,  for  then  he  would  acknowledge  the  reality 
of  the  high  potency  as  much  as  that  of  the  low  potency  which 
he  uses  in  his  practice. 

If  these  high  potencies  act  at  all,  it  is  because  they  find  their 
action  in  the  organism  which,  changed  by  disease  in  its  state, 
has  become  homoeopathic  to  it,  and  hence,  the  artificial  disease, 
produced  by  the  high  potency,  steps  into  the  place  of  the  natural 
disease,  equalizing  the  life-force,  and  health  is  restored  according 
to  the  law  of  dynamics.    Action  and  reaction  are  equal  and 


1890.] 


A  EEPLY  TO  DR.  T.  F.  ALLEN. 


255 


directed  to  contrary  sides,  which,  applied  to  medicine,  is  the 
homoeopathic  principle,  Similia  similibus  curantur. 

As  to  the  other  contents  of  that  remarkable  document,  they 
speak  for  themselves  and  need  no  comment. 


A  REPLY  TO  DR.  T.  F.  ALLEN. 

Editors  Homoeopathic  Physician  : — In  answer  to  the 
fling  at  Dr.  Hering  made  by  Dr.  T.  F.  Alien  on  p.  207  of  the 
May  number  of  your  journal,  I  desire  to  say  that  Dr.  Hering 
told  me  that  he  took  up  the  Schussler  remedies  because  he  saw 
their  importance,  and  that  he  had  the  first  edition  published  to 
keep  them  out  of  the  hands  of  the  mongrels. 

He  intended  to  have  further  provings  made  and  to  develop 
them  as  fast  as  possible  ;  at  the  same  time  he  was  not  averse  to 
learning  anything  he  could  about  the  curative  powers  of  medi- 
cines even  if  such  knowledge  had  not  been  developed  by  prov- 
ings on  the  healthy.  It  hardly  becomes  a  physician — who,  as 
Dean  of  an  alleged  homoeopathic  college,  cries  aloud  through 
the  journals  to  expectant  students,  "  Come  to  our  college!  we 
teach  you  pure  Homoeopathy  in  one  chair  and  false  Homoeopathy 
in  the  others ;  we  will  not  let  you  go  out  of  our  halls  without 
knowing  both — to  talk  about  Dr.  Hering's  indorsing  Schusslerism 
i  in  a  way  "  the  "  way  "  was  by  the  publication  spoken  of, 
which  did  not  indorse  the  method  at  all — only  the  remedies. 

Learning  the  false,  I  suppose,  must  be  useful  to  a  homce- 
opathist,  on  the  ground  that,  knowing  the  devil,  you  can  cut 
him  when  you  meet  him.  Must  virtuous  people  be  familiar 
with  sin  before  they  can  be  properly  virtuous  ?  It  is  not  whether 
a  man  says  he  is  a  homoeopathist,  it  is  whether  he  is.  As  be- 
tween the  purity  of  the  Homoeopathy  of  Dr.  Hering,  who  in 
that  very  Schussler  pamphlet  warns  against  pressing  out  the  pus 
in  gonorrhoea,  because  it  injures  the  urethra,  and  that  of  Dr. 
Allen,  who  says  that  unless  you  are  willing  to  be  left  behind 
your  neighbor  in  the  race,  you  must  prescribe  injections  of  mer- 
curic chloride,  I  shall  stand  with  Hering,  although  he  was 
not  a  member  of  the  New  York  County  Homoeopathic  Society. 


256 


NAT  RUM  MUIU  ATK'UM. 


[June, 


It  is  a  mistake  to  call  Dr.  Allen  ignorant ;  if  so,  there  might 
be  some  excuse  for  his  back-somersaults,  which,  somehow  or 
other,  all  seem  to  have  occurred  since  he  became  the  mighty 
Dean  who  must  run  the  machine  in  opposition  to  other — shops. 

Truly  yours, 

(  has.  B.  Gilbert,  M.  D. 
Washington,  D.  C,  April  29th,  1890. 


"  HIGH  POTENCY  ALLCEOPATHY." 
Charles  B.  Gilbert,  M.  D. 

(A  Physician  Practicing  Homeopathy — A  Homoeopathist.) 

Digitalis. — Sound  in  left  ear  as  if  steam  was  rushing  through 
a  small  hole,  with  a  feeling  as  if  the  pharynx  icas  enlarged  ;  pulse 
slow. 

Sore  throat  with  a  feeling  as  if  the  pharynx  was  wide  open 
and  swollen ;  the  eyes  are  inflamed  ;  nose  running,  left  side. 

The  enlarged  feeling  in  pharynx  is  purely  clinical  and  led  to 
the  prescription  in  the  second  case,  which  was  promptly  cured ; 
the  action  was  so  striking  that  a  homoeopathic  physician,  who 
had  opportunity  to  observe  it,  begged  to  know  the  remedy. 

When  one  reads  the  statement  from  the  compiler  of  a  Mat. 
J  fed.  Ptcra,  that  clinical  experience  is  u  high  potency  allopathy," 
it  makes  one  think  of  the  difference  between  riding  a  hobby  and 
a  hobby-horse,  as  given  by  a  lunatic:  "When  one  tires  of  a 
horse,  he  gets  down ;  a  man  never  gets  down  from  a  hobby." 
It  would  seem  that  there  needs  to  be  a  trausfer  of  patients 
between  the  inside  and  the  outside. 


XATRUM  MURIATICUM. 
(Table  Salt.) 
A.  McNeil,  M.  D.,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

This  drug  is  an  incontestable  evidence  of  the  efficacy  of  tri- 
turation and  succussion  in  developing  the  medicinal  virtue  of 
a  drug.    But  some  may  say  that  common  salt,  Avhen  potentized, 


1890.] 


NATRUM  MUKIATICUM. 


257 


has  no  curative  powers.  I  pity  the  patients  of  that  man,  call- 
ing himself  a  homoeopathic  physician,  who,  deterred  either  by 
prejudice  or  ignorance,  has  never  seen  cures  performed  by  Nat- 
rum-mur.  in  potencies,  although  the  patients  have  taken  the 
crude  salt  at  every  meal,  and  usually  in  very  large  quantities, 
as  such  persons  have  a  great  craving  for  it  in  their  food.  Dr. 
Watzke,  of  Vienna,  undertook  to  prove  this  drug,  and,  in  spite 
of  his  preconceived  opinions,  was  compelled  to  acknowledge 
that  not  till  he  went  up  to  the  high  potencies,  could  he  produce 
symptoms  in  the  healthy  of  any  value. 

In  the  mental  symptoms,  there  is  a  resemblance  to  Ignatia,  as 
there  is  much  inclination  to  weep,  but  there  is  more  excitability 
than  with  that  drug,  in  which  the  disposition  is  to  be  quiet  and 
passive.  Sometimes,  with  this  sadness  and  weeping,  the  patient 
is  much  aggravated  by  consoling  words,  so  that  they  start  the 
heart  fluttering.  With  Arsen.  consoling  words  excite  cough. 
Sometimes  the  Nat.-mur.  patient  is  hypochondriacal  and  tired  of 
life,  having  a  resemblance  to  Nux-v. ;  but  a  glance  at  the  con- 
comitants of  these  drugs  will  prevent  any  mistake.  The  patient 
maybe  in  a  hurried  frame  of  mind,  with  anxiety  and  fluttering 
of  the  heart. 

This  is  one  of  the  important  remedies  in  headache,  particularly 
those  attending  intermittents  and  in  uterine  complaints.  Its 
headache  usually  begins  in  the  morning  on  waking,  with  Bry- 
onia. It  comes  on  first  beginning  to  move,  and  disappears  on 
the  breaking  out  of  sweat.  The  headache  is  as  if  the  head 
would  burst.  In  this  it  resembles  manv  other  drugs.  It  cures 
where  there  is  a  heaviness  in  the  back  part  of  the  head  with 
which  the  eyes  draw  together ;  with  Cannabis-indica  this  is 
attended  by  pains  which  shoot  up  the  sides  of  the  head  to  the 
temples  and  vertex  ;  with  Eupatorium-perf.  it  comes  on  after 
lying  down.  It  is  the  simillimura  for  a  headache  with  a  throb- 
bing as  if  little  hammers  were  striking,  coming  on  when  awak- 
ing  every  morning;  with  Psorin.  this  throbbing  is  from  within 
outwards.  Many  remedies  have  a  feeling  as  if  the  head  would 
hurst  on  coughing;  but  only  Xatrum-m.  and  Staphisagria  have 
as  if  the  forehead  would  burst  on  coughing. 
17 


258 


NATEUM  MURIATJCUM. 


[June, 


With  Natrum-mur.  there  is  a  fiery  zigzag  appearance  around 
all  objects,  while  with  Sepia  these  fiery  zigzags  appear  before 
the  eyes  without  regard  to  the  objects  looked  at.  Salt  also  cures 
when  black  spots  and  streaks  of  light  appear  to  him.  The  pa- 
tient may  be  affected  with  a  sudden  darkness,  so  that  everything 
turns  black.  In  the  weakness  of  vision  give  this  remedy  if 
there  is  a  drawing,  stiff  sensation  in  the  muscles  of  the  eyes  when 
moving  them ;  objects  run  together  on  exerting  the  eyes ;  this 
is  quite  similar  to  Ruta,  and  it,  no  doubt,  has  been  often  given 
and,  of  course,  unsuccessfully,  when  Natrum-mur.  should  have 
been  prescribed.  In  ophthalmia,  both  catarrhal  and  scrofulous, 
when  Nitrate  of  silver  has  been  used,  always  give  Natrum-mur. 
at  first  and  it  may  prove  the  simillimum  for  the  entire  case. 

Loss  of  smell  and  taste,  especially  with  catarrh,  indicate  one 
of  two  drugs,  salt  or  Pulsatilla,  but  the  concomitants  and  modal- 
ities will  decide  which  should  be  used.  The  secretion  of  clear 
mucus,  transparent,  like  the  white  of  egg,  from  the  nose, 
should  always  call  your  attention  to  Natrum-mur. 

Patients,  particularly  ladies,  often  have  their  lives  almost  made 
miserable  by  the  appearance  of  the  face  which  is  such  that  it 
looks  as  if  it  had  been  greased.  In  this  condition  compare  Natrum- 
mur.,  Plumbum,  and  Thuja  carefully  and  you  will  be  able  to 
cure  and  bring  happiness  to  your  fair  patient  and  coin  and  glory 
to  yourself.  There  are  but  few  cases  in  which  a  physician  can 
•establish  a  reputation  more  certainly  than  by  the  cure  of  neural- 
gia of  the  face.  This  prevails  particularly  in  the  so-called  mala- 
rial regions,  and  they  are  often  the  result  of  chronic  poisoning 
by  Quinine.  It  is  in  just  these  cases  that  our  remedy  is  most 
frequently  indicated.  It  is  necessary  to  carefully  differentiate 
from  Arsenic  in  these  cases.  If  the  tongue  has  a  covering  of 
clear  mucous  slime  with  little  frothy  bubbles  at  the  edge, 
Natrum-mur.  is  the  remedy. 

Fever  blisters  or  cold  sores,  attending  colds,  inter niittents,  etc., 
nearly  always  indicate  Natrum-mur.  or  Rhus-tox.  The  modalities 
of  the  latter  drug  will  nearly  always  easily  decide  between  them, 
although  sometimes  it  will  prove  to  be  a  difficult  task,  particu- 
larly when  the  genus  epidemicus  is  changing  from  the  one 
remedy  to  the  other,  as  I  once  saw  happen. 


1890.] 


NATRUM  MURIATICUM. 


259 


Children  are  slow  in  learning  to  talk ;  with  Calcarea  and 
Silicea  they  are  slow  in  learning  to  walk.  He  complains  much 
of  dryness  of  the  tongue,  which  is  not  very  dry ;  with  Mercury 
he  complains  of  dryness  of  the  tongue,  although  his  mouth  is 
full  of  saliva.  He  has  a  sensation  of  a  hair  on  his  tongue.  A 
svmptom  that  is  rare  and  valuable  is  a  moss-like  appearance  of 
the  tongue  which  this  drug,  Lachesis,  and  Thuja  have  ;  with  the 
latter,  the  tongue  is  coated  with  a  white  skin,  the  edges  feeling 
raw,  it  then  peels  off  in  patches  and  leaves  dark-red,  sensitive 
places.  Natrum-mur.  and  Rhus  both  have  vesicles  on  the  tongue. 
This  symptom  and  that  of  fever  blisters  and  cold  sores  will  prove 
of  invaluable  importance  in  many  diseases,  notably  intermittents 
and  other  fevers. 

In  sore  throats,  where  they  have  been  burned  with  Xitrate  of 
silver,  this  is  our  remedy  as  it  is  in  other  cases  where  that  pow- 
erful agent  has  been  abused,  and  Adelman  Emmet,  the  greatest 
of  gynecologists,  although  an  allopath,  says  many  thousands  of 
women  are  suffering  tortures  from  the  abuse  of  lunar  caustic, 
which  was  not  Ions:  a^o  the  fashionable  treatment  in  almost  all 
cases  of  real  or  fancied  womb  disease. 

In  almost  every  case  that  requires  this  remedy  an  unusual 
thirst  is  preseut.  This  thirst  is  violent  and  unquenchable,  like 
that  so  characteristic  of  Arsenic,  but  water,  when  drank,  does  not 
produce  the  gastric  disturbance  and  vomiting  which  always  fol- 
lows when  Arsenic  is  the  remedy.  Longiug  for  bitter  things 
the  same  as  with  Digitalis,  for  beer  (Nux  and  Sulphur),  for 
farinaceous  food,  for  acids  (Veratrum-alb.),  for  salt  (Calc.-carb.), 
for  oysters  and  fish,  and  an  aversion  to  meat  (Arsenic  and 
Plumb.),  and  to  coffee,  which  is  also  characteristic  of  Xux-vom. 

Although  Xatrum-mur.  is  not  an  especial  cough  remedy,  yet  it 
has  a  cough  worthy  of  remembrance,  that  is  when  he  coughs  pains 
in  the  abdominal  ring  extending  into  the  testicles,  as  if  the 
spermatic  cord  would  be  torn  in  pieces  ;  with  Zinc,  the  pain  in 
coughing  is  in  the  testicles,  so  that  he  wants  to  hold  them  up 
with  his  hands. 

Natrum-mur.  should  be  given  in  constipation  in  which,  after 
stool,  the  anus  feels  contracted  (Lachesis)  or  torn  so  that  it  bleeds 


260 


NATRUM  MURIATICUM. 


[June, 


and  smarts;  with  Nitric  acid  pains  come  during  stool,  as  if  some- 
thing were  torn  away  lasting  two  or  three  hours. 

In  gonorrhoea  this  is  the  remedy  when  there  is  no  pain  during 
urination,  but  burning  and  cutting  afterward  ;  with  Cannabis- 
sativa  there  is  burning  just  after  micturition,  although  there  is 
also  a  cutting  which  extends  from  the  fossa  navicularis  to  the 
neck  of  the  bladder ;  Cantharis  has  cutting  before  and  after 
urination  from  the  neck  of  the  bladder  to  the  fossae.  Dr. 
Kunkel,  who  is  the  best  prescriber  in  Germany,  has  found  this 
agent  of  great  value  in  gonorrhoea  when  it  appears  at  a  time 
when  it  is  the  epidemic  remedy  for  the  prevailing  intermittent^. 
He  has  also  shown  that  it  is  indicated  in  those  cases  in  which 
any  disease  is  ameliorated  by  the  patient's  residence  on  the  sea- 
shore. I  have  confirmed  this  observation  in  my  own  experience. 
In  gonorrhoea,  as  well  as  other  diseases  in  which  Nitrate  of  silver 
has  been  abused,  give  Natrum-mur. 

In  diseases  of  women  Natrum-mur.  does  a  grand  work.  It  is 
indicated  when  every  morning  (Bell.,  Xux-vom.)  there  is  pressing 
and  pushing  toward  the  genitals,  must  sit  down  to  prevent  pro- 
lapsus. (Bell.,  better  when  standing  and  sitting  straight.)  Also 
a  prolapsus  accompanied  by  aching  in  the  back,  which  is 
ameliorated  by  lying  down.  In  aversion  to  coitus,  because  of 
dryness  of  the  vagina,  which  renders  it  painful,  Ferrum  also. 
Some  patients,  on  the  other  hand,  after  an  embrace,  feel  easy  and 
light-hearted,  and  afterward  ill-humored.  Before  her  menses 
she  is  low-spirited  (Lycop.,  Puis.,  Stram.)  ;  during  menses  the 
sadness  continues  (Am.-carb.,  Cimic,  and  Puis.).  The  menses 
are  too  early,  too  long  continued,  and  too  profuse,  as  with  Calc- 
carb.,  Kali-carb.  Morning  sickness  accompanied  by  headache 
on  awakening  in  the  morning,  thirst,  fever  blisters,  etc.  And 
also  when  she  vomits  frothy,  watery  mucus,  and  in  difficult 
labor  where  it  progresses  slowly,  the  pains  are  feeble  and  she  is 
sad  and  full  of  forebodings.  The  physician  who  gives  Vindicated 
remedy  in  his  obstetrical  cases  will  seldom  or  never  be  compelled 
to  use  instruments,  and  will  have  few  or  no  cases  of  ruptured 
perineum  or  cervix  in  his  patients. 

And  in  infants  who  are  slow  in  learning  to  talk  on  account  of 


1890.] 


NATRUM  MURIATICUM. 


261 


the  muscles  of  the  tongue  and  larynx  not  developing  properly, 
and  in  those  debilitated  by  intestinal  diseases,  where  there  is 
general  emaciation,  but  most  perceptible  in  the  neck,  Calcarea- 
phos.  has  the  same  condition  of  those  muscles.  Nor  in  diseases 
of  the  respiratory  organs,  where  there  is  expectoration  of  clear, 
transparent  mucus,  and  in  stitching  pains  in  the  chest,  should  we 
let  Bryonia  and  Kali-carb.  cause  us  to  forget  that  Nat.-mur.  has 
those  pains,  but,  of  course,  with  different  concomitants  from 
those  remedies. 

In  diseases  of  the  heart,  both  functional  and  organic,  this 
remedy  has  done  good  work.  It  is  indicated  in  fluttering  of  the 
heart,  with  a  weak,  faint  feeling,  aggravated  by  lying  down. 
The  heart  symptoms  are  aggravated  when  lying  on  the  left  side 
the  same  as  with  Cactus.  Palpitation  of  the  heart,  when  the 
pulsations  shake  the  body,  and  ache  as  if  a  pressure  rose  from 
the  abdomen  and  compressed  the  heart. 

Natrum-mur.  and  Rhus-tox.  have  aching  in  the  back,  relieved 
by  lying  on  something  hard.  The  patient  often  lies  with  her  arm 
under  her  back  in  order  to  obtain  this  pressure",  with  both  of 
the  remedies.  The  relief  from  motion,  so  characteristic  of  Rhus, 
will  sufficiently  differentiate  between  them.  .  These  back  pains 
are  nearly  always  indicative  of  uterine  complaints  when  found 
in  women  ;  in  men  they  are  nearly  always  rheumatic  and,  many 
times,  malarial  in  both  sexes,  and  both  remedies  cure  malarial 
complaints  wrhen  indicated. 

Hang-nails  and  cracking  of  the  skin  around  the  nails  is  char- 
acteristic  of  this  remedy  only,  and  will  guide  you  to  its  selection 
many  times.  Sometimes  there  is  restlessness  of  the  limbs  with 
this  remedy,  so  that  they  must  be  moved  constantly.  This  is 
another  point  in  which  salt  resembles  Rhus-tox.,  but  with  the 
latter  remedy  the  restlessness  arises  from  the  aggravation  of  the 
pains  and  stiffness,  which  increase  more  and  more  until  he  is 
compelled  to  move.  With  Arsenic  the  restlessness  arises  from 
a  mental  condition  ;  he  is  in  such  a  state  of  anguish  that  he  can- 
not keep  from  moving,  although  he  is  so  weak  that  it  exhausts 
him  very  much.  Aconite  restlessness  also  arises  from  a  men- 
tal condition,  something  like  that  of  Arsenic,  but  it  is  better 


262 


NAT  RUM  MURIATICUM. 


[June, 


described  by  the  word  "  anxiety but  there  is  an  entire  absence 
of  the  debility  of  that  drug.  The  restlessness  of  Arnica  is  be- 
cause the  parts  on  which  he  rests  are  so  tender  and  sore  that  he 
must  change  so  as  to  lie  on  another  part  of  his  body.  These 
causes  of  moving  which  I  have  delineated  will,  if  carefully  kept 
iu  mind,  enable  you  to  differentiate  between  these  remedies  when 
you  are  at  a  loss  to  decide. 

When  sleeping  he  has  very  vivid  dreams,  that  seem  real  when 
he  awakes,  so  that  he  thinks  that  it  is  a  reality — of  thirst ;  of 
robbers.  He  also  is  a  somnambulist,  so  that  he  rises  and  sits  up 
in  the  room.  Phosphorus  and  Silicea  are  indicated  in  this 
condition. 

The  field  in  which  this  remedy  has  been  the  most  useful  is  in 
intermittent  and  other  fevers.  In  these  you  may  have  difficulty 
in  deciding  between  this  drug  and  Rhus-tox.  Both  have  much 
aching  in  the  head,  back,  and  limbs;  both  have  fever  blisters  on 
the  lips,  both  may  have  violent  thirst.  But  with  the  salt,  while 
there  may  be  restlessness  compelling  him  to  move,  there  is  not 
that  stiffness  and  aching  increasing  as  long  as  he  keeps  still  and 
passing  off  when  moving  a  little,  as  with  Phos.  WithNatrum-rnur. 
the  chill  is  in  the  morning  not  later  than  eleven,  the  thirst  is  very 
great,  drinking  often  and  much,  but  water  does  not  disagree,  as 
it  does  in  a  similar  thirst  when  Arsenic  is  indicated;  there  is 
much  headache,  which  comes  with  the  chill  and  continues  through 
the  hot  stage  till  sweating  begins>  which  relieves.  The  cases 
may  be  recent  or  may  have  become  worse  by  the  use  or  abuse  of 
Quinine — and  the  use  of  Quinine  in  the  crude  form  is  always 
abuse — and  the  only  excuse  for  giving  it  on  the  part  of  one  who 
calls  himself  a  homoeopathic  physician  is  ignorance. 

In  the  treatment  of  intermittents  follow  the  advice  of  Hahne- 
mann :  by  watching  the  symptoms  of  all  your  cases  which  occur 
during  the  season  in  making  up  the  totality  of  symptoms  on 
which  you  are  to  prescribe.  By  taking  this  enlarged  view  of 
the  disease  and  by  the  exercise  of  a  fair  amount  of  knowledge  of 
materia  medica  you  will  always  be  able  to  cure  intermittents.  I 
speak  from  eleven  years'  practice  in  a  very  malarious  region. 
When  I  say  cure  I  mean  the  administration  of  the  potentized 


1890.] 


WATCH  THE  EFFECT. 


2G3 


drug  only,  for  the  giving  of  crude  doses  of  Quinine  in  many 
cases  does  not  cure,  it  only  suppresses  the  chill  and  thereby 
injures  the  patient. 

In  wasting  diseases  this  is  one  of  our  best  remedies,  he  loses 
flesh  while  living  well ;  the  same  condition  occurs  with  Iodine. 
In  infants  who  become  emaciated,  particularly  about  the  neck. 
Calcarea-phos.  has  the  same  condition,  and  you  will  require 
the  other  symptoms  to  decide  which  to  use. 

Apis  and  Natrum-mur.  are  complementary  remedies,  follow- 
ing each  other  well. 


HYDRO  A,  OR  FEVER  BLISTERS. 

G.  M.  Pease,  M.  D.,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

By  way  of  a  postscript  to  Dr.  McNeil's  article  on  Natrum- 
mur.,  I  would  like  to  refer  to  the  symptom  of  hydroa,  or  fever 
blisters.  For  a  number  of  years  I  have  closely  watched  these 
little  things  with  the  view  of  making  them  a  point  for  differen- 
tial diagnosis  between  Natrum-mur.  and  Rhus,  and  repeated 
clinical  opportunities  have  to  my  mind  settled  the  matter  as 
follows  : 

On  the  first  appearance  the  Rhus  blister  is  clear  or  translu- 
cent, with  a  tendency  to  amber  color.  The  Natrum-mur.  blister 
is  not  as  clear,  but  of  a  whitish  or  pearl  color,  nearly  or  quite 
opaque,  and  during  its  undisturbed  progress  does  not  change  its 
color  as  soon  as  that  of  the  Rhus. 

The  Natrum-mur.  blister  is  more  likely  to  be  discrete,  while 
the  Rhus  tends  more  to  confluence  or  groups. 


WATCH  THE  EFFECT. 

Edward  Cranch,  M.  D.,  Erie,  Pa. 

Watch  the  effect  !  The  whole  sermon  is  in  that  little 
phrase,  now  see  how  it  unravels.  Who  will  admit  that  he  does 
not  watch  the  effect  of  his  remedies,  and  who  will  not  say,  with 
more  or  less  pride  (perhaps,  as  I  have  heard  it,  with  applause 


264 


WATCH  THE  EFFECT. 


[June, 


from  students),  "  I  cure  my  patients  "?  Yet  the  same  professor, 
years  after,  said  in  my  hearing,  "  now,  since  I  have  kept  a  record 
of  my  cases,  I  find  the  practice  of  medicine  very  different,  and 
much  more  satisfactory  than  ever  before."  No  one  is  very 
ready  to  admit  that  most  of  his  patients  "get  well"  without 
his  direct  assistance — that  is,  that  the  medicines  had  little  or 
nothing  to  do  witli  their  recovery — yet  this  is  the  case  in  a 
surprisingly  large  number  of  prescriptions.  Yet  decided,  even 
brilliant  cures  are  not  impossible,  and  nothing  is  more  pleasant 
in  a  physician's  experience  than  to  watch  the  effect  day  by  day 
of  a  well-chosen,  unclianged-from,  and  unrepeated  remedy,  as 
the  vital  force  it  has  roused  gradually  but  surely  throws  off 
disease,  with  all  its  lugubrious  and  discomforting  accompani- 
ments. 

One  who  is  accustomed  to  observe  effects,  will  not  give  medi- 
cines and  change  them  the  same  day  merely  because  he  cannot 
see  instant  improvement  on  the  lines  that  he  or  his  books  have 
laid  down  for  that  remedy  to  act  upon;  he  will  question  every 
phase  of  the  case,  and  if  the  answer  is,  no  worse  anywhere,  or 
if  worse,  only  in  the  line  of  the  pathogenetic  effect  of  the  given 
drug,  then  the  observer  will  wait,  with  plenty  of  resolution, 
plenty  of  alertness,  and  above  all,  plenty  of  "  Sac-lac."  :  not  to 
deceive  the  patient,  but  to  keep  off  discouragement  and  untimely 
argument.  Every  one  knows  that  physicians  give  placebos, 
but  no  one  likes  to  think  that  he  or  she  is  taking  them,  and 
when  one  is  sick  one  is  in  no  mood  to  argue  the  question. 

So  it  is  well  to  have  several  vials  of  placebo  scattered  through 
your  case,  besides  a  separate  case  containing  only  placebos  all 
carefully  labeled,  and  composed  only  of  Sac-lac,  or  alcohol — 
not  like  the  so-called  blank  pills  of  Dr.  Cathell,  in  The  Physi- 
cian Himself,  who  in  Chapter  Y  of  a  most  excellent  work  (but 
one  very  hard  on  the  homoeopathic  frauds,  while  sufficiently 
courteous  to  the  honest  homoeopathicians)  advocates  the  use  of 
pellets  soaked  in  flu  id  extract  of  belladonna,  or  in  compound  tinc- 
ture of  iodine,  as  placebos  ! 

One  accustomed  to  watch  his  patients  more  than  his  books, 
will  be  slow  to  report  cures  till  he  is  sure  of  them,  for  often 


1890.] 


WATCH  THE  EFFECT. 


265 


some  circumstance  or  condition,  unknown  or  unexplained  at  the 
time,  shows  that,  after  all,  the  medicine  given  had  little,  if  any- 
thing, to  do  with  the  cure,  or  else  the  supposed  cure  was  not  a 
cure  at  all,  but  only  a  remission,  or  a  piece  of  concealment,  or  of 
insufficient  investigation. 

If  a  certain  learned  professor  had  asked  more  closely  after 
one  of  his  patients,  he  would  not  have  told  his  class  that  Arsenic 
was  good  for  a  "  very  peculiar  neuralgia  of  the  tongue,  like  red- 
hot  needles  all  through  one  side  of  it,  coming  in  agonizing  par- 
oxysms," going  on  to  say  that  he  knew  of  a  case  recently  helped 
thereby. 

Of  course,  I  believed  him,  and  made  a  note  of  it,  but  soon 
after,  on  coming  to  Erie,  I  was  introduced  to  this  very  case  by 

the  physician  in  charge,  who  said  that  Dr.  ,  naming  the 

professor,  had  been  consulted,  and  recommended  Arsenic,  which 
lie  was  confident  would  help,  but  it  did  not,  and,  what  is  worse, 
nothing  did,  for  the  patient  went  on  worse  and  worse  up  to  her 
death,  which  occurred  some  three  or  four  years  later.  No  post- 
mortem was  held,but  it  was  a  most  inveterate  case  of  tic  douloureux, 
probably  from  some  tumor  in  the  brain  or  orbit.  Often  I  have 
begun  to  think  my  prescription  was  doing  wonders,  only  to  find, 
later,  that  the  patient  had  either  not  taken  it  at  all,  or  had  been 
using  other  remedies  at  the  same  time,  making  the  whole  case 
uncertain.  Or  a  sore  throat  would  look  diphtheritic  and  be  well 
with  most  surprising  promptness,  which  would  be  duly  credited 
to  the  remedy,  till  a  succession  of  such  cases  showed  plainly  the 
existence  of  an  epidemic  tonsillitis,  with  exudation,  but  not  true 
diphtheria,  and  many  cases  got  well  just  as  promptly  without 
medicine.  The  late  epidemic,  "  La  Grippe,"  yielded  many  such 
experiences,  so  that  it  was  hard  to  tell  just  what  the  remedies 
did  do. 

But  the  most  uncertainty  comes  from  not  waiting  long  enough 
on  one  remedy,  and  changing  or  repeating  on  insufficient  indi- 
cations, especially  in  acute  cases,  where  much  valuable  time  is 
often  lost  in  the  endeavor  to  gain  time,  forgetting  that  the  medi- 
cine must  always  have  sufficient  time  to  act,  and  that  "  no  worse," 
or  "a  little  better/'  if  substantiated  on  careful  interrogation  of 


266 


WATCH  THE  EFFECT. 


[June, 


every  known  vital  indication,  is  the  signal  for  placebo,  not  to  be 
changed  heedlessly;  then,  at  least,  if  the  case  is  not  made,  it  is 
not  marred,  and  it  has  the  best  known  chance  of  getting  well. 

When  any  medicine  is  indicated,  it  is  generally  plainly  so ;  if 
we  have  to  imagine  that  symptoms  are  present,  the  chances  are 
that  no  drug  at  all  is  needed  at  first ;  if  it  is,  the  fact  will  soon 
become  apparent,  and  the  indications  clear.  Then,  if  undue 
haste  or  carelessness  does  not  spoil  the  progress,  the  result  is 
sure.  One  case  of  typhoid  fever  will  illustrate  this  :  W.  K.  T., 
age  twenty-four,  tobacconist,  complained  merely  of  weakness 
and  loss  of  weight,  for  which  a  careful  diet  was  directed  ;  three 
days  later  he  developed  typhoid  fever,  with  symptoms  calling 
for  Bryonia.  This  was  given  in  Tafel's  1,000th,  in  water,  for 
three  days,  when  a  slight  but  decided  amelioration  occurred,  and 
placebo  was  substituted.  The  tongue  continued  dry,  and  the 
bowels  constipated,  for  two  weeks,  but  no  more  medicine  was 
given,  and  the  patient  progressed  to  full  recovery  in  the  must 
satisfactory  manner,  without  another  dose  of  any  medicine,  ex- 
cept one  dose  of  Sulphur,  given  for  occasional  faintness,  with 
burning  of  the  feet,  in  the  fourth  week  when  he  was  beginning 
to  walk  about  the  room. 

Several  other  cases  in  the  neighborhood,  treated  by  antipyrin 
and  chloral,  died  with  cyanosis,  or  came  so  near  death  that 
many  gave  them  up  and  then  when  medicine  was  suspended 
they  recovered  !  In  all  my  cases  this  winter  I  saw  not  one 
where  pneumonia  supervened  after  grip  or  anything  else,  and  I 
lost  no  case  of  typhoid  fever  or  of  grip. 

A  case  of  mania  will  do  to  close  with  :  A  lady  imagined  her- 
self mesmerized  by  her  absent  pastor,  and  was  in  a  great  fright. 
Aconite1003  quieted  her,  but  did  not  remove  the  delusion,  which 
soon  mingled  with  others — that  every  one  was  possessed  of  the 
devil,  that  her  eyes  were  strangely  wild,  and  that  nothing  was 
as  it  should  be.  Her  face  was  very  red,  but  there  was  no  head- 
ache or  other  ascertainable  symptom.  Melilotus3j  was  given  in 
water,  for  two  days,  with  most  happy  effect,  improvement  was 
rapid,  the  illusions  faded,  and  a  state  of  delightfully  restful 
sleepiness  came  on,  when  the  medicine  was  discontinued,  till,  in 


1890.] 


AN  AWFUL  BLUNDER. 


267 


less  than  a  week  more,  she  voluntarily  quitted  the  bed,  saying 
she  was  now  quite  rested,  and  did  not  believe  that  her  fancies, 
which  she  was  fully  aware  of,  would  return,  nor  have  they  at 
present  writing. 

AN  AWFUL  BLUNDER. 
Dr.  G.  W.  Emery,  Minneapolis. 

In  the  month  of  December  last,  the  writer,  while  in  a  neigh- 
boring State,  on  business,  and  a  guest  of  a  prominent  citizen  and 
kindred,  unearthed  the  following  terrible,  unique,  and  yet  inter- 
esting case  such  as  few  meet  with  in  a  life-long  practice,  and  of 
which  several  of  our  leading  authorities  make  no  mention. 

The  writer  had  finished  his  MS.  with  a  query  as  to  how  it 
might  be  received  by  his  professional  compeers  when  his  atten- 
tion was  directed,  by  Dr.  A.  A.  Pine,  of  St.  Paul,  to  a  very 
similar  case  recorded  by  Prof.  Byford  in  his  obstetrical  work, 
pages  454-55.  The  awful  possibility  of  the  recurrence  of  the 
event  leads  me  to  hope  that  this  may  be  of  interest  and  benefit 
to  your  many  readers. 

On  the  first  day  of  October,  1889,  the  wife  of  my  host,  a 
young  multipara  aged  about  twenty-four  years,  strong,  robust, 
in  fact,  the  very  picture  of  health,  was  taken  in  her  second 
labor  (her  first  a  twin  pregnancy,  children  eight  and  ten 
pounds  respectively,  one  still-born,  the  other  living  two  or  three 
weeks). 

In  the  labor  to  be  described,  primary  pains  commenced  about 
four  o'clock  p.  M.  on  the  date  above ;  patient  retired  to  her 
chamber  and  to  bed.  About  two  hours  afterward  a  messenger 
was  dispatched  for  Dr.  T.,  her  former  attendant,  and  a  physician 
of  forty  years'  practice  in  the  town.  Labor  appeared  to  be  per- 
fectly normal,  and  at  ten  o'clock  p.  M.  a  healthy  female  child 
was  born,  no  anaesthetic  was  used,  nor  did  the  patient  act  as 
though  the  labor  had  been  of  more  than  ordinary  severity. 
After  the  birth  the  usual  pleasantries  wTei*e  passed,  and  for  about 
half  an  hour  patient  seemed  to  rest  easy  and  normally,  making 
pleasant  remarks  to  the  friends  and  physician.     The  husband, 


268 


AN  AWFUL  BLUNDER. 


[June, 


feeling  all  danger  past,  retired  to  his  study  to  hastily  write  a  few 
business  letters;  he  bad  left  the  chamber  but  a  few  minutes 
when  the  doctor  remarked,  "  I  must  now  get  the  after-birth," 
and  proceeded  to  manipulate  for  the  same.  The  patient  soon 
began  to  give  expressions  to  feelings  of  pain,  and  the  doctor 
(for  the  first  time  in  the  case)  instructed  one  of  the  ladies 
present,  or  the  nurse,  to  administer  Chloroform. 

With  the  administration  of  the  anaesthetic  increased  effort  and 
force  were  used  on  the  part  of  the  physician,  and  the  husband 
was  summoned  and  placed  in  charge  of  the  administration  of  the 
anaesthetic,  while  the  doctor  seemed  to  increase  his  power  and 
energy  to  dislodge  (as  he  claimed)  the  after-birth,  with  hand  and 
forearm  inserted  into  the  vagina  and  pelvic  cavity  or  uterus,  and 
perspiration  dropping  from  his  face,  so  that  the  onlookers  fre- 
quently wiped  his  face  with  towels,  while  the  patient's  expres- 
sions of  agony  were  so  intense  as  to  be  almost  unendurable  to 
those  present.  The  doctor,  to  the  several  inquiries  as  to  "  What 
is  the  matter?"  would  respond,  "The  after-birth  is  attached  to 
every  part  of  the  womb."  With  the  patient  evidently  growing 
weaker  and  entering  the  stage  of  collapse,  respiration  increasing 
rapidly  and  face  assuming  an  ashy  pallor;  the  husband  noticed 
the  radial  pulse  was  gone  and  the  hands  and  extremities  cold, 
and  thinking  she  was  dead,  stepped  to  an  adjoining  window  and 
broke  into  tears  and  sobbings,  to  be  sharply  reprimanded  by  the 
physician  with  the  exclamation,  "  Why,  what's  the  matter  with 
you  ?  You  act  as  though  Emma  was  dying ;  she's  all  right,  give 
the  Chloroform." 

The  nurse  states  that  at  this  time  she  was  satisfied  the  patient 
was  dying,  and  ventured  the  suggestion  that  the  doctor  had 
better  send  for  .counsel,  to  be  informed  with  considerable  asperity 
and  tartness  that  "  he  (the  doctor)  knew  his  business,  and  no 
necessity  for  assistance  existed." 

Thus,  from  half-past  ten  till  about  twelve  o'clock,  was  this 
terrible  forced  manipulation  progressing,  till  suddenly  Dr.  T. 
exclaimed,  "  Send  as  quickly  as  possibly  for  Dr.  R.,"  who, 
responding  to  the  hurried  messenger,  arrived  at  half-past  twelve, 
and  immediately  proceeded  to  examination,  and  inserting  hand 


1890.] 


AN  AWFUL  BLUNDER. 


269 


and  forearm,  quickly,  and  amidst  the  greatest  excitement  on  his 
part,  disclosed  from  the  vulva  a  large,  round  body, and  exclaimed, 
"Inversion."  Then,  after  examining  it  carefully,  turning  it 
over  from  hand  to  hand,  and  with  the  greatest  agitation,  he  in 
a  subdued  voice  exclaimed,  "  Dr.  T.,  will  I  cut  this  off?"  or, 
"Hadn't  I  better  cut  this  off?"  when  Dr.  T.  responded,  "  Yes, 
I  guess  so,"  and,  as  Dr.  R.  was  slightly  deaf,  the  husband,  lean- 
ing over  to  Dr.  T.,  remarked,  "  What  is  he  going  to  cut  off, 
Doctor?  See  that  he  don't  do  any  harm."  Dr.  T.  responded, 
"It's  all  right  if  he  don't  cut  too  high,"  and  turning,  remarked 
in  a  loud  tone  of  voice  to  Dr.  R.,  "  Be  careful,  Doctor  !"  Dr. 
R.,  apparently  greatly  agitated,  then  called  for  a  pair  of  scissors 
and  a  piece  of  string.  The  scissors  not  being  found,  he  asked 
for  a  knife,  and  the  husband  handed  him  his  penknife  and  the 
membrane  was  cut  and  the  object  removed.  Dr.  R.  almost  im- 
mediately retired,  taking  with  him  the  removed  mass,  and  in  "a 
few  minutes  the  patient  was  dead. 

The  above  detailed  account  is  entirely  corroborated  by  all 
present.  But  great  dissatisfaction  was  expressed  at  the  methods 
and  forcible  manipulations  of  Dr.  T.,  and  confusion  as  to  whether 
Dr.  R.  was  not  in  part  responsible  for  the  death  by  his  cutting 
operation,  though  it  was  conceded  that  they  (the  friends)  thought 
the  patient  about  dead  when  Dr.  R.  arrived. 

With  a  desire  to  remove  these  feelings,  the  writer  decided  on 
an  interview  with  the  physician  in  attendance.  A  call  upon 
Dr.  T.  resulted  in  the  doctor  stating  that  "  It  was  very  sad,  but 
it  was  the  most  terrible  case  of  attached  placenta  that  he  had 
ever  met."  To  an  inquiry  as  to  whether  inversion  existed,  he 
stated  :  "  Xo ;  Dr.  R.  thought  so  at  first,  but  it  was  a  mistake." 
To  the  query  as  to  whether  the  womb  had  been  removed,  the 
doctor  positively  entered  an  emphatic  denial,  exclaiming,  "  Do 
you  think  I'm  a  fool?  Haven't  I  had  experience  enough  to 
keep  me  from  doing  such  an  act?"  The  writer  stated  he  thought 
he  ought  to  have,  and  suggested  tnat  the  friends  were  urging  the 
exhuming  of,  and  a  post-mortem  on,  the  body,  and  if  it  were 
done,  it  was  their  wish  that  he  be  present.  This  caused  an 
intense  expression  of  anxiety  and  great  agitation  to  the  doctor, 


270 


AN  AWFUL  BLUNDER. 


[June, 


and  to  the  inquiry  as  to  what  Dr.  R.  had  removed,  he,  Dr.  T., 
promptly  responded,  "Why, the  after-birth."  After  some  fur- 
ther conversation,  the  writer,  informing  him  that  he  should  im- 
mediately proceed  to  Dr.  R.'s  office  and  examine  the  placenta, 
left,  and  in  a  few  minutes  was  in  Dr.  R.'s  office,  and  proceeded 
to  state  that  he  called  to  see  the  after-birth  of  Mrs.  E.  M.,  which 
Dr.  T.  informed  him  he,  Dr.  R.,  had  taken  away  and  was  in  his 
possession.  Dr.  R.  denied  having  an  after-birth,  and  the  writer 
demanded  permission  to  see  what  he  had  removed.  Dr.  R. 
quite  excitedly  proceeded  to  express  the  horrors  of  the  case,  and 
greatly  regretted  the  necessity  of  complying  with  the  request, 
asking  earnestly  for  as  much  leniency  as  possible  for  the  attend- 
ing physician,  and  then  Dr.  R.  produced  the  womb.  Recount- 
ing the  facts  as  above  stated,  he  proceeded  to  say  that  he  had 
arrived  at  the  bedside  of  Mrs.  M.  at  half-past  twelve  at  night, 
noticed  the  collapsed  condition  and  deathly  expression  of  coun- 
tenance, and  immediately  proceeded  to  examination,  when  his 
hand  passed  into  the  intestinal  cavity  and  came  in  contact  with 
the  convoluted  folds  of  intestines.  Extracting  his  hand,  it  was 
followed  by  the  uterus,  held  by  a  small  portion  of  the  vaginal 
tissue  at  the  cul-de-sac.  He,  Dr.  R.,  said  he  was  utterly  lost  as 
to  comprehending  its  condition,  and  suggested  inversion,  but  on 
closer  examination  found  it  to  be  the  womb,  enucleated  except 
at  the  point  indicated,  and  the  patient  dying.  He,  Dr.  R., 
removed  as  above  stated  and  retired,  knowing  full  well  the 
result  but  not  waiting  to  witness  it.  He,  Dr.  R.,  said  he  had 
been  passing  through  a  terrible  mental  struggle  as  to  his  duty. 
He  had,  on  the  second  day  after  the  death  of  the  mother,  taken 
the  organ  to  a  leading  physician  (Dr.  B.)  of  a  neighboring  city, 
shown  it  to  him,  and  asked  his  advice,  who  informed  Dr.  R. 
that,  as  the  patient  wras  dead,  and  Dr.  R.  and  Dr.  T.  being  old 
practitioners  in  the  same  field,  he,  Dr.  R,,  had  better  say  nothing 
about  the  affair,  but  keep  the  organ  carefully.  He,  Dr.  B., 
further  stated  he  had  never  seen  such  a  terrible  piece  of  work  in 
his  life  before.  This  advice  on  the  part  of  Dr.  B.,  Dr.  R.  in- 
formed me,  had  kept  him  quiet,  though  his  wife  had  urged  him 
to  explain  the  facts  to  the  husband.    To  the  inquiry  as  to  where 


1800.] 


AN  AWFUL  BLUNDER. 


271 


the  placenta  was,  he,  Dr.  R.,  responded  that  he  had  never  seen 
it;  he  said  that  in  proceeding  to  the  examination  he  groped 
about  the  labies  externally  to  find  the  cord,  but  it  was  not 
there.  He  then  went  internal,  but  did  not  find  it  nor  any  other 
indications  of  the  cord  or  placenta.  The  organ  produced  meas- 
ured eleven  (11)  inches  in  length  and  seven  and  one-half  (7  J) 
inches  in  diameter  through  centre  of  body,  one  ovary  and  liga- 
ments much  larger  than  the  other.  Mouth  patulous  and  ragged, 
organ  rent  on  left  side  up  to  ligamental  attachments.  Internal 
surface  denuded  of  decidual  membrane  and  the  muscular  tissue 
torn  up  and  into,  as  though  gnawed  by  an  animal  ;  this  was  by 
the  finger  of  Dr.  T.  The  point  at  which  the  cutting  by  Dr.  R. 
was  made  was  very  apparent,  and  agreed  with  his  (Dr.  R.'s) 
statement.  And  with  the  writer,  he,  Dr.  R.,  agreed  that  the 
after-birth  had  slipped  through  the  rent  and  was  then  in  the 
body  of  the  deceased. 

Another  interview  was  had  with  Dr.  T.,  and  the  facts  (of 
which  he  had  been  fully  aware,  because  the  organ  was  exhibited 
to  him  two  days  after  the  death,  by  Dr.  R.)  he,  Dr.  T.,  now 
stoutly  denied  any  force  on  his  part  in  the  treatment  of  the 
ca<e,  and  in  the  most  contemptuous  manner,  by  an  implication, 
proceeded  to  throw  the  blame  on  Dr.  R.  He  further  attempted 
to  claim  that  the  decidual  membrane,  so  horribly  mutilated  and 
denuded  from  the  internal  surface,  was  the  placenta,  but  finally 
abandoned  this  position  and  conceded  the  probability  of  the  loss 
of  the  placenta  in  the  intestinal  cavity,  after  which  concession 
the  husband  thought  a  post-mortem  unnecessary.  The  age, 
respectability,  and  former  standing  of  this  horrible  blunderer, 
moved  feelings  of  pity  on  the  part  of  those  who  were  so  awfully 
injured,  though  a  liberal  amount  is  demanded  for  the  use  of  the 
motherless  babe. 

In  conclusion,  the  writer  would  suggest  for  the  consideration 
of  vour  readers  the  following  interrogatories  which  have  very 
forcibly  come  to  his  mind,  viz. : 

First.  Was  the  advice  given  by  Dr.  B.  to  Dr.  R.  proper  or 
justifiable  under  the  circumstances? 

Second.  Was  the  action  of  Dr.  R.  in  attempting  to  follow 
the  advice  commendable  or  censurable  ? 


272      WARD'S  ISLAND  "DIFFICULTY"  IN  NEW  YORK.  [June, 

Third.  Was  the  action  of  the  friends  in  being  willing  to 
condone  the  death  and  thus  thwart  demands  of  civil  law,  thus 
permitting  this  Dr.  T.  to  continue  in  active  practice,  right  or 
wrong  ? 

The  writer  would  be  glad  to  have  these  questions  answered. 
— Northwestern  Medical  Journal. 


THE  WARD'S  ISLAND  "DIFFICULTY"  IN  NEW 

YORK. 

Some  Unpububhed  Correspondence. 

53  West  Forty-fifth  Street, 

New  York,  April  3d,  1890. 
Dear  Dr.  Guernsey  : — Owing   to  inability  to  attend  a 
number  of  meetings  of  the  Medical  Board,  I  have  not  been 
well  informed  of  the  proceedings. 

Recently  I  read  in  the  March  issue  of  The  New  York  Medical 
Times  the  following  resolution,  passed  by  the  Board  January  2d, 
1890: 

"  Resolved,  that  in  the  opinion  of  this  Board,  the  only  re- 
quirement as  to  belief  and  practice  of  a  physician  should  be  as 
follows  :  That  in  common  with  other  existing  associations  which 
have  for  their  object  investigations  and  other  labors  which  may 
contribute  to  the  promotion  of  medical  science,  we  hereby  de- 
clare that  we  firmly  believe  the  principle,  Similia  similibus 
curantur,  to  constitute  the  best  general  guide  in  the  selection  of 
remedies,  and  that  we  fully  intend  to  carry  out  this  principle  to 
the  best  of  our  ability,  yet  this  belief  should  not  deter  us  from 
recognizing  and  making  use  of  the  results  of  any  experience, 
and  we  shall  exercise  and  defend  the  inviolable  right  of  every 
educated  physician  to  make  use  of  any  established  principle  in 
medical  science,  or  any  therapeutic  fact  founded  on  experiments 
and  verified  by  experience,  so  far  as  in  his  individual  judgment 
they  shall  tend  to  promote  the  welfare  of  those  under  his  pro- 
fessional care." 

The  above  resolution  does  not  express  my  belief  and  practice, 


1S90.]    WARD'S  ISLAND  "DIFFICULTY"  IN  NEW  YORK.  273 


and  as  silence  on  my  part  would  naturally  be  considered  as  in- 
dicating assent,  I  will  now  state  my  views,  asking  that  they  be 
read  at  the  meeting  to-night,  and  made  a  part  of  the  record. 

I  believe  that  the  words  Similia  similibiis  eurantur  formulate 
not  "  the  best  general  guide/'  but  a  laic — a  great  natural 
law  to  be  applied  as  universally  in  the  selection  of  drugs  for 
the  cure  of  sick  people,  as  the  law  of  gravity  is  in  the  realm  of 
physics.  Section  24  of  Hahnemann's  Org  anon  sums  the  mat- 
ter up  as  follows  : 

"  There  remains,  accordingly,  no  other  method  of  applying 
medicines  profitably  in  diseases  than  the  homoeopathic,  by  means 
of  which  we  select  from  all  others  that  medicine  (in  order  to 
direct  it  against  the  entire  symptoms  of  the  individual  morbid 
case)  whose  manner  of  acting  upon  persons  in  health  is  known, 
and  which  has  the  power  of  producing  an  artificial  malady  the 
nearest  in  resemblance  to  the  natural  disease  before  our  eyes." 

I  also  believe  that  the  incurably  sick  are  best  treated  by 
Similia.  They  have  thereby  less  suffering,  longer  life,  and 
easier  death. 

My  faith  is  founded  upon  large  experience.  Never  has 
Homoeopathy  failed  when  subjected  to  the  crucial  test  as  di- 
rected by  Hahnemann.  For  many  years  he  and  his  followers 
have  challenged  disproof,  but  in  vain.  The  challenge  is  yet 
open. 

Believing  the  homoeopathic  to  be  the  best  way,  I  need  not  re- 
sort to  any  other.  Any  implication  that  an  extremely  sick  per- 
son can  be  helped,  somehow,  by  dropping  the  similar  and  taking 
up  some  other  method,  or  by  trying  to  combine  methods,  be- 
trays a  lack  of  faith  in  the  law.  Such  patchwork  is  scouted  by 
every  true  homoeopath.  The  more  desperate  the  case,  the  closer 
must  we  stick  to  the  law,  if  we  would  cure. 

My  position  is  well  understood  at  the  Hospital  and  by  the 
Medical  Board.  One  of  the  original  twenty-four  members  who 
received  a  sacred  trust  from  the  city  authorities,  I  have  stead- 
fastly adhered  to  our  mutual  pledge  made  at  our  first  meeting 
for  organization,  at  the  office  of  Dr.  William  H.  White,  to  stick 
to  the  law.  For  my  part,  the  promise  was  made  con  amore. 
18 


274      WARD'S  ISLAND  " DIFFICULTY  "  IX  NEW  YORK.  [June, 


Nineteen  years  active  practice  of  pure  Homoeopathy,  teaching 
in  college  and  hospital  both  didactic  and  clinical,  and  advice 
given  in  counsel  with  ray  professional  brethren,  all  show  a  con- 
sistent record  for  Shnilia,  to  the  best  of  ray  ability,  to  which  all 
who  know  me  will  attest.  The  public  have  a  right  to  expect  of 
me  a  mode  of  practice  which  is  consistent  with  ray  profession-. 
If  I  ever  cease  to  be  a  homoeopath,  I  shall  sever  my  con- 
nection with  all  homoeopathic  institutions  and  societies,  and  seek 
affiliation  where  I  belong.    The  world  is  wide. 

The  resolution  which  called  forth  this  letter  was  published  in 
your  journal.    By  right  this  should  appear  there  also. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Edmund  Carleton. 

To   Egbert  Guernsey,  M.  D.,  President   Medical  Board 
Homoeopathic  Hospital,  Ward's  Island,  New  York. 

To  the  foregoing  letter  Dr.  Guernsey  replied  as  follows  : 

New  York,  April  21st,  1890. 

My  Dear  Doctor  : — As  you  are  probably  aware,  when  the 
hospital  on  Ward's  Island  came  into  our  hands  Mr.  Brennan 
insisted  it  should  be  called  Homoeopathic,  and  it  was  so  called 
in  spite  of  our  protest.  Notwithstanding  it  was  to  be  under  the 
control  of  our  school,  we  insisted  it  should  simply  be  designated 
as  the  Ward's  Island  Hospital.  Have  you  any  objection  to  our 
asking  the  Commissioners  to  change  the  name  of  the  hospital  to 
the  one  first  proposed  by  the  representatives  of  our  school,  viz. : 
The  Ward's  Island  Hospital  ?  Of  course,  there  will  be 
no  change  in  treatment ! 

Very  respectfully, 

Egbert  Guernsey. 

Dr.  Carleton's  rejoinder  to  the  letter  of  Dr.  Guernsey  is  here- 
with given  : 

New  York,  April  24th,  1890. 

Egbert  Guernsey,  M.  D. 

My  Dear  Doctor  : — Your  letter  of  the  21st  instant  re- 
ceived. 


1890.]  SOME  REMARKS  ON  RUM  EX  CRISPUS.  275 

I  have  no  recollection  of  the  matter  referred  to.  You  have 
presented  a  subject  which  is  entirely  new  to  me.  I  supposed 
that  we  were  to  have  a  homoeopathic  hospital  in  fact  and  in  name. 
To  abandon  homoeopathic  practice,  wholly  or  partially,  or  to 
drop  the  distinctive  title,  at  the  present  time,  would  be,  to  my 
mind,  disastrous. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Edmund  Carleton. 


SOME  REMARKS  OX  RUM  EX  CRISPUS. 
C.  Carleton  Smith,,  M.  D.,  Philada. 

On  page  172  of  the  American  Homoeopathlst  for  May,  Dr. 
Cardoza  gives  a  very  interesting  cure  which  he  made  with 
"  Rumex  crispus."  This  calls  to  memory  the  fact  that  it  is  now 
nearly  twenty-five  years  since  I  first  used  this  valuable  drug. 
The  case  was  that  of  a  very  intelligent  lady,  principal  of  a 
prominent  female  seminary.  When  summoned  into  her  presence, 
I  found  her  lying  upon  the  bed  with  a  handkerchief  held  tightly 
to  her  mouth  which  she  told  me  she  could  not  remove  from  its 
position  without  a  most  violent  spasmodic  cough  resulting. 
The  fact  was,  she  could  not  even  breathe  the  warm  air  of  the 
room  without  irritating  the  air  passages  to  that  degree  that  a  fit 
of  coughing  was  sure  to  be  induced  thereby,  short,  frequent,  and 
sharp.  R  iruex  being  the  only  drug  which  exactly  corre- 
sponded with  the  characteristic  symptoms  of  the  case,  it  was  ad- 
ministered in  6th  potency  in  water,  in  divided  doses.  The  result 
was  a  speedily,  brilliant,  and  permanent  cure,  astonishing  the 
patient  and  all  her  friends. 

Dr.  Cardoza's  cure  was  that  of  a  cough  which  only  obtained 
during  the  day,  but  not  at  all  at  night.  I  was  not  aware  that 
this  peculiar  symptom  belonged  to  Rumex,  and  therefore  it 
ought  to  be  noted  down  by  all  homoepathicians  for  future  use. 
Most  of  the  drugs,  be  it  remembered,  that  produce  cough  in  any 
great  degree  have  night  aggravations  of  some  sort  or  another, 
and  in  greater  or  lesser  degree.    But  here  is  a  drug  that  has  a 


276 


SOME  REMARKS  OX  RUM  EX  CRISPUS. 


[June, 


dry,  teasing  cough  all  day  long  which  disappears  when  the 
patient  lies  down  to  rest  at  night.  We  thank  the  doctor  for 
calling  our  attention  to  it,  as  it  is  not  found,  as  far  as  we  know, 
in  the  provings  of  the  drug. 

The  late  Dr.  Dunham  placed  Rumex  in  the  following  group, 
viz. :  Belladonna,  Lachesis,  Phosphorus,  Caustic  urn,  all  of 
these  remedies  producing  symptoms  identical  in  kind.  The 
characteristic  of  each,  he  states,  being  found  in  the  relative 
degree  in  which  each  symptom  is  pronounced  in  the  different 
remedies,  quite  as  much  as  in  the  possession  by  any  one  of  these 
of  symptoms  not  produced  by  the  others. 

Thus  Bell.,  Lach.,  and  Rumex,  produce  each  a  dry  cough,  in- 
duced by  tickling  in  the  larynx  or  trachea,  provoked  by  deep 
inspiration,  by  speaking,  and  by  external  pressure  on  the  larynx 
or  trachea.  Each  produces  soreness  or  rawness  of  the  larynx  or 
trachea. 

The  cough  of  each  is  spasmodic  and  long  continued,  and  is 
worse  at  night  after  retiring.  But,  apart  from  the  fact  that 
Bell,  and  Lach.  act  more  upon  the  larynx,  and  Rumex  more 
upon  the  lower  part  of  the  trachea,  we  observe  that,  in  the  case 
of  Lachesis,  the  slightest  external  pressure  on  the  larynx  or 
trachea  produces  violent  and  long-continued  spasmodic  cough  ; 
the  patient  cannot  endure  the  least  constriction  in  that  region, 
not  even  the  ordinary  contact  of  his  clothing.  In  the  case  of 
Bell,  not  only  is  cough  produced  to  a  moderate  extent  by 
pressing  upon  the  larynx,  but  soreness  and  pain  are  experienced, 
with  a  sense  of  internal  fullness  which  at  once  suggests  the 
presence  of  acute  laryngitis  submucosa.  In  Rumex,  on  the 
other  hand,  there  is  no  sensibility,  strictly  speaking,  of  the 
trachea,  but  simply  such  an  irritability  of  the  mucous  mem- 
brane that  cough  is  produced  by  the  change  of  position  induced 
in  that  membrane  by  external  pressure  upon  the  trachea.  As 
regards  the  extent  and  intensity  of  this  symptom,  Rumex  holds 
a  lower  rank  than  the  other  remedies  named.  But  the  irrit- 
ability of  the  mucous  membrane  by  virtue  of  which  cough  is 
induced  by  hurried  or  deep  inspiration,  or  by  speaking,  while 
it  is  common  to  Bell.,  Lach.,  Rumex,  and  Phosphorus,  is  pro- 


1890.] 


SOME  REMARKS  OX  RUM  EX  CRISPUS. 


277 


duced  in  the  most  exalted  degree,  as  we  have  already  seen,  by 
Kumex,  which,  as  regards  this  symptom,  takes  first  rank.  A 
sensation  of  rawness  or  roughness  in  the  larynx,  trachea,  and 
bronchi  is  produced  by  each  of  the  four  remedies  above  named, 
but  the  locality  and  the  degree  in  which  it  is  produced  vary  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  serve  in  some  measure  as  a  characteristic  of 
each.  It  is  most  marked  in  Phos.  and  Bell.,  less  prominent  in 
Rurnex,  and  least  of  all  in  Lach.  In  Bell,  and  Lach.  it  is  most 
marked  in  the  larynx ;  indeed,  it  is  almost  confined  to  that 
region.  Ruraex  produces  it  in  the  trachea  and  upper  part  of 
the  bronchi,  while  Phos.  induces  it  in  the  whole  mucous  tract, 
from  the  larynx  to  the  smaller  bronchi ;  and,  moreover,  in  the 
Phos.  proving,  this  "  rawness  99  of  the  air-passages  is  accom- 
panied by  a  no  less  characteristic  sense  of  weight  and  constric- 
tion of  the  upper  portion  of  the  thorax,  which  indicates  an 
affection  of  the  finer  air-tubes,  and  of  the  air  vesicles  of  such  a 
character  as  seriously  to  impede  the  function  of  respiration.  In 
considering  this  last  symptom  we  mention  Caust.  also,  which 
produces  "  rawness  '9  extending  the  whole  length  of  the  sternum. 
All  five  remedies,  again,  produce  hoarseness ;  Phos.,  Canst.,  and 
Bell,  most  eminently ;  Rumex  less  decidedly,  and  Lach.  in  a 
still  less  degree.  Bell,  and  Lach.  apply  especially  to  those  com- 
plications which  involve  the  fauces  and  pharynx,  and  are  acute, 
the  one  of  a  sthenic,  the  other  of  an  asthenic  character  ;  Phos.  to 
those  of  the  pulmonary  tissues  of  a  definite  inflammatory  charac- 
ter, and  Humex  to  certain  affections  of  the  lungs  and  their 
envelopes,  of  which  the  nature  is  not  clearly  defined  in  the 
proving.  They  are  indicated  by  pains,  generally  sub-acute,  in 
the  upper  part  of  the  lung  near  the  clavicle  and  axilla,  and  more 
frequent  in  the  left  than  in  the  right  lung.  Since  administering 
my  first  dose,  which  was  in  the  earlier  days  of  my  practice,  my 
experience  with  the  "  Yellow  Dock  99  has  been  quite  extensive, 
which  has  led  me  to  pronounce  it  one  of  the  most  valuable 
remedies  in  our  materia  medica  for  affections  of  the  air-pass- 
ages. 

It  undoubtedly  possesses  antipsoric  qualities,  for  it  causes  a 
long-lasting  eruption  of  a  vesicular  nature,  which  annoys  the 


278 


SOME  REMARKS  ON  RUMEX  CRISPUS. 


[June, 


patient  by  itching,  only  when  he  is  disrobing  to  go  to  bed.  The 
eruption  appears  mostly  on  lower  limbs,  and  stings,  itches,  and 
prickles.  The  aggravation  evidently  caused,  as  is  the  cough  of 
this  drug,  by  exposure  to  the  air,  even  of  the  warm  room. 
Mercurius  has  an  aggravation  of  its  eruption  in  the  evening  or 
night,  but  only  comes  on  when  the  patient  gets  cozily  fixed  in 
bed  and  begins  to  warm  up ;  which  is  quite  an  opposite 
condition. 

A  strong  Sulphur  symptom  also  obtains  with  this  remedy, 
viz. :  Stool  is  urgent,  driving  the  patient  out  of  bed  early  in  the 
morning,  the  passages  being  brown  or  black,  and  quite  thin 
and  watery. 

This  symptom  must  not  be  overlooked  in  cases  of  children 
with  the  Rumex  cough,  who  are  suddenly  seized  with  this 
early  morning  stool.    Sulphur  is  not  the  remedy  but  Rumex  is. 

Another  point,  children  with  the  Rumex  cough  will  become 
extremely  cross  and  peevish,  precisely  similar  to  that  condition 
which  obtains  under  Chamomilla.  This  may  lead,  by  mistake, 
to  the  giving  of  the  latter  drug,  when,  in  fact,  Rumex  ought  to 
have  been  exhibited,  which  would  be  followed  by  a  speedy  cure. 
Belonging  to  this  valuable  drug,  there  is  a  condition  which 
closely  corresponds  to  Lycopodium,  viz. :  After  meals,  great 
flatulency  and  distention  of  stomach.  Sensation  of  fullness  after 
eating,  with  pressure  so  great  that  it  extends  up  into  the  throat. 

Another  peculiar  condition  which  was  evolved  in  the  proving 
of  Rumex,  is  one  that  is  evidently  connected  with  indigestion, 
and  which  does  not,  to  my  knowledge,  at  least,  belong  so  promi- 
nently to  any  other  drug.  I  allude  to  the  "  Lump  in  throat,  not 
relieved  by  hawking  or  swallowing  ;  it  descends  on  deglutition, 
but  immediately  returns."  I  have  cured  many  cases  of  so-called 
dyspepsia  with  this  remedy  in  various  potencies  where  the  above 
characteristic  was  a  prominent  factor. 

Ignatia  has  a  lump  in  the  throat,  also,  but  during  the  act  of 
deglutition  the  patient  swallows  over  it,  as  it  is  immovable* 

The  Rumex  patient  is  very  restless  in  his  sleep ;  dreaming  of 
danger  and  trouble,  and  wakes  up  with  a  morning  headache. 
This  reminds  us  of  Bryonia,  but  with  the  latter  drug  the  head- 


1S90.]  BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS.  279 

ache  does  not  assert  itself  on  waking  up,  but  as  soon  as  the  eye- 
lids are  opened. 

Aggravations  from  cold,  damp,  raw  weather,  give  us  a  close 
similarity  to  Rhus-tox. 


BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 
Alfred  Heath,  M.  D.,  F.  L.  S.,  London,  England. 

The  plants  that  I  propose  to  mention  in  the  following  short 
sketches  are  such  as  are  in  common  use  in  homoeopathic  practice 
or  occur  in  homoeopathic  literature.  My  purpose  in  writing 
them  is  to  show  that  medicines  that  were  used  formerly  in  an 
empirical  manner  as  infallible  remedies  for  the  cure  of  disease, 
are  now  ascertained  by  the  homoeopathic  "  provings  "  on  healthy 
people  to  be  capable  of  producing  the  same  conditions  or  symp- 
toms that  they  were  said  to  cure,  thereby  proving  the  truth  of 
the  homoeopathic  law  of  cure,  Similia  similibus  curantur. 

Further,  by  giving  the  common  as  well  as  the  botanical 
names,  I  trust  to  interest  the  readers  of  The  Homceopathic 
Physician,  by  describing  some  of  the  virtues  of  plants  that 
are  well-known  garden  favorites,  or  wild  flowers;  and,  lastly,  that 
useful  and  practical  information  may  be  obtained  concerning 
their  use  in  disease  when  far  from  medical  help.  When  in  the 
country  and  wanting  certain  medicines,  I  have  often  been  glad 
to  find  in  the  garden  or  hedge-row  what  could  not  be  obtained 
at  a  shop.  I  propose,  also,  to  make  some  mention  of  well- 
known  plants  that  are  not  truly  British  for  two  reasons  :  first, 
they  are  well-known  and  "  proven  "  homoeopathic  remedies,  and 
also,  secondly,  although  aliens  they  are  in  most  cases  thoroughly 
acclimatized,  and  capable  of  reproducing  themselves  by  seeding, 
and  many  of  them  are  included  in  works  on  English  botany.  I 
propose  to  take  them  in  their  botanical  order  and  consequently 
commence  with  : 

Order  1,  Ranunculace.e. 
Clematis    Vitalba   (The   Traveler's   Joy). — This  beautiful 
climber  is  known  to  all,  its  dark-green  foliage  climbing  thickly 


280 


BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 


[June, 


over  almost  every  hedge  in  chalky  or  limestone  districts.  It  is 
one  of  the  earliest  signs  of  coming  spring,  its  abundance  of  white, 
almond-scented  flowers  later  on,  add  their  beauty  to  the  fields, 
and  in  the  autumn  the  hedge-rows  are  white  with  its  feathery 
seed-plumes.  This  plant,  like  most  others  of  the  order,  is  very 
acrid,  its  leaves  producing  a  warmth  on  the  tongue,  and  if 
chewed  for  a  short  time  causing  blisters.  They  also  blister  and 
ulcerate  the  skin  when  rubbed  on  it,  although  in  France  the 
young  sprouts  are  boiled  and  eaten  as  a  vegetable  like  its  name- 
sake, better  known  in  homoeopathic  materia  medica  {Clematis 
erecta).  It  was  used  internally  as  a  cure  for  the  lues  venerea,  cer- 
tain forms  of  scrofula,  and  rheumatism.  It  has  not  been  regu- 
larly "  proven,"  but  it  cures  many  conditions  that  the  "  proven  " 
(C.  erecta)  has  produced,  aud  probably  the  two  plants  closely 
resemble  each  other  in  their  medicinal  effects. 

Clematis  Erecta  (Upright  Virgin's  Bower). — This  plant  is  an 
alien,  but  grows  so  freely  in  our  gardens  that  I  cannot  pass  it 
over,  especially  as  it  is  "  a  proven  "  and  a  most  important  homoeo- 
pathic remedy.  The  same  virtues  are  attributed  to  this  plant 
in  times  past,  as  to  the  preceding.  According  to  the  homoeo- 
pathic proving,  it  produced,  on  healthy  persons,  swelling  of 
testes  and  scrotum,  with  painful  sensitiveness,  violent  pains  in 
left  spermatic  cord  (in  women  it  has  cured  glandular  indurations 
of  breasts,  painful  to  touch).  Rheumatic-like  pains  (aching, 
drawing,  tearing),  in  limbs,  and  a  great  number  of  symptoms, 
affecting  all  parts  of  the  body. 

Anemone  Pulsatilla  (the  Pasque  Flower). — This  plant,  although 
very  much  like  the  Pulsatilla  nigricans  of  the  homoeopathic 
pharmacopoeia,  is  not  the  same,  and  should  never  be  used  for  it. 
It  flowers  in  the  early  spring  only,  and  where  common,  as  on 
the  Gog  and  Magog  hills,  the  pastures,  it  is  said,  are  tinged  with 
its  elegant  purple  flowers.  It  is,  however,  a  rare  plant  in 
Britain.  It  is  found  on  grassy  pastures  and  chalky  declivities 
in  several  parts  of  the  country,  especially  Hertfordshire.  Its 
flowers  are  lighter  in  color  than  P.  nigricans,  and  are  upright, 
whereas  the  Pulsatilla  nigricans  flowers  twice  in  the  year,  and  has 
beautiful,  dark,  almost  black-blue  flowers,  much  more  hairy, 


1890.] 


BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 


281 


white,  soft,  silky  hairs,  much  smaller  flowers  and  reflexed,  with 
the  petals  bent  back  at  the  top.  The  medicinal  virtues  of  A. 
Pulsatilla  are  similar  to  those  of  P.  nigricans,  and  it  has  been 
used  with  considerable  success  in  diseases  of  women — headaches 
depending  on  functional  derangements,  inflammation  of  the  eyes 
and  eyelids,  and  malignant  ulcers.  It  is  useful  in  discharges 
from  ears,  nose,  eyes,  etc.    It  is  very  acrid  ;  not  u  proven." 

Anemone  Nemorosa  (the  Ranunculus  Albus  of  the  pharma- 
copoeias. The  \Yood  Anemone  or  Wind  Flower.) — Found  in 
abundance  in  damp  groves  and  thickets  in  early  spring  ;  is  about 
four  to  eight  inches  high,  flowers  white,  or  with  a  purplish 
tinge.  The  whole  plant  is  acrid  and  poisonous.  Sheep  eat  it, 
but  it  is  apt  to  disorder  them  violently.  Horses,  cows,  and 
swine  refuse  it.  The  acrid  volatile  principle  is  so  corrosive  that 
it  has  been  used  externally  as  a  blister,  instead  of  Cantharides. 
It  was  used  empirically  in  times  past  to  promote  the  menstrual 
flow,  and  for  the  cure  of  leprosy.  The  juice  was  snuffed  up  the 
nose  to  promote  discharges,  and  the  root  was  chewed  to  cause 
expectoration  on  account  of  its  acrid  properties.  It  was  found 
useful  in  headaches,  in  soreness  and  inflammation  of  the  eyes 
and  lids.  Culpepper  says  :  "  Being  made  into  an  ointment  and 
the  eyelids  anointed  with  it,  it  helps  inflammation  of  the  eyes, 
whereby  it  is  palpable  that  every  stronger  draws  its  weaker  like." 
According  to  the  same  writer,  it  opens  the  mouths  of  the  veins. 
All  the  foregoing;  states  and  conditions  may  be  found  in  the 
"provings''  of  Anemone  Pratensis  or  Pulsatilla  nigricans  ;  and 
all  the  Anemones  probably  contain  the  same  active  principle, 
Anemonin.  Possibly  if  this  plant  were  proven  it  would  be 
found  quite  as  good  as  our  officinal  plant,  Pulsatilla  nigricans, 
which  latter  does  not  grow  here. 

Pulsatilla  Nigricans  [Anemone  Pratensis)  Meadow  Anemone, 
Wind  Flower,  an  alien,  but  is  found  in  our  gardens,  and  is  really 
a  lovely  thing  to  grow.  This  plant  was  received  into  the  Edin- 
burgh pharmacopoeia  during  the  life  of  Hahnemann,  upon  the 
authority  of  Baron  Stoerck,  who  recommended  it  as  an  effectual 
remedy  for  most  of  the  chronic  diseases  affecting  the  eye,  par- 
ticularly amaurosis,  cataract,  and  opacity  of  the  cornea,  he  also 


282 


A  CASE  OF  SPORADIC  CHOLERA. 


[June, 


found  it  of  great  service  in  the  nodes  and  nocturnal  pains  of 
syphilis,  and  in  ulcers,  caries,  indurated  glands,  suppressed 
menses,  herpetic  eruptions,  melancholy,  and  palsy.  When 
chewed  it  inflames  the  tongue  and  fauces. 

It  produces,  on  the  healthy,  various  kinds  of  inflammation  of 
the  eyes  and  eyelids,  with  pains  and  swelling.  Lachrymation 
in  the  open  air,  dimness  of  sight,  obscuration  of  sight,  and  a 
great  many  other  eye  symptoms ;  powerful  and  varied  action  on 
the  sexual  and  urinary  organs,  eruptions  on  various  parts  of  the 
body,  which  burn,  itch,  and  bleed.  Uterine  spasms,  suppres- 
sion of  the  menses,  great  melancholy  and  depression  of  spirits, 
sadness,  silent  mood,  weeping,  and  a  great  variety  of  motor  dis- 
turbances, too  numerous  to  mention  ;  painful  lameness,  debility, 
rigid  immobility  of  body,  tingling,  and  sensation  as  if  limbs  had 
gone  to  sleep,  tremulous  weakness,  trembling  of  the  hands,  and 
of  limbs  generally. 

A  CASE  OF  SPORADIC  CHOLERA. 

L.  Hoopes,  M.  D.,  West  Chester,  Pa. 

In  the  summer  of  1873,  while  practicing  medicine  in  Potts- 
town,  Pa.,  I  was  summoned  hastily  one  afternoon  to  see  a  man 
residing  about  four  squares  from  my  office,  who  had  been  suffer- 
ing with  the  following  symptoms  for  about  half  an  hour: 
About  every  five  minutes  he  was  attacked  with  cramps  from 
head  to  foot,  drawing  him  up  into  a  bunch,  when  he  would  roll 
out  of  bed  and  around  the  room  like  a  hoop,  making  about  one 
circuit  of  the  room,  when  the  cramp  would  relax  and  he  would 
vomit  a  large  amount  of  fluid  which  looked  like  rice-water ; 
then  he  would  pass  as  much  more  of  the  same  kind  of  fluid 
from  his  bowels,  and  then,  completely  exhausted  and  covered 
with  cold  perspiration,  the  attendants  would  place  him  in  bed. 
He  was  almost  pulseless,  voice  feeble  and  husky  and  his  skin 
on  being  pinched  up  would  remain  in  a  fold;  urine  suppressed. 
When  I  entered  the  room  he  was  in  bed,  but  I  did  not  ask  more 
than  two  questions  before  he  had  another  paroxysm,  which  I 
observed  closely  till  it  passed,  and  then  dissolved  a  few  pellets 


1890.] 


CLINICAL  CASES. 


283 


of  Verat.-alb.200  in  a  little  water  and  gave  him  a  teaspoon  fid 
before  the  recurrence  of  another;  in  a  few  minutes  there  was  a 
slight  cramp  which  ran  through  the  whole  body,  but  not  enough 
to  drive  him  out  of  bed,  a  little  nausea  but  no  vomiting  or  stool, 
nor  did  they  recur  again.  I  gave  him  no  more  Verat.,  but  on 
the  following  day  I  gave  him  a  dose  or  two  of  Chin.200  for  the 
remaining  debility,  and  he  made  a  good  and  rapid  recovery.  In 
the  paroxysm  which  I  witnessed  the  fluid  passed  by  mouth  and 
anus  filled  a  large  chamber. 

There  were  three  of  these  cases,  almost  exactly  alike,  which 
occurred  on  three  consecutive  days.  The  first  recovered  under 
eclectic  treatment,  and  the  third  died  under  allopathic. 


CLINICAL  CASES. 
Ella  M.  Tuttle,  M.  D.,  New  Berlin,  New  York. 

Some  Effects  of  Quinine. — Was  called  to  see  Miss  , 

whom  I  found  suffering  from  eczema  of  the  hands.  She  stated 
that  she  had  been  afflicted  with  the  same  disease  before  when 
living  in  a  distant  State,  and  as  at  that  time  she  suffered  from  it 
for  about  five  weeks,  she  was  expecting  a  long  siege.  On  in- 
quiry I  learned  that  at  that  time  she  had  been  first  under  an 
allopathic  physician,  who  had  given  her  quantities  of  Quinine, 
etc.,  but  growing  steadily  worse  she  had  finally  called  upon  a 
homoeopathic  physician,  under  whose  treatment  she  had  recov- 
ered. Before  I  saw  her  at  this  time  she  had  been  taking 
Quinine  for  a  cold,  but  when  the  eczema  appeared  she  sent  for 
me.  The  skin  of  her  hands  was  reddened,  and  somewhat  ex- 
coriated, itched  violently,  and  burned  after  scratching.  The 
joints  of  the  fingers  were  lame  and  stiff  and  would  pain  her  se- 
verely if  kept  long  in  one  position,  but  were  momentarily  re- 
lieved by  moving.  Gave  her  Rhus-tox.,  under  which,  to  her 
surprise,  she  recovered  in  a  few  days. 

Some  time  after  she  had  a  cold,  and  again  began  taking 
Quinine.  In  two  hours  after  the  first  dose  her  hands  began  to 
burn  aud  itch  in  the  same  way,  but  this  time  she  recognized  that 


284 


SANICULA— A  CAUTION. 


[June, 


it  was  the  effect  of  the  Quinine,  and  immediately  stopped  its 
use.  This  time  the  itching  and  burning  only  lasted  about 
twenty-four  hours.  When  will  people  learn  that  indefinite 
dosing  with  Quinine  is  at  the  bottom  of  a  large  per  cent,  of  the 
ills  that  afflict  us  poor  mortals  ? 

Arsenicum  in  the  Vomiting   of  Pre<; nancy. — Mrs. 

F  ,  one  month  pregnant,  was  taken  with  a  distressing  attack 

of  vomiting.  Morphine  was  given  her,  both  by  the  mouth  and 
injected  into  her  arm,  but  with  the  effect  of  increasing  the  vom- 
iting. I  was  called  after  two  days  and  nights  of  suffering. 
Found  her  very  pale  and  weak,  hardly  able  to  raise  her  head 
from  the  pillow.  Would  vomit  about  once  in  twenty  minutes, 
the  vomited  matter  consisting  of  white  frothy  mucus.  Said 
she  felt  very  nervous  and  feared  she  was  going  to  die.  Began 
to  have  labor  pains,  and  the  physician  she  had  before  thought 
she  would  lose  her  baby. 

I  put  ten  drops  of  Ars.3  in  half  a  glass  of  water,  and  gave 
her  a  spoonful  every  half-hour.  The  first  spoonful  was  promptly 
ejected,  but  the  next  was  retained  and  the  vomiting  effectually 
checked.  In  the  course  of  two  hours  she  was  able  to  take  some 
beef-tea,  and  the  fourth  day  after  she  was  in  the  kitchen  super- 
intending her  hired  help.  She  went  to  term,  at  which  time  I 
had  the  pleasure  of  delivering  her  of  a  healthy  eight-pound 
girl. 

SANICULA— A  CAUTIOX. 

Editors  Homceopathic  Physician  : — Through  a  small 
space  in  your  journal,  it  may  be  well  to  offer  a  word  of  caution 
to  those  members  of  the  profession  who  may  desire  to  procure 
from  the  pharmacies  a  preparation  of  the  new  and  highly 
valuable  remedy,  Sanicula  (Sanicula  mineral  water) ;  and  I 
can  give  the  hint  in  no  stronger  manner  than  by  relating  the 
following  incident :  Dr.  R.  B.  Johnstone,  of  this  city,  several 
weeks  ago  required  an  attenuation  of  Sanicula,  for  the  purpose 
of  highly  potentiating  the  drug  on  his  centesimal  potentizer. 
Accordingly,  he  personally  applied  at  a  well-known  homoe- 


1890.]  A  GERMAN  HOMOEOPATHIC  CONGRESS. 


285 


opathic  pharmacy,  for  the  two  hundredth  ;  but  was  informed 
that  nothing  above  the  "mother  tincture "  (!)  was  on  hand. 
Out  of  pure  curiosity,  the  doctor  requested  a  portion  of  the  said 
"  mother  tincture  "  and  took  it  with  him  for  investigation.  This 
novel  "  mother  tincture  "  (of  a  mineral  water  !)  presented  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  dark  greenish  vegetable  tincture  ;  and  was  found,  by 
reference  to  the  books,  to  be  indeed  a  "Sanicula,"  but  the 
Sanicula  mar  Handicap  vulgarly  known  as  "  Snake  root/' 

To  avoid  grievous  errors,  through  simply  ordering  "Sani- 
cula" physicians  should  ask  for  Sanicula  mineral  water,  stating 
the  required  potency,  of  course. 

D.  W.  Clausen,  M.  D. 
Philadelphia,  April  23d,  1890. 


A  GERMAN  HOMOEOPATHIC  CONGRESS. 

(Schriftleitung  der  Allgeraeinen  Homoeopathischen  Zeitung.) 

Christian  Stras.se,  Dresden,  A.,  Saxony,  April  9th,  1890. 

Editor  of  The  Homoeopathic  Physician  : — The 
"  Homoeopathische  Ceutraiverein  Deutschlands,"  the  oldest 
European  homoeopathic  society,  will  meet  this  year  in  Dresden, 
on  the  9th  and  10th  of  August. 

On  the  9th  we  will  visit  together  Meissen,  and  the  house 
where  Hahnemann  was  born,  and  on  the  10th,  after  the  scien- 
tific session,  we  will  dine  with  our  friends  at  the  Belvedere,  in 
Dresden. 

Dr.  Kaf  kasen,  from  Prague,  will  be  chairman. 
We  would  be  very  happy  if  some  of  our  American  friends, 
if  they  are  in  Europe,  would  join  us,  and  therefore  I  ask  you 
to  publish  a  notice  of  our  session  in  your  journal. 

As  member  of  the  local  committee,  I  beg  you  to  send  me 
word  if  any  one  wishes  to  attend  our  meetings,  and  especially 
if  he  wish  that  rooms  be  secured  for  him. 
With  kindest  regards, 

Most  truly  yours, 

Dr.  Alexander  Villers. 


HELP  WANTED. 


Maud  R.,  ret.  ten,  demi-brunette,  of  healthy,  vigorous  parent- 
age, about  one  and  a  half  years  ago,  whilst  playing  with  other 
children,  fell  forward  and  hurt  herself  in  the  chest.  Parents 
thought  it  a  trifling  matter,  thought  it  would  get  better  anyway, 
consequently  the  case  has  not  received  any  treatment  whatever. 

She  is  now  brought  to  me,  pale,  emaciated,  nervous,  appetite 
capricious,  does  not  care  to  play.  Sleep  disturbed  by  frightful 
dreams,  during  the  day  piteously  begs  her  mother  to  take  her, 
she  is  so  afraid.  She  feels  as  though  snakes  were  on  her  back. 
What  is  the  remedy  for  the  symptoms,  sensation  as  though  snakes 
were  on  back  ?  She  is  now  under  Arnica,  high.  Suggestions 
thankfully  received,  and  results  acknowledged. 

Edward  T.  Balch,  M.  D. 
South  Bend,  Pacific  County,  State  of  Washington. 


LA  GRIPPE. 
W.  A.  Tingling,  M.  D.,  Xonchalanta,  Kansas. 

La  grippe  has  come,  done  its  work,  and  gone.  No  results, 
as  only  pure  Homoeopathy  was  used  in  this  entire  community. 
The  "  regulars  n  have  all  gone  ;  they  went  long  before  la  grippe 
came. 

Bell.,  Ipec,  Causticum,  Bry.  were  the  principal  remedies.  In 
a  few  cases  Eup.-per.,  Nux-v.,  and  Bapt.  Ruckert,  in  his 
Therapeutics,  says :  "  Causticum  smelling,  was  employed  by 
Hahnemann  against  influenza,  and  two  hours  afterward  Camph." 
This  was  in  the  la  grippe  epidemic  of  that  day.  I  verified  this 
in  three  patients,  but  by  pellets  per  mouth. 


WINTER  COUGH. 
Frederic  Preston,  M.  D.,  Chester,  Pa. 

Coming  on  regularly  for  twelve  successive  winters.  Tall, 
spare  man  of  seventy-three  years.   Cough  constant  during  night 
and  early  morning.    The  victim  had  been  obliged  to  pass  his 
286 


June,  1890.] 


BOOK  NOTICES. 


287 


winter  nights  sitting  by  stool;  lying  impossible.  Many  nos- 
trums and  some  homoeopathic  remedies  tried,  among  others 
Hyosc.  The  cough  was  without  sputum,  except  when  out- 
doors. He  had  contracted  the  habit  of  going  out  into  the  cold 
air  several  times  nightly  during  cold  season  to  cough  up  a  small 
portion  of  white,  glairy  .  mucus,  which  gave  from  one  to  three 
hours'  relief.  Three  doses  of  Plantago  major200  cured  this 
cough  within  twenty-four  hours.  Since  January  12th,  1887, 
no  return.    See  Allen,  Vol.  "VII,  p.  564.  Plantago. 


BOOK  NOTICES. 

The  Memphis  Journal  of  the  Medical  Sciences  for 
April,  1890,  is  at  hand.  Among  other  interesting  things  is 
an  article  upon  "  Experimental  Diabetes  Mellitus,"  translated 
from  the  German  by  Dr.  Wm.  Krauss. 

According  to  this  article  Dr.  Minkowski  has  succeeded  in  producing  dia- 
betes in  dogs  by  extirpation  of  the  pancreas.  "  The  entire  pancreas  had  to  be 
removed  to  cause  diabetes,  it  being  immaterial  whether  the  remaining  portion 
was  in  connection  with  the  duct  or  not."  Ligature  of  the  pancreatic  duct 
would  not  produce  the  disease. 

From  these  experiments  the  disease  seems  to  depend  upon  the  "  loss  of  an 
as  yet  unknown  specific  function  of  the  pancreas  in  the  intermediate  metabo- 
lism, a  function  that  is  absolutely  necessary  for  the  destruction  of  sugar  in 
the  organism." 

Diabetes  produced  in  this  way  is  the  only  experimental  form  analogous  to 
the  corresponding  disease  in  man.  Coincidently  it  is  found  that  among 
post-mortem  appearances  of  diabetes  the  pancreas  appears  to  be  diseased 
oftener  than  any  other  organ,  sometimes  as  high  as  fifty  per  cent,  of  cases. 
This  peculiar  influence  of  the  pancreas,  the  experimenter  thinks,  "  need  be 
only  a  link  in  the  chain  of  general  glycosic  metabolism,"  though  he  has  no 
positive  proof  as  yet  for  his  hypothesis.  W.  M.  J. 

Homceopathic  Therapeutics.  Third  rewritten  and  enlarged 
editiou.  By  Samuel  Lilienthal,  M.  D.  Hahnemann  Publishing 
House,  F.  E.  Brericke,  921  Arch  Street,  Philadelphia  ;  pp. 
1154  ;  royal  octavo,  half  morocco,  $8.00  ;  cloth,  §7.00. 

This,  the  third  edition  of  Dr.  Lilienthal's  well-known  book,  represents  half 
a  century  of  the  author's  experience  in  the  practice  of  medicine,  to  which  is 
added  all  experience  obtainable  from  other  physicians. 


288 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES, 


[June,  1*90. 


The  work  is  arranged  alphabetically  according  to  the  names  of  the  diseases. 
Under  each  of  these  names  are  given  the  most  important  remedies  with  their 
characteristic  indications  attached.  The  most  completely  verified  of  these 
indications  are  printed  in  hold-face  type.  All,  however,  are  well  authenticated 
as  far  as  we  could  discover,  the  celebrated  '  key-notes"  of  Dr.  H.  N.  ( iuern- 
sey  being  included.  After  these  indications  follows  a  short  and  comprehensive 
repertory  for  that  particular  disease.  Tims  an  additional  help  is  afforded  for 
the  selection  of  the  most  similar  remedy.  We'should  think  this  work  would 
be  a  most  valuable  aid  to  the  earnest  seeker  after  the  simillimum. 

W.  M.  J. 

The  Pulte  Quarterly.    Published  at  124  West  Seventh 
Street,  Cincinnati,  Ohio.    April,  1890. 

This  is  a  new  journal,  the  first  number  of  which  (for  April)  is  before  us. 
It  is  devoted  to  the  interests  of  Pulte  Medical  College,  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio. 

The  editor  is  Thomas  M.  Stewart,  M.  D.  Associate  editors  are  J.  D.  Buck, 
M.  D.,  Phil.  Porter,  M.  D.,  C.  E.Walton,  M.  D.,  G.  C.  McDermott,  M.  D.,  and 
C.  D.  Crank,  M.  D.  The  new  journal  contains  the  news  of  Pulte  College  and 
has  besides  an  assortment  of  clinical  matter.  W.  M.  J. 

The  Dietetic  Gazette,  P.  O.  Box  2898,  New  York. 

The  editorial  article  of  the  May  issue  has  been  prepared  by  J.  Lewis  Smith, 
M.  D.,  Clinical  Professor  of  Diseases  of  Children,  in  Bellevue  Hospital  Medi- 
cal College.  With  the  June  number  will  begin  an  extended  article  by  J. 
Lewis  Smith,  M.  D.,  on  the  Care  and  Feeding  of  Infants,  with  remarks  on  The 
Great  Mortality  of  Infants  in  the  Summer  Months,  and  mode  of  prevent- 
ing it. 

The  National  Magazine 

For  April  opens  with  an  interesting  article  entitled  "Chatterton;  the  Boy 
Poet,"  by  Rev.  Albert  Danker,  D.  D.,  of  the  National  University  of  Chicago; 
the  "Current  Value  of  Degrees"  is  by  Dr.  F.  S.  Thomas,  M.  D.,  Ph.  D.;  other 
articles  are  "  The  Columbus  Society  of  Patriots  of  America,"  a  laudable 
organization  to  cultivate  patriotism  in  our  American  youth  ;  "The  Origin  of 
the  Name  and  Office  of  Justice  of  the  Peace,"  by  Kev.  Joshua  P.  JBobb,  LL.  D.; 
and  "  Save  Our  Farmers,"  by  F.  W.  Harkins,  Chancellor  of  the  National 
University,  the  non-resident  or  correspondence  work  of  which  rapidly  de- 
veloping institution  is  also  explained  in  this  number.  Sample  copy  ten  cents. 
Address,  147  Throop  Street,  Chicago,  111. 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 

Dr.  Wm.  T.  Belfield,  612  Opera  House  Building,  Chicago,  111.,  U.  S.  A., 
respectfully  solicits  information  concerning  unpublished  cases  of  operations 
upon  the  prostate,  especially  for  the  relief  of  the  so-called  hypertrophy  of  the 
organ. 


THE 

HOMCEOPATHIC  PHYSICIAN, 

A  MONTHLY  JOURNAL  OF 

HOMCEOPATHIC  MATERIA  MEDICA  AND  CLINICAL  MEDICINE. 


If  our  school  ever  give  up  the  strict  inductive  method  of  Hahnemann,  we 
are  lost,  and  deserve  only  to  be  mentioned  as  a  caricature  in 
the  history  of  medicine."— constantine  hering. 


Vol.  X.  JULY,  1890.  No.  7. 

EDITORIALS. 
The  Use  of  Crude  Drugs  by  Professed  Homoeopaths. 

"Hast  thou  not  spoke  like  thunder  on  my  side? 
Been  sworn  my  soldier?  bidding  me  depend 
Upon  thy  stars,  thy  fortune,  and  thy  strength  ? 
And  dost  thou  now  fall  over  to  my  foes? 
Thou  wear'st  a  lion's  hide  !  doff  it  for  shame, 
And  hang  a  calf's  skin  on  those  recreant  limbs." 

If  nothing  else  served  to  remind  us  of  the  presence  of  mongrels, 
we  have  the  agents  of  various  drug  manufacturers,  who  frequently 
call  on  us  and  wish  to  leave  samples  of  their  several  compounds, 
and  who,  on  being  told  that  we  are  homceopathicians,  and  do  not 
use  such  preparations,  always  reply:  "  Why,  homoeopathic 
physicians  do  use  them,  and  we  sell  to  almost  all  we  call  upon." 
We  think  we  convince  them  to  the  contrary  before  they  leave. 
We  simply  point  out  the  difference  between  honesty  and  dis- 
honesty by  showing  them  that  he  who  claims  to  be  a  homceop- 
athist  cannot  conscientiously  use  their  goods.  It  requires  but 
a  moment's  conversation  to  have  them  agree  with  us,  and  they 
always  express  contempt  for  those  who  forswear  Homoeopathy 
by  buying,  and — in  many  instances  clandestinely — using  these 
compounds  of  crude  drugs. 

19  .  289 


290 


EDITORIALS. 


[July, 


Genuine  Homoeopathy  suffers  more  at  the  hands  of  its  pre- 
tended friends  than  from  any  other  one  cause.  The  intolerance 
and  bigotry  of  allopathy  have  done  more  good  to  our  cause  than 
harm.  All  the  bleating  and  quacking  of  those  who  have  tried 
to  put  it  down  by  argument  and  abuse  have  only  been  to  the 
interest  of  our  school,  and  thereby  been  the  means  of  making 
us  better  known.  Thus,  many  precious  lives  have  been  saved 
that  otherwise  would  have  been  sacrificed  to  the  lawless  empiri- 
cism of  allopathy.  Unfortunately  for  many  sick  people,  and 
for  other  many  who  are  in  health,  there  is  a  large  class  of  un- 
principled men  who  are  trading  on  the  good  name  of  Homoeop- 
athy. There  are  many  of  this  class  who  are  so  ignorant  of 
what  constitutes  Homoeopathy  that  it  is  but  charity  to  say  that 
they  "  know  not  what  they  do  therefore,  it  is  but  justice  to  add 
that  they  are  not  responsible.  But  by  far  the  larger  number 
are  engaged  in  what  they  call  practicing  medicine  for  the  purpose 
of  making  money  only.  One  of  the  latter  lately  said  to  us  :  "  I 
find  that  I  can  make  more  money  by  being  known  as  a  homoeo- 
path than  by  any  other  means."  And  the  rascal  was  using 
means  that  would  put  the  worst  d rugger  in  the  allopathic  ranks 
to  shame. 

Many  of  these  men  do  know  what  Homoeopathy  is  and  what 
it  can  do  for  the  sick,  but  they  acknowledge  that  it  is  much 
easier  to  give  a  crude  drug  that  will  have  an  immediate,  visible 
effect,  and  thus  have  the  patient  believe  he  is  being  cured,  than 
to  spend  time  and  effort — which  they  know  to  be  necessary — in 
finding  the  remedy  which  is  demanded  by  our  law  of  therapeu- 
tics. 

This  we  know  to  be  the  cause  of  the  apostacy  of  a  large 
number  who  have  no  excuse  to  offer  for  their  betrayal  of  a  cause 
which,  when  honestly  adhered  to,  is  capable  of  so  much  good. 
It  is  through  the  work  of  these  pretenders  that  we  often  hear  it 
said  :  "Homoeopathic  doctors  give  medicine  just  as  strong,  and 
use  as  much  Morphia  and  Quinine  as  the  old  school  use."  Of 
■course,  those  who  know  an  honest  practitioner  of  Homoeopathy 
know  better  than  this,  but  those  who  do  not  know  are  the  ones 
whom  we  must  enlighten.    Therefore,  in  order  that  our  good 


1890.] 


EDITORIALS. 


291 


cause  may  not  be  made  to  suffer,  let  us  M  be  instant  in  season 
and  out  of  season."  Let  us  never  hesitate  to  show  to  those  who 
do  not  know  that  the  man  who  takes  the  name  of  homceopathist, 
and  who  uses  crude  drugs  as  an  old-school  doctor  would  use 
them  is  but  trading  on  the  name,  and  that  he  is  "  living  a  lie." 
We  were  willing  to  resort  to  the  use  of  crude  drugs  if  only 
some  one  would  answer  for  us  this  question  : 

li  "What  rhubarb,  senna,  or  what  purgative  drug 
Would  scour  these  men  hence  ?    Hearest  thou  of  them  ?" 

G.  H.  C. 


"The  Repetition  of  the  Dose  of  a  medicine  is  regulated 
by  the  duration  of  the  action  of  each  medicine.  If  the  remedy 
acts  in  a  positive  (curative)  manner,  the  amendment  is  still  per- 
ceptible after  the  duration  of  its  action  has  expired,  and  then 
another  dose  of  the  suitable  remedy  destroys  the  remainder  of 
the  disease.  The  good  work  will  not  be  interrupted  if  the 
second  dose  be  not  given  before  the  lapse  of  some  hours  after 
the  cessation  of  the  action  of  the  remedy.  The  portion  of  the 
disease  already  annihilated  cannot  in  the  meantime  be  renewed, 
and  even  should  we  leave  the  patient  several  days  without  medi- 
cine, the  amelioration  resulting  from  the  first  dose  of  the  cura- 
tive medicine  will  always  remain  manifest. 

"  So  far  from  the  good  effect  being  delayed  by  not  repeating 
the  dose  until  after  the  medicine  has  exhausted  its  action,  the 
cure  may,  on  the  contrary,  be  frustrated  by  its  too  rapid  repeti- 
tion. For  this  reason,  because  a  dose  prescribed  before  the  cessa- 
tion of  the  term  of  action  of  the  positive  medicine  is  to  be  re- 
garded as  an  augmentation  of  the  first  dose,  which,  from  igno- 
rance of  this  circumstance,  may  thereby  be  increased  to  an 
enormous  degree,  and  then  prove  hurtful  by  reason  of  its 
excess. 

"  I  have  already  stated  that  the  smallest  possible  dose  of  a 
positively  acting  medicine  will  suffice  to  produce  its  full  effect. 
If,  in  the  case  of  a  medicine  whose  action  lasts  a  long  time,  as, 
for  instance,  digitalis,  where  it  continues  to  the  seventh  day,  the 


292 


EDITORIALS. 


[July, 


dose  be  repeated  frequently,  that  is  to  say  three  or  four  times  in 
the  course  of  a  day,  the  actual  quantity  of  medicine  will,  before 
the  seven  days  have  expired,  have  increased  twenty  or  thirty 
fold,  and  thereby  become  extremely  violent  and  injurious ; 
whereas  the  first  dose  (a  twentieth  or  thirtieth  part)  would  have 
amply  sufficed  to  effect  a  cure  without  any  bad  consequences.* 

"  After  the  expiring  of  the  term  of  action  of  the  first  dose  of 
the  medicine  employed  in  a  curative  manner,  we  judge  whether 
it  will  be  useful  to  give  a  second  dose  of  the  same  remedy.  If 
the  disease  have  diminished  in  almost  its  whole  extent,  not 
merely  in  the  first  half-hour  after  taking  the  medicine,  but  later, 
and  during  the  whole  duration  of  the  action  of  the  first  dose,  if  this 
diminution  have  increased  all  the  more,  the  nearer  the  period  of  the 
action  of  the  remedy  approached  its  termination — or  even  if,  as 
happens  in  very  chronic  diseases,  or  in  maladies,  the  return  of 
whose  paroxysm  could  not  have  been  expected  during  this  time,  no 
perceptible  amelioration  of  the  disease  have  indeed  occurred,  but 
yet  no  new  symptom  of  importance,  no  hitherto  unfelt  suffering 
deserving  of  attention  have  appeared,  then  it  is  in  the  former 
case  almost  invariably  certain,  and  in  the  latter  highly  probable, 
that  the  medicine  was  the  curatively  helpful,  the  positively 
appropriate  one,  and,  if  requisite,  ought  to  be  followed  up  by  a 
second ;  and,  finally,  even  after  the  favorable  termination  of  the 
action  of  the  second  by  a  third  dose  if  it  be  necessary,  and  the 
disease  be  not  in  the  meantime  completely  cured,  as  it  often  is,  in 
the  case  of  acute  diseases,  by  the  very  first  dose." — TJie  Medicine 
of  Experience,  Hahnemann,  1805. 

*  The  following  circumstance  must  also  be  taken  into  consideration.  W e 
cannot  well  tell  how  it  happens,  but  it  is  not  the  less  true,  that  even  one  and 
the  same  dose  of  medicine,  which  would  suffice  for  the  cure,  provided  it  were 
not  repeated  before  the  action  of  the  remedy  had  ceased — acts  ten  times  as 
powerfully,  if  the  dose  be  divided,  and  these  portions  taken  at  short  intervals 
during  the  continuance  of  the  action  of  the  medicine.  For  example,  if  the 
dose  of  ten  drops,  which  would  have  sufficed  for  the  cure,  be  divided  among 
the  five  days  during  which  the  action  of  medicine  lasts  in  such  a  manner  as 
that  one  drop  of  it  shall  be  taken  twice  a  day,  at  the  end  of  five  days  the  same 
effect  is  not  produced  as  would  have  occurred  from  ten  drops  given  at  once 
every  five  days,  but  a  far  more  powerful,  excessive,  violent  [cumulative]  effect, 
provided  that  the  medicine  was  a  curative  and  positive  antidote  to  the  disease. 


1890.] 


EDITORIALS. 


293 


The  question  which  Hahnemann  treats  in  the  above  paragraphs 
is  one  that  should  be  constantly  before  every  physician.  Although 
it  has  been  written  about  and  much  discussed  since  Hahnemann's 
day,  nothing  new  or  better  has  been  added  to  it.  Its  importance 
cannot  be  overrated.  How  little  attention  is  given  it  in  so- 
called  homoeopathic  colleges  can  readily  be  learned  from  any 
recent  graduate.  It  is  so  essential  to  the  proper  management  of 
every  case  of  sickness  that  it  should  be  indelibly  impressed  upon 
the  memory  of  every  one  who  professes  to  have  a  knowledge  of 
Homoeopathy.    Without  it  no  case  can  be  intelligently  treated. 

The  choice  of  the  curative  is  at  times  comparatively  easy. 
But  when  to  give  the  second  dose  and  when  not  to  give  are  the 
momentous  questions. 

By  following  the  plain  instructions  given  by  Hahnemann  no 
one  can  go  astray.  This  clear  advice  is  not  based  upon  any 
theory.  It  is  the  result  of  years  of  observation  by  a  man  whose 
genius  is  known — the  Sage  of  Ccethen. 

This  counsel  should  be  more  closely  adhered  to  in  treating 
children  and  those  who  are  readily  affected  by  remedies ;  more 
particularly  in  paroxysmal  affections.  It  should  be  our  invari- 
able rule  never  to  repeat  the  first  dose  so  long  as  the  condition 
which  is  described  above  by  Hahnemann  obtains.  Thus,  in 
intermittent  affections  only  give  the  dose  between  the  paroxysms  ; 
never  during  the  attack — preferably  immediately  after.  Then 
adhere  to  the  guide  and  the  best  results  will  be  obtained.  The 
same  applies  to  diarrhoea.  If  after  the  first  dose — which  should 
be  given  immediately  after  an  evacuation — there  be  an  improve- 
ment, give  no  more  medicine  so  long  as  the  improvement  con- 
tinues. Convulsions,  spasmodic  affections,  and  all  maladies  of  a 
remittent  character  come  under  this  rule. 

Cleave  to  this.  Watch  the  results.  Then,  if  you  have  not 
been  practicing  with  this  constantly  before  you,  compare  your 
success  with  your  previous  practice.  G.  H.  C. 

Dr.  Guernsey's  Answer  to  the  correspondence  of  Profes- 
sor Edmund  Carleton,  given  in  our  last  number,  appears  this 
month  at  page  323.  It  constitutes  another  chapter  in  the 
famous  Ward's  Island  controversy. 


THE  SYCOSIS  OF  HAHNEMANN. 


A.  McNeil,  M.  D.,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

Hahnemann  estimated  that  seven-eighths  of  all  chronic  dis- 
eases arise  from  psora,  and  the  other  eighth  from  syphilis  and 
sycosis.  It  is  evident  that  the  far  greater  part  are  from  the 
former,  so  that  diseases  arising  from  suppressed  fig-warts  must 
be  rare.  Most  of  the  observing  physicians,  I  venture  to  say, 
are  of  the  same  opinion.  Owing  to  this  rarity  we  seldom  have 
the  opportunity  of  verifying  his  views  as  applied  to  sycosis,  so 
that  I  consider  it  may  be  instructive  if  I  report  a  case  which 
occurred  to  me. 

February  17th,  1890,  I  was  called  to  see  Mr.  .    He  is 

about  fifty-five,  has  always  been  delicate  and  has  had  several 
attacks  like  the  present  but  less  severe.  He  served  in  the  army 
during  the  war,  but  was  discharged  on  account  of  chronic 
diarrhoea,  and  since  then  his  bowels  have  always  been  slightly 
inclined  to  looseness.  Has  had  asthma  occasionally  or,  more 
strictly,  in  certain  locations,  since  boyhood. 

He  called  me  on  account  of  a  hemorrhage  from  the  glans 
penis.  I  found  what  looked  like  a  small  abrasion  on  the  upper 
portion  near  the  corona.  From  the  description  he  gave  of  its 
first  appearance,  I  pronounced  it  herpes  preputials.  The 
hemorrhage  had  been  very  profuse  although  it  came  from  so 
insignificant  looking  lesion. 

I  gave  Sulph.cc,  which  appeared  to  materially  lessen  the 
bleeding,  but  did  not  stop  it.  I  made  several  changes,  giving 
also  Apis,  Rhus,  and  other  remedies  until  April  3d.  There 
has  been  no  material  benefit,  and  in  addition  to  the  abrasion  a 
glandular  swelling  in  the  left  inguinal  region  had  appeared 
which  had  now  reached  the  size  and  shape,  as  my  patient  ex- 
pressed it,  of  a  mouse.  I  told  him  that  there  w7as  something 
about  his  case  which  I  had  not  learned,  and  proceeded  to  ex- 
amine him  de  novo.  He  said  that  before  the  war  he  had  had 
294 


July,  1890.] 


BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 


295 


warts  (condylomata)  on  his  penis.  He  had  no  appetite  and  an 
extreme  aversion  to  meat,  the  pain  in  the  glans  at  the  point 
affected  was  as  if  there  was  a  splinter  in  the  sore. 

On  these  symptoms  and  his  history  I  administered  Nitric 
acid5^  (the  antisycotic  that  ranks  second  only  to  Thuja)  in  wrater, 
to  take  four  teaspoonfuls.  Then  to  be  followed  by  placebos. 
Improvement  set  in  immediately  and  proceeded  rapidly  without 
any  repetition  or  change  of  the  remedy.  In  three  weeks  he 
was  well  barring  weakness. 

I  forgot  to  say  that  the  tig-warts  had  been  removed  by  in- 
struments. I  firmly  believe  that  the  sycotic  miasm  or  virus 
had  been  deteriorating  his  health  all  of  those  thirty  years,  and 
by  the  indicated  remedy  was  so  soon  rendered  innocuous. 
Hahnemann's  services  to  mankind  consist  in  other  things  besides 
the  discovery  and  formulation  of  the  law  of  the  similars.  The 
psoric  theory  was  a  discovery  of  transcendental  value,  and  not- 
withstanding many  of  his  professed  followers  have  discarded  it, 
the  more  advanced  minds  of  the  old  school  are  taking  it  up  and 
ultilizing  it  by  forbidding  the  suppression  of  disease  manifesta- 
tions by  external  applications. 

BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 

Alfred  Heath,  M.  D.,  F.  L.  S.,  London,  England. 

Ranunculace.e  (Continued). 

Ranunculus  sceleratus  (the  Celery-leaved  Crowfoot,  Marsh 
Crowfoot),  found  in  damp  places  and  borders  of  ditches,  but  also 
growing  in  the  water.  The  leaves  of  this  plant  are  so  very  acrid 
that  the  beggars  in  Switzerland  are  said  to  produce  very  foetid 
and  acrimonious  ulcers  by  rubbing  their  legs  with  them.  Thev 
could  not  well  have  selected  a  better  medicine  in  a  homeopathic 
sense,  as  one  of  its  chief  symptoms,  when  taken  by  the  healthy, 
is  to  produce  laziness  and  want  of  dispositioti  to  perform  any  men- 
tal labor.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  after  the  healing  of  their  legs 
they  may  cease  to  be  beggars.  It  would  be  interesting  to  know 
if  the  homceopathicity  of  the  drug  cured  their  laziness.    There  is 


296 


BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 


[July 


a  good  proving  of  this  drug  in  Jahr's  Materia  Medica.  It  pro- 
duces many  kinds  of  headache.  Vomiting,  sweetish  taste  in  the 
mouth,  profuse  lachrymation,  smarting  in  the  eyes,  earache  of  the 
right  ear,  smarting  in  the  nose  and  excessive  secretion  of  watery 
mucus,  sneezing,  toothache,  and  a  great  many  other  symptoms. 
Amongst  others  it  is  especially  useful  for  corns  with  intolerable 
burning,  stitches,  pricking,  sticking,  boring  pains  along  the  whole 
sole  of  the  right  foot ;  itching  and  furious  smarting  of  the  soles, 
sadden  stitches  in  the  jo  re  part  of  the  right  big  toe,  as  if  a  needle 
were  thrust  in  deep,  recurring  at  short  intervals,  sometimes  pass- 
ing into  a  burning. 

Ranunculus  Flammula  (Lesser  Spearwort). — Small  water 
crowfoot,  also  found  in  wet  places.  Taste  very  acrid  and  hot,  a 
small  quantity  of  the  herb  eaten  produces  vomiting,  spasms  of 
the  stomach,  and  delirium.  Applied  externally,  it  vesicates  the 
skin.  According  to  Jahr  it  produced  inflammation  and  gangrene 
of  the  arms  down  to  the  tendons  and  bone,  in  the  case  of  a 
woman,  from  applying  the  plant  to  the  wrist.  It  produces  in 
horses  on  eating  it,  excessive  distention  of  abdomen  and  inflam- 
mation and  gangreue  of  the  abdominal  organs,  but  it  is  said  to 
promote  digestion  when  a  very  small  quantity  is  eaten. 

Ranunculus  Ficaria  (Pile-wort.  Lesser  Celandine). — This 
plant  has  been  deemed  anti-scorbuiic,  and  the  root  was  esteemed 
as  a  specific  for  piles,  hence  its  common  name.  This  is  one  of 
the  earliest  flowers  we  have,  and  its  shining  green  leaves  and 
beautiful  golden  flowers  are  seen  by  the  side  of  almost  every 
water-course  and  ditch  in  the  early  spring.  Besides  its  use  for 
painful  and  bleeding  piles,  swelling,  etc.,  it  is  said  to  have  been 
used  with  considerable  success  for  external  wounds  and  bruises 
and  spitting  of  blood.  An  ointment  is  made  by  boiling  the 
bruised  leaves  with  lard,  which  is  said  to  be  very  healing.  No 
regular  proving  of  the  plant  exists. 

Ranunculus  repens  (Creeping  Crowfoot),  very  common,  found 
in  meadows  and  pastures,  also  very  acrid,  producing  smarting  of 
the  eyes,  profuse  lachrymation,  and  curious  dreams  ;  he  fancies, 
wThile  yet  awake,  that  he  is  in  a  large  city,  and  sees  well-dressed 
people,  masquerades,  Turks,  etc.    I,  myself,  had  a  very  curious 


1890.] 


BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 


297 


dream  or  vision,  while  awake,  some  years  ago,  just  as  I  was 
recovering  from  an  attack  of  typhoid  fever ;  for  three  nights  in 
succession,  immediately  on  closing  my  eyes,  and  while  perfectly 
awake,  I  imagined  I  was  standing  on  the  brink  of  the  most  pro- 
found abyss.  The  horror  caused  me  instantly  to  open  my  eyes,  but 
there  was  no  return  of  the  vision  when  I  closed  them  again  until 
the  next  night,  when  the  same  thing  occurred,  it  also  disappearing 
on  opening  my  eyes.  On  the  next  night  it  again  occurred.  It 
is  possible  I  may  have  been  under  the  influence  of  the  same 
drug,  or  one  producing  similar  symptoms,  as  I  was  in  the 
country  botanizing  at  the  time,  and  in  a  part  where  this  plant 
grows,  but  I  had  no  knowledge  of  such  being  the  case.  I  have 
no  doubt  the  drug  would  cure  this  condition  of  things — namely, 
day-dreams.  A  proving  of  it  would  show  what  its  virtues  are. 
•  Evidently  the  Ranunculus  family  produce  a  good  deal  of  mental 
languor,  and  should  be  especially  thought  of  for  sleepy,  inactive 
people,  and  persons  subject  to  day-dreams,  etc.  The  following 
were  the  effects  . on  a  flock  of  sheep:  Several  fell  down  as  if 
struck  by  lightning.  The  eyes  rolled,  the  breathing  was  hurried 
and  aggravated  ;  some  reeled  and  died  with  their  heads  bent 
toward  the  left  groin.  The  mucous  membrane  of  the  eyes  was 
injected  ;  the  mouth  dry,  the  abdomen  was  slightly  distended, 
rumination  ceased ;  some  of  them  raised  themselves,  reeled,  fell 
down  again,  bleated  pitifully ;  most  were  in  profound  coma. 
Sulphuric  Ether  in  milk  gave  much  relief,  but  great  weakness  of 
the  feet  remained  behind. 

Ranunculus  acris  (Upright  Crowfoot.  Meadow  Crowfoot). — 
This,  as  its  name  implies,  is  of  a  very  acrid  nature,  and  was  at 
one  time  employed  externally  as  a  vesicatory.  It  produces  a 
quicker  effect  than  an  ordinary  blistering  plaster,  but  it  also 
produces  ulcers  that  are  very  difficult  to  heal ;  therefore  it  has 
been  used  (allopathically)  where  long-continued  topical  stimulus 
is  required  to  produce  discharge  from  the  part,  as  in  an  issue. 
The  homoeopathic  materia  medica  gives  no  proving  of  this  plant, 
but  only  records  some  of  its  poisonous  symptoms.  Applied  to 
the  temple  it  produces  headache,  intolerable  heat  and  fainting. 
Applied  to  the  joints,  it  produces  soreness  of  the  joints,  and 


298 


BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 


obstinate  ulcers  as  far  as  the  knees ;  both  feet  looked  burnt ;  red, 
hot  blisters  appeared  here  and  there ;  several  places  became 
gangrenous  on  the  third  day,  and  trembling  and  fainting  occurred. 
Wounds  of  twenty  years'  standing  began  to  improve  after  apply- 
ing a  decoction  of  the  leaves  to  the  legs. 

Ranunculus  bulbosus  (Bulbous-rooted  Crowfoot)  common  in 
meadows  and  pastures  in  May,  easily  known  by  its  reflexed  calyx 
and  bulbous  root,  the  only  buttercup  at  this  time  in  pastures 
with  a  reflexed  calyx  ;  so  that  finding  this,  one  is  sure  there  is  a 
bulb  at  the  bottom  of  the  stem.  A  curious  fact  concerning  this 
plant  is  that  the  new  bulb  for  the  next  year  is  always  a  little 
higher  up  toward  the  surface  than  the  old  one.  What  takes 
place  the  following  year  I  do  not  know;  if  they  went  on  doing 
this  for  a  year  or  two  they  would  be  out  of  the  ground  ;  perhaps 
the  rooting  process  draws  them  down  again.  It  is  the  plant 
commonly  called  the  buttercup,  and  many  think  that  it  is  on 
account  of  the  yellow  color  of  these  flowers  that  the  butter  re- 
ceives its  yellow  color  in  the  spring,  whereas  the  cows  will  not 
eat  any  of  the  crowfoot  while  green  on  account  of  its  hot,  caustic 
taste.  This  plant  was  said  to  be  a  remedy  against  the  plague. 
The  homoeopathic  materia  medica  gives  a  long  proving  of  it. 
It  has  many  symptoms  similar  *to  Ranunculus  sceleratus,  but 
whereas  the  latter  produces  a  lazy  feeling,  the  former  produces 
a  dread  of  labor  ;  it  also  causes  many  other  mental  symptoms, 
ill-humor  and  disposition  to  quarrel  and  scold,  fear  of  being  alone, 
afraid  he  will  be  haunted  by  ghosts.  It  is  also  most  intensely 
acrid,  merely  bruising  the  roots  is  sufficient  to  cause  the  nose 
and  eyes  to  stream  with  water,  so  that  one  can  scarcely  see, 
smarting  and  soreness  of  the  eyes,  and  a  host  of  other  disagree- 
able symptoms.  Some  years  ago  I  had  occasion  to  bruise  and 
prepare  some  of  these  roots.  At  the  time  I  had  a  heavy  cold  in 
my  head.  The  punishment  I  received  I  shall  never  forget.  It 
seemed  as  though  a  fountain  had  opened  in  my  head.  I  could 
not  see  from  the  flow  of  water  from  my  eyes.  The  nose  also 
streamed  with  water,  but  in  the  morning  every  vestige  of  the 
cold  I  previously  had  was  gone.  This  incident  shows  how  true 
is  the  "  law  of  similars  " — that  like  will  cure  like. 


1690.] 


OBSTETRICS. 


299 


This  finishes  the  Ranunculus  genus  as  far  as  they  have  been 
used  in  Homoeopathy.  The  next  in  order  is  the  tribe  Helle- 
borea?. 

Caltha  palustris  (Marsh  Marigold),  found  in  marshy  places, 
water-courses,  and  damp  meadows.  Its  large,  golden-yellow 
flowers  almost  as  large  as  the  Christmas  rose  [Helleborus  niger), 
are  well  worth  gathering  in  the  spring,  and  make  a  very  hand- 
some bouquet  for  the  drawing-room,  with  a  few  only  of  their 
shining  green  leaves,  and  they  last  a  long  time  in  water.  The 
young  buds  of  this  plant,  when  properly  pickled,  are  said  to  be  a 
very  good  substitute  for  capers.  There  is  some  account  of  this 
plant  given  in  the  British  Journal  of  Homoeopathy,  Vol.  II. 


OBSTETRICS. 
Wm.  Steinrauf,  M.  D.,  St.  Charles,  Mo. 

When  I  read  reports  of  cases  of  confinement  in  some  homoeo- 
pathic journals,  and  the  treatment  given  by  the  attending  physi- 
cian, I  very  often  feel  as  if  I  were  reading  after  an  allopathic 
practitioner.  AVe  are  there  told  to  have  everything  done  anti- 
septically  ;  to  use  Carbolic  acid,  Li.-teriue,  aud  the  like,  quite 
freely  in  our  examinations  and  -explorations.  Then,  if  after  a 
few  days  the  woman  should  contract  a  chill,  fever,  headache, 
stoppage  of  the  lochia,  etc.,  we  are  instructed  to  wash  out  the 
womb  with  the  above-mentioned  chemicals,  to  prescribe  Aconite 
in  liberal  doses,  Bromide  of  Potassium,  Quinine,  and  light 
cathartics.  Xow,  if  this  is  Homoeopathy,  I  am  willing  to  con- 
fess I  don't  know  what  Homoeopathy  is.  It  is  simply  allopathy 
under  a  homoeopathic  cover. 

But,  says  one,  I  do  not  think  it  is  right  to  make  warfare 
against  physicians  practicing  this  way.  Let  every  one  treat  his 
patients  as  he  sees  fit,  and  his  victims  give  him  permission. 
But  when  these  things  are  advocated  by  professed  homoeopathic 
physicians,  aud  published  in  professed  homoeopathic  journals, 
I  think  it  is  no  more  than  right  that  things  should  be  called 
by  their  right  names.  Surely,  no  one  in  his  right  mind  can 
call  such  treatment  homoeopathic  ! 


300 


OBSTETRICS. 


[July, 


I  think  one  of  the  reasons  why  doctors  practice  this  way  is, 
because  they  have  never  thoroughly  comprehended  the  great 
truths  promulgated  by  Hahnemann.  They  despise  crude  allop- 
athy, and  have  fallen  into  the  track  of  the  eclectics.  They  go 
by  the  name  of  homoeopath,  but  they  have  no  faith  in  the  dyna- 
mized drug  ;  they  think  disease  a  material  thing,  and  base  their 
prescriptions  on  the  makeshifts  of  pathology.  Instead  of  read- 
ing and  studying  the  Organon,  the  greatest  medical  work  ever 
written  by  human  hand,  they  read  old-school  journals  and 
practice  diluted  allopathy. 

Where  women  have  had  such  homoeopathic  treatment  as 
their  most  urgent  symptoms  called  for  during  gestation,  and 
where  a  few  doses  of  the  indicated  remedy  were  taken  during 
labor,  they  have  never  had  the  least  trouble  in  getting  up 
sound  and  well  in  from  five  to  eleven  days  after  child-birth. 
But  there  has  very  often  been  serious  trouble  when  they  have 
been  physicked  before  and  after  labor,  and  Chloral  and  Morphine 
given  to  deaden  pain  in  their  hour  of  distress.  These  and 
other  similar  measures  are  not  alone  not  called  for,  but  abso- 
lutely pernicious.  And  an  avowed  follower  of  Hahnemann  to 
sanction  the  like  ! 

March  2d,  1890, 1  was  called  to  see  Mrs.  L.,  who  had  been  con- 
fined by  a  midwife  six  days  previously.  She  had  been  liberally 
dosed  with  Senna  and  Salts  twenty-four  hours  after  labor,  and 
when  I  saw  her  she  had  had  a  severe  chill,  followed  by  a  very 
high  fever;  temperature  105°,  and  a  pulse  of  140.  Abdomen 
was  very  much  bloated,  the  lochia  had  entirely  ceased  ;  she  was 
vomiting,  and  quite  delirious.  Treatment,  JS~ux-vom.cm,  one 
dose,  to  counteract  the  effects  of  the  previous  drugging.  When 
I  saw  her  again  the  next  day,  the  temperature  was  103°,  and  the 
pulse  110,  the  abdomen  was  less  tender,  vomiting  had  ceased, 
and  the  delirium  gone. 

The  secretion  of  the  mammae,  that  had  almost  ceased,  was  again 
re-established  ;  the  urine,  that  had  been  very  scant  heretofore, 
was  more  profuse,  there  was  less  pain  when  passing  it,  and  the 
bowels  had  moved  once,  and  looked  more  natural.  Everything 
looked  more  favorable. 


1890.] 


FATAL  ERRORS. 


301 


I  did  not  think  it  wise  to  make  a  change  in  the  treatment,  so 
I  gave  another  dose  of  Nux-vom.cm  and  Sac-lac.  for  another 
twenty-four  hours.  At  the  end  of  this  period  the  pulse  was 
100,  and  the  temperature  101°  ;  all  other  symptoms  proportion- 
ately better.  Two  days  after  the  temperature  rose  to  104°,  and 
again  the  pulse  to  130.  Where  was  the  trouble?  On  examina- 
tion it  was  found  that  there  was  a  very  severe  diphtheritic  ex- 
udation covering  the  right  tonsil  and  pharynx.  This  accounted 
for  the  rise  in  temperature,  as  the  lady  had  diphtheria,  suppressed 
by  allopathy.  I  became  somewhat  alarmed  at  her  condition. 
What  shall  we  do?  Give  her  Iron,  Quinine,  gargle  her  throat, 
paint  it  with  iodine,  and  treat  the  name  "  diphtheria  "?  No. 
We  shall  treat  her  symptoms  according  to  the  unerring  law  of 
Homoeopathy.  Lycopodiumcm,  one  dose,  and  Sac-lac.  Two 
days  after  taking  this  one  dose  of  Lycopodium,  the  temperature 
was  99°,  the  pulse  85,  and  the  membrane  had  disappeared.  I 
heard  from  her  three  days  later  that  she  was  up  and  well. 

Could  we  expect  a  better  or  quicker  result  by  any  known 
method  of  cure  outside  of  Homoeopathy  ?  Could  eclecticism  do 
as  well? 

FATAL  ERRORS. 

J.  H.  Jackson,  M.  D.,  Flint,  Michigan. 

To  be  able  to  repeat  a  train  of  symptoms  and  say  to  what 
remedy  they  belong  is  quite  another  matter  from  being  able  to 
recognize  or  elicit  correctly  the  same  symptoms  when  present  in 
the  sick. 

One  may  be  able  to  repeat  symptoms  by  the  hundred,  and  be 
far  from  proficient  in  the  art  of  prescribing  homoeopathically. 

Hahnemann  has  truly  said  that  when  the  symptoms  of  the 
sick  have  been  committed  to  writing,  by  far  the  most  difficult 
part  has  been  accomplished. 

This  statement  is  strictly  true.  The  11  symptoms  of  the  sick  " 
written  down  in  the  exact  language  of  the  patient,  is  by  far  the 
most  difficult  part  of  the  art  of  healing.  Not  alone  the  symp- 
toms that  the  patient  voluntarily  complains  of,  but  also  the  par- 


302  FATAL  ERRORS.  [July, 

ticular  symptoms  that  the  adept  in  eliciting  symptoms  may  bring 
out  by  judicious  questioning,  and  in  addition  thereto  the  symp- 
toms that  the  eye  alone  may  discern. 

So,  not  only  must  the  exact  langugage  of  the  patient  be  re- 
corded in  writing,  but  also  the  language  of  each  particular  case 
of  sickness,  such  as  every  visible  peculiarity  that  may  be  dis- 
cerned by  the  sense  of  sight,  or  any  of  the  other  senses. 

To  ask  direct  or  leading  questions  is  a  fatal  error. 

To  hastily  select  a  remedy  for  a  few  or  many  symptoms  that 
are  complained  of,  without  a  complete  examination  of  the  his- 
tory of  all  previous  attacks  of  sickness,  particulary  in  cases  that 
have  been  treated  by  improper  allopathic-law-of-metastasis- 
violating-treatment,  is  a  fatal  error. 

To  select  a  remedy  however  correctly  for  a  group  of  symp- 
toms that  the  patient  may  complain  of,  without  going  back  to 
previous  maltreated  attacks  of  sickness,  and  hearing  the  peculiar- 
ities of  such  attacks,  is  a  fatal  error.  The  picture  that  the 
patient  voluntarily  complains  of  may  be  the  totality  of  the 
then  annoying  symptoms,  but  such  a  picture  is  not  the  totality 
demanded  by  strict  Hahnemannian  Homoeopathy. 

The  examination  of  the  sick  in  a  truly  Hahnemannian  manner 
is,  indeed,  a  fine  art. 

The  method  of  Hahnemann  is  the  scientific  method — that  is 
the  knowing  method,  not  the  guessing  method,  nor  the  I-think 
method,  but  the  knowing  method — and  if  there  is  one  thing 
above  another  that  we  as  true  followers  of  an  inspired  master 
should  ever  keep  uppermost  in  our  minds,  it  is  that  nearly 
every  ease  of  chronic  and  acute  sickness  has  its  genesis  in  a  vio- 
lation of  the  law  of  metastasis  by  allopathic  vital  force  pervert- 
ing methods. 

To  illustrate  :  a  man  presented  himself  for  treatment  for  a 
group  of  symptoms  that  are  usually  called  dyspepsia.  The  symp- 
toms were  many,  and  not  particularly  covered  by  any  remedy. 

A  doctor  styling  himself  a  follower  of  Hahnemann  had  made 
sixty  prescriptions,  and  finally  abandoned  the  case  with  the  com- 
forting assurance  that  the  patient  was  incurable,  and  would 
finally  die  of  cancer  of  stomach. 


1890.] 


FATAL  ERRORS. 


303 


An  examination  of  the  history  of  this  case,  elicited  the  fact 
that  this  man  had  been  treated  by  injections  for  gonorrhoea  some 
ten  years  before.  Careful  questioning  made  it  plain  to  me 
that  the  character  of  the  previous  sickness  demanded  Nux- 
vomica,*and  upon  the  strength  of  the  symptoms  of  ten  years  ago, 
Nuxmm  was  given,  with  a  return  of  the  gonorrheal  dis- 
charge and  a  complete  relief  of  all  the  distressing  symptoms  of 
the  stomach,  three  months  in  all  being  necessary  to  restore  the 
health  of  this  "incurable"  patient. 

It  would  have  been  a  very  fatal  error  not  to  have  looked  up 
the  past  history  of  this  man's  ailments. 

Another  case  in  illustration.  A  man  consulted  me  for  fig- 
warts.  There  were  large  fig-warts  on  left  side  of  coroua  glandis. 
The  corona  glandis  and  part  of  the  glans  had  projections  which 
"looked  exactly  like  the  rough  part  of  a  cat's  tongue. 

Gonorrhoea  had  been  suppressed  about  a  year  before  consult- 
ing me.  The  same  homoeopathic  (?)  M.  D.  had  treated  this 
oase,  and  I  have  no  doubt  every  remedy  recommended  for  fig- 
wrarts,  that  is,  the  u  usual"  remedies,  had  been  given.  But  the 
fig-warts  stood  out  in  bold  relief,  so  did  something  else,  viz.:  the 
individuality  of  the  -patient. 

A  careful  examination  unfolded  the  fact  that  the  patient  had 
had  attacks  of  headache  of  a  throbbing  character  that  would 
come  suddenly  and  leave  as  suddenly  as  they  came,  usually  at 
three  p.  M.,and  often  at  three  A.  M.  A  very  full  pulse,  promi- 
nence of  blood-vessels  in  temporal  region.  Eyes  sensitive  to 
light. 

Xow,  I  never  before  had  prescribed  Belladonna  for  fig-warts, 
and  had  I  been  a  "  usual "  remedy  prescriber,  I  probably  would 
never  have  prescribed  it,  but  as  it  is  a  fatal  error  to  give 
remedies  because  they  are  usual  remedies,  and  as  I  try  to  avoid 
fatal  errors,  I  gave  Belladonna01*,  a  dose  once  a  week,  and  then 
once  in  three  days,  till  I  found  that  my  patient  needed  it  every 
night  for  a  few  weeks,  and  the  result  was  a  return  of  a  watery 
gonorrhoeal  discharge,  and  a  cure  of  fig- warts,  headaches,  and  all 
symptoms  complained  of. 

It  is  plainly  a  fatal  error  to  ignore  the  individuality  of  our 


304 


PAST  MEETINGS  OF  THE  LIPPE  SOCIETY. 


[July, 


patients,  and  prescribe  "  usual  "  remedies  that  correspond  with 
pathological  lesions. 

It  should  never  be  forgotten  that  improper  medication  locally 
applied  is  responsible  for  nearly  all  chronic  ailments.  In  all 
chronic  cases  too  much  care  cannot  be  expended  in  eliciting  a 
correct  picture  of  former  attacks  of  sickness. 

Many  failures  might  be  avoided  by  a  constant  practice  of 
going  back  over  the  history  of  every  sickness  our  patients  may 
have  had,  and  it  is  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  burn  into  the 
souls  of  all  who  may  read  it  that  a  violation  of  the  law  of  me- 
tastasis is  responsible  for  nearly  all  chronic  ailments,  and  the  cause 
of  the  severity  and  obstinacy  of  many  acute  attacks  of  sickness. 


NOTES  FROM  PAST  MEETINGS  OF  THE  LIPPE 

SOCIETY. 

Small-Pox. — At  a  meeting  of  the  society,  held  January  ]  1th, 
1881,  Dr.  Clark  spoke  of  a  case  of  confluent  small-pox  then 
under  treatment.  Dr.  Carleton  Smith  said  he  had  had  a  chance 
to  try  Carnem.  (This  preparation  was  given  to  Dr.  Clark  by 
the  late  Dr.  Bayard,  of  New  York,  who  received  it  from  the 
late  Dr.  Reisig.)  The  patient's  face  was  covered  with  pustules. 
One  dose  of  Carnem  was  given.  The  next  day  the  pustules  had 
collapsed,  and  the  patient  recovered  without  the  least  pitting. 

[Dr.  Fellger  was  better  qualified  to  speak  upon  the  effects  of 
vaccination  and  small-pox  than  any  one  whom  we  have  ever 
met.  He  had  given  the  subject  much  thought  and  many  years 
of  study.  Hence,  his  remarks  are  entitled  to  deep  considera- 
tion.] 

Dr.  Fellger. — A  short  time  ago  I  had  a  case  of  probable 
small-pox.  Malandrinum  was  given.  The  next  day  the  pustules 
were  dry. 

It  is  reported  in  an  anti-vaccination  journal  that  a  cow  had 
been  successfully  inoculated  with  "  grease  "  from  the  horse,  and 
the  cow  had  every  appearance  of  an  attack  of  small-pox.  I  have 
given  Variolinum  to  hundreds  of  people,  and  none  of  them  have 
ever  been  attacked  with  small-pox.    I  obtained  the  Variolinum 


1890.]  PAST  MEETINGS  OF  THE  LIPPE  SOCIETY. 


305 


I  used  from  a  child  with  small-pox — the  case  being  perfectly 
typical  of  the  disease.  I  also  use  it  for  ordinary  small-pox.  For 
the  confluent  variety  I  use  Malandrinum. 

In  England,  where  the  cows  were  milked  by  women,  Jenner 
could  get  no  vaccine.  It  is  found  only  where  men  milk  the 
cows,  and  at  the  same  time  groom  the  horses.  They 
thus  carry  the  horse  disease  to  the  cows.  In  one  family, 
where  the  father  had  confluent  small-pox,  I  gave  Variolinum  as 
a  prophylactic  to  the  others,  and  not  one  of  them  took  the  dis- 
ease. I  knew  of  a  case  of  a  broker,  in  this  city,  who  is  now 
well  marked  from  small-pox.  When  a  child  he  was  vaccinated, 
and  became  idiotic  in  consequence.  When  sixteen  years  old  he 
had  a  violent  attack  of  small-pox,  after  which  he  recovered  his 
reason. 

•  Variolinum  is  indicated  in  small-pox  where  there  is  not  much 
pain.  The  patient  can  even  eat  a  good  meal.  The  skin  looks 
natural  between  the  pustules.  This  is  a  mild  form  of  the  dis- 
ease. It  needs  scarcely  any  treatment.  Small-pox  is  dangerous 
where  there  is  an  unnatural  color  of  the  skin  between  the  pus- 
tules, and  the  disease  takes  the  confluent  form.  The  appear- 
ance of  the  eyeball  is  important  in  this  disease  in  making  a 
prognosis.  Where  the  eyeball  is  white  and  natural,  there  is  no 
danger.  But  if  it  be  red  and  much  congested  it  is  dangerous.  I 
have  just  had  a  case  of  small-pox  in  a  child,  who  vomited 
immense  quantities  of  blood  before  the  pustules  appeared.  This 
was  controlled  by  Hamamelis. 

Vaccination. — Dr.  Fellger  said  that  vaccination  was  against 
common  seuse.  Dr.  Jenner,  the  originator  of  vaccine,  confessed 
that  the  cow  acquired  the  cow-pox  from  the  fetlocks  of  the  horse. 

Dr.  Lippe  said  that  Thuja  was  a  great  remedy  for  diseases  of 
the  fetlock  in  the  horse.  Thuja  also  was  effective  in  syphilis. 
This  leaves  a  field  for  speculation  as  to  the  essential  nature  of 
the  disease  of  the  fetlock  in  the  horse,  from  which  the  cow  gets 
the  cow-pox. 

Dr.  Fellger  said  he  had  used  Malandrinum  with  great  success 
in  diseased  conditions  from  vaccination. 

Nosodes. — Dr.  Fellger  returned  to  the  subject  of  nosodes.  He 
20 


306 


PAST  MEETINGS  OF  THE  LIPPE  SOCIETY.   [July,  1890. 


said  it  was  absurd  to  claim  that  any  disease  could  be  cured  by  its 
nosode,  for,  after  potentizing  the  nosode,  we  cannot  be  satisfied 
that  it  is  in  the  same  condition  as  when  first  taken  from  the 
diseased  individual.  Thus  the  syphilitic  poison  is  composed  of 
molecules  :  the  molecules  of  atoms.  When  the  poison  is  poten- 
tized, the  essential  character  of  the  molecules  is  undoubtedly  lost, 
and  hence  it  is  not  the  same  substance  any  longer.  Therefore, 
there  can  be  no  certainty  that  the  potentized  preparation  is  the 
same  poison.  But  if,  for  argument,  we  allow  that  the  molecules 
of  the  poison  can  be  potentized  without  change  of  character,  we 
still  are  not  relieved  of  the  dilemma,  for  primary  syphilis  in  any 
one  person  will  make  a  different  set  of  symptoms  from  syphilis  in 
another  person.  The  variations  are  endless.  Hence  we  must  then 
have  a  potentization  of  each  one  of  these  different  kinds  of  syphilis, 
which  would  be  impossible.  Mercury  is  a  stable  substance, 
always  unchanged  ;  it  might  then  be  expected  to  produce  identi- 
cal sets  of  symptoms  on  any  number  of  the  most  different  peo- 
ple. Yet  its  action  is  different  upon  every  person  to  whom  it  is 
given.  How  much  more,  then,  must  be  the  individual  variations 
in  the  case  of  the  poison  of  syphilis,  and  if  Mercury  requires  so 
many  different  remedies  to  antidote  it,  how  much  more,  then, 
must  syphilis  need  a  variety  of  remedies  to  treat  it.  It  is  folly, 
then,  to  expect  to  treat  symptoms  with  its  nosode,  and  the  folly 
the  more  apparent  when  we  realize  that  the  character  of  this 
nosode  is  essentially  changed  in  the  process  of  potentizing.  The 
only  way,  therefore,  to  use  a  nosode  is  to  prove  it  on  the  healthy, 
like  any  other  drug,  and  note  its  symptoms  in  the  regular  way. 
In  this  manner  only  can  the  scope  of  its  action  be  determined. 
Dr.  Lux  was  the  real  founder  of  isopathy.  Dr.  Reisig  was 
traveling  in  Europe.  He  heard  Lac-caninum  suggested  as  a 
remedy  for  throat  diseases.  Reisig  investigated  it,  and  found 
out  from  its  rather  meagre  pathogenesis  that  it  had  a  striking 
relation  to  the  throat.  He  brought  his  information  to  America, 
and  communicated  it  first  to  Dr.  Bayard.  Thus  was  Lac-cani- 
num introduced  to  the  materia  medica.  It  was  afterward 
elaborately  proved  by  Dr.  Samuel  Swan,  to  whom  we  are  in- 
debted for  its  present  development.  G.  H.  C. 


REPORTS  OF  CLINICAL  CASES. 


G.  M.  Pease,  M.  D.,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

Read  before  the  California  State  Homoeopathic  Medical  Society,  May  14th, 
1890. 

Pneumonia. — Mrs.  Y.,  a  very  fleshy  woman  of  about  thirty 
years,  was  taken  with  a  severe  chill  during  the  night  previous 
to  my  visit.  When  seen  she  was  breathing  rapidly — forty-eight 
respirations  per  minute — had  a  pulse  of  one  hundred  and  forty  ^ 
frequent  short,  hacking  cough ;  considerable  thirst  for  moderate 
quantities  ;  flushed  face,  and  great  restlessness,  each  change  of 
position  giving  relief  for  a  moment. 

Rhus-tox.200  was  prepared  in  water  and  a  dose  given  at 
once,  to  be  repeated  in  one  hour,  but  afterward  not  oftener  than 
once  in  two  hours.  As  soon  as  she  was  aware  of  improvement 
no  more  of  the  remedy  was  to  be  taken  unless  getting  worse. 
The  next  day  she  was  found  with  normal  pulse  and  respira- 
tion. She  had  taken  but  two  doses,  as  before  the  time  for  the 
third  she  felt  easier.  There  was  no  cough  or  expectoration  fol- 
lowing, and  on  the  next  day  she  resumed  her  household  duties. 
No  auscultation  was  made,  but  from  the  symptoms  manifested 
there  could  be  little  doubt  as  to  the  nature  of  the  trouble. 

Pleuro-Pneumonia. —  Mrs.  M.  had  been  treated  for  la 
grippe  by  her  allopathic  physician,  and  after  a  week  or  more 
of  steadily  getting  worse,  her  doctor  sent  word  that  he  was  too 
sick  to  attend  her.  Homoeopathy  had  been  tried  for  the  chil- 
dren, and  in  the  emergency  she  concluded  to  risk  it  herself. 
When  seen  she  was  sitting  propped  up  in  bed,  breathing  rapidly, 
forty-two  respirations  per  minute,  and  screaming  with  nearly 
every  breath  on  account  of  the  cutting  pains  in  the  left  side  ;  her 
pulse  was  irregular  but  about  one  hundred  and  sixty  per  min- 
ute, and  temperature  one  hundred  and  three  and  four- fifths. 
Frequent  coughing  was  attended  with  extreme  pain.  Thirst 

307 


308 


REPORTS  OF  CLINICAL  CASES. 


[July, 


great,  could  hardly  get  enough  water.  A  few  hours  previously 
there  had  been  some  vomiting.  A  physical  examination  was 
not  possible  owing  to  a  plaster  on  the  back,  a  flaxseed  poultice 
on  each  side,  and  flannel  saturated  with  tar,  turpentine,  and  oil 
on  the  chest. 

The  applications  were  at  once  discontinued,  and  Bryonia200 
given  in  water  every  two  hours.  She  was  first  seen  about  five 
p.  m.  A  much  more  comfortable  night  than  the  previous  one 
was  passed. 

The  following  afternoon  showed  great  change  ;  temperature, 
one  hundred  and  one-half ;  pulse,  one  hundred  and  ten  ;  very 
little  thirst ;  cough  loose,  some  expectoration,  a  portion  of  which 
had  been  rusty-colored,  as  reported  by  her  husband.  Pains 
much  less.  Xo  change  was  made  in  the  remedy,  except  to 
lengthen  the  intervals  to  four  hours  between  doses. 

She  steadily  improved,  and  the  case  was  dismissed  on  the 
sixth  visit.    Sac-lac.  was  given  after  the  third  day. 

Diphtheria. — On  Tuesday,  Mr.  M.  was  feeling  poorly,  grad- 
ually getting  worse,  so  that  by  noon  he  was  obliged  to  give  up 
his  business.  Felt  feverish  and  weak,  his  knees  were  so  weak 
that  they  ached.  Throat  was  a  little  painful  on  swallowing, 
worse  on  left  side.  He  retired  early,  and  upon  getting  into  bed 
had  a  severe  chill  lasting  for  nearly  half  an  hour.  He  was  in- 
clined to  be  restless,  but  compelled  to  keep  pretty  quiet  because 
the  least  movement  toward  a  cool  place  would  bring  a  return  of 
the  chill.  There  was  no  thirst.  Upon  inspection  the  throat 
looked  simply  a  little  inflamed.  He  was  not  subject  to  sore 
throat.  About  nine  P.  M.  a  single  dose  of  Rhus-tox.200  was 
given. 

In  the  morning  of  Wednesday,  less  fever,  but  very  weak. 
Left  tonsil  covered  with  a  large  patch  of  membrane,  the  right 
with  a  small  one.  He  could  taste  and  smell  his  foetid  breath. 
ISo  medicine.  Thursday  the  membrane  was  gone  from  the 
right  side  and  was  much  less  on  the  left.  Xo  fever,  breath  less 
foetid,  was  up  and  dressed  in  his  room.  Thursday  evening, 
membrane  still  less  in  extent  and  very  thin.    Friday,  membrane 


1890.] 


DYSMENORRHEA. 


309 


entirely  gone,  no  pain  in  the  throat,  appetite  returning,  felt  as 
if  he  had  been  sick  a  month.  Saturday,  out  about  his  business. 
Only  one  dose  of  medicine  was  given,  no  washes,  gargles,  or 
local  treatment  of  any  sort  was  employed. 

Chronic  Diarrhcea. — S.  has  had  chronic  diarrhoea  for  two 
or  three  years,  at  times  better,  but  never  having  less  than  four 
or  five  discharges  daily. 

In  many  points  the  description  might  agree  with  any  one  of 
a  dozen  remedies.  Close  questioning,  however,  elicited  two  very 
important  guiding  symptoms.  About  the  middle  of  the  fore- 
noon, or  from  ten  to  eleven  A.  M.,  he  had  an  empty,  unpleasant 
feeling  at  the  stomach,  which  compelled  him  to  eat  something. 
When  in  bed  his  feet  were  hot  to  the  extent  that  he  was  con- 
stantly moving  them  to  find  a  cool  place,  even  sometimes  putting 
them  from  under  the  covers. 

Four  doses  of  Sulphur200  were  given  him,  to  be  taken  dur- 
ing the  following  twenty-four  hours.  In  a  week  he  reported 
that  there  had  been  an  almost  instant  change  of  his  symptoms, 
and  he  had  craved  and  eaten  meat,  to  which  he  had  previously 
had  a  great  aversion.  This  symptom  I  had  not  learned  on  his 
first  call.  In  another  week  he  reported  himself  as  well,  could 
eat  anything  his  fancy  dictated,  and  there  was  no  more  diarrhoea, 
the  only  symptom  remaining,  as  far  as  he  could  see,  was  the 
occasional  empty  feeling  at  the  stomach  about  eleven  a.  M. 

DYSMEXORRH(EA. 
L.  L.  Hklt,  M.  D.,  Fraxklix,  O. 

On  the  fourth  day  of  last  June,  at  that  time  living  in  Colum- 
bus, O.,  was  hastily  called  to  see  Miss  G  ,  on  Irving  Street. 

The  messenger,  a  little  sister,  informed  me  that  "  sister  is  going 
crazy."  I  at  once  responded  to  the  call  and  found  the  young 
lady  in  a  condition  quite  bewildering  upon  first  notice.  Face 
pale,  eyes  protruding,  bright ;  labored  respiration  and  irregular, 
apparently  oblivious  to  everything  around  her.    The  mother 


310       ANOTHER  ANSWER  TO  DR.  ALLEN'S  PROTEST.  [July, 


told  me  she  had  just  fainted  and  was  "  coming  to."  Feet  and 
hands  cold.  Great  thirst,  only  a  sip  at  a  time.  Gave  her 
Ars.3x  in  water.  Whether  it  was  efficacious  or  not  I  can't  say, 
but  believe  the  severity  of  that  "  storm"  was  past  and  would 
have  done  as  well  on  placebo,  as  she  had  had  those  "  spells  " 
since  puberty,  six  years  ago. 

In  a  few  days  she  came  to  my  office  and  gave  the  following 
history  ; 

"Began  menstruating  at  my  twelfth  year  and  have  always 
had  trouble.  My  old  doctor  used  to  give  me  morphine  pills 
and  whisky,  but  I  kept  getting  worse.    (How  funny  !) 

"  For  three  or  four  days  before  flow  begins  I  feel  as  though 
I  had  rheumatism,  and  think  every  day  I  was  coming  sick. 

"  Severe  cramps  in  abdomen  at  irregular  intervals,  cramps 
stop  either  first  or  second  day  of  flow.  Just  before  flow  begins  am 
very  chilly  or  very  hot.  No  headache.  Delirious  and  fainting 
during  first  two  clays  of  flow ;  can't  lie  down  in  bed  and  not  re- 
lieved by  fanning ;  always  in  bed  three  or  four  days. 

"  With  the  delirium  I  always  see  something  alive.  It  may  be 
on  wall,  floor,  chair,  any  place,  but  it  will  roll  upon  me,  then  go 
away,  only  to  return,  by  rolling  up  on  me.  It  always  rolls.  It 
changes  form  sometimes,  but  it  o,lways  rolls.  It  usually  has 
arms  and  small  body." 

Gave  Cocculus  lnd.Sx,  dil.  on  disks,  three  every  two  hours  for 
four  days. 

September  28th. — She  has  just  passed  third  cycle  since  taking 
R  and  says  she  has  never  even  known  what  pain  is  since  taking 
medicine,  and  is  in  perfect  health,  something  she  has  not  had 
for  six  years. 


ANOTHER  ANSWER  TO  DR.  ALLEN'S  PROTEST. 

Editors  of  the  Homoeopathic  Physician: — In  read- 
ing Dr.  Allen's  Protest,  I  come  to  a  portion  of  it  in  which 
I  cannot  agree  with  him.  He  classes  me  with  the  allopaths, 
because  I  use  high  potencies  and  report  clinical  symptoms,  thus 
filling  the  journal  full  of  rubbish  and  trash  that  is  not  worth 


1890.]     ANOTHER  ANSWER  TO  DR.  ALLEN'S  PROTEST.       31 1 


the  paper  upon  which  it  is  printed.  Of  course  the  shoe  fits  me 
and  I  want  my  say  about  the  matter.  A  proving  first  upon 
the  healthy  is  always  desirable.  This  is  Hahnemann's  teaching. 
But  if  you  throw  out  valuable  clinical  symptoms  that  have  been 
obtained  from  the  experience  at  the  bedside  you  will  throw 
away  a  great  deal  of  the  most  valuable  part  of  our  materia 
medica. 

I  cannot  see  how  the  Doctor  classes  clinical  symptoms  with 
high  potency  allopathy.  I  never  knew  that  the  allopath  ever 
prescribed  upon  clinical  symptoms ;  their  prescriptions  are  always 
based  upon  some  pathological  idea. 

I  am  called  to  treat  a  sick  patient  and  I  take  the  totality  of 
the  symptoms.  I  find  the  remedy.  I  find  also  other  symptoms 
not  mentioned  in  the  materia  medica  that  the  patient  has.  I 
prescribe  the  indicated  remedy  from  the  most  prominent  and 
peculiar  symptoms.  They  are  cured,  also  the  rest  of  the  symp- 
toms which  are  clinical.  Now  I  have  learned  something  new 
about  this  remedy  from  clinical  observation.  If  I  had  no  ob- 
servation I  would  not  pay  any  attention  to  these  symptoms, 
which  are  not  recorded  in  the  materia  medica.  Having 
observation,  however,  I  notice  these  symptoms  and  put  them 
down  for  further  verification  in  other  cases  and  thus"  determine 
if  they  are  true  and  reliable.  I  think  that  the  suppressing 
clinical  symptoms  that  are  thus  found  reliable  would  be  a  great 
wrong;. 

The  value  of  the  remedy  is  determined  by  provings  upon  the 
healthy  and  by  clinical  symptoms  that  have  been  well  veri- 
fied until  a  further  proving  may  develop  the  true  picture  of  the 
drug. 

A  confirmed  clinical  symptom  is  as  reliable  to  prescribe  from 
as  a  symptom  from  a  proving.  The  drug  would  not  cure  if  not 
able  to  produce  this  symptom  upon  the  healthy. 

Hence  it  is  not  allopathic  empiricism,  even  though  it  has 
been  derived  from  observation  or  experience  with  a  sick  patient. 
It  is  a  practical  observation  obtained  during  the  process  of  heal- 
ing, and  not  from  any  pathological  supposition. 

Take  an  instance  :  The  child  gets  upon  its  hands  and  knees  at 


312     ANOTHER  ANSWER  TO  DR.  ALLEN'S  PROTEST.  [July,  1890. 


night  and  sleeps  that  way.  This  symptom  can't  be  found  in 
the  materia  medica,  yet  it  is  a  well  verified  symptom,  belongs  to 
only  one  remedy,  and  that  one  always  cures  this  condition.  I 
have  verified  it  hundreds  of  times  ;  this  is  only  one  symptom,  and 
other  symptoms  of  the  remedy  are  present,  but  one  symptom  is 
valuable  when  no  more  can  be  obtained  from  the  patient, 

I  give  here  an  empirical  allopathic,  prophylactic,  cholera 


prophylactic. 

R  Magnesia  Sulphite,  2  dr. 

Sulphurous  Acid,  16  dr. 

Water,  16  dr. 

Tincture  Capsicum,  4  dr. 

M.  Dissolve  perfectly. 


Sig.  Teaspoonful  night  and  morning. 

This  is  what  the  doctor  classifies  with  symptoms  cured  by 
high  potencies.  I  cannot  see  any  analogy  whatever.  He  may 
not,  however,  have  the  same  focus  ;  this  probably  is  where  the 
fault  lies,  we  don't  see  alike. 

I  have  great  respect  for  Dr.  Allen.  I  have  all  the  books  he 
has  ever  published  and  I  know  he  has  done  a  great  work  for 
Homoeopathy  in  his  great  materia  medica ;  but  upon  the  value 
of  clinical  symptoms  I  will  have  to  differ  with  him.  I  would 
rather  have  them  to  prescribe  from  than  the  R  of  cholera 
prophylactic.  A  high  potency  will  not  suppress  or  kill  as 
quickly  as  a  scientific  (?)  mixture  of  strong  drugs. 

I  have  been  helped  out  many  a  time  when  I  would  have  been 
obliged  to  use  a  palliative  but  for  a  well-known  clinical  symp- 
tom. G.  W.  Sherbino. 

Abilene,  Texas,  May  2d. 


Jarring  or  rattling  of  wagons  head  sensitive  to,  also  to 
stepping  hard,  Nit-ac.  Abdomen  sensitive  to  jarring,  Lil-tig. 
Jarring  when  sitting  in  a  chair  or  lying  in  bed,  Aloes.  Sensi- 
tiveness to,  and  aggravation  from  jarring  the  bed  is  the  great 
key-note  of  Belladonna. 


EPIDEMIOLOGICAL. 

Dr.  Kttnkel,  of  Kiel,  A.  H.  Z.,  7,  90. 

Returning  in  July  from  Wisbaden,  I  found  a  malignant  epi- 
demic of  diphtheria,  and  the  epidemic  remedy — i.  e.,  that  which 
carries  the  patient  through  in  every  stage,wsis  Mercurius-sol.  3d  c, 
which  always  sufficed  with  me  in  that  disease,  where  others  rely 
on  different  mercurial  preparations,  as  the  Cyanide,  for  example. 
Indications :  Xocturnal  aggravations,  heat,  with  desire  to  un- 
cover, thirst,  the  characteristic  foetid  breath,  slight  coating  of  the 
gums.  Heat  from  feather  beds  unbearable  ;  they  not  only  un- 
cover, but  the  head  looks  for  a  cool  spot  on  the  pillow.  Consti- 
pation or  diarrhoea,  both  with  tenesmus,  the  children  hold  on  to 
the  vessel  after  the  stool ;  jumentous,  foul-smelling  urine  ; 
night-sweats,  also,  of  a  foul  odor.  Such  easy  treatment  suited 
for  six  weeks,  when  Mercur.  ceased  to  be  of  any  benefit,  as  the 
picture  of  the  disease  had  changed,  and  the  epidemic  remedy  was 
now  Aurum  for  awhile.  Indications  :  high  fever,  one  hundred 
and  four  to  one  hundred  and  five,  enormous  swelling  of  the 
cervical  glands  coming  on  rapidly;  foul,  unbearable  odor  from  the 
mouth  ;  sometimes  an  eruption,  reminding  one  of  scarlatina ; 
foul  alvine  discharges;  urine  saturated.  Though  cases, were 
malignant  enough,  Aurum  acted  now  as  promptly  as  Mercur. 
did  before,  especially  in  relation  to  the  fever,  only  it  took  a 
longer  time  to  recover  on  account  of  the  glandular  swellings. 
With  the  Aurum  cases  it  also  was  characteristic  that  the  nasal 
membrane  suffered  from  the  diphtheritic  process.  Nose  clogged 
up,  discharging  a  watery,  foul  fluid,  redness  and  sensitiveness  of 
the  nose.  Simultaneously  with  the  diphtheritis  the  usual  sum- 
mer diarrhoeas  appeared,  sometimes  very  severe,  and  Veratrum- 
album  was  the  remedy  ;  copious  vomiting  and  copious  stools  ; 
coldness  of  the  whole  body,  cold  sweat,  especially  of  the  fore- 
head ;  collapse  imminent;  thirst  for  cold  drinks  in  large  quanti- 
ties, which  were  not  well  borne;  scanty  urination.    At  once 

313 


314 


EPIDEMIOLOGICAL. 


[July, 


Veratrum  began  to  fail  and  Apis  took  its  place,  7th  x.  Lighter 
cases  with  more  diarrhoea  and  some  tenesmus.  During  the  fall 
more  sporadic  cases,  especially  of  diphtheria.  In  one  very  severe 
case,  a  child  of  seven  years,  with  the  necrotic  form,  the  stench 
in  the  room  was  unbearable;  uvula  and  soft  palate  seemed 
destroyed,  but  Secale-cornutum  3d  c.  removed  the  disease  in  a 
few  days,  so  that  the  child  was  able  to  run  about,  with  satisfac- 
tory appetite,  when  paralysis  of  the  heart  finished  the  case.  In 
several  other  severe  cases,  though  not  necrotic,  Secale  acted  well. 
Now  influenza  followed,  and  Kunkel  could  not  find  the  epidemic 
remedy.  The  influenza  became  dangerous  by  its  compliea- 
tions,  especially  diseases  of  the  respiratory  organs,  pneumonia, 
following  a  bronchitis  or  pleurisy  ;  in  the  former  Phosphorus  3d, 
in  the  latter  Bryonia  2d  or  3d,  also  Arsenicum  were  the  reme- 
dies, at  the  beginning  of  the  disease,  with  severe  headache, 
vomiting,  deliria,  photophobia,  vertigo,  and  congestions  to  the 
head.  Belladonna  often  cut  short  the  disease,  though  many  cases 
recovered  rapidly  without  taking  anything.  Indications  for 
Arsenic  :  Thirst,  but  little  suffices  ;  restlessness,  wants  the  head 
raised  up;  with  the  dyspnoea  anguish,  awaking  with  anguish  and 
deliria.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  epidemics  of  influenza  pre- 
cede cholera,  and  it  was  remarkable  that  the  most  effective 
remedies  in  cholera  (Arsenicum,  Cuprum,  Veratrum,  Phos- 
phorus) yielded  the  best  results  in  the  most  severe  cases  of  influ- 
enza. Cuprum  acted  especially  well  in  pneumonia  of  senility 
and  of  drunkards.  Cuprum  in  such  cases  may  prevent  cardiac 
paralysis,  and  it  may  be,  perhaps,  advisable  to  give  Cuprum  for 
a  few  days  during  the  reconvalescence  from  severe  influenza. 

This  indication  for  Cuprum  ought  to  be  verified  before  being 
incorporated.  I,  for  one,  feel  glad  to  have  another  anchor  to 
hold  more  firmly  the  fast-ebbing  life  in  cardiac  paralysis  after 
severe  zymotic  diseases,  for  I  lost  several  cases  during  reconva- 
lescence when  my  warning  voice  was  disregarded,  and  they  suc- 
cumbed in  spite  of  Camphora,  Veratrum,  Carbo-veg.  In  the 
collapse  of  Cuprum  cramps  are  especially  prominent,  so  it  is 
said,  but  there  were  none  present  in  my  cases,  and  uraemia  could 


1890.]  "THE  VALUE  OF  TRIVIAL  SYMPTOMS.'' 


315 


be  totally  excluded.  They  fell  asleep  because  the  weak  heart 
had  lost  its  propelling  power ;  and,  let  us  make  a  mark  of  it,  that 
when  this  lack  of  reaction  takes  place  in  patients  run  down  by 
the  severity  of  the  disease,  our  first  duty  is  to  keep  the  patient 
strictly  in  a  horizontal  position,  even  during  defecation  and 
micturition ;  the  nurse  must  feed  the  patient,  as  it  is  done  in 
Mitchell's  treatment,  and  our  second  duty  is  to  remember 
Cuprum  in  its  action  for  a  weakened,  and  often  dilated  heart. 

  S.  L. 

"  THE  VALUE  OF  TRIVIAL  SYMPTOMS." 
G.  M.  Pease,  M.  D.,  Sax  Feancisco,  Cal. 

Under  this  heading,  on  page  146,  April  number  of  The 
Hom(eopathic  Physician,  are  some  fine  thoughts. 

The  first  paragraph  I  would  like  to  have  considered  as  a  pre- 
lude to  the  report  of  a  case  which  was  under  treatment  some 
years  ago. 

A  gentleman  had  been  a  sufferer  for  fifteen  years  from  inter- 
mittent fever.  He  had  tried  several  physicians  of  both  schools, 
without  the  slightest  benefit,  and  although  he  had  been  pro- 
nounced incurable  he  had  hopes  to  the  contrary.  Under  such 
circumstances  unusual  care  was  taken  in  writing  out  his  case, 
that  no  point  should  be  lost  in  its  study.  After  six  months  no 
improvement  was  manifest,  and,  losing  courage,  I  felt  obliged 
to  acknowledge  defeat,  but  he  insisted  upon  further  trial. 

The  patient  had  been  closely  questioned  many  times,  with  the 
hope  that  some  new  and,  perhaps,  guiding  symptom  might  be 
found. 

Now  it  was  proposed  to  regard  him  as  if  seen  for  the  first 
time. 

I  suggested  that  in  his  recital  he  begin  at  the  head  and  go 
down  to  his  toes.  At  the  mention  of  toes  he  was  reminded  of 
what,  he  thought,  was  of  no  account,  though  the  symptom  had 
existed  for  years.  When  he  took  off  his  boots  at  night  the  ball 
of  the  right  great  toe  invariably  itched. 

In  those  days  we  did  not  have  the  many  repertories  that  now 


316 


LA  GRIPPE. 


[July, 


assist  us,  but  I  remembered  to  have  seen  somewhere  in  my 
readings  this  apparently  absurd  symptom,  and  without  further 
delay  a  search  was  begun  which  resulted  in  finding  the  almost 
identical  symptom  under  Natrum-sulphuricum.  Nearly  every 
other  symptom  was  pictured  under  this  remedy,  and  a  rapid  cure 
followed  its  administration,  and  two  persons,  patient  and  doctor, 
felt  like  putting  a  big  feather  in  the  cap  of  Homoeopathy. 


LA  GRIPPE. 

(Some  Thoughts  ox  the  Late  Influenza,  by  Dr.  Kunkel, 
of  Kike.   A.  H.  Z.,  11,  90.) 

Perhaps  many  a  person  suffering  from  la  grippe  never 
asked  for  medical  advice  and  recovered  anyhow,  but  children 
were  often,  from  the  very  start,  severely  handled.  Headache 
and  vomiting  all  through  the  attack  were  witnessed  in  most 
patients,  and  Aconite,  given  from  the  start,  seemed  to  cut  short 
the  attack.  Cough  was  the  most  troublesome  symptom; 
Sabadilla  seemed  indicated  for  a  dry  cough,  worse  before  mid- 
night and  during  east  wind  ;  Arsenicum,  worse  after  midnight, 
and  children  had  to  sit  up  when  severe  coughing  set  in ;  sleep- 
lessness, nightmare,  waking  up  frightened,  deliria,  thirst,  but 
drinking  aggravates  the  cough.  Veratrum-album,  aggravation 
before  midnight  ;  great  thirst  and  desire  for  large  quantities  of 
cold  drink,  but  worse  after  drinking  j  general  coldness  of  body, 
great  malaise,  cold  frontal  sweat.  Phosphorus,  laryngeal 
cough  with  sensitiveness  of  the  larynx,  hoarseness,  pleuritic  or 
bronchitic  symptoms,  palpitations,  pains  around  heart,  sweat 
during  sleep,  which  disappears  when  waking  up,  must  sit  up  for 
relief ;  vertigo,  sleepy  in  daytime,  especially  afternoons.  Cup- 
rum, a  worrying  cough  at  different  times  of  day  in  children, 
with  spasms,  turning  eyes  upward,  bluish  tint  of  face,  twitch- 
ings  during  sleep.  Bryonia,  cough  with  pleuritic  manifesta- 
tions, etc.  Carbo-veg.  3  or  6,  cough  with  hoarseness,  burning 
pain  in  larynx,  worse  before  midnight,  gastric  symptoms 
heavily  coated  tongue,  foul  breath,  flatulency. 


1890.] 


LA  GRIPPE. 


317 


The  grippe  becomes  dangerous  by  its  sequelae,  especially 
pneumonia,  whose  appearance  had  nothing  in  common  with 
genuine  pneumonia,  no  initial  chill,  etc.,  spreading  rather  in  a 
sneaking  manner,  from  the  pleura  or  bronchi,  and  when  from 
the  former,  Bryonia  often  sufficed  for  a  cure.  Broncho-pneu- 
monia was  often  preceded  for  several  days  by  cough  of  a  spas- 
modic character.  Gradually  short  breathing  set  in  and  here 
Arsenicum  acted  well,  also  Phosphorus,  according  to  their  indi- 
cation, and  Sulphur  had  to  be  interpolated  where  psora  showed 
its  cloven  foot.  Sometimes  the  indications  could  not  be  relied 
on,  as  the  picture  of  the  disease  was  constantly  changing  and 
the  physician  felt  grateful  when  the  cough  ceased,  though  his 
intervention  could  not  be  praised  for  it.  Cuprum  was  our 
stand-by  in  the  advanced  stages  of  complicating  pneumonia,  for 
cardiac  paralysis  often  suddenly  finishes  the  case.  Sudden 
attacks  of  suffocation  with  deadly  anguish  set  in,  the  diaphragm 
is  in  continuous  action,  while  the  thoracic  muscles  seemed  to 
have  ceased  to  labor,  and  if  Cuprum  3d,  6th,  or  30th  fail  to  pre- 
vent a  second  attack,  the  patient's  doom  is  clearly  foreshadowed . 

I  treated  an  old  lady  of  seventy  years,  who,  after  a  severe 
attack  of  influenza  was  taken  down  with  right-sided  pneumonia, 
and  though  Bryonia  and  Phosphorus  removed  the  inflammation, 
collapse  set  in  with  total  aphonia  from  mere  weakness,  pulse 
small  and  irregular.  Cuprum  saved  her  life.  About  a  week 
ago  I  had  'o  visit  a  little  girl  of  four  years,  whose  sister 
recovered  from  diphtheria  under  Mercur-cyanatus,  but  it 
failed  in  her  case,  and  A u ruin  was  substituted,  which  ameliorated 
somewhat,  but  it  invaded  the  larynx  with  dyspnoea,  hoarseness, 
a  thickly  coated,  yellowish-brown  tongue,  especially  at  the  root 
(a  keynote  for  Carbo-veg.),  foul  breath.  In  the  evening  I  pre- 
scribed Carbo-veg.  3d  c,  the  medicine  acted  so  well  that  dysp- 
noea and  hoarseness  disappeared,  the  child  fell  into  a  quiet  sleep, 
but  died  suddenly  in  the  morning.  Cuprum  might  have  saved 
thw  life.  In  fact,  the  most  grave  case  of  diphtheria  may  yield 
most  beautifully  to  our  treatment,  and  still  they  do  not  exclude 
the  danger  of  a  final  cardiac  paralysis,  when  everything  looks 
favorable  for  a  speedy  recovery. 


318 


PROVINGS  OF  SYPIIILrXTM. 


[July, 


In  several  cases  of  diphtheritis,  otitis  media  suppurativa  was 
a  disagreeable  complication,  but  yielding  to  Silicea  and  (  al- 
carea-carb.  In  a  little  babe  of  eight  weeks,  meningitis  with  its 
cri-hydrocephalique  followed.  Apis  3d  c,  was  given  success- 
fully, but  the  suppuration  lasted  longer,  sometimes  interrupted 
by  vomiting.  Silicea  and  Calcarea  in  repeated  doses  finally 
removed  this  psoric  complication. 

Influenza,  in  fact,  is  worse  than  cholera,  for  it  causes  recru- 
descence of  old  sufferings,  and  it  is  well  for  the  patient  when  we 
can  find  out  what  remedies  suited  his  individual  constitution 
and  helped  him  before.  Anamnesis  first  and  the  remedy  is 
more  easily  found. 

PROVINGS  OF  SYPHILINUM. 
Samuel  Swan,  M.  D.,  New  York. 

(I.)  Jan.  27th. — Dr.  H.  took,  at  3.30  p.  m.,  a  powder  of  one 
of  Dr.  Swan's  high  potencies  of  Syphilinum  ;  another  dose  at  4 
p.  M.,  and  at  4.35  p.  m. 

Had  been  suffering  from  a  bad  cold,  with  considerable  cough 
and  expectoration  and  catarrh,  but  that  is  now  relieved  very 
much  by  Pulsat.y  some  four  or  five  days  ago.  The  mouth,  jaws, 
teeth,  gums,  and  articulation  of  lower  jaws  have  annoyed  him 
by  a  soreness  and  tenderness  for  several  days,  so  at  times 
chewing  food  is  uncomfortable.  The  scaly  eruption  over  os 
eoxce  is  again  present,  and  has  annoyed  him  for  several  weeks ; 
at  present  it  is  worse  than  for  some  time. 

At  4.40  P.M.-(five  minutes  after  the  third  dose)  noticed  aching, 
as  of  bruise,  in  adductor  muscles  of  left  leg.  At  4.45  p.  m.,  the 
pain  had  extended  to  anterior  tibial  region,  lower  third ;  also 
similar  pain  in  right  costal  region  anteriorly.  At  5  p.  m.,  took 
fourth  powder.  The  pain  in  costal  region  continues  slightly, 
and  slight  dull  frontal  headache  is  noticeable.  All  of  the  pains 
thus  far  are  of  a  bruised  character. 

Jan.  28th. — No  other  symptoms  were  noticed  until  this  morn- 
ing. He  got  up  rather  hurriedly,  with  colicky  pains  in  abdo- 
men, and  rather  loose  diarrhceaic  stool,  at  7  A.  M.  Had  a  similar 


1890.] 


PROVISOS  OF  SYPHILINUM. 


319 


attack  at  9  A.  M.,  with  some  tenderness  of  anus  after  stool. 
Noticed  the  nasal  discharge  to  be  slightly  discolored  with  blood 
on  two  different  occasions  this  morning  ;  had  not  noticed  this 
before.  Noticed  also  the  cough  has  almost  entirely,  if  not 
quite,  gone. 

Jan.  29th. — No  further  symptoms  noted.  The  cough  has  not 
troubled  him,  but  the  nose  still  annoys  him  at  times.  The  jaws 
still  ache  when  chewing. 

(2.)  October  17th,  1888. — Dr.  J.  reports  the  following  case 
of  poisoning:  In  early  part  of  February,  1887,  I  attended  to  a 
cut  on  head,  and  after  binding  it  up,  tried  to  tear  the  bandage. 
It  tore  hard,  and  when  it  gave  way  my  left  thumb-nail  cut  the 
second  joint  of  right  second  finger.  I  paid  no  attention  to  it,  as  all 
former  cuts  had  healed  nicely.  Next  day  was  called  to  a  case  of 
prolapsus  uteri,  and  replaced  it.  Since  learned  that  the  woman 
had  been  a  prostitute,  and  had  syphilis.  The  next  night  was 
called  to  a  case  of  labor ;  the  woman  has  since  died,  and  I  have 
reason  to  think  of  syphilis  in  some  form.  Not  then  knowing 
these  facts,  and  my  finger  not  healing,  wondered  at  it.  Some 
time  in  May  my  skin  became  covered  with  the  syphilitic  maculae, 
and  then  I  began  to  realize  what  was  the  trouble,  and  placed 
myself  under  the  care  of  a  Hahnemanniau  physician. 

After  the  macula?  followed  the  headache ;  mind  dwelt  upon 
suicide  ;  had  to  exert  all  my  will  to  keep  from  it.  The  suffer- 
ings were  terrible  ;  no  sleep,  except  with  cold  water  or  alcohol 
on  a  cloth,  and  laid  upon  eyes  and  forehead  aud  temples  ;  must 
have  head  high.  Was  in  the  country  when  at  the  worst  (June, 
1887).  One  day  feeling  so  very  despondent,  took  Aurumcm 
on  tongue,  and  slept  all  that  night,  and  continued  to  improve, 
all  except  the  hearing.  Began  to  grow  deaf,  with  all  the  noises 
possible  (still  have  the  hissing) ;  could  not  hear  a  person  with- 
out they  halloed  very  hard  ;  no  sound  from  clocks,  or  trains 
passing;  and  one  day,  when  I  went  down-town,  it  was  as  still 
as  death.  Hearing  is  nearly  normal  now.  Kept  along  feeling 
fairly,  until  May  8th,  1888,  when  a  severe  chill  took  me,  high 
fever ;  could  not  lie,  sit,  or  stand  j  better  moving,  though  that 
was  painful.    Took  Rhus-toxcm  at  last,  which  helped;  better 


320 


PBOVINGS. 


[July, 


next  day.  Then  began  to  grow  sick ;  swelling  of  right  epididy- 
mis, which  formed  an  abscess,  and  discharged.  Strabismus  of 
left  eye,  with  diplopia  ;  iritis.  Headaches  slight  ;  mind  good, 
except  disheartened.  Dyspepsia,  which  Mercury  aggravated. 
Now  began  to  eat  pop-corn,  and  have  continued  to-day  to  eat 
two  quarts  after  dinner.  lu  June,  1887,  lost  my  eyebrows,  which 
dropped  out,  and  in  June,  1888,  my  countenance  was  awful ; 
weight  went  down  to  about  135  pounds,  now  weigh  165.  The 
sore  on  finger  was  eight  months  healing,  and  still  shows  redness, 
and  is  less  firmly  adherent  to  bone. 

To-day  feel  better  than  for  two  years,  although  there  is  still 
the  noise  in  both  ears,  and  difficulty  in  hearing  some  noises, 
such  as  front-door  bell,  ticking  of  my  watch,  which  I  have  to 
press  against  ear,  and  some  words  which  begin  with  S,  T,  and  a 
few  other  letters.  Have  begun  to  use  glasses  to  read  and  write 
with. 

(3.)  SyphUinum  in  high  potency  has  cured  tinnitus  aurum, 
especially  in  right  ear,  worse  at  night. 


PEOVIXGS. 
Extracted  by  E.  W.  Berridge,  M.  D. 

Cannabis  Indica. — The  effects  of  Haschisch  are  given  in  Cos- 
selVs  Saturday  Journal,  Feb.  8th,  1890,  p.  476. 

A  lady  imagined  her  body  divided  in  half,  the  lower  portion 
running  away.  Under  the  dreadful  apprehension  that  life  would 
cease  if  they  were  not  quickly  re-united,  she  gave  chase  to  the 
seceding  lower  half. 

A  lady  imagined  her  toes  leaving  her  one  by  one ;  then  her 
lower  limbs  ;  the  fingers,  forearms,  arms,  and  lower  part  of  the 
trunk  followed,  and  just  as  her  heart  was  struggling  to  escape  she 
awoke.  [I  conclude  "  awoke  "  means  "  awoke  from  her  halluci- 
nation," as  there  is  no  mention  of  sleep. — E.  W.  Berridge.] 

A  gentleman  walked  ten  miles,  or  more,  visited  several 
friends,  acting  rationally  all  the  time,  but  without  the  slightest 
knowledge  of  what  he  had  done.    He  was  surprised  on  finding 


1890.] 


COKRESPONDENCE. 


321 


himself  at  the  extreme  end  of  the  city,  without  knowing  how  he 
got  there.  When  he  subsequently  learned  of  the  visits  he  had 
made,  carrying  on  conversation  in  a  natural  manner,  appearing 
only  a  trifle  dull,  he  could  scarcely  believe  it. 

Tabacum. — In  Titbits,  1889,  vol.  16,  May,  page  61,  a  corres- 
pondent writes  that  smoking  caused  in  him  color-blindness,  and 
that  on  more  than  one  occasion  he  gave  a  sovereign  instead  of  a 
shilling,  through  this  defect.  This  has  not  occurred  since  he 
ceased  smoking. 

CORRESPONDENCE, 

Nonchalanta,  Kansas,  April  2d,  1890. 

Editors  Homoeopathic  Physician  : — There  is  one  thing 
I  wish  you  would  do  for  the  good  of  all  your  readers,  and  this  one 
in  particular.  I  am  sure  this  one  thing  would  be  of  highest  im- 
portance to  the  great  mass  of  your  very  large  circle  of  readers.. 
It  is  this:  To  publish  in  The  Homoeopathic  Physician 
a  repertory  of  "the  red  string  symptoms"  the  peculiar  char- 
acteristic symptoms  of  the  drugs  containing  them.  For  instance, 
Sabina  has  the  pain  from  back  to  pubes  in  most  complaints. 
Phos.,  the  great  sense  of  weakness  and  emptiness  in  the  abdomen. 
Plumbum,  string  pulling  from  abdomen  to  the  back,  etc.,  etc.,  etc. 

Such  a  repertory  would  aid  in  selecting  the  proper  remedy. 
I  don't  mean  it  to  be  the  only  symptoms  from  which  to  prescribe, 
but  the  symptom  to  lead  to  the  true  remedy  covering  all  the  case. 

Fraternally, 

W.  A.  YlNGI.lNG. 

[We  have  such  a  repertory  as  above  described  partly  finished. 
We  have  no  idea  when  it  will  be  done,  as  we  are  already  over- 
taxed with  the  combined  duties  of  the  journal  and  our  prac- 
tice. Dr.  Lee's  Repertory  of  Characteristics  will  be,  when  it  is 
finished,  a  complete  index  to  all  characteristics,  key-notes,  and 
red  string  symptoms  in  the  materia  medica.  The  second 
chapter  upon  the  head,  for  which  so  much  inquiry  has  been 
made,  is  at  last  nearing  completion — five  forms,  representing 
eighty  pages,  having  been  run  through  the  press. — Eds.] 
21 


A  STUDY  US  MATERIA  MEDICA. 


J.  T.  Kent,  M.  D.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

There  is  a  physician  in  this  city,  or  at  least  he  has  a  sign  on 
his  door,  going  about  day  and  night  seemingly  not  in  his  right 
mind,  or  if  he  be  perfectly  sane,  what  he  does  and  says  might 
be  attributed  to  buffoonery  (Strain.)  with  desire  to  calumniate 
(Ipec),  but  if  a  very  generous  view  be  taken  of  the  matter,  he 
is  not  responsible  for  his  words  and  conduct.  He  bellows  on 
the  street  (Bell.,  Canth.),  and  assumes  an  air  of  importance 
(Hyos.,  Strain.).  Some  of  his  friends  have  observed  great 
anxiety  with  sweat  (Ars.,  Graph.).  There  is^  great  awkwardness 
about  his  movements  and  he  drops  things  (Apis).  He  is  ad- 
vanced in  years  prematurely  (Bar.-c,  Ant.-c.) ;  he  is  said  to  be 
astute  in  his  madness  (Anac),  and  is  much  worse  in  his  mental 
aberrations  when  alone  (Elaps.,  Phos.,  or  Stram.)  with  no  one  to 
talk  to.  He  is  given  to  alternations  of  humor  (Ignatia),  i.  e., 
irritability  with  cowardice  (Ran. -bulb.).  He  is  very  jealous 
(Hyos.)  and  seems  to  have  an  aversion  to  his  own  business 
(Sepia  or  Kali.-c.)  because  he  attends  so  diligently  to  that  of 
others.  He  has  not  manifested  any  desire  to  destroy  his  own 
clothing,  but  often  rips  his  neighbor's  coat  up  the  back  (Verat.). 
In  all  his  ravings  he  is  tearless,  yet  he  is  anxious  from  a  slight 
noise  (Caust.,  Silic,  or  Aurum),  and  he  seems  to  dread  a  storm 
(Xat.-c,  Phos.).  He  has  at  times  shown  great  apprehensiveness 
(Hyos.)  with  an  active  cerebral  hyperemia  (Glon.).  He  sees 
faces  from  every  corner  (Phos.),  and  was  known  to  make  rapid 
movements  in  the  street  at  the  sight  of  a  hand-organ  (Phos.-ac), 
so  great  is  his  aversion  to  music.  Sometimes  he  thinks  he  sees 
cats  (Puis.,  Stram.)  and  is  said  to  be  childish  in  his  behavior 
(Crocus).  Again  he  imagines  he  sees  far  into  the  future  (Aeon., 
Phos.-ac),  and  his  comprehension  is  decidedly  difficult  (Lyc.) 
especially  of  what  he  hears  (Cham.,  Xat.-c).  He  frequently 
manifests  a  lack  of  self-confidence  (Bar.-c,  Kali.-c),  because  he 
322 


July,  1890.] 


DR.  GUERNSEY'S  DEFENSE. 


323 


knows  that  there  are  people  living  who  know  the  real  cause  of 
his  insanity  (Phos.).  Occasionally  his  conscience  troubles  him 
(Ars.,  Cocc),  and  a  small  boy  frightened  him  the  other  day  by 
saving  "  rats  !"  (Calc).  He  often  looks  back  as  if  pursued  by 
enemies  (Pros.,  Lach.).  He  went  home  and  looked  in  the  look- 
ing-glass and  thought  he  saw  a  goose  (Hyos.).  At  times  he  is 
of  a  slanderous  turn  of  mind  (Xux)  and  lacking  in  moral 
feeling  (Anac).  His  pride  is  wonderful  (Plat.).  He  often 
walks  in  his  sleep  (Phos.)  and  starts  at  a  slight  noise  (Borax) 
and  has  a  dread  of  thieves  (Ars.,  Lach.).  Perhaps  a  nosode 
would  cure  him  if  the  product  of  his  disease  could  be  run 
through  Dr.  Swan's  potentizer.  The  remedy  that  causes  the 
totality  of  symptoms  does  not  appear,  even  after  long  study. 
Even  "  Christian  Science "  has  failed  to  make  a  man  of  him. 
It  bas  recently  been  reported  that  he  has  resorted  to  stimulants, 
and  still  he  tails.  Is  there  no  saving  a  man  wTho  will  not  save 
himself?  Echo  answers,  "  no  saving !" — Journal  of  Homoeo- 
pathies, May  No.,  page  13. 


DP.  GUERNSEY'S  DEFENSE. 

Editor  of  The  Homceopathic  Physician  : — Your  favor 
of  the  31st  of  May,  calling  attention  to  a  marked  copy  of  the 
June  issue  of  The  Homceopathic  Physician  which  you 
kindly  sent,  Is  at  hand.  On  turning  to  the  page  indicated  in 
your  note,  I  find  a  letter  from  Dr.  E.  Carleton.  The  resolution 
to  which  Dr.  Carleton  refers  is  identical  in  sentiment,  if  not 
entirely  in  language,  with  the  one-  passed  by  the  Xew  York 
County  Homoeopathic  Medical  Society  several  years  ago,  but  at 
a  later  date  rescinded  by  a  small  majority  under  the  leadership 
of  Dr.  Bayard.  The  commissioners  had  sent  the  communication 
from  the  County  Society  respecting  the  Ward's  Island  Hospital 
to  the  Medical  Board  to  answer.  The  resolution  was  part  of 
the  proceedings  of  the  meeting,  and.  was  forwarded  to  the  com- 
missioners as  part  of  the  minutes.  Several  weeks  later,  Dr. 
Carleton,  who  was  not  present  at  the  meeting — in  fact,  he  has 
not  been  present  at  any  of  the  regular  meetings  of  the  Medical 


324 


DIPHTHERIA. 


[July, 


Board  for  several  years — addressed  me  the  letter  published  in 
your  journal.  Simply  as  a  matter  of  courtesy,  this  letter  was 
read  to  the  Board  and  a  minute  made  of  Dr.  Carleton's  dissent. 
No  answer  was  sent,  as  in  my  estimation  none  was  required. 
It  is  a  pity  that  Dr.  Carleton  has  not  always  been  so  eager  to 
avoid  the  appearance  of  consent  by  silence.  At  a  later  date,  I 
was  requested  by  several  members  of  the  Board  to  get  the 
opinion  of  its  members  in  regard  to  a  change  of  name,  as  the 
commissioners  contemplated  changing  the  names  of  several  of 
the  institutions  under  their  care.  This  I  did,  in  a  letter  ad- 
dressed to  each  member  of  the  Board.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
Dr.  Carleton  thought  it  was  obligatory  upon  him  as  a  gentleman 
to  send  to  the  public  print  a  letter  written  by  the  president  of  a 
hospital  in  the  strict  discharge  of  his  official  duty. 

Possibly,  if  Dr.  Carleton  would  take  more  direct  interest  in 
the  hospital  itself  and  attend  more  closely  to  his  official  duties, 
it  might  save  him  the  trouble  of  visiting  his  supposed  grievances 
upon  the  public. 

Respectfully  yours, 

Egbert  Guernsey. 


DIPHTHERIA. 

Wm.  Steinratjf,  M.  D.,  St.  Charles,  Mo. 

There  have  been  quite  a  few  cases  of  diphtheria  in  our  city 
during  the  past  two  months,  and  quite  a  number  of  deaths 
therefrom.  In  a  good  many  cases  the  diphtheritic  exudation  was 
accompanied  with  what  is  known  as  scarlet  rash  or  German 
measles.  I  will  state  right  here  that  the  use  of  high  potencies 
has  given  the  best  results  in  these  cases.  One  or  two  doses  of 
the  indicated  remedy  was  generally,  might  say  always,  all-suffi- 
cient. 

Nasal  types  of  a  severe  form,  such  as  we  had  them,  were  well 
met  by  Bromium,  Lac-caninum,  Lachesis,  Lycopodium,  and  Sul- 
phur. Most  cases  required  Lachesis  or  Lycopodium.  In  the 
croupous  forms  Bromium  or  Lac-caninum;  in  the  haemorrhagic- 
types  Lachesis  or  Sulphur. 


1890.]      THE  INDIANA  INSTITUTE  OF  HOMOEOPATHY.  325 


No  swabs,  no  gargles,  no  external  means  of  any  kind  were 
employed,  and  the  results  were  all  that  could  be  desired. 

When  the  last  and  greatest  complication  arises ;  no  reaction, 
constantly  and  steadily  sinking,  cold  and  clammy  skin,  cold 
sweat,  stupor,  give  Sulphur  at  once.  These  cases  invariably  die 
unless  a  dose  or  two  of  Sulphur  is  interposed. 

Is  there  a  prophylactic  against  diphtheria  ?  For  the  last  three 
years  I  have  obtained  Diphtherincm  (Swan),  and  in  every 
epidemic  since  I  have  given  my  patients  this  remedy,  two  or 
three  doses  a  week.  With  what  results  do  you  ask  ?  So  far  I 
have  never  had  a  case  of  diphtheria  where  this  was  given  as  a 
preventive. — America  n  Homceopathist. 


THE  INDIANA  INSTITUTE  OF  HOMOEOPATHY. 

The  Indiana  Institute  began  its  twenty-fourth  annual  meeting 
at  Indianapolis  May  14th,  1890.  After  prayer  by  the  Rev.  E. 
P.  Whallon,  a  warm  welcome  was  given  to  the  doctors  by  Dr. 
O.  S.  Runnels,  who  was  followed  by  the  President,  Dr.  J.  F. 
Thompson,  with  his  address. 

He  made  a  retrospect  of  Homoeopathy,  noting  its  effect  upon 
medical  practice,  and  also  gave  a  glance  as  to  its  future  possi- 
bilities. He  claimed  that  to  Homoeopathy  is  due  all  the  radical 
modifications  of  the  allopathic  school  during  the  last  fifty  years, 
while  the  true  homoeopathic  physician  of  to-day  is  following 
the  same  fundamental  law  of  cure  discovered  by  Samuel  Hahne- 
mann one  century  ago.  That  principle  is  as  plain  and  emphatic 
now  as  it  ever  was.  Each  one  of  nature's  products,  he  said,  is 
capable  of  exerting  some  influence  upon  some  other  of  her  crea- 
tions, either  good  or  bad,  or,  under  certain  and  different  circum- 
stances, both  good  and  bad.  But  nature  provides  the  way  in 
which  that  influence  must  be  exerted  to  produce  those  effects. 
The  same  power  which  gives  life  takes  it  again,  and  the  same 
power  which  takes  life  in  one  instance  gives  it  in  another,  but 
both  are  invariably  done  according  to  some  law  established  and 
laid  down  by  that  power.  Consequently,  if  nature  fixes  by 
law  the  amount  of  a  drug  or  agent  necessary  to  produce  death, 


326       THE  INDIANA  INSTITUTE  OF  HOMOEOPATHY.  [July, 


why,  also,  does  she  not  fix  the  amount  necessary  of  such  drug 
or  agent  to  restore  a  diseased  condition,  and  thereby  prolong 
life? 

The  bureau  of  surgery  was  opened  with  a  paper  by  Dr.  R.  St. 
J.  Perry,  of  Indianapolis,  which  was  discussed  up  to  the  noon 
hour,  when  adjournment  was  taken  until  two  p.  M.,  when  a 
report  on  the  condition  of  Homoeopathy  in  Indiana  was  made 
by  counties.  There  are  two  hundred  and  thirty  homoeopathic 
physicians  in  the  State,  and  thirty-six  county  seats  without  auy 
physicians  of  this  school. 

Dr.  A.  L.  Monroe,  of  Louisville,  Ky.,  President  of  the 
delegates  from  the  Kentucky  Homoeopathic  Society,  reported 
that  the  cause  was  growing  rapidly  throughout  the  entire  South. 
Following  this  came  the  reading  of  a  number  of  papers,  among 
which  were  "  Orificial  Work,"  by  Dr.  E.  W.  Viets,  Plymouth ; 
"  Surgery  and  Therapeutics,"  by  Dr.  J.  D.  George,  Indianapo- 
lis ;  "  Anti-Vaccination/'  by  Dr.  W.  H.  Baker,  of  Terre 
Haute. 

In  the  evening  Dr.  G.  W.  Bowen,  of  Fort  Wayne,  opened 
the  clinical  bureau  with  a  paper  on  "  Anticipative  Treatment/' 
showing  how  many  diseases  may  be  preventeol  or  headed  off  by 
certain  medicines.  This  paper  was  a  very  interesting  one,  and 
was  followed  by  one  by  Dr.  J.  R.  Haynes,  of  Indianapolis,  on 
the  province  and  use  of  certain  medicines. 

The  second  day's  session  began  with  a  paper  by  Dr.  W.  H. 
Baker,  of  Terre  Haute,  on  "  Vaccination,"  in  which  he  took  a 
decided  stand  against  it.  Dr.  W.  B.  Clarke,  of  Indianapolis,  spoke 
at  length,  detailing  some  of  the  dangers  of  vaccination  as  a  dis- 
ease-causer, and  as  to  the  sources  of  impurities.  Dr.  F.  L. 
Davis,  of  Evansville,  recounted  his  la  grippe  cases  and  their 
management.  Dr.  J.  S.  Mitchell,  a  distinguished  Chicago  phy- 
sician, President  of  the  Homeopathic  College  in  that  city,  was 
then  introduced  as  a  delegate  from  the  Illinois  Society.  He 
responded  with  a  paper  detailing  his  treatment  for  cancer,  a  dis- 
ease of  which  he  claims  to  have  cured  many  cases.  Dr.  D.  H. 
Dean,  of  Columbus,  and  Dr.  D.  Clappes,  of  Mooreland,  fol- 
lowed with  papers  detailing  cases  of  typhoid  fever  and  other 


1890.]      THE  INDIANA  INSTITUTE  OF  HOMOEOPATHY.  327 


diseases.  Dr.  Alice  C.  Nivison,  of  Lafayette,  then  contributed 
a  valuable  paper  on  "  Melancholia."  Dr.  H.  Louis,  President 
of  the  Missouri  Society,  was  introduced,  and  responded  felicit- 
ously as  to  the  condition  of  Homeopathy  in  that  State,  as  did 
Prof.  Thomas  M.  Stewart,  of  Pulte  College,  Cincinnati,  for  the 
Ohio  doctors.  Dr.  F.  L.  Davis,  of  Evausville,  contributed  a 
paper  on  "  Materia  Medica." 

The  election  of  officers  for  the  ensuing  year  then  resulted  : 
President,  E.  W.  Sawyer,  Kokomo  ;  First  Vice-President, 
M.  H.  Waters,  Terre  Haute  ;  Second  Vice-President,  W.  T. 
Gott,  Crawfordsville  ;  Treasurer,  J.  S.  Martin,  Muncie  ;  Sec- 
retary, William  B.  Clarke,  Indianapolis. 

In  the  afternoon  Dr.  I.  N.  Taylor,  of  Crawfordsville,  President 
of  the  State  Board  of  Health,  read  a  paper  on  "  Germ  Culture 
as  Related  to  the  Examination  of  Water,"  and  Dr.  M.  H. 
Waters,  of  Terre  Haute,  gave  a  somewhat  similar  paper  on 
"  Germs  and  their  Relation  to  Disease." 

The  two  papers  were  interesting  and  well  illustrated.  Dr. 
Taylor  was  tendered  a  vote  of  thanks  for  his  extended  labors  on 
the  State  Board  of  Health,  as  reflecting  great  credit  on  his 
Society  and  School.  Dr.  W.  B.  Clarke  read  a  paper  on  "  The 
Brain  Dangers  of  Quinine,"  taking  the  ground  that  many  cases 
of  insanity,  suicide,  and  even  murder,  are  caused  by  its  reckless 
use.  He  followed  with  a  short  and  interesting  paper  on 
"  Cremation." 

Dr.  S.  J.  Hayes,  of  Pittsburg,  then  gave  a  practical  illustra- 
tion of  a  new  and  safe  method  of  produciug  anaesthesia  with  his 
apparatus.  It  was  tested  on  a  patient,  a  little  daughter  of  one 
of  the  city  physicians,  while  Dr.  W.  A.  Dunn,  of  the 
Hahnemann  College,  Chicago,  a  skilled  throat  operator,  performed 
a  difficult  operation  on  the  back  part  of  the  nose  for  a  serious 
obstruction.  Both  were  very  successful.  Dr.  Taylor  then  called 
attention  to  an  apparent  injustice  done  Prof.  S.  A.  Jones,  of  the 
Michigan  University,  Ann  Arbor,  several  years  ago,  in  dropping 
him  from  the  rolls  of  the  Institute  through  an  inadvertence. 
The  Society  decided  that  his  distinguished  services  to  it  and  its 
interests  were  universally  recognized,  and  it  could  not  afford  to 


BOOK  NOTICES. 


[July, 


be  placed  in  the  attitude  of  even  accidentally  putting  a  slight 
on  Dr.  Jones,  and  everything  bearing  thereon  was  ordered 
expunged. 

Dr.  J.  S.  Martin,  of  Muncie,  read  his  paper  on  "  Abrasions  of 
the  Cervix,"  and  Dr.  L.  W.  Jordan,  of  Indianapolis,  read  one 
on  "  Hyperopia,"  a  severe  eye  trouble,  which  called  out  quite  a 
discussion  and  many  inquiries.  Other  papers  were  as  follows: 
"  Can  Criminals  be  Reformed,  or  Crimes  be  Prevented  by 
Medical  Treatment  f  by  Dr.  G.  W.  Bowen,  Fort  Wayne  ;  "The 
Philosophy  of  Homeopathy  as  Taught  by  Nature,"  by  Dr.  E. 
P.  Jones,  Marion  ;  (t  Professional  Hobby-Riders,"  by  Dr.  J.  E. 
Mann,  Decatur,  and  "Infantile  Convulsions,"  by  Dr.  Anna  B. 
Campbell,  Ilockville.  u  Divulsion  for  Stenosis  of  Cervical 
Canal,"  by  Dr.  O.  S.  Runnels,  Indianapolis;  "Obstetrics  in 
Relation  to  Gynecology,"  by  Dr.  E.  B.  Grosvenor  ;  "Abortion 
and  its  Management,"  by  Dr.  J.  E.  AVelliver,  Rushville  ;  "  Puer- 
peral Pelvi-Peritonitis,"  by  Dr.  W.  D.  Hill,  Greencastle  ;  "  A 
Bad  Confinement  That  Did  Well,"  by  Dr.  J.  N.  Lucas,  Shelby- 
ville  ;  "  Laryngismus  Sicca,"  by  Dr.  W.  A.  Dunn,  Wabash ; 
"Atrophic  Rhinitis,"  by  Dr.  J.  N.  Taylor,  Crawfordsville  ; 
"  Intubation  in  Laryngeal  Stenosis,"  by  Dr.  E.  Z.  Cole,  Michigan 
City  ;  "  Laryngismus  Stridulus,"  by  Dr.  C.  J.  F.  Ellis,  Ligonier. 


BOOK  NOTICES. 

The  Homoeopathic  Treatment  of  Alcoholism.  By 
Dr.  Gallavardin,  of  Lyons,  France.  Translated  from  the 
French  by  Irenseus  D.  Foulon,  A.  M.,  M.  D.,  LL.  B., 
Philadelphia.  Hahnemann  Publishing  House,  921  Arch 
Street.  1890. 

This  clever  and  interesting  little  book  of  138  pages  is  a  plea  for  genuine 
hom  jeopathic  treatment  of  drunkenness.    The  author  says : 

"A  few  drunkards  can  be  cured  by  means  of  moral  instruction,  care  in  diet  and 
hygiene,  but  in  the  far  larger  number,  the  tendency  to  inebriety  is  the  result  of  a  species 
of  morbid  impulse  which  is  well-nigh  irresistible." 

************ 

"  Hitherto  homceopathic  medicine  has  proved  itself  quite  as  unable  to  cure  drunken- 
ness, because,  with  rare  exceptions,  homoeopathic  physicians,  not  knowing  how  to  uti- 


1890.] 


BOOK  NOTICES. 


329 


lize  the  wealth  of  their  materia  medica,  have  failed  to  follow  these  two  precepts  of  their 
master  Hahnemann  : 

'*  1st.  In  the  choice  of  remedies  note  the  intellectual  and  moral  symptoms  presented  by 
the  patient  and  produced  by  the  drug  proved  upon  the  healthy  subject. 

"2d.  In  chronic  diseases  give  in  one  dose  the  remedy  selected,  then  let  it  act  for  weeks 
and  months. 

"  Having  followed  on  these  two  points,  the  precepts  of  Hahnemann,  I  have  been  able  to 
cure  inebriates  of  their  vice  in  one-half  of  my  cases,  when  the  vice  was  not  hereditary 
and  that  by  causing  to  be  administered  to  them,  without  their  knowledge,  in  their  food 
or  their  drink,  the  remedy  selected  for  each  of  them." 

Then  follow  indications  for  fourteen  remedies  useful  in  drunkenness.  These 
remedies  in  the  order  of  their  importance  are  as  follow :  Xux-vornica, 
Lachesis,  Causticum,  Sulphur,  Calcarea-carbonica,  Hepar,  Arsenicum-albuni, 
Mercurius,  Petroleum,  Opium,  Staphysagria,  Conium,  Pulsatilla,  Magnesia- 
carbonica.  They  are  to  be  administered  according  to  indications  preferably 
in  the  two  hundredth  potency,  one  single  dose  for  two,  three,  four,  six,  or  seven 
weeks. 

From  this  statement  it  will  be  seen  that  the  book  teaches  sound  homoeo- 
pathic doctrine,  and  is  to  be  commended  to  the  whole  profession.    W.  M.  J. 

Electricity  in  the  Diseases  of  Women,  with  special  ref- 
erence to  the  application  of  strong  currents.  By  G.  Betton 
Massev,  M.  D.  Second  edition,  revised  and  enlarged.  F.  A. 
Davis,  Publisher,  1231  Filbert  Street,  Philadelphia,  1890. 
Price,  SI. 50  net. 

Less  than  a  year  ago,  the  first  edition  of  this  clever  book  was  reviewed  in 
these  pages — August  number,  1889,  page  358.  What  was  then  said  in  praise 
of  the  book  is  equally  applicable  now  that  it  has  been  enlarged  and  improved. 
The  illustrations  are  excellent  and  of  the  latest  types  of  electrical  apparatus. 
One  of  the  points  about  the  book  that  catches  our  eye  is  the  "  Graphic  Repre- 
sentation of  the  Law  of  Ohm,"  at  page  219.  It  is  excellent  for  all  who  are 
not  mathemati  nans.  There  is  an  evident  misprint  in  the  last  line  at  page  221, 
where  the  word  ampere  should  be  substituted  for  Ohm.  W.  Iff.  J. 

The  Guiding  Symptoms  of  our  Materia  Medica.  By 
C.  Hering,  M.  D.  Volume  VIII.  Philadelphia.  Pub- 
lished by  the  Estate  of  Constantine  Hering,  112  North 
TwelfthStreet. 

This  noble  volume,  the  eighth  section  of  Dr.  Hering's  incomparable  materia 
medica,  is  now  before  the  profession.  It  contains  658  pages,  and  includes  all 
the  remedies  in  alphabetical  order  from  Xatrum-phosphoricum  to  Pulsatilla. 

Its  well-known  arrangement  of  symptoms,  each  symptom  standing  alone,  is 
in  itself  a  recommendation,  as  it  makes  the  finding  of  any  particular  indication 
a  much  easier  task.  Another  admirable  arrangement  is  the  chapter  upon 
sensations  to  be  found  under  each  remedy.  This  feature  is  an  additional  help 
in  the  search  for  the  simillinmm.    Among  the  recent  remedies  introduced  we 


330 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 


find  Cod-Liver  Oil  and  Polygonum,  or  Smart  Weed.  Nothing,  however,  has 
been  admitted  that  has  not  been  proved.  We  consider  it  a  reliable  work,  and 
make  constant  use  of  it  in  our  own  practice. 

The  delay  in  the  appearance  of  the  present  volume  is  explained  by  the  pub- 
lisher to  be  due  to  the  edition  of  the  first  four  volumes  having  been  exhausted^ 
owing  to  the  increased  demand  for  the  work,  and  the  need  to  print  them  over 
again.  The  pages  not  having  been  stereotyped,  it  was  necessary  to  set  up  every 
line  anew.  W.  M.  J. 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 

Actinomycosis. — This  is  the  name  of  a  new  disease  which  is  spreading 
among  cattle.  It  is  popularly  known  as  "Cancer-jaw,"  "big-jaw,"  "lump- 
jaw,"  and  "lumpy-jaw."  The  scientific  name,  actinomycosis  (or  actinomy- 
kosis,  as  it  is  sometimes  printed),  is  derived  from  the  vegetable  organization 
called  actinomyces,  one  of  the  fungi,  or  mold,  so  named  by  Ilarz,  professor  of 
botany  at  Munich,  about  twelve  years  ago,  the  word  coming  from  two  Greek 
words  meaning  ray — the  microscopic  appearance  of  the  organization  being  that 
of  an  eccentric  radiating  structure — and  fungus.  The  disease  was  first  thought 
to  be  a  form  of  consumption,  or  identical  with  it,  but  it  is  not,  nor  is  it  neces- 
sarily confined  to  the  jaws  or  its  bones,  but  may  invade  the  mouth,  tongue, 
nose,  stomach,  lungs,  udder,  or  skin.  In  many  instances  has  the  fact  that  the 
disease  is  inoculable  been  proven,  and  hence  it  is  considered  transmissible  and 
infectious  under  favorable  circumstances,  especially  when  an  injury  resulting 
in  an  external  or  internal  wound  has  been  received. 

Mr.  George  Fleming,  of  England,  one  of  the  few  men  to  thoroughly  investi- 
gate this  disease  said:  "The  progress  of  pathological  research  is  continually 
demonstrating  the  mighty  part  played  by  microscopic  vegetable  organisms  in 
the  production  of  disease  in  plants  and  animals,  generally  leading  to  their  de- 
struction, and  with  more  or  less  rapidity.  The  feeblest  and  smallest  as  well  as 
the  largest  and  most  powerful  are  alike  exposed  to  the  ravages  of  these  invad- 
ing relentless  foes,  whose  attack  is  all  the  more  destructive  because  it  can  rarely 
be  detected  at  the  onset ;  and  their  extreme  minuteness  and  tenuity,  as  well 
as  their  insidious  and  obscure  manner  of  operating  are  also  so  many  barriers 
to  timely  recognition  and  protective  measures  against  their  assaults." 

He  thinks  it  probable  that  the  animal  contracts  the  disease  from  eating 
mouldy  hay  or  straw  (in  other  words,  food  with  the  fungus  already  on  it), 
especially  if  there  are  scratches,  fissures,  abrasions,  or  wounds  in  the  mouth  or 
on  the  jaw,  though  he  does  not  say  that  it  may  not  occur  in  some  o.ther  way. 
In  animals  the  tendency  is  to  cause  new-formation  tumors,  and  hardening  or 
degenerations  of  tissues,  but  in  man  (and  he  records  sixteen  cases  in  man), 
it  tends  to  cause  suppurative  processes  and  metastatic  abscesses.  Until  within 
a  few  years  many  cattle  diseases,  so-called,  wTere  known,  which  are  now  known 
to  be  only  different  manifestations  of  this  one  disease,  modified  by  location 
principally,  so  I  will  now  describe  a  typical  case,  as  affecting  the  typical 
point — the  jaw — as  described  by  Mr.  Fleming: 


1.890.] 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 


331 


In  1877  Professor  Bollinger,  of  Vienna,  drew  attention  to  this  disease,, 
which  he  claimed  was  frequent,  which  consisted  in  a  kind  of  new-formation 
tumor  that  appeared  on  the  upper  or  lower  jaw,  at  the  roots  of  the  teeth,  or 
sprang  from  the  spongy  tissues  of  the  bone,  gradually  displacing  the  teeth, 
invading  and  destroying  the  healthy  tissues,  muscles,  and  skin,  abscesses  form- 
ing, the  tumor  at  times  reaching  the  size  of  a  child's  head,  the  bones  being 
reduced  to  an  appearance  resembling  pumice  stone.  (He  found  another  form 
affecting  the  tongue,  and  within  a  year  had  six  tongue  specimens  sent  him 
from  Bavaria  alone.)  I  need  not  detail  the  minutiae  pertaining  to  the  mi- 
croscopical appearances  found,  or  how  they  were  arrived  at,  and  will  simply 
say  that  the  actinomycosis  fungus  or  mold  is,  in  many  respects,  similar  to  the 
common  green  mold,  pencillium  glaucum,  which  grows  on  paste,  jam,  damp 
leather,  etc.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  the  affected  animal  would  soon  show 
emaciation  and  debility,  resulting  largely  from  its  inability  to  masticate  its 
food,  and  death  would  result ;  but  this  result  rarely  follows,  because  the  course 
of  the  disease  is  ended  more  summarily — by  death  at  the  hands  of  the  butcher 
in  order  to  turn  the  animal  into  "  beef."  A  frequent  complication  in  one  of 
these  cases  is  the  inevitable  one  that  as  soon  as  a  tumor  gets  opened  on  the 
outside  it  becomes  fly-blown,  and  consequently  maggotty,  so  that  the  poor  animal 
writhes  with  the  tortune  of  having  to  entertain  a  convocation  of  politic  and 
vigorous  worms  who  lunch  off  his  own  flesh. — Dr.  Wm.  B.  Clarke,  in  the 
Indianapolis  Journal. 

Removals. — Dr.  A.  B.  Eadie  has  removed  from  237  King  Street  to  137 
Church  Street,  Toronto,  Canada.  Dr.  C.  S.  Durand,  from  Mungelo  to  Hurda. 
Central  Provinces,  India.  Dr.  Charles  H.  Young,  from  Baltimore  to  1248 
Bedford  Avenue,  Brooklyn.  Dr.  C.  Eurich,  from  80  Second  Avenue  to  119 
East  86th  Street,  New  York  City.  Dr.  Wm.  R.  Powel,  from  3718  Chestnut 
Street  to  3735  Walnut  Street,  Philadelphia.  Dr.  F.  C.  Hood,  from  Marysville 
to  Alta,  California.  Dr.  H.  H.  Crippen,  from  San  Diego,  California,  to  78 
Maiden  Lane,  New  York,  where  he  will  take  editorial  charge  of  The  Homoeo- 
pathic Journal  Obstetrics,  published  by  A.  L.  Chatterton  &  Co.  Dr.  L.  A. 
Ren  Dell  Goodrich,  from  Hartford  to  Sayville,  New  York.  Dr.  F.  W. 
Grundmann,  from  2344  Washington  Street  to  corner  Jefferson  Avenue  and 
Wash  Street,  St.  Louis.  Dr.  E.  T.  Balch,  from  South  Bend,  Washington,  to 
Summerland,  California.  Dr.  D.  Albert  Hiller,  from  1011  Sutter  Street  to  220 
Montgomery  Avenue,  San  Francisco.  Dr.  O.  B.  Gause,  formerly  of  Philadel- 
phia, has  established  his  office  for  the  summer  at  302  Asbury  Avenue,  Asbury 
Park,  New  Jersey.    His  winter  office  is  at  Aiken,  South  Carolina. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Indiana  Medical  Society  (allopathic),  held  in  June 
last,  Dr.  J.  L.  Thomp  son  read  a  paper  that  bore  the  strange  title,  "An 
Ischiophagus.''  It  referred  to  the  famous  freak,  the  Tipton-county  twins. 
This  paper  was  by  Dr.  T.  O.  Armfield,  who  gave  a  medical  description  of  this 
two-headed  baby.  He  noted  that  the  brains  of  both  were  well  developed,  and 
the  children  quite  handsome  and  exceedingly  bright  for  their  age.  One 
would  cry  while  the  other  laughed  or  slept,  and  one  would  experience  pain 


332- 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 


[July, 


while  the  other  suffered  none.  They  were  put  upon  a  museum  circuit,  Sep- 
tember 21st,  when  three  mouths  old,  and  died  at  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  February  21st, 
1890,  when  eight  months  old.  One  died  from  measles  and  the  other  died 
forty-five  minutes  thereafter,  from  shock  caused  by  the  cold  blood  rushing 
into  its  veins  from  the  dead  child,  and  its  inability  to  oxygenize  the  dead 
blood.  u  How  much  longer  these  children  might  have  lived  had  they  not 
contracted  the  measles,  or  some  accident  befallen  them,"  said  the  Doctor  in 
conclusion,  "  we  cannot  tell,  but  it  is  probable  they  had  lived  their  allotted 
time.  They  had  arrived  at  an  age  when  nature  demands  some  exercise,  and 
as  they  could  neither  be  set  up  nor  turned  over  sufficient  to  relieve  a  congested 
organ  or  a  part  of  an  organ,  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  some  part  would 
have  soon  suffered  from  a  non-equalization  of  the  circulation."  The  Doctor 
thought  their  lives  had  been  lengthened  by  the  constant  exhibition  they  had 
been  given  every  hour  through  the  day,  when  they  were  seen  and  examined 
in  every  possible  position. 

The  Electric  Railway  as  a  Sanitary  Measure.— The  rapid  extension 
of  the  electric  street-car  system  which  has  taken  place  (especially  in  this 
country ),  naturally  leads  to  the  question  of  the  cause  thereof.  To  have  gained 
such  pre-eminence  it  must  be  able  to  do  not  only  what  other  systems  can  do, 
but  still  more,  it  must  be  able  to  do  it  at  a  decreased  cost.  Again,  removal  of 
thousands  of  horses  from  the  streets  of  a  city,  involving,  as  it  does,  the  doing 
away  with  the  noise  and  dirt,  is  another  distinct  gain  to  its  residents.  But  if 
one  goes  still  further,  and  contemplates  the  difference  between  a  stable  housing 
thousands  of  horses,  and  an  electric  car  station  of  sufficient  size  to  operate  a 
road  with  the  some  efficiency,  one  is  at  once  struck  with  the  advantages  on 
the  side  of  the  electric  system,  which,  indeed,  are  incontrovertible.  Instead  of 
a  large,  ill-smelling  building,  whose  odors  are  wafted  for  many  blocks  (making 
the  tenancy  of  houses  within  half  a  mile  almost  unbearable,  and  involving  a 
large  depreciation  of  property  jn  the  neighborhood),  there  is  a  neat,  substan- 
tial building,  equipped  with  a  steam  plant  and  dynamos,  and  occupying  hardly 
one-tenth  the  space  required  for  an  equivalent  number  of  horses.  Therefore, 
not  only  is  there  effected  a  removal  of  the  nuisances  attached  to  a  stable,  but 
a  large  saving  in  the  cost  of  real  estate,  and  the  far  greater  amount  involved 
in  the  known  depreciation  of  the  surrounding  property.  Besides  this,  the 
stables  are  of  necessity  required  to  be  in  close  proximity  to  the  track,  whereas 
the  electric  power  station,  which  furnishes  current  to  the  car,  may  be  situated 
a  mile  from  the  track  in  some  suitable  place,  as  for  instance,  beside  a  river, 
where,  with  condensing  engines,  power  may  be  generated  at  a  minimum  cost. 
— Exchange. 

Consumption  not  Contagious. — The  annual  session  of  the  State  Medical 
Association  opened  at  Pittsburg,  June  10th.  One  hundred  and  fifty  delegates 
were  present  from  all  parts  of  the  State,  and  a  number  of  interesting  papers 
were  read.  Among  them  was  one  by  Dr.  Thomas  J.  Mays,  of  Philadelphia, 
on  the  relation  of  artificial  inoculation  to  pulmonary  consumption.  In  the 
course  of  his  address  Dr.  Mays  said : 


1890.] 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 


''The  contagiousness  of  consumption  is  an  old  idea  and  its  logical  remedy, 
viz.,  isolating  the  sick,  was  thoroughly  tested  in  Naples  from  1782  to  1848.  In 
every  case  the  ceilings,  walls,  floors,  doors,  and  windows  of  the  rooms  in  which 
consumptives  died  were  torn  out,  burned,  and  new  ones  substituted.  The 
bedding  and  furniture  shared  the  same  fate,  and  such  dwelling  were  not  in- 
habitable for  one  year.  Consumptives  were  regarded  as  pests,  and  their 
families  were  shunned  and  often  driven  to  want.  These  laws  brought  no 
amelioration  after  existing  for  sixty-six  years.  "When  the  resolute  and 
vigorous  though  vain  efforts  which  the  Neapolitans  put  forth  to  crush  out 
this  disease  are  compared  with  the  advice  of  our  modern  contagionists,  the 
latter  seem  more  like  the  vaporings  of  a  child's  brain  than  the  outcome  of 
thoughtful  and  sober  judgment.  Indeed,  it  is  a  sad  reflection  to  find  men  at 
this  late  day  who  are  again  willing  to  repeat  the  superstitious  follies  and 
foibles  of  a  century  ago.7' — Philadelphia  Times. 

Statistics  of  Farms,  Homes,  and  Mortgages. — In  consequence  of  the 
public  interest  manifested  in  the  investigation  now  being  prosecuted  by  the 
Census  Office  in  relation  to  recorded  indebtedness  of  private  individuals  and 
corporations  and  the  statistics  of  farms,  homes,  and  mortgages,  and  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  every  day  letters  are  received  at  the  Census  Office  asking  for 
information  on  this  subject,  it  has  been  deemed  advisable  to  print  a  letter, 
dated  May  15th,  from  the  Superintendent  of  Census,  in  reply  to  a  Senate 
resolution,  as  a  bulletin.  It  contains  a  full  statement  of  the  character  of  the 
inquiries  referred  to  and  a  description  of  the  methods  adopted.  Copies  may 
be  had  on  application  to  Robert  P.  Porter,  Superintendent  of  Census. 

Southern  Homceopathic  Medical  College.— As  a  result  of  a  contro- 
versy between  the  Maryland  State  Homoeopathic  Medical  Society  and  the 
Baltimore  Homeopathic  Free  Dispensary,  on  North  Greene  Street,  the 
Society  has  resolved  to  establish  another  free  dispensary  and  also  a  medical 
college.  The  college  was  incorporated  May  15th  under  the  name  of  the 
Southern  Homceopathic  Medical  College  and  Hospital  of  Baltimore  by  Dr. 
Elias  C.  Price,  Dr.  Henry  Chandlee,  Dr.  Nicholas  W.  Kneass,  Levi  Z. 
Condon,  Dr.  Robert  K.  Kneass,  Dr.  Eldridge  C.  Price,  Dr.  Michael  J.  Buck, 
Dr.  Robert  W.  MirHin,  George  M.  Lamb,  Dr.  Henry  W.  Webner,  Dr.  Oliver 
Edward  Janney,  Dr.  Henry  F.  Garey,  Dr.  Edward  H.  Condon,  Dr.  Frank  C. 
Drane,  Dr.  John  Hood,  Martin  Lane,  Aubrey  Pearce,  Henry  F.  Garey, 
Albert  N.  Horner,  Sebastian  Brown,  John  T.  Graham,  Joshua  Regester,  Dr. 
Charles  H.  Thomas,  Wm.  A.  Carroll,  Woodward  Abrahams,  and  Peter 
Thompson.  The  incorporation  is  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  a  medical, 
surgical,  dental,  pharmaceutical,  and  veterinary  school  or  college  and  hospi- 
tal. A  feature  of  the  college  will  be  the  admission  annually  of  one  white 
person  (male  or  female)  from  each  congressional  district  of  Maryland  to  every 
course  in  the  college,  the  admission  to  be  upon  the  recommendation  of  the 
Representative  in  Congress.  The  capital  stock  is  placed  at  $50,000,  which 
may  be  increased  to  $200,000,  divided  into  $25  shares.  The  same  gentlemen 
also  incorporated  the  Maryland  Homeopathic  Free  Dispensary  and  Hospital 


334 


NOTES  AND  N<  >TI<  ES. 


[July, 


of  Baltimore.  Tt  has  no  capital  stock,  its  funds  being  derived  from  contribu- 
tions. It  is  stated  that  about  a  month  ago  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  dis- 
pensary on  Greene  Street  were  approached  officially  by  the  State  Society  for 
the  purpose  of  discussing  what  the  relationship  of  the  dispensary  should  be 
to  the  Society  at  large.  The  Dispensary  Board  refused  to  confer  upon  the 
subject,  and  the  incorporation  was  decided  upon.  It  is  said  that  the  old 
dispensary  has  been  controlled  by  a  few  physicians  antagonistic  to  the 
State  Society,  and  the  Society  has  had  no  hand  in  its  management,  although 
the  public  thought  it  had.  There  was  a  stated  meeting  of  the  Society  on 
Wednesday  evening,  at  which  the  proposed  incorporation  was  announced  and 
heartily  indorsed.  At  the  meeting  Wednesday  the  resignations  of  Dr.  Thomas 
Shearer,  Treasurer,  and  Dr.  D.  H.  Barclay  were  received.  Dr.  M.  Brewer, 
who  resigned  as  President  at  a  previous  meeting,  was  succeeded  by  Dr.  Elias 
C.  Price,  and  Dr.  O.  E.  Janney  was  elected  Treasurer.  No  specific  plans  have 
yet  been  made,  but  the  Society  expect  to  erect  a  handsome  college  building. — 
Baltimore  Sun. 

An  Appeal  from  the  Census  Bureau.— No  organizations  in  the  United 
States  have  multiplied  more  rapidly  in  the  past  ten  years  than  the  sick-benefit, 
funeral-aid,  death-benefit,  and  other  kindred  societies. 

As  they  are  generally  confined  to  those  who  are  in  the  humbler  walks  of 
life,  the  good  they  have  done  is  incalculable,  carrying  substantial  aid  to 
thousands  of  stricken  families  and  inspiring  those  who  are  fortunate  enough 
in  being  members  with  a  courage  which  might  not  exist  in  their  hearts  with- 
out them. 

The  members  of  these  organizations  will  be  glad  to  learn  that  Hon.  Robert 
P.  Porter,  Superintendent  of  the  Eleventh  Census,  will  endeavor  to  secure  the 
statistics  of  the  noble  work  these  associations  are  doing,  and  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  no  other  branch  of  the  census  will  be  more  interesting. 

The  business  of  gathering  the  data  has  been  placed  in  charge  of  Mr.  Charles 
A.  Jenney,  special  agent  of  the  insurance  division,  58  William  Street,  Xew 
York  City,  and  all  associations  throughout  the  United  States,  whether  incor- 
porated or  private,  should  assist  by  sending  to  him  the  address  of  their  prin- 
cipal officers. 

Any  one  interested  in  the  sick-benefit,  funeral-aid,  and  death-beneficiary 
associations  of  the  United  States  can  help  make  the  statistics  of  their  organi- 
zations for  the  forthcoming  census  more  complete  and  disseminate  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  good  work  they  are  doing  by  sending  the  names  of  such  societies 
as  they  may  know  of,  and  the  addresses  of  their  principal  officers  to  Mr. 
Charles  A.  Jenney,  Special  Agent  of  the  Eleventh  Census,  58  William  Street 
New  York  City. 

The  Value  of  Journals  to  the  Medical  Profession. — One  of  our 
subscribers  thus  writes  to  us  concerning  medical  journals  in  general  and  this 
journal  in  particular :  "  I  must  say  I  have  gained  a  great  deal  of  encourage- 
ment from  your  journal.  For  from  it  I  find  that  the  lights  of  Homoeopathy 
do  things  just  as  I  do  ;  and  have  to  study  just  as  hard ;  and  to  use  books  in  pre- 


1890.] 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 


335 


scribing  for  obscure  cases.    I  am  well  repaid  for  the  money  expended  in  sub- 
scriptions to  The  Homoeopathic  Physician  by  the  encouragement  received 
and  the  very  many  most  excellent  hints. 

"The  doctor  who  reads  medical  journals  lives  in  a  healthy  medical  atmos- 
phere, gaining  light,  air  and  sunshine,  preventing  his  deteriorating  and  retro- 
grading into  the  slimy  ooze  of  palliatives. 

u  I  think  a  doctor  needs  encouragement  as  much  as  any  other  man,  and  he 
gets  it  through  the  medium  of  medical  journals  that  show  him  the  path  trav- 
eled by  the  brighter  lights  of  the  profession." 

The  Bromides. — It  is  said  that  a  ton  and  a  quarter  of  bromides  are  annu- 
ally consumed  by  the  patients  of  the  National  Hospital  for  the  Paralyzed  and 
Epileptic  in  London.    Poor  Epileptics !  Helpless  Paralytics  ! 

"  Throw  physic  to  the  dogs,  he  said. 
She  did.   Next  day  the  dogs  were  dead." 

A  Census  of  Hallucinations. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Homoeopathic  Physician. 

Dear  Sir  : — May  I  ask  for  the  publicity  of  your  pages  to  aid  me  in  pro- 
curing co-operation  in  a  scientific  investigation  for  which  I  am  responsible  ? 
I  refer  to  the  Census  of  Hallucinations,  which  was  begun  several  years  ago  by 
the  "Society  for  Psychical  Research,"  and  of  which  the  International  Con- 
gress of  Experimental  Psychology  at  Paris,  last  summer,  assumed  the  future 
responsibility,  naming  a  committee  in  each  country  to  carry  on  the  work. 

The  object  of  the  inquiry  is  two-fold :  1st,  to  get  a  mass  of  facts  about  hallu- 
cinations which  may  serve  as  a  basis  for  a  scientific  study  of  these  phenomena ; 
and  2d,  to  ascertain  approximately  the  proportion  of  persons  who  have  had 
•such  experiences.  Until  the  average  frequency  [of  hallucinations  in  the  com- 
munity is  known,  it  can  never  be  decided  whether  the  so-called  "  veridical  " 
hallucinations  (visions  or  other  "  warnings  "  of  the  death,  etc.,  of  people  at 
a  distance),  which  are  so  frequently  reported,  are  accidental  coincidences  or 
something  more. 

Some  eight  thousand  or  more  persons  in  England,  France,  and  the  United 
States  have  already  returned  answers  to  the  question,  which  heads  the  censns 
sheets,  and  which  runs  as  follows:  . 

"Have  you  ever,  when  completely  awake,  had  a  vivid  impression  of  seeing  or  being 
touched  by  a  living  being  or  inanimate  object,  or  of  hearing  a  voice,  which  impression, 
*o  far  as  yon  could  discover,  was  not  due  to  any  external  physical  cause  f" 

The  "  Congress  hopes  that  at  its  next  meeting,  in  England  in  1892,  as  many 
as  fifty  thousand  answers  may  have  been  collected.  It  is  obvious  that  for  the 
purely  statistical  inquiry,  the  answer  u  No  "  is  as  important  as  the  answer  "  Yes." 

I  have  been  appointed  to  superintend  the  census  in  America,  and  I  most 
earnestly  bespeak  the  co-operation  of  any  among  your  readers  who  may  be 
actively  interested  in  the  subject.  It  is  clear  that  very  many  volunteer  can- 
vassers will  be  needed  to  secure  success.  Each  census  blank  contains  instruc  - 
tions to  the  collector,  and  places  for  twenty-five  names,  and  special  blanks  for 


336 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 


[July,  1890. 


the  "  Yes"  cases  are  furnished  in  addition.  I  shall  be  most  happy  to  supply 
these  blanks  to  any  one  who  will  be  good  enough  to  make  application  for 
them  to  Yours  truly, 

(Professor;  Wm.  James. 

Harvard  University,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Dr.  Wm.  B.  Clarke,  Secretary  of  the  Indiana  Institute  of  Homoeopathy, 
and  a  resident  of  Indianapolis,  is  a  prolific  writer  on  practical  subjects  that 
should  more  often  employ  the  physician  than  is  common.  Articles  from  the 
pen  of  Dr.  Clarke  in  recent  issues  of  The  Sun,  The  Freeman,  and  The  Jade- 
pendent,  all  published  in  Indianapolis,  on  "  Care  and  Dressing  of  Infants," 
"The  Importance  of  Pure  Air  "  (this  written  especially  for  The  Freeman,  a 
journal  conducted  by  a  colored  man  for  the  benefit  of  colored  people),  and  on 
u  Intra-mural  Burial,"  go  to  show  that  followers  of  Hahnemann  give  thought  to 
much  beside  u  symptom-hunting." 

Who  was  Your  Great  Grandfather. — The  Detroit  Journal  desires  to 
receive,  by  postal  card,  the  address  of  all  living  male  and  female  descendants 
of  Revolutionary  officers  and  soldiers  of  1776,  and  when  possible,  the  name, 
and  State  of  the  ancestor.  Wonder  if  W.  H.  Brearley,  proprietor  of  the  De- 
troit Journal,  is  contemplating  a  raid  upon  the  national  treasury  ? 

Oh-don't-ology. —  The  American  Homoeopathist  has  a  page  each  month  con- 
taining symptoms  of  the  above  disease.  There  are  so  many  of  them  accumu- 
lated now,  that  we  suggest  to  the  editor  that  he  give  us  a  repertory  to  them. 

Fun  for  Doctors. 

"Doctor,"  said  the  grateful  patient,  seizing  the  physician's  hand,  "I  shall 
never  forget  that  to  you  I  owe  my  life."  "  You  exaggerate,"  said  the  doctor 
mildly ;  "  you  owe  me  for  fifteen  visits ;  that  is  the  point  which  I  hope  you  will 
not  fail  to  remember." 

Very  sea-sick  passenger  (feebly) — "O  doctor!  I'm  afraid  it's  all  up  with 
me."    Doctor — "  Bosh  !    Nothing  up  but  your  breakfast." 

"You  are  accused,"  said  a  judge  in  Paris,  "of  having  attempted  to  poison 
your  husband  with  phosphorus.  What  have  you  to  say  ?"  "  I  desire  that  the 
doctors  make  an  autopsy,"  replied  the  woman,  as  she  looked  at  her  husband. — 
New  Orleans  Picayune. 

"  I  feel  sick  at  heart,"  said  the  rejected  lover  as  he  leaned  upon  the  railing 
of  the  steamer.  "  I  am  with  you,"  remarked  a  fellow-passenger,  only  mine 
is  further  down." 

Female  physician — "  George,  is  there  any  prospect  of  it  clearing  off'  very 

soon?" 

George — "  Not  much  ;  why  ?" 

Female  physician — "  Mrs.  Smith  sent  for  me  to  pay  her  a  professional  visit 
three  days  ago,  and  I  have  been  waiting  ever  since  for  it  to  clear  off.  I'm  sure 
she  will  be  expecting  me." — Epoch. 


THE 


Homeopathic  Physician, 

A  MONTHLY  JOURNAL  OF 

HOMEOPATHIC  MATERIA  MEDICA  AND  CLINICAL  MEDICINE. 


If  our  school  ever  give  up  the  strict  inductive  method  of  Hahnemann,  we 
are  lost,  and  deserve  only  to  be  mentioned  as  a  caricature  in 
the  history  of  medicine."— constantine  hering. 


Vol.  X.  AUGUST,  1890.  No.  8. 


EDITORIALS. 

The  International  Hahnemannian  Association's  last 
meeting — an  account  of  which  will  be  found  on  other  pages 
— proved  to  be  the  most  successful,  both  in  attendance  and 
interest,  ever  held. 

Conversation  with  the  members  from  the  various  parts  of  the 
United  States  and  Canada  elicited  the  fact  that  the  principles 
advocated  by  the  I.  H.  A.  are  advancing,  and  that  mongrelism 
is  preparing  to  take  a  back  seat. 

An  encouraging  fact  was  the  presence  at  the  meeting  of  a 
number  of  young  men  who  went  for  the  purpose  of  learning. 
They  did  not  go  in  vain,  for  they  heard  of  nothing  but  Hahne- 
mannian Homoeopathy,  and  several  expressed  themselves  to  us 
as  having  received  much  profit. 

Each  year  sees  an  addition  to  the  membership,  and  it  will  not 
be  long  before  the  I.  H.  A.  will  be  acknowledged  throughout 
the  world  as  the  most  progressive  association  of  medical  men 
ever  organized.  G.  H.  C. 

Antiseptics. — At  last  the  ideal  antiseptic  and  pus-destroyer 
has  been  found  !  We  have  the  word  of  a  man  who  has  used  it 
in  a  dozen  cases  with  such  excellent  (?)  results  that  he  has  rushed 

22  •  337 


338       ELEVENTH  ANNUAL  MEETING  OF  THE  I.  H.  A.  [August, 


into  print  with  a  history  of  them.  Some  are  completely  cured 
of  old  and  intractable  troubles;  others  have  mended,  but  are 
going  rapidly  "toward"  cure. 

Pyoktauin  is  its  name,  Germany  is  its  nation,  but  New  York 
beats  the  rest  of  the  States  in  first  proclaiming  its  station.  There 
is  color  for  all  this;  Pyoktanin  is  the  well-known  methylanilin, 
so  much  used  by  microscopists  as  coloring  material  when  study- 
ing bacteria. 

All  hail !  Pyoktanin — until  it  is  found  of  no  value,  and  then 
we  shall  hail  something  else.  G.  H.  C. 


INTERNATIONAL   HAHNEMANNIAN  ASSOCIA- 
TION.— ELEVENTH  ANNUAL  MEETING. 

Watch  Hill,  Rhode  Island,  June  24th-27th,  1890. 


SESSION  OF  JUNE  24TH. 


Morning. — The  President  called  the  meeting  to  order  at 
11.15  A.  M. 

The  President  then  read  his  opening  address. 

On  motion  of  Dr.  Rushmore,  a  committee  was  appointed 
upon  the  President's  address. 

The  committee  was  composed  of  Drs,  Rushmore,  Wessel- 
hceft,  and  Butler. 

A  programme  for  the  order  of  business  was  then  adopted. 

The  report  of  the  Secretary  was  received  and  referred  to  the 
Auditing  Committee. 

The  report  of  the  Treasurer  was  received  and  referred  to  the 
Auditing  Committee. 

The  Auditing  Committee  was  composed  of  Drs.  Rushmore, 
Custis,  and  Powel. 

Amendment  to  the  by-laws,  by  Dr.  Clark,  was  withdrawn. 

Reports  of  delegates  were  received  and  referred  to  the  Publi- 
cation Committee.  Reports  were  received  from  Drs.  Rushmore, 
Sawyer,  Powel,  and  Hitchcock. 


1890.]     ELEVENTH  ANNUAL  MEETING  OF  THE  I.  H.  A.  339 


Dr.  Rushmore  called  the  attention  of  the  Association  to  the 
prolonged  illness  of  the  venerable  Dr.  P.  P.  Wells,  of  Brooklyn. 

Dr.  Fincke  read  a  letter  from  Dr.  Wells. 

Dr.  Butler  also  drew  attention  to  the  illness  of  Dr.  E.  A. 
Ballard,  of  Chicago,  who  is  held  in  high  esteem  by  all  Hahne- 
mannians. 

A  committee  was  appointed  to  send  telegrams  of  respect  and 
sympathy  to  Drs.  Wells  *  and  Ballard.  The  committee  was 
composed  of  Drs.  Butler,  Wesselhceft,  and  Rushmore. 

Afternoon. — Dr.  B.  L.  B.  Baylies,  of  Brooklyn,  was  appointed 
temporary  chairman  of  Bureau  of  Obstetrics. 

The  Bureau  of  Homoeopathies  was  then  made  the  order  of 
the  session.    Dr.  C.  W.  Butler,  chairman. 

A  paper  by  Dr.  Lowe  was  read  by  Mrs.  Butler. 

A  paper  by  Dr.  T.  P.  Wilson  was  read  by  the  chairman. 
A  paper  by  the  chairman  himself  was  also  read,  and  it  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  discussion. 

Dr.  Fincke  read  a  paper  upon  Sections  59  to  66  of  The 
Organon.    After  discussion,  the  meeting  adjourned  to  8  P.  M. 

Evening. — The  order  of  the  afternoon  session  was  resumed. 

Dr.  James  T.  Kent  read  a  paper  upon  Sections  63,  64,  and 
65  of  The  Organon,  which  was  followed  by  discussion. 

Dr.  Fincke  read  from  his  paper  illustrations  of  the  effects  of 
drinking  hot  and  cold  water,  wine,  coffee,  etc. 

The  Board  of  Censors  reported  in  favor  of  several  candidates 
for  membership,  and  the  Secretary  was  directed  to  cast  the 
ballot  for  each  name,  by  which  they  were  declared  elected. 

The  following  is  the  list  of  names:  Richard  Hearn,  Toronto, 
Canada ;  Overton  F.  McDonald,  Toronto,  Canada ;  Charles  G. 
Wilson,  Clarksville,  Tenn. ;  W.  J.  Winn,  Cambridgeport, 
Mass.;  A.  G.  Allen,  Philadelphia,  Pa.;  Clarence  G.  Selfridge, 
Port  Townsend,  State  of  Washington ;  Erastus  E.  Case,  Hart- 
ford, Conn.;  W.  E.  Ledyard,  San  Francisco,  Cal. ;  B.  Fincke, 
M.  D.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.;  Charles  H.  Oakes,  Northboro',  Mass.  ; 
George  A.  Taber,  Richmond,  Va. ;  J.  M.  Dutton,  Boston, 


*  See  page  382. 


340       ELEVENTH  ANNUAL  MEETING  OF  THE  I.  H.  A.  [August, 


Mass. ;  W.  P.  Defriez,  Brookline,  Mass. ;  F.  G.  Davis,  Quincy, 
Mass. ;  Jennie  Medley,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

The  Report  of  the  Necrologist  was  received  and  adopted.  It 
announced  the  death  of  Dr.  Edward  Bayard,  New  York,*  Dr. 
David  Wilson,  of  London,*  Dr.  L.  S.  Reynolds,  of  Brooklyn.f 

.SESSION  OF  JUNE  25XH. 

Morning. — The  President  in  the  chair. 

The  Auditing  Committee  rendered  their  report,  in  which  they 
paid  a  high  compliment  to  the  Treasurer,  Dr.  Clarence  Willard 
Butler,  of  Montclair,  N.  J.,  for  his  successful  efforts  to  free  the 
Association  from  debt.  They  reported  the  accounts  of  the  Sec- 
retary and  Treasurer  as  correct. 

Dr.  W.  A.  Hawley,  of  Syracuse,  was  made  Chairman  of  the 
Bureau  of  Homoeopathies. 

Dr.  Stow,  of  Mexico,  N.  Y.,  was  appointed  Necrologist. 

Dr.  T.  P.  Wilson,  of  Ann  Arbor,  Mich.,  communicated  a 
poem. 

The  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Obstetrics  was  made  the  order 
of  the  session. 

Dr.  James  T.  Kent  read  a  paper  upon  the  "  Management  of 
Displacements  of  the  Uterus  without  Mechanical  Support." 

A  long  and  interesting  discussion  followed. 

Dr.  J.  B.  Custis,  of  Washington,  read  an  interesting  paper 
entitled  "  The  Hahnemannian  Obstetrician."  This  was  followed 
by  another  long  and  animated  discussion  upon  the  use  of  chloro- 
form in  labor;  the  use  of  forceps;  the  application  of  disinfect- 
ants, brandy,  etc.,  in  confinement. 

Dr.  Samuel  A.  Kimball,  of  Boston,  then  read  a  paper  upon 
"  Puerperal  Fever." 

This  was  succeeded  by  another  discussion. 

Dr.  Wm.  P.  Wesselhceft,  of  Boston,  then  called  attention 
to  the  need  of  a  reliable  post-graduate  course  where  true 
Homoeopathy  could  be  certainly  taught.    He  said  :  "  Some  of 


*  See  Homoeopathic  Physician,  December,  1889,  pages  437,  441. 
t  See  Homoeopathic  Physician,  March,  1890,  page  139. 


1890.]     ELEVENTH  ANNUAL  MEETING  OF  THE  I.  H.  A.  341 

the  younger  men  in  Boston  have  come  to  the  older  members  of 
the  homoeopathic  school,  and  have  asked  :  t  Where  can  we  learn 
this  Homoeopathy  that  you  practice  V  And  no  satisfactory 
answer  can  be  given.  The  question  has  been  asked  us  by  men 
who  were  taking  the  medical  course  at  Harvard.  There  has 
been  some  thought  expended  upon  this  subject.  Now,  if  we 
could  enlist  two  or  three  men  in  this  work  who  would  be  will- 
ing to  devote  a  portion  of  their  time  to  giving  instruction  upon 
Homoeopathy  in  their  own  offices  to  those  who  are  earnest 
seekers  after  knowledge,  much  good  might  be  accomplished. 
The  fact  that  young  men  have  asked  the  question  '  Where  can 
we  goto  hear  something  of  Homoeopathy V  is  enough  to  incite 
us  to  an  effort  to  answer  this  question.  It  is  not  only  our  duty 
to  help  these  men,  but  to  let  it  be  known  that  there  is  a  some- 
thing which  is  Homoeopathy  and  that  it  is  still  alive."  Dr. 
Wesselhoeft  advocates  a  school  for  a  post-graduate  course  in  some 
one  of  the  great  cities  ;  Boston  would  be  a  good  place  for  such 
a  school. 

Dr.  D.  W.  Clausen,  of  Philadelphia,  wished  to  know  if  Dr. 
Wesselhoeft  was  aware  that  such  a  course  of  lectures  had  been 
started  in  Philadelphia  by  Dr.  Kent? 

Dr.  Wesselhoeft  answered  that  he  had  heard  of  such  a  course. 

It  was  decided  that  the  subject  was  so  important  that  it 
should  be  made  the  special  order  of  the  evening  session. 

Dr.  Butler  then  made  report  of  the  Committee  upon  the 
President's  address,  after  which  a  discussion  followed,  and  the 
Association  adjourned  until  three  o'clock  p.  M. 

Afternoon. — Professor  Edmund  Carleton,  of  New  York,  read 
a  paper  upon  tumors  of  the  labia  majora. 

An  interesting  discussion  was  elicited,  which  followed  many 
of  the  lines  of  thought  of  the  morning. 

A  proposition  for  a  Board  of  Honorable  Seniors  was  then 
discussed,  the  idea  being  to  advance  to  a  special  rank  in  the 
Association  such  members  as  had  become  distinguished  by  rea- 
son of  their  long  and  honorable  career  in  the  homoeopathic 
practice,  and  to  exempt  them  from  the  payment  of  dues  to  the 
Association.  Such  a  Board  would  include  veterans  like  Dr.  P. 
P.  Wells  and  Dr.  E.  A.  Ballard. 


342 


ELEVENTH  ANNUAL  MEETING  OF  THE  I.  H.  A.  [August, 


Dr.  Wesselhoeft  then  read  a  paper,  entitled  "  Dysmenorrhea 
with  Anemia." 

Dr.  Baylies  read  a  paper  proving  the  efficacy  of  Pulsatilla  in 
preventing  the  malposition  of  the  foetus. 

This  was  followed  by  a  discussion  which  returned  to  the  sub- 
ject of  Chloroform  and  other  amesthetics  in  labor.  Dr.  A.  B. 
Campbell,  of  Brooklyn,  opened  up  this  discussion. 

The  report  of  the  Bureau  of  Obstetrics  being  the  next  sub- 
ject in  order,  papers  were  read  by  Drs.  Hitchcock,  Carleton, 
Brownell,  and  Dever. 

Several  papers  from  absent  members  were  read  by  title. 
They  were  Drs.  Hall,  of  Victoria,  British  Columbia  ;  Dunlevy, 
Dillingham,  and  Myers,  of  New  York. 

Dr.  Stow  offered  a  resolution  that  all  papers  upon  venereal 
diseases  be  referred  to  the  Clinical  Bureau.  Carried. 

Evening. — Dr.  Bell  addressed  the  meeting  upon  the  subject  of 
fumigation.  The  old  school  of  medicine  have  been  recom- 
mending and  using  fumes  of  Sulphur  for  disinfecting  purposes. 
They  now  find  that  the  anhydrous,  or  dry  fumes,  are  of  no  use 
in  disinfection.  The  Sulphur  fumes  must  be  moistened.  He 
read  an  article  from  the  New  York  Medical  Record,  showing 
that  fumigation  with  dry  Sulphur  is  a  humbug. 

Dr.  H.  C.  Allen,  of  Chicago,  editor  of  The  Medical  Advance, 
read  a  paper  giving  a  proving  of  Kali-phosphoricum. 

Dr.  Case,  being  called  upon,  read  a  paper  giving  his  own 
proving  of  Kali-phosphoricum. 

Dr.  W,  L.  Reed,  of  St.  Louis,  remarked  that  one  of  the 
provers  of  Kali-phos.  had  headache  upon  the  right  side  of  the 
head,  which  was  relieved  by  gently  rubbing  the  head  with  the 
hand,  or  stroking  it.  The  pains  were  right-sided  and  supra- 
orbital. 

Dr.  Reed  read  a  paper  detailing  a  proving  of  Pyrogen.  One 
of  its  symptoms  was  a  terrible  fetid  taste  in  the  mouth,  as  if 
an  abscess  had  broken  and  discharged  into  the  mouth.  The  taste 
was  sweet  and  nasty. 

Dr.  Kent  presented  an  interesting  paper  giving  a  proving  of 
Cenchris  contortrix,  which  provoked  discussion. 


1890.]     ELEVENTH  ANNUAL  MEETING  OF  THE  I.  H.  A.  343 


Dr.  Kimball  read  his  paper  upon  an  "  Involuntary  Proving 
of  Secale."  Discussion. 

Dr.  George  H.  Clark,  of  Germantown,  Philadelphia,  read  a 
paper  upon  Asthenopia,  with  a  very  full  eye  repertory. 

Dr.  John  V.  Allen,  of  Frankford,  Philadelphia,  presented  a 
complete  repertory  to  nausea. 

Dr.  Win.  Jefferson  Guernsey,  of  Philadelphia,  read  a  paper, 
entitled  "  The  Contrarieties  of  Ignatia." 

Dr.  H.  C.  Allen,  of  Chicago,  moved  that  a  vote  of  thanks 
be  extended  to  Drs.  Clark  and  Allen  for  their  laborious  reper- 
tories, the  one  upon  the  eyes,  the  other  upon  nausea.  Carried. 

Dr.  J.  B.  G.  Custis,  of  Washington,  was  appointed  Chairman 
of  the  Bureau  of  Obstetrics. 

Dr.  Edward  Rushmore,  of  Plainfield,  N.  J.,  was  appointed 
Chairman  of  Bureau  of  Materia  Medica. 

SESSION  OF  JUNE  26TH. 

Morning. — Bureau  of  Surgery  was  reopened. 

Dr.  James  B.  Bell,  of  Boston,  related  a  case  of  laparotomy, 
with  illustration. 

In  the  discussion  that  followed,  Dr.  Bell  said  that  surgery 
was  the  opprobrium  of  medicine.  There  should  be  no  such 
thing  as  removal  of  tumors.  There  should  be  no  tumors  to 
remove.  Surgery  should  be  confined  to  the  repairing  of  broken 
limbs,  plastic  operations  and  the  like. 

Dr.  T.  M.  Dillingham,  Chairman  of  the  Bureau  of  Clinical 
Medicine,  having  at  last  arrived  after  being  anxiously  expected 
by  the  members  during  all  the  previous  sessions,  the  report  of 
his  Bureau  was  considered. 

Dr.  J.  W.  Thomson  read  an  interesting  paper  upon  rheumatic 
gout,  followed  by  discussion. 

Dr.  B.  Fincke,  of  Brooklyn,  read  an  interesting  paper  upon 
"Chronic  Enlargement  of  the  Testicle." 

A  vote  of  thanks  was  tendered  to  Dr.  Fincke  for  his  interest- 
ing paper. 

An  invitation  was  received  from  Dr.  Rose,  of  Westerly, 
Rhode  Island,  for  a  visit  to  the  town  of  Westerly,  and  an  ex- 


344       ELEVENTH  ANNUAL  MEETING  OF  THE  I.  H.  A.  [August, 


cursion  in  a  specially  chartered  steamer.  The  invitation  was 
declined  owing  to  the  shortness  of  time  at  disposal,  and  a 
unanimous  vote  of  thanks  tendered  to  Dr.  Rose  and  to  the  citi- 
zens of  Westerly. 

Dr.  Hoyne  read  a  paper  of  clinical  cases. 

Dr.  H.  C.  Allen  read  a  paper  upon  a  clinical  case  cured  by 
Pyrogen.  The  Pyrogen  tongue  is  clean,  bright  red,  or  fiery 
red,  without  elevated  papillae  or  cracks. 

Afternoon. — Professor  Edmund  Carleton,  of  New  York,  was 
appointed  Chairman  of  the  Bureau  of  Surgery. 

The  Association  then  went  into  the  election  of  officers. 

The  following  officers  were  unanimously  elected  : 

President,  Dr.  Clareuce  Willard  Butler,  of  Montclair,  N,  J. 

Vice-President,  Dr.  E.  W.  Sawyer,  of  Kokomo,  Indiana. 

Secretary,  Dr.  Samuel  A.  Kimball,  of  Boston. 

Treasurer,  Dr.  Frank  Powel,  of  Chester,  Pa. 

Corresponding  Secretary,  Dr.  Wni.  P.  Wesselhceft,  of  Boston. 

Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Censors,  Dr.  Joseph  A.  Biegler. 

Committee  upon  the  place  of  next  annual  meeting  was  com- 
posed of  Drs.  Wesselhoeft,  Butler,  Guernsey,  Kent,  and  Hoyne. 

It  was  understood  that  the  committee  would  decide  upon 
either  Cresson  Springs,  Pa.,  or  Atlantic  City,  N.  J. 

Dr.  DeForrest  Hunt  resigned  from  membership  on  account 
of  declining  health. 

Dr.  Robert  M.  Fallon  resigned  on  account  of  his  entering 
the  ministry. 

Dr.  Butler  then  proposed  the  following : 

Amendment  to  Article  III  of  the  Constitution :  "  Except 
in  case  of  Junior  membership  the  applicant  for  which  must 
only  be  a  graduate  of  a  recognized  medical  college." 

Amendment  to  Section  3  of  the  By-laws  : 

"  Application  for  Junior  membership  may  be  made  by  any 
physician  six  months  in  advance  of  a  regular  meeting  and  on  the 
indorsement  of  three  members  of  this  Association,  in  good  stand- 
ing, and  upon  the  recommendation  of  the  Board  of  Censors ; 
such  physician  may  become  a  Junior  member  by  a  two-thirds 
vote  of  the  members  present.    Such  Junior  members  shall  have 


1890.]     ELEVENTH  ANNUAL  MEETING  OF  THE  I.  H.  A.  345 


the  privilege  of  the  floor  for  discussion  of  medical  topics ;  shall 
be  allowed  to  present  such  papers  as  are  indorsed  by  the  Board 
of  Censors ;  shall  be  entitled  to  a  copy  of  the  Transactions  of 
the  Association,  but  shall  not  be  entitled  to  vote,  nor  be  eligible 
to  office.  At  the  expiration  of  three  years  of  Junior  member- 
ship, they  may  make  application  for  full  membership,  subject  to 
all  conditions  necessary  for  such  application,  or  failing  so  to  do 
their  membership  ceases." 

On  recommendation  of  the  Board  of  Censors,  any  member  of 
this  Association,  who,  in  their  opinion,  has  rendered  signal 
service  to  the  cause  of  Hahnemannian  Homoeopathy  or  to  the 
good  and  welfare  of  this  Association,  may  be  elected  to  the 
Board  of  Honorable  Seniors,  and  as  members  of  such  Board 
shall  retain  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  regular  membership. 

Amendment  to  Section  7  of  By-laws : 

"The annual  dues  of  the  regular  members  of  this  Association 
shall  be  five  dollars.  The  annual  dues  of  Junior  members  shall 
be  two  dollars,  and  all  dues  shall  be  payable  in  advance.  Mem- 
bers of  the  Board  of  Honorable  Seniors  shall  be  released  from 
the  payment  of  annual  dues." 

Papers  were  presented  by  Drs.  Whiting  (read  by  Dr.  H.  C. 
Allen),  Wesselhceft,  Guernsey,  Reed,  Carleton,  and  Woods. 

The  paper  of  Dr.  Reed,  of  St.  Louis,  was  especially  remark- 
able. After  detailing  a  case  of  albumenuria,  maltreated  for  nearly 
two  years  with  massive  doses  of  medicine  and  finally  cured  by  Dr. 
Reed  with  jtfat-mur.,  the  doctor  concluded  with  a  peroration  in 
which  he  indulged  in  vigorous  invective  against  the  mongrels  or 
eclectics.  He  declared  that  the  maltreatment  of  eclecticism  was 
"  enough  to  make  the  dead  rise  from  the  grave,  the  marble 
statue  (of  Hahnemann,  at  Leipsic)  to  step  down  from  its  pedes- 
tal," etc.,  evoking  rounds  of  applause  and  cheers. 

Dr.  H.  C.  Allen,  moved  that  in  the  Transactions  the  word 
"  mongrel/'  wherever  it  occurs,  be  expunged. 

Dr.  Hawley  inquired  why  ? 

Dr.  Allen  thought  it  offensive  and  exasperating  and  that  we 
could  catch  more  flies  with  sugar  than  with  vinegar. 
Dr.  Hawley  doubted  that  conclusion. 


346       ELEVENTH  ANNUAL  MEETING  OF  THE  I.  H.  A.  [August, 

Dr.  Thomson  facetiously  remarked  that  "  we  are  not  here  to 
catch  flies  nor  to  hold  a  candle  to  the  devil.  We  have  a  mission, 
which  is  to  proclaim  the  truth  regardless  of  results/'  The  dis- 
cussion then  dropped. 

Dr.  Baylies  was  appointed  Chairman  of  Bureau  of  Clinical 
Medicine. 

SESSION  OF  JUNE  27TH. 

Morning. — The  Association  proceeded  to  the  consideration  of 
the  publication  of  the  Transactions.  Dr.  Kent  moved  that  the 
proceedings  be  given  to  The  Medical  Advance,  to  publish  upon 
the  same  terms  as  last  year. 

Dr.  James,  Editor  of  The  Homceopathic  Physician, 
made  a  bid. 

Dr.  Allen,  of  The  Medical  Advance,  offered  the  very  same 
terms  as  Dr.  James. 

Dr.  Hitchcock,  of  The  Journal  of  Homoeopathies,  made  a 
bid. 

Discussion  followed,  and  it  was  finally  decided  to  refer  the 
whole  matter  to  the  Executive  Committee  with  power  to  give 
the  work  to  the  best  bidder. 

The  report  of  the  Bureau  of  Clinical  Medicine  was  now  re- 
opened. 

Dr.  Kimball  read  a  paper  upon  "  Epilepsy/'  which  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  discussion,  in  which  Dr.  Carleton  declared  that  he 
had  not  listened  to  any  paper  that  had  given  him  so  much  pleas- 
ure as  the  one  just  read  by  Dr.  Kimball. 

Papers  were  then  read  by  Dr.  Rushmore,  Dr.  Farley,  Dr. 
Sawyer,  and  Dr.  Dillingham. 

A  vote  of  thanks  was  tendered  Dr.  Dillingham  for  his  admi- 
rable report  of  cases  cured. 

Dr.  Butler  preferred  charges  against  Dr.  Gentry  on  account 
of  an  article  in  The  American  Honioeopathist  for  June,  written 
by  Dr.  Gentry,  in  which  he  advocated  the  use  of  large  doses  of 
Quinine  to  antidote  the  malarial  poison.  The  charges  were  re- 
ferred to  the  Board  of  Censors. 

Dr.  Thomson  offered  a  copy  of  a  letter  written  to  the  Sun  of 


1890.] 


INFANT  FEEDING. 


347 


New  York  City,  protesting  against  some  communications  which 
had  appeared  denouncing  Homoeopathy.  The  Sun  refused  to 
publish  the  defense,  and  so  Dr.  Thomson  presented  it  to  the 
Association.    It  was  accepted. 

The  Committee  upon  place  of  next  annual  meeting  reported 
in  favor  of  Cresson  Springs,  or  else  Atlantic  City.  The  report 
was  accepted  and  the  Committee  discharged.  It  was  then  re- 
ferred to  the  Executive  Committee. 

A  vote  of  thanks  was  tendered  to  Dr.  Biegler  for  his  able 
and  just  rulings  as  President. 

A  vote  of  thanks  was  then  given  the  proprietor  of  the  Ocean 
House,  where  the  meeting  was  convened,  after  which  the  Asso- 
ciation adjourned  until  next  year. 


INFANT  FEEDING. 
W.  I.  Thayer,  M.  D. 

An  exceedingly  entertaining  editorial  in  the  June  Homce- 
opathic  Physician  states  that  "  the  artificial  feeding  of  infants 
is  one  of  the  most  difficult  problems  with  which  the  physician 
has  to  deal,"  and  "  if  one  could  rely  upon  the  various  commer- 
cial foods  with  which  the  market  is  flooded,  the  question  would 
at  once  be  solved." 

This  subject  of  infant  feeding  is  indeed  a  difficult  problem — > 
has  been — to  solve,  if  one  is  to  rely  upon  most  of  the  baby-foods 
in  the  market,  or,  expects  to  obtain  the  best  results  in  giving  to 
a  baby  cow's  milk,  no  matter  how  much  reduced  with  water  or 
mixed  with  crushed  barley. 

Dr.  Clark  refers  to  the  casein,  "  the  curd-forming  matter," 
and  it  is  just  here  that  cow's  milk,  pure  and  simple,  is  yiot  as 
good  a  food  for  an  infant  as  though  the  "  curd  "  had  been  put 
into  such  a  condition  as  to  be  easily  digested. 

The  only  nitrogenous  constituent  of  human  or  cow's  milk  is 
that  protein  compound  known  as  casein  !  If  a  child  cannot 
digest  and  appropriate  this  nitrogenous  substance  in  either  milk 
it  is  not  going  to  get  full  nutrition,  and  will  slowly  starve  ! 


348 


INFANT  FEEDING. 


[August, 


Why  is  it  that  human  milk  will  digest  so  much  easier  than 
will  cow's  milk  ? 

Chiefly,  and  almost  wholly,  on  account  of  the  different  physical 
character istics  of  the  two  caseins  ! 

When  the  casein  of  human  milk  comes  into  contact  with  the 
chlorohydric  acid  of  the  gastric  juice  it  is  turned  into  a  light, 
ftaky  coagulum,  easily  attacked  by  the  peptic  ferment  and  farther 
comminuted. 

On  the  contrary,  the  casein  of  cow's  milk,  when  presented  to  the 
gastric  juice,  coagulates  into  rounded  masses,  which  prevents  the 
peptic  ferment  from  seizing  hold  of  as  many  surfaces  as  are  pre- 
sented in  the  protein  compound  of  mother's  milk,  and  hence 
slower  disintegration  of  the  curd  must  follow,  and  less  of  it  is 
peptonized  or  gastricly  digested,  and  quite  a  portion  of  this  tough, 
leathery  curd  must  traverse  the  intestinal  canal,  rasping  its  way 
to  the  anus,  and  setting  up  various  bowel  lesions.  These  are 
physiological  facts  that  can  be  demonstrated  in  a  chemical  labora- 
tory— as  well  as  in  the  digestive  tract — and  are  not  fanciful 
theories. 

The  chemico-physical  properties  between  the  two  curds  are 
very  different.  What  will  dissolve  one  will  but  feebly  effect  the 
other. 

Contrast  the  digestive  apparatus  of  an  infant  with  but  one 
stomach  to  dispose  of  its  food  and  the  same  machinery  in  a  calf 
with  four  stomachs,  and  which  can  get  up  and  run  as  soon  as  it 
sees  daylight,  and  tell  me,  did  Providence  compose  the  same 
natural  pabulum  for  these  two  animals  when  He  has  made  their 
physicial  conditions  so  very,  very  different  ? 

Nay,  verily ! 

The  average  amount  of  casein  found  in  forty-three  women 
was  1.046  per  cent,  of  the  whole. 

Thirteen  different  observers  find  the  average  per  cent,  of  casein 
in  cow's  milk  to  be  3.022. 

A  marvelous  difference,  and  if  it  would  digest  as  easily  as  the 
same  protein  substance  of  mother's  milk,  there  is  too  much  of  it, 
for  mother's  milk  contains  of  nitrogenous  matter  about  17  per 
cent.,  while  cow's  milk  will  average  25.59  per  cent. — some 


1890.] 


INFANT  FEEDING. 


34* 


claim  from  28  to  30  per  cent. — so  that  in  cow's  milk  we  get,  first, 
too  much  casein  by  a  large  per  cent.,  and  what  we  have  after 
reducing  with  water,  is  not  readily  digestible,  as  its  refractory 
properties  have  not  been  changed  in  the  least. 

It  is  pertinent  to  inquire,  Can  cow's  milk  be  so  manipulated  as 
to  be  a  good  substitute  for  mother's  milk  by  balancing  its 
protein  substances  and  so  operating  upon  its  tough,  cheesy  casein 
as  to  make  the  whole  mass  like  mother's  milk  and  easy  of  diges- 
tion ? 

The  answer  must  be  in  the  affirmative,  because  it  is  done  in 
great  quantities.  Certain  it  is  that  it  is  not  within  the  purview 
of  the  physician  to  do  this,  and  the  nurse  could  not  come  out 
twice  alike  in  any  pre-digesting  of  cow's  milk,  and,  as  has  been 
shown,  it  is  necessary  to  tear  the  cow-casein  somewhat  to  pieces 
to  make  it  of  easy  digestion. 

While  Dr.  Clark's  statements  hold  true  that  the  large  mass  of 
baby-foods  "  are  generally  not  to  be  trusted,"  I  hold  that  there 
has  recently  been  offered  to  the  confidence  of  the  profession  one 
that  meets  all  of  the  suggestions  of  this  paper  and  is  a  good 
substitute  for  mother's  milk,  as  I  have  clinically  proven  in 
several  cases. 

Two  cases  of  inanition  resulting  from  a  poor  quality  of 
mother's  milk  which  failed  to  nourish  the  infants. 

Another  case,  in  a  twin  boy,  who  was  fed  upon  the  very  best 
quality  of  cow's  milk,  but  he  could  not  digest  it,  for  reasons 
stated  above.  Also  cases  of  cholera  infantum  ;  all  improved 
immediately  upon  feeding  them  upon  an  artificial  food  recently 
placed  upon  the  market  and  known  by  the  peculiar  name  of 
Lacto-Preparata,  composed  of  partly  predigested  and  desiccated 
cow's  milk,  whose  protein  substances  had  been  made  to  balance 
like  human  milk,  by  adding  sugar  of  milk,  as  suggested  bv  Dr. 
Clark. 

One  of  the  infants  weighed  at  six  and  a  half  months  sixteen 
pounds.  The  second  gained  four  pounds  in  two  months.  The 
twin  boy  could  digest  this  artificial  food  just  as  easily  as  did  his 
twin  sister  its  mother's  milk. 

One  may  boil  flour  for  ten  days  and  he  will  never  convert  it 


NOTES  FROM  THE  LIPPE  SOCIETY. 


[August, 


into  dextrine  or  soluble  starch.  Such  a  conversion  requires  a 
temperature  of  350°  F.  for  eight  hours,  and  as  water  boils  at 
212°  F.  he  is  short  in  changing  power  by  138  degrees. 

Again.  Malt  sugar,  being  soluble  in  water,  it  will  not  to  any 
appreciable  extent  prevent  the  coagulation  of  the  casein  of  cow's 
milk,  and  in  the  addition  of  any  cereal  flour  that  has  not  been 
converted  into  dextrine,  quite  as  indigestible  a  substance  has  been 
added  to  the  milk  as  the  casein  itself. 

I  hold  that  an  artifical  food  made  upon  the  above  principles 
will  digest  as  easily  as  mother's  milk  and  nutrify  every  tissue, 
which  is  not  always  the  case,  in  poorly -fed  mother's  milk  ;  and 
one  will  find  in  the  above  food  all  that  is  required  in  a  good  and 
reliable  artificial  food  for  infants  under  eight  months  of  age. 

[We  sincerely  trust  that  Dr.  Thayer  is  correct  regarding  the 
food  of  which  he  speaks.  We  fear,  however,  that  he  will  find  it 
of  benefit  in  some  cases,  and  of  no  value  in  others.  Predigested 
foods  have  not  as  yet  met  the  demands  of  the  system ;  in  many 
cases  they  have  proved  of  no  value. — G.  H.  C] 

NOTES  FKOM  PAST  MEETINGS  OF  THE  LIPPE 

SOCIETY. 

Dr.  Carleton  Smith  spoke  of  the  difference  between  Mercurius 
and  Podophyllum.  To  be  certain  that  Merc,  is  indicated,  the 
patient  should  be  requested  to  put  out  his  tongue ;  biting  upon 
it  slightly  causes  the  well-known  impression  of  teeth.  Merc- 
prot.  has  for  key-note  yellowness  at  root  of  tongue. 

Podophyllum  has  flatulence  on  right  side  of  abdomen  only, 
with  palpitation  of  the  heart.  This  is  peculiar  to  Podoph. 
Another  peculiar  symptom  of  Podoph.  is  falling  of  the  womb, 
with  pain  in  the  back,  which  is  worse  from  leaning  over  the 
wash-tub. 

The  Merc,  patient,  when  using  an  outside  water-closet,  is  made 
worse  by  taking  cold  from  the  draughts  of  air. 

Dr.  Fellger — Mercury  is  a  remedy  that  affects  the  liver  more 
than  any  other  drug.  After  death  the  reguline  metal  may  be 
found  in  the  liver  of  those  who  have  taken  it.  Silver  is  found 
in  the  heart  and  lead  in  the  brain. 


1890.] 


NOTES  FROM  THE  LIPPE  SOCIETY. 


351 


A  man  with  yellow  fever  was  treated  in  an  old-school  hos- 
pital with  twenty -grain  doses  of  Mercury.  When,  some  time  after 
this,  Dr.  Fellger  made  a  post-mortem  examination,  he  found  a 
large  quantity  of  Mercury  in  the  liver.  The  other  organs  were 
healthy.  Dr.  Fellger  also  said  that  those  who  have  prolapsus 
recti  are  usually  affected  with  elongated  uvula.  In  the  patho- 
genesis of  Mercury  are  recorded  falling  of  uvula  and  prolapsus 
of  the  rectum.  Natrum-muriaticum  is  a  good  remedy  where  a 
patient  with  an  affection  of  the  back  can  stoop  over  readily,  but 
it  hurts  him  to  straighten  himself  again. 

In  gonorrhoea,  the  slightest  inflammation  is  much  increased 
by  getting  cold  from  the  draughts  of  outside  water-closets.  The 
inflammation  may  thus  be  made  to  extend  to  the  prostate  gland 
and  the  bladder.  Hence,  in  all  cases  of  gonorrhoea  he  makes 
particular  inquiry  as  to  the  kind  of  water-closet  used.  If  the 
patient  has  access  to  outside  water-closets  only,  he  orders  him  to 
wrap  the  genitals  in  a  towel.  This  is  one  of  the  main  difficul- 
ties in  treating  gonorrhoea.  In  gonorrhoea,  as  in  all  other  affec- 
tions, it  is  necessary  to  examine  into  the  entire  condition.  Thus, 
taking  as  a  guide,  with  other  symptoms,  furuncles  on  the  lower 
lip,  he  gave  Petroleum,  and  effected  a  rapid  cure  in  a  case  of 
severe  gonorrhoea. 

In  reply  to  a  question,  Dr.  Fellger  said  two  capital  remedies 
for  sleeplessness  of  children  at  night  are  Coffea  and  Opium. 
Coffea,  restlessness  then  sleep ;  Opium,  sleep  then  restlessness. 

Dr.  Carleton  Smith  said,  Where  the  baby  sleeps  all  day  and 
cries  all  night,  give  Lycopodium.  In  these  cases  there  is  often 
the  red  sand  in  the  urine. 

Dr.  Fellger — Sulphur  has  the  symptom,  urine  clear  and  color- 
less as  water.    In  such  cases  the  child  is  dangerously  ill. 

Continuing  about  Mercury,  Dr.  Fellger  thought  no  drug  was 
so  abused  by  the  old  school.  It  is  found  not  only  in  the  liver 
but  in  the  bones.  In  a  museum  in  Strasburg  he  had  seen  a 
room  filled  with  bones  of  those  who  had  been  mercurialized. 
The  metallic  mercury  was  plainly  visible.  There  were  skulls 
where  section  of  the  diploe  showed  large  accumulations  of  Mer- 
cury. G.  H.  C. 


ABUSE  OF  QUININE. 
Wm.  Steinrauf,  M.  D.,  St.  Charles,  Mo. 

Seeing  that  one  of  the  contributors  of  The  Homoeopathic 
Physician  asks  for  an  article  upon  the  evils  of  Quinine  in 
massive  doses,  I  submit  the  following  few  words  on  the  subject. 

I  have  always  practiced  medicine  in  what  is  generally 
called  a  "  malarial "  country  and  where  allopathy  reigns 
supreme,  where  Homoeopathy  is  decried  as  quackery,  and  a 
homoeopathic  physician  is  looked  upon  as  a  crank.  Such  is  the 
State  of  Missouri.  Quinine,  Calomel,  and  Morphine  are  the 
trinity  of  the  old-school  doctors'  armamentarium  in  this  part 
of  the  country.  I  believe  that  Quinine  is  the  worst  of  the  lot, 
because  used  three  times  as  often  as  any  of  the  others.  Fully 
one-half  of  the  chronic  diseases  that  homoeopathic  physicians 
in  this  part  of  the  State  are  called  upon  to  treat,  have  become 
chronic  because  of  the  continued  and  excessive  use  of  Quinine, 
and,  I  think,  it  is  so  all  over  the  land.  From  an  aching  of  the 
big  toe  to  the  last  stage  of  consumption,  Quinine  is  the  Alpha 
and  Omega  of  the  scientific  treatment  of  our  old-school  doctors. 
The  congested  livers,  bloated  abdomeu,  and  hypertrophied 
spleens  tell  a  plain  story. 

Our  allopathic  doctors,  who  say  that  the  experience  of  ages 
and  all  scientific  knowledge  are  on  their  side,  claim  that  Quinine, 
in  large  doses,  is  the  true  and  only  remedy  that  can  be  employed 
with  success  in  "  malaria."  And  as  more  than  one-half  of  all 
diseases  have  a  malarious  bottom,  Quinine  in  large  and  fre- 
quently-repeated doses  is  the  sheet-anchor.  That  is  the  way 
they  argue.  But  "  malaria,"  thus  suppressed,  is  not  cured. 
Hear  what  Hahnemann  says  :  "  True,  they  can  no  longer  com- 
plaia  that  the  paroxysm  of  their  original  disease  reappears  on 
certain  days  and  at  certain  hours ;  but  note  the  earthy  com- 
plexion of  their  puffy  faces,  the  dullness  of  their  eyes  ! 

"  See  how  oppressed  is  their  breathing,  how  hard  and  distended 
is  their  epigastrium,  how  tensely  swollen  their  loins,  how  mis- 
352 


August,  1890.]  ABUSE  OF  QUININE.  353 


erable  their  appetite,  how  perverted  their  taste,  how  oppressed 
and  painful  their  stomachs  by  all  food,  how  undigested  and  ab- 
normal their  faecal  evacuations,  how  anxious,  dreamful,  and  un- 
refreshing  their  sleep.  Look  how  weary,  how  joyless,  how 
dejected,  how  irritable,  sensitive,  or  stupid  they  are  as  they 
drag  themselves  about,  tormented  by  a  much  greater  number  of 
ailments  than  afflicted  them  in  their  ague.  And  how  often  does 
not  such  a  China-cachexy  often  last  in  comparison  with  which 
death  itself  were  often  preferable  ? 

"  Is  this  health  ?  It  is  not  ague,  that  I  readily  admit,  but 
confess,  and  no  one  can  gainsay  it,  it  is  certainly  not  health. 
It  is  rather  another,  but  a  worse  disease  than  ague.  It  is  the 
China-disease,  which  must  be  more  severe  than  the  ague,  other- 
wise it  could  not  overcome  and  suppress  (suspend)  the  latter. 

"Should  the  organism,  as  it  sometimes  will,  recover  from  the 
China-disease  after  many  weeks,  then  the  ague,  which  has  till 
now  remained  suspended  by  the  superior  force  of  the  dissimilar 
China-disease,  returns  in  an  aggravated  form,  because  the  or- 
ganism has  been  so  much  deteriorated  by  the  improper  treat- 
ment." 

Let  us  mention  a  case  or  two  plainly  showing  the  terrible 
effects  of  this  drug  on  the  system. 

Mrs.  K.,  wife  of  a  miller,  has  been  complaining  for  the  last 
eight  or  ten  years.  She  has  aches  and  pains  in  different  parts 
of  the  body  ;  feels  tired  and  worn  ;  no  ambition  to  do  anything  j 
no  appetite,  and  always  constipated.  The  diagnosis  of  our 
friend  the  enemy  was  "  malaria."  Now  constipation  always 
indicates  cathartics  with  them,  and  malaria  invariably  Quinine, 
just  as  pain  points  to  Opium,  syphilis  to  Iodide  of  Potassium 
in  large  and  increasing  doses. 

This  good  woman  has  now  taken  these  two — cathartics  and 
Quinine,  especially  the  latter — off  and  on  for  many  years,  and 
still  she  is  not  well,  still  the  cry  is,  "  malaria."  Her  liver  be- 
gan to  swell,  and  a  terrible  pain  in  her  right  side  and  below 
the  right  shoulder-blade  supervened.  Insomnia  was  now  a 
prominent  feature,  and  the  woman  began  to  fear  that  she  might 
eventually  loose  her  reason. 
23 


354 


ABUSE  OF  QUININE. 


[August, 


In  this  dilemma  I  was  asked  to  take  charge  of  the  case  after 
her  allopathic  adviser  had  freely  acknowledged  his  failure  to 
cure.  As  I  could  see  no  particular  indication  for  any  particular 
remedy,  Sac-lac.  was  given  for  a  few  days,  when  she  had  the 
following  symptoms  :  Dizziness,  roaring  in  the  ears,  tired  and 
given-out  feeling.  Besides,  there  was  constipation  and  belching 
of  wind  and  no  sleep.  Nux-vom.cm,  one  dose.  This  relieved 
the  constipation,  but  all  the  other  symptoms  remained.  Xux- 
vom.cm  again.  Within  two  weeks  very  little  change.  Carbo- 
veg.cm . 

After  another  two  weeks  there  was  indeed  a  wonderful  change 
for  the  better.  The  lady,  that  a  few  weeks  before  looked 
haggard  and  icteroid,  was  sleepless  and  would  not  venture  out- 
of-doors,  now  became  quite  lively,  ate,  looked  bright,  slept  well 
and  began  to  stroll  about  her  premises.  She  was  under  treat- 
ment for  about  three  months,  Nux-vorn.,  Carbo-veg.,  and  Sul- 
phur made  a  new  woman  of  her.  She  freely  and  loudly  pro- 
claims that  it  was  the  continuous  use  and  abuse  of  Quinine  that 
was  the  cause  of  all  her  aches  and  pains  these  years.  She  was 
never  without  taking  a  few  doses  of  the  drug  every  week,  and 
whenever  her  condition  would  be  in  the  least  aggravated,  her 
physician  would  claim  that  the  dose  must  be  increased.  She  is 
a  small  and  frail  woman,  of  a  mild  and  sympathetic  tempera- 
ment, and  how  her  system  withstood  this  battle  with  the  Quinine 
from  year  to  year  is  indeed  a  marvel. 

Chas.  B.  has  had  the  third-day  ague  six  years  ago,  and  after 
doctoring  more  than  a  year,  finally  succeeded  in  getting  it  sup- 
pressed with  a  prescription  that  called  for  forty  grains  of 
Quinine,  and  one-half  grain  of  Arsenic  three  times  a  day  for 
four  days.  For  too  or  three  months  after  losing  his  ague,  he 
began  to  get  peculiar  hallucinations,  especially  in  the  spring- 
time and  in  the  fall.  The  spells  would  come  on  toward  evening. 
Could  work  during  the  day.  When  the  spells  came  on  he  com- 
plains of  terrible  pains  in  the  left  hypochondrium,  runs  about 
and  acts  strangely.  The  family  and  all  the  neighbors  think  him 
insane  when  one  of  these  attacks  occur.  He  will  then  not  sleep 
all  night,  but  still  be  able  to  work  during  the  day.    He  never 


1890.] 


A  CASE  OF  SYPHILIS. 


355 


threatens  to  do  violence  to  any  one,  but  has  frequently  talked  of 
committing  suicide  when  this  pain  is  at  its  height.  He  neither 
uses  tobacco,  nor  does  he  drink.  He  dates  his  troubles  from  the 
time  he  used  said  large  and  excessive  do«*es  of  Quinine  and 
Arsenic.  Nux-vom.cm,  one  dose  every  three  hours  till 
three  doses  are  taken.  Sac-lac.  In  one  week  the  spells  had 
grown  very  much  less.  Sleeps  better.  Sao-lac.  another  week. 
Improvement  more  marked.  Bowels,  heretofore  very  costive, 
now  quite  regular.  Sac-lac.  for  the  next  four  weeks.  Now  an 
eruption  appeared  on  the  whole  body,  for  which  he  took  Sul- 
phur DMM,  Swan.  Six  weeks  later  he  was  well  and  has  re- 
mained so  now  over  ten  months. 

So  much  for  the  terrible  abuse  of  Quinine.  I  have  treated 
many  such  cases,  but  have  not  every  time  come  off  with  flying 
colors.    In  my  estimation  the  majority  are  never  cured. 

A  CASE  OF  SYPHILIS. 
Mahlon  Preston,  M.  D.,  Norristown,  Pa. 

I  cite  the  following  case  of  venereal  infection,  with  the  hope 
of  further  fortifying  my  belief  in  the  possibility  of  prompt  and 
radical  cures  of  such  cases,  avoiding  the  long  train  of  secondary 
troubles  that  follow  their  management  by  the  villainous  methods 
not  purely  homoeopathic. 

My  earliest  knowledge  of  the  present  case  dates  to  within  ten 
days  of  first  exposure,  at  which  time  no  topical  or  other  remedial 
measures  had  been  used  ;  there  is  the  best  reason  to  suppose  no 
similar  infection  had  ever  taken  place. 

The  first  inspection  disclosed  an  cedematous  prepuce,  rather 
firmly  closed  in  front  of  the  glans,  yet  permitting  a  painful  and 
difficult  retraction  of  it,  which  revealed  three  large  and  deep 
chancres,  the  size  of  a  split  soup-bean.  One  on  either  side  of 
the  framum  below,  the  third  behind  the  corona  to  the  right,  ex- 
tending from  below  to  middle  way  around  the  glans. 

These  ulcers  were  eroding  rapidly  on  the  edges,  their  bottoms 
appeared  dark,  granular,  and  dry. 

Induration  in  and  around  the  sores  seemed  to  threaten  a  rup- 


356 


A  CASE  OF  SYPHILIS. 


[August, 


ture  of  the  parts  where  the  foreskin  was  retracted.  The  slightest 
manipulation  was  painful  to  a  high  degree. 

I  gave  five  doses  of  Merc-sol.6ra  and  a  soft  pledget  of  cambric 
muslin,  moistened  in  milk  and  water,  was  closed  in  beneath  the 
prepuce  over  the  ulcers,  to  be  renewed  as  required  for  cleanliness 
and  comfort. 

This  medicine  being  permitted  to  act  for  three  days,  exami- 
nation showed  the  margin  of  the  foreskin  knotted  with  numbers 
of  minute  chancres,  similar  in  quality  to  those  beneath.  They 
had,  at  the  same  time,  undergone  further  erosion,  so  that  one- 
half  the  glans  seemed  destroyed  from  below  and  behind,  leaving 
simply  the  urethral  channel  intact. 

This  horrid  gap  had  evidently  severed  the  confining  hold  of 
the  prepuce,  since  it  had  retracted  beyond  the  corona  and  fastened 
round  the  remainder  of  the  glans  in  a  vise-like  stricture  which 
presented  the  most  forbidding  aspect. 

The  conditions  of  the  case,  reviewed  with  great  earnestness 
at  this  moment,  presented  the  following  points :  Patient  set. 
twenty  ;  slender  stature,  of  good  flesh  and  ruddy,  robust  appear- 
ance, inheriting  no  dyscrasia;  sores  deep,  hard,  of  a  dark  reddish 
color,  rapidly  extending,  with  burning,  pricking  and  itching  in 
them  ;  stiff  feeling  of  penis  down  to  its  base ;  not  very  copious 
discharge,  but  frequent  desire  thereto,  of  strong-looking  urine 
containing  mucus,  giving  it  a  ropy  look  ;  tired  aching  and  shoot- 
ing in  the  renal  region  ;  absence  of  sexual  instinct  complete. 

This  last,  in  conjunction  with  the  deep  and  corroding  chancres 
decided  for  Kali-bichrom.  Three  doses  were  given  dry  and  the 
first  signs  of  improvement  became  evident  twenty-four  hours  later, 
and  all  medicine  was  withheld  while  it  lasted.  During  the 
next  fourteen  days  granulation  took  place  so  rapidly  that  at  the 
end  of  that  period  it  was  nearly  complete  and  the  destroyed 
part  had  gained  its  natural  shape  and  prominence,  and  points  of 
thedermoid  covering  only  wanting,  which  they  speedily  received. 

Three  weeks  from  first  observation  of  the  chancres  this  had 
taken  place.  If  the  priapism  usual  in  such  a  state  of  affairs  had 
prevailed  here,  the  process  of  separation  might  have  been  seri- 
ously prevented  or  retarded.    Whereas,  the  absence  of  erections 


1890.] 


A  CASE  OF  SYPHILIS. 


357 


permitted  and  hastened  it  to  the  utmost ;  till  the  form  and  sub- 
stance of  the  whole  organ  was  within  an  ace  of  perfection — now 
the  sexual  appetite,  which  had  been  from  the  first  so  markedly 
wanting,  suddenly  asserted  itself,  and  a  priapism,  causing 
phymosis,  supervened,  which  at  once  substituted  the  new  diffi- 
culty of  danger  from  sloughing  of  the  head  of  the  penis  through 
strangulation. 

Around  the  frrenum  the  foreskin  was  oedematous  to  the  size  of 
a  goose  egg,  which  extended  to  the  whole  length  of  the  penis  al- 
most at  once,  and  brought  the  glans  entirely  within  its  cover 
above,  being  confined  as  though  tied  by  a  fine  cord  in  three 
places  between  it  and  the  pubes ;  watery,  purulent  discharge 
issued  from  within  the  foreskin,  with  itching,  pricking,  and 
burning  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  constricted  glans.  A  for- 
cible jerking  extended  through  the  whole  organ,  particularly 
when  patient  fell  asleep.  Merc-corr.  first  given  produced  no 
amelioration,  but  this  painful  jerking  decided  me  for  Cinnabar, 
given  5C,  three  doses,  followed  by  placebo.  Improvement 
came  promptly  from  this  latter,  giving  sleep  and  comfort  to  the 
patient.  The  first  remedy  for  this  symptom  had  remained  with- 
out effect,  and  Cinnab.50  was  resorted  to,  a  few  doses  of  which 
administered  at  short  intervals  abated  the  jerking,  the  remedy 
being  allowed  afterward  to  exhaust  its  curative  effect.  The 
oedematous  condition  abated  in  four  days,  leaving  all  the  parts 
in  quite  a  favorable  state,  and  the  former  chancres  entirely 
cicatrized,  an  effect  hardly  to  be  expected  from  the  amount 
of  tension  which  seemed  to  have  existed  around  the  healing  glans. 

Notwithstanding  the  apparent  normal  condition  now  prevail- 
ing, a  third  back-set  was  encountered  in  the  left  eye  a  few  days 
later.  It  became  injected  and  swollen,  with  a  very  sore  spot 
above  the  limit  of  the  cornea  on  the  ball.  It  was  described  as  a 
protruding  and  swollen  point  pricking  and  wounding  the  lid 
when  moved,  and  causing  the  same  feeling  in  the  eyeball  itself. 
Inversion  of  the  lid,  indeed,  brought  this  state  practically  to 
view,  with  vascular  rays  of  enlarged  and  turgid  vessels  extend- 
ing over  the  ball  and  causing  obscuration  of  a  portion  of  cornea. 
Very  painful,  piercing  stitches  affected  the  inner  canthus  with 


358 


WANT  TO  KNOW,  YOU  KNOW." 


[August, 


floods  of  tears,  when  the  eye  was  opened  the  slightest,  for  light 
could  not  be  borne  at  all. 

Much  general  smarting  and  burning  affected  the  eye,  and  the 
weight  of  the  lid  on  the  ball  seemed  almost  intolerable.  Vision 
was  lost  from  obscurity  of  the  cornea,  yet  I  could  plainly  observe 
the  pupil  fixed  and  distorted,  being  quadrangular  in  shape. 

These  appearances  and  symptoms  seemed  to  denote  the  prob- 
able outbreak  of  a  chancre  on  the  eyeball,  and  the  existence  of 
iritis  evidently  demanded  prompt  measures. 

This  demand,  I  am  sorry  to  state,  was  sacrificed  in  the  too 
hasty  giving  of  Croc-s.  for  the  extreme  lachrymation  at  its  first 
appearance,  which  was  not  effective.  But  a  choice  was  later 
cast  on  Clematis  E.  from  a  maturer  review  of  the  facts  present. 
It  has  stitches  in  left  eye,  inner  canthus,  as  from  a  pointed 
instrument,  pressure  in  middle  of  left  eyeball,  reddened  con- 
junctiva, profuse  lachrymation  and  dread  of  light ;  fear  to  open 
the  eyes  ;  pain  in  closing  the  eyes.  So  close  a  reproduction  as 
here  existed  can  cause  no  surprise  at  the  almost  instantaneous 
changes  that  come  over  the  case  from  the  administration  of 
Clematis2*.  To  the  homoeopathist  it  was  as  the  transmutation 
from  darkness  to  light,  from  disease  to  health.  Pain  vanished 
as  by  magic,  and  a  few  days  of  activity  in  the  absorbents 
restored  normal  vision  and  appearance  in  and  around  the  eye. 

But  a  mild  difficulty  was  experienced  after  this.  The  secondary 
eruption,  which  appeared  on  the  face  and  chest,  made  but  an 
ephemeral  show ;  it  was  gradually  and  steadily  removed  by 
Nitric-acidcm  given  at  weekly  intervals. 

The  whole  period  during  which  this  man  remained  under 
treatment  was  over  seven  weeks.  It  exhibited  several,  if  not 
all  the  phases  of  a  syphilitic  case  successively.  Six  months  has 
now  more  than  elapsed  since  the  last  vestige  has  vanished. 
Have  I  a  right  justly  to  claim  that  a  radical  cure  has  been 
made?   

"  WANT  TO  KNOW,  YOU  KNOW." 
Frank  Kraft,  M.  D.,  Sylvania,  Ohio. 
A  young  lady,  set.  twenty-two,  unmarried,  thin  and  spare, 
chlorotic  and  anaemic,  intellectual  predominance,  "  mild,  gentle, 


1800.]  h  WANT  TO  KNOW,  YOU  KNOW."  359 


and  yielding,"  has  an  uncontrollable  appetite  for  raw  potatoes. 
These  she  must  eat  before  breakfast.  They  do  not  distress  her. 
If  she  overloads,  of  course,  the  usual  discomfort.  Generally 
constipated.  Eyes  weak.  Left  kidney  seat  of  soreness.  Some 
uric  acid  deposit.  Unable  to  go  up-stairs  without  palpitation. 
Disposition  to  faint.  Coldness  of  feet.  Skin  dry  and  coolish. 
Hair,  chestnut ;  same  for  eyes.  Has  become  convinced  that 
she  has  tape-worm,  and  comes  to  me  for  such  treatment. 

The  only  remedy  that  I  find  (in  W.  Jefferson  Guernsey)  that 
has  desire  for  raw  potatoes,  is  Calc-carb. ;  but  with  the  exception 
of  that  one  symptom,  and  the  dubious  one  of  inability  to  go  up- 
stairs, there  is  not,  so  far  as  I  can  judge,  another  prominent 
symptom  of  Calc-carb.  in  the  case.  Alumina  looms  up  as  a  po- 
tato remedy — or  rather  a  remedy  the  provers  of  which  were 
made  worse  by  eating  potatoes  ;  the  anaemia,  the  chlorosis,  the 
constipation,  the  unnatural  appetite,  almost  persuaded  me  to 
give  Alumina.  Then  I  turned  to  Lycopodium,  found  constipa- 
tion, satiety  from  a  few  mouthfuls,  tympany;  brick-dust  sedi- 
ment, pain  in  kidney  relieved  by  urinating,  likes  oysters,  but 
they  distress  her  unduly,  worse  of  her  general  symptoms  in 
latter  part  of  afternoon.  Her  mother,  who  was  present, 
filled  in  one  of  the  gaps  of  silence  by  saying  that  she  (the 
mother)  had  so  much  wind  colic.  Every  afternoon,  clothes  got 
so  tight,  and  that  Mary  was  a  good  deal  like  herself.  The 
mother's  svmptoms  were  unmistakably  Lycopodium.  I 
reviewed  my  notes  carefully,  and  mentally  wished  for  Dr. 
Hale's  philosophical  temperament,  so  I  might  cut  this  Gordian 
knot  by  giving,  alternately  Alumina  and  Lycopodium,  with  a 
possible  intercurrent  of  Calcarea.  I  gave,  instead,  Lycopodium, 
and  requested  to  see  patient  again  in  ten  days.  Was  I 
right? 

Why  didn't  I  give  Filix-mas,  or  some  other  tape-worm 
specific,  and  expel  the  "  critter  "  ?  Well,  first,  because  I  am  not 
sure  there  is  a  tape- worm  ;  second,  because  I  am  prescribing  for 
my  patient,  and  not  for  a  possible  tape-worm ;  and,  third,  if 
Lycopodium  is  the  simillimum  it  will  not  only  expel  the  worm, 
but  destroy  the  eggs  and  the  nutriment  for  other  incipient 


360 


"WANT  TO  KNOW,  YOU  KNOW."      [August,  1890. 


worms.  But  suppose  Lycopodiuni  is  not  the  sirnillimum  ?  Then, 
truly,  I  have  blundered,  and  must  try  again  ;  but  I  am  confi- 
dent my  patient  will  return  to  me  in  ten  days  improved  in  many 
ways,  even  if  the  raw-potato  diet  still  continues  a  necessity. 
Then  I  shall  restudy  my  case,  and  again  give  the  nearest 
sirnillimum.  And  still  do  nothing  to  expel  that  worm  ?  Why, 
yes,  the  sirnillimum  is  at  work  on  that  worm.  But,  ultimately, 
you  will  have  to  take  that  worm  by  his  horns,  so  to  speak,  and 
expel  him,  say  you.  Perhaps.  But  if  I  do,  it  will  be  because  of 
my  ignorance,  and  I  shall  sing  very  small  about  the  perform- 
ance. 

I  have  seen  "  worm  "  tablets  given  to  children,  and  in  due 
course  a  large  teacupful  of  wriggling  worms  was  expelled. 
That's  the  business,  say  you.  Yes,  and  I  have  heard  the  anxious 
parent  and  the  modest  (?)  neighborhood  exclaim,  "None  of  your 
'  sweet  sand'  medicine  for  my  children.  I  want  to  see  the 
worms/'  And  they  usually  do,  for  in  the  course  of  a  fortnight 
the  child  is  again  "  wormy/'  and  more  tablets  are  given,  and 
more  worms  come  away,  and  more  satisfaction  on  the  part  of  the 
mother.  But,  by  and  by,  this  becomes  monotonous ;  the 
worms  seem  to  thrive,  and  for  one  that  comes  away  a  dozen  new 
ones  spring  into  existence.  Then,  as  the  child  is  not  improving, 
but  looks  wretched  and  puny,  the  mother  bethinks  her  of  her 
"  little-pill 99  neighbor,  whose  child  seemed  also  to  be  wormy, 
but,  after  a  course  of  homoeopathic  powders,  ceased  to  give  any 
signs  of  worms,  and  has  since  grown  strong  and  fleshy.  She 
visits  her  friend,  and  is  prevailed  on  to  try  some  of  the  "faith" 
medicine.    The  result  is  satisfactory. 

In  brief :  if  there  is  a  tape-worm  in  this  case,  I  propose  to 
make  his  surroundings  so  disagreeable  to  him  and  his  progeny 
that  he  and  they  will  be  glad  to  vacate  the  premises ;  and  if, 
under  pressure,  I  give  way  to  any  peremptory  method  of 
expelling  his  High  Nobility,  I  shall  feel  that  I  have  descended 
from  my  exalted  position  as  a  homoeopathic  physician  to  the 
level  of  that  loud  advertising  glib-mouthed  fakir — The  Tape- 
worm King.    Am  I  right? 


FATAL  ERRORS. 


J.  H.  Jackson,  M.  D.,  Flint,  Mich. 

"  Don't  hold  a  penny  so  close  to  your  eye  that  you  can't  see 
a  dollar  a  little  further  off,"  was  the  advice  I  once  heard  a 
friend  give  one  of  his  agents. 

The  besetting  sin  of  many  who  pretend  to  follow  Hahnemann 
is  that  they  hold  a  pathological  lesion  so  close  to  their  eyes  that 
they  fail  to  see  the  individuality  of  their  patients. 

If  a  patient  should  consult  a  physician  of  this  class  for  treat- 
ment for  an  epithelial  cancer  of  right  ala  nasi,  the  probability 
is  that  he  would  prescribe  Kreosotum,  because  it  has  epithelial 
cancer  of  that  locality. 

He  would  not  think  that  in  the  first  place  whoever  gave 
Kreosotum  for  such  a  lesion  probably  prescribed  it  on  account 
of  other  symptoms  that  were  covered  by  the  remedy,  and  as  the 
symptom,  not  disease,  epithelial  cancer  disappeared  under  the 
use  of  Kreosotum,  the  symptom  epithelial  cancer  of  right  ala  nasi 
has  become  recorded  under  this  remedy.  Therefore  to  prescribe 
it  for  this  pathological  symptom  alone  would  not  be  a  proper 
way  to  proceed  in  the  treatment  of  the  sick. 

If  a  cure  followed  it  would  be  an  accidental  one,  as  a  patho- 
logical lesion  is  simply  an  outward  manifestation  of  an  internal 
contamination,  and  of  itself  many  times  unsufficient  basis  for  a 
homoeopathic  prescription. 

I  was  once  called  to  treat  a  boy  for  phymosis.  On  page  68 
of  Berjeau  on  Syphilis,  under  Merc-cor.,  can  be  found  these 
words :  "  Indicated  when  there  is  violent  swelling  of  prepuce 
like  a  bladder,  with  burning,  biting,  redness,  and  painful  sensi- 
bility, with  cracks  and  fissures  on  inner  surface."  This  waa  an 
exact  description  of  the  local  symptoms  which,  in  this  case, 
might  have  been  abridged  to  have  read — phymosis,  for  all  the 
good  they  would  have  been  as  a  guide  for  the  selection  of  the 
most  truly  homoeopathic  remedy.    For  in  addition  to  the  local 

361 


362 


FATAL  ERRORS. 


[August, 


symptoms  the  child's  urine  would  become  like  milk  after  stand- 
ing awhile ;  the  cheeks  were  very  red,  with  well-defined  bluish- 
whiteness  about  mouth  and  nose.  He  could  not  bear  you  to 
look  at  him,  and  to  touch  him  was  the  signal  for  an  outbreak  of 
rage  and  scolding.  His  mother  said  that  in  sleep  he  was  con- 
stantly grating  his  teeth,  and  boring  at  and  rubbing  his  nose  in 
sleep  or  awake. 

Now,  what  was  the  correct  way  to  proceed  in  order  to  heal  this 
patient  in  a  truly  Hahnemannian  manner?  Give  Merc-cor. 
because  it  covered  the  pathological  lesion,  or  Cina,  which  cor- 
responds with  the  patient's  individuality  ? 

Tt  would  have  been  a  fatal  error  to  give  Merc-cor.,  for  it  was 
not  homoeopathic  to  the  case,  but  Cina  was,  even  though  it  had 
never  been  known  to  cause  or  cure  phymosis.  Therefore  Cinalm 
was  administered,  and  was  followed  by  amiability  of  temper  and 
speedy  recovery  of  health. 

Suppose  I  were  to  write  a  materia  medica,  and  under  Cina 
should  record,  "  Phymosis,  violent  swelling  of  prepuce  like  a 
bladder,  with  burning,  biting,  redness,  and  painful  sensibility, 
with  cracks  and  fissures  on  inner  surface."  It  would  indeed  be 
a  fatal  error  for  a  physician  who  might  have  a  case  of  phymosis 
presenting  an  exactly  similar  pathological  state  to  hastily  give 
Cina,  without  first  scanning  the  case  for  mental  symptoms  and 
all  other  objective  and  subjective  signs  that,  in  their  entirety, 
voice  the  true  picture  of  a  case  of  sickness,  and  infallibly  demand 
for  its  removal  that  remedy  capable  of  producing  exactly  similar 
symptoms  to  the  most  striking  and  peculiar,  therefore  most  char- 
acteristic symptoms  of  the  patient. 

The  mental  symptoms,  "  cannot  bear  to  be  looked  at,  nor 
touched,"  were  very  striking  and  peculiar,  and,  on  that  account, 
ought  always  to  overshadow  common  or  ordinary  symptoms. 

It  matters  not  whether  a  tumor  of  the  breast  following  a 
blow  had  ever  been  cured  by  Chamomilla  or  Cina,  if  the  men- 
tal and  other  symptoms  of  the  patient  were  covered  by  either 
of  them,  it  would  be  in  accord  with  strict  Homoeopathy  to  give 
either  of  them,  and  not  the  routine  remedy,  Conium. 

It  is  a  fatal  error  to  give  "  usual  "  remedies,  because  of  their 


1890.] 


FATAL  ERRORS. 


363 


being  usual  remedies,  or  ones  most  frequently  indicated.  A 
large  percentage  of  failures  is  due  to  routine  prescriptions, 
particularly  by  the  mongrels,  who  never  have  allowed  the 
beautiful  truths  of  our  divine  art  to  permeate  their  very  souls. 
I  say  allowed — the  majority  of  them  are  probably  incapable  of 
becomiug  in  harmony  with  truth,  as  they  are  hopelessly 
infatuated  by  the  tinsel  and  trash  of  the  "  physiological  livery.' 

A  woman  presenting  in  her  face  what  the  books  describe  as 
the  cancer-cachexia,  consulted  me  about  a  tumor  involving  the 
right  labia  majora  and  for  a  distance  of  six  inches  down  inner 
surface  of  thigh,  and  deeper  tissues  for  about  three  inches,  the 
growth  being  about  three  inches  wide,  and  probably  weighing  a 
pound  or  pound  and  a  half. 

The  tumor  being  of  stony  hardness,  had  taken  a  year  to  attain 
its  present  proportions. 

The  labia  majora  was  everted  and  hard  as  a  stone,  the  patient 
complained  of  sharp,  plunging  pains  in  tumor,  worse  after  hand- 
ling it,  and  at  night. 

The  woman's  mother  was  said  to  have  died  of  cancer  of 
stomach  at  age  of  forty.  The  patient  was  thirty -nine.  She 
told  me  that  a  homoeopathic  surgeon  had  pronounced  her  tumor 
a  cancer,  and  said  that  the  only  remedy  was  the  knife. 

Several  allopathic  surgeons  had  given  the  same  opinion. 

I  told  the  poor  creature  that  remedies  might  cure  her.  The 
first  examination  elicited  these  symptoms:  burning  of  feet  in 
bed,  must  put  them  from  under  the  covers ;  swelling  of  the  feet 
so  that  much  of  the  time  cannot  wear  shoes  ;  hot  flashes  up- 
ward, followed  by  great  faintness  and  sweat,  top  of  head  so 
burning  hot  is  compelled  to  keep  it  drenched  with  cold  water ; 
marked  faintness  at  eleven  A.  m.  ;  at  times  diarrhoea  in  early 
morning.  Sulphurcm  one  dose,  and  Sac-lac.  three  times  a  day 
for  two  weeks. 

On  second  examination,  I  was  informed  that  all  the  symp- 
toms, except  lancinating  pains  in  tumor,  had  improved  for  about 
eight  days,  when  they  returned  and  were  now  about  same  as  at 
first.  Another  dose  of  Sulphurcm  was  given  and  Sac-lac.  for 
two  weeks. 


364 


FATAL  ERRORS. 


[August, 


At  third  examination  she  told  me  that  all  symptoms  had 
ceased,  except  pains  in  tumor,  which  were  very  sharp,  and  that 
there  were  sharp,  plunging  pains  back  of  ears,  in  arms,  in 
abdomen,  and  in  various  parts  of  body,  and  that  her  feet  do  not 
burn,  but  are  more  swollen  than  ever. 

Examination  of  tumor  revealed  no  perceptible  change. 

Now,  sharp,  lancinating  pains  are  characteristic  of  a  scirrhus, 
and  are,  on  that  account,  not  a  characteristic  or  guiding  symp- 
tom. But  sharp,  lancinating  pains  in  various  parts  of  the  body 
of  a  person  afflicted  by  cancer,  are  striking  and  peculiar,  and, 
therefore,  characteristic,  and  as  Apis-mel.  has  prominently 
these  pains,  and  as  it  covers  the  oedema  of  feet  and  thirstlessness 
and  scanty  urine,  which  she  now  complains  of,  Apiscm  was 
given,  with  a  request  to  report  in  one  week. 

When  she  came  to  see  me  she  said  that  after  taking  the  first 
dose  of  medicine,  the  sharp  pains  were  more  intense  than  ever 
and  more  frequent,  and  that  where  the  pains  came,  would  be 
sore  for  hours  after. 

After  the  aggravation  of  pains  passed  off,  the  swelling  of  feet, 
scanty  urine,  and  thirstlessness  were  improved  for  a  few  days, 
but  now  are  about  the  same. 

A  second  dose  of  Apis  was  given  and'  in  a  week's  time  she 
entered  my  office  with  the  exclamation,  "  O  doctor !  I  think 
there  is  a  change  in  the  swelling."  Examination  of  it  revealed 
the  fact  that  the  tumor  seemed  to  have  broken  up  into  angular 
pieces  that  were  very  hard  to  the  touch  and  could  be  felt  to 
move  slightly  on  manipulation.    No  medicine. 

In  two  weeks  I  again  examined  tumor  and  found  the 
angular  pieces  could  be  plainly  felt  and  that  they  were 
freely  movable  about,  the  labia  majora  was  also  less  everted. 
The  patient  now  complains  of  passing  large  quantities  of 
colorless  urine.  Her  stomach  seems  full  from  a  few  mouth- 
fuls  of  food,  and  has  great  distress  from  gas  in  stomach 
and  abdomen  and  rumbling  in  abdomen  and  in  left  hypochon- 
driac region.  Prescribed  Lycopodiumcm,  one  dose.  In  one 
week  reports  that  the  remedy  seemed  to  act  like  magic,  as  she 
was  relieved  of  symptoms  at  once,  but  that  for  the  last  day  or 


1890.]  FATAL  ERRORS.  365 

so  has  had  some  return.  Lvcopodiumcm,  one  powder,  and  in  a 
week  another  dose,  and  these  seven  doses  of  medicine  in  the 
CM  potency  were  all  the  medicine  this  woman  received,  and  in 
two  weeks  from  giving  the  last  dose  not  a  vestige  of  the  tumor 
remained,  and  the  patient  presented  a  perfect  picture  of  health. 

Who  can  contemplate  such  a  marvelous  proof  of  the  truth 
of  the  law  of  the  similars,  and  not  love  the  man  who  was  so 
open  to  divine  influx  as  to  receive  into  the  chamber  of  his  ra- 
diant mind  so  full  and  perfect  a  revelation  of  the  only  art  of 
healing  worthy  the  name  ? 

And  who  among  us  that  has  plodded  through  many  a  weary 
hour  of  faithful  search  of  the  materia  medica,  that  we  might 
do  honor  to  our  loved  art,  and  do  good  to  those  who  were  sick, 
and  who  know  that  this  alone  is  the  royal  road  to  "  restore  health 
to  the  sick,  which  is  called  healing,"  can  have  other  than  seorn 
and  contempt  for  the  barnacles  that  "  trade  upon  a  name "? 
Who  deceive  and  lie  and  slander  and  slay  that  they  may  make 
money  and  escape  the  labor  that  alone  enables  one  to  do  the  best 
possible  for  the  sick  and  suffering. 

When  we,  who  know  the  better  way,  witness  the  fearful  mor- 
tality attending  the  allopathist's  art  of  bungling,  and  the  little 
better  that  attends  the  ministrations  of  the  mongrels,  and  in 
addition,  the  worse  than  death — the  various  torturing  mental 
states  that  make  the  lives  of  huudreds  of  thousands  a  very  hell : 
the  frightful  wastings,  the  excessively  fat,  and  the  walking 
skeletons,  the  distorted,  lame,  halt,  misshapen,  and  blind : 
the  everted  fiery  red  eyelids,  burned  "  scientifically  "  by  caus- 
tics till  the  human  countenance  divine  is  loathsome  to  behold  : 
the  corneal  opacities  that  shade  forever  the  windows  of  the  soul : 
the  slow  death  by  inches  by  consumption,  and  by  cancers  that  eat 
and  eat  and  burn  like  fire,  and  produce  a  stench  that  makes  the 
abode  of  the  sufferer  a  charnel-house  of  horror  :  the  thou- 
sands that  throng  the  mad-houses,  sent  there  by  as  vile  and  rep- 
rehensible a  mal-practice  as  ever  disgraced  the  veriest  ignora- 
mus, a  mal-practice  perpetrated  by  graduates  of  a  "  regular  " 
school,  established  to  teach  and  train  men  in  that  most  fearful 
art  of  violating  nature's  laws,  done  in  the  name  of  "  science  M — 


366 


HYSTERICAL  SPASMS  CURED  WITH  PULS.30.  [August, 


regular  science  :  the  thousands  that  are  sent  into  the  world 
but  half  made  up,  idiots,  imbeciles,  blind,  deaf,  and  dumb  ;  their 
rounding  out  and  harmonious  development  blighted  in  their 
mother's  womb  by  that  blasphemy  against  truth  and  common 
sense  and  humanity,  regular  and  mongrel  methods  of  treatment 
that  violate  the  law  of  metastasis  in  the  treatment  of  the  com- 
plaints of  women  during  the  stage  of  gestation,  and,  conse- 
quently, abort  the  mental  or  physical  development  of  the  foetus  : 
when  we  witness  these  fearful  consequences,  it  is  well  to  de- 
nounce in  no  uncertain  voice  the  vile  mongrel  who  deceives  and 
misleads  and  does  more  harm  to  a  propagation  of  pure  Homoe- 
opathy than  many  true  followers  of  Hahnemann  can  overcome 
in  a  lifetime. 

We  all  ought  to  have  charity  for  honest  error,  but  it  is  a  fatal 
error  not  to  denounce  criminal  negligence,  and  it  is  nothing 
short  of  criminal  negligence  for  professed  homceopathists  to 
resort  to  "  cobbling  "  allopathic  methods  of  suppressing  mani- 
festations of  diseased  action,  instead  of  studying  the  materia 
medica  and  becoming  thereby  competent  healers  of  the  sick. 


HYSTERICAL  SPASMS  CURED  WITH  PULSA- 
TILLA30. 

Dr.  Paul  Lutze,  Coethen. 

A  young  woman  complained  that  for  the  last  nine  months  she 
suffered  from  periodical  spasms,  during  which  she  is  forced  to 
scream  out.  Accidentally  the  doctor  had  the  opportunity  to  wit- 
ness one  or  two  during  his  office-hours.  It  sets  in  with  weak,  but 
gradually  increasing  respiratory  troubles,  similar  to  the  puffing 
of  a  locomotive,  followed  by  heartrending  screams,  accompanied 
by  thrashing  about ;  consciousness  seemed  abolished  during  these 
attacks,  which  is  rather  a  rare  symptom  in  hysteria.  They 
usually  appeared  toward  five  P.  M. ;  menses  scanty  and  weak, 
mostly  only  every  six  or  eight  weeks.  In  consequence  of  a 
former  endocarditis  there  was  some  slight  mitral  deficiency. 
The  symptoms  indicated  Pulsatilla30,  which  he  prescribed  in  the 


1890.] 


BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 


367 


manner  of  his  dosage  in  chronic  affections  :  to  take  of  a  watery 
solution  a  teaspoonful  mornings  and  evenings  for  three  days, 
then  a  free  interval  of  eleven  days,  so  that  the  four  powders 
(second  and  fourth  placebos)  sufficed  for  four  weeks.  During 
the  first  two  weeks  the  fits  increased  (medical  aggravation  ?) 
but  the  last  two  weeks  no  fit.  Courses  appeared  regularly  after 
four  weeks.  Then  the  fits  returned  every  other  day,  which 
might  be  considered  a  critical  aggravation,  sometimes  observed 
before  a  final  one  is  obtained.  Pulsatilla30  as  before.  Three 
months  afterward,  during  which  she  took  placebos,  she  had  no 
fits  any  more,  and  they  never  returned,  and  as  he  treated  her 
since  for  a  dry  herpes  on  the  chin,  the  woman  can  be  considered 
cured. — AIL  Horn.  Zeit. 

The  case  would  be  hardly  worth  while  publishing  if  it  were 
not  for  the  manner  in  which  Lutze  prescribed  the  drug.  Morn- 
ing and  evening  a  minute  dose  of  the  30th,  and  then  nearly  two 
weeks  tincture  of  time  and  patience  are  the  order.  Yet  we  see 
even  that  this  close  prescriber  erred  in  repeating  his  remedy,  when 
everything  hinted  to  a  speedy  cure.  I  once  heard  my  valued 
friend,  Professor  Carleton,  remark  at  a  meeting  of  the  New 
York  County  Medical  Society  that  waiting  for  the  action  of  a 
remedy  is  the  greatest  trial  for  a  conscientious  prescriber,  and 
that  we  often  fail  by  being  in  too  much  of  a  hurry.  How  few 
practitioners  know  the  duration  of  a  drug  in  susceptible  persons, 
and  when  life-force  is  once  set  in  motion  in  order  to  restore  the 
equilibrium,  any  repetition  or  change  can  only  act  in  a  disturb- 
ing manner.  Instead  of  bio-chemistry,  let  us  rather  study  the 
biological  laws,  as  lately  shown  by  Arndt  and  Schulze. 

  S.  L. 

BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 
Alfred  Heath,  M.  D.,  F.  L.  S. 

R A XUNCUL ACE^E  (COX T I X LED) . 

Helleborm  viridis  (Green  Hellebore,  Bear's  Foot,  found  in 
thickets  or  chalky  soil ;  comparatively  scarce  in  England,  but 
abundant  where  it  occurs). — This,  though  not  a  showy  flower, 


368 


BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 


[August, 


is,  like  all  hellebores,  a  very  elegant  one,  bearing  yellowish 
green  spreading  flowers,  well  worth  gathering,  not  too  large,  as 
the  well-known  Christmas  rose  (Helleborus  niger).  A  short 
account  of  this  will  be  found  in  Dr.  Allen's  Materia  Medica. 
It  produces,  amongst  other  symptoms,  the  following:  "  Ringing 
and  roaring  in  the  ears,  with  feeling  of  stoppage;  violent  itching 
in  the  nose,  with  frequent  and  violent  sneezing,  from  applica- 
tion to  the  parts,  pricking  on  the  tongue,  relieved  by  rinsing 
with  water.  At  first  a  profuse  secretion  of  saliva  and  mucus 
in  the  mouth,  soon  followed  by  a  feeling  of  dryness  and 
of  warmth  in  the  pharynx  and  stomach,  which  gradually  be- 
comes a  dull  burning.  Abdomen  sensitive  and  distended  ;  pro- 
fuse diarrhoea,  with  intense  colic  and  tenesmus;  great  nausea 
and  inclination  to  vomit;  violent  headache  and  thirst;  condition 
bordering  on  torpor,  lasting  the  whole  night,  and  preventing 
refreshing  sleep;  heat  at  times  over  the  whole  body."  I  found 
this  plant  in  great  abundance  some  years  ago.  It  extended 
over  a  space  of  about  a  hundred  square  yards  at  the  bottom  of 
a  wooded  hill.  I  had  never  seen  it  growing  wild  before,  and  it 
was  a  sight  worth  seeing,  especially  to  a  botanist,  and  the 
pleasure  experienced  was  intensified  at  the  time  by  the  fact  that 
I  was  in  need  of  a  good  quantity  of  the  root. 

Helleborus  fostidus  (Stinking  Hellebore,  Tetterwort). — Found 
in  similar  situations  to  the  foregoing  (Helleborus  viridis).  These 
are  the  only  two  members  of  this  genus  indigenous  to  this 
country.  The  leaves  of  the  stinking  hellebore  are  said  to  have 
extraordinary  powers  as  a  remedy  for  worms.  The  root  has  an 
extremely  foetid  smell  and  bitter  taste,  and  is  also  very  acrid, 
and  if  chewed  will  excoriate  the  mouth.  It  is  purgative  and 
emetic,  and  very  injurious  in  large  doses.  According  to  the 
proving  in  Allen's  Homceopathic  Materia  Ifedica,  it  produces 
"  violent  vomiting  and  purging,  with  pain  in  the  stomach, 
soreness  of  the  mouth  and  throat ;  colic,  fatal  convulsions  and 
swooning;  falling  off  of  the  hair,  and  of  the  nails  of  the  fingers 
and  toes ;  peeling  of  the  scarf-skin  of  the  whole  of  the  body ; 
restless  sleep;  profuse  discharges  from  the  ulcerated  surfaces  by 
applying  the  drug;  difficulty  in  reading  in  the  evening  by  can- 
dlelight for  four  days." 


1890.] 


BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 


369 


Helleborus  niger  (Christmas  Rose). — This  well-known  plant 
is  not  indigenous  to  Britain,  but  has  been  so  long  one  of  our 
garden  favorites,  and  moreover  is  so  well  known  as  a  homce- 
pathic  medicine  of  the  first  order — there  being  a  good  proving 
of  the  drug  in  Jahr's  Materia  Medica  and  also  in  Hering's 
Guiding  Symptoms — that  I  have  thought  it  advisable  to  mention 
it  with  English  plants.  The  ancients  esteemed  this  plant  as  a 
powerful  remedy  in  mania.  In  more  recent  times  it  has  been 
used  empirically  as  a  drastic  purgative,  and  in  smaller  doses  as 
a  diuretic  aud  emmenagogue,  also  in  mania,  coma,  dropsy,  worms, 
and  psora.  The  "  proving  "  of  this  drug  on  the  healthy  shows 
why  it  is  good  in  certain  forms  of  insanity,  etc.,  etc.  It  produces, 
among  other  systems,  melancholy,  taciturnity ;  excessive  and 
almost  mortal  anguish  ;  nostalgia,  or  a  vehement  desire  to  re- 
visit one's  country,  attended  with  melancholy,  loss  of  ap- 
petite, and  sleep.  The  Swiss  are  said  to  be  much  subject  to  this 
affection,  as  well  as  other  mountaineers.  The  plant  in  question 
is  a  native  of  the  mountainous  parts,  especially  of  Switzerland, 
Italy,  etc.  It  also  produces  indolence,  sobbing,  lamentation, 
obstinate  silence,  mistrust,  stupidity,  weakness  of  memory,  etc. 
It  produces  involuntary  watery  diarrhoea,  colic,  urging,  straining, 
and  vomiting  ;  suppression  of  the  menses  ;  drowsiness,  constant 
somnolence,  torpid  sleep ;  ulcers  aud  various  skin  troubles. 
Suppression  of  urine  ;  over-distention  of  the  bladder ;  frequent 
urging  to  urinate,  with  scanty  discharge;  sudden  watery  swell- 
ing of  the  skin  of  the  whole  body  ;  anasarea.  It  is  one  of  the 
most  homoeopathic  remedies  in  certain  forms  of  dropsy.  Allo- 
paths use  it  because  it  does  good,  but  knowing  nothing  of  our 
law  of  cure,  which  guides  us  in  the  selection  of  a  remedy,  they 
know  not  why  it  cures,  and  therefore  can  only  give  it  experi- 
mentally and  often  improperly. 

Aquilegia  vulgaris  (Columbine). — Found  in  woods  and  thick- 
ets, etc.,  chiefly  on  a  calcareous  soil.  The  wild  plant  is  called 
Aquilegia  from  the  shape  of  the  nectaries,  which  are  curved 
like  the  talons  of  an  eagle.  It  should  always  be  employed  for 
homoeopathic  tinctures.  The  aquilegia  is  a  very  old  and  favor- 
ite garden-plant.  This  plant  was  formerly  employed  as  a 
24 


370  ANNUAL  ADDRESS  OF  GEO.  WIGG,  M.  D.  [August, 


remedy  for  eruptions  on  the  skin,  for  jaundice,  scurvy,  etc. 
It  is  very  similar  to  Secale  cornutum  in  its  action  in  child-birth. 
It  is  used  in  Spain  as  a  remedy  for  stone.    Some  mention  is  made 
of  this  drug  in  Dr.  Peter's  Diseases  of  Females. 
114  Ebury  St.,  London,  England. 


ANNUAL  ADDRESS  OF  GEO.  WIGG,  M.  D., 

•  President  of  the  Homoeopathic  Medical  Society  of  the  State  of  Oregon,  de- 
livered at  its  Fourteenth  Annual  Session,  held  at  Portland, 
Oregon,  Tuesday,  May  13th,  1890. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : — Time,  ever  swiftly  rolling  on- 
ward with  its  burden  of  care,  as  well  as  of  joys  and  pleasures, 
has  again  favored  us  with  another  opportunity  of  meeting  to- 
gether to  exchange  fraternal  greeting,  and  review  our  labors  of 
the  past  twelve  months. 

With  some  of  us  these  golden  moments  will  pass — are  pass- 
ing rapidly  away  with  each  changing  year  ;  such  being  the  case, 
let  us  make  the  most  of  our  time  in  giving  and  receiving  all  the 
good  in  our  power. 

We  are  assembled  at  this  time  under  circumstances  of  no  or- 
dinary character — peculiarly  blessed  at  the  hands  of  the  Great 
Physician,  in  the  eujoyment  of  full  health  and  strength,  and  of 
our  reasoning  faculties,  blessed  in  our  basket  and  in  our  store, 
in  our  going  out  and  in  our  coming  in.  Let  us  then  with 
thankful  hearts  look  up  to  the  Giver  of  all  good,  and  invoke 
His  sanction  and  blessing  upon  all  we  may  say  or  do  at  this 
meeting ;  may  He  who  is  the  fountain  head  of  all  wisdom,  ex- 
pand our  minds,  enlighten  our  understandings,  so  that  we  may 
the  better  grasp  the  great  problem  of  restoring  the  sick  to 
health. 

Since  our  last  meeting,  two  of  our  number  have  fallen  from 
the  ranks  of  Homoeopathy  in  this  State,  Dr.  Pohl,  late  of  Port- 
land, and  Dr.  Resdon,  late  of  Salem.  At  an  hour  they  were  not 
aware  of,  their  spirits  took  their  departure  from  the  tenements 
of  clay.  We  shall  not  see  their  faces  nor  hear  their  voices  in 
our  midst  again  ;  but  in  the  deathless  hereafter,  our  spirits,  with 


1890.]  ANNUAL  ADDRESS  OF  GEO.  WIGG,  M.  D.  371 


theirs  and  Hahnemann's,  Dunham's,  Hering's,  and  a  host  of 
others  who  have  departed  from  the  battle-field  of  life,  shall 
together  walk  the  palace  of  the  skies.  For  we  know  there  is 
something  that  lives,  the  dust  can  but  cover  its  dust. 

In  taking  a  retrospective  view  of  the  past  twelve  months,  we 
stand  awe-stricken  as  the  panorama  passes  bjfore  the  mind's  eye. 
City  after  city  has  been  laid  low  by  the  devouring  element,  fire. 
Thousands  of  human  lives  have  been  sacrificed  in  that  ever- 
restless  element,  water,  while  catastrophes  from  other  causes 
have  been  legion.  Yet,  amidst  it  all,  the  physician  has  calmly 
performed  his  mission  of  toil  and  mercy,  and  Homoeopathy  has 
brought  forth  golden  blocks  for  the  Temple  of  the  Art  of 
Healing. 

For  fourteen  years  this  Society  has  annually  congregated,  and 
the  results  of  these  gatherings  are  manifest  in  all  parts  of 
Oregou.  Already  there  are  thousands  of  persons  living  in 
Oregon  who  can  testify  to  the  superiority  of  Homoeopathy  over 
every  other  known  system  of  medicine.  This  fact  ought  to 
stimulate  us  to  still  greater  effort  in  behalf  of  those  grand  truths 
which  it  teaches. 

I  repeat,  "  those  grand  truths."  For  when  Samuel  Hahne- 
mann, in  the  year  1796,  announced  to  the  world  the  law  of 
wnilia,  he  proclaimed  a  truth  high  as  heaven,  deep  as  hell,  and 
lasting  as  eternity;  and  because  of  this  truth,  he  was  hated  by 
physician  and  apothecary  alike,  and  in  some  kingdoms  his 
practice  was  interdicted  by  law,  and  the  law  went  so  far  as  to 
forbid  him  from  dispensing  his  own  remedies. 

How  much  better  it  would  have  been  for  humanity  at  large, 
had  the  old-school  doctors  assisted  Hahnemann  in  his  search 
for  proof  of  the  law  he  taught.  Hahnemann  threw  down  the 
gauntlet  when  he  said  :  "  Either  prove  or  disprove  the  truth  of 
what  I  say — if  true,  acknowledge  it;  if  false,  publish  it  to  the 
world."  But  instead  of  doing  so,  they  heaped  upon  that  head, 
which  was  the  peer  of  them  all,  calumny,  and  not  content  with 
that,  they  drove  him  from  the  land  of  his  birth,  causing  him  to 
become  a  stranger  in  a  strange  land.  No  doubt  he  thought,  as 
he  turned  his  back  upon  his   native  land,  Was  ever  grief 


372  ANNUAL  ADDRESS  OF  GEO.  WIGG,  M.  D.  [August, 

like  unto  mine.  But  knowing  the  truth  of  what  he  taught,  and 
seeing,  away  in  the  far  distant  gloom,  faint  rays  of  that  sun 
which  would  arise  and  throw  its  illuminating  power  into  the 
most  secret  recess  of  allopathic  ignorance  and  deceit,  he,  like  a 
well-inflated  balloon  in  a  calm  atmosphere,  moved  smoothly 
through  it  all,  landing  at  last  triumphant,  and  to-day  he,  though 
dead,  lives  as  "  Hahnemann  the  Conqueror." 

His  enemies  might  down  him,  stone  him,  yea  !  have  slain  him, 
his  blood  would  only  have  given  nourishment  to  his  convictions 
and  the  truth  he  had  already  proclaimed  would  have  still  grown 
and  reflected  back  upon  their  guilty  conscience — the  law,  "  Similia 
similibus  curantur"  which  even  now  haunts  and  troubles  them. 

In  the  year  1834  Homoeopathy  was  represented  by  an  old- 
school  doctor  as  being  nothing  but  a  frightful  abortion,  with  a 
big  body,  goat  hoofs,  crooked  arms  and  long  fingers,  fox's  eyes, 
donkey's  ears  and  a  hydrocephalic  head,  and  like  every  other 
work  of  deceit  and  darkness,  must  of  itself  fall  to  the  ground. 

"And  'twas  thus  they  shouted  and  they  spouted  ; 
Then  they  spouted  and  they  shouted  ; 
But  the  people  jeered  and  blouted, 
At  their  damned  infernal  lies." 

Had  it  been  in  the  power  of  the  allopaths  to  have  done  so, 
they  would  have  burned  Hahnemann  and  his  adherents  at  the 
stake,  even  to-day  are  they  not  plotting  the  destruction  of  the 
name  Homoeopathy — and  no  stone  will  they  leave  unturned  that 
will  help  them  in  their  work  of  persecution.  But  Homoeopathy 
is  powerful,  and,  being  founded  upon  truth,  cannot  be  destroyed. 

In  an  article  published  in  the  Medical  World  of  January, 
1890,  Vol.  VIII,  page  24,  the  editor,  in  speaking  of  the  homoeo- 
pathic law  of  cure,  says :  "  A  prudent  man  will  not  fasten  him- 
self to  any  so-called  law  of  cure,  because  no  such  law  exists." 
Great  God  !  what  an  expression.  "  No  law."  A  world  of  men, 
women,  and  children,  bowing  beneath  the  curse  of  disease,  and 
an  army  of  noble-minded  physicians  toiling  incessantly  to  find 
the  best  ways  and  means  by  which  disease  may  be  cured,  life 
prolonged,  and  sorrowful  hearts  made  happy  and  "  no  law." 
Go  !  stand  at  the  base  of  yon  snow-capped  mountain — watch 


1890.]  ANNUAL  ADDRESS  OF  GEO.  WIGG,  M.  D. 


373 


those  little  streamlets  creeping  from  their  white  bed,  see  them 
form  iuto  brooks,  then  watch  the  brooks  as  they  form  into 
creeks,  the  creeks  into  rivers,  and  the  rivers  into  the  grand  old 
ocean,  there  forming  a  highway  for  the  commerce  of  the  whole 
world,  and  "  no  law."  Again,  watch  the  sun  as  it  rises  on  a  bright 
July  morning,  gilding  the  rosy-fingered  morn  with  its  crimson  ; 
or  the  moon,  as  it  climbs  from  behind  yon  hill,  veiled  in  the 
silvery  mist  of  night ;  or,  if  you  please,  you  may  watch  the  Great 
Bear  as  he  swings  in  his  circle,  around  the  polar  star,  and  "  no 
law."  Then  go  and  stand  by  the  bed  of  those  suffering  from  dis- 
ease and  tell  me  if  there  is  "  no  law,"  why  in  typhoid  fever  one 
tongue  is  dry  and  brown,  with  a  red  streak  in  the  middle,  and 
another  red,  dry,  cracked  and  stiff ;  or  why  one  is  white  and 
another  yellow  ?  Why  is  it  in  scarlet  fever,  one's  tongue  is  of 
a  deep  red  color,  covered  all  over  with  white  blisters,  and 
another's  white  with  red  edges  ? 

If  there  is  "  no  law,"  how  comes  it  that  in  rheumatism,  one's 
pains  are  aggravated  by  cold,  and  better  by  warmth ;  and  an- 
other's is  made  worse  by  heat,  and  cease  altogether  by  the  appli- 
cation of  cold  ;  or  why  are  one's  pains  aggravated  by  motion,  and 
another's  by  rest  ? 

Ladies  and  gentlemen,  there  is  a  law,  and  you  know  it  ;  and 
this  law  of  cure  is  as  universal  as  the  universe.  How  a  physician, 
ignorant  of  this  law,  must  grope  around  the  sick  form  of  his 
patient,  "  a?  gropeth  the  blind,  and  know  not  at  what  they 
stumble  !" 

Remember,  that  ignorance  of  how  to  apply  this  law  in  disease 
does  not  destroy  it.  See  yon  powerful  engine,  that  by  a  well- 
known  law  can  be  made  to  attain  a  speed  of  one  hundred  miles 
per  hour  ;  yet  ignorance  of  the  law  of  evaporation  and  condensa- 
tion, on  the  part  of  the  engineer,  may  cause  its  boiler  to  explode 
and  scatter  death  and  destruction  all  around  it,  but  the  bursting: 
of  the  boiler  would  not  destroy  the  law  that  should  have 
governed  it.  So  with  the  homoeopathic  law  of  cure,  it  will  do 
for  the  sick  what  no  other  known  law  can  accomplish  ;  yet,  for 
lack  of  knowledge  in  its  application,  death  may  result. 

In  Monday's  issue  of  The  Oregonian,  January  20th,  is  an  ar- 


374 


ANNUAL  ADDRESS  OF  GEO.  WIGG,  II.  D.  [August, 


tide  from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Van  Dike,  of  Grant's  Pass,  Oregon, 
in  which  he  states  that  "  there  are  no  allopathic  doctors,  allo- 
pathic teachers,  and  never  have  been;  we  simply  call  ourselves 
regular  practitioners/'  But  the  Doctor  does  not  inform  us  in 
what  he  or  his  school  are  regular,  nor  upon  what  grounds  they 
have  arrogated  unto  themselves  such  a  ridiculous  claim. 
Further  on  he  informs  us  "  that  the  falsely  called  allopaths  have 
made  all  the  great  improvements  and  discoveries  in  medicine, 
surgery,  and  the  allied  sciences,  and  McDowell,  Sims,  Biglow, 
Sager,  Gross,  and  the  other  illustrious  men  in  medicine  and  sur- 
gery belonged  to  the  so-called  allopathic  school.  Show  me  such 
an  array  of  names  in  any  other  school,  and  I  will  show  you  a 
few  white  blackbirds." 

We  know  the  above-named  gentlemen  to  be  men  of  eminence 
among  their  professional  brethren,  and  we  know  further  that 
Samuel  Hahnemann,  the  founder  of  the  homoeopathic  school  of 
medicine,  was  the  peer  of  them  all  ;  and  it  was  Hahnemann,  and 
such  men  as  Hufeland,  Guernsey,  Lippe,  Bcenninghausen,  AVes- 
selhceft,  and  a  host  of  others,  not  members  of  the  allopathic 
school,  that  have  done,  and  are  still  doing  more  to  bring  order 
out  of  medical  chaos  than  any  other  men  in  this  or  any  other  age. 
These  men  brought  the  truths  of  Homoeopathy  to  bear  with 
such  force  against  the  citadel  of  the  old  school  of  medicine  as 
to  cause  its  ponderous  machine  to  move  forward,  and  to-day  one 
can  hear  the  grating  of  its  bearings,  as  friction  takes  off  the 
rust  and  dust  of  ages. 

The  influence  of  homoeopathic  teachings  and  practice  on  the 
allopathic  school  of  medicine  has  been  such  as  to  constrain  them 
to  relinquish  those  barbarous  methods  which  were  in  vogue  be- 
fore the  days  of  Hahnemann.  Had  Homoeopathy  accomplished 
nothing  more  than  this,  and  could  it  claim  no  more  favorable 
results  in  the  treatment  of  the  sick  than  the  allopaths,  even 
then  it  still  ranks  pre-eminent  in  medicine. 

At  the  fifteenth  session  of  the  State  Legislature  an  Act  was 
passed  regulating  the  practice  of  medicine  and  surgery  in  this 
State.  This  Act  gave  the  Governor  power  to  appoint  three  per- 
sons from  among  the  most  competent  physicians  living  in 


1890.] 


ANNUAL  ADDRESS  OF  GEO.  WIGG,  M.  D. 


375 


Oregon.  The  Governor,  for  some  reason  known  only  to  him- 
self, appointed  three  allopathic  physicians,  and  in  so  doing  has 
given  to  the  State  a  one-legged  Medical  Board  of  Examiners, 
with  power  to  issue  certificates  to  any  person  or  persons  who  in 
their  judgment  are  qualified  to  practice  medicine  and  surgery. 

Now  we  would  like  to  know  by  what  means  this  one-legged 
Board  is  going  to  test  the  qualifications  of  homoeopathic  phy- 
sicians, seeing  the  Board  itself  is  as  ignorant  of  the  law  of  the 
homoeopathic  art  of  healing  as  a  sturgeon  is  of  the  ten  com- 
mandments, for  Homoeopathy  is  not  taught  in  their  colleges, 
neither  will  they  allow  their  students  to  investigate  it. 

Hence  I  say  that  the  three  gentlemen  composing  the  Medical 
Examining  Board  of  the  State  of  Oregon,  being  ignorant  of  the 
tuhole  science  and  art  of  medicine,  are  not  qualified  to  judge  of 
the  ability  of  those  doctors  who  have  graduated  from  homoeo- 
pathic colleges  to  practice  as  homoeopathic  physicians.  And, 
further,  seeing  that  the  allopaths  are  opposed  to  Homoeopathy, 
and  hold  it  up  to  the  world  as  nothing  but  a  humbug,  how  can 
they  conscientiously  recommend  a  homoeopath  to  the  people  of 
this  or  any  other  State? 

And,  again,  let  us  suppose  that  the  Governor  had  seen  fit  to 
appoint  thee  homoeopaths  as  medical  examiners,  how  could  they, 
not  believing  in  the  allopathic  system  of  practice,  recommend 
the  students  of  their  colleges  as  qualified  to  practice  medicine? 
Suppose  that  at  the  next  meeting  of  the  Legislature  an  Act  to 
regulate  the  practice  of  preaching  in  the  State  of  Oregon  should 
be  passed  and  the  Act  give  to  the  Governor  power  to  appoint 
three  clergymen  from  among  the  clergy  living  in  this  State, 
and  suppose  the  Governor  appointed  three  priests,  members  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  who  should  constitute  a  Board  of 
Preacher  Examiners,  with  power  to  grant  or  withhold  a  license, 
just  as  they  saw  fit,  do  you  think  the  clergymen  of  other  de- 
nominations would  for  one  moment  tolerate  or  submit  to  such  a 
law  ?  Verily,  no.  They  would  demand  that  each  Church  regu- 
late its  own  household. 

We  say,  give  us  an  Examining  Board  composed  of  nine  mem- 
bers, three  from  each  of  the  leading  schools  of  medicine;  and 


376 


ANNUAL  ADDRESS  OF  GEO.  WIGG,  M.  D.  [August, 


if  you  will  not  do  that,  then  we  demand  in  the  name  of  free- 
dom and  righteousness,  separate  Examining  and  Licensing 
Boards  for  each  of  the  legally  organized  medical  schools  of  this 
State. 

Need  we  remind  our  opponents  that  the  Persian,  in  his  day, 
had  the  richest,  vastest  empire  in  the  world?  He  boasted 
that  his  laws  were  unalterable,  and  his  wisdom  so  great  that  his 
opinions  were  never  changed.  A  small  but  sturdy  people  arose 
on  his  borders — the  Greek,  subtle,  supple,  and  great  students  of 
nature.  With  tents  that  covered  the  land,  and  sails  that  whit- 
ened the  sea,  the  Persians  came  on  to  destroy  their  foe.  The 
result  was  Salamus  and  Marathon. 

In  due  time  the  Greek  arose  in  his  turn,  over-ran  the  empire 
of  his  enemy  without  sheathing  his  sword,  trampled  the  unal- 
terable laws  in  the  dust,  and  divided  out  all  his  provinces  among 
the  followers  of  his  camp. 

You  must  remember  that  it  is  no  longer  Samuel  Hahnemann, 
fleeing  before  the  wrath  of  his  enemies,  oh  !  no.  Homoeopathy 
turned  its  face  to  the  face  of  its  adversary  long  ago,  and  being 
urged  on,  will  fight  till  she  conquers.  Like  the  everlasting 
Gospel,  its  power  and  influence  are  acknowledged  in  every  corner 
of  the  world.  Never  in  its  history  has  Homoeopathy  stood  so 
high  as  it  stands  to-day ;  never  before  did  the  rich  and  influen- 
tial give  of  their  substance  for  the  spread  of  its  cause  as  they 
are  giving  now.  It  is  here  a  college,  there  a  hospital,  and  on 
this  street  an  ambulance,  and  on  that  a  free  dispensary,  with  a 
large  staff  of  physicians  at  work  by  day  and  by  night, 

Time  would  fail  me  to  tell  how  it  is  spreading  all  over  the 
world.  In  America  we  have  nine  thousand  five  hundred  prac- 
titioners, fifty-seven  hospitals,  several  State -supported  lunatic 
asylums,  one  hundred  and  ten  societies,  twenty-six  periodicals, 
as  well  as  a  number  of  annual  publications  containing  reports 
of  transactions. 

The  British  province  of  Canada  contains  a  large  number  of 
homoeopathic  practitioners,  whilst  in  Mexico,  Germany,  Austria, 
Hungary,  Switzerland,  France,  South  America,  Australia, 
England,  China,  New  Zealand,  Hindoostan,  and  other  places 


1890.]         A  REPLY  TO  DR.  GUERNSEY'S  DEFENCE,  377 


the  growth  of  Homoeopathy  in  the  past  few  years  has  been 
marvelous.  Gradually,  at  first  unrecognized,  surrounded  by  all 
manner  of  weeds,  it  has  at  last  grown  into  an  oak  of  God,  and 
suffering  mankind  are  now  healed  under  its  beneficial  shade. 

And  now,  my  dear  fellows,  I  hope  that  after  the  business 
here  has  been  transacted  we  will  each  return  to  our  several  posts 
of  duty,  determined  to  discharge  faithfully  the  duty  we  owe  to 
ourselves  and  to  our  patrons.  Let  us  strive  to  do  all  in  our 
power  to  cultivate  a  more  fraternal  feeling  with  our  professional 
brethren  everywhere,  and  should  our  lives  be  spared,  may  we 
return  to  our  next  annual  meeting,  laden  with  the  garnered  ex- 
perience of  another  year,  to  give  as  a  free  contribution  to  the 
cause  of  Homoeopathy. 

Hoping  that  your  deliberations  may  be  harmonious,  and 
your  intercourse  with  each  other,  while  here,  fraternal — I  will 
now  thank  you  all  for  the  courtesies  you  have  manifested 
toward  me  during  the  two  years  I  have  presided  over  this 
society,  and  I  shall  ever  remember  those  years  as  ones  of  pleas- 
ure, and  pride  myself  in  the  fact  that,  as  President  of  the 
Homoeopathic  Medical  Society  of  the  State  of  Oregon,  I  pre- 
sided over  a  society  whose  profession  is  inferior  to  none,  and 
whose  art  the  noblest  that  ever  taxed  the  intellect  of  man. 


A  REPLY  TO  DR.  GUERNSEY'S  DEFENCE. 

53  West  Forty-fifth  St.,  New  York,  July  10th,  1890. 

Editor  Homoeopathic  Physician  : — Your  note  received, 
calling  attention  to  Dr.  Egbert  Guernsey's  communication  in 
this  month's  number  of  your  journal. 

I  have  no  quarrel  with  Dr.  Guernsey,  and  cannot  follow  him 
into  the  arena  of  personalities.  My  letter  to  you,  which  appeared 
in  the  June  number,  simply  defined  my  position,  and  attacked 
nobody. 

A  book  is  kept  at  the  hospital,  in  which  members  of  the 
Medical  Board  sign  their  names  whenever  they  visit  their  wards. 
The  inclosed  is  a  transcript  from  that  book  for  the  year  1889. 
We  attend  two  months  at  a  time,  and  then  rest  four  months. 


378  SANICULA  SPRING  WATER.  [August, 

According  to  the  record,  I  made  twelve  visits.  If  you  wish  to 
have  a  history  of  previous  years,  please  signify. 

Edmund  Carleton. 
[The  record  shows  that  Dr.  Carleton  made  twelve  visits, 
while  Dr.  Guernsey  made  one.    Further  comment  seems  unne- 
cessary.— Eds.] 


SANICULA  SPRING  WATER. 

Editors  Homoeopathic  Physician: — Have  just  read  Dr. 
D.  W.  Clausen's  timely  caution  regarding  the  Sanicula  Mineral 
Spring  Water  in  the  June  HOMOEOPATHIC  Physician.  Please 
permit  me  to  9ay  further  in  this  matter  that  some  three  months 
ago  I  received  letters  from  the  well-known  pharmacy  house  of 
Boericke  &  Tafel,  of  Philadelphia,  asking  for  information  about 
the  Sanicula,  how  to  secure  the  remedy,  etc.  In  my  reply  I 
told  them  what  the  remedy  was  and  how  I  had  proved  and 
obtained  it,  making  them  a  proposition  to  this  effect  :  If  they 
would  agree  to  compile  and  publish  all  the  non-published  matter 
of  Sanicula  and  publish  it  in  Tlie  Homoeopathic  Recorder,  which 
they  claim  is  devoted  to  introduction  of  new  remedies,  I  would 
give  them  grafts  of  all  the  original  potencies  I  have  made  by 
my  own  hand  at  the  time  of  proving,  I  having  retained  them  from 
the  9th  to  the  100th,  so  giving  them  complete  control  of  this 
new  and  highly  valuable  remedy/'  an  offer  which  I  thought 
they  would  gladly  accept,  but  this  they  declined  with  thanks, 
saying,  "  we  cannot  use  grafts."  Now  whether  the  above  house 
is  the  same  that  Dr.  R.  B.  Johnstone  got  Sanicula  of,  I,  of 
■course,  do  not  know.  Yet  I  hope  not.  Now  to  prevent  any 
further  trouble  of  this  kind,  I  will  say  that  Sanicula  is  only  a 
name  given  to  a  mineral-water  spring  by  myself.  The  springs  are 
situated  in  Ottawa,  111.,  and  were  formerly  known  as  the 
Ottawa  Mineral  Springs. 

The  chemical  analysis  of  the  spring  may  be  found  in  the 
January  Medical  Advance,  of  1885,  also  in  the  I.  H.  A.  Trans., 
page  129,  1887,  along  with  the  last  report  of  proving  and 
clinical  verifications  of  great  importance.    The  proving  was 


1890.] 


SANICULA  SPRING  WATER. 


379 


made  on  myself  and  family,  using  the  water  daily  for  some 
fifteen  mouths  (never,  I  may  say,  will  such  a  proving  be  made 
again).  The  potencies  I  have  were  made  during  the  winter 
months,  while  the  river  was  at  its  lowest,  as  the  spring  is  situa- 
ted on  the  bank  of  the  river,  giving  the  water  in  its  strongest 
form.  (For  this,  gentlemen,  "  Is  water,  as  is  water")  "  I 
thank  you,  Jew,  for  that  word."  (See  Med.  Era,  February, 
1885.  "  A  needed  reform.")  I  made  my  potency  as  follows  : 
Filling  a  new  vial  direct  from  the  spring,  returning  to  the  office, 
I  poured  out  most  of  its  contents;  to  that  which  remained  I 
added  about  one  hundred  drops  of  distilled  water,  and  after 
succussing,  repeated  the  above  process  up  to  the  100th  potency, 
retaining  the  intermediate  potencies  of  9th,  18th,  and  30th. 
Dr.  Berridge,  of  England,  wrote  me  and  I  sent  him  grafts  of 
the  9th.  This  he  had  Dr.  Skinner  potentize  to  the  CM  on  his 
machine,  sending  me  in  return  grafts  of  the  200,  500,  1M,  5M, 
10M,  20M,  50M,  and  CM  potencies.  Of  these  I  have  used 
mostly  the  10M,  having  placed  it  among  the  polvchrests  of  my 
case,  and  in  my  practice  find  indications  for  it  as  common  as 
those  of  Bell.,  Brv.,  or  Puis.  It  saves  me  a  great  deal  of  talk- 
ing or  zigzaging,  as  our  Dr.  Lippe  used  to  say. 

I  have  supplied  many  with  grafts,  and  it  gives  me  great 
satisfaction  to  read  of  its  verification.  Will  at  any  time  furnish 
grafts  to  any  desiring  to  use  the  remedy.  I  would  repeat  what 
I  wrote  to  Messrs. Bcericke  &  Tafel, — especially  as  they  have  said 
that  they  could  not  use  grafts — that  the  proving  was  made  in 
1884,  and  these  potencies  at  the  time  of  proving.  Six  years 
have  since  then  passed,  and  the  springs,  for  all  that  we  know, 
may  have  changed  their  constituency  in  this  time.  I  should  at 
least  not  trust  a  potency  made  from  the  present  conditions  with- 
out a  new  proving. 

J.  G.  Gundlach,  M.  D., 
(Prover  of  Sanicula  Mineral  Spring  Water) 

Spokane  Falls,  Washington. 


SANICULA. — A  CAUTION. 

Editor  Homceopathic  Physician  : 

I  wish  it  to  be  particularly  understood  that  my  "  Caution  to 
Physicians,"  in  regard  to  Sanicula,  which  appeared  in  your 
June  number,  was  in  no  wise  intended  as  a  reflection  on  Messrs. 
Boericke  &  Tafel,  for  I  have  too  much  confidence  in  the  integ- 
rity and  the  pharmaceutical  ability  of  those  gentlemen  to  be- 
lieve that  any  preparation  would  be  sent  from  their  pharmacy 
but  that  which  is  bona  fide.  My  "  Caution  to  Physicians  "  was 
a  caution  against  carelessness  on  their  part,  or  neglect  to  ask  for 
a  remedy  by  its  full  and  proper  name. 

One  would  scarcely  have  supposed  that  this  explanation  would 
become  necessary,  but  my  "caution  "  has  been  mistaken  for  a 
"  reflection,"  and,  injustice  to  Messrs.  Boericke  &  Tafel,  I  desire 
to  remove  a  wrong  impression  from  the  minds  of  any  who 
might  entertain  it. 

Respectfully  yours, 

Daniel  W.  Clausen,  M.  D. 

■!»■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■; 

IN  MEMORIAM. 
Dr.  Frederick  Ehrmann. 

Another  pioneer  homceopathic  physician  has  passed  away. 
Dr.  Frederick  Ehrmann  died  at  his  ^residence,  No.  56  West 
Seventh  Street,  Cincinnati,  on  June  7th,  1890,  in  the  eighty- 
third  year  of  his  age.  He  was  the  son  of  Dr.  Frederick  Ehr- 
mann, a  physician  of  some  note  in  Germany.  He  was  born  in 
the  village  of  Jagthausen,  in  Wiirtemburg,  Germany,  on  the 
18th  of  February,  1808. 

After  receiving  his  education  at  the  University  of  Tubingen 
he  came  to  America  in  the  year  18  34. 

Being  convinced  of  the  superiority  of  the  truths  of  Homoe- 
opathy over  the  prevailing  school  of  medicine,  he  attended 
380 


August,  1890.]  E.  GUERNSEY  AND  WARD'S  IS.  HOMCEO.  HOS.  381 


lectures  at  Allentown,  Pa.,  where  instruction  was  first  given 
bv  Dr.  Hering  and  others  in  the  new  school  of  medicine.  He 
was  the  eldest  of  five  brothers,  who  all  became  successful 
homoeopathic  physicians.    He  was  the  last  to  survive. 

After  graduating,  he  settled  in  Carlisle,  Pa.,  where  he  prac- 
ticed his  profession  for  seven  years. 

It  was  here  that  he  married  Miss  Sarah  Gibson,  niece  of 
Chief  Justice  Gibson,  of  Pennsylvania,  who,  after  fifty-three 
years  of  married  life,  lives  to  mourn  his  loss. 

After  a  short  residence  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  and  Buffalo,  N. 
Y.,  he  removed  to  Cincinnati,  in  the  year  1850,  where  he  re- 
sided and  practiced  his  profession  until  his  decease. 

He  was  among  the  number  who  founded  the  American  Tnsti- 
tute  of  Homoeopathy,  having  joined  that  organization  in  the 
year  1846. 

In  latter  years  he  became  an  active  member  of  the  Interna- 
tional Hahnemannian  Association,  attending  most  of  the  meet- 
ings until  prevented  by  the  infirmities  of  advancing  years. 

The  Doctor's  death  came  rather  unexpectedly,  although  he 
had  been  in  feeble  health  during  the  past  winter.     A.  H.  E. 


EGBERT  GUERNSEY,  M.  D.,  AND  WARD'S  ISLAND 
HOMOEOPATHIC  HOSPITAL. 

A.  McNeil,  M.  D.,  San  Francisco,  California. 

In  reading  Dr.  Guernsey's  attempt  to  carry  the  hospital 
which  it  was  his  sacred  duty  to  care  for  into  the  camp  of  the 
allopaths,  it  struck  me  to  endeavor  to  find  its  parallel  in  Ameri- 
can history.  All  know  who  have  read  history  with  what  de- 
votion soldiers  will  dare  and  suffer  to  defend  the  flag  or  other 
trust  committed  to  their  hands.  All  of  us  who  have  worn  the 
blue  can  recall  the  feeling  akin  to  worship  with  which  we  gazed 
on  the  old  flag,  in  those  days  that  tried  men's  souls,  and  to-day 
we  feel  our  eyes  moisten  as  on  patriotic  occasions  we  see  it. 

And  in  the  annals  of  our  country  I  recall  two  names  only  of 
men  who  were  willing  to  hand  over  to  the  enemy  the  men  and 


382  MESSAGE  OF  SYMPATHY  TO  DR.  WELLS.  [August, 

positions  that  have  been  confided  to  their  hands,  Benedict  Ar- 
nold and  General  Twiggs.  Was  not  Ward's  Island  Homoeo- 
pathic Hospital  committed  to  his  fostering  care  because  he  was 
believed  to  be  a  homoeopath  ?  And  when  he  ceased  to  be  a 
homoeopath,  if  he  ever  was  one,  that  sacred  trust  was  violated 
by  the  design  on  his  part  of  carrying  it  over  to  the  enemy. 
What  is  the  difference  between  Guernsey  on  one  hand  and 
Arnold  and  Twiggs  on  the  other  ?  I  confess  I  cannot  see  it 
with  the  naked  eve. 


JARRING. 

Editors  of  The  Homoeopathic  Physician  : — In  your  item 
on  Jarring,  in  the  July  number,  page  312,  you  omitted  to 
mention  the  following: 

Cinchona-off.  :  Sensation  as  if  head  would  burst,  with  sleep- 
lessness, worse  from  motion  or  any  jar  ;  better  in  a  room  and 
when  opening  the  eyes.  See  Hering's  Condensed  Materia 
Medica,  second  edition,  page  308. 

F.  H.  Lutze. 

Cheshire,  N.  Y.,  July  10th,  1890. 

[We  are  much  indebted  to  Dr.  Lutze  for  calling  our  attention 
to  so  important  a  symptom  omitted  from  our  item  on  Jar- 
ring.— Eds.] 


MESSAGE    OF  SYMPATHY  FROM  THE  I.  H.  A. 
TO  THE  VENERABLE  DR.  WELLS. 

The  following  is  the  text  of  the  message  of  sympathy  which 
the  International  Hahnemannian  Association,  at  its  annual 
meeting,  directed  to  be  telegraphed  to  Dr.  P.  P.  Wells,  who  by 
reason  of  serious  illness  was  unable  to  attend  the  meeting : 

Watch  Hill,  R.  I.,  June  24th,  1890. 
To  P.  P.  Wells,  M.  D.,  158  Clinton  Street,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Dear  and  Honored  Colleague  : — The  International 
Hahnemannian  Association  hears  with  profound  sorrow  of  your 


1890.] 


BOOK  NOTICES. 


383 


illness  and  regrets  the  loss  of  ypur  counsel.  It  desires  to  con- 
vey its  deepest  sympathy,  and  hope  that  the  grand  art  of  Hahne- 
mann may  afford  you  both  relief  of  suffering  and  restoration 
to  health. 

Jos.  A.  Biegler,  President, 
c  William  P.  Wesselhgeft, 
Committee  :<  Clarence  W.  Butler, 
I  Edward  Rushmore. 


A  message  of  similar  tenor  was  telegraphed  to  Dr.  E.  A, 
Ballard,  of  Chicago,  who  has  been  all  his  life  distinguished  for 
his  stalwart  maintenance  of  the  homoeopathic  principle  and  his 
devotion  to  the  prosperity  of  the  I.  H.  A. 


BOOK  NOTICES. 

Philosophy  in  Homceopathy.  By  Charles  S.  Mack,  M.  D., 
Professor  of  Materia  Medica  and  Therapeutics  in  the  Homoeo- 
pathic Medical  College  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  at 
Ann  Arbor.  Chicago,  48  Madison  Street  :  Gross  &  Del- 
bridge,  1890. 

This  clever  little  book  of  174  pages  consists  of  a  series  of  essays  upon 
Homoeopathy  as  a  law  of  practice.  The  writer  stoutly  maintains  that 
Homoeopathy  is  a  law  and  not  a  variable  rule  of  practice.  His  argument 
upon  this  ground  is  very  well  sustained  and  shows  that  he  has  thought  long 
and  deeply  upon  the  question. 

Nevertheless,  we  regret  to  have  to  confess  he  justifies  the  use  of  methods 
of  practice  which  are  not  allowable  or  consistent  under  the  homoeopathic 
law  ;  as,  for  instance,  Quinine  in  massive  doses  for  the  treatment  of  intermit- 
tents;  Opium  and  its  alkaloid,  Morphine,  for  the  "relief"  of  pain,  and 
Atropine  injected  into  the  eye  in  cases  of  iritis  to  roll  up  the  iris  and  prevent 
adhesions.  Thus  the  author,  notwithstanding  his  forcible  argument  for  the 
application  of  the  law,  opens  wide  the  door  of  excuses  that  will  permit  the 
doubting  practitioner  to  exercise  his  caprices  or  to  gratify  his  prejudices  by 
the  use  of  methods  of  practice  which  we  commonly  call  eclectic  or  mongrel, 
and  then  to  screen  himself  from  any  consequences  or  any  criticism  of  his 
folly  by  the  plea  of  exercising  his  judgment  or  his  reason. 

Thus  the  conscientious  adherence  to  a  natural  law,  and  deep  trust  in  its 
efficacy,  and  the  painstaking  and  relentless  search  for  the  simillimnm,  all 
may  be  set  aside,  and  the  incompetent  physician,  conspicuously  wanting  in 
these  qualities  of  mind  so  needful  for  the  successful  homoeopythist,  may  sub- 


384 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 


[August,  1890. 


stitute  for  them  the  Imperial  pride  of  intellect  that  sets  itself  up  in  disap- 
proving "judgment  "  of  the  discoveries  of  transcendent  genius,  and  sets  aside 
as  useless  a  plan  of  treatment  which  is  really  beyond  its  capacity  to  under- 
stand or  to  use.  He  therefore  resorts  to  the  well-known  measures  of  the  old 
school,  to  the  damage  of  his  patient  and  the  shame  of  Homoeopathy,  while 
with  impudent  sophistry  he  defies  the  protest  of  the  consistent  Hahne- 
mannian. 

This  permission,  if  we  may  call  it  so,  thus  given  for  these  outside  methods 
of  practice,  by  reason  of  their  bringing  about  the  results  in  the  foregoing 
statements,  constitute  a  fault  in  the  book  that  seriously  impairs  its  usefulness. 

Could  thi*  fault  be  eliminated  (and  it  could  be  without  mutilating  the  plan 
of  the  work),  it  would  then  be  a  very  valuable  means  of  instruction  in  the 
homoeopathic  principle.  W.  M.  J. 

Precautionary  Circulars  of  The  State  Board  of  Health. 

These  consist  of  a  series  of  small  pamphlets  intended  for  heads  of  families, 
containing  concise  directions  for  care  of  the  health  of  the  members  of 
families. 

The  budget  before  us  consists  of,  "Precautions  against  Consumption," 
already  noticed  in  our  pages  (see  May  number,  page  237)  ;  "  School  Hygiene," 
giving  concise  and  admirable  directions  concerning  ventilation,  heating,  hours 
of  study,  exercise,  wet  clothing,  cleanliness,  water  supply,  care  of  eyes,  etc. 
The  third  of  the  series  is  entitled  "  Precautions  against  Typhoid  Fever,"  and 
gives  full  information  for  preventing  the  invasion  of  typhoid  and  for  checking 
its  spread  if  it  have  already  gained  an  entrance.  "  Precautions  against  Scarlet 
Fever,"  and  "  Precautions  against  Contagious  and  Infectious  Diseases "  in 
general  are  also  very  important ;  and,  finally,  there  is  a  special  circular  concern- 
ing the  care  of  infants.  All  these  instructive  publications  are  inclosed  in  a 
neat  case  and  should  be  in  the  hands  of  all  heads  of  families  and  carefully 
preserved  for  future  reference.  They  will  be  forwarded  to  any  address  on  re- 
ceipt of  a  two-cent  stamp,  by  applying  to  the  Secretary  of  the  State  Board  of 
Health, 

Dr.  Benjamin  Lee, 

1532  Pine  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 

Removals — Dr.  Charles  P.  Beaman,  formerly  located  in  Chicago,  where 
he  made  a  specialty  of  the  treatment  of  the  throat,  heart,  and  lungs,  has 
removed  to  Chattanooga,  Tenn.,  where  he  will  resume  the  general  practice  of 
medicine.  Dr.  C.  H.  Oakes  has  removed  from  Northboro'  to  Dighton,  Mass. 
Dr.  Wm.  S.  Gee,  associate  editor  of  The  Medical  Advance,  is  sojourning  for  his 
health  at  Manitou,  Colorado.  Dr.  Fourness  Simmons  has  removed  from  4 
Byrne  Terrace,  Wickham  Terrace,  to  5  Union  Terrace,  George  Street,  Bris- 
bane, Queensland,  Australia. 


T  ZEE  IE 


HOMCEOPATHIC  PHYSICIAN, 

A  MONTHLY  JOURNAL  OF 

HOM(E0PATHIC  MATERIA  MEDICA  AND  CLINICAL  MEDICINE. 


*'  If  our  school  ever  gives  up  the  strict  inductive  method  of  Hahnemann,  we 
are  lost,  and  deserve  only  to  be  mentioned  as  a  caricature  in 
the  history  of  medicine."— constantine  hering. 


Vol.  X.  SEPTEMBER,  1890.  No.  9. 


EDITORIALS. 

The  Treatment  of  Affections  of  the  Heart,  particu- 
larly in  respect  of  exercise,  has  undergone  decided  modifica- 
tions during  the  past  few  years  on  the  part  of  the  allopaths. 
When  a  German  physician  announced  that  he  had  found  or- 
ganic heart  troubles  were  materially  benefited  by  prolonged  exer- 
cise, his  ideas  were  so  at  variance  with  the  prevailing  treatment, 
which  was  usually  enforced  quiet — with  drugs,  of  course — that 
the  allopathic  medical  world  was  astounded. 

Their  usual  habit  of  failing  to  individualize  was  the  cause  of 
this  shock. 

By  even  slight  observation  he  who  has  had  homoeopathic 
training  can  readily  see  that  exercise,  judiciously  carried  out,  is 
of  vast  importance  in  the  treatment  of  this  class  of  affections. 
Familiarizing  himself,  as  far  as  possible,  with  the  character  of 
the  lesion,  he  should  not  hesitate  to  impress  upon  the  sufferer 
the  necessity  of  following  advice  in  this  direction. 

There  is  much  to  be  done  here  beside  finding  the  curative 
medicinal  remedy. 

Dietetics  have  a  large  share  in  making  for  the  patient's  good. 
Care  should  be  exercised  regarding  the  quantity  and  the  quality 
of  both  solid  and  liquid  foods. 

25  385 


386 


EDITORIALS. 


[Sept., 


Thus,  for  example,  where  the  tendency  is  to  fatty  degenera- 
tion, fat-producing  food  should  be  avoided. 

The  taking  of  liquids,  too,  should  be  looked  after  with  care, 
for  it  is  a  fact  that  an  excess  of  fluid  food  causes  great  discom- 
fort. A  dry  diet  is  of  prime  importance.  Especially  during 
meals  should  liquids  be  avoided,  or  taken  only  in  sips.  At 
other  times  but  sufficient  to  supply  the  requirements  of  the 
kidneys  should  be  taken,  and  what  is  taken  should  not  be  cold. 
Too  much  is  apt  to  retard  absorption,  and  this  will  be  followed 
by  distension  of  the  stomach.  This,  again,  interferes  with  the 
action  of  the  diaphragm,  and  thus  the  heart's  action  is  impeded. 
With  valvular  disease  of  the  heart  we  usually  find  sluggish 
digestion,  fermentation  of  food,  and  the  formation  of  gas.  This 
distending  the  stomach  and  pressing  on  the  lungs  through  the 
diaphragm  causes  dyspnoea.  Indeed,  all  the  organs  of  digestion 
are  liable  to  disturbance  in  this  affection,  and  it  is  incumbent 
upon  us  to  ever  bear  this  in  mind. 

Congestion  of  the  liver  is  one  of  the  concomitants  in  many 
cases  of  valvular  disease,  owing  to  the  condition  of  the  circula- 
tion through  the  lungs,  which  is  secondary  to  the  heart  lesion. 
Venous  fuHness  of  all  the  abdominal  viscera  usually  follows. 
Hence,  even  a  light  error  in  diet  will  be  followed  by  the  greatest 
distress. 

We  are  sure  that  only  to  mention  these  facts  will  be  sufficient 
to  impress  even  the  careless  observer  that  they  are  real,  and  that 
they  must  be  given  attention. 

But  a  short  time  ago  a  case  of  heart  affection  came  under 
observation  which  would  have  been  saved  much  suffering  had 
the  mongrel  w7ho  was  treating  the  case  known  of  the  above  facts. 
The  patient  was  being  given  two  drugs  in  alternation,  one  of 
which,  we  judged  from  the  odor,  was  digitalis  tincture.  The 
patient  had  that  peculiar  sinking  and  feeling  of  goneness  in  the 
abdomen  which  is  characteristic  of  digitalis,  and  was  being  fed 
on  beef-tea  and  milk  punch,  while  she  was  protesting  all  the 
while  against  taking  food,  for  she  had  no  appetite.  Notwith- 
standing this  she  was  blindly  following  the  advice  of  the  mon- 
grel, and  was  suffering  severely  as  a  consequence. 

G.  H.  C. 


1890.] 


EDITORIALS. 


387 


Chronic,  or  Interstitial  Pneumonia,  is  defined  in  one 
of  the  latest  old-school  works  as  "  never  a  primary  affection, 
but  is  commonly  secondary  to  croupous  and  catarrhal  pneumonia 
from  failure  of  resolution.  It  may  also  result  from  hemorrha- 
gic infarctions  and  abscess  of  the  lungs,  and  is  sometimes  associ- 
ated with  tubercular  deposit." 

There  is  no  affection  which  goes  more  to  show  the  harm  of 
mongrel  and  old-school  treatment  than  so-called  chronic  pneu- 
monia. Four  words  quoted  above — "  from  failure  of  resolu- 
tion " — tell  nothing  of  the  cause  of  that  failure.  To  cover  the 
entire  ground  and  read  correctly  there  should  be  added  after 
"  resolution,"  from  too  much  drugging. 

The  history  of  every  case  of  this  disease  which  we  have  seen, 
is  this  :  An  attack  of  acute  pneumonia.  Old-school  treatment, 
or  that  of  a  progressive  (?)  homoeopathist.  Weeks,  and  per- 
haps months,  in  bed.  Months  of  cough,  usually  with  profuse, 
fetid  expectoration  ;  night-sweats,  hectic  fever,  loss  of  appetite, 
emaciation,  marked  dyspnoea,  sleeplessness,  and  altogether 
symptoms  which  lead  the  patients  and  their  friends  to  believe 
that  consumption  is  present.  A  pitiable  condition,  indeed — 
and  all  due  to  treatment  by  crude  drugs,  and  much  of  them ! 

Has  any  Hahnemannian,  after  treating  a  case  of  acute  pneu- 
monia, ever  seen  chronic  pneumonia?  Some  years  ago  Dr. 
Lippe  answered  this  question  so  far  as  his  personal  experience 
went,  with  a  decided  no.  Dr.  Fellger's  answer  was  the  same. 
And  this  after  *nany  years  of  practice. 

In  this  affection  the  treatment  is  the  same  old  story — Quinine 
and  Morphia.  Agents  which  go  to  suspend  absorbent  action 
and  to  prevent  resolution.  The  exudation  will  then  degenerate 
and  complete  cirrhosis  follows.  Many  of  these  cases  cannot  be 
cured  by  even  Hahnemannian  Homoeopathy.  The  constitu- 
tional condition  is  so  overpowered  that  death  is  merely  a  ques- 
tion of  time.  In  the  meantime  the  patient  is  passing  a  miserable 
existence.  And  all  this  is  due  to  treatment.  Nature  alone  and 
unassisted  would  do  better.  It  lias  been  shown  repeatedly  that 
no  treatment  is  better  than  drugging.  And  vet  regulars  con- 
tinue to  kill,  and  mongrels  still  assist  them,  and  at  the  same  time 
boast  of  progressive  Homoeopathy.  G.  H.  C. 


388 


EDITORIALS. 


[Sept., 


Dr.  P.  P.  Wells. — It  affords  us  pleasure  to  let  Dr.  Wells' 
numerous  friends  know  that  he  has  in  a  measure  recovered  from 
his  attack  of  paralysis,  and  that  he  is  remarkably  well,  with  the 
exception  of  some  weakness  of  the  feet. 

A  recent  pleasant  visit  to  him  shows  his  mental  vigor  as 
strong  as  ever,  and  that  his  vast  knowledge  of  Hahnemannian 
Homoeopathy  carries  him  along,  and  continues  to  make  him  its 
strong  defender. 

The  world  owes  a  debt  to  Dr.  Wells,  and  Hahnemannians 
everywhere  should  not  forget  what  is  due  him  for  his  energetic 
labors  for  the  good  of  the  cause.  G.  H.  C. 

Destroying  the  Bacillus  of  Tubercle. — At  the 
International  Medical  Congress,  in  Berlin,  on  August  14th,  Dr. 
Koch,  the  bacteriologist,  read  an  address  on  "  Bacteriology  "  in 
whic'i  we  find  the  following  :  "  The  new  points  were  some  ob- 
servations on  tuberculosis,  as  observed  in  the  fowl,  and  on  the 
possible  curative  treatment  of  phthisis  by  drugs.  In  a  series  of 
experiments  which  he  lately  conducted,  he  found  that  certain 
bodies,  such  as  volatile  oils,  and  certain  metallic  salts,  such  as 
nitrate  of  silver,  and  preparations  of  gold,  even  in  very  small 
doses  (1  in  1,000,000,  and  even  less)  destroy  the  tubercle  bacilli 
in  a  very  short  time,  and  he  thus  believes  that  it  is  not  im- 
possible that  in  the  course  of  time  some  drug  may  be  found 
which  will  effectively  destroy  the  bacillus  without  injuring  the 
body." 

From  this  are  we  justified  in  saying  we  believe  "  the  world  do 
move  "  ?  And  yet  how  slowly  even  the  most  advanced  mem- 
bers of  the  allopathic  world  "  do  move."  What  a  happy  day 
when,  "  in  the  course  of  time  some  drug  may  be  found  which 
will  effectively  destroy  the  bacillus  without  injuring  the  body  !" 
If  they  could  only  understand  the  nature  of  disease  they  would 
not  be  seeking  "  some  drug,"  but  they  would  bend  their  energies 
toward  knowing  how  better  to  use  what  drugs  they  now  possess. 
Hahnemannian  Homoeopathy  can  give  them  this  information. 
It  is  free  to  all  in  the  Organon,  the  Materia  Medica  Puray  and 
in  the  works  of  those  faithful  followers  of  Hahnemann,  who 


1890.]     INDICATED  EEMEDY  IN  THE  MINIMUM  DOSE. 


389 


have  implicitly  adhered  to  his  teachings.  The  line  that  Koch 
and  his  blind  followers  are  clinging  to  is  not  in  the  true  path  ; 
'tis  the  path  that  leads  but  to  the  grave — the  allopath. 

G.  H.  C. 


THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  CHOOSING    THE  INDI- 
CATED REMEDY  IN  THE  MINIMUM  DOSE. 

F.  C.  Hood,  M.  D.,  Marysville,  Cal. 

How  sad  the  environment  of  many  a  one  in  his  preceptor's 
office,  and  in  college,  acting  in  the  capacity  of  a  student,  seeking 
a  medical  education,  the  best  he  thinks  the  school  of  Plomce- 
opathy  can  afford.  Later  on  in  life,  he  proves  by  a  practical 
test  of  the  law  of  Homoeopathy  that  he  wTas  reared  in  a  crude 
atmosphere,  educated  in  a  medical  college  only  a  few  steps  in 
advance  of  the  crude.  He  begins  to  practice  Homoeopathy  with 
crude  ideas  of  how  to  find  the  indicated  remedy.  He  is  confi- 
dent he  can  cure  every  case  he  gets,  and  he  solicits  patronage  in 
his  new  field  with  that  inspiring  thought,  as  well  as  impressing 
upon  the  minds  of  his  adherents  that  he  can  cure  every  case, 
and  hence  financial  success  is  certain.  Alas  !  in  a  short  time 
he  has  a  patient  who  has  been  treated  by  every  allopathic 
physician  in  town  without  improvement.  He  finds  the  indi- 
cated remedy  and  gives  it  low  and  fails.  Thinking  perhaps  it  was 
not  the  right  remedy,  he  gives  another  and  another,  tries,  tries 
and  tries  again,  till  his  patieut  gives  up  in  despair  and  he  is  lost. 
He  is  discouraged,  his  crude  ideas  have  given  him  bitter  disap- 
pointment. The  high  esteem  and  respect  he  had  for  his  pro- 
fessors as  being  men  of  profound  ability  is  now  in  doubt.  He 
is  left  alone  to  experiment  and  to  put  the  law  of  Homoeopathy 
to  a  practical  test.  Five  years  ago  I  came  to  Marysville,  a 
malarial  district,  and  to  my  astonishment  I  found  an  army  of 
little  children  of  the  allopathic  persuasion,  pale,  sallow,  and 
ghostly  in  appearance,  following  the  advice  of  their  physicians, 
namely  taking  Quinine  for  breakfast,  Fowler's  solution  for 
dinner,  and  Calomel  for  supper.  I  visited  many  families  ;  was 
informed  that  everybody  kept  Quinine  on  the  mantel-piece  and 


390       INDICATED  REMEDY  IN  THE  MINIMUM  DOSE.  [Sept., 


everybody  took  it.  I  also  inquired  of  several  homoeopathic 
families  and  they  too  said  everybody  takes  Quinine  because  it  is 
the  only  specific.  Homoeopathic  physicians  have  to  give  it  to 
cure  their  patients  as  well  as  the  old  school. 

In  a  short  time  I  was  called  twelve  miles  into  the  country  to 
visit  Mrs.  E.,  who  was  suffering  with  intermittent  fever.  Chill 
came  on  at  eleven  A.  M.,  preceded  by  severe  bone  pains,  ringing  in 
the  ears  ;  wTanted  to  drink  often  and  large  quantities  ;  fever  high  ; 
mild  delirium  ;  sweat  sticky  and  very  profuse  ;  sallow  skin  ; 
headache  while  the  fever  lasted ;  very  weak  after  the  paroxysm. 
I  gave  Chin-sul.lx,  one  powder  every  hour  ;  called  the  next  day « 
no  change.  Take  Chin-sul.lx.  Continued  Chin-sul.,  first,  sec- 
ond, and  third  trituations,  for  a  week.  At  this  time  she  had  a 
gone,  sinking  feeling  during  the  chill  which  came  at  eleven  A.  M, 
as  before.  Fearing  a  severe  congestive  chill  I  gave  Nux-vom.3x. 
Called  the  next  day  at  eleven  a.  m.  and  found  her  in  a  congestive 
chill  from  which  she  came  very  near  dying. 

This  resulted  in  my  discharge  from  a  good  homoeopathic 
family  and  an  allopathic  physician  called,  who  gave  twenty 
grains  of  Quinine  at  a  dose  until  he  had  suppressed  the  chills, 
making  her  sick  all  summer  from  its  effeet.  My  first  experience 
with  chills  was  a  sad  one.  Perchance,  a  few  days  later,  I  was 
talking  with  Mr.  B.,  who  related  his  sufferings  with  chills  a  few 
years  ago,  incapacitating  him  from  attending  to  his  business  all 
summer.  Finally  he  called  on  a  homoeopathic  physician,  who 
gave  him  a  high  potency  of  some  remedy  which  cured  in  a  few 
days  and  he  has  never  had  a  chill  since.  I  said  to  myself  this 
is  the  kind  of  Homoeopathy  that  I  am  looking  for ;  one  such 
experience  as  I  had  just  passed  through  was  enough  for  me.  I 
began  to  study  Allen  on  Intermittent  Fever,  which  is  worth 
ten  times  its  weight  in  gold  to  any  physician  who  is  living  in  a 
malarial  district.  By  studying  it  four  and  a  half  years  and  put- 
ting its  teaching  to  a  practical  test  I  have  cured  over  five  hundred 
cases  of  chills  and  reaped  a  rich  harvest.  I  soon  learned  the 
importance  of  giving  the  indicated  remedy  in  the  minimum 
dose.  If  I  had  recorded  all  of  my  cases  I  could  now  report 
over  five  hundred  cases  cured  with  a  high  attenuation  of  rem- 


1890.]     INDICATED  REMEDY  IN  THE  MINIMUM  DOSE.  391 


edies  which  proved  to  be  the  simillimum.  Nat-mur.  was  indi- 
cated and  cured  oftener  than  any  other  remedy,  of  course,  high  ; 
no  man  can  ever  persuade  me  to  give  low  again  for  chills.  What 
is  true  of  chills  is  also  true  of  any  other  disease.  Last  fall  I 
had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  three  cases  of  typhoid  malarial  fever 
recover  from  the  administration  of  Bry.,  Bapt.,  China,  and 
Rhus-tox.  high,  while  my  allopathic  brothers  lost  all  they 
treated  of  the  same  disease.  To  prove  the  efficacy  of  the 
minimum  dose  to  those  who  wish  to  try  it  and  also  to  establish 
confidence  in  the  minds  of  those  who  first  prescribe  the  high 
with  fear  and  trembling,  as  I  did  when  I  began  practice  here,  I 
will  report  a  few  cases  recorded  and  from  letters  I  hold  of  cases 
treated  by  mail. 

Case  1. — Miss  R.,  aged  seven  years,  stout  and  healthy  in  ap- 
pearance ;  had  an  attack  of  chills.  Mother  writes  thus  :  "  My 
girl  had  a  chill  at  half-past  seven  A.  M.  to-day,  complained  of 
being  tired  before  chill,  which  lasted  until  nine  A.  M.,  duration 
of  fever  about  three  hours,  which  was  so  severe  she  was  out  of  her 
head  most  of  the  time.  Chill  beginning  in  the  back,  coldness 
of  the  hands  and  feet,  no  appetite,  bowels  constipated,  sweat 
scanty,  severe  throbbing  headache,  better  when  begin  to  per- 
spire/' 

I  sent  Nat-mur200,  a  powder  every  two  hours.  I  got  a  letter 
the  third  day  stating  the  chill  came  at  half-past  nine  A.  M.,  but 
not  so  hard.    Sent  Sac-lac. 

The  sixth  day  I  received  another  letter  saying  Mona  had  a 
very  light  chill ;  continued  Sac-lac.  one  week,  then  take  one 
powder  Nat-mur.200  ;  has  had  no  more  chills  now  for  three  years. 
One  week  later  Mr.  R.  sent  his  hired  man  to  me  for  treatment. 

Case  2. — A  young  man,  aged  about  twenty-two  years,  had 
chills  four  months  every  other  day.  "  Taking  Quinine  and 
having  the  chills  was  his  best  hold."  He  had  very  few  symp- 
toms other  than  a  proving  from  Quinine.  I  prescribed  on  three 
symptoms,  stomach  bloated  with  belching,  bowels  constipated, 
sweat  on  being  covered,  and  the  sweat  parboils  the  skin.  I  gave 
him  six  powders  of  China200,  and  told  him  if  he  would  take  one 
powder  three  times  a  day  until  gone  he  never  would  have 


392       INDICATED  KEMEDY  IN  THE  MINIMUM  DOSE.  [Sept., 


another  chill.  Have  seen  him  once  and  Mr.  R.  twice  since,  and 
both  said  he  never  had  another  chill  for  three  years. 

Case  3. — Rev.  W.,  aged  thirty-five  years,  was  taken  with  a 
chill  at  San  Jose,  on  his  way  to  Conference  at  Monterey.  A 
homoeopathic  physician  was  called  in  and  gave  Chin-sul,lx, 
later  Nux-vom.2x ;  no  change  except  the  doctor  got  a  proving 
of  Nux,  and  had  it  not  been  for  his  patient's  kind  forbearance, 
probably  saved  an  uprising  which  might  have  resulted  in  a  cool 
reception.  In  three  days  I  received  a  telegram  which  read  thus : 
"  Mr.  W.  had  a  severe  chill  at  half-past  twelve  m.,  terrible  burn- 
ing pain  in  his  stomach,  with  great  anguish,  high  fever,  very 
restlessand  frequent  drinking."  I  telegraphed  take  "  Ars.200  every 
hour  for  twelve  hours."  He  had  no  more  chills  for  two  weeks, 
and  then  the  chills  returned,  caused  by  taking  a  midnight  repast. 
Ars.  cured  promptly,  having  only  two  light  chills  since,  now 
over  three  years. 

Case  4. — Mr.  B.,  aged  thirty  years,  strong  constitution,  has 
been  shaking  five  months,  a  chill  every  other  day  at  three  P.  m., 
and  a  good  picture  of  Quinine.  Gave  Nat-mur.200,  six  powders, 
one  every  three  hours.  The  next  chill  was  the  hardest  he  ever 
had.  At  ten  a.  m.  two  more  light  chills  ended  the  series  and 
Mr.  B.  has  had  no  more  chills  for  four  years.  On  investigation 
I  learned  that  Mr.  B.  had  had  his  first  few  chills  at  ten  A.  M.,  and 
only  when  he  began  to  take  Quinine  the  time  changed.  He  had 
such  a  strong  desire  for  salt  he  carried  it  in  his  pocket,  and  de- 
scribed his  headache  during  the  fever  as  though  there  was  some- 
thing thumping  against  his  brain.  I  prescribed  on  the  original 
symptoms,  and  developed  the  chills  very  similar  to  them  as  they 
began. 

Case  5. — Mr.  H.,  aged  forty  years,  a  full-dosed  allopathic 
patient,  sent  for  me  to  cure  the  chills  ;  has  been  taking  Quinine 
in  large  doses  for  four  and  a  half  months  and  chills,  all  of  that 
time,  every  twenty-one  days,  making  him  so  weak  he  was  un- 
able to  work  in  the  interval.  I  found  him  shaking,  the  chill  began 
at  half-past  eleven  A.  M.  His  symptoms  were  another  picture 
of  Quinine.  I  told  him  if  he  was  willing  to  stay  in  bed  and 
have  chills  for  a  week  I  would  cure  him,  and  that  I  could  not 


1890.]     INDICATED  REMEDY  IN  THE  MINIMUM  DOSE. 


393 


do  it  without  making  him  have  a  few  chills;  he  said  anything 
to  get  cured.  I  traced  his  case  back  to  the  first  chills  and 
learned  that  his  chills  began  at  seven  A.  M.,  with  very  severe 
bone  pains  and  bilious  vomiting.  Gave  Eupat-per.6x  every 
hour  for  two  days,  then  Sac-lac.  He  had  three  severe  chills 
and  four  light  chills  the  next  seven  days,  the  eighth  chill  was 
only  a  coldness.  He  got  up  and  went  to  work  in  a  few  days 
and  has  not  had  a  chill  since,  now  four  years. 

Case  6. — An  old  lady  consulted  me  about  her  grandchild, 
aged  ten  years.  She  was  nearly  deaf,  only  could  hear  when 
spoken  to  in  a  high  tone  of  voice.  She  had  good  hearing  before 
she  took  Quinine  for  chills. 

Before  she  took  Quinine  her  chills  came  in  the  morning — I 
could  not  learn  the  hour.  Gave  Eupat-per.6  every  hour  for 
two  days.  The  second  day  after  taking  the  medicine,  at  8.30 
A.  m.,  she  had  a  severe  chill.  She  had  bone  pains,  pains  in  her 
stomach,  vomited  a  bilious  matter  of  a  yellowish-green  color. 
She  was  curled  up  in  bed,  very  thirsty  ;  high  fever  followed  the 
chill,  continuing  about  three  hours;  muttering  delirium,  very 
red  cheeks,  very  restless  and  irritable,  severe  headache,  which 
lasted  all  day,  sweat  scanty.  Three  more  doses  of  Eupat-per.6 
and  Sac-lac.  for  one  week.  She  had  three  more  chills,  each 
chill  coming  in  the  morning  about  the  same  hour  as  the  first. 
She  has  never  had  a  chill  since,  and  in  three  weeks  after  she  had 
the  chills  she  could  hear  as  well  as  ever. 

Case  7. — Mr.  O.  writes  thus  :  "  My  wife  (aged  twenty-five)  had 
a  chill  Friday,  June  14th,  1889.  Severe  pains  all  through  her 
bones,  especially  ankles,  which  give  out,  will  not  hold  her  up. 
Pains  in  legs,  back,  side,  back  of  head,  and  frontal  headache, 
burning  pains  in  back  of  the  eyes,  eyelids  hot.  She  cannot  keep 
the  eyes  closed  or  open ;  creeping  chills  up  the  back,  with  some 
coldness  of  the  extremities.  To-day's  chill,  June  16th,  came  at 
half-past  seven  a.  m.  ;  numbness  of  the  hands  and  feet,  chill 
continued  one  hour,  then  fever  of  three  hours'  duration.  Severe 
pains  in  bones  during  chill,  pulse  one  hundred  and  twenty, 
strong  and  regular.  Pulse  at  half-past  eleven  a.  M.  one  hundred 
and  forty.    Splitting  headache,  burning  pains  back  of  head  and 


394       INDICATED  REMEDY  IN  THE  MINIMUM  DOSE.  [Sept., 


through  the  eyes,  headache  so  severe  she  cannot  keep  quiet  in 
any  position  ;  cries  a  good  deal.  Faintness,  nausea,  and  vomit- 
ing ;  both  sides  of  her  neck  very  sore  and  stiff,  hurts  to  move 
her  head.  Soreness,  pain,  and  lameness  in  left  side,  just  under 
ribs,  extending  to  the  right  side.  Severe  pains  in  the  cords  of 
the  neck  ;  mouth  tastes  gluey  and  sweet,  fever  sores  coming  out 
all  around  her  mouth  ;  urine  frequent  and  of  an  orange  color, 
burning  hot  and  painful  ;  pain  through  small  of  back  and  kid- 
neys. Face  pale  and  sallow,  dark  circles  around  her  eyes ;  not 
much  thirst,  drinks  once  an  hour,  water  has  no  taste.'' 

I  sent  Nat-mur.203,  one  powder  every  hour.  She  got  the 
medicine  Monday,  June  17th,  at  half-past  eleven  A.  M. 

She  had  a  light  paroxysm  the  next  morning  and  none  since, 
now  eight  months. 

"  Folsom,  June  22d,  Dear  Dr. — My  wife  has  not  had  a  chill 
since  Tuesday.  She  did  a  big  washing  yesterday  and  ironing 
to-day.  She  has  been  dieting  regularly  on  cucumbers  and  sum- 
mer squash." 

Case  8. — Mr.  M.,  aged  about  forty  years,  consulted  me  three 
years  ago;  said  he  was  suffering  with  dumb  ague  every  afternoon, 
at  five  P.  M.,  he  had  a  coldness,  severe  pain  in  his  stomach;  if 
he  ate  supper  he  was  sure  to  vomit,  therefore  he  abstained  from 
eating  his  last  meal  each  day.  He  had  a  bilious  diarrhoea  and 
some  fever ;  said  he  has  been  taking  Quinine  all  summer.  I 
gave  Ars.3x,  China3*,  Chin-sul.200,  Puls.3x.  Ars.  relieved  the 
pain  in  the  stomach  to  a  great  extent,  and  there  was  a  diminu- 
tion of  the  passages  from  the  bowels.  He  thought,  after  trying 
Homoeopathy  two  weeks  with  only  an  amelioration  of  two  symp- 
toms, he  would  go  back  to  allopathy,  which  he  did  in  spite  of 
my  promises  to  relieve  him  in  a  few  days.  Last  September  his 
wife  came  into  my  office  and  said  her  husband  had  been  suffering 
with  chills  every  year  since  I  treated  him  three  years  ago;  she 
also  stated  that  they  had  got  disgusted  with  this  locality  and 
they  were  going  East  just  as  soon  as  her  husband  is  well  enough 
to  go.  She  inquired  of  me  if  I  could  do  anything  for  him, "  if  so 
-come  up  soon  as  you  can."  In  one-half  hour  I  was  at  his  bed- 
side.   One  glance  at  his  face  proved  to  my  mind  that  he  had 


1890.]     INDICATED  REMEDY  IN  THE  MINIMUM  DOSE.  395 


been  dieting  regularly  on  the  three  staple  meals  of  allopathy — 
viz. :  Quinine,  Fowler's  solution,  and  Calomel.  He  admitted 
that  he  had  continued  this  diet  for  three  years  faithfully,  and 
what  troubled  him  most,  it  did  not  benefit  him  any,  although 
recommended  by  every  physician  in  Marysville  he  had  tried.  I 
recognized  the  fact  that  I  had  a  desperate  case  before  me.  He 
was  pale,  sallow,  eyes  sunken,  face  pinched,  skin  had  a  grayish 
tinge,  weak,  great  prostration,  flushes  of  heat  and  cold,  hands 
and  feet  cold,  chilly  on  the  least  exposure,  tongue  thickly  furred 
with  a  yellowish  coating  and  very  dry,  especially  at  night ; 
severe  headache,  diarrhoea,  twenty-five  or  thirty  stools  every 
twenty-four  hours,  stools  watery  and  dark-brown  color.  Anus 
standing  wide  open,  weak  after  stool ;  has  had  a  stool  every  hour 
for  three  weeks. 

Gave  Phos.30  in  water  every  hour ;  next  day  anus  not  so  re- 
laxed and  dilated ;  continued  Phos.200.  Third  day  anus  closed, 
and  not  quite  so  many  stools.  On  the  night  of  the  third  day, 
after  taking  Phos.  at  one  A.M.,  he  had  a  severe  chill,  high  fever, 
frequent  drinking,  and  very  restless  until  morning;  sweat 
scanty.  Gave  Ars.200;  two  more  chills  at  the  same  hour,  but 
not  so  hard.  The  chill  ceased,  but  the  diarrhoea  continued 
without  any  change ;  very  weak  ;  exhausted  by  the  least  move- 
ment ;  burning  of  anus  after  stool,  an  effect  of  Ars. ;  did  not 
have  burning  of  anus  before  taking  Ars.  I  was  about  to  give 
a  higher  attenuation  of  Ars.,  when  he  exclaimed  :  "  Doctor,  is 
it  not  peculiar?  when  I  drink  water,  I  must  put  some  salt  in  it 
to  make  it  taste  right."  I  did  not  give  Ars.,  and  went  to  my 
office  and  got  Nat-mur.200,  and  gave  it  every  hour  in  water.  In 
two  days  the  twenty-five  or  thirty  stools  a  day  had  decreased  to 
two  a  day.  The  fourth  day  he  took  a  walk,  and  in  a  week  he 
went  to  work.  I  never  saw  any  one  gain  as  fast  as  he  did 
under  the  circumstances.  Two  weeks  after  he  got  to  work  he 
began  to  have  bone  pains,  weak  and  nauseated.  I  told  him  he 
had  not  got  all  the  malaria  out  of  his  system  which  had  been 
suppressed  by  Quinine.  Gave  him  Nat-mur.200  for  two  days. 
The  third  day  he  had  a  chill  at  six  p.  M.,  and  a  chill  every  day 
for  a  week  ;  second  chill  at  five  P.  M. ;  the  third  and  fourth  chills 


396 


INDICATED  REMEDY  IN  THE  MINIMUM  DOSE.  [Sept., 


at  three  p.m.  ;  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh  chills  from  twelve  M.  to 
one  p.m.  As  the  last  chills  were  getting  worse,  I  discontinued  Sac- 
lac,  and  gave  Ars.200.  The  time  of  the  chill  and  the  restlessness, 
the  nausea  and  burning  pain  in  the  stomach  were  sufficient 
reasons  for  interfering  with  my  last  prescription  (Nat-mur.200) 
and  giving  Ars.20,  which  cured  promptly,  my  patient  having 
only  one  more  light  chill.  He  began  to  gain  strength  rapidly; 
now  he  is  a  picture  of  health,  very  fleshy.  He  asked  me  a  few 
days  ago  if  I  had  some  anti-fat.  He  is  an  enthusiast  on  Ho- 
moeopathy;  says  he  is  well  satisfied  to  live  in  Marysville  now. 

Case  9. — Mr.  G.,  aged  about  thirty  years,  came  direct  from 
Vermont — a  locality  where  malaria  never  was  known.  Two 
days  after  arriving  here  he  was  taken  with  a  severe  chill  at 
ten  A.  M.  Chill  runs  up  and  down  his  back  ;  icy  coldness  of 
hands  and  feet :  headache  soon  after  chill  begins,  and  continues 
until  he  has  perspired  two  hours.  Sweat  profuse.  He  had  what 
he  described  as  a  hammering  headache;  high  fever  continuing 
six  hours.  The  profuse  sweat  relieved  him  of  all  pains  ;  very 
weak  after  paroxysm.  Gave  Nat-mur.200  every  two  hours  in 
the  absence  of  the  paroxysm  for  two  days.  One  more  chill 
ended  his  shaking.  About  two  months  ago  I  received  a  letter 
from  a  friend,  a  homoeopathic  physician  in  the  East.  He  said 
he  used  the  homoeopathic  remedies  very  low,  and  he  is  very  well 
satisfied  with  the  results.  There  are  indolent  Oriental  people 
in  this  enlightened  and  civilized  age  in  which  we  live  who  use 
a  crooked  stick  for  a  plow,  and  they  are  satisfied  with  their 
mode  of  farming.  Mr.  G.  received  enough  of  the  poison  of 
malaria  sleeping  on  the  second  floor,  above  the  point  where  it  is 
said  the  malarial  poison  rises.  How  wonderful — nevertheless 
true — he  received  by  olfaction  enough  of  the  malarial  poison  to 
produce  two  severe  chills  !  My  friend  would  probably  say, 
how  much  more  wonderful  that  the  two  hundredth  potency  of 
Nat-mur.200  cured  in  two  days. 

The  dynamics  of  Nat-mur.200  must  have  been  stronger  than 
the  malarial  poison,  or  it  would  not  have  cured.  I  prescribed 
the  two  hundredth  attenuation  in  the  majority  of  my  cases  of 
chills.    I  have  cured,  as  I  have  said,  five  hundred  cases,  but  a 


1890.] 


VERIFIED  PROVINGS  OF  OXYGEN. 


397 


few  remedies  higher.  I  am  convinced  the  highest  attenuations 
would  have  done  better.  Every  homoeopathic  physician  knows 
how  important  it  is  to  thoroughly  individualize  his  cases  in 
order  to  get  the  right  remedy.  Every  homoeopathic  physician 
should  most  emphatically  know  the  importance  of  giving  the 
minimum  dose.  The  mode  of  giving  the  indicated  remedy  in 
the  highest  attenuations,  and  never  to  repeat  as  long  as  there  is 
improvement  has  cured  more  chronic  cases  hitherto  considered 
incurable,  and  has  turned  out  more  enthusiasts  on  Homoeopathy 
than  any  other  mode.  My  dear  brother,  you  who  are  satisfied 
with  the  crooked  stick  for  a  plow,  to  continue  to  live  in  a  crude 
atmosphere,  and  to  be  influenced  by  your  environments  of  crude 
dosing,  may  I  hope  that  some  time,  amid  your  discouragements, 
you  may  throw  aside  prejudice  and  try  the  high  and  highest 
attenuations.  After  giving  them  a  fair  trial,  you  will  be  con- 
vinced that  the  high  is  the  longest  and  deepest  acting,  and  also 
cures  more  complerely  and  permanently. 


VERIFIED  PROYIXGS  OF  OXYGEN. 
S.  Swax,  M.  D.,  New  York. 

First  proving. — Dr.  Swan  took  Oxygen-^  (Fincke) ;  date  and 
repetition  of  dose  omitted.  Since  then  has  been  notably  trou- 
bled with  great  flatulence,  passing  at  stool  large  quantities;  the 
flatus  seems  to  accumulate  iu  rectum  ;  does  not  generally  notice 
it  except  from  its  producing  a  desire  for  stool  ;  fears  to  pass  it 
when  not  at  stool,  from  an  impression  that  stool  will  pass. 

Great  quantity  of  indurated  mucus  in  nose  in  all  stages  of 
hardness,  causing  frequent  necessity  to  pick  it ,  and  in  morning, 
blowing  out  of  lumps  which  are  generally  tough,  opaque, 
whitish-yellow. 

Second  proving. — March  17th,  took  one  dose  of  1M  (Fincke). 
Canker  sores  in  mouth  and  cheeks. 

March  19th. — Slight  hoarseness  and  dryness  of  throat ; 
toward  evening  the  dryness  increased  round  rim  of  glottis. 
Took  Acid-lac.lm  without  benefit  ;   becoming  more  annoying, 


398  VERIFIED  PROVINGS  OF  OXYGEN.  [Sept., 


took  Bell,  with  partial  relief.  At  midnight  woke  with  choking, 
burning  dryness  of  glottis  and  upper  larynx.    Xo  thirst. 

March  20th. — Early  in  morning  took  Acid-lac.10m  and  the 
dryness  was  entirely  relieved,  but  was  followed  by  great  hoarse- 
ness and  a  hard,  shaking  cough,  with  considerable  expectoration, 
excited  during  night  by  tickling  under  sternum,  upper  half, 
aggravated  while  lying  on  either  side,  relieved  while  lying  on 
back  ;  the  cough  was  shaking,  tearing,  with  profuse,  lumpy, 
tasteless,  whitish  expectoration.  Sweat  all  over,  and  headache 
between  eyes. 

March  21st. — Headache  in  right  eyebrow,  outer  half;  pain 
still  in  frontal  region.  Expectoration  occasionally — yellow, 
purulent.  Continued  perspiration  on  scalp;  loss  of  smell  in  a 
great  degree.  Aphonia,  and  difficulty  in  controlling  the  voice. 
Pulse  ninety-two. 

March  22d. — With  dry,  hacking  cough  last  night,  took 
Rumcxlm  and  slept  till  two  A.  M.  Cough  then  commenced  from 
the  same  tickling,  low  down  in  supra-sternal  fossa,  and  abund- 
ant expectorations,  mostly  of  thick,  white,  tasteless,  hard  lumps  ; 
the  cough  caused  great  soreness  in  the  muscles  of  the  epigas- 
trium. After  two  hours  it  ceased,  with  the  exception  of  an 
occasional  cough.  There  was  perspiration  on  the  scalp  and 
slight  moisture  over  the  body. 

March  23d. — Woke  again  at  two  A.  m.  and  coughed  till  five 
A.  M. ;  the  same  expectoration,  white  thick-like  curds  or  yellow, 
creamy,  tasteless,  mixed  with  blood ;  this,  however,  probably 
came  from  the  teeth,  as  they  are  in  the  habit  of  bleeding.  There 
is  not  so  much  soreness  in  the  region  of  the  exterior  attachment 
of  the  diaphragm,  perhaps  owing  to  a  dose  of  Kali-bichroia. 
which  I  took  before  retiring.  Dull  headache  over  frontal 
region,  more  intense  in  a  spot  over  left  eye.  Pain  in  left  temple, 
which  feels  cold  to  the  touch.  Occasional  cough  during  the  day, 
with  expectoration  of  white  mucus  if  the  cough  is  not  severe, 
but  of  thick,  white  curds  or  yellow,  creamy  mucus  when  the 
paroxysm  is  more  profound.  Continual  tickling  in  supra-sternal 
fossa/  Took  Kali-biclir.lm  to-night. 

March  24th. — Slept  better,  and  did  not  cough  to  wake  me  till 


1890.] 


VERIFIED  PROVINGS  OF  OXYGEN. 


399 


seven  A.  M. — coughed  and  raised  a  large  amount  of  mucus. 
During  the  day  single  coughs  not  very  often,  always  with  ex- 
pectoration, sometimes  spasmodic,  forcing  the  mucus  into 
posterior  nares,  and  causing  hawking  and  blowing  the  nose. 
Having  been  exposed  during  evening  to  sleet  and  east  wind,  I 
coughed  considerably  on  retiring,  the  cough  being  particularly 
distressing,  causing  a  sensation  as  if  the  chest  would  burst  at  the 
lower  part,  with  a  tearing,  sore  sensation.  It  seems  as  if  the 
interior  attachment  of  the  diaphragm  would  give  way.  There 
is  a  continuous  dryness  in  throat,  causing  inclination  to  cough, 
frequent  sneezing,  and  constant  frontal  headache,  sometimes 
pressing  downward  over  root  of  nose. 

March  25th. — Rose  very  unwell  from  sore  feeling  in  chest 
and  dryness  of  throat  and  headache.  Sneezes  and  raises  large 
quantities  of  transparent,  slimy,  tasteless  mucus;  later  in  morn- 
ing the  expectoration  was  like  white  curds.  Pain  in  ball  of 
right  eye  and  little  to  left  of  pupil — lancinating,  paroxysmal. 
Occasional  rush  of  pain,  filling  the  whole  ball  of  the  right  eye 
and  extending  to  right  temple,  which  then  became  hot. 

March  26th. — Coughed  on  lying  down  last  night,  but  did  not 
raise  much;  in  a  short  time  fell  asleep  and  slept  till  morning. 
Coughed  considerably,  not  so  much  from  irritation,  but  from 
the  large  quantity  of  mucus,  mostly  white  and  slimy.  Some 
sneezing.    Occasional  pains  in  right  eye  and  temple. 

April  10th. — The  cough,  with  the  above  symptoms,  continued 
till  now.  Expectoration  principally  in  the  morning.  Cough 
on  lying  down  at  night,  caused  by  the  sensation  of  a  clot  of 
mucus  in  the  trachea  or  near  the  bifurcation  of  the  bronchia, 
which,  when  loosened  and  raised,  relieves  the  cough. 

Eruption  of  fine  stinging  rash  on  right  side  of  scrotum,  con- 
tinuing one  day.  Eruption  of  pimples  in  the  fold  of  the  nates, 
right  side  near  anus  becoming  very  sore,  and  seemingly  like 
blisters,  as  the  skin  rubbed  off,  leaving  it  very  sore.  Takes  cold 
easily;  cough  aggravated  by  exposure  to  tire  wind  whether  dry 
or  damp. 

April  13th. — Took  one  dose  of  1  M. 

During  April  cough  gradually  decreased.    Desire  for  stool 


400 


A  CLINICAL  CASE. 


[Sept., 


resulted  only  in  flatus  or  small,  bad-smelling  stool.  Itching  of 
the  skin  on  the  metacarpal  end  of  first  phalanx  of  left  index 
finger,  no  redness  or  eruption. 

Painful  stricture  or  tightness  under  centre  of  sternum, 
aggravated  by  bringing  the  shoulders  forward. 

CLINICAL  VERIFICATIONS. 

(1)  .  A.  S.,  aged  twenty-one  and  a  half,  severe  cough  from  dry- 
ness in  upper  larynx  and  constant  tickling  in  throat-pit.  Cough 
hard,  shaking,  causing  soreness  in  epigastric  region.  Expectora- 
tion with  every  cough — thick,  lumpy,  tasteless.  Took  Oxygenlm 
at  night.  Slept  well  and  felt  very  much  better  in  morning; 
cough  nearly  gone.  Says  it  cured  more  quickly  than  any  remedy 
he  had  ever  taken,  and  makes  him  feel  better. 

(2)  .  A  patient  was  passing  quantities  of  uric  acid  like  ruby 
sand.    Oxygen™  (Swan)  removed  it  in  three  days. 

(3)  .  In  Homoeopathic  Physician,  vol.  V,  p.  403,  Dr. 
Berridge  records  a  case  of  cough  excited  by  tickling  in  throat 
and  causing  soreness  of  chest,  occurring  between  two  and  three 
A.  M.,  and  better  when  lying  on  the  back ;  cured  by  one  dose  of 
Oxygencm  (Swan). 

(4)  .  At  page  44  of  Hering's  Analytical  Repertory  of  Symptoms 
of  the  Mind  it  is  stated  that  Oxygen  has  periodical  symptoms 
every  day  earlier,  and  Hydrogen  every  day  later.  These  prov- 
ings  or  cures  should  be  published. 


A  CLINICAL  CASE. 

W.  A.  YlNGLING,  M.  D.,  NONCHALANTA,  KANSAS. 

A.  J.  M.,  set.  thirty-eight,  on  February  2d,  1890,  at  about 
five  P.  m.  threw  a  plank  to  one  side,  which,  striking  against  a 
wire  fence,  bounded  back  with  such  force  as  to  drive  a  large, 
rusty  spike  through  the  left  foot,  near  the  arch  of  the  instep, 
but  without  passing  through  the  bone,  as  it  glanced  to  the  inside 
of  the  foot.  His  son  came  to  me  at  eight  p.  m.,  same  evening, 
giving  symptoms  as  follows  :    A  few  moments  after  the  accident 


1890.]     CASES  FROM  THE  PRACTICE  OF  DR.  HANSEN.  401 


the  patient  felt  stiffening  pains  in  the  foot,  running  up  the  leg, 
rapidly  increasing  in  severity.  Great  chilliness,  with  chattering 
of  the  teeth  soon  followed.  Lower  jaw  became  somewhat  stiff ; 
general  shivering ;  neck  felt  stiff";  great  anxiety  ;  "  can't  endure 
it  much  longer."  I  sent  some  pellets  of  Ledum3*,  to  be  taken 
internally,  and  a  dram  vial  of  Calendula3*,  one-fourth  to  be  put 
in  a  tumbler  of  water  and  a  cloth  wet  with  this  kept  on  the 
foot.  The  report  the  next  day  was  rapid  improvement  from 
the  first  dose.  In  thirty-six  hours  he  was  walking  about,  yet 
the  foot  felt  somewhat  tender.  Entire  and  rapid  recovery  with- 
out bad  results. 

What  would  the  results  have  been  without  Ledum  for  the 
punctured  wound  ?  Does  effect  follow  the  cause  ?  If  the 
threatened  tetanus  was  the  result  of  the  rusty  spike,  why  is  not 
the  cure  the  effect  of  the  homoeopathic  remedy?  Does  Homoe- 
opathy cure  ?  If  not,  then  effect  is  not  the  result  of  cause.,  the 
effect  would  have  taken  place  "  any  way." 

CASES  FROM  THE  PRACTICE  OF  DR.  OSCAR  HAN- 
SEX,  COPENHAGEN. 

Allg.  Hom.  Zeituxg  23,  '90. 

1.  E.  L.,  thirty-four  years  old,  single,  suffered  formerly  from 
ulcus  ventriculi  and  was  always  anaemic.  Ailing  for  four  weeks? 
she  complains  of  heaviness  in  head,  vertigo,  buzzing  in  ears,  hebe- 
tude, and  sleepiness.  Pressure  and  burning  in  pit  of  stomach, 
with  vomiting  of  flat  water,  always  between  meals.  Thirst, 
drinks  little  and  often.  Stool  soft,  the  discharge  is  yellowish- 
white  mixed  with  mucus,  three  and  four  times  in  twenty-four 
hours.  Copious  menses  every  two  weeks.  Frequent  nocturnal 
urination,  but  only  a  small  quantity  passed.  Urine  light-yellow, 
foaming,  clear,  and  acid  ;  specific  gravity  1014,  containing 
five  per  cent,  albumen  and  cylinders ;  passes  only  half  a  litre 
in  twenty-four  hours ;  oedema  of  eyelids  and  around  malleoli, 
mucous  membranes  pale.  Sounds  of  heart  somewhat  blow- 
ing. Phosphor.30,  three  drops,  three  times  daily.  September 
26 


402 


CASES  FROM  THE  PRACTICE  OF  DR.  HANSEN. 


[Sept., 


10th  (three  weeks  later). — Bowels  normal,  oedema  gone,  no 
other  change.  Arsen.3c.  September  30th. — Headache,  vertigo, 
the  pains  in  the  pit  of  the  stomach,  the  vomiting,  and  the 
lassitude  all  gone.  Passes  one  litre  urine  in  twenty-four  hours, 
and  does  not  get  up  at  night  to  urinate.  Menses  after  twenty- 
four  days  and  less  copious.  Two  per  cent,  albumen  in  the  urine, 
no  cylinders.  November  loth. — Urine  normal  and  would  be 
discharged  cured. 

(The  differentiation  between  Phosphorus  and  Arsenicum  in 
Bright's  disease  Buchner  has  well  given  in  his  little  work  on 
Morbus  Brif/htii,  where  he  clearly  shows  that  Phosphorus  is  for 
the  venous  circulation  (right  heart)  what  Arsenicum  is  for  the 
arterial  circulation  (left  heart).  The  patient  had  suffered  from 
ulcus  pepticum,  an  affection  not  rare  in  chlorotic  women,  and 
both  remedies  may  be  indicated  for  that  ulcer,  but  while  we  find 
in  Phosphorus  pressure  in  stomach  after  eating,  with  immediate 
vomiting  of  food  (she  vomited  between  meals)  or  even  after  a 
swallow  of  water,  with  frequent  fainting,  cold  extremities,  etc., 
we  read  of  Arsenicum  :  Gagging,  nausea,  and  vomiting,  mostly 
after  two  hours,  even  from  the  lightest  kind  of  food  ;  stomach 
tender  to  the  slightest  touch ;  frequent  vomiting,  with  fear  of 
death.  In  morbus  Brightii  Phosphorus  is  more  suitable  to 
chronic  cases  with  their  degenerative  character,  while  Arsenic 
suits  more  primary  cases  with  puffiness  of  eyes  and  swelling  of 
feet  with  exhausting  diarrhoea  and  cardiac  dyspnoea.  Arsenic  is 
also  the  remedy  for  menorrhagic  chlorosis,  while  the  tubercular 
(psoric)  diathesis  prevails  in  Phosphorus,  which  was  here  not 
indicated,  while  Arsenicum  covered  every  indication.) 

2.  A  Case  of  Chorea.  L.  M.,  twelve  years  old,  the  son  of  a 
laborer,  enjoyed  good  health,  when  two  months  ago  he  was  at- 
tacked with  chorea.  Involuntary  twitchings  and  motions  over 
the  whole  body,  restless  in  daytime  and  easily  frightened  at 
night,  when  he  twitches  in  his  face.  His  motions  are  awkward, 
especially  when  dressing  or  undressing ;  speech  unintelligible. 
Looks  pale,  though  his  appetite  is  good.  February  10th. — Cup- 
rum-met.60 five  drops,  three  times  daily.  February  21st. — 
No  change.    March  2d. — Worse  all  over ;  twitchings,  followed 


1890.]      CASES  FROM  THE  PRACTICE  OF  DR.  HANSEN.  403 


by  great  lassitude  :  loss  of  memory,  idiotic  features,  must  be  fed. 
Stramonium30  three  times  daily.  March  21st. — Great  im- 
provement, is  able  to  feed  himself,  speaks  distinctly,  and  is  more 
lively.  April  25th. — All  choreic  symptoms  gone,  and  as  a 
constitutional  improver  he  took  now  Calcarea-phos.300  three 
drops,  morning  and  evening,  and  about  the  middle  of  May  he 
was  discharged. 

Krewssler,  forty  years  ago,  in  a  condensed  little  book  on  ho- 
moeopathic treatment,  considers  Stramonium  nearly  the  chief 
remedy  for  chorea,  as  it  is  apt  to  cause  extreme  mobility  of  the 
limbs;  it  has  been  known  for  years  past  that  the  vapors  of 
Stramonium  cause  chorea.  Of  nearly  equal  importance  he  con- 
siders Hyoscyamus  and  Veratrum-album.  We  feel  sorry  that 
Hansen  fails  to  record  where  the  chorea  began  and  what  was  the 
emotional  or  somatic  (helminthiasis)  cause  of  it.  It  is  well 
known  of  Cuprum  that  its  spasms  are  apt  to  begin  in  the  fingers 
and  toes  and  then  spread  all  over  the  body,  with  excessive 
dyspnoea  and  threatening  suffocatory  attacks,  hence  the  livor, 
followed  by  collapse.  Under  Stramonium,  the  fool's  remedy, 
all  movements  are  characterized  by  great  violence,  and  finallv 
may  lead  to  idiocy  ;  the  harder  the  case  from  the  start  the  more 
Stramonium  is  indicated,  though  the  late  Hempel,  as  usual  rec- 
ommends for  such  severe  cases  his  beloved  Aconitum  napellus, 
while  we  rather  think  of  Veratrum-viride  in  chorea  magna, 
where  the  spasms  keep  up  all  night  with  nearly  the  same  inten- 
sity. AVe  have  olone  well  in  such  severe  cases  with  Laurocerasus 
or  Tarentula-hispanica,  but  where  the  duration  of  the  disease 
tends  to  mental  degradation,  we  would  certainly  have  more  con- 
fidence in  Stramonium  than  in  any  other  remedy.  The  cause  of 
chorea  is  often  hard  to  detect,  we  know  only  its  effects,  and  the 
peculiar  symptoms  are  often  hard  to  find  out.  It  racks  terribly 
the  whole  nervous  system,  and  constitutional  antipsoric  treatment 
may  be  necessary  from  the  start,  and  is  certainly  indicated,  to 
restore  the  eopiilibrium  when  the  storm  has  passed  away. 

3.  D.  B.,  twenty-three  years  old,  single,  passed  through  scar- 
latina when  a  child  and  is  now  complaining  for  the  last  three 
months.    Before  her  menses  and  on  the  first  day  of  the  flow 


404       CASES  FROM  THE  PRACTICE  OF  DR.  HANSEN.  [Sept 


severe  pressing  and  lancinating  pains  in  the  left  groin.  Her 
diarrhoea  is  worst  in  the  morning,  frequently  with  cedema  of  the 
upper  eyelids.  Urine  normal,  appetite  and  sleep  good.  Apis- 
mellifica3d,  five  drops  four  times  daily,  removed  the  diarrhoea 
and  the  dysmenorrhoea. 

Though  Apis  acts  more  on  the  right  ovary,  we  see  it  here 
acting  equally  well  in  left  ovarian  neuralgia ;  in  fact,  we  meet 
among  its  symptoms  cutting  in  left  then  in  right  ovary,  par- 
oxysmal, extending  into  thigh,  worse  while  stretching.  Hansen 
fails  to  tell  us  the  character  of  the  menstrual  discharge,  nor  does 
he  say  anything  about  the  character  of  the  stools.  It  is  a  pity 
that  reporters  of  cases  fail  so  often  to  give  us  the  peculiarities  of 
a  case,  in  that  it  might  be  used  as  a  verification.  At  any  rate,  it 
verifies  the  morning  diarrhoea,  and  as  there  is  nothing  said  about 
pain,  we  may  consider  it  a  painless  one,  probably  the  intestinal 
muscles  felt  weakened  by  the  ovarian  pains  preceding  the  flow 
for  a  week.  Even  that  adjective  "  mornings  "  ought  to  be  more 
specified,  whether  in  bed  or  after  rising,  profuse  or  scanty. 

4.  A  child  of  thirteen  months  had  whooping-cough  seven 
mouths  ago,  during  which  the  present  state  developed,  for  which 
she  was  treated  at  the  hospital  without  relief.  March  2d,  Han- 
sen found  :  After  a  strong  piping  scream  during  the  inspiration, 
breathing  stops  suddenly.  The  child  turus  pale  in  the  face, 
cyanosis  of  the  upper  lips  and  nose,  twitching  of  the  extremities 
alternating  with  stiffness ;  cold  sweat  on  the  scalp,  vomiting  of 
mucus  after  the  attack,  which  lasts  three  or  four  minutes  and 
happens  five  or  six  times  during  the  day,  never  at  night. 
No  other  abnormality  could  be  detected.  Cuprum-met.6c,  three 
times  daily,  for  the  last  two  weeks,  diminished  the  number  of  the 
attacks,  but  that  was  all.  On  account  of  the  strong  piping 
or  whistling  inspiration  Iodium20,  three  drops  three  times 
daily,  was  prescribed,  with  partial  benefit.  April  10th. — 
Bronchitis  set  in,  relieved  by  Aconite,  Bryonia,  and  Phosphorus, 
and  then  on  May  3d  Iodium  was  again  given  and  the  attack 
gradually  disappeared.  Calcarea-phosphorica  was  then  given 
for  the  troubles  of  dentition  with  copious  perspiration  of  the 
head.  It  passed  well  through  the  summer  and  now  leaves  noth- 
ing to  be  desired. 


1890.] 


HERMAPHRODITISM. 


405 


The  Halogens  always  will  remain  our  stand-by  in  the  treat- 
ment of  laryngismus  stridulus,  but  they  have  inspiration  unim- 
peded and  natural,  expiration  nearly  impossible ;  on  account  of 
the  whooping-cough  my  choice  would  have  been  Mephites, 
which  has  inspiration  difficult  and  expiration  also  with  cyanosis. 
Was  the  child  psoric,  scrofulous,  and  rachitic?  for  only  thus 
can  we  explain  the  favorable  action  of  Iodium. 


HERMAPHRODITISM  COMPLICATED  WITH  EX- 
TROPHY OF  THE  BLADDER. 

Rita  Dunlevy,  M.  D.,  New  York. 

(Bureau  of  Surgery,  I.  H.  A.) 

Mary  H.,  for  so  this  child  was  named,  was  born  in  Brooklyn, 
"N.  Y.,  in  1873. 

When  examined  the  child  was  found  well  developed  above 
and  below  the  pelvis,  but  peculiarly  deformed  about  the  pubic 
region.  It  was  evident  that  nature  had  intended  to  create  a 
man,  but  for  some  unknown  cause  she  failed  to  develop  the  type 
of  either  sex. 

The  navel  and  the  pubic  bones  were  wanting. 

From  either  groin  a  sac-like  mass  grew  and  hung  fully  two- 
thirds  the  length  of  the  thighs. 

At  about  one-half  their  length  these  two  sacs  coalesced. 

Into  the  upper  quadrant  of  these  sacs  a  portion  of  the  intestine 
descended,  while  the  lower  segment  was  filled  with  testicle 
tissue. 

At  the  angle  formed  by  the  junction  of  these  hernial  testicle 
sacs  was  a  mass  of  erectile  tissue  about  one  and  a  half  by  two 
and  a  half  inches,  evidently  a  rudimentary  penis. 

At  times  this  would  erect  several  inches. 

Above  this  erectile  mass  was  a  red  mucous  surface,  the  inner 
coat  of  the  bladder. 

From  four  openings  in  this  bladder  the  urine  dribbled  con- 
stantly. 

In  1881  the  case  was  operated  on  by  Dr.  Wm.  Tod  Helmuth. 


406 


HERMAPHRODITISM. 


[Sept., 


He  tried  by  plastic  surgery  to  cover  over  the  bladder,  but  only 
succeeded  in  closing  two  of  the  openings. 

Later,  Dr.  Helmuth  removed  one  of  the  testicle  masses  and 
did  several  other  operations  with  small  success. 

In  May,  1889,  the  case  came  before  the  students  of  the  New 
York  Medical  College  and  Hospital  for  Women,  and  was  ex- 
amined, under  ether,  by  Professor  Edmund  Carleton,  M.  D. 

The  following  day,  in  the  presence  of  several  members  of  the 
profession  interested  in  the  case,  the  faculty,  and  the  students, 
Professor  Carleton  operated. 

First  he  removed  the  remaining  testicle  from  the  right  sac. 
Then  he  denuded  the  edges  of  the  tissue  at  upper  angle  of  the 
bladder  and  brought  the  raw  surfaces  together  with  several 
sutures,  two  of  which  were  hare-lip  sutures,  the  others  simple 
interrupted  stitches. 

In  ten  days,  when  sutures  were  removed,  quite  an  angle  of 
the  opening  was  found  closed  in. 

On  June  16th,  again  in  the  presence  of  members  of  the  pro- 
fession, faculty,  and  the  students,  Professor  Carleton  operated  a 
second  time  on  the  patient. 

He  removed  the  mass  of  erectile  tissue,  or  rudimentary  penis, 
by  means  of  a  strong  ecraseur.  There  was  no  hemorrhage  fol- 
lowing its  removal. 

Then  he  denuded  the  surface  above  the  bladder  corresponding 
to  the  pubic  region,  brought  the  pendant  flap  of  the  hernial 
sacs  up  over  the  bladder,  and  united  the  two  surfaces  with 
twenty-five  interrupted  silk  sutures. 

An  ivory  drainage-tube,  devised  for  the  patient  by  Dr.  Wm. 
Krause,  was  fitted  in  the  lower  left  quadrant  of  the  hernial  sacs. 
This  to  conduct  off  the  urine.  The  patient  was  placed  in  bed  in 
a  semi-lateral  position,  to  favor  the  escape  of  the  urine  through 
the  tube. 

The  remaining  portion  of  the  sac  was  kept  constantly  sup- 
ported to  prevent  the  hernia  from  making  traction  on  the 
stitches.  To  guard  against  bed-sores  and  give  the  patient  relief, 
the  position  had  to  be  changed  from  time  to  time. 

This  rendered  it  impossible  to  prevent  an  escape  of  urine 
through  aud  over  some  of  the  stitches. 


1890.] 


A  FUNNY  SYMPTOM,  SULPHUR  55M. 


407 


On  removal  of  sutures  the  parts  were  found  nicely  united, 
except  several  central  sutures. 

Their  union  was  prevented  by  the  action  of  the  urine. 

June  29th. — Healthy  granulation  had  taken  place  on  the  raw 
edges  that  failed  to  unite.  This  Professor  Carleton  furthered 
by  skin-grafting. 

Meanwhile  the  patient  was  fed  on  the  most  nourishing  diet. 

The  wound  was  washed  very  frequently  with  calendulated 
water  and  kept  anointed  with  calendulated  vaseline. 

For  the  first  three  days  the  temperature  rose  to  102°  F., 
then  fell  to  normal  and  there  remained. 

As  a  result  of  the  operation  the  sac  was  so  reduced  in  size 
that  the  patient  could  walk,  stand,  or  sit  with  comfort. 

Sensations  of  a  sensual  nature,  which  troubled  the  patient 
greatly,  ceased  entirely. 

The  great  sensitiveness  of  the  parts  was  removed,  and'  the 
bladder  was  well  concealed. 

July  27th. — The  patient  was  dismissed  greatly  improved, 
both  mentally  and  physically,  aud  was  delighted  with  the  success 
of  the  operation  aud  with  the  surgeon  who  had  given  such 
relief. 


A  FUNNY  SYMPTOM,  SULPHUR  55M. 

M.  A.  A.  Wolff,  M.  D.,  Gainesville,  Tex. 

At  present  an  invalid  in  Pius  Hospital,  St.  Louis,  Mo.  I 
am  sixty-two  years  old.  On  May  19th,  Professor  Dr.  Parsons, 
renowned  for  his  skill  as  a  surgeon,  performed  lithotomy  (low) 
on  my  person.  After  about  five  weeks  the  wound  was  well 
healed  and  I  was  permitted  to  sit  up.  As  long  as  the  doctor 
visited  me  I  followed  strictly  his  orders,  only  occasionally  mak- 
ing an  extra  prescription  on  my  own  hook,  but  with  his 
approval. 

On  July  7th,  he  left  for  a  summer  vacation  and  appointed  a 
young  practitioner  his  amanuensis.  I  was  then,  and  am  yet 
under  the  impression  that  there  were  two  symptoms  he  espe- 
cially ordered  him  to  watch  for,  the  one  the  immense  dropsy  of 


408 


A  FUNNY  SYMPTOM,  SULPHUR  55M. 


[Sept., 


the  lower  limbs,  the  other  a  bulging  out  of  the  abdomen  on  the 
left  side  about  opposite  the  wound  of  incision,  and  a  hardness 
under  the  swelling,  in  my  opinion  as  of  a  scar,  but  said  to  be  a 
steatoma.  But  besides  these  two  there  were  plenty  other  symp- 
toms which  I  shall  enumerate  as  far  as  I  can  remember  them. 
Recto-vesical  fistula.  Diarrha?a  four  to  five  times  in  twenty- 
four  hours,  of  a  fearful  odor,  and  driven  partly  through  the 
urethra.  A  protrusion  from  anus  which  I  then  took  for  pro- 
lapsus recti,  but  which  the  young  doctor  declares  to  be  a  pile, 
giving  me  great  trouble  in  sitting  down  and  after  having  been 
sitting  comfortably  even  more  unpleasantness  when  getting  up. 
Incontinence  of  urine,  which,  however,  only  dribbles  away.  On 
and  off  a  clogging-up  sensation  in  urethra,  deep,  by  mucus. 
The  sediment  is  thick  and  stringy  and  even  often  comes  out  in 
stringy  pieces  from  the  urethra.  Abundance  of  snow-white  phos- 
phates, once  in  a  while  even  a  little  calculus,  which  has  not  been 
dissolved  in  the  bladder,  but  which  crumbles  to  flour  between 
the  fingers.  A  steady  unpleasant  coldness  of  scrotum.  Many  a 
time  frothy  discharge  from  urethra,  caused  by  gas  passing 
through  the  fistula.  Very  much  flatulency  ;  on  and  after  pass- 
ing of  blood  coagula  and  examining  the  sediment  find  it  blood- 
streaked.  Much  gurgling  in  abdomen  as  of  water.  Lastly,  the 
funny  symptom.  When  lying  down  always  on  back  to  sleep, 
I  might  just  doze  a  little  when  I  at  once  waken  up  make  flatus 
sounds  with  the  lips,  splatter  spittle  and  the  tongue  moves  with 
rapidity  in  all  directions. 

To  give  an  idea  of  its  effect  on  other  people,  I  shall  state  that 
one  evening  late,  when  I  was  under  its  influence,  two  of  the 
sisters  came  scared  to  my  room  to  find  out  what  was  the  matter, 
and  tell  me  that  it  disturbed  the  other  patients  on  the  floor.  I 
can  only  compare  it  with  the  St.  Vitus'  dance  of  the  oral  and 
lingual  muscles,  with  this  difference,  however,  that  the  sufferer 
from  St.  Vitus'  dance  cannot  control  himself  whilst  in  my  own 
case  opening  the  mouth  wide  and  inhaling  plenty  of  air  stops  the 
symptoms.  Now  the  young  doctor  visited  me  every  second  or 
third  day  and  prescribed,  I  understand,  for  the  most  prominent 
symptom,  one  time  ordering  me  to  take  the  medicine,  always 


1890.] 


A  FUNNY  SYMPTOM,  SULPHUK  55M. 


409 


drops  in  water,  every  hour,  next  time  every  two  hours  and  one 
every  three  hours.  I  kept  a  very  exact  sick  record,  which  I  gave 
him  to  read  every  time,  hoping  he  would  look  out  for  the  totality 
of  symptoms.  Thus  time  passed  on  with  no,  or  hardly  any 
change  until  July  18th,  when  Dr.  W.  L.  Reed  made  a  friendly 
call  and  kindly  brought  repertories  and  materia  medicas  to 
enable  me  to  study  my  case  up  myself.  However,  after  having 
talked  it  over  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  simillimum 
would  be  Sulphur,  and  he  dropped  a  few  pellets  on  my  tongue 
of  the  55  M.  From  that  moment  the  most  astonishing  change 
commenced.  The  urine  got  clear.  I  was  able  to  pass  it  in  a 
good  stream,  the  feces  natural,  and  thus  not  driven  into  the 
urethra,  the  dropsy  diminished  ;  the  fuuny  symptom  disappeared  ; 
so  that  my  only  distress  now  is  the  pile,  the  fistula  became 
improved  and  now  the  dropsy  looks  as  if  it  would  be  all  gone  in 
a  very  few  days.  From  the  18th  to  the  28th  no  other 
medicine  was  taken.  On  the  27th  some  fever  and  unpleasant- 
ness, which,  however,  was  better  after  a  hot  bath,  which  seemed 
to  open  the  urinary  track.  The  doctor  thought  we  might  be 
warranted  in  taking  another  dose.  This  time  the  CM 
was  given.  This  was  yesterday,  and  I  am  under  the  impression 
that  it  has  done  me  good.  My  study  of  the  case,  which  lasted 
me  three  days  (certainly  only  part  of  the  day  taken  up  for  that 
purpose),  gave  the  issue.  Of  about  one  hundred  and  twenty 
medicines  indicated  for  several  symptoms,  Sulphur  had  the 
largest,  viz.  :  twenty-one,  of  which  five  were  in  capitals,  two  in 
italics,  not  one  of  the  others  reaching  the  numbers  twenty-one  or 
five.  I  had  all  the  time  been  lying  on  the  back,  now  I  can  lie 
just  as  comfortable  on  either  side.  Thus  far  to  date,  should 
anything  remarkable  supervene  you  shall  receive  notice. 

P.  S. — I  forgot  to  mention  that  urine  at  times  comes  gushing 
from  anus,  and — and  that  is  important — that  the  bulging  toward 
left  groin  is  gone  and  to  my  feeling,  the  hardness  greatly  dimi- 
nished (since  I  took  the  Sulphur). 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  INTERNATIONAL  HAHNE- 
MANNIAN  ASSOCIATION. 

114  West  Sixteenth  Street, 
New  York,  July  22d,  1890. 

To  the  Editors  of  The  HoM07.opATiirc  Physician: — 
Referring  to  the  publication  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Inter- 
national Hahnemannian  Association,  every  member  ought  surely 
to  have  a  copy  just  as  soon  as  possible  to  get  them  into  print. 
They  would  also  conserve  the  highest  possible  use.  The  mem- 
bers cannot  have  the  Proceedings  too  soon  to  study  and  be  en- 
riched and  blessed  by  them.  Notwithstanding  the  earnest  and  in- 
defatigable way  in  which  the  sessions  of  the  Association  were 
cqnducted,  probably  less  than  half  of  the  papers  were  read. 
And  we  want  the  whole  of  this  rich  treasury  before  us  as  soon 
as  may  be.  And  to  insure  accuracy  we  ought  to  have  the  Pro- 
ceedings published  under  the  aegis  of  the  Society.  It  really 
seems  all  wrong  to  let  any  of  these  valuable  papers  pass  from 
the  possession  of  the  Society  until  they  are  published  intact,  with 
the  discussions  that  followed.  Those  of  the  members  who  were 
not  present  may  thus  obtain  some  faint  perception  of  the  rich 
aura  of  the  meeting  that  blessed  those  who  were  at  Watch  Hill. 

This  waiting  nearly  a  year  is  all  wrong.  I  only  obtained  a 
copy  of  last  year's  transactions  a  few  days  before  the  last  meet- 
ing, and  then  only  after  I  had  made  special  application  to  the 
Secretary. 

Pray  let  us  have  the  transactions  of  1890  as  soon  as  they  can 
be  published.  J.  W.  Thomson. 


THERAPEUTICS  OF  THROAT. 
E.  B.  Nash,  M.  D.,  Cortland,  N.  Y. 

In  June,  1887,  through  the  pages  of  The  Homoeopathic 
Physician,  I  proposed  a  work  on  therapeutics  of  the  throat, 
said  work  to  be  prepared  by  members  of  the  I.  H.  A. 

The  proposition  met  with  a  very  kindly  reception,  and  the 
410 


Sept.,  1890.] 


THERAPEUTICS  OF  THROAT. 


411 


work  is  slowly  but  surely  progressing.  The  chief  reason  of  the 
delay  is  that  a  few  competent  men  whom  we  are  very  anxious 
to  have  represented,  have  not  yet  performed  their  promised 
work. 

Of  course,  the  time  of  the  busy  practitioner  is  not  his  own 
always,  and,  consequently,  those  who  would,  have  not  been  able 
to  perform  for  want  of  time.    So  we  blame  no  one. 

Again,  some,  like  our  lamented  Lippe,  have  been  called  from 
their  labors  to  rest.  Others  still,  like  Drs.  Ballard  and  Carlton, 
have  been  disabled  by  sickness. 

I  thought  I  would  "  rush  "  into  print  once  more  and  let  the 
members  know  the  condition  of  the  work  at  the  present. 

The  following  remedies  have  been  worked  and  published  in 
Vols.  VII,  VIII  of  The  Homoeopathic  Physician  : 


J.  V.  Allen. 


Phytolacca,  E.  B.  Nash. 
Belladonna,  AY.  S.  Gee. 
J£sculus-hip., 
Ail  an  thus, 

Ignatia,  G.  H.  Claris. 
Cistus-can.,  E.  J.  Lee. 
Dioscorea,  j  j.  G  BelL 
Indium,  J 

Those  that  are  worked 
ing  appeared  in  print,  are 

Lachesis,  C.  C.  Smith. 

Merc-viv., 

Merc-sul., 

Merc-prot.,  J>  C.  H.  Allen. 
Merc-bin., 
Merc-cyan.,  J 
Causticum,  T.  D.  Stowe. 
Alumina,  M.  Preston. 
Conium,  Hoopes. 
Kreosote,  Alice  B.  Campbell 
Staph.,  L.  R.  Thurston. 
Bryon.,  W.  H.  Baker. 


Arnm-tri.,  AY.  J.  Guernsey. 
Baptisia,  G.  W.  Sherbino.  ■ 
Carb-aU.,  |EdCranch_ 
Carb-veg.,  J 

Baptisia,  G.  W.  Sherbino. 
Rhus-tox.,  C.  E.  Chase. 
Sepia,  B.  L.  B.  Baylies. 


and  in  my  possession,  not  yet  hav- 


Mag-carb.,  J.  B.  G.  Custis. 
Nat-mur.,  ^ 

Nat-ars.,     >  G.  \Y.  Sherbino. 
Nat-phos.,  J 
Petrol.,  J.  Schmidt. 
Sulph.,  J.  T.  Kent. 

Arg-met.,  )  Rushmore. 
Arg-nit.,  J 
Sabad.,  1 

Iod.,  V  C.  F.  Nichols. 

Ferr-phos.,  J 
Lycop.,  P.  P.  Wells. 


412 


THERAPEUTICS  OF  THROAT. 


[Sept., 


Pulsat.,  J.  A.  Biegler. 
Apis,  Wm.  Wesselhoeft. 
Nux-v.,  D.  C.  McLaren. 
Silicea,  J.  C.  Roberts. 
Acet-acid.,  J.  T.  Kent. 
Anac.,  Nathan  Cash. 


Gelsera.,  A.  McNeil. 
Baryta-c.,  G.  W.  Sherbino. 
Lac-can.,  E.  M.  Santee. 
Amraon-carb.,  Amraon-mur., 
Walter  M.  James. 


Here  are  fifty  remedies  already  worked. 
Those  nnworked  but  still  promised  arc  ■ 


Aconite,  E.  J.  Lee. 
*The  Arsenicums, 

E.  H.  Ballard. 
The  Calcareas,  the  Powells. 
The  Kalis,  C.  W.  Butler. 
Phos.,  Wm.  J.  Guernsey. 


Cantharis,  C.  C.  Smith. 
Capsicum,  E.  W.  Sawyer. 
Dulc,  A.  McNeil. 
Nit-acid.,  E.  P.  Hussey. 
Psorin,  W.  A.  Hawley. 


Su 


-acid.,  W.  H.  Leonard, 


Unless  some  one  will  volunteer  to  help  out  Dr.  Ballard,  I 
shall  try  to  do  the  Arsenicums  myself. 

I  hope  to  hear  very  soon  from  every  one  of  the  rest  of  the 
names  in  this  list,  and  please  let  us  know  if  the  I.  H.  A.  may 
yet  depend  on  you  for  your  part  of  this  work. 

There  are  a  few  other  remedies  that  ought  to  come  out,  viz.: 


Syphilinum, 

Guai., 

Mezer., 

Hydrophobinum, 


Hepar-sul., 

Spongia, 

Wyethia, 


Medorrhinum, 

Hydrastis, 

Mur-ac. 


Who  will  volunteer  to  arrange  these? 

When  these  remedies  all  worked  come  in,  it  is  my  purpose  to 
notify  each  member  to  cast  his  vote  as  to  how  and  where  all  the 
remedies  shall  be  published,  each  member  being  entitled  to  one 
vote  for  each  remedy  he  has  worked.  Now,  on  the  "home- 
stretch," let  every  man  push,  or  else  "  pull  out "  of  the  work 
and  give  some  one  else  his  place. 

My  own  idea  is  that  these  remedies  should  be  published  as  an 


*  Dr.  Ballard  notified  me  that  on  account  of  ill-health  he  would  be  unable  to 
finish  his  work,  much  as  he  would  like  to. 


1890.]     DR.  PRESTON'S  CASE  IN  THE  AUGUST  NUMBER.       41  a 


appendix  to  some  journal  and  then  the  Reportory  arranged  after- 
ward, but  this  is  for  the  members  of  the  I.  H.  A.  to  decide. 

The  remedies,  as  may  be  seen  by  the  published  ones  in  The 
Homceopathic  Physician,  are  not  all  worked  according  to 
the  plan  which  I  recommended  in  my  arrangement  of  Phyto- 
lacca. Indeed,  others  have  improved  upon  it,  but  I  would 
suggest  to  let  every  one's  work  go  in  as  he  prepared  and  signed 
his  name  to  it,  and  a  Repertory  can  be  arranged  from  it  in  that 
way  just  as  well. 

In  conclusion,  if  I  have  left  out  any  one,  or  any  remedies,  or 
have  made  any  omissions  or  mistakes  which  need  corrections, 
remember  corrections  or  suggestions  are  always  in  order. 


DR.  PRESTON'S  CASE  IN  THE  AUGUST  NUMBER. 

Editors  Homceopathic  Physician  : 

In  last  number  of  your  welcome  journal  an  excellent  report 
appeared  from  the  pen  of  our  skilful  friend  named  above,  clos- 
ing with  this  q.uestion  :  "  Have  I  a  right  justly  to  claim  that  a 
radical  cure  has  been  made  ?" 

After  reading  the  report  carefully  I  would  say,  No. 

From  his  description  I  infer  that  the  disease  was  of  the  chan- 
croid variety,  and  while  it  is  questioned  by  some  eminent  men 
whether  that  form  of  the  disease  will  produce  the  full  constitu- 
tional effect,  I  have  no  doubt  that  this  patient  ingrafted  into  his 
system  one  of  those  three  great  serious  miasms. 

The  subsequent  outbreaks  of  the  disease,  especially  the  last 
two,  surely  could  not  have  come  from  a  local  transfer  of  the 
virus,  hence  we  have  undoubted  evidence  that  there  was  a 
marked  constitutional  invasion,  nor  do  I  believe  the  Doctor  is 
warranted  in  saying  that  his  patient  is  radically  free  until  sev- 
eral years  have  elapsed,  at  least  three,  or  he  has  carried  him 
through  some  critical  illness  in  which  the  constitutional  miasms 
within  him  would  be  aroused,  and  no  manifestations  of  the  dis- 
ease appeared.  His  patient  may  be  free — I  hope  he  is — but  I 
do  not  think  professionally  that  it  is  warrantable  to  declare  it  a 
radical  cure  with  the  removal  of  the  miasm,  but  rather  that  it  is 


414     ANOTHER  CRITICISM  OF  DR.  PRESTON'S  CASE.  [Sept.,  1890. 


probable  that  the  miasm  has  been  quieted  by  the  removal  of  its 
manifestations.  Time  alone  will  answer  it  positively.  The  Doctor 
is  to  be  much  complimented  on  his  skilful  management  of  the 
case. 

Let  me  ask  the  Doctor  a  question  :  Do  you  think  you  ever 
wholly  removed  a  miasm?    If  so,  how  long  in  doing  it? 

  W.  S.  Gee. 

ANOTHER  CRITICISM  OF  DR.  PRESTON'S  CASE. 

Editors  Homoeopathic  Physician  : 

I  desire  to  criticise  the  diagnosis  of  the  case  reported  by  Dr. 
Mahlon  Preston,  as  a  case  of  syphilis,  in  the  August,  1890,  num- 
ber of  The  Homeopathic  Physician. 

I  think  it  will  be  evident  to  every  well-informed  man,  from 
the  Doctor's  own  description  of  his  case,  that  it  was  one  of 
simple  local  non-infective  venereal  sore  or  chancroid,  and  that 
there  is  no  evidence  of  anything  of  a  true  syphilitic  nature  about 
it. 

This  is  very  plain  from  two  prominent  facts  which  he  men- 
tions, if  from  nothing  else  about  the  case. 

First.  He  says,  "  My  earliest  knowledge  of  the  present  case 
dates  to  within  ten  days  of  first  exposure."  Now  we  know 
that  the  primary  lesion  of  syphilis  does  not  make  its  appearance 
till  the  third  to  fifth  week  after  exposure,  while  that  of  a  soft 
chancre  or  venereal  ulcer  may  appear  in  forty-eight  hours. 

Second.  He  says  there  were  "  three  large  and  deep  chancres. 
*  *  *  These  ulcers  were  eroding  rapidly  on  the  edges,"  etc. 
This  is  surely  not  the  picture  of  the  primary  lesion  of  syphilis 
which  we  know  to  be  a  single  indurated  chancre. 

From  the  above  I  think  it  is  but  fair  to  answer  his  query, 
"Have  I  a  right  justly  to  claim  that  a  radical  cure  has  been 
made,"  in  the  negative,  so  far  as  its  being  a  case  of  syphilis  which 
was  cured  is  concerned.  Respectfully, 

Clarence  N.  Payne. 

Bridgeport,  Ct.,  August  7th,  1890. 


BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 


Alfred  Heath,  M.  D.,  F.  L.  S.,  London,  England. 

Ranunculace^e  (Continued). 

Aconitum  Napellus  (Monkshood,  Wolfsbane). — In  England 
this  plant  is  rare  in  a  wild  state,  and  is  generally  believed  to  be 
introduced.  It  is  now  completely  naturalized  and  included  in 
works  on  English  botany ;  as  a  garden  plant,  it  is  one  of  the 
commonest,  and  its  tall,  showy  spikes  of  dark-blue  flowers,  sur- 
mounting the  dark,  deeply-cut  leaves,  are  worthy  of  a  place 
anywhere. 

This  famous  remedy,  appropriately  named  "  the  homoeopathic 
lancet,"  on  account  of  its  power  in  reducing  fever  without  tak- 
ing blood,  as  in  the  old  school  (thanks  to  Homoeopathy,  this 
pernicious  practice  is  seldom  heard  of  now),  has  probably  done 
more  in  saving,  life  than  any  other  drug,  as  tens  of  thousands 
can  testify :  it  stands,  par  excellence,  at  the  head  of  the  long  list 
of  drugs  introduced  to  the  world  through  the  genius  of  Hahne- 
mann. 

Its  active  principle,  Aconitine,  or  now  more  generally  called 
Aconitia,  is  one  of,  if  not  the  most  deathly  preparation  known 
to  man  ;  a  very  small  portion  of  it  causes  death,  and  there  is  no 
known  antidote.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  more  deathly  a  drug 
is  in  its  action  as  a  poison,  the  greater  are  its  virtues,  and  the 
more  powerful  is  it  in  the  saving  of  life,  when  given  according 
to  the  homoeopathic  "  law  of  cure."  Instance  such  invaluable 
medicines  as  Aconitum,  Arsenicum  f  Belladonna,  Conium,  Digi- 
talis, Nux-vomica,  Phosphorus,  Veratrum,  etc. 

Since  the  report  of  a  celebrated  case  of  poisoning  by  Acon- 
itia, a  large  number  of  people  have  been  very  much  afraid  of 
using  any  preparation  called  by  the  name  of  Aconite,  and  it 
should  be  explained  that,  in  Homoeopathy,  we  do  not  officially 
use  Aconitia  at  all,  being  far  too  dangerous  and  also  not  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  teaching  of  the  system  which  advocates  the 

415 


416  BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS.  [Sept., 


use  of  every  part  of  a  plant,  or  of  some  special  part,  and  not 
the  poisonous  or  active  part  principle  only,  unless  that  alone  has 
been  proved.  The  preparation  used  in  Homoeopathy  is  a  tinc- 
ture made  from  the  whole  plant,  or  from  the  root  only,  and  in 
either  case  contains  but  a  small  proportion  of  Aconitia.  This 
<p,  or  matrix  tincture,  is  seldom  given,  but  only  dilutions  made 
from  it,  of  various  strengths,  such  as  1  dec,  2  dec,  3  dec,  and 
so  on,  so  that  one  may  give  the  tenth,  one-hundredth,  or  one- 
thousandth  of  a  drop  or  less,  and,  strange  as  it  may  appear  to 
those  unacquainted  with  the  system,  the  smaller  dose  will  gen- 
erally act  better  than  the  larger  one,  as  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  the  medicine,  to  be  homoeopathic,  must  be  capable  of  produc- 
ing in  a  healthy  body  a  fac  simile  of  the  symptoms  produced  by 
the  disease.  Aconite,  in  small  doses,  is  a  most  potent  remedy 
against  the  dry  heat,  flushed  face,  and  restlessness  of  fever.  Any 
one,  with  a  few  drops  of  this  medicine,  can  prove  the  truth  of 
the  homoeopathic  law.  Let  him  or  her,  being  a  good  and  sound 
sleeper,  take,  on  going  to  bed,  a  drop  or  two  of  the  tincture  of 
Aconite.  The  result  will  be  a  more  or  less  sleepless  night, 
restless,  and  tossing  about,  heat,  etc  ;  on  the  other  hand,  let  them 
be  sleeping  badly  from  other  causes,  with  this  restlessness,  heat, 
and  tossing  about,  a  drop  or  two  of  the  same  tincture,  in  almost 
any  dilution,  will  remove  all  these  sensations,  and  the  person 
will  sleep  soundly  from  natural  causes,  the  thing  that  pre- 
vented healthy  sleep  having  been  removed  in  accordance  with 
the  homoeopathic  law  of  similars.  This  is  precisely  the  action 
of  every  medicine,  but  before  a  medicine  can  be  used  homceo- 
pathically,  its  symptoms  must  be  known.  It  must  be  proved 
on  the  healthy  to  know  its  symptoms  or  sphere  of  action. 

Aconite  has,  perhaps,  made  more  converts  to  Homoeopathy 
than  any  other  drug,  because  its  effect,  in  fever,  is  so  marked. 
A  case  came  under  my  care,  some  time  ago,  of  a  child  suffering 
from  congestion,  bordering  on  inflammation,  of  the  lung,  with 
incessant,  dry  cough,  great  restlessness,  flushed  face,  high  tempera- 
ture, skin  dry,  burning ;  it  had  had  no  sleep  for  a  day  and  a 
night,  and  could  not  be  laid  down  for  a  moment ;  one  dose  of 
Aconite  allayed  the  cough  and  fever,  and  within  five  minutes 


1890.] 


BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 


417 


the  child  was  lying  asleep  in  its  cot,  and  slept  for  some  hours 
during  the  night.  The  fever  was  subdued,  and  it  eventually 
made  a  good  recovery.  After  such  facts  as  these,  which  come 
under  the  notice  of  thousands,  is  it  a  wonder  that  Homoeopathy 
increases  ?  The  only  wonder  is  that  it  does  not  increase  faster. 
Hundreds  of  cases,  supposed  to  be  cured  by  the  allopathic  doc- 
tor, are,  in  reality,  cured  by  a  few  doses  of  homoeopathic  medi- 
cine, given  by  the  parents,  and  often  after  the  doctor  has  pro- 
nounced the  case  to  be  hopeless.  Very  little  notice  was  taken 
of  this  drug  as  a  medicine,  until  after  its  introduction  by 
Hahnemann,  and,  until  recently,  it  was  only  used  as  an  external 
remedy  in  various  kinds  of  neuralgic  and  rheumatic  pains. 
Many  cases  are  related  of  its  employment,  allopathically,  in 
chronic  rheumatism,  where  this  disease,  though  of  years'  dura- 
tion, and  having  withstood  the  use  of  other  powerful  medi- 
cines, such  as  Mercury,  Opium,  Antimony,  Conium,  etc.,  was,  in 
a  short  time,  cured  by  Aconite.  The  reason  of  this  is  plain. 
Aconite  on  the  healthy,  produces,  amongst  other  things,  "  pains 
as  from  a  bruise,  weakness  and  swelling  of  the  arms  and  shoul- 
ders, heaviness,  numbness  of  the  fingers,  paralytic  weakness  of 
the  arm  and  hand,  a  sensation  of  drawing  in  the  arms,  deadness 
of  hands,  hot  hands  and  cold  feet,  tingling  in  the  fingers,  similar 
pains  in  the  legs,  pains  which  force  one  to  cry  out  at  every  step, 
want  of  strength  and  of  stability  in  the  joints  of  the  hip  and  of 
the  knee,  stiffness  of  the  legs  on  moving,  pains  in  the  insteps, 
with  despair  and  fear  of  death,  numbness  of  the  legs,  heaviness 
of  the  feet,  pains,  as  if  bruised,  in  the  neck,  back,  and  loins,  and 
painful  stiffness  in  the  nape  of  the  neck.  It  also  produced  dry, 
burning  skin,  yellowish  color  of  the  skin,  spots  similar  to  flea- 
bites  on  the  hands  and  body  (it  is  one  of  the  first  remedies  in 
measles,  purpura,  etc.),  sleeplessness  from  anxiety,  with  constant 
agitation  and  tossing,  starting  in  sleep,  anxious  dreams,  night- 
mare, dreams  with  a  sort  of  clairvoyance  (this  last  symptom 
seems  peculiar  to  the  Ranunculaceae),  dry,  burning  heat,  with 
extreme  thirst,  sometimes  preceded  by  shiverings  and  tremb- 
lings ;  heat  ohierly  in  the  head  and  face,  with  redness  of  the 
cheeks,  shuddering  over  the  entire  body ;  shivering,  if  uncov- 
27 


418 


THE  PROVINGS  OF  NATRUM  MURIATK  CM. 


[Sept., 


ered  in  the  least,  while  the  heat  exists,  great  agitation  and  toss- 
ing of  the  body;  with  anguish,  inconsolable  irritability,  cries, 
tears,  groans,  complaints  and  reproaches,  fearful  anticipations  of 
approaching  death,  and  a  strong  disposition  to  be  angry,  to  be 
frightened,  and  to  quarrel,  the  least  noise,  even  music,  appears 
insupportable;  delirium,"  etc.  For  the  remainder  of  the  mental 
symptoms,  and  also  for  its  effects  on  other  parts  of  the  body, 
see  the  proving  in  Jahr's  Materia  Medica. 

Unfortunately  a  great  deal  of  the  Aconite  in  the  market  is 
not  the  true  Aconitum  Napellus,  from  which  the  proving  was 
made,  and  which  is  the  only  one  that  should  be  used.  There 
are  a  large  number  of  Aconites  found  wild  in  Europe,  with 
totally  different  medicinal  principles,  and  with  different-shaped 
and  colored  flowers,  and  flowering  at  different  times,  and  as 
most  of  the  Aconite  used  is  the  imported  root,  and  as  many  of 
the  roots  are  alike  in  general  appearance,  and  are  collected  by 
persons  totally  ignorant  of  botany  or  of  the  botanical  character 
of  Aconitum  Napellus,  we  have  no  guarantee  that  we  have  the 
true  variety.  Consequently,  unless  we  can  see  the  flower  and 
know  also  the  time  of  flowering  (the  A.  Napellus  flowers  about 
May  or  June),  the  only  way  to  obtain  the  genuine  variety  is  to 
grow  it. 


THE  PROVINGS  OF  NATRUM  MURIATICUM. 

A.  McNeil,  M.  D.,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

On  page  257,  vol.  X,  of  The  Homceopathic  Physician  are 
the  following  words,  written  by  me  :  "  Dr.  Watzke,  of  Vienna, 
undertook  to  prove  this  drug  (Natrum  muriaticum),  and,  in  spite 
of  his  pre-conceived  opinions,  was  compelled  to  acknowledge  that 
not  till  he  wrent  up  to  the  high  potencies  could  he  produce 
symptoms  in  the  healthy  of  any  value."  (I  quote  from 
memory). 

I  afterward  received  a  letter  from  Dr.  Richard  Hughes,  of 
Brighton,  England,  referring  me  to  an  article  of  his  in  the 
Hahnemannian  Monthly  for  December,  1889,  and  very  courte- 
ously intimating  that  my  statement  at  the  beginning  of  this 


1890.] 


HELP  WANTED  AND  RECEIVED. 


419 


article  conveyed  a  false  impression  which  his  paper  made  clear. 
I  am  always  willing  to  make  amends  when  I  have  done  any  one 
an  injustice.  And  in  order  that  all  may  see  whether  or  not  I 
erred,  I  place  Dr.  Watzke's  statement  on  the  question,  as  trans- 
lated by  Carrol  Dan  ham  in  vol.  II,  "  Transactions  of  the  New 
York  Homoeopathic  Society,"  and  which  is  also  quoted  by  Dr. 
Hughes  in  the  above-mentioned  article,  in  juxtaposition  with 
the  Doctor's  statement. 


Dr.  Watzke  says : 

*'I  am  alas!  I  say  alas!  for  I 
would  much  rather  have  upheld  the 
larger  doses,  which  accord  with  cur- 
rent views:  I  am  compelled  to  declare 
myself  for  the  higher  dilutions.  The 
physiological  experiments  made  with 
Natrum  muriaticum,  as  well  as  the 
great  majority  of  the  clinical  results 
obtained  therewith  speak  decidedly 
and  distinctly  for  those  preparations." 


Dr.  Hughes  says,  loc.  ciL,  page  772> 
of  the  Austrian  reproving  of  Natrum 
muriaticum :  "  No  pains  were  spared 
to  lest  the  drug  in  every  form  from 
the  30th  dilution  down  to  the  crude 
salt," 


Dr.  Hughes  says : 

"  The  general  account  to  be  given 
of  them  (the  Austrian  reprovings  of 
Nat-mur.j,  is  that  under  the  higher 
potencies  there  was  little  genuine  dis- 
turbance of  health  ;  that  the  activity 
of  the  drug  as  the  provers  went  lower 
showed  itself  greater  when  the  first 
triturations  and  small  doses  ' of  the 
crude  substance  were  being  taken. 
There  are  exceptions  of  course  to  this 
statement,  but  I  think  you  will  find 
that  they  are  exceptions,  and  that  what 
I  have  said  is  the  rule." 

Dr.  Hughes  says,  page  773  :  "  It 
may  be  a  question  what  he  (Watzke) 
means  by  the  '  higher '  dilutions. 
Nowadays  we  think  of  the  30th  and 
upwards  when  we  thus  speak,  but  it 
was  not  so  in  1848." 


HEIiP  WANTED  AND  RECEIVED. 

Editors  of  The  Homoeopathic  Physician  : — My  call  for 
help  in  the  June  number  of  your  journal,  page  286,  has  elicited 
very  many  gratifying  responses — indeed,  from  the  Pacific  to  the 
Atlantic,  from  England,  from  Germany  even,  help  in  time  of 
need  has  been  freely  tendered  in  the  suggestions  of  Dr.  Geo.  H. 
Clark,  of  Philadelphia  ;  Prof.  A.  McNeil,  of  San  Francisco,  and 
Dr.  E.  W.  Berridge,  of  London,  England.  I  gave  the  case,  on 
June  28th,  a  dose  of  Lac-can.50m  dry  on  tongue,  with  the 
pleasing  result  that,  in  twenty-four  hours,  the  child  became 


420 


A  CARBOLIC  ACID  PROVING. 


[Sept. 


more  lively  and  playful,  all  abnormal  sensations  have  disap- 
peared, and  this  day  (July  20th)  appears  well  in  every  re- 
spect. 

The  following  gentlemen  also  have  furnished  most  valuable 
advice :  Dr.  Alex.  Villers,  Dresden,  Germany ;  Dr.  J.  T. 
Martin,  Woodland,  California;  Dr.  E.  H.  Holbrook,  Balti- 
more, Md. ;  Dr.  H.  M.  Kearney,  De  Soto,  Mo. 

To  each  and  every  one  allow  me,  through  your  valuable 
pages,  to  tender  my  most  sincere  and  heartfelt  thanks. 

Fraternally, 

SUMMERLAND,  CAL.  EDWARD  T.  BaLCH,  M.  D. 


A  CARBOLIC  ACID  PROVING. 

Editors  of  The  Homoeopathic  Physician  : 

****** 

I  must  tell  you  an  experience  I  had  with  Carbolic  acid  about 
a  year  ago. 

About  half- past  ten  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  August  7th, 
1889,  I  was  washing  a  Carbolic-acid  bottle,  and,  through  an 
accident,  got  some  on  the  index  finger  of  my  left  hand,  over 
the  second  joint. 

I  went  to  the  hydrant,  turned  on  the  water,  and  washed  it  off, 
as  I  supposed.  In  a  minute  or  two  I  felt  my  finger  getting 
numb.  This  numbness  extended  up  the  arm  into  the  shoulder. 
Soon  afterward  my  left  leg  got  quite  numb,  so  that  I  had  some 
difficulty  in  walking.  My  arm  felt  as  if  deprived  of  all  power, 
and  I  had  to  move  it  with  the  right  hand.  This  numbness 
lasted  all  day  until  I  retired  at  eleven  o'clock  p.  M. 

I  slept  well  all  night,  and  felt  no  inconvenience  next  day. 
But  the  peculiar  thing  about  the  case  is  that  every  seven  days 
for  three  weeks  I  had  a  similar  attack  of  numbness,  commenc- 
ing at  the  same  time  of  day  and  lasting  all  day  until  I  retired 
at  night. 

I  have  not  tried  the  experiment  since  that  time. 

Believing  this  partial  proving  of  Carbolic  acid  may  be  useful 


1890.]  DE.  T.  F.  ALLEN  ON  HOMOEOPATHY.  421 

to  some  members  of  the  profession,  I  communicate  the  facts  to 
you. 

C.  M.  Selfridge,  M.  D. 
Port  Townsend,  State  of  Washington, 
July  28th,  1890. 


A  PROVING  OF  LACHESIS200. 
S.  Mills  Fowler,  M.  D.,  Gainesville,  Texas. 

"While  a  resident  of  St.  Augustine,  Florida,  in  188$,  I  was 
called,  November  24th,  at  about  half-past  ten  a.  M.,  to  see  Mrs. 
B.  She  was  suffering  from  a  left-sided  sore  throat,  for  which  I 
gave  her  Lachesis200,  one  dose,  dissolved  in  about  two  spoonfuls 
of  water,  followed  with  placebo  every  two  hours. 

I  was  called  again  about  half-past  eight  the  next  morning. 
The  sore  throat  had  all  disappeared,  but  she  had  been  suffering 
for  hours  "  with  terrible  pains  in  her  shin  bones." 

November  26th,  during  my  call,  Mrs.  B.  said  :  "  Doctor, 
didn't  that  medicine  you  gave  me  Saturday  have  something  to 
do  with  those  terrible  pains  in  my  legs?  I  never  had  anything 
like  it  before  in  my  life." 

Hering  gives  as  a  characteristic  of  Lachesis,  "  Much  pain  of 
an  aching  kind  in  the  shin  bones  only." 

I  have,  three  different  times  since  the  above  observation,  veri- 
fied this  symptom  clinically,  and  have  come  to  regard  it  as 
"the  red  string  "  for  Lachesis. 


DR.  T.  F.  ALLEN  ON  HOMCEOPATHY. 
E.  W.  Berridge,  M.  D.,  London,  England. 

In  the  May  number  of  The  Homoeopathic  Physician  Dr. 
T.  F.  Allen  publishes  his  protest  against  recent  criticisms,  in- 
sisting upon  the  accuracy  of  his  definition  of  a  homoeopath, 
claiming  that  he  has  always  practiced  and  taught  "  straight 
Homoeopathy,"  and  accusing  some  of  those  who  profess  to  be 


422 


DR.  T.  F.  ALLEN  ON  HOMOEOPATHY. 


[Sept, 


Hahnemannians  of  departure  from  the  faith.  Such  a  protest 
demands  the  most  serious  investigation. 

(1.)  Dr.  T.  F.  Allen  argues  that  a  Christian  is  one  who  pro- 
fesses himself  to  be  one,  publicly  unites  with  those  who  profess 
a  similar  faith,  and  does  the  best  he  can  to  live  the  life.  And 
that,  similarly,  a  homoeopath  is  one  who  believes  Homoeopathy 
to  be  the  best  way  of  curing  the  sick,  joins  a  homoeopathic  so- 
ciety, and  does  his  best  to  practice  Homoeopathy.  With  this 
definition  no  one  can  find  much  fault,  but  the  question  is,  do 
they  all  strive  to  u  live  the  life  "  f  If  a  professing  Christian  should 
get  drunk,  he  undoubtedly  commits  an  unchristian  act;  but  no 
one,  except  a  Pharisee,  would  deprive  him  of  church  member- 
ship on  that  account,  always  provided  that  he  was  truly  peni- 
tent, and  resolved  never  to  fall  from  grace  again. 

So  with  Homoeopathy.  No  man  can  do  more  than  his  best, 
but  does  he  always  do  his  best  f  Here  are  three  imaginary  cases 
of  renal  colic.  Dr.  A.  treats  one.  He  is  a  strict  Hahneman- 
nian,  and  possessed  of  the  knowledge  of  how  to  elicit  the  pa- 
tient's symptoms,  and  how  to  select  the  remedy  from  the  mate- 
ria medica.  He  prescribes  the  simillimum,  and  cures  his  patient 
homceopathically.  He  is  a  true  homoeopath,  and  a  successful 
one. 

Dr.  B.  is  also  a  Hahnemannian,  but  of  small  experience.  He 
honestly  endeavors  to  select  the  simillimum,  but  fails.  The  pa- 
tient is  in  acute  suffering,  and  his  knowledge  of  Homoe- 
opathy is  exhausted.  He  knows  that  by  an  opiate  or  an  anaes- 
thetic he  can  give  temporary  relief,  and,  perhaps,  concludes  that 
whatever  ill  effects  may  arise  they  will  be  less  than  the  ill  effects 
of  letting  the  patient  continue  to  suffer.  So  he  prescribes  an 
allopathic  or  antipathic  palliative.  Is  he  a  true  homoeopath? 
The  answer  to  this  question  depends  entirely  on  his  future  line 
of  practice.  If  he  admits  that  Homoeopathy  is  a  law  of  nature, 
and  therefore  infallible,  though  he  himself  is  not  infallible  in 
applying  it;  if  he  subsequently  studies  his  case  again  and  again, 
and  asks  the  help  of  those  of  longer  and  wider  experience,  that 
he  may  see  where  his  error  lay,  and  if  he  firmly  resolves  that 
he  will  endeavor  to  do  better  next  time,  then  he  is  a  true  homoe- 


1890.] 


DR.  T.  F.  ALLEN  ON  HOMCEOPATIIY. 


423 


opath,  who  has  stumbled  on  the  road,  but  recovered  his  footing. 
But  if  he  declares,  perhaps,  from  this  one  case,  that  there  are 
cases  where  Homoeopathy  is  of  no  avail,  and  where  allopathy 
must  be  resorted  to,  then  he  is  no  longer  a  homoeopath,  but 
a  traitor  and  a  renegade. 

Dr.  C.  also  treats  a  case  of  renal  colic,  but,  instead  of  en- 
deavoring to  select  the  simillimum,  he  at  once  gives  Morphia. 
This  man,  I  maintain,  is  not  a  homoeopath  ;  he  is  simply  a  base 
pretender.  And  no  membership  in  a  professed  homoeopathic 
society  can  make  him  a  homoeopath,  any  more  than  church 
membership  can  make  a  confirmed  drunkard  a  Christian. 

(2.)  Dr.  T.  F.  Allen  says  he  finds  "the  most  exclusive  prac- 
titioners of  our  art  reporting  cures  made  with  the  highest  poten- 
cies of  a  drug  which  has  never  been  proved,  whose  indications 
are  wholly  clinical."  This  he  calls  "  high  potency  allopathy." 
But  as  "  allopathy  "  means  the  prescribing  of  drugs  which  pro- 
duce symptoms  different  from  those  of  the  patient,  how  can  he 
demonstrate  that  the  cure  is  allopathic,  if  there  is  no  proving  of 
the  remedy?  And  will  he  seriously  declare  that  cures  by  high 
potencies  can  ever  be  allopathic?  It  is  easily  tested.  Let  him 
persuade  some  allopathic  friend  to  give  for  twelve  months  the 
same  medicines  which  he  would  usually  prescribe,  but  in  a  high 
potency  ;  we  shall  soon  see  the  result.  Again,  is  not  Dr.  T.  F. 
Allen  rather  "  previous  "  in  accusing  any  of  us  of  prescribing 
unproved  medicines?  The  Encyclopaedia  docs  not  contain  every- 
thing, as  I  myself,  as  well  as  others,  happen  to  have  fragmentary 
provings  of  medicines  which  are  as  yet  known  to  the  profession 
generally  by  their  clinical  effects  only.  All  these,  I  trust,  will 
be  published  in  due  time.  But,  after  all,  is  the  prescribing  upon 
clinical  symptoms  really  the  unpardonable  sin  ?  If  so,  then 
Hahnemann  himself  is  lost  beyond  redemption.  If  Dr.  T.  F. 
Allen  will  examine  any  of  Boenninghausen's  Repertories  he  will 
find  countless  symptoms,  not  to  be  found  as  yet  in  our  materia 
medica.  It  is  surely  not  unreasonable  to  conclude  that  a  large 
proportion  of  these  are  clinical.  And  yet  Hahnemann  said  he 
preferred  Boenninghausen's  Repertories  to  all  others. 

(3.)  Dr.  T.  F.  Allen  declares  that  "  it  is  absolutely  true  that 


424 


DR.  T.  F.  ALLEN  OX  HOMOEOPATHY. 


[Sept., 


every  physician  in  large  practice  is  obliged  to  use  other  than 
homoeopathic  methods  in  the  treatment  of  the  sick."  I  think 
some  of  the  veterans  of  the  I.  H.  A.  will  have  a  word  to  say  on 
this  subject.  In  the  meantime  I  can  reply  for  two  Hahneman- 
nians.  It  is  nearly  thirty  years  ago  that  1  became  acquainted 
with  my  true  friend  and  preceptor,  the  late  Dr.  David  Wilson, 
and  from  the  day  of  our  first  acquaintance  to  the  day  of  li ir 
death  we  maintained  a  firm  and  unbroken  friendship.  Our 
belief  in  Hahnemann  was  the  same,  as  was  also  our  method  of 
selecting  the  remedy  by  means  of  the  Materia  Medica  and 
Repertory,  and  he  used  to  tell  me  that  he  looked  upon  me  as  the 
one  who  would  take  his  place  after  he  had  left  this  world.  I, 
therefore,  can  speak  with  authority  on  his  mode  of  practice,  and 
I  assert  that  he  used  frequently  to  declare  that  he  had  never  once 
found  Hahnemann's  teaching  to  be  wrong,  and  hence  never  had 
occasion  to  diverge  from  it.  For  my  own  part,  I  declare  the 
same  thing.  On  another  point  also  I  must  dispute  Dr.  T.  F. 
Allen's  assertion.  He  says  that  these  departures  from  Homoe- 
opathy are  necessary,  "not  for  their  cure,  butsometimes  for  their 
palliation  when  they  cannot  be  cured,"  and  that  "  this  practice 
will  continue  until  our  Materia  Medicals  so  complete  that  every 
patient  will  be  cured."  Dr.  T.  F.  Allen's  argument  is  that  in 
incurable  cases  Homoeopathy  is  insufficient.  On  the  contrary, 
I  have  found  by  experience  that  Homoeopathy  relieves  these 
cases,  and  promotes  euthanasia,  far  better  than  allopathy.  I 
have  had  opportunities  of  comparing  the  two  methods,  and  I 
can,  therefore,  speak  with  confidence.  And,  further,  even  were 
our  Materia  Medica  complete,  there  would  still  be  some  cases 
which  would  prove  fatal  through  failure  of  the  vital  powers  in 
old  age,  or  deeply-rooted  disease  of  important  organs. 

(4.)  Dr.  T.  F.  Allen  declares  that  "  for  twenty-five  years  and 
more  I  have  faithfully  and  conscientiously  practiced  and  taught 
straight  Homoeopathy."  I  am  pleased  to  hear  it,  and  only  re- 
gret that  if  such  is  the  case  he  has  not  given  the  support  of  his 
name  to  the  I.  H.  A.  But  alas !  In  The  Homceopathic  Phy- 
sician, vol.  VII,  p.  398, 1  read  a  paper  from  him  containing  the 
following  words  :  "  He,  who,  in  these  days  will  not  wash  out 


1890.]        ERRORS  IN  DR.  ALLEN'S  ENCYCLOPAEDIA.  425 


with  distilled  water  and  one-five  thousandth  of  a  grain  of  Cor- 
rosive Mercury  a  fresh  case  of  gonorrhoea,  and  cure  his  erring 
brother  in  twenty-four  to  forty-eight  hours,  must  give  up  the 
treatment  of  such  diseases."  If  this  can  be  done,  physicians 
ought  to  be  able  to  make  a  fortune  out  of  the  magical  treatment 
of  this  disease,  and  the  fact  that  they  do  not  is  a  strong  proof 
that  the  charm  will  not  work.  For  my  own  part  I  never  give 
injections  for  gonorrhoea,  having  seen  too  much  harm  arise  from 
them,  and  I  never  treat  them  otherwise  than  homceopathically, 
and  I  have  always  been  successful.  But,  apart  from  the  question 
of  the  results  of  the  two  methods  of  treatment,  another  ques- 
tion arises,  which  I  hope  Dr.  T.  F.  Allen  will  answer.  What 
has  this  routine  treatment  of  fresh  gonorrhoea  to  do  with-"  straight 
Homoeopathy." 

ERRORS  IN  DR.  T.  F.  ALLEN'S  ENCYCLOPAEDIA 
AND  INDEX. 

E.  W.  Blrridge,  M.  D.,  London,  England. 

As  this  work  is  at  present  our  only  completed  (?)  Materia 
Medioa  and  Index,  physicians  ought  to  be  informed  of  some  of 
the  errors  therein. 

In  Iodine,  proving  14,  by  Dr.  C.  Mohr,  really  belongs  to 
Indium. 

In  Antim-tart.,  proving  1,  from  Hartlaub  and  Trinks,  is 
said  by  Dr.  Dudgeon  to  belong  to  Manganum,  but  I  have  not 
the  original  to  refer  to. 

In  the  Repertory  I  have  frequently  found  the  following  con- 
fused:  K-n.  (Kali-nitricum),  with  Kre.  (Kreosote)  ;  Alum 
(Alumina),  with  Alumn.  [Alumen) ;  Amm-c.  (Ammonium  Car- 
bonicum),  with  Ammonc.  (Ammoniacum),  Lastly,  in  vol.  V,  p. 
588,  we  find  a  proving  of  Linum  Cathartieum,  or  Purging 
Flax,  under  the  name  of  Linum  ;  and  in  vol.  X,  p.  574,  a 
proving  of  Linum  Usitatissimum  (Linseed),  under  the  same  name, 
Linum;  and  the  symptoms  of  the  two  are  all  jumbled  up 
together  in  the  Index. 

I  have  found  other  errors  in  these  works  which  I  have  sent 


426  SAN1CULA  SPEING  WATER.  [Sept., 

to  Dr.  Lee  to  use  in  the  compilation  of  his  Repertory — the  very 
best  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

OTHER  ERRATA. 

Lippe98  Repertory,  p.  220,  >  by  warmth  of  bed,  for  Am-c. 
read  Am-mur. ;  p.  170,  croup.  ?  transpose  after  and  before 
midnight ;  see  Kent  in  M.  A.,  p.  309. 

Homoeopathic  Physician,  vol.  IX,  p.  295,  line  8.  ?  for 
tumor  read  tremor. 

Allen's  Index  to  Encyclopaedia,  p.  1175,  burning  in  thumb,  for 
Arum  read  Arundo-m. 


SANICULA  SPRING  WATER. 

Editors  of  Tin:  Homoeopathic  Physician  : — Your  num- 
ber for  June  is  at  hand,  and  while  each  monthly  visit  is  looked 
forward  to  with  interest  and  satisfaction,!  must  say  the  remarks 
of  Dr.  H.  C.  Morrow  on  Sanicula  were  a  very  great  source  of 
satisfaction  to  me,  even  a  delight.  As  Dr.  S.  Lilenthal  said  in 
reference  to  the  case  of  constipation  cure  by  Sanicula,  as  reported 
by  Prof.  J.  T.  Kent  in  the  Medical  Advance  of  January,  1889, 
each  and  every  clinical  verification  is  so  much  proof  that  our 
work  is  so  far  well  done  and  that  all  our  suffering  has  not  been 
in  vain.  I  doubt  very  much  whether  any  remedy  has  been 
proven  to  the  extent  of  Sanicula,  nor  will  any  one  undertake  it 
again  after  what  has  been  placed  on  record.  In  this  case  the 
daily  use  of  the  water  extended  over  one  year,  which  accounts 
for  its  long  action,  and  though  some  five  years  since  the  proving 
was  made,  we  all  (that  is,  my  family)  still  suffer  from  the  effects, 
and  I  fear  never  will  fully  get  over  them,  as  most  all  the  symp- 
toms still  recur.  The  fact  that  Calc.  had  failed  to  help  Dr. 
Morrow,  and  that  Sanicula  did,  shows  how  much  deeper  is  its 
action.  We  all  know  how  characteristic  this  condition  is  of 
Calc,  and  yet  it  failed.  Will  Dr.  Berridge  have  the  kindness  to 
report  in  full  the  cured  case  in  The  Homoeopathic  Physician 
for  May  ?  It  is  in  this  way  alone  that  a  remedy  can  be  developed 
and  made  useful  after  proving.    I  gave  a  number  of  similar  cases 


1890.] 


ANTISEPTIC  DRESSING. 


427 


to  T.  H.  A.,  1889,  which  I  trust  may  help  to  bring  the  Sanicula 
into  the  prominence  it  deserves.  Should  Dr.  Lee  have  to  get  out 
a  supplement  to  his  Repertory,  I  hope  he  will  remember  Sanicula. 
Why  not  get  some  kind  of  a  binder  that  could  be  used  to  put  the 
installments  in  as  they  come  out?  All  would  buy  them,  I  am 
sure.  Yours, 

J.  G.  Gundlach,  M.  D. 
Spokane  Falls,  State  of  Washington. 

ANTISEPTIC  DRESSING. 
G.  M.  Pease,  M.  D.,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

Having  recently  witnessed  what  I  suppose  is  called  antisep- 
tic dressing  after  a  surgical  operation,  the  absurdity  of  it  as  a 
protective  against  the  incursions  of  the  deadly  (!)  microbe  forced 
itself  upon  me,  and  the  peculiar  trait  of  the  ostrich  which  thinks 
to  elude  its  pursuers  by  hiding  its  head  seems  on  a  par  with 
gauze  and  tissue  dressing. 

Let  us  suppose  an  abdominal  section  has  been  completed,  the 
tissues  nicely  stitched,  edges  accurately  coaptated.  Now,  a  few 
thicknesses  of  iodoform  gauze,  over  this  some  bichloride  gauze, 
over  this  a  sheet  of  gutta-percha  tissue,  then  some  other  absorb- 
ent and  more  gutta  percha,  or  perhaps  only  a  bandage  to  hold 
the  rest  in  place. 

Who  will  say  there  is  not  enough  in  the  way  to  prevent  even 
the  most  daring  and  energetic  microbe  from  effecting  an  entrance 
to  the  well-covered  wound.  Like  the  vulture  of  the  desert  the 
microbe  scents  the  distant  prey,  but  first  he  must  work  his  way 
through  the  bandage.  When  he  has  taken  sufficient  rest  from 
this  labor  he  leisurely  treads  the  labyrinth  of  absorbent  down 
to  the  gutta  percha.  Ah  !  here  is  a  tough  bit  for  him  to  get 
through.  He  is  tired,  but  still  hungry  for  the  coveted  wound. 
Perhaps  he  gets  through  the  gutta  percha,  but  alas,  only  to  find 
a  deadly  poison  in  the  mercurial  protective,  but  bravely  he  goes 
forward,  preferring  death  to  defeat,  until  he  meets  the  iodoform. 
Nearly  dead  he  meets  this  new  poison,  which  proves  too  much 
for  him,  and  he  quietly  gives  up  the  ghost  and  the  wound  is 


428 


ANTISEPTIC  DRESSING. 


[Sept., 


spared  the  presence  of  its  deadly  foe.  Great  and  wonderful  is 
this  discovery  for  the  protection  of  all  surgical  wounds  ! 

Now  we  have  supposed  the  microbe  to  have  attacked  this 
dressing  directly  from  the  front.  If  he  has  any  cunning  he  will 
not  act  in  that  way,  but  make  a  flank  movement  and  approach 
from  a  little  distance  following  the  skin  and  quietly  crawl  under 
the  bandage,  meeting  no  opposition  until  he  perceives  the  odor 
of  iodoform. 

But  as  iodoform  has  been  shown  to  possess  little  or  no  germi- 
cidal power  he  cares  nothing  for  its  being  over  his  head  and  he 
is  free  to  carry  out  his  mission  as  a  scavenger  of  unhealthy 
matter. 

Perhaps  it  has  been  thought  advisable  to  leave  a  drainage- 
tube  in  the  abdomen  ;  what  greater  inducement  could  be  offered 
than  this  open  highway  for  the  approach  of  his  germic  majesty 
not  only  to  the  external  wound  but  even  into  the  innermost  re- 
cesses of  the  abdominal  cavity. 

Human  nature  is  so  constituted  in  many  instances  as  to  re- 
quire a  great  deal  of  pomp  and  fuss  in  order  to  convey  one  little 
fact  to  the  brain,  and  in  this  case  the  little  lesson  is  cleanliness. 
It  does  not  require  a  massive  frame  about  a  gem  of  a  picture  to 
make  the  picture  appreciated  by  an  artist ;  he  only  regards  the 
picture  and  laughs  at  the  absurdity  of  its  framing. 

Nature  has  provided  an  excellent  seal  in  the  serum  of  the 
blood.  If  circumstances  are  such  that  this  serum  will  not 
be  properly  thrown  out,  and  it  is  necessary  to  protect  a  wound 
from  the  air,  why  not  imitate  nature's  sealing ;  and,  in 
what  way  can  it  be  better  done  than  by  applying  collodion.  The 
deadly  (!)  microbe  cannot,  at  least,  crawl  under  this.  Other  ad- 
vantages exist  besides  the  air-tight  sealing:  because  transparent 
it  allows  the  frequent  observation  of  what  is  going  on  under  it, 
without  the  labor  of  removal  and  replacing  of  a  pile  of  gauzes 
and  tissues ;  it  holds  the  skin  firmly  and  assists  the  sutures  in 
their  work  ;  in  contains  no  poisons  for  possible  absorbance  by 
the  system. 

One  word,  however,  in  favor  of  the  antiseptic  dressing.  It 
is  a  revolution  against  the  old-fashioned  wet  dressing,  and  in 


1890.] 


BOOK  NOTICES. 


429 


favor  of  dry  dressing,  and,  perhaps,  it  requires  all  the  chemicals 
and  gauzes  and  paraphernalia  to  impress  upon  the  average  sur- 
geon the  value  of  a  dry  dressing.  For  that  reason,  and  that 
only,  is  it  of  value. 

Observation  will  probably  show  that  all,  or  nearly  all,  of  those 
who  are  great  sticklers  for  antiseptics  in  surgery  are  wedded  to 
the  hypodermic  syringe,  and  use  it  upon  the  slightest  provoca- 
tion. If  a  scalpel  or  forceps  or  other  instrument  must  be  soaked 
in  antiseptic  fluids,  and  such  great  care  taken  against  the  frisky 
microbe,  why  are  they  so  careless  with  the  syringe? 

The  same  tube  does  duty  in  persons  with  all  sorts  of  diseases, 
and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  usually  that  tube  is  never  more  than 
carelessly  wiped  before  it  is  put  back  into  its  case. 

What  a  fine  hiding  place  for  sepsis  is  that  tube  and  its  sur- 
roundings. 

"  Consistency,  thou  art  a  jewel." 


BOOK  NOTICES. 

Recollections  of  General    Grant.     Bv  George  W. 
Childs.    Philadelphia  :  Collins  Printing  House.  1890. 

This  clever  little  16mo  volume  of  104  pages  is  from  the  pen  of  no  less  a 
person  than  the  foremost  citizen  of  Philadelphia,  and  one  of  its  most  distin- 
guished journalists. 

There  is  no  name  more  widely  known ;  none  held  in  more  affectionate  re- 
membrance by  his  numerous  beneficiaries  than  that  of  George  W.  Childs, 
editor  and  proprietor  of  The  Public  Ledger,  of  Philadelphia. 

He  had  a  long  and  intimate  acquaintance  with  General  Grant;  was  his 
counselor,  friend,  and  admirer.  Therefore,  with  his  own  splendid  character 
and  reputation  for  integrity,  every  word  that  he  may  utter  or  write  concern- 
ing the  dead  General  acquires  at  once  a  weighty  historical  value  for  its 
crystal-clear  truth. 

George  W.  Childs  is  himself  a  man  whose  lustrous  name  and  deeds  should 
be  so  enshrined,  that  their  brightness  may  illuminate  all  posterity.  This  will 
be  in  great  measure  accomplished  by  the  perpetuation  of  his  incomparable 
newspaper.  But  there  yet  remains  much  to  be  done  through  the  enthusiastic 
devotion  to  the  attainment  of  this  object  of  some  one  of  his  friends,  who  will 
strive  to  imitate  the  admirable  result  he  has  accomplished  for  his  friend 
General  Grant. 

In  the  eloquent  language  of  George  William  Curtis,  when  referring  to  Mr. 
Childs: 


430 


BOOK  NOTICES. 


[Sept., 


11  The  recollections  of  such  a  life  are  necessarily  full  of  interest.  They  are 
especially  pleasant,  because  they  do  not  associate  narrowness  and  hardness  and 
meanness  and  selfish  intrigue  with  success,  but,  on  the  contrary,  the  open  hand 
and  the  open  heart."  W.  M.  J. 

Diseases  of  the  Eye  and  Ear.  By  C.  H.  Vilas,  A.  M., 
M.  I).,  Professor  of  Diseases  of  the  Eye  and  Ear  in  the 
Hahnemann  Medical  College,  Chicago.  For  sale  by  Bcericke 
&  Tafel. 

This  work,  containing  m'ich  that  is  of  practical  value,  like  many  others 
coming  from  hands  which  claim  to  be  homu'opathic,  is  marred  by  antipathic 
recommendations  in  the  treatment  of  various  affections  of  the  eyes  and  ears. 
Thus,  at  p.  8,  we  find:  "The  treatment  of  eye  diseases  demands  the  use 
of  solutions  prepared  from  various  alkaloids.  First  among  such,  and  without 
which  the  treatment  of  eye  diseases  would  be  extremely  hazardous,  is  atropia 
sulphate,  commonly  called  atropine."  We  say,  unqualifiedly,  this  is  incorrect. 
The  simillimum  is  all  that  is  necessary  in  any  disease  of  the  eye — or  in  disease 
in  any  other  organ.  Disease  is  not  in  the  eye ;  it  is  in  the  system,  and  can 
only  be  overcome  by  proper  systematic  treatment.  This  is  mere  platitude,  or 
should  be,  for  it  has  sufficient  age  to  make  it  common.  The  idea  of  a  teacher 
in  a  college  bearing  the  name  of  Hahnemann  giving  expression  to  such  teach- 
ings— ideas  which  one  hundred  years  ago  might  have  gone  unquestioned.  But 
Hahnemann  has  lived  since  then  !  and  he  has  followers  who  are  ever  ready  to 
deny  such  teachings.  One  can  get  some  valuable  hints  from  Dr.  Vilas's  book  ; 
but  he  had  better  avoid  the  allopathic  treatment  advised.  G.  H.  C. 

Practical  Sanitary  and  Economic  Cooking,  adapted  to 
persons  of  moderate  and  small  means.  By  Mrs.  Mary 
Hinman  Abel.  The  Lomb  Prize  Essay.  Published  by  the 
American  Public  -Health  Association. 

This  work  deserves  to  be  known  and  recommended  by  all  physicians  to 
patients  who  are  so  situated  that  economy  in  cooking,  and  a  knowledge  of  how 
to  get  the  most  nutritive  value  from  food,  at  the  least  cost,  are  necessary.  The 
object  of  the  little  book  is  "  purely  an  effort  to  better  the  condition  of  the 
home,  and  to  make  happier  the  family  circle."  A  laudable  enterprise.  We 
have  always  claimed  that  a  large  amount  of  drunkenness  is  caused  by  the  fact 
that  the  laboring  poor,  through  ignorance,  do  not  get  the  full  nutritive  value 
of  the  food  they  use  ;  mostly  through  improper  preparation.  Hence,  weak- 
ness ;  then  a  desire  for  stimulants  ;  then  drunkenness;  finally  an  unhappy 
home.  Make  this  book  known  to  such,  and  it  will  do  a  work  that  all  the  tem- 
perance and  prohibition  societies  have  failed  to  accomplish.  G.  H.  0. 

Census  Bulletin  No.  7.  August  6th,  1890.  Robert  P. 
Porter,  Superintendent  of  Census. 

This  is  a  periodical  which  is  issued  monthly  by  the  Census  Bureau  in  order 
to  bring  before  the  public  at  as  early  a  date  as  possible  such  compilations  of 


1890.] 


BOOK  NOTICES. 


431 


the  results  of  the  census  as  have  been  completed  in  the  short  time  that  has 
elapsed  since  the  collecting  of  such  a  vast  mnss  of  data. 

The  issue  now  before  us  relates  to  the  indebtedness  of  States  in  1890  as  com- 
pared with  1880. 

From  these  returns  it  appears  "  that  in  the  decade  ending  1S90  State  indebt- 
edness has  decreased  in  round  numbers  about  $5S, 000,000V' 

Census  Bulletin  No.  S  has  also  been  received.  It  gives  the  statistics  of  the 
mining  of  slate.  W.  M.  J. 

How  to  Preserve  Health.  By  Louis  Barkan,  M.  D. 
Xew  York:  American  Xews  Co.  1890. 

This  is  a  handy  little  volume  intended  for  the  laity,  and  containing,  as  its 
name  implies,  numerous  precepts  for  the  care  of  the  health. 

The  precepts  are  arranged  under  suitable  headings  that  they  may  be  readily 
found.  Jt  is,  therefore,  a  useful  book  of  reference.  Thus  we  have  an  instruc- 
tive chapter  on  food.  Then  we  have  a  series  of  chapters  on  the  hygiene  of 
the  different  organs ;  hygiene  of  age  and  occupation,  and  hygiene  of  the 
dwelling.    These  constitute  the  first  part. 

•  The  second  part  contains  chapters  on  the  care  of  the  sick,  nursing,  the  fam- 
ily physician,  how  to  give  aid  in  emergencies,  contagious  and  miasmatic  dis- 
eases ;  diseases  of  nervous  system,  the  respiratory  tract,  the  digestive  tract,  etc. 
The  advice  seems  sound  and  simple  and  we  can  recommend  it  as  a  good  book 
for  every  household-.  W.  M.  J. 

The  Neuroses  of  the  Gexito-Urixary  System  in  the 
Male,  with  Sterility  and  Impotence.  By  Dr.  E.  Ultz- 
mann,  Professor  of  Genito-Urinary  Diseases  in  the  University 
of  Vienna.  Translated  by  Gardner  W.  Allen,  M.  D.,  Surgeon 
in  the  Genito-Urinary  Department  of  Boston  Dispensary. 
Philadelphia:  1231  Filbert  Street.  F.  A.  Davis,  publisher. 
1889. 

This  is  the  best  work  upon  this  subject  which  we  have  met  with  since  the 
celebrated  work  of  Acton.  It  gives  the  clearest  information  possible,  and  is 
most  excellent  for  the  physician  of  any  school  of  medicine.  Those  portions 
of  the  treatment  which  cannot  be  indorsed  by  the  consistent  homojopathist  can 
be  ignored,  whilst  the  instruction  in  diagnosis,  hygiene,  etc.,  should  be  care- 
fully studied. 

It  is  not  a  suitable  book  for  the  laity,  but  for  the  educated  practitioner  it 
must  prove  a  great  help. 

It  is  a  very  small  book,  and  can  be  slipped  into  the  coat  pocket,  and  so  is 
available  for  perusal  when  upon  a  journey,  waiting  for  a  train,  and  the  like. 

W.  M.  J. 

Practical  Electricity  in  Medicine  and  Surgery.  By 
G.  A.  Liebig,  Jr.,  Ph.  D.,  and  George  H.  Kobe,  M.  D. 


432 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 


[Sept.,  1890. 


Philadelphia:  1231  Filbert  Street.  F.  A.  Davis,  publisher. 
1890. 

This  is  the  latest  work  upon  electro-therapeutics.  It  is  divided  into  three 
parts:  Part  I,  a  systematic  description  of  electricity,  magnetism,  and  batteries. 
Part  II  is  devoted  to  electro-physiology,  electro-diagnosis,  and  electro-medical 
apparatus.  Part  III  gives  the  therapeutic  effects  of  electricity  and  methods 
of  application,  with  illustrations  of  curative  results,  especially  in  a  case  of 
elephantiasis  arabum. 

It  is,  of  course,  all  empirical,  but  very  instructive  and  stimulating  in  its 
tendency  upon  the  reader,  stimulating  him  to  the  desire  to  investigate  further 
and  make  discoveries  for  himself.  We  cannot  say  much  in  praise  of  the  de- 
scription given  of  practical  electrical  units — ohms,  volts,  etc. 

For  the  make-up  of  the  book  we  can  say  it  is  well  printed,  profusely  illus- 
trated, and  handsomely  bound.  W.  M.  J. 

The  Polytechnic.    Chicago,  111. :  S.  E.  comer  Madison  Street 
and  Fifth  Avenue.    Sample  copy,  ten  cents. 

This  is  the  name  of  a  new  magazine  to  be  published  in  Chicago,  the  initial 
number  of  which  will  be  issued  next  month.  Like  the  London  magazine  of 
that  name,  it  will  be  the  organ  of  a  polytechnic  institute,  which,  in  this  case, 
has  been  lately  started  in  Chicago,  and  will  be  modeled  after  the  famous 
London  institute  of  similar  name,  an  interesting  account  of  which  was  given 
in  the  Century  for  June.  The  first  number  will  be  largely  descriptive  of  the 
work  of  the  institute,  especially  its  trade  schools,  a  peculiar  feature  of  which 
is  that  students  may  earn  their  expenses  while  in  attendance,  and  can  learn 
almost  any  trade.  As  this  promises  to  solve  the  vexed  apprenticeship  ques- 
tion, all  master  associations  are  warm  supporters  of  the  movement.  An  article 
on  the  new  Evening  Medical  College,  of  Chicago,  is  also  included  in  this  num- 
ber. The  ladies  will  be  interested  in  the  description  of  the  cooking,  milli- 
nery, and  dressmaking  schools  of  the  Chicago  Polytechnic  Institute. 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 

Kemovals. — Dr.  James  W.  Ward  desires  to  announce  his  removal,  after 
July  20th,  to  924  Geary  Street,  between  Larkin  and  Polk.  Office  hours  :  10 
to  12  a.  m.,  7  to  7.30  p.  m.    Telephone  2123. 

Drs.  Bcericke  &  Dewey  have  removed  to  824  Sutter  Street,  San  Francisco^ 
five  doors  below  their  old  office.    Telephone  2207. 

Dr.  G.  E.  Gramm  has  removed  from  Philadelphia  to  Ardmore,  Montgomery 
County.  Pennsylvania. 

Dr.  Horace  P.  Holmes,  formerly  of  Sycamore,  Illinois,  has  associated  him- 
self with  Dr.  C.  M.  Dinsmoor  as  partner,  and  will  hereafter  practice  medicine 
at  Kooms  Nos.  30  and  31  Douglas  Block,  Omaha,  Nebraska. 


THE 


Homoeopathic  Physician, 

A  MONTHLY  JOURNAL  OF 

HOMEOPATHIC  MATERIA  MEDICA  AND  CLINICAL  MEDICINE. 


"  If  our  school  ever  gives  up  the  strict  inductive  method  of  Hahnemann,  we 
are  lost,  and  deserve  only  to  be  mentioned  as  a  caricature  in 
the  history  of  medicine."— constantine  hering. 


Vol.  X.  OCTOBER,  1890.  No.  lO. 


EDITORIALS. 

Heredity  of  Tuberculosis. — At  page  53  of  this  current 
volume,  in  connection  with  remarks  respecting  the  microbic 
origin  of  disease,  we  asked  this  question :  "How often  have  you 
seen  tuberculosis  where  there  was  no  history  of  heredity?" 

Dr.  August  Haupt,  of  Soden,  a  German  watering  place,  in  a 
pamphlet,  entitled  The  Importance  of  the  Heredity  of  Tubercu- 
losis in  Comparison  with  its  Propagation  by  Sputum,  gives  a 
reply  to  this  which  goes  to  prove  our  position. 

It  treatr  of  the  heredity  of  tuberculosis,  and  Dr.  Haupt 
claims  and  shows  that  the  inheritance  of  tuberculosis  from 
parents  or  ancestors  cannot  possibly  be  disputed,  and  that  the 
theory  of  absolute  contagion  is  not  well  founded. 

One  physician  had  not  seen  a  case  of  infection  after  fourteen 
years'  work  in  a  consumption  hospital. 

Professor  Leyden  is  quoted  thus :  "  Immediately  after  the 
discovery  of  the  tubercle  bacillus  there  was  a  tendency  to  attach 
much  more  importance  to  contagion  than  before,  but  further  ob- 
servation has  shown  that  it  does  not  play  so  very  great  a  part, 
and  that  the  majority  of  cases  are  due  to  heredity." 

Of  six  hundred  and  eighty  Italian  physicians  fifty-nine  de- 
28  433 


434 


EDITORIALS. 


[Oct., 


clared  for  contagion,  one  hundred  and  twenty- four  against  it,  and 
four  hundred  and  ninety-seven  mainly  for  heredity. 

In  England  seven  hundred  and  ninety-two  out  of  one  thousand 
and  seventy-eight  declared  against  contagion. 

Here  are  Dr.  Haupt's  statistics  :  Among  the  fifteen  hundred 
inhabitants  of  Soden  there  are  one  hundred  and  one  who  let 
lodgings.  In  most  of  the  houses  the  wives,  with  sisters  or 
daughters,  serve  and  tend  the  tuberculous  patients  who  come  for 
treatment.  In  many  houses  servant  girls  from  the  neighboring 
villages,  hired  for  the  summer,  help,  making  the  patients'  beds, 
cleaning  their  rooms,  beating  the  carpets,  removing  the  sputum. 
These  occupations,  it  will  be  seen,  are  closely  connected  with  the 
danger  of  infection.  In  winter  the  landlord's  family  occupy 
the  rooms  in  which  the  most  seriously  affected  cases  have  been. 
Between  1855  and  1888  forty-eight  of  the  two  hundred  and 
thirty-eight  members  of  such  families  died,  ten  of  them  of 
tuberculosis.  In  six  of  these  ten  cases  heredity  was  demon- 
strable, and  the  remaining  four  were  due  to  colds  and  external 
causes.  Of  the  four  hundred  and  fifteen  servant  girls  seventeen 
died,  five  of  them  of  tuberculosis,  also  demonstrably  due  to 
other  causes  than  infection.  The  same  proportion  prevails 
among  other  pe.'sons  in  close  contact  with  consumptive  patients, 
attendants,  washerwomen,  etc. 

We  would  like  to  ask,  what  now  becomes  of  the  bacillus 
origin  of  tuberculosis  ?  It  surely  needs  more  support  than  has 
thus  far  been  given  it. 

In  fifteen  years'  observation  we  have  not  seen  one  case  but 
what  showed  a  hereditary  origin. 

The  reaction  of  the  microbe  craze  has  begun.  The  advocates 
of  the  bacillus  and  the  coccus  are  now  beginning  to  hedge.  It 
will  not  be  long  before  the  whole  idea  will  be  forgotten,  and  it 
will  then  take  its  place  with  the  numerous  other  theories  of  so- 
called  scientific  medicine.  G.  H.  C. 


Surgery  the  Opprobrium  of  Medicine. — At  the  recent 
meeting  of  the  International  Hahnemannian  Association  at 
Watch  Hill,  Dr.  J.  B.  Bell,  of  Boston,  one  of  the  best  surgeons 


1890.] 


EDITORIALS. 


435 


our  country  has  produced,  said  :  "  Although  I  am  a  surgeon,  I 
say  that  surgery  is  the  opprobrium  of  medicine.  We  should 
be  able  to  cure  all  diseases,  even  those  now  called  surgical,  with  the 
indicated  homoeopathic  remedy  alone.  Surgery  should  be 
practiced  only  in  cases  of  injury.  The  time  will  come  when 
surgery  will  be  confined  to  this  field." 

Dr.  Bell's  words  find  confirmation  in  a  letter  of  a  leading 
physician  of  Brussels  to  a  Paris  journal.  The  writer  says  that 
the  recent  progress  of  surgery  has  been  overrated.  That  the 
operative  art  in  itself  has  not  made  sensible  progress.  That 
since  more  cleanliness  has  been  practiced  the  healing  of  wounds 
has  been  attended  with  greater  success  than  before.  The  author 
says  :  "  The  real  difficulty  and  the  supreme  talent  of  men  of  the 
art  (of  surgery)  consist  more  in  preserving  than  in  removing 
organs,  viscera,  and  tissues,  and  making  tumors  disappear  by 
approporiate  therapeutical  means  rather  than  violently  extirpat- 
ing them.  It  is  thus  that  a  number  of  so-called  cancers  of  the 
breast,  which  are  generally  removed  at  once  with  the  knife  or 
with  strong  caustic,  may  be  easily  cured  without  any  painful  or 
cutting  operation,  in  a  few  months.  The  statistics  of  operation 
carried  to  extremes  are  not  very  reassuring,  notwithstanding 
the  incontestable  progress  accomplished  in  the  hygiene  or  the 
salubrity  of  hospitals,  and  the  excellent  care  of  the  patients 
operated  on. 

"  Every  now  and  then  medical  journals  report  that  a  brilliant 
operation,  performed  with  all  the  antiseptic  arsenal  in  vogue, 
and  with  a  surgical  show  designed  to  throw  dust  in  the  eyes  of 
the  spectators,  has  been  immediately  followed  by  the  death  of 
the  patient." 

In  speaking  of  cancers  of  the  breast,  the  writer  says  :  "They 
would  become  very  rare  if  they  were  properly  treated  as  soon 
as  puffiness  or  engorgement  manifests  itself."  The  same  in  the 
case  of  goitre.  "  A  cutting  operation  is  far  from  being  without 
danger." 

At  the  present  day,  even  nearer  home,  we  occasionally  see  an 
account  in  the  newspapers  of  an  operation  of  a  serious  character 
having  been  successfully  performed,  but  the  one  who  gave  the 


436 


EDITORIALS. 


[Oct, 


item  to  the  reporter  fails  to  mention  that  the  patient  died  shortly 
after.  Recently  such  an  account  of  the  removal  of  a  tumor 
from  the  brain  appeared  in  some  Philadelphia  newspapers.  It 
is  so  well  described  in  a  portion  of  the  letter  quoted  above  that 
we  shall  let  the  writer  of  that  speak  :  "  That  grave  operations 
for  medical  cases  are  not  always  justifiable  may  be  seen  by  the 
following  observation  :  About  eighteen  months  ago  a  well- 
known  surgeon  practiced  the  removal  of  a  tumor  of  the  brain 
in  a  patient  who  had  suffered  from  attacks  of  unilateral  epilepsy 
for  seven  or  eight  years.  The  tumor  was  diagnosed  to  be  situ- 
ated in  the  convolution  of  Rolando.  The  spot  for  operation 
having  been  marked  out  the  surgeon  trephined,  removing  a 
circle  of  about  three  centimetres.  He  then  made  a  crucial  inci- 
sion into  the  dura  mater,  which  was  healthy,  and  cutting  through 
the  pia  mater  he  incised  the  brain  and  removed  the  tumor,  which 
was  about  the  size  of  a  small  apple.  During  the  night  preced- 
ing the  operation  there  had  been  thirty-seven  epileptic  attacks. 
On  the  night  following  it  there  were  only  five,  and  five  or  six 
days  afterward  there  were  none.  Coma  and  delirium,  with 
which  the  patient  was  affected,  disappeared  toward  the  tenth 
day,  the  complete  paralysis  of  the  two  limbs,  with  which  he  was 
also  affected,  disappeared  on  the  fifteenth  day,  the  limbs  gradu- 
ally recovered  their  movements,  and  at  the  end  of  a  month  the 
patient  completely  recovered  consciousness.  All  this  seems  very 
encouraging,  but  I  have  incidentally  learned  that  the  patient  is 
relapsing  into  the  same  condition  that  he  was  in  before  the 
operation." 

What  lessons  we  may  draw  from  this  and  similar  cases! 
Hahnemann  taught  the  dynamic  origin  of  disease,  and  expe- 
rience has  shown  that,  no  matter  what  the  manifestations  of 
disease,  the  only  safe  and  permanent  way  to  health  is  to  follow 
the  law  of  the  similars,  by  prescribing  the  remedy  demanded  by 
the  symptoms.  We  may  rid  a  patient  of  the  external  manifes- 
tations of  the  internal  affection  by  the  knife,  the  cautery  or 
topical  applications,  but  the  disease  is  still  at  work,  and  sooner 
or  later  it  will  show  in  a  form  even  worse  than  at  first,  and  it 
will  be  made  incurable  by  continuing  such  treatment. 

G.  H.  C. 


1890.] 


EDITORIALS. 


437 


The  Opprobrium  of  Old-school  Medicine  is  not  only- 
surgery .  The  results  of  the  treatment  of  every  disease  should 
be  a  reproach  to  all  who  adhere  to  that  lawless  drugging  method 
of  treating  the  sick. 

Wherever  Homoeopathy  is  tried  its  superior  success  is  shown. 
Thus,  during  the  epidemic  of  yellow  fever  in  Jacksonville. 
Florida,  in  the  winter  of  1888-89,  old-school  mortality  was 
greater  than  fifteen  per  cent.,  while  over  five  hundred  cases 
under  Homoeopathy  showed  a  mortality  of  less  than  three  per 
cent.  And  still  the  druggers  find  feeble  imitators  who  take  the 
name  of  homceopathist  !  G.  H.  C. 

Dr.  Frank  Kraft,  of  Sylvania,  Ohio,  editor  of  The  Amer- 
ican Homceopathist,  has  been  elected  Professor  of  Materia 
Medica  and  Lecturer  on  the  Organon  in  the  Cleveland  Hospital 
College. 

Dr.  Kraft  has  prepared  a  plan  of  accurate  instruction  in  the 
pure  principles  of  Homoeopathy.  Those  who  wish  to  know 
just  what  Homoeopathy  really  is,  have,  at  last,  an  opportunity 
to  hear  the  doctrine  expounded. 

At  the  recent  meeting  of  the  International  Hahnemannian 
Association,  Dr.  Wesselhceft  said  that  students  in  Harvard  and 
other  colleges  who  desired  to  learn  something  about  Homoeopathy 
frequently  applied  to  him  for  information  where  to  go  to  get 
this  knowledge.    He  was  at  a  loss  to  direct  them. 

Many  other  homoeopathic  physicians  have  been  similarly 
embarrassed. 

This  difficulty  will  now  be  removed  by  the  appointment  of 
Dr.  Kraft  to  the  professorship,  for  it  is  his  fixed  intention  to 
give  a  thorough  and  complete  exposition  of  the  law  of  cure  and 
of  the  Organon,  paragraph  by  paragraph. 

There  is  a  keener  demand  for  genuine  homoeopathic  teaching 
than  the  professors  of  the  colleges  will  believe.  For  want  of 
it,  they  stand  on  a  dead  level  of  mediocrity,  feebly  competing 
with  the  successful  colleges  of  the  other  school. 

By  cordially  upholding  Dr.  Kraft  in  his  determination  to 
teach  Hahnemannian  Homoeopathy,  the  Cleveland  College  will 


438 


MONO-PHARMACY. 


[Oct.,  1890. 


come  to  the  front  at  once  and  become  distinguished  ;  and  it  will 
find  itself  supported  by  that  small  band  of  Hahnemannians 
who  at  present  have  no  college  to  represent  them. 

The  Homoeopathic  Physician  will  be  happy  to  lend  its 
aid  in  support  of  the  new  policy.  W.  M.  J. 


MONO-PHARMACY. 
Dr.  Gailliard,  Brussels. 
(Translated  from  the  Spanish  by  E.  A.  P.) 

One  of  the  Hahnemannian  reforms  the  influence  of  which  has 
been  felt  in  all  medical  schools,  and  later  most  universally 
accepted  is  mono-pharmacy. 

It  is  a  principle  most  necessary  to  be  maintained  with  great  , 
integrity,  not  for  respect  which  is  due  to  our  master  nor  for 
tradition's  rake,  but  because  it  is   absolutely  rational,  being 
entirely  favorable  to  homoeopathic  therapeutics. 

Mono-pharmacy  means  not  the  administration  of  one  simple 
remedy  for  the  cure  of  a  disease,  but  the  successive  administra- 
tion of  remedies  always  simple,  prescribed  according  to  indica- 
tions as  they  are  presented. 

Administration  at  the  same  time  and  the  alternation  of  several 
remedies,  as  recommended  by  some  practitioners,  constitute  a  most 
irrational  proceeding  that  brings  us  again  to  the  quackery  which 
reigned  during  the  beginning  of  the  century. 

All  that  can  be  said  of  complex  medicines  is  that  they  repre- 
sent an  odious  attempt  to  return  to  poly-pharmacy  so  condemned 
by  Hahnemann. 

Niccolum  in  right-sided  sore  throats,  when  the  affected  side  is 
very  sensitive  to  touch,  externally. 

For  odontalgia  depending  upon  caries  of  teeth ;  pain  shoots 
from  teeth  to  ear.  Kreosote. 

During  dentition  child  is  fretful  and  irritable  and  sleepless, 
Chamomilla  failed,  Kreosote  cured. 


DURATION  OF  ACTION  AND  ANTIDOTES  OF  THE 
PRINCIPAL  REMEDIES. 


F.  H.  Lutze,  M.  D.,  Cheshire,  New  York. 

When  first  I  saw  in  Hahnemann's  Chronic  Diseases  that  a 
single  dose  of  the  homoeopathic  remedy  would  often  act  for 
from  six  hours  to  eight  weeks  and  even  three  months,  and  after- 
ward found  this  to  be  actually  so  from  personal  experience,  it 
occurred  to  me  that  it  would  perhaps  benefit  others  who  did  not 
have  access  to  that  work,  to  know  this  fact,  and  deter  them  from 
repeating  the  remedy  too  often,  as  I  rather  think  is  customary 
with  many  homoeopaths.  The  following  compilation  is  the 
result. 

I  am  aware  that  the  duration  of  the  action  of  a  remedy  is  by 
no  means  positively  always  the  same,  but  depending  somewhat 
upon  the  nature  of  the  disease,  whether  acute  or  chronic,  and 
also  upon  the  idiosyncrasy  of  the  patient,  yet  hope  that  the 
knowledge  that  Hepar-s-c,  for  example,  has  been  found  to  act  for 
eight  weeks  and  longer,  may  be  of  some  material  benefit  to  many 
a  young  homoeopath  as  well  as  his  patients.  For  it  is  a  positive 
fact  that  many  a  case  is  spoiled  by  repeating  the  remedy  too 
often  instead  of  allowing  one  dose  to  continue  its  beneficent 
curative  action  to  the  end.  Hahnemann's  Chronic  Diseases,  Dr. 
C.  von  Bcenninghausen's  works,  and  Hering's  condensed  Materia 
Medica  have  been  used  in  collecting  the  data  for  the  following 
list  of 

the  most  frequently  used  remedies  of  the  homoeo- 
pathic MATERIA  MEDICA,  THEIR  DURATION  OF 
ACTION,  ANTIDOTES,    AND  COMPLEMEN- 
TARY   AND    INIMICAL  REMEDIES. 

Those  remedies  which  are  taken  from  Hahnemann's  Chronic 
Diseases  and  in  the  older  works  are  called  "Antipsorics,"  in  this 
list  are  designated  by  heavy  black  letters.    Those  which  in  the 

439 


440   ACTION  AND  ANTIDOTES  OF  PRINCIPAL  REMEDIES.  [Oct., 


older  works  are  also  called  antipsorics,  but  which  are  doubtful, 
in  this  list  appear  in  italics. 
Acetic  acid. 

Antidotes  :  Lime-water,  Magnes.,  Calc-c,  Natrum-mur. 
Acetic  acid  antidotes :  All  anesthetic  vapors,  Aeon.,  Asar., 

Coffea,  Euphorb.,  Hepar,  Ignatia,  Op.,  Stram.,  Tabac, 

Alcohol. 

Complementary  :  China  in  hemorrhages. 
Inimical :  Borax,  Caust.,  Nux-v.,  Ranuncul-bulb.,  Sarsapar. 
Aconitum-nap.    Acts  six  to  forty-eight  hours. 
Antidotes:  Acetic  acid.,  Paris,  Vinum. 

Aeon,  antidotes :  Bell.,  Cham.,  Coff.,  Nux-v.,  Petrol.,  Sep., 
Sulph.,  Veratrum-alb. 

Complementary  to  :  Arn.,  Coff.,  Sulph.  (high). 
Agar-muso.    Acts  forty  days. 

Antidotes  :  Charcoal,  Coffee,  Wine,  Brandy,  Camphor,  Fat, 
or  Oil ;  Calc-c,  Puis.,  Rhus-tox. 
Agnus-castus.    Acts  eight  to  fourteen  days. 

Antidotes :  Camph.,  Natr-mur. 
Ailanthus-gland. 

Antidotes  :  Aloe,  Rhus-tox.,  Nux-v. 

Nervous  sensitive  persons  ;  bilious  temperament,  stout,  and 
robust. 
Aloe-soc. 

Antidotes :  Sulph.,  Mustard,  Camph.,  Nux-vom.,  Lycopod. 
Old  people,  phlegmatic  and  indolent  persons. 
Aloe  has  many  symptoms  like  Sulphur,  and  is  equally  import- 
ant in  chronic  diseases,  with  abdominal  plethora. 
Alumina.    Acts  over  forty  days. 

Antidotes:  Bry.,  Camph.,  Cham.,  Ipec. 
Alumina  antidotes  lead  poisoning. 
Complementary  :  Bryonia-alb. 

Constipation  of  infants ;  stools  green,  acidity  of  primaeviae; 
Puberty:  Chlorosis,  with  longing  for  indigestible  sub- 
stances. 

Dark   complexion,  excitable.     Mild  disposition.    Lack  of 
animal  heat ;  spare  habit.    Old  people,  hypochondriacal. 
Ambra  grisea.    Acts  for  three  to  five  weeks. 


1890.]  ACTION  AND  ANTIDOTES  OF  PKINCIPAL  REMEDIES.  441 


Antidotes  :  Camph.,  Coff.,  Nux-v.,  Puis.,  Staphis. 
Ambra  antidotes  :  Staphis.,  Nux-v. 
Ammon-carb.    Acts  over  thirty-six  days. 

Antidotes  :  Arnica,  Camph.,  Hepar,  vegetable  acids  and  fixed 

oils,  as  :  Olive,  Castor,  Linseed. 
Amm-c.  is  an  antidote  to :  Rhus  poisoning  and  stings  of 

insects. 
Inimical  to  Lachesis. 
Ammon-mur.    Acts  over  six  weeks. 

Antidotes  :  Camph.,  Coff.,  Nux-v. 
Anacardium  orient.    Acts  over  thirty  days. 

Antidotes :  Coff.,  Juglans ;   for  the  anger  and  violence  of 
mind  :  smelling  of  raw  coffee.    (Gastric  and  nervous  dis- 
orders during  pregnancy ;  nervous  and  hysterical  females.) 
Angustura.    Acts  three  to  four  weeks. 
Antimon-crud.    Acts  four  weeks. 

Antidotes  :  Calc-c,  Hepar-s-c,  Mercur, 
Anti-crud.  antidotes  :  Stings  of  insects. 
Complementar}' :  Squilla. 
Antimon-tart.    Acts  two  weeks. 

Antidotes  :  Asafoet.,  China,  Coccul.,  Ipec,  Laurocer.,  Opium, 

Puis.,  Sep. 
Anti-tart,  antidotes :  Sepia. 
Apis-mel. 

Antidotes  :  Natr-mur.,  Ipec,  Laches.,  Lact-ac.    Apis  high  ; 
Salt,  sweet  oil,  onions. 

Apis  antidotes  :  Cantharis,  China,  Digital. 

Complementary :  Natr-mur. 

Inimical :  Rhus-tox. 
Argent-met.    Acts  two  to  three  weeks. 

Antidotes :  Mercur.,  Puis. 
Argent-nitr. 

Antidotes:  Natr-mur.,  Ars.,  Milk,  Calc-c,  Puis.,  Sepia, 

Lycopod.,  Merc,  Silicea,  Rhus-tox.,  Phos.,  Sulph. 
Arg-nit.  antidotes :  Ammon-caust. 

Melancholy:   Congestions   to   head   and  chest,  epistaxis, 
climaxis,  flushes,  itching  skin. 


442  ACTION  AND  ANTIDOTES  OF  PRINCIPAL  REMEDIES.  [Oct., 


Arnica-raont.    Acts  two  to  six  days. 

Antidotes  :  Camph.,  Ipec,  Aeon.,  Ars.,  China,  Ignat. 

Arn-mont.  antidotes  :  Ammon-carb.,   China,   Cicnta,  Fer., 
Ignat.  Ipec.  Seneg. 
Arsenicum-alb.    Acts  over  thirty-six  days. 

Antidotes  to  large  doses :  Sesqnioxide  of  iron,  hydrated 
peroxide  of  iron,  precipitated  carbonate  of  iron,  juice  of 
sugar  cane  or  honey-water.  Lime-water  in  copious 
draughts,  emetics  of  sulphate  of  zinc.  Carbonate  of  potash 
and  magnesia  shaken  in  oil  ;  Infusion  of  astringent  sub- 
stances. 

Aniidotes  to  small  doses  :  Camphor,  Chin.,  Chin-sulph.,  Fer., 
Hepar,  Iod.,  Ipec,  Nux-v.,  Sambuc,  Tabac,  Veratr. 

Ars.  antidotes :  Carb-v.,  China,  Fer.,  Graph.,  Iod.,  Ipec, 
Lach.,  Merc,  Nux-v.,  Veratr.,  Lead  poisoning  and  evil 
effects  of  alcohol. 

Hydrogenoid    constitution    of    Grauvogl,    complaints  of 
drunkards. 
Arum-triph. 

Antidotes  :  Buttermilk  ;  Lactic  acid. 
Asafcetida,    Acts  four  to  six  weeks. 

Antidotes  :  Camph.,  Caust.,  China,  Puis.,  Merc,  Valerian. 

Phlegmatic  temperament ;  scrofulous,  bloated,  clumsy  children, 
Venous,  hemorrhoidal  constitution,  nervous  people ;  syphili- 
tics,  who  have  taken  much  Mercury. 
Asarum-europ.    Acts  eight  to  fourteen  days. 

Antidotes  :  Camph.,  Vinegar,  and  all  vegetable  acids.  Ner- 
vous temperament,  excitable  or  melancholic 
Aurum-met.    Acts  over  six  weeks. 

Antidotes :  Bell.,  Chin.,  Coccul.,  Coff.,  Cupr.,  Merc,  Puis., 
Spigel.,  Sol-nig. 

Aurum  antidotes  :  Merc,  Spigel. 

Girls  at  puberty ;  old  people,  weak  vision.  Sanguine  tempera- 
ment ;  scrofulous,  syphilitic,  and  mercurial  patients. 
Baryta-carb.    Acts  forty  to  fifty  days. 

Antidotes:  Ant-tart,  Bell.,  Camph.,  Dulc,  Zincum. 
Old  fat  people ;  scrofulous  children,  dwarfed  in  body  and 
mind  ;  general  emaciation. 


1890.]  ACTION  AND  ANTIDOTES  OF  PRINCIPAL  REMEDIES.  443 


Belladonna  acts  over  five  weeks. 

Antidotes  :  Coffea,  Hyos. ;  Camph.,  Hepar,  Opium,  Puis., 

Vinura.    Vinegar  increases  the  headache. 
Bell,  antidotes  :  Aeon.,  Cupr.,  Fer.,  Hyos.,  Mercur.,  Plumb.  ; 

Jaborandi  ? 
Complementary  :  Calc-carb. 

Bell,  suits  plethoric,  lymphatic  constitutions,  who  are  jovial 
and  entertaining  when  well,  but  irritable  and  violent  when 
sick.    Women,  children,  blue  eyes,  light  hair,  fine  com- 
plexion, delicate  skin. 
Benzoic  acid. 

It  antidotes  Copaiba. 

Rheumatic  or  gouty  diathesis ;  especially  in  syphilitic  or 
gonorrhceal  patients. 
Berberis-vulg. 

Antidotes  :  Camph. 

Berb.  antidotes :  Aeon. 
Bismuthum.    Acts  five  to  seven  weeks. 

Antidotes  :  Cal-c,  Caps.,  Nux-v. 
Borax.    Acts  seven  to  eight  weeks. 

Antidotes  :  Cham.,  CofF. 

Inimical  to  Borax  :  Acetum,  Vinum. 
Bovista.    Acts  for  fifty  days. 

Antidote :  Camphor. 

Coffee  disturbs  its  action. 

Palpitation  in  old  maids,  stammering  in  children. 
Bryonia-alba.    Acts  two  to  three  weeks. 

Antidotes  :  Aeon.,  Alum.,  Camph.,  Cham.,  Clemat.,  CofF., 

Ignat.,  Mur-ac,  Nux-v.,  Puis.,  Rhus-tox.,  Senega. 

Bry.  antidotes  :  Rhus-t.,  chlorine. 
Similar  :  Colocynth. 

Complaints :  from  warm  weather  following  cold  days  ;  ex- 
posure to  heat  of  fire. 
Cactus-grand. 

Antidotes  :  Aeon.,  Camph.,  China. 
Caladium.    Acts  six  to  eight  weeks. 

Antidotes  :  Camph.,  Caps.,  juice  of  sugar  cane. 


444  ACTION  AND  ANTIDOTES  OF  PRINCIPAL  REMEDIES.  [Oct., 


Calad.  antidotes  :  Mercur. 
Complementary:  Nitr-ac. 
■Calc-carb.    Acts  over  fifty  days. 

Antidotes:  Camph.,  Nitr-acid.,  Nitr-spr-dulc.,  Nux-vom., 
Sulph. 

Calc.  antidotes :  Acet-ac,  Bismuth.,  Chin.,  Chin-sulph., 
Nitr-ac. 

Complementary  to  Calc.  :  Bell. 

Leuco-phlegmatic  temperament;  fair,  plump  children,  with 
open  fontanelles  and  sutures,  excessive  obesity  of  young 
people. 

Camphora.    Acts  five  to  fifteen  minutes. 

Antidotes  :  Opium.  Nitr-spr-dulc,  Dulcamara. 

Camph.  antidotes:  Canth.,  Cupr.,  Squilla. 

Inimical :  after  Nitrura. 
Cannabis-sativa.    Acts  two  to  three  weeks. 

Antidote:  Camph.,  Lemon  juice. 
Cantharis  acts  three  weeks. 

Antidotes:  Aeon.,  Camph.,  Lauroceras.,  Puis.  Oil  increases 
the  pernicious  effects  of  Cantharis. 

Inimical  :  Coffea. 
Capsicum  acts  four  to  eight  days. 

Antidotes  :  Calad.,  Camph.,  China,  Cina.,  Sulph. 

Caps,  antidotes :  Calad.,  China,  Coff. 

Phlegmatic,  awkward,  easily  offended  ;  indolent,  melancholic, 

lack  of  reaction ;  dread  of  open  air,  lazy,  fat,  unclean ; 

light  hair,  blue  eyes. 
Carbo-an.  Acts  over  thirty-six  days. 

Antidotes  :  Ars.,  Camph.,  Nux-vom.,  Vin. 

Useful  in  elderly  people,  with  venous  plethora,  blue  cheeks 

and  lips  ;  "young  scrofulous  subjects, 
Carbo-veg.  Acts  over  thirty-six  days. 

Antidotes :  Ars.,  Camph.,  Coff.,  Lach.,  Nitr-spr-dulc. 
Carbo-v.  antidotes  :  effects  of  putrid  meat  or  fish,  rancid  fats  ; 

Chin.,  Lach.,  Mere. 
Low  vital  powers,  venous  system  predominant ;  old  people ; 

children  after  exhausting  diseases. 


1890.]  ACTION  AND  ANTIDOTES  OF  PRINCIPAL  REMEDIES.  445 


Complementary  to  Kali-c. 
Causticum.    Acts  over  fifty  days. 
Antidotes :  Asafcet.,  Coff.,  Coloc.,  Nux-v.,  Nitr-spr-dulc. 
Caust.  antidotes  :  Mercur.,  Sulph. 
Inimicals  :  Acids,  Coffea,  Phosphor. 

Persons  with  dark  hair,  rigid  fibre.  Children  with  delicate 
skin. 

Cepa ;  Antidotes  :  Arnica,  Chamom.,  Veratr. 

Cepa  is  complementary  to  :  Phos.,  Puis.,  Sarsap. 
Charaomilla.    Acts  for  several  days. 

Antidotes  :  Aeon.,  Alum.,  Borax,  Caraph.,  Coccul.,  Coff., 
Coloc,  Ignat.,  Nux-v.  especially.  Puis. 

Chamom.  antidotes  :  Coff.,  Opium. 

Complementary  to  Magnes. 

Children,  light-brown  hair,  nervous,  excitable  temperament. 
Adults  and  aged  persons  with  arthritic  or  rheumatic  dia- 
thesis. 

Chelidonium.     Acts  over  fourteen  days. 
Chel.  follows  Well  after  Ledum. 
Antidotes  :  Aeon.,  acids,  wine,  coffee,  Camph. 
Chel.  antidotes :  Bry. 

Spare  subjects,  disposed  to  abdominal  plethora,  cutaneous 

diseases,  catarrhs  or  neuralgia.  Blondes. 
China-off.    Acts  two  or  three  weeks. 

Antidotes  :  Aran-diad.,    Ars.,    Arn.,  Bell.,  Calc-c.,  Carbo- 

veg.,  Eupator-perf.,  Fer.,  Ipec,  Lach.,  Mercur.,  Natr-m.r 

Nux-v.,  Puis.,  Sep.,  Sulph.,  Veratr. 
China  antidotes  :  Ars.,  Ipec. 
Complementary  to  Ferrum. 
Inimical  to  Selen. 

Swarthy  persons;  debilitated,  broken  down  from  exhausting 
discharges. 

Women  after  menopause  ;  pleurisy,  dropsy. 
Cicuta-vir.    Acts  five  to  six  weeks. 
Antidotes  :  Arn.,  Opium  ;  tobacco  against  massive  doses. 
Cicuta  antidotes  :  Opium. 


446  ACTION  AND  ANTIDOTES  OF  PRINCIPAL  REMEDIES.  [Oct., 


Cimicifuga. 

Antidotes:  Aeon.,  Baptis.,  Cauloph.,  Gels.,  Puis. 

Climacteric  years;  nervousness  from  anxiety  and  over-exer- 
tion; rheumatic  persons,  etc. 
Cina.    Acts  two  to  three  weeks. 

Antidotes:  Camph.,  China,  Capsicum,  Ipec,  Piper-nigr. 

Cina  antidotes  :  Caps.,  China,  Merc. 
Clematis-erecta.    Acts  five  weeks. 

Antidotes :  Bryon.,  Camph. 

Torpid,  cachectic  conditions  ;  light  hair. 
Cocculus.    Acts  eight  to  fourteen  days. 

Antidotes:  Camph.,  Cham.,  Cupr.,  Ignat.,  Nux-v. 

Cocculus  antidotes:  Alcohol,  Cham.,  Cupr.,  Ignat.,  Merc, 
Nux-v. 

Inimical :  Coffea. 
CofFea.    Acts  one  to  two  day-. 

Antidotes :  Aeon.,  Cham.,  Ignat.,  Nux-v.,  Puis. 

Coff.  antidotes :  Cham.,  Coloc,  Nux-v.,  Psorin. 

Inimicals :  Canth.,  Caust.,  CoccuL,  Ignat. 
Colehicum- autum.    Acts  three  to  four  weeks. 

Antidotes  to  poisoning  :  Amm-caust.,  a  few  drops  in  sugar- 
water ;  Bell.,  Camph.,  CoccuL,  Nux-v.,  Puis. 

Gout  in  persons  of  vigorous  constitutions. 
Colocynthis.    Acts  thirty  to  forty  days. 

Antidotes  :  Camph..  Coff.,  Staph.,  Caust.,  Chamom.   To  large 
doses,  tepid  milk,  Camph.,  Opium. 

Coloc.  antidotes  :  Caustic.  r 
Conium-mac.    Acts  thirty  to  thirty-five  days. 

Antidotes  :  Coff.,  Nitr-ac,  Nitr-spr-dulc. 

Conium  antidotes:  Nitr-acid. 

Old  men ;  old  maids. 

Women  with  tight,  rigid  fibre,  and  easily  excited,  as  also  those 
of  opposite  temperament.    Light-haired  persons.  Children 
with  marasmus,  with  frequent  sour  evacuations  worse  at 
night,  better  during  the  day. 
Crocus-sat.    Acts  over  eight  days. 

Antidotes  :  Aeon.,  Bell.,  Opium. 
Croton-tig.    It  antidotes  Rhus  poisoning. 


1890.]  ACTION  AND  ANTIDOTES  OF  PRINCIPAL  REMEDIES.  447 


Cuprum-met.    Acts  two  to  three  weeks. 

Antidotes:  Sugar  or  white  of  egg  for  large  doses;  Hepar-s-c. 
or  potash  soap,  for  poisoning  from  food  containing  copper; 
the  aggravation  from  Cuprum  is  better  from  smelling  of 
Camphor  0. 

Dynamic  antidotes :  Bell.,  Chin.,  Conium,  Dulc,  Hepar, 

Ipec,  Merc,  Nux-v. 
Cupr.  antidotes:  Aur.,  Opium. 
Complementary  to  :  Calc.-carb. 
Cyclamen.    Acts  two  to  three  weeks. 

Antidotes:  Camph.,  Coff.,  Puis. 
Digitalis.    Acts  over  six  weeks. 

Antidotes  to  large  doses :  Sweet  milk  with  fcenum  grsecum 
(Trigonella  foenum  grsecum — *'  Fcenugreek  seed"),  vege- 
table acids,  vinegar,  infusion  of  galls,  Ether,  Camph. 
Antidotes  to  small  doses:  Nux-vom.,  Opium. 
China  increases  anxiety  produced  by  Digitalis. 
Drosera.    Acts  two  to  three  weeks. 
Antidote  :  Camph. 

Sulph.  and  Veratr.  are  the  most  appropriate  intercurrents  in 

whooping-cough. 
Complementary  :  Nux-vom. 
Dulcamara.    Acts  thirty  to  forty  days. 
Antidotes :  Camph.,  Cupr.,  Ipec,  Mercur. 
Dulcamar.  antidotes  :  Cupr.,  Mercur. 
Complementary  :  Baryta-carb. 
Incompatible :  Bell.,  Laches. 

Phlegmatic,  torpid,  scrofulous  persons,  who  are  restless  and 
irritable,  susceptible  to  changes  of  weather  and  taking  cold 
easily. 

Euphorbia-oflf.    Acts  seven  weeks. 

Antidote  :  Camph.  Succus-citri. 
Euphrasia.    Acts  three  to  four  weeks. 

Antidotes  :  Camph.,  Puis. 
Fcrrum-met.    Acts  four  to  six  weeks. 

Antidotes:  Ars.,  Chin.,  Hep.,  Ipec,  Puis.,  Veratr. 

Fer.  antidotes  (Cupr.,  Mercur.,  Prussic-ac.)  :  Ars.,  Iod.,  Chin. 


448  ACTION  AND  ANTIDOTES  OF  PRINCIPAL  REMEDIES.  [Oct., 


Complementary:  Alum.,  Chin. 

Persons  who,  though  weak  and  nervous,  have  a  very  red 
face.     Delicate,   chlorotic   women.     Sanguine,  choleric 
people. 
Gelsemium. 

Antidotes:  China,  Coff.,  Natr-mur. 
Glonoinum. 

Antidotes:  Aeon.,  Camph.,  Coff.,  Nux-v. 
Graphites.    Acts  forty  to  fifty  days. 

Antidotes  :  Aeon.,  Ars.,  Nux-v.,  Wine. 

Graphites  antidotes:  Ars.,  Iod.,  Rhus-tox. 

Complementary  :  Ars.,  Caust.,  Fer.,  Hepar. 
Guaiacum-off.    Acts  over  five  weeks. 

Antidote  :  Nux-vom. 

Guaiac.  antidotes :  Caust.,  abuse  of  Mercur.  in  rheumatism, 

gout,  contraction. 
Syphil ides',  old  women,  dark  hair  and  eyes. 
Hamamelis. 

Antidote  :  Puis. 

Complementary  to  Ferr.  (hemorrhages). 
Helleborus.    Acts  three  to  four  weeks. 
Antidotes  :  Camph.,  China. 

During    dentition    brain    symptoms,   weakly,  scrofulous 
children. 

Hepar-s-c.    Acts  over  eight  weeks. 

Antidotes  :  Acetic-acid,  Bell.,  Cham.,  Silicea. 

Hepar  antidotes :   Potass-iod.,  Iod.,  Mercurial  and  other 
metallic  preparations. 
Hydrastis. 

Antidote  :  Sulph. 

Hydrastis  antidotes  :  Mercur.,  Kali-chlor. 
Hyos-nig.    Acts  eight  to  fourteen  days. 

Antidotes  :  Acetic-ac,  Bell.,  Citri-ac,  China,  Stram. 
Hyos.  antidotes  :  Bell.,  Plumb.,  Stram.,  Ether. 
Sanguine  temperament ;  nervous,  irritable,  excitable,  hysteri- 
cal subjects ;  drunkards,  old  men,  children. 


1890.]  ACTION  AND  ANTIDOTES  OF  PRINCIPAL  REMEDIES.  449 


Hypericum. 

Antidotes  :  Arsen.,  Chamom.,  Sulph. 
Ignatia.    Acts  five  to  nine  days. 

Antidotes  :  Arnica,  Camph.,  Cham.,  Coccul.,  Coff,  Nux-v., 
Puis. 

Ignat.   antidotes :    Zinc,   Coif.,   Cham.,    Brandy,  Puis., 

Tobacco. 
Inimicals  :  Coff.,  Tabac. 

Suitable  to  nervous,  hysterical  females  of  mild,  but  easily 
excited  nature. 
Iodium.    Acts  over  six  weeks. 

Antidotes  :  Starch  or  wheat  flour,  beat  up  in  water  ;  Ant- 
tart.,  Ars.,  Bell.,  Camph.,  Chin.,  Chin-sulph.,  Coff, 
Hepar,  Opium,  Phos.,  Spong.,  Sulph. 

Iod.  antidotes  :  Argent-nit.,  Ars.,  Calc-c,  Merc. 

Complementary:  Lycopodium. 

Suitable  particularly  to  persons  with  dark  eyes  and  hair ; 
overgrown  boys  with  weak  chests ;  scrofulous  diathesis ; 
old  people. 

Ipecac.    Acts  twelve  to  twenty-four  hours. 

Antidotes:  Arn.,  Ars.,  Chin.,  Nux-v.,  Tabac. 

Ipec.  antidotes  :  Alum.,  Arn.,  Ars.,  Chin.,  vapors  of  copper, 
Dulcam.,  Ferr.,  Laurocer.,  Op.,  Tabac,  Tart-emet. 

Complementary  :  Cuprum. 
Kali-bichrom. 

Antidotes  :  Ars.,  Lach.,  Puis. 

Complementary  :  In  dysentery  ;  after  Canth.  has  removed 

the  scrapings,  Kali-bi.  will  often  complete  the  cure. 
Fat,  light-haired  persons,  fat,  chubby  children. 
Kali-carb.    Acts  over  six  weeks. 

Antidotes  :  Camph.,  Coff,  Nitr-spr-dulc 
Complementary  to  Carb-veg. 

Suitable  for  the  aged,  rather  obese  lax  fibre  ;  dark  hair. 
After  loss  of  fluids  or  vitality ;  especially  in  anaemic  persons. 
Kreosotura. 
Antidotes  :  Aeon.,  Xux-v.,  Ars.,  Chin.,  Ipec. 
Inimical  :  after  Carb-veg. 
29 


450  ACTION  AND  ANTIDOTES  OF  PRINCIPAL  REMEDIES.  [Oct., 


Young  people,  tall  for  their  age;  dark  complexion,  slight, 
lean.    Complexion  livid,  disposition  sad,  irritable;  often 
indicated  for  old  women. 
Lachesis.    Acts  four  to  five  weeks. 

Antidotes  :  Ars.,  Bell.,  Merc,  Nux-v.,  Phos-ac,  heat,  alcohol, 
salt. 

Complementary  :  Lycopodium. 

Useful  in  women  during  climacteric  period. 
Laurocerasus.    Acts  four  to  eight  days. 

Antidotes:  Camph.,  Coff,  Ipec,  Opium. 

Painlessness  with  the  ailments. 
Ledum- pdlustre.    Acts  three  to  four  weeks. 

Antidote  :  Camph. 

Led.  antidotes:  Chin.,  Alcohol,  bee  stings. 
Lycopodium-clav.    Acts  forty  to  fifty  days. 

Antidotes:  Aeon.,  Camph.,  Caust.,  Cham.,  CofF.,  Graph., 
Puis. 

Lycopod.  antidotes :  Chin.,  but  follows  well  after  Calc.  or 

Laches's. 
Complementary  to  Iodium. 

Often  useful  in  old  women,  persons  of  keen  intellect,  but 
feeble  muscular  development ;  lean  and  predisposed  to  lung 
and  hepatic  affections. 
Magnes-carb.    Acts  forty  to  fifty  days. 

Antidotes  :  Chamom.,  Rheum. 

Mag-c.  in  large  doses  antidotes  Acetic  acid. 

Complementary  to  Chamom. 

Nervous,  irritable  temperament;  children. 
Magnes-mur.    Acts  forty  to  fifty  days. 

Antidotes:  Camph.,  Chamom. 

"Women  :  especially  hysterical,  with  uterine  affections.  Chil- 
dren during  dentition. 
Manganum-acet.    Acts  over  forty  days. 

Antidote  :  Coffea. 
Marum-verum.    Acts  two  to  three  weeks. 

Antidote:  Camph. 
Menyanthes.    Acts  two  to  three  weeks. 

Antidote  :  Camph. 


1890.]  ACTION  AND  ANTIDOTES  OF  PRINCIPAL  REMEDIES.  451 


Mercurius.    Acts  two  to  three  weeks  (Antisyphilitic). 

Antidotes:  He}>ar,  Kali-hydr.,  Nitr-ac.,  Atirum,  Carb-veg., 
Mezer.,  Sulph.,  Iod.,  Guaiac,  Dulcam.,  Chin.,  Staphis., 
Ferr.,  Bell.,  Laches.,  Calc-c.,  Opium. 

Mercur.  and  Silicea  do  not  follow  each  other  well. 
Mercur-cor. 

Antidote :  Silicea. 
Mezereum.    Acts  forty-five  to  fifty  days. 

Antidotes :  Calc-c,  Nux-v.,  Mercur.,  Camph. 

Mezer.  antidotes  :  Mercur.,  Nitr-ac.,  Phosph. 

Phlegmatic  temperament. 
Moschus.    Acts  one  day. 

Antidote  :  Camph. 
Muriatic  acid.    Acts  over  five  weeks. 

Antidotes  to  large  doses  :  Carbonate  of  Soda,  Potassa,  Lime 
or  Magnesia  ;  small  doses  :  Camph.,  Bry. 

Mur-acid  antidotes :  Opium  and  cures  muscular  weakness 
from  excessive  use  of  Opium. 
Natrum..  Acts  thirty  to  forty  days. 

Antidote  :  Camph. 
Natrum -carb. 

Antidotes  :  Camph.,  Nitr-spr-dulc. 

Natr-carb.  antidotes  :  China. 
Natrum-mur.    Acts  forty  to  fifty  days. 

Antidotes:  Nitr-spr-dulc,  Phos.,  Arsen., 

Natr-mur.  antidotes  :  Argent-nitr.,  Chin-sulph.,  bee  stings. 

Complementary  :  Apis. 
Nitrum.    Acts  over  six  weeks. 

Antidote:  Nitr-spr-dulc. 

Camph.  increases  the  pains. 
Nitric  acid.  Acts  for  over  forty  days. 

Antidotes  :  Calc-c,  Camph.,  Hep.,  Merc,  Mez.,  Sulph.  ;  Al- 
kalies, Soap,  Magnesia. 

Nitr-acid  antidotes  :  Calc-c,  Digit.,  Merc. 

Complementary  ;  Calad. 

Inimical  :  Lachesis. 

Nitr-ac.  is  especially  active  after  Kali. 


452  ACTION  AND  ANTIDOTES  OF  PRINCIPAL  REMEDIES.  [Oct., 


Nux-mosch.    Acts  six  to  eight  days. 

Antidotes  :  Semen-capi,  Gels.,  Lauroc.,  Nux-v. 

Nux-mosch.  antidotes  :  Ars.,  Rhodo.,  Lauroc,  inhalations  of 

Mercury,  lead  colic. 
Suits  mostly  women  and  children  and  the  aged. 
Nux-vom.    Acts  ten  to  twelve  days. 

Antidotes :  Aeon.,  Camph.,  Cham.,  Coccul.,  Coff.,  Puis., 
Wine,  Alcohol. 

Nux-vom.  is  an  antidote  to:  abuse  of  aromatics,  drastics,  hot 
medicines,  narcotics,  bad  effects  of  coffee  and  alcoholic 
drinks. 

Complementary:  Sulph. 

Inimical  :  Zinc. 

Suitable  for  thin,  irritable,  choleric  persons  with  dark  hair, 
who  make  great  mental  exertions  or  lead  a  sedentary  life. 
Debauchers,  who  are  irritable  and  thin. 
Oleander.    Acts  three  to  four  weeks. 

Antidote :  Camph. 
Opium.   Acts  only  a  few  hours. 

Antidotes:  Strong  Coffee,  Bell.,  Ipec,  Nux-v.,  Vinum, 
Vanil-arom. 

Opium  antidotes:  Bell.,  Digit.,  Lach.,  Merc, Nux-v.,  Strych- 
nia, Plumb.,  Stram.,  Tart-emet. 

Especially  suitable  for  children  and  old  persons.  Frequently 
suited  to  persons  addicted  to  liquors. 
Paris  quadrifol.    Acts  two  to  four  days. 

Antidote :  Camph.,  Coff. 
Petroleum.    Acts  forty  to  fifty  days. 

Antidote  :  Nux-vom. 

Petrol,  antidotes  :  Lead  poisoning. 
Phosphorus.    Acts  over  forty  days. 

Antidotes  :  Nux-v.,  Coff.,  Tereb.,  Camph.,  Vinum. 
•  Phos.  antidotes  :  Tereb.,  Rhus-ven. 

Complementary  :  Cepa,  Ars. 

Inimical :  Causticum. 

Tall,  slender  (slim)  women,  disposed  to  stoop.  Nervous, 
weak  ;  grow  too  rapidly. 


1890.]  ACTION  AND  ANTIDOTES  OF  PRINCIPAL  REMEDIES.  453 


Phosphoric  acid.    Acts  over  forty  days. 
Antidotes  :  Camph.,  Coff. 

Bad  effects  from  growing  too  rapidly,  as  if  beaten  in  back 
and  limbs. 
Phytolacca  decandra. 

Antidotes:  milk  and  salt;  Ignat.,  Sulph.,  Opium. 
Platina.    Acts  five  to  six  weeks. 

Antidotes :  Puis.,  Nitr-spr-dulc. 

Platina  antidotes  bad  effects  of  lead. 

Especially  suited  to  women  with  dark  hair,  rigid  fibre. 
Plumb.    Acts  three  to  four  weeks. 

Antidotes :  Alumen,  Alum.,  Opium,  Petrol.,  Nux-vom., 
Platina,  Anti-crud.,  Coccul.,  Zinc. 

[Alcohol  may  be  used  as  a  preventive.] 
Podophyl-pelt. 

Antidotes:  Lactic-ac,  Nux-vom. 

Complementary  :  Salt. 

Bilious  temperament,  especially  after  mercurialization. 
Psorinum. 

Antidote:  Coff. 

Scrofulous  ;  nervous,  restless,  easily  startled. 

Psoric  constitutions  ;  especially  when  other  remedies  fail  to 
permanently  improve. 

Lack  of  reaction  after  severe  diseases. 

Pale,  sickly,  delicate  children. 
Pulsatilla,.    Acts  eight  to  fourteen  days. 

Antidotes  :  Chamom.,  Coff.,  Ignat.,  Nux-vom. 

Puis,  antidotes :  Chin.,  Ferr.,  Sulph.,  Sulph-ac.  Vapor  of 
Mercury  or  Copper,  Coff.,  Cham.,  Bell.,  Colch.,  Lycop. , 
Platin.,  Stram.,  Sabad.,  Ant-tart. 

Complementary  to  Puis.  :  Lycop.,  Sulph-ac. 

Sandy  hair,  blue  eyes,  pale  face,  inclined  to  grief  and  sub- 
missiveness;  easily  moved  to  tears  or  laughter.    Often  in- 
dicated with  women  and  children. 
Ranunculus-bulb.    Acts  four  to  six  weeks. 

Antidotes:  Bry.,  Camph.,  Puis.,  Rhus. 

Inimicals :  Alcohol,  Nitr-spr-dulc,  Staph.,  Sulph.,  Vinegar, 
Wine. 


454  ACTION  AND  ANTIDOTES  OF  PRINCIPAL  REMEDIES.  [Oct., 


Ranunculus- seel.    Acts  five  to  six  weeks. 

Antidote :  Camph. 
Rheum.    Acts  two  to  three  clays. 

Antidotes:  Camph.,  Cham.,  Coloc.,  Merc,  Nux-v.,  Puis. 

Complementary  :  Magnes-carb. 
Rhododendron.    Acts  five  to  six  weeks. 

Antidotes  :  Bry.,  Clemat.,  Rhus,  Camph. 
Rhus-tox.    Acts  three  to  six  weeks. 

Antidotes  :  Bell.,  Bry.,  Camph.,  Coff.,  Crot-tig..  Sulph. 

Rhus  antidotes  :  Bry.,  Ranunc,  Rhododendron,  Tart-emet. 

Complementary  :  Bry. 

Inimical  :  Apis. 
Ruta-graveolens.    Acts  eight  to  fourteen  days. 

Antidote :  Camph.  ? 

Ruta  antidotes  :  Mercur. 
Sabadilla.    Acts  three  to  four  weeks. 

Antidotes:  Camph.  (?),  Puis. 

Children  ;  old  people.    Light  hair  ;  muscles  lax. 
Sabina.    Acts  three  to  four  weeks. 

Antidote ;  Puis. 

Chronic  ailments  of  women  ;  arthritic  pains,  tendency  to  mis- 
carriage. 

Sambucus.    Acts  three  to  four  hours. 
Antidotes  :  Ars.,  Camph. 
Samb.  antidotes :  Ars. 

Scrofulous  children ;  people  formerly  fat  and  robust  become 
emaciated. 

After  violent  emotions,  grief,  anxiety,  or  excess  in  sexual 
indulgence. 
San  gu  in  aria-can. 

It  antidotes  Rhus-radicans. 
Sarsaparilla.    Acts  over  five  weeks. 

Antidotes:  Bell.,  Merc. 

Vinegar  appears  at  first  to  increase  the  effects  of  Sarsap. 
Secale-cor.    Acts  two  to  three  weeks. 
Antidotes  ;  Camph.  (Solan-nig.). 
Similar  to  Ars.  but  heat  and  <x>ld  act  oppositely. 
Irritable,  plethoric  subjects.    Women  of  very  lax  muscular 


1890.]  ACTION  AND  ANTIDOTES  OF  PKINCIPAL  REMEDIES.  455 


fibre  ;  feeble,  cachectic,  thin,  scrawny.    Old,  decrepit  per- 
sons.   Nervous  temperament. 
Selenium.    Acts  five  to  six  weeks. 
Antidotes  :  Ignat.,  Puis, 
Incompatible:  Chin.,  Wine. 
Senega.    Acts  over  four  weeks. 

Antidotes :  Arnic,  Bell.,  Bry.,  Camph. 
Sepia.    Acts  forty  to  fifty  days. 

Antidotes :  Vegetable  acids,  inhalations  of  Nitr-spir-dulc.  is 
the  most  powerful  antidote  ;  Auti-crud.,  Anti-tart.,  Aeon. 
Sepia  antidotes  :  Calc-c,  Chin.,  Merc,  Phos.,  Sarsap.,  Sulph. 
Incompatible :  Lachesis. 

Especially  suited  to  persons  with  dark  hair,  for  women  and  par- 
ticularly during  pregnancy,  in  child-bed  and  while  nursing. 
Silicea.    Acts  forty  to  fifty  days. 

Antidotes  :  Fluor-acid.,  Hep.,  Calc-s-c,  Camph. 

Silicea  antidotes  :  Sulph.,  Mercur.,  but  does  not  follow  the 

potentized  Merc.  well. 
Complementary  :  Thuja. 

Especially  suitable  for  children  with  large  heads,  open  sutures; 

much  sweat  about  the  head  ;  large  abdomen. 
Nervous   irritable   persons,   with  dry  skin,  profuse  saliva, 

diarrhoea,  night-sweats. 
Weakly  persons,  fine  skin,  pale  face,  light  complexion ;  lax 

muscles. 
Scrofulous  diathesis. 

Rachitic,  ansemic  conditions  :  caries,  over-sensitive,  imperfectly 
nourished  from  imperfect  assimilation. 

Stone-cutters;  chest  affections,  and  total  loss  of  strength. 
Spigelia.    Acts  three  to  four  weeks. 

Antidotes:  Aur.,  Coccul.,  Puis.,  Camph. 
Spongia.    Acts  three  to  four  weeks. 

Antidote  :  Camph. 
Squilla.    Acts  two  to  three  weeks. 

Useful  after  Bry. 
Stannum.    Acts  over  five  weeks. 

Antidote:  Puis. 

Stan,  follows  well  after  Causticum. 


456  ACTION  AND  ANTIDOTES  OF  PRINCIPAL  REMEDIES.  [Oct., 


Complementary  :  Puis. 
Staphisagria.    Acts  three  to  four  weeks. 
Antidote :  Camph. 
Staph,  antidotes  :  Merc.,  Thuja. 
Incompatible  :  Ran-bulb. 
Stramonium.    Acts  one-half  to  one  day. 

Antidotes:  Bell.,  Hyos.,  Nux-v.;  against  large  doses:  lemon- 
juice,  senna,  tobacco  injections,  vinegar. 
Stramon.  antidotes:  ailments  from  vapor  of  Mercury,  Plumb. 
Suitable  for  children,  especially  in  chorea,  mania,  fever. 
Young,  plethoric  persons. 
Strontiana.    Acts  over  forty  days. 

Antidote :  Camph. 
Sulphur.    Acts  forty  to  fifty  days. 

Antidotes :  Aeon.,  Camph.,  Cham.,  Chin.,  Merc.  (Nux-v.), 

Puis.,  Rhus-tox.,  Sepia. 
Sulph.  antidotes :  Chin.,  lod.,  Merc,  Nitr-ac,  Rhus-tox., 

Sepia;  ailments  from  the  use  of  metals  generally. 
Complementary :  Aloe-soc. 

Sulph.  is  especially  suited  for  lean,  stoop-shouldered  persons. 
It  frequently  serves  to  rouse  the  reactive  power  of  the 
system,  when  carefully  selected  remedies  have  failed  to 
produce  a  favorable  effect,  especially  in  acute  disease. 
Sulph-acid.    Acts  over  four  weeks. 

Puis  is  an  antidote  and  also  complementary. 
Sulph-ac.  antidotes  the  bad  effects  of  lead- water. 
Frequently  indicated  for  old  people,  particularly  women. 

Light-haired  people. 
Flushes  of  heat  in  climacteric  years. 
Tabacum. 

Antidotes  :  Ars.,  Ipec,  Nux-v.,  Phos.,  Ignat.,  Puis.,  Clemat., 
Sepia,  Lycopod. 

Plantago-maj.  has  often  caused  an  aversion  to  tobacco. 
Taraxacum.    Acts  two  to  three  weeks. 

Antidote:  Camph.? 
Terebinth,  is  antidoted  by  Phos. 
Thuja.    Acts  three  weeks. 


1890.]    DYNAMIC  FORCES  OF  HOMOEOPATHIC  REMEDIES.  457 


Antidotes  :  Cham.,  Coccul.,  Caraph.,  Merc,  Puis.,  Sulph. 

Thuja  antidotes  :  Iod.,  Merc,  Nux-v.,  Sulph.,  Thea. 
Valeriana.    Acts  eight  to  ten  days. 

Antidotes  :  Camph.,  Coff.,  Puis. 

Valerian,  antidotes  :  Cham. 

Nervous,  irritable,  hysteric  individuals. 
Veratrum-alb.    Acts  five  to  eight  days. 

Antidotes:  Aeon.,  Camph.,  Chin.,  Coff". 

Veratr.  antidotes  :  Ars.,  Chin.,  Cuprum,  Fer.,  Op.,  Tobacco. 

Lean,  choleric,  or  melancholic  persons;  Anaemia ;  Children. 
Veratrum-vir. 

It  antidotes  spasms  from  Strychnine. 

Full-blooded,  plethoric  persons. 
Verbascum.    Acts  four  to  eight  days. 
Viola-odorata.    Acts  two  to  four  days. 

Antidote  :  Cam  ph. 
Viola-tri.    Acts  eight  to  fourteen  days. 

Antidote  :  Camph. 
Zincum.    Acts  thirty  to  forty  days. 

Antidotes  :  Hepar,  Ignat.,  Camph. 

Incompatible  :  Cham.,.  Nux-v. 


THE  DYNAMIC  FORCES  OF  THE  HOMOEOPATHIC 
REMEDIES. 

(Extrac*  from  proceedings  of  late  meeting  I.  H.  A.    First  day's  session.) 

Dr.  Rushmore — I  should  like  to  ask  some  of  our  German 
members  whether  the  word  spirit-like  or  spiritual  best  gives  the 
sense  of  the  Germau  word  used  by  Hahnemann.  Perhaps  this 
would  rescue  him  from  the  transcendental  philosophy  applied  to 
him  by  Dr.  Wilson  in  his  paper. 

Dr.  Wesselhoeft — I  think  it  should  be  spirit-like  and  not 
spiritual.  This  mistake  has  been  made  in  several  translations 
of  the  Organon,  notably  in  Conrad  Wesselhoeft's.  We  should 
not  understand  it  as  pertaining  to  anything  in  the  line  of  mystic- 
ism. Spirit-like  and  spiritual  are  certainly  different,  yet  the 
difference  is  very  difficult  to  express.    I  think  that  spirit-like 


458      DYNAMIC  FORCES  OF  HOMOEOPATHIC  REMEDIES.    [Oct , 


refers  to  the  refined  and  etherial  nature  of  potentized  matter, 
the  particles  of  matter  are  in  a  spirit-like  form,  while  the  word 
spiritual  excludes  altogether  the  idea  of  matter. 

Dr.  Butler. — Does  not  .the  word  spirit-like  imply  that  the 
whole  subject  is  rather  an  hypothesis  than  an  actual  entity  ? 

Dr.  Wesselhceft — There  is  a  point  which  is  interesting  to 
note  and  which  bears  upon  the  action  of  our  remedies,  and  that 
is  that,  although  we  must  select  our  remedy  by  the  law  of  sim- 
ilars, the  curative  action  which  follows  has  nothing  to  do  with 
making  another  or  a  similar  disease.  Dr.  Hering  used  to  say 
that  that  explanation  of  Hahnemann's  as  regards  the  action  of 
medicine  was  all  wrong  ;  that  the  indications  for  a  remedy  were 
drawn  from  the  law  of  similars,  but  according  to  that  very  law 
the  action  or  effect  of  the  remedy  must  be  contrary.  Here  we 
have  the  line  of  the  action  of  a  disease  from  one  point  to 
another,  or  the  picture  of  the  disease,  so  to  speak,  a  remedy  is 
selected  according  to  that  line,  and  when  these  two  forces  meet 
they  meet  as  oppo-ites  and  oppose  eacli  other.  They  do  not 
push  along  in  the  same  direction,  but  opposite.  Hahnemann's 
explanation  never  satisfied  me,  and  I  think  Dr.  Wilson's  paper 
may  throw  some  light  upon  it. 

Dr.  Hawley — I  should  like  to  ask  Dr.  Wilson  how  he  es- 
capes the  charge  of  mysticism  by  simply  giving  new  names  to 
old  things.  Is  not  conservation  of  energy  equally  mystical  to 
spirit-like  force  ;  the  difference  is  only  one  of  terms  as  it  appears 
to  me. 

Dr.  Butler — Dr.  Wilson  not  being  here,  of  course  I  do  not 
know  how  he  would  answer  this  question.  We  must  remem- 
ber that  Hahnemann  lived  sometime  ago,  and  a  great  many 
changes  have  taken  place  since  he  died.  Indeed,  it  is  astonish- 
ing to  note  how  mauy  terms,  phrases,  and  theories  there  are  in 
medicine  to  express  the  same  thing.  What  Hahnemann  meant  by 
spirit-like  force  I  do  not  know,  but  I  suppose  that  it  corre- 
sponds very  nearly  to  what  is  to-day  known  as  energy.  Spirit- 
like force  was  to  him  spirit-like  in  that  it  had  nothing  material 
in  it ;  nowadays  we  have  abolished  that  word  and  use  the  phrase 
conservation  of  energy  instead. 


1890.]   DYNAMIC  FORCES  OF  HOMOEOPATHIC  REMEDIES. 


45<> 


What  be  called  force  we  call  energy.  I  think,  that  perhaps 
the  differences  we  have  in  these  abstruse  subjects  are  rather  in 
the  expression  of  ideas  than  in  the  ideas  themselves. 

Dr.  Hawley — We  should  be  instructed  if  we  had  a  list  of 
the  different  words  which  in  times  past  have  been  used  to  express 
the  same  idea.  We  have  done  away  with  the  word  force,  and 
we  shall  have  to  do  away  with  the  word  spirit.  I  care  not 
whether  you  call  it  force,  or  spirit,  or  conservation  of  energy, 
but  I  am  certain  that  our  art  of  healing  is  one  of  the  most  sub- 
stantial things  we  know  anything  at  all  about.  We  take  heal- 
ing power  out  of  Nux  vomica  and  find  it  still  in  the  sugar  or 
in  thealohol  used  to  develop  it.  The  curative  force  of  Nux 
vomica  is  in  the  sugar  or  alcohol ;  in  their  potentized  state,  I 
have  no  doubt  but  that  these  forces  are  allied  to  electricity  or 
magnetism  ;  like  forces  attracting  and  dissimilars  repelling. 
The  force  residing  in  the  potentized  medici-nes  perhaps  attracts 
diseased  forces  similar  to  itself  from  the  sick,  and  thus  leaves 
the  organism  free  to  go  on  in  its  proper  way. 

Dr.  Fincke — The  remedy  must  be  similar  with  the  disease  in 
order  to  cure.  This  also  applies  to  magnetism,  electricity,  and 
all  curative  forces.  Spirit-like  does  not  refer  solely  to  material 
things,  because  it  refers  to  that  refined  dynamic  power  residing 
in  drugs  which  when  applied  according  to  the  law  of  similars  re- 
stores the  life  force  of  a  sick  person  to  its  normal  action.  Still, 
we  must  remember  that  it  is  the  life  force  which  restores  health, 
the  remedy  only  enabling  it  to  do  so,  probably,  by  removing 
some  misdirected  action.  This  life  force  has  nothing  in  common 
with  pure  matter,  and  the  force  in  the  remedy  which  acts  upon 
it  has  but  little  in  common  with  pure  matter,  hence  the  term 
spirit-like.  It  is  something  like  spirit,  because  it  is  so  refined,, 
rarified  and  etherialized,  yet  it  is  not  spirit  itself,  and  I  do 
not  think  we  need  find  any  fault  with  either  the  word  or  the 
idea. 

The  life  force  of  Hahnemann  has  been  ruled  out  by  modern 
philosophers ;  with  them  there  is  no  such  thing,  but  the  physi- 
cal form  acts  by  its  own  properties,  matter  moves  by  virtue  of 
something  inherent  in  it,  and  so  they  have  come  to  the  con- 


460      DYNAMIC  FORCES  OF  HOMOEOPATHIC  REMEDIES.  [Oct., 

elusion  that  there  is  no  spirit,  but  Hahnemann's  philosophy  rests 
upon  a  spiritual  basis. 

Dr.  Kent — If  we  knew  what  spirit  is  and  vital  energy  is  we 
would  have  no  difficulty  in  understanding  a  good  many  things 
that  are  dark  to  us  now.  I  have  never  seen  a  spirit,  and  I  know 
it  is  hard  to  find  words  and  synonyms  with  which  to  express 
ourselves.  We  come  the  nearest  to  knowing  what  it  is  like,  by 
knowing  that  it  is  not  matter  in  its  usual  material,  palpable 
form,  and  by  reflecting  upon  its  extension  in  our  potencies.  It 
is  certainly  difficult  to  distinguish  between  spirit-like  and 
spiritual.  Probably  the  latter  word  would  have  been  good 
enough  for  us  were  it  not  supposed,  in  the  popular  mind,  to 
have  some  connection  with  modern  spiritualism,  a  thing  to 
which  we  object. 

If  there  were  no  such  thing  as  modern  spiritualism,  I  do  not 
suppose  any  one  would  have  raised  objections  to  the  word  spirit- 
ual. Probably  as  good  a  thing  as  we  can  do  on  this  subject  is 
to  understand  that  we  do  not  understand,  and  that  is  arriving 
at  something  of  a  conclusion. 

Dr.  Carleton — Dilution  and  attenuation  are  words  I  do  not 
like  to  hear.  I  have  some  very  deep-rooted  prejudices  in  my 
make-up,  and  among  the  strongest  I  have  are  those  against 
these  words.  Potency  and  dynamizations  are  the  proper  words, 
and  I  do  not  think  I  heard  them  in  the  doctor's  paper.  I  am 
not  much  of  a  philosopher,  but  allow  me  to  say  that  I  believe  in 
Hahnemann  every  time. 

Dr.  Thomson — Same  here  seem  to  have  trouble  as  to  the 
existence  of  spirit,  and  one  gentleman  has  said  he  has  never 
seen  a  spirit.  Why,  as  I  look  around  me  in  this  room,  I  see  a 
great  many  spirits.  It  is  the  spirit  within  the  man  that  thinks 
and  acts.  It  is  the  spirit  that  moulds  the  body  and  makes  the 
infinite  varieties  of  the  human  form.  Matter,  in  itself,  is  dead 
and  inert,  and  all  force  comes  from  the  spiritual  that  vivifies  it. 
The  distinction  between  these  two  is  the  distinction  between 
Allopathy  and  Homoeopathy  ;  the  first  is  dead  and  lifeless,  while 
the  latter  is  a  vivifying  force,  and  its  object  is  to  rid  this  poor 
body  of  flesh  of  its  disease  by  a  proper  application  of  that  force. 


1890.]    DYNAMIC  FORCES  OF  HOMOEOPATHIC  REMEDIES.  461 


Dr.  H.  C.  Allen — I  was  much  pleased  with  Dr.  WesselhoefVs 
distinction  between  spiritual  and  spirit-like.  I  think  he  hit  the 
nail  pretty  nearly  on .  the  head.  The  terms  certain  and  sure 
present  a  similar  distinction.  I  am  sure  the  sun  will  arise.  I 
am  certain  it  has  arisen. 

Dr.  Butler — In  regard  to  the  words  dilution  and  attenuation, 
neither  Dr.  Wilson  nor  I  have  any  apology  to  make.  They 
are  pharmaceutical  words  aud  perfectly  proper  in  their  place. 

At  this  point  Dr.  Butler  read  a  paper  on  the  Vital  Force. 
Upon  its  conclusion,  Dr.  Fincke  said  Hahnemann  certainly 
knew  much  about  the  subject  of  this  paper,  and  I  wish  to  refer 
you  to  the  Organon,  from  the  ninth  to  the  fifteenth  sections  of 
the  fifth  edition,  where  you  will  find  what  he  made  of  this  sub- 
ject. He  was  by  no  means  a  theorist,  but  was  eminently  of  a 
practical  nature  ;  he  did  not  go  at  all  into  metaphysical  expla- 
nations, nor  did  he  attempt  to  explain  what  spirit  was  or  what 
life  was.  He  founded  Homoeopathy  upon  the  rock  and  foun- 
dation of  experience  and  experiment. 

He  lays  down  the  life  force  as  the  foundation  of  the  healing 
art,  and  there  is  none  in  the  world  who  can  gainsay  or  oppose 
that,  without  stultifying  themselves  and  making  a  physico- 
chemical  school. 

Hahnemann  has  taught  us  how,  by  a  simple  and  beautiful 
process,  we  can  evolve  a  spirit-like  force  from  crude  substances 
which  is  able  to  influence  the  vital  force  and  so  cure  disease. 
He  conclu  led,  from  observation,  that  they  must  be  similar,  and 
thus  arose  that  beautiful  generalization,  standing  upon  the  firm 
foundation  of  experience  and  experiment,  which  no  one  is  able 
to  overthrow. 

You  can't  see  this  spirit-like  force,  you  can't  touch  it,  yon  can't 
feel  it,  but  it  is  there.  Has  a  force  ever  been  seen  by  any  one  ? 
You  see  motion,  but  you  do  not  see  force,  you  see  the  effect ; 
and  so  we  cannot  see  this  spirit-like  force,  but  we  can  see  its 
effect  in  curing  disease. 

According  to  the  laws  of  motion,  philosophers  say  that  mat- 
ter cannot  move  unless  impelled  by  some  force.  Therefore, 
matter  is  inert  and  lifeless,  and,  if  inert  and  lifeless,  how  can 


462 


ECZEMA. 


[Oct., 


it,  in  itself,  have  all  these  properties  and  qualities?  So  there 
must  be  a  force  residing  in  matter  which  we  develop  by  the 
simple  and  beautiful  process  of  dynamization  in  our  potencies, 
and  which  is  able  to  act  upon  the  life  force  so  as  to  aid  it  in 
curing.  There  is  not  a  crude  substance  on  the  earth  that  has 
not  a  medicinal  quality,  if  we  can  draw  it  out;  even  the  most 
inert  substance  will  develop  enormous  medicinal  power  if  we 
potentize  it. 

Dr.  Clausen — Where  is  there  a  material  substance,  in  nature, 
whose  particles  have  not  been  brought  together,  or  are  not  con- 
tinually held  together  by  some  immaterial  spirit-like  force?  The 
soul  is  that  immaterial  part  of  man  which  clothes  itself  with 
flesh  ;  it  is  that  spiritual  force  which  draws  and  holds  the  atoms 
together  which  make  the  human  form.  Just  so,  but  without 
any  self-consciousness,  there  exists,  in  earths,  soils,  and  plants* 
an  immaterial  spirit-like  force  which  holds  their  particles 
together  and  gives  each  kind  of  earth,  soil,  and  plant  its  individ- 
ual identity.  The  force,  for  instance,  existing  in  Silex  is  always 
the  same,  distinct  and  individual,  and  by  the  process  of  dynam- 
ization we  bring  that  force  into  an  accessible  condition,  and,  by 
the  law  of  similars,  apply  it  to  the  removal  of  diseased  condi- 
tions. 

ECZEMA. 

Wm.  Steinrauf,  M.  D.,  St.  Charles,  Mo. 

It  was  in  the  fall  of  1881  that  a  young  man  left  the  State  of 
Missouri  and  moved  to  a  country  town  in  Illinois.  His  health 
before  this  time  was  all  that  could  be  desired.  The  following 
summer  he  had  a  peculiar  breaking-out  on  the  face  of  small 
pimples  filled  with  an  offensive-looking  and  offensive-smelling 
matter.  A  slight  itching  sensation  accompanied  the  pimples. 
The  trouble  began  sometime  in  July  and  lasted  till  sometime  in 
November.  The  following  summer  eczema  appeared  on  the 
left  side  of  the  face  that  was  very  annoying,  and  by  scratching 
was  carried  to  the  right  side  of  the  face,  the  neck,  and  the 
scrotum.    He  was  treated  by  all  known  systems,  but  all  to  no 


1S90.] 


ECZEMA. 


463 


purpose.  No  remedy-  or  external  application  received  at  the 
hands  of  the  best  physicians  of  all  schools  had  any  effect  in 
either  relieving  or  curing  the  patient.  Chloroform  was  generally 
always  inhaled  at  night  in  order  to  procure  sleep.  Nothing  did 
any  good.  In  the  fall  all  would  be  well,  although  after  shaving 
the  face  would  be  intensely  sensitive  for  a  few  hours.  Thus  the 
patient  lingered  on  from  year  to  year,  a  living  monument  of  the 
*  physician's  inability  and  ignorance.  The  scratching  indulged 
in  was  something  frightful  to  behold.  Hot  water  freely  applied 
to  the  face  was  about  the  only  thing  that  would,  for  the  time 
being  at  least,  assuage  the  trouble.  The  only  medicated  external 
application  to  do  any  good  was  recommended  by  a  lady  friend. 
It  consisted  in  steeping  the  green  leaves  of  the  deadly  night- 
shade in  hot  milk  and  freely  bathing  the  face  in  it.  I  found  on 
examining  this  weed  that  it  was  not  the  deadly  night-shade 
properly  speaking,  but  only  a  species  of  it,  the  Solatium  nigrum. 
This  grows  wild  all  over  our  Western  States  in  fence  corners, 
dark  and  moist  places. 

The  face  at  times  would  swell  up  enormously,  giving  the  man 
an  awful  appearance.  In  the  intense  agony  ice  was  applied  one 
evening  and  did,  indeed,  soothe  the  sufferer  wonderfully,  but 
the  next  morning  matters  were  worse  than  ever.  The  eves  were 
closed  and  the  itching  intensified.  The  patient,  after  thus  suf- 
fering for  over  seven  years,  talked  of  a  change  of  climate. 

For  several  years  he  had  noticed  that  when  goino;  to  the  tim- 
ber,  coming  in  contact  with  weeds  of  any  kind,  climbing  a 
tree,  or  going  up  in  the  hay-loft  his  eczema  would  get  much 
worse.  But  as  all  these  conditions  occur  more  or  less  in  every 
case  of  eczema,  the  remedy  could  not  be  found  in  this  direction. 
All  the  known  remedies  for  eczema  were  tried  in  his  case,  the 
symptomatology  compared,  and  medicines,  high  and  low,  given, 
but  the  result  was  nil. 

But  there  is  a  saying  that  shortly  before  day  the  night  ia 
blackest,  and  when  the  trouble  is  greatest  help  is  nearest.  So 
it  happened  here. 

The  young  man  had  noticed  that  by  remaining  home  nights 
there  would  be  less  troublesome  itching,  and  he  had  further 


464 


PUERPERAL  CONVULSIONS. — A  CASE. 


[Oct., 


noticed — and  this  was  considered  an  item  of  importance — that 
in  going  to  the  barn  about  ten  o'clock  at  night  to  see  if  all  was 
well  with  the  stock  he  would  hav«  to  pass  a  large  bunch  of 
deadly  night-shade,  when  the  itching  would  be  very  much 
worse. 

Seeing  that  the  patient  always  got  relief  by  steeping  the  green 
leaves  of  the  deadly  night-shade  in  milk  and  freely  bathing  the 
face  in  it,  might  it  not  be  possible  that  the  dynamized  drug  of 
this  place  could  cure  the  patient?  Although  there  is  no  proving 
of  the  Sol-nig.  as  far  as  I  know,  I  was  willing  to  try  and  see 
the  result.  I  wrote  to  Dr.  Swan  for  the  DMM  of  the  Sol- 
nigrum  and  the  man  took  one  dose  every  four  hours  till  four 
doses  had  been  taken,  with  the  result  that  within  one  week  the 
eruption  and  the  itching  were  gone  and  the  sufferer  of  eight 
years  was  cured.  Two  years  have  now  elapsed  and  there  is  no 
recurrence  of  the  trouble. 


PUERPERAL  CONVULSIONS. — A  CASE. 

W.  A.  YlNGLING,  M.  D.,  NoNCHALANTA,  KANSAS. 

On  January  20th,  1889,  at  twelve,  noon,  I  was  called  to  wait 
upon  Mrs.  G.,  a  strong,  apparently  healthy  and  vigorous 
woman,  of  close,  firm  fibre  ;  saucy,  lively,  and  determined  to 
bear  her  ordeal  without  fear  or  murmur.  Being  a  primipara  I 
expected  a  tedious,  slow  case,  but  at  the  commencement  I  had 
no  idea  I  should  have  a  case  occurring  but  once  in  more  than 
five  hundred  parturitions.  I  found  her  more  or  less  anxious 
and  uneasy,  yet  heroically  laughing  and  joking  to  keep  up  her 
courage.  Two  old  ladies  were  present  as  assistants,  neither 
versed  in  the  science  of  midwifery,  and  ignorant  of  everything 
professional  except  "  teas  and  yarbs." 

Upon  examination  I  found  the  parts  dilating,  but  was  unable 
to  reach  the  child.  I  apprehended  tediousness,  but  kept  my 
own  counsel,  concluding  to  do  the  best  thing  possible,  to  wait. 
I  could  not  determine  a  transverse  presentation.  Whilst  wait- 
ing, as  is  ray  custom,  I  refreshed  my  memory  on  all  possible 


1890.] 


PUERPERAL  CONVULSIONS. — A  CASE. 


4G5 


contingencies.  After  several  hours,  the  pains  coming  every 
fifteen  or  twenty  minutes,  I  made  another  examination  and 
found  I  could  just  reach  the  head  of  the  child.  The  presenta- 
tion was  normal  except  face  upward  toward  the  pubes.  Pro- 
gress was  very  slow  ;  patient  uneasy,  but  confident ;  the  bag  of 
waters  normal ;  the  assistants  urging  teas  and  relating  yarns  ; 
myself  anxious  and  foreboding,  yet  cheerful.  I  administered 
Gelsemium,  from  indications,  but  to  no  use,  yet  the  pains  were 
some  stronger.  About  one  o'clock  the  next  morning,  after 
thirteen  hours  of  labor  pains,  I  found  the  child  had  entered  the 
lower  straits  and  I  hoped  for  a  speedy  termination  of  the  case. 
The  patient  was  strong,  courageous,  and  still  hopeful,  for  she 
had  the  utmost  confidence  in  her  attending  physician.  I  noticed 
about  two  a.  m.  that  she  was  inclined  to  be  drowsy,  and  began 
to  talk  foolishly,  especially  in  calling  upon  her  attendants,  with 
a  silly  expression  ;  her  face  flushed  ;  quite  nervous  and  anxious. 
I  gave  her  a  dose  of  Cimicifuga-race.,  which  seemed  to  quiet  her 
somewhat. 

I  was  twenty-five  miles  from  any  other  physician  ;  help  was 
impossible.  I  had  no  instruments  with  me,  for  I  had  never,  in 
all  my  practice,  had  occasion  to  use  them.  I  always  endeavor 
to  assist  nature,  wait,  and  have  found  the  indicated  remedy 
sufficient  in  every  case  without  the  use  of  instruments,  except 
this  one.  I  know  many  homoeopathic  physicians  claim  the 
remedies  are  inadequate  to  meet  severe  cases,  and  that  adjuncts 
and  instruments  are  absolutely  necessary.  But  I  find  such  nou- 
homceopathic  adjuncts  are  useless,  and  instruments  are  needful 
in  the  very  exceptional  cases.  I  have  never  lost  an  obstetrical 
case  out  of  very  many,  and  have  never  used  anything  but  homoe- 
opathic remedies.  This  case  proves  the  homoeopathic  weakling 
in  error,  and  that  "  little  pills  "  have  and  can  cure  the  severest 
case  of  puerperal  convulsions. 

At  five  A.  M.,  I  noticed  the  muscles  of  the  face  and  mouth 
twitching;  the  eyes  gradually  rolling  back,  tremulous  and 
dilated  ;  the  head  drawing  to  the  left  and  backward  ;  foaming  at 
the  mouth  ;  general  muscular  twitching.  The  crisis  had  come. 
The  attendants  in  consternation  and  helpless.  I  am  glad  to  say 
30  .  1 


466  PUERPERAL  CONVULSIONS. — A  CASE.  [Oct., 


that  in  this  trying  ordeal  I  was  cool  and  self-possessed.  I  at 
once  called  for  a  spoon  to  save  the  tongue,  and  placed  the  cooler 
attendant  at  the  head  to  use  it  to  the  best  advantage.  I  placed  a 
drop  of  Bell}*  on  the  tongue  during  the  spasm.  The  spasm 
was  very  severe,  lasting  several  minutes.  When  she  came  out 
of  the  spasm  she  was  bewildered,  without  knowledge  of  the 
occurrence  of  the  convulsion.  The  pains  held  off  for  some  time, 
but  finally  came,  and  with  them  another  convulsion,  but  not  so 
severe  nor  as  long  as  the  first  one.  I  gave  another  dose  of 
Bett**.  • 

It  was  impossible  for  me  to  remove  the  child  by  hand,  though 
I  tried  at  different  times.  On  the  first  appearance  of  the  crisis 
I  had  dispatched  a  runner  for  instruments  ;  distance,  five  miles. 
During  the  absence  of  the  runner  the  Bell,  had  controlled  the 
case,  so  that  only  three  spasms  had  occurred,  each  lighter.  Being 
so  long  time  in  labor,  and  the  case  so  severe,  without  any  assist- 
ing physician,  and  concluding  the  child  must  be  dead,  I  deter- 
mined to  perform  craniotomy. 

I  first,  however,  applied  the  forceps  and  found  that  I  could 
not  remove  the  child  in  that  way  without  danger  to  the  mother. 
During  the  operation  the  patient  had  a  very  severe  and  long 
continued  spasm,  but  I  hastened  as  much  as  possible  and 
delivered  her  of  a  very  large  girl  baby,  dead,  of  course.  I 
administered  another  dose  of  Bell?*  on  the  tongue.  She  had 
but  one  more  spasm,  a  light  one,  making  five  in  all.  Bell,  was 
the  onlv  remedy  given,  and  controlled  the  case.  To  add  to  the 
fear  of  the  friends,  a  very  profuse  and  bright  red  hemorrhage  set 
in,  with  pallor  of  the  face.  I  could  not  get  subjective  symptoms, 
but  had  to  prescribe  from  the  appearance  of  the  flow.  One 
single  dose  of  Ipecac'*  at  once  checked  the  flow  without  a 
recurrence. 

The  patient  progressed  finely,  without  knowledge  of  the  events, 
nor  of  the  child  (until  told  afterward),  and  in  ten  or  twelve  days 
was  up  and  around,  apparently  as  well  as  if  she  had  had  a 
natural  labor.    I  expect  another  call  to  the  same  lady  soon. 

This  case  proves  that  Homoeopathy  can  cure  such  severe  cases. 
I  am  sorry  I  did  not  have  the  higher  potency  to  try,  but  I  am 


1  890.] 


FUERPERAL  CONVULSIONS. 


467 


just  beginning  to  see  the  value  of  them,  yet  not  using  them  ex- 
tensively. I  may  yet  become  a  high-potency  man,  for  I  am 
honest,  and  will  investigate.  I  am  on  the  fence  with  one  leg  over 
on  the  side  of  high  potencies,  and  body  leaning  that  way. 


PUERPERAL  CONVULSIONS. 
Charles  P.  Beam  ax,  M.  D.,  Chattanooga,  Texx. 

August  12th,  was  hastily  summoned  at  four  p.  M.  to  see  a 
Mrs.  W.,  who  the  messenger  said  was  "  taken  bad  with  fits." 

Upon  my  arrival  the  patient  had  just  recovered  from  her 
second  convulsion,  during  which  she  had  bitten  the  tongue,  it 
being  greatly  swollen,  rendering  intelligible  speech  impossible. 
She  was  about  to  be  confined  with  her  second  child,  and  the 
nurse  said  had  been  complaining  of  considerable  pain  about  the 
abdomen  for  a  day  or  two,  but  "  This  morning  had  been  took 
bad  with  a  terrible  pain  in  her  head,  and  I  hain't  heared  her  say 
nothing  about  those  stomach  pains  since."  This  was  all  I  was 
able  to  learn  about  the  case — the  patient  could  tell  me  nothing  ; 
so  I  concluded  to  watch  her  through  another  convulsion  before 
prescribing,  giving  a  placebo  at  once  for  the  benefit  of  the  neigh- 
bors. I  had  not  long  to  wait;  presently  there  was  twitching  of 
the  hands  pud  arms,  slight  at  first,  but  gradually  becoming  more 
decided  ;  then  a  similar  twitching  of  the  muscles  of  the  face ; 
then  of  the  lower  limbs  ;  the  eyelids  opened  and  shut  spasmod  - 
ically,  when  suddenly  the  whole  body  became  rigid  for  an 
instant,  then  twitched  and  jerked  so  violently  that  the  room 
fairly  shook,  fingers  clenched,  but  not  upon  the  thumbs,  face 
horribly  swollen  and  almost  black,  eyes  wide  open,  pupils 
dilated  and  insensible  to  light,  tongue  partially  protruded  and 
blue,  froth  and  bloody  saliva  running  from  mouth  ;  neck  and 
parotid  glands  greatly  swollen  ;  hot  perspiration  all  over  the 
body.  Presently  there  was  a  momentary  cessation  of  breathing 
followed  by  quick,  short  gasps,  then  labored  respiration  ;  short 
inspiration,  and  long,  loud,  blowing  expiration. 


468 


puerpp:ral  convulsions. 


[Oct.,  1890. 


This  condition,  after  thirty-five*  minutes,  lapsed  into  a  heavy, 
stertorous  sleep. 

An  examination  per  vaginam  during  this  attack  revealed  the 
fact  that  the  uterus  did  not  participate  in  any  degree  in  these 
muscular  spasms,  but  remained  perfectly  passive,  the  os soft  and 
dilated  about  the  size  of  a  half  dollar.  I  could  see  nothing  but 
Opium  for  this  case,  so,  dissolving  Op.cc  in  a  little  water,  gave 
two  teaspoonfuls  every  ten  minutes  until  she  had  three  doses. 
In  about  an  hour  her  restlessness  at  intervals  led  me  to  place  my 
hand  upon  the  abdomen,  when  1  discovered  there  were  weak  but 
tangible  uterine  contractions. 

In  five  hours  from  last  spasm  another  one  came  on  with  same 
symptoms  as  before,  but  less  violent,  and  lasted  but  eighteen 
minutes,  after  which  uterine  contractions  continued  about  as 
before. 

In  three  hours  another  spasm,  rather  more  severe  than  the 
last,  and  of  twenty -five  minutes  duration. 

I  now  administered  Opiumdmm  (Swan),  one  dose  dry.  In  one 
hour  the  patient  was  breathing  quite  naturally,  would  awaken 
during  each  pain,  which  were  now  more  frequent  and  severe  ; 
she  seemed  perfectly  conscious  and  would  drink  water  or  a  little 
oatmeal  gruel  with  apparent  relish.  Soon  she  attempted  to  get 
out  of  bed  as  each  pain  came  on  to  use  the  vessel ;  this  symptom 
became  such  a  marked  feature,  and  as  the  pain  seemed  lacking  in 
expulsive  force,  I  gave  Nux-vom.cc,  the  effect  of  which  was 
speedily  apparent;  in  another  hour  she  gave  birth  to  a  fine  big 
boy,  and  the  labor  terminated  normally  in  every  respect.  The 
patient  has  since  made  a  good  recovery,  no  more  medicine  being 
given  except  a  dose  of  Arnicacc  after  confinement  to  relieve  the 
intense  soreness. 

She  says  that  she  has  not  the  slightest  recollection  of  anything 
that  occurred  during  her  sickness — it  is  all  a  blank  to  her. 

Can  the  "mongrels"  or  "regulars  "  show  such  quick  and  posi- 
tive results  with  their  methods  of  treatment?    I  think  not. 

After  the  second  dose  of  Opium  scarcely  a  symptom  appeared 
that  caused  me  any  apprehension. 


NOVEL  CASES  OF  POISONING. 


Two  Cases  of  Poisoning  with  Natrum  Nitrosum.  By 
Dr.  Collischorm. — Two  patients  received  by  mistake  Natrum 
nitrosum  5.0  :  150.0  pro  dosi  instead  of  Natrum  nitricum, 
a  tablespoouful  every  hour.  The  first  patient  was  attacked 
with  diarrhoea,  fainting,  bitter  eructations,  heavily  coated 
tongue,  slight  cyanosis,  and  on  the  chest  an  eruption  simulating 
roseola  syphilitica;  the  urine  contained  traces  of  albumen; 
during  the  night  copious,  alvine  discharges  with  faintishness. 
During  the  next  day — he  took  so  far  3.0 — intensive  cyanosis 
set  in,  especially  of  the  mouth,  tongue,  and  fauces  ;  the  erup- 
tion spread  to  the  thighs  and  abdomen.  The  dark-yellow  urine 
contained  copiously  urates.  The  following  day  he  took  2.5 
grm.j  the  cyanosis  diminished,  and  the  measly  exanthem 
spread  all  over  the  body,  excepting  the  face.  As  soon  as  the 
drug  was  left"  off,  cyanosis  and  all  other  troubles  disappeared. 
The  second  patient  had  the  cyanosis ;  diarrhoea  and  faintings  in 
an  aggravated  form,  so  that  collapse  threatened.  Large  quanti- 
ties of  strong  coffee  and  omission  of  the  drug  removed  the 

o  — 

symptoms  of  poisoning.  Both  cases  clearly  showed  the  symp- 
toms of  acute  gastro-enteritis  and  the  formation  of  methsemo- 
globine  ;  the  absence  of  any  renal  disturbance  was  noticed,  and 
it  seems  probable  that  the  salt  is  rapidly  carried  through  the 
kidneys  and  discharged  by  vomiting  and  diarrhoea,  hence  the 
rapid  disappearance  of  the  dangerous  symptoms. —  Gsntralbl.  f. 
KL  Med.  16,  J90. 

Poisoning  by  Potatoes. — Surgeon  Cortial  received  during 
two  days  over  a  hundred  soldiers  into  the  hospital,  and  all  com- 
plained of  headache,  dilated  pupils,  visual  disturbances,  colic, 
diarrhoea,  epigastric  pains,  thirst,  fever,  dizziness,  nausea,  per- 
spiration, spasms.  Suspecting  poisoning  by  food,  it  was  soon 
found  that  the  purveyor  delivered  instead  of  new  potatoes  old 
ones  full  of  excrescences.  Such  shoots  and  green  potatoes  con- 
tain too  much  solanin.  The  soldiers  were  sick  from  four  to 
eight  days.    The  first  symptoms  appeared  eight  to  ten  hours  * 

469 


470 


ULCERS. 


[Oct., 


after  the  meal,  and  milk-diet  was  the  only  treatment  employed. 
—CmtrctibLf.  Ther.  3,  1890. 

PorsoNiNG  by  Oysters. — At  Minragun,  in  Japan,  whose 
inhabitants  live  mostly  on  fishes,  lately  appeared  such  an  exten- 
sive mortality  that  the  government  sent  a  commission  there  to 
find  out  its  cause.  Shortly  before  the  epidemic  appeared  the 
fishermen  discovered  a  new  oyster-bed,  and  every  one  partook  of 
the  feast,  raw  or  cooked.  Experiments  with  these  oysters  dem- 
onstrated that  they  act  as  a  poison  on  animals,  and  chemical 
analysis  proved  it  to  be  tvrotoxine.  A  few  years  ago  a  similar 
fatal  epidemic  devastated  Wilhelmshafen,  and  it  was  found  that 
the  bed  was  on  a  spot  where  the  detritus  of  the  city  emptied  it- 
self into  the  river,  and  that  the  oysters  or  mussels  could  be 
made  edible  again  by  transplanting  them  into  pure  and  healthy 
water.  Sublata  causa  tollitur  effectus. — A,  M.  Centr.Zeit.  32,  '90. 

Powdered  charcoal  mixed  with  brandy,  strong  black  coffee 
mixed  with  the  juice  of  half  a  lemon  (a  capital  prescription  also 
in  some  malarious  intermittents),  vinegar  and  water  in  equal 
quantities  are  highly  praised  as  antidotes.  Still  I  cured  cases 
of  poisoning  by  mussels  with  Carbo-vegetabilis  30th  or  200th 
potency  in  water,  a  dessertspoonful  every  five  or  ten  minutes. 

  S.  L. 

ULCERS. 
A.  McNeil,  M.  D.,  San  Francisco. 

(Bureau  of  Surgery,  I.  H.  A.) 

I  will  not  weary  you  with  definitions  or  descriptions  of 
the  varieties  of  ulcers,  for  these  you  already  know.  I  will 
only  give  my  views  on  the  treatment  of  them.  And 
in  this  I  have  nothing  new  to  offer,  only  that  laid  down 
by  Hahnemann.  Any  one  who  treats  ulcers  without  keeping 
the  psoric  theory  in  his  mind  may  perhaps  get  the  credit  of 
curing  them,  but  he  will  in  the  end  do  more  harm  than  good. 
In  fact,  he  will  relieve  his  patient  of  an  annoyance,  perhaps  a 
painful  one,  aud  bring  in  something  instead  that  will  be  much 
more  distressing  and  perhaps  fatal. 


1890.] 


ULCERS. 


471 


All  kinds  of  external  treatment,  either  operative  or  medicinal, 
are  unnecessary  and  hurtful.  No  skin-grafting,  stropping, 
astringent  or,  in  fact,  any  medicinal  salves  or  ointments  should 
be  permitted.  When  the  indicated  remedy  has  set  the  vis  medi- 
catrix  naturce  at  work  she  needs  no  external  aid.  And  when 
the  ulcer  heals  under  this  treatment  it  is  because  the  psora, 
scrofula,  or  whatever  name  you  may  give  it,  is  eradicated  from 
the  system. 

As  an  evidence,  I  recall  the  first  ulcer  I  treated.  The  patient 
was  a  woman,  "  fair,  fat,  and  forty,"  who  had  all  of  her  menstrual 
life  been  afflicted  by  an  indolent  ulcer  on  her  leg  or  cardialgia. 
Never  both  at  once.  As  long  as  the  ulcer  was  open  she  enjoyed, 
with  that  exception,  vigorous  health.  But  always  soon  after  it 
was  healed,  and  it  had  been  done  many  times  by  external  treat- 
ment, she  was  attacked  by  the  most  violent  and  persistent  colics 
I  have  ever  witnessed.  Is  it  reasonable  to  believe  that  she  had 
two  distinct  diseases  that  never  happened  to  attack  her  simul- 
taneously ?  Or  did  she  have  only  one  disease  which  manifested 
itself  in  two  distinct  ways  ?  I  firmly  believe  the  latter,  and 
when  nature  was  able  to  keep  it  on  the  surface,  which  she  could 
do  when  not  foiled  by  irrational  interference,  she  had  to  suffer 
it  to  attack  the  nerves  of  the  stomach. 

It  was  necessary  in  making  up  the  totality  of  the  symptoms 
to  include  both  those  of  the  stomach  and  those  immediately 
relating  to  the  stomach.  Calc-carb.  covered  both  classes  of 
symptoms,  and  given  high  relieved  her  of  both  for  several  years, 
when  the  ulcer  again  broke  out  and  the  same  remedy  produced 
a  speedy  and  permanent  cure. 

Let  me  present  a  kindred  case  treated  the  other  way.  It  was 
related  by  a  physician  who  prefaced  his  treatment  by  saving,  "I 
am  a  good  homoeopath."  A  child  was  brought  to  him  with  an 
aural  polypus  which  had  once  been  removed  by  the  forceps.  He 
did  the  same  with  caustics.  Twice  more  at  intervals  it  returned, 
to  be  again  treated  in  the  same  way.  It  did  not  reappear  after 
the  fourth  time,  but  instead  indications  of  a  long-continued 
abscess  of  the  internal  ear  and  the  mastoid  process.  Cerebral 
symptoms  followed,  and  death  ensued.    A  post-mortem  was 


472 


ULCERS. 


[Oct.,  1890. 


held,  and  the  astonishment  of  those  present  was  great  at  seeing 
how  life  had  continued  with  so  great  a  necrosis  of  the  bones  of 
the  ear  and  adjacent  parts.  My  astonishment  was  equally  great 
at  witnessing  the  nonchalance  with  which  he  related  how 
through  his  ignorance  he  had  caused  the  deatli  of  a  human 
being.    "  Where  ignorance  is  bliss  'tis  folly  to  be  wise." 

The  vital  question  remains:  How  to  cure  ulcers?  Hahne- 
mann has  already  given  us  directions  as  to  the  mode  of  examin- 
ing patients  that  has  never  been  improved.  Follow  them  care- 
fully and  conscientiously,  and  when  that  is  done,  as  he  has  told 
us,  the  most  difficult  and  important  part  is  done.  Do  not  ven- 
ture to  make  an  off-hand  prescription  unless  it  is  one  of  those 
exceptional  cases  in  which  characteristic  symptoms  stand  out 
plainly  and  it  is  not  possible  for  another  remedy  to  be  the  one. 
As  aid  in  studying  out  the  remedy  there  are  no  better  ones  than 
Boenninghausen's  Pocket-book  and  Gilchrist's  Surgical  Diseases. 
Use  one,  or  better,  both.  With  these  and  a  fair  amount  of  in- 
dustry all  ulcers  may  be  cured,  safely,  pleasantly,  and  perma- 
nently. 

Dr.  J.  T.  Martin,  of  Woodland,  California,  reported  a  cure 
of  necrosis  of  the  tibia  at  the  last  meeting  of  the  I.  H.  A.  The 
bone  lay  bare  and  black,  entirely  denuded  of  periosteum  to  the 
extent  of  four  and  a  half  inches  in  length  by  over  an  inch  in 
breadth.  The  most  noted  allopaths  of  the  Sacramento  Valley 
had  tried  and  failed.  He  called  me  in  consultation,  and  we 
agreed  on  Silicea,  and  in  one  year  and  a  half,  with  eight  or  ten 
doses  of  that  remedy  high,  the  case  was  cured  and  the  bone  was 
covered  by  its  normal  coating,  while  the  patient's  general 
health  was  fully  restored.  The  doctor  carried  out  faithfully  the 
plan  of  treatment  agreed  on.  I  might  cite  other  cases,  but  I 
doubt  not  that  all  of  you  by  strict  Hahnemann ian  treatment 
have  cured  such  cases. 


Ulcers. — Kali-bichrom :  ulcers  become  deeper  without 
spreading.  They  look  as  if  cut  with  a  punch.  Nitric  acid 
deep  ulcers — especially  chancres — with  indurated  edges. 


SOME    PROVINGS    OF    MERC-IOD.,    CM,  AND 
KALI-IOD.,  2d  (X  trit.). 

Ella  M.  Tltttle,  M.  D.,  New  Berlin,  New  York. 

Mind. — Depressed,  anxious  about  trifles. 

Head. — A  dull  pain  over  the  right  eye.  A  sore  aching  pain 
over  the  right  mastoid  region  extending  to  the  ear,  worse  by 
pressure,  by  stooping,  by  jar,  by  thinking  of  it,  better  in  the 
open  air. 

Eyes. — Laehrymation  of  the  right  eye,  discharge  bland* 
watery. 

Mouth. — Smarting  of  the  tongue.  Dull  pain  in  canine  teeth 
on  the  right  side. 

Throat. — Burn  in  the  left  side  of  the  throat  extending  to  the 

stomach.    Short,  hacking  cough  caused  by  a  feeling  of  irritation 

in  the  right  side  of  the  throat. 
— 

Stomach—  Nausea  and  cramping  pains  in  the  pit  of  the 
stomach. 

Extremities. — Tired,  aching  pain  on  the  outside  of  the  left  arm 
and  forearm,  extending  to  the  fingers,  followed  by  soreness  and  a 
feeling  as  if  cold  air  were  blowing  on  the  arm,  worse  out-of- 
doors.  Soreness  of  the  anterior  aspect  of  the  thigh,  as  if  it  had 
been  pounded.    Tired  feeling  in  the  thigh. 


BRIEF  CONTRIBUTION  TO  THE  ELUCIDATION 
OF  SYPHILIS. 

John  Hall,  M.  D.,  Victoria,  B.  C. 

The  writer  does  not  consider  himself  as  much  of  a  surgeon,, 
or  that  he  has  had  a  large  experience  in  the  treatment  of  syphi- 
litic disease,  for  it  is  well  known  that  any  noise  made  about 
such  maladies  effectually  deters  many  from  consulting,  fearing, 
as  they  do,  that  they  may  be  classed  among  them,  consequently 
a  large  number  of  those  suffering  in  this  manner  keep  away,, 
making  our  practice  limited. 

473 


474       CONTRI BUTION  TO  ELUCIDATION  OF  SYPHILIS.  [Oct., 


Still,  the  disease  must  be  met  and  treated.  Sometimes  in  its 
most  virulent  forms,  demanding  the  ablest  skill  of  our  very  best 
men  to  do  this  successfully.  One  poor  fellow  who  fell  under 
my  care  was  taken  down  with  a  phagedenic  chancre,  of  which 
he  was  so  ashamed  and  ignorant  as  to  hope  that  it  might 
get  well  of  itself,  allowing  it  to  progress  so  rapidly  that 
when  first  seen  the  diseased  organ  was  almost  destroyed,  requir- 
ing two  eminent  surgeons  to  patch  as  best  they  could  the  terrible 
consequences  which  had  ensued,  so  that,  while  the  above  is  an 
extreme  case,  the  calling  attention  to  our  treatment  of  this  dis- 
ease is  extremely  appropriate. 

Some  time  since,  Hi  cord  stated  before  his  class  "that  he 
would  not  consent  to  have  the  smallest  chancre  on  his  organ  for 
the  largest  fortune  which  could  be  left  him  as  an  inducement 99 
(a  remark  which  can  be  fully  confirmed  by  his  writings),  but 
giving,  as  the  leading  physician  in  Europe  at  that  time  in  this 
malady  his  inability  to  treat  or  cope  with  it,  that  the  primary 
abrasion  was  as  likely  to  be  followed  by  secondary  and  tertiary 
symptoms,  descending  even  to  offspring  in  its  baleful  effects  as 
if  no  treatment  had  been  followed.  The  opinion  of  this  great 
man  may  be  taken  as  a  fair  experience  of  his  school,  sentiments 
which  we  need  not  enlarge  upon.  The  question  is,  Can  our 
homoeopathic  knowledge  do  better?  We  cannot  doubt  that 
there  is  existing  great  diversity  of  opinion  and  practice  on  this 
question  even  among  us — some  asserting  that  Hahnemann  him- 
self hardly  knew  what  he  was  treating;  that  he  was  ignorant  of 
the  distinction  between  an  indurated  and  a  phagedenic  chancre, 
classing  both  conditions  alike,  which  our  more  elaborate  re- 
searches in  diagnosis  have  made  plain,  but  whatever  view  we 
take,  the  treatment  is  still  the  problem.  Leaving,  then,  gonorrhoea 
for  a  future  consideration,  we  have  this  query  : 

Is  syphilitic  poisoning  subject  or  amenable  to  homoeopathic 
treatment  so  that  the  secondary  and  tertiary  symptoms  may  be 
safely  and  fully  removed  in  such  degree  that  no  after  ill  conse- 
quences can  follow? 

The  writer,  as  before  said,  has  had  only  a  limited  experience 
to  draw  from,  but  from  what  has  been  thus  revealed  he  is  in- 


1890.] 


VERIFICATIONS. 


475 


clined  to  think  that  the  infection  after  a  hard  chancre,  which 
may  be  two  or  three  weeks  in  developing — that  is,  before  any 
ulcer  or  outward  sign  appears  whereby  the  poison  may  be 
recognized — may  require  to  be  imitated,  so  far  by  the  appro- 
priate medicine  as  requiring  some  time  for  its  action  before 
repetition,  while  a  soft  or  phagedenic  chancre,  which  usually 
reveals  itself  some  two  or  three  days  after  exposure,  may  re- 
quire a  more  frequent  repetition,  an  observation  which  has 
been  confirmed  to  the  author  several  times,  especially  since  the 
higher  potencies  were  used. 

The  object  of  this  paper  is  to  concentrate  the  knowledge  of 
able  men  on  this  subject,  enabling  us  more  readily  to  find  the 
true  remedy  for  each  case,  which  cannot  be  very  difficult  in  the 
primary  stages,  as  they  do  not  greatly  diverge,  and  then  when 
found  persistently  to  go  ahead. 


VERIFICATIONS. 
Wm.  Jefferson  Guernsey,  M.  D.,  Philadelphia. 

Hydrophobia. — Diseases  that  rarely  tend  toward  sponta- 
neous resolution,  and  in  the  treatment  of  which  allopathy  is 
acknowledged  by  its  adherents  to  be  of  doubtful  efficacy  are 
daily  cured  by  Homoeopathy,  and  it  is  not  only  gratifying,  but 
exceedingly  beneficial  to  one's  faith  in  the  only  law  of  cure  to 
read  of  such  cases  as  that  reported  by  Dr.  W.  A.  Tingling, 
page  400,  in  The  Homceopathic  Physician  of  September. 

Another  such  once  made  a  vivid  impression  upon  me.  A  boy 
of  about  nine  years  while  teasing  a  "  pet "  rat  was  bitten  by  the 
"  varmint"  on  the  first  finger  of  the  left  hand.  I  am  sorry 
that  my  record  does  not  state  how  long  a  time  had  elapsed  before 
I  was  called  in,  but  I  found  him,  as  I  saw  at  once,  horribly  ill. 
Is  it  not  the  experience  of  all  physicians  that  the  first  glance  at 
some  cases  fills  him  with  awe?  I  felt  that  I  had  an  undesirable 
case  in  hand,  and  one  that  had  not  been  too  early  placed  under 
treatment.  The  boy  could  talk  only  with  great  difficulty;  his 
teeth  were  not  quite  firmly  locked,  but  he  was  conscious  of  an 


476 


VERIFICATIONS. 


[Oct., 


almost  momentary  aggravation  of  the  difficulty  in  separating  the 
jaws  ;  his  neck  was  so  stiff  as  to  render  any  motion  of  the  head 
almost  impossible.  With  this  was  a  nervous  excitement  and 
marked  tremor  of  the  body.  I  preferred  Hypericum  to  Ledum, 
on  account  of  there  being  more  tenderness  about  the  wound  than 
its  appearance  would  indicate,  and  gave  him  the  500th  of  TafePs 
in  water  every  fifteen  minutes.  'This  was  about  eight  P.  if.,  and 
his  mother  stated  the  following  morning  that  he  had  been  very 
feverish  and  restless  till  three  o'clock,  when,  as  he  "  looked  " 
better  and  was  sleepy,  she  did  not  give  the  medicine  but  about 
every  two  hours,  when  he  moved  or  awoke.  I  found  him  sitting 
up  in  bed  at  nine  o'clock  amusing  himself  and  his  mother  by 
opening  and  shutting  his  mouth  and  turning  his  head  about,  and 
quite  indignant  because  he  could  not  be  up  and  dressed,  which 
was  allowed  on  the  day  following. 

Pain  in  the  Shin  Bones. — Now,  while  in  the  line  of 
verifications,  may  I  be  permitted  to  refer  to  page  421  of  the 
same  number?  Dr.  S.  Mills  Fowler  thereon  states  as  follows  : 
"  *  *  *  terrible  pains  in  the  shin  bones.  *  *  *  Hering  gives  as 
a  characteristic  of  Lachesis, '  much  pain  of  an  aching  kind  in  the 
shin  bones  only.'  I  have,  three  different  times  since  the  above 
observation,  verified  this  symptom  clinically,  and  have  come  to 
regard  it  as  i  the  red  string'  for  Lachesis."  Now,  if  you  have 
Vol.  VII  of  The  Homceopathic  Physician  before  you,  please 
turn  to  page  62  and  read,  in  an  article  by  myself  a  comment  on 
this.  But  I  see  you  have  not,  so  I  will  copy  it  here:  "  When- 
ever I  find  a  1 throat  case'  having  these  pains  I  say  confidently 
to  myself,  either  the  left  side  of  the  throat  is  worse  or  the  trouble 
has  commenced  there,  and  have  never  failed  to  find  it  so.  Further 
than  this,  I  have  numbers  of  times  been  called  to  see  a  person 
suffering  from  and  complaining  mainly  of  those  pains  with 
fever  (which  had  been  preceded  by  a  chill),  and  with  slight 
huskiness  or  1  thickness'  of  the  voice,  who  would  not  complain 
at  all  of  the  throat,  or  perhaps  even  assert  that  there  was  little 
or  no  trouble  there.  Looking,  I  would  find  marked  ulceration 
or  deposit,  and  always  worse  on  the  left  side."  I  sincerely  trust  that 


1890  ]         ERRORS  IN  DR.  ALLEN'S  ENCYCLOPEDIA.  477 


this  will  not  come  to  the  eye  of  an  allopath,  for  I  can  imagine  him 
asking  what  possible  relation  the  pains  in  the  shin  bones  have 
to  the  left  side  of  the  throat,  and  I  could  not,  I  am  sure,  tell 
him.  But  just  here,  where  allopathy  is  a  blank,  Homoeopathy 
places  Lachesis,  and  the  circuit  is  complete. 


ERRORS  IN  DR.  T.  F.  ALLEN'S  ENCYCLOPEDIA. 

Editors  of  The  Homoeopathic  Physician: 

I  beg  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  the  marked  copy  of  your 
journal  referring  to  the  criticisms  on  the  Encyclopedia  * 

The  two  pfovings  to  which  reference  was  made  are  incorrectly 
placed,  and  are  properly  criticised,  but  it  is  right  to  state  that 
the  criticisms  have  hitherto  been  publicly  made.  Indium  was 
known  to  have  been  incorrectly  put  under  Iodium  before  the 
volume  was  issued,  and  a  slip  was  inserted  announcing  the  fact  to 
the  public.  The  first  authority  of  Ant-t.,  belonging  under 
Manganum,  was  corrected  by  me  in  the  North  American  Journal 
of  Homoeopathy  (I  believe).  The  symptoms  of  both  these  prov- 
ings are  properly  recorded  in  my  hand-book,  the  Indium  under 
Iodium  and  authority  I  of  Ant-t.  under  Manganum.  In  the 
preparation  of  the  hand-book  all  the  errors  of  the  Encyclopedia 
were  laborously  corrected  so  far  as  they  could  be  ferreted  out. 
There  are  errors  enough,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  and  my  interleaved 
and  marked  copy  of  the  Encyclopedia  is  entirely  at  the  service  of 
the  profession  whenever  it  wishes  to  have  the  corrected  symp- 
tomology. 

Your  readers  will  easily  understand  that  the  preparation  of 
such  a  great  work  demanded  the  employment  of  clerical  assist- 
ance, and,  while  everything  passed  under  my  eye,  many  errors 
could  not  be  avoided.  Time  and  expense  have  not  been  spared 
to  correct  these,  and,  as  I  said  before,  the  corrections  are 
entirely  at  the  service  of  the  profession  or  of  individuals. 

Yours  very  truly,  T.  F.  Allen. 


See  September  number,  page  425. 


NOTES  FROM  PAST  MEETINGS  OF  THE  LIPPE 
SOCIETY. 


Saccharum-album  : 

Dr.  Allen  related  a  case  of  opacity  of  the  cornea  cured  with 
Saccharum-album  potentized.  Dr.  Lippe  said  that  Bcenning- 
hausen  had  proved  Saccharum-album,  and  had  shown  his 
provings  to  Dr.  Lippe,  who  copied  them  and  afterward  published 
them  in  the  Ilahnemannian  Monthly.  It  is  very  similar  to 
Calc-carb. 

Dr.  Alien  said  that  he  had  cured  swelling  around  the  ankles 
following  rheumatism  with  Saccharum-album  2M.  Dr.  Lippe 
said  black-and-tan  terrier  dogs  that  eat  sugar  go  blind. 

Sensitiveness  to  noise  : 

Dr.  Lippe  said  that,  in  extreme  sensitiveness  to  noise,  the 
patient  can  hear  whispers  in  the  next  room  and  is  irritated  by 
them  ;  Cannabis-indica  is  the  remedy.  Nitric-acid  has  sensi- 
tiveness to  jarring  and  rumbling  of  wagons  in  the  street. 

Dr.  Lee  said  that  Coffea  has  the  same  symptom. 

Dr.  Allen  said  that  Borax  has  great  sensitiveness  to  noise  ;  to 
the  fall  of  a  door-latch,  crumpling  of  paper,  and  rustling  of 
silk.    Coffea  has  general  sensitiveness  to  all  noises. 

The  conversation  falling  upon  Hahnemann, 

Dr.  Fellger  said  that  a  new  book  upon  Hahnemann  by  a  Dr. 
Ameke  had  appeared  at  Berlin.  By  contemporary  documents 
the  author  shows  that  Hahnemann  was  the  greatest  physician 
of  his  time.  One  of  Hahnemann's  peculiarities  was  that  he  got 
along  with  very  little  sleep.  He  worked  prodigiously.  He 
published  one  hundred  and  sixteen  large  works  and  about  one 
thousand  two  hundred  pamphlets.  He  was  a  good  musician 
and  an  astronomer,  and  was  versed  in  every  branch  of  knowl- 
edge that  was  connected  with  medicine.  About  1806,  he  re- 
marked that  Mercury  had  the  same  symptoms  as  syphilis,  and 
that  it  would  cure  syphilis.  When  tlahnemann  came  out  with 
his  new  system  of  medicine,  he  was  universally  spoken  of  with 
respect,  and  even  reverence,  but  with  regret  for  his  folly.  But, 
478 


Oct  ,1890.]  NOTES  FROM  PAST  MEETINGS  OF  LIPPE  SOC.  479 


after  a  year  or  so,  he  was  denounced  as  an  ignoramus  and 
scoundrel. 

Dr.  Fellger  further  said  that  this  book  of  Ameke  contains 
the  most  astonishing  evidence  of  the  meanness  and  rascality  of 
the  old-school  physicians  of  Hahnemann's  day. 

In  Hahnemann's  day,  it  was  against  the  law  to  allow  a 
patient  to  die  without  bleediug  him,  and  penalties  were  inflicted 
for  neglecting  to  do  it.  Hence,  there  was  an  additional  scourge 
in  the  hands  of  old-school  doctors  for  punishing  homoeopathists. 

Mercurial  poisoning  ; 

Dr.  Fellger  related  a  case  of  a  man  treated  by  an  eclectic 
homceopathist  with  massive  doses  of  Mercury.  The  patient 
died,  and  Dr.  Fellger  made  a  post-mortem  examination.  He 
found  two  ounces  of  metallic  mercury  in  the  liver. 

He  also  mentioned  cases  where  he  had  experimented  upon 
patients  who  had  taken  massive  doses  of  Mercury,  He  had 
applied  the  poles  of  a  galvanic  battery  terminating  in  copper 
plates  to  the  skin,  and  the  electricity  had  extracted  the  mercury, 
causing  it  to  settle  upon  the  plates,  giving  them  a  silvery  ap- 
pearance. 

The  idea  that  Syphilinum  is  the  remedy  for  syphilis  is  ab- 
surd. If  so,  then  we  have  only  to  diagnose  syphilis,  and  give 
Syphilinum  to  cure  the  case.  This  is  pathological  prescribing, 
and  we  are  simply  swinging  around  the  same  circle  as  the  old 
school  of  medicine. 

In  th°  bone  affections  of  syphilis,  when  there  are  pinkish-red 
swellings  of  the  tibia — nodes — with  unbearable  pain,  Kali- 
hydriodicum  is  the  remedy.  Aurum  is  useful  for  syphilitic  ul- 
cers of  the  roof  of  the  mouth.  Man^mum-aceticum  for  a  sin- 
gle  small  tumor  of  the  roof  of  the  mouth,  the  bone  somewhat 
involved.  Asafcetida,  many  small  tumors  of  the  roof  of  the 
mouth  with  suppuration.  The  tumors  are  discolored,  this  color 
being  the  distinguishing  feature.  The  bone  is  deeply  involved 
in  the  suppurative  process. 

In  the  case  of  the  tibia  before  referred  to,  if  the  node  be  bluish 
Manganum-aceticum  is  the  remedy.  When  the  nodes  are  small 
and  numerous  Asafcetida  is  likely  to  be  the  remedy.  Kali- 


480 


NOTES  FROM  PAST  MEETINGS  OF  LIPPE  SOC.  [Oct.,  1890. 


hydriod.  is  more  superficial,  Manga n-acet.  acts  more  deeply. 
Asafcetida  has  a  very  marked  action  upon  the  periosteum. 

Dr.  Fellger  related  how  a  case  of  syphilis  was  caused  by  vac- 
cinating with  virus  from  a  syphilitic  subject. 

These  are  but  slight  examples  of  the  diverse  indications  that 
arise  in  syphilis,  and  consequently  multiply  the  number  of 
remedies  needed  to  effectually  treat  it.  Moreover,  if  we  reflect 
upon  the  number  of  remedies  required  to  treat  mercurialization, 
which  is  comparatively  definite  in  its  affection,  how  many  more 
must  be  needed  to  meet  the  requirements  of  so  complex  a  disease 
as  syphilis. 

On  another  occasion  there  was  a  discussion  upon 
Hydrophobia. 

Dr.  Lippe  related  a  singular  case  which  somewhat  resembled 
hydrophobia.  The  patient  had  made  her  feet  sore  by  excessive 
walking.  So  she  applied  turpentine,  which  was  followed  by 
spasms  every  time  the  patient  saw  water  or  heard  it  poured  or 
saw  a  bright  object.  She  also  had  spasms  from  any  attempt  to 
urinate.    Cantharides  relieved  her. 

Malaria  : 

Dr.  Allen  spoke  of  a  case  of  profuse  sweat  occurring  in  a  case 
of  malaria.  The  patient  was  confined  to  the  bed  and  the  sweat 
continued  to  come  so  freely  that  when  the  arm  was  held  up  it 
would  run  off  in  a  perfect  stream.  Quinine  sulphate  41 M  (F.) 
was  given  and  the  sweat  abated  in  two  days.  The  man  then  got 
well.  § 

Dr.  Lippe  told  of  the  case  of  a  man  whom  he  was  treating  for 
chills.  The  patient  having  large  business  interests  pressing  upon 
him,  was  unwilling  to  await  the  action  of  the  similar  remedy,  but 
insisted  on  taking  a  large  dose  of  Quinine  to  "  break  up"  the 
chill.  Dr.  Lippe  objected,  and  predicted  that  the  patient  would 
pay  a  heavy  penalty  by  continuing  to  be  sick  for  years.  The 
patient  nevertheless  took  the  Quinine,  with  the  result  exactly  as 
Dr.  Lippe  had  predicted. 

Hemorrhoids  : 

Dr.  Guernsey  had  a  ease  of  a  patient  with  hemorrhoids  which 
protruded  with  sharp  pain  when  urinating.    Baryta-carb.  cured. 


T  ZET  IE 


Homeopathic  Physician, 

A  MONTHLY  JOURNAL  OF 

HOMEOPATHIC  MATERIA  MEDICA  AND  CLINICAL  MEDICINE. 


"  If  our  school  ever  gives  up  the  strict  inductive  method  of  Hahnemann,  we 
are  lost,  and  deserve  only  to  be  mentioned  as  a  caricature  in 
the  history  of  medicine."— constantine  hering. 


Vol.  X.  NOVEMBER,  1890.  No.  11. 


EDITORIAL. 

Medicinal  Aggravation. — "An  aggravation  of  the  dis- 
ease by  new,  violent  symptoms  during  the  first  few  doses  of  a 
chosen  curative  medicine  is  never  indicative  of  feebleness  of  the 
dose  (never  requires  the  dose  to  be  increased),  but  it  proves  the 
total  unfitness  and  worthlessness  of  the  medicine  in  this  case  of 
disease. 

"  The  aggravation  just  alluded  to,  by  violent,  new  symptoms 
not  proper  to  the  disease,  bears  no  resemblance  to  the  increase 
of  the  apparently  original  symptoms  of  the  disease  during  the 
first  few  hours  after  the  administration  of  a  medicine  selected  in 
a  positive  (curative)  manner,  which  I  formerly  spoke  of.  This 
phenomenon  of  the  increase  of  what  seems  to  be  the  pure  symp- 
toms of  the  disease,  but  which  are  actually  predominant  medi- 
cinal symptoms  resembling  those  of  the  disease,  indicates  merely 
that  the  dose  of  the  appropriately  selected  curative  medicine  has 
been  too  large.  It  disappears,  if  the  dose  has  not  been  enor- 
mously large,  after  the  lapse  of  two,  three,  or,  at  most,  four 
hours  after  its  administration,  and  makes  way  for  a  removal  of 
the  disease  that  will  be  all  the  more  durable,  generally  after  the 
expiring  of  the  term  of  the  action  of  the  first  dose  ;  so  that,  in 
the  case  of  acute  affections,  a  second  dose  is  usually  unnecessary. 
"  However,  there  is  no  positive  remedy,  be  it  ever  so  well  selected,  which 

31  481 


482 


EDITORIAL. 


[Nov., 


shall  not  produce  one.  at  least  one  slight,  unusual  suffering,  a  slight  new 
symptom,  during  its  employment,  in  very  irritable,  sensitive  patients,  for  it  is 
almost  impossible  that  medicine  and  disease  should  correspond  as  accurately 
in  their  symptoms  as  two  triangles  of  equal  angles  and  sides  resemble  each 
other.  But  this  unimportant  difference  is  (in  favorable  cases)  more  than 
sufficiently  compensated  by  the  inherent  energy  of  the  vitality,  and  is  not 
even  perceived,  except  by  patients  of  excessive  delicacy." — Hahnemann. 

This  question  of  aggravation,  treated  by  Hahnemann  above, 
is  one  that  has  received  as  much  ridicule  from  the  old-school 
and  from  many  of  his  pretending  followers  as  any  of  the  other 
truths  he  promulgated.  It  requires  but  slight  observation  on 
the  part  of  him  who  knows  how  to  practice  Homoeopathy  to 
know  that  it  is  true,  and  that  it  is  but  a  part  of  the  duty  of  the 
conscientious  physician  to  be  ever  on  the  alert  for  aggravations, 
so  that  he  may  know  how  closely  his  chosen  remedy  fits  the  con- 
dition for  which  it  is  prescribed. 

To  fit  himself  for  the  ability  to  notice  the  changes  which 
occur  in  the  treatment  of  any  case  of  disease  is  incumbent  upon 
every  one,  and  is  one  of  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  Homoe- 
opathy. 

It  is  here  a  knowledge  of  real  pathology  is  necessary.  We 
do  not  mean  that  coarse,  material  pathology  usually  taught  in 
the  schools,  but  that  finer  study  which  is  to  be  found  alone  in 
the  writings  of  Hahnemann  and  his  followers.  This  knowl- 
edge, as  there  found,  enables  the  genuine  physician  to  know 
when  to  give  and  when  to  withold  medicine,  and  the  successful 
treatment  of  disease  can  only  be  attained  by  adhering  to  this. 


In  this,  as  in  all  other  "of  his  writings,  Hahnemann  does  not 
explain,  or  attempt  to  explain,  the  why.  He  possessed  sufficient 
wisdom  to  be  satisfied  with  observing  and  recording  the  facts. 
It  has  remained  for  the  present  day  to  produce  wiser  men  than 
Hahnemann. 

Our  attention  is  frequently  called  to  papers  in  which  the 
writers  endeavor  to  comment  on  selected  paragraphs  of  the 
Organon,  and  we  are  more  than  amused  by  their  absurd  attempts 
to  pose  as  erudite. 


1890.] 


EDITORIAL. 


483 


Hahnemann  recorded  the  facts.  These  writers  make  frivolous 
attempts  at  philosophical  explanations  of  th^n,  or  else  equally 
frivolous  attempts  to  deny  them. 

If  there  be  no  explanation  that  satisfies  their  so-called  "  un- 
derstanding/' then  they  deny  the  facts.  Our  literature  teems 
with  this  sort  of  rubbish.  The  same  energy  thus  expended,  if 
used  to  carefully  verify  Hahnemann's  facts  and  amplify  his 
Materia  Medica,  would  add  to  the  progress  of  the  cause. 

That  principle  which  we  call  dynamis  is  a  favorite  subject  of 
explanation  or  of  attack  according  as  the  writer  is  in  sympathy 
with  pure  Homoeopathy  or  in  a  state  of  hostility  to  it. 

The  attempt  to  explain  it  reminds  us  of  the  student  who  had 
known,  but,  unfortunately,  had  forgotten  what  is  animal  mag- 
netism. 

Lo,  here  are  greater  than  the  master ! 
"  A  strong  conceit  is  rich  ;  so  most  men  deem, 
If  not  to  be,  'tis  comfort  vet  to  seem." 

G.  H.  C. 


The  Teaching  of  Pure  Homceopathy  in  the  Colleges. 
— In  our  October  number,  at  page  437,  we  spoke  of  the  appoint- 
ment of  Dr.  Frank  Kraft  to  the  chair  of  Materia  Medica  in  the 
Cleveland  College.  In  that  editorial  we  unintentionally  over- 
looked Dr.  W.  L.  Reed,  of  St.  Louis,  who  is  doing  an  equally 
noble  work,  in  the  teaching  of  pure  Homoeopathy  in  the  St. 
Louis  College. 

In  a  letter  received  from  Dr.  Cohen,  of  Waco,  Texas  (which 
much  to  our  regret  we  cannot  publish  in  full  for  want  of  space),  he 
writes:  "  Dr.  Reed  lectures  on  Materia  Medica  three  times  per 
week,  and  teaches  his  auditors  how  to  apply  the  remedies  under 
the  strictest  observance  of  the  law.  The  classes  read  the 
Organon  twice  a  week,  the  Doctor  commenting  upon  each  para- 
graph at  length,  and  he  has  succeeded  in  exciting  an  intense  in- 
terest on  the  subject,  in  the  minds  of  his  pupils.  I  was  in  St. 
Louis  in  March  last  and  know  whereof  I  write.  There  are 
other  gentlemen  in  this  faculty  who  are  just  as  zealous  and  pains- 
taking in  their  respective  spheres  in  disseminating  the  true  prin- 


484    SOME  RESULTS  FROM  THE  ABUSE  OF  QUININE.  [Nov., 


ciples  which  should  guide  us  iu  our  practice,  as  is  Dr.  Reed, 
and  it  is  due  to  these  hard  workers  in  the  cause  that  every 
practitioner  and  every  patron  of  Homoeopathy  should  know 
what  is  being  done  at  the  institution  in  St.  Louis,  and  permit  it 
at  least  to  share  in  the  good  things  said  of  the  Cleveland  school." 

Dr.  Reed  is  sufficiently  well  acquainted  with  us  to  know  that 
we  would  not  intentionally  ignore  his  work.  Still  we  think  it 
only  right  that  we  should  make  this  explanation  that  no  injus- 
tice be  done  a  most  enthusiastic,  painstaking  advocate  of  the 
cause.  W.  M.  J. 

SOME  RESULTS  FROM  THE  ABUSE  OF  QUININE. 

[Read  before  the  California  State  Homoeopathic  Society,  May  14th,  1890.] 

J.  T.  Martin,  M.  D.,  Woodland,  Gal. 

We  are  not  going  to  claim  any  special  originality  in  the  choice  of 
subjects,  or  in  the  matter  presented.  It  may  seem  a  little  pre- 
sumptuous, however,  to  undertake  one  capable  of  so  great  and  in- 
definite expansion  ;  but  be  that  as  it  may,  what  we  can't  handle  of 
it,  we  most  sincerely  hope  you  may  use  up  after  we  are  through. 
The  more  we  study  it  the  more  it  grows  in  proportions,  and  the 
harder  it  is  to  select  the  material  for  a  short  essay.  So  it  will 
not  be  at  all  strange  if  there  is  some  left  for  you  to  digest.  To 
do  the  subject  full  justice  would  occupy  too  much  of  your  time. 

We  merely  intend  to  present  to  you  a  few  facts  so  combined 
that  they  ought  to  elicit  a  more  than  passing  notice  from  all  in- 
terested in  this  investigation.  It  would  doubtless  be  better  for 
suffering  mankind  the  world  over  if  we  all  gave  more  attention 
to  the  over  use  of  drugs  in  general  and  this  one  in  particular. 

Men  and  even  physicians,  too,  often  are  not  independent  think- 
ers enough  to  decide  questions  of  therapeutics  for  themselves ; 
but  depend  too  largely  upon  the  dictum  of  some  supposed  au- 
thority, without  following  his  course  of  reasoning  in  the  only 
way  that  would  prove  his  conclusions  either  true  or  false.  It 
seems  to  me  a  self-evident  proposition  that  whenever  a  medicine 
is  used  in  a  sufficient  quantity  to  suppress  a  disease  from  which 


1890.]    SOME  RESULTS  FROM  THE  ABUSE  OF  QUININE.  485 


a  patient  is  suffering,  it  is  used  abusively,  by  causing  in  many 
instances  a  much  more  serious  disease  instead  of  curing  the  one 
intended. 

The  belief  expressed  in  these  words,  "If  a  little  is  good,  much 
is  better,"  has  done  a  world  of  harm  to  unsuspecting  mankind 
by  inducing  them  to  load  up  with  medicines,  charge  after  charge, 
expecting  that  in  someway  the  disease  would  be  fired  out  by  one 
of  these  potent  charges.  Its  cognate,  "  It  won't  do  any  harm, 
if  it  don't  do  any  good,"  may,  in  the  light  of  future  years, 
be  equally  fertile  in  producing  mischief. 

We  take  from  our  own  experience  a  case  that  seems  bristling 
full  of  suggestions  to  the  thoughtful  student.  It  is  this  :  Some 
two  years  ago  a  little  boy  was  brought  to  my  office  with  a  slight 
attack  of  malarial  fever,  which  possessed  no  alarming  symptoms. 
Indeed,  so  light  was  the  fever  that  the  child  was  allowed  to  run 
at  large  during  the  forenoon,  but  would  lie  down  in  the  after 
part  of  the  day.  He  went  on  this  way  for  several  days,  till  one 
day  his  mother  allowed  him  to  eat  some  watermelon,  which 
caused  his  fever  to  increase  quite  fast.  At  this  juncture  the 
friends  wanted  a  Quinine  tonic,  which  I  could  not  advise,  and 
they  sent  to  an  old-school  physician,  obtained  one  and  gave  it 
according  to  directions,  with  the  result  that  the  fever  was  sup- 
pressed in  a  short  time,  leaving  the  child,  as  they  supposed,  well 
of  his  fever,  and  with  nothing  left  to  do  but  to  recover  his  usual 
strength  and  vigor.  The  interesting  part  of  the  case,  however, 
is  the  subsequent  history.  After  relief  from  the  fever  he  did 
not,  as  was  supposed  he  would,  recover  his  wonted  health  ;  but 
drooped,  and  was  very  languid  for  a  month  or  so,  when  he  was 
suddenly  seized  with  an  acute  attack  of  cerebro-spinal  meningitis, 
and  died  in  a  few  days.  After  observing  this  case,  and  noting 
the  result,  and  believing,  as  we  did,  that  the  suppression  of  the 
malarial  attack  was  the  direct  cause  of  the  meningitis,  we  hunted 
the  current  literature  of  the  day  at  our  command,  to  find  evi- 
dence to  support  or  disprove  our  theory.  In  the  meantime,  a 
friend  who  belonged  to  the  old  school,  speaking  of  the  use  of 
Quinine  in  cerebro-spinal  meningitis,  said  he  never  saw  a  case  of 
this  disease  recover  that  had  been  treated  with  that  drug.  He 


486      SOME  RESULTS  FROM  THE  ABUSE  OF  QUININE.  [Nov., 


had  had  quite  a  large  experience  with  this  disease  in  its  various 
forms. 

I  have  in  mind  a  case  of  cerebro-spinal  meningitis  treated  by 
scientific  medicine  that,  although  much  prolonged,  was  progress- 
ing toward  recovery,  when  the  attending  physician  thought  to 
help  him  regain  his  lost  strength  and  usual  vitality  by  spurring 
up  the  life-forces  to  do  better  and  quicker  work  by  means  of  a 
Quinine  tonic. 

After  using  this  medicine  for  not  more  than  a  week,  he 
suddenly  took  a  relapse  and  died.  I  have  often  thought  what  a 
consolation  it  certainly  must  be  to  the  poor,  weary  doctor  that 
the  people  in  general  attribute  such  results  to  the  over-ruling 
Providence  of  an  allwise  God.  The  burden  is  lightened.  The 
friends  are  satisfied  and  the  doctor  very  likely  lands  the  next 
one  in  the  same  place. 

Dr.  George  B.  Wood,  in  his  work,  Vol.  I,  edition  1860,  says, 
in  speaking  of  experiments  upon  dogs,  even  meningitis  has  in 
some  relatively  few  instances  been  brought  on  by  very  large 
doses.  Again,  on  page  249,  same  volume,  the  doctor  says  cases 
are  on  record  in  which  death  has  occurred  from  inflammation  of 
the  brain  from  the  excessive  use  of  Quinine.  And  on  page  250 
he  goes  on  to  say  that  another  danger  from  Quinine  is  the  great 
and  secondary  prostration  from  enormous  doses,  which  in  per- 
sons already  feeble  may  possibly,  in  some  instances,  prove  fatal. 
In  the  transactions  of  the  American  Neurological  Society,  re- 
ported in  the  Medical  Record  of  July  27th,  1889,  Dr.  Prince, 
of  Boston,  speaking  of  the  frequency  of  tabes  and  other  spinal 
degenerations  in  cases  which  also  presented  a  history  of  malaria, 
said  the  first  case  he  had  recorded  was  one  of  locomotor  ataxia, 
with  typical  tabetic  crisis  before  each  malarial  chill.  Altogether, 
the  author  reported  in  detail  six  cases  showing  the  co-existence 
of  tabes  with  malaria,  and  six  cases  where  malarial  history  was 
associated  with  sclerosis.  Besides  these  he  had  notes  on  three 
other  cases  of  multiple  sclerosis,  two  of  locomotor  ataxia,  and 
one  of  lateral  sclerosis  with  a  similar  relation. 

Dr.  Erbb  following,  stated  that  tabes  may  occur  as  a  sequel 


1890.]    SOME  RESULTS  FROM  THE  ABUSE  OF  QUININE.  487 


of  intermittent  fever,  but  neglected  to  add,  when  suppressed  by- 
Quinine. 

Dr.  Prince  again  entering  the  discussion,  stated  that  he  had 
documentary  evidence  of  the  pre-existence  of  malarial  poison  in 
all  his  cases  taken  from  the  army  register,  as  they  were  all  old 
soldiers. 

We  wish  we  had  the  documentary  evidence  at  hand  to  show 
that  these  old  soldiers  took  plenty  of  Quinine  when  this  mala- 
rial poison  first  made  its  appearance.  But  we  have  not,  neither 
have  we  the  least  doubt  that  such  a  record  exists,  and  were  I 
able  to  place  it  before  you  to-day  you  would  then  see  that  these 
cases  just  mentioned  were  all  suffering  from  suppressed  inter- 
mittent. Most  of  you,  however,  will  agree  with  me  in  the 
following  proposition :  that  if  we  have  an  old-school  physician 
and  a  case  of  malarial  fever,  said  case  is  as  sure  to  receive  a 
plentiful  supply  of  Quinine,  as  that  the  doctor  lives  to  get  there. 
It  is  hardly  necessary  for  me  to  tell  you  that  most  all  our  army 
physicians  belong  to  the  old  school,  and,  therefore,  would  fulfill 
the  conditions  of  this  proposition.  Such  discussions  as  were  re- 
ported from  the  American  Neurological  Society  ought  to  result 
in  ultimate  truth  and  be  a  lasting  benefit  to  shaking  humanity. 
Let  them  become  more  and  more  general  until  the  glorious  sun- 
light of  medical  truth  shall  shine  full  in  their  faces.  Some  two 
years  ago  last  fall  a  gentleman  who  was  working  on  the  Seventy- 
six  Ditch  Company's  ditch  in  Fresno  County,  called  at  my 
office  to  be  relieved  from  a  condition  very  much  resembling 
paraplegia.  Sensation  seemed  to  be  normal,  but  voluntary  mo- 
tion was  very  much  impaired.  His  joints  were  stiff  but  not 
swollen.  He  could  not  always  make  the  motions  with  his  limbs 
that  was  intended.  Could  not  raise  his  arm  to  his  head  or  use 
it  in  conveying  food  to  his  mouth.  He  also  had  but  little  use 
of  his  lower  extremities.  They  were  so  unmanageable  that  a 
little  unevenness  in  his  path  or  a  roll  in  the  carpet  would  cause 
him  to  tumble  down,  from  which  position  he  could  not  rise  with- 
out help.  In  addition  to  the  above  symptoms  he  had  a  tremor 
very  much  like  an  alcoholic  tremor  and  very  distressing  to  him. 
We  immediately  wanted  to  know  why  this  man  was  in  such  a 


488     SOME  RESULTS  FROM  THE  ABUSE  OF  QUININE.  [Nov., 


distressing  condition.  Why  had  lie  not  been  relieved  from  what 
seemed  to  have  been  a  very  simple  attack  of  intermittent  fever. 

During  the  course  of  the  investigation  we  soon  learned  why. 
He  had  been  working  near  water  running  through  a  newlv-dug 
irrigation  ditch  and  had  contracted  chills  and  fever,  the  paroxysm 
occurring  between  ten  and  eleven  a.  M.,  with  thirst  during  the 
chill ;  headache,  aching  of  bones,  with  nausea  and  vomiting  as 
soon  as  the  chill  was  going  off  and  the  heat  coming  on.  During 
the  heat,  headache  and  thirst  increased,  and  was  very  much  re- 
lieved during  the  perspiration.  He  had  been  treated  with 
Quinine  for  three  months,  which  resulted  in  the  condition  just 
stated.  It  is  not  necessary  to  follow  in  detail  the  treatment  of 
this  case,  which  lasted  some  six  weeks,  but  suffice  it  to  say  that 
Nat-mur.,  the  remedy  first  and  originally  indicated,  caused  the 
return  of  chills.  The  more  he  shook  the  more  he  limbered  up, 
till  he  recovered  his  usual  strength  and  agility,  when  the  chills 
had  entirely  left.  They  have  not  returned  up  to  the  time  of 
this  WTiting,  although  he  has  been  working  all  the  time  in  the 
same  place,  under  the  same  circumstances,  and  subject  to  the 
same  exposures  as  when  first  attacked.* 

In  the  early  spring  of  1889,  I  was  called  to  the  bedside  of  a 
young  man  about  seventeen  years  of  age,  suffering  from  general 
anasarca.  Face  bloated,  hands,  feet,  extremities  as  well  as  his 
entire  body  were  all  swollen  to  their  fullest  extent.  In  fact,  he 
was  the  worst  bloated  specimen  of  humanity  that  I  ever  saw. 
He  was  exceedingly  nervous,  possessing  a  nervous  tremor  very 
much  like  that  which  results  from  intoxication.  He  suffered 
very  much  from  pains  of  a  rheumatic  nature  in  various  parts  of 
the  body  that  were  very  distressing,  and  possibly  due  to  exten- 
sive infiltration  into  the  cellular  tissue. 

He  passed  large  quantities  of  blood  with  each  evacuation  of 
the  bladder,  mixed  with  the  urine  in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  no 
doubt  that  it  came  from  the  kidneys,  and,  of  course,  with  so 
much  blood  there  was  albumen  also.  The  previous  history  of 
this  case,  which  I  obtained  from  the  mother,  is  very  interesting 
and  worthy  of  study. 

*  This  case  reported  that  the  chills  returned  some  three  months  subsequent 
to  the  reading  of  this  paper. 


1890.]    SOME  RESULTS  FEOM  THE  ABUSE  OF  QUININE.  489 


The  spring  after  he  was  three  years  old,  he  had  an  attack  of 
malarial  fever  with  no  indications  of  chills.  This  was  called 
and  treated  for  typho-malarial  fever,  and  promptly  suppressed 
by  Quinine,  but  returned  the  next  spring,  and  was  completely 
squelched  with  the  same  drug  as  before.  It  was  bold  enough  to 
return  on  the  third  spring,  when  the  same  guns,  similarly  loaded, 
were  brought  to  bear  upon  it  with  equally  good  result,  and  so  it 
returned  every  spring  for  fourteen  years,  and  was  as  promptly 
subdued  by  the  same  approved  methods.  Finally,  we  were 
called  in  to  subdue  the  last  attack,  when  his  poor,  weak  body 
was  so  full  of  the  material  fired  there  to  kill  the  intruder  that 
it  was  absolutely  impossible  to  make  it  hold  any  more.  He 
went  on  getting  better,  then  worse,  till  his  lungs  filled  up  and 
he  died  with  what  the  doctors  called  Bright's  disease.  Speaking 
of  the  abuse  of  China,  Hahnemann  says  :  "  Note  their  earthy 
complexion,  their  puffy  faces,  the  dullness  of  their  eyes ;  see  how 
oppressed  is  their  breathing ;  how  hard  and  extended  their  epi- 
gastrium ;  how  tensely  swollen  their  loins;  how  miserable  their 
appetite  :  how  perverted  their  tastes  ;  how  painful  and  oppressed 
their  stomachs  are  by  all  food and  so  he  goes  on  to  expatiate 
on  the  grosser  effects  of  this  drug,  that,  when  rightly  used,  is 
such  a  blessing  to  mankind.  The  picture  that  Hahnemann  has 
given  us  of  the  over-use  of  Quinine  is  remarkably  similar  to 
the  case  just  reported  that  had  been  treated  so  long  with  the  sul- 
phate. 

Had  the  stupid  doctor  ever  read  Hahnemann's  preface  to  his 
article  on  Cinchona,  he  could  have  seen  that  the  original  disease 
had  long  ago  ceased  to  exist  and  he  had  to  deal  with  the  drug 
disease  cinchonism,  which  is  much  harder  to  cure  than  the 
original  trouble.  He  might  then  have  been  able  to  relieve  the 
sufferer,  instead  of  hurrying  him  on  to  a  premature  and  un- 
timely grave.  We  may  draw  a  few  pertinent  conclusions  from 
the  facts  we  have  herein  collected.  First,  Quinine  has  a  specific 
action  on  the  spinal  marrow  and  nerves,  and  cerebro-spinal 
meningitis  may  be  brought  on  either  by  an  overdose  of  this 
drug,  or  by  the  suppression  of  an  attack  of  malarial  fever  by  it. 
This,  we  think,  is  more  liable  to  occur  in  children  and  younger 
people  than  in  those  of  more  mature  years.     It  comes  on  sud- 


490      SOME  RESULTS  FROM  THE  ABUSE  OF  QUININE.  [Nov., 


denly,  and  is  not  amenable  to  ordinary  old-school  treatment ; 
whether  it  would  be  to  good  homoeopathic  treatment  or  not  I  am 
at  present  not  able  to  say.  Second,  the  suppression  of  inter- 
mittent fever  will  produce  locomotor  ataxia,  sclerosis,  tabes, 
paraplegia,  and  other  forms  of  spinal  degenerations.  These 
forms  of  disease  are  more  liable  to  occur  in  adults  and  persons 
of  middle  age  and  older.  Such  are  more  able  to  withstand  the 
more  immediate  effects  of  the  drug,  and  we  find  the  spinal  trou- 
bles coming  on  long  after  the  attack  has  been  forgotten. 
It  will  kill  at  long  range  as  well  as  short,  and  give  your  victim 
a  chance  to  get  out  of  your  sight  before  he  lies  down  to  peaceful 
slumbers  or  is  gathered  unto  his  fathers.  Third,  it  will  produce, 
through  its  action  on  the  liver,  kidneys,  and  spleen,  a  condition 
very  closely  resembling  general  anasarca  that  is  very  distress- 
ing, and  may,  we  think,  if  followed  up,  in  many  cases  prove 
fatal.  This  latter  trouble  comes  on  more  insidiously  and  is  fully 
developed  before  any  one  is  aware  of  its  true  nature,  and  when 
organic  change  has  taken  place,  you  will  find  it  most  impossible 
to  relieve.  The  weight  of  the  drug  is  still  there,  and  ready  to 
render  futile  your  best  efforts.  It  is  a  good  deal  like  digging  in 
the  quicksands,  the  more  you  throw  out  the  more  will  run  in. 

Possibly  you  may  have  noticed  the  increased  number  of  sui- 
cides noted  in  the  secular  press  of  the  country  during  the  late 
epidemic  of  influenza.  On  one  [day,  in  the  early  part  of  Jan- 
uary, there  were  eighty-two  bodies  of  suicides  reported  in  the 
morgue  in  New  York  City  alone.  They  were  largely  treated 
with  Quinine  and  antipyrine,  and  if  you  will  take  the  trouble  to 
read  over  the  pathogenesis  of  the  former  drug,  you  will  be 
enabled  easily  to  account  for  this  increase  in  self-destruction. 
"  It  makes  him  gloomy,  fills  him  with  thoughts  of  suicide,  he 
wants  to  destroy  himself  and  so  on." 

The  time  is  fast  approaching  when  intelligent  people  will 
resist  the  doctor  in  his  efforts  to  produce  cinchonism  to  cure  ague, 
or  any  other  disease  for  that  matter.  We  would  not  do  the 
subject  anything  like  justice  did  we  not  speak  of  the  tonic  use  of 
this  drug,  which  we  think  is  very  pernicious.  For  a  time  it 
seems  to  build  up  the  system  and  make  the  patient  happy  in  the 
thought  that  he  is  speedily  to  be  restored  to  health,  but  this  too 


1890.]    SOME  RESULTS  FROM  THE  ABUSE  OF  QUININE.  491 


often  proves  to  be  only  a  delusion  and  a  snare,  it  lets  him  down 
lower  than  he  was  before.  If  the  patient  be  of  a  good  and  strong 
constitution,  there  may  be  no  immediately  bad  effects  noted — like 
those  old  soldiers  who  fought  so  valiantly  for  the  preservation  of 
the  Union,  escaping  the  horrors  of  a  death  on  the  battlefield  only 
to  die  years  afterward  by  that  slow  and  torturing  death  that  comes 
on  so  gradually,  and  is  the  result  of  a  misguided  practice  that 
ought  to  seek  only  the  good  of  its  fellow-man.  Taken  for  the 
relief  of  a  cold,  its  first  effect  is  to  create  a  feeling  of  pleasure 
and  exhilaration,  with  a  sensation  at  least  of  partial  relief  from 
trouble.  Bnt  when  the  next  cold  comes  on  it  demands  the  same 
relief,  and  the  next,  and  so  on.  Then  they  come  on  oftener  and 
still  oftener,  till  one  is  continuously  taking  tonic  for  colds.  Most 
of  you  who  live  in  either  the  San  Joaquin  or  Sacramento  valleys 
have  in  all  probability  seen  cases  of  this  sort.  I  have.  This 
taking  Quinine  for  every  little  ailment  produces  a  condition  of 
the  system  that  howls  and  cries  aloud  for  more  and  more  of  the 
stuff,  and  will  continue  to  do  so  till  the  demand  either  is  satisfied, 
squelched  with  a  suitable  antidote,  or  till  the  stomach  rises  up 
to  reject  the  intruder. 

In  cases  where  persons  are  somewhat  feeble  and  have  used  this 
drug  for  some  time,  and  for  any  reason  leave  off  its  use,  it  often 
produces  a  profound  prostration  that  may  in  some  instances 
prove  fatal.  This  may  also  be  the  case  when  doses  very  much 
too  large  have  been  taken.  The  use  of  the  drug  purely  as  a 
tonic  is  not  without  its  bad  results,  and  is  liable  to  do  consider- 
able harm,  because  the  patient  is  led  to  think  he  is  taking  some- 
thing very  simple  and  capable  only  of  giving  him  health  and 
strength.  This  often  proves  a  disappointment,  and  the  poor 
patient  seeks  another  tonic,  but  gets  one  with  the  same  base  and 
believes  himself  taking  an  entirely  new  mixture. 

Should  a  patient  who  has  been  so  treated  come  to  any  of  you 
for  treatment,  he  will  likely  tell  you  that  he  has  only  taken  a 
little  tonic — just  as  if  it  was  the  simplest  thing  in  the  world.  AVe 
would  like  to  give  you  some  facts  in  regard  to  the  use  of  this 
drug  in  typhoid  and  typho-malarial  fevers,  but  our  paper  has 
already  grown  to  such  length  that  we  would  occupy  more  than 
our  share  of  your  time. 


resets 


lies*  f/vcj  In^Zrri^lfeJ  /tjj 
fcmtf'oLttt*.  fcmJ rte-nfe  twicer  to  c£aJk 

S)e  3t e>oc  *T ^Jtt^e  %c  ro-t  -  -mesn^e 

Autograph  Letter  of  Samuel  Hahnemann. 


AN  AUTOGRAPH  LETTER  OF  SAMUEL  HAHNE- 
MANN. 


Upon  the  opposite  page  we  give  a  fac  simile  of  an  autograph 
letter  by  Dr.  Samuel  Hahnemann.  The  original  from  which 
this  copy  was  taken  is  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  Samuel  Long,  of 
New  Brunswick,  New  Jersey,  to  whose  courtesy  we  are  indebted 
for  the  opportunity  to  give  it  to  the  readers  of  The  Homoeo- 
pathic Physician. 

The  letter  was  presented  to  Dr.  Long  by  his  patient,  the 
venerable  Madame  D'Hervilly,  sister-in-law  of  Hahne- 
mann, accompanied  by  her  own  letter  of  which  the  following  is 
the  text : 

"  I  have  the  pleasure  and  satisfaction  of  giving  Doctor  Samuel  Long  the 
accompanying  letter,  written  to  me  by  my  brother-in-law,  Doctor  Samuel 
Hahnemann,  Paris,  March  12th,  1843. 

"  Mrs.  Felix  D'Hervilly, 

"New  Brunswick,  July  2d,  1890." 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  letter  is  in  three  languages  :  Eng- 
lish, German,  and  French. 

The  full  English  translation  is  as  follows  : 

(English.)  "  I  sought  truth  earnestly  and  found  it." 

(German.)         "  Cull  roses  while  the  roses  bloom, 
To-morrow  is  not  to-day  ; 
Lose,  not  an  hour,  for,  ah,  too  soon 
Time  speedeth  swift  away." 

(French.)  "  The  most  valuable  treasures  are  an  irreproachable  conscience 
and  good  health  ;  the  love  for  God  and  the  study  of  one's  self  gives  the  one, 
Homoeopathy  gives  the  other." 

This  reproduction  was,  in  the  first  instance,  photographed 
from  the  original,  and  then,  by  a  new  process,  transferred  to  a 
metal  plate,  from  which  the  print  was  made. 

We  are  certain  our  readers  will  appreciate  the  opportunity  to 
possess  a  fac  simile  of  the  handwriting  of  the  immortal  Hahne- 
mann. 

493 


THE  INSANITY  OF  JEALOUSY. 


Professor  B.  Ball,  Paris. 
With  Remarks  by  S.  L.,  Bulletin  Medical  57,  '90. 

"  Eifersucht  ist  eine  Leidenschaft,  die  mit  Eifersucht  was  Lei- 
denschaft "  (Jealousy  is  a  passion  which  zealously  tries  to  create 
trouble). 

Under  jealousy  one  can  understand  a  general  tendency  simi- 
lar to  envy  and,  like  it,  founded  on  egotism.  It  is  generally 
thought  that  jealousy  from  love  carries  within  itself  its  excuse, 
being  only  an  excess  of  the  most  tender  sentiment,  hence  juries 
are  very  apt  to  be  lenient  to  those  who  committed  crimes  while 
under  the  yoke  of  this  passion,  while  in  fact  jealousy  is  only  a 
very  pronounced  egotism,  as  the  patient  finds  himself  wounded 
far  more  in  his  self-esteem  than  in  his  affections.  A  few  ex- 
amples will  explain  my  meaning.  Here  we  have  a  well-edu- 
cated woman  of  forty-six  years,  with  the  traces  of  former  beauty 
still  on  her  face,  and  who  became  jealous  on  account  of  her  age, 
and  we  know  climaxis  is  always  a  tender  spot  with  women.  She 
was  the  head  cook  in  a  large  establishment,  and  she  prided  her- 
self on  her  excellent  taste,  considering  herself  the  queen  of  the 
table,  when,  without  cause,  she  became  suspicious  of  her  hus- 
band, and  bothered  him  constantly  in  such  a  manner  that  he 
thought  to  have  her  confined  in  an  asylum,  but  loving  her  still,  he 
sacrificed  himself  and  shot  himself  in  her  presence.  She  never 
lost  a  tear,  she  rather  felt  pleased,  and  ate  and  slept  as  well  as 
ever.  This  indifference  to  persons  near  and  dear  to  one  is 
characteristic  of  the  insane,  who  are  indifferent  to  everything 
which  is  foreign  to  their  fixed  idea,  and  this  woman  feels  pleased 
that  her  husband  cannot  cheat  her  any  more. 

In  other  cases,  as  our  second  one,  the  wife  may  not  love  her 
husband.  This  patient,  the  baby  of  a  large  family,  was  spoiled 
in  her  infancy  and  every  wish  gratified,  so  that  she  considered 
herself  its  centerpoint.  Unfortunately  she  married  a  man  who 
gave  way  to  all  her  whims.  They  had  two  children,  one  died 
494 


Nov.,  1890.]  THE  INSANITY  OF  JEALOUSY. 


495 


from  meningitis,  and  during  her  second  pregnancy  she  suffered 
from  excessive  jealousy.  Her  husband,  employed  on  the  marine 
staff,  was  obliged  to  be  frequently  from  home,  but  she  followed 
him  everywhere  and  accused  him  of  having  intimate  relations 
with  other  women  and  raised  mischief  even  in  the  street,  so  that 
she  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  police,  and  was  declared  insane.  At 
the  asylum  she  tried  to  breed  discontent,  broke  everything  she 
could  lay  her  hands  on,  was  full  of  halluciations  of  hearing  the 
conversations  of  her  husband  with  these  women.  She  is  now 
demented  and  incurable. 

Dr.  M.  P.  Moreau  proposed  the  following  classification:  1. 
Feeble  jealousy,  constant  cavil  about  trifles.  2.  Quarrels  and 
fights  caused  by  jealousy,  threatening  to  kill  its  object,  but  does 
not  accomplish  it.  3.  Violent  jealousy,  murder.  4.  Murder 
followed  by  suicide.  May  it  not  be  better  to  classify  it  only  as 
simple  jealousy  and  jealousy  with  alienation  and  with  or  with- 
out halluciation  ?  Jealous  mothers  have  killed  their  children 
and  then  committed  suicide  (Medea  and  Jason).  Heredity  and 
education  play  here  also  a  great  part ;  though  women  are  more 
given  to  jealousy,  still  one  meets  men  who  are  perfect  tyrants 
in  their  households.  Accidental  diseases  may  also  provoke 
jealousy,  and  sometimes  it  originates  in  a  traumatism  especially 
of  the  head  or  from  diseases  of  the  skull  affecting  the  brain. 
Zymotic  diseases,  chlorosis,  anaemia,  hysteria,  but  especially 
alcoholism  may  often  be  blamed  for  these  different  degrees  of 
jealousy,  and  the  men  are  often  jealous  after  drinking.  Preg- 
nancy and  menopause  may  lead  to  insane  delusions  of  jealousy, 
from  simple  melancholy  to  folie  circulaire  and  hysterical  in- 
sanity is  well  known.  Some  cases  are  curable,  but  the  prog- 
nosis is  bad,  when  deliria  of  persecution  are  mostly  found  in 
patients  born  with  a  degenerated  brain,  and  sequestration  is  the 
only  means  to  calm  such  turbulent  brains.  Such  spoiled 
children,  spoiled  even  after  being  grown  up,  must  learn  the  moral 
power  of  a  superior  force,  of  inflexible  rules  which  they  must 
obey. 

Homoeopathy  offers  great  resources  in  these  cases,  and  still 
even  our  remedies  will  act  better  when  such  a  patient  is  re- 


496 


THE  INSANITY  OF  JEALOUSY. 


[Nov., 


moved  from  home  influences,  where  every  trifle  goads  the  patient 
on  to  fresh  exhibition  of  their  pranks.  It  is  a  great  gain, 
as  Hyatt  teaches,  when  such  a  patient  learns  that  obedience  to 
the  rules  is  the  first  requisite,  and  as  their  strength  returns,  the 
cloud  will  gradually  melt  away.  In  the  third  edition  of  my 
Therapeutics,  page  381,  we  give  some  well-tried  drugs.  Who 
would  not  think  of  Apis  or  Lachesis  in  cases  originating  during 
puerperium  or  menopause?  Some  writers  even  called  Apis  "the 
widow's  remedy,''  on  account  of  its  sexual  irritability  and  thus 
it  may  be  suitable  to  light  as  well  as  to  severe  cases. 

Weary  at  heart  is  characteristic  of  Lachesis,  and  weary  of 
life  such  a  patient  doubts  everything,  and  thus  also  the  fidelity 
of  her  husband,  and  hence  homicidal  and  suicidal  ideas  enter  the 
diseased  mind.  A  dose  of  Lachesis  might  have  restored  the 
troubled  conscience  of  a  Medea.  The  differential  points  be- 
tween Lachesis  and  Naja  await  yet  to  be  worked  out,  and  Naja 
is  too  much  neglected  in  our  studies  of  mental  diseases. 

Ischsemiaof  the  brain  hints  to  Arsenicum,  worn  out  mentally 
and  bodily,  such  patients  look  back  to  a  happy  past,  fearing  a 
desolate  future  and  envy  and  jealousy  are  the  natural  conse- 
quences, hence  constant  anguish,  for  in  her  hallucinations  she 
sees  others  enjoy  the  pleasures  belonging  to  her  and  in  her 
hopelessness  the  suicide  by  the  cord  offers  the  only  relief.  Re- 
ligious melancholia  is  no  idle  dream,  and  the  woman  may  be 
called  blessed  where  this  consolation  offers  her  some  substitute 
for  the  imagined  wrongs  of  her  love  and  affection.  What  a 
difference  between  the  impatience  and  restlessuess  so  character- 
istic of  Arsenicum  and  the  calm  resignation  so  pointedly  mani- 
fested in  Ignatia.  Richard  Hughes  is  right  when  he  says  that 
Ignatia  can  only  be  indicated  at  the  very  beginning  of  epilepsy 
or  any  other  nervous  disease,  and  thus  also  it  suits  only  Moreau's 
first  type  of  jealousy;  it  is  yet  only  an  inward  grief,  and  she  tries 
to  hide  her  mental  agony  from  those  she  loves  so  well  as  also 
from  the  outside  world.  Though  we  meet  the  same  great  sad- 
ness from  disappointed  affection  in  Natrum-muriaticum,  still 
it  suits  better  a  more  advanced  state  of  jealousy  ;  she  is  fretful, 
rejects  consolation  and  grieves  that  she  has  lost  some  of  the  at- 


1890.] 


THE  INSANITY  OF  JEALOUSY. 


497 


tractiveness  which  is  so  much  a  woman's  greatest  pride.  In 
Natrum-muriaticum  and  in  that  third  degree  of  Moreau, 
which  may  indicate  Arsenicum,  the  vital  power  is  below  par, 
there  are  bodily  ailments,  perhaps  latent  still,  but  undermining 
the  health  of  the  sufferer,  while  in  those  cases  where  Aurum 
suits,  the  patient  usually  has  nothing  to  complain  of  in  relation 
to  health  and  she  feels,  therefore,  so  much  more  mortified  that 
somebody  else  stands  higher  in  the  affection  of  her  lover.  Thus 
she  loses  all  confidence  in  herself,  and  either  seeks  consolation  in 
the  Church  or  homicidal  and  suicidal  ideas  render  her  a  danger- 
ous patient.  It  is  really  often  hard  to  decide  whether  Arseni- 
cum or  Aurum  is  more  suitable  and  the  anamnesis  may  be  ne- 
cessary to  decide  it.  The  Arsenicum  patient  is  not  in  as  good 
health  generally  as  the  Aurum  patient,  when  the  mental  dis- 
order is  the  chief  disease,  though  hereditary  syphilis  may  in 
some  cases  be  the  starting-point.  In  many  cases  where  Pro- 
fessor Ball  gives  his  purgatives,  we  can  do  better  service  with  our 
Natrum-muriaticum  or  Sulphuricum,  or  with  our  preparation 
of  Gold. 

In  Moreau's  highest  degree,  that  jealousy  with  outspoken 
mental  alienation,  he  introduces  to  us  these  infants  terribles, 
these  spoiled  children  whose  egotism  become  the  bane  of  their 
life.  It  may  not  yet  be  too  late  for  antipsoric  treatment,  and  the 
Salts  of  Lime  and  Sulphur,  at  long  intervals,  may  aid  us  in 
eradicating  this  bad  disposition.  We  meet  in  Sulphur  that 
childish  peevishness  in  grown  persons,  that  egotism  in  her  own 
perfection  which  radiates  upon  all  who  surround  her,  and,  when 
not  acknowledged,  render  her  actions  unbearable  and  mis- 
chievous. How  strongly  the  somatic  as  well  as  physical  pruritus, 
found  partially  in  Sulphur,  reminds  one  of  Hvoscyamus  and 
Stramonium  !  There  is  hardly  any  remedy  which  has  such 
ungovernable  rage  as  the  Henbane,  and  no  wonder  that 
Hyoscyamus  became  a  favorite  in  the  asylums  under  old-school 
management.  Lascivious  jealousy  is  our  characteristic  for 
Hyoscyamus,  while  hallucinatory  jealous  alienation  often  finds 
its  counterpart  in  Stramonium,  a  grand  remedy  where  hysteria 
prevails  in  the  patient  or  in  her  family. 
32 


498      "  GONORRHOEA  AND  STRAIGHT  HOMCEOPATHY."  [Nov., 


It  would  lead  me  too  far  to  mention  more  remedies  for  this 
insane  jealousy  ;  in  fact,  any  remedy  which  covers  the  totality  of 
the  case  may  be  indicated,  but  let  us  not  forget  the  sage  advice 
of  the  French  alienist  that  craziness  per  se  is  already  a  proof  of 
minus  in  the  vital  force,  that  most  lunatics  are  qualitatively 
anaemic,  and  that  they  must  be  treated  like  children,  with  firm- 
ness and  kindness  combined,  which  is  only  possible  in  closed 
institutions,  where  the  aggravations  from  home  influence  can  be 
averted.  Let  us  call  them  hospitals  for  mental  affections  and 
the  stigma  of  an  asylum  will  not  be  dreaded  so  much  as  it  is 
at  present  the  case,  and  the  earlier  the  troubled  mind  comes 
at  rest,  the  greater  the  chance  for  full  recovery. 


"  THE  ROUTINE  TREATMENT  OF  FRESH  GONOR- 
RHCEA  AND  STRAIGHT  HOMCEOPATHY." 

Thomas  Skinner,  M.  D.,  London,  England. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  evil  effects  of  urethral  injections  in 
cases  of  fresh  infection  of  gonorrhoea,  advocated  by  Professor 
Timothy  F.  Allen,  I  give  the  following  case,  and  most  men  in 
large  practice  and  of  long  experience  must  have  seen  any  num- 
ber of  much  the  same,  and  many  more  infinitely  worse,  treated 
by  old-school  practitioners. 

I  was  consulted  on  the  9th  of  July,  1890,  by  a  gay  bachelor 
of  forty-five  summers,  who  had  been  treated  by  "  a  routine 
straight  homoeopathic  physician,"  not  a  thousand  miles  from  the 
West  End  of  London,  and  one  who  enjoys  a  large  share  of 
public  confidence. 

The  gentleman  complained  to  me  of  losing  the  sight  of  both 
eyes,  the  sight  of  the  left  being  the  most  impaired.  The  con- 
junctiva was  inflamed  and  secreting  hot  tears,  there  was  an  un- 
pleasant sensation  of  coarse  sand  in  the  left  eye,  with  a  some- 
what muco-purulent  discharge.  At  the  same  time  he  com- 
plained of  the  right  testicle  being  painfully  enlarged. 

I  at  once  asked  him  if  he  had  had  agonorrhoeal  discharge?  To 
which  he  replied  :  "  Oh  !  yes,  but  it  has  been  cured  by  Dr.  , 


1890.]   "  GONORRHOEA  AND  STRAIGHT  HOMOEOPATHY."  499 


one  of  your  sort,  a  homoeopath."  "  When  did  he  cure  you  ?" 
"About  a  week  ago,  and  it  was  a  fresh  infection  caught  only  a 
few  nights  before." 

The  modus  medendi  was  the  Iodide  of  Mercury  in  a  low 
power  internally,  three  times  a  day,  and  Hydrastis  in  water  as 
a  urethral  injection,  to  be  repeated  thrice  daily.  Hinc  illoe  lach- 
rymal. 

Here  was  a  nice  little  specimen  of  Dr.  Timothy  Allen's 
"  straight  Homoeopathy."  Will  he  be  kind  enough  to  quote 
from  The  Organon  of  Hahnemann  or  from  any  of  Samuel 
Hahnemann's  writings,  that  the  master  ever  advised  the  use  of 
local  injections  for  the  cure  of  any  discharge,  especially  an 
infectious  one,  containing  a  virulent  poison  ? 

Treatment. — The  medicines  best  indicated  seemed  to  me 
Sulphur  and  Pulsatilla,  and  inasmuch  as  the  latter  corresponds 
best  to  the  swelled  testicle,  and  to  the  eye,  the  form  of  the  in- 
flammation assuming  that  of  a  pterygium,  I  gave  him  on 
July  9th,  1890,  Puls.lm  (F.  C.)  to  be  taken  three  times  a  day. 
He  called  a  week  after,  and  reported  all  pain  in  testicle  gone, 
but  he  continues  to  wear  a  suspender,  which  he  has  worn  from 
the  first  appearance  of  the  discharge.  The  testicle  remains  as 
much  swollen  as  before,  and  the  ophthalmia  (gonorrhoeal)  is  de- 
cidedly better,  but  at  a  standstill. 

There  being  no  return  of  the  discharge,  I  gave  my  patient 
then  am1  there  a  dose  of  3Iedorrhinumcm  (Swan)  on  his  tongue, 
and  one  more  to  be  repeated  at  bedtime,  and  to  follow  both  up 
with  S.  L.  night  and  morning.  As  my  patient  was  called  on 
business  of  importance  to  the  Continent,  he  got  enough  S.  L.  to 
last  him  until  his  return  on  the  8th  of  August  last,  when  he  re- 
ported himself  marvelously  better  as  regards  the  swollen  testicle 
— and  no  wonder — as  the  urethral  discharge  of  a  yellowish-green 
color  had  returned,  and  the  ophthalmia  was  if  anything  worse. 
He  now  got  one  dose  at  bedtime  of  MedorrhinwnSwm  (Swan)  to 
be  followed  by  S.  L.  every  night.  On  the  10th  of  September, 
the  ophthalmia  was  gone  aud  the  indistinctness  of  vision;  the 
testicle  almost  its  normal  size  and  feel ;  and  there  was  nothing 


500  "GONORRHOEA  AND  STRAIGHT  HOMOEOPATH  Y."  [Nov.,  1890. 


to  prescribe  for  except  the  return  of  the  suppressed  gonorrhoea, 
for  which  I  prescribed,  as  it  was  a  yellow  discharge  of  ap- 
parently a  healthy  pus,  Mercurius  solubilislm,  night  and  morn- 
ing. 

September  17th,  1890. — My  patient  considers  himself  now 
quite  well,  and  expressed  himself  deeply  grateful,  because 
"  Doctor,  I  felt  certain  that  I  was  poisoned  /" 

With  all  deference  to  Dr.  Timothy  Allen — and  be  it  remem- 
bered he  is  a  "  teacher  in  Israel "  and  a  great  power  for  good  or 
evil  in  the  land — he  is  teaching  that  which  every  honest  and  ad- 
vanced allopath  condemns,  namely,  the  suppression  of  infectious 
poisons  by  means  of  injections,  such  as  gonorrhoea. 

Were  it  not  for  the  shame  of  the  thing,  I  wonder  that  patients 
do  not  come  upon  such  "  straight  homoeopaths,"  eclectics,  and 
allopaths,  and  sue  them  at  law  for  malpractice,  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  virulent  infectious  poisons  and  inducing  orchitis,  ophthal- 
mia, rheumatism,  etc.,  in  their  persons ;  whereas,  they  were  paid 
for  curing  them  of  a  running,  and  not  for  shutting  up  the  burglar 
in  the  house. 

Let  us  hope  that  Professor  Timothy  Allen,  M.  D.,  will  change 
his  methodus  medendi  of  treating  acute  gonorrhceal  inflammation 
of  the  male  urethra,  and  that  we  shall  hear  no  more  of  such 
"  straight  Homoeopathy,"  as  "  He  who  in  these  days  will  not 
wash  out  with  distilled  water  and  one  5,000th  of  a  grain  of  Cor- 
rosive Mercury  a  fresh  case  of  gonorrhoea,  and  cure  (sic)  his 
erring  brother  in  twenty-four  or  forty-eight  hours,  must  give  up 
the  treatment  of  such  diseases."  Know  this,  then,  Dr.  Allen, 
that  we  can  cure  effectively  all  cases  of  gonorrhoea  cito,  tuto,  et 
jucunde,  without  local  treatment  of  any  kind,  not  even  the  injection 
of  the  5,000th  of  a  grain  of  Corrosive  Sublimate — which  cannot 
"  wash  out "  the  poison  except  by  neutralizing  or  suppressing  it. 
My  patient  told  me  he  was  cured  by  a  homoeopath,  when  he  was 
simply  made  dangerously  ill — and  if  any  one  has  seen  or  is  able 
to  trace  the  evil  effects  of  these  cures  by  suppression,  they  would 
as  soon  think  of  cutting  off  their  own  right  hand  or  of  killing 
their  patient. 


A  FUNNY  SYMPTOM— SULPHUR  55M. 


M.  A.  A.  Wolff,  M.  D.,  Gainesville,  Tex. 

(Continued  from  September  No.,  page  407.) 

General  symptoms,  additional  to  such  stated  in  first  report  : 
Pain  all  the  time  in  perineum  from  dragging  of  scrotum  at  the 
incision-scar,  and  inside  when  clogged  up,  in  which  case  there 
is  also  pain  in  left  renal  region.  The  urine  does  not  dribble  in 
the  rag  wrapped  around  penis,  but  trickles  out  as  from  a  spring ; 
but  when  standing  up  and  trying  to  have  it  come  in  a  stream  it 
will  only  dribble,  except  when  after  one  or  several  hours'  sleep, 
during  ivhich  time  there  is  no  discharge  of  urine)  it  will  escape  in 
a  stream  ;  sometimes  too,  not  always,  as  it  used  to  be,  some  urine 
will  be  discharged  from  anus.  (Rags  were  instituted  instead  of 
urinal,  which  blistered  and  excoriated  glans.) 

Special  Symptoms.  August  5th. — Discharge  of  much  pus  ; 
urination  very  free  (in  the  rags)  all  day.  Formerly  urination 
prevailed  during  night,  now  as  stated.  A  stool  not  hard  but 
regularly  shaped,  breaks  in  two  by  itself,  and  at  place  of  break- 
age shows  a  piece  of  something  looking  like  decayed  flesh  from 
a  wound  after  amputation.  Heavy  erections  awoke  me  three 
times  during  the  night.  Got  up  and  abundant  urine  through 
urethra. 

August  7th. — Dropsy  of  legs  goes  gradually  down. 

August  13th,  five  A.  if. — Immense  diarrhoea  and  discharge  of 
fseces  through  urethra.  From  seven  A.  M.  no  urination,  some- 
thing seems  to  clog  the  urethra;  pressure  brings  out  pus  like  a 
gonorrheal  discharge. 

August  15th,  two  A.  if.,  four  A.  If.,  and  six  A.  M. — Immense 
diarrhoea,  grayish,  mushy,  passes  partly  through  urethra. 

August  18th. — After  having  been  constipated  (without  feeling 
of  urging)  since  the  15th  A.  if.,  a  normal,  very  large  stool, 
sound  in  every  respect  and  discharged  without  pain.  But  for 
some  heaviness  in  perineum  no  more  trouble  from  pile,  or,  as  I 
contest,  prolapsus  recti. 

501 


502 


A  FUNNY  SYMPTOM— SULPHUR  55*. 


[Nov., 


August  19th. — Twice  a  good  stool,  but  first  time  preceded  by 
discharge  of  a  brownish,  jelly-like  mucus,  some  of  which  escapes 
through  urethra.  Feeling  as  if  there  were  more  to  come.  At 
eleven  A.  M.,  temperature  one  hundred  degrees,  was  normal  at  six 
A.  M. ;  at  twelve  noon  one  hundred  undone.  Reported  in  writ- 
ing to  Professor  Reed.  From  nine  P.  .\r.  to  twelvca  decided 
Baptisia  fever,  but  would  not  interfere  with  the  Sulphur.  After 
twelve,  when  I  had  been  up  urinating,  perspiration.  The 
height  of  the  fever,  one  hundred  and  two  degrees,  howeven 
remained.  Old  symptoms  returned,  as  the  spluttering  from  the 
mouth,  gushing  of  urine  from  anus,  short  cough,  painful  to 
pubic  region  (root  of  urethra),  only  once  causing  a  few  drops  of 
urine  to  dribble.  No  discharge  of  urine  now  when  lying  down, 
either  during  sleep  or  being  awake  (new  symptom). 

August  20th,  eleven  A.  M. — Received  the  third  dose  of  Sul- 
phur (since  July  18th),  viz.  :  CM.  I  kept  the  bed  all  day  and 
following  night,  only  getting  up  to  urinate.  During  the  day, 
after  taking  the  Sulph.,  temperature  rose  to  one  hundred  and 
three  degrees.  At  night  it  had  fallen  to  one  hundred  and  one 
and  a  half. 

August  20th. — Temperature  ninety-nine  and  two-fifths.  Uri- 
nation only  through  urethra.  Dropsy  seems  completely  gone. 
Stayed  up  until  noon.  Through  over-exertion,  I  think,  tempera- 
ture rose  to  one  hundred  and  two  during  the  day.  Another 
cause  for  it  may  be  an  abscess  which,  I  supposed  from  my  sen- 
sations, in  the  part  bound  by  the  recto-vesical  fistulae.  Sitting 
down  that  forenoon  did  not,  as  hitherto,  cause  involuntary  uri- 
nation. At  dinner-time  took  a  bowl  of  soup  and  then  went  to 
bed.  Up  once  that  afternoon,  discharging  urine  in  a  thin  stream. 
Half-past  five  p.  m.  got  up  in  the  chair  again,  when,  as  soon  as 
I  sat  down,  the  tickling  re-commenced.  Temperature  one  hun- 
dred and  one  and  three-fifths.  No  stool  since  19th  (another 
possible  cause  of  fever).  Six  P.  M.,  felt  urging  to  stool.  Digi- 
tal examination  had  already  yesterday  proven  that  there  was  a 
hard  stool  lodged  in  the  bowels.  Now,  urine  must  have  been 
accumulating  from  the  lesion  of  the  bladder  behind  this  stool 
and  have  dissolved  some  of  it,  for,  when  I  sat  down  on  the  com- 


1890.] 


A  FUNNY  SYMPTOM— SULPHUR  55". 


503 


mode,  there  was  a  gushing  from  anus  of  urine  colored  by  fieces, 
which  also  escaped  through  urethra.  It  burned  like  fire.  At 
last  there  came  a  hard,  sound  stool. 

August  22d,  A.  M. — Have  slept  well  all  night ;  got  up  three 
times  to  urinate,  the  first  two  gushing  from  anus,  the  third  only 
from  urethra.  Put  on  this  morning,  for  the  first  time,  socks 
and  slippers  with  greatest  ease.  Good  normal  stool  at  8.30  A. 
M.  The  most  unpleasant  feeling  is  caused  by  excoriation  of 
glans  around  meatus.  No  appetite.  At  bedtime  temperature 
one  hundred  and  one  degrees. 

August  23d. — Had  a  good  night ;  fever  gone. 

August  26th. — The  wet  rags  caused  the  excoriation  of  glans. 
Small  compresses  dipped  in  Calendula  water,  in  spite  of  being 
wet  with  urine,  healed  it  in  two  days.  So  I  thought  to  employ 
them  in  the  urinal.    It  works  like  a  charm. 

August  27th. — Feel  very  well,  after  a  good  sleep  during  the 
night. 

August  29th. — Again  some  aggravation  ;  temperature  one 
hundred  and  one  degrees. 

August  30th. — Same  as  yesterday,  but  more  aggravation. 

September  1st. — Received  fourth  dose  of  Sulphur  CM.  It  did 
not  take  effect  before  the  3d. 

September  5th. — Left  hospital.  From  5th  to  10th  only  har- 
assing trouble  is  excoriation  of  the  urethra  and  glans,  as  well  as 
below  the  same. 

September  10th,  p.  M. — Took  the  cars  for  home.  Arrived 
Friday  4.50  A.  M.  Only  trouble  the  excoriation  (and  the 
involuntary  urination). 

September  14th. — Felt  bad ;  temperature  one  hundred  and 
two.    Fifth  dose  Sulph.  CM  acted  well  in  less  than  half  an  hour. 

To-day,  September  17th-,  would  be  all  right  if  it  were  not  for 
the  involuntary  urination  and  excoriations.  The  fistula  is  de- 
cidedly improving. 


Sulphur. — Excoriations  of  genitals  and  inside  of  thighs. 
The  flow  of  urine  painful  to  parts  passed  over. —  Guernsey^ 
Key-note. 


A  MATERIA  MEDICA  PURA. 


To  those  who  watch  with  care  the  tendency  of  homoeopathic 
literature,  its  downward  course  can  scarcely  be  unnoticed.  Of 
bookmaking  we  have,  indeed,  an  abundance ;  of  homoeopathic 
books  we  are  sadly  lacking.  Dr.  Lilienthal  has  alluded  to  the 
need  of  newer  and  better  translations  of  Hahnemann's  Materia 
Medica.  Of  this  there  is  great  need.  It  has  always  been  a 
misfortune  and  a  serious  hindrance  to  the  development  of  Ho- 
moeopathy that  Hahnemann's  works  were  so  poorly  translated. 
It  is  true,  we  have  a  re-translation  of  the  Materia  Medica  Pura, 
embodied  in  Allen's  Encyclopaedia,  which  is  to-day  the  best  work 
on  materia  medica  we  possess.  But  the  Encyclopaedia  is  by  no 
means  faultless ;  yet,  such  as  it  is,  we  should  be  thankful  for  it. 
In  such  a  large  work  errors  will  be  found,  yet  the  effect  of  these 
errors  is  in  a  measure  lessened  by  the  repetition  of  symptoms, 
which  are  so  numerously  given.  A  symptom  repeated  over  and 
over  again,  in  different  terms,  cannot  be  wrongly  stated  every 
time.  So,  when  one  reads  a  symptom  in  two  or  three  differently 
worded  sentences  he  can  easily  get  at  the  meaning  of  the  provers. 
In  the  so-called  condensed  books  on  materia  medica  an  error 
once  stated,  remains  without  chance  of  correction.  The  use  of 
these  condensed  works  is  responsible  for  many  failures  in  practice. 
None  of  them  are  thoroughly  reliable,  and  none  of  them  give  a 
true  picture  of  the  drugs  treated.  The  homoeopathic  school  is 
yet  to  produce  its  Materia  Medica  Para,  with  the  additions 
which  time  has  added  to  Hahnemann's  labors.  This  may  seem 
to  be  a  very  sweeping  statement  but  it  is  true.  The  great  vic- 
tories of  Homoeopathy  in  the  past  have  been  won  by  those  who 
studied  the  Materia  Medica,  not  by  those  who  relied  upon  rep- 
ertories or  condensed  works.  The  homoeopaths  of  to-day  who 
make  the  most  brilliant  cures  rely  upon  and  study  the  old  works 
upon  materia  medica.  The  homoeopath  of  the  future  will— if 
the  present  work  of  condensing  and  copying  goes  on — have  no 
reliable  materia  medica. 

One  writer  copies  from  another,  only  to  repeat,  or,  maybe,  to 
504 


Nov.,  1890.] 


ERYSIPELAS. 


505 


increase,  the  errors  of  the  former.  And  so  goes  on  the  manu- 
facture of  homoeopathic  literature  !  Of  hasty,  inconsiderate,  and 
unreliable  works  our  school  has  seen  quite  enough.  What  we 
need  is  a  faithful  and  reliable  compilation  of  the  old  remedies, 
with  such  new  symptoms  as  are  without  the  shadow  of  doubt  re- 
liable, and  a  complete  rendering  of  the  reliable  symptoms  of  such 
new  remedies  as  are  well  proven.  We  need  no  great  display  of 
large  and  elegantly  gotten  up  books ;  we  want  only  what  is  true, 
reliable,  and  useful.  Less  than  this  we  cannot  do  without ;  more 
than  this  is  deceptive  and  misleading.  Who  will  give  us  a  real 
Materia  Medica  Para,  which  shall  contain  all  that  is  true,  both 
of  the  new  and  of  old  drugs  ? 

The  homoeopathic  school  must  have  such  a  Materia  Medica 
Pura,  or  it  dies  !  E.  J.  L. 


ERYSIPELAS. 
G.  M.  Pease,  M.  D.,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

(RepDrt  of  Bureau  of  Clinical  Medicine,  I.  PI.  A.) 

Recently  there  has  fallen  to  my  lot  a  case  which  presented 
soms  unusual  conditions,  symptoms  of  directly  opposite  charac- 
ter upon  opposite  sides  of  the  body,  but  which  yielded  promptly 
after  the  selection  of  the  proper  remedy. 

Mrs.  M  aged  about  sixty-five.  For  many  years  has  been 

subject  to  attacks  of  erysipelas,  nearly  always  in  the  same  locali- 
ties, but  previously  she  had  been  troubled  with  tonsillitis, 
for  both  of  which  she  received  good  old-fashioned  "  regular  " 
treatment.  From  three  to  four  weeks  she  was  "  laid  up  "  and 
for  weeks  afterward  was  not  strong. 

About  four  years  ago  I  attended  her  during  one  of  these  at- 
tacks of  erysipelas,  but  did  not  consider  that  I  had  done  any 
very  brilliant  work  in  the  case,  though  she  seemed  much  pleased 
with  the  result,  because,  though  lasting  three  weeks,  she  had  not 
suffered  as  much,  had  not  been  heavily  dosed  nor  subjected  to 
the  incouvenience  of  external  applications,  and  when  the  local 
symptoms  were  gone  she  did  not  feel  as  much  prostrated  as  for- 
merly. 


506 


ERYSIPELAS. 


[Nov, 


And  now  there  has  been  an  interim  of  four  years  against  the 
former  almost  yearly  attacks. 

It  is  possible  that  this  last  attack  had  an  outcropping  a  week 
before  I  saw  her,  as  her  husband  came  to  me  with  a  description 
of  her  sore  throat.  He  did  not  think  it  necessary  for  me  to  see 
her,  and  as  he  gave  a  good  picture  of  Merc.  I  sent  that  remedy 
in  the  thirtieth  potency.  The  effect  was  good,  for  in  twenty- 
four  hours  she  felt  all  right. 

May  25th.  I  was  called  to  see  her,  the  following  symptoms 
presenting.  There  was  a  red  spot  covering  the  point  of  the 
left  elbow,  extending  half  way  around  the  arm  and  upward  and 
downward  about  two  inches.  Upon  the  outer  part  of  the  left 
forearm  another  red  spot  about  the  size  of  a  half  dollar,  upon 
the  wrist  another,  on  the  leg  and  ankle  other  small  spots.  These 
were  of  a  phlegmonous  character,  very  hot  and  extremely  tender 
to  the  touch,  but  not  especially  painful  on  motion.  Upon  the 
right  side  at  the  wrist  a  small  spot,  very  red,  with  a  line  of  red 
extending  up  the  arm  about  two  inches;  one  of  the  fingers 
at  the  metacarpal  joint  was  slightly  red  and  swollen.  The 
right  knee  was  alike  affected.  These  points  were  not  as  hot 
nor  were  they  phlegmonous,  but  were  more  sensitive  than 
upon  the  other  side,  and  the  least  motion  caused  great  pain. 
This  side  she  kept  uncovered  because  heat  aggravated  it,  but  the 
left  side  was  carefully  wrapped  in  flannel  because  heat  made  it 
better.  Motion  aggravated  all  the  pains — she  was  very  thirsty, 
wanted  large  quantities  of  water.  Thinking  Bryonia  was  best 
indicated,  I  gave  it  in  the  200th  potency.  The  following  day 
there  was  a  slight  amelioration  of  the  right  side  symptoms,  but 
the  left  side  was  decidedly  worse,  phlegmonous  spots  larger  and 
more  of  them.    No  change  of  remedy. 

Third  day. — Right  side  better  so  far  as  the  rheumatic  charac- 
ter of  the  pains  was  concerned,  but  phlegmonous  spots  had  ap- 
peared here  also  and  nearly  the  whole  of  the  left  arm  was 
covered.  There  was  no  vesicular  appearance  at  any  point. 
The  right  side  was  still  uncovered,  while  the  left  demanded  all 
the  heat  it  could  get. 

She  felt  somewhat  restless  but  could  not  move  because  it  in- 


1890.] 


ERYSIPELAS. 


507 


creased  pain.  I  may  not  have  previously  looked  at  the  tongue 
but  to-day  I  did,  and  found  it  heavily  coated  except  a  triangle 
at  the  tip,  the  base  being  at  the  end  of  the  tongue  and  the  point 
inward;  this  triangle  was  very  dark  red,  quite  dry,  while  the 
rest  of  the  tongue  did  not  look  dry.  This  condition  of  tongue 
I  have  always  associated  with  Rhus-tox.  and  Sulphur.  Taking 
into  consideration  the  other  symptoms  it  was  an  easy  matter  to 
decide  between  the  two,  and  Rhus-tox.200  was  given. 

Fourth  day. — As  I  entered  the  room  my  patient  greeted  me 
with  a  smile,  and  held  out  her  left  hand  as  if  to  shake  hands,  but 
withdrew  it  and  extended  the  right. 

Words  were  not  needed  to  define  her  actions,  but  she  used 
them  freely  to  expresss  her  feelings  of  satisfaction. 

The  phlegmonous  condition  had  very  greatly  disappeared,  the 
surface  less  red ;  scarcely  any  heat ;  did  not  need  one  side 
covered  more  than  the  other  ;  had  slept  well  all  night,  and  now 
asked  what  she  could  have  to  eat.    Remedy,  Sac-lac. 

Fifth  day.— As  far  as  my  professional  services  were  concerned 
there  was  no  necessity  for  my  visit,  scarcely  a  vestige  of  the  late 
trouble  being  present. 

Comments. — Possibly  the  earlier  inspection  of  the  tongue 
might  have  saved  the  patient  a  couple  of  days'  suffering,  because 
it  was  the  red  tip  which  caused  a  change  in  prescription,  but  I 
am  not  prepared  to  say  positively  that  I  did  not  see  it  at  an 
earlier  stige  because  it  is  such  a  natural  thing  to  ask  to  see  the 
tongue. 

According  to  Allen's  Symptom  Register  there  are  a  number  of 
remedies  having  redness  at  the  tip  of  the  tongue,  prominently 
noted  being  Argent-n.,  Ars.,  Phyt.,  and  Rhus-tox.,  but  he 
does  not  include  Sulph. 

Many  observations  have  fixed  upon  my  memory  the  well- 
defined  triangle  as  belonging  to  Rhus  and  Sulph.,  because  other 
symptoms  had  so  clearly  indicated  one  or  the  other  when  that 
triangle  was  present,  the  most  clearly  marked  triangle  demand- 
ing Rhus.  This  decided  contradiction  between  the  two  Bides 
was  peculiar.    Was  the  first  remedy  a  mistake?    It  was  chosen 


508 


BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 


[Nov., 


to  combat  what  appeared  to  be  the  most  distressing  symptoms  ; 
that  it  had  some  effect  was  evident. 

Bry.  and  Rhus  being  complementary  to  so  great  an  extent,  it 
often  happens  in  my  experience  that  when  one  has  been  given  the 
other  may  be  needed  to  complete  the  cure. 

BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 

Alfred  Heath,  M.  D.,  F.  L.  S.,  London,  England. 

Ranunculaceje  (Continued). 

Adcea  Spicata  (Bane-berry,  Herb  Christopher). — Found  in 
mountainous  woody  districts  in  the  North  of  England.  This 
plant  has  not  been  proved,  but  was  mentioned  by  Ruckert  as  a 
remedy  in  certain  cases  of  neuralgia,  characterized  by  violent 
tearing  and  drawing  rheumatic  pains  in  one  side  of  the  face,  ex- 
tending from  the  teeth  of  the  upper  jaw  through  the  malar  bone 
as  far  as  the  temple.  Contact  or  movement  of  the  facial 
muscles  produced  an  excessive  aggravation  of  the  pain.  The 
plant  is  similar  in  its  action  to  the  following  American  variety 
in  that  it  affects  one  side  of  the  body.  It  is  very  acrid  and 
strongly  cathartic ;  the  berries  are  poisonous  and  have  been 
fatal  to  children  who  have  been  tempted  to  eat  them.  The 
leaves  have  been  used  allopathically  as  an  external  application 
to  inflammations,  and  with  much  success  in  tumors  of  the 
breast ;  it  is  well  worth  proving,  and  may  equal  if  not  surpass 
the  Cimicifuga. 

Actea  Bacemosa,  Cimicifuga  Racemosa  (Black  Cohosh,  Black 
Snake-root). — This,  although  not  an  English  plant,  is  one  that 
grows  perfectly  in  this  country,  and  is  so  well  known  to  the 
followers  of  Hahnemann  that  I  think  it  advisable  to  mention 
it.  In  the  garden  it  grows  to  a  fine  plant,  with  tall  spikes  of 
white  flowers ;  it  is  perennial,  and  well  worth  growing.  There 
is  a  good  proving  of  this  plant.  It  is  especially  useful  in  ner- 
vous and  rheumatic  affections,  principally  affecting  the  left  side 
of  the  body ;  facial  neuralgia,  pains  in  the  left  side  of  the  breast, 
spinal  irritation  from  rheumatic  or  uterine  disorders,  neuralgia 


1890.] 


BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 


509 


of  the  eyeballs,  delirium  tremens,  illusions  of  vision,  hysteria, 
"  nervous  sick-headache,"  vomiting,  etc.,  stiff-neck,  lumbago, 
worse  when  the  patient  is  standing  or  sitting  still,  and  in  cold 
and  stormy  weather;  sciatica  ;  articular  rheumatism  of  the  lower 
extremities.  The  last  few  years  the  allopaths  have  been  freely 
using  this  remedy,  as  well  as  many  of  our  best  proven  drugs, 
without  acknowledging  the  source  from  which  they  learned  their 
use — i.  e.,  the  Homoeopathic  Materia  Medica. 

Poeonia  Officinalis  (Rosa  Benedicta  ;  common  name,  Peony). — 
In  heathen  mythology  called  after  the  physician  Pceon,  who 
cured  Pluto  with  it  when  wounded  by  Hercules,  hence  it  was 
held  in  great  esteem  by  the  ancients.  This,  although  not  orig- 
inally an  English  plant,  is  one  of  our  commonest  garden-flowers, 
and  is  so  well  known  to  every  one  that  it  needs  no  description. 
There  are  several  garden  varieties  of  Poeonia  .  officinalis,  all  of 
them  bearing  showy  and  beautifully-colored  flowers,  and  prob- 
ably producing  much  the  same  symptoms  when  used  as  drugs. 
In  Homoeopathy  we  use  the  root  of  the  officinal  plant,  which 
comes  to  us  from  the  South  of  Europe.  It  was  formerly  used  as 
an  anodyne.  This  term  is  applied  to  medicines  that  relieve  pain  : 
1st,  either  by  actually  assuaging  pain,  paregorics;  2d,  those 
that  relieve  by  producing  sleep,  hypnotics;  3d,  those  that 
give  ease  by  stupefying  the  senses,  narcotics.  It  was  also  used 
as  a  tonic,  and  since  the  days  of  Galen  theroothas  been  commonly 
employed  as  a  remedy  for  epilepsy.  For  this  purpose  it  was  cut 
into  thin  slices,  which  were  attached  to  a  string  and  worn  round 
the  neck  as  an  amulet  ;  if  this  failed  to  relieve  it  was  given  in- 
ternally, in  the  form  of  a  powder.  Many  writers  in  modern 
times  have  declared  it  to  be  of  no  use,  or  only  of  use  in  some 
cases.  The  reason  of  this  is  quite  evident ;  there  can  be  no 
specific  in  any  disease,  and  if  in  the  "  old  school"  they  had  a 
law  to  guide  them,  they  would  be  able,  as  in  Homoeopathy,  to 
select  the  drug  that  had  an  affinity  of  symptoms  (as  shown  by 
its  effect  on  the  healthy)  to  the  individual  under  treatment. 
First,  on  healthy  people  the  Posnia  produces,  among  other  things, 
many  varieties  of  pain,  headaches,  boring,  darting,  tearing, 
gnawing,  sticking  with  pressure,  aching  {Paregoric),  rushes  of 
blood  to  the  head,  restless  sleep  (Hypnotic),  with  fancies  and 


510 


THE  RELATION  OF  DRUGS  TO  PBEGNANCY. 


[Nov:, 


dreams.  Second,  languor,  weariness  on  walking,  heaviness  in  the 
chest  and  limbs  in  the  open  air,  languor  and  heaviness  of  the 
limbs  relieved  after  eating,  great  prostration  in  the  evening, 
hence,  its  power  to  relieve  as  a  tonic.  Third,  it  produces  many 
symptoms  similar  to  epilepsy — rush  of  blood  to  the  head,  nausea, 
hissing  in  the  head,  vanishing  of  the  senses  (Narcotic),  fainting 
after  walking  up-hill,  vertigo  during  every  motion,  constant  reel- 
ing sensation  in  the  head,  staggering  to  and  fro,  heat  in  the 
head,  "  crawling  in  the  fore-arm  as  from  something  alive,  transi- 
tory creeping  in  the  fingers  and  sides."  Now,  in  epilepsy,  one  of 
the  most  striking  premonitory  symptoms  is  what  is  called  the 
Aura  epileptica,  a  sensation  compared  to  a  stream  of  warm  or 
cold  air,  or  the  trickling  of  water,  or  to  the  creeping  of  an  insect, 
which  commences  at  the  extremity  of  a  limb  and  gradually  runs 
along  the  skin  toward  the  head.  With  Pmonia  officinalis  I 
come  to  the  end  of,  and  very  reluctantly  close,  the  magnificent 
natural  order  Ranunculaceai,  an  order  containing  so  many 
splendid  medicines,  and  deservedly  occupying  the  position  of 
Natural  Order  No.  1. 

THE  RELATION  OF  DRUGS  TO  PREGNANCY. 
L.  Hamilton  Evans,  B.  A.,  M.  D.,  Toronto,  Canada. 

(Bureau  of  Obstetrics,  I.  H.  A.) 

"  I  have  got  in  the  family  way,  and  I  want  you  to  give  me 
something  to  get  me  all  right." 

Such  is  the  statement,  such  the  request  occasionally  made  to 
us  by  some  of  our  patients.  I  cannot  say  what  answers  you 
are  accustomed  to  give,  probably  they  are  various,  according  to 
the  varying  circumstances  of  individual  cases,  and  your  own 
peculiarities  of  thought  and  language.  The  following  reply 
would,  in  most  cases,  perhaps,  be  substantially  appropriate. 
"If  you  are  right,  you  are  wrong,  because  you  are  all  right 
already.  In  other  words,  if  you  are  correct  in  stating  that  you 
are  in  the  family  way,  you  are  mistaken  in  supposing  that  you 
require  medicine  to  cure  you  of  that  condition,  because  it  is  not, 
of  itself,  a  disease." 

This,  I  repeat,  would  be  in  many  cases,  a  proper  reply,  though 


1890.]       THE  RELATION  OF  DRUGS  TO  PREGNANCY.         51 1 


not  always  an  acceptable  one  to  our  applicant.  Disease  might 
be  roughly  defined  to  be  a  state  or  condition  of  a  living  organ- 
ism in  which  the  never-ending  changes  which  constitute  life  are 
not  succeeding  each  other  in  proper  order — are  not  going  on  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  conduce  to  the  physical  aim  or  object  of  its 
material  existence — that  this  aim  or  object  is  two-fold.  First, 
the  comfort  or  pleasure  of  the  living  creature  ;  second,  the  re- 
production of  its  kind — the  perpetuation  of  its  species.  Now, 
if  these  two  objects  are  associated  in  one  individual  by  a  perfect 
intelligence,  they  cannot  be  incompatible  with  each  other.  Con- 
sequently the  carrying  out  of  the  instinct  of  reproduction,  in 
the  case  of  beings  in  a  perfect  state  of  nature,  is  not  incompati- 
ble with  the  enjoyment  of  a  condition  of  perfect  comfort ;  in 
other  words,  pregnancy  is  not,  in  itself,  a  disease. 

This  being  the  case,  and  seeing  we  use  drugs,  as  such,  for  the 
cure  of  disease,  how  can  there  exist  any  relation  between  drugs 
and  pregnancy  ?  It  would  seem,  at  first  sight,  that  the  whole 
subject  of  this  paper  might  be  disposed  of  in  as  few  words  as 
the  celebrated  chapter  on  the  snakes  of  Ireland.  On  more  care- 
ful consideration,  however,  we  find  that  it  presents  a  few  points 
worthy  of  being  studied. 

The  fact  is,  the  whole  human  race,  or  at  least  that  portion  of 
it  with  which  we  have  directly  to  do,  is  born  in  a  state  of  he- 
reditary disease,  dormant,  it  is  true,  in  many  cases,  yet  none  the 
less  a  source  of  danger  and  distress  to  come  on  this  account; 
perhaps,  indeed,  more  dangerous  because  latent,  as  a  foe  in  am- 
bush is  more  to  be  dreaded  than  one  arrayed  against  us  in  the 
open  field  of  battle.  As  age  advances,  and  the  various  func- 
tions of  nutrition  and  reproduction  successively  develop,  the 
increased  activity  of  the  vital  forces,  acting  upon  and  being 
acted  upon  by  this  development,  is  accompanied  by  an  increased 
activity  in  the  latent  germs  of  disease,  and  necessarily  so,  since 
we  must  suppose  that  the  force  which  develops  one  phase  of 
vitality  will  develop  another,  and  disease  itself  is  life  only  gone 
astray. 

In  illustration  of  these  remarks,  I  may  refer  briefly  to  the 
period  of  dentition  in  infants.  If  teeth  are  necessary  adjuncts 
of  nutrition  in  certain  stages  of  our  existence,  and  if  we  come 


512      THE  RELATION  OF  DRUGS  TO  PREGNANCY.  [Nov.,  1890. 


into  the  world  without  them  it  cannot  be  that  we  must  necessa- 
rily undergo  suffering  in  acquiring  them.  Yet,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  we  do  often  find  ourselves  compelled  to  endure  much  pain 
and  discomfort  in  the  act.  It  is  quite  common  to  connect  the 
two  together  as  bearing  the  direct  relation  of  cause  and  effect. 
But  this  is  proved  to  be  a  mistake,  for  the  reason  already 
given.  Whence,  then,  the  suffering  so  often  observed  ?  It  can 
only  be  the  result  of  a  previously  existing  and  possibly  up  to  this 
time  latent  condition  of  disease,  and  on  this  ground  alone  can  we 
attempt  to  relieve  the  pain,  with  radical  benefit  to  the  sufferer. 
And  here  it  is  worth  remarking  that  if  we  treat  such  cases,  and 
all  cases  of  suffering,  with  due  regard  to  the  underlying  dis- 
order, we  not  only  avoid  the  damage  which  the  use  of  mere 
palliatives  would  inflict,  but  we  confer  a  lasting  benefit  upon  the 
sufferer. 

The  foregoing  remarks  will  suggest  a  reason  why  we  may 
frequently  find  the  use  of  drugs  applicable  to  the  condition  of 
pregnancy.  I  should  rather  say  applicable  to  a  patient  in  that 
condition.  This  state  not  only  exalts  the  vital  functions  of  the 
prospective  mother  to  the  highest  point  in  themselves,  but  it 
appears  to  go  a  step  further.  The  new  being  not  only  receives 
life  from  the  parent,  but  by  the  law  of  reaction  imparts  vitality 
in  its  turn.  I  can  only  in  this  way  account  for  the  fact  that 
some  women  enjoy  better  health  at  this  time  than  at  any  other, 
some  cases  of  consumption  even  being  to  all  appearance  tempora- 
rily stayed.  It  is  true  many  suffer  severely  while  in  this  con- 
dition, and  for  a  somewhat  similar  reason  as  before  explained. 

Now,  seeing  that  the  action  of  dru^s  in  the  cure  of  disease  is 
indirect,  and  depends  upon  the  reaction  of  the  vital  forces  ;  seeing, 
furthermore,  that  many  cases  of  apparently  acute  disease  are  not 
radically  acute,  but  only  the  acute  manifestation  of  a  chronic 
cachexia;  it  follows  that  if  we  have  at  heart  the  permanent 
benefit  of  our  patients,  we  should  ever  be  on  the  watch  for  such 
occasions  of  treating  acute  disorders,  as  well  as  chronic  ailments, 
as  are  presented  to  us  when  the  vitality  of  our  patients  is  at  a 
high  paint  of  activity.  Such  an  occasion  is  offered,  perhaps 
more  than  under  any  other  circumstances,  by  the  condition  of 
pregnancy. 


SYPHILIS  AND  GONORRHCEA. 

Clinton,  N.  Y.,  April  11th,  1890. 
T.  D.  Stow,  M.  D.,  Chairman  Bureau  of  Surgery,  I.  H.  A. 

Dear  Doctor  : — Your  appeal  through  the  Advance  has  been 
heard,  and  I  hasten  to  say  that  while  ray  practice  in  venereal 
diseases  has  not  been  so  large  as  some,  it  has  extended  over  a 
period  of  twenty  years  or  more,  during  which  time  I  have 
treated  both  syphilis  and  gonorrhoea  in  their  various  stages, 
with  more  than  ordinary  success. 

My  first  practice  was  allopathic,  which,  to  say  the  least  of 
it,  gave  but  poor  satisfaction  to  myself,  much  less  to  my 
patients. 

The  first  case  I  ever  treated  homoeopathically  was  that  of  a 
printer  while  I  was  attending  homoeopathic  lectures  in  Phila- 
delphia. His  was  an  old  chronic  case  of  gleet  which  had  re- 
sisted the  best  allopathic  talent  obtainable  in  the  city.  He  wTas 
a  young  man  but  twenty  years  of  age  ;  his  constitution  showed 
signs  of  physical  abuse  in  more  ways  than  one.  He  had  light 
hair,  blue  eyes,  and  soft,  flabby  muscles.  His  temperament  was 
sanguine-lymphatic.  After  a  still-hunt  of  two  or  three  days  I 
prescribed  Sulph.200,  one  dose,  which  aggravated  for  a  day  or 
two  and  then  rapidly  progressed  to  a  cure. 

No.  2  was  a  case  of  secondary  syphilis  in  a  man  thirty-five 
years  of  age  who  had  been  treated  from  the  time  the  chancre 
first  appeared  up  to  the  time  he  called  on  me,  without  the 
slightest  benefit  whatever,  as  the  disease  had  in  nowise  been 
checked,  nor  the  sufferings  of  the  patient  relieved  in  the 
least. 

The  character  of  the  skin,  which  was  covered  with  dirty 
brown  spots  mingled  with  which  there  were  open  sores  present- 
ing ragged  edges,  and  bleeding  when  touched,  decided  me  in 
favor  of  Nitric  acid500,  which  I  gave  him  one  dose  every 
Sunday  night,  for  two  months,  when  he  got  no  more  medicine, 
but  experienced  a  cure  of  his  syphilis. 

No.  3  was  an  abandoned  woman  who  was  both  an"  object  of 
33  513 


514 


SYPHILIS  AND  GONORRHOEA. 


[Nov  ,  1890. 


charity  and  contempt,  from  the  fact  that  there  was  not  a  patch 
of  sound  skin  on  her  body  the  size  of  your  hand. 

Her  sores  were  ragged  and  bleeding.  There  was  an  odor  in 
her  room  of  horse  urine.  Nitric  acid30,  continued  for  two 
weeks,  three  doses  per  day,  cured  in  four  months.  She  became 
fat  and  hearty  and  resumed  her  old  practice. 

No.  4  was  a  case  of  chancre  on  the  top  of  the  glans  penis  ; 
chancre  was  hard,  with  everted  edges.  Merc-sol.30,  one 
dose  every  night  for  a  fortnight,  relieved  him  of  the  chancre, 
likewise  all  traces  of  the  same,  and  this  notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  he  worked  in  the  rain  in  a  gravel  bed  on  the  railroad 
as  a  construction  hand. 

During  the  month  of  December,  1889,  there  came  to  me  a 
gentleman  of  color  whose  age  and  gray  wool  should  have  been 
the  result  of  a  riper  experience.  But  he  had  been  to  Uticatwo 
weeks  before  and  had  been  seduced  by  a  pretty  "  yaller  gal." 
The  chancre  was  hard  and  elevated  on  a  hard  base.  I  gave  him 
Merc-sol.1600,  one  dose,  and  blanks  to  interest  him.  He  came 
afterward — to  use  his  words,  "  Them  powders  are  boss." 

This  will  illustrate  a  practice  which  I  have  followed  for  over 
twenty  years.  I  am  satisfied  that  physicians  who  resort  to 
harsh  measures  in  venereal  diseases  do  much  harm  by  driving 
the  virus  from  the  sensitive  and  receptive  generative  organs  to 
the  deeper  structures.  Local  applications  for  either  syphilis  or 
gonorrhoea  are  neither  necessary  nor  admissible,  further  than 
absorbent  cotton  to  the  chancre  for  the  sake  of  cleanliness,  and, 
possibly,  hot  water  injections  in  the  inflammatory  stage  of 
gonorrhoea. 

1  send  you  this  short  report  as  one  link  in  the  chain  of  evi- 
dence in  favor  of  Hahnemaunian  Homoeopathy.  If  you  think 
it  advisable  in  the  case  you  can  use  it. 

I  treat  all  cases  of  venereal  just  as  I  do  other  sickness ; 
after  discovering  the  cause  from  the  symptoms  which  I  find 
presenting,  I  treat  the  conditions  with  the  homoeopathic 
remedy. 

Yours  very  truly, 

I.  Dever,  M.  D. 


HOMCEOPATHY  AND  PATHOLOGY. 


B.  L.  B.  Baylies,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

The  homoeopathic  physician  is  only  successful  and  consistent 
with  his  profession  when  his  practice  is  based  upon  a  proper 
study  of  symptoms.  A  remedy's  homceopathicity  is  not  discern- 
ible in  the  pathologico-anatomical  changes  which  its  poisonous 
operation  shows  in  the  dead  body  ;  for  other  medicines  may 
show  a  similar  morbid  anatomy  :  Phosphorus  and  Tartarized 
Antimony,  for  example,  both  cause  inflammation  of  the  brain, 
organs  of  respiration,  stomach,  and  alimentary  canal.  Other 
medicines  cause  common  inflammation  of  one  or  of  several 
organs.  How,  then,  shall  a  selection  be  made  from  several 
drugs  of  that  one  adapted  to  cure  a  particular  case  ? 

The  old  school  prescribes,  in  a  measure,  according  to  some 
a  priori  theory  of  the  pathological  relation,  but  the  homcepath- 
ician  has  verified  the  only  law  of  cure,  that  discovered  by 
Hahnemann,  the  only  guide  to  the  selection  of  the  efficient 
remedy.  Not  according  to  presumed  similarity  of  the  anatom- 
ical changes  caused  by  it  to  those  assumed  to  exist  in  a  given 
case,  but  according  to  that  relation  to  the  disease  process  deter- 
mined by  its  similar  symptoms,  is  its  consequent  eliminating 
and  healing  power.  The  nature,  extent,  and  location  of  disease 
concern  as  for  prognosis  ;  and  medicines  may  be  partially  clas- 
sified for  analytic  and  comparative  study,  according  to  their 
pathopoetic  bearing  upon  the  particular  side  or  parts  of  the 
body  affected ;  but  pathological  anatomy  has  no  direct  bearing 
on  therapeutics,  it  relates  to  the  not  always  possible  post-mortem 
diagnosis,  the  detection  of  fatal  poisoning,  medical  jurispru- 
dence, rather  than  the  art  of  healing.  We  are  for  healing  pur- 
poses, operative  surgery  excepted,  more  interested  in  subjective 
than  objective  phenomena,  whether  presented  immediately  or 
mediately  to  our  senses.  And  that  mysterious,  subtle  process, 
which  underlies  all  the  phenomena,  is  the  true  and  essential  dis- 
ease which  only  the  homoeopathic  remedy  is  able  to  combat  and 
annihilate. 

515 


CLINICAL  CASES. 


Edward  Rushmore,  M.  D.,  Peainfield,  N.  J. 

(Clinical  Bureau,  L  H.  A.) 

Intermittent  Fever — Sepia. — A  middle-aged,  single  lady, 
living  near  swampy  ground,  has  chilliness  in  the  afternoon,  with 
coldness  of  the  nose.  She  wakens  at  three  A.  M.,  with  heat  and 
throbbing  in  the  abdomen,  followed  with  perspiration  of  the 
feet  and  of  the  palms.  Several  other  members  of  the  family 
have  had  intermittents  in  former  years.  Sepiacm  (F.),  one  dose 
dry,  and  subsequently  repeated  in  water,  cured  her. 

Prolapse  of  Rectum.  Backache — Ruta,  Conium. — An 
old  gentleman  had  prolapse  of  the  rectum  preceding  very  difficult 
stool.  Ruta930  (F.),  one  dose,  entirely  relieved  him  of  this  diffi- 
culty. On  another  occasion,  the  same  gentleman  complained  of 
a  dribbling,  intermittent  flow  while  urinating.  He  received  one 
dose  of  Conium900  (F.),  and  said  it  fully  relieved  him. 

Of  Ruta,  I  would  like  to  add  that,  in  the  early  stage  of  a 
malignant  disease  of  kidney  and  bladder,  it  relieved,  for  a  con- 
siderable time  the  pain  in  the  back,  and  was  given  because  the 
pain  in  the  back  was  relieved  by  lying  down  on  the  back. 
This  condition  has  been  verified  as  a  trustworthy  indication  for 
the  use  of  Ruta  in  many  other  cases. 

Cough — Kali-carbonicum. — A  boy  of  eleven  years  has 
grown  very  fast ;  he  gets  an  ulcerated  sore  throat  from  slight 
exposure,  and  has  often  had  a  cough.  A  brother  died  before 
this  patient  was  born  from  scrofulous  swellings  following  scar- 
latina, under  the  treatment  of  an  eclectic  homoeopath.  He  now 
has  a  severe  cough  day  and  night,  with  vomiting  of  food.  The 
cough  is  worse  about  three  to  four  o'clock  in  the  morning.  He 
sweats  easily.  The  pulse  is  one  hundred  and  fourteen.  Tem- 
perature one  hundred  and  one  to  one  hundred  and  two.  There 
is  sharp,  bronchial  respiration  in  the  upper  part  of  the  right 
lung  posteriorly.  Loss  of  appetite  and  of  flesh  as  well.  He 
has  been  under  the  care  of  the  same  eclectic  homoeopath. 
516 


Nov.,  1890.] 


CLINICAL  CASES. 


517 


He  received  one  dose  of  Kali-carbonicurncm  (F.),  graft.  At 
the  end  of  three  weeks,  the  pulse  and  temperature  were  nor- 
mal, and  the  cough  almost  wholly  removed. 

Melancholy — Sulphur. — A  young  lady,  scarcely  grown, 
has,  for  a  long  time,  suffered  from  melancholy  and  depression, 
a  feeling  as  if  she  is  going  to  die.  She  is  dizzy  and  faint  on  ris- 
ing in  the  morning,  and  has  occasional  obscuration  of  sight, 
when  objects  appear  both  dim  and  crooked,  and  it  seems  as  if 
her  eyes  are  not  in  their  proper  place.  Besides,  she  has  a  bad 
taste  in  the  mouth,  weakness  at  the  stomach,  and  eructations  if 
she  takes  coffee,  and  constipation  (if  she  takes  coffee),  for  which 
she  has  taken  Aloes.  The  menses  occur  four  or  five  days  too 
soon,  but  are  otherwise  natural.  She  is  sleepy  by  day,  more  so 
in  the  afternoon,  but  sleeps  well  at  night.  She  is  easily  chilled, 
and  takes  cold  easily.  To  get  the  feet  the  least  damp  makes  the 
forehead  feel  heavy,  the  eyes  feel  strange,  and  gives  them  a  hol- 
low look. 

She  received  one  dose  of  Sulphurcm  (F.  C).  Six  months 
later  her  father,  visiting  me  for  himself,  told  me  she  recovered 
both  from  the  melancholy  and  the  bodily  ailments  soon  after 
taking  the  medicine,  and  that  she  had  remained  well  to  that 
time.  I  have  every  reason  to  think  that  she  has  had  no  return 
of  the  symptoms. 

Uterine  Bearing  Down — Belladonna. — An  aged  lady 
complained  of  a  sense  of  fullness  and  much  bearing  down  in 
the  lower  abdomen,  worse  in  lying  down,  and  relieved  by 
sitting  up.  Belladonna50"1  (F.  C.)  relieved  her  in  a  short 
time. 

Heart  Coldness  and  Trembling — Natrum-muriati- 
CUM, — An  aged  lady  had  a  sense  of  coldness  at  the  precordia, 
and  trembling  of  the  heart.  Natrum-muriaticum900  (F.),  one 
dose,  removed  both  these  symptoms. 

Chronic  Cough — Ammonium-muriaticum. — A  gentleman 
wrote  me  from  California  that  he  had  suffered  there,  for  seve  ral 
years,  with  bronchitis  and  cough,  with  a  feeling  of  coldness  be- 
tween the  scapulae.  I  sent  him  Amm-mur.23m  (F.),  ten  powders, 
to  be  taken  at  intervals.    In  about  three  months  he  wrote  to 


518 


CLINICAL  CASES. 


[Nov., 


say  that  he  was  so  much  better  he  thought  he  did  uot  need  more 
medicine. 

I  always  examine  Amm-mur.  in  cases  of  cough,  with  cold- 
ness between  scapulae  or  shoulders.  It  has  nearly  always  been 
found  suitable  and  helpful. 


CLINICAL  CASES. 
Clarence  N.  Payne,  Bridgeport,  Conn. 

Rheumatism. — Mrs.  Emma  K.,  colored,  rheumatism.  First 
saw  patient  May  28th,  1889.  Found  her  in  bed  and  that  she 
had  been  sick  two  weeks,  but  would  not  have  a  doctor  before, 
preferring  to  treat  herself  with  all  kinds  of  liniments,  but  as, 
in  spite  of  this,  she  was  getting  worse,  thought  better  of  it  and 
sent  for  me.  Condition  as  follows  :  Pain  appears  in  different 
joints  and  only  stays  in  one  place  about  two  days,  when  it 
changes  its  location,  as  from  ankle  to  knee,  then  hip,  next  the 
back,  leaving  parts  first  attacked  only  to  return  to  them  again. 

Joints  swollen,  sore,  and  throbbing,  worse  by  motion.  Little 
thirst.  Fair  appetite.  No  sleep,  because  "  so  nervous."  R 
Puis.15.    Dose  every  two  hours. 

May  30th. — Better  than  any  time  for  two  weeks,  yet  weather 
is  damp  and  rainy.  Much  less  throbbing  and  pains,  but  joints 
stiff.    No  sleep.    Continued  Puis.15. 

June  1st. — Very  little  pain  now,  only  stiffness  on  attempting 
to  move,  as  if  tendon  pulled.  Has  had  some  sleep.  R  Rhus33. 
Two  hours. 

June  4th. — Stiffness  better,  but  some  return  of  soreness  and 
pain.    Returned  to  Puis.15. 

June  6th. — Found  patient  walking  about  out-doors  for  first 
time.    Discharged  cured. 

Vomitino  and  Diarrhcea. — Susan  C,  age  twenty-one. 

Called  June  21st,  1889.  History  :  For  past  three  weeks  has 
vomited  nearly  everything  taken  on  stomach.  Region  of  stom- 
ach very  sore  to  pressure.  Eructations  tasting  of  food.  Has 
been  chilly  and  hot  alternately  for  past  three  weeks.    Has  kept 


1890.] 


CLINICAL  CASES. 


519 


about,  however,  till  to-day.  Has  had  more  or  less  attention 
from  an  old-school  physician  with  no  good  result. 

Present  condition  as  above,  and  as  follows :  Bowels  loose, 
small,  thin,  green  movements.  Pain  in  back  and  limbs,  so  se- 
vere cannot  keep  still,  must  move.  Seems  like  a  nervous  agita- 
tion. Severe  headache,  worse  on  top.  Tongue  yellow  and  dry. 
Poor  sleep  last  two  weeks.  Water  will  stay  on  stomach  a  jew 
moments  and  is  then  vomited. 

Temperature  103.8°.    Pulse  120.    R  Phos.3. 

June  22d. — Found  patient  had  not  vomited  after  taking 
Phos.  Stomach  feels  better.  Pain  in  head  and  limbs  still  very 
severe.  Restless  and  poor  sleep.  No  record  of  temperature  and 
pulse  this  day.    Changed  remedy  to  Rhus3. 

June  23d. — Much  better  in  nearly  every  respect.  Less  rest- 
less. Some  sleep.  All  pain  much  relieved.  More  soreness  of 
bowels,  however,  which  are  tympanitic,  and  soreness  worse  on 
right  side,  low  down,  bowels  moving  often,  greenish-yellow,  but 
without  pain  or  tenesmus.  Noticed,  for  first  time,  a  red  trian- 
gular tip  on  tongue,  the  remainder  of  tongue  having  yellow 
coating.  Temperature  fallen  to  100.3°,  and  pulse  to  88. 
Rhus30. 

June  24th. — Pain  all  gone.  Temperature  and  pulse  normal. 
No  nausea  or  vomiting.  Tenderness  of  bowels  better.  Bowels 
still  moving,  but  without  pain  and  more  natural  color.  g. 
China3. 

As  patient  w^as  eight  miles  in  country,  I  did  not  see  her  again, 
but  on  June  27th  she  sent  word  that  she  was  rapidly  convalescing. 

Diarrhcea. — Elmer  B.,  age  about  twenty-one,  blacksmith. 
Called  to  patient  July  21st,  1890.  Found  him  in  condition  of  great 
prostration.  For  past  three  nights  (especially)  had  many  profuse 
watery  stools,  preceded  by  colicky  pain  and  rumbling,  and  im- 
perative desire  for  stool,  followed  by  sense  of  emptiness  in  bowels 
and  relief  of  pain.  Has  also  much  nausea,  vomiting,  and  retch- 
ing. Intense  thirst  for  large  amounts.  Tongue  coated  with 
red  tip  and  edges.  Gave  him  Verat-alb.3  which  immediately 
controlled  whole  condition.  No  return  of  movements  or  vomit- 
ing after  first  dose. 


GRAFTS. 


Nonchalanta,  Ness  County,  Kansas,  Sept.  30th,  1890. 

Editors  Homceopathic  Physician: — What  is  your  idea 
of  the  two  articles  in  the  September  number  of  the  Honueopatliic 
Recorder,  on  "  How  Hahnemann  cured,"  and  "  Grafts  "?  Such 
articles  tend  to  produce  confusion  and  deter  the  novitiate  from 
entering  the  field  of  sure  cure.  I  have  but  little  experience  with 
grafts,  and  was  very  slow  even  in  trying  them,  but  I  thought 
no  one  could  convince  me  either  way  as  well  as  experience,  so 
I  sent  after  twenty-two  remedies.  The  result  has  been  satisfac- 
tory so  far  as  tried.  One  case  where  I  used  the  graft  of 
Cinal0m  I  consider  remarkable.  A  child  was  extremely  low, 
picking  nose,  etc.  Parents  had  never  seen  any  worms  pass  per 
anus.  I  gave  the  child  Cina3,  no  results.  In  fourteen  days  I 
gave  Cina10m  from  graft,  and  was  surprised  to  find  many  worms, 
pieces  of  all  sizes  and  shapes,  pass  from  the  child  within  a  day 
or  two.  In  about  ten  days  all  indications  of  worms  per  rectum 
were  absent.  One  more  dose  of  the  same  graft,  Cina,  brought 
more  worms  from  the  child,  and  with  its  action  most  decided 
improvement  in  every  way.  I  gave  Onosmodium3,  and  same, 
30,  during  a  long  time  for  deafness  with  dryness  of  ears ;  no 
secretion  whatever ;  especially  deafness  for  the  human  voice ; 
could  hear  the  clock  tick  during  laughter  and  conversation,  but 
very  difficult  to  hear  a  voice,  unless  very  distinct.  The  3  and  30 
gave  no  benefit.  I  sent  after  Onosmodiumcm  graft,  and,  behold  ! 
the  ear  begins  to  secrete,  the  noises  cease,  hearing  much  im- 
proved, as  well  as  the  general  health.  This  is  the  result  of  two 
doses  ten  days  apart.  I  shall  continue  the  remedy  with  the 
expectation  of  final  recovery.  I  am  using  from  the  200  to  the 
1,000  principally,  but  the  results  of  the  grafts  in  the  CM  have 
been  so  brilliant  I  shall  continue  my  investigation.  In  such 
matters  I  take  no  man's  word,  but  investigate  for  myself.  To 
make  sure  of  the  result  I  am  careful  to  get  the  exact  remedy  in- 
stead of  guessing,  and  then  opposing  either  high  potencies  or 
520 


Nov.,  1890.] 


GRAFTS. 


521 


grafts.  My  200  to  1,000  I  get  from  Bocricke  &  Tafel  in  fluid 
form.    My  few  grafts  I  get  from  Dr.  Swan. 

Until  a  year  past  I  used  nothing  higher  than  the  12x.  Now 
I  am  so  well  pleased  and  find  such  wonderful  results  from  the 
high  potencies  that  I  use  nothing  less  than  the  200.  I  had  a 
case  of  threatened  abortion  and  made  a  test  of  the  high  potencies. 
The  case,  second  pregnancy,  third  month,  had  severe  pains,  a 
great  loss  of  blood,  and  could  not  move  without  the  flow  increasing  ; 
pains  from  the  back  to  the  pubis,  etc.,  Sabina1000  (B.  &  T.)  one 
dose  in  water  entirely  cured,  and  the  woman  is  now  doing  her 
own  work,  and  has  no  bad  result  whatever  from  the  trouble. 

Before  I  had  the  high  potencies  I  dreaded  labor  cases.  Now 
I  have  no  trouble  with  them.  My  mountain  fever  cases  get 
along  without  a  crisis,  whereas  I  could  not  do  this  with  the  low 
potencies.  With  such  an  experience,  though  very  short,  who 
could  or  would  go  back  to  the  flesh-pots  of  Egypt  in  the  form 
of  allopathic  palliatives,  or  to  the  slow  acting  and  uncertain  low 
potencies  ?  The  reason  so  many  young  men  have  the  high  po- 
tencies and  remain  in  the  valleys  of  the  low,  is  the  want  of  suffi- 
cient knowledge  to  use  the  high.  It  requires  a  much  closer  pre- 
scribing to  derive  any  benefit  from  the  high.  If  I  did  not  know 
what  to  give,  I  should  never  give  a  high  potency.  It  does  not 
make  so  much  difference  with  the  low,  yet  Sac-lac.  is  the  best 
remedy  in  an  uncertainty.  Whilst  I  am  still  investigating  the 
graft  question  without  a  definitive  opinion  as  yet,  I  have  no 
doubt  as  to  the  high  potencies  being  the  very  best  for  prompt- 
ness, effectiveness,  and  enduring  action. 

I  think  you  should  speak  on  the  question  of  grafts  and 
Hahnemannian  high  potencies  without  reserve.  Many  young 
men  are  on  the  fence  undecided,  and  will  watch  for  the  articles 
for  the  journals  professing  to  teach  pure  Homoeopathy.  Sharpen 
your  quill,  dip  it  in  the  fluid  of  truth  and  experience  and  write. 
Blow  your  horn  of  eternal  truth  without  fear  or  favor.  What 
we  want  is  the  truth,  whatever  that  may  be. 

Yours  truly, 

W.  A.  YlXGLING. 


VERIFICATIONS  IN  THE  OCTOBER  NUMBER. 


Editors  Homoeopathic  Physician  : 

When  I  sent  you  the  little  article  which  appeared  on  page 
475  of  the  October  number,  I  did  not  deem  it  worthy  of  a 
name,  but  observe  that  you  have  nominated  it  u  verifications." 
Certainly  if  the  child  had  to  have  a  name  this  was  an  appro- 
priate one,  but  now  comes  a  subdivision,  and  the  writer  is  startled 
on  discovering  that  (according  to  the  first  caption  that  met  his 
gaze)  he  had  written  on  "  Hydrophobia"  instead  of  Tetanus,  as 
he  had  supposed.  The  contagiousness  of  the  malady  is  obvious, 
from  the  fact  that  he  felt  himself  becoming  "  mad  "  at  once. 

You  doubtless  thought  that  by  thus  giving  it  a  name  of  a 
disease  which  was  similar  you  would  render  the  article  more 
homoeopathic.  Be  that  as  it  may,  its  action  upon  myself  was 
quite  remarkable  if  not  soothing.  However,  I  must  destroy 
your  poetic  idea  by  asking  that  you  call  attention  to  the  fact  that 
I  am  not  responsible  for  an  error  which  places  me  in  a  rather 
ridiculous  light.    I  am,  yours  respectfully, 

Wm.  Jefferson  Guernsey. 

[We  regret  exceedingly  the  error  of  which  Dr.  Guernsey 
complains.  Our  deliberate  intention  was  to  put  the  word 
Tetanus  at  the  head  of  the  paragraph,  but  our  thoughts  becom- 
ing drawn  to  the  question  of  hydrophobia  by  the  doctor's 
suggestive  case  we  mechanically  wrote  that  word. — Eds.] 


WEAKNESS  AFTER  URINATION. 

Editor  Homceopathic  Physician: — After  prescribing  sev- 
eral seemingly  indicated  remedies  for  a  male  patient,  a  few 
months  ago,  with  no  curative  result,  I  learned — or  rather  he  ex- 
pressed himself  differently  in  trying  to  convey  the  idea  or  sensa- 
tion he  had  previously  expressed  in  other  terms — that  he 
suffered  after  urination  with  a  feeling  of  weakness,  relaxation, 
very  distressing  in  character,  in  the  sexual  organs  ;  said  he  must 
522 


Nov.,  1890.] 


A  PROVING  OF  NUX-VOM. 


523 


have  seminal  emissions  each  time  he  urinated,  as  he  felt 
just  as  he  used  to  after  masturbating.  This  condition  I 
found  to  be  met  by  Berb-vulg.,  which  I  gave  him  in  the  CM 
potency,  and  improvement  began  with  the  next  act  of  urination. 
My  patient  was  so  distressed  by  the  condition  that  he  was  be- 
coming melancholy.  The  case  as  I  took  it  for  this  prescription 
very  strongly  suggested  Staph.,  but  this  peculiar  condition  of 
distress  and  weakness  after  urination  made  me  decide  in  favor 
of  Berb-v.,  with  a  very  happy  result  and  a  verification  of  the 
recorded  condition. 

Phcenixville,  Pa.  Kobt.  Farley,  M.  D. 

A  PROVING  OF  NUX-YOM. 
Ella  M.  Tuttle,  M.  D.,  New  Berlin,  N.  Y. 

July  9th. — Miss  M.,  aged  thirty-four,  blonde,  touched  the 
tongue  to  Nux'vom.  About  two  hours  afterward  she  began  to 
have  cramps  in  the  pit  of  the  stomach,  with  a  feeling  of  nausea 
in  the  throat.  The  cramps  extended  to  the  region  of  the  right 
lobe  of  the  liver  and  the  right  side  of  the  abdomen  with  a  con- 
stant fruitless  desire  for  stool.  Fullness  and  heat  in  the  pit  of 
the  stomach,  followed  with  a  feeling  as  if  eructations  would 
relieve  but  found  it  impossible  to  raise  any  gas.  There  was  a  dull 
frontal  headache  with  a  full  feeling  in  the  head,  aggravated  by 
stooping,  also  swimming  in  the  brain,  with  a  tendency  to  fall  for- 
ward, worse  by  stooping.  She  was  very  irritable,  desired  to  be 
let  alone,  and  had  a  great  aversion  to  any  mental  effort.  All  the 
symptoms  worse  by  thinking  about  them. 

July  10th. — vSymptoms  all  gone  except  a  dull  feeling  in  the 
head.    Bowels  constipated,  stool  scanty. 

July  11th. — A  painless  diarrhoea  in  the  morning. 

July  15th. — The  same  sick  feelings  returned,  also  a  scraped 
sensation  in  the  pit  of  the  stomach.  The  stomach  sensitive  to 
pressure. 

Since  the  above  date  the  lady  has  had  no  more  symptoms 
except  alternations  of  constipation  and  diarrhoea.  The  most 
marked  symptom  seemed  to  be  the  nausea  in  the  throat. 


BOOK  NOTICES. 


Census  Bulletin  No.  9.  Robert  P.  Porter,  Superintendent 
of  the  Census. 

This  bulletin  announces  the  results  of  the  census  of  the  manufacture  of 
pig-iron ;  from  which  it  appears  that  the  total  production  of  pig-iron  was 
9,579,779  tons,  whilst  in  the  census  year,  1880,  it  was  3,781,021  tons. 

Census  Bulletin  No.  6.  Robert  P.  Porter,  Superintendent 
of  the  Census. 

This  bulletin  deals  with  the  financial  condition  of  all  the  counties  of  every 
State  and  Territory  in  the  Union.  It  is  a  pamphlet  of  twenty-six  pages,  full 
of  formidable  tables  and  interspersed  with  maps  of  the  various  sections  of  the 
United  States,  showing  at  a  glance  just  what  the  indebtedness  and  where 
located. 

These  bulletins  are  certainly  valuable  to  all  who  are  interested  in  the  gen- 
eral prosperity  of  this  nation.  W.  M.  J. 

Census  Bulletin  No.  10 

Contains  the  report  of  the  total  production  of  quicksilver ;  from  which  it 
appears  that  the  total  production  in  the  United  States  for  ten  years  was 
407,675  flasks,  valued  at  $13,480,500. 

Census  Bulletin  No.  11 

Shows  the  statistics  of  transportation  in  the  United  States,  including  rapid 
transit  in  the  cities. 

Journal  of  Balneology.  Issued  by  the  Journal  of  Balne- 
ology Publishing  Co.  New  York,  P.  O.  Box  1670.  Vol. 
IV,  No.  3,  August,  1890. 

This  is  a  comparatively  new  journal,  devoted  to  information  concerning 
natural  mineral  springs,  health  resorts,  and  sanitariums.  It  is  a  bi-monthly 
journal ;  price,  $1  a  year,  in  advance. 

In  an  address  to  the  medical  profession  the  publishers  say :  "  The  aim  of 
the  journal  will  be  to  present  each  month,  in  as  concise  a  manner  as  possible, 
all  available  information  regarding  the  therapeutics  and  the  chemical  compo- 
sition of  mineral  springs,  their  location,  climate,  convenience  of  access,  and 
hotel  accommodations.  It  will  also  consider  the  value  of  thermal  springs, 
the  climatology  of  seaside  and  inland  resorts,  their  availability  for  the  con- 

524 


Nov.,  1890.] 


BOOK  NOTICES. 


525 


venience  of  the  invalid  and  for  the  rest  and  recreation  of  those  who  desire  to 
maintain  the  health  and  comfort  of  themselves  and  families." 

The  number  before  us  contains  an  interesting  article  upon  the  Hot  Springs 
of  Arkansas,  besides  other  interesting  articles.  If  the  volume  when  com- 
pleted is  supplied  with  a  thorough  index  to  all  the  articles  that  have  been 
published,  it  must  prove  a  valuable  work  of  reference.  W.  M.  J. 

Physical  Diagnosis  and  Practical  Urinalysis.  An 
Epitome  of  the  Physical  Signs  of  the  Heart,  Lung,  Kidney, 
and  Spleen  in  Health  and  Disease.  Edited  by  John  E. 
Clark,  M.  D.,  Professor  of  General  Chemistry  and  Physics 
in  the  Detroit  College  of  Medicine.  Forty-one  illustrations. 
Cloth,  12mo,  two  hundred  pages;  price,  postpaid,  $1.00. 
Illustrated  Medical  Journal  Co.,  Publishers,  Detroit,  Mich. 

In  the  arrangement  of  this  work  the  object  has  been  to  present  to  the 
medical  student  and  practitioner  a  systematic  and  condensed  course  of  Physi- 
cal Diagnosis  and  Urinalysis.  The  portion  on  Urinalysis  will  be  found  to 
consist  of  two  parts,  practical  and  reference.  The  editor  believes  there  is  a 
demand,  in  many  medical  schools  and  by  many  medical  students,  for  a  short, 
definite  course  of  organic  chemistry,  touching  alone  on  those  subjects  of  every- 
day interest  to  the  medical  practitioner,  such  as  the  analysis  of  urine,  chem- 
ical and  microscopical ;  the  examination  of  sputa,  bile,  blood,  bacteria,  etc. ; 
methods  for  the  quantitative  estimation  of  the  more  important  urinary  con- 
stituents, normal  and  abnormal,  such  as  urea,  chlorides,  sugar,  albumen,  etc. 
To  meet  these  requirements  the  editor  has  compiled  this  volume.  Teachers 
in  the  laboratory  will  find  the  work  of  advantage  as  giving  the  plan  for  defi- 
nite instruction  with  such  manipulatory  details  as  will  enable  students  to 
pursue  the  course  of  urine  analysis  with  the  minimum  of  assistance.  This  is 
essentially  the  same  as  the  course  given  by  the  editor  in  the  college  with 
which  he  is  connected.  Plates  have  been  introduced  as  needed  to  still  further 
assist  in  elucidating  the  text. 

The  Baltimore  Family  Health  Journal.  Published 
every  month.  Price,  $1.00  per  year.  Edited  and  published 
by  Flora  A.  Brewster,  M.  D.,  and  Cora  B.  Brewster,  M.  D., 
1027  Madison  Avenue,  Baltimore,  Maryland. 

This  periodical  of  about  twenty-four  pages  a  month  is  edited  and  published 
exclusively  by  ladies ;  the  editorial  staff,  including,  besides  the  above  pub- 
lishers, Professor  Elizabeth  J.  French.  It  is  intended  for  the  home  circle, 
and  to  instruct  the  family  in  those  simple  rules  of  conduct  and  of  hygiene 
which  are  of  so  much  importance  in  taking  care  of  the  health.  Thus  we  find 
an  excellent  article  upon  self-control,  which  of  itself  will  prevent  much  sick- 


526 


BOOK  NOTICES. 


[Nov., 


ness;  an  article  upon  cooking,  impure  air  in  dwellings,  etc.  We  cordially  re- 
commend this  journal.  W.  M.  J. 

The  Family  Homoeopathist  ;  or,  Plain  Directions  fob 
the  Treatment  of  Disease.  By  E.  B.  Shuldam,  M.  D., 
Seventh  edition ;  London,  E.  Gould  &  Son,  59  Moorgate 
Street. 

This  is  a  little  16mo  volume  of  150  pages,  containing  concise  and  plain 
directions  for  treatment  of  common  diseases.  The  indications  for  the  remedies 
are  very  clear  and  simple. 

There  is  an  introduction  which,  in  a  very  few  pages,  is  a  very  good  defense 
of  Homoeopathy.  This  is  followed  by  a  chapter  containing  "  hints  on 
health,"  a  chapter  of  "directions  for  taking  the  medicines,"  and  a  short 
Materia  Medica.  Then  follow  the  different  diseases  witli  indications  for  the 
remedies  as  above  mentioned. 

Here  and  there  we  regret  to  say  alternated  remedies  are  recommended, 
marring  the  value  of  the  book.  Barring  this  defect,  it  is  a  clever  and  handy 
little  volume  for  the  laity.  \V.  If.  J. 

Epilepsy,  its  Pathology  and  Treatment.  By  Hobart 
Araory  Hare,  M.  D.  (University  of  Pennsylvania),  B.  Sc. 
F.  A.  Davis,  publisher,  Philadelphia,  and  Loudon,  1890. 

Among  the  best  of  the  series  of  medical  works  issued  by  different  publishers 
for  the  instruction  of  the  profession  is  The  Physicians'  and  Students'  Ready 
Reference  Series,  published  by  Mr.  F.  A.  Davis,  of  Philadelphia.  They  are 
octavo  volumes,  excellently  printed,  and  neatly  bound.  The  work  now  under 
notice  is  No.  7  of  the  series. 

Its  author  is  a  rising  young  Philadelphia  physician,  who,  though  he  has 
been  but  a  few  years  in  practice,  has  drawn  considerable  attention  to  himself 
by  his  brilliant  work  as  an  investigator,  a  teacher,  and  an  author. 

This  is  the  essay  for  which  the  author  wyas  awarded  a  prize  of  four  thousand 
francs  by  the  Royal  Academy  of  Medicine,  of  Belgium,  last  December. 

The  essay  is  an  exhaustive  and  well-written  treatise  upon  epilepsy,  conve- 
niently divided  off  into  paragraphs,  with  titles  in  heavy  black  type,  agreeably 
to  the  plan  in  all  the  members  of  the  series.  In  this  book  one  can  find  re- 
corded all  that  is  worth  knowing  concerning  epilepsy  in  a  condensed  form. 
It  is,  in  fact,  an  encyclopaedia  of  this  strange  disease,  with  the  information 
concerning  it  well  arranged  for  quick  reference.  The  view  of  the  author  is 
that  the  epileptic  seizure,  which  he  very  aptly  terms  the  "  nerve  storm." 
originates  in  the  cortical  substance  of  the  brain,  and  consists  essentially  of  a 
sudden  "  explosion  of  nerve  force."  Considerable  evidence  is  brought  forward 
to  sustain  such  a  view. 

The  treatment,  of  course,  we  cannot  indorse,  the  recommendation  being 


1890.] 


BOOK  NOTICES. 


52? 


chiefly  for  the  bromides,  especially  the  Bromide  of  Potassium,  in  immense 
doses.  The  author  rather  inconsistently  says  that  no  poisoning  results  from 
such  quantities,  yet  warns  his  reader  against  the  dangers  of  Bromism. 

If  the  writer  were  but  convinced  of  the  truth  of  Homoeopathy  and  of  the 
utility  of  its  therapeutics,  and  could  have  added  an  exposition  of  them  as  able 
and  as  thorough  as  his  description  of  the  disease,  the  book  would  have  been 
almost  perfect.  W.  M.  J. 

Kate  Field's  Washington  is  a  National  Independent  Re- 
view, published  every  Wednesday,  and  mailed  to  regular  sub- 
scribers at  four  dollars  a  year. 

It  is  a  bright,  spicy  magazine  with  dashing  editorials  and  interesting  mis- 
cellaneous articles.  It  is  the  famous  publication  whose  author  uses  the  "big 
I"  in  her  breezy  editorials.  Accordingly  its  title-page  is  decorated  with  a 
big  1  and  the  spread  eagle.  For  subscriptions  apply  to  Kate  Field's 
Washington,  59  Corcoran  Building,  Washington,  D.  C. 

We  have  received  the  following  : 

Report  and  Recommendations  of  International  Ameri- 
can Conference  upon  Postal  and  Cable  Communi- 
cation with  Central  and  South  America. 

This  pamphlet  is  a  recommendation  for  a  government  subsidy  of  a  telegraph  ic 
cable  in  the  Pacific  Ocean  between  San  Francisco  and  Valparaiso  in  Chili, 
and  for  promoting  postal  communication. 

Report  and  Recommendations  Concerning  Sanitary 
and  Quarantine  Regulations  in  Commerce  with 
the  American  Republics. 

This  report  is  upon  a  means  of  so  harmonizing  measures  for  the  prevention 
of  the  spread  of  disease  that  there  shall  be  no  conflict  between  the  diverse 
sanitary  regulations  which  the  American  nations  have  adopted  to  protect 
themselves  from  these  infectious  diseases. 

We  quote  a  significant  paragraph  : 

"Complete  isolation,  which  theoretically  appears  to  be  the  most  effectual 
prophylactic  against  the  invasions  of  epidemic  diseases,  does  not  afford  in 
practice  satisfactory  results  as  a  sanitary  measure,  but  tends,  on  the  other 
hand,  to  notably  injure  the  commercial  interests  of  the  countries.  The  dis- 
tinguished professor,  Dr.  Francisco  Rosas,  President  of  the  Sanitary  Congress 
of  Lima,  thus  expresses  himself  on  this  point :  *  It  is  scientifically  demon- 
strated by  innumerable  facts  that  the  closing  of  ports  and  frontiers  does  not 
prevent  the  invasion  of  epidemics,  that  these  enter  and  develop  with  greater 
violence  in  the  countries  which  pretend  to  isolate  themselves,  because,  under  the 
mistaken  belief  that  they  are  free  of  all  danger,  they  disregard  the  proper 


528 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 


[Nov.,  1890. 


means  to  restrain  the  development  of  the  epidemic  and,  above  all,  to  lessen 
its  severity.' " 

The  reader  should  now  refer  to  Dr.  T.  Dwight  Stow's  paper  on  contagion  in 
The  Homoeopathic  Physician  for  February,  1888,  page  49.  The  pamphlet 
then  gives  the  text  of  a  treaty  for  the  regulation  of  the  quarantine  practices 
between  the  several  countries,  reducing  them  to  a  uniform  code. 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 

Grace  Hospital,  Detroit. — The  next  regular  examinations  for  position 
of  Assistant  to  the  House  Surgeon  will  be  held  at  the  Hospital,  on  Thursday, 
November  13th,  at  8.30  P.  M.  The  term  of  service  is  eighteen  months:  first 
six  months  as  Junior  Assistant ;  second  six  months  as  Senior  Assistant ;  third 
six  months  as  House  Surgeon. 

Applicants  must  show  evidence  of  graduation  from  a  recognized  Homoeo- 
pathic College. 

All  applications  to  be  addressed  to  the  President  of  the  Medical  Board,  The 
Grace  Hospital,  Detroit,  Mich.,  and  must  be  presented  not  later  than  Novem- 
ber 10th,  accompanied  by  certificate  of  good  moral  character. 

Kemovals. — Dr.  L.  H.  Lemke  has  removed  from  Warrenton,  Mo.,  to  Hig- 
ginsville,  Lafayette  County,  Mo.  Dr.  H.  A.  Mumaw  has  removed  from  Orr- 
ville,  Ohio,  to  Detroit,  Michigan.  Dr.  Herbert  Beals  from  370  Michigan 
Street  to  160  Franklin  Street,  Buffalo,  New  York.  Dr.  H.  W.  Andrews  from 
Chillicothe,  Illinois,  to  Spokane  Falls,  State  of  Washington.  Dr.  W.  S.  Gee 
has  returned  from  a  brief  sojourn  at  Manitou  Springs,  Colorado,  to  his  office, 
5226  Washington  Avenue,  Chicago.  Dr.  S.  M.  Cate  from  Salem  to  Hcivard, 
Mass.  Dr.  Lawrence  M.  Stanton  from  120  West  129th  Street  to  71  West  88th 
Street,  New  York.  Dr.  Frank  Kraft,  in  consequence  of  his  appointment  as 
Professor  of  Materia  Medica  in  the  Cleveland  College,  as  announced  in  our 
October  number,  page  437,  has  removed  his  office  from  Sylvania,  Ohio,  to  29 
Euclid  Avenue,  Cleveland,  Ohio.  Dr.  Charles  Deady  has  removed  to  59 
West  49th  Street,  New  York.    He  treats  diseases  of  eye  and  ear  exclusively. 

FUN  FOR  DOCTORS. 

Remarkable  Generosity — A. — "A  more  deserving  medical  man  than  our 
friend  Richard  does  not  exist.  He  very  frequently  accepts  no  fees  from  his 
patients!" 

B.— "  You  don't  say  so  !" 

A. — "  For  he  generally  settles  with  the  heirs." — Fliegende  Blatter. 

Dr.  Limboff — "  Miss  Clara,  I  heard  you  quoting:  '  And  sat  like  Patience 
on  a  monument.'  Now  what  does  that  mean  ?  I  never  saw  Patience  on  a 
monument." 

Miss  Clara — "No,  doctor,  but  I  fancy  you  are  quite  accustomed  to  seeing  a 
monument  on  your  patients." — The  Jester. 


THE 

Homeopathic  Physician, 

A  MONTHLY  JOURNAL  OF 

HOMOEOPATHIC  MATERIA  MEDICA  AND  CLINICAL  MEDICINE. 


"  If  our  school  ever  gives  up  the  strict  inductive  method  of  Hahnemann,  we 
are  lost,  and  deserve  only  to  be  mentioned  as  a  caricature  in 
the  history  of  medicine."— constantine  hering. 


Vol.  X.  DECEMBER,  1890.  No.  12. 


EDITORIAL. 

The  Dose. — We  call  the  attention- of  our  readers  to  Dr. 
LilienthaPs  article  entitled  "  Another  Dose  about  the  Dose/'  in 
this  number  of  The  Homceopathic  Physician. 

There  are  many  members  of  the  homoeopathic  school  who  are 
asking  the  same  question  ;  why  is  not  the  dose  of  the  remedy 
indicated  in  all  works  on  treatment  ? 

Dr.  Lilienthal  has  given  an  answer,  and  has  happily  illus- 
trated it  by  cases.  In  a  private  letter  to  this  journal,  the  ven- 
erable Doctor  declares  his  inability  to  solve  the  question,  and, 
with  charming  frankness,  declares  himself  "  a  mongrel  n  who 
could  never  be  admitted  to  the  International  Hahnemannian 
Association  or  the  Legion  of  Honor  of  the  homceopathic  pro- 
fession. 

He  appeals  to  us  to  aid  him  in  his  answer.  We  are  as  help- 
less as  himself  for  a  solution  of  the  question.  Only  time,  by 
the  ponderous  and  exceedingly  slow  process  of  evolution,  can 
bring  an  answer.  Homceopathic  physicians  can  help  that  evo- 
lution by  strictly  and  faithfully  applying  the  law  of  the  similars, 
giving  only  one  drug  at  a  time,  and  seeking  only  the  smallest 
dose  that  will  cure.  This  will  be  recognized  as  the  old* and  oft- 
repeated  advice  of  Hahnemann,  and  that  of  all  the  old  guard  of 
his  faithful  disciples. 

34  529 


530 


EDITORIAL 


[Dec, 


These  who  follow  such  advice- are,  however,  derisively  called 
"  symptom  coverers  "  by  the  majority  who,  nominally  of  our 
school,  yet  feed  from  the  pathological  flesh-pots.  This  stigma 
is,  of  course,  unjust.  The  real  symptom  coverer  is  the  surgeon 
who  cuts  out  the  ovaries  to  cure  painful  menstruation  ;  the  doc- 
tor who  relieves  an  "  overloaded  bowel "  by  a  purgative,  or 
deadens  the  sensibility  to  pain  by  an  opiate,  or  applies  a  fly- 
blister  for  an  inflammation.  Those  who  do  such  things  are  the 
real  symptom  coverers. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  physician  who  takes  the  totality  of  the 
symptoms  is  seeking  to  gain  a  complete  knowledge  of  the  whole 
condition,  to  get  a  perfect  picture  of  the  disease.  In  applying 
his  remedy  he  simply  ensures  that  the  remedy,  the  messenger, 
the  agent  which  he  sends,  shall  actually  reach  the  spot  where 
the  enemy  is  located,  and,  coming  in  collision  with  him,  shall 
annihilate  him.  Now,  then,  the  dose  must  be  so  graduated  that 
this  triumph  over  the  disease  shall  be  just  sufficient  to  accom- 
plish the  end  sought,  and  yet  not  increase  the  suffering  and  dan- 
ger to  the  system  that  must  endure  the  shock  of  the  battle. 
What  dose  shall  this  be?  It  is  impossible  to  say.  We  must 
simply  give  the  remedy  according  to  our  light,  and,  watch  nig 
carefully  the  result,  learn  enough  to  advance  us  from  one  potency 
to  another,  until  we  have  arrived  at  a  conclusion.  This  method 
of  procedure  is  strictly  scientific.  It  has  the  true  character  of 
the  scientific  investigation  of  the  physicist  and  chemist.  When 
the  physicist,  the  chemist,  or  the  electrician  seeks  to  solve  some 
scientific  question,  he  has  recourse  to  a  laboratory  and  to  scien- 
tific instruments.  The  attempt  with  the  apparatus,  under  such 
circumstances,  to  find  a  solution  to  his  question  is  called  an  ex- 
periment. Prof.  Tyndall  happily  called  it  "  addressing  a  ques- 
tion to  nature."  Every  phenomenon  in  nature  is  influenced  by 
so  many  factors  that  means  must  be  taken  to  shut  out  all  of 
these  factors  save  the  particular  one  we  are  dealing  with.  This 
suggests  apparatus.  As  every  factor  except  the  one  under  con- 
sideration interferes  with  the  solution  of  the  question,  invention 
is  taxed  to  devise  means  for  shutting  out  these  other  factors. 
Thus  modifications  in  the  apparatus  are  made,  and  so  it  grows 


1890.] 


EDITORIAL. 


531 


into  the  many  singular  forms  and  complicated  devices  that  dis- 
tinguish scientific  appliances.  The  plan  of  the  apparatus  is 
such,  that,  as  •  far  as  possible,  only  one  influence  shall  be 
present,  in  the  experiment,  at  a  time  to  produce  the  effect  to  be 
studied. 

This  is  well  illustrated  in  Prof.  TyndalPs  striking  and  beau- 
tiful investigations  upon  the  Diathermancy  of  Air;  the  diamag- 
netic  polarity  of  miscellaneous  bodies  generally  supposed  to  be 
insusceptible  to  magnetism,  and  his  experiments  on  magne- 
crystallie  action. 

Applying  this  method  to  the  question  of  a  prescription,  we 
find  that,  if  we  would  form  any  conclusion  as  to  the  value  of  a 
medicine  in  any  given  case  of  sickness,  we  must  give  it  alone. 
No  other  factor,  no  "  adjuvant  means 99  of  any  kind  what- 
soever must  be  allowed  to  obscure  our  judgment  and  prevent  an 
indisputable  conclusion  as  to  the  efficacy  of  the  medicine.  Only 
one  potency  can  be  given  at  a  time,  and  a  sufficient  interval 
must  be  allowed  for  us  to  be  able  to  note  its  results  and  see  our 
way  clear  to  the  next  step  in  the  progress  of  the  patient. 

From  this  point  of  view  we  cannot  see  how  any  physician 
can  claim  to  have  any  clear  understanding  of  what  he  is  seeking 
to  do  with  a  patient  when  he  alternates  remedies,  alternates 
potencies,  or  uses  adjuvant  means  of  treatment.  With  such 
prescribing,  the  question  of  medical  treatment,  the  question  of 
the  dose  will  never  be  settled,  and  patients  will  continue  to  en- 
dure  prolonged  sufferings  and  uncertainty  as  to  cure. 

The  plain  road,  therefore,  toward  that  certainty  in  medicine 
which  characterizes  astronomy,  and  which — say  what  the  skeptics 
will — is  attainable,  is  by  the  similar  remedy,  the  single  remedy, 
and  the  minimum  dose  exactly  as  indicated  by  Hahnemann. 

The  continuation  of  that  plain  road  is  to  be  sought  in  the 
proving  of  the  potencies.  The  symptoms  of  crude  drugs  are  as 
different  from  the  symptoms  produced  by  the  potencies  as  the 
symptoms  of  one  drug  differ  from  those  of  another.  All  these 
varieties  of  effect  of  the  potencies  of  the  same  drug  should  be 
carefully  separated,  and,  in  any  case  of  sickness,  only  that 
potency  given  whose  symptoms  most  nearly  correspond  with 


532 


EDITORIAL. 


[Dec, 


the  sick  condition.  Then  permitting  the  dose  given  to  exhaust 
its  action  before  giving  another  one,  or  changing  the  remedy, 
will  clear  the  way  for  an  intelligent  conclusion  as  to  the  scope 
of  any  remedy  or  of  any  potency.  An  immense  number  of 
such  observations  made  by  a  great  number  of  intelligent  physi- 
cians and  recorded  in  the  journals  will  enable  some  Kepler  in 
the  homoeopathic  school  to  formulate  a  law  for  the  selection  of 
the  potency.  The  repetition  of  the  dose  is,  however,  a  somewhat 
simpler  matter.  Any  homoeopathic  physician  who  has  ever 
given  a  remedy  that  was  indisputably  the  simillimum,  knows 
well  the  gratifying  and  prompt  response  he  gets  in  the  improve- 
ment of  the  patient's  condition.  lie  can  trace  with  surprising 
clearness  the  decline  of  the  painful  or  dangerous  symptoms  from 
day  to  day  or  from  hour  to  hour.  He  knows  well  the  folly  of 
repeating  the  dose  whilst  this  improvement  continues.  He  per- 
ceives most  clearly  when  the  moment  has  arrived  in  which  the 
dose  has  exhausted  its  action  and  it  is  time  to  administer  another 
one.    The  question,  therefore,  is  settled  for  him. 

On  the  other  hand,  he  who  makes  random  or  careless  jffe- 
scriptions,  gives  medicines  in  alternation,  and  in  crude  doses 
never  witnesses  any  of  these  phenomena.  For  him  they  are  a 
sealed  book.  Hence  his  uncertainty,  his  open  scepticism,  his 
hostility  to  the  very  principle  he  claims  to  espouse,  aud  so  arises 
a  divergency  of  views  which  is  an  exact  measurement  of  the 
angle  between  the  satisfactory  experience  of  the  careful  student 
of  symptomatology,  and  the  negative  experience  of  the  super- 
ficial or  eclectic  prescriber.  •  W.  M.  J. 

Grafts. — In  our  last  number  Dr.  Yingling  calls  attention 
to  an  article  in  the  September  Homceopathic  Recorder,  and  he 
asks  for  experience  in  the  use  of  grafts. 

Even  slight  observation  will  show  the  Recorder's  article  is 
written  from  the  commercial  standpoint  and  is  not  conson- 
ant with  facts.  "  There  is  or  was,"  says  A.  J.  T.,  in  the  article 
in  the  Recorder,  "  still  another  way  of  making  cheap  sets  of 
high  potencies.  Eight  or  ten  students  would  club  together  and 
buy  an  original  set  of  liquid  high  potencies  from  a  pharmacist, 


1890.] 


EDITORIAL 


533 


then  subdivide  them  into  as  many  sets  of  vials  filled  with  alco- 
hol." Then  an  attempt  is  made  to  show  that  these  latter  are  of 
no  value. 

Now,  if  the  "  original  M  potencies  were  of  any  value,  we  should 
like  A.  J.  T.  to  show  us  why  the  next  higher  number  made  from 
these  proved  valueless. 

When  such  men  as  Hering,  Lippe,  Fellger,  Bayard,  Wells, 
and  many  others  successfully  used  grafts,  we  shall  ask  for  higher 
authority  before  we  cease  using  them,  as  we  have  been  doing  for 
eighteen  years. 

Dr.  Hering  once  told  us  of  a  severe  case  of  pleurisy  he  was 
called  to  treat,  in  which  the  pain  was  agonizing.  After  de- 
termining the  remedy  he  was  chagrined  to  find  the  vial  empty. 
It  being  late  at  night  and  some  distance. from  his  office,  he  was 
momentarily  at  a  standstill.  This  lasted  but  a  moment.  He 
filled  the  empty  vial  with  Sac-lac,  succussed  it  thoroughly,  ad- 
ministered it,  and  had  a  gratifying  result. 

Grafts  when  properly  made  are  of  value.  Quantity  has  no 
place  in  homoeopathies  :  quality  and  law  are  the  essentials. 

G.  H.  C. 


Dr.  Dudgeon  ox  High  Potencies. — Attention  also  is  called 
to  another  article  in  the  Recordery  extracted  from  The  Homoeo- 
pathic World  for  August.  In  this  Dr.  Dudgeon  (to  whom  we  all 
owe  thanks  for  his  translations  of  many  of  Hahnemann's  works) 
tries  to  show  that  those  who  use  the  potencies  of  Fincke,  Skinner, 
Lehmann,  Jenichen  and  others  are  not  following  the  teachings 
of  Hahnemann,  and,  therefore,  are  not  entitled  to  the  name  of 
Hahnemannian.  Indeed,  Dr.  D.  claims  that  the  use  of  such 
potencies  "  is  directly  opposed  to  his  (Hahnemann's)  teaching 
and  practice."  We  are  aware  that  some  of  these  potencies  are 
made  in  a  manner  different  from  that  recommended  by  Hahne- 
mann ;  and  we  also  know  that  men  of  reliance  have  put  them 
to  actual  test  and  have  found  them  beneficial.  Further,  the 
potency  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  Hahnemann's  Homoe- 
opathy, and  Dr.  D.  knows  it  ;  the  law  is  the  all-requisite — and 
its  corollaries.    We  are  under  the  impression  that  a  stereotvp-'d 


534 


EDITORIAL. 


[Dec, 


argument  of  the  opponents  of  high  potencies  is  that  the  follow- 
ers of  Hahnemann  have  made  no  advance  since  his  day,  and 
that  they  are  not  progressive.  The  results  of  a  strict  ad- 
herence to  Hahnemann's  teachings,  and  the  use  of  these  poten- 
cies are  sufficiently  well  known  ;  and  this,  in  spite  of  many  flings, 
is,  after  all,  the  only  argument  needed. 

Says  Dr.  Dudgeon  :  "  Those  of  us  who  practice  Hahnemann's 
system  with  modifications  (we  italicize)  suggested  by  experience 
and  reflection,  which  we  imagine,  perhaps  mistakenly,  to  be  im- 
provements [improvements  on  a  law  of  nature?  G.  H.  C]  do 
not  announce  ourselves  as  Hahnemannians  or  bestow  on  those 
who  differ  from  us  uncomplimentary  epithets."  And  you  do  right 
in  not  announcing  yourselves  as  Hahnemannians,  but  you  do 
wrong,  and  are  a  fiction,  when  you  take  the  name  of  homoe- 
opath ist. 

What  is  usual  with  those  "  who  practice  Hahnemann's  system 
with  modifications"?  In  our  experience  that  simply  means 
Morphia  for  pains,  Quinine  for  intcrmittents,  and  the  use  of 
other  hurtful  drugs.  We  know  of  numerous  instances  in  which 
we  have  been  convinced  that  through  the  use  of  these  crude 
drugs,  these  men  "  who  practice  Hahnemann's  system  with 
modifications "  have  caused  the  death  of  patients.  And  this 
was  done  under  the  name  of  Homoeopathy. 

Are  the  honest  followers  of  Hahnemann  to  stand  idly  by  and 
say  nothing  of  the  harm  that  is  being  done  by  these  men,  and 
thus  impliedly  indorse  them  as  homeeopathists  ? 

For  those  whose  practice  is  based  upon  the  law  of  similars, 
and  who  adhere  to  that  law,  whether  they  use  the  crude  tincture 
or  the  CM,  we  have  only  praise.  But  what  of  those  who  are 
constantly  doing  all  in  their  power  to  belittle  Homoeopathy,  by 
resorting,  in  many  cases,  to  treatment  that  would  put  to  the 
blush  an  old-school  drugger  ?  What  of  those  of  whom  the 
allopathists  say,  "They  are  living  a  lie"? 

We  should  feel  recreant  to  our  trust  if  we  ever  failed  to  de- 
nounce such  treatment.  We  have  a  mission.  Its  proper  exe- 
cution demands  that  we  should  teach  the  people  the  difference 
between  the  genuine  and  the  false  ;  the  right  and  the  wrong  ; 


1890.] 


EDITORIAL. 


535 


fact  and  fiction  ;  law  and  empiricism  ;  the  curative  and  the 
palliative  ;  and  endeavor  to  have  them  know  that  temporary 
expedients  have  no  rightful  place  in  the  treatment  of  the  sick  ; 
and  that  the  only  right  and  safe  treatment  is  that  based  on 
Nature's  law:  SlMILIA  SlMILBUS  CtJRANTUR.         G.  H.  C. 


The  following,  in  substance,  is  related  of  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin :  On  being  asked  if  he  thought  a  pail  tilled  to  the  brim  with 
water  would  overflow  if  a  fish  were  placed  in  it,  he  replied, 
Gentlemen,  when  in  doubt  in  respect  of  anything  that  can  be  put 
to  a  test,  I  always  make  the  test  before  giving  a  decision. 

Dr.  Yingling  has,  perhaps  unconsciously,  followed  Franklin's 
advice.  We  commend  the  same  to  all  who  rail  against  high 
potencies.  .  G.  H.  C. 

The  Other  Side. — Upon  page  548  of  this  number  Dr.  T. 
F.  Allen  asks  for  the  other  side  of  the  question  of  suppressing 
gonorrhoea'  by  injections.  Dr.  Allen,  however,  does  not  call  it 
suppression,  but  nothing  else  can  be  made  of  the  treatment  he 
advises.  The  other  side  is  the  side  which  decries  the  suppres- 
sion of  any  external  disease  manifestation,  and  simply  because 
that  side  has  the  best  interests  of  the  patient  at  heart,  and  knows 
what  harm  may  result  from  suppression. 

This  is  a  truism  :  a  sycotic  gonorrhoea  made  to  disappear  by 
the  use  of  injections,  converts  what  might  be  terminated  favor- 
ably to  the  patient  into  a  latent,  deep-seated  affection  which  gives 
rise  to  a  host  of  symptoms  of  a  character  that  may  simply  be 
defined  as  infernal.  The  mental  symptoms,  particularly,  are 
such  as  to  make  the  victim  of  suppression  such  a  burden  to  him- 
self that  he  is  constantly  thinking  of  suicide.  Every  Halme- 
mannian  should  know  this,  even  though  his  experience  be 
limited  to  but  one  case  of  sycosis,  as  that  affection  was  described 
by  Hahnemann,  Autenrieth,  Boenninghausen,  and  Granvogl. 

That  sycosis  does  not  follow  all  cases  of  suppressed  gonorrhoea 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  a  large  number  of  such  are  but  simple 
urethritis,  and  in  these  cases  astringent  injections  do  little  else 
than  cause  stricture. 


536 


EDITORIAL. 


[Dec, 


To  the  victim  this  is  formidable  enough,  but  this  is  as  nothing 
compared  to  the  condition  brought  about  by  suppressing  sycotic 
gonorrhoea.  In  this  state  the  poor  victim  has  all  the  Sheol  he 
can  care  for,  but  not  as  much  of  it  as  should  be  doled  out  to 
him,  who,  professing  a  knowledge  of  beneficent  Homoeopathy, 
will  resort  to  means  that  are  not  homoeopathic. 

Dr.  Allen  asks  what  is  the  harm  of  washing  out  the  discharge 
from  the  urethra?  We  say  plainly  there  is  harm.  It  is  far 
better  for  the  patient  to  have  the  discharge  continue,  and  if  we 
could  not  have  him  view  it  from  our  standpoint  we  should  per- 
mit him  to  do  as  he  pleased,  but  we  should  not  do  anything  to 
cause  him  suffering  which  might  be  life-long.  (Unfortunately 
for  the  victims  of  suppression,  their  lives  are  apt  to  be  too  long 
for  them.) 

If  Dr.  Allen  has  had  any  experience  in  the  treatment  of 
sycosis — and  he  certainly  must  have  had  if  he  knows  anything 
of  the  teachings  of  Hahnemann — then  he  should  know  of  the 
effects  of  the  treatment  he  advises.  Perhaps  his  (Dr.  Allen's) 
experience  in  the  treatment  of  gonorrhoea  may  enable  him  to 
determine  between  simple  urethritis  and  sycotic  gonorrhoea.  If 
he  can  diagnose  without  a  doubt  between  the  two  we  wish  he 
would  impart  that  information,  for  we  have  never  met  one  who 
possessed  that  power. 

In  the  absence  of  his  ability  to  discriminate  between  the  two 
affections  he  should  certainly,  before  advising  any  treatment, 
endeavor  to  stand  by  the  colors  he  professes  to  uphold,  and, 
then,  when  the  time  arrives  for  treating  cases  of  gonorrhoea  he 
will  be  able  to  do  the  best  possible  for  his  patients  by  following 
the  teachings  of  Hahnemann.  G.  H.  C. 

At  p.  398,  Vol.  VIII,  Homeopathic  Physician,  will  be 
found  an  article  on  "  Some  Symptoms  of  Sycosis,"  to  which  we 
respectfully  refer  Dr.  Allen  and  those  who  agree  with  him. 

G.  H.  C. 


Dk.  Samuel  Liliexthae. — On  Wednesday,  November  5th, 
Dr.  Samuel  Lilienthal  attained  his  seventy-fifth  birthday.  Dr. 


1890.] 


EDITORIAL. 


537 


Lilienthal  is  widely  known  by  all  who  are  members  of  the 
homoeopathic  school  for  his  extensive  and  remarkable  contribu- 
tions to  the  literature  of  the  school.  There  are  few  journals  of 
any  influence  among  homoeopathists  that  have  not  at  some  time 
published  his  contributions.  Much  of  his  work  has  been  in  the 
way  of  translation,  much  of  it  entirely  original. 

He  is  a  liberal  hornceopathist,  but  openly  calls  himself  a 
u  mongrel."  He  is  the  author  of  an  excellent  book  entitled 
Homoeopathic  Therapeutics,  now  in  its  third  edition,  in  which 
we  fail  to  find  any  evidences  of  mongrelism.  On  the  contrary, 
under  the  different  diseases,  which  are  arranged  in  alphabetical 
order,  we  find  only  the  most  strikingly  characteristic  indications 
for  the  various  remedies. 

Notwithstanding  his  advanced  age,  Dr.  Lilienthal  still  con- 
tinues his  usefulness  ;  the  before-mentioned  book  having  been 
completed  only  within  a  few  months. 

We  send  him  our  warmest  congratulations,  and  wish  him  a 
continuation  of  life  graced  with  the  honors  willingly  accorded 
him  by  his  brethren  in  the  profession.  W.  M.  J. 

The  Teaching  op  Pure  Homceopathy  in  the  Col- 
leges.— Our  editorial  upon  this  subject  in  the  October  number 
at  page  437,  brought  out  a  protest  which  was  noticed  in  the 
November  number  at  page  483. 

We  have  now  another  protest,  this  time  from  Dr.  W.  E. 
Leonard,  Professor  in  the  University  of  Minnesota. 

He  writes  that  he  has  been  teaching  The  Organon  for  four 
years  as  a  part  of  the  regular  course  of  lectures.  He  sends  us 
a  syllabus  of  his  lectures,  from  which  it  appears  that  in  the  time 
from  October  9th  to  May  18th,  he  gives  seven  lectures  upon 
The  Organon,  the  last  being  a  review  lecture. 

We  are  very  glad  to  be  able  to  make  this  announcement,  and 
add  one  more  to  the  list  of  colleges  where  strict  Homoeopathy  is 
taught. 

At  this  rate  we  ought  to  be  able  to  publish  a  "  Roll  of 
Honor"  of  such  colleges  as  engage  to  teach  absolutely  pure 
Homoeopathy  unmixed  with  the  rational  therapeutics  of  the  old 
school.  W.  M.  J. 


ANOTHER  DOSE  ABOUT  THE  DOSE. 


A  young  physician  in  my  old  homo,  the  Excelsior  State,  after 
giving  me  full  credit  for  my  homoeopathic;  therapeutics, 
pointedly  asks  :  "  Why  did  not  Dr.  Li  lien  thai  indicate  to  the 
reader  the  choice  of  potency  for  the  different  remedies  used  in 
different  diseases  ?  Dear  doctor,  would  it  not  be  an  additional 
legacy  to  the  homoeopathic  profession,  and  one  which  the  pro- 
fession much  needs,  if  you  would  go  through  the  book  once 
more  and  indicate  to  your  readers  your  choice  of  potency,  at 
least  where  you  have  had  personal  experience  in  the  prescribing 
of  the  remedy  ?" 

The  answer  to  my  esteemed  correspondent  was  that  he  aska 
an  impossibility,  and  that  the  dosage  of  drugs  was  left  untram- 
melled, because,  otherwise,  it  would  mislead  the  reader.  When  in 
former  times  my  health  allowed  me  to  preside  over  clinics  (and 
I  never  felt  happier  than  when  surrounded  by  students),  I  often 
told  them  of  the  triune  factor  which  determines  the  dose:  1, 
the  individuality  of  the  patient,  with  his  or  her  anamnesis. 
(Hahnemann's  psora  is  not  an  old  man's  idle  dream)  ;  2.  the 
individuality  of  the  symptom  complex,  and  how  closely  we  have 
to  differentiate  between  the  special  symptoms  peculiar  to  the 
patient  and  the  special  symptoms  peculiar  to  the  stage  of  the 
affection  ;  3,  and  finally,  the' individuality  of  the  drug,  so  that 
it  may  become  a  remedy.  How  often  did  I  preach  to  my  hearers 
to  follow  Hahnemann's  advice  in  relation  to  the  mental  symp- 
toms of  the  patient  during  health  and  disease,  and  thus  every 
case  becomes  aunicura  by  itself,  and  no  iron-bound  rule  could  be 
laid  down  in  relation  to  the  dose  and  when  to  repeat  it. 

Just  as  I  was  trying  to  answer  my  young  friend,  I  received 
No.  3  of  the  Allgemeine  Homceopathische  Zeitung,  and  that  dear 
old  man,  Dr.  Kunkel,  of  Kiel,  answers  that  question  to  the  point. 
In  relating  some  of  his  cases  he  adds  in  one,  where  he  prescribed 
repeated  doses  of  Caicarea-carbonica30,  twice  a  day  a  drop  ;  per- 
haps less  frequent  doses  might  have  sufficed,  but  my  experience 
taught  me  that  where  we  have  to  deal  with  composite  morbid 
538 


Dec,  1890.] 


ANOTHER  DOSE  ABOUT  THE  DOSE. 


539 


products,  a  frequent  repetition  of  the  drug  gives  better  results. 
The  question  often  conies  to  my  mind,  whether  the  method  of 
our  "  scientific  "  opponents,  who,  on  a  solitary  symptom  of  a 
constitutional  affection,  try  to  remove  it  by  surgery,  is  more  scien- 
tific than  our  method,  which  removes  all  symptoms,  and  thus,  also, 
the  one  more  prominent.  Jahr  gives  in  such  cases  one  dose  and 
expects  in  all  cases  a  cure,  providing  he  found  the  simillimum. 
Perhaps  he  might  have  succeeded  in  one  case  and  then  tries  to 
formulate  a  law  upon  this  single  case.  En  another  case  of  glau- 
coma, where  an  operation  was  contra-indicated  and  which  he 
greatly  relieved  by  Sepia  2d  and  200th,  followed  by  Phosphorus30, 
every  seventh  evening  a  powder  (a  favorite  dosage  of  the  doctor, 
to  give  one  dose  once  a  week),  Kunkeladds  to  the  history  of  the 
case  the  simultaneous  application  of  a  low  potency  with  a  high 
one  in  cases  where  one  intends  next  to  its  local  action  upon  a 
diseased  organ  or  upon  a  chronic  product  of  the  disease  also 
to  produce  a  general  action  ;  this  procedure,  recommended  by 
different  physicians,  remains  still  mb  judice  (S.  L.  acknowledges 
belonging  among  these  "different"  physicians,  and  his  vote  is 
in  its  favor,  or  it  is  an  alternation  based  on  the  symptoms  in  the 
provings). 

One  case  more  of  the  old  man,  on  account  of  homoeopathic 
prescription  versus  gynaecological  abuse  of  surgery.  A  young 
woman  complained  for  years  of  different  troubles;  of  colicky 
pains  before  and  after  menstruatiou,  now  constant  ;  the  pains 
are  lancinating,  from  outside  inwards,  especially  when  in  motion; 
when  sitting  down  suddenly,  stitches  in  anus.  In  the  morning 
when  rising  occipital  headache,  accompanied  by  a  paretic  sensa- 
tion. She  feels  best  when  in  the  fresh  air,  but  she  must  not  re- 
main out  too  long.  She  is  irritable  and  changeable  in  her  moods. 
Cannot  lie  so  well  on  left  side,  worse  in  windy  weather.  Collum 
and  corpus  uteri  enlarged,  hard,  nearly  immovable,  painful  on 
pressure.  Platina30,  every  seventh  evening  ;  one  dose  restored 
her  health  and  she  thus  escaped  all  gynaecological  local  treatment. 

So  far  Dr.  Kunkel,  and  my  esteemed  correspondent  might  well 
ask  why  this  old  and  venerable  practitioner  gives  all  his  reme- 
dies in  chronic  cases  always  in  the  same  manner,  "  every  seventh 


540 


DISPLACEMENTS  OF  THE  UTERUS. 


[Dec, 


evening  one  close"?  Is  it  a  mere  habit,  for  it  cannot  be  based 
on  an  iron-bound  rule.  Kunkel  is  fond  of  the  thirtieth  potency, 
and  so  was  Hahnemann;  Bnenninghausen  and  Dunham  pre- 
scribed their  own  hand-made  two-hundreth  potencies  ;  Kane  re- 
lies on  the  five  hundreth,  one  of  our  Philadelphia  masters  ac- 
knowledges that  if  he  were  confined  to  one  potency,  he  would 
prefer  the  sixth  to  all  others;  our  microscopists  deny  all  medi- 
cinal power  to  anything  above  the  twelfth,  because  they  cannot 
see  the  drug  ;  while  an  extreme  high  potency  may  work  and 
does  work  and  cure  in  spite  of  all  incredulity  heaped  upon  these 
dynamic  factors. 

Who  will  come  to  the  rescue  of  our  vounger  colleagues,  who 
seek  for  information  and  for  instruction?  Do  not  give  them  a 
stone  for  bread  !  Do  not  say,  You  must  work  out  your  own  so- 
lution !  It  is  not  the  first  time  that  the  request  has  been  made, 
but  I  do  not  see  my  way  clear  how  to  comply  with  it.  The  micro- 
scopist  and  specialist  cannot  answer  it  satisfactorily,  one  must 
be  convinced  of  the  healing  power  inherent  in  the  dose  of  the 
drug,  selected  with  the  utmost  care,  or  else  it  will  fail  to  do 
good.  Let  us  hear  from  men  who  are  close  prescribers  and  the 
younger  generation  will  bless  them  for  it.    Amen,  Selah  ! 

S.  L. 


DISPLACEMENTS  OF  THE  UTERUS. 

(Proceedings  of  I.  H.  A.     Morning  Session,  June  25th,  1890.) 

Dr.  Bell — One  of  the  most  important  lessons  we  learn  from 
the  allopathic  system  of  medicine  is  how  not  to  do  it.  There 
is  no  particular  objection,  from  a  homoeopathic  standpoint,  to 
mechanical  supports  for  the  uterus  any  more  than  there  is  to  a 
truss  in  hernia,  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  there  are  a  great  many 
mechanical  objections  to  these  supports.  Dr.  Hodge,  who  re- 
ferred all  or  nearly  all  the  diseases  which  a  woman  could  have 
to  displacements  of  the  uterus,  used  to  be  a  great  fellow  in  the 
allopathic  school,  but  we  seldom  hear  about  him  now.  Only 
ten  years  ago  there  was  hardly  to  be  found  a  correct  represen- 
tation of  the  pelvic  organs.    The  uterus  was  shown  upright, 


1890.] 


DISPLACEMENTS  OF  THE  UTERUS. 


541 


the  rectum  and  vagina  as  incollapsible  tubes,  and  the  bladder 
anywhere  it  could  be  crowded  in.  With  such  radically  wrong 
notions  every  woman  had  a  displacement  and  pessaries  could  be 
used  wholesale.  By  means  of  frozen  sections  the  normal  posi- 
tion of  the  female  pelvic  organs  was  discovered  to  be  very  dif- 
ferent from  the  old  idea.  The  allopathic  authorities  found  that 
the  uterus  was  a  movable  organ,  with  no  fixed  position  in  which 
it  eould  or  should  be  held  by  a  mechanical  support. 

The  day  of  the  pessary  in  the  old  school  has  practically  gone 
by,  with  the  exception,  perhaps,  of  the  stem  pessary,  of  which 
they  are  very  much  afraid. 

They  have  also  found  that  mere  changes  in  position  in  the 
uterus,  backward  or  forward,  have  but  little  bearing  on  the 
health.  Aggravated  cases  of  displacement  very  often  have  few 
symptoms  of  ill-health,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  severe  suffer- 
ing and  much  sickness  are  often  present  when  the  degree  of 
displacement  is  but  slight. 

There  is  only  one  condition  that  seems  to  require  surgical  in- 
terference, and  that  is  procidentia  with  a  torn  entrance  to  the 
pelvis  and  great  relaxation  of  the  parts. 

Such  cases  often  show  but  very  few  symptoms  upon  which  to 
base  a  prescription,  and  to  such  surgical  measures  are  probably 
appropriate.  Very  little  room  anywhere  has  been  left  for  me- 
chanical supports. 

Dr.  Hawley — Women  are  no  more  likely  to  be  sick  because 
they  are  women  than  men  are  because  they  are  men.  Women 
are  curable  by  exactly  the  same  methods  as  men.  I  pay  no 
more  attention  to  the  mechanical  symptoms  than  to  any  others. 
As  a  rule  the  mechanical  symptoms  are  all  hearsay;  the  woman 
only  knows  her  womb  is  out  of  place  because  some  doctor  has 
told  her  so,  and  she  refers  all  her  trouble  to  this  dreadful  mis- 
placement, which  the  doctor  has  put  into  her  head.  You  must 
go  to  work  and  get  the  case  just  as  you  would  any  ordinary 
sickness,  and  administer  your  remedy  without  any  special  ref- 
erence to  the  mechanical  symptoms.  A  young  lady  of  sixteen 
had  a  trick  played  upon  her  by  her  little  brother;  he  pulled 
away  a  chair  just  as  she  was  about  to  sit  down  upon  it.  She 


542 


DISPLACEMENTS  OF  THE  UTERUS. 


[Dec* 


seemed  .shocked,  but  soon  recovered  and  went  to  school  as  usual 
next  morning.  Soon  her  health  began  to  fail,  and  a  physician 
was  called  in.  He  heard  her  history,  made  an  examination, 
and  pronounced  her  case  one  of  retroversion  of  the  uterus.  I  n 
spite  of  the  services  of  seven  of  the  most  prominent  allopathic 
physicians  of  New  York  she  remained  an  invalid  for  seven 
years,  for  three  of  which  she  did  not  stir  out  of  the  house. 
They  all  agreed  on  the  diagnosis  ;  she  was  also  under  Dr.  Weir 
Mitchell,  of  Philadelphia.  The  history  of  the  treatment  of  this 
case  is  simply  astonishing,  to  show  how  little  help  there  is  in 
the  best  old-school  skill.  She  finally  came  into  my  hands.  I 
made  no  manual  examination  of  the  case.  I  did  not  even  feel 
her  pulse,  but  I  cured  her. 

When  her  menses  came  on  I  never  saw  in  my  life  such  suf- 
fering; that  was  in  November.  The  next  March  that  girl  got 
up  at  three  in  the  morning  with  her  courses  on,  and  went  home 
l  long  journey  without  any  discomfort  whatever. 

Dr.  Stow — As  a  rule  I  have  not  found  it  necessary  to  use  any 
mechanical  supports  whatever  in  these  cases,  but  I  have  found 
them  occasionally  useful. 

A  lady  called  on  me  for  treatment  at  the  menopause.  I  pre- 
scribed for  her  for  three  weeks  without  a  digital  examination. 
I  had  to  make  one  finally,  and  found  very  pronounced  retro- 
flexion, with  absorption  of  tissue  of  the  cervix.  Sepia  covered 
nearly  all  of  her  symptoms  ;  she  had  a  dragging  down  outside 
of  the  limbs,  crossed  her  limbs  when  she  sat  down  ;  pain  in 
back,  etc.  I  administered  Sepia  and  also  applied  a  stem  pessary 
into  the  mouth  and  neck  of  the  uterus,  having  first  pushed  the 
organ  into  position  by  means  of  an  instrument  introduced  into 
the  rectum.  I  then  kept  the  patient  in  proper  position  for  two 
weeks.  During  that  time  it  became  necessary  to  withdraw  the 
stem  about  every  fourth  day,  to  prevent  congestion.  At  the 
expiration  of  two  weeks  I  found  the  patient  much  better,  and 
in  six  weeks  quite  well.  She  has  since  become  pregnant.  I  do 
not  know  whether  she  would  have  got  well  on  the  Sepia  alone 
or  not,  but  I  am  inclined  to  think  not. 

Dr.  Reed — It  seems  to  me  that  the  last  speaker  deprived  him- 


1890.] 


DISPLACEMENTS  OF  THE  UTERUS. 


self  of  the  possibility  of  obtaining  useful  information  by  the 
use  of  the  mechanical  appliance.  We  have  the  pathogenesis  of 
Sepia,  and  when  the  symptoms  of  the  patient  correspond  to  that 
pathogenesis  we  must  use  Sepia  and  depend  upon  it ;  so  of 
Lilium-tigrinum,  or  any  other  drug.  I  come  from  away  back, 
from  a  country  of  Egyptian  darkness,  and  when  I  am  obliged 
to  listen  to  such  talk  as  this  it  reminds  me  of  the  time  when  I 
was  an  allopath.  I  have  a  gynaecological  chair  in  my  office,  and 
I  have  not  used  it  three  times  in  six  years,  and  yet  I  make  a 
living.  I  give  my  patient  a  dose  of  medicine,  and  if  it  is  the 
simillimum  of  the  case,  I  know  by  the  Eternal  that  it  will  be 
the  cure  of  the  case.  A  lady  came  to  me,  not  very  long  ago,  in 
a  desperate  condition  ;  she  had  a  terrible  bearing-down  sensa- 
tion, and  could  not  go  about,  because,  as  she  said,  she  felt  that 
everything  was  coming  into  the  world.  She  had  to  support  her- 
self with  her  hand.  I  had  some  homoeopathic  moonshine  and 
I  gave  that  woman  a  dose  of  that  moonshine  (Lilium-tig.)  and 
in  six  or  seven  days  that  woman  was  O.  K. 

He  was  astonished  to  find  so  many  homoeopathic  physicians 
using  mechanical  means. 

The  doctor  who  uses  mechanical  supports  deprives  himself  of 
valuable  information. 

Dr.  Thompson — There  is  only  one  organ  in  the  human  body 
as  movable  as  the  uterus.  Its  mobility  is  essential  to  its  physio- 
logical action  ;  without  that  mobility  it  cannot  perform  its  use, 
and  I  do  not  think  we  should  ever  interfere  with  it  by  propping 
it  in  a  fixed  position.  These  cases  are  curable  without  such  in- 
terference. 

Two  years  ago  I  treated  a  young  lady  about  twenty  years  old, 
who  had  been  suffering  a  long  time  with  severe  pains.  She  had 
been  sick  five  or  six  years  altogether,  the  trouble  dating  from 
her  first  menstrual  flow,  which  had  been  stopped  by  a  cold  taken 
by  going  into  the  sea  to  bathe  while  her  courses  were  upon  her. 
The  result  was  the  menses  were  stopped  with  intense  agony. 

All  the  indications  pointed  to  Dulcamara  ;  1  gave  her  a  dose, 
and  recommended  the  prone  position.  In  the  course  uf  six 
months  she  took  three  doses  of  Dulcamara.     She  improved 


544 


DISPLACEMENTS  OF  THE  UTERUS. 


[Dec, 


right  along  until  she  developed  an  irritability  of  temper  that 
made  it  almost  impossible  to  live  in  the  same  house  with  her. 
This  was  cured  by  Chamomilla,  and  there  has  been  no  trouble 
since — in  fact,  she  has  been  in  perfect  health. 

Nothing  was  done  for  her  except  the  administration  of  these 
two  remedies  and  the  position  recommended. 

I  have  never  found  it  necessary,  even  in  the  case  of  washer- 
women with  procidentia,  who  had  to  be  about  their  daily  tasks, 
to  use  mechanical  support. 

Dr.  Hawley — Dr.  Stow's  case  reminds  me  of  what  Dr.  Lippe 
said  in  a  similar  case  of  retroflexion  of  the  uterus  with  waste  of 
tissue.  "  Unquestionably/'  he  said,  "  this  waste  of  tissue  is 
dynamic  in  its  cause  and  how  can  a  dynamic  condition  be  re- 
moved by  mechanical  means?  It  is  simply  absurd  to  think 
so." 

Dr.  H.  C.  Allen — I  think  Dr.  Stow  gave  himself  away  pretty 
badly  when  he  said  he  did  not  know  whether  the  support  or  the 
Sepia  did  the  work.  Dr.  Stow  cannot  tell  to-day  what  part 
the  Sepia  took  and  what  part  the  support  took  in  the  cure. 
There  is  no  means  of  knowing,  and  such  clinical  knowledge  is 
worthless. 

Dr.  Stow — One  or  two  words  in  self-defense.  I  wish  to  ask 
this  intelligent  audience  if  I  had  treated  that  case  with  the 
remedy  alone,  and  allowed  the  woman  to  keep  about  her  work 
without  any  support  I  could  have  hoped  to  effect  a  cure.  (Cries 
of  "Yes"  "Certainly"  from  different  parts  of  the  room.) 

Dr.  Kent — I  should  like  to  stand  here  about  two  hours  and 
a  half  and  report  just  such  cases  as  Dr.  Stow  has  reported,  cured 
by  the  internal  remedy  alone.  I  used  to  examine  my  cases  very 
frequently  so  that  my  information  as  to  the  position  or  malposi- 
tion of  the  uterus  of  my  patients  used  to  be  more  extensive  than 
it  is  nowadays.  I  simply  used  to  keep  myself  posted  as  a  mat- 
ter of  clinical  information.  I  consider  Dr.  Stow's  treatment  just 
the  same  as  if  he  had  used  two  remedies.  He  does  not  know 
whether  he  has  cured  his  patient  or  merely  palliated  the  trouble. 

Many  of  these  cases  may  be  made  comfortable  for  a  time  by 
local  treatment  and  appliances,  but  it  is  only  palliation  not  cure. 


1890.] 


DISPLACEMENTS  OE  THE  UTERUS. 


545 


The  worst  of  it  is,  that  after  such  treatment,  it  may  take  St. 
Paul  himself  to  cure  the  case.  It  is  not  real  homoeopathic  treat- 
ment, though  it  might  be  in  Xew  York. 

Dr.  Custis — I  do  not  think  it  is  well  to  stop  examining  our 
cases,  if  only  for  the  satisfaction  it  affords  of  giving  a  correct 
diagnosis  and  an  intelligent  prognosis  to  our  patients,  both  for 
their  protection  and  for  our  protection.  It  is  a  mistake  to 
neglect  to  make  a  digital  examination.  Moreover,  we  cannot  be 
sure  of  what  we  have  cured,  unless  we  have  made  an  examina- 
tion on  first  taking  the  case,  and  the  certain  knowledge  so  gained 
gives  stronger  aud  better  arguments  to  back  up  such  a  paper  as 
we  have  heard  here  to-day.  It  is  not  fair  to  say  we  have  cured 
a  malposition  because  we  have  removed  the  symptoms  of  mal- 
position, unless  we  have  first  made  an  examination  and  actually 
found  out  that  there  was  a  malposition  there.  Then  wre  can 
down  allopathic  objectors  instead  of  being  downed  by  them.  A 
good  diagnosis  is  a  great  protection  and  a  strong  argument. 

Dr.  Wesselhoeft — I  agree  with  Dr.  Custis  on  that  point.  I 
think  it  is  a  very  important  one. 

I  know  that  many  of  the  so-called  flexious  and  malpositions  of 
the  uterus  remain  and  the  patient  gets  well,  and  on  the  other 
hand,  I  know  from  experience  that  patients  will  come  to  you 

saying,  "  Doctor,  I  have  been  treated  for  two  years  by  Dr.  B  

for  retroversion  ;  he  says  I  am  perfectly  well  now  in  that  re- 
spect, but  he  wants  me  to  go  to  my  family  physician  and  get 
the  constitutional  symptoms  cured." 

Dr.  Alice  B.  Campbell — Dr.  Wesselhoeft  shows  that  there  is 
no  necessity  for  physical  examinations.  Now  I  do  not  agree 
with  Dr.  Custis  at  all.  I  have  naturally  greater  freedom  than  a 
man  in  making  examinations,  but  I  do  not  take  advantage  of 
that  freedom  because  I  know  what  it  means.  I  know  they  are 
not  necessary.  You  cannot  tell  what  changes  of  position  may 
occur  in  the  uterus  in  twenty-four  hours.  I  do  not  know  why 
the  uterus  should  be  so  universally  selected  as  the  target  for  ex- 
aminations. You  don't  do  that  with  the  kidneys.  You  can 
have  just  as  much  distress  without  the  uterus  being  displaced  at 
all  as  you  can  with  an  apparently  serious  displacement.  If  you 
35 


546 


DISPLACEMENTS  OF  THE  UTERUS. 


[Dec, 


can  alleviate  the  distress,  it  makes  no  difference  where  the  uterus 
is.    If  there  is  no  suffering  it  is  probably  all  right. 

I  do  not  see  why  we  have  to  go  over  this  ground  every  year  ; 
it  seems  to  me  we  have  settled  it  long  ago  on  a  harmonious  basis. 
It  seems  like  time  wasted. 

Dr.  H.  C.  Allen — It  is  as  simple  as  the  light  of  the  sun  ;  the 
law  of  similars  is  the  ground  to  stand  upon. 

Dr.  W.  J.  Guernsey — I  think  with  Dr.  Campbell  that  we 
waste  a  great  deal  of  time  in  going  over  the  same  ground  every 
year. 

Dr.  Butler — Is  it  not  our  duty  to  examine  our  patients  as 
thoroughly  and  completely  as  possible  ? 

Does  not  Dr.  Campbell  make  the  best  examination  of  the  kid- 
neys that  their  situation  and  their  accessibility  will  allow? 
Should  not  every  organ  be  examined  as  far  as  it  can  be  ? 

Dr.  Stow — It  seems  to  me  there  is  a  very  nice  point 
there.  Before  vou  can  make  out  an  accurate  diagnosis  of  an 
affection  of  the  kidneys  you  are  obliged  to  make  chemical  ex- 
aminations of  the  urine.  You  do  not  know  what  you  are  treat- 
ing unless  you  do  ;  and  just  so  I  believe  when  a  patient  comes 
complaining  of  displacement  of  the  uterus,  or,  of  symptoms  point- 
ing to  it,  it  is  our  duty  before  undertaking  to  cure  the  case, 
to  find  out  whether  it  is  true  or  not. 

Dr.  Brownell — I  should  like  to  ask  if  the  influence  of  the 
clothing  is  not  very  important  in  the  treatment  of  displacement? 

I  believe  that  very  often  such  cases  are  incurable  unless  the 
constant  displacing  effect  of  the  clothing  is  removed. 

Dr.  Hawley — This  last  is  a  very  good  point.  I  can  remem- 
ber when  these  weaknesses  were  unknown.  My  mother  had 
nothing  of  the  kind.  She  wore  a  belt  just  below  the  breasts, 
with  a  long  skirt,  all  supported  by  the  shoulders,  and  I  believe 
that  was  the  reason  she  did  not  have  any  of  these  troubles.  It 
is  impossible  to  be  healthy  and  be  dressed  the  way  most  women 
are  nowadays.  A  woman  cannot  be  cured  who  buckles  belts 
around  her  waist  and  suspends  her  skirts  from  her  hips ;  some 
organs  crowded  up  and  some  crowded  down.  Continued  strain 
on  a  muscle  will  invariably  cause  it  to  relax,  and  this  continued 


1890.] 


DISPLACEMENTS  OF  THE  UTERUS. 


downward  pressure  causes  the  floor  of  the  pelvis  to  finally  give 
way  and  the  organs  are  left  to  drop  down  for  lack  of  normal 
support.  I  get  many  cases  of  this  kind  from  the  allopaths  who 
fuss  with  them  for  years  without  result.  I  have  now  a  case 
pronounced  by  the  allopaths  to  be  a  case  of  ovarian  tumor.  It 
is  instead  a  case  of  irritable  ovary  and  not  tumor  and  is  getting 
much  better. 

Dr.  Johnstone — I  am  much  indebted  to  a  patent  uterine  sup- 
porter for  a  fairly  round  fee.  About  six  months  ago  a  woman, 
forty-three  years  old,  came  to  me  with  agonizing  bearing-down 
pains  in  the  pelvis,  and  a  great  many  other  symptoms.  I  found 
she  had  been  wearing  a  supporter  to  hold  her  in  position  for  the 
last  three  or  four  years.  I  simply  removed  it,  and  gave  her  a 
package  of  placebo  powders.  In  two  weeks  she  was  well  and 
found  to  her  surprise  that  she  was  better  without  her  supporter 
than  with  it. 

Dr.  Stow — I  believe  there  is  such  a  thing  as  going  too  far  in 
this  matter  of  non-interference. 

There  is  no  man  or  woman  in  this  audience  who  is  more 
radical  or  a  greater  stickler  for  right  than  I  am.  I  will  take 
second  place  to  nobody  on  that  score. 

It  seems  to  be  the  direct  outcome  of  this  discussion  to  discard 
anything  and  everything  of  a  surgical  nature.  If  we  do  then 
we  may  as  well  abandon  the  whole  bureau  of  surgery,  for  it 
necessarily  throws  out  all  mechanical  interference  with  cases. 
Median ical  means,  appliances,  and  aids  have  a  field,  and  are 
perfectly  legitimate  in  the  practice  of  medicine. 

It  may  be  that  Sepia  alone  would  have  cured  my  case,  but  I 
am  inclined  to  think  not.  But  casting  that  aside  we  have 
another  fact  that,  without  any  homoeopathic  medication,  without 
any  mechanical  support,  pregnancy  would  have  resolved  and 
cured  that  case. 

I  am  certain  that  the  patient  was  vastly  benefited,  whether 
you  attribute  it  to  the  Sepia,  to  the  support,  or  to  the  pregnancy, 
and  finally  you  must  either  exclude  the  whole  subject  of  surgery 
from  medicine  or  you  must  admit  its  technique. 

Dr.  Custis — I  wish  to  set  myself  right  with  Dr.  Stow.    I  do 


548 


GONORRHOEA  AND  HOMOEOPATHY. 


[Dec, 


not  want  to  be  understood  as  examining  every  lady  that  comes 
to  my  office,  but  when  we  get  no  result  from  our  treatment,  I 
think  we  should  make  an  examination  to  find  out  the  trouble. 
We  should  feel  very  badly  if  after  we  had  failed  to  make  an 
examination  and  also  failed  to  cure  a  case  some  other  doctor 
should  find  a  fibroid  which  we  knew  nothing  about.  It  could 
not  fail  to  be  a  reflection  on  us. 


GONORRHOEA.  AND  HOMOEOPATHY.* 

Editors  of  The  Homoeopathic  Physician  : 

So  much  bitterness  has  been  shown  on  account  of  my  opinion 
concerning  the  treatment  of  some  cases  of  gonorrhoea  and  so 
many  adjectives  and  epithets  have  been  put  into  your  pages  that 
I  venture,  very  timidly,  to  say  a  few  words,  though  I  suppose 
it  were  better  to  keep  still  and  follow  my  own  way  in  peace, 
a  course  I  shortly  intend  doing,  both  publicly  and  privately. 
Is  it  not  possible  for  physicians  to  respect  the  opinions  of  others 
and  refrain  from  unpleasant  appellations  or  must  every  one  be 
made  a  target  of?  But  that  rests  chiefly  with  the  editors  of  our 
journals  and  I  will  say  no  more  about  it. 

1st.  Observing  a  number  of  patients  afflicted  with  gonorrhoea 
to  run  a  tedious  course  under  purely  homoeopathic  treatment 
(one  man  suffering  eighteen  months  continuously  though  treated 
by  a  careful  prescriber  with  the  two-hundredth  dilution);  ob- 
serving, farther,  that  physicians  practicing  pure  Homoeopathy  in 
such  cases  treated  few  cases  and  still  fewer  as  the  years  passed 
on,  I  have  endeavored  to  ascertain  the  reason  for  this  lack  of 
success. 

2d.  Observing  that  gonorrhoea,  syphilis,  hydrophobia,  etc., 
attack  persons  in  apparently  perfect  health  and  also  observing 
that  these  patients  require  remedies  directed  to  the  immediate 
effects  of  the  poison  rather  than  to  the  individual  dyscrasia, 
which  permits  a  disease  to  develop  and  continue,  I  have  con- 

*  See  Dr.  Thomas  Skinner's  article,  "  The  Koutine  Treatment  of  Fresh 
Gonorrhoea,"  in  November  number  of  this  journal,  page  498. 


1890.] 


NUGGETS." 


549 


eluded  that  gonorrhoea  may  be  considered  a  poison  rather  than  a 
disease,  and  hence  may  be  treated  as  such  rather  than  homceo- 
pathieally.  The  best  method  of  treating  the  local  manifestations 
of  this  poison  is  a  matter  of  experience.  Some  cases  will  last 
but  a  few  days,  others  months.  A  few  cases  will  develop  con- 
stitutional complications,  others  none.  The  suppression  by 
violent  measures  of  the  discharge  in  the  acute  inflammatory  stage 
may  or  may  not  be  followed  by  grave  remote  effects.  I  have 
known  a  recurring  iritis  persisting  twenty  years  to  disappear  only 
on  the  return  of  a  purulent  discharge  from  the  urethra.  I  have 
known  the  kidney  to  become  involved  in  a  suppurative  process 
and  death  averted  only  by  emptying  the  pus  through  a  drainage- 
tube  in  the  back  ;  a  host  of  bad  things  follow  the  injudicious 
treatment  of  the  acute  stage;  still,  most  satisfactory  results  do 
follow  the  persistent  washing  out  the  urethra  with  tepid  water, 
to  which  a  little  Salt  of  Soda  or  Zinc  or  Mercury  may  be  added, 
particularly  after  the  first  few  days.  A  homoeopathic  physician 
who  determines  to  practice  only  Homoeopathy  must  send  away  a 
great  many  patients  to  other  doctors  if  he  would  do  the  best  for 
them.  Men  will  not  tolerate  a  discharge  for  months  when  a  safe 
washing  will  help  thern  get  well  speedily.  Now  another  one 
will  get  well  in  ten  days,  but  such  are  rare  cases.  It  is  un- 
necessary to  risk  stricture,  cystitis,  nephritis,  orchitis,  rheuma- 
tism, etc.,  by  properly  washing  out  the  discharge.  What  is 
the  harm  !  !  We  cleanse  sores  on  the  surface,  we  may  be  obliged 
to  cleanse  mucous  surfaces  to  heal  them.  One  may  still  be  a 
consistent  homceopathist  and  wash  out  or  antidote  by  other 
means  a  gonorrhoea]  virus.  Let  us  hear  the  other  side,  gentle- 
men !  but  let  us  have  a  friendly  discussion  or  none  at  all. 

*  T.  F.  Allen. 

"  NUGGETS." 
C.  Carleton  Smith,  M.  D.,  Philadelphia. 
In  treating  children  who  are  too  young  to  make  known  the 
nature  of  their  ailments,  the  objective  symptoms  are  more  im- 
portant than  the  subjective  symptoms.    We  have  to  \\':'.r<>h 
keenly  in  order  to  select  the  remedial  agent. 


550 


"NUGGETS." 


[Dec, 


There  are  eight  remedies  that  have  the  characteristic  symp- 
tom "  wants  to  be  carried  in  arms."  These  are  Cham.,  Ant-tart., 
Arseu-alb.,  Cina,  Ignatia,  Kali-c,  Puis.,  and  Brom.  The 
Cham,  child  cries  almost  constantly.  And  this  crying  ceases 
when  the  child  is  carried  quietly  up  and  down  the  room,  the 
cries  returning  the  moment  the  motion  ceases,  which  latter  makes 
the  child  so  angry  that  it  will  viciously  slap  the  nurse. 

The  Ant-t.  child  wants  to  be  carried  only  by  its  mother,  but 
no  one  else.  And  if  another  person  approaches  or  touches  it  it 
will  scream. 

The  Cina  child's  irritability  simulates  very  closely  that  of 
Cham.,  with  this  difference  :  If  the  mother  becomes  weary  of 
carrying  it  it  can  be  comforted  by  fast  rocking. 

The  Are.  child  wants  to  be  carried  fast.  Also  the  Brora, 
child. 

The  Puis,  child  wants  to  be  carried  slowly. 

The  Ignatia  child  is  not  cross,  but  rather  too  affectionate. 
Yawns  all  the  time  spasmodically.  And  wakes  out  of  a  very 
light  sleep  screaming  and  trembling  all  over. 

The  Kali-oarb.  child  is  peevish  and  irritable,  but  not  to  a 
great  degree.  And  when  he  is  touched  he  does  not  scream  as 
under  Ant-t.,  but  he  starts  suddenly  as  if  in  alarm. 

Aconitum  may  be  added  to  this  list  under  amelioration  from 
fast  rocking,  especially  in  abnormal  conditions  following  sudden 
fright. 

When  a  child  habitually,  after  nursing  the  breast,  cries  for 
water,  and  invariably  throws  it  up,  give  the  little  one  Arnica. 

In  hydrocephalus,  when  the  child's  arras  below  the  elbows 
become  deathly  cold,  think  of  Arnica. 

When  a  patient  in  his  illness  hears  everything  but  the  human 
voice,  study  Arsenicum. 

If  he  hears  nothing  but  the  human  voice,  do  not  forget  Ig- 
natia. 

With  regard  to  Arsenicum  we  must  not  forget  Dr.  Lippe's 
observation,  that  the  pulse  of  this  drug  is  more  rapid  in  the 
morning  than  in  the  evening.  And  this  characteristic  also  cor- 
responds with  Sulphur. 


1890.] 


"NUGGETS." 


551 


Arsenicum  has  also  aggravation  from  sea  bathing.  Also 
aggravation  from  rest  in  bed,  but  amelioration  from  warmth  of 
bed.  Reverse  this  exactly,  and  we  have  the  Mercurius  condi- 
tion. 

A  characteristic  symptom  of  Arum-triphyllum  which  I  ob- 
served many  years  ago  is  this  :  The  patient  complains  that  the 
nose  is  completely  stopped  up.  And  yet  there  is  a  constant 
fluid  discharge  from  it  which  has  to  be  wiped  away  continually. 
This  condition  I  have  observed  in  cases  of  scarlet  fever,  and 
Arum,  was  the  curative  drug. 

When  a  patient  complains  that  every  time  he  urinates  his 
piles  come  down,  give  him  Baryta-carb. 

Another  peculiar  symptom  belonging  to  Bar-carb.  is  a  numb 
feeling  creeps  up  from  the  knees  to  scrotum  and  penis,  disap- 
pearing as  soon  as  he  sits  down. 

Under  Bismuth  we  have  a  symptom  exactly  similar  to  Are., 
viz.,  water  is  vomited  as  soon  as  it  reaches  the  stomach.  Bis- 
muth also  has  marked  restlessness,  like  Ars.,  but  the  Bismuth 
patient  vomits  all  fluids,  which  is  not  the  case  under  Ars.  And 
again,  under  Bismuth  the  patient  will  eat  his  rations  for  several 
days  in  succession,  and  then  begin  to  vomit,  keeping  it  up  for 
a  whole  day. 

In  pneumonia  the  Bryonia  sputa  is  of  a  soft  brick  shade  in 
color,  is  quite  tough,  and  falls  like  lumps  of  jelly. 

The  Bryonia  pains  are  made  better  by  lying  on  the  painful 
side,  and  worse  by  lying  square  on  the  back.  In  pregnancy  she 
cannot  drink  water,  for  the  sight  of  it  causes  her  to  vomit.  If 
she  bathes  she  must  close  her  eyes  while  in  the  water.  The 
Phos.  patient  when  coughing  holds  his  abdomen  with  both 
hands.  The  acute  chest-pains  of  Phos.  are  generally  worse  on 
right  side,  and  aggravated  by  the  least  pressure  in  the  intercostal 
spaces,  and  lying  on  right  side. 

Phosphorus  has  also,  as  a  skin  symptom,  little  ulcers  outside 
of  large  ones — some  healing  and  others  healed.  Cuprum-aceti- 
cum  has  a  symptom  exactly  like  Laehesis,  and  will,  therefore, 
have  to  be  compared  with  this  latter  remedy  in  practice.  It  is 
this,  protrusion  and  retraction  of  the  tongue  like  a  snake.  In 


552 


"  NUGGETS. 


[Dec,  1390. 


epilepsy,  where  Cuprum-acet.  is  curative,  the  aura  begins  at  the 
knees,  ascending  until  it  reaches  the  hypogastric  region,  when 
unconsciousness  occurs,  with  foam  at  the  mouth,  and  falling 
down  convulsed.  Another  very  important  red  thread  which 
we  find  in  the  study  of  this  drug,  is  that  as  soon  as  the  patient 
goes  into  a  high-ceiling  room  the  head  reels  and  she  loses  con- 
sciousness. 

A  characteristic  of  Cyclamen  is  as  follows  :  After  delivery 
patient  complains  of  severe  colicky  bearing-down  pains,  each 
pain  accompanied  with  a  gush  of  blood,  which  latter  causes 
momentary  relief  only. 

When  children  cough  at  night  while  asleep  without  awaking, 
Cyclamen  may  be  the  remedy. 

In  severe  diseases  patients  sometimes  wake  up  during  the 
night  with  hands  feeling  twice  their  natural  size,  so  that  they 
cannot  make  any  use  of  them  (is  a  key-note  for  Aranea-diadema). 
When  drinking  very  cold  water  or  eating  ice-cream,  patients 
complain  of  sharp  pain  in  forehead,  extending  down  into  the 
nose.  Give  such  cases  Digitalis.  Also  under  this  remedy  the 
patient  feels  as  if  heart  would  stop  beating  if  he  dared  to  move. 
Gelsemium  has  just  the  opposite.  Patient  must  move  in  order 
to  prevent  the  heart  from  ceasing  to  beat. 

A  symptom  of  Euphrasia  worth  recording  is  that  when  the 
patient  is  exposed  to  a  sonth  wind  she  is  sure  to  have  her  cough 
aggravated. 

The  Euphrasia  patient  is  better  in  open  air.  Same  as  Pulsa- 
tilla.   Worse  when  in-doors. 

Sensation  as  if  vision  wa>  obscured  by  smoke.  Study  both 
Gelsemium  and  Crocus. 

In  intermittent  fever  the  patient  under  Gels,  wants  to  be  held 
during  the  shake.  Under  Lachesis  he  -wants  some  one  to  lie 
right  across  his  body.  In  severe  illness,  when  a  patient's  tongue, 
upper  and  under  surface,  is  completely  coated  a  decided  bluish- 
white,  the  quicker  you  give  him  Glonoine  the  better.  Look  to 
Guaiacum  in  violent  spasmodic  inflammatory  action  of  the 
larynx  with  such  violent  palpitation  of  the  heart  as  to  almost 
cause  suffocation. 


BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 

Alfred  Heath,  M.  D.,  F.  L.  S. 
Natural  Order  2. — Berberidace^e. 

Berberis  Vulgaris  (common  Barberry,  Pepperidge-bush,  found 
in  hedges  and  thickets).  This  very  handsome  shrub,  with  its 
pendulous  racemes  of  golden  yellow  flowers  (not  forgetting  its 
sharp  three-parted  thorns),  is  an  object  worthy  of  any  garden 
or  lawn  on  account  of  its  showy  appearance,  both  in  its  flower- 
in  <j-  state  and  when  the  vellow  flowers  are  chau^ed  into  bunches 
of  scarlet  berries,  which  are  edible  and  often  made  into  preserves. 
They  are  acid  and  astringent.  The  baFk  is  used  by  dyers  on 
account  of  its  astringent  properties  and  as  an  ingredient  in  a 
yellow  dye.  The  common  barberry  has  been  used  empirically 
with  considerable  success  as  a  remedy  in  various  disturbances  of 
the  liver,  as  a  cooling  drink  in  fever,  in  diarrhoea,  in  many 
kinds  of  disorders  of  the  skin,  for  ague,  bleeding  piles,  and  as  a 
tonic  and  astringent.  It  iucreases  the  appetite.  It  was  also 
used  as  a  remedv  against  the  itch.  The  ashes  of  the  burnt  wood 
mixed  with  water,  and  the  lye  used  as  a  wash  for  the  hair  are  said 
to  turn  it  yellow. 

Jahr's  Homoeopathic  Materia  Medica  gives  a  good  proving  of 
this  drug.  Amongst  other  things,  it  produces  on  the  healthy 
body  all  the  symptoms  mentioned  above,  namely  :  Biliousness, 
nausea,  and  inclination  to  vomit,  languor,  various  pains  in  the 
region  of  the  liver  and  gall-bladder,  and  pressure,  increased  by 
external  pressure,  watery  evacuations,  flatulence,  with  burning, 
soreness,  painful  pressing,  hemorrhoidal  tumors,  burning  and 
itching,  increased  appetite  almost  to  canine  hunger,  chills  over 
the  whole  body  with  subsequent  heat  and  increased  thirst,  heat 
of  the  hands  and  head,  feeling  of  heat  of  the  whole  body,  pro- 
fuse night-sweats,  sweats  on  the  least  exertion,  lymphatic  swell- 
ings,* general   muscular  languor  and  debility,  feeling  as  if 

*  A  case  came  under  my  care  of  a  lady  who  had  a  swelling  as  large  as  a 
hen's  egg  in  the  left  side  of  the  chest  over  breast.    It  had  been  pronounced 

553 


554 


BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 


[Dec, 


bruised,  weakness  almost  to  fainting  when  walking,  pains  ex- 
cited or  increased  by  movement.  In  the  skin  it  produces  burn- 
ing, itching,  pricking,  as  of  mosquitoes,  on  the  forehead,  temples, 
cheeks,  ears,  lips,  chin,  scalp,  and  legs,  obliging  one  to  scratch, 
after  which  it  disappears  for  a  few  minutes,  or  else  reappears  at 
a  different  place,  leaving  red  spots  after  the  rubbing;  itching  of 
the  backs  of  the  hands  and  fingers.  The  pains  of  Berberie  more 
especially  affect  the  left  side. 

Berberis  Aquifolium  (shining  leaf,  evergreen).  This,  although 
not  an  English  plant,  is  common  to  our  gardens  and  parks,  and 
has  lately  been  used  in  medicine.  There  is,  I  believe,  no  prov- 
ing. Its  properties  are  similar  to  the  foregoing.  It  has  been 
found  especially  efficacious  in  some  forms  of  psoriasis,  involving 
one-half  of  the  face  and  nearly  one-half  of  the  body,  down  the 
sides  and  hips,  also  in  scaly  eruptions,  like  fish  scales,  on  arms 
and  legs,  and  in  cases  of  general  weakness  and  loss  of  appetite, 
despondency,  etc. 

Natural  Order  :\. — Nympeleace^. 
Nymphcea  Alba  (the  white  water- lily).  Found  in  all  parts  of 
England,  in  rivers,  lakes,  and  clear-water  ditches.  It  was  for- 
merly used  as  a  demulcent  and  anodyne.  It  was  esteemed  a 
powerful  remedy  for  leucorrhcea,  and  in  weakness  left  after 
venereal  complaints;  also  for  violent  purgings  and  bloody 
stools. 

Nuphar  (idea  (the  yellow  water-lily;  brandy-bottle).  Com- 
mon in  lakes  and  ditches  in  England.  There  is  a  smaller  kind 
(N.  pumilum)  found  in  the  Highland  lakes.  In  some  parts 
of  Sweden  the  roots  were,  in  times  of  scarcity,  used  as  food,  and 
are  not  unwholesome.    This  beautiful  plant  must  be  seen  in  all 

by  a  surgeon  to  be  encysted  tumor,  and  operation  recommended.  Berberis  in 
the  200th  potency  removed  it  in  a  week,  but  when  first  taken  it  produced  one  of 
its  well-known  symptoms,  most  profound  prostration.  Patient  could  not  sit  up 
all  day,  and  was  completely  helpless.  Such  marked  aggravation  led  me  to  give 
another  dose  at  the  end  of  fourteen  days.  I  could  not  believe  it  was  from  the 
medicine.  The  prostration  was  again  produced  as  before,  and  although  the 
lady  had  no  idea  I  had  given  her  the  Berberis,  she  said,  "  You  have  given  me 
that  medicine  again." 


1890.] 


BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS. 


555 


its  glory  to  be  appreciated.  It  is  a  lovely  sight  to  see  hundreds 
of  its  large  golden  flowers  dotted  over  the  leaf-covered  surface 
of  a  quiet  pond.  Quite  a  harvest  is  often  reaped  by  sending  the 
flowers  to  the  London  market  (this  also  applies  to  the  white 
water-lily).  There  is  some  proving  of  the  plant  mentioned  in 
the  North  American  Journal  of  Homoeopathy,  vol.  Ill,  p.  250  ; 
also  in  the  British  Journal,  vol.  XVI,  p.  329.  It  is  said  to  have 
cured  some  forms  of  leprous  eruptions. 

Natural  Order  4. — Papaverace.e. 

Papaver  Dubium  (one  of  the  common  red  poppies).  There 
is  do  proving  of  this  plant ;  it  has,  however,  been  used  in  medi- 
cine in  Germany. 

Papaver  somniferum- Opium  (sleep-bearing  poppy,  white 
poppy,  opium  poppy).  This  is  the  plant  from  which  opium  is 
obtained.  It  is  rarely  wild  in  this  country  and  is  not  consid- 
ered to  be  indigenous,  although  it  grows  here  perfectly,  and  at 
one  time  was  cultivated  to  some  extent,  and  the  opium  ob- 
tained from  it  was  said  to  be  equal,  if  not  superior,  to  that  ob- 
tained from  Asia  Minor,  and  as  much  as  sixteen  pounds  of 
opium  per  acre  being  obtained ;  but  the  great  reduction  in 
price  of  foreign  opium  was  fatal  to  it  in  a  commercial  point  of 
view. 

The  mode  of  collecting  the  opium  is  by  wounding  the  seed- 
vessel  or  poppy-head  externally  while  yet  green  but  of  full  size, 
which  is  done  in  the  evening.  The  milky  juice  which  flows 
freely  from  the  incisions  and  dries  and  hardens  in  the  air  into  a 
pale  brown,  adhesive  substance,  is  collected  in  the  morning  by 
women  and  children,  and  forms  opium  (and  from  opium  we 
obtain  morphia,  codeia,  para-morphia,  narcotine,  and  narceine 
and  meconine),  a  drug  that  has  done  probably  as  much  harm  as 
good.  The  pernicious  practice  of  taking  or  smoking  opium  has 
become  the  besetting  sin  of  Turks,  Chinese,  and  others.  In 
countries  where  the  prevailing  religion  forbids  the  use  of  alcohol, 
as  in  Turkey,  it  is  in  constant  use  as  an  indulgence,  which  if 
once  commenced  is  rarely  abandoned.  The  Turks  call  it 
"afium"  and  in  the  opium  shops  of  Constantinople  they  take  it 


556 


BRITISH  MEDICINAL  PLANTS.  [Dec,  1890. 


in  graduated  doses  from  ten  to  fifty  or  a  hundred  grains  a  day. 
To  make  it  palatable  it  is  mixed  with  syrups  or  fruit  juice  ;  it 
is  also  made  up  in  lozenges  stamped  with  the  words  "  Mash 
Allah,"  meaning  "  work  of  God"  It  is  also  smoked.  The 
Tartar  couriers  travel  great  distances  with  astonishing  rapidity, 
and  take  little  else  to  support  them  on  their  journeys.  Its  effects 
are  to  impair  the  digestive  organs  and  to  undermine  the  vigor 
of  the  whole  body  ;  it  affects  the  mental  energies,  the  memory 
fails,  the  victim  becomes  prematurely  old  and  endures  frightful 
sufferings  after  the  effect  of  the  dose  subsides.  As  a  drug  opium 
is  certainly  of  great  value.  In  the  old  school  it  is  mostly  used 
as  a  sedative  or  to  produce  sleep — not  natural  but  heavy,  1111- 
refreshing  sleep  from  which  the  patient  generally  awakes  un- 
relieved or  worse  than  before,  as  it  produces  the  most  profound 
desire  to  sleep,  but  with  total  inability  to  do  so.  In  Homoe- 
opathy this  is  an  indication  for  its  use  (provided  it  has  not  been 
produced  by  taking  opium  or  any  of  its  alkaloids)  and  it  will 
generally  instantly  relieve  and  cause  refreshing  natural  sleep,  in 
the  most  infinitesimal  dose.  In  allopathy  it  is  constantly  used 
to  produce  a  constipated  state  of  the  bowels  in  diarrhoea,  and 
also  in  surgical  operations.  Constipation  of  the  most  obstinate 
nature,  with  headache,  dizziness  as  if  intoxicated,  or  with  great 
heaviness  of  the  head,  drowsiness,  and  bewildered  feeling  is 
often  entirely  cured  with  a  few  small  doses  of  opium.  It  also 
causes  in  healthy  persons  congestion  of  the  brain,  heaviness  of 
the  head,  great  desire  to  sleep,  lethargy  with  snoring  (one  would 
almost  think  that  the  poppy  flower,  which  always  droops  while 
in  the  bud,  was  an  emblem  of  sleep,  or  the  finger  of  Nature  in- 
dicating its  virtues  or  sphere  of  action  ("  Doctrine  of  Signatures  "), 
eyes  half  closed,  convulsed,  lids  hanging  as  if  paralyzed.  In 
natural  congestion  and  inflammation  of  the  brain,  with  great 
lethargy  and  eyes  partly  open  (a  common  feature  of  this  disease), 
with  constipated  bowels,  etc.,  the  effect  of  small  doses  of  opium 
is  really  magical,  its  quickness  of  action  must  be  seen  to  be  be- 
lieved. Unfortunately  the  abuse  of  one  of  God's  greatest  bless- 
ings to  man  is  in  the  case  of  opium  often  one  of  the  greatest 
evils. 


OUR  DAILY  EXPERIENCE. 


Wm.  Steinrauf,  M.  D.,  St.  Charles,  Mo. 

I  think  the  physicians  of  our  school  should  pay  more  attention 
to  the  committing  to  paper  their  daily  experience,  and  after 
sifting  the  same,  occassionally  send  short  articles  of  cures  made 
to  the  journals.  I  know  some  of  our  best  prescribers  often 
hesitate  about  writing  down  their  experience.  They  see  the 
journals  are  filled  up  anyhow  from  month  to  month  and  so  they 
let  matters  go.  Still  others  shun  the  notoriety  and  have  a  false 
delicacy  in  regard  to  contributing  to  the  journals,  thinking  their 
productions  of  no  value. 

But,  as  in  the  case  of  a  fire,  even  the  most  timid  give  the 
alarm,  even  the  weakest  feel  called  upon  to  help,  so  it  should 
be  in  our  case.  False  Homoeopathy  is  openly  taught  and 
practiced -  in  our  ranks,  professed  homoeopathists  are  openly 
declaring  that  there  is  but  very  little,  if  any,  difference  between 
our  school  and  the  old  system.  So  it  behooves  us,  it  behooves 
all  the  true  and  faithful  followers  of  the  master  to  sound  the 
trumpet  of  alarm,  to  be  outspoken,  to  openly  declare  their  con- 
victions and  show  by  their  work  the  true  and  only  method  of 
cure.  Do  like  the  children  of  Israel,  "  with  one  hand  do  the 
work  and  with  the  other  hand  hold  the  shield."  Practice  pure 
Homoeopathy  and  guard  the  threshold  to  prevent  false  prophets 
from  entering. 

Clinical  Case. — T.  K.,  aged  seventy-seven  years,  was 
severely  attacked  with  erysipelas  of  the  face  and  scalp  during 
the  epidemic  of  la  grippe  last  March,  and  as  he  is  of  a  scrofu- 
lous constitution,  and  has  had  chronic  eczema  of  the  nose  for  over 
twenty  years,  the  outlook  was  rather  discouraging.  The 
swelling  had  begun  on  the  nose  and  having  a  homoeopathic 
family  case,  he  had  doctored  himself.  But  when  the  whole  face 
was  attacked  and  the  scalp  sore,  puffy,  and  highly  inflamed  he 
consented  to  have  a  physician.  The  pulse  was  one  hundred 
and  twenty  and  temperature  one  hundred  and  four.    But  as  he 

557 


558 


SOME  VKKIFH  ATIONS. 


[Dec, 


never  had  been  mnch  dosed  in  his  life,  always  using  our  remedies, 
besides  being  of  a  determined  will,  we  hoped  for  the  best. 

Ferr-phos.200*,  followed  by  Natr-sulph.200x  cured  the  patient 
within  six  days.  Dilute  alcohol  was  applied  every  hour. 
What  was  peculiar  in  the  case  is  that  the  eczema  of  the  nose  of 
twenty  years' standing  was  also  cured.  The  eczema  disappeared 
shortly  afterward.  This  cure  was  two  years  ago.  Xo  erysipe- 
las and  no  eczema  to  this  date. 


SOME  VERIFICATIONS. 
Klla  M.  Tuttlb,  M.  D.,  New  Berlin,  N.  Y. 

Diarrh(EA. — Mrs.  L.  came  to  me  August  1 1th,  complaining 
of  the  following  symptoms  : 

A  diarrhoea  that  had  lasted  her  for  over  a  week.  She  had 
cured  (?)  it  once  by  taking  black  pepper,  but  it  had  come  on 
again.  Stool  scanty,  like  cream,  with  constant  urging.  Said 
she  felt  as  if  she  could  go  to  stool  any  time.  Much  flatus 
passed  with  the  stool.  Colicky  pains  in  the  abdomen  during 
and  after  stool.  Weakness  of  the  sphincter  ani  so  that  a  little 
of  the  stool  passed  involuntarily.  She  had  been  troubled  with 
constipation  for  the  last  six  months  and  had  been  liberally 
dosed  by  an  allopathic  physician. 

Considering  this  and  the  symptom  of  constant  urging,  I  gave 
Nux~vom? ,  a  dose  after  every  stool.  Four  doses  entirely  stopped 
the  diarrhoea. 

Is  this  creamy  stool  common  to  Xux  ?  I  do  not  find  it  in  any 
of  the  Materia  Ifedicas. 

DiARRHfEA. —  Was  called  July  27th  to  see  Mrs.  E.,  a  lady 
over  eighty  years  old.  Found  her  suffering  from  much  colicky 
pain  in  the  abdomen,  frequent  stools  of  yellow  fecal  matter 
streaked  with  blood.  There  was  soreness  over  the  pit  of  the 
stomach  and  abdomen  and  some  fever.  She  had  been  consti- 
pated and  had  taken  two  pills  and  eaten  some  string  beans  the 
day  before  the  attack  came  on.  F rom  this  fact  and  the  absence 
of  definite  symptoms  I  gave  Nux-vom.^. 


1890.]     BOA  ROMAN'S  PROVINGS  AND  CLINICAL  CASES.  559 


July  28th. — Stool  yellow  and  slimy  ;  no  blood  had  passed 
involuntarily  during  her  deep.  I  asked  her  about  the  pain  and 
soreness  in  the  abdomen  and  she  said  "  Oh  !  I  don't  feel  that  as 
long  as  I  keep  still,  but  if  I  move  I  feel  so  bad."  Here  were 
my  key-notes — stool  passed  involuntarily  during  sleep  and 
aggravation  from  motion.  I  gave  Bry?.  She  did  not  have 
another  stool  for  three  days  (I  kept  her  on  Sac-lac.  during  the 
time),  and  then  she  had  a  natural  fecal  movement.  The  lesson 
that  I  drew  from  this  case  was  that,  though  Nux-vom.  is  the 
remedy  when  the  patient  has  been  drugged,  yet  it  will  not  cure 
unless  the  symptoms  call  for  it. 


DR.  J.  C.  BOARDMAN'S  PROVINCE  AM)  CLINICAL 

CASES. 

E.  W.  Berridge,  M.  D.,  London,  England. 

The  following  are  extracted  from  communications  sent  by  Dr. 
Boardman  to  Dr.  Swan,  and  from  him  transferred  to  myself. 
They  are  dated  1882, 1883. 

(1)  Fluoric  Acid.  Mrs.   ,  aged  about  sixty,  had  com- 
plained for  many  years  of  one  very  annoying  symptom,  an 
aching  pain  in  one  unvarying  spot  in  right  side,  just  below 
diaphragm,  on  upper  portion  of  liver  ;  it  was  never  very  severe, 
but  always  present  more  or  less.  The  symptom,  "  pain  in  a 
small  spot,"  led  me  to  give  Fluoric  acid000  (Boericke).  In  a  few- 
days  the  patient  was  well. 

I  find  great  use  for  Fluor-acid  ;  so  many  cases  of  varied  forms 
of  disease  do  I  meet,  when  there  is  some  one  spot  in  the  body 
that  will  not  yield,  even  when  all  other  signs  of  disease  disappear. 
I  now  give  Fluor-acid  cm  (Swan)  in  all  such  cases,  and  always 
relieve,  and  often  effect  a  complete  cure  in  a  few  hours. 

I  have  been  prescribing  for  a  gentleman  now  in  his  seventieth 
year  who  has  suffered  much  from  his  heart,  almost  from  child- 
hood ;  sometimes  violent  palpitation,  sometimes  a  severe  aching, 
always  an  aching  in  one  spot,  though  sometimes  for  days  or 
weeks  it  would  only  slightly  annoy.    A  few  days  ago  lie  had 


560       BOARDMAN'S  PROVINGS  AND  CLINICAL  CASES.  [Dec, 


the  severe  aching  in  the  one  spot,  but  no  palpitation.  I  gave 
him  one  dose  of  Fluoric  acid,  and  he  felt  a  sense  of  relief  in  a 
manner  he  had  never  felt  before. 

The  following  is  a  proving:  Mrs.  ,  aged  twenty-two,  in 

excellent  health,  took  one  dose  of  Fluoric  acidrm  (Boaricke)  at 
four  P.  M.,  December  17th,  1883.  In  fifteen  minutes  a  sharp 
pain  passed  across  forehead,  over  eyes,  and  then  passed  directly 
down  from  middle  of  left  clavicle  into  heart,  cutting  its  way 
like  a  sharp  knife.  The  suffering  for  the  moment  was  terrific, 
but  it  soon  passed  off.  Just  before  retiring,  at  half  past  nine  p.  M., 
a  slight  aching  pain  in  nape.  Her  sleep  was  often  interrupted, 
but  whenever  she  woke  she  felt  a  heavy  dull,  aching,  throbbing 
pain  extending  from  nape  over  whole  head. 

December  18th. — On  rising  this  morning,  eyeballs  felt  sore 
and  weak ;  eyes  were  at  first  pained  by  the  light,  and  whenever 
she  turned  her  eyeballs  the  soreness  was  very  much  aggravated. 
There  was  also  some  lachrymation.  The  whole  head  felt  sore 
internally  and  externally.  The  roots  of  hair  felt  very  sore  on 
combing.    The  whole  head  felt  compressed  as  if  clasped. 

At  half  past  two  P.  m.  all  the  above  symptoms  are  gradually 
diminishing. 

Quarter  past  three  p.  M. — All  day  has  felt  low-spirited,  at 
times  almost  ready  to  burst  into  tears,  and  physically  she  is 
obliged  to  make  great  efforts  to  keep  about. 

On  inquiring  the  exact  direction  of  the  pain  across  forehead, 
she  said  she  could  not  positively  say  which  it  was.  It  came  so 
suddenly  and  left  so  quickly,  and  seemed  for  the  moment  to  have 
blinded  her,  that  she  cannot  remember  the  direction  j  but 
inasmuch  as  the  pain  went  down  from  the  left  clavicle,  she  con- 
cludes that  the  direction  across  forehead  was  from  right  to  left. 
What  she  means  by  saying  that  the  pain  seemed  for  the  moment 
to  have  blinded  her  is  that  consciousness  for  the  moment  had 
left  her  in  fact,  a  mental  blindness ;  her  consciousness  returned 
at  the  moment  the  pain  was  descending  from  middle  of  clavicle. 

December  26th. — Had  no  further  symptoms  after  18th 
till  to-day.  About  four  P.  M.  to-day,  was  suddenly  seized  with 
sharp,  piercing  pains  in  heart,  as  though  made  by  a  small  sharp 


1890.]     BOA  RDM  AX'S  PROVISOS  AXD  CLIXICAL  CASES.  561 


penknife,  moving  from  right  to  left,  directly  through  the  heart. 
These  pains  continued  till  seven  p.  m.,  more  or  less  violent, 
when  they  gradually  passed  away.  She  retired  about  nine  P.  M.T 
when  for  the  first  time  she  failed  to  hear  the  clear,  loud  tones  of 
the  door-bell,  though  at  other  times  her  hearing  is  excellent, 
always  hearing  this  bell,  in  whatever  part  of  the  house  she  is. 
At  that  very  time  of  not  hearing  the  bell,  she  felt  strange,  felt 
lost,  as  though  she  did  not  realize  what  she  was  doing  or  should 
do ;  also  her  heart  was  in  great  distress,  really  indescribable. 
She  seemed  in  a  daze  as  to  what  was  going  on  outside  of  herself ; 
in  tact,  her  perceptions  of  external  things  seemed  in  a  great 
degree  to  have  passed  away. 

December  27th. — Slept  well,  and  had  no  further  symptoms. 

(2)  Triticum  (wheat)  in  Swan's  potencies  postpones  the  menses. 
Compare  Swan's  provings  m  Organon,  vol.  Ill,  p.  114. 

(3)  Alcohol.  I  have  never  failed  in  a  single  instance  of  curing 
alcoholism  by  a  high  potency  of  Alcohol,  even  when  the  patients 
were  unaware  of  what  the  remedy  was.  One  of  them  began  to 
drink  lager  beer  three  months  after  being  cured,  but  he  still  had 
an  aversion  to  whiskey. 

(4)  Petroleum.  I  have  found  this  remedy  in  high  potency  the 
chief  remedy  for  the  annoying  dribbling  of  urine  to  which  so 
many  very  old  men  are  subject. 

(5)  Lager  Beer.  On  June  27th,  1883,  at  three  p.  m.,  I  gave 
a  la  ly,  aged  about  twenty-five,  one  dose  of  Lager  Beer  mm 
(Swan),  in  order  to  cure  her  of  an  undue  fondness  for  it. 

She  was  never  intoxicated,  but  used  to  drink  a  great  deal  of 
lager  to  keep  up  her  strength  to  do  hard  work.  In  about  thirty 
minutes  she  came  bounding  into  my  office  like  a  mad  woman. 
She  was  evidently  in  extreme  suffering,  and  kept  calling  out 
again  and  again,  "What  have  you  given  me?"  I  asked  her 
symptoms,  and  while  dancing  up  and  down  my  office,  she 
managed  to  say,  "Very  soon  after  taking  the  powder  I  had  a 
desire  to  urinate.  I  have  now  a  raging  furnace  flame  in  the 
entire  urinary  apparatus;  a  fierce  urging,  pressive  burning  desire 
to  urinate  constantly,  so  great  that  I  am  in  perfect  torture,  but 
it  only  passes  in  drops."  Verv  gradually  the  pains  lessened. 
36  * 


562 


BOOK  NOTICES. 


[Dec, 


Next  day  she  had  the  same  symptoms,  but  milder ;  and  by  the 
evening  they  all  ceased  and  did  not  return.  Since  then  her 
appetite,  spirits,  and  strength  have  decidedly  improved,  and  she 
has  no  desire  for  lager  beer,  and  does  not  drink  it  at  all.  Never 
had  similar  symptoms  before. 

[Note. — This  is  a  more  complete  version  of  the  case  published 
in  The  Homoeopathic  Physician,  1884,  p.  88.] 

In  the  other  cases  published  there,  the  following  corrections 
and  additions  should  be  made  : 

Page  88,  line  five  from  bottom,  for  sixty-five  read  seventy- 
six. 

Page  89,  line  two,  for  "  chest  "  read  "  upper  chest." 

Page  89,  line  ten,  for  "great  lameness"  read  "great  aching 
pain  and  lameness." 

This  patient  reported  himself  still  quite  well  on  December  4th, 
1883. 

The  first  case  (p.  89,  lines  two  to  seven  from  bottom),  which 
is  reported  "  very  much  better,"  reported  later  "  quite  cured." 

Dr.  Swan  wrote  me  April  9th,  1886,  "I  have  successfully 
used  Lager  in  high  potency,  in  several  other  cases,  where  there 
was  great  heat  in  vesical  region."  This  remedy  deserves  a 
further  proving,  but  as  I  suppose  Lager  varies  in  composition, 
the  original  preparation  used  by  Dr.  Swan  should  be  used. 


BOOK  NOTICES. 

Ointments  and  Oleates  especially  in  Diseases  of  the 
Skin.  By  John  V.  Shoemaker,  A.  Mv  M.  D.,  Professor  of 
Materia  Medica,  Pharmacology,  Therapeutics,  and  Clinical 
Medicine,  etc.,  Medico-Chirurgical  College  of  Philadelphia. 
Philadelphia  and  London  :  F.  A.  Davis,  1890. 

This  work  is  the  revised  and  enlarged  second  edition,  which  shows  there  is 
a  demand  for  it.  Viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  allopathy  we  should  consider 
it  a  valuable  work  as  it  gives  the  officinal  ointments  of  the  pharmacopoeia 
of  Austria,  Britain,  France,  Germany,  Italy,  Spain,  Mexico,  and  Chili.  And 
then  the  more  recent  oleates  receive  full  notice,  and  altogether  grease  is  well 
represented. 

The  author  concisely  concludes  his  preface  as  follows:  "The  reader  may 


1890.] 


BOOK  NOTICES. 


563 


thus  obtain  a  conspectus  of  the  whole  subject  of  inunction  as  it  exists  to-day 
in  the  civillized  world.  In  all  cases  the  mode  of  preparation  is  given,  and  the 
therapeutical  applications  described  seriatim,  in  so  far  as  may  be  done  without 
needless  repetition." 

We,  of  the  homoeopathic  school,  can  make  no  use  of  the  various  mixtures 
described,  as  we  have  something  better,  but  we  may  commend  the  book  for  the 
accuracy  and  clearness  of  its  recipes  and  for  its  neat  binding  and  the  excellence 
of  the  printers'  work. 

A  Repertory  of  Convulsions.  E.  M.  Santee,  M.  D.  New 
York  :  H.  Hitchcock,  M.  D.,  1890. 

This  handy  little  monograph,  a  reprint  from  the  Journal  of  Homoeopathies, 
should  be  in  the  hands  of  every  Hahnenamannian,  as  it  will  save  much  time 
in  studying  convulsive  affections.  We  need  more  of  such,  and  in  just  such 
form,  that  they  may  always  be  with  us. 

The  Argonaut.  Published  quarterly  by  Keut  B.  Waite, 
A.  M.,  M.  D.,  106  Euclid  Avenue,  Cleveland,  Ohio.  Sub- 
scription price,  81.00  per  year. 

This  is  a  new  medical  journal  published  in  the  interest  of  the  new  medical 
college  at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  which  has  been  started  in  opposition  to  the  Cleve- 
land Homoeopathic  Hospital  College.  The  new  journal  contains  about  twenty 
pages  and  is  full  of  local  news  of  the  college  of  which  it  is  the  adherent. 

It  is  greatly  to  be  regretted  that  the  physicians  of  Cleveland  should  deem  it 
necessary  to  start  another  college.  As  the  old  college  had  resolved  to  teach 
pure  Homoeopathy  it  certainly  is  doing  all  that  can  be  expected  of  it.  It 
should  then  have  been  cordially-su^tain^d  ^y.the  homoeopathic  physicians  of 
Cleveland  and  not  hampered  by  the'rearlrjg  £)f'a's?cond  college  that  must  only 
divide  with  it  the  :;ustennnce'that  was  hardly  s'uff.eiert  for  the  one. 

,  \  w.  m.  j. 

Transactions  of  the  Marine  Homoeopathic  Medical 
SociF/rv  at  :  i;ts  T\vei:iy -ftuiHR  jjlvnual  Meeting  held  at 
Bangor,  Juiie  Sd,:i890.  Portfancl,  Me.  :  Brown,  Thurston 
Co.,  1890. 

This  is  a  volume  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  pages,  containing  the  dis- 
cussions and  papers  read  at  the  last  annual  meeting.  The  papers  are  interest- 
ing, but  we  regret  to  find  that  so  many  of  them  advocate  the  treatment  of  the 
old  school,  and  several  others  teach  alternation  of  remedies  and  external  ap- 
plications. This  kind  of  practice  and  teaching  does  not  advance  the  cause  of 
Homoeopathy.  On  the  contrary,  it  maintains  a  state  of  confusion  and  doubt 
in  the  minds  of  the  majority  that  must  cause  Homoeopathy  to  stand  still  or 
else  retrograde.  W.  11  J. 

The  People's  Health  Journal  of  Chicago,  October  loth, 
1890.    L.  D.  Rogers,  A.  ML,  M.  D.,  and  S.  Ida  Wright 


564 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 


[Dec,  1890. 


Rogers,  M.  D.,  editors,  441  Dearborn  Avenue,  Chicago, 
Illinois.    Price,  §1.00  a  year.    Ten  cents  a  copy. 

This  is  a  folio  journal  of  eight  pages,  issued  once  a  month,  and  devoted  to 
hygiene,  dietetics,  and  Homoeopathy.  It  is  an  excellent  publication,  several 
of  its  contributors  being  contributors  of  The  Homoeopathic  Physician.  Its 
articles  are  exceedingly  instructive  and  will  prove  interesting  not  alone  to 
the  medical  man  but  to  his  family  as  well.  Its  low  price  puts  it  within  the 
reach  of  all.  W.  M.  J. 

Census  Bulletin,  No.  12.  Issued  by  Hon.  Robert  P. 
Porter,  Superintendent  of  the  Census. 

Is  a  summary  of  the  total  population  of  the  United  States  from  which  it 
appears  that  the  total  population  is  62,480,540. 

Chemical  Lecture  Notes.  By  H.  M.  Whelpley,  M.  D.,  Ph. 
G.,  F.  R.  M.  S.  Third  edition.  Published  by  the  author 
at  2647  Olive  Street,  St.  Louis,  Mo.    1890.    Price,  $1.50. 

This  excellent  little  book  is  a  complete  summary  of  physics  and  chemistry 
for  the  use  of  students. 

When  a  student  attends  lectures  on  chemistry  and  physics,  he  generally 
writes  his  own  notes.  These  are  necessarily  imperfect,  without  arrangement, 
and  of  but  little  subsequent  use.  The  small  volume  before  us  is  a  complete 
collection  of  these  notes,  clearly  arranged  and  well  printed.  The  student 
having  this  book  in  his  hand  needs  no  pencil  and  paper  when  attending  lec- 
tures. 

The  professor  who  delivers  the  k?terea  seed  not  tax  himself  by  preparing 
any  plan  of  lectures.  He.wjU.find  the  whole  thing  in^this  book  done  for  him, 
and  more  thoroughly",  a,riyI*a,bote "all  more  orderly.'  ' 

The  active  pr^itionir,  with  little  time  at  his  command,  who  wishes  to  in- 
form himself  'cst,antly  upon  some  forgotten  point  w  ithout  wadi'jg  through  a 
large  mass  of  other  material,  will  get  what  he  wants  from  this  book,  which  is 
a  sort  of  miniature  en'CycfqpejdTi^  upon'riiesc  subjects.  M.J. 


NOTES  AND  NOTICES. 

Removals. — Dr.  Frances  M.  Morris,  from  Hotel  Berkley  to  157  Boylston 
Street,  Boston,  Mass.  Dr.  O.  W.  Lounsbury,  from  Cincinnati  to  Dayton,  Ohio, 
Dr.  L.  H.  Lemke,  to  Hixton,  Jackson  County,  Wisconsin.  He  was  erro- 
neously reported,  in  our  November  number,  as  having  gone  to  Higginsville, 
Mo.  Dr.  Charles  H.  Young,  from  Brooklyn  to  319  West  44th  Street,  New 
York  City.  Dr.  Hiram  F.  Smiley,  from  La  Crosse,  Wis.,  to  South  Engle- 
wood,  111.  Dr.  G.  Pompili,  editor  of  Revista  Omiopatica,  from  Chiavi  d'ozo,  to 
Via  Cavour,  325,  Rome,  Italy. 

Dr.  Maria  N.  Johnson,  who  for  a  number  of  years  has  been  located  at  1732 
Green  Street,  has,  in  consequence  of  the  great  increase  in  her  practice,  re- 
moved to  342  South  Eighteenth  Street,  Philadelphia.