Discussion on Dr. Beatson’s Method of Treatment of Inoperable Carcinoma
“Mr. Armstrong (Buxton) said that he had been invited sometime ago to make a communication to the Society on what he had seen in Glasgow of Dr. Beatson’s method of treating carcinoma, and being much impressed with the principles involved, he expressed his willingness to comply, and the more so, that he had been much struck by the candid and scientific attitude of Dr. Beatson himself with reference to the ceases treated by this method, and the deductions to be made from them. Before the meeting, the President and Council invited Dr. Beatson to come up and join in the discussion; and as they had the pleasure of Dr. Beatson’s presence this evening, he felt sure that he could not do better than to simply explain to the Fellows how it was that he came to be introducing the discussion, and to leave in the more capable hands of Dr. Beatson the task of explaining the principles of the treatment, and the results obtained by it up to the present time.”
“Dr. Beatson (Glasgow) said that when he received from Dr. Armstrong the invitation of the Council he at first hesitated, because he thoughts that it might seem as if he had something fresh to communicate; at the same time, he felt that after a paper such as he and written on the subject, he ought, if called upon, to appear to explain his method in further detail. In the first case to which Dr. Armstrong had referred, the mammae, axillary glands, and part of the pectoral muscle had been removed and found to be cancerous; three months later the disease again manifested itself, and the case was considered hopeless for operation.
Thyroid was given to a physiological extent, but in vain. The tubes and ovaries were than removed, and the Thyroid again pushed. In little more than two months she was much improved; in five months the malignant tissue had become yellow and fatty, and in six it had gone; now, at the end of twenty-one months, the tissues were sound and the woman was in good health. The value of the case to him was that it seemed to throw some light on the nature of carcinoma, and the only question was as to the right interpretation of the facts of the case.”
“This is the most important of Dr. Beatson’s observations. It is followed by a lengthy disquisition on the nature of cancer, into which it is not necessary to go.”
This excerpt gives the gist of Dr. Beatson’s views. The point I claim is that Tumours of the Breast do not commonly arise primarily from the breasts, but from the utero-ovarian sphere, a nd that therefore it is very poor treatment to exercise the fruit while leaving the roots ( in the pelvic organs). Whether the excision of the ovaries or uterus will be any good remains to be seen, but I doubt it very much. However, we shall soon have the records of vast numbers of Beatson’s operations, so here we leave the question sub judice.
I feel constrained to again thank Dr. Clarke, as it is very hard on a homoeopathic worker who, fighting persistently for a hearing, usually gets next to none; but wakes up some fine day and finds his most cherished suggestions brought forward by our friends the enemy as altogether admirable.
Was it not thus with the treatment of phthisis pulmonalis? American homoeopaths had been treating consumptives by Tuberculin successfully for years and years; but they were laughed to scorn and scoffed at as filthy persons because of the origin of their remedy; but when Koch did the dirty thing unsuccessfully, he was hailed with almost divine honours. And even now that Koch’s doses have been fully condemned all over the world, and the
Homoeopathic tuberculin treatment has been tried and found of marvellous efficacy in very many parts of the world quite apart from my own very numerous cures of consumption by Bacillin (Natural Tuberculin), even now the claims of homoeopathy are almost entirely ignored, and one hears: “There is no cure for consumption, is there? Koch’s affair was a terrible fiasco.” Explanations are for the most part in the vain.
Significance of the Retracted Nipple
The retraction of the nipple is held to be a gravely important symptom in tumors of the breast, but he retracted nipple in young seemingly healthy girls and young women is usually not regarded as of any particular importance; but I have myself come to regard it as indicative of, perhaps latent, womb or ovarian disease; and thus regarding it as of pelvic origin, I have ameliorated a certain number of them and quite cured a few. The curative process is a tedious one, and takes a good deal of time, but it can be done.
Whenever there is a retracted nipple, even in the most blooming young woman, there you are sure to find, very likely latent, but still positive disease, that will crop up in the latter course of the life of the individual. Just as the milk rises to the breast after child-birth, so do morbid activities rise from the female pelvic organs at the change of life, or before. The retracted nipple in young girls has, I maintain, its place of origin, its primary seat, in the uterus or ovaries, and we do not often notice that the breast that has a retracted nipple is, at the beginning o lactation, the seat of a mammary abscess? Such abscesses are generally either strumous or hereditarily cancerous. I do not mean actually cancer, but merely of a carcinosic quality. I have often heard about the time of the menopause this remark from a lady….. ” I have a lump in my breast; it is the same breast that has the nipple drawn in, and in it I had an abscess when I was nursing my first baby.”
Mammary abscesses during lactation should not be backed, but allowed to gather, burst and discharge, and left to go on discharging as long as they will, the child being kept on the sound side, the gathering breast being kept in full function by an exhauster till the abscess has healed, when baby may have both; only the patient should be kept under Bacillinum (high) till the fever, which is of the phthisis type, quite disappears, and subsequently the lady’s health is better than before the gestation, and it becomes also subsequently manifest that the abscess was a constitutional depurative effort; hence, I encourage the ripening of mammary abscesses and do not back them. Sometimes the mammary abscess is of carcinosic quality, when Scirrh. C. plays precisely the same role as Bacillinum in the strumous form.
Burnett was one of the first to speak about vaccination triggering illness. This was discussed in his book, Vaccinosis, published in 1884. He introduced the remedy Bacillinum. He authored twenty books, including the much loved "Fifty Reason for Being a Homeopath." He was the editor of The Homoeopathic World.