There is not the slightest doubt that fear is a potent factor in the causation of disease. ‘It is the most depressing of all emotions, and greatly lessens the resisting-power of the organism. In the Hamburg cases Dr Hesse found Arsenicum a specific when the fear of cholera was the leading element in the case. Arsenic was also the most useful medicine in the cases reported by Mr A. Paasch, a lay homoeopathist who, in the dearth of medical aid, volunteered his services, which were accepted by the authorities, who assigned him a district. Excluding the lightest cases, his death rate only amounted to 5 per cent. An account of his work is published in the Leipzinger Populare Zeitschrift fur Homoeopathic, and a translation in the Hahnemann Monthly and the Homoeopathic Envoy for March last.
PROTECTION FROM CHOLERA BY HOMOEOPATHY
COPPER BELTS; SULPHUR; CAMPHOR.
Recent observations by Professor Charcot, of Paris, and earlier ones by Dr Burq, have proved the correctness of Hahnemann’s observations with respect to the medicinal powers of metallic substances in their insoluble, uncombined state. The mere application of gold, silver, copper, and other metals to the skin in sensitive subjects will produce powerful and characteristic effects; and all persons, whether sensitive or not, who wear these metals next to the skin will be brought more or less under the influence of them, although no symptoms may be produced.
In the last volume of the Homoeopathic World, December 1892, p.536. I published an extract from one of the medical journals in which a practitioner related a case of copper poisoning which was almost indistinguishable from a case of Asiatic cholera. This property of copper to produce symptoms exceedingly like those of cholera renders it one of the most valuable medicines in the treatment of the disease. But, more than that, it has also proved the very best preventive.
In some of the epidemics it had been noticed, and especially 1878, Dr Burq referred to his researches, twenty-five years previously, which proved to him the immunity from cholera possessed by workers in copper, and said that where the question had been investigated by other observers, the same result had been arrived at. He also traced the preservation of Augbagne, between Toulon and Marseilles, through every epidemic of cholera, to the fact that the large quantity of copper employed in the potteries surrounding the city produced, as it were, a rampart of copper-laden dust.” Homoeopathic League Tract, 42.] that workers in copper mines and in copper foundries were exempt from the disease, whilst all round them were being attacked.
It was this circumstance which led to the practice of wearing copper plates next the skin, a practice first adopted in Hungary, according to Hahnemann. The custom of wearing rings of copper on the toes followed by some of the natives of India may have some (conscious or unconscious) connection with its power of affording protection against this disease.
Europeans in India wear round the waist a double band of flannel, which they call a cholera belt; and doubtless the magnetic properties of flannel may increase the bodily resisting power. But these belts have been improved upon, and the protection rendered much more certain by the addition to the flannel of a plate of copper, two to four inches in diameter.
Such belts are to be procured of all homoeopathic chemists; or they may be improvised by procuring pieces of thin copper plate, cutting in them slits at opposite borders, to which straps or tapes may be attached, which may be passed and fastened round the body. The cholera belt should be worn night and day. It may be cleansed from time to time by rubbing with a little vinegar. If copper in this form is objected to, the homoeopathic preparation of Cuprum aceticum 3 may be taken internally, one drop or two pilules three times a day.
As matters of general precaution it will be well to have drinking-water cisterns and filters cleansed periodically.
Saluteris water and other table-waters of repute, natural and manufactured, should be used when there is any doubt about the ordinary service water. Care must be taken to avoid all excesses in eating and drinking, and especially eating fruit that is not perfectly sound and good. Clothing should be sufficient and warm. special caution should be observed in leaving off garments in warm weather, and in avoiding getting the feet wet. Those who take these precautions and provide themselves with the protection of copper need have no fear of cholera, however badly it may be about.
During the epidemic at Hamburg Dr. Hesse advised the use of Sulphur as a prophylactic. He recommended his patients to dust sulphur inside their stockings every morning when they put them on. In that particular epidemic sulphur corresponded to the symptoms of many of the cases, and would thus be specially appropriate; but in a general way copper is much to be preferred to all other prophylactics.
