Case 3. Mrs. W., age 35, looks pale and bloodless, suffered for two or three months with a severe pruritis of the vulva, some pain and bearing down on urination; treatment-douches of cold water; a little later on, swelling and much pain in left ankle joint. Treatment for next ten days hydrotherapy,.locally, hot packs and fomentations; look internally antikamnia in order to get sleep. At the end of twelve days, I was call;ed. The symptoms were, dull pain in the ankle joint, joint greatly swollen, could keep the foot still in one place for only a few minutes, she was constantly changing it on a pillow; color dark, puffed up, and sensitive, She had no other pain, no appetite; had eaten nothing for the many days with the exception of oranges; weeps with the pain, weeps at the least annoyance or whenever her case is mentioned. Pulsatilla in is given. In 48 hours there was relief from all pain; improvement continued for one week, then a relapse. Symptoms-great sensitiveness of the part to touch; colour of tissues over joint very dark, almost black. Joint had been greatly reduced in size but now was much swollen and painful again. She was extremely nervous, sleepless, worse after sleep. had bad dreams; dreamt of dead people and of falling into deep dark water; had great fear when alone at night; sees faint outline of images of people and thing approaching her, and cannot go to sleep because of them. Lachesis cured the case in two months, the pruritis or vaginal discharge did not return, hence the slowness of the cure.
Case 5.Albert R., age 35, contracted gonorrhoea in the fall of ’94, which was suppressed by injections for some specific sold by druggist for that purpose. Soon after he began to suffer with severe form of indigestion, which increased from month to month, and finally developed into cancer or scirrhus of the pyloric end of the stomach, from which he died. No other symptoms of Sycosis ever appeared after the suppression of the discharge.
Case 5. Arthur b., age 24, blond, expressman, contracted Sycosis eight weeks ago, treated with injections of mercuric chloride I to I,000; fifth day after the use of the drug, began to have severe pains about the neck of the bladder, followed with fever and restless nights. His symptoms were always < at night; a day or so later, an abscess broke and discharged bloody pus for some time,. until cured by the Homoeopathic remedy.
Case 6. Jacob F., age 29, dark complexion, with a nervous temperament, and tubercular diathesis; had had the disease for some time. Has taken oil of Cedron and numerous medicated injections but with no apparent lessening of the discharge; was advise to use some French preparation with which to irrigate the canal, this was followed in on week with abscess of the neck of the bladder, which took many weeks to cure.
Case 7. Wm. B., age 20, dark complexion, nervous bilious temperament, suppressed the discharge in the first week of the disease which caused orchitis and alter on inflammatory rheumatism, confining him to his bed for three months.
Case 8. J.P.H., who was a travelling salesman, had the disease suppressed during the second week. Orchitis appeared in a few days, complicated with bubo of the right side and followed with a severe and stubborn for of cystitis. Neither of these cases was relieved until the discharge was re-established.
Case 9. Mary M., age 20, contracted the disease three months ago. The usual treatment with medicated douches was tried and caused a suppression of the vaginal discharge, which in turn brought on an abscess of the tubes. Fully one hundred cases similar to this could be cited that have occurred in my clinical work. These cases are of common occurrence in the practice of almost every physician. One of two things usually occurs in a world when the disease is suppressed in the first stage. Either the disease is reflected to some of the pelvic organs, or a gouty or rheumatic condition develops in some part of the body. Should these conditions not arise, you will find a metastasis farther on in the territory stage. It may appear as a serve form of gout, not infrequently delayed until the climacteric period, when it is first seen in the joints of the hands usually the index finger being first attacked. Again, we find deeper and more destructive forms in the disease appearing later on in life, such as diabetes mellitus, or Bright’s disease, complicated with heart or stomach troubles.
Another case might be cited, in which the disease Sycosis would not be suspected by the ordinary observer, and which shows to some degree the diversity of its forms and magnificence. Mrs. Chas. E., age 54, sandy complexion, quiet disposition, tall and spare of flesh, contracted the disease from her husband in the secondary, or gleety stage. It is at this stage of the disease, that so many physicians tell their patients that their is not longer and danger of contracting the disease. But this is not true, for fleet is the secondary stage or Gonorrhoea, or a sub- acute state of the primary disease, that may develop in the newly effected patient, either primary or secondary symptoms.
Occasionally they present to some degree symptoms of both stages. this was true in Mrs. E’s case. Since infection (which was about fifteen years ago) she has suffered with the following symptoms, more or less modified of course none of which she had before infection. She takes cold easily, beginning with sneezing, followed by a copious watery coryza. In two or three days the disease settle; on the bronchial tubes, a cough follows of a raspy, teasing nature, the whole chest becomes raw or sore, often with much weight or distress over the middle sternum. These symptoms continue for an indefinite period, unless relieved by a remedy.? small papilla dot the posterior wall of the throat, which seems to keep up an irritation and cough. She has to live in some southern climate during the winter and in the summer these migrates neck to Chicago again, only to return south again in the early autumn. When the cough is better their is a frequent desire to urine with much sureness and burning, often only a desire with some nursing. when this is relieved, she will suffer with hemorrhoids and acidity of the stomach. No acid of any kind can be tolerated by the stomach, neither concentrated sweets.
The cough of Sycosis has very little expectoration, usually of clear mucus; occasionally it is ropy.and many also be of a cottony nature. A great deal of coughing is often required to raise, it, hence the prolonged, teasing cough. This case is a typical one; one that we often meet and are unable to help with any degree of satisfaction. these are the case that antipsoric or pseudopsoric remedies fail to cure, but only palliate. We do not understand why hey ar so unresponsive to our remedies, but this is the way Sycosis (which is tertiary) one remedy will seldom cure the case We have to take them back over the way they came, no matter how circuitious the path.
The treatment I give this case will better illustrate what I mean. Lycopodium was given, which relieved all the gastro- intestinal symptoms and the cough improved somewhat. After the fourth weeks under this remedy the bladder symptoms grew much worse, and the hemorrhoids also become very annoying. Later on Thuja was given, and the case is improving under that remedy slowly. The cough and urinary symptoms are persistent but the general health improves. These cases to from pillar to post, from specialist to specialist, one part, or organ is treated of a while until it’s symptoms are palliated, then others grow worse.It is necessary to tell these cases what you propose to do,. you plan of attacks upon the disease, so that you may secure their confidence and heartly co-operation, or you will fail in your purpose and they will pass on to others, as they have in the past. Both of the remedies given in the case just related were anti-sycotic; the first acting decidedly upon the whole gastro- intestinal tact and digestive field, the second upon the mental sphere and the urinary tract. Both remedies were slow but progressive in their action, corresponding to the chronic state of the disease; both are capable of producing profound functional and pathological changes. If these do not cure the case, it is not at all likely that further anti-sycotic remedies will be called for, but some anti-psoric maybe necessary to complete the cure.
We will deal more fully with this subject or suppression, as we take up the study of the third or tertiary stage of the disease. It is a subject of vital importance to every healer of the sick. This is a matter of justice and judgment. No physician should be ignorant concerning this matter of suppression of disease. We should know how to proceed towards a cure, and understand the difference between a suppression and a cure. Fully fifty per cent of the so called cures of Sycosis are suppressions, m the sequelae of which are new developments and new processes of disease. Venereal diseases are not at all to be dreaded if they are treated properly. They are only peculiar expressions of a disturbed life force, a nd should be treated by the law of similia. A secondary and tertiary state in Sycosis or Syphilis, are the results of no treatment. All pathology is due to the suppression or loss of control of the disease in the initial stage. The same thing may be said of scarlet fever, typhoid, or any severe acute disease.
J.H. Allen was a student of H.C. Allen. He was the president of the IHA in 1900. Dr. Allen taught at the Hering Medical College in Chicago. Dr. Allen died August 1, 1925
Books by John Henry Allen:
Diseases and Therapeutics of the Skin 1902
The Chronic Miasms: Psora and Pseudo Psora 1908
The Chronic Miasms: Sycosis 1908