Treatment


J.H.Allen suggested and discussed the eliminative and suppresive approach of treatment for the sycosis cases….


In the treatment of gonorrhoea, either of the simple or sycotic form, we, as Homoeopaths, ought to learn a few things. Is the disease a local or constitutional one? If not local, then it cannot be reached by local means, as all local measures are circumscribed and directed to some local point. Therefore, the action of all local measures are from without inward, and are not eliminative, but suppressive in their action, and do not agree with any physiological process or law governing any form of life; besides, it is directly opposite to the homoeopathic law of cure, “that disease is cured from within outward and from above downward,” or through the natural evolution of the life processes. This is as true of a simple cell, as it is of an organism.

In this way all organic life grows or develops. If it be a cell, the evolution is from the nucleus, and if it be a biotic life, from the great central nervous centers. The true dynamis of the cell is from the nucleus, and the true dynamis of the organism is from the royal centers. What kind of an organism would it be if the twelve cranial nerves were absent? It would be no better than a worm of the dust that crawls upon the earth. The paralyzed arm that has lost its connection with a life center is dead to all its correspondents with that life; so is the ear that is deaf or the eye that is blind. The loss is not an outward but an inward failure. The inward power failed by virtue of some subversive change from within. Shall we whip it into action from without the walls by electricity, by the X-ray, by mechanical or chemical forces, or by any of the thousand and one methods and means now in vogue, or shall we send the help within the walls; a selected force, a power that is governed by the same law by which the organism is governed in health? The physician who attempts to heal any disease by local means, either sets aside and ignores all the teaching of the sciences as revealed in physiology and the philosophy governing the laws of motion or of life, or else he is ignorant of them all. He evidently has not the spirit of Hahnemann, who not only has revealed to us a law governing the life force, but a law governing the action of our Therapeutics, out of which came the law of Similia or the law of cure.

Again, we must ask ourselves the question is the curing of disease an eliminative process or a suppressive process? Which do you think will relieve the patient, and remove all the noxious influences of a sycotic gonorrhoeal poison from an infected organism–an astringent locally applied, or a remedy given internally through this law of cure of which we are so proud? We might press the question a little closer. Supposing you, fellow- healer, were that affected one, and you were about to marry a healthy, clean-boiled, refined young woman, through whom you had hopes of perpetuating your name and your race. I say, supposing this is the case, which treatment would you choose? Which do you think is the safest, shortest method of cure? You ar aware of the danger; you know the history of such a relationship well; you have seen many of such cases and have heard that story often, a story full of grief, of suffering and of pathos.

If you want the ear-marks of a sycotic disease forever stamped upon your progeny simply suppress the disease in the parent and it will come. It never fails to appear in the new life. At its birth you will find it is labelled with the disease. Often we speak of the child having a birth mark. Where did it come from? I think I hear you say from some maternal impression, due to fear or perhaps fright or in other words a psychic effect. Yes, I know that is the old story of man reflecting the fault of his weakness upon his Creator, like Adam of old who said “the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat,” which is not true in this case, as if the all good and wise Creator subjected man to anything that would mar the organism or pervert the life. If we study carefully any form of naevus, whether of erythematous character or not, we can easily classify it among the sycotic skin lesions. In my study of skin lesions, I do not find it difficult to recognize their nature and to designate them as Sycotic, Psoric or Syphilitic, or even when they are of mixed origin. The lesions and manifestations of each miasm to a trained observer are so manifestly clear, that it is seldom a mistake need be made.

The true physician, who has any skill at all as a pathologist, can, by careful analysis, quickly recognize the presence of a specific disease in the organism of his patient. There is a mental aura about these patients, when the disease is acquired, that stands out strikingly prominent as we are taking down the case, that somehow tells its own story. Perhaps we may be unable to explain why, or give a reason for what we may feel, but nevertheless we know, by virtue of the fact that we are searching after the truth. But this gift comes not to the ignoramus, “for the truth is only made manifest by light,” and we must first have the light within us, or the knowledge of the phenomena of these things, before the truth can be revealed; for, back of that inherent conception or intuition is the knowledge of research, whether it be our own or borrowed from another.

Therefore, in the treatment of this disease, Sycosis, in the multitude of forms in which it now presents itself, we must have the necessary knowledge in order to be able to detect its presence in the organism, even when it is hidden or veiled by suppression, or when disguised in new forms, which are but new vibrations and new perversions of the life force, due often to the attempt to cure by false methods, methods not in accordance with law. We know that all functions and all physiological processes in the organism are governed in health by physiological law, and that disease is nothing more or less than a disturbance of that law, or rather a perversion of it, and that the disturbance is governed by physiological processes, plus the perverting element, whatever it may be. All disease must be first a disturbed or perverted function. There can be no pathology outside of traumatism or local causes, that does not come first through a functional change, originating in the false or abnormal molecular or cell movement. I am speaking now from an idiopathic standpoint. This might be illustrated by striking a key on the piano, say middle C, which gives us a revolving vibratory sound, thus MMM. It is the standard note in that instrument; and harmony is produced by tuning all the keys to that tone or pitch. So it is in the organism; the organs must be toned to the same vibratory note, as it were, and any slight variation from the standard will produce a discord. It is the same in the life force. A vibration similar to this XXX may produce a tumor or some abnormal growth, or it may produce a convulsion, or spasm, and even death. Thus, when the life force is vibrating normally, we can have no disease. Then it is the form or character of the vibration which gives us the expression or form of life, just as we see or note in a certain kind of light, heat, or sound. A slow vibration upon a musical instrument is but a grating sound, while a rapid vibration may give us a beautiful musical note.

The whole study of disease then resolves itself into a study, first of the action of the life force in health, as a normal standard, then a study of any deflection from that standard recognizable by our senses or by the feelings and sensations of our patients, such deflections being due to the workings in the organism of a certain order or subversive forces, as specified under the headings of Syphilis, Psora, and Sycosis.

The treatment of Sycosis at the present time has changed largely from local to constitutional measures in all schools, although there are yet many physicians fool-hardy enough to persist in the use of local measures, knowing full well that in doing this they are damming up a reservoir of disease within that organism that at any time may break forth in all its violence, presenting itself in any one or more of the multiple forms before mentioned in this book. This will be clearly seen as we study the article on Suppression with the clinical cases given as examples, together with Beauchamp’s Theory of the Origin of Bacteria. Occasionally the attending physician will volunteer the information that the patient may have some slight rheumatic difficulty, which is one of the probabilities that may follow a local suppression of the disease by such powerful crude drugs as silver nitrate, zinc sulphate or others that might be mentioned in common use today, given in the form of injections or as a douche.

Quite often a metastasis of the disease to internal organs is prevented by a continuance of a gleety discharge. A catarrhal discharge from almost any mucous surface relieves, to a great degree, and prevents the possibility of a pathological lesion in the organism. This fact should constantly be kept in mind, that a catarrhal discharge is a salutary and an eliminative process, and that it is very difficult thing to cure permanently any secondary or tertiary process that may arise from a suppression unless the discharge is re-established. And if the disease is in the tertiary stage, a true anti-psoric, such as Sulphur or Psorinum, may have to be given in order to re-establish it. Of course, it all depends upon the symptomatology of the case.

John Henry Allen
Dr. John Henry Allen, MD (1854-1925)
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