Only the higher potencies have proved satisfactory in these cases of suppression; the lower potencies seldom accomplishing the work, or have the desired effect. A suppressed disease to have such a complete bond with the life force, that only the higher potencies reach down deep enough to sever that bond. This truth cannot be given to another by word of mouth, it is only as we see the face demonstrated in the sick organism through the processes of similia, that we can come to a true realization of it. A few trials will convince the most skeptical that the power in Similia is, to a great degree, in the potentiality of the remedy, as well as through the workings of the law. Dr. Swan’s and Dr. Fincke’s highest potencies are usually employed in these cases; although in some cases, especially in sensitive organisms or those easily effected, the lower potencies are to be used, such as the 30th, 200th, and the 1000th. As soon as an old gonorrhoeal or gleety discharge is re-established, the other symptoms, whatever they may be (even of the severest type of character) usually subside. Thus headaches, neuralgias, rheumatic pains, whether of an inflammatory or non-inflammatory character, cease altogether or are greatly modified. Even scirrhus, or abnormal growths, no longer increase in size; abscesses grow better, inflammatory processes, even of internal organs, get well, gouty states, and gouty concretions disappear; affected joints often greatly deformed resume their normal condition, in short the disease disappears under the use of the higher potencies of the Homoeopathic remedy.
The writer has seen all these things take place. Abscesses of the the tubes have been cured frequently, nasal catarrh of a severe type is cured never to return; enlarged prostrates, bleeding hemorrhoids, rectal pockets and rectal abscesses, are readily cured by a careful selection of the right remedy in each case. The suppressed discharge cannot always be re-established, but then some other eliminative process may be brought forth, such as increased action of the kidneys, pruritis ani, or of the vulva in woman, an eruption upon the skin in some form, quite often eczematous in its nature. We can never tell how the life force may re-act under the right remedy or the proper potency; that belongs to the mysterious law of action and reaction, and comes under the formula of Newton’s third law of motion. The reaction will depend upon the nature and stage of suppression, upon the bond of the sycotic element, whether with Psora or when more than one miasm is present in the organism. The pre-existing miasm may be acting upon the ear or upon the eye in a latent form, or the patient may have Syphilis, which will change the whole aspect of this reaction in the life force.
I have just such a case now under treatment, and as the sycotic discharge lessens, the secondary eruption or the syphilitic roseolic flush becomes more prominent upon the chest. This is according to Hahnemann’s teaching in the Organon that in a mixed case as one miasm disappears or is cured, the latent one becomes suddenly active. So we have no right to speculate or hold in our minds any pre-conceived plan of action for the life forces to bring about a restoration of health in the organism, other than by the method nature takes for herself. The simpler the processes in the re-establishment of the patient to health, the better for all concerned.
Quite often we have seen or known physicians who were not familiar with the Hahnemannian homoeopathic art of healing, attack these newly established processes (which are the only way by which nature can make a cure) by local mediation, reflecting back upon the organism again the whole accursed disease-producing processes. How utterly empty these would-be-healers of the sick are of the knowledge of the true science and art of healing, and the nature and action of the disease, or in fact, of any process in nature or of physics in general. The law of action and reaction is in all motion, yes in everything. It is the key to motion; the key to the existence of the material and all created things. Therefore, the reaction set up in the organism by the homoeopathic remedy is the curative action, and this curative action in the organism is equal to the diseased action. Should it become greater it amounts to an over-action, or what is known as an aggravation which is usually temporary, until the true curative, or equal action is established again. So we see that all we can know of disease, is what we know of the laws of action and reaction, of the laws of motion governing the life forces. It is solely a study of the phenomena of the functions of the organism in general. Perfect function is perfect health, and perverted function is disease in some form or other.
In the treatment of gonorrhoeal Sycosis, the patient should be fully made to understand the nature of his case; that such an infection is not a local affair, as many suppose, but a general infection of the whole organism, even to the last drop of blood in that organism. It is well for the attending physician to allow himself plenty of time for the cure of this very determined and stubborn disease. I usually say from six weeks to five months. Few cases have been prolonged over the five months, even where a chronic gleet was present. Many cases have been cured in six weeks, where the patient had not received free drug store advice, or where no local measures were in any way employed. Cases appearing for treatment in the late secondary stage may require one year’s treatment, and even longer. On the other hand I have frequently seen cases clear up within two or three months. In the early tertiary period where warty eruptions appeared on the hands, sexual organs, and other parts of the body, they would dry up and dessicate, followed by no other symptom or sign of the disease. These cures were made in non-tubercular and not very psoric cases. Quite often, however, Sulphur, Calcarea carb., Psorinum, and some other anti-psoric remedies were employed to finish up the case.
The diet was usually modified, and if the disease was in the tertiary stage, where gouty states were present, or where uric acid was in excess, meat was either greatly reduced or prohibited entirely. It seems to be pretty generally understood that the blood of sycotic patients is diminished in alkali, and the power to assimilate nitrogenous foods greatly diminished in most, if not all, cases.
Stimulants of all kinds are prohibited, as the results are invariably unfavorable, with tendencies to relapse or become complicated. The system should not be clogged in any way, but there should be a free and easy elimination in every organ. Water should always be taken freely, as it assists in diluting the excessive solids of the blood. Especially is this true of the kidneys. Patients taking treatment at mineral springs are requested to drink large quantities of the water, often from ten to twelve glasses in twenty-four hours. The result upon the system is soon seen, as the urine clears up, the bowels become more regular, the liver becomes more active–an organ that is generally dormant in Sycosis; the skin clears up, and the patient soon takes on all the health processes and the normal condition is again established. But this normal condition of things in gouty or rheumatic subjects is only temporary, unless they also receive careful homoeopathic treatment which removes the miasm from the system.
The disease should disappear exactly in the reverse order in which it came. The discharge usually begins as a thin watery, gluey, or sticky fluid, gluing up the meatus, later becoming muco-purulent, and finally purulent; as the case progresses, it is reduced to a single drop, appearing in the morning, of a viscid, gluey nature, causing the lips of the meatus to stick together. Of course the pains if any and all other concomitant symptoms disappear also, before this last token of the disease. (This is, of course, in an acute case or primary disease). Should the case be a chronic one of a tertiary form, the patient cannot be said to be free from the disease so long as a warty growth, a red mole, or any such sycotic stigmata is present. The drying up or disappearance of the catarrhal discharge is not a certain sign of the cure of the disease, as long as any eruptive manifestation is present upon the skin. It is simply a step in the progress of the case. The parents in that state are capable of transmitting the disease to their offspring, even if the discharge is absent for twenty years. Should the child born to these parents be free, as far as could be seen or known at birth, from any manifestation of the disease, there will invariably appear at the period of second dentition, a warty eruption upon the hands or other parts of the body.
Now is the time to free the organism from this miasm, as children at this age or cycle are very amenable to treatment. Probably at no other age are we able to get better results from our potentized remedies. If one thing more than another ought to be impressed on the mind of the physician in his treatment of acute Sycosis, it is to give the indicated remedy, and wait on its action; wait as long as there is any improvement. Then, when its action ceases, either repeat or change the remedy as the symptoms in the case demand. No special benefit is to be derived by a frequent repetition of the remedy. It invariably is bad practice, as it muddles the case and in many instances spoils the curative action, or produces aggravation of the symptoms which are liable to lead to a premature change of remedy. This is especially true where deep acting remedies are prescribed.
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