A paper by Dr. Malan, in the fifth volume of the British Journal of Homoeopathy (already cited by us in extenso), and the section in Peters’ Treatise, contain all the cases of homoeopathic cure or improvement of cataract with which I am acquainted. Some of these are of dubious value; but even when they are eliminated, the power of Sulphur, Silicea, Cannabis, Pulsatilla, and Calcarea must remain unquestioned. Silicea has been most frequently successful; it should be especially thought of when suppressed perspiration of the feet seems to have been the exciting cause. Sulphur ranks next; its value is obviously best marked when the trouble dates from repercussion of a cutaneous eruption. Cannabis, and perhaps Euphrasia, would be suitable when the cataract was capsular, the result of inflammatory action.
Should we catch such a cataract in the act of formation, i.e., in the inflammatory stage-it seems probable, from one of Peter’s cases, that Belladonna might be relied upon to disperse it. Pulsatilla was a reputed remedy for cataract in the hands of Stoerck. It acted very satisfactorily in one of Peter’s cases where a chronic catarrhal ophthalmia calling for it was present; and would be specially indicated where suppression of the menses was the exciting cause.
Calcarea would naturally be thought of in strumous subjects. I add a note, furnished me by my friend, Dr. Madden, who had unusual experience in the treatment of this disease. “In the early stage, where vision is but clouded, and only streaks of opacity are seen by the ophthalmoscope, a check to further deposit may very often be expected. If there is nothing more than smokiness of the lens, it may clear away entirely. The medicines I have found of most service are Mercurius, Calcarea, and Phosphorus, all in the higher dilutions.”
Dr. Hughes mentions a case of traumatic cataract in which blindness had continued for eighteen years, and which was then cured by Dr. Bayes with Conium.
It must be admitted that this is a goodly array of fact and opinion concerning and affirming the curability of cataract with the aid of medicines administered internally according to the law of similars, or guided by one or more of its corollaries.
It may be repeatedly noted that some morbid cutaneous activity is manifested just before a striking amelioration in the cataract takes place. In a case of my own, which I shall presently narrate, the same thing occurred; it may, therefore, be conceded that some previous epithelial disease had lain at the root of the cataract formation.
At a meeting of the Cercle Medical Homoeopathique des Flandres, held on the 31st October, 1878, a paper was read by Dr. Bernard, of Mons, on the Homoeopathic Treatment of Cataract. It may be found in the Revue Homoeopathique Belge, November, 1878. It seems that Dr. De Keersmaecker, a rising homoeopathic ophthalmic surgeon of Brussels, had doubted, if not actually denied, the possibility of the cure of cataract by internal treatment at least so far as concerns les cataractes seniles, dures, nucleaires ou corticales.
Drs. Criquelion, Martiny, and Van den Neucker expressed an opposite opinion, and the two latter stated that they had themselves succeeded in curing cataract with medicines.
Dr. Charge had informed Dr. Bernard that he had himself only succeeded in curing one single case of cataract that co-existed with general psoriasis; * (Here, again, we note the pathological homogeneity of skin and lens; in fact cataract is a skin- affection.) both cataract and psoriasis yielded after the administration of Sulphur and Calcarea.
Dr. Bernard ‘s searches in literature for medicinal cures of cataract gave the following results:
In the Clinique Homoeopathique of Beauvais-Saint-Gratien, may be found seven cases of cataract cured or ameliorated with medicines,-five in the first volume, and two in the second.
The first is the observation of Caspari, which we will cite later on.
The second observation is by Dr. Hoffendahl, and in which the cure was obtained by means of Spigelia, Belladonna, and Stramony.
The third is Dr. Haubold’s and runs thus: A cataract, rather advanced, was cured in six weeks, and that radically, by Sulphur 30, and a fortnight afterwards by Causticum, in an old lady of sixty-one years of age.
The fourth case is Dr. Schroen’s and comes later.
The fifth is Dr. Emmerich’s, also reported further on.
In the sixth observation, Dr. Kopp also notes a marked amelioration in a maiden lady, sixty years of age, due to Pulsatilla, Belladonna, Conium, and Mercurius Solubilis.
This patient had previously been seized with left-sided facial hemiplegia.
The author of the seventh observation is Dr. Stender, and it runs thus: A cataract, already, formed in a scrofulous lad twelve years of age, was cured in two months and a half by a few doses of Sulphur 3/30, Pulsatilla having been twice exhibited between whiles.
Dr. Bernard then gives an epitome of fifteen cases from Ruckert’s Klinische Erfahrungen.
I will only give the fifteenth at this place, as the others occur in other parts of this book.
The fifteenth is this: Crusta lactea disappears and cataract supervenes, which latter is cured with Spirit Sulph. (Autore, Schoenfeld).
Dr. Bernard also notes that in several of the cases habitual perspirations reappear, or a cutaneous eruption either appears or reappears.
Need we any further proof that cataract is a cutaneous affection?
Dr. Prie published numerous observations of ameliorations of cataract from homoeopathic treatment. First, we find in the fifth volume of the Bulletin de la Societe Medicale Homoeopathique de France, a short account of sixteen observations; a second memoir, published in the sixth volume of the same journal, contains an account of other six cases, in all twenty-two with results that Dr, Bernard thus epitomizes:
13-Ameliorations more or less marked;
5-remained stationary;
3-not ameliorated;
1-result not known.
Total 22.
In these twenty-two cases of Dr. Prie it would seem that Magnesia Carbonica 6 was largely accredited with the beneficial results.
Then there comes the case of Dr. Streintz, published in the Allgemeine Hom. Ztg.
Patient was a retired major, seventy-five years old, in whom an amelioration almost equivalent to a cure resulted from Phosphorus 30, after Sulphur and Causticum 30 had been given without effect.
I cannot agree that all the honor be accorded to Phosphorus in this case, as my experience shows that the last medicine given is by no means necessarily the one that produces the benefit; we must remember that the changes in the cataracts of the aged are, in the nature of things, slow, and may exist long before one can detect them.
We may read in the Art Medical (t. xliii., p. 226) the following case:
Cataract of the left eye in a maiden lady, thirty-four years of age. Oleum phosphoratum by instillations into the eye, and frictions on the brow and temples. At the end of four months there were great amelioration of the sight and notable diminution of the cataract. Dr. Bernard does not tell us the original author of this case.
“Let traitement de la cataracte, disait M. Ozanam, le 15 Juin, 1868, a la Societe Medicale Homoeopathique de France, offre encore de grandes lacunes. J`ai espere en triompher un instant en m’inspirant du principe homoeopathique, car ayant lu l’histoire des epidemies d`er gotisme, j’y trouvais un assez bon nombre de cas de cataractes produites par l’usage de l’ergot de seigle. Mais, ni l’emploi de Secale a doses variables, ni 1′ emploi l’huile essentielle d’ergot de seigle ne m’ont donne de resultat efficace, et la question est encore a resoudre.”
Then, in 1869, M. Ozanam treated eight cases of cataract in aged persons for the space of one month, with Phosphorus in various doses, but without success.
Here I would remark that this is very unscientific homoeopathic treatment to give eight cases right off the same medicine. No wonder he had no success. Moreover, one has no right to expect any success in one month. To do this is to ignore the essential nature of cataract; and to take eight cases of cataract, and give them all one drug, is equally to ignore, or to fail to comprehend, what homoeopathy really means. This is where Hahnemann’s other teachings come in; here we require the higher homoeopathy of the pathologist Hahnemann.
In 1872, M. Ozanam says: “Ainsi le seigle ergote produit la cataracte double; il la produit plus facile-ment chez les femmes et dans l’ age adulte. II determine surtout des cataractes molles ou semifluides; done le seigle ergote sera d’une indication tres-generale dans le traitement de la cataracte, et sera, en outre, tout particulierement indique chez les femmes adultes atteintes d’une cataracte molle et double, c, est-a-dire, dans les cas les plus graves et les plus complets de cette penible affection.”
That is a good deal better; only there must be other differentioe as well; especially must the history of each case be carefully weighed or there will be only indifferent success.
Jousset recommends Cannabis Indica. Secale Cornutum, Iodium, Kali Hydroiod., Conium, Silicea, Magnes. Carb; and says, “Colchicum would be called for in capsular cataract of rapid development.”
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.