In this case two pathological elements are distinctly traceable. 1st, The basic hereditary tubercular tendency, evidenced by the state of his cervical glands; and, 2ndly, the acquired malarial impress on the organism. Urtica urens and Nat. mur met the latter homoeopathically, but still a really permanent cure was not attained. Then the basic constitutional taint was cured by the Bacillin., and the last faint flicker of the asthenopia was got rid of by Sulphur in dynamic dose; and Sulphur is, as shown by Dr Robert T. Cooper, a very notable remedy for ague, and we all know it as a classic antipsoric of almost ancient renown.
DEFECTIVE DEVELOPMENT OF EYES AND BRAIN.
A little girl, 5 1/2 years of age, was placed under my professional care on December 11, 1884, for defective development of eyes and brain, apparently from constitutional delicacy, and then originating from the effects of a fall. It is not easy to gauge the effects of a fall; usually the point is really this: What is the quality of the person who falls? In this case the patient is the coal-black variety of the strumous; her forehead was low and projecting; she was blind from double cataract, due probably to shock in the first instance, and then the lenses gradually silted up. The child was dull, nervous, readily frightened by the least noise, and she had been vaccinated in the usual way successfully. I proceeded first against the vaccinosis with Thuja 30, and this seemingly caused a bout of vomiting, whereupon improvement in the vision set in.
January 5, 1885.-Grinds her teeth at night.
Rx Luet. CC.
February 1.-Pupils less dilated; decided general amelioration, and notably in the state of her nerves; she is less irritable, and much more amenable to reason. Thuja C. then followed, but apparently did no good, when Luet. CC. was repeated.
March 24.-Sight and temper better; sleeps well; she has, and has had for long, ill-smelling foot-sweats; she can now see large capital letters, as well as at a greater distance; and, for the first time in her life, her bowels act well of themselves.
The treatment was continued very irregularly till June 1888, since when I have no further information, and the condition then reported to me (I did not see her) was thus described by her father,-“She sees better, and walks about with increased confidence”
The principal point of interest to me in this case was the very decided good effects of Platanus occidentalis 0, which was given for a number of months with very evident benefit to the nutrition of the child’s lenses, and consequent improvement in her vision. The dose was five drops night and morning.
The treatment of this case was carried on in a very irregular manner, owing to a variety of circumstances, and as patient lived at a great distance I was not able to see her.
EMANSIONAL TROUBLES IN YOUNG GIRLS.
These are many, and so readily remedied by our medicines, that I will only shortly narrate one case.
Miss E., in her seventeenth year, of full habit, was brought by her mother to me from Ireland on December 16, 1884, because of her inability to pass the Rubicon of young womanhood. Her skin was blotchy and pimply; leucorrhoea pretty bad; weight on the top of the head, frontal headache, and swelled feet and legs. Pulsatilla was given, but failed.
Then, in January 1885, I gave Bellis perennis 1, ten drops in water night and morning, because of her tired feeling and acne.
February 14.-Has duly menstruated, and is not so tired, but her feet are much swelled.
Rx Trit. 3x Helonin.
March 21.-Menstruated four weeks ago; feet well; head well.
Rx Bellis per. 1, as before.
April 18.-Well, except that there is the least bit of swelling of the right foot, and still suffers from acne. She had been vaccinated, and hence I gave Thuja 30.
FIVE YEARS LATER. September 1, 1890.-She has continued quite well, but she is now anaemic; her feet swell again, the menses are very scanty, and she gets fainty attacks.
Rx Trit. 3x Trillin.
October 6.-“A capital change,” and she continues, I believe, well.
There is no very special interest in this case, and I merely relate it to show that the delayed passage into womanhood is readily remedied by gentle innocuous medicines, and in a manner worthy of our advanced civilisation and refined culture.
INCONTINENCE OF URINE CONSIDERED AS RETARDED DEVELOPMENT.
For some time now I have regarded wetting the bed in children who have attained a certain age as retarded or arrested development about the sphincter region of the bladder.
A lad of 17 years of age was brought to me on March 28, 1890, for life-long nocturnal incontinence of urine.
Rx Thuja 30.
May 26.-Very much better; has wet his bed only three times since commencing the Thuja powders.
Rx Rep.
June 20.-No better; and has hay-fever and some emphysema.
Rx Lobelia acet. 0, five drops in water night and morning.
July 30.-Better much all round, though the incontinence is not much better.
Rx Brachyglottis repens, 3x, five drops in water night and morning.
October 30.-Did him so much good that his parents thought him cured; latterly he wet his bed again.
Rx Tc. Jaborandi 3x.
February 11, 1891.-He is much better than formerly, but he still wets in bed.
Rx Medorrhinum CC.
May 20.-Did not wet his bed at all while talking his medicine, but does it again now.
Rx Rep.
July 24.-Quite cured; he wet his bed for the last time on May 26.
The cure has proved permanent.
The question of bed-wetting in children is very much more important than the inexperienced might imagine; the unfortunate sufferers feel very much humiliated, and their moral tone is distinctly lowered by the habit. A few cases are very easily cured with almost any well chosen remedy, but where the case withstands domestic allopathy, domestic homoeopathy, local allopathy, and local homoeopathy and consultants of all sorts (as in this case), it is best to take a wide aetiological survey of the case, and treat it as arrested or retarded development.
AN EPILEPTIC, HOPELESSLY-DISEASED BABY TWENTY MONTHS OF AGE.
There are cases which at times are brought to one that are so bad that almost blank despair takes possession of one’s mind at the merest contemplation of them. Such a case was presented to me in the month of February 1885. The wee girlie had been declared by two competent physicians of Leeds to be “an incurable epileptic, and hopelessly diseased”
She had always been much constipated, but fairly well till her double teeth began to come; with them came convulsions, “and one doctor said they were epileptic when he saw them.” When she was about eleven months old the fits first appeared, seven fits in one day, and then on some subsequent occasions, when as soon as the symptoms of a fit set in the gums were lanced, and that generally stopped them. The breath smells sour, the tongue coats, and the stomach gets out of order when these attacks come. Now the teeth are beginning to decay. She is a cheerful, sturdy- looking child, large for her age; sleepless, and immediately after food a bright red flush appears in one cheek.
After two months of treatment (Var. 30 the first month, and Luet. CC. the second), comes this note in my case record :-
April 1.-Has cut a tooth with a fit, but no foaming at the mouth as on all previous occasions.
Rx Var. C.
May 19.-Has been a fortnight without medicine; two attempts at fits, but they passed off.
Rx Rep.
June 16.-No fit; has cut a double tooth; sleeps badly.
Rx Luet. CC.
July 16.-No fit; has cut another double tooth,-only one more to come. And now for the kernel of the homoeopathic nut-the child’s father wrote :-…. July 15, 1885.-“A rash appeared in the bend of the right arm about three weeks ago that looked almost like ringworm, but it certainly is not that; the rash has appeared also under the chin, and lately on one leg; sometimes it is much inflamed and irritated, at other times there are only a number of very small dark spots, which seem to be drying up”
Rx Luet. CC.
The appearance of an eruption in the course of truly constitutional treatment is, in my judgment, a sure sign of a thoroughly radical constitutional cure; and so it proved here : the eruption gradually died away, and that child never looked back.
Two years later I felt curious to know whether the cure held good, for we cannot ever reckon upon a case of epilepsy being cured, unless after years of waiting, and the reply came-“These powders quite cured her, and she is still quite well, although the two doctors gave her up to die as `hopelessly diseased”
The explanation of the cure is merely that the case was one of pent-up syphilitic taint (possibly in the second generation), which the child’s nature was battling with, and when this was cast out on to the external surface of the body in the form of a rash, the bar to the child’s growth was removed. And this case, therefore, beautifully illustrates and amply justifies my contention.
A PARTIALLY DEAF AND DUMB CHILD.
On October 25, 1882, a lady brought her 7 1/2 year-old daughter to me because she could neither hear nor talk properly; she hears a little, and jabbers something, but it is not articulate. The child is almost mindless, incapable of thinking; she does not know her own name. On my asking her where the fire is, she… puts out her tongue! Presumably she had an idea that I was a doctor, and that such a person looks at tongues. Then she repeated the word “fire.” She is described as dreadfully passionate and irritable. Had abscesses as a baby, and has ringworm for years: has it on her head now. The mother’s idea of the origin of the child’s life-long delicacy is that it started when the mother was carrying her in utero, when she on a certain occasion was severely chilled in cold water. Patient’s right pupil is smaller than the left; right side of her chest is sunken; she has thread-worms; lids of left eye apt to be contracted, especially in the morning.
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.