Testimony as to the therapeutic value of Ceanothus is coming in from many parts; the following case from Dr. R.T. Cooper, of Wimpole Street, is of very great value:-
“DEAR DR. BURNETT.- The influence of Ceanothus Americanus upon enlargements of the spleen receives such interesting confirmation from the following case, that I am sure it will gratify you.
“A cabman aged 50, living at Boscombe, near Bourne-mouth, who had been operated on some two years back at the Brompton Cancer Hospital for what appears to have been enlarged spleen, wrote to me in the beginning of August under the following circumstances:-
“It seems that this man and Marrell, whose case of cancer of the pylorus I refer to in my work on Cancer and Cancer Symptoms, had occupied adjoining beds in the hospital, and he, having met with Marrell, whose case had been looked upon in the hospital as quite hopeless, immediately started for London to consult me.
“As he arrived too late, he subsequently wrote me a letter, which I received when on my holiday, and which I answered on the 13th August by forwarding a prescription of Ceanothus Americanus ) gtt. vii; aq. 3ij, five drops four times a day in water.
“From his letter, as well as from an interview with him on 12th September, I gathered these particulars.
“He had been dragged forward by a bolting horse when driving, and the bar of the phaeton had pressed heavily upon the diaphragmatic region, and this was followed by severe pain, especially in the splenic region, which swelled up and became more and more painful. After suffering in this way for a year, he was admitted to the Cancer Hospital, and after being there for a month, was operated on for enlarged spleen. Before the operation the pain was very great, and certainly the operation relieved this, but after the operation relieved this, but after the operation he continued to get weaker and weaker, and his weight went down; in the two years since then he has lost two stone, and is becoming more and more enfeebled. His face is florid, and blood rushes to his face and head, making the face scarlet and the eyes blood-shot and dim, and he staggers with weakness. He has to hold on to things when standing, and then lower part of his body and legs gets cold and his hands and fingers numb. a vein running up the right temple enlarges, especially in the morning, to the size of his little finger. The local sensations are thus described in his letter:-
“Now as to the place where the operation was, it seems to bubble up, relief coming from pressure, and if it do not work like this, I am worse. Then under my ribs the left side is like a bird fluttering.”
“On 12th September he came up from Boscombe to see me, having taken two bottles of medicine. His testimony then was that he was better in every possible way, and that whereas, before taking the medicine, he could not do the lightest yard work for three hours together, he could now keep at work all day. The vein on the right temple had not shown up since he began the Ceanothus, and the urine, which before had been thick and scanty, was now clear and free. The bowels were acting naturally, though sleep was poor. On examining the side I found a dull hard mass posteriorly and immediately below diaphragm, and a hard 2 in. by 2 in. in front, just above the extensive scar of the operation and below the diaphragm.
“The inference from local examination would be either that the entire spleen had not been removed, or that new growth had taken place since the operation. Anyway, the distinct and pronounced relief given by the Ceanothus could not be questioned.
“I may mention there was no history of anguish seizures or chills and perspirations at any time of the disease.”
URTICA URENS AS AN AGUE MEDICINE
The stinging nettle is a splenic of very high order, as I have elsewhere proved. I will content myself with giving one case of ague cured by it.
CASE OF AGUE CURED BY URTICA URENS.
A young officer, 22 years of age, was invalided home from Burma with malarial fever and swelled spleen in the spring of 1893. He had quinine, arsenic, and iron, but was not improving or free of fever.
March2.-R. Urtica urens 0 ten drops in water night and morning.
March26.-No fever at all; much sediment in urine (quite normal).
May 20.-No fever.
June 22.-No fever. Discharged cured.
As I have entered so largely into the question of the value of Urtica urens in my booklet, entitled Gout and its cure, I will refer my readers from further information hereanent to its pages.
DR. CLARKE’S CEANOTHUS CASE
One Sunday morning about a year ago an American lady brought her daughter, aged 14 to me, complaining of a severe pain in the left side. They had just arrived in London, having landed at Liverpool a day or two before, and the history of the case was this: During the voyage, as the patient lay in her berth, she stretched over to reach something in the cabin, and was immediately seized with a violent stitching pain in the left side. It was thought at the time that the pain would soon go away, but it did not. And after landing, the pain persisted and grew rather worse, so that the plans of the family, which were to proceed to the Continent in a few days, were jeopardized.
As it is always well to localize exactly a pain or an ailment whenever possible, I asked the patient to undress, and I found that the pain was not in the chest wall or abdominal muscles, as the history would rather suggest it to be, but was deep in-in the spleen, in fact. Moreover, percussion showed that the spleen was considerably enlarged. The pain was (>) by lying on painful side.
As it was Sunday and the pharmacies were likely to be closed, I put a powder of Ceanothus 30 on the patient`s tongue there and then, and gave her a prescription for the same medicine to be made up later on, with instructions to come and report on the Tuesday following. She came in due course, and reported that in two hours from receiving the dose the pain had gone-before the prescription was made up. I again examined the side, and the splenic dullness had gone back to normal.
So we see that my original claim for Ceanothus Am., that it is a homoeopathic remedy in the ordinary sense is substantiated.
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.