Enlarged Tonsils Cured by Medicines



I might go on and fill a big book with records of cases of enlarged tonsils cured by medicines, but for that I have neither time nor inclination.

When I first became convinced by practical experiment of the workability of the law of likes in the cure of disease, I took the trouble to read the history of the good work done by the veteran practitioners in old files of their journals, and I must confess that the present race of homoeopathic practitioners compare very unfavourably with those of twenty, thirty, and forty years ago.

Many years ago Baryta carb. 30 or 12 was in very high repute for the cure of enlarged tonsils. Its reputation was well founded, as I can testify. Taken by itself, it is the biggest tonsil medicine we have. Where the tonsils have enlarged from vaccinosis, Baryta will not do much until the vaccinosic quality has been got rid of by Thuja, or Silicea, or what not.

Similarly, where the tuberculosic quality lies behind, Bacill. is needed first, and then the Baryta, and so on.

The old practitioners cured enlarged tonsils with relative facility, but then they followed a live pathology of enormous value in clinical life. They regarded the tonsils as belonging to the living individual who is ill; for his tonsils are swelled- people that are well do not get enlarged tonsils. But in these clever days, when we doctors knows so much better than the Great Architect what our anatomical parts are good for, we have decreed that the tonsils are of no great service-in fact no good at all- and, indeed, not only no good, but actually in the way; moreover, they are nasty little lumps that stick in our throats just for the purpose of catching disease germs and impeding our breathing, in fact, the tonsils are nothing but a nuisance, and the sooner they are lopped off and cast away the better. That being the creed of the great bulk of learned doctors, why should any one waste his time trying to mend medicinally such wretched odd bits as the tonsils. Why indeed?

Well generally speaking, we don’t! Just a few give a few doses of Baryta I for a few days, or may be weeks, and if the Baryta has not cleared them right away by our next visit, we are rather than pleased than other-wise for did we not always say that enlarged tonsils could not be cured by medicines, and that Baryta was no good in tonsillitis?

MY PRIVATE VIEW OF THE TONSILS.

There are views private and public, and my private view of the tonsils is as follows:-

They are placed on either side of the fauces for the primary purpose of lubricating the food as it passes along, and so prepare it for its passage down the gullet into the stomach proper. That the tonsils actually do lubricate the food can be tested by any one so disposed, unless he has lessened his organic integrity by having them removed, or unless disease has done it for him. A pair of good it for him. A pair of good it for him. A pair of good, healthy, well-formed is a rare sight indeed, it is quite pretty to see them when normal.

The tonsils lie at the top of the digestive tube, and whenever certain parts or portions of the body have to deal with something harmful, the same is passed along the circulation to the tonsils to be cast out, and the tonsils then act vicariously for said parts from elsewhere. A great advantage in having it cast out at the top of the gullet is that what is cast out at that part may be rolled up in the food and so rendered harmless, and if it is disposed to decay, it is disinfected by the gastric juice. In fact, an evil-disposed particle of anything sent by the economy to the tonsils to be dealt with, has a very poor chance of doing any harm in its journey from throat to anus.

The various ailings of the tonsils are for the most part not on their own account, but for and on behalf of the organism or one of its parts.

During the past two years I have watched several cases of phthisis cured by the tonsils, -that is to say, a series of abscesses formed in the tonsils each going through the various stages of heat, inflammation, swelling, suppuration, and bursting, and had these degenerative processes been in the lungs or bowels, they would have been of great and serious moment. But being in the tonsils, they were slowly sacrificed for the organism, and the patient’s lives were saved, and also their health. The organism works from its centre towards the periphery and into the tonsils, which cast out. An uninjured tonsil is clothed with epithelial cells, and these form a perfect protection against infection from without. I have never seen any real proof that uninjured tonsils take up disease germs; in fact, I do not believe it, and not only do I not believe the tonsils guilty of carrying in infection from without, but, on the contrary, they are specially arranged to defend themselves and the organism against outside enemies, and all the ailments and diseases that I have ever encountered in the tonsils have come from the within of the organism. The life and the diseases of the tonsils come from within, and they are but useful servants of the organism, and always at their post.

In curing tonsillary enlargements, it is often necessary to find out the causes of such enlargements. Thus in rheumatic tonsillitis the rheumatic state of the person should be mended, and therewith the tonsillitis. The statement that rheumatic fever has been known to follow tonsillitis-that is true enough. The inference usually drawn is, that had there been no tonsils there would have been no rheumatic fever. I read the phenomena the outer way. Had the tonsils been stronger and more adequate, they would have borne the whole burden of the rheumatism, and there would have been no fever. It is highly probable that minor degrees of rheumatism are arrested by the tonsils, and there dealt with, and that their function is very largely vicarious, protective of the organism and its parts.

DEAFNESS DUE TO ENLARGED TONSILS.

In course of the year 1899, Miss E.T., aet. 13, was brought to me by her mother, telling me that patient was deaf from enlarged tonsils, and that her doctor had ordered their removal. I could only find one enlarged lymphatic gland on the left side of the neck. This was her vaccination side, and the lassie being strong and otherwise in good health, I thought we had to do with a simple case of vaccinosic hypertrophy of the tonsils.

In a few weeks the tonsils went down and her hearing was quite restored.

The remedy: Thuja 30, in in-frequent doses.

It is not to be forgotten that a competent (or, at any rate, orthodox and qualified according to law) medical man had declared an operation absolutely necessary. No medicines would, he said, be of the least avail.

Still Thuja 30 cured the case.

ENLARGED TONSILS AND DEAFNESS.

On September 23, 1889, a strumous girl of eleven years of age was brought to me by her mother for enlarged tonsils and deafness arising supposedly therefrom. The tonsils met in the middle, so that the uvula was in part invisible.

Thuja 30, Bacill. C., and one or two other remedies were given, when-

January 17, 1890.-“I do not see much difference in her tonsils yet.”

Rx Vaccinin C.

March 12.-“Tonsils about the same.”

Rx Trit. 3x Baryta carb., gr. iv.

One dry on the tongue night and morning.

April 19.-The tonsils are distinctly smaller.

Rx Rep.

May 30.-No further diminution in the size of the tonsils.

Rx Silico-fluoride of Sodium, 3x trit., gr.vj. One dry on the tongue at bedtime.

July 16.-Tonsils are considerably smaller. The case was cured by the spring of 1890, and the remedies that achieved this result were the foregoing, and then two months of Phytolaccin 3x, two months of the third trituration of the Silico-fluoride of Sodium, and finally a two month’s course of the third decimal trituration of the Phosphate of Lime.

ENLARGED TONSILS AND ADENOIDS REMOVED BY OPERATION.

In 1899 a gentleman brought his nine year-old son to me for what his physicians term Imperfect Development of the Brain. This was supposedly due to enlarged tonsils and adenoid growths. The boy did not speak till two or three years of age-indeed he cannot articulate properly even now. He wets his bed, and has a piled-up cranium; but the point I wish to bring out is that the influence of the removal of tonsils and adenoids is not an unmixed blessing.

He breathes better since their removal, but since then he is much more nervous; he squints, and is very odd in his ways; he gesticulates and assumes odd attitudes, looking idiotic, and yet he seems to me to have ample brain power. He is cryptorchic. He hits his mother on the face and throws teacups at his parents, and throws people bits out of window.

These nervous symptoms have come on so very much worse since the removal of tonsils, etc.

There appears to be no doubt that there was very great exacerbation in all his nerve symptoms subsequent to the operation, though the breathing was distinctly improved. I am, perhaps, be permitted here to refer to my little work On Delicate Children for further particulars on this subject.

ENLARGED TONSILS AND INSOMNIA.

James Compton Burnett
James Compton Burnett was born on July 10, 1840 and died April 2, 1901. Dr. Burnett attended medical school in Vienna, Austria in 1865. Alfred Hawkes converted him to homeopathy in 1872 (in Glasgow). In 1876 he took his MD degree.
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.