The throat symptoms are worse night and morning, and when she is tired.
Rx. Tc. Phytolacca decandra 1, 3iv., gtt. v., n.m.
August 6th.-Better in every way: the tumour is barely to be found.
R Rep September 3rd.-Feels practically well. I can find the small remains of the tumour only with great difficulty.
Rx Rep, (at night only).
November 13th.-Still a little uneasiness in the throat.
Rx. Trit. 2x Sul. iod.
28th.-Nearly well.
R Rep December 31st.-The tumour cannot be found, but she still complains of a husky voice.
Rx. Trit 4. brom.
I did not see the patient again for some months, as the tumour had quite disappeared, and she herself quite well, but she came to me again on.
April 10th. 185. complaining of tickling and irritation at the old spot.
Rx. Psorinum C.
May 11th.-She feels easier in the throat, but the tumour is returning.
Rx Trit. 3x Sul. iod.
November 25th.-The lump is still increasing.
Rx. Psor C.
This lady came again on February 15th, 1886, and for the last time on April 30th, 1886, when I discharged her cured. I see her son occasionally on his own account, and thus know that she continues quite well, and has a very healthy general appearance.
*1896.-No return of the tumour, and patient continues quite well of herself.*
I am beginning to breathe more freely now, having only five more Reasons to bring forward. Confess candidly, do you not wish Homoeopath were socially tres comme il faut, and to be had for the asking? A lady of high rank said to me three years ago, “If you were not a homoeopath, Dr. Burnett, I could make your fortune.” Said I, “Well my lady I am very sorry not to enlist you in the laudable undertaking of making my fortune, which would be at least very nice for those dependent upon me, but I am a homoeopath, and fortune or no fortune, I thank God for this much of His truth.”
It is late and I am tired, but I trust you will be able to read my cacography.
*186-No return of the tumour, and patient continues quit well of herself.*
XLVI
I have given you a good many details in my last three or four reasons to let you see the light in which I write so far as that is possible to you in your ignorance of the scientific treatment of disease in the sense in which I understand it. You will pardon the lately given journalistic quotation as bearing on the subject-idea; it is the only one I have inflicted upon you in this lengthy correspondence, and I will not trouble you with another.
Now, I have a partiality for cases with a good sound pathology that can be seen, felt, cut out, put into the scales and weighed! They seem so much more proof-affording than mere symptoms in given parts, as headache or neuralgia, as these often depart of themselves. But, generally speaking, you may bet on the permanency of a good solid tumour. As my forty-sixth reason, therefore, I must give you the notes, as short as may be, of a rather rare affection, viz.:-
TUMOUR OF RIGHT BREAST IN A MAN*
*So rare are such cases that I have never seen but three such.*
Although tumours of the breast are much more common in women than in men, still they do also occur in the breasts of males, more particularly in later life. Such a one is the following:-
On April 23rd, 1881, there came to me a rather tall, spare, cachectic-looking gentleman, a London professional man, of about seventy years of age, telling me that ever since the previous February he had been greatly worried, and this was followed by a sensitiveness in his left nipple, which soon passed off and went to the right nipple, wherein it still was. On examining the part I found it the seat of a hard, tumid mass of the size of a pigeon’s egg. Patient first noticed it was swelled a month previously. It is not actually painful, but there is a sensation of fullness and uneasiness, and he cannot lie on it, hence it arrests his attention.
Rx. Psorinum 30, m.vi.; s.l.q.s., ft. pulv., tales xij., j nocte.
May 7th.-There is still a sensation of fullness in it; patient thinks it is softer, in which opinion I share. It is a little smaller. Since taking the powders he has had some bilious attacks.
Rx. Rep.
May 21st.-It is much smaller; there is much less sensitiveness, and patient can now sleep lying on his right side, which was previously not possible.
Rx. Rep.
May 28th.-The sensitiveness is now confined to the nipple alone, still he can sleep lying on it. He is constipated, and his tongue is thickly furred.
Rx Hydrastis canadensis 3x, 3iv.
S.-Gtt. v., nocte maneque.
June 14th.-The sensitiveness still continues, but it has very much decreased.
Rep.
July 2nd.-Less sensitiveness; tumour still decreasing in size: on the sternum, on a level with the nipple, there is a scabby eruption of the size of a threepenny piece, having a red ground, the rest being yellowish. He is still constipated.
Rx. Tc. Hydrastis canad. 6, 3 iv. v., n.m.
July 23rd.-He has scabs *I often notice scabby eruptions occur under the influence of our remedies given in cases of tumours, when said tumours are diminishing in size.* on the scalp; a yellow scab at the middle of the sternum; also on his hands. The nipple is no longer sensitive at all.
Rx Tc. Thuja occid. 30, in infrequent doses.
August 13th.-The tumour has disappeared, with the exception of one of the size of a hazel nut. There is still some scaly eruption on the sternum.
Psor 30 (two to a month).
September 16th.-No trace of the tumour to be found. There is still a patch of reddish scaly eruption on the skin of the chest.
Rx. Tc. Chelidon, maj. 3x, gtt., iij. nocte.
October 13th.-No trace of tumour; still a circular patch at mid-sternum. Bowels a little relaxed.
Rx. Trit. 6, Nat. sul.
October 27th.-Well; and has a healthy complexion, whereas it was, at the beginning of the treatment, quite earthy.
Six years have elapsed since then, during all which time the patient has remained well of the tumour- i.e., it has never returned. Two or three times or more in every year the gentleman is in the habit of coming to see me, “To be kept in repair” Before I began the treatment I was importuned by his friends as to whether I was quite sure it was safe to for go an operation, “which you know, Sir J.-says is the only chance!”
What did the friends say after the tumour was cured by remedies? Were they grateful? Perhaps; they have so scrupulously avoided the subject ever since that I have no means of knowing.
Nevertheless the tumour remains cured, and that is the main point.
If you care to know my opinion of the pathology of this tumour, I wish to say I think it was scirrhus. That it was a very hard lump is quite sure.
Speaking biopathologically, more meo, the basis of the thing was PSORO VACCINOSIS.
Only four more Reasons are now due to you; are you prepared to “come down the tree yet”?
XLVII
One can hardly have to deal with a more formidable affection than Angina pectoris, and in its treatment Homoeopathy can do great things. It is, however, a mighty mistake to treat the cases all alike, as quite a number of different diseases give rise to the usual anginal symptoms; the cases must be diagnostically and therapeutically differentiated if they are to be really cured.
A short time since it was my duty to see a lady in Belgravia with Angina pectoris; unwonted domestic drudgery, loss of loved ones, fright, loss of fortune; had led up to it.
Apart from the anginal attacks there was a chronic, constant pain across the praecordia, running away under the left breast. For years blisters had been applied at intervals with temporary relief, till they could no longer be borne. Patient was very depressed, sulky, and morose; the menses suppressed. Aurum metallicum, 3d trituration, 6 grains every four hours, cured the constant pain in a week, and the anginal attacks have thus far not recurred, and patient smiles now and is bright. The menses have, however, not appeared, and for this she remains under treatment.
I do not expect you to realize the difference wrought by the Gold, inasmuch as in my allopathic days I should have flatly refused belief in my present statement. hence if you now feel the same, I can sympathize with you, and I therefore will no insist further than to place it one record as my forty-seventh reason for being a homoeopath.
XLVIII
Led by the law of likes, I have been able to do very satisfactory work with Gold as a remedy in disease; if you care to know, I wrote a book on the subject some years since, wherein I say:-
The following is a case of dropsy of the lower extremities, which came under my observation two years ago.
I was fetched, I think it was one Sunday, to see a lady; it was feared she was beyond recovery. I found my patient, a lady of about fifty; in bed; her lower extremities were swollen, painful; they pitted on pressure, and were worse at night, better in the morning. This oedema had been coming on for a week or two, but it had usually quite disappeared by the morning, and thus caused but very little anxiety, but now it had greatly increased even in bed, and very naturally was causing great alarm. Dropsy is almost always a grave symptom, though not always. In this case I think it was. There was a history of many illness, and altogether this drug-picture presented itself:-
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.