Syphilis


Hahnemann looks upon Syphilis miasm as the most easily cured of all the chronic diseases : provided that it is cured in situ, and not cured externally, i.e., driven in to become a “general venereal disease.”…


Let us first say a few words about syphilis, of which Hahnemann writes,”It never becomes extinct in itself. It increases from year to year and assumes new and more dangerous symptoms to the end of life.”

And yet, curiously, Hahnemann looks upon Syphilis as the most easily cured of all the chronic diseases : provided that it is cured in situ, and not cured externally, i.e., driven in to become a “general venereal disease.”

He quotes John Hunter-and others-as to the danger of treating the original local manifestation by external applications.

Hunter says,”Not one patient in fifteen will escape syphilis, if the chancre is destroyed by external applications,”- and again,”The result of destroying the chancre ever so early (and even on the first day of its appearance, if this is effected by local applications) was always the consequent outbreak of syphilis.” And be quotes Fabre’s Venereal Diseases, “Syphilis always follows on the destruction of the chancre by local applications.”…..

And Hahnemann says, “I have never, in my practice of more than fifty years, seen any trace of the venereal disease break out, so long as the chancre remained untouched in its place, even if were a space of several years….. But whenever anyone is so imprudent as to destroy this vicarious local symptom, the organism is ready to cause the internal syphilis to break out into the venereal disease; since the general venereal disease dwells in the body from the first moment of infection… The miasm has already become the property of the whole organism. All wiping off and washing off, however speedy, and with whatever fluid this be done, is too late -is in vain.”

He says that, from the first moment of infection, it is no more local….

I remember that when we were students there was a case (in another hospital) of a surgeon, operating on a syphilitic patient, who wounded his finger.

He had it instantly amputated, but was too late to avoid infection.

Dr. Bach used to say,”How did Hahnemann know that infection was instantaneous? It took us three months, at U.C.H., to demonstrate this during the War.” And he said, if you scarify a rabbit, and take two dabs, one in each hand, of streptococcus and of iodine, and dab on one as fast as your can after the other, you are too late to prevent infection.

But Hahnemann says that, if uncomplicated with psora, he can assert from manifold experience, that there is on earth no chronic miasm, no chronic disease springing from a miasm, which is more curable, and more easily curable than syphilis.

“In the uncomplicated first state, it needs only one little dose of the best mercurial remedy in order to cure thoroughly and forever the whole syphilis with its chancre within fourteen days. That the Chancre in a few days after taking such a dose of mercury (without any external application) becomes a clean sore with a little mild pus, and heals of itself, is a convincing proof that the venereal disease is fully extinguished within; and it does not leave behind the least scar, or the least spot showing any other colour than the healthy skin.’

I can only recollect seeing two cases of primary sores. I have hunted up the notes of one of them. The other, so far as I can remember, was equally dramatic.

Mrs. A. 36. No children. No miscarriages.

May 8, 1918. Complains of ulceration of 8 months’ duration- (on one of the labia minora).

On examination, it turned out to be a typical syphilitic ulcer,”with the characteristic induration.” Dr. Neatby identified it : and the Wassermann reaction was “distinctly positive.” She was given Nit.a.200, one dose.

14 days later she reported “No trouble with the ulcer since being here.”

Another 14 days. “Very comfortable,” she said. An examination was made and the note is, “Ulcer completely healed. All quite soft.” She said no doctor had examined it till I did: and she had had no treatment for it.

A month later she got a second dose of Nit. a. 200.

4 months later, on examining, all was found to be absolutely soft and normal, and the Wassermann examination was negative.

And (5 months after her first appearance) the Wassermann was again found negative.

Here you have a primary sore, of eight months’ duration, Wassermann positive. Four weeks after the single dose of Nit. a. 200, it is found to be “perfectly healed-all soft and normal.” While two subsequent Wassermann examinations proved negative.

Hahnemann’s great remedy for syphilis is Mercury which is, of course, absolutely homoeopathic to that disease, and which he gives in the 30th potency. But “in cases where a second or third dose(however seldom needed) should be found necessary, a lower potency may then be taken.”

He says moreover, that, where the chancre has been cured by local applications, there will be left a discoloured scar. But when the patient is, thereafter, homoeopathically cured, this will disappear, leaving the skin smooth and normal in colour, so that no trace can be discerned of the spot where the chancre had stood….

Some years ago, there was an idea of establishing a V.D. Clinic in this Hospital.

An excellent idea-and could be used to demonstrate Homoeopathy-IF conducted on Hahnemann’s lines. Otherwise it would be a pure waste of energy, and do us far more harm than good.

Hahnemann always talks of the best preparation of Mercury. And I have lately had a great deal of experience with the wonderful power of the cyanide, in high potencies. One spots quite a number of cases, in out-patient work, that turn out to be specific.

I will give one or two, by way of example. Of course when the disease has become chronic, (as Hahnemann says) one has to continue the treatment for a long time. Chronic syphilis will not cure up with one dose (case shown and reported previously.)

Large syphilitic ulcer on tongue, 40 years’ duration.

Tongue was first seen in May, 1928.

There was a large indurated patch on the fore part of the tongue, ulcerated and fissured. She had had it for 40 years. She was given Mercurius cy.200 (3 doses 6-hrly.).

A Wassermann was done, and found to be positive.

Three weeks later, “Very much better. Feels a different woman. Tongue better, not well.’

In two months the tongue was no longer painful. The Mercurius cy. was repeated at long intervals in 200, 1m, 50m; and in 6 months it was completely healed and well. She said, she had had it for 40 years, and had had treatment, but nothing had helped, “till you found it out, and then it was soon well.’

There years later, “one sees only the big scar on tongue; no ulceration.’

But another three and a quarter years later, there was again some ulceration of tongue, cured in a month by a dose of Mercurius cy. 1m.

Hahnemann tells us that syphilis may be complicated: but that in all his experience he had only seen two cases of the complication of his three chronic miasms.

In such cases, he says, first annihilate the psoric miasm by the indicated l Indicated by symptoms. antipsoric, then use the indicated anti-sycotic, and lastly the best mercurial preparation against syphilis.

These three different orders of remedies may be alternatively employed, if necessary, until cure is completed; ONLY, “each medicine, in turn, must be allowed the necessary time to complete its action.” And how are we to know when that is? Why-when symptoms return, modified, yet the same, to ask for a repetition of one or other remedy.

Mrs. F., a patient with chronic stomach trouble with vomiting, had also a big, apparently syphilitic ulceration of left side of tongue. Here Mercurius cy. 1m, 10m., &c., in single infrequent doses, healed the tongue and improved the stomach condition. When a Wassermann was done a couple of year later, it was found to be negative. This tells nothing, as one does not know whether it had ever been positive. But, clinically, the tongue was a syphilitic one : and Mercurius cy. put it right.

In January, 1931, a tall lean man, all drawn down on left side, was sent from the wards, to see if manipulation could help his sciatica.

X-ray showed definite subluxations, especially lumbar; but he was so rigid that one could make little impression on him. However, a few days later, he again appeared, when manipulative ardor got a bad slap in the face, for he was now drawn down as badly on the other side

He was too rigid, and was discharged from the Hospital : but came back, like a bad penny, to my out-patients. I tried again and again : he was better, but that was all. Then he was readmitted, this time to Hahnemann : and again came down for attempts at manipulation : always hopelessly bulked by his extraordinary rigidity.

He was again discharged, and now, brought a letter from his panel doctor, saying that he confessed to syphilis, and might it not be a syphilitic condition of spine?

Whereupon he got a dose of Mercurius cy. 1m and came back next time with a perfectly supple spine, easy to manipulate. He is now upright and painless; and has gone back to work: though he still comes up from time to time. Once his panel doctor started treating him with what he considers necessary for such cases, with the result “a return of the pain.” He has been told, no more of that : and realizes it. l He continues well-August, 1988.

Margaret Lucy Tyler
Margaret Lucy Tyler, 1875 – 1943, was an English homeopath who was a student of James Tyler Kent. She qualified in medicine in 1903 at the age of 44 and served on the staff of the London Homeopathic Hospital until her death forty years later. Margaret Tyler became one of the most influential homeopaths of all time. Margaret Tyler wrote - How Not to Practice Homeopathy, Homeopathic Drug Pictures, Repertorising with Sir John Weir, Pointers to some Hayfever remedies, Pointers to Common Remedies.