On January 25th the old gentlemen wrote to me: ” I am happy to say I am still sleeping well nearly every night so I think the prostatic enlargement must be a good deal better, because the irritation caused thereby prevented sleep in the past.
You have helped me certainly and I am much obliged to you.” In another letter Lieut-Col. R. wrote: ” I am decidedly better and now can sleep for six or seven hours.” On March 12th, 1932, he wrote ” I am practically well now,” and his son, Major R. told me: “My father certainly is very much better in health. My mother tells me that he sleeps quite well, and I do not think the enlarged prostate is worrying him now.” Before he came to me the patient had taken strong tea with much sugar, coffee, meat, spirits, etc. He was given the usual non-irritating diet in addition to the medicines mentioned.
In the past I have carefully avoided describing any of my own cases in this journal. I have somewhat reluctantly done so now partly because it seems desirable that my readers should know that I have not merely a theoretical knowledge of homoeopathy and dietetics, to the teaching of which this journal is devoted, partly because I have been informed from various quarters that doctors have endeavoured to depreciate Heal Thyself by telling people that this magazine was edited by a mere layman who had no practical knowledge of treatment.
Besides, it seems to me important that the professional readers of this journal should know how enlarged prostates can be cured without operation and laymen be encouraged to study the new art of healing and practice it in view of the lamentable shortage of homoeopathic doctors.
In June, 1993, I received a letter from a Mr. Laurence G., Derby, complaining about an enlarged prostate from which he had suffered for then years. He wrote: “The doctor says he could take it away by operation, but as two of my friends did not survive that operation, I do not feel like taking the risk, especially as the greater part of my income is derived from a pension which my wife would lose if I went first.” It is always desirable to examine an enlarged prostate by way of the bowel exit where it can clearly be felt, especially as there is the possibility that there may not be an ordinary enlarged prostate which otherwise is healthy, but that there may be a cancerous enlargement.
I immediately sent him some Sulphur 6x, to be taken night and morning, told him to take parsley tea and asked him to come and see me. He wrote in reply that he as an old man, that he had not been away from Derby for twenty years and begged me to give him advice without seeing him.
On July 17th I sent him my directions. He was to take the usual non-irritating diet, an abundance of liquid, and was given sulphur 6x night and morning, and Silica 12x between meals to start with. The Success was instantaneous. After a few days he wrote to me: ” I am pleased to say I am already a lot better for following your advice and taking the medicine.
On the whole I am decidedly better.” On July 23rd he wrote: “I am keeping wonderfully better, I have no urine trouble whatever, and I have a distinct feeling that the gland is reduced. I am sticking to your diet, and like it.” On August 1st he wrote: ” I am pleased to say I am as well as I have been for years. I have no stoppage of urine at all and very little pain. I am in first-rate health. I think I am cured.” This was followed by a letter no August 13th: ” I am pleased to say I am keeping better.
I have no attacks. I can certainly go much longer without emptying the bladder, and have no, or very little, irritation. I generally wake three times in the night, but mostly without feeling any uneasiness. Still I get out of bed and empty my bladder for fear of trouble.” As the man had been living on a devitaminized and demineralized diet, his diet was greatly improved and he was given an abundance of vegetable water.
Notwithstanding a hugely increased intake of fluid he, like all the other patients, noticed that urging to urinate and bladder control became greatly improved. At first of course all of them were horrified at the idea of vastly increasing their intake of liquid.
A year ago I was attending a well-known nobleman. His masseur arrived and told him: “My lord I am afraid that I cannot treat you to-day. I am too ill.” “What is the matter with you ?” “I have been bleeding profusely from the bladder for a fortnight and I am at the end of my strength.” ” See whether Mr. Ellis Barker can help you.”
Having been told that the blood was bright red, thin and liquid, I opened my pocket case and gave him without hesitation a millionth of a grain of Phosphorus, Phosphorus being indicated if there is bright blood, arterial blood, and Hamamelis when there is thick dark blood from the veins.
I was in a hurry and the masseur was very anxious. So I asked him to get into my care, and put to him the usual questions while driving home. Arrived at my house I examined him by way of the bowel exit and found a very large prostate, from which he had suffered for ten years, but on the right side of the prostate there was a spongy soft outgrowth which possibly might have been malignant.
I immediately gave him the usual, non-irritating diet with an abundance of liquid, especially bran decoction, and Sabal serrulata, five to ten drops three times a day. I also gave him mother tincture of Thlaspi bursae pastoris, to be held in reserve if there should be further haemorrhage. Happily the one dose of Phosphorus sufficed to stop the haemorrhage for months.
This case proved entirely different from the previous ones. Vast improvement was followed by set-backs, and there were numerous symptoms which made it necessary to use a large number of remedies. There was the feeling of a stone rolling in the bladder, which called for Pulsatilla, burning urine, which called for Cantharis, great pain on movement, which demand Bryonia, pain in the perineum, particularly when sitting, which was corrected with Cyclamen 3x, etc.
This has been the most protracted case I have ever handled. Happily the soft outgrowth at the right side of the gland which had given me much concern disappeared completely, urination stream and bladder capacity greatly improved, but there were inexplicable set-backs.
One day my patient told me quite casually: “Three years ago I was examined by a specialist in Harley Street, who stuck a tube into my bladder and gave me a violent pain.” I cocked my ears and wondered whether, in addition to the enlarged prostate, there was an unhealed injury to the sphincter or to the bladder itself, caused by the brutal use of the cystoscope. the most wonderful diagnosis is that which can be effected without instruments by the reaction of the patient to homoeopathic medicines.
There is a herbal medicine called Staphisagria which is particularly useful for injuries to the bladder and its sphincter. I gave the man a few doses of Staphisagria 3x, which produced immediate and very great relief. This showed clearly that there was a bladder injury apart from the prostate enlargement. This shows incidentally the danger of orthodox examination in bladder troubles. I have met a considerable number of people whose bladders were gravely injured by unskilful use of the catheter or the cystoscope.
I then gave him a single dose of Staphisagria 200th potency and warned him that there might be an aggravation which probably would be followed by improvement. During the next day the bladder pain became much worse, but then disappeared completely and he told me that this had been the most wonderful medicine he had ever had.
Mr. E.B., a literary man, noticed seven or eight years ago when he was well over fifty that he had to pass water more and more frequently, especially at night. A leading West End physician sent him to a Harley Street specialist who examined him twice with a cystoscope, charged thirteen guineas, and told him that there was an enlarged prostate which would probably grow larger from year to year and which cold be cured only by operation.
No advice as to diet or medicine was given, for ” there is no other treatment for that condition except surgery”. Mr. E.B. disregarded this trouble until the end of 1932, when things became very awkward. He had to get out of bed every half hours or so and was afraid to go for walks, go to the theatre, etc. At last he went to an eminent homoeopath who, like all good homoeopaths, is averse to operations.
He examined the prostate from the anus and said: “You have an enormous prostate, about the size of a pear, and I am afraid you have to reconcile yourself to an operation.” The man came to me ,I gave him the usual non-irritating diet, and a number of medicines, among them Silica, Thuja, sulphur, and particularly Sabal serrulata, and the condition has so much improved that the patient no longer thinks of an operation and has practically no discomfort.
It must not thought that all enlarged prostates can be cured with Sabal serrulata and one or two of the other remedies mentioned in these pages. It would only confuse lay readers if all the medicines given were enumerated. In the first place one must treat in every case the totality of the symptoms. If the symptoms cry out for Sulphur or Calcarea or Phosphorus, that remedy must be given, whether the disease has one name or another name, but of course a bladder specific may be interpolated.
James Ellis Barker wrote a very large number of books, both under the name James Ellis Barker and under his real German name Otto Julius Eltzbacher, The Truth about Homœopathy; Rough Notes on Remedies with William Murray; Chronic Constipation; The Story of My Eyes; Miracles Of Healing and How They are Done; Good Health and Happiness; New Lives for Old: How to Cure the Incurable; My Testament of Healing; Cancer, the Surgeon and the Researcher; Cancer, how it is Caused, how it Can be Prevented with a foreward by William Arbuthnot Lane; Cancer and the Black Man etc.