BY A LADY MISSIONARY.
DEAR MR. BARKER, -Since coming to the Mission Field fourteen years ago I have had a good deal of medical work to do one way and another, as most missionaries have. I am neither a doctor nor a nurse but have had to take the place of both on occasion when I took charge of a station in my second year.
Along with another colleague I was left with a few homoeopathic remedies and Dr. Ruddocks Vade Mecum which I used to read in my leisure moments. As years went by, I gradually in creased my stock and, although knowing very little of the action of the different drugs on the human system, I learned quite a from experience and had a certain amount of success.
Two years ago when at home, I met with a friend who is a subscriber to your magazine and who has given me some valuable help, and last year he sent me your magazine for the whole year. I cannot tell you what a help it has been to me, but I would just like to quote a few instances where I have used Homoeopathy with great success. I have now gathered a collection of works on Homoeopathy, but nearly always go back to Ruddock, he explains so fully.
One day I was called out to a confinement case. The woman had in labour for some hours and was making no found the patient rather exhausted, having been in labour all night and bleeding rather profusely. On examination I found the vagina sloughy, but no sign of a head.
So I gave two doses of Hamamelis O and went home for other remedies. There seemed to be no abating of the haemorrhage so I gave Arnica 3x, two doses, and started off to bring a homoeopath in whom I have great faith a spare Hindu man of gentle habits but it was his day of prayer and silence and nothing would induce him to come out even to see me.
So I went off a bit disappointed and went back to my patient, who by this time was getting on with the job, and within half an hour a man child, strong and howling, was born into the world, and in two days the mother got up and sat down beside me outside in the sun, having had the minimum of discomfort.
Another case was a first child (we are only sent for as a last resort) and, as I have next to no practice, having a boarding school to look after, I felt a little doubtful about being able to help. Anyhow the prospective after was very persistent. So I armed myself with a few remedies and accompanied him to the village. This case also was in rather an exhausted condition, having been in labour for a long time and the head had been in the vagina for some hours, so you may guess my hope was very slight of being able to do anything.
Anyway I gave a dose of Pulsatilla and left a few more doses to be taken at intervals of half an hour, and promised to return, leaving the woman a bit more life-like. I returned in three hours but nothing had happened, so gave a dose of Gelsemium and left her again. This was about 7 P.M., and a living child was born in the small hours of next morning and I hear he is still alive and doing well.
A child of four got croup last July and I did not recognize the symptoms, never having had to deal with croup before, and so it had gone on for there days before I knew what was wrong. I gave Aconite and Spongia and called the homoeopath who gave the same and told me there was no need to get alarmed.
The child was very ill indeed and I doubt very much if she would have recovered with any other remedies, as she is very obstinate in sickness. She simply refused to look at milk in any form, and if tried to force her to take anything she fought like a tigress and usually managed to upset everything. The only nourishment she would look at was lightly poached eggs and orange juice, and these I gave her.
About a month later she had another attack, but I began early with the Aconite and Spongia and finished with Hepar sulphuris without having to call the doctor.
Pneumonia has no terrors for me, and I have never lost a patient through it and I have had some bad cases, too. One case of boy of about twelve went up to 107 before I knew he was ill, and in an hour with Aconite and cold packs every five minutes I got him down to 104 degree and he recovered. I am rather keen on cold packs, and often pneumonia occurs here in the very hot weather. So there is no risk.
I find Calendula very good for sores, burns and cuts. Applied immediately, it heals in a few hours. For ophthalmia, if I can get at the beginning, I always am successful with Argentum nitricum 30.
On Friday we had a play in the school and the head mistress worked very hard for two days in preparation. On saturday morning she was down with flu, panting and moaning with fever and pain all over her body. I remembered an article in one of you magazines on influenza and got he Baptisia and Gelsemium on the job. At mid-day I saw her again and she was perspiring freely but had still got pain, the fever was down to 100.6. I told her to keep on with the medicine but take it every three hours instead of every two.
I saw her again in the evening and she complained of severe headache, especially on the right side of the face. So I gave her two doses of Belladonna 3x. I did not see her again till next morning, but she sat up in bed and told me her head was quite better, she had a good night and there was only a little aching in her legs. Monday morning she went off to school.
I wanted her to have another day in bed but she insisted it was imperative she should go to school. I know she ought to have Quinine nitricum now to complete the cure, but I have never been able to secure it from any of the homoeopathic chemists.
These are only a few examples of my experience with homoeopathic remedies, and only wish I knew lots more.
I have been very interested in Mr. Henry Cooks articles about foodstuffs and find that, besides being more healthy to live as he says on the natural products, it is much cheaper. We get freshly ground wheat her cheaper than flour, and in the winter months especially vegetables are very plentiful and cheap. Raw sugar is also very cheap as the sugar cane grows here, and I use practically nothing else now but the unrefined cane sugar. I also find that where the food seemed rather tasteless before and required spicing up, now it is full of flavour.
I must now get off an order for some more medicines, as my stock is running low and I dont like getting too big a quantity at a time.
In closing I would just like to say what an excellent work you are doing with your little magazine, “HEAL THYSELF” and I only wish everybody would take it and keep their health.
