GENERAL BREAKDOWN OF WOMEN


“People are continually remarking how much better I look. The last three weeks I have had quite a strenuous time for me, packing everything and helping in our removal. So I am very glad and thankful to feel as well as I do. The breathing is never quite normal.”


MANY ladies are chronic invalids. They are charming sympathetic, obviously ill, every doctor feels sorry for them, but no one can help them. They complain about their digestion, excretion and nerves, cannot sleep, have rheumatic and other pains, their kidneys, gall-bladder, liver and sex organs do not function properly, they suffer agonies at period time, have an irritating leucorrhoea between periods, their hair is in a poor condition, there are skin irritation, flushes, vague fears, deficient bladder control, etc.

To the average doctor these cases are a nightmare. There is not a sound part or organ, and in desperation he recommends a tonic or a sedative, a stay on the Riviera or in the Swiss mountains, a few injections or glandular treatment but he knows quite well that he can do nothing.

Women of this type often get married. They are devoted wives and mothers. They are anxious for their husband and child and never complain of their own poor health because they think they are incurable. However, many of them are curable, but curing them is hard work.

Mrs. A.H., of Teignmouth, wrote on June 17th, 1932:.

“I was a weak baby, always crying, and I helped to send my mother to an early grave. Both my parents died at the age of 42 and I had to be a mother to the children. My elder sister died of consumption. I had a bad breakdown when my sister passed on. The doctor said I had congestion and inflammation of the ovaries. I always suffered terribly at my periods.

The specialist said it was like ordinary labour every month. I was operated upon. Then the parts were stretched once a month. Then I had peritonitis. Later on Mr. Lawson Tait wanted to take away my ovaries. Then I had plaster treatment over the abdomen, which produced a large quantity of pus and entailed fearful suffering.

“I married when nearly 30. I had my baby and nearly lost my life through puerperal fever, and the baby died in a terrible birth. Four years later I had my only daughter. Three years ago I went to a sanatorium and came home a perfect wreck. I have been suffering for years from mucous colitis, I have burning heat in the bowels, tongue, lips ad gums.

I suffer with pain about the right side of the ribs, I expect it is the liver. I easily get cramps i legs and feet. I am never sure about my digestion. I cannot take fat foods and only a little sugar, and I feel always cold. My temperature is always subnormal. I have had an operation for fissure in the rectum”.

She called on me on July 4th. She was 68 years old. In addition to the complaints told in her letter, I found that all her organs were prolapsed and painful. Her back caused agonies, some vertebrae were displaced. She had rheumatism, enlarged finger joints, was deeply jaundiced, totally emaciated.

In case of this kind one must treat the most urgent symptoms and disregard for a time all other complaints. I gave her Nux vomica and Carbo vegetabilis combined for her digestion, a dose before meals, and as she told me that her memory had greatly suffered and that she felt best when actually eating, I gave her Anacardium 3x, a dose between meals. She was to have a strengthening and nourishing diet. She was a typical Sepia case.

Happily she reacted immediately and strongly to my treatment. Otherwise she would have given up. On July 11th she wrote: “Not for many years have I eaten so much food as I do now. Yet, it has caused no trouble. I have not yet been weighed but feel sure I have gained a little. I also have slept better than I have done for years.” She told me on July 21st: “To my utmost delight I have gained 3 lbs. during the first week.” I then sent her Sepia 12x, a dose to be taken night and morning. On August 23rd she wrote: “I am better. You have done great things for me. I have now gained 6 lbs. I am ashamed of being such a long trouble to you”.

On September 29th she wrote: It is such a marvel that after a life-long constipation the bowels are working two and three times a day. My rheumatism has been much better.” I had given her Rhus tox. for it. She went ahead but had serious set-backs through attacks of influenza, bronchitis, etc. Then she told me, “My feet burn like fire at night.” Of course she was given Sulphur.

She was given Arnica for the injury at childbirth and the other injuries she had suffered. I had her body rubbed with olive oil to feed her through the skin and make her feel warm, and she improved from month to month. She wrote on January 8th, 1933: “I am rapidly gaining strength and fitness and if I continue I shall be the greatest credit to you. I never thought it possible that I could go ahead as I have done”.

I then learned that she had fearful catarrhs which were cured with Kali iodatum and Kali bichromicum. Then I discovered that she suffered from insomnia through brain activity, for which she was given Coffea 3x. Then she told me that for years her local doctor had kept her under bromides and I had to antidote them.

On April 20th, 1933, she wrote: “Life has seemed full of failure to me until I saw you, and now I am beginning to enjoy living as I never expected to. I felt I dare not tell you of the many horror treatments I have undergone.” She became more and more a normal woman. She wrote on December 30th ,1933:.

“I am still gaining ground in spite of a very heavy extra stress of work during Christmas. I have done wonders, and never before for tens of years have I gone through such a busy time without having to lie up for a few days and often longer and suffer, suffer, suffer the effects of the strain, which produced acute stinging, burning pain on the entire body, which nothing could relieve.

I cannot remember a Christmas for thirty years or more when I have had so little trouble with my digestion. My back has been wonderfully better”.

On January 4th, 1933, I received a letter from Mrs. L.B.W., of Manchester:.

“When I was 14 I slipped off a haystack, and was treated for prolapse of the stomach. I was treated for a kink of the bowels about twelve years ago. Shortly after, I had scarlet fever. I married when 21, and was curetted twice. Then I had Graves disease (exophthalmic goitre) for years. Then my appendix was removed. Four or five years ago it was discovered that I had a fibroid.

I am now nearly 55 years of age, and my chief trouble is that I tire easily and am not able to do much work. For many years I have suffered from rheumatism and a dropped kidney. Lord Moynihan removed my appendix, one of the worst he had seen, and Sir James Mackenzie told me that I had a poisoned heart.”.

I saw Mrs. L.B.W. on January 6th, 1933. She was the wife of a clergyman, looked the picture of ill-health, resigned, hopeless, suffered agonies from indigestion, was constipated, and her heart gave her very serious trouble on slightest exertion.

I gave her a fleshless diet rich in bra, milk, eggs, wholemeal bread. She was to take paraffin to regulate her bowels, Nux vomica and Carbo vegetabilis combined before meals to improve her digestion, and Sulphur 6x night and morning to improve skin action. In between meals she was to take Arnica 3x for the effect of the old injuries and operations and as a tonic, and to wear a Curtis belt to lift up her prolapsed abdomen.

On May 19th she called on me for the second time and I found her wonderfully improved, but in need of a tonic, and she was given Ferrum Phosphoricum 3x. As her old troubles had almost disappeared, she acquainted me with new ones. She had severe backache relieved by pressing against some hard object, and retroversion of the womb. For the former complaint she was given Natrum muriaticum and for the latter Lilium tigrinum, each to be taken by itself on separate days.

She went rapidly ahead, gained weight, felt stronger, and on September 12th, 1933, she wrote to me:.

“People are continually remarking how much better I look. The last three weeks I have had quite a strenuous time for me, packing everything and helping in our removal. So I am very glad and thankful to feel as well as I do. A couple of months ago I was obliged to use another dose of Sepia 1,000th potency. It evidently proved effective, for I have had no trouble with my prolapse in spite of heavy extra exertion, but I am always conscious of the heart weakness. The breathing is never quite normal.”.

I sent her Bacillinum 30, a dose once a week, Naja 6, a dose three times a day, and a few doses of Sepia 1,000, a dose once a month or less often for dropped abdominal organs. On October 22nd she wrote: “I feel decidedly stronger, am not so easily fatigued, though there is plenty of room for improvement. The bowels are much improved.” I then gave her Crataegus, mother tincture, which suited her well, and Rhus toxicodendron for her rheumatism. She continued going ahead, and has become a totally different woman.

J. Ellis Barker
James Ellis Barker 1870 – 1948 was a Jewish German lay homeopath, born in Cologne in Germany. He settled in Britain to become the editor of The Homeopathic World in 1931 (which he later renamed as Heal Thyself) for sixteen years, and he wrote a great deal about homeopathy during this time.

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.