A homoeopath works on the bed rock of fact. He does not try to diagnose the disease-the so-called disease may be an unhappy marriage, fear of dismissal, suppression of ones wants, etc. The way in which a homoeopath relieves or cures can be shown by a few examples from my own experience. A young man wrote to me from the country that his father was dying from cancer of the stomach, that he had fearful burning pain, and that he desired cold drink and cold food.
Every experienced homoeopath recognizes that these symptoms call for phosphorus, which produces, and therefore relieves, these symptoms. The man received phosphorus in pilules medicated with a millionth or a billionth of a grain of that drug, his pains disappeared, and he died peacefully in his sleep without any need for Morphia.
Some time ago a lady told me that her old mother had had her breast cut off months ago because of cancer. Unfortunately the disease had re-appeared in the scars, and the poor woman suffered agonies. I immediately asked, “What kind of pain has she ?” “Terrible burning pain, and she is so restless I do not know what to do with her.” The second question I asked was, “Is the burning pain relieved by hot or by cold food and drink?” The reply was, “She craves heat in every form, things cannot be too hot for her.” This time the cancer pain did not point to phosphorus, but very definitely to Arsenic.
Men who have been poisoned by Arsenic have outrageous burning pain relieved by heat, and they are terribly restless. I sent the lady a small quantity of sugar pilules containing Arsenic in the 200th potency. The 200th potency is expressed by the figure 1 followed by 400 noughts. If a grain of Arsenic were mixed with a body of sugar as large as the sun, the whole substance would probably correspond to the 200th potency. The lady was to take a dose of Arsenic in the 200th potency about once a week. She has done so for many months, she has lost her jaundiced colour, and has clear and bright complexion. She has gained two or three stone and considers herself cured.
Two months ago a lady visited me and told me that her mother had been operated upon for cancer year ago, that she now had a cancerous growth in the spine, that she was in terrible pain, sleepless, had lost several stone, was deeply jaundiced, and was kept constantly under Morphia, which however did not enable her to sleep, nor did it free her from pain. I immediately forbade Morphia, and, as this lady also suffered from burning pain relieved by heat and was exceedingly restless, I sent her Arsenic in the 200th potency.
A few days after the lady was able to get up for half an hour, then for one hour, then for two, three and six hours, dressed, started walking about, had a normal colour, pain had disappeared, she gained weight, and she is coming to see me soon.
The most interesting thing about these three cancer cases is that I have not seen any of them. I treated those cases by the symptoms without the physical examination beloved by orthodox doctors, which had yielded no results in these cases.
A good homoeopathic doctor or lay prescriber treats not only the so-called medical disease but many surgical ones as well. Of course, cancer is supposed to be a purely surgical disease. You cannot cure gout by cutting out the cancerous tumour, for cancer is a blood disease. Homoeopaths have to their credit hundreds and thousands of undoubted cancer cures, but orthodox medicine haughtily refuses to take any notice of them. The orthodox doctor asks: “What is your specific for cancer?” Homoeopathy has no specific for any disease. It treats not diseases but symptom complexes. The orthodox doctor can treat all cases of sleeplessness with Veronal, or whatever is his favourite dope. The work of the homoeopath is not equally easy.
If insomnia is due to over-activity of the brain Coffee in infinitely small quantities will probably cure. If sleeplessness is due to great restlessness of the body, he will probably give Arsenic in small doses with the most satisfactory results. If sleeplessness is accompanied by very bad temper, probably Chamomilla, plain Chamomile, will cure. Homoeopaths use at least two hundred different medicines for sleeplessness, according to the symptoms of the patient.
A few weeks ago I was suddenly attacked by a huge abscess in the lower. For this, orthodox medicine prescribes opening with a knife and disinfecting the interior with a poisonous disinfectant. My excellent homoeopathic surgeon, who is also a physician, gave me a few doses of Hepar sulphuris, which is a favourite remedy for opening abscesses, and in a few hours the abscess opened both towards the inside of the bowel and towards the outside of the body. Naturally the absorption of very large quantities of extremely poisonous pus into the blood stream led to blood poisoning in my case.
The principle that likes should be cured by likes was immediately applied to this condition. My excellent adviser prescribed pyrogen by the billionth of a grain, a dose to be taken night and morning. Pyrogen is prepared from putrid meat. Putrefaction is therefore made to combat putrefaction.
In most gardens grows a beautiful orange flower called the marigold. The Latin name is Calendula. A decoction of marigold flowers has been used by the people for centuries and centuries as an antiseptic, and it is an invaluable antiseptic and is non- poisonous. All the other antiseptics are virulent poisons. They destroy not only the disease, but injure also the healthy cells. My bowel was washed out with Calendula lotion. I made a record recovery.
People frequently suffer from horrible boils, and especially at the back of the neck. These are called carbuncles. The orthodox treatment of carbuncles consists in cutting out the whole thing if possible, or making deep cuts, and disinfecting the area with the most poisonous disinfectants, draining it, applying poultices, etc. I have treated a considerable number of carbuncles, and have never allowed the use of surgery or of any outward applications. The very virulent anthrax poison produces a most horrible boil, similar to a carbuncle.
It frequently kills in twenty-four hours. A few does of Anthracinum, the anthrax poison, in the billionth, trillionth, decillionth of a grain will usually cure that condition, especially if aided by another indicated remedy. If the patient, as is usually the case, is restless, complains about burning pain at the back of the neck which is relieved by hot applications, every one of my hearers will know immediately what to prescribe.
They will prescribe Arsenic. In such a case, one gives Anthracinum two or three times a day, and perhaps a millionth of a grain of Arsenic three or four times in between, and within about forty-eight hours eight or ten huge props will come out from the ulcer, and the patient will be perfectly normal. The cure will be effected in a few days and there will be no dreadful scar which follows the orthodox operation.
Phosphorus produces profuse bleeding from many body openings, and the blood is bright red and thin. It is arterial blood. Orthodox medicine is very resourceless in the case of profuse bleeding. If it cannot be stopped by the usual means, the surgeon is apt to cut out the womb, or open up whatever organ is at fault in order to close the bleeding from the arteries and veins. If a woman has profuse bleeding, excision of the womb is frequently done, and she is told that this is the only cure. I have seen innumerable cases of profuse bleeding from the womb and other parts of the body cured in a few days by a few doses of Phosphorus, when orthodox medicine has failed during weeks and months of treatment.
Two years ago I was attending a well-known nobleman. His masseur came in, looking very woebegone and said : “I am very sorry, my lord, I cannot treat you to-day; I am too ill.” “What is the trouble ?” “I have been bleeding profusely from the bladder for a fortnight, and I am at the end of my strength.” As the blood was bright red, I gave him from my pocket case a single dose of phosphorus, of a millionth of a grain. Bleeding stopped promptly and did not re-appear. That was two years ago.
Doctors and specialists frequently assert that for enlarged prostates the only cure is by operation. A prostate operation is dangerous and unsatisfactory. In a large percentage death or permanent invalidism ensue. In most cases a prostate operation is quite unnecessary. Enlarged prostates are very amenable to homoeopathic and dietetic treatment. I have handled a very large number of prostate cases, and the percentage of successes is very high.
In ageing men the prostate degenerates exactly as in ageing women the womb degenerates. The prostate and the womb bear some resemblance. About the change of life many women develop fibroid tumours of the womb, and they are immediately assured by doctors and gynaecologists that the only treatment for this condition is operation, or the destruction of the growth by means of rays, a very dangerous proceeding. Operations on the womb are expensive and risky, and frequently result in complete invalidism, especially if the whole of the womb and ovaries are taken out. Every good homoeopath has successfully treated many cases of uterine fibroid.
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.