The amount of dense-mindedness and disingenuousness that lies hidden in those who HAVE SEEN great homoeopathic cures, and still resist the truth, must be immense. Though one rose from the dead they would not believe. Still, perhaps, I ought not to blame them, for it is very difficult to believe that medicines can cure tumours; indeed, there was a time when I could not have believed the contents of this book. I therefore desire to be charitable to others, being myself a Saulus and a Paulus.
Tumours are very common in the breast, particularly in womens comparatively rare with men in this region.
I will now go on to my special task by citing a more formidable case-one of genuine cancer, cured by Cundurango, a remedy which I proved on my own person a number of years ago, an account of which may be found in Allens Encyclopaedia of Pure Materia Medica, Art. C.
I will merely call it a.
HARD TUMOUR OF LEFT BREAST
In the spring of the year 1875 I was treating the children of a family of my clientele. While chatting with the children I noticed that their nurse, a woman of about forty, had an ugly, unsightly crack in the left angle of her mouth, about the fourth of an inch deep, and surrounded with warty excrescences, the whole covered with a nasty secretion. I considered i commencing Epithelioma. I offered to treat the woman for it, but she did not believe in homoeopathy, and she was using a salve to it prescribed by her own doctor.
At this period I was myself still suffering from my proving of Cundurango (see British Journal of Homoeopathy, July, 1875), and I had repeatedly proved that the crack in the angles of the mouth was a very characteristic symptom of the drug. Altogether I have seen it produced pathogenetically four times, and I have cured it also many times. It apparently finds no favour with the profession, but its importance will be recognized.
Some little time elapsed, and the before-mentioned nurse was confronted with the chance of losing her situation, as her mistress was getting afraid lest the disease might be communicated to the children. The nurse was now willing to be treated homoeopathically, and her mistress accordingly sent for me. On inquiring I found the arty ulcer in the angle of the mouth was only a little worse; it was very torpid, and had remained for many months pretty much the same. This is also characteristic of Cundurango.
The pustules and other cutaneous manifestations of this drug are very torpid (see the proving in the British journal of Homoeopathy and the “Symptomatology “in Allens Encyclopaedia of Pure Materia Medica, vol. iv., p. I, et seq.) Once while using an ointment this ulcer had almost disappeared, but it soon returned to the condition I have described.
But what alarmed both mistress and and maid (the former on account of the children, no doubt) was a tumour in the patients left breast, i.e. on the same side as the epitheliomatous ulcer of the angle of the mouth. On examination it was found to be about the size of a small hens egg, and very hard and very painful at time; at other times painless. It had been there for several years, and was on the increase, but only very slowly.
The odour from the axillae was very offensive indeed, but not from lack of cleanliness. Speaking generally, patient did not look ill-nourished or cachectic, though her teeth were very badly decayed, which gave an old appearance to the face from the falling on of the cheeks, and the dilated small cutaneous blood vessels showed that she had probably been a florid subject.
The history of the tumour was this. She had for years been in the habit of sleeping with the youngest child, a bonnie boy, with a very large, heavy head, and he lay with his head against this breast. To that she attributed the lump. And she was probably right, for the boy would be at times restless at night, and hit about with his head a good deal, hence we may fairly conclude that the breast had been mechanically injured very many times. Patient complained that he very often hurt her thus.
There was nothing to account for the ulcer of the angle of the mouth; it was idiopathic, as the phrase goes. Thee could be no reasonable doubt of the connection existing between the tumour and the ulcer. Was it cancer? I think so now, and I thought so them. I do not call it a case of cancer, but simply a tumour of the breast, hence my diagnosis cannot be called in question, whereas, if I were to call it cancer it might be objected to.
Still I will say I think it was cancer-First, from the appearance of the floor and edges of the ulcer; second, from the coincidence of the ulcer and of the tumour; third, from the hardness of the tumour; fourth, from its origin.
It is needful to state this view of its pathological nature, as it influenced the treatment.
The medicine I decided on was Cundurango, and for these reasons:.
(1) Cundurango produces cracks in the angles of the mouth, and also cures such.
(2) Cundurango is, in my opinion, an antipsoric, and this case appeared to be a psoric manifestation from injury.
(3) Cundurango has beyond any doubt cured cases of cancer, and this seemed such a case.
(4) It seemed to me that the ulcer in the angle of the mouth- that started as a mere crack-just supplied the pathogenetic differential requisite of knowing whether to give Hydrastis, Conium, or what not.
The first prescription is dated July 16th, 1875, and is
B Pil, Cundurango I, 3ij.
One four times a day.
This was taken till September Ist, 1876, with slight interruptions. At this date I certainly noticed much improvement in the ulcer, and the tumour seemed a little smaller, but still I felt much disappointed. Then Bryonia alba I, two drops in water four times a day, was given till November 10th, 1876, when, no further progress being apparent, I gave a short course of Sulph. 30, one pilule at bedtime. This is a very old practice, and had been verified a great many times. In all about one drachm of the pilules was taken.
Then at the end of 1876 I again went over the case, and felt justified in reverting to the old prescription of Cundurango, but I gave the tincture of the first centesimal dilution three times a day, with occasional omissions, that the organism might not get insusceptible of the action of so small a dose. This was continued during the whole of the year 1877, during the whole of the year 1878, and during the first five months of the year 1879, that is just about two years and a half. I saw the patient at intervals during this period, and was able to observe the course of the cure. In a few words it was this.
At first the ulcer of the angle of the mouth became dryer, cleaner, and less rugged, while the tumour went smaller and a little less hard. About a year and a half ago the ulcer had entirely healed and remains so; nothing remains of it but a very slight puckering of the angle of the mouth and faint streaks of scar-tissue. But to a casual observer these objective symptoms have no existence, it is only when examining it vertically in the light of its past history that one can detect even these rifling rests.
Already towards the end of the year 1878 the tumour had nearly disappeared, and in the spring of 1879 it was gone. In sending a report from Princes Park, Liverpool, has entirely gone out of my breast,” and then she goes on to state that she had given up taking the medicine in consequence. This case is very important from various stand-points; it shows the utility of proving a remedy that has an empirical reputation in order to find out the variety of a disease that it will cure.
Thus Cundurango has undoubtedly cured a number of cases of cancer; but we may say the same of Sulphur, Thuja, Arsenicum, Conium, Hydrastis, Carbo animalis, Bryonia, Bufo, or Galium Aparine, and hence the point to find out is what characterizes the variety or species. The greatest characteristic yet observed of our Cundurango is the crack in the angle of the mouth, and hence on theoretical grounds we may say that a case of cancer with a manifestation in the angles of the mouth calls for Cundurango. Now we have one such case on record as cured. If my readers will not admit that it was cancer-well, I have not objection.
This case is strikingly important from another view. viz., it illustrates the torpidity of the Cundurango variety, and it also teaches a most valuable lesson to us all. Never despair! This woman patiently took her medicines for four full years, and now she has her reward in health, and I have mine in the comforting consciousness that I did not listen to a very able physician who pooh-poohed the proving of Cundurango, and who ridiculed the idea of curing tumours with medicines. As J. Stuart Mill says, “He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.” I may add that when I last saw the patient she had very much improved in general appearance, being stouter and fresher, looking younger.
NINE YEARS LATER
I published the foregoing case in the Homoeopathic World, November Ist, 1879, and I just made inquiries regarding this woman, who was thus cured of her tumour, notwithstanding its declared impossibility, and find that she still continues in perfect health and free of tumour.
Burnett was one of the first to speak about vaccination triggering illness. This was discussed in his book, Vaccinosis, published in 1884. He introduced the remedy Bacillinum. He authored twenty books, including the much loved "Fifty Reason for Being a Homeopath." He was the editor of The Homoeopathic World.