Under date of May 19th, 1880, I find in my Case-book, “She has suffered for many years from white sticky leucorrhoea, very much like the white of an egg; the tumour is softer, and about one- half its original size; the whites are considerably better since the last medicine (Hydrastis 1x, gtt. v., night and morning). The tumour is more painful eight days before menstrual period.
July 20th. Whites worse; more pain in the tumour; pain in the epigastrium, making her feel quite sick, especially when standing.
R Thuja 3, 3iv., gtt. v., bis die.
September 16th (1880). It brought out an eruption. Thuja 6.
November 16th. “Have been almost entirely free from pain until last week, when the breast pained me; I am much better in regard to the whites. So far as I can judge, the last medicine has been the right one”.
Thuja 12, 3iv., gtt. v., bis die.
January 28th, 1881. “I have taken the last medicine for two months. When I first began to take it, I had more pain in the affected part than I had had for a long time previously, but lately, I have been quite well, except a spell of toothache, which yielded to Belladonna and Gelsemium. The tumour is very much smaller”.
R Hydrastis can. 1, 3iv., gtt. v., night and morning.
March 25th. “I am going on improving, indeed I am very seldom reminded of my ailment; the tumour is now so small that my husband cannot find it”.
R Hydrastis can. 6, gtt. v. 3iv., night and morning.
May 27th. “After I began to take the last medicine I felt a good deal more uneasiness in the affected part than I had done for some time before, now I am much as I was while taking the previous medicine. I think my husband told you of the decrease in size”.
R Psor.30, four in twenty-four.
July 29th. “My husband thinks the lump nearly gone, I think it is gone. While I was taking the last medicine, and for a week after, I had a good deal of pain in the region of the womb, and at the time I had this pain I was also a good deal annoyed with the whites; now I am quite free”.
July 29th, 1881, is the last note of the case in my book, but I saw the patient on another matter on November 3rd, 1886-more than five years thereafter-and learned that there had been no return of the tumour or of other ill-health, and she had enjoyed very good general health.
TUMOUR OF LEFT BREAST.
Mrs.–, 26 years of age, came under my care in February 19th, 1883, complaining of a swelling in her left breast about the size of a small orange. It was hard, and had been first noticed in August, 1882. Last spring she had squeezed out some fluid from the left breast. Slight leucorrhoea. She was the mother of one child which was then three years old. Patient had been twice vaccinated, and was subject to labial herpes.
I informed the lady that the tumour was, in my opinion, due to her use of modern preventive measures, that it was, in fact, due to reflex irritations from the hypogastric region. My wide experience teaches me that a large number of mammary tumours in comparatively young married ladies are due to hanky panky manoeuvres of various kinds, the organism being, additionally, dyscratic. Without any dyscrasia, the hypogastric irritation would in all probability not so easily suffice, unless, indeed, it were very great and applied over a long period. I explained that Nature in the long run is very rarely insulted with impunity. Nemesis may tarry, but she inevitably follows the t rail of wrong doing. Oh, how true it is that the way o the transgressor is hard !.
R psor.30.
March 3rd. The tumour is rather smaller. She says “I find it decreased by about one-half”.
R Repeat.
19th. The tumour is a trifle larger than it w as last time. The old itching has entirely disappeared.
R. Kali chlor. 6 trituration, in six grain doses night and morning.
April 2nd. Emansio mensium : she is probably enceinte. Herself she feels rather weak, but the tumour has much diminished.
R Tc. Thuja occidentalis, 30.
Patient needed no further treatment, the tumour quite disappeared, and in due time a baby came.
UTERINE FIBROID; SMALL TUMOUR ON LEFT BREAST. DISEASE OF LEFT NIPPLE.
An unmarried lady, 43 years of age, came under my observation on September 24th, 1881, for a severe sprain of the left ankle. It was several months before she got well, it being complicated by gout, dyspepsia, and dysmenorrhoea. The accident was a severe fall down stairs, and, in falling, she struck with great violence against the low part of the body, causing for many months much vesical trouble with metritis. The case was further complicated with attacks of breast-pang, and with fainting fits.
Evidently the fall had given her a rude shaking, and disturbed many important organs, the liver and spleen giving at times much trouble. This lady remained under my care, and very slowly got the better of most of the just described ailments, when, on March 14th, 1882, she took me so far into her confidence as to tell me she had, for the past four years, a little red lump on her left breast that discharged something. It was about the size of a hazelnut, and situated at the lowest outermost part of the left breast. With it there was much pain all down the left side.
At her next visit on April 19th, 1882, patient took me further into her confidence, and stated that she had been for some time getting very large in the uterine region,-in fact, the size had been noticed by strange ladies, who thought she was married, and was expectant. On this account alone the position was most painful. The case went on, the abdomen continued to increase in size, when, on November 23rd, 1882, I came to the conclusion, from an examination obtained with much difficulty, that it was a uterine fibroid.
The mammae became greatly hyper-trophied. I could never quite make up my mind where the fibroid really sat, and sometimes, from the hard nodes of the cervix uteri, I opined it might be a kind of fibrous hypertrophy of the whole organ. Very many remedies were used-Lappa major O, Thuja 30, Merc. met. 30, Lapis alb. 3, Aurum met. 100, Helonin, Kali chlor. 6, Aur. mur. 3x, Silicea 4, Bovista 3x, psor. 30,-but all with but little apparent effect. Moreover, the left nipple became the seat of most distressingly painful moist cracks, and which are particularly significant.
This brings the case down to August, 1883, when patient appeared like a lady about seven or eight months gone in the family way. To make matters worse, a child ran against her (impinging on the protuberant abdomen), and hurt her a good deal, when I gave platinum mur. 3x, but also to no good purpose.
Any wonder that patient was getting down-hearted ? Two years medication and bigger than ear ! And the doctor-are a few guineas any adequate reward for such responsibility ? Then came Bovista 3x, Mer. cor 5, Aur. mur. 3, Helonin 3x trit., when the breast was a good deal better, the cracks of the nipples better, and the little tumour drying up. The excoriation between the legs was described by the patient as dreadful; pain in the back very bad; disagreeable taste.
R Lapidis alb., 6 trituration.
January 10th, 1884. About the same in a general way; complains dreadfully of her back. This dreadful back distress finds a grand remedy in the virus of variola, which I gave in the 30th dilution, and in very infrequent doses; and anyone objecting thereto is answered thus : Aux grands maux les grands remedies.
February 14th. Seems to have done her back real good; left breast is much better; was so well that she absented herself for a few days. The same remedy was continued.
March 6th. Maintains that this last prescription did her harm, while the previous one did her much good, which I can well understand, viz., de trop of the right remedy. Back exceedingly bad; much frontal headache.
R Trit. 6 Calc. fluoris.
April 5th. Head better; back very painful when she walks; anorexia; bad nights.
26th. Has had a good deal of pain at the menses and in the left side; nights much better.
R Var.c.
May 29th. The nights continue good; much easier in general; is getting thin; was very stout, notably mammary hypertrophy; is very debilitated, but the tumour is decidedly smaller.
R Tc. Aur. mur. nat. 3x. Two drops in water night and morning.
July 10th. “Dreadfully sickly,” i.e. intense nausea; she feels very weak; tumour is much smaller.
R Psoricum 30
August 21st. Frequently faints away, at times falling down; less nausea; vision is failing.
R Thuja occidentalis 30.
September 6th. Is still giddy, but does not actually faint away; has menstruated three times in eight weeks; sick feeling gone; dreadful pain in the left side; toothache.
R Argent. nitric 5, 3iv. Five drops in water night and morning.
October 16th. Much enlargement of the spleen, which pains a good deal.
R Tc. Ceanothus Americanus 1x.
November 5th. No better.
Berberis vulgaris O.
January 9th, 1885. Breast well; the tumour of womb still very large, and patient has every appearance of being enceinte; wakes very early, and cannot get of again. (This is a capital indication for Bellis).
R Tc. Bellis per perennis 1.
29th, She now sleeps wells, and feels much easier in the abdomen. I would here interpolate a rather important clinical tip in regard to Bellis, viz., it is often curative of the symptom. “Wakes early in the morning and cannot get off again” ; and in cases of pregnancy and of uterine tumours (also enlarged heart), Bellis gives great ease in many cases, i.e., takes away the effects of mechanical pressure.
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.