JENNY, the first child of her young parents, was very ill. Everybody in the house was upset. Mother had not had her clothes off for nights, father telephoned several times a day to know how she was. The doctor was perturbed, as the distressing vomiting still went on, in spite of all the various medicines that were tried. The great Man was called in to give weight to the doctors opinion, but he was puzzled and talked learnedly of a germ that might have attacked the child. All he could suggest was another consultation on the following day and removal to the Childrens Hospital for further investigation.
A friend of the family who had experienced the wonderful results of homoeopathy heard of this illness, and discussed it with a doctor of the new school, who, on hearing the symptoms, intense craving for cold water with vomiting almost as soon as it had been swallowed, suggested Phosphorus as the indicated remedy. But the parents were blind, and certainly would never hear of any unorthodox treatment.
But Miss A. was determined to give Homoeopathy a chance. She found, on arriving at the house, how done-up the mother was and how much she wanted recreation. So she sent her out for an hours walk and promised to look after Jenny meanwhile. Poor Jenny did look ill ! She was lying back in her little cot all white, and appeared barely conscious and so weak after all that vomiting.
For days she had not been able to keep anything down. Miss A. Hesitated. Should she, or should she not, give the Phosphorus she had brought along with her ? The desire to help the child conquered, and the phosphorus was secretly given before the mother returned home.
The next day Miss A. rang up in fear and trembling, and enquired how dear little Jenny was,. to be told joyfully by the mother that the darling had quite suddenly taken a turn for the better. In fact when the two doctors had arrived, she had been playing very gaily with her toys in her pen and had crowed and laughed at them, and previously to that she had demanded and eaten her usual breakfast and kept it down !
The Great Man was very astonished at this unexpected sequel, and talked learnedly of “food pocket in the stomach” that had suddenly emptied itself, and after emptying allowed the rest of the food to be retained. He had to say something-poor man-to cover up his ignorance. The friend, who had secretly performed the miracle by giving the Phosphorus, chuckled quietly to herself, and shared the joke later with the homoeopath-this joke against the old school prejudice.
You will want to know what happened to little Jenny ? Well, she never looked back after this, and had no return of the vomiting, and soon got fit and well again.
As one swallow does not make the summer, you will say, neither does one case prove that this sudden recovery was due to the phosphorus. It was probably only a coincidence. But if you watch and have much to do with sick folk, you will frequently come across cases of gastritis who show these peculiarities-great thirst, desire for cold water, constant nausea except when something cold is taken into the stomach, bringing up everything, even the cold water for which there is such a craving and which comes back as soon as it gets warm in the stomach.
Give Phosphorus in a case like that, and you will cure the sickness very rapidly. You get such a combination of symptoms in the vomiting of early pregnancy, and the young mother will be very grateful to you if you relieve her of this unpleasant trouble so easily and so quickly with phosphorus.
Many years ago I had a serious case of protracted vomiting in a young baby, when I was acting locum for another doctor in a babies ward. Nothing would help. So in desperation I sent round some Phosphorus, and lo and behold it did the trick at once. Weeks later the other doctor rang me up and enquired what the pills were I had left in the ward and which the nurses had found so wonderfully efficacious in cases of gastritis.
She was rather incredulous when I told her it was phosphorus, as she had never heard of it before. Being fairly broad-minded, she continued to give it, because she could not help noticing the difference in the babies afterwards.
There are many other medicines for vomiting, and you will not cure all cases of vomiting with phosphorus; only those cases which have this craving for cold water, this special great thirst for quantities of cold water, which eases the nausea at first and then is all pumped up again in a short time. And grown-ups will tell you that they have an aversion and great dislike for tea, even though they are very fond of it as a rule.
This attention to even the smallest details is most important, if you wish to be able to cure people of their ills according to homoeopathic rule.
N.B.– The next time you see a real :Big Wig” enquire of him what a “food pocket in the stomach” is. There aint no such think, Im thinking.
