However, the question arises whether the 78 per cent. of so-called cures were real cures, whether the cures lasted, or whether the skin disease disappeared temporarily, and reappeared weeks or months afterwards, possibly in a greatly aggravated form. Besides, there is also the question whether the disappearance of the skin disease did not lead to its reappearance in another and far more dangerous form, whether the suppression of the eruption was not followed by heart disease, asthma, or some other grave sequel. Last, but not least, it is a well-known fact that statistics may be made to prove anything.
Medical statistics must be viewed with the same scepticism with which non-medical statistics are considered. Frequently it happens that another doctor or specialist used the same drug which yielded 78 per cent. of cures of psoriasis. He employs exactly the same drug, exactly the same methods, and then there may be an article which tells us that the drug was a complete failure, that only slight and temporary improvement occurred in a small number of cases, and that the majority of cases did not benefit in any way whatever.
Drugs have become commercialized to an incredible extent. As soon as a new drug appears, there is a rush for that drug on the part of doctors, partly owing to the pressure of patients, who wish that the new and wonderful drugs should be used on them. The results are often exceedingly unfortunate. Years ago, when Koch discovered Tuberculin, Tuberculin was praised by the general press as the perfect remedy for the white plague. At that time an uncle of mine, who was afflicted with tuberculosis, went to Berlin to be treated by Koch himself.
My father, who was an experienced conservative doctor, and a wise man, warned my uncle seriously against the new drug, the action of which was uncertain. However, my uncle tried the treatment. It damaged his constitution severely, and he nearly died. Hundreds of people in all parts of the world died from the Koch treatment, which, after a short time, was abandoned and Tuberculin was replaced by modified forms of the original drug. Kochs original Tuberculin has been practically abandoned.
Something similar happened when Ehrlich discovered his specific for Syphilis, which he called “606”. A single injection was to destroy the disease root and branch. The arguments and reports of cases, made it appear that “606” was the most wonderful drug ever discovered. It was used all over the world, and once more results were disastrous. Hundreds of people were gravely injured or killed by the remedy.
I, personally, refuse to employ any of the new remedies, however glowing the reports may be. I always remember the saying of my father, “Let other doctors experiment on their patients, I am not going to experiment on mine”. I employ only those remedies which I know are useful and harmless. The older the remedy, the better one can rely upon it. A century ago, bleeding was the great standby of the medical profession. People were bled for every disease known or unknown.
They were even bled when they had lost a great deal of blood through accident or disease. Bleeding and leeching have gone out of fashion. They have been replaced by the use of the subcutaneous syringe. Every doctor gives injections. They are considered the most scientific form of medication. It is true they are placed immediately into the blood-stream, but it is very doubtful whether the contamination of the blood by the numerous substances, proved, unproved, or insufficiently proved, injected into the blood-stream, ought to be used.
We know the immediate effect of certain subcutaneous treatments, but we know little or nothing of the more distant effects. I much fear that the rapid increase of cancer and other diseases may be largely due to the modern craze of suppression of skin disease, and to the pollution of the blood stream with the most ghastly substances evolved in the laboratories.
The orthodox doctor knows little about the evil effects of vaccination. Every homoeopath knows that vaccination is often followed throughout life by many serious consequences and disabilities, by the formation of soft growths such as moles, and by many inward complications. Such patients recover rapidly if vaccination is antidoted with Thuja, Vaccinosium, Variolinum, and other remedies.
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.