On July 19th the patient wrote : “My throat is not quite right yet, nor is my heart, but my health generally is improving, I am glad to say.” I continued medicines very much as before, and he was to take once a week Bacillinum 200. In all cases of chest weakness Bacillinum and Tuberculinum in high potency, once a week, do infinite good to patients.
During the winter preceding our first interview, the gentleman had gone to Jamaica in order to escape, the severe English climate. I told him that it was my aim to build him up to such an extent that he need not go to the West Indies, or some other warm place. I meant to make him strong enough to stand the rigour of the English climate. If a man with a poor chest has spent a few winters abroad, he is apt to become so delicate that a slight fall in the temperature, or a slight draught, may bowl him over. Besides, on his return from Jamaica the Admiral had had a severe attack of influenza, which had thrown him back very seriously.
I went on as before, and gave him occasionally doses of Baryta carbonica 6 for his voice, Causticum 6x for the same purpose, and Hyoscyamus for dry ticking cough, worse at night. This is a wonderful remedy for this condition. I had forbidden bromide, which the doctor had caused him to take every night, for bromide is a dangerous poison which is rather recklessly prescribed by orthodox doctors.
Instead of this, he was to take Coffea tosta in the 30th potency. Coffea is excellent for sleeplessness caused by very active brain, and the medicine suited him well. Coffea by the decillionth night after night for millions of years, if he wished to absorb a single grain of coffee.
On September 2nd, he reported : “My heart, I believe, is improving, and I have very little bronchial trouble. I had a chill a few days ago through going out with insufficient clothes, but it was quite cured by taking a few doses of Aconite”.
On September 21st, when severe weather was drawing high, he reported : “I am glad to say that I am continuing to do well, and my bronchitis so far is not affecting me. My throat is better, though it is still very easily irritated, and I have had one or two choking fits. The hoarseness, however, is much less tiresome”.
I went on as before, and gave him doses of Thyroid 2x to increase his appetite and improve his digestion. As hoarseness continued troubling him, I sent him Stannum 3, Arum triphyllum 3x, and Argentum nitricum 3x marked “A”, “B”, and “C”, suggesting to him that he should experiment with these medicines, concentrating on the most helpful one.
On October 8th I saw the patient once more, and had him to dinner. After our interview, I wrote : “You look wonderfully well, and I did not notice any wheezing or throat trouble”.
On October 13th I saw him again, and wrote to him : “I never saw you look so well as you did this afternoon.” In view of the severe weather approaching, I wrote and suggested that he should rub oil into the whole body every day. My patient was apt to get drenching sweats, and then catch chills. I sent him Quinine hydrochloride tabloids of two grains each, one or two to be taken as needed. Unfortunately he was quite intolerant to Quinine, a fact which I did not know. Quinine upset him badly. That is a danger which must always be considered in medication.
A severe chill which he got in October caused a great deal of discomfort and suffering, and then there were attacks of rheumatism, lumbago, and so forth. I tried to deal with his profuse perspiration, which arose from an over-heated system, with Sulphur 6x, and with Jaborandi 3, and I frequently gave him Phosphorus 3 marked “Loose cough”, which suited him particularly well.
On November 3rd he wrote : ” I was much better yesterday, except for a bad loose cough, and your Phosphorus 3 had certainly a good effect, but I continue to suffer from much very profuse perspiration.” I came to the conclusion that the officer needed building up, that this appetite was insufficient. I therefore sent him Gentian and China, both in the mother tincture, in combustion, five to twenty drops to be taken half an hour before meals, and to improve his digestion, appetite, and to reduce perspiration, he was to take ten drops of diluted Hydrochloric acid in water after meals.
These medicines proved helpful. It will be noticed that in this case, as in so many complicated cases, I had to give a very week in accordance with changing symptoms. Towards the end of November he had an attacks of lumbago, which I treated with Macrotinum 1x and Bryonia 1x. They were to be taken in alternation, a dose every half hour or hour. These medicines helped both the lumbago and the cough.
Although the Admiral improved steadily, he had many setbacks, and the throat continued delicate and sore. On December 17th I wrote to him that I was wondering whether the throat trouble was due to a natural weakness, or to the excision of the tonsils. Very frequently tonsillectomy leads to chronic sore throats. The patient replied that he thought the throat trouble was due to natural weakness from which he had been suffering for forty years, which means many years before the tonsils were taken out.
I continued medication more or less as before, and steadily went on with Phosphorus, which was his special medicine.
The winter of 1937-1938 was an extremely severe and searching one. There were raw, clod winds, and much wet. However, instead of spending the winter in the South, or in the tropics, my patient stopped in England, enjoyed the open air, and was not bowled over by it. On January 7th, 1938 he wrote : “I have just got through three days shooting, and I am feeling very well except for my throat, which is not very strong”.
I then tried strengthening his throat by instructing him to rub in a lotion in which Arnica and Bryonia were combined. Sometimes these outward applications are very helpful. On January 19th my patient wrote : “I am very well except for a little wheezing at night, which is relieved by Phosphorus 3.” I then tried Mercurius cyanatus, which is a specific for diphtheria.
On February 17th, the Admiral wrote : “I have had no cause to take any medicine for the last week. A happy situation after taking things every day for the last nine months. No doubt your treatment has been most successful.” My patient had so much improved that he could take liberties with his medicines, and could take liberties in going about. On February 25th he visited me once more, and afterwards, I wrote to him : “I was extremely delighted to see you. You look wonderfully well, and your chest trouble has practically disappeared.
Bronchitis and asthma seem to have gone, and I hope they will not return. On the other hand your mucous membranes are still in a poor condition. Your throat trouble started after measles, when you were eleven years old, and you have had a delicate throat ever since. I hope to get these mucous membranes into order, although that may take a little time, possibly a considerable time”.
I then gave him Arsenic 3, a dose to be taken every morning, for preventing him from catching colds, and every night he was to take a dose of Phosphorus 3 for the same reason. Then he got a bad chill through getting very hot when shooting and then being exposed to icy draughts. I tried Quinine hydrochloride once more, and once more it upset him badly. Quinine in orthodox doses is a dangerous medicine. He also could not inhale steam from a jug, which in most cases of bronchitis acts very well indeed.
It had taken me about a year to get the patient into something like order. When he came to me he looked extremely frail, and he had been very depressed by the fact that an attempt to escape the rigour of the English winter had been a failure, because on his return form Jamaica he had been attacked by influenza, which had left him very weak. He loved England, loved his country place, loved shooting, and did not like to go abroad. I enabled him to pass an extremely severe winter in England, and he spent much of the time in the open air, shooting and enjoying himself. He had so many health troubles that it was quite impossible to treat him with a few medicines.
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.