A CASE OF DEAFNESS.
I HAVE just seen a deaf man, 37 years old, who lives in the South of London. He is comfortably off, has his own business, and he noticed that his hearing was gradually diminishing. At last he became alarmed. He went to his doctor and then saw two ear specialists, and to his horror both of them assured him that he was quite incurable. As usual they merely examined his ears, blew through the Eustachian tubes, and used a number of instruments which may impress the simple minded. The young man was in despair. He thought the case hopeless, but he was induced to visit me.
I saw the patient this morning. He is a magnificent specimen of manhood, is single, and has led a pure life and devoted all his spare time to training boys and young men. He has acted as a physical instructor and is a great athlete. He was a magnificent swimmer and boxer, was excellent in all gymnastic exercises.
His body is in perfect condition, he has a pure skin, clear eyes, powerful muscles, straight bones, a faultless digestion and excretion. He has never been ill, but when he was a boy of seven or eight he was operated on for appendicitis, and the surgeon probably blundered because the poor lad was on his back for more than a year, and a big operation had to be performed before recovery took place.
The doctors and the two specialists who had been consulted had only looked at the young mans ears. They were not interested in anything else. I enquired, of course, into the health history of his parents, and I heard that his father had had arthritis very badly for many years and that he had died a cripple.
His mother was slightly deaf. His parents had had three children, the magnificent physical instructor, and two daughters. One of the daughters suffered severely with arthritis in the hip. There was, therefore, the possibility that the development within the ears was arthritic.
The young man had never been ill, but he did not know whether he had had any serious childrens diseases. I asked him to enquire from his mother and let me know. I discovered that deafness began in the left ear and then spread to the right. Troubles which affect the left side of the body are very frequently due to vaccination. The patient had been vaccinated only once, as a baby. There were heavy vaccination marks. Consequently there was the possibility of vaccinial poisoning having affected the ears.
The patient was red-haired, blue-eyed, and had an ultra-delicate skin like a tender girl. He had all the characteristics found among those who need Phosphorus. There was, therefore, an indication for Phosphorus on account of his general appearance, especially as Phosphorus taken in large doses produces degeneration of the bones, and possibly the tiny bones within the ear had degenerated.
That degeneration might be stopped by Phosphorus given in a high potency. Then there was the possibility that the trouble was due to vaccinial poisoning. The obvious antidote was Thuja, which I usually give in high potency once a week. Then there was the possibility that the trouble was arthritic, and for this Silica was indicated, and this might be reinforced by Hecla lava which is a compound which contains Silica, and is extremely valuable for overgrowth of bones.
The young man had been living on the usual diet of civilization, white bread, white sugar, puddings made of devitaminized and demineralized flour, etc., and there was some slight delay in the bowel. Obviously it was desirable to put him on a fleshless and fishless diet to detoxicate his bowel and to purify his blood stream. As he had been deprived of bran all his life he was given bran in large quantities at every meal.
The patient had been very athletic since childhood. He had been boxing since he was a youngster, he had frequently been knocked down, had received many blows on the head, and there was the possibility, though perhaps slight, that an injury to the head might have caused his trouble. For injuries Arnica is a sovereign remedy, and therefore he was to be given Arnica.
I explained to the patient that I dealt not with the actual condition of the ears, which had been investigated by doctors and two specialists, but with the causation of the trouble, and I told him that possibly one of the factors mentioned might be responsible, that I did not by any means take a hopeless view of his case, that there was an excellent chance of his recovering his hearing, especially as I had succeeded in cases as bad as his worse, which had been declared incurable by the specialists, who examined the ears but failed to find the causation of the trouble.
For the first time he had received encouragement, not vague and foolish encouragement which is often given by doctors and specialists, but encouragement based on logic and common sense.
He left my consulting rooms with a happy smile and full of gratitude, and there is reasonable hope that either improvement will follow or that his affliction will not get worse. He will let me know whether he had any childrens diseases badly. His mother will undoubtedly remember. If he had measles badly I shall give him Morbillinum in a high potency, if he had scarlatina badly I shall give him Scarlatinum, etc.
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.