This little book is addressed to an orthodox doctor who declared that homoeopathy was quackery. After describing his own case Burnett describes a number of cases such as the following:.
“MENORRHAGIA OF FIFTEEN YEARS STANDING
CURED BY PHOSPHORUS”.
“The lady was 51 years old, and so you may call it metrorrhagia if you so prefer, but there had been no break in the menses, which were still regular. She came to me in October, 1882, and told me of her trouble, and that it dated from a miscarriage fifteen years before. She had often flooded at her confinements. Phosphorus 200 cured her. She went much smaller in the waist, and told me she felt like a young girl. She had other intercurrent remedies – Lachesis, Ferrum, Thuja and Arnica, but it was the Phosphorus that cured the haemorrhage, I having to return to it three separate times, with months between, and the last time I used Phosphorus 100th potency.
“Now I cite this case because it is purely and exquisitely homoeopathic, and yet the bulk of the homoeopathic practitioners in the world do not believe in what are called high dilutions, and for all that this case was cured by such dilutions. It follows that either they or I must be mistaken; the lady who was thus cured would laugh in your face if you were to ask her to believe that she received from me other very powerful remedies. And, indeed, they were very powerful. And just think of the gallons of Steel Drops and tonics that she had had in vain during those fifteen years of bleeding!”.
“CASE OF EXOSTOSIS OF RIGHT OS CALCIS CURED BY
HECLA LAVA”.
“Dr. Garth Wilkinson went once to Iceland for a holiday, and observed that the animals which fed in the pastures where the finer ashes of Mount hecla fall, suffered from immense maxillary and other exostosis. Being an adherent of the scientific system of medicine founded for us by Samuel Hahnemann, he brought some Hecla lava home with him, and it has been already successfully used to cure affections similar to those which it is capable of causing.
“On July 3rd, 1880, a young lady, aged 15, came under my observation with an exostosis on her right os calcis somewhat smaller and a little flatter than half a walnut shell. It was at times painful. Patient was in other respects in good health and well nourished, but her teeth were not very sound. She goes blue in winter, and suffers also very badly form chilblains both on hands and face, worse on hands.
“Rx Trit. 2 Hecla montis lavae, 5 iv.
“S – Six grains three times a day.
“17th. The exostosis is decidedly smaller; it never pains now. “September 25th. The exostosis has entirely disappeared; the two heels being compared, no difference between them can now be discovered.
“Hecla lavae has been shown to consists of silica, alumina, calcium and magnesium, with some ferric oxide. We are, therefore, not astonished that it can cause and cure exostosis.
“Brother allopath, this is science in therapeutics; what have you to take its place? Give absorbents and paint the part with iodine? What guarantee can you give me that your absorbents will not absorb a bit of the pancreas or some small glands in lieu of the exostosis?.
“Or you are, also, true to your principle: Contraria contraris curantur? Then pray tell me what is the contrary of an exostosis?”.
The Homoeopathic Publishing Company have brought out a catalogue of homoeopathic books, of 44 pages. I have turned up the page on which Burnetts books are mentioned. Fourteen of his books are still in print, and each of them is well worth buying. Most of them are quite cheap. I am sure that the reading of Burnetts “Fifty Reasons” has converted many earnest doctors and innumerable laymen to homoeopathy. Burnett was a truly great healer and a great innovator. We read that Robert Koch discovered the treatment of consumption with Tuberculin.
Long before he published his discovery Burnett had treated tuberculosis with its disease product which he called Bacillinum, and homoeopaths have used Bacillinum ever since. There is a great difference between Kochs Tuberculin and Bacillinum, which is, as a rule, used in a high potency. Tuberculin as originally given, and as still given, is an extremely dangerous product. It has caused disaster and death in many cases. Bacillinum has, to my knowledge, never upset a single patient. I, myself, have used it in hundreds of cases with the most gratifying results.
Those who wish to use homoeopathy without any previous study should obtain Dr. John H Clarkes “Dictionary of Domestic Medicine,” which is sold at 5s net. The reader will find an alphabetical lists of diseases and under the heading of each disease there is a brief description of the disease and its symptoms, and indications regarding treatment by diet, medicine, etc.
Dr. John H. Clarke was a contemporary of Dr. Compton Burnett. The two men were great friends. Compton Burnett had an enormous practice. In his spare time he wrote short books like his “Fifty Reasons”, most of which are out of print. Dr. John H. Clarke also wrote some shortish books for propaganda purposes, but he also published a magnificent work in four large volumes, “the Dictionary of Materia Medica”. It runs to about 3,000 pages, but unfortunately it has been out of print for years. Dr. John H. Clarke also brought out a small book called “The Prescriber”.
This is a handy pocket volume of 352 pages, and it is intended chiefly for the use of doctors, but laymen can also use it to great advantage. There is the usual alphabetical list of diseases. The list starts with Abdomen, Abortion, Abscesses, and ends with Wry Neck, Yawning, and Yellow Fever. With brevity and lucidity every diseases is dealt with and advice regarding treatment is given. The volume is preceded by an introduction of 77 pages with headings such as, “How to Practice Homoeopathy”, “Case Taking”, “The Homoeopathic Materia Medica”, “Indications from Hereditary and History” and so forth.
The whole book is extremely practical, and it has proved invaluable to thousands of doctors and laymen. I always have it with me and use it daily. It is sold in two editions, at 8s. 6d. bound in cloth, and at 10s. 6d. bound in leather. The edition before me is the eighth. The book has been translated into German and Spanish, and is published by the Homoeopathic Publishing Company.
While “The Prescriber” is addressed in the first place to doctors and to more advanced students of homoeopathy, there is a book which has been written principally for laymen. This is Ruddocks “Homoeopathic Vade Mecum of Modern Medicine and Surgery.” Dr. Ruddock was an excellent practising physician, and, like Drs. John H. Clarke and John Compton Burnett, was a man who wrote the plainest English. Ruddocks volume had considerably more than a thousand pages. Paper, printing and binding are excellent. The reading matter is easily understandable, and the book is extremely well arranged.
I believe 50,000 copies of this volume have been sold. I think it has gone through ten or more editions. There are chapters on Hygiene, Water, Air, Sunlight, Exercise, Clothing. There are chapters dealing with symptoms of disease, enabling the layman to study the pulse, breathing, the tongue, the skin, urine, to take the temperature, etc. Then there is practical advice on the use of homoeopathic remedies, advice on food and various forms of treatment such as fomentations, poultices, compresses and enemata.
Then comes a long section describing the principal diseases, their treatment, and giving indications of the homoeopathic drugs which should be employed. There is a section dealing with general diseases such as smallpox, cowpox, vaccination, chicken-pox, measles, scarlet fever, etc. Then comes a long section dealing with diseases of the nervous system such as meningitis, apoplexy, paralysis, infantile convulsions, sleeplessness, etc. Then come the sections dealing with diseases of the circulatory system, of the respiratory system, of the eyes, ears, nose, the digestive canal, and so forth. Accidents, tropical diseases, old age and senile decay, bunions, warts, ringworm, etc., are not forgotten.
The work is an encyclopaedia of the art of healing, written by a practical man for practical people. Then there is a large section describing the principal remedies and their use, and the clinical directory where we can find the principal remedies under headings such as menstruation, mental weakness, mesenteric disease, metritis, milk fever, milk leg, etc. The book is splendidly indexed.
It has proved invaluable to thousands of families for decades. It is sold at the very low price of 10s. 6d. I would give a brief sample which will enable readers to visualize what the book is like. We read under the heading, “Vomiting-Sickness”:.
“CAuses-Improper food or too large a quantity; a disordered condition of the digestive functions; pregnancy; disease or irritation in other organs, as the brain, kidney, uterus, etc.; cancer or ulcer of the stomach; mechanical obstruction of any part of the intestinal canal; morbid states of the blood; it also occurs in most of the eruptive fevers.
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.