After having taken this remedy unbeknown to himself, one drunkard will no longer have that thirst which leads him to drink wine; another will feel such a repulsion for that drink that he will no longer wish to drink anything but water; a third one, ceasing to be a drunkard, will not change any in disposition; a fourth one, on the contrary, after having been cured of drunkenness, will no longer be jealous, or sensitive, or easily angered, but will become amiable and obliging toward his wife and children. All that precedes gives a glimpse of the numerous individual modifications of dispositions which occur daily under the influence, either of the abandonment of drink, or the action of the remedies administered.
I cannot detail here the observations, daily increasing in number of men and women of all classes whom I have treated for drunkenness. In order to show the reader what psychical treatment can do against these passions, I shall only mention cases in which drunkenness was cured, rapidly or gradually by one, two or more remedies; other cases in which drunkenness (ameliorated, or done away with temporarily) again seized its victim to be again cured by the second treatment or not to be cured again at all if treatment was not resumed.
OBSERVATION I.
A young woman, 28 years old, had, for the past six years been getting drunk on brandy, to such an extent that her husband intended to apply for a divorce. She had formed this vicious habit during her first pregnancy, and since then during her first pregnancy, and, since then during her first pregnancy, and since then had continued it uninterruptedly. I gave six or seven globules of Nux vomica 200th, which were to be dissolved in a third of a glassful of water to be dissolved in a third of a glassful of water for a quarter of an hour; then this mixture, after having been thoroughly stirred with a small spoon for eight or ten minutes was to be poured into a soup, which was also to be thoroughly stirred with a spoon. This soup was to be eaten as the sole article of food for that meal, and no other food or drink was to be taken immediately before or after this. The solution of the remedy can also be poured into a cup of mild, cocoa, chocolate, coffee or tea, into a glass of pure or tea into a glass of pure or sweetened water, even into a glassful of wine, or a liquor-glassful of brandy.
This single remedy, which I directed should be thus administered to this lady unknown to her, cured her completely of her drunkenness.
Many readers will perhaps be astonished that a remedy in the 200th 10,000th dilution thus administered in food or drink, should nevertheless manifest its remedial properties. Experiments will prove the exactness of the fact, and, what is more, that the diluted remedies, which have passed the point of chemical reaction (as has been shown by Dr. L. L. Lembert), remain unaltered and retain their curative action even when they are administered in the midst or at the end of heart meal. I have noticed this in patients who, having misunderstood my direction, had taken their medicine under these conditions, one of them for instance, in a cup of coffee just after a meal. In this case a young man 29 years of age, a former soldier, to whom Staphis. 10,000th had been administered without his knowledge at intervals of eight months, produced exactly the same effect, which was undeniable in both instances. Still I avoid as possible having the remedy taken in this manner.
OBSERVATION 2.
A woman came to my dispensary saying; My husband has left me, and I have only my personal labor as a means to provide for my two children; but, unfortunately. I am addicted to a passion which may prevent my accomplishing it. As I keep a small saloon, I am induced unintentionally to drink too much wine and liquor. Have you remedies which would produce in me a disgust for drink I placed upon her tongue six or seven globules of Nux vomica 200th. Three weeks later she returned, saying: I do longer have a state for alcoholic drugs. Two or three weeks later she returned again, saying she was again forming a liking for these drinks. I again administered Nux vom 600th to cure this slight relapse.
OBSERVATION 3.
A married man, aged 39 years, had for ten months been drunk, licentious, very irascible, quarrelsome and loud-mouthed.
February 23rd, 886, he takes, unknown to himself, a dose of Laches. 200th.
March 16th slight amelioration of all his faults.
April 6th less cross, less irascible but still drinks. He takes Laches. 200th.
May 4th great amelioration of his disposition, but still drinks a little.
June 2nd he has not been drunk for two weeks and comes home earlier at night.
February 15th 1887, disposition very kindly but still drinks a little. He takes Laches. 200th.
March 15th he no longer gets drunk; he is no longer licentious.
April 12th amelioration continues.
May 24th the same.
His wife and children have left him and gone he knows not where, but he has not relapsed into drunkenness or licentiousness, two vice which have been cured by a single remedy, taken in three doses, at divers intervals.
OBSERVATION 4.
Consulted by a drunkard, I administered to him one dose of Nux vomica 200th or Laches. 200th. One year of later I learned that he had been so thoroughly cured of his passion that he no longer drank anything but sweetened water, and he felt such a disgust for wine that he had even stopped going to the public house in order to avoid seeing it drunk.
OBSERVATION 5
A woman, the owner of a vineyard, during her first pregnancy felt a disgust for all food except cheese, on which she fed almost exclusively. As this was insufficient as food, she drank wine in order to keep up her strength, or ate bread dipped in wine. Although she formed a habit of drinking more and more of it, until she had been getting drunk daily for at least eighteen months. When she drank she lay down, and thus spent one-half of the day in bed. As she drank in secret, I caused to be administered to her, without her knowledge, on the 11th of May, 1882, in a single dose, six or seven globules of Sulphur 5000th. The remedy cured her completely of her desire for drink, but a few weeks later she again took to drink, on account of her sorrow at seeing her crop destroyed by hail. Then, in order to dissipate this sorrow and its consequences, I caused to be administered to her, without her knowledge, on the 14th of June, a single dose of Nux vomica 10,000th, which cured her for good of her inclination to drink.
OBSERVATION 6
In a little work of sixty pages, entitled how Homoeopathic Treatment can Better the Disposition of Man and Develop his Intellect, which was published in 1882 in the Bulletin of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of France, then, later at the end of the second volume on my Clinical Talks, I related the following observation, which I summarize here because it is rather instructive.
A married man, sneaking, jealous, cross, had, for three years, been getting drunk every day, thirty times a month. He neglected his wife, his children, his business, and had spent in drink all his property.
November 19th, 1879, I had him take, without his knowledge, Laches. 2000th in a single dose. On the 17th of December following he was no longer jealous at all, and was beginning to be less sneaking and cross, but he got drunk just as often. Then he was given, without his knowledge, Laches. 200th in one dose. On the 28th of January, 1880, his wife informed me that her husband had got drunk only five times during the month instead of thirty. His disposition is still improving, he is better to his family and more careful of his business.
On June 9th I learned that he had got drunk only once since the 28th of January preceding.
On the 20th of October I was told that he had got drunk recently five times; then he was given without his knowledge one dose of Laches. 2000th.
On the 20th of December I learned that during the last month he had got drunk almost every day, six or seven times a week. Now he gets drunk on the sly. This latter symptom caused me to give him, without his knowledge, one single dose of Sulphur 5000th, which cured him of his desire for drink so thoroughly that, at his meals, he drinks only water like the other members of his family.
OBSERVATION 7
A married man, aged 41 years, psoriatic, industrious, mild tempered even while drunk, suffered from hereditary alcoholism and had been getting drunk since the age of 13 years.
February 28th, 1886, he takes Nux vomica without success.
March 16th, muscular pains in the calf and the hip. He takes Sulphur 300th.
April 13th, cured of muscular pains, but the drunkenness is kept up. He takes Nux vomica 200th.
May 4th, he still drinks, but can stand less wine. He takes Causticum 200th.
June 2nd, he has not got drunk since the 4th of May. His will is weak. He takes Petrol. 200th.
July 16th, his will is still weak. He takes Conium 6ooth.
August 31st, his reason having been developed by the preceding remedy, he avoids temptations to drink. Will is not strong. He takes Calcarea carb. 300th.
Jean Pierre Gallavardin (1825 – 1898) was a French orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy to gain international renown. Gallavardin was a Physician at the Homeopathic Hospital in Lyons.
Gallavardin set up a homeopathic Dispensary for the cure of alcoholics, often working in conjunction with priests, and he wrote several books on this subject.
Jean Pierre Gallavardin wrote Psychism and Homeopathy, The Homoeopathic Treatment of Alcoholism, How to Cure Alcoholism the Non-toxic Homoeopathic Way, Repertory of Psychic Medicines with Materia Medica, Plastic Medicine, and articles for The British Journal of Homeopathy, On Phosphoric Paralysis, and he collated the statistics on pneumonia and other cases for the United States Journal of Homeopathy, and he contributed widely to homeopathic publications.
