Homoeopathic treatment helps the patient to overcome infection by raising resistance; chemotherapy by damaging the pathogenic micro-organism. Both therapeutic measures can be given together, but it is better to avoid the disadvantages and dangers of chemotherapy, immediate and remote, if that can be done. By the raising of resistance, complications and sequelae are minimal. There are two great advantages of homoeopathic treatment in dealing with infections of all kinds, one of which is of special significance in paediatrics. Firstly, the nature of the infection is, generally speaking, of no importance, virus diseases yield as readily as bacterial infections. There is no problem of natural or acquired insensitivity to chemotherapeutic agents. In overwhelming infections or where the indications for a homoeopathic remedy are not clear, or an apparently well- indicated remedy does not work, or in surgical conditions when an internal antiseptic is required, chemotherapy may be invaluable. It is customary in homoeopathic hospitals to test for drug sensitivity in all severe infections and chemotherapy is kept in reserve. When such treatment is given it is usual to treat homoeopathically as well, because chemotherapy has no direct effect on the patient except sometimes an adverse one. Successful homoeopathic prescribing will raise resistance. In the Children’s Ward of the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital a record is being kept of all admissions of acute bronchitis and pneumonia. The record starts in 1948, and of the first fifty cases under the age of two, there were no deaths. Only nine of these cases received chemotherapy. Between 1948 and early 1953 there were 92 cases of pneumonia admitted to the ward, and of these 64 received nothing but homoeopathic treatment. There was one death, a boy of five years who suffered from muscular dystrophy and was admitted in a moribund state during his third attack of pneumonia. There were 74 cases of acute bronchitis, of which 62 received only homoeopathic treatment. There were no deaths. Oxygen was administered by tent in all cases when indicated. In 1911, Dr. Robertson Day compiled a record of 400 cases of pneumonia treated in the hospital between 1900 an 1910. The mortality rate was about 50 percent of the average mortality rate in a number of children’s hospitals. In the under-two group, the figures were considerably more in favour of homoeopathic treatment. The second advantage of homoeopathy in this sphere is that lack of resistance to infection in the neonatal period and in the under- two’s is a paediatric problem which the application of Homoeopathy could help to solve. Any acceptable solution would constitute a major advance in paediatrics.
He was the Dean of Faculty of Homeopathy London. D. M. Foubister was Assistant Physician, Diseases of Children, to the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital. Circa 1950’s. He authored the following works:
The Carcinosin Drug Pictures.
Constitutional Effects of Anaesthesia.
Homeopathy and Pediatrics.
Lac caninum.
Paediatrics
Significance of Past History in Homoeopathy.
Therapeutic Hints For Students.
Tutorials On Homeopathy.