Chapter 2 – Case 1


A case of menorrhagia elaborated to show homeopathy doctors take a case and assess the importance of symptoms….


Let us take the following case as an illustration : Fannie J., jolly, good-natured; light complexion; five feet two inches tall; weighing 140 pounds; pale-faced; colorless lips; cold, clammy hands and feet, came into my office with the following Entrance Complaint: “What can you do to cure my cold and lessen my menstrual flow?” In this case it was not necessary for me to go to any repertory or materia medica to find out that she was a Calcarea carb. patient.

Nevertheless I then took my notebook and pencil and secured the following symptoms, family and personal histories, for the purpose of having the record for my files. “Mother living, strong, healthy as were all of her people. Father was a short, chunky, light-complexioned man, whom I resemble. He died when I was three years old of an acute attack of pneumonia. He was always subject to colds and catarrh, as was his mother and her people. His mother died of tuberculosis, as did also one of his sisters. I was slow in learning to walk, not being able to do so until I was eighteen months old.

I did not have any teeth until I was thirteen months old, and my first teeth decayed very early. I had what they called `capillary bronchitis’ at eight years of age and came near dying. I matured at 12. Preceding that, however, I had profuse vaginal discharge for several months. The discharge was thick but did not irritate much. The menses have been coming anywhere from eighteen to twenty-four days; the flow quite profuse for six or seven days, and then the discharge I spoke of is more profuse for about a week after the menses cease.

My feet and hands are always cold and clammy. I perspire easily and there is a sour, musty odor to the sweat. I crave sour things to eat and drink; often have heartburn; milk disagrees; frequently vomit undigested food, and my bowel movements, which are generally loose, contain particles of undigested food.”

You see, this is a typical case for Calcarea carb. for this particularly group of that remedy.

The Calcarea carb. was given in the 3rd, five grains ten minutes before each meal and at bedtime, till after the next menstrual period. Her diet to be fruit, fish, vegetables, coarse bread-corn or whole wheat-no tea or coffee, but a good deal of unfermented grape juice. She reported ten days after the next period; “Went twenty-five days and the flow was not so bad, nor did it last as long as usual.”

Continued the same medicine in the same potency, but only mornings and evenings, and asked her to report in a month, which she did, as followers: “Time just the same-26 days; flow less in both amount and duration; leucorrhoea less; feet and hands warmer; but I have lost seven pounds of flesh the past two months.” Remedy discontinued. She continued to improve in every way. Fifteen months after beginning treatment her weight was only 114 pounds, and her statement was that she never had felt so well in her life.

George Royal
George Royal M. D, born July 15, 1853, graduated New York Homœopathic Medical College 1882, served as president of the American Institute of Homœopathy, professor of materia medica and therapeutics, and also dean of the College of Homœopathic Medicine of the State University of Iowa.