Channels
In my practice and teaching I have found and taught four channels through which the indicated remedy must pass to reach the affected tissue or organ. Most remedies must go through the blood; Prussic acid and a few others being the exceptions. The blood may be reached through one of these routes, viz., the skin, the mucous membrane, the capillaries (inter-muscular) or direct into the blood stream through the coats of the veins. As a rule I choose the mucous membrane of the digestive tract.
Only occasionally do I go directly into the blood streams, but now and then I find that I cannot secure the desired results of a remedy through either of the other three routes. Frequently I make a local application of the remedy to the tissue for which I give it internally. This local application is frequently made to the mucous membrane rarely to the skin. It may be the mucous membrane of the nose, mouth, vagina or other organs of the body.
Preparation of Channels
To secure the best results from our indicated remedy the channels must be prepared, e. g., if the mouth and tongue of a typhoid fever patient be try or covered with sordes or other secretion thoroughly cleanse and moisten it before giving the medicine. The same rule should be observed for any other section of the mucous membrane or the skin.
Let us illustrate my meaning by citing one case of hundreds which I could easily recall. It was a case of a middle-aged, laboring man sick with typhoid fever. I was called in consultation with a brother Homoeopathist, an exclusive high- potency man, though not always confining himself to the single dose.
The patient lay on a dirty, filthy bed, mouth wide open, tongue brown, with red streaks through center and as dry as a chip. He was completely unconscious and had voided and defaecated involuntarily for three days. His temperature was 104.7, pulse rapid,140; weak and irregular. We had little trouble in deciding upon Arsenicum alb. as the remedy. The doctor then took out his little pocket-book medicine case, put about a grain of sac lac on a powder paper and on that ten little discs medicated with Arsenicum.
He then took up the powder paper and put the contents upon the patient’s tongue. When I said something, the doctor turned and asked as innocently as a child : “What’s the matter?” My reply was : “You might as well put your Arsenicum on the floor.” Again came, “Why?” and then, as an after-thought, “What would you do? ” In reply I told the man’s wife to get some warm water and soap, moisten and wash the patient’s mouth and then rinse it with clean water. I then called for a teacup of water, dissolved the doctor’s Arsenicum in it, and had the wife give it to the patient in tablespoon doses till all was taken as one dose.
I then suggested that the patient be given an enema. As there was no syringe in the house, I had the city nurse come and give the enema. Also, to give the patient a good bath with tepid water. The man got well. Why? Was it the Arsenicum, the enema, the preparing the channel, or nature, or all three combined? The doctor thought his Arsenicum did it. I thought all did it. The sad part of the case was that the good doctor failed to profit by the experience. A few months later friends of his patient forced him to call me. The case was very much like the first and the doctor’s treatment had been identically that of the first.
