Some years ago, when gunning in the southwest, it was rumored among the people that a city doctor was in the land, and I was waited upon frequently for remedies, as they rarely had such a chance among the ranches. One young man who came to me excited my pity. Having no time to take his case with care, no paper upon which to write out his symptoms, it was possible only to make a good first guess and hope for the best.
Describing the young man from memory could be but a mild picture of the real case. He was a constant taker of all drugs for “the blood” that he could procure cash to buy. He had taken all the roots, barks and leaves that grew in that wild country. His face was red and chapped, lips and eyelids checked with fissures. Green discharges from his eyes, which looked hideous from ectropion. Green thick discharges from the nose. The extremely thick skin of the inside of the hands was chapped, cracked and bleeding. Acrid tears had burned roads down the cheeks. During the last five years he had morning diarrhoea. In spite of these sufferings he had a good appetite, and kept his place in the saddle as a “cowboy.” It was while in the saddle I gained this information, and then remarked, “Are you happy, and do you enjoy life?” “Doctor, you do not know how hard I have worked to keep from blowing my head off with this thing” (a six- shooter hanging at his belt). Before he made this remark it had not dawned upon me what his remedy was. In fact I could see only Sulphur in what had appeared. Now Natrum-sulph. came in view, and from my case a 500th potency, one dose, was put upon his tongue. I never expected to see him again, but he asked me for my address. I gave it to him, and some time after he wrote for more of that wonderful medicine. It was never changed. Some two years later he ceased to ask for it. His last letter showed a perfect cure of the eruption, ectropion, diarrhoea and finally of the man. This case again shows the importance of mental symptoms in the cure of deep- seated conditions. Eversion of the lids has been cured by sulph, but not before by Nat-sulph., although Natrum mur. has shown curative action in this relation frequently. Nat-sulph. will do more when handled properly in the hands of a Homoeopath than Schussler ever dreamed of.
In 1881, Kent accepted a position as professor of anatomy at the Homeopathic College of Missouri, an institution with which he remained affiliated until 1888. In 1890, Kent moved to Pennsylvania to take a position as Dean of Professors at the Post-Graduate Homeopathic Medical School of Philadelphia. In 1897 Kent published his magnum opus, Repertory of the Homœopathic Materia Medica. Kent moved to Chicago in 1903, where he taught at Hahnemann Medical College.