Mrs. N. D. J., thirty-four years old.
Apr. 25, 1191. Tubercular glands of right side of neck. These were cut out. Rigg’s Disease. Bilious disorders- subject to vomiting of bile. Hands and feet cold. Apprehensive; disposed to worry; weeps easily. Prefers cold to beat. Better in motion than in rest. Tuberc. 10m.
May 9. Another lump discovered. Craves coffee. Worse in damp, cloudy weather. Sach, lactis.
May 22. Tuberc. 10m.
July 5. Stronger and generally much improved. Tuberc. 50m.
Sept. 13. Feels perfectly well; glandular swelling disappeared completely.
For a better appreciation of these records, the reader should study the provings of, and the indications for the remedies prescribed. (See “Tuberculinum” in March Homoeopathician, “Calcarea carb.,” in Kent’s Materia Medica, and other presentations of these remedies, elsewhere.)
Patients with such glandular disorders present themselves to the physician with few or no other complaints. They seek a removal of these, and having slight suffering elsewhere, at times offer no characteristics such as the prescriber seeks as a basis for remedy selection. Then the remedy most similar in its effects to the nature of the disorder must be used.
In the first case of this series, improvement occurred for a year, under the influence of the same remedy. repeated at intervals as return of symptoms demanded. In this time pregnancy, parturition, and lactation aroused no increased disturbance, but the improvement continued throughout. This should encourage others to expect benefit from treatment even when serious conditions are present.
The change from progress to decline, after the first year of treatment would appear alarming except that the prescriber learns to welcome any symptoms that develop as a guide for treatment, the symptoms forming the image of the remedy which the patient requires. Developing symptoms indicate the power of the system to express the internal disorder; reaction of the patient to the remedy thus demanded measures the ability to recover. In this instance the reaction was all that could be desired after the administration of Calcarea carb.
When its influence appeared to cease, localization of the disorder in the glands occurred, with more activity there. Then again the remedy most similar in action to the process of local degeneration no other characteristics of the patient being present-continued the work of restoration.
The records of these cases are but outlines for the study of the doctrines, but for the ambitious student who wishes to master the application of the doctrines, they form a sufficient text.
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.