Doctrine of Chronic Diseases Contd



Congenital faulty constitutions therefore must be regarded as one great source of chronic diseases; but an individual may possess this vice of constitution and still remain healthy, until something occurs to stir up the latent disease. Now, as Griesselich has shown, itch and its improper treatment may be and undoubtedly is a powerful agent for rousing to full activity the latent disease; but this property it does not by any means exclusively possess, for many morbific influences are equally capable of doing the same. Great errors or insufficiency of diet, dissipation, violent mental emotions, exposure, hard work, most of the acute exanthemata, such as measles, scarlatina, small-pox, the shingles, and other acute diseases, as the mumps, the whooping-cough, fevers of many kinds, are fertile causes, by the derangement of the health they produce, of rendering the latent constitutional vice obvious and stirring it up into a fully developed disease, and even by the structural changes they may produce in the organism of giving rise primarily to chronic diseases, where no congenital vice and no latent seeds of disease are present.

To infer the miasmatic origin of chronic diseases on account of their incurability by the natural powers was evidently not a logical conclusion; for, as Griesselich justly remarks, most of the miasmatic diseases we are acquainted with are readily overcome by nature, witness the spontaneous cures of measles, scarlatina, etc. etc.

It is remarkable how extremes meet in Hahnemann’s mental organization. In his homoeopathic law we have the principle of extreme, we might say excessive, individualization, whilst the psora-theory is an illustration of the opposite extreme of generalization. Hahnemann had before this, in his coffee-theory of chronic diseases, which he afterwards retracted in favour of psora, exhibited the same tendency to generalize, and the incubation period of his coffee-theory, curiously enough, corresponds almost precisely with that of his psora-theory. Thus he tells us that the latter occupied his thoughts for about twelve years before he gave it to the world, and we have evidence from his writings that the coffee-theory engaged his attention for a nearly equal period.

Thus we find in his friend of Health, published in 1792, various hints as to coffee being at the root of many chronic diseases, and his famous essay on the manifold hurtful effects of this common beverage was published in 1803; and we have seen that the germ of his psora-theory, which was finally promulgated in 1828, is discoverable in an essay he wrote in 1816. It would have been a great boon to pathological science had Hahnemann, in place of confounding all skin diseases together under the one head of psora or itch, carefully individualized all skin diseases, and endeavoured to discover the particular internal diseases with which it is probable each is in a certain measure connected.

I was glad to observe, at the French Homoeopathic Congress of 1851, that a beginning in this direction was made by Dr. Nunes of Madrid, in a paper he read at the Congress. He therein endeavoured to show the connection of herpetic and other eruptions with internal diseases, according to the portion of the body they occupied. The following is a summary of Dr. Nunez’s observations with reference to the connection between the seat of the cutaneous affection and the internal organ affected. Of course they will require confirmation by other observers before they can be received as undoubted facts.

1. When herpetic eruptions, especially eczema on the anus and scrotum, are driven off, there follow, sooner or later, serious, even organic, liver diseases. On the other hand, liver complaints are often materially benefited by the appearance of herpes on the anus.

2. The suppression of herpes on the lower extremities, especially the legs, is often followed by liver complaints, but more frequently by affections of the stomach and other parts of the digestive organs (the bowels).

3. Prurigo on the scrotum and penis has a relation to impotence and seminal emissions. The former he found always to depend on such herpetic eruptions, when debauchery was not the cause of it.

4. The disappearance of eczema behind the ears in children is frequently followed by troublesome cough.

5. Phthisis pulmonalis is a frequent consequence of suppressed eruptions on the head, especially tinea.

6. The suppressions of humid herpetic eruptions on the arms and hands disposes to phthisis laryngea, and, on the other hand, affections of the larynx are often relieved by the appearance of eruptions on the arms.

7. The suppressions of dry eruptions (lichen on the palm of the hand often causes nervous asthma.

8. Eye affections of children and scrofulous subjects are often connected with eruptions behind the ears.

9. Scabs in the nose and nostrils and erysipelatous swellings of the nose have a connection with discharges from the ears.

10. Acne rosacea and certain heart affections have a mutual dependency.

Carrying out his views into the Materia Medica, Dr. Nunez finds that the remedies useful in certain liver complaints, e.g., nux vom., kali, lach., arsen., lycop., graph., calc., sep., sulph., etc., have among their symptoms, itching herpetic eruptions on the arms and on the legs; that the medicines useful for impotence, lycop., ign., ambr., natr. mur., calc., phos., sep., carbo veg., produce herpes and itching on the scrotum and penis; and the medicines useful in acne rosacea, bell., ars., rhus, calc., phos., nitr. ac., sulph., etc., display marked heart symptoms. (Journ. de la Soc. Gall. vol.ii., Oct. Dec.)

This is a subject well worthy the attention of practitioners, and careful observation may yet be productive of useful practical results, for it cannot be doubted that many chronic maladies are connected with cutaneous affections of different sorts, just as many acute febrile diseases have their peculiar exanthemata.

In pronouncing a verdict of condemnation on Hahnemann’s psora- theory as it stands, I would once more briefly recapitulate those points which I believe to have led Hahnemann to adopt it.

1. His non-discrimination of the different varieties of skin diseases, referring all or most of them to the itch.

2. The bad effects resulting from extensive skin diseases and their faulty treatment on the general organism, more especially where there is a constitutional weakness, either congenital or acquired from exposure to some of the many inimical and morbific influences.

3. The connection of many chronic diseases with exanthemata.

4. Hahnemann’s vicious system of reasoning that because a disease was curable by his so-called antipsorics, it therefore originated from itch.

5. His non-recognition of hereditary diseases, or congenital constitutional faults.

At the same time I am free to confess that the psora-doctrine has not been without a beneficial influence on homoeopathic practice, for it has led us to inquire more carefully into the antecedents of diseases, and not to rest content with a mere comparison of the symptoms actually present with the recorded effects of medicines; and, finally, to it we are indebted for a large array of very useful medicines of a wide sphere of action; but at the same time it has opened a door to much slovenly treatment and sulphur-giving, to eradicate the presumed psoric virus, in many cases where sulphur was not in the very slightest degree indicated.

Now, as regards the treatment of itch, that presumed source of so many human ills, I believe there are few homoeopathists, capable of accurately diagnosing the disease, who pretend to be able to cure it, acarus and all, with one or two globules of the 30th dilution of sulphur. Dr. Puffer, formerly alluded to, and Dr. Gueyrard, both defenders of Hahnemann’s psora-theory, admit that they cannot cure itch without external remedies; and it is recorded against us that Dr.Steinestel, who undertook to cure itch homoeopathically better than Dr. Klein allopathically, signally failed in his attempt, for notwithstanding that he at length had recourse to the external use of sulphur and baths, Dr. Klein cured his cases much quicker with soap alone. (Brit. and For. Medorrhinum Rev., vol.iv.p. 514.)

I have attempted many times to cure the itch according to Hahnemann’s directions, but have never succeeded in the very slightest degree. The disease depending on the existence in the skin of a parasitic animal, the main indication to be attended to is the destruction of this troublesome vermin. As the habitat of this insect is limited to certain definite parts of the skin, our applications for its destruction should be limited to those parts. Experience has shown that many substances are capable of effecting its slaughter. Sulphur, in the form of tincture or ointment, mercurial ointment, preparations of lead and copper, oil of turpentine, and finally, simple fatty substances and soft soap, are all capable of producing the desired result.

The treatment I and others have found quite successful is to ascertain, from the presence of the canaliculi, where the acarus is, and in recent cases it will generally be found to be confined to the hands and wrists; these parts are be washed once or twice a day with a mixture of flowers of sulphur and spirits of wine. In a few days the animals are all destroyed, and the general eruption will go off in a few more days, quicker probably if assisted by the internal administration of a few doses of sulphur, either in tincture or a lowish dilution. If we object to the external employment of sulphur, we may succeed equally well by the dirtier plan of larding the parts infested with the acarus with simple ointment, cold cream, soft soap, or cod-liver oil, giving sulphur internally at the same time. Baths, cleanliness, and frequent changes of linen are important adjuncts to the treatment.

R.E. Dudgeon
Robert Ellis Dudgeon 1820 – 1904 Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh in 1839, Robert Ellis Dudgeon studied in Paris and Vienna before graduating as a doctor. Robert Ellis Dudgeon then became the editor of the British Journal of Homeopathy and he held this post for forty years.
Robert Ellis Dudgeon practiced at the London Homeopathic Hospital and specialised in Optics.
Robert Ellis Dudgeon wrote Pathogenetic Cyclopaedia 1839, Cure of Pannus by Innoculation, London and Edinburgh Journal of Medical Science 1844, Hahnemann’s Organon, 1849, Lectures on the Theory & Practice of Homeopathy, 1853, Homeopathic Treatment and Prevention of Asiatic Cholera 1847, Hahnemann’s Therapeutic Hints 1847, On Subaqueous Vision, Philosophical Magazine, 1871, The Influence of Homeopathy on General Medical Practice Since the Death of Hahnemann 1874, Repertory of the Homeopathic Materia Medica, 2 vols 1878-81, The Human Eye Its Optical Construction, 1878, Hahnemann’s Materia Medica Pura, 1880, The Sphygmograph, 1882, Materia Medica: Physiological and Applied 1884, Hahnemann the Founder of Scientific Therapeutics 1882, Hahnemann’s Organon 1893 5th Edition, Prolongation of Life 1900, Hahnemann’s Lesser Writing.