Many of Hahnemann’s disciples have thought it advisable to depart from the Master’s rule relative to the inadmissibility of the local application of remedies, and in some cases with apparently very happy results. Thus Dr. Gross, (Allg. hom. Ztg., viii., No.7.) in a case of obstinate ulcer of the leg, in an old woman, of seventy, employed lachesis locally to the sore with the most perfect success; this ulcer, which had previously resisted all the remedies used, healed up perfectly in three weeks. He relates in the same place several other case of ulcers, where the external application of lachesis and of silicea was attended by the best effects. Elsewhere, (Archiv, xv. 3, 40.) he related a case of ulcers on the calf of the leg, which he treated successfully with rhus locally applied, after a very odd fashion, for it appears he sprinkled the sores with globules of the medicine in the 30th dilution.
Dr. Schron (Hygea, ix. 426.) while agreeing with Hahnemann that chancres, condylomata, ulcers etc., should be treated by general internal remedies, on account of their intimate connection with the organism at large, of whose morbid state they maybe considered the barometer, is yet disposed to employ in very obstinate cases local as well as internal remedies.
Dr. Backhausen (Hygea, xi. 306.) is a great for the local employment of remedies. This method is consonant with both theory and experience. Burns, he says, are cured by rhus externally; dysentery by clysters of corrosive sublimate; ophthalmias by sulphur and staphysagria externally. All homoeopathists, he further remarks, are familiar with the good effects of the local application of arnica in contusions, and or rhus in sprains. Backhausen’s notion in that the medicine, in order to cure, must exert its action on the actual seat of the disease; and such being the case, it is, says he, a roundabout method to give the remedy by the mouth, when it is possible to bring it to bear at once of the affected part. The medicinal action he compares to the morbific cause, both commence primarily at a small spot and then proceed to spread throughout the organism.
Griesselich (Handbuch, 279.) defends and advises the external local employment of medicines in many cases, such as ophthalmia, toothache, and other neuralgias, and speaks favorably of the employment of an ointment composed of lard and calomel for indurated cartilaginous chancres, as Ricord advises. He also alludes to case of hydrocele, that was cured by the local employment of arnicated compresses. Dr. Veith (Hydea, v. 449.) recommends the rubbing in of chamomilla over the seat of the pain in sciatica. Koch (Ibid., xiii. 85.) relates the case of an officer who had suffered for fifteen years from prolapsus ani, the result of badly treated haemorrhoids, who after trying in vain many remedies, including the water-cure under Preissnitz, was cured by the use of clyster composed of cold water combined with a very minute quantity of tincture of nux vomica, scarcely amounting to half a drop in each clyster. In two days the pain, which had been of a burning smarting character, was gone, and in a fortnight he passed his motions without any prolapsus. Since then his complaint returned once with an attack of diarrhoea, but when that was cured he never was troubled any more with his disagreeable malady.
Mayrhofer recommends anointing the mouth of the uterus, when in a state of spasmodic contraction, with belladonna ointment. Segin advises us to expose the inflamed eye to the steam from an infusion of euphrasia. AEgidi employed the remedies in compresses, collyria, injections. Patzack recommends he use of the leaves of the pine in a bath in certain maladies.
Dr. Trinks, (Handbuch, Einleit, 1xvi.) while admitting that certain diseases, such as scabies and syphilis, are at first purely local, and may be extirpated by local remedies, without any disagreeable consequences, is of opinion that theses cases are so exceptional as not to be capable of serving as a guide, and moreover that even in these very instances the most disastrous consequences occasionally ensue from their local treatment. Hence he “damns with faint praise” this technicality.
Dr. Lippe of Philadelphia, who, if I mistake not, has a fancy to be thought rather a strict Hahnemannian, has recently published an essay on the treatment of burns, which he recommends to be treated locally by the specific remedy. Slight burns of the skin without vesication are, he says, to be treated by the local employment of hamamelis (a remedy which up to this time has not been much used in this country). Burns of the second degree attended with vesication, are to be treated by tincture of cantharis, applied externally. Burns of the third degree, where there is some amount of destruction of the substance of the skin, require kreosote externally. Burns of to be fourth degree, which include all those attended with great destruction of the soft parts, are to be treated with Castile soap scraped and spread on linen, and applied to the burnt surface.
Dr. Henriques (Brit. Journ. of Hom., vi. 96.) is likewise and advocate for the external employment of the homoeopathic remedy in burns, and he details several interesting cases worse this technicality, in conjunction with the internal exhibition of the specific remedy, was successfully adopted.
In spite of Hahnemann’s denunciation of the local employment of medicines, this technicality has been much employed by his disciples, and indeed Hahnemann’s practice encourages though his rules denounce the method. For, not to speak of the cases in which he allows local treatment exceptionally, we cannot avoid observing that the administration of the medicine by the mouth and by olfaction must sometimes be a local administration; where, for example, there exists an affection of the mouth, nose, oesophagus, stomach, or air-passages. If in such cases there is no objection to applying the remedy to the diseased surface, the local application of the drug in other localized diseases cannot be considered as inconsistent with the teaching and practice of Hahnemann. I would, however, draw a great distinction betwixt the local employment of the specific medicine and the dispersion of localized affections by means irritant or astringent applications; a very reprehensible practice, and, in the case of chronic diseases with external morbid symptoms, one which is liable to be followed by disastrous results, as is observed sometimes in those ulcers, skin diseases, etc., which are suddenly suppressed by such means. I have known patients affected with some severe internal complaint to be completely relieved from this, on the appearance of a cutaneous malady, and their internal complaint return immediately on the suppression of the skin affection by astringent or irritant washes. I have seen patients suddenly seized with paralysis and apoplexy, on the rapid healing up of an old ulcer by means of a blister applied over it; but such treatment differs toto coelo from the simultaneous external and internal use of the specific remedy in infinitesimal quantities. By the latter method it would seem that that cure of the whole disease if often much expedited, and I have not seen any bad effects attending it. As regards the treatment of local affections the effect of accident, as contusions, wounds, sprains, and burns, almost all homoeopathists are agreed respecting the propriety of the local employment of arnica, calendula, rhus, cantharis, etc.; and in this country, at least, the practice of employing locally the homoeopathic remedy in many other diseases that cannot be considered so purely local is very extensively adopted. Thus Dr. Black, as he assures me, frequently employs the remedy he conceives to be indicated, in the form of ointment to the eyelids, in cases of ophthalmia tarsi. Mr. Blake introduced the method of treating ulceration of the neck of the womb by means of a wash of calendula, a practice which has been extensively adopted by Drs. Madden and Leadam. I very often recommended a few drops of the medicinal solution to be applied to ulcerated surfaces, and in that very destructive disease ophthalmia neonatorum, I find the best results to follow the local application of a pretty strong solution of nitrate of silver (gr. ij to of distilled water). In cases of severe toothache, I have found it an excellent plan to apply the indicated remedy directly to the tooth, by means of a piece of cotton soaked in its alcoholic solution. Chancres, I have found are more readily healed, and their closure unattended by bad results, if the mercurial preparation given internally be at the same time applied to the ulcer by means of a piece of lint. Those frightfully destructive ulcerations of the fauces, velum pendulum, and tonsils, observed in secondary syphilis, are readily healed by means of the local application of corrosive sublimate in the Ist or 2nd dilution, and this in cases where the internal administration of the remedy seems to have no power t to arrest the spread of the disease. I have witnessed several instances of this sort. I have already, in a former lecture, mentioned my reasons for the local treatment of scabies, so I need not revert to that subject, To sum up, I feel convinced that the local employment of the specific remedy is in many cases not only justifiable. but essential to the cure., and however much Hahnemann has inveighed against it, he has, as I have pointed out, very frequently given it the sanction of his own example.
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.