In like manner it often happens with chronic diseases that their termination is marked by the appearance of some exanthema, the development of which is often promoted by the homoeopathic remedy; and in the case of skin diseases, properly so called, it is no unusual thing for the homoeopathist to observe during his treatment the great spread and extension of the cutaneous malady. This may seem very like the homoeopathic aggravation of Hahnemann, but it is no aggravation at all, being precisely analogous to the similar result that occurs with the acute exanthemata before mentioned. Thus it almost invariably happens that however much the patient may complain of being worse, of the great increase of his cutaneous discomfort, etc., we shall find that some internal symptoms, some headache, gastralgia, dyspeptic or other symptoms, are decidedly relieved, if not altogether gone.
Now it is obvious that this occurrence cannot be held to be the homoeopathic aggravation of Hahnemann, for the most important features of the disease are relieved, and only the least important increased. Nor is it a sign that the dose administered has been needlessly large, and that it is requisite to discontinue the medicine; on the contrary, the phenomena will be produced by the very smallest doses that are curative, and it is good practice to repeat or even to increase the dose, as tending to the more effectual bringing out of this kind of crisis, and consequently to the speedier cure of the whole disease, to which this cutaneous efflorescence bears the same relation that the flowers do to the whole plant.
Every homoeopathic practitioner must have noticed this primary increase of the cutaneous malady before its final cure, an increase, be it observed, that we have some difficulty in persuading our patients can be of any advantage to them hereafter, and instances must be familiar to most practitioners of the serious detriment to the health that often attends the local suppression of cutaneous diseases by astringent or caustic applications.
I have seen cases, and the records of similar ones are to be found in our homoeopathic literature, where an eczematous or other eruption, that had lasted for years in a moderate form, has increased so as almost to occupy the whole surface under the homoeopathic treatment before it finally disappeared, and the only thing that could induce the patient to continue the homoeopathic treatment was the marked improvement that he observed in some head, stomachic, or other symptoms. I have also met with cases where, in the treatment of some gastric or other chronic affection, on the subsidence of these symptoms a cutaneous affection of a most disagreeable and extensive character has appeared; and when the patient, alarmed at the occurrence of this disagreeable symptom, has resorted to other treatment and had the eruption removed by local means, the internal affection has almost immediately returned.
The rationale of the increase or fresh occurrence of the cutaneous symptoms on the cessation of the internal morbid signs, and vice versa, seems to be, agreeably to the pathological doctrines I laid down in my previous lectures, the following:- The return of the diseased part to the healthy state acts as a stimulus to the other part with which it is in sympathetic connection, and produces there the over-irritation which is followed by exhaustion of vital action or disease.
It is probable that the differences observable among cutaneous diseases depend upon their different anatomical seat in the dermoid structures, and possibly careful observation will teach us, if not the particular structure that is in sympathetic connection with each particular organ, at all events the particular character and general locality of the cutaneous affection that is in this relation with each particular internal disease. This subject has indeed already engaged to a limited extent the attention of some practitioners, and we can easily believe that its investigation must be fraught with great advantages not only to pathology and diagnosis but also to therapeutics.
This subject, however, I must leave until I come to treat of that remarkable doctrine which Hahnemann enunciated in 1828, viz., the so-called psora theory or doctrine of chronic diseases.
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.