1. FIVE YEAR’S EXPERIENCE IN THE NEW CURE OF CONSUMPTION



CASE X.

A city merchant, married, and father of a family, came under my observation in the spring of 1888 for phthisis and fistula, or, I would rather say, for fistular anaemia and “consumptiveness,” for the consumption was not declared, though the experienced eye was not to be misled. The whole circumanal surface was red; glands of the left side of the neck very much indurated. The gentleman’s poitrinary constitution may be accounted for, seeing that his father was dying of consumption when patient was born.

I treated him with much success with Kali carb. 30, Nux vomica I, Hepar sul. 3, Silicea 6, and Hydrastis canadensis 0, with two intercurrent courses of, each one month of the phthisic virus, and in seven months–end of 1888–discharged him quite cured, and, so far as I could tell, sound, in all respects. I have never seen him since, and I believe he has never looked back.

CASE XI.

The following case is striking. On April 23, 1888, a lady and gentleman brought their only boy, 2 years and 8 months of age; he was their only child, because their other two had died of tuberculosis of the brain, and this one was going the same way, and with the same symptoms, and at about the same age. The parents told me nought of all this till I had given my diagnosis; these were the symptoms. He is fretty and ailing, whines and complains, feelably indurated glands everywhere, hottish, drowsy, urine red and sandy, much given to be frightened, particularly by dogs. Has been vaccinated, and had thereafter a dreadful arm for four months. He would not smile for or at any one or any thing, and when spoken to forthwith began to whimper. His skin was dingy, his skull hydrocephalic.

Diagnosis : Tuberculosis.

When I had fenced awhile with the anxious mother’s questions, she broke down and begged me to be candid, and then told me of their sad troubles and loss of their two previous children. I then stated the diagnosis, but stated that I hoped I should cure it. Of course the parents tried to believe the welcome prognosis, but could not, and went home in terrible distress of mind.

I began with Aconite and Chamomilla 30.

April 30th.-Better a good deal; sleeps very well; less drowsy, urine better.

Pulsatilla 1 was then given.

May 14th.-Urine normal; no longer drowsy; but the glands and anatomical condition no better. I had often treated such like cases with steady, general, and particular amelioration of symptoms, but I had by this time grown wiser, and fully recognized that the stop-spot of such remedies as Aconite, Chamomilla and Pulsatilla was a long way on the hither side of a cure. Said I to myself,…..This sort of remedy only goes up to the tubercle, and the tubercle sphere is their stop-points….. But it is the tubercles that kill! I therefore began with phthisic virus.

June 11th.-Not sleepy; sleeps quietly at night; he is wasting; frets and whines; urine normal.

Mindful of the vaccinosis, I thought it probable that as that was the more recent, and planted upon the tuberculosis, the vaccinosis would have first to be cured.

Thuja 30. July 11th.-Was better, but yesterday was at a flower show, and he now screams a good deal.

Rx. Glonion 2 and Aconite 2. 18th.-He has got over this attack, and the glands are a trifle less. He now sleeps badly again. The previously administered one-hundredth (centesimal) of the phthisic virus not having acted as well as I anticipated, I came down to very infrequent doses of the thirtieth.

August 22nd.-Appetite better; nights good; not drowsy by day; urine red and brick-dusty a week ago; is still mum and fretty; he is stronger; can walk further; glands of the neck much worse, notably those on the left side.

Pulsatilla 3x and Calcarea C. 12.

October 17th.-He is worse, and screams dreadfully in his sleep. I then put patient again steadily upon the virus alone as our only chance, and the patient was discharged cured on January 7, 1889. At the end of the year I received this letter :- “4th December 1889.

“Dear Sir,–I feel I must thank you for your kind advice and trouble you have taken in curing my little son…. I am happy to say he has taken a change for the better for some time past; he has made flesh, and has so altered that you would scarcely know him. Hoping he will keep so; and should anything happen that he is not so well…. I shall fly off to you,” etc.

Since then I have heard nothing, and so conclude that the cure is permanent.

The striking amelioration in the boy which filled the mother with gratitude, and impelled her to write the above, I take to be the natural healthy growth of the boy, which set in after he was cured of the tubercles.

This case greatly impressed me, and, moreover, much encouraged me. Evidently it has only been taken just in time; a little later and the phthisic virus (at any rate in my homoeopathically prepared infinitesimal quantities) would have been unavailing.

CASE XII.

A little girl of 6 years of age, daughter of a country squire, being under almost ideally perfect hygienic surroundings, her father, however, suffering from chronic pulmonary consumption, fell ill in the spring of 1888. There was fever, wasting, abdominal pains and discomfort, and restless nights. The glands of both groins and on both sides of the neck enlarged and indurated, some were visible on simple adspection. Except that she had been vaccinated in the usual way, she had no illness. The local family doctor considered her case a very anxious one, and had small hope of her ultimate recovery.

I gave the virus in the thirtieth potency, and at intervals of nine days. This was on July 27th.

On August 27th I find noted in my record of her case :–“Was nearly well, but is now feverish again; cries out in her sleep; strawberry tongue; very feverish.” I then repeated the virus, but in the one-hundredth potency, and at the same intervals (to allow of undisturbed action, see Hahnemann).

November 2nd.-Is better decidedly; has quite ceased crying out in her sleep; all the glands are nearly well.

Thuja occidentalis 30 also at like intervals.

he remained well for some months (from September, 1888, till May 1890), when, on May 28th, 1890, I thought it was wise to repeat the virus, as on August 27th, 1888, and this set her right; and after three months she continued well, except for a slight stomach derangement, which Pulsatilla I and Arsenicum 5 put right. She is now well.

Her younger sister I treated for a much minor degree of the same constitutional state with Iodium 3x and Glonoin 3x, with seemingly complete success, and therefore I did not need to have recourse to the bacillic virus.

CASE XIII.

There are certain cases of what may, perhaps, be termed CONSUMPTIVENESS, but where the patients, through being fed largely and richly, manage to get stout, even very fat, and who yet are distinctly afflicted with the tuberculous taint, and who in the end get diabetes, or go into common consumption. Such a one was a very big, stout, provincial gentleman, of bright, florid complexion, who came under my professional care in the spring of this year. His mother died young, of phthisis, and his only sister is stated to be going the same way. He gets pneumonia very often in the cold weather, and hence he now goes from place to place to avoid cold.

He coughs much, and brings up much phlegm. As his father died of pneumonia, and, as I have just observed, his mother of consumption, he regarded his own outlook with reasonable apprehensiveness. He perspired very profusely, drank huge quantities of fluids, some of them alcoholic, and had wretched, sleepless nights, with almost constant fever. The glands of his neck were very much enlarged. He was three months under the bacillic virus, and was then a very different man; he now sleeps well; the glands are well (i.e., cannot be felt); the temperature is now normal; no cough; no phlegm; and his tissues are much less watery. He is, therefore, not so huge, and much more active.

CASE XIV.

I have had another case so much like the one just narrated that I will merely note it shortly. There was a similar unhealthy parentage, the same liability to pneumonia, the same watery hugeness of body, the same sort of cough and wet phlegminess, the same excessive perspirations and thirst, and restless nights. But no fever as a rule.

The treatment was mixed; the bacillic virus had not the same decided effect, but under it he went smaller in bulk, but did not lose weight, from which I conclude that he really gained in proper flesh, but lost in water from his tissues. In this case Pulsatilla, Spiritus glandium quercus, and the Acetum lobeliae greatly aided in his cure. When I lately saw him, and passed the time of day, he cried after me, “Oh! I am splendid.”

CASE XV.

A young lady, unmarried, aged 19, was brought to me by her father at the beginning of the month of July, 1889. The hectic flush of the cheeks announced the dreadful diagnosis; shortness of breath for long, much worse the past three years; little hacking cough; a number of strumous scars of various dates in the neck; dusky skin; there are large moist rales in both lungs; amphoric sounds in the right lung; increased vocal resonance of right lung; there is a large soft-feeling gland in the left side of the neck; a very pronounced endocardial bruit, best heard at the apex beat; and the before-mentioned hectic flush.

James Compton Burnett
James Compton Burnett was born on July 10, 1840 and died April 2, 1901. Dr. Burnett attended medical school in Vienna, Austria in 1865. Alfred Hawkes converted him to homeopathy in 1872 (in Glasgow). In 1876 he took his MD degree.
Burnett was one of the first to speak about vaccination triggering illness. This was discussed in his book, Vaccinosis, published in 1884. He introduced the remedy Bacillinum. He authored twenty books, including the much loved "Fifty Reason for Being a Homeopath." He was the editor of The Homoeopathic World.