The following case will well exemplify:
CASE OF ACUTE PHTHISIS CURED BY BACILLINUM.
I have rarely been impressed with any case more than with the following one of acute phthisis, and I think it would be very difficult to find a more direct proof of the simple art-cure of a very dangerous malady.
A single gentleman, from a very healthy part of Kent, aged, 24, had been ordered abroad in the month of October, 1891, for acute phthisis, and so severe were his symptoms that he came straight away up to London in that month to arrange for some one to take over his business previous to starting. The merchant to whom he went in the city urged him to come and get my opinion before disposing of his business and going abroad. He came, and I found his condition indeed one of intense anxiety, and had he come to me before I knew of the virtues of Bacillinum I knew of the virtues of Bacillinum I should have advised hasty departure from our fogs and damp. But I thought we might possibly cure him with the said remedy, though I did not feel very sure that he was at all curable by any means whatsoever, so very ill was he. His throat was studded with tubercles, and for two months he had been consuming with fever. He had expectorated masses of matter and blood for weeks past, in bouts, but not continuously. Sleep very bad; says he has had none for a week. Much phlegm in the morning, but not always with blood; spleen and liver much swelled; respiration accelerated; morning and evening exacerbations, and very tired out of a morning, so that he is unfit to rise. His parents and brothers alive; one of his sisters died of hip-joint disease, and one of pulmonary phthisis. The case being so severe and acute, I used the one-thousandth dilution of the remedy every fifth day.
Towards the middle of November his sleep had greatly improved; nearly all the tubercles had disappeared from the throat; no further blood spitting; much mattery expectoration; still had fever, but only in the evening; all cough gone, and his appetite had begun to improve.
By Christmas he was practically cured, and business being brisk, he ceased attending.
Four months later, May 2, 1892, he called to say that he had been quite well, but had a little expectoration streaked with blood the past few days. I did not readily recognize him, so greatly had he improved. “I have gained quite a stone in weight, and everybody wants to know what sort of treatment I have been having.” He had another month of the remedy, and only a few days ago I inquired of the before-mentioned merchant who sent him to me how his friends was. “Ah,” said he, “I never thought he would get well; he looks first rate now; I have told ever so many people about it, but they won’t believe it, because they don’t believe in Homoeopathy; I don’t understand them.”
If this patient had gone away as he was ordered, I am of opinion that he would have succumbed to his malady. “Going away” is by no means synonymous with “being cured.” Not a few go away dutifully enough, but the return? Ah! they commonly enter upon a long journey whence no man returneth.
October 16, 1893–I heard today from the said merchant that this gentleman continues quite well.
The rapid cure of this case was clearly due to the fact that the case was quite recent, uncomplicated, and had not yet reached far down the lungs; the larynx was also not affected. I cannot exemplify the action of the remedy better than has here been done, and so I will conclude for the present by sending this third edition to the press for the benefit of those whom it may concern.
The subject of advanced and complicated cases of consumption I hope to treat of in a subsequent and separate publication. To my brother practitioners I would say, Shake off the shackles of prejudice and try for yourselves whether, and how far, I may be personally carried away on the wings of enthusiasm for my subject. But mind, only high dilutions and no Kochian injection,- -and, moreover, if you give the doses too often you will fail, as I formerly did before I learned the lesson that the pathologic similimum of a disease must be administered in high potency and infrequently. Moreover, the worse the case the higher must be the potency as a rule. Before laying aside my quill, I will give the experiences of some other practitioners with the remedy in question.
Passing through London, on his way to the World’s Fair at Chicago, Dr. P.C. Majumdar, of Calcutta, dropped in to see me, and in the course of a long talk on medical subjects he mentioned to me that just before starting from Calcutta he had cured a bad case of phthisis with Bacillinum. Dr. Majumdar also mentioned to me that he had used Pyrogenium in many cases of the low intermittent fever of Calcutta (their typho-malaria), and had almost invariably jugulated the fever thereby.
“How many cases of this typho-malarial fever have you cured with Pyrogenium?” said I.
“On, I could not tell you, very many.”
Dr. Majumdar used the Pyrogenium in one-drop doses of the sixth decimal dilution given every three or four hours.
From the Homoeopathic Recorder (p. 311) I take the following:
“ANOTHER WITNESS FOR THE CLINICAL VALUE OF TUBERCULINUM (BACILLINUM).
“Oh April the 17th I was called to see Adele L., aged about two years; found her in a convulsive condition with twitching and spasmodic contraction of the muscles, great hyperaesthesia of the skin, photophobia, nausea and vomiting; temperature 103 degree; great cerebral excitation; nervous temperament; prominent roundish forehead, small face and slightly downward look of the eyes. Bowels constipated, attacks of colic, grinding of the teeth, terrible thirst for water; very slightly open fontanelles and sutures. With these symptoms and many others less prominent my prognosis was, of course, very guarded, the chance of recovery being extremely slight; but with the powerful guns that homoeopathic remedies furnish, I was not willing to announce to her loving parents that their only little one could not live, and I therefore mustered all the courage I possessed, and said that, while I considered their little one very dangerously ill, still I had hopes that she might pull through, and went into the fight with a determination to win if possible. To make a long story short, my first prescription, on account of the intense thirst and small, rapid, tremulous and intermittent pulse, sensitiveness to touch about the head, was Helleborus nig. 30; this remedy seemed to control the eagerness for water, and the pulse, but stopped there.
“My next prescription was Apis mel. 30, dil. Continued this remedy forty-eight hours with improvement. I was then taken sick myself, and did not see the patient for four days, but recommended a physician who carried out my line of treatment, and when I again saw my little patient she had lost flesh so rapidly that it sent a shudder over me as I viewed her tiny limbs and body. I prescribed at once Calcarea carb. 30, dil., and asked for a sample of urine, which I received in twenty-four hours, and to my horror it seemed to me almost solid albumen. I thought then my little patient was doomed. After thinking over the history of the case, and from what I knew of the family history, and the prodromal symptoms, the irritableness, swollen abdomen and constipation, great and rapid loss of flesh, etc., I concluded to prescribe Boericke & Tafel’s 200 dilution of Tuberculinum, one dose every three days, with placebo every hour.
“From this day began rapid and permanent improvement. Oh, what a relief to mother, father, friends, my little patient, and myself! I know that under any other treatment, and I might say remedy, this interesting little child could not have survived. Great credit is due to her mother, whose good judgment never forsake her for a moment.
She said she believed a thousand people called to inquire after the patient; and, of course, all kinds of friendly advice was volunteered, both as to remedies and physicians, but the parents stood firm in the belief that it was not good policy or safe to `swap horses while crossing a stream,’ and to-day they have their little one well, but weak, and feel well satisfied with their first venture with Homoeopathy. To-morrow they go to Atlantic City with our little patient to enjoy the invigorating breezes of Old Ocean for a time.
“CHAS.W. ROBERTS, M.D.
“Scranton, Pa., June 12, 1891.” In the same Homoeopathic Recorder
(pp. 260-1) Dr. Boocock gives a very interesting account of his experiments with our virus, thus:
“A PARTIAL PROVING OF BACILLI- NUM.
“August 2, 1892.-A very cloudy day, warm damp wind; feeling very much depressed and worried about business and finance; very bad headache.
“Having a patient coming to me of a consumptive diathesis, or troubled with `consumptiveness,’ I had procured from Boericke & Tafel Bacillinum 30th and 200th, but not having any 100th I concluded to make some myself. I took thirty-six globules of the 30th, and dissolved them in one ounce of diluted alcohol, shaking the vial well until the globules were all dissolved which took a long time. Getting tired of shaking I put down the vial and dried my fingers on my tongue. Soon after experienced a flush of heat, some perspiration and a severe headache, deep in, differing from what I felt at first, and this continued until half an hour after. I finished my potentizing, and foolishly did the same thing–dried my finger on my tongue. Headache increased all over. Mostly in the temples and occiput. Stinging stitch-like pain through my left lung, and a tickling cough; I felt very weak.
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.