I had no cough before, and yet I now had a tickling in my fauces and must cough; the headaches continued, and weakness and feeling in and under my left breast deep in.
“(I have counted 50 drops of this, and have saturated 4 oz. of No. 35 globules, and I am going to call this my 100 C.) “If this dilution, 2 drops or so, can make one in health feel as I did, I am sure there is a power in dynamization. A very restless feeling, not able to read with profit, so went to bed early; very restless; slept well; when asleep, no dream; had to rise to urinate three times; urine clear, but of a very bad smell; putrid. Awoke at daybreak and could not sleep, feeling very tired, but went into my garden, digging trenches for celery plants; passed a good deal of flatus, smelling very bad, like the urine. Worked steadily for two hours; it was then time to open office. While preparing my tub for shower bath, felt very sick; upheaval of stomach, but could not vomit–a spasmodic effort which shook me a good bit; before I could finish my dressing, had a hurried feeling to pass stool; loose, very bad smelling, of a dark green character, mixed with mucus; felt very weak and sleepy all that forenoon;…. feel very drowsy now at 1 A.M.; appetite as good as usual. Some dull headache, but mentally clear; no pain in lung, but have had a sore throat and a good deal of tickling in the pharynx, provoking a cough and enabling me to raise a little phlegm, white and frothy like cotton ball.
“Weakness continued all the day; did not want to be disturbed. Sought to be quiet; slept a good part of the day, when not attending to my professional duties; passed a great deal of urine; foul-smelling, of a pale color, with white sediment; have not tested it yet.
“Second night very restless; at night slept well, but full of dreams; in my dream was attending to large numbers of malignant diphtheria cases. Woke many times and slept and dreamed, the same kind of dream; my cases in my dream did not die, but were greatly worse; worried about them.
“Awoke at 5 A.M., and after lying awake, wondering what these dreams meant, my thought took this form: Intending me to get ready for an epidemic of diphtheria, and this thought I cannot get myself rid of.
“August 4, 1892.-Feeling too tired to go into my garden; business being very scarce, I have had time to sleep, and slept all the forenoon. Headache not so bad; sweat on the least exertion; very poor appetite; bowels move.
“August 5.-Slept better; not so restless, but troubled dreams about diphtheria, and yet there is none in the town. (My son, the clergyman, took it from a malignant case. While leading her to rest upon the Saviour for salvation, he did not know at the time that he spent an hour in close conversation, taking her breath all the time. This filled me with concern for him. I gave him Apis to counteract. In eight days he had a slight soreness and an enlarged tonsil; right side, and on inspection I found some gray patches, but Cy.m. 3d soon took them away.) But this was more than a week ago. My own throat very dry, but not so sore, and not so much inclination to cough; very weak yet and sweaty; head not yet clear of pain. Bowels regular; I am passing more urine, very pale with strong odor. A good bit of backache across my kidneys.
“August 6.-No change in my feelings; very weak and nervous; full of anxiety as of impending trouble.
“August 7.-Head clear of pain; no dreams; very cross and full of fault-finding; everything is going wrong.
“August 8, 9, 10.-Feeling similar, but not quite so continuous; feeling some improved.
“I have learned from this partial proving that this is a very powerful drug. That it made me very ill for the first two days I am very sure, and filled me with some concern as to whether I should not do something to counteract its effects, but I finally concluded not to do so, but watch and wait.
“I found that it had power to set up a severe headache. At the time I was suffering from one, but so differing that the new one from the Bacillinum could be easily felt in the parts occipital and frontal.
“The throat was inflamed; tickling, phlegmy, cough from tickling that could not be relieved in any other way.
“Left lung was irritated and made sore, a creeping, stitch- like feeling passing through from below upwards. A weak feeling in the right lung.
“Bowels inflated with gas, and soft, mushy stool of dark greenish color, passing easily.
“The pain or stitch through my old pile I could not account for, but having felt it as something new I make record of it.
“Some eczema of anus that had given me trouble for some time previous has since been very much better.
“I have had three patients under this, Dr. Burnett’s Bacillinum, one dose of 30th in eight days.
“The cases are too new to report as yet, but all are improving.
“This will cure some cases of laryngeal phthisis, diphtheria and phthisis pul., and be a great aid to us in curing what this learned physician calls consumptiveness. I for one have adopted this name and this remedy.
“It seems as if I were learning to be a Homoeopathic physician, never having had much, if any, faith in the high dilution.
“R. BOOCOCK, M.D.
“Flatbush, L. I.”
In the Homoeopathic Recorder (pp. 263, et seq.) the following very interesting paper on Bacillin is found:
“BACILLINUM: ITS CURATIVE POWER ON DIFFERENT DISEASES.
“Through the Homoeopathic Recorder (March number, 1891) I became aware of Dr. Burnett’s little book, `New Cure of Consumption.’ Being myself interested in the treatment of consumption, I bought the book at a store of Boericke & Tafel, as also the medicine Bacillinum. Having carefully perused the contents of the little book, I determined, as I was about to sail for Europe, to try its effects on my arrival in Switzerland. During my short stay in Basel I had occasion to administer Bacillinum to about six persons. From Basel I went to Herisau, Canton d’ Appenzell. There I had occasion enough to distribute amongst my friends the wonderful effect of Bacillinum, amidst the great opposition of the doctors, who laugh and snarl at the idea of such a treatment as something completely new in practice. Since sixteen months many very remarkable cures have been performed, even several known as incurable, so that from east to west, all through Switzerland, Bacillinum has found an entrance. In a journal treating on `General Conductiveness,’ I asserted that the principal cause of idiotism and cretinism are tubercles in and around the brain, and the only remedy to reach these tubercles, and to re- establish a harmony between moral and physic, is the Bacillinum in its different strengths. This affirmation brought the strong phalanx of Allopaths against me in controversy openly in the same journal. They could not deny the cures, but ridiculed the idea of using such means to cure diseases. My last words of defence were those which Dr. Burnett used : `Machs nach! Aber machs besser!” This ended for the present our controversy.
“Allow me to send you here a few but very interesting cases where Bacillinum has shown highly its curative power.
“A mother brought a child of 12 months, covered from head to foot by a syphilitic eruption, the eyes like raw flesh. I gave the child on her tongue 15 small pellets of Bacillinum 200. A week after, the change was more than could be expected. Again the same dose; eight days later the child could see well, and the eruption more than half gone. Two weeks longer treatment in the same manner, the child was perfectly healed–a proof that Bacillinum has curative effect on syphilis.
“2. A Miss E., of 27 years, having spent the winter of `90- 91 in the hospital at Basel, being sent home in April, `91, pronounced incurable suffering with consumption, sent for me, May 15, 1891.
Examination pronounced both lungs in an advanced state of phthisis. She began with 20 pellets of Bacillinum; every eighth day the same dose. In July after, she called at my house in Herisau, and in truth I was astonished to see her so well. Kept on taking Bacillinum, when in September, visiting Basel, I found her very well.
“3. A Miss S., teacher, of 38 years, in Basel, suffering for years with bad stomach, not able to keep food in her stomach, had the symptoms of a beginning cancer of the pylorus. This lady received Bacillinum, one dose every eighth day, and after six months was totally cured.
“4. A merchant in Basel, 32 years old, consumptive for several years, received from his doctors, as the last resort, Kreosotum in capsules. Getting worse from month to month, the family desired he should consult a homoeopathic physician. Was consulted, and examination showed the upper parts of the lungs badly affected, covered by tubercles; also had chronic bronchitis. Received Bacillinum 200, 20 pellets every eighth day, keeping on for three months the medicine, and to the astonishment of his friends he became a healthy man.
“5. A dessinateur here in Herisau, suffering from weak lungs, constant cough day and night, under went a so-called `Knipps’ treatment at a place in Germany. Six weeks after he came back a skeleton, emaciated, miserable.
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.