Diseases of the Bones



Rx Sul. 30 ter die for a week, then Calcarea c. 30 ter die for three weeks.

July 21.- Has had toothache; bad taste in mouth. A new place has opened in the hand.

Rx Iodium 30 ter die.

Sept. 7.- Fresh cold. Glands bigger in face.

Rx Hepar s. 30 ter die.

Sept. 29.- Still had cold. Acne on shoulders.

Rx Ac. nit. 12 ter die.

Oct. 6.- Abscess in gland on face has broken. Thick white matter p73 has come away. Cold better. Shoulders better.

Rx Sacch. lact.

Oct. 27.- Still has cold. Much defluxion from nose. Hand better. Face discharging and painful.

Rx Silicea 30, gtt. i. ter die for a week, then sacch. lact.

Dec. 1.- Hand better. Cold in head again. Has not slept well lately.

Rx Mercurius b. with kali iod. 5 ter die.

Dec. 15.- Cold better. Hand better. Piece of bone coming out of face. Repeat.

Jan. 18, 1889.- Eyelashes falling out. Ringing in ears.

Rx Staphis. 12, gtt. i. ter die for fourteen days, then Sacch. lact.

Feb. 13.- Eyes well. Face better. Has another cold. Cough night and morning.

Rx Ac. nit. 12, gtt. i. ter die.

May 30.- Bad headache during the week. Ringing in ears at times. Hand better. Face bleeding.

Rx Arnica 30, gtt. i. ter die for fourteen days, then Sacch. lact.

July 6.- Bad taste in mouth.

Rx Psorinum 30, gtt. i. ter die for seven days.

Nov. 7.- Varicocele of left testis. No pain. Has cold. Chills and heats. Bowels relaxed. Cough at 4 P.M.

Rx Lycopodium 12, gtt. i. ter die.

Nov. 27.- Varicocele better.

Rx Sacch. lact.

Oct. 21.- Cough better. Still coughs from 4 to 5 P.M. Hand discharging. Repeat Lycopodium 12 for seven days, then Sacch. lact.

Jan. 18, 1890.- Cough gone. Has had influenza. Hand still discharging.

Rx Baptis. 3, gtt. i. ter die.

I have recently seen this patient. He is now a well-grown man and in perfect health. His disease while it lasted was unsightly and tedious, but by the aid of medicinal treatment he was able to continue his avocations without being laid up a day.

I will now give two cases of disease of the bones of the spinal column: one in an infant, and one in an adult.

CASE XXVI.- COMMENCING POTT’S DISEASE OF THE SPINE. CURE BY MEDICINES ONLY.

Sydney W., the child of delicate parents, and born when his mother was far advanced in consumption, was noticed by his mother when he was fifteen weeks old to cry out when put in certain positions.

On examining his back I found that the spine was distinctly more p73 curved than normal, and one of the spines was prominent and tender to pressure. The boy had also difficulty in passing water and stools. When a few weeks old he had bronchitis.

On the 24th of July 1888, the day I discovered the condition of the back, I gave him Calcarea carb. 6, four times a day. He was rather fat, of light complexion, and inclined to head sweat.

Aug. 20.- Still screams at stool and on passing water, Has a rash about him. Head sweat offensive.

Rx Silicea 6 ter die.

Aug. 31.- Bowels loose, motions slimy and green. Less pain on urinating. Has spots all over him. Looks pale.

Rx Mercurius sol. four times a day.

He soon got over this attack.

Sept. 25.- Has many spots about him. Bowels confined. Cries before passing water.

Rx Sul. 200 three times a day for three days, then no medicine.

From this date he improved rapidly. The disease of the spine went no further. I treated him satisfactorily for various ailments, including a scrofulous condition of the eyelids, and he has grown a strong boy, with his spine perfectly restored.

In so young a child artificial supports were impracticable, and the medicinal treatment rendered them quite unnecessary.

The next case was one of a much more serious kind; but in this, again, medicine – that is, the specific medicine of Hahnemann – manifests its vast and inherent superiority to surgery.

CASE XXVII.- CARIES OF THE SPINE WITH PARALYTIC SYMPTOMS IN AN ADULT. ARREST OF DISEASE AND CONSOLIDATION OF THE SPINE UNDER MEDICINES ALONE IN THREE MONTHS.

On jan. 15, 1889, I was consulted by Mrs. P., aged 67. She lives in the country, but had come to stay with her sister in town to be under my care. She had had many illnesses throughout her life, but the present one dated from sixteen months back.

In her village she was very active philanthropic worker, and her present illness, crippling her as it did, was a great distress to her. She was fair, ruddy, naturally of a happy temperament. At present she was almost motionless from the pain in the back and chest occasioned by movement, and was very much shortened in stature.

As a child she was quite strong. A the age of 19-20 had “liver complaint” (intense cutting pain, vomiting of bright green stuff; was unable to lie down for six weeks). After this she had the “grape cure” in Germany. The following year had an eruption on p73 her face. For this she had been given Sulphur, and had even had the sulphur waters of Cheltenham, but Sulphur always made her very ill.

Erasmus Wilson treated her for the skin, and gave her. Strychnine with benefit. She is still exceedingly sensitive to Sulphur, and cannot take it without its having a bad effect on the face. She had had bronchitis, jaundice, inflammation of the lungs, and years ago had abscesses, and on one occasion a boil. Has been married twenty-seven years. No family.

The particular points in the history of her present illness were as follows:- Thirty-five years previously she strained her back by lifting, and for several days was unable to do anything; twenty years ago sprained her ankle. Five years ago had lumbago or sciatica. Fifteen months ago fell over some chains on a wharf, and had to twist herself in order to prevent herself falling into the water.

For a long time she has had pain up the back, nape, and head whenever she hurried. Sixteen months ago she noticed a little stiffness on moving in the morning. Then her head became drawn. She found great difficulty in turning round. Finally, her legs gave way, and she was unable to walk unless supported round the waist. Three weeks ago she became suddenly worse.

When I first saw the patient she was in bed, lying on the back, the head being unnaturally poked forward. She complained of pain under both scapulae, the left being much the worse of the two. The pain seems to centre under the left breast, extending round to the left scapula and up to right shoulder. When she lies on the right side the pain is worse on the left, and vice versa. The pain is constant, not periodic; it is relieved by lying in bed, and again at 12 noon, after getting up.

In the upper dorsal region is a large curve, caused by the giving way of several of the bodies of the spinal vertebrae. There was no tenderness on pressure.

Some months back the pain was constant in the right side below the breast, and at the back. She thought she must have cancer. Suddenly the pain went to the left side, where it remains.

It was in September 1888 that she first suspected there was anything wrong with the spine. The pain she described as like drawing the chest and back together; with sometimes jerking pain in cartilages of the free ribs. At times constriction all round, as if by a band. On account of the spinal curve the ribs are very much pressed together on both sides. When walking, she has a sensation as if she was walking sideways. p73

Among the general symptoms of the case, I noted the following:- She is rather deaf, but can hear well in an – omnibus; in bed she is quite deaf. She is rather constipated; the water is scanty and high coloured. She perspires a little. For ten years she never perspired at all, when she was ordered a Turkish bath.

She remained three hours in it without perspiring, but four days after perspired profusely. Feet dry and cold.

Here was evidently a case of rapidly progressing disease of the spine with accompanying paralytic symptoms. The indication was to arrest the decay of the bones and and promote consolidation. There was no chance of restoring the bodies of the vertebrae which had collapsed, but if healthy action could be restored, new bone could be thrown out so as to form a kind of natural splint for the part. I was asked how long I thought it would take to bring about the change, and I said about three months.

It was important to estimate the time, as the patient’s sister, who undertook the care of her, could not continue it indefinitely. My estimate was fortunately correct. By the 15th of April the patient was able to walk up and down stairs unaided, and before the end of the month she was able to walk up and down stairs unaided, and before the end of the month she was able to leave for her home.

There were many medicines which occurred to me, and especially phosph., sepia, carbo veg., and lycopod. phos. has, in addition to its well-known relation to caries, “loss of power of limbs,” and “tenderness of dorsal spine and muscles; “sepia, “tensive pain in right side of back under scapula, especially when lying on right side;” “great aching between shoulders and under left scapula, extending into left lung, worse on expiration;”

Carbo veg., “stiffness of back, spine becomes bent;” “rheumatic drawing in back worse on stooping;” “pain in scapular region;” Lycopod., “burning in scapular region;” “drawing under scapulae.” Lycop has also the transference of symptoms for right to left. I selected the first of these four.

John Henry Clarke
John Henry Clarke MD (1853 – November 24, 1931 was a prominent English classical homeopath. Dr. Clarke was a busy practitioner. As a physician he not only had his own clinic in Piccadilly, London, but he also was a consultant at the London Homeopathic Hospital and researched into new remedies — nosodes. For many years, he was the editor of The Homeopathic World. He wrote many books, his best known were Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica and Repertory of Materia Medica