I sent a lady some Bellis 1, because, being far gone in the family-way, she found locomotion so very tiresome; a very short walk quite overcame her. a fortnight or so thereafter I received the following report:- “The Bellis did me so much good; I can walk quite well now, and do not get tired or stiff.”
Here its action was prompt and satisfactory, with no inconvenient side-effect, i.e., truly specific. Why did I give Bellis in such a case? Merely because the inconvenience complained of was due to mechanical pressure: the tissues were pressed upon, and therefore in a condition precisely like that of a bruise-hence I gave my old friend the Daisy-bruisewort; i.e., its acts upon the muscular fibres of the blood-vessels and upon the tissues and thus clears the line of these mechanical obstructions.
Arnica montana 1x and 1, I have often used in like manner, and with almost identical results.
ENLARGEMENT AND DISPLACEMENT OF THE UTERUS; PERI-UTERINE HAEMATOCELE.
A married lady, 25 years of age, came to me on March 4, 1892. She had been two years married, and was childless. She handed me the following note:-
“Mine has been considered a case of tubular pregnancy, but is now called an effusion of blood from the Fallopian tube, left side, and which the doctors have told me could not be cured without an operation; but hearing from Mrs. R. of your successful treatment of her case, I feel anxious to come to you.” (Mrs. R.’s case was one of ovarian tumour of left side, and is narrated in my Curability of Tumours by Medicines; and by the way, Mrs. R. has continued in good health to this day, and quite free from tumour.)
I found a tumid mass in the region of the left ovary, size of man’s fist; the uterus enlarged and pulled over to the left, the cervix almost obliterated, and its posterior wall bulging backwards on the rectum, and thick and hard.
Patient’s period was said to be normal, thought there was a browny discharged from the vagina between whiles.
There was in this case a very obvious constitutional background to the disease-picture here presented; the state was not merely one of an enlarged womb, and merely displaced by its weight, but the haematocele had also to be reckoned with in its constitutional causation.
Now patient’s father died at 48 of fistula, which may fairly be assumed to be of a tubercular nature; a number of her brothers and sisters died in infancy; her tongue was very pippy in its anterior half.
Patient was put under Bacill. CC. for a month. April 1.-The lump is much smaller; she feels sick and bilious. Still many pips.
Rx Fragaria vesca 0, 5 drops in water night and morning. April 27.-The brown discharge has ceased.
Rx Sabina 30.
May 27.-Period normal; watery whites; lump still there, though smaller.
Rx Arnica montana 1x, 5 drops in water night and morning.
June 24.-Less watery whites; many pips.
Rx Bacill. CC.
July 22.-Tumour gone, but the womb is still heavy.
Rx Fraxinus Americanus 0.
August 27.-Discharged cured.
What the after history of this lady is I do not know, but I have just written to Mrs. R. to enquire, and I will add her reply, if I get it in time.
Mrs. R. writes me to the effect that she has lost sight of Mrs. C., and can therefore give me no information. This matters really but little, as she was quite cured by our remedies, which is the point at issue, and there is nothing more to be said, Still it affords me a certain amount of satisfaction to be able to vouch for the permanency of the cure of any given ailment; more particularly is this the case with tumours cured by medicines, which so many are unable, or refuse or profess to be unable to believe. Mrs. R. had herself been condemned to be operated upon by the most eminent specialists, and her cure by medicines declared and proclaimed to be impossible. And yet she was so cured!
In cases of considerable extravasations of blood, such as this case of peri-uterine haematocele, the condition must be first tackled from the constitutional standpoint. The same reasoning applies to constitutional haemorrhoids : it is inadequate to treat the varicosis till the constitutional taint has been cured.
ENLARGED UTERUS OF CONSTITUTIONAL, CAUSE; SPERMATOPHOBIA. On February 6, 1889, a married lady, mother of four children, came under me for pains in the breasts at the period, constipation, enlargement of uterus, palpitations, and great weakness; her horror of childbearing could only be described as awful; an all-consuming life-paralysing dread. She was very thin, and might be described as having absolutely no breasts, owing to practices arising out of her painfully obtrusive spermatophobia.
Closely regarded, this mental state was probably due to actual disease, and prompted by the instinct of self- preservation. Two brothers had died of phthisis, and she herself had pneumonia last year. The life-long constipation was practically a substantive disease.
Rx Bacill. C.
March 8.-“I am very much better; I feel stronger, able to walk; my appetite is better; but very little pain in the breasts, and…. will any one be able to believe it?”
I confess I hardly like to pen a statement of facts that take so much believing. The life-long constipation-for which she had been almost dosed to death with aperients-was a thing of the past, and the action of the bowels was perfectly normal. She had been three times vaccinated, ergo, Thuja 30.
April 8.-Bowels quite regular.
“The first powders quite cured my constipation.” She is of opinion that the first powders were remarkably good aperients, and says the last powders do not act so well on the bowels as the first.
Rx Bacill. C.
May 8.-Bowels costive again; breasts seem slightly increased.
Rx Sabina 30.
June 26.-Bowels regular. “I am so much stronger.”
The constitutional cause having been got rid of, Helonin 3x, Bellis perennis 0, and Hydrastis Canadensis 0 followed as organ remedies, and Bacill. C. was once repeated; and twenty-six months from the beginning of the treatment patient was well and plump, and was discharged cured: A last request from her was to be allowed to have some of the Bacill. C. powders to keep by her in case of need!
It is often curiously interesting to notice how a given patient will, during a course of treatment, pick out a particular remedy with almost unfailing certainty, and this always impresses my mind afresh and again, since there is no possibility of doubting the evidence. For where is the “personal magnetism, ” the personal equation,” here? Where the faith, and where “the influence of mind on matter?”
This patient had powders at different times containing on a number of occasions very infrequent doses of Bacill. C (in fact, two or three a month), and on other occasions the medicament was Thuja 30 or Sabina 30 (also three a month), and YET she knew the difference between the powders from their influence, while to look at they were identical.
A very great many of the homoeopathic practitioners of the world refuse the right of citizenship to my dear Bacill. They do not discern its virtues. Not a few declare that the higher potencies contain nothing, and are consequently therapeutically worthless. And the smug smile of satisfaction on their visages as they chuckle over the iteration of this hoary old lie!
Buttonhole these wonderful persons, fix your eye upon their weak, sniggering faces, and ask them for their proofs of their surprising statement that high potencies are therapeutically nothing, and…. and…. what? Yes, it’s a fact, THEY HAVE NEVER TRIED THEM!
Helonias IN ENLARGEMENTS OF THE UTERUS, WITH URINARY TROUBLE.
In all cases of simple organ disease one of our greatest difficulties is to know which organ remedy is really indicated. How is one to find out? From the provings, no doubt, but with most of our remedies the provings do not tell us enough. Rademacher, following Paracelsus, used to maintain that it was impossible to know without organ testing, partly because the spiritus epidemicus morborum so often plays a part in diseases. Many of the cases of urinary troubles that come before us are primarily from the womb being enlarged and too heavy-and hence dislocated, and producing irritation at the neck of the bladder, with frequent desire to micturate.
Frequently in dysuria from an inflamed state of the urethra I find Triticum repens *Agrimony appears to act very like Triticum repens. 0, 10 drops in a little water, frequently repeated, of prompt in a few hours, and if the ailment is primary to the urethra the relief is an abiding cure; if from a tugging of the heavy womb, the ailment returns again and again,-it is only relief and not a cure. This is true always in the use of organ-remedies for organ-diseases: unless the ailment is primary to the organ acted upon by the organ-remedy, we only attain transitory relief. This I have often before pointed out, and here we need not go any wider a field into higher homoeopathy.
Helonin fits well cases of urinary trouble arising primarily from a too heavy womb. Thus a maiden lady of 32 years of age came under my observation on August 22, 1892, for frequent distressing micturition she had backache, the womb was heavy, the urethra swelled, and her urine contained mucus.
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.