Rx Helonias dioica 0.
June 2.-The neck of uterus is very hard; neuralgia bad again. Patient wonders whether she will ever have a child. Said she, “We only want one boy to succeed to the peerage. We don’t want any more; we are too poor to keep any more. No, we don’t want any girl; we are too poor!”
Rx Tc. Aurum mur. nat. 3x.
July 26.-No neuralgia; no pain at period; the neck of the uterus is shorter and softer.
Rx Rep.
August 18.-Rather a sore throat; menses two days only; no pain; whites gone; the elongated hypertrophied cervix is half an inch shorter, and the uterus in an almost normal position.
Rx Rep.
Nov.1.-No white; uterus still heavy and hard.
Rx Bellis perennis 0, 5 drops in water night and morning.
Feb. 11, 1888.-The os points right on to the rectum.
Rx Trit Platina met. 3, which was continued for some time, till her ladyship had taken sixty 6-grain powders, when she fell enceinte, and in due course bore a fine boy, who is the heir- presumptive to the peerage, and a grand little man he is, so I am told. ENLARGEMENT OF UTERUS; BAD LEUCORRHOEA; STERILITY.
Lady X., 24 years of age, has been married several years, and is childless. The gynecologist’s manipulations and operations, together with syringing and Schwalbach, have not mended matters. Her husband is next heir to a peerage, and”my husband is getting very angry with me because we have no heir, for his uncle comes next after him, and he hates him.”
Patients, so good and so willing to do the bidding of her lord, had broken down in her nerve-life, and was getting bad attacks of somewhat grave hysteria.
Uterus enlarged, anteverted; much catarrh of the endometrium. Bellis perennis 0, Ignatia amara 1x, Oleum succini non-rect., and Fraxinus Americanus 0, all followed on lines already given, when on September 8, 1892, distinct improvement was noted in the uterine sphere, but her ladyship was getting thin, with circumscribed flush on each cheek of an evening.
Rx Bacill. CC.
October 18.-Fearfully swelled all round the hypogastric area, and yawns most painfully.
Rx Aurum mur. 3.
NOvember 26.-Morning vomiting. Period three weeks overdue. Viburnum 0.
A bonnie boy was born in due course and since then two other children have followed, so I learned when I met her ladyship down by Rotten Row.
And now I have no more time to spare at present, and I thus have the option of sending this to the press just as it is, or of laying it on one side till I can deal more largely and more adequately with so great a subject as uterine displacements and enlargements from the physician’s standpoint. I choose the former course, and leave the rest to the future; after all, I am not quite sure my bantling would be any the better for being bigger.
ON THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF CURING CONSTITUTIONAL DISEASE OF WOMB AND OVARIES BY ANY OPERATIONS WHATSOEVER.
I hold very strongly that it is simply impossible to cure any constitutional disease whatever by any operations. I have defended this thesis in regard to fistula in my small work On Fistula, and all my subsequent experience amply confirms the views therein expressed. The manifold operations on women are, for the most part, absolutely useless, often harmful, and not seldom fatal. How can any one cure the quality of a person by cutting a piece off her? Omne ignotum pro magnifico, of course, else hysterectomy and oophorectomy would be called mutilating and maiming.
Early in this year, a married lady, 34 years of age, came under my observations for fistula in ano. In my opinion, fistula, wherever situate, is almost always tubercular alone, or tubercular and something else. It also frequently happens that oophoritis is likewise of tubercular quality, with or without a superadded gleety quality. The lady in question had had ovaritis (or, as I prefer, on philologic grounds, oophoritis), which formed purulent collections in the tissues, and these pointed in the anal region, where they were operated upon. It was finally held that the fistular issues at the anus would not heal because of their connexion with the left ovary certainly, and probably with the right ovary also. So it was determined to perform ovariotomy on this lady, so that she might be rid of the fons et origo mali. This was done, both ovaries being removed, and very prettily and neatly it was done. And the result? The lady had no further menstruation, became enormously obese-almost formlessly so. And the fistula? They continued to bother just the same as before, for the simple reason that fistulae commonly are of constitutional nature and origin, and the cutting out of the tuberculous ovaries did nor cure the organismic tuberculosis, any more than cutting off a gouty toe will cure the gout.
A brother and a sister of this lady had both died of phthisis, and this lady had phthisis situate in her ovaries and the anal region, in the form of ovaritis and fistula respectively. Gout in the eye is as much gout as gout in the big toe, and tuberculosis in the ovaries is as much phthisis pulmonalis, and requires the same qualitative treatment as set forth in my New Cure of Consumption.
This treatment was adopted for Mrs. R. on March 17, 1896.
June 2.-The 3 1/2 year old fistula has healed.
Rx Rep.
September 15, 1896.-The fistula remains healed, and its former canal can be traced by the colour of the skin for fully two inches.
Few kinds or forms of disease permit the clear clinical proof of disease-quality better than tuberculosis, for unless the disease-quality be radically cured the treatment goes on and on, not infrequently to a fatal issue. Thus, a few months ago a gentleman came to me from the neighbourhood of Birmingham. He was about 28 years of age, and was the subject of tuberculosis, manifested at the time of his first visit to me as phthisis pulmonalis located in the upper third of the right lung, and as scrotal fistula of the right side. There were frequent blood- spitting, night-sweats, bad cough, moderate loss of flesh, dusky skin, and great weakness. The progressive history of the disease was very instructive, and bears out the views I am at this point trying to lay before my readers. The thing began as tubercular synovitis of the right knee joint (he was puceau, and hence had not had gonorrhoea); and to prevent any spread of the disease to the constitution, is right leg was amputated just above the knee. All went well and patient made a good recovery, and was supposed to have had the primary seat of the disease totally removed and his life saved. After a while, however, tuberculosis broke out in his left testicle, and many consultations of eminent surgeons were held as to what to do next. It was finally decided to re move the diseased testicle to save the constitution, and he was assured that this time the cure would be radical. The left testicle was accordingly removed and patient again made a complete recovery, and returned home and to his business full of hope and gratitude to his surgical benefactors. After a while tuberculosis broke out in the remaining testicle; the organ swelled, inflamed and broke, and discharged bacilli-containing pus. Many more consultations took place, and as there was a bad cough, physicians were called to consult with the surgeons, and then came blood-spitting: nevertheless it was decided to remove the remaining testicle. At this stage patient came under our scientific homoeopathic treatment. He is getting well, but the point that here concerns me is that surgery cannot cure constitutional disease even though expressed only in a part.
This we see every day in regard to strumous glands in the necks of young children which it is the fashion to cut out “to save the constitution and prevent ugly scars.” It does neither; but, on the contrary, tends to wreck the constitution, and the scars left by operations are worse than those from natural suppuration, in so far as they show more. And why? Because when these strumous glands are cut out there is loss of gland and of connective tissue, so that the environment of the gland sinks in, whereas when the gland suppurates naturally (under the influence of adequate constitutional treatment, be it remembered) there is hyper-plasia of areolar tissue to fill up the gap, and in the end the scar is much less noticeable than that left by excision.
This point is very important indeed, and I would impress it upon my readers as worthy of serious consideration, and a glance at a few scary necks will show the correctness of my statement.
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.