Dr. Fortier-Bernoville speaks in this lecture about the vessels and their content. At first he insists on some general principles that should guide us in the practice of the drainage of the circulatory system.
1. The drainage of the circulatory system is an integral part of all the organs whatever they may be : Digestive apparatus, urinary organs, skin, etc….As for example in chronic rheumatism, when mind always turns towards the remedies of drainage of urinary organs in order to eliminate the toxins or residues fixed on the articulations, we should not forget the local circulatory factor, capillary, veins even arterial on the base of these articulations.
2. The circulatory drainage allows an action on the vegetative nervous system and particularly on the sympathetic system, which as we know regulates the tonus of the vessels.
3. The drainage differs according to the age of the patient, the acuteness or the chronicity of the affections. In acute cases in young subjects of whose the circulatory system is indemn from the anatomical point of view, it is enough to apply the law of similars in therapeutics to cure the patient and the question of drainage is of little importance. By giving the indicated remedies one can get an effect on the circulatory apparatus as on the other apparatuses. In chronic states of old persons where the circulatory troubles are more and more important the vascular drainage, has, on the contrary, an absolutely capital value.
4. The action of drainage on the circulatory apparatus is always general. When we speak of the elective action of a remedy on the veins and on the arteries, we can get a schema. These remedies have very often, a general action on the organism. In Homoeopathy we must not forget to observe the law of similars, neither must we forget to consider the individual as a whole.
After having clearly described the above general notions Dr. Bernoville places himself on the ground of biochemistry, establishes a series of interesting relations between some constitutive fundamentals, humours and tissues and the predominant action of some important Homoeopathic ground remedies. The blood plasma and the lymphs contain essentially Sodium chloride : The remedies that will act on the plasma electively are the sodium salts : Natrum muriaticum and Natrum sulphuricum. The first acting on the oxygenoids who are depressed and tubercular, suffering from low blood pressure, generally young persons, the second in hydrogenoids, real “barometre patients” who are generally more aged than the subjects of Natrum muriaticum. The hematicas contain specially Potassium, some iron and carbon. The elective remedies of anemia will be Kali carbonicum; the salts of iron: Ferrum metallicum, (chronic state), Ferrum phosphoricum (acute state) in the case of the diminution of the percentage of haemoglobin; Carbo vegetabilis, the most important remedy of grave diseases with which we must compare Arsenicum album, which experimentally causes anemia and which may be used in some cases of pernicious anemia.
Leucocytes are of complex composition of nucleo-proteids, lecithins and cholesterin. Calcarea carbonica will be the remedy of the ground of lymphatic subjects with inflammation of ganglions and hyperleucocytosis. Hepar sulphur and Mercurius solubilis will be the remedies of subjects having tendency to suppurations. Phosphorus and Arsenicum are the remedies of leucopenia.
The fibrin contains some very complicated compounds but of which the base is always proteins and albuminoids : The remedy of hemorrhagic states will be the serpent poisons.
Phosphorus will act on the endothelium of the arteries: Silicea and Graphites will act on veins, specially of medial tunic when there is venous dilatation. Fluoric acid and Calcarea fluorica act on aneurism of the capillaries and we know that in biological chemistry if one wishes to check the spontaneous coagulation of blood one will apply some Sodium fluoride. Thus there is very close relation between bio-chemistry and the indications of some important Homoeopathic remedies.
Now Dr. Bernoville arrives at the essential part of his lecture: The practical indications of drainage as regards capillaries, veins and arteries.
1. Drainage of the capillaries
The capillary diseases are difficult to observe. Therefore, they have not been well studied. But there exists an interesting method of examination of the circulation in capillaries: Capillaroscopy, which is unfortunately very little known in France, and has recently been taken up by Dr. Franklin Bircher of Zurich, a naturist. This method consists in observing the capillaries on lips and nails with a relatively weak enlargement and to take their photograph by a special dispositive. In the first photographs of ill persons, arthritics, autointoxicated, etc.,… some of the capillaries seem to be sinuous, spasmed, under the influence of appropriate regimens and some treatment, some modifications are seen. The capillaries have become healthy and normal.
Bernoville was a major lecturer in homeopathy, and he was active in Liga Medicorum Homeopathica Internationalis, and a founder of the le Syndicat national des médecins homœopathes français in 1932, and a member of the French Society of Homeopathy, and the Society of Homeopathy in the Rhone.
Fortier-Bernoville wrote several books, including Une etude sur Phosphorus (1930), L'Homoeopathie en Medecine Infantile (1931), his best known Comment guerir par l'Homoeopathie (1929, 1937), and an interesting work on iridology, Introduction a l'etude de l'Iridologie (1932).
With Louis-Alcime Rousseau, he wrote several booklets, including Diseases of Respiratory and Digestive Systems of Children, Diabetes Mellitus, Chronic Rheumatism, treatment of hay fever (1929), The importance of chemistry and toxicology in the indications of Phosphorus (1931), and Homeopathic Medicine for Children (1931). He also wrote several short pamphlets, including What We Must Not Do in Homoeopathy, which discusses the logistics of drainage and how to avoid aggravations.
He was an opponent of Kentian homeopathy and a proponent of drainage and artificial phylectenular autotherapy as well.