Bland Sutton in his evolution and Disease (London, 1890), and after a consideration of actinomycosis, a very interesting disease, expresses the view that sarcoma is of fungal nature, and as what he says on the subject is eminently instructive and intensely interesting, I cannot refrain from giving his summary:-
“To put the matter in a clear form, a sarcoma is probably the scene of action of a virulent and prolonged conflict between irritant micro-organisms and leucocytes. I say probably, because, as has been already remarked, bacteriologists have not yet succeeded in isolating a special bacterium for sarcomata in general; that such agents will soon be discovered in the highest degree probable, because in recent years each increase in the list of infective granulomata is made at the expense of sarcomata. The structure, mode of growth, infective properties, and manner in which these tumours destroy life, clearly coincide with what is positively known with regard to infective granulomata. The fact that sarcomata make up the greater part of tumours occurring in wild and domesticated animals has, in my opinion, a very significant import in this relation.”
Thus we see that although ringworm may not at first sight appear to offer a very promising subject of general interest, we soon find ourselves in studying it landed right into the middle of the great bio-pathological problem of “the maggot and the cheese”- i.e., life and death.
It has been urged against some of the medical views to which I have given expression that they are advanced too positively as absolute facts; well, of course, that may be: I give my data and my reasons, so that any other competent medical person can judge for himself whether I am right or wrong. It is perfectly true that I am a positive individual; I believe in work and progress, and, in the practical activities of the physician, I want helpful, and, therefore, positive views. If I have bad ringworm cases to cure what is the use to me of the medical agnosticism of the superior person whose position is this:-
“It may be so, I cannot tell, and wouldn’t like to say, I don’t incline to this or that, nor yet the other way; I can’t at any time feel sure, yet hardly like to doubt, And feel I musn’t trust to ‘guess’ for fear of being out Not feeling any certainty, I do not like to speak, I don’t know what I want to know nor what I ought to seek. I never like to venture far for fear of running wide, And I haven’t nay notion how I ever can decide.”
Of ringworm I hold positively,-
(1) That it is a constitutional complaint.
(2) That it is generated by the together-being of numbers of young people in close spaces i.e., by their personal emanations, or anthropotoxine.
(3) That it is so to speak, “subtuberculosis.”
(4) That it is curable by its pathologic simillimum, here termed Bacillinum, in high potency, internally and infrequently administered.
(5) That the mycosis is merely the concomitant external manifestation of the disease and not the disease itself.
(6) That the external treatment of the disease is irrational, unscientific, and, probably, harmful to the patient.
(7) That it is commonly bred in schools.
(8) That truly healthy children cannot catch it because the fungus cannot grow upon such.
(9) There is, therefore, no reason why a ringwormy child should be excluded from school life or the company of its fellows in home life.
(10) And, finally, that the trichophyton of ringworm is to ringworm what the bacillus of Koch is to tuberculosis,-the trichophyton and the bacillus being, moreover, nearly related to one another.
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.