Analytical Study
1. The Nosode Syphilinum: Two questions arise: Is Syphilinum capable to Negativise the Bordet-Wassermann reaction?
The second problem which requires solution is : How many times Syphilinum is indicated in Syphilis?
In fact we do not know absolutely anything. It is one of the nosodes that we may use in two ways, either according to the real Homoeopathic method, or uniquely on the etiology of Syphilis in a systematic way. But when we give it systematically its action is very inconstant. Then it is necessary to ask oneself if it is faithfully only in relation to the symptoms of its pathogenesis, or it can really transform and negativise the serological or humoral reactions.
About ten years ago a Homoeopathic doctor of America used in syphilitic patients numerous medicines strictly according to the law of similars. The Bordet-Wassermann reaction was tested before and after the treatment. The medicines that seem to negativise are Lycopodium. Syphilinum comes to the second rank ex-aquo with many other remedies.
That was not a very intensive study. It is necessary to take up the question again. Because some persons may pass through the stages of negativation and reactivation in the evolution of the disease. However, it seems that in some cases Syphilinum acts in a sense of negativation.
Clinically Syphilinum seems to act better in the hereditary syphilis or in some very old cases and it is possible that its action is eclipsed like the disease itself. We do not find always the symptoms of Syphilinum, specially when the treponema enters the blood. The symptoms are rather manifested when the treponema is refugiated in the nerve tissues according to a still unknown mechanism. I have often observed when Wassermann test is positive, the Syphilinum has no indication whereas when it is negative the symptoms of Syphilinum are frequently seen.
2. The Metals: We are now going to speak about the classical Homoeopathic treatment of syphilis.
Our arsenal has many minerals than vegetables. Let us study at first these minerals.
Among these arms Gold and Mercury are very important.
The Mercury: It has about 15 salts which may be used.
The most well known is Mercurius solubilis or Mercurius vivus.
When you study the pathogenesis of Mercurius, you will find that this metal affects specially:
–The Lymphatic System: Ganglions and vessels.
–The Bones.
–The Mucosa.
It is necessary to know that it acts in all the stages of syphilis and in all its periods. It is a classical remedy of the Allopaths and so it is of the Homoeopaths.
Mercurius has, however, advantages as well as some disadvantages. It is surely advantageous when it is necessary to act on the Mucosa, on the digestive canal. But very much inconvenient when it is necessary to act on the skin or even sometimes on nervous system.
First of all in primary syphilis, is Mercury capable to act? We may reply in the affirmative. When you have to treat a chancre it is classic in Homoeopathy to use Mercurius solubilis or an other compound. That does not mean we will be satisfied with it. In France we understand Homoeopathy in such a manner that we want to become first of all a doctor then a Homoeopath and we draw out of Allopathic arsenal when Homoeopathy is not enough for us. Dr. Nebel informed us of a German doctor who in primary syphilis used Mercury and its salts in 2x, 3x, 4x, with impressive results. The author of the book pretends to have cured chancres with complete stoppage of Syphilis of that period. As for me, I am very sceptic, and I would preferably follow Dr. Bonard of Marseille. He very courageously rose against the exclusive Homoeopathic treatment of syphilis which may cause us to be treated as sectarian by the other school.
In the Homoeopathic clinic one cannot say frankly that we obtain excellent results in primary syphilis and secondary syphilis, because first of all among our patients we do not find any such case. As for me, in my private consultation, I still wait for such a patient with indurated chancre. I have seen only two such patients in Hospital consultations and that is all. Besides chancre is relatively rare.
On the other hand most of the persons do not know how they have contracted syphilis. The chancre has disappeared unperceived and one does not know whether there was a chancre at all. It is, therefore, not possible to form an opinion about the treatment of syphilis with necessary support with facts. We cannot buy say what other authors say and we are not always sure of their scientific mind.
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.