by the sensitivity of the patient and his lability and furthermore by the form of division of the preparation. Not only absorption depends upon the fact that small amounts are administered in finely divided from but the size of the particle is decisive in oral administration the increase of temperature appearing in dogs and man after a few milligrams of SiO2 in a highly dispersed colloidal form does not appear with less dispersed silicic acid preparations.
Silicic acid irritant therapy has been employed at times in typhoid. Here an excitation of a leucocytosis in the presence of leucopenia was guiding. The typhoid bacilli have, as we have seen, only a slight affinity for silicic acid and the opposing influence of the white blood cell picture (whereby in this respect the negative phase is to be considered as a hypoleucocytosis), also cannot give a very good basis for this therapy.
SUBSTITUTION THERAPY WITH SILICIC ACID
The hypothesis of transmineralization, of the balance of a mineral deficit, is given in general for the silicic acid therapy of pulmonary tuberculosis. But in the rare indications of some therapeutists, in arteriosclerosis this explanation has been included in the absence of a better one. Kuhn obtained a favorable impression from the intravenous administration of sodium silicate, particularly in aortic and coronary sclerosis, at least in respect to the subjective symptoms. In old men the silicic acid in all the tissues is supposed to be diminished and the calcium to be increased (according to H. Schulz). Consequently silicic acid therapy is conceived as substitution therapy. But it was not adopted and the subsequent addition of iodine to his preparation, najosil, by Kuhn is not exactly designed to explain the question. Even more uncertain in regard to the basis and in the results has been the occasional use of sodium silicate injections in asthma and diabetes.
From the viewpoint of a silicium deficiency silicic acid has also been employed internally in skin diseases, outside of homoeopathy. For the external use in the form of Aqua silicata in decubitus and other ulcers the adsorption capacity and the cell proliferation propensity of colloidal silicic acid must be taken into consideration. P.G. Unna recommended the oral use of sodium silicate in pemphigus chronicus and foliaceus. Luithlen treated senile itching and eczema which developed on thin, dry and desquamating old person’s skin, moreover lichen and psoriasis as well as angiospatic skin manifestations (“dead hand”) successfully with small intravenous doses of sodium silicate. Results have also been obtained in scleroderma. Loss of elasticity consequent to impoverishment of the skin in silicic acid is said to be removed by the medication.
CARCINOMA AND SARCOMA
Here and there again emerges the treatment of cancer with silicic acid. Best known is Zeller’s internal use of sodium and potassium silicate (nakasilicium = pot. silic., sod., silica 20.0, Sacch. lact 60.0, 1/4 gram three times daily is taken in cancer), and in external tumors his arsenic-cinnabar paste (Acid, arsenic. 2.0, Hydrarg. ox. rubr. 6.0, Carbo. anim. 2.0) in addition. A favorable influence from pure silicic acid therapy in single cases is not dismissed. But to decide on these rare suitable cases out of the great number without closer reports offers an almost insurmountable difficulty. Netrolizky has again employed an impoverishment of the tissue in silicic acid in cancer as an explanation. On the other side the decrease of silicic acid in senile tissue has been shown. The old reports that the silicic acid content of the pancreas may be increased
in carcinoma are scarcely of significance since the theory of Kunkel and Kall that the pancreas is the site of storage of silicic acid has been proven untenable. One might better consider that silicic acid stimulates the fibroplastic activity and thereby under certain conditions can favorably influence epithelial cell growths. Still more significant seems the fact that by the inujection of infusorial silica an outpouring into the peritoneal cavity of guinea pigs can be produced with peculiar granulomatous swellings which are composed almost exclusively of giant cells with numerous hyperchromatic nuclei. Likewise Schirokogoroff by injection of the same substance into the portal vein and pleural cavity of rabbits produced multiple tumors after 1-8 months on the peritoneum and pleura which had a similarity to giant cell sarcoma. Since the formation of giant cells in carcinomatous tissue is considered s one type of healing process silicic acid might introduce or perhaps favor the healing process in carcinoma in this way. We might further consider that many compounds of the related carbon are likewise tumor producing and on the other side also have a reputation in cancer. That results with these agents appear only rarely, lies in the nature of malignancy itself and the difficulty
in obtaining indications for a definite remedy.
In the treatment of cancer this also holds for homoeopathy. The indefiniteness and limitations of the other silicic acid therapy of the school will be decidedly overcome in homoeopathy
by means of studies on the healthy. The effects of silicic acid and its utilization will then show entirely new enlightenment and arrangement. The large number of artificial silicic acid preparations (siliquid, silistern, etc.) Which are brought out by the pharmaceutical industry cannot outweigh the knowledge of peculiar type of action of a simple substance.
A DRUG PROVING
As an example of a drug proving of silicic acid that occasioned by H.Schulz and published by Bootz may be repeated here in summary. It has the advantage that the prover did not know the substance but still it agrees well with the earlier homoeopathic provings which are richerin details.
In a first series of trials Bootz described a study for 4-6 weeks in an amount increasing from 1 to 4 knife points. The observation was continued two weeks after the discontinuing medication. In a second series which goes back 15 years, the silicic acid in one case was given in a trituration with milk sugar in the ratio of 1:10, in 4 cases in a ratio of1:1000; in the first case for one week daily two knife points, then for 2 weeks daily 4 (in total 3.5 grams were given) and in the other 4 cases in irregular increases for a few weeks daily, 4, then 8 or more which made for the total experimental period about 0.1 gram of silicic acid. In a third series 4 men were given a 0.01 Percent solution of silicic acid in water, so-called aqua silicata, and indeed for 4 weeks, weekly increasing from 20-50 drops. Thus in general 0.0075 grams was used, that is, less than a centigram of silicic acid. A period of at least one week of subsequent observation was followed. It should be stressed that in this last series of studies. With the 4th decimal potency the actions were in no way distinct as they were with the studies with the original substance. On the other hand the symptoms in the proving with the potentized silicic acid are more definite. But in general all studies show a great similarity in the symptomatic picture.
On the skin acne appeared several times, especially on the face, forehead, neck and on the back; in 4 of 17 cases furuncles with indeterminate borders and hard infiltration of the vicinity. The in two cases (with the administration of the original substance) a peculiar papular exanthem with sharply limited red elevations was preceded by several more days of severe itching. Such itching was observed in two cases in the 3rd series but without anything appearing externally. The secretion of sweat was strikingly increased in five instances, especially on the feet, and the sweat smalled sour. In four cases there was soreness of the feet and desquamation of the skin between the toes and the fingers, once initially moist and then desquamating rhagades in otherwise unhealthy skin and a tendency to suppuration. Once an old scar became thickened and painful. Twice bunion-like structures appeared, on other time an old bunion loosened without effort. Five times there was marked desquamation of the scalp as well as marked falling out of the head hair and beard. Once the finger nails became painful and seemed to grow more rapidly.
Silicic acid provoked considerable symptoms also in the bones, muscles and joints. At first great fatigue, lassitude over the entire body, especially heaviness, lassitude and tension in the legs, rapid fatiguability of the same on only slight exertion. The movements in the legs were more difficult and stiff, especially in the knee and there appeared the sensation as if the legs could not bear the weight of the body, as though the leg, and here the lower leg was temporarily completely lame, would crumple. Running and jumping were impossible. Still more frequently observed were dull deep seated pains in the leg, drawing or sticking pains in the knees and hip joints of the arms. The intensity of these pains was variable. Sometimes it was reported that pressure did not aggravate the pain and that it was better from movement. But in two reports exceptions are found, that is, aggravation from pressure and relief from motion.
Leeser, a Consultant Physician at the Stuttgart Homeopathic Hospital and a member of the German Central Society of Homeopathic Physicians, fled Germany in 1933 after being expelled by the German Medical Association. In England Otto Leeser joined the staff of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital. He returned to Germany in the 1950s to run the Robert Bosch Homeopathic Hospital in Stuttgart, but died shortly after.
Otto Leeser wrote Textbook of Homeopathic Materia Medica, Leesers Lehrbuch der Homöopathie, Actionsand Medicinal use of Snake Venoms, Solanaceae, The Contribution of Homeopathy to the Development of Medicine, Homeopathy and chemotherapy, and many articles submitted to The British Homeopathic Journal,