Surgery & Medicines in the Treatment of Tumors



For three or four years before she came under my care she had been breaking down in health. Before the operation she had had neuralgia over the right brow, coming on every morning from 12.30 04 1.30 to 5 A.M. For this she was put on a feeding-up dietary; and then she had another attack of neuralgia in the left eye-the first for fourteen years. Since the operation, she has had violent neuralgia in the right eye.

Three times in her life she has had inflammation of the bladder. For years she had insomnia, for which she had to take hypnotics of various kinds. the worst time of this was eight years before I saw her. Now, when the neuralgia was worse, the insomnia was generally better. At times has eczema on nose and face. Has flushes of heat at 11 A.M.

I found the abdomen large and flabby, and very fat.

The spleen was large, and there were a few enlarged glands in the inguinal region. In the region of the fall bladder of lump was at times clearly discernible, but the amount of fat made any deep manipulation difficult.

MY first prescription was Thuja 30, once in about ten days.

In the first fortnight after that there was an improvement in the neuralgia. After that she was better. Under Lueticum 200 a scabby eruption appeared about the ears, and there was oozing from them Aurum sulph, 3, eight grains at bedtime, improved the general health and strength greatly, but the neuralgia and insomnia continued.

October 14th, 1904-A little lump noticed in lower region of right breast. It appeared to be a sebaceous cyst. Patient is getting fatter.

Rx. Carcin. 100, once in ten days at bedtime. Sanguinaria canad. 30, at bedtime on the intermediate nights.

November 11th, 1905-Neuralgia over right eye is better. Has had sensation of a bold through from occiput to forehead. Insomnia not quite as bad. Very constipated. Severe right side sciatica. Nux 3 in the morning and Sulph. 30 at bedtime were now prescribed. then followed Urtica ur. 0 in morning, and Luct. CC at bedtime; and then in sequence, Medorrh. 200, Sulphur30. Iodine 30, and thuja 30.

January 10th, 1906- Cyst of left breast has suppurated and discharged.

It healed up and disappeared completely soon afterwards.

On April 26th I put her on Carcinosinum, but she complained so bitterly of its effects that I had to discontinue it. “Each powder seemed to thoroughly upset me, causing such flatulence that I had to go to the closet every hour and a half as if I could not wait a moment, with no result but flatulence.”

At the end of 1906 ominous symptoms appeared in the region of the operation-that is, about three years after the operation had been performed.

On October 2nd had sharp pains in right iliac region after overexertion. On December 18th she was complaining of liver symptoms, nausea, constipation, with scanty, hard stools. Much pain in sacrum. Felt ill all over. I found in the right hypochondrium, and on the right side of the scar, a pump in the region of the gall-bladder.

Rx. Ornith. 0 once in fifteen days.

January 16 th, 1906-Has lost the nausea; that is the only change.

Rx Cholest. 5x, gr. viii, night and morning.

At this period things were in a somewhat critical; condition, as the following letter from her sister will show, but the Cholest. stopped the downward course.

January 25th, 1906-“I have just returned from a new hours’ visit to Miss D-at -I know you will be glad to hear your last medicine for night and morning has decidedly touched her,. and relieved her the liver pain. she keeps her bed till 7 P.M. when she comes down till 10. But her face for the last four hours of the day is truly terrible to look at emaciated, streaked black and white, with dried-up looking lusterless eyes. Neuralgia off and on in short bouts at any time. She seems to be sleeping a little better, and in bed she really looks comparatively well. Digestion is better on the whole, and so sickness. I would give anything for one ray of hope that life may be prolonged a bit yet. She is confident herself of disease, but it distresses her little.”

February 12th, 1907-The patient’s own report on this date is a fine example of the action of Cholest., and deserves recording pretty fully:- “Certainly better in side. Have lost the weight in right side. Have lost the weight in right side when standing, but not entirely the pain. Backache since last fortnight nearly gone, sometimes entirely. All nausea after eating ceased. Feel better generally in self. the skin has lost its yellow and brown tint. Stools a good colour, but very small and ribbon like. Insomnia and neuralgia worse than ever!” This last note explains what the patient meant by saying she was better “inside”- the external sufferings were not improved.

I examined the rectum, but could find nothing there to account for the ribbon-like character of the motions or the sacral pain. Later she developed pain in the right kidney region, and Berberis 200 was of service. In June 1907 all traces if the tumour had disappeared, and now the patient is going about her usual avocations, though still troubled with neuralgia and bad sleep. whatever may have been the nature of the trouble originally, this patient is now free from malignant disease, and the danger prophesied by the surgeon is at an end.

The next case I have to relate shows a strong vaccinal element in the etiology. In vaccination a living germ is thrown into the blood-current and infects the whole system. This is a serious thing at any time, but it becomes much more serious when it is done at a time when the organism is in a condition of impaired resistance as it is in a woman during the monthly period. Whatever may be thought of the possible advantages to be derived from vaccination, I hold it inexcusable to vaccinate at that time. A strong gouty element was another reading factor in this case.

CASE XI.- Tumour of Breast; Tumour of Intestine, etc.; Vaccinal influence.

This patient was a lady of 35, of very gouty family history, subject to frequent attacks of neuralgia and at times to herpetiform eruptions. She was the mother of seven children, the last being four months old when she came to see me.

The point of chief importance in the recent history of the case reference to vaccination. The patient had been several times vaccinate, and on the two last occasions it did not “take”. But that does not mean that it did not affect her. The last time of all it was done on the leg, just below the knee, whilst the monthly period was on-towards the end. This was the last period before conception took place. The vaccination apparently, as I have said, did not “take-there was no soreness- but (a thing which she hardly ever experienced) a heavy cold in the head developed) a heavy cold in the head developed, with copious, thick, stringy mucus. She felt very seedy, and the cold was so noticeable and unusual as to excite the remarks of her friends.

After the boy was born it was noticed that the left breast was larger than the right, though it had been the smaller of the two before., But though l;larger than the right, it had little milk in it. Later on-in January-the nurse noticed the lump.

I found the nipples of both breasts normal In the left breast, on the inner and upper aspect, was a tumour the size of a filbert. In view of the vaccinal history I prescribed thuja 30, once in about ten days.

A month late I heard that the patient was very much better. the appetite was very good- “too good, in face”- and the patient was less constipated than she had been.

I repeated the remedy, and did not hear again till three months later.

In then put her on Carcinos. 100, and under this there was some diminution in the size of the tumour; though she suffered much from neuralgia, and felt the cold very much. I now alternated the Carcinosum 100 with Tuberculin of Koch 100. Two months later I had an opportunity of seeing the patient (who lived in the West of England), and she then told me that the medicines took all the pain our of the breast. I found the breast flat and wasted, and the lump prominent and more visible, but not appreciably altered in size. Cundurango I was now prescribed, and I did not see the patient again for over a year thereafter. Within that time disease of the large intestine

had developed, and after a fruitless attempt to perform left inguinal colotomy, the perform left inguinal colotomy, the ascending colon was opened, and in that way the patient was relieved.

The patient again came to town, and I was asked to see her. She had been much weaker, and her attendants held out no hope of recovery.

I found the breast tumour larger, a scar on the right iliac region, and an opening in the left side of the abdomen. A hard lump was felt in the left hypochondrium, and there were indurated glands in both groins, but none on the axillae.

Under Thuja the patient again rallied in a remarkable way. she returned home, as she wished to receive her children on their return from school. she was equal to all her duties, and even put on four pounds in weight. But she overdid her strength. She had been asked to distribute prizes at a village school, and walked the distance-over a mile from her house-there and back. From this indiscretion she never really recovered, although she made several surprising rallies. She was subject to attacks of violent pain in the left side, in the region of the spleen (which was enlarged), and for this Ceanothus 3x gave instant relief. Later Natrum muriaticum 30 gave conspicuous help, but the disease gained ground; tympanitis and dropsy set in, for which tapping gave relief, and so-

John Henry Clarke
John Henry Clarke MD (1853 – November 24, 1931 was a prominent English classical homeopath. Dr. Clarke was a busy practitioner. As a physician he not only had his own clinic in Piccadilly, London, but he also was a consultant at the London Homeopathic Hospital and researched into new remedies — nosodes. For many years, he was the editor of The Homeopathic World. He wrote many books, his best known were Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica and Repertory of Materia Medica