It is perhaps possible that a case of disease may be peculiar, and never have its fellow; but as a general rule, when we find a form of disease in one person, it is most likely that it will be found in some others.
This is the basic principle involved in all works on therapeutics, which differs in a measure from that followed by those of the Kentian school of our own time, in that the remedy is the thing that is stressed first, last and all the time, regardless of the name of the disease. This does not preclude individualization in any given case, but works on practice were intended to be general guides, and not of necessity arbitrary ones. The practical value of Hahnemanns statement is here apparent that there are, after all, no diseases, but there are sick persons.
As an example of Jeanes method, may be cited in the following case:.
To a woman of tender and irritable constitution, one who has had repeatedly miscarried before the third month, Sabin gtt. 1. 12. was given as soon as she found herself pregnant, and every month until the eighth the Sabin. was repeated. On the fourth month, after violent mental emotion, labor pains without haemorrhage, appeared, but were speedily removed by Sabin. gtt. 1.9. At the proper period, she gave birth to a perfect and healthy child.
Also, in a case of profuse haemorrhage after an abortion, where the patient appeared almost ex-sanguine and excessively debilitated, Secale in a low dilution promptly arrested this discharge. The patient fell into a tranquil sleep, from which she awoke after some hours, much refreshed.
Innumerable cases showing the prompt acting of the indicated remedy abound in Jeanes work on homoeopathic medicines.
Illustrations of the various methods of prescribing appear in the writings of all the earliest masters. Then we come to another period when these cases were arranged in book form, e.g. in such masterly computations as Raues Records, which were published in six volumes, beginning in the year 1870. In this work, the author was assisted by no less than twenty-two co- editors in different parts of the United States.
Opening the first volume, at p. 187, we come upon the following case of pneumonia. You find the patient sitting up in bed gasping for breath, with his shoulders elevated to his ears in the effort, his face is the picture of despair. You watch the walls of the chest, but find no motion there. You tap with the fingers over the region of the lungs and there is no resonance. The sound elicited is like that obtained by thumping on a board. You take note of the abdominal muscles, and you find them hard at work, carrying on the process of breathing. You place your ear to the chest, and no air seems to enter the lungs at all. The case looks desperate, the patient expects to die. Tartar emetic in water every fifteen minutes, will see you through in just such desperate cases. And who, may we be interested to ask, is the authority for this clinical verification ? The answer is, no less a prescriber than Dr. C. Carleton Smith, and the reference is to Med. Jour. vol. 5, p. 357. Dr. Temple S. Hoyne of Chicago, one of the co-editors of the Raues Records, was evidently so much intrigued with this method of presentation that he later authored a volume entitled Clinical Therapeutics, and herein are many references to Raues Records. Hoynes work was illustrative of the plan used in his lectures at the Hahnemann Medical College in Chicago and contains examples of clinical cures by both high and low potencies; and it is all in all a most excellent book. I chose from the second volume, a cure reported under Opium (Vol. 11, p. 159).
CASE 345. Have recently corroborated an old symptom of this drug in case of typhus abdominalis. Many slight indications for Op. and most prominent among them the peculiar sopor. Give Op. 23 in water every hour. Found at the next visit that the pulse and temperature had both been much reduced and the symptoms for which I prescribed the medicines also better, but in their place, a well known symptom which I accepted as a confirmation of this drug, viz., a constant complaining that the bed was so hard, I at once stopped the medicine and under sac. lac. had a rapid recovery. The author of this brilliant cure was none other than Dr. William Jefferson Guernsey.
Herings Guiding Symptoms, one of the most exhaustive repositories of clinical data the school has yet possessed, is derived from case reports to be found in early homoeopathic literature and these references are most painstakingly tabulated.
All our homoeopathic periodicals of those early days, which numbered among their contributors the most brilliant writers of their time, are complete with data which are the very backbone of our therapeutics. The transactions of the British Homoeopathic Society, the American Institute Journal, and the files of French, German, Spanish and Italian magazines also bear witness to similar testimony. Then there are incomparable Transactions of the International Hahnemannian Association, which could scarcely be excelled. Likewise the papers and case reports published in the journal Organon, as edited by Skinner, Lippe, and Berridge; likewise the Journal of Homoeopathics.
Some years ago in a small brochure entitled Home Made Treatment, Dr. C. F. Nichols, who was formerly associated in his offices with Dr. Wm. P. Wesselhoeft, cites the following :.
A disciple of Hahnemann was called to a lad who had bled for some days from the nose, in spite of the efforts of his medical attendant. The former administered a powder of Carbo vegetabilis (charcoal) remarking, “I think charcoal will relieve the bleedings,” which it did almost immediately. “But it is white,” said the Irish doctor who had been in attendance. “Yes, it is homoeopathic preparation, a trituration,” “I think,” said the learner, regarding its action with astonishment, “I think white charcoal is better than black.”.
The domestic treatises of such writers as Hering, Freligh, P. Curie, Laurie, along with Jahr and others have done much to publicize homoeopathy in the past and now comes a small laymans volume, by Dr. William Gutman of New York City, which is published by Boericke and Tafel of Philadelphia which should prove of great value to the mothers of families who are seeking a small book on homoeopathy as first aid treatment in the various domestic ailments to which they themselves and their offspring may be subject. It is entitled The Little Homoeopathic Physician and the method followed is that of adding at the end of the discussion of every remedy a brief case illustrative of the therapeutic action of the drug in question. How much better is this method and its simplicity than the usual first aid treatment in vogue through the wide-spread use of aspirin, sulfanilamide, sleeping tablets, physic, etc., which is usually contained in the family or travelling medicine chest or handed out over the counter in every corner drug store.
In closing this altogether too lengthy paper, may I mention my appreciation, albeit my admiration for the series, so aptly denominated Little Cases by Dr. Margaret Tyler, which as the editor of Homoeopathy, the organ of the British Homoeopathic Association over a good many years, Dr. Tyler has published in its columns.
In the April number of this excellent journal there is cited a cure of epilepsy by Natrum muriaticum in various potencies from the 12th to the 50M., which should make glad the heart of the most seasoned veteran of Hahnemannian homoeopathy.
In concluding her remarks upon this instructive case, Dr. Tyler says :.
Epilepsy in a middle-aged man with such a history is not a very hopeful case to treat. Most carefully symptoms were recorded, but the prescribing was on the aetiology of the case. His response to treatment, after the first Thuja prescription, was evidenced by temporary aggravation and return of old symptoms. This meant reaction and was a warning to await its unfolding before interfering. Natrum mur. later, only repeated when the great and manifest improvement waned and symptoms returned to demand attention. And since he always responded to these potencies, they were not changed.
As to the three doses in rising potencies, Hahnemann tells us in the last edition of his Organon, that we may get speedier results in chronic diseases by repeating, provided that we raise the potency with every dose.
Looking back, one wonders, could one have done better by a different exhibition of the remedies ? But there was always response, and after all, this severe case of epilepsy with so many factors making for trouble–well! He was very happy, as his condition improved, and is very, very grateful to have lost his terrible disability.
In reading this remarkable case, which is reported in the Journal at length, one might well exclaim, for it is seldom that the most doughty follower of Hahnemann meets with such unqualified response in such a chronic and well extended disorder.
In conclusion, may I say that the future outlook for homoeopathy is not in the least a pessimistic one, despite the lessening in our ranks by the loss of many of our veteran prescribers. For strangely enough, brilliant minds trained in physiological methods are finding in the Hahnemannian way the open sesame to truly scientific medicine. Yea, verily, a great heritage is that bequeathed to us by this greatest of all masters of medicine.
Benjamin Collins Woodbury was born August 13, 1882, at Patten, Maine. He was the son of Dr. Benjamin Collins, a homeopathic physician, and Matidle Albina (Knowles). He attended Patten Academy and received his M.D. from Boston University Medical School in 1906. Following graduation Dr. Woodbury began his practice in Lewiston and Winthrop, Maine, and in 1907 moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he practiced for the next nine years. Dr. Woodbury married Miss Gertrude Fancis O'Neill of Boston at Eliot, Maine on June 18, 1915.
In March, 1919, Dr. Woodbury left the Islands and located in San Francisco where he practiced for two years and then returned to the East and established a practice in Boston. He was a trustee and a member of the staff of the Hahnemann Hospital, Boston, and in 1947 was elected president if the International Hahnemann Institute, Washington, D.C. He also gave many lectures on homeopathy at Boston University and at postgraduate sessions of the American foundation of Homeopathy.
Dr. Woodbury died on January 22, 1948, in Boston at the age of 65.
The doctor was the author of "Materia Medica for Nurses", published in 1922 and of many articles in medical journals in England, India, and the United States. Dr. Woodbury was also a writer of plays and poetry.