A child came into hospital with eczema of the head and it was noticed that the nurse had difficulty in persuading the child to lie down; the child grasped the nurse on the act of lying down. This suggested Borax which promptly cleared up the skin condition. Many patients who suffer from involuntary urination at the sight of running water are comforted by Lyssin.
Sir John said cases were most interesting and instructive, but he would like to issue a warning well expressed by Dr. Roberts in his foreword : “Let the single symptom be only a partial indication to the application of the materia medica. Beware the keynote that is not backed up by knowledge of or reference to the materia medica. No single symptom, no matter how strange, rare and peculiar can stand without the support of the well-taken case, and the likeness of the whole patient to the remedy.”.
Dr. C. E. WHEELER wished to pay a personal tribute to Dr. Templeton because he knew how busy he was and yet found time to write such a long and carefully composed paper. It was a very valuable one with Dr. Templetons comment on symptoms in general and his emphasis on the need to some extent to interpret symptoms as they were found recorded.
It was inevitable for a prover to have a certain personal approach to any mental symptom he developed, and some, no doubt, would be influenced by their past experiences; therefore, although that symptom could not always be found in the recorded form, it had to be realized that there might be a certain latitude for interpretation, for another patient would have a symptom slightly different in its details and yet indicating the remedy by analogy. This was a very important point; their knowledge could thus be extended.
Similarly, with symptoms which could not as yet be found in provings and yet disappeared when the successful drug was applied, knowledge grew, the symptoms became possible indications for the drug though they had to be verified.
Before Aurum became a popular remedy for chronic arthritis he used to find a number of cases needed it, and he regarded the mental indications as very important. He believed its effect was primarily on the blood-vessels. In many cases of chronic arthritis changes in the blood-vessels were one of the first signs in morbid anatomy to be detected and it might be that it was through that avenue that Aurum was effective. There was very little that Syphilinum would do in these late symptoms which Aurum would not do and the effect of Syphilinum on joints was probably similar in action. Lueticum certainly often helped them.
Dr. Templeton commented a little on Arnica which he had always regarded as having a noteworthy effect on the capillary circulation. There was a certain amount of active push to the circulation even in the capillaries and he thought it was in that element that Arnica acted.
Its provings suggested that the capillary walls could be damaged by it very easily and a stimulus there might have some relation to what Dr. Templeton asked about “second wind”. It might be that it worked through the lung capillaries and would enable one, in some way to get a little more oxygenation when in ones first efforts they had been congested.
Cuprum he had often found useful in asthma, the cases he had were mostly spasmodic and there again he preferred to have the background of the patient, namely that the patient was of the sensitive, passionate, easily-angered temperament. One did not always get this in asthmatics but if it was present it was very well worth while thinking of Cuprum.
With regard to cramps, whenever a large amount of fluid was suddenly lost cramps in the legs were liable to occur and Cuprum with its gastro-intestinal effects would be indicated. The relation of migraine to intestinal disturbances would be familiar to the President and he had always been inclined to expect it in such cases. There were a number of migraines in which it would not work.
Whenever one gave Pulsatilla one was also giving Kali sulph. It was notably present in the tincture, and that was one of the interesting points which was so often found in materia medica. One got a vegetable tincture with marked symptoms; the similarity to one or other constituent could be traced and one could say this was the representation of that, and yet there would be cases where the mineral symptoms were prominent and the administration of the mineral alone would not clear it. Even if the symptoms on which one was prescribing were all represented in the simple compound one would sometimes still do better by giving the whole vegetable tincture.
They were very apt to overlook the changing of symptoms and did not always realize the necessity of going into the case again and therefore missed what should be recognized.
Dr. Wheeler added that he thought it was Dr. Haehl whom he asked why the late records of Hahnemanns cases had not been published and who explained that Hahnemann seemed to have taken every case as if it was new every time he saw it. This made his notebooks extremely difficult to handle because it was like dealing with a constant series of new cases. All the same the speaker wished something could be done with those records.
Dr. MONCRIEFF was especially grateful to Dr. Templeton because it was her business to get speakers and he had come to her aid at the last moment; she explained that she had tried not to ask him again but that she thought the Society would be pleased if he gave it a yearly paper.
She had no rare symptoms to quote. There was one case of very obstinate constipation in an old woman who was definitely senile. She tried a lot of drugs with no effect until she discovered that the patient used extraordinary language and she gave her Anacardium whereupon she was incontinent for twenty-four hours !.
With regard to Kali carb., she found it often indicated in cases of angina or coronary thrombosis if there were indigestive symptoms as well. If she had a patient with fullness in the chest together with a heart lesion. she found it extremely useful.
The PRESIDENT also thanked Dr. Templeton for his paper. They always looked for a detailed paper from him because it was typical of the work he was doing.
There were just one or two points on which he wished to comment. He mentioned one case of pain in the hip with coughing, the speaker had a case which came to his memory of a patient with sciatica and who played the trombone in an orchestra. After a heavy week he got a pain in the hip after playing a high note. He was given Capsicum; it was in the Repertory; the patient was cured and the doctor thanked !.
On the question of Carb. veg. he would like to emphasize the point about windows and doors being wide open. He had one striking case which was about the worst case he had ever seen of carbuncle. The woman was supposed to be dying and he was asked to see her as a friend. As he went into the room the doors and windows were wide open and the nurse (the patients daughter) said her mother would not allow the doors and windows to be closed.
There was a blueness round the edge of the lesion and he gave Carbo veg. there and then, and in a matter of hours the daughter was asking him if there was an improvement. He also had noticed that the circulation round the carbuncle was beginning to improve. The local doctor had prescribed 693 but it was not given and the credit for the cure was given to 693 although the Carbo veg. had brought it about.
On the question of Sepia and prolapse, Sepia was not the remedy for prolapse, it was the remedy for the sensation of prolapse; there might be a certain degree of prolapse but it was more the remedy for the sensation rather than the actual prolapse.
He did not know whether it was in the Repertory or not, but he would suggest or think of colic with convulsions or collapse with Cuprum. Dr. Templeton said it was in the Repertory for convulsions, but he had associated colic with convulsion with Cuprum; it was somewhere in the literature.
Another point where there was a membrane on the throat: before the last war he was doing some research work at a fever hospital on the bacteriological work on throats. They often had cases diagnosed as diphtheria and on bacteriological examination there was no bacillus of diphtheria, “the organism was pneumococcus. Later with experience it was possible to detect the pneumococcus from the diphtheria but a person of little experience would find difficulty in seeing the difference. The point was these cases had had antitoxin and cleared up just as well as the actual diphtheria cases. All cases of throat sent in did well with the diphtheria serum.
He could not miss the reference to 693–the case in which Ipecac. was given o some indication but did not work and M. & B. 693 was given with Ipecac. later and worked. Kent said if the remedy did not act give Sulphur and after that the remedy would act. He wondered if this case of Ipecac., then M. & B., then Ipecac., arose from the fact that there was a sulphur factor in M. & B. 693.
