The usual treatment of septic conditions is quite energetic. A trip to a well equipped hospital, classification of the infecting organism; intravenous medication or transfusion, local treatment, surgery. For some time now sulfanilamide and more lately one of its near relatives. Some patients get well, and those who do not, leave behind the great satisfaction of the knowledge that everything science has evolved has been used.
Your attention is invited to a case treated unscientific- ally, where none of the above measures were made use of and which, called to the scientists attention, would receive undoubted sharp criticism.
December 14, 1940. Mrs. C., forty-nine, had pricked a bleb on the knuckle of the right forefinger, hand greatly swollen, very sensitive to touch, red streaks up the arm. The bleb was black.
Under Vesicular eruption, black, Ars. and Lach. lead, with Anthr. a close second. Heat applied had made it worse, which does not look well for Ars. The induration of Anthr. was not present nor was the burning of these two. Lach. 2c.q 3 hr. After the second dose the patient went comfortably to sleep. Next day the tenderness and streaks had disappeared and we hoped that was all there was to it.
Seen in forty-eight hours, the bleb was large and discharging freely. Lach. 1M., one dose. The day following the bleb was a full half-inch in diameter and yellow,the hand swelling again; some abdominal cramps and the patient quite disturbed. Lach. CM., one dose. In twenty-four hours no improvement and a gland at the elbow the size of a hickory nut. Lach. 12x. q 2hr. rapidly ameliorated all symptoms with a prompt return to health.
You ask, would not the 2c. continued a few doses have cleared it up? It probably would have. But the admonition, while improving keep off, stayed our hand. In acute cases there are exceptions to this rule, where a few extra doses are necessary. For instance, in pneumonia of children where the 1M. or 10M. is repeated every two hours, it is better to carry it on for at least six hours after the temperature has become normal. (Homoeopathy, 1939, p. 280-1.).
Why the 50M.? At this time we were persuing the I.H.A., Transactions of the 80s and 90s where most recorded prescriptions are 42M. up to DMM. Which answers that one.
But the 12x. What of that ? The remedy was Lach. No doubt of that. Whereas we know the high potency has opened up a field quite beyond the reach of the low, it is also true sometimes that the low is effective where the high will not work. For instance (Homoeopathy 38, p. 50) record of pneumonia in a twenty-one months old baby where remedies, including Lach. 2c. had failed and Lach. 12 promptly saved a desperate situation.
Our particular line of drug therapy offers a wealth of remedies for sepsis in its various manifestations and the infinitesimal dose insures against evil drug effects, which latter idea is yet to filter into the scientific medical mind, except for immediate devastation, where it cannot be missed.
Lach. is blue and tender.
Anthr. is blue and burning and indurated.
Ars. burning relieved by heat.
Lach. cannot bear to be touched. (Hep.).
Crot. h. yellow and mottled.
Tarent. c. bluish with intense burning pain.
Pyrogen must keep in motion and the bed seems hard. (Arn.).
Bell. red, hot, dry, swollen shiny, throbbing.
Hyp.has streaks up the arm as Anthr. and Lach.
Bothrops great oedema, dissecting.
Vipera the part hanging down feels bursting.
Any of the above drugs may be useful in any chronic state where the patient has at some time in life, it may be years before, suffered serious sepsis.
So much for the unscientific treatment of sepsis.
DISCUSSION.
DR. GRIMMER : I want to make an observation on Dr. Moores paper. I submit that that type of case does not belong to surgery. The surgery should come in only on the tail end, possibly some time or other for some complication.
DR. HAYES : I want to commend Dr. Moore. He has opened up a field of thought. Some chance for a little difference of opinion is always good if it is brought out in the right spirit. There can be no question about the nice little differentiations he made between the remedies mentioned and their selection for individual cases. That is where the vast difference is between “old school” technique and homoeopathic technique.
The homoeopath has remedies for each individual case–it must be so, or it wouldnt be homoeopathic–while the allopath has one routine for all cases. Regardless of what the infection may be, he still has the same routine. With the giving of poisonous doses of experimental drugs, coal tar derivatives, and so forth, up to almost the toxic point, I would say if it does save life, which is doubtful, that life is in misery for a long time after being saved.
The question of dosage is a thing that might well get discussion in our remarks, but that shouldnt be. That should be left largely to the experience of the individual prescriber. In acute diseases I dont repeat the remedies after the fever goes down. Dr. Moore believes that you should keep on repeating the remedy after the fever goes down. I find that I get better results, if, as soon as the fever drops, I discontinue the remedy in acute conditions. Very frequently, however, even a single dose of a remedy will carry through, if it is very closely applicable to the case, without any further medication. As I said a minute ago, this respiration of dose is a matter of individual experience.
DR. WOODBURY : Dr. Moore mentioned one of Dr. Hayes pet remedies. In various conversations with the doctor, we have talked over several cases. I have had a very similar case. This was one of a woman who had large induration from accretion in some way, I suppose, of the venous and lymphatic circulations. There was a good deal of scaliness and all that sort of thing. When I first saw her, she was passing bloody urine, and upon examining that, I found she had a marked engorgement of the kidney. It was undoubtedly renal thrombosis of the kidney, but prior to that she had a very marked case of shingles.
If I recall correctly, it was one of those cases in which Rhus did something and Arsenicum perhaps a little. Nothing did very much, but finally, when I got the whole history of the case, I found that she had marked aggravation from letting the limb hang down. I then gave her Vipera in the 30 potency with the most remarkable result I have ever seen. Not only did the kidney condition clear up, but the legs began exfoliating. Large portions of the skin came away, and she had a return practically to normal. That was something like two or three years ago, and as far as I know, she has never had any trouble since.
DR. MOORE : This was not a case of my own reading. I am an eye doctor, and I dont know anything about a person from there down, so I couldnt know anything about that. But Dr. Dixon was out of town, and he told his patient to come over to this eye doctor when he was away. This was one of his patients. Of course, under Dr. Dixons care she would have died, because he doesnt know about 12x, so that woman was saved by reason of her coming to the eye doctor !.
On the repetition after the temperature goes down, that is from Dr. Borland, of London, of long experience in childrens cases in pneumonia. He finds that if he does not repeat for at least six hours after the temperature is down to normal, there is much more apt to be a recurrence. I can see how men will have differences of opinion about all these different things because, as i see homoeopathy, it is so big that any one of us can touch only the edge of it. I am looking forward to the day when we shall have medical groups handling homoeopathic cases. It is really big for any one man unless he is of wonderful size.
