But the whole range of even very severe lung hemorrhages reacted better and sometimes quicker on homoeopathic drugs than on 10 per cent natrum mur., calcium or K-vitamin injections. What is an allopath going to do with cases corresponding to Nitr. ac., carb. veg., lachesis (sputum raised under choking when falling asleep – a symptom so often in cases of pulmonary-laryngeal phthisis)? What sort of an allopathic procedure can be recommended to fit the symptoms of weakness in chest? How many of our colleagues missed the opportunity of getting to know the causticum and pulsatilla personality, types representing to often the beginning phthisis?
I could not observe any good results in intestinal tuberculosis. But 210 cases of glandular and bone-tuberculosis, mostly with fistulae of all sizes (in one case four cervical and two sternal fistulae or three perianal fistulae alternately opening up and closing under fever and terrible sufferings) owe to homoeopathic treatment improvement or clinically a complete recovery. Many cases improved after first producing a eczema, especially the arsenic cases. I once had a miraculous cure in a case with a deep cervical fistula and huge bulks of glands, suffering from an intercurrent cough like whooping cough, the symptoms of which corresponded to drosera. Six doses of drosera 30x cured not only the cough but the fistula too.
The glands became softer and diminished in size. No allopathic treatment will give you results still possible in the severest cases of pulmonary tuberculosis. We cannot produce through internal allopathic drugs old eczemas which have been suppressed. Eczemas are wide spread among Chinese, also all sorts of lichen. They all are treated with ointments. You may rest assured that after a weeks time the skin will be affected in the majority of cases treated with arsen., arsen. iod., and tubercul.
A very interesting chapter for a Homoeopath is represented by the annually appearing cases of fever in children. As I pointed out it is a sort of glandular fever associated with rickets. So far I observed 300 children in the Missions orphanage and hospital and 107 children in my own clinic. It is an epidemic. Starting from Shanghai you will find the very same sickness in the whole Yangtse valley at the very same time, from March till October or November. It occurs in children of one to seven, seldom beyond eight years, and begins often in children after weaning.
Chinese children are breast fed till their third year, according to Chinese conception, for, the uterine stage is counted as the childs first year. The disease begins with slight fever which increases gradually after 8-10 weeks, (when there is no treatment or an inadequate one), to reach daily temperatures running as high as 104 F., mostly in two daily climaxes, the first and lower at about 5 p.m., the second at about midnight. The fever is associated in almost all cases with thirst for huge quantities of cold or hot water, the lips are bright red, parched with no herpes. The face is sallow with sunken eyes, and wrinkles appear early on the neck which gives the jugulum the appearance of an old woman. In the mental sphere this stage is characterized by restlessness before midnight.
The child wakes up screaming which becomes in its intensity the character of a regular cri encephalique. In the second or third month it wants to be carried. After 2-5 minutes of being carried and drinking greedily 100-200 cc of water it falls asleep to wake again after half an hour or an hour. This goes on till about 4 a.m. At this time the fever subsides and a profuse perspiration ensues. The sweat is at first hot, drenching the forehead, but more on the occiput, neck, palms and soles. Now the child may sleep for 4-5 hours without interruption. The childs character changes considerably; it becomes moody easily excited.
In children of 5- 6 years a premature intelligence along a slow development of a hydrocephalus is to be observed. In some children a sudden desire to bite people, even their parents, while being caressed, is a common symptom. Most of the children turn malicious and become extremely sensitive to touch and jar. Sensitive to cold air and draught during the daytime, they want to uncover the body when asleep, all but the head. In cases of a more acute character the fontanelles open up in the fourth month, the parietal bones become brittle and with these signs the following symptoms are associated: a running nose or ear or both: the child stops walking, dropping of hair in bunches on the slightest pull.
This is the stage the old Chinese doctors consider the most favorable for an acupuncture which is performed with short golden needles in the childs palms. There are two methods of acupuncture treatment: in children with open fontanelles but without convulsions or anticipated convulsions, the puncturing of all finger tips except those of the thumb along the adductor to the metacarpus. I have never used acupuncture but I have noticed the following facts: on first treatment no blood comes from the wounds, but a kind of a sanguinolent moisture. As the treatment is repeated every 4-5 days, the appearance of blood oozing from the wounds is hailed as the beginning of convalescence.
I could verify this statement in cases of hydrocephalus which have been treated elsewhere by Chinese methods and relapsed in to the second stage of this disease usually coming on in June or July, (after 4-5 months): the gastro-intestinal stage. From the beginning, the child develops bundles of painful elastic glands (mostly without signs of inflammation, but sensitive to touch). In the third or fourth month the abdomen swells up drum-like which contrasts with the emaciated limbs and chest. The blood test shows from the onset a leucopenia (4-5000) with high amounts of huge lymphocytes, gradually increasing anaemia with macrocytes appearing more and more in the blood. I never found an emaciation going upward (abrotanum).
All children showed the very same type of emaciation starting from the neck and going downwards. Discharges, which were more of a mucous character, change into purulent, cheesy and offensive ones, like all excretions become more and more offensive. The appetite has changed from the beginning; there is a marked desire for ham, smoked fish and ducks, fermented duck eggs (eggs put into earth for three months after having undergone treatment in a mixture of clay and bran; a process of putrefaction, making the whites appear green and the whole egg tastes like a Roquefort cheese). Later there is a morbid desire for chalk, earth, coal.
Vomiting is a bad omen as it points towards the last stages associated with oliguria, acetonuria and comatous stage lasting sometimes for 8-10 days. In this stage a noma is likely to appear, especially in boys, which marks the end of a tragedy full of torments and suffering, especially for children under bad hygienic conditions, children whose abode is a couple of mats hung over bamboo-poles. The bowel movements become more frequent. It is first a sort of papescent diarrhoea with lots of flatus at the start. The single amounts are not big, the color is yellow or green, microscopically fat crystals in large amounts.
In the third or fourth month it changes into a lienteric type with even milk not being digested and lastly hemorrhages set in. Brown, dark-red, mostly coagulated blood comes on during and after stool. This latter symptoms is a real crux. Nat. mur. and nitr. acid. were mostly indicated, and I could save a lot of children. As a matter of fact, I have not lost one child treated Homoeopathically for hemorrhages (also oral and nasal) – whereas I was at a loss as what to do as an allopath. Calcium, coagulen, ferr. sesquichlor., tannin were in most cases of no avail. Liver and spleen visibly not affected. The uro-genital organs manifested their participation in form of an oliguria with albuminuria (hyaline cylinders), in two cases with lipuria, mucus, phosphates.
In cases after measles a cheesy leucorrhoea, staining in linen, mostly at night. (A fact very interesting in china are the many complications following measles: infantile tuberculosis, otitis, moist eczema, especially on the scalp). Even in recovering children, there is very often the symptom of open eyes on falling asleep (later in deeper sleep they are closed). Towards the end, there is the atrophy of the helix of the ear, a pointed nose and the deaths head appearance of the face. Motion of limbs becomes slower, the child looks for hours fixedly in one direction. The end is either gradual emaciation (with or without cerebral symptoms) or a pure cerebral death with convulsions and respiratory stop.
X-ray findings reveal an enlargement of the hilar glands, seldom broncho-pneumonic infiltrations or pleuritic effusions. I had no other means to examine the state of incretory glands or to go into details as to the further pathological and chemical changes in the blood, and excretions. But I was allowed to help. How can I describe the wonderful results obtained by cham., calcar., mercur, silic., cina, natr. mur., sulf., tubercul., etc. In the Missions clinics I had all sorts of vitamins, cod liver oil, acidophilus milk on hand; but the mortality reached nearly 35 per cent, and in 1940, even 50 per cent.
