The throat seemed full of mucus but hawking was very painful. The eyes ached dully and were < by bright light. He was alternately chilly and sweaty, and complained of great weakness. Sleep was disturbed by anxious dreams. He felt much worse in every way after sleep.
You have probably guessed the remedy, and you are right. A single does of Lachesis 200 was given. Twenty-four hours later he was much improved and seventy-two hours after the remedy was prescribed he returned to his work.
Lachesis is frequently indicated in the sore throats of March and April. Lachesis is also a high ranking remedy for the sensation of a ball or lump internally. (Cf. Lac caninum.).
CASE IV.
At 9:30 a. m. April 25 I was asked to see a married woman twenty-one years of age, the wife of the above patient, who gave me in the following story: Just after midnight she had a severe chill, followed by sweat, and succeeded in an hour or two by severe, cramping, labour-like pains in the lower abdomen and back, occurring every five to ten minutes and producing a desire to bear down. Accompanying the pains was a flow of bright red blood. When I saw her the pans were very severe, the flow was very dark with much clotting. She was obliged to sit up with the pains which came every three minutes. Between pains she was exhausted and very pale. Her pulse was soft and regular, and with the pains very rapid.
Examination showed a uterus enlarged to the size of a two-months pregnancy with a soft cervix dilated just about enough to admit the examining finger. High up in the cervical canal was felt a mass which was thought to be a decidua.
A single dose of Secale 200 was given this girl at 10:45. In fifteen minutes the pains were much more bearable, the patient was calmer. About 11:15 she easily expelled a large mass of tissue having the appearance of decidua, whereupon her pains ceased and a normal lochial flow appeared. During the next two days she passed several clots without pain of difficulty. Her lochia ceased on the fourth day and she made an uneventful recovery. It is evident that this remedy worked faster and more efficiently, and just as completely, than curettage could have done, and with less danger to the patient — considering the circumstances under which such procedure would have had to be carried out.
CASE V.
A man 38 years old came to my office one afternoon “all of a flutter” and gave me the following history: Two weeks previously while digging a ditch he was struck in the peno- scrotal junction by the handle of his pick. The only complaint following this accident was a swollen sensation at the site of the injury until two days ago when a urethral discharge developed.
The discharge was thick and creamy but not profuse. His penis feels swollen. There was a dull ache in the penis during and after urination with tenesmus, not painful during the act. This aching was made worse by an jar of by lifting. There was itching in the urethra before urination. He gave no previous history of venereal infection and — believe it or not !– no history of recent exposure. However, a smear of the urethral discharge showed that gonococci were present !!.
A single dose of Pulsatilla 200 was given. Five days later there was less discharge and the only subjective symptom present was itching during urination. He was given Sac. lac. and told to return in five days. On his third visit all symptoms had subsided, the only objective finding being shreds in the first glass of the two-glass urine test. A week later he still showed shreds in the first glass.
One month later there were still shreds in the first glass, and so the urine was centrifuged and the sediment stained according to Gram method. No gonococci were demonstrated. At this time a dose of Pulsatilla 1m. was given. Unfortunately I have not seen this man since, so I cannot say what the ultimate outcome of the case is. No local treatment of any sort was given and no medication of any sort except as described.
The cases I have so far discussed have been of the acute type. The results obtained in this class through the use of the potencies are frequently very spectacular because the contrast between sickness and health is so marked and improvement is so rapid. Yet the curative power of highly potentized drugs is just as sure and frequently as startling in chronic illnesses, though often not at all spectacular.
The return to health is slower because there are a greater number of symptoms to combat and their eradication must follow an orderly regression according to the Hahnemannian law of cure. In individuals manifesting evidence of one or more of the chronic miasms — psora, syphilis or sycosis– the progress of cure is slow and difficult, and in elderly people often is not completed before death intervenes, though improvement under the truly indicated remedy is certain.
If you will bear with me a few moments longer, I should like to present a few cases of this nature for your consideration.
CASE 1.
A married woman of 45 came to me complaining of a blood- tinged leucorrhoea for the past two months which was made worse by intercourse, by lifting and by straining at stool. Further questioning revealed that her periods were very irregular, usually too early, lasting ten days. For the first two or three days the flow was no more than a show, later becoming very profuse, bright red and clotted. She flowed more freely on moving about. There was never any pain during the period though she complained of chilliness. About the third day of the menstruation she would develop a severe headache centering in either the right or left temple. The pain was constant and cutting in character and accompanied by nausea. Headaches < by any motion and > upon lying down and putting a hot water bottle to the head.
She said that she felt “keyed up” all the time and was constantly fearful that her menses would appear. She had no desire to do any work because everything looked too hard. There was a tendency to weep over trivial things. She imagined that she had cancer or some terrible disease was upon her. She always felt worse in the morning at 10 oclock, and better in the evening while reading in bed. She frequently had a feeling of pressure in the forehead, especially when under any nervous strain, which was > by walking in the open air. In general she felt better in warm weather. She felt no desire for intercourse.
She had had the various childhood diseases and acute nephritis when fourteen. She had delivered a normal child nineteen years ago. A year or so later she had an abortion, self-induced, from which she dates her present troubles. In April, 1933, she had had a D. & C. performed for diagnostic purposes and because she had a cervical polyp. The present symptoms she said were a recurrence of those present previous to the above operation.
Bimanual examination revealed the following conditions: A slight prolapsus, a second degree retroversion, a lacerated and eroded cervix and two small, soft, easily bleeding tumors protruding from the cervical canal, probably polypoid in character.
A repertorial study of his case was made, using Boenninghausens Pocket Book. Thirty-one rubrics were employed. Sepia was found to have thirty of the thirty-one symptoms, and on December 18 a single dose of the 1M. was given her. She reported on December 26 that she had had a slight headache December 25, beginning when she arose and lasting until 3:30 p. m. Her period began the next day and was exactly on time for the first time in three months. She was much less apprehensive, felt happier and less “keyed up”.
On March 12 Sepia 1M was repeated because of recurrence of the symptoms, though in a less aggravated form. She was last seen April 10, following her April period, when she stated that she had had less headache with this period than ever before. The flow was not profuse and there were no clots. The periods have been entirely regular since the first dose of Sepia and her nervousness and apprehension have entirely disappeared. She has had no blood-tinged leucorrhoea since her first dose of the indicated remedy.
CASE II.
On February 4 I gave a dose of Nux vomica 200 to an old lady of seventy who told me that four weeks before she had caught cold and now was so lame all over that she could not keep still. The cold began as a watery discharge from the right side of the nose, < after sneezing. There was now a sensation of weight in the occipital region, < on stooping, with a dull pain in the forehead and over the right eye which > by hot applications and < by putting the hands in cold water. She had pains in the joints which showed a tendency to shift from place to place. The nasal discharge was now thick and greenish.
There was a stinging prickling sensation in the skin on going into the cold so that she had to wrap up warmly, even her head. She had a loose cough, < at night, with the expectoration of thick greenish phlegm and accompanied by a scraping sensation in the chest. She was apt to be dizzy when walking. She told me that she had done nothing for her cold except take aspirin and that she had not gotten any better.
Allan D. Sutherland was born in Northfield, Vermont in 1897, delivered by the local homeopathic physician. The son of a Canadian Episcopalian minister, his father had arrived there to lead the local parish five years earlier and met his mother, who was the daughter of the president of the University of Norwich. Four years after Allan’s birth, ministerial work lead the family first to North Carolina and then to Connecticut a few years afterward.
Starting in 1920, Sutherland began his premedical studies and a year later, he began his medical education at Hahnemann Medical School in Philadelphia.
Sutherland graduated in 1925 and went on to intern at both Children’s Homeopathic Hospital and St. Luke’s Homeopathic Hospital. He then was appointed the chief resident at Children’s. With the conclusion of his residency and 2 years of clinical experience under his belt, Sutherland opened his own practice in Philadelphia while retaining a position at Children’s in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department.
In 1928, Sutherland decided to set up practice in Brattleboro.