Hypericum in amputations or in injuries of parts rich in sentient nerves is also favorably commented upon and the use of pyrogen and crotalus horridus in septic states is freely discussed. Even the high potencies, such as the 200th, 10m, and cm, are mentioned with a nonchalance as through their use is a matter of settled routine procedure.
Truly, young Jonathan will have to look to his homoeopathic laurels, or his cousin Johnny Bull will soon surpass him in the homoeopathic marathon. Shades of Helmuth, where do we today, in these sterilized United States, find our surgeons engaged in Jahr and Crosserio has been relegated to the limbo of forgotten things, while hypericum is left to a few old Hahnemannian fossils, who still think that there is something in the homoeopathic law! Our societies have become so “gosh-dinged” highbrow, that the mere materia medicist must sit in respectful silence and twiddle his lowbrow thumbs.
We Americans are restless lot, always ahead of the procession, sometimes so far ahead that we forget entirely what we are marching for, especially when the brass band plays furiously to help us “whoop her up”! But we might with much profit to ourselves copy some of the things done by the slower but more methodical Englishman or by the painstaking and thorough German. There is far too much of the “get rich-quick” spirit about us; we are too much imbued with the notion that “anything goes,” so long as what we consider a desirable end is achieved. We need the brakes of much sober thinking, as well as less tinsel and camouflage.
THERAPY IN CHRONIC DISEASE.-
Under the above title, Albert E. Man, M.D., contributes an interesting article to the Medical Review of Reviews in its May issue and among other things says:
“Regardless of the organ or organs affected, the treatment of long standing ailments is usually a formidable undertaking. In acute conditions we are confronted with a battle between normal cells on the one hand and an invading or irritating agent on the other. If it so happens that we understand the underlying pathology in a given case, our efforts may be intelligently directed toward an effort to assist nature, the great healer.
“The conditions that confront us in chronic diseases are quite different. Here we have a fire that has burned itself out, with the exception perhaps of a smouldering focus. The symptoms for which the patient seeks relief are due to changes of a more or less permanent nature, such as metabolic after-effects and consequent disabilities. We often find that nature has been too lavish in her expenditure of reparative material, and has bequeathed the sufferer with a wealth of adhesive scar tissue or other hyper-plastic impedimenta, causing pains of a lancinating, burning, aching or dragging nature.
In addition we usually find exhaustion of vital agents such as blood cells, hemoglobin, and the various mineral salts so important in the economy of the tissues. Depletion of the endocrine secretions is usually a factor, and occasionally we find a gland over-secreting, thus complicating the symptoms often characterized by the term functional neuroses. There is always a pathological reason for a pathological nervous phenomenon, and the physician who is satisfied with a diagnosis of functional neurosis is either too lazy to find the cause or is badly behind the times.
“It therefore follows that the successful treatment of chronic diseases depends primarily on an accurate diagnosis. Granted that the physician has before him the laboratory reports, and a complete history of the case, has made a thorough examination, and is satisfied that he understand the mechanism of the factors that enter into the situation before him, he is ready to proceed with treatment.
“Let us pause now and take an inventory of that portion of our therapeutic armamentarium which is applicable to the treatment of chronic diseases. There are very few useful drugs available. Chemical agents which mask symptoms such as opiates, bromides, coal-tar derivatives, etc., may be practically eliminated for obvious reasons. Stimulants should be resorted to but occasionally. The few valuable drugs available are iron, arsenic, the iodides, the salicylic acid derivatives rarely, and some gland extracts. Symptomatic disturbances may at times require other drugs, but rarely do we find a drug which can be depended upon to change the course of a chronic disease with the exception of digitalis in certain cardiac conditions”.
Well said indeed, and only too true! The market is flooded with pluriglandular remedies of the “shotgun” variety and those who use them have no intelligent idea of how far the shot will scatter, or what, if anything, it will hit. The time must come when all the endocrines are subjected to careful provings in accordance with the methods of homoeopathy, for then these therapeutic agents can be used scientifically and will be lifted out of the realm of empirical exploitation.
So “the few valuable drugs available are iron, arsenic, the iodides, the salicylic acid derivatives rarely, and some gland extracts.” Furthermore, “rarely do we find a drug which can be depended upon to change the course of a chronic disease with the exception of digitalis in certain cardiac conditions”.
Careful homoeopathic prescriber will not agree with all of the last statement, for in addition to iron and arsenic, drugs which we too are glad to acknowledge as valuable, especially when subjected to the exclusively homoeopathic method of potentiation, we have many others, the curative virtues of which are altogether unknown to our friends of the dominant school. Such remedies as calcarea carbonica, pulsatilla, sepia, silicea, sulphur and a veritable host of others are capable of changing the course of chronic disease, always provided, however, that the latter has not progressed too far along the path of gross pathologic change.
In speaking of “gland therapy” Man says:
“When a patient presenting a well developed disturbance of a pluriglandular nature is encountered, it is easier to prescribe a gunshot remedy than to discover the original malefactor. This being the case, the treatment is exploited as a diagnostic measure, rather than the more scientific and likewise more tedious method requiring an exhaustive anamnesis, a great deal of experience and a thorough examination”.
ARSENICUM-
An Illustration.-Dr.X, a graduate of the old school, who, convinced of its scientific character, had come over to homoeopathy, was taken ill as the result of exposure to a cold west wind, while insufficiently clad. He began to complain of abdominal pain, flatulence and distension, complete anorexia and thirst for cold drinks; the bowels were confined, tongue coated white with red edges; the pulse became accelerated and there was a slight rise of temperature.
This condition continued for several days, growing worse steadily, when, on account of the constipation, a mild laxative was taken, followed by unsatisfactory, watery stools. No remedies of any kind were taken. When seen on the sixth day, this symptom picture was still more pronounced; tympanitic distension of the abdomen and exquisite tenderness over the left lumbar and left inguinal quadrants was present, so that palpation and percussion had to be done with great gentleness. The patient was very restless, especially at night, sleepless and complained of weakness, at the same time desiring to go from bed to couch and from couch to chair; he was irritable and plainly anxious.
The thirst for cold, acidulated drinks, but in small amounts, continued. Arsenicum album 200, in water, a teaspoonful every three hours, brought practically immediate relief to the pain and whole condition. No adjuvant treatment was employed. Later, on account of the continuance of the thirst, phosphorus, which is complementary to arsenicum, was given, a few doses only and in the 200th potency.
Although the severe pain and suffering had been relieved, there remained several days later an area of tenderness in the left lumbar quadrant of the abdomen; gentle percussions showed dullness and it was recognized that a surgical condition now obtained.
The tentative diagnosis, made by the surgeon who was called,was a diverticulitis, with pus formation in all probability. The possibility of malignancy was also borne in mind. X-ray examination was negative, and no leucocytosis was found on examination of the blood. Chills were absent, there was no rise of temperature above ninety-nine degrees and no leucocytosis upon repeated blood examinations until three days after the tentative diagnosis had been made, when the leucocyte count showed 20,000 and the temperature rose to 101.
Operation was done, the abdomen opened and a large quantity of foul-smelling pus was removed. The infection proved to be a colon bacillus type. Recovery was uneventful, without complications of any kind. Calcarea sulphurica 10m was given for the suppurative process.
At no time was the intestinal canal involved. The interesting features of this case are the absence until shortly before operation of the usual signs which denote the formation of pus; the unusual location, in the male at least, of abscess formation; the relief of all subjective symptoms by the arsenicum especially and the absence of individualizing symptoms when the abscess cavity had walled itself off and had become fully circumscribed. Also the entire harmony which existed between the employment of the homoeopathically indicated remedy in its proper sphere and the surgical intervention which logically followed.
American Homeopathy Doctor.
Rabe graduated from the New York Homeopathic Medical College and trained under Timothy Field Allen and William Tod Helmuth.
Rabe was President of the International Hahnemannian Association, editor in chief of the Homeopathic Recorder, and he wrote Medical Therapeutics for daily reference. Rabe was Dean and Professor of Homeopathic Therapeutics at the New York Homeopathic Medical College.