These of course, are statements resting largely upon clinical observation and we must be careful not to place too great an emphasis upon them. As with Pulsatilla, if we have a real Rhus tox. patient, the remedy will do much good in cardiac disease with pain; but not otherwise. We cannot prescribe for the pain alone, per se. Hypertrophy of the heart, the result of prolonged exertion, undoubtedly belongs to Rhus tox. and under the circumstances we would expect pain, extending down the left arm, but the condition is one, for reasons obvious,not to be found in a proving.
Spigelia is a wonderfully effective remedy in neuralgic and in cardiac disease; so far as the latter is concerned, we think of Spigelia in endocarditis,the result of rheumatism and clinically,we can all testify to its value yet the early provings say very little about cardiac pain, but do emphasize very decidedly, oppression, anxiety and palpitation of the heart. The “Materia Medica Pura” mentions many symptoms of stitches in the chest, not necessarily in the cardiac area or always in the left side; yet one striking symptom is recorded, ” WHERE THE HEARTS BEAT IS FELT, ONLY SOME WHAT MORE EXTERNALLY, OBTUSE STITCHES RECURRING SYNCHRONOUSLY WITH THE PULSE.”
This to be sure, may be indicative of an intercostal neuralgia or perhaps, of an endo or a pericarditis. Clinically, we know that this is true. Experience at the bedside, with Spigelia, has shown that its cardiac pain is aggravated by lying upon the left side and compels the patient to lie upon the right side and in the least, the semi-recumbent position. These modalities have been frequently verified. In endocarditis, especially when acute, Spigelia is a most valuable and reliable remedy.
Of remedies pre-eminently cardiac in character, we have said nothing. Strophanthus, so far as homoeopathic provings are concerned shows little of actual pain symptoms. Among two or three other, Matthes and Gisevius proved the drug in the tincture, Gisevius taking as high as eighty drops. Matthes proving produced, “Distinct stitching and restlessness towards apex of heart, increased impulse with peculiar pulsation and twitching throughout body.” Gisevius noted, “Intense palpitation from comparatively slight exertion.” Stauffer in his “Homoopathische Arzneimittellehre” sums up the uses of Strophanthus very well and states:
Dosage, tincture to third potency.
Strengthens cardiac contractions
Acts as a diuretic
No cumulative action
Cardiac lesions, more of a chronic nature
Valvular lesions with arrythmia
Heart insufficiency and weakness
Cardiac asthma
Dropsies.
Nervous heart complaints particularly before examinations or public appearances.
Kidney diseases, chronic, with cardiac insufficiency and dropsy. From all of this it will be seen, that our homoeopathic use of Strophanthus is based upon its physiologic action as originally learned from old school sources. The homoeopathic profession has contributed very little to this knowledge.
Digitalis has of course, received homoeopathic provings and was proved by Hahnemann, assisted by Franz, Gross, Ruckert, Stapf and others. In the Hahnemannian proving, contained in the Materia Medica Pura, very few heart symptoms are recorded and almost none concerning cardiac pains;but in the Chronic Diseases we find evidence of cardiac distress and pain, mentioned under the symptoms of the chest and in the introduction to the remedy, in which its clinical uses are recited we find “Angina pectoris- palpitation of the heart-carditis-chronic endocarditis. Chronic and organic affections of the (principally left) heart and the large vessels, especially hypertrophy with or without enlargement of the left ventricle-affection of the valves. Aneurism of the aorta.” These of course, are simply clinical statements, based upon experience, but in no sense pathogenetic.
Allen, in the Encyclopaedia,devotes several pages to heart and related symptoms, especially those concerning the effect of Digitalis upon the pulse; he speaks of pain in the heart,though pain symptoms are not at all prominent. On the other hand, the characteristic symptom, “A SUDDEN SENSATION AS THOUGH THE HEART STOOD STILL, WITH GREAT ANXIETY,” is very strongly emphasized, also “Dull uneasiness in various parts of the region of the heart, with a sensation of weakness of the forearm, etc”.
Convallaria majalis, lily of the valley and Adonis vernalis, a popular heart remedy in Russia, in their meager pathogenesis show no cardiac pain symptoms. Undoubtedly, however, both these medicines have been beneficial in some cardiac diseases, but it is a debatable question whether any good effects produced by them have been due to their purely homoeopathic or to their physiologic action, more especially since these medicines are commonly used in appreciable does of the tincture, frequently repeated.
Thus Royal, in his “Homoeopathic Theory and Practice of Medicine,”? speaking of the dosage of Convallaria, states, “Give the second or third (potency) except for the purpose of energizing the heart (Italics ours), for which purpose give ten drops of the tincture.” Of adonis he says, “Use in give-drop doses of the tincture”.
From all of which it will be seen,that although many homoeopathic remedies are credited with symptoms of cardiac pain, very few are really prominent in the production of such pain and these few are not characteristically or exclusively,heart remedies. Nevertheless, so far as heart pain is concerned, we feel that the homoeopathic materia medica is rich in possible heart remedies and that, provided we will study these remedies, homoeopathic prescribers have a real advantage in the possession of so many likely medicines, which can best be applied with the symptom totality of the patient in mind. Even sodium chloride, when indicated by its symptom totality and prescribed for the patient, rather than for the patients disease, becomes a cardiac remedy of no mean importance and value.
Insulin Disappointments and Hopes_Under this caption the London Lancet says in part:
“Those who hoped that the administration of insulin to a. diabetic might lead to the cure of the underlying disease. are apparently to be disappointed,. As a result of. observations lasting from 11 to 18 months on give selected. cases of diabetes mellitus, no evidence has been obtained by Dr.G.A.Harrison of even a partial remission of the disease. The daily intake of carbohydrate, protein, fat, and calories remained fixed throughout. The dose of insulin was adjusted to the fixed diet according to the results of estimation of the blood-sugar content. All five patients needed as much or slightly more insulin at the end of the period of observation”.
We quote this merely to emphasize the fact, that however valuable insulin may be, it is nevertheless not a cure, but is to be looked upon in the light of substitutive medicine. The diabetic patient will still need to be put upon a suitable diet and so far as we homoeopaths are concerned, will need to be prescribed for as an individual.
There are no remedies for diabetes, but there are many remedies for patients who have diabetes; quite another matter. Cure remains, as it always has, an elusive thing and difficult to achieve.
Iodin and Goitre-In the London Lancet for “February 6th, the leading article by Sir James Berry, B.S., London: F.R.C.S., Eng., is entitled, “Some Clinical Aspects of Simple Goitre, with Remarks on its Causation.” In speaking of the varieties of goitre Sir James says:
“If we leave aside malignant disease, acute inflammation,. and certain of the rare forms of thyroid enlargement, we are left with two main varieties of goitre. The first is characterized by excess of the cellular elements of the gland and by diminution or absence of colloid. This is exophthalmic goitre in its various forms. It appears to be essentially a hypertrophy of the gland, although this is probably not the whole explanation of the condition.
“The second variety is that of simple endemic goitre, and the first point that I want to emphasize is, that simple endemic goitre is not a hypertrophy of the gland. It is essentially a degeneration. The enlargement of the gland in the earliest stages in which I have been able to observe it, consists primarily epithelial elements. In this respect it differs entirely from the goitre of Graves disease, in which, as mentioned above, the enlargement is due to an increase in the cellular elements of the gland. This misuse of the term hypertrophy as applied to simple goitre, is very widely spread in literature at the present day”.
Further on, in combating the prevalent idea that a lack of iodin is the cause of goitre, the author states:
The most convincing single proof of the baselessness of the lack of Iodine theory is afforded by what occurred in connexion with goitre at Sanawar in North India, investigated by Colonel McCarrison and fully reported by him in the British Medical journal of June 7th, 1924. At a large school in an institution at the place, where a high incidence of goitre had been present for many years,he found in 1913 that over 80 percent, of the children were affected. By his advice a new and pure water-supply was introduced in 1918. In 1922 goitre was reported to have disappeared from the school. In the autumn of 1923, when he revisited the school, the incidence of goitre was only 2.2 per cent., or no greater than the incidence of thyroid enlargement among school children residing in a non-goitrous district such as Delhi.
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.