MONOTONY


Modern criminology has its rogues gallery, wherein it records photographs, measurements and thumb-prints of offenders against society. Homoeopathic materia medica has its Rogues Gallery, with just as unmistakable records. The homoeopathic physician follows the old adage and sets a rogue to catch a rogue.


Read before the Annual Meeting of the International Hahnemannian Association, New York, June, 1925.

Recently, in the middle of a busy day, a patient said, “Doctor, I should think you doctors would get everlastingly tired of diagnosing cases and treating the same old diseases, day after day, year in and year out.” “But my dear fellow,” I said, “the homoeopath does not treat diseases, he treats sick individuals, and no two patients ill with the same disease are ill in exactly the same way. The patients individuality is present, be he well or ill and the individuality is a part at least of the spice of medical life, which gives it variety enough to flavor it.” As I went on my rounds the train of thought he had aroused went with me persistently, and I present it you for your consideration.

Modern criminology has its rogues gallery, wherein it records photographs, measurements and thumb-prints of offenders against society. Homoeopathic materia medica has its Rogues Gallery, with just as unmistakable records. The homoeopathic physician follows the old adage and sets a rogue to catch a rogue.

Patient No. 1 comes in, “Phew, its hot here!” It isnt hot, but the patient is, and the thumb-prints of the remedy are presented for my identification as she continues, “Doctor, I am so tired all the time, I cant get rested. I am more tired when I get up than when I went to bed, and when I sleep I have such terrible dreams.” The patient is about fifty years of age and is passing through the experience of the cessation of the function of the ovaries. She is ill and to cure her I must act the part of the angel in the Garden of Eden and drive out the serpent– Lachesis.

Patient No. 2. A young woman of twenty who had influenza in 1920, but was not under my care at that time. Since then she has had tonsillitis at intervals of three or four months. The inflammation always begins on the left tonsil and then goes over to the right side. The left tonsil becomes very much enlarged and the right follows suit. The throat is always very much more sore after sleep, even after a short nap and she always wakens choking. An “empty swallow” is always more painful than swallowing either solid or liquid food. With a temperature of 102, the patient complains of being both hot and chilly. Here is the trail of the same serpent. Lachesis cures the acute tonsillitis and removes the tendency induced by the influenza.

Patient No. 3. A woman of sixty-eight. She suffered during the night with acute pericardial pain, which extended down her left arm to her fingers. The pulse was very weak and irregular. A pallor extended all over her face. This patient has had similar attacks previously and they always come on during sleep and she has wakened with a start, in severe pain. Here we have a serious case of angina pectoris and again I bruise the head of the serpent Lachesis.

Patient No. 4 had to call me to “come in” when I rang the bell. I found her sitting on the side of a big chair, holding a cane. She had such severe pains in her left leg, extending from the left lumbar region down the back of the leg to the heel that she could not walk, but she could not keep still and had to get up and move in spite of the pain. Wet feet in cold rain the previous night was the opportunity seized by the rogue Rhus tox. to make his thumb-prints unmistakable.

Patient No.5 was almost hysterical, quiet physically and excited mentally. Her eyes were full of tears, the lids badly swollen, eyes half open. She was suffering from a severe headache with the pain coming in waves, the crest of the wave being in the occiput. Very frequent micturition of clear light colored urine. The menstrual period was just over. The face and thumb-prints of Gelsemium were unmistakable.

Patient No. 6 is Miss Baby, about a year old, well nourished, with an exceedingly white skin. She is extremely constipated. For several days there will be no stool, then the rectum will be packed with little hard lumps of fecal matter, held together by mucus.

I am not a great believer in heredity, but it is interesting to note that both the mother and the grandmother had the same arch enemy and the constipation of three generations, was cured by Aluminium.

Patient No. 7 is at the other pole in age. Seventy-four. A sharp chill in the night was followed by severe stabbing pains in the right side of her chest. Her face was pale except that her lips were very red. She sat propped up in bed, her chest filling rapidly with bloody mucus which was easily expectorated. There was constant nausea. Temperature 102, respiration 52. Remember that she was seventy-four years of age, and the symptoms listed above are grave at that age. Ipecac is unmistakably the thief to catch the thief. The patient made a good recovery from her pneumonia.

So also Patient No. 8 a girl of seventeen, who had had the characteristic chill and a sharp pain in the right side of her chest. She had a loose, rattling cough, with no expectoration. Labored breathing with dilation of the alae nasi at every respiration, temperature 104, thirst for large quantities of water. Lycopodium was recognized.

“Same old disease” pneumonia, but two individuals, each requiring a different remedy. I did not prescribe either Ipecac or Lycopodium for pneumonia, but Mrs. G–had the pneumonia of Ipecac. Miss D–had the pneumonia of Lycopodium. Both recovered.

I feel like quoting “Be sure your sin will find you out,” as I cite the case of Patient No. 9. Man of twenty-four. When I entered the room he asked me to close the door, thereby preparing me in a measure, for what followed.

“My right testicle is so sore and very tender to touch. If I keep still the pain extends to my back, and yet moving is very painful. He lay with his legs drawn up. Temperature 103–a good deal of aching all through his body. For two days previous he had been working in a cold rain. The testicle was very much swollen, about twice its normal size. He denied that there had been any discharge from urethra, also that he had been exposed to infection in any way. Here were all the identification marks of Rhododendron, so I set devil to catch the devil. The next morning the soreness and the swelling in the testicle were very much improved and I found what I expected to, a thick yellowish discharge from the urethra. He wondered how I knew that he had gonorrhoea? Do you?.

I have tried to present to you some of the individuals in my Rogues Gallery that I met in one forenoon. If I have made you see what I meant, when I said that “the homoeopath does not treat diseases, he treats individuals,” the object of this paper is accomplished.

H.A. Roberts
Dr. H.A.Roberts (1868-1950) attended New York Homoeopathic Medical College and set up practrice in Brattleboro of Vermont (U.S.). He eventually moved to Connecticut where he practiced almost 50 years. Elected president of the Connecticut Homoeopathic Medical Society and subsequently President of The International Hahnemannian Association. His writings include Sensation As If and The Principles and Art of Cure by Homoeopathy.