Editorial Wanderlust.–The editor of THE HOMOEOPATHIC RECORDER, again enticed by the call of the East, left for the hospitable shores of Europe on April 19th. England, France, Germany, and perhaps Italy, will be the scenes of his meanderings, in search of rest and relaxation from strenuous months of activity in little old New York. During his absence, his stomach friend, the editor of the Department of Homoeopathic Philosophy, Stuart Close, will guide the destinies of the RECORDER.
Homoeopathy in Sexual Disorders.–A recent letter from an Indian correspondent moves us to comment in a desultory way upon the above topic. The Indian physician laments the fact that in his hands at least, homoeopathy has failed rather miserably in impotency, nocturnal emissions and prostatorrhoea. He also confesses frequent failure to cure dysmenorrhoea, sterility and leucorrhoea and asks concerning the power of thyroidin in the rejuvenation of old men.
The subject of rejuvenation has been an alluring one for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years and we back to Ponce de Leon, who so fondly hoped to find the fountain of eternal youth in our own hectic Florida. Age is a matter of the arteries, changes of which, chiefly of a degenerative nature, are sooner or later bound to occur in all of us. Arterio-sclerotic manifestations appear much earlier in some than in others and this fact depends upon many things, such as heredity and constitutional tendencies first of all, the stress and strain of life as qualified by occupation, work, the possession of worldly goods or their absence, worry, hardship, food, habits such as the alcoholic, tobacco, etc., the presence or absence of a proper philosophy of life, and finally, disease, especially syphilitic.
Hence many factors must be considered and to keep young therefore, is not merely a question of drugs, homoeopathic or otherwise. It is true that thyroid gland preparations frequently have a rejuvenating effect upon the metabolism, a fact which Arnold Lorand pointed out long ago in his “Old Age Deferred,” and other books. There is, however, no royal road to keeping young, each individual is a law unto himself and treatment, if such be necessary, must be selected and adapted with this idea in mind. Nature has provided that everything in life shall have its period of growth and advance, followed by one of gradual decline and ultimate death. We humans can often do much to slow the progress of decay, but we cannot prevent its final completion. Sooner or later we must all pass on.
Impotency is often a symptom of this natural decline, but may be premature and in all likelihood, then depends upon one or several causes. Among the latter, pathology of the generative organs may be present to such an extent, that internal remedies, homoeopathic in character, are quite unable to overcome it, in which case other measures, often equally unsuccessful, may have to be resorted to. The outlook is never certain. Psychologic causes are extremely common, as pointed out by Havelock Ellis, Kraft-Ebbing and others and are in turn, often found to exist in those of a badly balanced, neurotic constitution. It is, therefore, small wonder, that our Indian colleague has so often failed in his treatment of impotence, we all fail, though most of us dislike to acknowledge the failures.
Much the same may be said of nocturnal emissions and of prostatorrhoea, though to be sure, many of us have seen good results, or think we have, from such remedies as Phos. ac. Selenium, Digitalin, Caladium, Conium, etc.
Concerning dysmenorrhoea, sterility and leucorrhoea, there is much to be said; many causal and qualifying factors enter into these subjects and the treatment of these conditions by no means begins and ends with the attempted application of a homoeopathic remedy. Homoeopathy may and frequently does play a most important part in the treatment of leucorrhoea for example, or even in dysmenorrhoea, but diagnosis, that all important prerequisite, may reveal mechanical or pathologic conditions, impossible of betterment by a so-called homoeopathic remedy.
In all these clinical states, careful diagnosis, the exact recognition of the actual facts in each individual case, will indicate what can and should be done, how much can be done or reasonably expected and whether the law of similars can be successfully invoked. To apply the latter, in ignorance of what is going on, is very much like shooting at a target in the dark. A bulls-eye may be chance be made, but failure to even hit the target, is more often likely to be the result. So far as homoeopathy is concerned, it must depend upon the individuality of the case, the totality of the symptoms, the recognition of what is curable in the patient and it must go hand in hand with properly selected, mechanical or surgical, as well as psychic measures, where these are required. Teamwork of this character is likely to bring about the best possible results, because it is intelligently comprehensive of the real needs of each case in particular.
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.