Those of us who observe chronic conditions especially, sometimes get a patient who is ailing but presents very scanty or superficial symptoms. The tawny appearance of the skin, the disinclination to any sustained activity, a slight but persistent debility, the lack of any definite symptomatic trend or cause otherwise, would, I believe, justify one to think, at least, of Carcinoma. For I have seen such people, especially before middle age, respond beautifully, complexion and all, to that remedy.
One such, a girl of six years who had been under my observation from birth, was a sleep walker and always talking and singing in sleep and very restless. She was brought in with a quite solid lump under the right nipple, the nipple being retracted. The family, which was large, was always full of ailments of all kinds and someone was always needing an Iodide, a Mercurial or some remedy of the sycotic or syphilitic class, although there was no special history of either the parents or grandparents.
I gave this girl Carcinoma 200th and the entire trouble cleared, lump, night disturbance, complexion and all; she has been very bright and happy since that prescription of a year and a half ago.
VII.
Another remedy that I speak of with diffidence because I know so little about it is Syphilinum. I doubt that anyone knows very much about it in comparison with its range and possibilities of application. You may and should study it from the books, yet there will be places to use it that do not correspond with the books and you may sometimes have to go contrary to some outstanding symptoms in the books. The books have relief of bone pains in the legs by cold but I prescribed Syphilinum recently for very severe bone pains that were aggravated by cold, and with immediate result.
Many times, even when it is most needed, its symptoms do not stand out in bold relief like some other remedies. Just the same it is often needed not only in non-acute conditions but in acute conditions that are severe, complicated, rapid paced or persistent. You can get a good deal of suggestion from the literature but it needs something more than that because the little indications right in the midst of severe illness are unobtrusive, and masked from the unsuspicious prescriber. It is a suspicious and sly remedy itself and must be matched with the same readiness to discover. Acute rheumatic fever is one of the favorite places for it to lurk, for instance.
The subject of Syphilinum is too big and too enticing to be permitted here. But I would suggest that it is a sort of preposition remedy, a go-between (symptom influence) which carries along the more immediate or obvious symptomatology. Look out for it.
I will just mention one instance where Syphilinum did good work in a chronic case. A maiden lady of interesting personality and a unique and intelligent wit was married at the age of 42. She had a regular cycle of symptoms slowly shifting from throat to ear, to bronchi or trachea or a tooth, etc. Also pruritus vulva with boils, one thing after another. She had an intense heat or burning of the entire area between the waist and knees so that she was unable to be covered at night even in the coldest weather nor sit in a chair but a few minutes at a time. This appeared to be of trophic origin and her knee reflexes were feeble. This and an intense sensitiveness of the genitals, internal and external, had been going on for a year or more before marriage, and after marriage there was found to be a persistent and intractable vaginismus.
I prescribed with care but could not do much more than ring around the rosy with her varying symptoms. Finally she became much depressed, at times hysterical, then suicidal and watched chances to slip out at night to drown herself. Her kind and patient husband now of eleven months standing and waiting for normalcy was getting desperate. For genuine affection had always bettered the self instinct. Just then yours-very-cordially saw a great light and prescribed Syphilinum, Gradual improvement began and when two weeks had passed the lady took matters into her own hands. She volunteered to have a long dreaded tooth extraction and the initial marital operation performed, which was done, all in forty-eight hours. There has been rapid and general betterment ever since, even the neighborhood-in fact, the whole state of Connecticut is now vastly improved.
Do not repeat so long as improvement is perceptible. In acute attacks of cholera, colic, croup, etc., it may become necessary to repeat your remedy every few minutes or hours, according to the severity of the case, while in chronic disease the intervals may be extended to days, weeks or months; indeed, many brilliant recoveries from inveterate maladies have followed the curative impulse aroused by a single dose of the highly potentized drug.
-A.R. MORGAN, M.D., 1895.
Born in Torrington, Litchfield, Connecticut, USA on 20 Oct 1871 to Royal Edmund Hayes and Harriet E Merriman. He had at least 4 sons and 1 daughter with Miriam Martha Phillips. He lived in Torrington, Litchfield, Connecticut, United States in 1880. He died on 20 July 1952, in Waterbury, New Haven, Connecticut, United States, at the age of 80, and was buried in Waterbury, New Haven, Connecticut, United States.