On April 6, 1931, his mother wrote; “He is the picture of health and full of life.”.
Comment: The prescription of Lachesis was made almost entirely upon the mental symptoms, although the appearance of the lesions, and its location, are by no means weak indications for that remedy. It may be asked whether this is really a cure, inasmuch as there was a period of seven years between the two abscesses. I think that I may confidently answer that it is a cure, because of the changing of the mental state from disorder into order for the higher degrees of man rule the lower.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
DISCUSSION.
DR. A.H.GRIMMER: This is a wonderful paper, as you all know. the doctor has brought out a phase of Lachesis that probably has been more or less ignored by most of us-the effect on the bony tissues. We have all known of its relation to septic states and conditions, and it has scored many victories in such states. Even cancer has undoubtedly yielded to this remedy.
The clinical production of the “wild hair” symptom is a good point to remember. It is sometimes quite a troublesome thing, and many times a very difficult thing to get remedies for which the patient has no general constitutional state. Sometimes these little one-sided things are where our homoeopaths score their greatest victories. It also proves the philosophic contention that many of these things are due to systemic causes, and if the family has a homoeopathic prescriber, they have little use for the so-called specialists today.
I like the manner in which the doctor states the importance of the mental states. A man is cured undoubtedly, when his internals are put in order, is cured from within out, and from the more important to the least important structures in which these changes take place.
It also touches again on the field where we had that little controversy yesterday afternoon, concerning the defective.
There would be fewer defectives for the state to take care of if pure homoeopathic prescribing could be given to the children. They are few of those cases, unless they are extreme ones, that will not yield, if you get them early on the homoeopathic remedy. Lachesis is one of the remedies that corresponds to such states, too. It covers the three miasms in its pathogenesis and in its cures.
Of course, you know Lachesis is a monument to Hering, Perhaps the next step in progress might be for some one of our men to compare the leading snake viruses with Lachesis. Lachesis must be the center around which the others revolve. A comparison with Crotalus and Naja and others showing the differences, will be a valuable work for someone to undertake. DR.Kent very ably compare Lachesis, crotalus and Naja corresponding more to the nervous phenomenon, and Lachesis occupying a middle ground between the two. I think that is very true.
DR.E.UNDERHILL. JR.: I have had two Lachesis cases in the past year and a half that were interesting. One was my fathers case. On this case, I have had several doctors. First there was Dr. Teacher. At the present time, Dr.Stearns of New York and Dr.Lewis of Philadelphia are looking after him. Of course, I keep my eye on him, too. Lachesis was indicated when he first became ill on February 1, 1930. If it and had not been for that remedy, I do not think he would be alive today.
He had one dose of 200th on the 13th of May. He was in a very precarious condition when I went in one evening, enormously distended with gas. He could not stand the slightest pressure of bed covers on the abdomen nor anything around his neck. As soon as, I came into the room, he said, “Do something for me quick for I am done.” It was just at the time Dr.Thacher was coming down with his last illness. Knowing Lachesis had been given, I hastily got my bag out of the car, which was outside, and gave him a powder of the 1M. What happened to that distention of the abdomen was remarkable. Inside of ten minutes his abdomen was as soft as it could be. There was not the slightest sign of gas. He didnt lose it through the bowels and he did not eructate any; what became of it neither he nor anyone else knows.
The second case was a woman who was a perfect picture of Lachesis. She had left-sided complaints and a terrible aversion to anything around her neck; she could not stand the slightest thing not even her beads; after sleeping there was aggravation, and so on. The history of the case was interesting. She had been all right until one day she was going out to do some shopping. She was out on the porch of her home, when she remembered she had forgotten, something, and went back into the house leaving the front door open.
She laid her pocketbook on the living from table, and went into the kitchen. As she was coming back, she saw a mans hand reaching for the pocketbook, and rushed in with all her might. He seized her by the throat and choked her so that she could not speak, and she fainted away. Her symptoms came on following the shock. She said that every now and then, especially when waking from sleep-and this was many months after the incident-she could still feel that mans hand around her throat. Lachesis took all the symptoms away and made a perfect cure of the case.
DR.C.M. BOGER: Some of our most valuable indications and remedies have come about almost accidentally.
Two men succeeded in catching an unusually large rattler and put him in a cage. They kept him in the room where they were. The snake was unusually angry and ferocious. At night both of those men had a burning sensation over the whole body. I have found that intense burning is a pretty good symptom for the pathogenesis of Crotalus.
