The regular school of practice, since the discovery of the parasitic etiology of syphilis boasts of the better management of the disease. But even their method of grand sterilization, as it is sometimes called, fails to satisfy the thoughtful of their devotes. Nor has the much-talked of treatment of syphilis by the injection of malarial organisms much to offer in support of its efficacy. But this treatment had no professed relationship to the disease save that of the production of an artificial stimulus in the organism through the termic crises through which he patient passed.
After all is said and done what is more comparable in the way of treatment in gonorrhoea and sycosis than remedies suited by similarity to the disease; or what is offered more in accord with curative art than Hahnemanns antisyphilitic remedies so well-tried in this miasm? When a better form of therapy can be demonstrated it is hardly worth saying that the Hahnemannian will embrace such a striking need.
SCHEMA FOR THE ANALYSIS OF TWENTY-FIVE CASES.
This series of cases embraces five cases of syphilis and twenty cases of acute and chronic gonorrhoea.
Classification.
1. Secondary syphilis Positive Wasserman.
2. Gonorrhoea.
3. Positive gonorrhoea and syphilis.
4. Gonorrhoea and its Paraphymosis complication. 5. Gonorrhoea re-infection.
6. Gonorrhoea.
7. Gonorrhoea.
8. Suppressed gonorrhoea.
9. Gonorrhoea and syphilis and their after-effects
10. Gonorrhoea
11. Syphilis on gonorrhoeal base
12. Gonorrhoea
13. Gonorrhoea, chronic
14. Gonorrhoea, chronic
15. Syphilis on a sycotic base
16. Gonorrhoea
17. Gonorrhoea
18. Gonorrhoea, chronic
19. Gonorrhoea, chronic
20. Gonorrhoea
21. Gonorrhoea, chronic
22. Gonorrhoea
23. Gonorrhoea
24. Gonorrhoea on a Epididymitis syphilitic base
25. Gonorrhoea, chronic and its complications
26. Gonorrhoea, chronic Gleet and arthritis and its complications
27. Gonorrhoea.
Lesions.
Buboes, secondary lesions all over the body.
Orchitis.
Paraphymosis.
Urethral stricture.
Urethral stricture.
Buboes and urethritis.
Urethritis.
Venereal warts.
Orchitis.
Gleet.
Gleet.
Chordae.
Urethritis.
Epididymitis.
Gleet and arthritis.
Urethritis, chronic.
Remedies.
Merc.bin.3x.
Nit.ac. 30/1, 200/1, 500/1.
Rhodo. 200.
Merc.cor. 30x.
Apis 200/1.
Aur.mur.30x/2.
Lach. 200/1.
Merc. so.200/1.
Merc. viv. 1M/1.
Clematis 200/1.
Puls. 200/1.
Sulph. 1M/1.
(Worked out by Dr. Fields Repertory).
Lyc. 200/1.
Cann.sat.,.
Merc.cor.30x.
Puls.200/3.
Syph. 200/1.
Caps. 200/1.
Caps. 1M/1.
Sepia.
Puls. 200/1.
Cinnb. 200/1.
Gels.
Sulph.1M.
Natr.mur.200/1, 5M/1.
Sulph. 200/1.
Petros. 200/3. Puls. 200/1.
Sel. 200/2.
Puls. 200/1.
Can.sat.
Merc.cor. 30x/2.
Rhodo. 200.2.
Puls. 200/1.
Puls. 200/2, 1M/1.
(Case worked up with the aid of Dr. Fields Repertory).
Sepia 1M/1.
Med. 1M/1.
Result.
Improved.
Good.
Discontinued treatment.
Improved wonderfully.
Discharge cleared up.
Benefited.
Treatment not followed up.
Very good.
Good.
Cure.
Case not followed up.
Good.
Improvement.
Improved.
Good.
Improvement.
Improvement.
Good.
Very good.
Improvement.
Improving.
Good. Microscopic examination showed less and less G.C.Good.
Treatment not followed up.
Very good.
Practically cured.
Good.
In conclusion it may be well to remark that, as a matter of fact, this series is a very meager one to demonstrate the efficacy of Homoeopathy. Yet, aside from the apparent discrepancy, in its summary, as indicated by such expressions as “good,” “improved”, “benefited”, “treatment not followed up”, etc., it may be remarked that many of these cases have returned to the Clinic, after periods of one, two or three years for some entirely different complaint, and upon being questioned as to their previous condition, have almost without exception stated that it so soon cleared up that they found no need to return. Hence the apparent lapses indicated in Dr. Hazras summary.
So striking were the results obtained in a case of chronic syphilitic ulcer of the leg treated at this Clinic some five years ago that Dr. Stuart Close, who once looked over the record stated that he was amazed that there was anywhere such careful work being done in the prescribing for the miasms. He was likewise amazed that there could still be interest in this neglected humanitarian side of medicine.
In this connection it may be well to recall the wise words of Hahnemann on The Venereal Disease and Its Ordinary Improper Treatment.
It is the duty of the physician to cure patients ill of this disease who trust themselves to his care, as object of medicine (like that of legislation) is not so much the prevention of the evils incident to humanity as the correction of those which exist. Medicine should therefore prove itself to be really the helpful art it professes to be in this disgraceful and destructive malady, if it would act up to its pretensions.
Its services should be rendered with all the more facility and certainty in this case, as the venereal disease is one of those happy few that remain always the same with respect both to their origin and nature (and consequently cannot be mistaken at its commencement), and the specific remedy for each separate case remained an eternal problem until homoeopathy solved it.
That Hahnemann appreciated the value of these statements we have ample proof in the masterly survey made by him of the chronic diseases during the remainder of his long and memorable life. The future of medicine so far as venereal diseases are concerned offers much to be hoped for, if the wisdom of the founder of homoeopathy be followed.
BOSTON, MASS.
DISCUSSION.
DR. W.W. WILSON: I would like to inquire of DR. Woodbury how long, on an average, if he could make an average, these cases persisted, and if they were followed up by microscopic examination toward the end, so that they were called cured?.
DR. B.C. WOODBURY: On these cases we keep, I think, about three slides. The first one was taken when the case was admitted, and the next one would be taken toward the close of the disease. This one generally showed, as I stated, some intracellular organism still remaining. The next one contained no intracellular organisms. There might be a few extracellular organisms, but this was when we were doing more of this work than we are now, followed up by prostatic massage. This slide was taken to make sure. In some cases particularly, I was always glad to have these cases go to other clinics for examination.
I recall very distinctly one case we treated. He went along between two and three months. At the end of that time the slides were clear, and we felt reasonably sure that he was all right. This young man was anxious to get married. He went to a clinic and was thoroughly examined. They could find no gonorrhoea by any method.
DR. W.W. WILSON: With prostatic massage, too?.
DR. B.C. WOODBURY: I think they used the Schwartz-McNeil test on him. He was a very good case, too.
The other case I mentioned was a man who was so closely associated with the clinic work that it was almost embarrassing to have him treated there. But he was treated there and was completely cured and had a very healthy child. Not more than six months ago his wife came to the clinic again in a second pregnancy. I asked whether he had ever had any further trouble, and she said “No”.
As I said, we have not insisted upon the follow-up part of it. I think it would have been an interesting adjunct. I tried to do it before I came away, but we did not have sufficient time. We have repeatedly had those people come back and say, “Oh, I didnt need to come back!” and then they would send others, who would say, “I understood, if we came here, you would cure us of this trouble without injections, and that is why we came”.
DR. W.W. WILSON: You didnt run over two or three months?.
DR. B.C. WOODBURY: Not very long. I had cases of chronic gleet. I took a case from DR. Kimball, at his death, a man who had had two or three attacks of gonorrhoea. It was two or three years after I took him before he was cured. But he was absolutely cured, and I have seen him since. He never had the slightest return in all that time. I believe it can be done.
DR. A.H. GRIMMER: I want to confirm Dr. Woodburys findings. I am certain that it can be done. I am certain that a great many of our homoeopathic practitioners are doing it right along and have been doing it.
Regarding the Wassermann, I would advise him not to pin too much faith on the accuracy of the Wassermann diagnosis. The old school have already a complementary test to go with it. You can take the same patient and get a Wassermann free finding in that patient after he is treated a while with your homoeopathic remedies. Sometimes you have to treat him two or three years, however, to bring that about.
You may have to follow the guidance of the Organon in certain cases, where you will find even the patients with complications that Hahnemann sometimes mentioned have miasms. Especially in individuals who have been abused by old school treatment, you will frequently find the blending of the miasms, where one remedy will show up in its symptomatology and then the case will be stationary and another remedy will show up. Those are the cases that attack the ingenuity of even the best prescribers, but there is absolutely not question but that Dr. Woodburys findings are accurate and absolutely correct.
Benjamin Collins Woodbury was born August 13, 1882, at Patten, Maine. He was the son of Dr. Benjamin Collins, a homeopathic physician, and Matidle Albina (Knowles). He attended Patten Academy and received his M.D. from Boston University Medical School in 1906. Following graduation Dr. Woodbury began his practice in Lewiston and Winthrop, Maine, and in 1907 moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he practiced for the next nine years. Dr. Woodbury married Miss Gertrude Fancis O'Neill of Boston at Eliot, Maine on June 18, 1915.
In March, 1919, Dr. Woodbury left the Islands and located in San Francisco where he practiced for two years and then returned to the East and established a practice in Boston. He was a trustee and a member of the staff of the Hahnemann Hospital, Boston, and in 1947 was elected president if the International Hahnemann Institute, Washington, D.C. He also gave many lectures on homeopathy at Boston University and at postgraduate sessions of the American foundation of Homeopathy.
Dr. Woodbury died on January 22, 1948, in Boston at the age of 65.
The doctor was the author of "Materia Medica for Nurses", published in 1922 and of many articles in medical journals in England, India, and the United States. Dr. Woodbury was also a writer of plays and poetry.