The pneumonia patient should be given no food whatever except perhaps a little raw freshly expressed unsweetened fruit juice or fresh raw vegetable juice. He may have water or cracked ice to quench his thirst but he should not be forced to drink any specific quantity of water, as it might seriously overloaded and water-log his tissues and even increase pulmonary stasis and exudation.
The trend of such treatment is toward organic and mental troubles. It explains much of the increase in deep nervous disorders, focal infections, tuberculosis, cancer and insanity in these days. The disorder, for which small doses of concentrated, compound drugs were given, is still there progressing insidiously toward the inner man.
The Creator of therapeutic agents has also had particular regard to this main feature of all diseases, the altered state of the disposition and mind, for there is no powerful medicinal substance in the world which does not very notably alter the state of the disposition and mind in the healthy individual who tests it, and every medicine does so in a different manner.
Many years ago the mother of a little family which summered at Grays Lake, Illinois, called me up and asked me to prescribe for a small girl across the way who was very ill with cholera infantum. There had been a consultation and the doctors had pronounced the case hopeless. I cannot recall the symptoms or the name of the remedy which was given from my patients family medicine chest, but the child made a rapid and complete recovery.
Thirty years ago a rather amusing incident taught me a new symptom for Silicea. An old German who lived in the country was subject to two attacks of asthma in the daytime and one at night, and at a particular time each day he had a smudge of asthmador to relieve his asthma. We found that by turning the clock back, his asthma could be staved off two hours, but after he got onto the trick, nothing interfered with his attacks.
Homoeopathy, in the last analysis, is but a means to an end. It is not fantastic, just common sense, to expect homoeopathy to play an important part in constructive evolution, raising man to a higher plane physically, and mentally, where finally his eyes will see more radiant beauty and at last he will hear the message, ringing in his ears since the beginning of history, “Peace on earth, Good will toward men”.
Homoeopathic treatment of diabetes is at present the most effective treatment with a lower mortality rate than other methods. Insulin is of no value except as an emergency measure, supplying a deficiency only. Homoeopathic remedies will do much to stimulate reconstruction of the isles of Langerhans.
Now for a few general rules that I give my patients: The most important one of all is the stopping of all local measures. This may include the removal of a pessary worn to support a misplaced uterus, or another kind of pessary used to prevent conception; or the stopping of a dangerously strong antiseptic solution that they may be using as a douche after intercourse.