DR. LEWANDOWSKI: I have been doing public school work for the past six years, and I have had the opportunity to practice the toxoid injection. Heretofore in many local schools we have observed small outbreaks of diphtheria. PArents were warned to have their children vaccinated or immunized against diphtheria, and it has been observed that in the last five or six years, where the toxoid was used, the morbidity rate had been very, very 4low, and if given a group of ten to fifteen diphtheria cases, it would happen that ten of them would be most severe in those cases that were not immunized, and five or six out of the ten would die, whereas the remaining five would have been toxoid-immunized and their disease would be a very mild one.
I have had only one occasion to use homoeopathic remedies for a case of diphtheria. It was a rather advanced case, a laryngeal type. It is Lachesis that I have used. Unfortunately, the case was a rather late one and I proceeded with my diphtheria antitoxin, and the case slipped between my fingers.
From this experience I would like to ask a question or two. Is there any value in the employment of toxoid? I have observed in my experience the outbreaks have lessened considerably, to such an extend that in the three years I have not seen a case of diphtheria, and those that have reported cases of diphtheria said they were very, very mild; in fact, even without the diphtheria antitoxin recovery would have ensued.
diphtheria is a very serious illness, had I have been confronted with an allopath who said, “Now, if your children had diphtheria, you know you wouldnt give a homoeopathic remedy.” Probably I wouldnt if I didnt know how to use it. Therein lies the danger. We sometimes fail to treat the patient. We more or less confine our attention to the disease. We should be taught to attack the problem from the standpoint of individualization rather than from the disease itself. I think it is a most important point of question and discussion that of toxoid immunization of rather a large scale; in my experience I have immunized approximately 3,000 children. The practice is quite popular in the neighborhood. It is being urged upon every family to have their newborn immunized.
One very peculiar thing I have found in the use of toxoids is that the reactions are practically nil in the younger children, whereas when you come to immunize a child of from nine to twelve years of age, the reaction becomes more severe and it increase in proportion to the increase in age.
DR. BRYANT: I went to Seattle, Washington, nearly thirty years ago. At that time the laws in that state were compulsory as regards smallpox. I reached Seattle late in 1907. In 1909, our little homoeopathic group decided we were going to Olympia, our State Capital and see if we could not do away with that compulsory law. You can imagine what a bitter fight ensued. We were accused of being grossly ignorant. But the upshot was that we were able to bring enough influence to bear so that the law was taken out of the hands of the medical men and put in the hands of the school boards, and since 1909 there never has been a school board, and there never will be, that was unanimously in favor of vaccination, and that is what the law requires. So much for that question.
I know very little about toxoid. My position is simply this: I have practiced medicine since 1905. I used antitoxin as a “regular”, but I was only a “regular” a few years. Since I have been a homoeopath I have never treated a case of diphtheria with antitoxin, and I have yet to lose the first case. To me the whole substance resolves itself this: if our statistics show that there are fewer patients die under a homoeopathic remedy than die under the antitoxin, then we have no right to use the antitoxin.
I have always made it a point to do this, however: I have stated to my patient, particularly the patient who is a stranger and not well acquainted with homoeopathy, that I do not use antitoxin, that I do not recommend it, and I do not find it as efficacious as a homoeopathic remedy. If the patient prefers antitoxin, I say, “Now remember, if you want, I will give it, but it is given under protest and not because I recommend it.” I have yet to find the first patient that didnt eventually, after some consideration, say, “Well, we have called you because MRs. Jones or Mrs. Smith has recommended you and we have faith and we are going to stick.” so the upshot is with that explanation I have yet to find the first patient that required a serum.
There is just one other point I want to speak of, and that is in regard to the hospital situation. I once got into a very embarrassing situation in one of our local hospitals. There was smallpox in the hospital. I said nothing to my patient other than the fact that I didnt approve of vaccination, and, therefore, couldnt recommend it. But it wasnt long until I was called on the carpet in the hospital. But before I was called on, it became apparent and I was notified that I was a detriment to that institution. So I felt that I had to use a great deal of tact and be very careful what I said. Of course it was an old school institution entirely.
At first their idea was to discharge me and discharge my patient, and thereby rid themselves of the menace. When I discovered that, I made it known to one of the members of the board, that not even the meanest, lowest criminal in the United States was convicted without a hearing. With that statement I got the hearing. That gave me an opportunity to say something about my vies, which I was very anxious to say before a board of men who didnt know that there was any other treatment, a board composed entirely of regular physicians who knew little about me. Incidentally, it gave me another opportunity, and this is what I said, and if any of you are caught is the same position, it may be of some benefit to you.
I said, “Now, I am a citizen of the United States. I happen to be a Republican, but if the Democrats are in control, I dont refuse to obey the laws because the Democrats happen to be in control. I am at the present time working in a hospital that recommends, even demands serums, and particularly vaccinations. If it is an absolute rule in this hospital that this patient has to be vaccinated, I am going up to vaccinate that patient, but before I do, I am going to make it pain to that patient that I do not approve of it, that I think it is bad of this hospital”.
I didnt have to vaccinate my patient, and I got a little more respect than I had before.
So it seems to me after all the only guiding thing that is necessary if for us to decide which is the best treatment, and leave the rest to our judgment.
DR. ROBERTS: In my work with such conditions as asthma and hay fever which I have treated very extensively, I find practically all of them start from a suppressed eruption, serum treatment or vaccine of some kind. When we go into the history of the case, almost invariably we find that has happened.
There is another thing. New Haven, I believe, has not had a case of diphtheria in over four years, under Dr. Rices management; you heard him speak last night. But you men who have been in practice as long as I have know this: That diphtheria never appears in conjunction with scarlet fever. Diphtheria has not been present in New Haven, but scarlet fever has increased immeasurably in the last four years, and there is where the scarlet fever Schick test started. So think you have got to take some of those things under a long-range vision.
There is another thing that the Doctor didnt bring out that ought to be brought our, and that is the rate of births in this country. In 1910, our birth rate was 29 per 1000. In 1934, it was 17 per 1000. There is some cause for it other than Margaret Sangers influence. It is getting to be a serious proposition. Stop and think of the old Mosaic law which forbade the crossing of the species; if we cross the horse and the jackass, we get a destruction of fertility in one generation; the horse and the zebra in one generation. You cannot safely inject into a human body with a longevity of 70 years and a weight of 150 pounds, or thereabouts, the serum of an animal weighing 2000 pounds and a longevity of 20 years. It isnt right.
We should stop and think of those things, analyze them and watch out, because the rate of child birth has been very greatly reduced, systematically, since 1910. About the vaccines and serums were being put forth.
DR. A. PULFORD: These discussions have merely verified, emphasized and proved what I said in the paper, that the ignorance of homoeopathy and its materia medica cause us to use the vaccines and the serums. One young man has had experience in a school and has proven the fact that toxoid is wonderful. I hate to refer to myself, but I have a clear record and am willing to have it investigated, in the thirty-six years that I have practiced medicine in Toledo, I have not lost a single case of diphtheria, and I did not use toxoid. I would grant that the use of toxoid had mitigated in a way the amount of diphtheria and the malignancy of it, but way? Alum precipitated had no bearing on diphtheria whatever. It has the effect of being and astringent, and it has diverted the disease into other and more serious channels. In fifty years I have had every experience to know that, because after there school doctors get through with them, we get them to treat, and we know the results they dont. All they do is to push it in, but we have to get it out.
