I said, “She is my mother and I couldnt see her suffer”.
He said, “That is just because you dont know your materia medica. You have to study your materia medica. Bring me your medicine case.” He took out the Berberis and dissolved a dose in half a glass of boiled water. He gave her several doses, and in a few minutes the pain was greatly relieved.
This case was strongly impressed on my mind, and since then I have been taught not to use morphine or narcotics in those cases and, as I said yesterday, I have never used them since that one time.
DR. BELLOKOSSY: I want to say something about the diagnosis. No diagnosis is easier than diagnosis of gallstones, because without exception every fat woman has gallstones. I cant say the same thing about men, but every fat woman has gallstones; whether she has pains or not, they are latent.
If you give the indicated remedy three or four days, a week or two weeks later she will have a gallstone attack and that will be the cure. That means the gallstones will travel out of the gallbladder and the patient will be rid of them.
Another thing that is important is that no case needs to be operated. Every case of gallstones can be cured with homoeopathy, and it is absolutely unnecessary to send them to the surgeon.
DR. BRYANT: I dont want this paper to go by without making some comments, first to thank the essayist for the paper and second, to report a surprise cure.
It seems to me that many times we prescribe for patients on general symptoms when we probably havent had time in the first instance to go into the case carefully enough.
This patient came to me with typical Phosphorus symptoms, a great craving for cold, for sour things, great restlessness, particularly of the lower extremities, and desire for salt. That is a very pretty picture. I said to this patient, “I will give you this remedy I have in mind, and I wish you would report in a few days if you are not progressing. Then I would like to go over you carefully, which I havent time to do at this particular consultation”.
To my great surprise, in a few days the patient returned to the office, not because she hadnt improved, but to report to me that a most remarkable thing had occurred. She said, “I have passed stones from the kidney, and i am sure I have passed stones from the intestinal tract.” I hardly credited that. I thought they were fecoliths, of which we see so many.
The few doses of Phosphorus in 10M. potency brought about a complete change in the chemistry of that body, and in that change there was something that enabled that patient to pass these stones.
DR. FARRINGTON: Dr. Dixon has given us a very excellent paper on the subject of gallstones, and it also contains two or three excellent homoeopathic principles.
We are all well aware that case taking is one of the most important parts of prescribing, and also that a good record is necessary. His statement regarding the education of the patient is, of course, of great importance. It has been said many times that many worthy practitioners are unable to follow Hahnemanns rules in the treatment of chronic disease, because it is so difficult to get the patient to understand. I entirely disagree with that.
In addition to the two or three suggestions the essayist made, I would like to say that when a new patient comes in, after a thorough examination and taking of the case, the patient often expresses appreciation for what I have done. He says, “Doctor, nobody ever asked me so many questions and went into my case so thoroughly. It has usually been a diagnosis of this, that, or the other condition, a prescription given, and then I am through.”.
Then I usually say, “I can give you the philosophy of this treatment in a nut shell: The active measurement of a specific substance will affect healthy people, and will cure them when found in a sick person. That is the first one. The second is that every patient who is ill is most sensitive to the medicine which he or she needs, among a thousand others. If given in doses that are too large, it will only aggravate, and not cure. This accounts for the small doses in the sugar pills”.
I think we should be very careful in making broad and positive statements regarding conditions such as gallstone. The diagnosis is important from more than one angle. I think in all these cases we should endeavor, as far as possible, to determine whether they are actually gallstone or not. You can have all the symptoms and not have gallstones at all. You can have very severe colic, which may be called gallstone colic, due to a spasmodic condition of the common or cystic ducts and still have no gallstone. On the other hand, you can have a gallbladder that is distended and contains a handful of stones with practically no symptoms at all.
I have failed in a good many cases when there was a gallbladder so filled it was impossible for nature to eject those stones even under the action of a remedy really suited to the case in other respects. I failed in a case where a gallstone was stuck in the duct, and it had to be treated surgically. I failed in one case in particular where a patient, under the action of Sulphur, improved in every way except in the gallbladder symptoms.
The attacks kept recurring, and the patient finally consulted a surgeon. He removed a stone that was one and one-half inches long and three-quarters of an inch thick, that periodically went forward and was caught in the mouth of the cystic duct causing these symptoms. The remedy was correct. I think that is absolutely certain, but the mechanical conditions were such it could not act and remove them. So I believe, from a wide experience, we cannot say that a gallbladder never needs to be operated.
DR. BOND: I want to mention one little remedy which we often overlook, which has the modality of lying on the left side, and that is Carduus marianus.
DR. SCHWARTZ: I wonder if anyone has used Magnesia phos. in these colics. I know it has helped me out because it dilates the muscle tissue and acts on the nerves.
DR. COOKINHAM: First, may I ask the speaker what he does in cases of perforated peptic ulcer?.
Second, I would like to agree with what Dr. Farrington said. I appreciate the fact that perhaps my homoeopathy has been tempered somewhat by the surgical aspects. How is it possible that a gallstone the size of a green olive, for instance, or a group of gallstones that size, can be taken care of without surgery? My conception of the Hahnemannian philosophy is that one must remove the cause, and I dont believe such an insoluble cause can be removed by a remedy, irrespective of its strength.
I am particularly interested to know what Dr. Dixon does with his perforated peptic ulcers.
DR. BOWIE: The doctors point is very well taken, but I think he will find quite frequently those large stones will dissolve quite readily. Those gallbladders that have fine sand in them, which you open up and just scoop it out with a tablespoon, are the ones that give more trouble than those with large stones. If you dont remove the large stones with your medicine, you at least quiet them so they dont give any trouble.
DR. SHERWOOD: I would like to ask the doctor to elaborate on his dietetic treatment of these cases.
DR. DIXON: It is a pleasure to write a paper that starts discussion. I have my individual way of handling these cases, and I dont expect you to change your routine practice. I wanted to give you something to think about. I could stand here the rest of the day and give you interesting experiences in all these cases, peptic ulcer with haemorrhage included.
Dr. Grace Stevens wants to know why Medorrhinum was selected. You know that the characteristic symptom for Medorrhinum I dont care whether the patient has gallstone colic, or what have you is that these patients assume the knee-chest position. That has helped me quiet a frantic female patient three times, each a gallstone colic case. There was no question about the diagnosis, because the fecoliths were found afterward, with a jaundice condition following the attacks. I have reported these cases so often in the east that I presume some of my eastern confers here will be sick of hearing me repeat them here today.
Three times I have seen that characteristic knee-chest position in females passing gallstones. I carry Medorrhinum in the ten-thousandth in my bag, and with one dose of that I have always described it as being like a lump of sugar which dissolves when you put a little water on it. I have seen them in a quiet sleep within ten minutes when I say ten minutes, it might be five or it might be fifteen, but it is so quick it is a revelation to you. You find the gallstone followed by a jaundiced condition, but the patient is feeling so well you are ashamed to make follow-up calls.
Dr. Grimmer mentioned Natrum sulph., Natrum mur., and Lycopodium. I could append twenty-five or thirty more remedies just as important. Dr. Bond mentioned Carduus marianus. I have tried to give you just the meat of this picture.
How do we hold our patients with these chronic conditions? Just as I have outlined them, and as Dr. Farrington talked to you about. I am glad to make this statement I have made it in Ohio two or three times and I always get a sour look, but I wont here: I claim that homoeopathy is losing out because the majority of homoeopathic practitioners want to be like their brothers. My talking point is: How different I am! They know it right away when they come into my office.
Akron, Ohio
President, I.H.A.