As in my custom, the first two prescriptions went wide of the mark until I found that she perspired only on uncovered parts. Thuj. in the 1M. and later 10M. drew the ear back and the whole thing cleared up along with a great improvement in her general health. A low potency man called in my absence refused to even see the case. A child specialist hung yards of crepe and an ear man, the relatives, friends, hospital attaches, etc. etc., damned the mother and myself but we stood our ground and homoeopathy came through in great style. The gratitude of the parents was in indirect ration to the way they paid their bills as I am still trying to collect. A peculiar thing was that the ear cleared up without a bit of discharge.
DR. JOHN HUTCHINSON: Mastoiditis by Dr. Hayes evidences on all points the merit of homoeopathy. The paper aroused all my fears on first reading by its pathology. Can skill and remedies correct all this disorder so delicately involving not only structures but their vital organism? And then we see that whether the case is incipient, severe, advanced, or whatever, the remedy for it when well chosen brings cure.
For some years now I have avoided, at an annual banquet, sitting next a surgeon whom I like personally because we always have got into a warm discussion of mastoiditis. That is his specialty, and he is operating hospital and other cases continually. Of course with a consummate absence of tact I have hitherto got involved with both feet; I must know that often he is right and so far at least I have been wrong. Yet I am perfectly sure that he considers me wrong in all counts. This is worth considering since surgery of the ear cases having mastoid involvement seems to be without exception the dominant practice.
As a matter of fact I have never referred a case of mastoiditis to a surgeon. It has not seemed to be the thing to do, while I have had some pretty bad cases. Those which have not been badly treated at the outset have invariably yielded kindly to the indicated remedy. That remedy has oftenest been, in my experience, Capsicum, which as far as I can see loves to resolve mastoid inflammation.
Some years ago a fellow practitioner called my attention to Capsicum, otherwise I might never have discovered it. But Dr. Hayes has demonstrated that it is not the only specific (if one is to use that much abused word).
DR. SLOAN: Some twenty years ago, the eight-months old daughter of my “Digitalis & Ethers” patient had an otitis media. She had been yelling for nearly twenty four hours and the father had given all the dope he dared, without relief. He asked me for help. The drum was congested but no bulging. Puls. 1M., 1 dose, put her to sleep. No ruptured drum and a perfect recovery. However, it took him twenty years to take homoeopathy seriously.
Some years ago I had a mastoid case which cleared up under Capsicum. There was a high temperature and the woman was very sick.
I can conceive of cases with free pus in the mastoid cells, which should be drained. We must remember that cavernous sinus, which leads to the brain (?).
DR. HAYES: It was worth the trouble of writing the paper to have elicited Dr. D. T. Pulfords report of his Thuja mastoid case. I begin to think that one does not have to use the same remedy for the same nominative!.
Never yet, Dr. Hutchinson, have I ever recognized a Capsicum similarity for mastoiditis. On what does it popular reputation hang? I see little of significance in the text under the ear section. Are there important concomitants? them? I could never rest comfortably merely on double black marks based on location and pathology.
May I ask Dr. Woodbury what result was obtained with the operated mastoid following scarlet fever? From the little observation that has come my way I would expect certain death.
To Dr. Bellokossy: I should not have used such doubtful language. I meant simply that some mastoids are more self draining than others and the formation of some limits extension and destructive pressure more than others. And some mastoids have larger cells, which facilities spread thus diminishing the liability of damage to the plates. Also the plates may vary in thickness and in distance between them.
If any should be interested in the answers to my questions and will say so I will send the paper around a third time.
DR. WOODBURY: The scarlet case recovered after the operation, but during the operation there was injury to the facial nerve which resulted in a one-sided facial paralysis, and, of course deafness. It was in my first year of practice, and there seemed to be nothing else I could do, as the patient was in a very serious condition previous to the operation. The sinus healed under simple sterile dressings, and remedies. I believe the surgeon used a little campho-phenique, till I took her dressings over. The other day I was called to see a child who had been sent home from school by the school nurse, with a diagnosis of mastoiditis. The story was that the boy had been hit by a snowball, just over the mastoid process, which resulted in hard, reddened swelling. Arnica cleared it up, and the mastoiditis vanished. I am convinced I cured one case of threatened invasion by Capsicum.
DR. FARRINGTON: Dr. Hayes always seems to pick out subjects of especial interest and, as in this case, involving questions at issue in the profession at large.
Few who call themselves homoeopaths have the courage to treat mastoiditis medicinally. Like some of the rest of the group my experience in this ailment is limited. I have had four cases in nearly forty years–actually diagnosed. One, a boy of 18 or 19 following an otitis caused by his going in swimming too soon after measles. Hepar was quiet sufficient. Another with distinct redness of the mastoid was cured with Capsicum. A third, the wife of a physician, I didnt help with my first remedy. Her husband called in Dr. Edgar J. George of Chicago, one of the few O. O. & L. specialists who prescribed homoeopathically and he cured her with Gels. 6x. The last was the sneaky kind, coming on with few symptoms. little local soreness–marked insomnia.
I didnt recognize it and her husband, also an M,D., took her to the hospital. Of course, Ive had hundreds of otitis media; in many the drum ruptured “spontaneously” and then the trouble cleared up with remedies. There is a point to be considered here. If your remedy is not going to absorb the pus or open the Eustachian tube and the drum is about to rupture, I think paracentesis is in order. When skillfully done there is a clean incision instead of an irregular tear and it heals without much damage to the drum.
Yet I have had only two such instances. From one I learned a lesson. A boy of twenty, agonizing pains; no relief from heat, cold, etc. or the remedy. The drum was punctured and serum and pure blood shot out. Recovery was rapid. Several years later an identical case. The patient was walking the floor in agony. Drum bulging, red; face red; some temperature. They were getting ready to operate but the specialist was too slow in getting there. I said I could fit it; gave Ferr. phos. 200, 3 powders; relief came in a few minutes and no rupture. The Lach. case; D. T.s Thuja case were fine prescriptions–just two more confirmations or rather illustrations of the fact that the similimum–no matter what the name of the ailment–does the business!.
DR. D. T. PULFORD: Let us have a third round!.
Born in Torrington, Litchfield, Connecticut, USA on 20 Oct 1871 to Royal Edmund Hayes and Harriet E Merriman. He had at least 4 sons and 1 daughter with Miriam Martha Phillips. He lived in Torrington, Litchfield, Connecticut, United States in 1880. He died on 20 July 1952, in Waterbury, New Haven, Connecticut, United States, at the age of 80, and was buried in Waterbury, New Haven, Connecticut, United States.