This is a companion paper to the one presented before the A.I.H. meeting held at Atlantic City this week. The subject is so large that it is impossible to do it justice in a single contribution.
Hahnemann was the first to realize the importance of drug diseases. Quoting from Sections 74 and 75 of the 6th edition of the Organon:.
Among chronic diseases we must still, alas! reckon those so commonly met with, artificially produced in allopathic treatment by the prolonged use of violent heroic medicines in large and increasing doses, by the abuse of calomel, corrosive sublimate, mercurial ointment, nitrate of silver, iodine and its ointments, opium, valerian, cinchona bark and quinine, foxglove, prussic acid sulphur and sulphuric acid, perennial purgative, etc.
These inroads on human health effected by the allopathic non- healing art (more particularly in recent times) are of all chronic diseases the most deplorable, the most incurable; and I regret to add that it is apparently impossible to discover or to hit upon any remedies for their cure when they have reached any considerable height.
Hahnemann did not mention every inappropriate drug that was prescribed during his time for we find him adding “etc.” after the word seton in Section 74. Had he taken the time to include all such drugs his list would still have been small as compared with that of today. Our Food and Drug Act, though well intended, has turned out to be a farce, witness the exposures recently published in the newspaper “P.M.”, Exposing the Patent Medicine Racket, the author of which is a layman, Albert Deutsch. It appears as though Hahnemann is to be vindicated by a layman.
Up until the publication of the Exposing the patent Medicine Racket, no one has done much to support Hahnemann in his condemnation of the administration of inappropriate drugs “in large and increasing doses.” Before the exposure of the patent medicine racket is over let us give the credit to the one who deserves it, Samuel Hahnemann.
Albert Deutsch did well, very well, to expose the fallacy of prescribing inappropriate drugs in excessive doses over prolonged periods of time which is responsible for chronic drug dyscrasias, concerning which Hahnemann says in Section 75 “of all chronic diseases the most deplorable, the most incurable, and I regret to add that it is apparently impossible to discover or to hit upon any remedies for their cure, etc”.
As a result of intensive research during the past seven or more years I have been able to prove that of all diseases none are so easy to cure as those produced by drugs. The administration of any drug in excessive doses will in time cause a drug dyscrasia, after which the patient so sensitized develops a group of symptoms (chronic provings) which remain with him for years, occasionally for a life time. In the case of opium poisoning the symptoms remain for at least 40 years as I have found in more than one case.
Furthermore, the symptoms apparently produced by the drug are not those of that drug alone but are blended with the symptoms of other inappropriate drugs plus those of the natural disease. I have found more cases of multiple drug poisoning than of single. May I go so far as to say that I have seen more individuals poisoned from twenty drugs than from five or less.
When we put together five or ten poisons in one human organism how is it possible to disentangle the symptoms and prescribe a single desensitizing dose and and hope to accomplish a cure. It is not possible.
Every specific sensitization must be taken care of, otherwise it is not possible to effect a complete cure.
If a patient has been sensitized to opium and phenobarbital and then desensitized to opium the sensitization to phenobarbital still remains and vice versa. No drug will desensitize an individual to any other than its own specific sensitinogen. The nearest we can approach the desired results is with the homoeopathic similimum if at all possible.
CONTINUING THE PRESENTATION OF CASE REPORTS OF DRUG SENSITIZATION AND DESENSITIZATION BEGUN IN THE A.I.H.PAPER.
ESTIVIN: It is claimed to be “a local remedy for the alleviation of hayfever.” Mind you! It is not claimed to be a cure. Quoting the advertisement, “A large number of palliative remedies have not proved prompt, reliable and lasting in effect.” This is an admission that the “palliatives” have their drawback. This must be admitted by all who have had experience with palliatives.
They all appear to improve the patient for a short while only to be followed by the secondary effect, that of aggravation leaving the patient worse off than he was before. If the palliative is repeated a larger dose is required than the previous one in order to obtain the same results. Besides, the improvement lasts for a shorter period. It is claimed that Estivin is a prepared solution of Rosa Gallica. The few cases in which we used it in the higher potencies the results were just as effectual in desensitizing the patient as in the case of other poisons.
RAGE WEED: A maiden lady 45 years of age came to us suffering from autumnal hay fever which began about the middle of August and lasted until the last week in September (at the time of the first frost). She reacted positively to the rag weed skin test, followed by permanent improvement.
Like so many cases of its kind the patient was hypersensitive to several other sensitinogens; however, there were leading symptoms on occasions which helped to direct us in the attack on each. For instance, this patient carried a latent brucellin infection.
If one were to seek the homoeopathic similimum to cover her case it would necessitate the finding of a prover who had the same combination of infections that she had, as follows:.
1. Attacks of pneumonia.
2. Heavy attacks of obstinate influenza.
3. Chronic brucellin infection.
4. Chronic streptococcic infection with acute exacerbations.
5. Chronic staphylococcic infections.
Besides sensitization to the following drugs:.
Alophen Cocaine Phenolax.
Aspirin Coffee Pluto water.
Anacin Coryza tablets Quinine.
Benzedrine Ephedrine Sodium bromide.
Bismuth cevitate Eskay-neuro phosphates Tea.
Bisodol Milk of magnesia Vicks nose drops.
Caroid & bile salts Mineral oil Camphor.
Cascara sagrada Natures remedy(N.R.) Quinital.
Castor oil Opium Valerian.
Chloral hydrate Paregoric Cannabis indica.
To cure a case of this kind is quite impossible, for how can one hope to find a single remedy to cover the case. At the time most of the provings of homoeopathic remedies were made the drug abuse had not reached anything like its present proportions. However, by watching the patients symptomatology it is possible to find leads that prompt us to pick a drug to which the patient has been sensitized and then desensitize him to it, following which there is improvement in that part of the patient clinical picture corresponding to that drug.
Next, with ones mind attentively on the case of second lead is found and followed up in the same manner resulting in improvement proportionate to and corresponding in character to those symptoms produced by this second sensitinogen and so on until all of the drugs that have been inappropriately prescribed in excessive doses have been duly treated.
After removing all of the drug symptoms there is usually but little left to treat of the natural disease. We then direct our attention to the infections which are not nearly so difficult to handle as appeared at first sight.
The autumnal hay fever referred to was cured by Ambrosia in high potency. By what principle was the cure effected? It attention to the infections which are not nearly so difficult to handle as appeared at first sight.
The autumnal hay fever referred to was cured by ambrosia in high potency. By what principle was the cure effected? It was cured by identical drug that produced it. I would call it isopathy.
COFFEE: Sensitization to coffee is one of the commonest. We have seen many such cases. The one about to be related is as striking as any. It is possible that it has been referred to before.
The history of the case is as rich as any we have seen. Incidentally a case is no richer than the time spent on the study of it.
This patient was brought to the office with intense pain in the back and down the thighs. He walked up and down the floor moaning. It was not necessary to work over the materia medica as diligently as usual for I thought of coffee the moment I saw him. I asked how much he had been drinking when I learned that he drank more than 7 cupfuls daily. He was given one dose of Coffee in the 5M. potency.
He was improved materially within an hour and went to sleep, the first he had in 72 hours. The case is cited also to show how this patients coffee abuse was hiding behind a dozen other drug sensitizations and as many other infections. No one could convince him that he was not entirely cured of everything that was wrong with him at the time. His cure was prompt and permanent. Was it effected homoeopathically or isopathically?.
DIGITALIS, PHENOBARBITAL, ASPIRING COCAINE AND OPIATES COMBINED:
The case is that of a married woman 45 years of age who was severely poisoned with many vicious heart drugs including digitalis in material size doses over a prolonged period. Opiates in excessive doses had been used to ease her discomfort about the heart. The behavior of her heart was erratic. For a while it was very rapid then slow, next it would skip beats followed by extra systoles. Her pulse was most difficult to count. She complained of her heart “fluttering”.
