I have treated a number of these cases of backward children who were made ill by various causes, and have had some success in all of them, excepting that I notice this, that the changes are so slow that the parents are not likely to continue the treatment; in other words, they are likely to try to get some kind of treatment that will move faster.
Those that I have had most trouble with were the spastics and, I confess, out of eight cases, I have done very little for that condition, at least in the lower extremities. I have been able to help very markedly contractions or, especially, incoordination in the use of the hands and arms. The most outstanding one was a little fellow brought to me when he was nine years old, and he had all the aspects and the action and the appearance of a baby of three months. He gurgled, and slavered, and laughed, and moved around in an aimless fashion, but if you would hold a red ball in front of him, he would look at it and sort of wiggle, but didnt know how to reach for it and grasp it.
Now, there were many other symptoms that I do not need to recite. The history was this: A perfectly healthy baby up to three months, when he developed eczema on the face. The parents went from one doctor to another, from one clinic to another, and they could not cure that eczema. Finally they struck one specialist who put on a mask with some kind of ointment. Overnight the eczema disappeared. The next morning brought high fever, red face, and delirium– if you can apply that to an infant. The fever rose to 106 and nobody thought the child could live.
What measures they used, I do not know, but finally the fever subsided and the child apparently recovered; but the child never developed from that day until he was brought to me –just as though life had been stopped right there.
Taking the symptoms, one of the most prominent was his little “fanny” was up in air when he was sleeping and Medorrhinum, of course, was given ; in a period of days he got a faint rash on his face and that was the only reappearance of the eruption. It did not come out as fully as I thought it should; but, nevertheless, he improved right along and began to be more active.
Now, mind you, at this stage he began to play. He began to pull himself around, but his legs refused to function. His arms got strong so that he could hunch himself over the bed.
Two years afterwards, about the last time I saw this child, the mother brought him to me and when we tried to stand him on his feet on the floor, the feet would press downwards instead of being relaxed and coming upward.
It may be that another remedy was needed at that time, but, for some reason or other, they never came back. The case was one we had t our clinic several years ago in Chicago.
Now, just one other case: A boy of eight years, a typical Mongolian type. The peculiar symptom in this case was that as he lay on the bed, he almost always lay on his back. He would hunch the pelvis up, and he almost wore out his shoulders and heels jerking it up. There was some flatulence, and an afternoon aggravation, and one or two other symptoms that pointed to Lycopodium and the 10M stopped this peculiar automatic motion in a few hours, and he never had it again.
Later I prescribed Baryta carb. and one or two other remedies. Then, after treating the boy for about a year and a half, I heard nothing further from them. They lived in a suburb and I didnt have direct contact anyway. Some years later the father came in for a check-up, and he had some symptoms I had to prescribe for, and I asked him about the boy.
He said, “He is fine. He runs all over the place. He talks, but he talks too fast and he does not seem to be able to learn as quickly as he should.”.
I said, “What about his face?”.
“Well, it has practically lost its Mongolian aspect.”.
I said, “Why dont you let me give him medicine all the time?”.
Well, the mother was told by a specialist the case was incurable, and she was satisfied at the progress that has been made.
DR. ELIZABETH WRIGHT HUBBARD [closing discussion]: I was hoping that Dr. Dixon or somebody else would pick on me and tell me I changed the remedy too often in the first case, because I feel that I probably did. It is not my habit to give four remedies in three months, and yet, in spite of the improvements under the first, Natrum muriaticum, when he developed symptoms so clearly of a nosode, –I had a feeling you could put a nosode in where you wouldnt put another remedy in. I dont know whether you agree with that.
DR. GRIMMER: It is history; it may be right.
DR. HUBBARD: The Cuprum was given for the chickenpox and the symptoms; and there again I dislike to prescribe for an acute disease during successful chronic remedy administration; but the child was so feeble, it seemed it needed to get something out in any direction. I thought I would give it a little kick. Maybe it was wrong. Later the Calcarea came into view as the chronic remedy, brought out by the chronic case coming after an exanthem has opened the thing up. That was my philosophy of it.
