Tuberculosis was reported in the mothers father and one brother. The mother was fat, flabby and indolent, with much pelvic pain and constant weariness. The father was in good health but for long had worked in cement construction and was given to crops of boils. He was a fairly successful alcoholic. Generally the house was ill kept and they were indifferent as to ventilation. A very careful examination was made.
The chap was negative to both No. 1 and No. 2 P.P.D. tests. X-ray of the chest was negative. Blood work was well within normal limits. Urine negative. He had mumps and measles and colds but without undue severity. In reference to his asthma, mostly anything might be recorded. It occurred at night; it came during the day. Hot days, cold days, sunny and foggy. Came when inactive; came when busy. Came with colds and without. Came at any hour and was worse at no hour. Pets or no pets, food, it didnt matter. He just started in to wheeze and kept it going until he got weary of it and quit.
He wasnt nervous and there were no aggravations from anger nor punishment. He was not repressed nor did he have any inferiority complex. In the beginning as for youthful asthma, Aralia racemosa was given. There was no result. Sulphur was then given with recollection of the old ringworm, but with no effect. Phosphorus and Calcarea phos. and others were tried but he wheezed on and time was going by with considerable uneasiness on the part of the parents. After a thorough head-scratching. Tuberculinum was given again, using the CM. potency and single dose. Placebo followed to carry along.
For a week there was only a slight diminution in the usual daily wheeze. Then the daily embarrassment gave way to attacks of more marked asthma and little by little these attacks developed an aggravation time of about two to two-fifteen each early morning. There was no doubt but that we were having a change- about in the manifestations of the case. These attacks so continued to recur at the named hour for over a period of ten days. In addition to this swing around the mother reported that the boy seemed more nervous and jumpy and that he hung close to her and would not go out freely to play.
Also that several times in the day he complained of being so empty in his stomach but that she didnt help his feeling by feeding him a lunch. That seemed as though we had a lead coming out and upon that report we gave him kali carb. in the 1M. potency of Skinner. One powder helped in nearly every way but died out about the fifth day. The medication was repeated, giving him three doses in nine days. All through this period he improved. The goneness and his dread and his asthma showed sings of ending. He took two more doses in the subsequent month and in that term was fully relieved.
In the ensuing eleven months he remains well. Lastly. Visited a boy of five years, in 1936, who was having a severe case of asthma. Was met by skinny droopy mother who looked to be plenty tired. Weak voiced, flat chested and sickly smile. Father was of the same general trend. There was also a choreic daughter to be noted.
The patient was a thin, talkative, nervous chap, even though busy getting his breath. He had been having scattering attacks of asthma for the past year and they were accompanied by some hay fever also. Had an attack of “flu” two years before and was finicky about his eating and had a good deal of indigestion. This was his most severe attack thus far. For his very evident distress he was given a hypodermic of eight minims of adrenalin. Awaiting this relief, his mother reported that the attack had begun with nausea and vomiting which had recurred off and on the entire day. There was pallor, vomiting and exhaustion, with cold perspiration attending. After temporary respite by the injection he was placed on Antimonium tart. 3x. every two hours for the time.
During the improvement which followed the case was gone over. X-rays were negative, general and blood work negative in the main. His condition seemed fair but there simply wasnt enough to him. He went along attack identical with the former one. This time Antimonium tart. didnt touch him but Ipecac. did. In the ensuing four months he repeated the attacks with this or that remedy mostly relieving for the while. There was too much changeableness to the case and to the required remedies to suit. He was carried along awaiting a red line to guide a bit. There seemed to be no such intention so we decided that we might try to blow the lid off and see what was underneath. He was given the same prescription as the former case.
That medication helped like fury. It looked as though it might be only one that would be needed. His attacks recessed and his general health improved greatly. His rest and strength were alike improved. He did finely for over three weeks and then things veered about and his asthma reappeared, but in a vastly different manner. He would have no trouble during the day until about one hour after his return from school in the late afternoon. This become so fixed that they brought him home via auto where he had formerly walked, but the attacks appeared anyway. The attacks would come abruptly and hold on until about an hour after he went to bed, giving them an aggravation time of from about four to ten p.m.
After that hour he steadily improved and rested well though the night and the following morning was as free as if there had never been any asthma at all. Occasionally he would miss one or maybe two days week from attacks. There seemed to be far more grief in the right chest than in the left side. About this point two more symptoms put in their appearance.
He only ate part of his lunch and breakfast and the evening meal were about one-third consumed when he would push his plate away, saying that he was just too full to eat any more. He had no indigestion to all intent nor was there any belching. His mother reported, however, that about the house and even in his sleep that he seemed to pass so much gas from his bowels. Potatoes or bread or onions or whatnot did not, however, give any disagreement. He could eat anything but the amount was very little as compared to his former wants.
This gave us an odd idea that Lycopodium might be something that the chap could use and based upon the results he most surely took it on. He received it in the 1M. potency of Skinner. In all he has had seven doses in as many months of time. His case cleared most satisfactorily though on a much slower scale than the former ones, possibly because he seemed to be dividing the medicinal effects between his asthmatic relief and his general physical betterment. Follow-up of the case reports no further recurrence of the asthma and continuing physical growth throughout the period of eleven months since his last prescription was made. BERKELEY, CALIF.
DISCUSSION
DR. GRIMMER : This paper shows the observation, powers and keen analysis that are required of a homoeopathic physician. It also shows that the philosophic requirements of the law were followed out.
I can verify similar cures with Lycopodium, especially its relation to ringworm. It is very frequently a remedy that will wipe out your ringworm in a short time. Sometimes, even with no other basic symptoms, if there are no other symptoms when I get a case of ringworm I use Tuberculinum.
DR. BOND :I would like to ask the doctor what kind of Tuberculinum he used, avian, human or the bovine type?.
DR. FARRINGTON : I arise to add my commendation to this paper. It illustrates to me very important points. One, that nosodes seldom cure alone; another, indicating the wisdom of waiting on the action of a remedy until the symptoms have changed and seem to have expended their force; third, that the picture of a remedy is not complete if some of the well known keynotes are lacking, as in the case where Lycopodium is prescribed.
DR. SCHMIDT : I will just add that the French school has worked along the line of the nosodes, and have put out some very valuable indications of four types of tuberculin, Kochs tuberculin, the residual Koch, Denys tuberculin and Marmoreck tuberculin. I have published some abstracts of those publications in the Pacific Coast Journal of Homoeopathy.
DR. TROUP : In relation to the type of Tuberculin used, it was the aviary. It was used presumably at my insistence by a very good doctor.
