I met him on the street, not over a week ago, and shook hands with him. I do not believe I had seen him for seven years, although we live in the same town. I said, “George, have you got the albumin in your urine still?”.
He said, “I dont know. I have quit looking for it.”.
DR. STEVENS: I think Apis ought to be put in that list of remedies. It is very useful sometimes with the intense swelling and albuminuria.
DR. HAVES: Dr. Erastus E. Case, years ago, told me that albuminuria of pregnancy which exhibited copious, sour, pale, slightly cloudy urine and sour smelling, would need only Merc. cor. I have verified that many times.
DR. DIXON: I recall a homoeopathic doctor in one of our state societies making a statement once in a discussion of a case-this was a lady doctor-“I have used Merc. cor. and Phosphoric acid in alternation all my life, and I have never lost a case.”.
I think I have made that statement at these meetings before, but it is laughable.
DR. MOORE: Some of the old, old things are mighty good things. Some of the old, old ideas are mighty poor ones. The idea that we can put into the stomach a substance that a system is needing and that the system will take that up, as iron, for instance, is rather a poor idea that came from a long way back and continues today.
Of course, in the case you spoke of, where the iron had been given, perhaps different forms of iron, it night have been useful, but never would have been useful because they had iron, nor was the Phos. useful before it had iron. The Ferrum phos. in this case was useful because of its stimulative action. It might just as well have been a remedy without anything of that sort at all.
I am glad to have Dr. Bowie bring the idea of the crude drug being used, because I came from the crude drug crowd not long ago, and all of the people belonged to the crude drug crowd up to the time of Hahnemann, as far as I know. All of the drugs that were given up to his time were given in material dose, although discrimination between the action of a large dose and of a small dose goes back to Hippocrates.
DR. HUBBARD: I would like to add a word for the frequency with which I have been able to help albuminuria, not only in pregnancy but other cases, with Lycopodium, and in pregnancy sometimes with Arsenicum or with Cuprum ars.
DR. BOND: Speaking of Eupatorium perfoliatum and Eupatorium purpureum, there are some doctors who feel that Eupatorium purpureum has greater action than Eupatorium perfoliatum. I would like to hear some discussion of the difference between the action of the two remedies.
DR. GRIMMER: Well, they are quite similar in action. I think perhaps the purpureum is more apt to correspond to more chronic forms of disease than the perfoliatum, which corresponds more to the acute, especially “flu” and rheumatic states. I think perhaps you can state the difference pretty logically in the fact that the purpureum is more apt to be related to chronic conditions.
DR. BOWIE: Of course, as I stated, there are many remedies that are useful in albuminuria. Any remedy may be the remedy. I have found Helonias very successful, especially following pregnancy. It is one of the most valuable remedies in albuminuria that I know of, following pregnancy, but not so useful before delivery.
I believe you spoke of the old school. Dr. Winter, whom some of you may know, as I believe he was a member of this Society, is a very old gentleman, living in Nebraska and once had a great experience. A hotel mans wife had albuminuria and was waited on by two doctors, visiting her four or five times a week, both of them. They finally decided it would be necessary to use mechanical means to bring about delivery of the child.
Her husband got on the train and went down to Dr. Winter and told him about the case and the doctor gave him Merc. cor. and Belladonna in alternation. He said he didnt know what the complete symptoms were, so just alternated. The patient kept getting better and better, and the doctors were examining the urine every day and found it improving. They called the husband up and said, “We believe it is safe to let her go on.” Their medicine was going in the stove.
