Dec. 14, 1933. Mr. A.N., 40, a widower, came in couple of days after having had a good time in Portland, complaining of feeling sick all over (and looked it, too), and that he had a white urethral discharge with itching therein. Eyeballs dry. This last symptoms led me to select Petroleum 1M. and Sac.lac.
Dec. 21. Reported he was all right next day.
Jan. 13. Has some burning in anterior part of urethra during urination but no discharge. Sulph. 1M.
Jan. 14. No > but has now pain in stomach after eating. Soreness all long urethra. Dull pain in occiput. Pain in lumbar region on lying and arising. Sleeps poorly and wakes up at 2 or 3 a.. and is not rested on arising. Nux v. 1M.
Jan. 29. Reported himself cured and feeling fine.
Dec. 14, 1933. J.T.S., 26, married, had received treatment a week ago for gonorrhoea. Induration at one spot in urethra. Chordee at night. Discharge yellow. Burning all along urethra during urination. Tickling of glans now and then. Nitric acid 1M.
Dec. 24. Claims to be all right in every way.
Jan. 31, 1933. Vivian B., 21. I had known her since she was eight years old, a slender girl, quite modest, but wondered why she was sent to relatives in an eastern state three or four years prior. She came back here with diabetes and curvature of the spine, and laid both conditions to an automobile wreck while East. Has a ravenous appetite even after eating. Craves sugar. Has a group of irregular shiny red warts on two middle fingers of right hand which bleed easily. Lyc. 1M.
Feb. 7. Nausea mornings on rising. Warts changing, not so red.
Feb. 13. No >; has shiny red tip of nose. Calc. carb. 1M. (although it does not have the shiny tip).
Feb. 23. Feels better but gets out of temper easily.
Feb. 28. Improving.
Her mother then took her to a chiropractor who promised to cure her back and diabetes.
May 14. Came back to me after having some dental work done which resulted in scorbutic gums sore to touch and bleeding easily. Teeth loose. Lach. 1M.
May 20. Gums > but has severe pain in heart and can hardly breathe. Lach. CM.
May 21. Heart >. Constipated; took castor oil in vain. Bowels inactive. Is sleepy. Opium 1 M.
May 23. Was called to see her as she had very severe pain in heart again, with difficult respiration. Lach. CM. relieved again soon, but she died a day or so later.
Now, the question is, was she went East because of undesirable social connections here? Did she get infected with gonorrhoea and had is suppressed in the East-hence the diabetes and those suspicious looking warts? I had asked her father to find out through his wife if she had had any leucorrhoeal discharges, putting the question plainly to him so he could not mistake my meaning. He reported no, but I found out after she died, from the nurse, that she had been wild with a fast reputation before she was sent East. Her mother evidently protected her, by denying she had leucorrhoea. If I had received the Homoeopathic Recorder before she came, which had the fine article on Medorrhinum by Margaret Burgess Webster, mentioning it as a remedy useful in diabetes, and had given it early on suspicion, would it have saved her?.
In that article also was stated as a symptom, “biting nails,” I gave it to an orphan girl for this habit and it helped her greatly, but it was not followed up and she is now in southern Oregon.
Truly I am greatly flattered with the bunch of bouquets sent me in the discussion of my first effort in writing a paper for the Council, but luckily I know too well my own limitations and am fully aware that every one of you are far better and more accurate prescribers than I am. Had I sent records of other gonorrhoeas treated, your opinions would surely go down to zero. It is too true that some are hard nuts to crack, and I have had some under treatment for two years or more and at present have one who begins to think that I am n. g., although his cured friends had recommended me. (By the way, I do not get many to treat.).
Medorrhinum has several times brought back gonorrhoea after suppression. One six-footer who had been treated by a specialist four years before he came to see me and had been pronounced cured, had it proven to him that he never was cured. He came for frequent urination and also wanted a stricture cured. This led me to say, “You must have had gonorrhoea and were never cured.” I gave this patient one dose of Sulph. 1 M., stating that he must not be surprised if his old gonorrhoea came back in a weeks time. He returned after three days, saying he would have bet a thousand dollars I could not have done that.
He gained thirty pounds in six weeks and was fully cured in three months and his stricture resolved and disappeared too. Another had orchitis after three months suppression. I gave him Puls. 1 M. at 9 a.m. and the gonorrhoea was out before 6 p.m. the same day. Another came from Gresham, Oregon, for some stomach complaints. I gave him Nux vom. and in a week he came back stating that an old gonorrhoea had come back while his stomach trouble were gone. The remedy was not interfered with and in two weeks he was entirely cured. Then some thirty years ago or more I treated a man of 60 for some pain in stomach and gave him Nux vom., which reproduced a gonorrhoea he had had forty years previous; he was an old bachelor. There are several such proven facts.
VANCOUVER, WASH.
DISCUSSION.
DR. HAYES: During many years correspondence with Dr. Pompe I have observed that he is never satisfied with anything but the similimum, and that he has that rare faculty for picking out some innocent appearing symptom which might well be unsuspected or overlooked, but which brings the totality to a focus and success with it. I have sometimes chided him for a too susceptible modesty. This faculty of prescribing is a rare quality in this world.
Why do millions produce so few true physicians? And that even when the opportunity to know is thrust before them? “Truth will prevail, homoeopathy cannot die,” is a thoughtless saying. Do not believe it. Truth is but in idea, it dies like other things. Hahnemanns truth will be lost in few generations unless it is made to prevail. People with the vision and will to heal by the true method are too few and far between to inspire hardly any hope of making this truth prevail. But the “chosen few” shine the brighter in the darkness. If there is to be a sequel of existence here perhaps that which one knows of good may thrive better in the new soil.
DR. LEONARD: Like Dr. Turner I never cultivated or sought to treat cases of this sort, but some always came my way and were handled without injections-nothing local except frequently soaking the inflamed parts in very hot water, which always helped to quiet the worst manifestations-and the homoeopathic remedy.
I shall always remember the scorn with which the details of a case cured in this way were received by the wiseacres of our Minnesota State Society years ago. To them handling a purely germ disease without local germ destroyers was chimerical and absolutely foolish. Nevertheless, that particular case and many others were cured by the proper use of Gels., Armoracia, sometimes Cantharis, etc.
I picked Armoracia (horse-radish) out of Herings Guiding Symptoms a long time since, using the 6th, as I recall, as the most useful remedy when I got the case early.
Dr. Sloan is quite right in saying that some of “the gay boys” are hit harder than others, a fact, as he thinks, due to their psoric inheritance. These have to be handled patiently wit Sulphur and other antipsorics. Pulsatilla proved to be a very near “specific” for epididymitis.
Medorrhinum certainly claims up such cases wonderfully- whether as isopathic or homoeopathic! A doctor becomes cynical after a while and does not put too much faith in human nature. I think that this unfortunate young woman probably “went wrong,” mores the pity, and no doubt from ignorance, and might have been saved by Med.
DR. STEVENS: A paper like Dr. Pompes is a great comfort in that it reminds us of the absolute dependence that can be placed on the rightly chosen homoeopathic remedy, even in the so-called “specifics” diseases. He also shows that the deciding symptom may seemingly have no connection with the disease to be treated.
I think the symptom of > sleeping on the abdomen is a very dependable one for Medorrhinum.
DR. BROWN: Dr. Pompe has cited some very interesting cases and has shown brilliant work. Dr. Hayes has most beautifully expressed my thought when he speaks of Dr. Pompes ability in drawing in drawing out the innocent symptoms which are of tremendous value.
What are our boards of health succeeding in doing and what are we doing to check the continued onslaught of this pernicious vice?.
Please give us then remedy or some remedies to improve the morals so that males and females will case “going to Portland and having a good time”.
“To obey is better than sacrifice”.
DR. FARRINGTON: Gonorrhoea is not always easy to cure- chiefly, I think, because we seldom get them in the early stages before meddlesome treatment has masked or suppressed the symptoms. Dr. Pompe has done very well with the above cases. Vivian B. was a complicated case and very hard for anyone to prescribe for.
