Fortunately, the patient was strong enough to stand the aggravation, and she got better.
DR. ALLAN D. SUTHERLAND [Brattleboro, Vt.]: Mr. Chairman, this was an interesting case in many ways, probably as interesting to us as it was to Dr. Weaver.
I was very much interested in his finally arriving at Pulsatilla. Dr. Roberts has said to me many time that Pulsatilla is the great unlocker of suppressions, and apparently so in this case.
I believe that five years from now Dr. Weaver will probably not be resorting to physiological medication in a Pulsatilla case or in any other case. It sort of confuses the issue.
One thing to remember is that Pulsatilla is a so-called anti-anaemic remedy. In Boenninghausens Repertory under the rubric, chlorosis, which is a form of anaemia, Pulsatilla ranks five.
I think that in this case Dr. Weaver could, with some justification, leave off all other remedies except Pulsatilla and expect to find his patients blood picture improving.
DR. GARTH W. BOERICKE [Philadelphia,.]: I was about to protest the fact that I consider Dr. Weaver is no neophyte at all; he is one of our excellent young clinicians, well balanced, and we need them that way.
He has to, with his class of patients, do what I said yesterday, cover the diagnostic aspects of it, and he is well trained now in homoeopathy. What I dont understand about his case is why he didnt give Pulsatilla in the first place.
Was it because of the betterment from heat, Bill?.
DR. WEAVER: Yes.
DR. BOERICKE: That is a strong point against it, of course, but, then, when the ear cleared up that apparently wasnt so marked.
I think the best indication for Silicea is that old one about flow with a vent. That is a sound one.
Another observation: My old friend Woodbury used to tell me about a high potency homoeopath who always used Silicea 6x; never used any other potency. Personally, I always use Silicea in 6x. It seems to be extraordinarily efficacious. It is one of our really great drugs, no question about it.
DR. ARTHUR H. GRIMMER [Chicago, Ill.]: As you all know, Silicea and Pulsatilla are complementary. The Doctor was all right in the prescription, I think.
DR. T. K. MOORE [Sharon Center, Ohio]: I think it is possible that we make a mistake if we get an idea of using a drug for a pathological condition.
I remember very well an acute mastoiditis that had been going for three days in a youngster six years old, crying for all of this time. I gave him pathological prescribing, Dr. Bogers idea of what was best in mastoiditis, and that was Ferrum phos., and it didnt work.
I waited an hour and one-half and nothing came [laughter] and then I thought, “Well, this is an acute case.”
[Laughter] Then I went over to Belladonna which seemed to be indicated, according to the symptoms. I gave this youngster Belladonna. This was all in the 2c.
In the meantime, I had time to talk this over with the mother, and she told me that this youngsters disposition had changed to the most terrible type. He was the most exacting, nasty kid since he had this. He got Chamomilla which cured him.
In fifteen minutes after this dose of Chamomilla, this devil got up and wanted his dinner. There is an unusual remedy for mastoiditis. It was given on this nasty disposition and it worked, and worked promptly. So, dont get your idea fixed, as I have had mine fixed.
If I see a chronic mastoid, I always try to figure in Silicea by hook or crook because it has worked so well as many times, but we dont want to tie ourselves down to any remedy for any disease condition. I think that is a mistake.
DR. I. L. MOYER [Columbia, .]: I think Dr. Weaver did a very good job. I think he did all right in using Silicea, and Silicea in the 6th. Of course, he got some other complications and he found out he had a red blood deficiency. He had a perfect right to think of Pulsatilla. Also, Pulsatilla is a right-sided remedy.
DR. H. W. EIKENBERRY [Indianapolis, Ind.]: I would like to thank Dr. Weaver very much for bringing us this paper. Now that he has tried his wings and found out what he can do, I am looking for more and bigger papers from him in the future. [Laughter].
DR. A. W. HOLCOMBE [Kokomo, Ind.]: I wonder why he repeated the 500th so often. Why repeat any remedy? When you give a dose, you shoot him. Wait until you see the effects of that. Hahnemann explains that the second dose interferes with the action of the first dose– the second and the third and the fourth. There is no use in it, nothing to be gained by it. If you have the right remedy, one dose will do all that a dozen doses will do; at least that has been my experience.
The hardest thing for me to learn when I began to practice medicine was to wait. That is a homoeopathic virtue, to wait in the case of an emergency. I am rather of an impatient temperament. I couldnt wait either for the aggravation to pass away or for the improvement to begin. I wanted to dip in another shot, probably another remedy or higher potency. I realize now, after sixty years of it, I spoiled a great many cases, which I hope to avoid in the future. [Laughter and applause].
DR. H. G. REED [Dover, Ohio]: As some of you know, I am a second generation homoeopath. In my younger days I was very enthusiastic. Consequently, I got set back once or twice.
While practicing in Cincinnati, there came a lady there from Florida. She was married, the mother of two sons. She had a combination that started out like this: she had tuberculosis of both lungs, apices of both lungs involved. On top of that she had developed a severe case of malaria, being in Florida. On top of that she had a severe case of quininism to suppress the malaria.
She came back to Cincinnati, hoping to get relief. The family had gotten acquainted with me. For some reason or another, they thought maybe I could do something for her. Being very enthusiastic, I was willing to try, but it was a sad days when I tried it.
The picture was just this: that the tuberculosis, while present, was being held in abeyance by the malaria. The malaria was being held in abeyance by the quininism. I dont know how long she would have gone on the way she was, but I started in and I told them, when I started, what would probably happen.
I attempted first to unlock the quininism, and I started in with a moderate potency, it was the 1M of Natrum muriaticum.
It was just about a week or ten days until, much to my joy, the quininism disappeared, and the chills and fever began to return in full force, and she had her malaria. At that time I didnt change the remedy, and I didnt go any farther because I felt that the case was progressing as I wanted it, so I just kept on.
It was a family that knew homoeopathy, were completely sold on it, and I didnt need to use any placebos. So, I let it ride.
Within about three weeks the chills and fever subsided, disappeared completely, and at that point the sad story started. The temperature began to rise every afternoon, subnormal every morning. Within just two or three weeks I realized that something very radical was going on. So, I called for consultations. At the end of the day, I gave in to the Doctors idea that the patient was a hopeless one. We didnt feel that anything could be done.
Before he left that evening, the patient called him to her bedside and said, “Doctor, how long do you think that I have to live?”.
He said, “Well, I expect with care the Doctor probably can keep you going for a month or six weeks”.
She said, “That is all I wanted to know, Doctor”.
The next day the patient was bright, scintillating, right up on her toes. She told the family everything that she wanted done. She had everything prepared, right to the nth degree, and on Tuesday morning she died.
Now, what should I have done? We had a case there of active tuberculosis held in abeyance by malaria suppressed by quininism. I think maybe she might have lasted several months if I hadnt interfered in the case at all, but I feel definitely there was some place that I made a mistake. But my only remedy in that case, up until the last day, which we agreed upon on that last day, was Phosphorus, but, of course, the case had run its course too far and Phosphorus couldnt do any good.
It was one of the most interesting cases. That taught me the lesson of watching out for the underlying conditions and that, if you unlock the suppressing conditions too rapidly, your underlying condition may overwhelm the patient and she may go down much more quickly than you ever anticipated.
DR. FARRINGTON: I just want to say a word about the last speakers statement, and I think he hit the nail on the head. I had better luck, though, in my one case. A man came home to die. His lungs were badly affected. I dont remember all the pathological findings, but, as his friends expressed it, he had one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. [Laughter].
His symptoms were Natrum muriaticum. I put him on Natrum muriaticum, and he began to improve. During the course of rising potencies, he became entirely well. When he was recovered, his wife had one of the finest boys you ever saw, although the last child, a daughter, was thirteen years old.
