Inside Out


The title of this is just two words, “Inside Out.” You remember from embryology that the skin and the nervous system develop from the same layer, therefore m case are going to be those of the skin and those of the mind–five skin and one mind.


You know, I never have the time to write a paper. The steno typist saves my life.

The title of this is just two words, “Inside Out.” You remember from embryology that the skin and the nervous system develop from the same layer, therefore m case are going to be those of the skin and those of the mind–five skin and one mind. Also, because I like the number seven, I am going to give you one more case at the end, which is neither skin nor mind, but, to put it mildly (for Dr. Grimmers sake), a tumor. I personally think it was a sarcoma, but as it wasnt operated upon, nobody can be sure. In that case the “inside out” still applies because, as you will see when we come to it, the mental symptoms disappeared first and the physical later.

To start, then, with the first of the skin cases, that bane of the regular physician, eczema:

Case No. 1– Mrs. H. O., thirty-four, never heard of Homoeopathy. She had such terrible eczema of the hands that she was incapacitated from earning her living as a pianist. It is interesting how fate brings forward the one aspect that you need ad use. She was dressed to a “T.” She was exquisite-platinum silver hair, grey eyes, alabaster skin, immaculate–rather frightened, coming to a strange kind of doctor. A very cosmopolitan lady, who had toured Europe to play. She was singularly symptomless except for these poor hands, which were bound up. I unrolled the gauze and looked at them. They were a mess–cracks, bleeding–just horrible hands.

The one interesting thing in her history was that twenty years ago, when she was a girl, she had had violent eczema of the hands and had been hospitalized. They had given her every known salve. nothing happened. Nature was too strong for them. Finally, they gave her x-ray treatments. She smiled–“and that cured me.” Through the years was a pianist and had no trouble with her hands until two years I saw her. Then the who thing came back again, worse than ever. She had tried everything up and down Park Avenue, and down Park Avenue, and up and down wherever he street is in Chicago where they have doctors. No “soap !” She still couldnt play and was practically in decline as a real artist is when thwarted.

There was no family history, or none that would help me, no history of tuberculosis, very few symptoms. I looked at her. Her. Her was mousy under the dye, her skin was too lovely, her temperament was too excessive under restraint, and I thought for once I was going to follow instinct, so I gave her Tuberculinum 10M, one dose. I have seen her only twice since then, but every two weeks she writes from wherever she is, or calls up if she is near enough,and says, “I dont need to come in. My hands are wonderful. I am playing. I am so grateful, but you had better send me some more of those little pills because I dont have enough. Last night I only took three, instead of four, and I didnt do quite as well”.

Case No. 2–Something apparently quite trivial–a girl of fourteen, whose father brought her in. She was a little fat girl; oh, I am slender in comparison.(Dr. Hubbard considers herself fat. Actually she is merely junoesque!–ED.) She was weepy when we talked about her symptoms. She had eczema of the face, poor child, bleeding, cracked–what a mess ! She had lovely blond hair, and a pretty frock, but her face was just a battlefield.

She had a history of first menses a year ago, pinkish, three days, no symptoms, and none since. Basal metabolism was normal. What to do ? Cracks, fatness, flippancy, weeping! I fond out she was moderately constipated in spite of a beautiful diet–Graphites 10m, one dose.

Two weeks later a very pretty girl walked into my office without papa, with a smile, with a face all clear except a couple of little tiny places on the cheeks, and her first remark was, “I had a period two day after I saw you”.

That case is fairly recent, so we shall see.

Case No. 3–Master D. G., poor child, had had all the conventional allergy tests, some eighty of them. He is seven. The only thing they found him allergic to was wheat. If he passes by a bakery, he begins to scratch; so mama cut out all the wheat. Try to feed a nice, healthy exuberant seven-year-old and let him go play in other peoples houses without wheat. If he had wheat, he busted out all over, like June, face, elbows, knees, back, every where but his “tummy”.

He was a cute kid, blond, intelligent, happy, cheery; chilly. however. I said to the mother, “Doesnt he have anything but this allergy to wheat?”.

“Oh, ” she said,”of course, he has always had a sniffle”.

I said, “What do you mean sniffle?”.

She said, ” He never gets up without using up two or three handkerchiefs. He doesnt sneeze a great deal, but he does sniffle and he blows his nose, and it runs”.

I said, “Oh, he has hayfever”.

“Oh, on. They say it is not hayfever because he does it twelve months of the year”.

“Does he cough?”.

“No”.

“Does he have headaches?”.

“No”.

Sniffle, eczema, wheat–nothing else. I thought–well, without do we do with this one? So I gave him my favorite potency in the entire Materia Medica, Psorinum 15c. Why I hang my hat on 15c. I dont know, but it does so much better for me than for anybody else, and so much better than anything else. Psorinum–I love that bottle!.

His mother called me up. She is very ignorant of Homoeopathy. She is quite a social lady and she cannot tell you a symptom. I dont know how the child has grown up. She said, “You know, it is a funny thing. David still has his eczema, but he doesnt sniffle”.

I said, “That is something. Why dont you feed him some wheat?”.

She said, “Feed him wheat?”.

I said, “Yes, feed him a little wheat and see what happens.”. She said, “If you say so”.

I said. “Call me up after the weekend, ” so she called me up and said David had a couple of pieces of bread each day and nothing happened. The eczema didnt get any worse, and he didnt sniffle.

So we let him ride, and in the course of two or three months the eczema was gone, and David didnt sniffle, and David was eating all the crackers and all the bread and cookies he wanted. I forbade her to give him chocolate, to which he was not allergic, because in may experience chocolate and eczema just absolutely do not gibe. If you have eczema, you cant have chocolate. I dont know who agrees with me.

Case No. 4–Here is an older person who called me up and said, ” I have been to three doctors, all of whom you know personally- none of them are homoeopaths- and I think I had better leave them”.

“Well, ” I said, “they are nice, honest doctors. What ails you, madam?”.

“Eczema”.

I grinned into the telephone and said, ” All right, come along”.

She is a typical frustrated spinster of fifty-six, long, lean and efficient, somebodys crack secretary. She only has her eczema in one place, on the vulva on the right labium major, which is swollen and there is a great patch like red show leather, and it itches so she nearly loses her mind. When I first looked at it, I thought, “MY heavens, this is a skin cancer!”.

I said, ” What have they been doing to you for this?”.

She said, ” Oh, yes,” and went into everything, starting with knew why it looked that way.

I said, “Do me one favor. Put nothing on it unless it be lanolin, calendula cream, or fullers earth-ever head of it? It feels cool and comfortable and absorbs any sweat. Now let me heat the story of your life”.

The chief motif of her life was resentment. She supports her mother, who is dying of cancer, and has lived with her all her life. She began by saying how wonderful her mother was and, before she left the office, She said, “I wish she would die. I wish I could kill her”.

Then she said, ” Oh, I never have said that in may life. I dont mean it”.

I said, “Oh, yes you do, dear. Oh, yes, you do, and your cure has begun”.

Afraid of being alone-she had thought of parking mother somewhere and supporting her, but couldnt bear to live alone. Wants somebody always there. So exhausted-these other doctors she had been to told her she was exhausted-so exhausted she ought to take a vacation for six months but she cant. She has to have the money. No reason for the exhaustion-negative chest x-ray, negative, negative blood. They all said the exhaustion was psychogenic. She was chilly; she walked the floor while she interviewed me, up and down, up and down, like the animals at the zoo.

Finally, she amused me enormously by bringing a bag to the second interview, a big bag entirely full of the other peoples medicines, which she put out in rows on the desk: ” These are the medicines from 1946. These are the medicines from 1947,” and so on up, most of the bottles empty, and I said, “Why did you bring these?”.

I said, “You came to me. I going to give you one little dose.”.

She looked at me. You know, one of my complaints ( and I havent too many) about Kents Repertory is that when you look up “resentment, ” what does it tell you? ” See malicious. ” That is not right. Resentment is not malicious, but that is where you have to look for it. So I took that as Symptoms 1. I finally got out of her that her itching was worse at two in the morning, woke her up every night at two in the morning. I happen to know the “gal” socially, and the one thing I have ever observed about her you couldnt miss, which is that she owns more expensive and fantastic hats than anyone else I ever knew. If you saw her every week, she would have a different that on, and I know there isnt one of them that cost under 30, yet she lives way uptown in a small apartment and saves money madly. She cant afford to do this or that. you would almost say she is miserly except for the hats.

Elizabeth Wright Hubbard
Dr. Elizabeth Wright Hubbard (1896-1967) was born in New York City and later studied with Pierre Schmidt. She subsequently opened a practice in Boston. In 1945 she served as president of the International Hahnemannian Association. From 1959-1961 served at the first woman president of the American Institute of Homeopathy. She also was Editor of the 'Homoeopathic Recorder' the 'Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy' and taught at the AFH postgraduate homeopathic school. She authored A Homeopathy As Art and Science, which included A Brief Study Course in Homeopathy.