To us as to Hahnemann, cancer is not a local and surgical disease but is definitely constitutional and medicinal. Radium, deep X-ray and surgery are not only ineffective but as pernicious in bringing about metastasis as inducing a rapid fatal termination. What Hahnemann says, writing in 1832 (Organon, 6th Ed. p. 244; the note is almost the same in Dudgeon 5th edition, p. 153), is noteworthy and tells the story of our present age:
I can not therefore advise, for instance, the local expiration of the so-called Cancer of the lips and face (the product of high develop Psora, not infrequently in conjunction with Syphilis), [as it necessitates the vital energy to] transfer the field of operation of the great internal malady to some more, important part (as it does in every case of metastasis) and the consequence is blindness, deafness, insanity, suffocative asthma, dropsy, apoplexy, etc…. the result is the same, without previous cure of inner miasm, when Cancer of the face or breast is removed by the knife alone and when encysted tumours are enucleated; something worse ensues or at any rate death is hastened. This has been the case times without number, but the old school still goes blindly on in the same way in every new case, with the same disastrous results.
Citing from Hahnemann,”the true method of cure, which has never assumed to itself the power of directly influencing organic defects” (Chronic Diseases, part 1, p.199. Ind. Edit.).
Some one may announce that cases with end-products of diseases of diseases are not amenable to homoeopathic treatment, but are, therefore, to be relegated to surgery. The above lines are said in the context of organic defects, “adventitious organisms, malformations and degenerations,” etc., which are produced by the continuous and excessive use of allopathic drugs. Hahnemann is not very optimistic about such cases. But natural diseases of this type with positive characteristic indications have a strong tendency to be cured by medicines.
Who has not seen a tumor, a corneal opacity, an indurated tonsil, a bony projection (e.g. a calcaneal spur) or a rheumatic deformity, disappear under homoeopathic treatment? Even in cases which Hahnemann pronounced as almost incurable, glimpses of hope were seen by him, provided the vital, reactive power has strong enough to “absorb and reform what it has compulsorily deformed.” He therefore” can promise an improvement only after a long period of time” (Chronic Disease, p. 199). Only the questions of time and reactivity of the vital principal crop up here which, being satisfied, cure ensues.
A stumbling block we meet in this regard is that our remedies have not been proved so far as to produce pathological tissue changes and organic lesions. Characteristic local and constitutional symptoms, that are indicative of the patient in relation to the remedy-type, are our sole guides and, if adequately present, may go a long way in the removal of gross pathology. Still here the question of times is a strong factor, truly speaking. After the patients is cured and order is a strong is established in the economy, the gross pathology also will go, but no one can assure when, Dr. Kent, therefore, takes a humanistic attitude and says:
We have too keep servants on their feet to earn their living, and operations have to be performed upon them, because they can not lie up for for a year or two to be cured. The surgeons will always have a place with us, but let us do our part as physicians first (Materia Medica, p.201.
In cases, on the other hand, with organic defects but without any characteristic indications whatsoever to prescribe upon, surgery can not be eliminated (provided of course the case is at all amenable to surgery).
Considering all that has been said or insinuated by our Masters in the art of healing, there is very little scope for orienting ourselves with regard to this subject. Conditions for surgery have already been drawn up, its relative place has already been circumscribed. What can be done best by our organizations is to voice loud protest against so much needless and criminal surgery that wastes so much money and energy, and cripples or injures for life so large a section of humanity.
It is our duty, on the other land, to report to an international organization, our successful medicinal management of the so- called surgical cases (which are usually many) in order to counterbalance the fanatical craze for surgery, in surgeons as well as in patients. Moreover, it is our duty to educate the public and bring home to them that the organic defects, morbid pathology and obstetrical accidents are the end-results of diseased states hidden within, which, when treated homoeopathically in time, may go a long way safely to ward off such troublesome or fearful consequences. Notwithstanding, surgeons have a place with us, and we look for the dawn that will proclaim the advent of hundreds of first-grade surgeons amidst our fold, to whom we may refer our cases, without seeking any outside help.
Berhampore, subhas Road
Post-Khagra (Dist.-Murshidabad)
West Bengal, India.
