Dr. COMPSTON said there was one point in Dr. Clarke’s paper with which he himself was in hearty agreement, and he thought practitioners would never come to the cure of cancer until it was recognized, namely, that cancer was a result and not a cause. The growth was the ultimate result of processes which had been going on in the body for some time. The mistake which was made in the whole matter was in trying to make cancer a primary thing instead of an end-product.
Dr. PATRICK asked Dr. Clarke if, when he used Hydrastis, he invariably prescribed a low potency. Personally he had tried Hydrastis quite a number of times, but, he was sorry to say, with disappointment. He had never used it in a low potency. The lowest he had used was 30.
Dr. CLARKE replied the lower the potency the better when one got crude conditions such as he had described.
Dr. GRANVILLE HEY remarked that much money and a great deal of valuable time had been spent on trying to find a cause for cancer, but was there a cause for cancer? Was there not rather a series of causes? There was one type of cancer which grew into a hard mass, and there was another type which was a very soft mass. Generally the hard form ran a tedious course and the other ran a very rapid course It was obvious there must be more than one cause for cancer.
Referring to treatment by Hydrastis, he could record four cases of definitely proved cancer which he had been able to cure completely. The first case was one which perhaps Dr. Burford would remember. It had occured 22years ago in the out-patient department of the hospital. A woman had come complaining, to use her own words, of “a bloody stinking discharge.” The odour could be detected yards away. The vagina was found to be distended with a huge cauliflower growth. Dr. Burford, in consultation, said the case was absolutely inoperable. Dr. Granville Hey, however, had not felt inclined to discharge the patient without anything further being done. He gave her a Hydrastis pessary, one every night, and Hydrastis 1 or 2x internally every four hours. The result was that within a mouth the huge cauliflower growth had dwindled down to a small mass the size of a walnut. The patient was then taken into hospital, operated upon, and completely recovered.
The Hydrastis more than the surgery had cleared up the case. The second case had been one offered him by Dr. Neatby, with a recurrence in the right chest wall after operation. He had operated, and in a fortnight the patient was much worse than she had been when Dr. Neatby had sent her; and he felt inclined to anathematize himself for having swelling. He put her on Hydrastis, and the swelling gradually improved until it had disappeared, the patient regained her health and was well for several years. She had gone out of his hands altogether until she had come back again about eighteen months ago. The swelling had recurred, and she eventually died from cancer of the colon.
