Mr. J.P. E., aged 29, came to me on December 19, 1912, after seeing two surgeons and several dental specialists because he had been told that a fatal issue was certain if he did not have the whole of the right upper jaw removed. This was owing to the return of a tumour involving the maxillary alveolar ridge, which was reported to be malignant by microscopical examination. This original report will now be thrown on the screen. The first growth was said to be the size of the tip conclusion that it probably stared in the mucous membrane.
A gold mouth plate which he was in the habit of working up and down in the mouth probably supplied the necessary element of irritation.
I found that the recurrence had taken the form of a very small nodular projection lying posteriorly to the two right incisor teeth, and owing to its proximity to the latter, I deemed it advisable to have them removed, which was done four days later, and I put him on to Carcinosin 200 once daily, and later every fourth day; still later the doses were given at much longer intervals. I may say that I would not now repeat this remedy as often as I did at the beginning of this case. I find that I introduced an element which tends to detract from the full credit of this case to Carcinosin in a one-in-ten mouth wash of Symphytum Officinale, but I have reason to believe that the case would have recovered without its use, though it possibly helped to some extent.
After the removal of the teeth, a chill was responsible for some inflammatory swelling and pain in the affected region, and I then on December 31 unfortunately gave unit Arborivital dose of Lobelia Erin. 0 A. I say “unfortunately” because this still further complicates the issue with regard to the action of unassisted Carcinosin. This was, however, the only dose of any other remedy given, Carcinosin 200 and nothing but Carcinosin being continued till February 27, 1913 (i.e., a little over two months after commencing treatment), when Mr. Dudley Wright, who had been watching the case all through, agreed with me that the growth had entirely disappeared. For safety’s sake I continued to treat him for some time longer, tackling at the same time some gouty rheumatism with Urtica, but he had no return of the trouble, and was eventually passed as grade A into the Army and reached the rank of Captain. He is still, I hear, in excellent health.
Before leaving Carcinosin, I wish to lay stress on the necessity for making sure that the preparation is one which has been carefully prepared, and has, if possible, stood the test of time. My results have all been obtained by that made by Messrs. Epps & Thatcher for the late Dr. Burnett.
I would lay it down as a maxim that there is ” no case of Carcinoma that Carcinosin will not benefit at some period of its existence,” so much so, that I would suggest the proverb “When in doubt give Carcinosin.”
Another remedy, which I previously called attention to a few years ago, and whose definite “specificity of action” I have found of great value, is Symphytum Officinale (fig.12). Its well-known action on bony tissue led me to give it in cases of Malignant Disease involving these structures. One such case of dramatic interest from its rapidity of growth and equally rapid absorption was that of a Sarcoma growing from the sacrum, a nd pressing on, and almost entirely occluding, though not directly involving, the rectum, which I detailed in a paper at a meeting specially convened by Dr. Burford to discuss Malignant Disease in November, 1922, and which was subsequently published in the Homoeopathic World of March and April, 1923 (see illustration on pp. 366 and 367).
The lantern slides show in diagrammatic form the absorption which took place under the influence of this remedy given in doses of the repeated three times a day. I have found that it generally, though not invariably, acts better in repeated doses, but that it must be very cautiously given if there is much rapidly advancing new growth in the system, otherwise the reaction caused may be of dangerous severity.
The case was diagnosed and considered incurable at the University College Hospital. Yet when he was examined for the Army, during the war, no trace of the tumour could be found. He has kindly consented to come here to-day to show that he is not only alive but in robust health.
Another case of recent date is that of a farmer aged 70, who came to me on December 9, 1926, with a tumour involving the lower jaw, to the left of the median line, and at the site formerly occupied by the eye tooth, bicuspids and first molar. It was a recurrence four months after the removal, on November 2, 1925, of another tumour of fifteen months’ growth, at the same site (figs. 13 and 14).
He refused another operation, and was treated by a herbalist, but the tumour continued to grow steadily, and the surrounding tissues became infiltrated, causing projection of the left side of the lower lip, local swelling and defective mobility of the tongue, together with enlargement and tenderness of the glands under the jaw on that side. Some aching was present, but no acute pain.
The growth itself was of semi-hard consistency, being partly dark blue, and partly dusky red, with a flap of projecting mucous membrane projecting inwards which in consistency and colour resembled a cock’s comb.
Although, as far as I could gather, the original growth was not thought to be malignant, its recurrence in a much more rapidly growing form, with infiltration and glandular enlargement, pointed very definitely to its being malignant now.
Briefly, under Symphytum 30 in intermittent doses, the growth steadily declined in the manner I have attempted to delineate in the sketches shown (figs. 15 and 16).
Coincidently the glandular swelling decreased and the projection forward of the left side of the lower lip subsided. His general health improved at the same time, and he is now well on the road to complete recovery, with a reasonable hope of many years of good health to come. He has, at great personal inconvenience, come up here to-day so that any member can see for himself the present state of the mouth. As most bony Malignant Growths are Sarcomatous, I came to regard Symphytum as having a special action on Sarcoma, and this I can vouch for. I cannot vouch for its action on Carcinoma, though it no doubt has such an action when bony structures are involved.
A very important case I have had recently, in conjunction with Dr. Watson, of Hampstead, who called me in in consultation on December 30 last, is that of a gentleman aged 80. In September last Dr. Watson removed a papillomatous growth from the inner side of the base of the left big toe with silver nitrate.
It recurred, and on November 25 he removed it with the knife, it being found, by microscopic examination at the laboratories, to be a small spindle-celled Sarcoma. The wound healed, and X-rays were employed in the usual frequently repeated exposures, but several small nodules appeared a quarter to half an inch posteriorly to it, and it was now proposed to remove the limb at the hip. Fig. 18 shows approximately the position of these nodules.
At the time I saw him, I found these nodules to be red, and three or four in number, the foot, calf, and thigh were swollen and oedematous, and a collection of hard massed glands were present in the groin (figs. 17, 19, 20). In short, the gravity of the patient’s condition could not be greater, there being no more malignant type of growth than this, if the melanotic type be excepted, and his expectation of life being measurable in weeks.
There was no time to lose, so I put him on to Symphytum Officinale 3, ter. die at once, fearing to give a lower potency owing to the virulence of the malady, with compresses of the same remedy applied to the foot, and I of course stopped the X-rays at the earliest opportunity.
A fortnight later I found the advance of the disease had been arrested. Still another fortnight and the nodules had dried up, with general improvement in the condition of the limb, which has progressed, so that he is now able to take fairly long walks every day. The oedema and glands have markedly diminished, and it is obviously only a matter of time to bring about complete recovery.
The photos of the legs taken while he was recovering show some remaining oedema in the thigh and leg. There is none in the thigh now. I wish I could give you more facts, but the above are sufficient to indicate on what I base my deductions, to put forward which is the main purpose of this paper.
This is a free country, and we as Englishmen and Homoeopaths ought not to feel ourselves bound to follow blindly in the time- worn paths of traditions in pathology any more than we do in medicine. I had not been treating Malignant Disease for long before becoming convinced that the generally accepted teaching of the medical schools that the initial tumour was the fountain source of the disease from which all the other manifestations sprung was not correct. If it were so, complete and early mechanical removal, devoid of systemic treatment, ought to be effectual in curing the disease. If cancer were like a decayed tooth, a purely local trouble, I would be the first to say “Have it out and have done with it,” but this treatment has been carried out with the greatest thoroughness by the most skilful surgeons in the past, yet it must be admitted that treatment based on these lines has been far from satisfactory. Otherwise why so much outcry for more Cancer research? More than this, there is good reason to believe as I have endeavoured to show in some of my past papers, that in some cases actual aggravation of the systemic condition takes place after such removal, tending to result in a breaking out of a distant metastasis of a disseminated and more malignant form. The significance of this increased malignancy is emphasized by the fact that such recurrences yield far less readily to treatment than the original growth. This fact alone convinced me that we had to deal with a disease initially of constitutional origin, and of which the tumour was a secondary manifestation, but there are several very significant facts which add to this.
