5. A FEW FACTS ON THE PROBLEM OF CANCER



Dr. WYNNE THOMAS said that Dr. Burford had referred to a question put to Dr. Robert Bell on his treatment of patients by a vegetarian diet, and Dr. Burfor had said that that was the only treatment which Dr. Bell gave. He (Dr. Thomas) would like to remind Dr. Burford that Dr. Bell also gave his patients thyroid extract. He would like to ask Dr. Burford if he remembered the strength of the thyroid extract which Dr. Bell gave, because, as far as he remembered, it was in rather large doses.

Dr. BURDORD said it was true that Dr. Bell also gave thyroid extract, but it was not given to every case. Dr. Bell also combined the thyroid extract with nosodes obtained from the endocrine gland. Dr. Bell’s patients mainly got well on dietary, but Dr. Wynne Thomas was quite right in what he had said about thyroid extract.

Dr. WYNNE THOMAS endorsed what Dr.Patrik had said, namely, that if one told the patients that they had cancer they threw up the sponge. He had sometimes told a patient near the end that he had cancer, but he had cancer they threw up the sponge. He had always found that the patient knew it perfectly well before, but as long as he had not been told, he still made a fight. He always advised beating about the bush and encouraging a patient.

Dr. CLARKE said he quite agreed that a patient should not be told he had cancer. The word “cancer” meant something to a patient which was quite different from what it meant to a doctor. The less a patient was told the better.

Dr. BENJAMIN said Dr. Patrick had made a point about the necessity of operation in a case of intestinal obstruction. Personally he had had a case which he had thought would have to go to operation. The patient was a woman about 40. He had had her removed quickly to a nursing home in case an operation had been necessary, as he thought it would be, but before submitting her to the operation he had had the good fortune to ask Dr. Burford to come and see her. Dr. Burford had advised a dose of opium 200 followed by atropin 3x. The woman lived two or three months after that without any operation at all.

Another case which might be of interest was the following. About four years ago a man had gone to his dentist for teeth extraction, and the anesthetist, looking in his mouth, said, “I cannot give you an anaesthetic to-day because you have a quinsy.” The dentist sent him to a specialist in Harley Street, and the specialist told the man he had quinsy and sent him home. Three or four days afterwards the lump in the throat was no better. There was no pain. The patient wished to see Sir StClair Thomson, who confirmed the diagnosis and advised removal. The growth was removed by operation, and the pathologists had made a report saying that it was a sarcoma. Some growth was still present, however, at the edge where the tumour had been removed. The patient had been given some radium treatment, one application, and as he was a typical phosphorus patient, he had phosphorus. That was four years ago, and the man was perfectly well to-day. Until the other day he did not know what had been the matter with him. He was a very nervous fellow, and so it was kept from him that he had anything malignant at all. Unfortunately a friend of his had persuaded him to go in for a life insurance, when, of course, the whole thing had to come out. Dr. Benjamin had to make a report of the insurance company, and now he was wondering what was going to happen, because the patient was so very nervous. He had seen the man a few weeks ago, however, when his throat looked perfectly sound, and he was in good general health.

Dr. GRANVILLE HET said he desired to enter a plea for colostomy where it was really necessary, or where it was likely to become urgently necessary. He also desired to enter a plea that it should be done early. If it was to be done at all, the earlier it was done the better, for the reason that many cases, if they did not absolutely clear up, improved immensely after getting relief of the cause of obstruction. That was where there was definite obstruction in the bowel. He was reminded the other day of a case in which the patient had been given six weeks to live, in which he had performed colostomy. That was ten years ago, and the man was alive and well to-day. On the other hand, one wanted to be certain of the necessity, or the likelihood of the coming necessity for colostomy.

John Henry Clarke
John Henry Clarke MD (1853 – November 24, 1931 was a prominent English classical homeopath. Dr. Clarke was a busy practitioner. As a physician he not only had his own clinic in Piccadilly, London, but he also was a consultant at the London Homeopathic Hospital and researched into new remedies — nosodes. For many years, he was the editor of The Homeopathic World. He wrote many books, his best known were Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica and Repertory of Materia Medica