J. MONTFORT SCHLEY, M.D.: I think Dr. Eggleston’s remarks are such as no one will take exception to. he has stated his case very well, but we had nothing to do with the medical side of the case at all. I have seen, within the last sixteen months, nearly fifty cases of pleurisy with effusion. Perhaps I have been peculiarly fortunate. In most of them I was in consultation, and for the doctor’s special benefit I wish to emphasize his points. I am just as good a Homoeopath as he is. For his especial benefit I will say that every one of these I operated upon had been attended by the best Homoeopathic physicians in New York and vicinity. They had received Aconite, they had received Bryonia and everything else-opiates and Iodine-and that is all the good that it did them.
Now, there are two sides to these things and to these cases. If they had come from the Old School, I would put them in their proper place; but not one of them had been treated by an Allopathist, because I don’t consult with them if I can help it. Some of them were treated by men whom you have applauded on this platform-men who have come from New York, and who cannot be beaten as far as a Homoeopathic prescription is concerned.
I repeat, I believe in a large majority of cases that the Homoeopathic remedies have a wonderful and decided influence upon pleuritic effusions, but sometimes they seem to utterly fail. Whether it is a predisposition of the patient, whether it is a peculiar condition of the atmosphere, or whether it is the peculiar stage, of the virulent inflammation that takes place, I am unable to say.
When the doctor comes to talk about fibroid phthisis, I want to remind him that ours were cases that never had been operated on for fibroid phthisis. If the doctor had seen the post-mortems that I have had in the Vienna hospital, he would know that the majority had never seen a physician. With the pleura as thick as that (indicating), and the trouble entirely on one side of the lung, it seems to me that it is plain that the trouble has arisen from pleuritis, and not from a tuberculosed condition.
I wrote this paper mainly not because I am afraid to go to the Old School-for we have got plenty of good Homoeopathic physicians in New York who have a great deal of experience-but it is the dread and disgust that a homoeopathic physician, and particularly a good Homoeopathic physician, has against surgery. He prescribes nothing else but Homoeopathic remedies, and he hates to have his patient put under the knife, and will fight it off until the last minute.
That thing is done, in my opinion and experience, repeatedly. he thinks that his remedies will relieve these conditions; but how can they do it when you have the lungs squeezed down to the size of your fist and an enormous pleural mass there, and the pleura so thick i cannot absorb anything at all?.
Another thing is, follow up these cases, and see whether they develop fibroid phthisis after an early operation. I have had a good many under my care when I had the privilege of being their family physician, and have followed them for years, and you can scarcely detect a trace of adhesion of the pleura, and the scar has nearly all disappeared. In my experience, it is these very cases (whether it be a thickened pleura or a serous effusion) where we are more likely to get fibroid phthisis and curvature of the spine-the cases where nature cannot help herself nor do herself justice as the usually does.
