IT is a cause for extreme regret and deep disappointment that the one man in our school peculiarly fitted, by his long training, his patient study and observation, and his extensive clinical experience, Professor Henry C. Houghton, should have been prevented by illness from the preparation of the paper on this subject which had been originally assigned to him.
As his assistant, working at his side and under his supervision for years at the New York Ophthalmic Hospital, the writer knows, better than most men, his eminent qualifications for the task, and of what the profession are deprived by his inability to undertake it.
The brief notice of a few days in which to prepare and complete an article on so important a subject, for so profound an occasion, is but simple justice to the writer to plead in part extenuation for the crude and incomplete remarks he presents for your consideration.
It is nearly nineteen centuries since the divine lips uttered the words, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Spoken to the scornful and unbelieving Jews as a warning, the words have an application directly physical, and in these days may be construed as a direct command; for the neglect to guard and care for the most valuable of all the special senses, with the modern facilities available, is reprehensible in the highest degree where one is responsible to one’s self alone; but the responsibility becomes criminal when the neglect entails upon a child all the disastrous consequences and mental suffering that follow impairment of hearing.
Considering the limitations necessitated by the brief time for preparation, no opportunity for research was available, and it is evident nothing new or starting can be presented. Therefore is seemed that the most practical, and in fact the only possible way to meet the occasion, was by a short statement of the means at our command for the treatment of morbid conditions of the aural apparatus, and the relations they should bear to each other.
The specialist, as a specialist, will find little of interest, because to him it is well-known ground.
The main point to which I wish to call attention is this: that there are no therapeutics (taken in the strict medical sense) which as yet are sufficient in themselves to meet the conditions daily presenting.
I do not say that drugs internally administered have no place, for they are of exceeding value; but this I do say, that he who, in his ardent faith in the all-powerful for-good nature of medicine, and his confidence in his own ability to always administer them accurately, neglects the necessary means of local treatment, will find, in dealing with the ear, that there are many conditions in which the most scientifically prescribed will fail to meet the expectation of himself and his patient; while some judicious local measure will give both satisfaction and relief.
Illustratively, our Materia Medica is full of symptoms pertaining to the head and eyes, and a case presents itself of which the perfect similimum is found.
The drug is given, with no relief. Again and again is medicine administered, with the most careful study of the totality of symptoms, and from the tincture to the highest attenuation. Ultimately an oculist is consulted, who finds a refractive error, prescribes the proper glasses-when, lo! all discomfort disappears; all pain is appeased.
Such instances are of too common occurrence to admit of argument.
As the result of the prolonged strain, certain morbid conditions may have arisen, characterized by certain symptoms, which persist after the adjustment of the glasses. For these the proper remedy may be applied with brilliant results. Here the Homoeopathic remedy finds its true field.
Analogous to this is the proper sphere of Homoeopathic aural therapeutics.
Time and again have patients presented themselves, complaining of deafness and tinnitus, having been drugged for weeks with the “suitable Homoeopathic remedy,” that have gone from the office in ten minutes with completely restored function, simply by the removal of a mass of cerumen from the meatus. It is true that the ceruminous accumulation may be due to a morbid condition of the glands, arising from some perverted state of the system. For this, medicinal treatment is applicable; but the patient applied for relief from his discomfort, and be obtained it by a simple local measure-while all the medicine in the pharmacies would not have helped him. Afterwards is the time for administering such suitable remedies as may reach the underlying cause that resulted in filling his ears with the impacted mass.
In the one case, remedies are suitable to relieve the consequences, the cause being removed by local means; in the other, the consequences are relieved by local measures, the cause being treated constitutionally.
I have cited these two conditions purely as illustrations, and my remarks may seem trivial to you, but I am led to make them of these reasons:.
Upon the issuance of a small work relating to the ear (in 1885), I used the following words in the preface: “In regard to treatment, I am firmly convinced that we are not yet in a position to dispense with local measures; our therapeutics are yet too meagre in this department.”.
Certain critics assailed the statement as evidencing a lack of faith in the curative powers of Homoeopathy.
Another reason is, the fact that Homoeopathy suffers from the indiscreet fanaticism and ignorance of a class, of whom the aforesaid critics are a portion. This class, claiming that the Homoeopathic law of cure is sufficient for every morbid condition of the system, pursue with malignity and invective all who do not subscribe to the same views, calling them mongrels, hypocrites, false to the master’s teachings, etc. These are they who are responsible for much of the ridicule which Homoeopathy has been compelled to endure in spite of its onward march.
In 1876, at Philadelphia, Professor T.P. Wilson, on a similar subject said: “This point needs emphasis, became, we as a school have unfortunately been always handicapped by a class of professed leaders who have boastfully discarded these things, and taught us to rely upon symptomatology.”.
This ignorance and boastful assertion exists to-day, and it is in an effort to clear the ground, that the true place and value of our remedies in aural work may be seen that the foregoing remarks have been indulged in.
Coming, then, strictly to the matter in hand, we find ourselves in possession of two classes of resources for reaching and relieving the conditions that present themselves, general and specific. The general means includes all local measures, nutrition, hygiene, sanitation, etc.; the specific, our remedies.
Taking first, one of the most common affection, an earache, an acute aural catarrh, the otitis media catarrhalis acuta of the specialist, what can be done for it?.
Certainly, few conditions give rise to more intense pain, and in a certain class, with marked predispositions, repeated attacks lay the foundation for obstinate and intractable consequences. The local measures at command are protection, heat instillations, inflation, blood-letting, and paracentesis.
These are common property, and in any given case we resort to more or less them.
Now, in the matter of medicine, have we any advantage over our confreres of the Old School? Dr. Roosa says: “The proper treatment of acute aural catarrh is, predominantly, an antiphlogistic one. The disease is an inflammation of the severest form, and can only be successfully combated by such means as blood-letting and Opium.” Dr. Burnett says: “Anodynes should be given in doses sufficient to allay pain and produce sleep. Aconite….is of great value in acute otitis.
Many quotations from different authorities could be adduced to the same purport, but the consensus of most of them is the same, viz., reduce the inflammation by local measures, and allay the pain by anodynes.
To this uniform paucity of medicinal resources of the Old- School specialists, there is one notable exception. Dr. Sexton, in speaking of the treatment of acute otitis media, recommends quite an array of Homoeopathic remedies-Acon., Hepar., Merc., Puls., etc.,-but then, he is half a Homoeopath anyhow.
Let us look, now, at our side of the case. We find an acute local inflammation, with constitutional disturbances, fever, frequently sore throat, etc. Can you not readily picture to yourselves the Aconite type, with its flushed face, high temperature, bounding pulse, restless impatience, anxious tossing, pains sharp and tearing, extreme sensitiveness to noise, and all the concomitants that make up an Aconite case. So take your list of remedies, and in your imagination you can see the Belladonna case, the Ferrum phos., the Mercurius the Hepar. sulph., the Pulsatilla, and so on down the line.
I am not going into the details of symptomatology, but merely direct your attention to the contrast between the poverty of their resources, and the richness of our own if but used wisely and intelligently.
