These more or less well-chosen remedies wrought a great change in the patient, but on the 29th July 1882, she still complained that the left eye was wrong. It made her feel sea-sick when she read; pains in left eye worse in the early morn; some ptosis of left upper lid; eyeball stiff, and an aching across it and right across the forehead, and she was giddy in walking about.
The case having thus come to a standstill, I cast about for some aetiologico-therapeutic application, and in so doing, learned that she had been vaccinated four times in all; the last time, three years ago, took but faintly.
Thuja 30 soon cured the ptosis and the other described symptoms.
Of course I cannot prove that we had here to do with a case of vaccinosis, but such it appeared to me. Well-chosen remedies had greatly benefited the patient, but there seemed to be a bar to the complete cure, and Thuja effectually removed this bar.
In chronic disease, when the right remedies seem barred in their action, Hahnemann, on the off-chance that it might be due to psora, recommended his disciples to interpose sulphur as the great, most likely, anti-psoric. Most of us have found this a very valuable clinical suggestion. Similarly, I have found that vaccinosis frequently bars the way, and then Thuja comes in with simply the beautiful effect of a genuine similimum.
I shall narrate several more such cases before I take my leave, so that others may be in possession of evidence sufficient to form a judgment on the questions of whether there exists such a morbid state as vaccinosis? and whether Thuja can cure the same?
Observation xv PARESIS
Mr.—–, a private gentleman, married, and one who had always led a healthful life, but too great a traveller, came under my observation early in the year 1882, in a very weak condition. He had had slight hemiplegia of the right side, and still showed some symptoms of paralysis, e.g., weakness of right arm, occasional dragging of the legs, loss of memory, impaired vision, and loss of power generally. His effective virility was extinct, and had been so for two or three years, and naturally this did not tend to raise his spirits. I treated him for a few months with but slight benefit, when one day he complained of a frontal headache that at once reminded me of the Thuja headache. I give him Thuja occidentalis 30 (4 in 24), and within a few days he remarked a very notable improvement, feeling better than he had for three years. Getting this report at his next visit, I fell to questioning him about vaccination, which I had previously not done: and what was the answer? Feb.24th, 1883.-“How many times have you been vaccinated?”
“I have been vaccinated six or seven times.”
“Did it take every time?”
“No, never.”
And from close questioning I satisfied myself that this gentleman had been six times unsuccessfully vaccinated, and this suggested to me that he was really suffering from that vaccinial was really suffering from that vaccinial blight which I have ventured to call vaccinosis.
Patient had received only four doses of the Thuja 30 in the early part of January, 1883, just to cure his headache, and which resulted, inter alia, in a hypopubic resurrection of great importance; and the headache having simultaneously left him, he then took the constitutional remedy I had prescribed, viz., Titanium, and continued it until a few days ago. I had instructed him to take the Thuja only for a few days, till his headache disappeared.
Now, thought I, we will saturate him with Thuja, and extinguish the vaccinosis; so I gave him this prescription: Rx Tc. Thuja Occidentalis, 3, 3 iv. To take four drops in water night and morning, and report in a month.
The result was quite satisfactory, and he became-in his wife’s words -“Quite a different man”, all paralytic symptoms having disappeared, and the old headache had not returned at the end of 1883, when I last saw him.
Loss of virile power is frequently a result of vaccination, and when the local debility is due to this cause, it is really wonderful how the case is altered by a few doses of Thuja.
Observation xvi CASE OF SPINAL IRRITATION MISS——-, oet 29, came under my care in November, 1882, complaining of owning a spine. She had been under the best physicians and surgeons of London. Had derived a little benefit from many-most, she thought, from the movement cure, under Mr. Roth, of Wimpole Street. She also alleged that mesmeric passes had eased her a good deal.
Her symptoms were legion; she was bent forward could scarcely walk, her spine very tender and painful; twitchings; pain all down the back; and chilliness, worse at night. Her liver was decidedly enlarged, and there was pain in the right side. This hepatic disturbance was righted by Chelidonium majus I; five drops, in water, twice a day. Then, on December 19th, I gave her Cedron 1, which certainly eased the cephalalgia and chilliness a good deal, and it was therefore continued till.
February 9th, 1883, when I went into her case a little more thoroughly as to its anamnesis. She had been vaccinated four times successfully; once it did not take.
R. Thuja Occidentalis 30.
March 8th.-Patient exclaimed…”that is capital stuff; I am very much better; my back is very much better; the coldness is gone; I am so much stronger altogether.”
Rep.
March 31st-Back “wonderfully better.”
She needed several other remedies, but practically her cure was effected by Thuja.
On May 17th she had Thuja 100, and soon afterwards began to play at lawn-tennis.
On June 12th she reported herself thus-“I have not been so well for three or four years; I feel strong, and can do anything.”
I do not know whether anyone will admit that this was a case of vaccinosis; certain it is that she had been vaccinated five times, and was very ill-practically and invalid-till I gave her Thuja, and then she mended, and is now well and comparatively vigorous.
Observation xvii
CASE OF SCRIVENER’S CRAMP;CEPHALALGIA, AND ENLARGED SPLEEN
Miss——, oet. 29, a city clerk, came under my observation on May 7th, 1883. complaining of much epigastric beating, pain in left side, great chilliness, and writer’s cramp of the right side. An examination showed an enlargement of the spleen, and a swelling of the left ovary of about the size of a hen’s egg. Her breath is heavy, and she gets giddiness. she has frontal headache of a severe kind, almost every day for a long time.
Rx Ceanothi Americani. 1. five drops, in water, three times a day.
May 30th— Side is much better; the chilliness is better; the feet warmer; the beating less.
Rep. et Cuprum acet.1.
July 30th—Side nearly well; paining every alternate day or so. Pain in the back no better; giddiness better. Complains especially of the severe frontal headache, and the cramps in the right arm are so bad that she has had to give up office work.
Has been vaccinated three times, but the last time it did not take.
Rx Tc. Thuja Occidentalis 30, night and morning.
August 16th.—Headache and writer’s cramp well. She returns to work.
November 16th.—Continues at office work with comfort; no return of either headache or cramps. Continues under treatment for ovarian tumour, and gets Silicea 6.
The hydrogenoid constitution of Von Grauvogl was here well pronounced, and what I call vaccinosis was implanted on it. The action of Thuja was most marked, prompt, and durable. Questioned on November 16th as to which medicine cured the headache and the cramps, she instantly said it was the powders (i.e., the Thuja.)
Observation xviii ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT AND HEMIPARESIS.
Miss.—, act. 16, was brought to me on May 16th, 1883. This was her state : roof of mouth very much arched; left side of face drawn to the left, so that her mouth is awry. She speaks very badly; cannot articulate properly; and is very deaf. Has always been so. Has a polypus in left nostril; the tonsils are enormously hypertrophied; breathes very loudly. Left mamma smaller than the right; left side of thorax generally smaller than the right. Tongue is cracked; pain in left side for years; frontal headache for a twelve month. Menses normal, having begun six months ago. She was vaccinated at the age of three months; it did not take and so she was done a second time in both arms, when it took fairly well.
Patient is the child of healthy parents, and there did not appear to be anything to account for the extraordinary backwardness. I reasoned that the child had evidently been blighted by the vaccination for she did not readily take (the organism resisted), and then did take (organism overcome).
Rx Thuja Occidentalis 30. Two drops, daily, for four weeks.
Now note the sequel, not forgetting that the child’s condition had been, as described, nearly all her life.
June 13th.—-On this day her mother brought her and reported—-this is the note in my case-book : “On the whole very much better; can certainly articulate better!! and the head and face are not so one-sided, and she hears better!!”
Both parents were agreed that the changes had been wrought since the medicine had been taken. The father is an unusually gifted professional man, and the mother an educated lady.
Burnett was one of the first to speak about vaccination triggering illness. This was discussed in his book, Vaccinosis, published in 1884. He introduced the remedy Bacillinum. He authored twenty books, including the much loved "Fifty Reason for Being a Homeopath." He was the editor of The Homoeopathic World.