On February 9th, 1939, I was visited by a Mrs. B., who complained about general weakness, a feeling of faintness, emaciation, indigestion, flatulence, etc. She had terribly bad nights for which she had been given the usual poisonous medicines by her doctor. She was extremely anaemic, and loss of internal flesh and fat had caused the internal organs to sink down badly and their dragging caused a sensation of extreme misery. She was very constipated, had lost all her teeth through pyorrhoea, was restless, had rheumatism and had rheumatic fever which had probably caused the heart weakness.
She had had heavy night sweats which suggested tuberculosis; her sleeplessness as caused through over-activity of the brain. She weighed only seven stones and looked a wreck. Her doctors had told her that she was incurable, and had suggested that the misery of her period might be alleviated by her having the sex organs destroyed by the application of radium. Happily she had refused to accept that atrocious recommendation.
Her heart was i a very bad condition, and so was the whole of her body. She had an enlarged liver, had had severe inflammation of the antrums and sinuses and had had influenza badly. It was difficult to know where to begin. Her diet was quite unsuitable. She had flesh and fish two or three times s day ” to keep up her strength”, and she was undoubtedly poisoned from the bowel.
I gave her a lacto-vegetarian diet with an abundance of bran, and gave her combination of Ignatia and Carbo vegetabilis to deal with her indigestion and depression, a dose to be taken before meals. As her abdomen had become terribly she was to take Lycopodium 3x when she was suffering from bloating. Night and morning she was to take a dose of Rhus tox. 3x to deal with her rheumatism and her restlessness at night.
In between meals she was to take Sepia 12x to cure the bearing down sensation, and she was to take Coffea tosta 30 for her sleeplessness through over-activity of the brain. In addition she was given once a week various antidotes, especially Thuja 200, a vaccinating antidote, because I thought that vaccinial poisoning was at the bottom of her troubles. Later on I gave her various heart medicines such as Crataegus, Strophanthus and Spigelia. When her antrums became a nuisance I gave her Kali bichromicum 3x.
She came to me in the deepest depression because the doctors had frequently told her and her relatives that she was incurable. A doctor who considers a patient incurable is apt not to take much trouble. For the first time she was given reasoned encouragement, and she undertook the treatment with enthusiasm.
She came and saw me again on April 18th, and I then wrote to her: “You looked wonderfully improved. You weight has gone up from seven to seven and half stone. You look a completely different woman, and your inside has improved even more than you outside. You heart is not strong and is somewhat irregular, but is better than it was at the beginning of the treatment and should improve further.”
Strophanthus is an excellent remedy for regulating an irregular heart, and I concentrated on Strophanthus with excellent results. On May 4th I saw Mrs. B again, and wrote to her: ” I was delighted with you appearance. You weight has gone up from seven stone to seven stone eleven pounds. You look, and are, infinitely better”.
Her heat and general health improved steadily. Instead of looking frail she began to look sturdy. She gained further weight, and before long she had put on more than a stone of solid flesh. All her friends were amazed at her improvement, and her doctors, who had given her no hope, could not understand what had happened to her.
Even the most unpromising cases should never be neglected. Even in the most serious cases there may be a hidden reserve of strength.
James Ellis Barker wrote a very large number of books, both under the name James Ellis Barker and under his real German name Otto Julius Eltzbacher, The Truth about Homœopathy; Rough Notes on Remedies with William Murray; Chronic Constipation; The Story of My Eyes; Miracles Of Healing and How They are Done; Good Health and Happiness; New Lives for Old: How to Cure the Incurable; My Testament of Healing; Cancer, the Surgeon and the Researcher; Cancer, how it is Caused, how it Can be Prevented with a foreward by William Arbuthnot Lane; Cancer and the Black Man etc.