ON February 4th, 1937, I received a letter from a Mr. A. W. in the Midlands, in which he told me that this sister, sixty years old, suffered from kidney stones and gravel. He states, “she had had that trouble on and off for some years, but when attacks came on, by applying hot bottles and resting quietly for a few hours, the pain subsided and the stones (small, about the size of small rice) and gravel came away in the urine. this always relieved her and she was all right till the next attack which sometimes were six months apart.
Now this last fortnight she has had two or three very bad attacks which do not yield to the heat treatment and the pain is terribly severe and she is wet through with perspiration.
Her diet has been most carefully arranged for the last twenty years or more. She takes not tea, coffee, cocoa or stimulant and no sugar or sweet things. It does not seem possible for an extremely careful diet like this to cause acidity and stones, especially as she gets plenty of exercise in household work every day. Her bowels are fairly normal and she is not troubled with constipation.
She has not had a doctor all her life as we do not believe in doctors or their treatment and we hesitate to call in a doctor now as we have no faith in them. She has tried herbal medicines such as Parsley Piert, Wild Carrot, Pellitory, Broom, but after a few doses she said it made her worse; in fact she has always been against medicines and would not take any. They seem to make her more acid.”.
I was somewhat alarmed by this letter. I realized that possibly kidney stones of a very large size had formed, which might lead to dangerous septic developments in the gall bladder, ulceration, abscesses, rupture of the gall ladder, cancer of the gall bladder, etc.
I was particularly worried because Miss W. and her brother had never been under a doctor, and if sudden death should take place there would be an inquest and I might be reproached for having advised her at a distance, without having seen her.
In immediate reply I wrote of February 5th to her brother: “I cannot from an opinion on your sisters condition without seeing her. I enclose Belladonna 200 for pain in kidneys, three as needed. Possibly a single dose or two may relieve the pain. If the kidney is heavily loaded with stones, an operation may be necessary, but this can be ascertained only by X-ray.
The danger is that, it there are sharp stones, accumulation of pus has taken place, which may have very disastrous results. Meanwhile I enclose also Sarsaparilla, mother tincture tablets, for kidney stones, 2 three times a day dissolved in a tumblerful of warm water”.
This letter, written on February 5th, reached Miss W. on February 6th. On February 7th Mr. W. wrote to me: “I am greatly obliged for your prompt attention to my letter of the 4th. When the medicine came to had I gave her a dose of Belladonna 200 for the pain and a little later she complained of great difficulty and pain in passing water, a new symptom”.
Obviously the dose of Belladonna in a very high potency had produced serious aggravation, an excellent and very promising symptom. The letter continued: “Then she had doses of the Sarsaparilla at regular intervals. She continued during the day with great pain and discomfort until the evening, when it got considerably worse until she parted with a quantity of sand, and later a stone the size of a large pea.
This was larger than she had ever had before. After this the pain and discomfort were greatly relieved and she had a good nights sleep, and to-day (Friday) is doing her household duties and is considerably better, and we are hoping that if all the stones have come away, she will go on improving. She is continuing with the medicine which seems to have acted marvellously as she had only three doses before the stones came away.”.
This is one of the most rapid cures I have ever seen. I have frequently found that in cases of kidney stones and gall stones Belladonna in low potencies, 1x, 3x or mother tincture has has not effect but Belladonna 200 causes miraculous and prompt relief. It seems to act by relieving the tension and the inflammation in the duct produced by a stone which has been caught up causing spasms. Belladonna relieves the Spasm, allows the stone to pass through and the patient is wonderfully relieved.
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.