A DOCTORS COMPLAINT


Among these are many of the most prominent members of the royal families of England and other countries, and among the great men of the past who were treated homeopathically were statesmen such as Disraeli, Bright, Bismarck. There are scores of homeopathic hospitals throughout the world.


AN anonymous writer, obviously a doctor of the orthodox school, has addressed to me an anonymous letter and has challenged me to publish it in the next issue of “HEAD THYSELF”. Usually anonymous letters are treated with contempt and thrown into the waste paper basket. I make an exception in this case as the effusion is very characteristic. He writes: “With mingled amusement and indignation I have read HEAL THYSELF.

Naturally I have heard a good deal about Homoeopathy. It pains me to think that presumably educated men can possibly dabble in such frank charlatanism as one finds between the covers of HEAL THYSELF.”.

The writer is obviously ignorant of the fact that, in this country, two hundred doctors of the orthodox school, who have passed all the usual examinations, have embraced Homoeopathy, that Homoeopathy has been practised in England by orthodoxly trained doctors for more than a century, that there are, throughout the world, about ten thousand doctors who practise Homoeopathy, and that tens of thousands of “presumably educated” people are treated exclusively homoeopathically.

Among these are many of the most prominent members of the royal families of England and other countries, and among the great men of the past who were treated homoeopathically were statesmen such as Disraeli, Bright, Bismarck. There are scores of homoeopathic hospitals throughout the world. The London Homoeopathic Hospital has more than two hundred beds. I imagine that men such as Disraeli, Bismarck, Bright, Bernard Shaw, Sir Herbert Barker and many others may be described as “educated men”.

Referring to a lecture of mine, the writer says: “The general trend of your remarks are for the defence of homoeopathic principles — indeed this is the atmosphere that one finds throughout the whole journal. Now, anything which justifies itself should not require ceaseless verbal defence. Possibly you will not understand that, as the average homoeopathic intellect seems peculiarly impervious to any logical conclusions.

You make some very disparaging remarks upon the use of the hypodermic syringe. Have you ever seen the result of an injection of diphtheria anti-toxin? No, you havent.”.

The writer is obviously quite ignorant of the fact that Homoeopathy is a valuable method of treatment which has been practised by tens of thousands of orthodoxly trained doctors throughout the world for more than a century. He is even ignorant of the orthodox treatment which he lauds as the only one of value. Diphtheria anti-toxin has in no way reduced the mortality of diphtheria — except statistically.

Formerly thousands of throats which are now called diphtheritic were called “drain throats”. Fifty years ago, when I was a boy, I had repeatedly a “drain throat”, treated with complete success, by my father, an excellent orthodox physician, by resting in bed and gargles. At that time no-one thought of taking a swab. Had a swab been taken, I should have been declared to have suffered from diphtheria. Throughout the swab-taking period the number of theoretical diphtheria cases has much multiplied.

Hence the percentage of deaths from diphtheria to theoretical diphtheria cases has of course greatly shrunk, while the total number of diphtheria deaths has increased, notwithstanding the much belauded antitoxin treatment, which is extremely dangerous. Every well-informed doctor knows that there are cases of diphtheria without the organism and that there are cases in which the diphtheria organism may be found which display no clinical evidences of diphtheria.

The reckless methods of vivisectors have been condemned by many of the leading orthodox, authorities here and abroad, among them Lord Moynihan, whose views I cannot quote in detail for lack of space. Orthodox doctors make experiments on animals and then make similar experiments on their patients, not infrequently with disastrous results. One cannot argue from animals to men. Rabbits can eat with impunity a quantity of Belladonna which would kill a human being.

Wishing to defend the cruel useless methods of vivisection against my criticism the writer says:”Do you realize that without his experiments on dogs, Banting would never have discovered insulin? Of course, in your estimation, insulin will be a useless drug. You will probably treat diabetes mellitus by feeding the patient on one grain of sugar per year.” The writer will probably give indiscriminately Insulin to every diabetic, because it is recommended in the text-books.

He obviously is not aware that Insulin, far from having diminished the death rate from diabetes, has proved curatively disappointing. It does not cure diabetes and has never done so. Although it is universally employed, the number of deaths from diabetes has rapidly increased since Insulin has been introduced and has been universally employed on diabetics. The figures published by the Registrar-General will show the correctness of my statement.

The anonymous epistle ends with the words: ” In conclusion I would like to say that the only sphere in which Homoeopathy might justify itself is in the treatment of the manifold complaints of neurotic old women. But in the case of organic diseases the law should step in to prevent a poor unfortunate from becoming a victim of Charlatanism.” The writer obviously is not aware that Homoeopathy can cure numerous diseases which are considered absolutely incurable by orthodox medicine.

The orthodox doctor who meets a case of gastric or duodenal ulcer, enlarged prostate, fibroid tumour of the womb, disseminated sclerosis, etc., has no treatment. Homoeopathy has cured thousands of cases of gastric and duodenal ulcer, fibroid tumour of the womb and enlarged prostate, without operation. It has cured hundreds of cases of disseminated sclerosis, declared incurable in the orthodox text- books. There are numerous other diseases and disorders in which Homoeopathy has proved infinitely superior to Allopathy.

This has been shown particularly in pneumonia and cholera, as proved by the official statistics. The medical practitioner who has written this anonymous letter is obviously unaware that Homoeopathy is practised in every civilized country of the world by a large number of doctors who have gone through the orthodox training, who have passed all the orthodox examinations, who are fully qualified and registered practitioners and have embraced Homoeopathy because they discovered that Homoeopathy will cure numerous diseases and disorders in which orthodox medicine is helpless.

J. Ellis Barker
James Ellis Barker 1870 – 1948 was a Jewish German lay homeopath, born in Cologne in Germany. He settled in Britain to become the editor of The Homeopathic World in 1931 (which he later renamed as Heal Thyself) for sixteen years, and he wrote a great deal about homeopathy during this time.

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.