This is a story, not a scientific document. It is a little romance, though a true one. It illustrates the all round satisfaction of collaboration between surgeon and prescriber when the surgeon is not a homoeopath himself.
The condition was an acute pelvic abscess in a married woman of forty. Suspecting she was pregnant, she had taken heavy doses of quinine causing haemorrhage and abortion. This lighted up a gonorrhoeal infection and in a short time got around to the condition mentioned above.
The remedy picture at this stage was: Shooting from rectum to vagina when pressure was made, as attempting to reach outside the bed. Dizziness when rising, as if the head were pulled backward. Throbbing, occipital headache. Throbbing in the temples when talking. Shivering aggravated by motion; cutis anserina. Yellow, putrid discharge. Nausea. Pallor (with fever). Aching with restlessness but no relief from motion. Temperature 104, pulse 112. Pyrogen 6M. was given.
The surgeon was called in and proposed to operate the same evening. I suggested that as I had given Pyrogen (I termed it Sepsin as having a more familiar tone) that the temperature would be normal by morning, “if that condition would be preferable for operation.” This was agreed to and the patient was soon on the way to the hospital, Sac. lac. and all. Without any suggestion of mine the family had requested that homoeopathy be employed for the exigencies of the new adventure, to which the surgeon assented.
As expected, by morning the temperature had disappeared. Remnants of placenta were removed from the uterus. A small abscess between the right tube and uterus was evacuated, the incision conjoined and secured.
All went well with no temperature or discomfort, on Sac.lac., for two days. Then colicky pains started in the night and the temperature rose again.
Sensation of something turning in the abdomen and whirling over (see Guiding Symptoms, Vol. VI,p. 587). When relaxed in sleep in rouses her. Gas pressure in the rectum but unable to evacuate it; enema helps. The classic tenderness of Lachesis was present. The surgeon wanted to use sulfa variation but accepted my suggestion of a certain snake venom which “had been repeatedly verified is such conditions.” Lach. 1M. (d.u.) was given and Sac.lac. discreetly changed. The next day we met in the corridor. His countenance was radiant. “She is better,” he waved.
Six days later another complication. Distressing constipation. Fainted after an enema. The head throbbing and patient weak all day. Sleeplessness, palpitation; soreness in the epigastrium. Oppressive tiredness in the dorsal back and in chest with pressure in the stomach as from gas. Thirstless. The surgeon suggested transfusion and a firm laxative but assented to a remedy that would “rouse the spinal cord to action.” China 1M., d.u. No result could have been better. A little faltering of the same kind two weeks later and China 10M. ends the story.
Except to say that names of the “original” medicines were dutifully entered on the hospital records each day, studied with interest by the curious and progress noted with surprise. Also the special nurse was so astonished by the results that she brought a relative from a distant city to be treated with “sugar pills.” And the surgeon was given some of the precious Sepsin with instructions for careful use. A few years later he told me, “It works well.” These by-products of the incident prove that homoeopathy could win its way if given half a chance.
WATERBURY, CONN.
Born in Torrington, Litchfield, Connecticut, USA on 20 Oct 1871 to Royal Edmund Hayes and Harriet E Merriman. He had at least 4 sons and 1 daughter with Miriam Martha Phillips. He lived in Torrington, Litchfield, Connecticut, United States in 1880. He died on 20 July 1952, in Waterbury, New Haven, Connecticut, United States, at the age of 80, and was buried in Waterbury, New Haven, Connecticut, United States.