A PROSTATE CASE


My brain, which I used to think was shrinking, has swelled out again, and is functioning properly. So I really think that you have rejuvenated me. Many thanks for what you have done”. Possibly he was too optimistic in his assertion that he was cured by a single months treatment.


ON December 13th, 1934, I was visited by Mr. W.C.G., an accountant living in Bedfordshire, who complained about an enlarged prostate, which had given him considerable trouble. He had consulted his doctor and had been told that there was no treatment for that condition except an operation. So he came to me for advice.

The patient had never been robust, looked weak, was thin, had from two to four natural motions a day, was hard of hearing, had many moles on the body, drank large quantities of tea, and lived on a mixed diet, with meat, fish, bacon, etc. He had complained of discomfort with his prostate for six years, had had a severe nervous break down, had never been constipated, and had had no infection likely to produce swelling of the prostate.

He was one of twelve children, one of whom had died of consumption and another of pneumonia, and he had a narrow chest. I gave him Sulphur, as a clearing up medicine, Ignatia, as he seemed to be much concerned about his health, and Bacillinum 30 once a week. I put him on a vegetarian diet, with large quantities of liquid between meals, to reduce acridity of urine. The only specific for his bladder trouble consisted in large quantities of parsley tea, which he was to drink between meals. A little while after, I gave him Arsenic 3, because he was extremely restless, superlatively tidy, and craved heat.

To my great surprise the patient wrote to me on January 15 th, after a single months treatment:.

“Yesterday I saw my doctor. He told me I was looking much better, and when I said I was cured of my prostatic complaint he thought it was marvellous. He is much interested in my case, and says that, although the inflammation has gone, the prostate still remains enlarged. At the back of his mind there is the thought that the symptoms may return. be that as it may, I am delighted to inform you that I have now no swelling, Pain or discomfort, and can pass water naturally and easily even at night. Apart from this, I feel better than I have for many years.

My brain, which I used to think was shrinking, has swelled out again, and is functioning properly. So I really think that you have rejuvenated me. Many thanks for what you have done”.

With this highly gratifying letter, Mr. W.C.G. left me. Possibly he was too optimistic in his assertion that he was cured by a single months treatment. Possibly he was over-anxious when he came to me, and had magnified his bladder trouble to himself and to others.

However, there can be not the slightest doubt that an immense improvement was produced by a few homoeopathic doses, a judicious diet and the old folk remedy of parsley. I had intended to give him prostatic specifics, but he was cured before I had an opportunity to do so. This experience should encourage every homoeopathic prescriber, professional and lay, to tackle prostatic troubles with medicines and diet, to which I have found them extremely amenable.

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.