This case is brought forward by kind permission of Dr. Goldsbrough, under whose care he was admitted to the Hospital. Dr. Goldsbrough asked me to prescribe, after having selected drug by the use of repertory.
E. P., aged 67, had been a painter since 14 years of age; is moderate in alcohol, now non-smoker. Small-pox at 18. Had ague at 24, no recurrence. Contracted syphilis at 20; treated twelve months by a local doctor (allopath). No secondary manifestations. Lead colic when 40; no paralysis. Attending National Hospital Dispensary for a long time for tabes, no improvement.
Present Condition, April 23, 1909.–Face; Thin, pale, very anxious, worried expression, almost fear.
Chief complaints were: (1) Dull aching pain left side of body to hip, and also down left arm; (2) shooting pains on left side-sudden onset and gradually going away, down left arm and from left hip to left foot. < when cold, or if exposed at night, so that he had to wear gloves; > hot application. (3) Excessive tenderness left wrist; < touch, yet > hard pressure. Mental: Very irritable, impatient, obstinate, passionate, which < pains; extremely restless, never seemed able to settle. Head: Occipital pain, < pressure.
Eyes: Arcus senilis present, vision fairly good, pupils do not respond to either light or accommodation. diplopia at distance, no nystagmus.
Hearing, taste, and smell all good. Sensory: Hyperaesthesia from chest down to both legs, left side more marked; pain exaggerated, no delay to sensation. Temperature; response to cold quicker than heat, heat delayed outside both legs; burning sensation both shoulders, left side chest and left arm; no girdle sensation. Motor: walk jerky, slightly ataxic, Rombergs sign some-what present; fair power in limbs, Reflexes: Superficial present, deep, lost entirely at ankle and knee. Sphincters: Good control. Digestive: appetite good; good deal flatulence: bowels very constipated, has had lead colic, stool small, hard balls with mucus at times. Urine: Perfect control, but no force. Generals: < change weather; winter, cold, wet weather: is very chilly (own words were, “Would be comfortable if had clothes up to neck and my head out of window”), least exertion; > open air; gentle motion; war room, yet desired fresh air; restlessness.
Selection of Remedy.
Chilly. Kent, p.
(Lack vital heat)… 1328 63 drugs.
< Cold wet weather 1312 30 drugs in previous list.
Desire open air…… 1306 ant. c., ars., bar.c., carb. s., CARB. V. Graph. Lach, LYC., SULPH.
< Warm room… … ARS. Here in four generals by exclusion we come to ars.
Suppose we take third list and work particulars into this.
Restlessness………72 ARS. CARB. S. graph. lach. SULPH.
Irritability………57 Ars. CARB S. GRAPH. lach. SULPH.
< Uncovering…….1368 ARS. ……..graph., lach.
Burning pain…….1339 ARS. CARB S. graph. lach. SULPH. Shooting (stitching)
pain, thigh……..1118 ARS. carb. s. graph lach. sulph.
< Cold …………1028 ARS.
> Warmth………..1025 ARS. …….. graph …….. sulph.
> Press…………1024 ars.
Sensitive to pain..1358 ars. ……..graph., LACH., sulph.
We see here the particulars all markedly fitting to the generals.
Subsequent Progress.–April 28, Ars. alb. 1,000, one dose; sac. lac., nocte.
May 1. Marked < burning and shooting pains shoulders and left leg; slept better, bowels moved own accord; constipated stool.
May 2. Burning pain entirely gone. The shooting pains have only been at ankles and left wrist; sleep good; bowels even acting three times a day, but still constipated stool. Hyper- aesthesia of body disappeared, except at left wrist.
May 4. Little shooting pain left arm; sleep well; eating better; flatulence gone.
May 7. No burning or shooting pains for two days; complains only a little aching left arm; occipital headache, once prominent, has gone, admits feeling greatly improved in every way –which is admission for him, as he always looks on pessimistic side of everything. Bowels acting daily, though still constipated.
May 8 to 21. Much same condition; walking better, feeling stronger; only slight twinges of pain some days.
May 22. Discharged to-day. Given arsenic 1,000, one dose and sac. lac.
May 25. Reported himself at out-patients department; had some return of the burning pain at left wrist.
The interest in this case is the selection of the remedy by considering the “generals” of the patient alone. The patient must be first, the disease second. This is especially and almost essentially so in chronic cases, and often thus you get your case down to two or three remedies, or possibly one, as in this case. If there be but one remedy that has the numerous generals, covering them absolutely, in degree as well as frequency, that remedy will cure the case. There may appear a few particulars to contraindicate, but no particular can throw out even one well- marked general. For instance, a case may present many particulars which look like arsenic, yet if “the patient” be aggravated by heat it can never cure.
Usually, however, you have only sufficient generals to bring you to, say six remedies, and here the particular and peculiar symptoms, again indicating the patient, come in, and from them some distinguishing feature is obtained which points more strongly to one remedy.
Often our best cures have been obtained by a remedy chosen solely by generals, which was not known to possess any striking resemblance to the common symptoms of the disease, doubtless due to want of further proving.
How often do we find that we cure symptoms whose existence was unknown to us, and the patient coming back and asking if the medicine were intended to cure polypus of nose, or, as in a lady I had recently, a leucorrhoea of twenty-five years duration. She thought she had mentioned the fact.
William Harding, 39 (old hospital case, by kind permission of Dr. Epps). Blind since 1897 after meningitis. On general and mental symptoms alone I prescribed his remedy.
September 20, 1909. Puls. 10M, one dose, sac. lac. daily.
October 29. Puls. 10M, one dose, sac. lac. daily. Since then, till date, no drug, and still improving, even to selecting colours in last two weeks.
The case calls for no change of remedy–so hands off.
Began to get sight back four weeks after first dose; can now read large print, tell colors, and play cards; still improving.
I hope some day to report more on the case, but it illustrates the value of treating the patient.
The results will surprise any who try, and “by the fruits shall yet know them.”.
In chronic disease treat the patient. This cannot be emphasized enough. We know the saying, “Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves.” In homoeopathy, “Take care of the generals and the particulars must take care of themselves.”.
He also showed the disappearance of symptoms from above downwards, the pains leaving rest of body but persisting in wrists and ankles then eventually going. This is always a good indication of cure; because going in a definite order. It is really a working of the trouble to the periphery, again from within outwards.
I once gave 10M bryonia (single dose) to an allopathic scoffer for rheumatism in the knees. In four hours he could hardly bear the dreadful aggravation, and he then felt the pain suddenly leaving the knees, and shoot down legs as if going out at his toes, entirely disappearing the following day.
But lastly, and much the most important, it illustrates the single remedy, in potency, in single dose.
It is a matter of almost every-day experience to prescribe a drug in potency which the patient has been taking some time for years for some chronic complaints without much benefit, and for the potentized drug to succeed where the other failed.
Many who now use potentized drugs to 30th or 200th still keep repeating daily and they acknowledge that their patients express feeling better at first, but soon lapsing into same old way–in reality worse by far, because they are having implanted in their system a drug disease, a thing to be more dreaded than original trouble.
In chronic cases you must give your drug time to work. It will most likely bring back old, or indeed new symptoms, upon which the next remedy should be based. Because a remedy is the right one to-day, that does not necessarily mean that it will suit next time, and the second prescription should, as in the first, be based on the totality of the symptoms then existing. There is no other guide to it.
More cases are spoiled by too early repetition than by any other mistake. Prescribe in haste, and repent at leisure. It requires far more knowledge and confidence to know when to keep your hands off than to lay them on. Hasten slowly is a good motto, and never more so than when using potentized drugs.
Case 2.–A. E., engineer, aged 47. Well built, apparently healthy; complaining of excessive flatulence and distention of abdomen for last ten years, with great rumbling in upper part of abdomen, especially about 4 to 7 P.M., and always waking him from sleep at 4 A.M. Usually gets > by excessive escape of flatus, otherwise much pain. Causes great discomfort, as escape is audible.
Weir received his medical education first at Glasgow University MB ChB 1907, and then on a sabbatical year in Chicago under the tutelage of Dr James Tyler Kent of Hering Medical College during 1908-9. Weir reputedly first learned of homeopathy through his contact with Dr Robert Gibson Miller.
John Weir wrote- Some of the Outstanding Homeopathic Remedies for Acute Conditions with Margaret Tyler, Homeopathy and its Importance in Treatment of Chronic Disease, The Trend of Modern Medicine, The Science and Art of Homeopathy, Brit Homeo Jnl, The Present Day Attitude of the Medical Profession Towards Homeopathy, Brit Homeo Jnl XVI, 1926, p.212ff, Homeopathy: a System of Therapeutics, The Hahnemann Convalescent Home, Bournemouth, Brit Homeo Jnl 20, 1931, 200-201, Homeopathy an Explanation of its Principles, British Homeopathy During the Last 100 Years, Brit Homeo Jnl 23, 1932: etc