Read before the Annual Meeting of the International Hahnemannian Association, New York, June, 1925.
In two former papers before this Association, I tried to give rather full notes, with detailed symptoms, of each member of the family which formed the subject of the study. This allowed definite conclusions to be drawn concerning the miasms lying behind the symptom lists in each case.
The family under consideration this time is known to the writer not in the intimate relationship of physician and patient, but from an excellent opportunity to observe many members of it and ask questions about the others.
Here, then, is the information gathered: (Numbers and sub-letters indicate different ones in the same generation.)
1. a. Great grandfather: healthy until young manhood when he. went to sea and spent nearly half his life on sailing. vessels, returning when forty-seven years old and marrying a. girl of nineteen.
Then more or less rheumatism and neuralgias, tendency. to too much drinking and some conviviality, lack of ability. to settle down to hard work. Died at sixty-two years of a. complication of troubles which made him seem like an old. man.
b. Great-grandmother: Strong, vigorous, hearty, able to do the work of three or four; well while working hard bringing up eight children after death of husband.
Rheumatism began to cripple her about middle life; many. attacks of inflammatory rheumatism. Last fifteen years of. life spent in wheel-chair all bent up and suffering terribly. in attacks. Died at eighty-five years.
Brother of a and brothers and sisters of b, apparently well.
2. Nephews and nieces of 1a., children of brother.
a. Not strong. A drinking man and fast liver. Mentally. deficient after young manhood and in sanitariums rest of. life.
b. Exceptionally well, strong; vigorous in old age; died. suddenly from apoplexy. Unmarried.
c. Another fast living man who drank more or less and ruined. health, dying in middle life from one organic disease.
Three children all somewhat unusual mentally and. holding aloof socially.
d. Healthy, strong woman who lived to old age but lost her. mind and was living wreck in bed for many years before. death released. Unmarried.
e. Vigorous man full of mental activity; college professor.
Died very suddenly from apoplexy when about sixty.
Two children also considered odd; one always rather. delicate. Both unmarried.
f. Physically well until after middle life; mentally queer;. could not get along with other people.
Progressive nervous disease which disabled her. gradually for years and took her mentality too before death. Unmarried.
3. Children of 1a. and b, nine.
a. Strong man mentally and physically, full of executive. ability. Chronic catarrh all his life with thick, tough. expectoration. Cracks in ends of fingers; deep, bleeding.
Phthisis in young middle life, reaching climax at. thirty-seven years with laryngeal involvement and cavities. both lungs, haemorrhages, etc. Recovered in right climate and. no more active trouble except attacks bronchitis.
Deep brain headaches began at fifty-seven years, very prostrating. Epileptiform seizures began at sixty-five and continued at intervals with slightly progressive mental deterioration until death from embolus at nearly seventy-one.
Children: 1. Well, strong: tropical malaria and much quinine. left him of bilious temperament.
Blind spots on retina after middle life.
Children four, all fairly well; fourth one. threatened with phthisis but recovered.
2. Slight and rather frail first ten years (almost died of. pneumonia at five years and severe bronchitis every six months. afterward until ten years).
Then strong but attacks migraine and nervous endurance. not good.
Strained sensations in brain and difficulty using it for. clear thinking.
Skin chaps easily; ends of fingers crack. Unmarried.
3. Tonsils and adenoids tremendous in early childhood;. respiration heard all over the house at night; frothing at mouth; almost died of diphtheria.
As soon as reached adult life, became very well with. great nervous endurance. Extremely sensitive.
Children: a. Frail childhood: tonsils and adenoids large; many cold. Tendency to hay-fever in adolescence. Now twenty years. old.
b. Same frail childhood with same tonsils and tonsillitis frequent. All illnesses accompanied by high fever and much prostration.
Menses late, irregular or absent; painful.
Now nearly nineteen years.
c. Same throat and illnesses, not so severe as b.
Extremely nervous. Now fourteen years.
4. Well during childhood. Same migraine as 2. Same mental. confusion and difficulty of application, with a physical. heaviness or inhibition accompanying it.
Violent temper when roused.
Children: a. Instrumental birth with rough handling.
Malnutrition baby; began to show signs of mental sluggishness at eight months.
Small child with weak legs, uncertain balance and head flattened in occipital region.
Sensitive; feels apart from other children; will not play with them and feels that nobody wants him; moody, aloof, yet sunny disposition when these spells are not on. A fight within him between this abnormal self and the normal one. Growing better but still much improvement needed; is up to his age in school. Now thirteen years.
b. Very well and vigorous mentally and physically.
When ill, runs high fever with acute symptoms.
Now twelve years.
c. Slight; looks frail but good endurance; weeps easily. Now nearly nine years.
b. Apparently well until young adult life when began on slow. phthisis which dragged along for years until death from it any thirty-seven years. Unmarried.
c. Apparently well, although mentally rather odd, until past. middle life when developed one of the creeping nerve. degenerating diseases which caused mental deterioration. also before death.
2. Strong sturdy child growing into large, fine young man who caught cold one windy night in November, went into pneumonia and straight from that into haemorrhages from phthisis;
Lived a year in sanitariums and died in another pneumonia.
Children: two young ones who seem healthy so far.
d. Healthy man living to fairly old age, then Brights disease.
Same tendency to cracks in ends of fingers. Married late.
e. Slight, fair young man beginning phthisis in early twenties and dying at twenty- seven all wasted from it.
One child: Lived to be two and one-half years old with tubercular hydrocephalus; never held head up straight; would sit gazing about with large, solemn eyes, supporting body by crossing hands between legs and head bobbing about; size of head tremendous compared with body.
f. Oversensitive; rather odd all her long life; afraid she is making trouble for other people and so more or less of a recluse.
A scholar and voluminous reader; quite a traveller.
Unmarried. Many colds in childhood each of which left her deaf temporarily; deafness settled down upon her in early middle life and gradually increased. Migraine attacks frequent and extreme until early old age. Hemiplegia at seventy-two years, rapidly clearing up with return of all motion; this only a few months ago.
g. Healthy, all-around sensible person. Rheumatism painful and
somewhat deforming after middle life; inflammatory. attacks.
Then heart affected and died at sixty-four from enlargement of the heart and all its concomitants.
Children 9:
1. A large mind and a small body; vision poor. Much catarrh in childhood. Married late.
2. Apparently perfectly well during the first few months. Died at eight months of tubercular meningitis.
3. Always a little queer mentally; thoroughly self-
centered. Never strong; just lack of endurance; dysmenorrhoea marked; frequently near a nervous. breakdown.
Children two: Now thirteen years and eight years. Both frail and very nervous; frequently ill.
4. Much trouble with vision; tonsils and adenoids troublesome; growths in nose; many catarrhal colds; same cracks in fingers. Otherwise well and brilliant mentally. Unmarried.
5. Generally well and strong.
Children three: all well; still quite young.
6. Generally well but growing deaf in young middle life.
Children two: well, quite small.
7. Never strong; endurance poor; headache; catarrhal colds; same cracks in fingers; menstrual irregularities; urethral caruncle. Married; no children.
8. Apparently well and strong.
Children two: well; quite young.
9. Delicate child but strong man. Married a year ago.
h. Apparently healthy baby; died at two and one-half years. from some cause I do not know.
i. Very well and strong, now sixty-two years old. Unmarried.
Developed peculiar trouble with vision in early adult life which soon almost cut off vision by making the pupil conical in shape. Vision has remained stationary since the first damage was done.
Rheumatism now in older days. Conclusions from this outline:
1. There is great virility in this family gained from both sides of the house.
2. Active tuberculosis runs into all the branches.
What lies behind it? Sycosis in the man who went to sea? Psora in his whole family from way back?.
3. Indirect effects of tubercular inheritance run all through the family. Catarrhs, adenoids, bad tonsils, severe headaches, deafness, defects of vision, skin symptoms.
