DEPARTMENT OF PRACTICAL CASE MANAGEMENT


Motion is painful, as it seems as if the fascia and cellular tissues were inflamed; hesitates to move. Falls, breaks things, clumsy (consider Calc. phos. also). Restless, changes from one thing to another. Tearful or indifferent. Jealous.


HOMOEOPATHY IN OBSTETRICS.

There is no field in which homoeopathy shines to better advantage than in obstetrical work.

In cases of sterility due to infectious, toxic or constitutional causes, the similimum offers the best chance of restoring fertility.

A young clergyman and his wife were very anxious to have children. After being married three years they sought medical advice. The wife was a Sepia patient, and a years treatment under this remedy cleared the complexion, improved her disposition and overcame the suffering incident to the menstrual cycle. The chief complaint, sterility, was the only problem remaining unsolved.

One day the patient said: “Doctor, cant you give me something to make me stop blushing so easily? I used to be the champion blusher at school and I thought I had overcome it, but now it is coming back as bad as ever.” Ferrum met. was investigated, found to correspond and prescribed in the 30th potency without repetition. The remedy was given a day or so after the end of the menstrual period. In two weeks the patient reported marked improvement and not blushing nearly as much. The next menstruation did not appear and pregnancy is now advanced to past six months.

In this case the Sepia complex was superimposed upon a constitutional state originally calling for Ferrum met. While these remedies are not listed as related or complemental, the same sequence has been observed in another patient and for a totally different complaint. Although we recall no case in which Ferrum was engrafted upon a Sepia base such instances probably do occur. Both remedies have a profound action on the blood and the circulation.

Other cases could be cited showing that sterility can be frequently overcome by homoeopathic treatment. (See list of remedies commonly indicated in sterility, Kents Repertory, 4th edition, Page 744, under Genitalia, Female.) Not that both Ferrum and Sepia are included under this rubric. This list is too small to cover all the remedies which have restored fertility. The nosodes are conspicuous by their absence under this heading, although Medorrhinum, Psorinum and Syphilinum have given good results in some of these cases.

Having disposed, homoeopathically, of a large percentage of the cases of sterility (and the indicated remedy is effective in both sexes), let us proceed to the next problem.

We have heard much of the Five Year Plan and the Four Year Plan. Its a wonder someone hasnt come out with a Nine Month Plan. They have in fact if not in name. Birth control, barring a three per cent slip-up on the best prophylactic measures, is supposed to offer the blessings of planned offspring. The procedure is simple. Decide on a time of year which will not interfere with vacation, football or the opera season. Select an obstetrician. Adjust birth date to harmonize with the doctors schedule. Continue with the usual precautions until the doctor gives the go-ahead signal. The Nine Month Plan should soon be in successful operation. If not, why not?.

Note that the conservation of natural resources is almost never advised or practised.

Many a home has remained childless because the would-be parents have waited too long for that raise in salary or to get the mortgage paid off or to enjoy a few years of so-called freedom.

If “scientifically” planned children were likely to develop a super-race it would be wonderful, but, although we have no statistics on either the pro or the con side, we strongly suspect that these children are not credit to their parents than those arriving in the natural course of human events.

As the appointed time draws near, final arrangements are made with the obstetrician and a day is set for the prospective mother to enter the hospital. After her arrival, the doctor, having examined the patient and having considered his own convenience, decides to induce labor at a specified time under obstetric analgesia. The result is a “streamlined” baby if all goes well. (See Readers Digest, May, 1938, Our Streamlined Baby.).

If present trends continue the modern specialist in obstetrics is likely to become a greater menace to the life and health of mother and child than was the old time midwife whom he has so boastfully superseded.

Much corrective work can be accomplished constitutionally by prescribing for the prospective mother during pregnancy. Latent troubles are then often brought to the surface by the tremendously aroused vital force. Every expectant mother should have the benefit of skilled homoeopathic care for her own healths sake and for that of her children. The science of eugenics would come to have more worthwhile significance if such a health program could be instituted and effectually carried out.

Coming now to the actual process of labor, every Hahnemannian will recall instances in his early practice where Chamomilla, Pulsatilla or some other remedy given during labor changed things so quickly that he was taken completely by surprise. Finally the learned that it was best to “sick around” after a homoeopathic prescription in a do-nothing case.

Years ago we had a patient in labor in the hospital and a few door down the hall a Chamomilla patient was under the care of a regular practitioner. The doctor made a final examination before going home for the night. “Call me if you need me,” he said to the nurse, ” I am going to try and get some sleep.” Soon after the left the Chamomilla symptoms began to disturb some of the other patients and the nurse said, “Isnt there something I can give to quiet her?” She was instructed to bring a glass of water.

Water was the one thing the patient seemed willing to take. A few pellets of Chamomilla 200 were dropped into the glass and stirred until dissolved. In fifteen minutes there was no more complaining and active labor had set in. The doctor returned too late and remarked that he was a great believer in the old saying, “One can never tell what woman will do”.

For postpartum haemorrhage there is nothing which can compare with the effectiveness of the homoeopathic remedy. Fortunately, in all acute and threatening conditions the symptomatic indications generally stand out with great clarity. For a Hahnemannian to have to resort to packing or other “regular measures” is to confess his incompetence as a prescriber. Every homoeopathist should be well acquainted with the haemorrhagic remedies. An interesting brief introduction to these can be found in Nashs Leaders in Homoeopathic Therapeutics under Ipecac, page 232.

The breastfed infant can often be treated to good advantage by prescribing for the mother.

A month-old baby was apparently not satisfied after nursing, was losing weight and the bowels were becoming constipated. Some doctor had ordered the mother to take cascara every night “to keep her milk pure”. She thought this was checking the breast secretion. We agreed with her and ordered the discontinuance of all medication. The following week the baby fretted less and neither gained nor lost in weight.

The lochia in this case had been scanty and stopped altogether at the end of the fifth week.

The mother was plethoric, mild and tearful and gave the history of short menstrual periods with scanty flow. She was without thirst but forced herself to drink lots of water in order to increase the flow of milk. The indications for Pulsatilla were obvious, to say the least, and the 30th potency was prescribed. The effect on both mother and child was conspicuous. The next week the baby gained seven ounces. The breasts filled more quickly and completely in spite of the fact that water was restricted to the requirements of natural thirst. A tendency toward constipation was overcome in both patients.

This case, of course, was easy. Some are difficult, although as a rule we find these patients presenting fairly clear remedy pictures.

The joy of seeing a contented, thriving baby and a healthy and radiantly happy mother is worth all costs in time and effort to become a competent practitioner of THE TRUE ART OF HEALING.

Motion is painful, as it seems as if the fascia and cellular tissues were inflamed; hesitates to move. Falls, breaks things, clumsy (consider Calc. phos. also). Restless, changes from one thing to another. Tearful or indifferent. Jealous.

A mother brought two children to my fathers clinic. He first prescribed for the babe, then spoke of the older girl, a child about three years of age. The mother reported that she was so jealous of the baby that she could not be left alone with the baby for a minute; she was so jealous she wanted top kill her. She had a few other symptoms, but her complexion was sallow and waxy. My father remarked that the queen bee was the most jealous creature known, and the little girl received one powder of Apis 200 to be taken in water. A week later she returned, a changed and joyful child. The mother reported that she had changed completely, and now loved the baby dearly.

QUESTION AND ANSWER DEPARTMENT.

Question: WHAT ANTIDOTE WOULD YOU GIVE TO A PATIENT WHO, ON RECEIVING A DOSE OF Tuberculinum 200, SHOWS ALL THE SYMPTOMS OF A PROVER, SUCH AS HEAVINESS OF HEAD AFTER DINNER, DARK CLOUDS BEFORE EYES, OPPRESSION IN THE CHEST, etc.?.

Eugene Underhill
Dr Eugene Underhill Jr. (1887-1968) was the son of Eugene and Minnie (Lewis) Underhill Sr. He was a graduate of Swarthmore College and the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. A homeopathic physician for over 50 years, he had offices in Philadelphia.

Eugene passed away at his country home on Spring Hill, Tuscarora Township, Bradford County, PA. He had been in ill health for several months. His wife, the former Caroline Davis, whom he had married in Philadelphia in 1910, had passed away in 1961. They spent most of their marriage lives in Swarthmore, PA.

Dr. Underhill was a member of the United Lodge of Theosophy, a member of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, and the Pennsylvania Medical Society. He was also the editor of the Homœopathic Recorder.