HOMOEOPATHY, THE MEDICAL COURT OF LAST RESORT


Thinking that Homoeopathy, the Medical Court of Last Resort would be a happier title than the announced one of Miracles with Homoeopathic Medicines, I have made the change. I have, however, made no change in contents of the paper, so I need make no apology for repeating a second paper with the latter title. However, the cases reported to you last year were so trite that any novitiate student of homoeopathy could not fail to see the Similimum.


Read before the Texas Homoeopathic Medical Association, oct. 14, 1931.

Thinking that Homoeopathy, the Medical Court of Last Resort would be a happier title than the announced one of Miracles with Homoeopathic Medicines, I have made the change. I have, however, made no change in contents of the paper, so I need make no apology for repeating a second paper with the latter title. However, the cases reported to you last year were so trite that any novitiate student of homoeopathy could not fail to see the Similimum. They were given as simple proof of the quick action of the homoeopathic remedy. Both papers refute the common impression among many of the laity that our medicines are slow in action. In addition I will present evidence that homoeopathy is the medical court of last resort.

There is, seemingly, a false basis for this idea among the laity that homoeopathic medicines are slow in action, especially so when we sometimes tell a patient it may take two to five years to cure him of a chronic disease which, if he only realized, was years and years in developing, in fact, began before he was born – before his parents were born. How could he expect to be cured in a month or two? Of course, he may be relieved immediately by the homoeopathic remedy like a barked tree that may be painted over in five minutes, but to heal the wound of the tree requires years of growth.

In man it takes years of growth under the stimulus of the homoeopathic remedy, to cure chronic diseases. He must grow well just as he grew sick. The speed of a cure is in direct ratio to the speed or rapidity of the progress of the disease. I also call my patients attention to the fact that they had already been taking treatments for years by old school physicians, who failed to check the tendency to pathological ultimates. Therefore, they should not be impatient with Homoeopathy which can cure. A cure in two or three years is rapid compared with never.

All homoeopathic medicine in potency form act the moment they are placed on the tongue.

I have seen threatened pneumonias, which developed in a few hours, aborted in half the time of development by medicines with a similar rapid pace such as Aconite, Belladonna, Bryonia, Phosphorus, etc. So homoeopathy is not slow. When I fail to abort my pneumonia in the first stage I consider the fact that I have bungled and try to do better the next time.

Man is so fallible. There is so much of principle involved in making a homoeopathic prescription that it is not surprising that we often fail, especially when cases are improperly taken.

In selecting the homoeopathic remedy one must consider the pace of the disease and select his remedy among the group of medicines that have that pace. The same disease may have a varying pace in different individuals, just as do many medicines (and may be indicated in both acute and chronic diseases). Bryonia is generally considered a remedy for acute diseases, but I know of no more frequently needed medicine for those elderly women who are constipated and suffer much with vertigo.

Bryonia is almost an absolute specific for those cases, many of which are slightly rheumatic. Silica and Natrum muriaticum have this double nature, i.e., acute and chronic. In chronic diseases it may take several months for the remedy to manifest its action, while in acute diseases I have seen Silica bring relief in two hours to a patient with follicular tonsillitis which had all but closed the throat of the patient. A famous doctor from a neighboring city diagnosed the case as diphtheria. And many are the times that I have cured violent cases of chills and fever with Natrum muriaticum in twenty-four hours, and it will do it, when indicated, in any potency that I have used, from the 30th to the 100,000th.

But is not the term pace a misnomer? The speed of a remedy is usually spoken of as its pace by our writers. Is not the term pace more a matter of gait, continued, remittent, or intermittent, just as a horses gait may be a pace, trot, canter, etc.? Some horses have various gaits just as do some medicines. Then a medicines action may be violent or lethargic no matter whether continued, intermittent, or remittent.

The old school will be surprised to learn of these strange actions of individual medicines, which are to important for the homoeopath to know intimately. Is it not because of this lack of knowledge of the nature of individual medicines that our laboratories fail to establish the true value of drugs, and therefore condemn many drugs which they have thus improperly tested and discarded as worthless, as they have done with Carduus marianus ? They expect every drug to act with equal speed; they expect a drug to bring about a pathological condition in a few weeks that it has taken disease years to ultimate.

Every drug when properly proven in the higher and higher potencies is capable of affecting every cell in the body sooner or later according to its speed of action and depending on the degree of individual idiosyncrasy. As animals do not have the same nature as man, and cannot manifest subjective symptoms, they can be of little use to the homoeopath as provers. Their use in the laboratory for testing the potency of serums is atrocious and heart rending and of no value to scientific medicine-homoeopathy !.

With this introduction I will present legal evidence that homoeopathy is the science of medical healing and the medical court of last resort.

Mr J. P. was brought to Houston in an ambulance and taken to the Hermann Hospital where he was refused entrance after being examined by the surgeon in charge, who stated that it was useless to operate as patient was too weak and could live but a couple of days. A minister and friend of patient took him to the ministers home, and I was asked to do what I could for him. I found a man about fifty, emaciated, with some liver trouble which I could not determine.

A group of medicines came to mind from the general picture, from which I would have to select a remedy-Arsenicum, Chelidonium, Lycopodium, Natrum Sulphuricum, Nux Vomica, Kali carbonicum and Phosphorus. The patient was conscious but very weak; desired hot drinks, which relieved the distress in the stomach and liver. The gradual nature of progress contraindicated Arsenicum which has a rapid pace. Arsenicum, however, desires hot drinks, which relieve, but there was not the Arsenicum restlessness. So Arsenicum was ruled out. There was not the time aggravation nor the distension of Lycopodium so it was ruled out as was Kali carbonicum. Nux vomica disposition and chilliness was lacking. Chelidonium, Natrum sulph. and Phosphorus remained.

The last two mentioned medicines desire cold drinks, so Chelidonium alone remained to cover the general nature of complaint; but the patient did not have the yellow jaundice nor the characteristic pain under right scapula. However, it did include all the generals. So, in this case we arrived at the remedy by the elimination method, which is not possible unless the student knows his materia medica. Hahnemann frequently used this elimination method. His extensive knowledge of contraindications made this possible.

The patient received one dose of Chelidonium 3M (Jenichen) and it gave him the first comfort in several weeks and a refreshing nights rest. He was able to return home in ten days with gradual but steady improvement. A second dose of the 3M potency again aroused reaction. After three weeks the 50M (Skinner) completed the treatment and he has required no further medication in five years.

Mr L. F. S.,age 52, weight198 pounds. Pain in region of the gall-bladder and in the stomach. Much vomiting. Great distress and pain across the stomach, relieved by hot drinks (never could drink cold drinks in his life). Could lie only on back providing he was propped up by several pillows. Could not get his breath if he lay flat in bed, and much worse lying on left side. Chelidonium 3M gave decided relief by evening and he was able to lie normally in bed and had a rapid recovery. In several days was able to be about his business. There was a slight return twice of trouble at about five week intervals, but he responded to the higher potencies and has remained well the past three years, with no further medication-only three doses of remedy.

Mrs. X., a brunette married woman without issue, thirty years of age, weighing 120 pounds-rather plump for the height. Case one of impacted gall-bladder with abdomen so distended she appeared as though seven months pregnant. A prominent surgeon was called in consultation but said she would surely die on the operating table. I wired Dr. Kent stating the case with the lone symptom of “moderate thirst for cold water-not ice water”. In reply was told to give one dose of Natrum sulphuricum 500 potency and repeat in two hours. She was relieved decidedly shortly after the second dose, and had a prompt recovery with no further medication and after three weeks she was attending to her household duties.

William H. Schwartz