A CASE OF DISSEMINATED SCLEROSIS.
HOMOEOPATHIC doctors and lay healers are apt to be consulted by people who have been told by members of the orthodox profession that they are “absolutely incurable”. Every homoeopath who understands his work is likely to have a very large percentage of success among these unfortunate people who seek his advice as a last resort.
On November 21st, 1934, I was visited by a Mr. J. T., who lives in a small town in Lancashire. He was 45 years old, had been married eleven years but was childless. He had been a mill-hand nd had to give up work because he suffered from creeping paralysis, officially called disseminated sclerosis. According to the textbooks this disease is “absolutely incurable”. The trouble had begun at an early age. When the patient was 13 years old he was operated upon for appendicitis.
Eighteen months after the operation he lost control of the muscles of the right side of the face and later on a similar condition developed in the left side of the face. Notwithstanding his physical condition he was mobilized and sent to the War. Then paralysis developed in the legs and in the eyelids. He was examined by doctors and specialists, was declared absolutely incurable and his panel doctor gave him a certificate that he was unfit for work. The mans father had died of pernicious anaemia.
The patient came to me in November, 1934. His gait may perhaps best be described as stumbling and stuttering, he shuffled along, and when he tried to go to the left, his legs would frequently carry him to the right. In the dark he could not keep his balance at all. The fingers on his left hand became cramped and contracted, he was apt to fall, especially towards the left, the left foot was cold and clammy, the legs felt heavy, particularly at night, he did not perspire except in the armpits and on the back.
The patient had no teeth of his own and lived on a ghastly diet, consisting of large quantities of white bread and butter, poisonously strong tea with three lumps of white sugar to the cup, large quantities of meat, and hardly any raw fruit, salads, vegetables. On the other hand he had patent foods such as Sanatogen in abundance. He had been frequently vaccinated. At his first vaccination the vaccine was taken from another childs arm. He had had no illness but had received a severe blow on the head when a bullet struck his steel helmet.
In all probability the disease was of a hereditary nature. The Wassermann test had been taken but as, happens so frequently, it was negative, when perhaps it ought to have been positive. It appears that the Wassermann test is negative in cases of specific disease where the disease is in the second or third generation.
As the patient was rather foul inside I put him on Sulphur 1x night and morning, Causticum 3x between meals, and he was to take every Sunday a dose of Thuja 200 as a vaccination antidote, and every Wednesday a dose of Lueticum 200, because of possible hereditary trouble.
I selected the latter Nosode because his condition was worse at night. I gave him a diet with an abundance of bran, raw fruit, vegetables, salad, milk, milky foods, eggs, cheese, and absolutely forbade flesh, fish, fowl and everything made of them, as likely to cause intestinal putrefaction.
The first effect of the large quantities of bran was that his constipation disappeared and he had two or three bowel motions a day. After a fortnight his wife reported: “I do really think there is an improvement.” The dose of Thuja 200 which I had marked “vaccination antidote” “made him very tired and sickly”. I gave the man Sulphur and Causticum in various potencies and on December 22nd, a month after treatment had begun, the wife wrote: “My husbands eyelids have been normal for about twelve days.” On December 30th his wife reported: “My husband has had a very good week, he is improving wonderfully.
He sleeps and walks much better.” Considering that great specialists had declared his condition “absolutely incurable” he was overjoyed. On January 3rd, after five weeks treatment, the local Secretary of the British Legion wrote to me:”There is no doubt whatever in the matter, the man, Mr. T.,is decidedly improving, and we are hoping under the circumstances that your further efforts may result in a permanent cure after some time.”.
Letter after letter from Mrs. T. reported that her husband was improving wonderfully, that he was getting stronger, that he would walk short distances, that his eyelids no longer fell down but were help up easily, etc. I gave him Causticum and Aurum is various potencies and at last concentrated upon Causticum, of which I gave him a dose in the thousandth potency at very rare intervals, giving him, however, in between, pilules containing Saccharum lactis. As long as his walking capacity improved, I stopped that medicine, but he got another dose of Causticum as soon as it declined.
In addition he was given the indicated homoeopathic medicines, such as Arnica to strengthen him, Agaricus when he had frostbite, Calcarea phosphorica to act on his bones and tendons, Nux vomica if he complained about indigestion, etc.
Instead of being an invalid unable to do any work, he began to get interested in working in his garden, and then he kept chickens. His chickens were first kept in the neighbourhood of his house in small numbers, then he got more chickens and he had to keep them a long distance being unable to walk up and down his garden, he was able to walk miles every day at a sturdy pace. On October 7th, 1935, his wife wrote: “First thing in the morning he goes to feed his poultry which takes about half-an-hour. He can walk about a mile and a half in the morning, and a mile and a half in the afternoon. Then he goes to feed the poultry at night”.
Later on a fire broke out among his chickens, they were burnt to death, and naturally he was terribly upset. I sent him Ignatia to get him over the shock and he responded splendidly. On April 18th, 1936, his wife wrote: “My husband has quite recovered from the setback after losing the chickens. His cough is already gone, he can walk six miles comfortably and lifts things much better.
It is nearly twelve months ago since we came to see you and you found him much improved then. I feel sure you would find a much greater improvement if you saw him now. I really cannot think what he would have been like if we had not consulted you. He is sleeping well and his bowels are all right.”.
On April 25th the Secretary of the local branch of the British Legion wrote: “Mr. T. is gradually getting stronger and stronger. His doctor thought he was wonderful and signed him off as fit for work, and Mr. T. and his wife are quite satisfied with this arrangement. Previously he had been told repeatedly by the different medial authorities that he would never work again.”.
The man is practically well. He is probably in better health than he ever was in his life. He was afraid to have children when he was in such a terrible condition. Now he and his wife contemplate having offspring, and very likely this is quite safe. Considering the terrible nature of his disease and the slowness with which it had developed in the course of many years, his cure was comparatively speedy.
A CANCER CASE.
ON June 17th, 1929, I was visited by a Miss L. H. She was 52 years old, engaged in business, and had been in fair health until she was 47. Then, about the time of the change of life, she discovered a swelling in the abdomen and a cystic ovarian tumour full of fluid was surgically removed. She was in hospital for a month and nothing malignant was found.
After this operation she put on a great deal of weight and two years later, when she was 49 years old, she experienced excruciating pain in the abdomen, and was advised by her doctor to reduce her weight by dieting. She lost a good deal of weight, became terribly jaundiced and, two years afterwards, she was complaining about a yellow discharge. Then profuse bleeding developed. She went to the hospital, the womb was scraped, and the fragments were examined under the microscope and we declared to be malignant. Radium was applied, and then excision of the womb was recommended, but as the patient felt too weak it was delayed for a time and then a large soft growth was taken out.
As the patient had been told that cancer had been discovered in the scrapings before the big operation had been effected, she was, of course, greatly upset when she consulted me. She was depressed, very jaundiced, in a pitiable condition. She had been told by the doctors that she might eat and drink what she liked and she lived on a most unsuitable diet of meat, white bread and butter, etc. She did not perspire at all except in the armpits.
I gave her a diet rich in vitamins and mineral elements with an abundance of bran, put her on a fleshless and fishless diet, recommended her to take large quantities of fruit and salad, and told her to rely on milk, eggs and cheese for body-building foods. For medicine I gave her Hydrastis Ix which may friend, the late Dr. J. H. Clarke, had found particularly useful in cancer cases. I gave her Thyroid. 2x before meals to give her an appetite, and Carcinosinum in the hundredth potency once a week. I continued with Hydrastis and Thyroid, for a considerable time which suited her well, and then I gave her Sulphur 6 as a blood- clearing medicine, Thuja because she had been vaccinated twice, etc.
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.