SOME PRACTICAL EXAMPLES.
A CASE OF RHEUMATISM.
RHEUMATISM is widespread and is difficult to cure. We have been told that rheumatism claims an enormous and ever-increasing number of victims in England and elsewhere, and in order to combat this disorder, special clinics have been created in many localities. It is peculiar and significant that during an age of sanitation and intensified medication, rheumatism, a comparatively simple disease, should increase its ravages from year to year.
While rheumatism is almost incurable to the orthodox practitioner it is relatively easily curable by the homoeopath who understands his work. The homoeopathic student learns that Rhus tox. is excellent for rheumatism that is relieved by movement, while Bryonia is extremely helpful in those cases of rheumatism that are aggravated by movement.
The patient who needs Rhus tox. gets up feeling stiff, and on moving the pain disappears. The patient who needs Bryonia does not want to move at all, he is bad-tempered and usually his liver and stomach do not function properly, and his pain is relieved by pressure. An experienced homoeopathic practitioner can give immediate relief to the sufferer by asking the question which is neglected by the allopath: “Is your pain relieved or aggravated by movement?” and according to the answer he will either prescribe Bryonia or Rhus tox.
Homoeopathic treatment, as exemplified by the case of rheumatism, seems simplicity itself. In reality things are not as simple as they seem. There is a cause for every disease and disorder, unless there are a number of causes, and unless we deal with the causative factor or factors we can expect only to effect a temporary cure, but not a permanent one.
If a patient calls upon a homoeopathic prescriber, professional or lay, and complains that he is racked with rheumatic pain, the prescriber may be tempted to ask the usual question: “Is the pain made better or worse by movement?” hand over the indicated medicine or a prescription, and send the patient away. The enquiry and the prescription take only a few minutes, and then the next case can be handled. If, however, the prescriber wishes to treat the case seriously and fundamentally, he must proceed in a totally different manner.
He should invite the patient to tell him a great many facts. He should ask first of all: “Are your parents alive or dead? What disease did they die of? How many children did they have apart from you? What is the condition of the other children?” and if some have died, then he must enquire from what disease they have died, and then he will get a definite impression of the disease strain which runs in the patients family.
He will then enquire into the patients health history. He may discover that the patient has had a number of diseases such as the usual childrens diseases, and the enumeration of these troubles should be countered by the question: “Have any of these diseases been serious?” If they have been trivial attacks of mumps, scarlet fever, measles, etc., the health of the patient has probably not been affected, but if the patient says: “I had scarlatina seriously and nearly died,” it may be necessary to antidote scarlatina which is probably still in the system.
Now let us assume that the patient had scarlatina seriously, that he had a very bad attack of diphtheria which also in some way or other might produce rheumatism, and that he was vaccinated and vaccination badly upset him. The effects of vaccinosis can, as a rule, be seen by the fact that the left side is worse than the right side of the body, that rheumatism is chiefly on the left side.
Vaccinosis may also be seen by the fact that the patient has dreams of falling or flying. He may not be aware that he has dreams of falling, but if his body jerks when he is falling asleep, one can assume that this jerk is due to the sensation of falling or dream of falling. All these facts should be noted by the conscientious prescriber, who should also enquire whether the patient has had a sex disease. Syphilis and gonorrhoea are apt to lead to rheumatism.
The method of living frequently has something to do with the diseases and disorders that afflict us. The patient may be exposed to draughts, possibly at a time when the body is overheated, he may have to work in a damp atmosphere, he may sleep with the window open and allow a draught to strike one side of the body and his rheumatism appears. He may take too little exercise or too much, he may take cold baths which do not suit him. Like a detective the prescriber must try to get at all the causes which may be responsible for the symptoms complained of.
Although sanitation and the housing of the people have greatly improved, rheumatism has become evermore widespread. Very likely the principal cause of the evergrowing incidence of rheumatism is to be found in the modern diet which produces acidity. The prescriber should ask the patient: “Please tell me all about your diet,” and if the patient replies: “I eat what everyone eats,” the prescriber must not be satisfied but must ask for fuller details.
I usually ask: “Please tell me in the fullest detail what you eat and drink at every meal and in between.” The facts elicited should be put down on paper by the prescriber. He must ask: “What do you take before breakfast? What do you take at breakfast? Do you take anything between breakfast and luncheon? What do you have mid-day? What do you take in the afternoon? What does your evening meal consist of ?”
The prescriber should never be satisfied with the reply: “For breakfast I have bread and butter and an egg,” but should immediately ask: “Do you take white or wholemeal bread? Do you spread your butter thick or thin? How much salt do you take with your egg? How many cups of tea do you take? Do you take it hot, strong or weak? How much sugar and milk do you put into it? Do you use white or brown sugar? What saucepans are used in the kitchen? Are copper or aluminium saucepans used, because there may be copper poisoning or aluminium poisoning”.
When the dietetic facts have all been put down, then we may arrive at the conclusion that the patients trouble may be due partly to scarlatina, diphtheria and vaccinosis, partly to an injudicious diet, partly to constipation, partly to mistakes made in exercise, in taking baths, etc., and then we should endeavour to cure the body as a whole and not merely cure the rheumatism complained of. The patient should be told very seriously that a diet consisting largely of white bread and white sugar does not contain the elements and vitamins which the body requires to keep it healthy, that even if rheumatism should be eliminated other troubles are bound to occur from foods which lack indispensable essentials.
Then he should be warned against being chilled by unduly cold baths, or softened by unduly hot and prolonged baths which lead to softening of the skin and cold-catching at the slightest opportunity. He should be warned against taking too much alcohol and tobacco, and he should be told that the body should be flushed sufficiently with water or weak tea and other liquids. Remarks which are addressed to a patient are apt to be forgotten or waived aside by him, especially if the warnings given are unpalatable to the patient.
Therefore the warnings regarding his method of life and diet should be given to him in writing. He should be given an exact dietary more or less in harmony with his usual dietary, and all the items which are harmful to him should be dealt with. He should be warned against using white bread, white sugar, strong tea, boiling hot liquid, and so forth, and he should also be warned against using too much condiment.
When his daily life has been dealt with comprehensively and wisely, then and then only the question of medicine should be handled. One can very easily give relief to patients with rheumatism by giving them salicylates, as the orthodox doctors do, or by giving them either Bryonia or Rhus tox. as is done by homoeopaths,but a real cure will not be effected by these superficial treatments. The patient in question may need Rhus tox. but there are other factors which should not be neglected.
We have assumed that the patient had scarlatina badly, that he had diphtheria badly, and that he had been poisoned with vaccination. So he should receive occasional doses of Scarlatinum which I usually give in the 200th potency once a week, for the diphtheria attack he should have Diphtherinum perhaps in the same potency once a week, and for his vaccinosis he should be given Thuja as an antidote, also in the 200th potency.
If the patient has strong Sulphur symptoms, and they are to be found in the great majority of cases, he should, of course, be given Sulphur as well. Therefore the following prescription might be given. He should be made to take Sulphur 6x or 3x, a dose first and last thing. He should take Rhus tox. twice a day midway between meals. On Monday nights he should take a dose of Scarlatinum 200, on Thursday nights he should take a dose of Diphtherinum 200, and on Saturday nights a dose of Thuja 200, and he should be warned to look out for his reactions to the once a week medicines.
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.