INTRACTABLE WOUNDS AND ULCERS


Some days later the dressing was removed and the foot was found to be mortified, the result of improper dressing. amputation was performed just above the ankle joint, in living tissues. The wound refused in spite of great local persuasion to heal. A single dose of Silica, in high potency, given by the mouth, ended the matter in three weeks.


WOUNDS which refuse to unite are regarded as indolent ulcers. It is amazing that hitherto the real cause of failure in these cases has not been recognized by the average surgeon.

A young girl having some trouble with her foot was admitted to a hospital in this city. The foot and leg were put in plaster of Paris, which was expected to be curative, by a well-known orthopaedic specialist. In a few hours the resulting pain led to earnest and continued complaint, which however, went unheeded by the surgeon and his assistants.

Some days later the dressing was removed and the foot was found to be mortified, the result of improper dressing. amputation was performed just above the ankle joint, in living tissues. The wound refused in spite of great local persuasion to heal. The stump was then shortened two inches, unusually long flaps being made, to insure union. Once more failure. Again re-amputation. Again failure. Then the proposition to amputate a few inches below the knee was made and declined. The patient left the hospital.

She was influenced to seek the aid of homoeopathy. It was plain that we were not merely to deal with an injury requiring local assistance, but that the whole system was at fault and needed a similar remedy. One must be able to recognise the difference between the two states if one professes to work under the law of cure.

What Hahnemannian could fail to recognize, in the case in question, the superficial, sluggish, pale, slightly-exuding sore and the pale, weak, flabby person of the patient ? A single dose of Silica, in high potency, given by the mouth, ended the matter in three weeks. The dressings were of lint only. There has been no trouble since.

Edmund Carleton
Edmund Carleton, M.D., was born on December 11, 1839 in Littleton, New Hampshire. He began his medical studies at the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia and transferred at the end of the year to the New York Homoeopathic Medical College, which had been newly reorganized. In 1871, he graduated from this institution with the highest honors. Carleton began his practice of 41 years in New York City. He considered himself a strict Hahnemannian.

In 1888, Dr. Carleton founded a local study group with Wells, Bayard and Butler, the New York Homeopathic Union, "for the study of homeopathy both in respect to its philosophy as a science and its practice as an art."

Dr. Carleton was known to be a first class surgeon. Much ahead of his time, he performed delicate plastic surgeries with great perfection.

Dr. Carleton was a dedicated and much appreciated teacher. For more than twenty-five years he was professor of surgery in the New York Medical College and Hospital for Women. He was also professor of homeopathic philosophy with its clinical application in the New York Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital. He was president of IHA in 1894. He was also the author of Homeopathy in Medicine and Surgery, published by Boericke & Tafel.