It has long been my ambition to collect samples of all of the elements which are procurable and to begin systematically to prove them. The elements being available and the provings having been started might encourage the continuation of the provings through the next generation until they are completed.
The use of certain body-reflexes for selecting curative remedies has led to cures from remedies which have never been proved. Some of the cures have been striking enough to furnish a good lead to the general action of the drugs.
MAGNESIUM METALLICUM.
Magnesium metallicum would be my first choice among the elements to be proved. A few years ago I reported a case of a congenital bleeder who was markedly benefited by this remedy. Although he is still a bleeder, he has never been as badly off as he was six years ago, when I gave him more than a year of treatment with Magnesium metallicum in different potencies. He had had multiple operations in the nose and was obliged to keep his nose plugged all the time and, inspite of this, had frequent attacks of bleeding which left him nearly exsanguinated. His father was a bleeder before him.
For the purpose of proving I gave the 30th to a rather florid, thick-set middle-aged man who claimed to be perfectly well. That night, he telephoned me that he had had a violent attack of palpitation. I examined him and found his pulse more than a hundred and he was in a rather anxious state, with no pain or other symptoms. He had never had an experience of this sort before and there was no recurrence. He moved away soon and I lost sight of him, so the proving was never resumed. This suggests that Magnesium metallicum probably has a relation to the cardio-vascular system as well as to the blood.
STRONTIUM CARB.
This is another remedy which is probably frequently over- looked. It has a short proving and is occasionally mentioned in homoeopathic literature. In two cases of arterio-sclerosis with high blood-pressure, it proved very useful. Chilliness was marked in both cases and is one of the striking symptoms of Strontium carb. Also fullness of the head, which is one of the characteristic symptoms, was in both cases. Chemically it is in the lime group and when fowl are deprived of lime and supplied with strontium, the strontium will take the place of lime in the egg-shell. Its relation to Calc. carb. as a chemical substitute may explains its effect in sclerotic conditions.
LAPIS ALBUS–Silico-Chloride of Calcium.
The constituents of this remedy indicate its possible sphere of action. Clinically it has been useful in tumours, affections of the glands, goitre, etc.; it has even cured cancer. An East Indian came to our clinic, suffering from iritis. Vision had gone completely from the left eye, which was greatly inflamed and clouded. Diagnosis was confirmed by an allopathic oculist who was interested in homoeopathy and anxious to observe the homoeopathic treatment of the case.
There was not the degree of pain usually observed in iritis and he appeared to be in a mental state of indifference. Lapis albus 200th was selected by means of the reflexes. The response was so striking that the oculist made a record of this case to place among the most remarkable that he had observed during that year. The adhesions of the iris were absorbed and function was fully restored.
Another case, a man of 65, had leucoplakia inside the left cheek for two or three years. He had shortness of breath, with distress in the left chest and could not lie on left side. There was a sensation of pressure and weight in the heart. Heart was normal in size, blood-pressure 120/90. Moderately sclerosed arteries. The heart symptoms improved within a few days and for the past three months, he has continue much better in that respect. Leucoplakia has improved somewhat.
These two cases illustrate the possibilities in this remedy and it certainly ought to be proved.
SYMPHYTUM.
This remedy has proved curative in two cases of herpes zoster. The characterizing symptoms were the great severity of pain without modalities indicative of other remedies. Clinically it has proved useful in fractures, after Arnica has taken care of the shock and the effects of trauma and Ruta has followed Arnica to clear up the periosteal injury. These three remedies, in the order mentioned, appear to fit the stages of repair as healing of the bone takes place. Symphytum cleared up the remnant of a long- standing trench-mouth infection, together with many chronic symptoms, it being the final remedy in a series which carried the patient backward through several aggravations that were characterized by symptoms of former conditions. The old symptoms recurred in the reverse order in which she had first had them.
Symphytum belongs in Group V of the Boyd classification, which was the group in which this patient belonged.
GUACO.
A case of chronic sinusitis, cured by this remedy, was presented at the 1930 I.H.A. meeting and was published in the April, 1931, Homoeopathic Recorder. This winter, during one of the epidemics of acute catarrhal conditions resembling influenza, Guaco came out in three cases where remedies were selected by means of the reflexes.
It appears to be related somewhat to Causticum in the laryngeal rawness which it causes; to Bryonia in muscular pain and painfulness of cough; to Pulsatilla in the yellow or yellow- green expectoration, with relief in open air. Chilliness, pains in the back and limbs and spasms of coughing are prominent symptoms.
Three of the four cases in which the reactions have indicated it, appear to belong to Group V of the Boyd classification of drugs. This group contains Belladonna, Ferr. phos., Lyc., Nat. mur., Phos., Silica, etc. The fourth case belongs to Group VI, which contains Arsenic, Caust., etc.
The most striking case began with non-excoriating coryza, lachrymation, loss of appetite and irritability. Pain in the back and down the back of the leg, which was worse nights, better by eating. Restlessness with the pain. Next, cough with fever and weakness. Very pronounced rawness of the throat. The cough was very painful and it came in frequent paroxysms and caused tearing in the trachea and upper chest. The pain was worse from breathing and even swallowing hurt. Pain in the back-muscles in the scapular region was pronounced. The pharynx was pink and the veins showed prominently. He was promptly relieved by Guaco 200.
As he got better, the mucus became bright yellow. He was better in the open air.
One of the other cases was similar, except that the symptoms were not as marked.
The third case had been cured of chronic sinusitis and tic douloureux by Spigelia three or four years previously. She had been taking cold for two or three months and passed great masses of yellow or green mucus, both posteriorly and anteriorly. Her vocal cords were weak. All symptoms better in the open air.
Guaco appears to have a marked affinity for the sinuses and also covers cases which have very marked characteristics which are not quite covered by the remedies ordinarily used. In the short description given in Clarks Dictionary, no effects were described that would indicate the remedy in the above cases.
ALETRIS FARINOSA.
A research-worker in the Western Electric laboratories stepped back from his desk and found himself impaled through the ankle by a steel rod one-sixteenth inch in diameter. The rod was used for delicate measurements and was needle-pointed at both ends. It had rolled off a desk and one of its points had stuck into the floor, leaving the rod at an angle just right to impale the unlucky ankle.
He was sent to the infirmary and the ankle soaked in hot water and then he was sent home. The ankle began to pain and grew more and more excruciating. I saw him on his way home, when his suffering was intense. What to do? Hypericum or Ledum?.
Utilizing the reflexes, all of the remedies that I have were tested. ALETRIS farinosa in 1M potency came out in the test and was given. He was told to repeat it every half-hour until relieved. He began to feel some relief after the third dose and by eleven oclock at night, six hours later, was free from pain. The next day, a purplish spot appeared on the opposite side of the ankle, showing that the rod had nearly gone through the joint.
There is nothing in the meagre proving of ALETRIS to indicate it as a remedy in such a condition.
NEW YORK CITY.
DISCUSSION.
DR. B. C. WOODBURY: Dr. Hazra could recite a case in which Lapis albus 6x was used.
DR. J. N. HAZRA: In our clinic a man, seventy-six years old, complained of pain in the right shoulder. It had lasted three months and he was suffering very much. We tried several remedies without relief.
Later on a small swelling with infiltration appeared in the upper part of the sternum. It looked malignant on account of the hardness and that slow, sluggish process. There was also continued pain in the abdomen.
Lapis albus was prescribed. The next day when we saw the patient the swelling was growing larger. We waited, and the next time he came in with absolute relief. He had been losing weight before that, but after that Lapis albus all the pain was gone, the swelling was softer, and it was beginning to discharge. He gained weight, and he is now getting better every day. It looks like a carbuncle and we thought it might be a kind of sarcoma. Anyway he has been wonderfully relieved. He was in terrible agony; I couldnt stand it to see him suffer. This man had just one lump removed from his breast by surgical incision some time ago. It might have been that this was the reaction of the same symptom.
