Feeling that they might be of interest to readers of the Homoeopathic Recorder, I wish to report a few cases that have recently come under my care. The first is simple – one might say as easy as pie. About midnight, March 10, 1951, I was called on the phone by a patient who, doubting my ability to find his home, offered to come to my office.
I was confronted by a middle-aged, well-built man in perfect control of his emotions with a burning pain in his epigastrium.
First, I examined him for evidence of heart disease. Blood pressure 130/70. Heart and pulse normally clinically. I did this because of past history of rheumatic fever made better in three weeks by Homoeopathy through Dr. R.E.S. Hayes.
He had a positive history of duodenal ulcer confirmed by x-rays.
As I said above, his pain was of a burning character, by food and by passing gas per rectum. Was subject to gas and temporarily ameliorated by motion. There was no nausea or vomiting.
From a diagnostic point of view, I concluded he had an aggravation of his ulcer, perhaps bordering on a perforation (although this can easily be challenged). Anyway, I took him upstairs to my apartment and gave him a glass of cold milk from the refrigerator to see what it would do. I waited but no relief (There was a method in my madness here. I had doubts whether or not my selected remedy would work).
That afternoon and evening, he drank beer for lessening of pain. Figuring it was due to the temperature, I asked “Why?”. He thought it was lessened due to the alcoholic effect.
My problem now was how to control the pain. With Anac., Ars. alb., Kali bich. and Phos. in mind, I selected Phos. 1M. Why 1M? I do not know.
Almost instantaneously, as if by magic, the pain lessened and he went home a happy man. He is painless even to this day. (March 17, 1951.).
A beautiful example of the single dose in high potency. Yet this same patient, unknown to me, had earlier in the day received Phosphorus 200.
Comparing the rubric on amelioration by passing flatus, Boenninghausens Therapeutic Pocket Book, 1845 edition, lists Phosphorus under”Wind, after breaking ameliorated” in the second highest degree. In the 1891 edition of the same book by Dr. Timothy Field Allen under ameliorations, flatulent emissions, Phosphorus is listed in the third highest degree or, if you will, the second lowest degree. In Kent, I find no evidence of Phosphorus mentioned. Has it gone with the wind?.
With the memory of our latest “Flu” in epidemic in mind, I would like to describe a few cases I came across.
I saw approximately 45 cases. Thirty-five patients were new to me, having never before treated them. I used Pulsatilla the greatest number of times followed by Eupatorium, Merc. sol., Influenzinum, Arsenic, Euphrasia, Gelsemium, Cocculus, Antimony tart., and Baptisia.
In four cases I noticed localization of a pneumonic process in the left base with blood spitting.
My Baptisia case was a middle-aged plumber who was in the habit of drinking wine. He became suddenly ill. He had the appearance of a typhoid case with low muttering delirium, picking at bedclothes (Carphology), temperature 103.4 degrees. Baptisia 12x, about 6 pills, thrown in a glass of water, sipped every 5 to 10 minutes (against his will) pulled him out of his delirium in 30 minutes.
March 6, 1951, the next day, temperature 102, lips dry, thirst for cold drinks, pain in forehead aggravated by coughing, ameliorated by cold applications. Bryonia 3x, two pills every two hours. March 7, 1951, Kali carb. 1M. March 8, 1951, he called to tell me not to visit him as he “had to go out on an emergency”. I was warned on my first visit that the family was not a “doctoring family” and that I should never expect to make a living from “our kind”.
Another case was Mrs. E.S., a 66-year-old lady who looked 90. She had been receiving tincture of digitalis, gtts. x, b.i.d., from an old school physician. He could not or would not come out to see the case but by telephone advised increasing the digitalis.
When I arrived about 2 a.m., March 2, 1951, she was sitting up orthopneic. She was frightened as she had every reason to be, with a chest full of coarse bubbling rales. To me it looked like curtains, but her pulse was good. Ars. alb. 3x, 2 tablets dissolved in watery every one-half hour.
At 10 a.m., temperature 100.2, pulse 81 and respiration 30. Rales somewhat diminished. Productive cough with rusty bloody sputum. I figured she had about a three to four day pneumonic process. Ars. alb. one every four hours.
March 3, 1951, temperature 99.4. Switched to Pulsatilla 30x, two every four hours.
March 6, 1951, temperature 99. Terribly weak. China 1 M, two doses.
March 9, 1951, temperature 97.8, pulse 72, and respiration 20. Appetite only slightly improved. Influenzinum (Armbrecht, Nelson & Co.) 200., one dose.
March 12, 1951. Temperature, pulse and respiration normal. Appetite ameliorated. Complete blood count taken because of raw beef steak tongue. Blood count showed slight anemia only. No evidence of pernicious anemia.
March 17, 1951, St. Patricks Day. My Irish lady is improving, up and about a little. Its slow, but steady.
On March 13, 1951, about 2:30 a.m., called on patient with the “Death Rattle.” Ant. tart. 3x, four or so tablets dumped in a half glass of water, mixed and given by mouth every few minutes, more or less cleared up the “Rattle”.
This patient is a 79-year-old diabetic who came down with the “flu” and was being treated by an old school man with penicillin.
For the past five years at least, she was a known diabetic and was treated by diet alone. She was getting along fine without a physician until the “flu,” when on testing, the urine analysis showed a consistent orange-coloured precipitate. The day prior to my visit she received her usual penicillin plus insulin and a barbiturate for restlessness. It is my opinion that the barbiturate was to blame. I called the family doctor, March 17, 1951, asking him of her condition. She is still alive and gradually improving. She is on old school treatment, of course.
Might I, in conclusion, ask a question? Where are the rubrics on tomatoes? Are they found under acid foods? Tomatoes seem to play such a prominent role in our diets, especially so in a city like ours where the predominating souls are Italians.
WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT.
Anthony Shupis was a graduate of Hahnemann Medical College in 1938, and was one of the first to take the AFH postgraduate course after World War II. He was president of the Connecticut Homeopathic Medical Society.