IT is easy to understand that laboratory verification was impossible “over there”, near the advanced lines, partly because of lack of equipment for such tests, but more so on account of “lack of time” It is gratifying to know that at such time and under heavy pressure snap prescriptions can be made with some feeling of certainty of good results if one employs the homoeopathic method.
During the siege of Antwerp I had the good fortune to be working with the “Ambulance de la Reine Elizabeth” quartered in the Municipal Schoolhouse on the Boulevard Leopold. Some ten days before the end of the siege and the bombardment the German shells had destroyed the Antwerp waterworks, leaving the city dependent on the Scheldt water which was simply impounded in a dry dock and allowed to settle. Our hospital obtained its only water from this source.
It was probably befouled by city sewage and some human dead of two nations plus sundry animals. Our “water-works” consisted of some six or eight barrels, ends-up, on the pavement in front of our door and they were kept filled by the city. From these we dipped water for all purposes. Orders were strict to boil all water, but undoubtedly the kitchens used some unboiled water to wash plates, cups, salads, etc.
Anyway we were not very surprised when a number of nurses were stricken with some serious bowel trouble. Our chief surgeon, on learning that I had a case of medicines with me, very kindly turned these patients over to me, remarking : “We surgeons dont know a damned thing about drugs.” I believe it to be a fact that British surgical training does not include any study of medicines, though we homoeopaths know that every surgical case is at the same time benefited by some medical stimulus chosen on the indications of “Similia”.
On visiting these sick nurses who were housed in scattered rooms very close to our hospital I found that each nurse presented exactly the same symptoms. Briefly, there were intense abdominal pains of cramping nature, necessitating the drawing up of the knees towards the chin as far as possible, which “doubling-up” gave slight relief FROM PRESSURE by the thighs on the abdomen.
The harder the pressure the greater the relief, which was but temporary. O noted they were all bent double, they had much nausea, their stools were frequent, very frothy, light yellow and with a very musty odour, also jelly-like, and they were ejected with great force. Food or drink taken immediately caused an excess of this diarrhoea and pain.
All this was to every homoeopath a perfect DRUG PICTURE of just one medicine. As these nurses were all separated, there was no chance for them to have compared symptoms. At once I knew the precise remedy and also that I had not got that drug in my case.
So I rushed to a homoeopathic chemist I knew of in the city and was able to obtain half an ounce of Colocynthis in the first decimal strength, or potency. An old rural name for this drug is “squirting cucumber”, because of its peculiar power of disturbing the health. Naughty boys have been known to play practical jokes on their innocent playmates by getting them to taste the wild plant, knowing exactly what would happen soon afterwards.
Be this as it may, two or three drops of this first decimal strength, stirred well in half a glass of boiled and cooled (Scheldt) water, a teaspoonful, or a small sip, taken every quarter of an hour for six doses, then the same amount after each succeeding stool, cured all those nurses in a few hours and they all reported for duty that same evening, although very weak.
Whatever the possible “diagnosis” as to germs or infection, this Colocynthis “cured according to the Law of Similars. The drug which will produce a certain set of symptoms in the healthy individual will cure all “like symptoms” occurring in any disease. Try it !.
A few hours later a British Tommy was sent in to our hospital, from the british Naval Reserves, then protecting Antwerp. He w as suffering with a diarrhoea. Stools occurred every 10 or 15 minutes. I happened to have the bottle of Colocynthis in my pocket and right here is where I made a great mistake ! Being in the wards and very rushed, I simply told that man to hold out his hand, back uppermost, on which I placed two drops, telling him to lick it up, and instructing him to find me in 15 to 20 minutes.
On his third appearance, he being no better, I did what I should have done at first. I asked him some particulars about his “personal symptoms”, but what struck me most was that he was shivering and trembling continually, though the weather was extremely hot. Being without his tunic and his shirt sleeves being rolled up above his elbows, I observed that his arms were covered with “goose-flesh” (horripilations). Then I knew the exact homoeopathic remedy necessary to cure him. The mistake had been all mine. I had not differentiated his “peculiar symptoms” as required in our method for the basis of any prescription.
It was then very simple. I gave Gelsemium mother tincture, the Yellow Jasmine (or Jessamine) of the Southern States of United States of America, two drops on the back of his hand, to be licked off as before, he to hunt me up every quarter of an hour. When he appeared for the third dose he whispered to me, “Doctor, my guts are warm now, and the shivering has stopped; I am better, but please dont send me back to the trenches; I will do any work in the hospital.” I noted that the “goose-flesh” had left him, and that he was not trembling.
He was cured without needing his third dose of Gelsemium, although he was afraid of going back to the trenches. As we were overworked, I told him to find the sister-in-charge of any ward and ask her what he could do to help, but not to give all his services to any one ward. He stayed with us, doing the dirty jobs cheerfully, and was evacuated with the crowd during the bombardment, without any relapse.
Do you see my mistake ? I had betrayed my “Similia” by not troubling to find out his “particular and peculiar” symptoms at first. My post-diagnosis was, in this case, “Diarrhoea from FRIGHT”, but what matters an individual opinion or chance diagnosis if you can cure to order by matching the symptoms of the sick with well-known drug symptoms experimentally produced in the healthy which are all recorded in the homoeopathic books for you or anyone to employ, occasion arising.
Now this Gelsemium “nervous or shock” diarrhoea arising. Now this Gelsemium “nervous or shock” diarrhoea in varying degree of intensity is more common in ordinary life than may be suspected. There is the public speaker, actor or clergyman, the unaccustomed traveller and any person undergoing great mental strain. Many such, without having violent diarrhoea, are sorely troubled with qualms as to their bowels behaviour.
A drop or two of the Gelsemium of almost any strength, sometimes to be varied to suit the patient, will clam and correct any such nerve imbalance and storm and quickly cure all such trepidations. Try it before condemning ! I cured very many “shock” diarrhoeas during my four years “over there”, and to my mind, had the British Army Medical Corps Staff but known of this valuable drug in this connection, many cases of “Trench dysentery (?)” could have been cured off the bat without the necessity of sending such cases back to Blighty.
These CURES were not chance events or flights of fancy, because they are everyday and common occurrences in the world of homoeopathic practice. Ask any of our professional men, or better still, study the drug symptoms in our books, and you will soon recognize actual pictures of diseases.
I beg of my readers that they will buy a simple book of homoeopathic materia medica or “Keynotes”, and if such are thoughtfully studied they will soon recognize the peculiar “disease pictures” of their patients, or in the case of any of the laity, they will meet their friends on many pages. Just try this game. It is more to the point than golf or “Patience”, in that it may save a life. And so to bed !.
