HOMOEOPATHY in this country has come to a crisis in its history.
During the last year or so, no fewer than eleven homoeopathic doctors (nearly all of them in the provinces) have died, and in practically no instances has a homoeopathic successor been left.
The doctors who have thus left us are:-
Dr. Wingfield, of Birmingham.
Dr. J. P. Cavenagh, of Worcester.
Dr. Pritchard, of Dewsbury.
Dr. Ridpath, of Sunderland.
Dr. McLachlan, of Oxford.
Dr. Renner, of Kilburn.
Dr. Steel of Middlesbrough.
Dr. Nankivell, of Bournemouth.
Dr. Proctor, of Birkenhead.
Dr. Gerard Smith, of Brighton and London.
Dr. Simpson, of Liverpool.
And in the previous year this country lost another seven homoeopathic doctors.
This means that thousands of homoeopathic patients cannot obtain homoeopathic treatment, and many, if not most, will inevitably drift into allopathic care. Moreover, where there are homoeopathic hospitals concerned, these also will tend to fall under allopathic control.
All this is more than serious it is tragic, and immediate and drastic action is called for to avert irreparable disaster.
The problem resolves itself partly into an economic one. Successors could be found at once for some at least of these deserted practices if a safe income and opportunity of expansion were assured.
Now, we do not know to what specific use or uses the British Homoeopathic Association intends to devote its recently acquired ten thousand pounds (L9,000 nett). Perhaps the Association itself does not yet know, though the sum has probably by now been spent many times over in imagination in the various projects submitted.
But we are convinced that no more fertile use could be found for these funds (we are aware that the suggestion is not original) than the guaranteeing to keen young homoeopathic doctors taking up these practices a comfortable living, until such times as the practices became self-supporting which would not be long, with in each place an expectant nucleus of patients.
Now is the time for bold spending, even of capital. If the present state of affairs continue, there will soon be scarce a homoeopath or a homoeopathic practice left in the provinces, and then could London carry on alone?.
SYMPTOMS OF PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS. As showing the numerous pitfalls in the way of accurate clinical diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis, L. Hofbauer records his frequent observation in military patients who had sustained gunshot wounds of the jaws, of a tendency to haemoptysis persisting even after the wounds had healed. This was accompanied revealed showers of moist rales at the apices (where there was usually pronounced dullness), as also about the hilum.
As these patients were losing weight the clinical picture pointed to tuberculosis. Nevertheless, prolonged observation, and repeated tests and bacteriological examinations afforded no confirmation of it, and in the result all the men made complete recoveries. Hofbauer can only attribute the anomalous symptoms to a defective aeration of the lungs from shallow breathing due to the injury. (Vienna: Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift), from The Medical World, September 25th 1931.
