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THE
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FIFTY REASONS
!
FOR BEING
669% 11
A HOMEOPATH:
GIVEN BY
amer
J. COMPTON BURNETT, M.I
It may sound oddly, but it is true, in many cases, that if men had lear
less, their way to knowledge would be shorter and easier. It is ind
shorter and easier to proceed from ignorance to knowledge, than from en
They who are in the last must unlearn before they can learn to any g
purpose: and the first part of this double task is not, in many respects,
least difficult; for which reason it is seldom undertaken.
BOLINGBROKE
LONDON:
THE HOMOEOPATHIC PUBLISHING COMPANY
12 WARWICK Lane, E.C.
1896.
Storage

H
615.53
B 96
1896
PRINTED BY OLIVER AND BOYD, EDINBURGH.
ICA
To
Alfred E. Hawkes, M.D.,
FOR HAVING INDUCED HIM TO PUT
#
THE
Homeopathy of Hahnemann
TO
{
THE TEST OF BEDSIDE EXPERIENCE,
3-5-3
THESE
"FIFTY REASONS"
ARE GRATEFULLY DEDICATED BY
The Author.
PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION.
THIS little work having been for
some time out of print, I yield to
the request of numerous friends, and
here issue another edition, revised and
interspersed with a few notes. "Fifty
Reasons" has led many to investigate
the claims of Homœopathy as the
Science of Drug Therapeutics, wherefor
not a few expressions of gratitude have
reached me from various parts of the
world. I am happy to have helped
others to see the truth.
THE AUTHOR.
London,
Christmas 1896.
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.
THE correspondence in the introduc-
tion to the following pages explains
the details and scope of this volume of
Fifty Reasons for being a Homœo-
path." My position in medicine is
essentially individualistic nevertheless,
and Virchow, in his "Autoritäten und
Schulen" (Archiv, V. Band, I. Heft),
says that to which I fully subscribe,
viz., “Die Parteigängerei der Schulen
lässt sich nur dadurch auflösen, dass
man die Einzelnen emanzipirt, dass
man ihnen das Recht und die Mittel
der Selbstbestimmung gewährt, nicht
dadurch, dass man alle in eine einzige
Partei, eine einzige Schule, eine einzige
Heerde Zusammentreibt.”
viii Preface to First Edition.
Primerose wrote against Harvey!
Hodiernal Primeroses write against
Hahnemann; of Primerose's writing
Haller said, "Subtilitatis satis et cavil-
larum, experimentorum nihil.”
No one writes against Harvey now!
J. COMPTON BURNETT.
2 Finsbury Circus,
London, E.C.,
January 1888,
Introduction.
DINING last January with a very
genial M.P., residing, when in town,
at Royal Kensington, a fellow guest
was Dr T. A. K .
a nephew
of mine host, who had just returned
from a medical tour on the continent
of Europe, during which he had
visited Paris, Heidelberg, Vienna,
Berlin, and other places of medical
interest.
Over the almonds and raisins I
slowly became conscious that I had
been really entrapped by mine host
and patient into dining with him in
2
Introduction.
order that said medical nephew and
I might go over the various pathies
together; the uncle being very
anxious that his doctor - nephew
should come out as a homoeopath.
Things went on quietly and
smoothly at first, but presently we
both waxed warm, I lost my temper,
and-did not find it again that
evening. Indeed, when I heard
the whole body of homoeopaths
stigmatised as quacks, I did not
mend matters by adopting the tu
quoque line of argument.
The protestations that the ob-
noxious epithet was not meant to
apply personally to me I could not
accept, for I affirmed it to be a
necessary sequence that if the
Introduction.
3
homœopaths as a body are quacks,
it must follow that I-the individual
homœopath-must also be the same.
Be that as it may, I wound up by
saying to Dr K .
fellow, your mind is
., "My dear
as full of scho-
lastic conceit as an egg is full of
meat, and you are therefore a
doomed man so far as scientific
medicine is concerned; your cup of
knowledge is full, but full of know-
ledge of the wrong sort; your
knowledge is like those Neapolitan
walnuts there, which have been
dried in a kiln, and thereby ren-
dered sterile; plant them and they
will not germinate, and it is just
thus with your scholastic learnings:
all you know was first dried in the
kiln of the schools, and has been
4
Introduction.
rendered sterile-incapable of ger-
minating. Kiln-dried walnuts have
a certain value as food, but they are
dead; your knowledge has a certain
value as mental food for other
students if you like to turn teacher,
but it is scholastically dried up and
sterilized. You have no living faith
in living physic-so far as the really
direct healing of the sick is con-
cerned all your medicine is dead, as
dead as a door nail."
Perhaps so," retorted Dr K.
"I suppose you mean that yours is
the only one true way to medical
salvation; that is just like you
homœopaths, and let me say that
that is the very reason why we
regular practitioners do sometimes.
Introduction.
5
call homœopaths quacks-there, do
not flare up again. I tell you I do
not apply the term to you per-
sonally."
Precisely," said I, "the old, old
story of abuse and slander of the
absent, but no reason. Why, I
could give fifty reasons for being a
homœopath, that if not singly at
least collectively would convince a
stone."
"Fifty reasons for being a homœo-
path, my dear doctor, pray let us
have them, I have never heard one
good reason yet; here, uncle, you
go on to bed, I am going to stay up
and have these fifty reasons that are
going to show me how to cure all
the diseases under the sun, including
6
Introduction.
my morbus scholasticus, my 'scho-
lastic conceit,' and all, of course, in
strict accordance with the canting
formula, similia similibus curenter
(turning towards me), my dear
doctor, fifty reasons are rather a
big dose, even if each one be only
a tiny globule!"
By this time I was in the hall,
and bade a "Good night, all!"
But it did not end there; for my
"regular" brother at once sat down
and rattled off the following, which
reached me early the next day :—
DEAR SIR,
Referring to your rather boast-
ful statement, made just now at my
uncle's table, that you could give me
fifty reasons for being a homœopath,
1
Introduction.
7
+
to you
and to your then failing to make it
good in a straightforward way, on
account, as you alleged, of the late-
ness of the hour (though it is now.
only eleven o'clock), I at once write
with the object of giving you
an opportunity of stating your fifty
reasons. In limine, let me say that,
notwithstanding my "scholastic con-
ceit" (you seem to be very much
down on the schools!) and my
"Neapolitan walnut sterility
(mental merely, I hope!), I only
want to get at the truth.
""
Like yourself, I have been edu-
cated in the schools (and since you
were educated in the schools your-
self, it seems to me that your abuse
of them is very ungrateful); but I
....
8
Introduction.
do not start with the presumption
that I already know better than my
masters, and they have taught me
that Hahnemann was an old quack,
a braggart, and an ignoramus, and
the so-called homoeopaths are a set
of people with whose methods and
manners I have, to put it mildly, no
sympathy whatever.
You seem to have a very robust
faith in your homœopathy, and I
now formally challenge you to come
forward with those fifty reasons
which you, somewhat braggishly,
as I must submit, claim to be able
to give.
Yours sincerely,
Dr BURNETT,
T. A. K . . .
5 Holles Street, W.
Introduction.
9
Thus runs my reply:
DEAR SIR,
It is not FIFTY reasons merely
that I could give you for being a
homœopath, but FIFTY TIMES FIFTY!
But ars longa, vita brevis, and—you
will add the rest.
You are well aware that I am a
busy person, and so cannot easily
spare the time requisite to give my
reasons in full, and in a manner that
should satisfy a trained mind such
as yours.
If you really want to get at the
truth about Hahnemann and his
homœopathy, may I suggest that
you study the works of this same
Hahnemann and those of a score or
B
IO
Introduction.
是
​two of his more illustrious disciples.
The thing has not been done in the
dark or in a corner, and you can
obtain the works at almost any
homœopathic chemist's-there is
one close to you in Ebury Street.
Let me beg you particularly to
read Dr Hughes's
dynamics" and
Granier's
"Pharmaco-
Therapeutics";
Conferences upon
Homœopathy "; Dudgeon's Trans-
lations of Hahnemann's Writings-
in fact, everything written by Dr
Dudgeon and his able coadjutors in
the "British Journal of Homœo-
pathy."
And when you have done this,
and want still to know some more
of the truth about Hahnemann,
Introduction.
II
i
read the various Hahnemannian
Orations given of late years by Drs
Dudgeon, Hughes, Pope, Clarke,
as also the one by myself, entitled
"Ecce Medicus."
And if you further care to know
what a grand reality our Materia
Medica is, pray take a look at
Allen's Encyclopædia of Pure
Materia Medica";-you will find
them all and many more in my
library, which is at your service, if
you are truly a seeker after medical
truth as it is in homoeopathy.
I shall also be pleased to intro-
duce you to the physicians at the
London Homœopathic Hospital,
where you can watch the work
done.
I2
Introduction.
Believe me, we homœopaths are
not what you have been taught to
think; we have no secrets; we aim,
all of us, each according to his ability
and in his own way, to advance the
true interests of our beneficent art,
and our most earnest desire before
God and man is to teach all we
know to all knowledge-seeking
lovers of truth.
I will not mince matters with
you: those who tell you that
Hahnemann was an ignorant quack,
that the homoeopaths are quacks, are
-well, they say the thing that is
not. The word I should like to
use would shock you, perhaps; be
it so, you know what I mean. Tell
it from the house-tops, and let it
Introduction.
13
shock a callous, leech-ridden, stupid
world.
Yours faithfully,
Dr K ..
J. C. BURNETt.
Kensington.
I then got this:-
DEAR SIR,
You express yourself in
language that is rather stronger
than we are accustomed to in the
"schools"; but let that pass;
strong language is not argument.
With all due respect for you, I
think it ill becomes you to reproach
the regular profession with being
abusive towards the homoeopaths,
14
Introduction.
in whom and in whose practice we
do not believe; at least we do not
call you liars. But as I first used
the word quack, I suppose I must
put up with "liar.”
I suggest we do not depart from
sober, dispassionate speech, and
that, in lieu of abuse, you give me
your fifty reasons for being a homœo-
path. You say you could give me
"not merely fifty reasons, but fifty
times fifty," and then you wind up
by giving me no reason at all, but
references to your literature! Why,
the very mass of your literature
is itself a strong reason with me
for not being a homœopath ! I
cannot be all my life at school-
as it is, some think the schools
Introduction.
15
have not had a very desirable
effect upon me!
I cannot say, like you, that I am
a busy person, but I am negoti-
ating for the purchase of a practice
in Manchester, or, rather, a part-
nership, and then I shall be busy
enough with all the night drudgery
and midwifery, I dare say—but
what is one to do? My uncle
insists that I shall go into partner-
ship with an older man, and I must
obey, as he finds the money.
this is digressive.
But
I am now only
writing to express my obligation
to you for your kind offer to let
me have all those works from your
library. No; thanks many.
have no inclination to spend my
I
16
Introduction.
time in perusing all those works,
nor indeed any of them.
I am well aware that you homœo-
paths write an amazing number of
books on all conceivable subjects,
and I believe you yourself are
responsible for some, but I do not
want your literature, nor do I feel
any inclination to wade through
the nauseous laudations of the
Master (1) by the various Hahne-
mann Orators (save the mark)—
for they all amount to this: there
is but one God-homoeopathy (no, I
beg pardon, Homœopathy, always
with a big H!), and Hahnemann
is the Prophet. Not only do I
not want to borrow any of the
numerous works you mention from
Introduction.
17
your library, but I do not want
long-winded quotations by you
from them by way of reasons; of
course, with your facile pen you
could easily work up fifty quota-
tions from literature as reasons,
but these I decline; I want your
reasons if you really have them;
that is to say, real, live, practical
reasons from your own professional
life; reasons that need not be
powerful enough "to convince a
stone, either singly or collec-
tively," but which shall at least
show that you have the reasons
you profess to be able to give.
1
There is altogether too much
brag about you homœopaths; it
seems to me that you profess to
18
Introduction.
cure all that the profession declare
to be incurable, such as cancer,
epilepsy, consumption, and tum-
ours. I believe you even profess
to cure cataract with medicines.
Well, all I can say is, I should
like to see the man who has dis-
solved a senile cataract with
medicines. I have no hesitation
in saying the thing is impossible.
Yours sincerely,
T. A. K. . . .
Dr BURNETT.
Thereupon I replied:—
DEAR SIR,
You are a little hard upon
homœopaths I must say, and upon
Introduction.
19
me in particular; but for this I
have myself to blame for having
condescended to discuss with you
a subject of which you are so pro-
foundly ignorant, viz., homœopathy.
I can only discuss botany with
a botantist, zoology with a zoolo-
gist; this you will surely admit.
But you seem to think I can
discuss homœopathy with you,
although you fairly boast of your
ignorance of the subject.
I, in a moment of excitement,
rashly offered to give Fifty Reasons
for Being a Homœopath, and as
I understand your position, you pin
me fixedly to that offer, and insinu-
ate that if I do not give those
reasons it must necessarily be
20
Introduction.
because I cannot.
I reiterate that
I could give you fifty times fifty,
although, perhaps, not all out of
my own experience. Nor do I
think it fair that you should shut
out our literature for the purpose
of giving those fifty reasons; at
least you must allow me to quote
from my own published works, as
in them is already published the
cream of what I know and have
seen.
And may I ask you, in common
fairness, to make at least a pre-
liminary study of the principles of
homœopathy in the works I have
named or in such others as you
may prefer, and then we could
proceed with a fair dispassionate
1
Introduction.
21
study of the various issues which
may present themselves for enquiry.
What is the use of sneering at our
reported cures of cancer, epilepsy,
consumption, cataract, and tumours;
at least they show that we DO TRY
to cure them, which is more than
your school does. For instance,
I have myself over and over again
maintained the curability of some
of these diseased states by remedies,
but how could I discuss the sub-
jects with you when you do not
know the merest elements of our
method? To understand what I
say you must be familiar not only
with Homœopathic Propedeutics,
but also with what I would call the
Penetralia Homœopathica, but you
>
22
Introduction.
entirely lack the patience and per-
severance necessary hereto, and I
doubt whether you have the real
love of the truth for her own sake
in you.
'Seek and ye shall find
is true here also, but you must seek
first, which is just what you refuse
to do, and yet you expect to find.
""
You claim to be "regular"-but
regular" what?
You claim the right to ridicule
and condemn cases reported by
eminent homœopathic practitioners
-on what principle or ground?
Were you there?
Did you see
the cases? You
You know nothing
of homoeopathy, you have never
tried it, and yet you claim the
right of judgment upon homœo-
}
Introduction.
23
In
pathic work. You live under a
chronic delusion: when you say
you do not believe this or that
homœopathic cure, what you really
say is this: I, with my regular
practice, cannot cure such cases;
my professors cannot; we agree
they cannot be cured at all, there-
fore these pretended cures of the
homœopaths are not real.
other words, you cannot
you cannot cut a
piece of cloth with a steel key,
and it therefore follows that I
cannot cut it with steel scissors,
because both key and scissors are
made of steel. You say steel can-
not cut it; I say it can; and when
we come to enquire into the matter,
it is found that you mean a steel
key, whereas I mean steel scissors.

24
Introduction.
If you want roasted pigeon for
dinner
you must procure the pigeon
and roast it; it will not fall ready
roasted into your mouth.
Will you at least take in the
Monthly Homoeopathic Review, the
Homœopathic World, and the
Hahnemannian Monthly, for-say
-one year? and then
resume the subject.
we will
What would you say if your
gardener were to put in his seed
without getting rid of the weeds
and preparing the ground? So
here I want you to root out the
weeds of scholastic prejudice and
prepare your mental ground at
least in some small measure, or
I shall only sow good seed that
+
ཐ
Introduction.
25
*
either by reason of the unprepared
soil will not spring up at all, or
else will struggle in vain with the
weeds of conceit, ignorance, and
prejudice.
Come, friend; fair play, even for
hated and despised homœopathy.
Yours truly,
J. C. BURNETT.
Dr K.
Dr K. next wrote ;-
DEAR SIR,
I am writing this from Man-
chester, as you see, where I have
now entered upon the partner-
ship, which I previously mentioned
C
P
26
Introduction.
1
to you.
This will explain the
delay in writing in reply to your
last communication. I have spoken
to my partner about our discussion
and
your still-to-be-given fifty
reasons for being a homoeopath,
and what do you think he says?
"It is all rot!"
In
He says,
which crude, vulgar dictum I am
disposed to concur, though I mean
no offence to you, as I know you
believe in the theories you advance.
And I admit a certain justice in your
demand that I should study homœo-
pathy before proceeding to discuss
it; but then you will note that I
do not pretend to discuss it, or if
I did I here renounce any such
pretension, and I will merely say
-give me your promised fifty
j
.i
"
Introduction.
27
reasons. And you will not teach
me because I am, forsooth, ignor-
ant. I should have thought that
were an additional reason for giv
ing me instruction. I am as
desirous as any one to know the
truth, though I am not exactly
an enthusiast, but I must push on
with my practice, as I am shortly
to be married.
I condemn homœopathy without
knowing anything about it, you
say. Be it so; but you must
remember that I have the same
authority for all I know of
medicine, viz., that of my teachers
at the University of Cambridge,
who not only taught me all I
know of medicine, but they also
28
Introduction.
!
taught me to condemn Hahnemann
and homoeopathy. I cannot follow
you into all the issues which you
raise, but will at once come from
the abstract to the concrete-Will
you or will you not give me your
fifty reasons for being a homoeo-
path? I do not care whether
your reasons have ever been
published or not, provided they be
your own, and not got together
out of everybody's books; but
they must be as you originally
said at my uncle's house-I re-
member your promise quite well
in substance: You said you could
give me fifty reasons for being a
homœopath out of your own life-
work and professional experience.
To this I certainly do pin you,
Introduction.
29
or you must come down
down the
tree.
Yours sincerely,
Dr BURNETT.
T. A. K...
My final consent ran thus :—
DEAR SIR,
Inasmuch as I said that I
could give you fifty reasons for be-
ing a homœopath, and
up-
you insist
on keeping me to it or "come down
the tree," I must submit, as even
an army does, to force majeure,
and so I will make a beginning
the first spare moment.
As I cannot possibly give them
all at once, I propose to divide
30
Introduction.
them into as many parts as there
are reasons to be given.
You must please keep in mind
that I do not allow you any right
whatever of reply or discussion,
as you will not first study the sub-
ject, and I cannot admit that even
a "regular" practitioner can know
a thing without learning it. I shall
write to you en maitre. You will
have мy fifty reasons; very good,
you shall have them-every one
of them, if I live.
Yours truly,
Dr T.A. K.
J. C. BURNETT.
Note. Not a few of my col-
Introduction.
31
leagues have objected to the pro-
minence herein given to the per-
sonality of the writer: how was I
to avoid this in a personal narra-
tive?
Reason the Sirst.
DEAR DOCTOR,
A number of years ago, on
a dull dreary afternoon, which I
had partly occupied at B
Hospital with writing death certifi-
cates, I suddenly rose and felt
something come over me, for the
fiftieth time at that period. I
hardly knew what, but it grew
essentially out of my unsatisfactory
clinical results. I had been an
enthusiastic student of medicine
originally, but an arrantly sceptic
professor quite knocked the bottom
out of all my faith in physic, and
1
i
I
I
Reasons for being a Homeopath. 33
overmuch hospital work and re-
sponsibilities, grave beyond my
age and experience, had squeezed
a good deal of the enthusiasm out
of me.
After pacing up and down
the surgery, I threw myself back
into my chair and dreamily thought
myself back to the green fields
and the early bird's-nesting and
fishing days of my childhood.
Just then a corpse was carried
by the surgery window, and I
turned to the old dispenser, and
enquired in a petulant tone, "Tim,
who's that dead now?" "Little
Georgie, Sir."
-
Now little Georgie was a waif
who belonged to nobody, and we
had liked him and had kept him
7
34. Fifty Reasons for
!
་
about in odd beds, as one might
keep a pet animal.
Everybody
liked little Georgie; the
the most
hardened old pauper would do
him a good turn, and no one was
ever more truly regretted than he.
+
It all came about in this way:
One day I wanted a bed for an
acute case, and I ordered little
Georgie out of his bed in a warm,
snug corner, to another that was in
front of a cold window; he went to
it, caught cold, had pleurisy, and
Tim's reply gives the result.
Said I to myself: If I could
only have stopped the initial fever
that followed the chill by the
window, George had probably
lived. But three medical men
!
1
being a Homœopath.
35
besides myself had treated Georgie
-all in unison-and all hospital
men; still pleurisy followed the
febricula, dropsy followed the
pleurisy, and poor little Georgie
died. Old Tim was a hardened
man, and I never saw him shew any
feeling or sentiment of any kind,
or regret at anybody's death, but
I verily believe he was very near
dropping just one wee tear over
Georgie's memory, for I noticed
that his attention was needlessly
and unwontedly fixed on the sur-
face of the bottles he was washing.
Be that as it may, Georgie was no
more, and I FELT SURE HE NEED
NOT HAVE DIED, and this con-
sciousness nearly pressed me down
into the earth.
36
Fifty Reasons for
•
That evening a medical friend
from the Royal Infirmary turned
up to dinner with me, and I told
him of my trouble, and of my half
determination to go to America
and turn farmer: at least I should
be able to lead a wholesome,
natural life.
He persuaded me to study
Homœopathy first, and refute it,
or, if apparently true, to try it in
the hospital.
""
After many doubts and fears-
very much as if I were contem-
plating a crime I procured
Hughes's Pharmacodynamics
and Therapeutics," which my
friend said were a good intro-
duction to Homœopathy.
being a Homœopath.
37
I mastered their main points in
a week or two, and came from a
consideration of these to the con-
clusion either that Homœopathy
was a very grand thing indeed,
or this Dr Hughes must be a
very big
No, the word is
unparliamentary. You don't like
the word — ? Well, I do, it
expresses my meaning to a T;
on such an important subject there
is for me no middle way, it must
be either good clear God's truth, or
black lying. A fool the man could
not possibly be, since it would be
quite impossible for a fool to write
the books. And as he seemed to
speak so eloquently from a noble
soul, it lifted me right out of the
slough of despond-for a little
38
Fifty Reasons for
while, but then came a reaction;
had I not often tried vaunted
specifics and plans of treatment,
and been direfully disappointed?
So my old skepsis took possession
of me. "What," said I, "can
such things be?" No, impossible.
I had been nurtured in the schools,
and had there been taught by good
men and true that Homoeopathy
was therapeutic Nihilism. No,
I could not be a Homœopath; I
would try the thing at the bed-
side, prove it to be a lying sham,
and expose it to an admiring pro-
fession!
I was full of febricula on account
of Georgie's fate, so studied the
say of the Homœopaths thereon,
being a Homœopath.
39
and found that they claimed to cut
short simple fever with Aconite.
Ah, thought I, if that be true,
Aconite would have saved little
Georgie if given in time at the
very onset.
Well, feverish colds and chills
were common enough just then,
and I had, moreover, a ward where
children thus taken ill were put
till their diseases had declared
themselves, and then they were
drafted off to the various wards,
for that purpose provided, with
Pneumonia, Pleurisy, Rheumatism,
Gastritis, Measles, as the case
might be.
I had some of Fleming's Tincture
•
40 Fifty }
Reasons for
of Aconite in my surgery, and of
this I put a few drops into a large
bottle of water and gave it to the
nurse of said children's ward, with
instructions to administer of it to
all the cases on the one side of
the ward as soon as they were
brought in. Those on the other
side were not to have the Aconitic
-
solution, but were to be treated
in the authorized orthodox way,
as was theretofore customary. At
my next morning visit I found
nearly all the youngsters on the
Aconite side feverless, and mostly
at play in their beds. But one
had the Measles, and had to be
sent to the proper ward: I found
Aconite did not cure Measles: the
others remained a day or two,
-
I
being a Homœopath.
41
and were then returned whence
they had originally come.
Those on the non-aconite ortho-
dox side were worse, or about the
same, and had to be sent into
hospital-mostly with localized in-
flammations, or catarrhs, measles,
etc.
And so it went on day after day,
day after day: those that got
Aconite were generally conval-
escent in twenty-four or forty-eight
hours, except in the comparatively
seldom cases where the seemingly
simple chill was the prodromal
stage of a specific disease such as
measles, scarlatina, rheumatic fever :
these were barely influenced by the
Aconite. But the great bulk of the
D
42
Fifty Reasons for
cases were all genuine chills, and
the Aconite cured the greater part
right off, though the little folks
were usually pale, and had per-
spired, as I subsequently learned,
needlessly much.
I had told the nurse nothing
about the contents of my big
bottle, but she soon baptized it
"Dr Burnett's Fever Bottle."
For a little while I was simply
dumbfounded, and I spent much
of my nights studying homœo-
pathy; I had no time during the
day.
One day I was unable to go my
usual rounds through the wards
-in fact I think I was absent
two days from Saturday
days—from
till
being a Homœopath.
43
Tuesday - and on entering the
said children's ward the next time
in the early morning, the nurse
seemed rather quiet, and informed
me, with a certain forced dutiful-
ness, that all the cases might,
she thought, be dismissed.
"Indeed," said I, "how's
that ? "
"Well, Doctor, as you did not
come round on Sunday and yes-
terday, I gave your fever medicine
to them all; and, indeed, I had
not the heart to see you go on
with your cruel experiments any
longer you are like all the young
doctors that come here-you are
only trying experiments!"
"
44
Fifty Reasons for
I merely said, Very well,
nurse; give the medicine in future
to all that come in." This was
done till I left the place, and the
result of this Aconite-medication
for chills and febricula was usually
rapid defervescence, followed by
convalescence. But when the
stomach was much involved, I at
times found the Aconite useless,
unless vomiting occurred, and so
in such cases I administered a
mild emetic, whereupon defervesc-
ence at once set in, and though
a homœopath now for a good
many years, I still think a mild
emetic the right treatment when
the stomach is laden and can-
unburden itself by natural
not
vomit.
A
being a Homeopath.
45
10
!
But still this is only by the way :
I enter into all these preliminary,
incidental, and concomitant cir-
cumstances merely to put you on
the same ground whereon I myself
stand; they are not essential, for
they only lead to this: Aconitum
in febricula was, and is, my first
reason for being a homoeopath.
Have you as good a reason for
being a "regular"?
My Second Reason.
AH! my good fellow, I thought
you would say that you also use
Aconite for fever, and that there-
46
Fifty Reasons for
fore it is not necessarily homœo-
pathy. But do you not know of
a certain French gentleman who
spoke prose all his life without
knowing it?
A man that gives Aconite for
febricula is a homoeopath malgré
lui. But to
But to my second reason.
When I was a lad I had pleurisy
of the left side, and, with the help
of a village apothecary, and half-a-
hogshead of mixture, nearly died,
though not quite; from that time
on I had a dull, uneasy sensation in
my side, about which I consulted
many eminent physicians in various
parts of Europe, but no one could
•
being a Homœopath.
47
help me. All agreed that it was an
old adhesive something between
the visceral and costal layers of the
pleura, but no one of my many
eminent advisers could cure it.
And yet my faith in them was big
enough to remove mountains: so
faith as a remedy did no good.
When orthodox medicine proved
unhelpful, I went to the hydropaths
(they were called "quacks" then!)
and had it hot, and cold, and long;
but they also did me no good.
Packs cold, and the reverse; cold
compresses worn for months to-
gether; sleeping in wet sheets; no
end of sweatings - Turkish and
Russian-all left my old pleuritic
trouble in statu quo ante.
48
Fifty Reasons for
The grape cure; the bread-and-
wine cure, did no better. Nor did
diet and change help me.
1
However, when I was studying
what the peculiar people called
homœopaths have to say about their
Bryonia alba, and its affinity for
serous membranes, I,
What?
-abused them and called them
quacks? No!
I bought
some Bryonia alba, and took it as
they recommended, and in a fort-
night my side was well, and has
never troubled me since!
There, friend, that is my second
reason for being a homœopath, and
when I cease to be grateful to dear
old Hahnemann for his Bryonia,
!
L
1
being a Homœopath.
49
may my old pleural trouble return
to remind me of the truth of his
teaching.
What you and the world in
general may think of it I care not
one straw: I speak well of the
bridge that carried me over.
For my part, I make but one
demand of medicine, and one only,
viz., that it shall cure! The pathy
that will cure is the pathy for me.
For of your fairest pathy I can but
say-
What care I how fair she be,
If she be not fair to me ?
50
Fifty Reasons for
Reason the Third.
You can have what opinion you
like of my old pleuritic affection: I
had the wretched thing till I took
Bryonia, and I have never had it
since. Myself, I am sweetly con-
tent with my second reason for
being a homœopath. I never said
the remedy was first used by the
homœopaths; that is not of the
essence of my proposition.
Since going over into the homoeo-
pathic camp, I have often had to
treat pleurisy: that you will not find
it difficult to believe. Aconite and
Bryonia are the big guns of the
homœopaths for pleurisy, but I will
remark, as the outcome of my own
being a Homeopath.
51
experience, that it is only in what I
would call
PLEURITIS RHEUMATICA*
that they really hit the mark.
Let
me relate such a case to you as my
third reason for being a homoeopath.
Some years since I was suddenly
summoned to the suburban house of
a city merchant, who had caught a
chill two evenings before on return-
ing from a political meeting; when
I arrived, an exquisite case of
pleurisy, pleuritis rheumatica, pre-
sented itself.
The gentleman's wife informed
Note.—When the pleurisy is of a tuber-
cular nature, Bacillinum (30 C., CC.) is the
homoeopathic specific.
52
Fifty Reasons for
i.
me that she was much exercised in
her mind, as many friends had
strongly urged her not to have
homœopathy in such a serious case.
All very well, said they, perhaps, for
women and children, but she surely
was not going to risk her dear hus-
band's life in the hands of a homoeo-
pathic practitioner? No, she would
have Dr X., who lived near by.
But though, as a rule, L'homme pro-
pose et la femme dispose, in this case
it was the other way about the
husband flatly refused any other
than homoeopathic treatment, and
hence my presence. He was in a
raging fever and much pain, and
merely moaned, "Doctor, give me
relief from this pain, and procure
me some sleep."
being a Homœopath.
53
I gave Aconite and Bryonia-
strong.
Next day he was already a little
round the corner, and not in much
pain, unless he incautiously turned.
"Doctor," said he, "my friend Mr.
road over yonder,
in
has, I am told, something of the
same thing as I have, only more
in the shoulder, and he has sent
to me to beg me to give you up,
and have his medical man, who
lives near by, and who is con-
sidered a very clever man-what
am I to say?" I replied, "Tell
him from me that I shall have you
well in your city office in a few days
at work, and that on your way home
from the city you may call, and you
54
Fifty Reasons for
will still find HIM ill, and then you
can tell him your experience, and
compare notes."
And so it happened, in a few
days—I do not remember the exact
number my patient went to his
city office, did a small amount of
work, and on returning home called
on or sent to his said friend, who
was still in great pain, and remained
so for some time.
Reason the Sourth.
4
YOUR note would infer that I was
not dealing in my last letter with a
case of true pleurisy.
1
being a Homœopath.
55
Given a man who had pleurisy
himself twice; who laboured twelve
weeks in bed therewith; who went
about all his student life with a
painful sequel of pleurisy; who read
all he could find in literature on
pleurisy; who listened to lectures
by Skoda on pleurisy for weeks
together with personal interest; who
saw scores of cases of pleurisy
while walking the hospitals; who
was, as it happened, examined
at his "final" on pleurisy; and
who, in his own subsequent prac-
tice, has treated very many cases of
pleurisy-I am that man!
Well, now I must give you my
fourth reason for being a homœo-
56
Fifty Reasons for
path. The gentleman referred to
in my last letter (my patient's friend),
after he got over his acute sufferings
went to a specialist for gout, but
was still so stiffened in his shoulder
and side that he was not able to do
his office duty, and after remaining
faithfully under his own doctor for
a further period and still not getting
well, finally-What? Came to me!
And what next? Bryonia alba,
Chelidonium majus, and Sulphur,
cured him in a few weeks.
It seems to me that Aconite and
Bryonia alone, if well studied and
rightly used, would convert the
whole world to homoeopathy, at
least I see no escape for any honest
UNprejudiced man.
being a Homœopath.
57
But prejudice is well - nigh
almighty. As Bolingbróke says—
"It may sound oddly, but it is true,
in many cases, that if men had
learned less, their way to knowledge
would be shorter and easier. It is,
indeed, shorter and easier to proceed
from ignorance to knowledge than
from error. They who are in the
last must unlearn before they can
learn to any good purpose; and the
first part of this double task is not
in many respects the least difficult,
for which reason it is seldom under-
taken."
Did you
understand anything
about homoeopathy I would explain
to you why I gave the Bryonia,
why it was followed by Chelidonium,
E
58
Fifty Reasons for
N
and why Sulphur had to be inter-
posed; as you are, however, ignor-
ant, you must take it empirically.*
Reason the Sifth.
I LEAVE you to study the wider
therapeutic bearings of Aconite in
common feverishness and as a pre-
ventive of inflammatory localizings,
and also the specific elective affinity
of the white Bryonia for the serous
membranes, as exemplified in my
own case, as well as in the other
two; I did not promise you
*Note. Any work dealing with the
homoeopathic provings of these remedies
will give these reasons why."
being a Homœopath.
59
didactic lectures on the various
points I bring forward, but only
my Fifty Reasons. So now for
my fifth: It is this-Homœopathy
lifts me at one stroke from the
dependent position of a groping
journeyman healer of disease to
the proud position of a master of
the healing art. Let me exemplify
by quoting almost in full a case I
once published, under this head-
ing:-
ON THE USE OF CHLORAL HYDRATE
IN LETHARGIC SOMNOLENCY.
Those who have watched old
chloral - eaters may have noticed
that they slowly get lethargic, som-
nolent, and listless. Towards the
60
Fifty Reasons for
end of the chapter of chronic
chloralism there is a condition of
fatty degeneration of a slow, lazy
type, and the very mode of death
seems peculiar. I have seen a
case* where the subject of chronic
chloralism lay for days a-dying; she,
was for several days so that it was
very difficult to determine whether
she was dead or not.
Occasionally one comes across a
remarkable case of somnolence, and
then the narcotics are to be thought
of by the therapeutist.
I will shortly relate two such
cases from my own practice.
* As the lady used large quantities, her
son, a merchant, bought it at the stores in
big bottles! Their physician had prescribed
it.
being a Homœopath.
61
:
ness.
No. I. A lady about forty-five
years of age, stout, fresh-looking,
and the mother of a family, was the
subject of remark of her friends, on
account of her lethargy and sleepi-
Her weakness was such that
even crossing the street was almost
impossible; the weakness was pecu-
liarly lethargic, a kind of listless
heaviness. She was almost con-
stantly asleep; she would get up in
the morning after a good night's rest,
and even while dressing, she seemed
compelled to sit down, and no sooner
seated but she would fall asleep.
This state of things went on for weeks
and months, and her allopathic ad-
viser did his best in vain. After
she came under my care I tried first
Arnica, and then Opium, with but
62 Fifty Reasons for
:
indifferent success, when all at once
I bethought me of the great simi-
larity of the case before me to that
of a confirmed old chloral-eater of
my clientèle.
Chloral in a low dilution cured
my patient, and she again became
brisk, active, and wide-awake.
No. 2. An elderly lady came
under my care on April 21, 1881,
for lethargy, languor, and somnol-
ence.
B Trit. 2x Chloral Hydrat. ziv.,
six grains in water every three
hours.
date I find
May 7. Under this
these notes in my case - book:
"Feels a different creature; vastly
*
being a Homœopath.
63
improved; less lethargic, and de-
cidedly less languid."
She then got the third decimal
trituration in lieu of the second,
and only two doses a day, and then
needed no further treatment, as she
subsequently informed me when
calling with her husband.
Now you can see what I mean:
I had before me cases that would
not readily fit into any nosological
cadre, and yet I was enabled to
treat the case en maitre. This is
therapeutic independence which I
love, and affords, as I submit, a
very sound reason indeed for being
a homœopath.
Had I not so many more reasons
64
Fifty Reasons for
to give, I should very much like to
dilate on this transcendental advan-
tage of homœopathy: its law is a
guide in the darkest disease;-of
this more in my next.
Reason the Sixth.
WHAT I mean in my fifth reason
requires to be insisted upon a little
more, that you may perceive my
meaning the more clearly. I said
homœopathy raises one from the
dependent position of a journey-
man therapeutist to that of a
master.
E.g. Some years since, as you
being a Homœopath.
65
may perhaps know, a drug called
Cundurango* came up in your school
as a cure for cancer, much as Chian
turpentine did subsequently, and,
like it, had its little day, and then
passed out of sight.
Cundurango, thought I, will cer-
tainly only cure
cure one
one variety of
cancer, not all. How are we to
know which? The clinical records
of Cundurango showed that it really
has genuine curative power over
some cases of cancer, particularly
of the stomach. Hahnemann
taught that the true way to define
the curative sphere of a drug is to
give it to healthy people, to see
what it would do to them.
* Now commonly spelt Condurango.
66
Fifty Reasons for
So I procured some of the Cund-
urango bark, made an infusion, and
drank quantities of it. You will
find my report on the subject in
"Allen's Encyclopædia of Pure
Materia Medica." Well, I found
that it causes (inter alia) cracks in
the angles of the mouth.
Subsequently I had to treat a case
of cancer of the left breast in a
middle-aged woman, but patient
had also a deep crack in the angle
of her mouth on the left side, with
thick indurated edges, probably of
an epitheliomatous nature. I think
you would have agreed with the
diagnosis had you seen the case. I
therefore reasoned thus: We know
empirically that Cundurango can
being a Homeopath.
67
cure some cases of cancer; I now
know from the direct experiment
on myself that it causes the angles
of the mouth to crack; the homœo-
paths maintain that likes cure likes,
ergo, Cundurango ought to be the
curative agent in this case.
The patient took a homœopathic
preparation of the remedy steadily
for about three years, with gradual,
slow amelioration, and eventual
perfect cure. Since then eight
years have elapsed, and she is still
in excellent health. I think it must
be manifest that had it not been for
homœopathy this cure could not
have been wrought, and patient
must long since have died of the
dire disease.
68
Fifty Reasons for
Therefore please accept this as
my sixth reason for being a homœo-
path. And, learned brother, what
a proud position too! Of course it
is not "regular."
regular." Alas! that it is
not.
Reason the Seventh.
THIS shall also be in further
elucidation of my contention that
homoeopathy turns the groping,
bungling treater of disease into a
master of the healing art.
Ever since the year 1878 I have
been in the habit of using Vanadium
as a remedy in a class of cases that,
outside of homoeopathy, you cannot
being a Homœopath.
69
touch-I mean in certain cases of
atheroma of the arteries, and fatty
degeneration. I had been in the
habit of using Phosphorus, Anti-
mony, Arsenic, and the like, but
was not satisfied with my results in
certain cases: nothing satisfies me
but a cure. So I went further
afield, and thought I had found
what I wanted in Vanadium, whose
physiological effects I studied in
the "Proceedings of the Royal
Society."* I got the differential
points from an article in the
"Journal of Physiology,"† by Mr
G. F. Dowdeswell, entitled "On
the Structural Changes which are
Proc. Royal Soc., 1875, autore Priestley.
+ Vol. I. Nos. 4, 5, September 25, 1878.
70
Fifty Reasons for
produced in the Liver under the
Influence of the Salts of Vanadium."
In a word, let me say that it con-
sists in true cell destruction, the
pigment escaping, the liver being
hit hardest. I had a case on hand
of fatty liver, atheroma of the
arteries, much pain corresponding
to the course of the basilar artery,
large deeply pigmented patches on
forehead, profound adynamia, and
so forth.
Well, my patient was then over
seventy, and was very clearly
breaking up and going to pass the
big bourne whence no man re-
turneth. Thanks to the use of
Vanadium (I used the soluble
ammonium salt) in homœopathic
being a Homœopath.
71
preparation, chosen according to
the homoeopathic law, that lady got
quite well, and remains so, being
now hard upon eighty years of age,
and hale and hearty.*
This is what I call being a master
of the art of healing, and that you
may truly realize the entire inde-
pendence of my proceeding, I may
tell you that thus far Vanadium (so
far as I know) has never even now
been used in medicine at all, except
by myself.
Of course, as you are a "regular,"
you would not so far have forgotten
your dignity as to go in quest of a
* I still continue to use Vanadium for this
pathological state with ever-increasing satis-
faction.
72
Fifty Reasons for
remedy for your case, holding on
humbly and hopefully to the Hane-
mannic law.
Please allow the now by me
clinically proved homœopathicity of
Vanadium to a certain form of fatty
decay stand as my seventh reason
for being a homœopath.
My other Vanadium cases I will
not trouble you with, they only
prove the same point; besides, I
have still forty-three reasons to
give you.
My Eighth Reason.
A LADY living not far from your
uncle's, in Kensington, came to me
T
being a Homeopath.
73
eye
on June 5, 1882, with a sore, gnaw-
ing pain in her left side, the pain
being at times sharp and darting,
and seated just under the ribs, in
the region of the spleen: worse at
night when she got warm in bed.
Concomitantly herewith the left
is involved; its puncta lachrymalia
are very red. This is a compara-
tively simple case of disease, yet
withal very painful, and patient
came to me to be cured. I am sure
as a "regular" this case would
completely baffle anyone. Without
a scientific law to guide you, you
would not be able to tackle the case
curatively at all. It offered no par-
ticular difficulty to me, and I cured
it with an essence of the common
European walnut! Fancy the wal-
F
74
Fifty Reasons for
nut tree for such a case! We call
it Juglans regia, and I gave five
drops of the first centesimal dilution
in water three times a day. Would
you like to know the scientific
why" of this case? Only homœo-
pathy and the mundane doings of
the late Clotar Müller can tell you.
Here, again, you see how the law
of similars gives executive poten-
tiality to one's knowledge of drug
physiology, and, moreover, affords
me my eighth reason for not being
a "regular."
being a Homœopath. 75
Reason the Ninth.
You object to my "jeering,
offensive tone." May I remind
you, my "regular" friend, that you
began the "jeering!" At your
uncle's you plumed yourself upon
being a "regular," and thought you
were looking down from a mighty
height upon the homœopaths !
You insisted upon having my fifty
reasons, and I am sending them as
fast as I can, and if I parenthetically
do a little jeering, you will please
remember that I have the most
absolutely unspeakable contempt
for your ignorance, from the top of
which you had the brazen effrontery
76
Fifty Reasons for
to call the homoeopaths quacks!
You, the grossly ignorant, preju-
diced "regular," call flippantly upon
me to justify my professional posi-
tion. When I speak of your ignor-
ance, I mean your ignorance of the
art of healing; of other kinds of
knowledge I know you are full.*
I have given you a case of pain
in the left hypochondrium cured by
Juglans regia; not many weeks
after that case was cured as stated,
a young lady came to consult me in
regard to a very similar pain, but
hers was of the right side, at the
bottom of the right lung. She had
*Note.-A physician may be a very nice
man, a scholar and a gentleman, and yet be
a gross ignoramus in the art of healing.
1
being a Homœopath.
77
had it for three months, and was
pulled down by it a good deal, hav-
ing become weak and anæmic.
Chelidonium majus 1, five drops
in water night and morning, cured
it specifically in just a fortnight.
I should like to discuss with you
the reason why I gave Juglans
regia in the one case of pains in
the side, and Chelidonium majus in
the other; but I have not the time,
so this must end my account of my
ninth reason.
Reason the Tenth.
You are quite mistaken in saying
that what rendered me, after my
78 Fifty Reasons for
¡
"manner of speech," a master of
the healing art, is limited in its
application. That is just what it
is not, else where is the master-
ship? Getting a firm grip of the
homœopathic law affords me a
guide under almost all circum-
stances. Let me further exemplify
my meaning by adducing a case of
CHRONIC HICCOUGH.
To begin with, if you have no
experience with really bad cases of
hiccough, ask your older partner,
and he will tell you that they are
very troublesome at times, and by
no means easy to cure. And hic-
cough is again one of those cases
that do not fit easily into any noso-
logical system. In the early part
being a Homœopath.
79
of 1883 a young lady was brought
to me suffering from a number of
morbid symptoms, the most pro-
minent of which was Singultus. She
would usually get it in attacks last-
ing about half an hour each, and of
these there were generally four a
day. In view of the concomitants
-emansion of the menses, leucor-
rhoea, thirst, much saliva in the
mouth-I considered that the hic-
cough was reflected from the uterus.
You know something of the views
I hold on vaccination and the theory
of vaccinosis, which I have else-
where* sought to establish and
defend. Well, I proceeded on these
* See my "Vaccinosis and its Cure by
Thuja,” etc.
80
Fifty Reasons for
lines ex hypothesi, and gave Thuja,
but it did no good. I followed with
Sepia, which is a classic remedy
with the homoeopaths for leucor-
rhoea; but it also did not help.
What did I do? I went to the
law of homœopathy and to the
prophet Hahnemann !
Now my
patient was thirsty; her tongue was
coated; she had nausea; her mouth
filled with fluid, she had headache;
she yawned a good deal; she had
hiccough; she complained of great
weakness, and of fatigue in all her
limbs; and altogether her symp-
toms were very much like those of
Cyclamen, as given in Hahne-
mann's Materia Medica Pura, and
THEREFORE if the old seer's
notion of similitudes was worth
being a Homœopath.
81
anything, Cyclamen ought to cure
my patient, and so it did. The
third decimal nearly cured her, but
not quite, and so I went down to the
second decimal when the menses
appeared. But the second decimal
dilution did not seem to act so well
as the previously used third, and
hence I harked back to the third.
Then, as the hiccough was not quite
well, I went down to the first
decimal, and then for the same
reason shot up to the thirtieth
centesimal, when-repeat it only in
whisper to your friends-no more
remedies were needed for the hic-
cough! So please accept as my
tenth reason for being a homœopath
the fact that with its aid I can cure
hiccough safely and pleasantly: this
82 Fifty Reasons for
time the cure was wrought with
Cyclamen.
Reason the Eleventh.
I WOULD fain beg you to allow
me to give you as my eleventh
reason for being a homœopath also
a most singular case of hiccough.
It has already been published in
"Natrum Muriaticum," whence
my
I will transcribe it.
OBS. XI. A clergyman's wife
about fifty years of age consulted
me on February 20th, 1878, com-
plaining of severe dyspepsia with
other symptoms of Natrum muri-
M
being a Homœopath.
83
aticum. My visit was a hurried
one, so I did not enter very fully
into the case. Nat. mur., 6 trit.,
vj. grains in water twice a day was
the prescription; it cured in three
days these symptoms: "Hiccough
occurring morning, noon, and night
for at least ten years, which was
brought on by quinine; it was
not a hiccough that made much
noise, but shook the body to the
ground'; it used to last about ten
minutes, and was 'very distress-
ing.'"
How do you know that the hic-
cough was really produced by
quinine? I enquired. She an-
swered: "At three separate times
in my life I have taken quinine for
84
Fifty Reasons for
.
tic of the right side of my face, and
I got hiccough each time; the first
and second time it gradually went
off, but the third time it did not;
when the late Dr Hynde prescribed
it I said, do not give me quinine as
it always gives me hiccough, but he
would give it me; I took it, and it
gave me the hiccough, which lasted
until I took your powders; it is
more than ten years ago since I
took the quinine.'
"
The cure of the hiccough has
proved permanent.
This patient is a most truthful
Christian woman, and her statement
is beyond question.
She has been a homœopath for
many years, and my patient off and
being a Homœopath.
85
on for more than three years, during
which time I have had to treat her
for chronic sore throat, vertigo,
palpitation, and at one time for
great depression of spirits.
She had also previously men-
tioned her hiccough incidentally, but
I had forgotten all about it, and on
this occasion she did not even men-
tion it; so far as the hiccough goes
the cure was
a pure fluke!
But it set me a-thinking about the
Hahnemannian doctrine of drug
dynamization for the thousandth
time, and has seriously shaken my
disbelief in it.
Hiccough is a known effect of
Chininum sulfuricum: Allen's En-
86 Fifty Reasons for
1
cyclopædia, vol. iii., p. 226, symp-
toms 370 and 379.
We note from this case that-
1. The effects of quinine, given
for Tic in medicinal doses to a
lady, may last for more than ten
years; that-
2. Natrum muriaticum in the
sixth
trituration antidotes this
effect of quinine, while-
3. The same substance in its
ordinary form, viz., common salt,
does not antidote it even when
taken daily in various quantities and
in various forms for ten years.
In-
asmuch, then, as the crude substance
fails to do what the triturated sub-
stance promptly effects, it follows,
therefore, that—
being a Homœopath.
87
4. Trituration does so alter a
substance that it thereby acquires a
totally new power, and consequently
that-
5. The Hahnemannian doctrine
of drug dynamization is no myth,
but a fact in Nature capable of
scientific experimental proof, and,
inasmuch as the crude substance
was taken daily for many years in
almost every conceivable dose, in
all kinds of solutions of the most
varied strength, it results-
6, and lastly. That the Hahne-
mannian method of preparing drugs
for remedial purposes is not a mere
dilution, or attenuation, but a posi-
tively power-evolving or power-pro-
88 Fifty Reasons for
ducing process, viz., a true potentiza-
tion or dynamization.
This case is probably as good a
one as we may ever expect to get,
and it might here fitly close the
subject as far as its simple demonstra-
tion is concerned, but I have others
in
my case-book both corroborating
it and presenting new features.
Before leaving this Case XI. let
us reflect for a moment on the cer-
tainly immense number of modifying
and perturbating influences this lady
had been subject to during those
ten years, as well as living at the
seaside, and including the daily use
of salt, and yet her hiccough per-
sisted until dynamized salt was
given.
being a Homœopath.
89
Before coming to these conclu-
sions I exhausted all my ingenuity
in trying to explain it away, and
that backed by no small amount of
scepsis, but I cannot avoid them, do
what I will. Moreover, I require
more scepsis not to believe it than
to believe it.
I am thus in a dilemma; either I
must believe in the doctrine of drug
dynamization, or disbelieve the most
incontrovertible evidence of facts,
which is the province of the de-
mented.
Or canst thou, critical reader,
being more ingenious and more
sceptical than I, help me out of the
dilemma? Fain would I believe
thou canst, for this doctrine of drug
G
90 Fifty Reasons for
I
dynamization seems to take away
firm material ground from under
one's feet, and leaves one standing
in the air.
This is rather a long account of a
case of hiccough, but it taught me
much, and that must be my excuse
for not curtailing it.*
Reason the Twelfth.
As you have not acknowledged
my last communication, I will inflict
a third case of hiccough upon you,
* Note.-As an antidote to chronic cin-
chonism Natrum muriaticum is my sheet-
anchor.
being a Homœopath. 91
and that will be my twelfth reason
for being a homœopath.
On March 29, 1887, a young lady
of 10 was brought to me, her mother
complaining that she suffered from
bloodlessness, languor, biliousness,
sore
throat, nausea, faintness,
frontal headaches, matutinal lassi-
tude, poor memory, sour breath,
risings in the throat, hiccough,
white and scant motions, pain in
the left side on going up hill. I
found an endocardial bruit, best
heard at the base, and very notable
enlargement of the spleen. Patient
could not stand cold, had been only
once vaccinated, had had varicella
and measles.
You know I consider vaccination
92 Fifty Reasons for
a disease, and I have ventured to call
it vaccinosis, and have written a
small book on the subject; how-
ever, I am not concerned with that
theme here, but with the greater
subject of homoeopathy, which leads
to the same prescription as my
theory of vaccinosis. Thuja occi-
dentalis 30 in infrequent doses cured
the hiccough, reduced the spleen by
about one-half, and, oddly enough,
the endocardial bruit also disap-
peared. The cure of the hiccough
by Thuja is, however, the point I
desire to call your attention to more
particularly. Now note that I have
offered you three cases of hiccough,
one cured by Cyclamen Europæum,
the second by Natrum muriaticum,
and the last one by Thuja occiden-
being a Homœopath.
93 ·
talis; this diversity of remedial
measures for a symptom such as
hiccough exemplifies alike the spirit
of homœopathy and the immensity
of its mastership over disease.
Nevertheless, to an outsider who
does not understand homœopathy,
this diversity of remedial measures
constitutes a great stumbling-block,
and has prevented many able, con-
scientious investigators from under-
standing it, and yet this is the strength
of the system, rendering, however,
its practice disgustingly difficult.
All nature is our pharmacopoeia,—
that is, for any homoeopath who has
grasped the subject, and who has
learned to walk without crutches,
and who is WILLING TO WORK!
And although I have thus narrated
94 Fifty Reasons for
three cases of hiccough cured by as
many different homoeopathic reme-
dies, still if you were to ask me
what remedy I would recommend
you to try for hiccough, I should
only be able to say, "that remedy
(not necessarily either of my three)
which can be proved to be patho-
genetically like the to-be-cured case
of hiccough." I fear I am firing
over your head!
Reason the Thirteenth.
QUITE SO; I did not maintain that
Hiccough was a mortal malady ;
what I do maintain is that it is often
very troublesome, and that homœo-
being a Homœopath.
95
pathy can cure it pleasantly and
safely. More than a safe and
pleasant cure I ask of no system
of medicine. But let me pass to
my thirteenth reason, viz. :-
CURE OF APHONIA BY Arnica.
A well-known soprano singer
came to me with aphonia: the
throat was what is commonly called
follicular and congested. You may
have heard that the homoeopaths
think a good deal of Arnica for the
ill effects of bruises, hurts, sprains,
and the like; in fact, for trauma in
general. Well, after using numer-
ous remedies in vain, it slowly
became manifest to me that the
aphonia in question was from an
overstrained state of the vocal
2
96
Fifty Reasons for
1
chords. Moreover, patient had a
small pustule on the
the nape, and
mattery pimples on the skin.
Arnica cured the case, affording
in its physiological action symptoms
similar to it.
1
You will perhaps say that this
aphonia case is also not a mortal
malady. Will you once for all dis-
abuse your mind of the very vulgar
professional and popular error,
according to which the homœopaths
are said to claim to cure the incur-
able! Just note, at least for your
own information, that the homoeo-
paths make no such claim; what
they say is this: Homœopathy cures
what can be cured much better than
any other system of medicine hither-
being a Homœopath. 97
to made known to the world. The
homœopaths do not maintain that
other systems are valueless, or that
the homœopathic system is faultless,
only that thus far in the art-treat-
ment of disease by remedies, homœo-
pathy, by very long odds, beats all
the records. Do you see?
Be that as it may, I trust that
curing an old case of singer's
aphonia with Arnica is a fairly
sound reason for being a homœo-
path; any way it is my thirteenth.
P.S.—When I say that homœo-
pathy does not claim to cure the in-
curable, that leaves the question of
curability an open one; homœopathy
does not accept anything as incurable
because certain physicians who are
98
Fifty Reasons for
regular" declare it to be so. In-
capacity to cure does not render the
uncured incurable. Kindly take a
mental note of this, because what
you "regulars" consider incurable
may, or may not, be so considered by
the homoeopaths. My old pleuritic
trouble was declared and proved to
be incurable by and for the entire
faculty, and yet the Bryonia alba
of the homœopaths cured it!
1.
Reason the Sourteenth.
You "do not believe that Arnica
is any good for injuries, and, more-
over, it is a poisonous drug, causing
very dangerous, or, at least, very
being a Homœopath. 99
severe erysipelas." I have nothing
to do with your beliefs: clinical
facts are what I am concerned with.
I cured an old case of aphonia with
Arnica, and an account of that I
have sent you as my thirteenth
reason for being a homœopath.
Whether you believe in the anti-
traumatic virtues of Arnica or not
is your affair: I fearlessly affirm
that your scepsis would not have
cured it, anyhow.
Further, I did not deny that
Arnica causes very severe and
even dangerous erysipelas.
In-
deed, I know it well, and have seen
it, and out of your own mouth will
I take my fourteenth reason for
being a homœopath.
Jorm
100
Fifty Reasons for
OLD CASE OF ERYSIPELAS CURED
BY Arnica.
Some years since an eminent
member of the Society of Friends
wrote to me, stating that he had for
a number of years been suffering
from erysipelas of the face at odd
intervals. I ordered him Arnica
in a rather high dilution and in in-
frequent dose, and thereupon his
erysipelas faded and
and came по
more. Long afterwards he wrote.
me a very grateful letter, giving me
much undue praise for having wit
enough to see that the Almighty
has His laws in therapeutics for the
guidance of His poor, sick children.
"
I have it from you that Arnica
causes erysipelas; I will not doubt
Mчou
being a Homeopath. ΙΟΙ
your statement; you may now take
it from me that Arnica cures ery-
sipelas, and this I offer you as
my fourteenth reason for being a
homœopath. You know the bad
character of Arnica in that it is apt
to cause erysipelas; I tell you of its
good fame, viz., that it possesses
the power of curing erysipelas, and
the intellectual link that completes
the little chain is the law of likes
that God put into the mind of one
Samuel to explain to the world.
Reason the Sifteenth.
You need not be so angry at my
last reason; I did not make Arnica
I02
Fifty Reasons for
grow in the world; I did not endow
it with the power of causing ery-
sipelas; and I did not discover the
therapeutic law in question; I just
use this law in order to cure my
patients, even as I use the useful
invention known as a spoon where-
broth.
with to partake of my broth.
With
me it is merely a means to an end
there is no hocus-pocus about it.
Just as I was writing you my last
reason for being a homoeopath, I
was suddenly summoned by tele-
graph to a very severe case of
quinsy. I hastened to the suffering
damsel, and found that various re-
medies had been used in vain, and
the patient was in great distress,
having been for twelve hours unable
being a Homœopath.
103
to swallow even a few drops of fluid.
Not even the juice of one grape
would pass, and some operative
interference seemed absolutely im-
perative. I gave five grains of the
third centesimal trituration of a
remedy you may not be acquainted
with, but which the heterodox
homœopaths quaintly call Baryta
carbonica, and which is now gener-
ally known as the Carbonate of
Barium. In about a dozen hours
patient ate a basin of bread and
milk. I have often cured quinsies
before in the same way, and I beg
you to believe that the little trick
has been done thousands of times
by others, and though no clinical
tip of mine, it nevertheless must
serve you as my fiifteenth reason
104
Fifty Reasons for
-and not a bad one either, as
said damsel would gratefully bear
witness.
Reason the Sixteenth.
You remember my case of hiccup
cured by Natrum muriaticum ?
Well, while my mind is still dwell-
ing on this very wonderful remedy,
I will adduce another cure by it as
my sixteenth reason for being a
homœopath. In it you may again
note the expansiveness of the con-
ception of similitudes, for this case
grew out of the hiccup case :—
John H, æt. 29, seaman,
came to me on April 21, 1878,
being a Homœopath.
105
¿
telling me that he had had fever
and ague two or three times a day,
with watery vomiting, in Calcutta,
in September 1877. Was in the
Calcutta Hospital three weeks for
it, and took emetics, quinine, and
tonics. Left at the end of the
three weeks cured; but before he
was out of port the ague returned,
or he got another, and he had a
five-month voyage home to the
port of Liverpool. During
first three months of this home-
ward voyage he had two, three,
four, and five attacks a week, and
took a good deal of a powder from
the captain, which, from his descrip-
tion, was probably Cinchona bark;
then the fever left him, and the
following condition supervened,
During the
H
106
Fifty Reasons for
viz., "Pain in right side under
the ribs; cannot lie on right side;
both calves very painful to touch,
they are hard and stiff; left leg
semiflexed, he cannot stretch it.
In this
""
this condition
condition he was two
months at
at sea and two weeks
ashore; and in this condition he
comes to me hobbling with the aid
of a stick, and in great pain from
the moving.
Urine muddy and red; bowels
regular; skin tawny; conjunctivæ
yellow.
Drinks about three pints of beer
daily. I recommended him not to
alter his mode of life till he is cured,
and then to drink less beer. The
former part of the recommendation
being a Homœopath. 107
he followed, as I learned from his
brother; of the latter part I have
no information.
The hiccup case bears directly on
this one, as we have evidently to
do with an ague suppressed with
Cinchona. Therefore ordered Nat.
mur., 6 trit., six grains in water
every four hours.
April 27.-Pain in side and leg
went away entirely in three days,
and the water cleared at once; but
the pain returned on the fourth day
in the left calf only, which to-day is
red, painful, swelled, and pits. He
walks without a stick.
Continue medicine.
May 4.-Almost well; feels only
a very little pain in left calf when
108 Fifty Reasons for
-
walking.
Looks and feels quite
well, and walked into room with
perfect ease without any stick.
He thinks he had a cold shake a
few nights ago. He continues to
perspire every night; ever since he
got the ague the sheets have to be
changed every night.
Continue medicine.
May 11.—Quite well.
I will here urge you to make a
profound study of salt in all its
bearings; but its being such a
grand calorifacient in refracted dose,
and curing this deadlock of ague
and cinchona, will surely entitle it
to be considered a very good reason
for being a homoeopath, since it
being a Homoeopath.
109
cannot be so used on any other
than homoeopathic ground.
Reason the Seventeenth.
Nor many years ago the daugh.
ter of a London alderman was
suffering from fearful neuralgia of
the face; at intervals she had
had it for years, and no trouble or
expense had been spared in en-
deavouring to cure it. Their ordin-
ary family adviser was a homœo-
path, but he had not managed to
cure this neuralgia, notwithstand-
ing several consultations with col-
leagues; and other men of eminence
had been consulted, but to no avail.
ΙΙΟ
Fifty Reasons for
I found that the pain was worse
in cold weather; worse at the sea-
side; better away from the sea-
inland, ie., not so frequent or
severe, and when the pain came on
the eyes watered. A pinch of the
sixth trituration of Natrum muri-
aticum in water three times a day
cured my young patient in about
three weeks; and this anti-neuralgic
action of Nat. mur. must be my
seventeenth reason for being a
homœopath.
Note.—I am still very strongly of opinion
that Nat. mur. is called for in ailments which
CC
are worse at the sea-side"; thus I have
made a number of cures.
being a Homœopath. III
Reason the Eighteenth.
You ask how it then is that with
all the merits which I claim for
homoeopathy, its practitioners should
be in "such a contemptible minority
in the profession"? I presume,
being in the minority does not
necessarily mean to be
to be in the
wrong?
I suppose you hold that the
world moves? There was a time
when those who said so were in the
minority, and not very far from the
stake if they dared
dared aver their
belief!
You, personally, have devoted a
good deal of attention to "diseases
I. 12
Fifty Reasons for
of the organs of circulation," and
you plume yourself rather (so I
gathered in conversation with you)
on knowing just a little more than
most people on the "forces that
carry on the circulation of the
blood"-eh? Was not, once upon
a time, the nickname "circulator"
one who believed in Harvey's
discovery a very opprobrious
epithet indeed in our "liberal pro-
fession"? quite as bad as "homœo-
path" now; and did I one day not
hear a great orator bring down the
house by exclaiming, "They are
slaves who dare not be in the right
with two or three"? Your "minor-
ity" argument is worn out.
Well, I wrote you the last time
being a Homœopath. 113
but one about the calorifacient
power of Natrum muriaticum, and
you would like to know whether it
acts upon a certain centre. I do
not know its seat of action exactly,
but I do know that it can often
make a cold, chilly person feel
warm; and that is no small thing.
Some years since I was attending
one of the children of a widow in
the neighbourhood of London, and
having made a pretty good thera-
peutic hit-homeopathically, my
friend !—she said she should like to
consult me on her own account for
her nerves; and when we had gone
into that matter, she said, "Ah, I
suppose it is no use to consult you
about my cold shivering fits; no one
114
Fifty Reasons for
They
can do them any good."
were in this wise; on going to bed
at night she began to shudder and
shiver, and on getting into bed and
lying down, she would shiver to
such a degree that her teeth chat-
tered, and the movements of her
body shook the bed. She had
suffered this for years, and had been
under a number of physicians for
these cold shivers, but no one had
ever touched them. She named
five well-known homoeopathic prac-
titioners who had in vain tried their
hands at it; one of these has since.
renounced homœopathy and all its
ways, and previously he had tacitly
given up the use of dynamized reme-
dies, and loves now to ridicule them.
Still for all that, and all that, dynam-
being a Homœopath.
115
ized Natrum muriaticum cured these
cold shakes promptly and perman-
ently. Long afterwards this lady
wrote that she kept a bottle of the
medicine on her bedroom mantel-
piece au besoin, or as we physicians
so neatly put it, pro re nata, but
never needed it.
I call Natrum muriaticum my
calorifacient. Try it!
Reason the Nineteenth.
YES, you are quite right in say-
ing that our Natrum muriaticum
is your Sodium chloride, the com-
mon salt of our tables, and I am
116
Fifty Reasons for
not at all surprised to learn that
you cannot believe that it is in
any sense a medicine. Many
homœopathic practitioners are of
the same opinion-but, bah! what
have your and their beliefs to do
with hard clinical facts? I have
cured no inconsiderable number of
cases of disease with Natrum
muriaticum chilliness,
spleens, gout, constipation, and,
above all, neuralgias; so what does
it matter to me what you or they
think about it? I KNOW.
swelled
Now I would like to cite one
more experience of mine with
Natrum muriaticum, which, besides
being very curious, is also practi-
cally important, and then I will not
being a Homœopath.
117
trouble you further with my attic
salt!
I can give it you in a very few
words. A lady, wife of an officer,
came over from India to be under
my care.
The difficulty in her case
lay in this, that she was to stop
with her husband's friends, who
have a lovely place near the sea, in
Sussex, but it usually upset her so
much that she could not stay there.
"And you know," said she, "it is
so very unfortunate, for I can stay'
there for nothing, and have the use
of a carriage, and everything so
very nice; and yet I am obliged to
decline going there, and have to go
to nasty lodgings by myself, which
of course I have to pay for." Why
118
Fifty Reasons for
can you not live at your husband's
place? "Oh! it is the sea; I am
just the same on board ship, dread-
fully ill."
Well, the burden of my song is
just this-Natrum muriaticum, 6
trit., so modified this lady's state
that she was not only able to stay
at said place, but actually thereat
enjoyed being and sitting by the
sea.
This is my nineteenth reason for
being a homœopath, and if you will
thus accept it, I will promise you
not to trouble you with anything
more about the Chloride of Sodium,
or Natrum muriaticum, as it is
called by the homœopaths.
being a Homeopath. 119
Reason the Twentieth.
IF I had not promised to say no
more about Natrum muriaticum, I
should have liked to narrate to you a
very interesting case cured by it-a
case of very severe headache-but
I must keep my promise. I may,
however, just say that the lady is
the patient of a medical man, both
living near one another at the sea-
side, said gentleman having given
himself some trouble to ridicule
my
published observations on the effects
of Natrum muriaticum-for all that
Nat. mur. cured the lady.
Telle est la vie-médicale.
4
120
Fifty Reasons for
The young wife of a country
squire came to me, at the beginning
of the summer of 1887, with severe
headache at the back, that had
made her life sour for a good
twelvemonth; she always woke
with it; it was throbbing; and
during the menses she also had a
frontal headache.
Left ovary a
little swelled and tender. Thuja
occidentalis in a rather high dilu-
tion and in infrequent dose cured
her right off. She waited three
months to see if the cure was real,
and then wrote me a grateful letter
of thanks. Please let this cephal-
algia, cured by Thuja 30, be my
twentieth reason for being a
homœopath.
being a Homœopath. 121
Reason the Twenty-first.
You say "your letters lately
would seem to be intended to
show how very
very superior your
homoeopathy, is to that of your co-
practitioners."
Well, that was certainly not my
intention, but rather to show that
people's beliefs have often nothing
to do with facts; for instance, you
allopaths ridicule homœopathy, but
that system of medicine is true all
the same. Many practitioners of
homœopathy ridicule some of the
most brilliant clinical triumphs of
the very system they belong to.
In both cases the error is the
I
I22
Fifty Reasons for
same; they both childishly suppose
that their powers are the limits of
the possible. I was merely trying
to show the fallaciousness of their
judgment; and this is important,
as the greatest enemies of homœo-
pathy are often its own weak-
kneed or incompetent practitioners.
To explain what I mean more
fully, let me give you as my
twenty-first reason a case of
MENORRHAGIA OF FIFTEEN YEARS'
STANDING CURED BY Phosphorus.
The lady was 51 years old, and
so you may call it metrorrhagia if
you so prefer, but there had been
no break in the menses, which were
still regular. She came to me in
October 1882, and told me of her
+
.
being a Homeopath.
123
trouble, and that it dated from a
miscarriage fifteen years before.
She had often flooded at her con-
finements. Phosphorus CC. cured
her. She went much smaller in
the waist, and told me she "felt
like a young girl." She had other
intercurrent remedies Lachesis,
Ferrum, Thuja, and Arnica, but
it was the Phosphorus that cured
the hæmorrhage, I having to return
to it three separate times, with
months between, and the last time
I used Phos. C.
Now I cite this case because it
is purely and exquisitely homœo-
pathic, and yet the bulk of the
homœopathic practitioners in the
world do not believe in what are
124 Fifty Reasons for
called high dilutions, and for all
that this case was cured by such
dilutions. It follows that either
they or I must be mistaken; the
lady who was thus cured would
laugh in your face if you were to
ask her to believe that she received
from me other than very powerful
remedies. And, indeed, they were
very powerful. And just think of
the gallons of Steel Drops and tonics
that she had had in vain during
those fifteen years of bleeding!
Reason the Twenty-second.
You tell me you are much mis-
taken in me, for you had always
being a Homœopath. 125
thought I was, "for a homœopath
a very big doser!" and that the
Phosphorus I once mixed in a
tumbler for your aunt
aunt actually
"smoked"!
Perfectly true; I cannot discuss
homœopathic (or, if you will, my)
posology with you, but I will give
you my rule, viz.: The dose depends
upon the degree of similitude; the
greater the similitude the higher
the dilution and the less frequent
the administration; the smaller the
degree of similitude the lower the
dose and the more frequent the
repetitions of the dose. My own
range of dose is from a few globules
of the two-hundredth dilution at
eight days' intervals, down to ten
126 Fifty Reasons for
drops of the mother tincture (of
weak drugs, of course) four times a
day.
The dose is often quite as im-
portant as the remedy, and your
exclusively low, as well as the ex-
clusively high dilutionists, are only
one-eyed practitioners, though of
course kings among the blind, i.e.,
the allopaths.
It is your fault that I have
touched upon the vexed question
of the dose, that is to homœopathy
what the everlasting Irish question
is in British politics.
My twenty-second reason for
being a homoeopath is one I pub-
lished some years ago under the
heading
being a Homœopath. 127
CASE OF EXOSTOSIS OF RIGHT OS
CALCIS CURED BY Hecla lava.
Dr Garth Wilkinson went once
to Iceland for a holiday, and ob-
served that the animals which fed
in the pastures where the finer
ashes of Mount Hecla fall, suffered
from immense maxillary and other
exostoses. Being an adherent of
the scientific system of medicine
founded for us by Samuel Hahne-
mann, he brought some Hecla lava
home with him, and it has been
already successfully used to cure
affections similar to those which it
is capable of causing.
On July 3, 1880, a young lady,
æt. 15, came under my observation
128
Fifty Reasons for
with an exostosis on her right os
calcis, somewhat smaller and a little
flatter than half a walnut-shell. It
was at times painful. Patient was
in other respects in good health and
well nourished, but her teeth were
not very sound. She goes blue in
winter, and suffers also very badly
from chilblains both on hands and
feet, worse on hands.
B Trit. 2 Hecla Montis lava, 3iv.
S.-Six grains three times a day.
17th. The exostosis is decidedly
smaller; it never pains now.
Pergat.
September 25.—The exostosis has
entirely disappeared; the two heels
being compared, no difference be-
tween them can now be discovered.
being a Homœopath.
129
Hecla lava has been shown to con-
sist of silica, alumina, calcium, and
magnesia, with some ferric oxide.
We are, therefore, not astonished
that it can cause and cure exostoses.
Brother allopath, this is science
in therapeutics; what have you to
take its place? Give absorbents and
paint the part with iodine? What
guarantee can you give me that
your absorbents will not absorb a
bit of the pancreas or some small
glands in lieu of the exostosis?
Or you are, also, true to your
principle: Contraria contrariis cur-
antur? Then pray tell me what is
the contrary of an exostosis?
I 30 Fifty Reasons for
Reason the Twenty-third.
REFERRING to my remarks in my
last letter but one, that so many of
the practitioners of homoeopathy do
not believe in the so-called high
dilutions, I should like to add a
word or two, as I see by your reply
(only just to hand) that you have
mistaken my meaning. I do not
mean that none of the homoeopathic
physicians believe in said dilutions,
but that only a small minority of
them, perhaps about one-fourth in
this country. Furthermore, my cure
of hæmorrhage with Phosphorus is
not only not "an isolated case of
being a Homeopath.
131
the kind," but only one of a large
number; in fact, scores of such
cases were published in homoeo-
pathic literature long years before I
knew anything about the subject.
You evidently forget that I am pre-
cluded from getting my reasons from
our literature.
And in case you might also think
the same limitedness applies to the
use of Hecla lava in exostosis, I may
say that you can find other cases in
our literature more striking than
this one of mine, and-lest you
should say faith did it-a Dublin
physician cured his horse of a large
exostosis with the same remedy!
As my twenty-third reason for being
a homoeopath let me cite a
132
Fifty Reasons for
CASE OF CRANIAL EXOSTOSIS CURED
BY Aurum Met.
The case was published long ago,
and so I will not trouble you with
details suffice it to say, that the
man who had the bony growth in
his skull was completely and per-
manently cured by me with Metallic
Gold in homœopathic preparation.
Nor is this an isolated case of the
kind; the thing has been done oft
before, any time during the last fifty
years, and even before that.
Reason the Twenty-fourth.
I AM very anxious to show the
difference between curing a case
being a Homœopath. 133
empirically and doing so scientifi-
cally, that is to say, homoeopathi-
cally; and a paper I once published
on Aralia will do this, and also pay
my twenty-fourth reason for being
a homœopath. I choose this be-
cause you seem to think my singly
given cases "isolated."
""
THE COUGH OF Aralia.
Aralia racemosa is not an accepted
homœopathic remedy, and Dr Allen
did not insert Dr Jones's little prov-
ing in his "Encyclopædia," but he
has put it into the Appendix.
Dr Hughes has also now added
it to the list in his well-known Phar-
macodynamics, but only as a supple-
mentary remedy. So it seems to
be just timidly peeping into our big
134 Fifty Reasons for
་
drug-house. I know of no clinical
experience with it beyond what we
find in Hale's "Therapeutics."
It appears that the plant has a
great reputation in the United States
as a cough medicine, and Professor
E. M. Hale very properly says that
this warrants us in expecting that it
has at least some specific affinity for
the respiratory organs. The com-
mon people have in some way found
out that the "spikenard" is good
for coughs; Hale comes and makes
a note of it. A step farther is made
by Dr S. A. Jones, who made a prov-
ing of it in 1870, and thus lifted the
popular cough medicine out of useful
empiricism on to the scientific basis
of Hahnemann's induction.
I
being a Homœopath. 135
I happened to read Jones's prov-
ing in Hale's New Remedies
"
""
some six or seven years ago, and I
was much struck with the character
of the cough. I fancy the thing that
helped to impress it upon my mind
was the fact that I had had just at
that period a lady under my care
who was suffering from a cough
that came on after lying down at
night. I had been tinkering away
at this cough, and could not cure
it; so I blamed the damp house in
which the lady resided, and its
proximity to a brook prettily hidden
among the willows close by. Hyos-
cyamus, Digitalis, and a number of
other remedies came into play, but
the cough would not budge a bit.
Need I tell the heartrending tale
136 Fifty Reasons for
that the patient lost faith in her
doctor (the writer) and in his much-
vaunted pathy, and set about healing
herself with quack medicines and
orthodox sedative cough mixtures?
Of course I felt humiliated, and I
therefore made up my mind to read
my Materia Medica a little more
diligently. It was quite evident that
the cough was a curable one, for the
most careful physical examination
failed to detect anything besides a
few moist râles that tallied with the
very moderate amount of expectora-
tion.
Failures are very instructive at
times.
Just after having received my
congé from this lady, I was reading
being a Homeopath.
137
Hale's "New Remedies," and came
across Dr S. A. Jones's proving of
Aralia racemosa, where he says:—
"At 3 P.M. I took ten drops of the
mother tincture in two ounces of
water. An interesting book caused
me to forget my 'dose.' The events
of the night jogged my memory
very effectually."
He goes on to say that he retired
to rest at midnight, feeling as well
as ever, but he "had no sooner lain
down than he was seized with a fit
of asthma."
""
I put down the book-Hale's
"New Remedies was not quite
so thick then as it is now-and said
to myself, "That's Mrs N.'s cough,
that is just how she does.
She lies
K
138
Fifty Reasons for
i.
down and forthwith begins to cough,
to get laboured breathing, and to—
make her poor hard-toiling husband
wish he were a bachelor:" at least
he might have wished it, for aught
I know to the contrary.
A little time elapsed, and the
writer was sent for to see one of
this coughing lady's children with
eczema. The bairn's common in-
tegument having been prescribed
for, I timidly inquired about the
cough. "Oh," said Mrs N., “it is
as bad as ever; I have tried every-
thing, and do not know what to do."
I sat down and wrote:
"B Tc. Aralia racemosa 2," and
it cured citô, tutô, et jucunde, and
that not because Aralia is good for
being a Homoeopath.
139
coughs, and has an affinity for the
respiratory organs merely, but be-
cause it is capable of causing a
cough like the one that was to be
cured.
This happened somewhere about
six or seven years ago, and I have
since cured this kind of cough with
Aralia whenever I have come across
it, and at a rough guess I should
say that would be thirty or forty
times.
CASE II.-Tussis Araliæ.—A
lady came under my observation
last summer. She resides in the
West End of London, and had been
under competent homœopathic treat-
ment for her throat, and had cer-
tainly derived benefit, but still her
140
Fifty Reasons for
:
cough did not leave her, so that she
was on the point of removing from
London and going to the South,
whereof she is a native, she and her
friends having become apprehensive
lest her chest should become affected.
Her cough was not identical with
Mrs N.'s, but the only difference
was that it did not come on till after
a first sleep of not long duration.
Patient would go to bed quite well
(so did Mrs N., and so did Dr S.
A. Jones) and lie down and go to
sleep, and, after a short sleep, would
wake up with a severe fit of cough-
ing that would last an hour or more.
Aralia 3 cured it entirely in a
few days, and she gave up all idea
of returning to the South.
being a Homœopath.
141
CASE III.Tussis Araliæ.—A
child of not quite six gets croupy
coughs in damp weather that
usually yield to Dulcamara. Occa-
sionally, however, there remains
the kind of nocturnal cough de-
scribed in Case 2-viz., she will
go to bed, lie down, fall off to
sleep, and presently awake with
a violent bout of coughing. Origin-
ally, before thinking of Aralia, I
had in vain given Hyoscyamus,
Gelseminum, Aconitum, Spongia,
Hepar, Dulcamara, Phosphorus,
and Bryonia. Then the early
nocturnal character of the cough
determined me to try Aralia, and
with prompt effect.
CASE IV.-Tussis Aralia.-An
142 Fifty Reasons for
1
asthmatic gentleman of fifty years
of age, with moderate emphysema
of the lungs, has long been under
my care. At first he was almost
always short of breath on exertion,
and had bad nocturnal attacks of
dyspnoea and cough. A prolonged
course of constitutional treatment
has at last partially cured him, but
when he catches a cold he gets an
attack of bronchial catarrh with
early nocturnal cough.
It would be tedious to give the
treatment of his whole case, but
it will suffice to say it consisted
principally of antipsorics and
hepatics.
One day this gentleman said he
¡
being a Homeopath.
143
wished I could give him a medicine
for his cough, to have by his bed-
side at night, because otherwise
when he caught cold (as at this
time) he would go to bed quite
well, fall asleep, and presently
awake with a violent fit of asthma
that would last from one to two
hours, more or less; then he would
get up a little phlegm and go to
sleep again.
I prescribed one-drop powders of
Aralia 3*, pro re natâ. The next
time I had occasion to
see this
gentlemen he exclaimed, "I
thought those powders would have
killed me. I took one as you
directed, when my cough became
much more violent than I had ever
144 Fifty Reasons for
known it, but it soon ceased, and
has never returned."
He keeps some of these powders
by his bedside ever since, and on
various occasions they have helped
him, thus far unfailingly. He has
not had an aggravation since the
first time of using them.
These cases are samples only,
but they teach a useful lesson to
give more than these would be
irksome.
It will be seen that Aralia, al-
though a new remedy, is a compara-
tively old friend of mine, and I can
confidently commend it for early
nocturnal cough that occurs either
immediately on lying down, or MORE
being a Homœopath. 145
COMMONLY after a first fore-mid-
nightly sleep.
Professor Samuel Jones's cough
was immediately after he had lain
down, but it will be noted that he
did not retire till midnight, whereas
all my patients, I believe, went to
bed before. From a fairly extensive
experience of Aralia as a cough
remedy I have formed the con-
clusion that it is homoeopathic to
its cough by reason of its time and
patient's recumbent position.
It is no good, I believe, in coughs
occurring at any time on lying down,
neither does it avail in a cough
caused by a relaxed uvula; neither
will it, as far as I am aware, cure
any lung lesion whatsoever beyond
*
146 Fifty Reasons for
bronchial irritation and catarrh.
And most positively it is no good
at all in the after-midnightly or
2 or 3 A.M. dyspnoea and cough of
genuine asthma. In such cases I
have given it in vain. But for the
previously described variety of
cough it is a remedium probatissi-
mum. Here, for the thousandth
time, we see the exactness of our
homœopathic science. In con-
clusion, my thanks to Professor
Hale for introducing my now dear
friend Aralia, and my still greater
gratitude to Professor Samuel Jones
for the more intimate scientific ac-
quaintance. As homœopaths we
owe a deep debt of gratitude to
drug provers.
being a Homeopath.
147
Reason the Twenty-fifth.
It may be about three years ago,
or thereabouts, that it was my duty
to give an opinion on the state of a
gentleman of middle age, resident
in London, and who was considered
in a dying state. He had not much
faith in any medical man, or in any
pathy, and had for years wandered
from one physician to another for
his serious heart disease and fright-
ful dyspepsia. The allopaths did
him most good, he thought, on the
whole, with their remedies, but the
The pre-
good effects did not last. The
scriptions showed that his state had
been correctly diagnosed, and not
148
Fifty Reasons for
badly treated from their standpoint.
He received in turns cordials,
iodides, antacids, and tonics, but
his disease-aneurysm of the aorta
-got worse.
The homœopaths had treated him.
symptomatically-and he had plenty
of symptoms—and once or twice ǹe
really thought he was cured for a
day or two, but then he became
ever — his
aneurysm evidently got larger.
suddenly as bad as
When I first saw him he seemed
almost moribund, and had received
the last rites of the Church.
After going over his case well,
and taking into account the state of
his tissues and organs and the size
of his aneurysm, so far as that could
being a Homœopath.
149 ·
be determined, I gave as my opinion
that he might slowly get better, and
be eventually cured of his disease.
That gentleman has since mar-
ried, and the aneurysm, though not
yet quite gone, is slowly yielding to
homœopathic treatment, freely ap-
plied under diagnostic common-
sense.
1
t
The principal remedies were
Aurum met., Chelidonium majus,
Carduus, Ceanothus, Glandium
quercus, Aconitum, Ferrum, Cactus
grand., and Baryta muriatica, the
first named and the four last being
directly-specifically-curative. My
knowledge of the use of Barium is
due to Dr Flint, and this is not the
150
Fifty Reasons for
first or second time that homeo-
pathy has cured aneurysm.
I saw my patient walking along
the street a few days since with
his wife, and I was quite struck
with his healthy, ruddy appearance.
This power of homoeopathy over
aneurysm gives my twenty-fifth
reason for being a homoeopath—
and that lands me just half-way
with my fifty reasons.
Have you
thus far conceived any greater
respect for homoeopathy, or can
you explain all my reasons away?
At least you are beginning to see
that my statement at your uncle's
house was not boastfulness, but
a mere statement of fact.
understand that I am not the least
Pray

being a Homeopath.
151
desirous of making you, or anybody
else, a homœopath; it makes no
difference whatever to me. Nor
does it make any difference to
truth: truth will get on very well
without any of you.
Nor do I anticipate any particular
good from all this scribbling of my
fifty reasons to you; I do it just to
substantiate my own position, and
slap the jeering ignorance of ortho-
doxy in the face.
Reason the Twenty-sixth.
You complain that I indulge in
too much abuse, and that I am
152
Fifty Reasons for
unnecessarily pugnacious and offen-
sive. Perhaps so. Did you not
have the impertinence to call the
homœopaths quacks? You who
know nothing about what they do!
And do not you allopaths, every
man of you, go about day by day
and slander the homœopaths?
You allopaths bear false witness
against your homoeopathic neigh-
bours every day of your lives—did
I not once hear you say to your
aunt at table, "Oh yes, Auntie, take
some of your little homoeopathic
pilules, they won't hurt !”
You said I must give you my
fifty reasons out of my own life's
work, as I had promised, or "come
down the tree."
being a Homœopath. 153
Well, I sit firmly on a very big
bough of the old tree of truth, and
it is not an ignorant allopath who
will ever dislodge me.
It may be half a dozen years ago
that an unusually beautiful, sweet
girl, a good way in her twenties,
residing in an important provincial
town, was noticed to fade and get
weak, with peculiar ill-defined throat
symptoms, weakness in her back,
rectal and uterine irritation, weak-
ness and emaciation. People could
not think what had come over her.
She is one of those human high-
breds who will not cave in, but, if
duty calls, will go on till they drop:
till then, existing on their "go"
rather than on their physique.
L
154
Fifty Reasons for
In life they are commonly mis-
understood, and because they can
put on a spurt or clear a very high-
fenced difficulty au besoin, the un-
knowing and non-observant think
they are really strong, but are lazy
or sham.
"Oh! she nursed her nieces for
weeks and never had her clothes off.
but did not seem to mind it a bit,
and now she would have you believe
she is so delicate; she shams, it's
all put on." But it is not put on at
all; if you will examine their heads
you will find the animal sphere
almost entirely absent.
Dr R. M. Tuttle, speaking on
this point, says :—
being a Homeopath.
155
<<
Some men can do with ease
as much physical labour as would
kill other men. The same is true
of mental labour. A man like
Gladstone can take on himself a
course of work the mere attempt-
ing of which would effectually silence
any one else. He is a man with a
large, highly organised brain, but
he possesses, besides, the well-bal-
anced organs of animal life which
are required to generate the energy
that such brains can transmute into
intellectual force. To be able to
do the full measure of work of a
man, it is necessary to be a good
animal."
The lady in question has the
most exquisitely intellectual deve-
156
Fifty Reasons for
lopment, a wonderful arch of cere-
brum, but no occipital power worth
while.
Well, the patient in question had
been through a domestic trial and
had bent; some thought she had
broken.
A good, kind, gentle allopathic
physician, who was wont to attend
the family, also attended her, and
diagnosed Bright's disease of the
kidneys. Said he to her mother:
"I am truly sorry to have to tell you
that Miss has a disease of the
kidneys that cannot be cured; you
must take care of her; she must
wear flannel all over, and avoid cold
and damp; she may last with care
being a Homeopath. 157
a very long time, but you must not
expect her to get well."
Much family council was held
together, and the outlook being
dark and hopeless, the young lady
was brought to me.
Homœopathy cured her in about
eight months,* and the young lady
thereupon got married, and has now
several bouncing children, and she
herself continues in good health.
Not a vestige of albumen has been
in the urine for nearly five years.
What cured her? Mercurius vivus.
She took two doses a day for many
* Note. This lady is still in excellent
health, and is now the mother of six splendid
children.
158
Fifty Reasons for
months. I did not hit it right off,
but tried two or three remedies at
first without avail.
This is my twenty-sixth reason
for being a homœopath, and it alone
were amply sufficient: and whether
it be God's will that I die to-night,
or live for another fifty years, I feel
that while I do live I am in duty
bound to fight the good fight of
homoeopathy with all the power I
possess: were I to do less I should
be afraid to die.
Young man, the responsibility of
not being a homoeopath is very
terrible.
being a Homoeopath. 159
Reason the Twenty-seventh.
POST-ORBITAL NEURALGIA OF
TWENTY YEARS' STANDING
Must be my twenty-seventh reason
for being a homœopath. This
case (which came under obser-
vation on January 9, 1882), is
one of considerable interest on
various accounts. Its subject, a
lady of rank, over fifty years of
age, had been in turns, and for
many years, under almost all the
leading oculists of London for this
neuralgia of the eyes-i.e., terrible
pain at the back of the eyes, coming
on in paroxysms, and confining her
to her room for many days to-
160
Fifty Reasons for
gether
some attacks would last
for six weeks. Some of the neur-
algic pain, however, remained at all
times. Her eyes had been exam-
ined by almost every notable oculist
in London, and no one could find
anything wrong with them struc-
turally, so it was unanimously
agreed and declared to be neuralgia
of the fifth nerve. Of course no
end of tonics, anodynes, and altera-
tives had been used. The oculists
sent her to the physicians, and these
back again to the oculists. The
late Dr Quin and other leading
homœopaths had been tried, but
no one had ever touched it.”
Latterly, and for years, she had
tried nothing; whenever an attack
being a Homœopath. 161
came on, she would remain in her
darkened bedroom, with her head
tied up, bewailing her fate. To me
she exclaimed, "My existence is one
life-long crucifixion!
I should have stated that the
neuralgia was preceded and accom-
panied by influenza. In the aggre-
gate these attacks of influenza and
post-orbital neuralgia confined her
to her room nearly half the year. In
appearance she was healthy, well-
nourished, rather too much embon-
point, and fairly vigorous. A friend
of hers had been benefited by homo-
opathy in my hands, and she there-
fore came to me "in utter despair."
These are the simple facts of the
case, though they look very like
162
Fifty Reasons for
I
piling up the agony! Now for the
remedy. The resources of allo-
pathy had been exhausted, and,
moreover, I have no confidence in
them anyway; homoeopathy-and
good homœopathy too, for the men
tried knew their work-had also
failed. Do-nothing, now much in
vogue, had fared no better.
reasoned thus: This lady tells me
she has been vaccinated five or six
times, and being thus very much
vaccinated, she may be just suffer-
ing from chronic vaccinosis, one
chief symptom of which is a cephal-
algia like hers, so I forthwith pre-
scribed Thuja 30. It cured, and
the cure has lasted till now. The
neuralgia disappeared slowly; in
about six weeks (February 14, 1882)
being a Homeopath.
163
I wrote in my case-book, "The
eyes are well!"
As I have not heard from the
patient for some time, I am just
writing a note to her to know
whether the neuralgia has thus far
(December 30, 1882) returned. The
reply I will add.
Of course, it does not follow that
because Thuja cured this case of
neuralgia of some twenty years'
standing, that therefore the lady was
suffering from vaccinosis; that Thuja
DID cure it is incontrovertible, and
my vaccinosis hypothesis led me to
prescribe it. More cannot be main-
tained. At least, the case must
stand as a clinical triumph for
•
164 Fifty Reasons for
A
Thuja 30-this much is abso-
lute.
In reply to my enquiry, I received
the following:-
‘Jan. 1 (1883).
I have been in very
much stronger health ever since I
crossed your threshold, and except-
ing one or two attempts at a return
from the enemy, I have been quite
free from suffering.
This lady continues well of her
post-orbital neuralgia at the time
of going to press. After the disap-
pearance of the neuralgia she had
several other remedies from me for
dyspeptic symptoms.
being a Homœopath. 165
Reason the Twenty-eighth.
LET this reason be a case of—
CHRONIC HEADACHE OF NINE
YEARS' DURATION.
Miss G, æt. 19, came under
my care on March 12, 1881, com-
plaining of bad attacks of headache
for the past nine years.
She said
it was as if the back of her head
were in a vice, and then it would be
frontal, and throbbing as if her head
would burst. She was very pale,
and her forehead looked shiny, and
in places brown.
These "head attacks
head attacks" occurred
once or twice a week.
166 Fifty Reasons for
Tendency to constipation; menses
regular; an old sty visible on left
eyelid ; poor appetite; dislikes flesh-
meat; liver enlarged a little; had a
series of boils in the fall of 1880.
Feet cold; used to have chil-
blains. For years cannot ride in an
omnibus or in a cab, because of
getting pale and sick; skin becomes
rough in the wind; lips crack; gets
fainty at times.
To have Graphites 30.
April 13.-Appetite and spirits
better, but otherwise no change.
Questioned as to the duration of the
head attacks, she tells me the last
but one continued for three weeks
-the last, three days. Over the
right eye there is a red, tender patch;
being a Homœopath. 167
has two or three white-headed pus-
tules on her face.
Was vaccinated at three months,
re-vaccinated at seven years, and
again at fourteen. Had small-pox
about ten years ago.
Thus here was a case that had
had small-pox ten years ago, or there-
abouts, for she could not quite fix
the date, and had been vaccinated
three times besides, once subse-
quent to the small-pox!
B Tc. Thuja occidentalis, ziv. 3*
To take five drops in water twice
a day.
May 13.-Much better; has only
had one very slight headache last-
ing an hour or two; the frontal
tender patch is no longer tender;
168 Fifty Reasons for
no further faintness at all.
Lips
crack. The pustules on the face
gone, and skin quite clear.
To have Thuja 12, one drop at
bedtime.
June 17.-Was taken ill yester-
day fortnight with soreness of
stomach; fever; nausea and per-
spiration. Subsequently spots broke
out like pimples,-eight on the face,
one each on the thumb and wrist,
one on the foot, and two on the
back; they filled with matter, were
out five days, became yellow, and
then died away. Her mother says
the symptoms were just the same
as when patient had the small-pox.
Her headaches were well just be-
fore this bout came on.
*
being a Homœopath.
169
July 1.-Continues well.
July 27.-The headaches have
not returned.
Feb. 24, 1882.-The cure holds
good, for she has had no headache,
and is otherwise well. She had
subsequently some other remedies
for the little tumour on her eyelid,
and for a small exostosis on lower
jaw, but she had received nothing
but Thuja when the cephalalgia dis
appeared, and it was two or three
weeks before the next medicine fol-
lowed.
Some months after this date this
young lady was brought by her
mother merely to show me how
well she was, and to take final leave
of me; two years later I learned
M
170
Fifty Reasons for
from her mother that she continued
well, so the cure is permanent.
An interesting feature in this
case is the curious attack which
came on at the beginning of June.
My reading of it is that it was really
a proving of Thuja, or a general
organismic reaction called forth by
it; and this sent me often up to the
thirtieth dilution in my subsequent
use of Thuja, though I have occa-
sionally found the third decimal
dilution answer better than the
thirtieth.
But this is not the point of my
thesis, for this case was cured by
the low dilution, and when the low
dilutions cure, and cure promptly,
even though not very agreeably,
being a Homœopath. 171
but well, it cannot be necessary to
go up any higher, especially as
one's faith is sufficiently on the
stretch without it.
Reason the Twenty-ninth.
ENLARGED GLANDS.
APEX-CATARRH.
MASTER C, æt. 11, came
under my care on August 18, 1881,
complaining of a cough, worse at
7.30 P.M.; he also coughed by day
and through the night, but it did not
wake him. He perspired fearfully,
worst on the head, and worse dur-
ing the night. Over upper half of
172
Fifty Reasons for
left lung one heard moist crackling
râles. The cervical lymphatic
glands at the top of the apex of
left lung were indurated, and dis-
tinctly "feelable." He weighed 5
st. 4 lbs. The vaccination scars
were on the left arm, and the
glands over the apex of right lung
were not indurated. Induration of
the lymphatics on the left side of
the neck (the vaccination being per-
formed on that side) is the rule after
vaccination, as anyone may observe
for himself if he will take the trouble
to examine a healthy child just be-
fore vaccination and any time there-
after. I say, any time thereafter,
for the thing generally persists for
a very long time, unless cured by
medical art.
being a Homœopath.
173
B Thuja 30, m. ii. Sac. lac. q.s.
Fiat pulv. Tales xxiv. One, three
times a day.
August 27.-Is well of cough,
but the sweats continue. To take
no medicine.
September 6.-The most careful
examination of chest reveals no
râle; there is no cough; the
sweats have quite ceased; the said
cervical lymphatics can not be
found. The boy now weighs 5 st.
8 lbs., so that he has gained 4 lbs.
in weight since he got the Thuja.
Discharged cured.
The boy had been at school, and
was sent home to his parents by
the school physician on account of
his obstinate cough, and because
174 Fifty Reasons for
excited
his general symptoms
symptoms
alarm. To me it appeared to be
the first stage of phthisis. That
the boy should increase in weight
at home just after returning from
school is, of course, not necessarily
due to the medicine; home life, too,
would improve his nutrition gener-
ally, and would perhaps also account
for the disappearance of the apex-
catarrh, cough, and perspirations.
But what is to account for the dis-
appearance of the induration of the
cervical glands?
Reason the Thirtieth.
Of course you will perceive that
what I understand by vaccinosis
being a Homœopath. 175
has no necessary connexion with
homœopathy, the Thuja being
homœopathic to the cases.
As my thirtieth reason for being
a homoeopath you will allow me to
cite another Thuja case,-viz., one
of
of
ACNE OF FACE AND NOSE, and
NASAL DERMATITIS.
A young lady, about twenty years
age, was brought by her mother
to me on October 28, 1882. Patient
had a very red, pimply nose, not like
the red nose of the elderly bibber,
or like that due to dyspepsia or to
tight lacing, but a pimply, scaly,
nasal dermatitis, which extended
from the cutaneous covering of the
nose to that of the cheeks, but ap-
176
Fifty Reasons for
pearing here more as facial acne.
The nasal dermatitis was, roughly,
in the form of a saddle. Of course,
this state of things in an otherwise
pretty girl of twenty was painfully
and humiliatingly unpleasant to her
and to her friends; in fact, it was
likely to mar her future prospects
very materially, more especially as
it had already existed for six years,
and was making no signs of depart-
ing. She also complained of ob-
stinate constipation. The pimples
of the nose and face used to get
little white mattery heads.
B Thuja occidentalis 30.
November 30.-Pimples of face
decidedly better.
Nose less red.
Constipation no better.
being a Homœopath. 177
B Thuja occidentalis 100.
January 3, 1883. The face is
free! Her mother gratefully ex-
claims, "She is wonderfully better."
I ask the young lady which powders
did her most good; she says,
"The
last." The skin of the nose is
normal, but the constipation is no
better, and for this she remains
under treatment.
That Thuja cured this case is
incontrovertible.
Reason the Thirty-first.
NEURALGIA OF RIGHT EYE.
MR ——, a gentleman of position
and means, about fifty years of age,
178 Fifty Reasons for
came to consult me on 28th June
1882 for a neuralgia of the right
eye.
He complained of almost constant
pain in right eye ever since Christ-
mas 1881, ¿.e., just about six months.
Had had neuralgia in head and
shoulders in 1866, and so much
morphia had been injected in his
shoulders by a doctor in Scotland
that it almost killed him: for seven
or eight hours it was doubtful if he
would recover.
Has a brown, eczematous, itchy
(at night) eruption on both shins
and between the toes. The neur-
algia of right eye, and for which
he comes to me, is bad both day
and night, but rather worse at
2
being a Homœopath.
179
night. Mr (now Sir William)
Bowman had examined the eye
and declared it to be neuralgia,
the eye being normal. Mr White
Cooper had done the same.
On my enquiring when he was
last vaccinated, he seemed com-
pletely frightened, and stammered
out rapidly, "I should not like to
be vaccinated again."
""
Why?
"I was very seedy the last time
I was vaccinated; in fact, I felt
awfully ill for about a month," and
he again hurriedly protested that
he would not like to be vaccinated
again. The vaccination that had
made him so ill was either in 1852
or 1853.
180
Fifty Reasons for
This seemed to me to be a case
of vaccinal neuralgia, and therefore
I ordered Thuja 30, in infrequent
dose. This was on the 28th of
June 1882.
July 8.-But very little pain after
the first powder. To have the same
medicine again.
The cure proved permanent, and
is interesting as proof of the rapidity
with which the most like remedy
can cure a neuralgia.
Reason the Thirty-second.
BEING a case of
DISEASED FINGER-NAILS.
On December 22, 1882, a young
lady of 26 came under my care for
being a Homeopath. 181
an ugly state of the nails of her
fingers. Naturally, a lady of her
age would not be indifferent to the
state of her nails. These nails are
indented rather deeply, and in ad-
dition to these indentations there
are black patches on the under
surface of the nails, reaching into
the quick. Very slight leucorrhoea
occasionally. She had chicken-
pox as a child of eleven. On her
shoulders there is an eruption of
roundish patches, forming mattery
heads. The black patches have
existed these eighteen months.
I ordered Thuja 30 (one in 6).
March 19, 1883.—Has continued
the Thuja 30 for just about three
months, with the result that within
182 Fifty Reasons for
Į
a fortnight from commencing with
it the black patches under the nails
began to disappear, and there is now
no trace of them.
I will not trouble you with any
more reasons based on the thera-
peutic action of Thuja.
You want to know whether I
really claim that homoeopathy can
cure cataract with medicines. You
know very well that that has been
my contention for a number of years;
but I will revert to that again.

Reason the Thirty-third.
As my thirty-third reason for
being a homœopath I propose to
being a Homœopath.
183
give you a case of cataract cured by
medicines. You said in one of your
letters to me that you would like to
see the man who could dissolve a
case of genuine senile cataract with
medicines. Well, I will recount to
you how I was converted myself.
The limits of the curable and of
the incurable are not represented
by any fixed lines; what is incur-
able to-day may be curable to-
morrow, and what we all of this
generation deem incurable may be
considered very amenable to treat-
ment in the next generation.
When walking the hospitals years
ago I was taught, in respect of cata-
ract, that there was nothing for it
but an operation; a few months
184
Fifty Reasons for
since, I spent a little time at an ex-
cellent metropolitan hospital for the
eye, and found that that is still the
one thing taught,-viz., if you have
a cataract, there is no hope for you
beyond that of getting blind, and
then trying to get your sight again
by having the cataractous lens re-
moved.
On the 28th of May 1875 I was
sent for to see a lady suffering from
acute ophthalmia. She informed me
that her friend Dr Mahony, of
Liverpool, had recommended her to
try homœopathy when she should
again require medical aid, and had
also mentioned my name to her.
She seemed rather ashamed of
calling in the aid of a disciple of
being a Homœopath. 185
Hahnemann, and was very careful to
lay all the blame upon Dr Mahony:
for, said she, I know nothing about
it. My patient was in a darkened
room, and hence I could not well
see what manner of woman she was ;
but I soon learned she was the
widow of an Indian officer, had
spent many years in India, where
she had had ophthalmia a great
many times, and that she was in the
habit of getting ophthalmia once or
twice a year, or even oftener, ever
since. It generally lasted several
weeks, and then got better; no
kind of treatment seemed to be
of any great avail. Did I think
homœopathy would do her any
good? I replied that we would
try it.
N
186
Fifty Reasons for
I made an attempt at examining
the eye, by lifting up one of the
laths of the Venetian blind to let in
the light, and then everting the lid ;
but the photophobia and consequent
blepharospasm were so great that I
barely succeeded in recognising that
the right eye was a red, swelled
mass, while the left one was only
comparatively slightly affected; in
fact, a case of ophthalmitis.
A
more minute examination was im-
possible, as the pain was so great
that the patient screamed whenever
any light was let into the eye. I
took a mental note of the chief
symptoms, notably of the fact that
the inflammation was chiefly con-
fined to the right eye, and went
home and worked out the homoeo-
being a Homœopath.
187
pathic equation; I was specially
anxious to make a hit, and so I
spent about half an hour at the
differential drug - diagnosis.
drug I decided upon was Phos-
phorus. Thus-
The
B Tc. Phos. I m. xij. Sac. lac.
q. s. Div. in p. æq. xij.
S. One in a little water every
hour.
That would be about the one-
hundredth part of a grain of Phos-
phorus at a dose, or rather less."
I called the next day, about
eighteen hours thereafter, and my
patient opened the door herself,
slightly screening her eyes with
her hand, and quite able to bear a
moderate amount of light. The in-
188 Fifty Reasons for
flammation was nearly gone; the
next day it was quite gone.
Patient's amazement was great
indeed; in all the twenty years of
these ophthalmic attacks she had
suffered much, and had had a num-
ber of doctors, including London
oculists, to treat her, but to no
purpose. And yet she had been
treated actively, and there had been
no lack of physic and leeches, and
also no lack of medical skill; but
there was lacking in their thera-
peutics the one thing needful
THE LAW OF SIMILARS.
1
How was it that I, with no very
special knowledge of the eye or of
its diseases, and with only usual
practical experience, could thus
being a Homœopath. 189
.
beat skilled specialists and men of
thrice my experience?
Was it, perhaps, greater skill,
deeper insight into the disease,
more careful investigation of the
case? By no means.
It was just the law of similars,
patiently carried out in practice.
of
My dear allopathic confrère, WHY
are you so very simple that you
leave us homoeopaths with this
enormous advantage over the best
you?
Any little homœopathic
David can overcome the greatest
allopathic giant if he will only keep
to his Materia Medica, and the direc-
tions of Hahnemann. And the good
thing lies so near, and is so con-
stantly thrown at you.
If we
190 Fifty Reasons for
homœopaths were only to make a
secret of our art, you would petition
the Government to purchase it of us!
But revenons à nos moutons. My
patient was naturally very grateful,
and said, “If that is homoeopathy,
I wonder if it could cure my cata-
ract?" On examining the eyes
now with some care one could
readily perceive that there were
opacities behind the pupils, that of
the right being the much more ex-
tensive. She then informed me
that she had had cataract for some
years, and was waiting for it to get
ripe so as to undergo an operation.
She had been to two London ocu-
lists about it, and they agreed both
as to diagnosis and prognosis, and
being a Homœopath.
191
eventual operative treatment. She
had waited a year and gone again to
one of these eye surgeons, and been
told that all was satisfactorily pro-
gressing, although but slowly; it
was thought it might take another
two years before an operation could
be performed. Her vision was also
getting gradually worse, and she
could not see the parting in her
hair at the looking-glass, or the
names over the shops, or on the
omnibuses in the street; could see
better in the dusk than in broad
daylight.
In answer to her question as to
the curability of cataract with medi-
cines, I said I had no personal ex-
perience whatever on the subject
192 Fifty Reasons for
beyond one case, and I thought
that, from the nature of the com-
plaint, one could hardly expect
medicines to cure it, or even affect
it at all. Still, some few homœo-
paths had published such cases, and
others had asserted that they some-
times did really succeed in curing
cataract with homoeopathic treat-
ment. I added that, inconceivable
as it was to me, yet I had no right
to question the veracity of these
gentlemen, simply because they
claimed to do what seemed impos-
sible.
In fine, I agreed, at patient's
special request, to try to cure her
cataract with medicines given on
homœopathic lines!
being a Homœopath. 193
I must confess that I smiled a
little at my own temerity. But I
consoled myself thus: What harm
could it do to treat her while she
was waiting to get blind. At the
worst I should not prevent it!
So it was agreed she should re-
port herself every month or so, and
I would each time prescribe for her
a course of treatment.
All this was there and then
agreed to.
She took from May 29 to June
19, 1875, Calcarea carbonica 30, and
Chelidonium I, one pilule in alter-
nation three times a day. Thus
she had two doses of the Calcarea
one day, and one the next, and con-
versely of the Chelidonium.
194
Fifty Reasons for
There were indications for both
remedies, though I cannot defend
the alternation; I hope I alternate
less frequently now.
Then followed Asafoetida 6, and
Digitalis purp. 3.
Then Phosphorus 1, and subse-
quently Sulphur 30, and then Cal-
carea and Chelidonium.
Thus I continued ringing the
changes on Phosphorus, Sulphur,
Calcarea carbonica,
Chelidonium,
Asafoetida, and Digitalis, till the
beginning of 1876.
On February 17, 1876, I pre-
scribed Gelseminum 30 in pilules,
one three times a day. This was
continued for a month.
Then I gave the following course
being a Homeopath. 195
of drug treatment :-Silicea 30 for
fourteen days; Belladonna 3 for
fourteen days; Sulphur 30 three
times a day for a week; and then
Phosphorus 1 for a fortnight.
A month or so after this date-
March 20, 1876-I one morning
heard some very loud talking in the
hall, and my patient came rushing
in and crying in quite an excited
manner that she could almost see
as well as ever. She explained
that latterly she seemed able to dis-
cern objects and persons in the
street much better than formerly,
but she thought it must be fancy,
but that morning she suddenly dis-
covered that she could see the
parting in her hair, and she at once
196
Fifty Reasons for
started to inform me of the fact,
and, en route, she further tested her
vision by reading the names over
the shops which she previously could
not see at all.
I ordered the same course of
treatment again, and in another
two months the lenticular (or cap-
sular) opacities completely disap-
peared, and her vision became and
remained excellent.
She never had any recurrence of
the ophthalmia, and she remained
about a year and a half in my neigh-
bourhood in good health. She then
went abroad again, and in her letters
to her friends since, she makes no
mention of her eyes or sight, and
•
!
being a Homœopath. 197
hence I fairly conclude that she
continues well.
The patient's age is now about
50 or 51.
I have detailed this case some-
what circumstantially, so that my
conversion to a belief in the medi-
cinal curability of cataract may
appear to others as it does to me.
This case made a considerable
stir in a small circle, and a certain.
number of cases of cataract have
since come under my care in con-
sequence, and the curative results I
have obtained in their treatment are
extremely encouraging.
And I may add that I published
this in the year 1880, and since then
I have partially or completely cured
198 Fifty Reasons for
a number of cases of cataract with
remedies, and this power I possess
because I am privileged to be a
homœopath.
Reason the Thirty-fourth.
You ask me whether the homœo-
paths as a body endorse my views
as to the amenability of cataract to
medicines ?
My answer is that some do and
some do not, but that is not mate-
rial; the task is very difficult, and
not within the power of every phy-
sician who happens to practise on
homœopathic lines the higher
+
being a Homœopath.
199
and highest work of which homœo-
pathy is capable depends upon the
capacity of the operating clinical
artist,―i.e., upon the homeopathic
practitioner. What I claim for
homoeopathy is what I have done with
its aid myself; other physicians will
be able to do more, and some less.
As my thirty-fourth reason for
being a homœopath I will cite the
details of a case of cataract, begun
in May 1884, and ended in May
1886.
Mrs V, æt. 66, came under
my observation on May 20, 1884.
She came through a friend whose
cataract had been cured by me
with medicines.
Mrs V.'s history is this: In
200 Fifty Reasons for
Inflam-
November 1882 and in April 1883
she had been operated upon for
cataract of the right eye.
mation set in, and the eye was lost.
Now her left eye has cataract, the
lens having a gray look, and her
vision is much impaired; she wears
spectacles, but can no longer sew or
thread a needle with their aid. Her
father and his sister had cataract.
Patient's skin is scaly and pimply,
more particularly that of the face.
B Tc. Sulph. 30.
3iv.
S. Five drops in water night
and morning.
August 30.-Since last date I
sent her a medicine, but omitted
being a Homœopath. 201
to note it. She thinks her sight
clearer.
Calc. carb. 30.
October 29.-"I am thankful to
say my sight keeps better, only I
am nervous, and everything falling
makes me jump."
Thuja 30.
December 2.—"I feel my sight
improving."
Causticum 100.
January 1, 1885.-"I am thankful
to tell you my sight is much better;
I can now see wonderfully well to
read and write with my spectacles
on, and I can see very well to go
about or do anything in the house
without the spectacles."
Rep.
202 Fifty Reasons for
March 25.-"Cannot bear the
light so well; the eye which is
blinded waters very much."
Psor. 100.
April 28.-Bad cold.
Puls. I*.
May 2.-On this day the patient
paid me her second visit, and the
note in my case-book runs, "The
left lens is decidedly less milky ;
can see to thread a needle."
Rep.
July 2.-" My eye is not quite
so clear."
Silicea 30.
August 27.—No change.
Causticum C.
being a Homeopath. 203
October 3.-Better of self, and
sees better.
Rep.
January 18, 1886.-No further
change.
Rep.
March 9.-About the same as
three months ago.
Puls. I*.
May 18.-Vast improvement;
can read, write, and see well, and
there is now only the faintest opa-
city of the lens.
I heard from her in October
1887, and her vision continued in
the same excellent state, and she is
now just on 70 years of age.
204 Fifty Reasons for
So you see here one eye had
been lost through the operation for
cataract, and nevertheless the cata-
ract in the other eye had been
cured. I do not say the lens is at
the centre as clear as yours or
mine, but the cataract is gone, and
that little rest of opacity does not
affect the vision at all appreciably,
and is not of the nature of pro-
gressive cataract, but is the remain-
ing bit of it that Nature cannot get
rid of, but it is no longer cataract,
but its stationary remains.
Does this case convince you?
being a Homœopath. 205
Reason the Thirty-fifth.
It is the merest folly on your part
to pretend to question my diagnosis
of cataract; whatever truth there
may have been in such objections
when I cured my first case nearly a
dozen years ago, that can hardly be
valid now. But I make you a
present of all diagnostic power, if
that will please you, inasmuch as
the cited cases were diagnosed by
eye specialists of the greatest
eminence and experience, so what
is your next objection? That it
was not senile ? then take what I
66
published in the Homœopathic
206 Fifty Reasons for
World," October 1, 1881. I will
copy it word for word:-
CASE OF CATARACT MUCH AMELI-
ORATED BY MEDICINE.
In a little monograph I have
sought to defend the thesis that
cataract can be often cured, and
still oftener ameliorated, by the aid
of medicines given internally. The
bulk of the profession, of course,
ignore the thing entirely; that I
expected. A few of the more
enlightened welcomed the little
book as an honest attempt, as an
imperfect, but solid beginning.
Yet others shook their heads in
good old-fashioned honest doubt,
and muttered something about
"mistaken diagnosis"; and this
·
being a Homœopath.
207
not without a chuckle at their own
superior powers in this regard.
"}
Since the publication of "Cur-
ability of Cataract with Medicines,'
I have continued my humble efforts
in the same line, sneers and jibes
notwithstanding. I have only
treated a very few cases, partly
because I do not care to begin
unless a patient is willing, if neces-
sary, to go on for a year or two,
and this most of them decline.
It is no wonder people are very
incredulous about the possibility of
modifying the stroma of an opaque
lens; for it is indeed very difficult,
and I fail myself but too often,
yet by no means always, and I
208 Fifty Reasons for
1
consider the future of the question
very hopeful.
The opponents of the thesis that
an opaque lens can be modified by
medicines often cite the very aged
as more than usually hopeless. But
I
propose to bring a case showing
that even an octogenarian may be
materially benefited, and get a con-
siderable amount of useful vision
restored. It is the oldest case I
have ever treated, and has turned
a few scoffers into respectful
listeners. I do not give all the
treatment, but only the relevant
part of it.
Mrs
æt. 81, came under
observation at the end of the
year 1880, suffering from cataract
being a Homœopath. 209
of both eyes, diagnosed by various
physicians and specialists. Her
vision was much impaired; read-
ing had become impossible, and
she could barely recognise a per-
son in the street, or the pictures on
the walls of my consulting-room.
Thinking the case hopeless, princi-
pally on account of her advanced
age, I did not enter with my wonted
minuteness into her case, but gave
Chelidonium 13, five drops in water
night and morning, on pathological
grounds.
February 2, 1881.-She came
and said she felt more comfort-
able in her mouth, her tongue being
less hard and stiff; vision the same.
Thinking there might be yet a
210
Fifty Reasons for
But
glimmer of hope for the venerable
lady, at least that absolute blind-
ness might possibly be averted,—I
went into her case with greater
care. I found she had occasional
diplopia, and things seemed farther
off than they really were.
the thing that had long distressed
her was this: On awaking in the
morning her tongue was as hard
and stiff as a board. That this
should have any connection with
the cataractous lenses was not
apparent; still it was the most
constant, peculiar, and characteristic
symptom, and, moreover, a very
distressing one. I turned up a
Repertory, and finally decided on
Sulphur iodatum (see Symptom
40 in Allen's "Encyclopædia ").
being a Homœopath. 2II
Considering the general character
of the remedy and the pathology
of the disease, I did not hesitate,
but gave six grains of the fourth
centesimal trituration every night
at bedtime.
66
March 21.-My report for this
day in my case-book reads thus:-
Hardness and stiffness of tongue
gone, and she had it two years; it
was quite distressing; sees decidedly
better at a distance."
She came by rail to town to see
me, and a married daughter was
in the habit of meeting her at the
station. When she first came to
me she was not able to recognise
her daughter on the platform, but
212 Fifty Reasons for
this morning she recognised her
already at quite a distance, and that
readily, and can as readily dis-
cern my pictures.
Rep.
July.-Vision much improved;
can now read an article in the
newspaper.
В Iodium 30.
August.-Receive word from the
daughter that patient now sees so
well that she does not propose
continuing treatment any longer.
She reads books with large print
comfortably.
September 15.-A lady friend of
the patient called about her own
condition, and remarked, "Mrs
now reads the paper from an
I
being a Homœopath.
213
hour and a half to two hours every
day."
She is now 82 years of age.
London, September 1881.
This is my thirty-fifth reason for
being a homœopath.
Reason the Thirty-sixth.
You are in a sense quite right
in saying that my last-cited case
was not a complete cure, but
kindly note that I did not say it
was; moreover, the cure was
enough, for what more does an
octogenarian want than the power
to read the newspaper by the
hour? As my thirty-sixth reason
214 Fifty Reasons for
for being a homoeopath I will
mention one other case of cataract
-this time so completely cured
that patient can read No. 1. Is
that good enough?
The lady came first to me in
June 1884, being then 58 years
of age, and
as clear-thinking,
hard-headed a sceptic as ever you
saw. The diagnosis was made by
an eminent specialist, whose opinion
you would not dream of doubting.
You see he is so sweetly orthodox!
If he were to turn homœopath,
however, he would not (thereafter)
know a lens from a broom-handle!
I looked humbly at the lenses—
both of them-and found them
uniformly milky-opaque; but as I
being a Homœopath.
215
am not an oculist, and, besides, am
so sorely heterodox, you will not
care to know how the lady's lenses
appeared to my optics; so just take
it parenthetically as it were, that
to me they were "kinder darkish
like": cataract our orthodox
specialist calls it! Well, I dis-
charged her cured in July 1887,
and able to read No. 1. As I
said before, is that good enough?
In any case it is my thirty-sixth
reason for being a homoeopath—
so I bid good-bye to cataracts for
the present!
P.S.-In case you should care
to know what remedies this lady
took, I subjoin a list, viz.,-Urea 6
and then 12, Psoricum C, Calc.
216
Fifty Reasons for
+=
carb. C, Sulphur 0, Silicea 30,
Thuja C, Calc. carb. 30, Causticum
C, Silicea C, Caust. 30, Lapis alb.
30, Sulphur 30, Conium 1, Calc.
fluor. 30, Graphites 30, Cheli-
donium e, Hepar 3, etc., etc. The
reasons for giving them I cannot
explain here, but the patient's
lenses are now so clear that she
sees to thread needles.*
Reason the Thirty-seventh.
You take exception to the number
of remedies used in my last case,
+
*Note.-The indications for all these
remedies may be found in any Materia
Medica Pura Homœopathica.
being a Homœopath.
217
and want to know "which cured
the case?"
Will you get a long ladder and
put it up against the side of your
house, and mount it so as to get
into your house by the top window;
and when you have safely per-
formed the feat, write and tell me
which rung of that ladder enabled
you to do it.
I sympathise with your objection,
because it was once my own great
stumbling-block in accepting the
results of homoeopathic treatment;
it may perhaps be adequately ex-
plained somewhere in the vast
literature of the homœopathic frater-
nity, but I have never come across
such an explanation, and hence have
P
218
Fifty Reasons for
f
had to work it out for myself. I
will put it to you thus:-In difficult,
chronic, complicated cases of disease
you require not a remedy but a
ladder (series) of remedies, not one
of which can of itself effect the cure,
but each of which works cure-wards,
their cumulative action eventuating
in a cure—THAT is how I cure cata-
ract, and many other chronic
diseases that are currently held to
be incurable by most men of all
shades of therapeutic opinion. I
regard this power of utilising a long
series of remedies for the cure of
difficult chronic cases as only second
in importance to the law of cure
itself. I originally learned the thing
in conversation with Dr Drysdale
of Liverpool, though not formulated
being a Homeopath.
219
by him, and I doubt if Dr Drysdale
ever did formulate it. In my own
mind I call it the ladder of remedies
plan. It is what I often heard Dr
Drysdale call "a course of medi-
cines."
I often compare the cure of a
difficult case of disease to a game
of chess in which you have king,
queen, bishops, knights, rooks, and
pawns, the various powers of which
you must learn before you can play
chess.
You do not expect to play chess
without learning the game, but you
do expect to be able to treat homœo-
pathically without even knowing the
homœopathic pawn! Hence my
writing you all these reasons for
220
Fifty Reasons for
my being a homoeopath is a futile
farce. I am, in fact, writing to you
about chess without your knowing
the pieces or even the board!! Still
here is my thirty-seventh reason.
It is more than a dozen years
ago that I, in the North, attended
a very wealthy lady, about 70
years of age, for acute mania. The
friends had, under the advice of the
local practitioner, decided to send
her to an asylum, but I objected to
that course, being very sure she
would never come out again. I
have had charge of an asylum
myself, and know well that, thera-
peutically, anyone that goes to an
asylum is lost. They are treated
with great kindness, and kept from
being a Homœopath.
22I
harm and mischief, but as to curing
them-well, the "mad doctors"
never even try! and, indeed, it is
useless to treat the demented allo-
pathically. But good genuine
homœopathy would cure half the
inmates of our asylums. You will
question my statement, I dare say,
but it is the bare simple truth all
the same. It has been well and
learnedly argued in theory and
often proved in practice, as you
may find for yourself if you will
refer to our hereto-relative literature.
Homœopathic (and other!) prac-
titioners are often hoodwinked by
the personal surroundings of a
patient, and to be pitchforked
into a nest of unbelievers to cure
+
222 Fifty Reasons for
a desperate case is verily no pleas-
ant position to be in, as any
physician of the homoeopathic ilk
knows but too well.
Now my patient had a lady com-
panion who cast a withering glance
at my humble self, and I knew
instantly that she would baulk me
in my efforts to cure, unless I pre-
vented it. So I informed her that
either she or I must go, or she
must solemnly promise to obey all
my orders with regard to the
patient, "for," said I, "you do not
believe in homoeopathy, do you?"
No indeed, I do not!" And that
young lady's look of scorn and con-
tempt!
Thanks to Baptisia and other
being a Homœopath. 223
common homœopathic remedies my
patient made a complete recovery,
and never had a relapse.
This is my thirty-seventh reason
for being a homœopath, and if ever
I lose my reason and become
maniacal, great Father in heaven,
send me a homœopathic brother,
who will treat
treat me as I treated
Mrs B-
Reason the Thirty-eighth.
If you really wish to know the
remedies that "did the trick" in
my last reason, you have only to
look into our literature with a
humble receptive mind, and you will
soon spot them!
224 Fifty Reasons for
I must get on with my task,
which is beginning to pall upon me,
and I really cannot spare the time.
Not very long after I said good-
bye to my ex-maniacal patient I
was one afternoon sitting in my
consulting-room, when who should
appear on the scene but the before-
mentioned lady companion of my
said ex-maniacal patient.
"Doctor," said she, "as you have
cured Mrs B——————, I have been won-
B-
dering whether you could also cure
my sister, who is in an asylum suf-
fering from mania; she is very bad,
and the doctors say they have no
hope of her, as she has been violent
for so long."
being a Homœopath.
225
I enquired somewhat into the
nature of the case, and gave as my
opinion that homoeopathy could cure
her.
The plan was communicated to
the superintendent of the asylum,
who called me some very hard
names, the first of which was that
I was a deceiver, and that I knew
perfectly well that she would never
get well. We required the help of
three or four people to bring her in
a special carriage, and her violence
was dreadful for many weeks.
For more than twelve years this
young lady has been as sane as you
or I, and has during all that time
fulfilled the ordinary duties of an
independent English lady. If you
UorM
226
Fifty Reasons for
care to know what medicines did
the good, you will find the whole
case reported in the "British Journal
of Homœopathy" about a dozen
years ago. I remember figures
with difficulty, so I cannot give
you the exact date. The young
lady went with her mother to see
the said asylum physician after she
was well, but this cure did not lead
him, so far as I ever heard, either
to apologise to me for his vulgar
slanders of me, or to investigate the
system of medicine that helped me
to cure where he failed, and which
cure is my thirty-eighth reason for
being a homœopath.*
* Note.-This lady still continues quite
well (1896).
Maou
being a Homœopath. 227
Reason the Thirty-ninth.
THE weather is bad to-day, so I
am not busy in my chambers; sick
people cannot get out in this dread-
ful weather, and that gives con-
sulting physicians a little time to
ruminate. However, a gentleman
of 79, whom I have just con-
verted to homoeopathy, was here
just now, and his case must afford
my thirty-ninth reason. It has the
merit of being short and needing no
particular introduction. He came
to me last August, and what fixed
my attention was his striking re-
semblance to the late Lord Cairns,
who, by the way, was a homoeopath,
>
Fifty Reasons for
228
as was also Archbishop Whately,
Fancy the great
the logic man.
logician a homœopath!
Well, my patient had been to
many eminent physicians in this
London of ours for what he called
windy dyspepsia." He is in great
and almost constant pain, full of foul
flatus, constant diarrhoea, often in-
voluntary, which is a terrible distress
to him.
He was greatly improved in a few
months, and the remedies which did
it were Arsenicum 5, Nux vomica 5,
Sulphur 5, Lycopodium 12, and
Colocynthis 3*.
Said the old gentleman, some-
what sententiously, "These medi-
cines seem to suit me."
being a Homeopath. 229
Reason the Sortieth.
AN officer in the army brought
his twelve-year-old daughter to me
on the 13th of November 1886,
telling me that she had something
growing in her mouth. A similar
growth had come a year ago, when
his family surgeon excised it; in six
months from the time of the opera-
tion it had grown again, making it
difficult for the child to eat her food,
as it caught the tongue and teeth,
and then bled. This time the doctor
ligatured it off thoroughly, leaving
a hole, and informed the father that
this time he hoped its roots were
got rid of. Now it has grown again
230
Fifty Reasons for
at the side of the said hole. On
examining the mouth I find in its
left side, just to the left of the
frænulum linguæ, a warty fleshy
excrescence, of the shape of a cock's
comb, about a quarter of an inch
broad at its base, and nearly a
quarter of an inch high. Patient
has normal teeth; the tongue is
coated, and she is very pale. I
ordered Thuja occidentalis 30 in-
ternally, in infrequent dose, and a
mouth wash of Thuja e, two drops
in a dessertspoonful of water night
and morning; to keep it bathing
the growth as long as possible, and
then expectorate.
As this brought the growth down
to the size of a pea, treatment was
i
being a Homœopath.
231
discontinued, but she then bit it on
three successive occasions, where-
upon it again took to growing, and
in January 1887, when I saw it, it
was about as big as a horse-bean.
This time I ordered Sabina, just as
I had previously ordered Thuja.
Under the Sabina patient took on a
healthy look, but a small piece of
the growth still persisted, when I
ordered Cupressus Lawsoniana in
like manner as the Thuja and
Sabina had been used. That was
in March 1887, and I did not see
her again. But I met her father in
October on another matter, when I
enquired about the case, and he
replied, "Oh, she is quite well; the
lump has been gone a long time, but
the hole is still there."
232 Fifty Reasons for
.
So if you ever get a little cock's
comb growth in your mouth, take
my advice and have it treated
homœopathically, for it is, as you
see, much better than either
excision or ligature, and you will
thereafter have no "hole " to
mark the locus in quo; and let the
little tip stand as my fortieth reason
for being a homœopath.
Reason the Sorty-first.
DEAFNESS is a very troublesome
thing to deal with, but it is worth
while being a homoeopath, were
it only for the power it gives one
being a Homeopath. 233
over deafness.
I never could
make out what you allopathic
fellows did for deafness beyond
the everlasting syringing. I have
peered about in the aural depart-
ments of big hospitals, and read
the books of noted aurists, begin-
ning with a namesake of my own,
but could never find that they did
any real good beyond clearing
away mechanical hindrances. And
even in homœopathy, it seems to
me that our specialists rely far too
much on cutting, scraping, and
syringing.
I have very often cured deafness
with the aid of homoeopathy, but
most of the cases have needed so
many remedies that I could not
Q
234 Fifty Reasons for
cite them without occupying too
much space.
A lady of 60, of the Vieille
noblesse catholique anglaise, came
to me in December 1886, sent by
her daughter, whom I had cured
of neuralgia. The daughter had
neuralgia of right side of head
very badly, that she thought origin-
ally came from a coup de vent.
She spent the winter of 1885-6
in Nice, and one day sat next to
a gentleman at the table d'hôte;
they compared notes about their
state of being, when it transpired
that the gentleman had previously
suffered from the very same sort
of neuralgia, and in the identical
spot, and that for many years until
being a Homeopath.
235
he came to me, when I (thanks to
homœopathy) cured him. I had
intended giving the case of deaf-
ness as my forty-first reason for
being a homœopath, but I will alter
my plan, and instead give this cure
of neuralgia.
The lady was 40 years of age,
and came to me in April 1886;
the pain was in the right side of
brow, face, ear, and neck, and had
been on ever since the preceding
November.
Thuja occidentalis in a rather
high dilution and infrequent doses
cured the neuralgia in a few weeks,
and the lady in question has
thought this brilliant cure of her
neuralgia of itself sufficient for
236 Fifty Reasons for
becoming a homœopath, and if it
be enough in itself to convert the
sufferer to homoeopathy, it will
surely be good enough to be one
of my fifty reasons, and that the
forty-first.
Reason the Sorty-second.
HAVING begun in my last com-
munication to give you a case of
deafness as my forty-first reason, I
fell back on a case of neuralgia that
had been suggested by it, and so
that leaves the deaf lady to do duty
now. Well, she came in December
1886, because I had cured said
neuralgia.
being a Homeopath.
237
ļ
You cured my daughter's
neuralgia, so perhaps you can cure
my deafness."
It was a case of long standing
that had been under the best
aurists, and they had syringed it
and done their poor little best,
giving temporary ease, but not
touching the essence of the com-
plaint, which was due to chronic
inflammation and swelling of the
walls of the external meatus on
both sides.
In five months the lady was
quite cured, and the remedies were
Thuja, Psoricum, Sabina,
Sabina, and
Ceanothus, and one other.
This lady has also become a
238 Fifty Reasons for
homoeopath, and now employs for
her family the homœopathic
practitioner living near her house,
and her cure must stand as my
forty-second reason for being a
homoeopath.
Reason the Sorty-third.
I GAVE you the cure of a der-
matitic state as my last reason
for being a homœopath; nosologi-
cally we called it deafness. Let
me advance a little on the merely
inflammatory state, and give as
my forty-third reason for being a
homœopath the cure of a small
growth. I will call it-
!

being a Homœopath. 239
ENCHONDROMA INDICIS CURED BY
Calcarea fluorica ALONE.
•
A maiden lady of 60 came to
consult me on the 13th of October
1883, telling me she had a shiny
swelling on her left index finger,
which had been there for about
eighteen months. The lump was
hard and painful, and of about
the size of a small split walnut,
but rather flatter. Patient was
very nervous and depressed.
B Trit. 3* Calcarea fluorica. Six
grains four times a day, dry on the
tongue.
October 27.-Very great improve-
ment.
B Rep.
240
Fifty Reasons for
November 3.-The cartilaginous
nature is now clearly to be felt.
Ꭱ Rep.
10th.—The swelling continues to
get softer.
B Rep. (dry on the tongue.)
17th. Still progressing; softer
and smaller; on its middle-finger
side it has taken on inflammatory
action, as if it were going to gather,
being hot, red, and more swelled.
B Rep.
24th. The tumour is softer and
smaller, and patient is beginning
to bend her finger, which had pre-
viously become quite impossible.
B Rep.
being a Homœopath. 241
December 1.-Still improving.
B Rep.
15th.-Finger is much more nor-
mal in colour, and still progressing.
Patient went on with the same.
remedy until a short way into the
new year. I saw her the last time
on December 29th, when she was
nearly well.
If I remember rightly Grauvogl
was the first to use and to recom-
mend the fluoride of lime for
enchondroma.
The interest of this case lies not
so much in the importance of the
tumour (it was only the size of half
a walnut, or thereabouts), but rather
in the fact that only one remedy
was used, and no other, and no
242 Fifty Reasons for
change was made either in diet
or place of abode. The lady had
a hard lump on her finger for
eighteen months; she took a course
of Calc. fl., to the choice of which
homoeopathy led me, and the lump
went away.-Q.E.D.
Reason the Sorty-fourth.
I HAVE before pointed out to you
that I love the grand independence
conferred upon me by homoeopathy:
when I have a difficult case I do
not want to slide softly away from
responsibility by the support of a
consultative old fogy, whose brains
have long since gone to sleep and
being a Homœopath. 243
។
whose raison d'être is only medico-
social. I want to cure my patient,
and were it only for the mental
satisfaction. Now, guided by
homœopathy, and a wee bit of
reasoning power, I can generally
do this.
Read the following case of-
TRAUMATIC SWELLING OF RIGHT
BREAST CURED BY Bellis alone.
I ADDUCE the following case of a
swelling in a young lady's breast,
rather to exemplify in a neat way
the curative range of the DAISY in
the treatment of tumours.
No experienced practitioner will
deny the important part played by
bruises, blows, and falls, in the
genesis of tumours and cancer; and
244 Fifty Reasons for
1
hence our anti-traumatics ought to
figure much more largely in our
therapeutics of growths from blows.
Before giving my case I will quote
a very instructive note on this very
question that appeared as leader in
the first volume of the "Homœo-
pathic Recorder" (Philadelphia),
No. 4, July 1886.
It runs thus :-
MALIGNANT GROWTHS.
In the preceding number of
The Recorder" there appeared
three items concerning malignant
growths, which deserve more than
passing notice. One is the history
of the development of a malignant
formation as the result of the fre-
quent mechanical irritation of a
being a Homeopath. 245
'
simple mole on the face, another
recounted the cure of an extensive
sarcomatous growth by an inter-
current attack of erysipelas, and
the third contained the analysis of
a series of cases of carcinoma in
all of which there was antecedent
injury by mechanical or chemical
means; in the latter selection the
writer asks in all seriousness: Is
cancer, whatever its form, ever
primary,―i.e., does it ever originate
without previous injury?
A negative reply to this inquiry
is of the highest importance to
those who believe in the curative
effects of drugs. It deprives the
disease-action of part of the mys-
terious, fateful quality so constantly
246 Fifty Reasons for
associated in our minds with these
affections, and which terrorizes to
some degree the powers of the
medical attendant. For we hold
that the great majority of physicians,
on discovering the existence of a
suspicious growth, are strongly im-
pelled to advise the use of the
knife as the only sure treatment,
notwithstanding that in cases of
undoubted malignancy the value of
surgical interference is greatly les-
sened by the relatively poor results
as measured by the added years
given to the patient.
Moreover, if the occurrence of an
infectious inflammation of the skin
has destroyed malignant disease-
process in that issue, there is a
being a Homœopath. 247
fairly good basis for the view, rea-
soning by analogy, that a drug-
disease-i.e., a disease produced by
the action of a medicine—can, if
affecting a part involved in the
malignant process, cause similarly
efficacious results.
In an admirable Report* on the
Progress of Pathology, by J. H.
Muser, M.D., Mr Sutton, F.R.C.S.,
is given as authority for the follow-
ing view: "Irritation, local or
otherwise, affecting the tissue,
may cause abnormal epithelial
growths, which, rising above the
general level, may produce a wart.
On the other hand, the epithelial
growths may dip into the sub-epi-
* “Phila. Med. Times,” xvi., 484.
248
Fifty Reasons for
thelial tissues, and, on account of
lack of formative development,
either from decline of vigour or
general constitutional debility, the
new tissue never develops func-
tionally, runs riot, and originates
tissues of low vitality,-carcino-
mata. The conditions favourable
to the development of carcinomata
-debility, etc. are absent in the
young; hence in the young we have
warts; in the old, cancers.
What, then, is the bearing of
these facts upon the treatment of
probably malignant tumours? Pass-
ing by the cures of warts by internal
medicine alone, which almost every
homœopathic practitioner has ob-
served over and over again, we need
being a Homeopath. 249
1
!
:
4
only call attention to the cures, by
the same method, of tumours of the
female breast, an organ notoriously
disposed to malignant neoplasms ;
here the action of Conium cannot
be denied, and what is true of
this remedy may be true of many
others.
A thorough study of the symp-
toms of each individual case, with
the view of finding the exact simil-
limum, the exhibition of the latter in
different attenuations, if necessary,
changing the remedy only when a
change of symptoms demands it,
and extreme watchfulness for in-
volvement of
of the neighbouring
glandular structures, make
up, it
appears to us, the duty of the phy-
R
250
Fifty Reasons for
there
sician. Whether he would be jus-
tified in holding out any hope of
cure by internal medication after
evidences of systemic infection
exist, must be decided by his
own experience; but, as
are always cases in which opera-
tion is inadmissible, or in which
it will not be allowed, opportunities
will not be wanting to continue
treatment with the properly chosen
remedy.
If statistics of our treatment can
be collated and analyzed, the results
will, we feel sure, give encourage-
ment to physicians and sufferers as
well, and demonstrate anew, and in
a strikingly brilliant manner, the
value of our law of cure.
i
2
being a Homœopath.
251
We earnestly hope, then, that
those of us who hold hospital or
dispensary appointments will en-
deavour to employ the method of
internal medication in
cases of
malignant growths whenever it is
fairly admissible to do so, and that
records of cases containing diagnoses
checked off as to their accuracy
by every method known to medical
science, together with the symptoms
in full and the treatment used, may
soon appear in our journals.
Thus
will be laid the foundation for a
new and lasting monument to
homœopathy.
Without going so far as the
author of this article, I must
certainly say I attribute some of
252 Fifty Reasons for
my success in the treatment of
cancers and other tumours by
medicines to a due recognition of
the traumatic fact, not in diagnostics
merely, but also in therapeutics.
Miss L. C., aged 13 years, came
under my observation at the end
of July 1879. About eight weeks
previously a miserable lad in the
street hit her on the right breast
with considerable violence; from
that time on this breast became
swollen and very painful, until
at length she was quite unable to
lie on her right side. Patient's
mother was poitrinaire, as was
also her brother, and my experi-
ence teaches me that the members
4
being a Homeopath.
253
of poitrinaire families are parti
cularly liable to suffer from blows.
At first no notice was taken of
the young lady's complaints, but
week after week went by, and she
persisted in referring to the pain
in her breast. Whether any
domestic means had been employed
I do not now remember, but
eventually I was sent for, as
vague notions of tumour and
cancer rendered the parents un-
easy. On comparing the breasts,
the right one was found
was found to be
by much the larger, being swollen
and very tender.
I thought this a very proper
case for testing the anti-trau-
matic virtue of the old English
254 Fifty Reasons for
bruisewort, and hence prescribed
thus:-
B Tc. Bellidis perennis 3*.
zij.
S.-Three drops to be taken in
water four times a day.
The result was a very rapid
disappearance of pain and swelling,
and in a fortnight patient could lie
again on the right side. And a few
days later an examination showed
that the swelling had entirely dis-
appeared.
Nothing whatever was applied to
the part, no change was made in
diet, mode of life, or place of abode,
and as the thing had already
existed for eight weeks, the posi-
tively curative effect of the Bellis
being a Homeopath. 255
can hardly be denied, which is the
one point this case is meant to
exemplify and to teach, and that
because it is so very difficult to
demonstrate positively the effect
of any one remedy when the tume-
faction has become a genuine
neoplasia, or hyperplasia.* Too
many of my cases prove this.
Reason the Sorty-fifth.
JUST one other case of a new-
growth as my forty-fifth reason for
being a homœopath. You will.
see that the general character of a
drug often helps us where our
* In this case there was, of course, no
hyperplasia.
256 Fifty Reasons for
law becomes more or less insaisis-
sable. It is a-
TUMOUR IN THE THROAT.
A married lady of 54 came
on the 8th of August 1883 to
consult me about a lump in her
throat. In the left side of the top
of the neck there was a hard body
about the size of a hen's egg, but
flatter. The tumour had been there
for a very long time, and with it
she had had much throat irritation.
It was situated to the left and be-
hind the larynx, but whether actually
connected with the oesophagus or
larynx I could never quite satisfy
myself. It moved up and down
with the act of deglutition.
!
being a Homeopath. 257
B Trit. 3* Sul. iod., ziv., gr. vj.
ter die.
August 22.-No change.
B Psor. 30.
October 5.-The throat-i.e. the
fulness, uneasiness, pain and dis-
tress in the throat-is very much
better, and the tumour has sensibly
diminished in size.
B Thuja occid. 30.
November 1.-The tumour is
about half gone,
B Psor. 30.
29th. The tumour about two-
thirds gone; general health good.
B Thuja 30.
December 21.-There is some
tickling in the throat. The tumour
258 Fifty Reasons for
ト
​·
is larger again, and the patient feels
choky.
B Psor. 30.
January 14, 1884.-The tumour
has again sensibly diminished in
size.
len.
B Psor. C.
February 8.-Tumour still swol-
B Merc. viv. 5.
March 3.-" I feel the lump very
much less, about half its original
size," said the lady.
She has much
rheumatism in ankles and knees.
B Silicea, 6 trit., in frequently
repeated doses.
31st. Has been visiting a friend
suffering from consumption, and
being a Homeopath.
259
since then has spit a little blood-
streaked phlegm; has a good deal
of tickling in the throat.
B Psor. 30.
April 16.-No coloured expec-
toration for a week, and then very
trifling; the tickling in the throat is
better, but the throat feels very
The tumour is rather
rough.
smaller.
B Sul. iod. 3*, six grains three
times a day.
30th.-No coloured expectora-
tion for the past week; the tick-
ling in the throat is very much
better, but talking brings it on.
The tumour has lately not altered
sensibly in size, but it is more self-
contained, and one can now demon-
260 Fifty Reasons for
strate that it is not connected with
the larynx, being in the areolar
tissue, behind and to its left. Has
a good deal of rheumatism.
B Tc. Condurango 1, ziv. Five
drops in water three times a day.
May 21.-Thinks it is not so
well; the tickling sensation in the
throat is worse. Feels the spring.
The throat is worse in the morning
and when tired.
R Thuja 30.
June 10.-Throat rather better;
has only had the coloured expec-
toration once, but the voice is
hoarse, and she feels her throat
weak. Has rheumatism in ankles
being a Homoeopath. 261
and knees, worse after motion. The
tumour is a trifle smaller.
B Urea 6.
June 11.-More blood-coloured
expectoration. Has had all the
symptoms of a cold; aching all
over with tingling, and feeling
giddy and ill; aphonia; much ten-
derness in the neck; rheumatism
better; urine thick (unusual); vio-
lent tickling in the throat with
scraping and dryness; the tumour
is nearly gone.
The throat symptoms are worse
night and morning, and when she
is tired.
B Tc. Phytolacca decandra 1,
ziv., gtt. v., n. m.
262 Fifty Reasons for
August 6.-Better in every way;
the tumour is barely to be found.
B Rep.
September 3.-Feels practically
well. I can find the small remains
of the tumour only with great diffi-
culty.
B Rep. (at night only).
November 13.-Still a little un-
easiness in the throat.
R Trit. 3* Sul. iod.
28th.-Nearly well.
B Rep.
December 31.-The tumour can
not be found, but she still com-
plains of a husky voice.
B Trit. 4 Kali brom.
being a Homœopath.
263
:
I did not see the patient again
for some months, as the tumour
had quite disappeared, and she
herself felt quite well, but she
came to me again on
April 10, 1885, complaining of
tickling and irritation at the old
spot.
B Psor. C.
May 11.-She feels easier in the
throat, but the tumour is returning.
B Trit. 3* Sul. iod.
November 25.—The lump is still
increasing.
B Psor. C.
This lady came again on Feb-
ruary 15, 1886, and for the last
time on the 30th April 1886, when
264 Fifty Reasons for
I discharged her cured. I see her
son occasionally on his own ac-
count, and thus know that she con-
tinues quite well, and has a very
healthy general appearance.
I am beginning to breathe more
freely now, having only five more
Reasons to bring forward. Confess
candidly, do you not wish homœo-
pathy were socially très comme il
faut, and to be had for the asking?
A lady of high rank said to me
three years ago, "If you were not
a homœopath, Dr Burnett, I could
make your fortune." Said I, "Well,
my lady, I am very sorry not to
enlist you in the laudable under-
* 1896.—No return of the tumour, and
patient continues quite well of herself.
being a Homœopath. 265
taking of making my fortune, which
would be at least very nice for
those dependent upon me; but I
am a homœopath, and fortune or
no fortune, I thank God for this
much of His truth."
It is late and I am tired, but I
trust you will be able to read my
cacography.
Reason the Sorty-sixth.
I HAVE given you a good many
details in my last three or four
reasons to let you see the light in
which I write, so far as that is pos-
sible to you in your ignorance of the
scientific treatment of disease in the
S
266
Fifty Reasons for
sense in which I understand it.
You will pardon the lately given
journalistic quotation as bearing on
the subject-idea; it is the only one
I have inflicted upon you in this
lengthy correspondence, and I will
not trouble you with another.
Now, I have a partiality for cases
with a good sound pathology that
can be seen, felt, cut out, put into
the scales and weighed! They
seem so much more proof-affording
than mere symptoms in given parts,
as headache or neuralgia, as these
often depart of themselves. But,
generally speaking, you may bet on
the permanency of a good solid
tumour. As my forty-sixth reason,
therefore, I must give you the
being a Homœopath. 267
i
}
$
!
notes, as short as may be, of a
rather rare affection, viz. :—
TUMOUR OF RIGHT BREAST IN A
MAN.*
Although tumours of the breast
are much more common in women
than in men, still they do also occur
in the breasts of males, more par-
ticularly in later life. Such a one
is the following:-
On April 23, 1881, there came
to me a rather tall, spare, cachectic-
looking gentleman, a London pro-
fessional man, of about 70 years of
age, telling me that ever since the
previous February he had been
* So rare are such cases that I have never
seen but three such.
268 Fifty Reasons for
greatly worried, and this was fol-
lowed by a sensitiveness in his left
nipple, which soon passed off and
went to the right nipple, wherein it
still was. On examining the part
I found it the seat of a hard, tumid
mass of the size of a pigeon's egg.
Patient first noticed it was swelled.
a month previously. It is not ac-
tually painful, but there is a sensa-
tion of fulness and uneasiness, and
he cannot lie on it, hence it arrests.
his attention.
В Psor. 30, m. vi.; s. 1. q.s., ft.
pulv., tales xij., j nocte.
May 7.-There is still a sensa-
tion of fulness in it; patient thinks
it is softer, in which opinion I share.
It is a little smaller. Since taking
being a Homœopath.
269
the powders he has had some
bilious attacks.
B Rep.
May 21. It is much smaller;
there is much less sensitiveness, and
patient can now sleep lying on his
right side, which was previously not
possible.
B Rep.
May 28.-The sensitiveness is
now confined to the nipple alone,
still he can sleep lying on it. He
is constipated, and his tongue is
thickly furred.
B Hydrastis canadensis 3*.,
3iv.
S.-Gtt. v., nocte maneque.
June 14.-The sensitiveness still
270 Fifty Reasons for
continues, but it has very much de-
creased.
Rep.
July 2. Less sensitiveness;
tumour still decreasing in size;
on the sternum, on a level with
the nipple, there is a scabby erup-
tion of the size of a threepenny
piece, having a red ground, the
rest being yellowish. He is still
constipated.
B Tc. Hydrastis canad. 6, 3iv.,
gtt. v., n. m.
July 23.-He has scabs* on the
scalp; a yellow scab at the middle
* I often notice scabby eruptions occur
under the influence of our remedies given in
cases of tumours, when said tumours are
diminishing in size.
being a Homœopath.
271
of the sternum; also on his hands.
The nipple is no longer sensitive
at all.
R Tc. Thuja occid. 30, in infre-
quent doses.
August 13.-The tumour has
disappeared, with the exception
of one of the size of a hazel nut.
There is still some scaly eruption
on the sternum.
B Psor. 30 (two to a month).
September 16.-No trace of the
tumour to be found. There is still
a patch of reddish scaly eruption
on the skin of the chest.
B Tc. Chelidon. maj. 3, gtt.
iij., nocte.
October 13.-No trace of tumour ;
272
Fifty Reasons for
still a circular patch at mid-sternum.
Bowels a little relaxed.
B Trit. 6, Nat. sul.
Oct. 27.-Well; and has a healthy
complexion, whereas it was, at the
beginning of the treatment, quite
earthy.
Six years have elapsed since
then, during all which time the
patient has remained well of the
tumour-i.e., it has never returned.
Two or three times or more in
every year the gentleman is in
the habit of coming to see me,
"To be kept in repair." Before
I began the treatment I was
importuned by his friends as to
whether I was quite sure it was
safe to forego an operation, "which,
1.
being a Homœopath.
273
you know, Sir J.
says is the
only chance!"
What did the friends say after
the tumour was cured by remedies?
Perhaps ;
Were they grateful?
they have so scrupulously avoided
the subject ever since that I have
no means of knowing.
Nevertheless the tumour remains
cured, and that is the main point.
If you care to know my opinion
of the pathology of this tumour, I
wish to say I think it was scirrhus.
That it was a very hard lump is
quite sure.
Speaking biopathologically, more
meo, the basis of the thing was
PSORO VACCINOSIS.
274 Fifty Reasons for
Only four more Reasons are now
due to you; are you prepared to
come down the tree yet"?
Reason the Sorty-seventh.
ONE can hardly have to deal
with a more formidable affection
than Angina pectoris, and in its
treatment homœopathy can do
great things. It is, however, a
mighty mistake to treat the cases
all alike, as quite a number of
different diseases give rise to the
usual anginal symptoms; the cases
must be diagnostically and thera-
peutically differentiated if they are
to be really cured.
·
being a Homoeopath. 275
A short time since it was my
duty to see a lady in Belgravia
with Angina pectoris; unwonted
domestic drudgery, loss of loved
ones, fright, loss of fortune, had
led up to it.
Apart from the anginal attacks
there was a chronic, constant pain
across the præcordia, running away
under the left breast. For years
blisters had been applied at inter-
vals with temporary relief, till
they could no longer be borne.
Patient was very depressed, sulky,
and morose; the menses suppressed.
Aurum metallicum, 3 trituration,
6 grains every four hours, cured
the constant pain in a week, and
the anginal attacks have thus far
276 Fifty Reasons for
not recurred, and patient smiles
now and is bright. The menses
have, however, not appeared, and
for this she remains under treat-
ment.
I do not expect you to realize
the difference wrought by the Gold,
inasmuch as in my allopathic days
I should have flatly refused belief
in my present statement. Hence,
if you now feel the same, I can
sympathise with you, and I there-
fore will not insist further than to
place it on record as my forty-
seventh reason for being a homœo-
path.
being a Homœopath. 277
+
:
Reason the Sorty-eighth.
LED by the law of likes, I have
been able to do very satisfactory
work with Gold as a remedy in
disease; if you care to know, I
wrote a book on the subject some
years since, wherein I say :—
The following is a case of dropsy
of the lower extremities, which came
under my observation two years ago.
I was fetched, I think it was one
Sunday, to see a lady; it was feared
she was beyond recovery. I found
my patient, a lady of about 50, in
bed; her lower extremities were
swollen, painful; they pitted on
pressure, and were worse at night,
278
Fifty Reasons for
better in the morning. This cdema
had been coming on for a week or
two, but it had usually quite disap-
peared by the morning, and thus
caused but very little anxiety, but
now it had greatly increased even
in bed, and very naturally was caus-
ing great alarm. Dropsy is almost
always a grave symptom, though
not always. In this case I think it
There was a history of many
illnesses, and altogether this drug-
picture presented itself:-
was.
1. There was dropsy, and patient
had
2. Great depression of spirits,
amounting to
3. Profound melancholia.
being a Homœopath.
279
4. Then there was great difficulty
of breathing, and
5. Weak pulse and feeble heart.
6. She was psoric, and had a
good deal of
7. Discharge from the nose, that
at times contained some blood.
I gave her the Muriate of gold
in the third decimal dilution, but I
do not remember the exact number
of drops or the repetition of the
dose, but the dose was not less than
one drop (it may have been two or
three), and as often as every two or
three hours, and given in water.
The case got rapidly well, all
the oedema having permanently
disappeared in less than a week.
280 Fifty Reasons for
Eighteen months after this she in-
formed me she had never since had
any return of the dropsy, though
her health was anything but good.
This was only a recent case, and,
though grave, was yet not severe as
to the dropsy, but the despondency
was almost a substantive malady.
In this case Gold acted as a
veritable pick-me-up, and I submit
that theremedy was homoeopathically
indicated, and the cure a homœo-
pathic one; about the dose I will
not quibble; with me the best dose
is the one that cures.
This happened just ten years ago,
and the lady is still alive and fairly
well-so let it stand as my forty-
eighth reason.
being a Homœopath. 281
Reason the Sorty-ninth.
In human life we
IN
life we have our
favourites; we have them in our
families, and in therapeutics I have
a great fondness for certain reme-
dies, one of which is GOLD.
You allopaths say Gold is no
medicine at all, because it is an in-
soluble metal ! That's what the
best Professors of Materia Medica
taught me; it is fundamentally
false all the same!
Oh, the silly, silly things they
teach one at the schools! What a
frightful heap of old fossil beliefs!
For Gold is no mere function
disturber, but a producer of organic
T
*
282
Fifty Reasons for
change, and hence its brilliant effects
in organic mischief. The vascular
turgescence of Belladonna and
that of Aurum are very different
affairs.
The following interesting and
instructive case once occurred in
my practice, viz. :—
RHEUMATIC ENDOCARDITIS IN THE
COURSE OF RHEUMATIC FEVER.
I was fetched one day in Feb-
ruary by a gentleman in the city
to see his wife, a lady of about
55 or 60, who was lying very
dangerously ill at the end of the
third week of rheumatic fever.
This gentleman, who is an old
homœopath of thirty years' stand-
ing, and whose knowledge of drugs
being a Homeopath.
283
and disease is really remarkable for
a layman, had treated patient him-
self, and with no inconsiderable
success considering the severity of
the case, but suddenly patient's con-
dition became very alarming on
account of the rheumatism having
apparently seized upon the heart.
I found this condition: patient was
propped up in bed and breathing
very hurriedly; the lips bluish;
tongue dry and coated; anxious
expression of face; puffy under
eyes; moist râles all over chest,
with cough; pulse rapid, compres-
sible, and intermittent; action of
heart floundering; loud endocardial
bruits; slight dropsy of feet; no
appetite at all, could just suck a
grape or sip tea; profuse perspira-
284
Fifty Reasons for
tions; limbs swelled and painful,
the joints almost as firmly locked
as if anchylosed; cannot move hand
or foot for pain and from this
swelled, inflamed state of the joints
flesh of hands puffy; bones of hands
swelled, almost immovable, and
tender.
I ordered Aurum foliatum, 2nd
trituration, very frequently.
and no auxiliaries.
Alone.
Why did I order Aurum? Be-
cause it affects the heart and
respiration very much like they
were affected in this patient, and
because it, moreover, produces pro-
fuse perspiration, profound weak-
ness, anorexia, and great anxiety.
being a Homeopath.
285
Then the bones were greatly
affected.
February 18.-A little easier.
Rep.
19th.—Better in all respects.
Rep.
20th.
Considerable improve-
ment in the action of the heart;
breathing comfortable; is out of
danger. Rep.
22nd.-Continued improvement.
Rep.
24th. Quite comfortable. Con-
tinue the Aurum and take Nat.
sul., 6 trit., in alternation with it.
My reason for alternating was that
I thought it imprudent to leave off
286 Fifty Reasons for
!
the Gold, and yet Nat. sul. was
now indicated.
March 2.-Is up sitting by fire.
Appetite good.
6th.-Heart, joints, bones, and
hands free from rheumatism 1; is
sitting by fire quite comfortably ;
appetite good; tongue moist but
slightly furred; feet swell a little
towards evening.
This case so well illustrates the
action of Gold on the organic tissue
of the heart that I will leave it as
my forty-ninth reason.
When I saw patient first I gave
a bad prognosis, and had it not
been for the Gold I fear it would
have been realised. Auxiliaries did
being a Homœopath.
287
not do it, for I used none; faith in
the doctor did not cure her, for
patient had never seen me before.
Patient's recovery was complete.
The Siftieth Reason.
HERE I am, my dear allopathic
friend, arrived at my FIFTIETH
REASON FOR BEING A HOMEOPATH.
I mentioned as my forty-seventh
reason a case of Angina pectoris
cured by metallic gold, and awhile
ago I stated to you that I considered
the wide applicability, the immense
range, the broad scope of homœo-
pathy afford ample
ample reason for
288 Fifty Reasons for
te:
adhering to it as a practical system
of curative medicine.
As my last-to-be-given reason, let
me write off from my "Diseases
of the Skin from the Organismic
Standpoint" the
the following-pre-
mising, merely, that the remedy
used was Sulphur 30!—
ANGINA PECTORIS FROM SUP-
PRESSED SKIN DISEASE.
-
One Sunday morning, some ten
years ago, a gentleman ushered his
wife into my consulting - room
because she had been taken with
an attack of Angina pectoris in
the street, on her way to church.
Though only a little over 30 years
of age, if so much, she had been
subject to these attacks of breast-
being a Homeopath.
289
pang for several years; they would
take her suddenly in the street,
nailing her, as it were, to the spot,
and hence she no longer went out
of doors alone, lest she should faint
away or fall down dead, as was
apprehended.
An examination of the heart
revealed no organic lesion, or
even functional derangement, and
I could not quite see why a com-
paratively young lady should get
such anginal attacks. She had been
under able men for her angina,
but it got no better, and no one
could apparently understand it. I
prescribed for her, and saw her sub-
sequently at her home, to try and
elucidate the matter. I let her tell
290 Fifty Reasons for
me her whole health-history from
her earliest childhood. She said
she was getting to the end of her
teens, and was preparing to come
out, but she had some cracks in
the bends of her arms that were
very unsightly; these cracks had
troubled her from her earliest
childhood. Erasmus Wilson was
consulted; he gave her an oint-
ment which very soon cured her
skin, and the patient came out
socially, made a hit right off, and
got married in due course. She
had always been very grateful to
Erasmus Wilson for curing her
arms, for otherwise, "How could I
have appeared in short sleeves?"
But there soon followed dys-
being a Homeopath. 291
pepsia, flatulence, dyspnoea, and
palpitation, and finally the before-
described attacks of angina pectoris
threatened to wreck her
life.
Moreover, she had borne one
dead child. As I have already
said, there was no discoverable
cardiac lesion, and from the lady's
health-history I gathered that this
cure of her skin (though to me the
one important point) was to her
of no causal importance.
I gave my opinion that her skin
disease had never been really
cured, only driven in by Wilson's
ointment, and that her angina was
in reality its internal expression or
metastasis. No one believed it,
however. I began to treat her
:
292 Fifty Reasons for
antipsorically, and very soon—I
think it was less than a month
from the Sunday morning visit—
the old cracks reappeared in the
bends of the elbows, and from that
time on she had no further attacks
of angina at all, and thenceforth
she bore living children.
I am not ignorant of the range of
the art-cure of disease in the wide
literature of the world, and I affirm
that outside of homoeopathy such
grand therapeutic work has literally
and absolutely no existence.
Should it be the will of the Most
High that I live on in my present
vigour, I shall have yet a great deal
more to say to the world in regard
:
Index.
t
Pleurisy,
Febricula,
Pleurisy,
Pleuritis Rheumatica,
Gout,.
Lethargic Somnolency,
Cancer,
Fatty Degeneration,
PAGE
34
38
46
•
Pain in Left Hypochondrium,
Pain in Right Lung,
Chronic Hiccough,
Aphonia,
Erysipelas,
51
56
59
65
69
73
76
•
. 78, 83, 90
95
100
Quinsy,
Ague,
Neuralgia,
Shivering Fits,
Headache,
Menorrhagia,
Exostosis, .
Cranial Exostosis,
Cough-Chronic,
Aneurysm,
•
•
•
102
104
109
113
I 20
122
131
132
133, 139, 141
147
296.
Index.
Bright's Disease, .
Post-orbital Neuralgia,
Chronic Headache,
Enlarged Glands-Apex-Catarrh, .
PAGE
153
159
165
171
Acne of Face and Nose, and Nasal Dermatitis, 175
Neuralgia of Right Eye,
177
Diseased Finger-nails, .
180
Cataract,
182, 198, 206, 214
Acute Mania,
220, 224
"Windy Dyspepsia,"
227
Warty Excrescence in the Mouth,
229
Neuralgia,
234
Deafness,
236
•
Enchondroma Indicis,
239
Traumatic Swelling of Right Breast,
243
Malignant Growths,
244
Tumour of Right Breast,
252
Tumour in the Throat,
256
Tumour of Right Breast in a Man,
267
Angina Pectoris,.
274
Dropsy of the Lower Extremities,
Rheumatic Endocarditis,
Angina Pectoris,.
•
277
282
288
PRINTED BY OLIVER AND BOYD, EDINBURGH.
being a Homeopath.
293
to homoeopathy and other views of
curative medicine; if not, then let
these Fifty Reasons be my legacy
to my country and to my fellow-man
the world over. I say this because
I intend to publish them, omitting,
of course, all recognisable reference
to your individuality. And of you
personally I have very small hope,
for well do I know that though one
rose from the dead yet would you
allopaths not believe in any, and
therefore not in my "Fifty Reasons
for being a Homœopath."
Adieu sans revoir.

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