TUMOURS
A 575528
OF THE
BREAST
BURNETT
TUMOURS OF THE BREAST
AND THEIR
TREATMENT & CURE
BY
MEDICINES
H44:19
B96
+Ann
-]. COMPTON BURNETT, M.D.

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J
TUMOURS OF THE BREAST,
AND THEIR
TREATMENT AND CURE BY MEDICINES.
TUMOURS OF THE BREAST,
AND THEIR
TREATMENT AND CURE BY MEDICINES.
BY
J.COMPTON BURNETT, M.D.
"Mir wird bei meinem Kritischen Bestreben
Doch oft um Kopf und Busen bang.
Wie schwer sind nicht die Mittel zu erwerben,
Durch die man zu den Quellen steigt!"
WAGNER (in Faust).
LONDON: JAMES EPPS & CO.,
170 PICCADILLY AND 48 THREADNEEDLE STREET.
1 888.
PRINTED BY OLIVER AND BOYD, EDINBURGH.
Bedicated to
HENRY GOULLON, M.D.,
OF
WEIMAR, GERMANY,
BY HIS FAITHFUL FRIEND
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
IN common with a certain small number of
other practitioners of scientific medicine in
different parts of the world, I have long been
in the habit of treating tumours of various
parts of the body by medicines, and that
with great success. When, a few days since,
a young girl, whom I knew, was sent to a
hospital for operation for a small mammary
tumour that I am quite sure could have been
cured by medicines, I felt it to be my impera-
tive duty at once to bring my own views and
experience more prominently to the fore, and
the more so as our knife-men-our surgical
carpenters are waxing bolder and bolder.
every day, and the very excellences of
aseptic and anesthetic surgery are fast run-
ning legitimate medicine to the ground, and
with it our common humanity.
Vill
Preface.
I have been in spare moments occupied
with a larger work on the amenability of
tumours, wherever situate, to medicinal treat-
ment, but I have not time to finish it at
present, and as I had prepared what here
follows on Tumours of the Breast as its first
chapter, I am sending this to the printer as
a smaller independent work. Of course this
makes my present literary venture scrappy
and rather disjointed, but I have thought
the transcendental importance of the subject
would overtop these defects of style and
homogeneity. This much is explanatory
merely. I have thought it well to give par-
ticularly my earlier and more difficult cases.
They constitute a history of my gropings in
the medicinal cures of tumours. I do this
because they show the way in which I have
come to the light, and not because they are
otherwise particularly instructive.
J. COMPTON BURNETT.
2 FINSBURY CIRCUS,
LONDON, E.C., July 9th, 1888.

Tumours of the Breast.
BY tumours I understand all lumps
and swellings whatsoever, the
same being more or less growths
on or in the breast, and also such
as are usually called cancer. This
work is not intended to deal with
the causes of tumours beyond the
merest outlines, as this subject I re-
serve to be dealt with by itself.
have great faith in "one thing at a
time." Nor shall I dwell at very
great length on my reasons for
giving this or that remedy, because
B
I
2 Tumours of the Breast:
otherwise I should have to omit many
of the details of the course of the
cures related, and because most of
the indications are homoeopathic,
and can be deduced from the proper
pharmacological sources by any
competent practitioner who will take
the trouble; and these sources are
medical literature in general-the
literature of the homœopaths more
particularly and, specifically, the re-
cords of drug pathogenesy by
Hahnemann and by his followers,
going back nearly to the beginning
of this century. Some of the indi-
cations are, of course, empiric or
hypothetic. Neither shall I make
any attempt to give the pathology
of any given case further than shall
be necessary to make its name justi-
their Treatment and Cure. 3
fiable and its nature comprehensible;
but I distinctly state that cancer is
included by me in the term tumour.
It will thus be seen that the position.
I take is essentially clinical.
It may be asked, What do I give
if I limit my indications to a few
remedies, and say so little of the
pathology of the tumours? I reply,
that my object is principally to show,
TO PROVE BEYOND ANY POSSIBILITY
OF DOUBT, THAT TUMOURS CAN BE
CURED BY MEDICINES. And I do
not travel all through literature to
prove this proposition, but just con-
tent myself throughout the first
clinical part with setting forth the
outcome of my own experience.
thereon in as few words as I can.
Had I some new prompt and pain-
4
Tumours of the Breast:
less mode of excising tumours of
the breast to bring forward, I should
probably be hailed as a benefactor
of the human race, yet without
being anything of the kind; but
as I advocate the divine art of real
healing (and that mostly on hetero-
dox lines), I must be content with
my work as its own reward, and,
all things considered, not a bad
reward either. Often when I have
saved a breast, I have vividly before
my mind the pregnant exclamation
of the lady (Diary of a Physician)
in regard to her ablated breast-
"Ah, doctor, but my husband!"
A greater reward than to prevent
this anguish of soul in some of
my sisters, the world cannot offer
me.
their Treatment and Cure. 5
I declare that the knife is no cure
for tumours, and that tumours can
be cured by medicines, the requisite
knowledge and patience being given.
In order to be able to excise a
tumour successfully, a man must
first learn how to do it; it is the
work of a skilled mechanic merely,
in which there are many masters.
In order to be able to cure a
tumour by medicines, a man must
also first learn how to do it, but
it is the work of the patient chess
player, in which there are but few
masters. Still, without being a
master, the art of curing tumours
by medicines can-thanks to Hahne-
mann and others—be learned and
practised by all in direct proportion
to their ability and industry.
6
Tumours of the Breast:
The great art in curing tumours
by medicines may be thus summar-
ized-keep on pegging away! Only,
of course, we must peg away with
the right remedies. Any medical
person who reads this book atten-
tively will have a good idea of how
to set to work. I do not attempt
or pretend to be in any sense apolo-
getic or diffident on the question of
the amenability of tumours to drug
treatment, for the good and sufficient
reason that I have been curing
tumours by remedies for the past
dozen years, and, therefore, I am
discoursing only of what I know and
have seen; that I have attained to
my present certain position with
much difficulty, endless gropings,
and, I fear, some bunglings, goes
their Treatment and Cure. 7
without saying-Ça va sans dire,
in fact.
The "Vicar of Wakefield," of
glorious memory, says,—“I was ever
of opinion that the honest man who
married and brought up a large
family, did more service than he
who continued single and only
talked of population."
In like manner I am of opinion
that the physician who sets about
trying to cure tumours by means
of medicines does more service to
mankind and to medicine than he
who only talks of how to cut them out,
and of the microscopic and macro-
scopic characters and peculiarities of
such growths after he has cut them
out. Accordingly, I had not been
in practice very long before I
8 Tumours of the Breast:
occupied myself with the question
of the curability or non-curability
by medicines of quite a number of
diseases commonly called incurable,
and amongst them Tumours.
The very first tumour I had to
treat was a small hard one of the
eyelid of some years' standing.
The patient was a young lady from
Canada. She had consulted an
eminent physician of the homœo-
pathic school, and he had advised
an operation. "Have it cut out,'
said he, "medicines cannot cure it.
She was sent to me by a mutual
friend to see if I could cure it with
medicines, and so avoid the dreaded
operation. The tumour was but a
small affair, about as big as a very
small marble, but on a girl's lower
})
their Treatment and Cure. 9
eyelid that is a good deal. I used
a number of remedies, but the two.
that seemed to be really curative
were Argentum nitricum 1, in one.
or two drop doses three times a
day, and Hydrastis canadensis
applied freely to the tumour with
a camel's-hair brush.
The little tumour completely dis-
appeared, the patient and her people
were enthusiastically grateful, and I
made up my mind to look to my own
experience in the future, and not
think quite so much of the negative
opinions of the supposedly great,
for a very eminent medical father
had said medicines could not cure.
this little lump, but I found medi-
cines did cure it for all that. A
good many years have passed since
ΙΟ
Tumours of the Breast:
then, and I have been treating cases
of tumour ever since with medi-
cines, whenever I have had the
opportunity; and when the patients
have been as patient as their
physician, have generally succeeded
in curing them.
Of tumours of the eyelids I have
succeeded in curing a great many,
generally purely constitutionally,
but the very hard indolent ones
sometimes need to be painted with
the medicament, or to have it applied
as an unguent, they being, as it
were, outside the organism.
Some of the little tumours of
the eyelids that one commonly meets
with are from a wrong condition of
the stomach, the state of the pan-
their Treatment and Cure. II
creas seems distinctly answerable
for a certain number of them, some.
are apparently a sequel of vaccinia,
and odd articles of food are known
to cause them in certain people, e.g.,
roast pork. Often such swellings
will rapidly disappear, but not in-
frequently they become hard, insen-
sitive, and chronic. A few months
of proper constitutional treatment
will cure them. The remedies most
commonly indicated are Thuja
occid., Argentum nitricum, Natrum
sulphuricum, Pulsatilla nig., Hepar
sul., Calc., Hydrastis canadensis. In
very obstinate cases one has at
times to call in the aid of certain
nosodes. One of the last cases of
tumours of the eyelids I have had
to treat, has only just got well after
I 2 Tumours of the Breast:
many months of persistent treatment
with medicines, the patient being a
young married lady whose husband's
friends were very anxious for her
to have them excised, but the lady
would not listen to their entreaties,
having been told by me that such
tumours are of a constitutional
nature, and must be treated con-
stitutionally by internal medication.
She was jeered at and ridiculed by
the wiseacres of her husband's
family for "being so silly," said
they (they knew!) "Of course, you
must undergo an operation, no medi-
cines can touch that."
For some months they seemed to
be right, for my remedies did but
very little good, and my poor patient
had to bear a good deal of banter
their Treatment and Cure. 13
and "did not I tell you medicines
were no use?"
However, after
after a month of
Chionanthus virginica in small
material doses, the tumours waned.
and went.
Said I, "What do
What do your husband's
friends say now?"
"Nothing!"
'Do they believe поче that
tumours of the eyelids can be
cured by medicines?"
The lady passed out of my con-
sulting-room laughing.
In defending and fighting for
unloved doctrines, I often see these
positive refusals to believe SELF-
OBSERVED facts, and I marvel at
the cowardice of these pretended
non-believers. I sometimes fancy
14
Tumours of the Breast:
that the reason lies in the fact of
their not being the originators.
Less than two years ago, a child
was brought to me suffering from
paralysis and atrophy of a portion
of the right lower extremity, that
the local doctor said would end
with the child's death in about a
year or less. The most eminent
London opinions, both special and
general, confirmed this view.
When the parents informed the
local doctor that the child was to
come under my care, he piously
expressed the hope that it might
avail, adding the rider,—"If that
homoeopath cures him, I will
believe in homœopathy."
When, however, the child was
well and was running about on two
their Treatment and Cure. 15
straight, equal limbs, the said doc-
tor looked very wise (what an
easy task!) and stern, but would
on no account have any conversa-
tion on the subject.
The amount of dense-mindedness
and disingenuousness that lies hid-
den in those who HAVE SEEN great
homœopathic cures, and still resist
the truth, must be immense.
Though one rose from the dead
they would not believe. Still, per-
haps, I ought not to blame them,
for it is very difficult to believe
that medicines can cure tumours;
indeed, there was a time when I
could not have believed the con-
tents of this book. I therefore
desire to be charitable to others,
being myself a Saulus and a Paulus.
16
Tumours of the Breast:
THE USUAL VIEWS AND PRACTICE.
Two or three days after penning
the foregoing account of medicinal
cures of tumours of the eyelids, I
chanced to go to the office of a city
solicitor on a matter of legal busi-
ness. "Ah, doctor," said he, "I have
been away for a fortnight from busi-
ness. I have had an operation on
my left eye; just look. I have
been at home a fortnight with it
since. I had to keep it bound up.'
On looking at his eye I saw
nothing abnormal, and I said,
"Your eyes are all right." I then
found that he did not differentiate
between eye and eyelid, and that he
had been operated on for a tiny
cystic tumour of the eyelid!
their Treatment and Cure. 17
Said he, "Mr B. did it for me.
I am all right now."
The gentleman he referred to
is considered, and indeed is one of
the first ophthalmologists (eye-
carpenters) of the day, and the
solicitor, I may say, stands well in
his own profession; so we may
take them both as fair samples of
the educated professional classes of
to-day. In other words, a layman
with a trained mind gets a little
lump on his eyelid,
FROM INTERNAL CAUSE,
as I submit. He merely wishes it
removed with the knife, as if it
had dropped from the sky, and had
impinged upon his "eye." He
C
18 Tumours of the Breast:
goes to an eminent oculist-what
more natural? and said oculistic
chirurgeon being on the same
general educational and physio-
logical level, gains in every way by
-cutting out the little cyst!
Both the individuals concerned
have not the faintest suspicion that
they are other than the crême de la
crême of all that is most advanced
in knowledge, and in the very van
of progress. They will die in the
happy delusion, and their work and
names will not be remembered.
Did I try to enlighten my solici-
torial friend by explaining that
inasmuch as the said cyst was
autochthonous, it ought to have
had its existence cut short autoch-
thonously?
their Treatment and Cure. 19
Did I explain to him that the
cyst was a qualitative outcome of
his organismic self, and that this
self-same microcosm should have
been put right vitally?
Did I? No.
Why? Because you cannot put
a large quantity into a small vessel,
whether the vessel be called sur-
geon, solicitor, or beer-glass.
Of the tumours of the eyelids,
the meibomian cyst is very com-
mon, and also very amenable to
medicinal means. It will once in a
way disappear of itself without
any medicines, but not very often;
usually it must be got rid of either
by operation or medicines. The
usual way is to reverse the lid, and
20
Tumours of the Breast:
make a small incision from the inner
lid surface which covers the tumour,
and then squeeze out the contents.
But "the tumour is liable to recur,"
says a very experienced operator !
Of course it is!
In my opinion, the encysted and
other tumours of the eyelids are
nearly always of constitutional
origin, and must be constitutionally
cured.
I will not burden my book with
any more preliminary cases of
tumours of the eyelids for intro-
ductory purposes. The bulk of
them are not only curable by
remedies, but the task is not even
a very difficult one, though at
times a little tedious.
their Treatment and Cure. 21
F
Tumours are very common in
the breast, particularly in women's,
comparatively rare with men
men in
this region.
I will now go on to my special
task by citing a more formidable
case one of genuine cancer, cured
by Cundurango, a remedy which I
proved on my own person a num-
ber of years ago, an account of
which may be found in Allen's
Encyclopædia of Pure Materia
Medica, Art. C.
I will merely call it a
HARD TUMOUR OF LEFT BREAST.
In the spring of the year 1875 I
was treating the children of a family
of my clientèle. While chatting
with the children I noticed that
22 Tumours of the Breast:
their nurse, a woman of about forty,
had an ugly, unsightly crack in the
left angle of her mouth, about the
fourth of an inch deep, and sur-
rounded with warty excrescences,
the whole covered with a nasty
secretion. I considered it com-
mencing epithelioma. I offered to
treat the woman for it, but she did
not believe in homoeopathy, and
she was using a salve to it pre-
scribed by her own doctor. At
this period I was myself still suffer-
ing from my proving of Cundurango
(see British Journal of Homeopathy,
July 1875), and I had repeatedly
proved that the crack in the angles
of the mouth was a very character-
istic symptom of the drug. Alto-
gether I have seen it produced
their Treatment and Cure. 23
pathogenetically four times, and I
have cured it also many times. It
apparently finds no favour with the
profession, but its importance will
be recognised.
Some little time elapsed, and the
before-mentioned nurse was con-
fronted with the chance of losing
her situation, as her mistress was
getting afraid lest the disease might
be communicated to the children.
The nurse was now willing to be
treated homœopathically, and her
mistress accordingly sent for me.
On inquiring I found the warty
ulcer in the angle of the mouth
was only a little worse; it was
very torpid, and had remained for
many months pretty much the same.
This is also characteristic of Cun-
24 Tumours of the Breast:
durango. The pustules and other
cutaneous manifestations of this
drug are very torpid (see the prov-
ing in the British Journal of
Homœopathy and the "Symptom-
atology" in Allen's Encyclopædia
of Pure Materia Medica, vol. iv.
p. 1, et seq.) Once while using an
ointment this ulcer had almost dis-
appeared, but it soon returned to
the condition I have described.
But what alarmed both mistress
and maid (the former on account
of the children, no doubt) was a
tumour in the patient's left breast,
i.e., on the same side as the epithelio-
matous ulcer of the angle of the
mouth. On examination it was
found to be about the size of a
small hen's egg, and very hard and
their Treatment and Cure. 25
very painful at times; at other
times painless. It had been there
for several years, and was on the
increase, but only very slowly. The
odour from the axilla was very
offensive indeed, but not from lack
of cleanliness. Speaking generally,
patient did not look ill-nourished or
cachectic, though her teeth were very
badly decayed, which gave an old
appearance to the face from the
falling in of the cheeks, and the
dilated small cutaneous blood vessels
showed that she had probably been
a florid subject.
The history of the tumour was
this. She had for years been in
the habit of sleeping with the
youngest child, a bonnie boy, with
a very large, heavy head, and he
26
Tumours of the Breast:
..
lay with his head against this breast.
To that she attributed the lump.
And she was probably right, for the
boy would be at times restless at
night, and hit about with his head
a good deal, hence we may fairly
conclude that the breast had been
mechanically injured very many
times. Patient complained that he
very often hurt her thus.
There was nothing to account for
the ulcer of the angle of the mouth;
it was idiopathic, as the phrase goes.
There could be no reasonable doubt
of the connexion existing between
the tumour and the ulcer. Was it
cancer? I think so now, and I
thought so then. I do not call it
a case of cancer, but simply a tumour
of the breast, hence my diagnosis
their Treatment and Cure. 27
cannot be called in question, where-
as, if I were to call it cancer it might
be objected to.
Still I will say I
think it was cancer,-1st, From the
appearance of the floor and edges
of the ulcer; 2nd, From the coin-
cidence of the ulcer and of the
tumour; 3rd, From the hardness
of the tumour; 4th, From its
origin.
It is needful to state this view of
its pathological nature, as it influ-
enced the treatment.
The medicine I decided on was
Cundurango, and for these rea-
sons:
1. Cundurango produces cracks
in the angles of the mouth, and
also cures such.
2. Cundurango is, in my opinion,
28 Tumours of the Breast:
an antipsoric, and this case appeared
to be a psoric manifestation from
injury.
3. Cundurango has beyond any
doubt cured cases of cancer, and
this seemed such a case.
4. It seemed to me that the ulcer
in the angle of the mouth-that
started as a mere crack-just sup-
plied the pathogenetic differentia
requisite for knowing whether to
give Hydrastis, Conium, or what
not.
The first prescription is dated
16th July 1875, and is
B Pil. Cundurango 1, 3ij.
One four times a day.
This was taken until December 4,
1875, when I could perceive only
slight amelioration of the ulcer and
their Treatment and Cure. 29
none of the tumour. I then remem-
bered that the cures reported had
been with material doses, and that
Goullon, jun., and another writer
on the subject on the Continent,
whose name has escaped me, seemed
to incline to that view. Now, I
would rather cure a patient with a
big dose than leave him or her
uncured with a small one. And,
of course, conversely.
Moreover, my patient rather
objected to pilules; the size of
the means seemed so inadequate to
the end.
4, 1875-
Therefore I gave the
following prescription,
December
B Tc. Cundurango p 3ij.
Aq. ad. zvj.
C. c. med. ter in die.
30
Tumours of the Breast:
This was taken till September 1,
1876, with slight interruptions. At
this date I certainly noticed much
improvement in the ulcer, and the
tumour seemed a little smaller, but
still I felt very much disappointed.
Then Bryonia alba 1, two drops.
in water four times a day, was given
till November 10, 1876, when, no
further progress being apparent, I
gave a short course of Sulph. 30,
one pilule at bedtime. This is a
very old practice, and has been
verified a great many times.
In all
about one drachm of the pilules
Then at the end of
was taken.
1876 I again went over the case,
and felt justified in reverting to the
old prescription of Cundurango, but
I gave the tincture of the first
their Treatment and Cure. 31
centesimal dilution three times a
day, with occasional omissions, that
the organism might not get insus-
ceptible of the action of so small
a dose. This was continued during
the whole of the year 1877, during
the whole of the year 1878, and
during the first five months of the
year 1879, that is just about two
years and a half. I saw the patient
at intervals during this period, and
was able to observe the course of
the cure.
In a few words it was
this. At first the ulcer of the angle
of the mouth became dryer, cleaner,
and less rugged, while the tumour
went smaller and a little less hard.
About a year and a half ago the
ulcer had entirely healed and re-
mains so; nothing remains of it but
32 Tumours of the Breast:
a very slight puckering of that
angle of the mouth and faint streaks
of scar-tissue. But to a casual
observer these objective symptoms
have no existence, it is only when
examining it critically in the light
of its past history that one can
detect even these trifling rests.
Already towards the end of the
year 1878 the tumour had nearly
disappeared, and in the spring of
1879 it was gone. In sending a
report from Prince's Park, Liver-
pool, on September 2, 1879, the
patient says: "The lump has
entirely gone out of my breast,"
and then she goes on to state that
she had given up taking the medi-
cine in consequence. This case is
very important from various stand-
their Treatment and Cure. 33
points; it shows the utility of prov-
ing a remedy that has an empirical
reputation in order to find out the
variety of a disease that it will cure.
Thus Cundurango has undoubtedly
cured a number of cases of cancer;
but we may say the same of Sulphur,
Thuja, Arsenicum, Conium, Hy-
drastis, Carbo animalis, Bryonia,
Bufo, of Galium Aparine, and
hence the point to find out is what
characterizes the variety or species.
The greatest characteristic yet ob-
served of our Cundurango is the
crack in the angle of the mouth,
and hence on theoretical grounds
we may say that a case of cancer
with a manifestation in the angles
of the mouth calls for Cundurango.
Now we have one such case on
D
34
Tumours of the Breast:
record as cured. If my readers will
not admit that it was cancer—well,
I have no objection.
This case is strikingly important
from another view, viz., it illustrates
the torpidity of the Cundurango
variety, and it also teaches a most
valuable lesson to us all. Never
despair! This woman patiently
took her medicines for four full
years, and now she has her reward
in health, and I have mine in the
comforting consciousness that I did
not listen to a very able physician
who pooh-poohed the proving of
Cundurango, and who ridiculed the
idea of curing tumours with medi-
cines. As J. Stuart Mill says, "He
who knows only his own side of
the case, knows little of that." I
their Treatment and Cure. 35
may add that when I last saw
the patient she had very much
improved in general appearance,
being stouter and fresher, looking
younger.
NINE YEARS LATER,
I published the foregoing case in
the Homœopathic World, Novem-
ber 1, 1879, and I have just made
inquiries regarding this woman, who
was thus cured of her tumour, not-
withstanding its declared impossi-
bility, and find that she still con-
tinues in perfect health and free of
tumour.
A certain number of distinguished
practitioners of scientific medicine
(homœopathy) have from time to
time published cases of tumour as
36
Tumours of the Breast:
cured by medicines, but these cases
are on record, and need no further
writing about. I therefore will not
refer to them, as my object is not
to bring together odd cases of
tumour cured here and there all
over the world, some of them
quasi-accidentally, but to bring new
clinical material to the general
stock. I have not time to collate
these strewn-about cases in our
literature, however interesting and
instructive the task might possibly
prove to be, for one might then,
perhaps, get at some fixed indica-
tions, though of these clinical fixa-
tions I have heretofore met with
but very few.
In these pages, therefore, I purpose
giving my own experience solely—
their Treatment and Cure. 37
just some facts, and these I leave
to tell their own tale. One thing I
may say it is quite useless to try
to cure old tumours, either cancer-
ous or benign, unless you are gifted
with PATIENCE of no ordinary kind.
Rapid cures of old tumours by
medicines I have never seen, nor
do I think such tumours ever will
be cured rapidly, simply because
they are vital products-THEY ARE
Nevertheless it
LIVING GROWTHS.
will be seen from the cases which I
shall presently narrate, that some
recently-formed tumours do get
well in a very few weeks or months,
while others require as many years.
Speaking broadly, the tumour takes
proportionately as long to cure by
medicines as it has taken to grow.
38
Tumours of the Breast:
And hereby is not to be forgotten
that a tumour has often existed a
long time before it is found out. It
is equally useless to try to cure
tumours by giving drugs with
a view of dissolving them chemi-
cally.
Why?
Because, as just stated, tumours
are ALIVE; they are GROWTHS; they
come via vita, and vitally they
must be cured; and for this pro-
cess time, often much time, is
needful. At least that is my ex-
perience, and I therefore specially
emphasize the fact, that I know of
no short cut to tumour-curing by
remedies, and the work must be
done by internal remedies.
Nevertheless, externally-applied
their Treatment and Cure. 39
remedies are not to be entirely
neglected, i.e., where the growth is
for any reason, as it were, extra-
organismic. Where I use a remedy
externally I shall state the fact,
which, as will be seen, is rarely the
case.
Derivatives I also occasionally
use, and also, temporarily, tonics.
But let me proceed with my
facts.
In case I should subsequently
omit to state the fact, I would say
that pig-meat, milk, much salt and
pepper, are, in my judgment, to be
avoided in tumours of the breast.
New milk is particularly bad for
ovarian, uterine, and mammary
tumours and inflammations, as also
for menstrual troubles.
40 Tumours of the Breast:
TRAUMATIC SWELLING OF RIGHT
BREAST CURED BY BELLIS ALONE.
I adduce the following case of a
swelling in a young lady's breast,
particularly 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
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 Homeopathic
their Treatment and Cure. 41
Recorder (Philadelphia), No. 4,
July 1886.
It runs thus :
MALIGNANT GROWTHS.
In the preceding number of The Recorder
there appeared three items concerning malig-
nant growths, which deserve more than
passing notice. One is the history of the
development of a malignant formation as the
result of the frequent mechanical irritation of
a simple mole on the face, another recounted
the cure of an extensive sarcomatous growth
by an intercurrent 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
42
Tumours of the Breast:
the disease-action of part of the mysterious,
fateful quality so constantly 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 impelled to advise the use of the
knife as the only sure treatment, notwith-
standing that in cases of undoubted malig-
nancy, the value of surgical interference is
greatly lessened 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 malig-
nant disease-process in that tissue, there is at
fairly good basis for the view, reasoning 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
* Phila. Med. Times, xvi. 484.
their Treatment and Cure. 43
Sutton, F.R.C.S., is given as authority for the
following view: "Irritation, local or other-
wise, 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-epithelial tissues, and, on ac-
count of lack of formative development,
either from decline of vigour or general con-
stitutional debility, the new tissue never
develops functionally, runs riot, and originates
tissues of low vitality,-carcinomata.
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."
The
What, then, is the bearing of these facts
upon the treatment of probably malignant
tumours? Passing by the cures of warts by
internal medicine alone, which almost every
homœopathic practitioner has observed over
and over again, we need 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
44
Tumours of the Breast:
..
action of Conium cannot be denied, and
what is true of this remedy may be true of
many others.
A thorough study of the symptoms of each
individual case with the view of finding the
exact simillimum, 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
involvement of the neighbouring glandular
structures, make up, it appears to us, the duty
of the physician. Whether he would be
justified 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 there are always cases in
which operation 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 encouragement to physicians and suf-
ferers as well, and demonstrate anew, and in
a strikingly brilliant manner, the value of our
law of cure.
their Treatment and Cure. 45
We earnestly hope, then, that those of us
who hold hospital or dispensary appoint-
ments, will endeavour 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
diagnosis 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 homoeo-
pathy.
Without going so far as the
author of this article, I must cer-
tainly say I attribute some of 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 thirteen years,
:
46 Tumours of the Breast:
F
came under my observation at the
end of July 1879. About eight
weeks previously a miserable lad in
the street hit her in 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 experience teaches
me that the members of poitrinaire.
families are particularly 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
their Treatment and Cure. 47
now remember, but eventually I
was sent for, as vague notions of
tumour and cancer rendered the
parents uneasy. On comparing the
breasts, the right one was found to
be by much the larger, being swollen
and
very tender.
I thought this a very proper case
for testing the anti-traumatic virtue.
of the old English bruisewort, and
hence prescribed thus:-
Be
Tc. Bellidis perennis 3º, 5ij.
S. Three drops to be taken in water four
times a day.
The result was a very rapid dis-
appearance of pain and swelling,
and in a fortnight patient could lie
again on the right side. And a few
days later an examination showed
48
Tumours of the Breast:
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 positively cura-
tive effect of the Bellis 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 tumefaction has
become a genuine neoplasia, or
hyperplasia.
a
I published, not long ago,
book entitled Fifty Reasons for
being a Homœopath, and the fore-
going was my forty-fourth reason.
}
their Treatment and Cure. 49
As I am here illustrating the
curative range of Bellis perennis in
the treatment of lumps of traumatic
origin, I cannot refrain from drag-
ging in a very late experience of
mine with it, though it has really
no right at all to be here, being
not a tumour of the breast at all,
but a
TUMOUR OF THE JAW.
A gentleman at the prime of life,
or a little beyond, some might think,
came to me at the end of 1887
with a hard tumour in the right
upper jaw of about two years' stand-
ing. It had come on slowly. His
dentist thought it was due to a
shut-up tooth in the wall of the
jaw. An eminent surgeon had seen
E
50 Tumours of the Breast:
patient with the dentist, and was
not of the dentist's opinion, believ-
ing it to be a new formation,
for which he prescribed an oint-
ment containing iodine (la vieille
histoire!) The ointment was duti-
fully applied, and did no good.
The right half of face between
eye, mouth, and beard was notably
swelled, hard, and with glistening,
shiny skin over it. Regarded from
within the cavity of the mouth, it
appeared as if the outer wall of the
antrum Highmori were pushed out,
constituting a tumid mass.
All things considered, I thought
the dentist right and the surgeon
wrong, and, on the mechanico-trau-
matic hypothesis, gave Bellis per. 0,
five drops in water night and morn-
their Treatment and Cure. 51
•
ing, and two months of this brought
the jaw back pretty well to the
normal, and patient did not think it
needed any further special treat-
ment. Nor indeed did it, though
to my eye the right upper jaw
looked a trifle fuller than the left,
but a few months later when I saw
him I could not see any difference
in the two sides.
These two cases having been
cured in a very short space of time,
apparently contravenes my previous
statement that tumours cannot in
my experience ever be cured quickly,
I therefore add that this evidently
was not a neoplasm, but merely
mechanical obstruction with slight
incipient circumvascular hyper-
52
Tumours of the Breast:
!
trophy of tissue. Tumours of a
neoplastic nature come by growth,
and can only be cured by atrophy,
and vitally and not chemically, and
so the progress must in that case be
slow. Of course we should theo-
retically expect a tumour that was
of long duration to take more
time to cure than a recent swelling,
more of a congestive nature with
only incipient hypertrophy; and
with this theoretical expectation
my practical experience entirely
coincides.
TUMOUR
OF RIGHT BREAST;
TUMOURS OF RIGHT ARM-PIT ;
SEVERE CUTANEOUS AFFECTION.
The case I propose now to nar-
their Treatment and Cure. 53
rate has taught me much in respect
of the amenability of mammary
tumours to drug treatment, indeed
more than any other one case in
my whole experience, and I may,
perhaps, be therefore permitted to
dwell upon it a little fully, more
particularly in regard to its causa-
tion. The subject of it came
under my medical observation in
the year 1878, and she was then
verging on 40 years of age. An
examination disclosed several lumps
in the right axilla about the size of
bantam's eggs, clearly adenomata,
and also a tumour in the outer
aspect of the right breast about the
size of a goose's egg, and all hard.
It appeared that the tumours in
the arm-pit had been there for two
54
Tumours of the Breast:
years, and came after a successful
vaccination; and simultaneously
therewith, the face had broken out
all over with an eruption of tuber-
ous inflammatory elevations, with
pustular tops, technically termed
acne variola formis, and this erup-
tion had also persisted for two years
in this very aggravated form, like
chronic small-pox. In the year
1877 there was an epidemic of
variola in the neighbourhood, and
patient was again vaccinated, as
her vocation brought her into
contact with it, and this time it
was followed by the lump in the
right breast. I did not then regard
vaccination as a causal factor in the
genesis of chronic disease, but I see
now clearly enough that it was a case
their Treatment and Cure. 55
of chronic vaccinosis, the axillary
and mammary swellings and the
facial eruptions being clearly of
common nature and origin. An
operation was not thought useful
by her rather open-minded friends,
and hence my help was sought. I
treated the case for a long time
with such remedies as Silicea,
Psoricum, Sulphur, Hecla lava,
Grauvogl's Lapis alb., Conium,
Iodium, Phytolacca dec., but made
no great headway. The lady was,
however, very patient, and went on
with my treatment, feeding prin-
cipally on hope; but hope, though
not a bad auxiliary, is no remedy
for tumours or skin diseases.
then used various so-called nosodes,
sometimes utilized by homœopathic
I
56
Tumours of the Breast:
practitioners with isopathic proclivi-
ties, and we made a little progress,
but not much. When, however,
I had obtained more correct views.
of the long-lasting effects of the vac-
cinial poisoning, I prescribed Thuja
occid., Sabina, Vaccininum, and
Variolinum in varying dilutions
(mostly medium and high), and
patient slowly got quite well, not
only of the adenomata in the
axilla, but also of the tumour of the
breast and of the skin affection.
When she was up in London for
the May meetings in 1888, the lady
called upon me, and thus I am able to
say that she remains perfectly cured.
Never have I seen a case that so
well exemplifies and justifies my
principle in regard to the treatment
1
their Treatment and Cure. 57
.of tumours keep on pegging
away!
That this lady would have died
long since had she been operated
on for the tumours I have no doubt
at all.
Others may doubt this, but
that she was cured of her tumours.
by medicines is open to no doubt
whatever. Amongst the frequent
causes of tumours I must, therefore,
reckon vaccinosis, and on this sub-
ject I would refer the reader to my
little treatise entitled Vaccinosis and
its Cure by Thuja, etc., in which
this thesis is to some extent elabo-
rated. Sometimes we have to do
with trauma upon vaccinosic tissue,
and then the just appreciation of
the two genetic factors leads to a
cure.
58
Tumours of the Breast:
TUMOURS OF LEFT BREAST AND
OF RIGHT OVARY.
came to
Eight
On February 5, 1883, a married
lady, 40 years of age, came
me borne down by the weight of
her physical miseries. Her father
had had lupus of the nose, and her
mother had died of cancer.
years previously a very small tumour
had been excised from patient's left
breast, and now there is another in
the same breast. In addition to
this, the right ovary is the seat of a
very tender swelling. The right
ovary and the left breast are,
curiously, alternate in painfulness,
tenderness, and several trouble-
someness. Patient's first baby was
born dead, after very protracted
their Treatment and Cure. 59
piles,
labour. She had also suffered from
sore throats, leucorrhoea,
thick scanty urine, and then profuse
and limpid; stricture of the sigmoid
flexure at its lower end, much pain
in the breast and side, rectum
packed full of piles, sore throat,
worse in the night, and, by far the
most distressing symptom of all,
constipation of the most severe
and obstinate kind. Patient made
two conditions to my being her physi-
cian, the first was that I should
allow aperients; "Life is unbearable
without them," said she; and the
second was that I should tell her
what each given remedy was, "be-
cause I take so much interest in
these things." I absolutely declined
both conditions, and the patient
60 Tumours of the Breast:
yielded, but under a desperate run-
ning fire of sarcastic obstructive-
ness, consisting in diffusive and
effusive epistles, such as your clever
lay guérisseuses homeopathiques so
well know how to keep up against
a stiff-necked medical
medical autocrat,
little weening that mental obedience
is an essential part of the cure of
some cases. However, she did
give way slowly, and was eventually
rewarded by being completely cured.
At her visit to me on October 20,
1886, she was well of tumour, of
stricture, of piles, of constipation, of
all pains, and of all the other physi-
cal miseries formerly complained of.
The treatment lasted over three
years, and the remedies used were
(in the order named)—
their Treatment and Cure. 61
X
Esculus hippocastanum, 3 trit.
Sulphur 30.
Nux vomica 30.
Graphites 4 trituration.
Psoricum 30.
Thuja occidentalis 30.
Lapis alba (Grauvogl's) 4 trit.
Mercurius (strength not noted).
Silicea 6.
Graphites 5.
Silicea 6, besides various well-
known and less well-known nosodes.
The cure was aided a good deal
by diet.
And in regard to diet, I think I
could hardly do better than quote
a very apposite paper by a very
gifted lady, the late Mrs Nichols;
it will be found further on. I will
produce it, as it is almost unique
62 Tumours of the Breast:
in its scientific purity, and in die-
tetics the scientific spirit is almost
entirely absent; most doctors, I
notice, go by their own stomachs or
old wives' tales, as witness the
rubbish one hears and reads about
vegetal diet.
CANCER OF BREAST.
In the year 1883, a London pro-
fessional man was under my care,
and in odd conversations he told
me about his mother who had
cancer of the stomach. Could I
do her any good? I did not know,
probably not.
I saw him pretty frequently, and
almost every time after I had pre-
scribed for himself, he recurred to
the said state of his mother and her
their Treatment and Cure. 63
terrible sufferings, the dreadful pains
in the chest and stomach, keeping
her awake at night for many hours.
together. She had had her left
breast removed some time ago for
cancer, and now it had come in the
right breast and in the stomach.
Could nothing be done?
I told him that I often succeeded
in curing simple tumours with medi-
cines, and also cancerous tumours.
of small size if taken early, but
that when they had once been
operated on I mostly failed, the
operation apparently generalized
the disease and intensified it, so I
could not give him much hope.
Had she come before any operation
had been performed, it would have
been very hopeful.
64
Tumours of the Breast:
So time went on, and still my
patient insisted on conversing with
me about his mother, of whom he
is very fond.
He even stopped
me at railway stations to tell me of
the poor lady's sufferings. Finally,
en désespoir de cause, he brought her
to me for my opinion. I am now
particularly pleased that he did so,
as the course of the case taught me
for the first time the vastly important
lesson, that even after an operation
we need not give up hope,-nay,
more, that where an operation has
been performed, constitutional treat-
ment should be begun at once, to
get at the root of the matter and
prevent any further local expression
of the disease, by attacking its cause
or causes. I say or causes, for cancer
their Treatment and Cure. 65
is not a disease that can produce
its like after the manner of, say
syphilis or scarlatina, but is essen-
tially a hyperplasia of a degraded
type at the end of a chain that has
many (causal) links. But to my case:
October 23, 1883. Mrs 47
years of age, had her left breast
removed for cancer two years ago
last May by an eminent surgeon.
In February 1883 she had had
erysipelas of the face, and as she
lay in bed therewith paresis of
right foot, which passed off. She
had variola at the age of three; is
subject to winter bronchitis with
much dyspnoea. On examining the
chest, one sees a long but very neat.
scar where the left breast used to
F
66 Tumours of the Breast:
be. The outer and inner ends of
the scar are a little tender, and the
tissue at the outer end is rather
swollen of late. The patient cannot
bear the part to be touched.
The
right breast is the seat of a hard
painful tumour of the size of a hen's
egg. The pain, however, is worst
in the stomach (the ventriculus),
which pain is described as "cruel,"
like cramp, and worse at night.
B Tc. Cundurango 1, 5iv. Five drops.
in water three times a day.
November 16. Only had two
attacks of stomach-pain since she
was here. Anorexia no better;
much flatulence; "flying spasms.
R Repeat.
})
December 12. Much better in
herself; stomach-pain gone; had
their Treatment and Cure. 67
had it a year; pain in the toe no
better; the mammary tumour is
less hard.
Be Repeat.
February 6, 1884.
Menses at
first stopped, and patient gave up
the medicine, as she attributed their
cessation to the medicine; after
leaving it off for a fortnight she got
menorrhagia; gets nocturnal dysp-
noa; wakes up with a cough ;
stomach continues better; feet are
sore; the appetite is now good.
March 28. Has been laid up
with a cold and bronchitis, but the
nocturnal dyspnoea is much better;
digestion fair; feet less sore; the
pain in the stomach has not re-
turned; the tumour is very much
softer.
68
Tumours of the Breast:
R Tc. Silicea 30, 3iv. Five drops in
water night and morning.
April 28. The tumour of right
breast is decidedly less painful;
there is now a hard painful portion
of tissue over the site of the left
breast, which pains most at mid-
night; patient feels ill.
R Psoricum 30.
May 5. Feet very tender; both
breast and the painful tissue very
much better.
R Tc. Hydrastis canadensis 1, 3iv. Five
drops in water three times a day.
June 11. Menorrhagia every
fourteen days; feet very tender;
tumour softer.
June 26.
Has prolapsus recti,
with constipation;
dirty brown
leucorrhoea ; breast is painless;
their Treatment and Cure. 69
tumour smaller; no pain in the
stomach; feet better, less painful.
July 23.
R Tc. Thuja 30.
Worse; very much
pain in the stomach; last night it
was most severe; tumour hard and
painful.
R Tc. Cundurango 1, 5iv. Ten drops
in water twice a day.
August 20.
The tumour is
rather smaller, but more painful;
severe pain in the stomach. Patient
has gone back to the lemons, which
I formerly recommended,
and
which seemed to suit. There are
now two painful nodes on the edges
of the scar of left breast. Has had
menorrhagia twice.
R Psor. 30, and Cundurango 9.
!
70 Tumours of the Breast:
September 5. About the same;
feet very tender.
R Tc. Cundurango e and Silicea 6 trit.
October 15.
Feet no better;
stomach well; no pain in the scar;
tumour in the breast is smaller and
softer.
November 10. Tumour of the
breast much softer; the vaginal
discharge has now ceased.
are always at night.
26. Much better altogether.
B Repeat.
Pains
January 7, 1885. Gone back
very much; breast very painful ;
the submaxillary glands are swol-
len and painful; the pain is "cruel,"
and causes "vomiting by the
hour;" vomits blood; pain keeps
her awake at night; she has a
}
their Treatment and Cure. 71
taste of phosphorus in the mouth.
She tells me now, for the first time,
that she is an enormous pepper
eater, which I forbid.
R
Ꭱ
Repeat.
21. Been to the seaside to pull
up; the nocturnal pain is much
better; the feet are tender and
swell.
B Repeat et Cund. e.
March 4. Much better; right
breast much more elastic; the nip-
ple is still very much retracted.
B Psor. c. et Cund.
30. The pains wake her up; she
shrinks from pressure on the chest.
R Ranunculus sceleratus 3*. Four drops
in water night and morning.
May 4. Has now much pain.
72
Tumours of the Breast:
under left arm, where there is some
swelling and redness.
R Bellis p. 1.
B Lapis alb. 5 trit.
27.
June 17.
Tumour decidedly
Parts very tender, and
smaller and better both sides.
July 22.
there is much acidity.
R Tc. Acid hippuric 6, 3iv. Five drops
in water night and morning.
August 28.
Did her seemingly
much good for three weeks, when
she had a dreadful attack of pain.
Be
Repeat (12).
October 21.
Did her much good.
R Tc. Kreatin 12, 3ij. Three drops in
water night and morning.
November 20. Much better ;
their Treatment and Cure. 73
in fact, nearly well, but has whites
now badly.
February 5th, 1886. Has not
been since November 20, 1885.
She says the powders then given
gave her cramp in the stomach,
waking her up between 12 and 2 A.M.,
and causing nauseous risings; pains.
in the feet, which are sore and
tender. Left them off, and the same.
phenomena recurred on resuming
them. Has had no medicine for a
month, and these symptoms persist.
When she has a stool, the fæcal
mass slips backwards and forwards
in the rectum.
R Trit. 6, Silicea gr. vj., ter die.
March 17.
The breast is nearly
normal, but the womb and feet are
painful.
74
Tumours of the Breast:
R Repeat.
May 5. Womb and feet better;
gums very spongy, much water-
brash and vomiting of water.
R Tc. Natrum muriaticum 12, 3iv. Five
drops in water three times a day.
June 28. Says the drops have
very much upset her; gums are
very blue.
September 4.
R Aconite and Silicea.
November 2. Breast well, gums
still red and swelled and sore.
Much abdominal pain from 2-4 A. M.
R Trit. 4, Urea gr. vj., ter die.
Patient has paid me irregular
visits off and on since, for gouty
pains in various parts, but there is
no return of the cancer.
I have given so many tedious
their Treatment and Cure. 75
details of this obstinate and difficult
case to illustrate several points as
clearly as I am able. In the first
place, this case caused me to modify
my previously oft-expressed opinion,
that when once an operation had
taken place, treatment by medicine
is useless. I now know that this is
not necessarily the case, but that a
cure may be obtained even after an
operation, and after a recurrence
has begun. In the next place I
again learn, and continue to insist
upon, the importance of dogged
perseverance in the medicinal treat-
ment. And finally, it confirms my
general practice of striking out on
new therapeutic lines when the old
ones do not suffice. The influence
of the late Dr Ameke's teachings
76 Tumours of the Breast:
will be readily recognised by the
learned in pharmacologic and thera-
peutic offshoots
Looking now back on the whole
of this case, considering all its
points, the remedies that helped
and those that did not, I get a
comparatively clear view of its
nature, which helps me in other
cases. Were I asked to name its
biopathology, I should say it was a
hybrid union of psora, vaccin-
osis, chronic poisoning by pepper
and tissue-gout, to which complexity
there came the element trauma.
MAMMARY TUMOUR.
On the fifth of July 1883, a lady
of 73 came under my observa-
tion for a small hard tumour in her
their Treatment and Cure. 77
It
left breast. This breast had been
injured thirty years ago, and gave
her much trouble for a long time.
For some months she has noticed
its swelling and hardening.
pains a good deal; worse at night,
and on moving the arm. In the
preceding November there had
been an eruption on the patient's
left leg, "large inflamed patches
showed themselves." The prin-
cipal remedies used were Bellis
perennis 1, Psor. 30, Var. 30,
Hydrastis 1, and then finally Bellis
I again; and on January 29, 1885,
patient was discharged cured; and
she remained well, and is, I believe,
alive and well at the time of going
to press.
I do not give the details of this
78
Tumours of the Breast:
case as it is badly kept in my diary,
but the foregoing contains most of
the essential points, and the fine
pharmacologist will readily see that
the prescriptions were all more or
less ex hypothesi. I might add that
patient is deeply pitted with small-
pox marks.
HARD PAINFUL TUMOUR of Breast.
On August 13, 1878, Mrs ———
a country clergyman's wife, between
40 and 50 years of age, came under
my care for a tumour of the left
breast in its outer and upper aspect.
It was about the size of a very
small hen's egg, hard and very pain-
ful. It had existed for some time,
and she and her husband had be-
come very anxious about it, the more
their Treatment and Cure. 79
so as her mother had died of vulvar
cancer (an enormous epithelioma).
Perhaps I ought to say that the
mother died with the cancer, as she
was 82 years of age at her death.
The mother had been my patient,
but she was, she averred, unable to
persevere with my medicines (Thuja
4, 3, and 30) as they caused her so
much pain.
Patient is married, has several
fine children, and has been long
subject to a very severe form of
leucorrhoea.
It would occupy too much space
were I to give all my notes of this
interesting case in detail, for she
was under my treatment for this
tumour about three years.
My notes begin with August 13,
80 Tumours of the Breast:
1878, and my prognosis was a
serious one unless medicines could
be made to prevent the disease
advancing.
I began with Urkalkgneiss 4th
trituration, ten grains at bed-time,
and soon got into trouble on its
account, for my patient showed the
prescription to a learned lay lady,
who is the recognised stock-taker
general of all the unfortunate leeches
of the neighbourhood in which they
dwell, and she said, "Oh, Mrs
I know what the doctor thinks you
have the matter with you, its
cancer!"
(C
How do you know?”
"Oh, the chemist told me it was
the new German cancer medicine."
Naturally this caused my patient.
their Treatment and Cure. 81
much and needless anxiety, but
then the chemist and the learned
lady must have their confidential
little whisperings about the doctor's
doings-it is no inconsiderable
part
of their rather monotonous lives.
But this and many other similar ex-
periences have compelled me often to
withhold the names of the remedies.
Well, Mrs took Grauvogl's
Lapis alb. (4, 5, and 6 trit.) for a
number of months without any
noticeable effect; the lump went
on growing, and the pain getting
worse.
Acid. acet. 1.
July 26, 1879.
August 28. No better; very
weak. Conium maculatum 3*.
This remedy was continued for
about two months, and it took away
G
82
Tumours of the Breast:
the pain, but it did not lessen the
size of the tumour. Then followed
Carbo. an. 30, which was suggested
by the profound adynamia.
November 28. No pain; and
she is no stronger, but the tumour
is no smaller.
Sulphur 30.
On January 6, 1880, I received
a letter telling me that the powders
were finished, and that in addition
to some pain in the tumour, patient
had a good deal of pain in the
stomach. I sent Cundurango 1,
and ordered her to take six drops
in water three times a day.
Feb. 24.
I,
"A good deal of pain
and uneasiness in the whole breast
and shoulder and down the arm."
Repeat.
their Treatment and Cure. 83
April 10.
No change in the
tumour ; "for two or three weeks I
did not feel it at all, and now I have
a good deal of uneasiness, though
no acute pain."
Hydrastis 1. Five drops in water night
and morning.
May 19, 1880. On this day the
lady was brought by her husband
to London, and they called to in-
form me that having continued my
treatment ever since August 1878
their friends wished for another
opinion. The lady herself did not
wish for any further opinion, but
the husband was rather needlessly
loud in demanding the opinion of
at least one other, and that of Sir
James Paget.
To this I declined to assent, be-
1
84
Tumours of the Breast:
cause, said I, "What is the use of
an opinion, or for the matter of that,
what is the use of a barrowful of
opinions? The tumour is there;
you can feel it and see it; that it
is hard you can also feel; that it
pains your wife knows but too well,
and what possible prognosis can the
men of the knife give but the ever-
lasting old story, "Oh, you must be
operated upon as soon as possible."
Truth to tell, I am sick and weary
of the lying statements that the
knife is even any, and least of all
the only cure for tumours.
Not
only does the knife not cure, but
any one having a tumour or lump
cannot, as a rule, take a shorter
road to the grave than via the
knife that is, unless it be very
their Treatment and Cure. 85
large, and unless the tendency to
its recurrence be outrooted simul-
taneously with the operation, or
soon thereafter.
Oftener than not, cutting out a
small tumour is like pruning a
vine.
But to return to my patient and
her choleric husband, I absolutely
declined any second opinion.
Why?
Simply because a very consider-
able number of people with tumours
literally die of doctors' opinions,
and then what is the use or value
of the opinion of a never so eminent
a pathologist on a therapeutic point?
Just none.
Of course, I know it is said to be
very unprofessional to decline an
86 Tumours of the Breast:
eminent colleague's co-operation in
a given case.
But I did it for my
patient's good, not for my own;
and, moreover, they do the same
to me when people want my
opinion.
Under date of May 19, 1880, I
find in my Case-book, "She has
suffered for many years from white
sticky leucorrhoea, very much like
the white of an egg; the tumour is
softer, and about one-half its origi-
nal size; the whites are consider-
ably better since the last medicine
(Hydrastis 1, gtt. v., night and
morning). The tumour is more
painful eight days before menstrual
period.
July 20. Whites worse; more
pain in the tumour; pain in the
their Treatment and Cure. 87
epigastrium, making her feel quite
sick, especially when standing.
B Thuja 3, 3iv., gtt. v., bis die.
September 16 ('80). It brought
out an eruption.
Thuja 6.
November 16.
Have been
almost entirely free from pain until
last week, when the breast pained
me; I am much better in regard to
the whites. So far as I can judge,
the last medicine has been the
right one."
Thuja 12, 3iv., gtt. v., bis die.
January 28, 1881. "I have
taken the last medicine for two
months. When I first began to
take it, I had more pain in the
affected part than I had had for a
long time previously, but lately I have
been quite well, except a spell of
88 Tumours of the Breast:
toothache, which yielded to Bella-
donna and Gelsemium.
is very much smaller."
The tumour
B Hydrastis can. 1, 3iv., gtt. v., night and
morning.
March 25.
"I am going on
improving, indeed I am very seldom
reminded of my ailment; the tumour
is now so small that my husband
cannot find it."
Ꭱ
R Hydrastis can. 6, gtt. v., 3iv. night and
morning.
May 27.
"After I began to take
the last medicine I felt a good deal
more uneasiness in the affected part
than I had done for some time
before, now I am much as I was.
while taking the previous medicine.
I think my husband told you of the
decrease in size.”
R Psor. 30, four in twenty-four.
their Treatment and Cure. S9
July 29. "My husband thinks the
lump nearly gone, I think it is gone.
While I was taking the last medicine,
and for a week after, I had a good
deal of pain in the region of the
womb, and at the time I had this
pain I was also a good deal annoyed
with the whites; now I am quite
free."
July the twenty-ninth, 1881, is
the last note of the case in my book,
but I saw the patient on another
matter on November 3, 1886—more
than five years thereafter and
learned that there had been no
return of the tumour or of other
ill-health, and she had enjoyed very
good general health.
TUMOUR OF LEFT BREAST.
Mrs
26 years
of age,
90
Tumours of the Breast:
came under my care in February
19, 1883, complaining of a swelling
in her left breast about the size of a
small orange.
had been first noticed in August
1882. Last spring she had squeezed
out some fluid from the left breast.
Slight leucorrhoea. She was the
It was hard, and
mother of one child which was then
three years old. Patient had been
twice vaccinated, and was subject to
labial herpes.
I informed the lady that the
tumour was, in my opinion, due to
her use of modern preventive
measures, that it was, in fact, due
to reflex irritations from the hypo-
gastric region. My wide experience
teaches me that a large number of
mammary tumours in comparatively
their Treatment and Cure. 91
young married ladies are due to hanky
panky manœuvres of various kinds,
the organism being, additionally,
dyscratic. Without any dyscrasia,
the hypogastric irritation would in
all probability not so easily suffice,
unless, indeed, it were very great and
applied over a long period. I ex-
plained that Nature in the long
run is very rarely insulted with
impunity. Nemesis may tarry, but
she inevitably follows the trail of
wrong doing. Oh, how true it is
that the way of the transgressor is
hard !*
B Psor. 30.
March 3. The tumour is rather
* "Man darf das nicht vor keuschen
Ohren nennen.
"Was keuschen Herzen nicht entbehren
koennen."
92
Tumours of the Breast:
smaller. She
She says,
"I find it de-
creased by about one-half."
B Repeat.
19th. The tumour is a trifle
larger than it was last time. The
old itching has entirely disappeared.
B Kali chlor. 6 trituration, in six grain
doses night and morning.
Emansio mensium: she
April 2.
is probably enceinte.
Herself she
feels rather weak, but the tumour
has much diminished.
BTc. Thuja occidentalis, 30.
Patient needed no further treat-
ment, the tumour quite disappeared,
and in due time a baby came.
UTERINE FIBROID; SMALL TUMOUR
ON LEFT BREAST. DISEASE
OF LEFT NIPPLE.
An unmarried lady, 43 years of
their Treatment and Cure. 93
age, came under my observation on
September 24, 1881, for a severe
sprain of the left ankle. It was
several months before she got well,
it being complicated by gout, dys-
pepsia, and dysmenorrhoea. The
accident was a severe fall down
stairs, and, in falling, she struck
with great violence against the low
part of the body, causing for many
months much vesical trouble with
metritis. The case was further
complicated with attacks of breast-
pang, and with fainting fits. Evi-
dently the fall had given her a rude
shaking, and disturbed many impor-
tant organs, the liver and spleen
giving at times much trouble. This
lady remained under my care, and
very slowly got the better of most
94
Tumours of the Breast:
of the just described ailments, when,
on March 14, 1882, she took me so
far into her confidence as to tell me
she had, for the past four years, a
little red lump on her left breast
that discharged something. It was
about the size of a hazel-nut, and
situated at the lowest outermost
part of the left breast.
there was much pain all down the
left side.
With it
At her next visit on April 19,
1882, patient took me further into
her confidence, and stated that she
had been for some time getting
very large in the uterine region,-in
fact, the size had been noticed by
strange ladies, who thought she was
married, and was expectant. On
this account alone the position was
their Treatment and Cure. 95
most painful. The case went on,
the abdomen continued to increase
in size, when, on November 23,
1882, I came to the conclusion,
from an examination obtained with
much difficulty, that it was a uterine
fibroid. The mammæ became
greatly hypertrophied. I could
never quite make up my mind
where the fibroid really sat, and
sometimes, from the hard nodes of
the cervix uteri, I opined it might
be a kind of fibrous hypertrophy of
the whole organ.
Very many
remedies were used-Lappa major
0, Thuja 30, Merc. met. 30, Lapis
alb. 3, Aurum met, 100, Helonin,
Kali chlor. 6, Aur, mur. 3*, Silicea
4, Bovista 3*, Psor. 30,-but all
with but little apparent effect.
96 Tumours of the Breast:
Moreover, the left nipple became
the seat of most distressingly pain-
ful moist cracks, and which are
particularly significant.
This brings the case down to
August 1883, when patient appeared
like a lady about seven or eight
months gone in the family way.
To make matters worse, a child ran
against her (impinging on the pro-
tuberant abdomen), and hurt her a
good deal, when I gave Platin mur.
3*, but also to no good purpose.
Any wonder that patient was get-
ting down-hearted?
Two years
medication and bigger than ever!
And the doctor-Are a few guineas
any adequate reward for such
responsibility? Then came Bovista
3*, Mer. cor. 5, Aur. mur. 3,
their Treatment and Cure. 97
Helonin 3* trit., when the breast
was a good deal better, the cracks
of the nipples better, and the little
tumour drying up. The excoria-
tion between the legs was described
by the patient as dreadful; pain in
the back very bad; disagreeable
taste.
Ꭱ
R Lapidis alb., 6 trituration.
January 10, 1884. About the
same in a general way; complains.
dreadfully of her back. This dread-
ful back distress finds a grand
remedy in the virus of variola,
which I gave in the 30th dilution,
and in very infrequent doses; and
any one objecting thereto is
answered thus: Aux grands maux
les grands remèdes.
February 14th. Seems to have
H
98
Tumours of the Breast:
done her back real good; left
breast is much better; was so well
that she absented herself for a few
days. The same remedy was con-
tinued.
March 6th. Maintains that this
last prescription did her harm,
while the previous one did her
much good, which I can well under-
stand, viz., de trop of the right
remedy. Back exceedingly bad;
much frontal headache.
R Trit. 6 Cali. Fluoris.
April 5th. Head better; back
very painful when she walks; ano-
rexia; bad nights.
26th. Has had a good deal of
pain at the menses and in the left
side; nights much better.
R Var. C.
·
their Treatment and Cure. 99
May 29.
The nights continue
good; much easier in general; is
getting thin; was very stout, not-
ably mammary hypertrophy; is
very débile, but the tumour is de-
cidedly smaller.
R Tc. Aur. mur. nat. 3*. Two drops in
water night and morning.
July 10.
“Dreadfully sicky,”
i.e., intense nausea; she feels very
weak; tumour is much smaller.
R Psoricum 30.
August 21. Frequently faints
away, at times falling down; less
nausea; vision is failing.
B Thuja occidentalis 30.
September 6. Is still giddy, but
does not actually faint away; has
menstruated three times in eight
weeks; sick feeling gone;: dread.
100 Tumours of the Breast:
ful pain in the left side; tooth-
ache.
R Argent. nitric. 5, 5iv. Five drops in
water night and morning.
October 16. Much enlargement
of the spleen, which pains a good
deal.
R Tc. Ceanothus Americanus 1º.
November 5. No better.
Berberis vulgaris 0.
January 9, 1885. Breast well;
the tumour of womb still very large,
and patient has every appearance
of being enceinte; wakes very early,
and cannot get off again. (This is
a capital indication for Bellis.)
R Tc. Bellidis perennis 1.
29. She now sleeps well, and
feels much easier in the abdomen.
their Treatment and Cure. 101
I would here interpolate a rather
important clinical tip in regard to
Bellis, viz., it is often curative of
the symptom, "Wakes early in
the morning and cannot get off
again;" and in cases of pregnancy
and of uterine tumours (also en-
larged heart), Bellis gives great
ease in many cases, i.e., takes
away the effects of mechanical
pressure.
February 26.
Ꭱ
Variol 30.
March 26. Back is on the whole
better ; tumour rather
smaller;
giddiness.
Ib. (C.C.)
May 9. Pain in left side.
R Ceanothus Americanus 1.
102 Tumours of the Breast :
June 8. Toothache and pains in
the back.
July 23.
Much pain in the left
side, which is tender. Tumour is
smaller, which is evident from
general appearance.
R Tc. Chionanthus virginica 0.
September 3. Side better; the
left nipple is very sore.
October 2. The nipple is better,
more comfortable; the tumour of
womb about the same.
R Trit. 4, Hecla lava.
December 5. Feels much freer
from pain, and more easy and
comfortable in herself than for
long. This remedy has cured her
constipation.
R Repeat.
January 26, 1886. Is very giddy;
their Treatment and Cure. 103
fairly comfortable in uterine sphere;
left nipple has been gathering. She
is so cold in her stomach.
March 9.
R Tc. Kedron 1.
Feels dreadfully sick.
R Trit. 3*, Heclæ lav.
May 29. Patient is so much
better that she is getting very
irregular in attendance.
The dim-
inution in the size of the tumour
is considerable.
R Repeat.
August 6. Continued marked
improvement in the size of tumour,
but there is a good deal of pain in
her legs, worse on getting up out
of bed in the morning.
R Tc. Bellidis per. 1, 3iv. Five drops
in water night and morning.
October 6. This is the date of
104 Tumours of the Breast:
my last note when patient presented
herself normally menstruating, in
blooming health, plump and ruddy,
though still complaining of some
tenderness of the left ovary and
left nipple. One can see where
the little tumour formerly was on
the left breast by the deeper colour
of the skin. I prescribed Kali
chlor. 6, which, no doubt, has taken
away the tenderness complained of.
This is the long weary course of
my treatment of this terribly com-
plicated case, lasting, as the notes
show, just five years. During this
long period my patient was very
often importuned by her well-mean-
ing friends and relations to undergo
an operation, but she steadfastly
•
their Treatment and Cure. 105
refused, wavering only once or
twice when her homœopathic friends
also urged surgical interference.
If patient should call again before
this goes to press, I shall add a few
words more.
Patient subsequently
came to know if she might accept
an offer of marriage, which I
answered in the affirmative.
Patient continues
May 15, 1888.
well. I give it as my opinion, that
had this lady been treated surgically,
she would have died long since, and
that miserably.
It is not merely medicines that
will cure tumours, but diet and suck-
ling will also do so. Let me give
the following case, and to which I
have previously referred.
106 Tumours of the Breast :
TUMOUR OF LIVER CURED BY
MEAGRE DIET.
In the Herald of Health Mrs
Nichols, a very talented lady, has
been giving a retrospect of her
own life-experience. The following
portion has a moral, medical, and
scientific value :—
"I think that much of the sym-
pathy I feel for the sick is due to
my own ailments. If I had been
born a strong child, if I had not
known so many of the ills that
flesh is heir to,' I should never have
been a physician. I have loved my
profession only because it has en-
abled me to relieve suffering-to
reach the sickness of the soul, often
through that of the body. Long
their Treatment and Cure. 107
ago I became convinced that all
sickness is from sin-from voluntary
or involuntary disobedience to the
laws of life. It is not the sin of
the individual alone, but the sins
of progenitors that afflict us with
our many diseases. The study of
disease and its causes is the study
of the human race, its passions, its
sins, crimes, sorrows, and agonies.
"I have had my aspirations.
have loved literature and art. I
have longed for a life of beauty, of
abstraction from the sorrows of this
earth-life, but sickness of body and
soul was born with me-with my
humanity; for when I had suffered
and had learned a way of relief,
how could I refuse to help others?
I
"I did not study the art of healing
108 Tumours of the Breast :
in any ordinary way. I learned
the science of cure in my own
person. To illustrate this state-
ment: I was born with disease of
the liver. No matter what part of
a parent is weak or diseased, of
that weakness or disease the child
will partake. The child is specially
made from the mother. If the
paternal element is strong, it takes
hold strongly upon the maternal,
but what the mother has not, that
she cannot give. If she has weak
lungs or liver, or fragile bones, her
child has the same in greater or
less degree.
"I inherited from my mother a
diseased liver. When a young
child I remember (for my memory
reaches to my second year) bilious
their Treatment and Cure. 109
disorders which caused me intense.
suffering. Of course I knew no-
thing then, except that I was ill; and
my parents knew no more than I
did. For ordinary illness they used
domestic remedies-tea made of
tanzy, oak of Jerusalem, mother-
wort, etc. For serious illness the
family doctor was called, and his
practice was severe and sanguinary.
Bleeding, calomel, jalap, opium,
antimony, etc., formed the materia
medica of my childhood.
piric named Thompson protested
against bleeding, and introduced
emetics of lobelia and the stimulus
of capsicum, but the first robbed
the blood of its serum to reject the
poisonous lobelia, and the last was
little better than drunkenness, the
An em-
110 Tumours of the Breast:
capsicum being prepared with
spirits, and a severe irritant in
itself.
'The tender mercies of all medi-
cation were cruel in those days.
If any pessimist says the world
does not grow better, I have only
to say to him, Look at the diseases
and medication of fifty years since.
As much blood was shed by the
lancet as in a war, and mercury
was found impacted in its crude
state in the bones of patients who
had taken the orthodox doses of
calomel. The world is very bad in
this S1st year of the 19th century,
and much of its medication is a
cruel and unwise thing, but Homœo-
pathy is a fact, and water-cure is
widespread as prophylactic or re-
their Treatment and Cure. III
medial, and the power of sympathy
is recognised by many.
((
The diseased liver which formed
a part of my evil inheritance became
so bad in 1868 that I sought the
assistance of a learned water-cure
physician. Certain reasons pre-
vented a diagnosis, and I was
thrown back upon myself to try
what I could do for my relief or
cure, as the event might be. A
tumour had formed in the liver, so
large that it had to be supported.
in the daytime by an elastic band,
and in the night by a pillow.
had no rest, and scarcely any sleep.
At about five o'clock in the morn-
ing I slept a little while. I could
not take food without great distress.
Digestion was never begun under
I
I 12 Tumours of the Breast:
I
seven hours, and only accomplished
after hours of torment. In this
condition I resolved to take but
one small meal in the twenty-four
hours, and that at mid-day.
began this practice, and the third
day I was so weak and giddy that
my husband begged me to take
some food. I was convinced that
I must die if I took food, and I
could only die if I did not. I there-
fore resolved to rest what I could
in bed, or on a sofa, and continue.
my fast.
I took one meal at mid-
day, and when thirsty drank lemon-
ade or orangeade. This I took in
the forenoon, and I found it refresh-
ing and not hurtful. In a week
from the beginning of my fast I
slept well six or seven hours in the
!
their Treatment and Cure. 113
night. My spirits rose to cheerful-
ness. I was weak, and my working
time was a good deal abridged. I
could work after my dinner, but I
did little in the forenoon but endure
my weakness and a passionate
longing for food. This, however,
gave way after a time, and my
greatest suffering was from weak-
ness and inability to work. For
six months I kept this fast, only
taking a moderate meal at mid-day,
and sometimes a glass of lemonade
or orangeade in the forenoon.
CC
At the end of six months, one
day I took breakfast and dinner.
The consequence was a burning in-
digestion that made me more miser-
able than I can describe. Only
once was I seduced into eating a
I
114 Tumours of the Breast:
breakfast. I continued my fast for
another month, and the tumour on
my liver was gone. It had been
so large as to be felt by any one
from the outside. It was now
entirely dissipated, so far as I could
judge from internal feeling and ex-
ternal examination.
"I now began to take a very
light breakfast of bread and fruit,
and a little milk and water, and I
made my dinner about seven hours
after. This I have continued to do
with good results, for the years that
have elapsed since my cure.
My
digestion is slow, and I find that two
meals a day suit me better than
three. I have sometimes varied
from this course when away from
home, but have uniformly found
their Treatment and Cure. 115
my health and digestion better
when I have returned to the two
meals a day, taken seven hours
apart.
(
"I have had a great deal of prac-
tice in disease of the liver, and
what are called Indian livers.'
Much oily food causes and exacer-
bates hepatic disease. I have found
in such cases a diet of whole wheat-
meal bread, porridge, and a half-
pint of milk for breakfast, and
another half-pint at dinner with
fruit, only a little whole wheat-meal
bread or fruit for the third meal,
most beneficial.
"We give the hot-air bath where
the patient can bear it, and the half
pack at night. Sympathetic reme-
dies and Hydrastis canadensis we
116 Tumours of the Breast:
have found beneficial. The knead-
ing, or movement cure, and judicious
exercise, are most useful. But of
all remedies the diet is most im-
portant. Oily food of all kinds is
disastrous for diseased liver; neither
chocolate nor cocoa are admissible.
To keep the bowels free and open
with brown bread and fruit, and to
use packing, or hot-air bath, to
throw off the retained waste and
diseased matter, are very impor-
tant. In some diseased conditions
of the liver there is great constipa-
tion. The retained waste matter is
diffused through the system in the
effort to eliminate it, and it forms
often the basis of typhus. The use
of hot air, or sweating packs, to
cleanse the system is therefore all-
important.
their Treatment and Cure. 117
"It will be seen from my narrative
that the tumour, or what some
call lumps in the liver, can be dissi-
pated entirely. From the end of
my seven months' fast, I have never
had an hour's suffering from my
liver."
Although this work is intended
to give my own experience only in
the medicinal cure of tumours of the
breast, I think the foregoing per-
sonal narrative of the sufferer her-
self eminently instructive. Some
of the statements I do not quite
agree with, and I think the power
of diet is often much over-rated,
still the subject is too important
for us to be able to omit such an
excellent personal testimony. My
objection to diet by itself lies in the
118 Tumours of the Breast:
fact that many are too weak to bear
dieting, and very rigorous diet uses
up normal tissue as well as morbid.
I know of no case of tumour of the
female breast cured by diet, but I
lately had the following case under
observation, and it exemplifies the
wisdom of Nature's own little
ways, that some of the soft-pated
and sinful moderns are trying to
upset. Only conceited soft-pated-
ness would dream of thwarting
Nature's efforts.
ON THE CURE OF A SMALL ADENOID
TUMOUR OF THE BREAST BY
SUCKLING.
A lady of 32 had a little adenoid
tumour in her left breast of the size
of a marble. As she was enceinte,
1
their Treatment and Cure. 119
came.
I recommended her to do but little
for so small a thing, but to be sure
to well suckle her child when it
This she did with very
praiseworthy perseverance, although
she had but very little milk, and
the process had to be materially
supplemented by the bottle, and at
the end of the 4th month of suck-
ling the tumour had entirely dis-
appeared. It is true I gave her a
few medicines also with reference
to the tumour and for other ailings,
still I conclude that the baby helped
to draw off the tumour, causally
because of the short duration of its
waning; the mammilla of that side
had always been retracted, which,
though a small circumstance, de-
serves attention.
120 Tumours of the Breast:
Personally, were I a woman with
a baby, I would suckle it from
purely selfish motives, merely to
depurate my own blood and organ-
ism, for a woman who has a family
and does not suckle her offspring,
is drawing a bill on the future of
her organism which she is likely to
be either unable to meet at all or to
do so with great difficulty. Mother
Nature suffers no tampering with
her provisions; with her it is simply
and emphatically, Obey; or suffer
disease or extinction.
TUMOUR OF BREAST.
The case I am about to tell
about is psychologically and socio-
logically interesting, as my readers
will see.
their Treatment and Cure. 121
On December 15, 1884, a married
lady, 44 years of age, mother of one
child, then 16 years old, came to
place herself under my care.
She had noticed a swelling in her
right breast, and was naturally much
frightened. An intimate friend of
hers (in fact, her former governess)
had been cured of a mammary
tumour by me with medicines, and
so Mrs
came off to London to
place herself under my care, but
when arrived, her metropolitan
friends quite laughed her out of it,
telling her it was all nonsense to
trust herself to my tender mercies,
-first, because of my homœopathic
proclivities, which they adequately
despise and actively hate; and then
"it was well known that no medi-
122 Tumours of the Breast:
))
cines (and least of all, homoeopathic
ones) were any good at all in
tumours. The poor frightened
thing of course yielded, was hurried
off to what I suppose I must call
eminent men, who declared it to be
cancer, and urged immediate opera-
tion in order to save her life. The
operation was duly performed in
April, the whole right breast being
completely ablated by Sir
The wound healed up quickly and
well, and the lady was sent home
to her husband's country seat
CURED (!!) and the case, no doubt,
continues to stand as one of the
CURES (!) of the eminent operator.
The social value of these quasi-
cures by the knife is a baronetcy.
The social value of medicinal
their Treatment and Cure. 123
cures of tumours is-slander and
contempt.
However, the cutting-off process
was worse than useless, as in a
few months another tumour ap-
peared in the remaining breast,
which confirmed the opinion of the
operator that it was a case of cancer.
Was it cancer? No, I think not,
but an irritable tumour of utero-
ovarian origin. Indeed, I am quite
sure this is the correct diagnosis.
Our operating surgeons are mad;
the biggest and best are clean mad.
No sooner does a poor woman get
a lump in her breast than she is
frightened out of her wits by con-
sultations between these eminent
and eminently ignorant knife-people,
124 Tumours of the Breast:
whose diagnostics are confined to
feeling, seeing, and the microscope.
My treatment of this recurrent
tumour lasted three years, and the
following remedies were used:
:-
Psor. 30, Hydrastis canadensis 0,
Bellis per. 1, Ranunculus sceleratus
3*, Psor. C., Thuja occidentalis 30,
Bellis perennis 0, Solanum tub. 6
and 12, Aurum muriaticum nat.
3*, Cundurango 1; and on February
7, 1888, the breast was normal, and
the remarkable thoracic hyperæs-
thesia had at last disappeared, and
this had for years been so bad, that
the gentlest touch of one's finger on
patient's chest caused her to wince
and shrink from contact.
To give all the notes of these
three years of treatment would fill
their Treatment and Cure. 125
a little volume, and so I am com-
pelled to narrate it in these few
words. But I again state that it
was not a case of cancer, but the
lumps came in the breasts-first in
the one that was cut off, and then
in the remaining one-from a wrong
state of the uterus and ovaries, and
in precisely the same physiological
way as the milk comes into the
breasts after child-birth.
The origin of the first tumour
was curious: the lady was getting
out of their carriage when she fell
against one of the buttons of her
husband's coat. When I first saw
the left breast it was red, hard, and
very painful. The lady had been
vaccinated four or five times, the
last twice unsuccessfully. She was
126 Tumours of the Breast:
very fond of salt. She had had
much grief and worry. Her con-
finement was very severe, owing to
size of fœtus. She subsequently
had a good deal of congestion of
the womb and leucorrhoea, for which
her surgeon and physician gave
her local treatment. This is the
usual thing: at first a poor lady's
constitution is wrong; Nature, kind
clever Nature, sets about righting it
with leucorrhoea, ulcers at the os
uteri, and uterine congestion; the
doctor (poor brainless creature)
cauterizes, gives injections, and
cures (drives back); then it concretes
in the breast as a tumour, which is
cut off, and-après ça le déluge!
I told the lady straight away
that hers was not a case of cancer
their Treatment and Cure. 127
at all, but as she had had the
opinions of the greatest living
authorities on tumours and cancers
she did not believe me.
I
What do her husband, family,
and friends now say of the diag-
nosis and the cure by remedies?
do not know, I merely have been
made aware that they now poke fun
at the duration of the cure.
"When
are you going to leave off going to
your doctor? surely you are well,
you look it!" And these were the
very people who prevented her
from coming to me in the first
instance, and morally compelled
the poor frightened lamb to have
one of her breasts ablated!
When I was a student and used to
128 Tumours of the Breast:
watch my professors paint tumours
with iodine, give their bearers tonics,
fail to do any real good, and then
explain authoritatively how that
medicines were useless in tumours,
and how that nothing but the
surgeon's knife was of any real
avail; when I used to see and
listen to all this, I often dreamed
day dreams of trying to find a
solvent for tumours, and so avoid
the cutting business, of which I have,
and ever have had, an instinctive.
horror. And in the beginning of
my professional career I tried hard
and long to find such a solvent for
tumours, but, of course, never found
any.
Why?
Just because the thing is im-
their Treatment and Cure. 129
possible.
Simply because the organism GROWS
tumours vitally, and anything that
is to cure, really cure, must bring
back the perverted VITALITY of the
part to the normal, and, fortunately,
the semeiology and symptomatology
of the sufferers, when read in the
light of homoeopathy, give us a
good stout hand-rope to guide us in
our search for the right remedies.
And why impossible?
If we reflect upon the subject, we
shall readily come to the conclusion
that to attempt to cure tumours by
locally-applied absorbents or by
operation is like trying to cure an
apple-tree of its apples by painting
the apples with iodine, or perform-
ing an operation on the apple-tree
K
130 Tumours of the Breast:
for "apples."
The only difference
between the two processes of apple-
growing by apple-trees, and tumour-
growing by human organisms, lies
merely in the fact that the apple-
growing is a part of the normal
biology of the apple plant, whereas
the growth of tumours by the human
body is morbid. This difference is,
of course, a very great one, but
what I am driving at is to show
that tumour-growing is, though cer-
tainly morbid, yet nevertheless quite
as much a vital process as if it were
purely a biological process within
the four corners of the normal
physiological life of the individual.
Gardeners tell me also that the
real seat of the growth of apples is
the roots of the tree, and that in the
their Treatment and Cure. 131
smaller lateral roots. Of that I
have no personal knowledge, but I
affirm, as the outcome of my own
thought, observation, and experi-
ence, that the growth of most
tumours in the female breasts has
its rootings in the ovaries and
womb. Of that I have no manner
of doubt. This naturally does not
apply to traumatic tumours of the
breasts arising from direct blows
on the breasts, but to a vast
majority of all the others which are
idiopathic or autochthonous.
MULTIPLE TUMOURS OF BREASTS.
An unmarried lady of 32 came
under my observation on the 24th
February 1885 for a number of
hard tumours in both her breasts,
132 Tumours of the Breast:
which were otherwise of enormous
size, yet shapely. She had also
prolapsus uteri, leucorrhoea, an
enormous liver, the left lobe of
which reached down almost to the
navel.
Carduus Mariae o restored the
liver to the normal, and so made
more room for the dislocated womb,
which soon took advantage of the
altered topography of the abdominal
contents; in fact, the prolapsus was
gone. Quite a number of nosodes
followed in high dilutions, and then
Cundurango 1, Chionanthus Virgin.
0, Helonias dioica 0, Hydrastis
canadensise, Bellis perennis, Acidum
fluoris 6, Fluoride of Ammonium
5, Secale cornutum 6, Sarza 0, Sola-
num tub. 6, Scrofularia nodosa 6;
their Treatment and Cure. 133
and, under date January 17, 1888,
I find noted in my Case-book—The
breasts are quite normal, with the
peculiar resilient elastic feel of that
organ when healthy.
I attribute the original cause (or
at least one of the causes) to
numerous cauterizations of the os
uteri to which the unfortunate lady
had been subjected by a fashionable
lady's doctor of repute.
I do not
mean that the cauterizations of the
womb alone produced the tumours
of the breast, but rather that what
was the cause of the ulcers, being
denied an outlet at the os uteri,
became vitally concreted in tumid
masses in the breast, aided by the
reflected mammary irritation from
the os uteri.
134 Tumours of the Breast:
I feel it is not fair to my subject
to give a string of remedies that
were here used to cure this case,
without at the same time giving
their diagnoses and indications, but
space fails me. I might just add
that the most striking, prompt, and
permanent amelioration wrought in
this case was by the Solanum tuber-
osum and by the Scrofularia nodosa,
both in daily doses of five drops of
the tincture of the sixth centesimal
dilution, though the last prescription
was the former remedy in the twelfth
centesimal.
CANCER OF RIGHT BREAST.
At the beginning of the year
1887, a lady friend and patient was
consulting me on account of her
their Treatment and Cure. 135
health, and as she was very de-
pressed, and frequently burst into
tears, I pressed her to tell me the
cause of her grief. "Oh," said she,
"I have a sister who is coming home
from Germany to be operated on for
cancer of the right breast.
We are
all very fond of dogs, and one of
my sister's dogs jumped up to her
and hurt her right breast very much,
and now it has turned to cancer.
She has been using ice compresses
for over a year, and been under the
Crown Prince's physician, and under
Dr, who is sending her home
for the opinion of Dr
"Is there nothing in the world
that can cure cancer?" said she.
My reply was what I here
136 Tumours of the Breast:
solemnly restate-that most cases
of cancer are
are quite curable by
remedies IF TAKEN
EARLY, AND
TREATED LONG AND CONTINUOUSLY
BY INTERNAL REMEDIES, and that in
this way I had myself cured many
cases of cancer.
Then," said she, “I suppose it
is too late for my sister, for she has
had it for more than a year and a
half, and the doctors say that the
operation is her only chance."
April 2. I went to see the lady
at her sister's house soon after her
arrival from the Continent, and
found them all, very naturally, in
a sad state of mind. The patient
had received a letter from Dr
urging an immediate operation, as
otherwise the cancer-juice in the
their Treatment and Cure. 137
milk ducts would infallibly poison
her blood. Subsequently the other
gentleman, Dr saw the lady
and concurred, and went so far as
to say that delay, even till the next
day, was most dangerous for fear of
constitutional infection.
My kind professional brethren
impatiently scouted my views as
mere senseless, not to say wicked,
talk.
On examining the right breast
and comparing it with the left, one
was struck with the diminution in
the size of the right one. The
nipple was deeply retracted, and
from the little funnel-shaped open-
ing in the nipple - region there
oozed an ill-smelling fluid. The
138 Tumours of the Breast:
breast itself was puckered, and one
raised ridge on its outer aspect was
inflamed, swelled, and bluish at one
part,—an unmistakable picture of
cancer. I therefore agreed as to
the diagnosis.
We had a very long conversation
about it, and it was a terrible posi-
tion for me to take up in the face of
almost all the experience of the world,
in the face of the eminent authori-
ties arrayed against me, in the teeth
of the sneering, jeering opposition
of connexions, belongings, and their
medical and surgical friends.
Nor was it easy for the respon-
sible friends or the patient herself
to decide finally either for my
treatment by medicines or for the
operation.
their Treatment and Cure. 139
To see the unfortunate lady look-
ing at her sisters, then at me, then
at her poor breast, and then read-
ing her own doctor's letters urging
the imperativeness of immediate
operative interference, and then
bursting into a flood of tears, and
saying she did not know what to
do, is a scene similar to others I
have often seen; but it remains
ever with me all the same. I con-
cluded the deliberations by saying,
"Mrs
the breast is yours,
mark that; not your sisters', not
your doctors', not mine, but yours;
and if I were you I would keep it.
I promise you nothing, but I tell
you that, in my experience, and
speaking humanly, medicines can
cure you, though the course of the
:
140 Tumours of the Breast:
?
cure will be slow; for that I find is
almost invariably the case in the
treatment of tumours, whether
malignant or benign, the mending
by the help of medicines is slow."
"Well," said she, “I refuse the
operation, and will do as you tell me.
me."
The breast being painful, red, and
of traumatic origin (the weight of a
heavy dog by its paws), I ordered
Bellis per. I, ten drops in water
every four hours. This was April
2, 1887. Nothing locally at all,
now, or hereafter.
B
14th. Vast improvement.
Arnica montana 1*`. Five drops three
times a day.
2 ISt.
28th.
Better on the whole.
R Repeat the Arnica.
Wakes with a nasty taste
in the mouth.
their Treatment and Cure. 141
R Repeat, and also give Chelidonium
majus 1º.
May 5.
Not quite so well, and
the skin of the diseased breast is
red; more painful; has just men-
struated.
R Bellis per. e. Five drops in water three
times a day.
12th. Better a good deal; the
covering skin is less red, and the
nipple is not quite so much re-
tracted.
18th. Mending beautifully; the
breast is softer; nipple less drawn
in; a portion of the cutaneous cover-
ing is still red.
Be Repeat.
26th. Mending.
R Repeat.
June 2.
The mammilla is less
142 Tumours of the Breast:
retracted, and the breast begins to
be slightly movable. Heretofore it
was so retracted and held down by
bridles of tissue behind it that it
could not be moved as a whole at
all. Is menstruating.
Ꭱ
R Repeat four times a day.
9th. Still improving; nipple less
retracted.
B Repeat.
16th. The breast is getting
bigger (ie., returning towards its
previous natural size) and less im-
movable.
R
B Repeat five times a day.
23. The breast is much less
drawn in; the top of the nipple is
now sunk only about half an inch
from the level; all the discoloration
their Treatment and Cure. 143
has gone from the mammary sur-
face; and patient is getting stouter.
R Repeat.
July 2. Much running from the
nose; runs like water ever since
she took the Bellis (pathogenetic?)
There is a little more tenderness of
the breast; to-day is the last day of
the menses.
B Repeat.
9. Some redness around the
areola mammilla.
В B Repeat.
14. The coryza a is very bad, for
which patient comes; bad cough;
much green expectoration tinged
with blood.
she has had.
The cold is like others
Ꭱ
R Repeat.
144
Tumours of the Breast:
28. The breast not quite so well.
(Is menstruating).
B Repeat gtt. x.
August 6. I learn to-day from
the patient, for the first time, that
this right nipple has peeled at times
for years with offensive discharge.
In this state it is now.
R Repeat.
16. No change in the nipple,
which is still peeling.
R Repeat.
August 25.
The breast is slowly
returning to the normal as to appear-
ance, but there is still much dis-
charge from the nipple.
R Repeat.
September 8. There is a little
redness of the areola.
Ꭱ
R Sul. 30., 5ij., gtt. v. ter die.
their Treatment and Cure. 145
27. Much improved, but the
redness is there still.
To take Belladonna 30 with the
Sul., and thereafter return to the
Bellis as before.
October I I.
Mending; the
breast is slowly resuming its former
proportions, though it is still hard.
B Bellis 0.
November 12. Not so well.
Hydrastis can. 0.
19. Slight improvement, there
being less redness in the areola.
Repeat.
29. The Hydrastis seems to be
causing diarrhoea.
Arnica montana 3*.
December 8. Has a cold.
To alternate Aconite 3 with the Arnica.
L
146 Tumours of the Breast:
29. Breast continues hard, but
there is less areolar redness.
Chelidonium e and Aconite 3*.
But I need not go on with these
wearisome details; some more
remedies were needed, patient got
better and better, and returned early
in 1888 to Germany, and I have
not since seen her; but in a letter
to me, under date of May 8, 1888,
patient says "the hard lump is
slowly decreasing." Perhaps before
this goes to press I may be able to
give the end of the treatment, but
this will not much matter, as patient
was practically well before she left
for the Continent.
I may add that the two English
doctors who were so sure that it
was cancer, and who insisted upon
their Treatment and Cure. 147
immediate operation, and whose
letters I myself read, when asked
by me through the patient (just
before she left for the Continent)
whether they would allow me to
have their original letters containing
their diagnosis, prognosis, and re-
commendation of operation; well-
they refused! And now they deny
that they ever said positively that
it was cancer; they only recom-
mended the operation in case it
should be cancer.
The frankness and honesty of
one's allopathic colleagues are won-
derful articles. However, they
have, as usual, had to munch the
leek. The great pity is that so
much energy should be used up by
us medical reformers merely to keep
148 Tumours of the Breast:
on our feet. We boast a good deal
of our advanced state of culture and
civilisation, but will some one ex-
plain to me how it is that many of
even the most wonderfully-cultured
and most highly educated people of
the day seem absolutely incapable
of differentiating between self-deny-
ing, not to say heroic, medical
reformers and persons who sell
nostrums. In practical medicine
this is a crux indeed. But the
world was ever thus.
TUMOUR OF BREAST.
At the end of the month of Nov-
ember of the year 1886, a married
lady of 40 odd years of age came to
consult me in respect of a hard
tumour of the size of a hen's egg in
their Treatment and Cure. 149
the lower third of her left breast,
painful at times, and due originally,
it was stated, to a hurt. I find no
note of the date of the hurt.
Patient was the mother of a large
family, and she had also flooded
and miscarried, and her menses had
always been very profuse and long
lasting, so that for years she had
been barely ever able to completely
recover from one period before she
was overtaken by another, and
hence she had acquired a weak
heart from the chronic anæmia.
She had suffered also for many
years badly from leucorrhoea, and
latterly her feet swelled. She was
stated to have had scarlatina,
measles, and mumps, each twice,
and besides having had smallpox,
150 Tumours of the Breast:
she had been four times vaccinated,
the last three times unsuccessfully.
There were many little wartinesses.
here and there on the cutaneous
surface, such as I have become
accustomed to regard as pointing to
cancer.
B Thuja occidentalis 30.
December 18. Very great im-
provement was reported, and
patient was well of the tumour and
of herself by the spring of 1887.
Besides the Thuja occid. given
repeatedly and over a number of
weeks, Magnesia sul. 3* was given
for some little time.
Over a year
later the patient was reported to
me as being well.
Here the medicinal and curative
action was not only very remarkable,
their Treatment and Cure. 151
but also very remarkably prompt,
which I attribute to the fact that
the swelling was merely a dyscratic
organismic reaction to the trauma
of such recent date that the swell-
ing was not yet neoplastic. When
the causal dyscrasia was extinguished
the predisposing cause of the swell-
ing was gone too, and hence the
swelled tissue constituting the tumour
had to shrink and shrivel. I thought
it would have taken much longer to
cure the tumour than it actually did,
because it seemed to me probable
that neoplasia had set in to a greater
extent than was evidently the case.
TUMOUR OF LEFT BREAST.
At the beginning of 1888 I was
consulted in regard to a tumour of
152 Tumours of the Breast:
the left breast of a healthy young
lady of about 20 years of age, and
which had not been noticed very
long. It was in its upper and
outer aspect, but deep in the body
of the breast.
Of course, the
Of course, the young
lady's mother and friends were
greatly alarmed, and an operation
was thought to be the only thing to
do. It stands described in my
account of the case as of the size of
a large orange, but I do not think
it was quite so large. In four
months the tumour had quite dis-
appeared, the remedies having been
Thuja occidentalis 30, Bellis per-
ennis 0, Ceanothus Americanus 1,
and Cundurango 1, and the last
named being apparently the remedial
force, and which was given because
their Treatment and Cure. 153
of the browny look of patient's
skin.
The rapid cure of this tumour
was evidently due to the fact that
it was from reflected ovarian irrita-
tion, and not a neoplasm. Never-
theless it was only "an operation"
that the faculty and family represen-
tatives discussed together. Indeed,
the ready way in which the opera-
tive carpenters, commonly called
surgeons, recommend the removal
of ladies' breasts in whole or in part
is truly staggering.
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
154
Tumours of the Breast:
in the breasts of males, more par-
ticularly in later life. Such a one
is the following:-
On April 23rd, 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 greatly worried, and this was
followed 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
actually painful, but there is a
sensation of fulness and uneasiness,
their Treatment and Cure. 155
and he cannot lie on it, hence it
arrests his attention.
B Psor. 30, mvj.; s. l. q.s., ft. pulv.,
tales xij., j. nocte.
May 7th. 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
the powders he has had some bilious
attacks.
R Repeat.
21st. It is much smaller; there is
much less sensitiveness, and patient
can now sleep lying on his right
side, which was previously not
possible.
R Repeat.
May 28th. The sensitiveness is
now confined to the nipple alone,
still he can sleep lying on it. He
156 Tumours of the Breast:
is constipated, and his tongue is
thickly furred.
R Hydrastis canadensis 3*, 3iv.
S. gtt. v., nocte maneque.
June 14th. The sensitiveness
still continues, but it has very much
decreased.
R Repeat.
July 2nd. Less sensitiveness ;
tumour still decreasing in size; on
the sternum, on a level with the
nipple, there is a scabby eruption
of the size of a threepenny piece,
having a red ground, the rest being
yellowish. He is still constipated.
R Tc. Hydrastis canad. 6, 5iv., gtt. v.,
n. m.
July 23rd. He has scabs on the
scalp; a yellow scab at the middle
their Treatment and Cure. 157
of the sternum; also on his hands.
The nipple is no longer sensitive at
all.
R Tc. Thuja occid. 30, in infrequent doses.
August 13th. 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.
R Psor. 30 (two to a month).
Sep. 16th. No
tumour to be found.
trace of the
There is still
a patch of reddish scaly eruption on
the skin of the chest.
R Tc. Chelidon. maj. 3*, gtt. iij., nocte.
Oct. 13th. No trace of tumour ;
still a circular patch at midsternum.
Bowels a little relaxed.
R Trit. 6, Nat. Sul.
27th. Well; and has a healthy
158 Tumours of the Breast:
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,
you know, Sir J.
says is the
only chance!"
What did the friends say after
the tumour was cured by remedies?
Were they grateful? Perhaps; they
their Treatment and Cure. 159
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 any 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.
THE CAUSES OF TUMOURS OF THE
FEMALE BREAST.
Under this heading I desire to
make a few cursory yet practical
remarks on the causation of mam-
160 Tumours of the Breast:
mary tumours in women. To begin
with, the tumours in the female
breast are very rarely primary to
the breasts, but are most commonly
produced in the breasts much in the
same way that the organ is enabled
to perform its natural function of
suckling the human offspring, i.e.,
the part is rendered physiologically
active from the utero-ovarian sphere.
Whether this view of the origin of
mammary tumours has ever been
promulgated before I do not know,
in any case I have it from my
own observations in practical life.
Usually there is some disease or
irritation in the lower part of the
body, either arising primarily there,
or else expressed there holopathi-
cally. I will not enter into the
their Treatment and Cure. 161
details of these causes here, as the
subject is too large for my present
purpose, which will be sufficiently
served if I say that wearing pes-
saries, making intra-vaginal injec-
tions for the purposes of cleanliness
or otherwise, or for the cure of
ulcerations and discharges, and other
mechanical hurts and injuries to the
parts, the cautery, genesiac frauds
and surrogates, all these may sever-
ally result in the formation of
tumours in the ovaries, uterus, or
breasts. The one point I here in-
sist upon is that mammary tumours
do not usually arise from a cause
existing primarily in the breasts
themselves, but the cause is usually
in some other more or less remote
part of the organism, most frequently
M
162 Tumours of the Breast:
in the ovaries. Or the cause is
organismic, and the tumour is the
mammary expression of the consti-
tutional condition of the individual.
And even where the tumour
arises directly from a knock or
blow, or from pressure from the
stays, there is usually something in
the constitutional crasis that favours
neoplasms; and it is this some-
thing which constitutes the danger
to the future integrity of the indi-
vidual. If I am correct in what I
here maintain with regard to the
place of real primary origin and
causation of tumours in the female
breasts, then it must follow that
operation can never be any cure,
since it is only the product that is
operatively got rid of, and not the
their Treatment and Cure. 163
disease radically. In proof of this,
see the number of cases which I
relate even in this small volume,
in which the disease returned in
the other breast after it had been
cut out of one. The number of
times in which I myself have seen
this recurrence of tumours, after
they had been got rid of by opera-
tion, is so great that I could adduce
an absolutely overwhelming chain
of evidence to prove this my
contention, but I forbear;
fact is patent, and within the
experience of all medical men,
and, indeed, of almost all ladies of
experience who take cognizance of
what goes on in their own social
circles.
the
I conclude, therefore, that both
164 Tumours of the Breast:
theory and experience condemn the
use of the knife, which is no cure.
Is an operation, then,
for tumours.
absolutely and always useless and
damnable? Not quite that, though
it is not often needful if the case is
taken early when the tumour is
young, as medicines can cure it
vitally; BUT when it has become
large-very large, broken, granu-
lating, and auto-infective, then an
operation is called for, but medi-
cinal means should be at once used
to prevent recurrence.
In the ear-
lier stages operation is damnable
and dangerous.
I have ALREADY said that by
tumours I understand all lumps
and swellings whatever, the same
being more or less growths on or in
their Treatment and Cure. 165
the human body, inclusive of such
as are called cancer.
Woman's nature is essentially
plastic,
formative; wherefore
woman is the mother of every
man of us.
When woman's formative power
becomes perverted by trauma, vice,
or disease, it is apt to localize itself
by creating a lump in the breasts
or elsewhere. Of course men get
tumours also, but that is by reason
of their being the sons of women,
and possessing some of their for-
mative power thus perverted and
locally expressed.
Ten years or more ago Dr Pope,
of Tunbridge Wells, cured a lady
of a tumour with remedies chosen
according to the homeopathic law,
166 Tumours of the Breast:
and a friend of the cured one,
having a tumour in her breast,
sent for me to know if I could do
for her what Dr Pope had done for
her friend. I found a tumour of
the breast about the size of an
orange, hardish and irritable, and
particularly troublesome at the
period. The lady was young, for
several years married, childless, and
suffering from severe chronic leucor-
rhoea, which she was keeping in
check by means of vaginal injec-
tions. The lady was very enthusi-
astic about the injections; they
made her so comfortable, and they
commended themselves to her
judgment as a praiseworthy ablu-
tionary measure.
Now, in the first place, I hold
their Treatment and Cure. 167
very strongly that mucous surfaces
under natural conditions are not
intended by nature to be washed,
inasmuch as they are self-cleansing,
and, in the next place, I maintain
that diseases of the mucous mem-
branes are for the most part con-
stitutional, and should not be treated
by local applications.
I reason in this way : The
mucous membrane is to the inside
of the body just what the skin is to
its outside, and should be thus
regarded physiologically and thera-
peutically.
Discharges from mucous surfaces
are essentially much the same as
eruptions on the cutaneous surface,
and in the very deed are not infre-
quently identical.
UorM
168 Tumours of the Breast:
And then Nature makes use of
mucous surfaces from which to dis-
charge peccant matter, of which she
wishes to rid the economy. In
ladies, the mucous lining of the
vagina and of the womb are most
convenient for this purpose, and
hence the common occurrence of
whites, which is its expression.
Given a case of leucorrhoea,
other than a temporary one, from a
genuine cold or chill (when its
value is the same as a catarrh from
the nose under like circumstances),
and we have to deal with an affec-
tion of the organism, which it is
dangerous to stop by local applica-
tions.
It is barely possible to conceive
of.a case of chronic whites being
;:;
their Treatment and Cure. 169
local in nature and origin; it is a
local expression of a constitutional
cause in most cases.
With these views of the nature of
whites, I explained to my patient
that the tumour in her breast was
caused, in my opinion, by the injec-
tions she was in the habit of using
by way of cleanliness, and for the
purpose of getting rid of the leucor-
rhœal discharge. But as an emi-
nent lady's doctor had recommended
these said injections, maintaining
that this leucorrhoea was a merely
local affair, the lady would not
accept my view of her case. More-
over, the local medical man, of
good standing in the profession,
considered the lump in the breast
also a merely local affair of the
170 Tumours of the Breast:
breast itself, and so the lady would
also not accept my view of the
nature of this either.
Eminent medical authorities had
declared to her and to her husband
that the leucorrhoea and the lump
in the breast had nothing to do
with one another, the discharge
being merely an affair of the vagina
or womb, and the tumour being
merely an affair of the breast itself.
Both husband and wife ridiculed
my view of the case, viz., that the
tumour was caused by the injec-
tions, and therefore I declined the
case. Eight years later, a relation
of theirs told me that this lady was
still in very ill-health, and that no
one could do her any real good.
their Treatment and Cure. 171
Before leaving the question of the
reciprocal relations of the vaginal
lining and the breasts, I would like
to refer to a very recent experience
of my own on the subject, as it tells
the whole tale, and that eloquently.
A married lady of 30, or there-
abouts, and who had formerly been
under my care for phlegmasia alba
dolens, and hypertrophy of the
spleen, came quite recently to con-
sult me in regard to a tumefaction
in her right breast. Having seen her
about her health only a very few
months before, I was really quite
taken aback at her statement, and
I said, What have you been doing?
"Oh, I went to the seaside, and I
there consulted the homoeopathic
and he said my
doctor, Dr
172 Tumours of the Breast:
womb was retroverted, and he re-
commended me to wear a support,
and after hurting me a good deal,
and trying five different sorts, one
of which he called Hodge's, I was
obliged to leave off trying as I could
not bear them. But before he put
in the supports he found that I had
some ulcers of the womb, for which
I had to see him five times for
something to be applied to them.
My breast began to trouble me shortly
after I returned home after under-
going this treatment." I forbear to
characterize either the man or his
treatment, but leave the facts to
speak for themselves. Of course,
the patient was duly recommended
to his own special surgical friend
in town for the tumour of the breast,
their Treatment and Cure. 173
and when I interposed and explained
matters, the poor lady cried and
laughed in turns at being assured
that she would soon be quite well
of the mammary swelling without
any operation.
By the way, we often find our
operating chirurgical carpenters tell
in a very unctuous manner of the
beautifully ready way in which the
operated ones recover after the
removal of a tumour, and they
evidently seem to think that the
quick healing of the wounds augurs
well for the future of the case. But,
as usual, their mental grip and
positive knowledge are equal.
Dr Moore, in his Manual of the
Diseases of India, notes the curious
fact that wounds heal remarkably
174 Tumours of the Breast:
quickly in the leper. This is in-
teresting when coupled with the
observation of Dr Charles Creighton,
that "amputations of the cancerous
breasts have a peculiar tendency to
heal by primary adhesion, as if the
formative power in the several
tissues were strong enough to dis-
pense with the roundabout process
of inflammatory reaction, suppura-
tion, and reparative granulation."
In
Such, therefore, may be the true
value of the "healing skin."
fine, we may bear in mind in regard
to the causation of tumours of the
breast, what I think Kingsley some-
where thus expresses: Outraged
Nature is never tired of killing till she
has taught man the terrible lesson
he is slow to learn-that Nature
their Treatment and Cure. 175
is only conquered by obeying
her..
Nature is as fierce when she is
offended as she is bounteous and
kind when she is obeyed."
are—1.
Now, just a word or two anent
dietetic causes of tumours, and then
I have done. In my experience
they are 1. Much meat, notably
pig meat; 2. Pepper and salt; 3.
Milk; and in regard to this last-
named, no doubt many will be
much amazed at my condemning
the use of milk in tumours (particu-
larly in those of the breast), but I
do so most emphatically, and that
from my own personal experience.
Practical men would do well to
remember this.
}
176 Tumours of the Breast:
THE TREATMENT OF TUMOURS BY
MEDICINES.
Having related enough cases
of medicinal cures of mammary
tumours to show that these tumours
can be really got rid of with in-
ternal treatment, even when of a
recurrent and cancerous nature,
and having, moreover, made a few
cursory remarks on their ætiology,
it only remains for me to tell any
younger or less experienced brother
practitioners how to set about curing
tumours with medicines. I have
arrived at my present positive
position slowly, gropingly, patiently,
and quite independently; and I do
not think I could do better here
than give very shortly my mode of
&
their Treatment and Cure. 177
procedure in principle. Were I
asked to put down shortly my
mode of setting about curing a
case of tumour when it comes
before me for medicinal treatment,
I would say: First of all, I begin
by remembering Hahnemann's
method of case-taking, and follow
it partially; I say partially, because
time is an element of importance
nowadays.
2. Then I go over in my mind
the various medical doctrines, such
as those of psora, syphilis, sycosis,
vaccinosis, Grauvoglian constitu-
tions and traumatism, not forget-
ting all the illnesses and diseases.
of the patient, and any possible
bearings of taints and dispositions,
hereditary or acquired.
N
178 Tumours of the Breast:
3. I take, then, a purely organo-
pathic survey of the organ or part,
and then weigh and balance the
various facts which physiology,
pharmacology, and pathology tell
us about it.
When all this is done, I have
usually at least one good reason
for giving one good remedy which
is then ordered, and which com-
monly teaches me the next step,
either because it helps, or behaves
indifferently, or otherwise.
Most commonly I find tumours
are pathologically hybrid in their
nature, and they will not yield to
treatment of a simple nature, e.g.,
a person of the herpetic diathesis,
who suffered much from gastric
fever, was then vaccinated, then
their Treatment and Cure. 179
had much grief and sorrow, and
finally had suffered from unrequited
affection; and last of all, got a
blow on her breast, followed by
the formation of tumour, such a
person in her very history tells the
thoroughly competent therapeutist
to proceed without
symptomatology at all.
how
any
It has been urged against the
homoeopathic treatment of tumours
that, as the remedies used have (as
a rule) never caused tumours or
anything like them, and, moreover,
are in all probability quite incapable
of doing so, it must follow that there
can be no real homœo-therapeutics
of tumours. This little volume is
a first part of my practical answer
to this objection. It is brought out
180 Tumours of the Breast:
by itself for the reason already
stated in my preface. I hope in
a later publication to set forth in a
clearer light my reasons for giving
the remedies which I have found
of greatest use in the treatment of
tumours, some of which I have
herein already referred to.
What I aim at in this volume is
to prove that tumours can be truly
and genuinely cured by medicines
given by the mouth; and if I have
proved that, then I have attained
my object.
NEVERTHELESS, IN ORDER TO AID
any younger practitioners in attempt-
ing the internal treatment of tumours,
i.e., by remedies, I will just add a
list of a few of the most useful
medicines for this purpose, giving
their Treatment and Cure. 181
them alphabetically, with a practical
note or two for the use of the un-
· initiated. For further information,
see Hughes's Pharmacodynamics
last edition, and back numbers of
the British Journal of Homœo-
pathy, of the Monthly Homoeopathic
Review, and of the Homeopathic
World.
REMEDIES USEFUL IN TUmours of
THE BREAST.
Had I the requisite leisure I
could obtain from the medical
literature of the world a mass of
remedies that have been found
useful in the cure of tumours in
the various parts of the body; but
there is this peculiarity about most
of the cases of tumour published
182 Tumours of the Breast:
as cured by medicinal means, that
they are for the most part quasi-acci-
dental, or, at any rate, extremely
isolated; and one can read them
ever so often, and any number of
them, and still, when a case of
tumour comes up for treatment,
one finds that they have not given
any particular clue to guide one.
I have already stated the way in
which I set about curing tumours
of the breast; and as I have men-
tioned under each case most of the
remedies used, I need not refer to
those medicines here, but shortly
to the following:-Acidum aceti-
cum has a certain reputation for
and benign tumours.
cancerous
Dr J. C. Peters maintains that
it will dissolve the "cancer cell."
their Treatment and Cure. 183
I have used it with advantage in
cancer, but principally as an ex-
ternal irritant, notably in hepatic
and pyloric indurations.
Aconitum napellus.—The use of
aconite in tumours of the breast
is by no means to be despised, as
it commands congestion to some
extent, which is a great help. Of
course it has no direct or specific
action.
Apis mel. Of this remedy Dr
Gilchrist (a very high authority)
says,-
*
"Apis mel. I have frequently
benefited, if not
malignant and
cured, various
semi - malignant
growths with the following symp-
* Tumours: their Etiology and Curability. By J.
S. Gilchrist, M.D. Detroit, Michigan. No date.
184 Tumours of the Breast:
toms-Small ulcers with a gray
slough, deep, and running into one
another; pain, burning, itching or
stinging; sharp stinging pain in the
ulcer or tumour; pus is of a light
yellow colour, and scanty; erysipe-
latous inflammation of the surround-
ing skin; dark purple colour of old
scars; thirst is either absent or
increased for small quantities.
“Worse in the morning; also
from warmth?
“Better from cold water and pres-
sure. Left side.
I
"Has been used in many varieties
of tumour, perhaps with a special
adaptability to cystic formations.
have used it in cases of cancerous
ulceration with good results a num-
ber of times. You will find a case
their Treatment and Cure. 185
of ovarian tumour reported cured
by this agent in the North Ameri-
can Jour. of Hom., vol. xxi., p.
553, by Dr Piersons; also one by
Dr P. H. Hale, in Raue's An. Rec.,
1872, p. 173.
In the latter case
the 1st dilution was used, in the
other the high. Dr Garnsey, of
Batavia, Ill., reports a case cured,
in which he used Apis and Apocyn.
can. in alternation (Am. Hom. Obs.,
vol. iv., p. 251). In Helmuth's
Surgery, p. 1181, a case is reported
cured with the same remedy in
alternation with Arsenic, reported
by Dr Craig. These two last cases
are not as valuable as they might
be, on account of the alternation of
the remedies."
Apocynum cannabinum is a solvent
:
186 Tumours of the Breast:
unquestionably. I have thus cured
a case of adenoma with it, used in
the form of an ointment. Its action
seems, in such cases, to be power-
fully solvent.
Arnica montana. The great
sphere of Arnica is trauma and
hæmatoma. Dr Lee cured a case
of "movable" tumour of the orbit
with it.
Argentum nitrum is sometimes
useful in cutaneous cysts, and not-
ably in the hydræmic.
Arsenicum is a classic remedy
for bleeding cancer, and many cases
cured or ameliorated by it have
been published. It has an equally
great reputation for the cure of
lupus.
Arsenicum iodatum has cured
their Treatment and Cure. 187
cancer of the breast, and also of the
womb.
Aurum metallicum is useful in
mammary indurations, particularly
after Mercury has been used.
Aurum muriaticum natronatum,
taken by itself, is probably the best
remedy for uterine tumours that we
have.
Barium has a reputation for
lipomata; the carbonate is used,
and also the iodide and the muriate.
Belladonna is used by myself
merely for its congestive effects,
and, of course, in refracted dose
it helps and relieves.
Bellis perennis.-A very grand
remedy, but, being only a common
weed, is unknown or contemned.
and despised. It was ever thus.
188 Tumours of the Breast:
I have already illustrated its use in
tumours of the breast.
Bryonia alba cured a case of
fibroid tumour in the hands of Dr
C. Wesselhoft. In my judgment,
it is an important tumour medicine
by reason of its demonstrated effects
in arthritic states, and in cir-
cum-oöphoritic peritonitis; and
where the peritoneum is probably
involved in the ovarian tumours, it
will greatly relieve. The following
note on lime is from Gilchrist :—
Calcarea carb.-Tumours occur-
ring in the characteristic calcarea
individual. Tendency to boils; to
take cold easily; deficient animal
heat; cold feet; perspiration of the
feet and head particularly; pus is
copious, putrid, yellowish, or white
+
their Treatment and Cure. 189
like milk; similar to Baryt. carb.,
excepting that the subjects are
younger. Stapf (Archives, vol.
iii.) reports a case of encephaloma
of the eye, which was cured after
commencing the process with Calc.
There is much doubt existing as to
the correctness of the diagnosis.
Dr Sumner (N. Y. State Hom.
Med. Soc. Trans., vol. ix.) reports
a case of ovarian tumour cured by
this remedy. Prof. Beebe (World's
Convention, 1876) reports a
from Helmuth of sebaceous cyst
cured; Dr Alvarez (Med. Invest.,
vol. iv., p. 89) a case of lipoma;
Prof. Beebe (loc. cit.) a case of
fibrous tumour, in alternation with
Coni, however, taken from Hel-
muth. I can report one case of
case
190 Tumours of the Breast:
uterine fibroid cured. A number
of polypi existed; the large ones
were expelled, and the smaller dis-
appeared by absorption. Nasal and
uterine polypi have been cured so
frequently that no citation of cases
is necessary.
Calcarea phos.-The indications
are similar to those under the car-
bonate. Perhaps there is a greater
tendency to deficient ossification in
the case of this remedy. I have
thought that the Carbonica is of
special value in cases of peduncu-
lated fibroids; the Phosphate when
sessile.
Cundurango.-The indications for
this powerful drug have.
drug have been
already given.
Colocynthis.-Gilchrist and Car-
roll Dunham have each recorded a
their Treatment and Cure. 191
case of ovarian cyst cured by this
remedy.
Sharp abdominal pains
lead to its choice.
Conium maculatum. — I
- I have
cured one case of tumour with this
old favourite of Stoerk's, and it also
has done me very good service in
cancer of the tongue.
Ferrum.-In the cachexia I have
found Ferrum aceticum in small
material dose of great benefit; in
fact, I have often interrupted the
more constitutional treatment for a
little intercurrent course of iron,
and with much advantage. Where
there is plethora, of course a higher
dilution must be used. I like
Schüssler's phosphate of
of iron.
And the picrate, by reason of its
cephalic, hepatic, hæmic, and local
actions, is a grand remedy.
192 Tumours of the Breast:
Galium ap. - Drs Bailey and
Clifton have had brilliant results
with this remedy in cancer of the
tongue, particularly the latter, who
has probably cured as many tumours
by medicines as any living man.
Galium was used in combination
with glycerine, the indication was
evidently "Old Herball.”
Graphites has a well-merited
reputation for wens and herpes
and tumours in the herpetic.
Hydrastis canadensis.-The late
Dr Bayes had quite a reputation
for tumours, and he set great store
by its use.
Poor Bayes, in Brit. Jour. of
Hom., once published the following
list of cases treated with Hydrastis
canadensis:-
their Treatment and Cure.
193
Case.
Age.
Sex.
Disease.
Location.
Result.
123456 N∞
I 41
Female. Scirrhus.
46 do. Cancer.
3 77
do.
do.
25
do.
Scirrhus.
45 do.
do.
Breast.
50 do.
37 do.
Cancer.
848
do.
do.
938
do.
ΙΟ
48 do.
do.
Right breast.
Both breasts.
Os uteri.
II 56
do.
Cancer-ulcerated.
12 42
do.
Scirrhus.
Uterus.
1360
бо
do.
Fungus hæmatodes.
Right thigh.
14 22
do.
Cancer.
Left breast.
Ulcerated cancer.
Tumours (cancerous).
Scirrhus.
'Breast.
Right breast.
do.
Cervical glands.
Left breast.
Os uteri, vagina, and rectum.
Cured.
Much improved.
Arrested.
Much improved.
Pain relieved.
Greatly improved.
Cured.
Pain relieved.
Much improved.
No effect.
do.
do.
do.
Cured.
15 50 do.
Ulcerated cancer.
do.
16 50 Male.
do.
Lip.
1740 Female.
Carcinoma.
Left breast.
18 58
do.
Scirrhus.
do.
1940
do.
Ulcerated cancer.
Os and cervix uteri.
20 60
do.
do.
do.
21 37
do.
do.
do.
Relieved.
Arrested and improved.
Relieved.
Arrested.
Slight and temporary relief.
No relief.
Arrested.
194
Tumours of the Breast:
I, too, have used it a good deal
and fully endorse Dr Bayes' views.
Dr Blake cured a case of epithelioma
and also one of scirrhus with
Hydrastis.
Iodine is not a favourite of mine,
indeed, I hardly know how to use it,
as nearly every one I see with a
tumour has already had it in some
form or other. However, I have
used it in tumours of the pancreas
with striking effect. (See Rade-
macher on this remedy in regard to
this organ.)
Kali chloratum is a good remedy
for mammary tumour, that is little
more than a mastitis.
Lappa major.-I once knew a
"Lady Bountiful" who used to cure
poor people of swellings with a tea
their Treatment and Cure. 195
made of the roots of this plant.
Her indication was-the blood.
Kali brom. cured a case of ovarian
tumour in the hands of the late Dr
Black.
Kali iod. has been used with
advantage in cases of supposed
epithelioma. So has Kreasotum.
Lapis alb. The late Dr von
Grauvogl introduced this Urkalk-
gneiss for occult cancer, glandular
tumours, and bronchocele.
He was
led to use it by having observed
the tumorifacient effect of the water
containing it. Von Grauvogl sent
me a portion to try some years.
before his death, with a very kind
letter which I have preserved and
still cherish.
Phosphorus has helped me in
196 Tumours of the Breast:
mammary tumours when given for
menorrhagia, but I have generally
used it in the bleeding stage in
alternation with Carbo animalis.
Phytolacca dec. is of undoubted
value in mammary tumours, but
requires to be given in material
doses. In refracted dose I have
found benefit from it in mammary
atrophy; in one case, the increase in
the size of the breasts was notable.
Platina and Pulsatilla are reme-
dies to be remembered in mammary
tumours, and also Silicea, Acidum
fluoricum, Mercurius, and many
others.
I have myself obtained the great-
est help from theories of drug action,
diatheses, and specificity of seat as
well as of action; and medicines
their Treatment and Cure. 197
that are known as mere organ-
remedies will often cure its organ
of the disease that caused the
tumour, and then the tumour atro-
phies.
Dr Gilchrist, a surgeon of the
right sort, ie., one who places
medicines first, in his small but
important treatise on tumours, and
to which I have already referred,
makes the following remarks:-
(
“Prof. Helmuth, in his paper on
The Influence of Homœopathy
upon Surgery,' and Prof. Beebe, in
one upon 'The Therapeutics of
Benign Tumours,' presented to the
World's Homeopathic Convention
in 1876, held in Philadelphia, refers,
at some length, to a large number
of cases in addition to those I have
198 Tumours of the Breast:
presented. To the student I re-
commend a study of these papers.
"In all forms of tumour I have
now referred to one hundred and
thirty-two cases reported cured.
All of these cannot be fraudulent,
incorrect, or of doubtful diagnosis.
Indeed, as tumours differ, in these
classes, mainly in a plus or minus
of cellular elements, it can make
but little difference whether the
exact form is correctly diagnosticated
or not. The fact of its being
tumour at all is the all-important
question. Large as this list of
cures is, it might readily be ex-
tended, but those who doubt would
continue to do so if volumes were
written.'
>>
their Treatment and Cure. 199
THE POST - PROVING
SPHERE OF
DRUG
ACTION
IN RELATION
ΤΟ
THE
THERAPEUTICS
OF
TUMOURS.
One very great, almost insur-
mountable, difficulty in the homœo-
therapeutics of tumours, lies in the
inadequacy of our homoeopathic
provings, which are not carried far
enough to produce hypertrophy of
degraded tissue, and usually not even
far enough to degrade the tissue.
And indeed it may be questioned
whether it would be justifiable to
prove remedies on ourselves suffi-
ciently long to set up such an organic
process.
But, according to the Roman pro-
verb, we may learn of the enemy.
200 Tumours of the Breast:
An article in the June ('88) number
of the Monthly Homeopathic Review
is here trenchantly interesting, and I
therefore will not withhold it :—
ARSENIC AND CANCER.
"At a meeting of the Patho-
logical Society in December last,
Dr Jonathan Hutchinson made a
communication on arsenical cancer,
of which the following abstract
appeared in the British Medical
Journal on the ensuing Saturday:—
"Arsenic Cancer.-'Mr Jonathan
Hutchinson, F.R.S., desired
make the proposition that the in-
ternal administration of Arsenic in
large doses over long periods might
produce a form of cancer which
was of the epithelial variety, but
desired to
their Treatment and Cure. 201
He
presented certain peculiarities.
showed a drawing of the foot of a
gentleman who had taken Arsenic
for psoriasis for many years; a corn
on the sole of the foot ulcerated,
and at first had the appearance of
perforating ulcer. Perfect immo-
bility was not followed by any
improvement. The palms of the
hands also became affected, small
corns developing. The growth in
the foot was excised, and the
patient recovered. The patient
was now under the care of Pro-
fessor Chiene; the microscopical
examination was inconclusive. He
also showed drawings of the hands
of an American physician who had
taken Arsenic for long periods in
considerable doses. A rough con-
202 Tumours of the Breast:
dition of the palms and soles devel-
oped, though the psoriasis was
cured. These early growths in
these cases he observed, paren-
thetically, were corns, not warts,
and the growths were never papil-
lary. This patient then got on the
front of the wrist of the left hand
a growth in the subcutaneous tissue,
the other hand also became affected;
the growths perforated the skin and
fungated; they had the appearance
of a syphilitic lesion, but the patient
had never had that disease. The
growths were scraped away and
also excised; microscopical exam-
ination was again at first incon-
clusive, but the opinion finally
leaned to the view that the disease
was cancer. The patient then
their Treatment and Cure. 203
came to Europe, and in deference
to the opinion of several surgeons,
antisyphilitic remedies were fairly
tried, but gave no result. Both
hands were amputated; the patient
died eighteen months later. No-
dules of epithelial cancer were found
in the axillary glands on the left
side, in both lungs, in the supra-
renal capsules, in a rib, and in other
parts. He also showed drawings
from another case of a lesion of the
palms, exactly resembling the corns
seen in the other cases. This
patient had a cancerous growth in
his neck, and took Arsenic in large
doses, for months together; the
skin became muddy and thick, and
patches like psoriasis developed
upon the elbows and other parts,
204 Tumours of the Breast :
but in the palms and soles the corny
masses formed, but were not fol-
lowed by cancer. About five years
ago, Dr Clifford Allbutt had given
him the particulars of a case of a
young lady who had taken Arsenic
for pemphigus for many years, with
occasional intermissions. An ulcer
had developed on the crest of the
ilium, the glands enlarged, a tumour
formed in the thigh, and the patient
died at the age of 25, owing to the
enlargement of
of these
these growths.
Mr Hutchinson also mentioned a
case which had been under the care
of Mr Waren Tay and himself.
The patient was a clerk, aged 34,
who had taken Arsenic for a long
time for psoriasis. The palms of
his hands and soles of his feet were
their Treatment and Cure. 205
speckled over with corns when he
applied at the Skin Hospital; finally,
epithelial cancer of the scrotum
appeared, and was excised; the
patient was then lost sight of. He
thought the facts he had brought
forward warranted him in advancing
the theory that the cancer in these
cases was due to Arsenic, with the
hope that attention might thus be
more generally directed
directed to the
point.'
"In the discussion which followed,
Dr W. B. Hadden mentioned that
he had seen several cases of erythe-
matous eruptions in children with
chorea taking Arsenic. Mr Eve
said that he believed that epithelial
cancer of the palms always pre-
sented peculiar appearances, which
206 Tumours of the Breast:
agreed with those described by Mr
Hutchinson, and added that lympho-
sarcoma of the lungs occurred with
considerable frequency in workers
in cobalt mines, a fact which he
thought lent support to Mr Hut-
chinson's theory. The President
(Sir James Paget, Bart., F.R.S.)
said that he had seldom heard an
argument, founded on clinical and
pathological evidence, more defin-
itely suggesting the conclusion ad-
vanced. In this connexion it must
be remembered that chronic psori-
asis was sometimes followed by
cancer. In the face of the facts
advanced by Mr Hutchinson, it
could not, he felt, be doubted that
Arsenic had a power, in persons
predisposed to it, to determine the
their Treatment and Cure. 207
development of cancer.
The first
two cases he had seen himself, and
he had been clearly of opinion that
the disease was cancerous. Mr
Hutchinson, in reply, remarked that
microscopical evidence in the early
stages of cancer was often conflict-
ing and misleading. For instance,
in this American case many most
competent pathologists, both in
England and on the Continent, had,
after examining the microscopical
specimens, formed the opinion that
the growths were not cancerous, yet
the patient undoubtedly had cancer,
and had died of it. He believed
that herpes zoster was certainly
produced by Arsenic; Arsenic
eczema had already been described.
A remarkable fact about Arsenic
208 Tumours of the Breast:
eruptions was that they were never
symmetrical.
"The only lesson that the members
present, when Mr Hutchinson made
this communication, would learn
from it would be that they should
be more cautious in prescribing
Arsenic in the future. This, in-
deed, is admitted by The Lancet
in its ensuing number. To those
members of the profession who have
learned by experience that Hahne-
mann's therapeutic rule-similia
similibus curantur—is indeed the
bridge that spans the gulf so long
'fixed between the pharmacologist
labouring to elucidate the mysteries
of the subtle actions of drugs upon
the complicated and intricate human
their Treatment and Cure. 209
organism, and the therapeutist strug-
gling to apply these results to the
successful treatment of disease
(British Medical Journal, August
9th, 1884), it has a far higher value.
Perhaps we should rather say that
it would have had such a value, were
it not for the fact that the study of
the symptoms of chronic arsenical
poisoning had long since taught us
the importance of Arsenic in the
treatment of cancer. Long previous
to Hahnemann's time, Arsenic was
an empirical remedy in cancer. But
the selection of this drug by the light
of the rule of similars has enabled us
to differentiate those cases of cancer
which are most surely benefited by
it from those in which it is less effi-
cacious. Thus, Dr Dudgeon, in his
P
210 Tumours of the Breast:
}) }
article on Arsenic in The Hahne-
mann Materia Medica, part 1, p.
24 (1852), writes:It merely
palliates true scirrhus and medullary
tumours; it is, however, curative in
cancroidal tumours, as Dr Bennett
calls them, or, according to Mr
Paget, "epithelial tumours. So,
too, Dr Hughes says (Pharmaco-
dynamics, p. 261, 4th ed., 1880), 'in
epithelial cancer-as of the lip, face,
and tongue-Arsenic has unques-
tionably proved curative, and that
not seldom.' Lastly, Dr Pope, in a
lecture on Arsenic (Monthly Homœo-
pathic Review, vol. xxx., p. 414),
writes: In some cases of cancer
Arsenic is, by the peculiar character
of its influence on the quality of the
blood, as well as by the symptoms
their Treatment and Cure. 211
of general constitutional adynamia
it produces, and the local burning
and ulceration it excites, well indi-
cated and often useful.
It
is in epithelioma that Arsenic can
be prescribed with the greatest
advantage.'
"Our selection, then, of Arsenic
as remedy in cancer has been
mostly confined to the epithelial
variety of the disease. We have
in Mr Hutchinson's contribution
an illustration of its producing
condition exceedingly similar to
this form of the disease-so much
so, that Mr Eve remarked that 'epi-
thelial cancer of the palms always
presented the peculiar appearances
which agreed with those described
by Mr Hutchinson ;' while Sir
212 Tumours of the Breast:
James Paget stated that it could
not be doubted that Arsenic had a
power, in persons predisposed to it,
to determine the development of
cancer.'
"Our contemporary, The New
York Medical Record, in referring
to Mr Hutchinson's paper, and 'his
belief that Arsenic may produce, or
at least be an exciting cause of epi-
thelial cancer,' and after stating
that Sir James Paget held the
same view,' adds, 'this will be joy-
ful news to our homœopathic
brethren.'
"We certainly are glad to find
our opponents, more especially such
as have in years gone by been
known to us as particularly bitter
opponents, confirm the truth and
their Treatment and Cure. 213
1
Let
accuracy of our drug pathogeneses
by observations of their own.
us now suggest to them to test the
value of our therapeutic application
of our pathogenetic observations,
by giving Arsenic as a remedy in
cases of epithelial cancer.'
))
Let these wise words conclude
my little volume on Tumours of the
Breast, and their Treatment and
Cure by Medicines.
PRINTED BY OLIVER AND BOYD, EDINBURGH.
}
WORKS BY DR BURNETT,
Second Edition, Foolscap 8vo, Cloth. 2s. 6d.
THE MEDICINAL TREATMENT
OF
DISEASES OF THE VEINS,
MORE ESPECIALLY OF
VARICOCELE, HÆMORRHOIDS, AND
VARICOSE VEINS.
"Dr Burnett shows that by judicious, local, medicinal, and
hygienic treatment the worst cases may be really cured; that
the sufferer may be restored to health without having any
tissue removed by the knife or the cautery.'
"The principles he enunciates are sound beyond cavil.
That they can be successfully carried out in practice is proved
by the very striking cases he records.
The two cases
related on pages 83-99 are among the trophies of medicine.
Nothing short of indomitable pluck and confidence could have
saved these cases from the knife of the surgeon-and the knife
of the surgeon would never have restored health as completely
as did Dr Burnett's 'homoeopathic, postural, and dietetic treat-
ment.'
."-The Monthly Homeopathic Review.
"This is another of the pretty looking and pleasantly reading
books which Dr Burnett has so freely bestowed upon us during
the last few years. Less original than his 'Natrum Muriaticum,'
and less exhaustive than his 'Gold,' it has more solidity than
his Cataract,' and is really an excellent contribution to
practical medicine. It is one of the books which inspire fresh
confidence in the healing art."-The British Journal of Homœo-
pathy.
4
Crown Svo, pp. 130, 2s. 6d.
DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN
AND THEIR
REMEDIES CLINICALLY ILLUSTRATED.
"A most readable little book. Dr Burnett, indeed, is
always readable. Here he presents his views in reference to
'Organopathy' and the history of that term, pointing out
that as a pathological term it has long been in use, but that as
applied to drug therapeutics 'it was copied from Rademacher
without a single word of acknowledgment. But the real father
of organopathy in essence and substance is Hohenheim (Para-
celsus), for proof of which see his works.'
"Dr Burnett holds, not that organopathy is homeopathy,
but that it is included in the wider generalization known as
homœopathy, or,' as he says elsewhere in the book, it is
largely of the nature of elementary homoeopathy-is, in fact,
specificity of seat,' but he insists that the completed domain
and sphere of homoeopathy embraces also specificity of effects;
'the nosological organopathy and the therapeutic organopathy
must be and are similar.
"And so he observes, and studies, and treats diseases of the
spleen largely from the organopathic point of view. But if any
one supposes that he permits this method either to narrow his
observations of the symptoms, or to limit him in the selection
of the remedy, an examination of the book will undeceive him.
Rather does it seem his view of his case is broadened by it.
66
His clinical reports are well told, and in the highest degree
instructive.”— The Hahnemannian Monthly.

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