-Dr. M.L.Tyler
And how for the case that taught me the value of Drosera in TUBERCULOUS DISEASE OF BONE.
It was a case of SPINAL CARIES in a small boy I took over with the children’s Out patient Clinic when war broke out.
Charles S-He first came to Hospital, under Dr. Purdom in february, 1913, at 2 years of age, with a history of diseased finger for twelve months, and diseased spine for six months. So he had started young!
The finger had been operated on at the Children’s Hospital.
For three months he had been lying on a board. Mr.Eadie ordered a Thomas splint with headpiece. Index finger was swollen, and he had profuse night sweats.
Three months later he got a double Thomas’ splint. He improved with infrequent doses of Tub. bov., chiefly 200 and 30.
Ten months late the finger was well.
After a year’s attendance he was getting very thin, but he again improved under single doses of Tub. Calc. and Sulph.
After twenty-one months the case-note reads: “Mr. Eadie reports prognosis good, but must remain on back another twelve months. The boy was then 4.
In July,1915, for cough some threatening of trouble in lung, and night sweats, with thirst for cold water and craving for salt, he got Phos. 6.t.d.s. three days.
In September, 1915, after two and a half years’ treatment, he was sent in to me by Mr. Eadie for whooping-cough. He had been very ill, since last seen, with scarlet fever, bronchitis, and now whooping-cough. I gave Dros 200, one dose.
Two months later, VERY MUCH BETTER in every way. Putting on flesh. The mother was so definite as to the good effect of the last medicine on the child’s health that I “began to sit up and take notice”. As he was coughing all night, he got a second dose of Dros.200.
Two months later (January, 1916)-Cough well. (He had a good deal of coughing from the first-three years). He was eating well; putting on flesh. Fat and flourishing., the change in the child was amazing. P.R.N. Dros.200., one dose.
Not seen again for six months, then VERY much better. The remedy was repeated at long intervals, while the child bloomed.
In November, 1917, he walked in without his splint.
A year later (November, 1918), my note is, “Boy’s spine very good. Has not worn apparatus for nearly two years. Goes to school for the last six months.
Then for the symptom,. “:Stool escapes at school” (“?from nervousness”) he got one dose of Aloe 1m, which put that difficult right.
Then he did not come to Hospital for eleven months. He did not made progress (I was told) for the last six months, and had lately been under a local doctor for rheumatism. So he got Dros. again.
Later, the war being over, he passed out of many care. But that lucky attack of whooping-cough in a child with Pott’s disease, not only entirely changed the course of his malady, nut it taught me to use Drosera for tuberculosis of BONE. And every one of the cases I am going to show you really grew out of this one.
A SECOND CASE OF SPINAL CARIES
Sydney C, aged 7 1/4
I had put his father[s neck right, with several manipulations, when it was almost fixed down on the right side after a had accident two months before; so he brought me his little son, greatly deformed from cervical caries; a very different proposition ! (X-ray plates of boy’s neck shown.) I first saw the boy at Out-Patients, March, 1922. It was a case of tuberculous disease-a bad one. It began at 4 years old. Knee was first affected, then a finger, then his neck, for a year and quarter.
He had been treated at the Children’s Hospital, and at Canterbury. He was now at home.
He had had ear discharge for twelve months.
He had had three fits in the previous November.
He was brought in a spinal carriage. He lay on some kind of board.
He was a happy little fellow, with an extraordinarily deformed neck, which he would move from side to side with alarming jerks.
He was in no pain. Dros. 200, one dose., A month later (April) Sleeps and eats well. Complains of nothing. No medicine.
Another month (May)
Turns head now easily, all ways. Tub. bov. 1,,. one dose.
Two months (July)
Knee quiescent. Eats and sleeps well./ “Only wants to run about” (I have not recorded when, on Mr. Hey’s advice, he was allowed to sit up. It must have been now) Dros.200, one dose, Four more months (November) Fell back in his spinal carriage and hurt his knee. Seems to have broken adhesions, as it is less stiff. Ruta, 200, three doses 6-hourly.
Another seven months (June, 1923)
Much stronger. “Sits up better, and holds head up with out supporting it. Can raise himself from lying into a sitting position without holding on to anything.”
“Knee bends never complaints of it now.” Dros. 1,m, one dose.
A year later (June, 1924).
I had not seen the boy meanwhile, but I had heard about him. His parents took him fling about the country in the side-car of a motor cycle-long journeys sitting up, with his neck being joggled all the time. This failed to break it ! Dros. 1m, one dose.
Another month(July)
Improvement again started. Much better in himself., No medicine.
Another month (August)
Has gained 1 lb. Sleeping better. Tub. bov.1m, one dose., Another three months (November)
Looks very much better. Puts on about 1 lb. in three weeks. Sleeps well for eleven hours. No medicine.
Another three months (February, 1925).
Puts on 3/4 of a lb. a week now. More energetic as he stands and walks about. Knee much better also.
Another three months (May) Dros. 10 m, one dose.
Another six months (November)
Brought because a boy had kicked the bad knee. A superficial bruise only. Bends it more late. Tub., bov. 1m, one dose.
March, 1926, another four months.
Looks very well. Active. Good colour. Father takes him out all day long on his van. Does not mind the jolts. “Happy as the day is long.” Dros., 10m, one dose.
I am told that he has had nothing new of his disease since first he came here in 1922, four and a half years ago. Till then the there had been a succession of T.B. Manifestations. Even when he had fallen and injured his knee, it had only broken adhesions,and increased movement; and when a boy had kicked it,there had been nothing worse than a bruise to show for it.
Tub. bov. 1m, one dose.
I saw him last a month ago (December, 1926). He looks a very good colour. They say he is 4 st, now, and gaining half a pound a week. He was brought because, for six days, he had had pain in his head and was deaf, with discharge from ear. No mastoid trouble.
Treatment in this case was very intermittent. The family, I believe, have been living in different parts of the country. When within reach-or when they think of it-or when they are alarmed about anything,the boy his been again brought to Hospital. His progress alone has been uninterrupted. It is lucky that the reactions to Drosera are so long-lasting.
Hahnemann gives big black type to JOINTS, also.
CASE of TUBERCULOUS DISEASE LEFT WRIST.
John B., aged 5. March 14, 1919. Wee boy with tuberculous disease of left wrist. Very painful. Could not bear it touched or looked at. Shrank away.
Wrist was thickened.
Skin was ulcerated. Movements limited. Could not supinate.
His mother had died of consumption. Dros. 200, 1 dose.
In a fortnight.
“Much less pain-none!” Moves fingers much more.
Still the red swelling on palmar aspect of wrist.
Child seems much better. Wrist was evidently less painful, for the allowed it to be touched and examined, and turned it about cheerfully. No medicine .
Another fortnight.
Begins to use hand. Wound has discharged a little. No medicine.
Another fortnight (April 25) Is complaining of wrist again. Dros 200, one dose.
Another fortnight (May 9)
Less swollen. Less painful. Just a scab over sore. No medicine.
Another fortnight (May 23)
Can supinate. Can flex wrist. Can use hand. “Uses it a lot more.”
A little more pain,so Dros. 200, one dose.
Three months after treatment began, I showed the boy at one of our Clinical Meetings. The note is:-
The child looks blooming. Grand, Mother says, “No pain at all “since the first dose Dros. given. He began to sleep well at once.
“He still likes his arm in a sling, but uses his hand playing, & c”. All movements free and painless.
He had had three doses of Dros. in six months.
X-ray soon after this, showed that the radius was apparently not affects; though (? from pressure) it was rather narrower than the other. Carpal bones were smaller, and ossification delayed.
It appeared that the disease had only affected tendons and soft parts.
He got a fourth dose Dros. in July.
September (after six months of treatment) Growing. Sleeps well.
Wrist stationary. Ruta 200, one dose. (That great wrist medicine
!) Fourteen days later.
Discharging. Some pain-throbbing and stitching. Dros, 1m, one dose.
A month later,
Not so well, not sleeping so well. Now nervous symptoms. Sweating in sleep.
“Teeth not coming again.” Tub bov 200, one dose.
(I may say that a dose of Tub. bov. has often an extraordinary effect in delayed dentition I remember a woman bursting in upon me with her daughter, a girl of some 18 years, and drying, ” You said you would make her teeth grow , and she has got” (I think it was eight) “in a month!”)
I only saw the child once more, in December. War was over, and the doctors drifting back, and we reverted to out own clinics-where we had changed about, in order to keep the Hospital going, I forgot to tell the mother to bring the child to me, and the doctor who now got him, handed him promptly over to a surgeon, and he was taken into Hospital, and his wrist scraped. It was a pity, and a pity, also, that I had started playing with other drugs. But I had a sneaking feeling in those days, with my then knowledge of Drosera that it was a bit empirical. And w much experience of Tuberculinum, I was always tempted to put in an occasional dose of that remedy, which may have helped-or may not! Getting this paper together, and studying the material for it in collected form, has given me a much heightened knowledge of drosera and how to use it; and has revealed to me what a very poor prescriber I really am.
I am afraid scraping and healing the wrist that way did not help the poor mite, for I find that a couple of years later he was again in Hospital with tuberculous peritonitis, and was removed by his parents about six weeks later.
As students, I remember, we were warned never to put a knife into a T.B. Patient; and we then saw some terrible examples of the futility of operations on T.B sinuses.
Dr.Weir has given me a case of his to illustrate the use of Drosera in TUBERCULOUS SINUSES.
A boy, aged 13 1/2. First seen September, 1925.
Eight months ago,swelling, constantly recurring,in his right forearm, followed by several smaller areas in left arm.
After hot fomentations these increased in size, and he subsequently was operated on, when considerable amount of pus oozed out. The discharge would not cease.
X-ray showed that the bone was not, apparently, affected . There was a very had tubercular history on both disease of the family.
When first seen, the boy had three considerable areas of typically tuberculous-looking tissue, which scabbed over, and broke down alternately.
He was given a single dose of Tub,200, and later single doses of Silicea 30 and 200 with considerable benefit.
In December, 1925, the not was:”The scars are all smaller and no longer painful. Some discharge, however, in one the wounds, the other two remaining quite dry.” (That was after about three months’ treatment) December 14, 1, he was given Dros. 200, a single dose.
A month later,the scars were found to be freely movable (typical Drops. result!), having lost, except in one or two places, their attachment to the deeper structures.
And the boy was altogether better in every way, appetite good, spirits better, keener in his lessons.
The medicine was not repeated till March 15 1926 (Three months). Then the note read, ” The scars are thin. Not the least puckering”. He got his second dose of Drosera in the 1M potency.
A month later the note read,” All the scars are quite loose, even in the right arm, which had been most obstinate and the discoloration is disappearing fast”.
In June last, six months after the first dose Dros, the note is: ” Discoloration faint. In certain lights the skin looks almost normal. The boy was very well, fat and flourishing.
For slight threatenings, he has received an occasional dose of Dros. since, in varying and high potencies. Remains well, looks clean, fresh, alert and capable. Dr.Weir saw the boy only a week or two ago.
Case of Disease in LONG BONE-TIBIA
Maud T., aged 38. Came to Out patients, May 4, 1916.
Complaints of right left-five years.
Had an operation (University College Hospital) She says during the operation “the cavity was filled with wax and closed up.” A long, clean scar is to be seen, almost the length of the tibia.
The tibia is enlarged, bulges forward, with an irregular surface.
It feels hot, and she complains of burning pains.
Ankle is a trouble lately.
X-ray showed a large part of tibia as a rough rocker.
Diagnosis was doubtful (? specific or tuberculous?)
In the course of nearly three years I gave her:- Asaf.30, Pot,iod, crudely gr.3 t.d.s. for a couple of months) Then Sil. 30 a dose, helped more, and she looked better.
Then Luet. 30 again, then Kali iod. 6. But she was not really better. She had still the burning pains-“Burning and cramps.” She got Zinc. Then Agar, then Asaf, again then Luet.
Then Pot. iod., gr. t.d.s. for two months.
Two years had now passed.
January, 1918-Leg the same, burns badly.
Husband died of rapid phthisis. Tub,bov,30, one dose; but again, “no better.” Then Symphytum; then Sil.
“Bone burns intensely.” Sil. 1m, one dose helped, and pains was less severe.
Then Rhus-then Zinc again, and Symphytum again; while she was sometimes worse, sometimes better.
Lach. helped a bit, but the burning and pain continued.
She looked haggard for want of sleep. My chronicle, for nearly three years, is pain, and practically, failure.
In May, 1919, three years after we started,leg was less well six months she got her second dose of Dros.20 In a fortnight, “easier.
In a month, :A little better ; burns less.” Two months after the first dose of Dros. “Much less pain. Looks blooming. No pain at night for several months,” i.e., since that dose of Dros. And from now on, instead of a dreary chronicle of pain, my notes read:- September-VERY MUCH BETTER. Less burning. Sleeping very well.
October-Well till two days ago. “Now the old pain coming back- not bad-only a reminder.” Very slight burning. Some pain in knee. Sleeps splendidly and feels well. It was five months since the dose of Dros. One was tempted to repeat. But she was too well. November-Never gets the burning now. But crampy pains in left and week. Still in her “much better” state.
But after six months she got her second dose of Dros.200.
She never looked back-so far as that leg was concerned. She hurt the knee of the other leg, and has had trouble with it s several times. From time to time in the seven following years she has got a dose of Dros In August, 1922, three years after the first dose of Dros. she says. “Some days the won’t know she has a bed leg. Feels ten years younger. Looks very well. Has had a holiday and leg no trouble, through by X-ray, the bone is ‘fearful and wonderful to look at” She still comes to see me. Any burning in the other tibia alarms her,a nd from time to time the left knee give trouble.
Where Drosera helps. results are very soon, and invariably in renewed health and spirits, and in utterly changed appearance. I had seen this so often. The patient who needs Drosera had gets it, simply blooms. There is no other word for it.
It was this tibia that made me splendidly realize that Hahnemann was right when, in his “Materia Medica Pura, ” under DROSERA, he put pain in the long bones in big black type; and that those who followed him in compelling materia medicas, and transcribed these symptoms of his relating to bones and joints, were wrong. They have robbed us of many brilliant results, by reducing the type of what he stressed as so important.
But unfortunately every comparative pigmy since Hahnemann’s day, who writes about, or attempts to practice homoeopathy, is always prepared (without the colossal studies, experiments, experience and knowledge of Hahnemann) to go one better.
I suggest that we all, forthwith, open our materia medicas at Drosera,and underline in red all the black type symptoms Hahnemann gives us, of what he calls, “one of the most powerful medicinal herbs in our zone.” In Curie’ first cat, killed after six weeks of , he says: “I found a very considerable enlargement of the mesenteric glands.” In his second cat, killed after a year, there were also abdominal lesions-spleen-Peyer’s patches-and of the “shut vesicles of the large intestine.” ALL THREE CATS HAD DIARRHOEA.
Here is AN ABDOMINAL CASE, treated by Drosera.
Edna B., aged 19. First seen at Out-Patients on May 6, 1924 (one of 1 new patients that afternoon).
Came up with a diagnosis of “enteritis.” Gets attacks of diarrhoea, and cannot got to business.
Had fourteen attacks in twenty-four hours at Christmas.
Now has about five stools a day.
Stools very loose, pale, at times mucous. Passed blood at Christmas time, not now.
Any pain is in left abdomen. Head sweats at night.
Examination: Abdomen boggy. a nodule is left in left abdomen (? A “T.B. abdomen.”) Temperature normal.
Tongue and throat day.
Used to get a rash.
(