Thuja Occidentalis

Truth is not Truth save only to the Infinite ; to the mind of mortal man Truth is not necessarily Truth, but only that which appears to be true. Hence it is that what is a glorious truth to one man is inglorious nonsense to another, and both individuals may be equally honest of purpose and of like earnestness in their search after Truth.

Minds have their affinities no less than matter, and no one ought, after reflection, to be disappointed to find his own most cherished pursuits contemned and ridi- culed by men of other minds.

The contents of this little volume appear to the writer to constitute an important elucidation of certain, otherwise obscure, clinical phenomena ; for him vaccinosis is a sub- division of the sycosis of Hahneniann ; and its recognition of considerable utility in the consulting-room

vi Preface.

and at the bedside. The idea of using Thuja Occidentalis as here recommended is not new, nor is it peculiar to the writer, though it is but very little known in this country, and still less acted upon, and hence it is hoped that the publication of these pages may help to establish vac- cinosis as a form of disease, and Thuja as one of its chief remedies.

There is an admirable Prize Essay on Thuja, by a learned German physician of eminence. Dr. H. Goullon, of Weimar, entitled ** Thuja Occidentalis.

Abendlan- discher Lebensbaum. Eine monograph- isch-therapeutische Abhandlung nebst Kritischer Beleuchtung der sogenannten Lues gonorrhoica (blenorrhoischen Sy- philis) oder Sykosis Hahnemann's von Dr. Med. H.

Goullon." This important essay obtained the prize of the Homoeopa- tische Centralverein of Germany, and was published at Leipsic in 1877, by Baum- gartner. It is a complete monograph on the subject of which it treats, and is eminently instructive and suggestive.

Preface, vii

In Dr. GouUon's Essay, p. 64, we read " Dr. Kunkel erinnert bei dieser Gelegen- heit an die Aehnlichkeit des Krankheits- bildes, wie es die von uns so genannte Vaccinose, d. i. der Complex von Krank- haften Symptomen nach dem Impfen bietet und wie es der eben beschriebene sycotische Tripper darstellt. Auch sei bei beiden das Incubationsstadium ver- haltnissmassig kurz." And, again, p. 120, ** Folgen des Impfens und Revac- cinirens."

To those to whom the evidence ad- duced may be insufficient as proof of the existence of vaccinosis, to those, it is submitted, the facts may nevertheless possess some interest merely as a Contri- bution to the Clinical History of Thuja Occidentalis,

And, moreover, if the Thuja cured the recorded cases it must be manifest that the efficacy of very minute doses is a factor yet to be reckoned with by practical medicine, both curative and preventive.

Of the critics it is merely asked that

viii Preface.

they go to their task — sine it a et studio : truth is the aim of the writer.

As to the word vaccinosis it is only needful to say that, though a hybrid word- form, it is coined on the model of such designations as scrofulosis and tuber- culosis, whose sole apology is practical usefulness and the difficulty of putting pure word-forms in their stead.

In regard to the second part of this little treatise on Homoeoprophylaxis the writer believes it will prove suggestive and instructive, and he is not without some hope that it may lead to a clearer appreciation of how the law of similars might with advantage be extended sys- tematically to the prevention of specific diseases. How far this may be possible experience must shew.

J. COMPTON BURNETT.

5, HoLLEs Street,

Cavendish Square, W.,

March, 1884.

On Vaccinosis and its Cure by Thuja Occidentalism with remarks on Homceoprophylaxis .

CEAR not, critical reader, this is not an anti-vaccination treatise, for the writer is himself in the habit of vaccinating his patients, au besoin^ and he believes that vaccination does protect, to a cer- tain large extent, from small-pox, though the protection must neces- sarily cease as soon as the vac- cinated person has slowly returned to his pristine state of pure health.

2 Vaccinosis and

The writer starts with this de- claration just to clear the ground, and to explain that the following pages are neither pro-vaccinational nor anti-vaccinational in the or- dinary sense, inasmuch as their scope is essentially one of aetio- pathology and cure, and of Homoe- oprophylaxis. — That is to say : the writer's aim is to shew, 15/, that there exists a diseased state of the constitution which is engendered by the vaccinial virus (the so- called lymph), which state he pro- poses to call Vaccinosis, or the Vaccinial State; and, 2ndly^ that there exists also in nature a notable remedy for said Vaccinosis, viz. : the Thuja cciden talis ; and, ^rdly, that Thuja is a remedy of Vacci- nosis by reason of its homoeopath-

Homceoprophylaxis. 3

icity thereto ; 4thly, that the law of similars also applies to the pre- vention of disease.

Vaccinosis does not express merely the same thing as vaccinia^ for the latter means the febrile reaction which occurs in an organ- ism after vaccination, with special reference to the local phenomena at the point where the vaccinial pus, or lymph, is inserted. Some- times, also, the term vaccinia is applied to a general varioloid erup- tion following vaccination ; but here, vaccinia is commonly held to end.

Now all this is included by me in the term vaccinosis, but still / do not mean merely this, but also that profound and often long-

4 Vaccinosis and

lasting morbid constitutional state engendered by the vaccine virus, which virus we usually euphemis- tically term ** lymph.'' Lymph, of course, it is not, but pus — matter — and why a specific viru- lent pus should be persistently called ** lymph" seems somewhat peculiar, and is eminently unsci- entific. As I am a lover of purity, and incidentally also of philological purity, I call this *Mymph'' pus, because it is pus and not ** lymph.'' The diseased state, then, engen- dered by this vaccinial pus, by vaccination, is vaccinosis ; and in it are not included any other diseases whose causes may be accidentally or incidentally contained in the vaccine pus, — such as scrofulosis, syphiHs, or tuberculosis.

Homceoprophylaxis.

Wherein does the Protective Power of Vaccination consist ?

Given a perfectly healthy indi- vidual who has never been vacci- nated. We say to such a one, you must be vaccinated or you are liable to catch small-pox, which is often about. Let us pause to note clearly that the individual thus warned by us as being liable to catch small-pox is perfectly healthy. Now let us vaccinate this perfectly healthy person, and, the vaccin- ation succeeding, we say he is henceforth protected from small- pox.

That is to say this thor- oughly healthy non-vaccinated per- son becomes more or less proof against the contagion of small-pox

€ Vacdnosis and

by vaccination, or, at any rate, it is so averred.

It may be safely admitted that no one can be more than perfectly healthy, and any modification or altering of perfect health must result in a minus, i.e., less thait perfect health ; and less than per- fect health must necessarily be disease or ill health of some sort and in some degree.

Hence it follows that the pro- tective power of vaccination is due to a diseased state of the body. [See Remarks on Homoeoprophy- laxis further on.]

Forms of Vaccinosis.

Vaccinosis shews itself as a formidable acute disease that may terminate fatally, or it may mani-

HomcBOprophy taxis. 7

fest itself as a chronic affection. The ordinary forms of vaccinia must, be included under acute vaccinosis. The word Vaccinose (Vaccinosis) is used* in the homoe- opathic literature of Germany, though hardly generally accepted. So far as I know, it has no place in English literature, either homoe- opathic or general, at all.

But the literature of anti-vaccinators teems with examples of **ill-eftects of vaccination," ** consequences of vaccination," and the like. Most of these would fall under the general term vaccinosis, but only in so far as they are due to *' pure " vaccine pus. Here let me remark that it is too often lost sight of that ^^ pure vac-

* Thuja Occidentalis, by Goullon (j. cit.).

8 Vaccinosis and

cine lymph '' means vaccine pus (matter) and nothing else, just as we would say pure consumption, pure syphilis, pure poison. The general idea is that pure vaccine lymph is as harmless as bread and butter.

Chronic vaccinosis more par- ticularly lies completely beyond the ken of ordinary medicine, and al- though it will sometimes turn up in literature as **I11 effects of vaccina- tion," it is, nevertheless, but an unrecognised waif, much to the disadvantage of suffering mankind and of medical science. It has not yet been sufficiently studied to be readily* defined ; except causally,

• See, however, the writings of Rummel, Boenninghausen, von Grauvogl, Kunkel, and H. Goullon.

Homceoprophylaxis. g

indeed, its very existence is not generally admitted. But a study of the following cases will afford ample evidence that its symptoms are very like the pathogenetic symptoms of Thuja Occidentalis.

A few preliminary remarks on vaccinosis may here follow before we go to my clinical evidence.

For convenience' sake let us call the vaccinated person a vaccinate.

Latent Vaccinosis.

The vaccinate is one who is suffering from vaccinosis ; he may not be ill in the ordinary sense, but he must be in a subdued morbid state, he has been blighted, or he is no vaccinate ; it is his

lo Vaccinosis and

diseased condition that protects him from small-pox.

Some may, perhaps, say that vaccinosis is the same as vaccinia ; this is, however, not so ; vaccinosis is vaccinia and something more, for if a person is vaccinated unsuc- cessfully he has not had vaccinia, whereas some of the worst cases of (my) vaccinosis which I have met with were just those in whom the vaccination did not ''take,'' as the saying goes. Hence I must call attention to what I believe is a fact, viz. : that it often does take deep hold of the constitution with- out calling forth any local phenom- ena, and, not only so, but such cases may be even very severe in their internal developments mani- fested by the supervention of va-

Honueoprophylaxis. ii

nous morbid symptoms after vac- cination. Let us dwell a little on this novel assertion, I was going to say/oc/, yet probably very few will admit that it is a fact at all, but only a fad of mine, since every- body holds that if the vaccination does not **take'' the individual has remained uninfluenced by the process of putting vaccine under the cuticle. In other words, when a person is vaccinated and does not take ; is, in fact, unsuccessfully vaccinated, it is held that said person is proof against vaccination, and we certify accordingly. Every one believes that the unsuccess- fully vaccinated individual has not ' in any way been affected or altered by the vaccination.

Close and minute observa-

12 Vaccinosis and

TION, HOWEVER, TEACHES ME THAT SUCH IS BY NO MEANS NECESSARILY THE CASE, FOR NOT A FEW PERSONS DATE THEIR ILL HEALTH FROM A SO-CALLED UNSUCCESFUL VACCINA- TION. My own conception of the thing is just this: — The vaccinated person is poisoned by the vaccine virus ; what is called the ' ' taking ' ' is, in point of fact, the constitu- tional re-action whereby the organ- ism frees itself more or less from the inserted virus. If the person do not *'take," and the virus has BEEN ABSORBED, the ''taking'' be- comes a chronic process — paresis, neuralgiae, cephalalgiae, pimples, acne, &c. The less a person ''takes," therefore, (in such a case) the MORE is he likely to suffer from chronic vaccinosis, i.e.^ from the

Homceoprophylaxis . 1 3

genuine vaccination disease in its chronic form, very frequently a neuralgia or paresis.

Most practitioners will agree that neuralgia is more prevalent now than ever before within the present age, and experience has forced me to. ascribe many such cases to vaccinosis.

If my colleagues object to my aetio-pathology of such neuralgiae, perhaps they will favour us with a more satisfactory one. The word ''neuralgia" covers such a multi- tude of sins in the world of no- sology and pathology that my hypothesis is as exact science compared therewith !

But what evidence have I to offer that shall go to shew whether there is such a disease as vac-

14 Vaccinosis and

cinosis ? or, that being conceded, whether Thuja can cure it ?

I will first repeat that I do not claim to be the originator of this clinical application of TAw/'a; Boen- hinghausen was, I believe, the first to point out the homceopathicity of Thuja Occidentalis to small-pox itself, and thence its use was ex- tended by Kunkel and GouUon to the curation of the ill-effects of vaccination, or vaccinosis as I pro- pose to call it. My attention was first arrested by hearing of Dr. David Wilson's use of Thuja, and then a perusal of Dr.

Kunkel' s pamphlet and Dr. GouUon' s mono- graph on Thuja shewed me the great importance of Thuja as a dynamic antidote to the effects of vaccination.

Homceopropkylaxis. 15

Let us now pass on to the con- sideration of some cases of what I call vaccinosis, and of the be- haviour of Thuja therein.

A Severe Case — A Dying Baby.

Very early in the year 1881, I was called to see a baby in Harley street, about ten weeks old : its mother thought it was dying. She had previously lost babies by death, and knew what a dying baby looked like. The wee patient had begun its life's journey on the bottle ; but, being overtaken by the measles, it nearly died, when a wet nurse was obtained and the baby rallied and began to thrive. But a new wet nurse had to be obtained, as the first went dry from over-feeding. The new

1 6 Vacctnosis and

wet nurse was healthy and strong, but, having gone into the Maryle- bone workhouse with her own very fine boy, she was re-vaccinated the day before she was removed therefrom to take charge of the patient in question. The baby throve for two or three days, and the mother was just congratulating herself on her success, when one afternoon it went very ill, and get- ting much worse towards the even- ing, the mother sent this message to me — '* I think baby is dying." I visited the babe in the warm and airy nursery and investigated everything.

There was nothing to account for the sudden change. Baby was ghastly white, and in collapse. On questioning the wet nurse as to her own health and

Homceoprophylaxis . 1 7

state, she remarked that she was quite well (and she looked it, and had a notably good appetite), but she said her re-vaccinated arm *'was a little painful.'' The ves- icular stage of the local vaccinial eruption was just at the point of turning to the pustular.

I thought the matter over a little and came to the conclusion that the poor wee thing was, in point of fact, sucking the vaccinial poison from its nurse through the milk. Therefore I gave Thuja 6, in pilules, both to babe and nurse, but whether every half-hour or every hour I do not now remem- ber. Calling later in the evening I noticed baby was asleep and looking a little less ghastly. Next morning it was indeed still pale,

1 8 Vaccinosis and

but practically well ; and the vac- cinial vesicles on the nurse'* s arm had withered^ and they forthwith dried Up completely, in lieu of becoming pustular*. That baby never looked back, and is now a bonny child.

It is iiot possible to prove, of course, that this apparently dying baby was suffering from vaccinosis. It lay apparently dying : I feared it would die. But some points in connection with this case are in- controvertible. For instance, it is a fact that the nurse had been re-vaccinated ; it is equally a fact that she was suckling the baby ; the baby was desperately ill of something ; it got Thuja and began to mend forthwith. Moreover, and thisi point is significant, the vaccinial vesicles in the nurse's

Homoeoprophylaxis. ig

arm withered instead of going on to their usual development. Hence some disturbing influence rtiust have intervened in her organism, and the only thing I know of was the Thuja. If the Thuja had no effect upon the suckling woman, what made the vaccinial vesicles wither ?

Let us suppose that they with- ered because the milk drained off all the virus. But the baby suck- ed the milk, and was very ill ; and the withering of the vaccination vesicles was synchronous with the prompt and evident amelioration in the child.

But that is only one case, and proves nothing : there are strange coincidences in organismic life as we all know.

20 Vaccinosis and

Now let me narrate to you another case of acute vaccinosis, but before doing so it might not be amiss to interpolate an obser- vation by Dr. J. T. Harris, of Boston, and published in the New England Medical Gazette, for June, 1883. I quote it entire, because it strengthens my position some- what ; it runs thus : —

A Case of true Vaccinia in a Child fol- lowing THE VACCINATION OF HER MoTHER.

On the i^tk of February, 1882, I called at the house of Mr. G , intend- ing to vaccinate his two children, one about three years old, the other a seven months* babe at the breast, whose head, face, arms, and legs were covered with eczema, crusta lacUa, from which it was suffering severely. Fearing an aggrava- tion of the humour from complication with the vaccination, I declined to

Homceoprophylaxis . 2 1

operate, giving as my reason that I thought the child was suffering already; that she would be more feverish, irritable, and would require greater care if vac- cinated than at present. Although the three-years-old child was troubled with the same form of humour, I vaccinated her, and also the mother. Both vaccinations took, and ran the usual course without much constitutional disturbance. The fifth day after the operation was Mrs.

G 's sickest day. She then had head- ache, backache, fever, and chill. The vaccination developed normally, but more rapidly than usual.

On the first day of March the baby was more restless and feverish, requiring constant care. On the second day the mother noticed a number of little red pimples upon the child. These increased rapidly upon the face, arms, and legs. I was called to see the little patient on Saturday, the j\.tk of March. The little pimples at this time were very numerous,

22 Vaccinosis and

had increased in size ; the areola quite red ; some swelling ; baby feverish ; tem- perature 1 02. To the question, " What is it, doctor?" I frankly answered, ** I do not know, it is not small-pox nor chicken pox. I shall have to wait until it is more fully developed.**

On Sunday morning, the fifth day of the fever, the vesicles were forming and more or less filled with lymph, and in the afternoon some were umbilicated. Fresh eruptions were also developing, and upon the face, arms, and legs — those portions of the surface most severely marked with the eczema — the new eruption had be- come confluent, the whole character of the eruption resembling that of small-pox. There were without doubt between four and five hundred well-defined circular ve- sicles upon the child during the course of the disease.

I invited Dr. Miles to see the case on Sunday afternoon. After a careful examination we concluded that it was a case of vaccinia, communicated to

Homoeoprophylaxis. 23

the child through the mother*s milk. That there should be no mistake, however, I called upon Dr. McCullom, the city physician, reported the case, and invited him to see the patient with me, which fie did on Monday morning. Dr. Martin, of I^oxbury, and Dr. Cutler, of Chelsea, also saw tl^e case, and were much interested in it,

On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednes- day, the sixth, seventh, and eighth days, there was much swelling of the face, iarms, and legs, where it had taken on the conjfluent form. The little patient was quite feverish and restless. On the sev- enth, eighth, and ninth days was quite hoarse, and had some difficulty in swal- lowing. All the symptoms gradually di- minished after the ninth day, and many of the scabs were rubbed off.

On the seventeenth day very few adherent scabs remained. Aeon, and Tart* emetic were the remedies used.

At the present . time. May 14^^, the

24 Vaccinosis and

child shows pits, not deep however. The parts where the eruption was confluent are still quite red. The eczema, however, seems to have left for good, and I am in hopes of seeing a good clear skin before many weeks. Although the diagnosis the first few days was obscure, all doubt was removed, and it was pronounced a case of vaccinia communicated from the mother.

You will note that on the fifth day after the re- vaccination of the mother the paroxysm of fever occurred, and ten days after the baby was feverish, and the eruption made its appearance one day later. We can therefore call it fourteen days from the time the babe first took the milk impregnated with vaccinia from its mother. If the system can thus be so thoroughly impregnated with vaccinia, may we not also fear various and worse evils from the milk of unhealthy and un- clean nurses?

My remark to this instructive experience of Dr. Harris is, that

Homceopropkylaxis. 25

Thuja Occidentalis was more Ho- moeopathic to the case than Aeon. and Ant, tart. It shows that vaccinia may most probably be sucked by the babe in the milk, though • this is not conclusively shewn, inasmuch as it may have been a case of small-pox in the suckling.

The same transmissibility of disease through the milk has been observed more than once. For instance — On Christmas-day last, 1883, M. Layet and a number of medical men, veterinary surgeons, and others, examined and reported on an alleged case of spontaneous cow-pox occurring in a milch cow at C6rons near Bordeaux. The animal presented on the four teats and the neighbouring parts of the

26 Vaccinosis and

udder a considerable number of small pustules, most of them already dried and covered with black crusts, but some containing a more or less milky fluid. The eruption was confluent, and there were no umbilicated pimples. It had made its first appearance on December 22nd. On December 26/A, six or seven tubes were filled with the fluid from such pustule^ as had not already burst. The reporters state that an infant fed with the milk from this cow h9.d at the same time presented very similar symptoms.

I now revert to my narrative.

Observation it. Acute Vaccinosis. Aug. 2 is/, 1 88 1. — On this day

Homceoprophylaxis. 27

there was brought to me a little boy, of five months of age, on the bottle, and I was informed that he had been aihng a week, beginning with violent vomiting, loss of appetite, and greenish slimy diarrhoea. The child looked very ill, pale ; upper eye-lids drooping ; tongue very thickly coated, moist ; temperature high ; throat severely ulcerated ; deglutition painful ; on the anterior aspect of the uvula one saw an open ulcer of about the size of a large split pea. The greatest distress lay in the throat ; the mother brought him on this account ; it pained his throat ; which was visibly and demonstrably severely ulcerated : so I gave him Kali Chloratum 6, trituration, a dose every hour, and ordered him

28 Vaccinosis and

to be kept in a room with a good fire, and the windows open.

Aug. 22nd. — I called and found him no worse ; more could not be said. He had had a very restless night. He was profoundly weak, hence I gave Kali Phos. 6 in alter- nation with the other medicine.

2'yd. — Not quite so weak, but the green slimy diarrhoea con- tinues. To have Merc. iod.

24th. — The tongue had begun to clear a little on the left side, but otherwise there was no mate- rial change except that he could swallow a little better. Baby was very weak ; his mother looked up at me, and the anxious father kept his eyes fixed on my visage, as I sat and studied the little man- nikin : he looked very pale and

Homceoprophylaxis. 29

veiy ill and weak ; could not be got to notice anything, but per- petually whined in a piteous little way. I do not know when I ever felt the weight of responsibility greater. Previously I had care- fully enquired about the drains, and had ordered the milkman to be changed, and was careful to seek for the real origin of the child' ^ illness, but I could not trace it to anything. ;The dwelling was healthy, the bottle clean, and there seemed nothing to account for the illness. Suddenly it occur- red to me to ask when the child had been vaccinated.

The answer was, on the 12th July. I learned also that the child had a very bad arm, and that the present illness commenced on the day on which

30 Vaccinosis and

the last vaccinial scab fell off the arm. This shed a light upon the case and allowed its true aetio- pathology to be understood. The disease evidently was an en-ex- anthem, an eruption on the lining membrane of the throat and gut, due to the vaccination ; and the vomiting, diarrhoea, and sore throat started just as these inside pustules broke and discharged their contents, and the feverishness was synchronous therewith. The child's organism had essayed to free itself from the vaccinial poison by an eruption on the internal mucous membrane.

Had the child been stronger the eruption would probably have been on the skin in the form of an exanthem simply. I prescribed Thuja Occi-

Homceopfophylaxis . 3 1

dentalis 30, one-drop powders, one every two hours, and no other medicine*

^^th.^ — Much better, began to mend (in the mother's opinion — and what more competent?) **very soon after the first powder/' Has slept better. To continue the Thuja powders.

28th. — I called to say good-bye, and found the little one still rather weak, but well and cheerful, and at play on his mother's lap.

Here, Thuja 30 brought health to the child and joy to the home.

Of course this case is not con- clusive either; for the effects of the vaccination — my vaccinosis — may have been working off, and the fact of the sudden amelioration immediately after the exhibition of

32 Vaccinosis and

the Thuja may have been a mere coincidence. Pretty well all acute cases are open to this objection, and hence I will relate no more cases of acute vaccinosis : they prove nothing, it can merely be a question of probabilities. / am satisfied that these two cases were genuine examples of acute vac- cinosis, anjd that the Thuja cured them, but others will, perhaps, demand further proof before they believe either in vaccinosis or in Thuja as its cure.

So let us pass on to the con- sideration of some chronic cases of the vaccinial state, or vac- cinosis. For the sake of reference let us number the [lobservations. Two I have narrated, and so we come to

Homosoprophylaxis. 33

Observation Hi. Pustular Eruption.

Mr. J , a hale-looking,

middle-aged London merchant, came under my observation on November y^d, 1881. Said he, *' I am not a homoeopath, but twenty years ago I had eczema, and the allopaths could not touch it, so I went to a homoeopathic doctor, and he cured me/' And he went on to say that he believed in homoeopathy for skin diseases. On the left leg he had a pustular eruption due, he believed, to a bruise. He had also eczema of the ear, and he volunteered the information that ever since his second vaccination he had been subject to eczema.

The eczema

D

34 Vaccinosis and

of twenty years ago was soon after the re -vaccination.

R Thuja Occidentalis 30. Four three- drop powders to the two dozen. To take one, dry on the tongue, three times a day.

He came in a week nearly well ; the pustules had at once begun to wither.

The Thuja was repeated, but in less frequent dose, and the patient subsequently sent word by his brother to say that his skin was well, and he himself too busy to shew himself as he had promised.

This case also proves nothing, because anyone might get a pus- tular eruption after a bruise, or without a bruise, and be quickly rid of it, without either suffering from vaccinosis, or getting Thuja^

Homceoprophylaxis. 35

supposedly, to cure it. The fact is it is exceedingly difficult to absolutely prove anything clinically at all. The patient himself at- tributed his cure to the powders, knowing of old the very stubborn nature of all his cutaneous erup- tions.

Observation iv.

Pustular Eruptions.

Miss , act, 18, was re- vaccinated in July, 1 88 1, at her parents' country residence, thirty miles from London, by the local surgeon, with ** lymph'' direct from the calf. The operation was very successful, and she had a very **fine" arm. But as the **arm" was just at its greatest perfection she got an eruption on

36 Vaccinosis and

her chin covering its whole extent and involving the lower lip. The thing was very unsightly and had a singularly ugly repulsive aspect. The gentleman who had done the re-vaccination was of opinion that

Miss had got some of the

vaccine virus on to her finger-nails and inoculated herself by scratch- ing. The sequel, however, shewed that the chin manifestation was from within. The surgeon had ordered applications, two of which were vaseline and zinc ointment, but the eruption on the chin was not to be got rid of. The young lady had to wear a dense veil to hide her face when driving out- She was brought to London for my advice, and I gave Thuja 30. In a fortnight she was out and about,

Homceoprophylaxis. 37

and only some diflfused redness of the skin remained, but no scar or thickened skin. Now, it might be objected to this case that the Thuja had nothing to do with the disappearance of the eruption, be- cause it was just the history of the disease : it ran through its natural course and died. I thought that to myself at the time of prescribing it, but against this was the fact that the arm had healed already, and it had depassed the natural course of vaccinia by at least a fortnight when I first 'prescribed the Thuja. But to have a test I gave her brother, who also had a somewhat similar pustular erup- tion (and who had been re-vac- cinated at the same time), but more spare, and instead of being

38 Vaccinosis and

on the chin, it was around the left nostril. I say, to have a test, I

gave this brother of Miss ,

Antimoniutn tart., which is also, as every one knows, apparently ho- moeopathic to such a pustular eruption. This boy's case will be

Observation v.

This is the brother of Miss . {pbserv. iv.)

The two eruptions were similar, though the boy's was compara- tively trivial, and of the same age, and from the same cause, i.e., from the vaccine virus. The patients went into the country, and in two or three weeks' time the mother wrote that the young lady was quite well, ** the medicine soon put her right^'

HomcBoprophylaxis, 39

was her expression, but the boy had ** a bad cold in his head ; nose-bleed ; left side of nose swel- led and red ; two little spots of matter, the size of a large pin's head, at the edge of the nostril, and below it, having something

the look of 's chin ; his arm

is also not well, and he has had four little pocks about the vac- cination marks." I sent Thuja 30, and he was reported well in ten days.

If anyone can account for the cure of these two cases indepen- dently of the Thujay his ingenuity is greater than mine. That they were causally connected with the re-vaccination admits of no doubt whatever. Nevertheless, it does not do to be quite sure of one's

40 Vaccinosis and

facts ; sources of error are often very occult.

Observation vi. Post-orbital Neuralgia of

TWENTY years' STANDING.

This case (which came under observation on January gth, 1882,) is one of considerable interest on various accounts. Its subject, a lady of very high rank, over fifty years of age, had been in turns, and for many years, under almost all the leading oculists of London for this neuralgia of the eyes, i.e.j terrible pain at the back of the eyes, coming on in paroxysms and confining her to her room for many days together; some attacks would last for six weeks. Some of the

Hontteoprophylaxis. 41

neuralgic pain, however, remain- ed at all times. Her eyes had been examined by almost every notable oculist in London, and no one could find anything wrong with them structurally, so it was unanimously agreed and declared to be neuralgia of the fifth nerve. Of course no end of tonics, ano- dynes, and alteratives had been used. The oculists sent her to the physicians and these back again to the oculists. The late Dr. Quin and other leading homoe- opaths had been tried, but **no one had ever touched it.*'

Latterly, and for years, she had tried nothing; whenever an attack came on, she would remain in her darkened bedroom, with her head tied up, bewailing her fate.

42 Vaccinosis and

To me she exclaimed ** My exis- tence is one life-long crucifixion ! "

I should have stated that the neuralgia was preceded and ac- companied by influenza. In the aggregate these attacks of influenza and post-orbital neuralgia confined her to her room nearly half the year. In appearance she was healthy, well-nourished, rather too much embonpoint^ and fairly vigor- ous. A friend of hers had been benefited by homoeopathy in my hands, and she therefore came to me ** in utter despair."

These are the simple facts of the case, though they look very like piling up the agony ! Now for the remedy. The resources of allopathy had been exhausted, and, moreover, I have no con-

Homceoprophylaxis. 43

fidence in them anyway ; homoe- opathy — and good homoeopathy too, for the men tried knew their work— had also failed. Do-nothing, now much in vogue, had fared no better. I reasoned thus : This lady tells me she has been vaccin- ated five or six times, and being thus very much vaccinated, she may be just suffering from chronic vaccinosis, one chief symptom of which is a cephalalgia like hers, so I forthwith prescribed Thuja (30). It cured, and the cure has lasted till now.

The neuralgia disap- peared slowly ; in about six weeks (February 14, 1882) I wrote in my case book ** The eyes are well ! *'

As I have not heard from the patient for some time, I am just writing a note to her to know

44 Vaccinosis and

whether the neuralgia has thus far (December 30, 1882) returned. The reply I will add.

Of course, it does not follow that because Thuja cured this case of neuralgia of some twenty years' standing that therefore the lady was suflfering from vaccinosis ; that Thuja did cure it is incontro- vertible, and my vaccinosis hypo- thesis led me to prescribe it. More cannot be maintained. At least the case must stand as a clinical triumph for Thuja (30) — this much is absolute.

In reply to my enquiry, I re- ceived the following :

"Jan. 1,(1883).

..." I have been in very much stronger health ever since I crossed your threshold, and excepting one or two

Homoeoprophylaxis. 45

attempts at a return from the enemy, I have been quite free from suffering." . .

This lady continues well of her post-orbital neuralgia at the time of going to press. After the dis- appearance of- the neuralgia she had several other remedies from me for dyspeptic symptoms.

I shall probably never have a more severe case of what I con- ceive to be vaccinosis than the one just narrated, or one that had lasted longer. Twenty years may be considered enough to declare it en permanence^ and its gradual cessation within six weeks from the time of commencing with the Thuja stamps it as an undoubted drug-cure.

However, the following is not uninteresting.

46 Vacciftosis and

Observation vii. Chronic Headache

OF NINE years' DURATION.

Miss G , aet. 19, came

under my care on March 12, 1881, complaining of bad attacks of headache for the past nine years. She said it was as if the back of her head were in a vice, and then it would be frontal, and throb- bing as if her head would burst. She was very pale, and her fore- head looked shiny and in places brown.

These ** head attacks" occur- red once or twice a week.

Tendency to constipation ; men- ses regular ; an old sty visible on left eyelid ; poor appetite ; dislikes

Homceoprophylaxis. 47

flesh-meat ; liver enlarged a little ; had a series of boils in the fall of 1880.

Feet cold ; used to have chil- blains. For years cannot ride in an omnibus, or in a cab, because of getting pale and sick ; skin be- comes rough in the wind ; lips crack ; gets fainty at times.

To have Graphites 30.

April 13/A. — Appetite and spirits better, but otherwise no change ; questioned as to the dur- ation of the head attacks, she tells me the last but one continued for three weeks — the last, three days. Over the right eye there is a red, tender patch ; has two or three white-headed pustules on her face.

Was vaccinated at three months, re-vaccinated at seven

48 Vaccinosis and

years, and again at fourteen. Had small-pox about ten years ago.

Thus here was a case that had had small-pox ten years ago, or thereabouts, for she could not quite fix the date, and had been vaccinated three times besides, once subsequent to the small-pox !

R Tc, ThujcB Occidentalism 3iv. '^x. To take five drops in water twice a day.

May 13/A. — Much better: has only had one very slight headache lasting an hour or two ; the frontal tender patch is no longer tender ; no further faintiness at all. Lips crack. The pustules in the face gone and skin quite clear.

To have Thuja 12, one drop at bedtime.

June lyth. — Was taken ill yes- terday fortnight with soreness of

Homceoprophylaxis. 49

stomach ; fever ; nausea and per- spiration. Subsequently spots broke out like pimples, — eight on the face, one each on the thumb and wrist, one on the foot, and two on the back, — they filled with matter, were out five days, became yellow, and then died away. Her mother says the symptoms were just the same as when patient had the small-pox. Her headaches were well just before this bout came on.

July 15/. — Continues well.

27/A. — The headaches have not returned.

Feb. 24/A, 1882. — The cure holds good, for she has had no headache and is otherwise well. She had subsequently some other remedies for the little tumour on

£

50 Vaccinosis and

her eyelid and for a small exostosis on lower jaw, but she had received nothing but Thuja when the cepha- lalgia disappeared and it was two or three weeks before the next medicine followed.

Some months after this date this young lady was brought by her mother merely to shew me how well she was, and to take final leave of me ; two years later I learned from her mother that she continued well, so the cure is permanent.

An interesting feature in this case is the curious attack which came on at the beginning of June. My reading of it is that it was really a proving of ThuJUy or a general organismic reaction called forth by it ; and this sent me often

Hommoprophylaxis. 51

up to the thirtieth dilution in my subsequent use of Thuja^ though I have occasionally found the third decimal dilution answer . better than the thirtieth.

But this is not the point of my thesis, for this case was evidently cured by the low dilution, and when the low dilutions cure, and cure promptly, even though not very agreeably, but well, it cannot be necessary to go up any higher, especially as one's faith is suffic- iently on the stretch without it.

Observation viii.

Enlarged Glands.

Apex- Catarrh.

Master C , aet, 1 1 J, came

under my care on August 18/A, 1881, complaining of a cough,

52 Vaccinosis and

worse at 7-30 p.m. ; he also coughed by day and through the night, but it did not wake him. He perspired fearfully, worst on the head, and worse during the night. Over upper half of left lung one heard moist crackling rales. The cervical lymphatic glands at the top of the apex of left lung were indurated and distinctly ** feel- able." He weighed 55/. 4/65.

The vaccination scars were on the left arm, and the glands over the apex of right lung were not indu- rated. Induration of the lym- phatics on the left side of the neck (the vaccination being performed on that side), is the rule after vaccination, as anyone may ob- serve for himself if he will take the trouble to examine a healthy child

Homceoprophylaxis. 53

just before vaccination and any time thereafter. I say : any time thereafter, for the thing generally persists for a very long time unless cured by medical art.

R ThujcB 30, m. ii. Sac. lac. q.s. Fiat pulv. Tales xxiv. One, three times a day.

Aug. 2yth, — ^^Is well of cough, but the sweats continue. To take no medicine.

Sep. 6th. — The most careful examination of chest reveals no rale; there is no cough; the sweats have quite ceased ; the said cer- vical lymphatics can not be found. The boy now weighs 5s/. 8/65., so that he has gained 4/65. in weight since he got the Thuja.

Discharged cured,

Thd. boy had been at school, and was sent home to his parents

54 Vaccinosis and

by the school physician on account of his obstinate cough, and be- cause his general symptoms ex- cited alarm. To me it appeared to be the first stage of phthisis. That the boy should increase in weight at home just after returning from school is, of course, not necessarily due to the medicine ; home life, too, would improve his nutrition generally, and would per- haps also account for the dis- appearance of the apex-catarrh, cough, and perspirations. But what is to account for the dis- appearance of the induration of the cervical glands ?

Of course this case offers but little evidence of the existence of vaccinosis or of its cure by Thuja ; so I will ask the reader to wade

Homceoprophylaxis. 55

through yet a few more observa- tions which I transcribe from my case books. For if there be such a disease as vaccinosis, in other words if vaccination have any ill- effects beyond those commonly epitomized under the name vac- cinia, it is clearly important that it should be recognized, and, its exis- tence being demonstrated, it is desirable that we know how to cure it,

Observation ix.

Hairless Patches on Chin.

Mr. , a London mer- chant, came under my care on July 27/A, 1882, to be treated for some roundish hairless patches on either side of his chin, which began four months ago. The larger patch on

56 Vaccinosis and

the right side was about the size of a florin. Had also an old hor- deolum on his right lower eye-lid.

Has been twice vaccinated, the second time, twelve years ago, did not " take."

R ThujcB Occidentalis 30 (4 in 24). To take one, dry on the tongue, at bedtime.

Sept. jth. — The bald patches are smaller, the one on the left side nearly gone. Has, appar- ently, a very bad coryza — ? — or- ganismic reaction ?

Rep.

Oct. ijth. — The bald patches are gone ; the old hordeolum also gone. The closely-shaven beard is now uniform, the previously- existing white bald patches being completely covered with hair.

I give this as an interesting

Homceoprophyiaxis. 57

cure by Thuja^ but I am riot very sure that the disease was really due tb vaccinosis because of other points in his clinical history. Still it might have been so, as the hair is very powerfully influenced by the vaccine poisoning. Thus Kunkel observed both a very weak growth of hair, and an excessive growth, especially in wrong places, as effects, he believed, of vaccina- tion. Therefore let it stand as a doubtful case of vaccinosis for what it may be worth, — but there can hardly be any reasonable doubt as to the cure of the case by Thuja.

Here it might not be amiss to observe casually that the presence of sties on the eyelids is often, in my opinion, a symptom of vac-

58 Vaccinosis and

cinosis. This case is not without practical importance, inasmuch as hodiernal medicine hands over a sty to the chirurgeon's .art ; and all the time, poor old dame, weens herself so very much superior to scientific therapeutics usually call- ed homoeopathy. The conceit of the orthodoxly ignorant is truly sickening.

Observation x.

Habitual Influenzas. General Ill-health and Headache.

Mr. , a city gentleman,

came under my observation on December 28/A, 1882, complaining that he was suffering from a series of neglected colds. He is costive ; gets boils and pimples ; has a number of warts, both flat and

Homceoprophylaxis. 59

pedunculated ; never had gonor- rhoea ; has severe frontal headache these three months ; much pain across chest ; and feels so out of health that he can no longer attend to his work, which is only light office work. He especially asks for a preventive for his fre- quent influenza colds. Flesh is flabby and skin spotted with pim- ples.

The habitual influenza^ the chronic frontal headache ^ the pimply skin, the feeling of general malaise point, according to my experience, to vaccinosis. But had patient been vaccinated ? Yes. Four times, and did not " take " the last three times. I do not expect many to agree with my theory that, when an individual is unsuc-

6o Vaccinosis and

cessfully vaccinated, he may have been seriously affected in his health by the re-actionless vaccination, perhaps more so than as if it had ** taken." But it is a settled point with me, and in these cases I find Thuja as promptly efficacious as in the ordinary forms of vaccinosis.

R Thuja Occidentalis 30 (4 in 24). One at bedtime and on rising.

January loth^ 1883. — Wonder- ful improvement already in the first week ; the headaches gone (had had them three months), pain in chest gone ; and the bowels are less costive. What a change in twelve days !

R Thuja Occidentalis 100, as before.

February %th. — Well; he com- plains of nothing, and merely calls to thank me.

Homczoprophylaxis . 6 1

This case made a considerable sensation in the gentleman's large office-circle, partly because the change in his condition was so sudden and complete, and partly because he came to homoeopathy demonstratively unwillingly, and in consequence of the earnest solicitations of his chef de bureau.

Observation xi.

Acne of Face and Nose, and Nasal Dermatitis.

A young lady, about twenty years of age, was brought by her mother to me on October aS^A, 1882. Patient had a very red pimply nose, not like the red nose of the elderly bibber, or like that due to dyspepsia or to tight-lacing, but a pimply, scaly nasal dermatitis.

62 Vaccinosis and

which extended from the cuta- neous covering of the nose to that of the cheeks, but appearing here more as facial acne. The nasal dermatitis was, roughly, in the form of a saddle. Of course this state of things in an otherwise pretty girl of twenty was painfully and humiliatingly unpleasant to her and to her friends, in fact it was likely to mar her future pros- pects very materially, more espe- cially as it had already existed for six years and was making no signs of departing.

She also complained of obstinate constipation. The pimples of the nose and face used to get little white mattery heads. In trying to trace the skin-affection back to its real origin I ascertained that the patient was re-vaccinated

Homceoprophylaxis. 63

six years ago, but she could not remember whether the nose was previously affected or not. This re- vaccination was unsuccessful, i.e. J it did not ** take."

R Thuja Occidentalis 30. .

November y^th. — Pimples of face decidedly better. Nose less red. Constipation no better.

R ThujcB Occidentalis 100.

January 3^^, 1883. — The face is free ! Her mother gratefully exclaims, **She is wonderfully bet- ter." I ask the young lady which powders did her most good; she says, *'The /as/." The skin of the nose is normal, but the consti- pation is no better, and for this she remains under treatment.

That Thuja cured this case is incontrovertible, but that it was a

64 Vaccinosis and

case of vaccinosis is not quite so certain, though it is far from im- probable. The re- vaccination and inflammation of the skin of the nose were referred both to six years ago when she was in Swit- zerland at school ; but patient could not remember which was the first, the bad nose or the vaccination.

Observation xii.

Neuralgia of Right Eye.

Mr. , a gentleman of

position and means, about fifty years of age, came to consult me on 28th June, 1882, for a neu- ralgia of the right eye. He had come in consequence of the cure of the case recorded here as Ob- servation vi.

Homceoprophylaxis. 65

He complained of almost con- stant pain in right eye ever since Christmas, 1881, i.^., just about six months. Had had neuralgia in head and shoulders in 1866, and so much morphia had been injected in his shoulders by a doctor in Scotland that it almost killed him: for seven or eight hours it was doubtful if he would recover.

Has a brown, eczematous, itchy (at night,) eruption on both shins and between the toes. The neuralgia of right eye, and for which he comes to me, is bad both by day and night, but rather worse at night. Mr. (now Sir William) Bowman had examined the eye and declared it to be neuralgia, the eye being normal.

66 Vacctnosis and

Mr. White Cooper had done the same.

On my enquiring when he was last vaccinated, he seemed com- pletely frightened, and stammered out rapidly, ** I should not like to be vaccinated again."

'' Why ? "

** I was very seedy the last time I was vaccinated, in fact I felt awfully ill for about a month," and he again hurriedly protested that he would not like to be vac- cinated again. The vaccination that had made him so ill was either in 1852 or 1853.

This seemed to me to be a case of vaccinial neuralgia, and therefore I ordered Thuja 30, in infrequent dose. This was on the 28/A of June, 1882.

TTomcBOprophylaxis. 67

July Sth. — But very little pain after the first powder. To have the same medicine again.

The cure proved permanent, and is interesting as proof of the rapidity with which the most like remedy can cure a neuralgia. And, considering how ** awfully ill'' he had been after his last vaccina- tion, I think it rather probable that this case is an example of vaccinosis.

What do you think ?

Having narrated some rather striking cases of what I conceive to be the neuralgia of vaccinosis, let me pass on to a case shewing evident tissue change or organic disease. It will be

68 rikrr^^ mmd

Befrtg 2. case of

Diseased Fesger-xails. On EKicember zzmJ^ 1882, a yocn^ lady ot 26 came under my care toe an o^^v state c^ the nails of her fingersw Naturally a lady of her age would not be indi£ferent to the state of her nails. These nails are indented rather deeply, and in addition to these indentations there are black patches on the under surfeices of the nails, reach- ing into the quick. Very sUght leucorrhoea occasionally.

She had chicken-pox as a child of eleven. On her shoulders there is an eruption of roundish patches forming mattery head^. Has been vaccinated three different times ; the last time two years ago, and

HomcBOprophylaxis. 69

the nails have become diseased since this last vaccination. The black patches have existed these eighteen months.

Looking upon this diseased condition of the nails as evidence of chronic vaccinosis I ordered her Thuja 30 (one in 6).

March ig/A, 1883. — Has con- tinued the Thuja 30 for just about three months, with the result that within a fortnight from commenc- ing with it the black patches un- der the nails began to disappear, and there is now no trace of them. The indentations are notably bet- ter. The eruption on the back has not been modified, and for this she remains under treatment ; but I thought this much of a case of nail disease would be of some

70 Vaccinosis and

interest, and the more so as it is not easy to demonstrate drug- action on nail growth at all.

We will now go back to the head and the central nervous system.

Observation xiv.

Case of Ptosis.

A young lady of about 25 years of age came to me in May, 1881, telling me that she had had some tooth-stumps extracted in Novem- ber, 1880, whereafter there was haemorrhage for eight or nine hours. Two very able men in the homoeo- pathic ranks had treated her for some time with much benefit, but she still remained ill. Conium had been of greatest use. She still complained of ptosis of left side ;

Homceoprophylaxis. 71

sleeplessness ; reeling to the right when walking out of doors, ten- dency to fall to the right. I gave her Equisetum hyemale {y) because her tongue was cracked. (Clin- icians may note this valuable little wrinkle, i.e.^ cracked tongue=^Equu setuMj of which I first saw an account in the Therapeutic Gazette.) It was continued for months with very great benefit, and was fol- lowed by Bellis per., and then by Juglans regia, &c. Then came A vena sativa fl, Cadmium 6 and 12, and Psoricum 30, and finally Tito- nium^o.

These more or less well-chosen remedies wrought a great change in the patient, but on the 2gth July, 1882, she still complained that the left eye was wrong. It

V

72 Vaccinosis and

made her feel sea-sick when she read ; pains in left eye worse in the early morn ; some ptosis of left upper lid ; eye-ball stiff, and an aching across it and right across the forehead, and she was giddy in walking about.

The case having thus come to a standstill, I cast about for some aetiologico-therapeutic appuij and in so doing learned that she had been vaccinated four times in all ; the last time, three years ago, took but faintly.

Thuja 30 soon cured the ptosis and the other described symptoms.

Of course I cannot prove that we had here to do with a case of vaccinosis, but such it appeared to me. Well-chosen remedies had greatly benefited the patient, but

Homceoprophylaxis. 73

there seemed to be a bar to the complete cure, and Thuja effectu- ally removed this bar.

In chronic disease, when the right remedies seem barred in their action, Hahnemann, on the off-chance that it might be due to psora, recommended his disciples to interpose sulphur as the great, most likely, anti-psoric. Most of us have found this a very valuable clinical suggestion, Similarly, I have found that vaccinosis fre- quently bars the way, and then Thuja comes in with simply the beautiful effect of a genuine simillimum.

I shall narrate several more such cases before I take my leave, so that others may be in posses- sion of evidence sufficient to form

74 Vaccinosis and

a judgment on the questions of whether there exists such a morbid state as vaccinosis ? and whether Thuja can cure the same ?

Observation xv.

Paresis.

Mr. , a private gentle- man, married, and one who had always led a healthful life, but too great a traveller, came under my observation early in the year 1882, in a very weak condition. He had had slight hemiplegia of the right side, and still shewed some symp- toms of paralysis, e.g.^ weakness of right arm, occasional dragging of the legs, loss of memory, im- paired vision, and loss of power generally. His effective virility

Homceoprophylaxis. 75

was extinct, and had been so for two or three years, and naturally this did not tend to raise his spirits. I treated him for a few months with but slight benefit, when one day he complained of a frontal headache that at once re- minded me of the Thuja headache. I gave him Thuja occidentalis 30 (4 in 24) and within a few days he remarked a very notable im- provement, feeling better than he had for three years. Getting this report at his next visit, I fell to questioning him about vaccination, which I had previously not done : and what was the answer ?

Feb. 24/A, 1883. — ** How many times have you been vaccinated ? ' '

**I have been vaccinated six or seven times."

s -^

axd

- Dii h ake everr time ? "

And firom close qaesdomiig I sads&ed myself that this gentleman had been six times ifiisaccessfally vaccinated, and this su^ested to me that he was really suffering from that vaccinial bUght which I have ventured to call vaccinosis.

Patient had received only four doses of the Thuja 30 in the early part of January, 1883, just to cure his headache, and which resulted, inter alia, in a hypopubic resurrec- tion of great importance ; and the headache having simultaneously left him, he then took the consti- tutional remedy I had prescribed, viz., Titanium J and continued it until a few days ago. I had in- structed him to take the Thuja

Homosoprophylaxis. yy

only for a few days, till his head- ache disappeared.

Now, thought I, we will satu- rate him with Thuja and extinguish the vaccinosis ; so I gave him this prescription :

R Tc. Thuja Occidentalis 3, 5 iv. To take four drops in water night and morn- ing, and report in a month.

The result was quite satisfac- tory, and he became, in his wife's words — ** quite a different man ; " all paralytic symptoms having dis- appeared, and the old headache had not returned at the end of 1883, when I last saw him.

Loss of virile power is fre- quently a result of vaccination, and when the local debility is due to this cause it is really wonderful how the case is altered by a few doses of Thuja.

yS Vacdnosis and

Observation xvi. Case of Spinal Irritation.

Miss , aet. 29, came under

my care in November, 1882, com- plaining of owning a spine. She had been under the best physicians and surgeons of London. Had derived a Httle benefit firom many, most, she thought firom the move- ment cure, under Dr. Roth, of Wimpole Street. She also alleged that mesmeric passes had eased her a good deal.

Her symptoms were legion ; she was bent forward, could scarcely walk, her spine very tender and painful ; twitchings ; pain all down the back ; and chilliness, worse at night. Her liver was decidedly enlarged and there was pain in the

Homceoprophylaxis. 79

right side. This hepatic disturb- ance was righted by Chelidonium majus I ; five drops, in water, twice a day. Then, on December igth, I gave her Kedrqn i, which cer- tainly eased the cephalalgia and chilliness a good deal, and it was therefore continued till

February gth^ 1883, when I went into her case a little more thoroughly as to its anamnesis. She had been vaccinated four times successfiiUy, once it did not take.

R ThujcB Occidentalis 30.

March %th. — Patient exclaimed

. . . . "that is capital stuff; I am

very much better ; my back is very

much better ; the coldness is gone ;

I am so much stronger altogether." Rep.

8o Vaccinosis and

March 315^. — Back '* wonder- fully better."

She needed several other reme- dies, but practically her cure- was effected by Thuja.

On May 17/Ashe had Thuja 100 and soon afterwards began to play at lawn-tennis.

On June 12th she reported her^ self thus — *' I have not been so well for three or four years ; I feel strong, and can do anything."

I do not know whether any one will admit that this was a case of vaccinosis ; certain it is that she had been vaccinated five times and was very ill, practically an invalid, till I gave her Thuja^ and then she mended and is now well and comparatively vigorous.

Homceoprophylaxis. 8i

Observation xvii.

Case of Scrivener's Cramp ; Cephalalgia, and Enlarged

Spleen.

Miss , aet. 29, a city

clerk, came under my observation on May ythj 1883, complaining of much epigastric beating, pain in left side, great chilliness, and writer's cramp of the right side. An examination shewed an en- largement of the spleen, and a swelling of the left ovary of about the size of a hen's egg. Her breath is heavy, and she gets gid- diness. She hzs frontal headache of a severe kind almost every day for a long time.

R Ceanothi Americani i. Five drops, in water, three timfes a day.

82 Vaccinosis and

May 30/A. — Side is much bet- ter; the chiUiness is better; the feet warmer ; the beating less.

Rep, et Cup. acet. i.

July 30^A. — Side nearly well ; paining every alternate day or so. Pain in the back no better ; giddi- ness better. Complains especially of the severe frontal headache, and the cramps in the right arm are so bad that she has had to give up office work.

Has been vaccinated three times, but the last time it did not take.

R TV. ThujcB Occidentalis 30, night and morning".

August 16th. — Headache and writer's cramp well. She returns to work.

November 16/A. — Continues at

L

Homceoprophylaxis. 83

office work with comfort ; no re- turn of either headache or cramps. Continues under treatment for ovarian tumour, and gets Silicea 6. The hydrogenoid constitution of von Grauvogl was here well pronounced, and what I call vac- cinosis was implanted on it. The action of Thuja was most marked, prompt, and durable. Questioned on November itth as to which medicine cured the headache and the cramps, she instantly said it was the powders (i^e.^ the Thuja).

Observation xviii.

Arrested Development and Hemiparesis.

Miss , aet. 16, was brought

to me on May 16/A, 1883. This was her state : roof of mouth very

84 Vaccinosis and

much arched; left side of face drawn to the left so that her mouth is awry. She speaks very badly ; cannot articulate properly ; and is very deaf. Has always been so. Has a polypus in left nostril ; the tonsils are enormously hypertrophied ; breathes very loud- ly.

Left mamma smaller than the right ; left side of thorax generally smaller than the right. Tongue is cracked ; pain in left side for years ; frontal headache for a twelvemonth. Menses normal, having begun six months ago. She was vaccinated at the age of three months ; it did not take^ and so she was done a second time in both arms, when it took fairly well.

Patient is the child of healthy parents, and there did not appear

Homceoprophylaxis. 85

to be anything to account for the extraordinary backwardness. I reasoned that the child had evi- dently been blighted by the vac- cination, for she did not readily take (the organism resisted), and then did take (organism overcome).

R ThujcR Occidentalis 30. Two drops, daily, for four weeks.

Now note the sequel, not for- getting that the child's condition had been, as described, nearly all her life.

June 13/A. — On this day her mother brought her and reported — this is the note in my case book : *' on the whole very much better ; can certainly articulate better ! ! and the head and face are not so onesided, and she hears better ! ! "

Both parents were agreed that

86 Vaccinosis and

the changes had been wrought

since the medicine had been taken.

The father is an unusually gifted

professional man, and the mother

an educated lady. Rep.

July I ith, — Headache well ; side pain better ; and the whole state is better. Considering the vaccinial blight removed I gave Ceanothus Americanus i, five drops, in water, night and morning, for two months. I gave this because the spleen was enlarged, and I thought its specific influence on the left side generally might be bene- ficial. I was not disappointed, but very much gratified to see that the left side of thorax began to grow^ and also the left mamma. The little play of the imagination

Homczoprophylaxis. 87

here as to the leftsidedness of the action of Ceanothus was fruitful.

September yth. — The increased dulness on percussion in the left hypochondrium having disappear- ed, and the left side having been manifestly bettered, and that con- siderably, I reverted to the Thuja^ and this time gave it in the hun- dredth centesimal dilution.

October jth. — Under this date I read in my case book — '* Side remains well, but she seems to have suffered a good deal generally while taking the Thuja 100. She articulates decidedly better, speaks now so that I can understand her, and her hearing is greatly im- proved." She remains under treat- ment, and will receive other con- stitutional remedies, but the influ-

88 Vaccinosis and

ence of the Thuja upon her has been most marked and remarkable. I have myself no doubt that the child's condition of hemiparesis arose from the vaccinial blight, i.e.^ from vaccinosis ^ she being originally delicate, particularly her nervous system.

Observation xix.

Neuralgia of Eyes of Nine Years' Standing.

Miss , act. 20, came to

me on January 18/A, 1883, with various ills. The constipation for which I had treated her had been cured by Nux 30 and Sulphur 30, but the fluor albus was no better. " But then," said she, " there is the neuralgia in my eyes, which I have had for nine years, nothing

Homceoprophylaxis . 89

has ever touched that." The neu- ralgia complained of was worse in the morning and at the menstrual period.

Thuja 30 (4 in 24), One at night.

I saw her no more till the Sth of December, 1883, when she called complaining of too frequent and too profuse menstruation.

''What about the neuralgia ?" *' Oh ! that is cured ; I have not had it since those powders."

Was this a case* of vaccinosis ?

Patient had been twice vac- cinated, and the second time was when she was 15 years old, when it did not take. I do not feel so sure that this was a case of vaccinosis, because patient was revaccinated unsuccessfully after this neuralgia

go Vaccinosis and

began, and besides, her mother died of epithelioma, so it may have been merely a case of sycosis Hah- nemanni. The only certain thing about it is that the neuralgia had lasted nine years, and disappeared after the giving of the Thuja.

I have treated a certain number of other cases, with varied disease symptoms, on the hypothesis that I was dealing with vaccinosis, and often with results little short of startling, but I hardly think it would serve any useful purpose to multiply examples. The foregoing observations embody and exemplify all that is essential of what I have observed and thought on the sub- ject ; if other physicians will fol- low on the same lines the reward

Honueoprophylaxis. gi

will be theirs and mine ; and if they will not, then the reward still is mine in this that I have cured very obstinate cases of disease by reckoning with vaccinosis as a clinical fact, and as a man I could not do less than lay what I believe I know on the subject before the world. It remains for others to judge whether the work was worth doing.

Although I had fully intended citing no more cases of vaccinosis and its cure by Thuja, still the following very recent observation is really too telling to be left out.

Observation xx.

On January 25/A, 1884, I was requested to see a lady in a well-

92 Vaccinosis and

known London Square. She is a trifle over fifty, healthy looking, and enjoWng good health except for her headaches. These head- aches were the bane of her life, as any extra exertion, worry, or work put her out and brought them on or exacerbated them. A few vis- itors at her house, her ordinary social duties, a dinner, an evening at the theatre, a little meeting for benevolent purposes, an uncivil ser\*ant — each and all put her hors d€ combat with her headache.

She had had them "every few days and ever since she could remem- ber, but greatly increased in severity during the past three years." She did not expect to be cured ; "at my age, and after so many years," said this lady.

Homosoprophylaxis. 93

Moreover, she did not believe in homoeopathy, ''no, not in the least, but I have tried all the best doctors and they have failed, and

hearing from Lady , that

you were specially good at head- aches, I determined to send for you."

''Vaccinated ? " " Oh ! yes, five or six times ; has not taken for years ; do you think I had better be done again ? ' '

Thuja Occidentalis 30.

On Feb. gth I called.—" Oh, I am better, I have only had one headache — two days after I began with your powders — and I am very much less nervous.'' To continue the medicine.

March 2nd. — " I have not had any headache at all, although I

94 Vaccinosis.

have been doing just the very things that always bring them on ; I have the greatest confidence in homoeopathy, &c."

These are, professional brother, what I conceive to be clinical facts. The lady had had headaches for more than 30 years ; I gave her Thuja^ and the headaches de- parted, and thus far have not returned.

But what are facts to me may be faddles to you, all laws of evi- dence to the contrary notwith- standing.

SOME REMARKS ON HOMCEOPROPHYLAXIS.

In the April number, 1884, of the Homceopathic Worlds there appeared the following commu- nication to the Editor: —

Dr. Skinner on M. Pasteur's homcbopathy.

Dear Sir, — If the italicised is not Homoeopathy, what is it?

Thos. Skinner, M.D.

25, Somerset St., W., Feb. 27, 1884.

M. Pasteur's Experiments. M. Pasteur made an interesting com- munication to the Paris Academy of Sciences on Monday in relation to canine madness. His experiments had shown him that an injection in the region of the skull of the virus of rabies always

96 HonuBOprophylaxis.

produced the malady in an acute form, but that an injection in the veins only occasionally had acute results, being often followed by chronic affection only, with- out barking or ferocity. If a dog were inoculated with fragments of marrow or of nerve taken from a mad dog, the dis- ease would be communicated. M, Pasteur further stated that he had rendered twenty dogs proof against the disease by inoculating them with other virus than the virus of rabies. Fowls and pigeons injected with the latter be- came affected, but soon recovered spon- taneously.

** If the italicised is not Ho- moeopathy, what is it?" Just so, what is it?

I think a little reflection will shew that it belongs in the sphere of preventive medicine, and is not homoeopathy, i.e.j it is an exten- sion of the principle of similars to the prevention of disease.

HomcBOprophylaxis. 97

Many other ardent homoe- opaths besides Dr. Skinner have claimed that vaccination is a proof of the truth of homoeopathy; that it is, in fact, part and parcel of it. Evidently this is from the want of a little thought on the sub- ject, since it must be manifest that such is quite impossible, for the simple reason that homoeopathy is a system of curing — similia similibus curantur — whereas vac- cination is not a curative measure at all, but a preventive one. And since prevention is, admittedly, better than cure, it must follow that it cannot be the same; therefore, vaccination is not ho- moeopathy, though I shall suggest that it might fitly be termed HomceoprophylaxiSj inasmuch as

H

gS Hcrmceopropkylaxis.

vaccinia and Yariola are similar postnlar diseases, and the former being preventive of the latter, it may be in obedience to the principle — uke prevents like. Being a question of prophylaxis, it cannot be classed in any system of cure. And that likes are pre- vented by likes, / could adduce very many examples to shew, did the narrow limits of this little treatise admit of it. Here it must suffice to diflFerentiate be- tween homoeopathy aAd homoeo- prophylaxis, and to endeavour in a very general way to study a little the true nature of the latter as exemplified in vaccination and analogous facts such as Pasteur's inoculations.

Giving a variolous patient vac-

Homceoprophylaxis. gg

cine pus, or lymph (vaccininum) , wherewith to cure his small-pox, that is homoeopathy, and we have ample testimony that it will thus act if given in refracted dose, and thus acting, it can hardly be other than homoeopathic in such action. The law of similars is the ground- work of both ; in the one case to prevent, and in the other to cure.

M. Pasteur and others, by their inoculations, are empirically la- bouring to extend homceoprophy- laxis in the line initiated by Jen- nerian vaccination, or rather it is a revival of the old inoculation for small-pox, and on a line with s3rphilization.

We are here met by the dose- question, just the same as we are in homoeopathy, or the treatment

loo Homceoprophylaxis.

of disease by the light of the law of likes. By the clear light of this same law will preventive medicine also have to march. But the dose ?

Jennerian vaccination is in ac- cordance mth the principle of homceoprophylaxis, though only enunciated as an empiric fact by Jenner, and ever since practised as such. Pasteur gets, perhaps, a little further by advancing along the line of ** cultivating." One cannot help wondering, however, how much Pasteur knows of iso- pathy and of homoeopathy. We will return to M. Pasteur's experi- ments presently.

Homosoprophylaxis. loi

Nature of Homceoprophylaxis.

The prevention of disease ac- cording to the law of similars — homceoprophylaxis — is still strug- gling with its swaddling clothes, but we may reflect on the following : —

Two similar diseases will affect the organism similarly : they will affect the same parts, organs, or tissues, and in a like manner.

If we call the two diseases a and by and the organism O, then if a fall upon O, and affect it posi- tively (positive effect = c), this effect of a upon O, c, will be like the effect oi b (= d)^ for a and b are alike.

Now if we admit that the simi- larity between a and b is enough to render them effectively equal, potentially congruent, then we

I02 HonuBOprophylaxis.

should say a = b, and therefore c=d. Consequently 0+a^O+by and O 4- c = O + rf.

That is the question for the solution of which we must appeal to scientific experiment, both at the bedside and in the laboratory, as well as to abstract reasoning.

It has frequently appeared to the writer that time and quantity (dose) , are not duly reckoned with in the question of the efficacy or inefficacy of Jennerian vaccination ; and Pasteur seems also to lose sight of both factors in his own experiments. The great mass of medical men firmly believe that vaccination protects against vari- ola ; and, that vaccinia and variola are alike is quite certain ; it is only the degree of the likeness that

Hontceoprophylaxis. 103

can be subject of dispute, for both are pyrexial pustular diseases.

Statistics of a number of years, nevertheless, shew that variola is, in the aggregate, about as deadly as ever, allowing for a natural decrease in its vis by age ; this cannot be controverted, so much must be conceded to the anti- vaccinators.

And yet, given groups of indi- viduals are evidently protected /or the time from variola by vaccina- tion, and the more recent the vac- cinia the greater the temporary protection, provided the effect of the vaccination be not too great, in which case there will be a homceoprophylactic aggravation, and then there will not only be no protective power, but on the contrary the vaccinate will be

I04 Homceoprophylaxis.

predisposed to itj i.e., instead of a positive and a negative eliminating one another we shall have two positives to be added together.

Let us express the difference between a vaccinated and an un- vaccinated individual by the al- gebraic quantity x. Now, what is the nature of x ? Is it positive or negative ? Quoad perfect health it is negative, but quoad the organis- mic individual it is positive, if a diseased condition can be said to be a positive one.

To begin with, it is inconceiv- able that X should be a constant FACTOR, which is evidently the general assumption; it must be an always lessening quantity, and X might thus be initially congruent with variola, while it may at any

HomcBOprophylaxis. 105

subsequent point be incongruent. This really expresses the sum of human experience on the question of the efHcacy or inefficacy of Jen- nerian vaccination, though it is not apprehended; whence the cry for re-vaccination coup sur coup on the one hand, and the want of faith in vaccination on the other, both positions being readily com- prehensible if the effect of vacci- nation be recognised as an incon- stant factor.

And from these considerations it must be manifest that the pro- tection afforded by vaccination will be different in different individuals, and diminishingly different in the same individual, and always grow- ing less and less until it is nil. Thus X might to-day be preven-

io6 Honugoprophylaxis.

tively equal to variola in an en- demic form, but not equal to it in epidemic form. In other words the protection afforded by x is relative and contingent. More- over, if the vaccinosis be too great, i.^., too powerfully diseasing, it not only cannot protect, but must actually add fuel to the flames.

We thus appear to arrive at the conclusion that vaccination does relatively and contingently protect from small-pox as a dis- ease, but nevertheless, the mor- tality from small-pox remains in the aggregate the same, but in a greater percentage. That is to say, fewer people probably get small-pox, but the absolute num- ber of deaths is not affected, or is greater.

Honueoprophylaxis. 107

In pro-vaccinational and anti- vaccinational literature , morbility and mortality are commonly con- founded together. We have no means of knowing how many people get small-pox, either abso- lutely or proportionately, we only know how many die of it. There- fore all the vaccination statistics are wide of the mark except per- haps those in certain hospitals. The pro-vaccinators maintain that vaccination protects from variola because they see that, as a general rule, the vaccinated do not get small-pox.

The anti-vaccinists say, ** Oh ! but a good many of your vaccinated persons do get small- pox nevertheless, and the mortality from small-pox is as great as ever, or greater than ever ! " Both

io8 Homoeoprophylaxis.

sides are honest ; both are appar- ently deaHng with facts ; both are striving after truth, and collec- tively they expend enough human energy to enrich a nation or colo- nize a continent. Where then is the missing link ?

While writing this, an ardent bacterist. Dr. H. Thomas, of Llan- dudno, very kindly sends me a clipping from the Athenceum of March 15/A, 1884. It run thus:

M. Pasteur and his fellow labourers communicated to the Acad6mie des Sci- ences on the 2^th of February the impor- tant fact that by inoculation with virus taken from mad dogs they can render all dogs absolutely safe from the effects of rabies, in whatever way and in whatever quantity the virus may be administered.

This is the same fact referred to by Dr. Skinner further back.

Homosoprophylaxis. log

But we find no principle enun- ciated here by the Athenceum ; nevertheless, the results must be in obedience to the law of similars in prophylactics — homoeoprophylaxis.

Here M. Pasteur and his fel- low-workers, just the same as the Jennerian vaccinators, and the an- ti-vaccinators — here, I say, they practically ignore the element time^ and the altering nature of the pro- tection. When people speak of ** the necessity of r^- vaccination, because vaccination loses its ef- fect," time IS roughly reckoned with, but an arbitrary limit is set entirely devoid of any scientific basis.

On the other hand it has been often noticed that a healthy person gets variola soon after vaccination,

no //omceoprophylaxis.

which to my mind mihtates in no wise against a beUef in the protec- tive power of vaccination, but is to be interpreted as meaning that the vaccinial infection was more than enough ; just the same as a little Aconite will lessen feverish- ness, while much Aconite will make the feverishness worse.

Continuing now to let x stand for the difference between a vac- cinate and a non- vaccinate, we must keep well before our minds that X represents the remaining effects of a disease — vaccinosis — and this is not a constant quantity ; in an otherwise healthy person it must be continually growing less and less, and finally become extinct. Therefore, in order to determine whether vaccination

Homoeoprophylaxis . 1 1 1

protects against variola or not, we must first have the date of the vaccination in each case of varioloid or small-pox in the vac- cinate. Were a considerable num- ber of such cases tabulated we might arrive at some idea as to how long a given vaccination con- tinues to affect the individual suf- ficiently for the vaccinosis to leave no room for variola, provided always that the vaccinations were unipotential.

is it possible for vaccination to be contingently effective, and yet for the mortality fromSmall-pox to be Greater?

This question crops up and presents itself to one's mind thus :

112 Homceoprophylaxis.

Vaccination protects from variola say the vaccinators.

Quoth the anti-vaccinators — That is impossible, because some of those who have been vaccinated do get variola, and the mortality from variola has actually increased, so where is the prevention ?

How can these things be ?

Let us ponder these points. And first of all let us not confound morbility with mortality. We really want three words to express our meaning well. Firstly, mor- tality, or the number of deaths; secondly, morbidity , or the quantity of ill-health of the living ; and thirdly, morbility ^ or the number of those who actually take a given disease. I ask forgiveness for this word-coining ; no one need use

Homceoprophylaxis . 113

the words if they are needless or objectionable, but it seems to me that these three ideas must be accurately expressed if we are to adequately discuss the question.

In judging of the ill-effects of vaccination, only the mortality is considered as a general rule by the pro-vaccinists. By giving atten- tion to vaccinational morbidity (the vaccinosis of this little treatise), I have been enabled to do some notably good clinical work, and I put the facts observed before the world as a duty, and really unwillingly, as I am sure to be much misunderstood, but that cannot be helped, and besides I am now wandering away from my text.

Before we can scientifically

114 Honiceoprophylaxis.

reckon with vaccination we must take accurate account of the mor- bihty as well as of the mortality and morbidity. The practical physician alone has the necessary scope for making observations in respect of the morbidity arising from vaccination, i.e., vaccinosis. Unfortunately it is completely ignored as a general rule.

Any statistician can observe and arrange the facts relating to its morbility, and the Registrar General might be got to deal with them as he does with those relating to mortality. But, I must submit that mortality statistics alone with- out morbility statistics cannot pos- sibly lead to any real settlement of the vaccination question, for we want to know not only how many

Homoeoprophylaxis . 115

die of small-pox, but also how many get it and get over it.

Herein, it seems to me, lies the kernel of the nut.

And not only do we want to know how many get small-pox and recover, and how many get it and die of it, but also what is the mor- bidity of those protected by the vaccination.

What is the ordinary liability of the perfectly healthy to catch small-pox, i,e.^ what is their pros- pective morbility, morbidity, and mortality ?

Assuming that vaccination does protect, relatively and contingently, what do we pay for the protection, not in money, but in vaccinial morbidity, or vaccinosis ?

It seems to me probable that

1 1 6 Homceoprophylaxis.

ordinary Jennerian vaccination is not efficiently protective in those whose proneness to catch small pox is very great, while it is efficiently protective where the proneness to catch small-pox is less.

If we reflect upon this for a while we shall see that there is nothing unreasonable in this prop- osition.

The un-vaccinated are not equally prone to catch small-pox ; we vaccinate them all alike.

Now is it even conceivable that the vaccination has rendered them equally immune, when some of the ww-vaccinated were already immune ?

My line of argument here stands thus : — Vaccination is pre-

Homoeoprophylaxis . 117

ventive of small-pox when the proneness to catch it is small; and when the proneness to catch it is small, those who do get small pox do not die of it, therefore vac- cination affects the morbility rather that the mortality of small-pox. I refer to ordinary Jennerian vacci- nation, and not to microposic homoeoprophylaxis.

If I am right then we can affirm on aprioristic grounds that ordinary macroposic vaccination will diminish morbility but increase the mortality, i.^., fewer will get it, but more will die : the mortality will be greater.

How so ?

Vaccination is a homoeopro- phylactic diseasing measure : one disease is given to prevent a like

ttS

//cffUEOpropkylaxis.

one. — ^vaccinia to prevent N'ari- o!a- If the diseasing process of vaccination fed! to protect, then the vaccinated person will be more likelv to die because there is the homoeoprophylactic aggravation : the two diseases combine to kill the patient just the same as too much of the homoeopathic remedy will aggrsLV^te the disease to which it is highly homoeopathic ; with, perhaps, the like result.

This is manifest, for in vac- cinating a person we are diseasing him ; we communicate vaccinosis to him : if he, in addition to the vaccinosis, now get small-pox, he is the more likely to die the worse he has the vaccinosis.

If y represent the prospective mortality of the un vaccinated, and

Homceopwphylaxis . 1 1 g

X the difference between the vac- cinated and the unvaccinated, i,e,^ vaccinosis, then the chances of dying of the vaccinated person who gets small-pox are y -^ x.

Against the hypothesis that vaccination may be protective in some cases (relatively and con- tingently), and add fuel to the flames in others, i.e.^ decrease the morbility and increase the mor- tality. Against this hypothesis it will be objected that the mortality is much greater in variola than it is in varioloid. This, I submit, proves nothing, because the un- vaccinated belong almost exclu- sively to the social residuum in whom all diseases are relatively very fatal. Vaccination has been

s:'^ms ;. 's^ dI'Tt ::>r :nanv vears, ijiii btcce I'-T^iTSt evervbodv who IS 2-=:tt«:ot his been vaccinated. Xe^j 2Z rre anti-vaccinists have tle-nselTres reen vaccinated. Now iLli the menta! i^iU of the world sre rifdni: a^::ain5t A^accination, I ve:::r::re to foretell that in the rirzre the mortalitv in their un- v3.cchiarei offspring will be very srr.3ll : probably only those who in- herit the PURULENT DIATHESIS wiU

die, and manv of these would be saved if homoeopathically handled, or homoeoprophylactically vacci- nated in refiracted dose.

Dynamic or Microposic homceoprophylaxis.

When I began with this little essay I meant it to be on the one

Homceoprophylaxis . 121

hand a contribution to the clinical history of Thuja Occidentalism and on the other a plea for the recog- nition of the clinical importance of vaccinosis, particularly in chronic neurotic headaches. But as I went on I felt impelled to say a few word's on the subject of what I have called homceoprophylaxis, and now I cannot bring myself to conclude without dipping a little into the dynamics of preventive medicine according to the law of likes.

Strewn about in literature there are examples of small-dose homceo- prophylaxis ; see Hahnemann's little essay on Belladonna, for example, at the very birth of Hahnemannian homoeopathy.

Then vaccine ** lymph" — pus —

122 Homoeoprophylaxis .

has been dynamized more ho- mceopathico and given as a pro- phylactic against small -pox in epidemic times, and apparently with effect. Thuja Occidentalis has been used in like manner by more than one homoeopathic prac- titioner, and they claim that it is effective. The eminent Dr. David Wilson, of London, has, I hear, long used Thuja^ in dynamic dose, as a sure preventive of variola.

Speaking for myself, I have for the last nine years been in the habit of using vaccine matter, in the thirtieth homoeopathic centes- imal potency, whenever small-pox was about, and I have thus far not seen anyone so treated get variola.

Dr. Massoto inoculated the diphtheritic exudation in an epi-

Homceoprophylaxis. 123

demic of diphtheria, and that with success.

It seems to me that the re- quirement of the age is to systema- tize the prevention of disease ac- cording to the law of similars, and IN DYNAMIC DOSE. Clearly the dynamic dose is essential, or at any rate the very small dose, for otherwise the homoeoprophylactic aggravation would be a serious detriment in every way. It is easy to see that M. Pasteur and his fellow workers are sailing down straight on this rock, whereon they are sure to suffer shipwreck.

M. Pasteur's latest communica- tions to the Academic des Sciences are in substance as follows : —

** If the virus of rabies be transmitted from the dog to the monkey, and then

rrirmsryr^r^ln^Gxzs,

i::iLL TLiniiiff*j ir mnmiffy, it 'woD be found "niin Eirtr farr "miisinissiari liie Tirnlence It rrt* TXT25 31B5 'r»j»r:niiie enfeeiiiied. If the xx"i:f ^x» fmsshiez be r^^transmitted to a a:K.. n: £X Lrirrr«t,'. :£ ihsi 55>ec3es, it irill ryr.^.r.TT sell grrfrr :iLr-sf, Bj a few trans- nuFsiniis- re ibe Tirss from monkey to rjnzi*T "ibir* r.£:ii ^aslhr be obtained a Tir:::? sr irr*!r::iEr*c e? siiall ucrer commu- riri.**, bj i:]rpD5e!r3Qc iDocnlatxms, the fis*3L5i?^ r:> a ac^.

Ii>DCiiIat3ons by tre- ZM^zzlz^Z X sarb xirus will likewise pro- duce r:^ resuh : b-i an animal will, not- w:ihs:iaz ii-g. be rendered thereby proof a^afcst the disease. The virulence of the \inis becomes, on the contrary, augmented in its passage from rabbit to rabbit. If a dog be inoculated with vims thus aug- mented in power, a far more intense form of the disease will be manifested than that apparent in ordinary' canine madness, and it will invariably prove fatal."

By appl)dng these and other observations, M. Pasteur obtained

Homceoprophylaxis . 125

virus of different degrees of viru- lence, and succeeded, by inocula- tions of the milder qualities, in- preserving animals from the effects of more active and mortal kinds. For example, after several days longer than the shortest incuba- tion term, M. Pasteur extracted virus from the head of a rabbit which had died of the disease, and inoculated successively two other rabbits. Each time a dog was inoculated with the virus, which, as has been seen, would increase each time in virulence.

The result was that the dog was ultimately rendered capable of bearing a virus of mortal strength, and became absolutely proof against canine virus. M. Pasteur anticipates that the time is still

1 26 HoffKBOprophylaxis.

distant when canine madness will be extinguished by vaccination, but pending that consummation, he feels pretty certain that he will be able to avert the consequences of a bite from a mad dog. He savs : — ** Thanks to the duration of incubation after a bite, I have ever}' reason to believe that pa- tients can be rendered insuscep- tible before the mortal malady has had time to declare itself." M. Pasteur stated, in conclusion, that he had solicited the Minister of Education to appoint a Commis- sion to test his experiments. He added : —

" The principal experiment that I shall attempt will consist in taking from my kennels twenty dogs insusceptible to the disease, and placing the same in com-

Homceoprophylaxis. .127

parison with twenty ordinary dogs I shall then have all these forty dogs bitten by a number of dogs in a rabid state. If the facts that I have enunciated are exact, the twenty dogs that I believe to be proof against the disease will remain healthy, while the other twenty will become affected. For a second experiment no less decisive, I propose to place before the Commission twenty vaccinated and twenty un-vaccinated dogs. All the forty I shall then inoculate in the most sensitive parts with virus taken from a rabid dog.

The twenty vaccinated dogs will resist, and the other twenty will all die of madness, either paralytic or furious."

This is as far as M. Pasteur has got at present, and his labours clearly tend in the direction of homceoprophylaxis and homoe- opathy; but time and dose are not duly reckoned with. The fatal fallacy underlying the whole thing

128 Homceoprophylaxis.

is regarding the immunity pro- duced by Jennerian or Pasteurian vaccination as a constant factor, whereas it is a constantly dimin- ishing one, and must in the nature of things be so.

As a last word I would put in a plea for homceoprophylactic vac- cination, or what might be termed homoeopathic vaccination. That is to say, the vaccine matter is to be prepared as a homoeopathic remedy, and to be given by the mouth, in dynamic dose as the homoeoprophy lactic. Pasteur's at- tenuating it by poisoning a series of animals is ridiculous ; an ordi- nary vial will do just as well. It is with virus thus attenuated that I used to treat myself when I was at-

Hoinceoprophylaxis. 129

tending small-pox instead of being re -vaccinated. I used to treat my family and others with whom I was compelled to associate in the same way. None of us ever took small-pox.

In magnis voluisse sat est.