Cases from our Rich Heritage
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1998 Nov / Dec VOL VII NO 6.
Compiled by:
T K Kasiviswanathan
'Stram / Stram / Jalap / Syph / Colch / Ign / Lach / Grin / Anac / Hyos / Eup-p / Dol
Case 6:
Dr Nash while writing on Ignatia states "this remedy is also unique in its fever symptoms. There is no disease in which we are able to show the power of the potentized remedy to cure than in intermittent fever. Chronic cases that have resisted the quinine treatment for years are often cured by the 200th and upwards. The following symptoms indicate Ignatia:
1st Thirst during chill and in no other stage. 2nd chill relieved by external heat
3rd heat AGG by external covering.
4th Red face during chill.
Here are four legs to the stool and we may sit upon it in perfect confidence. The red face during chill led me to the cure of an obstinate case and after I noticed the red face, I also noticed that the boy was behind the stove in the warmest place he could find. The 200th promptly cured"
-Dr Nash
Case 7:
Dr Nash once had a case of very obstinate constipation in an old syphilitic patient. He also suffered from very severe attacks of colic. The pains seemed to extend all through the abdomen and always came on at night. Several remedies tried on him did not help. Then the patient remarked, "Doctor, if I could only keep awake all the time, I would never have another attack." Dr Nash looked askance at him and the patient continued, "I mean that I sleep into the attack and wake up in it". Dr Nash gave him a dose of Lachesis and the patient never had another attack of the pain and his bowels became perfectly regular. Dr Nash says that he could give more cases where this symptom has led him to the cure of ailments of different kinds.
Dr Guernsey writes:- "Another characteristic of Lachesis is : where the patient sleeps into an aggravation; e.g. as in a croup, the child is very well awake, but as soon as he goes to sleep the croup symptoms appear in great violence; the child almost suffocates and the mother or the nurse is consequently really afraid to let him go to sleep. Also in convulsions: the patient has none while awake, but as soon as he is asleep they appear. And so with any trouble that is brought on by going to sleep at any time in day or night." Allen in his keynotes says "All symptoms, especially the mentals, worse after sleep or the aggravation wakes him from sleep; sleeps into the aggravation; unhappy, distressed, anxious, sad < in morning on waking".
Case 8:
A 70-year-old lady had suffered for many years with severe bronchitis with copious, yellow and thick expectoration and cough. The purulent expectoration became so thick that she suffered much from dyspnoea in attempting to get it out. She was bed ridden and seemed about to die. She was greatly prostrated. She used to arise from sleep with fits of suffocation and every time she went to sleep she stopped breathing. She also had copious sweats most of the time. Grindelia cured her promptly not simply the acute part of the bronchitis but the chronic cough she had for several years. - Kent. Dr Boericke gives this symptom in italics: - Stops breathing when falling asleep; wakes with a start and gasps for breath. Must sit up to breathe. Cannot breathe when lying down. It is a good remedy for asthmatic conditions, chronic bronchitis, and bronchorrhoea with tough, viscid mucus difficult to detach. Lachesis has also a similar symptom; - "as soon as the patient falls asleep, the breathing stops" and he awakens catching for breath. This is often found in heart troubles, functional or organic and is very distressing.
Case 9:
Anacardium has pain in the stomach, which comes on only when the stomach is empty and is relieved strangely by eating, while Nux-vom is relieved after the process of digestion is over.
A married lady of 35 years was treated for bouts of vomiting by Ars-alb. But the trouble recurred and the last attack was more persistent and did not yield to that remedy or others.
After a while it appeared that the pain, which was very severe and the vomiting came on when the stomach was empty. She had to eat once or twice in the night for relief. The substance vomited was always black or brown looking like coffee grounds. The patient was nervous and was afraid that she might have cancer like her sister. Anacardium relieved her promptly and the choice was made on this keynote.
- Dr Nash
Case 10:
This is a case that Dr Morrison saw with Dr Vithoulkas. A man, bisexual, was first having an affair with a woman and then had an affair with a man. The woman found out and she was jealous; the other man also found out and he was equally jealous. So the patient started bringing them together and made them stay with him in the same house. One can see the shameless manner he dealt with other people and over these sexual matters. In fact he was just the reverse of shame. Hyoscyamus cured him.
-Dr Morrison
Case 11:
Dr R Morrison once had a patient, who came shivering, fully covered with blankets and said: "you may think I am crazy, but do you have some ice water?"
He was cured by Eupatorium-perf.
Dr Morrison states that Eupatorium-perf patients have a strong desire for cold drinks. One of the most unusual things is that they come shivering despite being fully covered with blanket(s), they crave for cold things like ice-creams, cold food and drinks especially during the chill.
Case 12:
One patient consulted Dr Roger Morrison for the tremendous itching he suffered without any skin eruptions. It would come on only at night. He would take off his shirt, get on his motorcycle and would drive at very high speed of over 100 kms an hour with the wind blowing against his bare skin. That vibration only seemed to ameliorate him as scratching had no effect; it is like an itch inside your ear and you cannot reach any place to scratch it. Dolichos cured him. Intense itching without any rash or swelling and itching excessively during night is characteristic of this remedy. (How marvelously the symptoms have been noted and recorded!)
Sources:
- The Keynote System- Dr H N Guernsey, Homoeopathic Heritage Apr 1984.
- Leaders in Homoeopathic Therapeutics- Dr E B Nash
- Dr Kents Minor writings on Homoeopathy- edited by Dr Gypser
- Proceedings of Dr Roger Morrison seminar , September 1998
