A 576288
NEURALGIA
BURNETT
NEURALGIA
BURNETT

ARTES
1837
SCIENTIA
VERITAS
LIBRARY
OF THE
Į UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN \
VAI QUACRIS PENINSULAM AMDENA
CIRCUMSPICE
H616.8
Bab

:
ON NEURALGIA:
72 6
Z
ITS CAUSES AND ITS REMEDIES.
WITH A CHAPTER
On Angina Pectoris.
BY
J.COMPTON BURNETT, M.D.
"Every Pain is a Neuralgia."
Wherever there is Pain, there MUST BE Something wrong:
WHY the Pain? WHAT the Wrong?
SECOND EDITION, ENLARGED.
LONDON:
THE HOMEOPATHIC PUBLISHING COMPANY,
12 WARWICK LANE, PATERNOSTER Row, E.C.
1094.
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PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
THE first edition of this little work has been
long out of print, and only lack of leisure
has prevented the earlier appearance of this
second edition, which is enlarged, and to
which a chapter on Angina Pectoris has
been added.
J. COMPTON BURNETT.
86 WIMPOLE Street,
CAVENDISH SQUARE, W.,
Midsummer 1894.
•
;
•
#
1
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.
If there is anything in this earth-life of ours
that is hard to bear, surely it is neuralgia.
And if there is anything in this world that
can cure-I do not mean relieve, lull, dull,
deaden, or kill, but cure, really cure neuralgia,
that thing is homœopathy.
I am not blowing a windy horn, but writ-
ing of what I know, have observed, and have
done myself many, many times. So have
many other distinguished practitioners of
scientific medicine, from Hahnemann on.
If the world at large had the very faintest
idea of the immense range of homoeopathically
chosen remedies in the treatment of neuralgia
(as in so many other affections), the aggre-
gate of human suffering would very surely be
by far less than it is, and it is in the hope
that pain-bearing humanity may learn that
viii
Preface.
their neuralgias are curable that these pages
have been penned and are now published.
But that is not my only aim. I want also to
teach that neuralgia is not only, as a rule,
radically curable by properly chosen remedies,
but that the curing of the neuralgia by the
right remedy (or remedies) is a cure of the
internal cause of said neuralgia, and there-
fore a cure of the organismic self of the
individual.
April 1889.
t

On Neuralgia: its Causes
and its Remedies.
IN
N Germany, a number of years
ago, I was one morning stand-
ing at the side of a celebrated
professor of medicine, surrounded
by a crowd of patients, watching
his procedure, listening to his words
of wisdom, and taking mental notes.
One of the poor folk had pleuro-
dynia, and seemed very particularly
anxious to impress upon the pro-
fessor the important fact that the
pain was a neuralgia, and this he
A
2
On Neuralgia:
did so volubly and persistently that
the professor finally retorted rather
testily, "Of course your pain is a
neuralgia; did you ever know a
pain that was not a neuralgia? every
pain is a neuralgia."
And, equally of course, the pro-
fessor was right in so far as pain is
necessarily nerve pain. For the
practical purposes of this little
treatise I shall understand by neur-
algia any sharp paroxysmal pain
that, apparently, constitutes in itself
the entire case, i.e., where there is
no demonstrable pathological change
or anatomical cause. I do not
maintain that neuralgia is a strictly
scientific term, inasmuch as I hold
that every neuralgia has a positive
pathology if we only knew it, for
Its Causes and Remedies. 3
our not knowing the materies
morbi does not get rid of its
presence.
But what the word neuralgia
lacks in scientific accuracy it fully
makes up in practical utility, for
nearly everybody knows what neur-
algia is or is held to be. This
being so, I will tarry no longer
over the word, but plunge at once
into my subject.
The authority I propose to follow
is that of homoeopathic literature as
well as my own experience where
it has run on newer lines, and I
will begin with the statement that
Aconitum napellus is, probably,
the most frequently indicated
remedy in the scientific treatment
of neuralgia. This is as well known
4
On Neuralgia:
in homoeopathic practice as the fact
that woollen socks tend to keep
one's feet warm. But some people
who wear woollen
woollen socks have
nevertheless cold feet, and in like
manner a good many persons with
neuralgia have taken Aconite and
still kept their neuralgia. There is
no such a thing as a panacea or
specific for all sorts of neuralgia,
a sure proof that there is neuralgia
and neuralgia, or, in other words,
every neuralgia has a pathology of
its own. Aconite is most frequently
indicated when the pain comes from
a cold, rheumatism, or active con-
gestion. Acidum hippuricum, how-
ever, runs it very close, and quite
ousts it when the neuralgia is
primarily arthritic.
!
Its Causes and Remedies. 5
I am not sure but Sulphur comes
next in rank to Aconite, and Dr
Cooper praises it very warmly in
ague and malarial neuralgia.* It is
Hahnemann's great antipsoric, and
is also as such very frequently indi-
cated. A very reliable indication
for Sulphur is, further, where the
pain comes from the suppression
of a psoric or diathesic eruption.
A very striking case of neuralgia of
the heart-angina pectoris neur-
algica—was once cured by me with
it. I am almost ashamed to use it
again, as it has already served me
more than once in print, but my
excuse must be that I cannot afford
Sulphur as a Remedy for Neuralgia and
Intermittent Fever, by Robert T. Cooper,
M.D., 1869.
1
6
On Neuralgia:
to lose the lesson it teaches in the
antipsoric treatment of neuralgia.
So I will trot it out
once
again
NEURALGIA OF THE HEART CURED
BY SULPHUR.
In connection herewith one may
remember the known neurotic origin
of certain cutaneous affections.
One Sunday morning, some ten
or twelve years ago, a gentleman
ushered his wife into my consulting
room because she had been taken
with an attack of angina pectoris
in the street, on her way to church.
Though only a little over thirty
years of age, if so much, she had
been subject to these attacks of
breast-pang for several years: they
Its Causes and Remedies. 7
would take her suddenly in the
street, nailing her, as it were, to the
spot, and hence she no longer went
out of doors alone, lest she should
faint away or fall down dead, as was
apprehended.
An examination of the heart
revealed no organic lesion, or even
functional derangement, and I could
not quite see why a comparatively
young lady should get such anginal
attacks. She had been under able
men for her angina, but it got no
better, and no one could apparently
understand it. I prescribed for her,
and saw her subsequently at her
home, to try and elucidate the
matter. I let her tell me her whole
health-history from her earliest
childhood. She said she was
8
On Neuralgia:
getting to the end of her teens, and
was preparing to come out, but she
had some cracks in the bends of her
arms that were very unsightly;
these cracks had troubled her from
her earliest childhood. Erasmus
Wilson was consulted; he gave her
an ointment which very soon cured
her skin, and the patient came out
socially, made a hit right off, and
got married in due course. She
had always been very grateful to
Erasmus Wilson for curing her arms,
for otherwise, How could I have
(C
appeared in short sleeves ?"
But there soon followed dys-
pepsia, flatulence, dyspnoea, and
palpitation, and finally the before-
described attacks of angina pectoris
threatened to wreck her life. More-
Its Causes and Remedies. 9
over, she had borne one dead
child. As I have already said,
there was no discoverable cardiac
lesion, and from the lady's health-
history I gathered that this cure of
her skin (though to me the one
important point) was of no causal
importance.
I
I gave my opinion that her skin
disease had never been really cured,
only driven in by Wilson's ointment,
and that her angina was in reality
its internal expression or metastasis.
No one believed it, however.
began to treat her antipsorically,
and very soon-I think it was less
than a month from the Sunday
morning visit-the old cracks re-
appeared in the bends of the elbows,
and from that time on she had no
ΙΟ
On Neuralgia:
further attacks of angina at all, and
thenceforth she bore living children.
There is a small work on cutane-
ous affections written by
by me,
entitled Diseases of the Skin from
the Organismic Standpoint, in which
I use this case to illustrate the
constitutional nature of skin disease.
And now, from the standpoint of
neuralgia, the rapid cure of the pain
stamps it fairly, I think, as neur-
algic. In the language of the bio-
pathology of Hahnemann, it speaks
eloquently for the truth of psora, or
at least for the practical clinical
value of the general conception, call
it a diathesis if you will.
- It also aids me in teaching my
readers this cardinal doctrine, viz.,
that we need a number of different
Its Causes and Remedies. II
remedies to cure the various species
and genera (kinds) of neuralgia, and
in the choice of the right remedies
lies the art of its medicinal cure.
I should like, before we go any
further, to point out the very im-
portant difference between curing a
neuralgia from the bottom, which
is the task of homoeopathy as shown
in this small book, and stopping,
deadening, lulling, or killing a
neuralgia by means of allopathic
medication, which is what nearly all
the world believe in, and certainly
nine doctors out of every ten prac-
tise it, fundamentally bad and
harmful though it be.
The pain of neuralgia is not in
itself the disease, but it is the voice
of man's sentients calling out for
I 2
On Neuralgia:
help; it is a telegraphic message
from the within of the body sent
along the nerves, and speaking at
the outside at a spot, dolorously
demanding assistance, perhaps tell-
ing of an approaching danger in
the inward parts from the presence
of an enemy lurking within; this
pain-expressing voice which we call
neuralgia, is a telegram with pain-
ful news.
What does allopathy do with
neuralgia?
How does allopathy
treat the faithful truth-telling
neuralgic nerves?
Let us see. I will not be my
own authority on the doings of my
allopathic brother chips, but will
rather go to their highest authorities,
and see what their authoritative
Its Causes and Remedies. 13
statements, as to the proper treat-
ment of neuralgia, are; for instance,
for hemicrania (Eulenburg: Cyclo-
pædia of the Practice of Medicine,
by Von Ziemssen, vol. xiv. p. 23),
Among the great number of
remedies administered empirically,
the preparations of iron, quinia, and
caffein are by far the most popular,
and certainly not without reason,
although the universal (? Burnett)
agreement in praising them seems
to show that they have usually
been adopted without clear views,
or even with quite wrong views of
their action. The preparations of
iron, especially the carbonate, so
much praised by
by Hutchinson,
Stokes, and others, are hardly
specifics against migraine, but may
14
On Neuralgia:
--
serve to improve the constitution of
anæmic and weakly persons who
are victims of migraine as of other
forms of neuralgia. In recommend-
ing quinia, as also such analogous
remedies as quinoidin and bebeerin,
the anti-periodic effects of the
remedy have been chiefly regarded;
and the tolerably regular recurrence
of the attack leads one to hope for
corresponding success with the
remedy. But experience shows that
the use of quinia, no matter in what
form, does not ordinarily affect the
regular periodicity of the attacks,
especially when they occur at wide
intervals, but that a considerable
dose of quinia (from seven and a
half to eighteen grains), given once
or more often, may sometimes
1
Its Causes and Remedies. 15
shorten an attack, or arrest it at
once."
Eulenburg then discusses caffein
in a similar strain, mentions guarana,
declaring it to be needless, because
the guaranin is perfectly identical
with caffein. He praises the efficacy
of the aqueous extract of ergot,
because it produces contractions of
the blood vessels, which it certainly
does, but it also produces mortifica-
tion and other direly diseased states.
Nine to fourteen grains of ergotin
a day is our author's dose, which,
in my judgment, is dangerous. He
merely mentions strychnia, arsenic,
nitrate of silver, sulphate of nickel,
bromide of potassium, chloride of
ammonium, oil of turpentine, and
lupulin.
16
On Neuralgia:
Finally, he speaks approvingly of
the nitrite of amyl, and affirms
that "the indication for its use
depends on the fact that it possesses
the power of dilating the blood-
vessels," which sounds rather oddly
when one has just read on the
previous page that the good effects
of ergotin depend upon its power to
produce contractions of the blood-
vessels. And we are asked to
believe that this is scientific treat-
ment of disease. That ergotin
does contract the blood vessels, and
that the nitrite of amyl does dilate
them, may indeed be granted.
That the use of these two thera-
peutic agents for the superficial
symptomatic allopathic (palliative)
treatment of pain is relatively to
Its Causes and Remedies. 17
be considered I will not deny, but
a really curative therapeusis it is
not. If we add electricity, we have
about exhausted the ordinary treat-
ment of neuralgia, and hence we
cannot marvel that Eulenburg
should, indeed, himself declare that
he had never seen anything more
than a palliation of the trouble.
Summed up, the entire treatment
by the ordinary means is just pallia-
tive symptomatic treatment, and
nothing else; and no directly and
positively curative treatment is
believed in at all, and is therefore
not even attempted. We in homœo-
pathy can do very much better
than that. We can often quite
cure neuralgia, as I will show.
I ask again, What does the allo-
B
18
On Neuralgia:
pathic treatment amount to? I have
already said that this pain-express-
ing voice of the organism, which we
call neuralgia, is a telegram from the
within with painful news. The allo-
pathic treatment of neuralgia, as
we have just shown by quotations
from the highest allopathic authori-
ties, amounts merely to this :-They
either stun, stifle, maim, mutilate,
or cut the telegraphic wires (the
nerves), so that the painful news
may not arrive, i.e., in true Oriental
fashion, they kill the messenger
because of the disagreeable message
he brings. And what then? The
morbid process that was going on
within goes on still, which the
numerous sequential complaints
often clearly demonstrate.
It is
Its Causes and Remedies. 19
irrational, shallow, harmful, dam-
nable to deaden, lull, kill, or other-
wise to silence a neuralgia by nerve
sedatives, local pain-killers, lotions,
hypodermic injections, or whatso-
ever else, and that indifferently,
whether the medicoes who do so
swear by one pathy or another.
The boast of orthodox medicine of
the great benefits of their powerful
sedatives is the philosophy of the
silly bird, that hides its little head
when its body is in danger. The
only proper right and rational treat-
ment of neuralgia is to go to work
ætiologically and cure causally.
But is this possible? Yes, hypo-
thetically it is, as my just cited case
of neuralgia of the heart clearly
proves; and when I say hypotheti-
20
On Neuralgia:
:
cally, I mean not problematically
but actually, only the etiology is
based upon a sound working bio-
pathological hypothesis, and not a
palpable fact as gross and evident
as a haystack.
The causes of neuralgia are
very various and sometimes com-
plex, and hence the remedies
which we have to use will be
correspondingly various, and for the
complex cases several remedies will
be needed. Of course, it is much
more difficult really to cure a neur-
algia in the way I am trying to
make plain, than it is to whip out
your little hypodermic syringe and
inject morphia, or to take some pain-
killing pills or drops of opium,
laudanum, or chlorodyne.
Its Causes and Remedies. 21
A remedy very frequently re-
quired in the (hypothetically) causal
treatment of neuralgia is Natrum
muriaticum. There is published a
small monograph written by me
on this powerful remedy, entitled
Natrum Muriaticum as Test of the
Doctrine of Drug Dynamization,
and from it I transcribe the follow-
ing case of
FACIAL NEURALGIA.
Mrs, æt. 24, came under treat-
ment in 1876, in the early months of
pregnancy, with very severe neuralgia
of the face. The case proved itself
very obstinate, and many drugs were
fruitlessly tried, but eventually it
yielded to China given in the form
of pilules saturated with the matrix
22
On Neuralgia:
tincture, which drug was chosen
because of perspiration breaking out
when the pain became very bad.
The neuralgia constantly re-
appeared, and finally China ceased
to have any effect. Then Populus
tremuloides was given simply be-
cause of its being a congener of
China, and did good-in fact, quite
cured for the time.
This pregnancy passed, and my
patient consulted me again, being
again enceinte early in 1877, for the
same kind of neuralgia, and this
time its obstinacy nearly reduced
her and her physician to despair.
The case was treated in the old
Hahnemannian fashion according
to the totality of the symptoms,
which were very few and apathog-
Its Causes and Remedies. 23
nomonic, the neuralgia being always
bad and always worse, and appar-
ently not ameliorated by anything.
After many weeks of fruitless
endeavours to cure this neuralgia
with medicines chosen from the
repertory, I turned to Guernsey's
Obstetrics (2nd edition), and found
I had already tried all those given
in his list at pp. 372, 373, 374,
except two; these two I then fairly
tried, and again failed.
So my
patient had received Aconite, Bella-
donna, Bryonia, Calc. c., Cocculus,
Cimicifuga, Coffea, Gels., Glon.,
Ignat. mag. c., Nux v., Puls., Sepia,
Spig., Sulph., Verat. a., China,
Populus, and some others. Besides
which she had applied, often in
almost frantic despair, nearly every
24
On Neuralgia:
known anodyne, so that the soft
parts of the face seemed almost
macerated.
Here I suggested change of air
(what should we poor practical
physicians do without this ultimum
refugium), but circumstances pre-
vented her from leaving the place
for more than a day or two; so she
took little outings to sea-side places
and inland, when it was observed
that the neuralgia was worse at the
sea-side and better inland.
A happy thought struck me, that
this might be due to the salt in the
air at the sea-side, and being, more-
over, absolutely at the end of my
tether, I acted on it, and gave
Nat. mur. 30, one pilule very
frequently.
Its Causes and Remedies. 25
The neuralgia at once began to
get better, and in a day or two was
quite well. It subsequently re-
turned at intervals much less
severely, but promptly yielded to
the same remedy in the same dose.
The 30th dilution was chosen sim-
ply because some pilules of this
strength were in patient's chest.
The patient was quite satisfied
that the Nat. mur. 30 effected the
cure, and so was I, and so will many
others be; but, in a general way,
the case will not carry conviction to
unprepared minds, and still less so
to prejudiced ones.
Hitherto I had had no great
respect for Natrum muriaticum as
a remedy; in fact, none whatever,
having but rarely, if ever, prescribed
26
On Neuralgia:
it. Indeed, how can a sensible
man believe that the common condi-
ment salt, which we ingest almost
at every meal, can possibly be of
any curative value, especially as
some are known to eat salt in con-
siderable quantities every day, and
that without any apparent deleterious
effect.
Dr Hughes, in his Pharmaco-
dynamics, 2nd ed., p. 411, says,
"I really know nothing myself of
the virtues of salt." We find him
now, however, a riper homoeopathic
scholar, for in the 3rd edition of the
same admirable work, p. 561, he
gives an interesting case of defective
nutrition, showing itself especially
in emaciation, with dry and ill-
coloured skin, accompanied with
Its Causes and Remedies. 27
depression of spirits and suspected
abdominal disease. Here a few
occasional doses of Nat. mur. 30
changed the whole condition, and
initiated a complete recovery.
This testimony is very valuable
and especially gratifying to me,
and, moreover, carries conviction
to my mind. It is evident that Dr
Hughes unwillingly yielded to a
belief in the doctrine of drug
dynamization, and would fain have
continued to "know nothing of
the virtues of salt."
To believe in salt as a remedy is
almost synonymous with believing
in the doctrine of drug dynamization,
and a belief in this doctrine is ex-
tremely repulsive to one's common.
sense. Perhaps the proper spirit
28
On Neuralgia:
would be gratitude to a beneficent
Creator.
Worse at the sea-side has since
proved itself a valuable indication.
for Natrum muriaticum with me.
In my little work called Fifty
Reasons for being a Homeopath, p.
53-4, may be found the following
case of
FACIAL NEURALGIA,
and which is based on that just
given.
Not
many years ago, the daughter
of a London alderman was suffering
from fearful neuralgia of the face;
at intervals she had had it for years,
and no trouble or expense had been
spared in endeavouring to cure it.
Its Causes and Remedies. 29
Their ordinary family adviser was
a homœopath, but he had not
managed to cure this neuralgia, not-
withstanding several consultations
with colleagues, and other men of
eminence had been consulted, but
to no avail.
I found that the pain was worse
in cold weather; worse at the sea-
side; better away from the sea-
inland, i.e., not so frequent or
severe; and when the pain came on
the eyes watered. A pinch of the
sixth trituration of Natrum muriati-
cum, in water three times a day,
cured my young patient in about
three weeks. This anti-neuralgic
action of Nat. mur. had the great
advantage of being permanently
curative, as the pain did not return,
30
On Neuralgia:
and patient herself continued other-
wise well.
It may, nay it must, strike those
whose practice is to give quinine and
iron, or pain-lulling drugs, injec-
tions, or lotions, that this indi-
vidualizing treatment of neuralgia
is very tedious and laborious for
the physician, and this I shall not
deny, but I believe it to be by far
the best and most rational.
Not a few cases of neuralgia that
one meets with were originally
caused by quinine, and then Sulphur,
followed by Natrum muriaticum,
will very frequently effect a cure.
QUININE has scored many suc-
cesses in neuralgia, to which it,
in not a few cases, is undoubtedly
Its Causes and Remedies.
31
homoeopathic when very moderate
doses are harmless as well as cura-
tive. To try to QUELL (quelling
is not curing) all neuralgias with
big doses of quinine is useless,
harmful, and unscientific.
Ferrum-iron-besides being
unquestionably a great blood medi-
cine, is also useful in neuralgia, and
in those cases of great debility
where the urine is alkaline (Rade-
macher), the acetate in small
material doses is facile princeps.
Probably few practitioners of
experience will deny that we are
living in an age of neurosim, where
neuralgia is becoming more and
more prevalent, and I am strongly
of opinion that tea, coffee, tobacco,
alcohol, wear and tear and worry,
32
On Neuralgia:
are essential causal factors. Some
have advanced good grounds for
believing that migraine, or hemi-
cranial neuralgia, is mainly due to
coffee.
Enteralgia, I know, is very fre-
quently due to tea, and I have some
grounds for believing that pig-meat
(notably roast pork), shell-fish, and
potatoes also contingently cause
neuralgia.
In neuralgia of the walls of the
chest, Ranunculus sceleratus renders
good service, and in neuralgia of
the heart, made worse by walking,
Arsenicum, Juglans cinerea, Ar-
nica, Bellis perennis, and Aurum
are to be thought of.
Arsenicum has a wide and well-
deserved reputation in neuralgia,
Its Causes and Remedies.
33
:
and is a great favourite with some
practitioners. A patient of mine
once went to the sea-side, where
then practised Dr Harmar Smith,
now of Guildford. I had in vain
treated the lady's fearful ovarian
neuralgia, but Dr Smith cured it
very quickly with Arsenicum. This
very day I saw in the Homœo-
pathic World that the same gentle-
man still cures neuralgia with this
faithful antiperiodic. I will not
quote the whole case, although it
tallies with my own views, that
neuralgias yield best to higher
dilutions, but will just say that Dr
Harmar Smith was treating a case
of acute gastrodynia that yielded to
Ars. 12 trit. after the Liquor
arsenicalis (F.), the 3rd trituration
C
34
On Neuralgia:
of Arsenicum, Trisnitrate of Bis-
muth 1, and Apomorphia 3*, had
all more or less failed. The one
weak point in this case is that the
after-history of the case is only of a
few days' duration. But neuralgia
of all parts with arsenical
with arsenical symptoms
has been so often cured dynami-
cally by Arsenicum, that its anti-
neuralgic reputation is firm, and
needs no prop.
Let us now exemplify the sphere
of Aurum in angina pectoris, or
cardiac neuralgia.
NEURALGIA OF THE HEART.
One can hardly have to deal with
a more formidable affection than
angina pectoris, and in its treatment
homœopathy can do great things.
Its Causes and Remedies. 35
It is, however, a mighty mistake to
treat the cases all alike, as quite a
number of different diseases give
rise to the usual anginal symptoms;
the cases must be diagnostically
and therapeutically differentiated if
they are to be really cured.
A short time since, it was my
duty to see a lady in Belgravia
with angina pectoris: unwonted
domestic drudgery, loss of loved
ones, fright, loss of fortune, had led
up to it.
Apart from the anginal attacks,
there was a chronic constant pain
across the præcordia, running away
under the left breast.
For years
blisters had been applied at inter-
vals with temporary relief, till they
36
On Neuralgia:
Patient
could no longer be borne.
was very depressed, sulky, and
morose. The menses suppressed.
Aurum metallicum, 3 trituration,
six grains every four hours, cured
the constant pain in a week, and
the anginal attacks have thus far
not recurred, and patient smiles
now, and is bright. The menses
have, however, not appeared, and
for this she remains under treat-
ment.
Since this was written a year has
elapsed, and the lady is quite well
of her angina.
What led me to use Aurum was
ts known affinity for the heart, and
the profound melancholy of the
patient.
As I said, the cure has been
Its Causes and Remedies. 37
maintained, but the lady keeps some
of the Aurum powders in the house
for fear, and thus unconsciously
testifies to its therapeutic efficacy.
The lady had for years used the
nitrite of amyl with temporary and
prompt easement, but the attacks
returned just the same, though
rather less violently she thought.
Although the nitrite of amyl will
not often cure genuine angina, it
does temporarily stop the agony,
and may therefore not be despised.
Unfortunately, it is too superficial
in its action.
I will now pass on to and draw
somewhat from my little book en-
titled Vaccinosis and its Cure by
Thuja, with Remarks on Homœo-
prophylaxis.
38
On Neuralgia:
POST-ORBITAL NEURALGIA OF
TWENTY YEARS' STANDING.
This case (which came under
observation on January 9, 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, .e.,
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
neuralgic pain, however, remained
at all times. Her eyes had been
examined by almost every notable
Its Causes and Remedies.
39
Of
oculist in London, and no one
could find anything wrong with
them structurally, so it was unani-
mously agreed and declared to be
neuralgia of the fifth nerve.
course, no end of tonics, anodynes,
and alteratives had been used.
The oculists sent her to the physi-
cians, and these back again to the
oculists. The late Dr Quin and
other leading homoeopaths 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.
To
me she exclaimed, "My existence
is one life-long crucifixion!"
40
On Neuralgia:
I should have stated that the
neuralgia was preceded and accom-
panied by influenza.
In the
In the aggre-
gate, these attacks of influenza
and post-orbital neuralgia confined
her to her room nearly half the
year. In appearance she was
healthy, well nourished, rather too
much 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 allo-
pathy had been exhausted, and,
inoreover, I have no confidence in
them anyway; homoeopathy-and
Its Causes and Remedies.
4I
I
good homœopathy too, for the men
tried knew their work—had also
failed. Do-nothing, now much in
had fared no better.
vogue,
reasoned thus: This lady tells me
she has been vaccinated five or six
times, and being thus very much
vaccinated, she may be just suffer-
ing from chronic vaccinosis, one
chief symptom of which is a cephal-
algia like hers, so I forthwith pre-
scribed Thuja (30). It cured, and
the cure has lasted till now. The
neuralgia disappeared slowly; in
about six weeks (February 14,
1882) 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
42
On Neuralgia:
whether the neuralgia has thus far
(December 30, 1882) returned.
The reply I will add.
Of course, it does not follow that
because Thuja cured this case of
neuralgia of some twenty years'
standing that therefore the lady
was suffering from vaccinosis; that
Thuja DID cure it is 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 inquiry, I re-
ceived the following:-
"Jan. 1, 1883.
"I have been in very
very much
stronger health ever since I crossed your
\
Its Causes and Remedies. 43
threshold, and excepting one or two attempts
at a return from the enemy, I have been
quite free from suffering."
This lady continues well of her
post-orbital neuralgia at the time
of going to press. After the 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.
44
On Neuralgia:
LA
However, the following is not
uninteresting.
NEURALGIC HEADACHE
OF NINE YEARS' DURATION.
Miss G, æt. 19, came under
my care on March 12, 1881, com-
plaining of bad attacks of headache
for the past nine years. She said
it was as if the back of her head
were in a vice, and then it would
be frontal, and throbbing as if her
head would burst. She was very
pale, and her forehead looked shiny
and in places brown.
These "head attacks" occurred
once or twice a week.
Tendency to constipation; men-
ses regular; an old sty visible on
left eyelid; poor appetite; dislikes
Its Causes and Remedies. 45
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 13th.-Appetite and spirits
better, but otherwise no change ;
questioned as to the duration of
the head attacks, she tells me the
last but one continued for three
weeks-the last, three days. Over
the right eye there is a red, tender
patch; has two or three white-
headed pustules on her face.
Was vaccinated at three months,
ས
46
On Neuralgia:
re-vaccinated at seven years, and
Had small-pox
again at fourteen.
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.
B Tc. Thuja Occidentalis, 3iv. 3x.
To take five drops in water twice a day.
May 13th.-Much better; has
only had one very slight headache
lasting an hour or two; the frontal
tender patch is no longer tender ;
no further faintness at all. Lips
crack. The pustules in the face
gone and skin quite clear.
To have Thuja 12, one drop at bedtime.
June 17th.-Was taken ill yes-
Its Causes and Remedies. 47
terday fortnight with soreness of
stomach; fever; nausea and per-
spiration. Subsequently spots broke
out like pimples,—eight on the face,
one each on the thumb and wrist,
one on the foot, and two on the
back,-they filled with matter, were
out five days, became yellow, and
then died away. Her mother says
the symptoms were just the same
as when patient had the small-pox.
Her headaches were well just before
this bout came on.
July 1st.-Continues well.
27th. The headaches have not
returned.
Feb. 24th, 1882. — The cure
holds good, for she has had no
headache and is otherwise well.
She had subsequently some other
48
On Neuralgia:
remedies for the little tumour on
her eyelid and for a small exostosis
on lower jaw, but she had received
nothing but Thuja when the cephal-
algia 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 show 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 Thuja, or a
general organismic reaction called
Its Causes and Remedies. 49
forth by it; and this sent me often
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 suffi-
ciently on the stretch without it.
NEURALGIA OF RIGHT EYE.
Mr, a gentleman of position
and means, about fifty years of age,
came to consult me on 28th June
D
50
On Neuralgia:
1882 for a neuralgia of the right
eye. He had come in consequence
of the cure of an already recorded
case of neuralgia.
He complained of almost con-
stant pain in right eye ever since
Christmas 1881, i.e., just about six
months. Had
Had had neuralgia in
head and shoulders in 1866, and so
much morphia had been injected in
his shoulders by a doctor in Scot-
land that it almost killed him: for
seven or eight hours it was doubtful
if he would recover.
Has a brown, eczematous, itchy
(at night) eruption on both shins
and between the toes. The neur-
algia of right eye, and for which he
comes to me, is bad both by day
and night, but rather worse at
Its Causes and Remedies. 51
night.
Mr (now Sir William)
Bowman had examined the eye,
and declared it to be neuralgia, the
eye being normal. Mr White
Cooper had done the same.
On my inquiring when he was
last vaccinated, he seemed com-
pletely frightened, and stammered
out rapidly, "I should not like to
be vaccinated again."
"Why?"
"I was very seedy the last time
I was vaccinated; in fact I felt
awfully ill for about a month," and
he again hurriedly protested that
he would not like to be vaccinated
again. The vaccination that had
made him so ill was either in 1852
or 1853.
This seemed to me to be a case
52
On Neuralgia:
of vaccinal neuralgia, and therefore
I ordered Thuja 30 in infrequent
dose. This was on the 28th of
June 1882.
July 8th. 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 vaccination,
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 another phase of
Its Causes and Remedies. 53
the same question, of the cure of
neuralgia by other means, though
before doing so I trust my readers
will pardon a little more on the
same lines.
NEURALGIA OF EYES OF NINE
YEARS' STANDING.
Miss
æt. 20, came to me
on January 18th, 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 neur-
algia in my eyes, which I have had
for nine years; nothing has ever
touched that." The neuralgia com-
plained of was
worse in the
54
On Neuralgia:
at the menstrual
morning and at the
period.
Thuja 30 (4 in 24). One at night.
I saw her no more till the 8th
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 re-vaccinated
unsuccessfully after this neuralgia
Its Causes and Remedies. 55
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 disap-
peared after the giving of the
Thuja.
This strikingly curative action of
the arbor vita in vaccinosic neur-
algia is sometimes prevented from
being effective by being masked
with another taint, as the following
will exemplify, and this will also
show us why a series of remedies
may often be needed before the
neuralgia will depart.
56
On Neuralgia:
NEURALGIA OF EYES OF TWENTY-
FIVE YEARS' STANDING, CHRONIC
HEADACHES, CONSTIPATION, AND
DYSPEPSIA.
On July 16, 1882, a lady, 68
years of age, wife of an eminent
allopathic physician, came (impor-
tuned by some of her lady friends,
I believe) to see if homoeopathy
could cure her neuralgia and dys-
pepsia. The headaches were life-
long; she could not remember ever
being without them on and off.
But she did not come on their
account, regarding them as abso-
lutely beyond medical art. She,
however, hoped the dyspepsia, the
constipation, and, maybe, the neur-
algia might be helped in some
measure. The neuralgia was vio-
Its Causes and Remedies. 57
lent, was very violent in the eyes,
wave-like in intensity, rarely en-
tirely absent, so that her life was
a torture. This ocular neuralgia
had sent her to Liebreich, Bader,
and Bowman, who all agreed that
it was "from her general state.'
This eye neuralgia began twenty-
five years ago after worry and
trouble; is worse at night, reading
for two minutes bringing it on, and
hence she has not read for seven-
teen years. She had been vacci-
nated as a child successfully, but her
mother, not trusting it, had her sub-
sequently inoculated for small-pox,
but it did not take, and neither of the
three subsequent vaccinations took,
the last one being twenty-five years
since. The neuralgia is deep in
58
On Neuralgia:
and screwing, the pain going back
seemingly into the brain.
1
Her
headache is right across the fore-
head from temple to temple.
Thuja Occidentalis 30, infrequently.
July 29th. No change.
Cyclamen Europ. 3*. Five drops in water
three times a day.
August 19th.-Has now a rash
on her skin, and there is much
acidity.
Nux vom. 30 and Sul. 30.
September 21st.-Rash very bad
and severely itching.
Constipation
and dyspepsia a good deal better.
Thuja C.
October 12th.-Neuralgia much
better; constipation well; is tor-
mented and irritated most unbear-
ably with the skin eruption; "the
Its Causes and Remedies. 59
So
itching is intolerable, it is a tor-
ment!" exclaimed the lady.
bad was it that patient did not wish
to go on with the treatment.
Omit all medicine.
October 24th.-Bowels normal;
skin
better.
The eruption had
been deep-seated, in clusters of
raised lumps, some the size of half
The skin remains dis
a pea.
coloured.
No medicine.
Nov. 21st.-Headaches are better;
the neuralgia vastly improved; more
appetite, but still a good deal of
dyspepsia. Thuja C. And thus
the treatment went on intermittently
till September 1, 1884, when patient
was practically well. I say practi-
cally, and by that I mean that
60
On Neuralgia:
patient did not consider herself in
any real need of further treatment
for her now relatively trifling suffer-
ings.
My views on
on the vaccinosic
origin of many cases of neuralgia
have not yet been accepted by my
colleagues with that amount of good-
will and willingness to test its truth
which the importance of the subject
and the extreme frequency of vac-
cinosis alike demand. However, I
make no complaint; truth benefits
her faithful ones alone: all else than
truth is nowhere in practical thera-
peutics.
There are, indeed, notable ex-
ceptions, and I was very pleased to
see in the Homeopathic World for
February 1, 1889, the following:
Its Causes and Remedies. 61
THE NEURALGIA OF THUJA OCCI-
DENTALIS.
By ROBERT T. COOPER, M.D., Phys. Dis. of Ear,
London Homœopathic Hospital.
On mentioning to Dr Burnett
that I was at one time in the habit
of prescribing Thuja for neuralgia,
he asked me to report any cases by
me. This I am extremely delighted
to do, if for no other reason than
that it will be a testimony to the
accuracy of Dr Burnett's observa-
tions, so admirably and scientifically
laid before us in his little work on
Vaccinosis.
CASE 1.-Elizabeth Thomas, a
woman of 72, came to me, Sep-
tember 22, 1868, in Southampton,
with face-ache, attended with much
62
On Neuralgia:
soreness of the face after the pain
Pains have con-
had gone away.
tinued night and day for the last
two months; come in paroxysms at
never more than an hour's interval.
Unable to masticate food from the
pain occasioned; gums are very
sore, and side of the face is very
sore when she attempts to lie on it;
feels then a throbbing in it. Pains
are aggravated by lying on the
other side as well; the slightest
pressure causes a feeling of sore-
ness. The pain extends all over
the right side of the face and head ;
when very violent, it shoots to the
opposite side.
Is worse in a very
cold or very warm room; does
not dare to venture into a draught.
Her teeth are decayed, and the
Its Causes and Remedies. 63
pains shoot up from these ; are
equally violent when
sitting or
"all of a
standing; they come
sudden," and leave her equally
suddenly; sometimes they shoot
into the ear; attempting to read or
think brings them on. Had much
fatigue while nursing her sick hus-
band last year; has taken calomel,
ginger brandy, and various kinds of
herbs.
Thuja Occ., 12th dec., a pilule three times
a day.
Sept. 29th. Has been much
better; can now rest all night;
occasionally a few twitches, but
nothing like it was, although the
weather has been unusually cold.
The above we may fairly name
neuralgic alveolar periostitis. As
64
On Neuralgia:
$
the teeth were in no way interfered
with, nor any change prescribed in
her mode of living, we may fairly
ascribe the assuagement of the pain
to Thuja.
CASE 2. On the same day (22nd
Sept. 1868), Harriett Sheppard, a
woman of 54, came to me with
violent pains under her right
shoulder, going through to the
breast and down to the elbow;
worse in the morning, getting out
of bed, and when walking. Sore-
ness in the hepatic region; urine very
fetid. Has had these symptoms a
week.
Thuja Occ. 3, seven drops to go over a
week.
Sept. 29th.-Has had diarrhoea
the last few days. Pains in the
Its Causes and Remedies. 65
shoulders and soreness of liver gone.
Continue.
Oct. 7th. Still relaxed; urine
not so fetid; much pain in stomach
after meals, with passage by bowel
of undigested food. This last
symptom yielded at once to
China . In this case, it is possible
the diarrhoea may have been spon-
taneous, and, alone, may have re-
lieved the congested liver; at any
rate, the pains ceased upon her
taking Thuja.
As to whether these, or the next
case, had anything to do with vac-
cination, I am not in a position to
determine.
CASE 4.
Anne C., aged 21,
neuralgia for three weeks, came to
me 17th Sept. 1869. Complexion
E
66
On Neuralgia:
florid and clear; hair dark; sclero-
tics yellowish. Complains of great
weakness, with pains in the right
side of the face and head-begin
in decayed teeth, and extend
up the
side of the head and down the neck.
She feels feverish when the pain is
severe, and the parts throb; is
worse on meditation. Relieved by
application of hot things-mustard,
for example.
different
Much tenderness in
parts of the face and behind the
ear; aggravation from drinking
anything cold; is worse at night,
but keeps on in the day as well.
Four weeks ago, weaned her
baby, and menorrhagia set in, which
ceased just before these pains set
in.
Its Causes and Remedies. 67
In this case, Nux vomica 30*,
China 12*, Merc. sol. 3, Sulph. 4,
Silicea 30, and Staphisagria were
given at different times, but with-
out any positive relief.
It is unnecessary to reproduce
each report, but that of 1st Dec.
had better be given :-Continues to
feel better (taking Silicea 30);
last monthly natural. Facial pain
very bad, in fact worse-worse now
in day-time; teeth very painful ;
gums pale, with inflamed dental
margins; pains come from the teeth.
Staphisag. 3.
Dec. 17th.-Was better for a
time, but last two days and nights
pains very severe and continuous;
same side, gums painful.
Thuja Occ. 12.
1
68
On Neuralgia:
Jan. 5th, 1869.-Has not been so
well as at present since 20th Nov.;
the pains in face have left her; has
some pains in chest when inspiring,
and legs ache towards evening.
Appetite wonderfully improved,
and can drink anything without
inconvenience. This last case we
may term Rheumatic Alveolar Peri-
ostitis.
It is true that Dr Cooper does
not vouch for the vaccinosic origin
of his cases, but his cures corro-
borate my statement that the work-
ing out of the homœopathic equation
and my theory of vaccinosis alike
lead to Thuja.
Its Causes and Remedies. 69
NEURALGIA
OF LEFT BROW OF
OVER THIRTY YEARS' Standing
CURED BY Cuprum aceticum.
I have lately cured a lady of
fifty years of age of a very severe
neuralgia of the left brow, which
had plagued her for thirty-four
years. For years I had seen this
lady for metrorrhagia and other
ailings, and with much acknowledged
benefit. Juglans regia and Juglans
cinerea, Sanguinaria canadensis,
Heloninum, China, Arnica, Thuja,
Psoricum, and Nat. mur., I find
noted as those remedies which had
confessedly been of more or less
benefit. But it was Rademacher's
tincture of copper that cured the
old neuralgic enemy that at times
was described as boring, screwing,
70
On Neuralgia:
but more generally the lady spoke
of the pain as awful. Whether the
Cuprum here acted on the basis of
the Paracelsic Universalia, of which
it is one, or by reason of its homœo-
pathicity, I am unable to say.
THE NEURALGIA OF JUGLANS
CINEREA.
In relation to the use of Juglans
cinerea in angina pectoris, I was
much pleased lately to see that my
original observation of the patho-
genetic anginal symptoms of this
vegetable arsenic has been clinically
verified by another observer, viz.,
Dr Ussher, of Wandsworth. In the
Homeopathic World of July 1888,
this able clinician writes:-
"Surely there is no complaint so
dire as angina pectoris; the agony
Its Causes and Remedies.
71
of 'breast pang' is no trifle to
relieve. The cases I note are
three, differing in many respects;
two of them fatal, one living; all
three gouty in origin. The first,
Mrs E., a woman over 40, whose
mother was gout crippled, and died
of gouty peritonitis. She has had
many attacks; now they are few,
slight, and medicine has remarkably
controlled them. I have seen her
in some; the face is pale, head
thrown back, pulse feeble, surface
cold, neck stiff and painful. Her
state is nearly one of insensibility.
On one of these occasions she was
nauseated, and phlegm threatened
to choke her. Ant. tart. 2*, trit.,
second dose, at a few minutes'
interval, relieved her, and allowed
her to resume the recumbent posi-
72
On Neuralgia:
tion. Her younger sister has gout
in the hands. Her mother was
drugged to death years before I
attended her, and after electric
baths ptyalism set in. For a time
Mrs E. was relieved by Amyl nit.
I
X
I* and olfaction of the crude; but
her marked distress was precordial
coldness, frightful pain, stiffness of
the neck. She had Juglans cinerea
1*; the 2* did not do the same, and
twice she proved it; two-drop doses
at short intervals; and when relief
came, which was speedy, a dose
night and morning for a few days.
Her restoration to health, vigour,
and good action of the heart from
a weak, miserable one, is a great
change to her, and astonishment to
friends. Her life is now enjoyable;
Its Causes and Remedies. 73
she takes her medicine with her,
and goes to Devonshire without
fear."
THE NEURALGIA AFTER SHINGLES.
This is often extremely tedious,
wearing, and difficult of cure-in-
deed, outside of homoeopathy it
can hardly be said to be curable
at all. Some years since, I was
hurriedly summoned to the country
house of a middle-aged lady, who
had finally decided to "give homœo-
pathy a chance!" This was done
not for the sake of homoeopathy all
the same, but because said lady had
had herpes zoster, and the sequential
neuralgia was atrocious, and unyield-
ing to all her various physicians'
more or less violent means. Phos-
74
On Neuralgia:
phorus made very short work of
the neuralgia, and thus brought
about a violent conversion of the
patient to homoeopathy. She be-
came a homoeopath because the
pathy of the homœopaths was the
means of curing her neuralgia.
And in my judgment a very sound
reason too. That is just my reason
for being a homœopath. I like
homœopathy because it affords a
splendid means to an end, and that
end a
cure.
Phosphorus has a great and well-
earned reputation for neuralgia in
the homoeopathic school. So great,
indeed, that our allopathic friends
have not disdained to go in for
"Free Phosphorus in Medicine,”
and with such "freedom" that they
Its Causes and Remedies. 75
have done much harm. Like all
really powerful remedies, Phosphorus
can harm as well as heal, whence,
indeed, the scientific groundwork
of our homœopathy.
Phosphorus, in allopathic doses,
is a very dangerous, and that a very
sneakingly dangerous drug, and no
one should use Phosphorus inter-
nally unless they possess the re-
quisite knowledge as to how much
will harm and how little will cure.
As a tonic for the nerves it is simply
murderous. For the neuralgias of
the right side under the ribs (hypo-
chondrium) the hepatics must be
studied, and the principal ones here
are Hydrastis canadensis, Cheli-
donium majus, Myrica cerifera,
Diplotaxis tenuifolia, Cholestearin,
76
On Neuralgia:
Bryonia alba, and Kali bichromicum.
The neuralgias of the left hypo-
chondrium are more or less con-
nected with the spleen, and the
remedies here needed will be found
in the little work on Diseases of the
Spleen and their Remedies Clini-
cally Illustrated, by the writer.
Of course, the neuralgias all down
the sides in their walls will require
such remedies as Bryonia alba,
Ranunculus, Colocynth, Rhus tox.,
Cimicifuga racemosa, and the like.
Some very obstinate ones I have
cured with Variolinum C.
The enteralgias are met with
Plumbum, Dioscorea villosa, Colo-
cynth, and their allies.
Of neuralgias of the stomach I will
say a few words now separately.
Its Causes and Remedies. 77
NEURALGIA OF THE STOMACH.
I have often cured this with
Acidum hydrocyanicum in one-drop
doses of the first homoeopathic
centesimal dilution. Only phy-
sicians may use it, as it requires
careful dosing. Of the same nature,
and quite safe to use, is the Prunus
virginiana in five-drop doses of
the mother tincture. I learned its
use myself of an old lady, nearly
ninety years of age, many years
ago.
Zincum—either the cyanide or
the acetate — is a very notable
remedy in gastralgia. Many cases
of dyspepsia are of a neuralgic
character, and the most common
and most commonly distressing in
78
On Neuralgia:
this cold wet climate is curable by
Silver-either the nitrate or the
oxide. A noted physician of the last
generation made quite a reputation
by his great cures of neuralgia and
dyspepsia of the stomach; and his
remedy was the oxide of silver. The
good man was an active hater of
homœopathy, little weening that his
own reputation and success depend-
ed entirely upon the homoeopathicity
of his remedy to the complaint he
cured with its aid. Mankind is apt
to hate and despise its best and
truest friends. The various neural-
gias arising from urethral pyorrhœa
-from the gonococci-are usually
amenable to Argentum. This re-
medy has a well-earned reputation
in tabes dorsalis, and is homœo-
Its Causes and Remedies. 79
pathic to its pains in some varieties,
and Sabina, Thuja, and Cupressus
come close upon it in sycosic neur-
algias generally.
COCCYGODYNIA.
This is a neuralgia at the very
bottom of the spine, where our
caudal appendage would be placed
were we caudate. Not unfrequently
it is of traumatic origin, and I have
cured a case of this kind with
Bellis perennis, and another with
antisycotics. I think it is most
common in women.
This
SCIATICA.
common complaint has
yielded in my hands most fre-
80
On Neuralgia:
quently to antisycotics, and that
quickly, often too when spas and
very violent measures had entirely
failed. And Aconite and Rhus
have at times helped, perhaps, when
the pain was due to chronic neuri-
lemmatitis. And when we think
of the awful alternative of nerve-
stretching, we may well be grateful
for the wide curative range of the
homœopathic law of cure. Indeed,
the symptom pain might very well
be chosen as a test of medical
systems were it not for the incapacity
of the bulk of mankind, profes-
sional and lay, to see clearly and to
distinguish the essential and funda-
mental difference between curing a
pain from the ground and gagging
the pain-telling nerve.
$
Its Causes and Remedies. 81
DENTAL NEURALGIAS.
Many cases of toothache are
neuralgic, and require one or more
of the already-named remedies, and
such others as Silicea, Nitric acid,
Mercurius, Kreosotum, Hecla lava.
Perhaps three-fourths of the cases.
of toothache are not due either to
caries, necrosis, or abscess, primarily,
but to the general state of the con-
stitution; more particularly is tooth-
ache, in my opinion, very frequently
due to the stomach, and I have
sometimes wondered whether de-
caying teeth are at times anything
more than constitutional issues, for
I have several times noticed that
profoundly dyscratic
complaints
F
82
On Neuralgia:
2
have taken on increased morbid
action soon after the dentist had
extracted a bad tooth. Particularly
in cases of tumours have I noticed.
this, and for some time I have been
in the habit of forbidding any ex-
traction of bad teeth until the graver
malady had been quite cured, when,
oddly enough, the teeth commonly
cease from troubling. I am well
aware that the local inflammatory
processes of dental, anal, aural, and
vaginal pains-neuralgias, as I
understand the term-do indeed
give rise to the pain, but I hold
that the only real cure of the neur-
algia-the pain arising from the
local morbid process-is the extin-
guishment of the morbid condition
itself that lies at the bottom of the
Its Causes and Remedies. 83
inflammatory, carious, necrotic, or
neoplastic process.
In neuralgia how true it is that
"things are not what they seem."
ON SYNALGIA.
This word expresses an old idea
in a new and definite way. The
word synalgie was first used, I
believe, by a French author, but of
this I am not quite sure; the idea it
expresses is old enough. Person-
ally I do not remember to have
seen any other word expressing it
so well, and this not till I read
"Les Synalgies et les Synes-
thésies," by Henry de Fromentel
(de Gray).* The word synalgia
* Paris, G. Masson, 1888.
84
On Neuralgia:
.
very fairly expresses much of what
I have been trying to express in
the foregoing pages. It is from
où, with, together, and aλyos, pain ;
and de Fromentel understands by
his synalgies "douleurs associées."
I say very fairly, because it is not
exactly the word one needs. In
fact, we sometimes in neuralgias
have to do with a synalgia properly
so called; at others the neuralgia
is what Gubler termed douleurs
répercutées, or échotiques. These
terms are not quite synonymous,
but nearly enough so for the pur-
poses of this little treatise, which I,
above all, wish to be practical.
Let me exemplify by quoting a
synalgia in point.
Its Causes and Remedies. 85
CASE OF ANGINA PECTORIS.
A good while since, an old patient
of the late Dr Hilbers, 62 years of
age, came under my care for pain-
ful spasms of the heart (neuralgia
cordis), running principally down or
up
the left arm, often after walking
quickly. He was wont to pass a
great quantity of water, having to
rise many times in the night for
that purpose.
His tongue was
cracked, which is a capital clinical
indication for the horsetail, and
positive indications from the heart
itself being absent, I gave Equisetum
hyemale 1, ten drops in water three
times a day. This seemingly
rather unlikely remedy did him so
much good that he continued to
86
On Neuralgia:
་
take it on his own account for three
months, and then I put him under
Bellis perennis. So pleased was
my patient with the result of his
treatment that he sent me a well-
known book, for which he is
responsible, as a token of gratitude,
though himself I have not since
seen. This gentleman had long
been taking antispasmodics to no
avail.
Here there was a pain-a neur-
algia in the heart-and a pain down
or up the left arm-a synalgia. It
might be very difficult to say where
the actual primary seat of the angina
There was pain up or down.
the left arm, and in the præcordia;
so the two would constitute a syn-
algia, or a pain starting from one
was.
Its Causes and Remedies. 87
point and running in two ways,
or else from one and running to a
second. Of course the arm pain in
heart affections is a well-known
phenomenon.
The importance of the synalgic
conception is considerable in neur-
algia, as it bears on the proper
treatment of the case; and the more
this line of thought is pursued in
practical therapeutics the better will
our treatment become. The word
sympathy expresses etymologically
what we often mean, but it is of
such frequent use in social and
emotional life that it is of hardly
any further service in the strict
speech of science.
An almost pure case of synalgia
(and one of very great interest)
88
On Neuralgia:
will be found in my Diseases of the
Spleen (p. 112 et seq.). This case
is, indeed, eminently instructive,
and fits in here well. I cannot
incorporate it, however, as the copy-
right of the work is no longer
mine.
In pubescence, the intimate sym-
pathy between the pubes and the
breasts is well known, and in young
men mammary synalgias and synæs-
thesias are not so very uncommon,
though they are not severe, like the
mastodynias of ladies.
When the sensation falls short of
the algic quality, de Fromentel
uses the word SYNESTHESIE (ovv,
with, together, aïo Onois, feeling, senti-
ment, the feeling faculty). Of course
every feeling, whether primary or
1
Its Causes and Remedies. 89
!
a synæsthesia, when excessive,
becomes algic.
Hence I have often thought that
the railings, wailings, and com-
plainings against Providence for
allowing pain to exist in this world
are readily reducible to the ignor-
ance of the wailers. For it needs
but a few moments' reflection to
see that if we are to possess free
sentient life at all, pain becomes a
natural sequence, and a beneficent
necessity to the end that the
pleasure may cease on the hither
side of harm, and that the pain may
preserve us by its warning.
Why do we not incontinently
plunge our hands into the fire?
Because we know that pain would
ensue. It is the pain (i.e., the cer-
*
:
1
90
On Neuralgia:
tainty of its speedy appearance if
we burn ourselves) that keeps us
away from the fire, and hence we
preserve our flesh unimpaired and
ourselves intact. If we were with-
out the possibility of painfully feeling
too high a temperature, we should
not be safely able even to warm our
hands at the fireside. Hence I con-
clude that WHEREVER THERE IS PAIN
THERE MUST BE SOMETHING WRONG.
WHY the pain? WHAT the wrong?
Now what is ever and every-
where considered is the pain per se,
which is only the message, and in
order that the message called pain
may not come, the messenger is
maltreated or massacred! Witness
the injections, the nerve-stretchings,
and the nerve cuttings! And yet
Its Causes and Remedies. 91
the poor nerves are commonly but
the faithfully warning speakers of
the organism speaking at the ap-
pointed part which is most likely to
lead foolish man to hearken and to
understand.
But, perhaps, some will think I
am getting too diffuse about neur-
algia, and am thinking a good deal
too much of it. Well, let such
read the following, which I happened
to notice while revising my slip
proofs. It is from the Homeopathic
World of March 1, 1889, and runs
thus-
A GROWING EVIL.
"The use of the subcutaneous
injection syringe is becoming a curse
to fashionable society. Ours is a
+
1
་
92
On Neuralgia:
pain-fearing age, and the only anti-
dotes to pain known to the allopaths
are sedatives and narcotics, of which
opium and its alkaloid, morphia, are
the chief. The introduction of the
subcutaneous method of administer-
ing drugs has been rapidly taken
hold of by the laity, and where
drunkards and opium eaters were
made formerly by medical advice
morphinomaniacs are manufactured
now.
Morphia is ordered, and is
at first administered by the doctor
by means of the syringe; then the
syringe is left with the nurse, and
at last with the patient herself—for
in the great majority of cases it is
a woman. Once in the hands of a
neuralgic patient of sensitive tem-
perament and weak will, there is an
Its Causes and Remedies. 93
Her
end to her hope of a cure.
sufferings will be palliated, but only
so long as she is under the influence
of the drug; and slowly and surely
body and mind and moral character
are wrecked by the use of this
insidious instrument, which should
never be allowed to pass into a
patient's possession."
Some further considerations on
the kinds of pains-neuralgias and
synalgias—will help us to not only
hearken to the sound of Nature's
voice, but to comprehend the
language spoken.
The physiologist M. M. Duval,
writing to M. de Fromentel under
date of May 1883, very properly
calls attention to the advantages
94
On Neuralgia:
that may follow a proper study and
appreciation of synalgias. Duval
says, "Dans toutes vos observations
il s'agit donc de rapports de con-
tiguité entre les appareils récepteurs
centraux cérébraux. Nous ne
savons absolument rien de la situa-
tion et des rapports de ces centres.
Vos observations peuvent devenir
l'origine de merveilleuses inductions
sur les rapports probables de ces
Ces centres doivent
:
centres.
former comme une série de casiers
voisins, où chaque point de la péri-
phérie a son représentant cérébral ;
mais les rapports topographiques
entre les points périphériques
n'impliquent pas des rapports sem-
blables entre les points centraux
correspondants; vos études ouvrir-
Its Causes and Remedies. 95
ont une voie nouvelle et inesperée
à la recherche des rapports topo-
graphiques de ces points centraux."
All this is not so new as MM.
Duval and de Fromentel seem to
imagine. I believe there is an
eminent American professor (by
name Dr Buchanan, if my memory
plays me no tricks) who has taught
all this and much more of the same
sort in a fragmentary sort of a way
these twenty years or more, and
some time ago formulated it under
the name of sarcognosy. However,
de Fromentel is on the line of true
progress, and, personally, I am
pleased to meet him.
The practical physician M. A.
Ollivier (Comptes rendus de la
Société de Biologie, séance du 5
་
96
On Neuralgia:
་
janvier 1884) thus spoke at the
Société de Biologie: "J'ajouterai
que la connaissance des faits étudiés
par M. Fromentel dans sa thèse
inaugurale, peut rendre de réels
services au clinicien: elle lui per-
mettra de comprendre certains.
phenomènes pathologiques qui, sans
cela, resteraient inexplicables et,
dans certains cas, elle lui fournira
d'importantes indications thérapeu-
tiques. Il serait très-utile de con-
naître la topographie exacte de
toutes les parties du corps dont
l'excitation peut faire naître, dans
une région plus ou moins éloignée,
soit des
des mouvements, soit des
impressions sensitives. Il semble
même exister une certaine constance
dans la production de ces phéno-
Its Causes and Remedies. 97
mènes. Comme exemple d'associa-
tion de sensations douleureuses je
rappellerai le fait de névralgie
réflexe que j'ai rapporté à la Société
il y a dix ans. Il s'agissait d'une
femme qui avait reçu de sa fille en
pleine crise d'hystérie un violent
coup du poing dans la region du
Elle ressentit à ce niveau,
sein.
une vive douleur et, quelques jours
après, elle présenta tous les symp-
tômes de la névralgie cubitale.
Depuis cette époque, j'ai observé la
même névralgie chez deux dames
qui s'étaient heurté le sein contre
une clef, en voulant ouvrir une
porte de cave."
Of course there is nothing parti-
cularly new in all this, but its
formulation marks a distinct point
G
السوة
•
98
On Neuralgia:
of progress in general medicine,
and tallies exactly with clinical facts
as we find them, and as I have
often and long maintained, and it
lends also a powerful aid to the old-
fashioned doctrine of repercussion,
and all tends directly to support
the teachings of the most eminent
homœopathic practitioners going
back now for fully fifty years.
It is not a little singular how the
idea of synalgia originated with M.
de Fromentel. Let him tell his
own tale. But no; I find our
author too diffuse, and hence I will
give the gist of his words. Young
folks are very frequently afflicted
with acne-simplex, sebacea, pilaris,
and then come his words: "or,
tout récemment, j'étais porteur d'un
*
Its Causes and Remedies. 99
petit bouton acnéique, parvenu à
l'état de pustule et situé sur la peau
qui recouvre le sternum, au milieu
d'une ligne horizontale qui joindrait
les deux mamelons, un peu plus
voisin cependant du mamelon
gauche que du droit: je me mis à
l'écorcher avec l'ongle, ce qui me
causa une douleur aiguë, quoique
legère) et presqu' aussitôt je res-
sentis un éclair douleureux dans la
région lombaire gauche, où la peau
offrait, chez moi, la plus parfaite
intégrité. Saisi par cet élance-
ment d'une intensité bien supérieure
à la sensation douleureuse que me
procurer le grattage du bouton, je
laissai celui-ci en repos; mais, quel-
ques instants après, lui ayant donné
un nouveau coup d'ongle, le même
100
On Neuralgia:
trait de douleur se fit sentir au
milieu de la région lombaire, tou-
jours du côte gauche, et cela autant
de fois que je renouvelai l'expérience
et jusqu'au moment où j'eus com-
plètement dilacéré la pustule d'
acne.
Thus here we have a pain pro-
duced in an acne-spot on the
sternum, and a second pain con-
nected with it, and arising from it,
but this second pain is felt in the
middle of the left side of the lumbar
region. The sensations are asso-
ciated; the sensations are painful
they are synalgias.
Perhaps a better example of a
synalgia could hardly be needed
than the very first case I give in
Its Causes and Remedies. 101
tell-tale
this book (p. 6), and I refer to it
again here, because it must be mani-
fest that the treating of the skin
disease which Erasmus Wilson was
so much lauded for curing was really
not curing at all, but only Nature-
gagging. However, Nature would
not have it, and protested loudly
(neuralgically) till Sulphur unlocked
the door, and let the
eczema come back to its old habitat.
Of course I do not suggest that the
idea of synalgia is new to the
world, though it be to de Fro-
mentel: the initiated know well
that the conception is part and par-
cel alike of Rademacherian organo-
pathy and of Hahnemannian
homoeopathy.
And synæsthesia
(synesthésie) is only the Hellenic
102
On Neuralgia:
form of consensus. What the great
Rademacher so much insists upon
in his magnum opus, and expresses
with the term Consensueller Art, is
precisely the same as what de Fro-
mentel calls synalgie, and what I
here understand by synalgia, i.e., a
pain, an algia not originally of the
place in which it is felt.
De Fromentel is most concerned
with synalgies as a means of physio-
logical research, and at this point I
leave him, remarking merely that
though his work is rather weak for
any one conversant with German
and English literature, still, as far
as it goes, it is very instructive,
and particularly for the practitioners
of scientific medicine commonly
known as homoeopaths.
Its Causes and Remedies. 103
De Fromentel has hunted all
through literature to find examples
of his synalgies, and without getting
a very alarming number. I would
recommend him to run through
Rademacherian and Hahnemannian
literature, and he will find that,
though his Hellenic term synalgie
is new, and also, no doubt, original
to himself, still the thing existed,
and guided medical organopathic
and homoeopathic practice fully fifty
years ago, and so several decades
before de Fromentel was born.
NEURALGIA OF THE STUMP.
It is not a little curious that
neuralgia can be cured with remedies,
even where the nerve is supposed
to be imbedded in the cicatrix of a
·
104
On Neuralgia:
stump of a limb. Thus Professor
Tod Helmuth tells us that he was
once called in consultation to Jersey
City, to see a man suffering from
neuralgia of the stump following a
thigh amputation made about three
months previously. He had taken
many remedies which act upon the
nervous system, including morphia,
without relief. The wound had
completely healed, and the cicatrix
looked healthy, yet he suffered
intensely from sciatica. He was a
great smoker, and as he stooped
one day to light his pipe with a
scrap of a French newspaper, he
read what was on it, viz., an account
of a case of neuralgia of the stump
which had been cured by eating
onions. He immediately procured
Its Causes and Remedies. 105
three large ones, and ate them. He
continued this onion - eating for
several days, and was able to sleep
every night. Then his physician,
Dr Shelton, thought he would try
the onion- Allium cepa as a
remedy, and prescribed the tincture
with almost the same effect until
the cure was completed. This case
of Dr Shelton's was clearly one of
synalgia. Of course, onions do
make most people sleepy. I have
myself cured a case of neuralgia of
the stump with Hypericum per. 3*.
THE NEURALGIA OF Sanguinaria.*
Although I have previously men-
* Extracted from Diseases of the Nervous
System, by C. P. Hart, M.D. Boericke &
Tafel, New York, 1881. Art. "Hemicrania."
106
On Neuralgia:
1
tioned Sanguinaria as an anti-
neuralgic, the following from Hart
is so instructive that I will enrich
my pages with it.
Sanguinaria.-Dr Hering says:
"This is the best remedy in most
cases of migraine or sick headache.
Still, it must prove most useful
when the attacks occur paroxys-
mally, namely, every week, or at
longer intervals; or when the pains
begin in the morning, increase
during the day, and last till evening;
when the head seems to feel that it
must burst, or as if the eyes must
be pressed out, or when the pains
are digging, attended with sudden
piercing, throbbing lancinations
through the brain, involving the
Its Causes and Remedies. 107
forehead and top of the head in par-
ticular, and being more severe on
the right side, followed by chills,
nausea, vomiting of food or bile,
forcing the patient to lie down
and preserve the greatest quiet, as
every motion aggravates the suffer-
ings, which are only relieved by
sleep."
Mrs H., a very fleshy lady, æt.
50, nearly passed the climacteric,
complained of a distressing "sick
headache" hanging about her for
years. In some degree the symp-
toms were almost always present.
A typical headache would commence
in the forenoon, gathering violence
with the hours until sunset, when it
would quietly subside, or else would
confine her to her bed for a day or
1
108
On Neuralgia:
two. The pains, which originated
low in the occiput, drawing upwards
in rays, located over the right, some-
times the left eye, attended with
vomiting, often of bilious matter.
She was subject to sudden flushes
of heat, burning of the soles of the
feet, and that singular symptom noted
in Hale's third edition, "a quickly
diffused transient thrill," felt at the
remotest extremity. At times she
had sensible throbbing of every pulse
in the body. The urine was gen-
erally scanty before and during the
severe headache, but quantities of
clear urine would pass away when
getting better. Prescribed San-
guinaria 200, six pellets night and
morning, for a week. Eight months
afterwards patient reported relief
Its Causes and Remedies. 109
from the first dose, during the week
complete relief, and from that time
until now not a vestige of the old
complaint has shown itself.-Dr J.
P. Mills.
Dr Mills regards what he calls
"sun headaches," that is, those in-
creasing in violence with the sun's
ascent, decreasing as it declines,
when preceded by scanty urine and
pass off attended by profuse flow of
clear urine, as indicating Sanguin-
aria, and the urine symptom as its
keynote, giving the following case
as an additional illustration: Mr W.,
railroad engineer, was taken early
in the morning with headache and
nausea, the symptoms increasing
hour by hour. At 4 P.M. the pain
and distress had reached such a
IIO On Neuralgia:
height that, fearing "brain fever,"
I was summoned. I found the
patient on the bed groaning and
writhing in agony, face very red,
head hot, injected eyes, sensitive to
light. The arteries about the head
and in the scalp were distended like
whip-cords, the blood coursing
through them at a furious rate, giv-
ing a sensation to the head as if the
scalpand temples were alive with irre-
pressible pulsations. The pain was
over the whole head; paroxysms of
retching occurred every few minutes,
with such violence that I feared
rupture of blood vessels.
I pre-
scribed Bell., Glon., and Bry. in
succession, but without benefit, not
thinking at first of Sanguinaria,
though I was aware that the head-
Its Causes and Remedies. 111
aches passed off with free flow of
clear urine, and that he, being an
engineer, would be subject to kidney
trouble. At midnight a messenger
came, saying that Mr W. was wildly
delirious, with no abatement of symp-
toms. I sent Sanguinaria 200, to
be given in water every half hour.
Fifteen minutes after the first dose,
symptoms began to abate; in an
hour and a half, he fell into a quiet
slumber for a little time, awaking
quite relieved from the acute pain,
but an intense soreness continued
for two or three days, which com-
pelled him to keep quiet or to walk
with great circumspection.—Idem.
THE NEURALGIA OF SPIGELIA
(Hart).—Periodical headache, gene-
1
•
II2 On Neuralgia:
rally confined to the right temple,
or to the left eye and left temple,
pulsating, darting or boring, com-
mencing every morning with the
rising of the sun, reaching its height
at midday, and gradually declining
till the sun sets, and accompanied
with pale face, nausea, and vomiting.
Aggravated by motion, stooping,
noise, thinking, or mental emotion.
Miss T., æt. 36, had suffered
from periodical attacks of left-sided
hemicrania for upwards of nine years.
The attacks set in early every sum-
mer, and continued to recur regu-
larly about every two weeks, lasting
each time about three days, and
compelling her during that time to
exclude herself from society. The
paroxysms, which set in just after
Its Causes and Remedies. 113
sunrise in the morning, were of the
most violent character, causing
severe pulsating pains in the left
temple and eye, and reaching their
greatest intensity about noon, when
they were attended with vomiting
and retching, after which they grad-
ually declined, and at sunset gave
place to anxious and disturbed sleep.
The slightest motion or noise
greatly aggravated the headache;
even the movement of the eyes
would increase it. After the par-
oxysms subsided the scalp felt sore
to the touch, and the brain confused.
After trying two or three other reme-
dies without any marked benefit, I
placed her upon Spigelia, five
pellets every night and morning for
one week. No more paroxysms
H
I 14
On Neuralgia:
occurred until July of the following
year, when the remedy was repeat-
ed: four years later she remained
quite well. This is a brilliant cure.
It may be noted that nearly all
these cases are synalgias. How
important, therefore, that they
should be then scientifically cured.
I think de Fromentel would be
not a little amazed were he to read
Dr Hart's Diseases of the Nervous
System.
NEURALGIA TRIGEMINI.
Hart says:-Neuralgia trigemini
is liable to be confounded with rheu-
matism and hemicrania. From the
former it may be distinguished by the
character and severity of the pains,
Its Causes and Remedies. 115
by the shortness of the paroxysms,
and by the attacks being excited
by such causes as a sudden jar or
touch. From hemicrania it may
be known by the transient and dart-
ing character of the pains, and by
their corresponding accurately with
the course and distribution of the
nerves. Many cases of hemicrania,
however, have their starting point,
as we have seen, in the supra-orbital
branch of the trigeminus; but
these, instead of being confined to
the trifacial nerve, soon extend over
the scalp, and, by involving the
sympathetic, give rise to vasomotor
and sensory disturbances peculiar
to that affection.
Not much is known regarding
the pathology of facial neuralgia.
116
On Neuralgia:
i
In some cases the affected nerves
have been found more or less red
and inflamed, but quite as often
the most diligent search has failed
to reveal anything abnormal about
them. There is no doubt, however,
that the sympathetic is sometimes
at fault, for in no other way can we
explain such symptoms as contrac-
tion of the pupils, conjunctival in-
jection, chemosis, and other ocular
disturbances, flushing of the face,
and the constitutional derangement
sometimes met with; but it is not cer-
tain whether these disturbances are
primary or only secondary pheno-
mena; in other words, whether the
changes which take place in the
sympathetic system are secondary to
thetrifacial disturbances, or vice versa.
Its Causes and Remedies. 117
This disease, while not directly
destructive of life, is sometimes so
exceedingly severe and obstinate as
to threaten to wear out the constitu-
tion of the patient, by undermining
the general health, rendering the
mind feeble, and the nervous system
extremely sensitive and irritable.
The chances of cure, in any case,
depend upon whether the cause is,
or is not removable. In the former
case, as when the disease arises
from cold, malarious influences, bad
habits, or nervous debility, it will
generally yield to
to the rightly-
selected remedy; but when the
affection depends upon organic
changes, such as tumours, exostoses,
and other structural alterations, it
is very likely to prove permanent.
118
On Neuralgia:
At best, the patient is apt to suffer
more or less from the complaint as
long as he lives.
On the subject of treatment the
author* has elsewhere said: "It
follows from the purely subjective
character and limited range of the
symptoms, that the treatment of
prosopalgia needs to be conducted
with special reference to the cause.
Hence it becomes necessary, first
of all, to institute a careful scrutiny
into the general state of the patient's
health, his habits and surroundings,
travelling, as it were, beyond the
boundaries of the symptomatic in-
dications, in order to ascertain, if
possible, the true cause of the
malady. In this way the prescriber
* Practice of Medicine, p. 96.
Its Causes and Remedies. 119
is enabled to make his anatomi-
cal, physiological, and pathological
knowledge contribute, not only to
the diagnosis, but, in a large pro-
portion of cases, to the cure of this
obscure, obstinate, and very painful
disease. Even with all the light
which can be thrown upon it in this
manner, the practitioner will often
have great difficulty in selecting a
suitable remedy, and will as fre-
quently be disappointed; but it is
evident that in no other way, in
there be any
many cases, can
reasonable hope of success.
Thus
directed, however, the symptom-
atic indications are generally suffi-
ciently definite
definite to suggest
suggest the
proper remedy; and, as a conse-
quence, homœopathy has produced
I 20
On Neuralgia:
many brilliant cures in the domain
of this opprobrium medicorum of
the old school."
ALLOPATHIC POACHINGS.
Our friends, the enemy, can
never rise to the height of our
simple therapeutic law, and yet the
crumbs that fall from our table the
greatest of them do not disdain.
The greatest and most enlightened
physician of modern France was, I
think, the late Prof. Gubler, and he
it is that disputes with de Fromentel
the priority in regard to associated
pains or synalgias.
And this is what Gubler says of
Aconitia, the active principle of our
Aconite. He says that Aconitia
is indicated in every variety of
Its Causes and Remedies. 121
trigeminal neuralgia, and that he
has never known a neuralgia of the
fifth pair, even tic-douloureux, to
resist it.
Some years ago, a patient who
had long been the victim of obstin-
ate trifacial neuralgia had all the
affected nerves excised by Nélaton.
The operation only gave temporary
relief, and the patient declared she
would commit suicide. By the
advice of Debout Aconitia was tried,
and after five milligrammes had
been taken, she was permanently
relieved. In another patient, who
had suffered agonies night and day,
six milligrammes completely dissi-
pated the disease.
I have thus set forth what I con-
122
On Neuralgia:
1
ceive to be the right treatment of
neuralgia, and though I were to
adduce more proofs of my proposi-
tion, I should hardly prove it more
conclusively than has, I submit,
been already done.
punctum.
Therefore-
PRO LEGE: THE RULE OF
THUMBERS.
There is an able and learned
faddist, and there are also a certain
number of not very learned thera-
peutists, who maintain that the
principle underlying the scientific
practice of homoeopathy should be
properly designated a therapeutic
"rule," and not the "law of simi-
lars.
At first sight it might, and indeed
Its Causes and Remedies. 123
#
does, appear that the question of
whether we say law or rule is really
only a matter of tweedledum and
tweedledee. Examined, however,
more closely, we shall find that it
makes all the difference, for thera-
peutic rules are alterable and arbi-
trary, and often entirely unreliable.
Thus it is a therapeutic rule with
the vast majority of the medical
profession to treat neuralgia either
arbitrarily with quinine and iron, or
with nerve-slaying electricity, or
with the mind-killing morphia by
means of the pretty little hypo-
dermic syringes. But this thera-
peutic rule is fraught with grave
disadvantages and danger. But
homœopathy in its essential principle
is not alterable, arbitrary, or un-
124
On Neuralgia:
reliable.
If it had been, it would
not have withstood the storms and
attacks of the past fifty years and
more. The practitioners of homœo-
pathy may alter; their policy (if
they had any) might alter; they
may be greater or fewer in number;
they may be honest or dishonest,
learned or unlearned, clever or dull,
many or few, and even disappear
altogether de facto or politically, and
STILL homeopathy in its essential
principle remains purely and simply
as a law of Nature. If no one
ever took remedial substances,
which we call remedies, at all, the
law of similars would still exist,
though it would be out of operation.
The law exists quite independently
of its operativeness. America is
Its Causes and Remedies. 125.
not more existent since discovered
than it was before: the existence of
that grand continent did not begin
when it was discovered. So the law
of homœopathy did not come into
existence when it was discovered.
It was always there, and always
will remain in the sense in which
we can make this same statement of
the law of gravitation. The law of
gravitation brought down the apples
off the trees before Newton was
born. A law of Nature exists in
Nature independently of man's dis-
coveries, or even of his very
presence on the globe. But man
has the power to make rules of pro-
cedure either based upon law or not,
just as he pleases, within the limits.
of his power.
A law of Nature is
126
On Neuralgia:
¿
immortal; rules are very mortal
indeed. You can render the law of
similars inoperative, but so you can
the law of gravitation or any
other law of Nature. Jaborandi
did not acquire its power to produce
diaphoresis when that action was
discovered in Paris a few years
ago; Jaborandi did not acquire its
power to reduce and check a dia-
phoresis when the French physi-
cians first administered it for night-
sweats; Jaborandi did not acquire
its diaphoretic power when it was
found out and utilized by man.
Of course, physicians can formu-
late any therapeutic rules they
please; the practitioners of homœo-
pathy can constitute for themselves
modes of procedure and practice,
Its Causes and Remedies. 127
and the laws of the land do not for-
bid.
Those gentlemen who parade the
term therapeutic rule of similars
have, of course, a perfect right so
to do, just as they would have the
right to any other therapeutic rule,
as, for instance, the therapeutic rule
of thumb. But their frantic efforts
to persuade the medical world that
rule is the correct designation for
the principle of homoeopathy are
beneath contempt.
God made the law of similars;
many physicians all through the
ages have had faint glimpses and
inklings of this therapeutic law.
Hahnemann saw it in the full light
of pharmic knowledge, and scien-
tifically and practically demonstrated
128
On Neuralgia:
it, and around this law of similars a
considerable number of rules have
been placed by medical practitioners,
some of which I will mention.
The rule of the schools is that
homœopaths (men who found their
practice on applied pharmic know-
ledge based on the law of similars)
are to be destroyed, by fair means
if possible; if not, then by foul.
The rule of the allopaths is to
refuse all dealings with the homœo-
paths, except to solicit their alms.
The rule of the Ringerites is to
practise the homœopathy of the
books, but not in accordance with
the law of similars, but according
to the therapeutic rule of thumb;
and in this way they can so far
satisfy their longings for a better
Its Causes and Remedies. 129
than allopathic therapeusis, and yet
keep their share of the loaves and
fishes, with the contingent possibility
of an odd baronetcy in the dim and
distant future. Moreover, Mrs Dr
Grundy visits with the Ringerites.
Finally, there are a few homœo-
pathic professional sprigs who feel
that the one thing that debars them
from complete happiness is the law
of similars. It is just a rule, say
they, and not a law at all! Like
the Ringerites, they are nothing but
rule of thumbers, and FOR THEM
there is indeed no law of similars,
for the very sufficient reason that
they have not discovered it. And
if any proof were needed that there
is absolutely no law of therapeutics
for these greatly distended rule of
I
+
130
On Neuralgia.
it.
thumbers, their own therapeutic
barrenness would afford
Wherever the rule of thumbers
rule, there rule also the surgeon's
knife and the hypodermic syringe.

SECOND EDITION.
PART II.
I HAD intended adding very
largely to the second edition
of this little treatise on Neuralgia,
as I have ample material for the
purpose, but the time at my disposal
being very limited, I have been
compelled to content myself with
the following.
The special chapter on Angina
Pectoris is not long, but very
important, and I trust suggestive.
132
On Neuralgia:
|
THE AFTER-PAIN OF SHINGLES.
As I have before stated, neur-
algias offer a very good test of the
opposing schools of Medicine, and
in the treatment of the after-pain
of shingles we see the incomparable
advantages of homœopathy. By
curing this variety of neuralgia I
have, over and over again, made
notable converts to homœopathy,-
and by curing I do not mean merely
lulling the pain temporarily, but its
radical and definite extinguishment.
It is in the middle-aged and elderly
that the after-pain of shingles is so
distressing,-often, in fact, little less
than terrible. Let us take a very
high perhaps the very highest
-allopathic authority on the sub-
Its Causes and Remedies. 133
་
ject, and his most recent utterances.
I refer to Mr Jonathan Hutchinson,
late President of the Royal College
of Surgeons. It will be observed
that Mr Hutchinson does not for
one moment entertain the idea that
what he fails to cure could possibly
be cured by anyone else.
In Mr Hutchinson's Archives,
vol. iv., No. 13 (July 1892), pp.
51, 52, may be found the follow-
ing:-
"HERPES AFTER-PAIN-ITS SEVER-
ITY AND PROLONGED DURATION IN
THE AGED.
"All will agree, I think, in the
opinion that the severity and dura-
tion of herpes after-pains are usually
in ratio with the age of the patient.
134
On Neuralgia:
Young persons do not suffer from
after-pain from shingles. In old
people the pain may last for
years. Of this the following case
is, amongst many others, a good
example.
Mrs S- an old lady of 70,
suffered from herpes zoster a year
ago. She avers that she is still
never free night or day from a
distressing aching pain in the parts
which were affected (ear, neck, and
shoulder). The pain does not now
shoot and sting as it used to at first,
but is rather an unbearable ache.
Her nerve pains did not begin with
any severity till the herpes spots.
were healing. This statement
applies only to her skin, for the first
symptom which drew her attention
·
Its Causes and Remedies. 135
to the eruption was a severe pain
in the ear. She asserts that she
has had earache ever since. I saw
her in the first instance on June 16,
1889, at her own house, when
she was just recovering from
influenza. She was then in bed,
and suffering so much from the
herpes after-pain, that she could not
bear to be examined, and could
scarcely speak to me. Since that
she has visited me several times.
She is a cheerful person, inclined to
make the best of things, and she
has now regained very fair health,
but her complaints about the pain
are incessant, and she will sit and
weep during her visit to me. She
says that it entirely prevents sleep
at nights, and compares it to a
4
136 On Neuralgia:
gimlet boring into the ear. From
the ear it passes down to the clavicle
and tip of shoulder.
"This is perhaps the most severe
case that I have seen, but I have
observed not a few which closely
approach it. I have known several
in which herpetic after-pains made
the remainder of the patient's life a
state of misery. They were all in
old
persons. Quinine and Aconite
are the most useful remedies, but I
have had no triumphs."
Mr Hutchinson says that Quinine
and Aconite are the most useful
remedies, but that he has had no
triumphs. Now, what I would point
out to Mr Hutchinson is this: If
he has had no triumphs, how does
he know which are the most useful
Its Causes and Remedies. 137
remedies?
It is not correct to say
that Quinine and Aconite are the
most useful remedies in the treat-
ment of the after-pains of shingles.
As a matter of fact, it is only a com-
mon occurrence for either Quinine
or Aconite to be called for in this
affection. How two remedies that
only occasionally cure, because only
occasionally indicated, can be the
best remedies, is a little beyond my
simple understanding.
Rhus tox. is a much more fre-
quently efficacious remedy for the
shingles after - pain than either
Quinine or Aconite; and of ordi-
nary everyday remedies, Phos-
phorus is, in my experience, the best,
-and by best I mean the most fre-
quently curative. Of course the
138
On Neuralgia:
best must ever be that remedy
which is pathogenetically most
similar to the case in point. And
why best? Because it cures.
I think rather too much is made
of "age" in referring to shingles.
No doubt the after-pains are most
troublesome in the old, but the bulk
of the cases which have come under
my observation have been in the
middle-aged, and not in the aged,
and I believe shingles is most
common in the middle-aged. In
the quite young I believe shingles
to be relatively infrequent.
It would appear that herpes
zoster is in reality the peripheral
expression of an inflammation of
the corresponding spinal ganglion
of the nerve traversing it. But, of
Its Causes and Remedies. 139
course, when we speak of inflamma-
tion we say but very little unless
we know something definite of the
pathological quality thereof.
many things are . .
tion! But its quality?
So
inflamma-
Now the homœopathic treatment
of the shingles after-pains is one
of the prettiest bits of therapeutic
sharp-shooting imaginable, and we
can honestly claim to have had very
many triumphs without, as a rule,
either Quinine or Aconite. I have
myself had the greatest number of
cures with Phosphorus, but Rhus
tox., Thuja occid., Vaccinin., and
Variolin. constitute a very reliable
rearguard, the last-named being far
and away the most certain, prompt,
and radical. I use it always in high
140
On Neuralgia:
or very high dilutions, and do not
readily repeat. If Mr Hutchinson
will follow these lines he will be
able to claim many triumphs.
LIGHTNING PAINS.
On the 28th June 1892, a London
clergyman, fifty-five years of age,
of rufous constitution, came to con-
sult me in regard to certain pains in
the left foot and left thigh. These
pains were irrespective of period,
had existed for "a long time,” i.e.,
months, and were getting worse.
While sitting before me in my con-
sulting-room he repeatedly twitched.
with his leg, and writhed with the
pain, his face at the same time be-
coming contorted. These pains he
described as "awful agony" and
Its Causes and Remedies. 141
"like lightning." Otherwise patient
was fairly well; a patch of ery-
thrasma on left thigh.
Bacill. 30.
July 15th.-There was at first
furious exacerbations of the pains,
and now they have gone altogether.
August 9th. No return of the
lightning pains.
January 5th, 1893.-Coming on
this date in regard to his son. .
Oh, no! thank God, these pains
have never returned."
What led me to such a prescrip-
tion as Bacill. for foudroyant pains?
Well, not tradition at any rate. My
reasons were these:-1st, Total
absence of any venereal historic
datum. 2nd, Patient is of rufous
constitution. 3rd, Collaterals of
142
On Neuralgia:
patient have died of phthisis. 4th,
His descendants have been treated
by me for phthisis. 5th, Patient
had already had the advantage of
our usual remedies from his own
homoeopathic physician, and hence
it was desirable to go out of the
beaten track.
SEVERE INTER-COSTAL NEURALGIA
OF SEVEN YEARS' DURATION.
A lady, sixty-two years of age,
came under my observation on
November 26, 1890, for a terrible
neuralgia of the left side of the
trunk, just behind the spleen and
the base of the left lung. The pain
was most severe, and described as
of a screwing character. During
the past seven years patient has
Its Causes and Remedies. 143
been going from one doctor to
another, and finally on this day
came to me most unwillingly and
in sheer despair, driven hither by
a severe attack then on. These
attacks were not well defined as to
time, but they were distinctly inter-
mittent, and started as a small pain,
going on crescendo, and eventually
passing off decrescendo. Patient had
been three times vaccinated; and,
moreover, she tells me she once
had true cow-pox, caught from a
cow. Patient has been about a great
deal in the world, and though very
strong she has had a great many
diseases, she enumerating to me
measles, whooping-cough, chicken-
pox, scarlet fever, South American
fever (ague cured by Quinine),
144
On Neuralgia:
5
yellow fever, jaundice, and rheumatic
fever. All things considered, I was
of opinion that it was a malarial
splenalgia, and so prescribed Urtica
urens 0, 10 drops in water three
times a day. This was November
26.
December 16th.—Only one attack
of pain; appetite much better. “The
medicine roused me and made me
tremble." The patient looks quite
a different woman.
"I
January 16th, 1891.-No attack;
considers herself quite cured.
am also not so cold, and do not feel
the cold so much as I did."
There was no further attack of
neuralgia till the month of Novem-
ber 1891, which was, however, not
very severe, and the same remedy in
་
Its Causes and Remedies. 145
half the dose was quickly efficacious.
Then in July 1892 there was a
threatening again, but it came to
nothing, and there has been no
further return
return of the neuralgia
whatever.
I name this in the headline Inter-
costal Neuralgia, because that was
what her numerous other physicians
had treated her for. My own con-
ception of the nature of the case is
expressed in the name Malarial
Splenalgia.
CASE OF SPLENALGIA OF TEN
YEARS' DURATION.
An army man, retired, fifty-three
years of age, came to consult me in
August 1891 for a pain at the same
place as in the last-named case.
K
146
On Neuralgia.
The spleen was very slightly en-
larged. There was a very slight
endocardial bruit, best heard at apex
-best during the diastole; sensa-
tion of pins and needles down the
left arm. Cold water drunk caused
fearful pains
pains across the chest
(angina pectoris-neuralgia cordis).
Patient suffered from ague for
years. The same remedy as in the
previous case quite cured him, and
he was discharged cured on October
21, 1891. There were two small
relapses several months apart, but
the Urtica promptly cured them,
and patient continues well. The
endocardial murmur, however, re-
mains.

G බල
On Angina Pectoris.
THIS affection as found in one's
patients differs so much from
its descriptions by the authors as
found in the text-books, that one is
led to think that certain varieties
of it prevail in one part which are
very infrequent in another. The
fact is, it is not a little difficult to
isolate one even quasi-individual
morbid entity, or symptom-group,
that shall cover the clinical pheno-
mena which we most of us call
angina pectoris. The authors get
over the difficulty, more or less, by
148 On Angina Pectoris.
defining the disease and then writing
up to their definition, but that does
not work in practical life, however
sufficient it may serve examinational
ends.
In
Angina pectoris is much more
frequent in men than in women,—at
least that is my experience.
women it is often from oligohæmia,
and only occasionally from psychic
cause, though à priori one would
expect the very reverse to be the
case; tear-shedding (blessed gift!),
I believe, prevents it. That grief-
tears are very poisonous appears
pretty certain. "Dry" grief is
justly in evil repute. The com-
moner cases of angina pectoris in
women seem allied to asthma,
or are synalgias from
disturb-
On Angina Pectoris. 149
ances in the liver, stomach, or
spleen.
Angina pectoris is mostly met
with in its severer forms in men of
doughty deeds and power, as it
were as the physical impress of
their deed - rich lives. Luther
suffered from angina pectoris, and
no wonder. Athletes are apt to
get it in later life: this is about
equal to chronic traumatism, but
acute traumatism will also cause it.
Hence it is that Arnica montana
and Bellis perennis are so fre-
quently indicated in its treatment,
where the trauma has not set up an
actual lesion. The anti-traumatics
are a very real help, and so is
Aconite.
The cardiacs, such as Digitalis,
150 On Angina Pectoris.
Cactus, Strophanthus, and Conval-
laria, stand out as reliable organ
remedies. Bryonia, too, must be re-
membered, as its characteristic symp-
tom is so very constant. I quite
lately cured a severe case of tic
douloureux with Bryonia alba 30,
after many fruitless efforts. In neur-
algias of a very exquisite nature I
find very infrequent doses by far
the best,-not so in organic lesions.
When the heart itself and the
great blood vessels have been duly
considered, the abdominal organs
immediately under the diaphragm
should be critically mustered, for
they very often encroach upon the
heart's playroom (liver, spleen, dis-
tended stomach, and duodenum),
and in such cases it is manifestly
On Angina Pectoris.
151
useless to treat the heart itself,
because it may be quite equal to
the work normally required of it
when there is no obstruction, but
yet cries out in agony when obstruc-
tions under the diaphragm are
superadded. Just as a horse may
be equal to dragging a heavily
laden waggon along a smooth road,
but put a stone or a brickbat before
one of the wheels and the case is
altered.
"When I walk or hurry, particu-
larly after a meal," causes us to
think of the heart as a muscular
pump, and to wonder whether the
pump-organ is itself at fault, or its
valves, or the suction-force, or
whether there is any obstruction in
the way.
When this is done with
152 On Angina Pectoris.
a little care and thought and cir-
cumspection, we become aware that
though angina pectoris is often
purely a neuralgia cordis, yet it is
at least as often a synalgia, having
its starting-point in obstructions.
And here it must be manifest that
the therapeutic indication is to get
rid of the obstruction. Hepatics,
pancreatics, and splenics here come
into play with immense advantage.
Of course, an ideal master in thera-
peutics, who can spot the simillimum
to the entire case, will not need
these little organopathic side helps;
but, speaking for myself, I cannot
do without them: they help me, and
I praise them. There is no ques-
tion, to me, that each organ has a
something all its own, and that such
On Angina Pectoris. 153
organ interacts with the organism
as its environment, besides having
its life in common with the organ-
ism. Else I cannot understand why
it is that a given organ will go on,
so to speak, jibbing and kicking
till the appropriate organ remedy
has been given, after which the
organ will jog along happily and
comfortably, and will then react to
systemic remedies which before
were without effect. This view of
the individual life of each organ has
received a very remarkable cor-
roboration from the researches of
Brown-Séquard, as also by the latest
teachings of physiology in regard
to the use of the thyroid. When
angina pectoris is due to organic
change in the heart's own substance
!
154 On Angina Pectoris.
or in its own arteries, metals and
minerals will come into play, such
as Aurum, Mercurius, Vanadium,
Arsenicum, Phosphorus, etc. Where
the circulation has become impos-
sible of being adequate, I have made
three or four very remarkable cures,
the most striking of which I will
now shortly relate as perhaps
unique.
ANGINA PECTORIS WITH CARDIAC
INADEQUACY CURED BY STARVA-
TION-DIET.
A London merchant, of forty odd
years of age, came under my care
some three years ago for angina
pectoris and blood-spitting, starting
a few weeks previously from violent
exertion when he was romping with
On Angina Pectoris. 155
his children. Patient was plethoric.
Blood oozed up constantly into his
mouth from his bronchial tubes.
Lungs quite sound. Heart floun-
dering rapidly and without rhythm.
My remedies did no good; allo-
pathic remedies did no better, and
all hope was abandoned. At this
stage his business partner came to
me to know if I could think of
anything further that might yet
offer a chance of saving the patient's
most valuable life, I having for-
merly told him of a heart case I
once cured by semi-starvation.
gave as my opinion, based on some
experience, that a starvation-diet
offered the only remaining chance
of saving the patient's life. His
heart had become absolutely inade-
I
156 On Angina Pectoris.
quate, only just keeping up life by
fearful overwork, and as there was
no means of making it adequate to
the bulk and blood-mass, the only
conceivable outway was to starve
down the bulk and blood quantity
till the heart had a chance of
recovering itself and doing less
work adequately. He clearly saw
the point, and hastened to convince
patient and his surroundings. My
starvation plan was carried out, and
by the time the patient had become
much reduced in bulk, and had
much less blood, the angina and
hæmorrhage quite disappeared, and
the heart completely recovered itself,
though very slowly, and patient
returned to business, and there con-
tinues, "as well as he ever was."
On Angina Pectoris. 157
Where the body-bulk has got
beyond the heart's power the only
hope lies in throwing some of the
cargo overboard by judicious reduc-
tion of bulk. Rest from work, with
a bland fruit and water diet suffice
for this purpose, provided the
patient have a very strong will,
and is not prevented by relatives
and friends who insist upon "keep-
ing up his strength" till he dies of
it. Where a man must keep to
business, the same goal can be
reached by having one or two fast
days, jours maigres, a week, although
with this plan the severe bilious
attacks are trying. But will-power
in the patient is necessary, for I
have had patients who avowedly
preferred death to diet.
158 On Angina Pectoris.
CASE OF ANGINA PECTORIS CURED
BY Phytolacca decandra 0, ETC.,
ETC.
A gentleman from the north, aged
about sixty years, consulted me for
angina pectoris on June 28, 1891.
The left lobe of his liver being
enlarged, I gave him a month of
Carduus Maria 0.
August 11th.-Pain not so acute;
the pain runs across the chest into
the right shoulder; he is puffy, and
walking and talking bring on the
pain.
B Bellis perennis e, ten drops in water at
bedtime.
I
September 7th.-So much better;
all pain gone. His wife wrote:
believe it (the Bellis) has done my
On Angina Pectoris. 159
husband a great deal of good, as he
has not complained of pain for some
time now."
October 13th.-There is again
some pain.
Repeat the Bellis.
October 27th. -No
angina,
though he has been walking a good
deal, even uphill.
November 17th.
17th. No angina ;
but there is a constant pain near the
right clavicle, and some under the
left ribs, and the spleen is somewhat
swelled.
Urtica urens 0, eight drops in water night
and morning.
December 22nd.-The angina
has returned badly.
Repeat the Bellis.
January 28th, 1892.-Much better
160 On Angina Pectoris.
all along the line, but he still gets a
good deal of pain behind the breast-
bone.
Arnica I.
March 2nd.-Gone back, and has
the angina now every day, and at
times badly at night right behind
the sternum.
R Bacill. CC.
April 1st.-Certainly feels better,
but complains of getting so fat.
Phytolacca decandra e (from the berries).
May 13th, 1893.-Almost well of
his angina.
Rep.
August 18th.-Been quite well.
May 19th, 1893.-Continues well.
May 1894. His son tells me his
father continues quite well, and is
abroad on business.
On Angina Pectoris. 161
FURTHER CASE OF ANGINA PECTORIS
CURED BY Phytolaccin.
The wife of the foregoing patient
went last year to a certain well-
known hydropathic establishment
and had Turkish baths, and finding
that the attendant or masseuse was
a sufferer from angina pectoris, and
was thus very painfully incommoded
in her daily work, told her of her
husband's cure of the same affection
by the writer. Said masseuse very
shortly afterwards came to consult
me on her own account; her suffer-
ings were considerable, and all the
more serious considering the nature
of her occupation. Patient had no
discoverable lesion, but she was
fleshy, somewhat stout, and of lax-
L
162
On Angina Pectoris.
fibre. I ordered her the Phytolacca,
and two months' use of it has seem-
ingly cured her. The case is recent,
so I cannot tell whether it is only
relieved or lastingly cured. In any
case she has now no pain, and her
health and spirits have very notably
improved.
OF
CASE OF ANGINA PECTORIS
LONG STANDING CURED BY
HEPATICS AND SPLENICS.
-
Years ago eight or nine-a
staff-officer brought his wife to me
for angina pectoris that had embit-
tered her life for years. None of
the means tried had done any good,
and a cure was not asked for or
expected. I found both spleen and
liver swelled; patient had lived long
On Angina Pectoris.
163
in India, and had had fever and
liver trouble there off and on. At
first I made no headway with the
case, as I used Aurum and other
cardiacs and our usual myotics. I
then used splenics on account of
the malarial history, and because
of a pain under the left ribs. The
angina was notably relieved.
Noticing one day that her soft
palate was very icteric, I gave he-
patics,―the one that acted promptly
and brilliantly being Hydrastis cana-
densis in small material doses. After
its use the angina receded into the
background, being complained of
only occasionally, and now for some
time not at all. In this case the
angina seemed a synalgia starting
at one time from the spleen, at
164 On Angina Pectoris.
another from the liver and spleen,
at another from the liver, and once.
in a way from the pit of the stomach,
and in the last case Prunus Vir-
giniana e promptly cleared the
matter up. I saw the case many
times and prescribed various reme-
dies, and thus satisfied myself of
the synalgic nature of the angina,
and that its point of origin was
always below the diaphragm, some-
times in the right hypochondrium
and sometimes in the left, and
occasionally from the pit of the
stomach.
Viscum album is a notable remedy,
and has its place in the treatment
of angina pectoris. There
certain cases of angina that are
are
On Angina Pectoris. 165
synalgiæ, starting from given points
in the abdomen, sometimes from
one ovary, at times from both
ovaries, and at others from beneath
the spleen, rather than from the
organ itself. In several of such
cases Viscum album 1* has helped
me.
Medorrhinum IN ANGINA
PECTORIS.
Were I asked which is the most
frequently - indicated remedy in
angina pectoris, and the one that
helps radically and really, I should
say Medorrh. C., CC., and M. I
have used it mostly in men, and
only in a high dilution. I will not
dwell upon the cases I have cured
or relieved by it, but its indication
166 On Angina Pectoris.
with me has been purely historic,
and on the principle of taking a hair
of the dog that bit you. There is
very commonly flatulent dyspepsia
present where it is indicated, and
often catarrh more or less inveterate :
true medorrhoea being the first
mother-Urmutter—of catarrhs.
THE MODES OF THOUGHT IN
THERAPEUTICS.
The modes of thought in medi-
cine are very important, as they
condition the mode of treatment:
those who think surgically treat
surgically, even when they administer
drugs. We are taught to regard
angina as a pure neuralgia, or as a
spasm, or as having atheroma of
the coronary artery, and all three
J.
On Angina Pectoris. 167
varieties doubtless exist; but to
treat angina successfully we must
take a much wider view and include
ætiologic considerations, not for-
getting those of the Coethen phase
of homoeopathy.-I refer to my
sulphur case of twenty years ago,
and which has tinged the whole of
my medical thoughts ever since.
Fag is a potent factor in angina,
and so is wounded pride and nerve
shock. Not infrequently fag and
shock combine to produce it. Take
the case of the late Sir Morton
Peto, who did great things and
many, and lived to be wounded to
the quick in his pride as a financial
giant he had angina pectoris from
the two factors combined.
The late Sir Samuel Baker, the
Vor M
168 On Angina Pectoris.
traveller, was a magnificent man of
power who did great things: he
had angina pectoris. One might
fill a book with such examples.
These aetiologic points are of
prime importance in the therapeutics
of angina pectoris.
•
M:QU
!
INDEX.
Acidum hippuricum, 4.
Aconite in neuralgia, 4, 120.
After-pain of shingles, 132.
""
"9
""
Mr Jonathan Hutchin-
son on, 133.
Allopathic poachings, 120.
99
treatment of neuralgia, 18.
Angina pectoris, cases of, 5, 34, 70, 85, 154,
""
""
""
156
158, 161, 162, 165.
causes of, 148, 149.
cured by hepatics and
splenics, 162.
cured by phytolacca decan-
dra 0, 158, 161.
cured by starvation - diet,
154.
Arsenic in neuralgia, 32.
Aurum in neuralgia, 34.
Bacill. in lightning pains, 141.
Bellis perennise in angina pectoris, 158.
Brow, neuralgia of left, 69.
Coccygodynia, 79.
Cuprum aceticum in neuralgia, 69.
170
Index.
Definition of neuralgia, 2.
""
""
pain, 11.
Dental neuralgia, 81.
Duval on synalgia, 94.
Enteralgia caused by tea, 32.
Ergot, action of, 15.
Eulenburg on hemicrania, 13.
Eyes, neuralgia of, 38, 49, 53, 56.
Facial neuralgia, 28, 61, 114.
Ferrum in neuralgia, 31.
Fromentel, M. de, on synalgia, 98.
Headache, neuralgic, 44.
sanguinaria in, 106.
Heart, neuralgia of the, 5, 34, 70.
Helmuth, Prof. T., on neuralgia of the
stump, 104.
Hemicrania, Eulenburg on, 13.
Hering, Dr, on sanguinaria, 106.
Homœopathy a law of Nature, 124.
Hughes, Dr, on Nat. mur., 26.
Hutchinson, Mr Jonathan, on the after-pain
of shingles, 133.
Hydrastis canadensis in angina pectoris, 163.
Injection, subcutaneous, evil of, 91.
Inter-costal neuralgia, 142.
Index.
171
Juglans cinerea in neuralgia, 72.
Lightning pains, 140.
Medorrhinum in angina pectoris, 165.
Mills, Dr, on sanguinaria, 109.
Modes of thought in therapeutics, 166.
Natrum muriaticum, 25.
Nature, homœopathy a law of, 124.
Neuralgia, inter-costal, 142.
Nitrite of amyl, action of, 16.
Ollivier, M. A., on synalgia, 95.
Pain a neuralgia, 1.
definition of, II.
""
"9
use of, 89.
Phosphorus in after-pain of shingles, 137.
""
neuralgia, 74.
Phytolacca decandra e in angina pectoris,
158, 161.
Prunus Virginiana e in angina pectoris, 164.
Quinia in neuralgia, 14, 30.
Rhus tox. in after-pain of shingles, 137.
Salt in neuralgia, 24.
Sanguinaria in headache, 106.
172
Index.
:
Sciatica, 79.
Shingles, after-pain of, 132.
Silver in neuralgia, 78.
Similars, the law of, 127.
Spigelia, 111.
Splenalgia, 145.
Stomach, neuralgia of the, 77.
Stump, neuralgia of, 103.
Sulphur in angina pectoris, 5.
Synalgia, 83.
""
""
Fromentel, M. de, on, 98.
Duval on, 94.
Ollivier, M. A., on, 95.
Therapeutics, modes of thought in, 166.
Thuja in neuralgia, 41.
Toothache, cause of, 81.
Urtica urens in inter-costal neuralgia, 144.
""
99
in splenalgia, 146.
Viscum album in angina pectoris, 164.
Zincum in neuralgia, 77.
PRINTED BY Oliver and boyd, edinburgh.
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