Initial experiences with homœopathy

Initial experiences with homoeopathy J. D. HALISSY, MB, BCH, FRCS Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, fellow colleagues; Dr Jack does the honour of asking me to say a few words about m y experience with hom0eopathy. On the typed sheet it refers to my initial experiences with hom0eopathy, but it would be nearer the truth had he written "my inexperience with homoeopathy"; for I regard myself a mere beginner wearing my homaeopathic L-plate, fore and aft; groping in the dark and trying to gain a working knowledge of this most difficult art. Up to two and a half years ago I was totally ignorant of what homoeopathy was all about. The subject was never mentioned during my medical undergraduate and postgraduate years. Vaguely I recall as a boy hearing a relative mention that she had consulted a hom0eopath, but for what reason I do not remember. Later, when walking along Easy Row, following the Birmingham Blitz of November 1940, I looked up at a bomb-damaged building and noticed on the stone frontage the words "HOM(EOPATHIC HOSPITAL". This had no meaning for me and I was incurious enough neither to consult a dictionary, nor to ask anyone to explain it to me. Such then was my non-acquaintance with homoeopathy. About two and a half years ago I was on a weekend visit with an old medical colleague in North Staffordshire. The conversations, as you might expect, touched on matters medical; our opinion of the NHS, and perhaps airing our various disillusionments with medicine in general. His wife, no doubt bored with having heard all this many times before, and glad to be rid of us for the afternoon, suggested we motor up to Kendal, where she had read in the local paper that a homaeopathic meeting was being arranged for the benefit of interested local practitioners. No doubt she hoped that this might give us something different to talk about. We reached Kendal in time for the meeting and sat down among a small company of doctors assembled for the occasion. Proceedings began with an introductory talk which I vaguely understood. This was followed by a number of papers on the virtues of a host of remedies, none of which, except for one or two, I had even heard of before. As the afternoon went on I found myself getting more and more confused. This reached its climax as I listened to a lengthy discourse on the wonderful effects of Natrum tour. when given in infinitesimal doses to restore to health patients afflicted with a variety of disorders. I did recognize that Natrum tour. was simply a fanciful name for common salt, but it seemed against all reason to assume that a tiny extra amount A paper read at the 22nd Tutorial of the Midlands Branch, The Faculty of Homoeopathy,at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham,on 10 January 1981. Volume 70, Number2, April 1981

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of sodium chloride could possibly make any difference to an organism such as the living human body, which is already supplied through ingestion with large quantities of this substance. At the end of the day I expressed my feelings of scepticism to some of our lecturers, who were very kind and sympathetic listeners, and did their best to englighten me. Though by no means convinced at the time by their explanations, I did quickly realise I was not talking to quacks or cranks, but to doctors who possessed a vastly superior knowledge of general medicine compared with my own.

Before we left for home, I was encouraged to take some homoeopathic !iterature which was on display, and also that I should contact Dr Jack who would keep me informed about the tutorial classes held here in Birmingham. As you can see, I have followed their advice and have never regretted doing so. I am indeed most grateful to all who have been instrumental in getting me involved in this most fascinating branch of medicine. The sad part is perhaps that of coming to hom~eopathy late in life, at a time when many of us of my age are thinking of retiring completely from medical practice. I dipped into the textbooks in my more leisurely moments, and attended some of the elementary courses at the Royal London Hom~eopathic Hospital. My problem, however, was when and where to put into practice such knowledge as I had managed to pick up during the ensuing months. Mental laziness was the most likely explanation for a failing to make a serious attempt at treating patients using homoeopathic remedies; but eventually I made a start. Manipulative medicine is a side line of mine and I have been trained to manipulate painful backs and necks. One of the factors, understandably, on which any successful manipulation depends, is that, the patient be nicely relaxed, but equally understandably, a patient in pain and discomfort does not always readily comply. Arnica proved very useful; I massaged the painful part with the cream prior to manipulation, and afterwards prescribed it to be taken by mouth, in the belief that Arnica treats the effects of whatever trauma one might have inflicted upon the intervertebral ligaments and muscles. Manipulation is no one hundred per cent cure for the pain and stiffness of spinal arthritis; and so for my failures I gave Causticum. Many of these patients were relieved of their symptoms and I was very pleased with the results. Chamomilla of course I discovered was very useful in the teething troubles of children, and Drosera did seem to relieve the severity of coughing spasms in whooping cough. Bryonia syrup for smoker's cough earned for me the gratitude of the victims of the tobacco addiction, as well as that of members of their families who were nightly disturbed by the noise. I next began to give my attention to those conditions for which there is no avs able aUopathic remedy or where, at best, the remedy is only slightly effective. Painful breasts, especially those associated with interstitial mastiffs, responded well to courses of Photolacca 30c. In some cases I found the tibrocystic changes appeared to have diminished after several weeks of treatment, and in one case I was able to feel an isolated mobile nodule, which I had failed to detect at the first examination. I referred the patient without delay to hospital for surgery, and the 106

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histological report confirmed that the nodule was in fact a simple fibro-adenoma. Tinnitus is a notoriously distressing complaint, but I have had a few successes using Chininum sulphuricum, i.e. sulphite of quinine. Lastly, I should like to mention a case which I had followed closely throughout, and is still of interest and concern to me. A young dentist friend of mine had the misfortune to rupture his Achilles tendon on the squash court, and eventually was admitted for surgical repair of the tendon. Unfortunately the wound broke down post-operatively and a large area at the back of the heel sloughed, producing a continuous offensive discharge. He was given every available treatment, including applications of pig-skin grafts, and other kinds which I had never heard of before. By September 1980, that is six months after the operation, the wound had reached the static size of 5.5 by 3.5 cm. Early in December I started him on a course of Silica. In ten days the wound had reduced to 4 by 2 cm; and by a week ago it had further reduced in size to 2.5 by 1 cm. Up to this time I had been using homoeopathic remedies solely for specific conditions; in other words I was treating pathologically, which I understand is not homoeopathic therapy at its best. But now I was coming to realise the significance and importance of the symptoms termed mentals in the construction of the disease picture. A patient of mine in her sixties on a holiday in Edinburgh had a coronary attack producing an antrioventricular heart block. She was taken into the cardiac emergency ward of the Infirmary and later had a pacemaker implanted in her chest. When she came home, her physical condition was excellent, but she confided to me that she was in a continual state of fear and panic. She was convinced that the pacemaker within her was insecure and likely to slip down at any time with a fatal outcome. She slept badly and had frequent dreams of impending death. I was aware that Arnica was a useful remedy in all cases of muscle damage, including the heart, but when I re-read the provings I was interested to note that the mentals included symptoms closely resembling my patient's. I therefore prescribed Arnica. Her mental state improved immeasurably, and she quickly recovered her former calm cheerful disposition. Many of you, I am sure, have patients with relatively non-serious conditions who are depressed and bemoan their lot. Even when you succeed in easing their major symptoms they are sure to find something else to complain about. Sepia I have found helpful in coping with these problem cases, and I feel the remedy has well earned its title of being the specific for the patient who complains of everything. The majority of my patients whom I have attempted to treat hom0eopathically are on my NHS list, but following the television programme of some months ago, I have had many requests from people who wished to consult me privately. With a certain degree of reluctance, for I am no expert in this field of medicine, I have been seeing these patients and doing the best I can for them. Not knowing anything about the medical background of these cases, I have had to set a time apart outside my NHS practice hours in order to obtain detailed histories. Quite Volume 70, Number 2, April 1981 107

unashamedly I work from a printed sheet so that I do not omit to put the relevant questions, and I record the patient's answers in writing. I see each case again a week later, while in the meantime I thumb through the repertory and read the textbooks, hoping to discover an answer to the problem. Frequently, no doubt, the outcome is a hit or miss affair, but I have had some successes. A man aged fifty-two years, with frequent diarrhoea of unknown origin, despite the fullest of hospital investigations, responded dramatically to doses ofApis mel. I had to visit him at his own house because he could not risk the short journey to see me. After two consultations he wrote to say he was completely rid of his complaint; there was no further need for me to call and would I send him my account. A woman who for years displayed a skin allergy to many common drugs, such as aspirin, paracetamol, and phenacetin, and was afraid to take anything for even the severest of headaches, was benefited by doses of Psorinum in high potency. She now can use paracetamol without producing a reaction. As beginners we have been taught to recognise the constitutional type: to seek out the appropriate constitutional remedy. Personally I have found all this extremely difficult and rarely have I been able to make a spot diagnosis, except in this particular case. An acquaintance of mine, not my patient, was being treated by her own doctor for angular stomatitis. Despite all the usual allopathic remedies, local and general, the condition dragged on for several months. She was a woman very particular about her appearance and very conscious of any blemish. In desperation she begged me to suggest something, knowing that I had some interest in hom~eopathy. I was most reluctant to interfere as I was aware that her doctor was anti-homoeopathically inclined, and worse still, he happened to be a personal friend of mine. Without attempting to go into her medical history, I was already convinced that she was a classical Arsenicum type. She was very restless and could never sit still for five minutes, but had to get up to adjust the curtains or the gas fire. I wrote on a scrap of paper Arsenicum alb.30c which she presented to the local chemist. To her great delight, and mine, the angular stomatitis completely cleared up within two weeks while taking the tablets. To avoid embarrassment I asked her to give her own doctor's treatment the credit when she next went to see him. The constitutional remedy is without doubt the correct approach to successful homoeopathy, and it is one that grows more attractive and reasonable as one comes to grasp the underlying principle of the similimum. To put this into practice I have found the greatest difficulty, largely because I am not sufficiently experienced to form a clear disease picture out of a host of frequently ill-defined historical data. Perhaps it may be that in many cases the stains, blemishes, or miasms, as Hahnemann termed them, of inherited or acquired disease of early life blur, distort, or even greatly alter the disease pattern. With this possible explanation in mind, should I now attempt my plan of treatment in this order: to seek out the miasmic component of the patient's disorder and treat it first; then later to reassess the ease with the hope that the constitutional picture will emerge more clearly formed, out of the clinical mists? 108

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