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Here was a dilemma. Never until that hour had I ever heard homoeopathy
spoken of, by either a medical professor or one of my professional
brethren, except with contempt and ridicule. "But," I said to myself, "if
there is any truth in homoeopathy I ought to know it, and I cannot treat
this physician's testimony with contempt; and it is a duty which I owe to
my fellow-men, and especially to my patients, to investigate the new system
carefully." I immediately went and purchased the books, and he give me six
bottles of medicine, and I took them back with me to Chesterfield. I
remember making but one Homoeopathic prescription before leaving
Chesterfield, and that was for a case of uterine hemorrhage, which I had
treated unsuccessfully for some time with allopathic remedies. I looked
over my Homoeopathic books carefully and found that China (cinchona) was
indicated. As that remedy was not among the bottles of medicated pellets
which my medical friend had given me, I directed that one drop of the
ordinary tincture of Peruvian bark should be dropped into a glass of water,
and that, after stirring it well, one teaspoonful of the solution thus made
should be given three or four times a day. The patient commenced improving
immediately, and was soon well.
Soon after that I removed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and commenced anew the
practice of medicine. I then had neither the knowledge nor the faith in
homoeopathy which I thought would justify me in treating any serious case
of disease with homoeopathic remedies; but I did not neglect to study the
new books. One day, a friend of my younger days, who was residing at Grand
Haven, came into my office and said that he had been suffering from the
toothache for several days, and that he did not like to have the tooth
extracted, and he wanted to know if I could do anything for it without
extracting it. I told him that I had recently obtained some homoeopathic
books and remedies, and that I had noticed that remedies were spoken of for
toothache. So I looked over my books and selected Belladonna as the remedy
suitable in his case, and gave him a dose of it and other doses to take
with him if he needed them. We talked in the office for a short time, and
then we walked up to the hotel where he was stopping; as we entered, he
stood still a moment and remarked: "Well, my tooth does not ache as
severely as it did." I saw him weeks afterward, and he told me that he had
not had the toothache from the hour he took the medicine.
Away in that new place, then a village of about one thousand inhabitants,
with no homoeopathic physician within a hundred miles of me, I commenced
cautiously the use of the new remedies; first in mild cases of disease, and
in cases where Allopathic treatment failed to produce the desired effect.
Among the first of the serious cases where I used the remedies was a case
of pneumonia. A young man had been very sick with that disease for many
days. I had resorted vigorously to the antiphlogistic treatment then in
vogue; a consulting physician was called, and at last we told the family
that our patient could not live until the next morning. I then said to the
consulting physician: "I have some homoeopathic remedies; suppose we try
them?" His reply was: "It does not make any difference what you try; he
will not live until morning." Under such circumstances I felt that I was
justified in trying the new remedies. I accordingly dissolved a few pellets
of Aconite in a glass of water, and of Bryonia alb. in another glass of
water, and directed that a teaspoonful of the solution of Aconite should be
given once an hour for five hours, and that a similar dose of Bryonia be
given instead of Aconite every sixth hour. I sat down by his bedside and
watched his case for two hours. At the end of that period I found that his
pulse was five beats less frequent in a minute, and that his breathing was
a little easier. The next morning all of his dangerous symptoms had
disappeared, and in a reasonable period of time he was restored to health.
I talked with the consulting physician about his unexpected recovery, and
we were, disposed to think that we had made a false prognosis, and that he
would have recovered any way. Still, the case made some impression on me;
so that in the next case of pneumonia to which I was called, I resolved to
try the same remedies in the same way. The patient was a man about forty
years of age. Under the action of the Aconite and Bryonia the patient about
held his own, neither gaining nor losing very perceptibly for about three
days. At the end of that period I became alarmed, and felt that if the
patient were to die I should be guilty of the crime of manslaughter. I
discontinued the treatment, and resorted to the then regular antiphlogistic
treatment; the patient immediately began to get worse, and at the end of
three days more he was a very sick man. I then came to the conclusion that
my patient had done much better under the homoeopathic treatment than he
had under the Allopathic, and I discontinued the latter and returned to the
former, giving the Aconite and Bryonia. The patient ceased to grow worse;
he held his own for two or three days, then he began to improve, and was
soon restored to health. From that day to this I have never bled a patient
suffering from either pneumonia or pleurisy, neither have I applied a
blister, or given a cathartic, or an Allopathic dose of tartar emetic, or
an opiate, or any form of alcoholic or fermented drinks, either during the
continuance of the above-named diseases or during convalescence; nor have I
ever regretted, in a single instance, not having done so.
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