Zinc
suppression in children.
By Julia M. Green, M. D.
Presented by Sylvain Cazalet
Dr Julia M. GreenAll homœopathic
physicians learn a great deal about suppression in the course of long
practice ; they cannot help it, if they would, in this day of great
wear and tear, hurry and worry, strong drugging, injection treatment.
When the effects show viciously in little children the spectacle is
truly pathetic, even tragic.This short paper aims
to report three desperate acute cases and two chronic ones in which Zinc
unlocked closed doors and set a child upon the path to health.This case was reported
once to the I. H. A. It is referred to again because it belongs to this
Zinc group. During the severe influenza epidemic of 1918 this boy was
given up to die with double pneumonia and suspected empyema.He had been ill four or
five days, had been given, as I recall it, acetanilid, strychnia and
Brown’s mixture for the cough ; as vitality waned, the dosage of
these drugs was tripled. Aspiration of the chest had been considered,
but not done, on account of the low condition of the patient, Homœopathy
was tried as a last resort.After ordering an
interval of several hours without medicine, I went at night to sit by
the bedside and watch for symptoms. Suppression had been so violent that
nothing could be observed but deep coma, irregular pulse and
respiration, great pallor with bluish tint about eyes and mouth. He was
entirely limp and barely alive. Finally I noticed a few fine muscular
twitchings. After nearly four hours the eyelids parted and the high,
shrill cry came, “Rub my feet”. The mother complied, telling
me that the child had asked for this before he went into coma and had
been soothed by the rubbing. Another long silence was interrupted by the
same cry, a little stronger. “Rub my feet quick. Rub my
hands.” Here was only one symptom but in the “stranger, rare
and peculiar” class always welcomed by the homœopathic prescriber.
Taken along with the evident deep suppression, it was sufficient. A dose
of Zinc 10M brought that boy back to consciousness within an hour,
caused him to announce of his own accord that the pain in his chest was
better now and allowed the doctor to go home in the early morning sure
of victory. No other medicine was needed ; the dose was repeated
once in the next ten days and within two weeks the boy was dressed,
playing on the floor.During my absence last
Christmas a girl of eight had an attack of grippe. A local doctor was
called who prescribed a codeine mixture for the cough. Next day he
pronounced it pneumonia, took the child to the local hospital, started
oxygen and a heart tonic. On my return two days later the frantic mother
begged me to do something the patient was desperately ill, was given
oxygen all the time and had had a blood transfusion that morning.The child had been my
patient since two years old and family history plus her own health
history was anything but good. I called up the doctor, staling my
position as family physician and asking what he thought of her, hoping
he would offer to withdraw, he did not do so. I told him the mother’s
request of me and proposed that he allow me to do the drug prescribing
and he keep on with adjuvant treatment. He balked at stopping the
codeine mixture because she was so weak, he would not like to have her
cough hard, but finally he consented provided I would tell him what I
was giving. So I wrote it on the hospital chart, “Zinc one
thousandth potency” and wondered what he thought of it. The child
was semiconscious, markedly cyanotic, moaning with every breath, chest
loaded with coarse rales, pulse thready, irritable, restless,
oversensitive to noise, voice high pitched and weak. The medicine was
given in mid-forenoon. That evening showed some general
improvement ; next morning she was bright, color fair, moaning
stopped, resting quietly. Next day the doctor charted a normal
temperature and clear chest. In two days she was taken home, made a very
rapid recovery, needed no more medicine.The doctor did not
communicate with me ; I never saw him ; he had made no comment
to the parents, so probably he thinks his treatment triumphed in spite
of mine. What is the use trying to disillusion him ?Late one evening this
spring a frantic call came from a father who had heard of the last case.
This time it was a four weeks old baby given up to die of pneumonia by
the doctor in charge. It had been a breech presentation at birth with
deep cyanosis and a long time before respiration was established. In
fact the child had cried only twice in the four weeks of its life,
seeming weak but not ill ; a breast-fed baby. It had been taken to
a hospital in the middle of that day, the fourth day of illness which
began with only snuffles. This child, too, had been given something to
stop the cough which it did promptly and effectively. Oxygen was used
and some sort of heart stimulant. Transfusion had been advised but
refused by the father.I found this tiny mite
of humanity lying quite limp, eyes closed, lips parted, blue all over,
skin rather cool, respiration gasping for five or six breaths then no
respiration for 3/4 minute, then five or six more gasps and the same
intervals ; pulse very thready during the attempts at respiration’s
and gone in the interval between ; ability to swallow gone.I did not wonder that
the doctor in charge had felt hopeless. However, I watched closely for a
time, could not find more symptoms except slight twitching of facial
muscles and a chest just loaded with mucus.So I put a dose of Zinc
1M, on the little tongue, with a few drops of water to moisten it and
sat, watch in hand, counting the respiration’s and intervals. In twenty
minutes respiration’s were nine or ten before the interval. In another
twenty minutes they were twelve or fourteen, the interval a little
shorter and pulse correspondingly more perceptible. This went on until
she breathed once 33 times before stopping and color was decidedly
better. She opened her eyes once but they closed again. Then she
suddenly dropped back to the first state. A second dose of Zinc 1M
produced slow improvement which did not reach half way to the highest
point before the sudden drop. A third dose did very little. It was the
wee small hours and my little patient was growing weaker.I had questioned the
mother about symptoms which preceded the suppression of the cough and
secured a fair picture of Kali-bi. This was given in the 1M, a single
dose. Again reaction was slow but quite perceptible for half an hour,
again the sudden dropping back. Repetition did not do much but the child
was holding her own, not improving. At five A. M., I left, not knowing
what else to do and believing vitality was too low for recovery. The
same intervals in respiration over and over, the same cyanosis and utter
limpness. Later in that forenoon received the message that the baby was
much better. Hurrying back, I found that she began to move arms and legs
and open eyes about 9.30 and that she had cried twice and coughed once.
Color had become nearly normal and respiration had been continuous for
about an hour and a half. When I arrived, however, she was blue again
and had slipped back into the old condition though not so bad. The
hospital people would not co-operate at all, so she was taken
home ; almost died on arrival but revived with oxygen and Kali-bi.
To make a long story
short, she began next day vomiting thick mucus, quantities of it and
passed more in her greenish stools. The chest cleared nicely during the
next three days and temperature dropped. She continued with spells of
cyanosis and irregular respiration until I gave one dose of Lachesis
1M., no more after that.Fever rose again once
and was gone when both ears began to discharge.Four weeks after this
desperate illness, she had gained a pound and a half.Another crisis of those
first days was the sudden vanishing of the mother’s milk from anxiety
and long nursing. A dose of Caust. set this right within a few hours.At four months she had
doubled her birth weight. Now for chronic conditions :In infancy a boy had a
bad eczema on the scalp and some on the face. This was suppressed over
and over during the first two years of life by a skin specialist who
bound up the head with salves and ointments. Whenever the eruption
appeared again after an interval, more treatment was given until there
was no return.I saw this boy first at
5 years. He was then pale with waxy pallor, puffy under the eyes, easily
tired, not equal to one half the play other boys his age could stand and
very nervous. He was in his first year at public school and could not
stand it ; was in school half a day, then must be put to bed at
least two hours. Sometimes four. After playing for two hours would throw
himself down to rest. He had naturally a quiet, sweet disposition but
when tired was cross and very restless, complaining frequently of
twitching in his legs and aching legs and head ; could not get to
sleep on account of fidgety legs. He was hungry frequently but seemed
ill nourished. He had high fever at times without apparent cause or any
but these nervous symptoms. If he had a cold or any acute attack, he was
long recovering.Zinc had changed all
this. Treatment was begun in August 1937. Now he has been in school
since last fail with only one break when he had a very light attack of
the epidemic grippe, in bed only two days and back to school in five.
His color is good and weight normal. Nervous symptoms are gone. The
eruption has not returned as yet. He has had two doses of Zinc 10M., two
of 50M. and one of CM.This is the boy’s elder
sister who was nine when I gave her Zinc 10M, for her disposition. She
had been always irritable, contrary, mean, cruel, unkind, selfish,
unsubdued by punishment, discordial, thinking of most unexpected mean
things to do and say.Belonging to reasonable
and rich parents, but inheriting deep miasmatic tendencies from both,
she acted to me like a child emotionally imprisoned, suppressed in her
real nature. She is a delicate-featured, beautiful child to look at, so
these evidences of emotional unbalance were more striking. Her mother’s
case worked out to Zinc and I decided to try it on her. The result is
truly wonderful transformation and her parents are most grateful.
Source :
Homœopathic Recorder, Dec. 1939.
Copyright © Sylvain
Cazalet 2001
