Homœopathic
equivalents of endocrinological remedies in pediatrics.
by Dr Elizabeth Wright Hubbard
Presented by Sylvain Cazalet(Read before I. H. A., Bureau of
Obstetrics and Pediatrics, June 19,
1937.)
Dr E. Wright
HubbardAt the risk of
repeating a truism must begin our brief consideration of the homœopathic
equivalents of endocrinological remedies with the statement that the
most active force for the restoration of normal balance between the
endocrine glands is the homœopathic simillimum,
whatever that may be, whether or no it has ever before been connected
with gland function.Ordinary medicine
endeavors to replace the lack of glandular activity by administering
extracts of animal glands and this often means the continuation of such
adjuvant treatment indefinitely. Although the symptoms may clear up
there is no tendency to increase the activity of the deficient glands,
indeed vitality which they have a” may be atrophied by such
pandering to their weakness. The indicated remedy stimulates the vital
force and tends to produce increasing and harmonious action of the
glandular tissue.To speak of any
definite remedies smacks, as usual, of pathological prescribing and yet
there are certain remedies whose frequency of indication is notable in
certain syndromes. For instance, the infant who does not develop, who is
late in walking, teething and talking suggests Calcarea
carb., Natrum mur., Calcarea phos. or Silica. The symptoms in
these little ones are mostly objective and require watching and
deliberation. Often if the fundamental chronic remedies of the parents
are known or can be ascertained, they illuminate the baby’s case, as
remedies run in families. Also, if the miasmatic trend of the family be
known, the suitable nosode may open up the case.Some fundamental
pituitary difficulties cause dwarfism or gigantism. Dwarfs very often
need Med. or Syph. and sometimes Mercurius,
or if complicated with cretinism. Baryta carb. Giants
run to such remedies as Phos., Calc. phos. or
Sulph. The fat boy of the comics -adiposa dolorosa- with the
piping voice needs Graphites, Calc.,
or other remedies. In my practice recently a boy of nine years was
brought to me for extreme weakness and breathlessness on any exertion
and for a hysteric disposition. Short, fat, blonde, precocious, craving
air, no physical signs except big tonsils and a very rapid heart.
Frequent nose bleeds when washing the face, chilliness ; Amm.
carb. 50M., one dose. Within a week, instead of weeping from
exhaustion from the least exercise, the boy was asking to play with his
peers and after one repetition four months later was able to practice in
the school scrub football team without undue acceleration of the pulse
or fatigue. The parents came of a deeply psoric stock, the mother also
sycotic, having needed Graphites and
Med.Thyroid difficulties
are the most frequent. In the hyperthyroid cases homœopathy is at its
best. Iodum, Nat. mur., Spongia and
many others will remove the dangerous symptoms. In hypothyroidism Baryta
carb., Calc. carb. and iodatum
and Med. shine. Some of our
physicians prescribe Thyreoidinum in
potency. I have had little experience with it except in slowing the
heart. Fucus is very popular among
the German homœopaths and Lycopus
is to be considered. Sometimes in low thyroid conditions Sulphur
will start the ball rolling.A girl at puberty, sent
by the teacher because of stupidity and poor coordination. Father
abnormally stout, girl was over weight, excessive jaw, eyebrows meet in
the middle, menses very scanty and black, skips months, frequent urging
to urination with no results, stool in balls, bites nails, sick from
candy which she craves, nightmare, fullness over the thyroid gland,
basal metabolism -12, history of discharging left ear with excoriation
and blisters suppressed. Sulphur
1M., one dose. Within a week teacher reports increased tidiness, child
more awake, studying much better and family report disposition at home
entirely changed, now sunny where she was irritable and egotistic, which
I had not known. Calcarea will probably follow.Girl of six, stout, dry
skin, Hutchinson’s teeth, protruding ears, narrow high palate, history
of psoriasis in the mother and acute syphilis in the father. Basal
metabolism -15. Pale, listless, peevish, picks nose, itching rectum,
stool examination shows worms. Cina 1M., one dose. Several worms passed,
child eats better and is less anæmic. Eruption developed around the
mouth with brownish crusts, cracks in the corners of the mouth. Graphites
200, one dose. Face cleared, rash developed on the forearms, excoriating
leucorrhœa (in a child of six). Teeth are black, child will not eat
meat, oily perspiration, aggravation from dark until morning. Merc.
viv. 10M., one dose. New teeth coming in sound. After some
interval and an attack of chicken-pox gave this child Syph.
1M., one dose, with great improvement. This case shows the necessity of
shifting remedies in complicated cases. The child has gotten thinner,
brighter, and more biddable. All her symptoms are much improved, basal
metabolism -4.Ovarian difficulties
offer a famous field for homœopathy and its success with climacteric
symptoms obviates the need for corpus luteum or ovarian extract. Apis,
Lachesis, Sanguinaria, Sepia, are sheet anchors here.Boys with undescended
testicles often respond to Aurum if
the background suggests it ; and there is no better gonadal
stimulant than Lycopodium.These fragmentary
suggestions are merely to show that the indicated remedy profoundly
affects the endocrines along with the whole constitution and to
recommend its use instead of the substitutional methods of usual
endocrinology.
New York, N. Y.
DISCUSSION.
Dr. Grimmer :
In rising to speak
about the point that Dr. Hubbard mentioned about the shifting of
remedies, is certain chronic cases I thick it is justifiable and we have
Hahnemann and Kent both to justify that point. In the mixture of miasms
where one miasm is improved for a while under a deep remedy, it is
usually psoric. Indeed, we sometimes find then the syphilitic or
tubercular miasm coming up, which will require a chronic remedy of a
different nature and that must be given for a while.
Dr. Kent :
pspeaks of that procedure
in his Philosophy on Chronic Disease ; and that is why we do
sometimes meet cases that require a succession of remedies of an
entirely different nature until the whole economy is brought into a
state of harmony where one remedy is finally found that you can give
through a series and cure that case.
Dr. Hubbard :
I wonder if I might ask
Dr. Grimmer if he thinks I would have been better off if I had started
that girl with Syphilinum. It didn’t occur to me though she had
definitely inherited syphilis, but she did not have the symptoms then.
Dr. Grimmer :
The result of the
doctor’s prescription is justified by her -results. I thought strongly
of Syphilinum, and you have done it.
Dr. Wilson :
Did you not say that she
had Hutchinson’s teeth ? That was enough. I surely would have given
her Syphilinum right away, with Hutchinson’s teeth.
Dr. Dixon :
Speaking of the shifting
of your remedies, it is interesting to read Burnett’s old book, and know
of the really national reputation that the man attained through
alternations of Bacillinum, our Tuberculinum, and Thuja in those
enlarged tonsils in children. I don’t know whether he gave a single
remedy or alternated them at the same time. I am in a quandary to tell
from his case reports, but the man really did excellent work with either
the combination or the alternation, or the repeating of first one and
than the other of those two remedies in those cases. I find that a dose
of Tuberculinum, followed with Thuja later on- I have never alternated
them-but they clear up surprisingly large numbers of those tonsils in
children.
Dr. Hayes :
In regard to that point
which Dr. Hubbard inquires about and Dr. Grimmer discussed. I think it
is true that we must have order in our prescribing, and I think that the
old rule to prescribe for the last symptoms first is, with possible
exceptions, to be depended on. If we do that. I think we will find the
condition improves. There are clear-cut indications for the next remedy
and I think that is one proof that the method is justified.
Dr. Grimmer :
There is a point I
should like to inquire of the society. I heard it said by some very good
men, and I have confirmed the observation by experience, that you will
rarely cure any case of chronic disease with a nosode. You will have to
give other remedies. I should like to heat what others have to say about
that.
Dr. Charles Boericke :
I should like
to ask Dr. Hubbard if she has ever used endocrines in potency for these
endocrinological cases. B. & T. put out a series of endocrines in
potency of 6x., 30, and so forth.
Dr. Hubbard :
With the exception of
Thyreoidinum. Which I have used in the 200th and never with very
pleasing results to me (although it has slowed the heart, but it always
seemed rather mechanical). I never have used the others. Perhaps I
should. I personally don’ts like to give Diphtherinum or to give some of
those potentized things from diseases themselves. I don’t know why, but
I have an instinct I would rather give some remedy in nature in
potentized form if I can, unless it is one of the great nosodes of the
miasms.I am vary much interested in Dr. Grimmer’s remark
about not curing a case with a nosode. I was hastily trying to think if
I had ever seen one I felt had been cured with a nosode and nothing
else, either before or after. The proportion of chronic cases curable
with one remedy anyway is relatively small, although sometimes there
will be a brilliant one.I wonder if there is any difference in the nature of
the remedies and in the class of remedy they use. For instance, I am of
the opinion that often you see a Silica case which is purely and clearly
and totally Silica more than almost any other remedy. I have had some
chronic cases that cleared up with Silica and nothing else and I don’t
know whether that is the case with elements in general rather than with
the mixed salts or the more complicated remedies. I would be interested
to hear what anybody would think about that.
Dr. Grimmer :
I have cured some very
chronic cases with Sepia and no other remedy.
Dr. Hubbard :
But that is a
complicated remedy chemically. I am interested in the elements as such,
whether they are more searching.
Dr. Underhill, Jr. :
In my
experience the nosodes are very essential many times in clearing the
field, as Dr Grimmer says, for the remedial action of other drugs, but
very seldom or practically never do you find that they actually complete
the case.
Dr Thomas K. MooreDr. Moore :
I have had a case that
might illustrate that. We frequently prescribe once, or I do, and never
see the patient again. About two weeks before coming down here, I had a
mother and daughter come in. The trouble was called rose fever, and they
were given potentized timothy, and they came into report. They had both
been relieved up-to-date and there was a little starting now again.
Timothy was given again with absolutely no effect.
Dr. Wilson :
Brother Chairman, I
wonder why Dr. Moore gave timothy, it isn’t in blossom now. They
couldn’t have been affected by timothy.
Dr. Moore :
It runs in my mind it was
timothy. It was at least the one that was in flower at the time they
were in.
Dr. Wilson :
I was about to say that
was brought up once in a meeting years and years ago. Of course, timothy
isn’t in flower now.
Dr. Moore :
I am sorry we have a
botanist here with us. I thought I could get away with that.
Dr. Wilson :
We do know they are
using the potentized pollens of various things, ragweed, and so forth,
and I have the potency of timothy myself. I have never had occasion to
use it, but I just wondered why you used it then.
Dr. Moore :
Whatever it was -selected
because it was in season at the time they were in. I remember that.
Dr. Allen :
Not on totality of the
symptoms ?
Dr. Moore :
Not at all.
Dr. Hubbard :
I wonder if Dr.
Boericke would give, an answer to his own question. I don’t have it.
Perhaps he has more experience.
Dr. Charles Boericke :
My results
have not been phenomenal by any means. I have used on occasions B. &
T’s preparation of Ovarian Extract in 6x. and 30th potency for the same
indications that the orthodox school might give the hormone such as
theelin or progenon. So far as I can say, I think the results are as
good as one gets with substitution therapy from the orthodox basis.But I don’t think that the results have been
definitely curative such as we have looked for ; in other words, it
is exactly the same as any other type of substitution therapy, but as it
goes, I feel from my very brief experience with it, that the results are
equal to the orthodox way of proceeding.
Dr Eugene UnderHillDr. Underhill Jr :
May I say one more
word ? I think the urge to experiment hits us all at some time
during the course of our practice. A number of years ago I had a case
that I had taken care of for eleven years, up to the time of the
rheumatoid arthritis, barring that of my own father that I have ever
seen. This woman’s knees were the largest I had ever yet seen and they
were ankylosed, and the fingers and hands were terribly distorted.I took a specimen of her blood and sent it to B.
& T. to have it potentized, and ran it to 30, 200, 1M. potencies,
and when I hopelessly fell down on some cases of arthritis, I tried
that, but -with no results whatever-nothing I could detect.Well, I might say that finally the patient died and
the family continued under my care. Her daughter is married and has a
daughter around ten or twelve years old. One day she came in with the
same kind of appearance of the skin that her mother had. Now, her mother
had a peculiar appearance of the skin almost like a honeycomb
tripe-ichthyosis.This was so strikingly similar to that of her
mother’s condition, and she began to complain of pains in the joints,
that the temptation to try her mother’s potentized blood, on her, was
too great for me and I gave it, and I got action. It flared her up
terribly and laid her right up in bed, but I stuck to my guns and did
nothing. I didn’t dare repeat it and I didn’t dare do anything else, and
I let the case ride, so, after a terrific aggravation, she made a
beautiful recovery and the ichthyosis has cleared up and never
returned ; but I have never dared give her another dose.Her mother though dead-her mother’s blood-still had
power when it came to her own daughter. The relationship between mother
and daughter there was what made it take hold, and not the fact of the
arthritis.
Dr A. H. Grimmer
Dr Thomas K. MooreDr. Grimmer :
It was more like an
autogenous thing.
Dr. Underhill :
Something on that
order.
Dr. Hubbard :
That case of ichthyosis
makes me think that I have a young man that I have had in my practice
for three years, who has one of the worst cases of ichthyosis you can
imagine. He can never go in swimming because he is a sight from his
wrist to his neck. Luckily, he has none on his hands and face. Otherwise
he is an extremely husky boy of twenty-three, and I have given him his
chronic remedy as it came out, which is Phosphorus. Strangely enough,
you would never think of Phosphorus in ichthyosis, but that is what his
remedy was and he, is so much better, although he has had that all his
life, from babyhood-it is so much better that he is now able to wear, if
not the most modern bathing suit, at least some bathing suit, and
feeling self-conscious.
Dr. Charles Boericke :
It has come to
my mind that last year I took the post-graduate course at Cleveland, and
Dr. Jeremiah Simonson addressed us on pediatrics. You all know Dr.
Simonson as one of our leading pediatric clinicians in the United
States. Dr. Simonson uses homœopathy consistently in the New York
College in the pediatric wards. He does not perhaps use homœopathy as
we use it, but he uses low potency homœopathy routinely. He made one
rather dramatic statement. Somebody asked him what he considered to be
perhaps the most valuable homœopathic medicine in pediatrics, and he
said, “Unquestionably and without qualification Bacillinum.”Somebody asked, “What potency ?”
He said, “One thousand,” and he went on to
say that all of those numerous antipsoric children, of which they have
many, he routinely starts out from their clinical examination of
tubercular diathesis, with four doses and four only, Bacillinum
1M. at two-week intervals. He said that, unfortunately, in a large
institution like that, they cannot individualize, so it is necessary to
put down routine orders for the intervals to carry out, but when those
children come in and are put in that category, that is the routine, not
over four doses of Bacillinum 1M. at
two-week intervals. He said the results have been so altogether amazing
and startling that he never hoped to offer an explanation of it but that
it does work.
Dr. Allen :
I thing we have all seen
different new remedies, such as the endocrine products, come and
go ; but we know what our own will do and I guess the majority of
us will stick to our own.
Source :
Homœopathic Recorder, Nov.,
1937.Copyright ©
Sylvain Cazalet 2001
