Little doses - Big results! Homoeopathy for animals

Part II (p. 221-226)

FIRST CASE: One of my old school-mates, Dr. Ferreol, a veterinary, having heard of mysterious homoeopathy, met me one day by chance. "What is homoeopathy at bottom"? he asked me. "Is it a serious method"? "Serious"! I replied, "that's not the question: it is a method which cures affections that are curable according to a law, and by means which do not poison the patient". "But", said he to me, "that's all very well for human beings whom one can make believe all that one wishes, but can these infinitesimal doses really have any action at all on animals"? "It is perfectly simple", I responded, "not theories but facts; results, first, and then afterwards we will discuss it"!

Just at that time he had a series of cases which were bothering him a great deal. It was a matter of an epidemic of swine-fever in a piggery of more than one hundred and twenty animals. Many had already died and, called urgently on the 30th of January, 1928, he autopsied a pig which had just died in convulsions. He found a haemorrhagic gastro-enteritis with inflammation of Peyer's patches and the mesenteric glands, a haemorrhagic nephritis and, above all, endocarditic and myocarditic lesions which permitted him to diagnose the chronic form of swine-fever (rouget du porc).

The absence of erythema allowed one to think of "white swine-fever". Bacteriological analyses confirmed the diagnosis by the presence of Bacillus rhusiopathiae suis.

When a piggery is infected one gives serotherapy, not only to the small number infected but to all the pigs, as a preventive measure. That is why he proceeded, on the 4th of February, to immunize to the full by the appropriate serum, which he had sent for expressly from Bern from the Federal Institute of Hygiene. Eight to fifty cc. of serum were injected into each animal according to its weight. Result: Two days later they found eight pigs newly infected and showing clonic convulsions. A bleeding at the ear was ordered, to reduce congestion of the nervous centres. Ferreol noticed that the blood of the animals in convulsions did not flow until after several seconds, which confirmed his diagnosis of a chronic form of swine-fever of which endocarditis is the principal manifestation. The symptoms abated after bleeding and he waited for the effects of his immunization. Two days later he was sent for urgently and found the swine-keeper distracted, his cutlass in his hand, ready to kill the eight animals of whom we have been speaking, all of whom were again going into convulsions. Another pig, fifty kilos in weight, a new case, struggled into the passageway, laid down on its back and remained in opisthotonos two hours.

Having lost confidence, the proprietor summoned another veterinary secretly, who confirmed the diagnosis and declared peremptorily that the cases were lost, all treatment hopeless, and the only thing to do was to cut the throats of all the sick animals as soon as possible. There was the situation!

It was, then, a question of an infections condition due to a specific bacillus; the diagnosis was perfectly clear. The treatment had been conducted according to modern knowledge of this condition, and the results were completely negative. The verdict was formal: To sacrifice these animals since science declared them incurable.

Ah! We may well repeat the classic phrase of Hahnemann: "When it is a question of the sacred art of curing, to neglect to learn is a crime"!

Here it was not a question of human lives but of animals which must be saved because the financial loss was great. All these young animals had cost a great deal to raise and now, although they were still too young for the butcher, it was necessary to kill them. The infection had spread to these nine new cases and others would follow. You can judge of the state of mind of the proprietor and the caretaker. It was these cases which Dr. Ferreol put up to me, on which to prove to him the value of homoeopathy. I accepted the challenge.

The symptoms then were: 1. The rapidity of invasion, when all the animals had seemingly good health. 2. Convulsions in young subjects. 3. Active congestion as observed by autopsy. 4. The disease showing grave symptoms of the nervous and arterial systems. 5. The absence of rash (possibly the cause of the convulsive symptoms).

All these can be found literally in the same words pages 32, 34, 36 and 41 of the first volume of Guiding Symptoms published in 1879 by Dr. Hering, an allopath converted to homoeopathy, these symptoms having been produced by Aconitum napellus.

As Belladonna possesses a great analogy in its toxicology to the symptoms above indicated, I proposed to make the following experiment: 1. To give ten drops of a solution of Aconite in the 200th centisimal dilution in a glass of water, one coffeespoonful (one single dose) to four pigs which were to be marked with a red cross of the back. 2. To give ten drops of a solution of Belladonna in the 200th centesimal dilution in a glass of water, one coffeespoonful (one single dose) to three pigs to be marked with a black cross. 3. To leave one pig without a mark and without medicine, as a control. 4. To give ten drops of Aconite in the 200th to the 50 kilogram pig which was lying in opisthotonos in the middle of the stable. All this was carried out exactly. It was very interesting that exactly twenty seconds after the single dose of Aconite the convulsions of the pig stretched out on her back ceased, leaving the caretaker open-mouthed before this incredible spectacle! The beast remained stretched out for five hours perfectly calm. After this length of time she got up unaided, went to the trough and ate her food as if nothing had ever happened. The attacks were not renewed and the animal has been in perfect health ever since. (This 200th dilution, gentlemen, was prepared by me and was not one of those high dilutions concerning which one is ignorant of its origin and especially of its mode of preparation. It was not a tincture of Aconite succussed two hundred times, but a preparation made according to the Hahnemannian rules. diluted two hundred times and vigorously shaken at each dilution. The tincture used as a base had been made from plants gathered in the high Jura mountains in a moist, cold place a little before the time of complete flowering.)

A fortuitous case, a case due to chance, you say, but listen to the next: All the pigs which had received either Aconite or Belladonna ceased their convulsions almost instantaneously, but the next day two of the pigs with a black cross had convulsions again, tonic but not clonic this time, and much less violent than heretofore. As these did not seem to be decreasing we gave to the two relapsing pigs, on the 21st of Feb. 1928, a coffeespoonful of the solution of Aconite 200th ten drops in a glass of water. (The recurrence of the convulsions proved that the Belladonna was not sufficiently similar to the case to hold.) The reception of the veterinary this time was very different, confidence was restored, the battle was won.

Forty-eight hours after the administration of the Aconite the most perfect calm reigned in the piggery. However, on the morrow, there was a hurry call to autopsy one pig which had suddenly died. It proved to be none other than the unmarked pig who was the control. All the others were in good health.

One month after this interesting experiment (for it well deserves the name) there was a very slight relapse among the eight pigs which had been treated. A new dose of Acon. 200 was accordingly administered. The little piglets, born of the last animals who contracted the swine-fever (rouget) but previously cured by the Acon., perished one after another at their birth, which meant a severe loss for the proprietor. The autopsy done on most of the cadavers and the bacteriological analysis showed the same disease which the mothers had, so we gave at birth to all subsequent piglets a dose of Acon. 200. One week afterward, out of eleven treated but one died; the other ten, thanks to the Acon., began to grow fat and had no attacks. Fifteen days later they told us that one pig among the last group treated had had a violent tonic convulsion lasting a quarter of an hour. Another of the same litter had had to be killed in the midst of a convulsion, in extremis. At the autopsy the essential organs were found normal but an enormous haematoma was discovered accompanied by deviation of the spinal column at the level of the eighth dorsal vertebra. Several piglets perished despite Acon. On examining each case, one after another, we found that after eight days they were having fewer crises and one could not deny the helpful action of Acon., as, before its intervention, more than thirty pigs had died in a week. But homoeopathy was not at the end of its resources and we knew that when Acon. has exhausted its action, in order to get a deeper action, one must employ what 's called its "chronic", which, in this instance, was Sulphur in the 200th centesimal dilution, which we gave to all the pigs who where ill, or who had been so. It is now three months and the result is marvelous. There has been neither death nor infection since the chronic dose.

These grave cases, incurable by ordinary methods, were, then, cured by high homoeopathic dilutions chosen simply in accordance with the law of similars. The multiplicity of the cases treated, although it did not run into the thousands, nevertheless obliges one to think, because it illustrates and confirms the law of similars.

A case declared incurable by classic medicine does not deserve this definite label if homoeopathy or other unofficial therapies have not been tried. Homoeopathy does not pretend to cure all so-called "incurable cases", it also has its limits, but it offers different possibilities of such a value that an honest and conscientous doctor cannot afford to neglect them. Doses in such dilutions could not have any action if they were not administered according to a scientific law.

SECOND CASE: Satyriasis and impotence: Prize bull 2 years old. This bull which had always served well, and whose matings had been followed by gestations had been subject recently to perverse sexual excitations. When he was led out to the drinking fountain, for example, he would rush to the entrance from which the cows were ordinarily let out for mating, and, then, when he saw that it was not for that reason that he was led out of the stable, he would rush back again and masturbate by friction of his hind legs until ejaculation occured. His keeper said that he did this two or three times a day. In addition, whenever a cow was brought to him, although the erection took place it was impossible for him to perform intromission and the ejaculation did not occur despite his marked excitation. This state of affairs meant a considerable financial loss to his owner, for a prize bull, although very expensive and used only for reproduction, will bring from the butcher a comparatively negligible price. Allopathically these cases are considered incurable, the only way out being castration, which would mean the negation of his main value.

This condition of general excitation associated with impotence and onanism responds admirably, however, to a homoeopathic remedy which has brought out similar symptoms on healthy men: Delphinium staphysagria. Accordingly Staph. 200, a single dose, in globules, was given him in the morning by Dr. Ferreol. Four days afterwards he was in excellent condition and able to mate normally to the great relief of his owner and veterinary. You can judge what this cure was worth when I tell you that this bull had been bought for $ 600.00 and that his butcher 's worth would have been only $ 160.00 to $ 180.00. This loss was avoided thanks to a single dose of Staph. in the 200th centisimal dilution. Part II (p. 327 - 329)

THIRD CASE: Motor paralysis following distemper in a German hound dog seven months old, sick for two months with distemper which was manifested by the usual symptoms: Temperature. Catarrhal symptoms of the urinary tract. Dyspnoea Purulent discharge from the eyes and nose. Loss of appetite. Diarrhoea alternating with constipation.

The owner had given various allopathic pills with ipecac as a base, purges and syrups, without any result except the suppression of certain symptoms and the progressive development of a spasmodic paraplegia of the hind quarters.

The striking features on examination of the dog were: Spasmodic muscular symptoms. Trembling of the limbs. Marked paresis of the hind quarters. Increased reflexes. Symptoms only during the day. The animal drinks little. Aggravation from cold air. Aggravation after motion. Swaying, very uncertain gait. Agaricus muscarius

Repertory study, taking into account the non-pathognomic symptoms, done with Dr. Ferreol, showed Agaricus muscarius as being the remedy corresponding best to the case and alone possessing all the indicated symptoms. In fact, all these spasmodic and paretic symptoms, associated with the curious aggravation from cold, are found in the pathogenesy of this poisonous mushroom.

June 15, 1928, we gave Agaricus muscarius 200 dilution, ten drops in a single dose.

Five days after, this dog, who previously could not go up stairs, could mount them although with difficulty. He swayed less but he still frequently fell to the right in walking.

Eleven days after the first dose ist eyes suppurated abundantly and the owner, of course, ran to the pharmacy to buy a collyrium which Dr. Ferreol hastened to empty down the sink! The dog no longer fell, although he still tottered a little; he could mount the stairs without difficulty, run, jump and play with other dogs; his general condition was much improved.

Agaricus being supposed to act forty days, and the ameloriation having been progressive from the time of the first medication, we allowed the remedy to act and simple advised bathing the eyes with boiled water. Fifteen days after the first dose the animal was cured.

On july 13, 1928, four weeks after the first dose, we again saw the animal who was marvelously well: He walked, ran and behaved like a normal dog. His eyes still discharging a little but we ordered no local treatment as that is a natural vent for distemper which we knew ought to be respected.

All veterinaries know the progressive evolution and the gravidity of of the nervous sequelae of distemper. This cure was complete, patent and permanent.

Was the 200 centissimal dilution of Agaricus too weak to act in this case? Is this not the confirmation of the law of the similars? A verification of the symptoms of this dangerous mushroom? A proof of the undeniable action of high dilutions when they are administered according to Hahnemannian rules? And a plain demonstration that a single dose is entirely sufficient to cure even a severe case, if one knows enough to give the organism time to react to the action of the remedy administered?

Although insufficient from the point of view of numbers, the two cases cited in the previous issue together with this case, which were experiments rigorously conducted, admirably illustrate this great general law, the law of similars. This therapeutic law has an inconceivable bearing on cure; and the imperious necessity of plumbing it and giving it the place of honor which it merits in therapeutics, is none other than the crown and object of medical work. It is this law, together with the cases which have permitted ist establishment and confirmed it, which gives to homoeopathy the right to be a science and a therapeutic method. Medicaments applied according to this law and studied along Hahnemannian lines become positive substances whose action on healthy men and whose application to the sick are no longer variables as they are in allopatic therapeutics. No sooner have the remedies of the so-called official school had their burst into prominence and been proclaimed so marvelous at their debut, then they rapidly arrive at their period of decline and disappear without leaving behind them, most of the time, any traces except their inconveniences, one could even say, with the French pharmacologist Pouchet, "...their bad results".

On the contrary homoeopathic remedies are not subject to the influence of style or an extravagant modernism; once firmly established by experimentation they become medicaments and the homoeopathic physician who know them and use them remain constant to them. Hahnemann said, in his Prolegomenon to the treatise on Materia Medica Pura, written in French in 1834:

Homoeopathy rests entirely on experience. Imitate me, says she out loud, but imitate me well, and you will see at each step the confirmation of my claim. That which no materia medica, no system of medicine, no therapeutics has done or has been able to do heretofore, she loudly demands: to be judged according to results. Homoeopathy has never pretended to cure diseases by the same power as that which produced them; she wishes to do it by a power which is not identical but simply analogous, by a medicament which can only produce a morbid condition analogous to the disease. Take cases of illness one after another, describe them in the order outlined in the Organon; paint them so well to all their perceptible symptoms that the author of homoeopathy, himself, could have no criticism of the exactitude of your picture; and, supposing that these cases are among those for which one can find a remedy in the medicines already proved today, select the medicinal substance which is the most appropriate, homoeopathically speaking; give it alone and unmixed, in doses as weak as the doctrine precribes, while removing all other medicinal influences; and if the patient is not cured, if he is not cured promptly, if he is not cured gently, if he is not cured in a durable way, cover homoeopathy publicly with shame, while proclaiming the failure of a treatment rigorously followed according to ist own principles. But abstain, I beg you, from all mistakes. If, after you have acted in good faith, others no less conscientious than yourself arrive at the same results in repeating your experiments, if al that homoeopathy promises to him who follows it faithfully is not made good, then this doctrine can be considered as of no account. Do you know any better method of disproving this doctrine which only needs to appeal to good sense and to minds free from prejudice in order to find access everywhere? Do you wish to obtain the same successes? Imitate me freely and loyally.

Autor: Dr. Pierre Schmidt, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Published in THE HOMEOPATHIC RECORDER. VOLUME XLIV. DERBY, CONN., APRIL 15, 1929 No. 4.(p.221-226, p.327-329)

Source: HOMÉOPATHE INTERNATIONAL, http://homeoint.org/articles/mickler/homfurtiereng.htm _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Copyright 2001: Übersetzung mit freundlicher Genehmigung der Fondation Pierre Schmidt, St. Gallen, Schweiz.Thomas Mickler