*[A paper read before the Assemblage of Homoeopathic Physicians of Westphalia and the Rhine Country, July, 21st, 1861. – Allg. Hom. Zeitung, 63, 149.]

BY DR. C. VON BOENNINGHAUSEN.

Every Homoeopathist knows the value, indeed the indispensable necessity, of an intercurrent dose of Sulphur in many cases, of both acute and chronic diseases, in which a remedy, though accurately selected and strictly homoeopathic, does not act. However this experience may be sought to be explained, thus much is certain, that it often occurs and that the favorable result is often truly astonishing.

A somewhat similar observation has been made by myself and several others, in secondary Syphilis, and even in mercurial diseases, a new dose of Mercury being given in one of the highest potencies and in the smallest doses, whereupon the other remedies, which corresponded accurately to the symptoms and were for the most part antidotal began to unfold anew and actively their healing power.

On the other hand, so far as I know, a similar use of our great anti-sycotic remedy, Thuja, has not hitherto been customary, and it may not be amiss to call attention to it. If it is true that

1. Variola and Cow-pox belong naturally to the order of Sycosis: that

2. This miasmatic poison must have received a prodigious propagation through the customary process of vaccination, and that finally

3. Many chronic affections of the worst character prove intractable under our best remedies and show no signs of improvement, until recourse is had to a remedy which has the power of acting favorably upon diseases of a sycotic character – If these things be true, then the circumstance is of sufficient importance to warrant a few words. “We shall therefore briefly discuss the three propositions already stated

1. If I am the first to utter the conjecture that Condyloma and Variola (or Vaccinia) belong to one and the same disease, I base my hypothesis on the fact that both affections, so long as they present themselves without complication, find their surest and most complete cure in one and the same remedy, viz.: in the juice of the Thuja occidentalis, and in no other. The specific curative power of this remedy, in Small-pox, which, so far as I know, was first discovered and published by me (Allg. Hom. Zeitung, 37. 21 and 22, 1849,) has since been confirmed and demonstrated in manifold ways and from various sources. Even though the results of the experiments of certain Allopaths, who, induced thereto by my publications, have washed and painted their small-pox patients with the juice of Thuja, have been unsatisfactory and pitiable, no Homoeopathist would wonder at this nor would he be led thereby to cast any doubt upon the repeated facts which have followed its proper administration, and have corroborated our favorable views of it. On the contrary, thus much is certain, that no one of all our numerous remedies possesses so great and uniform a curative influence over Small-pox, and that therefore the above proposition is not without justification even though these facts be no incontrovertible demonstration of its truth. Moreover we are entirely supported by the profound investigations of the experienced Dr. C. W. Wolf. (Hom. Erfahrungen, 2-5, Heft.) which accord with my own.

2. The general distribution of this sycotic poison, which was indicated even by Hahnemann as one of the miasmatic poisons out of which chronic diseases spring (Chronische Krankheiten, 2d ed., 1,104) through the practice of vaccination, needs no further discussion if it be conceded that our first proposition is correct. We need only call attention to the thousand-fold experience, that many children who were previously in perfect health, begin, not long after vaccination, to become ailing and, what is most remarkable, they become ill of such varieties of chronic diseases as require most frequently such remedies as are related to Thuja and such as may even be called in play in treating real Condylomata. – It is worth while here briefly to point out what these remedies are, and my long experience has taught me the value of the following in particular; Ant. crud., Ant. tart., Calc. c, Caps., Caust., Cham., Dulc., Euphr., Hepar sulph., Iodine, Lach., Lycop., Merc., Nitric acid, Nux v., Phos. acid, Ran. bulb., Sab., Sassap., Sec. corn., Sep., Sil., Staph., Sulph. and Thuja. Those remedies of which the names are printed in disconnected type* [italicized in the computer version] are those the value of which has been proved by actual experience in condylomata. The others furnish the clearest indications of being useful in sycotic affections. In the therapeutic writings of our predecessors, we find moreover the following remedies expressly recommended for Condylomata: Achillea millefol., Aloe (perfoliata), Anethum graveolens, Artemisia vulgaris, Ballota nigra, Cynoglossum officinale, Ficaria ranunculoides, Geranium robertianum, Juglans regia, Nicotiana tabacum. Plantago major, Primula officinalis, Ruta graveolens and Yaleriana officinalis. It will be observed that some of these remedies (Artem, Juglans and Valer.) are being given with good results by the Allopaths in so-called scrofulosis.

3. If now it be true, and the experience of the majority must have satisfied us that it is true, that many chronic diseases offer an obstinate resistance to remedies chosen with most accurate observance of the homoeopathic law, and administered with the utmost propriety, and only manifest improvement and that often incomplete and unsatisfactory – when one or another of the above remedies is administered, it seems to me we are almost justified in concluding – risum teneatis amici! – that in such cases Sycosis lies hidden in the background and hinders the cure, just as in other cases Syphilis and Psora do.

It appears then of no slight importance, so far as practical results are concerned, in certain cases and especially in those in which the above remedies are indicated, to administer an intercurrent dose of high potency of Thuja, just as we give in parallel circumstances a dose of Sulphur or Mercurius. I can myself, from my own experience, strongly affirm the advantages of such a treatment, and even though the soundness of the above propositions should be on many grounds called in question, nevertheless, in this view, indisputable facts speak in its favor – facts, which have for us a greater weight than simple ratiocination or an individual hypothesis.