THE NEW ENGLAND MEDICAL GAZETTE A Monthly Journal of EDITORS: DEWITT G. WILCOX, M.D., F.A.C.S. :: ARTHUR H. RING, M.D. ASSISTANT EDITORS: CONRAD WESSELHOEFT, 2d, M.D. SANFORD B. HOOKER, M.D. “Die Milde Macht Ist Gross” VOLUME XLIX BOSTON 1914 281445 THE NEW ENGLAND VOL. XLIX JANUARY, 1914 ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS, HOMEOPATHY IN NERVOUS DISEASES.* No. 1 It is really an unnecessary refinement to select one class of diseases to emphasize the benefits of homœopathy; but it is natural for one to turn to that in which he is most interested, for the purpose of illustration. For over twenty years my attention has been so almost entirely devoted to this type of maladies, that examples of the treatment of nervous diseases by our method are the freshest and most strongly impressed upon my mind. I shall not endeavor to make an analytical comparison of results in our school and in the more dominant one, for with such hearers as now this is unnecessary. You have each and all, had long experience and know your profession well; I think this may be relied upon as sufficient. The neurologist meets with many perplexing problems, certainly more often than does the general practitioner. In the first place he is more likely to have cases which he knows from the outset are incurable, because central tissue has been destroyed, which can never be regenerated, but far more perplexing are those cases where there is no discoverable lesion, (which we term "functional"). A large number of these cases are mimetic, and so closely imitate organic disease that differentiation is extremely difficult. In the former instance, you all know how strong is the temptation to enter upon a course of treatment whose sole object is to obtund the sense of pain and the intellect. We recognize that there are times and occasions where this is necessary for humanitarian reasons; but as a rule of procedure we can probably agree that the selection, and administration, of the proper remedy, will result in a greater aggregate of comfort to the patient; this both direct, and indirect. Personally I believe this to hold true even in such unpromising condition as "tabes." Please bear in mind that I do not say immediate relief, but the aggregate. While we have no remedy which has ever pro ➡ Read before the Hughes Medical Club, November 21, 1913. |