Specific Action of the Kidneys of Kali Chloricum, The. By Page 27 367 Strong, T. M., M.D. President's Address. 207 What It Is, and 343 Technic of Suprapubic Prostatectomy and Details of After Treatment. By Horace Packard, M.D. Thyroidectomy. By DeWitt G. Wilcox, M.D. Tubercular Diatheses in Children, and How We Shall Meet It, The. By A. L. Blackwood, M.D. Turner, Maurice Worcester, M.D. A Proving of Variolinum. Turner, Maurice Worcester, M.D. Chimaphila Umbellata. Two Nosodes in Paediatric Practice. By J. Roberson Day, Use of Electricity in Amenorrhea, The. By Mary A. Leavitt, Van den Burg, William H., M.D. Medicinal and Dietetic Wells, David W., M.D. The Psychic Element in the Practice Wilcox, DeWitt G., M.D. Thyroidectomy. Wooldridge, Frederick V., M.D. The Specific Action of the 417 70 247 177 361 27 Boston Society of Examining Physicians. Chicago Homoeopathic Medical Society. Conference of Councils on Medical Education. Cumberland and York Homoeopathic Medical Society. Massachusetts Homoeopathic Medical Society. January. Massachusetts Surgical and Gynecological Society. January. Neighborhood Medical Club, The. Twentieth Century Medical Club, The. Worcester County Homoeopathic Medical Society. January 41, February 42, 95, 137, 194, 239, 286, 334, 383, 436, 482, 532 94 Celebration of Psychic Medicine, A. January. Concerning the Sixty-Third Annual Meeting of the American Epoch Making Meeting of the Boston Homoeopathic Medical Forthcoming Institute Session, The. Doctor Drops Into Monologue, The. Homoeopathists and the Massachusetts Medical Society. Homoeopathy Complimented Through the Boston University School of Medicine. January. Medical Legislation and Medical Education-A Scheme of 36 January. 32 279 January. 34 35 BY J. ROBERSON DAY, M.D., UNIVERSITY OF LONDON Caius College, Cambridge, is entered by a gateway bearing the superscription "Humilitatis," suggesting the spirit in which the student should enter upon his career; a second portal, between the two principal courts, is inscribed with the word "Virtutis," to show how he should continue; and the gate by which he leaves the College -the most beautiful of all-bears the word "Honoris." This was the spirit in which Dr. John Caius founded his college in 1557, and I have endeavored to recall these gates whilst compiling this paper which I now present to this distinguished assembly. It was on Jan. 11, 1897, that Eva M., aged thirteen, came to me with a superficial ulcer of the face, about the size of a shilling, over the inferior maxilla on the left side, which was freely movable with the skin, and there were no lymph glands enlarged. It commenced as a small pimple, had existed a year, during which time allopathic treatment had failed to arrest its growth, and scraping had been suggested. The father declined this method of treatment and brought her to me. I gave tuberculinum (Koch) 30: twice a week, three drops, and boracic ointment locally. No other treatment was employed, no change was made in the girl's mode of life. On March 8th, the ulcer was quite healed and the patient cured. The cure was permanent and she is quite well at the present time. This case impressed me very much and since then I have used tuberculinum constantly in my practice. The nosodes are a peculiar class of remedies which have been regarded with disfavor by certain members of our body. Dr. Sigmund Raue, in his excellent work on Diseases of Children, speaking of the nosodes, says: "Personally I have no experience with these products; it has seemed to me unnecessary to call upon such uncertain agents in face of the all sufficient array of well-proved and beneficial remedies at our disposal. It is true in tuberculosis a serum *Presented to the International Homœopathic Congress, Atlantic City, Sept. 1906. may yet be prepared that will give positive results, but so far there is nothing absolutely certain with which I am acquainted." Again, the late Dr. Dudgeon-my distinguished colleague and countryman-says: "There is no doubt to whom belongs the honor of having introduced isopathic heresies into the homœopathic school. It was our transatlantic friend, Dr. Constantine Hering, who gave the first impulse to isopathy, for we find him in 1830 proposing as a remedy for hydrophobia the saliva of a rabid dog,-for small-pox, the matter from variolous pustules." Throughout the chapter, Dr. Dudgeon pours much ridicule upon isopathy and further quotes from the Organon, where Hahnemann speaks in measured terms of the practice. This illustrious American, Constantine Hering, whose memory is now suitably honored at Chicago and elsewhere, was thus the first to give an impetus to the nosodes. Hahnemann says: "The attempt is made by some to create a fourth mode of applying medicines in disease by means of isopathy, as it is called; that is, to cure an equal disease by an equal miasm. But supposing this were possible, and it would deserve the name of a valuable discovery, the cure in that case could only be accomplished by opposing a similimum to a similimum, since isopathy administers only a highly potentiated, and as it were altered, miasm to a patient." Compton Burnett did much to introduce these remedies into England, but there has always been much discussion as to the modus operandi of the nosodes. Some contended they acted by isopathy and formulated the dictum "equalia equalibus curentur" to correspond with homoeopathy, and "similia similibus curentur." Two things are, however, certain: 1. That homœopaths were the first to introduce and make use of these remedies. 2. Many of these are very potent and valuable, and have been in constant use since the days of Hahnemann. The two which I have used most extensively are tuberculinum and syphilinum, and to these I shall confine my attention. Lux ex tenebris has come from an unexpected quarter quite recently in the case of tuberculinum, which explains its action. Professor Wright, of St. Mary's Hospital, has demonstrated in the blood certain substances which he calls opsonins, "and which have the power of acting on pathogenetic bacteria and altering them, so that they can be taken up and digested by the leucocytes. These substances are of great importance in that they appear to be the chief agents in the production of some forms of immunity. Take for instance the defence of the body against staphylococci. Leucocytes have no power to take up these organisms, and if the protection of the body were entrusted to them alone, a slight staphylococcic lesion would be a very serious matter. But the blood contains a certain amount of anti-staphylococcie opsonin-a greater amount in some persons and less in others-and this by combining with the staphylococci, renders them easily attacked by the leucocytes. It follows that where we can measure the amount of opsonin present we can measure the patient's resisting power against the organism |