SOME OPTHALMOLOGICAL CASES TREATED WITH HIGH HOMŒOPATHIC POTENCIES

First Case  Ocular trauma  Arnica 10M

  A student of twenty one had been struck full in the left eye with a tennis ball.  He came to me an hour after the accident.  I found ecchymosis extending to the peri-orbital region, which was tumid and painful.  One drop of 2% cocaine made it possible to examine the eye, which was photophobic and lachrymating abundantly.  The upper and lower lids were swollen and painful.  The lower palpebral conjunctiva had been torn and there was wide-spread ecchymosis.  There was much circumcorneal injection and the superficial layer of the cornea had been torn.  The corneal wound involved the whole of the pupillary area, forming flakes which could easily be detached.  The patient felt smarting pain and a very unpleasant sensation of scratching under the eyelids.  The anterior chamber was normal, tension good, pupil reacting well; examination of the fundus showed nothing in particular.  Sight normal.

  Treatment -- Bathing with sterilized water and a few drops of Calendula (mother tincture); then a damp, aseptic, occlusive bandage with a few drops of mother tincture of Arnica; and to be taken internally, Arnica 10M (Skinner), one dose.

  Twenty-four hours later the cornea was glossy and the epithelium had already healed.  The patient had slept perfectly well, and after four days of occlusive, sterilized, daily bandages soaked in a little Arnica all the symptoms disappeared and the patient was completely cured.

  It is needless to insist on the reasons for the prescription.  The etiology, haemorrhage, lesions, all called loudly for Arnica.

  Second case  Hordeolum (Stye, Compere-Loriot, Gestern-Korn)

  A little girl of six, obstinate and bad-tempered, with hypertrophy of the tonsils, slight goitre, snoring at night, constipated, came to me because of repeated styes on the upper eyelids, which for three years had been almost continual.  When one was cured another began.  Treatment with grape yeast, frequent purging, and other remedies had no result, and her parents wished to know whether Homœopathy could act in such a case.

  The symptoms pointed essentially to Sulphur, Pulsatilla, Silicea, Hepar, Mercurius, and after consideration of these various remedies, I decided to give:  on April 19th, 1925, Sulphur 10M, (Skinner), one dose, the subject being eminently psoric.

  June 2nd, 1925.  The patient returned.  There was no change.  She was a difficult child; nothing pleased her, she complained and cried for nothing, teased and annoyed the other children; and she was sullen in the evening.

  Sulphur having given no result, my prescription probably being incorrect, I administered, being guided by the mental symptoms,Pulsatilla 10M (Skinner), one dose, in spite of the fact that she was a brunette with dark eyes.

  August 2nd, 1925, she came back with a slight improvement, having had only eight styes since the last visit, which she considered wonderful, but styes were forming again.

  August 4th, 1925, I repeated the Pulsatilla 10M(Skinner), one dose.

  October 8th, 1925.  The patient came back discouraged.  The styes had started again in full force, though the constipation much better.

  The child was still very obstinate, and had become very cowardly. Pulsatilla did not seem to have gone deep enough, and that suggested the chronic of Pulsatilla, Silicea 10M (Skinner), which I then gave.

  In November she was taken with a hard, dry cough; then developed double otitis, which was rapidly cut short with the help ofBelladonna 200, one dose.

  In December the constipation reappeared and the styes as well.  This time they definitely developed from right to left.  The child now became very dictatorial. When playing with the other children she must always be the most important.  These valuable indications enabled me to prescribe, on the 13th December, 1925, Lycopodium 10M Skinner, (which is both the chronic of Pulsatillaand the complementary of Silicea).

  In February the mother returned, very glad to say that a wonderful change had taken place.  The styes did not develop as formerly. After a slight inflammatory redness, instead of suppurating, in three or four days absorption took place and the stye dried up.  I have seen the patient since and this good result has been maintained.  It seems more that probable that Lycopodium was “the simillimum of the case”  and that it should have been found at the first visit.  But it is also possible that the previously administered remedies had prepared for the rapid curative action of Lycopodium.

Third Case  Stye  Pulsatilla 200

  A lady, thirty-nine years of age, came with a stye in the left lower eyelid.  Her eyes watered when she was out of doors.  The lids were stuck together in the morning and she felt a violent irritation.  She was a hepato-renal arthritic, with blue eyes and red hair.  She had previously been treated with Sulphur in increasing doses.  I should have been able to give her Sulphur because this was her basic remedy, but here there was question of an acute condition, the symptoms being new and not an exacerbation of her chronic state.  This was why I gave her Pulsatilla 200 (KENT), one dose.

  In twenty-four hours the stye came to a head, broke and discharged a small quantity of muco-purulent matter, relieving the patient, who had no recurrence of the trouble.

Fourth Case   Chalazion  Thuja

  Madame N., 38 years of age, living on the Swiss frontier, came to me on the 20th of February, 1922, very discouraged because she had had two operations for chalazions, which were very troublesome, and which she believed to be the cause of persistent migraine.

  The two chalazions which had been operated upon were in the left upper eyelid, and the operations had been performed in a private nursing home with the following result:

  Ten days in the nursing home each time.

  Operation each time $50

  Persistent headaches

  Appearance of fresh chalazions.

  A very discouraging balance sheet, which made her ask for homœopathic treatment.

  When I questioned her, she told me that she could remember that these chalazions dated from 1916, and that a few months before their appearance she had been obliged, because of the arrival of Swiss troops in the village where she lived, to be vaccinated against small pox, this being compulsory for all the inhabitants.

  The development had been slow, but the eyelid had become so heavy and the difficulty in opening it so marked that she had consented to a first operation.

  Two months later a new chalazion developed in the same place, and she had a second operation six weeks before coming to me.  Now a third chalazion appeared, this time in the right lid.

  The swelling was bluish, fairly prominent, on the middle of the free margin of the upper eyelid.  She felt a pricking sensation, nervous palpitation in the morning when waking, and sudden waves of heat without apparent cause.  The patient suffered a great deal from headache etc. in wet weather, on account of her general rheumatic condition.

  She was hasty tempered, impatient and restless, suffering from constrictive migraine.  All her symptoms, and above all this etiology of vaccination, pointed so clearly to Thuja that no hesitation was possible.

  On February 26th, 1922, I gave Thuja 1M (Jenichen), one dose.

  March 26th, 1922.  No change, but the chalazion, which previously had developed steadily, seemed to have remained stationary. There were less frequent waves of heat, but otherwise all the symptoms were the same.  I then gave Thuja 10M (skinner), one dose, to act more deeply.

  A fortnight later the chalazion opened spontaneously, contrary to experience of the habitual development of these tumours, and emptied itself of a greenish-yellow substance.  The palpitation had disappeared and the patient was delighted.

  April 28th, 1922.  The patient returned wholly discouraged, for she had thought herself cured, and now there was a fresh chalazion forming just beside the one cured.

  The eyelid was again heavy, but apart from that the general condition was excellent.  I then gave Thuja 50M (Skinner), one dose.

  June 10th, 1922.  She came back delighted, for she had no more headaches and the chalazion had grown smaller and absorbed spontaneously.  Locally there was no thickening of the tarsus and the patient was perfectly well.

  In the last five years no fresh chalazion has appeared.

  This case shows that, even when the remedy is well chosen, it is sometimes necessary to get to the bottom of the trouble by following the series of degrees according to KENT, for it was only after taking this last dilution that she was freed from the affection.

Fifth case  Chalazion  Alumina 10M

  Madam P., 30 years of age, had been complaining for some little time of a small tarsal cyst on the free margin of the right upper eyelid.  Her lashes were falling out and she had a painful feeling of drying of the eyeball in the evening.  There was slight granulation of the lower palpebral conjunctiva.  Nothing noticeable in the general condition.

  In accordance with the indications several remedies were given.  Thuja 200, Thuja 1M, Thuja 10M, and then Psorinum 200, thenStaph. 10M, one dose only, of each of these remedies, at intervals of several weeks, in order to give each an opportunity to develop its action.  But, alas! no result crowned my efforts.  Each time she came, my patient mischievously and silently pointed to that disconcerting chalazion.

  July 5th, 1926.  After having weighed her symptoms, compared them with those in the works of BERRIDGE and of NORTON the eye, I administered Alumina 10M (Skinner), one dose.

  September 10th.  When I arrived the same half sceptical, half mocking look greeted me as usual.  But the patient confessed that she felt as if something was going on inside of her, though she could not define it.  I repeated Alumina 10M, one dose, and the 1st of October the patient suddenly felt a violent irritation in the tumor which disappeared in twenty-four hours.

  This cure has been maintained.

Sixth Case  Chalazion  Staphysagria 10M

  Mr.S., 61 years of age, suffered from tense pain of the tarsal edge of the right upper eyelid.  Formerly he was subject to styes, which had not recurred, but which had given place now to painful indurations which formed little irritating and annoying nodules.  There was no characteristic general system.

  I gave Staph. 10M, one dose, and three weeks later the two nodules had entirely disappeared.

  These different cases of chalazion express in a very interesting way one of the main principles of homœopathic therapeutics, “the individualization of each case”.  As you can see here, each case was labelled with the same nosological name, viz., chalazion, but each case was treated and cured with a different remedy!  This is why we repeat and repeat that we do not have remedies for chalazion but that we have many remedies for patients suffering from chalazion.  This simple sentence contains one of the greatest truths of Homœopathy.

Seventh case   Vernal Conjunctivitis  Aconitum 10M

  Miss M., 22 years of age, suffered each year from spring conjunctivitis.

  The inflammation was essentially in the limbus and conjunctival fornix.  The conjunctiva was a little thickened here and there, the surface a little uneven, slightly spotty, pinkish yellow, of gelatinous appearance, slight pink conjunctival injection. The upper tarsal conjunctiva presented flattened papillae and there was acute irritation and photophobia.

  The patient had suffered from the affection for five years and was very discouraged, for she had various lotions prescribed without any effect on the conjunctivitis, which developed from April to July and then disappeared of itself.

  She remembered that it had appeared for the first time after a mountain walk in spring; on reaching the summit she was uncomfortably conscious of the cold air, while still very hot, but neglected to put on extra wraps.  Suddenly her eyes began pricking.  It was since then that the inflammation had recurred each year.  In view of such an etiology I at once gave Aconite 10M (Skinner), one dose.

  The patient came back a fortnight later very much better and by the twenty-first day the conjunctivitis was cured.

  This result was interesting because we were then at the beginning of May, and usually the trouble continued well into July.

  Unfortunately, I was not able to follow the patient’s history and do not know how she has been in later years.

Eighth case   Arthritic conjunctivitis  Sulphur 10M

  One very disagreeable form of conjunctivitis, from which many patients suffer who are treated for their general condition, is arthritic conjunctivitis with its subjective sensation of dryness of the eyeball, so hard to bear.

  The patients rub their eyes and continually  wipe and blink them without any relief. Many arthritics suffer from it, and the typical  nocturnal exacerbation of this affection may even prevent sleep.

  I have seen among others, three cases in which several remedies were given in accordance with the general symptoms and have the strong impression that in these cases it was not the last remedy which wrought the cure, but the series of several remedies given successively.  It is like some complicated locks which need several keys!

  There were three patients of the phosphorous type; two of 77 and 72 years and one younger, of 37. They took  successively, and in accordance with general  indications, Sulph., Calc-p., Zinc., Nat-m., in doses varying from 10M to CM, which improved the condition, but only gave a cure when Sulphur 10 M was given at the end of the series.

  I was curious that the same remedy, given at the outset, and with good indications, seemed not to bring about any improvement, while its action was extraordinary at the end of this series of medicaments.

  Ninth Case    Epiphora    Medorrhimum 10M

  Usually one considers tearing as the inseparable sign of an obstruction or some serious narrowing  of the lachrymal passages.  I have, however, found several cases where the lachrymal  canals were entirely open and the lachrymal puncta  normal, and yet this symptom was present and very disagreeable.

  Should the cause be sought in a hypersecretion from the lachrymal glands, or perhaps, in a lack of fluidity which prevents easy flow?

  I have now, among others, two typical arthritic patients, who have chronic epiphora which no remedy has yet been able to modify.

  The following case is of doctrinal interest.  It concerns a little girl of 14 months, fair, with blue eyes, and fairly strong.

  Ever since her birth the left eye watered as soon as she went out of doors.  The eye was sometimes very red.  The child continually rubbed the inner canthus.  She cried very easily.  She also suffered from offensive perspiration of the feet. It was difficult to get her to sleep in the evening.

  In the repertory the remedies which seemed to be indicated were:

  Bell., Calc., Nat-m., Puls., Sanic., Sil., Sulph., Tub.

  Taking account first of all of the mental symptoms I gave on December 31st, 1923, Puls 200 one dose.

  January 20th, 1924.  The eye still watered and the other symptoms were the same.  I gave Sulphur 200,  (KENT), one dose, as a reactional remedy according to HAHNEMANN.

  February 18th, 1924.  No change.  The eyelids were stuck together on waking.  The lower lid was red in the morning, with a little yellowish “eye-gum” at the interior canthus.

  The mother said that the child wets her bed at night and that for sometime she had an exaggerated fear of motors and dogs, whereas formerly she had not been at all afraid.I then gave Bell. 200 (KENT), one dose.

  On June 7th, 1924, the patient was brought back, and now the tears, were flowing abundantly from both eyes and burning the skin of the cheeks.  The lids were stuck together in the morning.  The fear of dogs  and motors was less and the child no longer wet her bed.

  The mother wished to consult an oculist and he examined the child.  He violently compressed the lachrymal sac and made her cry, with the intention of getting out any lump of mucopus which might be present.  No result, except that the child was afraid of doctors afterwards!

  Fortunately the specialist considered it useless to catheterize the lachrymal passages, and sent the child back to me, telling me that he could not explain the cause of the epiphora.

  July 21st, 1924.  It was the child’s father who brought her this time.  The eyes had not stopped watering and he was obviously discouraged.  He asked me whether it was worth the trouble of continuing any treatment.

  Remembering the importance, especially in children, of the symptoms of sleep and the position during sleep, upon which Dr. SCHLEGEL, Sr., of Tubingen. much insists, I questioned  the father, who said that for a long time the  child had been sleeping on her knees, her head buried in the pillow, and that she was very nervous and impatient. The sexual parts were very red and inflamed.

  At once I questioned the father further, and he confessed that three years before his marriage he had contracted gonorrhoea, which had been so admirably treated with injections of argyrol that he had been cured of his discharge in a few weeks!!!

  The diagnosis was now clear.  The child was suffering from hereditary sycosis.  The indicated remedies not having acted I gave on July 24th, 1924, Medorrhimum 10M (Skinner), one dose.

  The very next day the eyes stopped watering and the child slept on her back.  The other symptoms gradually disappeared, and during the last two and a half years the child has enjoyed good health, none of the old symptoms having reappeared.

  The case illustrates the necessity, when the remedy  which seems to be indicated does not act, for the doctor to question the patient, or, to obtain with tact and circumspection from those around him, precise information as to his own and his parents’ former condition of health, in order to know what venereal diseases, cutaneous or otherwise; may have been suppressed by untimely treatment, always referring to paragraphs 84 and 93 of the Organon.

Tenth Case    Keratitis Ulcerosa    Pulsatilla 200

  On February 25th, 1927, Madame L., 55 years of age, came to me with an ulceration of the cornea of the right eye, situated towards the edge of the cornea, at four o’clock.  She was sent to me by her oculist, who had diagnosed gouty keratitis ulcerosa, and who, being careful about the general treatment of his patients, sent her  to me, not wishing to interfere with the general homeopathic treatment by local measures.  He hoped that the localized affection in the eye might be cured by treating her general condition, seeing that it arose from arthritism.

  As a precaution he instilled one drop of 1% homatropine .

  There was in fact a superficial corneal ulcer of rectangular  shape, presenting the classic signs of peri-corneal injection, epiphora and photophobia.  The patient also complained of pricking pain, which was always worse at night.

  Pressure on the eyeball relieved the pain.  She suffered from headache with a disagreeable sensation of weight above the eyes towards the right.

  She felt much better out of doors.

  Cold water relieved her for the moment.

  She woke in the morning with a very dry, nasty taste in her mouth.

  The repertory indicated:

  Asaf., Cinnb., Merc-nitros., Puls.

  I gave Puls.200, (KENT), one dose, which especially corresponded with the patient’s general symptoms, while the other remedies corresponded more exactly with the localized symptoms.

  I ordered a detoxifying diet free from acidity, fatty matter and sugar-vegetarian diet.

  Three days later the patient was much better; epithelialization was going on.  The area of the ulceration was still visible, a little opaque on the nasal side, while the temporal side, that nearest the pupil, was already transparent.

  The mouth was no longer dry in the morning.

  Eyelids much less heavy.

  No more pricking pain in the night.

  The injection was still perceptible, but was much less marked than at the onset.

  Three days later the patient no longer showed any sign of the lesion.  The eye was normal.

  This interesting case showed that, even in manifestly objective troubles, the minuteness of the homœopathic dynamization is not an empty formula, since the cure of a corneal ulcer was complete in six days.

Eleventh Case   Rheumatic Iritis  Aconite 200  Sulphur 200

  A lady, 54 years of age, whom I had treated two years before for rheumatism, and who, 20 years before had rheumatic iritis which  had been treated with mercurial ointment, resulting in two fine examples of synechia in the right eye, came to consult me on May 2nd, 1924, on account of acute pain in her right eye, pain that she already knew too well.  She at once gave me her diagnosis and hoped that the treatment would not be so lengthy as the allopathic treatment which was previously given, and which continued for weeks and weeks.

  One evening when  it was cold she  had lingered on her doorstep talking to a neighbour and the cold draught from the half open door had struck upon her eyes.

  The pulse was tense and full.  No fever.

  General malaise.

  Depression and fatigue.

All these symptoms had appeared suddenly when she had been feeling perfectly well.

  Objective examination showed:

  Normal eyelids.

  Circumcorneal  injection, violet tinted, delicate, well marked; no chemosis. 

  Iris a little dull and infiltrated, having lost its brilliancy.

  Contraction slow.

  Two posterior synechiae in the right eye.

  It was impossible to judge of the tension because of the acute pain, caused by the least touch, which pointed to slight ciliary participation.  Diagnosis of irido-cyclitis.

  Subjectively, there was intense pain in the right eye, acute and very trying, with a feeling as if the eye were being pushed out.  The whole eye ball felt extremely hot and the symptoms grew worse at night.  The pain involved the face and the head.  Very marked  photophobia and epiphora.  The fundus showed nothing in particular.  Vision disturbed.

  There seemed to me to be imminent danger of fresh synechiae, so I instilled two drops of atropine 1% to act  mechanically and provoke a prophylactic mydriasis.

  I administered Aconite 200 (KENT), one dose; then Sac lac every two hours, this corresponding exactly to the etiology and the symptoms.

  The next day the patient said she had slept very well.  She no longer had any pain.

  But she felt that the remedies were  “working” in her, for she was painfully conscious of all her joints, beginning with the shoulders, then the pains went down the arms and were now in the lower limbs.  Her headache, however, disappeared entirely - the third day of her illness.

  The peri-corneal injection was much reduced and one of the old synechiae was free, the other still remaining.

  The seventh day, no pain in the limbs, no ocular symptoms. Pressure on the eyeball no longer caused pain.  The iris had regained its brilliancy, one synechiae still persisted.  But a a moist eczema had appeared on both arms and on the back of the hands with a terrible itching.  This was an old symptom which the patient knew, alas, too well.  Having heard her account I could not help saying “Bravo! Thank Heaven, the symptoms are going exactly in the right direction”. And I went on giving her Sac lac.

  The seventeenth day the eczema was stationary.  The patient felt weary and lost courage.  It was then that I thought it the right moment to give her chronic remedy, Sulph.200 (KENT), one dose, (the chronic of Aconite).

  The 29th of June the patient came back satisfied.  There had been no reaction in the eye and it was completely cured.  Her rheumatism had disappeared and the eczema was much improved.

  A fresh dose of Sulph. 10M then later Mezereum 10M completed the cure and entirely got rid of her cutaneous affection.

  This last eminently instructive case illustrates the  truth of the wonderful “law of cure” formularized by HERING and KENT, viz.

  The evolution of symptoms;

  1. From above down, (eyes, upper limbs, then lower limbs).

  2. From within out, (iris, internal organs, joints, then cutaneous apparatus).

  3. In the reverse order of their coming, (eruptions, rheumatism, iritis).

  In order not to lengthen the history of all these cases I will add before closing that every one of the patients was told the corrective regime and appropriate rules of health.

  Homœopathy is not content to give remedies mechanically, but aims at repairing the errors made, and correcting dietary faults when they exist.

  The eye is not an organ apart requiring local therapeutics.  It pertains to one whole; the organism being irrigated by the same blood, bathed  by the same lymph, and innervated  by the same nervous current.

  Local diseases do not exist, but solely localized morbid affections are to be found.

  In these various cases chosen from among the ocular affections, beginning with the external traumatism, the affections of the lids, of the lachrymal ducts, of the conjunctiva, of  the cornea  and lastly, the iris, I demonstrate and prove by facts, the truth of the above assertions - and it is accumulated facts which little by little constitute positive science.

  My object has been to demonstrate that pure Homeoepathy, the unique remedy, and even very often the unique dose in the infinitesimal state (high dynamization or potency), are able to cure ocular affections, although they are wrongly believed to belong to the specialist only.  The eye, as all the other organs of the economy, can take benefice of this bountiful and liberating  therapeutic action.

    (Courtesy:  The Homœopathic Recorder, Jan., 1929).

  * Read at the Quinquennial Homœopathic Congress, London, July, 1927.