From a lecture delivered at the Bonnington Hotel, London, before a Students’ Class of the British Homoeopathic League, June 28th, 1943.
Nosodes are potentized disease products, obtained from patients.
Hahnemann was the first to prove the three miasms: Medorrhinum, Psorinum and Syphilinum. Burnett introduced Bacillinum or Tuberculinum long before Robert Koch inaugurated his Tuberculin for the diagnosis and therapy of consumption.The number of nosodes has largely increased during the last decades, products of nearly all infectious diseases were added, such as Diphtherinum, Morbillinum, Pertussin, Scarlatininum, Staphylococcin, Streptococcin and so on. A new group of intestinal nosodes was developed by Bach in Great Britain and finally Dr. Paterson, of Glasgow, introduced a number of nosodes derived from intestinal bacilli.
Nosodes play an important part in the prevention as well as in the treatment of acute or chronic infectious diseases. Burnett immunized people with Variolinum 30c, with the result that not a single person so treated developed smallpox. Dr. McLaren and Dr. Knerr confirm the preventive and curative power of Variolinum in smallpox. The same results were obtained by Dr. Swan. Dr. Lees of Dundee, immunized people with Diphtherinum 200 against diphtheria. Further experiments will certainly prove the value of the nosodes for immunization against the majority of infectious diseases.
All nosodes have been proved in the same way as all our homoeopathic drugs on healthy people, their drug pictures are thus well known and they should always be prescribed in accordance with the law of similars. Although the majority of acute diseases will undoubtedly be cured by the homoeopathically indicated remedy, there are exceptional cases which do not react on the indicated drug. Such lingering cases may be due either to a psoric condition of the patient or to a preliminary infectious disease, interfering with the action of the drug. In such cases a dose of the indicated nosode will often be of use.
You remember that Hahnemann recommended to give a dose of Sulphur, if the homoeopathically indicated drug does not prove to be effective. Modern experiences, however, have taught us that a dose of the indicated nosode is much more reliable. The difficulty begins, however, when the patient has been suffering not from a single, but from a number of infectious diseases. Here we must carefully question the patient to get his whole history into the right perspective. As an exact knowledge of the nosodes is indispensable for their use, I am now going to give you a sketch of some symptom pictures. Let us begin with Psorinum and Medorrhinum.
Psorinum should first of all be considered in children, the parents of which had been suffering from skin diseases, diabetes mellitus, kidney or heart diseases, mental diseases, neurasthenia or general weakness. The Psorinum, child is characterized by the most various skin diseases, such as eczema in or around the ears with a foul smelling secretion from the ear. The skin is very rough and dry. In grown Psorinum people, the skin is more commonly greasy, irritated and very liable to bleeding, the patients scratch their faces until they run blood. The Psorinum patient looks unhealthy, dirty and unwashed; he is liable to increased, foul smelling perspiration and to develop fissures about the hands and in the folds with a watery or purulent offensive discharge. These patients feel the cold very badly, they are upset by it, they are always chilly. They are rather thin than fat. In spite of their thinness they have an abnormal appetite. Any lack of food brings on a violent headache, very often a definite sick headache.
The Psorinum patients are easily exhausted by any physical or mental effort. They are dispirited, hopeless, peevish and irritable. By the way, you will be interested to hear that Psorinum is an almost specific remedy for hay fever when given in the interval. One dose of Psorinum given early in the spring cures hay fever of long standing. Psorinum has a definite spring aggravation. Psorinum is, however, of no help during an acute attack of hay fever. Psorinum children are disposed to convulsions, tetany and general weakness of the nervous system. Asthma in psoric children is improved indoors, when sitting and when the arms are amply stretched out, but aggravated in the open air, when lying or when the arms lie close to the body. Foul smelling diarrhoea, bed-wetting during night and bronchitis with foul smelling expectoration are not uncommon.
In contrast to Medorrhinum, the Psorinum child is nightly out of temper, nevertheless normal and gay on the following day. The Medorrhinum child, on the other hand, is cross during the day and gay in the evening. The Medorrhinum child is egoistic, frightened in the dark and afraid of animals. It is very nervous, fearful and stupid. All Medorrhinum children are anaemic, late in growing up, their legs are very weak, their hair is not shiny, but refractory. The eyelids ulcerated, the eyelashes fall out. The nose is constantly running without a previous cold, the child pants continuously. The lymphatic glands are enlarged, the skin is itching, the tongue covered with vesicles and during sleep a stringy mucus comes out of the mouth. Ravenous appetite is associated with violent craving for sour and sweet.
There is no nausea, but vomiting of bile, pricking pain in the stomach and eructation.
The rectum seems to be paralysed, the stool is tough, loamy, black or white. Frequently relapsing catarrhs of the bladder and foul smelling perspiration in spite of the greatest neatness complete the Medorrhinum picture. The Medorrhinum cough with its hollow sound reminds one of Hepar sulphuris, the expectoration itself of Kalium. The position of the child is very characteristic. With the knees drawn up to the abdomen it presses the face into the pillow. Heat and uncovering aggravate. The permanent perspiration of the feet increases during the winter. The increased micturation during night after greater fatigue. Medorrhinum should be considered in cases where there is any suspicion of a previous gonorrhceal disease, especially in cases of bed-wetting or chronic rheumatic affections. You can best remember the many indications for Medorrhinum and Psorinum by connecting them with the drug pictures of Sulphur and Graphites. Both of these drugs have almost the identical symptoms and indications. Sulphur and Graphites coupled with the symptom picture of Carbo veg., form a connecting link with the Morgan nosode of Dr. Paterson. I mentioned Dr. Paterson’s nosodes at the beginning of my lecture and considering their great importance for the treatment of so many diseases I should like to give you a more detailed sketch of them.
Dr. Paterson introduced four different nosodes, obtained from cultures of intestinal bacilli : (1) the Dysentery nosode, (2) the Morgan nosode, (3) the Gartner nosode and (4) the Sycotic nosode. These four nosodes have been thoroughly proved by Dr. Paterson, their symptom pictures are definite and many excellent cures have been performed.
Regarding the Dysentery nosode I refer only to Dr. Dorothy Shepherd’s contribution in Heal Thyself, November 1942. You will find in this article a very clear and instructive symptom picture of this nosode with all its indications, illustrated by a very interesting case. I wish to add only a very useful mnemonic hint, namely the earmark ” Nervous tension” given by Dr. Paterson to the Dysentery nosode. If you couple the name “Nervous tension” with the Dysentery nosode you will certainly almost automatically remember its whole symptom picture. (Editor’s note : The dysentery nosode keynote is Anticipatory anxiety, sensitive to criticism, timid. Affinity for the pylorus, causing spasm. Duodenal ulcer from nervous tension.)
The Morgan nosode shows an entirely different symptom picture. Dr. Paterson gives it the earmark “congestion.” This term congestion gives you indeed a very definite idea of the symptoms and indications of the Morgan nosode, especially when you couple this nosode with the drug pictures of Carbo vegetabilis and Sulphur. Carbo points to venous congestion in the internal organs and Sulphur to a general hyperemia of the skin surface. We thus understand that the Morgan nosode acts especially on the skin and liver. In the Morgan children these disorders are very often due to a deficient action of the digestive canal. These children develop a specific eczema during the period of growth and development. It starts, as a rule, on the scalp or on the face, extending later over the body, affecting especially the bending sides of the extremities. The skin becomes red and sore and unbearable itching forces the child to incessant scratching, thus increasing the secretion, soiling linen and clothing. Congestion of the respiratory canal leads to broncho-pneumonia and it is in these cases that we learn the efficiency of the Morgan nosode. Cases which do not respond to the seemingly indicated drugs such as Antimonium tartaricum, Sulphur,Lycopodium, Ipecacuanha, etc., are often almost immediately improved by a single dose of B. Morgan 30. This holds good not only for acute cases, but for chronic conditions likewise, when the ailment had started with an acute broncho-pneumonia.
I remember a case of chronic asthma in a boy 15 years of age. He had been suffering from asthma for the last four years. The asthma developed after an attack of an acute broncho-pneumonia. The homoeopathic treatment so far gave only temporary relief. Three doses of B. Morgan 30, one dose every week, cured the patient in about one month. Cases of epidemic jaundice, due to the Morgan bacillus have repeatedly been cured by the Morgan nosode. The Morgan patients suffer, generally, from swelling of the hands and feet and are very liable to develop chilblains. These patients, especially children, have, as a rule, a very characteristic appearance. The face is generally red, raw and spotted and contrasts the very pale and white skin of the body.
The Gartner nosode shows an entirely different symptom picture. Dr. Paterson earmarks it by the term “Nutrition”, because the majority of the Gartner children are characterized by manifold digestive disorders, weak muscles and thin extremities. The Gartner nosode will thus scarcely ever be indicated in a well nourished patient. The weak, underdeveloped body of the Gartner patient contrasts the hypersensitive condition of the nervous system. The patient is, so to say, nothing but brain and almost without muscles, the skull is proportionally enlarged. The mental development is very advanced . The Gartner child is in many respects precocious, the psychic symptoms preponderate. All these Gartner patients are hypersensitive to mental and bodily irritations. They are afraid of darkness and of being alone. The whole symptom picture of the Gartner nosode corresponds to the drug pictures of Silica and Phosphorus. Silica regarding the underdeveloped muscular system and Phosphorus regarding the hypersensitive nervous system.
Finally, I should like to sketch Dr. Paterson’s Sycotic nosode, earmarked by the term “excitement”. This nosode is, first of all, characterized by the catarrhal condition of the respiratory canal and therefore indicated in the common nasal and bronchial catarrhs during childhood. These conditions are generally aggravated by a croupy cough after midnight, very similar to asthma. The Sycotic nosode acts likewise on the urinary organs. It is especially indicated in cases of albuminuria and nocturnal bed wetting.
The lymphatic system is affected too. We find enlarged tonsils and enlarged lymphatic glands especially on the neck, in the chest and in the abdomen. The mental symptoms of the Sycotic nosode are almost identical with the Gartner symptoms, both are similar to the drug picture of Lycopodium. They have the same fearful character and irritability with outbursts of bad humour. Some Sycotic patients have definite symptoms of cerebral irritation, leading to convulsions or even attacks of epilepsy or St. Vitus dance. In contradistinction to the weak, thin and undernourished Gartner child, the Sycotic child is generally fat and slack with typically increased nightly perspiration on the head (similar to the symptom picture of Calcarea carbonica) ; warty skin eruptions or typical impetigo are common with these patients. They are very liable to get rheumatism and their face is pale or pale yellowish with long dark eyelashes, a picture often met with in tubercular patients. The Sycotic nosode is indicated in many chronic conditions in adult patients, provided there is a connection with intestinal disorders. The following case will illustrate this.
Mrs. R. R., 47 years of age, married at the age of 23 years, two healthy daughters. One miscarriage 13 years ago and since this time she was never well. At first she developed a general septic infection with erysipelas of the face and septic tonsillitis. After a couple of years the eyes became affected, then the thyroid gland. At the same time the gall bladder got infected and chronic constipation set in. The following operations were performed:
1936 – Operation of the thyroid gland
1937 – Two operations on the eyes and one abdominal operation (the right ovary was excised).
1938 – Four other operations on the eyes
1939- Operation of piles
When I saw her first, one year ago, her main complaint was the chronic constipation. For the last ten years she had to take every day, large doses of allopathic laxatives, as she was unable to move the bowels without them. The tonsils were enlarged, reddened, covered with mucus; the lymphatic glands at the neck swollen; the tongue very dry and white coated. The whole abdomen swollen and very sensitive to the slightest pressure; the gall bladder very painful. The heart was normal, blood pressure 140.
I put the patient on a pure vegetarian diet with plenty of raw vegetables and green salads and replaced the allopathic laxatives by a daily enema with fresh cold water every evening before going to bed. I prescribed Baryta carbonica 6x, two tablets to be taken twice a day, alternating with Lycopodium 1x five drops to be taken twice a day, and Sulphur 6x, ten drops to be taken before going to bed. A slight improvement followed almost immediately, the general feeling was much better and the condition of the tonsils was definitely improved, but the bowel condition remained the same. I replaced Sulphur and Lycopodium by Bryonia 6x and Chelidonium 1x, ten drops to be taken alternately, three times a day and prescribed the Orka suppositories, one suppository in the morning, one in the evening.
These drugs relieved the pains in the gall bladder and bowels, the condition of the tonsils and tongue improved, but the general condition of the patient remained almost the same. She was chilly, had every afternoon higher temperature and the action of the bowels did not improve a bit. Considering the chronic condition of the bowels I prescribed B. sycosis 30, one dose every week. A surprising change took place in no time. The patient felt so well as never before. All pains had gone after a fortnight, the function of the bowels improved gradually and the tonsils were in normal condition. I continued the treatment with Sycotic nosode during the following three months, giving the nosodes at greater intervals ; the patient took nine doses in three months. The last dose four months ago. The patient is without any pain, her bowels act freely, the abdomen is only a little sensitive to deep pressure, the gall bladder occasionally irritated. The only “drugs” which the patient still takes regularly are Chelidonium 1x, once a day and Phytolacca 3 to prevent a relapse of tonsillitis.
This article is from the journal Healthyself, courtesy of :heal–thyself-archives/
