Cancer of the Tongue

Timothy Field Allen

New York City, Nov. 26, 1900.

I would rather have one line of Hahnemann’s Materia Medica than all the volumes that have been written on Histology; than all the investigations that have been made in Pathology, in comparison with which they are all insignificant. –  Dr. T.F. Allen

A distinguished lawyer of this city was attacked by carcinoma, or possibly by epithelioma of the tongue.  I wish to say that the gentleman referred to was a prominent lawyer, engaged to be married, and had been condemned either to death (or what to him was worse than death, mutilation and the loss of his tongue) by several of the most distinguished surgeons in this city. The case is not an obscure one; by his own distinguished position (made later even more distinguished by his political course in life), the surgeons equally distinguished, necessarily cautious and hesitatingly urging the operation — removal of his tongue — as the only possible means of saving his life.

I may say that his case excited the widest and most pronounced interest among a large circle of acquaintances in this city, and when my advice was sought it was very hesitatingly given, namely, not to submit to the operation, for possibly I considered there might be a chance of arresting the progress of the epithelioma of the tongue (Homeopathy for Hairy Tongue) by medicine and I hesitated because the weight of distinguished authority was against me. However, my advice was taken, and even then, as may be imagined, I took charge of his case with great hesitation, feeling that if I did not succeed the man’s life was at stake, but recognizing that if I could succeed, as I hoped to, his future happiness and success in life would be assured.

When first I saw the man and examined his tongue it seemed as though through the centre of the swollen tongue a hole had been bored with elevated and indurated margins. At first I thought the case was syphilitic, possibly, but after the most rigorous investigation I came to the conclusion that there was no syphilitic taint in the man, as the events proved, and my prescription of Phosphorus was based partly on the fact that, associated with the most marked pharyngeal local indications, which it is unnecessary to detail here, but which can be found in any Materia Medica, he was suffering from a pronounced depression of mind, which, perhaps, was not unexpected in the case of a young man who had every prospect, not only of a brilliant partnership in business, but in life, but at the same time the symptoms of Phosphorus were very well marked, both from the physical and mental aspect.

Phosphorus was prescribed in the sixth centesimal dilution in liquid. A few pellets were moistened with this solution, and the patient was instructed to take a pellet every four hours. Of course, I saw the man frequently — sometimes two or three times a day, but I never changed his remedy. It acted kindly from the very first day. The malignant look of the tumor slowly decreased, his general health and spirits and mental poise improved to such an extent that within a year he was able to get married, as he had proposed to do in case he improved, and has since entirely recovered.

This case also was entirely cured by virtue of Homoeopathy; by virtue of a single remedy carefully and accurately prescribed, according to the symptoms local, mental and physical, which presented themselves. I may be pardoned in adding a word to the case above recited First: That the homoeopathic cure based upon symptomatology, based upon the diagnostic talents of the highest order (for this man had the most expert consultants to be had in New York city) ought to carry some weight with it. I may be pardoned in referring to a case which attracted the attention of Prof.  James C. Wood, of Cleveland, and was referred to in his address to the American Institute of Homoeopathy two years ago. That of the cure of a lady suffering from progressive muscular atrophy; a case well vouched for from a diagnostic point of view, a case fully detailed by him, the method of treatment carefully illumined and the method of selection of a remedy also carefully given. The case and the cure of it required an equally thorough investigation and careful prescription, and which, it seems to me, should be fully as convincing as either of these cases which I have detailed to you.

Now, the ability to make such cures rests entirely upon the law of Homoeopathy. Personally, I ask for nothing more. There is no system of medicine in the world that can make such cures. The history of medicine, so far as I can read it, offers no approach to Homoeopathy in the method of cure. There is, to my mind, nothing beyond — certainly nothing since the days of Hippocrates, and as I study Therapeutics my whole life comes to be more and more bent upon the investigation and the results offered to us by the Materia Medica which has been left to us to be perfected by Hahnemann.

It has been said that the Homoeopathic School has been paying but little attention to the perfection of instruments of precision, to the investigation of pathology or to chemistry. The method of Hahnemann has done, at least, one thing which has not been accomplished by any body of men since the world began. It has investigated, and it has added to a Materia Medica such as the world has never seen, which is itself the crowning glory, and in comparison with which the rest of the investigations of all the physicians of all the schools of learning and of all the scientific men in the world sink into insignificance. I would rather have one line of Hahnemann’s Materia Medica than all the volumes that have been written on Histology; than all the investigations that have been made in Pathology, in comparison with which they are all insignificant.

From: The Homoeopathic Recorder Vol  XVI  1901