If that which is set forth in Vol. I of this work is of vital interest to every physician who is desirous of looking into the mystery of disease and of knowing its true etiology, this volume ought to be of still greater interest, as it uncovers the true etiology of the diseases that are so prevalent today, permitting us to get at the fundamental principles of the very basis of the diseases we meet in daily practice. For every earnest and thoughtful physician must have seen before being long in practice, that there is something about the diseases he encounters, that makes them difficult to eradicate; something that, lying as a basis, makes disease stubborn, persistent and positive in its nature and difficult to cure. These cases and these principles we wish to deal with in this little work; and in dealing with this dreadful miasmatic scourge that is wrecking and destroying the race as no other disease is (excepting that of tuberculosis), we will not speak of it from its historic standpoint, nor from any sociological point of view, but simply from a miasmatic basis, treating with many of the factors pertaining to its action upon the human organism. Other writers have written fully and clearly upon subject of gonorrhoea, therefore, it will not be necessary for me to even describe to you a typical case of gonorrhoea, save as it relates to the subject of Sycosis. We will deal with it simply in the relation it bears to other miasms and to disease in general, both acute and chronic.
We must treat it then, not only from an etiological, pathological, pathogenetic and nosanic point of view, but must also study it carefully from its therapeutic side, looking closely into the dangers of the unscientific methods of treatment of this dreadful disease, and the grave danger that lies in suppressing it in any stage of its action.
It was Dr. Charles J. Hemple who said that “Disease is the totality of the effects by which we recognize or perceive the action of a peculiar order of subversive forces upon an organism which has been specially adapted, or prepared for their reception.” Out of these subversive forces comes, either directly or indirectly, all that which is known as disease. Hahnemann has recognized three special forms which he has designated as Psora, Syphilis and Sycosis. This triune of the subversive forces also called the chronic miasmata, are the vicarious embodiment of the internal disease, each having its own peculiar type or character by which its sole purpose and effort is to conform the organism to its nature. Each of these forces becomes a creative force, and at no time is the life force able to free itself the bond of any of them (either alone or in combination with the others), without some either assistance. Just how these subversive forces, Psora, Syphilis, or Sycosis, combine in the organism, or rather with the life force, can probably never be explained or accounted for.
It is true, however, that their introduction into the organism (which has undergone a process of adaptation capable of receive them) is followed by an endless history of subversive changes and diseased phenomena peculiar to each type. This is shown in Psora, and still more clearly in Syphilis, whose history we are fully able to prophesy with all its multiplied and polymorphic lesions, from its initial physical expression in the organism to its tertiary destructive processes in the bony framework of the body itself. At this true of Psora, and Syphilis, so it is also true of Sycosis. It has its primary, secondary and tertiary stages, and world of phenomena peculiar to itself, stages, accompanying each stage or setting of the disease. But a small number of our medical men today have any conception of the great depth and the degree of action of this specific miasm upon the organism, or the frequency with which it is met in practice. It is the *prima cause of much of the suffering and of innumerable ailments to be met with every day in general or special practice.
Very few Homoeopathic physicians today contest the fact that Hahnemann’s psoric theory is true, and all those who have carefully and honestly given the subject study will bear me out in this statement. Few are the physicians who have not frequently recognized the sudden and mysterious appearance of disease in the human organism, coming at it seemed from nowhere, and developing out of no apparent cause, coming as it were out of the invisible, remaining either permanently or temporarily a functional disturbance, or developing into innumerable or varied pathological states, often causing untold suffering, and many times endangering the life of the sufferer. Yet how few have come to any positive solution of the subject in their own mind. Hahnemann has solved the mysterious problem for us, and today if we will but listen to his words of wisdom, we will learn whence cometh that sudden pain, the rheumatism, the eczema, the ulcer, the papular eruption or any of the multiplied expressions of disease.
They surely develop from the disturbances of the life force, due wholly to the action or continued action of these chronic miasms of Hahnemann. Thus arises the papular eruption, the inflammatory process, the stasis internal organs, the cough, the spasm, the convulsions, even all the multiplied phenomena of mind and body, tabulated and known as *disease. All this falsifying of life and its processes, this anatomical and physiological deflection from that which is true, can be reasonably and positively shown to be caused by, and to arise directly or indirectly, from the three chronic miasms-Psora, Syphilis, or Sycosis, either singly or combined with each other in various degrees of combination. The oldest of these subversive forces, we all agree, I believe, to be Psora; it therefore becomes the basic miasm, the first cause of all disease in the human organism. But there are other chronic miasms than Psora to be studied, and the miasm of Syphilis is one of those whose far reaching dynamis, whose slow but sure destructive action, is well known to every healer of the sick; and how closely pathologists have studied the complex and almost endless phenomena that are presented throughout the course or stages of its prolonged history. Its slow progress, its persistent nature, whether it be of its pains, its ulcers, or its gummatous growths, or in whatever presentation it may come, we cannot but have noticed the positiveness of its bond with the life force.
Sycosis is not a new name for gonorrhoea, neither is it gonorrhoea in any sense of the word. The well known specific urethritis, presents only in its initial stage, similar phenomena to that of Sycosis, and the history of the two diseases differs widely in their constitutional developments and progress. Gonorrhoea simplex is not a basic miasm, while Sycosis comprises one of the chronic miasms of Hahnemann, and next to Psora it is the most persistent of the great triune of the subversive forces, Syphilis, Sycosis and Psora. Sycosis, implanted on a rich pseudo- psoric soil, develops into one of the most formidable enemies of the race, whose destructive power and depth of action upon the organism cannot be expressed by any combination of words. What the pathologists of today call gonorrhoeal infection, is what we term Sycosis. But it is not an infection from a supposed gonorrhoeal catarrh, for gonorrhoea simplex does not affect the organism as does gonorrhoeal Sycosis.
The early history of gonorrhoea simplex is a history of painful and spasmodic symptoms, and of decided vesical irritation, of chordee, and marked specific urethritis, while the history of a typical case of Sycosis in its initiatory stage is lacking in many of the above symptoms, and should the symptoms be present, they are so modified that a casual observer can readily distinguish between the two. As a rule in Sycosis very little pain is present-sometimes but not always there is a decided soreness and some tenderness is felt along the anterior surface of the first third of the organ. The patient experiences more or less burning at the meatus, but it never assumes that degree of severity experienced in the spasmodic or simple from of the disease. The catarrhal discharge in the sycotic from is scanty, and as a rule mucopurulent at a very early date. The color varies in the different cases, but it is generally a dirty colored pus, yellowish green, or a mixture of brown, yellow and green. Quite often it is offensive, and in many cases has a state-fish, musty, or fish-brine odor, and it maintains this peculiar offensiveness more or less throughout the various stages of the disease.
Its incubative period is from five to ten days, and these patients early show more or less mental anxiety, with a desire to frequently examine the organ. These are the first symptoms to present themselves, and they frequently follow the disease throughout in its various phases, usually developing into an over-anxiousness as their condition. This very noticeable and undue desire to give special attention in their case is decidedly, if not emphatically, impressed upon the attending physician, and it frequently embarrasses him and hinders a cure. The patient’ anxiety sometime forces the physician to resort to means unprofessional an against his better judgment in his haste to dry up or suppress the discharge, which the patient thinks is the embodiment of the disease.
J.H. Allen was a student of H.C. Allen. He was the president of the IHA in 1900. Dr. Allen taught at the Hering Medical College in Chicago. Dr. Allen died August 1, 1925
Books by John Henry Allen:
Diseases and Therapeutics of the Skin 1902
The Chronic Miasms: Psora and Pseudo Psora 1908
The Chronic Miasms: Sycosis 1908