But even if, by any means, such a secondary eruption might, after a fashion, be produced, and even were it in our power to retain it on the skin for a longer period, we cannot at all count on it for assistance in the cure of the whole psoric malady.*
It remains, therefore, an established truth, that the cure of the entire destructive Psora through antipsoric remedies is effected most easily only while the original eruption of itch is still present. From this it again appears how unconscionable it is of the allopathic physicians, to destroy the primitive itch eruption through local applications instead of completely eradicating this grave disease from the whole living organism by a cure from within, which at that stage is as yet very easy, and by thus choking off in advance all the wretched consequences that we must expect from this malady if uncured; i.e., all the secondary, chronic, nameless sufferings which follow it.
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(* There was a time when, not yet fully convinced of this fact, I thought that the cure of the entire psora might be rendered easier by an artificial renewal of the cutaneous eruption effected through a sort of checking of the perspiratory function of the skin, so as to excite it homoeopathically to the reproduction of the eruption. For this purpose I found most serviceable the wearing of a plaster mostly on the back (but where practicable also on other portions of the skin); the plaster was prepared by gently heating six ounces of Burgundy pitch, into which, after removing it from the fire, an ounce of turpentine produced from the larch-tree (called Venetian turpentine) was stirred until it was perfectly mixed. A portion of this was spread on a chamois skin (as being the softest), and laid on while still warm. Instead of this, there might also be used so-called tree-wax (made of yellow wax and common turpentine), or also taffeta covered with elastic resin; showing that the itching eruption evolved is not due to any irritation caused by the substance applied; nor does the psora first mentioned cause either eruption or itching on the skin of a person who is not psoric. I discovered that this method is the most effective to cause such an activity of the skin. Yet despite of all the patience of the sick persons (no matter how much they might internally be affected with the psora), I never could evolve a complete eruption of itch, least of all one that would remain for a time on the skin. What could be effected was only that some itching pustules appeared, which soon vanished again, when the plaster was left off. More frequently there ensued a moist soreness of the skin, or at best a more or less violent, itching of the skin, which in rare cases extended also to the other parts not covered by the plaster. This, indeed, would cause for a time a striking alleviation of even the most severe chronic diseases flowing from a psoric source; e.g., suppuration of the lungs. But this much could not be attained on the skin of many patients (frequently all that could be attained was a moderate or small amount of itching), or again, if I could produce a violent itching, this frequently became too unbearable for the patient to sustain it for a time sufficient to produce an internal cure. When the plaster then was removed in order to relieve him, even the most violent itching, together with the eruption present, disappeared very soon, and the cure had not been essentially advanced by it; this confirms the observation made above, that the eruption if evolved a second time (and so also the itching reproduced) had not by any means the full characteristics of the eruption of the itch which had originally been repressed, and was therefore of little assistance in the real advancement of a thorough cure of the psora through internal remedies, while the little aid afforded loses all value owing to the often unbearable infliction of the artificially produced eruption and itching of the skin, and the weakening of the whole body which is inseparable from the titillating pain.)
The excuse of the private physician (for the physician at the hospital has no excuse at all) amounts to nothing. He will say, indeed: If it is not known – and hardly ever does it become demonstrably known – where, when, at what occasion and from what person avowedly suffering from itch the infection has been derived, then he could not discover from the present, and often insignificant little eruption whether it was real itch; so he was not to be blamed for the evil consequences, if he supposed it to be something else and endeavored to remove it from the skin as soon as possible by a lotion of lead solution, or an ointment of cadmia, or white precipitate of mercury, according to the wishes of the aristocratic parents.
This excuse, as above said, amounts to nothing. For, first of all, no cutaneous eruption of whatever kind it may be, ought to be expelled through external means by any physician who wishes to act conscientiously and rationally.* The human skin does not evolve of itself, without the co-operation of the rest of the living whole, any eruption, nor does it become sick in any way, without being induced and compelled to it by the general diseased state, by the lack of normality in the whole organism. In every case there is at the bottom a disorderly state of the whole internal living organism, which state must first be considered; and therefore the eruption is only to be removed by internal healing and curative remedies which change the state of the whole; then also the eruption which is based on the internal disease will be cured and healed of itself, without the help of any external remedy, and frequently more quickly than it could be done by external remedies.
Secondly, even if the physician should not have presented to him the original, undestroyed form of the eruption, – i.e., the pustule of itch which in the beginning is transparent, then quickly filled with pus, with a narrow red margin all around it, even if the eruption should consist only of small granules like the miliary eruption, or appear like scattered little pimples or little scabs, still he cannot for a moment be in doubt as to whether the eruption is itch, if the child or even the suckling only a few days old, uninterruptedly rubs and scratches the spot, or, if it is an adult, when he complains of the titillation of a voluptuously itching eruption (or even only a few pimples) which is unbearable without scratching, especially in the evening and at night, and when this is followed by a burning pain. In such a case we can never doubt as to the infection with itch, though in genteel and wealthy families we can seldom secure the information and the certainty as to how, where and from whom the infection has been derived; for there are innumerable imperceptible occasions whereby this infection may be received, as taught above.
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(*See Organon of the Healing Art, fifth edition, §187-203.)
Now when the family physician notices this in time, then without any external application, the simple dose of one or two pills as large as poppy-seeds, moistened with the potentized sulphur in alcohol, as described below, will fully and abundantly suffice to cure a child and to deliver it from the entire disease of itch, both the eruption and the internal itch malady (psora).
The homoeopathic physician in his private practice seldom gets to see and to treat an eruption of itch spread over a considerable part of the skin and coming from a fresh infection. The patients on account of the intolerable itching either apply to some old woman, or to the druggist or the barber, who, one and all, come to their aid with a remedy which, as they suppose, is immediately effective (e.g., lard mixed with flowers of sulphur). Only in the practice of the barracks, of prisons, hospitals, penitentiaries and orphan asylums those infected have to apply to the resident physician, if the surgeon of the house does not anticipate him.
Even in the most ancient times when itch occurred, for it did not everywhere degenerate into leprosy, it was acknowledged that there was a sort of specific virtue against itch in sulphur; but they knew of no other way of applying it, but to destroy the itch through an external application of it, even as is done now by the greater part of the modem physicians of the old school. A. C. Celsus has several ointments and salves (V.28) some of which consist merely of sulphur mixed with tar, while others contain also compounds of copper and other substances; these he prescribes for the expulsion of itch, and this he supposes to be its cure. So also the most ancient physicians, like the moderns, prescribed for their itch patients baths of warm sulphurous mineral water. Such patients are usually also delivered from their eruption by these external sulphur remedies. But that their patients were not really cured thereby, became manifest, even to them, from the more severe ailments that followed, such as general dropsy, with which an Athenian was afflicted when he drove out his severe eruption of itch by bathing in the warm sulphur baths of the island of Melos (now called Milo), and of which he died. This is recorded by the author of Book V. Epidemion, which has been received among the writings of Hippocrates (some three hundred years before Celsus).
Hahnemann's three major publications chart the development of homeopathy. In the Organon of Medicine, we see the fundamentals laid out. Materia Medica Pura records the exact symptoms of the remedy provings. In his book, The Chronic Diseases, Their Peculiar Nature and Their Homoeopathic Cure, he showed us how natural diseases become chronic in nature when suppressed by improper treatment.