Frank H., a compositor in the Globe-Democrat office, St. Louis, came to my office to have a tumor removed by the knife. It had been removed twice and was called a recurrent fibroid. It was the size of a hen’s egg and very hard, located in the left side of the neck, not connected with the parotid, though growing a little below it. I advised him to give me time to prepare him for removal. I took his symptoms and found that he was better by wrapping up over the head. He was timid in going into a new enterprise, though abundantly able to perform the task. He lacked confidence in his own ability, yet when he had begun he would do well.
He took Silicea 5m., April Ist, 1883. Six weeks later he called, and the tumor was reduced one half, Silicea, 72m., dry, one dose. Six weeks later almost gone. January 23rd, 1884, Silicea 72m., one dose. The tumor had disappeared. This prescribing has been commented upon by a large number of friends, who think the one dose business a mystery. He got no Sac. Lac., as I had his confidence. I did not prescribe for the tumor, but for the patient. My prescription could not have been different had the tumor not been present.
The tumor was not included in the totality of symptoms, as it was not a symptom, it furnished no part of the guide to a remedy. The symptoms expressive of the whole state existed prior to the tumor, and it was the language of this pre- existing state that I read, as out of this pre-existing state, grew the tumor. I must interpret the language or expression of cause, not effect. The man who is guided by pathology can use the knife. To use the knife is but to acknowledge one’s ignorance of a method by which he can avoid cutting.
In 1881, Kent accepted a position as professor of anatomy at the Homeopathic College of Missouri, an institution with which he remained affiliated until 1888. In 1890, Kent moved to Pennsylvania to take a position as Dean of Professors at the Post-Graduate Homeopathic Medical School of Philadelphia. In 1897 Kent published his magnum opus, Repertory of the Homœopathic Materia Medica. Kent moved to Chicago in 1903, where he taught at Hahnemann Medical College.