Soon after that I removed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and commenced anew the
practice of medicine. I then had neither the knowledge nor the faith in
homoeopathy which I thought would justify me in treating any serious case
of disease with homoeopathic remedies; but I did not neglect to study the
new books. One day, a friend of my younger days, who was residing at Grand
Haven, came into my office and said that he had been suffering from the
toothache for several days, and that he did not like to have the tooth
extracted, and he wanted to know if I could do anything for it without
extracting it. I told him that I had recently obtained some homoeopathic
books and remedies, and that I had noticed that remedies were spoken of for
toothache. So I looked over my books and selected Belladonna as the remedy
suitable in his case, and gave him a dose of it and other doses to take
with him if he needed them. We talked in the office for a short time, and
then we walked up to the hotel where he was stopping; as we entered, he
stood still a moment and remarked: "Well, my tooth does not ache as
severely as it did." I saw him weeks afterward, and he told me that he had
not had the toothache from the hour he took the medicine.
Away in that new place, then a village of about one thousand inhabitants,
with no homoeopathic physician within a hundred miles of me, I commenced
cautiously the use of the new remedies; first in mild cases of disease, and
in cases where Allopathic treatment failed to produce the desired effect.
Among the first of the serious cases where I used the remedies was a case
of pneumonia. A young man had been very sick with that disease for many
days. I had resorted vigorously to the antiphlogistic treatment then in
vogue; a consulting physician was called, and at last we told the family
that our patient could not live until the next morning. I then said to the
consulting physician: "I have some homoeopathic remedies; suppose we try
them?" His reply was: "It does not make any difference what you try; he
will not live until morning." Under such circumstances I felt that I was
justified in trying the new remedies. I accordingly dissolved a few pellets
of Aconite in a glass of water, and of Bryonia alb. in another glass of
water, and directed that a teaspoonful of the solution of Aconite should be
given once an hour for five hours, and that a similar dose of Bryonia be
given instead of Aconite every sixth hour. I sat down by his bedside and
watched his case for two hours. At the end of that period I found that his
pulse was five beats less frequent in a minute, and that his breathing was
a little easier. The next morning all of his dangerous symptoms had
disappeared, and in a reasonable period of time he was restored to health.
I talked with the consulting physician about his unexpected recovery, and
we were, disposed to think that we had made a false prognosis, and that he
would have recovered any way. Still, the case made some impression on me;
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