Cancer: Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Facts Worth Remembering in the Treatment of Cancer

Do not use medicated absorbent cotton on a sore that you are trying to heal. It irritates the sore and interferes with the healing process. When there is any danger of much hemorrhage from a cancer, I always leave some sterilized absorbent cotton with my patient with instructions for its application.
Some doctors who claim to treat cancer give whiskey and morphine to their patients. They thus keep them "doped" all the time; others will not allow their patients to take a bath, not even to wash their feet. Whiskey, or any form of alcohol has the same effect upon cancer that kerosene does when poured on a fire. Anything given to a cancer patient that heats the blood is bad for them; it simply feeds the cancer and makes it grow so much faster. Morphine; or an opiate in any form, dries up the secretions, weakens the vitality of your patient and interferes with the action of all your other remedies. Keep all such stuff away from your patients it you intend to cure them.
A medicated bath is just as essential to a cure of the patient as any part of the treatment and must never be omitted. Your medicine is driving all the refuse matter, in the blood, toward the surface of the body, and the medicated bath of epsom salts, one ounce to the pint of warm water, neutralizes the toxines, opens the pores of the skin, feeds the blood with the magnesium, soothes the tired nerves, and makes your patient rest like a tired child upon its mother's bosom.
The tendency of cancer patients, especially in the advanced stage, is to "hive up" in the house; you must make them walk out every day; they need the air, and exercise; teach them how to breathe in the air, let them eat all the air they can. Never forget the fact that good pure blood depends upon pure air, pure food and pure water. These three things your patients must have if they expect to get well. No matter how they feel, or what excuses they make, get them out in the fresh air.
Many doctors make a big mistake in their treatment of cancer by trying this remedy or that remedy, or experimenting with somebody's treatment. Do not do it. Examine your patient carefully, give the remedy that is indicated and no other. When you have commenced a plan of treatment stick to it; fight it out on that line. Never form an opinion about a case until you have seen the case and examined it. Never allow yourself to be influenced by any doctor's diagnosis or prognosis. You have got your reputation to make and it must be made by your cures and not by your failures.
Do not allow yourself, or your patients, to get unduly excited when you read in startling headlines in the daily press that the regular school have discovered a cure for cancer. They have been doing that for the past forty years.
Some physicians make a practice of cutting away a portion of the cancerous growth after it has been partially killed by the escharotic, but I know, from experience, that when you touch a knife to a cancer it irritates it; makes it grow so much faster. Remember that cancer is a "sleeping lion" and you do not want to fool with it.
When once you have commenced active, local treatment of a case of cancer, stick to it until you are sure you have conquered the disease. Do not allow yourself to be influenced by the feelings of a patient or what they tell you. Keep up the local treatment until you know that all of the diseased growth is killed.
Many doctors, in their anxiety to conquer the local growth neglect to look after the "general condition" of the patient and their vitality. Many patients have been lost in this manner. Be careful and examine your patients every day -- the pulse, the eye, the tongue -- so that you know exactly how they are.
Watch the tongue and see if your patients are digesting their food properly. If there is a coating on the tongue your patient is not digesting the food he eats properly. The strength which should be derived from the nourishment is not being obtained. In order to make good blood your patient must have good digestion.
If there is a hardness or tension to the pulse it shows a contraction of the capillaries, a focus of congestion somewhere, you are not obliged to ask your patient if they are suffering from pain for the pulse tells you that fact by its tension.
Your patient must have a regular movement of the bowels every day; the refuse matter must pass off as often as that and not be retained in the intestines to poison the blood. This is just as important as any part of the treatment; if you neglect this you may fail to cure your patient.
While there is a drain upon the system from an ulcerated cancer, no matter where that cancer may be situated, you will see a pearly tint to the white of the eye. Look out for this; watch the eyes of your patient for they are good guides by which to be governed. They will tell you whether you are getting the best of the disease or not.
If there is a yellow, greenish or cloudy appearance to the white of the eye you may be sure that there is forming, somewhere in the blood a toxic material It shows that the glands of the body are not secreting properly.
In the last stage of cancer, if we find a dark red color to the tongue it tells us that there is an imperfect oxidation of the blood. This is an unfavorable symptom in cancer. The dirty, yellow coating on the tongue in cancer has a similar significance as it speaks very plainly of impaired digestion.
If you find transverse or perpendicular assures on the tongue you may be positive that your patient has some form of kidney trouble which needs attention. You must examine the urine and determine v hat is the difficulty. Any drain upon the system, whether caused by kidney trouble, diarrhea, leucorrhea, dysmenorrhea, prolapsus uteri, ulceration of the os uteri, bronchitis, hemorrhoids or mental worry will cause a drain upon the system and weaken the vitality of your patient and also lessen the chance for a cure. Treat these complications and remove them, whatever they may be. Whatever the condition in the system of your patient, outside of cancer, that causes pain or mental suffering will interfere with the cure of the case unless it is overcome.
Complications are liable to arise in the treatment of any case of cancer and a doctor must be able to treat them rapidly and successfully, or he will never make a success of the treatment of cancer. It requires more skill to treat cancer successfully than any other disease, because it is a disease peculiar to itself. For this reason a doctor, before he takes up this specialty, must be a good "all round physician"; he must know how to treat all chronic diseases, as well as those which are acute, successfully or else he will never make a success of the medical treatment of cancer. This is the one great reason why so many doctors, who have started out to treat cancer, have made a failure.
A doctor, before he takes up the active treatment of cancer in its various forms, should master the contents of my book "DEFINITE MEDICATION." If he takes one disease at a time and studies that until he has thoroughly learned the indications for the remedies for that particular diseased condition, and then passes on to another and another, will before long become a good prescriber, and this should be the aim and highest ambition of any physician who desires to do the most good possible and at the same time make his mark in the world. After he has learned the indications for remedies as laid down in "DEFINITE MEDICATION" he is ready to take up the study of cancer, for he has laid the foundation for a successful cancer specialist.
The physicians who have had the best success with the medical treatment of cancer, are those men who are good prescribers. They know their materia medica from A to Z. Not the materia medica of Hare, Ellingwood or Kent, but the whole realm of drug action. They have a working knowledge of the materia medica of all the Schools of Medicines They have already had experience in general practice and in office business. They have had experience in treating other chronic diseases besides cancer. They are men of good judgment and have confidence in themselves and believe in their remedies. From this it will be seen that they have prepared themselves to meet and treat successfully all complications which may arise in the treatment of any case of cancer.
A doctor to succeed with cancer must first of all have perfect confidence in himself and he must have perfect confidence in his remedies to heal the sick. He must know the indications of all the remedies that do have a curative effect upon cancer. All this means study and lots of it. It means hard work but his reward is great and something worth attaining.
Just think of the vast amount of good that a few real earnest, conscientious doctors can do for the people of our Country where 50,000 victims of cancer are dying every year from this fearful malady. Is it not your duty, and my duty, to try and do something for these poor sufferers? When you have taken a desperate case and cured it, is not the satisfaction you get from it and the gratitude of your patient a reward worth all your labor? Remember this, "WHAT MAN HAS DONE, MAN MAY DO."
A COURSE OF READING
I have, at different times, been asked to recommend a course of study for students that would fit them to do the best work for the sick. I would urge upon my readers to take my book " Definite Medication" and study just one disease at a time; get the indications of each remedy fixed in your mind so you can find it when it is needed. Then go through the book in this manner until you feel that you have mastered its contents. Keep the book on your desk for daily reference. It tells the physician definitely what to do for a sick person. It gives him a clear cut indication for each remedy. There is no guess work or uncertainty in its teachings. It gives you the best there is in medicine. Many remedies will be new to you but they have been tested at the bedside of the sick and can be depended upon to do the work if given as indicated.
The question of dose seems to trouble some of our good doctors. For their benefit I will insert here an extract from an article of mine on "Healing the Sick" published in the " Wisconsin Medical Recorder ":
"Every dose of medicine we give must work in harmony with nature, every dose of medicine that has a tendency to lower the vitality of your patient just lessens the chance of recovery. Many doctors treat disease as an enemy that must be expelled from the system by force of arms. No remedy is too powerful for them. They speak of their heroic treatment, of the big doses of medicine and tell of the wonderful cures they have made. All this is a mistake, for in this three-cornered fight we have the disease, the medicine, the vitality of the patient. The vitality of the patient being strong enough to overcome the disease and the action of our remedies the patient gets well.
"In this fight instead of aiding nature we give her a 'black eye.' She returns our unkindness by curing our patient. The older I grow the more impressed I am with the importance of not giving a remedy or a dose of medicine that will weaken the vitality of my patients, for if I do this I know I am working against nature, the best friend I have. I often read in medical journals how some doctors treat their cases, almost every remedy or compound given is tearing down the vitality of the patient. Strong cathartics are given, big doses of morphine, digitalis, coal tar products; all this weakens the vitality of the patient just so much. The above remedies are the 'siege guns' of the materia medica and should be held in reserve for the critical time. I never use morphine, only as a last resort to relieve pain when all else fails. When a remedy is indicated if we give it in big doses we get its poisonous effects. Nature treats it as a poison and tries to expel it from the system. All this complicates the case and lessens your chance of recovery.
"Many doctors seem to think a remedy is of no value, as a medicine, unless it is a deadly poison, and when they give it they think it must be given in doses large enough to show some of its poisonous symptoms. Veratrum veride is one of many valuable remedies that has been thus misused and abused. It has been 'killed in the house of its friends.' It has been given in heroic doses, ten and twenty drops of the tincture once in an hour or two hours in pneumonia until the heart stopped beating and the remedy received all the blame.
"Veratrum in large doses on animals will cause congestion of the lungs. It is indicated in the first stage (the congestive stage) of that disease. If we give five drops of a good tincture of veratrum viride in four ounces of water, teaspoonful once an hour, we have helped our patient. If nausea sets in, it is the 'danger signal' of nature and we give it less often. It is only indicated in the first stage, after that other remedies are indicated. Veratrum is only one of many real good remedies that have been abused because the doctor did not know when to give and how to give it."

One of the books that should be in every doctor's library is Webster's "Dynamical Therapeutics." Leaving out all the dead wood and refuse matter this book gives you the definite action of remedies. It is the best work on Therapeutics ever published by any School of Medicine.
One of the most profound scholars, one of the deepest thinkers and conservative students of materia medica was Dr. Edwin M. Hale, of Chicago, Ill. His work on "New Remedies" should form a part of your reading.
Dr. Richard Hughes, of London, the intellectual giant of the Homeopathic School of England, in his book, "Manual of Pharmacodynamics," gives us the best there is in Homeopathy.
Among the recent works of the Homeopathic School of Medicine, there is one that is especially valuable along therapeutic lines. I refer to Dr. Willis A. Dewey's "Practical Therapeutics" which contains a very large amount of valuable and practical therapeutic information.
Boericke & Dewey's "Twelve Tissue Remedies" will give you all the facts about the Biochemic Remedies, and how and when to use them.
Cook's "Physio Medical Materia Medica" or his "dispensatory" contains a mine of useful information about the real remedial properties of the non-poisonous vegetable remedies peculiar to our country.
Anshutz's "New, Old and Forgotten Remedies" is a book that will be of great help to you in mastering the indications of Homeopathic remedies.
The best, or rather the most practical, work on Homeopathic Materia Medica is Blackwood's. It is a small work but it explains the meat of what you want to know. Burnett on "Tumors of the Breast" should be in your library and be carefully studied.
"New Field" by Burgess is the best work on Natural Diagnosis and you should make yourself familiar with its contents if you desire to learn the practical diagnosis of disease.
Webster's "New Eclectic Practice" is a grand work on Practice; it is up to date and will teach you definitely what to do for the sick.

If you will buy these books and add them to your library for reference, you will in time become proficient in the knowledge of materia medica; that is, the whole realm of drug action.
If we take up one work on materia medica of any School of Medicine, and study up on a remedy, we may think that we know all about it, but in reality we have only learned a part of what the remedy will actually do. In the study of materia medica we may have to go through several works of the different Schools before we find all there is yet known about the remedy, and find the correct indication for its use. Any doctor who will make it his business to master the materia medica of the different Schools of Medicine will possess a mine of valuable knowledge. Such a doctor becomes almost invincible because of his varied knowledge which he has to fall back upon in cases of emergency. Whatever the complication may be that arises he is prepared to meet and conquer it. Such men are a tower of strength in the sick room, and the people turn to them for help when other physicians fail.
Remember that no military commander puts all his best men on the "firing line"; some of the most valuable ones -- the veterans -- are held in reserve, so that, when the crisis in the battle does come, the reserves can be called up to fill the gap and "turn the tide of battle." Never undertake the treatment of a difficult case without being sure of your reserve remedies. The better you know your materia medica the more sure you are to have just the right remedy to do the work, when it is needed the most.
A physician, of all men, should be a broad-minded, liberal man, one who wants to know the truth, one who wants the best there is in medicine for his patients. A doctor may be affiliated with any Medical Society or any School of Medicine that may suit his fancy, but when it comes right down to prescribing for the sick he should hold to no party lines or pathies, but give the patient the best there is in medicine -- no matter whence its source, or who has used it. Such men gain their reward by the respect and confidence which they receive not only from their brother physicians but from the public at large.
Our profession has no place in it for a narrow minded man; a man who cannot see any good outside of his own particular school of medicine. I have as many friends in one school of medicine as another. I treat them all as brother physicians. I never ask what a doctor's medical politics are. I do not really care; in fact, I do not think it is really any of my business. If I can be of any help to him, in any way, I am always glad to render such service.
A PUBLIC INSTITUTION FOR THE MEDICAL TREATMENT OF CANCER
There are wealthy men and women in our country who are glad to contribute to any worthy cause. To such I urge the necessity of providing a place where the public at large, who are victims of this dread disease, could go and find a home and be treated according to the treatment that has been described in this book. In other institutions established for this purpose the patients who seek them must submit either to a surgical operation or else allow themselves to be experimented upon.
There is a crying need for a home for these poor sufferers from cancer, where they could have good care, pleasant surroundings, plenty of fresh air, good food, and be placed under the intelligent care of educated physicians who have mastered the treatment outlined in this book and will carry it out intelligently and conscientiously.
One writer has said that we have 225,000 people in America afflicted with cancer; 75,000 dying of cancer every year. Just think of how many precious lives could be saved every year in such an institution? It is God's work and it is good work for, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto Me."
Every day I get letters from victims of cancer too poor to pay for board and treatment. Such people must die for want of proper care and treatment. It is impossible to send medicine to those afflicted with cancer and have them use it at home. These patients must be seen and examined first before anything can be done for them. They should be under the personal care of a physician who will see that the treatment is carried out faithfully.
I may never live to see such an institution established but such a thing is needed, and needed badly. I hope and pray that some good people, who love their fellow men and want to help them, will try and. do something for this class of people who need all our sympathy and the most skillful treatment.