About five months ago I was consulted in regard to case of prolapsus of the vagina in a woman seventy-seven years old and told that one of the best homoeopathic and Hahnemannian physicians in the country had advised a surgical operation, saying that she knew of no internal remedy which would be likely to help the case. The prolapsus had already existed for at least a year and was steadily getting more and more troublesome, together with increasing weakness and marked irritability in one who naturally was one of the kindest of women. But having an intense antipathy to needless surgery, and counting surgery always needless until careful study of all possible clews has proved beyond a doubt that no other remedy is possible, I asked the privilege of going over the case to see if somewhere in our Materia Medica a vaginal tonic could not be found which would touch the case.
As so often happens in such cases, I soon discovered that in the case as it now stood there were no clews; but a very careful study of the lady’s past life and family history brought out the fact that she had often been helped for a while by Pulsatilla and silica, though neither of these seemed to have any real control over the prolapsus. But Thuja is complementary to both of these; in fact, is probalbly the ture chronic of Pulsatilla three times out of four, so I devoted myself to a study of some of the more rare and unusual symptoms of Thuja, and sending my patient by mail a list of seventy-nine of these I soon got conclusive proof that all through her past life a thuja vein had run. For she had quite a number of its rarest and most distinctive symptoms. So I advised a trial dose of Thuja 1000 to see if medicine could do anything for the case. This was Oct. 15, 1994. As is so often the case with Thuja when it does its finest curative work, the initial aggravation after taking this one dose was very severe, actually putting the dear lady to bed. But then came the relief. She began to feel stronger, and the prolapsus gradually became less and less and soon wholly ceased. Her irritabilitly also became a thing of the past, and for four whole months she felt better than she had for years, in spite of slowly advancing old age and a very trying winter climate. At the end of these four months some of the symptoms and a renewed tendency to prolapsus showed itself, and I have just advised a second dose of Thuja; but that in a woman seventy-seven Thuja should have given such marked relief for four solid months certainly shows that it has a marked affinity for prolapsus vaginae in so-called Pulsatilla women, which is well worth keeping in mind.
To show how marked and many-sided the improvement has been I will quote a part of the lady’s last letter; she writes, “Till the last few days I have not had to lie down as often as I used to, have had but little backache, have been largely free from coughs which used to trouble me a good deal and have had only one attack of grippe this winter, and that much milder than usual; my knees and ankles do not feel cold as they used to do before [one of her most persistent symptoms formerly]. I do not get tired when working, as I used to do, and am able to do a good many hours’ work each day.” To all of which her daughter adds, “that she has also been her old, sweet self once more, without the strange irritability and temper fits which were formerly beginning to trouble her so much, and make it so hard to keep a servant girl.” Evidently Thuja has helped, and is going to help still more; but this is enough to set many an interested reader to observing for himself. Think of it as one of the commonest chronics of Puls., ALWAYS EXPECT A RATHER SEVERE AGGRAVATION EVERY TIME YOU USE IT, and tell your patient to expect it, and except in very urgent cases like this do not begin higher than the 30th for chronic troubles, and I am sure you will soon learn to love it almost as much as I do, for it has saved some of my dearest friends and is saving others from sufferings almost as old as Noah’s ark; for though it works very slow it works wondrous deep. Of course, the 30th is slower than the 1000th would be, but the curative aggravation is also less. In fact, one young doctor who needed it, turning up her nose at 30th, took the c.m. and was almost frantic, so sharp was her aggravation. But if you wish to get really fine results be patient and don’t repeat until an unmistakably serious relapse of at least five days’ duration calls for it, for some of its later curative action is even more cheering than the relief and uplift which it gives when first taken, two to four months seeming to be the time that a single dose of the thirtieth can run WITH STEADY IMPROVEMENT and only a lot of minor annoyances to show that the work is not mere palliation but cure, melancholia slowly changing to mere restlessness, despair to mere intermittent blues, etc.
And now just one more hint that may save some one much worry. It has wonderful power over dropsical swelling of the feet of several weeks’ duration in some mild Pulsatilla women, when the dropsy is probably due to mere weakness rather than heart disease in its graver forms, though over true heart disease it seems to have great power in some cases. But dropsy due to weakness it sometimes cures like magic. I do not find this symptom reported in our repertories; but Allen’s Cyclopaedia (Symptom 2714) tells us that in the case of one prove it persisted for ten days. Dr. W.H. Wheeler
