Surgery without Incision using Homoeopathic Remedies

About 20 years ago while riding my mountain bicycle I suffered an accident. I don't know what came over me, but apparently I had a lapse in concentration causing me to swerve and crash into the curb, which sent me to the ground. I sustained a 6-inch gash in my right fibula (the shin bone), exposing the underlying bone. Ouch: yes of course, ouch, but I was more shocked to see the white of that bone staring at me! I reversed direction and, still riding, headed slowly home, a mile away.

After taking Arnica and cleansing the wound I used steri-Strips to draw together the loose skin on both sides of this longitudinal gash and applied Calendula, not on the wound, but around the edges, and then lightly covered it with a loose-fitting large gauze pad held on with white adhesive tape. I breathed a tortured sigh not just for this unfortunate event but for the loss of a summer's outdoor activities.

I continued to take care of this nasty wound in the just related manner, along with daily oral doses of Calendula for about 6 weeks. By then the wound had scabbed over and began to itch. Due to past experiences and some knowledge of hydrotherapy, I realized “the itch” signaled that cold applications would now be useful to push the healing process to an endpoint. So, during the day, I made several trips to the bathtub to gently stream hot and cold water, in an alternating fashion, over the area—always ending the session with cold water. Then I would rest on the bed or sofa with my leg raised slightly.

By the eighth week, I was totally healed and could now resume my athletics and a normal life. No allopathic medications were used and a stressful and expensive trip to the emergency room had been avoided.

It is no wonder that, almost on a daily basis, we sing the praises of homeopathy.

Why am I relating this experience? It is because I was reminded of it while reading Edmund Carleton's Homoeopathy in Medicine and Surgery (1913).

On pages 218,9 of a section devoted to “Wounds and Injuries,” he relates the following case:

“A physician stepped into his box wagon, in urgent haste. His driver had the horse in motion before the doctor was fairly inside the wagon. As the last leg came in, the shin received a bad scraping from the sharp edge of the board. Despite clothing, there was an extensive cut which went to the bone. Two hours later, when it was practicable to do so, the periosteum and skin were carefully laid back in place and dressed with ceratum calendulae. There was much sharp, cutting, stinging pain at first which, with the soreness, rapidly subsided. In a few days the shin was well. When one thinks of the numerous operations that have been performed upon the tibia, followed by tedious convalescences, all in consequence of accidents no more severe than the one under consideration and none of them being aided by the law of cure, he finds the contrast much in favor of homeopathic treatment. A multitude of cured cases add testimony to the same effect.”

Edmund Carleton, December 11, 1839 to June 15, 1912, graduated from the New York Homeopathic Medical College in 1871. He joined the IHA in 1881 and served as its president in 1894. Carleton was a pure homeopath and was a colleague of others with a similar persuasion, that is, Constantine Lippe, Adolph Lippe, P.P. Wells, Carroll Dunham, Edward Bayard, etc.

“He served as visiting surgeon for twenty-five years, and is now consulting surgeon of that hospital. For twenty-five years Dr. Carleton was professor of surgery in the New York Medical College and Hospital, for Women. He also is professor of homeopathic philosophy with its clinical application in the New York Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital….”

–W. H. King, Volume 4

“He was a founding member of the Society of Homoeopathicians in 1895, and he became a member of the American Hahnemannian Association in 1900. He was recognized as a fine surgeon and teacher of several well-respected homeopaths, including Stuart Close of Brooklyn….”

–William Kirtsos (The Kirtsos Historical Library of Homoeopathic Medicine, p. 41)

Carleton's crowning achievement was Homoeopathy in Medicine and Surgery (1913; this book is available as a reprint and also available on https://books.google.com).

“Edmund Carleton was one of the second generation of homeopaths in the USA. He knew Wells, Biegler, Bayard and Swan. He was one of the staunch Hahnemannians of the IHA [he resigned from the AIH in 1879]. This book is a narrative of his clinical experiences and contains gems on almost every page. Where else would you find that Lac caninum was made from the milk of Mrs. Bayard's spaniel whose “affection for the human race was unusually strong”? This book is, in the words of Chris Ellithorp, “another neglected gem.”

–J. Winston (The Heritage of Homoeopathic Literature, p. 92).

Spencer was Edmund's son and a homeopath as well. He wrote the Foreword to his father's work explaining that it was written as a clinical guide. Many theoretical and philosophical texts had already been published, but there were few that tackled therapeutical situations while weaving those cases into the precepts of classical homeopathy.

Homeopathic surgery was a term used by homeopathic surgeons of the late 19th century and early 20th century who employed homeopathic remedies to “control other sequences in surgery, lessening the mortality and making recovery possible in otherwise fatal cases.” The term was also to indicate that surgery could be avoided if properly chosen remedies were administered.

“…there are specific drugs, belonging to the homeopathic Materia Medica, capable of curing the morbid action, and thus, of rendering surgical operations unnecessary. As examples we may cite cancerous and other malignant tumors, in the early stages of their development, scrofulous affections of the joints, ascites, hydrothorax, hydrocele, fissures of the anus, chronic enlargement of the tonsils, haemorrhoids, prolapsus ani, abscesses, etc.”

–E.E. Marcy (North American Homoeopathic Journal, Vol. I, pp. 149–155, 1851)

Famous, perhaps infamous, homeopathic surgeons of yesteryear include, for example, C. Adams, C.M. Beebe, W.H. Bishop, E. Carleton, H.R. Chislett, N.W. Emerson, C.E. Fisher, E.C. Franklin, W.E. Green, W.T. Helmuth, Sr., B.L. Hill, J.G. Hunt, J.E. James, J.M. Lee, T.L. Macdonald, M. Macfarlan, E.E. Marcy, W.B. Morgan, G.H. Palmer, S.B. Parsons, E.H. Pratt, G.W. Roberts, J.K. Sanders, G.F. Shears, W.B. Van Lennep, C.E. Walton, D.G. Wilcox, S.F. Wilcox, H. Wilson, etc.

W.T. Helmuth, Sr., perhaps the most revered homeopathic surgeon, was also a poet. He wrote and recited a poem for the dedication, in 1900, of the Hahnemann Monument in Washington, DC. For an interesting look at the relationship of poetry to homeopathy, please see “Meeting of the Poet and the Homoeopath” (D. Sorrenti, Homoeopathic Links, 14:2, pp. 87–90, Summer 2001).

Benjamin Lord Hill (1813–1871) might be included in this group. Before he converted from eclecticism to homeopathy, he wrote Lectures on the American Eclectic System of Surgery (1850), which was the first textbook of surgery to come out of that sect and the first nonallopathic surgical work to be published in the United States. Later in his career, he became professor of obstetrics and diseases of women and, still later, of surgery at the Western Homoeopathic College in Cleveland, Ohio. At that time, he co-authored, with Dr. J.G. Hunt, The Homoeopathic Practice of Surgery, together with operative surgery (1855).

Several more recent articles for your interest include “Effect of the homeopathic remedies Arnica montana and Staphysagria on the time of healing of surgical wounds” (A. Alecu et al, Cultura Homeopatica, #20, 2007, pp. 19–21), “Effect of the homeopathic remedy Arnica montana 7CH on mechanical trauma in mice” in that same issue, pp. 16–18, Pawan Pareek's “The role of homeopathy in surgical cases” (American Journal of Homeopathic Medicine, 104:1, pp. 44–47, 2011), and Niraj Parikh's “True surgical cases in homeopathy: a different territory” (Homoeopathic Links, 28:1, pp. 27–32, 2015; the author presents five cases, the first being one of urinary calculi). In V. Krishnamurthy's piece, “Learn and practice homoeopathy exactly and accurately” (Homoeopathic Links, 28:1, pp. 47–49, 2015), the author offered this):

“The foetus is found dead in the eighth month of the pregnancy. Before taking the patient to the theatre, one single dose of Cantharis vesicatoria 10M was given and without any surgery or instrumental interference the dead child was expelled in no time without any complication (Knerr's Repertory-Pregnancy, foetus, expels dead: Cantharis, Cimex lectularius, Pulsatilla nigricans)-p. 48.”

In subsequent articles, I will offer several of Carleton's more instructive cases, though the entire book is filled with just that, and tidbits of wisdom which would be of benefit to any practitioner of our high art.

Publication History

Article published online:
03 October 2024