Homœopathy is good
for children.
By Harvey Farrington, M.D.
Presented by Sylvain Cazalet
(Read before I. H. A., Bureau of
Obstetrics and Pediatrics, June 27, 1936.)
Dr H.
Farrington“Homœopathy is
good for children.” How often we have heard this statement. The
implication is that it is not so good for adults. This was evidently the
idea in the mind of a man who, when asked what kind of a doctor he
employed, replied : “I have a homœopath for my children
because his sugar pills are so easy to take. When I myself am ailing, I
want some real medicine.” The great majority of the laity, although
well meaning, think superficially and reason from appearances instead of
facts. And yet there is a moral aspect involved in the remarks of the
parent just quoted. If you accused him of being no better than the man
who pours off the cream for his coffee in the morning and gives the
skimmed milk to his babies, he would be very indignant ; but you
would have been right.Why not the best for
the tender infant and the growing child ? Life expectancy has
advanced considerably over what it was a decade or two ago, not, we are
told, because men live longer, but because more children are saved
during the early and most precarious years of their existence. Careful
parents who can afford it employ a competent pediatrist.Those in less fortunate
circumstances avail themselves of the numerous books, pamphlets and
newspaper articles which are printed almost daily. They buy scales and
keep an accurate account of gain or loss in weight. They carefully
sterilize feeding bottles, nipples, toys and even diapers. They study
the uses of cod liver oil concentrate, vitamins and prepared vegetables,
and for the most part their babies thrive and wax in strength and
stature.When, however, it comes
to medical treatment they usually accept the measures dictated by Health
Boards and physicians, and some, like the unnatural parent mentioned
above, employ a homœopath because his pills are easy to take. Of course
you will agree that the little ones so blessed are the beneficiaries.
The others live in spite of serums, vaccines and drugs. The latter,
although given in smaller doses, are still in vogue.The majority of my six
hundred and eighty-odd confinement cases were taken care of in the home.
In a practice of over forty years, I have never lost an infant whose
heart was beating when it was born. Several years ago I was patronizing
a well known hospital in Chicago which had shown an unusual record in
the care of both mother and baby ; but I was puzzled when I found
in three consecutive cases that the baby, apparently perfectly well
during its sojourn in the infants’ ward, came home with a diarrhœa that
was unaccountable and not easily controlled. I made an investigation and
found that it was routine not only to give the mother castor oil on the
third day but the baby also. I had taken the precaution to interdict the
“physic” for the mother but never dreamed that it was being
given to the infant.It is always a source
of great satisfaction to me to “puls one over” on the
allopath. Some five weeks ago the seventeen-months-old son of patients
of mine living thirty miles away was taken down with vomiting and diarrhœa
followed by a loose cough, fever and great restlessness. They had been
greatly Worried over the child for some time because a pediatrist had
told them the boy was running into the mongolian type and they thought
that the present illness was a manifestation of this ailment. They
begged me to come out, assuring me that, in order to save my time, they
would have the local allopath there to tell me all about the case,
adding that he was not to prescribe any medicine.I arrived twenty
minutes ahead of him and had a good opportunity for observation on my
own account. The baby’s temperature was 102.5°F, his face pale. He
persisted in lying on his back and at frequent intervals, jerked the
pelvis off the bed several times in rapid succession. I was told that
this strange symptom had been recurring for several weeks. The cough was
loose and infrequent but not severe. There were a few rales in the
bronchials but no dullness of the chest. He whined and whimpered and
could be pacified only when carried about. After watching him for a few
minutes I noticed a slight waving motion of the nostrils. He had been
circumcised but there were a few slight adhesions around the corona
glandis.The young doctor came
and was naturally not quite at ease, but he made the best of an
embarrassing situation. With much hemming and hawing he gave a history
of the case, eliminated pneumonia, meningitis and narrowed the diagnosis
down to some obscure toxic condition in the colon, which agreed with
my-own conclusions. On leaving he advised me to give a little aspirin, a
sedative, perhaps some phenacetin, and a cathartic. I assured him that I
would prescribe a sedative and see that the child got a good cleaning
out, and he made his exit. What I did give was a dose of Lycopodium
1M. and some placebo. The next morning the mother, over long distance
telephone, told me that half an hour after I left the boy fell asleep
and slept soundly for eleven hours, waking bright and happy. All
symptoms had disappeared. Even the up and down motion of the pelvis had
ceased. He has required no medicine since.Many years ago the
mother of a little family which summered at Gray’s Lake, Illinois,
called me up and asked me to prescribe for a small girl across the way
who was very ill with cholera infantum. There had been a consultation
and the doctors had pronounced the case hopeless. I cannot recall the
symptoms or the name of the remedy which was given from my patient’s
family medicine chest, but the child made a rapid and complete recovery.My friend told me
afterward how amused she was when the doctor who had had the case walked
past her neighbor’s house every morning on the way to his office,
looking for the crepe which he confidently expected to see hanging on
the door. After several days and not having the courage to inquire of
the mother, he crossed the street and asked my patient what had
happened. When she told him he merely remarked, “Well, there are
doctors in Chicago who know a lot more than we do.” The question
is, why didn’t he ask about the remedy given ?One of my families with
an only daughter, ten years of age, moved to Springfield, Illinois. I
recommended to them a homœopath in that city, whose name I had obtained
from my pharmacist. They found that he was a very poor excuse for a
homœopath and when the child contracted pneumonia, called an old school
physician who had a reputation for curing that disease. He, of course,
rushed her to the hospital and placed her in a room with a vapor lamp.
The father got me on long distance and gave a fairly good picture for Belladonna.
A powder of the 10M. was mailed by special delivery and given
surreptitiously the next morning. Two days afterward I received the
following telegram : “Temperature midnight 105°F down to
normal 11 A. M. Right lung still solid. No danger of spreading. Heart in
good shape. Doctors amazed.”On his next trip to
Chicago the father gave me a graphic account of how the doctor and his
son, also a physician, on their regular rounds, looked at the chart,
then at the little patient, then at each other. The older man, evidently
feeling that he should say something, remarked, “Well, it won’t
stay that way.” In five days the small patient left the hospital.I could recite other
similar instances, such as that of the small daughter of an old school
oculist in the suite where I have my downtown office. I accidentally
overheard the mother expressing her great anxiety because the doctors
wanted to give the child “shots” for hay fever, and that she
had heard of a child having been killed by them. I offered my services,
which were gladly accepted. Ambrosia art. stopped the hay fever.Also of the 18-year-old
son of a surgeon on the opposite side of the big waiting room and the
son of one of his patients, also suffering from æstival coryza, who
were cured with the same remedy. But I will forbear. The cases already
recited should convince any thinking person that HOMŒOPATHY IS GOOD FOR
CHILDREN AND ADULTS AS WELL.
Dr Harvey Farrington
Chicago, Ill.Source :
Homœopathic Recorder, Dec.,
1936.Copyright © Sylvain
Cazalet 1999
