Homœopathic Materia Medica as Applied to Surgery [excerpt]

     Another septic remedy is Lachesis, and its use in poisoned wounds has been known and tested from the moment of its introduction into our Materia Medica. It was to this remedy and its successful use in a dissecting wound that won to Homœopathy Dr. Carroll Dunham, a former dean of this institution, and one whose memory will ever flourish in immortal green for his services to our cause. It will be indicated by the sensitiveness, the purplish color, the great burning and an unhealthy appearance about the wound. In boils, carbuncles and abscesses, where there is a tendency of the process to take on a malignant condition, it may be used with confidence. In gangrene following wounds it is eminently curative; traumatic gangrene is especially its field.
     In almost every field of operative surgery there is not only a chance to employ the [122][123] remedy, but we are neglecting the best interests of the patient if we fail to use it. In gun shot wounds the foregoing and other remedies may be used, and may often assist nature in restoring injured tissues. I would recommend the careful perusal of a pamphlet by the late Dr. E. C. Franklin, entitled “Homœopathic Therapeutics in Gun Shot Wounds and the Sequelæ of Operation.” It will make you wish that President McKinley could have had the benefits of the homœopathic remedy.