PROLAPSUS OF VAGINA CURED BY THUJA By Dr W H Wheeler

The

Homoeopathic Recorder

Vol. XX Lancaster, Pa., March, 1905, No. 3

PROLAPSUS OF VAGINA CURED BY THUJA

 By   Dr. W.  H. Wheeler

Edited By Dr. Vandana Patni 

About five months ago I was consulted in regard to a 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 probably the true 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 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, 1904. 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 irritability 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 vagina 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, with- 

out 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 30ths, took the cm. 

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 neurasthenia, in- 

sanity 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 symp- 

tom reported in our repertories; but Allen's Cyclopaedia 

(Symptom 2714) tells us that in the case of one prover it persisted for 

ten days.