Cancer and its Homeopathic Treatment

This book review is reprinted with the permission of the National Center for Homeopathy

Reviewed by Ian Watson, RSHom

The first book provides a glimpse into the case notes of Robert T. Cooper, and pertains to his experience in treating cancer patients using what he termed "arborivital treatment." By this he meant prescribing a single dose of a plant mother tincture prepared from a fresh, living (vita = life) specimen. Cooper was of the opinion that living plants have an inherent curative action that does not require trituration or succussion to bring it forth. In his introductory notes, Cooper draws an analogy between a seed which, in favorable soil will sprout, and grow into a plant, and the seed of cancer in a human being which, again, only in favorable conditions, will develop into a cancerous tumor. In using arborivital tinctures, Cooper suggests that it is possible to combat the "growth force' of a malignant tumor with the growth force of a suitable plant - undoubtedly an ingenious variation on the principle of similars!

The major part of the book contains reports of numerous cancer patients treated in this way, and the results he obtained speak for themselves. I found it compelling reading, but then I have long been fascinated by Cooper's off-beat approach. The frustrating thing is that many remedies are mentioned for which scanty or no indications are given, and some of the remedies are not to be found in any materia medica that I know. The style is reminiscent of Burnett's writings, which contain a similar defect, and consequently, a good deal of hunting and reading between the lines is necessary in order to render the information useable.

It seems that Cooper used his intuition as much as anything in arriving at his prescriptions, and it is apparent that he also drew insight from his deep botanical knowledge. Ultimately though, he was a homeopath, and he defended himself strongly against those who criticized his methods, particularly his insistence on giving single doses when 'low potencies repeated" were the order of the day. In a number of cases, clear indications for the remedies he used are given, and these are mostly based upon characteristic symptoms either of the cancer or of the patient.

Cases of various types of cancer are presented, including Hodgkin's disease and cancers of the uterus, breast, stomach and liver. Cooper makes the astonishing statement that he found it easier to obtain and perceive a curative response to treatment with the internal cancers than he did with any other form of chronic disease. He also makes an interesting distinction between internal (e.g. stomach) and external (e.g. breast) cancers, and states that in his experience, the internal types respond more readily to arborivital treatment. Whilst he did obtain curative results in the external cancers, he found that the treatment would often take longer and he would need to repeat the remedy at shorter intervals.

Readers who would like a taste of what this book contains should read the chapter on Ornithogalum umbellatum in Margaret Tyler's Drug Pictures, where a synopsis of one of Cooper's cases from this book is given. Interestingly, Tyler comments after the case that it may be well to reproduce Cooper's booklets so that his experience may not be forgotten and lost.

I remember reading the material in the second book in one of the old journals some years ago, and was pleasantly surprised to find it reprinted in book form. The front cover is misleading, as it suggests the book was written by John Henry Clarke, which it was not. It is actually a written record of the papers presented by various practitioners to an international congress of homeopaths held in 1927. All share the theme of relating to the treatment of cancer.

The congress appears to have been chaired by Clarke, who opened the proceedings by relating two of his recent cancer cases, both of which he had cured with Hydrastis. In response to a question about the potency, he replied that in his experience 'the lower the potency the better" in crude conditions such as cancer.

There follows a lengthy and detailed paper from Dr. Le Hunte Cooper, son of the then late Dr. Robert T. Cooper, who continued the work begun by his father in obtaining remarkable curative results in patients with various types of cancer. Le Hunte Cooper's insights on the nature of cancers and how they should and should not be treated are extremely pertinent, even sixty years later. To quote from his paper: "The very zenith of fatuity is reached when, in addition, it is suggested that everyone should be professionally overhauled every few months, with a view to the removal of any nobs, or protruberances, they themselves have overlooked. What could be more calculated to keep the conscious, and subconscious mind in that state of fear and anticipation which we all know to be so subversive to health." Unfortunately, the photographs with which he illustrated his talk are very poorly reproduced and do little to enhance the text.

Another excellent paper is contributed by a Dr. Compston of Manchester, England, who relates how he learned to treat cancer homeopathically from Drs. R. T. Cooper, Nebel, and Eli Jones of the U.S.A. One of the papers with which I had more of a struggle is entitled, "On the parasitic theory of cancer," by a Dr. W. Schmidt of Munich. This has been reproduced in full in German, and is followed by a summarized English version which I found only marginally easier to comprehend.

I think the book is worth buying if only to read the case reports and insights given by Dr. Cooper who, like his father, was (and still is) years ahead of his time. For instance, based on his twenty-four years experience in treating cancer, he made the observation that "it is vastly more dangerous to the system to remove a rapidly growing malignancy tumor by operation than one which is of slow growth; the danger being in direct proportion to the rapidity of growth." How many cancer specialists today would be open to that possibility?

A favorite case of mine is that of the cloak-room attendant at a restaurant whom he cured of breast cancer with a single (arborivital) dose of Belladonna, followed by a dose of Scirrhinum 100. Cooper also has some interesting things to say about the use of Carcinosin in active cancer, a procedure generally advised against by other authors.

Ian Watson, RSHom, practices in Cumbria, England, and teaches at a number of Colleges.

Acknowledgements are due to Francis Treuherz for making the original material from his library available for publication, which the publishers fail to mention.

HOMEOPATHY TODAY MAY 1991