The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Therapy II

[ 1 ] I’ve just heard that some confusion has arisen because I spoke of mercury treatment on the one hand and of that preparation I mentioned yesterday on the other. The point is really that mercury treatment was mentioned only as a specifically effective remedy, but one that is actually dangerous and can be avoided. So yesterday, I meant to suggest a complete replacement of mercury treatment with the specified preparation made from tragacanth root.

[ 2 ] I’ll start right away with the questions that are still on the old question sheet; after all, we’ll have another hour tomorrow. I believe there’s something among the newly submitted questions that’s related to this: “How can we understand the success of Salvarsan therapy for syphilis?”

[ 3 ] The main focus here would be on describing this success in greater detail. With this kind of therapy, there is always the possibility of some success, but there are also harmful side effects. And with Salvarsan therapy, it is completely unthinkable that one could even speak of a rational therapeutic treatment, because the preparation—at least as it is described—is such that it tears the human body apart; it tears people apart. Nothing fits together. Under certain circumstances, one can impose whatever one wants on the body; some success may always result, but what comes of it—especially in the case of Salvarsan—is undoubtedly impossible to overlook, because the elements contradict one another. Therefore, one can only say: Salvarsan therapy is truly a product of the current way of thinking. And fundamentally, the situation is such that one really cannot take something like this seriously at all. Would anyone perhaps like to say anything further about this?

Dr. Rascher: Does that apply to modern metal therapy in general, including bismuth therapy?

[ 4 ] Isn’t it true that, from our point of view, bismuth therapy can be overlooked? I mean, bismuth therapy is discussed in my courses themselves. But the drug Salvarsan is impossible to overlook. It tears the body apart. Of course, there may be bismuth preparations that have the same effect when combined with other preparations. But the way bismuth itself works is evident from our courses.

Dr. Noll: Can an antimony preparation be effective against syphilis?

[ 5 ] Antimony exerts its true efficacy between the reproductive tract and the respiratory tract. Thus, everything in the human organism that lies between these two tracts can be addressed with antimony; the rest, of course, only to the extent that the effect of one tract radiates into the entire organism. But to specifically address the reproductive tract with antimony for something it lacks is actually not possible. Thus, while the secondary effects of syphilitic diseases can certainly be treated with antimony, treating syphilis itself with antimony will certainly not lead to a complete cure. Antimony specifically addresses the distinct central organization of the human being—the entire digestive tract, the transition from the digestive tract to the circulatory tract, and, of course, that part of the circulation which then passes into the sexual organs. But it is strictly limited to this tract.

Dr. Kater: The harmful effects of Salvarsan have certainly been confirmed by the deaths.

[ 6 ] The most likely scenario is this: Salvarsan was administered, and it was not long ago. The severe side effects will reach their peak in the patient after about five to ten years, or perhaps within a seven-year period. Unfortunately, however, such medical histories are not kept today. After all, it is far, far more important for medical understanding to continue documenting the medical history beyond the point of recovery. One gains much more from this than from investigating the internal state of the organism prior to the onset of the disease. Of course, that may be very important under certain circumstances, but in most cases, external factors are actually of particular importance.

[ 7 ] I must once again mention cases like this: Our friend, Dr. Haakenson, referred a patient to me in Christiania. The patient had unexplained rashes. He was about forty-five years old when he was brought in, and the entire clinical picture presented itself to conventional medicine as a complex of symptoms that could not possibly be defined as belonging together. You see, if you proceed purely on the basis of the organism, you cannot find a plausible cause at all. Of course, the doctor is then usually reliant on what the patient tells him. I was able to tell this patient the following straight to his face. I said—I’ll skip the details in between—: “You must have suffered some kind of poisoning between the ages of nine and eleven or twelve.”

[ 8 ] It gradually came to light that the man—who was about forty-five years old at the time—had once been thirsty as a boy at school; there happened to be a laboratory next to the classroom, and on the windowsill was a weak hydrochloric acid solution, which he drank to quench his thirst. And it was this poisoning that caused the symptoms that manifested themselves when he was forty-five.

[ 9 ] Therefore, if one wants to understand a disease, one must focus on this external cause as the most important factor. But afterward, once the patient has recovered, one must actually continue to carefully observe the organism to see what effects the healing has on it.

[ 10 ] And that would be of particular importance in Salvarsan therapy. In Salvarsan therapy, you certainly won’t be able to apply what I said yesterday regarding the treatment of syphilis in general. I described a kind of meditative treatment to follow—one involving abstract concepts that must be carried out very conscientiously, at varying speeds, first increasing and then decreasing in pace. This will make it possible to ensure the success of a psychological follow-up treatment—which, however, lasts for years—especially in the case of syphilis, if it has been cured in the manner I described yesterday. Even with mercury treatment—though I do not recommend it—such psychological follow-up therapy would be beneficial. With Salvarsan treatment, if you undergo such follow-up therapy, you will likely develop in later life—one cannot say “dementia praecox,” but something very similar to dementia praecox in later life. Whereas with mercury treatment without psychiatric follow-up therapy, psychiatric symptoms do arise precisely as a result of what I mentioned yesterday. But with Salvarsan treatment, precisely because of the disruption it causes, it will turn out that a form of schizophrenia will indeed develop, especially if you attempt follow-up therapy in a psychiatric sense.

Dr. Palmer: It would be very interesting if you could share your views on so-called tertiary syphilis and iodine therapy.

[ 11 ] Based on what can be said about this, the essential point is that, particularly in the case of a disease as general in nature as syphilis, first, with the actual focus of the disease and its effects; but second, because syphilis affects the whole person, extending even into the ego organization, one is dealing with its counterpart in the nervous-sensory human being. Schematically speaking, one can certainly say: The disease is located in the metabolic-limb human, but has its counterpart in the nervous-sensory human, which also includes, for example, the laryngeal tract—everything connected with the differentiating upper respiration. These two aspects are intimately connected with one another. What is achieved with mercury relates to the actual source and its effects. What is achieved with the iodine preparation relates to the upper region. Thus, the polar phenomena occurring in the nervous-sensory system can be counteracted by iodine when mercury treatment is applied. So that is the connection.

[ 12 ] Now, as you will recall, yesterday I outlined essentially two parts of the entire treatment for syphilis. The first is an injection with the preparation; the second is a bath treatment, which expels the disease. These correspond to one another in a much more natural and rational sense, just as mercury and iodine do here. That is the idea, then. In general, therapy usually leads us toward a balancing treatment of the two polar opposites.

Dr. Palmer: So, should the gummas be considered sequelae of excessive mercury therapy?

[ 13 ] Yes, that is absolutely the case. Is there anything else you'd like to ask about this?

Dr. Kater: What are the effects of arsenic?

[ 14 ] The general effect of arsenic is that it essentially energizes the human astral body. This is the fundamental phenomenon of arsenic’s action. Arsenic, even in its compounds, has such a powerful effect on humans that one can say: Arsenic energizes the astral body. Therefore, when you use arsenic—especially in its liquid form, simply as Roncegno and Levicow water in the appropriate dosage—you will always be able to achieve the desired effect whenever it is necessary to stimulate the astral body so that it, so to speak, unfolds its natural impulses.

[ 15 ] Incidentally, with every such disease—syphilis as well as other sexually transmitted diseases—a defect in the astral body is either the cause or the consequence. Therefore, it is only natural that arsenic also has an observable effect on this; but it does not necessarily cure it. It does not penetrate deeply enough for one to speak of a cure. Dr. ...: In cases of congenital syphilis, are the conditions in children different from those in adults?

[ 16 ] Do you mean hereditary syphilis? In the case of syphilis in children, the circumstances are, of course, completely different. And in children, if you can diagnose it in time, you will achieve results specifically with an arsenic treatment—not the Salvarsan treatment, but the arsenic treatment—provided you use the arsenic in a stronger dilution and, if possible, allow it to take effect deep enough within the body by mixing it with lactic acid or something similar. In this way, you will be able to achieve very favorable results, especially in children. For hereditary lues is not actually syphilis; rather, hereditary lues differs from syphilis in that syphilis, when it arises through infection in the human organism—particularly in adults—exerts its primary effect on the etheric body. The hereditary form, however, affects only the physical body and is not present in the etheric body. And therefore, if you strongly stimulate the astral body with arsenic, you can transfer this effect to the etheric body, and then you can combat it quite effectively in the physical body. The difficulty with hereditary lues lies precisely in the fact that one has thoroughly ruined that which is so difficult to reach with earthly remedies.

[ 17 ] What comes into consideration here is what I described in the general lecture as being subject to peripheral forces. If you want to have any influence at all on such deformations and degenerations—or, in general, on damage associated with peripheral forces—then you must somehow set etheric forces in motion as well.

[ 18 ] Now, this buckthorn, which I spoke of yesterday, has the peculiarity that it is hardened and calloused and, as a result, is not actually continuously permeated by ethereal forces. If one then obtains these ethereal forces through the sap of its own flowers and leaves, one ends up with a preparation just as I described it yesterday. This leads to a rational understanding of the matter. Dr. Palmer: There is another question regarding tertiary syphilis.

[ 19 ] All one can say about tertiary syphilis is this: The only truly rational course of action is to prevent it from progressing to that stage—to strive to detect syphilis in its primary stage. For once syphilis has progressed to the secondary or tertiary stage, there is such a complex set of symptoms—especially when it comes to occult observation—that it need not be the same in two patients. It only appears that way on the surface; internally, it need not be the same. Consequently, it is very difficult to get to the root of the matter, because while you are effectively treating one aspect, it breaks out in the opposite way at the other end. Therefore, if one must take a position on this, one can only say: Secondary syphilis must, of course, be treated exactly as I described yesterday, and in the case of tertiary syphilis, the goal will be to achieve a cure under certain circumstances, though it will always remain problematic.

Dr. Palmer: Regarding the glaucoma process and the ear process: The glaucoma process is regarded as a kind of tumor process; ear processes are suppurative processes, inflammatory processes. Now, the eye itself, in its entire development, is to be understood as an inflammatory process, whereas in the formation of the ear, we are dealing with a neoplastic process. Is this polar opposition precisely what defines the clinical picture of glaucoma on the one hand and ear suppuration on the other?

[ 20 ] Isn't that obvious? If, under normal conditions, there is an inflammatory process in the eye, and if, under normal conditions, there is a neoplastic process in the ear, then the pathological process in the eye must be a neoplastic process, and in the ear an inflammatory process—namely, the one that occurs as the opposite. It is, so to speak, obvious that this must be the case.

[ 21 ] Well, on this occasion, it might be appropriate to discuss these polar processes involved in ear infections, specifically middle ear infections. In the case of an ear infection, one is clearly dealing with a predominance of the etheric organization in this local region. This is evident not only from occult observation but also from the simple observation of the final state, the final stage of a middle ear infection, with the adhesion of the organs and so on.

[ 22 ] One can already see from the physical organism that this involves an excessive activity of the etheric body. Now, one must be clear that this excessive activity of the etheric body in this tract immediately brings about a strengthening of the “I” organization for this tract, which extends down into the subconscious.

[ 23 ] So we have a physical formation that should not be there and that depends on the organization of the “I.” The best way to address this is by, in a sense, stimulating the breathing process once again. Internally, one can stimulate the breathing process—so that exhalation becomes more lively—by taking Levisticum internally in an appropriate dosage. This stimulates the breathing process—in the opposite direction to what was mentioned yesterday regarding glaucoma formation. One tends to breathe in such a way that the intensification of breathing is directed inward, whereas in the lovage process it must be directed outward. So the intensification of the breathing process is directed more inward. And then it will prove to be particularly beneficial for ear infections—as strange as it may seem—if one also applies eurythmy, specifically therapeutic eurythmy, in cases of ear infection. In fact, it will be exceptionally beneficial to practice the letters L, M, and S specifically as therapeutic eurythmy. For everything related to the ear is really just a localized manifestation of a process occurring throughout the entire human etheric body. Therefore, one can influence everything localized in the ear by promoting breathing in this way—since this is really just a way of promoting breathing—by having the patient perform the aforementioned letters as therapeutic eurythmy.

[ 24 ] Now I'd like to talk about a few more things.

Dr. ...: Wouldn't the eurythmy have to be different for ear infections and sclerotic processes?

[ 25 ] If the condition is sclerosis, vocal therapeutic eurythmy should preferably be used. In this case, the therapeutic eurythmy would involve vocalization. For inflammatory processes, the focus must be on consonant sounds, specifically L, M, S, and similar sounds.

[ 26 ] Now, other questions have been raised, which I would like to address one by one. Of particular interest is the case that was asked about here, regarding which we already have some experience. The question raised here is:

Is therapeutic intervention still possible in cases of arthritis deformans that have persisted for decades? We are currently trying 1 percent phosphorus oil and stannum. Is consonant eurythmy also indicated in this case?

[ 27 ] Perhaps I might ask Dr. Palmer to briefly present our Stuttgart case of arthritis deformans.

Dr. Palmer: This case, which we treated at the time and whose therapy has since become widely known, involved a very recent case of deforming arthritis. It was in the case of Ms. X, where, after four to five weeks of treatment with 1 percent phosphorus oil and a 4 to 5 percent tin rub, all symptoms—which had previously been treated elsewhere in clinics—subsided. At that time, the patient also underwent therapeutic eurythmy in addition to the medicinal treatment. In the cases that came to our clinic where we applied the same therapy, we naturally did not achieve the same success as we did with this very recent case. A young boy who developed this condition as early as age three or four was also treated with phosphorus oil and stannum, but we had to administer injections of Levicow water to enhance the effect. At the time, this boy was in a very acute inflammatory stage of deforming arthritis in his hip, and all his symptoms subsided, leaving him completely pain-free. Of course, the damage to the joints and the destruction of the cartilage were already so extensive that, in this case, restoring joint mobility was no longer a possibility.

[ 28 ] That, of course, is the whole difficulty. Let’s start by considering these two cases, because this will be quite instructive. How old was our patient, Ms. X?

Dr. Palmer: Perhaps in the late 1920s, and the boy must have been twelve or thirteen years old—he was the American boy.

Dr. Kater says that her patient is twenty-seven years old and has been suffering since the age of twelve; a second patient is forty-five years old and has been suffering for three years; and a female patient is about seventy years old.

[ 29 ] But the question is whether you were able to cure it. Did you use the same treatment here?

Dr. Kater says she has just now put this method into practice.

[ 30 ] This issue is extremely important because, with this disease, so much really depends on the individual patient. And it is fair to say that with this condition—deforming arthritis—it is indeed the case that, in every instance, one must, in a certain sense, consider the individual, for the onset of this disease is closely linked to the person’s overall development. Sometimes, with a condition that arises in middle age—as in the case I first asked Dr. Palmer to interpret—you have to ask yourself: Does the cause lie far back in childhood, or do the causes stem from later years?

[ 31 ] What is peculiar, in fact, is precisely this: that with a corresponding physical disposition—namely, a constitutional weakness of the etheric body—the cause of deforming arthritis lies in most cases in psychological processes, particularly in people who, upon waking, allow their astral body to descend into a weak etheric body—where, as a result of the etheric body’s weakness, the astral body becomes stronger than it ought to be, and is not sufficiently dampened as it penetrates the etheric body. Grief, worry, shocks, and consuming distress arising in the soul do indeed act as causes of this disease.

[ 32 ] Now, the peculiar thing about this is: If you have a child—let’s take any hypothetical case—a ten-year-old child who, for whatever reason, say due to a previous bout of measles or something similar, has an etheric body that is even only temporarily weakened; the astral body is exerting too strong an influence. Consequently, during this phase of the child’s life—I won’t say ten, but twelve years; you’ll see why in a moment—if the child has a grumpy teacher who puts the child through all sorts of situations, causing inner psychological discord, such childhood distress will initially predominate. And now let the fourteenth year approach—approximately, of course—then you have two years from the twelfth year to the fourteenth, and then two years to the sixteenth, and in the sixteenth year there is again a possibility—one that occurs just as long after the conclusion of the period following sexual maturity as the insult occurred before sexual maturity—that the process repeats itself rhythmically; but then, of course, no new sorrow—which would have to come from outside—arises, but rather the organic counterpart of that sorrow emerges. The question then is this: How long does this process take, following the periods that emerge, to become sufficiently peripheral? At the age of twenty-one, there is another period; that is, at nineteen—two years before this period—and two years afterward, at twenty-three, there is again the possibility for this child that the matter will somehow progress further. Now the only question is: How long does this process take to become sufficiently peripheral so that it manifests as a deformity? Depending on the circumstances, this can extend from the twelfth year—when the initial causes lie—into the thirties, or even into the early forties. Then one has a completely different picture than if, for example, someone experiences the psychological cause only after turning fifty or at the end of their forties—which is also when it can occur. In such cases, these deformities arise from a completely different depth within the organism. And so one might say—let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that we are dealing with a patient who is, for my purposes, in his late thirties or early forties and who has severe deforming arthritis, which indicates that the causes actually lie quite far back in the past. Based on these facts, one might, under certain circumstances, propose the following treatment. I have therefore constructed an ideal case in response to your question, and the point would now be that, in such a case, one induces what has been discussed here—through the arsenic injection, Stannum, and so on—by administering hydrogen sulfide baths; that is, one first acts on the nervous-sensory system, on which such baths always act, and thereby addresses the patient’s peripheral condition from the outside. If you then administer from the inside, for example, highly potentized arnica substance, arnica tincture, or Equisetum—which in this case would be one and the same—you will be acting in the same way from the inside out, and you will likely achieve a cure even in cases of long-standing deforming arthritis.

[ 33 ] It is certainly true that one can say: This would be a case that might need to be treated in this way. Whereas cases such as the first one interpreted by Dr. Palmer—whose cause most certainly did not lie far in the past—can be treated with Stannum and Phosphorus oil. That is why I was very happy to mention this case, because it is instructive to see, precisely in such a—albeit very profound—illness, how one must individualize the treatment.

A case is described in which the patient went through something similar during her youth. In her twenties, she contracted gonorrhea and, immediately afterward, developed very severe chronic arthritis. She is now about forty-five years old and is in a truly dire condition.

[ 34 ] It’s almost as if I had just made up this case in my head! Hydrogen sulfide baths and, internally, Equisetum or Arnica; possibly, if it doesn’t take effect immediately, injections.

Dr. Kater: The case you mentioned is exactly that of the twenty-seven-year-old woman among my patients. You described it in detail without even knowing about it.

[ 35 ] Now we have another interesting question here: disorders of the gastrointestinal tract resulting from shock. Well, these can occur as a result of shock, but I also believe they can result from other psychological factors, such as persistent grief and the like, which is constantly being fueled anew; this is particularly true for women. In such cases, very painful, colic-like conditions can arise. Lethargy of the entire gastrointestinal tract may also occur; under certain circumstances, complete failure may even set in—though this failure is very often accompanied by pain. Isn’t that roughly the clinical picture? (Answer: Yes!) — This is a very common condition, and it is very interesting to observe what actually happens there. In every such case, the following has occurred: The human astral body is, after all, a highly differentiated organism, and when you become acquainted with this human astral body, you will see that—for all the organs lying behind the sexual organs toward the renal tract and bounded upward by the pulmonary and cardiac tracts, that is, in this region—the astral body closely conforms to the etheric body. So one can actually say: For this tract, the etheric body is the determining factor. In its movements and forms, the astral body adopts what the etheric body does. This is quite different in the sexual tract. In the sexual tract, the astral body is very active in its own right and, in a certain sense, suppresses the activity of the etheric body. When a shock of precisely this kind occurs here, the activity that the astral body develops in the sexual tract pushes its way into the digestive tract, resulting in a displacement of astral activity, and all the symptoms are then those mentioned above. And it is necessary to actually initiate the process that, in such a case, returns the astral body to its proper place.

[ 36 ] One really must understand this connection, which actually takes place entirely within the higher members of the human organism. What takes place in the physical body is merely a consequence, merely an external symptom. What is happening takes place between the etheric body and the astral body, specifically in a particular region of the body.

[ 37 ] You will achieve results in all cases if you apply either compresses or rubs with oxalic acid—that is, simply oxalic acid, which you can best extract by squeezing clover. Squeeze the clover to extract the oxalic acid in this way. That is when it is most effective. And, of course, it is best used as a rub. It is extraordinarily effective in energizing the etheric system in the digestive tract. This causes it to become particularly active. And now you must try to bring back this astral sexual system that has entered there. You can restore it either by taking a silver preparation orally in the appropriate dosage, or through a silver injection administered in the fifth or sixth decimal dilution. When introduced into either the circulatory or the digestive system, silver always tends to restore deformations in the higher organizational levels.

[ 38 ] As you can see, if you apply these two processes one after the other, you will achieve excellent results, especially with shock effects. Shock reactions, in particular, are exceptionally interesting. And if you have brought about a healing in response to a shock reaction—if, let’s say, there is a typical shock reaction such as the one we just described—then, as you continue to follow up with the patient, you will notice the following. If you know how to ask the right questions, you will receive answers from the patient that go something like this: “It’s quite strange—ever since I recovered back then, my heart has been behaving quite differently; ever since then, whenever I perceive something startling—a cannon shot or something like that—my heart reacts as if it wanted to calm me down itself, as if there were a being within it that wanted to calm me down.”

[ 39 ] Here you can see how truly polar processes are present in the human organism during any regulatory intervention—not just during a healing intervention. This effect on the heart, which the patient describes—and which essentially takes place in the etheric and astral bodies—is the polar counteraction to what you actually did to establish the proper relationship between the sexual tract and the digestive tract. That is what needs to be said regarding this shock effect.

[ 40 ] Tomorrow I will discuss in a bit more detail an interesting topic, namely nervous system disorders—specifically spinal cord disorders—which is listed as the first item on the agenda, so to speak. We will meet again tomorrow at half past eight. I would just like to say one more thing, since this really seems to be a very timely issue—at least that’s how it strikes me—which is also listed here on the note, namely, bedwetting in children. It does indeed seem to be occurring with increasing frequency.

[ 41 ] Bedwetting in children is a typical sign of weakness in the astral body. The astral body simply lacks the strength it should have. However, if you use arsenic specifically for bedwetting—even in the mild forms such as Levicow water or Roncegnow water—you will generally achieve an effect that is strong but exceptionally short-lived; in the case of bedwetters, due to their overall constitution, this will result in a brief movement of the astral body that is appropriate for it. The children will nevertheless continue to wet the bed; but you will most certainly achieve good results if, for bed-wetters, you use the substance obtained by pressing the leaves and flowers of St. John’s wort, Hypericum perforatum. I do not know if you are aware that it is the only plant with stamens arranged in clusters of three. It belongs to Linnaeus’s 18th class; it has yellow petals, and its leaves, when held up to the light, appear as if they were full of holes. When you squeeze this plant, you obtain a juice. It is essentially due to this bitter extractive substance contained in the plant—a substance that has a very strong and lasting effect on the inner mobility of the astral body and strengthens it. And through this, healing may occur under certain circumstances, provided one also exerts a moral influence on the child by simply telling them that they are obligated to pay attention to their bodily functions. This moral influence should actually be applied precisely in cases that, you see, lie on the borderline between misbehavior and illness. Please do not misunderstand me; I am well aware, of course, that it is an illness, but it lies on the borderline between misbehavior and illness. And because the moral will does indeed have a great influence, one should not disregard it. For if you treat such a condition in a child—and of course you can treat it with Hypericum—you weaken the child’s will if you do not at the same time encourage it, if you do not give it an impulse toward the moral side. That is what I would say with regard to bedwetting.

[ 42 ] Then tomorrow let’s talk about children with neuropathic disorders, especially children with dementia praecox in its various forms. Then we’ll discuss a few other issues, and I’ll try to address all of these questions.

Dr. ...: The question is how old the juice can be.

[ 43 ] You shouldn't let it get too old; but if you prepare it so that you squeeze as much out of it as possible—to a specific amount, say, one gram of leaves and flowers mixed together, half and half—then you’ll be able to use it to treat a glass of water, and you can then portion it out and use it this way for half a year.