Robert Thomas Cooper - An Introduction to his Work
by
Ian Watson
An introduction to the work of Dr. Robert Thomas Cooper
(1844-1903), with particular reference to the treatment
of deafness and diseases of the ear.
The
Cooper Club
In the preface to his Dictionary of Practical Materia
Medica the author, John Henry Clarke, M.D., gives due
acknowledgement to some of the authorities he consulted
in the compilation of his work - Allen, Hering, Lippe
& Guernsey being among them. He goes on to mention
“sources inaccessible to the general reader, being
scattered up and down the periodical literature of
Homoeopathy, and throughout the writings of original
workers, among whom I may name Dr. James Compton Burnett
and Dr. Robert T. Cooper as pre-eminent, each in a line
of his own.”
Burnett needs little introduction today - his quaint
little booklets having introduced many new remedies (and
new uses for old remedies) into every day use -
Bacillinum , Urtica urens , Chelidonium majus , Ceanothus
, to name but a few. Cooper on the other hand, for the
most part remains buried in numerous journal articles, a
few published booklets long since out of print, and
scattered throughout the text of Clarke's Dictionary. A
cursory browse through the latter will reveal the
initials R.T.C. countless times, and a fair number of
remedies are listed as having been introduced into
homœopathy by the same Dr. Cooper, among them being
Agraphis nutans , Arbutus andrachne and Lemna minor.
Polycrests none of them, but clinically useful remedies
none the less.
Clarke certainly had great respect for Cooper, such that
when he formed a materia medica study group in 1905 - two
years after Cooper's death - he named it “The Cooper
Club”. At the opening meeting Clarke recalled how Cooper,
Burnett and himself had dined together regularly once a
month between 1893 to 1901 to share their experiences,
and how he (Clarke) would record the proceedings on a
menu card to be written up later that night. The result,
to a large extent, was Clarke's Dictionary of Materia
Medica . “Be it understood”, said Clarke, “it was Robert
Thomas Cooper who began the movement, and who was the
life and soul of the movement all the time. That is why
this association, so long as I have anything to do with
it, must bear Cooper's name.”
Cooper’s
work
In
his day, Cooper found himself unpopular among many of his
professional brethren, and took great pains in his
articles, letters and speeches to defend his methods and
to emphasise the results of his treatment. To his credit
he was as willing to publish his failures as he was his
successes. That some were jealous of his success seems
probable, especially outside the homœopathic fraternity,
but many of his fellow homœopaths took issue with him
also, mostly over his use of unproven remedies and
arborivital tinctures. Be that as it may, he was
certainly an observer of the highest calibre, a gifted
naturalist and a meticulous recorder of remedial action.
Cooper certainly contributed much to homœopathic materia
medica and therapeutics, and his major contributions were
threefold:
1. The introduction and clinical testing of a range of
remedies applicable to ear diseases, in particular
chronic deafness.
2. The introduction and successful employment of numerous
remedies in the different types of cancer. He gained a
reputation among many as “the one doctor who actually
cures cancer”.
3. The development of a new branch of homœopathy named
“arborivital medicine”, employing single-drop doses of
plant mother-tinctures, prepared from fresh living
specimens and exposed to sunlight where possible - 30
years before Edward Bach!
Deafness
and diseases of the ear
In
this article I shall mention some of the remedies Cooper
used in ear diseases and deafness. Having spent over
seventeen years as Physician for Diseases of the Ear
(which he labelled as “the most obstinate and despairing
department of medicine”) at the London Homœopathic
Hospital, he was well-qualified to write of his
experiences in this department. In an article published
in 1897 entitled What can be done for the
treatment of chronic deafness?* he wrote: “The question which
heads this paper has been before my mind for some
eighteen years, during all of which time it has been the
subject of unceasing consideration............as I am
dealing (in this paper) only with the chronic diseases of
the ear, I ask the question, what are we doing for these?
If, gentlemen, you are satisfied, well and good; but do
not insist that others must be in a similarly happy and
quiescent state.” His cases in this context often refer
to “watch-hearing” - referring to his use of a
pocket-watch brought gradually nearer to the patient to
determine the degree of impairment on either side. The
sign ØA is the one used by Cooper to denote a plant
mother-tincture prepared by the arborivital method.
*H.W. Jan 1 1897 pp 9-17
Agraphis
nutans
Considered by Cooper to act
especially upon light-haired persons with a tendency to
catarrh from any of the mucous membranes. It has a strong
affinity for the adenoids and has cured deafness with
adenoid involvement.
Case: Ellen H., aged nine, deaf for three years from
measles, and subject to psoriasis, had four doses of
Agraphis ØA from December 10, 1892 to February 4, 1893.
Cured by March 11th, not only of the deafness, but of the
psoriasis also. The membranes had been perforated in this
case.
Calendula
Officinalis
Used
extensively by Cooper in many types of obstinate
deafness. Generally he used the mother tincture and low
potencies, sometimes employing lactose powder soaked in
the tincture and taken as a snuff as an additional local
measure. Between 1890-91 he published details of
seventy-seven cases where Calendula was used in the
treatment, whatever the outcome. He makes no secret of
its failures, but the number of cases of differing types
of chronic deafness which responded to Calendula is
remarkable. Among his verified indications for Calendula
are “ear complaints and deafness after bathing,
especially from diving ,” and “impaired hearing < in
damp or cloudy weather.” Below are a few examples.
Case 7: Miss S., 36. Buzzing in ear; singing voice weak.
Catarrhal deafness left side for two years. Calendula Ø,
gtt.5 t.d.s. Result: hearing became decidedly clearer
without affecting other symptoms.
Case 23: Miss M.S., 30. Old standing (12 or 14 years) and
very obstinate vascular deafness with nervo-catarrhal
symptoms. Calendula Ø, 7 drops over a fortnight, with 3rd
decimal snuff. Followed by improvement in hearing and in
general health, and the ears from feeling cold had
resumed their natural warmth.
Case 31: Henry S., 28. Deaf both ears for 14 years. Seen
Oct. 1889, watch-hearing on contact only. Constantly
taking cold with tinnitus and vertigo. General health
good. Calendula Ø, 3rd of a drop t.d. until December
1889, when he left quite well. Watch-hearing now right
40in, left 30in.
Case 73: Charles P, 18. Vascular deafness with catarrhal
symptoms pointing to middle ear. Membranes suffused,
thickened. No symptoms but deafness. Calendula Ø from
January to August, attended with continuous improvement.
Watch-hearing improved from 8in and 3in to 30in and 5in.
In a later article Cooper concludes that “the deafnesses
curable by Calendula are characteristically middle ear
deafnesses.”
Cheiranthus
Cheiri
Cured many ailments in
Cooper's hands, deafness among them, the keynote
concomitant symptom being the cutting of wisdom
teeth.
Case: Male, aged twenty, deafness and otorrhœa of left
side. Cutting three wisdom teeth. Watch heard on contact
only. Single dose of Cheiranthus ØA on April 30th 1892,
improved him up to June 11th. A second dose given June
25th “seems to have cured him, for we find the
watch-hearing is now 25 inches, and hearing in every way
satisfactory”.
Kali
hydriodicum
A
favourite of Cooper's in tinnitus and "noises in the
head." (Named Kali iodatum in Clarke). He devoted a whole
article to a remarkable case of a 43 year old woman with
singing in the ears and deafness. On these and other
indications he gave Kali hyd. 30 t.d.s. for 10 days, then
once nightly. The patient was relieved but not cured.
Other remedies were tried and failed and a further course
of Kali hyd. did nothing. Cooper then gave the same
remedy in the same potency in a single dose, and the case
was rapidly and permanently cured. Cooper's observation
from this and similar cases was that repetition of the
correctly-selected remedy will tend to produce
palliation, whilst a single dose of the same, “allowed
time to expend itself in the system, will tend to secure
the complete curative effect.”
Veratrum
viride
Found to be the (external)
remedy par excellence for acute inflammatory diseases of
the ear, simple earache included. After much experience
he came to rely upon a mixture of seven drops of the
mother tincture to half an ounce of equal parts glycerine
and water. Of this he added a drop or two to a teaspoon
of hot water, and applied a little to the outer surface
of the auricle, the temperature being regulated as
necessary to be most comfortable to the patient,
“......no dipping of the finger into water, or
thermometrical testing can determine this; the effect of
contact upon the external portion of the ear alone ought
to be our guide”; in other words, if it hurts, it is
probably too hot! Having thus found the optimum
temperature, he would proceed to pour the remainder
gently into the meatus. He writes of this formula: “Over
and over again patients have testified to immediate and
positive relief given by these drops......... I do not
remember to have once found it fail to give relief.”
Viola
odorata
Cooper considered this remedy
to act specifically upon the middle ear, retina, lateral
sinus and the inferior cerebellar veins. He found it
especially suitable for dark-haired, anaemic or neuralgic
(or both) patients, and credited it with the peculiar
property of restoring an otorrhœa which has been
suppressed by cold, fever, or other morbid condition.
Case: Deafness of both ears, left the worst, of six
years' duration, dating from influenza, in a pale, young
woman of twenty. Roaring in both ears, frequent headache
through temples and behind the eyes, anaemic, tympanic
membranes. Watch-hearing right 1in, left on contact.
After seven doses of Viol-o. ØA, given between May 21st
and December 3rd, 1892, the conversation-hearing became
good and the watch-hearing improved to right 9in, left
4in.
Conclusion
By
its very nature, chronic deafness presents a difficult
challenge to any therapy, the absence of adequate
prescribing symptoms and modalities being a prominent
feature of many cases. Cooper was none the less adamant
that they are as curable by homoeopathy as anything else,
and it was only after having tried and failed many times
with the polychrests that he turned to lesser-known and
in some cases obscure remedies, some of which are
outlined above. Quite from where he obtained his original
prescribing indications is often unclear, but the results
speak for themselves and the indications he has left us
appear to be well-verified and reliable. Cooper himself
was happy to claim the highest authority in support of
his methods.............. “I believe that in giving
single doses of our common plants, often with no proving
whatever to guide me, I am in the main acting in
accordance with Hahnemann himself in the early days of
investigation.”
References
Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica
J.H. Clarke
Calendula Officinalis: Its action, especially in cases of
obstinate deafness - R.T.C.
H.W. Dec 1 1890 pp 535-538
H.W. Feb 2 1891 pp 63-67
H.W. March 2 1891 pp 105-108
H.W. June 1 1891 pp 258-265
Materia Medica - Calendula - R.T.C.
H.W. March 1 1892 pp 109-114; April 1 1892 pp 162-168
Deaf-mutism and the earaches of childhood - R.T.C.
H.W. March 1 1895 pp 107-117
Original Communications - What can be done for the
treatment of chronic deafness? - R.T.C.
H.W. Jan 1 1897 pp 9-17
Noises in the Head - R.T.C.
H.W. Mar 1 1898 pp109-111
1893-1895
Cancer and cancer symptoms. Chiefly arborivital
treatment, with illustrative cases. - R.T.C.
2nd edition, published in 1900 by C. Marten, 67 Wigmore
Street, London.
Original Communications - Remarks on Dr. Cooper's
"Arborivital Medicine"
J. Murray Moore, M.D., F.R.G.S. H.W. July 1 1895 pp
300-302
Remarks on Dr. Cooper's "Arborivital Medicine" - Agraphis
Nutans
J. Murray Moore, H.W. August 1 1895 pp 349-351 (cont.
from p. 302)
Remarks on Dr. Cooper's "Arborivital Medicine" - Viola
Tricolor, Viola Odorata & Cheiranthus Cheiri
J. Murrary Moore, H.W. Sept 2 1895 pp 402-404 (cont. from
p. 351)
Remarks on Dr. Cooper's "Arborivital Medicine" - Lemna
Minor & Arbutus Andrachne
J. Murray Moore, H.W. Oct 1 1895 pp 462-466 (concluded
from p. 404)
The Cooper Club
Article by the editor
H.W. Feb 1, 1905 pp 49-51
Original Communications - The Cooper Club
Inaugural address by the President, J.H. Clarke
H.W. Oct 2 1905 pp 442-450
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This
article first appeared in The Homeopath, Journal of the
Society of Homeopaths a very long time ago!