Lapis albus

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(Silico-Fluoride of Calcium.)

This fancy name, Lapis Albus, is given by Dr. Grauvogl, to an unnamed species of gneiss, which he first found held in suspension in the waters of the mineral springs of Gastein, Germany.

These springs start from the foot of the Tauern mountains, and flow down ward into the valley of Achen, over formations of Gneiss.

The substance proved, was a trituration of this solid Gneiss rock.

Dr. Grauvogl calls it a white primitive calcium gneiss ; the late Dr. Bellows, of Boston, in 1867, before Grauvogl's discovery, arrived at the same conclusion as to the poisonous effects of this rock, based on observations made in Derbyshire, England. He calls it a Silico-Fluoride of Calcium, the analysis of which is, Calcium, fourteen parts; Fluorine, fifty -five parts; Silicium (silex), fifteen parts; water, fifteen parts. "It is a dry, white, glimmering, impalpable salt."

Officinal Preparations. — Until a careful scientific analysis of the rock used by Grauvogl is made, we must only consider as officinal, tritu rations of the Gneiss from the springs of Gastein, Germany.

Analogues. — Arsenicum, Conium, Cundurangu, Silica. (None but fragmentary provings, made by Grauvogl, with the sixth trituration.)

"Burning, stinging pains in the cardia and pyloris; in the female breast and uterus,' sometimes the pains were of considerable intensity." (Grauvogl.)

The waters containing this gneiss, when drank for some time, rendered cancerous sores, as well as other ulcers, decidedly worse.

" After drinking the water for seven weeks, my thyroid gland began to swell. " (lb.)

The inhabitants of the Achen valley, along the river, have thick necks and goitres of immense size.

° Carcinoma of the cheek in a woman fifty years of age. (It had produced an opening as large as a silver dollar; this hole gradually filled up, the complexion of the patient entirely changed, she obtained a healthy color, instead of her previous yellowish and cachectic appearance.) (lb.)

0 Many cases of pronounced cancer, (lb.)

0 Scrofulous affections, abscesses and sores, (lb.)

° All affections of the glands and lymphatics, (lb.)

° Glandular tumors, where physiologically no glands are usually found. (Ib.)

0 Tuberculosis, unbroken carcinoma, scrofulous. (Ib.)

° Fluor albus. (lb.)

°Five cases of uterine carcinoma (so pronounced by allopaths) permanently cured (these cases were reported to Dr. Von Grauvogl).

" I have not yet seen an open cancer cured by this remedy."

" It must not be given to persons who have suffered previously from intermittents, or other malarious diseases, as it engenders relapses of those diseases." (lb.)

° Goitre, cretinism, and scrofulous diseases, caused by the waters in Derbyshire, England, which contain Fluorine, Lime and Silex. " I have used this salt, Silico-Fluoride of Calcium, in at least ten complicated cases of scrofulosis, with good result." (Dr. Bellows.)

" More than fifty physicians have reported to me many interesting cases of tumors, and other scrofulous diseases, cured by this salt." [lb.) Some of the mineral springs of California, containing particles of gneiss in suspension, have considerable reputation for the cure of cancers and obstinate ulcers. (Hale.)

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

Dr. Von Grauvogl, whose singularly obscure, brilliant, and unique book you have read, or may read, recommended this remedy for the cure of cancer. He claims that he was first led to its use from observing that the waters of certain springs in Germany were beneficial in the cure of malignant ulcers, cancerous sores, scirrhous tumors, etc. He found that these waters flowed usually over large beds of gneiss rock, and he came to the conclusion that the waters ow’ed their curative power to the minute particles of this mineral which they held in solution.

He therefore procured some of this gneiss and made triturations of it, and prescribed it in cancerous and scirrhous affections. In this he was imitated by several of his colleagues. A condensed report of their success with it will be found in the first volume. It may lead you to use it in such cases, and may finally be the means of relieving some patients suffering from that terrible disease.

The late Dr. Bellows, of Boston, several years before Grauvogl's discovery, recommended and used, with alleged success, a similar species of rock. He believed that goitre was caused by the presence of the dissolved rock in the waters of Derbyshire, England, and in the streams among the mountains of Switzerland.