The Treatment of Goiter

From The General Practice of Physic, Wirtzung (1598)
Edited with commentary by Adam Tate
Goiter, also called Bronchocele, is a swelling or tumor of the throat, below the Adam’s apple due to an enlarged Thyroid gland. It was common to be traditionally caused by lack of Iodine.

In Traditional Medicine, it is generally regarded as being caused by Phlegm and Wind.

Wirtzung in his General Practice of Physick (1598) covered all diseases and their treatment in detail usually giving differential diagnosis, diet advice as well as herbal treatment and purging, if indicated. Other treatment such as Bloodletting or Cupping is also given


Diet

Use warming foods; diluted white wine can be taken for drink.
Avoid: unleavened bread, young flesh, fat and slimy food, milk, fresh butter, fruits such as Cherries, Apples, Pears, Hazel nuts, Melons; Cold herbs such as Beet, Spinach, Lettuce, Endive, Purslane


Preparatives & Purging

1. First, prepare the humor with Oxymel of Squill with a little Pepper and Pellitory of Spain added. Take 2 or 3 oz. in wine for several days.

2. Purge with this:
    Colchicum, Turbith root         1 dram ea.
    Ginger                                       2 scruples
    Diagridium                                6 grains
    Flowers of Esula                      0.5 dram
Mix; take 0.5 dram–2 scruples at most in 3 oz. of Mead once weekly early in the morning, fasting 3 hours afterwards. Continue for 1 month.


Internal Medicine

1. Take new sponges, burn in a luted pot, beat them and give 1 dram every morning with wine.

2. Take Harts tongue, powder, mix with egg and meal and bake cakes; Take one quarter of
an ounce before meals, especially about an hour before noon.

3. Hazel nuts, Sponge stones,
      Sea balls, writing paper, all
      burnt together                        0.5 oz. ea
    Pepper, Ginger, Rock Salt,
      Pumice, Nutmegs, Galls,
      White and Long Pepper,
      Cinnamon, White and
      Black Hellebore                     0.25 oz. ea
Powder. Take half a dram every morning.

4. Sponge ashes                          4 oz.
    Sponge stones, Pumice,
      Cuttlebone                              1 dram ea.
    Red cloth burnt to ashes        0.5 oz.
Make a powder. Take half a dram every morning.


Topically

1. Make the following to ‘consume the corruption and the wind’:
    Camomile, Meliot                    1 oz. ea.
    Annis, Rue                                 1.5 oz. ea.
    Dried Goose dung
      Pigeon dung
      Rock Salt                                 2 oz. ea.
Beat them all; Take a handful, steep 8 hours in soapers lye, then boil a little; drip a sponge in apply warm, and bind over the swelling.

2. Or, apply one of the following distilled waters warm to the place, repeating often:
i. Wild Cucumber
ii. Birthwort
iii. Rosemary

3. A Plaster:
    Apostles Plaster
    Gum Ammoniac                       equal parts
    Orris, Rock Salt                         a little of each
Beat together and apply.


Comment

The treatment of Goiter in the Western Tradition is very similar to its treatment in TCM. Various medicines from the ocean are used, these all containing traces of Iodine. In addition, these medicines tend to be effective in resolving Phlegm nodules, especially those caused by Phlegm and Heat.

Medicines such as Pumice, Sponge, Sponge stones, Sea Balls (a type of Seaweed) and Cuttlefish bone are all of this type. Often, the Sponge or Seaweeds are used in their ashed form. This is similar to the use of Seaweeds and other medicines derived from the sea for use in these conditions in TCM.

Other medicines commonly used include medicines that clear Phlegm and resolve thickness, such as Orris, Ginger, Pepper, Rock Salt, Gum Ammoniac and Hellebore etc.

This disease is a good example of similar treatment between the systems