CENTRE FOR EXCELLENCE IN HOMEOPATHY

CONTINUING HOMEOPATHIC MEDICAL EDUCATION SERVICES

QUARTERLY HOMEOPATHIC DIGEST

VOL. V, 1988

Lead me from Untruth to Truth

Lead me from Darkness to Light

Lead me from Death to Immortality

Adyaya I Brahmana 3 Mantra 28

(This service is only for private circulation. Part I of the journal lists the Current literature in

Homeopathy drawn from the well-known homeopathic journals published world-over - India, England,

Germany, France, Belgium, Brazil, USA, etc., discipline-wise, with brief abstracts/extracts. Readers may

refer to the original articles for detailed study. The full names and addresses of the journals covered by

this compilation are given at the end.

Compilation, translation, publication by Dr.K.S.Srinivasan, 1253, 66th Street, Korattur, Chennai - 600

080, India.)

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QHD, VOL.V, NO.1, MARCH 1988.................................................................................................................. 3

1.1

ON POTENCY CHOICE AND HOMOEOPATHIC POTENTISATION - (BY P.SCHMIDT) ....................... 4

1.2

KNOWLEDGE OF REAL HUMAN NATURE – THE FOUNDATION OF HOMOEOPATHY - BY

T.P.PASCHERO ............................................................................................................................................ 11

1.3

PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUALITY- P.S.ORTEGA .......................................................................... 14

1.4

MODIFICATION OF THE ‘CHRONIC CONDITION’ BY AN ‘ACUTE’ PRESCRIPTION - JACQUES

IMBERECHTS, MD, MFHOM, SRBH ..................................................................................................... 17

1.5

FEED-BACK: ............................................................................................................................................ 27

1.6

BOOK SHELF ........................................................................................................................................... 27

QHD, VOL.V, NO.2, JUNE 1988 ..................................................................................................................... 29

2.1

EMOTIONS AND EXPRESSIONS - FERNANDO RISQUEZ, MD ........................................................ 30

2.2

CULTURAL AND AESTHETIC MODALITIES: CRAVINGS AND AVERSION – THEIR CLINICAL

VALUE (SOME REFLECTIONS AND CONSIDERATIONS) - D.R.LIVINGSTON, ME, BS, MFHOM .............. 39

2.3

SYNONYMOUS RUBRICS IN KENT'S REPERTORY; INCONSISTENCIES - K.H.GYPSER ............... 43

2.4

CORRECTIONS TO THE REPERTORY - A.WEGENER .......................................................................... 45

2.5

BOOK-SHELF ........................................................................................................................................... 49

2.6

FEED BACK .............................................................................................................................................. 52

2.7

NEWS ........................................................................................................................................................ 54

QHD, VOL. V, NO.4, SEPTEMBER 1988 ..................................................................................................... 55

3.1

FRANCISCEA UNIFLORA- H.P.J.A MASS ............................................................................................. 56

3.2

CALCAREA SULPHURICA- EUGENIO F. CANDEGABE, MD ................................................................... 59

3.3

ACIDUM FORMICIUM- H. LENNEMANN ................................................................................................ 64

3.4

PATHOGENESIS OF NEW DRUGS: FORMIC ACID - DR.D.P.RASTOGI, DR.KRISHNA SINGH,

DR.V.P.SINGH ............................................................................................................................................ 69

3.5

BOOK SHELF ........................................................................................................................................... 76

3.6

FEEDBACK............................................................................................................................................... 79

3.7

NEWS ........................................................................................................................................................ 80

QHD, VOL.V, NO.4 DECEMBER 1988 ......................................................................................................... 81

4.1

CYCLAMEN, PULSATILLA AND SEPIA- DR JACQUELINE BARBANCEY .............................................. 82

4.2

THLASPI BURSA PASTORIS - HENRY N. WILLIAMS, M.D .................................................................... 90

4.3

AN INVOLUNTARY PROVING OF TAXUS BACCATA ...................................................................... 91

4.4

CARBO BETULAE POLARIS IN CASES OF CARCINOMA ................................................................. 92

4.5

MAGNESIUM FLUORATUM D30 (30X) - A PROVING - FRANZ SWOBODA ........................................ 93

4.6

THETESTING AND CLINICAL ADMINISTRTION OF PROPLIS - E. URBAN ................................ 96

4.7

THREE MODERN PROVINGS: ARNICA, BRYONIA AND PULSATILLA ....................................... 101

4.8

BOOK SHELF ......................................................................................................................................... 103

4.9

FEED-BACK ........................................................................................................................................... 105

4.10

NEWS ...................................................................................................................................................... 106

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1 QHD, Vol.V, No.1, March 1988

Dear Doctor,

The DIGEST has entered into the V year. I have been receiving many requests for 'back-

issues'. I would like to reiterate that the DIGEST is only a SERVICE; only the actual number of

copies according to the number of members are made; it is not a journalistic venture; as such

spare copies or extra copies are not made awaiting their sale'.

Come April, all homoeopaths celebrate Hahnemann memorial day - even the mixture

prescribers, patent drug prescribers, etc!

In our own way, we pay our homage to Hahnemann by recalling the right way to practice

homoeopathy. Three ‘current’, masters have been chosen each of whom have their own ‘school'

but not too divergent. Unfortunately two of them - Dr.Pierre Schmidt and Dr. Thomas Pablo

Paschero - are no more - they passed away into eternity recently. Dr.Schmidt represents the

Kentian of Generals to particulars including the pathology; While Paschero taught that the

dynamic diathesis which prevent the psycho-biological maturation and thus accomplish spiritual

liberty, should be treated ignoring the lesion; to treat the internal essence of the disease. While

Sanchez Ortega teaches that neither the mind nor the pathology but the miasmatic condition of

the patient alone needs to be treated.

The fourth is a lengthy case analysis by Dr.J Imberechts, an excellent lesson.

The articles have been rather ‘weighty’'. Dudgeon himself has confessed to the difficulty

in translating German into English; it is more so when much of deep ‘philosophy’ is involved.

This has to be borne in mind while reading these.

The usual columns of FEED-BACK and BOOK-SHELF have been included.

March 1988.

Yours sincerely,

K.S. SRINIVASAN

1253, 66

Street,

Korattur,

Madras 600 080

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1.1 ON POTENCY CHOICE AND HOMOEOPATHIC POTENTISATION -

(by P.Schmidt)

First, a brief review regarding diagnosis which in homoeopathy is twofold:

I. the diagnosis of the disease according to the pathognomonic symptoms, with the help

of general clinical status, through a specialist where necessary, through laboratory findings,

x-rays, to clinch (a) what belongs to the exact disease (b) what are conditioned by dietic and

basic errors of hygiene, how defective are the home, clothing, care of the body, social life,

regulation of life style, nutritional in-take etc.; also what could be set right without aid of

medicament. Further to be considered arc intoxications through alcohol, tobacco, narcotics,

tranquilisers, sleeping drugs, drugs to calm down or excite etc. Such objective disease factors

must be eliminated just as the physician of the old school does.

II. The diagnosis of the sick person to ascertain the non-pathognomonic symptoms,

symptoms which do not belong to the disease in question, the rare, strange, seldom, singular and

which seem bizarre. There are symptoms which are contrary to common sense, make us reflect,

and which are characteristic for a particular patient. Allopathy does not take into consideration

such symptoms and considers the patient only as a hysteric or at the most handles such cases

with suppressive remedies symptomatically which further add to the patient's sickness.

When the remedy to be given is chosen: which potency is to be prescribed?

This question can be settled only from practical experience,

We must know that the Hahnemann-oriented physician employ basically every potency, from

mother tincture to the highest potencies, M, 10M, CM, MM!

Hahnemann has, during his life time, fairly frequently varied the potency scale, just as the

number of succusion strokes to be given in preparation of the potencies. He experimented,

twice, ten times, and more frequently to finally settle for ten strokes. He invented the centesimal

potencies of C1 to C30 which he wrote as: that is C globule and Vi =Sextillionth potency

(=C18).

Regarding the preparation of this small dose Hahnemann has in Organon, paragraph 269,

clarified the basic and essential difference between dilution = attenuation and potentisation. He

wrote:

“It is heard every day that homoeopathic medicine potency is considered as mere

attenuation, while it is the opposite of it, real development of the natural substance and bringing

out the power lying concealed internally through friction and shaking, wherein a non-medicinal

diluents medium used is merely of secondary importance. Diluting alone, for example,

dissolving a grain of salt it becomes mere water; the grain of salt disappears in the attenuation

with plenty of water and will never by that become ‘salt medicine’ like our well prepared

dynamisations raised to astonishingly high strength”.

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And as early as in 1886 the Geneva physician Grenier wrote: “Production of a curative

remedy from a substance is not reducing its powers but to develop the latent powers in it,

potentising it, that is, to strip it of its material condition”.

As I have already said, the potency choice is a question of practical experience. Indeed all

homoeopaths have once begun with low potencies and have only tarried and without much

conviction gone from the mother tincture up to C12. Other went up to C30 which for long

remained as the limit for Hahnemann for long time and which he did not pass over.

What then is contained in a C 30 which by the method of using of individual glass vials

in which drops of the remedy in question Are put and 99 drops of 90 percent alcohol is added

and 10 strokes given repeatedly has acquired? And what are the high and highest potencies, the

So-called Korsakoff potencies? The later are prepared up to thousandth potency by the one glass

method from the manually prepared C 30, with 10 strokes by machine for every potency. Beyond

the thousandth potency the fluxion method is used.

Everything regarding preparation of a homoeopathic medicine can be found in detail in

the Organon. I recommend to you paragraph 123 as also paragraphs 264 to 272. With remarkable

precision and conscientiousness Hahnemann has described there how the homoeopathic

medicines must be prepared. Please study that thoroughly and attentively again.

Contrary to the general opinion Kent and his pupils were not in any way exclusive high

potentists but they required all potencies from the mother tincture to the highest potencies. But

their extensive experience and particularly their results made them give superior values to the

high potencies because of their innumerable advantages.

Please bear in mind that the basis of the homoeopathic prescription is not the dose but it

is the similie principle. This principle is of such a wonderful value that in fact there is no

limitation to the diminution of the concentration of the homoeopathic remedy if the actual

symptoms of the patient harmonizes with the symptoms produced in. the provings to the healthy.

Indeed the low potentists repeat the same objections as the allopaths do against the

homoeopaths: how is it supposed to work when in the everyday diet and drinking water so much

substances in weak doses are consumed?

I answer: It is not a question of academic dispute but it is a matter of practical experience.

What should one say about a case a follow? A splendid german shepherd-dog has been under the

medical treatment of an eminent french veterinary physician for more than two months. The

entire range of the most modern anti-infections arsenals, Sulfonmide, the most effective

antibiotics, for a Sepsis with suppurative Metritis and Peritonitis have been used. On pressing the

Gesauge of the poor animal pus aquirted out up to a litre in a day and that since weeks. This

rotten pus stank disgustingly like rotten cheese. The dog was well looked after, cleaned every

two hours and lied only in its owner's room. The mouth was completely dry, the weak animal

could not move at all, refused food and was lying in a miserable state in the bed room. After 30

days of intensive treatment the veterinarian advised to give it an injection to put the animal to

end since he had used the maximal doses of sulfonamides etc., and felt that all that could be done

had been done but failed and it was cruel to allow the animal to suffer further.

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The owner of this dog who was my patient visited me one day for her monthly

consultation and was in tears that she had to put an end to the life of the dog by agreeing to the

injection.

I asked her: “but then why don't you allow it to be treated homoeopathically?' “But

doctor, this is not the time for you to be witty. It is alright for me, since I have faith in it. But

what would you do with your tiny pills to an animal which as the veterinarian says, is suffering

from a Septicopyaemia”?

“Now madam, give the dog the medicine I will give you now and we will see later”. I

gave first Staphylococcinum 10M thrice a day. After two days Pyrogenium 10M. Two days

later, because of the pus which was stinking like rotten cheese, Hepar 10M. Lastly after two

more days because of the abundance of pus I gave Medorrhinum 10M. Now, from the very first

dose the quantity of pus came down by 80%, the stink began to fade away slowly and after 8 day

the dog was cured; it ran about, ate and slept just as when it was healthy.

In this course all the potencies were prescribed in the ten thousandth! One can make fun

of ten thousandth potencies and laugh. But how could a fatally ill condition like a serious

Septicemia be got over and become normal and health restored? The materialistic homoeopaths

will be easily confused in this. Behind this is nothing other than the grand law of similars

discovered by Hahnemann. In paragraph 160 he says:

“As the homoeopathic medicine can never be made so small as to not be able to

overcome its analogus, non-longstanding, yet unspoiled natural disease, could even thoroughly

eradicate and cure, it can understood as to why a dose which is not very smallest possible

suitable homoeopathic medicine aroused always during the first hours after taking it, a

perceptible homoeopathic aggravation".

And in paragraph 249a:

"Since according to all experiences, almost no dose of a highly potentised specifically

suitable homoeopathic medicine can be prepared which would be so small as not to bring about

clear improvement in the disease for which it is suitable, so will it be injudicious and harmful to

treat, if one were to repeat of increase the dose in the mistaken belief its small aggravation or

non-improvement, was because of its negligible quantity (it’s far too small dose) and it cannot

therefore be of use".

And In paragraph 279:

"These pure experiences point that … the dose of the homoeopathically chosen highly

potentised curative medicine for commencing treatment of a serious disease (particularly

chronic) can never as a rule be prepared so small as not be stronger than the natural disease, that

it cannot, at least overcome a portion, eradicate at least a part of the sensations of the vital

principle and thus cause commencement of the cure.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, read these again and again and meditate on these observations of

Hahnemann, which have been so strikingly corroborated here.

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It is six months since that the dog became cured of a sepsis, a sepi which materialistic

allopathy with its "heroic" medicines could not treat, but on the contrary the condition became

worsen day by day and the veterinarian had given up all hopes.

How could it be argued against the allopathy, the veterinarian and the low potentists.

I doubt much whether the C/3 or C/6 would have succeeded in a situation as this. Such a

healing reveals four unquestionable facts:

1. Homoeopathy brings about cures when allopathy despite its modern toxic arsenals is

powerless.

2. Homoeopathy, on the basis of the law of similars discovered by Hahnemann is able to

make microbes and viruses, harmless.

3. The homoeopathic medicine in infinitesimal doses works qualitatively and not through

its quantity.

4. Also that in an extremely serious, evidently fatal disease. the cure can be effected

totally-cito, tuto et jucuande' as Hahnemann has impressed in the note to the first paragraph of

his Organon.

I had a similar case of septicaemia from perforation of appendix and generalised

peritonitis in a 10 year old child who had become parched and was lying in the Geneva Medical

College hospital awaiting his end after surgery. Neither the child nor the parents nor the

Professor knew who had cured him. Only a single, really a single dose of Arnica 10M and then

Pyrogenium 10M; I repeat 10M.

To exclude every influence of direct or indirect suggestion, I have purposely chosen the

Case of an animal, so that the skeptics are convinced.

I will point out to you that high potencies are of invaluable worth, that these small doses

do not ever lose their therapeutic powers if they are protected from odors and had been prepared

with due care. I own high potencies from Hahnemann's time, Jenichan's for example. I have

further such from the previous century as from Fincke, Swan, Allen, Kent which are still

effective and dependable.

Innumerable physicians like Nash, Kent, Carleton Erastuse Case, Gladwin, Sherwood,

Cunningham, Fincke, Majumdar, Gibson Miller, Mrs. Tyler, Sir Johnweir and others have

published cure by high potencies.

Hahnemann, the founder of homoeopathic principles has begun naturally from the mother

tinctures, substantial medicines, materially and chemically analysable. Later he began to make

the concentrations lesser by attenuation or trituration and observed that despite progressive

division these substances remained more effective.

During his long life, ultimately he was 88 years old – Hahnemann was, in the opinion of

his speech, an exception, a revolutionary and in opposition to all practice and traditions. He went

up to C/30 wherein he used 30 separate 10 gram glass vials with 100 drops of alcohol in each. In

the first vial he put one drop of the plant tincture or 5 grains of a chemical substance or the 3rd

centesimal potency of an insoluble substance which with every passage was further attenuated in

ratio of 1 to 100.

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At the 1ast stages of his life differences of opinion arose amongst his pupils. Some

thought that under no circumstances should one go above the C/30. Others among them his best

pupil Hering and Gross and others experimented with potencies up to 1000, 1500, 2000 and

higher, saw with happy astonishment further successes. To avoid misunderstandings and

hostilities from his pupils Hahnemann remained in the range of C/30 although he had appreciated

the efficacy of such high potencies.

Nevertheless, as researcher and experimenter he had recognized two interesting facts:

1. Some medicines possess, in specific potencies, an optimum efficiency in each case,

whereof in pure Materia Medica Hahnemann indicated the third, sixth, twelfth and 30th as the

most efficacious.

2. At the same time he observed that in general, the second, fourth and seventh potencies.

so to say, have a "shallow", decreased, reduced, curtailed efficacy – in short: a not excessively

strong action is displayed, and that positive intervals between the individual potencies must be

given. For this reason his family medicine chest contained only the following potencies : 1 - 3 - 6

- 9 - 12 - 24 and 30.

After Hahnemann's death different researcher have made further experiments and have

gone to fantastic heights. Thus I posses a thirteen millionth potency of Psorinum of Kent.

There was a time when Fincke, Allen, Swan and others were successful by employing

highest potencies.

At a particular time there were high potentists, as they were called, who after the choice

of the medicine according to symptom picture gave it in the highest available potency

immediately at the beginning of the treatment.

Dr.A.Nebel practiced for quite long here who prescribed, for example, a CM or DM right at the

first go, frequently with the best results, since the medicine chosen had been accurately specific.

Kent, a systematically experimenting mind endeavored to find by innumerable

experiments a rule or at least a scale method. After many trials over many years he set his scale

which I call the Kent scale. As Kent's pupils have since then corroborated. adherence to the

following spacing gave the best results: 30, 200 1M, 10M, 50M, CM, DM, MM.

Kent held, on the basis of his experience, the C/30 as an excellent preparation to begin

the treatment of case since it brought no, or hardly any, initial aggravation and with the 200th

potency he considered them as low potencies with which, as already stated, treatment can he best

commenced. He kept them particularly for the acute cases or chronic cases with objective and

progressive organ changes. Otherwise he recommended in chronic cases the 1000 potency from

which with appropriate time intervals which he could define after many years of experience, to

go up to higher potencies.

After many years Kent could define the average duration of action of his high potencies.

We have to respect these before repeating the dose. These are:

For 200:

3 to 4 weeks

at least 4 weeks

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10M:

5 weeks

50M:

50 days

100M:

3Months

500M:

6 Months

1000M:

1 year

Naturally these figures are to be considered as approximation, but all pupils of Kent have

found these to be of superiorly practical value. Not in every case will it be suitable to repeat

doses before expiry of this interval but only in combination with the other golden rule, that no

repetition before progressive amelioration ends.

The question of repetition of the dose, pharmacopollaxy as I would call it, was again

modified by Hahnemann at the end of his life in that he recommended continuous repetition of

the dose daily despite favourable reaction. This method also I and many others have practised for

long time-in the hope that it will render better and particularly speedier cures in chronic diseases.

But soon because of the difficulties encountered by the patients regarding the taking too much or

insufficiently, they attenuate it poorly and at will, repeat in irregular intervals, etc. – this method

which is remarkable is possible only in exceptional special cases which as I can vouch for, in

natural practice is rarely seen. This reservation is so much more valid as through the Kent

method also thoroughly remarkable successes can be obtained. Had Hahnemann known Kent

who represented Hahnemann's continuance, he would have, without doubt, agreed with Kent's

view, because it conforms absolutely to the essential principle of his teaching, “watch and wait",

the careful observer's.

Today the knowledge that low potencies work better in acute, high in chronic cases, is

more or less accepted by most of the homoeopaths. It all depends upon what one understands by

low and high potencies.

The advantages of low potencies, including the C30 and 200 according to Kent is that it

can be repeated without risk of severe aggravation. Why? Because a whooping cough, a

diarrhoea with frequent evacuation, tooth-aches, acute pains in general, the acute states so to say

exhaust, consumes, weakens the remedy so that in all cases where there is no reaction or where

recurrence occur such repetition is justified; for example is repeated vomiting repetition of the

remedy once every two hours. It should be given after every vomiting. It can then be seen that

the attacks become rarer until it passes off completely.

In chronic cases, the intervals suggested by Kent, which has been verified, is to be

followed.

The relapse of earlier symptoms, amelioration coming to stand-still, status quo or the

disease progressing further, are all indications for repetition of the dose.

Indeed it can be said that a master homoeopath is capable of results which the beginner is

not able to. For example in some acute cases in which symptoms are painfully aggravated, like

Sciatica, Otitis, Gastroenteritis, acute joint rheumatism, a 10M produces a result which impresses

by its rapid cure. It is like what Willam Tell who with a single arrow directly pierced the apple

on the need of his son. I recommend to you to first try C/30 and later go to the C/200. Now and

again you can venture with 10M if the indications for the medicine was clear and precise.

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In coryza and minor colds Aconitum napellus 200 has at least 90% success. In certain

chronic obstipations immediate and sustained success from a single dose of Nux vomica 10/M or

Bryonia 10/M is perceived.

I have cured the owner of a big restaurant who had been suffering for 14 years with a

chronic obstipation and who had been thoroughly stuffed with innumerable laxatives. There

was nothing more which he had not tried. He had, however, further symptoms of Nux vomica, in

his character, in his desires and aversions. A single dose of Nux vomica 10/M has definitely

cured him. Since then he has daily stool, “soft and gentle" as Moliere says, and he can have

stools regularly with satisfaction.

A lady complained of headaches which localised in the occipital protuberance

accompanied by obstipation and eye pains which compelled her every 3-4 months to lie in a

dark room since she could bear least light, and could not at all bear the sun. Every jolt, ever

walking aggravated. She also couldn't bend forward without the pain radiating to the neck. A

single dose of Bryonia alba 10/M at the close of an episode has put an end once for all her

migrains which had been troubling her since 5 years for which she had taken a good quantity of

various medicaments.

These Cases are not rare which you do not experience almost every day. When it

happens: what happiness to the patients in the first place and also to the physician when he sees

such conspicuous undeniable efficacy of the small doses which prove the value of the similie

rule, the true basis of homoeopathy.

Those who merely disparage .and shake their heads have no idea about it and cannot gain

the experience and observation. Of course. naturally the indications for the remedy prescribed

must be exactly specific and symptomatology as defined by Hahnemann, Kent, and their pupils,

and not based otherwise on someone or the other. Because if the foundation is not based upon

these propositions only failures will occur. If therefore homoeopathy and high potencies are

condemned it is not these but the prescriber himself who is at fault. Why is it that while others

obtain successes it should be otherwise with him?

Study the materia medica thoroughly and diligently study the Organon again and again

and the philosophy of Kent. One of these days you will be compensated richly for that. Because

homoeopathy makes great demand of course out it compensates with high rewards. It is certain:

Homoeopathy, practiced by earnest. Persevering physicians with measure in their work, procures

full satisfaction of material, intellectual and spiritual respects.

[From the KLASSISCHE HOMOOPATHIE., Band 29/1 985; translated by Dr.K.S.Srinivasan

Madras, For PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY]

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1.2 KNOWLEDGE OF REAL HUMAN NATURE – THE FOUNDATION

OF HOMOEOPATHY - By T.P.Paschero

Based on a thorough understanding of human nature homoeopathy is a clinical science

essentially different from the purely physiological, organ-related or mechanically welded

medicine. Many homoeopaths who have not accepted the dynamic concept of a disease processes

have not been able to appreciate this. The physician must understand that he must treat the

patient in his complete unity of his body, soul and mind and not the organic or local disease; that

his real duty and basic obligation is to cure those which are as 'subject' in every sick patient and

not those which are as ‘object', - taking into consideration his diathesis, his miasmas or those

which, strictly speaking, signify these ideas, namely the inner dynamic disposition which brings

about the pathology and psychopathologic destiny of the patient. Only then has he truly

understood what homoeopathy is and what his duty with regard to the science and art in

medicine is.

The duty of the physician is to cure. To know Hahnemann properly, what is curable in

every patient, it is necessary to have a clear idea of the nature and meaning of disease.

The clinical experience reveals: a patient is not cured who has no will to be cured, the

desire to be cured, to find out his self, to be in harmony with himself; who does not require

further development of his capabilities, his energy potentials, intelligence and sentimentality

or capacity to love - in conformity with the requirements for the unfolding of his state of

consciousness. This Will to-be impresses the body and soul in a unique sense, in a unique

direction; towards self-realization in accord with the All, with the Universal Spirit.

Health is the unconfined expression of the vital energy through the body in a harmonious

interaction with the natural and human environment which process represents the

psychobiological adaptation, ultimately the inspired opening of own nature which experienced

wrongly as isolated and autonomous oneness, in the true richness of life.

Disease is every kind of alteration, blockage or hindrance of the free and harmonious flow of life

energy which strikes the body and the mind. This damages its unconfined relationship with the

external world, with the external life which arises from the very same impulse as the inner life.

This infantile autism which the human soul holds captive from development of the inner

capability hinders the development of full and true freedom from the directions .from the

concealed subconscious urges, and a aggressions and guilty conscience. These lie as negative

powers in the individual and as a result allows the disease as expressions of these suppressions

and blockings hindering free-play and field of action of the vital energy.

If we have anxiety of life, if we live in a state of alarm, in a state of perpetual tension,

embitterment over the past, envy, hatred, frustration, defensive or competitive states With sense

of guilt, phobias, fixed ideas, fears, anxiety, restlessness and in a state of perpetual internal

protective wall- then arises from itself blocking in the vital energy through the body and then

disease. The individual does not then live harmoniously with the external world conforming to

the law of cure and growth (from within outwards), but is locked up in self. The diagnosis of the

sick person as a totality in his innermost person - the intrinsic duty of the homoeopath - demands

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of him to give the highest order of precedence of decisive clinical value to the mental symptoms:

the mental symptoms in the sense of internal resistance, concealed in the Unconscious like

suppressed feelings and moral Commandments which hinders the free deployment of the vital

energy for realising the true fulfillment of life.

The answers to the questions with regard to the physical and mental disease must result in

the restoration of free flow of life in our mental, emotional and physical levels, opening out to

the Universal or Absolute Spirit.

Man must be conscious of this "unity of the Vital Energy" which pervades in him as well

as in the universe. Thereby he dwells in his own reality, the identity of his true self as man and

therefore as expression of the Supreme Being, the Absolute of the universe. It leads to a creative

and fulfilled life in this genuine “condition humans". This understanding of the nature of self

which man achieves indicates the comprehension of the true fulfillment of the life or the

Absolute which lives in his centre and makes up the innermost self of his existence. This

comprehension is realized, however, only in his profound solidarity with other men and the

whole world and only there is found the expression appropriate to him.

The mental symptoms of purely emotional kind – and not the intellectual - are the unique

which disclose the core of the internal disturbance. The man unfolds his personal maturing

process, that is, his conduct or the mental attitude, the emotional factors of his total life, the

historic mould of his child-like conflicts , his life within his family and the social surroundings,

his disappointments in love-life and consequently in his self-estimation – in one word, all the

emotions which are indispensible clinical symptoms for the fundamental comprehension of the

disease which the physician must treat.

The Psora or the main miasm with the internal restlessness, the constriction, the anxieties

and phobias are the essential negative factors, those which hinder the free flow of the vital

energy – and therefore exposes the pot potential of energy, intelligence and sentimentality, it

constricts the growth of the level of consciousness and there with the identity of his true self. As

defense of the psoric anxiety are the syphilitic and sycotic life or way of life which the

homoeopath with much skill must uncover, by the biopathographic anamnesis. For that he must

always keep in view these aspects of level of consciousness with which the patient executes the

processes of growth and maturity and self-realization.

If the patient under treatment does not change his life situation, if he does not develop or

does not bloom and develop as a fully responsible person, then he is not on the path to cure. This

is only when he lays aside his child-like behaviour patterns which make him egoistic, dependant,

passive and needing protection. Also if he shows an aggressive craving for power, for

dominance over all others and that in a militant attitude for defence and aggression, or if he does

not overcome his anxieties, phobias, hatred and guilty feelings, he is not on the road to cure. He

who does not conquer his conditioned approaches which hold him captive in his autism and who

does not open up in some grade the richness of his life, such a man is not on the road to cure

even if the symptoms for which he seeks the help of the physician were to disappear. That is

only a suppression of the symptoms and not cure of the patient. On the other hand the fact is that

if his life attitude opens and his level of consciousness is raised and his intelligence and

sentimentality potentials in the sense of' expansion to the centre and charity for fellow-beings is

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realised and in the sense of creative attitude and service to the fellow-beings and the joy of others

is experienced as if his own; when he indicates in larger or smaller measure that he has been

freed from blocking of his negative mental symptoms so as to live his true life with a positive

attitude and outlet to the external world: ten, only then, is he on the road to cure even if the

physical symptoms were not removed, yes even if the preceding symptoms were to recur.

Because in this opening out to the fellow-men is fulfilled the “law of cure”, whereby he again

experiences the only possible health, in that it unites his vital energy with the true richness of life

and identifies himself in it and with it.

The homoeopath leads the patient to the realization of this richness of life. With the use

of Simillimum he heightens the Will to cure which activates the sprit-like energy in the deep

interior, energy which is inherent in all humans, so unrefined or intellectual, to their capabilities.

Only so can he trigger the cure which as stated above endures in stable equilibrium. It is

sufficient to pursue from now without break the maturing of the process of developing, a

conscious and responsible life.

The homoeopathic medicament performs its work in those vital planes which depicts the

real and exact relationship between the different strata of the total. Being and makes up the core

or the focal point of the Will for cure. Psora that fundamental disease becomes the godfather of

the evolution of man. Its nature of working is bringing out the anxiety of the life from mind to

the organs, from centre to periphery from above downward or let the suppressed symptoms to

come out. The homoeopathic medicament effects that the Psora fulfills the highest purpose of

true and the singularly genuine cure: the development from out of the autism and egoism of man

for integration with fellow-creatures from out of the encapsulated individualism to the

blossoming into fulfillment of life, with a true fellow-feeling where man will find his just and

true identity as human, namely in his mental deployment.

[From the ZEITSCHRIFT FUR KLASSISCHE HOMOOPATHIE, band, Mar/Apr.19: For

PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY]

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1.3

PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUALITY-

P.S.Ortega

Time and again we take recourse to the knowledge and fundamentals of other disciplines

in order to integrate them with our science. We do this not just because we want to widen their

horizons but more because of their great scope.

We wish to define the personality, somewhat rashly perhaps for our purpose, as a type of

disguise with which the substantial human nature covers itself in order to meet appropriately and

adequately the diverse pressures of its environment in which the self-image develops in different

stages of life. In this we are inspired by Carl Jung who defines the Person as a mask with which

man represents his kind.

As against this, Individuality personifies the profound Ego, the tomistic spirit, the

substantial or innermost core of Being, simply Being. In other words we can also say that

Individuality is the unadulterated unpretentiousness of the THING ON ITS OWN Which

constitutes man.

We now wish to avoid any further metaphysical dialectics and point out to ourselves the

one indisputable fact that we can all experience with our patients. When we examine a case

patiently and carefully we can, in most cases, recognise in the same subject, two often very

conflicting tendencies: the one that corresponds to what he actually is and the other that

corresponds to what he wants to be, the Person and the mask with which the subject has

disguised himself for his self-image in the world. It is a series of elements he learnt to use one

after another in order to present himself to his fellowmen - somewhat similar to an actor who

either himself chooses a role or was assigned, perhaps even against his will, a role in a comedy

or other play.

The perfunctory physician will be content to recognise or to try to recognise the so

masked patient as he generally presents himself before the physician. It will perhaps then be

enough for the physician to assess the damages wrought by this mask or costume which impede

or even totally wreck the self-image of the patient at various stages of his life.

The bolder physician will even be able to observe the possible conformity of this mask

with the patient who wears it, or what is more common, to find the disagreement between the

mark or disguise with the deep desires and urges of the innermost ego that characterises the man

as a Being. He can perceive the innermost of the person sitting before him, which in most cases

does not agree with the symptoms which are an expression of his disturbed self-realisation; in

other words: the mask or disguise is not in tune with the real manner of expression of the

innermost of the patient we have before us, the mask being subjected by the limitations which

impose on him the characteristics of his role or display of his self-representation and which he

has himself either somewhat erroneously chosen or had been thrust upon him by the

circumstances which from his birth until now have surrounded him. In other words: either the

environment is unsuitable for him or – the opposite - he is unable - in the current stage of his life

to react adequately to his environment, from which finally also springs up the illness, which

represents the motive of his actual complaints.

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The physician has now the possibility of assessing the damages caused by the mask or

Personality that has caused the illness, of which the patient has now become conscious. But he

can or must recognise the innermost illness of the Ego or the mild, severe or even complete

incongruence of his Personality with his Individuality. We explain this to our students with the

following example: It is as though we dress up a fat old man as Romeo or we place the cloak of

Francis of Assisi on an ungodly and lecherous drunkard. In every respect that would be

inappropriate. But it would be even more inappropriate if the actors were to refuse to play those

roles which seem just cut out for them - that is, in our case, for example, if the fat old man were

to refuse to play the role of Sancho Panza or the lecherous drunkard that of Pear Griem.

The acute illnesses represent only the disharmony of the Personality or the fictitious self-

image of the person, who feels that his disguise has been broken - a disguise that he had built up

with effort, not only to present himself to his environment in a very appropriate or less adequate

manner, but also to protect himself against all the environmental factors that surround him. For

the same reason the mask serves in need - or when he thinks it is needed - to attack.

For these reasons he feels himself also helpless and his first wish, his first request to the

physician is to set right for him his mask … At the same time there appears from behind his

profound Ego, his true being his existential Being, in order to show the lasting, or perhaps only

temporary, incongruence with his mask.

With wise foresight therefore the founder of Homoeopathy demands a search for the

Miasms or for what originally required of every man the putting on of a mask or Personality,

which deviates from his innermost aspiration.

We admit that so far man has been presented only as a spiritual or dynamic entity. He can

of course be handled and touched and he is subject to physical and chemical changes. These fall

entirely in the realm of Soma as he visibly shows himself. Hence we should slightly change, in

this sense, the ideas in our statements and say that from life itself, which is quite clearly

recognisable but not understandable by the materialistically oriented scientific beliefs the organic

or the Soma originates with its constitutional pathology or “creative defects" imprinted by the

three miasms of Hahnemann - Psora, Sycosis and Syphilis.

Miasm ought not to be understood from this as a dynamism external to the individual but

really as an implicit deformation of the first form of expression of man's Being generally. As

materialists we would say: the genes already carry the defect in themselves. If we return to

dialectios, we can say that, if already the nature of man himself or the innermost core of our

being because of its purity and simplicity does not itself allow a deformation, the existential

Being on the other hand points to the conformity of the former to the biosphere of Teilhard de

Chardin but the "inadequacy” of the environment must necessarily have a part in it. Somewhat

like an architect who, even if he is so brilliant, has at his disposal only material of inferior quality

for the realisation of his design.

Finally we wish to say to all those who have followed our thoughts so far that the acute

illness has to be understood as the readjustment of man to his role which was assigned to him in

the comedy of our existence or to which he was forced by the environmental factors of his social

surrounding.

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The healing of chronic or miasmatic illness, on the other hand, means for the individual

the unique possibility to be able to express himself genuinely and in harmony with his innermost

aspiration which is a basic condition for his full self-realisation, that is, to be what he has to be.

CONCLUSIONS:

1. The homoeopathic physician, because of his knowledge and the elements of his

method, is able to recognise, understand and deal with the Personality of man; over and above it,

however, he ought to try to recognise the Individual behind this mask.

2; If a lasting healing of the individual is yet possible, it is achieved by getting rid of his

miasmatic condition, as far as it is possible, in order to lead in this way to his full and genuine

self-realisation.

3. Only through the recognition of the constitutional and miasmatic pathology can the

good physician achieve a true and lasting cure which not only serves the individual suffering

patient but the entire humanity and in harmony with the Whole.

(Translated from "Zeitchrift fur KLASSISLHE HOMOOPATHE and Arzneipotenzierung, Band

30, Heft 2/86, for private circulation only).

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1.4

MODIFICATION OF THE ‘CHRONIC CONDITION’ BY AN ‘ACUTE’

PRESCRIPTION

- JACQUES IMBERECHTS, MD, MFHOM, SRBH

Introduction: I would like to refer the audience to previous communications that I have given in

other assemblies of the homoeopathic community, especially to the considerations presented to

the Homoeopathic Europea First Congress in Lyon France in May 1987. There, I broadly

reviewed all the strategies that are now in use and fashionable in the homoeopathic market place.

Firstly I would like to draw the attention of colleagues to the multiplicity of the

possibilities of the homoeopathic therapeutic system in order to keep in our mind that the

unique quality of this therapeutic system is its flexibility, its capacity to tailor for each patient a

therapeutic procedure that fits his individual and personal needs and his unique reactivity.

On the other hand, I would like to stress the ideal homoeopathic prescription, the one that

restores the patient's full self-defence capacity. This means that we would try to prescribe on a

set of symptoms corresponding to the minimal syndrome of maximal value in order to give a

remedy so basic to this patient's constitution and functioning that the patient will never be sick

again, except under extraordinary circumstances.

We know quite well that we seldom reach that ideal, but that is no reason not to aim for

it. Because when you reach it, it is marvel1ously rewarding.

Palliating acute illness: The purpose of this paper is to show a case where several attempts were

made to get to the root of the patient's problem, while in emergencies, we were humbly just

palliating the acute illness.

It shows that our efforts did not succeed until, after an apparently poorly indicated

remedy, an acute condition occurred that brought us a limited symptom picture which suggested

an unexpected remedy that eventually solved the case.

Enough time has now elapsed for the prescriber to assess that the basic vulnerability has

been reached and that the 'chronic disease' has been cured,

The case: (This gentleman, in charge of an important job in a financial company, leads quite a

sedentary life. He has recently been promoted in the company and says that it did not modify his

personal life. He is 48 years old, small, with a pale complexion and early baldness.

Family history: Mother had gallstones and died from leukaemia. Father died from acute

pulmonary oedema due to cardiac failure.

Personal history: No surgery and 'never been sick’

Childhood diseases were trivial and the usual childhood vaccinations did not provoke any

noticeable reaction. At 12 years he had scarlatina followed by bronchial complications.

One year before our first consultation, he developed an eczema of the lower limbs that he cured

by himself by altering his diet.

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He also presented recently rheumatic pain in the lumbar spine that he cured by wearing

woolly underwear.

FIRST CONSULTATION: The previous year had been a turmoil.

His wife has had surgery. He found his father dead on the toilet one year ago. That event

turned him upside down. A kind of prostration followed and he took Ignatia 200 that helped him

greatly. But he feels very nervous since.

One day, in the city, he could not figure out where he was, and this lasted some time.

In the company, there was a higher position vacant. This job could have been the logical

end and success of his Career. This also made him more nervous. But the job went to somebody

else giving him a sense of mortification.

A few months earlier, driving in a snow storm, he had a fit of panic, started to cry and

had to stop the car and let his wife drive. ‘He had the feeling that the mountains were going to

fall on him.' And he felt flaccidity in the legs as if they were paralyzed and made him unable to

drive.

It all started two months earlier, when the patient accepted another higher and very

difficult senior position in his company, but not the one he felt he deserved or expected. This

episodes of panic recurred after he accepted new responsibility in the company. Since then, he

feels nervous and unable to react correctly.

He has a tendency to keep everything inside and to feel lost in front of an obstacle, with

fits of panic and the feeling that he does not understand what he says any more.

His wife reports that he is more aggressive at home. He seems alright during the week-

ends, apart from a little disappointment when the children and grandchildren do not come to visit

him.

Three months ago, a medical check-up was performed with a normal report on his cardio-

vascular condition, a blood test showing a slightly elevated cholesterol level, and increased

bodyweight.

Previous treatments: The patient says that be never took any kind of medicine beside what he

calls 'minor homoeopathic remedies' for trivial ailments such as the common cold and digestive

upsets. Actually, he occasionally medicates himself with Nux vomica for digestive

indispositions and Gelsemium when he gets stage fright. This gives him some temporary

amelioration.

TABLE 1. First consultation. All the symptoms

S1 15 MIND - AILMENTS FROM; - disappointment (7)

S1 16 MIND - AILMENTS FROM; excitement, emotional

S1 17 MIND - AILIMENTS FROM; - fright

S1 18 MIND - AILIMENTS FROM; - honor, wounded

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S1 18 MIND - AILIMENTS FROM; - indignation

S1 19 MIND - AILMENTS FROM; - mortification

S1 66 MIND - ANXIETY - conscience, as if guilty of a crime

S1 75 MIND - ANXIETY - future, about

S1 92 MIND - ANXIETY - time is set, if a

S1 151 MIND - CONFIDENCE, want of self

S1 153 MIND – COFUSION of mind

S1 171 MIND - CONSCIENTIOUS about trifles

S1 367 MIND - DELUSIONS, imaginations, hallucinations, illusions –

walls – falling (7)

S1 415 MIND - DULINESS, sluggishness, difficulty of thinking and

comprehending, torpor- mortification, after

S1 486 MIND - FEAR, apprehension, dread - fall upon him, high walls and

building

S1 552 MIND - GRIEF - silent, undemonstrative

S1 553 MIND - GRIEF - silent, undemonstrative - indignation, with (2)

S1 604 MIND - INDIGNATION

S1 723 MIND - MISTAKES; - localities, in

S1 767 MIND - OCCUPATION, diversion a.m.

S1 783 MIND - QUARRELSOME

S1 801 MIND - RECOGNIZE anyone, does not (2) - streets, does not

recognize well known

S1 808 MIND - REPROACHES – himself

S1 809 MIND - RESERVED

S1 862 MIND - SADNESS, despondency, dejection, mental depression

gloom, melanchloy - quiet

S1 973 MIND - THINKING - complaints, - of egg.

S1 1037 MIND - WEEPING, tearful mood

S1 1052 MIND - WEEPING, tearful mood - mortification, after

S2 214 GENERAL - FOOD and DRINKS - cabbage - agg.

S2 246 GENERAL - FOOD and DRINKS - onions - agg.

S2 261 GENERAL - FOOD and DRINKS - sweets - de

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S2 700 GENERAL - WEATHER - mind - ailments

S2 702 GENERAL - WEATHER - windy and stormy weather - ailments

K 499 STOMACH - HEARTBURN

K 517 STOMACH- PAIN - burning - extending - throat

K 621 RECTUM - INACTIVITY of rectum

SYSTEMATIC REVISION

Digestive System: The appetite is good with a marked desire for sweets. No aversions. He gets

trouble when eating onions and cabbage. Bowel motion is poor. He does not feel the need to go

to the toilet. Thirst is normal.

Since many years, sporadic heartburn when nervous. He takes coffee four times a day. He

does not smoke but drinks one beer a day and one liter of wine at the week-end.

Sleep: Sleep is good and quiet, on the right side. He does not dream but snores when lying on his

back. However if some problem is in his mind the day before, he wakes up at 3 a.m. brooding on

it. If there is an important event the next day his sleep is disturbed by the longing for a good

sleep in order to be fit £or the event.

Generals and mentals: Air and seashore do not modify, but wind makes him nervous.

Feels insecure because he is a beginner in his new job and lacks experience and skill on

the new matters he has to handle. Feels guilty about it and reproaches himself for not being able

to cope with the new responsibilities.

He cannot stand being given orders.

. He considers himself an organized and methodical person without being fastidious.

He is better when manually active.

Feels like weeping when thinking about the episodes of panic. He tries to keep his grief

silent in order to keep control and act efficiently.

Appointments are very important in his behaviour. They make him very preoccupied

days in advance.

He is afraid to meet circumstances that would repeat the panicky disposition.

The whole situation is mortifying.

TOTALITY OF SYMPTOMS

We could try to consider the totality of the symptoms and see different drug pictures in this

patient.

One could be Nux vomica.

This remedy is covering 25 of the 36 symptoms that we may consider in this case (Table 1)

But actually several remedies are very close, as we can see in the following list: (Table 2)

TABLE 2

Remedies

Symptoms Grade

NUX VOMICA 25 46

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PULSATILLA 23 48

LYCOPODIUM 21 45

NAT-MUR 21 43

ARS-ALB 20 34

LACHESIS 20 33

IGNATIA 19 39

STAPIYSAGRIA 18 44

SEPIA 18 31

CALCERA 18 30

Only:

the dullness of the mind after mortification

the silent grief

the reproaches to himself

the weeping after mortification

the aggr . from cabbage

the heartburn going up to the throat are not in the repertory for Nux vomica.

But the poly-medication with 'minor remedies', including Nux vomica, for any little

indisposition, along with the consumption of coffee and alcohol could suggest that this

remedy has been proved by the patient.

From the great number of remedies appearing in the repertorization, we could consider

that no clear cut result was to be drawn from that approach.

MORTIFICATION SYNDROME:

Another approach could consider the aetiological factor and the atmosphere of his situation by

analysing the Mortification syndrome (Table3)

TABLE 3. The mortification syndrome

S1 19 MIND - AILMENTS FROM; - mortification

S1 15 MIND - AILMENTS FROM; disappointment

S1 18 MIND - AILMENTS FROM; honor, wounded

S1 415 MIND- DULINESS, sluggishness, difficulty of thinking and

comprehending, torpor - mortification, after

S1 604 MIND - INDIGNATION

S1 18 MIND - AILMENTS F OM – indignation

S1 1052 MIND - WEEPING, tearful mood - mortification, after

This gave Staphysagria as the main remedy with, again Nux vomica as the second choice,

followed by Colocynthis and Ignatia.

The approach that has been chosen was to set on the fright and the emotional aspect of

this history, with some remarkable symptoms of the acute phase:

..The feeling that the mountains were going to fall on him.

..The feeling that he does not know where he is in as well known street.

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That is the reason why Argentum nitricum was given in the 10M (Table 4)

One month later: Worries, depression, apprehensions are all gone since the remedy has been

taken.

One month later: A letter from his wife says that apprehensions came back and that he took

another Argentum nitricum 200.

One month later: He comes for a consultation saying that he is tired by heavy work he did in his

house, but mentally fit since the dose of Argentum nitricum 200 that he took. Sleep is good and

refreshing.

Six months later: He is tense again since a week ago, following provocative interventions by the

trade unions. Also his dog just died with much suffering. Both events made him indignant. He

weeps without reason, at work or during the night. He forgets what he has just done, searches for

the watch he had just taken to the jeweller two days ago. He is so disturbed that he fears a car

accident when driving. The heartburn relapsed.

He was given Staphysagria 10M (Table 3)

One month later: Heartburn was gone. He was better mentally and slept well. But he felt weak,

with difficulty in concentration, and indifference to things he usually liked. He could not tolerate

cold weather, had icy cold feet and chills.

He received Sepia 200.

Three months later: Strikes were menacing the company and he was responsible for negotiations

with the unions.

Feet and hands were icy cold along with flushes of heat of the face, without sweat nor

alteration of the colour of his face.

He always felt as if in a hurry and the heartburn relapsed when he was nervous.

Still very fussy over trifles, he was sleeping badly again when nervous, he felt pain in the

calves, and with painful contractions at the neck as if he had played football.

Without having altered his eating habits, he lost 3 Kg from anxiety.

He was given Ignatia 50M.

He felt fine for four months. Simply taking sac.lac. regularly.

TABLE 4 justification of Argentum nitricum

S1 16 MIND - AILMENTS FROM; - excitement, emotional

S1 17 MIND - AILMENTS FORM; - fright

S1 19 MIND - AILMENTS FROM; - mortification

S1 75 MIND - ANXIETY - future, about

S1 92 MIND - ANXIETY - time is set, if a

S1 151 MIND - CONFIDENCE, want of self

S1 153 MIND - CONFUSION of mind

S1 367 MIND - DELUSIONS, imaginations, hallucinations, illusions -

walls - falling

S1 486 MIND - FEAR, apprehension, dread-fall upon him, high walls

and building

S1 723 MIND - MISTAKES - localities, in

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S1 783 MIND - QUARRELSOME

S1 809 MIND - RESERVED

S1 973 MIND - THINKING, - complaints, - of egg

S1 1037 MIND - WEEPING. tearful mood.

S2 261 GENERAL - FOOD and DRINKS - sweets, desire

K2 499 STOMACH - HEARTBURN

K 6621 RECTUM - INACTIVITY of rectum

Four months later: He reports that he feels great.

He was even off sac.lac. for over a month .

The only remaining symptoms were peripheral:

-Extremities felt icy cold and some numbness appeared when flexing the legs.

-There was some trembling from taking coffee.

-Alcohol (mostly Scotch Whisky) was giving some trouble:

pain and redness of the left ear with trembling in the body.

The trembling from alcohol and the icy cold extremities suggested Lachesis but nothing was

given, since the patient felt well in spite of losing two more kilos (weight was 75 kg now.).

Few weeks later: A colleague of ours, who acts as locum, saw him for a sore throat worse on the

left side, ameliorated by warm drinks.

He gave Lachesis 6, without knowing the consideration above. That one dose kept him

well for six months. And one might have thought that the fundamental remedy had been found.

Six months later: The throat hurt sporadically. The ear was painful after alimentary excesses and

alcohol, with tender liver and migraines that were better after stool. He took Nux vomica for

those ailments.

Sleep was good, Blood pressure usually low, was normal and stable.

Weight was stable also: 75kg.

Hands and feet were cold and numb during sleep.

Everything was dramatically better during the holidays.

Only one thing has happened: The patient reported a tendency to faintness in a warm room when

there was something that made him nervous.

One day, he was eating a simple meal in a warm place and his neighbour was telling

about his misfortunes.

He suddenly felt perspiration the forehead, a sensation of heat in the body; he became very pale

and suddenly fell unconscious for a short while. The physician called in emergency noted

hypotension.

He was again given Lachesis 6.

One year and a half later: Everything was about perfect.

He only took Kali bichromicum and Nux vomica once. He did not take anything else at

all for more than one year.

Eating too much, or exciting events did not affect him anymore.

A short sleep proved good and refreshing.

No numbness occurred.

Blood pressure was stable at 140/ 90

He gained weight (2kg) and was now 77kg..

Once in a while, ear and eye were painful after alcohol.

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He was a little afraid to stay without remedies but felt free now to be able to cope without

it. He received Lachesis 0/6 (LM) not to take now but only if he seriously felt that his self-

defence capacity was really going down.

One month later: Death of his father-in-1aw.

Pain appeared in the whole body, mainly on the left side. He felt pain in the heart region.

He would wake at 5 a.m. with an empty feeling in the head.

He took the dose of Lachesis that he had at home. No effect.

He received several doses of sac.lac. later on. No effect.

It took two weeks for the main ailments to slow down.

Three months later: He told more about the death of his father-in-law; his left chest pain

radiating to the left arm, and his fear of dying in his father-in-laws bed Where he was sleeping.

Serious troubles resumed with the unions and the board of directors did not support him.

He had some anticipatory worries about a higher job that he might apply for.

Brooding again on his cares and worries, he felt the apprehension and panic come back

with sweat on the forehead, hot head, cold extremities. He would wake early at night and his

sleep was unrefreshing.

Lachesis 0/6 dramatically alleviated the ailments, but the amelioration did not last.

Now he felt as if his head would burst when a time was set for an appointment or any

other settlement data.

Then he feels like a child with panic and afraid to do things that he should not do.

He received one dose of Argentum nitricum 0/6.

Some days later: Some amelioration

He slept better but still with unrest as three years ago. His panics became an obsession.

The perspiration of the head was profuse and he was exhausted at the end of the day..

Discussing with his wife comforts him. He took one dose of Calcarea ostrearum.

He felt more calm now.

Two days later: His vision was blurred, the extremities icy cold.

His new Job was a tragedy. He did not know what to do. 'Doctor, it is unbearable: I feel

as if my will is contradictory or as if I have many different wills.'

On this last information; he received; Anacardium orientale 30.

Since then everything has been alright.

The patient has no aggressivity at home any more, nor in any circumstances.

His sleep is regular. Calm, and refreshing.

He is in perfect control of himself, at work as well as in the family.

No recurrence for seven years.

How did this Anacardium orientale come to attention so late, and to give such a good and long

lasting improvement in the end?

Several studies have been done on this case, with different psychologists, in order to gain

better understanding. But none gave us the clue.

The divided will, the two wills, the contradictory wills, were not verbalized unti1 the last

consultation. They only appeared In the acute phase, after several previous interviews and

prescriptions.

Most of the comments agree on bipolarity between two different stages of consciousness.

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On the one hand, an oversensitiveness and aggressivity in the family, his natural milieu

where he is allowed to express it without any danger. And on the other hand society, where he

may not project that behaviour, and gets faintness when silencing his emotions and feelings at

work.

This is a schizoid element that could have suggested Anacardium orientale.

Some knowledge that the patient has about homoeopathic palliation and the self-

medication that he has made with it, may have blurred the symptomatic picture. The patient only

came to the physician when he could not cope any more with his palliative remedies.

Also, the patient was assuming that the investigation of all the system was pointless since

he could face, with his homoeopathic knowledge, what was not pertaining to his neurotic crisis.

One could have thought of a divided structure when the somatization became unilateral

(one ear, one foot, one eye, one side.)

We did investigate the symptoms of Anacardium orientale that were already present in

the very first consultation but did not see how we could prescribe it right away (Table 5).

Another hypothesis, provisionally the last one, is that Calcarrea ostrearum did act as an

unmasker, making his divided will verbalized, allowing the prescription of Anacardium

orientale.

This recalls the teaching that an unverbalized symptom should not be taken into account

until the sequence of the prescriptions makes the patient aware enough to verbalize it.

In conclusion, no strategy is perfect, and we should know all of them and be able to join

our rigorously recorded clinical experiences in order to find out criteria that could save time for

the patients and for us.

TABLE 5. First consultation Anac-orientals already present

S1 16 – 1234 1 1 MIND – AILMENTS FROM; - excitement, emotional

S1 17 – 1234 1 2 MIND - AILMENTS FROM; - fright

S1 19 – 1234 1 3 MIND - AILMENTS FROM; - mortification

S1 66 – 1234 1 4 MIND – ANXIETY – conscience, as if guilty of a crime.

S1 151 – 1234 1 5 MIND - CONFIDENCE, want of self

S1 153 – 1234 1 6 MIND – CONFUSION of mind

S1 783 – 1234 1 7 MIND – QUARRELSOME

S1 808 – 1234 1 8 MIND – REPROACHES himself

S2 700 – 1234 1 9 MIND – GENERAL – WEATHER – wind – ailments

K 499 –1234 1 10 STOMACH – HEARTBURN

K 517 –1234 1 11 STOMACH – PAIN – burning – extending – throat

K 621 –1234 1 12 RECTUM - INACTIVITY of rectum

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[From the BRITISH HOMOEOPATHIC JOURNAL, volume 76, Number 4, October 1987; for

Private Circulation only]

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1.5 FEED-BACK:

"I thought the proving of Scorpion especially valuable. I was moved to duplicate the Glonoin

experiment, using the 30x I have, and experienced a short term surface warmth of the forearms at

an hour, and at an hour twenty a feeling somewhat between "energized" and "clarified” of a quite

moderate degree. So right in line with the proving. Wouldn't it be a great plus for homoeopathy if

more provings would be organized, and especially so if they could adhere to the stringent criteria

laid out by Vithoulkas in THE SCIENCE OF HOMOEOPATHY” -- Mr. Daniel Papish, Eugene,

Oregon, U.S.A.

"In Feed- back (Decbr.1987 Qrly.Digest) Dr.Lakshminarayanan has given very useful tips both

for treatment and prophylaxis of Measles. This, together with the original article in No.2/1987

deserve to be carefully memorised, as measles is a very common children's ailment in India –

Mr. S M. Gunavante, Bombay.

--------------------------------------------------------

NEWS: The Secretary (Administration), ASIAN HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICAL LEAGUE,

New Delhi writes to say that the "first Asian Congress of AHML scheduled to be held at

Kathmandu from 10 to 12 April 1988 has been postponed under the instructions of the Social

Services, National Coordination Council of Nepal.

It has been proposed now to hold the Congress in the month of September 1988. Dates and

details will be conveyed sometime in the next month."

------------------------------------

1.6 BOOK SHELF

SYMPTOMENSAMMLUNGEN HOMOOPATHISCHER ARZNEIMITTEL,

HEFT 14: KALIUM CARBONICUM by Dr. Georg von KELLER,

Karl F. Haug Verlag, Heidelberg, 1987, 523 pages,

DM 78/- (in German)

Materia Medica and Repertory are the two main instruments for every homoeopath. Are

the materia medica texts and the repertories currently in use complete and up-to date? Do they

contain the proving symptoms in the exact words of the prover/s which would enable the

physician to compare and individualize? Moreover, the results of re-provings, clinical symptoms

etc. obtained over the years, after the older texts (now in use) were published have not been

collected and compiled And up-dated materia medica and repertory have not been brought out.

The clinical experience of the past few decades have not been added to the materia medica and

they are lying scattered in various journals. Only an updated materia medica will help compile a

concurrent repertory. This will be possible only with the active cooperation of all homoeopaths

through their case reports.

Towards this end Dr. G.von Keller began over 15 years ago to collect and compile

monograph of individual homoeopathic remedies. So far thirteen monographs: KREOSOTE,

MENYANTHES, LILIUM, CIMICIFUGA, and SABINA. GUAIACUM, STAPHISAGRIA,

COCCULUS, DIOSCOREA, BERBERIS, CONIUM, PSORINUM, IGNATIA have been

published. KALIUM CARBONICUM is the fourteenth and largest so far in the series.

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For each and every symptom the source and original text with symptom number, page

number etc. have been given. This list alone covers 54 pages in very small, close prints. The text

then follows: Mind and disposition; Sleep, sleep position, dreams; Vertigo; Weakness,

Convulsion; Skin, eruption, swellings, facial color, expression etc.; Temperature; Headaches;

Backaches; Pains of extremities; Chest pains; Abdominal pains; Eyes; Ears; Nose; Teeth;

Pharynx; Lips; Tongue; taste; Mouth; Throat; Cough, expectoration, etc.; Respiration; Heart;

Appetite; Nausea; Eructations; Flatulence; Stool: Anus; Urinary organs; Genitalia Sexuality;

Menses, pregnancy -- each part with location; modalities and concomitants ; Generalities,

alphabetical index of unusual sensations, choice of characteristic symptoms, complete the book.

Dr. von Keller has drawn attention to Hering's statement: "alphabetical order is of no

good except as Hahnemann has used it, to arrange in one volume the effects of the medicines …

a register so arranged …. helps little since more often the words, the terms, because of the

ambiguity of language, are not at all the essential issues … related words must be together …”

Attempt has been made in these monographs to bring about such an order. For example

under "lacking drive, listless, despondent” are given the symptoms "does not know what he

should do. Irresolute" and this condition is explained (with source) "Irresoluteness.20. unpleasant

mood; he is capricious and often does not himself know what he wants,32; unpleasant mood; he

demands with impetuousness, not satisfied with anything, becomes besides himself and becomes

furiously angry if everything does not go as he wished and often does not himself know what he

would really like to have.33. Cannot express anything, knows not how he should begin it, to say

something or do what he would like to.3302. Aversion to husband and child but would not like to

be separated from them. 4109".

The numbers at end of the symptom indicate the source.

Every symptom/nomenclature has been analytically studied with reference to the

proving/clinical symptom thus providing cross references and synonyms.

To the best of our knowledge no work of this type has been done so far by any one and

we must be thankful to Dr. von Keller.

The monographs are of great value and must be made available in English for world-wide

homoeopaths.

Dr. K.S. SRINIVASAN, MADRAS.

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2 QHD, Vol.V, No.2, June 1988

Dear Doctor,

The theme is REPERTORY.

We have two excellent articles: (i) understanding the rubrics in the light of cultura1 and

aesthetic background of the patient, (ii) semantic study of the words Vexation, Mortification and

Indignation and the psychiatric implications of these terms in the official nosology. Here too the

cultural approach to Vexation, Mortification and Indignation are explored. Particular attention is

drawn to paragraph 98 of the ORGANON.

There are printing errors in the Repertories. KENT being the most extensively used, it has

been examined and some printing errors brought to light. It is suggested that these errors may be

corrected in the copies used by the profession. It is also suggested that the publishers of KENT

REPERTORY carry out all the corrections so far found out, in the next edition. Mere reprints

without any improvements even after pointing out is actually misleading. I have also found that

some of the errors (Bov./Bar., Ambr./Am-br., Sarr./Sars.) have been corrected in the new

KUNZLI/KENT, but not all the errors pointed in the article in this number of our DIGEST. Same

with the SR too. Corrections is a continuous process and every member of the profession must

contribute.

BOOK-SHELF: Dr.Schmeer’s book reviewed also gives some addition to the Rep.

besides giving an insight into the rubrics relating to different Neurosis. FEED-BACK and NEWS

etc. complete this number.

30 June 1988.

Yours sincerely,

K.S. SRINIVASAN

1253, 66

Street,

Korattur,

Madras 600 080

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2.1

EMOTIONS AND EXPRESSIONS -

FERNANDO RISQUEZ, MD

Abstract

The author presents a semantic study of the words Vexation, Mortification and Indignation and

the psychiatric implications of these terms in the official nosology. The psychological

significance of emotions is analyzed and the current psychosomatic significance of the concept

considered. The clinical difficulties of emotional investigation are touched on, and the historical

differences in the cultural approach to vexation, mortification and indignation between the

nineteenth and twentieth centuries are explored, as are peculiarities of northern and southern

style. Finally the expression of those emotions is considered and the thwarted manner of

Staphisagria patients that accounts for so much in the shaping of the clinical picture.

The most important task of clinical medicine is the interpretation of clinical observations

made on the patient. The expressions of the disease form the conceptual base of diagnostics.

Since Francis Bacon (1561-1626) published his Instauratio Magna: Novum Organon

Scientiarium in England in 1620.

Western thought aspires to an ideal observation with the

following characteristics:

Reference to concrete facts

Measurement

Reproducibility

Two hundred years later, Auguste Comte (1798-1857) created positivism and furthered

the scientific tendency even more, i.e. the belief that the data gained from observation of natural

facts allow conclusions to be drawn leading to laws and theories that rule and explain them.

We now know that science is not made up of facts but recreates them, observers being

part of what is observed.

Clinical homoeopathy bases itself on the :principle of similarity and

consequently on the search for unquectionable and conclusive profiles. On the one hand one

must observe signs and symptoms produced in experiments where the medicine is given to

healthy human subjects; their reactions define a wall identified syndrome. On the other hand one

must observe signs and symptoms (facts) that indicate an identifiable syndrome in the patient so

that the appropriate medicine may be found.

This process leads from correct appreciation of

what the experimenters express to the correct interpretation of what is expressed by the patient.

The way, here, really is that of oral communication. From Bacon to the present time scientific

effort has been applied to the exact use of language, thus giving the illusion of a scientific

language that has its best form of expression in the language of mathematics, where numbers

summarize the quality of measurements in the repetition of facts. In other words; the scientific

formulation of experiments must be objective.

To summarize, the clinician is trained to decipher correctly both the physical signs given

to his sense during direct observation of the patient and the symptoms given by the patient with

reference to his complaint and in his special language. All this is part of the analysis of the

expression of the patient’s sufferings. The key to this training can be found in the study of the

doctor-patient relationship.

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Since the advent of rationalism, with Rene Descartes (1596-1650), the scientific world

and, of course, medical thought tend to separate reality (what is real) from man’s experience of

the world (what is subjective), giving more importance to physical signs (real) than to mental

symptoms (subjective). In his Treatise on the World, which he finished writing in 1663 but did

not publish because of Galileo's sentence, Descartes gives us nevertheless a very interesting

paradigm: 'Words have nothing in common with the things they name and, notwithstanding this,

we do not generally distinguish between the one and the other’.

For the clinician, however, there is only one way of knowing his patient's symptoms, and

that is through what the patient himself expresses, the symptoms he complains of, the gestures he

makes, and above all the words he uses.

To change the patient's words (verbatim) into scientific words (medical language) calls

for serious interpretation (the doctor's theory), and that, precisely, is diagnosis.

Many symptoms are easily dealt with, but difficulties arise with sentiments, affects,

passions and emotional reactions. In a word, it is a difficult task to deal with emotions. The

concept of emotion leads us, of course, to think of mental symptoms as an important part of

human suffering, an aspect that is of concern to the clinician in general and also the bridge

between psychiatry, medicine and surgery.

The problem of emotions, even reduced to being the

first step on the very complicated staircase of sensitivity to affection, inevitably leads us to the

psychosomatic medicine of the twentieth century.

Semantically, emotion is truly a neurochemical complex that leads animals to express

their sensitivity, their motility and their glandular secretions; in a word, to react in the face of

what is another’s and what is one's own.

Even within the strictest rules of a rationalistic and

mechanistic approach we can observe the way in which emotions act

on both mind and body. To summarize, let us devise a psychological reductionist schema of

affect, beginning with what appears to be most simple: the basic four emotions, love, gaiety,

pain, fear, and discontent or anger.

Sensory perception

Emotion

Temperament, humour or character

Affection

Passion

Affect

Add to these in intellect, will, memory, intuition and imagination, and we will be able to

draw a diagram of the basis of ethics, morals, and the adaptation of human beings to society, or,

better , to culture.

Only in this way can we come to understand a little of the concepts of indignation,

mortification and vexation. In conventional twentieth century practice the three concepts are

much diluted, in the extreme case to 'stress' in the General Theory of Adaptation set forth by

Hans Selye,

or included in the magnificent clinical histories of Viktor von Weizsaecker and

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Arthur Jores of the German anthropological school.

10, 11

Yet they seem too complicated within

the tendencies of reflexology. In homoeopathic practice, on the other hand, these concepts are

studied as an integral part of Kent's Repertory

and an important aid in the identification of

medicines that facilitates the return of health. One of these is Delphinium Staphisagria.

James

Tyler Kent was born in Woodhull, New York, on 31 March 1849 and died in Stevensville,

Montana, on 6 June 1916, when he was 67 years old. At the age of 51, on 1 July 1900, he

published his most important work. Lectures, Homoeopathic Philosophy in Evenston, Illinois.

He was professor of Materia Medica at the Homoeopathic Medical College of St. Louis (from

age 32 to 37), Post-Graduate School of Homoeopathy, Philadelphia in 1890-1899 (from age 41

to 50), Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital, Chicago, 1903-1909 (from age 54 to 60), and

at the Hering Medical College from 1909 until his death in 1916. In the preface to his Final

General Repertory, Kent suggested the reading of paragraphs 83 to 140 or Hahnemann’s

Organon and specified:

Write out all the mental symptoms and all symptoms and conditions predicated of the

patient’s himself and search the Repertory for symptoms that correspond to these.

Paragraph 98 of the Organon merits careful attention:

It is true that one should above all listen to what the patient himself has to say about his

symptoms and sensations and attach particular importance to the way he expresses his sufferings

in his own words. If we take them from the lips of relatives or nurses they tend to be distorted

and even untrue. Yet on the other hand a high degree of prudence, mature deliberation,

knowledge of human nature and delicacy of approach will be required to ascertain the whole true

picture, in all its detail, particularly when dealing with a chronic condition.

Finally let us say, definitively, that the Repertory leans more on observations put together

by eminent clinicians than on the result of provings done on healthy subjects. It owes its

usefulness to the system of cross references to other rubrics. The rubrics carry different semantic

weight, however, especially in the 'Mind' section; that is, they range from one extreme - the

observation of the facts related by the patient or to the patient – to the other - the clinical

interpretation of the words chosen to express his sensibility.

Taking just Staphisagria, an example of the one extreme is ‘Throws things at persons who

offend' (page 88), and of the other: ‘Dullness after mortification' ('page 38). Or, if we take

Colocynthis one extreme is 'Dullness after beer' (page 38), the other 'Delusions transferred to

another room' (page 33).

Taking all is into account, let us examine more closely the rubric 'Indignation, bad effects

following’ (page 55). Here we find Staphisagria in bold type, Colocynthis in italics, and

Ipecacuanha, Nux vomica and Platinum in ordinary type. If we look under 'Mortification' on

page 68, we find Colocynthis and Staphisagria in bold type. Under 'Vexation' (page 91) we are

referred to 'Irritability and Anger,’ The first of these, on page 57, has Colocynthis in italics and

Staphisagria in bold type, with Staphisagria but not Colocynthis listed under 'daytime', 'morning'

(page 58) 'after coition', after emission', 'during heat’, and 'when spoken to' (page 59). Under

'Anger' (page 2) we find Colocynthis in italics and Staphisagria in bold type, with Colocynthis

eliminated under 'ailments after anger, vexation etc.', 'with indignation', 'over his mistakes', 'from

suppressed', 'throws things away' and 'violent' (page 3).

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It is evident that the two clinical descriptions have become mentally differentiated; this is

important not only because of its obvious practical usefulness but also because of its relevance to

what I have in previous studies called 'identification of the homoeopathic personoid'. Personality

is the ensemble of physical and mental traits of the individual; this ensemble allows the observer

to predict the subject's conduct. The 'homoeopathic personoid' would be the ensemble of physical

and mental traits seen in provings or observed clinically that allows us to distinguish one

medicine from another and apply it correctly in therapy.

In lectures given to doctors and psychologists at the university I have repeatedly stated

that there is a dynamic reality in the order of human ideas. To be able to think, one must know

how to speak, and to be able to speak, one must know the significance of the words used in

everyday as much as in academic language. It is logical to say that everybody expresses himself

better in the mother tongue, but it is also true that all languages change with time and the use of

words grows or diminishes with the development of new habits, new trends, new technological

achievements and particularly with new philosophical, political and religious points of view. In

my programme of lectures on 'Criticism of Psychological Systems' at the university I have been

using a method called 'doxography' for more than 25 years.

Doxography is a method of historica1 investigation. To use it, one takes an idea and

analyzes it to determine who spoke of it first, in which epoch and under what circumstances,

geopolitical or other; in what way the idea is connected with the past. That is to say, who

expressed it first, in what language, and what were its later effects on other human beings.

Applying the method to the subject under discussion, imagine James Tyler Kent in his

time and his cultural background: a North American physician of the second half of the

nineteenth century - white, Anglosaxon and protestant. I thought the appropriate dictionary for

this would be the 1876 Webster. As I usually write in Spanish, I compared it with the

Etymological Dictionary of Barcia of 1883 and found almost identical similitudes. I also

compared it with the 1984 Webster, finding the entry reduced but no major semantic

changes.

16,17,18

I think Kent took note of the synonyms for Indignation in Webster's Dictionary,

that is to say 'Anger' (page 2), ' Ire ','Wrath', 'Resentment' (page 71) , 'Fury' (page 50), ‘Rage’

(page70), because some of these words are to be found in the Repertory on those pages. Under

‘Resentment’ (page 71) Kent refers the reader to 'Malicious’ (page 63), 'Irascibility' (page 57) to

'Anger' (page 2). Rage (page 70) appears to be connected with 'Fury' (page 50), 'Insanity’ (page

56) 'Mania' (page 63) and 'Delirium' (page 18). In the 1atter rubric Colocynthis appears in

ordinary type and Staphisagria not at all. ‘Wrath' is not to be found to the Repertory.

We know, on the other hand, that in Kent's day the medical profession had no intimate

connection with the alienists of the time. Emil Kraepelin's classification (1855-1926) did not

become generally known until the fourth edition of his textbook of psychiatry came out. In other

words, Kent's semantics as to the words Indignation, Vexation and Mortification belong to

common sense and not psychiatric language. Add to this the fact that Sigmund Freud (1856-

1939)- did not begin his psychological revolution with the discovery of the dynamic unconscious

until 1900, in his book The Interpretation of Dreams, and it will be obvious that clinical

interpretations and Kent's use of language aim for a common-sense ground, ignoring the

complex unconscious phenomena that are part of the usual language today. Twentieth-century

clinicians are familiar with words like complex, impulse, regression, dissociation, trauma, and

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many others, their meaning relating to the complex world of our repressed desires, childhood

traumas and many other variations of psychological ideas. The homoeopath of today must be

aware of these things to be able to understand the emotional world of his patients more fully; at

the same time he can go on using the items in Kent's Repertory, though in a more precise fashion

than before, without disturbing the vast understanding and elaborate subtlety of his penetrating

clinical observations.

On this basis we can make some pertinent comments on Indignation, extending them to

Mortification and Vexation, within the cultural background of Kent's Repertory and its concepts

from the point of view of doxography.

Indignation would be a passion whose real path is the expression of a protest and not its

repression. Kent makes us aware of this, for his 'Indignation' rubric (page 55) has the subrubrics

'morning', 'bad effects, following', 'discomfort, from general', 'dreams, at unpleasant' and

'pregnant, while’.

Yet it is around the word 'anger' that the three words we are considering turn. Vexation

would be an affect provoked by our desires being crossed, as well as our ideas. Mortification

could arise from wounded personal pride or importance, causing, a more permanent change of

temper. The expression given to these emotional complexes will however vary with each

personality and with different social habits. In North America indignation relates more to

paternal disturbances in the family or in society. In South America it relates more to materna1

affliction and to a social image of matriarchy.

These very tempting reflections lead to a polemical range of thought that, though most

interesting, would pull us away from the clinical intention of this essay.

I therefore want to end with some clinical examples taken :from my case records, I am

limiting myself to cases where Staphisagria was prescribed, with the only real proof one can

have in medical practice, that is, prescription of the medicine followed by the re-establishment of

health as it was before the clinical picture developed, identified as a 'personoid' called

Delphinium staphisagria. Among two hundred case histories selected at random I found three

where Staphisagria had been indicated.

Case No. 1573

A married woman aged 50 was referred by her internist because she was very depressed. She had

a daughter aged 26 and a husband who had been ignoring her mentally and physically for the last

twenty years. She worked hard and was proud of her Origins. She accused her husband of being

irresponsible, ignorant and a drunkard. After unsuccessfully trying to get a divorce when she was

49 she tried to kill herself with an overdose of benzodiazepine which she usually took at night to

help her sleep (she had been taking it for the last ten years).

First prescription: Sepia 10M.

She returned a month later with her first relapse, having quarreled with her husband, their

daughter, a university student, coming actively between them.

Aurum 10M.

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The patient came for psychotherapy once a week and we became aware of her medical

aid psychological antecedents. Violent headaches on the right side since youth; repeatedly

mortified; did no cry frequently; proud; introvert and always fighting with her mother who she

said was like her husband – like two drops of water. The daughter physically and mentally

resembled the patient’s father – cultured, intellectual and rich (he had died when the patient was

23 and that was why she had been unable to go to university). The symptoms led us to prescribe

Natrum muriaticum with good results for several weeks, during which time the patient did not

come to see me because her husband was unwilling to pay my professional fees.

She returned one day, trembling and complaining of urethral burning of micturition. She

felt mortified for the following reasons, which she told me, succinctly depicting the drama; her

husband had been trying to win their daughter’s love by using the money my patient had saved

with great effort and by working for many years, to buy a car (for the daughter) and thus win her

admiration without saying where the money came from. My patient had to swallow her

enormous fury, not wishing to make matters worse by telling her daughter the truth: 'Your

father is dishonest and a thief'. These circumstance gave rise to the symptoms that led me to give

her Staphisagria 10M.

The daughter reported enormous changes at home, ending in her parents separating. I saw

the patient again three months later. She was now divorced and I gave her Sepia 10M.

Not wishing to make the story too long, let me end by stressing something I think will be

useful to homoeopaths who may read this, I think the principal medicine in this case was Natrum

muriaticum, a 'personoid' full of grudges and unsociable, with the maternal figure (or image),

insomnia, with headaches and a tendency to drug addiction. In short, and to use a metaphorical

image, the look is of a tied-up Lachesis.

Against this background confusion crisis showed up, also depression, loss of memory,

resentments and cystitis; all of these define an emotional complex that made her feel vexed and

mortified and end up very annoyed at her marital situation, feeling herself to be the victim of an

attack against her own image as a mother. Her wounded pride and her upbringing did not allow

her to show justifiable indignation. The 'personoid' was Delphinium staphisagria.

Many years have passed and this woman remembers me with affection and gratitude. She

now lives alone with her daughter, who has a university degree. I think the patient will have

another outbreak of Staphisagria when her daughter's fiance decides to marry her.

Case No. 1594

A married woman aged 53 came to see me on the advice of her son, a doctor saying: ' I have

wished for a long time to see a psychiatrist. Ever since I have been able to reason I have been a

tormented person. I have suffered a lot, without making it known to others or making them

suffer.

‘At the age of 40 I underwent a cancer operation on my right breast; this made me feel

sexually inhibited; I tried to appear as if I had overcome this, but the problem got worse after the

second operation, a hysterectomy that I had 13 months ago. It was terrible and unbelieveably I

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resented it much more, especially when I was told I would be given anti-oestrogens. I do not

have much faith in psychiatrists, but there are things one cannot talk about with one's son. I want

a catharsis.

‘As I am very close to my son, it is difficult for me to hide anything from him. He suffers

a lot when he sees me depressed. At the bottom, I am a very weak person. When it starts to get

dark I feel sick, I am afraid of the night because then all. the problems of my past life come out.

I have a leaning towards killing myself since the day I learned that I had cancer and the reason

for the second operation. The surgeon did not tell me anything, only not to be a coward. I said to

him: "You have Experience …", and he replied: "You have overcome the other; why not this

one”? Then I knew, If I were courageous I would kill myself … I am afraid of death and I have

lost my faith a little’.

Afterwards, in a joint meeting with Dr. Esteban Suarez, we took into account the

following symptoms; Fear of death, page 44; 'Fear of the dark', page 43; 'Anxiety on walking',

page 8; 'Anticipation" page 4; 'Consolation aggravates', page 16; ‘Company, aversion', page 12;

'Desire salt', page 486; 'Thirst at night', page 528; 'Sleep, unrefreshing', page 1255; 'Coition,

aversion', page 715, 'Coition, enjoyment absent', page 715. All of these point to Natrum

muriaticum and to Phosphorus. We chose Phosphorous and gave it to the patient for a month,

going up from 0/6 LM, 0/12, 0/18 to 0/30 LM.

After two months of psychotherapy and improvement, the patient showed an acute picture of

Staphisagria, for she had come to understand the problem of her life: her husband was the very

likeness of her mother, who had thwarted her ambitions to study medicine and to develop her

personality in literature. She felt she was not able to show her indignation over her husband's

repeated and hypocritical slights. She thought that the continuous talk between her husband and

her doctor son was really an insult to her mental ability and self-esteem. At the same time she

resented what she suspected; that they wanted to decide without asking her consent on such

intimate issues as changing her mammary prosthesis etc. She was well aware that if she

exploded, protesting, she would lose 'what remained of her marriage' and she could not do that to

her affectionate and devoted son. She ended up by confessing that she had been throwing things

about all mornings and that she had burned a mammary prosthesis.

I gave her Staphisagria 0/3 LM in drops, with direction to take a dropper of them every

hour until the bottle was finished. The next day she called me, surprised and happy, to tell me

that the urethral burning before micturition had gone, that she had dreamed of her father and that

she would be travelling to Europe with her husband to meet her son.

Two years later she sent a friend- who had also had surgery for breast cancer - with a

small note saying; ‘Help her the same way you helped me …’.

Case No. 1532

An. artist aged 47 working in advertising came to see me on the recommendation of a ‘Pulsatilla’

I had taken care of. A tall man, delicate, intelligent, talkative and very agitated, with the

following history.

Tonsillitis at age 12, cyst of frontal antrum at age 17. Virus hepatitis with relapse after

two months at 20. Inguinal hernia on the right side at 45. Married at 24 to his first girl friend who

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was 17: 'She was very beautiful and my mother loved her as if she had been her own daughter,

but she set her up against my father and me; it was not by chance that they were both neurotics'.

They got divorced when he was 35. having had three children and changed both profession and

country; the only thing he had kept was his fondness for the musical instrument his father had

adored.

He started another relationship with a divorcee who had no children, and brought her to

this country a year after. They had been living together for ten years and had a child of eight. She

had admitted her sexual frigidity to him and for the past year also her conjugal infidelity,

showing indifference in her affections and a great avidity for money. We made the diagnosis

Natrum muriaticum on the basis of the most important symptoms: ‘Loquaciousness’, page 63;

‘Love, disappointed’, page 63; ‘weeping, telling her symptoms’, page 94, ‘Forsaken’, page 49;

‘Dandruff’, page 114; ‘Pain head, from spirituous liquors’, page 148; ‘Waking five a.m., page

1255.

He continued his weekly psychotheraphy with me and after several months of trying to

forget his lover, he found himself in a highly dramatic And definitive Situation. To make it short,

the woman had left him their little son; one morning she had said to him in front of the child that

she despised him as a man and as an artist; she had kept their flat and had let in a new lover who

satisfied her amply. My patient reacted with unusual violence and broke useful and also artistic

objects during a very intense scene. He threw her out of his studio flat and was still trembling

with indignation as he told me, over and again, of different plans and strategies of subtle mental

tortures and legal vengeance. 'On top of it All', he said, 'the bitch has

left me some venereal disease; I have a burning sensation in the urethra that gets better only

when I urinate’. ‘My thoughts are confused, I have loses of memory and, all the more, constantly

and overwhelmingly, remembrances of the time when I had sex with that strumpet'.

The prescription of Staphisagria 10M, dissolved in water, was followed by an immediate

improvement.

Three months later he said good-bye to me, to go and live in the country; now a young

and sporting father, living with his youngest son, having his other children come to stay during

the holidays; and exchanging affectionate letter with his first wife.

To finish and reach a kind of conclusion, it may be realized that the ' prudence, mature

deliberation, knowledge of human nature and delicacy of approach' a doctor must have in the

'highest degree, as Hahnemann says in paragraph 98 of his Organon, becomes all the more

necessary in the difficult task of understanding the emotional life of our patients, through the

expression, through their expressions. It is a task without which it is not possible to benefit from

the Law of Similars.

The Knowledge of human nature' of the end of' the eighteenth and beginning of the

nineteenth century (Hahnemann was born in Meissen on 11 April 1755 And died in Paris on 2

Ju1y 1843) has since Freud’s discovery of the dynamic unconscious become a more subtle

approach for twentieth-century physicians, including a1so a profound consideration of the hidden

mechanisms that direct our actions toward the world that surrounds us, and an interpretation of

the multicoloured world symbolism that is the fundamental weft of verbal and nonverba1

communication among human beings, in their relation with their own and other people's

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suffering, Indignation, for instance, is an affective phenomenon only explainable on the basis of

pride, and pride is something that belongs exclusively to the human species.

References

1. Great Books of the Western World Encyclopaedia Britanica vol. 6, Chicago; William

Benton 1963.

2. Ibid.

3. Kuhn TS. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago; University of Chicago

Press 1970.

4. Hahnemann S, Organon del Arte de Curar, Barcelona: J, Torner 1846.

5. Le Monde (AT,.XI.p.4). Cita de Salvio Turro en; Descartes, Anthropos, Editorial del

Hombre p,305., Barcelona 1985.

6, Risquez F. Conceptos de Psicodinemia.Caracas; Monte Avila Editors 1975.

7. Flanders Dunbar. Emotions and Bodily Changes. New York;

Columbia Univ. Press 1949.

8. Hillman J.,Emotion, London; Routledge & Kegan Paul 1962.

9. Pascualini R Stress. Buenos Aires; Libreria E1 Atenco 1952.

10. von Weizsaecker V. El Hombre Enfirmo, Barcelona; Luis Miracle Editor 1956.

11. Jores A. El Hombre v Su Enfermidad. Barcelona; Editorial Labor 1961.

12. Kent JT. Repertory of the Homoeopathic Materia Medica. Calcutta Sett Dey & Co.

1961.

13. Kent JT, Filosofia Homoepatica.

14. Kent JT, Final General Repertory of the Homoeopathic Materia Medica. Revised

edn. Pierre Schmidt and Diwan Harish Chand. New Delhi 1980.

15. Hahnemann S. Doctrine Homoeopathique ou Organon de l’Art de Guerir. Avee

Glossaire et Annotations de Pierre Schmidt. Geneva 1952.

16. Webster N. An American Dictionary of the English Language, Springfield. Mass: G.

& C. Merrriam 1876.

17. Barcia Dr. Diccionario Etimolojco de la Lengua Espanola. Alvarez Hermanos 1883.

18. The New Webster Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language, New York;

Avent Books 1984.

[From the BRITISH HOMOEOPATHIC JOURNAL, VOLUME 76, NUMBER 3, July 1987;

For PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY]

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2.2 CULTURAL AND AESTHETIC MODALITIES: CRAVINGS AND

AVERSION – THEIR CLINICAL VALUE (

Some reflections and

considerations)

D.R.LIVINGSTON, ME, BS, MFHOM

Mr. chairman, ladies and gentlemen,

I intend to present some of my thoughts about homoeopathy, such a beautiful example of

inductive reasoning, the application of which constitutes the most precious of all the arts

practised by man. It is interesting to note that it has many analogies with painting.

Nothing ever stands still in life and we should never be complacent. We must strive ever

more strenuously in our study of life to enhance our technique. Is there not room for

improvement in our use of homoeopathy? Do not our pharmacopoeia and repertory need

updating in content and terminology, and amendment to include cultural and aesthetic

dimensions which seem to be missing in this timeless but ever changing therapy?

We live in the Aquarian age of transition and confusion, of technical information but lack

of true communication, a world in which all our values seem to be in the melting pot while we

attempt to sort ourselves out. Against this gloomy picture must be set the enhanced and increased

awareness among our young people of the distress, deprivation and unhappiness experienced by

so many of our brothers and sisters throughout the world, and their compassionate desire to

create a world less pathetically unworthy of the epithet human which they feel that we, their

forebears, have helped to produce.

Where do we homoeopathic physicians stand within this scenario? What are our

ambitions, our responsibilities and rules of conduct in our efforts to improve the therapy which

we seek to provide for our patients? Should we not place ourselves in the homoeopath's mental

and intellectual hot seat?

Culture in its widest sense is generally taken to mean the overall manners, customs and

morality of people and civilizations, the latter being groups of people conforming to a particular

set of rules of living. Individually I consider that culture is to cultivation what knowledge is to

information, wisdom to knowledge. scholarship to learning, maturity to experience and patina to

an Old Master. In both instances the name of the game is imitation and emulation, In short,

adherence to the great law of similarity which also governs our homoeopathic practice. Indeed,

our whole lives, spiritual and physical, are guided and controlled by this law.

Ironically, our microchip and carbon-fibre computerized, synthetic age with its ever

smaller gadgets runs parallel with the infinitely small doses which homoeopaths have for so long

used to such benefical effect in treating our patients to the bewilderment and disbelief of our

colleagues. It is thus extraordinary that the majority of the population does not yet accept our

therapeutic methods without question.

The sensitivity of writers, poets, philosophers, painters, sculptors, dramatists, musicians

and actors is quite different from that of hewers of wood, drawers of water, agricultural workers

and sportsmen. Our social hierarchy, ethics and tastes are closely related to these distinctive

categories within our civilization. I firmly believe that, subliminally, we – as homoeopathic

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investigators – are deeply influenced by such variations and distinctions in our lives and

background extreme hard though they way so often be to identity or even suspect, hardly

noticeable perhaps in their subtlety.

Nevertheless, to my mind these influences are exceedingly important due, as they are, to

our own individual national, racial, religious, social, family or pofessional prejudices -- often

imperceptibly inbuilt from our earliest days. We must do our best to recognize this and balance it

in our dealings with our patients. ‘Physician heal thyself’ and 'Know thyself' are ancient, wise

injunctions which we neglect at our peril and that of our patients.

Though intuitive, indirect and implicit, the value of subjective modalities is in no way

diminished. It is even perhaps enhanced, providing flesh for the skeleton upon which we

habitually depend for prescribing when using normally accepted modalities. Perhaps the analogy

here would be the throwing away of the baby with the bath water. It is essential that we take into

account the subjective and sensitizing effects all around us. In this respect our establishment

colleagues make a great mistake in not recognizing how important our methods are – or even

being aware of them regarding them as valueless if they cannot be quantified, weighed,

measured, calibrated and repeated as 'evidence of proof.

In practice, it is these very same vague impressions which provide the extreme reliability

of homoeopathic medicine. We alone among physicians recognize that it is the modification of

clinical symptoms by environmental factors which give the vital clues to what are otherwise

insoluble problems and provide us with the power to exploit them therapeutical1y.

At present there is an imbalance in our cultured respect for physical and vegetative

modalities as opposed to those related to our emotional, subjective, fantasy and dream lives

which , by their very nature, are more difficult of clear definition and thus more difficult to

'rubricate' (to coin a phrase). This is not a good reason, however, for not trying and

experimenting c1inically. Life is full of surprises and contrasts which cannot all be known to the

homoeopathic investigator, but, like Hahnemann, my contention is that the more we know the

better, in all fields of human feeling, thinking an endeavour.

I should like to think that the repertory might with great advantage be extended, and

improved, not only by updating its terminology to conform with modern ideas and activities but

by the addition of rubrics for cravings and aversions such as inclinations or disinclinations

towards music, opera ballet, classical lieder and jazz; literature either as prose or poetry; visual

arts under the headings of printing, sculpture, architecture; philosophy; sports and entertainment.

In these fields there exists the opportunity for a vast field of clinical research which might lead to

much improved prescribing.

To these rubrics might be added another indicating the predominant manner in which our

patients respond through their eyes or ears in interpreting the written word . For instance, I am

aware that, when I read a sentence, I have to transmit it through my sense of hearing rather than

directly visually before it makes sense to me.

Self diagnosis, let alone self treatment, is notoriously difficult. Let me present myself as a

model, deeply influenced in my emotional and educational upbringing, as I was, by my mother; a

model for whom the best therapy is love of family and friends, laughter and music and whose

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cultural and aesthetic affinities are with literature, philosophy and the criminal mind. My

favourite authors are Balzac, Somerset Maugham and Robert Louis Stevenson; my favourite

composers Beethoven, Mozart, Offenbach and W.S. Gilbert. Put on a record of Beethoven,

Mozart, Haydn, Johann Strauss, Scott Joplin or Louis Armstrong and I am immediately in tune

with these great personalities who carry me away into

present joyous fairyland. My favourite painters are Rembrandt, Sir John Millais and Corot. I am

different or hostile to Chaucer, Bunyan, James Joyce, Shostakovitz and Wagner. My favourite

colours are purple and green. I leave it to you to speculate whether myself selected constitutional

remedy is Sepia. All I know is that that wonderful medicine coupled occasionally with poorinum

and alternated with occasionally helped me through most of my minor afflictions so far.

I suggest that it is important to ask our patients about their tastes and interests in the

cultural fields. Some people, for instance, may be good at cooking but dislike this activity. This

curious anomaly might usefully serve as an indication for bizarre Ignatia and added to a 'strange,

rare and peculiar rubric'.

If it be true, as I contend, that there is no smallest part of our being which cannot provide

vital clues to the whole of our personality, providing we are looking f or it, then the face and its

expression with its infinite modulations constitutes an important contribution to the portrait of

our patients, just as do the sciences of reflexology and iridiagnosis. How many useful clues about

the cultural heritage and development of our patients can we not observe in this way?

Hahnemann's head with its huge domed forehead gives us a shrewd perception of his immense

intellectual capacity; and his facial expression shows the great sensitivity and nobility of his

character. By contrast, consider also our present drug and wayward sex sub-culture which has

killed such poor unfortunate AIDS afflicted people as Rock Hudson and Liberace with their

characteristic terminal withered, haggard, cachetic tormented expressions.

Once upon a time, before the days of modern research of laboratories and synthetic

medicine, physicians depended far more on their God-given senses for achieving their clinical

decisions. They felt the patient's skin, tasted and smelled his urine, judged his or her complexion

and demeanour by methods not given to clear classification, yet exceedingly clinically valuable

and reliable.

Can what we know of the lives of great men and women from their writings and work,

their portraits, their medical and surgical history, provide us with any useful information about

their likely constitutional remedies and, more important, can they reach us to improve our

technique by seeking whatever correlations and correspondences we may find as a result of

such a study to confirm, deny or endorse our earlier conclusions derived from more usually

applied criteria and modalities?

Let us not forget that we already have a number of fairly clearly defined conceptual

images dependent on such intellectual or cultural modalities. Some of these are outlined by

Leon Vannier who has a lot to tell us in Homoeopathy, Human Medicine in the way of

personality classification. Bacillinum, with its love of music, its obstinacy and its

cosmopolitanism is an example. Another is Lycopodium with its drawn expression and its

intellectual bent and tendency for young people needing this remedy to appear to be in a higher

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social bracket than their parents. Phosphorus, elegant and emotionally sensitive and delicate,

parodying Oscar Wilde and his coterie, Gl1bert's 'Greenery yallery, Grosvenor gallery, foot in

the grave young man' is a further illustration.

Other medicines sensitive to music are Tarantula hispanica and Natrum sulph. each in its

respective way Natrum sulph. so readily affected by sad music, Tarantula with its urge for wild

frenetic dancing.

Blindness, deafness, cancer, tuberculosis and syphilis have been the lot of many millions

of people down the ages. One might say that no one can avoid running the risk of becoming

infected by one illness or another; Nevertheless, a case could be made out for the proposition that

certain types of people are more susceptible than others, both physically and mentally, to one, or

combinations of such afflictions.

Modern typology has confirmed much of the ancient wisdom in determining such

categorization which can often be reliably detected on sight. Dr. Leon Vannier's classification of

patients into carbonic, phosphoric and luetic is familiar and immensely useful to all of us.

Sheldon's meso, endo, and ectomorphic analogies and those of Freud and Jung are also familiar

to all doctors whether conventional or homoeopathic. All such categories tend to dovetail and

interpenetrate harmoniously with each other and in a rational manner. The more of them we use

in daily practice the better our diagnostic and therapeutic conclusions will be.

Illness itself can, in this context, represent a cultural modality, as we heard yesterday

from Dr. Twentyman in his scholarly, historical review of the syphilitic, tuberculous and

cancerous stages through which our civilization has passed since the fifteenth century: emerging

now into our present global and frightening AIDS-oriented stage.

In my opinion, our most pressing and immediate practical difficulties today lie in

obtaining reliable source material in which to make an AIDS nosode for widespread prophylactic

availability. What about another pilot study from Dr. English or an enterprising Liverpudlian? I

also think that it should be publicly recognized that we are trying to do something constructive in

this matter.

Finally, can visual portrayal of personality be of benefit in fitting a medicine to a patient?

I definitely think it can, particularly when we consider points made by Desmond Norris in his

book Man Watching in which he observes and interpects a wealth of body language which we

tend to ignore or discard as valueless and unscientific. I do not think that we can afford to do

this.

It is my hope that these reflections may stimula1e further thought and c1inical research in

an effort to improve Kent's invaluable Repertory.

[From The BRITISH HOMOEOPTHIC JOURNAL, vol 76, No.4, Oct, 1989 – for PRIVATE

CIRCULATION ONLY]

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2.3 SYNONYMOUS RUBRICS IN KENT'S REPERTORY;

INCONSISTENCIES -

K.H.Gypser

Kent's repertory is used internationally and mostly. It has not, however, undergone a

thorough revision which is very essential. Of course ever since the publication of the second

edition in 1908 it has been revised with every new edition but careful corrections have not been

done. The corrections of Gladwin and Pugh have not improved much as also the new editions

of Sandhu and Schmidt/Chand.

To highlight some of the many inconsistencies and errors, following synonymous rubrics

have been examined and it has been found that the remedies and their gradations in one rubric do

not agree with the other synonymous rubric. Some rubrics only have been chosen and given

hereunder to high-light these.

MIND, Excitement, alternates with convulsions, p.40: Stram. GENERALITIES, Convulsions,

alternating with excitement of mind, p.1354: STRAM. MIND, Rage, alternating with

convulsions, p.71: Stram., GENERALITIES, Convulsions, alternating with rage, p.1354:

STRAM.

MIND, Unconsciousness, alternating with convulsions, p.89: Agar.

GENERALITIES, Convulsions. alternating with unconsciousness, p.1354: Agar., Aur.

HEAD, Heat, coldness, feet, with, p.122: Alum, Am-c., Anac., Arn., ,Ars., Bar-c., Bell., Cact,.

Calc,. Com., Ferr., Ferr-ar., Gels., Ip., Laur., Nat-c., Sep., Squll., Sulph., Sulph..Thuj.

EXTREMITIES, Coldness, foot, hot head, with, p.966: Alum., Am-c., Anac., Arn., Ars., Aur.,

Bar-c., .Bell., Cact., Calc., Com., Ferr., Gels., Laur., Nat-c., Ph-ac., Sep., Squil., Thuj.

HEAD, Heat, coldness. hands: with, p.122: ASAf., Asar., Bar-c., Bell., Calo., Hell., lod., Lact.,

Lyc., Nat-c., Ph.ac., Se., Sumb.

EXTREMITIES, Coldness, hands, hot head, with, p.962: ARN ., Asaf., Aur., BELL., GLON.,

Hell., Iod., Nat-c., Sumb.

HEAD, Pain, alternating with diarrhoea, p.136: Podo., Sec. Rectum, Diarrhoea, alternating with

headache, p612: Podo.

HEAD, Pain, alternating with pain in abdomen , p.136: Aesc., Ars., Cina, Gels, Iris., Plb.,

Rhus-r.ABDOMEN, Pain alternating with headache, p.557: Cina, Plb.

HEAD, Pain, alternating with pain in teeth, p.136: Lycps., Psor.TEETH, Pain. alternating with

headache, p.436: Kali-p.

FACE, Heat, cold feet, with, p.377: Acon., Gels., Ign., Samb., Sep., STRAM.

EXTREMITIES, Coldness, foot, hot face, with, p.966: Acon., Asaf., Cocc., Gels., Ign., Ruta,

Sep., STRAM.

ABDOMEN, Pain, alternating with pain in chest, p.557: Aesc., Ran-b.

CHEST, Pain, alternating with pain in abdomen, p.845: Aesc., Ran-b.

RECTUM, Diarrhoea, alternating with eruptions, p.612: Calc-p., Crot-t.

SKIN, Eruptions, alternating with diarrhoea, p.1311: Calc-p. RECTUM, Diarrhoea. alternating

with rheumatism, p.612: Cimic., Dulc., Kali-bi.

EXTREMITIES, Pain, rheumatic, alternating with diarrhoea, p.1048: Cimic., Dulc., Kali-bi.

RESPIRATION, Asthmatic, alternating with eruptions, p.768: Calad., Crot-t., Hep., Kalm.,

Lach., Mez., Rhus-t., Sulph.

SKIN, Eruptions, alternating with asthma, p.1311: Calad., Mez., Rhus-t., Sulph.

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CHEST, Pain, heart, alternating with rheumatism, p.852: Benz-ac., Kalm.

EXTREMITIES, Pain, rheumatic, alternating with pain in heart, p.1049: Benz-ac.

This brief examination clearly shows that where rubrics whose titles are identical do not

contain the same remedies and where they do, their grades are not identified. It is therefore to be

considered whether different value is to be given to the grades other than what Kent’s pupils

have so far propagated.

[From the “zeitschipt fur KLASSISCHE HOMOOOPATHIE, BAND 31/1987]

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2.4 CORRECTIONS TO THE REPERTORY - A.Wegener

BORAX and BOVISTA

Borax (wrongly given instead as Boyista)

HEAD, Pain am while walking in open air, p.151: Bov.

Bovista: verification of source: negative.

Borax: "A pressing pain above the eyes, quickly passing while walking in open air" (HT,,

p.309, No. 10)

EYES, pain, burning, afternoon; p.253: Bov.

Bovista: verification of source: negative.

Borax: "Pressive pain, burning in the right eye, in the afternoon (EN, p.197, No. 68)

STOMACH, aversion, tobacco, p.482: Bov.

Bovista: verification of source: negative.

Borax: The enjoyment and desire to smoke passed away. {HT, p.311, No. 43)

ABDOMEN, pain, bending double, am; p.557: Bov.

Bovista: verification of source: negative.

Borax, "Pinching constrictive pain 1n the abdomen above the hand, so that she is obliged

to bend "double, then it ceases; daily in the morning for five minutes". (EN, p.202, No. 249)

The above two errors are found in Knerr's Repertory also.

RESPIRATION, difficult, ascending; p.768,this error is found only in “Kent's F1nal General

Repertory": Bov.

Bovista: verification of source: negative.

Borax: "Shortness of breath after ascending steps so that he cannot speak a word ... "

(EN, p.204, No. 345)

CHEST, eruptions, white pimples with red areola; p.830: Bov.

Bovista: verification of source; negative.

Borax: “Whitish pimples, as large as flaxseed, with areola, on the chest and throat, as far

as the nape of the neck". (EN, p.207, No. 425)

EXTREMITIES, heat, leg; p.1012: Bov.

Bovista: verification of source: negative.

Borax: "Numb sensation with heat in the left lower 1egs". (EN, p.206, No. 402)

EXTREMITIES, inflammation, leg, after dancing; p.1019: Bov.

EXTREMITIES, swelling, feet, after dancing; p.1201: Bov.

Bovista: verification of source; negative.

Borax: "erysipelatous inflammation and swelling of the left leg and foot after violent

dancing…”. (EN, p.206, No. 401)

EXTREMITIES, pain. toes, when stepping; p.1081: Bov.

Bovista: verification of source: negative.

Borax: "Pain in the joints of toes of the left foot on stepping. as if something pressed-

them" (EN, p.206, No. 410)

SKIN., ulcers, suppurating, p.1336: Nov.

Bovista: verification of source: negative.

Borax: Old wounds and ulcer. are inclined to suppurate". (EN, p.207. No. 433)

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"The crusts of the existing ulcer falls off with the linen where it was adhering to and dry

and now it is secreting pus". (HT. p.318, No. 84)

Bovista (wrongly given instead as Borax)

HEAD, pain, from light, in general: p.141: Bor.

Borax: verification of source: negative.

Bovista: “Confusion and heaviness in the oeciput, with inclinations of the lids to fall

down, and feeling as if the eyes would be drawn backwards, especially in a bright light, in the

evening …”

Conditions - Aggravation - "Evening, stitches in the side of vertex; especially in bright light".

(EN, p.228)

FACE, heat, during chilliness; p.376: Bor.

Borax: verification of source: negative.

Bovista: "Chilliness with glowing heat of the face. (EN, p.227, No. 649)

CHEST, heat; .834: Bor.

Borax: verification of source: negative.

Bovista: "Oppression and heat in the chest, which rises into the head". EN, p.222, No.

433)

"Frequent heat and oppression of the chest, so that he was obliged to b uncovered, whereupon he

felt better". (EN, p.227, No. 656)

CHEST, coldness, must wrap up the chest; p.825: Bor.

Borax: verification of source: negative.

Bovista: "She was constantly chilly on the uncovered parts, on the neck and chest, and

obliged to bind clothes about them. even at night". (EN, p.227, ho. 637)

CHEST, pain, stitching, middle; p.867: Bor.

Borax: verification of source: negative.

Bovista: Stitches first in the middle of the chest, then in the right hypochondrium, and afterwards

in the left. (EN, p.222, No. 438)

EXTREMITIES, itching, forearm, anterior part, p.1022: Bor.

Borax: verification of source: negative.

Bovista: "Burning itching on both the forearms in the region of the pulse, not relieved by

scratching in the evening". (EN, p.226, No. 610)

EXTREMITIES, lameness, fingers; p.1032: Bor.

Borax: verification of source: negative.

Bovista: "Very sensitive boring sticking pain beneath the elbows, on the margin of the

radius; it extends to the fingers which become lame on account of it, for two minutes". (EN,

p.223, No. 492)

AMBRA AND AMMONIUM BROMATUM

Ambra (wrongly given as Ammonium bromatum)

MIND, company, aversion to presence of strangers; p.12: AM-BR.

Ammonium bromatum: verification of source: negative.

Ambra: "Frequent urging, no stool; this gives her a good deal of anxiety; during this time

the neighberhood of other people was intolerable to her". (EN, p.243, No. 219)

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Ammonium bromatum (wrongly given as Ambra)

EYE, redness, morning; p.264: Ambra.

Ambra: verification of source: negative.

Ammonium. bromatum: "In morning, eyes red and sore with white mucous, in corners,

left eye worse. (EN, p.257,No. 16)

NOSE, discharge, watery; p.333: Ambr.

Ambra: verification of source: negative

Ammonium bromatum: "Occasional discharge of watery fluid from left nostril". (EN, p.257, No.

28).

THROAT, mucus, wh1te; p.457: Ambr.

Ambra: verification of source: negative.

Ammonium bromatum. "White, thick mucus in throat”. (EN, p.257, No. 44)

STOMACH, coldness; p.482: Ambr.

Ambra: verification of source: negative.

Ammonium bromatum: "Sensation of hot air passing up throat, on right side, though

stomach feels cold”. (EN. p.257, No. 55)

SROMACH, emptiness, evening; p.488, Ambr.

Ambra: verification of source: negative.

Ammonium bromatum: "During afternoon and evening, sensation of tainting or

suffocation, beginning at the epigastrium and rising on both sides of sternum to throat, causing

him to sigh and walk around the room; feared he might die". (EN, p.258, No. 80).

HAEMORRHOIDS, p.619" Ambr.

Ambra: verification of source: negative.

HAEMORRHOIDS, hard, p.620; Ambr.

Ambra: verification of source: negative.

RECTUM, sain, soreness, p.628= Ambr.

Ambra: verification of source: negative.

Ammonium bromatum: “An old haemorrhoidal tumour, which had not appeared for some

time returned, and was quite hard, sore and very small, but soon disappeared". (EN, p.258, No.

85)

SARRACENIA PURPUREA AND SARSAPARILLA

Sarracenia purpurea (wrongly given instead as Sarsaparilla)

MIND, Forgetful, p.48; Sars.

Sarsaparilla: verification of source: negative.

Sarracenia purpurea; "Find it difficult to concentrate the attention; forgetful. (EN, p.514,

No. 6)

MIND, Idiocy, p.53: Sars.

Sarsaparilla: verification of source: negative.

Sarracenia purpurea: "Idiotism". (EN, p.518, No. 4)

MIND, Memory, weakness of, p.64: Bars.

Sarsaparilla: verification of source: negative.

Sarracenia purpurea: "Brain very dull and memory poor, at 9 P.M. (EN, p.514, No. 5)

NOSE, Discharge, yellow-green; p.333: Sars.

Sarsaparilla: verification of source: negative.

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Sarracenia purpurea: Smell and Nose: Foul-smelling, green-yellowish or bloody

discharge". (GS, p.223)

GENITALIA--Female, Pain Ovaries, p.731. Sars.

Sarsaparilla: verification of source: negative.

Sarracenia purpurea: "Violent spasmodic pains in the ovarian regions, especially on the

right side (EN, p.522, No. 209)

Sarsaparilla (wrongly given as Sarracenia purpurea)

EXTERNAL THROAT, Pain pressing, throat-pit, p.473: Sarr.

LARYNX AND TRACHEA, pressure in throat-pit, p.755: Sarr.

Sarracenia purpurea: verification of source: negative.

Sarsaparilla: “When swallowing, a pain in the throat; a feeling of rawness on the larynx, a

pressing sensation moving about in the larynx with a cough at night and in the morning, …”

(EN, p.531, .No. 235)

BLADDER, urination, frequent, before menses, p.658: Sarr.

Sarracenia purpurea: verification of source: negative.

Sarsaparilla: "At the onset of menses, soreness in the bend of the right hip and urging for

urination. (EN, p.1334, No. 341)

EXTREMITES pain stitching. joints, on motion, p.1138: Sarr.

Sarracenia purpurea: verification of source: negative.

Sarsaparilla: “Stitches .in joints of arms, hands and fingers, on motion. (GS, p.239)

EXTREMITIES, Weakness elbow, p.1221: Sarr.

Sarracenia purpurea: verification of source: negative.

Sarsaparilla: "Paralytic weakness in the joints of elbow". (CD, p.1337, No. 416)

SLEEP, Yawning, p.1256~ Sarr.

Sarracenia purpurea: verification of source: negative.

Sarsaparilla: "Frequent yawning with lachrymation of the eyes, or in the forenoon with

shuddering”. (CO, p.1340, No. 508)

REFERENCES:

EN: The Encyclopadeia Of Pure Materia Medi.ca by T.F.Allen.

HT: Annalen der homoopathischen Klinik by Hartlaub C.G.C. & Trinks, C.F.

GS: The Guiding Symptoms Of Our Materia Medica by C.Hering.

Repertory to Hering's Guiding Symptoms Of Our Materia Medica by C.B.Knerr.

CD: The Chronic Diseases by Dr.s.Hahnemann.

-------------------

(From the Zeitschrift fur KLASSISCHE HOMOOPATHIE" Band 31/1987 and 32/1968; for

PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY)

-----------

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2.5 BOOK-SHELF

(A review of some books recently published)

HOMOOPATHIE – PSYCHOSOMATIC – PARAMEDIZIN,

Grenzgebiete im Reiche des Similie von E.H. Schmeer, Verlag Grundlagen und Praxis, Leer,

1982.

An extremely interesting book by an internist who has concerned himself with studies of

other alternative medicines and medicine history since decades. The work lays open new

horizons.

The author discusses homoeopathy in the light of Paracelsus-Hahnemann mythic origin.

When examined so it touches what today are called as “occult" or "esoteric".

Paramedicines: Astrology, Anthroposophy, physiognomy, Semiology, Eye diagnosis, Signatures,

Radiesthaesisa, Psychotherapy all are discussed besides homoeopathy. The therapeutic range of

these are also discussed.

The author is not, however, attempting to blend homoeopathy with any of these ‘para-

medicines’. He clearly shows the individualty of homoeopathy. The relationship of

Anthroposophy to homoeopathy is clearly stated: “Rightly Rudolf Steiner says that one would

like to practice Anthroposophy must develop a meditative method which will not require the

modern “gurus” with their ‘initiation’ but which requires a logical-disciplined thinking”. Dr.

Schmeer further says “as a product of his time Hahnemann rejected almost everything which are

now called “occult” and also the Signature theory and Macro-Micro-cosmos-idea of Paracelsus.”

In the first chapters Dr. Schmeer gives the differential diagnosis of Neurosis: Hysterical

neurosis, Compulsive neurosis, Depressive neurosis and schizoid neurosis. Some of the relevant

rubrics from KENT in respect of each of these type of neurosis are also mentioned:

e.g.: Hysteric neurosis: 'torments everyone with his complaints' (hysterical craving for

appreciation by others) (p.89); 'want of moral feeling,' (p. 68); ’Nymphomania' (p.68);

'building castles in the air' (p. 69, 87); 'complaints from disappointed love (does not realise own

mistakes) (p.63) etc. etc.

2. Compulsive neurosis: 'constant feeling as if he has forgotten something' (p .49);

'washing hands constantly' (p. 92); 'counting constantly' (p.17); 'conscientious about trifles' (p.16

); 'fear about future' (p.45); 'fear of financial ruin' (p .46); 'fear about his status in Society'(p .47);

' fear that he would be devoured by animals' (p.44); 'fear that he would be murdered' (p .46) etc.

etc.

3. Depressive neurosis: 'Helplessness' (p.51); 'Cares, grief' (p.40, 50); 'weary of life' (p

.92); etc., etc.

4. Schizoid neurosis: 'aversion to those around’ (p.9); 'Abrupt' (p.1); 'Fear of being

touched' (p.47) ; 'Aversion to company' (p.12); 'Sensitive to noise ' (p.79); etc., etc.

Dr.Schmeer says that "homoeopathy is, in a wider sense, also psychotherapy". "It is not

well-known that Hahnemann has treated Neurotics and has said about the limitations of

homoeopathy therapy in respect of these diseases in paragraphs 225, 226 and 227 of the

Organon. Hahnemann's advice in rearing children (vide "Handbuch furMutter oder Grundsatze

der ersten Erziehung del Kinder” - Hand book for mother or basic principles for educating

children) - is quoted.

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Examination of neurotic patients, how to choose the homoeopathic remedy etc. are then

discussed, briefly and clearly: Completing the homoeopathic anamnesis by interrogation, e.g.

"aversion to those around": by anyone special? What are you afraid of? Have you suffered

Previously in this? When was your first disappointing experience?etc. etc. “castles in the air”.

How do you view about what are you thinking? Do you dream of it? What is peculiar about it?

Etc.etc.

Regarding remedy diagnosis: If the neurotic symptom is pathognomic it should not be used for

remedy choice. In purely psychoneurosis we have to analogus to Jahr’s advice, book for the

‘peculiar physical symptoms and in organ neurosis the peculiar mental symptoms. Dr.Schmeer

narrates his cases.

Next follows the chapter Astrology at the end chapter we find the Horoscope of Hahnemann.,

cast by the swis astrologer Heinrichskandigvand the various aspects of it are discussed briefly.

Next chapter is on ‘paramedicines’-signature, Semiology, Eye diagnosis, Radiesthesia,

Psysiognomy, Psychotherapy etc.

In the following 56 pages Dr.Schemeer has dealt with the signatures(homoeopathic) of five

remedies. Vis., Sulphur, Calcium carbonicum, Phosphous, Arsenicum, Magnesium and Ferrum.

These are of very great values.

The following additions to Kent KENT are also given by Dr.Schmeer: LIE(P.62)

KLEPTOMANIA: Manganum(p.61)

A highly interesting and fascinating book with completely new views from different

angles. Of course of very practical value.

INDIAN HOMOEOPATHIC DIARY, edited and compiled by Dr.Anil Kumar Katiyar,

published by H.K.Publications, 211, H-1, Kidwai Nagar, Kanpur-208 011, 228 pages, Rs.50/-

This ‘Diary’ seems to by a new venture. It has been attempted to furnish state wise details

of homoeopathic educational institutions, history of homoeopathy, the ‘Drugs

And Cosmetics Act and Rules (Homoeopathic)', CCRH Centres in India; List of homoeopathic

Councils and their addresses; list of homoeopathic associations; homoeopathic

pharmacy rules, manufacturers; homoeopathic journals published in India with the addresses of

the publishers; the different book publishing houses and their addresses; etc. etc. The dates from

which homoeopathic act came into the different states in India and the last date after which

registrations (under Class B) were closed have also been given. Attempt has been made to make

the information as complete as possible.

The state-wise information of the origin of homoeopathy and status etc. have been

sketched by the eminent homoeopaths of the respective states, e.g. Dr. S.R. Wadia for

Maharashtra, Dr S.P. Koppikar of T.Nadu, Dr, P.S. Krishnamurthy for A.P. and so on.

A brief essay on the origin of homoeopathy in India has been given by Dr. O.P. Jaggi.

Some of the data appear few years old, some up-to-date.

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A very useful publication, perhaps the first of its kind where almost everything

concerning homoeopathy is made available. It would be more useful if it updated and printing

errors are minimized in the next edition, and the general get-up improved.

(Dr.K.S. Srinivasan, Madras.)

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2.6 FEED BACK

The more one reads Pierre Schmidt, the more one’s confidence in homoeopathy (not

faith) grows. Here was a man who rejected anti-tetanus injections after one tragic result after

A.T. S. His treatment of the-about-to-be-destroyed dog with a few homoeopathic drugs in the

high potency - no matter 10 M, even - 30 C or 200 C is only Placebo according to the 'scientific'

fraternity. Molecules and Avagadro's number are the ultimate scientific principles for them.

(Linn Boyd, Otto Leaser, Hughes, and Renner)

So when a three year old 'Mongol' female child who does, not react to noise, light, with

no speech, cannot even chew or grasp a toy cannot sit or stand, made a journey by air from Agra

to Hyderabad in the middle of May 1988, she landed with severe and incessant crying as if in

great pain . The mother observed that the child was putting her finger in the ear and thought it

had ear-ache. With nothing else to go by and no specific tenderness elicited around the ear, she

was put on capsicum-M,3 doses at 15 minutes intervals. The crying of nearly 24 hours had

ceased completely in less than one hour. Analysis: Pain in the ear drum caused by varying cabin

pressured on a long air journey. Earlier, older patients who had experienced pain in the ear by air

travel were free of pain under capsicum-200 travelling from Bombay to New York and Bombay

to Hong Kong. One patient who forgot to take the medicine bottle on a flight suffered pain, but

was free from pain on latter flights after taking capsicum.

A recent totally unconscious serious head injury patient made a full recovery after

Arnica, Opium and Nat. Sulph in 200 C and M potencies were pushed between his lips in his

unconscious state. Some Placebo these:

Re. Imbrecht's repertorial exercises, one was left wondering 1f 36 or more rubrics lead to

any result other than Nux. (in this case 36 rubrics were used). It was surprising that Argentum

Nitricum did not figure at all in the first anamnesis, though some of the most striking, singular

and peculiar symptoms unique to Arg. N. alone were manifested. Why Dysco (Bach) was not

thought of or given is another wondor. It is true that even updated Kent’s repertories have fallen

to highlight ‘Dysco’ in any degree, 'Dysco' has the following symptoms of the case very well

marked “Tense, nervous; full of fears; lacks confidence; apprehensive - worried over trifles,

unable to cope, restless, fussy, depressed, extreme exhaustion (Elizabeth Paterson) – Nervous

tension, mental uneasiness - anticipatory, anxiety, hypertensive to criticism (Paterson). The most

interesting aspect of the case however is that Anacardium the finally chosen curative medicine is

in the list of associated remedies given by Paterson under Dysco. What price mere mechanical

repertorisation! Would ‘Dysco' as the first prescription or interpolated Arg. N. have brought out

the schizoid element earlier. or would have even cured him completely without the need for

Anacardium?

REG.: MEASLES

From the March 1988 Digest 'feed back it appears that my 'feed back' on 'Measles in the

December 1987 Digest has been read with attention. But some errors in my presentation have

passed unnoticed. As the need is for self-correction to keep the science true, the following

addenda is submitted:

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Catarrhal stage: Bluish white specks on a red base, small and irregular (Koplik spots) appear

before the rash and fade away a few hours after the rash appears.

They occur over buccal mucous membrane opposite to molar teeth best seen in daylight.

(Note: These are probably the indications on which our untutored old women predict a 'Measles'

attack during this stage).

The earliest manifestation of the rash is behind the ears, and on forehead spreading

rapidly over the face and neck downwards over the trunk reaching to lower limbs after 48 hours".

The above may be substituted for the relevant portions in the published note.

Dr. D. Lakshminarayanan

14.6.1988

1-2-217/7 G’Mahal Road,

Hyderabad.

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2.7 NEWS

The Indian chapter of Asian Homoeopathic Medical League is organising the “First

Congress of the Asian Homoeopathic Medical League” on 28

, 29

and 30

October 1988 at

Mavalankar Auditorium, Rafi Marg, New Delhi. The man subjects of the congress are:-

1. Platina and its comparative remedies,

2. Rare remedies with clinical evaluation,

3. Skin diseases (with clinical cases),

4. Homoeopathy and Child Health Care,

5. Research in Homoeopathy and

6. Computers in Homoeopathy

The congress would be attended by eminent homoeopaths and a large number of

delegates from Asian and other countries. For further details and registration, please write to

The Organising Secretary,

First Congress of the A.H.M.L.,

37, South Anarkali Extension,

Delhi – 110 051.

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3 QHD, Vol. V, No.4, September 1988

Dear Doctor,

The 'theme' for this number is Materia Medica including Provings.

New remedies have been studied in this. It is for the Profession to make use of the

remedies and report clinical experiences.

However, there seems to be a major draw-back in the trial of new remedies and indeed

some ‘old' remedies too. It is the 'non-availability' of these remedies. It is unfortunate that

homoeopathic pharmacies in India do not stock these remedies. when the 'provings' of

SCORPION, NATRUM FL. were given in our earlier numbers, many wanted to know the source

of the remedies. I can only say that these are procurable from NELSONS of London. Indeed it is

NELSONS who stock all the BOWEL NOSODES also from 6 to CM potencies. Perhaps a few

homoeopaths can join together and obtain (import) some quantity which can be shared by all of

them.

May I invite your attention to the 'column' 'FEED-BACK"? This column is for the

members/readers of our DIGEST to convey their own 'experiences' in the light of the articles in

the DIGEST, especially clinical experiences. Do communicate. please be brief and to the point;

not lengthy essays or articles.

September 1988.

Yours sincerely,

K.S. SRINIVASAN

1253, 66

Street,

Korattur,

Madras 600 080

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3.1 FRANCISCEA UNIFLORA-

H.P.J.A Mass

Today, I will show you a patient, whose complaints have been ameliorated by a drug,

which has not yet been proved.

At the end of August '82, I saw for the first time in my surgery Mr.J.R., born 11-1-'48. He

is a nurse and as such working in a nursing-home. He was much worried about his future.

Doctors had told him he was suffering from the Bechterew-disease. The rheumatologist had

prescribed butazolidin, 4 times a day, 100. On taking this quantity, he got stomach-ache,

therefore he reduced himself the total dosis butazolidin unto 200 mgr. a day. Regular blood-

examination had been done on account of the total number of granulocytes. However a lower

level of granulocytes was proved, one still could speak of a low-normal. In August '82 the ESR

was 30 m.m. after one hour.

The pains the patient suffered from, were localised in the chest-wall, he was stiff all over,

especially rising from bed every morning was a big problem; in the evening he was worn out.

He used to sleep on a hard bed; changes of the weather were of no influence, only in the autumn

there was an increase of pain. At the age of twelve his tonsils had been extracted; there was a

regular teeth-control.

On his nineteenth he underwent a lumbar back operation, a supposed hernia nuclei

pulposi or perhaps the beginning of the Bechterew-disease.

No-one in his family was suffering from rheumatic arthritis or the Bechterew-disease.

Asking for details, he could neither mention anything important concerning the various

facts of functions of the body nor remarkable points of his mental state.

His heat over body was quite normal. Physical examination did not disclose special

symptoms.

Physically he looked like a calcium-carbonicum-type.

The modalities: stiffness agravated after sleep, starting pains at the beginning of motion. I

prescribed rhus tox D30 3 times a week and advised him to continue physiotherapeutic

treatment.

November '82 he returned and his complaints had not changed. I added to the former

prescription Calcium carbonicum D30, also to be taken 3 times a week, with Rhus tox D30

alternately.

On seeing him in March '83, he told me that a repeated thorax-sacan, in January '83 was

very active and that he had much pain in the os sternum.

Each movement was painful, deep respiration in particular. Because I could not find more

symptoms, Bryonia D6 was prescribed 3 times a day.

In June '83 he revisited me for checking his condition. Once more there was no change.

Every day he had to use 4 butazolidin-dragees because of pain all over the body. I tried to find

some new or changed modalities or other symptoms concerning the total patient: nothing was

found. Especially the thorax-muscles caused him much pain.

Then I remembered a publication of Raspe (5). On page 147 he mentioned very briefly

Franciscea uniflora, possibly a drug, which might favourably affect the Bechterew-desease. So

far nobody had tested the activity of this plant.

Nevertheless I prescribed this drug in the D3 potency, fifteen drops three times a day.

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Revisiting me in March '84, my patient was very enthusiastic. He was feeling very well

during this last half year because of a decrease of pain.

Instead of butazolidin every day he had taken only 30 dragees over half a year, however

with a daily dose of 45 drops Franciscea uniflora D3.

Also the rheumatologist was satisfied and surprised. The thorax-scan appeared to be

much better than before. Since there was no progression of "bamboo spines" at all, as could be

expected, but a decrease instead, he wanted to continue with the drops.

Thus decided he promised to come back within a year, unless his condition would change

unfavorably.

December '84 I called him and he was very content.

What can we find in literature about this drug and where can we find it?

In the European literature we can hardly read more than half a page about Franciscea uniflora.

O. Leeser (4) mentions in "Pflanzliche Arzneistoffe" on page 697 about this plant:

I Botany: Franciscea uniflora is a plant, which mainly occurs in South America, especially in

Brazil.

One uses the fresh root (mother tincture) 11 Native art of curing:

The people of Brazil use this drug as a diuretic, emetic and abortive remedy.

In particular it was recommended against scrophulosis, rheumatism and syphilis. One

speaks of the "vegetable mercury".

III Chemistry:

The root contains the alkaloid manacin C

N brunfelsin and manacin C

and

the cumarine derivative scopoletic, brunfelsin and manacin C

IV Drugproof : No provings

V Drugpicture : No provings

VI Homoeopathy : No provings

On page 295 of Boericke's (1) Materia Medica we only read five lines about this drug:

"Chronic stiffness of the muscles, gonorrhoeal rheumatism, syphilis and rheumatism,

great heat over body, much aching better sweat. Pain in back of head and spine; band-like

feeling around head. Pericarditis with rheumatism, Rheumatic pains in feet and lower part of

legs. Urine contains urid acid."

Leeser says: "the rheumatic pains improve by sitting."

Sweating and sitting means i n German: "Schwitzen" respectively "Sitzen". Did Leeser (4) by

copying probably wear the wrong classes? Voisin (6) and Clarke (2) mentioned similar

indications as Boericke (1).

After the spectacular improvement of my patient I used this medicine with the following results

by some more clinical diagnosis:

1. Arthritic urica: one patient who needed 300 mgr. zyloric (allopurinol) a day changed this

medicine for Franciscea uniflora D3, 3 times ten drops a day.

The uric acid in blood remained normal.

Observation time: more than one year.

Up to this moment he had not had any attack of gout.

2. Arthritic nodosities with severe pains and deformities of the finger joints. During the last year

I treated 4 patients who did not improve with other drugs.

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With Franciscea uniflora all pains disappeared, but there were no changes of the deformities. The

patients were happy, since they could use their hands and fingers without pain.

3.Disease of Bechterew: 2 other patients.

One was a very old case. The disease existed for more than 25 years. This patient did not

improve with Franciscea uniflora. The other one has far less pain than before.

Literature

1. Boericke, W., Hom. Materia Medica, 295. New York 1927, Boericke & Runyon.

2. Clarke, J.H., A dictionary of Practical Materia Medica, Vol.I, 789. Rustington, Sussex/London

1962.

3. Dragendorff, G., Die Heilpflanzen, 600. Munchen 1967. Warner Fritsch Verlag.

4. Leeser, O., B/II: Pflanzliche Arzneistiffe, 1971, Haug Verlag, Heidelberg. page 697.

5. Raspe, T. Zeitschrift fur klassische Homoopathischen, 1976, Heft 4, P.147, Haug Verlag,

Heidelberg.

6. Voisin, H., Materia Medica des homoopathischen Praktiker, 1969, Haug Verlag Heidelberg,

page 569

[From the 40

LIGA Proceedings at Lyon – France, 26-30 May 1985; For PRIVATE

CIRCULATION ONLY]

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3.2 CALCAREA SULPHURICA-

Eugenio F. Candegabe, MD

The essence of a drug is the nature, the way of life, the psychobiological orientation that

characterizes it. This essence or vital orientation always manifests in a small and typical group of

symptoms which Dr. Paschero defined as the ‘minimum syndrome of maximum value'. In this

way, the small group of symptoms that determine the drug lead to the understanding of its

essence.

If we were to repertorize the minimum syndrome of a drug as if it were an ideal patient,

we would observe that a number of drugs partly or completely share its symptoms. A study of

the results obtained constitutes the comparitive materia medica. This line of thought has led us to

concentrate on the authoritative statement made by James Tyler Kent in his Materia Medica that,

When you have a good substantial proving of an oxide or a carbonate, and the mental

symptoms are well brought out, you can use these, in a measure in a presumptive way, in

prescribing another salt, with the same base, which has a few mental symptoms in its provings.

Of Calcarea arsenicosa he says:

If this wonderful remedy is studied with the mind on Arsenicum and Calcarea, a broader

knowledge will be gained. It needs further proving in potencies. Following this criterion, our

attention has for many years been drawn to the small number of symptoms from the pathogenesis

of Calcarea sulphurica, given the great importance of Calcarea carbonica and Sulphur. We have

frequently observed patients presenting the general modalities of Sulphur and the mental

symptoms, especially the fears, of Calcarea carbohica. For this reason we have considered the

possibility of taking Kent's advice and using Calcarea sulphurica in the treatment of these

patients.

None of the established authors attributes important mental symptoms to Calcarea

sulphurica. Kent only mentions it eighty-six times in his Repertory, and he is the only one of the

great authors to give us an outline of the mentality:

The patient is absent minded; irritable; easily angered. He becomes weak after anger and

vexation. Aversion to answering questions. He is easily made anxious, especially in the evening

in bed, during the night and when lying. Anxiety with fear during fever. Anxiety about the

future. Anxious about his heart and his health in general. His anxiety is ameliorated in the open

air. He has anxiety about his salvation. He has anxiety in the morning on waking. Many

changeable moods and capriciousness. Aversion to company. Confusion of mind in the morning

on waking and again in the evening. This is also ameliorated in the open air. Confusion of mind

in the morning from mental exertion. Contrary and contradictory moods. He has many little

delusions, whims and strange fancies. Frightful images in the night when trying to sleep.

Since my first personal observation made in 1976, I have been collecting a series of

clinical cases which happily have corroborated my first impressions, forming, to date, a

relatively large case material (fifty-six cases in all).

Case No.1, M .W. 7~years old, male, seen on 15 November 1982 with the following clinical

picture:

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Chronic catarrhal bronchitis recurring pseudo croup, enuresis, red naevi on the lips.

Family history of diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. Previous history: chronic adenitis epistaxis.

Fair child, large with a tendency towards obesity. Mentals: Strong character, very obstinate,

confident, charming, enterprising, leader among companies. Disorganized, careless, likes to play

with cockroaches and worms. Very dirty. Easy going, likes to be waited on. Daring, does not

acknowledge danger. Hot, bathes in cold water although it makes him ill. Always barefoot.

Desires sweets. First repertorization: Obstinate, courageous, dirty, desires sweets, uncovered

feet, worse cold and croup - Sulphur 6/14, Calcarea carbonica 4/9. No other drug covered more

than four symptoms. Prescription Sulphur M stat.

Second consultation on 9 March 1983. The bronchial catarrh had improved, but he has

suffered more prolonged attacks of pseudocroup. General condition unchanged. Two new

symptoms had appeared. Fear that something would happen to his father whilst travelling, and a

feeling that after taking him to school his parents were going to abandon him and never return

(forsaken feeling). These new symptoms were so important that they headed the list for

repertorization, followed by the seven remaining symptoms. The result was as follows: Alumina

is a dismal drug, with a great feeling of fragility and guilt, perhaps because of tremendous

syphilitic aggression which induces the patient to kill when faced with a knife, proud, intolerant

of contradiction, need to be occupied, with a sense of self-confusion and splitting of personality

in defence. This personality was very different from that of our patient. Calcarea 6/13 covered all

the mental symptoms except the courage; yet although the local symptoms were covered, this

drug is not dirty, nor does it un cover the feet. Carbo vegetablis 6/11 covered the same symptoms

as the first, but is a much weaker subject, anxious in the open air, extremely timid in public and

with a great fear of ghosts at night, symptoms which our patient did not show. Kalium

carbonicum, with the same symptoms, is a rebel whose tremendous need for dependence is

expressed as a fear of loneliness, with savage rejection of company, a symptom which eliminated

it from our case. We could say the same for Phosphorous and Lycopodium, which with fewer

symptoms did not correspond to our patient. That left Sulphur (6/14) which in spite of not

covering either of the new symptoms had been in the lead in the previous repertorisation. If one

considers Calcarea sulphurica with this concept of integration in mind, the mental symptoms of

fear and forsaken feeling and also the obstinacy and courage are covered by this drug. The

generals include the tendency to dirtiness, desire for sweets, and hot feet, combined with

sensitivity to cold and tendency to croup. Calcarea sulphurica M was therefore prescribed on 19

March, and Calcarea sulphurica 10 M on 19 April. Within three months the patient was cured of

his bronchial complaint and enuresis, had completely overcome his dirty habits and also his

fears.

Case No.2. N.H., married, female, 32 years old, one child of five years. Varicose veins in

both legs after childbirth, worse every summer. Varicose ulcer on the left leg, painful over 3 cm

area. Obese, flat-footed. Generals: desire for salty food. Hot. Nothing particular in the family

history. Mentals: Quiet in appearance. Sometimes impetuous, angers easily and recovers

immediately. Impatient if she has to wait. Plans her work. Nervous if realizes that she cannot

finish with plenty of time to spare, stomach in knots. Fear that something has happened to her

husband when he is late. Her greatest fear is for the future, perhaps as a result of her upbringing

in infancy, to the point of producing, for no reason, a noticeable fear of poverty.

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Repertorization; Fear of poverty, fear that something will happen to her, fear rising from

the stomach, anticipation aggravated by heat, impetuousness and varicose ulcer on leg.

Result: No drug covers the whole, but under mentals her fears were covered by Calcarea,

the impetuousness and aggravation from heat by Sulphur, indicating Calcarea sulphurica as the

drug of choice. Prescription: Calcarea sulphurica 10M.

23 June 1980. Three months pregnant. Ulcer obviously improving. Slight migraine and

tiredness in the first days showed initial action of the drug. An eruption appeared on the chest,

neck and legs with a great deal of irritation over a fifteen-day period, return of symptoms of a

process in adolescence. No prescription.

4 August 1980. Five months pregnant. Ulcer completely cured. General condition very

good. The fears and impetuousness had disappeared.

Case No.3. M.F.P. 4 years old, had received homoeopathic treatment from birth. In her short life

she had been given Med., Lach., Plat., Caust., Sep., Calc. carb. and Sulph. with no improvement.

I was consulted on 27 December 1985; bronchitis and severe asthma.

Moody, fear of animals, gloomy. Obstinate, jealous, disorganized, careless. Hot and

desire for fruit. Rejects caresses. Has fear of contagion -- never drinks from another person's

glass, washes her hands as soon as they have been touched. Sulphur covered the obstinacy, the

moodiness and the heat, Calcarea carbonica the fears and obstinacy. Calcarea sulphurica the

jealousy and the desire for fruit. Calcarea sulphurica M, one dose, has cured her completely to

date.

Conclusion: In conclusion let us consider patients whose general constitution is somewhere

between Calcarea carb and Sulphur--i.e. fat and round shouldered, with fat hands but long

fingers, worried and hot with general symptoms which would immediately indicate Sulphur.

They have also mentals that reveal worry and impatience, e.g. impetuousness, anger,

meticulousness etc. Yet a characteristic and definitive feature are the fears of Calcarea carbonica

and its impressionability, with the night sweats, the desire for salt, the tendency to flabby

obesity, the chilliness, apathy and weakness that are features of the Calcarea constitution.

I have been able to compile a list of drugs with which Calcarea sulphurica might be

confused.

Lycopodium Fear of loneliness, fear of the dark, fear in the stomach, anticipation and

meticulousness. The difference comes with the typical lack of confidence

compensated by love of power, dictatorship and a contradictive nature.

Pulsatilla Coincides on the fears, jealousies, forsaken feeling, aggravation from heat etc.

The differences are the dependence and lack of character and silent and resigned

suffering of Pulsatilla, as opposed to obstinacy, impetuousness and pride of

Calcarea sulphurica.

Phosphorus The same fears, impetuousness and worry. Differs on compassion,

hypersensitivity and affection typical of Phosphorus.

Medorrhinum Coincides for fear of illness, fear that something is going to happen, fear of the

dark, the forsaken feeling, and the heat etc. Differs in so far as worry, anticipation

and guilt are the typical pillars of Medorrhinum and second order symptoms of

Calcarea sulphurica. The memory problems that give rise to the feeling of

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madness, with anxiety and delay in getting

things done and the mental dullness characteristic of Medorrhinum and missing in

Calcarea sulphurica. On the other hand, being affected by unpleasant things,

anxiety about the future, fear of poverty, perfectionism and impetuousness are

features Calcarea sulphurica that are lacking in Medorrhinum.

A more extensive paper -- which time does not permit at this Congress -- could present a

full comparative study of this extraordinary drug. Numerous well-documented and fully analyzed

case histories are available and could in future codify Calcarea sulphurica with complete

certainty. I am sure it will quickly become one of the great polycrests.

Table =1. First and second repertorisation: R.1, R.2

of Case No.1 (Kent’s Repertory)

Symptoms A B 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R1 R2

Aconitum 0 0 2 1 0 0 1 0 3 4/7 4/7

Alumina 1 1 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 2/4 4/6

Carbo Veg. 1 2 2 0 0 2 2 0 2 4/8 6/11

Kali carb. 1 1 2 0 0 2 3 0 0 3/7 5/9

Lycopodium

0 1 1 0 0 3 2 0 1 4/7 5/8

Phosphorus 0 3 1 1 0 0 2 0 3 4/7 5/10

Calc. carb 1 2 3 0 0 2 2 0 3 4/10 6/13

Sulphur 0 0 2 1 3 3 2 3 0 6/14 6/14

Calc. Sulph. 0 0 1 0 0 2 3 0 0 9/21 9/21

A Forsaken feeling 2 Courageous 5 Cold, becoming agg.

B Fear something will happen 3 Dirtiness 6 Uncover feet, inclined to

1 Obstinate 4 Sweets, desire for 7 Croup

Table 2. Repertorization of Case No. 2 (Kent’s Repertory)

Symptoms 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Calc.carb 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 4/8

Sulphur 1 0 0 0 2 2 0 ¾

Calc. Sulph. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6/12

Bryonia 3 0 2 1 2 2 0 5/10

Carbo Veg. 0 2 0 0 2 0 0

Causticum 0 3 2 0 1 1 0 4/7

Natrum mur.

0 2 2 0 2 2 2 5/10

Nux vomica 1 2 2 0 3 0 0 4/8

Phosphorous

0 3 2 2 1 2 0 5/10

1 Fear Poverty 2 Fear happen, something will

3 Anticipation 4 Fear stomach, arising from

5 Impetuous 6 Warm agg. 7. Ulcer varicose (leg)

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Table 3. Repertorization of Case No.3 (Kent’s Repertory)

Symptoms 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Calc. carb. 2 3 2 0 1 0 0 4/8

Sulphur 0 2 1 0 2 3 0 4/8

Calc. sulph. 1 1 0 2 1 0 1 7/15

Camphora 2 1 0 1 0 2 0 4/6

Causticum 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 3/3

Lycopodium

2 1 0 2 1 2 0 5/8

Phosphorous

2 2 3 0 1 2 0 5/10

Stamonium 3 1 1 1 1 0 0 5/7

1 Fear, dark 2 Obstinate 3 Fear, disease

4 Jealousy 5 Capriciousness 6 Warm agg.

7 Desire fruit

[From the BRITISH HOMOEOPATHIC JOURNAL, Vol. 76, No.3 July 1987; for PRIVATE

COMMUNICATION ONLY]

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3.3

ACIDUM FORMICIUM-

H. Lennemann

The acids as medicines have their special place in the homoeopathic therapeutics. Formic

acid is a leading acid.

Besides the books by Dr.Albrecht Reuter (1924) the materia medica of Stauffer and

Mezger, I have recently the material (1985) by the CCRH and not the least my own experiences

in my 50 years practice.

FOLK MEDICINE: Ants and preparations made out of them are folk medicines since

long. Hildegard von Bingen recommended it about 1000 years ago for melancholy. A salve

prepared with ants was used against goitre in the Styria. About 100 years ago a maceration of

ants, radix Bryonia and radix Felicis mass. was used as external application in gout. Bathing the

part with crushed ants boiled was also recommended. Paralysed limbs were treated with

application of a bag containing live ants. The spirit of ants has also been considered till recently

for external massage.

MEDICAL EXPERIENCES: Dr. Edward Krull, in 1902 recommended a dilution in water of

1:1000 to 1:100,000 as sub-cutaneous injection in: Tuberculosis, Chronic nephritis, and

Carcinoma; later he gave indications in Gout, Psoriasis, Chronic inflammations of female sexual

organs and chronic inflammation of respiratory organs.

Dr.Albrecht Reuter reported, for the first time in 1917, his experiences of over 5 y ears

with Formic acid. His experience was, dilution of 1:1 00,000 worked better than lower dilutions.

In cancer no worthwhile observations. In psoriasis good results were reported. In chronic joint

rheumatism Reuter recommended patience and persevereance. In this, success comes at least

after six months. In asthma all cases were improved or even cured. Formic acid softens cicatrical

tissues. Two cases of Dupuytrens contractions could be totally cured. Reuter injected the Formic

acid sub-cutaneously above the scapula, in. the middle of the back of the left upper arm or on the

outer side of thigh.

Krull and Reuter were not homoeopathic physicians. Since the medicine doses was

according to the homoeopathic dilutions Reuter later gave it as decimal potency.

In 1919 Lichtenstein from Breslau reported about his experiences with Formic acid

1:1000. He injected intravenous since the sub-cutaneous injection of the then preparation

produced pains. And Lichtenstein obtained good results in joint rheumatism and bronchial

asthma and considerable success in epilepsy.

The English homoeopathic physician J.H.Clarke used Formic acid. He reports in 1915

about one Ellison's report of 1909. Ellison had taken in his diet for over two years daily 1-2 grain

Formic acid . As a result, nasal polyps went away and a chronic catarrh of throat was improved

very much, the stiff joints became loose and short-sightedness improved by 50%. Ellison tested

Formic acid on a sick and mangy pony and saw, that the animal rapidly recovered and developed

a beautiful coat.

Two university professors used Formic acid. The well-known clinician Brugsch wrote in

1915 that in difficult joint rheumatism Formic acid should be considered. He injected every 10-

14 days 1 ml. of 1:5000, later 1:1000 sub-cutaneously in the back. The well-known Prof.

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Speithoff of the University Skin Clinic in Jena reported that he had seen positive reactions with

Acidum formicicum in chronic eczemas.

INDICATIONS OF REUTER: A series of indications obtained from his experience have been

reported by Reuter in the 3rd edition of his book which appeared in 1940. Of course this was not

on homoeopathic laws. However, these indications cover in a far-reaching way the results of

medicinal provings of Acidum formicicum.

Reuter treated mostly chronic joint rheumatism diseases with Formic acid and gave sub-

cutaneous injections of Acidum formicicum D5 0.2 to 0.5 ml. of intravenous injections of D12,

0.5 ml. at intervals of weeks. Also intravenous injections of D30 and D200 in monthly intervals

were recommended. A preliminary agg. was not always avoided.

In kidney stones, Formic acid seems to bring about the mobilisation of the concrements.

Reuter reports about a case in which two weeks after a single injection of Acidum formicicum

D5 a kidney stone was passed spontaneously after a violent colic.

In bronchial asthma Reuter observed good results after Acidum formicicum D5 sub-

cutaneously in interval of many weeks and a preventive injection of D12 intravenously of say 2 -

3 times an year. However, according to Jores psychosomatic components play a greater role in

bronchial asthma and we cannot, in every case do without a temporary prescription of corticoid.

Nevertheless attempt with Formic acid therapy is significant.

In Psoriasis Reuter injects Acidum formicicum D12 or D30 every 2 - 4 weeks in both

upper arms. I too have always got good results in psoriasis.

In acute joint rheumatism and neuralgias also Reuter had similar success. Tuberculosis

and cancer do not throw any indications for Formic acid.

OWN OBSEVATIONS: Case 1: Mrs. Cl. JI., 24 years old. No asthma and no skin diseases in the

family. Report of the dermatologist who has treated the patient since 1983: as child, milk-crust,

since 1973 rhinitis with seasonal aggravation, since 1978 from Feb. to Apr., since 1983 the

whole year bronchitic ailments. Itching in mouth after apples, after peeling apples, between

fingers. Diagnosis chronic rhinitis and bronchitis, pollinosis during early flowering seasons.

Positive tests for birch, alder etc. On three successive years desensitisation was done without

success.

Mrs. came to me on 4 May 1984 since she would not take any chemicals. She does not

smoke, took the "pills." She suffered from too much aphthae, much sneezing and nightly cough.

Prescription: Calcium carbonicum D6 and Sabadilla D2, each 2 times a day 1 tablet/5 drops.

Report after 5 days: On the first day it was particularly worse, and then there was

amelioration.

After further 3 days again worser, but then progressive amelioration. After total 14 days

being free from the troubles, no sneezing, no lachrymation.

The patient came again in August since she again had a "severe” attack of sneezing and

lachrymation, certainly after she came into contact with a Begonia which had been presented to

her. She appeared as if she was "crying". She then got treated for pollinosis in Busum. A stay

near sea-shore did not, however, bring any material improvement. She therefore underwent a

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therapy of 11 injections i.m. in the gluteus muscles, of Formidium D12 1 ml. blended with her

own blood each time increasing, with 1 ml. to begin and 1 ml. more every time , in intervals

of 8 - 10 days each injection.

After 9 months the patient said that she was very much impressed with these injections,

the allergy was gone, the tips of hairs were stronger and her nails too were not any more brittle.

The injections were continued as i.v. with Formica rufa D200 at intervals 8 - 14 days.

A pollinosis was thus cured without desensitisation, with Formidium D6 with own blood.

A 'shock symptom' that would arise on the skin as a result of 'desensitisation' which the

dermatologist had warned about was also thus avoided.

Case 2: Pollinosis: Miss M.Sch.22 years old, came to me on 2 Mar. 1984. Her mother suffered

from allergy to different allergens. Her brothers remained allergy-free. She herself suffered from

allergy to about 70 substances, particularly grass pollens, weeds and different trees. Because of

side-effects, a course of desensitisation was discontinued. After a further test for sensitivity I

began again desensitisation but had to drop it again because of side-effects. Even from the least

quantity of the injection the patient developed a swelling at the spot of injection. A collapse

could however be averted. Now she received Allium cepa D6 thrice a day 5 drops before and

thrice a day 5 drops of Galphimia D3 after food; to this every 8 days intravenous Cupridium 1

ml. (Formidium D4 + Cuprum D4)

On 23 May 1984 she reported that she no more sneezed, the itching in nose and eyes

were less. She felt better all-round. Now followed a series of 18 injections of Formidium D12 1

ml. every 8 days. I could not pursue the case but my colleague told me that there was relapse.

Case 3: Asthma bronchial: Mrs Kl.H. 5 years with 2 children, came to me in October 1982.

Suffering from Asthma since 5 years. She was twice hospitalised. In 1982 ventilation of the

antrum of highmore was done. In June and July 1982 the patient was again in hospital and was

given Gencydo, Acidum formicicum 5%, Kimakto plant, Cuprum aceticum D6 and Lobelia D4

in tablets. Menopause since 1982.

At the commencement of my treatment there was rales and rhonchi, the blood pressure

was 169/100, the liver was not enlarged. The patient took inhalations of Berodual, Sanasthymyl

and Atrovent. A sudden stoppage of the inhalation did not appear possible. I injected additionally

intravenous Cupridium 1 ml . every 8 day and gave per os Cuprum arsenicosum D8, Lobelia D4

and Omniflora 3 x 1 tabl./5 drops.

After 3 weeks except Sanasthyml other inhalations were not required. The homoeopathic

medicines were also discontinued and only Cupridium and Omniflora were pursued.

About 3 months later it was observed that the lungs were never so free.

Upto 5 May 1983, 42 injections of Cupridium i.v -every 14 days had been given. Now

she went to health resort Borkum . She could there, go about in rain and storm and even cycling.

Only very seldom did she need inhalation.

In October 1983 she said that she had never spent such good holidays. Only because that

there was re-painting of her house that she had felt some light complaints.

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Till March 1984 further 40 i.v. injections of Cupridium in intervals of 2 - 4 weeks were

given. The patient then made a trip to Israel and even in July a holiday in Tirol. In February 1985

she reported that this was the first winter she had without an attack. Earlier [V5-120]she had to

be brought in car to her physician even though he was so near her.

This treatment of course was complex at the beginning. To me it appeared that the

amelioration was due to Cupridium injections and Formic acid.

Case 4 . Psoriasis: Mr.H.Sch . 22 years. Since 10 years of age suffered from extensive psoriasis.

During service in military he was free from it. He was now being treated with Psorintern which

he had to abandon due to stomach ailments. In October 1973 began with i.v. injections of

Formidium D6 1 ml. in interval of 8 days; till end March 1974, 25 in all. During the period April

to Dec.1974 with 25 i.v. injections of Formidium D200. On 7-3-1975: Psoriasis in the trunk is

still considerable, but “otherwise no comparison”. Otherwise I had to wipe the table thoroughly

every time after checking his blood pressure since it was full of desquamated scales. At the end

"all was clear”.

The therapies referred to above may be called "unspecific". An individualistic

homoeopathic therapy has as basis the medicine proving on the healthy. Nevertheless, the

experiences by many of the observers are of the same that, to express it with reservation,

different "dilutions" possess different efficacies.

What produces the symptoms registered by the medical proving must be known only by

future researches. It would similarly be significant to clarify the path between the cause and

effect . For the time being we must be content with the formulation of Ferdinand Hoff that

pathomechanism represents a comprehensive question of the reaction of the body. It is valid in

the same way for the understanding of the working of the remedy. Perhaps Paracelsus' statement

is to be understood so: "As much less medicine the body has, so much high is the remedy's

virtue."

MEDICINAL PROVING: Long before the provings of Acidum formicicum was published in

Germany by Hering and Lippe. Stauffer referred to the provings by Sheidegger which were

published in 1923. The Chief Physician Dr. Biwe carried out a proving on self in 1939 with

Acidum formicicum.

Recently in 1980 - 81 a double blind proving of Acidum formicicum with 18 men and 8

women was carried out in India. C200 and c6 were proved. However , only 2 men and one

woman produced proving symptoms particularly with C200. Purport and value of provings with

high potency are open. The authors suggest the following symptoms from Kent on the basis of

this proving:

--Head - sensation of pressure - mornings from 6 .30 - 8.00 hours with chillness and

desire for onions

Tongue - pale , yellow

--Appetite - wanting

-- Thirst - wanting

--Hypochondrium - Pain - lying on right am. - movement agg,

--Abdomen - pressure sensation - nights and throughout day upto 2C.30 hours

continuously.

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--Flatulence - nights

--Stool - foul smelling

--Male genitalia - emissions - nights - without dreams - followed by weakness

--Female genitalia - cramping intermittent pains in lower abdomen before menses -

menses copious

--Mammae - pressure sensation before menses

--Throat - smooth swellings of t he lymphnodes

--Cold feeling - morning 6.30 - 8.30 hours

--Weakness - morning 6.30 - .30 hours

From a comparison of the materia medicas of Stauffer and Mezger with the indications which

have been put forth for the successful prescription till now, the extensive agreement is

noticeable. A material comparison of the efficacy of the Acidum formicicum and Formica rufa is

not called for since the other concomitant things contained in crushed ants which are removed by

alcohol may have their role.

Acidum formicicum may be given sub-cutaneously or as intravenously as injection from D5 to

D30 and D200. Mezger reports in his materia medica a case in which he gave in D3 in tablet

form.

References:

(1) Reuter, A. :Ameisensaure als Heilmittel. 3 Aufl. Max Keitner, Munchen 1940

(2) Hering ,C.: Die Ameise als Arznei. Allgemeine homoopathische Zeitung (AHZ) 82 (1871) 32

(3) Lippe, C.: Prufung der Ameise. Allgemeine homoopathische Zeitung (AHZ)

(4) Scheidegger, E.: Beitrag zu einer Prufung der Ameisensaure. Allgemeine homoopathische

Zeitung (AHZ)

(5) Rastogi; D. P., IL Singh, V.P. Singh.: Pathogenesis of New Drugs: Formic acid: Central

Council for Homoeopathy, Quarterly Bulletin 7 (1 - 4) (1985) 7.

[From the ALLGEMEINE HOMOOPATHISCHE ZEITUNG, band 233, 1/1988 For PRIVATE

CIRCULATION ONLY]

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3.4 PATHOGENESIS OF NEW DRUGS: FORMIC ACID -

Dr.D.P.Rastogi,

Dr.Krishna Singh, Dr.V.P.Singh

Introduction

Formic acid (CH

) was first discovered by F. Fisher in 1670 in the products resulting

from the distillation of ants. It is a colourless liquid with pungent odor and corrosive properties

and is miscible with water, alcohol, ether and glycerol. It is dangerous caustic to human skin and

its prolonged absorption causes albuminuria and haematuria. Its therapeutic utility has been as an

astringent and counter-irritant. The live ants have also contributed to the homoeopathic materia

medica and given us a wonderful drug with wide sphere of action. The drug available under the

name Formica rufa was originally proved by Lippe and Hering with tincture prepared from

crushed live ants. No systematic proving of Formic acid seems to have been made as most of the

authentic materia medica(s) do not contain information about this drug.

Many of the materia medicas refer to Formic acid under Formica rufa. But, as may be

seen, Formic acid is but a product derived from ants and is devoid of other chemical constituents

which ants contain. Since the available data on Formic acid is related to clinical observations and

not to the data obtained through provings on healthy human beings, the Central Council for

Research in Homoeopathy conducted its proving at two of its research Units located at Calcutta

and Midnapore (West Bengal) in the year 1980 - 81 . Twenty six provers, both male and female,

participated in the proving.

Synthesis of Available Pathogenesis

Boericke discusses Formic acid under Formica rufa (Relationship) in his pocket manual.

He refers to its use in chronic myalgia, muscular pains, gout, articular rheumatism. tuberculosis

nephritis etc. and as a diuretic

"Some clinical experiments conducted by Hering Research Laboratory, Philadelphia on

cases of arthritis with Formic acid showed that it preferably acts on ligaments, capsula and bursa

of the joints (W. Boericke)”. Obviously this is related to the clinical observations and not to

the data obtained through provings on healthy human beings.

A reference to Formic acid is also found in New, Old and Forgotten Remedies (Anshutz

E.P.) wherein he has reproduced letters of one Mr. R. Wallace Ellison addressed to Dr.John

H.Clarke. The author of the letters states that he added to his diet one or two grains of Formic

acid (commercial Formic acid (25%), Sp.Gr. 1.062) diluted with the water in the ratio of 1.11.

Within the period of 2 years and nine months that followed, he observed that he was relieved of

nasal polypi; chronic catarrh of nose, throat and intestines; stiffness of joints and varicose veins

in the left leg, Further he says that his vision improved by 50 percent (he was short sighted

earlier) and his eyes which were of light grey before he started taking Formic acid, turned darker.

His facial and bodily appearance altered so much that even people who knew him intimately,

could not recognise him. Mr.Ellison also tried solution on the sickly and scabby pony and found

that the pony was restored to good health and developed beautiful, healthy crop of hair.

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Earlier to the observations of Mr.Ellison, Dr Edward Krull of Gustrow had observed that

Formic acid was constantly present in the sweat of healthy persons but was absent in the persons

affected by phthisis. His experiments with dilutions of Formic acid, in different dilutions

administered hypodermically showed that more diluted and injections were the more powerful

the effects

The dilutions he used correspond to 3rd or 4th centesimal homoeopathic potencies. The

repetition of injection was made after 5 - 6 months. "He treated in this way, with success,

external and interna1 tuberculosis, chronic nephritis, and malignant tumours". (Dr.Dudgeon on

Dr. Krull ' s observations, in Homoeopathic world - April, 1902). Krull's other observations with

regard to the action of Formic acid are: immediate increase of nutrition , improved appetite,

increase in weight (without any change in diet). All the patients who were given Formic acid,

experienced pain in the abdomen. on the right and left of umbilicus, sometimes accompanied by

urging to stool". “If several copious faecal evacuation occurred, this had no bad effects on the

patients: they (patients) seemed to have a critical character". "After t he injection the menses

came on earlier and were more copious; all diseased organs and parts showed greater activity.

In carcinoma of breast and stomach, the tumour first increases in size and becomes very

sensitive and the skin over it feels warmer. The shorter the term the tumour has existed the

stronger the constitution the sooner does reaction occur and the consequent cure of the disease"

(Dr.J.H.Clarke's observation of case cured by Krull).

Clarke also quotes experiments of Dr.L.B.Couch (Homoeopathic World - September,

1906) on patients of rheumatism, Couch's experiments revealed that at "Formic acid in 2.5 per

cent solution, administered hypodermically in 5 to 6 drops doses was the best. The solutions

stronger than 3 per cent were forbidden". On queries whether Formica rufa will answer the same

purpose as Formic acid,” Clarke says "1 think most probably it would. But this is a question

which experience would have to decide.

Following the publication of Mr. Ellison's letters some other observations were made by

others. These are: "In two cases of chronic articular rheumatism in which I have tried, its results

have been promising . In one case, enlargement of the joints of the fingers became very much

lessened and stiffness of the legs which had troubled her very much in walking, was markedly

relieved (H.T. Webster – 1916).

"The drug is credited with a selective influence on eyes. For a time, the writer, who has

noted considerable failure of vision within the past year, has been taking it, and has found much

satisfaction from its action. I do not believe we have a more positive remedy for failing vision

when the ocular apparatus is not obstructed than this. Where only functional failure of the eyes is

present, one can hardly go wrong prescribing it, if reports are true" (H.T.Webster 1916)

"Tuberculosis, chronic nephritis and carcinoma are not diseases in which we can claim a

great amount of success. So, where other remedies fail or cannot be discovered we may take

Solomon's advice and go to the ant" (Dudgeon - 1902).

It ' s use is suggested in Apoplexy: brain, affections of; bruises; chorea; cough; diarrhoea,

dislocation: dropsies; eyes, affections of facial paralysis; foot sweat checked: consequences of

gout; hair falling out; headaches; nodes; overlifting, complaints from: paralysis: rheumatisms

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sight, affections of; spine, affection c of; spleen, affections of; pain in throat sore". (Electric

Medical Journal - March, 1916).

“I have carried out an experiment for checking; the efficiency of Natrum Mur. locally by

simulating the insect bite with Formic acid. On the back of my hand I made punctures, shallow

and slightly deeper, with a sharp pin dipped in concentrated Formic acid. With just superficial

contact, the skin blackens. On increasing the time of contact, the depth of puncture and quality of

acid, there is increase in pain and redness around the puncture accompanied by inflammation.

The stinging and burning sensation is similar to an ant's bite (Saraswati Venkataraman Hah.

Glean. December, 1984 ).

Obviously these findings are of clinical nature and need to be supported by regular

proving on healthy human beings. The Council has attempted to do so through proving on

apparently healthy human beings.

METHOD AND MATERIAL

Double blind method was adopted during the entire course of proving which was

conducted with 200 CH and 6 CH potencies in descending order. Twenty six provers consisting

of 18 males and 8 females between 16 and 30 years of age took part in the proving .

The provers were divided into Drug- group (17) and Placebo-group (9). The

administration of drug was on the established lines i.e. the drug was stopped soon after, the

appearance of morbid-symptoms and so on …

PATHOGENESIS

The pathogenesis of the drug as obtained during the course of proving is as under.

Head : Heaviness of head in the morning from 6.30 a.m. - 8.00 a.m. with chilliness

Mouth : Tongue, yellow coating

Stomach: Diminished appetite and thirst. Desire for onions.

Abdomen : Heaviness in the abdomen. During pain in right hypochondrium, worse by motion

and better by lying down. Flatulence at night. Stools, offensive.

Male : Nocturnal seminal emissions without dreams, followed by weakness.

Female : Pain, cramp-like, in lower abdomen before menstruation, better after onset of

menstrual flow. Heaviness of mammae before menstruation. Menses profuse.

Neck: Cervical lymph glands tender and inflamed .

Extremities: Pain in the left leg, as if sprained.

Observations

It was observed during the course of proving that only three provers, 2 male and 1

female, developed morbid signs and symptoms which lasted through the whole period of

proving.

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Most of the pathogenesis was obtained during the period in which the provers were

administered 200 CH potency. The 6 CH potency did not seem to develop any morbid signs and

symptoms except in one female prover who complained of premenstrual pain and heaviness of

mammary glands before the onset of menstrual flow.

While increase in weight by 1 to 3 Kg. was noticed in 3 of the true provers (Drug Group),

3 provers of control Group showed increase in weight 0 .5 to 1 kg. At the same time 4 true

provers manifested decrease in weight by 1 to 7kg.

Discussion

The drug pathogenesis obtained through the proving indicates that Formic acid has a very

wide sphere of action covering almost the entire human mechanism.

It is of no significance that only three provers (2 male and 1 female) developed morbid

signs and symptoms, what is significant is that the proving has substantiated the clinical

observations concerning its action. on head, stomach, abdominal organs, female genitalia, skin

etc. and .also increase in body weight Please refer – Synthesis of available pathogenesis) . In

addition we find that Formic acid has a general aggravation period between 6.30 a.m. and 8.00

am. (heaviness of head, chilliness, weakness etc.) It also has a marked action on male genitalia.

Recommendations: For Inclusion into Kent's Repertory of Homoeopathic Materia Medica

HEAD

Heaviness morning 6.30 - 8.00 a.m.

chilliness, with onions, desires

MOUTH Discolouration

Tongue pale yellow

STOMACH Appetite, diminished Desires,

onions Thirst, diminished

ABDOMEN Flatulence night Heaviness night

lasts through 8.30 p.m.

GENITALIA - FEMALE

Menses, copious Pain abdomen, lower

cramping griping intermittent menses, before

CHEST

Oppression Mammae, menses, before

BACK

Swelling glands. of neck soft, tender

ABDOMEN

Thirst, diminished stool, offensive

Pain

Hypochondria, right lying down amel.

Motion egg

STOOL

Odor offensive

CHILL

Morning 6-30 – 8-30 a.m.

GENERALITIES

Weakness morning 6.30 – 8.30 a.m.

GENITALIA

Emissions (nightly) dreams, without

weakness, followed by

Bibliography

1. Anshutz E.P. New Old and Forgotten Remedies, Indian Edition, Calcutta, Roy Publishing

House, 1961.

2. Boericke W. Pocket Manuel of Homoeopathic Materia Medica, Edition., B. Jain Publishers,

New Delhi.

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107

3. Clarke J.H. A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica, vol.1, Jain Publishing Co., New Delhi.

4. Venkataraman S. Insect Bites – An Experiment with Nat. Mur. And Formic Acid. The Hahn.

Glean. 1984; 12: 468.

5. Windholz M.ed Merck Index: An Encyclopaedia of Chemicals and Drugs. Merc & C0. USA,

1976.

------------

[From CCRH QUARTERLY BULLETIN Vol.7 (1-4), (1985)]

NOTES

Dr. Linda Johnston M.D., California who attended the Homoeopathic Educational

Conferences for classical homoeopaths presented by Dr. Alfons Guekens of Belgium, at

Salzburg , Austria and Celle in Germany reports as follows :

"Both Dr. Geuken’s background and teaching style deserves comment. He was medically trained

in Belgium as a surgeon. He later spent 2 years in Zaire serving the population there with his

medical and surgical skills. These wide range of experiences have contributed greatly to his vast

medical knowledge and his keen sense of observation. Upon returning to Europe, Dr.Guekens

began his study of homoeopathy with the assistance of George Vithoulkas. In 1980, Dr.Geukens

founded the Center for Classical Homoeopathy in Be1gium as a clinic for patient care and a

teaching facility for medical doctors. Since that time, the Center has stood as a strong shining

example of the vision of Homoeopathy made manifest. Patients can receive high quality classical

homoeopathic treatment from superbly trained medical doctors and the hierarchy of training

ensures that the attending physicians are able to learn and teach among qualified colleagues.

In 1985, Dr.Geukens was the first non-Greek European to receive the prestigious certificate of

aptitude in classical homoeopathy from the Athenian School of Homoeopathic Medicine

presented by George Vithoulkas.

Dr.Geukens is now helping to spread Homoeopathy in another valuable way, the teaching

seminars throughout Europe. His dynamic and excellent teaching style have earned him the

respect and admiration of all who are fortunate enough to participate in his classes.

Over the years that Dr.Geukens has been treating patients at his center, he has been recording

and collecting his cases on videotape. He as an incredibly wide variety of remedies and many

samples of each. He now uses this extensive video library in his seminars for demonstration

purposes. It is certainly self evident that seeing the patient and hearing them describe their

symptoms and emotional state is an excellent way to learn. That coupled with Dr.Geukens

comments, observations and frequent repertory references makes for an unforgettable learning

experience and efficient, thorough way to learn Classical Homoeopathy.

The first seminar, in Salzburg, was held in the University classrooms right in the center of the

old town. We were surrounded by majestic churches, whose resonant bells interrupted our

proceedings on more/than one occasion. The attendance in the class was extremely impressive,

there being 160 medical doctors from Switzerland, southern Germany and Austria. This is a

comment the high quality of Dr.Geukens' presentations as well as the growing number of

serious, dedicated medical doctors in Europe studying Homoeopathy.

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In the four day seminar, Dr.Geukens presented Sulphur, Phosphorus and another remedy that

was a complete surprise! He had five excellent cases of Bufo. The stereotype that often comes to

mind when hearing of this remedy was completely broken down as we saw a variety of people

with diagnoses ranging from cellulitis with lymphangitis to epilepsy to eczema. The

characteristics of Bufo, as is true with many other remedies, actually can present in very subtle

ways. Here are a few of the rubrics pointed out by Dr.Geukens and his comments on how they

may present in a patient requiring Bufo. (The page numbers refer to Kent's Repertory.)

407 MOUTH Motion: Lapping

This can present as a constant licking or wetting of the lips or the tongue being slightly

protruded from the mouth.

9 MIND Biting

Child can suck on his thumb or bite his fingers.

1018 EXTREMITIES Inflammation: Lymphatics of arm.

Bufo is the only remedy and it is bold type, but how many of us think of Bufo in

ascending infections of the arm or other areas of lymphangitis? Bufo Should be definitely

kept in mind if there is a history of epilepsy.

419 MOUTH Speech: Stammering

Impatient type of stammering, and gets angry if not understood

2 MIND anger: Misunderstood (only remedy)

12 MIND Company: Aversion: Desires solitude to practice masturbation. Child may want to go

to bed early, even before the parents tell him it is bed time. Quite unusual

for children.

Other interesting Characteristics of Bufo include:

390 FACE: perspiration

486 STOMACH: Desires: sweets

397 MOUTH: Biting: tongue

397 MOUTH: Biting: Tongue during spasms

17 MIND: Deceitful

46 MIND: Fear: Mirrors (Shining objects, just like Stram)

45 MIND: Fear: Happen, something will

1390 GENERALITIES: Paralysis agitans (Parkinson's Disease)

1352 GENERALITIES: Convulsions: Begin in Abdomen/Face

Bufo's relationship to the sexual sphere is exemplified by the following rubrics, all under

GENERALITIES:

Convulsions:

1355: Sexual excitement, from (only three remedies! Lach., Plato and Bufo)

1352 Coition, during (only remedy)

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1354 Menses, before

1354 Onanism, from

1353 Epileptic aura in Uterus

1354 Menses: suppressed, from

The entire class was extremely appreciative for these insights and the broader understanding of

this interesting and underutilized remedy. With this greater knowledge, it is certain that cases of

Bufo are less likely to be missed in the future.

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3.5 BOOK SHELF

1. Dr.SEHGAL’S REDISCOVERY OF HOMOEOPATHY – ROH SERIES 2,

by Dr .M.L. Sehgal - Publishers: Sehgal Brothers , 1707, Pratap Street, Pahar Gang, New

Delhi - 11055. First Edition Rs.35/-.

This book explains Dr.M.L.Sehgal's “Revolutionized Homoeopathy”.

The book opens with a letter from Dr. S.P Koppikar, Chief Editor of ' Homoeopathic

heritage' enquiring as to how Dr. Sehgal came upon his method of treating diseases taking

into consideration ONLY the 'mental' symptoms of the patients , and seeking case reports to

support the method.

The first part of the book forms the answers to this. Dr . Sehgal has narrated some

'malaria' cases ‘cured' with the aid of the 'mental' symptoms only. This is followed by a paper

presented by Dr. Sehgal in 1987 - 'Mental Symptoms & Diseases, a precise relationship', with

two case Reports.

Part 2 contains hypothetical cases of two patients suffering from AIDS, restricting the

symptoms to 'mentals' alone and converting those 'symptoms (as expressed by the patient) into

the repertory 'rubrics'.

Some “Practical Indications for SULPHUR and THUJA" are given. Subtle distinction of

the two rubrics ‘DELUSION: thin, is getting' and 'DELUSION: body is', is explained in the next

chapter.

A comparative study of BRYONIA, GELSEMIUM, COCULUS INDICUS and

CHININUM ARSENICOSUM covered by the rubric, "DISTURBED', averse to being (Synthetic

Rep.) comes as the next part. Actual cases cured are quoted.

The patients' narrations of their symptoms have been given in Hindi, in their own words;

english version are also given.

The book is full of many many practical hints for conversion of patient’s narration into

the repertory ‘rubrics' (MIND only). Undoubtedly many these will be of great help in practice.

Some interpretations of the rubrics, however, appear to be too imaginative.

Dr.Sehgal' s many interpretations are eye-openers in many ways. It should stimulate

everyone to enlarge the scope.

I cannot but comment upon the too many printing errors, in almost every page. The

‘errata' do not cover all the errors.

The Symbol ‘&' is used indiscriminately everywhere to indicate 'and’. Abbreviations

have also been without any order: "Barthel's, "H.Barthel's S.Repertory", " B.Sy. Repertory", “B.

Sy.Rep.” “B.S.R.”, “BSR”, “HBSR” all have been used to indicate Horst Barthel’s ''Synthetic

Repertory”!

II. SOUVENIR of the "VI Annual Function-cum-All-India Homoeopathic Seminar, 15 May

1988 - Dr. Sehgal's School of Revolutionized Homoeopathy"

Contains 8 Case Reports handled successfully by 5 different homoeopaths on Dr.Sehgal’s

method of prescription of the homoeopathic remedy on the basis of mental symptoms alone.

Except one case in which Gelsemium was the remedy in all the others it has been Opium only

('FEAR, extravagance of ')

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107

III. CHRONIC DISEASE, A WORKING HYPOTHESIS by E.BACH & C.E.WHEELER,

B.Jain Publishers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 1987. 142 pp., Rs.15/- (First published in London, by

H.K. Lewis, 1925)

Edward BACH was born in 1887 and died in November 1936. BACH was a

bacteriologist and was in University College Hospital , London . In 1919 he joined the London

Homoeopathic Hospital as a pathologist and bacteriologist. At this time he was given a copy of

the Organon and it is said that he studied it through the whole night.

While BACH was not a homoeopath many of his conclusions were the same as

Hahnemann’s, even before he came in contact with homoeopathy.

From his experiments over many years he came to the conclusion that: “intestinal

toxaemia arising from gram negative non-lactose- fermenting bacteria is responsible for chronic

diseases. Essential poisons; are derived from the food taken; the poisonous food derivatives are

the result of the bacterial growth. The toxins permeate the intestinal wall." "The reasons for

regarding these gram-negative, non-lactose-fermenting organisms as the cause of chronic

diseases are almost entirely clinical."

These organisms are of low-grade virulence and so they have been regarded as non-pathogenic.

Because of their low virulence they arouse but feeble body resistance responses; but they

produce a cumulative action ultimately. Consequently a lowered resistance to the commoner

pathogenic organisms, the streptococci and staphylococci etc. may be really dependant on an

under lying poisoning from intestinal organisms. The local manifestations may vary with the

special local susceptibility and site of invasion.

"Resistance to organisms appears to be made up of factors of general resistance and

specific resistance. The suggestion made is that intestinal poisoning affects the factor of general

(non - specific) resistance and that the specific resistances are insufficient, to produce speedy

recovery when the ‘general' factor is impaired."

The authors say that the first harmful effects of these bacteria (gram-negative, non -

lactose-fermenting) are exerted against the endocrine glands and some disturbances in endocrine

balance is almost inevitable. The vaccines of these intestinal organisms improve the general

resistance and consequently cure the local infections. The conclusion is that Hahnemann's Psora,

miasm and BACH’s intestinal toxins caused by these bacteria are virtually same.

Much stress is laid, rightly, on proper diet so as to minimise intestinal alkalinity.

Many clinical cases are cited. There is a chapter on "Cancer and its relation to intestinal

infections". An analysis response to therapy by the intestinal vaccines in 500 cases are given.

The chapter "The Work of the Medical Profession" opens up: "The work of the medical

Profession is two- fold: To prevent diseases in the community and to cure it in individual cases.

The book is written in fluent and easily understandable manner.

Peter Fisher (BHJ, Vol.72 No.1 Jan.1983) in his article CARCINOOGENESIS says:

"The most startling is the 35% of fatal malignancies attributable to diet … Significant are the

carcinogens which may be produced in the gut from precursors in the diet or gut secretions.

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Fisher further says that recent findings indicate the belief held by the Patersons that the presence

of supposedly non-pathogenic non-lactose-fermenting bacteria in the bowel can have serious

effect on health in this case by predisposing to the development of malignancies in the bowel and

perhaps at distant sites. It would therefore appear that BACH's (and WHEELER's) “working

hypothesis of chronic diseases" has been based on firm foundations.

The book must be read by every homoeopath and it would surely help in day-to-day

practice.

It is true that no Hahnemannian proving" has been made of the Bowel Nosodes. But

sufficient clinical findings exist to justify their use.

While Edward BACH later discovered, the "'lower Remedies, Paterson , Dishington and

others did further researches with the bowel organisms. The best 'materia medica' on the Bowel

Nosodes are to be found in Elizabeth Patersons “A Survey of The Bowel Nosodes" (first

published in the BHJ, July, 1960 and republished in the Journal of the American Inst. of

Homoeopathy Vol. No .61, 1968 later in the Hahnemannian Gleanings, Vol.LI, 1984). At

O.A.Julian's "Materia Medica of the Nosodes” also gives a good picture of the Bowel Nosodes.

Unfortunately, the most commonly and extensively used repertory - i.e. Kent’s Repertory

- does not contain the Bowel Nosodes. The latest Kent's REPERTORIUM GENERALE by

J.Kunzli also has in its index of medicines, only Dys. Co and Proteus, but not all the Bowel

Nosodes. Dr. Kunzli is of the opinion that "the Bowel Nosodes, in my opinion, should not be

included, - in many countries, you cannot get them, - and as with allopathic drugs nobody will

prepare them in the year 2090. The profession should ponder whether the Bowel Nosodes which

have been clinically found to be of such great value should be allowed to become extinct.

Leading homoeopathic pharmacies must, with the cooperation of eminant bacteriologists,

venture in the manufacture of these valuable nosodes. With 'Junk-food ' culture spreading even in

the Third world, necessity for the Bowel Nosodes increase.

------------------

QUARTERLY HOMOEPATHIC DIGEST

Year 1988

3.6 FEEDBACK

“No.1 issue of DIGEST for 1988 is worth reading again and again from cover to cover.

Pierre Schmidt’s paper on the usefulness of high potencies should be read at least four times in a

year, so that the lessons sink in our brain and reflected in our practice. The articles of Paschero

and

Ortega on mental symptoms and miasms are instructive, but they would have been more

effective if supported by cases. The article which has held my interest again and again is that of

Jacques Imberechts, particularly his remark about “the unique quality of this therapeutic system

is its flexibility, its capacity to tailor for each patient a therapeutic procedure that fits his

individual and personal needs and his unique reactivity.” His conclusion that "no strategy is

perfect and we should know all of them” is worth noting by those who lay too much stress on

one or the other "strategies". I. do not understand how the learned doctor has used 36 rubrics to

arrive at the first prescription, when in the third para itself he says that we should try to prescribe

on a set of symptoms corresponding to the minimal syndrome of the maximal value. I strongly

believe in this latter dictum, and probably many failures arise when we go after the “numerical

totality.” – S.M. Gunavante.

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3.7 NEWS

"There is a certain mushrooming of homoeopathy over here, or at least the marketing of

combination remedies by new firms aimed at specific conditions such as "stress", sports

fatigue, the auto-immune system, etc . So too offerings of Chinese eras and other natural

remedies. Probably it is these manifestations more than the less obvious signs of classical

homoeopathy being practiced that attract the ire of establishment medicine and its tremendous

testing apparatus."

The progressive Homoeopathic Society (Regd.), Delhi--110 051 held a Symposium on 24.7.1988

on Mental Symptoms. The Symposium was followed by a ‘book-release’. The book titled "Key

to the Rubrics of Mind" by Dr. M.L. Agrawal, was released by Dr . Jugal Kishore President of

the Central Council for Homoeopathy, New Delhi. The Symposium was attended by Drs.V.K.

Gupta, Hari Singh, S.R.Islam, S.K.Kapoor, A.M. Kamath, Jugal Kishore besides some

Psychiatrists and Psychologists.

Dr.M.L. Agrawal explained that without understanding the meaning or interpretation of the

rubrics of Mind chapter of the Repertory of Kent one cannot treat a patient successfully. Dr.

Agrawal also stressed the teaching of Psychology in the homoeopathic colleges.

----------------------

The Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy has set up a Homoeopathic Drug Research

Institute at Lucknow. The Inaguration Cermony on 6

August 1988 was by Ms Saroj Khaparde,

Hon’ble Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Govt. Of India. Shri Lok Pati Tripathi,

Hon’ble Minster for Irrigation, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh presided. Shri Gopinath Dikshit, Hon’ble

Minister for Health, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh was the guest of honor. On that occasion a Seminar

on Clinical Verification and Workshop on Epidemic Management was also held. The Council’s

Monographs: ‘Monograph on Cynodon dactylon’ and ‘Additions in Kent’s Repertory from

William Boericke’s Repertory chapter ‘TEETH’ were also released.

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107

4 QHD, Vol.V, No.4 December 1988

Dear Doctor,

This number too is dedicated to Materia Medica and Provings.

You will find a comparative study of the remedy CYCLAMEN PULSATILLA and

SEPIA. Some of this can be can be added on to Gross Comparative Materia Medica.

The CARCINOSIN essay is of great practical value and gives a comparative study of

MEDORRHINUM and CARCINOSIN. Observation of Vithoulkas that CARCINOSI has much

energy especially in the sexual sphere should be noted .

THLASPI BURSIA PASTORIS has been found, in drop doses of the tincture to prevent

formation of renal calculi. This may be jotted down, in the Repertory. This is an important

clinical finding of Dr. Henry Williams and colleagues should try it and report (FEED BACK)

results. It is the way by which Materia Medica is built.

The INVOLUNTARY PROVING OF TAXUS BACCATA must be studied with the

description given in Clarke's Materia Medica.

CARBO BETULAE POLARIS IN CARCINOMA is a useful clinical observation. The

problem is to obtain this variety of CARBO VEG.

The proving of MAGNESIUM FLUORATUM and TESTING AND CLINICAL

ADMINISTRATION OF PROPULIS describe two new remedies.

While these 'provings' have proved successful in obtaining many symptoms of clinical

value compare these with the subsequent article of Campbell: THREE MODERN PROVINGS:

ARNICA BRYONIA AND PULSATILLA and the negative results of these provings and the

author's conclusion doubting the very basis of the homoeopathic materia medica . Clearly these

provings would appear to have been done perfunctorily and with faulty protocols.

The usual columns of BOOK SHELF, FEED BACK and NEWS would give some useful

information.

31 December 1988

Yours sincerely,

K.S. SRINIVASAN

1253, 66

Street,

Korattur,

Madras 600 080

SUBSCRIPTION FOR 1989 REMAINS AT.Rs. 50/- . REMITTANCES TO REACH BEFORE

1 MARCH 89

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4.1

CYCLAMEN, PULSATILLA AND SEPIA-

Dr Jacqueline Barbancey

A primulaceae (CYCLAMEN EUROPEANUM), a ranunculaceae (PULSATILLA

ANEMONA), are two floral species evocative of springtime and cool glades. Time and patience

are needed in finding them, in order for these delicate blossoms to be carefully gathered…

Even if we should not spend time on "ramblings" which do not concern us here (which,

in addition are judged by some as being burlesque, and by others as being improper, if not

sacrilegious), we cannot honestly dodge what has been conjured up in our imaginations (unless

we completely close up our imagination - which is another problem), evoked by the names of

these plants, their appearance, and their growing conditions:

CYCLAMEN EUROPEANUM develops in the shade and in the warm moisture of sparse

woods and thickets, well hidden in a nest of protective leaves, its floral buds obstinately bent

towards the earth, before the spiraled peduncles with their beautiful violet flowers push upwards

towards the light!

PULSATILLA ANEMONA, meadow anemone, as we know, is the plant which quickly bends its

stem if it does not meet with a prop, leaning its corolla "heavily towards the ground, in the form

of a deep bell. Its color darkens to a dark purple, nearly black (… ) When the floral process is

ended, the peduncle lifts up vertically, freed from its weight, and its fruit become achenes

garnished with feathery appendages, quite aerial"

This is the descriptive identity of these two "botanical" types. Both are spoken of in the

feminine gender.

It may seem strange to artificially isolate the morphophysiogenesis of their toxicological

action and their experimental symptomatology - especially in a homeopathic context of biology.

However, in no way do we have the right to draw correlations, even symbolically …

"Pale complexion, sickly face, circles under the eyes, forehead drawn, eyebrows knit"

thus Kent describes a CYCLAMEN type with the key-symptoms:

- weak, tired, whining, sometimes anemic;

- morose disposition : scrupulous character;

- distaste for effort, movement, fresh air; longing for solitude.

And the somatic symptoms of a peal.

Functional circulatory problems:

- with migrainous characteristics:

frontal cephalea, in particular catamenial cephalea;

preceded by pressure on the vertex and above the eyes, by problems with eyesight

(phosphenes, glittering), by dizziness "with unsteadiness, and swaying movement of

objects" (Duprat);

problems aggravated by cold air (although the congestive cephalea of PULSATILLA are

aggravated by heat, especially in overheated rooms);

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- with cardiac characteristics:

palpitation and tachycardia;

hypotension;

anemic functional murmur (see FERRUM);

- with genital characteristics;

aggravation of all of the symptomology before menses (PULSATILLA, especially during

menses);

membranous dysmenorhea during all of the menses (PULSATILLA, especially the 1st

and the 4th day); irregular cycle and hyper-, hypo-, or even amenorrhea (like PULSATILLA);

Functional digestive problems:

- little thirst, or lack of thirst (more or less like PULSAT ILLA) ;

- distaste for butter and fatty foods (like PULSATILLA), but also for coffee, which causes

diarrhea;

- heaviness and epigastric bloating right after meals (like PULSATILLA and SEPIA);

- nausea and sometimes vomiting immediately after eating (they are voluntary and obsessional,

or have become "reflexive", even gushing);

- colitis with spasms, and constipation (sthenic condition) with diarrhea and exhaustion

(weakened condition).

Clinical experience, furthering experimentation, adds several details to the psyche of

CYCLAMEN.

With regards to intellectual functioning it is possible to note an alternation, in the same

subject:

- of continual mental agitation and distaste for intellectual effort (laziness, Jahr says);

- of proliferation of ideas, of difficulties with concentration and with memory. When far enough

on, this can become mental confusion particularly in elderly women who, furthermore, have the

characteristics of this remedy (“incoherent replies, Kent);

As to state of mind:

- feverish anxiety (as possible with PULSATILLA), which explains, in spite of tiredness and

sometimes, exhaustion, the obsessional need for meticulous activities (see SEPIA) and the need

to come and go, which calms the subject;

- varying moods, changing (but much more seriously than PULSATILLA and with a slower

rhythm of alternation):

kindness and sulkiness;

serenity and irritation;

joy and sadness;

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stubbornness and susceptibility (bringing to mind both PULSATILLA and SEPIA);

- and especially scrupulousness, problems with conscience, fear of doing harm, "of not doing

one's duty" (see SEPIA).

As we know, CYCLAMEN is most often prescribed for females, but it is possible here to

give examples of bachelors living with their mothers who sink into remorse and depression when

they are alone, or of devoted husbands in childless couples …, evoking PULSATILLA or

SILICEA, all trace of masculinity having been erased.

For women, on the other hand, just as the therapeutic indication is perhaps too often over-

looked, CYCLAMEN is only forgotten in order to better impose itself.

It is a medicine for transition:

- a doublet of PULSATILLA;

- close to SEPIA (in another form);

- capable to masking… PLATINA

When we see it we first think of PULSATILLA, SEPIA and sometimes LACHESIB. By

closely defining the objective symptomatology and its cautious interpretation we can go on from

simile to simillimum.

In reality, CYCLAMEN, more sthenic and apparently more mature than PULSATILLA,

apparently more sociable than SEPIA, apparently more modest than PLTINA, lives by its lack of

affective autonomy and by its real dependency on others, in a vein that is:

- less visibly demanding than PULSATILLA

~ seemingly more oblate;

- but which testifies to its extreme and comparable

possessiveness.

It does not impose itself:

- either by inciting protective emotions (like PULSATILLA);

- or by untamed sadness which requires intervention (like PLATINA).

Biographical analysis shows how, for certain predisposed personalities, this neurotic

personality can structure itself.

Miss Marianne G…, 54 years of age, came for treatment of a reactional depressive

condition following the recent death of her elderly father, of whom she spoke with intermittent,

tearful emotion, which seemed rather artificial. She was the older sister of Clotilde, 49, married,

5 children, who lived in a town about 70km away. When she had just turned 30, her mother was

stricken by breast cancer, followed by osteal and then hepatic metastases. The next 10 years were

filled with home care and hospitalization Mrs, G… died fourteen years previously.

Marianne never left her parents, first managing the extensive family home (due to her

mother's illness) and then, more and more, managing the family property (her father had become

incapable of this). She proved capable of endless activity, unfailing self-sacrifice and totally

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unpredictably, of management qualities, which won her the admiration of the town-people.

"Mademoiselle" is considered a model of filial devotion. All of this was told to me with the

following comment: "And you'd never think it to look at her: she looks so frail and doleful that

we feel like pitying her and helping her. Oh! She's so brave, that one!”

In spite of which she admitted, with a pained attitude, that she was full of remorse for

certainly "not having done “ enough" for her family - something which seems surprising and

excessive.

She had to be listened to and reassured until she could express with enough force where

this impression had originated. She said that she had proof of this from reading her father's will

(ARSENICUM). Her father, without telling her, had willed her due part to his grandchildren.

She quickly stated that she did not regret this legacy made to her nephews, but that she

considered that it was a defiant measure taken against her, since she was to handle the estate…

She had sacrificed everything for her parents, renouncing marriage (even though she had

never sought it), taking care of them and the estate for twenty-four years, in order "to spare

Clotilde of all worry" (in fact she was progressively excluding her from any information and

decisive powers, with susceptibility) o Marianne thus felt both guilty and in justly rejected,

abandoned, if not suspect.

She had lost much weight over a short period, because she had been eating very little; her sleep

was agitated. She was drained by a menopause which she was impatiently counting on to end a

genital activity which had brought her nothing but problems, including (authentic) catamenial

cephalea.

Marianne was given 4 doses of CYCLAMEN 30 C which reestablished her state of mind.

She then had several talks to clarify her feelings and… was given the imperative prescription to

take the trip to Greece that she had been denying herself for fifteen years!

Consciously or not, a CYCLAMEN type wants to incarnate, give and to be taken for the

image of self denial and accomplished devotion, in which can be found:

- sexual ambivalence (latent homosexuality, especially in masculin CYCLAMEN) by attempting

to sublimate all urges;

- remorse, if the subject does not believe her/himself to be conform to this image;

- "dis-compensation" ("giving up, and feelings of persecution) when the subject believes or feels

that she/he is misunderstood.

By the subject's scrupulous “hyperdevotion":

- less slave-like than that of PULSATILLA;

- less curt and aggressive than that of SEPIA;

- less condescending than that of PLATINA,

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this false PULSATILLA, pushing off a need to affirm a hold over the other, can reveal itself to

be drastic under the appearance of an angel of devotion…, which makes all frustration in love

(imposed or voluntary) and all self-enhancements so costly.

Depending less on her/his mother than PULSATILLA, less tied to her/his father than SEPIA, the

CYCLAMEN subject draws surreptitiously closer to PLATINA by unadmitted complaoency, to

form an idealized image of self.

Bibliography:

1. PELIKAN, W., L'Homme et Les Plantes Medicinales, Trans. G.Claretie. Paris:Triades, 1962;

II : 253-254.

2. PELIKAN, W., Ibid;I:227-228.

3. Unpublished work of G.H.E.P. Bordeaux, June 1979.

----------------------

[From the Journal of the OMHI, VOLUME1 No.2 APRIL – 1988]

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CARCINOSIN

Note: The number inside the bracket [1/indicates the underlining. This notation is used to

indicate the strength or emphasis of symptoms. Further details concerning the parameters of

underlining may be found in Vithoulkas, The Science of Homoeopathy, Grove Press, NY, 1980]

1st visit, 12-9-82.

This 25 year old woman has an eight-year history of weakness. She has had an

eczematous rash since last year, which was over the whole body but is now localized to the neck

and shoulders. She has had recurrent ovarian cysts, always right sided, causing numbing pain

down her leg. Her life is difficult (1). She has anxiety about the future (2).

She has a great fear of getting ill like her mother. Her mother was the only relative that

she knew and her mother died of cancer. She feels as if her destiny is inextricably bound to that

of her mother's. She feels as if there is no life in front of her.

Nightmares, she dreams of getting ill (1); of having bad blood (1); "my will is slipping

(1)." She tries to control things but she can't discipline herself. She was outgoing in the past, but

she now is a "bookworm," with an increasing lack of contact with people.

She fell in love with the wrong man (1); the passion overwhelmed her (2); they had

unprotected sex. She then had an abortion (previously having had three abortions), and she

vowed never to have another; yet had sex while ovulating. She felt dominated by a wild, hungry

impulse, a compulsion to get as much as she could. She became very depressed after having

given over to this passion (2).

Anxiety about health (3). Fear of cancer. Death is a big evil thing. She worries about everything,

and can't stay home alone. She feels as if things are closing in on her (1) when alone at home.

She loves responsibility; a leader-type; good organizer; orderly (1) and clean. She has always

been a fanatical sweeper; she doesn't like to see things on the ground. She is sensitive and she

weeps when appreciated.

Desires fat (2); Oranges when younger (2); Chocolate (1); spicy (1); butter (1). She loves

the sea, which ameliorates her physical complaints (1); loves brisk outdoors (1); loves to dance

(2); euphoric from exercise. She always had a strong sex desire.

This patient was a previously vital and creative individual who was very depressed and

anxious at the time of the interview. In the past she had been an art student and managed a

thriving art gallery. She had for many years a deep, semi-conscious fear of deteriorating

physically like her mother with whom she identified very closely, and she had maintained a tight

mental control over her life and dietary habits.

Her inability to control her sexual desire for one particular man and the consequences of

this precipitated a deepening depression and social withdrawal, colored by feelings of loss of

control and, concomitantly, increasing anxiety about her health and future. For many years she

had suffered from recurrent right-sided ovarian problems, and over the preceding year she had

developed an eczematous eruption which was partially controlled by locally specific remedies

prescribed by an eclectic naturopath.

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ANALYSIS

The core of the case revolves around the following symptom picture: right-sided

complaints; great anxiety about health (especially cancer), and the future; fears loss of control

(feels her will is slipping) and experiences life as a struggle; orderly and clean to a degree which

may be called fastidious; anxiety alone in the house; strong sexual passion; desire for fats,

oranges, butter, chocolate and spicy foods; seaside ameliorates; better for exercise outdoors;

loves to dance.

The differentiation lay between Calcarea, Arsenicum album, Medorrhinum, and

Carcinosin. Arsenicum was suggested by the great anxiety about health, the need for company,

and the obsessional cleanliness, yet was not really supported by the rest of the totality. Calcarea

carbonica was an early consideration based upon the anxiety about health and about the future

combined with a need for orderliness and a sense of "slipping will" or loss of control. However

the amelioration from exertion and damp (sea) air combined with a desire for fat and a general

intuition based upon a sense of the totality lead away from this choice. Medorrhinum appears to

be well supported by the passionate nature, definite amelioration by the sea and a desire for

oranges. However the fastidious tendencies, the need for control and the strong love of dance

raised the question of Carcinosin.

Careful consideration of the case reveals much confirmation in the available data

concerning Carcinosin. Vithoulkas has described such cases as having much energy, especially

in the sexual sphere. They are "vital, social,[V5-154]expressive people who may have great

irritability manifesting as fits or out- bursts of passion. As their pathology increases they exhibit

a need for order and program rather than on small and picky details . The anxiety may be quite

severe."

The right-sidedness (ovarian cysts) finds confirmation in both the provings and clinical

experience. There may be a strong desire for OR an aversion to the following foods : salt , meat ,

fat, sweets , as well as eggs, and fruit , and a desire for garlic , onions and alcohol. The effect of

the sea air, and the strong sense of rhythm and love of dancing may be regarded as strong

indications for this remedy. Amelioration by the open air has also been described.

The family history of cancer is a well known association and has been reported to be

more frequent on the mother's side . Foubister gives a list of related remedies (Tub., Sep., Syph.,

Nat-m., Calc-p ., Dysco ., Lyc., Phos ., Ars., Ars- i ., Puls., Sulph., Nat- s ., Op ., Alum., Staph.,

Nux- v ., Dios.) and Cooper states that it is a strong indication when two or more related

remedies are partially indicated , but no one adequately covers the case.

The data upon which this prescription was based was obtained during a single interview

lasting one and a half hours. The remedy, Carcinosin, was administered in the 1M potency and

obtained from Standard Homeopathic Company in Los Angeles.

FOLLOW- UP : A number of interesting points were brought out in subsequent

interviews, MIND : The patient reported that within 15 minutes after taking the remedy she felt a

definite effect which she described as a state of euphoria alternating with perceptual distortions,

as if she were drunk, or had taken a strong drug. This state lasted about 24 hours and was

followed by uncharacteristic outbursts of anger and irritability over the following week.

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LEFT--SIDED SYMPTOMATOLOGY: Her menses came one week early accompanied by a

(for the first time) left-sided ovarian cyst. Additional left-sided symptoms were left upper

quadrant discomfort and drainage from the left nostril. This confirms the indications of right to

left movement brought out in the provings.

SKIN: The previously suppressed eruption was aggravated. The skin on her lower face ,

neck, and shoulders became hard, thick, and excoriated. Sores developed on her chin which took

on the appearance of secondarily infected lesion. The cervical nodes (especially the submental)

were markedly swollen and tender. This whole picture cleared almost completely with no

intervention over the ensuing 6 weeks.

Within the first few months the ovarian cysts ceased to form and appeared to be replaced

by the development of right-sided boils. These took the form, initially, of large, red, very tender

swellings on her chin. With subsequent cycles they moved first to the buttocks, then the upper

arm, and finally the thigh. The latter eruptions began as spots similar to mosquito bites. Around

these appeared areas of induration up to 5 cm in diameter and bright red to purple in color. These

areas were excruciatingly tender until they spontaneously discharged vast quantities of a clear to

slimy yellow matter similar to cake batter. The discharges would continue for 3 - 4 days and

were accompanied by a general amelioration . After the boils had subsided she reported a

tendency to develop bruises on the right thigh with no precipitating event.

It must be emphasized that all through this seemingly difficult period the patient was

never in doubt as to the definite improvement in both her psychological state and general sense

of well being.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Over the past 5 years, since I first prescribed this remedy

I have had occasion to use it in some 4 or 5 other cases in which it has, acted. The noteworthy

similarity in these cases has been the differentiation from Medorrhinum, the confusing picture

of the food desires and aversions, the love of dancing, and the poor family history in terms of

many chronic and deep- seated illnesses among the close relatives. I am most interested to hear

from any others who might have experience with this remedy.

Sources:

Cooper, D.J., "The nosode Carcinosin," British Homoeopathic Journal, Vol. 71 #4, Oct 1982.

Foubister, D., "The Carcinosin Drug Picture, " British Homoeopathic Journal, Vol.47, p.203 - 13

1958.

Foubister, D., "Clinical Impressions of Carcinosin," British Homoeopathic Journal, Vol. 44, p.

116 - 23, 1954.

Jiminez, M., "Carcinosin" a paper presented at the Pan American Homoeopathic Congress , La

Jolla , Ca ., May , 1980.

Lees Templeton, W., "Proving of Carcinosin" , British Homoeopathic Journal , Vol . 44, p. 108 -

15, 1954.

Stephenson, J., Hahnemannian Provings 1924 - 59 , A Materia Medica and Repertory , Roy &

Co ., India .

Vithoulkas , "Lectures on Carcinosin , Alonissos , Greece, June, 1982.

[From Resonance, Vol.10 No.2 March – April 1988; FOR PRIVATE CIRUCLATION ONLY]

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4.2 THLASPI BURSA PASTORIS -

Henry N. Williams, M.D

(The following is an abstract of a paper presented at Ohio-Michingan-Southern Homoeopathic

Meeting" Englewood, Ohio, October, 2, 1987.)

In my experience, the administration of as little as five drops of the tincture of Thlaspi

bursa pastoris in water before each meal has rendered recurrent urinary stone producers free from

stones for many years.

Thilaspi bursa pastoris is mentioned in Boericke's Pocket Manual of Homeopathic Materia

Medica as being useful in urinary frequency , "urine heavy, phosphatic. Chronic cystitis. Dysuria

and spasmodic retention. Hematuria. Accumulation of gravel. Renal colic. Brick-dust sediment.

Urethritis.” It doe s not appear in Kent's Repertory: under "URINE , Sediment, red” or under

"renal calculi" or under "sand." A review of the important homoeopathic authors (Hering,

Lilienthal, Hull, Royal, Cowperthwaite, Hale, Gentry, Hughes Mills, Hempel, Dewey and

Neatby and Stonham) found no mention of Thlaspi under renal calculi.

The use of Thlaspi tincture to prevent renal calculi must be attributed to Rudolph Steiner

(1876 - 1925), an Austrian teacher and educator whose lectures to physicians have given us a

number of valuable therapeutic tools.

My first case was probably the most dramatic. D.B., at the age of 15, started to have

kidney stones and at 19, had a left nephrectomy. The frequency of stones continued. At the age

of 21, he was admitted to the hospital, anuric for 24 hours with a BUN of 100 and symptoms of

urinary obstruction. A urethral lithotomy and nephrostomy were done and the tube from the

kidney to the outside was left open for some months. When it became dislodged, the patient

chose not to have it replaced. He did well for the next 12 years, occasionally spontaneously

passing gravels and stones. On only four occasions was a narcotic sedative required. At 33, he

was hospitalized with severe symptoms of obstructed ureter which resolved spontaneously

shortly after admission. At 35, he developed flank pain, anorexia, nausea, and vomiting. After

unsuccessful attempts to remove the calculus he was operated upon at NIH. Following removal

of the stone, he was investigated metabolically because of the repeated cystine stones and was

discharged on a low cystine diet. Returning home, he came to my office for the first time and I

prescribed Thlaspi tincture - 5 drops before each meal. He continued without stones for the next

21 years, but then stopped the drops. A year later, this past summer, he passed small stones on

two occasions and a return to the drops was advised.

To date, I have treated ten other patients with recurrent renal calculi. In only one has

there been a stone over a total of 53 patient-years when Thlaspi was taken. Was this because of

concurrent constitutional treatment in four of the patients? I cannot say. But the results are so

spectacular that I feel they should be reported and made available, at least as an adjuvant to those

under constitutional homoeopathic care. My experience suggests that low potencies of most

medications will not interfere with the action of the constitutional medicine. The exception is

Nux vomica.

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[From JOURNAL of the American Institute of Homoeopathy March,1988 Volume 81,Number

4.3 AN INVOLUNTARY PROVING OF TAXUS BACCATA

Prof.Dr.med.habil.A.Kukowa of Greiz, Thuringen, was working in June 1965 in his garden

near four yew trees, when he developed dizziness, nausea, headache and anxiety. "My vision

became misty and I was terrified to find that I was becoming disoriented. Coloured visions and

phantoms

appeared. I lost the sense of time, and felt dissociated from my surroundings. I tried to resist, but

could not, and felt mysterious powers overcoming my senses and wrapping me in a tight veil and

smoke screen. I broke into a cold sweat and seemed paralyzed. Vampires, cuttlefish, vipers, rats,

creepy monsters and other disgusting animals crept near and threatened me.

"I tried to call for help but my voice failed and I could not get my breath. Then the awful

anguish passed off and an euphoric mood took me into a dream-like paradise. Free from gravity,

I was floating in a huge circus tent; from the dome of it came wonderful light effects and

heavenly music. Down in the arena were many young animals and lion cubs and lambs were

playing happily together. Innumerable humming birds and butterflies were competing in

acrobatic movements."

“I do not know how long these hallucinations lasted or how I managed to get away from

the yew trees. I only remember staggering to the door of the house, disturbed, drowsy and

dyspnoeic and then regaining normal consciousness."

"In order to eliminate other causes of this experience I returned next day to the yews and

deliberately touched both fresh and dry twigs, and again noticed that slowly but definitely I

began to be overwhelmed by the influence of trees, so I stopped the experiment immediately and

only a slight euphoria lingered for a few minutes."

--------------------

[From the ACTA HOMOEOPATHICA, 1970, May-June; for PRIVATE CIRCULATION

ONLY]

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4.4 CARBO BETULAE POLARIS IN CASES OF CARCINOMA

In Naturliche Heilweisen" journal 5/1970 reports WATERLAND, E. about curing cancer

by means of uncooked vegetarian food and Finnish birch-ashes. These birches, which grow in

the Finnish arctic zone and have to live under extreme poor and hard conditions, are very rich in

minerals and trace elements which to this extent are missing in birches growing in a milder

climate. The German homoeopathic physician, Dr. REHM, informed the editorship that for 2

years he has treated with good success carcinoma, the symptoms of which point to Carbo

Vegetabilis and Carbo animalis with Carbo vegetabilis Polaris D3.

[From ACTA HOMOEOPATHICA Band XIV (2) 1970 Heft 3 Mai – Jun i]

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4.5 MAGNESIUM FLUORATUM D30 (30X) - A PROVING -

Franz Swoboda

Programme, subjects, method and material

The proving was carried out on a double-blind basis, in Vienna, Austria, in fall 1985. The

drug had not undergone a proving before. The potency used was the 30X, D 30 as we say. The

number of subjects was reduced to 18, due to experience with former provings.

The subjects were mostly physicians, none had a history of serious organic disease and the

preconditions of "functional balance" had been met. A protocol book was handed out to each

subject so that a complete case history and conscientious recording throughout the proving

would be provided.

The proving was carried out on a double-blind basis. The substance under investigation

was not known to subjects and tutors (as we call the conductors of the study). The subjects

had not been told whether or not one, both or none of the two vials contained placebo or drug.

The drug was prepared carefully by a Viennese pharmacist, and potentized up to the 30X,

using Hahnemann's method.

The subjects had to take 5 granules a day.

Response and assessment

13 protocol books could be included for assessment, a number which turned out to be

sufficient.

The subjects, 7 females and 6 males, aged between 24 and 66, had taken the drug for 45

days on average.

On the whole, the subjects carefully recorded their symptoms. They were aware of the

preconditions for participation in a homoeopathic drug proving and of the essential facts relevant

to the procedure. Most of them had already been known as "responders" from earlier provings.

The proving had to be discontinued in 2 cases as severe drug reactions occurred. After the

symptoms had disappeared, both subjects continued the proving, showing the same reactions to

the drug as they had shown before.

The first step to assessment was to decide who had received placebo or verum. This could

be done in most of the cases. At this point, the code had not yet been broken. We wanted to

identify the drug, as Stuebler and Bayr had shown to be possible in the proving of Berberis in

1982. (See “Only Hom. DIGEST”, Vol IV, No.3, Sept, 1987)

First we tried to do so by repertorizing the symptoms we had agreed to rely upon, mainly

generals and symptoms of mind. The result was unsatisfying, showing Lycopodium and Silica in

highest rank, followed by six further remedies, among them Magnesium.

As the test drug could not be found in this way, we decided to repertorize particulars. In

the process we came across the Labiatae, a plant family not known very well in homoeopathy.

We use them rather as herbs and spices. We found that a species of Teucrium contained a high

amount of Magnesium in its ash.

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For this and some other reasons, Magnesium was likely to be an important constituent of

the drug. However, it was not Magnesium carb., but there was something else we could not

identify. It was not Phosphorus, quite close in some aspects. We thought of Fluor (fluoride), but

failed to notice the synthesis of Mag. and fluor. So far the detective's approach to the proving.

Although we did not succeed in identifying the drug, the fact that we came quite close is

of great importance. From this study the conclusion could be drawn that a 30X produces

characteristic reactions in healthy subjects. This could help to meet a main point of critism to

homoeopathy: Can a high potency cause other than placebo reactions?

Indeed, a high potency has its specific drug picture with symptoms carefully ascertained

and reviewed.

Selection of Symptoms, comments

(A complete list of symptoms is left to the publication in DOCUMENTA HOMOOPATHICA

1987, here only some outstanding ones can be discussed.)

Changes of mood showed a marked ambivalence. Some subjects reported remarkably

good mood with activity, patience at work, self-confidence (fluor), others felt irritable, morose,

impatient (magnes). On the sixth day one subject fell into a deep depression, something she had

never experienced before. She reported that she was afraid of what she had to do, of imminent

events, of everything. She felt unable to continue with her daily work as well as with the proving.

Few days later she felt better again and ever since that has never had such sensations again.

Vivid dreams and problems in falling asleep were ascertained repeatedly. Several

subjects noticed a similar kind of headache. The pain had a sudden onset, was sharp, pulsating,

hot, undulating, and ceased suddenly. Sometimes the pain was violent, one subject described it at

one point as crushing.

The fact that the pain recurred frequently suggested that Mag. fluor. could be used as a

drug for the detection or even the cure of a focus.

Several subjects reported symptoms of minor infections. One showed symptoms of his

well known seasonal rhinitis, though it was not at all the season for it. (The proving took place in

a cold November.) The following spring and summer this subject noted a considerable

improvement of his seasonal rhinitis. This is all the more remarkable, since another subject also

felt his seasonal rhinitis to be less severe after having gone through this proving.

Reactions with the digestive organs were heavy and showed clear Magnesium symptoms,

as we had expected.

What was surprising though was a variety of symptoms of the heart and, even more, of

the sexual organs. Subjects tend not to admit them if they notice them at all. With Mag. fluor.

30X five out of thirteen provers reported markedly increased or diminished sexual desire. Some

reported both, that is, increased desire could be followed by loss of desire and vice versa. Such a

polarity is characteristic for a drug reaction and indicates that the subject was on verum.

Sexual fantasies and dreams with sexual contents were recorded. Two provers suffered

from balanitis. One subject noted her periods to be painless under Mag. fluor. On the basis of

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this symptom , Mag. fluor. was prescribed as a remedy for heavy menstrual pains. It cured where

Mag. Phos. had failed to act.

Ten out of thirteen provers recorded symptoms in the musculoskeletal and locomotor

system. Some of these pains were rather unusual, as they were felt "deep in the bones" and "in

the joints". They reminded us of the profound action that calcarea, calc. fluor and silica - known

to be related drugs - have upon the bones. The pains were pulsating, deep-seated and intense. In

one subject they repeatedly occurred before snowfall. We do not know many drugs with this

modality, calc, calc fluor, mag and silica among them. The impressive results upon the musculo-

skeletal system made us again think of the possible action of Mag. fluor upon a focus.

Points to be considered in provings

Provings have tradition in Austria and Germany. Theory and technique have been

discussed in detail in several publications by those Who also have experience which ranks high.

Julius Mezger, Martin Stuebler and Georg Bayr are those who have contributed most to both,

theory and practice of homoeopathic drug provings.

Acknowledgments

Our thanks are due to the subjects, who took their share of suffering. According to Fritsche this

is part of the basic approach for homoeopathic physicians.

References:

Bayr,G., Eine Prufung von Berberis vulgaris D3 und D30.

Allgemeine Homoopathische Ze1tung 1983; No 5.

A model for homoeopathic drug tests including statistical

analysis – Br. Hom. J. 1986; No 2.

Stuebler, M. Die homoopathische Arzneimittelprufung. Documenta Homoopathica Bd 3. Karl F.

Haug 1980.

Mezger, J.,Gesichtete homoopathische Arzneimittellehre

(foreword !) 2 vol, Karl F. Haug 1980.

Swoboda, F. Abrotanum 30X. A homoeopathic drug study.

Br. Hom. J. 1986;75; 168-76.

Koenig P. and Swbodo F Acidum succinicum 30X - a drug proving.

Br. Hom. J. 1987;76;19-29.

Documenta Homoopathica, Bd. 6, 1986 Karl F. Haug, Heidelberg.

[From Transactions of the LIGA, ARLINSTON, WASHINGTON, USA 29 March – 2 April

1987]

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4.6 THETESTING AND CLINICAL ADMINISTRTION OF PROPLIS -

E. Urban

Some qualities of Propolis were already known in the antique, especially by the old

Egyptian priests who studied the medicine and mastered the art of embalming mummies. They

knew the balsamic substances like Propolis even several thousand years before Christ.

Propolis was already a very well known substance by the Greeks. The word Propolis

comes from the Greek language and means “before the town” or “before the community”, which

means, that Propolis is the guardian which protects the community against the enemies. The

greek philosopher Aristotles studied intensively the life of bees. He seemed to have built himself

a transparent beehive. He tells, that the bees had covered the inside surface of the beehive with a

brown substance, probably Propolis. Aristotles was convinced that this substance was a remedy

for diseases of the skin, especially against ulcers and suppuration. The Roman author Plinius

reported that resin, the bees use that resin that they collect from the buds of willow, poplar and

chestnut. Other latin authors like Virgilius, Galenus and Varro mention Propolis in their works

and say that the roman legionaries took Propolis with them on their military expeditions. They

always had a certain quantity of this product for the purpose of treating wounds of the skin and to

drive out thorns and other alien bodies out of the tissue. The remedy was used for ulcers and

carbuncles and for diminishing the pain.

The Koran mentions Propolis as a substance of variable colour that was often used in

treatment. Avicenna speaks of two different sorts of wax: the poor wax and the black wax -

which is resin, Propolis.

He said that the therapeutic effects of Propolis are the softening and cleaning of the tissue

and to get off spines find metallic foreign bodies. The Inkas had also discovered the use of

Propolis. Already before the arrival of the Spanish, before the year 16.Jh. they used it for

disinfection and to produce fever. After this time there was no more news about Propolis until

the end of the 19th century. In the early years of this century Propolis was very much used and it

was a sort of universal remedy. It was used in different preparations for plasters, cream and

inhalation. Propolis has a long history in European ethno-medicine. It is currently used to a great

extent in eastern European medicine. During the Second World War it was extensively used in

Russian hospitals. Also during the Boer War (1899 - 1902) a distillation of Propolis was used for

the treatment of wounds and ulcers. Many wounded soldiers survived with this treatment.

The importance of Propolis cannot be exaggerated. The interested layman is surprised to

hear that the bees give us a further important product beside the honey, the wax, their poison and

the Royal Jelly: Propolis the resin of the bees. Even though Propolis has a very long history in

the household - and ethno-medicine, it has only entered the pharmacy in the last few years. When

I started to use it, my information came from beekeepers. My first application of Propolis was to

use it for my own infections of mouth and throat inflammation. I read about other applications in

the layman's press. There were euphoric reports of healing of nearly every disease by Propolis,

even cancer.

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Before our studies there had been no homoeopathic test on healthy persons. The action of

Propolis which was known has been based on experience. Propolis is a resin like substance

which is collected by the honey bees from the buds of willow, birch and poplar. In North

America, Propolis comes mostly from the poplar trees. In Central Russia one bee swarm can

collect 60 gram in one year. The honey bees use it to cover the inside surface of the beehive and

to fasten the honeycomb. Most beekeepers do not like it when the bees stick the combs and part

of the hives together with it. The bees seal the cracks and the slits of the beehive. Small animals

like mice which invade the hive and are too big to be removed are killed and covered with

Propolis. It prevents the putrefaction because it acts as an antiseptic. You often find mummified

little animals in a beehive and there is no smell of decomposition.

The resin has a dark yellow brown colour which can be molded by the fingers to a soft

mass. It has a balsamic smell. The melting point is by 64 degree Celsius. The specific gravity is

1.2 gram/cm

(a little bit more than that of water). Among the types of substances found in

Propolis are waxes, resins, balsams aromatic and etheric oils, pollen and other organic matter.

The propotion of these types of substances depends on the area of collection.

Generally it contains about 30% wax, 55% resins and balsams, 10% etheric oils and

about 5% pollen. Up to now several chemical substances have been found in Propolis: Cinnamic

acid and cinamyl alcohol, vaniline, different flavonoides and caffee acid and other caffee [V5-

169]oylics.

Propolis is well known for its antibiotic and antimicrobic effect. It acts bactericid and

fungicidal even when it is diluted 1: 5000. New clinical trials seem to show also an antiviral

effect. Propolis seems to contain an antiherpetic agent. Testing Propolis C30: We know from

experience, that taking quite a lot of Propolis mother tincture or chewing the raw product

produces an immediate numbing feeling of the mucous membranes of the tongue and mouth. The

taste and the sense of smell is blocked for a long time by the intensive aromatic smell of

Propolis. Later nausea appears, coming from the stomach. In sensitive persons the contact can

provoke allergic reactions like swelling and redness of the parts of the skin.

Knowing the toxic effects o£ Propolis, I was interested to see if there are any other

symptoms, than only organotropic symptoms when taking higher potencies. Therefore we made

a testing in 1983/84 with 25 healthy persons with Propolis C30. The test was made with eight

men, 14 women and three children. Seven were doctors, the other laymen. The substance was

taken for two weeks followed by two weeks of observing symptoms. The substance was taken

for 14 days, two times a day 5 globuli. The substance for preparing the globuli was potentized by

myself. No one of the provers got to know, which substance he had to take. Each member of the

group received Propolis C30, there was no placebo group.

List of symptoms

Emotions: Much more well-poised and re1axed. Tired the whole day. Unusual tiredness which

was usual by 12 O' clock, even before lunch . Some more tiredness than usual, because I fell

asleep during my lectures. Very tired. Child is very kind and interested in playing. In the

morning tireder than otherwise even after sleeping longer.

Sleeping and dreaming:

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Restless, anxious and angry dreaming, dreaming of travelling.

Awaking angrily during the night .

Desires, aversions:

Very strong appetite, very hungry, desire for every sort of food. Very much appetite for

everything, also very thirsty. After awaking strong desire for sweets. Increased appetite during

the whole time of the test. Desire for fruits and bread.

Head: Headache. 9 a .m. suddenly strong pain in the forehead and in the back of the head until 1

p.m. Vertigo when bending forward . Headache pressing. 8.30 sudden headache, especially

forehead and left temporal region, 1asting for one and half hours.

Headache in the morning. Vertigo in the morning. In the afternoon slight pressing

headache, not better by walking in the fresh Air. Dull headache from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the

forehead and root of the nose. Light pain in the forehead for some hours. From 4 p.m. increasing

pain in the forehead after siesta. Light vertigo which never appeared before. 12 o ' clock gnawing

headache in the right forehead, better by lying down, decreasing in the afternoon. 11.15

spasmodic headache above the left temporal region which came back at 6 p.m. on the first day.

Short intermittent pain near the right parietal region, while walking. Knocking pain twice, above

the right eye, then for 8 short time passing to the right parietal region. Headache changing

between the left parietal region and right forehead.

Ears: From 4.30 p.m. pain in the left ear. Slight pain in the ear. Strong pain in the ear. Swelling

of the right parotid. Very quick release of pain and swelling. 3p.m. lightning pain in the left ear.

5 p.m. strong feeling of heat with red-hot head, In the ear no redness. 7 p.m. hardly any pain,

only sometimes a little twitching in the ear. Heat changes to chill. In the evening burning of the

outside part of the right ear. Feeling of pressing behind the ears. 9.45 a.m. a sudden pain of the

left ear. At the same time feeling as if the left parotis gland was very much swollen, because

there was pain when touching it. The pain decreased only in the afternoon. A feeling as if there

was water in the right ear, for some minutes.

Nose, sinus: Some discharge from the nose. In the right nostril bleeding scab. Frequent

sneezing. At first blocked nose, later running nose. Cold better. In the evening some cold. A

little watery discharge from the nose. Pain in the forehead, in the region of sinus frontalis, soon

disappearing, but afterwards watery discharge from the nose and pharyngitis. In the morning

secretion of mucous from the right nostril. Little discharge from the nose. Increasing watery

discharge. Cold with slight headache. 6 p.m. some tickling in the nose and little watery

discharge, after long walking in the cold air. The next morning at 9 a.m. still tickling, but less

discharge from the nose.

Mouth, tongue: At 9 p.m. sudden appearance of herpes labialis of lower lip, which remains only

a short time and disappears very fast. Little ulcers like aphtae of the mucous membrane of the

left cheek. Bleeding from the gums very much less than normally, hardly any inflammation of

the gums. Painful tear of the left wing of the mouth which disappeared the next day. The breath

smelt bad and the tongue covered grey, except the tip. Pustular eruptions around the mouth.

Throat: Dryness in the throat and rectronasal region. Pain in the throat when swallowing, 5 hours

after the first dose of the remedy. Disappeared after a few hours. Pain in the throat in the

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morning when getting up, after breakfast no pain. Rawness of the throat. 10 p.m. feeling as if

thick lump in the throat, when swallowing. From 8 p.m. pain in the throat and rough feeling in

the upper part and the palate. Rough burning feeling in the throat.

Little pain when swallowing.

Breathing, cough: Dry cough in the morning. Cough with discharge of a little piece of hard

mucous, the size of a pea. Light pressing feeling in the lower part of thorax. Continuing light

pressing feeling in the lower chest. Short spasmodic pain in the left thorax.

Kidney, bladder, genitals:

During the light frequent urination despite norma1 fluid intake. Urination very often. In the

afternoon three times intermittent pain the urethra. White itching pimples of pinhead size in the

morning only around the ostium uretrae, in the evening on the whole glans penis and a little on

the prepuce. The eruptions disappeared after one week. Painful tear in the frenulum of the

prepuce.

Skin: Face covered with red spots, disappearing after one day. Pustular eruption on the nose.

Unclean skin, three Pustular eruptions in the face, which had never been before. In the morning

a round spot the size of a finger nail on the left cheek, disappearing by 12 o’clock. One Pustular

eruption in the neck which healed after two days. 3 p.m. painful passing pustular eruption

between the root of the nose and the right upper lid.

Temperature: Normally warm hand: during the test hand ice cold. Freezing feeling over the

whole body. Transitory chilliness at 4 p.m. Cold fingers in the morning between 10 and 12

o’clock. 4 p.m. chillness after the walk.

Treatment:

1. A 63 year old woman with sinusitis. Bloddy-yellow discharge from the nose and retronasal.

She received one dose of Propolis C30. The symptoms disappeared within two days.

2. A second had tonsillitis and a sore dry throat with pain when swallowing. She received one

dose of Propolis C30. The pain and the symptoms disappeared the next day.

3. A 56 year old woman with haemorrhagic cystitis was treated in general ways without effect.

(Sepia, Apis, Cantharis). After 5 weeks she received Propolis C30 because of the burning pain in

the uretra. The pain disappeared within 4 days, and also the urine test did not show any more

erythrocyts and bacteria or albumin.

A 24 year old woman, who had pain in the throat for 6 weeks, received Propolis C30, one dose.

After 3 days everything was better. Only minimal pain. Two months later she sometimes had in

the morning a little pain in the throat. Again one does Propolis C30. 14 days later no more pain.

5. A 6 year old girl who had leftside otitis media and herpes labialis on the upper lip reveived

one dose Propolis C30. The earache and the skin eruptions disappeared in two days.

6. A 9 year old girl had a sudden earache on the left side with redness of tympanic membrane,

received one dose of Propolis C30. The next day no more pain and inflammation was present.

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7. A 29 year old woman with haemorrhagic cystitis. Urine-test showed albumin, erythrocytes and

bacteria. After 14 days treatment with other remedies there was no improvement. She received

one dose Propolis C30. Pain and urine symptoms disappeared within one day.

8. A 25 year old woman had pharyngitis and pain when swallowing. She received two doses of

Propolis C30 for two days. After the first day the pain in the throat was less, but the eustachian

tube was blocked on both sides. The next day everything was better.

9. A 3 year old girl had otitis in both ears. She received one dose of Propolis C30. Two days

later, her mother reported a very sudden change. There was no more pain and very fast

improvement. This happened in December 1985. Since then the girl had otitis media twice. She

needed Belladonna and Ferrum phosphoricum.

Propolis seemed not to be a remedy to prevent the relapse. Its action is very quick and

short lived. It acts more on the surface than in depth.

Conclusion

There is a remarkable ;predomination of the symptoms of the head. Acute symptoms of

the head appeared in 12 cases. There was a strong; affinity to the head, the sinus and the organs

of nasopharynx. This was not accidental nor by reason of an epidemic, because the tests were

carried out during different seasons of the year on various people who lived widely dispersed.

Some even in the mountains and some by the sea.

Besides the symptoms concerning the head there is also a strong affinity to the organs of

the urinary tract and the skin. Several patients had increased appetite during the whole test.

Symptoms of the emotional level were: bettor mental balance and well-being but also more

tiredness.

'he appearance of the organotropic symptoms was very sudden, the symptoms

disappeared as well after a short time. The action of the remedy is quick and violent. It can be

compared with Aconitum, Belladonna and Chamomilla.

The administration of Propolis C30 in several cases of otitis, sinusitis, tonsillitis, herpes

labialis and cystitis showed, that high potentized Propolis is superior to the mother tincture in

respect of quick healing.

It is necessary to organize a further test using low, middle and high potentized Propolis

by several sensitive provers to complete the picture of the remedy by getting more mental and

emotional symptoms.

I acknowledge gratefully the friendly support of the foundation “Stiftung zur forderung

der Erfahrungsheilkunde” and its chairman Frau Dr. Veronica Carstens who did very much for

the public recognition of Homoeopathy in Germany.

------------------

[From the Transactions of the 42

LIGA: ARLINGTON, WASHINGTON, USA, 29 March to 2

April 1987. For Private Circulation only]

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4.7 THREE MODERN PROVINGS: ARNICA, BRYONIA AND

PULSATILLA

A.C.H.CAMPBELL, MRCP, FFHOM

The Rt. Hon. J. Dickson Mason, PC, MBCHB (GLAS), DHMSA, FRSA

INTRODUCTION It is generally stated by homoeopaths that homoeopathy is founded on

provings. Even though it is acknowledged that clinical symptoms play a considerable role

in the materia medica, it is nevertheless held that the bulk of the symptoms described for the

various remedies are derived from provings.

This claim is however somewhat dubious, for various reasons. Most of the relevant

literature is nineteenth century in origin, and therefore is based on experiments that, whatever

their historical interest, would not be accepted as reliable today. There is, for instance, little or no

awareness of the placebo effect, and none of the provings appear to have been even single blind.

Assessment of the reliability of these older provings is made difficult by the fact that they were

often not published in their original form but only as summaries, often in arbitrary forms. In any

case, few modern homoeopaths read even the original material that is available preferring instead

to depend on secondary, tertiary, or even more remote compilations of materia medica.

The principal original or near-original sources available to us are Hahnemann's Materia

Medica Pura and Chronic Diseases and Hughes's Cyclopaedia. Perusal of these works is not

wholly reassuring: for while the more toxic substances undoubtedly yielded symptoms that are

almost certainly drug-related, the same cannot be said of relatively inert remedies such as

Lycopodium. There is thus a real need to reprove some of these latter remedies using modern

criteria.

Such reproving needs to be done using tinctures, since it is not always realised that the

provings of the Materia Medica Pura were made in this way; the same applies to most of the

other work carried out in the nineteenth century; which mainly used either tinctures or very low

potencies. The “provings” of the Chronic Diseases, on the other hand, were probably made with

30c potencies.

The aim of the present study was to reprove three commonly used remedies--Arnica,

Bryonia, and Pulsatilla--in tincture. No placebo was included because it would not be possible to

match the appearance and taste of the remedies. However, neither the provers nor the author

(JDM), who was conducting the provings, knew the identity of the remedies.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS The provers were doctors attending the 1983-84 Long Course in

Homoeopathy. Seven (four men, three women) took all three remedies, while an eighth prover

took only Bryonia. The age range of the subjects was 28-43.

Provers were given three solutions labelled respectively A, B, and C; A was Arnica, B

Bryonia, and C Pulsatilla. The Order in which the remedies were taken was random. After an

initial 3-day run-in period provers asked to start taking a remedy and to increase the dosage daily

according to the following scheme: Day 1, 1 drop; Day 2, 2 drops; Day 3. 4 drops; Day 4, 8

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drops; Day 5, 16 drops; Day 6, 32 drops. Provers then waited for a further three days or until any

symptoms died away, after which they went on to the next remedy. They were at liberty to stop

taking the remedy at any time if symptoms became intolerable. They were asked to record all

symptoms daily in a notebook.

When all the provings were completed the notebooks were given to two experienced

homoeopaths who were asked to try to identify the remedies that had been used. The provers

themselves were also invited to do this. As a further test the symptoms were analysed using the

computer Repertorization programme currently being developed in the Research Unit at The

Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital.

RESULTS: The overall impression conveyed by the provers' reports is the remarkable lack of

convincing symptoms produced by any of the remedies. Those symptoms that did occur were

nearly all obviously attributable to intercurrent upper respiratory tract infections and other

incidental factors. Neither [V5-179]Arnica nor Belladonna produced any relevant symptoms; in

the case of Pulsatilla, one female prover experienced crampy lower abdominal pains on days 5

and 6 and the first post-treatment day; she also felt inexplicably low-spirited and commented that

she felt as if she had premenstrual tension although at mid-cycle.

Neither of the independent judges and none of the provers identified any of the remedies.

The computer also failed to do this.

DISCUSSION: This study shows that it is difficult, if not impossible, to produce any notable

symptoms using three common remedies in fairly substantial doses of tincture. This will

probably surprise many homoeopaths, but not those who have made a detailed study of the

relevant reports in Hughes's Cyclopaedia. In reading these reports it is difficult to avoid the

suspicion that many of the symptoms recorded therein are not really due to the remedies, and the

present study supports this view, It is of course possible that larger doses or more prolonged

administration would have produced more symptoms, but it would be more difficult to secure

volunteer cooperation for such a trial and there is also an ethical problem, in that the safety of

taking very large or prolonged dosages of tinctures cannot be assumed. Moreover, the longer a

proving lasts, the greater the chance that irrelevant symptoms due to unrelated causes will

intrude and confuse the picture.

The implications of this study, which is supported by at least one other critical modern

proving, are disturbing from the conventional view of homoeopathy as founded on provings.

While there is no reason to doubt that more toxic substances such as heavy metals and active

chemical compounds would give rise to genuine symptoms, this is not true of the remedies tested

in this trial and, probably, of a number of other relatively non-toxic substances used in

homoeopathy. The present study therefore reinforces the view that a large, though

unquantifiable, part of the homoeopathic materia medica is based. not on provings. But on

clinical indications that have accumulated since the days of Hahnemann and the early pioneers.

[From the BRITISH HOMOEOPATHIC JOURNAL – Vol73, No.4 October 1984: for Private

Circulation Only]

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4.8 BOOK SHELF

1."KEY TO THE RUBRICS OF MIND” , Dr.M.L. Agrawal, Pankaj Publications, 37 South

Anarkali Extension, Delhi - 110 051, Pages-178. Price Rs.40/-, US $ 12.

The author, Dr.M.L. Agrawal has in 1985, published "MATERIA MEDICA OF

HUMAN MIND" (Pankaj Publications, Delhi - 110 051, Rs.60/-) in which all the “mental

symptoms" of a remedy enlisted in the Kent Repertory, have been gleaned and given. The

complete 'portraint of mind' of a remedy may be obtained by a study of this. KEY TO THE

RUBRICS OF MIND is, as the title would indicate, 'explanation' of each rubric.

Dr. Agrawal has followed the Webster dictionary in this. It is believed that Kent himself

followed Webster's. Below the explanation of each rubric, a brief 'example' is given, which in

some cases appear inappropriate. Some rubrics are so self-explanatory that they do not at all

require any further 'explanation' like 'Arrogance', 'Avarice', A 'comparative explanation' of

synonymus rubrics - for example 'anger' , 'indigation ' 'vexation' or 'Anxiey', 'Apprehension',

'Fear' – would be more welcome. This task is not, of course, easy. The book would be useful for

handy reference of explanation of each 'rubric'.

2. “CYNODON DACTYLON AND ITS PROVING (incorporating clinically verified

symptoms)", Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy, B-1/6, Community Centre,

Janakpuri, New Delhi - 110 058, pages 32, Rs.15/-.

In its continuing research on homoeopathic remedies, the CCRH have brought out this

monograph containing the most up-dated 'proving' symptoms and clinical symptoms of

CYNODON [V5-181]DACTYLON. The region most affected by Cynod-d. appears to the g. i.

Now it rests with the homoeopaths to apply this proving in the clinic and furnish the results so

that more clinically reliable data may be built up. Such 'feed-back' would give encouragement for

further proving. Printing, paper get up etc. are all of very good standard.

It may be recalled that the CCRH have already brought out monographs of provings of 1)

Kali muriaticum, 2) Abroma augustafolia, 3) Cassia sophorea.

3. "REVIEW AND REVISION OF KENT'S REPERTORY IN RELATION TO OTHER

WORKS - Chapter TEETH – ADDITIONS FROM BOERICKE'S REPERTORY" Central

Council for Research in Homoeopathy, Janakpuri, New Delhi - 110 058, pages 20, Price RS.10/-

With a view of enlarging and improving the scope of practical use of the Kent repertory,

the CCRH have undertaken additions to the Kent repertory without disturbing Kent's

philosophical framework.

Whereas the Kent contain's only 591 remedies, Boericke has 1414 remedies.

The team of researchers have, after careful consideration, recommended certain additions

– both rubrics and remedies to the Kent, from the Boericke.

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Clear and in easily readable print, good quality paper and wrapper, this will certainly be

of very great use in day-today practice. Must be on every homoeopath’s table for ready

reference.

--------------------------

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4.9 FEED-BACK

"An orthopaedic surgeon doing his F.R.C.S. in London had come during his holidays to

Madras by air. As soon as he arrived he had blocking and pain in both his ears. So he consulted

an E.N.T. specialist in one of the prestigious private hospitals in Madras. The specialist

diagnosed it as "Middle Ear Effusion" (MEE) and said that he will have to puncture (the ear

drums) if the patient did not respond within 5 days to his medications. Not very happy about the

likelihood of a puncture the patient approached me to find out if homeopathy could be of help

Fortunately I was able to persuade him to try our medications. I Selected Puls. in high potency

first and Merc - Iod – Flavinum according to the symptoms. Though he had improved a lot after

3 days still he had blocking and a little pain. It was at this juncture that the "Quarterly

Homeopathic Digest" arrived with Dr. Lakshminarayan's recommendation of Capsicum for pain

in the ear drum caused by varying cabin pressure on a long air journey. So the next morning

when the patient arrived. I gave him one dose of Capsicum 10M (as that was the only high

potency had at that time) And hey pres to! He reported the next morning that his blocking pain

etc. had disappeared. And at his appointment at the E.N.T. Specialist's Clinic next day the

specialist with smiles said that he was completely alright and didn't need a puncture. But

unfortunately the patient didn't have the guts to tell the specialist that it was not his medicines

that cured him but the sugar pills given by a homeopath! So please, convey my thanks to Dr.

Lakshminarayan through your magazine for sharing his experience with fellow homeopaths".

Dr. (Mrs.) MABEL ARUL

347, Pantheon Road,

Madras - 600 008.

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4.10 NEWS

I. HomeoNet is a new electronic network system with its offices in USA and UK. The idea of the

HomeoNet is to create a bridge between all homoeopaths regardless of their location, languages

or philosophical orientation. It is a communications network of the world's homoeopathic

community. Of course a computer is a must for availing this facility.

HomeoNet is a member of the largest politically progressive network in the world, the

Institute for Global Communications. Any type of computer can be used to access the network. It

claims to help homoeopaths to communicate, research, contribute, share, consult, learn and band

together to develop a global homoeopathic community. Cases and messages can be sent

internationally at the speed of express service and the price of domestic mail. Latest

homoeopathic news, book-buys, materia medica, latest research papers, clinical database,

consultations from other practitioners, etc. can be had. The use seems to be very wide. The

System Requirements are:any computer, a modem and communications soft-ware.

RESONANCE (Vol.10 No.6) says:

"HomeoNet is expanding internationally. Members have logged on from locations

throughout the U.S., where the network began. There are now voices being heard (via computer,

of course) from Australia, Argentina, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, Switzerland, Norway,

the Netherlands, and W.Germany. For most of these participants, logging on simply means

making a local telephone call. By making that call, one can communicate across borders and

oceans."

Dr . Linda Johnston of USA says (in a personal [V5-184]communication): "For example, I

needed some information about Lyme’s disease to assist a patient. I just put the information and

request on the network and within two days I received two answers, one from England and the

other from the east coast of the USA. Fabulous! You just turn on the computer and connect to the

network through the phone lines."

------------------------

Readers should note that as of now, it is not possible to hook on to HomoeoNet from India even one

has a computer.

II. RECENT RESEARCHES: The scientific establishment was flustered by the article by

Jacques Benveniste published in NATURE June 30th in which the learned Professor concluded

that his experiments (as well as experiments independently carried out in four different

laboratories in different countries) indicated that a substance can have a biological effect even

when it is so diluted that there should not be any molecule of the substance in the solution - only

a "memory" or "template" of the original substance. The experiments were repeated 70 times and

all care taken to rule out experimental errors. The research showed that micro-doses could act on

basophils. Of course, here a 'dilution' is not just that but a dilution in series according to the

homoeopathic succussion procedure step by step as propounded by Hahnemann.

NATURE refused repeatedly to publish Benveniste's article. But all the obstacles were

got over and finally a stage came when NATURE could no more refuse. But NATURE had its

reservations:

"Certainly there can be no justification at this stage for an attempt to use Benveniste's

conclussions for malign purpose for which they might be put …………”

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The results of research published were so provocative of the hitherto believed scientific

views that NATURE deputed a team to personally investigate the results of Prof. Benveniste's

research. The team consisted of John Maddox of NATURE, James Randi – a magician, Wallace

Stewart - a 'scientist'.

The team spent two days in Prof. Benveniste's laboratory and reported to NATURE

debunking the work and results. This, not-withstanding the fact that out of seven times the

experiment was conducted the first three times showed that the micro-doses did have action.

The full report of the so-called 'investigation' by the NATURE team, Prof. Benveniste's reply,

the scientific world's reaction etc. may all be gleaned from the different international scientific

journals.

"Benveniste’s observations strike at the roots of two centuries of observation and

rationalization of physical phenomena. Where for example, would elementary principles such as

the Law of Mass Action be if Benveniste is proved correct? The principle of restraint which

applies is simply that, when an unexpected observation requires that a substantial part of our

intellectual heritage should be thrown away, it is prudent to ask more carefully than usual

whether the observation be correct." (NATURE)

Evidently it is this fear that the two-centuries-old views would be shattered if Benveniste's

researches were to be accepted that has made the investigating team 'debunk' the experiments

and the conclusions.

Whatever it may be, this and similar other on-going researches would surely bring about

a great revolution in the scientific thought, just as Hahnemann revolutionized the very concepts

of health, disease and therapeutics. The days have come when the scientific world cannot ignore

[V5-186]or scoff at homoeopathy.

-----------------------

Ill. HOMOEOPATHY IN THE USSR: Homoeopathy is growing in popularity in the USSR. A

new homoeopathic hospital has been opened in Moscow in 1987. It is the first paying hospital in

that country and is therefore a unique pioneering experiment. The hospital also contains a special

children's ward.

It appears that whereas in Moscow, Leningrad and Riga, they prescribe below 30c, in

Kiev high potencies 200 to 10,000 and generally only one remedy is prescribed. It will be

interesting to note that medicines obtained by clinical studies only are prescribed in dilutions

below 30c as also such remedies borrowed from allopathy like Pencillin, Prednisolone, Heparin.

As far as possible aggravations are avoided.

*****