CENTRE FOR EXCELLENCE IN

HOMEOPATHY

CONTINUING HOMEOPATHIC MEDICAL EDUCATION

SERVICES

QUARTERLY HOMEOPATHIC DIGEST

VOL. VIII, 1991

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.

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

INDEX

S.No Topic Page. No.

1. QHD, Vol. VIII, 1, 1991 3

2. QHD, Vol. VIII, 2, 1991 25

3. QHD, Vol. VIII, 3, 1991 46

4. QHD, Vol. VIII, 4, 1991 83

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

1. QHD,Vol. VIII, 1, 1991

PART I CURRENT LITERATURE LISTING

A list of current homoeopathic literature, subject-

wise is given below. The list includes original

contributions in th British, American, German, etc.

journals not readily accessible to every homeopath.

Some of the articles may appear in Part II in later

numbers of the Quarterly Homoeopathic DIGEST,

as abstract/summary/condensation/full, etc.

I. PHILOSOPHY

1. The eugenic cure in the homoeopathi

medicine (FAUST-ALBRECHT, H.

(AHZ, 235, 1/1990)

2. Hahnemann’s historical basis for the

origin of the Psora theory KLUNKER, W.

(ZKH, 34, 1/1990)

3. Homoeopathy and homoeostasis in the

vascular system –– Part 2, CROTTY,

Thomas P. (BHJ, Vol 79, 1/1990)

4. The strange case of the vanishing antibody

: the Nature controversy, LEE, Felicity

(The Homoeopath, Vol : 8, 1/1988)

5. Personal viewpoint : A meta-model of

homoeopathi philosophy for the

integration of apparent contradictions,

DAVIDSON, Robert (The Homoeopath,

Vol. 8, 1/1988)

6. Acute intercurrent disease, EIZAYAGA,

Francisco (The Homoeopath, Vol. 8,

1/1988)

7. Repetition of the dose LOGAN, Robin

(The Homoeopath, Vol. 8, 2/1988)

8. Dilemmas in prescribing –– The reason

we study the relationship of remedies and

how best to do this ROBERT, Ernst (The

Homoeopath, Vol. 8, 2/1988)

9. Homoeopathy and psychological problems

HOLLAND, L.K. (Homoeopathy, Vol. 40,

4/1990)

10. In defence of polypharmacy

MUKHERJEE, J. (JNIH, Vol. 1, 1/1990)

II. MATERIA MEDIA

1. “Sadness” – Stramonium GYPSER, K. H.

(ZKH, 34, 1/1990)

2. Evaluation of Bacillinum in tinea infection

BHARDWAJ, O.P. MANCHANDA,

R.K., GUPTA, RAMJI (BHJ, Vol. 79,

1/1990)

3. Staphisagria in psychiatry BARBANCEY,

Jacqueline (BHJ, Vol. 79, 1/1990)

4. Background to the plant drugs in

children’s diseases BODMAN, Frank

(BHJ, Vol. 79, 1/1990)

5. A case of Lyssin in a 10 yr. old girl

MORTELMANS, Guido (JAIH, Vol. 3,

1/1990)

6. Conium in a case of multiple sclerosis

JOHNSTON, Linda (JAIH, Vol. 83,

1/1990)

7. Hepar sulphuris calcareum ELMORE,

DUTT (Resonance, Vol. 12, 1/1990)

8. An image of DPT WARKENTEIN, David

Kent (Resonance, Vol. 12, 1/1990)

9. How to study Materia Media

CANDEGABE, Eugenio (Resonance, Vol.

12, 1/1990)

10. Another side of Phosphorous

REICHENBERG–ULLMAN, Judyth

(Resonance, Vol. 12, 2/1990)

11. Chamomilla ELMORE, DUTT

(Resonance, Vol 12, 2/1990)

12. Bromium BROWN, Plumb (Resonance,

Vol. 12, 2/1990)

13. Tuberculinum Children HERSCU, Paul

(Homoeopathy Today, Vol. 10, 9/1990)

14. Calcarea sulphurica CANDEGABE,

Eugenio (The Homoeopathy, Vol. 8,

1/1990)

15. Acute and life-threatening cases

i) Postman Pat and the bees : the hazards

of rural life GAINE, Janet

ii) Case of life-threatening septicaemia

CASTRO, Miranda

iii) an acute case CHAPPELL, Peter (The

Homoeopath, Vol. 8, 1./1988)

16. Leprominium : a new nosode VAKIL

Prakash (The Homoeopath, Vol. 8,

2/1988)

17. Aegle marmelos

Aranea scinencia

Athista indica

Cassia fistula

Tela aranea

Thea chinensis

(CCRH Quarterly Bulletin, Vol. 12, 1 &

2/1990)

18. Bowel Nosodes

BARMAN, Rabin (JNIH, Vol. 1, 1/1990)

III. THERAPEUTICS

1. Homoeopathy and peppermint

REMBGES, H. (AHZ, 235, 1/1990)

2. Tips from practice – Herpes Zoster

SCHWEITZER, Wolfgang (AHZ, 235,

1/1990)

3. Therapeutic observations

International references (AHZ, 235,

1/1990)

4. Coma and hemiplaegia in cerebral

malformation

MASTER, F.J. (ZKH, 34, 1/1990)

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

5. A case of epidemic disease treated by C.v.

BOENNINGHAUSEN (ZKH, 34, 1/1990)

6. Day-today management of anxiety and

depression SPENCE, David. S. (BHJ, Vol.

79, 1/1990)

7. Sebarrhoeic dermatitis treated with

homoeopathic high dilutions of tobacco ––

a case study SUDAN, Bernard J.L. (BHJ,

Vol. 10, 1/1990)

8. A case of staphylococcus pyoderma

SULLIVAN, Andrea D., (Resonance, Vol.

12, 1/1990)

9. Relief for morning sickness

REICHENBEG-ULLMAN, Judyth

(Resonance, Vol. 12, 1/1990)

10. Tooth pain after filling

STEPHENSON, David L. (Resonance,

Vol. 12, 1/1990)

11. Sun allergy after antibiotics –– using the

additions to Mac Repertory

CARTE, Katie (Resonance, Vol. 12,

2/1990)

12. Temporo-mandibular joint dysfunction ––

the most effective therapy for the TMJ

patient

STEPHENSON, David (Resonance, Vol.

12, 2/1990)

13. Herpes, Pre-menstrual Syndrome,

Irregular Labor contractions

SHAPIRO, Michael, (The Hahnemannian,

march 1990)

14. Homoeopathic treatment of

Hypothyroidism

SHAPIRO, Michael (The Hahnemannian,

March 1990)

15. Homoeopathic treatment of hypersensitive

patients NCH/IFH annual case conference

reports

GRAY, Bill (Homoeopathy Today, Vol.

10, 9/1990)

16. Dysfunctional relationships and

homoeopathic treatment, case confec.

report

MORRISON, Roger

(Homoeopathy Today, Vol. 10, 9/1990)

17. Taking the case of a newborn, case

confece. report ZAREN, Ananda

(Homoeopathy Today, Vol. 10, 9/1990)

18. The recurrence of acue mania in a

chronically hypersensitive patient,

NCH/IFH case confece. report SAINE,

Andre (Homoeopathy Today, Vol. 10,

9/1990)

19. AIDS : Some early clinical experience

STRANGE, Mike (The Homoeopath, Vol.

8, 2/1990)

20. I’m sorry I don’t have a clue

OLIVER, Terry (The Homoeopath, Vol.

8, 2/1990)

21. Menace of drugs and role of homoeopathy

in de-addiction HARISHCHAND, Diwan

(JNIH, Vol. 1, 1/1990)

IV. REPERTORY

1. Remedy errors in Kent’s repertory

Part II –– Myrica cerefera and Myristica

sebifera

EPPENICH, H. (ZKH, 34, 1/1990)

2. Additions to the rubrics ‘Sciatica’ in

Kent’s Repertory SCHINDLER, M.

(ZKH, 34, 1/1990)

3. Compilation of the rubric from Part I & II

of the Book “Synoptic Key of the Materia

medica” under one head SHARMA, Mrs.

Anita (CCRH Quaterly Bulletin, Vol. 12.

1 & 2/1990)

V. RESEARCH

1. Water and Information

ENDLER, P. (AHZ, 235, 1/1990)

2. Homoeopathy in the Veterinary practice,

Research Project

SCHUTTE, A. (AHZ, 235, 1/1990)

3. In-vitro effects of Viscum album

preparations on human fibroblasts and

tumour cell linces

KOOPMAN, Gerrit; ARWERT, Fre.,

ERIKSOON, Aldur W., BART, J., Kippa,

A., VAN KRUINING, Hans (BHJ, Vol.

79, 1/1990)

4. Measles and homoeopathic immunizations

NEUSTAEDTER, Randall (Resonance,

Vol. 12, 2/1990)

5. Science of Medicine –– A new approach

Mahata, C.R. (JNIH, Vol. 1, 1/1990)

6. Drug response patterns in homoeopathic

treatment of chronic tonsillitis

DE, T.K. (JNIH, Vol. 1, 1/1990)

VI. PHARMACOLOGY

1. The approval of homoeopathic remedies –

A view of the homoeopathic

pharmacopoeia of the United States,

BORNEMAN, Jay P. (Resonance, Vol.

12, 2/1990)

2. Homoeopathy for the pharmacist

FINKUS, Anthony (Homoeopathy, Vol.

40, 4/1990)

3. A note on physical, chemical,

pharmacological and pharmacognostical

evaluation of Iberis Amara

NANDI, M., CHOWDHURY, K. GHOSH

(JNIH, Vol. 1, 1/1990)

4. We need self-dependant homoeopathic

pharmacy CHATTERJEE, S.N. (JNIH,

Vol. 1, 1/1990)

VII. VETERINARY

1. Homoeopathy in Veterinary practice,

Research Project SCHUTTE, A. (AHZ,

235, 1/1990)

2. Veterinary homoeopathy prescribing

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

MACLEOD George (Homoeopathy, Vol.

40, 4/1990)

VIII HISTORY

1. Homoeopathy in the German Romantic

Movement, medico-historical and medico-

philosophical spot light, R. PIESCH – Part

I & II, (AHZ, 235, 1 & 2/1990)

2. Hahnemann’s Geneology

GEBBEOERM T, (ZKH, 34, 1/1990)

3. Homais, Homoeopathy and Madame

Bovary

MICHOT-DIETRICH, Hela (The

Homoeopath, Vol. 10, 1/1990)

4. Coming of age in the eighties

BORNEMAN, Jay (Resonance, Vol. 12,

1/1990)

5. A critical moment for homoeopathy in the

USA (Homoeopathy Today, Vol. 10,

9/1990)

IX. GENERAL

1. Medicine and Toxicology, Therapeutics

International references (AHZ, 235,

1/1990)

2. Verifications and Clinical symptoms

(ZKH, 34, 1/1990)

3. International references

(ZKH< 34, 1/1990)

4. Where have we been, where are we going

?

BARRACLOUGH, M.C. (BHJ, Vol. 79,

1/1990)

5. Meeting of European homoeopaths

Maison de L’Homoeopathic, Brussels, 3

June 1989 (BHJ, Vol. 79, 1/1990)

6. IFH Professional Course –– the second

week LEVATIN, Janet (Resonance Vol.

12, 1/1990)

7. What in the world is homoeopathy ? A

report on the 1989 IFH Public Conference

8. IFH Professional course –– the third week

LEVATIN, Janet (Resonance, Vol. 12,

2/1990)

9. An interview with Jeremy Sherr

WINSTON, Julian (Homoeopathy Today,

Vol. 10, 9/1990)

10. Motivational factors in homoeopathic

education

MURUGAN, M (JNIH, Vol. 1, 1/1990)

11. Planned approach to setting up a national

information center for homoeopathy

SATPATHI, JN., DAS, T., GHOSH, S.K.

(JNIH, Vol. 1, 1/1990)

1. J A I H : Journal of he American Institute

of Homoeopathy, 1500, Massachusetts

Avenue, N.W. Suite 42, Washington D.C.

20005., U.S.A.

2. Resonance : International Foundation for

Homoeopathy, 2366, Eastlake Avenue, E.,

Suite 301, Seattle, Washington, 98102,

U.S.A.

3. CCRH Quarterly Bulletin : Central

Council for REsearch in Homoeopathy, B-

1/16, Community Centre, janakpuri, New

Delhi 110 058.

4. The Homoeopath : The Joural of the

Society of Homeopaths, 2, Artizan Road,

Northampton NN1 4 HU, U.K.

5. Homoeopathy Today : National Center for

Homoeopathy, 500, Massachusetts

Avenue, N.W. Suite 42, Washington D.C.

20005., U.S.A.

6. Homoeopathy : The Journal of the British

Homoeopathic Association, 27-A,

Devonshire Street, London WIN 1RJ.,

U.K.

7. The Hahnemannian : Journal of the

Homooeopathic Medical Society of the

State of Pennsylvania, C/o Guy Hoagland,

M.D., 11, Flowers Drive, Mechanicsburg,

Pennsylvania, 17055, U.S.A.

8. Simillimum : The Journal of the

Homoeopathic Academy of naturopathic

Physicians, 11231 SE Market Street,

Portland, OR 97216, U.S.A.

9. B H J : The British Homoeopathic Journal,

Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital,

Great Ormond Street, London WC1N 3

HR, U.K.

10. J N I H : Journal of the National Institute

of Homoeopathy, GE-Block, Sector III,

Bidhan Nagar, Calcutta 700 091

11. Z K H ; Zeitschrift fur Klassische

Homoopathie, Karl F. Houg Verlag 6900,

Heidelberg 1, Germany.

12. A H Z ; Allgemeine Homoopathische

Zeitung, Karl F. Haug Verlag, 6900

Heidelberg 1, Germany.

HERING TRIED TO FIND A PROTECTIVE

REMEDY AGAINST PSORA

JENNER INTRODUCED THE COW-POX

VACCINATION IN 1798

We can only visualize with difficulty what it

signified, what hopes were generated in the

suffering humanity.

1

The medical world during

HAHNEMANN’S time was characterized by the

great infections, of helplessness of man against all

acute diseases as also the exanthematic diseases of

children. Measles itself often turned out to be fatal.

A method which would protect against such

lifethreatening diseases must appear to be a

wonder, Naturally, possibilities to protect against

PART II

PSORINUM, PSORA

AND THE MIASMS

G. v. Keller

AHZ, 229, 1/1984

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

other diseases in this maner were searched for.

What was there so close as to exterminate Psora

2

well known since ages as the root of all evil ?

HERING experimented with Psorin and wrote

3

: “I would like to have a generally preventive

medicine for the itch which to me, is more

significant than just one more new medicine” and

in another place

4

“ if one could find a remedy

which would prevent Psora, then one would have

reached the peak of discovery”.

HAHNEMANN tried to find a specific

medicine against Psora : Homoeopathy was

already, without high-flying plans, sensationally

successful in the early days in treatment of the life-

threatening acute diseases. Especially through the

use of medicine “specific” to the infections, was it

possible to astoundingly contain and bring down

the mortality rate as against the usual methods of

treatment.

“Specific medicine means the search for a

remedy similar to the collective characteristic

symptom picture of the entire infection and not the

single individual patient

5

m which would then be

administered to every individual afflicted with the

infection. The same specific method cured the then

prevalent venereal diseases if the primary affection

had not been treated externally

6

. while the curative

remedy for every contagion must be determined

afresh each time for every epidemic and for every

newly occurring infection bearing the same name,

the specific remedies for the chronic venereal

diseases were the same, Thuja with Acidum

nitricum for the Sycosis, Mercury for Symphilis.

Up to this Homoeopathy was completely

successful. But as much more hahnemann

proceeded to treat chronic diseases so much poorer

were the successes. HERING wrote

7

:

“HAHNEMANN had the same experience which

we all have, some men become healthy some do

not. He saw in the appropriate cases cures of course

but in chronic cases often without sustained

permanence. HAHNEMANN’s characteristic

greatness as observer indicated to him the

difference between those which remained cured

and those which did not remain cured. He

discovered that the symptoms must be removed in

the reverse order of their development, that the

symptoms appearing last are always the most

significant for the choice of the remedy, that if the

symptoms are removed in the reverse order of their

development, the patient remained cured, but not in

any other order”.

“The same talent made him recognize that the

chronic patients in whom an eruption followed

became well better and permanently than when the

internal symptoms went away without external

manifestation. Thus was the first ideas, the

hypothesis. Just as it usually was with

HAHNEMANN to comprehend the prevailing

contagion and the intermittent fever as one picture,

he similarly comprehended as one picture the itch

and the chronic disease as a consequence of driving

it away”.

The hypothesis of the miasmatic nature of the

non-venereal diseases began so. HAHNEMANN

though that with this discovery he was on the trial

of a specific cure for Psora

8

. In a letter in 1823

9

he

wrote : “To find without fail the art of completely

eradicating the ancient chronic diseases and clear it

completely, I have, during the past 4 years of my

life endeavoured day an night and have made a

thousand experiments and experiences as also

unbroken contemplation and at last attained my

object”.

Instead of that the procedure for treatment

of chronic diseases were formulate : The hopes

of HERING and HAHNEMANN have not been

fulfilled. A specific against Psora was not found

and a vaccination was, as HAHNEMANN straight

away foresaw

10

, not possible

11

. But the hypothesis

of the miasmatic nature of the non-venereal

diseases brought about a decided progressive step

in the development of homeopathis theory and

practice. HERING wrote about this event, as

follows

12

: “The HAHNEMANNian school only

followed without preconceived opinions, the pure

practical experience alone and whenever

hypothesis were allowed they were not considered

as intrinsic”.

HAHNEMANN investigated for 11 long years

to find a specific remedy against the Psora. With

the help of the theory of miasmatic nature of Psora

he thought that he could find this specific as we

have read in the above cited letter. He declared

soon that there was not just one medicine against

Psora and that there were more number of those

remedies. In a letter in 1827

13

he spoke of 6 or 8

medicines, in 1828 in the first edition of the

Chronic Diseases of 21 remedies and at last in

1835 in the second edition they were 47

14

.

Even so he declared tthat in one ailment only

one remedy was not sufficient and in 1829 in the

fourth edition of the organon he formulated for the

first time the paragraph 168 15: “In the non-

venereal chronic diseases arising out of Psora more

and successive one after another anti-psoric

remedies are required to be employed and indeed

so that after each previous medicine had completed

its action the next remedy must be homeopathically

chosen appropriate to the symptoms grou still

remaining”.

HAHEMANN followed the specific only

part of the way : This simple and laborious

procedure of treating chronic diseases, the patient

searching out a new curative remedy as soon as a

new disease picture presents itself

16

was not

acknowledged by many of his contemporaries.

Some held that HAHNEMANN meant as specific

the medicines used in acute diseases. One of his

eminent exponents, Richard HUGHES wrote in an

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

article titled “The Two Homeopathies”, as

follows

17

: “The innovation that one

(HAHNEMANN is meant here) in his 74

th

year

establishes must to bein with, not be good and the

fact that HAHNEMANN introduced the 30 dilution

as the standard dose for proving and treatment, this

reform is not welcome. To consider the

HAHNEMANN of 1830 to 1843 as our leader is ,

in my opinion, exposing his senility”. Richard

HUGESS was 41 years old then.

Others attempted to further proceed, with

HERING, Psorin researches and hoped that it

would be possible to remove disease with products

of the same disease.

THORER

18

wrote 1833 : “The finding of a

class of remedies of contagious disease products as

curative medicines against those same contagious

diseases form which they were drawn was a

temporary muddle, which created a temporary

misgiving about the correctness of the homeopathic

precepts”. HERING and HAHNEMANN quickly

found the doctrine of healing by symptom

similarity, whereas others continued to attempt to

establish the class of remedies against diseases

which it had caused, thus Tubercullnum against

tuberclosis in exended sense or Syphillnum against

the concocted syphilitic diathesis.

The Quintescence of HAHNEMANN’s Psora

experiments came to this : While in acute diseases

it can be treated with one medicine perhaps with

one disease-specific, in the developed Psora, that is

in every prolonged and serious chronic disease,

more or many remedies following each other will

be needed, while the disease merely changes its

form but not become extinguished. Often Psora

crosses over only into its latent state, a condition

which HAHNEMANN described as

19

: “Subjected

with one or more of these diseases (the slumbering

Psora), one considers oneself healthy and others

also consider him so. He can live many years

tolerably well and carry on his duties apparently

unhindered”.

Psorinum as Intercurrent remedy :

Psorinum which HERING hopefully though could

prove to be a protection against Psora, became an

extraordinarily valuable remedy in another way in

the treatment of chronic diseases. HERING wrote

on it

20

: “All potentized bioproducts need not be

considered to be absolute specifics but as chronic

intercurrent medicines. The remedies given after

that then work with longer reactions and those

given before develop thei power also” and in

another place

21

: “In many cases have observed,

what to me appears to be highly significant, a slow

appearance of new symptoms which are not

serious, particularly on the skin, through which an

antipsoric remedy is generally very clearly

indicated”. To think of it, one can confirm it from

one’s own pratice. One patient, after being

prescribed. psorinum for the first time said as

follows

22

.

The anus which is so sore itches so much after

cleaning it well with water; now I have used Nivea

oil and cotton padding.

Sulphur was the next medicine for him. –

HERING wrote further as follows

23

: “The

nosodes

24

cause the same disease symptoms which

are indicated by another medicine. Just as Sulphur

for example. The nosodes cure many diseases

completely which were not at all similar to the

mother of the stuff… But undoubtedly they cure

only according to symptoms similarly because

every other cure is impossible”.

Psorinum according to symptom similarity :

Psorinum works as antipsoric remedy like every

other remedy according to symptoms similarity. In

psoric, that is chronic disease the treatment

procedes just as other diseases in

HAHNEMANNian Homeopathy, that is that the

disease as presented before us at this moment is set

against the medicine known as most similar in the

materia medica. Never even once can we proceed,

without examination, under preconceived

medicinal sequences, we must choose each

following medicine anew on the symptoms we

encounter in this patient at this time

25

.

I would like to demonstrate this procedure with

the testimony of the above cited patient

26

, which

lead to the prescription of Psorinum, he had a

colitis ulcerosa :

When there is diarrhea, first it smells very much, it

then smeist really much. I can note it even before

when stinking flatus is discharged before that and

then comes the diarrhea. First a few flatus is

discharged and then the stool. Abdominal pain

around the nave, a sensation as if widn would come

and when I visit the loo and the wind and stool is

discharged, the abdominal pain goes. Some times I

mus strain so that I need not then again visit the

loo.

The comparable proving symptoms are :

“Cutting abdominal pains, after that much stinking

flatus is passed after which it is relaxed

27

,

“pinching in abdomen which compels to go to stool

after which would be better

28

”; “Stool in the night

almost involuntarily, he could not bear to reach the

toilet, at the same time severe discharge of

flatus

29

”.

Now, another woman patient whose prevailing

symptoms were aggravated by Psorinum and in

whom itching and burning skin came on. In this

Sulphur given later, ameliorated

30

.

Before the eyes it began to dance, rings like smoke

rings, then so hazy, a light grey mist. That may

occur to me in the mornings on waking, when I

wake and open my eyes, it begins, Or it begins

when I am quietly sitting in the bus, and I close the

eyes. It goes off when the eyes are closed and I

again open my eyes, it comes again. It does not

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

occur while I am reading, indeed, because I must

somehow concentrate.

Following proving symptom is relevant

31

:

“Glittering before the eyes and all objects dancing,

also black flecks and rings”. The “rings” and the

“dance” called to my mind Psorinum while KENT

has taken these symptoms in his Repertory. The

modalities “mornings when I awake and open the

eyes”, “it comes again when I open my eyes again”

and “I then close my eyes” are new, they are not to

be found in the provings, like the continual

collection of symptoms as the case is in the history

of the homeopathic material medica. Impelled to

compare Psorinum I recalled the other symptoms of

this patient as follows: “Wears a fur cap, a coat or a

shawl even in the warmest weather”, “would not

like the hed exposed”.

The head must always be kept war, I have always

kept the head covered even at nights in bed. I

always wrap a towel around the head and throat

even in summer.

Now the well-known symptom

32

:

“Predisposition to involvement of the head,

ameliorated by epistaxis”

33

:

The nosebleed, I may say, I have every four

weeks really, but rapidly, but everytime when I get

the more really very severe flow, I am free. Every 4

weeks I have nosebleeds and have the feeling,

there I am going to get the headache and when I

have the headache for a couple of days and if I can

again have the nasal flow and a bit of blood flows

out, my head will become lighter. I am even glad

when the blood comes. When I have the headache

it remains for a couple of days and then it feels as if

it will begin to slacken in the head and then it will

flow out just as I have observed : the flow

somewhat warm and it can really be blood.

Another female patient

34

:

Yesterday morning my nose bled again. I wake up

and without any reason, the blood flowed and I

allowed it to flow, you know why? Now my

headache has gone I Out of both the nostrils,

without my having sneezed or even having touched

the nose, morning at 6 O’ clock it has flowed. Nose

bleed and there the headache was not merely better

but gone away!

Psora is not simply a third miasm : I have

shown that for some time HAHNEMANN was of

the view that Psora could be reckoned as a third

miasm besides the two well-known chronic miasms

Sycosis and Syphilis and Psora could, just like the

Sycosis and Syphilis, be treated by a specific

medicine. Soon it came to be that the venereal

diseases also could be complicated with the Psora

and it can therefore be treated with specific remedy

but must be treated by the general direction of

antipsoric cure. HERING wrote

35

: “As much more

I attemped to learn to separate the psoric diseases

from all the others so much more that limits

disappeared before my eyes”.

Psora is not simply a third miasm besides

Sycosis and Syphilis so that all diseases and

particularly all the remedies could be put into three

classes, but Psora is that principle of chronic

diseases of humans, the inherited disease

disposition in general.

Through this depiction of the theory of chronic

diseases I remain firmly on the foundations of

HAHNEMANNian homeopathy. If modern authors

have put forward their own miasms theory

36

, they

are free to do so, but then they should not cite

HAHNEMANN.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND ANNOTATIONS :

1. Compare HAHNEMANN’s foot-note to

paragraph 56 of the 6

th

edition of the

Organon”………….the benefit which

mankind experienced from the use of

cowpox vaccination, that hereby those

who had been vaccinated remain free from

infection by human pox and at the same

time were cured of the latter in advance”.

2. Book 5 Moses Chapter 28, Verse 27 “If

the people of Isreal do not obey the voice

of the Lord their God and do not observe

and do all his Commands and Statutes, –

the Lord will smite you … with the scab

and itch, so that you cannot be healed”.

From HENCKE, “Hahnemann’s theory of

nature of diseases in general”.

3. STAPF’s Archiv, 13 Vol. 3 (1833), 33.

4. STAPF’s Archiv, 10 Vol. 2, (1831), 30. In

this letter HERING spoke first of all that

JENNER’s cow pox vaccination was only

a last resort and we should hold that since

until now we do not have anything better,

and proposed then, to otentise the cow pox

poison and vaccinate with it. If one

succeeded with it, one can perhaps prevent

every infection in his manner.

5. Organon, 6

th

edition, paragraph 102 :

“Everyone of those who suffered from the

infection then had indeed a and only

source from which the infection spread

and therefore same disease, but such an

epidemic disease encompassed in its

entirety and the totality of its symptoms

(the knowledge of which appertains to the

whole outline of the disease picture so that

a homeopathic medicine most appropriate

to the symptoms comprehended could be

chosen) cannot be perceived from a single

sick person but drawn and fully deducted

(abstracted) only from many patients of

different physical conditions”. See also

annotation 8 – Paragraph 241 “Every

single (intermittent fever) epidemic has its

own character general to the ailing

individuals, which may be established

according to the totality of all the common

symptoms found out and which would

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

indicate the homeopathic curative specific

(homeopathic) medicine appro-priate to all

the cases which almost always helps”.

6. HAHNEMANN, the Chronic Diseases,

2

nd

edition, Vol 1, 18 : Even Syphilis

because of its easy curability yields to the

smallest dose of the best mecurial

preparation, as also Sycosis because of its

not difficult curability requiring few doses

of the juice of the Tree of Life with

Potassium Nitrate alternated and when

complicated with Psora they become

chronic, difficult to be cured”.

7. Homop. Vierteijahrschrift, 15 (1864)

322.

8. HAHNEMANN, The Chronic Diseases,

2

nd

edition, Vol. 1, p 10. “The most

accurate observations have taught me by

comparing different patients with so much

differing apparently chronic ailments and

infirmities are all merely the progeny of

the one and the same primitive illness and

therefore are to be seen as only parts of

one and the same disease and are to be

treated medicinally just as in a large

epidemic of yphus in which only the

symptoms of all or many other patients

suffering with this disease are take

together which depict the whole and

complete picture of the prevalent Typhus

and the curative remedy cured the whole

epidemic of Typhus and thus proved to be

specifically helpful in every individual

patient”.

9. Allg. homop. Ztg. 32 (1847), 42.

10. Annotation to paragraph 56 of the 6

th

edition of the Organon : “a hman disease

product, e.g. a Psorin, obtained from a

human itch would cure similar human

itch, – that is going far”!

11. ATTOMYR, Letters on Homoopathy,

Vol. 3 (1834), 34: HERING appeared to

expect more from Psorin than it is capable

of”.

12. STAPF’s Archiv, 9 Vol. 3 (1830), p. 102.

13. HAEHL, R., Samuel HAHNEMANN,

Letter of STAPF to HAHNEMANN on

6.9.1827, p. 155, Vol. II : “You now

possess the solution to the riddle why

neither Nux nor Puls. nor Ignat., etc. will

or can do good, whilst the homeopathic

principles remain unaltered….. Therefore

be reasonable, and do what you can with

your antipsorics…. you can make

excellent observations on their peculiar

effects and gain much knowledge, as also

from the many splendid cures you may

make with them, since you have only 6 or

8 medicines to choose from and not from

the whole realm of medicines”.

14. ATTOMYR, Letters on Homeopathy,

Vol. 3 (1834), 35: ‘How have we, a few

years ago, separated the antipsoric

medicines so rigorously, and how is it now

? The Psora theory has not nay more the

least influence in my therapy. I do not at

all any more ask about Psora and if I do, it

is more out of novelty rather than for the

purpose of therapy”. Page 36 : “Not to

give similar medicine in a psoric disease

because it is not in the list of the

antipsorics would be a sin against the

basic principles of homeopathy”.

15. In the 6

th

edition of Organon this is

paragraph 171.

16. ATTOMYR, Letters on Homeopathy,

Vol. 3, 28 : “Every case is different.

Therefore we are, with every patient, a

beginner, as a pupil”.

17. Monthly Homeopathic Review, Nov.

1877 and New England Medical

Gazette, Vol. 12 (Dec. 1877), p. 556. In

the CLARKE, a student of HUGHES

wrote in the Journal of the American

Institute of Homoeopathy. 4 (1911), p.

232 : “Dr. HUGHES has been successful

in laying down the idea of disease as

entity and he put it forth that diseases have

their specific medicines”.

18. Practical contributions In the field of

Homoeopathy (THORER). 2 (1835), P.

13.

19. Chronic Diseases, 1, 61

20. STAPF’s Archiv, 14, Vol. 2 (1834), p.

99.

21. STAPF’s Archiv, 13, Vol. 3 (1833), p. 61

22. Mr. H. H. born 1936 died 20.3.1975.

23. Allg. homoop. Ztg. 46 (1853), 245.

24. HERING, Allg. homoop. Ztg. 43,

(1852), p. 315 : I have until now

considered the medicines in this whole

range as nosodes and understand thereby

only the disease products, and particularly

the active salts contained in them”.

25. Organon, 4

th

edition, paragraph 166, 6

th

edition, paragraph 170 : “Much more

here than in other cases, where a change

of the disease state has occurred, the

remaining set of symptoms now present

must be taken anew and (without regard to

the medicine which at the beginning

appeared to be the second suitable

medicine) a homeopathic medicine which

is as appropriate as possible to the present,

new state must be chosen afresh”.

26. Mr. H.H. on 16.9.80. On 4.3.75 other

symptoms indicaed Psorinum of which we

are not interested here.

27. HHNEMANN’s provings in STAPF’s

Archiv. 13, Vol. 3 (1833), 163, No. 206.

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PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

28. Op. cit. No. 212

29. Op. cit. No. 245

30. Mrs. S.M….., born 1914, on 5.12.1975.

31. The last appearing symptoms in a proving

in a lady of 24 years, used by Dr. J.E.V. of

Vienna, reported by HARTMANN in

Allg. homoop. Ztg. 1 (1833), 162.

32. Proving in STAPF’s Archiv. 15, Vol. 3

(1836), 177, No. 1.

33. Mrs. R. W. born 1918, on 15.10.1974.

34. Mr. W. A., born 1910, on 08.12.1977.

35. STAPF’s Archiv. 13, Vol. 3 (1833), 35

36. Compare e.g. AELBLY, Criticism on a

lecture of Frenchman VANNIER’S

student in the Liga Congress 1931 in

which is said : “We know from Dr.

VANNIER that the phosphoric

constitution stems from the basis of

measles, the fluoric from the basis of

scarlet fever. The first one depicts a pre-

tubercular manifestation while latter one

the syphilitic basis”. (Allg. homoop. Ztg.

180 (1932), 108.

The provings which appeared in STAPF’s

Archiv. fur Homoopatische Heilkunst in 1833 are

not those of HAHNEMANN himself only, but

were carried out on a number of people. Because

they are written down just as the provers

experienced them, a certain amount o f near

duplication will be found (c.f. Nos. 299 and 300,

for example). There is also no uniform style of

description; sometimes nouns are used, sometimes

adjectives; sometimes the description is terse and

clinical, at other times it verges on the anecdotal.

Unlike today’s medical publications, many of the

provings contain vernacular expressions, and some

contain dialect or antiquated words which are not

to be found in any German-English dictionary, not

indeed in the vocabulary of any educated Germans

of today.

The date of the provings, 1833, means that

they were too late to be included in the third edition

of reine Arznelmlttellehre. Margaret Tyler, in her

picture of Agaricus, writes that she believes we

have no translation of the provings of Psorinum in

English. That statement provided the stimulus for

this attempt, and I hope that it will be of interest

both in practice and as an insight into the character

of the provings carried out by the founding figures

of homeopathy, upon which the early Materia

Medica was based.

Alan CROOK

Introduction from the 1833 edition of Archiv

fur homopathische hellkunst. edited by Johann

Ernst STAPF : The following highly important

symptoms of one of the most effective and

therefore most beneficial of medicines have been

proved by two very shrewd and notable observers,

Dr. S. of L….., and Dr. R. of P….., mostly on

themselves aftr a few doses of Psorinum 30

globules, and accurately and conscientiously set

down. The Archiv owes the communication of

these provings to the kindness of Privy Counsellor

HAHNEMANN. Though far from exposing the

entire, undoubtedly vast therapeutic field of

Psorinum, they do at least grant us for the time

being a highly desirable insight into it, and give

many suggestions and hints for the healing

application of this grat remedy in most serious

cases. Several excellent physicians, such as

ATTOMYR, GROSS, HERING and others, have

discovered, as I myself have, what Psorinum

properly applied can accomplish; things up to now

unsuspected –– incredible things – and we can only

hope that more and more new provings of

Psorinum on healthy people, and more and more

over the sick will unite to give us a more complete

and proper understanding of it. Readers are

referred to what our esteemed colleague HERING

has to say about it in his invaluable article on this

most important substance: that it will serve for the

time being as an introductory foreword.

Johann Ernst STAPF.

INDEX

Emotional 262, 267, 409b, 410, 414, 416-

435, 438.

Mental 6-10, 368, 436-437.

Head 4-5, 11-41, 91, 161, 405, 408.

Vertigo 2-3.

Face 42-52, 61.

Eyes 53-83.

Ears 30, 84-104.

Nose 155-163.

Lips 105-106, 164-169.

Mouth and teeth 106-118, 128, 146-152,

199, 395, 406, 408.

Tongue 119-113.

Throat 117, 14-127, 129-136, 139-141,

143-145, 201.

Respiratory

(See also throat) 270-300, 303, 306.

Chest 301-318, 281, 285, 287, 289,

290, 293-295, 297-298, 410.

Neck 50, 91, 137, 142, 319-326.

Back 228, 293, 327-342.

Abodomen 206-207, 209-215, 217-227, 229-

239, 246.

Extremities 50, 342-350, 353-364, 391, 409a,

411-414.

Appetite 153-154, 170-185, 395, 407.

Digestion 186-205, 208, 216, 305.

Stool 240, 245, 247-249, 379.

PROVINGS OF PSORINUM

Samuel Hahnemann

Introduced and translated by

ALAN CROOK from The

Homeopath Vol. 6, No. 4

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PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

Rectum and Anus 250-253.

Urinary Tract 236, 254-258.

Male Genitalia 259-267.

Female Genitalia 232, 238, 268-269.

Skin 36, 42, 45, 47-52, 81-82, 105.,

135, 137,

(See also Face and Lips) 155, 253, 321,

324, 361-362, 365, 396, 403, 409, 409a.

Perspiration 361, 392, 396, 399, 400, 402,

407, 409a.

Slep 370-389, 437

Generalities 351-352, 365-366, 369, 390, 393-

394, 397-404, 407, 409, 415, 434.

Modalities 1, 89, 113, 117, 19, 306, 325,

212-214, 223, 364, 367, 375.

Psorinum : The Provings

1. Felt much better in the morning.

2. Vertigo in the morning.

3. Vertigo-everything going around with

him; (8

th

day).

4. Numb sensation in the left half of he

forehead: (In the morning after 3

hours).

5. Waking in the night, his brain felt

clouded, as if from a drinking party

the evening before. Befogged and

stupid, he fell over.

6. Thinking that he understands what he

has just read, he is about to explain it

to someone else, and then realizes that

he has not understood it after all.

7. Memory so weak that he cannot

remember what ha just been said.

8. She loses her memory and no longer

recognizes the room once she has

looked out of the window; (2

nd

day).

9. Memory very weak; she cannot

remember a thing.

10. Very forgetful; (8

th

day).

11. Stiff pain in the skin of the right

temple. (7.30 p.m.).

12. Pressive pain as if sprained, to the

right of the occiput. (Noon, 1

st

day).

13. Pressive feeling in left temple,

extending into the head; (1

st

evening).

14. Sensation, especially in the occiput,

as of a string bound tightly round the

head, seeming to be pushed outwards.

15. Frontal headache, as if he brain were

too big for the cranium; bursting

sensation on rising; better after

washing and breakfasting.

16. Heavy feeling in the head in the

morning.

17. Tearing headache.

18. a boring, stabbing pain in the left

temple.

19. Throbbing pain in the temples.

20. Headache, as if it wanted to come out

through the forehead; (2

nd

day

towards evening).

21. Contracting frontal headache.

22. Sensation as if her whole head were

on fire.

23. Headache in the evening; (2

nd

day).

24. Headache all over the head, like

blows from a hammer inside the head.

25. Violent headache, as though a stick

had been placed inside with.

26. General feeling of faintness. Towards

7 O’ clock she had to lie down and

soon fell asleep. Night sweat which

gave great relief; (2

nd

-3

rd

day).

27. Shocks in the head; (5

th

day).

28. Pressure headache in the forehead and

temples (7

th

day).

29. Spasmodically contracting headache;

(8

th

day).

30. Pressive headache with ear discharge;

(7

th

-8

th

day).

31. Sensation of fullness in the head on

mental exertion.

32. Throbbing of blood in the head during

intellectual tasks.

33. Pain in the temple after mental

exertion.

34. In the left frontal area, dully pressive

sensitive stitching pains, irrespective

of rest or movement; (2

nd

and 3

rd

day).

35. Frontal headache with sensation of

weakness within.

36. Itching of the forehead.

37. Stitching pains in the right half of the

forehead, extending into the eye.

38. Burning in the forehead; (2

nd

day).

39. Pain in the middle of the forehead;

(4

th

day).

40. Drawing sensation in the frontal

sinuses, as if he had a cold.

41. Frontal headache; (3

rd

day).

42. Many red patches on the forehead.

43. Facial pallor (3

rd

day). On touching

the cheekbone, pains as though it

were festering; (3

rd

day evening).

44. Facial sweat.

45. Yellowish facial colouring and sickly

appearance, lasting from December to

March, (in an otherwise health man).

46. Burning in the face.

47. Above the left eyebrow and left

cheek, eruption like semolina, which

soon disappeared again; (3

rd

day).

48. Places on the face, neck and hands

which itch on being touched.

49. Burning in the face, followed by

appearance of vesicles.

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PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

50. Many firm, painless, long-lasting

nodules, on the face, nape of the neck

and legs.

51. A lot of vescles on the face.

52. A decrease of pain-sensation in the

face.

53. episodes of blindness, when walking

in the street; (1

st

evening).

54. Pressive sensation in right eye, worse

for touching.

55. Tiredness of the eyes in the evening,

as after much reading by artificial

light; (1

st

evening).

56. Pressive sticking pain left eye; (after

3 hours).

57. Sudden failing of vision, so that for a

few moments he cannot see anything

clearly, only hazily; (2

nd

day).

58. yellow butter-like substances in the

eye (2

nd

and 3

rd

day).

59. Lachrymation towards evening.

60. Pressive pain the eyes.

61. Deep wide blue rings around the eyes.

62. Burning pains in the eyes, as if sand

had been shaken into them.

63. Glassy eyes; agglutinated lids in the

morning; pressive pains in the eyes.

64. Red eruptions at the edges of the

upper eyelid, like developing grains

of rye; sensations of something

moving in front of the eyes, or as if

one were playing with the fingers in

front of them.

65. Sticking pains in the left eye.

66. Eyes as if full of sand.

67. Pressure as it of a foreign body in the

right eye as soon as it is closed. On

opening it the pain goes; (Evenings).

68. Inflammation of the right eye, from

18

th

December to 30

th

December.

69. Small burning eruptions below the

eyes, like heat-spots.

70. Inflammation of the eye, with

pressive pains, as if sand were in the

eye; lachrymation over night.

71. twitching of the right eyelid; (After 6

hours).

72. Fiery sparks before the eyes; (After 5

hours).

73. Lachrymation in the eye; (After 5

hours).

74. Fine pricking pains in the area of the

eye, below the eye-sockets, as if she

had sand in the eye; (After 4 hours).

75. Sticking pains in the eye; (After 5

hours).

76. Burning pains in the eyes; she has to

keep closing them.

77. Lachrymation on looking at any

object for a long time; (After 8

hours).

78. Pressive pain in the eyes.

79. Gnawing pain in the the eyes.

80. Itching of the canthi.

81. Itching of the left lower eyelid,

extending from one side to the other.

82. At the edge of both upper eyelids, a

small neoplasm like a grain of barley;

(5

th

day).

83. The objects which he sees in the room

appear to be trembling.

84. A dull ringing in the left ear; (1

st

evening).

85. Te right ear seems changed; it seems

as if he is hearing with someone’s

ears; (1

st

evening).

86. Sensation in the left ear as if she were

exhaling through it, rather than

through the respiratory tract.

87. On eating, or on swallowing saliva,

sensation of something bursting in the

ears.

88. Sticking pains in the ears around

noon.

89. Sticking pains in the inner ear,

temporarily relieved by pushing a

finger into the ear, then worse.

Frequent recurrence, especially

evenings when at rest.

90. Gnawing pain the left ear.

91. Ringing noise, alternating between

left and right ears, with a buzzing in

the head, so that she hardly hears a

thing. Behind the ears, in the area of

the trapezius muscle, painful

sensation as of a wound which

torments her cruelly, accompanied by

momentary sensation of heat

extending to the vertex, worst in the

evenings, when it feels as if she were

being pulled upwards by the hair.

92. Pressure in right ear; (7

th

day in the

morning).

93. Buzzing in the ear; (1

st

day).

94. After the buzzing, sticking pain the

left ear.

95. Itching in right ear.

96. Sticking pain in the ears.

97. The left pinna inflamed on the inner

side, with small pustules; (7

th

day).

98. Sticking pain in the right ear,

preceded by coldness.

99. Discharge of fetid pus from the ear;

(After 7 hours).

100. Discharge of reddish wax from the

left ear.

101. Discharge of fetid pus from the left

ear.

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

102. discharge from the ears during the

headache; (8

th

day).

103. Painful ulceration in the left ear; at

the same time a neoplasm on the right

ear, which looks just like the rest of

the skin, but is divided into four parts

by a cross-shaped split, rather like a

wart, and with a deep little hole in the

center.

104. A long-lasting, highly painful

stitching in the left ear-lobe;

(Evenings).

105. A small neoplasm on the upper lip.

106. Burning of the lips.

107. A sticking pain in the lower jaw-bone.

108. Marked swelling of the maxillary

glands; sore to the touch;

accompanied by a very painful

pustule below the left lower jaw.

109. Blunt sensation of the teeth on

smoking tobacco (1

st

afternoon).

110. Tearing pains in the teeth.

111. Otherwise wobbly teeth become

firmer; (2

nd

day).

112. Sticking pains in the teeth, moving

from one side to the other, extending

upwards within the head, followed by

burning pains in the right cheek

which is also somewhat swollen.

113. During luncheon a tremendous

stabbing pain in a hollow upper right

molar, as though the teeth were being

pulled out; then continuing grumbling

throbbing toothache in all the teeth on

the right side, only during the day-

time. Better in open air.

114. When touching the teeth in order to

remove something from between

them, pricking pains as if from

needles.

115. Front teeth (especially) so loose that

he fears they might fall out.

116. Toothache intensified on touching.

117. Better in the open air, but much foul-

tasting catarrh; (from 10

th

September

to end of October).

118. Gum boils on the right side only, after

the protracted toothache had quite

disappeared.

119. Whitish coating of the tongue nearly

all the time.

120. Almost half of the tip of the tongue

burnt, so that he cannot taste properly.

121. Tip of the tongue very dry, as if burnt,

painful.

122. Thick white coating of the tongue,

covered, with whitish-yellow mucus.

123. Dryness of the tongue; (4

th

day).

124. Dryness and scratchy feeling in the

throat; (4

th

day in the morning).

125. Pain in the throat, can only swallow

with difficulty.

126. Pain in the throat, as if swollern.

127. Severe inflammation of the throat

with ulceration of the right side; raw

pain deep down, and burning in the

palate.

128. Painful pimple on the palate.

129. Tickling in the throat, causing

coughing; (6

th

and 7

th

days in the

morning).

130. Dull, blunt stabbing pain in the left

tonsil; (6

th

day).

131. Burning in the throat, extending

further and further downwards.

132. Pressing pain the throat; she can only

swallow with difficulty; only brief

remissions, after which it returns.

133. Burning in the throat; (5

th

day).

134. Tickling in the throat; (Morning).

135. Small red spot forming on the neck,

with a carona the size of a pin-head

with a blackhead in the middle; very

painful or scratching; (Morning).

136. Swollen cervical glands on both sides,

painful to the touch as if squashed;

pain extends into the head; (7

th

day).

137. A red rash on the neck, beginning

with a stabling pain. Small red spots

on the neck and breasts.

138. Swollen sensation in the palate.

139. Sore throat – cannot swallow.

140. Sore throat; raw burning pain on

eating anything hot (e.g. soup); cold

food causes no discomfort. (7

th

day).

141. Pain in the left tonsil, with feeling of

engorgement.

142. On turning the head, a violent

stabbing pain in the sinews on the left

side of the neck.

143. Hoarseness.

144. Burning in the throat.

145. On swallowing saliva, painful

sensation in the throat; swallowing

difficult.

146. Insipid taste, as of rotten fruit, in the

mouth.

147. Aggravation of the unpleasant taste

after eating and smoking tobacco.

148. Her whole lunch tasted of oil.

149. Evil taste in the mouth – must drink

to dispel it.

150. Tough mucus in the mouth, with a

putrid, nauseating taste. The teeth

stick together as if glued, can only be

separated with effort; (2

nd

-9

th

January)

151. Dryness of the mouth.

152. Earthy taste in the mouth.

153. Desire for breakfast; (After 2 hours)

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PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

154. After breakfast, aversion to smoking;

however, when he started to smoke,

his pipe tasted good; (1

st

morning).

155. Itching on the tip of the nose. (1

st

day). The nose drier than usual, he

needs to blow it less often; (3

rd

day).

156. Boring, stinging pain in the right

nostril, followed by violent sneezing;

(3

rd

day).

157. On the nose scurf, which use to fall

off on coughing, now sticks fast and

is hard.

158. Burning in the nose, followed by

coryza, as in an attack of the catarrh.

On blowing out of the mucus, the

burning pain eased off for a short

while; (4

th

day).

159. Pain in the left nostril like the

pricking of needles, on poking the

finger into it.

160. Sensitivity of the nose on inspiration.

Less nasal mucus; (8

th

day).

161. Stabbing, drawing pain extending

from the forehead down to the nose.

162. Inflammation of nasal septum, with

white purulent vesicles.

163. Nose constantly obstructed.

164. Dryness of the lips.

165. Lips painful and look swollen.

166. On the inner surface of the lower lip,

a vesicle, clear like water.

167. Painful itching of the right half of the

upper lip, as if swollen.

168. Lips brown, black and dry; (5

th

evening).

169. Lips, brown, black and dry; (5

th

evening).

170. In the afternoon hungry, and thirsty

for beer; (1

st

day).

171. Strong craving for tobacco-smoking,

with loss of appetite from not

smoking; (1

st

evening).

172. Hunger without appetite.

173. Unusually strong hunger after going

for a walk; (3

rd

evening).

174. Appetite with easy satiety.

175. For three days his morning bread and

butter tasted like “Katzenbisse”, for

the rest of the day it tasted as usual;

(The word “Katzenbisse” literally

means “cat-bites”. None of the

several Germans whom I consulted

felt that this conveyed any meaning,

and the general consensus was that

this was an intentional misprint for

“Katzenpisse”; this at least has a taste,

if not a familiar one! A.C.).

176. Strong aversion to pork.

177. Great thirst during luncheon.

178. Craving for beer.

179. Appetite for meals diminished.

180. Great appetite thirst even greater.

181. No appetite for meals, but thirst for

drink.

182. Great thirst; dryness and burning in

the mouth.

183. Hunger in the evening; (6

th

day).

184. Great thirst; (4

th

day).

185. Great hunger.

186. Sensation of heartburn/pyrosis, at

times after drinking water.

187. Sour erucations.

188. Hiccough.

189. Hiccough soon after eating, while

smoking a pipe.

190. Rancid eructations in the evening.

191. Heartburn/pyrosis.

193. Eructations like rotten eggs; (2

nd

day).

194. Week feeling in stomach after supper;

when she then ate some roast, it

ceased. (1

st

evening).

195. Nausea in the morning.

196. Vomiting after every consumption of

food; nausea and retching until

eventually vomiting followed,

bringing up first ingesta and then a

sour, mucus fluid; (1

st

day).

197. Continual nausea in the day-time,

with tendency to vomit. Vomiting of

very sweet-tasting mucus, in the

morning always at 10 a.m. and then

towards eveing; (8

th

November – 21

st

January approx.).

198. Fasting in the morning, Vomiting of

sour mucus, leading to bluntness.

199. of the teeth.

200. Nausea with tendency to vomiting.

201. Tickling sensation in the throat,

followed by empty retching– in the

morning.

202. Sour vomiting.

203. Weakness and nausea in epigastrium–

mornings.

204. Cramps in the stomach area; (4

th

day).

205. Stabbing pain the epigastrium.

206. Cutting abdominal pains; they passed

off afer several passings of offensive

flatus; (1

st

evening).

207. Cutting in the abdomen, as if from

purging. (3

rd

day).

208. Cutting pain in the stomach area; (4

th

day).

209. Abdominal cramps, while still in bed

in the morning.

210. Cutting pains in the abdomen.

211. Cutting abdominal pains; weakness

and pressure in stomach then ceased.

212. Griping abdominal pain in bed in the

morning, driving him to stool, which

relieved.

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213. Colic towards evening; immediate

relief from eating.

214. when lying down, sensation of worms

crawling, relieved on standing up;

colic relieved by eating.

215. Colic.

216. Contracting pains in the stomach area.

217. Abdominal distension after icy cold

foods.

218. Stabbing pain in the hepatic area.

219. Stabbing pains in the spleen area.

220. Stabbing pressive pain below the left

floating ribs.

221. Stitching pains in the sides.

222. Violent stabbing below the bottom rib

on the left; (Lasted from beginning of

February to beginning of May).

223. Stabbing pains in the spleen area,

relieved by standing still, renewed on

starting to walk, and very often also at

rest.

224. Stabbing pains to the left of the

umbilicus, frequent when at rest.

225. Stabbing abdominal pains, on the

right side.

226. Muscular twitching in right inguinal

region (lit ; “in the right of the lap”)

after driving. Once only, but very

violent.

227. Sensation of a swelling/tumour on

sitting, extending right across the

body below the short ribs.

228. Boring pains in the vertebrae;

(Mornings).

229. Abdominal pain, as if from eating

rhubarb”; (Mornings). (“The word

“rheum” is printed in Roman type,

which elsewhere in the text indicated

Latin. I have therefore translated with

the Latin meaning (=rhubarb) rather

than “rheumatism”, as being in any

case more likely to cause abdominal

pain. A.C.).

230. Unusual abdominal distension after

eating.

231. Griping in the abdomen while

driving.

232. griping in the whole abdomen,

especially in the pubic area in young

ladies.

233. Abdominal cutting pain in the

umbilical area.

234. Distension of the abdomen.

235. Cutting pain in the loins, so severe

that she had to be led by the hand.

236. On physical exertion, pressive

stabbing pain in the symphysis pubis,

several times.

237. Flatulence completely ceased until

mid-February.

238. Urging bearing-down sensation

towards the womb, with burning

pains on micturition.

239. Dull stabbing pain in the inguinal

glands; (7

th

day).

240. Scoft stool afer previous abdominal

pain; (1

st

day).

241. Four to five stools a day after

preceding abdominal pain.

242. Stool a few times liquid, spurting out

as from a synringe; another time soft

and pappy; at times the stool is well

formed; (1

st

-4

th

days)

243. At times unsuccessful urging for

stool; he thinks he cannot hold it any

longer, but when he goes to pass it,

nothing will come away.

244. Dark brown stool, very loose and

offensive.

245. Stool during the night; almost

involuntary- he could hardly make it

to the potty in time; accompanied by

violent passages of flatus. The stool,

by the way, was of a proper

consistency, like little balls; (6

th

right).

246. Rumbling in the abdomen; (6

th

morning).

247. Painless diarrhea four times; (2

nd

day).

248. No stool; (1

st

day).

249. Stool twice in the morning, otherwise

not for the whole day.

250. Itching in the anus.

251. Raw soreness in the rectum, while

driving; (4

th

-6

th

day).

252. Itching in the anus. (4

th

day).

253. Copious perspiration of the perineum

on moving.

254. Burning cutting pains during

micturition.

255. Very painful strangury, and after he

thinks he has finished, a few more

drops of urine sometimes come.

256. Stabbing pain in the urethra,

extending from the meatus in-wards;

(2

nd

day).

257. After urination, in spite of all efforts

to restrain it, involuntary flow of

urine continues from the urethra.

258. Burning pains in the glans penis on

beginning to urinate.

259. A painful, purulent vesicle on the

scrotum.

260. Flow of prostatic fluid before

urination; (6

th

day).

261. Frequent constriction in the penis.

262. Uncommonly strong aversion to

coitus, almost throughout the whole

period of proving.

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263. Complete impotence – four weeks in

duration – in an otherwise normaly

very robust and virile man.

264. Failure to ejaculate during coitus.

265. Sexual organs are flaccid. (6

th

day).

266. Inflamed ulcer on the glans penis; the

testicles are swollen and heavy; (3

rd

day).

267. Indifference towards sexual

relationships; flaccidity of the male

genital and no desire for coitus.

268. Menses eight days too late.

269. Menses scanty and delayed.

270. Occasional violent sneezing; (2

nd

day).

271. Violent sneezing following boring

pains in right nostril.

272. Frequent sneezing without a cold.

273. Tough nasal mucus; he can hardly put

down his hand-kerchief, and yet he

has no cold. Always a plug of mucus

far up in the nose, which induces

nausea. Relieved by stooping.

274. Chronic nasal catarrh; (3 months).

275. Coryza after burning in the nose.

276. Copious coryza, for several hours at a

time, recurring frequently.

277. After hawking up the mucus, the

burning stopped for a while; (4

th

day).

278. Catarrh with coughing and

expectoration of yellowish-green

mucus.

279. Fluent coryza.

280. Dry cough with raw pain below the

sternum; (2

nd

day).

281. Cough with sensation of weakness on

the chest.

282. With persistent coughing,

expectoration of saliva and sour

mucus from the chest.

283. Dry cough caused by a tickling

sensation in the trachea.

284. Hoarseness.

285. Dry cough with sensation of

heaviness of the chest.

286. Dry cough with nausea and retching,

and a tickling in the throat the whole

day; (7

th

day).

287. Coughing and feeling of weakness in

the chest.

288. Urge to cough, with sensation of

coldness.

289. Coughing in the evening, with pain in

chest and throat; relieved at rest; as

soon as she starts to talk she needs to

cough.

290. Hoarseness on the chest and in the

throat.

291. Tickling in the windpipe with

frequent coughing.

292. Dyspnoea in the evening; (1

st

day).

293. On breathing, frequent stabbing pains

extending from the back through to

the chest.

294. On breathing, stabbing pains in the

right chest, several times.

295. On deep inspiration, stabbing pains in

the sternum. On palpation pressive,

broken feeling in sternum.

296. Shortness of breath in the open air;

relieved by lying down and driving.

297. Oppression on the chest with terrible

backache.

298. Shortness of breath is worst with the

chest-pain in a sitting position, so that

he could not write for six weeks.

Relieved on lying down.

299. Shortness of breath, even when

walking in the open air, so that he

always has to hurry in order to get

home and lie down, However, he

feels nothing when doing light work,

such a spurning trees.

300. Shortness of breath.

301. Twitching throughout the left side of

the chest.

302. Constriction of the chest.

303. Dull boring pain in the right side of

the chest, with some respiratory

constriction; (6

th

day).

304. Stabbing pain the left side of the

chest.

305. Cutting pain lie knives in the chest.

Burnt sensation in the oesophagus.

Eructations, relieving much

abdominal distension, in the evenings

when he has a hearty appetite.

306. Tremendous chest pain, as though a

heavy weight lay on the chest and

pressed down on it. Continued for

three days, with shortness of breath;

increased to an unbearable degree on

lowering the head when bending

down.

307. In bed, must keep the arms as far

away from the chest as possible,

because otherwise they increase the

chest pain.

308. Chest pain, as though the lung were

torn away and something were

pressing it.

309. Stabbing pain in the chest,

independent of respiration.

310. On going to lift anything, sensation as

if everything in the chest were torn

apart.

311. Palpitations; (5

th

day).

312. Stabbing pain in the right mammary

gland.

313. Constriction in the chest.

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PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

314. Coughing with greenish

expectoration, almost like tissue;

especially in the morning on waking

and in the evening on retiring;

associated with nausea. Mucus

remains tenaciously on the chest; only

with difficulty can he cough some of

it up.

315. On coughing, pain the chest as if

something might be torn off.

extending from below sternum into

the throat. (7

th

day).

316. Ulcerative pain in the chest, beneath

the

317. sternum.

318. On coughing, stabbing pains in the

chest.

319. Tensive pain in the nape of the neck

on waking, as if she had lain

awkwardly in bed.

320. Drawing pain in the nape of the neck,

extending to the shoulder, on waking.

321. Sticking pains in the nape of the neck

and on it pustules the size and shape

of lentils.

322. Boring pain and stiffness in the nape

of the neck; (6

th

and 7

th

days).

323. Tearing pains in the nape of the neck.

324. Several pustules on the nape of the

neck, with stabbing pain.

325. Most violent pain in the nape of the

neck, but only indoors. Disappears

almost immediately in open air, and

returns immediately indoors.

326. If he rests his head on his hand,

sensation as if bodiless, as though he

could pass the hand right through the

neck; (Lasted a whole afternoon).

327. stabbing and tearing pain in and

between the shoulderblades,

extending down to the sides, like

rheumatic pain; (6

th

and 7

th

days).

328. Tearing pain in the shoulderblade; (5

th

day).

329. Stabbing pains between the shoulders,

in the morning.

330. Back pain, as though the third

vertebra up were missing or broken;

(Violent and lasted 8 days).

331. Tearing pain in the left shoulder;

afternoons and evenings when at rest.

332. Tremendous back-pain.

333. Back-pain; a kind of stabbing

pressure.

334. Lame, beaten feeling in the back; he

cannot hold himself upright; (1

st

evening).

335. Between the 2

nd

and 3

rd

vertebrae a

dull, pressive pain; (1

st

afternoon).

336. Boring pains in the vertebrae. (6

th

day).

337. Stabbing pains in the lumbar region,

extending as far as the knee; (7

th

morning).

338. Pains in the small of the back.

339. Sensation of weakness in the small of

the back.

340. Pressive sensation in the small of the

back.

341. with itching; (7

th

day).

342. Tightness in the bones of buttocks,

extending to the knee, when walking.

343. Cramping pain in the bones of the

whole left arm; evenings when

resting.

344. Unusual roughness of wrists,

extending to the proximal

interphalangeal joints of the finger;

(Lasted 5 days).

345. In the morning on rising. stabbing

pain on the right ankle.

346. As above, as if from a sprained

tendon.

347. Tearing pain in the left knee and the

left shoulder

348. The leg on which he lies in bed is as

if too weak to bear the pressure of the

other. Has to keep changing his

position, until he falls asleep over it

(Lasted 6 days).

349. Gouty pains in the whole left foot.

350. Tendency to walk with the left foot

turned inwards, with a feeling as if it

had actually ben sprained, so that he

must actually look down to convince

himself that it is not so; (lasted 3

days).

351. Easy exhaustion from slight exertion.

352. Extreme exhaustion after driving.

353. torn feeling in the right elbow; (1

st

evening).

354. Tearing pains in the elbow.

355. Itching in the left arm.

356. Itching in the right elbow.

357. Pricking/stabbing at intervals in left

arm.

358. Itching in the biceps of the right arm.

359. Tearing in the arm.

360. Pricking in the left index finger.

361. Sweat on the palms of the hands.

362. Itching in the right wrist; red patches

form, like flea bites, which itch and

soon fade.

363. Weakness in all the joints, as if they

would collapse.

364. The pains in the feet are aggravated at

rest, like wise the itching.

365. Yawning for the first hour; shivering,

with a pale blue rash, with tearing and

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

cramping pains in the umbilical

regions; (7

th

day, around noon).

366. Feels very tired; liable to fall over.

367. She is at her best lying down.

368. work-sky.

369. Much yawning in the middle of the

day and the evening.

370. For several days felt sleepy early.

371. He dreams of his occupations and

intentions.

372. Anxious dreams of robbers, journeys

and dangers.

373. restless unrefreshing sleep.

374. Frequent yawning in the evenings.

375. Tiredness and lassitude towards

evenings; relieved as she got into bed.

376. Very restless, serious dreams.

377. Frequent yawning and early

sleepiness in the evening.

378. Always very sleepy.

379. He dreamt that he was sitting on the

toilet, and very nearly did it in the

bed; (5

th

day).

380. Slept very restlessly, several nights.

381. Very tense on going to sleep.

382. Very sleepy in the daytime; (6

th

day).

383. Unusually sound sleep at night.

384. Whenever she sits down, she falls

asleep.

385. Very restless sleep on account of

disturbing dreams.

386. Cannot get to sleep in the evenings;

(Lasted 5 weeks).

387. Very restless but refreshing sleep.

388. Many dreams, very much liked up

and recallable. In the morning the

body is in th same position as on

going to sleep the evening before;

(Curative result).

389. Cannot sleep on the right side as

accustomed, but can sleep on the left;

(Lasted 10 days).

390. Frequent cold shivers, especially in

the evening, with flushes of heat,

great exhaustion, feebleness and

sleepiness.

391. Stretching and turning fo the limbs,

without thirst or other complaints.

392. Copious sweat on walking.

393. Internal shuddering in the afternoon,

with cold shivers externally.

394. Around midday internal coldness,

with cold shivers.

395. Sweat o the face and palms of the

hands.

396. Frequent sensations of the coldness

during the day-time.

397. Frequent sensations of the coldness

during the day-time.

398. When the sun shone on her, it seemed

as though it were oppressing her. She

had to rest for sometime in the shade

before she could walk any further; (4

th

day).

399. Great heat in the evening; it was as

though she were going out of her

mind – phantasizing, with great

thirst–followed by sweating in the

night; then it all stopped.

400. At table and in the evening, very

frequently flushes of heat over the

whole body, with dripping sweat on

the face, while others were

complaining of the cold. Frequent

thirst, dryness and burning in the

mouth.

401. Chillness lasting several days.

402. Heat and sweating in the evening

while driving ; (6

th

day).

403. Cold shivers on the skin.

404. Heat in the afternoon.

405. Headache.

406. Thirst, coldness, dryness in the mouth

and on the lips, lasting 4 days.

407. Hot, sweating and thirsty in both cold

and hot weather.

408. Headache, coldness, dry mouth and

lips.

409. Frequent cold sensation on the skin

during the day; (6

th

day).

409a. Much sweating on palms of hands at

night.

409b. Unaccustomed anxiety while

driving; (1

st

day).

410. Anxiety-state with palpitations.

411. Trembling of hands and feet; (4

th

day).

412. Trembling of the hands; (6

th

day).

413. Trembling of the feet.

414. Anxiety, like fearful premonitions,

with great restlessness and trembling

of the hands.

415. Hot shivers through the whole body

when under pressure of work.

416. Cheerful, in a good mood, eagerness

and zest for work; (2

nd

morning).

417. Irritable, cross and jumpy in the

evening.

418. So sad that she could destroy herself,

then flamboyant extraversion.

419. Irritability and weepiness.

420. sometimes very miserable, at other

times very merry.

421. Very gloomy, sad, despairing; wishes

to take his own life when at his most

optimistic.

422. Very worked-up; angry at everything.

423. Despondent; very sad.

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PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

424. Merry, cheerful, pleased with life; (6

th

day).

425. Optimistic about the future.

426. Oppression of spirit.

427. Very sentimental.

428. Very irritable.

429. Very merry and cheerful.

430. Very violent in the morning.

431. Everything makes her angry.

432. Very violent, liable to outbursts of

temper, always thinking of dying;

suddenly very merry, just as suddenly

very sad; strongly alternating moods

during same day.

433. Very irritable when he has to

converse a lot.

434. Every moral impression affects her so

strongly that she trembles all over.

435. Gloomy in spirit and lacking in

gaiety.

436. Gloomy thoughts; he believes he is

going bankrupt.

437. Persistent thoughts of which he

cannot rid himself; they recur in

dreams at night; (Lasted 3 days).

438. Great aversion to being driven

anywhere – lasted four weeks – then

suddenly a desire for it which cannot

be satisfied quickly enough, even in

bad weather.

Introduction : This article has been created

over three years and in that time I have refined my

original ideas so that I feel can now write with

greater certainity. I have moved repeatedly between

observation, practice and theoretical considerations,

in oreder to test and re-test the original ideas. I

have also spent a lot of time collecting fresh data.

I felt the need to do this because there are

many original observations about Psorinum, in this

article. It is not just a modern restatement of

HAHNEMANN’s work. The ideas presented here

form part of a much larger work on the Psora

theory and the history of disease which shows no

sign of being finished at the moment. So these

notes are mainly about Psorinum as a remedy in

homeopathy and the major indications for its use.

Inevitably, we must also consider some aspects of

HAHNEMANN’s controversial Psora theory,

though I have tried to keep this brief.

Psorinum has become the single most

interesting and important tremedy in the Materia

Medica. One reason for this interest is personal, I

myself had scabis in 1971, along with 5 other

members of my family. Since then I have watched

with fascination, not only the unfolding of myriad

illnesses and symptoms within the members of the

family and their offspring, but I have also seen the

profound and curative effects of Psorinum as a

remedy.

Psorinum is a very full remedy, with a very

large symptomatology, much larger thean is

indicated in any Materia Medica. It could prove to

be as vast as to include all the antisporic medicines

with in its “sphere of action”.

It is the Alladin’s Cave and the Pandora’s Box

of homeopathy, as it contains and can release both

wonder and demons !

Psorinum appears to be a cure-all or panacea

(more on this later). It broadly covers and includes

Sulpur, Zincum, Natrum muriaticum,

Petroleum and Graphites and to a lesser extent

Sepia, Arsenicum album, Phosphorous,

Argentum nitricum, Calcarea carbonica, Silica

and Lycopodium. All these remedies are “big

stars” n their own right, but I feel that they are

better seen as merely a part of the Constellation

sorinum, for that seems to be their natural habitat.

In other words, Psorinum is a vast remedy, that

embraces all the above remedies.

In general, cases with a strong indication for

one of the above remedies will almost certainly

lead into Psorinum eventually.

Such cases are moving towards Psorinum, because

the underlying driving force of the case is Psora. A

case begins to unravel under the influence of our

rremedies. It unravels in the general direction of the

original cause, be it Sycosis, Syphilis or Psora.

Thus strongly Psoric cases unravel towards

Psorinum and it is sensible to accept this fact and

be guided by it.

While there have always been some theoretical

objectives to confusing the remedy with the miasm

(see ALLEN and DUDGEON), these are of more

inerest to pedants than to practitioners of

homeopathy ! Theory that cannot be substantiated

in fact, is always inferior to fact tht can be

substantiated, no matter how peculiar or heretical

the latter may seen to be, and no matter how

attractive and intellectually satisfying the theory. It

is all too easy to be deceived into. what Russell

called “intellectual rubbish”! Reading DUDGEON

should ensure that this point is clearly understood.

The truth of the Psora theory, comes not from

grandiose reasoning, but through accurate

observation of cases.

The tree main features of Psorinum are

offensiveness, itchiness and inveterate states. Thes

three run through all of its conditions. There is

nearly always itchiness and offensiveness, often

combined with a torpid lack of reaction. This lack

of reaction is often deep-seated and insidious. In

the worst cases it is slumbering lack of symptoms

which fails to manifest itself at all: a dormant or

quiescent sora (Physical and mental torpor?).

Sulphur, of course, is sufficiently close to

PSORINUM,

MORELL, Peter

The Homeopath

Vol. 6, No. 4

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

Psorinum to bring about a shift and dislodge the

blockage of many cases. But Psorinum itself is

even better. Psorinum unjams jammed-up cases

because it is a feature of the miasm. Sulphur does

the same because it is the leading antipsoric

remedy after Psorinum. In torpid cases, one of the

first and centrifugal effects of taking Psorinum is

the return of itchiness of the skin, and of taking

Psorinum is the return of itchiness of the skin, an

dthis, as KSNT among others, noticed is always a

good sign.

The Drug Picture.

The main features of Psorinum are :

1. Inveterate conditions in general

(never get well).

2. Inveterate dirtiness and offensiveness

– mouth, sweat, axillae, genitals, flatus,

stools, eruptions, feet, etc.

3. Lack of reaction (sensitivity) to

remedies, to diseases, to weather, to low

potencies, to anything (torpor).

4. Itchiness of the skin especillay in

folds and where the skin is thin, for

example : behind ears, behind knees, in

fold of elbow, folds of neck, wrists,

axillae, groin, genitals, between toes,

between fingers, around and in th navel,

around anus and perineum, on face, along

the jawline, in whiskers and around

mouth. Itchiness made worse by wool,

abrasion of clothes, heat, hot bath, het of

bed, undressing, (NB. the above

symptoms also apply to scabies itself).

5. Skin cented case and complaints ––

psoriasis, eczema, impetigo, acne,

blackheads, herpes, warts, itchiness, dry

crusts or watery oozing, scabs, scales,

cracks, desquamtion, etc. Generally

itching intensely at times and in place

indicated above. At first relieved and later

aggravated by scratching.

6. A history of skin conditions (see 5) in

certain places (see 4) in parents,

grandparents, brothers, sisters, etc.

7. Hard and uncomfortable nasal crusts

and scabs form high up in the nostrils,

difficult to detach and re-form after doing

so. Leads to chronic nose-picking.

8. Fungal infections – oral and genital

candida (thrush), ring-worm (of scalp,

hands, legs, etc), anthelete’s foot,

recurrent attacks that are temporarily

improved by Sulphur, Lycopodium or

Sillca.

9. Parasitic infestations –– pinworms,

nits, fleas, headlice, crabs. Recurrent

attacks, especially among children.

10. Allergic reactions of all kinds –

asthma, hayfever, skin, nose and eye

reactions to pollens, dust, feathers, certain

foods, detergents, oils, chemicals, etc.

11. Reactions to vaccinations and

immunizations, giving rise to chronic

nasal catarrh (mucus clear or green),

asthma, bronchial colds, frequent colds,

chronic coughs, and more serious

conditions, for example : brain damage.

12. A hose of infant and childhood

complaints, especially as listed above (See

5, 8, 9 an d10) in places indicated (see 4,

5). Theses also include nappy-rash, nasal

catarrh, painful teething, susceptibility to

colds of flue, night terrors, sleeplessness

in infants, petulant behaviour, waxiness,

crustiness and offensiveness of the ears

including discharges (otorrhoea), measles

German measles, chicken pox, heat rash.

13. Haemorrhoids, Varicosities, ulcers

and chilblains of extremities – ankles, feet,

toes, fingers, legs – all itching and painful

inflamed to some degree, worse for cold,

heat, undressing, scratching.

14. Non-sycotic (that is most forms of )

asthma, bronchial catarrh, bronchitis,

shortness of breath, incipient tuberculosis.

15. Offensively sweaty feet, hands and

axillae of an inveterate nature, often

associated with fungal infection (tinea

pedis).

16. Dandruff, greasy hair, itching of

scalp, greasy and dirty skin (face, hands,

chest, back). Desires to wash them

frequently. especially hands.

17. The patient will not improve while

drinking coffee or remedies seem to be

antidote by coffee.

18. Well indicated remedies fail to act, or

act for a time and then abort and fail

thereafter. Needs remedies too frequently.

Needs high potencies to achieve an effect.

Needs the highest potencies too frequently

(e.g. weekly or even daily).

19. Frequent indications for Sulphur,

Petroieum, Zincum, Graphites, Natrum

muriaticum, Lycopodium, Arsenicum

album, Phosphorous, Argentum

nitricum, Calcarea carbonica, Sepia or

silica which improve for a time and then

abort.

20. A history within a family of any or

several of the above symptoms (esp. 4, 5,

8, 9, 10, 13 & 15) strongly indicates a

Psoric state and thus the certain indication

of Psorinum at some time in their

treatment, most probably towards the end

of it.

21. Seasonal conditions, that appear in

one season only for example : the spring,

summer or winter (less so autum), worst

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for warmth, cold, warmth of bed,

undressing, standing, hot baths,

scratching. Better for quiet, rest, lying

down, Often feels unusually well the day

before an aggravation.

I have observed all the above symptoms and

conditions in a variety of people who have had

scabies or whose parents have had the disease. This

particularly includes myself, my mother, my wife

(and her family ) and our two children. An

increasing number of the symptoms have also been

confirmed in practice. The rest of the Psorinum

picture can be found in the standard Materia

Medica.

The mass of evidence out of which this article

grew is too large to include but will be part of a

larger work.

None of these features require much further

amplification. They are all self-evident, bare

features of the remedy and the underlying Psoric

state. Clearly, for use in practice they should be

though about carefully so as to become thoroughly

familiar.

If psora does over 85% of all human illness

and Psorinum is the major antipsoric medicine,

then we need a clearer picture of Psorinum than is

presented in most Materia Medica. The material

presented here is an effort in that direction. Much

of this material is either unavailable elsewhere or it

is present in a garbled, underemphasized or

misleading form. KENT’s Repertory is also

deficient for Psorinum.

Other Symptoms :

There is also a host of other symptoms, some

minor and others as yet only partly substantiated.

which I include for the sake of completeness. These

include.

1. Shyness, timidity, melancholy,

introverted, anxious, irritable, depressed.

2. Great overreaction to slights, angers

easily, becomes abusive and violent.

3. Excessive tiredness.

4. Insomnia, sleeplessness, wakes too

early and cannot sleep again due to

activity of mind, heat, sweat, itching, or

etc.

5. Hair tangles, becomes brittle, sticks

together easily becomes dry and white.

Split ends of the hair (recurrent or

chronic).

6. Ophthalmia, photophobia, glaucoma.

7. Lip herpes.

8. Bleeding of the gums, while cleaning

teeth. Recession of gums from the roots of

the teeth, especially lower incisors,

Accumulation of tarter on inner side and

between lower incisors. Furriness of the

tongue, esp. at base.

9. Nausea, after eating, smell of food,

smell of tobacco smoke, in pregnancy, in

mornings. Acid dyspepsia, buring in

stomach after certain foods.

10. Offensive diarrhea, alternating with

constipation. Difficult stool, must wait,

partial, inco,plete, must return to several

times. Hot sulphurous (highly offensive)

flatus.

11. Urinary disorders––polyps, cystitis

12. Uterine, menstrual and childbirth

disorders; for example : delayed opening

of the cervix, weak labour.

13. Impotence.

14. Coronary thrombosis and strokes.

15. Tuberculosis.

16. Arthritis, aching, swollen joints,

cracking or snapping of joints of ankle,

fingers, jaw, also toes, shoulders, knees,

hips.

17. Viral infections in general seem to

rest on a Psoric base; for example : colds

and flue. Cancer.

18. Great sensitivity to cold weather,

draughts, especially hands, fingers, toes

and head, must wrap up.

These lists cover nearly all modern illness.

HAHNEMANN said that Psora covers 85% of all

human illness : I would go further and say 95%.

HAHNEMANN also said that Psora is a hydra-

headed miasm that grows out into numerous and

diverse forms, which has also been illustrated in

these lists.

Finally, there is a good deal of overlap with

what HAHNEMANN includes in his list

“symptoms of Latent Psora”. It is not that I have

copied HAHNEMANN but that there is overlap of

observations. I originally observed similar

symptoms and then use HAHNEMANN’s lists as

the basis of further observations. I have checked

and confirmed only a small portion of

HAHNEMANN’s lists. Although many of the

above conditions and symptoms may be relieved by

conventional homeopathic treatment, often for

several years, eventually the usual constitutional

remedies will come fail and the patient will move

towards graver conditions as the need for

Psorinum increases. It is at this point that the

remarkable and truly unique power of Psorinum

manifests, being able to turn back the seemingly

inexorable tide of grave illness even at the eleventh

hour. This appears to be an aspect of Psorinum

that HAHNEMANN did not have the necessary

time to discover.

The Psoric Miasm

The relationship between Psora and Psorinum

has an interesting and not untroubled history. As

many homeopaths will be aware, the debate raged

in the last century over the relative truth or

absurdity of HAHNEMANN’s Psora theory. As a

result, within homeopathy, two divergent schools

of thought ware formed : firstly the cynical and

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critical disbelievers who though HAHNEMANN

had finally lost his marbles ! And secondly the

gullible sycophants who lapped up every word the

“Master” uttered. Between these two extremes

there was little room for careful or rational

conjecture. I feel that this situation was to some

extent a product of HAHNEMANN’s obsessive

and paranoid attitude to any form of even mildly

critical suggestion. It is well known that he

demanded total devotion from his closest

colleagues, he often formed theories on scant

evidence and he was unnecessarily angry and

impatient with other medical theorists and

practitioners of the day. These attitudes are still

common in medicine and were also present to some

extent in KENT.

It is quite possible that now, a century and a

half later, similar emotional reactions will reappear

to a new airing of the Psora Theory. Yet I am

happy to brave the storm of derision, should there

be one. perhaps people do not believe the Psora

Theory because of their poor powers of observation

of cases, symptoms and connections, often over

very long periods of time One also needs

considerable thinking time available in order to

deeply ponder the available data. It took

HAHNEMANN 12 years of the most meticulous

observation to formulate his Psora Theory. 12 years

in which he was a very busy man, by no means

wealthy and father of a large and nomadic family.

Perhaps that venom he reserved for his critics was

due to his conviction of the unique and precious

nature of his “arcane” discoveries. He viewed

homeopathy as his brainchild, his precious

discovery and his gift to ailing humanity, and he

viewed himself as its sole guardian and patriarch.

I feel that he was right about Psora and in

particular the following now modified premises :

1. That the itch or scabies does

produce a deep-seated and

“congenital” miasm, that is, an inner

predisposition dormant or active and

able to produce clearly recognizable

and predictable symptoms and

complaints in the individual and her

or his offspring or perpetuity.

2. That the history of al human

illness is traceable to skin diseases in

ancestors.

3. That all skin diseases are

traceable to scabies in self or

ancestors.

4. That possibly plague and

certainly leprosy and elephantiasis are

closely allied to Psora, in some, as

yet, undetermined way, as portrayed

by Leviticus in the Bible.

5. That the word Psora does not

come from the Hebrew “Tsorat”

meaning a groove or stigma,

(equating it with “original sin” or

spiritual downfall), but that it comes

from Psora, the Greek word fro

scabies. “Being a great linguist it is

hardly likely that HAHNEMANN

would have chosen an ambiguous

name for the theory that, to him,

would ensure his immortal fame, and

rank him along with figures like

KEPLER, PYTHAGORAS and

PLATO.

In my view, homeopaths like KENT have done

a great disservice to the PSORA Theory by

pursuing ‘religious’ arguments and introducing

moral elements that are completely alien to the

*Editorial Note :

The Hebrew bible has no concept of original sin, a

later Christian concept. Many Hebrew words were

‘transliterated’ to Greek without being

translated, for example, Angel, Similarly Tsorat,

a general word for trouble, also groove or stigma, is

transliterated to Psora, meaning scabies in Greek.

Being an accomplished linguist HAHNEMANN

may have understood this. The notion of Psora as

original sin may be a SWEDENBORGian idea.

original theory as conceived by HAHNEMANN.

KENT’s writings are packed with pure conjecture

about the miasm; ideas which are unsubstantiated

and highly misleading opinions. Unfortunately,

these accretions to the original theory have become

generally accepted as part of the theory itself. It

must be emphasized that they are not part of the

theory.

6. These conclusions are substantiated by the use of

potentised itch vesicle and its obvious and

profound power to influence that health of all

human beings.

It may seem difficult to comprehend all of this

data and grasp the main issues. The two most

important points to emphasise about Psorinum are

its unique power and importance as a remedy, and

the effect of scabies on subsequent human health.

Both of these points seem to be indisputable in

practice and form a firm sheet-anchor for the rest of

the theory. They are the most easily verified points

upon which the whole theory rests. It is a very

worthwhile undertaking for any competent

homeopath, to explore them both with the utmost

diligence and care. If necessary a personal proving

should be undertaken. The critics of the Psora

theory ought first to carefully consider the

following questions :

1. If the Psoric Miasm does not exist then why does

scabies give rise to the conditions listed above, and

leave them in a family for generation upon

generation ?

2. If the Psora theory is a nonsence, then why is the

potentised product of “mere” scabies the most

powerful remedy in the Materia Medica, which is

capable of unjamming blocked cases, causing

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beneficial changes in all cases (most clearly seen in

young children) and being able to turn the tide of

serious illness?

3. If the Psoric Miasm does not exist, then how can

we explain the ability of Psorinum to remove all

the above listed conditions and symptoms from an

individual and her or his offspring ? This question

outlines the non-sequitur of separating the miasm

from the nosode, (which I speculate applies equally

well to Medorrhinum and Syphilinum).

The answer to these questions follow the same

line of reasoning as HAHNEMANN himself and

can be read in the Chronic Diseases. More

theoretical considerations will have to wait for a

future article. The Psora Theory becomes more and

more vivid and sensible only through observation

in practice. It is elevated to the status of Truth

(Natural Law) not only by speculation and

grandiose reasoning, but through the sheer dint of

observation of cases and experience of using

Psorinum as a remedy, Compiling evidence in this

way proves inductively the good sense of th e Psora

Theory.

The long-term and internal health of the patient

is protected if conditions are left untouched on the

skin. The more they are tampered with, the greater

is the danger to the health of the patient. These

observations are confirmed repeatedly in practice.

Chronic illness within a family begets and stems

from a state that s passed on to the progeny and

which perpetuates further illness. This chronic

illness can always be traced back to a veneral

disease or a skin eruption and ultimately these can

be traced back to a case of scabies. this is the main

thrust of HAHNEMANN’s Psora Theory and I

have seen nothing in practice so far to contradict a

single word of it. If he had had the time,

HAHNEMANN would have seen that ultimately

the miasm can only be removed by using the

nosode, and this is why Psorinum is the single

most powerful remedy in the whole of medicine.

That the miasm and the nosode are two sides of the

same coin and that this forms a uniquely potent key

to unlock the mysteries of human disease. It could

be called the Philosopher’s Stone of the healing art

!

Use fo Psorinum in Practice :

First a word of great caution, which is

extremely important. Do not give Psorinum in

high potency first over 200c. Appalling

aggravations can occur, including the most ugly

and inveterate skin eruptions, often all over the face

and head and lasting for many, many weeks. These

will not be removed even if coffee is drunk by the

gallon nor if Nux vomica is consumed as liberally !

They must be left until they disappear of their own

accord. Untold distress to patients is the obvious

Possibility here, which must be avoided at all costs.

The eruptions can also cover the whole body and

seem to gravitate especially to the same areas as

scabies itself (see note 4 above). This warning

especially applies to people who have had scabies

themselves. The same effortless and magical

curative results ensue, if we are patient and very

gradually ascend the potencies. A typical and safe

dose pattern might be as follows : start at 30 or 200

(one dose of triple split dose) and leave well alone

for 1 month. If symptoms are still coming, leave for

a further month. Repeat the 200 and wait 2 to 4

weeks. Continue up to 1M and 10M in the same

way, waiting longer each time. It will be necessary

to go up to the DM & MM eventually, but one

must be very patient as it is a very slow, profound

and deep-acting remedy, that elicits change and

symptoms for many months. One of the interesting

features is that after ingesting the remedy there is

often a delay of 9-10 days before any change

appears. This is just the same with scabies itself,

during which time the female mite burrows into the

skin, lays her first batch of eggs, which hatch and

disperse around the host.

A case can go on needing the remedy for many

months or years. Psora is not a blockage that is

quickly removed after a few doses of the 200 or

10M. That is an impatient approach that will not

bear fruitful results. Greater patience is required

than with probably any other remedy. In using

Psorinum one is frequently amazed at its ability to

spring back into activity with undiminished power

after a period of relative dormancy and still bring

beneficial changes to a case. It has remarkable

felicity of action, rising phoenix like from the ashes

fo the last spent dose and taking up the work again,

bringing renewed vigour with each dose. It

genuinely seems to be a remedy of inexhaustible

power and intensity. No case would seem to be too

far gone for its use. I can find no remedy to match

it, no parallel within the whole Materia Medica. It

is a truly awesome and inspiring remedy to use in

general practice.

The chief antidotes, if its action is rather

coarse, are Nux vomica and Coffee.

Tuberculinum bovinum and Carcinosin will also

tame its action. Tuberculinum bovinum is

considered to be its main acute parallel, and the

two will antidote each other. The use of coffee

should be reduced, and if necessary eliminated,

when on Psorinum, as it certainly spoils its action.

This is probably yet further evidence of the

universality of the Psoricmiasm : for coffee will

antidote most Psoric (and other) remedies and the

action of any remedy in some possibly psoric cases.

The effect of coffee on Psoric cases was noticed by

HAHNEMANN and deceived him into ranking it

as a major cause of human disease, until he realized

the Psora theory, based on his observations of skin

conditions and family medical histories. Careful

examination of the drug picture of Coffee should

convince you that unlike Psorinum, it is clearly not

a very profound and constitutional remedy.

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The action Psorinum is centrifugal and this is

due to the origin of the miasm, which has been

suppressed inwards from the skin. Thus Psoric

remedies in general and Psorinum in particular,

expel the miasm in reverse order, from within

outwards and from above downwards and

conditions triggered or initiated by the miasm are

alleviated in the reverse order of their original

appearance.

All skin creams, footsprays and similar items

should be banned during its use, as these also spoil

its action and undo the work it is doing This

especially applies to cortisone creams, zinc-based

ointments and footsprays, calamine lotion, zinc and

castor oil cream (for baby’s nappy rash), anti-

fungal creams, etc.

I have also noticed that single doses of

Psorinum 200, 1M and 10M used 3-4 times a year

with infants and young children acts as an excellent

prophylactic against nearly all childhood illnesses.

And this is also worth knowing, but these and

many other observations require further

confirmation in practice.

References :

The main sources of useful information about

Psorinum and Psora are as follows:

ALLEN Psorinum in Materia Medica of the

Nosodes.

BORLAND : Children’s Types.

DUDGEON : Lectures on the Theory and

Practice of Homeopathy.

HAHNEMANN : Chronic Diseases.

KENT : Lectures on Homeopathic Materia

Medica.

KENT : Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy.

PHATAK : Materia Medica

Of the above sources, the most valuable and

informative are HAHNEMANN’s Chronic

Diseases and ALLEN’s Materia Medica of the

Nosodes.

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2.QHD,Vol. VIII, 2, 1991

CURRENT LITERATURE LISTING PART I

A list of current homoeopathic literature,

subjectwise, is given below. Except for the CCRH

Quarterly Bulletin all the others are form the

British, American, German, etc. journals not

readily accessible to every homoepath. Some of the

articles may appear in PART II in later numbers of

the Quarterly Homoepathic DIGEST, as

abstract/summary/condensation/full, etc.

I. PHILOSOPHY:

1. HAHNEMANN and HEGEL or the

medicament is the picture of the disease,

BUTNER, S (ZKH, 34, 3/1990)

2. On provings and clinical symptoms

KELLER, G.V. (AHZ, 235, 3/1990)

3. Is vitalism valid,

LEARY, Bernard (BHJ, Vol. 79, 2/1990)

4. Another personal viewpoint,

CHAPPELL, Peter (The Homoeopath, 8,

3/1988)

5. CANDEGABE versus EIZAYAGA :

Reservation of conflict?

CHAPPELL, Peter (The Homoeopath, 8,

4/1988)

6. The CANDEGABE seminar,

ROBERTS, Ernest (The Homoeopath, 8,

4/1988)

7. Signs and indications of cure: Some cases,

CHAPPELL, Peter (The Homoeopath, 8,

4/1988)

8. Homoeopathic aggravations – a myth or a

fact?

HARI SINGH; MANCHANDA, R.K;

ARORA, Subhash (CCRH Quarterly

Bulletin, 12, 3&4/1990)

II. MATERIA MEDICA:

1. Ailments of lower abdomen – Nitric acid,

GYPSER, K.H, (ZKH, 34, 2/1990)

2. Sensitivity to noise – Asarum europaeum

SRINIVASAN, K.S. (ZKH, 34, 2/1990)

3. Verifications and clinical symptoms,

(ZKH, 34, 2&3/1990)

4. Constriction of the sphincter – Causticum,

EICHLER, R. (ZKH, 34, 3/1990)

5. Cardiospermum halicacabum – proving

with potencies D6 and C30

RESPONDEK, U. (ZKH, 34, 3./1990)

6. Folliculinum

COOPER, Dorothy (BHJ, 79, 2/1990)

7. Folliculinum : Efficacy in premenstrual

syndrome

MARTINEZ, Bruno (BHJ, 79, 2/1990)

8. A case of colitis treted with Secale

JACK R.A.F. (BHJ, 79, 2/1990)

9. Arsenicum album,

ELMORE, Dutt (Resonance, 12, 3/1990)

10. A case in point – the insemination reaction

in fruit flies,

HERSUC, Paul (Homoepathy Today, 10,

10/1990)

11. An Arnica save

HERSCU, Paul (Homoeopathy, 40,

5/1990)

12. Melilotus alba,

WILLIAMS, H.N. (The Hahnemannian,

June 1990)

13. Arsenicum album

WILLIAMS, H.N. (The Hahnemannian,

June 1990)

III. THERAPEUTICS:

1. Understanding asthma,

HOAGLAND, Guy D., (The

Hahnemanian, June 1990)

2. Nehrolithiasis depression

HEUSTERBERG, K-H, (AHZ, 235,

2/1990)

3. Multiple sclerosis,

MULLER, H.V. (AHZ, 235, 3/1990)

4. Progesterone deficiency syndrome – a

case,

GUISCHARD, A. (AHZ, 235, 3/1990)

5. Dreams,

WHITNEY, Kaaren (The Homoeopath, 8,

3/1988)

6. Homoeopathy and counseling: a

worthwhile combination,

LEE, Felicity (The Homoeopath, 8,

3/1988)

7. Work in progress: The Camelford Water

pollution incident,

SMITH, Peter (The Homoeopath, 8,

3/1988)

8. Three Cases, Ran-b, Sel., Anac.

SWEELVIET, Annete (JAIH, 83, 2/1990)

9. Sewer gas – a 20

th

Century obstacle to

cure

ROULEAU, Patricia (JAIH, 83, 2/1990)

10. Sciatica: a case study and differential,

KIPNIS, Sheryl R., (Reasonance, 12,

2/1990)

11. Toothache,

STEPHENSON, David (Resonance, 12,

3/1990)

12. A case in point,

HERSCU, Paul (Homoeopathy Today, 10,

10/1990)

13. NCH/IFH Annual Conference Report,

PENNA, Maite (Homoeopathy Today, 10,

10/1990)

14. Post-operative remedies,

HOPINS, Barbara (homoeopathy, 40,

5/1990)

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

15. Evaluation of homoeopathic drugs in

Psoriasis

HARI SINGH; MANCHANDA R.K.,

ARORA, Subhash (CCRH Quarterly

Bulletin, 12, 3&4/1990)

16. AIDS and Homoeopathy,

KHURANA, Anil (CCRH Quarterly

Bulletin, 12, 3&4/1990)

IV. REPERTORY:

1. Remedy errors in KENT’S Repertory -

Cocculus and Coccus cacti

EPPENICH, H. (ZKH, 34, 2&3/1990)

2. Analysis of rubrics in KENT’s Repertory

– “Theorizing”

SCHINDLER, M. (ZKH, 34, 2/1990)

3. Confirmation of symptoms in KENT’s

Repertory and additions from the Materia

Medica,

GYPSER, K.H., WALDECKER, A.

(ZKH, 34, 3/1990)

4. The story of KENT’s repertory,

SAINE, Andre (Resonance, 12, 3/1990)

V. RESEARCH

1. Analysing homoeopathic prescribing

using the READ classification and

information technology.

VAN HASELEN, R.A., FISHER, Peter

(BHJ, 79, 2/1990)

2. Thinking what we are doing

DEMPSEY, Thez; SWAYNE, Jeremy;

(BHJ, 79, 2/1990)

3. A study of antibody formation by Baptisia

tinctoria in experimental animals,

ENGINEER, S.J., VAKIL, A.K;

ENGINEER, L.S; (BHJ, 79 2/1990)

4. Scientific support for Homoeopathy,

CROOK, Alan (The Homoeopath, 8,

4/1988)

5. Initiatives in homoeopathic research

DAVEY, R.W. (Homoeopathy, 40,

5/1990)

6. Drug proving and CCRH,

NAGPUL, V.M. (CRH Quarterly Bulletin,

12, 3&4/1990)

7. Clinical verification of hypoglycaemic

effect of Cephalandra indica in patients of

diabetes mellitus,

RASTOGI, D.P. (CCRH Quarterly

Bulletin, 12, 3&4/1990)

8. Literary research and Central Council for

Research in Homoeopathy

NAGPAUL, V.M. (CCRH Quarterly

Bulletin, 12, 3&4/1990)

VI. PHARMACY:

1. The legacy of HAHNEMANN-the fifty

thousand potencies,

BARTHEL, P (AHZ, 235, 2/1990)

2. Commentary on the above

SCHOPFER, H.J, (AHZ, 235, 2/1990)

3. Mortar & Pestle,

BORNEMAN, Jay P. (Resonance 12,

2/1990)

4. An up-date on the regulation of

homoeopathic drugs

BORNEMAN, Jay P. (Resonance, 12,

3/1990)

5. Homoeopathy and the community

pharmacist,

AINSWORTH, JBL (Homoeopathy, 40,

5/1990)

VII. VETERINARY:

1. Paralysis in a German shepherd,

BLAKE Jr., Steve (resonance, 12, 3/1990)

2. Here is a lesson or two

LILLARD, Joe (Resonance, 12, 3/1990)

VIII. BIOGRAPHY:

1. Robert Thomas COOPER, an introduction

to his work,

WATSON, Ian (The Homoeopath, 8,

3/1988)

2. John and Elizabeth PATERSON:

Reflections and reminiscences;

BROWN, Geoffrey (The Homoeopath, 8,

4/1988)

IX. HISTORY:

1. Transcription of Hahnemann letters (4),

GENNEPER, T. (ZKH, 34, 2/1990)

2. History of the Berlin Homoeopathic

Physicians

SOHN, FWPH (ZKH, 34, 3/1990)

3. Homoeopathy in 19

th

century American

novels,

MICHOT-DIETRICH, Hela (The

Homoeopathy, 8, 3/1988)

4. Clinica homoeopathica of Oaxaca: a major

homoeopathic teacher center in Mexico,

JACOBS, Jennifer (Resonance, 12,

2/1990)

5. The story of KENT’S repertory.

SAINE, Andre (Resonance, 12, 3/1990)

X. GENERAL:

1. Homoeopathy in the computer age

MULLER, H. (ZKH, 34, 2/1990)

2. Survey of the homoepathic periodicals in

France

BAUR, J. (ZKH, 34, 2/1990)

3. Supervision : a homoeopath’s perspective

CASTRO, Mirando (The Homoeopath, 8,

3/1988)

4. The homoeopathic telephonic consultation

LAKSKY, Philip, S (JAIH, 83, 2/1990)

5. Homoeopathy and computers

MASIELLO, Domenick (JAIH, 83,

2/1990)

6. The IFH professional course – a review of

the fourth week

LEVATIN, Janet (Resonance, 12, 3/1990)

7. The patient’s choice,

JOHNSON, C.D.G. (Homoeopathy, 40,

5/1990)

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

Vol. VIII PART II JUNE 1991

ARTICLES

Introduction :

During psychiatric history taking in the U.K.

enquiry into caffeine use remains the exception.

Current psychiatric text books used in the U.K. do

not give caffeine any prominance, if mentioned at

all. The Br. Med. JI. has referred to the association

between caffeine and anxiety (Ashton C. H:

Caffeine and health, Br. Med. JI. 1987, 295 : 1293-

94). The American Psychiatric – DSM-III-R has

specific diagnosis in the organic mental disorders

section, Caffeine intoxication – Table I.

Table I. Caffeine toxicity as defined in DSM-III-

R.

A. Recent consumption of Caffeine, usually in

excess of 250mg.

B. At least five of the following:

1. Restlessness

2. Nervousness

3. Excitement

4. Insomnia

5. Flushed face

6. Diuresis

7. Gastrointestinal complaints

8. Musle twitching

9. Rambling flow of though and speech

10. Tachycardia or cardiac arrhythmia

11. Periods of inexhaustibility

12. Psychomotor agitation

C. Not due to any other mental disorder, such an

Anxiety Disorder. Tabel II and III show the

similarity between the accepted somatic symptoms

of anxiety and caffeine effects. Table II for

generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and Table III

Criteria for Panic Disorder (PD).

Table II. Symptoms present in Generalized

Anxiety Disorder

1. Dyspnoea

2. Palpitations or tachycardia

3. Muscle tension

4. Trouble swallowing

5. Dizzines

6. Nausea, or abdominal distress

7. Restlessness

8. Easy fatiguability

9. Hot flushes

10. Sweating

11. Trembling

12. Insomnia

13. Dry mouth

14. Frequent urination

15. Feeling keyed up or on edge

16. Exaggerated startle response

17. Difficulty concentrating

18. Irritability

• = also listed as symptom of caffeine

toxicity.

Table III. Symptoms present in Panic Disorder.

1. Dyspnoea

2. Plapitations or tachycardia

3. Chest pain

4. Choking

5. Dizziness

6. Nausea, or abdominal distress

7. Depersonalization or derealisation

8. Paraesthesia

9. Hot flushes

10. Sweating

11. Trembling

12. Fear of dying

13. Going crazy, or loss of control.

*= also listed as symptoms of caffeine toxicity.

Dietary Sources: Caffeine is consumed mainly in

drinks either naturally occurring or as an additive.

The actual ‘per drink’ caffeine varies with the

method of preparation and the size of the cup.

Highest concentrations are found in percolated

coffee. Lowest amounts occur in instant coffee.

Caffeine levels in tea depend greatly on the length

of brewing. Note the number of milligrams of

caffeine in a kilogram of tea leaf is greater than that

found in an equivalent weight of coffee bean. Hot

chocolate drinks average about 5 mg. per cup.

There are many over-the-counter preparations used

for analgesia and migraine.

Pharmacology: Caffeine (1,3,8 – trimethyl-

xanthine) is one of the naturally occurring xanthine

derivatives or methyl- xanthines. Caffeine is

readily absorbed following all routes of

administration, for example, absorption after oral

ingestion is 99% complete at 45 minutes. Caffeine

is distributed into all body compartments, it crosses

the placenta and is excreted in mother’s milk. 15%

is plasma protein-bound. It is highly lipid-soluable

and higher concentrations are reached in the CSF

and brain than in plasma. Liver metabolism is by

demethylaton followed by excretion in the urine,

about 1% o the caffeine remaining unchanged. the

mean plasma elimination may vary, increased in

pregnancy and with the use of oral contraceptive

pill for more than 6 months, decreased in smokers,

possibly in high caffeine users and in patients

taking drugs which induce liver enzymes, e.g.

refampicin. The biochemical action of caffeine is

believed to be mediated by blocking receptors for

adenosine. Adenosine dilates blood vessels,

particularly in the coronary and cerebral

THE ANXIOGENIC

EFFECTS OF

CAFFEINE

,

BRUCE, Malcolm

S.

Postgrad Med. J.

(1990) 66,

(Suppl.2)

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vasculature and inhibits the release of

noradrenaline from the autonomic nervous system.

Effects of caffeine on normal subjects:

Much research contains contradictory evidence

about caffeine’s actions. The findings and

observations need dividing up into 4 groups. A)

acute studies (i.e. on caffeine-native subjects); B)

acute on chronic studies (i.e. caffeine challenges in

habitual caffeine users); C) toxic effects; D)

withdrawal effects.

A. Acute Studies: Caffeine produced significant

increases in anxiety and nervousness at 30 minutes

and a decrease and calmness at 90 minutes. dose

related increase was observed. 2 subjects developed

unequivocal panic attacks characterized by acute

fear of imminent death; hyperventilation and carpo-

peddal spasm was prominent in one case.

B. Acute on chronic studies: Regular users given

500mg show less response. This is due to tolerance.

Any caffeine intake, a sudden increase of more

than 500mg of caffeine in a day will result in

caffeine toxicity. More gradual increases may not

do this. Regardign sleep, tolerance does occur, but

if omitted, people still report falling asleep sooner

and having a better quality of sleep. The one

benefit of regular caffeine use seems to be boosting

performance that otherwise fails due to boredom or

fatigue.

Measures used to study caffeine’s relation to

many physiological and psychological correlates of

anxiety: i) Self rating scales, ii)

Electroencephalogram, EEG is the only true

measure readily available for psycho-physiological

study. In anxiety states alpha activity is reduced

and there is a higher proportion of beta activity.

Generally, stimulants affect on-going EEG by

increasing alpha, iii) Skin conductance. Palmar

sweating is believed to be emotionally determined

and evidence of increased skin conductance in

anxious patients has been repeatedly shown. A

rreduction in skin conductance was also found to

correlate with clinical improvement.

C. Toxic effects: High sudden increases in

consumption have been associated with delirium,

abdominal cramps, vomiting, high anxiety, hostility

and psychosis. All these symptoms clear within 48

hours of abstention from caffeine. Rare fatalities

have occurred with oral doses about 6.5 grams in

adults.

D. Withdrrawal effects: The best-known of the

withdrawal effects is headache. withdrawal

syndrome has an onset at 12-24hou peak at 20-48

hours and duration of about one week. Headache

and fatigue are the most frequent withdrawal

symptoms with a wide variety of other signs

occurring less often including anxiety, impaired

performance, nausea, vomiting and craving.

Caffeine and anxiety disorders: Caffeine toxicity

may be in-distinguishable clinically from anxiety

states other than by history. Caffeine intake enquiry

as a routine part of a psychiatric history taking will

ensure that this diagnostic error is avoided. Of

equal clinical interest is how important is normal

caffeine intake as an external factor in the

triggering and or maintenance of anxiety states, and

does caffeine affect the subsequent severity of the

anxiety state. Anxiety disorder patients were

significantly more sensitive to caffine and drank

less caffeine than the control group. The caffeine-

associated symptom check list showed increased

sensitivity to caffeine with respect to anxiety,

tremors, muscle tension, panic attacks, light-

headedness and diarrhea. There is marked

significant correlation between trait anxiety and

caffeine consumption in anxiety disorder patients.

Using caffeine challenges, two pain disorder

patients with agoraphobia were more sensitive to

the anxiogenic effects than 7 controls.

Case : A 33 year old single female, working as

an assistant architech and looking after a 3 year old

child. Daily caffeine consumption was 540 mg. in

the form of tea only as she found coffee made

‘everything go inside-out’ with the onset of tremor

and other panic-like symptoms. She gave a 10year

history of anxiety with panic attacks. 10 years ago

the initial symptom was palpitations, with later

unsteady feelings, depersonalization, paraesthesia,

fear of dying and the fear of doing something

uncontrolled. Attacks had a rapid onset, lasted 5 to

30 minutes, and the recent frequency was 2-3 per

week. Additional symptoms during panic attacks;

hyperacusis and an urge to get home, although

there was no agoraphobic avoidance behaviour nor

any specific fear of being in places where panic

attacks might occur. Previous treatments included

chlordiazepoxide for 6 months once weekly

psychotherapy for 4 years, relaxation therapy, and a

trial of propranolol, all with minimal benefit. Her

family history was negative. Her father died when

she was 5 years old from heart disease and she was

brought away from home from the age of 11 at

various schools as her mother was severely

handicapped with emphysema. She was not in a

long term personal relationship at the time of

presentation.

Panic disorder was diagnosed and after 1

week’s abstention from caffeine she felt better and

volunteered herself to abstain from caffeine.

Treating her panic disorder with drugs seemed no

longer appropriate. At 8 months follow up she

continued to be free from panic and limited

symptom attacks. She had remained on an almost

caffeine-free intake. On 2 occasions when she took

more caffeine mild anxiety symptoms recurred.

All 6 cases had either GAD or PD. caffeine

abstention improved symptoms in all 6 cases, in 5

such that anxiolytic medication was no longer

required and in 1 where the dose of anxiolytic was

probably less than would otherwise have been

required. caffeine abstention patients should be

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advised of the short term withdrawal symptoms of

increased headache, sleepiness and laziness and

decreased alertness and activeness. High users of

caffeine might be advised to taper their in-take over

a week or two to obviate such withdrawal.

(condensed slightly by Dr. K.S. Srinivasan)

FURTHER ON COFFEE

The oil content in coffee powder ranges rom 9 to

13%. Boiled coffee decoction extracts partially the

oil present in coffee powder. When such decoction

is drunk it effects what is called a

hypercholesterlemic state among the consumers,

i.e. the cholesterol level rises in the body system.

The oil in the coffee bean is unusually high in

unsaponifiable matter which is responsible for

increasing the cholesterol level. In the ‘instant

coffee’ the oil is removed in the process and in the

‘drip filter’ the oil is retained in the residue. Only

boiled coffee extracts the oil which increases the

cholesterol (Extract from Letter to the Editor, The

Hindu, Madras, from G. Azeemoddin, Jt. Dir.,

TNTU Inst. of Chem. Tech. Anantapur. = K.S.S.)

The Nature of

Indifference : This mental state, defined by

WEBSTER mainly in negative terms to portrary an

emotional void, is actually a highly complex

emotion, full of substance and fraught with inner

tension.

Its manifestations differ in the various

constitutional types and according to the causes

from which it originates.

For instance, in Phosphorus indifference often

takes the form of unresponsiveness, in Lycopodium

of detachment, in Sulphur of egocentricity, in

Natrum muriaticum of self-denial, in Sepia of lack

of interest, in Lachesis of “switching off.” and so

forth.

Sometimes the indifference appears innate

(Lycopodium), sometimes acquired (Phosphorus,

Phosphoric acid), sometimes assiduously cultivated

(Natrum muraticum, Staphysagria), sometimes a

blend of the above (Sepia).

In its purest form, indifference is a sickness

arising from total physical collapse or mental

shock, with no strength to care, and its addressed

by such remedies as Phosphoric acid and

Carbovegetabillis. but sometimes it is part of a

curative process – offering the vulnerable

individual a way to find emotional equilibrium and

assisting him to become disengaged from

unendurable reality.

In these cases the physician will administer

medium instead of high potencies so as not to

disturb the defence mechanisms at work. For the

action of the homoeopathic remedy is paradoxical:

the one that can dispel an unhealthy indifference

can sustain and encourage a curative one.

The physician further learns to distinguish a

true emptiness from one which masks an

underlying vulnerability or obsession. And this

latter state can, in turn, be subdivided into healthy

versus unhealthy masking indifference – all of

which forms will be examined below.

However, sustained indifference, even when

curative, is often unnatural. Feeling, caring,

enjoyed, relating, being moved by interest or

curiosity, are all integral to being human, and a true

indifference, in the sense of emotional stasis,

denies a vital aspect of the human experience. Even

the “healing” (or “protective”) indifference, taking

the form of self-renunciation or self-deprivation,

entails a certain degree of withdrawal from life.

And the individual who remains too long in an

emotional void, lacking positive feelings risks

replenishing the vacuum with negative ones.

Forestalling this evil by extricating the patient from

his slough of indifference and restoring him to a

fuller state of existence becomes the physician’s

prime objective.

Yet another species of indifference is not a

rejection of life, but only a rejection of overly

powerful and uncontrolled emotions which

endanger one’s serenity. It is the calm after an

emotional storm, emerging when pain and

bitterness have been exhausted, emotional injury

and disappointment overcome, rancour and

resentment dispersed. The patient has progressed

beyond the subversive anger that tends to turn

against him, beyond “extreme loathing of life”

(HAHNEMANN-Sepia), and has arrived instead at

an indifference that offers a way of confronting

harrowing emotional ambiguities and softening

rigidities of personality without risking a fracture.

The task of the homoeopathic remedies may often

be to help the patient arrive at this highly desirable

state of poisa and serenity.

The term “indifference” thus covers a range of

functions, both curative and masking, emotions

both healthy and unhealthy, and manifestations

both desirable and undesirable meaning, in

homoeopthy, that we have a large assortment of

possible medicines. Apart from Phosphoric acid,

the newest member of our portrait gallery, the

following pages touch primarily, upon the finer

shadings of several remedies already discussed in

these Portraits.

This selection merely reflects the author’s own

observations and experience with cases exhibiting

the emotional state called “indifference” and is not

meant to exclude such remedies as China, Platina,

Lilium tigrinu, and dozens of others which have

also been found to benefit patients in whom

indifference is a prominent symptom.

INDIFFERENCE,

CATHERINE R.

COULTER,

The Hahnemanian,

September &

December, 1989.

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Genuine Indiffernece Resulting from Physical

Ailments or Mental Shock: A genuine

indifference, in the sense of true emotional

emptiness, can be provoked by such acute physical

ailments as influenza, pneumonia, mononucleosis,

malaria, typhoid, and others. The patient is left too

feeble to muster a mental or emotional response.

Carbo vegetabilis comes first ot mind for the utter

indifference accompanying the state of collapse

following a severe illness. The patient is aware of

his surroundings but “hears everything without

feeling pleasantly or unpleasantly, and without

thinking of it” (HERING). He cannot “whip

himself into activity or rouse a desire to do

anything (and is ) unable to perceive or feel the

impressions that circumstances ought to arouse”

(KENT). These mental symptoms reflect one

aspect of the well-attested Carbo vegatabilis

“sluggishness” (KENT).

But, overall, this polychrest suffers from a

paucity of idiosyncratic or sharply delineated

psychological traits. In addition to its picture of

indifference and mental sluggishness, the sketchy

mental picture of this important remedy is made up

principally of variations of HERING’s memory

feeble or temporarily lost .. with a tendency to

fixed ideas; mental confusion making thinking

difficult: and HAHNEMANN’s” out of humor,

great irritability, peevishness; impatient after angry

outburst of temper.”

Another commonly prescribed medicine for

indifference after an exhausting illness (influenza

in particular) is Gelsemium. Here the mental

“dullness, listlessness, and languor” (BOERICKE)

correspond to the patient’s physical picture of

droopy eyelids, heavy limbs, and complete absence

of energy. And, in a perhaps fanciful extension of

the Law of Similars, the state of both mind and

body are reminiscent of the torpid, sultry languour

induced by the intoxicating perfume of the yellow

jasmine from which the remedy derives. Psorinum

should also be considered for indifference arising

from lowered vitality and lingering weakness in

patient never fully recovered from some previous

illness – a “never cared since” syndrome which

parallels the “ never well since” syndrome

discussed in an earlier chapter.

Phosphoric acid is another viable candidate for

total indifference to his surroundings. Although

BOERICKE says of it, “mental debility comes first,

followed later by the physical”, many physicians

find it useful in cases of indifference following a

debilitating physical illness, where the patient

simply has too little energy to care.

Indifference can also result from severe mental

shock – after a fright or overwhelming sorrow.

The immediate aftermath might call for

Aconite or Ignatia But once the initial shock has

been overcome, Opium with its “ailments that

originate from fright” (HERING) or Phosphoric

acid, with its “system (that) has been exposed to

the ravages of grief and loss” (BOERICKE) are

frequently resorted to.

Opium’s stupefaction (and ) indifference”

(HAHNEMANN) is easily recognized by those

familiar with the effects of opium and other opiates

(“complains of nothing, wants nothing; tranquil

indifference to earthly things” (HAHNEMANN)

and requires no further clarifying examples. But the

Phosphoric acid indifference that descends on the

patient who has undergone the shock of grief,

chagrin, or disappointment in love: (HERING)

does call for elaboration.

Like a stone thrown into still waters, after the

initial shattering, the emotions spend themselves a

series of ripples of decreasing intensity, and

Phosphoric acid is a major remedy for these

peripheral reverberations. Thus it better fits the

second stage of emotional trauma, when acute

shock has become a “settled despair”

(BOERICKE) that may take the form of

indifference.

The Phosphoric acid patient is quiet and

seemingly unperturbed. Although he might appear

absorbed, in reality no feelings or sensations

smolder beneath the surface (“no howling

emptinessinside,” as one patient put it). He is

adverse to conversation and unable to react

appropriately (“speaks little and answers

unwillingly the questions put to him”;

HAHNEMANN) – not because he is sullen or out

of humor (although he may “look very ill-

humoured and sullen”; HAHNEMANN), but from

a sense of futility. No comment is adequate to the

trauma he is undergoing or has undergone, and no

one who has not experienced a similar grief can

understand it. He does not permit himself to fee, les

he reopen old wounds and rekindle the former pain.

He will dutifully go through the required motions

of living but appears abstracted – almost in a

dream. Or he will sit numb and dazed, staring

vacantly into space.

He might tell himself to clean the house, work

in the garden, or vist a friend, but then appends,

“Why bother? Why pretend to care? Nothing

matters any more… “In extreme cases he takes to

his bed, lying motionless, “like a log, utterly

regardless of his surroundings” (H.C.ALLEN), and

unwilling to be disturbed.

Phosphoric acid, however, may also be

indicated for the polar opposite of indifference –

the overt forms of grieving where the patient is

visibly torn asunder, uncontrolled dand frantic

(“hysteria”; HERING; “restlessness.. weeping..

hurried talking”; HAHNEMANN).

A woman of fifty, diagnosed several years

earlier with multiple scierosis, suddenly realized

that her condition was incurable. She had been

valiantly ignoring it and trying to live normally, but

her progressive physical disability now caused her

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continually to trip and fall. In the last few months

she had gone from a cane to a walker, and was now

confined to a wheelchair. Her back hurt

continuously; at right she had severe tearing pains

in the legs; she had neither bowel nor urinary

control; and her clumsy fingers could not open jars

or bottles, or even hold objects without dropping

them, Her tongue, moreover, was so thick and

inagile that she sounded inebriated when she spoke.

Hence she had totally lost her composure and

came to the physician sobbing in terror and despair.

Ignatia was initially prescribed for her hysteria, and

several other remedies were tried, but the case was

really turned around by Phosphoric acid 200c (in

weekly doses for a month) with its two rather

colorless supporting symptoms: “better for warmth

of bed and warm food” (HERING).

Today, ten years later, the patient has not been

cured of her degenerative disease but has very

definitely improved. She can walk with only

occasional use of a cane, has really full control of

her bowels and urine, talks normally, and has

recovered more than eighty percent of her manual

dexterity. She receives constitutional remedies at

least monthly to maintain her improvements, and if

she relapses into overt fear and hopelessness,

Phosphoric acid invariable comes to the rescue.

Worth mentioning, in connection with this

case, is that Phosphoric acid, with its “extremities

weak and greatly debilitated; tearing pains in joints,

bones, and periosteum; stumbles easily and makes

mistakes, “and Picric acid (TNT!), with its “great

weakness of the extremities, tired heavy feeling all

over body, especially the limbs; acute ascending

paralysis” (BOERICKE), are among the half-score

or so remedies that have proven exceptionally

valuable in multiple sclerosis.

Phosphoric acid is another important

homoeopathic remedy (cf. Carbo vegetabilis,

above) that is not endowed with a well-developed

or clearly defined personality, Although possessing

a rich and varied collection of physical symptoms,

its mental and emotional picture is rather meager –

always overshadowed by the related, and more

colorful, Phosphorus. HERING has summarized

the Phosphoric acid personality in a few key traits:

“unwilling to speak listless, apathetic; remarkable

indifferent to everything in life… weak memory;

loss of ideas; weakness of mind; cannot collet

thoughts; cannot find the right word when talking;

answers reluctantly and slowly or shortly and

incorrectly. “Later textbooks of material medica

merely reiterate this picture, or elaborate on it, and

the prescriber must rely largely on the physical

symptoms and supporting modalities.

Yet, in its power to dispel the indifference

resulting from despondency, negativity, lack of

interest, or emotional emptiness, to restore the

physically exhausted or emotionally depieted

patients’ vitality and ability to care; also in its

capacity to enable the despairing patient to acquire

a SAVING indifference, and the stoical one to

sustain his mental equilibrium through mental and

emotional strain Phosphoric acid has earned its

rightful place among the homoeopathic

polychrests.

The Masking Indifference: Often the indifference

is not genuine but merely feigned – a sheath

concealing some underlying drive, fear, or

vulnerability. The aim is not to deceive. The mask

of indifference helps preserve self-control and

maintain emotional stability, it serves to contain an

otherwise consuming emotion. It also signals to

others that this reserve should not be violated but

be respected.

Phosphoric acid plays a major role in all these

instances.

A representative case was the middle-aged

man suffering from arthritic pains of recent onset

who, with the noblest intentions in the world, could

scarcely tolerate the chronic infidelities of his

attractive young wife. His love for her and their

two young children, together with his innate

stoicism, enabled him to conceal his pain behind a

mask of indifference, and his calm disposition,

seemingly incapable of rancour, helped him appear

unperturbed. Only his sorrowful, pleading eyes –

those of a dog gazing imploringly at his master and

unable to express his pain – betrayed his true

feelings. Although he forgive his wife in his hear

and appeared indifferent to her behaviour, his body

possessed a will of its own. Expressing its grief

through the pain in its joints, it refused to allow his

to ignore the repeated injuries to his psyche.

Being closely related chemically to

Phosphorous, Phosphoric acid has the same affinity

for the bones and joints – with “tearing,”

“burning,” “boring,” “digging,” or “cramping”

pains – and this remedy was prescribed (In medium

potencies) with gratifying results the physical pain

vanished, and even the emotional trauma became

more tolerable.

Admittedly, other homoeopathic remedies are

available to assist patients who conceal their

injuries under a cloak of indifference, but whose

unforgiving and unforgetting body develops

pathology in consequence. Natrum muriaticum is a

prime example – hiding his sorrow under a

beaming smile so as not to burden others with his

interminable difficulties (“No, nothing’s the matter

.. Yes, I’m perfectly fine?”) or maintaining a stoic

front and stiff upper lip to prevent his feelings from

becoming too real. Prominent here, too, is

Staphysagira – whose masking indifference

conceals even from himself the emotional origins

of his bursitis, rheumatism, sciatica, tendonitis, or

whatever.

Sometimes, in fact, the patient recognized the

emotional basis of his illness only in hindsight –

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

after Staphysagria has been successfully prescribed

and helped to cure his physical condition.

A typical case was the woman with a persistent

sciatica which resisted all pain-killers, After trying

every conceivable medical test, including a CAT

scan, she eventually turned for help to

homoeopathy.

At first she was treated with such conventional

sciatica remedies as Rhus toxicondendron,

Hypericum, and Colocynthis, but when these

proved unavailing, the physician inquired more

closely about her family. Underlying her condition,

as it turned out, was an anger at her son’s school

teacher, who was critical of his behaviour and

insensitive to his needs. She disguised this by a

cavalier indifference (“So, she’s incompetent. I

suppose she’ll be out of his life after this year !”),

but her body did not allow her to suppress this

resentment and asserted itself in no uncertain terms

until the situation was righted by Staphysagria.

Such are the psychic depths addressed by the

homoeopathic remedy even without the patient’s

conscious participation. Without forcing him

laboriously to examine the distressing present, or to

disinter and relive the traumatic past (in this case, it

was the excessive parental criticism the patient had

been subjected to in childhood), the Simillimum

proceeds to disperse their untoward consequences.

Indifference to Everything in Life: “Indifference”

in the KENT Repertory has a number of subrubrics.

We begin with the one which is broadest in scope –

“indifference to everything in life.”

This state is akin to ennul, that mental

weariness and overall dissatisfaction with life

which in former years was regarded as a malady of

the leisured class but which today, under conditions

of democracy, is shared equally by all.

The patient does not display a Hamlet-like

loathing for life out of intellectual Angst or

ambiguity, nor yet a Werther-like tedium vitae out

of sorrow or despair, with active desire for death;

his attitude is more defeatist, his mood is calm, but

his outlook is somber.

For this condition Phosphoric acid is a

homoeopathic mainstay. It befits the patient with

complete lack of interest in his surroundings. Even

when young, he is so fatigued in spirit, so firmly

convinced that pleasure, success, affection, and

excitement are not for him , that he has ceased

striving for happiness or meaning in life.

It is not a sense of grievance that deprives him

of responsiveness but rather a settled

discouragement and demoralization – dispirited

reaction to his environment. He displays no

urgency, no desire for accomplishment, no

impatience to overcome his mental stagnation – to

move out of his emotional limbo. “I need time to

remain Ill ..I haven’t the energy to start getting well

… I have to stay in this apathetic state a while

longer…. please don’t force me!” – are his more

typical supplications; and “I don’t want any of your

remedies. I refuse to be potentized!” – a more

unusual one.

A man of the church, who had returned weak

and depressed from a tour of the Third world in an

official capacity, was loath to resume his parish

duties. While the diarrhea he had contracted in

Africa was debilitating enough, something more

subtle and profound than any physical ailment had

transpired during his trip. Witnessing so much

poverty, illness, starvation, and suffering in his

enfeebled state had undermined his faith, and he

was now quite indifferent to the spiritual welfare of

his American flock. He saw no point in continuing

his mission on earth. He had, in short, given up: “I

feel that I have passed the summit of life; from now

on th path goes only downhill.”

The minister’s uncharacteristic. but now

engrained, indifference was so startling that a

friend recommended that he try homoeopathy. On

the basis of his continuing diarrhea (prominent in

Phosphoric acid), and also by virtue of the modality

“worse when walking out of doors, better form

sitting in the house” (HAHNEMANN), one of the

remedy’s few idiosyncratic symptoms, it was

prescribed in the IM potency.

The effect was spectacular! It not only restored

the clergyman’s former optimism and happy

disposition but accomplished the more formidable

task of renewing his faith in an ultimately merciful

(even if His ways are not always comprehensible)

Deity.

The Phosphorus “indifference to everything in

life” presents an even more striking contrast to the

type’s usual liveliness or joie de vivre. Sometimes

his lack of response reflects an overall satiety with

life’s pleasures, after having burnt the candle at

both ends – and in the middle. At other times the

“strange, rare, and peculiar” aspect is the sudden

loss of his former attractive enthusiasms.

A homoeopathic physician in his mid-thirties

who was relatively new to th trade suddenly lost all

interest in life - including family, friends, hobbies,

even (difficult to believe!) his profession. His

former ebullience and eagerness to follow the

homoeopathic method had turned into a profound

despondency (“the whole world seems dreadful to

him”; HAHNEMANN) and was later moderated to

a less alarming listlessness (“afterwards total

apathy”; HAHNEMANN). When he finally turned

to a colleague for assistance, the latter had no

difficulty arriving at the root of the problem.

Some years earlier this fledgling doctor had

been converted to homoepathy by one of those

energetic and charismatic leaders periodically

spawned by this movement, who sat themselves up

as more than mere teachers – rather as “master” or

“gurus” – and thereupon develop a strong and

devoted following.

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For a few years this patient had been the

favourite son, a privileged position which sustained

him in his studies and his work. But when he was

duly superseded by a younger disciple, the light of

his enthusiasm dimmed and was finally

extinguished altogether. He no longer had the heart

to seek the company of his former colleagues, or

even to practice homoeopathy, and became quite

indifferent, or even to practice homoeopathy, and

became quite indifferent to life.

Phosphorus is an enthusiast and, like many

enthusiasts, requires an outside force to nourish and

sustain his interest (the Phosphrous personality, we

recall, may lack a clearly defined core or sense of

identity), and in these cases his enthusiasm is a

weakness rather than a strength. When this

nourishing force withdraws, he is lost and empty,

unable to function on his own. He then laments the

“master’s” unsubstantiated promises, which are no

less meaningful to him for being largely tacit, and

feels rejected and bereft. Furthermore, because it is

an “outside” force that he has never fully

understood, he is confronted with the pain of

disillusionment in a God (who “passeth human

understanding”) that has failed. Such was this

patient’s predicament.

he has dosed himself with Aurum metalicu,

Ignatia, Natrum muriaticum, and other remedies,

but he started slowly to pull out of his debilitating

mental state only when Phosphorus was prescribed

– largely on the contrast between his present

indifference and his former strong enthusiasm. He

eventually resumed his former practice – in a

quieter mode but this time with truer inner strength.

Natrum muriaticum can be equally indifferent to

life after some painful disillusionment or loss of

enthusiasm but has another mode of reaction. He

seldom abandons completely any activity involving

an element of duty and thus, despite his current

apathy, joylessly goes through the motions of what

was once meaningful. Hence his indifference is

burdened with more subliminal anger and

resentment than that of Phosphorus, Phosphoric

acid, or Carbo vegetabilis. However, it is rarely

maintained with any consistency. Rather it

alternates with spells of diligence, animation, and

resurging enthusiasm, and this all contributes to the

type’s well-known mood swings and sudden

reversals of taste and opinion.

Although Natrum muriation might be

genuinely indifferent to his own life or welfare, he

is not indifferent to death. While perhaps

welcoming it in the abstract, he cannot be apathetic

about leaving the world improperly attended to.

who will set things right once he has departed?

Hence he must stay around – at least until someone

equally farseeing and responsible materializes to

take over his important duties. What is more, when

he does recover from a debilitating indifference, he

embraces life with the eagerness appropriate to one

miraculously vouchsafed another opportunity of

assisting a world in travail.

Lycopodium presents quite another picture of

“Indifference to the highest degree…. insensibility

to external impressions” (HAHNEMANN). Ever

skeptical of emotion and both relativistic and

ambivalent in his perception of the world, his

apathy seldom proceeds from lost enthusiasm but is

rather an off-shoot of his innate detachment. He bot

instinctively and on principle repudiates whatever

jeopardizes this detachment; any enthusiasm,

eagerness, or too-strong emotion.

A case emblematic of Lycopodium’s

principled reluctance to betray enthusiasm was the

lady gardener whose gowing indifference to life

had been exacerbated by a mid-life depression.

when challenged by a friend to react to a beautiful

be of geraniums, she replied; “I don’t find this

flower bed the least bit interesting. But perhaps the

fault lies in the geraniums themselves and not in

my own apathy. Uninspiring flowers at best, they

do not grip the attention of even the healthiest

individuals.”

The Lycopodium characteristic is not easily

analyzed but is best appreciated in context. Another

instance is his way of reacting to another’s excited

concern with a cool “Does it really matter?”

Indeed, in cosmic terms, the event might not really

matter, but it was not seen that way until

Lycopodium placed it in perspective.

Or, when told that some undertaking is bound

to be “unforgetable,” Lycopodium may remark

wryly, “That is certainly possible!” The

implication, of course, is that the experience may

well match the enthusiast’s expectations, but not

necessarily in the way desired.

Such laconic, even-tempered skeptcism could

be viewed charitably, as reluctance to take too

seriously his own or another’s feelings-a healthy

characteristic when not accompanied by emotional

withdrawal. Those less partial to the typical

Lycopodium aloofness ascribe this “indifference”

to an unyielding desire for psychological mastery.

In Calcarea carbonica “Indifference to

everything in life” carries a note of resignation.

In sickness this can appear as “Indifference

about his recovery” (KENT) with loss of all desire

to fight illness. If there has been much physical

pain and suffering, the remedy is often Arsenicum

album (“carelsss about approaching death, neither

hopes nor wishes to recover”; HAHNEMANN). In

health he may refuse to worry about the morrow;

“What will be, will be”, states he with oriental

fatalism, “Sufficient unto the day are the problems

thereof.”

Thus he resists the modern tempo of haste and

urgency and handles all conflicts and ambiguities

through a placid indifference. Tracing back through

the case history, the physician may find

indifference rooted in disappointment that some

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anticipated event did not occur, some long-awaited

change never came to pass. The patient has

relinquished hope and become indifferent so as not

to be disappointed second time.

It is not only older persons, who may have

outlived the need for passion and intensity in their

lives, who suffer from phlegmatism and inertia, but

younger ones as well. This state compares with

Sepia’s emotional “stasis” (FARRINGTON), but

without the latter’s “Soured” outlook. Calcarea

merely exhibits a preference for rest over motion.

even if (since life is motion) this entails some

denial of the itself.

OBLOMOV, the archetypal Calcarea

carbonica figure mentioned by us more than once

in these Portaits, represents this indifference to

everything – the man who wishes sonly to be left in

peace. To achieve this he will sacrifice love,

friendship, accomplishment, and even self-respect.

This Calcarea indifference, that neither

condemns nor condones the surrounding world,

does not repudiate life generally but simply sets

little value on his own.

A kind and sensitive, but lonely, Calcarea soul

suffered from dizziness, constipation, poor sleep,

tension in the neck an shoulders, heartburn, and

low self esteem. In her marriage she had long

resigned herself to second class citizenship, and

now, with her children grown and gone, she was

also suffering the particular loneliness of the

“empty nest syndrome.” Her life offered no tragedy

or trauma, merely stagnation and an unclear picture

of how to use her potential. She had withdrawn into

her shell and was “indisposed to talking, without

being ill-humoured” (HAHNEMAN). Mindful that

at times this type can be jogged out of passive

indifference only by some external stimulus, the

physician in the full and august majesty of his

authority, instructed her to adopt a kitten and two

canaries. This mandate, reinforced by a prescription

of the potentized oyster shell, accomplished the

desired physical improvement.

And there was even some mental

improvement, as even from her remarks a few

months later; “Certainly at birth we are dealt a

weaker or stronger hand, but I now realize that this

does not justify a fatalistic indifference to the game

being played. The Challenge lies in how you play

your cards, in scoring as many tricks as you can. A

not-too-original discovery, to be sure, but one

which in my apathy I never really absorbed until

now “she sighed.” I suppose that, with the kitten

now fully grown and the canaries singing away

contentedly, I sall have to decide how to play My

hand better. But, oh, my! What a daunting

prospect!”.

The Staphysagria “indifference to everything

in life” usually follows some injury or insult which

the conscious mind is willing to overlook but the

implacable physical constitution has no intention of

letting go by.

A young woman, temporarily institutionalized

for a nervous breakdown, was unable to pass urine

without a catheter. She ws the picture of

indifference, sitting un-reactive and unresponsive

and staring all day out the window. Her urinary

retention, which had commenced in the hospital

immediately suggested Staphysagria, and closer

questioning revealed the presence of suppressed

indignation. Her room had no doorknob on the

inside, and she had been furious at the indignity of

being so incarcerated. After carrying on about it for

two days, her passion spent, she relapsed into

indifference, and had refused, or been unable, to

urinate since that time. Three doses of th remedy in

high potency, administered at twelve hour

intervals, released both her urine and her anger.

After this outbreak of emotion she became anxious

to be released from the hospital and, in

consequence, became cooperative and mad a

speedy recovery.

Sepia and Sulpur, two major remedies in this

particular subrubric, are accorded much coverage

in the following sections, Here we need only state

that Sepia’s overall indifference (“Very indifferent

to everything: the death of a near relative or some

happy occurrence leave her equally unaffected”;

HARING) – for which previous trauma or sorrow

cannot always be established – often merely

reflects a chronic physical lethargy and prostration

that renders her incapable of feeling (“lies

(indifferent) with her eyes closed.” KENT).

Sulphur’s indifference to everything, on the other

hand, usually strikes the physician as a temporary

unnatural state in glaring contrast to the

individual’s customary assertiveness.

Patient 1 : On a Monday a

couple came to me for a ‘fasting treatment’. On the

following Thursday the wife said; “we must go

back home by Saturday at the latest, then…” and

laughingly looked at me. It was about her dog. He

was sad, just lying at home with total apathy,

without eating or follows: the dog had been at one

time, gravely ill. Her husband had brought it up

with love and care. Both of them were inseparable.

This time her husband had, for some reason, not

taken leave of the dog when he went away. The

dog did not find him any more.

a single globule of the size of the poppy seed

of Ignatia XM was sent by speed post. It was sent

by speed post. It was given to the dog at 2200

hours. On the following evening the telephonic

inquiry revealed that since that morning the dog

HOMOEOPATHY

AND MIND,

BAUER, E.

ZKH, 30, 2& 4/1986

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had recovered to its earlier state. He is cheerful,

eating and drinking. The argument for the

exclusive use of the deep potencies and the

indisputable success of the homoeopathic high

potencies and Homoeopathy itself in general is,

according to opponents of Homoeopthy, the faith

which the patient places upon the personality of the

physician. The success with animals particularly

when the physician had no chance to see the

animal, rebuts this. The other objection is chance.

Now that is totally rebutted when, for example, we

cite a series of 4 continuous similar cases of

animals in which immediate and permanent effects

were obtained.

Ignatia is one of our wonderful and reliable

medicines, specially indicated in those

overwhelmed by sadness and grief.

An elderly woman lost her husband. She is

sleepless, lost her appetite, overwhelmed by grief,

Ignatia XM transformed her strikingly. Only

apainful remembrance remained. In this case

Ignatia XM was given one hour before the burial

for the second time and generally five days later

same potency for the third time.

Patient 2: A music teacher who an year ago had

cared for her mother till her death an dhad

witnessed the tormenting agonies of death due to

cancer, felt since an year, simply unwell. Her

constitutional remedy was Silicea and it had earlier

relieved her asthma, her recurring bronchitis, her

disposition to catarrhs as also her unendurable

anxiety for appearing before public which was

necessary in her professional practice. She got over

all these but since an year things were not

progressing forward, she did not feel well,

complained of all kinds of ailment, Ignatia XM

restored her well-being again and later Silicea

worked better again.

Patient 3 : On 23-09-1959 a then 47 hears old

Foreman came to consult me. His wife had

telephoned to me already before his arrival. She

was afraid that he had cancer. Her husband spoke

little, was always serious, depressed, did not laugh,

little appetite and since an year had lost about 6 kg.

weight.

The man was pale, taciturn, emaciated,

answered in monosyliables and not a word more

when interrogated. it was, however, learnt that he

felt well until 4 years ago. Since 4 years no courage

to face life, nothappy with anything and less

appetite. During methodical interrogation, to the

question; “Have you sons?” we learnt that his only

son died in an accident. “When?” “Four years ago.”

The right pupil showed flattening at 12 hours

and indicated the deep mental depression, indeed

the so-called “asthenic form” (while in right eye).

These people hold their grief within themselves,

could commit suicide before anyone had event the

premonition, to the great surprise of those around.

The Patient had the following symptoms:

1. Aliments from grief. This symptom takes the

first place because it is the causative one.

2. Silent grief. This rubric contains Ignatia, Natrum

muriaticum in highest, Pulsatilla in 2 grade.

3. He is uncommunicative, keeps his grief to

himself, shared it with no one. Cyclamen in 1

grade, Ignatia in 2 grade, Uncommunicative :

Ignatia is 2 grade.

4. Consolation aggravated : here Ignatia was in

high grade. So in this case Pulsatilla is excluded.

5. cannot tolerate contradiction: again Ignatia in

high grade.

The patient received Ignatia XM and left my clinic

relaxed and laughingly.

Report 5 weeks after the single dose; health

excellent. Has even improved which was not the

case since years.

Report after 3 months after dose; since 14 days

again unwell. Now he received the second dose of

Ignatia XM. Since then in good health.

I saw him 4 years later fro rheumatism. The

flattening of pupil of the right eye was gone and so

also the symptom “consolation aggravates.”

Again 3 years alter I heard from him. He

suffered from fever with bronchitis. Since then

asthma and cough, both unceasing, day and night.

He was, just now, in hospital and despite the

medicines prescribed had not benefited. I was again

asked to take the case since his agonizing condition

was intolerable.

I received him during my usual clinic time

with a room full of patients. He received a dose of

Ignatia XM, Why?

1. Because the medicine had helped him so good.

2. Agonising, woebegone appearance, the heavy

and shattering cough and the asthma had something

dramatic about it.

3. Because the eihe point for Ignatia was clearly

positive.

4 Above all, because I had not much time then for

him.

I had little hope of success with this lightening

like remedy choice and told him so and

recommended him to begin a fasting treatment so

that we will have sufficient time to retake his case

with all the detailed symptoms and prescribe. But

with the dose given the patient felt undoubtedly

well; cough and dyspnoea went away.

Report form his daughter few months later;

free from complaints.

An Ignatia – symptom which has proved

effective in grown-ups is what BORLAND

(Children’s Type) explains: Tensed appearance:

“When the child speaks there is a strained tensed

appearance of the facial muscles, to the extent of

definite grimacing.” Our patient had this tensed

appearance.

Regarding symptom “Consolation aggravates”;

If it is clearly present, it is a valuable symptom as

we have seen.

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the opposite “Consolation ameliorates” is not a

peculiar symptom but is a normal state. At the

same time, if a total amelioration strikingly occurs

as also physical symptoms are relieved through

consolation then only Pulsatilla has it and in 2

grade.

“Consolation aggravates” is one of those small

list of symptoms which when it is very strongly

present, excludes Pulsatilla and Phosphorous.

There are exceptions. My teacher Pierre

SCHMIDT cured a young physician suffering from

lung tuberculosis with 7 old cavities. The cases has

been seen by tuberculosis specialists. With

Pulsatilla XM improvement began to set in, the

fever passed off and temperature became normal.

An year later the lung collapse could be thoroughly

treated. These lead to total cure without a single

allopathic medicine. The young physician indeed

showed aggravation from consolation but all the

remaining symptoms indicated Pulsatilla.

Pierre SCHMIDT has in his KENT’s repertory,

added Syphillinum in high grade under the rubric

“Consolation aggravates,” FOUBISTER

Carcinominum and the extraordinary KENT pupil

DELMAS the remedies Sabal, Sulphur and Kalium

sulphuricum. All these additons are very valuable, I

have found.

Patient 4 : On 20-3-1952, Mr. H.F. a worker in

neighbouring village consulted me. Since 3 weeks

sensation of pressure in stomach, a strange

sensation in the region of heart, poor appetite.

Since 3 months poor sleep, cannot go to sleep,

tired, often almost trembling of whole body. Within

the last 2-3 months has lost 7 kg weight. Besides

these he complained of his jealousy which has been

there always. his wife suffered the hell with him

because of his jealousy. She was on the point of

leaving him and he held her. If his wife just only

looks at another man, he quarreled with her the

whol day, upset her with the bitterest reproaches

and he knew very well that she did not deceive

him, that she remained true to him, but he could not

be otherwise. He received a dose of Lachesis XM

(Korsakof). One week later: until now better in

every way, however, today again jealous.

Three weeks after the medicine: jealousy is

relatively better. Again pressing sensation in

stomach.

On 20-4, that is one month after the medicine:

The jealousy has gone. The unpleasant sensation in

the stomach has almost become better. Appetite

improved.

One month later: Further improvement.

On 11-8, I was called at my house in the

morning at 5 hours because of lumbago. I treated it

then shudder to say, allopathically. Three days

later, the rheumatism was still bothering and so the

patient received the second dose of Lachesis XM,

Since 4 weeks the jealousy had been slowly

coming up again and increased. On the next day

after Lachesis the patient felt very much btter,

cheerful.

I saw the patient again any year later this time

because of slight Angina and in the course of the

following 6 years, approximately once an year

because fo sudden, passing, rheumatic attacks.

Now I meet now and then his relatives. The

jealousy has not recurred again and Lachesis had

not to be given for the third time.

How would I proceed with the case now? The

loss of weight of 7 kg. within a period of 2-3

months calls for special tests beside the usual ones.

In my own laboratory it is possible to check

neuroaminoacid reaction from the patient’s serum.

It gives only one indication. f it were doubtful

or bad then according to Prof. NEUNHOFFER

treatment through Hydroxylamine reaction is called

for . This is by far the most certain symptom of

early reaction for cancer. It is examined in the

urine, it can be well handled by our method of

treatment.

The peculiar sensation in the heart region

would require the proving of Mozer’s point,

especially the interaction of the left

medicolavicular line with the second intercostals

space which is the place to demonstrate it, that the

source of the trouble is in the heart. Rheumatic

ailments in the precardial region of simple heart

involvement can be differentiated from it. The first

one is healed easily by us through Homoeopathy

without making any great changes in diet which is

essential in the second case, and proceed to

succeed.

Since the new disease was only of 2-3 months

duration we may be right to give the ‘acute

medicine’ in the first instance and thereby

hopefully remove the new disease rapidly.

Following it we may search for the jealousy which

has been there all along.

The acute medicine is chosen on the basis of

the newly come up symptoms and of cours if we

are able to perceive it, keeping in view the

causative factors. Entirely different will be the

method for the choice of the constitutional

medicine for the patient which is essential in

respect of all ailments which persit for six months

or more. We then choose the medicine on the basis

of the totality of the symptoms. We mean thereby

not just the later and present symptoms but the

earlier ones also. The sicknesses which the patient

had suffered, also his parents, grandparents, uncles

and aunts and brothers and sisters are all taken into

account (Tuberculosis, Cancer Syphilis). Finally

we methodically examine in a planned way with

about 100 questions in the Pierre SCHMIDT

Questionnaire. What is necessary is there would be

no haste, the patient should be least interfered with,

to hear him patiently. The sequency in which the

questions are to be asked is also important.

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The questionnaire of Pierre SCHMIDT begins

with the so-called ‘Generals’, that is, the general

symptoms, the attitude, reaction of the total patient

to warmth and cold, seasons, thunderstorm, sun etc.

Only then-after the patient had rapport with us in

the meantime after he had seen that we are

genuinely working to help him and that the system

goes into the totality – do we venture to enquire

about the mental domain. The first of these

questions is: What was the greatest grief in your

life? The second: What was you greatest joy?

These two questions are very essential because they

help the patient open up to us and give out.

Questions regarding sexuality comes last and

questions which are unwelcome to the patient are

kept for a later interview. It is also good to inquire

about the spouse in confidence, when alone. You

avoid this because it makes the patient sad? Not

correct. Instead in cases where there are marital

discords you will get a useful word about the

partner. To convey this word, naturally only this,

later, at the right moment. It has always impressed

me how in seconds the hatred in love turned up,

particularly if the patient already ticked well with

us.

In respect of the case reported above all these

have been left off. The remedy choice rested upon

the reportorial segments: We have:

Jealously: Hyos., and Lach. are in highest grade.

The Apis, Calc.s., Cench., Nux v., Puls. and Starm.

in second grade.

Further complients: jealously, as foolish as

irresistible: Lach. is given as the only medicine in

second grade.

Further, quareisome from jealousy: Cench., Lach.,

Nux v.

The case of Mr. H.L. is a typical example

before us, how one should not make it. But

Homoeopathy is generous. It gives us only the

Similie where we are perhaps unable to find the

Simillimum.

Patient 5 : Years later came to my clinic the young

Mrs. Ruth. She is the eldest daughter of the above

cited patient. Since sometime ago she has been

married, Modest, Hesitant, she was before me

bashful with flushed cheeks. She complained of

jealousy. And how ! if her husband just only looks

at another women or danced with any one, she

would then reproach him the whole day.

Now, she is the eldest daughter of Mr. H.L.

and we know that eldest daughter is almost similar

to the father, wholly seldom the father’s sister. Just

as exactly as the eldest son almost like the mother,

seldom like the mother’s brother.

The constitutional medicine of the patient was

Pulsatilla and it healed of her jealousy.

Patient 6 : Totally unusal form of jealousy in an

entrepreneur which was responsible for

insignificant occupational experiences. I am not

able to recall now his name and am unable to

therefore pick up his record but the peculiarities are

recalled. 12 years ago he had married. He soon

learnt that before the marriage his wife had gone on

holidays in the company of a man. His wife clearly

explained that they had only a platonic friendship.

Her husband did not think so and the thought as to

what could have happened in these two weeks

tormented him all these 12 years. yes, this idea

possessed and tormented him. He neglected his

business at times, spoiled himself by boorish

behaviour with his clients, considered committing

suicide and constantly pestered his wife to confess.

His constitutional medicine was Nux vomica.

Some months after treatment, I think after the

second dose of Nux vomica XM, his wife told that

her husband was likd a glove. He was completely

well. I have not, since then, heard from them.

The favourable action was not the last. it is not

possible that Nux alone could heal a chronic and

deepseated psychotic complaint and for that this

apsoric plant medicine is less deep. The nosode

Tuberculinum was fore seen as soon as Nux was

not satisfactory. The severe, hatred-filled character

of the man would be suitable for this nosode. Also

in mental disturbance we think of this nosode. In

KENT’s Repertory we find the rubric ‘malicious’

with Nux v and Stram. in highest grade. Pierre

SCHMIDT has added Tub also in highest grade.

And to the rubric threatening’ he has added tub. in

2 grade.

These addition to KENT’s repertory by Pierre

SCHMIDT is based on reliable sources (mostly

HERING, HAHNEMANN, ALLEN) and his own

experiences over many years.

How is it now with our Enterpreneur? We have

seen that the second dose of Nux vomica XM

opened up its action.

There are two possibilities.

1. It works at least for 5 weeks or longer. That is,

the well-being becomes worse after 5 weeks or

later. We do not then alter the medicine. Since a

third dose of the same potency does not work as a

rule satisfactorily we proceed to the next potency

according to KENT’s steps and that is Nux vomica

50 M.

2. It is assumed that the second dose of Nux

vomica XM works lesser that 5 weeks, that is, too

short. The medicine does not then work deeply.

There are hindrance from the chronic miasms

which Nux cannot overcome. Now we set the

nosode. We give Tuberculinum XM.

In case of 1 above three things are possible:

(a) ux vormica 50M one dose works at least for 7

weeks. Then we give Tuberculinum XM when the

improvement regresses.

(b) The dose of Nux vomica 50M shows no

perceptible action. We wait for 14 days more and

the give Tuberculinum XM.

In (a) we remain with Nux vomica, according

to KENT’s potency steps, of course until this

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medicine works satisfactorily. In (b) and (c) there

are three other possibilities:

1. With Tuberculinum XM there is relief and it

continues for 5 weeks or longer. Then we give the

second dose Tuberculinum XM when the

improvement lags.

2. The amelioration is lesser than 5 weeks. Then we

give the second dose of Tuberculinum Xm despite

it being within 5 weeks after the first dose and after

another 5 weeks Nux vomica 50M.

3 There is no perceptible amelioration fro

Tubeculinum XM. Then 5 weeks after the first dose

of Tuberculinum XM the second dose

Tuberculinum XM and wait for another 5 weeks. If

no perceptible action is forthcoming we give then

Nux vomica 50M. Evidently Tuberculinum has

cleared hindrances which stood in the way of Nux

vomica.

In 1 since Tuberculinum alone acted

perceptibly for a sufficiently long time we hold on

to Tuberculinum as long as this medicine acts

satisfactorily adhereing to KENT’s scale. KENT’s

scale is : XM, XM, 50M, CM, DM, DM, 1MM,

1MM.

What do we mean by satisfactory action?

Progressive amelioration with every scale of

potency for characteristically least period. These

are : for XM 5 weeks, 50M, 7 weeks, CM 3

months, DM 6 months for the first tie and 4-6

months for the second time, for the MM 1 year.

Pierre SCHMIDT gave addition to the KENT

rubric ‘Jealousy’ on the basis of GALLAVARDIN

as following: highest grade for Nux v., and Lyc.,

and Staph, in second grade.

In Repertoire de Medicine Psychique of

GALLAVARDIN we find “Jealousy, Criminal”

hyos., Lach., and “Consequence of jealousy”: apis.,

hyos., nux v., and puls.

Patient 7 : 33 years old engineer. He is a

homosexual. We can also say bisexual because he

also loved at the same time a girl and it is his desire

to raise a family. Sulphur quickly improved his

disposition so much that he could venture to marry.

He remained under treatment because his

“temptation”, as he put it, rose to the surface again

but lighter and more rarely.

He came under my treatment on 26-11-1960

and he looked very pale. Earlier he had frequent

Angina. the tonsils were removed. Family history

of Cancer. He remained under infrequent doses of

Psorinum and Tuberculinum, 3 years under

sulphur. After this the symptoms indicated

Psorinum. Now he remains cured. He looks better,

improved efficiency, increased vitality and

mentally very clear and bright.

Patient 8 : Chauffer 31 yearrs old. He was

sentenced for 3 years for his preference for small

boys. After one year he was released on parole

without his sickness having changed. Therefore his

prosecutors had to shut him in again. Sulphur was

the constitutional medicine. It improved him

quickly but for another year small boys were

dangerous to him although as year by year it

became lesser and lesser. Simultaneous with the

mental defect his physical complaints like

rheumatism and eczema were improving. The

vitality of the patient improved continuously

progressively which was visible in his younger

looking face so much more as the treatment

progressed. It must also be remarked that now we

are dealing with a bisexual conduct. The patient has

since been married.

Patient 9 : Lady teacher, 22 years old, lesbian

disposition, with every fibre of her being indeed, as

she said. Extremely passionate. Never has she had

the least sensitivity to the other sex. Her

constitutional medicine is Sulphur. Yes, in this case

we have the entire picture of the remedy before us.

Amongst many other symptoms she had: “sadness

in evenings, in bed,” Four remedies have it:

Arsenicum, Grahphites, Stramonium and Sulphur,

She received on

9-3-1963 : Sulphur XM

21-5 report : Felt well.

4-6 report : Iesbic disposition normally improved.

21-6 report : for the first time in her life she was

thinking of ‘man’!

She began to improve in the respect. She has

not of course forgotten girls. Her chronic cold

occurred this year only very mildly (In the earlier

years it was severe)

10-8: Since 3 weeks relapsed with a girl friend;

Now the second dose Sulphur XM, that is 5 months

after the first.

11-9: Further improvement. Her dispositions are

changing progressively.

5-10: Improvement is continuous although slowly.

I did not hear from her further. Probably there was

a relapse after the action of Sulphur XM became

weaker.

Patient 10: This young businessman was also

similarly disposed towards same sex exclusively. In

this case, Lachesis chosen on the basis of the

totality of his symptoms, brought about a slow

change. For the first time in his life he began to get

a progressively increasing liking for the other sex.

But in this case too, just as in the previous one, our

contact ended suddenly and in some ways

similarly.

In the repertory we have the sction: “Love with

one of own (feminine) sex” and find therein Lach

and Sulph. In smaller grade. Pierre SCHMIDT has,

in this section, put Plat, in the highest grad and

added Cal. in the smaller grade.

To summarise: Homosexual tendencies react

positively to homoeopathic constitutional

medicines. We know this from GALLAVARDIN.

But the inveterate cases require spiritual guidance.

Together we can, in the future, alter these patients.

When they do not report to us, we must go to them.

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“If the mountain does not come to Mohammed,

then Mohammed goes to the mountain.”

Patient 11: The Marriage Counseller referred to

me a 37 years old Production Engineer, Since 2

years he suffered from attacks of rage while in

house, During those moments could kill his family,

he told me. His wife assured that he was generally

an affectionate husband and father. but those

attacks of rage were so terrible for the family that

they approached the Marriage Counsellor.

The complaints began 2 years ago. The

Engineer, then, had mad a name in the automobile

manufacturing fabrications and its economic and he

had a process against a concern. This involved his

representing through many lawyers who made his

case weaker and made his opponents strong. Our

patient remained quietly before the court and

defended his case alone and won the process. Since

then he felt himself unsettled. Trifles brought about

extreme rage in him and this only when in his

house.

We have a very pale looking, haggard man

before us, who complained of heart pains from

least excitement, choking sensations, profuse

perspiration, muscle spasms, tremors and a number

of other ailments.

As the first symptom we choose: “Ailments

from indignation: Staph. Is in the highest grade,

Coloc. and Nux v. (from Pierre SCHMIDT) in 2

grade; Ip and Plat. in smallest. Colcynthais is

indicated more in physical ailments from

indigestion, like abdominal colic and diarrhea;

Staphisagria predominantly in mental

consequences.

As second symptom we choose: “violent

anger”; Staph and Nux v. and other sin highest

grade.

As the third symptom: Diarrhoea from anger”

and in the Repertory we find Staph. and Nux v. and

other sin second grade.

The Weihe point is sensitive in such a way that

pressure from my finger brought about vomiting.

Staphisgria XM made the patient feel changed,

the Mozer point which indicate excitement of the

heart chambers was gone.

Report after 4 days: Feels himself significantly

calmer, Now he can tolerate. Heart pain from every

time he traveled in car, Sleep better.

14 days later : Sleeps peacefully.

2 months later : his wife reported : Excellent,

Free from complaints. Sleeps peacefully. No heart

pains.

4 months after the first dose I see the patient

again. slight heart pain. I am astounded at his

improved appearance. The deep pale appearance

has totally gone away. The Mozer’s Coronary

points are negative.

He receives the second dose of Staphisagria

XM.

Report 2 months later: Free from ailments,

even though in the meantime he had to accomplish

a gigantic work.

Staphisagria is one of those medicines

indicated very often in these days. The employee

who must swallow much, be it from his superior or

his colleague and becoming ill therefrom, and the

housewife who cannot vent her anger against the

domestic servant lest she gives her quite notice,

both need it.

And Mr. Lycopodium, whose daughter enters

into marriage with one who is not of her social

standing and who feels that his pride is hurt, needs

it (ailments after mortification: Staph.). We see

now Lycopodium does not affect him any more,

but again only after Staphisgria has rectified the

hindrance.

And the wife deceived by her husband also

requires it. Here we do not take the rubric

“Disappointed love”, which contains Staph. in

second grade, but the next rubric “ailments from

mortification” in highest grade. A valuable

symptom of Staphisgria is” “angry at his own

faults.” Nit-ac., Staph., and Sulph. have this, all in

second grade.

According to GALLAVARDIN Staphisagria is

among the three remedies which cannot bear

injustice (Ign., Staph., Nux v.).

Patient 12 : The young 30 years old wife was

again sent to me by the marriage counseller. She

thought that she did not get the right husband and

wanted to divorce him.

Her youth was unpleasant, soon after marriage

psychic depression developed due to which she was

in a Nerve clinic 6 years ago. Since then it was

tolerable until 21/2 years ago when she gave birth

to her second child and all her ailment came on

again. She feit herself in the same condition as she

was before she was hospitalized, became excited

over trifles, particularly with regard to her husband.

She is not aware of her surroundings, sleepless, has

no control of herself. Also headache, migraine,

pain in the liver region and swollen ankle.

After a three hours case recording and

evaluation of the symptoms I could not find out the

suitable medicine. I recalled the advice of Pierre

SCHMIDT IN A SIMILAR CASE. The anamnesis

indicated that her father had assaulted her in her

youth. This is always combined with great fear

even when the patient does not recall it. Here

Opium is indicated (ailments from fright)

We have:

ailments from fright (Opium in highest grade)

becoming afraid very easily (Opium in second

grade)

very sensitive to noise (Opium in second grade)

cannot bear warm room (Opium in second grade)

Opium is also a so called reactive medicine.

We find it in the repertory section “Lack of

reaction”. If KENT had 4 essential grades then this

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rubric would have Carbo Vegetabilis, Opium,

Psorinum and Sulphur in 4

th

grade, perhaps also

Nux vomica which will act because it antidotes the

allopathic medicaments taken before.

We may also expect a favourable action and it

will bring into order the confusion in symptoms, so

that it would be possible to choose a constitutional

medicine easily.

The patient received on 6-9-1961 Optium XM.

On the next night itself she could sleep. Five weeks

later report said: Since 10 days very well totally.

since her youth, she has never felt so good, so easy.

She can have refreshing sleep. Only the

leucorrhoea which she has been having all along

has become worse.

On 9-10, that is 5 weeks after the first dose,

Opium XM was again called for because – the

sleep had become had after an excitement.

On 26-11 Opium 50M

On 26-12, tht is 3 months after the

commencement of the treatment, I see the patient

again. Since she suffered influenza the sleep was

somewhat wanting. But in general, she felt

excellent and calm despite temporary set back in

sleep.

“And how is your husband?” Oh, he is very

well, he is nice. Before our treatment I have seen

him as if through a spectacle, everything about him

was crooked. Now I see him rightly. He is well in

every respect.”

A needle prick in Ling-sin point in the left side

of the 24 point of the kidney-meridian, with a gold

needle, set right the sleep again.

The patient got Sulphur later. She is free from

ailments.

We must now terminate our expedition. My

purpose was to convey certain hints which perhaps

are not so well-known as they deserve to be. I

personally am thankful to my teacher Pierre

SCHMIDT.

A 41 year old female

patient complained of cramping stomach pains

during nights. It all began 3 years ago in spring

with a Gastritis which recurred every year. The

patient has always been suffering from a sensitive

digestive system; as a child she used to easily get

diarrhea from excitement.

The cramps which awaken her occurred at

three O’ clock mornings. It was better from

pressure upon the abdomen, after eating and lying

on abdomen.

She had avoided rich foods since it could cause

diarrhea.

As a child she had peculiar desire for sour

things.

At 21 years her gall bladder which was full of

stones was removed surgically because of colics.

In 1979 she suffered Hepatitis with nausea,

pressing sensation in the right upper abdomen,

much diarrhea particularly in mornings with

shining, almost white, stools and paroxysmal

itching. She has not till date recouped after that.

Three years ago she observed a peculiarly

depressive disorder. Different anxieties came up.

Daily routine work were affected badly because of

this anxiety; anxiety about something which to her

was very ominous to environment; anxiety about

things which earlier had not anytime caused her

restlessness. She characterized these states as: “as if

the-world-was-coming-to-an-end state”, anxiety

about life and mortal anxiety”.

Gastroscopy was done and a clearly marked

erosive gastritis was diagnosed and it was treated

conservatively. since then it recurs annually as a

gastro-intestinal disease which was contrary to the

manner in which it began with a depressive mood

but with colicky type pains explained above.

The patient was observed to be having a

vehement urge to talk which came up after an

initial reservation.

Repertorisation: In the repertories of GENTRY

and KNERR the central symptom of the patient

could be found:

“Depression in gastritis”.

“Depressed, in gastralgia: Abrot. (KNERR, p.38)

“Depressed, in gastric affection: Pod. (KNERR, p.

38)

“Depressed, in chronic gastritis: Mez (KNERR, p.

38)

“Depression of spirits accompanying gastric

affections: Pod. (GENTRY, Vol. I., p.30)

From repertoristation certain symptoms with clear

indication for Podophyllum were found (KENT):

“Mind Loquacity, p.63: Podo.

“Stomach, desires, sour, p.486: Podo.

“Stomach, pain, cramping night, 3 a.m. p. 517:

Podo.

“Abdomen inflammation, Liver,p.553: Podo.

“Abdomen , pain, liver, colic, gall-stones, p.568:

Podo.

Materia – Medica Comparison: good corresponding

symptoms for Podophyllum were found:

“Depression: Imagines he is going to die or be very

ill, in gastric affection.” (GS. Vol. VIII, p. 504)

“Delirium, loquacity during heat: afterwards

forgetful of what has passed.” (GS. VOL. VIII, p.

504)

“For years subject to diarrhea which would come

on now and then after breakfast, with considerable

pain in rectum…, an acute attack caused by bad

news caused an early morning aggravation, as well

as after eating; attack would also be induced by any

DEPRESSION IN

A CASE OF

GASTRITIS –

PODOPHYLLUM

WEGNER, A.

ZKH, 32, 3/1988

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

depressing emotions or excitement of any kind…,”

(GS. Vol. VIII, p. 507)

“Jaundice: With gall-stones, pain from region of

stomach to region of gall bladder, with excessive

nausea; with hyperaemia of liver, fullness,

sourness, and pain; alternate constipation and

diarrhea, itching of skin…,” (GS. Vol. VIII, p.508)

“Diarrhoea from indigestion after eating canned

fruit…,” (GS. Vol. VIII, p. 510)

“Awakened by violent pains in the stomach and

bowels; the pain were of a griping, stitching

character, and were relieved for a short time by

pressure on the bowels, at 3 A.M. (EN, Vol. VIII,

p.132, No.71)

“Diarrhoea early in the morning which continues

through the forenoon, followed by a natural stool,

in the evening” (EN, Vol. VIII, p.133, No.107)

Prescription: Podophyllum 0/6.

After an aggravation on the second day after

taking the medicine a sustained amelioration

followed until she was completely free of the

ailment, within two weeks, Two months later a

relapse which came in a weaker form was promptly

cured by Podophyllum 0/18.

GS: Guiding symptoms by HERING.

EN: Encyclopaedia of Pure Materia Medica, by

T.F. ALLEN.

Patients often complain

of persistent fatigue or generalized muscular

weakness. A US survey found that chronic fatigue

was “a major problem” for 24% of all adults

attending primary care clinics

1

, and in a community

survey in the UK 25% of women and 20% of men

reported that they “always fee tired”.

2

The causes

of these symptoms are poorly understood and often

generate strong differences of opinion both

between doctors and between them and their

patients.

In some patients the weakness and fatigue

developed after epidemics of an obscure illness

known in the UK as benign myalgic

encephalomyelitis and in the US as epidemic

neuromyasthenia, but isolated cases are more

common. The Myalgic Encephalomyelitis

Association claims that there are 150.000 patients

with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) in the UK;

3

most of these are sporadic cases rather than part of

well-defined epidemics, and BEHAN has

suggested that the condition is as common as

multiple sclerosis (about 3 cass per 100, 000.

4

)

Whether these sporadic cases are caused by the

same putative infection are important in the genesis

of these states of persistent debility are unresolved

issues. The terms “postviral fatigue syndrome”

(PVFS), “postviral exhaustion”, ME and “chronic

Epstein-Barr (EB) virus syndrome” embody an

assumption that a viral infection is responsible for

the patient’s weakness and fatigue.

patients with a diagnosis of ME or PVFS have

often been found to have a high frequency of

unusually high viral antibody titres.

4-6

However, as

these patients have experienced a recent viral

infection more commonly than the rest of the

population almost by definition, firm conclusions

cannot be drawn. In the US, despite reports of

raised antibody titres to Epstein-Barr virus and

human herpesvirus type 6, no evidence of

persistent viral infection has been found

7

. In the

UK, two groups have found persistent Coxsackie B

virus infection in a proportion of patients with the

PVFS.

8,9

Confirmation of these claims and the

development of a reliable test for persistent

Coxsackie infection would have a striking and

salutary effect on the management of patients with

chronic fatigue. At present, however, claims of

abnormally prolonged “Jitter values” on single

fibre electro-myography

10

are un-confirmed and the

histology, electrophysiology, and glycolytic

enzymes of affected muscles appear to be normal.

The development of excessive intracellular acidosis

during exercise in a single patient examined by

31

P-

NMR

11

also seems to be a non-specific finding.

12

That most patients with PVS find mental exertion

as exhausting as physical exertion also suggests tht

a disorder of skeletal muscle is unlikely to account

for all their symptoms.

Although psychiatrists who see patients with

these puzzling symptoms often diagnose a

depressive illness, this or any other psychiatric

diagnosis is frequently unacceptable to them,

especially if it has previously been suggested tht

they have ME. They are unshakeably convinced

that their symptoms are due to organic illness and

refuse antidepressive theory.

It is not sufficiently widely appreciated, even

by doctors, that affective illness characteristically

cause a profound disturbance of energy. Manic

patients have boundless energy and are overactive;

depressed patients complain bitterly that they have

no energy and are notably underactive, Indeed, the

disturbance of energy and activity is almost as

fundamental as the disturbance of mood. In the new

(10

th

) revision of the International Classification of

Disease the basic description of depressive episode

begins with statement that “the subject suffers from

lowering of mood, reduction of energy, and

decrease in activity. Capacity for enjoyment,

interest and concentration are impaired, and

marked tiredness after even minimum effort is

common.”

13

Apart from the absence of any

reference to previous viral infection, this

description is almost indistinguishable from that of

CHRONIC

FATIGUE,

VIRUSES AND

DEPRESSION

R. E. KENDELL

The Lancet,

Vol.337: Jan.19, 1991

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PVFS. Depressive illnesses are also twice as

common in women as in men and are uncommon in

children, two prominent and otherwise puzzling

features of PVFS.

Although ME and PVFS are new concepts,

there is nothing novel about unexplained chronic

fatigue and profound muscular weakness made

worse by exercise. Both have been recognized for

at least a century. The American neurologist

George BEARD described what he called

neurasthenia in 1867 and attributed it to exhausting

of nerve cells through depletion of their stored

nutriment.

14

There are striking similarities between

BEARD’s neurashthenia and ME: in symptoms, in

the social setting in which it presented

(predominantly middle classes), treatment

(complete rest was advocated), and in presumed

aetiology (a real illness, not a psychiatric disorder),

15

Neurashtenia initially encompassed much of

what is now regarded as neurotic illness but by the

early years of this century had come to mean

unexplained exhaustion and fatigue. There was

considerable debate about causation and the

relative importance of physical and psychological

factors and many therapies were tried, from

absolute rest to psychoanalysis. By the 1940s there

was general agreement that psychological

influences were more important than overwork or

endotoxins and, although the diagnosis is now

rarely made, neurasthenia has survived as a discrete

form of neurotic illness in the international

classification even in new revision.

When patients with chronic fatigue are

assessed psychiatrically, between 50 and 80% are

found to fulfil operational criteria for psychiatric

disorder.

1-7,16,17

Most patients have major

depression, others have anxiety or somatisation

disorders, and many have an unusually high

frequency of depressive episodes before the onset

of fatigue. Only one study has failed to find a

abnormally high prevalence of current and past

psychiatric symptoms, but even here 22 of 48

patients (46%) met criteria for major depression at

some stage in their illness.

18

The relation between PVFS and the symptoms

of both depressive illnesses and peripheral

neuromuscular disease has been clarified by a

prospective study.

17

47 patients with PVFS, 33

patients with fatiguing neuromuscular disorders –

eg., myasthenia gravis and Guillain Barre

syndrome, and 26 consecutive admissions with

major depression were compared. Even when

fatigue was excluded as a symptom, 72% of PVFS

patients met operational criteria for psychiatric

disorder, mainly major depression. Morever, the

symptoms of the PVFS group and the depressive

controls were almost identical. Fatigue brought

about by mental and physical exertion was

common in both groups, However, 18 of 21 PVS

patients who met criteria for major depression were

convinced that their illness had a physical basis.

The neuromuscular disorder control patients

described little mental fatigue, except in the

presence of intercurrent psychiatric disorder, and

had fewer somatic symptoms of other kinds.

Patients may object to any suggestion that they

have depression because such a diagnosis implies

tht their symptoms are imaginary of “all in the

mind”.

19

Sadly, this assumption, with its crude

distinction between real/organic illnesses and

psychiatric disorders, seems to be shared by the

ME Association and many doctors. Many of the

symptoms of patients with ME or PVFS can only

be understood as disturbances of cerebral

functioning. Impaired concentration and memory,

depression, insomnia, and irritability are not

attributable to localized muscle disease, even if

there is good evidence of muscle abnormalities.

Evidence suggests that the whole range of

depressive illness, not just endogenous depression,

is familial and in part genetically transmitted.

20-21

Antidepressive drugs elevate mood in people who

are depressed with little effect in normal people.

These facts imply that there must be biological

differences, qualitative, between people who are

prone to depression and those who are not (trait

differences) an between people who are currently

depressed and those who are not (state differences).

These differences must involve, or influence,

cerebral function. Depression are commonly

precipitated by stressful circumstances or life

events, but the same is true of other disease such as

myocardial infarction. Where then is the

fundamental difference between depressive and

‘organic’ illnesses?

Irrespective of the role of chronic viral

infection. the symptoms of most patients with

chronic fatigue states are real, pervasive, and often

incapacitating. The only patients whose symptoms

can legitimately be described as “all in the mind”

are those whose disabilities are learnt behaviour

and whose complaints have been moulded and

potentiated by the advantages of the invalid role.

22

it is important to recognize that , in a society where

ME is portrayed as a mysterious, rather

glamourous, and disabling illness, people who have

acquired this diagnosis may obtain attention and

sympathy from friends and relatives, and perhaps

also a justification for not fulfilling career

ambitions or coping with the demands of everyday

life. They may therefore lead less unhappy lives

with their symptoms and their diagnosis than they

could do otherwise.

The statement that someone has a depressive

illness is merely a statement about their symptoms.

It has no causal implications, despite the fact that

depression tht are secondary to a toxic state or

metabolic abnormality – eg., Cushing’s disease or

drug-induced depression, are usually classified

separately. Furthermore, malaise and debility

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

associated with infection may, by non-specific

mechanisms shared with other stressors, help to

predispose to subsequent infection by an effect on

immune mechanisms and lymphocyte activity.

23

No fundamental distinction can therefore be drawn

between depressive illness and other kinds of ‘real’

or ‘organic’ illness. Moreover, depressions have

the great merit of being eminently treatable, unlike

the chronic viral infections thought ot underline

ME and the PVFS.

Patients diagnosed as ME or PVFS are alsmot

certainly heterogeneous. Some probably have

chronic viral infections that are causally important,

8,9

others may have unrecognized disorders of their

skeletal musculature. A substantial proportion,

however, have depressive illnesses or other well-

recognised psychiatric disorders and in some there

may be no clear distinction between these three

categories. It is essential that a detailed psychiatric

assessment is carried out on all such patients to

ensure that a correct diagnosis is made and that

appropriate treatment is given. The sudden

appearance of symptoms in someone of normal

previous personality does not exclude psychiatric

disorder. Depressive illness commonly presents in

this way.

Terms like postinfective fatigue syndrome and

myalgic encephalomyelitis, with their unproven

assumption about aetiology, need to be replaced by

neutral terms like chronic fatigue syndrome, unless

there is hard evidence of persistent viral infection.

It is also vital that in future all diagnostic terms are

operationally defined. The Centres for Disease

Control (CDC) in Atlanta have proposed an

operational definition of chronic fatigue syndrome,

partly to discourage clinicians from assuming, on

inadequate evidence, that their patients have a

“chronic EB virus syndrome”

24

The CDC definition

has been made deliberately narrow to maximize the

chances of those who fulfil its criteria having a

chronic viral infection. Few patients with chronic

fatigue meet these requirements.

25

Broader

definitions will therefore be needed if the majority

of patients currently regarded as having ME or

PVFS are to be covered. it is likely, though, that

these definitions will include many patients who

also fulfil criteria for major depression or other

psychiatric disorders.

REFERENCES

1. Kroenke K, Wood Dr, Mangelsdorff D, Meier

NJ, Power JB. Chronic fatigue in primary care.

JAMA 1988; 260; 929 -34.

2. Health Promotion Research Trust. The health

and lifestyle survey. London. HPRT, 1987.

3. Annual Report. Myalgic Encephalomyelitis

Association. Stanford le Hope, Essex: ME

Association, 1989.

4. behan PO, Behan WMH, Bell EJ. The

postviral fatigue syndrome – an analysis of the

findings in 50 cses. J Infection 1985; 10: 211-

22.

5. Straus Se, Tosato G, Armstrong G, et al.

Persisting illness and fatigue in adults with

evidence of Epstein – Barr virus infection. Ann

Intern Med 1985; 102: 7 – 16.

6. Calder BE, Warnock PJ, McCartney RA, Bell

Ej. Coxsackie B viruses and the postviral

syndrome: a prospective study in general

practice. JR Coll Gen Pract 1987; 37: 11 – 14

7. Gold D, Bowden R Sixbey J, et al. Chronic

fatigue: a prospective clinical and virological

study. JAMA 1990; 264: 48 – 53

8. Yousef GE, Bell EJ, Mann GF, et al. Chronic

enterovirus infection in patients with postviral

fatigue syndrome. Lancet 1988; i. 146 -49

9. Archard LC, Bowks NE, Behan PO, Bell EJ,

Doyle D. Postviral fatigue syndrome:

persistence of enterovirus RNA in muscle and

elevated creatine kinase. JR Soc Med 1988;

81: 326 – 29.

10. Jamal GA, Hansen, Hansen S.

Electrophysicological studies in the post viral

fatigue syndrome. J Neurol Neurosurg

Psychiatry 1985; 48: 961 – 64.

11. Arnold DL, Bore PJ, Radda GK, Styles P,

Taylor DJ. Excessive intracellular acidosis of

skeletal muscle on exercise in a patient with a

post-viral exhaustion fatigue syndrome. Lancet

1984; i: 1367 – 69.

12. Yonge RP. Magnetic resonance muscle

studies: implications for psychiatry: J R Soc

Med 1988; 81: 322 – 25.

13. World Health Organisation Division of Mental

health. ICD – 10: 1989 Draft of Chapter V

Mental and Behavioural Disorders. Geneva :

WHO, 1989.

14. Beard GM> Neurasthenia or nervous

exhaustion, Boston Med Surg J 1969; 3: 217 –

20.

15. Wessely S. Old wine in new bottles:

neurasthenia and ‘ME’ Psychol Med 1990; 20:

35 – 53.

16. Kruesi MJP, Dale J, Strauss SE. Psychiatric

diagnoses in patients who have chronic fatigue

syndrome. Br. J. Psychiatry 1989; 50: 53 – 56.

17. Wessely S. Powell R. Fatigue syndromes: a

comparison of patients with the chronic fatigue

syndrome. Br. J. Psychiatry 1990; 156: 534 –

40.

18. Hickie I, Lloyd A, Wakefield D, Parker G. The

psychiatric status of patients with the chronic

fatigue syndrome. Br. J. Psychiatry 1990; 156:

543 – 40.

19. Church AJ. Myalgic encephalomyelitis: “An

obscene cosmic joke”. Med J aust 1980; i: 307

– 09.

20. Andersen NC, Scheftner A, Reich T, Hirschfed

RMA, Endicott J, Keller MB. The validation

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

of the concept of endogenous depression. Arch

Gen Psychiatry 1986; 43: 246 – 51.

21. Kendler KS, Heath A, Martin NG, Eaves LJ.

Symptoms of anxiety and depression in a

volunteer twin population. Arch Gen

Psychiatry 19876; 43: 213 – 221.

22. Kendell RE, Hysteria. In : Russell GFM,

Hersov LA, eds. handbooks of psychiatry 4:

The neuroses and personality disorders.

Cambridge University Press, 1983; 232 – 46.

23. Schliefer SJ, Keller SE< Camerion M,

Thornton JC, Stein M. Suppression of

lymphocyte stimulation following

bereavement. JAMA 1983; 250: 374 – 77.

24. Holmes GP, Kaplan JE, Gantz NM, et al.

Chronic fatigue syndrome: a working case

definition. Ann Intern Med 1988; 108: 387 –

89.

25. Manu P, Lane TJ, Matthews DA. The

frequency of th chronic fatigue syndrome in

patients with symptoms of persistent fatigue.

Ann Intern Med 1988; 109: 554 - 556.

Treatment for hypertension has undergone a

remarkable transformation in the pst twenty years;

prescribers now have a vast number of drugs from

which to choose. However, although much time has

been spent on defining classes of drug, none of the

resulting classification is satisfactory. If official

guidelines are followed, drug treatment should be

offered to anyone with a diastolic pressure

consistently greater than 100 mg Hg.

1

In the UK,

for example, use of this criterion would net 10 –

15% of the adult population, and with the emphasis

on detection and prevention, more patients than

ever are goint to be found. The potential market for

antihpertensive agents is enormous and

pharmaceutical companies know it.

One difficulty about treating high blood

pressures is that most patients have no symptoms –

therapy may cause side-effects in people who

previously felt well. In trials of antihypertensive

therapy, adverse reactions to drugs have resulted in

withdrawal rates of 16 – 33%

2,3

Practitioners are

often struck by the lower frequency of side-effects

when an agent is used for antianginal rather than

antihypertensive therapy, but the patient with

angina knows when something is working.

No antihypertensive drug is without side-

effects, although some are better tolerated than

others, Moreover, with the availability of so many

drugs, mere control of hypertension is not enough.

Clinicians must not only strive to minimize drug-

specific adverse events but also to assess the

possible impact of treatment on a patient’s quality

of life.

CROOG and colleagues

4

conducted one of the

first large studies to assess quality of life; this work

was supported by Squibb. Men with mild to

moderate hypertension were recruited into a

double-blind randomized trial for 6 months to

determine the effects of captopril, methyldopa or

propranolo on their quality of life as assessed by

interviews throughout the study. Blood pressure

control was similar with all three drugs, although

some patients needed additional diuretics. Fewer

patients withdrew from therapy with captopril

becauses of adverse events. Patients receiving

captropril scored better on measures of general well

being and had fewer side-effects and better

measures of life satisfaction than those receiving

methyldopa. Captopril also scored better than

propranolol in measures of well being. The

subsequent marketing campaign alerted physicians

to examine their prescribing practices but also

initiated the controversy about the validity of what

was measured.

The difficulty is how to make a formal

objective assessment of the subjective feelings and

needs of an individual and obtain results with

scientific credibility. Although captopril appeared

best in the study by CROOG et al.

4

the trial did not

examine, for example, whether patients were

troubled by cough, which

is now known to affect

15% of those who take this

drug. The tests were

confined to patients’

subjective responses,

which may not be enough.

JACHUCK et al

5

asked

physicians, patients taking

antihypertensive drugs, and patients’ relatives or

close companions about quality of life.

5

In their

overall assessment of each patient’s condition,

100% of physicians thought the patient was

improved, 48 % of patients thought that they had

improved, but 98% of relatives or companions

believed that the patients’ quality of life was worse

during therapy.

To refine the objective estimate of quality of

life, BULPITT and FLETCHER

6

have now

produced a questionnaire for use in short-term trials

(less than 1 year) of antihypertensive treatment.

6

The questionnaire covers symptomatic (physical)

wellbeing, psychological wellbeing with the

symptom rating test,

7

and perception of the effects

of antihypertensive treatment on lifestyle. There are

46 questions, most of which require yes no

responses. This approach must represent the most

comprehensive attempt so far to obtain useful

information about antihypertensive therapy by

means of a standardized repeatable format.

however, the feelings of relatives are not assessed.

The test has been applied in three comparisons of

drug tratments

7-9

in symptomatic wellbeing and

possibly increases depression, whereas nifedipine

may adversely affect self-reported cognitive

function.

In another study, verapamil was compared

with nifidipine with regard to effects on quality of

DOING BETTER,

FEELING

WORSE

The Lancet, Vol.

336,

Oct 27, 1990

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

life by use of this questionnaire.

10

There was a

significant increase in reporting of side-effects with

nifedipine, and measures of psychiatric morbidity

tend to improve on verapamil and deteriorate on

nifedipine. Only the change in cognitive function

was significant between the drugs, being worse on

nifiddipine. Notwithstanding these results, many

patients will be satisfied with B-blockers or

nifedipine, and the possibility of a modest

improvement in cognitive function by a change to

verapamil might be offset by the increased risk of

constitpation.

So, do assessment of quality of life help

prescibers? BULPITT and FLETCHER’s

questionnaire provides interesting information

about important aspects of drug treatment and may

highlight previously unsuspected adverse effects. It

will prove a standardized protocol for future studies

and may reveal small differences between drugs.

The relevance of such trial assessments to the

individual needs of patients or prescribing practices

is uncertain. They will not replace the close

personal monitoring that all patients should receive

when they are expected to embark on a treatment

regimen for life.

REFERENCES

1. Swales JD, Ramsay LE, Coope JR, et al.

Treating mild hypertension Report of the

British Hypertension Soceity Working Party,

Br. Med. J 1989; 298: 694 – 98.

2. MRC Working Party on Mild to Moderate

Hypertension. Adverse reactions to

bendrofluazide and propranolol for the

treatment of mild hypertension. Lancet 1981;

ii: 539 – 43.

3. Curb JD, Borhani NO, Blaszkowski TP,

Zimbaldi N, Fotiu S, Williams W. Long-term

surveillance for adverse effects of

antihypertensive drugs. JAMA 1985; 253;

3263 – 68.

4. Croog SH, Levine S, Testa M. et al. The

effects of antihpertensive therapy on the

quality of life N. Engl J Med 1986; 314; 1657

– 64.

5. Jachuck SJ, Brierley H. Jachuck S, Willcox

PM. The effect of hypotensiv drugs on the

quality of life. J. Coll Gen Pract 1982; 32: 103

– 05.

6. Bulpitt CJ, Fletcher AE. The measurement of

quality of life in hypertensive patients: a

practical approach. Br. J. Clin Pharmacol

1990; 30; 353 – 64.

7. Fletcher AE, Chester PC, Hawkins CMA

Latham An, Pike La, Bulpitt CJ. The effects of

varapamil and propranolol on quality of life in

hypertension. J. Hwm Hypertens 1989; 3: 125

– 30.

8. Fletcher AE, Bulpitt CJ, Quality of life during

antihypertensive treatment: results from a

randomized double-blind trial of pinacidil and

nifedipine. J. Hypertens 1989; 7 (suppl 6): 364

(abstr).

9. Fletcher AE, Bulpitt CJ, Hawkins CM, et al.

Quality of life on anti-hypertensive therapy: a

randomized double – blind controlled trial of

captopril and atenolol. J. Hypertens 1990; 8:

463 – 66.

10. Palmer A, Fletcher A, Hamilton G, Muriss S,

Bulpitt C.A comparison of verapamil and

nifedipine on quality of life Br. J. Clin

Parmacol 1990; 30: 365 – 70.

BOOK SHELF:

TIPS BY MASTERS OF HOMEOPATHY by Dr.

S.R. WADIA, MBBS, F.F. Hom. (Lond.), by Jain

Publishers (P) Ltd., Post Box 5775, New Delhi-

110 055, p.p.64, Rs 10/-

Dr. WADIA has, over the years collected,

some ‘gems from various sources. These have now

been compiled in alphabetical order and presented

to the profession. There are many ‘tips’ like:

“Calotropis gigantean – has depression as the

characteristic mental symptom.

“Drosera – has shivering at rest; not while

moving.

“Vipera - effective for chronic nose bleed –

even when the condition is life long.

Source has been mentioned for every ‘tip’.

There is no doubt that this compilation will be

most welcome to the practitioners.

Printing, paper etc. good. Warmly

recommended.

K.S. SRINIVASAN.

PRESS NOTE

ALL INDIA HOMOEOPATHIC SEMINAR will

be organized at AHMEDABAD (Gujarat) on 8

th

,

9

th

, 10

th

November 1991 by the Ahmedabad Unit of

H.M.A.I.

TOPIC : HEALTHY CHILD – HEALTHY

NATION

Lectures-discussions in different areas of Child

Health are planned on basis of clinical experiences

of the Homoeopathy attending the seminar from all

over the country.

Articles/Papers in this subject are invited, to reach

the Seminar office by 30.9.1991.

A NATIONAL HOMOEOPATHIC QUIZ is also

planned on the occasion, where teams of each State

are expected to participate.

Delegate Fee : Rs. 350/- RC Member Fee : Rs.

500/-

Student Delegate : Rs. 300/- Accompanying person

Rs. 350/-

Fees to reach the office by 30.8.1991.

Seminar Office: All India Homoeopathic Seminar

8, Shalimar Complex, Near

Mahalaxmi,

Five Road Junction, Paladi,

Ahamedabad – 380 007.

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

3.QHD, Vol. VIII, 3, 1991

PART I CURRENT LITERATURE LISTING

A list of current homoeopathic literature, subject-

wise, is given below. Except for the CCRH

Quarterly Bulletin all the others are from the

British, American, German etc. journals, not

readily accessible to every homoeopath. Some of

the articles may appear in Part II in later numbers

of the Quarterly Homoeopathic DIGEST, as

abstract/ summary/ condensation/ full, etc.

I. PHILOSOPHY

1. How are homoeopaths concerned with AIDS?

GRUDZINSKI, Th.v. (AHZ,235, 4/1990)

2. The Alchemist and the Goddess

NORLAND, Misha (The Homoeopath, 9, 1/1989)

3. How to study Materia Medica

CANDEGABE, Eugenio (The Homoeopth, 9,

1/1989)

4. Homoeopathy and Placebo

REILLY, David Taylor (JAIH, 83, 3/1990)

5. The variety of Placebo response

CHAPMAN, Edward (JAIH, 83, 3/1990)

6. Therapeutic Intent, Suggestion and Placebo

SHORE, Jonathan (JAIH, 83, 3/1990)

7. Some elements Homoeopathy

HABIL, D.R.; POPP, Fritz- Albert (BHJ, 79,

3/1990)

8. Psora and history

LEARY, Bernard (BHJ, 79, 3/1990)

9. Vaccinations

ARNOS, Kathy; KRUG, Ellen (Resonance, 12, 4,

90)

10. Critical thoughts on theory of miasms

WOUTERS, Maarten (NTKH, 2. 1/1990)

11. What is to be cured in a case?

CLAUSER, Piereluigi (NTKH, 2. 1/1990)

12. Hints on case taking

SANKARAN, Rajan (NTKH, 2. 1/1990)

13. Complementary; Homoeopathy and

Anthroposophically

Extended Medicine.

II. MATERIA MEDICA

1. The blue wonder: Sepia

EBERT, J (AHZ, 235, 4/1990)

2. Vegetative Dysregulation-Sinusitis Chronica

GEBHARDT, K-H. (AHZ, 235, 4/1990)

3. Cystolithisasis- Kalium nitricum

WALDECKER, A (ZKH, 34, 4/1990)

4. Cardispermum halicacabum- a proving with the

potencies D6 and C30.

Part II- Symptoms list of Cardiospermum

Halicacabum

RESPONDER, U. (ZKH, 34, 4/1990)

5. Verifications and clinical symptoms

(ZKH, 34, 4/ 1990)

6. Boraz veneta

CASTRO, Miranda (The Homoeopath, 9, 1/198)

7. Gentiana lutea: another bee sting remedy,

WOOD, Mathew (The Homoeopath, 9,1/1989)

8. Allergic asthma- aetiological aspects in two

cases treated with Sepia

GNAIGER, Jutta (BHJ, 79, 3/1990)

9. The Molluscs: Murex and Sepia

LEESER, Otto (BHJ, 79, 3/1990)

10. Hepatoprotective action of potentized

Lycopodium clavatum

SUR, R.K., SAMAJADAR, Kayal; MITRA,

Susmita; GOLE, M.K; CHAKRABARTY, B.N.

(BHJ,79, 3/1990)

11. The case of the held-back heart eith cold hands

FELDMAN, Murray (Resonance, 12, 4/1990)

12. Nux vomica

ELMORE, Durr (Resonance, 12, 4/ 90)

13. Small remedies seminar-a report

JOHNSTON, Linda (Resonance, 12, 4/90)

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

14. The IFH Professional Course- the last of a five

part series on the 1989-90 school year.

15. Rhus toxicodendron in Paralysis,

GELDERBLOM, Wim (NTKH, 2, 1/90)

16. Graphites in Adenoids, Enlarged Tonsils,

Blepharitis

BROOKS,E.D. (The Hahnemannian, October,

1990)

III. THERAPEUTICS

1. Some common and uncommon conditions

DEACON, Max ( Homoeopathy, 40, 6/90)

2. Help for the pharmacist via homoeopathy

HOLLOWAY, Desiree, Mrs, (Homoeopathy, 40,

6/90)

3. A comparison in mumps-two children, remedies,

same disease

TOWLE, Daniel P. (Resonance, 12, 4/90)

4. The case of the held-back heart with cold hands

FELDMAN, Murry (Resonance, 12, 4/90)

5. Treating endometriosis with homoeopathy

REICHENBERG- ULLMAN, Judyth (Resonance,

12, 4/90)

6. Methods of case analysis

MORRISON, Roger (JAIH, 83, 3/ 90)

7. Two children remedies

MOSKOWITZ, Richard (JAIH, 83, 3/1990)

8. Allergic asthma-aetiological aspects in two cases

treated with Sepia.

GNAIGER, Jutta (BHJ, 79, 3/90)

9. Homoeopathic treatment of patients with

adenomas of the prostate

VOZIANOV, A.F., SIMEONOVA, N.K. (BHJ, 79,

3/1990)

10. Homoeopathic treatment of filariasis –

experience in an Indian rural setting

SUBRAMANYAM, VR; MISHRA, N.; RAI, Y,:

RAKSHIT, G.; PATINAIK, NM. (BHJ, 79, 3/90)

11. Liverpool annual clinical meeting in

homoeopathic medicine 1989 (BHJ, 79, 3/90)

12. Family dynamics and homoeopathy

MORRISON, Roger; HERRICK Nancy (NTKH, 2,

1/90)

13. Hyperparathyroidism

SHAPIRO, Michael (The Hahnemannian, October

1990)

IV. REPERTORY

1. Computer and the homoeopathic single symptom

KELLER, G.v. (ZKH, 34, 4/1990)

2. Analysis of rubrics of KENT’s Repertory- Part

4, Kleptomania

SCHINDLER, M. (ZKH, 34, 4/1990)

3. Remedy alterations in Repertory of KENT-Part

14: Gnaphalium and Graphites

EPPENICH, H. (ZKH, 34, 4/ 90)

V. RESEARCH

1. Is it possible to prove the working of

homoeopathic high potencies-a controlled

crossever double blind study in skin disease

SCHWAB, G. (AHZ, 235, 4/90)

2. Scientific case documentation in Homoeopathy-

the concept of the Niedersächsischen Akademie für

Homoeopathic und Naturheilverfahren, Celle

FLORANGE, U. (AHZ, 235, 4/1990)

3. Current perspectives in homoeopathic research-

results of earlier researches (Part I & II)

WALACH, H (AHZ, 235, 4 & 5/1990)

4. The mustard gas experiences of the British

Homoeopathic Society: 1941-42.

MORRIS OWEN, Ralph; IVES, Galen

(Homoeopathy, 40, 6/90)

5. A study model with initial findings using Sepia

200c given prophylactically to prevent anaestrus

problems in the dairy cow.

MACKIE, W. L; WILLIAMSOM, A. V.;

CRAWFORD, W.J. and RENNIE, B. (BHJ, 79,

3/90)

6. Homoeopathy for plants-Research survey

ASSELDONK, Tedje van (NTKH, 2, 1/90)

VI. VETERINARY

1. Veterinary homoeopathy

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

LOCKYER, R. (Homoeopathy, 40, 6/90)

2. Veterinary Questions & answers

MACLEOD, G (Homoeopathy, 40, 6/90)

3. Hip dysplasia in a 61/2 years old German

Shepherd

GEERS, Brigitte (Resonance, 12, 4/90)

VII. HISTORY

1. History of the Liga Medicorum Homoeopathica

Internationalis

ILLING, K.-H. (ZKH, 34, 4/90)

2. On the interpretation of HAHNEMANN’s China

proving

GRUDZINSKI, Th. von (ZKH, 34, 4/90)

VIII. GENERAL

1. Liverpool annual clinical Meeting in

homoeopathic medicine 1989 (BHJ, 79, 3/90)

2. Surrealism in Barcelona- Conference Report,

45

th

Congress of the International Homoeopathic

Medical League, Barcelona, Spain, 10-13 May

1990 (BHJ, 79, 3/ 90)

3. Hazy reflections from Essen-Conference report

(BHJ, 79, 3/90)

4. International Press abstracts and reviews

(BHJ, 79, 3/90)

5. Homoeopathy and acupuncturists in California

NEUSTAEDTER, Randall (Resonance, 12, 4/90)

*************************************

1. JAIH: Journal of the American Institute of

Homoeopathy, 1500, Massachusetts Aveune, N.W.

Suite 42, Washington D.C. 20005.

2. Resonance: International Foundation for

Homoeopathy, 2366, Eastlake Avenue, E., Suite

301, Seattle, Washington 98102, U.S.A.

3. CCRII Quarterly Bulletin: Central Council for

Research in Homoeopathy, B-1/16, Community

Centre, Janakpuri, New Delhi 110 058.

4. The Homoeopath: The Journal of the Society of

Homoeopaths, 2, Artizan Road,

Northampton NN1 4HU, U.K.

5. Homoeopathy Today: National Centre for

Homoeopathy, 1500 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

Suite 42, Washington, D.C. 20005.

6. Homoeopathy: The Journal of the British

Homoeopathic Association, 27A Deconshire Street,

London, WIN 1RJ., U.K.

7. The Hahnemannian: Journal of the

Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of

Pennsylvania, C/o Guy Hoagland, M.D., 11

Flowers Drive, Mechanicsburg, Pennysylvania,

17055, U.S.A.

8. BHJ: The British Homoeopathic Journal, Royal

London Homoeopathic Hospital, Great Ormond

Street, London, WC1N 3 HR, U.K.

9. Z K H: Zeitschrift für Klassische Homöopathic

Karl F. Haug Verlag 6900 Heidelberg 1, Germany.

10. A H Z: Allgemeine Homöopathische Zeitung,

Karl F. Haug Verlag, 6900 Heidelberg 1, Germany.

11. NTKH: Netherlands Tijdschrift voor Klassieke

Homoeopathic, Uitgeverij la Riviere & Voorhoeve

Postbus 130, 8260 AC Kampen, Netherlands

Vol.VIII No.3 SEPT.1991

PART II ARTICLES

This

psychological picture and essence is based on

lectures by George VITHOULKAS

1

and Roger

MORRISON, M.D.

2

We are all indebted to

VITHOULKAS for his insight and to Roger

STAPHYSAGRIA,

MATERIA MEDICA,

Durr ELMORE,

‘Similimum’, Vol.III,

No.4, 1990

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

MORRISON and Bill GRAY for their transmission

and commentary. My apologies for any errors or

misinterpretations I may have mad.

Psychological Essence:

Staphysagria (also spelled Staphisagria) is a

remedy needed by many people who suffer due to

suppression of their emotions. They have a strong

emotional nature but are easily suppressed – they

cannot express the emotions they feel so strongly.

Their emotions are very alive, but they’re weak in

their assertion of them. Anger is especially difficult

for them to process and express. They are very

sensitive to rudeness, reprimand, contradiction, and

conflict – they cannot bear to experience it. Their

reaction is to hold it inside, not to express their

anger, They may be insulated and say nothing, but

inside they feel devastated, humiliated and

extremely upset. This inability to express such

strong emotions creates the Staphysagria

pathology.

Some may lack the ability to recognize their

anger. Others may have suppressed their anger so

long they are afraid of what might happen if it ever

came out. They can’t assert their ego boundaries

and take care of themselves. The material medica

emphasizes the anger of Staphysagria, but this

occurs only in the later stage of the pathology.

You will find Staphysagria patients to be nice

people, with a sweetness about them. You can

easily mistake them for Pulsatilla, or perhaps can’t

decide between Pulsatilla and Phosphorous.

They’re likeable, with no hard edges. GIBSON

describes “one of the cultivate gentlemen of the

earth; controlling his feelings at any price, but

silently brooding over his wrongs, real or

imaginary”.

3

Initially in the interview they may say very

little. As you encourage them they’ll open up. It’s

not unusual for them to weep during the interview

(Puls., Sep., Phos., Staph).They are very sensitive

people – sensitive to rudeness and griefs. Repeated

griefs are an etiology for Causticum and

Staphysagria, and these two remedies are

complementary. There is an innocence, a

helplessness, about them. They have no resistence;

they don’t resist your probing. Staphysagria

patients may have humility going toward timidity.

It is a good remedy to consider in very timid

people.

They often become prey to others with a

stronger will. Others around them may bully them,

push them, force them to obey. They will suppress

their ideas and act like others want them to act.

They may become like a ‘whipping boy’ to those

around them. Typically the Staphysagria patient

will lack the force to resist these external attacks.

They also may have a strong need to be accepted

by others, which contributes to their lack of

resistance.

They can’t handle confrontations, which can

cause emotional and physical spasms, and they will

try to avoid them. They can’t tolerate criticism. If

during an argument they feel they must say

something, because they’ve been backed down so

much, they’ll get a big aggravation after the

confrontation. For hours or days they may feel

terrible, both emotionally and physically.

When they should feel angry, they may feel

guilty instead. They may be in a relationship where

they are repeatedly abused, physically and

emotionally. often Staphysagria is a remedy to

consider fro battered women, or women physically,

emotionally, or sexually abused in past or present

relationships. They lack the strength to stand up to

their aggressor, or to leave the relationship. This is

a state of co-dependency-they are the victims.

After taking the remedy, a Staphysagria a

patient may leave such a destructive relationship.

She finds the strength to assert herself, to break out

of past patterns that she may have been stuck in for

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

years. She may be a battered wife, abused again

and again, but always lacked the strength to leave

the relationship. Give Staphysagria, and she may

well leave within one month.

If involved in an argument or confrontation,

they can’t respond-they can become speechless.

They may tremble when angry. Another big

keynote is, worse from suppression of anger. They

can get physical pathology and aggravation of all

symptoms from anger. Their aggressive element is

suppressed and they get sick. It takes very little to

suppress their anger. They cannot rebel-it’s a type

of helplessness. They feel powerless, yet they can’t

or won’t help themselves.

They’re afraid of their anger, so they must

deny it. They fear if they let out the anger they’d

hurt or kill someone. They may drink alcohol, and

act out their anger-an “angry drunk”.

Only in the final stages is the anger

externalized. This is the Staphysagria you read

about in the old material medicas. Finally they last

out – they may scream and rage as the suppressed

anger erupts. In this late stage they may display a

constant unending stream of anger, especially

toward the person with whom they had suppressed

their anger. They may be very irritable, touchy,

indignant. If angry, they have a tendency to throw

things, or they may tremble when angry.

Suppressed emotions may come out during sleep as

angry dreams or erotic dreams. They may dream of

getting angry and throwing things.

Staphysagria patients can be artistic,

philosophical and intellectual. They are very

refined people, not coarse. A good confirmatory

symptom of Staphysagria is writing poetry.

Another characteristic is talking to themselves

while alone. They can have long conversations

with themselves about their situations. The more

the suppression of anger, they tend to get

depressed. Usually their depression doesn’t go

toward suicide, but to a resigned sadness. They can

lose interest in life – or can’t face life. If you have a

totally sweet patient, with depression, consider

Staphysagria.

Staphysagria is a remedy with ailments from

grief, disappointed love, and broken relationships.

Then they become resigned, with a sweetness

instead of bitterness. There may be a history of

many romantic griefs. (Ignatia, Natrum

muriaticum).

Staphysagria patients usually have a high sex

drive. They are sensitive, with vital, deep feelings.

Their strong emotions are held inside, and sex is a

release of that emotional energy. Sexuality and

aggression can be linked. The aggressive element

in their personality becomes suppressed – and gets

channeled into the sexual sphere. The strong sexual

energy of Staphysagria may manifest in an

abnormal way. They are so reserved or timid they

can’t easily make contact or initiate a relationship.

Therefore, Staphysagria is a remedy of

intense sexual fantasies, especially masturbation.

They may see someone they’re attracted to, but

won’t approach the person and make contact.

Instead they’ll have romantic fantasies. At night in

bed they may fantasize about sex with that person

and masturbated. Often you will find a history of

frequent masturbation – they may masturbate every

night in bed to fall asleep. The strong sexuality is

often important in Staphysagria cases. The strong

tendency to fantasize, masturbate, or indulge in

lascivious thoughts has been mentioned. There may

be a tendency toward sexual excesses,

nymphomania, or perversions. The genitalia are

very sensitive, and although easily aroused, may

have premature ejaculation in the male, or

anorgasmia during coition in the female. Some

patients needing Staphysagria may not masturbate

because of religious teachings.

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In a relationship they may be more interested

in sexual fantasies than sex (Platina). Masturbation

in 8-9 year old children may suggest Staphysagria.

(Origanum is a remedy for masturbation, but not so

much with the fantasies).

You also may find a history of a passive

promiscuity. They have no resistence – can’t say

no, will do it even if they don’t want to. They may

be in a sado-masochistic relationship; they’re the

masochists. Or they may be voyeuristic – a type of

passive sexual activity. All this sexual perversion

indicates Staphysagria is a remedy of the

sycoticmiasm. The main sycotic remedies are

Pulsatilla, Staphysagria Medorhinum, Thuja, and

Natrum sulphuricum.

Finally, the memory may be affected,

especially after masturbation or sexual excesses.

He may forget what he’s read – and have no

inclination for mental work. There also may be an

aggravation from mental work.

Prescribing Hints

You will usually prescribe Staphysagria on the

essence, or glimpse a part of the essence. It’s not a

remedy with an abundance of strong general

symptoms.

There is an affinity for the genitourinary

system, nervous system, glands, skin, teeth and

musculoskeletalsystem. Although not listed, it is

one of the best cholera remedies, especially

indicated if cholera is aggravated by suppressed

emotions. Ticks, convulsions, epilepsy – any

neurological condition brought on by suppressed

anger or grief suggest Staphysagria.

A child who become autistic or retarded from

slight suppression would suggest Staphysagria.

VITHOULKAS had a case where a left-handed

child was forced to us his right hand in first grade.

For three years afterward he was intellectually

retarded. When Staphysagria was given, he quickly

regained his intellectual abilities, and so on caught

up and became an excellent student.

Sexuality is often important in Staphysagria

cases. The strong tendency to fantasize, masturbate,

or indulge in lascivious thoughts has been

mentioned. There may be a tendency toward sexual

excesses, nymphomania, or perversions. The

genitalia are very sensitive, and although easily

aroused, may have premature ejaculation in the

male, or anorgasmia during coition in the female.

Staphysagria should be remembered for

complaints following first coitus. “Some women

suffer very acutely (in mind as well as body) during

and for some time after the first coitus. I have seen

Staphysagria 30 give unspeakable relief in such

cases”

4

. Staphysagria is the first remedy to

consider for “Honeymoon Cystitis”. Coition may

be painful for women because of the sensitivity of

the genitalia. Ailments from: Suppressed anger,

anger, romantic grief, mortification, surgical

incisions, first inter-course, coition, sexual

excesses, masturbation.

Staphysagria is a remedy to remember for bad

effects after surgery. It’s a first aid remedy

following cuts with a knife or scalpel, “wounds

made by clean-cutting objects”. It is used as an

acute post-surgical remedy. It has been

successfully used for treating pain after episiotomy,

and phantom limb pains, or surgical incisions that

are very painful. Colic since abdominal surgery

suggests Staphysagria.

Staphysagria may also have complaints

following stretching of sphincters. Causes might

include sigmoidoscope exams, vaginal dilation,

first inter-course, etc.

General Symptoms

Staphysagria temperature is not useful-they

may be chilly, average or warm, although

CLARKE says they are chilly.

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Weakness of the whole body, while walking,

especially the knees. Bone pains Itching.

Sensations: Growths of skin are sensitive, as if

full of nerves, but may also be painless. Numbness,

pains shooting, stitching, burning. General bruised

sensations.

Growths: Polyps, warts, condylomata, arthritic

nodes.

Neurological: Twitches and chorea.

Worse: from mental affections, anger,

romantic grief, mortification, tobacco, coition,

masturbation, sexual excesses, afternoon nap, light

touch. Worse from letting the mind dwell on sexual

objects.

Better; after breakfast, from hard pressure,

warmth.

Regional Symptoms

Head: Headache from suppresses anger.

Headaches after a grief (Ign., Nat. mur., Staph).

Head feels like a block of wood, like a ball inside,

solid, numb- especially forehead or occiput.

Headache after coition or masturbation. Dullness of

the head, and loss of memory, especially after

sexual excuesses. Alopecia after grief (Phosphoric

acid, Ign., Staph.)

Eyes: Styes on eyelids, long lasting. Styes are a

good confirmatory symptom. Indurations may

remain for months after styes. Warts or tumors on

the eyelids. Blepharitis. Eyes may burn and feel

dry, although watering. Staphysagria may be

indicated after eye surgery. (For a blow to the eye:

Amica. Aconite may be given for the intitial shock

of an eye injury. For the eyeball itself injured-

Symphytum. For inuries in the periorbital area:

Ledum or Amica.

Mouch: Weakness of the teeth. Toothache-

worse from inhaling cold air, from cold drinks,

slight touch. Toothache better by hard pressure or

biting firmly. Teeth tend to be black, soft, decay,

crumble easily. Weakness of teeth during

pregnancy. Mucous may accumulate in the mouth.

Gums may be swollen, bleeding, retracted, tender.

Apthous ulcers.

Throat: Enlarged glands, enlarged tonsils.

Stomach: Crave sweets (2), milk, bread,

tobacco. Aversion to milk (3), generally a low

thirst. Seasickness, nausea and vomiting of

pregnancy (TESTE). Excessive hungry, even after

a meal. Colic following anger, or after drinking

cold water, or from least food or drink.

Abdomen: Griping pain; colic, incarcerated

flatus;

Rectum: Hemorrhoids painful-especially

following suppressed anger. Sensitive sores around

rectum. Proud flesh or condylomata-can’t bear

touch it’s so painful. Flatulence.

Genitourinary System; Staphysagria has an

affinity for the genitourinary system. In either sex,

stinging, burning, stitching, shooting pains are

characteristic. Condylomata of genitalia, especially

if painful. Excrescences soft, moist and offensive,

located around glans penis. Granular vegetations in

the vagina. “Painful sensitiveness of the sexual

organs, especially when sitting.”

4

Female: honeymoon cystitis. “Constant urging

to urinate in young married women.” Women who

develop cystitis every time they have coition – or

especially if after being abstinent for a while,

suggests Staphysagria. Burning in the urethra when

not urinating is a peculiar keynote of the cystitis.

Urging after micturition, irritable bladder

syndrome, urgency, bladder prolapse, cystocele are

all covered by this remedy.

Male: Impotence, especially after sexual

excesses. Increased desire, painful erections at

night. Enlarged prostate. Postatitis, tumors of

testes, orchitis or atrophy of testes may be

complaints of Staphysagria men. With the

prostatitis a pain runs from anus along urethra.

They eventually may be aggravated after coition or

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masturbation – after sexual emissions, with cause

weakness (Calc., Kali group, Sil.).

Chest: Chronic low-grade cough from

suppressed anger, suppressed emotions. A half-

hearted cough (Tub).

Back and Extremities: HAHNEMANN’s

proving of Staphysagria indicated rheumatic

symptoms, and TYLER

5

has used it successfully

for patients with rheumatic complaints. Gout,

arthritic nods, low back pain (worse night and in

morning), stitching pains in joints. Right shoulder

joint my be affected, feeling dislocated. Joints stiff,

feel tired. Numbness of finger tips.

Skin: Eruptions on back of head, behind ears,

crusty lesions. An important remedy in psoriasis,

esp. psoriasis of children. Main remedy in psoriasis

following grief or mortification. They suffer a

humiliation, then get psoriasis. The skin of

Staphysagria patients tends to be unhealthy-sores

fester, wounds heal slowly. Moist itching

eruptions; eczema, herpes, burning after scratching.

There may be warts, tumors, or Bartholins’ cysts

(Sil., Staph, Thuja).

Sleep: Sleepless nights, sleepy all day. They

may masturbate several times a night to fall asleep.

A keynote: aggravation after an aftermoon siesta

(Pulsatilla, Staphysagria.). Sleepiness after eating.

Perspiration: profuse, with odor of rotten

eggs.

Colocynth, Causticum and Thuja are

complementary with Staphysagria. after giving

Staphysagria, the patient may go to Nux vomica as

the suppressed anger externalizes.

Confirming Symptoms

Remorse after anger. Worse after any

confrontation.

Anger suppressed easily.

Can’t speak up or stand up for themselves.

Accept blame for things. Feel guilt.

Ailments after romantic griefs.

Talk to themselves. Write poetry.

Headaches frontal and occipital. Dullness of

mind with headache.

Block of wood sensation in head.

Recurrent styes, or history of styes.

Urinary infections. Honeymoon cystitis.

Condylomata

Crave tobacco.

High sexual desire.

Masturbation (they don’t have to masturbate to

give Staph.,).

REFERENCES

1. vithoulkas, George, Unpublished “Stolen

Essences”.

2. MORRISON, Roger, M.D., Lecturer,

International Foundation for Homoeopathy, Seattle,

1985.

3. GIBSON, Douglas, M.D., Studies of

Homeopathic Materia Medica, pp. 483-486.

Beaconsfield Publishers, Ltd., Beaconsfield, Bucks,

England.

4. CLARKE, John H., Dictionary of Practical

Materia Medica, Vol.III.

5. TYLER, Margaret, M.D., Homeopathic Drug

Pictures, pp. 760-767. The C.W. Daniel Co., Ltd., 1

Church Path, Saffron Walden, Essex, England.

6. COWPERTHWAITHE, A.C., M.D., A Textbook

of Materia Medica and “Therapeutics. pp. 726-730.

B. Jain Publishers, New Delhi, India.

7. KENT, J.T., M.D. Lectures on Homeopathic

Materia Medica, pp.945-948. B. Jain Pub., New

Delhi, India.

************************************

That the ranking of symptoms or

“classification” as it is often called, cannot be fixed

STAPHYSAGRIA AND

THE RANKINGS OF THE

SYMPTOMS;

KELLER, G.v.,

AHZ, 231, 6/1986

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on any rigid scheme independent of individual

cases, is evident. We cannot say, before listening to

the patient, that his mental and emotional state will

be striking enough to enable us to select a

medicine. We also do not at all know whether or

not he will report any variations at all in this

respect or whether he would reveal a modality

relating to the whole person or not, he will reveal

perhaps a very characteristic local symptom which

would lead us straight to a sure remedy.

This ranking mentioned above with regard to

the mental and emotional state, then the general

modalities and sensations applicable to all the

regions and lastly all the local symptom are

arranged was conceived so by KENT in 1897. He

described these ranking not for the choice of the

single individual patient but for the arrangement of

all symptoms of all patients in an epidemic

1

.

Another ranking described by KENT in 1914 refers

not for choosing the remedy for an individual

patient but for anthropological

2

considerations and

thoughts influenced by SWEDENBORG indeed.

Here the symptoms of loves and hates, the desires

and aversions, come in the first place, then those

belonging to the rational or the so-called intellect

and in the third place those belonging to the

memory. “These symptoms of the mental and

emotional state”. he wrote, “must be worked out

first then follow the – geneal sensations and

modalities pertaining to the whole person and then,

symptom, relating to the blood and circulatory

together”.

KENT wrote in this article itself that the

treatment of the single individual patient was

different,

3

namely by finding out the symptoms

which are characteristic for this single patient, that

is to say, the symptoms which distinguish this

patient as individual, peculiar

4

.

Another ranking which KENT has expressed is

the value grades in the repertories. KENT imputed

a misunderstanding when, in April 1900, he wrote

that those symptoms which came up in almost all

the proves are of the highest grade.

5

BOENNINGHAUSEN has given the right

classification

6

. At the lowest level the symptoms

which appeared only in the prover but not clinically

verified and at the highest level those which had

been repeatedly verified by cures in patients.

Here, it is a question of Knowing well: When a

symptom had been observed repeatedly in many

cured cases, it would soon become well known and

every physician took note of it in respect of his

own cases and published his cases in that

connection and thus further raise the grade of that

knowledge.

This ranking has only an indirect connection

for remedy selection for the individual patient.

Here for choice of the medicine it is not a question

of high or low value which should be relevant only

to the symptom itself, here it is a question of the

grade of Similarity. There cannot be a similarity of

a thing by itself but between two things. Always it

is the relationship between a medicine and an

individual patient which has to be evaluated here.

We judge the value of a symptom first by its

grade of being rare, i.e. we compare all the

symptoms of the patient which each other and

decide which symptoms are fully and clearly

described, which symptoms are peculiar and

singular and which are usual and common and in

no way rarely observed. We now search in the

Materia Medica the remedy symptoms which

correspond with the patient’s symptoms and now

judge the grade of correspondence. As much

higher the grade of correspondence or agreement in

wording, quality of sensations and accessory

details, so much more in turn is the value of these

symptoms.

When we look into the repertories and see that

for example, under the rubric “Skin itching”

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medicines are given with different value grades in

print, it is not a question of a measure of similarity

but the frequency, that is, how often the concerned

authors have observed itching of skin in the provers

and particularly in patients cured with this

medicine.

To determine the grade of similarity between

the individuals from out of the medicines given

under this rubric, we must study the material

medica, we must see how the provers felt the

symptom and formulated it and we must compare

their expressions with those of our patient In this

way we take up one symptom after another until

our object of finding a definite medicine is

obtained.

The rubric ‘Skin itching’ is very large. In

principle very medicine in this collection has

brought out a different kind of itching of skin. We

can establish a higher grade of similarity in this

only when we compare the peculiarities. A higher

grade of print does not say much about the relative

similarity between this individual patient and a

single medicine out of these and in a medicine

which has not been given higher grade in print may

lie hidden the peculiarities agreeing exactly with

the symptoms of our patient.

We have, for our ready use, a number of

keywords in our memory which enable us to recall

the particular medicine when the patient expresses

one or more of these complaints. For example we

have the following keywords ready in respect of

Staphysagria: Onanism –Styles – Indignation –

Mortification – Pain forehead – Skin itching –

Gluttony. If a patient complains of Styes we will

look in it for other key wores well known to us of

Staphysagria. In this it is not so essential or

important whether the patient has gluttony or

itching of skin; very much important is how the

glutton, how the itching of skin are conditioned as

between the medicine and our patient. If possible

the exact words should be compared so that the

comparative grade of similarity could be found

with greater certainty.

One can often recognize Staphysagria from the

nature of the itching of skin, namely a prick in the

skin which goes from within to without and which

then when it reaches the surface itches violently for

a short time which would be am. when scratched at

that part but would immediately appear at another

part not scratched. This itching of Staphysagria

can be so exactly described by a patient that one

can with this alone expect definite success with

greater certainty.

Similarly about the pain in forehead of

Staphysagria which symptom by itself would

closely indicate this medicine. Such a pain in the

forehead led me to prescribe correctly in a case of

an eight year old boy whose enuresis nocturna as

also certain other concomitant ailments and

behaviour disturbances were relieved within few

days by Staphysagria. He had such a deep sleep

that he did not hear the bell ringing, a situation

which made me recall Kreosote. He further

complained of headaches and he spontaneously

said that he had headache, and was disoriented with

his surroundings. His mother said that h then

“wrung his hands and gesticulated.” That

corresponded to Kreosote to “pains cause severe

physical restlessness” which is very characteristic.

Most of these pains which cause the restlessness

are localized in the lower abdomen of women, but

nevertheless the similarity appeared to me striking.

Also the fact that the patient sucked his thumb

often and with the other hand handled his genitals

did not contraindicate kreosote and the enuresis did

not however stop. But after administering Kreosote

other symptoms came up which ultimately led me

to Staphysagria. He could now so clearly describe

his headache that the similarity was clear. To

describe the quality of the sensation he

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demonstrated with his finger to a small spot in the

middle of his forehead above the root of the nose

and said in exact words that the pain was “in the

middle here”.

Those who are not familiar with the analogus

Staphysagria symptoms, will find it difficult to find

it in the KENT’s Repertory because it is

mentioned there only under the key-word “Ball”

7

.

All other terms which come up in the full list of

symptoms, like “round”, “heavy”, “well-fixed”,

“brain”, “behind the forehead” or “small spots”, do

not have any rubric. The symptom in the text

reads:” sensation of a heavy, small ball which is

fixed well in the brain above the root of the nose”.

Staphysagria has, as is well known, tendency

for masturbation in high grade, the association of

Staphysagria – Onanism is well used by every

homeopath indeed as soon as he hears these two

terms. Now it is not often so simple to enquire of

patients or at all children about such habits. But

Staphysagria will not therefore be overlooked,

indeed rarely, if other symptoms indicate it. And it

was so in my case, when I prescribed at first

Kreoste to the boy. Now at the next interview, the

mother said in answer to my question: He

constantly sucks his thumb and has his other hand

on his genitals. In bed he regularly masturbated and

did not make any secret of it. The boy himself

spontaneously said of both these acts, the bed-

wetting and that pleasant sensation and they were

well connected with each other.

That was the progress of a homeopathic

treatment. During a consultation we note the

peculiar expressions of the patient and perceive by

the way those medicines which strike us then. We

weigh out which symptom is especially singular of

the patient and we first search out for those

medicines which are related to these symptoms.

The value of such a symptom, is, on the one side,

conditioned as to how characteristic it is for the

patient and on the other side how much more it is

in correspondence with the symptoms of the

analogus medicine. A numerical computation is not

relevant in this, a rigid scheme diverts the

physician from the perception of the symptoms of

the patient.

The perception and adoption of the patient’s

symptoms is the core of homeopathic profession.

Everything which hinders attention to what the

patient says have nothing to do including all

theories alien to practice, like the ranking of the

symptoms.

1) JHC, 1 (1897), 1, 16: “When a given epidemic,

or endemic comes upon the land, as many cases,

most carefully written out, as can be gathered, are

to be arranged in the Hahnemannian schema, all

symptoms under regional headings, so that the

prevailing disease may be viewed collectively, as a

unit, or, as the image of a man, or as though one

man had suffered from all the symptoms

observed… Incidentally this may show the value of

HAHNEMANN’s schema. The particular or

individual study in the epidemic cannot be properly

made until the symptoms are studied collectively,

and this kind of study is the same as after a proving

has been arranged in schematic form. Every

epidemic and every mari sick must be so wrought

out; first the general and then the particular… Great

mistakes may come from going too deeply into the

particulars before the generals are settled. An army

of soldiers without the line of officers could not be

but a mob; such a mob of confusion is our material

medica to the man who has not the command.”

2) With purpose I employ here an expression

generally used in the Anthroposophy. The

similarity of KENTian World View with the

anthroposophic is clear from another place in the

above cited article in the year 1897 (p.11): “The

abstract vital force is, to the untrained

understanding, unthinkable, and as all internal

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examinations are upon this plane, then it must

follow that a preparatory training must preced e he

actual examination of the internal qualities of the

three kingdoms which exist in the interior of man

(animal – plant – mineral)”.

The anthroposophic medicine considers it

essential for its School of thought, “to be able to

see through the connection of Man and Nature”

(BUTTNER).

3) JHC, 1(1897), 1, 7: “The symptoms must be

judged as to their value as characteristics, in

relation to the patient; they must be passed in

review by the rational mind to determine those

which are strange, rare and peculiar. Symptoms

most peculiar to the patient must be taken first,

then those less and less peculiar until the symptoms

that are common and not peculiar are reached, in

order, from the first to last”.

4) Ibid, Page 7: “The scientific method is the

mechanical method taking all the symptoms and

writing out all the associated remedies with

gradings, making a summary with grades marked,

at the end. There is an artistic method that omits the

mechanical, and is better, but all are not prepared to

use it. The artistic method demands that judgement

be passed on all the symptoms after the case is

most carefully taken; the symptoms must be judged

as to their value characteristics, in relation to the

patient; they must be passed in review by the

rational mind to determine those which are strange,

rare and peculiar.”

5) KENT 1957, 213: “For example take that

symptom of Apis, “suffocation in a warm room,”;

all the provers of Apis, or nearly all were affected

to a great extent in that way. All the provers of

Pulsatilla were worse in a warm room. There can

be no doubt about such symptoms for all the

provers felt that state so strongly.”

Evidently KENT followed here the then well-

prevalent general opinion that proving symptoms

were of greater value than clinical symptoms. This

opinion came from Richard HUGHES who took

part in the 37

th

meeting of the American Institute of

Homeopathy in June 1884 in Deer Park and in June

1891 in the then 5 years old Liga Congrss in

Atlantic City which impressed American

homeopathy very much. HUGHES attempted, as it

well-known, to purify the homoeopathic material

medica of all symptoms obtained from cure of sick

patients, so that his well-known object of

acceptance of Homeopathy by the Allopathic

School could be attained.

6) BOENNINGHAUSEN 1833, XVI.

*************************************

Introduction: Classical homoeopathy requires

hard work and a good amount of time to mature.

Memorizing is not sufficient. In the clinic this

therapy is rewarding indeed but unfortunately the

pressure on time cannot be ignored. It is therefore a

great help to call to mind readily the characteristics

of a remedy picture in few words, to understand the

remedy in its root and to understand it in its spirit

in the patients.

Problem of remedy picture: Such a characteristics

of Staphysagria will be; Office Executive’s

medicine; Sexual Hypochondriac or Neurasthenic,

that is, passive build, men without energy and

‘initiative’.

For the first time I came to understand

thoroughly the word “much helplessness against

emotional challenges”. Now a door opens – a

dangerous door with I came to be aware of slowly:

the helplessness does not reflect as a symptom of

STAPHYSAGRIA, a

medicine for active

persons,

BOTTGER, H.E.

AHZ, 228, 4/1983

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the patient. And Staphysagria is not found under

this rubric in KENT. Likewise, in rare cases

patients depict their sexual helplessness and the

consequences.

How should I collect the symptoms if the

patient does not depict any?

To proceed, views are insinuated as intuition

and interpretation. These opinions are dangerous

because interpretation and intuition are not

teachable or learnable. We would be making

homoeopathy untrustworthy by our own scientific

postulates.

Case examples from my practice: Two cases

from the daily practice are cited to depict the

common negative version of Staphysagria picture

as unintelligible and substitute for it a positive

depiction.

These two cases depict Staphysagria in

positive light. Two persons are depicted here.

Because of the Psora it was impossible for them to

react to the challenges from their environment. So

they suffer. From this it will be clear that we will

have it to do with consequences of grief,

mortification, discontent and similar categories. We

must also pay much attention to discover the

symptoms of the ailments, the consequences of a

mortification discontent etc.

Case1. A 31 yr. old woman. In her appearance not

any more maidenly nor womanly. She appeared

stuck in a fairway. She is languishing so.

She complained of palpitations. “We read a lot

about heart infarcts”, said she.

Her husband has taken to another woman. And

when she expresses her anger and annoyance, he

does not react, and she gets angry thereafter for

long over her own outrage – and in that she has a

bad conscience.

To my question: “That must mortify you

much?” came a spontaneous ‘yes!’

The clinical investigation did not show

anything wrong.

Therapy: From 16.2 – 5.3.81; 3 x daily 5 drops

Staphysagria 6. After this she showed a new

attitude with her husband. Her thinking has become

clearer, said she with bright eyes.

Further therpy: 3 x 1 tablet Staphysagria D 30

on 5.3., 28.4 9.6., 24.7., 12.10.81.

After six months her husband again came to

her. She did not anymore need to nibble her

fingernails (she had not mentioned it before). When

she did not know something further, she told her

husband; “your must help me further, when I do

not know” or “show me again that yo love me and

take me in your arms”. Her helplessness changed

so spontaneously and yielded to an actively

positive attitude.

Case 2: A nine year old boy was brought to the

clinic by his grand mother. “Since recently he is

not “ concentrating”; he was always good in his

studies before.

I know his mother from childhood. She had

married twice and divorced twice. The boy came

out of the first marriage; be was being brought up

by the grandmother. There is therefore actually

sufficient reasons for the behavioural disturbances.

His achievements in school has become poor only

since recently.

Speaking about his teachers when we came to

talk about a particular lady teacher, his voice

became low and inaudible. “When the other

students talk about her during the recesses, I feel

like boxing them.” When I asked “you are much

attached to your teacher?” He replied: “YES”,

“And why don’t you then tell the others how stupid

they are when they speak ill of her?” “I cannot”. A

good symptom which one can obtain so

spontaneously and clearly only from a child.

Therapy: One dose of Staphysagria D 30 one

tablet twice on 7.10., 15.11., 13.12., 76, 20. 2.77,

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Staphysagria D 200 18.4., 1.9., 3.11.77., 30.3.,

31.7.78.

One year’s Staphysagria course made a good

student of him.

The repetition was when his grandmother said:

“He is again so restless or he “fantasies” in sleep or

on his daily events.”

Everytime, after a dose improvement lasted

more but repetitions were warranted till 1978.

Remained well after that.

Repertorisation on KENT’s Repertory:

Which symptoms were chosen?

Case 1: 1. The woman appeared disproportionately

developed to her age; the mental development

appears hindered. That is the consequence of a

disease, not a symptom.

2. Palpitation! She has the anxiety that she

would suffer a heart infarct.

3. Anger that she cannot express her

annoyance with remains therefore unsuccessful.

These are very valuable mental symptoms but

they are not to be found exactly so in KENT. Let

me take the palpitation. It is not an occasional

happening. It must be a very restless condition;

because palpitation while taking a break is

considered as infarct. That must of course be very

violent. And Staphysagria is given in grade 2.

And what about her anger about her

unexpressed feelings?

That there is consequence of a mortification

we know from a reply question. It is not possible to

actively oppose, confront this mortification from

discontentment? Dissatisfied, discontent, grade 2.

Case 2: 1. The child is not concentrating

2. Sunk tone which discloses an emotion.

3. Must box to control his emotion.

4. Inability to verbally express his annoyance.

In the first case I was guided by the woman’s

reply to my question: “that was very mortifying to

you?” and in the second case “why don’t you then

tell the other children how stupid they are?” With

this knowledge and MEZGER’s formula of “great

helplessness against emotional challenges” I came

to Staphysagria Ailments from mortification –

p.68.

But besides Staphysagria there are medicines

in high grade and grade 2, not to speak of the lower

grade.

The lack of concentration was taken as the

next symptom and Staphysagria is in low grade

only. The annoyance, his inability to overcome his

emotions comes under ‘Discontented’ P. 36

Staphysagria grade 2.

The unstable voice which revealed the

emotions, hollow and hoarse; weak voice; loss of

voice after anger; Staphysagria alone. And the last

symptom: “must box his schoolmates” indeed

mean that a high degree of anger was running in his

mind and caused ailments; Staphysagria in high

grade again. So these would be sufficient. And the

successful result validated the correctness of the

choice.

My statement at the commencement of this

article that one must have at one’s command a

remedy picture in a few words is proved thus.

Practical time in the clinic is too short. Classifying

and repertorisation demand so much of the little

time.

Discussion: I have not come across the picture of

neurasthenic and sexual hypochondriac

Staphysagria. Of course in both the above cases

sexuality did play its role in the broadest sense, i.e.

the relationship adopted to the other sex. The

young woman did not feel the right relationship

with her husband and the 9 yrs. old boy was crazy

over his lady teacher.

In both cases I do not see hypochondriacal

traits. Both were dissatisfied, unable to overcome

and suffered therefrom. Nothing of the anxious

evasiveness and gloominess observed. In the case

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of the young wife the heart made its demand by

massive palpitation like in a heart infarct: At last do

something so that your husband does not leave

you! and the young boy rapped himself and did not

passively hide himself in (could be a possible

reaction).

I am not alone in holding the view of the

negative defence of the Staphysagria picture. von

UNGERN-STERNBERG had already, in 1968 in

Berlin, turned round the stereotype traditional

depiction of Staphysagria as sexual hypochondriac

and neurasthenic.

So also MEZGER’s guiding formula of

“helplessness against emotional strains”. I want to

explain further.

Let us consider the therapy result; The young

woman had developed a different attitude toward

her husband; she could now say; “You must help

me, when I cannot any more – and show me, that

you love me and take me again in your arm.” –

And the boy did not anymore need to box and

found the right attitude in his childish fancies so

that he would not be anymore teased by his school-

mates.

Where lies the similarity or commonness

between the two cases? Both did not find the

courage to transcend the hindrance threshold and

process the emotional demands bothering them.

Psora was the hindrance in the patients. And what

is worser for an active person than be unable to be

in control of his thoughts? Here it is not

helplessness anymore but it is mortifying and that

led to the sickness. We could understand that well.

And now the circle becomes complete. Because

that is a good symptom and it requires no

interpretation and intuition. If I take it up as

helplessness and If I were to ask woman: “Are you

then helpless against your husband?” and she were

to answer; “Not in anyway, I shout at him or I will

not allow him anymore into the house.”

And then I am exactly smart. To my question:

“You must have felt very much mortified?” came

the spontaneous answer, a verbal and emotional

concurrence. The same with the boy also. In KENT

Staphysagria is in high grade.

The urinary ailments of the newly married

young women can also be understood so; we all

know of the difficulties about the first sexual

relationship. And we also know that not all young

wives have the courage to verbally air their

distress; she is having Staphysagria sickness. And

the Office Executive’s medicine Staphysagria : all

officers are not hypochondriacs. Of course many

are active persons. The executives in their various

classes have to withstand invectives and

disparagements and must bow down. Staphysagria

patients then become helpless and suffer. Healthy

persons find an unsuppressed modus vivendi. So

Staphysagria is not at all a negative medicine. It

cannot bite in situation where it should feel to do

so. Think of the bad carious in situation where it

should feel to do so. Think of the bad carious teeth

– of children – which according to NASH is a gem.

Such carious teeth cannot be depended upon to

bite. And the worst: everyone can see ti

immediately. Mortification over mortification with

clear representation that it cannot go further and all

effort is unsuccessful.

*************************************

The various material medicas give us several

quite different images of Staphysagria, which may

surprise and puzzle the students and new

practitioners of homeopathy.

STAPHYSAGRIA IN

PSYCHIATRY,

Jacqueline

BARBANCEY, MD,

‘BHJ’, Vol. 79,

Janurary 1990.

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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Staphysagria is sometimes given as similimum

with people who show a very sad outward

appearance and the following features:

surly, verminous children with prematurely

decayed teeth.

thin, sad, asthenic, impotent men.

nymphomaniac women with irritating and foul

secretions.

old men with prostatism, with urinary frequency

and incontinence and weak memory.

depressed patients with bone pains at night, with

chalazae, and scabby, itching, oozing dermatitis.

and, above all, a common and characteristic

feature: erotic obsessions, masturbation, sexual

indignation which are responsible, more or less

openly, for the complaints.

Another image of this medicine is that of

sensitive and irritable individuals, heavy smokers,

with a canine appetite:

irascible to such an extent that they may throw

things in the face of any opponent, or throw

objects into the fire out of spite, having lost all

self-control.

prone to gastro-intestional colic after having felt

themselves attacked or when they believe it

has been so – sad and apathetic after injury to

their self-respect.

with an easily upset, disturbed mind and with such

indignation that they may suffer thought

disorders or confusion, walking and talking

restlessly.

Whose psycho-sexual excitability is only

mentioned secondarily.

It is possible to integrate the first image (which

is almost exclusively given by BOERICKE,

DUPRAT, LATHOUD and a few modern authors)

with the second (found in JAHR, KENT,

HODIAMONT and in some recent material

medicas) resulting in a synthesis which is very

useful for dynamic understanding of the patient and

more accurate prescribing.

Both aspects seem to originate in the biphasic

effects of delphinine, the active alkaloid of

Staphysagria, which can be compared with those of

veratrine or curare, causing excitation followed by

a succession of depressive symptoms.

There is therefore no contradiction in the

apparently paradoxical indications of Staphysagria.

susceptible, irascible, hot-tempered people,

some features of whose character are reminiscent

of Lycopodium who are unable to express the stress

repressing them, but, inside are full of an impotent

rage.

depressive, apathetic people, whose memory is

failing, having obsessions of sexual nature (either

from lack of satisfaction or from painful

memories), suffering (sometimes for a long time)

from humiliations, vexations and from unhealed

moral injuries.

In both case the psychic strongly affects the

physical especially in the thorax and abdomen; it is

correct to say that Staphysagria is a typically

psychosomatic medicine and that the image which

has been given of it, for too long, as the medicine

of ‘sexual repression’ has distorted the

understanding of it and reduced its use.

A long time ago, I verified the extreme

frequency with which Staphysagria is indicated in

psychiatric pathology; not usually as a result of any

king of ‘excessive onanism’ (a far less reliable

symptom than in Rana bufo) or ‘sexual sins’ as

BOERICKE ahs it. I wonder what a new proving of

Staphysagria would produce upon the healthy

individual of 1989 with his erotic reactions very

different from those of the doctors of 1850. I

underline: ‘erotic reactions’ and not sexual

physiological reactions, that is to say, behaviour

towards sexuality and ability to integrate impulses,

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

or the way in which they are repressed, the latter

being particularly relevant in this context.

It may be help in people who suffer sexual

obsessions (they still exist!) but it should now be

given much less frequently on the basis of this

traditional indication and rather on the a basis of

careful observation and attentive listening to the

patient, her complaints, ailments and the biography

which presents and expresses that which he cannot

spontaneously express: his truth, the real cause of

his state, leading to the prescription and to

dialogue, both having to be built ‘to order’.

Even given a certain reserve with regard to the

improvement obtained (because of placebo effects

which are difficult to estimate in a private

psychiatric practice), I have been much impressed

by the quick and powerful action of Staphysagira:

not so much by the sedative and soothing effect, at

least in the beginning – but by the disinhibiting

effect upon the guiding symptom; consequences of

emotional stresses, perceived but neither expressed

nor externalized, of which the following examples:

A seven-year old child, having witnessed

violent scenes between his parents, not saying

anything about it at the time, apparently having

taken it with indifference but having subsequently

developed school difficulties and character

problems.

A forty-year old man, indignant at having been

rudely sacked, harbouring aggressive ideas of

revenge. Attending the dermatologists with hands

which have been made redundant and are now

covered with eczema.

Situation of indignation, when the patient is

unable to answer directly to any kind of vexation,

injustice, contempt, humiliation or emotional

rejection:

Either because the circumstances do not allow

him to do so (hierarchy etc.) or because the person

does not allow herself to do so, or because the

frustration has been so unbearable that it has been

immediately repressed in to the unconscious mind,

the individual, to all appearances, not having any

memory of it. But its modified trace which has

been transformed under what we call in

psychoanalysis ‘real symptoms’, which may be

more or less easy to identify.

Sexual trauma: which, although not being the

essential Staphysagira indication, is no less an

indication for this medicine when causing trouble.

For instance in the child: an interruption of the

intellectual and psychological development; in the

adolescent girl: distortion of body image, anorexia

nervosa;

In the adolescent boy; homosexuality,

especially when the emotional shock has been

intense, when it has not been possible to say

anything, when a sexual constraint has been

exerted by a parent or by an educator.

Existential situations of sexual frustration

(celibacy, unconsummated marriage, widowhood,

religious engagement), once voluntarily accepted

but now hard to bear; but only when these are real

cause of reactions of character, irascibility and/ or

psychosomatic troubles.

Even better than the therapeutic observations,

which may not be fully objective, we may mention

the spontaneous (and sometimes picturesque)

testimony of the patients themselves:

Mrs. D. 37, years old, shop assistant: Oh! On

Sunday! What a relief!

It is unbelievable that medicine Staphysagira !

Before I was feeling

so miserable from Friday night, and on

Saturday all the enjoyment

of the weekend was spoiled just by thinking of

me facing my boss

again on Monday. Now, I am not afraid of him

any more, just as

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

I used to be afraid of my father, before, I have

understood! So that

was the reason…!

Mr. W. 41 years old, unemployed engineer’. It

is really extraordinary,

What your dose has done for me. I feel that I

have recovered the

use of my personality, I mean my freedom…!

Mrs. B, 30 years old, housewife, wrote to me:

‘At least, thanks to you, Doctor, and your pills, I

have been able to tell my mother-in-law all that I

wanted to tell her and, what is more, I did it

peacefully, without having felt guilty nor falling

sick over it!’

So having been led, throught personal

experience, to appreciate better the action of

Staphysagira and having got a vision which is

somehow a little different from the unusal one, I

was very pleased to read a communication from

our German colleague, BOTTGER, presented in

1982 in Brighton, during the 37

th

Congress of the

Homeopathic League. He deplored the foregone

conclusion which has generally considered

Staphysagira as a medicine for passive, submissive

people, always matched with the ‘cliché of the

besetting sexual frustratiion’. and insisted on the

value of MEZGER’s formulation: ‘Staphysagira

has a relation with a great confusion under the

burden of emotions, making one totally unable, in

spite of being conscious of one’s problems, to have

proper control over them…’

In full agreement with this point of view. I

may sum up s follows what I have learnt from my

own personal experience: the sphere of the

Staphysagira action is, but not exclusively, that of

failed repression of sexual impulses.

Staphysagira is, first of all, the Amica of the

psyche, the medicine for stress that is difficult to

absorb because it creates actionless revolts,

vexations without being able to defend oneself,

revengeless humiliation, the medicine which helps

to resorb ‘the bruises of the soul’, or I could sya the

haematomas of the heart. Just as we find it

indicated for the relief of the sequels which may

follow some cutting surgical interventions

(prostatectomy, treatment of hernia followed by

crursal neuralgia, hysterectomy) in which the

symbolism of sexual amputation is evident.

For the adolescent, it may be called; the

medicine of the ‘cracked mirror’, when the eye of

the other (father, friend, partner) is reflecting a poor

of himself. Everything is there; perceived stress,

aggression turning back to oneself, difficulty in

finding one’s identity. Always it is amazing and

comforting to verify that Staphysagira, when given

in proper time, can repair the injury and heal up

‘the wound’, working to prevent psychotic

disintegration, enclosure inside a phobic neuroris or

escape into delusion.

This is the medicine of the ‘impossible

repression’, whatever its origin my be, which clears

situations of conflicts and avoids a pathology of

psychosomatic displacement.

And, above all, here we have a great

disinhibitor, enabling the expression of hidden

trauma. In psycho-analytic terms, ‘the return of the

repressed’ through a liberating reinforcement of the

impulses, due to its pharamacological effect.

One must be careful when giving the

prescription (potency, frequency of repetition) to

estimate the reactional possibilities of the patient. It

is sometimes necessary to wait before any further

medicinal or psychotherapeutic intervention,

allowing time for the full action of Staphysagria, in

order to avoid any risk of auto-aggressive

reactions, sudden and violent attacks against other

people or a depressive decompensation.

*************************************

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First Matter: The drug Staphysagria is made

up of Delphinum Staphysagria L. Seeds.

Drug description: Seeds are strongly

compressed inside the follicle, at five or six, into an

egg-shaped mass isolatedly. The shape is that of a

flat irregular tetrahedron, 5mm on each side, one of

the sides being convex; the others are even or

concave.

The dark grey surface presents a salient netting

delimited by alveoli. The brittle integument

contains abundant albumin, oily and white in fresh

and live condition, dark yellow at desiccation. The

small embryo is located near the microphyle; if

crushed it releases a strong, disagreeable smell; it

has a bitter, burning taste.

Habitat: In the Mediterranean region at low

altitudes, on the prairies, arid regions. In the United

States of America, Canada, Southern Europe (the

meridional part), the Near East, Northern Africa…

The Principle: The mother-tincture of

Staphysagria is prepared in 65% v/v ethanol, from

the seeds and in compliance with the general

techniques for preparing mother-tinctures.

Features: A liquid of light yellow colour, of rancid

smell, bitter taste.

Indentification: 1. Put 1ml. TM n 1 ml. of water –

this produces a milky misture.

2. Evaporate 2 ml. TM, put the residue in 1 ml. of

diluted R hydrochloric acid and some drops of a

mercury-potassic R solution; this will form a

precipitate.

Chemistry: The seed contains: 34.7 to 35.4% of a

fatty oil. 1.22 to 1.35% of an alkaloid inside the

albumen namely:

Delphine C

33

H

45

NO

9

, C

19

H

21

(N-CH

3

) – OH

(OCH

3

) 4 – (OOCC

6

H

5

) (OOCCH

3

)

Delphinine C

24

H

29

N

07

Staphisine C

42

H

60

N

02

0.02% of essential oil – brownish red.

CLEMO and NATH isolated a new alkaloid;

C

29

H

29

O

6

N

Pharamacology: Toxic seeds may cause poisoning

with vomiting, diarrhea and death.

2 tea-spoons of the seeds cause: failure, weak

pulse, gastrology, irregular breathing. At autopsy a

sore gastric mucosa full of ecchymosis is seen.

The seeds cause palsy of the sphincters.

In man delphinine causes a reddish and sore

skin, oedema of the tongue. Internally a 0.015 g.

dose causes: pharyngitis, salivating, nauseas, skin

itching, urge to urinate and to defecate.

On the scalp the alcoholic extract causes,

eczema on the face and on the hands. It affects the

locomotor system causing lack of coordination and

ataxia, arrhythmic pulse, and reduces general

sensitiveness of the respiratory function;

arryhythmias with spasms of the respiratory

muscles; lack of coordination of the striated

muscles and of the heart muscle; CO

2

increase in

the blood; death due to respiratory failure.

Delphinine acts in a way similar to aconitine,

i.e. paralyzing the heart and breathing.

Staphysagrine seeds are popularly known for

their specific action in headaches and baldness.

Delphinine acts in a way somewhat similar to

veratrine or are used against worm – infestation.

1. GENERALACTION

It acts upon:

sychotic medication (ZISSU)

STAPHYSAGRIA –

CORRELATION OF

ANATOMIC

CLINIC,

Alexandre

MACHADO

‘Selections from the

Transactions of the

42

nd

LIGA, 1987 –

ARLINGTON,

WASHINGTON,

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

Genital-urinary mucosa

Digestive mucosa

Respiratory mucosa

Skin

Bones and Periosteum

Central nervous system and the sympathetic

nervous system

Medulla

Circulatory system

Lymphatic system

Bleedings due to surgical instruments after an

incision.

Surgical operation

Glans (KENT)

Prostate gland

Ovary

Testis, lymphatic ganglions

2. CHARACTERISTIC INDIVIDUAL

TABLE

a. Constitution and Temperament: Pale,

depressed, downcast features, jealous, shy,

sentimental, conceited, impetuous, hypersensitive,

restless, loses temper easily, slender nose, half-

closed eyes, is very sensual abusing the sexual

organs, onanism.

b. Moral: Excitability, gets easily internally

irritated, dose not permit his anger to show,

continuous indignation, with organic repercussions

of them, e.g. to urinate constantly, sleeplessness,

fatigueability, brain does not work (commits

mistakes speaking, writing), poor memory, load

between the eyes, brain feeling exhausted, void.

After onanism becomes indifferent, downspirited,

mind becomes stupid, irritated, worn-out, excited.

Trying to control their emotions, they may easily

lose their voice, limbs shake, working inability,

chronic headache, preventing sleep.

Exaggerated moral and physical

hypersenitiveness:

These are people highly sensitive to noise, taste,

touch, smells, pain. Any sore skin spot is very

sensitive. Felling of strong compression, bone

pains during the night.

c. Laterality

Right (CHIRON)

Left (DUPRAT)

d. Modality

Agg:

anger, indignation, humiliation, distress due to

onanism and sexual excesses,

tobacco,

pressure, movement, touch (painful hyper-

hysteria), pressure (tooth-ache and colic)

after eating, and meat,

prior to full-moon.

Amel:

heat

night rest (except: lumbago)

after eating.

e. Causality Anger, suppressed or heldback anger,

surgical injury, pains (wounds and ulcers), coitus,

masturbation, sexual abuse, abuse of mercuries,

tobacco, Thuya abuse, teething.

f. Excretion Excretions from the mucosa, ulcers

and sweats are irritating and have bad smell.

g. Desires Wine, cognac, alcohol, tobacco, milk,

bread-beer and soups.

h. Relationship Antidote per Camphor and

antidote: Mercury and Thuja

Incompatible: Ramunculus bulbosas

Supplementary: Colocynthis, Causticum

3. SYMPTOMS

I. Mental: Sensitive to any mental impression

(words, criticism) (undeserved) insults, feels

angered but cannot respond, silent sadness, feels

easily offended; such indignation expressed by:

paleness, chronic headache, gastralgias, colics,

diarrhea, coughing, oppressed chest, throbbing

palsy, fever, sleeplessness and sweating.

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Mental effect of onanism and sexual excess

(apathy, hypocondrium, indifference, poor

memory), weakness in general.

Peevishness, irritability, hypochondriac, apathic,

conceited, jealous, sentimental, bashful,

scrupulous, conscientious, fear of darkness,

kleptomania, get frightened easily.

Children (restless, hypersensitive, impetuous,

rejects what is given to him or her).

II. Head: Chronic headache when annoyed, anger

after ingesting meat. Frontally pressing chronic

headache agg in the morning at waking up am at

rest or when leaning head against something hard.

Temporal and occipital chronic headache. Scalp

neuralgia. Rheumatic pain and delineated pain

externally of the head.

Crustz eczema on and behind ears, occipital

region, lateral to the head, wet, fetid, violent

itching. Hair loss.

III. Nervous system: 1. Central (brain-

medullarsphere) – depression with irritability

(apathy, hypochondria, sexual ideas).

2. Neuro-vegetative-sympathetic hypoesteria

Diminishment of the visceral function

Vascular relationship (bradicardia, PA arterial

extasis).

IV. Eyes:

Chalazium on the upper lid.

Recurretn styes that suppurate easily, upper lid.

Steatome of the lid

Nodosity of the lid edge

Post-operatively after a cataract intervention

Persistent catarrh with swollen lids

Nodules and tumours of the Meibomius glands.

V. Nose

Sneezing without coryza

Obstruction with a nasal voice

Coryza with obstruction, sneezing and tear-

shedding

Facial neuralgia agg. cold water in the mouth and

masticating

Facial eruptions agg. cheeks, in the peribuccal

region and on the upper lips.

VI. Ears

Retroauricular eruption

Deafness at childhood with hypertrophic adenoid

VII. Teeth:

Premature tooth cavities in children

Black, sensitive teeth that cannot stand dental work

nor cold water

Odontalgia during menstruation.

VIII. Mouth:

Spongy gums that bleed easily, pyorrhea cysts in

the salivary ducts.

X. Appetite:

Desire for: milk

tobacco

liquid food (soups)

wine

brandy

Bulimia, even after eating.

XI. Stomach:

Belching in an empty stomach

Load and pressure in the stomach, in the morning

upon waking up with nausea

Feeling of a ptosic stomach, relaxed, hanging in a

void or inside the abdomen

Worsens after snacks, or eating meat or drinking

alcobolic beverages.

XII. Abdomen:

(Hepato-biliary) colic

Swollen abdomen in children with flatus

Incarcerated warm flatulence, smelling rotten eggs

Inguinal hernia

Post-operative abdominal pain

Colics after episodes of anger, with urge to urinate

and to defecate

XIII. Faeces and anus:

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Constipation, frequent urges with little evacuation,

associated with a herpes-sensitive contact

haemmorrhoid with hypertrophy of the prostate

Diarrhoea agg. after cold beverages, after anger,

eating.

Diarrhoea in children agg. after eating, after a

punishment.

Involuntary loss of faeces at moment of releasing

flatus

Anal inching when seated.

XIV. Urinaty organ:

Feeling of a bladder right after having urinated

Pain in bladder after a lithotomy

Urine retention during puerperium

Action at the functional level: irritated bladder in a

newly wed female with daysuria agg. after coitus.

Action at the organic level: drop-after-drop urine in

an adenoma or hypertrophy of the prostate,

frequent urge to urinatie, little urine at the

urination, pain and dropping after urination.

Acute urine retention in prostatic patients

Cystocelis

Action at the sensorial level: poloquiuria in the

newly wed after the first difficult sexual

intercourse.

XV. Male sexual organ:

Chronic prostatitis in old men, with pain extending

from anus along urethra. Increased sexual urge

with frequent erection, especially at night. Itching

in the voluptuous scrotum with concomitant

erection. Frequent pollutions with chronic

headache and exhaustion, lumbar pain agg. at

night. Effect of masturbation: thin face, deep-lying

and melancholic eyes. Occipital pain, weakness of

legs, relaxed sexual organs.

Psychosomatic action: sexual obsession, frequent

erection, onanism. Dry (LATHOUD) or west

(VISINOWSKY) warts, sensitive in the gland.

Acute orchitis with swollen and hard testicles. Pain

agg. left side when walking, the ardent, tyrannical

quivering type.

XVI. Female sexual organ:

Nymphomania with extreme mental sensitiveness

and fine impression

Sensitiveness in the genital organs when seated

Vulvar itching – senile itching

Ovaritis with pain radiating along crural region

Amenorrhea due to grief, indignation

Uterine prolapse

Irregular, abundant and retarded menstruation, pale

blood, then dark with clots

Menstrual loss after menopause

Post-coitus suffering in newly wed women.

XVII. Respiratory organ:

Hoarseness, with adhering mucus in the larynx and

in the lungs

Feeling of imprisonment and contraction in the

throat after passionate out break, upon swallowing

Harshness and painfulness of the larynx after much

speaking

Dry cough caused by itching in the larynx

Violent cough with expectoration of viscous mucus

at night after lying down to sleep

Violent, spasmodic cough, yellow catarrh less at

night.

Cough caused by cigarettes.

XVIII Chest:

Herpetic eruption on ribs; it burns and itches

Cramp of the diaphragm after passionate outburst.

XIX. Heart:

Throbbing worsened by intellectual fatigue, upon

listening to music, after meals.

XX. Neck, nape of the neck and spinal column

Pressure, pulling, tension with stiffness, weakness

of the neck muscles.

Pruriginous eruption on the nape of the neck

Lumbago agg. rest, after coitus, sexual excess

getting up from bed

Lumbar abscess

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XXI. Limbs:

Feelings as if of a painful blow, after long walks.

Generalized pain in lower limbs

a) Upper limbs

Pains, twinge on shoulder agg. touch movement in

the morning

Pain in the bones of the arm agg. movement

Pressure, palsy, pain on forearm, shoulder. hands

and finger agg.

movement, touch

Herpes on hands, elbow

Arthritic nodules on figure joints

Cramp, numbness in the fingers

Osteitis of the phalanx.

b) Lower limbs

Pain in bones at night

Crural neuralgia

Pain in buttocks when sitting down

Acute osteomyelitis, especially in the phalanxes of

the fingers and in the metatarsal bones of the foot

and in the tibia, with fever and sweatlessness

Gout, not acute paroxysm, but rather when the

urate excreted in the urine gets deposited in the

joints in the form of a “tophus” nodulosity.

Generalities:

Incarcerated gases, with flatulent colics

Pain in the zygomatic region and lower jaw

Eye corners affected

Illness of the right ovary

Polyps

Arthritic nodules

Painful inflammation of the bones

Suppuration of the bones and periosteum

Swelling of the bones

Semi-palsy after annoyance

Fainting spells

Painful sensitiveness in all muscles when touched

Severe fatigue upon waking up, with pain in the

joint moving them

Relieves cancer pains

Menstrual odontalgy

XXII. Skin:

Frequent boils

Skin suppurates easily

Eczema on face, ears, irritating, thick yellowish

crusts, dry and fetid. Upon Scratching the itching

seems to move place.

Peduncular and dry warts, cauliflower-shaped

Condylomas

All of these lesions are present predominantly in

cephalic extremities, nape of neck, ears, eyelids,

nostrils

Rheumatism alternating with disturbances of the

skin

XXIII. Sleep:

Stranger tendency to sleep during the day and to

remain awake at night

Restlessness in the lower limbs

Lascivious dreams with pollutions

Sleep disturbances, anxious dreams,

somnambulism

Sleep delayed due to flow of ideas, itching on the

body, burning feeling, pain on feet.

XXIV. Fever:

Fever at night, with shivering and feeling cold agg.

3 p.m. It starts on the neck, goes up to the head and

returns.

Feeling hungry before and after paroxysm of

intermittent fever

Tertiary fever, with bitter taste, gums bleed,

anorexia and constipation, burning heat on head,

very thirsty at night and shivers early in the

morning. A tendency to perspire during the day.

*************************************

REMEDIES WITH

OPPOSITE

MODALITIES

J. MÜNZLI

ZKH, 27, 5/1983

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In the following will be found a list of

remedies in which you will find modalities which

are opposite as between particulars and generalities

or opposite in peculiar general or local modalities.

The material has been drawn from KENT’s

Lectures on Materia Medica.

Aesculus hippocastanum:

External ailments (stitches): warmth amel;

Internal ailments: warmth agg.

Allium cepa:

Open, cold air amel. General agg. warmth;

Cough from cold air

Ammonium carbonicum:

General agg. cold;

Desires cold in head ache with amel.

(except ailment of external head)

Baryta carbonica:

General agg cold;

Headache better by cold

Belladonna atropa:

General agg: motion;

Sciatica better from motion, rest agg.

Bryonia alba:

General agg. warmth;

Stomch and abdomen better from warm drinks and

applications.

General am. pressure; however not stomach and

abdomen

(this holds for head partly)

Caladium seguinum:

General agg. warmth;

Stomach better from warm drinks.

Calcarea phosphorica:

General agg. cold;

Desires for cold compresses in headache

Cannabis indica:

Movement agg. in general

Mental symptoms better from slow walking.

Carbo vegetabilis:

General lack of heat

Only in coryza feverish.

Caboneum sulphuratum:

General amel; lying;

Symptoms of head and breathing agg. from lying

Causticum:

Generally chill and rheumatic;

bathing and washing agg;

Head and eruptions better from cold washing,

- cough better from sip of cold water.

Chamomilla matricaria:

General amel: warmth;

Throat and tooth complaints worse from warmth.

Chelidonium majus:

General am: warmth

Headache caused and agg. by warmth.

Cimicifuga racemosa:

General agg: cold

Headache am. by cold

Clematis erecta:

Cold applications aggravate eruption;

Cold water am. toothache

Coccus cacti:

General agg: cold;

Cough agg. from warmth (air, room, bed, warm

drinks) and amel.

from cold (air, room, drinks)

Coffea cruda:

General agg. cold;

Tooth and throat pains better from ice-cold water.

Colocynthis cucumis:

General agg: rest;

Eye pains are worse from movement of the eyes.

Cyclamen europaeum:

General agg: motion;

Pains and head better from motion.

General agg: cold;

Cough and coryza am. by cold.

Euphrasia officianalis:

Cough, breathing and fever better from lying;

Catarrh worse from lying down in the evening.

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Ferrum metallicum:

General agg; cold;

Facial, neck and tooth pains better by cold.

Ferrum phosphoricum:

General agg: cold;

Head and tooth-aches better by cold.

Glonoinum:

Wants cold on head;

Wants warmth on the cold extremeties.

Gratiola officinalis:

Fresh air and open air amel. most of the ailments

Diarrhoea will be agg. by it.

Guaiacum officinale:

Least motion agg. all pains:

Headache better from moving about and pressure.

Ignatia amara:

General amel. warmth,

Wants could in the stomach.

Iodum:

Desires motion;

Headache agg. much from motion

Kali iodatum:

General agg: warmth;

Biparietal headache is better from warmth

General amel. fresh air;

Nasal catarrh agg. by fresh air

Cold am. externally;

Cold agg. internally

Lac vaccinum defloratum:

General agg. cold

Head ache amel. by cold

Lycopodium clavatum:

General amel: warmth;

Headache, spinal pains are not better from warmth;

Ulcers agg. from warm applications.

Magnesia muriatica:

Chilly but bettering the open and in fresh air;

Head worse from fresh air

Medorrhinum:

Generally warmth feels good;

Cough is worse in warm room.

Mercurius solubilis:

General agg. nights;

Coryza mostly in day, when out of bed, worse;

warm agg, nights

Nasal catarrh better from hot air.

Mezereum daphne:

Agg. from change of weather, stormy weather,

dampness,

bathing and cold

Eruptions agg. from warmth and bath, better from

cold

Internal and external ailments worse from warmth

of bed and nights.

Neuralgia better from warm, worse from wet cold.

Natrum arsenicosum:

Rather worse in open air,

Mental symptoms better in open air.

Natrum carbonicum:

Body and extremities worse in winter;

Head is worse in summer

Natrum muriaticum:

General amel. perspiration;

Headache will not be amel. by perspiration.

Nux vomica:

Desire for warmth, warm room, warm bed;

Head and catarrh would be worsened thereby

particularly warmth of bed.

Nitri acidum:

Warmth generally comforting:

Cough will be worse from becoming warm and in

warm room.

Oxallcum acidum:

Pain worsened by motion:

Back ache and sciatica better from change of

position.

Phosphorus:

General agg. cold;

Head and stomach want cold which amel.

Psorinum:

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General agg. in open;

Eczema of head better in open.

Pyrogenium:

Motion and heat amel. restlessness and muscles;

Motion and heat agg. cough, abdominal and heart

ailments.

Ranunculus bulbosus:

Pains worse from motion,

Pains upper half of right eye worse from rest;

amel. from walking around and standing

Rhododendron chrysanthum:

General amel. motion;

Affected part (joint swelling, facial neuralgia)

often agg. from local movement, general

movement amel.

Ruta graveolens.

General agg. from cold;

Insatiable desire for cold water.

Sabina juniperus:

General agg. warmth;

Menstrual ailment better from warmth

Secale cornutum:

General amel. cold;

Cold agg. headache (neuralgic) and burning of

skin.

Pulsatilla pratensis:

Acute: Chilly

Chronic: sensation fo head and thirstless.

Silicea terra:

Acute: heat waves

Chronic: Chilly

Chilly, desires warmth;

Stomach wants cold (comp. Puls)

Spigelia anthelmis:

Eye pains (neuralgia) better from cold, worse from

warmth;

Shoulder and neck pains worse from cold, better

from warmth.

Theridion curassavicum:

Cold agg, General amel. warmth;

Warm drinks agg. headache and nausea

Thuja occidentalis:

Pains worse from warmth;

Eye pains amel. from warmth

Veratrum album:

All pains worse from warmth;

Warmth amel. a cold abdomen.

This could be reason for failures with

repertorisation by BPENNINGHAUSEN’s

methods

The general and particular modalities of a

remedy are not always identical. Sometimes they

are contradictory, sometimes different modalities

of generals or particulars are contradictory.

*************************************

Bob FINNELL’s life-style caught up with him

at the age of 48. In 1985, medical tests showed two

of his coronary arteries were completely blocked

and a third was nearly closed. Sometime in the

past, he learnt, he had even suffered a “silent” heart

attack.

FINNELL had travelled a familiar path to the

brink of death. He put in long hours and went

without vacations to stay on top of a demanding

job. “I was always in a hurry”, says Finnell. “I’d

take a taxi to go three blocks. I’d rush to the airport

and make last-minute phone calls before boarding a

plane”. He also kept a tight lid on his feelings.

While FINNELL was a non-smoker with

normal blood-pressure, he loved high-fat cheeses,

meats and rich desserts. He was almost 20 kilos

overweight, and his blood-cholesterol level was

high. Finnell’s cardiologists recommended by pass

GOOD NEWS

ABOUT YOUR

HEART,

PEKKANEN John.

‘Reader’s Digest’

August 1991.

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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surgery, but Finnell thought, There must be another

way.

At the University of California at San Franciso

Medical School and Pacific Presbyterian Medical

Centre, Dr. Dean ORNISH, a young, soft-spoken

researcher, was recruiting patients for a new heart-

disease treatment. Earlier in his career, ORNISH

had studied by pass surgery. Ultimately, however,

he became concerned that it addressed only

symptoms and not causes.

“It was like mopping up the floor when the

sink overflows without also turning off the tap”, the

38-year old doctor says. “We had patients coming

back five years after their bypasses with the same

disease. So we’d bypass the bypasses”.

Newer, less drastic meical techniques did little

to change ORNISH’s mind. In coronary

angioplasty a balloon catheter is inflated inside a

blocked artery to open it up. “But a third of arteries

opened this way clog up within six months,”

ORNISH notes.

Another option, cholesterol-lowering drugs,

while promoting in certain cases, can be costly.

Patients on such drugs may lessen their changes of

dying of heart disease, but in some people these

drugs may have adverse side effects.

“With these various interventions”, says

ORNISH, “we often end up trading one set of

problems for another. I wanted to address the

causes of heart disease”.

Early Volunteer: It is known that diet, smoking

and other life-style factors are the underlying cause

of much heart disease. ORNISH hoped to learn

whether changing one’s life-style would not only

halt the progress of heart disease, but even reverse

it. It was a radical idea. Conventional wisdom held

that once plaque narrowed a coronary artery, only

such invasive procedures as surgery and

angioplasty could widen it again.

At first, ORNISH found little support. The US

National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

turned down his grant request. So did several

foundations. Turning to private contributors, he

raised barely enough to begin his research.

With Dr. Shirley BROWN and research

psychologists. Larry SCHERWITZ and Jim

BILLINGS, ORNISH set up head-quarters outside

San Francisco. As his test subjects, he recruited

patients who had just undergone coronary

angiography – X-ray studies that show the precise

extent of heart disease. To guard against bias, a

statistician would randomly assign patient either to

a group that received the experimental treatment or

to a comparison group that followed their own

doctors’ recommendations for diet and life-style

changes.

Among the first patients who volunteered was

Bob FINNELL. He and 27 other were assigned to

the experimental group, and another 20 to the

comparison group. All 43 men and five women,

aged 41 59 71, had very serious heart disease.

SCHERWITZ called the study the Life-Style

Heart Trail. For the experimental group, the ground

rules were simple. Anyone who smoked would

stop. Everyone would eat a low-fat vegetarian diet-

no meats, poultry or fish.

While there would be no caloric limitation,

cholesterol intake would be limited to five

milligrams a day, and calories from fat would be

held to ten percent of the diet. Caffeine, cheese and

egg yolks were banned. To be included in the diet:

fruits, vegetables, egg whites, grains, legumes,

pasta, skim milk, non-fat yogurt and herbal teas.

Moderate amounts of alcohol and sugar were

allowed; salt was restricted only for those with

hypertension.

Participants were to walk a half hour a day or

an hour three times a week. Convinced that

psychological factors play a major role in heart

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disease, ORNISH included mental relaxation and

stress-management techniques in his experimental

group. After week-long training sessions, the test

subjects returned home, agreeing to meet twice a

week. All kept a record of the food they ate and of

their exercise and anti-stress routines.

Recently ORNISH published the results of his

study in a new book, Dr. Dean ORNISH’s

Programme for Reversing Heart Disease. Six

people in the experimental-treatment group did not

complete the testing. Among the remaining 22

participants, 18 (82 per cent) showed reversal of

their coronary-artery blockages after one year.

Three showed no significant change, and one

actually got worse. “This person did not follow the

programme”, ORNISH says.

In the comparison group, one person dropped

out, and ten of the remaining 19 developed

measurably worse heart disease, while three

showed no significant change. On average, the

arteries of patients in the comparison group closed

an additional eight per cent.

Landmark Study: Significantly, six people in the

comparison group showed measurable reversal.

This was because, says ORNISH, they made life-

style changes on their own. “They exercised more”,

he notes,” and they cut their fat and cholesterol

intake”.

The results of the Life-Style Heart Trial caught

the attention of the medical community. Dr.

ALEXANDER LEAF, former chairman of the

department of preventive medicine at Harvard

University Medical College, says, “For the first

time, we have a carefully done scientific study that

shows, even in advanced stages, this disease can be

reversed with life-style changes. This is a landmark

study”.

Meanwhile, ORNISH’s findings have

prompted sizeable grants from the NHLBI and

private foundations to learn if reversal will

continue. The evidence thus far suggests that it

will. FINNELL, who had the worst blockages in

the study, felt “tremendous improvements” during

the first year and “even bigger changes between the

third and fourth years”. Tests confirmed this.

Because more severe blockages were years in

the building and often more calcified, ORNISH

thought they would be more difficult to reverse.

Yet, surprisingly, this was where the greatest

reversal occurred. The average blockage in the

experimental group shrank 5.5 percent, but the

most severe ones regressed nearly nine percent.

Notes ORNISH, “Even a small reversal in a severe

blockage can cause a great improvement in blood

flow”.

Remarkably, ORNISH’s patients experienced a

91 percnet reduction I frequency of chest pain,

mostly within the first few weeks. When he started

the regimen, Werner HEBENSTREIT, now 76, the

oldest study participant, could not even shave

without angina pain. “Now I can hike four to six

hours at a time”, he says. Instead of taking two

dozen cardiac pills a day, he is down to one infant-

dose aspirin every alternate day.

ORNISH also discovered that a person’s blood

– cholesterol level may not be as important as the

consumption of cholesterol and fat. ORNISH had

assumed that cholesterol levels below 150

milligrams per deci-litre would be needed for

reversal. Because of a genetic predisposition, one

patient, Robert ROYALL, 55, had an excessively

high cholesterol level, and the rigid diet lowered it

only to 260 – still high-risk. Yet his heart disease

regressed, as did that of another patient whose

cholesterol never fell below 200. This underscores

ORNISH’s view that diet and other life-style

changes, not cholesterol-lowering drugs, should be

the first step for people with high cholesterol

levels.

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A Race to Death: As important as he found diet to

be, ORNISH says his study only reinforced his

view that heart disease is far more complex than we

realze. He points out that traditional risk factors

explain only about 50 percent of heart disease.

Clearly, somethings else is involved. And a big part

of that “something else”, he believes, might be

stress.

Evidence of that shows up in the one patient in

ORNISH’s study who died. At 49, the man

ORNISH calls Sam was a world-class runner, race

walker and cyclist. He was also, he told ORNISH,

a former Olympic athlete. After racing one day,

Sam developed chest pain. Tests revealed several

blocked coronary arteries.

Following an unsuccessful coronary

angioplasty, Sam joined ORNISH’s programme. he

followed the vegetarian diet faithfully, and his

cholesterol dropped from 294 to 121. Because Sam

seemed excessively competitive, ORNISH asked

him not to complete during the study. But ten

months after entering the programme, he competed

against other “rowers” on a televised rowing

exercise game at local gym. The faster he rowed,

the further ahead of his competitors he got. After

an hour, he announced proudly that he had finished

150 boat-lengths ahead. Moments later, he died of

a heart attack.

Soon after, ORNISH learnt that Sam had never

been as Olympic athlete, as claimed. “For Same”,

ORNISH writes “the stress came not from

exercising but from the competitive attitude that he

took towards it”.

Sam’s death, ORNISH continues, “was a tragic

but powerful lesson for me. It’s not sufficient

simply to change behaviours like diet and exercise.

We also need to consider what underlies the

behaviours”.

While certain Type A behaviours, such as

impatience and tendency to do two or three things

at a time, do not appear to be linked to heart

disease, other are. Citing research at Duke

University, ORNISH concludes that behaviours

“most toxic” to the heart are self-involvement,

hostility and cynicism.

“You can’t remove stress from people’s lives”,

ORNISH says, “but you can diminish its effects by

improving the way people react to it”.

Yoga, including a relaxing regimen of

stretching and breathing exercises along with

meditation, became a key part of ORNISH’s stress-

management programme. He defines meditation as

“a focusing of the mind for a time on a sound, a

word, a prayer – a way of quieting the mind and

body and experiencing inner peace”. Many studies

have shown that meditation lowers blood-pressure.

In ORNISH’s Life-Style Heart Trial, stress-

management took about an hour a day. Almost all

participants reported a big improvement in their

stress tolerance.

Is It Practical? While the scientific validity of

ORNISH’s study is not in question, he does have

his doubters. “ORNISH’s results are valid for the

people in his study”, says Dr. HENRY

GINSBERG, an associate professor of medicine at

Columbia University and a member of the

American Heart Association’s (AHA) nutrition

committee. “However, it is impossible to say

without larger studies whether his results would

apply to the entire population. But the real issue is

whether his results are practical for the whole

population. I don’t think most people would be

willing or able to follow his regimen”.

The AHA itself has also suggested that

ORNISH’s regimen is impractical and stated that it

would not modify its diet recommendations. The

AHA calls for limiting the calories you get from fat

to 30 percent of your total rather than ORNISH’s

ten percent. ORNISH responds: “People have

followed our programme for more than five years.

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The reason is that they feel better. I suspect there

are a lot more people than we think who would

make comprehensive changes. Not everyone would

want to, however, and for these I have no hesitation

in offering drugs or surgery”.

Moreover, ORNISH feels such criticism

misses the point. “What I wanted to do”, “was to

find out what works, not what is easy. Giving up

smoking is hard, but it doesn’t stop us from

advising people to do so.”

ORNISH is also surprised by the suggestion

that his regimen, which poses little risk and would

cost most patients very little, is “radical”.

Especially, he adds, when such potentially risky

interventions as bypass surgery, angioplasty and

powerful drugs are considered standard therapy.

Dr. ORNISH’s programme can also be

practiced as preventive therapy, which requires a

less stringent regimen than reversing heart disease

does. For people with high cholesterol levels,

ORNISH suggests gradually reducing fat and

cholesterol consumption until the level falls to 150.

Also, incorporate exercise into your daily routine –

walk to work or take an after-dinner stroll.

Learn to manage your stress with stretching,

meditation and simple breathing exercises. Deep

breathing – in which air is inhaled into the

abdomen, held briefly and slowly exhaled – can be

done throughout the day, even while you’re waiting

for a traffic light.

“The benefits of our programme,” ORNISH

concludes, “are not confined to heart diseases, but

may apply to other illnesses as well. The more we

learn about disease, the more we realize it often

arises from a combination of physical and

psychological factors. All of these need to be

addressed”.

Bob FINNELL can attest to that. while his

heart has shown remarkable improvement, he

believes the biggest change is in his head. “It’s a

mistake to focus too much on the physical changes.

The mental and emotional transformations are

more important. If I were told this was all a mix-up

and I had no heart disease, I would still follow the

programme”, he says. “It has probably given me a

much longer life, but it has certainly given me a

much richer one”.

*************************************

“It’s a funny thing, stress”, said the boss, little

realizing how prophetic his words would prove to

be in the ensuing month. He was a worried surgical

consultant comforting an even more worried

surgical trainee.

The previous night, Saturday, on call in a

London teaching hospital, I had suffered a

profound, incapacitating, panic attack. For no

obvious reason I had suddenly been overwhelmed

by a crescendo of blind unreasoning fear, defying

all logic and insight.

Bewildered and summoning my last reserves

of concentration, I had referred myself to the duty

psychiatrist and had been sedated and admitted to

the psychiatric ward of may own hospital.

As an army medical officer I had served in the

Falkland Islands campaign in 1982, but nothing

that General Galtieri’s men had generated

compared with the terrors that my own mind

invented that night. Having looked death full in the

eye on a windswept isthmus that night. Having

looked death full in the eye on a windswept

isthmus outside Goose Green and again, but two

weeks later, on a barren hillside called Wireless

Ridge, I think can honestly say I no longer feared

death or the things real and imagined that usually

become the objects of phobias. I was afraid that

INSIDE MADNESS

Steven HUGHES

‘Br. Med. Journal’

Vol. 301, 1990.

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night of the only things that could still frighten we,

myself, I was terrified of losing my control.

No logic could rationlise what had happened. I

could not let go in case I lost control, and the more

I battled against my fear the more the panic

increased. I had been completely physically and

mentally exhausted when they had sedated me.

Now, in the cold light of Sunday morning, with my

parents and my consultant with me, I was feeling

foolish but far from sane. What had happened to

me? What was to stop it happening again?

In an effort to save me embarrassment the

psychiatric staff tried to find me a bed in another

London hospital. It took several hours on the

telephone but eventually one was found. I was

transferred to a world center, where I was admitted

by the duty registrar. He apologized, the only bed

available was in a forensic psychiatric ward. Thus,

an hour later, I found myself in a side room (a cell),

in a ward for the criminally insane. I amused

myself with the thought that two years with the

parachute regiment must equate to a criminal

record. I couldn’t be completely mad if I could still

smile at my predicament.

So far I had been seen be a senior house officer

and a senor registrar at my own hospital and a

registrar and a senior registrar at the second

hospital. Sedation had been started and

subsequently stopped. I had been clerked several

times, but the only person who had really

communicated with and helped me was the senior

house officer on the night of admission, the newest

recruit to the speciality. We had met once before

when he had been a medical senior house officer

and I a surgical registrar in another hospital.

I struggled not only to regain but also to retain

my sanity in an environment our of One Flew Over

the Cuckoo’s Nest. At least the nurses in the film

wore name badges and uniforms. Here, you could

barely tell staff from patients. Who were the

minders and who were the minded? Drugs were

dispensed on the Pavlovian stimulus of a bell and

the summons to “medication time”; patients

shuffled in a queue to receive their pills from a

hatch.

Never the same face

After 48 hours in hospital I started to get

restless. I wanted to see the same face twice. I

wanted to know why it had happened. I knew that

getting agitated was counterproductive so I lay on

my bed to try and calm down when one of the

nurses came in to tell me I had 30 minutes to pack

for the move to another hospital. I pointed out that

someone ought to tell my parents, who would be

setting off to visit me, and that I needed my wallet

from the safe.

Hurriedly bundling my possessions, I was

escorted to a waiting ambulance, only to be asked

to dismount as they didn’t yet have clearance to

carry me. Clearance eventually forthcoming, we

departed for one of the famous Surrey “bins”.

The new ward was less forbidding, although

the absence of uniform or name badges and the

summons to medication proved to be the same. I

was told that I would be accompanied by a nurse at

all time – it seemed that I was now under a close

supervision order. There had been no such

restrictions on me until then. I was, after all, a

voluntary patient. I couldn’t now go for a pee

without my shadow, but this was short lived. The

duty psychiatric registrar came to admit me. He

was dressed reassuringly in a collar and tie; he

looked and talked like a doctor. We discussed our

attitudes to dress and patient’s expectations of their

doctor. We held similar opinions; until recently he

had been a physician.

Thankfully, he decided that I might be agitated

and depressed but that I was neither dangerous nor

suicidal. He dismissed my minder but after he had

gone one of the nurses appeared. They had

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discussed me among themselves and decided that if

I wasn’t to have a minder they wanted my ties and

belts. Holding on to my trousers and my dignity, I

handed them over. In jest, I volunteered that

perhaps they should take my plastic laundary bag

in case I put my head in it. The bag was

confiscated, leaving me with an untidy pile of

soiled clothes.

I knew by now that things had got out of

control. I was no longer confident as a patient. If I

was going to keep things together I had to assert

myself. Thus I adopted my safe “doctor” persona

again. It was no use playing “patient” because all

that happened so far had served only to destabilize

me. The system wasn’t helping me. At least I knew

now what discharge entailed. I would have to wait

to be seen by the consultant on his ward round at

the end of the week. I was discovering that

psychiatrists do not share the same time scale as

other clinicians, particularly surgeons. this only

added to my sense of apprehensioin and frustration.

During the three days waiting to see the

consultant acquired something of an entourage of

fellow patients. I found companionship and

comfort and they found re-assurance in knowing

someone who knew how to stall the system. I

found surprising talent and compassion besides the

sadness and torment: many remarkable people with

surprising abilities but temporarily lacking the

capacity to cope with the world outside. It was us

against the system. I became indebted to my family

and friends visiting. Thank God for the telephone.

It was easy to imagine becoming lost ot the outside

world. How many souls have disappeared into the

British psychiatric archipelago?

On Firday I faced inquisition, passed, and was

duly realsed to my home for two weeks to

convalesce. Thus a fortnight later, more than a little

confused by events, I returned to work.

After 12 days it happened all over again.

Panic consumed me, again out of the blue, at a

trauma conference. I sought sanctuary in a nearby

casualty department. This time I really thought that

I was losing my grip on sanity. I will never forget

the bizarre fixations on inanimate objects as I tried

desparately to divert my attention from the

unhinging of my world – an electric socket, a

patient trolley – was this madness?

Help from a young nurse

Human contact and understanding rescued me.

A young student nurse talked me out of the fog and

calmed me down until the arrival of the psychiatric

senior registrar. I related my story, including the

nightmare of my earlier stay in hospital, and was

by now much calmer. Thankfully, he decided

against admitting me. It was a mark of my terror

that, despite what I had experienced two weeks

before, it had been the lesser evil to return for help

to that system, but as the panic passed anything

was preferable to another fruit-less stay in an NHS

ward.

Agitated but functioning I drove home to my

country cottage, my only remaining sanctuary. My

parents came as soon as I called and stayed with

me that night and the next day. It was they who

persuaded me to contact a naval psychiatrist friend

for advice. As I put the telephone down from

speaking to him the penny finally dropped. He had

also been with the Falkland taskforce and after

speaking to him I flashed back. I suddenly found

myself back at Goose Green, in the rain and the

smoke and the horror. I felt again the fear, the

despair, the grief, and the anger; and over-

whelming maelstrom of emotions long since buried

deep in my soul.

I had PTSD – post-traumatic stress disorder.

Distraught by this stage, my parents did the

only sensible thing, they called my general

practitioner. He was superb – prompt, professional

calm, and reassuring. He had a discussion with the

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military, and my admission to a service hospital

was arranged.

My subsequent treatment was the way out of

the abyss. The contrast with the NHS was stark.

Crisp pressed uniforms, mutual respect, and the

implied expectancy of return to normality and duty

were powerful advantages of dealing with

predominantly stress related conditions in a service

hospital. But is that beyond the NHS? It was not

pleasant, but it was the way to normality. I started

to address what I had never acknowledged let alone

come to terms with – the hidden memories and

feelings of those black days of 1982. I had never

had the time to release the suppressed emotions

that I had dared not show as I fought to keep alive

those gallant young me, Argentinians and Brits,

friend and foe, on that desolate Goose Green

isthmus. Aware of the eyes of my medics on me,

their leader, I had got on, seemingly impassively,

with the job at hand, even when the bodies of some

of my closest friends lay only yards away.

Ultimate nightmare

With the seriously wounded needing lifesaving

help, there is no place for the cold, still image of

the friend, joking but a few hours before, now with

a 7.62 mm entry wound in the middle of his

forehead, his body half hidden under a tarpaulin

next to that of the charismatic commanding officer

we both so admired and loved. Goose Green was

my ultimate nightmare. The subsequent memories

of the Galahad disaster and Wireless ridge pale into

insignificance by comparison. Whatever snapped

did so in the burning gorse at Goose Green. They

do say you can feel only one pain at a time.

Returning home to a society that had simply

watched another war movie on television, I never

seemed to get the space to grieve for my friends.

As time passed so I supposed and hoped had the

need. It was as if I had erased the emotion from the

tape in my head that records those memories.

Although I had instigated and cowritten a research

study on post-traumatic stress disorder in Falkland

veterans. I had ignored all the symptoms in the

mirror.

My rehabilitation is not over yet. Indeed, it

may never be. If even I come fully to terms with

the nightmare that is war then perhaps I will have

changed for the worse. Perhaps, by sharing my

experiences I can find peace. Certainly, the process

of treatment seems to be one of sharing and thus

dispersing the hurt. In a way it is like the

dissipation of energy, the greater the area of impact

the less the damage.

What can be learnt from my tale?

Professionally, we must seek a better way of

treating sick doctors when it comes to mental

illness. Doctors have greater insight of the system

than most patients and are often treated by staff and

patients alike as aliens. For this reason they are

even more vulnerable to the whims of the system

and need special efforts to engender reassurance,

comfort and stability.

On an individual level, perhaps we should

strive to be less insular about our reactions to

stress, particularly when talking to each other.

Surgeons are hardly renowned for being caring

individuals most of us affect an impersonal,

impassive, protective façade. What surprised me

was the tremendous support of my surgical

colleagues, contemporary, and senior. The almost

universal reaction seemed to be, “If it can happen

to Steve could it happen to me?” It’s a pity it takes

a breakdown to elicit that support. I would

encourage any doctor in similar straits to seek help

early from colleagues – we’re only human, no

matter how invincible we try to appear.

It was the young who coped and

communicated best with me. Honesty and

humanity are so precious.

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Finally, my story represents only the tip of an

iceberg. It is not just other Falkland veterans –

somewhere in the region of 20% of the combatants

– and veterans of other military conflicts who are

having problems, or even the survivors of the string

of civilian disasters of recent years. It is the

individual whose personal disaster does not rate

media or, sometimes, even medical recognition but

nonetheless leaves him or her psychologically

damaged and, with the increasing fragmentation of

the family, less able than ever to find help. Many,

like me, will not even be aware that they have a

problem.

It is for these other victims that I regard the

telling of my story to be essential. In the words of

John BRADFORD, “But for the grace of God…”

*************************************

This last person to see him alive was an Irish

prostitute. She shared his Dublin origins and had

London as a base. He was there to die there

anonymously, she to live anonymously. She had

finished another routine night’s work and,

unwinding wearily, she noticed him motionless at

the apartment window opposite. He held her

attention for two or three minutes before she

moved off to shower away the dirt and sweat of her

trad.

For NOEL the prostitute did not exist,

although others like her had in his relatively short

life. He stood there in the stillness and calm of

early morning London, the memory bank intact and

turning over. London goes to sleep for a few

minutes every night when stragglers awake. He

liked that gap, finding it reassuring. It gave him the

courage he needed to do what he had to do. No

more playing around. No more talking. The time

was right.

Two years before, almost to the day, he lay in

a hospital bed returning quite pleasantly from a

brush with death that left him without memory of

the accident or the subsequent week. It was lie

surfacing back into light and then noise, shapes,

and people. No real problem. Another battle won,

another risk survived. There was absolutely nothing

to let him know that life would never be the same

again. Everybody else in the ward, all the staff, the

patients, the cleaners, the visitors even, they all

knew that he had lost his leg before he did and they

were used to it by the time that he woke up. He was

not about to get used to it, though, Never.

It happens to a lot of people. A lousy accident

followed by a battle to save the mangled limb and a

cold surgical decision to amputate. Lots of people

lose bits and pieces. They have jobs, wives,

husbands, girlfriends, compensation – of course

they recover. Some of them are even improved by

it all. You know the scene. The tragedy brings a

family together. Life is a bonus not an entitlement.

That sort of sell deception. They go on living and

denying. It would not be like that for NOEL. Not at

all.

He deliberated long and hard about killing the

surgeon, the on who failed to sew his leg back on.

They can transplant hearts and kidneys and lives

can’t they? But nobody had bothered to reconnect

his leg. He asked about that one morning during the

ward round and the entourage thought it strange.

You see, patients are supposed to keep stupid

criticisms and questions to themselves, and what is

more they should be grateful and respectful

towards surgical and medial experts who save

lives. One young student nurse, more sensitive than

her seniors, was quite frightened by his inquiries

and the way he asked them and she knew he was

different. Not for him the usual subservience, the

NOEL’S

RESURRECTION

Charles SMITH

‘Br. Med. Journal’

Vol. 301, 1990.

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expected cooperation in recovery. For NOEL there

was no chance of that.

Phantom sensations

He had plenty of time to think because he was

left alone in the ward. That is the way he wanted it.

No ties, no friendships, no obligations, no

commitments. he drifted through the days and

nights. Awake, he worried about the old bit. What

did they do with it? Burn it? Half awake, half

asleep, he was convinced more than once that the

leg had regrown and that he was whole again. He

had phantom sensations that convinced him the leg

was restored in place and he would have to check

again and again. He didn’t need to check the pain,

the anger, the frustration.

The student nurse was not the only one to

notice how different he was. years earlier, in his

small local primary school, Mr McDONAGH

decided to take on the non-conforming NOEL. It

seemed an unequal struggle with adult size and role

pitted against a child, a child with a difference.

This one never cried, never apologized, never

submitted, never showed fear. NOEL won the long

battle with Mr. McDONAGH. McDONAGH gave

up, but NOEL lost out on the way. By the time that

he was finished with Mr. McDONAGH he had

arrived at a stage where he couldn’t laugh, couldn’t

paly, and he certainly couldn’t trust. AT home it

wasn’t much different because his father seemed

angry with him all the time as well and nobody

seemed to protect him – that’s the way it felt. It

was like a constant confusing war and he didn’t

know what side he was on most of the time.

Somebody had to pay for what he had to put

up with. Someone else had to suffer. If no one

cared about hurting him why should he care about

hurting others? There was a score that had to be

settled and later, when he was bigger, someone was

going to get it. Perhaps Mr. McDONAGH, perhaps

someone who just looked sideways at him. He

never liked girls, although plenty were attracted to

him. He knew all about physical sex by the time

that he was 14, but he knew nothing about being

bowled over by a girl, being madly in love, being

vulnerable. No, that was never to happen to him.

He should continue to get mean and perhaps a bit

vicious.

Nora McCAWLEY at the tender age fo 16

loved this handsome young warrior and whatever

he wanted she gave. He thought it was funny when

he once persuaded her to remove her dress in a

courting wood and he ran off with it, really ran off.

He didn’t return to end the joke, though she waited,

embarrassed and ashamed, for hours, and she

needed a Samaritan in a passing car to rescue her

and bring her to move humiliation, first to a

neighbour’s house and then to her angry, confused

home. Her parents banned and barred NOEL and

saved NORA a lot of misery and pain. When he

found out about their rejection of him he thought

seriously about setting the McCAWLEY household

on fire with all of them in it.

Relief in hunting.

NOEL got some release from persisting

resentments when he took off into the countryside

to camp and hunt. With growing insight he thought

he was safer on his own and the hunting, at which

he quickly became skilful, satisfied something im

him, relieved him. It wasn’t that he needed all that

he caught or that he enjoyed and contrived a slow,

painful, curel death for his prey, but the exercise

soaked up a lot of aggressive energy, leaving him

more at case, sated. All of that had gone on before

and he was already a moulded fighting machine

with aggressive energy to burn when the accident

exploded.

He had terrible trouble trying to master the

artificial limb. they eventually fitted it, if fitting is

what you call clumsy, ignorant, painful strapping of

lifeless steel and leather to living, angry stump. He

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hated every hand that touched him, every tape tht

measured him, every eye that glanced his way in

the limb fitting department. The technicians had

seen a lot of reactions in their time, but nothing

ever like the killing looks of NOEL when he

quickly got fed up with their impossible struggle to

restore function that would never approach

normality.

The new limb hurt the old one and in warm

weather it got hot and sticky. It creaked and

snapped and announced his disability even before

his limb came into view. He was angry with those

who decided to risk talking to him about his

accident and suspicious of those who didn’t who

pretended they noticed nothing. Anyone who

seemed genuinely interested in him was banished

with insult or threat.

He was not about to discover religion or

anything stupid like that, but he would fantasise a

voyage to Lourdes, a plunge into the healing waters

and a re-emergence complete and restored, never

again to seethe, never again to limp, never again to

hate. Those thoughts became his version of prayer.

He didn’t believe in his prayers and they went

unheeded.

He wrote all of this down so that if something

terrible happened he would leave some answer

behind. A few drinks made another type of fantasy

increasingly attractive. This one included finding a

small, quiet business office with three employees.

Two young women and a man. The door would

lock and the shades go down and the man would

die. The women would live for a while as he played

a game. They had to give the right answers to his

questions to survive. He would start off with simple

stuff, moving on to six markers. It was all

rehearsed, their death inevitable. It was sick really

because what he intended was worse than what he

wrote down. He recorded only the major

components. He didn’t tell about the sadistic

torturing that he was getting close to at that stage.

Somebody had to pay for NOEL’s anger and pain.

No one actually saw him jump but plenty saw

what was left of him. The 12 storey drop did a

good mincing job on NOEL and nobody, not even

the ambulance crew, noticed his amputated stump.

There was no sign of the artificial limb. No sign of

it in the street, no sign of it in the jump room. It

was gone forever. He was thoroughly successful in

destroying himself, that’s for certain, but there was

more to it than that. His life was gone, finished.

Some would say good riddance; but other were

alive and would stay that way. That was NOEL’s

sacrifice, his way of offering a prayer that delivered

the goods. NOELS’s resurrection.

(This story is based largely on the life and

death of a real patient. He and I struggled for years

to avoid a killing and he chose suicide, I’m certain,

as his contribution to that struggle. A new NOEL

walked into my office last week)

The 4

th

Congress of Asian Homoeopathic

Medical League shall be held at Colombo, Sri

Lanka, on 23, 24 and 25 November, 1991. The

subjects are:

1. Homoeopathic treatment for drug addiction.

2. Asthma, allergy and homoeopathic treatment.

3. Surgical diseases, cancers, tumours, etc. and

homoepathic treatment.

4. Renal calculi and gall stones and homoeopathic

treatment.

5. Research in homoeopathy carriedout by CCRH,

India.

6. AIDS and other viral diseases and homoeopathic

treatment.

7. Use of computer in homoeopathic practice.

8. Cure of skin diseases by homoeopathic

medicines without external application.

9. Free subjects.

NEWS

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Papers on these subjects may be sent to Dr.

M.A. Latiff, 23, Amaraswkera Mawatha, Colombo

5, Sri Lanka, by 15.10’91. The delegate fee fro the

Congress is US $100. Venue of the Congress is

Bandarnaike Memorial International conference

Hall, Colombo.

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4.QHD, Vol. VIII, 4, 1991

PART I CURRENT LITERATURE LISTING

A list of current homoeopathic literature,

subjectwise, is given below.

Expect for the CCRH Quarterly Bulletin all the

others are from the British, American, German etc.

Journals, not readily accessible to every

homoeopathy. Some of the article will appear in

Part II of the Quarterly Homoeopathic

DIGEST,asabstract/summary/condensation/full,

etc.,

I. PHILOSOPHY

1. Homoeopathy and the calculations

KLUNKER, W. (ZKH, 34, 5/90)

2. HAHNEMANN and HEGEL or the medicament

is the disease picture – Part II HAHNEMANN’s

thoughts on the healing process and the structure of

the Similie Rule

BUTTNER, S. (ZKH, 34, 5/90)

3. Clemens von BOENNINGHAUSEN and the

future of HAHNEMANN’s miasms theory for the

treatment of chronic diseases.

KLUNKER, W. (ZKH, 34, 6/90)

4. A proving week-end

SAMUEL, Kay (The Homoeopath, 10, 1/90)

5. The Alchemist and the Goddess: Further

thoughts

NORLAND, Misha (The Homoeopath , 10,

1/90)

6. Critical thoughts on theory of miasms

WOUTERS, Maarten (NTKH, 2, 2/91)

7. Interview with Rajan SANKARAN

(GELDERBLOM, Wim (NTKH, 2, 2/91)

II. MATERI MEDICA

1. Answer to the case ‘Vegetative Dysregulation’

in AHZ 235, 4/90.

GEBHARDT, K.-H (AHZ, 235, 5/90)

2. Homoeo-quiz-Multiple Sclerosis

MULLER, H.V. (AHZ, 235, 5/90)

3. Lycopus europacus – a less known

homoeopathic medicine

HERZ, W. (AHZ, 235, 6/90)

4. Treatment of a Depression with Aurum

metallicum

FRIEDRICH, U. (AHZ, 235, 6/90)

5. Answer to the Homoeo-quiz: Multiple Sclerosis

in AHZ 235, 5/90)

MULLER, H.V. (AHZ, 235, 6/90)

6. Primary chronic polyarthritis – Homoeo quiz

SCHUTTE, M. (AHZ, 235, 6/90)

7. Chronic Delusions – Lepidium bonaricnse

KRISHNAMURTHY, P.S. (ZKH, 34, 5/90)

8. A look into BOENNINGHAUSEN’s Practice –

Part II – Relationship of remedies

WEGENER, A (ZKH, 34, 5/90)

9. Derangement of vision – Gelsemium

GYPSER, K.H. (ZKH, 34, 6/90)

10. Amica Montana – the mountain daisy

ELMORE, Dutt (Resonance, 12, 6/90)

11. Ledum palustre

ELMORE, Dutt (Resonance, 12, 6/90)

12. Some thoughts on the psychology of Nux

vomica with special reference to children.

SHORE, Jonathan (JAIH, 83, 4/90)

13. Cyclamen

LOGAN, Robin (The Homoepath, 10, 1/90)

14. Carcinosin: the complete rubrics?

TREUHERZ, Francis (The Homoeopath, 10,

1/90)

15. The Leech: Hirudo medicinalis

TWENTYMAN, Ralph (The Homoeopath, 10,

1/90)

16. Notes from the Seminar of Ananda ZAREN

VAN DEN BORN, Alineke (NTKH, 2, 2/91)

17. Case of Anacardium orientale

BREUKER, Bert (NTKH, 2, 2/91)

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III THERAPEUTICS

1. Headaches in ENT practice

FRIESE, K.-H (AHZ, 235, 5/90)

2. Homeopathic treatment of Basedow’s disease

treated with Lycopodium

KLEBER, J.J. (AHZ, 235, 5/90)

3. Homoeopathic treatment of difficulat and

therapy-resistant hip pains after endoprothetic

implantation – Medorrhinum

(ZKH, 34, 6/90)

4. Two childbirth remedies

MOSKOWITZ, Richard (BHJ, 79, 4/90)

5. The evolution of a homoeopathic paediatrician

LEVATIN, Janet (Resonance, 12, 5/90)

6. Osteoporosis

NEUSTAEDTER, Randall (Resonance, 12,

5/90)

7. Treating vaginitis with homoeopathy

REICHENBERG-ULLMAN, Judyth

(Resonance, 12, 5/90)

8. Healing low self-esteem and shame

REICHENBERG-ULLMAN, Judyth

(Resonance, 12, 6/90)

9. Why Homoeopathy for children

LEVATIN, Janet (Resonance, 12, 6/90)

10. Fear of the dentist

STEPHENSON, David I. (Resonance, 12, 6/90)

11. Homoeopathic Antidotes

SCHOONOVER, Candace (Editorial comment

– Jonathan SHORE) (JAIH, 83, 4/90)

12. Methods of case analysis – Part II

MORRISON, Roger (JAIH, 83, 4/90)

13. Homoeopathic treatment of multiple sclerosis

patient

SAINE, Andre (The Homoeopath, 10, 1/90)

14. Family dynamics and Homoeopathy

MORRISON, Roger and HERRICK, Nancy

(NTKH, 2, 2/91)

IV. REPERTORY

1. Remedy mix-up in KENT Repertory – Cactus

grandiflorus and Castoreum.

EPPENICH, H. (ZKH, 34, 6/90)

2. How are finger numbered in KENT Repertory?

EPPENICH, H. (ZKH, 34, 6/90)

3. Analysis of rubrics in KENT’s Repertory - Part

5.

Headache from fasting

WALDECKER, A. (ZKH, 34, 6/90)

V. RESEARCH

1. Current perspectives for homoeopathic research

– results of earlier researches – Part 2.

WALACH, H. (AHZ, 235, 5/90)

2. Science – Homoeopathy - Placebo

SPAICH, W. (AHZ, 235, 5/90)

3. Homoeopathy as a practical alternative to

traditional obstetric methods.

VENTOSKOVSKIY, BM.; POPOV, A.V.

(BHJ, 79, 4/90)

4. Ultrasonic study of homoeopathic solutions

SILVIO, Maranta; ARNALDO, Paparelli (BHJ,

79, 4/90)

5. Practical applications of isotherapy in chronic

and acute pathologies

DI NEPI, Luciano (BHJ, 79, 4/90)

6. An assessment of treatment of migraine

headache syndrome in patients seen in private

practice.

FOX, DUNSTAN Anthony (BHJ, 79, 4/90)

7. Dose-dependent effect of Baryta carbonicum

and Baryta muriaticum in homoepathic trituration

on experimentally induced high serum lipid

concentration in chickens.

NANDI, M.; RAHA, D. (BHJ, 79, 4/90)

8. Research Review – Negative results

(BHJ, 79, 4/90)

VI. PHARMACY

1. Documentation of homoeopathic remedies

insufficiently substantiated.

BANZHAF, A; BROESE, R (AHZ, 235, 5/90)

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2. Homoeopathy and accommodation in the

nineties

BORNEMAN, Jay (Resonance, 12, 6/90)

VII. BIOGRAPHY

1. The medical education of James Tyler KENT

LEARY, Bernard (BHJ, 79, 4/90)

VIII. HISTORY

1. How HAHNEMANN came to the high

potencies: a chapter from the history of

Homoeopathy

SAUERBECK, K.O. (AHZ, 235, 6/90)

2. The research in Homoeopathy by the

Government Health Department of Germany in

1936 – 39.

WALACH, H (ZKH, 34, 6/90)

3. Morbific stimuli and the Vital Force of

Homoeopathy

NOSSAMAN, Nicholas (about Dr. George

GUESS and the State of North Carolina) (JAHI,

83, 4/90)

4. Homais, Homoeopathy and Madame Bovary

MICHOT-DIETRICH, Hela (The Homoeopath,

10, 1/90)

IX. GENERAL

1. Correspondence – Reports: Restoration of the

HAHNEMANN Memorial in Leipzig:

Homoeopathy in the GDR; Report on the ‘Practical

course of Anamnesis technique and case analysis

according to KENT’ with Dr. DIRKEN. Rainer

(AHZ, 235, 5/90)

2. Reports on 142

nd

anniversary of the German

Central Union of Homoeopathic Physicians

(DZVhA) 24 – 26.5.1990 in Hannover; (AHZ, 235,

6/90)

“World Homoeopathic Congress on Cancer”

KRISHNAMURTHY, P.S. (ZKH, 34, 5/90)

3. International references; Press Abstracts; Book

Reviews;

Letter to Editor

(AHZ, 235, 5 & 6/90, ZKH, 34, 5 & 6/90,

Resonance, 12, 6/90 The Homoeopathy, 10, 1/90,

BHJ, 79, 4/90, NTKH, 2, 2/90)

4. Drugs and Toxicology; Therapeutical

observations

(AHZ, 235, 5 & 6/90)

5. Verifications and Clinical symptoms

(ZKH, 34, 5 &6/90)

6. Alert: Homoeopathy banned in US State (the

case of Dr. George GUESS of North Carolina)

(BHJ, 79, 4/90)

7. Enough nonsense on immunization

FISHER, Peter (BHJ, 79, 4/90)

8. Homoeopathy: a report for the future

ULLMAN, Dana (Resonance, 12, 5/90)

9. A Homoeopath in every town

BORNEMAN (Resonance, 12, 5/90)

10. State Supreme Court rules against Dr. GUESS

(Resonance, 12, 5/90)

11. Homoeopathy illegal in North Carolina – a time

for solidarity within the homoeopathic community.

(Resonance, 12, 6/90)

12. An interview with Eugenio CANDEGABE

O’SULLIVAN, Edward. (NTKH, 2, 2/91)

*************************************

VOL. VIII No. 4 Dec. 1991

PART II ARTICLES

HAHNEMANN’s advice is, to take all the

symptoms of each case, as if it were the only one

Comp. Organon, Aph. 83, and following the same

is to be done while proving write down all the

HAHNEMANN’s

THREE RULES

CONCERNING

THE RANK OF

SYMPTOMS

Constantine

HERING

The Hahnemannian

Monthly

I, 1/1865

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

symptoms. Comp. Organon, Aph. 138, 139 & c. In

contradiction the common old schools examine

each case in order to make a diagnosis and to

enable the doctor to tell the patient “what is the

matter”, and if they talk about the effects of a drug,

they ask: “what diseases does it cure?” “What

pathological generality is its character?” The true

Hahnemannian examines each case to get such

symptoms as distinguish this case from all tohers.

He observes the strictest individualization; like a

portrait painter, he wants a photograph of each

single case of sickness. Such symptoms or groups

of symptoms as distinguish the case before him

form others, are the characteristic symptoms he

aims at. The same in proving; we want the

characteristics of a medicine, i.e., such symptoms

as distinguish it from all others.

HAHNEMANN’s rule sets forth, that we must

aim to get all symptoms, particularly such as have

hitherto been overlooked, neglected, not listened to

and sneered at. to get what we necessarily must

know. It is the same with provings of drugs. By

collecting all and every symptom and particularly

the so-called minutiae, we obtain the

characteristics. The common old schools are

satisfied with a general pathological character by

which drugs may be divided into classes, but never

can be individualized, each as a thing per. se.

HAHNEMANN’s first rule is the characteristic

of the case must be similar to the characteristic of

the drug (compare Organon, Aph. 153, and others).

This rule has also been expressed in the

following words. The symptoms of a case and the

symptoms of a medicine must not only be alike,

one by one. but in both the same symptoms must

also be of a like rank. (Compare Archive. XI., 3,

p.92) It is thus the rank, according to which we

arrange the symptoms obtained by the examination

of a case, - the rank, the value, the importance of

the respective symptoms of the drug, which decides

when, as it often will happen, several different

drugs have apparently the same similarity; it is this

rank which decides in the selection.

HAHNEMANN has given us a second rule in

his Chronic Diseases. We may either adopt his

psoric theory or not; but, if we follow his practical

advice laid down in the said work, we shall, in

proportion, have far better success and will be

forced to adopt at least all the practice rules

contained in the said theory.

The pith of this theory is not refuted by the

discovery of the scarus scabiei, nor by the

generation sequlvoca, nor the contagiousness, nor

by the propagation of the animalculae, nor by

anything else; the quintessence of his doctrine is, to

give in all chronic diseases, i.e. such as progress

from without inwardly, from the less essential parts

of our body to the more essential, from the

periphery to the central organ, generally from

below upwards, - to give in all such cases by

preference, such drugs as are opposite in their

direction, or way of action, such as act from within

outward, from up downward, from the most

essential organs to the less essential from the brain

and the nerves outwards and down to the most

outward and the lowest of all organs, to the skin,

(Compare Preface to treatise on Chronic Diseases,

p.7, and following). The metaphysics of our

science tell us, that all drug diseases (paranosses)

are in their essence and offspring, opposite to the

whole mass of epidemic, contagious, and other

disease, all of the later being originated by a

conflux of causes, (Synnoses).

HANENMANN’s doctrine of treating chronic

disease, includes another and opposite viz., the

opposite direction in the development of each case

of chronic disease. All the antipsoric drugs of

HAHNEMANN have this peculiarity as the most

characteristic, the evolution of the effects from

within towards without. Thus, all symptoms

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

indicating such a direction in the cases from

without towards within, and in the drugs the

opposite from within towards without, are of the

highest rank, they decide the choice.

HAHNEMANN gives us a third rule, which

has been overlooked by all the low dilutionists, or

is, at least, never mentioned by them, and has even

been entirely neglected by the theorizers of our

school; notwithstanding that, with this third rule,

the homoeopathic healing art would be a most

imperfect one. This rule enables the true

Hahnemannian artist, not only to cure the most

obstinate chronic diseases, but also to make a

certain prognosis, when discharging a case,

whether the patient will remain cured, or whether

the disease will return, like a half-paid creditor, at

the first opportunity.

HAHNEMANN states, in his treatise on

chronic disease, first edition, p. 228, second

edition, p.168, American translation p.171:

Symptoms recently developed are the first to yield;

old symptoms disappear last. Here we have one of

HAHNEMANN’s general observations, which lie

all of them, is of endless value, a plain, practical

rule and of immense importance.

It might seem to some so very natural that

recent symptoms should give way first, older ones

last, that it ought to have been observed by all and

every physician at all times. But this is not the case;

it was never observed before HAHNEMANN, nor

ever stated as a rule before.

We will set forth here all the consequences of

this rule of succession but first repeat it in another

form.

We might express the above rule also in the

following words; In diseases of long standing,

where the symptoms or groups of symptoms have

befallen the sick in a certain order, succeeding,

each other , more and more being added from time

to time to those already existing, in such cases this

order should be reversed during the cure; the last

ought to disappear first and the first last.

Suppose a patient had experienced the

symptoms he suffers in the order a,b,c,d,e, then

they ought to leave him, if the cure is to be perfect

and permanent, in the order, e,d,c,b,a. The latest

symptoms have thus the highest rank in deciding

the choice of a remedy.

Suppose a patient complains of new

symptoms, as it often happens during the treatment

of cases of long standing, particularly if we have

chosen with great care a so-called antipsoric

medicine, and the improvement has, of course,

continued uninterruptedly, foru, six, eight weeks,

after which time the improvement gradually ceases,

runs out, and the patient begins again to complain

rather more. In such cases we will very often find,

if we again take an accurate image of the newly

increased diseased state, exactly as we did before,

that several new symptoms have appeared. We may

represent it by the formula: a,b,c,d,c, have lessened,

especially e, d, c, and now a, b are on the increase

again, even c reappears d, e, are gone, but another

symptom f has been added or f, g These new

symptoms are always of the highest rank, even if

apparently unimportant.

It may be observed that they generally are such

as will be found among the symptoms of the last

given remedy, thus the caution may here be in its

place, that after such a long interval, or after such a

real again, as the disappearance of d, e, the same

drug will never be of any more benefit, the greatest

counter – indication ebing the new symptoms.

Another medicine has to be selected, and one

which has especially f, or f, g, as characteristics.

The practical influence of these three rules of

rank proves to be not only a manifold one, but their

observance becomes a characteristic sign of

difference of a mere empiric – in homoeopathics a

perverted Homoeopathician, and a real

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

Hahnemannian; the first will cover symptom by

symptom, without knowing or making any

distinction; the second will be satisfied with a few

such symptoms as tell him, what he calls the

scientific character and enable him to go on the

stilts of pathology; the third will observe the rules

and heal the sick as HAHNEMANN did. It is thus

worthwhile to look at them closer, and let them

pass before our eyes once more.

According to the first rule we must inquire not

only for the seat of the symptoms, inquire which

organ seems to be the center o the pathological

action, but also for the minutiae in locality,

notwithstanding their complete unimportance in

pathology, viz., little inflammations on the point of

the nose and lobe of the ear may help to indicate

Nitrum, etc., According to this rule we will

carefully note it down, if any of these sensations of

a patient are on one side of the body or the other, if

they predominate on one side, or if they pass over

from one side to the other.

We have further to inquire for each kind of

sensation with much more accuracy than would be

required if we had nothing else to decide than the

pathological character; some peculiar sensations,

trifles in themselves, may be of importance in the

choice of the medicine, even such as are

unexplainable by physiology or never taken notice

of by pathology, viz., a feeling as if from the falling

of a drop of water, may help to indicate Cannabis.

We must inquire for the times of the day when

the symptoms of a patient appear to increase, are

ameliorated or disappear. This is very often the

only criterion, by which we decide our choice.

Even the hours of the day are very often of a

decisive influence, viz., the hours after midnight,

one to three, may help to indicate Arscnicum or

Kali carbonicum; the hours in the afternoon, from

four to seven in the evening, may help to indicate

Helleborus or Lycopodium, etc.,

Likewise every function of our body, sleeping

and waking, eating, drinking, walking, standing,

rest or motion, etc., must be taken into

consideration in so far as they may be one of the

conditions of aggravation or amelioration of any of

the symptoms of our sick.

In the same very all connections of symptoms

following each other or alternation with one

another, whether they have a pathological

importance or not, are all for us of the highest rank,

if aided by them, we may distinguish one case from

another, or one drug from another. The first rule,

then, is that not only the characteristics must be

alike, but there must also be a similarity of their

respective rank.

The second rule of HAHNEMANN introduces

a kind of distinction between the different

medicines which have been proved and applied,

which must gradually lead to adoption of an order

of rank among them. It is a similar division to that

of the so-called Polychrests. But it is not this alone;

the same rule is also of great influence when we

arrange the symptoms of the sick.

All symptoms of inward affections, all the

symptoms of the mind or other inward actions, are

according to it, of much higher value than the most

molesting or destructive symptoms on the surface

of the body. A decrease or an amelioration of

outward symptoms, with an increase of inward

complaints, even if the latter apparently are of little

importance, will be an indication for us, that our

patient is getting worse, and we must try to find

out, among his symptoms, the leading one, to

indicate another, a real curative medicine.

Very frequently we will see ineffectual

attempts, as it were, of the inward actions, to throw

out and bring to the surface that which attacks the

center of life. We must try to assist such attempts,

but neither by outward applications, nor by a mere

removal of that which the disease produces, and

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

still less by medicines only similar to the same

outward symptoms. on the contrary, we must

inquire principally for the hidden inward

symptoms, and compare then with the utmost case,

to find among our medicines such as correspond

exactly to the subjective or inward symptoms, and

by preference among the antipsorics, i.e. such as

act more than others from within towards without.

The principal characteristics of the antipsorics were

obtained from the sick, and only by the use of

potencies. Drugs cannot manifest such most

important peculiarities except by high potencies,

and with the most sensible persons.

The uses of the third rule of HAHNEMANN

are the following:

1. During the examination of the sick we must

inquire as much as possible, in which order,

according to time, did the different symptoms make

their first appearance.

2. After such a careful and complete

examination of a case, we must arrange our

collection of symptoms according to their values,

that is their importance as indicative, and we must

bring such as have appeared later, in the

foreground, of course without neglecting the others

and even the oldest. Further we must compare

when selecting a medicine and find whether the

one to be chosen has a characteristic similarity,

particularly with the symptoms which appeared

last.

3. If the patient had been drugged by the old

school, we must direct our antidotes principally

against the last given drugs. For instance, against

abuse of alcohol or aromatics. Nux vomica; against

tea, Pulsatilla or Thuja against Quinine, Pulsatilla,

etc; against Jodium and Iodate of potassium, Hepar

suphuris calcarcum; against blistering, Camphor;

against cauterizing with nitrate of silver, Natrum

muriaticum; against bleeding, purging, or losses of

blood, Cinchona; against mechanical injuries by

stretching, Rhus, by bruising, Amica Montana, etc.,

etc., against Chloroform, Hyoscyamus, etc.

4. In every chronic case, after a well chosen

medicine has had time to improve the case, and

ceases to do good, and we have to make a new

examination to obtain a full image of the new state

of the sick, we must again inquire particularly after

newly appearing symptoms. As we will find in

almost all carefully observed cases, that the new

symptoms correspond to the last applied medicine,

and as we know, a repetition of the same drug

would only aggravate, without giving relief,

particularly if general characteristics, viz., with

regard to times of day, sides of the body, or other

localities, have changed or if other general

conditions are altered; the new medicine must be

chosen with regard to such new symptoms,

considering them as the most indicative, or of high

rank.

5. If we have succeeded in restoring a chronic

case of long standing, and the symptoms have

disappeared in the reverse order of their

appearance, we can dismiss the case with full

confidence as being cured, and not being in danger

of returning again; if not, we had better tell the

patient, even if he should be satisfied with the

partial cure, that he may, before long, be sick again.

As an appendix to HAHNEMMANN’s three

rules of rank, another, in regard to the sides of the

body could be mentioned here, and if this new rule

should be sufficiently corroborated and sustained

by further observations, it might become in some

cases of great imprortance.This rule is the

following: Every affection going from one side of

the body to the other, is more effectually overcome

by such medicines as will cause or produce the

same similar affection, but in the opposite

direction. It seems to correspond to the last of the

rules given above, but has been discovered entirely

independent of it, hence it is better to give it to the

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profession in a genetic form, and in a separate

communication.

[The ‘Rules of the sides’ of HERING

mentioned in the last paragraph would be reprinted

in the next issue – March 1992 – of the Qrly. Hom.

DIGEST. = K.S. Srinivasan]

*************************************

Introduction: To the Kentian Clan and the

Boenninghausen Band, Greetings and News! The

Mouse may help the Lion. In

BOENNINGHAUSEN’s 482 small pages are 335

rubrics which are not to be found in KENT’s 1423

larger pages.

The homoeopathic student is taught both

methods of repertorization – by KENT and by

BOENNINGHAUSEN – and is warned not to mix

the methods, not only because the remedy grading

is different, but because the ideology is so

disparate. These repertories, like most of life, are

full of paradoxes, The KENT repertory claims to

be based on Generals yet is a maze of Particulars;

BOENNINGHAUSEN’s is most factual and

classified; every symptom that refers to a part may

be predicated of the whole. The interrelationship of

symptoms and of remedies and the sequence of

remedies are brought out. It ones a way into the

wide fields of combinations. For

BOENNINGHAUSEN, the totality is made up of

the general characteristics of the particular

symptoms plus the condition, under the four

general categories of locality, sensation, modality

(aggravations or ameliorations) and concomitants.

ROBERTS in his brilliant Principles and

Practicability of BOENNINGHAUSEN’s

Therapeutic Pocket Book says it is based on the

doctrine of concomitants, a concomitant being an

attendant circumstance existing or occurring with

other symptoms, having always a relation in time.

The concomitant is the differentiating factor.

HAHNEMANN says that ‘the characteristic

symptoms represent that which is curable in each

case of disease, in other words the common

symptoms of the diagnosis do not point the way to

cure. BOENNINGHAUSEN called chronic

symptoms concomitants in acute ailments and

often prescribed exclusively on them, although a

drug should be findable covering both acute and

chronic.

The BOENNINGHAUSEN method shines in

cases without many mental symptoms; without

rare, strange and peculiar symptoms, with few

particulars; in cases where modalities predominate

and concomitants are marked; cases showing

pathological symptoms and objective symptoms.

ROBERTS used to say that it was a good as

Sensations As If, though in larger terms.

Some of the features of BOENNINGHAUSEN

are unique, such as the use of sides of the body

throughout; rubrics of troubles associated with

stool, urination, etc. accompanying symptoms of

nose, leucorrhoea, respiration, cough, menses,

stool, fever, etc; sleep and waking, aggravations

and ameliorations before, during and after cough,

vertigo, fever, menses, stool urine, sleep, sweat,

and so forth.

The last section on Relationships of Remedies,

pages 322 to 482, is the most difficult for the

novice and the most unused part of the book, but

discussion of it is outside the scope of this paper.

The whole repertory is built on Generals, yet

there is no section for Generals, as there is in

RUBRICS IN

BOENNINGHAUSEN

NOT TO BE FOUND

IN KENT

Elizabeth Wright

HUBBARD (Edited for

publication by Francis

TREUHERZ; ‘The

Homeopath’

Vol. 10, No. 3, 1990

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Year 1991, Vol.VIII

KENT and certain general rubrics are interspersed,

with quite hilarious, unintentional humour. For

instance, under Aggravations is the rubric for

Children, and that for Women (what is worse for

Women? or Women are worse for what? or are the

remedies worse for the Women?).

There are few Ameliorated by rubrics in

KENT, but there are 58 in BOENNINGHAUSEN

which are not in KENT.

Certain symptoms crop up frequently in case-

taking which are baffling or impossible to find in

KENT, expect by combining rubrics or taking the

nearest, but not the exact, symptom.

BOENNINGHAUSEN uses commonsense rubrics,

such as ‘falling asleep late,’ ‘can’t get to sleep

again after waking,’ ‘becomes chilled easily’; and

rubrics of anatomical parts – often obscure ones-

such as Loins, Groins, Perineum, Inner Gum,

Tendo Achilles, nape and the elusive antrum are to

be easily alphabetically found.

Among the gems are the rubrics on the moon

phases with art not in the 5

th

Edition of KENT; the

wind rubrics, the ‘blondes and brunettes’, the

pregnancy rubric and the puerperal state, and such

a frequent complaint as sebaceous cysts.

Although BOENNINGHAUSEN has but 342

remedies as against KENT’s 591, it often has a

much larger rubric than the KENT. On the other

had it has none of the enormous and useless rubrics

such as unmodified ‘Vomiting’.

Even if you never repertorize by the full

BOENNINGHAUSEN method, you can save

yourself much time and trouble with specific

rubrics for shortcutting and office and bedside

work by the use of these unusual KENT, check the

equivalent one in BOENNINGHAUSEN; you may

find it there. Put a copy of this reprint in your

KENT. Let us use the best of both methods in

arriving at the Simillimum.

Rubrics:

Mind

2. Disposition generally affected

18. Amativeness

Intellect

20 Activity

Befogged

23 Drugs which have Concomitants of

Mental Symptoms

Internal Head

26 One-sided in General

External Head

27 Dark Hair

Light Hair

28 Beard

29 Scalp of Occiput; Hairy Sinciput

Scalp of Vertex

Head: sides

30 Internal Head : Left side

Internal Head : Right side

External Head : Left side

External Head : Right side

Eyes

30 Aqueous Humor

32 Vitreous

White of eye (sclerotic)

34 Orbits

Inner surface of lids

Vision

37 Illusions of Form

Ears

41 Lobules

42 Left

Right

44 Stopped feeling

Nose

45 Back

46 Odour from Nose

47 Stopped Corzya

49 Accompanying Symptoms of Nasal

Discharge face

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50 All objective Symptoms of Face

together

57 Malar Bone (Antrum)

Upper Jaw

Lower Jaw

Articulation of Jaws

59 Left side

Right side

Teeth

61 Inner Gum

Stomach & Abdomen

77 Diaphragm

79 Epigastrium

80 Loins

Groins (Caccum, Ileo-Caccal

Region, Poupart’s Ligament)

81 Pit of Stomach

Rings Externally

Mons Veneria

Left side

82 Right side

Rectum

84 Flatulent Pain

85 Incarceration of Flatus

90 Troubles Before Stool

91 Troubles During Stool

Troubles After Stool

92 Ineffectual Tenesmus

93 Perineum

Urinary

100 Troubles Before Micturition

101Troubles at Beginning of

Micturition

Troubles During Micturition

Troubles At Close of Micturiton

Troubles After Micturition

Male

102 Male Organ in General

Foreskin

Female

103 Female Organs in General

External Female Organs

108 menstruation : Gushing

111 Accompanying Troubles of

Leucorrhoea

Respiration

114 Accompanying Troubles of

Respiration

Cough

116 Evening with, and Morning

without, Expectoration

Morning with, and Evening

without Expectoration

Night with, Day without

Expectoration

Day with, night without

Expectoration

120 Troubles Associate with Cough

Before and After Coughing

After Expectoration: cf. Agg. pp,

276 & 281.

Neck

123 Nape

124 Thyroid Gland

Neck and Nape of Neck : Left Side

Neck and Nape of Neck : Right

Side

Chest

125 Sternum and Region

126 Heart’s Action Intermittent

External Chest (Ribs and Muscles)

Extremities : Location

132 Back of Hand

135 Loins (Region of Hips)

Nates

136 Thigh : Anterior Part

Thigh : Posterior Part

Thigh : Outer Side

Thigh : Inner Side

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138 Tendo Achilles

Back of Foot (Dorsum)

139 Great Toe

Balls of Toes

141 Knees, Hollow of

Bones of Lower Extremities in

General

Generalities: Senasations

143 Asleep Feeling in Single Parts

144 Benumbing Pain

149 Constriction of Orifices (Sensations

of )

153 Crepitation, Sensation of

155 Dislocations

157 Dust, Internal, Sensation of

159 Flabby Feeling

Forcings

162 Hardened (Muscles)

163 Immobility of Affected Parts

165 Jerking Muscles

167 Mobility Increased

167 Motion Difficult

168 Mucous Secretions Increased

181 Splinter, Feelings of

194 Vibrations

196 Whiteness (Of Parts usually Red)

Skin, Hair, Nails

200 Glands: Ulcers, Cancerous

215 Cysts, Sebaceous

216 Hair of Head Falls out: Occiput

Hair of Head Falls out: Beard

217 Hair Feels Pulled

223 Nails Generally Affected

All Nail Rubrics together

Wounds

239 With Injuries of Bones

With Injuries of Glands

Sleep

240 Falling Asleep Late

Sleep Prevented by Various

Symptoms

Walking in Distress

241 Associated Symptoms (See

Aggravation Waking, p.306)

242 Sleepiness During the Day

243 Associated Symptoms of Sleepiness

Sleepiness caused by Various Things

246 Symptoms Causing Sleeplessness

248 Dreams with Indifference

Dreams Indifferent (Incident ) to

the Day’s Business

250 Dreams Waking (day dreaming)

Pulse, Temperature

253 Pulse Unchanged (with Various

Symptoms)

254 Chilliness in Certain Parts

255 Becomes Chilled Easily

Chill with Thirst

Chill without Thirst

256 Symptoms during Chill

257 Heat in Special Parts

Heat in Special Parts: Externally

258 Heat in Special Parts: Internally

259 Heat: Associated Symptoms

260 Coldness of Special Parts

261 Shivering of Special Parts

Shivering of One Side

Perspiration

262 Special Parts

263 Without Thirst

264 Easy

Odorous: Acid Sweat

Odorous: of Camphor

265 Odorous: Of Onions

Odorous: Of Rhubarb

Odorous: Sweetish-Sour

Sweat with Associated Symptoms

Fever

265 Compound Fever in General

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268 Aggravation – Before Fever

Agg. During Fever

Agg. After Fever

Generalities: Aggravations

272 Bending or Turning

Bending or Turning Affected Part

Bent, Holding the Part

Biting Teeth Together

273 Blowing Nose

Breathing: When Not

Breathing: Holding Breath

273 Bruises

Brushing Teeth

274 Chewing, When

Children Expecially, Remedies For

Closing Eyes

Closing Mouth

Clutching Anything

276 Combing Hair

Combing Hair Backward

Conscious, When Half

Dancing, When

277 Drawing Off Boots

Drawing the limb back

Drinkers, for Hard

Drinking, When

Drinking, After

278 Drinking Fast

279 Elevation, When On

281 Expanding Abdomen

Expectoration

Expectoration After

Expiration

Fainting, After

Fatigue

283 Crumbs

Garlic, Odor of

284 Oil

Thought of Food She would like

285 Water, Cold

Wine Containing Lead

Wine Containng Sulphur

Gargling

Grasping Anything Tightly

Heated by the Fire

286 Hiccough

Holding Together Parts

House, In the

Idleness

Injuries Bleeding Profusely

Inspiration

287 Inspiration of Cold Air

Intoxication, After

Jar

Jumping

Labor, Manual

Leaning, After

Leaning (Against Anything)

Leaning, Backward

Leaning against a Sharp Point

Leaning To One Side

Licking Lips

288 Looking around

Looking Straight Forward

291 Lying-in women (The Puerperal

State)

Moon, New

Moon, Full

Moon, Waning

Generalitites : Aggravations (Contd.)

292 Motion After

Motion False

Motion of Head

Motion of Eyes

Motion of Eyelids

Motion of Arms

293 Music

Narrating Her Symptoms

Odor of Wood

294 Opening Eyes

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Opening Mouth

Organ, Playing the

Persuasion

Piano, Playing the

Picking Teeth

Pregnancy

295 Putting out the Tongue

Raising Arms

296 Retching

Retracting Abdomen

Riding One Leg over the Other

Ringing of Bell

298 Sewing

Shipboard, On

Shooting

Shrugging Shoulders

Singing, When

Singing, After

299 Sitting Bent Over

Sitting Upright

300 Sneezing

301 Splinters

Squatting Down

Stepping Hard

Stooping

302 Stooping Prolonged

Stretching of Limbs

Sunburn

Sunrise, After

Supporting a Limb

303 Swinging (Rocking)

304 Turning Around

Turning over in Bed

305 Turning Head

Turning Eyes

Turning Neck

Unnatural Position

Vertigo During

306 Violin, Playing the

Being Awake at Night

307 Walking Bent Over

Walking on Level

Walking on a Narrow Bridge

307 Walking on Sideways

Walking on a Stone Pavement

Walking over Water

309 Wind, any dry

Wind, North

310 Women, For

Writing

Yawning

Yawning, after

Generalities: Amellorations

311 Bending or Turning Affected Part

Bending Backward

Bending Inward

Bending Sideways

Bending Head Backward

Holding Part Bent

Bending Head Sideways

Biting

Blinking Eyes

Blowing Nose

Boring in with the Finger (Ear

or Nose)

Breath, Holding the

Carrying the child in the Arms

Chewing

312 Crossing Limbs

Dancing

Darkness

Drawing in the Affected Part

Drinking, After

313 Expiration

Fasting (Before Breakfast)

Food, Bread

314 Food, Meat

Food, Salt

Grasping

Haemorrhage

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

Hand, Laying, On part

Kneeling

Knitting

Leaning Against Anything

Leaning Against Anything Hard

Leaning Head on Anything

Leaning Head on One Side

Leaning Head on Table

Licking with the Tongue

315 Looking Downward

Looking Sideways

316 Lying on Hard Bed

Lying Bent Up

Lying Horizontally

317 Retracting Abdomen

Rising from Bed

Rising from a Seat

318 Rising from a Seat, After

Shrugging Shoulders

319 Sneezing

Stepping Hard

Stool, After

Stooping

320 Sucking with Tongue

Talking

Turning at a Lathe

Twilight, In the

Tying up the Hair

321 Walking Bent Over

Wiping with the Hand

Writing

Yawning

Prepared for the 26

th

Pan American

Homeopathic Medical Congress, October 1955 and

presented with permission to the Bureau of Clinical

Medicine. 112

th

Anniversary Meeting, A.I.H.

Swampscott, Mass., 3

rd

July 1956, and first

published in the Journal of the American Institute

of Homeopathy, August, 1956. Acknowledgements

to Julian WINSTON for locating a copy.

Bibilography:

1. James Tyler KENT, Repertory of the

Homoeopathic Materia Medica, 5

th

edition,

EHRHART and KARL, Chigaco, III. 1945.

2. Clemens Maria Franz von

BOENNINGHAUSEN, Therapeutic Pocket Book,

5

th

American Edition, T.F. ALLEN, Editor, 1931,

BOERICKE and TAFEL, Philadelphia, Pa. 1935.

3. Cyrus M BOGER, Ed., C.M.F. von

BOENNINGHAUSEN, Characteristics and

Repertory, Roy & Co. Bombay, 1937.

*************************************

Without laying claim to completeness, the

author has collected clinical symptoms from other

sources to complement the rubric. Sources quoted:

ALLEN TF. The Encyclopedia of Pure

Material Medica Vols. 5 and 10. New

York/Philadelphia 1877 and 1979.

BB BOGER CM. Boenninghausen’s

Characteristics and Repertory 3

rd

edn. New Delhi

1987.

GRAF. De Kali bromatum. Allg Homoop Ztg

(AHZ) 1840: 19: 126

GYPSER K.H. BOENNINGHAUSEN’s Kleine

medizinische Schriften. Heldelberg 1984.

HERING C. The Guiding Symptoms of Our

Meteria Medica

Vol. y. Philadelphia 1888.

I Ide JHG. Repertorium zur Behandlung dr Ischias.

Archiv Fur Homoopathie (ACV) 1892: 1: 209-14

JAHR GHG. Symptomen – codex Bd. I. Leipzig

1848

KENT JT. Repertory of the Homoeopathic Materia

Medica 6

th

edn. New Delhi: 1988.

SCIATIC –

ADDITIONS TO

KENT’s RUBRICS

SCHINDLER. M

Z K H, 34, 1, 1990

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

Kn KNERR CB. Repertory of HERING’s Guiding

Symptoms.

3

rd

Edn. Calcutta 1952.

KROSZ. Uber die physiologische Wirkung des

Bromkallum.

AHZ 1878, 97: 45-46

NN. Brom. Hygen 1838; 8: 543-65

NOACK A. TRINKS CF. Handbuch der

homoopathischen

Arznelmitellehre Bd 1. Lelpzig 1847.

PIPER. De KaIII bromatlefficacitate Interna,

experimentis illustra. von Otto Graf. Medizinischen

Jahrbucher 1841; 4: 100-104

S SIMMONS B. Notes on Sciatica. The

Homoeopathic Physician 1892; 12; 84-91.

PAIN lower limbs, sciatica: Aurant. (Kn), Calc-s,

(Kn), canth, (BB), chlm. (Kn), cimic, (Kn), Kall-s,

(BB), Kreos, (S), Sabin, (BB), Splg (BB), rhod (S),

thal. (BB), Verat (Kn),

Left: Cham. (I), cimic. (BB), coloc. (BB), Kall-I,

(I), led, (BB), nat-s, (I), psor. (I) Puls. (BB), Stram.

(I), sulph. (BB).

right; Chif. (Kn), coloc. (Kn), Kall-I, (BB), led. (I),

Nux-m, (Kn), tell. (Kn), valer. (Kn)

Morning: Verat.

3-4 a.m.: Sep.

4 a.m. : Verat. (I)

noon, after eating: arg-n (I)

afternoon, till midnight: Bell. (I)

evening, till midnight: Ferr., led (I)

every 4 days: Eye. (I)

bed, after arising from: Dros., Sept (S)

bed, moving in : Nat-s (S)

bed rising from: Rhus-t. (S)

bed, turning in: Nat-s (S)

burning, like a hot iron: Lach. (S)

change of weather: Berb (S), verb (I)

chronic: Am-m (BB), asar. (Kn), carb-s (Kn), gels,

(BB) Ign. (Kn), Iye. (BB), nat-m. (BB), pib. (BB),

rhus-t (KN), Sulph (BB), vise (BB) Coughing agg:

Coloc. (I)

feet, soles: Ars., Calc., Kall-c., mere. (BB)

heat, bed of, agg: Led. (S)

lying in bed: Kall-bi. (I)

lying long in one position: Nat-s (S)

lying on painful side: Ars. (I)

motion agg.: Cham. (I)

motion, slightest agg: Coloc. (I)

move, on beginning to : Lye. (I)

numbness, with: Cham, cocc. (I)

numbness, alternates with pain: Graph., Kreos. (I)

pressure agg: Kall-bi (Kn), Podo. (S)

rising from a seat: Dros. (Kn), ph-ac. (I)

rubbing amel: Rhus-t (I)

Sitting agg: Bell, puls. (I)

Sleep. after, agg: Kall-t, phy-t (I)

Sneezing: Coloc. (I)

standing agg: Kreos, valer. (I)

standing amel: Puls. (I)

stooping agg: coloc. (I)

suddenly, come and go: Eup-pur., Kall-bi. (I)

walking agg: Graph., Kall-l., podo. (I)

walking amel: Bell., Ign. (I)

walking continued. amel: Rhus-t, ruta (S)

walking slowly agg: Iris (I)

walking quickly amel: Iris (S)

warm wraps amel: Coloc., nux-v., rhus-t (I)

warmth of bed agg: Cham. (I)

wind, before a heavy: Verb (I)

Note: KENT’s rubric ‘suddenly, come and go;

oddly enough has Kall-br. A search of ALLEN,

GRAF, HERING, JAHR, KROSZ, NN, NOACK

and PIPER (See publications details above) did nto

yield confirmation of this. It may be assumed that

this is an error and ‘Kall-bi’ should read Kall-bi.

Kall-bi is certainly substantiated by HERING,

1888, p.340: sciatica: pains come on quickly and

subside soon’.

*************************************

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

EXTRCT OF THE RUBRICS:

SYCOSIS:

– Delusions, voices hears (K 34)

– Egotism, self-esteem (STAUFFER)

– Delusions divine being (K 34)

– Delusions, has power over all diseases

(KNERR)

– Delusions, seeing angels (KENT) sees

devils (K 23)

– After spasm she fell in to a trance, says

she is under influence of spirits, and has

had conversation with spirits,

communicated with god; delivers

emphatic sermons, prophecies (HERING).

– Prophesying (K 69)

– Delusions, that he is in communication

with god (K 26)

– Delusions, he is god, then he is devil

(KNERR).

– Delusions, distinguished (K 24)

– Delusions, under a powerful influence

(KNERR).

– Haughty (K 51) – Insanity, haughty

(BOENNINGHAUSEN).

– Delusions, enlarged (K 24).

– Delusions, large himself seemed too (K

28)

– Imagines that he is very large and tall, but

surrounding objects small (HERING)

– Delusions, things appear small (K 32)

– Delusions, things grow smaller (JAHR)

– Delusions, double, of being (K 24)

– Delusions, enlarged, parts of body (K 25)

– Delusions, large, part of body seem too (K

28)

– Delusions, he is incorporeal (STAUFFER)

– Speech prattling (K 82) – Speech affected

(BOENNINGHAUSEN)

– Talking, pleasure in his own (K 86)

– Talk of others agg. (K 86)

– contemptuous (BOENNINGHAUSEN)

– Delusions, others are dogs, barks at them

to be understood (KNERR).

– Boaster (GALLAVARDIN)

– Ailments from mortification (K 68)

– Ailments from reproaches (KNERR)

– Lewdness (K 62). Lewd talk (K 62). Lewd

songs (K 62)

– Obscene, amative (BOERICKE)

– Lasciviousness, lustful (K 61)

– Naked, wants to be (K 68) dresses

indecently (BOENNINGHAUSEN)

– Indifferent to exposure of the person (K

55)

– Sexual erethism, with indecent speech and

action, hands constantly kept on genitals

(BOERICKE)

– Shameless (K 79)

– Insanity, erotic (KENT)

– Moral Feeling, want of

(BOENNINGHAUSEN)

– Erotomania (BOERICKE) –

Nymphomania (K 68)

– Thoughts, sexual (JAHR)

– Delusions, he is possessed of a devil

(GALLAVARDIN)

– Delusions, she is beautiful and wants to be

(SCHMIDT)

– Libertinism (GALLAVARDIN)

– Delusions, he is not honest (KNERR)

– Delusions, she is pure (SCHMIDT)

– Bashful (K 9)

– Singing (K 80)

STRAMONIUM

Dr. CREPIN,

Denis

Cahiers du

Groupement

Hahnemannien,

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

– Whistling (K 95) – Loquacity, talks

incessantly (BOERICKE)

– Speech loud (K 82)

– Talking with absent persons (ALLEN)

– Talks in a foreign tongue (K 81)

– Conversing in different languages

(HERING)

– Talking in jewish jargon (HERING)

– Verses, makes (K 91)

– voice barking, croaking, higher, hoarse,

inflexible, lost, rough, shrieking,

squeaking, toneless, weak, whining,

whispering (K 758 & K 762)

– Speech babbling (KNERR)

– Speech confused (K 81)

– Speech extravagant ( K 81) – Speech

nonsense (K 82)

– Speech incoherent (K 81) – Speech foolish

(K 81)

– Speech wandering (K 82) – Speech

unintelligible (K 82)

– Talks to himself (K 87)

– Uses wrong words in talking (HERING)

– Mistakes, call things by wrong names (K

66)

– Mistakes in speaking (K 66)

– Misplacing words (K 66)

– Reverses words (K 67)

– Spelling in (K 66), Words using wrong

(KNERR).

– Says plums, when he means pears (K 67)

– Mistakes writing: transposing letters (K

67)

– Delusions, being broken in fragments,

scattered about (BOERICKE)

– Delusions, thinks is naked (K 30)

– Delusions, limbs are separated from the

body (BOERICKE)

– Delusions, feet are separated from the

body (HAHNEMANN)

– Delusions, hands are separated from the

body (HAHNEMANN)

– Delusions, legs are cut off (K 28)

– Delusions, three legs, has (STAUFFER)

– Thinks disease will break out of head

(KENT)

– Stiff tongue (K 420)D

– Delusions, body alive on one side, buried

on the other (K 22)

– Delusions, body is divided (JAHR)

– Delusions, cut through, as if he were, in

two (GALLAVARDIN)

– Delusions, divided in two parts (K 24)

– Delusions, he cannot walk (STAUFFER)

– Mental symptoms from injury

(BOENNINGHAUSEN)

– Mood alternating (BOENNINGHAUSEN)

– Mood changeable (K 68)

– Inconstancy (ALLEN)

– Alternating between exalted states and

settled melancholy (HERING)

– Weeping alternating with cheerfulness

(KNERR), laughter (K 93), and singing

(ALLEN)

– Very changeable disposition, alternate

anticipations of death and rag; laughable

gestures and melancholy deportment,

affected haughtiness and inconsolableness

(HERING)

– Moroseness followed by laughing

(KNERR)

– Ill humor into vehemence followed

immediately by a disposition to laugh,

even aloud (HERING)

SENTIMENT OF CULPABILITY:

– Megalomania (BOENNINGHAUSEN)

– Anxiety of conscience, as if guilty of a

crime (KNERR)

– Delusions, that he has neglected his duty

(MASI)

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

– Remorse (K 71), pangs of conscience

(HERING)

– Reproaches himself

(BOENNINGHAUSEN)

– Delusions she is not fitted for her position

(KNERR)

– Anguish (BOENNINGHAUSEN)

– Sighing (K 80) + during perspiration (K

80)

– Sighing, throat with grasping at (KNERR)

– A peculiar sensation of anxiety, anguish,

despair (HERING)

– Anxiety about future (K 7), about

salvation (K 8)

– Discouraged (K 37)

– Had a constant vision of an executioner

standing before him, in spite of which he

was lively, talkative, laughed, and joked

about his hallucination, yet it seemed to

him a reality (HERING)

– Downcast and full of anguish, believes

herself unworthy, of eternal bliss, because

she is unable to perform her duties

(HERING)

– Doubtful of soul’s welfare (K 37)

– Despair of religious salvation (K 36)

– Delusions, being doomed, loss to salvation

(BOERICKE)

– Eccentricity, religious (GALLAVARDIN)

– Delusions religious (STAUFFER)

– Religious affections (KENT)

– Melancholia religious (JAHR)

– Singing latin pater noster (KNERR)

– Wants to read all day the bible

(SCHMIDT)

– They confess themselves aloud

(GALLAVARDIN)

– Praying (K 69) Kneeling (K 61)

– Begging (K 9)

– Vertigo when kneeling (K 100)

– Propensity to pray, beseech, entreat

(BOERICKE)

– Melancholic, despondent, depressed,

apprehensive, gloomy, “blues”

(BOERICKE)

– Inconsolable (K 54)

– Hide, desire to (K 51)

– Insanity with desire to escape

(GALLAVARDIN)

– Exhilaration (K 41)

– Exuberance (JAHR)

– Cheerful with dancing, laughing, singing

(JAHR)

– Foolish behavioru (K 48) – Howling

(BOENNINGHAUSEN)

– Grimaces (K 51)

– Gossiping (K 50)

– Laughing with speechlessness

(GALLAVARDIN). violent (KENT), with ill-

humor, in imbecility

(GALLAVARDIN)

_ Cheerful alternating with frezy, groaning, ill-

humor, violence, sadness, weeping (K61-62)

_ Singing alternating with weeping (K 80) and

laughing (ALLEN)

_ Weeping aloud, sobbing (KNERR)

- Weeping violent (K 94)

- Whimpering (HAHNEMANN)

SOLITUDE:

- Sadness when alone (K 76)

- Fear of being alone (K 43)

- Company desire for, alone while agg. (K

12)

- Inconsolable, being alone and darkness

agg. (K 54)

- Diarrhoea, when alone (K 611)

- Company aversion to, yet fear of being

alone (BOENNINGHAUSEN)

- Forsaken feeling (K 49) + sensation of

isolation (K 49)

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

- Delusion she is always alone (K 20) + in a

wilderness (K 20)

- Imagines he is alone and is frightened

(HERING)

- Solitude, aversion to (BOERICKE)

DARKNESS:

- Longing for sunshine,light and society (K

63)

- Company, desire for, at night (K 12)

- Fear night (K 43)

- Night terrors (BOERICKE)

- Praying night (K 69) – Piety nocturnal (K

59)

- Fear of tunnels (SCHMIDT). Fear in

narrow places (K 46)

- Sadness in darkness (K 76)

- Sadness evening (K 76) + in bed (K 76)

- Sadness night in bed (K 76)

- Brooding (KNERR)

- Complains that it is dark and calls for light

(BOERICKE)

- Lamenting, night (ALLEN)

- Weeps all night, laughs all day (K 93)

- Darkness agg. (K 17). Diarrhoea, darkness

agg. (K 612)

- Sleeplessness in a dark room (K 1253)

- Vertigo, tendency to fall in the dark (K

99)

- Vertigo, dark room, on entering (K 98)

- Faintness in dark places (K 1359)

- Pain, head, vaults and cellars (K 150)

- Black, aversion to everything that is (K 9)

- Fear of dark (K 43)

- Fear, of everything black (SCHMIDT)

- Vision, black objects (K 272)

- Vision, black spots (K 272)

- Vision, gray, objects seem (K 273)

- Delusions, sees black objects and people

(K 21)

- Had visions, night (KNERR)

- Delusions, horrible in the dark (K 34)

- Delusions, images, phantoms, sees black

(K 27)

- Delusions Images, phantoms, sees in the

dark (K 28)

- Delusions, visions on closing the eyes (K

34)

WATER

- Fear of water (K 48)

- Anxiety from noise of rushing water (K 7)

- Excitement from hearing water poured out

(K 41)

- Fear from noise of rushing water (K 46)

- Sensitive to noise of water splashing (K

79)

- Rage, sight of water (K 71)

- Rage, while drinking (K 71)

- Convulsions at sight of water (K 1356)

- Hurry in drinking (KNERR)

- Swallowing difficult, liquids (K 468)

- Aversion water (K 482)

- Hydrophobia (K 52) + screams or howls

in a high voice (KNERR)

- Mental symptoms after drinking (K 37)

THREAT:

- Sits motionless like a statue (K 84) –

(Stupefaction)

- Sits quite stiff (K 81)

- Sits erect (BOENNINGHAUSEN)

- Sits wrapped in deep, sad thoughts and

notices nothing, as if (KNERR)

- Absorbed, buried in thoughts (K 1)

- As if in a dream (K 37)

- Abstraction of mind (K 1)

- Torpor (K 89)

- Thoughts vanishing (KNERR)

- Dullness, unable to think long (K 38)

- Starting from fright (K 83) – startles easily

(BOERICKE)

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

- Hallucinations cause fear and fright

(HERING)

- Fear from touch (BOERICKE)

- Face, expression of terror (BOERICKE)

- Delusions, of bugs and cockroaches

(KNERR)

- Delusions, of beetles, worm etc., (K 21)

- Delusions, rats, mice, insects (K 21)

- Hallucinations causes fear and fright

(HERING0

- Delusions, snake in and around her

(KNERR)

- Delusions, snake under and about her at

night (HERING)

- Exclaims about cats, dogs, and rabbits

approaching her from above sides and

middle of room (HERING)

- Delusions, see limaces (STAUFFER)

- Delusions, creeping things, full of

(KNERR)

- Frightful figures, rats, mice, sees animals

moving cats, dogs, etc. (HERING)

- Fear of animals (K 43)

- Delusions vision horrible (K 34)

- Delusions, horrible besides himself

(JAHR)

- Fear of dogs (K 44)

- Delusions, dogs swarm about him (K 24)

- Delusions, dogs attack him (K 24)

- Delusions, dogs biting his chest (K 24)

- Delusions, bitten, will be

(BOENNINGHAUSEN)

- Fear of being devoured by animals (K 44)

- Delusions animals jump out of the ground

(K 21)

- Delusions that he was killed and being

eaten (HERING)

- Hallucinations which terrify patient, sees

ghosts, hears voices back of his ears; sees

strangers (HERING)

- Saw people coming out of all corners

(HERING)

- Delusions, sees images, phantoms, rising

out of the earth (K 28)

- Delusions, sees specters, ghosts, spirits (K

32)

- Cannot shriek, but wants to scream

(KNERR)

- Fear of strangers (K 47)

- Looked at, cannot bear to be (K 63)

- Delusions, injury, is about to receive (K

28)

- Delusions, is being injured (K 28)

- Fear, injured, of being (K 45)

- Delusions, that he is persecuted (K 30)

- Escape, attempts to (K 39)

- Escape, attempts to, with shrieking

(KNERR)

- Cowardice (BOENNINGHAUSEN)

- Delusions, scream, obliged to (JAHR)

- Fear, approaching him, of others (K 43)

- Escape, attempts to, is restrained with

difficulty (KNERR)

- Delusions, he was pursued by enemies, by

ghosts (K 31)

- Hurry in movements (K 52)

- Hurry in movements, while walking (K

52)

- Hide, desire to (K 51)

- Fear, with desire to escape (JAHR)

- Delusions, sees images, phantoms, black,

in the dark, frightful, side, at his (K 27-28)

- Sees more horrifying images at his side

than in front of him and they all occasion

terror (HERING)

- Delusions, house is surrounded (K 27)

- Delusions, room is on fire (K 26)

- Fear, fire, things will catch (KENT)

- Delusions, murdered, that he was killed,

roasted and eaten (K 29)

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

- Fear of being murdered (K 46) - Fire,

visions of (K 25)

DESTRUCTIVE, SYPIIILITIC:

- Delusions of animals creeping in her (K

21)

- Anger from contradiction (K 2)

- Contradiction, intolerant of (K 16)

- Shrieking (K 80) – Shrieking, sudden

(ALLEN)

- Cursing (K 17) – Abusive (K 1)

- Anger (K 2) – Anger, violent (JAHR)

- Rage, after insults (K 71)

- Rage from hallucination (KNERR)

- Makes, gestures violent (K 50)

- Stamps the feet (K 50) – Biting (K 9)

- Desire to bite (KNERR) – Bites people

(GALLAVARDIN)

- Idiocy, bite, desire to (SCHMIDT)

- Desire to bite during delirium (KNERR)

- Delirium wild, violent, raging (K 19-20)

- Rage violent (K 71) – Rage, fury (K 70)

- Rage with biting (K 71) – Wildness (K 95)

- Rudeness (K 75) – Violent

- Violent deeds, rage, leading to (K 91)

- Spits on face of people (K 82)

- Thoughts, persistent, homicidal (K 87)

- Kill, desire to (K 60) – Misanthropy

(BOENNINGHAUSEN)

- Rage, tries to kill people (K 71)

- Rage, touch, renewed by (K 71)

- Offended easily (K 69)

- Quarrelsome (K 70)

- Quarrelsomer, causeless (JAHR)

- Anger at trifles (BOENNINGHAUSEN)

- Barking (K 9) – Mischievous (K 66)

- Delirium, answer abruptly (BOERICKE)

- Irritability (K 58) – Malicious (K 63)

- Irritability when spoken to (K 59)

- Insolent (K 57)

- Indiscretion (K 55)

- Speech violent (KENT)

- Beside oneself, being

(BOENNINGHAUSEN)

- Destructiveness (K 36)

- Tears things (K 87)

- Break things, desire to (K 10)

- Threatening (K 88) – Cruelty

(BOERICKE)

- Anger with face red (GALLAVARDIN)

- Eyes protusion (K 263) – Strabismus (K

266)

- Anger alternating with laughing (JAHR)

- Anger alternating with cheerfulness (K 2)

- Rage alternating with convulsions (K 71)

- Mouth, dribbling of viscid saliva

(BOERICKE)

- Chewing motion of the jaw (K 356)

- Vomiting fluid, green (K 538)

- Hot cheeks (HERING)

- Blood rushing to face (HERING)

- White circle around mouth (HERING)

- Slander, disposition to (K 81)

- Striking (K 84)

- Striking, boy clawing his father’s face

(KNERR)

- Striking, about him at imaginary objects

(K 84)

- Throws things away (KNERR)

- Destructiveness of clothes (K 36)

- Suicidal disposition (K 85)

- Suicidal disposition with knife (K 85)

- Suicidal disposition with razor (KNERR)

- Suicidal disposition by throwing himself

from a height (K 85)

- Disposition to suicide, wanted a razor to

cut his throat (HERING)

- Mutilating his body (BOERICKE)

- Weary of life (K 92)

- Desires death (BOENNINGHAUSEN)

- Loathing of life (K 62)

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

- Mania, tears himself to pieces with nails

(GALLAVARDIN)

- Tears himself (K 87)

- Mania, with deeds of violence (JAHR)

- Mania, with rage (ALLEN)

- Indifference to suffering (K 55)

- Indifference, complain, does not (K 54)

- Semi-consciousness (KNERR)

- Rage, unable to stand (KNERR)

IIELL:

– Eruption, rash (K 1317) – Eruption, rash,

red (K 1318)

– Thoughts of death (K 17)

– Presentiment of death (K 17)

– Delusions that himself was dead (K 23)

– Fear of death (K 44)

– Looked at, cannot bear to be (K 63)

– Evades look of the other persons

(KNERR)

– Hide, desire to (K 51)

– Vertigo, crossing water (K 106)

– Unconsciousness, twitching of limbs, with

(KNERR)

– Unconsciousness, vertigo during (K 91)

– Unconsciousness, motionless like a statue

(K 90)

– Unconsciousness, with eyes fixed (K 90)

– Answer, aversion to (K 3)

– Answer, refuses to (K 3)

– Talk, indisposed to and sits, does not

move (KNERR)

– Fear of brilliant objects (K 43)

– Impulse, rash (GALLAVARDIN)

– Kleptomania (K 61)

– Rage alternating with presentiment of

death (KNERR)

– Impertinence (SCHMIDT)

– Impertinence in his acts

(GALLAVARDIN)

– Eruption suppressed (K 1319)

– Rage while drinking (K 71)

– Stupefaction, perspiration during (K 84)

– Stupefaction, chill during (K 84)

– Unconsciousness, starts up in a wild

manner, but could not keep the eyes open

(KNERR)

– Delusions, he cannot see (JAHR)

– Somnambulism (K 81)

– Insecurity with desire to travel

(GALLAVARDIN)

– Delusions, sees dead persons

(BOENNINGHAUSEN)

– Delusions, sees people (K 30)

– Delusions, sees a number of strangers and

tries to seize them (KNERR)

– Presence of strangers agg. (K 84)

– Anxiety in presence of strangers (K 8) –

Anxiety in a crowd (K 6)

– Suspicious (K 86)

– Jealousy (K 60)

– Circumspect (BOENNINGHAUSEN)

– Crank (GALLAVARDIN) – Extravagance

(K 4)

– Talks with persons absent (ALLEN)

– Delusions, converses with absent people

(K 30)

– Executioner, vision of a (K 25)

– Fire, visions of (K 25)

– Visions, balls of fire (K 271)

– Delusions, hears voices of dead people (K

34)

– Cough, look into fire (K 791)

– Delusions, he hears music (K 29)

– Vanishing of senses (K 78)

– Delusions, doomed of being

(BOERICKE)

– Spoken to aversion to being (K 82)

– Dullness (K 37) Prostration of mind

(BOENNINGHAUSEN)

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

– Idiocy (BOENNINGHAUSEN) Imbecility

(K 93)

– Answers incorrectly (KNERR)

– Answers disconnected (KNERR)

– Anxiety when speaking (K 8)

– Anxiety from conversation (K 6)

– Naïve (GALLAVARDIN) Naïve but very

intelligent (GALLAVARDIN)

– Kneeling and prying (K 61) Praying (K

69)

– Remorse (K 71) Ecstasy (K 39)

– Kisses every one (K 61) Squanders

(GALLAVARDIN)

– Heedless (GALLAVARDIN)

– Gestures Involuntary, motions of the hand

spinning and weaving (K 50)

– Hurry in movements (K 52)

– Thirst extreme (K 529)

– Thirst during respiration (K 529)

– Mouth dryness (K 403)

– Head staggers with tendency to fall

forward and to the left (BOERICKE)

– Vertigo when kneeling (K 100)

– Convulsions at sight of water (K 1356)

– Thirst with dread of liquids (K 529)

– Refuses to take the medicine (KNERR)

– Fear of mirrors in a room (K 46)

– Thirst for large quantities (K 529)

– Thirst violent (HERING)

– Thirst for large quantities, drinking with

avidity (HERING) and vomiting

(HERING)

– Cannot swallow on account of spasm

(BOERICKE)

– Swallowing liquids difficult (K 468)

– Swallowing liquids impeded (K 468)

Swallowing liquids impossible (K 468)

– Vomiting water (K 540)

– Urging sudden, must hasten to urinate or

urine will escape (K 655)

– Urging ineffectual (K 654)

– Paralysis bladder (K 650)

– Urination retarded, must continue to press,

if he stops to breathe, the urine ceases to

flow until he strains again (K 661)

– Pain occiput, looking at bright objects (K

163)

– Diarrohea from bright light (K 613)

– Searching on floor (K 69)

– Fills pockets with anything (ALLEN)

– Occupation amel. (K 69)

– Food tastes like straw (BOERICKE)

– Sleepy, but cannot sleep (BOERICKE)

THE PASSAGE:

– Sleeplessness in a dark room (K 1253)

– Diarrohea, darkness agg. (K 612)

– Pain head, vaults, cellars etc., (K 150)

– Faintness in dark places (K 1359)

– Vision dim, distant objects (K 276)

– Vision, sparks (K 283)

– Vision, obliquity (K 283)

– Looseness, sense of in joints (K 1033)

– Motion, extremities, loss of control (K

1033)

– Twitching foot (K 1219) Twitching (K

1215)

– Hemiplegia, twitching of one side, the

other is paralysed (K 1176)

– Motions, upper limbs, beating with one,

groping with the other (K 1034)

– Jerking upper limbs ( K 1069)

– Jerking hand (K 1030)

– Jerking foot (K 1131)

– Separated, sensation, upper limbs (K

1189)

– Separated sensation, lower limbs (K 1189)

– Separated, legs as if severed from his body

(K 1189)

– Unsteadiness lower limbs (K 1222)

– Incoordination (K 1017)

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

– Motions, extremities, convulsive (K 1023)

– Motions, extremities, involuntary (K

1033)

– Motions, extremities, irregular (K 1033)

– Motions, upper limbs agitated, lower

limbs quiet (K 1034)

– Motions, fingers, constant (K 1034)

– Delusions, that he is falling (K 25)

– Delusions, things will fall (K 25)

– Delusions, that hat is a pair of trousers

which he tries to put on (K 26)

– Fear of falling (K 45)

– Fear everything is falling on her (KNERR)

– Jesting, ridiculous or foolish (K 50)

– Gestures, makes (K 50)

– Gestures makes, hands grasping or

reaching at something quickly (K 50)

– Shrieking in mania, unless she holds on to

something (K 80)

– Gestures, strange, of arms

(GALLAVARDIN)

– Gestures, clapping of the hands (K 50)

– Gestures, grasping, hands at genitals,

during spasms (K 50)

– Gestures, grasping hands quickly (K 50)

– Gestures, motions involuntary, of the

hands (K 50)

– Gestures, motions, involuntary, of the

hands to the head (K 50)

– Gestures, motions, involuntary, of the

hands throwing about (K 50)

– Gestures, motions, involuntary, of the

hands throwing over head (K 50)

– Gestures, motions, involuntary, of the

hands waving in the air (K 50)

– Gestures, motions, involuntary of the

hands, as if winding a ball (K 50)

– Gestures, extravagant (ALLEN)

– Gestures, ridiculous or foolish (K 50)

– Gestures, violent (K 50)

– Gestures, wringing the hands (K 50)

– Gestures, usual vocation, of his (K 50)

– Jumping (K 60)

– Motions extremities, agility, great (K

1033)

– Catches at imaginary appearance

(ALLEN)

– Childish behaviour (K 11) Affectation (K

1)

– Delusions, bed drawn from under her (K

21)

– Delusions, bed, creases, is full of

(HERING)

– Delusions, bed, someone is with him (K

21)

– Delirium, effort to escape from bed, or

hide (BOERICKE)

– Restlessness, tossing about in bed (K 73)

– Restlessness, wants to go from one bed to

another (K 73)

– Rage, tossing about in bed, making

unintelligible signs (KNERR)

– Confusion, makes him jump out of bed

(JAHR)

– Delusions, bed swimming

(HAHNEMANN)

– Jumping out of be (K 60)

– Delirium, springs up suddenly from bed

and escapes (KNERR)

– Delusions, lying crosswise (K 29)

– Gestures, picks at bed clothes (K 50)

– Raises the head frequently from the pillow

(K 229)

– Delusions, his body is scattered about in

bed, tosses about to get the pieces together

(BOERICKE)

– Faintness (K 1358)

– Faintness in dark places (K 1359)

THE RENIAISSANCE:

– Catalepsy (BOERICKE)

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

– Delusions, hears distant voices (K 34)

– Delusions, visits a churchyard (K 22)

– Shrieking on walking (K 80)

– Mania, hands, claps (KNERR) kicks (K

60)

– Insanity, stamps the feet

(GALLAVARDIN)

– Vision, dazzling sunlight (K 275)

– Astonished (ALLEN)

– After awaking, he recognizes nothing

about him (HERING)

– Does not recognize his relatives (K 71)

– Delusions, everything is new (K 30)

– Does not recognize the one to whom

speaking (KNERR)

– Delusions, he sees strangers (K 33)

– Delusions, friends appear as strangers (K

33)

– Delusions, he would never see his friends

after waking (KNERR)

– Mistakes in localities (K 66)

– Memory, weakness in names (ALLEN)

– Memory, weakness for proper names (K

65)

– Memory, weakness for persons (K 65)

– Delusions, everything is strange (K 33)

– Delusions, familiar things seem strange (K

33)

– Delusions, familiar things seem strange (K

33)

– Frightened easily, wakens, terrified,

knows no one, screams, clings to those

near (K 49)

– Clinging to persons (K 12)

– Catches at people (JAHR)

– Indifference to pleasure (K 55)

– Indifference to agreeable things (K 54)

– Delusions, identity, errors of personal (K

27)

– Confusion, identity, as to his; duality,

sense of (BOENNINGHAUSEN)

– Speech, lost or paralysis (aphasia)

(BOERICKE)

– Speech, difficult, from spasm of tongue (K

419)

– Clinging, held, wants to be

(BOENNINGHAUSEN)

– Clinging, held, on being

(BOENNINGHAUSEN)

– Speech slow, difficult enunciation,

inarticulate, stammering (BOERICKE)

– Delusions, wife is faithless (K 35)

– Delusions, wife has lovers conccaled

behind stove (KNERR)

– Delusions, dancing in a churchyard (K 22)

– Forgetful (K 48)

*************************************

KALI ARSENICOSUM

Overview of the Mind symptoms

[Number at the left indicates the page number

in the KENT Rep. and the number as footmark

indicates the ‘mark’ fro the remedy. K.S.S.

2. Mind – anxiety

2

2. Mind – anxiety about health

3

42 Mind – fear

3

72 Mind - restlessness, nervousness – night

3

73 Mind – restlessness, nervousness – anxious

3

85 Mind – suspicious

3

3 Mind – auguish

3

VERSLAG VAN HET

SEMINAAR VAN

ANANDA ZAREN

Alineke VAN DEN

BORN

(Extract from seminar

of Ananda Zaren)

NTKH 2, 2/1991

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

6 Mind – anxiety – fear, with

2

12 Mind – company – desire for

2

18 Mind – delirium – night

2

40 Mind- excitement, excitable

2

42 Mind – fear (see anxiety) – evening

2

42 Mind – fear (see anxiety) – night

2

43 Mind – fear (see anxiety) – crowd, in a

2

44 Mind – fear (see anxiety) – evil, of

2

45 Mind – fear (see anxiety) – happen,

something will

2

46 Mind – fear (see anxiety) – people of

2

54 Mind – indifference, apthy etc.

2

73 Mind – restlessness, nervousness – bed –

tossing about in

2

75 Mind – sadness, mental depression

2

78 Mind – sensitive – oversensitive (see

offended

2

)

82 Mind –starting, startled

2

88 Mind – timidity

2

2 Mind – anger, irascibility (see irritability and

quarrelsome)

3 Mind – answer – aversion to

4 Mind –anxiety – morning

4 MInd – anxiety – evening

5 Mind – anxiety – evening – bed, in

5 Mind – anxiety – night

8 Mind – anxiety – stool, before

8 Mind – anxiety – waking, on

9 Mind – bed – aversion to (shuns)

10 Mind – business –averse to

10 Mind – capriciousness

13 Mind – concentration – difficult

13 Mind – confusion of mind (see

concentration)

13 Mind – confusion of mind (see

concentration) – morning

14 Mind – confusion of mind (see

concentration) – evening

17 Mind – death – presentiment of

17 Mind –death – thoughts of

18 Mind – delirium

23 Mind –delusions – dead – persons – sees

25 Mind – delusions – enlarged – head is

25 Mind – delusions – fancy, illusions of

27 Mind – delusions – images, phantoms, sees

(sees faces, figures, men, specters,visions)

28 Mind – delusions – images, phantoms, sees

(sees faces, figures, men, specters, visions)

frightful

35 Mind – despair

36 Mind – despair – recovery

36 Mind – discontented, displeased,

dissatisfied etc.

40 Mind – excitement, excitable

41 Mind –exertion, from mental, agg.

41 Mind – fancies, exaltation of

43 Mind – fear (see anxiety) – alone, of being

(see company)

43 Mind – fear (see anxiety) – bed of the

44 Mind – fear (see anxiety) – death of

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

49 Mind – frightened easily (see starting) –

trifles, at

52 Mind – hurry

52 Mind – hysteria

53 Mind – impatience

54 Mind – indifference, apathy, etc.

55 Mind – indifference, apathy, etc, -

everything to

55 Mind – indifference, apathy, etc. – pleasure,

to

55 Mind – indolence – aversion to work

56 Mind – insanity, madness

56 Mind – insanity, madness, - behaves like a

crazy person

57 Mind – irresolution

57 Mind – irritability (see anger)

58 Mind – irritability (see anger) – morning

58 Mind – irritability (see anger) – morning,

waking, on

59 Mind – irritability (see anger) – chill,

during

59 Mind – irritability (see anger) – headache,

during

60 Mind – kill – sudden impulse to

61 Mind – lamenting, bemoaning, wailing,

etc., (compare weeping)

64 Mind – memory, weakness of (see

mistakes)

68 Mind – morose

70 Mind – quarrelsome

72 Mind – restlessness, nervousness

72 Mind – restlessness, nervousness – evening

73 Mind – restless, nervousness – chill –

during the

74 Mind – restlessness, nervousness – heat –

during the

74 Mind – restlessness, nervousness – menses

– during

76 Mind – sadness, mental depression –

evening

76 Mind –s sadness, mental depression –

alone, when

77 Mind – sadness, mental depression - heat,

during the

79 Mind –sensitive – noise, to

79 Mind – sensitive – noise, to – voices

79 Mind – shrieking

80 Mind – sit, inclination to

83 Mind – starting, startled – sleep – on falling

83 Mind – starting, startled - noise, from

85 Mind – suicidal disposition

86 Mind – talk – indisposed to, desire to be

silent, taciturn

86 Mind – talking –sleep, in

87 Mind – thoughts – persistent (see delusions)

87 Mind – thoughts - persistent (see

delusions) – night

92 Mind – weeping, tearful mood, etc., - night

92 Mind – weeping, tearful mood, etc.,

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

93 Mind – weeping, tearful mood, etc., -

causeless

94 Mind – weeping, tearful mood etc., - sleep,

in

EXPERIENCE OF ANANDA ZAREN WITH

KALJ – ARSENICOSUM EXPRESSION

Eyes look glassy

Muddy or pale or sallow complexion like Sepia

Eyes have a fixed look

Very often there is protrusion of the eyeballs

Very strong sense of properness that you see (they

don’t say)

Muscles often flabby

Anxious or frightened look on their face

Cheeks are sunken

They often look older than they are

Arms often crossed in the interview

TRIGGER WORDS

Weakness

Fear

Anxiety

Chilliness (more chilly than Arsenicum), very very

chilly

ARSENICUM ELEMENT

Tremendous insecurity, anxiety, fear, restlessness

Chilly, amcliorated by heat

Worse from 12.00- 2.00 a.m.

Right sided remedy like Arsenicum

Coryza, allergies

Exzema better by heat of the water or any kind of

heat (water, blanket)

KALIUM ELEMENT

Very rigid

Conservative

Responsible

Usually on the thin side, not fat

They don’t really like to be touched

Sinus problems

Swelling under the eyes

Gastric region

Tendency for asthma

Tendency for arthritis

When the physical complaints rise up, the

anxiety get less (in 24 of her cases ) K.N.

They want closeness, intimacy, because they

cannot forgive themselves when something is

happening later on.

It is not that enjoyment is absent.

*****

[Complete repertory of Calcarca silicate drown

from Mac Repertory, Every asterix gives the degree

in the rubric]

Mind

Absentminded*

CALCAREA

SILICATA

Alineke

VANDEN

BORN

NTKG,

Vol. II, 3, 1991

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

Ailments,mental symptoms from:

anger, vexation*

fear*

fright*

reproaches*

sexual; excesses*

work, mental*

Ambition, loss of*

Anger*

agg*

easily*

mental exertion, after*

Answer;

aversion to*

refuses to*

Anxcity;

morning; waking, on*

evening; bed, in*

night*

family, about his

health, about*

menses, during*

money matters, about*

Capriciousness*

Cares, worries; full of*

Censorious, critical

Company; desire for; alone, while agg*.

Concentration;

difficult*

conversation, during*

studying, reading, while*

Confidence; want of sell*

Confusion*

morning; waking, on*

evening*

eating,after*

mental exertion, from*

sitting, while*

Consolation, kind words agg.

Contrary*

Cowardice*

Delirium

foolish, silly*

muttering*

quiet*

dead; corpse; dead brother and child*

dead; corpse; husband*

disease; persons, sees*

disease; incurable, has*

dogs; sees*

faces, sees*

faces, sees; hideous*

fancy, illusions of*

Images, phantoms, sees

Images, phantoms, sees; night*

Images, phantoms, sees; sleep, on going to*

people; disagreeable, sees*

starve; family will*

talking; fancies herself; as with dead people*

visions, has; horrible*

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

voices, hears*

voices, hears; answers, and*

voices, hears, dead people*

women; old and wrinkled, of*

Desires; things not present*

Despair**

Discontented, displeased, dissatisfied*

everything, with*

Discouraged*

Doubtful; recovery, of*

Dullness

Escape, attempts to; window, from*

Excitement, excitable*

Excertion; mental; agg*.

Fancies; exaltation of*

Fear*

night*

brain; softening of*

disease, of impending;

disease, of impending; Incurable of being*

exertion, of*

family matters, about*

Imaginary things*

mental exertion, after*

poverty*

sleep; to go to*

touch, of*

work, dread of*

Forgetful*

Frightened easily**

noon; nap, after**

Hurry*

Hysteria*

Ideas;

abundant*

night*

deflciency of*

daytime*

In. ecility*

Impatience*

Indolence*

Insanity*

Irresolution, indecision*

Irritability*

morning*

evening*

coltlon; after*

consolation agg*.

headache; during*

mental exertion, from*

trifles, from*

Jumping impulse to; window, from*

Lamenting, bemoaning, wailing*

Lasciviousness, lustful*

Laughing*

weeping; or, on all occasions*

Loathing; life, at*

Memory; weakness of*

read, for what he has*

said, for what has*

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

just*

Mildness*

Mistakes; speaking*

misplacing words*

spelling, in*

Moaning, groaning*

Mood; changeable, variable*

Morose, cross*

Muttering*

evening; falling asleep, on*

Occupation, diversion; amel*.

Prestration of mind*

Restlessness*

night*

anxious*

Sadness, mental depression*

daytime*

morning*

causeless*

darkness*

heat, during the*

Senses, dullness of*

Sensitive, oversensitives;

children*

noise,to*

reprimands, to*

Sexual excesses, mental symptoms from*

Shrieking, screaming, shouting; sleep, during*

Sits;

still*

weeping*

Speech;

foolish*

nonsense*

Spoken to; averse to being*

Starting, startled*

easily*

sleep; during*

Stupefaction, as if intoxicated*

Suicidal disposition*

Talk; indisposed to*

silent, desire to be, tacilum*

Talks;

dead people, with***

of nothing but murder, fire and rats*

Timidity*

bashful*

Unconsciousness*

conduct, automatic*

Weary of life*

night*

involuntary*

sleep, in*

Will; loss of*

Work; aversion to mental*

Yielding disposition*

HEAD, PAIN

General*

morning*

morning; waking, and on*

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

afternoon*

evening*

evening; lasting all night*

air; cold; draft of, from*

ascending ; steps, on*

binding head, from; up the hair*

coition*

cold; becoming, from*

cold; taking, from*

coryza; with*

eating; after*

hamering*

heat; during*

heated, from becoming*

jar, from any*

lie down, must*

light, from; general*

lying, while*

menses; before*

mental exertion, from*

motion; agg. *

moving, head*

noise, from*

occupation amel*

pains in, with; neck, nape of*

paroxysmal pains*

periodic; everyday*

periodic; every seven days*

pulsating*

rising; lying, from*

sleep; after*

spritous liquors; from*

standing, while; amel. *

stepping; heavily agg. *

stooping; from*

straining eyes*

touch

violent pains

walking; while

weather; cold; damp, and

wine; agg.

women, in

writing, from

extending to; neck

extending to; occiput

Brain; aching deep in*

Forehead*

Forehead; morning

Forehead; morning; waking, on*

Forehead; heat during; amel. *

Forehead; eating; amel. *

Forehead; lying, while; amel. *

Forehead; mental exertion*

Forehead; motion*

Forehead; occupation amel*

Forehead; pressure; amel. *

Forehead; pulsating*

Forehead; walking; while*

Forehead; writing; while*

Forehead; eyes, above*

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

Occiput*

Sides; one side*

Sides; right*

Temples*

Vertex*

Burning*

Bursting*

Bursting; Vertex*

Cutting*

Drawing; Forehead*

Drawing; Occiput*

Dull Pain*

Dull pain; morning*

Jerking*

Pressing outward*

Pressing Forehead*

Pressing; Forehead; outward*

Pressing; Occiput*

Pressing; Occiput; sides of*

Pressing; Temples*

Pressing; Vertex*

Shooting*

Shooting; Occiput*

Sore, bruised*

Sore, bruised, jarring agge. *

Sore, bruised, motion, on*

Stitching; Forehead*

Stitching; Sides*

Stitching; Temples*

Stunning, stupefying*

Tearing; Forehead*

Tearing; Forehead; eminence frontal*

Tearing; Occiput*

Tearing; Temples*

Rectum

Constipation*

Constipation; difficult stool*

Constriction, closure*

Diarrhoea*

Diarrhoea; painless*

Dysentery*

Fistula*

Flatus* offensive*

Formication in anus

Haemorrhage; anus, from*

Haemorrhage; anus, from; stool; during*

Haemorrhoids; stool; protrude; during*

Haemorrhoids; touch agg*.

Haemorrhoids; walking; agg*.

Inactivity of rectum*

Itching*

Moisture*

Pain; general; stool; during*

Pain; general; stool; after*

Pain; burning; stool; during*

Pain; burning; stool; after*

Pain; pressing*

Pain; soreness*

Pain; stitching*

Pain; tearing*

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

Pain; tenesmus*

Paralysis; sensation of*

Stricture*

Urging, desire*

Urging, desire, stool; during*

Stomach

Desires, milk*

Desires; sour, acids*

Aversion to; food in general*

Aversion to; meat*

Aversion to; milk*

Dreams

amorous*

anger8

anxious**

business, of*

confused*

dead; bodies**

death, of*

disease*

disease; sick people*

fantastic*

fire*

frightful**

murder*

nightmare*

vexatious*s

visionary*

vivid*

Generalltles

Daytime*

Morning**

Forenoon*

Afternoon*

Evening***

Night***

Midnight; after**

Abscesses; suppurations*

Abscesses; suppurations; pus; tenacious**

Abscesses; suppurations; pus; thick**

Abscesses; suppurations; pus; yellow-green**

Air; open; aversion to*

Air; open; amel*.

Air; draft; agg*.

Anaemia*

Ascending; agg*

Bathing, washing; agg;

Bathing, washing; agg; cold*

Bathing, washing; aversion to, dread of*

Bathinf, washing; dread of*

Breakfast; agg; after*

Cancerous affections; epithelioma*

Cancerous affections; lupus, carcinomatous*

Caries of; bone*

Coition; after*

Cold; agg; in general***

Cold; agg; air*

Cold; ailments from; damp;places*

Cold; becoming*

Cold; becoming; perspiration, during*/

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

Cold; tendency to take*

Congestion of blood*

Congestion of blood; internally*

Constriction; internal, sensation of*

Constriction; internal, sensation of; orifices,

sphincter spasm*

Convulsions*

Convulsions; epileptic*

Distention blood vessels*

Dropsy; external*

Dropsy; internal*

Eating while*

Eating;after**

Emaciation**

Emaciation; children**

Exertion, physical; agg*.

Faintness, fainting*

Fasting, while; amel.*

Fistulae; bones, of*

Flabby feeling*

Food; alcohol; agg*.

Food; cold; drinks, water, agg*.

Food; milk; agg*.

Food; milk; agg; cold*

Food; wine; silments from; cold*

Food; wine; agg*.

Full feeling internally*

Haemorrhage*

Haemorrhage; mucous membranes, from*

Heat; flushes of *

Heat; flushes of; upwards*

Heat; vital lack of*

Heated, becoming*

Heaviness; internally*

Indurations; Glands*

Inflammations; externally*

Inflammation; internally*

Inflammation; bones, osteitis*

Inflammation; bones, osteitis, periosteum

Inflammation; glands, adenitis

Injuries, blows, falls and bruises; sprain

distorsions*

Jar; agg*

Lassitude; morning*

Lassitude; evening*

Lassitude; night*

Lassitude; alternating with; activity*

Lie down; inclination to*

Lifting, straining of muscles and tendons,

from*

Lying; amel*.

Lying; amel; back, on*

Lying; amel; bed, in*

Menses; before*

Menses; during*

Menses; after*

Motion; agg*

Mucous secretions; increased*

Mucous secretions; offensive, felid*

Mucous secretions; yellow*

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

Mucous secretions; yellowish-green**

Mycosis*

Necrosis; bones*

Numbness; externally*

Numbness; part; lain on*

Numbness; part; single, in*

Numbness; suffering parts, of

Orgasm of blood*

Pain; appear gradually*

Pain; boring*

Pain; burning; externally*

Pain; burning; internally*

Pain; cutting; externally*

Pain; cutting; internally*

Pain; jerking; externally*

Pain; pressing; externally*

Pain; pressing; internally*

Pain; sore*

Pain; sore; internally*

Pain; sore; touch, on*

Pain; sore; Bones, as if*

Pain; stitching**

Pain; stitching; internally*

Pain; tearing; externally**

Pain; tearing; internally*

Paralysis; organs, of*

Paralysis; glands*

Periodicity*

Perspiration; suppressed*

Pulsation; externally*

Pulsation; internally*

Rachitis*

Relaxation; muscles*

Seasons; summer; amel*.

Seasons; winter; agg*.

Sensitiveness; externally*.s

Sensitiveness; internally*

Sensitiveness; pain, to*

Sexual; excesses; after*

Standing; agg*.

Suppression of; mother milk*

Swelling; in general*

Swelling; affected parts of*

Swelling; inflammatory*

Swelling; puffy, oedematous*

Swelling; Glands*

Swellin; Glands; hard*

Touch; agg*.

Trembling; externally*

Trembling; internally*

Tuberculsis, prophylaxis for; lupus vulgaris*

Twitching*

Uncovering; agg.*

Walking; agg.*

Walking;agg; air, in open*

Walking; agg; fast*

Weakness; enervation*

Weakness; enervation; morning*

Weakness; enervation; morning; waking, on*

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

Weakness; enervation; morning; ascending

stairs, from*

Weakness; enervation; exertion, from; slight*

Weakness; enervation; mental exertion*

Weakness; enervation; nervous*

Weakness; enervation; walking, from; air,

open, in*

weariness**

Weather; change of weather; agg*.

Weather; cold wet; agg.*

Weather; cold, wet,; ailments from*

Wet; getting; rooms, in wet*

*****

Dr. SCHMIDT calls attention to the fact that

KENT omits the pathognomonic symptoms of

asthma from his repertory study as they are not

helpful in differentiating the homoeopathic remedy.

To individualize and evaluation is made easier by

the different types used in the repertories. In the

following abstract we are omitting over five pages

of direct quotation from KENT’s REPERTORY,

3

rd

edition.

LISTOF ASTHMA REMEDIES

List of asthma remedies according to T.F.

ALLEN, ANSHUTZ, BOERICKE, CHARGE,

CLARKE, DEWEY, V. GRAUVOGI.,

HARTMANN, HIRSHEL, HUGHES, JAHR,

KNERR, LEE, LIPPE, MALCOLM, MULLER,

MURE, NASH, SHEDD, STAUFFER, TEST.

ADRENAL., Ail., ALCOH., Aldehydum,

Alumn., Amber., Ambrosia, Amm. gum, Amyg.,

Amyl. nit., Anthoxanthym, Anti-febrin., Ant. ars.,

Ant. iod., Ant. sul. aur., ARG. CY.,

ARMORACEA SATIVA, Arum drac., Arum mac.,

Asci. cor. (syr.), Asci. tub., ASPAR, Aspirin,

Atrop. sul, Aure. met., BAC, Bapt., BLATTA AM.,

Bor., Calc. acet., Calc. hypophos., Camphorosma,

Cann. ind., Caps., Cast., Caul., Chen., Chin. sulph.,

Chlorof., CHLOR, Coca., Cacainum, Coch.,

Cor.rub., Cupre.acet. CUR., Cycl., Der.,

Digitalinum., Dol., Egg. vac., Elect., Eriod.,

Euc.,Euph. pil., FELTAURI, FLUR ac., FORM.

AC., GAD MORRH., GGAL., AC., GALVAN,

Gaul., Gins, Gland. sup sic., GRIND SQUARE,

Guai, Hydr., lbr., lll., June, Kali cy., Kali mur.,

Kreos., Lac can, Lact. sat., Lact. vir., Lam., Lem.,

Lin. Uxig., LOB., Magn. arct., Mag. austr., Mag.

carb., Mag. phos., Magn glau., MEL CUM., ALL

CEP., Mere bin, Mere. cor., Mere. dule., Mere

praec. rubr., Mill., MORPH., Morph. acet. Murc.

ac., Naph., Nat. sulph. Nice., Ol. jec. as., Osm.,

Onis. asel. (Ol. ric.,), OVARIN., Pall., Pass., Pect.,

Phos. mur., Piloc., Pimp., Pib. acet., Pop., Prun.,

Ptel., PULM. VUL, Queer., (Aspidiosperma) Ran.

bulb., Rheum., Sabal., Samb. can., Sang. nit.,

HOMOEOPATHIC

REMEDIES FOR

ASTHMA

Dr. Pierre SCHMIDT

L’ Homoeopathic

Francaise,

May 1929

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

Sanic., Scroph., Sep., Silph. 1., SILPHIUM.,

Solidago., Spong., Staph., Stee., STrych., Succ.

Sulph. hyd., Tab., TELA ARACH., Tereb., Terp.,

Hydr., Teucr., THYMUS., THYROID., Trachinus.,

TRIOSTEUM PERF., Tub., Variol., Verb., Visc.,

Wyeth., Xamth., Zincum val., Ziz.

ASTHMA REMEDIES ACCORDING TO

SCHUSSLER

CALC. FLOUR, CALC. PHOS., KALI MUR,

Cardiac asthma, KALI PHOS.

Nervous spasmodic asthma, NAT. MUR., NAT.

PHOS., Nat. sulph., Silica.,

OTHER ASTHMA REMEDIES NOT FOUND IN

THE PRINCIPAL BUT FOUND IN THE

FOLLOWING MODALITIES

AETH During coitus

ALL ACT.

Periodic asthma

AMMON. MUR Only during the night

ANG. Only alternating with

headaches,

ARAL Evening after lying down

BAD.

Hay asthma only.

BENZ. AC. Alternating with gout.

CALC. ARS. Only after midnight

CEDR.

After coitus.

EUPH. Hay asthma

GLON.

Only alternating with

headaches.

HYPER. Only ameliorated by

expectoration

ICTOD.

Only spasmodic

KALM. Only alternating with

eruption.

KALI BICH.

Only at 2 a.m.

PALL. Only after emotion.

PHOS. AC. Only spasmodic.

POTH. Only from dust

ameliorated by stool.

RHUS TOX. Only alternating with

eruption.

SABAD. Hay asthma

STICT. Hay fever,

SUMB. Only spasmodic

SYPH. During storm.

VALER.

Only spasmodic.

ZINC. Only in the morning

************************************

Every physician is afraid of changes when he

is using certain ideas, concepts and hypotheses

(schemes to refer to ). This fear is because of lack

of instruments and lasts until he is used to the new

schemes.

The experience of my colleagues confirms the

referring schema which later on I will develop. In

HOMOEOPATHY

AND

PSYCHOANALYSIS

Juan S. SHAFER

ACTA

HOMOEOPATHICA,

XIV, 6/1970

QUARTERLY HOMOE

O

PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

this point I see my own experience corroborated

which I made while examining mental symptoms

which become manifest during homoeopathic

treatment.

Sometimes a too-fixed scheme leads to a

wrong interpretation of the development of a

patient. We are of different opinion about a patient

who after having received his remedy does indeed

improve his local symptomatology, but mental

symptoms appear which until then suppression;

other, who have had a strict psychoanalytic

training, think that this is a favourable development

of a patient because it would mean a return to the

original cause of the conflict which caused the

somatisation.

This last-mentioned criterion is contrary to

what HERING thinks, which is well-founded in the

classical rule. On the other hand the term

conversion which is contained in the word

somatisation, is atomistic and excludes the total

view of human being, because of separating

psyche, soma and environment.

Sometimes we have to consider it as an

improvement if mental symptoms appear which

were not seen before dispensing of the remedy; just

let us take the case of a Lycopodium patient who

talks to us after having then the remedy, about fears

which he never had before. In spite of this he feels

much better. In this case we observe that the

Lycopodium patient, because of his self-defence-

armour, by: means of which he protected himself

from the world, could not face his fears. These

threatened his little self-confidence and therefore

he refused to accept them. Now, while he is

improving, he is a afraid to be as he really is and

the fears are staring. In a superficial examination

one would have never been able to conceive the

real development.

HAHNEMANN says in paragraph 254: “…

among numerous patients several are to be found

who are unable to indicate whether they feel better

or worse. Some even refuse to answer or to admit.”

A profound psychological education enables

the physician to recognize characteristic mental

symptoms. In some patients however, these

symptoms are so hidden that one can discover them

only by information concerning their social

dynamic relation.

*****

The author makes interesting comparisons and

points out a few new angles useful in prescribing,

especially the one concerning teenagers running

away from home and a few key notes by Dr.

SCHMIDT.

MENTALS OF

TUBERCULINUM

GREGOIRE Joelle

Cahiers du

Groupement

Hahnemannien

P. Schmidt, 1989

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

IN SEARCH OF A LOST IDEAL: Subtle,

difficult to know, doesn’t even understand himself,

wants to escape his own weaknesses. Close to his

psychological framework is Medorrhinum, where

the escape is to the future and in time whilst the

Tuberculinum escape is spatial: ‘nostalgia for the

past’, the memory of a lost inner paradise.

Narcissism combined with a need for security,

because he cannot stand any psychological nor

physical ontradiction.

ALTERNATING CHARACTERISTICS AND

PERIODICITY: This is one of the best

indications for Tuberculinum and makes it an

excellent antipsoric drug. Has an unstablemind,

more towards the fringe, cannot work for a long

time, or do the same job, so is often more

artistically inclined or in arty environment.

MOOD CHANGES: agg. morning, amel, evening.

Activity: mood swings related to his activities;

sometimes ‘hyper’,trying to compensate for his

inertia.

SLEEP: too many thoughts, jerking in bed.

MUSIC: very sensitive to it or cannot stand if it

depressed.

CLIMATE: amel. sea;. medium-high mountain;

agg. high mountains (amel.1500m)

DISEASES: Evolution from ENT and lung

problems to deep mental disturbances.

PHYSICAL ASPECT: Tuberculinum (Koch).

Long, thin, weak, nourishes himself with drugs,

ideas, travel, creating an artifical paradise.

TUBERCULINUM BOVINUM: delight more in

food, wine, etc. as a literal nourishment.

SEASONS: agg. winter and beginning of spring

CHILD : Unstable, always agitated (Arg. nit., Aur.,

Med., More.); no tolerance for restrictions, so is

very irritable during medical examination,

intolerant of contact (Cham, Cina, Sil ), lack of

self-confidence. Anxiety manifests in fear of dogs,

his rage to he compared with Bell., Hyos., Staph.,

Stram., Verat, but his underlying nature is sweet,

confusing it with Pul. Think of Tub. if Puls. is only

active in acute phases but not durable in its action.

TEENAGER: rise of (1) running away from

home; (2) desire to travel; (3 drug addiction.

All this due to his search for the ‘ideal’.

When P. SCIMIDT suspected Tub. in chronic

ENT and lung problems, he asked:

How are the hands? (humid)

Which animals is he afraid of ? (dogs)

What does he do if scolded? (threatens)

*****

THE CAUSTICUM

CHILD LAMOTHE

J.

L’HOMOEOPATHI

C

Francaise, 77/1989

QUARTERLY HOMOE

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PATHIC DIGEST

Year 1991, Vol.VIII

Causticum is often forgotten when

prescribing for children, and is often confused with

better known medicines such as Lysopodium and

Phsophorus. Causticum is not exclustively for

children suffering from severe handicaps such as

cystic fibrosis, encephalopathy, or chromosomal

abnormalities, but also for common paediatric

pathologies such as glue ear, asthma and eczema.

Causticum is one of the polychrests for children

and, in Dr. J. Lamothe’s study, it ranks 12

th

among

constitutional perscribings. After reviewing the

homoeopathic preparation of Causticum and its

drug picture, the author describes the main

indications most often found in a Causticum child:

- fearful, delayed walking, clumsiness.

-gentle, quiet, very sympathetic to other’s

suffering.

- very emotional. Easily frightened (noise, dogs).

- crying at the least thing, but can be sometimes

bossy and tempered.

- worse by separation, change of way of life.

- ticklish.

- disturbed, restless sleep.

- emotional auffering.

- dysphonia. calarrh ++

- bowel and bladder training delayed, constitpation.

- warts (nails), eczema (fissured).

- good appetite but losing weight, desire for salt,

dislikes sweets

- worse dry, cold weather.

Among the polychrests also prescribed for

children, Causticum can be compared with,

Lycopodium. Phosphorus, Silicea, Sulphur

Pulsatilla and Nux vomica.

*****

NEWS

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF HISTORY OF

HOMOEOPATHY

New Membership

The Institute in its general meeting on 26.11.91

took a historical decision to open its membership to

educated and intelligent homoeopatic persons for

Admission fee of Rs. 5/-, Annual membership Rs.

50/- and Life membership fee of Rs. 125/- . The

Institute shall issue a certificate of membership to

life members.

Office:

Dr. MAIENDRA SINGH, Director /

Secretary

1/5, Raja Dinendra Street, (II Floor)

Calcutta – 700009. (W.B.)

*****

SUBSCRIPTION FOR

1992

AT Rs. 100/- ONLY

BY M.O. /BANK DRAFT

MAY BE SENT

SO AS TO REACH ME

BY

1 APRIL 1992.