Letters

EDITOR:

1. Very frequently we receive complaints about the delay in bringing out our issues. Actually the complaints are heart-warming, as they indicate the eagerness with which the NJH issues are awaited. Occasionally it is also distressing that NJH family does not read out painstaking frequent notices. We take great care in intimating readers about all NJH activities on the front page of each issue and in individual reminders, the date of current issues and probable date of the next issue. The NJH is a bimonthly publication and as we are late we propose to bring out an issue every 6 weeks to make up for the lost time. Also please note that we cannot bring out all the pending issues simultaneously, as we do not receive all the articles at one time. So if 1/94 comes today, i.e. on 10/6/94, we cannot send 2/94 tomorrow, but grant 4-6 weeks time.
2. We receive numerous case histories for solving from readers themselves, their relatives or their patients! The National Journal of Homoeopathy is a journal for publishing treated case material. Please do not labour under the delusion that it is a cell for FREE Consulting service. We now have more than we can handle. So please do not mind if we do not reply to these letters.
3. Readers write to us to translate other journals. Kindly note that we are not a translating cell either. One reader on seeing our single page flyer or the 8 page promotional bulletin (a sample of the Journal) thought it was one full journal and wrote that we should translate a Hindi journal which he liked and publish that in the NJH and only then he would subscribe!

Fortunately to boost our sagging ego, the next day we received a communication with detailed analysis of 3 articles from Dr. Anoop Singh! Hope is again rekindled along with the courage to go on and on and on...

All letters in this issue show detailed reading and understanding of Emergency issue. Dr. Anoop Singh of Hoshiarpur, MP has queries for three authors.

Emergency Cases on page 32 by Dr. Vijaydeep Whaganna. In the three cases, essential rubrics which I feel is a must, are missed out. For e.g. in Case 1- the main symptom was "Involuntary urination during convulsions" but the rubric does not contain the medicine selected i.e. Amyl-nit. In Case 2, Medorrhinum is selected but there is no such indication. How does Dr. Vijaydeep select Medorrhinum? Again in Case 3 the medicine selected was Colchicum (perhaps Colocynth as per you) but both the remedies do not fit according to rubrics. 1. Ailments from grief and 2. Ailments from indignation. If we go through both these rubrics the drug is Staphysagria which carries the highest marks. Will Dr. V Waghanna please reply?

Dr. Anoop Singh Hoshiarpur, HP.

Dr. Waghanna replies:

It is possible to select the medicine without taking the help of the Repertory. Suppose a case comes with local infection of the right eye with much redness, throbbing pains, high fever, sensitive to touch, jerk and motion and cold, then what would be the choice of drug? Of course Belladonna. Here did you feel the need to repertorise? Have you to look at the rubrics? No. Because of your knowledge of materia medica you select the remedy. Is it not possible with other medicines and diseases, if you have a knowledge of therapeutics, the physical and mental generals of drugs, the art of observation, of individualising the patient and application of the knowledge of materia medica? In emergency cases, the physical and mental generals are very prominent and one hardly needs to go to the repertory. Your knowledge of materia medica is enough to deal with such cases. Note that the repertory only gives a group of medicines and you have to finally depend on the materia medica.

In my opinion, Allens Keynotes is the best book for referring in a medical emergency as Key indications are easily available. I request readers to go through Allens keynotes and you will see how beautifully one can select remedies. In all the three cases I have applied my knowledge of Materia Medica in selecting Colchicum, Medorrhinum and Amyl-nit.

Colchicum- Has no indignation but that feeling is covered by misdeeds of others and Bad manners. Other physical generals were strongly indicative of Colchicum. Besides it is one of the best medicines for dysentery in old persons. Medorrhinum The characteristic indication was desire for Ale, Asthma better lying on chest or face or stomach; Desire for fanning with perspiration and add to it the weeping disposition.

Amyl-nit- Convulsion soon after delivery, high fever with sweating; the most important indication, desire to stretch the body. This is well explained in Allens Keynotes and also by Dr. S.R. Phataks materia medica.

We should not forget that repertory does not consist of all the essentials of materia medica. Repertory is still incomplete.

*Dr. Anoop Singh has also queries on Dr. Tiwaris article in Emergency issue. Clarification are given below by Dr. N.L. Tiwari.

1. Hep-sul is changed not in 1 1/2 hours but after more than 12 hours. Hence sufficient time was given for Hep-sul 30. If the remedy is correct especially in acute illnesses, some positive reaction should be seen in this period.
2. 5/10/79 Ant-tart 10M was given at 9:30 am. In the evening at 8 p.m. the picture remained the same. It was concluded that the potency is exhausted. Therefore Ant-tart was raised to 50M.
   (One should not change the remedy till one gets a clear indication for a change).
3. 6/10/79 The picture has changed as given in the observations.
4. 5:00 pm the prescription was changed for the following reasons-
   1. Reaction poor because of latent miasm.
   2. Indicated remedy failed to respond due to poor reaction.
   3. Coldness of palms and soles which were not covered. (child wants to keep soles covered).

The following rubrics were referred to from Dr. Kents Repertory and prescription of Sulph 1M was made.

1. Reaction lack of (KR 1307)
2. Uncovering feet inclination to (KR 1222)
3. Reference from materia Medica, Kents Lectures- Sulphur.

Editor: Interestingly, another reader Dr. D. E. Mistry, Editor of Clinical Case Recorder has commented on Dr. Tiwaris case which we include here.

I was reviewing "Coping with Emergencies" for my CCR journal and was happy to see the three acute cases treated by Dr. N.L. Tiwari Hon. Assistant Director ICR. May I at the outset say I would not have liked to be in Dr. Tiwaris place; regarding his case on Bronchopneumonia, I feel the dose of Hepar-sulph 30 given on 3/11/79 should have been 200 or 1M. The case, it appears was even then on the way to a full fledged bronchopneumonia. Next morning on 4/10/79, Antim-tart 10M was the correct remedy, but the question I have asked myself in such cases is how to repeat and how long to wait to decide if the remedy is working or not. In such bad cases one can give a 10M every hour or two and judge the effects within -6 hours. If the child is not improving in the slightest degree, one needs either a higher potency straight away or the use of the intercurrent Sulphur to be administered similarly and the child watched for a reaction. Borland, if I remember correctly has given Phosphorus 10M and other remedies two hourly. Perhaps in this case there could have been other latent blocking factors like the very preset vaccine miasm. Anyhow, it is a great relief to know that the case had a happy ending. I cannot much opine about Dr. Tiwaris second case of acute dysentery. It is perhaps possible that many children in an acute disease develop a rapidly changing drug picture perhaps once again the mark of tubercular miasm. Here also one sees Sulphur given terminally clearing the case. Perhaps Sulphur given after the dose of Aethusa could have changed the pattern and then perhaps Aethusa given again could have cleared the case in its own right. However, the treatment of children of that age is always a difficult problem especially when there is a lot of family pressure if the child does not improve. Tiwari must be congratulated on his successful management of these two very bad cases.

Dr. D.E. Mistry MS (Surgeon and Homoeopath) - Solapur.

Similarly, Dr. Sarla Sonawala has clarified Dr. Anoop Singhs doubts about her article "Some Specimens of Quick Cures", as under:-

The reasons for giving Arsenic were simply Homoeopathic.

1. Meningitis was suspected. But the test of CSF being not done, the diagnosis was not confirmed. Yet it does not prove or disprove the claim of Arsenic. Thanks to Dr. Singh, while writing this, I referred to Boerickes Materia Medica, and found Arsenic with 1 mark in the list of remedies for Head Brain, Inflammation (meningitis) - Cerebral, (acute and chronic) page 700.
2. What would you search for in a 7 week old child incapable of giving symptoms? The objective data available! And I could think of nothing but Arsenic on the data High fever, Debility yet Wriggling of body (=restlessness).
3. I have time and again given this remedy in high and long continued fever with viral, bacterial, parasitical infection, or any septic focus name does not matter if I find trio of debility, restlessness and chilliness. If thirst for sips of water attend, good. But I do not wait for it. And, Arsenic did bring down the 6 weeks fever within 12 hours!

To make the story complete, the parents gave me a gift of a juicer, apart from my professional fees, yet felt it a cheaper deal than the exorbitant hospital charge!

In the Nov-Dec 1993 issue of the NJH, I would like to point out one mistake on page no 13. The article published in the name of Dr. S.K. Banerjee does not carry his correct address. In the Sept-Oct 93 issue, on page 29, the published photograph was not of Dr. Sanjoy Banerjee.

Dr. H.M. Chakroborty - Bihar

In the current issue two very funny printers devil were detected. I hope they will be corrected in the next issue as many readers are unable to correct it themselves.

Lecithin: the opening para read Surgery i/o energy and in the concluding para read Nerve i/o new. Other errors are very minor.

Dr. P.I. Tarkas

In Vol. II No.6 you have quoted Kent as saying that one symptom associated with babies when born out of wedlock is caved-in-occipital bone jutted over by the parietal bones. As there cant be any physical basis for this deviation, the reason must be psychological connected with the psychology of the parents, especially the mother in whose uterus the foetus grows. I have read that women deficient in Magnesia do not show normal motherly love. Could the point noted by Kent arise because a woman carrying a child out of wedlock, looks upon it as unwanted or a stigma and hence is not able to love it adequately?

Dr. Vaidyanathan - Trivandrum

You deserve all appreciation for giving Homoeopathic journalism a firm scientific footing. It gives me great pleasure when I hear so much about NJH in different countries. National Journal of Homoeopathy today is one of the leading International Journals.

Dr. Alok Pareek - Agra

*I congratulate the enthusiastic team of NJH in passing its second year. The bud of NJH which came into existence in 1992, has now bloomed, extending its petals fully and its fragrance has attracted so many. In each issue it has been able to propagate the true spirit of Homoeopathy which is possible only with dedication and cooperative endeavour. Wishing you and your team all the success in future.

Pran Gobind Chowdhary Dist: Nadia.

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