The Making of a Homoeopath Part II
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1994 Jan / Feb Vol III No 1.
Gunavante S M.
We concluded Part I of this series by stating that "A true homoeopath cannot afford to rest on his oars... and should recharge his batteries by drawing inspiration and guidance from great thinkers and practitioners..." Great masters toiled selflessly and left a rich heritage for posterity. "The old masters and their contribution to Homoeopathy" Third oration of Dr.S.P. Koppikar (erstwhile editor of the Homoeopathic Heritage) which he delivered on the 10th of April 1983 under "Dr. T. Seshachari Memorial Lecture" in Hyderabad, is reproduced below and will be read by all with much pleasure and profit.
The old giants brought up the science, simplified the Materia Medica, prepared repertories, brought out nice and handy books and contributed enough to last a century. I am reminded of the story of a hard working and once prosperous gardener who told his sons before his death, that he had buried a family treasure in the garden which he wanted to show them. The sons dug up the entire garden but could not find any gold or treasure, but they prospered because their hunt for the treasure was their salvation.
The great garden of our Materia Medica is our ancestral property and it is for us to reap the full benefits from these masterpieces.
Luckily, there are amongst us quite a number of sincere Homoeopaths who would like to know more about them and their work. I am sure you will enjoy the treasure hunt in this garden. Allow me to be a guide.
The disciples closest to Hahnemann were Stapf and Gross. Stapf was the one who got printed thousands of symptoms as they came out in proving. There were practically no printing errors in his archives which he published till his death. He also took active part in his provings. Gross who also did a similar work left his mark in his book "Comparative Materia Medica". Let me also mention Rummel who edited the Homoeopathic Journal "Allg Homoeozeitung" which carried all the researches and great articles of masters like Boenninghausen.
Let us now visit the fabulous square built by Count Von Boenninghausen. He was the greatest among Hahnemanns disciples. I hope you have had the good fortune of reading his "Lesser Writings" and of referring to his Pocket-book frequently. If not, then dont delay. You have missed much. Buy, beg, borrow, or steal the Lesser Writings. Now permit me to show you how his great work, the Pocket book was conceived and built.
Till then, every one including Hahnemann had to work laboriously, go through the materia medica, especially refer to those regions affected and see if any remedy had a similar symptom. But many a times such a symptom did not exist in a single remedy. Boenninghausen too faced this problem; he meditated deeply and long and brought out his most brilliant postulates.
- A remedy that has produced any other symptom in a Location is capable of curing any other symptom in that Location.
- If it has produced a particular sensation or ailment in one part it can produce and when used Homoeopathically cure that sensation in any other part of the body.
- Similarly, a strong or a peculiar Modality noted in connection with any sensation will be the characteristic modality of any other symptom or ailment.
We who select a remedy today through repertories can have no idea of the tremendous possibilities he has opened up for Homoeopaths. Just as his master started, creating the Materia Medica Pura, Boenninghausen worked on the practical side of its application.
First he split every single symptom into three parts London, Sensation and Modality and keeping the headings within the working limits, listed numerous symptoms under these heads. He also used his fantastic knowledge of the Materia Medica and graded the remedies in different rubrics.
You will be surprised at the precision of this method of selecting the remedy. Now let me enumerate a few of his other achievements.
- Next to Analysis of all the symptoms for easier reference the most wonderful original
work is his essay on the Characteristic Value of Symptoms. "He is the first and only
one to define the qualities needed to complete a symptom. His Latin Hexameter "Quis?
Quid? Ubi? Quibus auxiliis? Cur? Quomodo? Quando?
i. What type of person?
ii. Nature of the disease?
iii. Where is the seat of trouble?,
iv. Concomitant.
v. Cur-why, the causes? and
vi. Modalities is a standard that no Homoeopath can be ignorant about. Every development of our Materia Medica is based on this rhyme. - Now look at his absolutely unique Research Project. How to determine whether low
potencies or high potencies work faster or better?
He had large case record books, each volume covering a particular period say six months. For a period of say 5 years he gave every patient only 30th (lower). The next ten volumes showed prescriptions of 200th in every case of men, women or animals. Only after prolonged success with the 200th (or above) did he affirm that they were better. Mind you, there was no condemning the low ones; they also had worked and had their uses. - Our opponents used to remark that Homoeopathy was only faith cure. He treated most successfully animals which is proof positive that it is Not simply faith cure.
- He discovered a great many specifics on the lines of his master Hahnemann. His Acon 200, Spong 200 and Hep-sul 200 (for croup) was but one. The wonder is how these were selected out of hundreds from the Materia Medica read it and know.
- Homoeopaths have used Thuja as a remedy for Small Pox and Vaccinosis. Who discovered this? Well, Boenninghausen. See his beautiful deduction. He explains "the observations were repeatedly made during epidemics (of small pox) the specific for this disease in the animals (Thuja) and the result proved so decidedly favorable that I used the same in the first case of Small Pox that was entrusted to my treatment. It exceeded all my expectations. On the fourth day the pustules were all dried up; on the eighth day they had fallen off and no pockmark were to be seen.
"This decidedly favourable result caused me not only to use this remedy with all small-pox patients but also to use in several houses where smallpox had broken out, as a prophylactic and no case came to my knowledge where after using Thuja, any other member of the family was infected."
"As I have hardly used anything for 5 years but high potencies and with such good results, I shall probably never again return to low potencies. I also used in small pox cases only the 200th potency of Thuja, giving a few pellets as a dose every other evening."
We have a lot more to see in this garden. Let us turn to that special corner where you see a golden book wrapped in red silk. Open and read it. It is titled "Three Precautions of Hahnemann." Perhaps it is his greatest contribution to successful Cure of Chronic diseases.
We now approach the Hering Square, the monumental work of the greatest student of Hahnemann. Constantine Hering. He carried the torch to America. He started the first Homoeopathic college in the world. The Allentown Academy along with his friends each more enthusiastic than the other. The students knew only English, but all the literature was in German. The Materia Medica grew hourly with so many working at it. Every new disease was a challenge and every cure was an experiment reported to Hering, whose files grew and grew to form the magnum opus, the Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica.
Hering has been worshipped as the greatest hero for his capture of the dreaded Lachesis and squeezing its poison out when all others in the room ran away, he became terribly affected and delirious for two days. His first question to his wife when he regained consciousness was "Have you noted all the things I did and said? Lachesis is but one of the drugs proved by him. Almost his entire wealth was needed to publish the ten volumes of the great book Guiding Symptoms. His son-in law Dr. Knerr completed the printing after his death. Now, see that Bill-board in large prominent letters.
LAW OF (DIRECTION OF) CURE: Cure Takes Place From Above Downwards, From Within Outwards. From More Important To Less Important Organs. In The Reverse Order Of The Appearance of Symptoms.
Before leaving this square let us also note his famous phrase Three Legged Stool, which has been used in the best type of Keynote practice.
Well, the sapling brought to America by Hering and others needed careful nurturing. It was at this time that great scholars came in men who studied German and carried on nightly studies for half a century.
Here, I want to remind you of the tremendous literary and scholarly work of Richard Hughes of England, who patiently verified from the original sources every symptom in Hahnemanns Materia Medica. The fact that he would not believe in High Potencies unfortunately led to his being criticized by Lippe, Fincke and others. His Encyclopedia of Drug Pathogenesis" has cut out every symptom produced by potency above 12th but every symptoms is absolutely reliable. The other masterly translator of Hahnemanns works to English was R.E. Dudgeon.
A grand old man respected by everyone was P. P. Wells. A friend, guide and advisor to every one. His numerous articles, full of knowledge and ripe wisdom, embellish the pages of the famous journals like the North American Journal of Homoeopathy, Medical Advance and others. His idea of Latent Medication, in his treatise on Typhoid, beautifully reasons why we should expect Incubation period after administering the remedy. Many brilliant cures are proofs of the correctness and the value of this advice.
Now what shall we say about the Eiffel Tower of Adolph Lippe the greatest prescriber in Homoeopathy? Perhaps only a small fraction of his knowledge has been collected in printed words. He raised the Keynote system into an art. His fearless battles for high potencies or for Materia Medica, our sacred treasures, was always bitter and ferocious. He won because all the best cures were on his side. His greatest battles were against Richard Hughes and others who were throwing up symptoms from the Materia Medica arbitarily. Here is greatest case of all times as reported by Dr. Wesselhoeft.
"It was not only Lippes great knowledge of the subtle indication, his judicious examination of patients that made him an acknowledged master of our Art but mainly that free and wider appreciation of our law which elevated him to the sphere of the true artist."
"I had treated this 45 year old man, married since 10 years, for six years; no ejaculation during coitus, occasional nocturnal emissions; erections weak, giving out during coitus. He applied to Dr. Lippe on my advice. Lippe wrote the following:-
Your patient had diphtheria about 14 years ago the attack was such that it went from one side to the other and finally to the original side. Great weakness, almost paralytic before the attack and he thinks he never regained vigour and normal strength since that illness. I have given him a dose of Lac-can CM which may be required to be followed by a dose of Pulsatilla. Suffice to say that he never needed Pulsatilla. In three months his wife conceived.
That Lac-can has no sexual weakness, disturbed Lippe very little. He looked deeper and found the causes and the remedy. All knowledge in the world of special pathology could not have revealed the remedy to any one less gifted.
Let us now admire the labours of the giants of high potencies of Jenichen with his mighty arm, giving 30 powerful strokes to raise each potency. Fincke whose invention of Fluxion centesimal raised them to meteoric heights. Skinner and Swan each one perfecting the machines. The proofs of their purity and worth were the brilliant single dose cures performed by them.
Swans greatest contribution was the development of Nosodes. He had to fight bitterly against the powerful antagonism of Lippe who condemned them as Isopathy. Luckily their power of curing was fantastic and so on one could ignore them. H.C. Allen supported Swan to the hilt and published the full book on Nosodes.
Lest we forget, the service rendered by Boericke and Tafel, Lutys and Wilmar Schwabe in collecting the rare specimens and developing them deserves all our admiration. Collecting the waters from a particular place in Sanicula, getting the pure lava from Mount hecla, pouring the spider poisons from Spain, Cuba, Mexico etc., Ginseng from China and so on, is another adventure story.
Our grand Boenninghausen did the splitting up work. Analysis. But it was the great Dunham who started the beautiful Synthesis and many have considered his portrait of Aconite as the greatest example of descriptive pen pictures in our literature. It was wonderful to the young man, loved and respected by two old masters. Wells and Boenninghausen. His essays in "Homoeopathy The science of Therapeutics" is a contribution, which is the briefest yet the most complete essay on practical Homoeopathy which has not been improved upon by anyone to date. His case of deafness cured by Mezereum as equal to the Lac-can case of Lippe.
Well, what was started by Dunham, the greatest of the great artists, James Tyler Kent finished. How these masters collected the random symptoms from the various anatomically arranged schema to portray the whole person, mind and body, is the greatest piece of wonder.
Indeed the Kent Circle in our garden is so precious that not a single Homoeopath can by pass it. If his Materia Medica and Philosophy show the highest thinking of a master mind, his Repertory, which was pure drudgery for years, shows his love of Homoeopathy.
Among other individual great builders of modern Materia Medica are Guernsey who developed what he called The Keynote System. H C. Allen, Nash, Boger (the inventor of the synoptic key) and Clarke whose three volumes of Dictionary are a separate treasure house by themselves.
The art Gallery of the Materia Medica has almost been completed by Margaret Tyler in her Drug Pictures and by Borland (Childrens Types). Let us salute their memory and go back to the other parts of the garden.
As I mentioned earlier, or greatest treasures are hundreds and thousands of symptoms.
The powerful drug Sepia was born when Hahnemann found the artist with a lot of symptoms, was touching the paint brush with his tongue. Thuja was discovered accidentally from the gonorrhoea like symptoms in a clergy man who casually chewed leaves of the Thuja tree; Sanicula Aqua (water of springs) was proved by G Gundlach and his entire family for one year useful when Silicea and Calc fail.
Dr. Curie, the father-in-law of Madam Curie, did a fantastic experiment with cats, which are usually considered immune to TB. He fed them daily with small doses of Drosera. They were killed, one after 6 months, one after 1 year and so on. The autopsy revealed the invasion of the mesenteric glands with TB indicating the breakdown of their immunity. This piece of experiment remained unnoticed until Margaret Tyler saw it. She also observed that in the Materia Medica Pura, Hahnemann has praised this remedy for joints. Now look at her reasoning- "Drosera is curative in Tuberculosis, in Phthisis pulmonalis. But what about TB of the joint? This beautiful reasoning has given us the greatest remedy for TB of bones and joints.
Burnett was indeed the master of brilliant deductions. His discoveries are so many. His unearthly Organ Remedies is perhaps the richest single contribution to our system.
One of Burnetts remedies Cardus-marianus once cured a large varicose ulcer in a patient who was actually being treated for a liver and spleen complaint. Today Cardus is equal to if not superior to Hamamelis, Pulsatilla or Calc-fluor in the cure of varicosities.
Dr. Garth Wilkinson went to Iceland near the volcano Mount Hecla. He was wonder struck at the tremendous exostosis in the jaws, skull and osteoporosis of bones and other bony changes especially of animals living at a distance where fine ash had flown. Today hecla is an absolutely certain remedy for all sorts of bony tumors, exostosis and so on.
The discovery of other giants viz E.M. Hale, C.M. Boger, Bernoville and Nebel, Bach, Paterson, P.C. Muzumdar and Sarat Chandra Ghosh and many others can be seen in any good Materia Medica like Clarke Boericke.
One Dr. Masurker of Karnataka, has a number of habitual abortions cases to treat those especially occurring between 70-90 days. The slightly retroverted uterus he reasoned was caught in the hollow of the sacrum and the uterus could not grow freely, thus the foetus was expelled. One day he saw "inability of the uterus to expand; threatening abortion" under Plumbum. He used this as a specific along with Aurum-mur-nat and the success was almost 100 percent. He must have cured hundreds of cases in his long years of practice.
In 1940 I had a number of Filarial cases, swelling or oedema of feet. One patient was feeling weak especially while sitting down. Instead of simply prescribing on the keynote I referred to Materia Medica Pura and found "Swelling in foot in evening (550 MMP). It was a very efficacious remedy in that case. Now as I read along I found "the ring hole in the lobe of the ear becomes ulcerated" (110) I have had a large number of cases cured of this trouble in girls who could not wear ear-rings. You see how accidentally reading one symptom led to a beautiful remedy Stannum.
My uncle, a great Homoeopath got severe Osteoarthritis of both shoulders and suffered awfully for more than 2-3 years. Eminent Homoeopaths tried various prescriptions. One day he glanced through Clarkes Dictionary and he saw "Gold affects profoundly the entire organism, exercising a solvent action on the tissues." He got a flash of thought Osteoarthritis was a new tissue formed wrongly by the bone. He had also been extremely gloomy. He took just one dose of Aurum CM. Nothing happened for 6 weeks. Then he found himself cured in one week.
Now see the aftermath. I thought that if Aurum-met can dissolve osteoarthritis why not Calcaneal spur? Aurum-met 1000 and sometimes 10M has brought me an extremely successful practice in this painful disease.
Let us cultivate the habit of reading these great books. Just open any page and we shall certainly find something new and perhaps worth a fortune. We shall then be able to add our share to the common Heritage of the Homoeopathic System of curing.
Long live Hahnemann!
Long live Homoeopathy!
Reported in the Homoeopathic Heritage- July 1983.
