Methods of studying Materia Medica. By Julia M. Green, M. D.

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Methods of
studying Materia Medica.
By Julia M. Green, M. D.
Presented by Sylvain Cazalet

(Read before I. H. A., Bureau of
Materia, Medica, June 1946.)

Dr Julia M. Green

One might almost say
that each doctor has his own method of studying materia medica so that
methods are legion. If this be true, it surely confirms once more the
statement that homœopathy is intensely individualistic. Let each one
have his own method, go at it his own way ; the chief thing is that
he goes at it and pursues it eternally through professional life.

In a search for golden
threads running through several different methods of study, let us try
to list those most generally used :

The first homœopathic
doctors were hard students and most diligent symptom chasers. They made
the provings ; their minds compassed any quantity of minute
detail ; their noses were in their records of symptoms ; they
were able to distinguish between remedies by careful comparisons ;
their success depended on memorizing detail and this required long study
of each case treated. They were the pioneers upon whom much depended.
All honor to them !

Perhaps the next
distinct method came when classes were formed for the study of materia
medica. The lecture method became the usual one. Many professors have
left, us treasures in lecture form. Of course the personality of the
teacher enters in largely to help impress characteristics of remedies on
the student’s mind. We think of Dunham, Farrington, Allen, Kent, as
names connected with the lecture form in the classroom. This method is
very good for beginners, an acquaintance at the start with remedy
characteristics. Also it becomes valuable for reference in after years.

Then there is a study
of remedies by classes, for instance, chemical groups, botanical
families, nosode grouping, reptile and insect remedies, etc. This
becomes valuable after the student’s introduction to the remedies
singly. It will help the older practitioner to decide between remedies
most similar to the case in hand.

Dr Carrol
Dunham

Dr
H.
A. Roberts

Like this last method
is the one by comparisons based on symptomatology. Several teachers have
found this fascinating and very useful -Hering. Boger, Kent, Roberts has
given us good samples of such study. It comes to the mature student
better than to the beginner unless the student’s mind follows such a
method naturally from the start in homœopathy.

Another useful task is
to investigate and absorb the prefaces to symptom lists in Hering’s
Guiding Symptoms, for instance, in-Clarke’s Dictionary and, if one likes
to get close to original provers, in Allen’s
Encyclopædia.

Another method bringing
satisfactory reward to those whose-minds follow such sequence well, is
the search through the provings-or through several kinds of materia
medica for the general symptoms of the drug being studied, with a
comparison of emphasis by different provers. This is to be followed by a
pursuit of particulars the same way. Such study gives one a deep sense
of the roots of our materia medica and a new confidence in homœopathy.
One cannot easily forget the general symptoms after hunting them out in
this fashion.

Then there are rich
gems of materia medica knowledge to be found in perusing the repertory.
The habit of thumbing through parts of Kent’s Repertory, for instance,
during scarce idle moments is an excellent habit. One acquires new
slants on old remedy friends from finding these in a list where their
appearance is real news, or finding a grading for a symptom which one
did not know before. Or, hunting for a peculiar symptom, one finds it in
a repertory list belonging to a drug never before associated with such a
symptom. Or reportorial analysis of a case brings for study a small
group of remedies with new lights on them often unsuspected even after
many long years in homœopathic practice.

Finally, what can be
more interesting as a method of discovering gold nuggets of materia
medica than to go through the files of old medical magazines full of
such treasures ? Volumes of homœopathic literature, so-called. The
Homœopathic Physician, The Medical Advance, The Homœopathician are
full of wisdom ; and, of course, The
Homœopathic Recorder. Dr. Woodbury no doubt could
name a much longer list.

Dr A. C.
Cowperthwaite

Dr
E.
B. Nash

The beginner in homœopathy
generally has Hering’s Condensed
Materia Medica, Cowperthwaite’s Text-Book, Nash’s Leaders,
Allen’s Primer, Boericke’s Materia Medica.
In my early days he would have Hughes’ Pharmacodynamics,
too, and possibly Hering’s Handbook (misnomer that it is !)
These lend themselves to study by symptom lists, but not so much to a
comprehensive knowledge of characteristics. To do more than
“symptom matching” one must go to the large materia medica and
learn how to pick out characteristics and also how to work from generals
to particulars. From a confusing mass of intricate detail one must
become familiar with picking out the character of the drug studied. It
is there that materia medica study grows fascinating and the use of it
in practice richly rewarding.

Dr
E.
E. Case

Dr
C.
M. Boger

Too rapid growth of
practice for the beginner is a pity, for the young doctor needs some
time each day on philosophy and two hours on materia medica. The
seasoned physician needs one hour daily. How many of us get it ? I
venture to say that Dr. Erastus E. Case did and perhaps Dr. C. M. Boger.
Dr. H. A. Roberts may, too, in the early morning hours.

Anyway, the study of
materia medica is almost half the armamentarium of the homœopathic
physician.

Washington, D. C.

---

DISCUSSION.

Dr. Lucy Clark.

I think it was
Dr. Rood who told me the worst thing that a young doctor starting out
could do would be to marry a wealthy woman (or a wealthy husband too, I
suppose). She said they needed to work hard and start with very few
patients the first month out. That would be all right and one could
study well and learn well, and that was the stuff that stuck with you
through the years. I was interested in hearing Dr. Green mention that
too.

Dr H. Farrington

Dr. Farrington.

I
cannot keep still with a subject like that before us. Although I
lectured on materia medica consecutively for only twenty years, I have
been teaching it ever since, on the floor of conventions and by writing.
Naturally different teachers follow different methods, but there are
certain general rules that should be observed, rules which will help the
beginner. An outline of the general characteristics should be given
first ; then enough of the particulars to give a picture of the
remedy. We do not have to have a large number of particular indications
in our minds. In fact it is-impossible for any mind to encompass the
whole pathogenesis, even that of a master prescriber. The essential
thing is the genius of the remedy. In teaching, especially at Dunham and
Hering colleges, I began with the characteristic generals, as for
instance in Pulsatilla, with its aggravation from heat and relief from
gentle motion, its aggravation in the evening, etc. Then I gave a number
of the particulars that are affected by these generals, to fill out the
picture of the remedy, emphasizing those that are most characteristic.
When writing the Extension Course several years ago, I placed the
important generals above the text something like Boger does in his
Synoptic Key, although his presentation was more brief than mine,
principally because I intended to write an advanced course, using the
general synopsis as a basis or text. The texts of the lessons are word
pictures of the remedy. At the end seven essential characteristics are
given. It is a strange thing that in formulating these paragraphs which
might be called “Tabloid Materia Medica,” in nearly every
instance and without definite intention on my part, they worked out to
seven ; in the science of correspondence, seven signifies complete.
Take Aconite for an example :

1. Intense anxiety, Fear, restlessness and tossing
about.
2. Sudden, violent acute conditions, due to fright, shock, cold, dry
winds ; getting chilled while sweating.
3. Hyperpyrexia with burning thirst, hot dry skin and rapid, bounding
pulse.
4. Profuse arterial hæmorrhages.
5. Numbness and tingling of affected parts.
6. Congestions and inflammations with sweating, redness and burning.
7. Amelioration from warmth and after sweating.

If you are interested watch the pages of the American
Institute-Journal. These little write ups will appear as fillers
whenever there is space for them. Analyse them and you will find that
they are not composed of key-notes as such, and that they include
practically no particulars ; only the essential features that mark
the nature or genius of the remedy.

Dr. Hubbard.

When I was taught
materia medica by Pierre-Schmidt, he always made me, in studying a
remedy, work out the twelve leading symptoms of which the first one, two
or three were mentals, the next three or so were general, then a couple
of leading, particulars, and a keynote, if any, that was particularly
notable.

He even went so far as to draw pictures in color, of
the tongue-of every one of the remedies that has a famous tongue, and
put it in a card index. If it was a remedy that affected the eye, I had
to draw a picture of the eye. Then he had me make a clock of the remedy.
There were infinite methods if you wanted to work hard enough by which
you could make these things graphic. Perhaps it would appeal to some of
the modern students, to be made to do that kind of thing.

Source :

Homœopathic Recorder, April, 1947.

Copyright © Sylvain
Cazalet 2001

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