ESSENTIALS OF
Homśopathic Materia Medica
and Homśopathic Pharmacy
Willis Alonzo DEWEY, M. D.
Presented byCHAPTER II
HOMŚOPATHIC PHARMACY.What is pharmacy ?
It is the name applied to the art of preparing drugs for
administration to the sick and dispensing them as medicines.
What is the source of the rules of homśopathic
pharmacy ?Hahnemann’s writings, especially “The Organon,” the
“Materia Medica Pura,” and the “Chronic Diseases.”
These form the basis of all subsequent treatises on the subject.
What is the distinguishing peculiarity of homśopathic
pharmacy ?It is the painstaking accuracy of detail and the avoidance of
all mixture of medicinal substances which would interfere with the
accurate reproduction of the preparation used in the provings.
What rule should ;be observed in bottles,
utensils, etc. ?Absolute cleanliness is the prime essential. Bottles which
have been used as containers for medicinal preparations should not again
be used for other medicines, nor for higher attenuations of the same
medicines. Corks should always be new.
What are medicinal vehicles ?
They are comparatively inert materials, which are used for
containing and as a means of developing the therapeutic activity of
medicinal substances.
Name those used in homśopathic pharmacy.
Alcohol, distilled water, pellets and sugar of milk.
What is the difference between absolute and
homśopathic alcohol ?Homśopathic alcohol is of 87 per cent. strength and is used
in making homśopathic attenuations. Absolute alcohol, theoretically,
should be 100 per cent. alcohol. Practically 95 per cent. is about the
highest it ever attains, as it constantly absorbs water from the
atmosphere.
How may 95 per cent. alcohol be reduced to
homśopathic alcohol ?By adding to 7 parts of 95 per cent. alcohol one part of
distilled water.
What is dilute alcohol ?
It is made by adding to 7 parts of 87 per cent. alcohol three
parts of distilled water. This is not the dilute alcohol of the old
school, which is 47 parts of water to 53 parts of alcohol.
How should distilled water be kept ?
In small quantities, and in glass-stoppered bottles, as it
deteriorates easily.
How is sugar of milk prepared for homśopathic
purposes ?In order to obtain it perfectly pure it is recrystallized.
Originally it was made by evaporation of the whey. It is generally known
as Saccharum Lactis.
What are homśopathic globules or pellets made of ?
Ordinarily of pure cane sugar.
What is meant by medicinal substance ?
The entire drug material from which the tincture is made and
not the portion thereof which is dissolved in the tincture, as, for
instance, Belladonna herb or Nux
vomica seeds, and not alone the extracted materials of these
substances.
What is meant by the drug power of a tincture ?
It is the amount of crude drug contained in it.
What is meant by the “mother tincture” of a
drug ?The strongest liquid preparation used in Homśopathy and made
by macerating or dissolving this drug or portions of it in alcohol or
water.
What is the chief source of our mother tinctures ?
The fresh plant, but parts of plants, barks, roots, seeds
gums, balsams, etc., are also used.
What rule is observed in making tinctures from
plants ?Whenever possible the fresh plant only should be used, hence
the need of importing certain tinctures from countries where the fresh
plants grow.
What other rule should be observed in making
tinctures ?They should be prepared, as far as possible, exactly- as they
were prepared for the original proves. Alterations in their preparations
would produce different actions.
How is the strength of a tincture estimated ?
By the proportion of the medicinal substances which it represents,
just as the strength of a solution or trituration is estimated by the
proportion of medicinal substance it contains.
Is the strength of homśopathic mother tinctures
uniform ?It is not. The strength varies greatly, being influenced by
the nature of the drug, for instance : The amount of drug power in
Aconite is 50 per cent., or one half-, while in Phosphorus
tincture the actual amount of drug contained is one-tenth of one per
cent.
What do we mean by the mother tincture of an
acid ?It generally means the first decimal dilution, that is, one
part of the acid to nine parts of distilled water.
Are there exceptions to this rule ?
Fluoric, Hydrocyanic, Phosphoric
and Picric acids in the tincture
consist of one part of the acid to 99 of either alcohol or water, making
the first centesimal dilution.
What is peculiar about Fluoric acid ?
It attacks glass, hence should be prepared and ‘kept in gutta
percha bottles up to the 3d or 4th dilution.
Mention a few important remedies in which the mother
tincture equals the 2x dilution.Arsenic, Borax, Croton tiglium,
Mercurius corrosivus, Kreosote, Iodine, Tarentula and others.
[Those whose mother tincture equals the first decimal dilution are too
numerous to mention.]
Is the strength of an equal quantity of Arsenic, say
a drop of the mother tincture, and a grain of the 2x trituration the
same ?It is, since they both contain the one-hundredth of a grain
of crude Arsenic.
Why is it possible to obtain a mother tincture of
Phosphorus and not the second decimal dilution ?The so-called mother tincture of Phosphorus
equals the third decimal dilution, Phosphorus
being soluble only to the amount of one one-thousandth part in alcohol.
The second decimal dilution, which should be one to one hundred, cannot
be made.
Can Phosphorus be had in lower triturations than the
3x ?It cannot, the lx and 2x will burn in the mortar and the 3x
will in time change into Phosphoric acid.
In fact, all triturations of Phosphorus
are questionable.
If Phosphorus tincture be ordered from the
pharmacist, and at the same time Phosphorus 3x dilution, what will be
sent ?The same preparation, one labelled Phosphorus
0, the other Phosphorus 3x.
What are imported tinctures and what domestic ?
Imported tinctures are such as are made from plants growing
only abroad ; domestic, such as are made from plants growing in
this country. In both cases they are generally made from the fresh
plant.
What is a trituration ?
Any drug that has been minutely subdivided by rubbing in a
mortar with sugar of milk in a definite proportion, for a given time,
thereby developing its medicinal power.
What are tablets ?
Compressed or moulded triturations.
What is an alkaloid ?
A nitrogenous body of a basic alkali-like character found in
most poisonous plants, and which can be extracted from the same by
chemical means. Most alkaloids contain oxygen. They are easily soluble
in alcohol, and slightly so in water, react alkaline and form salts with
acids. Many are the most virulent poisons.
Name a few alkaloids.
Morphine from opium. Strychnine
from nux vomica bean. Quinine from
Peruvian bark. Nicotine from
tobacco.
What are glucosides ?
A number of compounds, occurring mainly in the vegetable
kingdom, that under the influence of dilute acids or ferments are split
up into component parts of which glucose or a related carbo hydrate
always is one.
Name some glucosides.
Ćsculinum from Ćsculus
hippocastanum. Arbutinum from Uva
ursi.
What are resinoids ?
They come chiefly from the eclectic school and are the dried
residues of essences and tinctures of remedies from the vegetable
kingdom. They contain the alkaloids, glucosides, resins, etc., of the
plant mixed together.
Name some of the most important.
Apocynin, Hydrastin, Podophyllin,
Collinsonin, Aletrin, Macrotin, Irisin, Baptisin, Leptandrin,
Caulophyllin and many others.
How are these used in Homśopathy ?
By triturating them with sugar of milk.
Define the terms dynamization, potency, attenuation,
dilution, strength, as applied in homśopathic pharmacy.They all refer to the same thing and process ; i. e.,
the regular series of subdivision, according to either the decimal or
centesimal scale.
What is meant by succession and potentizing ?
The shaking of a liquid preparation with definite proportion
of alcohol for a number of times or minutes in order to prepare the next
higher potency or dilution.
What is meant by fluxion potencies ?
A form of dilutions introduced by some extreme high potency
men like Swan, Skinner, Fincke, Kent and others, departing entirely from
the Hahnemannian method of preparing potencies, being mere dilution with
water instead of potencies with alcohol and on a regular scale.
Why are all fluxion potencies objectionable ?
Because, doing away with Hahnemannian procedures, they tend
to cause a departure from homśopathic methods, and also because few, if
any, correspond to the Hahnemannian scale. It has been demonstrated that
the so-called MM potency of Swan equals about the 10th centesimal
potency of Hahnemann.
What is generally understood by high potencies ?
Preparations above the 30th centesimal or from the 200th
upward.
What was the highest potency used by Hahnemann ?
The 30th, though he made a few experiments with potencies as
high as the 200th or 300th.
What is meant by the decimal and centesimal
scale ?The centesimal scale, introduced by Hahnemann, is the one in
which each succeeding dilution or trituration contains one-hundred as
much of the dedicinal substance as the one next preceding, thus the
scale of 1 to 99. The decimal scale is the one where it contains one
tenth as much, thus, 1 to 9. This scale was introduced by Hering.
What is the relation of decimal to centesimal
potencies ?The first centesimal corresponds to -the second decimal, or
one-hundredth of the original drug ; the 2d centesimal corresponds
to the 4th decimal ; the 3d centesimal to the 6th decimal, etc.,
etc.
Mention some remedies that should not be prescribed
below the 2x potency, and then only with great caution.Mercurius biniodide. (An
ordinary power of the 1 x trituration of this remedy would contain three
allopathic doses.) Mercurius cyanide, Atropine,
Strychnine, Arsenic, in trituration, Physostigma,
etc.
How are triturations converted into liquid
potencies ?One grain of the 6x trituration is dissolved in 50 minims of
distilled water, adding thereto 50 minims of alcohol and shaking the
vial thoroughly ; this is the 8x potency. Or, one grain of the 3d
trituration is dissolved in 50 minims of distilled water and 50 minims
of alcohol added and shaken thoroughly ; this is the 4th potency.
These cannot be used for saturating pellets. Subsequent dilutions are
made in the usual manner, with alcohol.What chemical or physical fact, not previously
recognized by science, was discovered by Hahnemann.That when an insoluble substance is triturated for a
long while it becomes possessed of a new power which he termed
solubility. This is not exactly so, but the minute particles of the
finely divided substance become permanently held in suspension in
alcohol or water.
What is the lowest dilution of Mercurius solubilis
that is reliable ?The 6th centesimal dilution. The same applies to all
minerals.
What are the different forms in which homśopathic
medicines can be obtained ?All homśopathic medicines, including those made from
minerals, can be had in liquid form, and hence in medicated globules.Low preparations (up to the 3d centesimal or 6th
decimal) of minerals, salts, some animal substances, etc., can be had
only in powder form-trituration.
What caution is to be observed in keeping
homśopathic medicines ?They should not be exposed to the direct rays of the sun, nor
be kept near strong odors, crude chemicals, volatile substances, etc.
Are there any chemical or analytical tests for
determining the genuineness of homśopathic preparations ?There are none except possibly for the lowest potencies.
Hence the necessity of each physician being able to pre-pare these
potencies for himself, or to procure them only from reliable homśopathic
pharmacists of established reputation.
What is the usual designation of the two scales of
attenuation ?The decimal always has an x affixed to the number of potency
given, the centesimal has not ; thus : 6x always means the 6th
decimal potency while 6 alone means the 6th centesimal.
What is meant by a fluid extract ?
A liquid preparation of uniform strength. Thus, 1 cubic
centimeter equals 1 gram, and 1 grain equals 1 minim of the crude drug.
Are homśopathic and allopathic tinctures the same ?
They are not. Most of the latter are made from dried plants,
often with the introduction of foreign substances. For example :
our tincture of Sanguinaria is made
from the fresh plant alone, while the ordinary drug store tincture of Sanguinaria,
made according to the U. S. pharmacopśia, contains considerable Acetic
acid. Our tincture of Aloes
is pure Aloes. That of the old
school contains twice as much licorice root as it does Aloes.Our tinctures of Opium
and Rheum are pure. The old school
tincture of Opium contains phosphate
of lime, and that of Rheum contains
cardamom. These are potent reasons why old school tinctures will not
serve in Homśopathy.
Name some emetics with dose.
Tartar emetic, 1 to 2
grains.
Sulphate of copper, 3 to 5 grains.
Ipecac, pulverized, 10 to 20 grains.
Ipecac, fluid extract, 10 to 20
drops.
Sulphate of zinc, 10 to 20 grains.
Mustard, pulv., 1 to 2 drams.
Name some cathartics with dose.
Aloes, 2 to 10 grains.
Rochelle salts, 1 to 5 fluid drams.
Epsom salts, 1 to 4 fluid drams.
Calomel, 3 to 6 grains.
Podophyllin, 1/4 to 1 grain.
Elaterium, 1/8 to 1/4 grain.
Elaterin, 1/32 to 1/16 grain.
Gamboge, 2 to 4 grains.
Croton oil, 1/2 to 2 drops.
Jalap, fluid extract, 1/4 to 1 dram.
Rhubarb, fluid extract, 20 to 30
drops.
Taraxacum, fluid extract, 1 to 2
fluid drams.
Podophyllum, fluid extract, 10 to 20
drops.
Wahoo, fluid extract, 20 to 80
drops.
Castor oil, 1 to 4 drams.
Article
