Contents
Studies in the Philosophy of Healing
and others writing including The study of materia medica and taking the case
C. M. BOGER
PHILOSOPHY AND THE REPERTORY
Our old, brutal materialism seems to be slowly melting away, gradually
merging into what a clearer light shows to be action, reciprocal on every plane; even
medicine is not escaping the metamorphosis. The power of nature which demonstrates the
survival of the fittest is being transformed into another phase wherein its contained good
is made to grow at the expense of that which is not quite so good.Early medicine did much groping about until the later Renaissance
opened up even the doctors’ minds to the hidden treasures of the past as well as excited
their curiosity into turning them into newer paths.Such as background helps us to understand how the spirit which animated
Hahnemann finally led him into researches of which we today are beneficiaries. Whether we
shall continue to deserve the legacy must rest with every individual conscience. Let it
not be inferred that a mind capable of bringing to the light of day such an ethereal
concept of vital action, must necessarily also inaugurate an irresistible reform. The
thinking process of an eminently conservative profession are far too Darwinian for that.
We must remember that a concept having the form of finality is moribund from its
inception.In the very year of my graduation Madam Blavatsky laid down the
postulate that “the essence of life is consubstantial with electricity.” We are
only now beginning to fully realize how true this is. She further said that before the end
of the nineteenth century new discoveries would upset the dicta of science. It was left to
the role of our own Madam Curie to fulfil this prophesy. How well she did it we realize
more and more every day. Truly the destructive power of radium is not limited to
malignancies by any means and by the strongest of inferences we must admit that the
developments of physics have rung the death knell of crude drugging as well as brought
general medicine face to face with Hahnemann’s experiments and their consequences. It only
remains to be seen whether general enlightenment or medical progress will force the issue.
The axe has been laid at the tree of preconception and purely materialistic reasoning.In order to correctly sense the sharpness of his tools the physician
must needs have a just comprehension of the physics of life especially as implied in the
philosophy of the Organon. He will then realize that Similia Similibus Curantur
is a phase of the law of action and reaction on a higher plane. It is an extension into
the superphysical where stabilization occurs, as here, through the conversion of energy.
In other words health cannot be regained until harmony in the expenditure of vital energy
again prevails. It is now beyond cavil that harmony can only be established through the
contact of a synchronously acting or vibrating force. Manifestly this must be made through
the nerve channels.It is perhaps not too much to infer that this vital force must be of a
fluidic nature and at present perhaps still superphysical, although we are confessedly on
its borderland now. It is also interpenetrative in that its effects are practically not
only local but general at the same moment. This conception of its action explains how it
comes about that amelioration is felt in the mind first, and progress as long as no mental
revulsion occurs. The first intimation that the remedial response is beginning to slacken
comes through mental attitude.The experience of much prescribing often causes one to settle upon the
use of only a few drugs or at the best into choosing the more promising one from a rather
small group. It is a loose and easy way that neglects the minority indications, therefore
is less precise and efficient. It smacks of indolence and lack of mental agility,
reminding one that versatility is not acquired here any more easily than elsewhere.We are daily confronted with a typical case that makes the careful
assembling of all their symptoms very important if wish to obtain a clear image for which
a counterpart is to be sought among our provings. For this purpose we first search the
repertory and then compare the actual provings until convinced of their similarity. At
present it is the only feasible method, but it is surprising how few men really know how
to go about doing it well. Repeated practice, however, soon makes for skill, particularly
in evaluating symptoms, which is, after all, exceedingly important as well as has
considerable value in prognosis. Over stressing single symptoms or the wrong one easily
leads to one-sided prescribing, palliation and ultimate confusion. The whole picture with
certain outstanding points is the ideal to be sought for, if we wish to succeed.About a score of our drugs act out the common ills of life in their
pathogeneses. These Hahnemann called polychrests and if we have favorites let us learn all
we can about these first of all. They especially include Aconite, Belladonna, Bryonia,
Chamomilla, China, Cina, Ferrum phos., Gelsemium, Hepar, Ignatia, Ipecac, Lachesis,
Mercury, Natrum mur., Phosphorus, Pulsatilla, Rhus tox., Sulphur and the Veratrums.
The sick making properties of these drugs resemble those of sick people rather than
disease forms. This is a very vital distinction for the homoeopath.At the most drug action can simulate types of disease in part only. No
human entity can show forth all or even a majority of the symptoms appertaining to a
single drug or even of a single type of disease. The nearest approach to this specificity
is perhaps the relation of Mercury to syphilis an yet Hahnemann, like the
rest of us, supplemented its use with other drugs when quicksilver lagged because of the
presence of heterogeneous factors. The latter show themselves as side symptoms seemingly
having no connection with the diseases in hand; for which reason we view them as the
outcroppings of other miasms, that thereby deflect the vital force by just that much.The older homoeopaths ascribed poor results to the presence of an all
pervading miasm which obscured and distorted the real indications. With an enormous
increase in available pathogenetic symptoms we do not feel this need so acutely, albeit
often to our own disadvantage. Most prescribers gradually enlarge the scope of their
remedies quite beyond their seemingly legitimate sphere of action. This springs from the
fact that the simillimum releases reactive power strong enough to re-establish
harmony, which in turn is capable of sweeping away almost any morbid condition. The crude
similar, however, can remove but a small part of the symptom complex and leaves behind a
distorted image of the sickness, much harder to treat. The best that can be said for
partial prescribing is that it sometimes removes the superimposed load which blocks an
effectual reaction. Such an impediment originates in the presence of some miasm,
pernicious drugging or suppression. Hahnemann inveighed strongly against excessive
depletion and pernicious polypharmacy; we, however, are faced by the still more dangerous
precedure of serumization and ray treatments. The first always holds the menace of
sensitization and vasomotor effects, while the latter drives back upon the vital force
every eliminative function; a more dangerous procedure is hard to imagine. All in all it
may be said that the utter therapeutic confusion of dominant medicine is only too apparent
to one who thinks clearly. It is becoming increasingly evident that autoantidotalism, as
serumization in the old school and isopathy in our own, has captured a large part of the
therapeutic field. In either form it is incapable of doing more than removing a present
incubus, leaving the basic miasm untouched; it therefore falls short of being the simillimum,
hence of doing the most good possible.DISCUSSION
Dr. Donald Macfarlan : we ought to have a philosophy in life,
and in medical life especially. The three principal things, you might say the trinity,
which are most valuable in homoeopathy are the law of cure, in a single remedy, in a
minimum dose : and that this is just how Hahnemann developed this system. First dawned
upon him the law of cure and then in order to expedite cure and in order to avoid
aggravation, he got the minimum dose. Those three things have to enter into every correct
homoeopathic prescription. They are inseparable. Associated with them is the frequency of
the repetition. I believe that the only way you can skilfully adapt yourself to proper
repetition is through provings, because you have your hand in making well people sick and
conversely, making sick people well. The first thing that enters my mind when I see a sick
person is this : What remedy which you have proven would make this fellow look like that ?
And, if it occurs to my mind, say Phosphorus, I give him Phosphorus.Dr. Grimmer : Dr. Boger always give us a splendid paper and
this is an exceptionally good one even for Dr. Boger. It really is a textbook in a way. He
has shown us the fundamentals, the things that are so essential to keep in mind : First of
all the correct taking of the case; second, the evaluation of the symptoms – don’t forget
that. You can have pages and pages of symptoms and have no case, and other doctors can
give you three, or four or five symptoms and you have the picture of your remedy. That
comes from the art of evaluation of symptoms, knowing the symptoms that are really
symptoms of that sick patient, separated from the symptoms of the disease, the
pathological symptoms, the symptoms that come as diagnostic indications. They are not so
valuable. Many times they are almost valueless as far as prescribing goes. Dr Boger has
gone further. He has shown the relationship of these finer forces. It is the study of
these finer forces and their origin that is going to make homoeopathy accepted, and
science is beginning -at least the progressive portion of science, consisting of the great
physicists of the time- to pay attention to these very forces.They have got so far beyond the ordinary science that they acknowledge
that they cannot prove some of the propositions. Compton has said that we have to accept
some of the phenomena on faith as it were. He has got beyond the idea of an automatic
universe, not that he can prove from reasoning altogether, but from the higher perception,
the kind of perception that Hahnemann had. he knows there is something beyond all the
material things we see around us, and that is what homoeopathy is. It reaches up into
other planes. It reaches up into the mental state, even into the spiritual side of life
and that is why Homoeopathy is vital. That is why it cures. That is why it can wipe out
inherited conditions.Did you ever stop to think why a homoeopathic potency is specially
adapted to wipe out inherited traits ? We are told by scientists that a little grain of
cell, among the finest of ultra-microscopic cells, carries all the germs and the
chromosomes of the past. Nothing can touch that but the homoeopathic remedy and that is
why we can prove it scientifically.Dr. Boger : One of the commentators intimated non-action. When
you don’t get action from remedies, and there seems to be no response at all, non-action
simply means you haven’t touched the cord of harmony; that is all it means and you always
have behind that the remedies which bring up re-action, such as Psorinum, Sulphur
and so forth. You can’t get well without reaction, without reestablishing harmony. That
holds good in the physical world and in the mental world.The physical body contains a certain amount of stored energy. When you
give a remedy you tap that stored energy through an equalization of its distribution in
the body. In that way you restore harmony, just as surely as you can tap electric current
by pushing the button.There is one point I didn’t bring out in the paper, as fully as I
should have done, and that is that we can’t all see resemblances as well as we should.
Sometimes my mind is fitted so that I can see certain resemblances and the other fellow
can’t, and sometimes it is the other way about, and the other fellow sees the resemblance
and I can’t see it, even when it is pointed out to me. That is an inherent factor of the
mind.I want to recite briefly an experience I had not long ago, right along
that line. A man came to me from a distant city and said he hadn’t had any benefit at all
the treatment he received there. He had generalized eczema from head to foot and those
cases are always very difficult. I hesitate to prescribe for them because I an free to
say, my success is not invariable.I sat and talked to him awhile. He had it so badly that the skin was
cracked in places and exuded a nasty, offensive, sweet odor. His face was bluish, and
altogether he was a forbidding sight. The longer I talked to him the more I became
convinced that he was an exact replica of poisoning by Rhus Venerata. I didn’t look
up the materia medica for that at all, but gave a single dose of Rhus Venerata MM
potency. I said “Don’t take this till you get home, because something is going to
happen”. He waited until he got home and took it. The third or the fourth day he
began to sweat all over. Then it was confined to the left chest. It had the odor of rotten
smoke. He had gout stones in the lobules of both ears. Those both dropped out and he
cleared up all over, peeled off all over.Now that Rhus Venerata didn’t cure him, because after the while
it came back a little, but it didn’t come back enough to worry about and I didn’t repeat
the dose. I am going to let him ride along and see how much reserve force he has back
there to stabilise this thing again.