The principles and Art of Cure by Homśopathy
by HERBERT A. ROBERTS, M.D.
Presented byCHAPTER II
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF HOMŚOPATHYIf a physician would successfully practice
medicine he must know, first, what is curable by medicine, and second, what is curative in
drugs.The physician must know something of the
history of the development of the drug action; of the gradual experiments with the remedial
substance upon healthy human beings and the data gathered therefrom over a long period of
careful observations, which have been checked and verified again and again, both in
experimental provings and in clinical use. The basis upon which this knowledge of drug
action is built is a profound and basic element of homśopathic procedure.By the time the physician has become
somewhat acquainted with these guides he is in a position to go forward and erect the
structure of his future medical career upon a basis that is immovable, that does not change
with every new theory that arises upon the medical literature over a period of years we find
it one kaleidoscopic panorama of ever changing theory and practice.Homśopathy, on the other hand, is ever
capable of development, while the principles remain the same. Homśopathy is founded upon
principles that are again founded upon natural laws. These natural laws are basic, they are
more eternal than the hills, for these laws were formulated before the hills came into
being.If a man follows where homśopathy leads he
must be able to follow those laws and to hold close to them, regardless of pressure or
influence. On the other hand, the very principles which he follows stabilize him and make
him sure in his work. This stability can be maintained equally well in chronic work, in
acute cases or amidst the panics of epidemics of unknown origin, such as influenza,
poliomyelitis; outbreaks of such conditions as encephalitis; for here, as in all other
manifestations of illness, the fundamental laws remain firm and intact, and they are
sufficiently basic to provide a sure guide to health.A man who adopts the homśopathic methods
must be free from prejudice, and able to look fairly at disease conditions from a new angle.
He must look at the patient as an individual, not as a disease, and he must treat the
patient, not the disease. He must learn that the symptoms that under ordinary training would
have been discarded as confusing the issue or as of no value are the very symptoms which, to
the homśopathic physician, simplify the case and provide the strongest clues to the surest
method of assistance.He must possess a sense of values, and be
able to train himself to observe and interpret those signs which manifest themselves through
the habits and circumstances of the patient, into indications for health-restoring
medication which he has at his command.In other words, he must learn to observe
and record cases from the homśopathic angle. The diagnostic viewpoint which has featured so
largely in his training must here take a different place in his perspective. He must take
time to trace the source of the disturbance and the remedy to fit the complete picture,
always basing the process upon the sound rock of natural laws.Homśopathy opens up a vista of
opportunities for continually seeking new fields for the demonstration of natural laws, for
if, as we believe, these laws are fundamental, their application is universal, and had we
the vision to see it we would be convinced not from its application in the field of medicine
alone, but in every field of natural science and in applied science as well.The vista in the field of medicine which is
opened up for cure under the homśopathic method of treatment is a wide one, and cure is
always accomplished with the least possible disturbance to the patient and in the gentlest
manner, yet with the most profound effect on the whole individual. Homśopathy is a system
of medicine upon which we can depend to set the individual system in order, and the patient
on the high road to recovery, if recovery is possible. If we fail, we may know that the
failure is ours, in that we have not fully compassed the case or a knowledge of the
remedies. In a field so vast, it is conceivable that not all available agencies have yet
been developed; and our own ignorance may limit us in the use of those remedies which we
already have, but those who study homśopathy with an unprejudiced mind, and those who have
practiced it faithfully and purely, can and do attest its unsurpassed results when
conscientiously applied to the sick.If a chain is no stronger than its weakest
link, we must examine the links individually, one by one, and not determine their strength
or weakness by testing the complete chain as our first measure.The very foundation of homśopathic
practice considers man not only as an individual, but as a complete unit in himself, of
which all his parts comprise a well-balanced whole. Homśopathy, therefore, does not
consider any one part as being ill, but considers the manifestation of illness in one part
in its relation to the whole man.Medicine ideally has to do with the cure of
disease, the building up of the individual, not overlooking proper hygiene and sanitation,
but with a deeper view of the needs of the individual himself, once again considering his
individuality. Probably homśopathy stresses this view of the individual in relation to his
environment and circumstances more than any other school of medical thought, for it takes
into consideration not only his immediate heritage, but the more subtle and complex burden
that is the heritage of long ages of struggling and developing ancestors. Homśopathy seeks
to relieve the individual as much as possible from the heavy burden of hereditary tendencies
he carries, and to guard against increasing this load by enabling his vital energy to
provide its own immunity against disease. Homśopathy looks upon the health of the
individual as a precious charge, and his return to health as almost certain if we but follow
the fundamental laws.Homśopathy accentuates the study of the
action of drugs upon healthy human beings, with little consideration of their action on the
lower animal, for homśopathy recognizes that it is only through a knowledge of their action
upon man that we can obtain a correct perception of their applicability in disease. This is
a field in which homśopathy leads all other forms of medical thought, for no school of
medicine has carried on, over such a long period of years, such intensive study of remedy
reaction, nor has any such extensive experimental work been done with the results so
faithfully recorded by such a large group of people, with the results so carefully checked
by clinical application.This can truly be designated as scientific,
for the results have been checked and rechecked, and the findings applied with unfailing
success when the proper principles were followed.The generally accepted concept of homśopathy
is that it is concerned chiefly with the law of similars. Indeed, the encyclopedia gives as
the definition of homśopathy that it is a system of medicine based upon the law of
similars. While for a concentrated definition this might serve, yet there is much more to
homśopathy than the law of similars, for it would be very incomplete did it not embrace
much more than this. It might better be defined as a system of medicine based upon natural
laws.We need to get a more complete and
comprehensive insight into the scope of these laws. There is danger of making a fetish of
the faith in homśopathy by expecting wonderful results where a proper understanding of
these laws would deter us from attempting the use of homśopathy. Sometimes even without a
knowledge of these laws we obtain wonderful results, it is true, but we often fail by not
carrying out the teaching of Hahnemann, to remove the cause of the disease where it is
manifestly a mechanical trouble. Again, in the class of diseases where malnutrition results
from lack of the proper foods, instead of the lack of powers of assimilation, homśopathy
cannot be expected to take the place of the proper elements in the diet.On the other hand, in the field of
therapeutics by curative medicine there is no other absolutely curative assistance. Here homśopathic
laws reign supreme. To confuse the scope of each of these fields makes for misunderstanding
and failure.Homśopathy considers the morbid vital
processes in living organisms, which are perceptibly represented by symptoms, irrespective
of what caused them. Homśopathy is concerned only with disease per se, that is, in its
primary, functional, or dynamic aspect, not in its ultimate and so called pathological
results. With these we have nothing to do; there are not in any sense the disease but are
the results of disease conditions. Therefore we must distinguish between the primary
functional symptoms which represent the morbid process itself, and the secondary symptoms
which represent the pathological end products of disease.The gross physical pathology such as we
find in gallstones we do not prescribe for, but we do prescribe for the patient, being
guided by the symptoms which began in the perversion of the vital process, which preceded
and accompanied the ultimate development of the gallstones.Functional symptoms always precede
structural changes. In biology, “function creates and develops the organ.” In
disease, function, the effort of the vital energy to function under adverse circumstances,
precedes and develops the pathological states. For the homśopathic physician the totality
of the functional symptoms of the patient is the disease and constitutes the only
perceptible form of disease, and therefore the only basis of curative treatment. Symptoms
are the outward and visible signs of the inward disturbance of the vital force which will
ultimately produce morbid states, and when these symptoms are removed the disease ceases to
exist.Homśopathy is not concerned with the
morbific agents any more than it is with the tangible products or the ultimates of disease.
Hahnemann regarded the removal of all obstacles to cure as absolutely essential before he
attempted to proceed to the selection and administration of the remedy which was
homśopathic to the symptoms of the individual case, by which alone the cure is to be
accomplished.We thus focus our attention upon the
individual and purely functional side of disease, upon disease itself, where we can perceive
the sphere of homśopathy. Thus from this view disease is a constant change of functions and
transformations so long as life lasts. We are here dealing in the realm of pure dynamics.
This field is the field of disordered vital energy, and therefore disordered vital
expressions and functional changes in the individual patient, irrespective of the name of
the disease or its cause, and is governed by the laws of motion in the vital realm. It is in
this sphere that vital functions act-in the realm of the laws of Mutual Action: ACTION AND
REACTION ARE EQUAL AND OPPOSITE.In his Organon,
Par. 6, Hahnemann says:The unprejudiced observer, well aware of
the futility of transcendental speculation which can receive no confirmation from
experience-be his power of penetration never so great-changes in the health of the body
and the mind (morbid phenomena, accidents, symptoms) which can be perceived externally by
means of the senses; that is to say, he notices only the deviations from a former healthy
state of the diseased individual, which are felt by the patient himself, remarked by those
around him and observed by the physician. All these perceptible signs represent the
disease in its whole extent, that is, together they form the true and only conceivable
portrait of the disease.Disease itself is impossible of
observation; we only see and record the effects of disease; we can only record the symptoms.
Disease is as elusive as thought; we are utterly unable to discern thoughts, save such as
are transformed into acts; so we only recognize disease as it is made manifest in symptoms.
The inner expressions are dynamic in nature, their outward expression is functional. While
all this is true, yet we are dealing with the most positive of acts-for symptoms are a
record of facts-facts registered in symptoms are the most exact record of the expression of
the vital energy to the morbific agent.Once more to quote Hahnemann’s Organon:
There must be a curative principle
present in medicine; reason divines as much. But its inner nature is in no way to be
perceived by us; its mode of expression and its outward effects alone can be judged by
experience.Health is restored after the removal of all
symptoms; then and only then is all disease removed. Hahnemann this way distinguishes
between disease itself and its causes, manifestations, and products, and then shows at once
that the sphere of homśopathy is limited to functional changes from which the phenomena of
diseases arise. Thus homśopathy operates only in the dynamic sphere. Directly, homśopathy
has nothing in common with the physical cause or product of disease, but secondarily it is
related. Here is the place where surgery may have its function, yet many of the tangible
effects may remain. If these effects are too far advanced, they may be removed. If this is
not done, it stands to reason that the best effects of the remedy will not be realized, but
we must differentiate between the causes of disease and the ultimates of disease; they stand
at opposite ends of the scale. While these ultimates are not primarily within the range of similia, and therefore not the objective of homśopathic
treatment, the morbid process from which they arise or to which they lead is under the
control of homśopathic medication. This medication may control and retard the development
of pathological conditions. Thus tumors may be retarded or completely arrested, and
absorption increased, and finally the disappearance of the growth; secretions or excretions
increased or decreased; ulcers healed; but all this is secondary to the real cure which
takes place solely in the dynamic sphere, restoring the patient to health and harmonious
functioning of his whole being by the dynamic influence of the symptomatically similar
remedy.As Stuart Close has well said, the real
field of homśopathy is:To those agents which effect the organism
as to health in ways not governed by chemistry, mechanics, or hygiene, but those capable
of producing ailments similar to those found in the sick.Fincke has shown that in the development
and growth of the child much can be done to make this symmetrical, for it is closely related
to the laws of assimilation; here the laws of similia
have preeminence, for the child is peculiarly under the influence of the laws of action and
reaction as applied to the action of the similar remedy in its development and growth.The homśopathic principle is not used in
another field of what might be called extreme emergency, but rather we use what may be
called a principle of palliation. As Hahnemann says in a note to Par. 67 of the Organon:Only in the most urgent cases, where
danger to life and imminent death allow no time for the action of a homśopathic
remedy-not hours, sometimes not even quarter hours and scarcely minutes-in sudden
accidents occurring to previously healthy individuals-for example, in asphyxia and
suspended animation from lightning, from suffocation, freezing, drowning, etc.-it is
admissible and even judicious at all events as a preliminary measure to stimulate the
irritability and sensibility (the physical life) with a palliative, as for instance,
gentle electric shocks, with clusters of strong coffee, with a stimulating odor, gradual
applications of heat, etc. When this stimulation is effected, the play of vital organs
goes on again in its former healthy manner, for here there is no disease to be removed,
but merely an obstruction and suppression to the healthy vital force. To this category
belong various antidotes to sudden poisonings: alkalis for mineral acids, hepar sulphuris
for metallic poisons, coffee and camphor (and ipecacuanha) for poisoning by opium, etc.Even in emergencies, however, we may find
the indications for the homśopathic remedy just as clear-cut as antipathic means would be,
and if we can read these indications, even here the action of the potentized remedy will be
more rapid and far more gentle in its restorative powers than would be the case if stronger
measures were taken. Thus in such conditions as asphyxia, shock from various sources, and
even from the ingestion of poisons, among many other so-called emergencies, homśopathic
remedies in skilful hands have saved lives with almost miraculous speed and with the
happiest of results. The indicated remedy works with exceeding rapidly, and we dare not put
a limitation upon its restorative powers.It is well to obtain this clear view of
what is before us and face candidly the true place for the practice of the healing art that
we may become true physicians; and to stabilize still further, let us look at what Carroll
Dunham called the scientific reasonableness of homśopathy.Homśopathy has been developed through the
inductive method of reasoning. Not only are the conclusions of homśopathy consistent with
its assumption but they are founded upon Truth, for homśopathy as a method is drawn
logically according to the strictest rules of inductive generalization from data derived
from the closest observation of facts and experiments. All the processes from the proving to
the curative prescription are controlled by the principles of inductive reasoning.Funk & Wagnall’s Dictionary defines inductive reasoning as follows:
The Inductive Method in Reasoning is the
scientific method that proceeds by induction. It requires (1)exact observation: (2) correct interpretation of the observed facts
with a view to understanding them in relation of each other and their causes; (3) rational explanation of the facts by
referring them to their real cause or law; and (4) scientific construction: putting the facts in
such coordination that the system reached shall agree with the reality.Let us examine the earliest steps taken by
Hahnemann in his development of the scientific approach towards the healing of the sick
through the reasonable application of natural laws.His childhood training in logical thinking
crystallized his keen mind and made him peculiarly fitted for the task he assumed. In other
words, he was early trained in inductive reasoning, and he was able to scientifically
construct hitherto unknown principles in the case of the sick.(1) Exact
observation: Hahnemann’s honest disappointment with the practice of medicine as
manifested in the eighteenth century was the direct result of his faculties of observation
and reasoning. His early training demanded of him that he find logical reasons for the
administration of medicinal substances, and that once given, favorable results were to be
expected.The chaotic prescriptions of that day left
little reasonable grounds for clear-cut results, and his observations of the frequent
failure of the physician to help sick patients towards cure, or worse still, the rapid
decline of the patient in seemingly simple and uncomplicated cases under the best medical
care procurable, led Hahnemann to renounce the practice of medicine. He turned to chemistry
and the translation of medical literature as a means of livelihood. In one of these
translations an item on the use of cinchona bark for intermittent fever arrested his
attention, since he himself had recently suffered such a malady. His interest was aroused,
and his experiments with medicinal substances (which he later called provings) were begun.Here he first caught the gleam of light
that led him to an understanding of the reasonable application of remedies, based on the exact observation of the ability of the drug to produce symptoms,
on the one hand, and of the symptoms of the patient on the other. This problem he simplified
to a logical basis.(2) Correct
interpretation of the phenomena produced by the experiments or provings was
provided by close study of series of these experiments on groups of people. Thus the
probability of error was reduced through the accumulation or more data, with increasingly
exact observation not only of results produced, but of possible interposing conditions which
varied the results.Hahnemann was soon convinced that (3) the rational explanation of the phenomena was the thought, hinted at
in the time of the ancient Hindu sages, by Hippocrates, Paracelsus, Stahl and others
throughout the course of medical history that “diseases are cured by medicines that
have the power to excite a similar affection.”While this thought had been applied
occasionally, Hahnemann was the first to insist on the importance of this premise in every
case where a true cure was achieved, as he was the first to test remedial substances and
classify the results with this purpose in mind.With (4) true scientific
construction he applied the principles evolved from his inductive reasoning and
the correlating experiments he had conducted.Briefly, then, we find that these
experiments had led Hahnemann to give a medicinal substance to healthy persons, to carefully
record the effects-which were the production of symptoms of (artificial) disease-for the
purpose of making these substances available for people suffering from like symptoms in
(natural) disease syndromes. Thus developed his thorough work in proving as we know it.This hypothesis, a process of inductive
reasoning, proved to be a triumph through the discovery of scientific principles based on
natural laws.So, too, the principles of inductive
reasoning led Hahnemann, through his observation of the effects of remedies administered on
the basis of symptom similarity, to the gradual decrease of the dose, because of the
consequent drug effects (as differentiated from the remedial effects) of the substances
administered. This decrease of the dose was developed according to a definitely scaled
formula, and this in turn led to a discovery of the principle of potentiation, or release of
energy.This discovery of the principle of
potentization was Hahnemann’s greatest gift to science in general, and to medicine in
particular. Had it not been for his powers of observation and his interpretation of those
observations through rational explanation, and his action upon those observations, he would
never have achieved this eminence. When we consider the centuries of medical practice that
preceded Hahnemann, and the years of medical practice that preceded Hahnemann, and the years
of medical practice and scientific research that have followed, and comprehend somewhat the
significance of his discovery of powers released through minutes division, we can but marvel
at his keen logic and strive to follow his processes of reasoning.Thus we readily see and appreciate the
aptitude of Stuart Close’s description of homśopathy, when he describes the foundations as
“solid concrete, composed of the broken rock of hard facts, united by the cement of a
great natural principle…” upon which the superstructure has been raised so soundly
that it is inseparable from the foundation.This shows the relation of facts to the
practice of homśopathy, with an outline of the reasoning process by which homśopathy was
worked out and built up; and it is applicable in every concrete case which a homśopathic
physician may be called upon to treat. The principles involved are the same: the examination
of the patient, or the record of the proving; the analysis and evaluation of the symptoms in
each case; the selection of the remedy; all these are conducted under the rules and in an
orderly method based upon inductive reasoning. Thus we determine what is characteristic in
the patient and in the remedy; the characteristic symptoms are always the generals of the
patient.What is true of one symptom may often be
true of the whole patient, as illustrated by the reaction to thermic changes of individual
parts and symptoms, and may be true of the whole man; therefore, while we strive to form a
picture of the totality of the symptoms, we must instinctively evaluate, and find ourselves
assembling symptoms as applying to the whole man or to his individual parts, as the case may
be. As Close well puts it, in his Genius of Homśopathy:Logic facilitates the comprehension of
the related totality or picture of the symptoms of the case as a whole. From all the
parts, logic constructs the whole. It reveals the case; in other words, by generalizing it
assigns each detail to its proper place and gives concrete form to the case so that it may
be grasped by the mind in its entirety.The true “totality” is more
than the mere numerical totality or whole number of the symptoms. It may even exclude some
of the particular symptoms if they cannot, at the time, be logically related to the case.
Such symptoms are called “accidental symptoms,” and are not allowed to influence
the choice of the remedy. The “totality” is that concrete form which the
symptoms take when they are logically related to each other and stand forth as an
individuality, recognizable by anyone who is familiar with the symptomatic forms and
lineaments of drugs and diseases.The basis of the homśopathic
prescription is the totality of the symptoms of the patient,as viewed and interpreted from the standpoint of the prescriber. A successful prescription cannot be made from the standpoint of the
diagnostician, the surgeon nor the pathologist, as such, because of the differing
interpretation and classification of symptoms. A
prescription can only be made upon those symptoms which have their counterpart or similar
in the materia medica.Individuality is inculcated always in the
examination of a case. The three steps always followed in a carefully developed case consist
in the examination of the patient, the examination of the symptom record of the patient, and
the examination of the materia medica.After these steps are logically taken and
analyzed they lead by the process of induction to the generals of the case, for the generals
are the sum total of the particulars. The value of the generalization depends primarily upon
the data from which it is drawn, for it is an axiom of philosophy that “a general truth
is but the aggregate of particular truths, a comprehensive expression by which an indefinite
number of individual facts are affirmed or denied.”It is not possible to form generals until
we have considered special particular symptoms and analyzed and assimilated them, in their
relation to the whole. Minor particulars enter into major, and majors into one all inclusive
concept of the case. Such an all-inclusive major is similia
similibus curantur -the most complete and far- reaching generalization ever made
from the deduction of individual facts.The value of generalization depends in its
essence upon the data from which it is drawn. The facts must be both accurate and complete.Where we have many and clear mental
symptoms they are always generals, for they represent the man in the most characteristic
sense. Modalities again are always generals, for they are the natural modifiers of the case.
“Where there are no generals,” says Kent, “we can expect no cures.”The approach to the study of the case and
the approach to the study of the materia medica are essentially the same-the materia medica
is the facsimile of the sickness.Bśnninghausen has shown in his repertory
that these aggravations and ameliorations are modalities and therefore rank as generals.
Close rates this repertorial work as “the greatest masterpiece of analysis, comparison
and generalization in our literature.” The attempt to limit the application of the
modality to the particular symptoms with which they were first observed has not been
successful in practice, so Bśnninghausen’s grouping of them as generals was a masterpiece
of inductive reasoning. Writing in regard to these modalities which he considers generals,
he says:All of these indications are so
trustworthy, and have been verified by such manifold experiences that hardly any others
can equal them in rank; to say nothing of surpassing them. But the most valuable fact
respecting them is this: That this characteristic is not confined to one or another
symptom,but like a red thread it runs through
all the morbid symptoms of a given remedy, which are associated with any kind of pain
whatever, or even with a sensation of discomfort, and hence it
is available for both external and internal symptoms of the most varied character.He arrived at these truths by the inductive
study of the facts, and the results were the products of sound reasoning.We see, then, that homśopathy is more than
the law of similars. It is basically a scientific method of healing which is based upon
natural laws and developed by inductive reasoning. It is closely allied with the principles
of natural growth and development. The whole fabric is summed up in the third paragraph of
the Organon, where Hahnemann writes:If the physician clearly perceives what
it is in disease in general and in each case of disease in particular that has to be cured
(knowledge of disease, knowledge of the requirements of disease or disease-indications):
if he clearly perceives what is the healing principle in medicine generally and in each
medicine in particular (knowledge of the powers of medicines): if in the light of clear
principles he can so adapt the healing virtue of the drug to the illness that is to be
cured that recovery must follow, and if he has the ability not only to select the
particular remedy whose mode of action is most suitable for the case (choice of the remedy
or indicated medicine), but also to choose the exact quantity of the remedy required (the
suitable dose) and the fitting period for its repetition, if, I say, he knows all these
things and in addition recognizes in every case the hindrances to lasting recovery and can
remove them,then truly he understands how to
build up his work on an adequate basis of reason, and he is a rational practitioner of the
healing art.What must a physician know before he can
successfully practice medicine? (Answer: What is curable
by medicine and what is curative in drugs.)How can he learn what is curative in drugs?
Compare the value of homśopathy in chronic
and acute work.How does the homśopathic physician regard
seemingly confusing symptoms?In what relationship does homśopathy
consider the sickness of local parts?Why does homśopathy not give more weight
to the experimentation upon the lower animals?Why do we feel that the knowledge of drugs
and their reaction, assembled and recorded by homśopathy, is truly scientific?What is the larger definition of homśopathy?
(Answer: A system of medicine based upon natural laws.)How does homśopathy regard gross physical
pathology?What did Hahnemann mean by “removing
all obstacles to cure?”How does disease manifest itself?
How much can we ever learn of disease?
How do we treat emergencies, such as
poisoning, asphyxia, etc.?”What do we mean by natural disease? By
artificial disease?
Article
The principles and Art of Cure by Homoeopathy by HERBERT A. ROBERTS, M.D.
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