ORGANON OF
MEDICINE
The Organon of Medicine is the
homeopathic philosophy, the guiding principles of homeopathy enunciated by the
great master Dr.Samuel Hahnemann.
The aphorisms(principles outlined
in the Organon) alongwith the commentary on these aphorisms by Dr.Kent
are given here.
To read the entire Organon click
here ->
Significant
topics and links :
©
Deepak M R
The
physicians high and only mission is to restore the sick to health, to cure, as
it is termed.
Kent
: Now. what is meant by the sick ? It is a man that is sick and has to be
restored to health, not his body or his tissues. Tissue change is only the
result of diseases. Well, then who is the sick man ? The tissues could not
become sick unless something prior to them has been deranged to make them
sick. The combination of will and the understanding, constitute man ;
conjoined they make life and activity. It is the sole duty of the physician to
heal the sick, It is not his sole duty to heal the results of sickness,
but sickness itself, and when the man has been restored to health, there will be
restored harmony in the tissues and in the activities. Then the sole duty of the
physician is to put in order the interior of the economy ,i.e: the will and
understanding. As Hahnemann says “They are no diseases, but sick
people”. The idea of sickness in man must be formed from the idea of
sickness perceived in our materia medica. As we perceive the nature of sickness
in a drug image, so must we perceive the nature of the sickness in a human being
to be healed.
§
2 §
The
highest ideal of cure is rapid, gentle and permanent restoration of the health,
or removal and annihilation of the disease in its whole extent, in the shortest,
most reliable, and most harmless way, on easily comprehensible principles.
Kent
: There are three distinct points in the paragraph
and these must be brought out. Restoring health and not the removing
of symptoms, is the first point. The perfection of a cure consists then, first
in restoring health and this is to be done promptly, mildly and permanently
which is second point. The cure must be quick or speedy, it must be gentle and
it must be continous and permanent. The manner of cure can only be mild if it
flows in the stream of natural direction, establishing order and thereby
removing disease. The direction of old-fashioned medicine is like pulling a cat
up a hill, by its tail. The third point is upon principles that are at
once plain and intelligible. This means law;it means fixed principles, it means
a law as certain as that of gravitation. The cure must proceed from above
downwards, from within outwards, in the reverse direction of their coming.
§
3
§
If
the physician clearly perceives what is to be cured in diseases, that is to say,
in every individual case of disease (knowledge of disease, indication), if he
clearly perceives what is curative in medicines, that is to say, in each
individual medicine (knowledge of medical powers), and if he knows how to adapt,
according to clearly defined principles, what is curative in medicines to what
he has discovered to be undoubtedly morbid in the patient, so that the recovery
must ensue – to adapt it, as well in respect to the suitability of the medicine
most appropriate according to its mode of action to the case before him (choice
of the remedy, the medicine indicated), as also in respect to the exact mode of
preparation and quantity of it required (proper dose), and the proper period for
repeating the dose; – if, finally, he knows the obstacles to recovery in each
case and is aware how to remove them, so that the restoration may be permanent,
then he understands how to treat judiciously and rationally, and he is a true
practitioner of the healing art .
Kent
: The curative indication in each particular case of disease is the totality
of symptoms, i.e: the disease is represented by the totality of the
symptoms, and this totality represents the disorder in the internal economy. In
perceiving what is to be cured in disease one must proceed from generals
to particulars, study disease in its most general features, not as seen upon one
particular individual, but upon the entire human race. If the physician clearly
perceives what is curative in medicines, that is to say, in each individual
medicine – Here again he proceeds from generals to particulars.We can only
comprehend the nature of disease, and tissue changes the result of disease, by
going back to its beginning. All curable diseases make themselves known to the
physician by signs and symptoms. When the disease does not make itself known in
signs and symptoms and it progress is in the interior, we at once perceive that
that man is in a precarious state.
§
4 §
He
is likewise a preserver of health if he knows the things that derange health and
cause disease, and how to remove them from persons in health.
Kent
: There are conditions in man’s life which keep up or encourage man’s disorder.
The disorder is from the interior, but many of the disturbances that aggravate
the disorders are external. The cause of disorder is internal and is of such a
quality that it affects the government from the interior, while the coarser
things are such as can disturb more especially the body, such as improperly
selected food, living in damp houses, etc.
§
5 §
Useful
to the physician in assisting him to cure are the particulars of the most
probable exciting cause of the acute disease, as also the most significant
points in the whole history of the chronic disease, to enable him to discover
its fundamental cause, which is generally due to a chronic miasm. In these
investigations, the ascertainable physical constitution of the patient
(especially when the disease is chronic), his moral and intellectual character,
his occupation, mode of living and habits, his social and domestic relations,
his age, sexual function, etc., are to be taken into consideration.
Kent
: The probable exciting cause of the disease is the inflowing of the cause as an
invisible, immaterial substance, which having fastened upon the interior, flows
from the very centre to the outermost of the economy, creating additional
disorder.This is true of Psora, Syphilis and Sycosis and of every acute
contagious disease known to man. When the physician is thoroughly conversant
with the very image of the sicknesses that exist upon the human race, he is then
prepared to study the materia medica. All the imitations of miasms is found in
drugs.By application, the physician must fill his mind with images that
correspond to the sicknesses of the human race. It is being conversant with
symptomatology,with the symptom images of diseases, that makes one a
physician. The physician must also be acquainted with the chronic miasms –
psora,syphilis and sycosis. Psora is the cause of all contagion, if man did not
have psora, he would not have had the other two chronic miasms.
©
Deepak M R