The symptoms appearing within the general sphere of the metals hardly deserve any special prominence except as they are related to or accompany other manifestations. To say that this or that remedy is good for this or that thing is absurd for any drug having a special field of action in the generative sphere, of necessity has a still more general action, of which the former is but a partial expression. I wish especially to raise my voice against piece-meal prescribing although it is admittedly a great temptation in this particular instance. That it may be imperative is doubtless true; that it is the most advisable thing, is open to much doubt.
I wish especially to urge that we train ourselves into the habit of thinking of the sick as units, hence as treating them as such. The thing that we are internally must finally show itself externally, hence the only radical cure proceeds outwardly in every sense of the term. let us study every patient by his acts, by his thoughts, and by his sensibilities. No other guide will so quickly lead to the desired goal and point out the similimum. Homoeopathy is only as strong as its curative power. Just as soon as we begin to adopt makeshifts, we weaken it by that much.
The natural law which Hahnemann demonstrated has been with us from the beginning and will be here when we are gone. It behoves us to learn all about it in order that we may, while we are here, learn our lessons so well that no emergency may catch us napping and unprepared. The habit of looking too closely at localised symptoms is, in its very nature, confusing and misleading. It makes for therapeutic myopia, and unsettles our confidence in the larger and more embracing things.
The thing that will cure the patient, will remove her leucorrhoea, her pus tubes, or what not; provided the disease is curable. Dynamic action pertains to available powers within and not to powers from without, although the latter may be admittedly necessary in order to prolong life. But we should always bear in mind that such things are palliative only and have nothing in common with a radical cure.
A man once cried “What shall I do to be saved?” Our patients every day ask “What shall I do to be cured?” All we can say is FIRST, be cleansed from within, then all other needed things shall be added unto you.
The human economy is, in a sense, a self-eliminating machine. Crudely imitating this it has led the old school practitioner into giving laxatives, purgatives, soporifics, etc. The results of these procedures we all know. Occasionally similar crises are provoked by potencies of crude or only apparent similarity. The ideal course is gentle, radical and envigorating, both physically and mentally. A new world appears and life becomes richer and more joyful. The absence of these leaves the cure in doubt.
DlSCUSSION
Dr. Stearns: I agree with what Dr. Boger has said and with what the others have said, but am much disappointed at not hearing something about the cures that have been made through the symptoms and conditions that have been caused by these remedies in their provings.
I have never used Palladium but I have always had it in mind as a uterine and ovarian remedy; Platinum, I have used only once or twice and some of the others not at all.
Dr. Dienst: Dr. Boger, have you anything to say in defence of this paper?
Dr. Boger: There is nothing in that paper that conflicts with any of the criticisms. Because I called it piece-mea1 prescribing does not mean that I did not take into account all the symptoms that occur in any particular organs. The best of us do some piece-mea1 prescribing when we cannot help ourselves. All patients are cured from the mental phase out and you cannot get around it; when you are supposedly curing piecemeal, you are only patching, that is all, and after a time it is going to give way again.
Born in Western Pennsylvania, he graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and subsequently Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia. He moved to Parkersburg, W. Va., in 1888, practicing there, but also consulting worldwide. He gave lectures at the Pulte Medical College in Cincinnati and taught philosophy, materia medica, and repertory at the American Foundation for Homoeopathy Postgraduate School. Boger brought BÅ“nninghausen's Characteristics and Repertory into the English Language in 1905. His publications include :
Boenninghausen's Characteristics and Repertory
Boenninghausen's Antipsorics
Boger's Diphtheria, (The Homoeopathic Therapeutics of)
A Synoptic Key of the Materia Medica, 1915
General Analysis with Card Index, 1931
Samarskite-A Proving
The Times Which Characterize the Appearance and Aggravation of the Symptoms and their Remedies