And it was only after the homoeopathic stimulus was given that healing results were obtained. Dr. Weir had not the slightest hesitation in claiming that it was the homoeopathic medicine that did the trick, by supplying the extra thing needed to start curative action. Yes, personality was a great thing. But it was very strange to see how personality seemed to increase when a man became a homoeopath! There was no doubt about it, that better results were obtained by the use of homoeopathic medicines than by old-school methods.
Dr. Stonham said he would like to bring forward one difficulty, and that was in connection with the obtaining of mental symptoms from patients. If patients volunteered their mental symptoms, all well and good, but if it was necessary to fish for them, it at once became very difficult. Quite recently he was consulted by a lady from whom he could not get anything very marked. He asked her if she was afraid of thunderstorms, and she at once replied, “No, I would not allow myself to be”. He then asked her if she used to be afraid, and she admitted that long ago she had been, but that she had controlled her fear. If a patient had a fear but was able to control it, Dr. Stonham asked Dr. Weir if he would take that controlled fear to be a symptom?
Dr. Weir said he would certainly consider it to be a symptom, since it had to be controlled.
Dr. Stonham went on to say that in connection with potencies, high and low, his difficulty was a pharmaceutical one. How were these potencies made? Were they obtained by repeatedly filling up a bottle by some mechanical device? If that were so, Dr. Stonham felt sure that the bottle was not emptied each time. When matter got this condition which is perhaps radio- activity, it probably adhered to the bottle, and the bottle might be emptied 10,000 times and yet at the end of that time there might be as much medicine left as if a 30th potency had been used. Dr. Stonham thought the physician should have a clear indication of how homoeopathic potencies were made. With regard to the question of heat and cold, Dr. Stonham agreed with what Dr. Weir he said. It was necessary to be very cautious and to question minutely before it was possible to be quite certain about heat and cold. Since hearing the very interesting paper read to the Society some months ago, Dr. Stonham said he had tried to divide his patients into two groups, those who were martyrs and those who were masters of their fate, but he had found much difficulty in doing so.
Dr. Weir thought the point raised by Dr. Stonham as to the manufacture of potencies a very interesting and important one. It was necessary that all these things should be clearly understood and Dr. Weir undertook to write to Messrs. Boericke and Tafel, and inquire as to their manufacture.
Dr. Stonham described the method employed by the Skinner potentizer. This consisted of a wheel to which was attached a cup which revolved with the wheel and emptied itself at each revolution. A jet of water flowed into the cup in which the medicine was placed. There was a register to say how many revolutions the wheel made. At the end of the operation, however, it was probable that the effective part of the medicine was still adherent to the cup, and the final potency was not what it was represented to be.
Dr. Weir said, in the case of a patient treated with a thirtieth potency of a well-indicated remedy, where there was no improvement, if a jump were made to the 10m, there was often a marked result. It was a matter of experience that when such a jump was made it should be sufficiently wide, to ensure that the patient did react. Or occasionally a low potency gave results where a high potency had failed.
Dr. Neatby had heard it said by those who did not believe in the highest potencies that when one went from say 200 to a so- called 1000, a lower potency was really given. He had no means of saying whether this was true or not, but he would like to make a suggestion that Dr. Baudry should be approached with a view to getting one of his apparatus over from Paris. Those members who were at The Hague conference and who had a conversation with Dr. Baudry and heard something of the description of his apparatus were convinced that it must be the best apparatus for making mechanical potencies. Dr. Neatby thought that if the Society applied to him (Dr. Baudry) it might be possible to get him to send over one of his machines so that it might be seen in operation, which would be a very interesting demonstration as a part of the clinical evening.
Mr. Hey asked Dr. Weir if he had made any observations on the use of Argentum nit. in the dry form? Had Dr. Weir found any failure or want of action from using the dry preparation? With reference to the presence of camphor and such things, Mr. Hey said he made it a rule to exclude them all. About thirteen years ago he was treating one of Dr. Dyce Brown’s patients with Rhus tox. and the patient was getting on very well. One day he saw at a glance that something had gone wrong, and discovered that the lady had been out late and thought she had got a chill, so had rubbed her chest with camphorated oil. After that there was no response to the remedy, Rhus tox. till the odour of camphor had been eliminated from the room. It was necessary to change the bed clothes and the patient’s clothing. Most preparations of toothpaste contained camphor or eucalyptus, and Mr. Hey made it a rule to exclude their use. If patients required anything more than water he allowed bicarbonate of soda followed by mouthwash. Dr. Weir had asked that nothing more should be said about constipation, but since the question had been so pointedly asked by Dr. Bodman, Mr. Hey asked to be allowed to refer to the subject. Mr. Hey made it a rule to cut off all aids by the mouth to getting actions of the bowel, and he made the patient rely on the remedy given with the addition of water, plenty of green vegetables and wholemeal bread. If the patient then did not get an action by the third day, he allowed a plain soap and water enema or a glycerine suppository. It usually impressed a patient to be told that anything he put in his mouth by way of a laxative tended to sweep away the medicine ordered. The taking of salts and laxatives had become a fetish.
Dr. Weir said he always used Argentum nit. 200 for case of “funk”, in people about to go up for examinations, In reply to a question as to whether he barred coffee in all cases, Dr. Weir said he did find it useful to do so. Dr. Gibson Miller used to speak about the question of coffee and how much it interfered. That was a question that Dr. Fergie Woods might test with the emanometer.
Weir received his medical education first at Glasgow University MB ChB 1907, and then on a sabbatical year in Chicago under the tutelage of Dr James Tyler Kent of Hering Medical College during 1908-9. Weir reputedly first learned of homeopathy through his contact with Dr Robert Gibson Miller.
John Weir wrote- Some of the Outstanding Homeopathic Remedies for Acute Conditions with Margaret Tyler, Homeopathy and its Importance in Treatment of Chronic Disease, The Trend of Modern Medicine, The Science and Art of Homeopathy, Brit Homeo Jnl, The Present Day Attitude of the Medical Profession Towards Homeopathy, Brit Homeo Jnl XVI, 1926, p.212ff, Homeopathy: a System of Therapeutics, The Hahnemann Convalescent Home, Bournemouth, Brit Homeo Jnl 20, 1931, 200-201, Homeopathy an Explanation of its Principles, British Homeopathy During the Last 100 Years, Brit Homeo Jnl 23, 1932: etc