Curing individual symptoms
“The patient sometimes desires his physician to cure a certain troublesome symptom first of all. This cannot be done, though the ignorant patient may be excused for having made such a foolish request.”(Chr. Dis., p. 172.)
Length of treatment in chronic diseases. “As regards the short duration of the treatment of inveterate chronic diseases, this is made impossible by the nature of the malady.”
“A great chronic disease may be cured in the space of one or two years, provided it has not been mismanaged by allopathic treatment to the extent of having become incurable. One or two years ought to be considered a short treatment.” (Chr. Dis., p. 173.)
“No one but an ignorant quack can promise to cure an inveterate chronic disease in four or six weeks….” (Chr. Dis., p. 173.)
Homoeopathic aggravation
“A slight homoeopathic aggravation during the first hours is quite in order, and in cases of acute disease, generally serves as an excellent indication that it will yield to the first dose.” (Org., p. 140.)
“Experience proves that the dose of a homoeopathically selected remedy cannot be reduced so far as to be inferior in strength to the natural disease, and to lose its power of extinguishing and curing at least a portion of the same, provided that this dose, immediately after having been taken, is capable of causing a slight intensification of symptoms of the similar natural disease (slight homoeopathic aggravation).” (Org., p. 182.)
“… This furnishes a standard according to which the doses of homoeopathic medicine are invariably to be reduced so far, that even after having been taken, they will merely produce an almost imperceptible homoeopathic aggravation.” (Org., p. 182.)
“This so-called homoeopathic aggravation is a proof that the cure is not only probable but may even be anticipated with certainty.” (Chr. Dis., p. 151.)
Diseased parts very susceptible to “like” remedy
“The smallest possible dose of homoeopathic medicine, just strong enough to create the slightest homoeopathic aggravation, will operate chiefly upon the diseased parts of the body, which have become extremely susceptible to a stimulus so similar to their own disease.” (Org., p. 183.)
(Of course we have all experienced that that is so. Wrong medicine after wrong medicine leaves the patient untouched. It is only the right medicine that has the power of stimulating, or overstimulating.) Amelioration (early signs of)
“If the antipsoric treatment be properly conducted, the strength of the patient ought to increase from the very beginning of the treatment. This increase of strength will continue during the whole treatment, until the organism is freed from the enemy, and unfolds anew its regenerative life.”(Chr. Dis., p. 174.)
(When we hear a patient say,”No, there is really not much change, but I feel ever so much better,” we know that we are on the right road.)
“The condition of the mind and the general behaviour of the patient are among the most certain signs of incipient improvement, or of aggravation, in all diseases, especially in acute ones.
“Incipient improvement, however slight, is indicated by increased sense of comfort; greater tranquillity and freedom of mind; heightened courage and a return of naturalness in the feelings of patient.
“The signs of aggravation, however slight they may be, are the opposite of the preceding, and consist in an embarrassed, helpless state of mind, while the deportment, attitude, and actions of patient appeal to our sympathy. (Org., p. 174.)
Order of cure
Order of cure (from Hering’s preface to the “Chr. Dis.”) : “The thorough cure of a widely-ramified chronic disease is indicated by the most important organs being first relieved; the affection passes off in the order in which the organs had been affected the more important being relieved first, the less important next, the skin last…..
“An improvement which takes place in a different order can never be relied upon.” (Chr. Dis., p. 7.)
Again Hering
“As acute diseases terminate in an eruption upon the skin, which divides, dries up, and then passes off, so it is with many chronic diseases… The internal disease approaches more and more to the external tissues, until it finally arrives at the skin.
“Every homoeopathic physician must have observed that the improvement in pain takes place from above downward, and in diseases from within outward. This is the reason why chronic diseases, if they are thoroughly cured, always terminate in some cutaneous eruption…” (Chr. Dis., p. 7.)
(This is a hard saying, but when we do get a cutaneous manifestation in the process of cure, are we not apt to regard it as something to be itself “cured”?)
Non-interference with remedies
“Chronic patients.. must avoid domestic remedies…..intermediate medicines of any kind; must abstain carefully from perfumes, scented waters, tooth-powders, ” (Chr. Dis., p. 139.)
(You will find over and over again that a stomach case that has done well, hangs fore; and you will make no further progress till you have discovered that the patient uses kolynos or euthymol, or carbolic tooth powder, and stop it.)
Coffee also, according to Hahnemann, “has pernicious effects upon both body and soul.” While tea “secretly and infallibly weakness the nerves.” He says they ought to be avoided during the treatment of chronic diseases. (Chr. Dis., p. 139.)
“Vinegar and lemon juice (he says) are hurtful in nervous and abdominal complaints; moreover, they either neutralize or increase the effect of certain remedies.” (Ibid., p. 142.)
Emotions especially interfere
Grief, sorrow, vexation, an unhappy marriage, a gnawing conscience, bereavement, are more capable of rousing a latent chronic disease into activity (he says) than excessive fatigue, wounds and injuries, starvation, or unwholesome food…. He notices that “a mother in vacillating health may be attacked with incurable lung trouble, or cancer of the breast, in consequence of the sudden death of her only son.” (Chr. Dis., p. 144.)
Diet
“Strict diet is not the curative agent in the treatment of chronic diseases, as is asserted by the opponents of homoeopathy with a view to lessening its merit; the cure depends chiefly upon the medical treatment. This is proved by the fact that many chronic patients have followed for years the strictest diet without being able to obtain relief.” (Chr. Dis., p. 137.)
Every part of body receptive of drugs
“Every part of the body, endowed with sensitive nerves, is capable to receiving the influence of medicines, and of transmitting their power to all other parts.
“Besides the stomach, the tongue and mouth are the parts most susceptible of medicinal impressions; but the lining membrane of the nose possesses this susceptibility in a high degree. Also the rectum, genitals, and all sensitive organs of our body are almost equally susceptible of medicinal effects. For this reason, parts denuded of cuticle, wounded and ulcerated surfaces, will allow the effect of medicines to penetrate quite as readily as if they had been administered by the mouth…” (Org., p. 186.)
(We need not go into the question of olfaction (Org., p. 225). The whole subject is so great, that innumerable points have to be left out, or we should be here all night).
Non-interference with reaction
He says, “The whole cure fails, if the antipsoric remedies prescribed are not permitted to act uninterruptedly to the end. Even if the second antipsoric should have been selected with the greatest care, it cannot replace the loss which the rash haste of the physician has inflicted upon the patient. The benign action of the former remedy, which was about manifesting its most beautiful and most. surprising results, is probably lost to the patient for ever.” (Chr. Dis., p. 156.)
“The fundamental rule (in chronic diseases) is this,. to let the carefully selected homoeopathic antipsoric act as long as it is capable of exercising a curative influence and there is a visible improvement going on in the system….” (Ibid.) Reaction to single dose
“By means of a single dose of a carefully selected remedy, the homoeopathic practitioner often produces an improvement in the state of his patient, which continues even to the restoration of health. This result could not have been obtained if the dose and had been repeated, or if another remedy had been given.” (Chr. Dis., p. 157.) Sac. lac.
“If the patient should wish to take medicine every day, the homoeopathic physician may give him every day a dose of sugar of milk, all these powders being marked with successive numbers.
“Sugar of milk is admirably adapted to this kind of innocent deception.” (Chr. Dis., p. 164.) Three mistakes
“There are three mistakes which a physician cannot too carefully avoid…
“First to suppose that the doses which I have indicated as the proper doses in the treatment of chronic diseases, and which long experience and close observation have induced me to adopt, are too small… Nothing is lost by giving even smaller doses than those which I have indicated. The doses can scarcely be too much reduced, provided the effects of the remedy are not disturbed by improper food…” (Chr. Dis., p. 152.) Second, bad prescribing
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