We have written extensively upon the subject of the three chronic miasms–Psora, Syphilis and Sycosis–and their symptomatology as single miasms, but we have said but little about mixed miasms, except what has been said in Vol. I of this work. We cannot go deeply into this phase of the subject, but hope to later on. After the 3rd Vol. on the Chronic Miasm, Syphilis, has been written, we intend to write a work on the mixed miasms, of which pseudo-psora is one, so fully written on, in Vol. I. Hering, in his introduction to the Organon, translated by Charles J. Hemple, says, “Hahnemann distinguishes the venereal miasms as Syphilis and Sycosis; and also subdivides Psora with pseudo-Psora. The regular school have generally recognized the fact that tertiary Syphilis is not true Syphilis, and we know it is not, as we have to resort not infrequently to anti-psoric remedies to cure it.”
We cannot take up this phase of the subject farther; we simply wish to call your attention to the fact; as it is these combinations with Psora that makes the practice of medicine and disease stubborn, intricate and difficult to understand. It is these combinations known as mixed miasms, from which our malignancies develop, such as cancer, lupus, burrowing abscesses, sinuses, tubercular infiltrations, growths and changes, and all the countless forms of malignancies. For instance, the specific secondary inflammation of Sycosis comes when Psora and pseudo-Psora blend fully with the sycotic element in the secondary stage. Again we see the fibrous changes in the kidneys, liver, etc., in the tertiary stage of that miasm Sycosis. The same may be said of the malignant tubercular changes of cancer and lupus. The condylomata are formed from the mixed veneral combination Syphilis and Sycosis, but the subject is so extensive and covers so much of pathology, that we cannot enter into it here.
In no instance should the mental phenomena of the miasms be overlooked in the selection of the remedy covering the case, for the mental should predominate over the physical always, and each of the chronic miasms has its own morbid mental peculiarity, all of which have been referred to in his work. Hahnemann has said that much care should be taken in watching the mental and moral symptoms in the progress of cure. “We should judge the degree of Homoeopathic adaptation, existing between the remedy and the disease, by the improvement that take place in the moral condition.” (Hering).
We should also notice that law of exchange between the mental and the physical in the care of disease, i. e., when the physical is ((>)) and the mental grows <, and vice versa. How often through an external diseased process has the mental condition been relieved; insanity has disappeared by the appearance of an ulcer or an eruption upon the skin, or a vaginal discharge. We see the same law applied in the physical itself; a nose bleed has many times relieved a headache, an eruption a pain, a copious night sweat, which shows that the disease centered within, has not left its hiding place. A miasmatic grouping, however, covers all that is necessary to find the simillimum in curing the disease.
Let me quote Hahnemann again, and pardon me if I tire you with his quotations; speaking of the true etiology of disease, after having discovered Psora, he says, “This showed me that the Homoeopathic practitioner ought not to treat diseases of this kind, as separate and completely developed maladies; nor ought he to expect such a permanent cure of these diseases, as would prevent them from appearing again in the system, either in their original or in a modified and often more disagreeable form. Why? We read further on, “This primitive disease evidently owed its existence to some chronic miasm.” So we see clearly how Hahnemann looked upon disease, from a Miasmatic standpoint; and when he was prepared to make his selection of the remedy in chronic diseases, he based his prescription upon those symptoms that were centralized upon the existing, active, chronic miasm. How shall we become acquainted with Hahnemann’s way of prescribing? by the study of his Organon of medicine and his work on chronic diseases. How shall we learn the symptoms of the miasms? By a study of each of the chronic miasms, Psora, Syphilis, and Sycosis, in all their stages, and in all their blendings.
Enough has been said in these two volumes to start out well, and you have besides, your own observation from day to day in practice, and also the great principles of the law to govern and direct you, as set down in the Organon. Still farther you have your Materia Medica which is but the reflected image of the disease that is to be cured. You can see Psora in Sulphur and in Lycopodium, in Arsenic and Psorinum; Syphilis in the Mercuries, in the Iodides, and in Nitric acid; Sycosis in Rhus, in Thuja, Kali sulph, Capsicum, Medorrhinum and a host of others, that will be tabulated at the end of this volume.
These cases of chronic trouble that do not receive the basic miasmatic remedy sometime in the course of their treatment are either palliated, or as Hahnemann says, “suspended for a time, only to return more grievous than before.” Again the basic miasmic remedy fulfills all the requirements of the law; indeed the law is only satisfied or brought to its height of action against the contending forces of disease by an anti-miasmatic selection. In this way the vital energies are restored without loss and without hindrance, and their movements are continuous and progressive towards health; the functions are brought back to their normal rhythm; otherwise we abridge the process of the cure, and are apt to lead the perverted vital forces into greater dissipation.
Organon, Secs. 20 and 21, says in effect this, “we experience the hidden faculty of medicines, by observing their effects upon the human organism, when these medicines are well selected, based upon the basic symptoms of the disease.” We see not only their curative action upon that disease processes, fulfilling in every point the law of Homoeopathy.
As we study the nature and action of the miasms, we are the same time studying the true character of disease and the nature of sickness It is not trying to establish a theory that the stomach, liver or the heart is a cause of the sickness, but that the phenomena of the perverted or disturbed life force, is the phenomena of a certain chronic miasm, whose character, we are to understand and which gives us the character, and nature of the disease. We should know that these perversions in sickness are perversions in physiological law, due to some force or forces, the character of which is familiar to us, and its history and movements, even when suppressed, we should be very familiar with. “There is no such thing,” says Dr. Kent, “as one organ making another organ sick or making the man sick.” So if the blame cannot be put upon a part of the whole, where shall we place it?
We have learned that disease works from center to circumference, and that it is what starts the central wheels in motion, along lines contrary to law and in opposition to life and health, and to so persist as to include all there is in disease, even to the destruction and death of the organism. It is this power that we claim is the true etiology of disease; it is this power that we claim you become acquainted with when you become familiar with the character and origin of the chronic miasms.
“We ought to seek out the hidden and unknown interior of what is to be cured in disease and not depend upon exteriors alone.” The remedy goes into the great power houses that control the forces of life and that cures permanently and promptly. Disease endings are found in its pathology, but its beginnings no man can see, except as he sees it through law and knowledge of the nature of the chronic miasms. Physical examinations give you a knowledge of the former, but only dynamic examinations give a knowledge of the latter.
“The needs of the patient,” says the same author, (Dr. Kent), “are seen in the signs and symptoms,” but a thorough knowledge of those signs and symptoms is only possible from a knowledge of the chronic miasms. A change of state, whether it be local or general, is due to some power acing or co-operating with the life force. Then let is become acquainted with that power, whose character will be seen in all its movements and in all its disease processes. One must know the pathways it takes and the phenomena it propagates.
Quoting Dr. Kent again: “If disease is cured from cause to effect, then it must remain cured,” we see that order only returns and remains when cause is hit hard with that power which annihilates it. To push it gently aside by a palliative remedy only causes its action to cease for a time, then to re-establish itself. Thus we recognize disease in its exterior manifestations and its interior manifestations are only the miasmatic forces switching about as they are influenced by suppressive measures or by bad treatment. We see the same thing taking place in latent diseases; such as the tubercular when roused into action by scarlet fever or other acute miasms, producing sequelae. To understand this we must know something about the correlation of the forces and their transference from one part of the organism to another and the cause of these sudden transferences. The physician who uses local applications such X Ray, the light or the electric current, can have no knowledge of these things; the disappearance of pathology is all that interests him. The pathology that returns, he calls recurrences, and their cause is a dead letter to him, as he has no knowledge of the law governing the interior forces. We know that all movement is governed by law, and this study from cause to effect is the inductive method of Hahnemann, out of which his knowledge of Homoeopathy came to light. Sequelae and many of the dangers and malignant manifestations of diseases, may be often charged to the physician who has no knowledge of the active character and movements of miasmatics. The constitution of each patient should be carefully studied, for his disease will be found to be dependent upon some miasmatic basis, and the physician who cannot detect the presence of Sycosis in his patient, without a history of gonorrhoea, has very little knowledge of miasmatics. Phthisis may be headed off before an abscess forms in the lung tissue, if we are familiar with the phenomena of its incipiency. The bond between two miasms can only be broken by a prescription that will meet the totality of the more active one. Each has its own phenomena of expression, its times, modalities and order of arrangement. The appearance of sequelae is an appearance of a chronic disease or rather an expression of one, dependent upon the miasmatic government within. Whatever has been sown in life, will blossom and bring forth fruit in the family tree. If you cannot find the insignia upon the surface of the body, voices from within will continue to cry out until it is removed. No secret sin can be hidden for all will and is made manifest or brought to light. “On making a prescription,” says Dr. J. T. Kent, “a great deal depends upon a physician’s ability to perceive what constitutes a miasm. If he is dull of perception, he will intermingle symptoms that do not belong together.”
J.H. Allen was a student of H.C. Allen. He was the president of the IHA in 1900. Dr. Allen taught at the Hering Medical College in Chicago. Dr. Allen died August 1, 1925
Books by John Henry Allen:
Diseases and Therapeutics of the Skin 1902
The Chronic Miasms: Psora and Pseudo Psora 1908
The Chronic Miasms: Sycosis 1908