Food likes and dislikes vary a great deal from one person to another. LYCOPODIUM subjects have a great preference for hot meals and very hot fluids. PHOSPHORUS types, on the other hand, want spicy food, cold meals and even ice-cold drinks. A craving for salt strongly points to NATRUM MURIATICUM. A desire for both sweets and salt points to ARGENTUM NITRICUM.
Dislikes also may be quite definite, PHOSPHORUS subject may develop a strong dislike to a variety of things, including tea, sweets, salt and milk puddings. An aversion from cheese points to CHELIDONIUM. Quite a few remedies carry dislike for milk.
Food intolerances are many and if marked in the individual may have their counterpart under one or more remedies. All these personal peculiarities when taken into account with other features in the case, assist in arriving at and choosing a remedy that is most suitable because it is most similar on several counts.
Thirst is another aspect of some significance. Some remedies, notably APIS, GELSEMIUM, PULSATILLA, show absence of thirst in situations when this would not be expected. NATRUM MURIATICUM subjects are usually extremely thirsty.
A desire for frequents sips of water points to ARSENICUM ALBUM. A demand for large amounts at long intervals suggests BRYONIA. Excessive thirst associated with a poor appetite points to SULPHUR.
Perspiration also, of various types, may be typical of one or another remedy. Beads of cold sweat on the forehead point to VERATRUM ALBUM. Head sweats at night, soaking the pillow, suggest CALCAREA CARBONICA. Sweaty malodorous feet indicate SILICEA.
Sleep calls for notice as many remedies are associated with various types of drowsiness or of insomnia.
Another most important aid to remedy selection is provided by what is termed Modalities. By this is meant the ways in which the individual or the symptoms react to and are affected by environmental factors. These are of various kinds :
Thermal modalities relate to reactions to heat and cold. Heat may aggravate or give relief, cold likewise, and these effects are highly characteristic of individual remedies.
Meteorological modalities are of great importance, the effects of weather changes, wet, wind, thunder, sea-air, and the like.
Metabolic modalities include effects of eating, drinking, sweating, sleep, stools, menstruation. These are often quite definite whether as aggravation or amelioration, and are associated with particular remedies.
Physical modalities also frequently point clearly to a particular remedy, such as the effects of rest, posture, active movement, passive movement, exertion, jolt or jar.
Psychological modalities are often significant, such as effects of excitement, anxiety, fright, frustration, grief, rage and other forms of emotional or mental stress.
Chronological modalities are often worthy of note, aggravation or relief being definitely related to hour of the day, season of the year, even, in some cases, phase of the moon.
One or more outstanding modalities will often prove the deciding factor in the final choice of a remedy in any particular case.
Causal factors. In connection with clinical observations it has been found that the mode of onset or the precipitating factor in disease bears a definite relation to one or another remedy. This knowledge, therefore, has been incorporated in the materia medica and is at times of great assistance in prescribing.
In addition to the foregoing the material medica contains a wealth of symptoms recorded as the result of provings or of clinical observation. These may be grouped under Pathology, whether general or local. The general symptoms are related to types of pain, distress, haemorrhage or other disturbance of function associated with the remedy.
The absorption of drugs and various other antigenic substances has been found to produce a very large number of reactionary effects, or symptoms. In most of the books on homoeopathic materia medica the local symptoms are recorded in a number of sub-headings related to anatomical sites.
This was in order to record symptoms in the actual words of the provers. But they can also conveniently be re corded under systems, respiratory, alimentary, cardiovascular and so on. This is more in accord with present-day teaching.
In the materia medica symptoms are listed in relation to remedies. In the repertories remedies are listed in relation to symptoms. These volumes are necessary for cross reference. The materia medica should be constantly studied, and salient features as far as possible committed to memory.
Homoeopathy studies and deals with the individual as a whole. The individual remedy must be approached, understood and known in the same way. The drug picture must be seen as a whole with its own individual features, so distinctive as to be recognised promptly when its counterpart is met in a sick person. This is an art which can only be acquired by continual study coupled with constant observation.
