In all such disease the contagion is conveyed by contact. Research showed that the great fundamental disease thus identified and named, is the oldest, most universal, most pernicious and most misapprehended chronic parasitic disease in existence. “For thousands of years,” Hahnemann says, “it has disfigured and tortured mankind; and, during the last centuries, it has become the cause of those thousands of incredibly different, acute as well as chronic non-venereal diseases with which the civilized portion of mankind becomes more and more infected upon the whole inhabited globe.”
Hahnemann estimated that seven-eights of the chronic diseases of his day were due to psora, the remaining eighth being due to syphilis and sycosis.
The Doctrine of Latency. – Hahnemann taught that psora, like syphilis and sycosis, may remain latent for long periods, “until circumstances awaken the disease slumbering within and thus develop *its germs.” This doctrine of latency was strenuously opposed for a long time, but is now endorsed and taught by the highest authorities in regard to syphilis, gonorrhoea and tuberculosis.
Behring and other authorities on tuberculosis now hold that the infection often occurs in infancy or young life and remains latent until later life. Hahnemann’s doctrine of latency is therefore confirmed by modern research in regard to tuberculosis, as it has long been of syphilis, and, for a shorter period, of gonorrhoea.
“The oldest monuments of history,” says Hahnemann, “show the *Psora even then in great development. Moses. 3400 years ago pointed out several varieties. In Leviticus, chapter 13, and chapter 21, verse 20, where he speaks of the bodily defects which must not be found in a priest who is to offer sacrifice, malignant itch is designated by the word *Garab, which the Alexandrian translators (In the Septuagint) translated with *psora agria, but the Vulgate with *Scabies jugis. The Talmudic interpreter, Johnathan, explained it *as dry itch spread over the body; while the expression, Yalephed, is used by Moses for *lichen, *tetter, *herpes. (See M. Rosenmueller, *Scholia in Levit., p. 11, *edit, *sec., p. 124.)
The commentators in the so-called English Bible-work also agree with this definition, Calmet among others saying: “Leprosy is similar to an inveterate itch with violent itching.” The ancients also mention the peculiar, characteristic, *voluptuous itching which attended itch then as now, while after the scratching a painful burning follows: among others Plato, who calls itch *glykypikron, while Cicero remarks the dulcedo of scabies.”
“At that time (Moses) and later on among the ISraelites, the disease seems to have mostly kept the external parts of the body for its chief seat. This was also true of the malady as it prevailed in uncultivated Greece, later in Arabia, and, lastly, in Europe during the Middle Ages. * * * The nature of this miasmatic itching eruption *always remained essentially the same.”
It is identical, therefore, with the ancient form of leprosy; with the “St. Anthony’s Fire,” or malignant erysipelas which prevailed in Europe for several centuries and then reassumed the form of leprosy, through the leprosy which was brought back by the returning crusaders in the thirteenth century. After that it spread more than ever. It was gradually modified by greater personal cleanliness, more suitable clothing and general improvement in hygienic conditions, until it was reduced to a “common itch,” which could be and was more easily remove from the skin by external treatment.
But Hahnemann points out that the state of mankind was not improved thereby.
In some respects he says, it grew far worse; for although in ancient times the skin disease was very troublesome to its victims, the rest of the body enjoyed a fair share of general health. Moreover, the disgusting appearance of the lepers caused them to be more dreaded and avoided, and their segregation in colonies limited the spread of the infection. This element of safety was lost when the disease assumed its milder appearing form, as the itch, without losing in the slightest degree its infectious-contagious character. The infectious fluid resulting from the scratching, contaminated everything it touched and spread the disease broadcast.
Metastasis.- Many superficial critics have ridiculed the idea that the *itch, known even before Hahnemann’s day to be due to a minute but visible animal parasite, the *acarus scabiei, was the cause of any other than a local disease of the skin. They did not consider that even if this were true, it might be the host or carrier of another, smaller, infectious micro-organism, in the same way as the flea and the mosquito are carriers of infection. Witty Dean Swift (1667-1745) could have taught them better: ” So naturalists observe, a flea
Has smaller fleas that on him prey,
And these have smaller still to bite ’em,
And so proceed ad infinitum.”
“Psora has thus become the most infectious and most general of all the chronic miasms,” says Hahnemann. The disease, by metastasis from the skin, caused by external palliative treatment, attacks internal organs and causes a multitude of chronic diseases the cause of which is generally unrecognized.
Many have been skeptical of the danger of metastasis of chronic external or skin diseases and this skepticism has led to dire results. It would seem that a physician who dreads and fully realizes the danger of a “repercussion” or metastasis of the eruption of *acute measles or scarlet fever, with its well-known serious and often fatal consequences in the brain, kidneys or lungs, could not consistently doubt the possibility of the same kind of results from the metastasis of a *chronic eruption.
Innumerable facts, observed by competent physicians for centuries past, and confirmed in many cases by modern research, make such a position untenable. Metastasis of disease is today an accepted fact in medical science.
Our knowledge of metastasis rests, scientifically, upon our knowledge of *embolism, “Embolism,” says the “American Text-book of Pathology,” “rests essentially upon the anatomic and experimental investigation and teachings of Virchow.” “Embolism,” says this authority, “is the impaction in some part of the vascular system of any undissolved material brought there by the blood current. The material transported in this method is an embolus.”
Metastasis is the transference of disease from one part to another not directly connected with it.
Of the several kinds of emboli the “Textbook of Pathology” mentions: “2. Tumor-cells. Emboli composed of *living cells, capable of farther proliferation, occur in connection with malignant tumors. In carcinoma and sarcoma isolated tumor cells or cell groups, may reach the blood current either indirectly through the lymphatics or directly when the tumor in its growth penetrates the wall and projects into the lumen of a blood vessel. On lodgment the cells proliferate and give rise to secondary tumors. 3. Animal and vegetable parasites.* Bacteria of various kinds, as well as protozoa and the embryos of a few large animal parasites may be transported by the circulation and act as emboli.”
Hahnemann’s teaching is thus elucidated and confirmed by pathology. The infectious, parasitic, primary and typical microorganism of Psora, driven from the skin by local treatment, finds a ready route to deeper tissues, structures and organs through the capillaries, the lymphatic and glandular systems and the nervous system. Here it develops its secondary specific form and character according to its location and the predisposition and environment of the individual, giving rise to a vast number of secondary symptoms.
“So great a flood of numberless nervous symptoms, painful ailments, spasms, ulcers, cancers, adventitious formations, *dyscrasias, *paralyses, *consumptions and cripplings of soul, mind and body were never seen in ancient times when the Psora mostly confined itself to its dreadful cutaneous symptoms, leprosy.
“Only during the last few centuries, has mankind been flooded with these infirmities, owing to the causes first mentioned” (Hahnemann, Chronic, Diseases).
The Identity of Psora and Tuberculosis :- Hahnemann mentions *”consumption, *tubercular phthisis, continual or spasmodic asthma, pleurisy with and without collections of pus in the chest, hemoptysis and suffocative bronchitis,” among the known tubercular chest and lung diseases as *due to psora. He also mentions hydrocephalus, cerebral and cerebro-spinal meningitis, ophthalmia, cataract, tonsilitis, cervical adenitis, otitis, gastric, duodenal and intestinal ulcers; diabetes and nephritis; rachitis and marasmus of children; epilepsy, apoplexy and paralysis; bone and joint diseases; fistulae; caries and curvature of the spine; encysted tumors; goitre, varices; caries and curvature of the spine; encysted tumors; goitre, varices, aneurisms, erysipelas; sarcoma, osteo-sarcoma, scirrhus and epithelioma and other diseases, some of which are now known and other of which are thought to be of tubercular origin.
Dr. Close was born November 24, 1860 and came to study homeopathy after the death of his father in 1879. His mother remarried a homoeopathic physician who turned Close's interests from law to medicine.
His stepfather helped him study the Organon and he attended medical school in California for two years. Finishing his studies at New York Homeopathic College he graduated in 1885. Completing his homeopathic education. Close preceptored with B. Fincke and P. P. Wells.
Setting up practice in Brooklyn, Dr. Close went on to found the Brooklyn Homoeopathic Union in 1897. This group devoted itself to the study of pure Hahnemannian homeopathy.
In 1905 Dr. Close was elected president of the International Hahnemannian Association. He was also the editor of the Department of Homeopathic Philosophy for the Homeopathic Recorder. Dr. Close taught homeopathic philosophy at New York Homeopathic Medical College from 1909-1913.
Dr. Close's lectures at New York Homeopathic were first published in the Homeopathic Recorder and later formed the basis for his masterpiece on homeopathic philosophy, The Genius of Homeopathy.
Dr. Close passed away on June 26, 1929 after a full and productive career in homeopathy.