We may smile at the size of the dose until we recall how many patients in a similar condition have died under tablespoonful doses of brandy, or hypodermics of strychnia and whiskey. Dr. Wells knew how to correctly measure a patient’s susceptibility and he knew how to conserve the last, feeble, flickering remnant of vitality in such cases and make the best of it. He knew better than to waste it by violent measures, as is so often done in cases of shock when hypodermics of brandy and strychnine and other powerful stimulants are used.
The idea held by many that large and powerful doses and strenuous measures are necessary in such cases is entirely wrong. The conception of disease and the interpretation of symptoms is wrong. The resultant treatment is wrong. The imaginary idea of violence, of the malignity and rapidity of *the disease, is forced to the front and dwelt upon until it seems rational to believe that the treatment must also be violent, active “heroic”. This is practicing homoeopathy with a vengeance!
Such an error arises naturally from considering the disease to the exclusion of the *patient. *Look at the patient who is suffering from shock. He is pale, his features are sunken, his skin and muscles relaxed, he is covered with a cold, clammy sweat. His respiration is feeble, his pulse almost or quite extinct, he is perhaps almost or quite unconscious. Everything indicates that life and strength are at lowest ebb. The store of vital energy is almost exhausted. The margin left to work upon is very narrow. There is but a step between him and death. The slightest false move, the least violence, is likely to force him across the line which marks the boundary between life and death.
If there is any condition which would seem to demand the use of mild, of the *very mildest and most delicate, means, this is one. Reaction, as an expression of susceptibility in such cases, is like the love of fair women something to be wooed delicately; not brutally and fiercely as among barbarians. The condition of shock, or of extreme exhaustion, is no occasion for heroic doses or strenuous measures, but rather for the greatest gentleness and most refined doses.
Let the patient inhale camphor, or vinegar, or ammonia (very carefully) if only these domestic remedies are at hand; or give him two or three-drop doses of brandy in a teaspoonful of water; if that is at hand. Teaspoonful doses of hot black coffee may be useful. But as soon as possible, give our potentiated Arnica, Arsenicum Nux vomica, Veratrum or Carbo veg. or whatever other remedy may be indicated by the etiology and symptoms of the case. The results will be infinitely better than the results of the strenuous method.
“Never” said Dr. Wells, give brandy or any other stimulant with *a hard and wiry pulse”.
*Deficient reaction or diminished susceptibility may exist in a case or appear during treatment and constitute a condition requiring special treatment. This is especially true in the treatment of chronic diseases, where improvement cases and well- selected remedies do not seem to act. Under such circumstances it may sometimes be necessary to give a dose of what is called an “intercurrent remedy”. Boenninghausen mentions as appropriate in such cases carbo veg, Lauroc, Mosch, Op, Sulphur To these may be added the typical nosodes; Medorr, Psor, Pyrog, Tuberc, Syphil, and also Thuja. The choice of any particular one of these remedies must be governed by the history and symptoms.
*Excessive reaction, or irritability, is a condition sometimes met where the patient seems to suffer an aggravation from every remedy, without corresponding improvement. There is a state of general hypersensitiveness.
For such a state Boenninghausen recommends Asar, Cham, Coff, China, Ign, Nux v, Puls, Teuc, and Valer
Aggravation after Mercury requires Hep, or Nit.ac,
Therapeutic suggestion is of use in all such cases, to clam and soothe terrified or excited patients. But in these, as in all other cases, the case and remedy must be carefully individualized.
We see, therefore, that the cure of successful treatment of disease depends not only upon conserving and utilizing the natural susceptibility of the living organism but on properly adjusting both remedy and dose to the needs of the organism so that susceptibility shall be satisfied, normal reaction induced and equilibrium or health restored. The “Law of the Least Puls” should never be forgotten: “The quantity of action necessary to effect any change in nature is * the least possible”.
Immunity which is obtained at the cost of the integrity and purity of the vital organism and its fluids is too dearly purchased.
Inoculation of crude, pathological products like animal sera and vaccines confers only a spurious immunity through impairment or destruction of normal susceptibility. It results in the contamination or poisoning of the entire organism, sets up a morbid condition instead of a healthy one and leads to physical degeneration.
The homoeopathic remedy, correctly chosen upon indications afforded by the anamnesis and symptoms of the disease as manifested in the individual and the community, and administered in infinitesimal doses, *per oram, satisfies the morbid susceptibility, supplies the need of the organism and confers a true immunity by promoting *health, which is the true object to be gained.
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.