My friend, Dr. C. M. Boger, an excellent American homoeopath, died last year at the age of 75. He was one of the ablest American doctors and he tried like every good homoeopath to make his knowledge known far and wide. He produced a large book, Boenninghausens Characteristics and Repertory which is valued by every conscientious prescriber, and a number of small books.
Messrs. Salzer & Co. have just brought out a new edition of Bogers Times of the Remedies and Moon Phases. There are certain remedies which are called for when aggravation takes place at certain hours of the day or night. Every good homoeopath knows that there are many patients who wake every night at 3 or at midnight or at some other time, or that there are patients who have an aggravation at certain times of the day or night.
A patient suffers, for instance, from violent flatulence between 4 and 8 in the afternoon, and the experienced homoeopath will immediately think of Lycopodium. If he is restless, wakes up at, or a little after, midnight when he experiences considerable discomfort, one thinks at once of Arsenic, which has an aggravation at that hour.
Every beginner in homoeopathy knows that a sinking feeling at 11 in the morning which calls imperatively for something to eat is a strong indication for Sulphur; that waking up at 3 oclock with pain in the abdomen is a strong indication of Kali carbonicum. Further, the phases of the moon and the seasons have considerable influence upon the sick. Certain skin diseases are worse in the spring, others are aggravated in the summer, others again in autumn or in winter.
There are fevers which are at their worst in the morning, in the forenoon, in the afternoon and in the evening, just as there are fevers which recur every day, every second day, every third day, every seventh day, every month, etc. Dr. Boger has classified all these symptoms in a volume of 179 pages. The book is of great value and it will prove indispensable to many.
The orthodox doctor disregards all these fine indications which are of the utmost value to the homoeopath. He will indulge in a smile when told about aggravations at a certain hour and if he is told that a certain complaint is worse at full moon he will laugh aloud, and may tell the patient that he imagines things. Yet there is a good reason in observing the phases of the moon and their effect upon mankind.
The experienced farmer or peasant sows his seed with the rising moon, never with the declining moon. Wise women in the country will cut the girls hair with the increasing moon. There is an excellent reason why, in all countries of the world, the insane are called lunatics. In olden days, lunatics were called “money”. This little book deserves commendation. Unfortunately the arrangement of the material is not very clear, there is no index and it is therefore very difficult to use.
Born in Western Pennsylvania, he graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and subsequently Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia. He moved to Parkersburg, W. Va., in 1888, practicing there, but also consulting worldwide. He gave lectures at the Pulte Medical College in Cincinnati and taught philosophy, materia medica, and repertory at the American Foundation for Homoeopathy Postgraduate School. Boger brought BÅ“nninghausen's Characteristics and Repertory into the English Language in 1905. His publications include :
Boenninghausen's Characteristics and Repertory
Boenninghausen's Antipsorics
Boger's Diphtheria, (The Homoeopathic Therapeutics of)
A Synoptic Key of the Materia Medica, 1915
General Analysis with Card Index, 1931
Samarskite-A Proving
The Times Which Characterize the Appearance and Aggravation of the Symptoms and their Remedies