As all homeopathic practice is of a positive nature, it does not appeal to every form of mind. Much depends upon the soil into which its seeds fall and the parable of the sower finds another illumination. For this reason it is easy to see why it is accepted haltingly or even deserted by professed followers.
Again much of the stress under which it labours must, in common with the difficulties of the other sciences, be laid at the door of faulty instruction; a state from which we are only just beginning to. emerge. It should be self evident that in proportion as we cease trying to force the mind into fixed channels we will develop the inner faculties of reflective thinking.
While much must necessarily be taken for granted, it is fundamental that true learning begins with the laying aside of all bias and preconceived ideas- like little children. We will find causes after we have learned to know their effects. The latter have indeed been with us from the beginning, but only now and then has a mind been keen enough to read their language, only too often to be misunderstood and have its work swallowed up in the surrounding gloom. Such was emphatically the medical age in which Hahnemann appeared, armed with a message of deep import.
The law which the master expressed is always demonstrable, if we will for a while lay aside our blinding prejudices, those last remnants of a darker age when men revelled in the blood of their adversaries, all for opinions’ sake. If the material advancement of the race has too often been written in blood, its agonies have likewise been lulled into the sleep of death by lethal drugs. O! shame for such things. This and less refined barbarities were and are the practices which Homeopathy strives to reform.
The pen of the founder of Homeopathy was far too vitriolic for regularity, and it cast him out; but his disdained law has become the cornerstone of a new house. What it has done, all may read; what it shall do, depends upon the faithfulness of its disciples to truth. The world is waiting to be shown, to see you demonstrate your case. Are you able to do it? That’s the question. The demands of college curricula which force the student into straining every nerve for the purpose of passing faculty and state examinations will never do it. Such forcing methods don’t teach, they cram, and their product is but poorly equipped to meet the exigencies of daily practice with curative measures.
The struggle between dynamism and materialism will not end in our day, and the mechanical mind will always be with us. An appeal based on the finer dynamics will always be well beyond the mental grasp of the latter and unless we can hold it by showing the most convincing of results it must inevitably drift into forcible methods.
The power of the similimum is a constant source of pleasure to the careful prescriber. Almost every day brings something new and he does things that can’t be done in any other way. A case in point. Sixteen years ago Mr. C. had the arch of his left foot crushed down. The surgical treatment which he received did absolutely nothing, but left him with a constant dull pain in the injured member which has been absolutely flat ever since. He is a very well educated man and scouted the idea of obtaining help from any source whatever, for which reason it required a deal of persuasion on the part of a near relative before he would venture to even try Homeopathy.
After looking the matter over carefully I came to the conclusion that Symphytum was the only remedy that offered the least hope of relief and accordingly gave him one powder of the sixth centesimal potency. This brought complete relief for six weeks, much to the patient’s surprise, and gave me his confidence which was all important in this case. A repetition of the same potency was now without effect hence I administered a single dose of the 1 M, since which time he has remained entirely free of pain. A case of this sort is one for serious reflection on the part of doubters. Here was an irremovable cause, and yet the indicated remedy stopped the pain which had been of sixteen years duration. The patient was too intelligent to allow the use of morphia or any narcotising drug. Can palliative medication do as well?
Homeopathy is full of experiences like this, hence it lives nor will it die, in spite of assaults from without and misrepresentation from within. State boards, prejudiced examiners and lying about it do no harm; but false practice is its greatest enemy.
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