5. Then we come to the particulars, the thing for which the patient comes to be treated. Referring again to the hip-joint case, perhaps none of these remedies now are found in the hip-joint list, which was the point from which you would start by the other plan. Most cases of hip-joint Disorder cured by me in the past twenty five years were cured by remedies not in the hip-joint list. This list contains those remedies that have been observed to cure hip-joint cases, but this remedy with which I cure a patient who has hip-joint trouble may not cure another hip-joint case; hence it is not in the list, nor is it included as a clinical symptom.
A man with a rectal ulcer was advised to be operated on to relieve the copious hemorrhages from the rectum. He was urged to consult me before having an operation. I found a persistent mental symptom was the need of intense restraint to prevent himself from destroying his own life. Natrum Sul. had this symptom, but has no rectal ulcer recorded. A few other symptoms present, together with this strong mental symptom, led to the use of Nat. Sul. and he had no more hemorrhages.
When you come to investigate the particulars, if you have a half dozen remedies left over, proceed on through all the particulars. In this hip-joint case, you may have also liver affection, and all circumstances belonging,, to these symptoms must be considered, though they are classed as concomitants by the other method. Starting with these particulars, which is the concomitant. Working out the case on that plan, you may work out to an entirely different list of remedies for the different particulars, but they are in the same patient. By beginning the investigation in relation to the patient, you may find none of the particulars in the remedy selected, but the remedy cures the patient, and the particulars disappear.
A doctor brought a patient to me for consultation one cold winter day, saying he had tried for a long time and failed to benefit him. The most troublesome symptom was a dry, hacking cough for which he had prescribed Arsenicum. He said the young man had been steadily emaciating, and he thought I might help him. I looked at the young man and noticed he had no overcoat on though it was very cold weather. Asking him why he wore no overcoat, I found that he was never chilly, but wanted the cold air, felt better in the open air, wanted to walk and work rapidly, had been emaciating for some time, and had this dry, hacking cough. I asked the doctor why he did not give him Lycopodium as that fitted the patient and the patient was clearly of the opposite type to Arsenicum. Lycopodium stopped his cough and he increased in weight and was cured.
I started out to follow the Boenninghausen plan but it did not cure the patients. You can give different remedies in succession without holding to any one, and after years, the patient is no better, they are not curing the patient. Very sensitive patients should not be given too high a potency. For oversensitives it is best to begin not higher than 1m. This can be repeated two, or sometimes three times, and then a higher potency used. Each potency can be used two or three times with benefit. Sometimes he will need to begin again at the lowest potency and go through the series. Thus you will perhaps cure the patient without change of remedy.
Failure of best success with the Boenninghausen plan led me to study Hahnemann’s teachings more closely. This dawned on me twenty five years ago and I have been practicing it all these years. Starting with the patient, as above outlined, we find in each group many remedies to be eliminated because they are not related to the patient. This is especially true in the particulars. Remedies will seldom be found in the lists of all the particulars; you must omit some, but be certain to omit the particulars and not the generals. The least important are to be omitted. Start with the most important, proceed to the less and less important, on to the least important. If you do not follow this plan, you work in a helter skelter way and are led to confusion.
A patient comes with something to be cured. That is usually not the thing to begin with, for you must get at the thing that is at the bottom. Each one must use his own method of eliciting the symptoms. There is a tendency among those working in modern scientific falsities to have remedies for pathological tissue changes to cover the results of disorder. Although it may not be known to fit the pathology, if it is the patient, the remedy will cure the patient. By becoming expert in this method you can do wonderful things. You must recognize that the loves and thoughts extend through the body; they are not only in the brain. Man thinks with the fingers, the eyes and the skin. The volitional system extends throughout the body. You will find the patient himself has a lack of vital heat yet the suffering part is aggravated by heat; the patient is cold but the part is aggravated by heat. The things of his affections are represented in his physical loves, and he says he does not like this or that. These things are close to the patient, close to his vital loves; they express the patient.
By the Boenninghausen method, there is no opportunity to distinguish between the patient and the particulars. This method has retarded the development of Homoeopathy. It has obscured Hahnemann’s Homoeopathy, based on the idea of the patient first and the focusing the observation on things strange, rare and peculiar. These do not relate to the particulars (the part affected). You will cure inflammation of any part when guided by the symptoms of the patient, whether the remedy thus selected has produced that sort of inflammation or not.
There prevails a tendency to say that one is sick because the liver or the stomach or the uterus is disordered. One patient will visit a gynaecologist, to be told that all her troubles are due to the disorder of the uterus, and a course of local treatment will make this in order and then she will be well. The local treatment does not improve the patient, and she consults a spinal specialist who tells her the troubles are due to the spine, and treatment to cure that will restore her to health. Then the eyes are examined. Yes, says the oculist, all the troubles are due to errors of refraction; a change of glasses will improve her condition. Next the heart specialist is consulted, with the assurance that correction of the heart trouble will make her well.
None of them had directed any attention to the patients but the condition of the patient was said to be due to her organs. The man himself is prior to his organs, more interior than his organs. The condition of the organs is the result of disorder more interiorly. It is necessary to proceed from first to last, from things beginning to things ending, to grasp the idea of Homoeopathy. I have seen results of treatment in my cases that few have seen, and this is the reason. Long experience results in expert facility in perceiving symptoms and surmising what has preceded them, in leading the patient to reveal what is there without asking leading questions. You can turn the patient aside and lead him to reveal the very center of the case. You become expert in the use of the repertory, increasing from year to year, as long as you live. It is a lifework, a beautiful work, worth living to perform.
In the woman the menstrual symptoms, of all particulars, are nearest to the generals; they are close to the life of the woman. Sexual symptoms, especially desires and aversions, are analogous to loves and aversions. Discrimination of the value of particulars is important. It is a question for meditation to determine how closely the symptoms of a part pertain to the generals. Symptoms occurring in many parts are more general than those of only one part as illustrated by discharges of similars character from several parts. The condition of the blood is analogous to the loves. Few remedies have recorded the condition of the blood, that it will not coagulate, but it is a high grade symptom. It is common for blood to clot, and rare for it not to clot.
There have been many criticisms for this use of the term generals, but it is the best word that meets the needs. The idea is that of systematic dominating from center to circumference. It is Hahnemann’s system ultimated to a more scientific basis. The discoverer and founder comprehended without much thought and study. There are many difficulties to be explained. For their explanation it is necessary to study Homoeopathy, and then study man. Holding these things in the memory, we meditate upon it all, then decide that it is good, and employ it in use. The result delights you, and you love it. Thus it extends more interiorly and cannot be forgotten. You love Homoeopathy, as you apply it, and, as the love is, so is the life. It is in you and part of you if you love it; you are a vessel of the truth. It grows and expands a million fold, extending out from the interior. We proceed from center to circumference, perceive how men are sick harmoniously from center to extremities. If this philosophy is not in the life, and only in the memory, it is not a part of you it is only with you. If something comes up to delight you more, it can be laid off. Nothing can come to delight you more than Homoeopathy if it is in you and part of you.
In 1881, Kent accepted a position as professor of anatomy at the Homeopathic College of Missouri, an institution with which he remained affiliated until 1888. In 1890, Kent moved to Pennsylvania to take a position as Dean of Professors at the Post-Graduate Homeopathic Medical School of Philadelphia. In 1897 Kent published his magnum opus, Repertory of the Homœopathic Materia Medica. Kent moved to Chicago in 1903, where he taught at Hahnemann Medical College.