Here are some examples of the application of the principle of similitude in biology.
HORMONES
We will find them at first in the uses of small doses of hormones and of the products of secretion of endocrines.
1. Adrenaline The Adrenaline is hypertensive in gross doses, which is known to all. But the minimum doses, studied by Danielopolu and Carniol then by Petzetakis, have been proved to be capable to cause arterial hypotension. “1/350.000 of milligram to 1/30,000 milligram, the hypertension is preceded by a phase of hypotension as much important and as much durable as the dose injected is small” (Prof. Lemaire). Lian and his students have obtained a lowering down of the arterial pressure of persons suffering from hypertension with a dose of 1/700.000 milligram, a dose to which a normal subject does not react.
Thus the action of adrenaline is inversed according to the dose it is injected. But there are some variations to note according to the rapidity of the injection, according to the dilution, accordingly to the solution and according the more or less pathological state of the subject.
2,. Acetylcholine. By intra-venous injections some strong doses of acetylcholine causes the arterial tension to fall, the vasodilation of the peripheries, the bradycardia and some troubles of cardiac conductibility. On the contrary Prof.Lemaire has observed the amelioration of women suffering from chronic hypertensive nephritis “who had a brutal attack of ictus of the myocardia with a brutal tensional downfall and agonising pains. The electrocardiogram showed the inversion of the wave P and the unwedging of the isoelectric line in the interval T.S. The intravenous injection of legs of acetylcholine caused to disappear temporarily the unwedging T.S. and P. became positive.
3. Insuline. The insuline is used in gross doses for the cure of emaciation. Inversely M. Martiny has observed some notable diminutions of weight in obese subjects by prescribing Insuline in 30.
4. The genital hormones-the folliculines and the luteine: the testosterone.
The folliculine was isolated in crystallized state by Doisy,
Butenardt, Laqueur, Gerard. It may now be measured, no more in uni of rats but in ponderable units, each representing 1/10,000 of milligram. Chemically it belongs to the family of cholesterol, and a derivate of Phenanthrene. It is known that in gross doses in female mamiferas it cause hypervascularisation of the uterus ending in haemorrhages; it augments the contractility of the uterus, it hypertrophies the mammary glands, but it has no action on the ovaries. In males, it may atrophies the testicles and also hypertrophies the breasts.
Dr. Pouliot has proposed to use the folliculine in homoeopathic doses in hemorrhages of uterine origin, and since then many homoeopaths have obtained some certain results. In gross doses, the folliculine is used in the amenorrhoeas and in hypomenorrhoeas., Its indications are inversed according to the principle of similitude, in homoeopathic doses.
Similarly it is necessary to try in homoeopathic doses the male hormone or testosterone (when its action is well known) for the treatment hypergenitalism or of priapism or of mental troubles of sexual origin.
On the other hand the genital hormones, folliculine, luteine and testoterine are chemically related to carburates (cancerigenous). Lacassagne has been able to provoke the appearances of cancer of mammaes of the rats by saturating with it some rats for some months. It would then be interesting to try the hormones of the genitals in homoeopathic doses for the treatment of cancer.
5. Thyroid thyroxin and thyroid hormones.
Let us recall here that the microdose of thyroid or of thyroxin are used not only by homoeopaths but also by the officials. Thus did Lepold Levy. The posology of thyroid homoeopathic doses in the treatment of Basedow’s diseases has been indicated by Drs. Martiny and Berishac.
The vitamins. The isolation of vitamins has definitively fixed the quantities of these products which are necessary at least for the animal organism (rat, cobaye).
The vitamins A: formula C20 H30 (Karrer), may be had from carotene (yellow of eggs, carrots etc…) (Euler).
Vitamin B1. C12H18ON4S (Windaus), C12H18O2N4S (Jansen), C12H20O2N4S (Van veen) compound of a derivate of pyridine and of thiazol.
Vitamin B2: C17H20N3O6 (Kuhn) or lactoflavine.
Vitamin C: C6H6O6 (Szent Gyorgy) acid hexuronic or scorbutic.
Vitamin D (calciferol): C28 H44 O (Windaus, Bourdillon), derivate of ergosterol.
Vitamin E: C20H49O, tocopherol, recently isolated by Evans, Emerson & Emersion.
Bernoville was a major lecturer in homeopathy, and he was active in Liga Medicorum Homeopathica Internationalis, and a founder of the le Syndicat national des médecins homœopathes français in 1932, and a member of the French Society of Homeopathy, and the Society of Homeopathy in the Rhone.
Fortier-Bernoville wrote several books, including Une etude sur Phosphorus (1930), L'Homoeopathie en Medecine Infantile (1931), his best known Comment guerir par l'Homoeopathie (1929, 1937), and an interesting work on iridology, Introduction a l'etude de l'Iridologie (1932).
With Louis-Alcime Rousseau, he wrote several booklets, including Diseases of Respiratory and Digestive Systems of Children, Diabetes Mellitus, Chronic Rheumatism, treatment of hay fever (1929), The importance of chemistry and toxicology in the indications of Phosphorus (1931), and Homeopathic Medicine for Children (1931). He also wrote several short pamphlets, including What We Must Not Do in Homoeopathy, which discusses the logistics of drainage and how to avoid aggravations.
He was an opponent of Kentian homeopathy and a proponent of drainage and artificial phylectenular autotherapy as well.