Functional symptoms always precede structural changes. In biology, ” function creates and develops the organ.” In disease, function, the effort of the vital energy to function under adverse circumstances, precedes and develops the pathological states. For the homoeopathic physician the totality of the functional symptoms of the patients is the disease and constitute the only perceptible form of disease and therefore the only basis of curative treatment. Symptoms are the outward and visible signs of the inward disturbance of the vital force which will ultimately produce morbid states, and when these symptoms are removed the disease ceases to exist.
Homoeopathy is not concerned with the morbific agents any more than it is with the tangible products or the ultimates of disease. Hahnemann regarded the removal of all the obstacles to cure as absolutely essential before he attempted to proceed to the selection and administration of the remedy which was homoeopathic to the symptoms of the individual case, by which alone the cure is to be accomplished.
We thus focus our attention upon the individual and purely functional side of disease, upon disease itself, where we can perceive the sphere of homoeopathy. Thus from this view disease is a constant change of functions and transformation so long as life lasts. We are here dealing in the realm of pure dynamics. This field is the field of disordered vital energy, and therefore disordered vital expressions and functional changes in the individual patient, irrespective of the name of the disease or its cause, and is governed by the laws of motion in the vital realm. It is in this sphere that vital functions act-in the realm of the laws of Mutual Action : ***ACTION AND REACTION ARE EQUAL AND OPPOSITE.
In this *Organon, Par.6, Hahnemann says :
The unprejudiced observer, well aware of the futility of transcendental speculation which can be receive no conformation from experience-be his power of penetration never so great-takes note of nothing in every individual disease, except the *changes in the health of the body and the mind (morbid phenomena, accidents, symptoms) which can be perceived externally by means of the senses; that is to say, he notices only the deviations from a former healthy state of the diseased individual, which are felt by the patient himself, remarked by those around him and observed by the physician. All these perceptible signs represent the disease in its whole extent, that is, together they form the true and only conceivable portrait of the disease.
Disease itself is impossible of observation; we only see and record the effects of disease; we can only record the symptoms. Disease is as elusive as thought; we are utterly unable to discern thoughts, save such as are transformed into acts; so we only recognize disease as it is made manifest in symptoms. The inner expression are dynamic in nature, their outward expression is functional. While all this is true, yet we are dealing with the most positive of facts-for symptoms are a record of facts- facts registered in symptoms are the most exact record of the expression of the vital energy to the morbific agent.
Once more to quote Hahnemann’s *Organon :
There must be a curative principle present in medicine; reasons divines as much. But its inner nature is in no way to be perceived by us; its mode of expression and its outward effects alone can be judged by experience.
Health is restored after the removal of all symptoms; then and only than is all disease removed. Hahnemann this way distinguishes between disease itself and its causes, manifestations, and products, and then shows at once that the sphere of homoeopathy is limited to functional changes from which the phenomena of diseases arise. Thus homoeopathy operates only in the dynamic sphere. Directly, homoeopathy has nothing in common with the physical cause or product of disease, but secondarily it is related. Here is the place where surgery may have its function, yet many of the tangible effects may remain. If these effects are too far advanced, they may be removed. If this is not done, it stands to reason that the best effects of the remedy will not be realized, but we must differentiate between the causes of disease the ultimates of disease; they stand at opposite ends of the scale. While these ultimates are not primarily within the range of *similia, and therefore not the objective of homoeopathic treatment, the morbid process from which they arise or to which they lead is under the control of homoeopathic medication. This medication may control and retard the development of pathological conditions. Thus tumours may be retarded or completely arrested, and absorption increased, and finally the disappearance of the growth; secretions or excretions increased or decreased; ulcers healed; but all this is secondary to the real cure which takes place solely in the dynamic sphere, restoring the patient to health and harmonious functioning of this whole being by the dynamic influence of the symptomatically similar remedy.
As Stuart Close has well said, the real field of homoeopathy is
To those agents which effect the organism as to health in ways not governed by chemistry, mechanics, or hygiene, but those capable of producing ailments similar to those found in the sick.
Fincke has shown that in the development and growth of the child much can be done to make this symmetrical, for it is closely related to the laws of assimilation; here the laws of *similia have pre-eminence, for the child is peculiarly under the influence of the laws of action and reaction as applied to the action of the similar remedy in its development and growth.
The homoeopathic principle is not used in another field of what might be called extreme emergency, but rather we use what may be called a principle of palliation. As Hahnemann says in a note to Par. 67 of the *Organon :
Only in the most urgent cases, where danger to life and imminent death allow no time for the action of a homoeopathic remedy-not hours, sometimes not even quarter hours and scarcely minutes- in sudden accidents occurring to previously healthy individuals-for example, in asphyxia and suspended animation from lighting, from suffocation, freezing, drowning, etc.- it is admissible and even judicious at all events as a preliminary measure to stimulate the irritability and sensibility (the physical life) with a palliative, as for instance, gentle electric shocks, with clysters of strong coffee, with a stimulating odour, gradual applications of heat, etc. When this stimulation is effected, the play of vital organs goes on again in its former healthy manner, for here there is no disease to be removed, but merely an obstruction and suppression to the healthy vital force. To this category belong various antidotes to sudden poisonings: alkalis for mineral acids, hepar sulphuris for metallic poisons, coffee and camphor (and ipecacuanha) for poisoning by opium, etc.
Even in emergencies, however, we may find the indications for the homoeopathic remedy just as clear-cut as antipathic means would be, and if we can read these indications, even here the action of the potentized remedy will be more rapid and far more gentle in its restorative powers than would be the case if stronger measure were taken. Thus in such conditions as asphyxia, shock from various sources, and even from the ingestion of poisons, among many other so-called emergencies, homoeopathic remedies in skilful hands have saved lives with almost miraculous speed and with the happiest of results. The indicated remedy works with exceeding rapidity, and we dare not put a limitation upon its restorative powers.
It is well to obtain this clear view of what is before us and face candidly the true place for the practice of the healing art that we may become true physicians; and to stabilize still further, let us look at what Carroll Dunham called *the scientific reasonableness of homoeopathy.
Homoeopathy has been developed through the inductive method of reasoning. Not only are the conclusions of homoeopathy consistent with its assumption but they are founded upon Truth, for homoeopathy as a method is drawn logically according to the strictest rules of inductive generalization from data derived from the closest observation of facts and experiments. All the processes from the proving to the curative prescription are controlled by the principles of inductive reasoning.
Funk & Wagnall’s *Dictionary defines inductive reasoning as follows :
The Inductive Method in Reasoning is the scientific method that proceeds by induction. It requires (1) *exact observation : (2) *correct interpretation of the observed facts with a view to understanding them in relation to each other and their causes; (3) *rational explanation of the facts by referring them to their real cause or law; and (4) *scientific construction : putting the facts in such co-ordination that the system reached shall agree with the reality.
Let us examine the earlier steps taken by Hahnemann in his development of the scientific approach toward the healing of the sick through the reasonable application of natural laws.
