Nevertheless, we suggest that these peculiarity pertinent questions are not elementary physics or chemistry; they partake of universal breadth and embrace our very reasons for existence.
Consider again the question of potency. This has been a stumbling-block to many since Hahnemann’s development of potentization. Modern science teaches that energy is automatically thrown off in proportion to the weight of the atom; those of high atomic weight–radioactive–give off their own peculiar energy in proportionately high degree, destroying themselves in the process. If the atomic weight is lower, there is less intrinsic radiation and it becomes necessary to apply force to release the energy, until, in the low atomic weights more energy may be required to release the potential energy than thrift warrants, the erg unit being the expended effort and result. Yet for curative purposes it is probable that we might find the raw atom (as we may express it) entirely unfitted for our uses, and that the energy expended to break up the atomic structure sufficiently to release the electric, electromagnetic and magnetic orbits into malleable form for our purpose to be a sound investment of time and effort.
Consider lime and its various material uses; consider how ineffective for physiological construction it is in its crude form, and indeed, how often it promotes rickets in children when introduced as lime water into the feeding formula. On the other hand, for countless conditions besides rachitic patients the homoeopathic physician could ill afford to be without potentized calcium; and infinitesimal amounts exhibit astoundingly curative results.
Recent developments in the study of the vitamins have demonstrated that in the lower triturations these become well- nigh inert but by raising them to higher potencies in fluid form their activity and potent influence is markedly increased.
This leads us to meditate upon the comparative value of trituration and succussion as a means of stimulating the atom to a release of energy. It is impossible, of course, to attack the atom of lime by the same measures one employs to attack the molecular formation of plants. In some substances it is imperative to break down the bulk by trituration, while others are soluble in liquid and thus approach the state where the potential energy may be most readily released. If we were able to view the actual composition of the atom and its permeability, we might gain a fair idea of the reasons for energy release under different methods. This problem is allied equally to the construction of the atom and its destruction, with the result of wresting from it the greatest possible degree of its peculiar and intrinsic energy.
In viewing our potencies, we find the statistical laws govern in materia medica when we casually assume that remedy provings in the lower dilutions will be applicable in equal degree and unvaryingly, in the highest potencies. Again, we assume that any potency, say the 200th, is always to be depended upon for uniform results, in spite of widely varying methods of development. To be sure, experience has taught us that certain remedies have certain symptoms, which are more or less fixed in all provings and which act with greater or less regularity–sufficient as a basis for statistical observations– when applied clinically. Herein lies our art in homoeopathy, but just here we lay ourselves open to criticism as being the scientists we claim to be.
Millikan tells us that under bombardment by alpha rays, an element may be built up to a higher atomic level; at the same time neutrons may be thrown off, as a by-product of artificial transmutation. “These neutrons are presumably constituents of all nuclei except hydrogen, and many nuclear transformations throw them out.” Neutrons carry no electrical charge, yet they are themselves weapons that may be hurled into atomic targets, making the atom unstable. This inability tends to step the atom down one degree and a proton–nucleus of hydrogen–flies out. Millikan tells us further that the neutron does not require great energy to get into a nucleus to transform it; if it does so with violence the result is to shatter the nucleus and thus produce several substances of smaller atomic weight than the struck nucleus itself. On the other hand, it tends to “fall in… more easily and oftener when they have slow speeds than when they try to force their way in with violence…. In this way it adds its mass to that of the nucleus, so that the process results in the quiet building up of a heavier atom.”
So far no technique has been devised to determine what the relation of trituration and succussion to energy release really means to the homoeopathic preparation of remedies; whether we actually change the character of the elements with which we deal, and if so, whether or not this is in a fixed ratio, is a problem for the homoeopathic physicist. This is a field not yet developed, but one that offers a challenge to homoeopathy. Here is an open question to intrigue the mind of science, a problem that, if solved in its elementary aspects, would place homoeopathic principles on a footing with the field attained by the foremost scientific pioneers in physics!
Here we are faced with another problem in physics which has to do with the single remedy or polypharmacy. There is a reason for the single remedy or polypharmacy. There is a reason for the single remedy even more profound than that practical one first advanced by Hahnemann and his followers: that since we know from careful provings what the single remedy will do, we can depend upon its uniformity (within certain limitations), but no one can predict the action of more than one remedy in combination or in alternation or in close proximity to each other. This is an observation, not an explanation.
Modern physics may give us the solution in the “wandering neutron”; and neutrons are evidently loosened when certain elements of low atomic weight are combined even *with an infinitesimal weight of radiations of an element of high atomic weight, and these neutrons in turn readily continue with other elements with which they come in contact; and while these elements of the third state do not necessarily become changed, they become unstable and again subject to further changes. Millikan quotes the case of “a bit of beryllium mixed with an infinitesimal amount of radium emanation…. ” where one of the neutrons released enters the nucleus of an atom of silver and thus raises the atomic weight of the silver one unit, the silver becoming extra heavy, still retaining its chemical properties, but becoming unstable and proceeding to throw out a negative electron and transforming itself into cadmium. To be sure, these changes were the result of experimental procedures, but we cannot be assured that any combination of elements might not produce just as profound changes, either constructive or destructive. This would be particularly true when we consider the methods we employ to release the inherent energy in seemingly inert substance. If our methods are sufficient to release energy we cannot be assured that they might not be transmuted.
A further problem in potentization presents itself to our inquiring minds. If our methods are sufficiently practical to release these energies (and we must admit that the potential powers of our high potencies often startle us with their reaction) we may well inquire to just what degree the atoms of the elements are broken up in these substances. Unquestionably there is some definite ration of energy release from the various elements, but to what extent trituration or succussion touches the atomic structure itself we do not know. If we could know that our application of force to these substances actually broke up the atom, we would recognize as a corollary that the destruction of the elemental atom and the consequent release of protons and neutrons tended toward the actual formation of different elements, with different atomic structures, and that these in turn had their own rates of energy which might be stabilized or unstabilized under certain conditions and combinations.
This suggests further study of the composite substances, such as the plant remedies. It has not yet been demonstrated that living substance contains radioactive elements, but when we consider the implication of such experiments as those cited by Millikan we may question the reaction set up by breaking down elements of various atomic weights even in the lower registers and their interaction. Further, the reaction of these changing energies upon the molecular construction of the individual is something upon which we may ponder.
Seemingly, these problems are beyond the scope of the physician. We feel impelled to know some of our materia medica and a few simple principles for the administration of our remedies. In other words, we naturally take a nearsighted view of our work. If we take the wider view-the phenomenological view-we see that these problems demand a more thorough understanding of our work; they express only a proper appreciation of our science and art.
