But where your patient says “My” instead of “I”, there you have a Particular. “My headache is awful in the house: the only thing for it is to go out and walk about. It often drives me out of bed at 2 or 3 a.m., to walk the Common for hours.” (These are not exaggerated statements: we are giving you, all through, actual words of actual patients; and the magic drug for the last was Pulsatilla)
But the Generals and the Particulars may not only be quite different, but they may be flatly contradictory in the same patient: so you see how imperative it is to get them clearly, and to know what value to give to each. Arsenicum is worse from cold: Arsenicum stands in the list of “predominantly cold remedies” in capitals. And yet the `headache of Arsenicum is better from cold. Arsenicum has been described as only comfortable when “rolled in blankets up to his chin, with his head out of the window.” Lycopodium is a warm remedy in the main, and often cannot stand heat: yet his stomach symptoms, which are a great feature of the drug are ameliorated by hot food and drinks. Of these the patient says not “I”, but “My”, therefore they are Particulars. He may say, “I cannot stand heat” (a General of the highest importance, and one of the most safe and useful of eliminating symptoms-if strongly marked!)-“I cannot stand heat, but my indigestion” (a Particular of the greatest importance to the patient, and on which he lays the greatest stress) “is better for hot food and drinks. Cold things always disagree with me” (meaning his stomach). Again, Phosphorus stands in capitals as a very cold person-
If you are to be a good prescriber, by the way, your drugs have got to be people for you, with whims, fancies and terrors; with tempers and idiosyncrasies and characteristics: you have got to see them stalking about the world speaking and moving and halting, with the bodies-minds-souls of men. You have got to travel with them in tram or train, and they will betray themselves, buttoned up and shrinking together, or loose and jolly and open; fidgety, restless, fearful; dull and inert; quarrelling for an open window, growing at the draught with windows closed. You have got to dine with them, and they will reveal themselves in their relation to food and drink, and in the mental revelations such convivial moments of relaxation call forth. You may spot them, standing for preference, or sinking always into the nearest seat; stoop shouldered and drooping, or erect and full of “go”, depressed and querulous; restless and anxious, as their deeply lined faces testify; smooth and smug; dirty complexioned and careless of appearance; chalky faced and flabby of superlative tissue: compact and hard as nails; fault- finding-affectionate and mild-responsive to every wave of sentiment and emotion-dull and indifferent. Look for them everywhere, and learn them, and they will betray themselves at every turn; and you will often save yourselves hours of solid work, by spotting them as they enter your consulting room.
So, to hark back, Phosphorus is a very cold person, but his stomach is better for cold drinks. When that is sick he craves for cold water, which is vomited, however, so soon as it gets warm in the stomach. This is a particular, true, but a priceless one, because it is peculiar to Phosphorus. And here we have a new term-a “PECULIAR” symptom, strongly diagnostic of one drug. These peculiar symptoms are especially useful in acute diseases where you are more likely to meet them, and where they often provide a brilliant short-cut to the drug, saving time and toil. And see how these peculiar unaccountable, contradictory symptoms help you-how unexpected they are, and how diagnostic! Here you have the superlatively chilly Phosphorus: and yet his pains are often of the most intensely-burning description: and though, as a whole, he cannot tolerate cold, yet his sick stomach craves for icy drinks, which it cannot even retain when they get warm! Take your Generals and Particulars mixed-up and awry and just-anyhow, and you might land in giving such a patient Lycopodium: for both are worse for heat, and worse for cold: only the Generals and Particulars are exactly reversed! For Lycopodium is in the main, intolerant of heat, which his stomach craves; while Phosphorus detests the cold which his sick stomach demands with vehemence. See how all-important it is to get your Generals and Particulars right! This is where we fail, and blame Homoeopathy.
Then, besides Kent’s Generals and Particulars, you have COMMON SYMPTOMS. A symptom may be common to all cases of a certain disease, and therefore of no great use in picking out the individual remedy for a particular case of that disease; or it may be common to a very great number of drugs, and therefore indicate one of a large group of remedies only; and so of very little use in repertorising. Take thirst, a general symptom of the patient, though in the Repertory relegated to the section “Stomach’:-“I am terribly thirsty.” If there is nothing to account for the thirst, it may be an important symptom; though common to a great number of drugs! But if the patient is running a high temperature, or suffering from diabetes, or if his work keeps him in the heat of a bakehouse or an engine-room, or if the weather is suddenly and unusually hot, the symptom becomes a Common symptom, and almost valueless. Don’t waste life in writing down that awful list of remedies “Thirsty”. Absence of thirst under conditions where you would expect it, on the contrary, becomes a very important symptom; as absence of thirst with a very high temperature-kent has a rubric for that. Remember!-THE MORE UNCOMMON A SYMPTOM IS, THE MORE VALUABLE: THE LESS YOU CAN ACCOUNT FOR A SYMPTOM AND THE MORE INTENSELY PERSONAL IT IS, THE MORE IMPORTANT. In inflammation, for instance, worse from pressure is what one would expect, and of little value-so many drugs and most inflammations have it! But better from pressure, under these circumstances, is priceless, and leads you to a small groups of drugs, such as Bryonia. Frequent micturition with a fibroid impacted in the pelvis is not a symptom that will help you in working out your case; it is a Common symptom and amply accounted for… and this leads one to insist on the absolute necessity for correct diagnosis before you even open your Repertory. Remember, the priceless symptoms for success are the strange, the rare, the unaccountable ones; those that flatly contradict preconceived ideas, and head off straight for a limited number of drugs.
