Associate Professor of Medicine.
New York Medical College Flower and 5th Avenue Hospitals.
Some years ago a patient suffering from rheumatoid arthritis of the deforming type, became so helpless she could not do her usual household tasks. Several prescriptions failed to help her and then she reminded me that two years either I had given her a remedy which had relieved her greatly.
The remedy was Bachs Nosode “Polyvalent,” which I thereupon gave her in the 30th dilution. At the end of two weeks this, too, was unavailing but she said, “That was not the way you gave it to me before. You gave the remedy in a small vial and I shook it up everyday.” Then I remembered that I had used the remedy giving it in the “plus method,” one dose each day for seven days. This was repeated and at the end of two weeks the response had been rather spectacular. The lady became so much better she could once more do her share of the housework.
I learned about this matter of plussing from the English homoeopathists. In telling about the use of Bachs Nosodes, Dishington said “In this case I have used the plus method of giving the remedy; no potency has ever been repeated unchanged. Each dose has had a plus added to its potency by dilution and succussion all according to my interpretation of Hahnemanns precept in the 6th edition of the “Organon.”.
Here is what Hahnemann said in this final edition:.
S 246.
“Every perceptibly progressive and strikingly increasing amelioration during treatment is a condition which as long as it lasts, completely precludes every repetition of the administration of any medicine whatsoever, because all the good the medicine taken continues to effect is now hastening towards its completion. This is not infrequently the case in acute disease, but in more chronic diseases, on the other hand, a single dose of an appropriately selected homoeopathic remedy will at times complete even with but slowly progressive improvement and give the help which such a remedy in such a case can accomplish naturally within 40, 50, 60, 100 days.
This is, however, but rarely the case; and besides, it must be a matter of great importance to the physician as well as to the patient that were it possible, this period should be diminished to one-half, one-quarter, and even still less so that a much more rapid cure might be obtained.
And this may be very happily effected, as recent and oft-repeated observations have taught me under the following conditions; firstly, if the medicine selected with the utmost care was perfectly homoeopathic; secondly, if it is highly potentized, dissolved in water and given in proper small dose that experience has taught as the most suitable in definite intervals for the quickest accomplishment of the cure but with the precaution, that the degree of every dose deviate somewhat from the preceding and following in order that the vital principle which is to be altered to a similar medicinal disease be not aroused to untoward reactions and revolt as is always the case with unmodified and especially rapidly repeated doses.”.
A footnote to this paragraph reds ad follows: “What I said in the fifth edition of the Organon, in a long note to this paragraph in order to prevent these undesirable reactions of the vital energy, was all that the experience I then had justified. But during the last four or five years, however, all these difficulties are wholly solved by my new altered but perfected method.
The same carefully selected medicine may now be given daily and for months, if necessary in this way, namely, after the lower degree of potency has been used for one or two weeks in the treatment of chronic disease, advance is made in the same way to higher degrees, (beginning according to the new dynamization method, taught herewith with the use of the lowest degrees).”.
S 247
“It is impractical to repeat the same unchanged dose of a remedy once, not to mention its frequent repetition (and at short intervals in order not to delay the cure). The vital principle does not accept such unchanged doses without resistance, that is, without other symptoms of the medicine to manifest themselves than those similar to the disease to be cured, because the former dose had already accomplished the expected change in the vital principle and a second dynamically wholly similar, unchanged dose of the same medicine no longer finds, therefore, the same conditions of the vital force.
The patient may indeed be made sick in another way by receiving other such unchanged doses, even by receiving other such unchanged doses, even sicker than he was, for now only those symptoms of the given remedy remain active which were not homoeopathic to the original disease, hence no step towards cure can follow, only a true aggravation of the condition of the patient. But if the succeeding dose is changed slightly every time, namely potentized somewhat higher (S. 269- 270) then the vital principle may be altered without difficulty by the same medicine (the sensation of natural disease diminishing) and thus the cure brought nearer.”.
The following is the footnote to this paragraph: “We ought not even with the best chosen homoeopathic medicine, for instance one pellet of the same potency that was beneficial at first, to let the patient have a second or third dose taken dry. In the same way, if the medicine was dissolved in water and the first dose proved beneficial, a second or third and even smaller dose from the bottle standing undisturbed, even in intervals of a new days, would prove no longer beneficial, even though the original preparation had been potentized with ten succussions or as I suggested later with but two succussions in order to obviate this disadvantage and this according to above reasons.
But through modification of every dose in its dynamization degree, as I herewith teach, there exists no offense, even if the doses be repeated more frequently, even if the medicine be ever so highly potentized with ever so many succussions. It almost seems as if the best selected homoeopathic remedy could best extract the morbid disorder from the vital force and in chronic diseases to extinguish the same only if applied in several different forms.”.
S 248.
For this purpose, we potentize anew the medicinal solution 134 (with perhaps 8, 10, 12 succussions) from which we give the patient one or (increasingly) several teaspoonful doses, in long lasting diseases daily or every second day, in acute diseases every two to six hours and in very urgent cases every hour or oftener. Thus in chronic disease, every correctly chosen homoeopathic medicine, even those whose action is of long duration, may be repeated daily for months with ever increasing success.
If the solution is used up (in seven to fifteen days) it is necessary to add to the next solution of the same medicine if still indicated one or (though rarely) several pellets of a higher potency with which continue so long as the patient experiences continued improvement without encountering one or another complaint that he never had before in his life. For if this happens, if the balance of the disease appears in a group of altered symptoms then another, one more homoeopathically related medicine must be chosen in place of the last and administered in the same repeated doses, mindful, however, of modifying the solution of every dose with thorough vigorous succussions, thus changing its degree of potency and increasing it somewhat.
On the other hand, should there appear during almost daily repetition of the well indicated homoeopathic remedy, towards the end of the treatment of a chronic disease, so-called (S 161) homoeopathic aggravations by which the balance of the morbid symptoms seem to again increase somewhat (the medicinal disease, similar to the original, now alone persistently manifests itself).
The doses in that case must then be reduced still further and repeated in longer intervals and possibly stopped several days, in order to see if the convalescence need no further medicinal aid. The apparent symptoms (Schein-Symptom) caused by the excess of the homoeopathic medicine will soon disappear and leave undisturbed health in its wake. If only a small vial say a dram of dilute alcohol is used in the treatment, in which is contained and dissolved through succession one globule of the medicine which is to be used by olfaction every two, three or four days, this also must be thoroughly succussed eight to ten times before each olfaction.”.
Footnote 134 is as follows: “Made in 40, 30, 20, 15 or 8 tablespoonfuls of water with the addition of some alcohol or a piece of charcoal in order to preserve it. If charcoal is used, it is suspended by means of a thread in the vial and is taken out when the vial is succussed. The solution of the medicinal globule (and it is rarely necessary to use more than one globule) of a thoroughly potentized medicine in a large quantity of water can be obtained by making a solution in only 7-8 tablespoonfuls of water and after thorough succussion of the vial take from it one tablespoonful and put it in a glass of water (containing about 7 to 8 spoonfuls), this stirred thoroughly and then give a dose to the patient.
