It is necessary that we maintain a link between us and the chemist. The difficulty lies in the fact that chemistry is a practical Science where there is no place for general consideration. Take a book on chemistry and you will find that it is a book of pure experience and that chemist acts always tentatively. They have no general rule. When they make new experiment they have no ideas well founded by reasoning. We, doctors, on the contrary, try to lay down some general rules.
THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM
As regards the Vegetable Kingdom there are two important guiding principles. The first is that the plants should be taken IN THEIR MILIEU i.e. to say in their wild state. Take care of the plants grown in gardens for using in the preparation of tinctures. It is possible that such plants may give results, but it is an error of a priori because the plants should be collected in their milieu.
The second rule is the following. We must begin with tinctures made in alcohol and not with tinctures i.e. to say with tinctures made from fresh plants. This is easy to realise for indigenous plants but for plants growing in hot countries it is very often difficult to be certain of its origin. The rule for the fresh plants has its value. In a word the alcoholature, in order that it may be of any value, should begin as much as possible on the spot of collection of the plant itself.
As for example an exotic plant sent in France in dried condition may not have any action. It is necessary that the person who collects them should make the alcoholic tincture on the spot and send it to another place, otherwise the originals may not have equal value. (The time of collection has also some importance. The general rule of phytotherapy is that the plants should be collected in blooming state. There are plants that grow in shade and there are others that grow in open. The degree of insolation must have some influence of the quantity and the quality of the juice of the plant).
(That question of freshness has some importance for the active organs having intense metabolism but for the grains and the skins it has very little importance).
Our perfection in the practice of Homoeopathy has no value if we are not sure of the originals which we use for the preparation of our medicines. If we do not get the desired effect of a medicine we prescribe, we do not apply it any more thinking that the medicine is deceptive while perhaps it has not given desired effect because it is not prepared from a good original. Let us then be absolutely sure that the originals are good in order that we may not accuse the medicine for being ineffective. We should, on the contrary accuse ourselves because we have failed to make the proper choice. This is of course a difficult question.
It may be noted here that when we apply the globules dissolved in water mixing it with a spoon for 5 to 10 minutes we get much more rapid results.*
There are some laboratories that have replaced Psorinum of Hahnemann which is a scraping of the itch, by scrapings of eczema. This is an error because Hahnemann established the pathogenesis of Psorinum preparing it from the scrapings of itch.
Similar is the case with Hydrophobinum. It should be made from the saliva of a rapid dog, and not from the marrow of a rapid dog. The remedy prepared by the Pasteur Institute may be interesting but it is not Hydrophobinum which contains other organic substances, found in the saliva.
THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.
In the Animal kingdom there are other rules. Hahnemann, as for example formulated the rule that the entire body of the animal is to be used. For the serpents and other big animals only the venom is used but for the the small insects the whole is to be used to start with.
However as regards the serpents we must know that the venom of the animal has no value if the animal is not caught in its country of origin and if possible in liberty. The venom of the serpents kept in captivity in Europe has not as much value. When these animals are not in freedom, but are in conditions comparable to those of a free state, we may get some results. This is the rule for all the venoms of serpents kept in captivity in the antivenomous Institute of Rio de Janeiro. The institutes of this kind are famous in Brazil. There the serpents lives as if in liberty in gardens and for preparing the Antivenomous serums the venoms are gathered during the time of the year when they are more active.
The case of Apis is interesting. Sometimes Apium Virum acts better in oedema than Apis. In this case also we must be sure of the origin used by the pharmacists. The Germans have found out the active principle of Apium Virus which they have isolated in the form of Apisine. You may use it in subcutaneous injections in 6x. This 6x dilution of Apisine is much more active than Apium Virus in rheumatism.
We must be very careful for Apis. Many Homoeopaths very easily get the idea that Apis acts in all cases of oedema. This is one of the causes of failures with Apis because the oedema of Apis is painfully rosy, hot and inflammatory. It is for this reason oedema of Cardio-renal origin does not come within the sphere of Apis.
The question of the origin of medicines is very important and very delicate to deal with because finally it leads us to the question of the “Mark”. This question arises in Homoeopathy and it also arises in pharmacology. We are forced to apply Digitalis of such and such “mark” because the action of Digitaline is variable according to the region where it is produced. But the question is more grave and more delicate in Homoeopathy for the very reason that we have no means of control.
We can control the efficacy of a Homoeopathic medicine only by its application to our patients. Our question is always a relative one. We may think (and the anti-homoeopaths actually thinks) that it is a coincidence if we have an amelioration and naturally we may always about the value of our medicines. A particular case does signify nothing. We cannot be sure until and unless we have experience of the effect of a drug in several thousands of cases. In a word we may say that we have to have a certain confidence in our suppliers.
The case is the same with Opotherapy where the question of “mark” is also very important.
This is all about the origins of our medicines from which we should depart. There are many errors that we may make in selecting the drug to start with for preparing further dilutions.
(Lastly we may say that in our colleges, with the teaching of the different branches of Homoeopathic medicine, we must also have a course of Pharmacology. We must not forget that in India we cannot accept in to the rules laid down in the foreign pharmacopias. We must try to establish our own pharmacopia always with special consideration of our Indian herbs growing in a climate which is so different to that of other lands. Secondly it is also necessary that we have our own materia medica for the very reason that the drug action is variable according to the climate of its origin. In other words we, Indian Homoeopaths, must have our own Materia Medica and our own Homoeopathic Pharmacopia).
Chapter II
THE DOSE
The question of the Homoeopathic dose is our next problem. We may make many mistakes in this case. We should know the cases where high dilutions are to be used and where to apply the lower dilutions. We must also know how to repeat the Homoeopathic doses. The repetition of doses is a very important problem.
The laws regarding the dilutions are not yet accepted by all Homoeopaths. They should be considered in an open mind. However most of the Homoeopaths agree on the point that the lower dilutions act soon; superficially and for a short time; the high dilutions act slowly, deeply and for a long time. It seems that the laws relating to the homoeopathic dose are rather some corollaries of the law relating to the intensity of excitations caused in the living organism.
In practice this is very important and should be considered with a supple mind because the excitations differ according to the remedies. But we must insist on the point that while diluting the medicines the Homoeopaths have discovered a capital principle which is the duration of the action of Homoeopathic medicines. This is what make Homoeopaths for more superior to other therapeutists. We know at least approximately the duration of the action of our medicines.
In general medicine one does not know it. Hahnemann had discovered that in diluting and dynamising a substance, imparting to it some more medicinal energy, the duration of action augments and in reading the works of Hahnemann we find that he proved as for example. Causticum is capable in high dilution to act from 60 to 100 days. He found that in certain dilutions the period of action may last up to 120 days. When the dilutions are increased up to 100,000 Korasakow,* or still higher, it may be active for a much more long duration. Every remedy has its duration of action but this duration of action may be increased in course of treatment. when you treat a patient with a high dilution the duration of its action is not very long.
