(4) “In homoeopathy the size of the dose is incidental.” And by the same process of reasoning homoeopathy is incidental to some so-called homoeopaths. Kent said, and we have proved him right, that “the symptoms may lead one to the drug, but the proper potency leads to the similimum”. Our essayist has yet to learn, as have a host of others, that it is that eternal trinity, mandatory requisite to an accurate homoeopathic prescription, that must be present, if a final and proper result is to be expected and obtained.
That trinity is: correct symptoms, that individualistic mark or stamp that distinguishes the particular drug from all others, and lastly, and by no means least, the correct potential or potency, for it alone constitutes the final factor in the make-up of the indicated remedy which kent and I agree to call the SIMILIMUM (and not similimum). The “size of the dose” may be “incidental” to those who do not know, or who have only a limited knowledge of, homoeopathy, but to a Hahnemannian homoeopath it is the peer, if not the superior of the other two mandatory factors above named.
The neglect to take into consideration the potency or dose has caused more failures, and we may add deaths, than any other factor, and that to many otherwise good homoeopaths. This we know from personal experience. If 47 years of hard knocks will not teach a man something then he is mentally impossible. Drugs or curative agents as we call them are but the containers of confined energy. Their fatality depends entirely upon the secretions of the partaker to be able to act on the container so as to render them active.
This is well illustrated in the immunity of animals which can consume quantities of drugs that are exceedingly poisonous to man. Energy is energy whether released from a drug or produced by physical or mechanical means. If massage is indicated, applied and cures, then it is just as homoeopathic as any drug; but as with the drug, you must have a definite indication to know just when and how to use that applied power and how much. Even massage and other mechanical methods, when not indicated, can do untold harm. They cannot be used promiscuously with perfect safety.
(5) “It might be rightly asked-if this law is so sure-why there need be any failures with homoeopathists to cure.” It is well to use the word “homoeopathist” instead of the word homoeopathy. There are but two reasons why homoeopathy should fall, first, the absence of the indicated remedy; second, the patient being beyond the remedys reach, irrecoverable. But there are numerous reasons why the homoeopathists fails, amongst which are his negligence to obtain the rest of the unproven remedial agents; his failure to follow religiously the rules of the game; the application of the wrong remedy; lack of knowledge of how to secure the patients history; ignoring the importance of the indicated potency or “size of the dose”, etc., and a hundred and one other etcs.
Our experience teaches us that if we have taken the history properly, seen that the remedy secured therefrom bore the individualistic mark or stamp, and the proper potency was selected, and the patient was not beyond the reach of medicine, we had no failures, and the need for frequent repetitions of the remedy reduced to a minimum. Wherever any remedy of any kind will act, homoeopathy will not disappoint.
(6) “It would be absurd to advocate that there is a remedial cure for cancer, tuberculosis, etc.” Yes! as far as the name alone goes. Names are deceiving and misleading, yet the above leads the public to believe that that is final. What a comfort it would have been to the victims if it had been stated that there is no cure for cancer my name, which is a fact, but that there ar remedies which will cure the patient having the cancer, when that remedy is positively indicated.
Dr. A.H. Grimmer has personally demonstrated this, and we, ourself, have demonstrated it on three (allopathically diagnosed) cases, one of the superior maxilla, one of the inner canthus of the eye and one of the uterus; the first with Phos. 10M, the second with Hydrastis 30x, the last with Rhus 30x. An allopathically diagnosed case of tuberculosis, moribund, was restored completely with Tub. cc, and increased from 98 to 185 pounds, looks the picture of health, and works like a “beaver”. A case, undiagnosable by the allopaths, a school teacher, living in a Wisconsin town, who was thought to be tubercular, having sudden attacks of complete prostration and ravenous hunger, and who had been under observation several weeks at the Mayo Clinic, was restored in a week by a single prescription of Natr. phos. 30x.
But the most amazing of all is this case: A 10 year old girl who had been under allopathic care for some time for “diabetes mellitus” and growing worse all the time, and was to be sent to the hospital for observation, was turned over to us. Her face bore the individualistic stamp of Cina all over it. Dr. D.T.P. took the history of the case for me and confirmed to the letter what had been observed. On June 3rd she received a single dose of the 1M and a Placebo. It was not repeated. The girl became strong, healthy and active.
Unknown to us, the father, thinking it all to be too good to be true, after all he had gone through, took the young lady and a sample of her urine to the original doctors for examination, who pronounced both girl and urine normal in every respect. This on July 5th. Does Cina, when indicated, cure “sugar diabetes”? Was it ever known to have caused it? That is but a single incident of the many that have occurred to us. These, then, prove one of two facts: Either homoeopathy cures patients of these predispositions, or, contrary to our common concession, the allopaths are very, very poor diagnosticians, and also shows the fallacy of placing too much faith in diagnosis for prescribing purposes.
Modern medical men learn all too little from their failures and mistakes. As the late Dr. McKenzie remarked, “We go right on making the identical mistakes year after year that we made in the beginning.” They prescribe, their prescriptions fail and all they learn is that they failed. Does this give them any assurance in the next case? Is it any wonder then that the allopaths and their “homoeopathic” sympathizers never progress? Even the most intelligent of homoeopaths can only conjecture from his mistakes, he has no assurance that, if he had the same case over again, this failure would lead him to a positive success.
On the other hand the homoeopath has this advantage, he knows, or should know why he failed. He prescribes on definite indications. He proves his remedies, beforehand, on healthy or normal human beings (not on animals) to find these definite indications. He matches the two and, if his potency is right, gets immediate results. He tries this over and over again under like conditions and finds that it never fails. He has succeeded; he has learned something, and that of value; he knows the reason why. Had all that proven a failure, all that he would have learned would have been that he had failed, and that would have ended the matter.
Would his failures have justified him in continuing his failures? On the other hand he had learned that his provings had brought him reliable guides; that the application of the remedy to the similar disease symptoms, when the patient was not beyond help, always brought, relief, and nearly always a cure, and above all that the remedy acts, which is of far more importance than to know why or how the remedy acts. These, then, have brought him knowledge which justifies and strengthens his reason and position in giving the same remedy again under the same circumstances with perfect confidence in the end result. You have learned something, not from failure, but from success, and also, the reason why.
When the day arrives, when we can think of homoeopathy without having to mix it with allopathy, then, and not until then, will homoeopathy come into its own.
