AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF HOMOEOPATHY


Fincke has shown that in the development and growth of the child much can be done to make this symmetrical, for it is closely related to the laws of assimilation; here the laws of similia have preeminence, for the child is peculiarly under the influence of the laws of action and reaction as applied to the action of the similar remedy in its development and growth.


The generally accepted concept of homoeopathy is that it is the law of similar. Indeed, the encyclopaedia gives as the definition of homoeopathy that it is a system of medicine based upon the law of similars. While for a concentrated definition this might be true, yet there is much more to homoeopathy than the law of similars, for it would be very incomplete did it not embrace much more than this. It might be better defined as a system of medicine based upon natural laws.

We need to get a more complete and comprehensive insight into the scope of these laws. There is danger of making a fetish of the faith in homoeopathy by expecting wonderful results where proper understanding of these laws would deter us from attempting the use of homoeopathy. Sometimes without a knowledge of these laws we obtain wonderful results, it is true, but we often fail by not carrying out the teaching of Hahnemann, to remove the cause of the disease where it is manifestly a mechanical trouble. Again, in the class of diseases due to deficiency in the diet, when not due to the inability of the individual to assimilate those foods when the thing required is not present in the food, we may fail.

On the other hand, in the field of therapeutics by curative medicine there is no other absolutely curative assistance. Here of these fields makes for misunderstanding and failure.

Homoeopathy considers the morbid vital processes in living organisms, which are perceptibly represented by symptoms, irrespective of what caused them. Homoeopathy is concerned only with disease per se, that is, in its primary, functional or dynamic aspect, not in its ultimates and so-called pathological results. With these which are not in any sense the disease but are the results of disease conditions, we have nothing to do. Therefore we must distinguish between the primary, functional symptoms, which represent the morbid itself, and the secondary symptoms which represent the pathological end products of disease.

The gross physical pathology such as we find in gall-stones we do not prescribe for, but we do prescribe for the patient, being guided by the symptoms which began in the perversion of the vital process, which preceded and accompanied the ultimate development of the gall-stones.

Functional symptoms always precede structural changes. In biology, “Function creates and develops the organ”. In disease, function precedes and develops the pathological states. For the homoeopathic physician the totality of the functional symptoms of the patient is the disease and constitutes the only perceptible form of disease, and therefore the only basis of curative treatment. Symptoms are the outward and visible signs of the inward disturbance of the vital force which will ultimate in morbid states, and when these symptoms are removed the disease ceases to exist.

Homoeopathy is not concerned with the morbific agents any more than it is with the tangible products or the ultimates of disease. Hahnemann regarded the removal of all obstacles to cure as absolutely essential before he attempted to proceed to the selection and administration of the remedy which was homoeopathic to the symptoms of the individual case, by which alone the cure is to be accomplished.

We thus focus our attention upon the individual and purely functional side of disease, upon disease, itself, where we can perceive the sphere of homoeopathy. Thus from this view disease is a constant change of functions and transformations so long as life lasts. We are here dealing in the realm of pure dynamics. This field is the field of disordered vital energy, and therefore disordered vital expression and functional changes in the individual patient, irrespective of the name of the disease or its cause, and is governed by the laws of motion in the vital realm. It is in this sphere that vital functions act-in the realm of the laws of Mutual Action: Action and Reaction are Equal and Opposite.

Hahnemann says:.

The unprejudiced observer, well aware of the futility of transcendental speculation which can receive no confirmation from experience-be his power of penetration never so great-takes note of nothing in every individual disease, except the changes in the health of the body and the mind (morbid phenomena, accidents, symptoms) which can be perceived externally by means of the senses; that is to say, he notices only the deviations from a former healthy state of the diseased individual, which are felt by the patient himself, remarked by those around him and observed by the physician. All these perceptible signs represent the disease in its whole extent, that is, together they form the true and only conceivable portrait of the disease.” (Organon, par. 6).

Disease itself is impossible of observation; we only see and record the effects of disease, we can only record the symptoms. Disease is as elusive as thought; we are utterly unable to discern thoughts, save such as are transformed into acts; so we only recognize disease as it is made manifest in symptoms. The inner expressions are dynamic in nature. While all this is true, yet we are dealing with the most positive of facts-for symptoms are a record of facts-facts registered in symptoms with the most exact record of the expression of the vital energy to the morbific agent.

Once more to quote Hahnemanns Organon:.

There must be a curative principle present in medicine; reason divines as much. But its inner nature is in no way to be perceived by us; its mode of expression and is outward effects alone can be judged by experience.

Health is restored after the removal of all symptoms; then and only then is all disease removed. Hahnemann in this way distinguishes between disease itself and its causes, manifestations and products, and then shows at once that the sphere of homoeopathy is limited to functional changes from which the phenomena of diseases arise. Thus homoeopathy operates only in the dynamic sphere. Directly, Homoeopathy of disease, but secondarily it is related. Here is the place where surgery may have its function, yet many of the tangible effects may remain. If these effects are too far advanced, they may be removed and then the dynamic action of the remedy have full effect. Hahnemann taught that all known causes of disease should be removed. If this is not done, it stands to reason that the best effects of the remedy will not be realized, but we must differentiate between the causes of disease and the ultimates of disease; they stand at opposite ends of the scale. While these ultimates are not primarily within the range of similia, and therefore not the objective of homoeopathic treatment, the morbid process from which they arise or to which they lead is under the control of homoeopathic medication. This medication may control and retard the development of pathological conditions. Thus tumors may be retarded or completely arrested, and absorption increases, and finally the disappearance of the growth; secretions or excretions increased or decreased; ulcers healed; but all this is secondary to the real cure which takes place solely in the dynamic sphere, restoring the patient to health and harmonious functioning of his whole being by the dynamic influence of the symptomatically similar remedy.

As Stuart Close has well said, the real field of homoeopathy is “to those agents which affect the organism as to health in ways not governed by chemistry, mechanics, or hygiene, but those capable of producing ailments similar to those found in the sick.”.

Fincke has shown that in the development and growth of the child much can be done to make this symmetrical, for it is closely related to the laws of assimilation; here the laws of similia have preeminence, for the child is peculiarly under the influence of the laws of action and reaction as applied to the action of the similar remedy in its development and growth.

The homoeopathic principle is not used in another field of what might be called extreme emergency, but rather we use what may be called principle of palliation. As Hahnemann says in a note to paragraph 67 of the Organon:.

Only in the most urgent cases, where danger to life and imminent death allow no time for the action of a homoeopathic remedy-not hours, sometimes not even quarter hours and scarcely minutes-in sudden accidents occurring to previously healthy individuals-for example, in asphyxia and suspended animation from lightning, from suffocation, freezing, drowning, etc. it is admissible and even judicious at all events as a preliminary measure to stimulate the irritability and sensibility (the physical life) with a palliative, as for instance, gentle electric shocks, with clysters of strong coffee, with a stimulating odor, gradual application of heat, etc. When this stimulation if effected, the play of vital organs goes on again in its former healthy manner, for here there is no disease to be removed, but merely an obstruction and suppression to the healthy vital force. To this category belong various antidotes to sudden poisonings; alkalis for mineral acids, Hepar sulphuris for metallic poisons, Coffee and Camphor (and Ipecacuanha) for poisoning by opium, etc.

H.A. Roberts
Dr. H.A.Roberts (1868-1950) attended New York Homoeopathic Medical College and set up practrice in Brattleboro of Vermont (U.S.). He eventually moved to Connecticut where he practiced almost 50 years. Elected president of the Connecticut Homoeopathic Medical Society and subsequently President of The International Hahnemannian Association. His writings include Sensation As If and The Principles and Art of Cure by Homoeopathy.