SIT DOWN, DOCTOR, AND WRITE US YOUR ANSWER TO THESE QUESTIONS.
Will someone give in The Recorder an explanation of how best we can use Boenninghausens Relationship section in his Therapeutic Pocket Book?- G.S. MALHAN, New Delhi, India.
ANSWER TO ABOVE QUESTION.
The real use of this section is set forth clearly in the Preface to all the editions, and especially in Allens edition, page ix, beginning in the middle of the page.
This may require some little additional explanation to make it quite clear to the new student, and therefore, of more practical use.
The Pocket Book deals especially with the polychrests and their components, and this section, deals with their respective relationships. Boenninghausen, in his earlier editions, refers to this section as the Concordance.
Almost all remedies in the vegetable kingdom, for instance, have their complements in the mineral and animal kingdoms. They are related in greater or lesser degree. All remedies have some symptoms in common with other remedies, but the remedies which are said to be complementary to each other are those which have a greater degree of relationship under a greater number of rubrics. Let us illustrate. Take the remedy Silicia on page 462, Allens edition.
The relative value of all the other remedies are listed under the various sections, or divisions, and not only are they set down, but the degree of their likeness is indicated in the five grades of type used. Perhaps it is well to state, for the younger student, that the first degree is found more frequently in this section than anywhere else in the book, for the first valuation is that found in parenthesis, and is that valuation which was not brought out in the provings, but by clinical verifications. That is, under Silicia, it has been found clinically that Caul., Crotal., Fl. ac., Hyper., etc., have something the same relationship as Silicia to locations of symptoms.
We have learned that Pulsatilla, in the vegetable kingdom, has a complementary relationship to Silicia, the mineral. By looking at our section Relationships, we find that under Mind, Puls. ranks 5; Localities, again 5; Sensations, only 3; Glandular system, only 2; Bones, 3; SKin, 4; Sleep and Dreams, 3; Blood, Circulation and Fever, 3; Aggravations, 3; in its Relationship to Other Remedies, 4. In trying to decide between Silicia and Pulsatilla in making a prescription you could easily distinguish your remedy, according to the general trend of your symptoms.
We might go on with a number of remedies in this way; but we have said enough to show how we can quickly review the intimate relationships of remedies in the various sections of the book, which of course refer directly to the various sections of the patients symptomatology. For one who is thoroughly versed in materia medica, this section often saves the trouble of a complete repertorization, because it gives the remedies that have pronounced action in the spheres corresponding to our most marked symptoms, and we can trace the relationship through all the spheres, thus making a sound basis for choosing one remedy above another.
This is not to be taken, however, as an aid to keynote prescribing, but rather that we avoid the danger of prescribing by keynote by comparing the value of one remedy with the value of others having relative relationships, and to judge the complementary remedies in carrying through the case to a complete cure.- ROBERTS H A.
Many apparently incurable disorders can be traced indubitably to the use of tea, coffee, tobacco and stimulants. But on this point just one word it is seldom wise to tell a man that tobacco is hurting him. He will simply call in another physician. Use antidotes, and patch up the case the best way you can, and let him pay for his indulgence by consulting you from time to time.- D. C. MCLAREN, M.D.
