PSORA OR DEFICIENCY?


Whether this tendency to the psoric manifestations develops because of inability to assimilate or inability to relax to the point of assimilation, the end results are the same, and will continue to be until corrected through more healthy and natural ways of living plus the power of the potentized remedy to release suppressions and tune the maladjustments to order.


Read before I.H.A., Bureau of Homoeopathic Philosophy, June 25, 1936.

This article has been embodied in The Principles and Art of Cure by Homoeopathy, published by the Homoeopathic Publishing Company, London. — ED.

Criticism of Hahnemanns psora theory has raged for a century. It is not feasible to follow minutely Hahnemanns line of reasoning that led to his declaration of the psora theory, but we have his own statement that it took years to classify what he came to term the psoric miasm. Enough has been written to show that his reasoning in this respect was sound, and as far as it went, clear. It is not strange that in the light of modern knowledge new arguments have arisen to assail this theory. Let us examine it in the light of present-day knowledge.

We have considered the general symptomatology forming the psoric group. Now let us turn to Boenninghausens list of antipsoric remedies, and try to prove our problem along the same lines we should employ were we to prove a problem in arithmetic. This list, comprising fifty remedies, was published in Hahnemanns time, and has been used with remarkable success in the so-called psoric conditions from that time forward:.

Agaricus Bovista Euphorbium

Alumina Calcarea carb Graphites

Ammonium carb Carbo animalis Guaiacum

Ammonium mur Carbo veg Hepar sulph

Anacardium Causticum Iodine

Arsenicum alb Clematis Kali carb

Aurum Colocynth Kali nit

Baryta carb Conium Lycopodium

Belladonna Digitalis Magnesium carb

Bor. ac Dulcamara Magnesium mur

Manganum Phosphorus Silica

Mezereum Phosphoric acid Stannum

Muriatic acid Platinum Strontium

Natrum carb Rhododendron Sulphur

Natrum mur Sarsaparilla Sulphuric acid

Nitric acid Senega Zincum

Petroleum Sepia

Sixteen of the remedies listed belong definitely to the vegetable group, one definitely to the animal group; of the remaining thirty-three remedies, comprising the chemical elements or inorganic substances, or combined from these elements or substances (or reduced to almost elemental consideration, as the Carbos) we find only three (Baryta, Platinum and Aurum) that appear in the range of chemical elements higher by atomic weight than those essential to the construction of the human body. The three remedies having their source in the higher-than-body- construction elements may be considered as falling into the antisyphilitic class, and we may reasonably question their adaptability to the antipsoric condition when unmixed with a venereal taint.

Let us set aside for the time these three which seem to us questionably allocated to this group, and proceed with our hypothesis.

Some thirty elements, more or less, have been ascertained by different investigators as appearing in the human body. It has been definitely established that many of these are absolutely essential to physical construction. Iodine, number 53 of the elements, is regarded as the highest in atomic weight; and as we have pointed out, only the three that we have questioned appear in the antipsoric list beyond Iodine.

The following list of elements appearing in the human body has been compiled from several sources. It is notable that not all these elements have been assigned constructive roles, in the eyes of investigators; or rather, their presence in the body structure has not been determined. Nevertheless, all these come within the first fifty-three elements, as determined by atomic weight.

1. Hydrogen 6. Carbon 8. Oxygen

3. Lithium 7. Nitrogen 9. Fluorin

11. Sodium 19. Potassium 29. Copper

12. Magnesium 20. Calcium 30. Zinc

13. Aluminum 22. Titanium 32. Germanium

14. Silicon 25. Manganese 33. Arsenic

15. Phosphorus 26. Iron 35. Bromine

16. Sulphur 27. Cobalt 50. tin

17. Chlorine 28. Nickel 53. Iodine.

Morse tells us (Applied Biochemistry):.

It is seen that no inert elements, like argon,.

Argon accompanies air into the lungs as nitrogen does, but in both cases they play no part in the economy of the body.

occurs in the body; that radio-active elements and those that are undergoing decomposition are lacking; and that with regard to atomic weight, iodine is the farthest up the scale. Heavy elements, such as lead, and the noble metals, are not found. Two explanations may be offered:.

(1) The distribution of the elements in the human organism is an historical matter, representing the period in evolution when only those elements that are of lighter weight than iodine were evolved. This is not probable.

(2) The lighter kinds occurring in living things because these elements were relegated to the surface of the earth and were available for the use of the organism as it has undergone evolution. The geologist believes that the heavier elements lie toward the center of the earth, since the total weight of the earth demands heavier substances near the center of the mass.

So in reality we might add to our list argon (18) and nitrogen (7) as appearing with some regularity in the body. With our knowledge of the power of the infinitesimals beyond the range of laboratory analysis we dare not say that any element, however small its portion or vague its relationship, “plays no part”.

Again, with our knowledge of the disturbing powers of the radio- active elements, we can see definitely why they were not included in construction, for they are essentially destructive. These correspond to the action of the syphilitic taint, and should be classed as antisyphilitic in action.

However, we are discussing primarily those elements which, in simple form or combined, are essentially constructive, to demonstrate the significance of our hypothesis that Psora, and Deficiency in properly balanced essentials, are one and the same; or if they are not identical problems, we must admit that here lies a significant key to the problem of psora, and one worthy of deeper study.

Without question there is some essential failure of the system to assimilate the necessary constructive materials that provides the background of the so-called psoric taint; yet we find that emotional or other stress develops the psoric symptomatology even in constitutions that have been sound and healthy. Here we find that our theory of psora as a deficiency of the proper elements is verified. For instance, those chest conditions with many functional symptoms: we are often able to trace these to improper breathing habits, and this again to emotional strain that has broken the habit of rhythm; or perhaps the breathing habit has been normal until the necessity of remaining long hours in close, unaired rooms has forced the system to unnatural and insufficient intake of oxygen.

The greatest asset of the body is that of adaptability, but this in itself, under unnatural or forced conditions, while permitting life to continue under emergent or hampered conditions, breeds a train of symptoms that Hahnemann described as psoric.

The body elements best known to the student of biochemistry are: Hydrogen, Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen, Fluorin, Sodium, Magnesium, Silicon, Phosphorus, Sulphur, Chlorine, Potassium, Calcium, Manganese, Iron, Copper, Zinc, Arsenic and Iodine. Chemists have been able to estimate the percentage of these elements present in the organism, even such small amounts as those of arsenic, with its sixth-decimal proportions in thyroid and brain, and 0.000,001,9 per cent in the liver.

It is comparatively easy to define the constructive purposes of many of these elements, such as calcium; yet there is some purpose aside from that of mere bricks-and-mortar for even the most obvious. Magnesium is found throughout the body, in the lungs, glands, brain, muscles and muscular organs such as the heart. This has been determined with a fair amount of the measurable accuracy; yet how do we account for the fact that a magnesium-free diet sends animals into convulsions? Or that tin, found in traces in the tongue and brain, is related definitely to the sense of taste? When cobalt and nickel, discovered in the pancreas, are lacking, just what influence does this have in the development of diabetes?.

Manganese is an accompaniment of iron in practically all human tissue. Scientists have discovered that manganese starvation in animals will produce sterility in the male and loss of mother- love in the female; this loss of maternal instinct incites them to refuse attention to their young, who die in a few hours. McCollum tells us: “When to the carefully prepared manganese-free diet is added as little as five thousandths of one per cent of manganese, all the abnormalities described are corrected.” Yet Reiman and Minot tell us: “Prolonged feeding of moderate amounts of its ores to dogs failed to produce significant changes in the manganese content of the blood and tissues or to cause any pathological symptoms”.

It is comparatively easy to determine the broader outlines of the constructive duties of these elements and inorganic substances, but it is the subtle and potential influences (as illustrated by the observations on manganese) that are most pertinent to our thesis. In other words, it is not the over- feeding or gross starvation of any element that provides us with the so-called psoric problem, but the subtle functional disturbance with many sensations. It is in this subtler sphere that we find the connection between the constructive essentials and the so-called antipsoric remedies. Since the so-called psoric conditions are largely functional and react pre-eminently upon the nervous and emotional plane, may we not regard these conditions as a lack of balance in the ability to assimilate, as well as a possible starvation of essentials?.

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.