The homoeopathic patient, from the very inception of homoeopathy, shared in the growth and development of this healing art. There has to be a reason in the first place for the very existence of doctors. That reason is disease, with which all mankind is more or less afflicted. Were the doctors able to cure the multitudinous manifestations of disease, there would be no excuse for the different “pathys”, “cults”, etc.; but alas, doctors frequently fail to live up to the sufferers expectations, and thus is born a prospective client for another doctor, pathy or cult.
These “patients”, as doctors call them, may be steady or transient, curious or cautious, trustful or suspicious, sick or well; but one and all are seeking help for either real or imaginary conditions. Some have descended to their homoeopathic doctor from past generations of homoeopathic patients, born in the faith, as it were; others follow the fashion and change doctors with the seasons; while others come and remain, because for them no one else has done so well. One and all, however, swell the ever increasing tide that travel under the banner of homoeopathy. Frequently they leave for short periods of time, but nearly all return once more, for the one outstanding reason, that their disabilities are better handled in general by a homoeopath than by anyone else they have met in the medical profession.
Do not forget you have something the patient wants; and do not forget that he suffers with you any ridicule, charge of incompetence or ignorance levelled against you, and often is much more loyal in defending you than you are yourself. He has faith in you, and in the powers of homoeopathy – frequently much greater than you possess yourself. This is often true because you feel and know your limitations. To the patient these limitations do not exist to the same extent. Without his loyalty, his endless advertisement of your prowess and skill, where would the average homoeopathic physician be?.
Let us make ourselves worthy of our patients faith in homoeopathy and ourselves. Had we their faith in ourselves nothing could hold homoeopathy back. It would be the healing art supreme, as it should be. ALL HAIL THE HOMOEOPATHIC PATIENT! – K.A. MCL.
We are dealing here in the realm of the imponderables, and encounter problems beyond the reach of mens analysis, a realm where we can only observe effects alone. However, all we can see and all we can hope to know in our observation of human beings is the effects of growth and development; and it is so with our study of medicinal action.
This is so not only in the study of the potency, but it is so almost entirely in the study of the crude drugs and their action, as well as our study of foods and their action; the effects are there to be seen, but the imponderable nature of the modus operandi is beyond our comprehension. The very same line of evidence is produced in all these fields; it is the effects only that are manifest to us. The observations must be recorded, and only by deduction can we comprehend their innermost meaning. Many mistakes have been made by failing to follow rules laid down by Hahnemann in his Organon of the Healing Art. Follow these rules and the results will be in order and observable. – H.A. ROBERTS, M.D., Principles and Art of Cure by Homoeopathy.
American Homeopathy Doctor.
Rabe graduated from the New York Homeopathic Medical College and trained under Timothy Field Allen and William Tod Helmuth.
Rabe was President of the International Hahnemannian Association, editor in chief of the Homeopathic Recorder, and he wrote Medical Therapeutics for daily reference. Rabe was Dean and Professor of Homeopathic Therapeutics at the New York Homeopathic Medical College.