Last year while listening to a series of aphorisms coming from a group of the older and wiser members I concluded that some of us younger ones might have something to say about our less mature observations, thereby lending a rather unique opportunity for discussion.
I say amateur because I never graduated from a homoeopathic school. It has only been a period of a few years since I turned my attention from allopathic dosing to homoeopathic prescribing.
When looking around for a place to learn some real homoeopathy I was mighty happy that I found such a place in the Post Graduate School of the American Foundation, then held each summer in Boston, but now I understand transferred to Three Fold Farm, near New York City.
Since leaving that school three years ago and going out to practice what I had learned I have gathered together a number of points about pure homoeopathic prescribing that have been brought particularly to my attention. I do not offer these in any way as dogmatic truths, but hope by presenting them to learn more myself about the art by actually drawing fire from some of the veterans.
1. Presuppose no remedy on first seeing your patient. An empty head is better than one too full; there is always room for something that the patient may put into it.
2. If the mentals are particularly striking you may almost entirely disregard the other angles of the case.
3. Dont hurry. Sac. lac. is your best prescription when in doubt. Many times you will be astounded at how many of the symptoms are removed.
4. Totality is not always your case; therein lies the “catch”. It may be a few of the most striking symptoms.
5. Many times after giving what you feel sure is the indicated remedy a whole train of new symptoms will appear that will tempt you to change your remedy. I have found it a good plan to withhold the hand otherwise you may mix your case. You will be surprised how this so called “new picture” has toned down after another week of placebo.
6. The 1M. often wont cure. You often have to go at least to the 50M.
7. Praise be to the man who can adopt a regular daily system of materia medica study without reading into his patient the remedy studied on that particular day.
8. I have found that when a case is particularly puzzling to repertorize and it comes out with no definite polychrest outstanding or when polychrest remedies fail to act, look for a family history of tuberculosis. Especially Pulsatilla and Phosphorus cases are not far from Tuberculinum.
9. If you are troubled in a paucity of symptoms inquire into the matter of constipation. Most all Americans are constipated and you usually can get a few more clues as to the type of constipation, stool, etc.
10. About 80 percent of the things people tell you are not worth anything in helping you select the similimum.
11. If a remedy fails to act you dont have the right remedy-providing the case is curable.
12. Let the patient talk-you write. If there is a disease miasm to be met by an intercurrent nosode that nosode must be persistently given until all that miasm is eradicated; then the road will be more clearly opened up for another remedy later if the nosode itself fails to complete the cure.
13. If you cannot get a case out of your patient make several trips back frequently until you get enough symptoms, all the while giving placebo, or else explain to the understanding type your reasons for not giving a remedy.
14. If your case appears to be locked or doesnt repertorize out well or the seemingly indicated remedy fails to act there is either of two things happening, namely, a less well proven remedy that doesnt repertorize out high in the totality- remembering that your polychrests are proven over and over again and it is they that usually rank high; or else a mental remedy is indicated.
15. Acute emergencies may be rechecked with a remedy every few hours or even minutes. The body will select the remedy it needs, chronic cases less often-say once every week or two, or even every month is often enough if the patient is doing well.
16. You may rapidly have to go to the CM. in acute emergencies to save life.
These are not all original with me-merely ideas that I have formed in the course of my practice, attending conventions, reading from authors and in talking with my older teachers. I have tried to add my own personal touch to them, amount to whatever it may. GREENSFORK, IND.
DISCUSSION.
DR. HUBBARD: I was very interested in the phrase that “Totality is not always your case”. Of course, what he really means is that you have got to evaluate symptoms. If you have once taken your gross totality and begin getting down to your net gain of the properly chosen symptoms from different groups, mental, objective, pathological even, and of course the modalities, first and foremost, and the generals, you will find your case pops out before you.
Dr. Alice Bassett of Boston was one of the great ones, now retired, and I had the pleasure of working as her assistant. She used to tell me for repertorizing she never took more than six symptoms, but she would take 100 symptoms to get the six, and a lot of you could save yourselves time if you picked the right six out of 106, but that is a big “if”.
When you stated that if the remedy didnt act it was not the similimum, I wanted to “chew the rag” on that, because I have seen-I hate to admit it-Rhus tox. 20M. do nothing, and Rhus. tox. 200 cure like a miracle. I have also more often seen, vice versa, the higher potency be better than the lower, but I never would believe what some people say, that if you a remedy it does not matter whether you give tincture or 45MM., because I am convinced that it does matter, that you have to get somewhere on a plane where the thing will hit, even if you have the right remedy.
Also when you mentioned constipation being a good field in which to elicit some symptoms, I was particularly interested in that and would like to enlarge that to include the character of all discharges.. Lots of patients will never think of telling you of the symptom of the nasal drip they had for twenty-five years that tasted salty or was pea-green. It would not occur to them that you want to know that kind of thing. The character of discharges ranks very high in the evaluation of symptoms as being characteristic of the patient. When they cannot tell you anything more, you begin to quiz them on some of those qualities of discharges.
We want to thank you, and we hope that all the students of the Foundation (may their tribe increase!) will bring us as interesting a paper as this.
DR. GRIMMER: I want to add my commendations to what Dr. Hubbard has stated. We will have no fear if we can have more of our younger men do as well as Dr. Bond has done. He really puts faith in our hearts, those of us who have fought and struggled to see homoeopathy maintained, to know that we are leaving behind men who can do a little thinking for themselves and who can take the teachings of the older men and analyze them and test them out for confirmation and add their own mite. It is only by each one of us adding a mite that progress in any science can be maintained. Again we think of the saying, “Out of the mouths of babes”.
There is one thing more that the doctor did not mention about remedies not active, remedies that are apparently as far as we can see or even test by our new electronic methods, accurate, as close to the similimum as we can get, and yet we have no response. Look and see if that patient is not doing something in the way of taking other drugs or coming in contact with some chemical or something of that kind in his routine of living that is interfering with the remedy. Many, many times you will find that to be the case. Then by removing that cause you will soon be able to get your acting remedy.
DR. MOORE: I would like to congratulate Dr. Bond on what he has said, because it is “right up my alley”. I have been studying these pointers for several years, and last year Dr. Farrington suggested that I index them. I presented 100, I believe, at the last meeting. I have indexed what I have, which amounts to something over 1200, and I can pick a few more out of what Dr. Bond has here. Then we will have someone who really knows what should go in look over these and we will throw out what should be thrown out.
During the last few months, I threw out quite a bunch from one of the Indians, the type who are coming in and wanting membership. Here was a bunch of them, and they looked good and were good to recommend that Indian, but I found they were all written out of Boerickes Materia Medica here and there, just for the edification of that Indian. So that little bunch has to be thrown out.
DR. BOND: I see that my paper accomplished just what I wanted it to do; that was, to have the comments of some of my old teachers on these points. I am very happy to have some additional notes on these laws in homoeopathy from the older and wiser ones who have spoken.
