BOOK V.
APHORISM 4. Convulsions or hiccup supervening during excessive purging are a bad sign.
COMMENT: Excessive purging is similar in its effect on the organism to severe bleeding, perspiration or loss of body fluids generally. But if strong purging was caused by large doses of Veratrum, which in the days of Hippocrates was the purgative, then the results were bad.
In this connection we must mention that also in homoeopathic circles the abuse of China in cases of loss of body fluids has crept in. This proves Hahnemanns admonition correct as stated in his introductory remarks to this remedy in his Materia Medica Pura: “Aside from Opium I know no remedy which is more abused than China.” Even though this remedy has the top ranking in so many ailments resulting from loss of body fluids, and can hardly be neglected as an intercurrent remedy, yet it would denote a total lack of understanding of our therapy, if we should consider it the remedy generally at all times, and the only indicated medicine in such cases.
Indeed we have a large list of remedies at our disposal belonging in this group among which the most important are: Calcarea carbonica, Carbo vegetabilis, Phosphoric acid, Pulsatilla, Sepia and Staphisagria, and they are just as important, not to mention many others which under certain conditions even supersede those mentioned, according to the individual indications. Hence it is absolutely unhomoeopathic if the remedy choice is prompted only by the general anamnesis: loss of body fluids (from haemorrhage, diarrhoea, nursing, frequent seminal emissions, masturbation, excessive perspiration, etc.) if only China were considered regardless of the special kind of condition following. Such abuse is equal to the blind use of this remedy in intermittent fevers.
APHORISM 5. If the drunken man suddenly becomes dumb, he dies under convulsions unless he falls into a fever, or lives till sober and then regains his speech.
COMMENT: Here we see a drunken man briefly sketched, and we find his symptoms more completely under Opium. His face is dark red, frequently perspiring, staring eyes, jerky motions of mouth, loud snoring and other symptoms as seen in the totally intoxicated, which may end in apoplexy. Only frequently given small doses of Opium (every quarter to half an hour) can prevent the debacle. The fever following, which the aphorism mentions as a saving expedient, is usually of such nature that Aconite or Belladonna, or perhaps Stramonium, can bring normalcy.
APHORISM 8. Pleurisy, which does not clear up in fourteen days, ends in empyema.
COMMENT: Nowadays a physician is not an idle observer, necessary to prove the truth of this aphorism. While the old school has its antiphlogistic method, we use our dynamic, highly potentized remedies which act quickly and infallibly: Aconite, Bryonia, Dulcamara, Kali carbonicum, Phosphorus and Squilla, and we do not delay using them immediately we find symptoms enough to make the correct choice.
APHORISM 19. Heat parts which are chilled, except where haemorrhage is present or threatened.
COMMENT: Allopaths have hailed this aphorism as proof for contraria contrariis. A commentator in one place calls it “an axiom which is fully correct.” And yet, the experience of every physician, and even of the laity, proves the opposite, for when the cold has reached a severe degree, a handful of snow is applied (no rubbing) to a frozen nose or ears. The patient who may not be aware that parts are white, frozen, will be grateful.
Suddenly applied heat might cause a loss of such members.
The approved preventive against coldness or freezing of parts is applications of Spirits of Camphor, which in the primary action produces a high degree of cold, but in the lasting secondary action develops warmth. In the often following painful heat as from burns, the best remedy is diluted Tincture of Cantharis.
The resuscitation of stiff frozen patients is said to have been accomplished in some cases when they were treated according to the homoeopathic principle: packing in snow, or a bath made cold by ice lumps; in both cases the patient remains till the flesh has become soft, and the member can be carefully bent.
Then the body is rubbed carefully with snow till the skin becomes red; later dry rub with dry woollen cloth. The resuscitated should not get near a fire or hot stove for some time.
How can the thousandfold experiences be harmonized with the above axiom: contraria contrariis? It seems that this aphorism is only an introduction to:.
APHORISM 20. In ulcers cold causes a sensation of biting, thickening of the skin, painful stopping of suppuration, blackens the skin, causes feverish rigors, convulsions and tetanus.
COMMENT: Also these results are not the same in all ulcers, for there are many which do not tolerate warmth, and which are less painful and heal quicker when kept cool. We here mention only the ulcers which demand: Acidum fluoricum, Lycopodium, Pulsatilla and Sabina which do not tolerate warmth; those which are better from warmth and warm covering are: Arsenicum, Clematis, Conium, Hepar, Lachesis, Rhus and Silica.
APHORISM 22. Heat does not always expedite suppuration though it is an aid, it softens the skin and makes it thin, removes pain and soothes rigors, convulsion and tetanus, and relieves heaviness of head. It is especially useful in bone fractures, compound especially, but above all in fractured skulls; also in necrosis, and sores from cold; corroding herpes around anus, pudenda, vagina and in the urinary bladder. In all these cases heat is beneficial, while cold is harmful and tends to a fatal issue.
COMMENT: Homoeopathy does not approve of external medicated applications, but chooses only such internal remedies which are indicated by their symptomatology, like: Arsenicum, Belladonna, Calcarea, Hepar Kreosotum, Lachesis, Lycopodium, Mercurius, Silica or others. Thus the desired result is obtained safely and surely.
APHORISM 24. Cold things, such as snow or ice, are harmful to the chest, and provoke coughing, catarrh and haemoptysis.
COMMENT: This aphorism must be accepted only with due reserve. It will suffice to call attention to the peculiarly indicated remedies: Antimonium crudum, Drosera, Iodum, Laurocerasus, Pulsatilla, Senega, Veratrum , Verbascum. But one must not con-found the symptoms from taking cold in some way, with those which through cold temperatures are aggravated. Sickness from any cause usually continues long after the cause is removed.
Often complaints are caused from unknown conditions which cannot be ascertained. In such cases only the presenting symptoms can help out, especially those of aggravation, amelioration and other modalities, which always supersede the causative factors, without neglecting the latter in the remedy choice. There are, e.g., troubles caused originally by cold temperatures, but later on are aggravated by warm applications, and it would be a mistake to select a remedy rather for the cause than for the effect.
APHORISM 27. It is a good symptom when patients with nocturnal thirst can go to sleep in spite of it.
COMMENT: It is difficult to know how to evaluate this isolated rule. If a patient after taking a medicine can go to sleep even if thirst is tormenting, that surely would be a favorable sign for a good prognosis. But it is difficult to understand why this should apply especially to nocturnal thirst. This observation was possibly made in individual cases, perhaps during a particular epidemic in which nocturnal thirst was a prominent symptom, as we have met in several acute fevers, which pointed to: Aconitum, Antimonium crudum, Belladonna, Bryonia, Chamomilla or Rhus toxicodendron. But to select a remedy or make a prognosis on the basis of such a single symptom might be absolutely impossible and unreliable.
APHORISM 32. When a woman vomits blood, menstruation will cure it.
COMMENT: According to Galen (in his Commentar) and Celsus it is probable that this applies to vomiting of blood only; yet this aphorism can just as appropriately include haemoptysis, which in this connection is much more frequent. But neither symptom is innocent nor without danger, and even if menstruation temporarily overcomes the trouble, it is no cure and does not prevent recurrence. Every homoeopathist will pay earnest attention to this symptom, especially in young girls, as it may lead to grave conditions, and may lay the germ to desperate chronic diseases, but he will attack immediately before it is too late, as often consumption follows, which may then be curable. Fortunately he has at his disposal the best approved remedies: Belladonna, Cuprum, Phosphorus, Pulsatilla, Sulphur and Veratrum, the one or the other properly selected will not fail to give the expected result.
APHORISM 33. It is well if a woman has epistaxis when menses are suppressed.
COMMENT: According to Celsus it is probable that Hippocrates here refers to the sometimes dangerous and always trouble some congestion to the upper part of the body and to head, following suppression of the menstrual flow. In such conditions epistaxis gives temporary relief, but seldom lasting help, for it is, in a sense, only palliative, never a real cure. Hence there is no sufficient reason for waiting, but the homoeopathic physician will rather act promptly by applying the well chosen remedy according to the symptoms, for which purpose he has: Aconitum, Apis, Belladonna, Bryonia, Calcarea carbonica, Carbo animalis, Chamomilla, Conium, Dulcamara, Ferrum metallicum, Graphites, Lachesis, Lycopodium, Mercurius, Phosphorus, Pulsatilla, Sepia, Silica, Sulphur and Veratrum.
