EDITORIAL PAGE


Each one of these so-called specifics is only a starting point from which to expand. For instance take the first one, herpes zoster. Of it J. Compton Burnett says, “Variolinum wipes out herpes zoster, pain and all.” Mezereum for herpes zoster has, “Severe neuralgic pains; itching after scratching turns to burning, worse from touch and in bed; chilly; sensitive to cold air; vesicles form a brownish scar”.


SPECIFICS.

“One has over and over again seen herpes zoster clear up with two or three doses of Ranunculus bulbosa, 10M,” says Margaret Tyler. Two cases of quinsy bring to mind our tendency toward treating our cases with specifics.

Case one, W.A., female, age nineteen. Very sore throat for two days, now localized pain and inflammation, very sensitive to pressure unable to swallow because of pain. Inspection shows peritonsillar abscess, early stage.

Case two, W.A., age seventy-two, an exact replica of case one, which was well in 24 hours. W.A. called me up next morning and asked, “What in hell did you give me?” He had had a couple of days of local treatment, sulfas, etc., before he was able to get me. Asked why, he replied “I am OK already. The quinsy is all gone.” He was cautioned to say nothing about it as the treatment was rank quackery, so labelled for well over a hundred years. These two had the same remedy, Hepar sulph., 2c in water, a dose every two hours until relieved.

The above would suggest Hepar as specific for peritonsillar abscess, and who of you has not been touched by some of the following?.

HAY FEVER – Cepa for acute, and Psorinum for chronic.

EPIDEMICS – The epidemic remedy for prophylaxis or cure.

SCARLET FEVER – Belladonna.

MEASLES – Pulsatilla.

PNEUMONIA – Bryonia and Phosphorus.

POLIO – Lathyrus.

RABIS – Hyoscyamus.

PUERPERAL FEVER – Sulphur. Used many years by a friend to abort this distressing occurrence after childbirth. “I would give a dose of Sulph. 2c. and go home to a peaceful sleep knowing it would be gone tomorrow.”

BOIL or ABSCESS – Hepar.

WARTS – Thuja.

STRANGURY – Cantharis.

MALARIA – Acute, Quinine; chronic, Natrum mur.

WOUND WONT HEAL – Calendula.

SYPHILIS – Mercury.

EXANTHEMATA, eruption suppressed Bryonia.

SEPTICEMIA – Pyrogen.

HAEMORRHOIDS – Hamamelis

FISTULA – Silica.

CHOLECYSTITIS – CHelidonium maj.

GANGLION – Ruta.

FUNK, fear at examination time – Kali phos.

DYSMENORRHOEA – Magnesia phos.

HERPES LABIALIS – Natrum mur.

ANGINA PECTORIS – Arsenicum alb.

ASCITES – Arsenicum alb.

GONORRHOEA – Acute, Cannabis sativa; Chronic, Oleum santalis.

SMALL POX – Mercury in the suppurative stage; prophylactic, much more effective than the usual vaccination, Malandrinum.

VACCINATION – Acute effects, Maland.; chronic effects, even years after, Thuja.

HEARTS – Digitalis.

RHEUMATISM – Acute, Rhus tox; chronic Bryonia.

BURNS – Cantharis to take away the pain and start healing.

GASTRITIS – Nux vom.

CONSTIPATION – Nux vom.

APOPLEXY – Opium.

MENINGITIS – Helleborus.

KELOID – Fluoric acid.

ACUTE FEVER – Aconite.

SEA or CAR SICKNESS – Petroleum.

NOSE BLEED – Melilotus alb.

EPILEPSY – Oenanthe crocata.

HEADACHE – Acute, Belladonna; chronic, Sanguinaria.

MISCARRIAGE – Threatened, Sabina; repeated, Syphilinum.

DIARRHOEA – Aloe; with vomiting, Arsenicum alb.

MENIERES DISEASE – Salicylic acid (several cases – Carl Rust).

ORBITAL CELLULITIS – Apis.

CONJUNCTIVITIS, Gonorrhoea – Argentum nitraticum.

OEDEMA after scarlet fever – Apis.

TRAUMA – Arnica.

Every one of these has repeatedly cured the disease here mentioned. And you or I could add many to this list BUT NOT ONE IS SPECIFIC, nor is any drug specific for any disease. But we do have specifics; not for diseases but for syndromes. And herein lies the superiority of homoeopathy over that of any other method of drug application. Similia Similibus curantur is a law and not a theory, known and used by Hippocrates and painstakingly elaborated by Hahnemann. Get the symptoms caused by a drug. This must be done with correct technique on healthy subjects.

These symptoms constitute the syndrome, the field in which that drug is supreme, proven case after case, worked out time on end. Get the picture of Belladonna effects in a patient, administer Belladonna IN SMALL DOSE to bring the affection to a prompt end in an acute case. In chronics the same principle is involved and the technique is more complicated, but the results are sure, and often in apparently hopeless cases a sound cure comes through. And cure in Homoeopathy means better health for the patient afterward. Check such cure with so called cures in modern medicine where the symptoms disappear promptly, but too often the patient is left in a deplorable state, as with the sulfas, for example.

Get LOCATION, SENSATION, MODALITIES, CONCOMITANTS, AND CAUSES. Often very easy; sometimes, especially in chronic states, entailing much labor by those of best mental equipment. But the prize, CURE, is well worth whatever amount of work.

Each one of these so-called specifics is only a starting point from which to expand. For instance take the first one, herpes zoster. Of it J. Compton Burnett says, “Variolinum wipes out herpes zoster, pain and all.” Mezereum for herpes zoster has, “Severe neuralgic pains; itching after scratching turns to burning, worse from touch and in bed; chilly; sensitive to cold air; vesicles form a brownish scar”.

Again, “probably no remedy is found so useful in herpes zoster as Rhus. tox., especially after getting wet”.

Arsenicum alb: Confluent eruptions, intense burning of the blisters, sleepless after midnight, nausea, prostration, worse for any kind of cold, better for warmth, red unwholesome appearance.

Yet one more, Apis with its burning, stinging pains, much swelling, vesicles large, often confluent, comes in cold weather, ulceration, worse from warmth, better for cold applications (exact opposite of Arsenicum). So from here how fares our Ran. b. “specific for shingles?”.

Applying Albert Einsteins theory of relativity to medicine instead of to velocity of light, our apparent truth so often is not that exactly, but only part truth. Statements here given seem at this time to hold much of that rarity, TRUTH.

Rabe R F
Dr Rudolph Frederick RABE (1872-1952)
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.