In the chapter that refer to the stomach in Kents repertory there are pages that the doctor consults daily. I refer to the paragraphs that mention desires and aversions for food. It seems useless to say that there ought to be outlined in a repertorization only those paragraphs that refer to desires and aversions very accentuated in our patient, as when not being so, if we include them in the list of symptoms, they only contribute to confuse us. Desire and aversions are of great help to individualize and, as they are the expression of the whole system, they reach the category symptoms.
The daily consultation of those paragraphs gives material for several brief considerations.
Aversion to eggs. This is a very frequent symptom, particularly among children. Often the mothers tell us that the child hates eggs. It is strange that the repertory gives us so few remedies. Ferr. Kali sul., Nit.ac., Sul., of which the only one that reaches the privilege of italics is the first. The desire for eggs appears also in a very short paragraph of four remedies, and with only Calc. in italics; but the mentioning of this remedy as the only one, and with the highest degree, for the desire for boiled eggs, boiled eggs, and the prominent desire for soft eggs, turns this symptom into a valuable one, conducting us often to Calcarea carbonica.
Aversion for fats and rich food. A very common symptom in digestive troubles of gastric, hepatic or pancreatic origin, accompanied by insufficiency of one of the three mentioned organs. Very numerous are the nosologic entities that show that symptom; we must recall stomach cancer. It includes 34 remedies and is of great value in repertorizing.
LEt us consider the opposite symptom: Desire for fat. This is a paragraph of only five remedies that it is useful to memorize: Arsenicum, Hepar, NITRICUM AC., Nux V., and Sulphur. Desire for salted food and fat food, reduces our investigation to only two remedies: Nitricum ac., and Sulphur. If we add the paragraph desire for sweets, we must consider Sulphur, as it is the only remedy that has the three of them.
Among children it is a rule of find a well-marked desire for sweets. On account of its frequently, I believe that it loses its importance as a key-note; but, if we find a child with aversion to, or at least indifference for, sweets, we must then give it a superior place in the rank of the symptoms. The same happens with the symptom of aversion to sour things, as when it exists in a child, it must be placed as important, as it is common among children to crave for acids and sour things.
Children are in great need of calories; the physical restlessness, so natural in them putting their muscles in almost continuous movement, means a great consumption of glucose. The need of restoration of the loss of carbohydrates is manifested with that great passion of childhood for sweets. When that symptom exists among adults it becomes of great importance. Allen mentions it as a psoric one.
These considerations about combustion and the production of heat in the childs organism, reminds me of two very familiar symptoms to the homoeopath: “Desire to uncover” and “frequent thirst for small drinks.” Mothers tell us: “I cover him carefully, but as soon as he falls asleep, he throws the covers off.” We all know that it is necessary to use our parental severity to make a child dress with heavy clothes even if the weather is cold. The frequency of this symptom shall reduce its value when trying to determine the remedy.
Whichever may be the origin of a feverish condition in a child, very often we find that prominent indication for Arsenicum: frequent thirst for small drunks. Must we consider that as a guiding symptom of the same value in the child as in the adult? Arsenicum, Thuja and Natrum sulphuricum are the three medicaments that have a complementary relation among them.
Thinking of the prominent antisycotic nature of the last two, there comes to my mind the idea whether such a symptom, so prominent in ARsenicum and so frequent among children, wouldnt derive from a very accentuated sycotic taint. I believe it to be prudent to investigate sycotic antecedents of such children, and to give to these little patients, when the acuteness of their illness has banished, a very high dose of Thuja, or Natrum sulphuricum, as Arsenicum does not appear in the paragraph regarding sycosis.
There is a disconcerting paragraph in the repertory, that Allen quotes when there is a tuberculosis taint: Desire for meat. It covers twenty remedies, the majority of very little value, as only five reach the honor of italics, but that rarely appear to fulfil a repertorization. Aversion for meat appears in a paragraph that we could call ideal: eighty-eight medicaments of which many are in bold type and italics. According to Allen, this corresponds to a syphilitic taint.
The paragraph that refers to the desire for highly seasoned food, mentions, among other remedies, three in bold type: China, Phosphorus, Sulphur. Allen states that this symptom is due to psora. I remember that Dr. Carlos Montfort, my professor, used to say that among the yellow race the syphilitic taint predominates; among the Saxons, sycosis; and among the inhabitants of Spanish america psora is the most accentuated. I would appreciate very highly your comments about this. This comes to my mind on considering that the desire for very highly seasoned food is very common in my country, and that Sulphur, our best antipsoric par excellence, appears in such a small paragraph in a capital place.
Who can say something about the desire for beans? There is no mention in the repertory, and I have observed it very frequently through the history of several patients, mostly among children, that have developed serious rheumatic conditions. such legumins appear daily in 90 percent of our homes, though in a different way than is sometimes used in the States, and constitute an appreciable source of vegetable protein.
The marked desire for salt or salted things is very common when there are malarial antecedents and quinine. Allen mentions it as a tuberculous taint. Malaria is very frequent in my country and it is for us a very hard, serious and stubborn problem. Quite often the great remedy is Natrum muriaticum, but during the years of 1941 to 1943 there were many cases in which that failed us in a terrible manner. It is useless to assure you that we are profusely lectured about the best homoeopathic literature referring to intermittent fever. I know that the Indian Homoeopaths face the same troubles; and you are surely very happy in not having to handle malarial cases. I believe that all those cases of protozoa have that clinical character of such stubbornness.
Desire for alcoholic drinks. Sulphur appears in all the paragraphs and very highly. Medicaments very important, as they only fail in the desire for ale and desire for claret, are NUX Lach., Puls., Spig, and Staphisagria. Nux and sulphur that are accentuated for the desire for beer, have also prominent aversion for beer. These remedies that have both opposite symptoms are very interesting, says Dr. Margaret L. Tyler, of London.
To what extend should it be convenient to allow satisfaction of the desire for an accentuated craving during an acute illness? Of course, we all remember that story by Nash about the typhoid fever patient that desired ardently a lemon which he was denied, until they called an older and more experienced doctor, who, noticing the desire, satisfied his wish, and the patient devoured it with the peel also, the concession resulting well.
In the same book Nash tells of that longing typhodic whose restoration did not begin until he was given the oysters for which he had clamored for days without succeeding. I believe that it is not wise to accede always to the desires of patients, due to the abnormal manner of life that we lead; some of the desires might not be the true expression of an effort to orient toward cure. Pediatrics state that the best guide to follow about the quantity that should be given to a lactant is the appetite that he manifestates.
His desire orders. The baby of a few months presents these reactions more purely; perhaps he has not lived long enough in order to mislead his inclinations with the artificial modes of the following years. I believe it to be dangerous to accede to the numerous desires of the grown child and of the adult when they become ill in acute form. Homoeopathic physicians are often more willing to please due to their special ideas in reference to desires and aversions and I believe that their attitude results in a practice very convenient.
I believe that homoeopaths were the first in considering the matter of aversions that are perhaps a more genuine expression of reaction. The child that refuses to drink milk, what he needs is not a coaxing or much less the naming of a spanking, but to be taken to an understanding homoeopathic physician who will correct that disaccordance with the environment. All of those deficiencies that make us suffer when we come into them, and turn us sick when attempting to adapt to them, reveal deep and chronic disease full of menace for the future. MONTERREY, N.L. MEXICO.
DISCUSSION.
DR. ALLAN D. SUTHERLAND: I have read every number of The Recorder since 1927 and have attended, roughly, five conventions of this body, and this is the first time there has ever been an intelligent presentation of desires and aversions with an evaluation of their worth. I appreciate this paper very much. This is to me the highlight of the presentations that been put before this body.
