BRIEF COMMENTARIES ABOUT DESIRES AND AVERSIONS



I have a sort of hazy feeling in the back of my mind along the lines of Dr. Carfias paper that at certain ages, for instance, a desire can be disregarded because it is natural to the individual at that age, and we should certainly take that into consideration.

DR. A. H. GRIMMER: Dr. Kent used to say that we should realize in the well people the desires are normal whatever they may be, and those foods they desire are best for them, but it is in the sick that we get the perverted desires, and those are the ones that are to be followed, strictly.

DR. CHARLES A. DIXON: I take a great of pride in this paper, which shows good understanding of homoeopathic philosophy and case-taking, and repertory study; and, while I cant take all the credit for that, because he had excellent homoeopathic instruction, I am sure, before he came to our foundation, yet I want to say that that paper shows that he took a lot away from our postgraduate school.

DR. J.W. WAFFENSMITH: I dont want to miss the opportunity of thanking the good doctor for this excellent paper.

When he was speaking about beans, that reminded me, when I first went out to practice, on horseback, at the turn of the century, in the southwest, and the population was 99.9 per cent native Spanish or Mexican, I had beans three times a day. The beanpot, like the coffee pot in some places, was everywhere on the stove; and in that country, with the outdoor exercise, one naturally can eat a great deal of protein and you get a remarkable per cent of protein in the native brown Mexican bean of old. They don;t raise it any more. They raise what they call now a Pinto, but it isnt nearly as good as the old original brown Mexican bean, as it was called.

Now, in reference to malaria, we were up five, seven thousand feet altitude, and I have seen the most violent series of congestive chills and rapid deaths that I have seen anywhere else where malaria was prevalent, and the strange thing about these epidemics was that they were local. One year it would attack a certain limited section, and it would kill in twenty-four to thirty-six hours if you didnt get in there in good time, and then in another year it would travel probably ten or fifteen miles away to another limited section. I have never heard an explanation for that and I cannot now give one.

I remember there was one old school man who came in there and just in the spring, about the beginning of the annual epidemic of malaria, he was there, and he was a student of the Abbott preparation and after he had put his shingle out, the first few patients he cured. Well, he had everyone in that section and cured them of their malaria. The next year, and thereafter, he had practically a 95 per cent failure, and the remedy that the gave was Chininum arsenicosum. It was the epidemic remedy for that season and he had phenomenal success with it, again coming back to our simple homoeopathic teaching of the epidemic similar remedy for a particular time or period.

DR. P.C.PAUL [Calcutta, India]: I thank Dr. Garcia for his excellent paper. I also have had the same difficulty in cases of malaria in India, and these case Acute cases die within twenty- four or thirty-six hours, in some cases where the temperature rises to 107 and 108, and suddenly comes down to 94, and the patient is in a state of collapse, and in that case our homoeopathy doesnt act well, probably. I have not known we can prescribe the similimum. Our best prescribes of homoeopathy fail to do so, and we see this very stubborn thing in our country, very obstinate cases in our practice, our everyday practice, and I do not know whether you can help us in this subject, in a case of malaria, saying something so that we can gain something from it.

DR. THOMAS K. MOORE: We had so many and such good papers from Dr. GARCIA that we could hardly expect that from one man. I wonder if he wouldnt tell us the other men who have been writing these papers. We wouldnt expect one man to put all of this!.

DR. ALLAN D. SUTHERLAND: One point Dr. Garcia brought out referred to the frequency with which young children become uncovered at night. That might be considered an aversion to being covered, or desire to be uncovered. I think the point he made in that respect was that young children many times sleep restlessly, and automatically get uncovered. It is not to be considered a desire to be uncovered; it just happens. I have two sons, one of whom, when a baby, never had any difficulty about being uncovered. The second son, now a baby, from his infancy has always been uncovered. He never will keep the covers on-and he still doesnt-and he is two years old. This is a point to consider.

I also recall when I was an intern under Dr. Griggs, at the Childrens Homoeopathic, he made this statement: “Babies who continually kick off the covers need Sulphur.” I know that has been borne out. It has been confirmed in my practice. I think he referred to babies in infancy. A little baby tend to sleep quietly because he is not strong enough, as a rule, to turn himself about; he hasnt reached the stage of muscular development where he can move himself about, and get himself out from under the covers; but you see little babies even three weeks or one month old, who will be nicely covered and tucked in by the doting mother or father, as the case may be, and within an hour or so you go back to see how he is doing and he is uncovered, has kicked the covers off. I think that can be considered an aversion to being covered.

DR. HARVEY FARRINGTON: Just a few words: The value of desires and aversions in the way of food, rests upon the fact that they are natural or that they belong to the voluntary sphere; but their value also is determined by two things, by their intensity and by the unusual or peculiar nature of the desire.

When the aluminum baby wants to eat slate pencils, and the Aconitum patient wants to eat coal, and other outlandish things not considered natural, or at least which are not considered natural nourishment, then it becomes an unusual or peculiar symptom, and we know from the Organon that the symptoms should be strange, rare, and peculiar. This is all governed by the law of averages and you can estimate, then, whether in your case the cravings or the aversions are of importance, if you use this method.

It depends upon your experience and upon your judgment; and also there is another point: The desire, as I said, if it is inordinate, becomes a valuable implication, but if this desire is one that seems to belong to the patient, the old Latin phrase, “Degustibus non est disputandum” applies-tastes are natural and you cannot dispute them, as a rule; but when this desire or this aversion appears as an accompaniment of the ailment, and is contrary to the usual appetites and desires or aversions of the patient, it is even more valuable than before.

I have thought of that question many times and it appears to me that the first symptoms that appear in the disease to be treated are more valuable than those that are natural for the patient, perhaps, through life; but, nevertheless, if the constitution of that patient is modified or has one characteristic that may be useful in determining constitutional remedies, that is valuable.

DR. JAMES M. HEIMBACH: I don;t know whether Dr. Garcia remembers me or not, but I had some correspondence with him some years back and I want to thank him for the paper; but this is what I would like to have an answer to, and I am thinking of Dr. Nash, whom you all know-I understand he was called to a very serious case of typhoid fever in a girl of twelve or thirteen years of age, in consultation, and as soon as he came to the bedside, the girl spoke up to him and said, “Can I have a pickle?”.

Dr. Nash said, “You want a pickle that bad”.

“Oh, doctor, if I could only have a pickle.”.

He said, “Give that girl a pickle.”.

Now the point that I want to bring out is when a system craves something so intensely, isnt it? I think it is. I ever ignore those intense desires, if they have any sense to them at all.

DR. MOORE: Would you include alcohol?.

DR. HEIMBACH: Alcohol!.

DR. JOSE GILBERT GARCIA [closing discussion]; Thank you very much for your kind discussion. It has been so extensive that I have not anything more to say: “That doesnt interest us,” but we are facing that problem and I have to tell you that we have a very bad feeling with a patient that day after day has a chill and he has full confidence in us. The homoeopathic physician has been of great value to that family for several years, and then comes a case of malaria. Generally, the homoeopathic physician is able to cure it, but, sometimes, we are facing a really stubborn case.

Well, perhaps you will tell me” “You are in need of a good homoeopath at the bedside.” My experience is that I have frequently tried with all my forces to handle several special case of malaria and I have failed. If you fail to find the exact remedy in the first days, you are in a real trouble. Well, of course, very frequently I can cure it, and the most commonly indicated remedy is Natrum muriaticum, 10M, single dose, immediately after the paroxysm-but, for instance, I was graduated in 37 and up to 41 I have had no problem with malaria, all cases cured very soon; but in 41 my troubles began, and I don;t know why.

Jose G. Garcia