Breathing and circulation as active functions arise first at the very point of evolution which is characterized by the transition of the merely living, soulless plant to the perceiving animal.
Breathing appears to be nearer to our conscious functioning than circulation which responds more to emotional impulses (all respiratory muscles are subject to voluntary innervation). This is in accord with the fact that in the development of the species as well as of the individual (biogenetic law) a circulation is established actually seems to be related to an evolutionary, relatively further advanced level of mental development.
Light which enhances consciousness was also found to strengthen the respiratory system.
For a full explanation we are still at loss. However, these facts may make us less unwilling to take into serious consideration for further research the likelihood, at least, o the association of mind and breath, “nous” and “pneuma,” as two phases of the metamorphosis of the light principle.
4. Anesthetics lower the oxygen consumption of the tissue cells, poisoning resulting in oxygen starvation. Phosphor seems to have a balancing or gently stimulating effect upon cellular oxidation analogous to the slow, but steady in vitro oxidation which maintains its luminescence (large doses paralyze, small Phosphor doses stimulate cellular oxidation.38). A bridge is thrown to the disturbed growth process by the fact that tumor tissue is characterized by lessened cellular respiration. Phosphor, when curative in tumor cases, would thus change the anoxybiotic respiration of the tumor cells back to the normal oxybiotic type.
A correlation may exist between this anoxybiotic type of cell metabolism and the increased protein breakdown which is common on toxic doses of light, anesthetics,39 and Phosphor.40 AS the bloodstream becomes overloaded with the toxic intermediary metabolic products, the tendency to fevers, infections and septic states arises. The protein loss accounts for the clinical symptom of emaciation. The more permanent, chronic, constitutional state of this type is found in the phthisical, consumptive condition.
5. Very revealing is the fact that ether or chloroform hasten the blooming of flowers.41 A stimulative action reveals its selective affinity to just the blossom part of the plant. As outlined before, the alchemistic term, Phosphor, refers to the etherizing tendency expressed in the blossom; in our characterisation of the Phosphor personality we were led to liken him to a blossom or butterfly, because of his delicate over- refinement and lightness.
Of the whole plant the blossom part shows the greatest dependence upon light as revealed in its response with colors. Moreover, the blossom, when intensified in fragrance and perfumes, exhibits a somewhat narcotic tendency itself, instincts. Characteristically, the Phosphor patient is over-sensitive to and aggravated by the of flowers and perfumes which strike an over-responsive chord in him.
B – Growth and firmness of the physical frame are reflected in the condition of the osseous skeleton; the calcium metabolism shows a close physiological interdependence with Phosphor.
Light activated ergosterol (which characteristically is also a member of the lipoid family) into Vitamin D. the antirachitic factor. Lack of light causes not only rickets but also lowers the resistance against infections and predisposes to tuberculosis. The dependence of bone repair and wound healing upon light was referred to before. The wide range Phosphor indications in disorders of the skeleton (rickets, osteoporosis, osteomyelitis, osseous tuberculosis, etc.) requires no further elaboration.
The nature of the association of Calcium with Phosphorus deserves our attention, however. A parallelism seems to exist between calcification and firmness of the Skeletal frame and a properly evolving mind. Calcium deficiency reduces the ability for mental performance,42 and experimentally, causes stupidity. 43. In section with endemic osteomalacia there is a higher incidence of mental disorders during pregnancy43 which so greatly increases of Calcium requirements; in mental patients a Calcium deficiency with osteoporosis is a common finding.
43 Late closure of the fontanelles and rickets are often finding.43 Late closure of the fontanelles and rickets are often associated with slower mental development (in these cases Phosphor, like Calcium, will have a special affinity to the bones of the skull). The transition from childhood to adult life with its mental maturity is marked by completed calcification and epiphyseal closure. The pseudo-infantile state of old age, again, has a tendency to osteoporosis.
Thus the proper firmness and integration of the physical frame appear to be paramount factors upon which a mental development is conditioned. It becomes understandable that the force-principle of light, commissioned, as it were, with the task of developing our ego, consciousness and personal responsibility also must be concerned with the solidification of the physical frame which to be the vehicle instrument of our mind.
An energy complex which encompasses the very forces of personality with the vital and regenerative abilities, the resistance to infections, liver function and protein metabolism, as well as the bones the very essence of out life, blood. Light increases the red cell count; over-radiation of the higher wave length (X Ray) profoundly disturbs the bone marrow. The Phosphor pathogenesis includes anemia, as well as polycythemia, haemorrhagic and ad hemolytic conditions, as well as leukaemia.
Before closing we should consider one more important general modality. The Phosphor illness shown an outspokenly selective tendency to the left side. We know that the function of the two different sides is deeply interwoven with problems of the total personality (mental problems of left-handedness) and the action of brain centers.
For the average right-handed individual the whole right side of his body is under much more conscious nerve control than the left, the more conscious and automatic side.
The paramount general reality of this fact is confirmed by the analytic symbol-interpretation and has found its expression even in the often intuitive understanding of our language. Left symbolizes the unconscious, 44 and therefore side is the “right” (good, correct) one became it is representative of our conscious actions.
Since the stage of our activities is also the battlefield upon which we receive our (often self-inflicted) wounds, the more active side seems also to be the side more liable to pathology. Thus the illness which emerges from the psychosomatic totality of an overintellectual and overconscientious Lycopodium type is right sided, while the Phosphor sufferer, who was reverted to the more instinctive unconscious levels in his psychophysical expressions, presents us with leftsided pathology.
Based on the hypothetical assumption of an inner autonomous light regulation or light metabolism, we have set out to investigate the available material in its relation to the pathogenesis of Phosphorus. The interpretation of the symbol material as presented by the analytical psychology of Jung has offered us the suggestion to seek in this material the expression of a metamorphosis of the dynamic principle of light, manifesting in the the forces f the higher personality, through intellect and breath down to the function of liver and metabolic organs.
It furnished the framework into which we fitted out material evidence. Much of the hitherto disconnected material of mental and physical symptoms and modalities along with experimental, toxicologic and clinical features, had thereby revealed a logical coherence a parts of one basic, immanent pattern. By circumstantial evidence as it were, we have also confirmed the probable correctness of our assumption of an autonomous inner light balance, as well as the great informative value of the analytical symbol material.
NEW YORK, N.Y.
