As Dr.H.A. Roberts has so nicely ex;pressed it, HOMOEOPATHY studies man “as an individual in relation to his environment and circumstances more than any other school of medical thought, for it takes into consideration not only his immediate heritage but the more subtle and complex burden that is heritage of long ages or struggling and developing ancestors.Homoeopathy seeks to relieve the individual as much as possible from the heavy burden of hereditary tendencies he carries, and to guard against increasing this load by enabling his vital energy to provide its own immunity against disease”.
We have taken a passing note of the fact that Homoeopathy treats patients with drugs on human being. It is not very scientific to test drugs on animals and to except the same results on administering them to human being.In a limited field this method has its own utility, for example, in regard to investigation on food, vitamins, hormones, etc. But the claims of the experimental pharmacologist that of the results of these experimental methods an objective materia medical with be built up which can be utilised on objective indications for the treatment and control of morbid processes, are far too excessive. The reasons are:
1.These experiments can throw light only in respect to a few human functions which are human functions which are common to animal and man.
2.In experiments on animal we deal with artificially produced condition and it would not be rational to transfer the results to the treatment of naturally excited diseased conditions in human beings.
3.The human organism, especially in diseased condition, does not in reality show constancy.
4.Some of the effects of drugs on animals may be altogether different from what they are on human beings. In man adrenalin at first retards and later on furthers the gastric movements while the movements of the dog’s stomach are influenced in the reverse manner. Hypophysis extracts provoke diuresis in cats and dogs, but oliguria in rabbits and guinea pigs.
Homoeopathy stands unrivalled in the treatment of CHRONIC DISEASES. Hahnemann has left us a most precious gift in his discovery of the factors which give rise to and keep up the progress of chronic diseases, viz., Psora, Syphilis and Sycosis.A detailed exposition of these would be beyond the scope of the present work, and the readers who are interested in this branch of study are referred to Hahnemann’s Chronic Diseases and other leading works on Homoeopathic philosophy.
LIMITATIONS OF HOMOEOPATHY.The reader is, however, warned against concluding that Homoeopathy has no limitations. Hahnemann has clearly said that a physicians duty is to understand and remove the cause of the disease, which may at times be purely external or mechanical. the internal and dynamic causes are to be treated by internal and dynamic means, while purely external causes have two be dealt with by external means,.
Thus in cases of external injuries, in cases of foreign bodies having got into the eyes, ears, nose or other cavities, in cases of poisoning and in so many other cases, we cannot and should not rely exclusively upon the law of similars, though a stage may come after the external cause is removed to utilize the law for correcting the internal dynamic troubles, if any should arise, e.g., in chronic effects of poisoning, or blood poisoning from wounds, etc.
Again, in the class of diseases where malnutrition results from lack of proper foods, instead of lack of powers of assimilation, HOMOEOPATHY cannot be expected to take the place of a correction of dietetic deficiencies and defects. All obstacles to cure must be removed, according to Hahnemann, before we proceed to apply the indicated remedy.
While narrowing the sphere of surgery, Homoeopathy never claims to do away with it altogether. Let the patient be treated as a whole first, according to the natural laws,and then, if anything remains which must be removed, let the case be handed over to the surgeon. Or, if suppuration has taken place in an internal organ, naturally surgical aid must be called for. But tonsils, abscesses, carbuncles,tumours, etc. are not to be operated upon as a general rule as they are amenable to treatment. Their causes are internal and dynamic and should be corrected by dynamic means.
In the realm of THERAPEUTICS, however, homoeopathic laws reign supreme. If symptoms,the language of disordered vital energy, are properly understood, if the symptom-image of the patient is intelligently and correctly matched with the symptom image of the drug, or in other words, if the genius of the case and the genius of the drug are similar, and if the other homoeopathic laws are carefully followed, the patient’s restoration to health should be certain, if recovery is possible. the basic truth under lying Homoeopathy was hinted at by the ancient Hindu sages, by Hippocrates, Paracelsus, Stahl and other throughout the course of medical history.It is the expression of divine Law in the universe. May it guide us as a lamp in our sacred task of relieving the physical and mental suffering of our fellow being.
B.A., M.D.S.
Dehradun, India