Or a silica boy becomes a miner and in the mining camps he lives almost exclusively on cooked meat and potatoes, a diet which will make a Sulphur patient of him. Or a woman who may have been a Pulsatilla case in her first 20 years of life but in the subsequent 20 or 30 years, by partaking excessively of chicken, turkey, ham and cakes, all of which foods contain devitalized proteins and cause gout, high blood pressure and hypertrophy of the heart, becomes an Aurum met. patient and later, running around for years with hypertension she finally exhausts her circulatory system, becomes decompensated and in consequence of this long lasting decompensation she develops into an Antimonium tartaricum case.
You may find Pulsatilla, Aurum and Antimonium tartaricum symptoms intermingled in such a case, but only the administration of Antimonium tartaricum will afford substantial relief; the other two will fail. After Antimonium tartaricum has done its full duty, Aurum met. will come in and, after this has restored the circulation to normal, Pulsatilla will be indicated. Pulsatilla or Aurum, if given first, wound not work or would work only partially and temporarily, would only palliate.
In the case of this epileptic boy, only the MM potency had the power to penetrate through the outer shell of the Agaricus constitution, to improve the Phosphorus constitution and remove the convulsions temporarily, while in the case of his father the gouty shell seems to have been too dense even for the highest potency. It is known that chronic gout is the most difficult trouble to treat even for the most experienced homoeopath.
In order to prescribe for cases with more than one totality, it is extremely important that their symptoms be correctly evaluated. It is more decisive to ascertain the chronological incidence of a symptom as far as this is possible than to determine its quality. Mental symptoms, no matter how strong, must be disregarded, if they do not belong to the totalities which we have to treat first. Of the greatest value are those generalities, either mental or physical, which have cropped up last.
They should be taken as key-notes. In multiple totalities, therefore, mental symptoms belonging to the uppermost totality are of first importance while mental symptoms seemingly just as strong, yet belonging to other totalities, are not important at all but will become important later. For years I have been making mistakes in complicated chronic prescribing because I did not know this rule.
In spite of all ones personal experience with the remedies, gathered over many years of hard and tiresome work, it is not possible to distinguish between the different totalities in chronic cases without constant referring to the Materia Medica. To consult the repertories alone is insufficient. The symptoms must be compared with the help of the fullest reference books, such as the Guiding Symptoms of Hering, Encyclopaedia of T.F. Allen and the Dictionary of John. H. Clarke. Nor is hurry allowed in taking the case history. The whole past of such cases from the cradle must be scrutinized, pitfalls lurk everywhere, omissions are costly, constant digging, searching and reviewing are necessary, only thorough work brings permanent results with respect for homoeopathy as a deserved addition.
DENVER, COLORADO.
DISCUSSION.
DR. ROGER A. SCHMIDT [San Francisco, California]: This is a very thought-provoking paper. It brings up a number of problems that are not entirely solved and that need further discussion among ourselves.
The question of constitution, for example: We use terms that might have a different meaning among ourselves. My definition of “constitution” would be somatic condition of the body and the inherited factors that are imposed by the parents upon the being. Constitution is carried from the cradle to the grave. You cannot alter the somatic features that develop.
Things that are motivated are called temperaments. Temperament is an expression of the functional changes that occur with age. Possibly what Dr. Bellokossy referred to I would have called temperaments, and the person described in his paper developed different pictures as he developed throughout his youth into adulthood.
“Totality” being such a “total” term, if we take it to mean what it seems to mean, how could we have more than one “totality”? It would be rather a contradiction. We should not call it “totality,” if it is not something that is a total.
You stated that we should discard a number of mental what it seems to mean, how could we have more than one “totality”? It would be rather a contradiction. We should not call it “totality,” if it is not something that is a total.
You stated that we should discard a number of mental symptoms; yet, according to our rules, mental symptoms should be considered as the most important in the case. I quite agree with you, however, that such should be the case, because we have common symptoms and peculiar symptoms. I believe neurotic individuals (and the man whom you described seemed to be a perfect example of a neurotic individual) have many symptoms that are common among all neurotics whom we see. If there is one that is different from what we find in other neurotics, that one might be picked as the one that fits into the totality of the picture for prescription consideration.
What potency was the MM potency? Was it a Fincke, a Jenichen or centesimal?.
DR. BELLOKOSSY: It is really not possible to say, No matter who made those potencies, it is impossible to say whether they were exactly MM. I made the potency myself and it was approximately MM.
DR. SCHMIDT: It is another of those approximate things that we should sometimes, I believe, bring up for earnest consideration. We have to establish something exact. Science is progressing tremendously along the line of classifying things in such a way that you can compare them and evaluate them. If something is approximate, how can one evaluate it? An MM potency Jenichen is certainly entirely different from Korsakov or Hahnemann MM, isnt it? Mathematically I am sure there is a tremendous discrepancy.
DR. BELLOKOSSY: I made it out of CM according to my judgment, and I thought it was MM.
