At times the inclusion of few drugs in a rubric may mean, not that no other drugs have the symptom but that observation has failed to note it. It has been shown that exclusion of a remedy from a rubric is a much more serious blunder than to include one inadvertently where it does not belong. Comparison will throw that one out, but will not restore the missing one that should be there.
Before giving a brief example of the time saving features of a punch card method let me explain that while these cards are on a spindle, which keeps them always in proper order, at the discretion of the user the spindle can be dispensed with and the cards then can be used as any loose card index.
This case is of a sixty-year-old man who comes because he has been told he has high blood pressure, 192/100. In taking his history the following general symptoms appeared:
Irritable, cranky.
Very restless.
Inclined to weep which embarrasses him very much.
Desire to be by himself.
Some pitting edema of legs to near knee.
Feels best when he keeps busy.
Has always felt worse when the weather is either too hot or too cold.
Working from these six rubrics we find that.
Weeping has 153 remedies listed.
Restlessness 200.
Averse to company 92.
Dropsy, external 89.
Better when busy or occupied 26.
Aggr. either extreme of temperature 27.
Looking through the perforations in the cards show that only three drugs are common to all, giving us a compound rubric consisting of Lyc., Nat.c., and Sepia.
Repeated urine analysis show a consistent low specific gravity, albuminuria: 140 remedies, some red blood cells: 120 remedies, sediment reddish: 84 remedies. His blood counts were within normal limits.
Of the three remedies in the compound rubric above, blood in the urine rules out Nat.c., leaving Lyc. and Sep. Albuminuria rules out Sepia. The reddish sediment contains both Sep. and Lyc. in the highest rank among the 84 drugs known to have such a symptom.
Lycopodium was given and followed by prompt improvement of his mental state and a lowering of his blood pressure, perhaps due to his greater degree of relaxation. How reversible the urinary condition is, remains to be seen as the case progresses.
Summary. I have compared two methods of approach to therapeutic problems, namely the empirical without a broad general concept that tends to bring order out of its findings, and the homoeopathic which uses experiments upon human beings in health, records its findings in lay terms, thus avoiding the need to throw away all its experimental evidence with the next change in the interpretation of symptom complexes, and is operating under a broad concept of what we consider a law of nature. The unavoidable size of our task is emphasized and a method that saves tie tote busy physician is suggested.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
1. James B. Conant: Science, Vol. 107; Jan. 1948.
2. Carroll Dunham: Science of Therapeutics.
DISCUSSION.
DR. GARTH BOERICKE [Philadelphia, .]: I have been intrigued by Margaret Tylers method. I pressure you are familiar with it, But her method is to seek an eliminative symptom. If I were repertorizing Dr. Farleys case, I would only consider that aggravation from extremes of temperature, 27 remedies. I would have listed the 27 remedies and run against that as many rubrics as you please, arguing this way: that in a case that has an outstanding symptom of that sort, that symptom has to be n the remedy you select.
This is what I use when repertorizing. I have Dr. Farleys spindle Repertory, and I think I have every known Repertory. I always believe what Dr. Cameron said, never overlook buying a Repertory. I have dozens of them. There is always something in every Repertory that is valuable, but that is my method.
DR. ALLAN D. SUTHERLAND [Brattleboro, Vt.]: Dr. Boerickes remarks are very interesting because that same method of seeking an eliminative symptom can be used with Boenninghausens, and if shortens the work considerably.
I have compared cases, using Dr. Farleys spindle Repertory and using Boenninghausen, with the eliminative symptom system Dr. Boericke described, and it was very interesting to me to see the remedies that came through, I mean to compare them, because Boenninghausen will reach the same group, perhaps not the same value for each remedy as the spindle Repertory. Actually, there is less work involved in using the spindle Repertory and hence, it is a time-saver and is quite accurate.
In the last analysis, one has to go to the Materia Medica. You cant expect the Repertory to choose the remedy for you. That would be really making life too easy for a homoeopath, and, of course, we dont want an easy life; otherwise we wouldnt be homoeopaths, So, I will recommended Dr. Farley;s Repertory very highly as it is simple and a distinct contribution to the mechanics of remedy selection.
DR. RAY W. SPALDING [Dedham, Mass.]: I sat with Dr. Margaret Tyler over in London some years ago and watched her work. The important thing isnt just to have the eliminative symptom but if it is outstanding if it is marked, then she will use it as a check and throw everything against it. You couldnt tell, the way Dr. Farley read that paper, whether that was a marked symptom or not, at least I didnt get it that way, So I myself would be a little hesitant in using that as an elimination. But in taking the symptoms as given, I think he has shown a short cut to a consideration of several remedies.
DR. FARLEY [closing]: Thank you, Dr. Boericke. I agree with you that the eliminative symptom is one of the outstanding ways of reaching your remedy. I use it quite a good deal.
The comment that I got from Dr. Sutherland is that it came out the same as Boenninghausens method. said, “Thank God for that because if it didnt there would be something wrong with it.” [Laughter] I am still more afraid of leaving something out than I am of making the wrong punch. In the beginning I inserted go errors.
On very fifth card I punched in three to five errors deliberately, where they could be shown up very plainly on black spaces that I left. Then, for the first year or so, not one of them ever could possibly come out. It would be a ten million to one chance, because it would mean your patients complains had to be only the ones that had the errors in them. One symptom that didnt have the error would eliminate all the errors right like that.
Then I began to worry about leaving something out that ought to be in there, and that is a real worry. I still cant get around that one.
