My chief interest right now is in those unfortunate people who get sick because of some inherited taint due to mistakes of their ancestors. These people cannot help themselves, and Nature is unable to correct the condition without the aid of the correctly chosen constitutional remedy. The only way by which the remedy can be found is by invoking the Law of Similars, and it is not always easy.
Down through the years I have listened to many ideas as to how and why this Law of Similars works.
None of them ever quite suited me until I found my own explanation. It is quite clear to me but I have trouble in passing it on to others. To my mind, sickness is not a thing, not an entity, not something we can see or get hold of. Sickness is an altered condition of the living equilibrium, the vital force, that which makes the difference between the quick and the dead. We have been taught to diagnose into existence a disease, as manifest by the symptoms, to which a name has been given.
This is bad because not only is it not true but it gives one an almost unshakeable concept of disease as a thing or entity which has gotten hold of a patient. With such a concept we are forever stuck. We are helpless. We cannot deal with something that isnt, something that does not exist. We often know what caused the disturbance but what we see is not the working of the cause. If we give a child a dose of the tincture of Belladonna we see certain definite symptoms and we are prone to say, “That is the Belladonna working,” but is it?
What Belladonna is doing to the patient we do not know. What we see is the way Nature reacts to overcome some menace that should never have gotten into the system in the first place. Nature is at work getting rid of it and we see by the symptoms just what she is doing to accomplish her ends. With our confirmed faith in the Law of Similars how simple a matter it is, if we have a proper knowledge of the homoeopathic materia medica, to choose a remedy for any case of sickness where Nature presents us with sufficient symptoms to use as the clue.
Here is a case which may serve as a vivid example, an unforgettable example, if you please:
A farmer boy, twenty years old, stalwart and strong with an inherited constitution which betokened defiance to disease, awoke one morning with a slight, throbbing headache and vertigo. He was feverish but ate a light breakfast and went to the field to work. Toward noon, the headache had so increased that he went home. After bathing his head in cool water and sitting quietly in the shade he felt better. During the afternoon he remained at home and early in the evening he retired but could not sleep. He made no complaints until the next morning when a physician was called who prescribed Bromide of Potash.
He grew worse through the day and at midnight another physician was called in consultation. He found him suffering severe pain in the head; carotid and temporal arteries were throbbing violently; his face was red; head hot; eyes injected and pupils dilated. His temperatures was 104 degree F. He was very restless; slightly delirious; often sat up in bed and sometimes attempted to get out. While sitting, he would fall asleep, waking with a severe start. While lying down he could not sleep. Bromide of Potash was discontinued and Valerian was given. His physicians were regular and orthodox.
The next afternoon the symptoms had all deepened. Restlessness had given place to wild tossing; the mild delirium to furious rage. He was fighting, biting, striking, bounding continuously from side to side of the bed and making such frantic efforts to rise that his strength seemed almost superhuman. Four strong men could scarcely hold him. His temperature was very high. They bathed him, bled him and gave him Hydrate of Chloral and bromides in ever increasing doses. He died at dawn. Such magnificent manhood, the sole support of his widowed mother, deserved a better fate.
This was a case of the late T.H. Hudson who, through his failure in this and many other cases, was led to study and adopt Homoeopathy.
Now, my good homoeopathic friends, what was the diagnosis in this case? What could one name such a condition? What would have been prescribed in this case by any good homoeopath? Belladonna, of course. Here, Nature showed very plainly what she needed. Here is an almost perfect picture of the provings of Belladonna. What a wonderful guide to the choice of a remedy is the Law of Similars! I believe that, had this young man been left entirely alone, he would have eventually recovered. I believe that if he had received a small dose of Belladonna he would have recovered next morning. I believe he was killed by drugs.
How can we lift the iron curtain of organized, orthodox, commercial medicine? I believe the people are about ready for some education in health, sickness and medicine. The homoeopathic practice of medicine cannot be exploited. It puts no money into the pockets of anyone. This is as it should be. No one should profit financially by taking advantage of the peoples fear of death from sickness. The homoeopathic physician should be the highest paid of all doctors for the knowledge which enables him to prescribe the proper remedies. No price is too great to pay for such valuable knowledge.
