She is chilly but cannot bear the heat; complains about menstrual trouble, indigestion; and she cannot digest fat, in fact loathes it. A sympathetic question or two causes her to weep. The girl is a typical Pulsatilla case. That is clear to a good homoeopath when she entered the door. A swarthy man, with dark hair, dark eyes, looking irascible and smelling of tobacco, sits down at my desk. Before he has opened his mouth I know he needs Nux vomica. A patient enters our room. He is sallow-faced, skin looks unwashed, he stoops badly, his hand is moist, and immediately we think of Sulphur. In innumerable cases the homoeopath can prescribe at sight and can therefore prescribe far more quickly than the orthodox doctor.
Of course the beginner cannot spot the right remedy instantaneously. Considerable experience is required. One has to get thoroughly familiar with the peculiarities of numerous remedies. One has to learn the ropes, so to speak. The beginner has to discover the indicated remedy in a somewhat laborious roundabout fashion, which, however, must not deter him, for he will be wonderfully rewarded for the labour of half an hour or so by the most amazing cures which will give him confidence in homoeopathy, and which will gain for him the confidence of his patients. I would describe, by a practical example, the way in which one selects the remedy if one is not thoroughly familiar with the Materia Medica.
I was called to a patient, a woman, aged forty-five, who complained about the following symptoms which, in accordance with Hahnemanns teaching, I immediately wore down at the bedside: Tearing, violent, unendurable pains in the limbs; pains worse at night, especially when getting warm in bed; sour sweat when in bed; very irritable and complaining and apparently unreasonable; fever; restlessness. The obvious diagnosis was acute rheumatism. A beginner could not fail to recognise the name of the complaint, and it would immediately occur to him that the salicylates are usually given for rheumatism by orthodox practitioners. However, the name of the disease is of no particular interest to the homoeopath. His principal anxiety is not to ascertain the official name of the disease, but to find the curative remedy.
If the mental symptoms are prominently marked, as they were in the case mentioned, they should be given first place because Hahnemann has told us that the mental symptoms are most important and the experience of a century has confirmed his view.
There are large text books containing all the symptoms which are ranged under headings such as mind, head, eyes, ears, abdomen, and so forth. The best of these is probably Kents Repertory. In turning to the Repertory, I found under the heading irritability a number of drugs, among which I noted Chamomilla, which was prominently given in large print, being a very important irritability remedy.
The lady complained about her troubles being much worse at night than in the daytime. In the best repertories there is a heading showing the drugs which should be used for night aggravation. Among these I found once more Chamomilla in large type.
Under the heading “Pain” there is a collection of remedies in the Repertory in which the various pains are classified under headings such as Burning, Pressing, Stabbing, etc. The lady had complained about tearing, violent and unendurable pains. I turned to that entry and found once more Chamomilla prominently mentioned in big type.
The patient had also complained about sour sweat when in bed. The symptom repertory gave for this a number of drugs, among them Chamomilla in large type. The next symptom which I had put down was “Worse from warmth.” Under the heading “Aggravation from Warmth” a considerable number of drugs was mentioned, among them once more Chamomilla.
When the beginner, who is not yet thoroughly familiar with the character of the principal drugs, has made this analysis, he must not blindly give Chamomilla or whatever drugs he has found by studying the repertory, but he must turn to a good Materia Medica to ascertain whether his diagnosis is confirmed in the Materia Medica. Boerickes Pocket Materia Medica states under the heading “Chamomilla”:.
The chief guiding symptoms of Chamomilla belong to the mental and emotion group which lead to this remedy in many forms of disease. Chamomilla is sensitive, irritable, thirsty, hot and numb. Pains unendurable. Night sweats. Impatient, intolerant, spiteful, snappish. Mental calmness contra-indicates Chamomilla. Worse by heat and at night. A disposition that is mild, calm and gentle contra-indicates Chamomilla.
Being firmly convinced that Chamomilla was the indicated remedy, I gave the patient Chamomilla, ordinary Chamomilla, in the 30th potency, and a few doses led to a rapid recovery. I should have given any patient Chamomilla with the marked symptoms enumerated above, whatever the name of the disease. If it had been not a case of rheumatism but a case of bronchitis, violent diarrhoea, heart disease, earache, indigestion, headache, menstrual troubles, neuralgia, or anything else, Chamomilla would have been indicated and would have cured.
When I started on my career, I laboriously worked up case after case in the manner described until the principal remedies became to me like familiar friends with well-known faces. As soon as one has arrived at the necessary familiarity, one asks a few questions and then one decides at once that the patient needs Aconite, Belladonna, Bryonia, Chamomilla, etc. Very frequently one can make the decision without a single question, and one amazes the patient by the rapidity with which one decides and cures a case which has been considered absolutely incurable by excellent orthodox doctors.
James Ellis Barker wrote a very large number of books, both under the name James Ellis Barker and under his real German name Otto Julius Eltzbacher, The Truth about Homœopathy; Rough Notes on Remedies with William Murray; Chronic Constipation; The Story of My Eyes; Miracles Of Healing and How They are Done; Good Health and Happiness; New Lives for Old: How to Cure the Incurable; My Testament of Healing; Cancer, the Surgeon and the Researcher; Cancer, how it is Caused, how it Can be Prevented with a foreward by William Arbuthnot Lane; Cancer and the Black Man etc.