1. Alcoholism


Homeopathic remedies to antidote the abuse of alcohol, as well as of other toxins or poisons, and medicines to stop persons from drinking alcohol….


THERAPEUTICS OF INTOXICATION F.BERNOVILLE

It is curious to observe with what precision and certainty Homoeopathic medicines act in the troubles of intoxication in general and how infinitesimal doses are capable of fighting victoriously against the ills caused in the human organism by long continued doses of toxines.

We, being Homoeopaths, know how to antidote the abuses of alcohol as well as of other toxines or poisons, liquid or solid, and sometimes even we can, very rarely of course, make the drunkard immune against his vice.

But before broaching the study of Homoeopathic medicines of alcoholism let us frame some notions about the constitution and temperament of persons who give themselves up to it.

1. The Ground in Alcoholic Persons

In addition to the habit that is either due to frequentation to social surroundings or to profession, or to a more or less invincible inclination it cannot be denied that there exists in most drunkards a special ground of predisposition due to the heredity. Alcoholism of a father may be inherited by his sons.

Sons can stand much less alcohol; ebriety is very rapid, more dangerous in alcoholic persons whose habit of drinking is clearly hereditary. Inversely a sufficiently moderate use of alcohol and of wine specially transmits to the descendants certain resisting power against intoxication (Compare the Romans and the Anglo- Saxons).

But from the standpoint of Homoeopathy an alcoholic person is always Psoric. Psora exists before alcoholism. Why?

If we admit the tempting ideas of A. Nebel: Psora is nothing but the result of hereditary tubercular intoxication moreover according to Dr. Nebel, tuberculosis endangers the desire for alimentary stimulants (meat and above all alcohol), while syphilis provokes very often the need for drugs and toxines of the nervous system (Opium Morphia).

This seems to be right, and just as psora may provoke the habit of alcohol, so alcoholic intoxications diminish the power of resistance of the tuberculous persons and obliges them to revert to that stage which already existed in his ancestors, with more or less intensity.

2. Treatments of Troubles of Alcoholism

We will group our arsenal in three groups of remedies:

1. Remedies of neutralization and of immunity.

2. Constitutional remedies.

3. Functional remedies.

We must know them well, in order to prescribe them systematically each time when possible.

Quercus. A very good antidote for the bad effects of alcohol, specially for the effects on glands and humour. When repeated for a long time it may sometimes diminish the desire for alcohol. Apocynum generally acts better in this respect. It should be continued for a very long time for months together in T.M. or in the 1st or 2x in doses of 5 to 10 drop a dose. This remedy acts directly on the spleen as Rademacher has already noticed, who applied it in chronic complaints of the spleen.

The principal symptoms of this medicine are:

Vertigo, noise in the ears, heavy head, dyspeptic troubles, flatulence and tendency to oedema.

Quercus glandium spiritus certainly the typical medicine for general drainage of alcoholic intoxication.

Angelica: It can provoke a dislike for alcohol. We use it generally in M.T. in doses of 5 drops repeated three or four times a day. It has among its symptoms, atomic dyspeptic troubles and nervous headache.

Capsicum. In some cases it provokes a dislike for alcohol; when it is given in M.T. a teaspoonful with a litre of wine. Its symptoms are:

Perspiration and slow digestion, flatulence and intense desire for stimulants. Great thirst, red mucous specially of the pharynx. There may exist insomnia, with the tendency to suicide, or desire to remain alone.

It may be used in some cases of delirium tremens. It acts well of en to indolent persons, of sedentary habits having tendency to obesity, and some aversion for physical exercise. In this case it is nearer to Nux-vomica.

Apocynum Canabinum. This medicine is very often used to check the bad habit of drunkards. We may give it in chronic as well as in acute cases.

Very often there exists nausea, vomiting and somnolence, certain weakness of cardiac muscles causing oedema.

Dose required : 10 to 20 drops of M.T. to be repeated once or twice daily.

These remedies may very often be prescribed: Angelica, Capsicum and Apocynum-can, without the patient knowing it, which may be very useful in practice in subjects who do not wish to submit themselves to any treatment.

It is evident that all the means that we may have recourse to in order to create dislike for alcohol, intemperate persons are always in medicinal intoxication whether we employ a drug in very heavy doses or continue it for a long time we will then substitute another toxic for the toxic under treatment which is not rational.

Remedies that are used by empericists or quacks act in this manner, intoxicating violently the person for several days. They produce only ephemeral action and are dangerous if they are to treat patients whose kidney, heart and the liver are weak. Our Homoeopathic procedure is more judicious, and does not admit of such inconveniences. However we must know that if we repeat for a long time, Apoc-can. or Angelica or Caps. We can also intoxicate the person and provoke in him the appearance of pathogenetic symptoms of their troubles which moreover act only so long as they are used. Generally the person takes up again his bad habit as soon as he stops taking those medicines. There is then no hope except in the will of the person and in moral persuation. The results are therefore very uncertain.

What is required in future is to be able by judicious treatment bearing on the temperament and constitution of the persons to annihilate very precautiously the desire of stimulants and of alcoholic drinks the cause of which appear to be connected with Psora and Tuberculosis of the antecedents.

3. Constitutional Remedies

They are less numerous. Practically we see in all alcoholic persons symptoms that indicate Nux-vomica, Sulphur, Lachesis, Lycopodium and Phosphorus.

Sulphur. When we study the pathogenesis of Sulphur it is easy to understand how a person having morbid temperament represented by substance, can advance towards alcoholism.

The typical patient of Sulphur has quick imagination but repugnant to action. He is a man of vain words and schemes. He likes to philosophise perpetually, to discuss diverse subjects and to build castles in the air.

He is a perpetual student and often brilliant in conversation but is unarmed for the battle of life. He is filthy philosopher- negligent in dress, with grey hairs, pellicles on collar, he discusses about brew- houses before some persons and he puts off very late the decision he is to take.

Even if the patient does not show this well-known type which was represented in the antiquity by Diogenes, a Sulphur patient has also tendency to cutaneous eruptions. He has an unusual hunger, always in the morning towards 11 a.m. He drinks much and eats little. He has a burning sensation in the feet, when he lies down, and searches always for a fresh place and throws away his covers.

Objectively the patient very often shows a high arterial tension. His lips are red as well as mucous membranes and orifices of the body. Alcohol congests him and creates in him a tendency to ictus apoplectic. Specially Alcohol provokes sign of congestion in the person. He has very often pains in the stomach and pyrosis, specially in the morning and when fasting. Morning pituitus. There may exist neuralgias and neuritis. Sciatica on the left side. Aggravated at night or he also may have intercostal pleurodynia or neuralgias.

Nux Vomica. Desire for stimulants is one of the greatest characteristics of this remedy. The desire very often leads to abuse of alcohol. The person thinks it urgent for him, because no sooner he takes it then he feels himself better, his intellectual words become easy; physical dullness that he experiences in the morning does not continue longer, but the amelioration is nothing but ephemeral. The numerous lashes given to the organism by the repeated uses of stimulants diminish the resisting power of the person who gradually becomes more and more fatigued, irascible, and irritable. Those stimulants are coffee, tobacco, rich food, and above all alcohol or wine. This urgent need so frequent in psoric agents may lead to alcoholism as well as to arthritic manifestations. The alcoholic persons who show hereditary tubercular infection as shown by Dr. Nebel.

Nux-vom. is a very curious remedy. It suits particularly to business men of Anglo Saxon origin, who lead a very sedentary life and are always overworked, feeling the need of stimulants in order to accomplish their daily work. Latin and specially French people who are amenable to Nux-vomica belongs rather to the pre- war type, the type of persons who like to lead a good and cheerful life, who is proud of a choice cellar, sports are unknown to them; he works slowly and regularly. Businessmen of French origin of post war period responds less to. Nux-vomica than their English and American counterparts They do not very well maintain the apparent mastery of their nerves. They feel more the need of giving vent to that nervous energy that they possess in a morbid manner. Their nervous system is rendered feminine and very often they become Ignatia patients.

Mauritius Fortier-Bernoville
Mauritius (Maurice) Fortier Bernoville 1896 – 1939 MD was a French orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy to become the Chief editor of L’Homeopathie Moderne (founded in 1932; ceased publication in 1940), one of the founders of the Laboratoire Homeopathiques Modernes, and the founder of the Institut National Homeopathique Francais.

Bernoville was a major lecturer in homeopathy, and he was active in Liga Medicorum Homeopathica Internationalis, and a founder of the le Syndicat national des médecins homœopathes français in 1932, and a member of the French Society of Homeopathy, and the Society of Homeopathy in the Rhone.

Fortier-Bernoville wrote several books, including Une etude sur Phosphorus (1930), L'Homoeopathie en Medecine Infantile (1931), his best known Comment guerir par l'Homoeopathie (1929, 1937), and an interesting work on iridology, Introduction a l'etude de l'Iridologie (1932).

With Louis-Alcime Rousseau, he wrote several booklets, including Diseases of Respiratory and Digestive Systems of Children, Diabetes Mellitus, Chronic Rheumatism, treatment of hay fever (1929), The importance of chemistry and toxicology in the indications of Phosphorus (1931), and Homeopathic Medicine for Children (1931). He also wrote several short pamphlets, including What We Must Not Do in Homoeopathy, which discusses the logistics of drainage and how to avoid aggravations.

He was an opponent of Kentian homeopathy and a proponent of drainage and artificial phylectenular autotherapy as well.