Biochemic Tissue Salts

Tissue Remedies

Dr. Nash seeks to resolve the question of whether Dr. Schussler’s tissue remedies work homeopathically, or just by supplying needed minerals.

Read before the Hahnemannian Association, June, 1887

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In a lecture on Colocynthis Dr. J.T. Kent speaks, by way of comparison, of Magnesia phos. as an excellent remedy in colic. I do not remember his exact words, but do remember that while both of these remedies have the crampy, doubling-up pains for which Colocynth has so long and often been found promptly remedial, Magnesia phos. has also in almost as marked a degree as Arsenicum, relief from heat. Not only is this so in cramping, but also in some other neuralgic pains and affections for which Magnesia phos. has been found efficacious. So if Colocynth fails me in neuralgias, where the pains are crampy, I look sharp for the amelioration from heat, and if it appears, Magnesia phos. generally cures.

Not long ago I was called to a case of facial neuralgia of long standing which had been treated with anodynes, large doses of Belladonna being the last one used; and in such doses that the muscles of accommodation in the eye were   so paralyzed that the patient could not recognize the friends taking care of her. Upon examining her case, I found that the only way in which I could get any – even momentary – relief, was by hot applications to the painful nerve. Here was a good opportunity to try Magnesia phos. I gave it in the 12th trit, a small powder dissolved in water, and teaspoonful doses at intervals of two or three hours. A few doses soon relieved her of the pain, and in a few days more she had recovered from the weakness consequent upon such long suffering.

Now, what of the Tissue Remedies of Schussler? Shall we refuse to use them because they have not been proved?

I say, yes, if we cannot find our remedy among those that have been proved; if not, use them especially if their clinical use in the potentized form has proved repeatedly successful. Many of the most reliable symptoms in our Materia Medica have been discovered ab usu in morbis; like that of Pulsatilla, with which I perfectly relieved an old man suffering from enlarged prostate (after he had been aspirated twice to empty the bladder) on the symptom, “after micturation, even a few drops cause spasmodic pains in the neck of the bladder extending to the thighs.”

I was led to it by Lippe in his excellent article on Prostatic Disease in the Homoeopathic Physician. Digitalis and Causticum have served me equally well when indicated.

This valuable symptom is now in Hering’s Condensed Materia Medica, but is not found in Lippe, Allen or  Cowperthwaite, and has never, so far as I know, been pro duced in proving. A diamond discovered by accident is as truly a diamond as though you had been hunting for it; so these clinical gems in the Materia Medica are no less gems because we have not a full proving of the drug to which they belong. This is especially so if they appear during the use of the potentized drug. If a symptom or diseased condition is cured or removed with a remedy from the 30th, or even the 12th potency upward, and that repeatedly, I “check it down” ; it is entitled to my confidence. I believe it almost impossible to cure with the 30th potency, or even to remove any symptom or set of symptoms to which it is not homoeopathic; or, in other words, the antipathic remedy in such a potency will produce no curative effect at all. So if a cure does follow the administration of such a potency, the remedy must have been homoeopathic to the symptoms, and a thorough proving of the remedy will corroborate it. One thing must be remembered, viz. : that while cures must verify provings, provings if carried far enough) must also verify cures that are made accidentally.

Now, am I advocating empiricism? Not a bit of it! Let me be understood: head first is the way a child should be born; but if it comes breech first, it is a child all the same.

Provings first and cures afterwards is the right way, but if cures come first, accept them, and make the provings afterwards. Such cures are, sometimes, wonderful, leading us to most valuable therapeutic agents.

Now, with regard to these Tissue Remedies. Let any honest investigator study the symptoms of Ferrum as laid down in the homoeopathic Materia Medica; it has vertigo, congestion to head, penetrating, hammering pain, red face, epistaxis, etc., and then study it in its action on the lungs; note the oppression, haemoptysis with bright red blood, interscapular, pains, together with the fact that Hempel mentions that those who live in the vicinity of iron springs and drink the water are subject to local congestions, pulmonary phthisis, spitting of blood, etc.; add to all this the well-known action of Phosphorus upon the lungs, and then judge whether the bio-chemic theory or the homoeopathic law for applying Ferrum phos. in local congestions of the head or any other part lays best claim to our confidence as guiding.

Calcarea phos., Natrum sulph. and mur., and Silica are well proven and have been long used in many of the diseases for which Schussler recommends them. No doubt they affect the tissues; so does every remedy, vegetable, animal or mineral, which changes disease into healthy action, or vice versa. But whether they cure by virtue of supplying any lack of chemical elements in the tissues, rather than by correcting a condition of the system which in health is able to select all these elements necessary to its well-being is very doubtful, to say the least.

Every true Homoeopath knows that the lack of bone development, for which Calcarea phos. is remedial, is readily corrected by the use of this remedy in the 30th, 200th, or even higher potencies. How much of the lacking chemical element would be supplied in a month, provided the child took a grain of the 30th three times a day? Let the Milwaukee Bureau answer.

While time and research will bring many facts to light that will corroborate the truth of Similia Similibus Curentur, and one of them will be that the Tissue Remedies of Schussler are wonderful remedies; another is, that they will cure in the potentized form all diseases to which they are homoeopathic, and no others.

About the author

E.B.Nash

Dr. E.B. Nash 1838- 1917, was considered one of our finest homeopaths and teachers. He was Prof. of Materia Medica at the N.Y. Homoeopathic Medical College and President of International Hahnemannian Assoc. His book Leaders in Homoeopathic Therapeutics is a classic. This article is from: :The Medical Advance - A monthly magazine of homoeopathic medicine - edited and published by H.C. Allen, M. D.

4 Comments

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