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| Hpathy Ezine - May, 2008 | ||||||||||
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| It is an undeniable fact that there are, amongst the healing professions, particularly homeopathy, those who adopt a reserved, cautionary or even totally negative position on the subject of vaccinations. There are about thirty-three rubrics listed in the actual "Complete Repertory" with reference to this subject. No engaged homeopathic physician, therefore, can ignore this subject.
Figure 1, 33 Rubrics from the Complete Repertory
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| "By the way it is notable, that since the general distribution of Jenner’s Cow Pox vaccination, human small-pox never again appeared as epidemically or virulently as 40-50 years before...“ |
§ 46 Organon
Why did Hahnemann receive the idea of smallpox vaccination so positively?
In the chapters that precede paragraph 46 in the Organon he explains in detail the phenomena that existing disease symptoms will disappear temporarily or permanently due to the addition of a new disease. He refers to experiences gained by Dezoteux, Leroy and Wendt; who had observed the cure of former diseases after the application of smallpox vaccinations. Hahnemann’ point was to confirm his discovered Law of Similars and these reports encouraged him and were very convenient for him in confirming in his new healing principle: that a disease is extinguished by a similar one.
The phrase "never again as epidemically as 40-50 years before"
is a hint "from heresay" of uncertain numbers. There was
little reliable epidemiological data available in Hahnemann’s time,
and more reliable data only came into being after Hahnemann. Reports
that there was a remedy against this dreadful disease, were understandably
greeted with great hope. Hahnemann had not experienced later, more
severe smallpox epidemics such as those in
Moreover, for a long time smallpox vaccinations were made by non-physicians, the so-called “inoculists,” and only gradually, in the second half of the 19th century, were vaccinations made by special physicians. Hahnemann himself definitely never made vaccinations.
Accurate Knowledge of Medicines?
Did make Hahnemann make other statements from which we can conclude whether he appreciated or rejected vaccinations? Hahnemann writes in the preface of the sixth edition of the Organon:
| "Hence Homeopathy avoids everything in the slightest degree enfeebling... hence it employs for the cure only those medicines whose power for altering and deranging dynamically the health it knows accurately." |
Preface to the sixth edition of the Organon
Can we say of a vaccine that we know it’s impact accurately? A vaccine is a living culture with added substances (stabilizers) which prevents this culture from having a life of it’s own. These toxic substances, like mercury, aluminum, organic solvents, etc. surely evoke associations with known remedy diseases to each experienced homeopathic physician.
The culture of a vaccine prospers on a foreign individual; chicken egg protein, monkey kidneys, human embryos. In any case, it contains traces of foreign protein. Each experienced homeopath knows about the importance of individuality. Only modern experiences of rejection reactions after Hetero-transplantations have shown the stress foreign proteins cause when they challenge an individual. We only come to know which reactions this biological medium brings about in the vaccinated body after the vaccination has been done. Hahnemann wrote an annotation on this point: „homeopathy does give simple medicines, which it knows exactly. It does not give mixtures“.
Who Has Eradicated the Plagues?
| "He is, likewise, a preserver of health if he knows the things that derange health and cause and sustain disease, and how to remove them from persons in health." |
§ 4 Organon
True prevention requires knowledge about the general living conditions which cause diseases. Worldwide, and independent of all times prevails a uniform opinion about the fundamental causes of disease and plagues. This concerns the adequate supply of fresh foods and a balanced nutrition, human housing conditions, proper clothing to protect themselves against cold and heat, pure drinking water, ways to keep body and clothes clean, and an efficient waste disposal, functioning canalization, etc., not to mention social peace and working conditions, family bonds and social order. It surely makes sense to everybody that the probability of plagues occurring increases and the general health of the population suffers during times of famine, destruction of all civilizing institutions by means of wars and insufficient care of the sick.
These universally accepted correlations between living circumstances and development of disease are evident for everybody skilled in the art of healing.
But a constant, consciously applied propaganda beclouds the correct view of these facts in even practicing homeopathic physicians.
Therefore it is not surprising that some homeopaths also attribute the decrease of plagues at first to the effects of vaccinations. But it has been known for a long time that plagues as well as the mortality rate of infectious diseases like measles, diphtheria etc. had already definitely declined before the introduction of vaccinations. This decrease began when, as a result of technological progress, social advancement, and general hygienic knowledge, it became possible to cover the basic needs of men.
M. Diepold, Graz, 2001, Hunger und Vergiftung (Hunger and Poisoning)
Primum Nihil Nocere
It is undeniable that countless people have lost their life and health by means of vaccinations. What does it mean when a physician himself sees healthy people pass away, rendered chronically ill, or crippled due to vaccinations? Why did Hahnemann abandon his occupation after his first experiences in medical practice? Did he point with shrugging shoulders to the doctrine of his times and continue to apply detrimental methods although humans got ill because of the prevalent applications of that time? Is it at all thinkable that he would have referred to a general hypothesis and continued to vaccine unconcernedly if he had observed with his own eyes the first signs of disease caused by vaccinations?
Hahnemann shows his tactfulness and responsibility toward sick persons in his instructions on remedy provings. In paragraph 137 of the Organon he writes about the effects of excessively large doses of medicines:
| "not to mention that it is dangerous – something that cannot be a matter of indifference to anybody who respects mankind and counts even the lowliest of men as his brother." |
§ 137 Organon
Who can imagine that Hahnemann would had continue to make provings if this would have caused serious disease or had even caused a first death? Could he not appeal rightfully to the highly strained argument of risk/benefit considerations?
Yet Hahnemann expresses himself much more clearly in the preface to the Organon when the representatives of a medical direction carelessly disregarded the damages caused by the treatment.
| "When one is rendered insensible to the admonitions of conscience, this becomes a very easy business indeed." |
Preface to The Sixth Edition of the Organon
The Beginning of Disease
Finally we come to a point in the Organon which no homeopathic physician will ignore. It is about the exploration of the sick person and especially about the activating cause of disease.
| "Useful to the physician in assisting him to cure are:
|
§ 5 Organon
Now, when the patient tells the doctor that the respective disease began after the vaccination and was not caused by any other event, can the homeopathic physician then not listen? Especially when the sick person reports this spontaneously and with great emotion.
Furthermore we have to ask about vaccinations separately within the complementary exploration. In many cases patients do not have the heart to mention this topic because certain physicians do not want to hear about it; or often the patient does not know that diseases are caused by or brought on by vaccinations. Therefore the careful anamnesis of each – also non homeopathic – physician has to be completed by the subject of vaccinations. Was the vaccination definitely the activating event? Does a physician only have to wait for the expert opinion of an officially qualified authority in order to draw a medical conclusion? Does it serve the science to overlook facts out of respect for an accepted hypothesis?
Hypotheses and Medicine
As is generally known, Jenner had declared that one single smallpox vaccination brings about lifelong protection against further smallpox diseases. But he had to revise this opinion because the vaccinated got ill as well as the non-vaccinated in several regions during subsequent smallpox epidemics. The doctrine of lifelong immunity dates from the observation that particular exanthemic childhood diseases only occur once in most cases. Hahnemann writes in paragraph 73 of the Organon of the classification of acute diseases... which either befall a person only once in a lifetime (such as smallpox, measles, whooping-cough, mumps, or the old, smooth, bright red scarlet fever of Sydenham, etc.) ... Here he repeats a theorem then considered valid, which is incorrect, but which is still taught today from elementary school to university and which obviously dates from superficial observation. Each physician experiences in longer practice that these childhood diseases can appear several times. But advocates of vaccination apply even this theorem, that undergoing an infectious disease provides lifelong immunity, in more speculative ways to all possible diseases. „Booster shots“ were created to maintain the idea of protection effect by smallpox vaccination.
Also, further chapters of theories which should have justified the protection effect of vaccinations became more and more questionable. The capability of the human organism to build antitoxin, on which E. Behring established serotheraphy around 1900, was disproved twenty-five years later by the toxicologist L. Levin, well-known to all homeopaths. Also the belief of neutralizing antibodies is at the most a thinking model, which complies in no case with the actual state of knowledge of molecular biology. Thus I have to close this paragraph with the following quote given by Hahnemann:
| "According to the testimony of all ages, no occupation is more unanimously declared to be a conjectural art than medicine" |
Preface to the First Edition of the Organon (1810)
Summary
Everybody who treats his patient for the most part according to the homeopathic curative method will have to deal with the problem of vaccination. Therefore, rejection of particular vaccinations or vaccinations in general, or at least a critical attitude toward them will develop depending on the physician’s experience and level of knowledge. The main reasons for this are the special claims of homeopathy. Everybody who works according to this method follows the definite requirements of this healing method. The essentials are:
To recognize before each medical treatment what enfeebles health and to avoid everything that promotes disease
The avoidance of damages by the therapy itself – “Primum Nihil Nocere”
Accurate knowledge of the remedies to prescribe
Careful study of case history
Delving into the data of the patient
Serious, permanent revision of previous experiences and actual medical knowledge and prevalent doctrines – "Aude Sapere!"
Did Hahnemann ever make vaccinations? This question can only be answered by those who treat their patients according to his spirit. And now for the final quote, this time not from Hahnemann.
| James Tyler Kent and vaccination I have investigated the pros and cons of vaccinations and after perennial observations and accurate weighting of circumstances I came to the conclusion, that the proofs that argue for vaccinations are very doubtful. In fact vaccinations have contributed enormously to damage individuals and the entire mankind. They caused many humans to get sick, have produced many ulcers and have masked, I don’t doubt this, many constitutional ailments. If I weigh all this then I can’t see any reason why I could recommend vaccinations. I have refused vaccinations for many years and if a patient absolutely wants to get vaccinated then he has to resort to another person. I do not assume responsibility. I have applied an array of medicines prophylactically as long as the disease was prevailing and therefore I have several arguments for it, that the indicated remedy prevents the disease. Published in: "The Homeopathic Recorder", Vol. XVI, No.12, 1901 |
References:
Hahnemann, Samuel. Organon der Heilkunst, Ausgabe 6B 2. Auflage, 1978, Haug Verlag,
Winkle, Stefan. Kulturgeschichte der Seuchen, 1997, Artemis&Winkler, Düsseldorf/Zürich
Lewin, Louis. Gifte und Vergiftungen, 6. Auflage, 1992, Haug Verlag
Heine, Hartmut. Lehrbuch der biologischen Medizin, 2. Auflage, Hippokrates Verlag
Hahnemann, Samuel. Organon of the Medical Art, Wenda
Brewster O'Reilly, Birdcage books, California,
Hahnemann, Samuel. Organon of Medicine, Sixth Edition Hahnemann’s Own Written Revision, translated by Willaim Boericke; 2006; B.Jain Publishers (P) Ltd. New Dehli
Hahnemann, Samuel. Organon of Medicine, translated by Jost Künzli, 2003, Clays Ltd, St Ives plc, Great Britain
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