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If the student or physicians comprehend the
general qualities of the drug, the are prepared to apply its particulars,
Given, for instance, a special symptom: sleepy, but can not sleep__
Bellad., Apis, if the general properties of these two remedies are
known, the choice is easy.
Still, it must be remembered that it is only
by the multiplication of particulars that the general character
can be distinctively drawn, just as a strange object becomes more
and more familiars as we recognize more the relation of its parts
to the whole.
Recognizing that the totality is to be employed
rather than single symptoms, some teachers, have neglected the later,
and have published descriptions of drug, hewn out after the fashion
of their own synthetic thought. This error arises from a misunderstanding
of the procedures of the so-called symptomists. Few, if any, prescribe
for one symptom; for, although such a single indication may lead
them to a drug, their knowledge of the drug as a whole immediately
comes into consciousness, and they intuitively fit the fact into
its proper place. Now, because this understanding of the whole was
acquired by a long and patient attention to details,-- to characteristics,--
they really have more accurate mental picture than most of their
accusers. A correct generalization of a drug, then, can only be
made after a full and complete analysis of its particulars. The
mental impress form by a reconstruction of these particulars is
the true general.. Always after wards in prescribing, when a single
characteristic presents itself, it is to be measured by its relation
to the whole. This is the true value of Hahnemanns totality.
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