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§ 151
But if
the patient complain of a few violent sufferings, the physician
will usually find, on investigation, several other symptoms besides,
although of a slighter character, which furnish a complete picture
of the disease.
§ 152
The worse
of the acute disease is, of so much the more numerous and striking
symptoms is it generally composed, but with so much the more certainly
may a suitable remedy for it be found, if there be a sufficient
number of medicines known, with respect to their positive action,
to choose from. Among the lists of symptoms of many medicines it
will not be difficult to find one from whose separate disease elements
an antitype of curative artificial disease, very like the totality
of the symptoms of the natural disease, may be constructed, and
such a medicine is the desired remedy.
§ 153 Fifth Edition
In this
search for a homoeopathic specific remedy, that is to say, in this
comparison of the collective symptoms of the natural disease with
the list of symptoms of known medicines, in order to find among
these an artificial morbific agent corresponding by similarity to
the disease to be cured, the more striking, singular, uncommon and
peculiar (characteristic) signs and symptoms1
of the case of disease are chiefly and most solely to be kept in
view; for it is more particularly these that very similar ones in
the list of symptoms of the selected medicine must correspond to,
in order to constitute it the most suitable for effecting the cure.
The more general and undefined symptoms: loss of appetite, headache,
debility, restless sleep, discomfort, and so forth, demand but little
attention when of that vague and indefinite character, if they cannot
be more accurately described, as symptoms of such a general nature
are observed in almost every disease and from almost every drug.
1 Dr. von Bonninghausen,
who has already distinguished himself by his labours in connection
with the new system of medicine, has lately increased our obligation
to him by the publication of his important little book setting forth
the characteristic symptoms, more particularly of the antipsoric
medicines, entitled Uebersicht der Hauptwirkungs-Sphure der antips.
Arz., Munster, bei Coppenrath, 1883, and the appendix thereto (containing
the antisyphilitic and the antisycotic medicines) at the end of
the second edition of his Systematisch-alphabetisches Repertorium
der antipsorischen Arzneien, bei Coppenrath in Munster.
§ 153 Sixth Edition
In this
search for a homoeopathic specific remedy, that is to say, in this
comparison of the collective symptoms of the natural disease with
the list of symptoms of known medicines, in order to find among
these an artificial morbific agent corresponding by similarity to
the disease to be cured, the more striking, singular, uncommon and
peculiar (characteristic) signs and symptoms1
of the case of disease are chiefly and most solely to be kept in
view; for it is more particularly these that very similar ones
in the list of symptoms of the selected medicine must correspond
to, in order to constitute it the most suitable for effecting the
cure. The more general and undefined symptoms: loss of appetite,
headache, debility, restless sleep, discomfort, and so forth, demand
but little attention when of that vague and indefinite character,
if they cannot be more accurately described, as symptoms of such
a general nature are observed in almost every disease and from almost
every drug.
1 Dr. von Bonninghausen,
by the publication of the characteristic symptoms of homoeopathic
medicines and his repertory has rendered a great service to Homoeopathy
as well as Dr. J.H.G. Jahr in his handbook of principal symptoms.
§ 154
If the
antitype constructed from the list of symptoms of the most suitable
medicine contain those peculiar, uncommon, singular and distinguishing
(characteristic) symptoms, which are to be met with in the disease
to be cured in the greatest number and in the greatest similarity,
this medicine is the most appropriate homoeopathic specific remedy
for this morbid state; the disease, if it be not one of very long
standing, will generally be removed and extinguished by the first
dose of it, without any considerable disturbance.
§ 155 Fifth Edition
I say
without any considerable disturbance. For in the employment of this
most appropriate homoeopathic remedy it is only the symptoms of
the medicine that correspond to the symptoms of the disease that
are called into play, the former occupying the place of the latter
(weaker) in the organism, and thereby annihilating them by overpowering
them; but the other symptoms of the homoeopathic medicine, which
are often very numerous, being in no way applicable to the case
of disease in question, are not called into play at all. The patient,
growing hourly better, feels almost nothing of them at all, because
the excessively minute dose requisite for homoeopathic use is much
too weak to produce the other symptoms of the medicine that are
not homoeopathic to the case, in those parts of the body that are
free from disease, and consequently can allow only the homoeopathic
symptoms to act on the parts of the organism that are already most
irritated and excited by the similar symptoms of the disease, thus
changing the morbid affection of the vital force into a similar
but stronger medicinal disease, whereby the original malady is extinguished.
§ 155 Sixth Edition
I say
without any considerable disturbance. For in the employment of this
most appropriate homoeopathic remedy it is only the symptoms of
the medicine that correspond to the symptoms of the disease that
are called into play, the former occupying the place of the latter
(weaker) in the organism, i.e., in the sensation of the life principle,
and thereby annihilating them by overpowering them; but the other
symptoms of the homoeopathic medicine, which are often very numerous,
being in no way applicable to the case of disease in question, are
not called into play at all. The patient, growing hourly better,
feels almost nothing of them at all, because the excessively minute
dose requisite for homoeopathic use is much too weak to produce
the other symptoms of the medicine that are not homoeopathic to
the case, in those parts of the body that are free from disease,
and consequently can allow only the homoeopathic symptoms to act
on the parts of the organism that are already most irritated and
excited by the similar symptoms of the disease, in order that the
sick life principle may react only to a similar but stronger medicinal
disease, whereby the original malady is extinguished.
§ 156
There
is, however, almost no homoeopathic medicine, be it ever so suitably
chosen, that, especially if it should be given in an insufficiently
minute dose, will not produce, in very irritable and sensitive patients,
at least one trifling, unusual disturbance, some slight new symptom
while its action lasts; for it is next to impossible that medicine
and disease should cover one another symptomatically as exactly
as two triangles with equal sides and equal angles. But this (in
ordinary circumstances) unimportant difference will be easily done
away with by the potential activity (energy) of the living organism,
and is not perceptible by patients not excessively delicate; the
restoration goes forward, notwithstanding, to the goal of perfect
recovery, if it be not prevented by the action of heterogeneous
medicinal influences upon the patient, by errors of regimen or by
excitement of the passions.
§ 157 Fifth Edition
But though
it is certain that a homoeopathically selected remedy does, by reason
of its appropriateness and the minuteness of the dose, gently remove
and annihilate the acute disease analogous to it, without manifesting
its other unhomoeopathic symptoms, that is to say, without the production
of new, serious disturbances, yet it usually, immediately after
ingestion - for the first hour, or for a few hours - causes a kind
of slight aggravation (where the dose has been somewhat too large,
however, for a considerable number of hours), which has so much
resemblance to the original disease that it seems to the patient
to be an aggravation of his own disease. But it is, in reality,
nothing more than an extremely similar medicinal disease, somewhat
exceeding in strength the original affection.
§ 157 Sixth Edition
But though
it is certain that a homoeopathically selected remedy does, by reason
of its appropriateness and the minuteness of the dose, gently remove
and annihilate the acute disease analogous to it, without manifesting
its other unhomoeopathic symptoms, that is to say, without the production
of new, serious disturbances, yet it usually, immediately after
ingestion - for the first hour, or for a few hours - causes a kind
of slight aggravation when the dose has not been sufficiently small
and (where the dose has been somewhat too large, however, for a
considerable number of hours), which has so much resemblance to
the original disease that it seems to the patient to be an aggravation
of his own disease. But it is, in reality, nothing more than an
extremely similar medicinal disease, somewhat exceeding in strength
the original affection.
§ 158
This
slight homoeopathic aggravation during the first hours - a very
good prognostic that the acute disease will most probably yield
to the first dose - is quite as it ought to be, as the medicinal
disease must naturally be somewhat stronger than the malady to be
cured if it is to overpower and extinguish the latter, just as a
natural disease can remove and annihilate another one similar to
it only when it is stronger than the latter (§§ 43 - 48).
§ 159 Fifth Edition
The smaller
the dose of the homoeopathic remedy is, so much the slighter and
shorter is the apparent increase of the disease during the first
hours.
§ 159 Sixth Edition
The smaller
the dose of the homoeopathic remedy is in the treatment of acute
diseases so much the slighter and shorter is the apparent increase
of the disease during the first hours.
§ 160
But as
the dose of a homoeopathic remedy can scarcely ever be made so small
that it shall not be able to relieve, overpower, indeed completely
cure and annihilate the uncomplicated natural disease of not long
standing that is analogous to it (§ 249, note), we can understand
why a does of an appropriate homoeopathic medicine, not the very
smallest possible, does always, during the first hour after its
ingestion, produce a perceptible homoeopathic aggravation of this
kind.1
1 This exaltation
of the medicinal symptoms over those disease symptoms analogous
to them, which looks like an aggravation, has been observed by other
physicians also, when by accident they employed a homoeopathic remedy.
When a patient suffering from itch complains of an increase of the
eruption after sulphur, his physician who knows not the cause of
this, consoles him with the assurance that the itch must first come
out properly before it can be cured; he knows not, however, that
this is a sulphur eruption, that assumes the appearance of an increase
of the itch.
“The
facial eruption which the viola tricolor cured was aggravated by
it at the commencement of its action,” Leroy tells us (Heilk, fur
Mutter, p.406), but he knew not that the apparent aggravation was
owing to the somewhat too large dose of the remedy, which in this
instance was to a certain extent homoeopathic. Lysons says (Med.
Transact., vol ii, London, 1772), “The bark of the elm cures most
certainly those skin diseases which it increases at the beginning
of its action.” Had he not given the bark in the monstrous doses
usual in the allopathic system, but in the quite small doses requisite
when the medicine shows similarity of symptoms, that is to say,
when it is used homoeopathically, he would have effected a cure
without, or almost without, seeing this apparent increase of the
disease (homoeopathic aggravation).
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