Case of Rheumatic Shoulder


Not seldom after I had failed to grasp what a patient meant I would later come across the very symptom in our Materia Medica, he had attempted to describe. …


In a case of omodynia (rheumatic shoulder) of the right side, after the failure of Rhus, which appeared well indicated, a symptom which in the eyes of a pathologist, would be insignificant such as aggravation before and during rainy weather, led me to give Silicea 200 and with perfectly satisfactory curative results. The symptoms in question was reluctantly admitted by the patient as he considered it too ridiculous to mention.

The recital of the above cases serves to show in what great measure the success of the Homoeopath depends upon his knowledge of the phenomena of diseases and drugs. Familiarity with the latter enables one to understand a patient who expresses himself vaguely or who lacks the power of expressing the feelings through the medium of words. One single word, a look may illumine one who knows the Materia Medica.

Not seldom after I had failed to grasp what a patient meant I would later come across the very symptom he had attempted to describe.

In the treatment of the patients suffering from chronic miasms especially when two or more are present, the symptoms will manifest themselves in such manifold and mysterious guises, physical, psychical and mental, that the sufferer is puzzled to explain and the physician to understand.

On examining a patient there is not only the difficulty of estimating symptoms on the part of the physician, but he must bear in mind the possibility of the patient misleading him through a variety of reasons-unintentionally, through ignorance, or through a desire to conceal the nature of the disease or again from fear that he may hear that he is actually suffering from a malady the existence of which he could prefer to ignore.

The examiner must be on the alert against all such contingencies. And yet in spite of his being aware of such possible pitfalls, he will not succeed in avoiding them.

Bender P
Dr. P. Bender, author of "The Physical Examination of the Patient"