HOMOEOPATHY BY GARTH BOERICKE
The object of this pamphlet is to bring to the attention of the intelligent layman homoeopathic methods which can use himself without harmful effects for many of the common complaints and minor illness of everyday life.
During the last two decades the public, through daily medical columns in the newspapers, weekly periodicals and books written by physicians for the laity, has become medically minded and talk glibly of “allergies,” “sinus,” “hormones,” “wonder drugs” and the latest surgical techniques and medical advances.
This public interest is natural but has led in many instances to the assumption that “What is new is necessarily the best,” which frequently results in disappointment to the patient and disillusionment on the part of the physician.
Older methods of treatment, particularly by drugs, is not “news” and such methods, therefore, are seldom mentioned. It is a fact that 90 percent of the preparations prescribed by physicians today were unknown 10 years ago. While admitting the great value of these newer preparations (penicillin, sulpha drugs and some synthetics) yet there have been many conditions which cannot be treated specifically by them and which are often of everyday occurrence, as for instance, the virus diseases, colds, influenza, the sinus infections, dyspepsia, neuralgia, functional nervous diseases, and many children’s diseases, to mention but a few.
HOMOEOPATHY IMMEDIATELY BROADENS THE SCOPE OF WHAT A LAYMAN CAN DO FOR HIMSELF. HE IS NOT CONFINED TO PROPRIETARY PREPARATIONS ADVERTISED IN THE NEWSPAPERS AND “PLUGGED’ BY THE RADIO. HE DOES NOT PRESCRIBE FOR A DISEASE WHICH HE MAY NOT HAVE, HIS DIAGNOSIS IS SYMPTOMATIC AND THE INDICATIONS GIVEN FOR THE VARIOUS MEDICINES ARE COUCHED IN NON-MEDICAL LANGUAGE.
Self treatment, at best, is a poor substitute for intelligent professional handling but nowadays this is not always available, particularly in the rural areas. The high cost of medical care is a detriment universally recognized. Our main justification, however, for the use of medicines in the home is that only in this way can a large group enjoy the advantages of homoeopathic treatment.
What Is Homoeopathy?
Homoeopathy is a method of using certain drugs for certain symptoms. The diagnosis may or may not be known. The layman is obviously incapable of making his own diagnosis but he certainly knows how he feels in various parts of the body and can express this in non-medical language.
The indications for our medicines are also expressed in non- medical terminology, for Hahnemann, the founder of homoeopathy (1755-1843), realized with remarkable foresight that, if the indications were couched in the medical terms of his day, such indications would rapidly become obsolete as medical science progressed and new names and new knowledge of pathology, physiology, and chemistry were acquired. But he realized that symptoms do not change even though a new name is given to the disease. Hence, a medicine given for a certain symptom is just helpful today regardless of a new nomenclature or conception of the cause. Thus, bloating, burning, dyspepsia and pain have always called for a certain homoeopathic drug, regardless of whether such symptoms are caused by peptic ulcer, gall bladder disease, chronic gastritis or colitis. Homoeopathic doctors like the satisfaction of making a diagnosis wherever possible but such is not always possible if facilities are not available and yet he can listen to and capitalize on the symptoms of his patient, because his therapy does not depend entirely on a diagnosis.
Furthermore, in homoeopathy, one endeavors to treat all the symptoms at one time and with one drug or a suitable combination. This is quite different from the ordinary methods of treatment which is aimed at the outstanding complaints of the patient. If in pain you are given an analgesic, if emotional you are given a sedative and if there is diarrhoea present you are give a drug having the opposite effect on the bowel.
Thus, with a knowledge of effects of a drug on the healthy human body (drug proving) one can treat all the symptoms of the case by applying the Law of Similars and the use of minimal dose of the drug.
It is sufficient for the lay-homoeopathy to follow the important indications for our drugs. These appear in the pamphlets covering other topics and disease.
The experimental basis of Homoeopathy has been established for many years (drug proving and the Law of Similars) but it would be of no practical value for prescribing for oneself or members of one’s family.
Homoeopathy then, is simply a question of matching the symptoms of a patient with the indications given under the caption of a drug for the various diseases. In other words, pick out the drug whose picture (symptoms listed) most closely corresponds with the ailment to be treated.
Some Advantages of Homoeopathy
Advantage 1 – individualization of treatment – treatment directed to the patient himself, through symptoms, rather than at the disease as a name. (He may not have the disease suspected.)
Advantage 2 – All drugs recommended have had extensive human experiment. We do not depend on guinea pigs, frogs, rabbits, etc., to outline the scope of medicine. (Drug proving.)
Advantage 3 – By the homoeopathic method of using symptoms (the “totality” which is the third principle of homoeopathy) we can use symptoms as a guide, curatively, to eradicate the complex (disease) and not just palliatively in the sense that one takes aspirin for a headache or codeine for a cough or bicarbonate for a sour stomach.
Advantage 4. – The time-tested usefulness of homoeopathy. No method of medical treatment could have lasted over 150 years in all climates, on all races and not be founded on truth or natural laws. Medical fads, fakes and delusions always run a course and are forgotten – not so homoeopathy, it is ethically practiced today by physicians who have studied it and many more who have taken post-graduate courses.
Advantage 5 – No drugging effect – no possible harm to the patient.
Advantage 6 – Its modest cost and simple application.
Advantage 7 – Its non-use of serums, shots and injections.
Advantage 8 – The use by homoeopathic pharmacists of fresh plant tinctures and preparations rather than crude dried plant preparations. We claim that much of the medicinal value of the plant resides in its volatile components. It must be gathered at a specific time and immediately processed, usually the same day.
Advantage 9 – The non-deterioration of homoeopathic preparations, which consists of pills, tablets and liquid potencies and range from 3X upward. They are clinically active indefinitely.
Advantage 10 – It is the only system of using drugs that can be put in the hands of intelligent laymen without risk and with reasonable assurance of success.
Use of Homoeopathic Drugs and Dosage
Homoeopathic drugs are made according to the United States Homoeopathic Pharmacopoea which is official in the Food and Drug Act of 1938. It corresponds to the United States Pharmacopea which is official for drugs of non-homoeopathic use.
Medicines may be obtained by parcel post from any of the firms who specialize in homoeopathic pharmaceuticals. It is suggested to those interested to write to the American Institute of Homoeopathy, 1601 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa., for names of the nearest homoeopathic pharmacies.
Homoeopathic drugs may be obtained in several forms, liquid and solid. The stock preparation is a 10 percent drug strength alcoholic solution known as tincture or first potency which is indicated by the sing O. When used, tinctures are usually given in one to ten drop doses with a little water.
Homoeopathic medicines are graded according to their strength on a decimal scale, using the letter x as the exponent. Thus, the commonest dosage is the 3x and 6x and unless otherwise stated in this pamphlet, the 3x and 6x can be obtained in dry tablets and can be made by pouring the proper strength of an alcoholic potency on blank sugar disc or pills, which retain their medicinal properties indefinitely even after drying.
When giving tablets to children (or adults) they may be dissolved in a teaspoon of water if desired. Absorption is immediate from the mucous membranes of the mouth but many seem to want water with pills anyway, doubtless a hold over from the days when most types of pills were bulky and evil-tasting.
The frequency for giving homoeopathic medicine varies with the disease. The more acute, the more often it is taken. Every hour, every two hours or in the more chronic case, two or three times a day before meals. Suggested intervals of dosage are given in special cases but unless otherwise stated, a dose at 8,12,4 and 8 is a good working schedule.
As improvement sets in, lengthen the intervals between dosage and then stop altogether. Remember that in homoeopathy we endeavor to start a cycle of curative action. Once that is started, do not over-stimulate but give nature a chance.
Some Do’s and Don’t’s in Using Homoeopathic Medicine
1 – Do not change your drugs too often. Allow atleast over- night in most cases.
American homeopath - Ann Arbor - Michigan.
Son of William Boericke.
Books:
A Compend of the Principles of Homeopathy.
Homoeopathy