Hering first introduced the Law of Direction of Symptoms: from within out, from above downward, in reverse order of their appearance. It does not occur in Hahnemann’s writing. It is spoken of as Hering’s Law. There is scarcely anything of this law in the literature of Homoeopathy, except the observation of symptoms going from above to the extremities, eruptions appearing on the skin and discharges from mucous membranes or ulcers appearing upon the legs as internal symptoms disappear. There is no specific assertion in literature except as given in the lectures in Philosophy at the Post Graduate School.
The innermost of man consists of will, understanding, memory; and these are extended outward through the general physical organism. This idea belongs here in considering the direction of symptoms from the innermost to the outermost. We meet patients in whom we make what we would not know would be a good prescription except for a comprehension of this relation of the innermost and the outermost. A patient returns after a prescription has been made, who, from his symptoms would think himself worse, Yet he could not be so considered except by his reasoning that something has appeared which he did not have before. Then the doctor would be tempted to change the remedy if he is not familiar with correspondence of organs. By his knowledge of correspondence of organs he is able to know whether the patient is better or worse.
The physical organs correspond to internal man, to the will and understanding. The intellectual faculties consider a proposition presented, weighing it in the light of things learned to determine whether it be false or true, partly false or partly true. The memory holds it while it is examined and considered, and the intellectual faculties digest what is received, separating truth from false, and appropriating the truth and rejecting the false.
The stomach receives food; it and the small intestines digest and assimilate that which is good for the body, and cast off that which is not suitable, that which is indigestible, false. These correspond to the intellectual part of man, doing for the body what the intellectual faculties do for man.
The kidneys perform similar work, separating the false from the true in the blood. The worn out part of the blood is manufactured into urea, urates and is carried off. The kidneys do for the blood what the intellectual faculties do for truth.
At first you may not perceive any relation in these things, but long observation and examination of these reveals much. When you are treating a patient insane in the intellectual faculties, stomach disorders or intestinal disorders appear as the patient improves, cramps and diarrhoea occur, the disorder extending through the intestinal canal. In another patient, kidney affection with albumin in the urine results, in the course of reaction from mental disorder. Pain in the back and albumin in the urine appear although the nurse says the patient is improving. When the reverse is true, it is deleterious. In the course of treatment of a patient with albumin in the urine, when mental disorders appear, the patient is growing worse. Others have observed stomach and kidney disorders improve while mental disturbances appear. When prescribing for stomach disorder patients, and mental disorders appear, antidote your prescription immediately. When the reverse occurs, it is in the order of cure. Reaction will soon follow, the stomach disorder or kidney, disorder will soon pass; do not interfere. Thus we have from within out, or from without in. It is an infallible correspondence.
In the course from within out, according to law, we do not always have mental changes followed by skin symptoms that is a more rapid development. It is slower and more gradual when stomach or kidneys are disordered. Then it goes through the series of organs; as the stomach improves, catarrh or eruptions appear. That patient will remain well.
Sometimes the intellectual faculties correspond to the lungs. The lungs do for the body what the intellect does for the man. When the patient is threatened or settled in phthisis, and following a prescription, the lungs, improve and the intellectual faculties are involved, that patient will die, you cannot cure him. Whenever intellectual disorder is followed by catarrh of the lungs or bronchial tubes, by any lung, kidney, stomach or intestinal disorder, after your prescription; that patient is improving.
When an individual is sick in the will, when loves are turned to hatred, when he desires to destroy his own life, or flees from, or hates his own children, when a wife is averse to, her husband, or the entire voluntary system is perverted; in this sort of insanity, what will occur? When a correct prescription is made, the heart or liver will become affected, these correspond to the voluntary system. Not stomach or kidney affections, but heart and liver disorders will occur when prescribing for will affections. If you have a heart affection improving on your prescription, and a desire to destroy life follows, you must antidote the prescription; the symptoms are taking the wrong direction. When rheumatic affections disappear from the extremities and go to the heart, and later the patient wants to destroy his life, the course is from without in.
The voluntary corresponds to heart and liver. There is enough to indicate that divine revelation and the letter of the Word are based on these correspondences, and no man knows it so well as the ancients knew it. Where love of God is referred to, we find the word heart in the Scriptures. The intellectual faculties are referred to when it says “binding up the loins” “the loins bound up with truth.” In the word of God are found all these correspondences, and from these correspondences we learn the nature of man’s life and body. Man’s life, soul, mind, and will, correspond to the organs of the body.
Through familiarity with Swedenborg, I have found the correspondences wrought out from the Word of God harmonious with all I have learned in the past thirty years. Familiarity with them aids in determining the effect of prescriptions. A man, sick in his mind, does not appreciate how sick he is, and is not able to judge of his condition. He thinks he is worse when liver symptoms appear; he says he is worse. That is the course from within out; be not deceived. The threatened condition of the liver will pass away with the remedy selected for the mental disorder.
These things must be clear:-otherwise you must take a low plane in the ‘homoeopathic art:-otherwise you will interfere with your own work, meddling with good work accomplished. Without such knowledge, knowledge of Homoeopathic Materia Medica is insufficient except for acute cases. Homoeopathy is suited to old chronic, suppressed conditions: gonorrhoea, itch, eruptions, and syphilis. Hahnemann could not know these things and without them no man can do what Hahnemann said could not be done. He said effects of drugs are incurable, but he used only the 30th potency and could not do these things. You cannot handle suppressed conditions without this knowledge.
You have wondered at the work I have done. The work you have seen in my practice differs from that of others because of this knowledge. Those who do not have it, blunder and destroy the lives of human beings because they do not know what is taking place. Correspondences are only the outgrowth of observations. They are not available to the physician except by the law “Similia similibus curantur.” Think on these things; meditate and profit by it; use it. Few know the truth; the world is ignorant. The less a man knows the less responsibility he has. When you perceive truth, a duty accompanies it. You are a million times more responsible. When you come within range of eternal truth, law and order, you take a tremendous responsibility upon yourself. What we hear at conventions is usually opinions of men; what we hear now is not opinions. You can see from your own knowledge that this must be true. I have no opinions and I avoid offering any until I perceive the stamp of eternal truth.
This is a beginning, but the same thing runs through the organism. Sexual organs usually are associated with the will. Women who suffer from sexual organs, uterus and ovaries, have both loves and intellect affected from suppression. Men who have sexual disturbances involving the sexual are predominantly affected in the intellectual organs.
In 1881, Kent accepted a position as professor of anatomy at the Homeopathic College of Missouri, an institution with which he remained affiliated until 1888. In 1890, Kent moved to Pennsylvania to take a position as Dean of Professors at the Post-Graduate Homeopathic Medical School of Philadelphia. In 1897 Kent published his magnum opus, Repertory of the Homœopathic Materia Medica. Kent moved to Chicago in 1903, where he taught at Hahnemann Medical College.