6. Modality

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The importance of modalities in taking the case. The aggravations and amelioration factors are a clue to the choice of the remedy….

Closely related to the cause, are the circumstances under which disease, and the conditions which modify it, makes its appearance. These are commonly known as the modalities; they individualize and define every sickness as well as every drug, hence the most suitable medicine cannot be chosen while they remain unknown. They include such modifying agents as the effect of posture; the different kinds of motion, the various forms of heat and cold, the effects of the weather, or bathing, washing, getting wet or any modifying agent whatsoever.

Many odd or strange modifying influences also occur; they belong to but few remedies and are not often seen in practice, but possess the highest value. A striking instance of this kind is found under Clematis which has an eczema which is moist during the increasing moon but dries up during the waning moon. We now known that his modality belongs almost exclusively to Clematis and that any symtoms having it will almost certainly belong to this great antisycotic, whether it be a skin eruption or a goitre.

Conditions which modify or excite mental symptoms are not exceeded in importance by any others. To these belong the influence of the emotions, of fright, grief, solitude or company, thinking of the disease, consolation, vexation, etc., on the mind. “Pain which excites to anger” is an excellent example.

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C.M. Boger
Cyrus Maxwell Boger 5/ 13/ 1861 "“ 9/ 2/ 1935
Born in Western Pennsylvania, he graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and subsequently Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia. He moved to Parkersburg, W. Va., in 1888, practicing there, but also consulting worldwide. He gave lectures at the Pulte Medical College in Cincinnati and taught philosophy, materia medica, and repertory at the American Foundation for Homoeopathy Postgraduate School. Boger brought BÅ“nninghausen's Characteristics and Repertory into the English Language in 1905. His publications include :
Boenninghausen's Characteristics and Repertory
Boenninghausen's Antipsorics
Boger's Diphtheria, (The Homoeopathic Therapeutics of)
A Synoptic Key of the Materia Medica, 1915
General Analysis with Card Index, 1931
Samarskite-A Proving
The Times Which Characterize the Appearance and Aggravation of the Symptoms and their Remedies