Sycosis & Common Gonorrhea
Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 2:41 am
Dear colleagues,
There is an important point about 'Sycosis' as termed by Hahnemann. Homeopaths, by mistake, think that Sycosis is equivalent to Neisserian gonorrhea (common gonorrhea). This is a big mistake. Sycosis as defined by Hahnemann is equivalent to figwarts disease which is now known as condyloma acuminatum (genital warts), the disease caused by Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) [Syco = fig].
The reason of this big mistake in the history of homeopathy is including a kind of gonorrhea in the picture of Sycosis by Hahnemann. Hahnemann in the section of Sycosis in his 'Chronic Diseases' has written that figwarts disease may be accompanied by a kind of gonorrhea (not always) which is different from common gonorrhea (Read the first page of the section and also the footnote). He mentions that the common gonorrhea (what we now know as Neisserian gonorrhea) does not penetrate to the system as a chronic miasm. And there is a difference between gonorrhea associated with Sycosis and 'common gonorrhea'. (Gonorrhea in the old texts is a general discription and just mean the flow of pus in genital organs. Gono = ginital organ, rrhea = flow).
In the footnote, Hahnemann clearly mentions that 'Usually in gonorrhea of this kind (sycotic gonorrhea), the discharge is from the beginning thickish, like pus; micturition is less difficult, but the body of the penis swollen, somewhat hard; the penis is also in some cases covered on the back with glandular tubercles and very painful to touch'.
He believed that common gonorrhea (now known as Neisserian gonorrhea) does not penetrate the whole organism and just causes local irritation.
Hahnemann was the first to use the term 'Sycosis'. Before Hahnemann, French doctors believed that what Hahnemann has stated about Sycotic gonorrhea is one of the manifestations of Syphilis and called it 'syphilitic gonorrhea'. Jahr, like French doctors, didn't agree with Hahnemann, too. (Read Jahr's book 'Venereal Diseases and their Homeopathic Treatment).
Now we clearly know that the figwart part of Sycosis is actually Condyloma acuminatum. HPV, the virus related to condyloma acuminatum, does not cause urethritis and gonorrhea in common terminology. The type of gonorrhea that Hahnemann linked to Sycosis is actually the urethritis caused by Herpes Simplex Virus type 2 (HSV-2) which can occur as co-infection with HPV. That's why Hahnemann states that figwarts is not always associated with gonorrhea.
It is intersting to know that if you repertorise the primary infection of HPV, the remedy is Thuja and if you repertorise the primary infection of genital herpes cause by HSV-2, the remedy is Nit-ac. Hahnemann mentions that to cure Sycosis, you need to alternate Nit-ac with Thuja in some of the cases. These cases were actually suffering from two miasms which Hahnemann couldn't differentiate. So we need to edit the concept of Sycosis and split it to two distinct miasms; the miasm related to Condyloma acuminatum (HPV) and the miasm related to genital herpes (HSV-2). At that time, physicians and homeopaths were not able to differentiate between co-infections in venereal diseases. Same happened in Hunter's definition of Syphilis which was not a pure picture of Syphilis as we now know.
Unfortunately, misunderstanding the word 'gonorrhea' in old terminology, has led to big mistakes in homeopathy.
We now know that Neisserian gonorrhea can also cause chronic complications as we see in gonoccocal arthritis (Hahnemann believed that in these patients, it is not the common gonorrhea but Psora which is responsible for the chronic affections - read the second footnote of the Sycosis section.). The chronic affections following infection with Neisserian gonorrhea (either caused by its miasm or as believed to be caused by so called Psora) has nothing to do with Sycosis as termed by Hahnemann.
If one wants to use the term 'Sycosis' with a new definition, that's ok but it is better not to use a defined term and, instead, use a new term. Using a single term for different meanings has causes great mistakes in keyterms of homeopathy!
Regards,
Ardavan Shahrdar
---------------------------------
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
There is an important point about 'Sycosis' as termed by Hahnemann. Homeopaths, by mistake, think that Sycosis is equivalent to Neisserian gonorrhea (common gonorrhea). This is a big mistake. Sycosis as defined by Hahnemann is equivalent to figwarts disease which is now known as condyloma acuminatum (genital warts), the disease caused by Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) [Syco = fig].
The reason of this big mistake in the history of homeopathy is including a kind of gonorrhea in the picture of Sycosis by Hahnemann. Hahnemann in the section of Sycosis in his 'Chronic Diseases' has written that figwarts disease may be accompanied by a kind of gonorrhea (not always) which is different from common gonorrhea (Read the first page of the section and also the footnote). He mentions that the common gonorrhea (what we now know as Neisserian gonorrhea) does not penetrate to the system as a chronic miasm. And there is a difference between gonorrhea associated with Sycosis and 'common gonorrhea'. (Gonorrhea in the old texts is a general discription and just mean the flow of pus in genital organs. Gono = ginital organ, rrhea = flow).
In the footnote, Hahnemann clearly mentions that 'Usually in gonorrhea of this kind (sycotic gonorrhea), the discharge is from the beginning thickish, like pus; micturition is less difficult, but the body of the penis swollen, somewhat hard; the penis is also in some cases covered on the back with glandular tubercles and very painful to touch'.
He believed that common gonorrhea (now known as Neisserian gonorrhea) does not penetrate the whole organism and just causes local irritation.
Hahnemann was the first to use the term 'Sycosis'. Before Hahnemann, French doctors believed that what Hahnemann has stated about Sycotic gonorrhea is one of the manifestations of Syphilis and called it 'syphilitic gonorrhea'. Jahr, like French doctors, didn't agree with Hahnemann, too. (Read Jahr's book 'Venereal Diseases and their Homeopathic Treatment).
Now we clearly know that the figwart part of Sycosis is actually Condyloma acuminatum. HPV, the virus related to condyloma acuminatum, does not cause urethritis and gonorrhea in common terminology. The type of gonorrhea that Hahnemann linked to Sycosis is actually the urethritis caused by Herpes Simplex Virus type 2 (HSV-2) which can occur as co-infection with HPV. That's why Hahnemann states that figwarts is not always associated with gonorrhea.
It is intersting to know that if you repertorise the primary infection of HPV, the remedy is Thuja and if you repertorise the primary infection of genital herpes cause by HSV-2, the remedy is Nit-ac. Hahnemann mentions that to cure Sycosis, you need to alternate Nit-ac with Thuja in some of the cases. These cases were actually suffering from two miasms which Hahnemann couldn't differentiate. So we need to edit the concept of Sycosis and split it to two distinct miasms; the miasm related to Condyloma acuminatum (HPV) and the miasm related to genital herpes (HSV-2). At that time, physicians and homeopaths were not able to differentiate between co-infections in venereal diseases. Same happened in Hunter's definition of Syphilis which was not a pure picture of Syphilis as we now know.
Unfortunately, misunderstanding the word 'gonorrhea' in old terminology, has led to big mistakes in homeopathy.
We now know that Neisserian gonorrhea can also cause chronic complications as we see in gonoccocal arthritis (Hahnemann believed that in these patients, it is not the common gonorrhea but Psora which is responsible for the chronic affections - read the second footnote of the Sycosis section.). The chronic affections following infection with Neisserian gonorrhea (either caused by its miasm or as believed to be caused by so called Psora) has nothing to do with Sycosis as termed by Hahnemann.
If one wants to use the term 'Sycosis' with a new definition, that's ok but it is better not to use a defined term and, instead, use a new term. Using a single term for different meanings has causes great mistakes in keyterms of homeopathy!
Regards,
Ardavan Shahrdar
---------------------------------
Get amazing travel prices for air and hotel in one click on Yahoo! FareChase
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]