RANDOM NOTES ON PRACTICE
Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 1:35 pm
After having selected one or a few remedies for a patient, knowledge of a certain symptom in each remedy would enable us to think of that remedy first and thus either confirm the one selected, or to eliminate others in case of getting a few remedies. Such rare-strange-peculiar-uncommon symptoms are listed below and practitioner would do well to memorise them.
In many cases such a symptom when told by the patient had directly led us to the remedy and even without repertorising the case further, we had confirmed that remedy by putting a few questions to the patient along the picture of that remedy.
Ammonium-mur.: Periods of aggravation are peculiarly divided according to the bodily region affected; thus the head and chest symptoms are worse in the mornings, the abdominal, in the afternoon, pain in the limbs, skin and febrile symptoms, in the evenings.
Ammonium-carb.: (1) Unreasonable; (2) lack of reaction in skin diseases.
Muriatic Acid: Mouth and anus chiefly affected.
Nitric acid: (1) Selects for its special seat of action the outlets of the body where the mucous membrane and skin meet; mouth, nose, eyes, ear, anus and urethra. (2) pain as from splinters. Sticking pains. (3) Syphilis past middle life; (4) Prone to frequent catching cold and diarrhea (5) Cachexia; (6) Intermittency of complaints. (Ignatia: Spasmodic and intermittency of symptoms.)
Ignatia: (1) Great contradictions; (2) Superficial and erratic (shifting) characteristic of symptoms. Perpetual burden of sorrow. (3) Silently brooding; after shocks, grief, disappointment. Effect of disappointed love.
Theridion: < jar, left side. Noises seem to strike on painful spots over the body.
Sulphur: Worse standing. Urging to stool on waking in the morning.
Hamamelis: Wants "the respect due to me" shown. Rapid swelling after burns and injuries.
Nux-vom.: (1) Afraid he may not have enough to live on. Fiery zealous temperament. (2) Anxious reflections about his complaints—describes his complaints in chronological order in the past-present language. (3) Incomplete stool. (4) Stubborness and obstinate resistence. (Lycopodium: obstinate)
Aur-met: Woeful and dejected. (Woe=great sorrow or distress)
Belladonna: The inflammation spreads in radii as it extends to adjacent parts. [See case No.10 on page 17 of Bulletin No.1 Longstanding fear.]
Opium: Increased excitability and action in voluntary muscles, with diminution of it in involuntary muscles. (See case No.8 on page 16). For constipation with convulsions this remedy is almost a specific. The object of fear remains before the mind's eye long after the incident.
Phytolacca: Indifference. Indifference to exposure of her person. (Compare Phosphorus and Hyoscyamus also. Shamelessness is
Phosphorus. `Wants to be naked' is Hyoscyamus.)
Helleborus: (1) Coma starts at 2-30 p.m. then hospitalized and in a few days dies. (2) An old woman having been accused of death by the women around took it so much to heart that she hanged herself. This suicide produced such an effect on the women of the village that one after another accused herself of having caused the death of the old women. [See Kent's Lectures on Hom. Mat. Medica.]
Aethusa: Diarrhoea starts 2 to 5 a.m. By 6 or 7 patient dies. In the case of children around six months convulsions starts at 2 - 5 a.m. and by 6 a.m. patient dies. Death is marked on the face from the beginning. You must keep these remedies in your finger tip. [Read this remedy as well as Helleborus, Phosphorus and Tuberculinum in Kent's Lectures on Materia Medica.]
Spigelia: (1) Feels to run away somewhere to escape from the domestic problems. (2) When a patient is shunted from one eye specialist to another and no glasses fit it. Visual axis constantly changing. (See Kent's Lectures on Hom. Mat. Med.)
Cuprum met.: (1) Lack of reaction in colic. Colic violent and intermittent. Probably intussusception of intestines, wrongly treated for acidity. (2) Symptoms disposed to appear periodically and in groups.- [See case No. 6 & 7 on page 15 of Bulletin No.1] (3) In the case of children crying intermittently. Probably it did somersault or the child was lifted by someone who does not know how to handle or lift children. In the case of adults sudden pain in abdomen after they climb up the ladder and with stretched hands holds a heavy object from the slab and carrying that with stretched arms climbs down the ladder. This causes intussusception and colic starts that very night.
Carbo veg.: (1) Complaints from revelling3. (2) Persona who have not recovered completely from some previous illness or injury. (3) Organic detritions without reaction. (3If you do not know the meaning of any word refer to the dictunary)
Laurocerasus: Lack of reaction, especially in chest and heart affections. Child places its hands upon chest in heart complaints with cycnosis.
Agaricus: (1) Cross-wise affection. (2) In the case of school boys they fall down while walking. (In Nux-vomica they trip while walking.)
Stillingia: Deplorably downhearted (bone pains etc.) Will give you even half of his wealth worth several multimillions to any one if only his complaint (headache?) is cured.
Selenium: (1) "Bone and teeth" should at once bring this remedy to your mind. (2) Abject despair, uncompromising melancholy. He has suffered so much in life that it cannot be compensated even if you make him President of India or U.S.A. but President of all countries in the world. (3) Old age, bone and teeth complaints in old age. Most of the Complaints of bone and teeth are inherent and incidental to old age. Add to this "Easy exhaustion, mental and physical, in old age. Cannot stand or walk in hotsun without a cap" and you have no other remedy than Selenium. Great debility, worse, heat. Call it osteopoporosus, spondylitis etc. Bone diseases coupled with teeth complaints in old age, this is the first remedy that should come to your mind. One more keyword for this remedy is that his thighs are not large but as thick as upper arm; Emaciated.
—————
A note about the difference in the words used in Kent and this Final Repertory.
Let us take the symptom 'Talk, indisposed to, desire to be silent, taciturn'. We find this mind symptom in Kent. But the following terms would be more sensible:
1. Serious: silent, taciturn mood;
2. Serious — want of disposition to talk (p.24)
OR
3. Repugnance to society, will not talk (p.23)
Serious persons will not talk much; so also those who have repugnance to society (Here we use the word repugnance with the meaning 'intense distaste' or 'not suitable or agreeing'. We do not use 'repugnance' with the meaning 'aversion' which the reader must note)
Therefore, the classifications at Sl. No. 1, 2 and 3 above are used in this repertory. Thus it is possible to reduce the list of remedies for various rubrics.
Again, let us take the rubric 'Company, aversion to or desire for' as found in Kent.
A person desiring company either 'dreads to be alone' or he has 'aversion to be alone.' In other words he is comfortable in company and so does not want loneliness. So also, 'aversion to company' is found in those who love solitude or desire to be alone (because the presence of others is a hindrance or nuisance to do what he likes; he does not want interference or remarks of others in what he does.) Therefore, we do not use the term 'company, desire for/aversion to' but, in its place, the reader would find the following only:
Desire to be alone:
--dreads to be alone:
Solitude, aversion to:
--love of:
The reader would not find the rubric 'Homesick' in this repertory because 'Restlessness' causes one to leave house and wander. This is the sensible classification and 'Escape' is not apt. (The case is different in the case of a person inside a prison who wants to go out. Here 'escape' may seem to be apt, but here too it is only the restless persons in a prison who plans or tries to escape.)
The careful selection of words for various rubrics herein appeals to reason because they are what we actually see in sick persons. Thus this work excels all other works, be it in respect of Repertory or Materia Medica.
In this Materia Medica of mind symptoms, we are careful in using words/phrases. They are actually seen in sick patients as such and, therefore, is practical in all respects, to find the remedy—the elusive similimum.
Our success rate with Kent was a mere 20 to 40 per cent. But when we started using the present Final & Sensible Repertory our success rate jumped to 85 to 100 per cent. It is with great pleasure and satisfaction that we offer this work to the profession.
—————
If medicine is not prescribed for pathology, then what are the `symptoms' that must be considered for prescribing a homoeo remedy?
Symptoms not common to pathology of diseases are otherwise called `uncommon-rare-strange-peculiar' (Section 153 of the Organon.)
Thus, all dictionaries, encyclopaedic dictionaries and encyclopaedias hitherto published are totally wrong in saying that a substance capable of producing a disease (when taken in large quantity) is capable of curing that disease if the same substance is given in minute quantity. The correct definition would be: A substance capable of producing `uncommon-rare-strange-uncommon' symptom, when given in minute quantity to a patient with that `rare-strange-peculiar-uncommon' symptom (whatever may be the disease or pathology) would cure him--cure all diseases that he may be suffering at that particular time.
2. Apart from `uncommon-rare-strange-peculiar-uncommon' two more symptoms that are considered for selecting a homoeo remedy are:
Now the question is why should we prescribe on "uncommon-rare..." and/or "mind" and/or "general symptoms?"
To get an answer to this let us go to the next chapter.
--------------------------
In many cases such a symptom when told by the patient had directly led us to the remedy and even without repertorising the case further, we had confirmed that remedy by putting a few questions to the patient along the picture of that remedy.
Ammonium-mur.: Periods of aggravation are peculiarly divided according to the bodily region affected; thus the head and chest symptoms are worse in the mornings, the abdominal, in the afternoon, pain in the limbs, skin and febrile symptoms, in the evenings.
Ammonium-carb.: (1) Unreasonable; (2) lack of reaction in skin diseases.
Muriatic Acid: Mouth and anus chiefly affected.
Nitric acid: (1) Selects for its special seat of action the outlets of the body where the mucous membrane and skin meet; mouth, nose, eyes, ear, anus and urethra. (2) pain as from splinters. Sticking pains. (3) Syphilis past middle life; (4) Prone to frequent catching cold and diarrhea (5) Cachexia; (6) Intermittency of complaints. (Ignatia: Spasmodic and intermittency of symptoms.)
Ignatia: (1) Great contradictions; (2) Superficial and erratic (shifting) characteristic of symptoms. Perpetual burden of sorrow. (3) Silently brooding; after shocks, grief, disappointment. Effect of disappointed love.
Theridion: < jar, left side. Noises seem to strike on painful spots over the body.
Sulphur: Worse standing. Urging to stool on waking in the morning.
Hamamelis: Wants "the respect due to me" shown. Rapid swelling after burns and injuries.
Nux-vom.: (1) Afraid he may not have enough to live on. Fiery zealous temperament. (2) Anxious reflections about his complaints—describes his complaints in chronological order in the past-present language. (3) Incomplete stool. (4) Stubborness and obstinate resistence. (Lycopodium: obstinate)
Aur-met: Woeful and dejected. (Woe=great sorrow or distress)
Belladonna: The inflammation spreads in radii as it extends to adjacent parts. [See case No.10 on page 17 of Bulletin No.1 Longstanding fear.]
Opium: Increased excitability and action in voluntary muscles, with diminution of it in involuntary muscles. (See case No.8 on page 16). For constipation with convulsions this remedy is almost a specific. The object of fear remains before the mind's eye long after the incident.
Phytolacca: Indifference. Indifference to exposure of her person. (Compare Phosphorus and Hyoscyamus also. Shamelessness is
Phosphorus. `Wants to be naked' is Hyoscyamus.)
Helleborus: (1) Coma starts at 2-30 p.m. then hospitalized and in a few days dies. (2) An old woman having been accused of death by the women around took it so much to heart that she hanged herself. This suicide produced such an effect on the women of the village that one after another accused herself of having caused the death of the old women. [See Kent's Lectures on Hom. Mat. Medica.]
Aethusa: Diarrhoea starts 2 to 5 a.m. By 6 or 7 patient dies. In the case of children around six months convulsions starts at 2 - 5 a.m. and by 6 a.m. patient dies. Death is marked on the face from the beginning. You must keep these remedies in your finger tip. [Read this remedy as well as Helleborus, Phosphorus and Tuberculinum in Kent's Lectures on Materia Medica.]
Spigelia: (1) Feels to run away somewhere to escape from the domestic problems. (2) When a patient is shunted from one eye specialist to another and no glasses fit it. Visual axis constantly changing. (See Kent's Lectures on Hom. Mat. Med.)
Cuprum met.: (1) Lack of reaction in colic. Colic violent and intermittent. Probably intussusception of intestines, wrongly treated for acidity. (2) Symptoms disposed to appear periodically and in groups.- [See case No. 6 & 7 on page 15 of Bulletin No.1] (3) In the case of children crying intermittently. Probably it did somersault or the child was lifted by someone who does not know how to handle or lift children. In the case of adults sudden pain in abdomen after they climb up the ladder and with stretched hands holds a heavy object from the slab and carrying that with stretched arms climbs down the ladder. This causes intussusception and colic starts that very night.
Carbo veg.: (1) Complaints from revelling3. (2) Persona who have not recovered completely from some previous illness or injury. (3) Organic detritions without reaction. (3If you do not know the meaning of any word refer to the dictunary)
Laurocerasus: Lack of reaction, especially in chest and heart affections. Child places its hands upon chest in heart complaints with cycnosis.
Agaricus: (1) Cross-wise affection. (2) In the case of school boys they fall down while walking. (In Nux-vomica they trip while walking.)
Stillingia: Deplorably downhearted (bone pains etc.) Will give you even half of his wealth worth several multimillions to any one if only his complaint (headache?) is cured.
Selenium: (1) "Bone and teeth" should at once bring this remedy to your mind. (2) Abject despair, uncompromising melancholy. He has suffered so much in life that it cannot be compensated even if you make him President of India or U.S.A. but President of all countries in the world. (3) Old age, bone and teeth complaints in old age. Most of the Complaints of bone and teeth are inherent and incidental to old age. Add to this "Easy exhaustion, mental and physical, in old age. Cannot stand or walk in hotsun without a cap" and you have no other remedy than Selenium. Great debility, worse, heat. Call it osteopoporosus, spondylitis etc. Bone diseases coupled with teeth complaints in old age, this is the first remedy that should come to your mind. One more keyword for this remedy is that his thighs are not large but as thick as upper arm; Emaciated.
—————
A note about the difference in the words used in Kent and this Final Repertory.
Let us take the symptom 'Talk, indisposed to, desire to be silent, taciturn'. We find this mind symptom in Kent. But the following terms would be more sensible:
1. Serious: silent, taciturn mood;
2. Serious — want of disposition to talk (p.24)
OR
3. Repugnance to society, will not talk (p.23)
Serious persons will not talk much; so also those who have repugnance to society (Here we use the word repugnance with the meaning 'intense distaste' or 'not suitable or agreeing'. We do not use 'repugnance' with the meaning 'aversion' which the reader must note)
Therefore, the classifications at Sl. No. 1, 2 and 3 above are used in this repertory. Thus it is possible to reduce the list of remedies for various rubrics.
Again, let us take the rubric 'Company, aversion to or desire for' as found in Kent.
A person desiring company either 'dreads to be alone' or he has 'aversion to be alone.' In other words he is comfortable in company and so does not want loneliness. So also, 'aversion to company' is found in those who love solitude or desire to be alone (because the presence of others is a hindrance or nuisance to do what he likes; he does not want interference or remarks of others in what he does.) Therefore, we do not use the term 'company, desire for/aversion to' but, in its place, the reader would find the following only:
Desire to be alone:
--dreads to be alone:
Solitude, aversion to:
--love of:
The reader would not find the rubric 'Homesick' in this repertory because 'Restlessness' causes one to leave house and wander. This is the sensible classification and 'Escape' is not apt. (The case is different in the case of a person inside a prison who wants to go out. Here 'escape' may seem to be apt, but here too it is only the restless persons in a prison who plans or tries to escape.)
The careful selection of words for various rubrics herein appeals to reason because they are what we actually see in sick persons. Thus this work excels all other works, be it in respect of Repertory or Materia Medica.
In this Materia Medica of mind symptoms, we are careful in using words/phrases. They are actually seen in sick patients as such and, therefore, is practical in all respects, to find the remedy—the elusive similimum.
Our success rate with Kent was a mere 20 to 40 per cent. But when we started using the present Final & Sensible Repertory our success rate jumped to 85 to 100 per cent. It is with great pleasure and satisfaction that we offer this work to the profession.
—————
If medicine is not prescribed for pathology, then what are the `symptoms' that must be considered for prescribing a homoeo remedy?
Symptoms not common to pathology of diseases are otherwise called `uncommon-rare-strange-peculiar' (Section 153 of the Organon.)
Thus, all dictionaries, encyclopaedic dictionaries and encyclopaedias hitherto published are totally wrong in saying that a substance capable of producing a disease (when taken in large quantity) is capable of curing that disease if the same substance is given in minute quantity. The correct definition would be: A substance capable of producing `uncommon-rare-strange-uncommon' symptom, when given in minute quantity to a patient with that `rare-strange-peculiar-uncommon' symptom (whatever may be the disease or pathology) would cure him--cure all diseases that he may be suffering at that particular time.
2. Apart from `uncommon-rare-strange-peculiar-uncommon' two more symptoms that are considered for selecting a homoeo remedy are:
Now the question is why should we prescribe on "uncommon-rare..." and/or "mind" and/or "general symptoms?"
To get an answer to this let us go to the next chapter.
--------------------------