Minutus

Hahnemann's Organon of Medicine
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Aphorism 69:

'In the antipathic (palliative) mode of treatment,
however precisely the reverse of this takes place. The
medicinal symptom which the physician opposes to the
disease symptom (for example, the insensibility and
stupefaction caused by opium in its primary action to
acute pain) is certainly not alien, not allopathic of
the latter; there is a manifest relation of the
medicinal symptom to the disease symptom, but it is
the reverse of what should be; it is here intended
that the annihilation of the disease symptom shall be
effected by an opposite medicinal symptom, which is
nevertheless impossible. No doubt the antipathically
chosen medicine touches precisely the same diseased
point in the organism as the homœopathic medicine
chosen on account of the similar affection it
produces; but the former covers the opposite symptom
of the disease only as an opposite, and makes it
unobservable to our life principle for a short time
only, so that in the first period of the action of the
antagonistic palliative the vital force perceives
nothing disagreeable from either if the two (neither
from the disease symptom nor from the medicinal
symptom), as they seem both to have mutually removed
and dynamically neutralized one another as it were
(for example, the stupefying power of opium does this
to the pain). In the first minutes the vital force
feels quite well, and perceives neither the
stupefaction of the opium nor the pain of the disease.
But as the antagonistic medicinal symptom cannot (as
in the homœopathic treatment) occupy the place of the
morbid derangement present in the organism in the
sensation of the life principle as a similar, stronger
(artificial) disease, and cannot, therefore, like a
homœopathic medicine, affect the vital force with a
similar artificial disease, so as to be able to step
into the place of the original natural morbid
derangement, the palliative medicine must, as a thing
totally differing from, and the opposite of the
disease derangement, leave the latter uneradicated; it
renders it, as before said, by a semblance of dynamic
neutralization,1 at first unfelt by the vital force,
but, like every medicinal disease, it is soon
spontaneously extinguished, and not only leaves the
disease behind, just as it was, but compels the vital
force (as it must, like all palliatives, be given in
large doses in order to effect the apparent removal)
to produce an opposite condition (§§ 63,64) to this
palliative medicine, the reverse of the medicinal
action, consequently the analogue of the still
present, undestroyed, natural morbid derangement,
which is necessarily strengthened and increased 2 by
this addition (reaction against the palliative)
produced by the vital force. The disease symptom (this
single part of the disease) consequently becomes worse
after the term of the action of the palliative has
expired; worse in proportion to the magnitude of the
dose of the palliative. Accordingly (to keep to the
same example) the larger the dose of opium given to
allay the pain, so much the more does the pain
increase beyond its original intensity as soon as the
opium has exhausted its action.3
Footnotes:

1 In the living human being no permanent
neutralization of contrary or antagonistic sensations
can take place, as happens with substances of opposite
qualities in the chemical laboratory, where, for
instance, sulphuric acid and potash unite to form a
perfectly different substance, a neutral salt, which
is now no longer either acid or alkali, and is not
decomposed even by heat. Such amalgamations and
thorough combinations to form something permanently
neutral and indifferent do not, as has been said, ever
take place with respect to synamic impressions of an
antagonistic nature in our sensific apparatus. Only a
semblance of neutralization and mutual removal occurs
in such cases at first, but the antagonistic
sensations do not permanently remove one another. The
tears of the mourner will be dried for but a short
time by a laughable play; the jokes are, however, soon
forgotten, and his tears then flow still more
abundantly than before.

2 Plain as this proposition is, it has been
misunderstood, and in opposition to it some have
asserted "that the palliative in its secondary action,
would then be similar to the disease present, must be
capable of curing just as well as a homœopathic
medicine does by its primary action." But they did not
reflect that the secondary action is not a product of
the medicine, but invariably of the antagonistically
acting vital force of the organism; that therefore
this secondary action resulting from the vital force
on the employment of a palliative is a state similar
to the symptoms of the disease which the palliative
left uneradicated, and which the reaction of the vital
force against the palliative consequently increased
still more.

3 As when in a dark dungeon, where the prisoner could
with difficulty recognize objects close to him,
alcohol is suddenly lighted, everything is instantly
illuminated in a most consolatory manner to the
unhappy wretch; but when it is extinguished, the
brighter the flame was previously the blacker is the
night which now envelopes him, and renders everything
about him much more difficult to be seen than before.'
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Minutus appreciates your fruitful contribution!

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"Life is beautiful, if you look at it in a beautiful way."

Dr Ardavan Shahrdar, MD, DIHom
President of Iranian Homeopathic Association
Website: http://www.minutus.org
Email: ashahrdar@yahoo.com
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