Minutus

Greetings all;
The below article and introduction would not post on Homeolist which limits
size of post. Since ergot poisoning came up as a topic--and this article is
such a clear (and entertaining) exposition of the methodology and power of
the group totality (second type of Hahnemannian) simillimum-- I am
reproducing it here on minutus. The article is from David Little's website.

Though it is a basic tool for treatment of epidemics in cooperation with
colleagues; and is the basis for the most significant innovation in
homeopathy since Hahnemann (the group totality remedy precisely tailored to
the pattern of a dissimilar or complex disease); yet it seems that it is
given short shrift in homeopathic schools. Thus many homeopaths have not
used this second mode of law of similars remedy--and thus failed to
understand (for example) the mechanism and Hahnemannian basis for the "PC"
remedies previously discussed (discussions that are in the Minutus
archives).

This article is both enjoyable and entertaining, and with the introduction
represents a nice overview of the second type of Hahnemannian and
homeopathic simillimum.

From David Little's educational website at:
http://
http://www.simillimum.com/Thelittlelibr ... tient.html

Best,
A

=====================
FEATURED ARTICLE OF THE MONTH

By David Little
The American Homeopath, The Journal of the North American Society of
Homeopaths, is one of the finest homoeopathic publications in the world. For
several years Greg Gedayn RSH (NA) was managing editor of this prestigious
journal. I have had the pleasure of working with Greg via the internet over
the last few years as a contributor to the American Homoeopath. We have
become cyberspace colleagues who discuss things of common interest and speak
of cases. In a similar manner I have come to know Miranda Castro, the
present head of NASH, via the internet. We have known of each other for
years but it is cyberspace that got us all together.

As if One Patient is a serious review of the implications of Hahnemann's
introduction of the 'remedy epidemicus'. Unknown to many modern homoeopaths,
Hahnemann developed two fundamental case analysis strategies, one for the
individual constitution which is uniquely affected (Org. §153) and the other
for diseases on common cause and similar symptoms which affects a
homogeneous group (Org. §101, 102). The theoretical foundation for this is
found in the very first sentence of the Introduction of the Organon of the
Healing Art.

"As long as humanity has existed, people have been exposed, individually
or collectively, to illnesses from physical or moral causes."

All human beings may suffer individually and collectively from diseases of
ethical and physical causes. The first sentence of the Organon reaches into
the very origins of the suffering of individuals, families, races and the
species, homo sapiens The group anamnesis can be used in virulent miasms,
endemic environmental and nutritional disorders, and toxic diseases
presenting a strong single syndrome. Hahnemann applied the group anamnesis
to acute diseases as well as the universal chronic miasms. The Founder's
original pictures of the chronic miasm, Psora, was constructed from a group
case made from Hahnemann's cases over a 11 year study. The original
anti-psorics were actually the remedy epidemicus remedies for chronic
miasma, Psora (Org. 103-§83).

Greg's group genus case is about the Ergot poisoning of sheep stock in
Northern California. The ergot smut produced a kind of neuralgic-convulsive
disorder which was killing a large amount of stock. In the best tradition of
the old homoeopaths, Greg 'put his boots on' and went into the fields to
test the homoeopathic approach in a clinical trial. We will leave our
vetinary research man to tell his own story. That, I am happy to say, is
possible because Greg is the first contributor to our guest library. Please
refer to As if One Patient, by Greg Bedayn for a detailed study of the use
of the genus epidemicus remedy. I wish to thank Greg very much by setting a
very high standard of work for our guest library.

As my colleague rightly points out this method has great relevance to
public health as a whole worldwide. Today human beings as a species are
suffering from over population, environmental degradation, toxic chemicals,
EMF pollution, mass immunization and toxic medicines while new resistant
strains of miasms and new diseases are developing. The group anamnesis may
be used for both prophylaxis and treatment of many of these diseases as they
affect a larger group in a similar manner. The group anamnesis should be
understood by homoeopaths as we face an uncertain future in the 21st
century.

===================
GUEST AUTHORS ROOM of The Little Library

As If One Patient

by Greg Bedayn, RSHom (NA), CCH
Former editor of NASH Journal
In 1799 Hahnemann first applied the genus epidemicus, the single
homeopathic remedy to treat a similarly-affected population, during a
scarlet fever epidemic he treated in Konigslutter, Germany. The story of how
he accidentally discovered the genus epidemicus is interesting: There was a
large family that had members with scarlet fever. Hahnemann noticed that one
of the children who had been taking Belladonna for another reason did not
have symptoms of scarlet fever. He discovered that by giving the other
members of the family Belladonna, as a prophylactic, that they did not get
scarlet fever. Hahnemann concluded that a remedy that rapidly cures at the
onset of an illness would be the best preventative.

This serendipitous discovery led Hahnemann into developing the principle
of genus epidemicus --where if one takes the strongest symptom-totality from
each person in an epidemic and then puts those features together into one
case, as if one person, and gives the indicated simillimum to the entire
affected population --that it will cure. The curative results of the genus
epidemicus were so positive during the epidemics in the ensuing decades that
they not only cured the majority of those affected where nothing else had
worked, but they also drew international acclaim towards homeopathy, the
new, the rational, medicine. There is something intrinsically powerful about
the success of homeopathy in curing large populations that is undeniably
attractive to anyone gifted with the power of observation, and it was
through these early cures with epidemics that Hahnemann was able to quickly
and widely spread the word: homeopathy. It was from his discovery of the
genus epidemicus that Hahnemann later developed his theory of miasms, the
taints that color and shape all family trees, as representing the basis of
chronic disease.

About six years ago there was an article in the San Francisco Chronicle
about an epidemic that was killing the northern California sheep population.
They referred to it as "Ergot poisoning" and one of the finest schools of
Veterinary Science in the country, the University of California at Davis,
had thrown up their hands in frustration and called it "an act of God," or
something similarly provocative for a homeopath...

I dialed the operator and asked for the phone number of the two ranchers
named in the article. I called both, the second one had many sheep that were
affected and we had a long conversation.

I was told that ergot smut is a mold that grows on the autumn grass found
on the typically foggy California coast, but it grows only in the absence of
rain which would otherwise wash it off. Some years the rains come early and
there is no problem; other years the rains come late and there is a
substantial loss of livestock due to complications arising from the
poisonings that continue sometimes for up to five months.

The sheeps symptoms were of a neuralgic-convulsive sort. The stricken
animals would quiver and shake and then get so stiff they could no longer
balance their bodies over their feet; they would topple over onto the ground
and then bounce around a bit in an effort to right themselves. Anxiety
mounting, their seizure would only worsen if approached by man or beast.
They would die within an hour or two if not rescued by a rancher. It is
interesting to note that when the ranchers found sheep in this state, they
would hold their hand over the animal,s eyes and slowly the animal would
calm down and allow itself to be lifted to its feet, at which point it would
gallop off. The ranch terrain is mostly steep hills, and if stricken on the
side of a steep slope, the sheep would fall then pitch-pole, end over end,
down the hill --a frightful sight. The ranches involved were 200-2,000 acres
each, with a total population of approximately 10,000 animals. Many of the
animals were dying daily. The rancher video-taped the evening feeding
process and mailed it to me --saying he was interested in homeopathy if it
could help his animals. The video showed some of the symptoms very clearly,
so I started packing a field- kit of remedies; Cicuta, Lolium, Ustilago,
Strychninum, Nux vomica, Solanum nigrum, Secale as an isode, and a few
others. I telephoned the late great George Macleod, in Scotland, and he
suggested I try Belladonna followed by Strychninum. Before I could journey
to the ranches and apply the remedies, the rains came and washed the mold
off the grass, new grass sprouted almost immediately, giving the sheep
toxin-free food --the seasonal episode was over. Then, in November 1995,
(six years later), the first rancher from the newspaper article called me
and said a new episode of toxicity had started and would I come out and take
a look at his herd.

A few days later, I gathered my travel kit and a homeopath-colleague,
Sarah Nielsen, RN, and we drove to the ranch, located a few miles inland
from Tomales Bay, about one hour,s drive north from San Francisco. We
arrived and inspected the herd at their morning meal. There were two
distinctly different problem-groups. For example, some of the lambs were
suffering from failure to thrive and a marasmus which we repertorized in
general as emaciation. The lambs were from just- hours to 5 days old and
looked markedly emaciated. Some appeared as if they did not know how to
suckle. Many of the lambs were gaunt, back arched up, head hanging down with
droopy ears. The sheep, on the other hand, had no emaciation but instead had
a transient ataxia made worse from touch or loud noises. These "shakers"
would become anxious when approached, and, if we moved in close to touch
them, they would suddenly get much worse, and, trying to run, would usually
fall down into a position of opisthotonos (head thrown back, chest bowed
out, limbs straight and rigid). Once they had fallen down, their breathing
would often get faster and faster in fits of increasing anxiety. In extreme
cases the mouth would open and the tongue would appear thickened; the air
passage seemed to be cut off with accelerated heart rate; death would
follow. Just before death, they would often go into a frenzied fit; eyes
bulging, lips pulled back tight on the teeth in trismus, the body in tetanic
rigidity.

Repeatedly I asked the ranchers, in differing ways, if there was any
incidence of gangrene, bleeding, uterine symptoms, or any discharges from
the sheep, in an attempt to confirm that the symptoms were indeed caused by
ergot poisoning (Secale). Repeatedly I was told there were no such symptoms.
I read everything I could find on Ergot and Ergotism. This source has an
interesting history, being the substance from which Lysergic acid
diethylamide (LSD) is made; these ranches happened to be in Marin County,
where much of the "Acid Generation" of the 1960's was spawned and I grew
excited, anticipating a "new work" case of Metaphorical Naturalism --where
the in-nature characteristics of the simillimum are reflected in the
characteristics of the patient. I also uncovered stories of how, during the
American colonial period, the Salem witch trials involved people who had
been surreptitiously poisoned with ergot (Claviceps purpura) causing a
convulsive, hallucinogenic state which was often the sole reason that they
were burned at the stake as witches. While the symptoms of ergotism were
somewhat similar to our sheep's symptoms, ours had no discharges, no uterine
symptoms, no hemorrhages, and no symptoms of gangrene --at least one of
which we would like to see in Secale poisoning.

I pondered what LSD and the Salem witch-hunts might have to do with these
staggering/dying sheep but decided to look beyond Secale, based on the lack
of any confirming symptoms of ergot poisoning. At about that time, the UC
Davis team produced a paper written on the subject of the New Zealand
Ryegrass Staggers --referring to a seasonal poisoning-epidemic in sheep
caused by the toxic endophyte, Acremonium lolii. These symptoms matched
those of our sheep perfectly and I felt that it must have been the
Acremonium which had activated the sheep,s predisposed susceptibility to
their transient-ataxia made worse by anticipation of being touched. This was
showing up as a presentation of individualized susceptibility, or
non-specific resistance. That is to say, all the sheep ate the same grass
but not all the sheep were affected in the same way. Only the susceptable
sheep were affected by the toxin. (This is a crucial key to understanding
chronic disease that western medicine sadly ignores). At this point I felt
it was possible to cure the herd of this problem, if we could find the genus
epidemicus; a single remedy selected for the entire population based on the
totality of symptoms of that population, as if it were one patient.

The most important sentence in homoepathy is as if one person., --Jeremy
Sherr, Homeonet 1996

A repertorization of the sheep's general symptoms brought up only
polychrest remedies with theexception of two rubrics that caught my eye:
Stiffening out of body, and Fear touch,, which seemed to be at the crux of
the problem. After graphing these with Emaciation, (in the lambs), the main
remedy choices in the Complete Repertory (with MacRepertory analysis set to:
totality, small remedies, and rare-strange-and-peculiar remedies) were:
Arnica, Ignatia, Cina, Ipecacuanha, Chamomila, Cuprum, Angustura vera,
Ferrum- phosphorica, Stramonium, Phosphorous, Plumbum, and Camphora. After
some thought, we weren't satisfied with any of the polychrests so we studied
Angustura.

Angustura vera was first proven by Hahnemann and is listed in his Materia
Medica Pura (1827). It is made from the bitter bark of the Galipoea
cusparius-officinalis tree from Venezuela (Hahnemann mistakenly refers to it
as Bonplandia trifoliata in his Materia Medica Pura). Its local reputation
was almost as significant as that of Cinchona bark as a febrifuge in certain
fevers, and as an allopathic suppressant for discharges. (Note: The ever
popular gastronomic-tonic "Angustura aromatic bitters" is not made from
Angustura but was originally made in the town of Angustura in Venezuela,
after which it was named.)

Hahnemann talks about the symptoms of Angustura poisoning:

Trembling, soon passing into violent convulsions. When touched, tetanus
suddenly ensued. Eyelids wide open. Trismus, with wide separation of the
lips, so that the teeth were quite exposed. Limbs stretched out to the
utmost, stiff, and stark. The spinal column and head strongly drawn
backwards. The trunk was from time to time shaken by violent jerking along
the back, as from electric shocks, and somewhat raised. Respiration
intermitting. Death after an hour. Half an hour after death the body was
stiff and stark.

These being the exact symptoms of the sheep, I packed the remedy with
instructions and shipped it.

Two weeks later, the rancher called me to report they had given the
Angustura vera 12c daily to the orphaned lambs (in their formula) and to the
general sheep population (in their water troughs). I had written detailed
instructions on how to charge up gallon containers of distilled water and
then charge the community water troughs with them, which they did
religiously every day for one week. The lambs that had been suffering from
marasmus had leapt back to the land of the living, with remarkable growth
and renewed vitality --it amazed the ranchers who had been hopeful but
skeptical. The sheep stopped shaking and falling over; it was a short
tapered resolution, --the acute symptoms of toxicity were over.

Then it rained, washing off the existing mold; the green grass popped up
and the sheep,s intake of the toxins stopped. I remember thinking at the
time I,d have liked to have had more time to test and confirm the limits of
the curative potential of Angustura with this herd, but this seasonal
episode of endophyte proliferation was now passing until the following
autumn.

This process showed us the true genius of the genus epidemicus, in that
the same remedy curedboth the lambs and the sheep, each of a different
pathology. Only the lambs had emaciation --the sheep had totally different
symptoms --the shaking/stiffness which grew worse from touch. By finding a
remedy that was indicated for both sets of symptoms, and by treating the
entire population as one patient, we discovered Hahnemann,s genus
epidemicus. It is interesting to note that the sick lambs were mostly
orphans, and had not had mother,s milk. It is possible they were exposed to
the toxin in utero. Sarah found Ang. listed in the rubric trismus
neonatorum, which might explain the lambs inability to suckle.

Then something quite unexpected happened. Two weeks after the sheep were
given the first dose of Angustura, an unusually violent storm swept over
Northern California. It devastated the subject ranch which is located on the
tallest hills within sight of the ocean at Tomales Bay, approximately 45
miles north of San Francisco. The winds were clocked at 100+ mph. The roof
was blown off the barn, as were the barn doors. It blew a 2,500-gallon steel
water tank through the air one and a half miles until it crashed into a
distant neighbor,s building. Most trees, fences, and gates were destroyed by
the high winds.

Before first light the following morning, the ranchers went out in the
onslaught searching with flashlights for animals in trouble. They found
twenty-four new lambs that had not lived through the night, dead from
exposure. There is a peculiar symptom with the local ewes that they tend to
birth during storms. It appears to be a contraction response from their fear
of the storm. Another theory is that during storms the predators are too
busy avoiding the elements to be on the prowl for new lambs so the birthing
sheep (might) tend to deliver during stormy weather.

The husband and wife team were very depressed as they gathered their dead
lambs on the truckto take for burial. The woman rancher relates the
following story: "I saw Gordon pick up one of the lambs and just as he was
putting it on the truck he stopped and turned it over a few times --he said
he thought he had seen its ear twitch --so I took it up the hill to the
house and put it in front of our wood-burning stove on a pad and left it
while I checked the house for damage (I should mention that this same lamb
had had one eye pecked out the day before by a crow). The electricity had
gone out during the night and we had no phone. I checked the lamb
periodically --it was not breathing and had no pulse. I held it in my arms
and rubbed it and sang to it but it seemed to be going into rigor mortis."

"Half an hour after death the body was stiff."

Materia Medica Pura, "Angustura"

--S. Hahnemann, Jain, 64

"I felt so defeated I wept. Gordon came in and we just sat in silence
together with the dead lamb. For some reason I decided we should decorate
the Christmas tree to take our minds off our problems. With flashlights we
began to hang ornaments, then I remembered the story you told me..."

During my first visit to the ranch, I had seen a newborn lamb lying dead
on the barn floor when I arrived in the morning. It was such a disturbing
sight; this lifeless caricature of youth. Later that afternoon, the woman
rancher noticed me staring at the dead lamb and told me that she thought she
had seen it move, so I immediately kneeled down and gave it a squirt of
Cicuta 1M which I had with me, but to no avail --she looked at me and said
"Now that would really impress me!" So I told her the story about how Dr.
Stuart Close had once treated a 45-year-old woman who had already been
pronounced dead, on site, by her family physicians. Close arrived at the
residence as the relatives were standing around the parlor, drying tears,
etc.; he quickly examined the patient. No radial pulse, limbs cold and
rigid, face with an expression of death, both feet and legs were gangrenous
up to the knees --the living manifestation of death. He tapped a few pellets
of Ars. 45M (Fincke) under her lip and rubbed it against her gum. "Presently
she opened her eyes and looked at me as I bent over her, and whispered to me
I'm coming back., In ten minutes more she was talking to me in an audible
voice, asking questions about herself and what had happened. I had
difficulty keeping my patient quiet and had to prevent her from talking.
Reaction had come on with a vengeance. She went on to make an uneventful
recovery and has led a healthy life for these 20 years past.,

So, with this story in mind, the woman rancher got the bottle of
Strychninum 12c (in water) and put a few drops on the lambs nostrils. She
relates: "Instantaneously the lamb twitched and jerked around a bit and
shook, then went still again. I could hear the heartbeat; then it slowed and
stopped again. I gave him another few drops of the remedy and the same thing
happened. Then I put a squirt of Angustura vera. down the lambs throat and
with that he simply leapt back to life! Within ten minutes he was up and
walking and would not let us alone as we decorated the Christmas tree in the
morning twilight, rubbing his little head against our legs to show us his
gratitude."

By the following morning, the lamb was doing so well that they put him out
in a pen, and he's done quite well since. He turned into a husky little lamb
and they,ve named him "One-eyed Jack."

I was stunned when I received this information. It was enough that the
single remedy had acted on the entire herd for differing pathologies, but to
bring back the dead...

One week later the woman rancher called to ask advice on how to follow-up
on a sheep that had been attacked by a coyote: its throat had been torn open
and the esophagus was punctured. Wide eyed and terrified, the sheep would
not calm down. A hissing sound came from the punctured throat as she
breathed. The rancher had only the remedies I had left there earlier to test
on the staggering sheep. No Aconite, no Stramonium, no Op. no Arnica, no
Calendula, etc. Not being able to reach me at first for advice, the
desperate rancher had given it a dose of Angustura. The sheep immediately
calmed down to the point where they could approach it and touch it. This
sheep went on to have an uneventful recovery. A few days later, the rancher
called me again. Another lamb had been similarly attacked by a coyote and
had open wounds on its ear, throat and jaw with much swelling, and it was
acting extremely frightened. It was almost impossible to herd her into the
corral. Again they squirted a stream of Angustura that made contact with the
animals nose and it immediately calmed down and even walked up to the woman
rancher and nibbled on her tattered coat-tail. This would have been an
unusual display of ease in a typicaly pusillanimous sheep, rare in one that
only moments before had been so terrorized. We felt this to be very
significant. The woman rancher commented on how the entire herd had become
much more approachable and less skittish since the prophylactic
watering-trough dosings of Angustura..

I feel this case shows the broadly curative potential of the genus
epidemicus/simillimum. The single remedy showed curative action on acute
poisoning-epidemic symptoms --as a specific, on chronic symtoms
(pusillanimous/shyness), and on acute first-aid symptoms (terror, open
wounds), in one herd of animals including a subgroup that was possibly made
toxic in-utero. I would like to spend more time testing the limits of
Angustura vera on this herd. I have since given entire herd on this one
ranch (as a control) a single dose of Angustura vera 10M, to see if it will
permanently shift their susceptibility to the ryegrass staggers, as I
suspect it will.
© Greg Bedayn. All rights reserved. Private parties may make copies and
share this information with those interested in Homeopathy. No publication
of these materials are allowed without the written permission of the author.