CAN ANYTHING OVERRIDE THE PRINCPLE OF‘SYMPTOMS TOTALITY’ IN HOMEOTHERAPEUTICS
CAN ANYTHING OVERRIDE THE PRINCPLE OF‘SYMPTOMS TOTALITY’ IN HOMEOTHERAPEUTICS
(PLACE OF FAMILY HISTORY IN HOMEO-PRESCRIBING)
(A CRITIQUE OF CLASSICAL HOMEOPATHY-8)
Soon in my practice as a homeopath, the immense importance of family history, in the anamnesis of a case dawned upon me. In a few years I found myself prescribing, in some 80% of chronics cases, on the basis of family history only. Many a time it so happened that I never touched or glanced over the computer analysis of the case, which I had prepared very diligently and minutely, as the case had already been started on the basis of the family anamnesis, and was responding well. And many a time it ended with this single prescription only, may it take one or two years.
Some 20 years ago a businessman of the grain market of Lahore, came to me, with a cushion in his hands, tottering in a slow pace to my office, and carefully putting the cushion along the back of the consulting chair, in my office, beseated himself very carefully in the chair and adjusting his back against the cushion. His X-Rays had revealed the degeneration of lumbar spine; and had been decided as a surgery case. The case was a lengthy one with a long medical history and medical treatment. His family history revealed a strong taint of Tuberculosis. At the spur of the moment I felt like beginning the case with Tubercilinum. Two doses were given to be taken within short interval, and an envelope full of placebo, to be taken one powder a day.
For three or four more turns he came, cushion in hands, but with much improvement in his gait. Ultimately he discarded his cushion, and, in seven to eight months, I found him asking my permission to climb the hills of Murree, a Pakistan’s prize summer resort. His case was started with Tuberculinum 200 and ended with Tuberculinum 1M, three doses of each, in two years. The computer analysis of the case history had brought out Calcarea, Sulphur, Lyco. Rhus Tox., inter alia.
Countless complicated and pathologic cases had been cured by the simple prescription of Tuberculinum, Bacillinum or Bacitub (the name given to my combination of tuberculinum and bacillinum): Cases of asthma, chronic sinusitis, chronic and tedious headaches, anorexia, chronic and non-responding coughs, countless cases of degeneration of spine, and many, many other bone complications are cured by these three agents as from a charm or miracle. I found Tuberclinum so relevant to all sorts of complaints and complications of spine and back generally: viz. dorso-lumbar, lumbo-sacral, sacro-iliac and sacro-coccygeal disorders, that I felt that Tuberclinum perhaps had some local affinity for the osseous architecture of the back. But that’s a hypothesis, to be corroborated later on.
I’ve seen Bacitub doing miracle job in rectal haemorrhoiods with profuse haemorrhage not being influenced by any remedy; but of course with strong history of tuberculosis. Here Millifolium and Phosphorus influenced very temporarily.
Then there is a case of a young lady of 27, with arthritic back, can’t stand and walk erect, pain and stiffness of shoulder and neck, side right, urine scanty; family history (F/H) of renal malfunctioning in many members, mother died of bone cancer. Her case was started with Carcincine, and needed no change of medicine as she soon started improving. The case was ended in seven to eight months. She was so much influenced by this medicine that she shed many pounds of weight, and acquired a beautiful physique. Her computer analysis brought out Sulphur, Calc., Merc. Sol., Lyco., Apis. etc. but I didn’t need to take any advantage of these remedies.
What this nosode can do in curing a variety of cases one feels mystified and wonder struck. I’ve used this nosode from 200 to 10M potencies, with equal success. A case of a child 3 years of age with a chronic cough of long standing, not budging off by any specialist, or cough-syrups or any other nostrum, magically quelled by one dose, strictly one dose of Carcinosin 200. This child’s family was strongly cancerous, from both sides of the parents. Her mother’s years-long recurrent hordeola came to a permanent stop by this agent. Every member of this family was positively and permanently influenced by this strong medicine, whatever the complaint.
A severe case of throat problem involving right ear, with inflammation of the mastoid and stony hard parotid, with personal history of right breast ablation for scirrhous cancer, many years ago. Now with the above throat problems she was fast loosing weight. One dose of Scirrhinum 200 turned the case cureward. No indicated remedy worked here, even wasted time!
The strong personal history also counts; it predisposes the patient towards certain strains of diseases. A patient, e.g., having repeated attacks of Typhoid in his past history, comes to you for certain persistent complaints which you put right with one or two doses of Typhoidinum. Many cases of diverse complaints I rectified with this simple remedy.
We come to the same conclusion here which I reached, last year, in my article, entitled: PITFALLS; and read in The Asian Homeopathic conference at Genting, Kaulalumpur, last October, 2009. The thesis in that article was that homeopathic prescribing should take into account the pathology of the case; that the pathology should take precedence over the totality of the symptoms.
I laid down there that Hahnemann, towards the end of his life, postulated a theory of Miasms, to make it the basis for treating and tackling chronic diseases. It was his effort to vindicate the basic position of pathology in homeotherapeutic. So much so that we felt that the proviso of simple totality of symptoms was to become limited to acute cases only. In chronic diseases the emphasis was now on the pathology, especially on the kind of pathology. First one should determine the miasm of the case, then go to the list of remedies related to that miasm, and then select the one that is most close to the case in hand, according the characteristic and peculiar and strange symptoms. This practically isthe Theory of Chronic Miasms, and how it works.
The real prophet of pathology in homeotherapeutic is Dr. C. Compton Burnett. He is the apostle and the innovator, par excellence, of the place of pathology in therapeutic, and an inventor of new uses of the old remedies and, of course, a founder and discoverer of many new remedies. He discovered new uses of Urtica Uren (MT), and Natrum Mur. 6, to be repeatedly given for gout and uric acid diathesis. He is responsible for coining the term ‘vaccinosis’ and making Thuja its remedy; and discovering Cupressus Lawsonia, as an alternative or substitute or as a variant for Thuja. He gave new lease of life to many forgotten or seldom used medicines. He is an infallible teacher and instructor; his works are infused with originality and abiding freshness. An original thinker who never dogmatized anything, Burnett will live and shine for ever brighter on the horizon of homeopathy.
To conclude, let me point to the deep pathology that lay behind many acute, sub-acute and chronic diseases that defied all treatment by any therapeutic school, and could not be influenced or subdued by the remedies selected on the basis of totality of symptoms. You have witnessed above that so many diverse and tedious cases of diseases that could not be redressed by any therapeutic measures were beautifully handled by the remedies that were related to the deep pathology of the organism, inherited from ancestors or acquired in the lifetime of the individual. We have seen cases of arthritis, gout, recurrent complaints of styes, hordeola, mastoiditis, matastases of cancers, unmanageable coughs, anorexia in children, and so many other tedious and abstruse disorders, functional and physiological, were smoothly and permanently handled by the nosodes like Tuberclinum, Bacilinum, Carcinosin, Scirrhinum and Typhoidinum. But the red strand that runs through all these instances of cases is that all these prescriptions were not based on the totality of symptoms. The medicines that came out on the basis of symptom totality were not used, even cared for. And, moreover it must be understood that the cases that I’ve detailed above are not my achievements, as my masterpieces of cure; they are the achievements of Homeopathy that can be accomplished by any careful and true homeopath.
COROLLARY
In my article, PITFALLS, we came to the conclusion that after conclusively identifying the miasm, we selected a remedy from among the medicines related to that miasm, on the basis of symptom similarity. That means that the pathology gets precedence over the symptom totality. First the pathology is determined, and then the remedy is sought for. Today, in this article we have discovered another aspect of prescribing, that is most effective and more direct, where we never touched, or even needed not to touch, the analysis of the case, done on the basis of symptom totality. This is, evidently, a big leap: a direct jump, so to say, to Similia Nosologica, by totally ignoring the Similia Symptomatica.
This gigantic leap that historically Hahnemann took when he introduced the Theory of Chronic Miasms, was indeed a definite shift of emphasis. He practically relegated the simple symptoms similarity to a subsidiary level of tackling the acute, day-to-day disorders only, while the true similarity that emerged, in cases of chronic ailments, was that of the nosological. This was a great shift of emphasis, where many believers of the Master staggered; and many a friend parted ways. Hahnemann was a keen scientist. How could he remain confined and complacent to the jejune jumbled up symptoms-totality as the basis of therapeutic in the face of stupendous prospect of discoveries in the field of pathology and ever emerging new frontiers and vistas, as a result of active researches. Only a visionary person like Hahnemann could foresee and apprehend these futuristic advances in pathology; forestalling which he performed the Herculean feat of bringing a basic shift, by hatching the ‘Theory of Chronic Miasms’, which made the similia pathologica the true basis of therapeutics, to be dispensed through the principle of symptom similarity.
This proved to be a solid and more scientific foundation for homeotherapeutic that will now keep itself abreast with the science of pathology, with its ever expanding frontiers. This was derring-do on the part of Hahnemann with all his scientific acumen and foresight. Through the Theory of Chronic Miasms, he made it clear that it is not the simple Similia Symptomatica, but the Similia Pathologica, that could be the basis of homeotherapeutics.From that time on Homeopathy has become the first, and will also be the last, therapeutics in the world that is based on the Similia Nosologica in prescribing medicines. The vaccine therapy of the dominant school can’t encompass the depth and vastness of homeopathic therapeutics.
P.S. [I have coined new terminology, such as ‘similia nosologica’ and ‘similia symptomatica’. I’m not sure of their grammatico-linguistic correctness, since I’m not conversant with Greco-Latin syntax, but my intension from these terms is quite clear and understandable. So kindly excuse me if my terms are incorrect and wrongly coined; or better enlighten me by correcting them. Thanks!] Dr. Usmani