|
Commencing with the remedies of brief action and gradually progressing
to those of longer duration, the
I Class would contain the following medicines having the
briefest action : Acon., Camphor, Coffea, Ipecac., Laur., Mosch.,
Opium, Par., Rheum, Samb., Stram., and Tar. Of these medicines,
most corresponding to the acutest diseaes and a necessarily rapid
aid in chronic diseases, no use can be made except only as rare
intermediate remedies.
The II Class contains the following medicines whose action
is of brief duration: Arn., Asar., Bryon., Calad., Cann., Canth.,
Caps., Chamom., Chelid., Chin., Cina, Cocc., Creos., Croc., Cycl.,
Dros., Euphras., Hyos., Ignatia, Mgs., M. arct., M. aust., Mar.,
Men., Nux mosch., Nux vom., Pulsat., Ran bulb., Ruta, Sabad.,
Scill., Secale cor., Valer., Verat., Verb., Viola od., Viola tric.
Also from these remedies in properly chronic(psoric) diseases little
result would be obtained. Only as intermediate remedies, or where
the tedious invalidism ha its ground in the abuse of medicines,
we may, in lack of more suitable remedies, expect a partial amelioration
from these remedies; e.g., from Bryonia in pulmonary patients, from
canthar. in Bright's Disease, from Drosera in the affections of
larynx, from Nux vom. and Pulsat. in various ailments, which are
not infrequently found in common life and are frequently protracted
for a lengthy period. But how Chelid. in many ( of rademacher's)
recipes should keep equal step and duration with other remedies
of long continued action which are prescribed at the sane time is
an inexplicable riddle to the true homeopath.
In the III class the medicines of medium duration of action
would belong, among which I count the following : Agar., Ambr.,
Am. mur., Anac., Ang., Ant. tart., Arg., Asaf., Bell., Bor., Bov.,
Brom., Cic., Clem., Colch., Con., Cupr., Dig., Dulcam., Euphorb.,
Guaic., Hell., Iod., Lach., Led., Magn. mur., Mercur., Mezer., Mur
ac., Natr. mur., Nitr ac., Oleand., Phos. ac., Plum., Ran scel.,
Rhodo., Rhus., Sabin., Sarsap., Seneg., Spigel., Spong., Staph.,
Sulph. ac., Thuja., Zinc. The remedies here adducted may nearly
all of them be used in acute as well as in chronic diseases with
decided usefullness, if only with the former their course is not
too rapid, or with the latter the ailment is not too inveterate
and, therefore, too firmly rooted. In my many years practice it
has been as striking to me as curious, that substances combined
with an acid such as, e.g, Am. mur., Ant. tart., Magn. mur., Natr.
mur., Nitr. ac., Phos. ac., and Sulph ac. had as it seemed to me,
a much briefer duration of action than the simple basis ( Ammon
carb., Ant crud., Magn carb., Natr. carb., Phos., and Sulph. ).
I cannot, indeed, after so many careful observations, consider this
a delusion; still it would be desirable if other careful observers
would also express themselves about it.
The IV Class would then receive the following ones of the
medicines of long duration : Alum., Amm carb., Arsen., Aur., Bism.,
Carb an., Carb veg., ferr., Flour ac., Lycop., Magn. carb., Mang.,
Natr. acrb., Nitrum (kali nitric), Petr., Plat., Selen., Stann.,
Stront. These remedies belong to the so-called anti-psoric remedies,
a designation which many are unwilling at this day to accept, but
for which no more suitable term is known to me.With proper diet,
and once brought into activity, their action will extend over several
weeks and I have always observed disadvantageous results arising
when during this period premature disturbance was caused by repetition
of the same remedy or by giving another. Most of all we should guard
against their action as extinct, when a second (or more rarely a
third) primary action should develop itself. So long as the old
ailments show a renewed aggravation, without the appearance of essentially
new symptoms, which lie outside of the sphere of action of the remedy
and mirrors itself in the total-image of the last medicine, so long
we must carefully guard against giving another medicine or repeating
the same medicine again, unless we would soon rue out our precipitancy.
Such a course I have found most injurious among those remedies,
which, like the anti-psorics, have many reciprocal actions, which
in addition seem to be multiplied by being raised to higher potencies.
Finally the V Class contains those remedies which contain
the most long-continued action of all, namely : Ant crud., Bar.,
Cal-carb., Caust., Grapg., Hepar sulph., Kali carb., Phos., Sepia.,
Silic., and Sulph. where these remedies, the real heroes of our
medical treasury for the chronic diseases, are accurately suitable
and are used, they will actually perform wonders, if they are only
granted the necessary time to unfold their full powers. Fortunately,
they all also belong to the anti-psoric polychrests and, therefore,
they find the most frequent average use. But far more then even
with the preceding we shall have to guard against causing premature
disturbances, since the injury caused by them is not easily made
good again. What has been said above of Class IV applies here in
double measure, and my journal contains many cases where a single
dose continued to act beneficially for many months most manifestly,
and eventually the many years chronic disease had disappeared with
all its traces so completely that nothing more remained to be done.
I close the brief article with the wish that the readers may examine
the statements presented without prejudice, and if they are found
correct, may act according to them, so that we may get rid of the
unhomeopathic action which is spreading ever more generally of repeating
doses, so that such action may, as before, be left to allopaths.
|