| A sudden and violent emptying of the digestive canal
by vomiting and purging at the
same time, and mainly seen in cholera, cholera morbus and cholera
infantum, but may
occur as a prodrome to pneumonia or apoplexy or during migraine,
strangulated hernia,
uraemia etc., etc. It seems to be an effort of the vital forces
to get rid of an overload of
one kind or another, mostly, but not always of digestive origin.
Its premier aspect is that of a violence great enough to raise
the suspicion of the
presence of some really serious disorder. It was formerly more common
during the
heated period. More sanitary methods of handling food stuffs have
very materially
changed this for the better.
Remedially the syndrome points to a certain small group of very
active remedies
whose pure effects combine suddenness of onset and violence with
vomiting and
purging. The first of these is Aethusa and one sometimes wonders
how the early
Homoeopaths got along without its help in cholera infantum, for
those dangerous cases
in which the child suddenly vomits up a tough or hard curd of milk,
purges, turns
deathly pale about the mouth and then sinks back in utter exhaustion.
Only the correctly
chosen remedy, promptly given, will save this kind.
Then we have the drowsy patient who vomits and purges moderately,
has a little
cool general sweat with a suspicious rattle in the throat, so that
we can't just say whether
it is really cholera infantum or the onset of a capillary bronchitis.
A single dose of
Antimonium tart very high will cure the patient so quickly that
our doubt will always
remain. Such an action belongs to the nature of tartar emetic.
lt is not necessary to here point out the Arsenicum, Colchicum,
Cuprum,
Podophyllum or Veratrum alb. type of case, but what I want to say
is, that, faced by such
an admittedly serious complex, even a moderately good Homoeopath
stands head and
shoulders above his Allopathic brother in his power to save the
situation.
I might speak a long time of the things which you know and feel
are perfectly true,
and yet be helping the cause but little did I not point out the
fact that the things which
hold us back are largely of a fundamental nature. The patient who
comes to know
correct Homoeopathic prescribing will rarely ever take strong doses
of medicine at all,
even preferring drugless healing to being always in the shadow of
dope or measures of
violence. Most sensible persons still hold with Montaigne that they
"see no race of
people so soon sick and so long before they are well as those who
take much physic."
Today the victims of surgery may well be added to this class. Both
are dupes of a mighty
poor opportunism.
What can we say for ourselves after denouncing old physic and
castigating short
sighted surgery? Is our need self glorification, boastfulness of
the law, which we
occasionally observe, or an exclusive and bigoted regularity? Such
things did and do still
belong to low grade Homoeopathy, rich in everything but the sell-sacrificing
devotion
which finally emancipates the searcher after truth; he who finally
comes to see that
efficient and complete reaction only follows an initial impact of
a like kind. No one can
predicate the final results of a force thus converted or released
into its own proper
channels.
One more thought. All measures intended to thus convert or turn
latent energy into
its normal channels, which stop short of doing it by virtue of the
law of similars, fall just
that much short of making genuine cures. Much help may be gained
by various
mechanical or material acts, surgery, manipulation, etc., etc.,
but every one of them
lacks the power to tune back into natural expression, the innate
vitality of the patient.
Only the potentized remedy can do this; all other methods are inherently
more or less
palliative; it can not be, nor is it otherwise. How, then, may this
knowledge be obtained?
Let me tell you: "Seek this wisdom by doing service, by strong
search, by questions and
by humility; the wise who see the truth will communicate it unto
thee."
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