| Although we may point out a general way of finding
the curative similimum, its specific
application will always remain more or less an individual affair.
It is very easy to say we should
either work from generals to particulars, or memorise a few infallible
keynotes, for certain
guidance. How perfectly easy it looks, but a closer acquaintance
with these methods reveals how
agonisingly arduous the former really is, while the latter is apt
to sadly mix up our cases and lead
us into much trouble, if we really mean to cure.
The ability to envisage a general field of sickness and at the
same time note the peculiarities stamped thereon by the individual,
must always remain the ideal of the correct prescriber. These and
their setting portray actual sickness and define its individuality.
Every living organism responds sympathetically to some other one
particular substance in
nature, arid when in distress the human economy calls for help by
using its own peculiar signals,
in demanding this complement thereto, which must of necessity be
the curative agent.
The ability to, pick from each life history the striking and unusual
features which 'crop out
and stick to the patient through many forms of sickness and then
to find their counterpart within
the pathogenesis of some remedy, means the power to cure radically
where others fall. It is a
procedure that takes time and patience, but once having elicited'
a curative reaction, each
successive move becomes easier and yields better results. It goes
without saying that emergency
cases and quite a few others, can but rarely be dealt with in this
way, which is, preeminently
corrective in its application. The man who deftly prescribes for
every symptom phase will be
always curing but never cure. This form of shifty prescribing is
deceptive in the highest degree
and was justly denounced by Hahnemann as being ultimately more harmful
than the massive
drugging of the regulars.
Let me cite a case in point : Mr. D., 62, a man of correct habits,
had, for more than a year,
crusts form and fall repeatedly from a progressive deepening lupoid
ulcer in the left naso-malar
region. There was no sensation but the life history of the patient
revealed the following symptom
ensemble:
1. Soreness; eyeballs; right upper teeth; right throat; eustachian
tubes; across hypogastrium and kidney region, < rising; right
scrotum and testis; knuckles; face of right thigh and knee; of soles;
of muscles; and joints in the general.
2. Urine; pale; trace of albumen, some pus and oxalates.
3. Throatpit; tickling. Hawks much thick, white mucus which flies
from mouth.
4. Nose; blows blood from. Prolonged sneezing attacks, > cold
drinks.
5. Hands; numb at night. Brittle nails.
6. Left axillary gland suppurated out as a boy.
7. Feet; burn at night.
8. Bowels, constipated, with soft stools.
9. Numb occiput, rubs it.
10. Bluish lower lip.
11. Drowsiness.
12. Troubled dreams, wakes with a nervous pressure on wrists.
13. Forgets names.
14. Sour taste, < after sweets.
August 8, 1921. Calc. carb. DM (Tyrrell; one dose.
September I5, I92I. Reported with delight, ulcer filled in and
entirely healed, leaving a clean
scar. The sequel was interesting. On a visit to a distant city some
one persuaded him to have a
specialist burn the scar ouf with radium, but shortly after his
return the old ulcer reappeared,
enlarged, with a much larger scab than ever which bled about the
edges. Alarmed he returned to
me and I am afraid I made some pretty severe comments, but he took
them kindly along with
another dose of Calc-carb. DM. In a very short time he was entirely
well, lupus and all.
PARKERSBURG, W VA.
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