| During the historical period man has slowly evolved,
at a fearful cost, from the intuitive
state into one largely based upon a knowledge of the laws of nature.
In doing this he has
hedged about his own natural freedom on all sides, building up what
he calls culture, an
artificial thing that materialises his thoughts and finally disintegrates
his soul.
He builds for himself big cities, lives in close quarters and pampers
or abuses his appetites
and body. When the inevitable result follows his materialised mind
falls down before the
fetish of material medicine in the hope that his inherent vitality
will carry him safely past
the danger point. It is moreover a philosophy not always confined
to the laity.
Health, the result of natural living, is almost unknown, because
our ignorance and the
maddening pace at which we move along is depleting our vitality
and reducing the average
capability for the larger things of life. By the constant pursuit
of the smallest things man's
mind is being dwarfed and his vision is becoming myopic. His sense
of general perspective
is leaving him and he is rapidly losing his bearings amidst the
myriads of minutia daily
forced upon his attention.
The great weakness in our educational scheme is that we continually
hammer into the
student the material view of things; then we wonder that so few
of our students finally reach
real light. We make moles of them and then throw them upon a world
of noonday glaring
light. Only one result is possible; failure in ability to cure,
and the encouragement for those
drugless cults which depend almost exclusively upon the blind recuperative
powers of
nature. Severely handicapped as these are, they should give the
heavy drugger and the
nihilist alike food for reflection. The former abuses the already
sickened economy, while
the latter throws it back unguided upon its own resources. Neither
is capable of restoring the
natural harmonious equilibrium which belongs to every living thing.
This is one of the
reasons why specialists and tinkering doctors increase. All of them
would like to be known
as physicians, but their grounding is such that the few who do venture
into the field of
general practice rarely become real healers of the sick, except
by inadvertence.
In proportion as simplicity develops out of complexity so does
efficiency increase, and if
we wish to cure safely, effectually and permanently we must be able
to grasp the law of
cure in a rational and easily understood way; which means that as
long as our bodies retain
their natural equilibrium, each living cell must of necessity cast
out a certain amount of
detritus, which cannot be abnormally retained or artificially suppressed
unless we wish
trouble to. follow. Such secretions are often far from pleasant
or convenient. Foul foot or
axillary sweats, fetid menses, abnormal discharges and secretions,
etc., all belong to this
category and must be corrected constitutionally if we wish to cure.
The far-reaching effect
of autogenous poisoning is but partially grasped, if we are to judge
physicians by their daily
work. Efforts at elimination are made, of course, but they are crude
in the extreme, purging
being the commonest instance of how it is at-tempted.
No man who reasons in this way can be a real Homeopath. Do we
not see crises precipitated
every day by the action of the similimum, when nature demands them
in order to establish
recovery? Do we not likewise see a re-established equilibrium of
nervous energy, when the
homeopathic remedy assuages pain? And are there not countless other
daily confirmations
of the law, which says that all cures proceed from within outwardly,
from above downward
and in the reverse order of the coming of the symptoms? In other
words all cures proceed
from the soul through the spiritual body and finally manifest themselves
in the physical
body. It cannot be, therefore is not otherwise.
The distressed vital force or spiritual body responds to our treatment
as best it can, while
still endeavouring to hold the physical body in harmonious equilibrium,
but when our
efforts are crude, inappropriate or suppressive it does the best
within its power to still keep
the physical body in order. If our efforts are too violent or strongly
suppressive it takes
refuge in side stepping or diversions in order to turn aside the
force of our misplaced efforts
and still preserve some semblance of physical integrity. These are
the deceptive
pathological effects that Hahnemann points out in paragraph 74 of
the Organon.
Absolute cure means the establishment and maintenance of mental
and physical harmony.
Admittedly our recoveries don't have the highest percentage of such
cures to their credit, for
the number of times the physician sees the whole picture, mental
as well as physical, is not
very large , but when he possesses acumen enough to elicit both
of these phases in sickness
the reward always far exceeds his fondest expectations.
It is a thing to be proud of that Homeopathy makes the essential
factors of the cure revolve
around the mental manifestations for in them are reflected, as well
as out of them come all
physical acts, and by acts we get the clearest and most intimate
view of what is going on in
the mind. In this same category come hallucinations and dreams;
if we but know how to
interpret them. Both are subconscious thoughts brought to the surface.
Lately, in a case of
acute mania the patient saw numberless babies, which enabled the
prescriber to easily trace
a sexual connection in the symptoms bringing out Phosphorus as the
remedy, resulting in
one of the most brilliant cures I have ever witnessed.
Of the numbers that yearly struggle over the artificial barriers
which have been erected
about the medical profession precious few finally grasp the real
meaning of the healing art.
Students are drilled in large classes, taught to look upon disease
in the mass and
overimpressed with the importance of demonstrable phenomena; thus
creating a great gulf
between objective and subjective morbid states, when in reality
the two are almost
invariably conjoined.
It is the duty of the physician to not only find the foci of disease
but also to go far beyond, if
he wishes to comprehend and cure sickness in its totality. If man
is the most tangible
expression of his ego, is it not better to get a glimpse of his
real self, than to be continually
stumbling about amidst the rocks of morbid matter? It is here that
we will soon come to see
that he is a visible manifestation of the great primordial force
which pulsates throughout the
whole universe and only as he lives in full conformity with nature's
harmony will he unfold
and become healthy. Hahnemann and the early fathers were really
constructive builders
who accomplished their object by hard work and were by that sign
called geniuses, and he
who would know the kernel of the homeopathic or natural law of cure
must not only learn
what they teach, but he must also make the experiment for himself.
To do this efficiently he
had better read Burnett's "Fifty Reasons," Wheeler's "The
Case of Homeopathy," Nash's
"Leaders," Farrington's "Lectures," the "Organon"
and Kent's "Lectures" which will carry
him to the experimental stage when he will need Jahr 's "Forty
Years' Practice,"
Bönninghausen's "Characteristics and Repertory,"
the "Synoptic Key" and Hahnemann's
and Allen's Materia Medica’s for constant reference.
His practical work, guided by these books, will inevitably lead
him to getting better and
better results. Disease will become to him a phase of nature's way
of throwing off those
hostile forces which must always remain powerless as long as he
retains his quota of
vitality.
The things which we use to amuse depressed vital action are homeopathic
when they
accomplish the cure with rapidity, safety and certainty. To do this
in such a manner
necessitates similitude. All other methods are in the nature of
crude bungling by
comparison.
As may be guessed from the above I don't have much patience with
heterogeneous
practices, misnamed homeopathic. They confuse the prescriber and
mislead the patient, who
only too often becomes the martyr of ignorance, laziness or hurry.
I tell you our profession
above all others needs men who are not afraid of taking time enough
to think out the
problems which daily confront them, men whose judgement is mature,
and who will not be
swayed too much or overpersuaded by diagnosis, by pathology or surgery.
Men who have
the vision to see that only one thing cures or can cure, that is
the similimum. Let no one
persuade himself that he has seen a cure, until the whole system
has been restored to
harmonious action; a state in which the sufferer again feels it
a joy to live and go forward
fulfilling his divine destiny.
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