| The symptoms appearing within the general sphere
of the metals hardly deserve any
special prominence except as they are related to or accompany other
manifestations.
To say that this or that remedy is good for this or that thing is
absurd for any drug
having a special field of action in the generative sphere, of necessity
has a still more
general action, of which the former is but a partial expression.
I wish especially to raise
my voice against piece-meal prescribing altho it is admittedly a
great temptation in this
particular instance. That it may be imperative is doubtless true;
that it is the most
advisable thing, is open to much doubt.
I wish especially to urge that we train ourselves into the habit
of thinking of the sick
as units,—hence as treating them as such. The thing that we
are internally must finally
show itself externally, hence the only radical cure proceeds outwardly
in every sense of
the term. let us study every patient by his acts, by his thoughts,
and by his sensibilities.
No other guide will so quickly lead to the desired goal and point
out the similimum.
Homoeopathy is only as strong as its curative power. Just as soon
as we begin to adopt
makeshifts, we weaken it by that much.
The natural law which Hahnemann demonstrated has been with us
from the
beginning and will be here when we are gone. It behoves us to learn
all about it in order
that we may, while we are here, learn our lessons so well that no
emergency may catch
us napping and unprepared. The habit of locking too closely at localised
symptoms is, in
its very nature, confusing and misleading. It makes for therapeutic
myopia, and
unsettles our confidence in the larger and more embracing things.
The thing that will
cure the patient, will remove her leucorrhoea, her pus tubes, or
what not; provided the
disease is curable. Dynamic action pertains to avail-able powers
within and not to
powers from without, altho the latter may be admittedly necessary
in order to prolong
life. But we should always bear in mind that such things are palliative
only and have
nothing in common with a radical cure.
A man once cried "What shall I do to be saved?" Our
patients every day ask "What
shall I do to be cured?" All we can say is FIRST,—be
cleansed from within, then all
other needed things shall be added unto you.
The human economy is, in a sense, a self-eliminating machine.
Crudely imitating
this it has led the old school practitioner into giving laxatives,
purgatives, soporifics,
etc. The results of these procedures we all know. Occasionally similar
crises are
provoked by potencies of crude or only apparent similarity. The
ideal course is gentle,
radical and envigorating, both physically and mentally. A new world
appears and life
becomes richer and more joyful. The absence of these leaves the
cure in doubt.
DlSCUSSION
Dr. Stearns: I agree with what Dr. Boger has
said and with what the others have
said, but am much disappointed at not hearing something about the
cures that have been
made through the symptoms and conditions that have been caused by
these remedies in
their provings.
I have never used Palladium but I have always had it in mind as
a uterine and
ovarian remedy; Platinum, I have used only once or twice and some
of the others not at
all.
Dr. Dienst: Dr. Boger, have you anything to say
in defence of this paper?
Dr. Boger: There is nothing in that paper that
conflicts with any of the criticisms.
Because I called it piece-mea1 prescribing does not mean that I
did not take into
account all the symptoms that occur in any particular organs. The
best of us do some
piece-mea1 prescribing when we cannot help ourselves. All patients
are cured from the
mental phase out and you cannot get around it; when you are supposedly
curing piecemeal,
you are only patching, that is all, and after a time it is going
to give way again.
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