|
||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
Forums
Courses
Shop
Diseases
Articles
Journal
Directory|
|
||||
Homeopathic Archives |
||||
|
|
||||
| Hpathy Ezine, March 2004 | ||||
|
Do Homeopathy Medicines Make Functional Changes? -- E. A. Farrington |
||||
|
And this brings us to second question, upon the solution of which depends the maintenance of any position. A function is, literally, an act, a performance, and applied to physiology,” is the action of an organ or set of organs” (Dunglison). If I take a drug and symptoms result, are not these the expression of altered functions---altered in degree or quality? If, for instance, Lachesis causes hemorrhages with a settling like charred straw (Guernsey), or if it causes profuse bleeding, the blood will not coagulate (Lippe): is this not a nutritive change? And will this altered blood perform its normal functions? Let the answer be found in the gangrene, the erysipelas, or the impending typhoid state. Were Dr. Lippe to ask how are the changes made I would be compelled to answer, I know not. The secret working vital force under infinite surveillance. Just how it works, mortal man may never know. We live in a world of effects, and it is only of these we can become cognizant. The blood propelled by the heart, sweeps over the aortic arch and down the aorta, never dispensing its gifts until it reaches its ultimata in the capillaries. Nerves run to and from centers, giving no impressions until their termini are reached. The ulna, irritated at the elbow, tingles at its termination in little and outer side of ring fingers. So with every vital effort, it is in its fullness only when terminated in its appointed organ or organs. Organs are made of tissues, tissues of molecules, and herein are consummated the complex vital phenomena which make up the life. As Hahnemann says, the internal changes we can not determine. But their effects,which appear normally in conscious sensation and motion, and abnormally in symptoms, are determinable. Whether these symptoms are subjective or objective, they express a change in function or nutrition, and bespeak the tissue or tissues involved. If a function is truly defined above, will not the symptoms show a changed” action of an organ or set of organs?” If I take a remedy, say Rhus,and it produces a vesicular eruption, will it be denied that a change in nutrition has taken place? And can not we perceive what change has taken place?. Or, still more to the point, if for a non-uniting fracture we prescribe Calcarea Phos, and the callus quickly forms--- a callus containing a hundred-fold more time then we give--- can we deny a tissue and a nutritive action? We know that tearing, boring pains indicate an affection of bones or periosteum; that sharp, shooting pains indicate an affection of serous membranes. We know that Aconite acts on serous sacs, increasing their suction; while Sepia, Iodine, etc, relax serous and synovial sacs. Equally sure are we that Hypericum acts on nerve tissue, Arnica on the capillaries, Mercury in the production and Silicia in the prevention of pus formation, Conium on adenoid tissue, Graphites in the dissolution of cicatricial tissue, Creosote on the mucous lining of the stomach,Silicia, Chamomilla, Bryonia, on connective tissue, Ferrum on the haematin, Phosphorus on the blood cells, and so on through the Materia Medica. But thirdly, are such facts of use in the application of Materia Medica? True, a physician may cure the Lachesis haemorrhage without any other information then the mere words of the symptoms. But so long as man finds delight in the exercise of his God-given reason, he will demand the why ---the why which anticipates every truth--- the why which led to Hahnemann’s quinine experiments, and to every succeeding step in his discovery of Homoeopathy. No physician can intelligently apply medicines with simply a memorized materia medica. He is then like the industrious student who, in his attempt to learn French, memorized the dictionary but learned nothing of grammatical construction. Neither can the physician always succeed in obtaning the necessary totality of symptoms without an intimate knowledge of functional perversions. He must know from physiology what are the normal relations of organ with organ; from pathology what changes diseases cause; from the history of diseases what are their probable course, duration and result For example, delirium, photo-mania, singing, praying, making verses, will yield to Stramonium; but the same symptoms with retained placenta, demand Scale. Neuralgia in and over the left eye may yield to Spigelia, but if a titled uterus exist, even though there are no subjective pelvic symptoms, the remedy will be Actaea Rac. Gross in his “Comparative Materia Medica" gives as a symptom of Apis, “suppuratins do not occure”. Why? Virchow tells us that the production of pus demands an inflammation of the parenchyma. Apis only attacks surfaces, hence it seldom forms pus. The utility of this Characteristic is evident in contrasting the remedy with Belladona, tonsils bright red, swollen threatening suppurtion. If a patient passes urine deposting reddish sand, are we damaging Homoeopathy if we search for the cause of this defective oxygenation of nitrogenous matter? On the contrary, will not the revealed symptoms help to complete the totality, and so help us to diagnose between Lycopod; Natrum Mur; Ant. Crud, etc, all of which have such a urinary deposit? If a newly proved drug causes white, flocculent urine, are we violating the precepts of the Master if we analyze this excretion and, finding phosphates in excess trace thence the relation of other symptoms produced? Let it be remembered, however, that symptoms have a relative value; and although we may make use of every known means in analyzing a case and collecting the totality of its symptoms, we must arrange our picture according to the well tried rules of Organon. The true physician, while he holds fast to the precepts of Hahnemann, neglects no fact, which a progressive science might utilize, no discovery, which bears the stamp of truth. If the new discovery contradicts his well-confirmed laws---his creed it may be called---it must be false, for truth can not invalidate truth. |
||||
| <-- Previous -- Next --> | ||||
|
||||
