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Homeopathy as an Instrument of Precision -- Elizabeth Wright Hubbard, M.D. (Read before Connecticut Homoeopathic Medical Society, Oct. 17. 1939) |
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Human nature is an odd mixture of credulity and incredulity. If
you tell a man that there are two hundred and seventy billion stars
he shall accept your word for it, but if you put up a sign "Fresh
Paint" he is never satisfied until he proves it is fresh. I am hoping
that all of you here gathered, interested in homoeopathy, will both
believe what is to follow and put it to the test. A secondary meaning is that of tool, which is really an extension of the human hand. The old- fashioned physicians could smell diphtheria or scarlet fever or typhoid upon entering the house, and even today many of us know the odor of cancer and of approaching death. But even those regular doctors whose senses are keenly alive and who combine vivid perceptions with the assiduous use of modern scientific technique, are at a loss a large part of the time and feel that their work in therapeutics is vague and only partially satisfactory. Regular medicine and much of so- called homoeopathy gives drugs on the basis of diagnosis or pathology or organs affected or at best, on what we call common symptoms such as vomiting, purging, etc. They are oblivious of he fine distinctions between the cases of similar classification. The secret precision is in individualization and not in trying to put the parts in place of the whole. The Homoeopath who is worthy of the name knows that only by being an artist can you arrive at exactitude. To give Bryonia for pneumonia, Rhus-tox for rheumatism, Sulphur for eczema or Nux for indigestion, is not really homoeopathy. The more exact the similarity between the patient's symptoms and the single remedy given, the fuller and more salient the totality of the symptoms elicited, the more swift and brilliant the cure because of the precision of the prescription. Over and above all usual medical lore the homoeopathic specialist has unusual and specific knowledge: of general symptoms pertaining to the patient himself as a whole; of aggravations and ameliorations as applied to each complaint (what we call modalities); of discharges, those most revealing vents of the inner man; of repercussing suppressions and their devious sequelae. In chronic work he elicits the health trends from childhood and even in the parents. From this welter of detail he arrives at a totality of the symptoms. This does not mean that he retains for final analysis every least item, although in confused cases a careful compilation is needed as a background. Then follows elimination and emphasis, what we call the evaluation of symptoms and the final choice of the remedy may be based on a mere five or six striking points which characterize the person in different sphere, in somewhat the way that a caricaturist, in half a dozen lines, shows up the inner and outer nature of his subject. Many fine prescribers claim that their grasp of a similar remedy
is intuitive, but probably in addition to a sixth sense, they are
using a vast unconscious store of wisdom and information and experience.
The editing of our case taking is perhaps the most important point
in homoeopathy: to be able to sense what is germaine, what is primordial
and what is poignant in a case. |
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