Three Directions of Cure.
Another question that arises is: How can we demonstrate that we
have cured and how may we know that our
remedy is acting curatively? This leads us to consider the three
directions of cure.
We find that in order to produce a permanent cure, symptoms must
disappear from above downward, from
within outward, and in the reverse order of their coming.
All homoeopaths who understand the art know that in order for
the cure
to be permanent, the symptoms must go away in these directions.
It is
these directions, that we must keep in mind when we treat an eruption
on
the skin and see that the symptoms do not leave the skin and go
to the
brain, for if such a course is taken we know a mistake has been
made,
and if something is not done to make the symptoms take a proper
course
and go from the brain (center) to the skin (circumference) we are
going to have a death certificate to fill out.
Then when we treat a case of endocarditis, and after the administration
of the remedy we observe a rheumatic
swelling of the knee or ankle, and the patient will tell you, “This
is the same sickness I had when Dr. So-and-So
treated me for rheumatism before this heart trouble came on,”
you can be sure when this happens that you will
make a cure, for the direction the symptoms have taken is according
to the law, the symptoms have left the
internals and have gone to the external parts, and if we leave the
prescription alone, a cure will result.
In Section 3 we have Hahnemann’s statement of the three
precautions, or those which I have called the “Trinity.”
He must
perceive what is curable in disease; what is curative in medicine;
and
the application of the last to the first. And I can do no better
than to
quote Section three of the Organon: “The physician should
distinctly understand the following conditions: What is curable
in
diseases in general, and in each individual case in particular;
that is,
the recognition of disease (indicato). He should clearly
comprehend what is curative in drugs in general and in each drug
in
particular; that is, he should possess a perfect knowledge of medicinal
powers. He should be governed by distinct reasons in order to insure
recovery by adapting what is curative in medicines to what he has
recognized as undoubtedly morbid in a patient, that is to say, he
should
adapt it so that a case is met by a remedy well matched with regard
to
its kind of action (selection of the remedy indicatum), its
necessary prepartion and quantity, and the proper time of its repetition.
Finally, when the physician knows in
each case the obstacles in the way of recovery, and how to remove
them, he is prepared to act thoroughly, and to the
purpose, as a true master of the art of healing.”
Here Dr. Dudgeon’s translation uses the word “perceive,”
which means understand. We may see a thing and not
comprehend it; if we perceive a thing we must understand it. Here
it is that our pathology and diagnosis will help us.
We know when we perceive structural changes in tissues which have
resulted in organic destruction that the remedy
will not replace tissue so destroyed. In these cases the only thing
we can do is to palliate the symptoms; but how
much more gently and surely we can do this with our remedy than
can be done by opiates, etc. If there is any one
thing that should convert a family to Homoeopathy it is to see the
agonies of a relative or fried relieved so they will
still retain their mental faculties until the last. Who of us that
have observed Arsenicum remove the fear of death and
the mental agonies of the last hours that has not raised a silent
prayer to our Maker for intrusting us with such a
blessing for suffering humanity.
We must understand what is curative in medicine. How are we going
to do this? In Section 21 we find: “It is possible
only to recognize the power of drugs to produce distinct changes
in the state of feeling of the human body,
particularly the healthy human body, and to excite numerous definite
morbid symptoms in and about the same, and it
follows that if drugs act as curative remedies, they exercise this
curative power only by virtue of their faculty of
altering bodily feelings through the production of peculiar symptoms.
Consequently those morbid disturbances,
called forth by drugs in the healthy body, must be accepted as the
only possible revelation of their inherent curative
power.”
In this age of isopathy and serum therapy many are being led away
by these will-o-the-wisps of allopathic
teaching. One day we see a new serum or new bacterin or new vaccine;
the next day someone comes along with
something to remove the dangerous effects produced by their administration.
These will go the way of all
previous specifics and cure-alls advanced by the old school on experimental
laboratory findings. Why is it their
remedies come and go with almost the rapidity of a June frost? Simply
because they are not based on a law. Where
can we find anything in medicine that has had the lasting powers
of a the remedies proven by Hahnemann more
than a century ago? They are still being used for the same symptoms
and with the same success as when first given
the profession. Let the old school perceive what is curative in
their medicine according to the methods of
Hahnemann instead of laboratory experiments, and they will have
something lasting and of value.
The application of the remedy to the symptoms will be taken up
fully under the repertory analysis of the
individualized symptom picture, later in the paper.
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